😍 + 14
“ I don’t like chocolates, ” was all the tall boy said that Valentine’s Day, two stuffed plastic bags dangling from each outstretched hand.
If they were heavy, Satoshi’s steady arms revealed as little as his face. And he had nothing to say to Kosuke’s surprised “ eh ? ” either.
Shifting the worn books underneath one arm, Kosuke’s now-free hand looped through the plastic handles and braced for the sudden weight. He pulled them closer to examine their contents of cute bags and boxes with bows and papers of every shade of red and pink and- Were those chocolate-covered strawberries buried in there too ? With was going to love those.
“ Ah, you really don’t want any ? Thanks, I suppose ! ” Kosuke bowed automatically for lack of a better thing to do in the midst of this surreal exchange. Why him ? Where had Satoshi collected so much chocolate ? Was he that popular with the ladies ? Could Emiko bake with this… ?
“ Are you going to the library now ? ” Kosuke tried, nodding at the ornate building he had just left and - it couldn’t be difficult for the police commander to surmise from the shy smiles he continued to receive - because being observed in silence on an evening such as this was just too awkward for this Niwa to bear.
“ No, I came to give those to you. Otherwise, I was going to toss them, ” Satoshi replied evenly, as usual, and turned on his heel to end the exchange before Kosuke moved on from helpless small talk to… heavier topics.
It might have worked but…
Kosuke walked a couple strides behind him along the lamplit sidewalks, looking anywhere but the unflappable boy. But, unfortunately, the Niwa home lied in the same direction as Satoshi’s apparent destination.
Would Satoshi be fine on a cold February evening with just one thin coat ? Not that this was his child to mother; Kosuke averted his eyes once more. The rustling of Kosuke’s chocolate-laden bags wasn’t enough to fill the awkward, awkward silence for this nosy adult.
“ How did you find me anyway ? ” He asked a passing lamp post.
“ You’re always in a public library from 4 to 7 p.m. on the day of Dark’s heists, and that one contains the most texts on tonight’s target, ” Satoshi, not the long-gone lamp, eventually replied. Which, Kosuke had to concede, did answer his question - if only to also spawn more concerned ones that had never before crossed his fretting mind.
And he had thought the Niwas saw too much…
With a shaky chuckle but emboldened by receiving any response at all, Kosuke matched Satoshi’s brisk pace. The sounds of the bags and their footsteps on concrete returned to fill the conversation’s void.
He needed to get home in time to bid Daisuke and Dark good luck. Speaking of which -
“ Good luck to you too tonight, Satoshi-kun. ” Kosuke smiled warmly this time while the boy stared through wide glasses and lidded eyes flatly asking “ Are you serious ? ”
“ And please feel free to join me inside next time. I might be found in the baking section more often. ” Raising his bags of chocolate prizes, Kosuke almost grinned, “ I’ll have to start early if I’m going to top this for White Day ! ”
