Special Friends

3

Saiki was laying down on his bed, thinking. It had been two days since he had cake with Akechi.

I still remember how soft his hand had been.

...

Wait, what am I thinking? This is weird, right?

Saiki still didn't know how to feel about it. If anyone else touched him, it was annoying and gross. Why should Akechi be any different?

His mother had noticed that Saiki had been acting a bit strangely lately, but decided not to probe further.

This is weird. I'll fix this somehow, but first-

The phone ringing in the other room.

Akechi.

Saiki ran into the kitchen, but it was too late.

"Hello?"

Kurumi had the phone in her hand.

"Oh, hello Akechi-kun! How are you?"

Saiki almost groaned, but one look from his mother stopped him.

"Saturday? No, we don't have plans. Oh, Ku would be honored. Alright, I'll send him some strawberries. I'm so glad he has you as a friend! Mmm-hm, goodbye!"

"Oh Ku, your friend is so sweet! I'm sure you'll have a great time!"

Saiki sighed.

Nobody was there to see Saiki smile, if only for a split second.

****************************************************************************

Akechi put the phone down and smiled.

He twirled around his room.

Yes! I'm so glad it was Mrs. Saiki, or else he might not be coming. I've been more excited for this than I should, but i couldn't help myself. We should make strawberry cake and coffee jelly, both our favorites. I might even make him smile when he eats it! I hope I can make decent jelly. I've made strawberry jelly once before, but never coffee jelly. It should be somewhat similar, I suppose. I'm so glad he's bringing strawberries, because I made cake a week ago and haven't had a chance to visit the store. I'm also glad mother will be out of the house. She's wonderful and I love her company, but I'd rather have no interruptions. What am I thinking? We're only going to be baking. Nothing else. It should be completely... Normal.

Normal...

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'Strawberries, strawberries... Oh. There they are.'

Saiki grabbed a box off the shelf. Better make it two, just in case.

After the phone call, Saiki's mother had grabbed one of his shirts to iron and sent him to the store with 1,000 yen. She was getting almost as excited as Akechi.

He had baked once before, but that was with Kaido and Hairo.

They were idiots.

Plus, Akechi could bake, and offered to teach him, so they should be fine.

Saiki felt a bit sad as he thought of the crepe fiasco. He had been so excited to eat them. He wondered for a bit how it might have gone had Akechi transferred at that time and gotten paired up with him. It would've gone better in general, seeing how he was better at baking, and kinder overall-

He shook the thought from his head.

No use thinking about that.

He paid and left, still slightly shaken from his wandering mind.

Though he would never admit it to himself, and he would certainly never admit it to his mother, or Akechi, he was just as excited as him.