☆ opposites attract | saiouma fic ☆

thirty-nine | yearning

☆

From that point on, they spent the rest of the day together. After finishing up their business at the park, they visited the library. That consisted of them reading together, Kokichi overreacting whenever a plot twist happened, and Shuichi having to remind him to be quiet every five minutes so they didn't get kicked out. Once they had enough of that, they went to go shopping. Yes, Kokichi sat in the shopping cart and made Shuichi push him around the entire time.

Due to getting too absorbed in one another, they ended up not coming home until later in the afternoon. Shuichi was a little anxious, though. He did confess to Kokichi at the park earlier—an extremely vague confession, but a confession nonetheless—and he had a feeling that Kokichi had undoubtedly caught onto it. A part of him was hoping he'd just let it go and wouldn't mention it, but... he was uncertain.

Kokichi walked through the front door first, and Shuichi followed in behind him. They were met with looks from both Kyoko and Makoto. Mostly ones of confusion, which was understandable. Both of the boys looked absolutely disheveled, but Shuichi clearly got the worst of it. Kokichi probably dragged him around a little too much today. He didn't regret a single thing, though.

"Um... welcome back! You two had fun, I'm assuming?" Makoto asked awkwardly, playing with Kyoko's hair. By the looks of it, he wasn't too skilled of a stylist.

"It's about time you came back..." Kyoko added, intrigued. "What were you out doing? It looks like you just got done running a mile."

"I worked your son to the bone today!" Kokichi declared, as energetic as ever. "We got a lot of stuff. Watch this,"

He then reached into one of the bags he was holding, whipping out a stuffed animal. It was a pink and white rabbit that'd squeak whenever you squeezed it, so that was exactly what he started doing.

"Isn't it cute?" Kokichi asked, slightly hopping up and down. "Shuichi got the black and white bear that went with it, so now we're matching!"

Shuichi chuckled, nodding his head in agreement. "Yeah, that's right. It was pretty chaotic at the store, but we had a lot of fun."

Makoto smiled. "That's great!"

"Yup! Buuuuut," Kokichi sighed, "I gotta go home now. School's tomorrow, and my mom's coming home tonight."

Kyoko nodded. "I see. Thank you for visiting then, Kokichi. You can come back over any time you want, okay?"

"'Kay! Thanks!" Kokichi replied.

With that, he skedaddled off to Shuichi's room and grabbed all of his belongings that he left in there. Plus his cat, which Makoto was a teeny bit disappointed over. He bonded with that little guy while the boys were gone.

Once Kokichi made sure that he had everything, he started saying his goodbyes to Shuichi.

"I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Thank you for spending time with me. It's always super boring being by myself, y'know?" Kokichi said, pulling Shuichi into a tight hug.

"It's no problem." Shuichi smiled, hugging Kokichi back. "I'm always happy to have you here with me."

"Good, I love you sooooo much, got that?" Kokichi said, intentionally pausing a little before he started talking again. "In the friendly way, of course!"

Shuichi paused at first, having to do a double take. It was a little obvious that remark made his brain start glitching. His face heated up.

"Oh! Um— right, the friendly way. Of course. I love you too." He finally said, mumbling the words out making him a little embarrassed.

Shortly after that exchange, Kokichi left with a rather satisfied looking smirk on his face.

Still reeling from that interaction, Shuichi headed straight for his bed. The scent of Kokichi still lingered around on it, which at least provided him some amount of comfort. Was that an odd thing to admit?

He laid down on it, burying his face into a pillow and letting out a loud sigh. These feelings were getting progressively out of hand. How do you properly communicate to someone that you never want them to leave your side? That you want to kiss them and make it last?

He couldn't take it anymore.