The wingman nobody asked for

Hey! Can you be honest?

"You're not going to stop, are you?" Rantarou asked with a unamused frown as Kokichi bugged him. "Hey! It's for science I need to know!" Kokichi urged. "What does science have to do with you prying into my feelings?" Rantarou retorted. "Just ignore him, answer us when you feel ready." Kaede said as she put a hand on Kokichi's head. She didn't want to be pushy to Rantarou. However, she couldn't help but to be a little sad since Shuuichi was able to give her a proper report while she couldn't give him one back. Rantarou and Kokichi continued to bicker while Kaede tried to stop Kokichi. Then she took a deep breath and asked what was truly on her mind. "Amami-kun, why must you always hide—"

She was stopped when they all heard their classmate, Ryoma Hoshi, loudly groan.
"Not this again! Come on!" He said to himself. They all turned their heads. Kaede, Kokichi, and Rantarou's eyes widened.

Flowing from Ryoma Hoshi's locker was a bunch of rubber ducks, each one a different color and pattern. The person next to him, Himiko Yumeno, peered over to see the mess. "Do you think it's Kokichi?" She asked. "Of course it is! It can't be anyone else! Speaking of which, where is he?!" Ryoma replied before he started to scout for Kokichi. His eyes eventually reached to the three. "Ouma! Was it you?!" Ryoma said as he stormed over.

"Whaaaat? There's no way it was me." Kokichi said as he feigned his innocence, widening his eyes and speaking in a higher yet lighter tone. "Cut the crap!" Ryoma snapped. "What are you talking about? I would never do such a cruel thing~." Kokichi feigned innocence again as he faked some tears. "Yeah, he's right. It was someone else." Rantarou said calmly. "Then who was it?!" Ryoma snapped as Kokichi gave him a shit-eating grin. "Yeah. His last name is Shit Sherlock and his first name is No." Rantarou simply stated. "Hey!" Kokichi snapped defensively. "Everyone knows you would do something like that." Rantarou continued to say as he looked at Kokichi straight in the eye.

"Ouma-kun, we told you not to do that again.." Kaede said with a groan. "Yeah but you see last time was with rubber chickens, this time it's with rubber ducks. So technically, I didn't do that again." Kokichi explained. "So it was you!" Ryoma said with irritation. "Hey, you said you like ducks!" Kokichi retorted. "That doesn't mean that I want my whole locker filled with rubber ducks!" Ryoma shot back.

After some more bickering about the rubber ducks, the bell rang and they were all ushered into class by Kiyotaka. Even though Kaede was relieved that the discourse ended, she was still rather upset that she could not ask her question. None of it made sense, she's his childhood friend. She's supposed to know everything about him, so why does he appear to be a mystery even to her? She has to get the bottom of this!

School managed to end and Kaede managed to approach Rantarou in the afternoon bus. Apparently Shuuichi wasn't doing well so he had to stay home, meaning that Kaede didn't have to worry about him overhearing and probably dying.

"Amami-kun?" She asked. Rantarou looked over to her. "Hm? What is it?" He asked casually. "Can I ask you something? I was going to ask you earlier but we were cut off by Hoshi-kun.." Kaede stated. "Well, you have the chance now so ask away." Rantarou said calmly. "Well I want to know why—" "omigod! Akamatsu-Chan is trying to ask you why are you so hopelessly mysterious?!" Kokichi interjected. "How the—" "your face is an open book Akamatsu-chan!" Kokichi interjected once again. "I wasn't even going to word it like that! I just wanted to ask why do you always hide your feelings?" Kaede finally asked as she turned to Rantarou. Rantarou put his hand on his chin and thought to himself for a moment.

"I dunno really. Guess it's a habit? Or maybe because I can be stubborn? Who knows." Rantarou answered. "That isn't really an answer." Kokichi stated in a bored tone. "Hey, is this all about the Saihara thing?" Rantarou suddenly asked. Kaede remained silent. It was part of it now, she did genuinely also wanted to see more to Rantarou. "Well since you guys are so persistent, I got no choice." Rantarou casually said. "Wait! Really?!" Kokichi said with a big cheerful smile. "Don't get your hopes up." Rantarou said with a sigh. "Well, tell us anything that you feel comfortable saying." Kaede said gently. "Well, he's definitely not a bad person. In fact, it's nice to be around him even if he is really awkward. In a way, you can say that he feels precious to me." Rantarou said with a smile.

"Awww that's so cute and totally not gay at all!" Kokichi said cheerfully. "Ouma-kun!" Kaede snapped and Kokichi giggled. "See, I was afraid something like that would happen.." Rantarou said sheepishly as he turned away from them. For a moment, Kaede thought she could see him blush. "Ignore him, I'm just glad that you were honest..!" Kaede stated in order to reason with Rantarou. "Well I guess so.. anyway I should get going.." Rantarou said as he walked off the next stop. "Wait Amami-kun, that's not our stop!" Kaede called out but it was too late, he left in a hurry. Kaede could still see some red on his ears as he ran, this was a side of Rantarou Kaede never saw before.

"I think he actually genuinely likes him." She said to Kokichi. "Well yeah, duh!" Kokichi replied as he looked at the door close behind Rantarou. "He's going to regret running out like that." Kokichi said with a mischievous sneer.

(A/N: happy birthday Kokichi! I wanted to write smth cute and silly too for his bday!)