Happy belated Valentine's Day!

This particular oneshot is created for Valentine Writing Challenge at HunterxHunter OC Creators facebook group. This is not directly related to my ongoing ShalnarkxOC fic 'Pastels'. There will be a recurring character (OC), but I think you don't need to read the other story to understand this.

Disclaimer: Hunter x Hunter and its characters belong to their rightful owner, Togashi Yoshihiro.

Summary: It's funny how everything seems to be meaningless after the Valentine's Day ended. They even have chocolates on sale. Shalnark-centric.

Pairing: mild ShalnarkxOC.

Truffles

It was February; the snow had been continuously falling from the sky for days. However, despite the thick snow, the metropolis was not covered in white but unnatural pink.

It was February; the chilly winter wind blew and snowstorm raged from time to time. However, despite the cold, the metropolis was warm like spring.

It was February; the month of love. It was the fourteenth of February; the day of Saint Valentine.

The shopping district of Ichimarukyuu was decorated in Valentine themed: hearts, frills, roses, teddy bears… you named it. Mannequins on the display wore shades of pink, sometimes incorporated with other colors such as red or white for accent. The air was filled with the sweet smell of chocolate.

Anywhere you looked, you'd see chocolate, pink, chocolate, hearts, roses, chocolate, chocolate, teddy bears, chocolate, fluffy things… and, of course, lovey-dovey couples. It was like Christmas Eve, just a bit different: different color, different decorations, different background music… On second thought, almost everything was different. It was just the two events were usually celebrated by lovers.

Anyway, be it Valentine or Christmas, it didn't have anything to do with a certain group of people who had just walked down one of the busiest streets in the district and waited for the traffic light to turn green. They were like anomaly in the crowd. They worn anything but pink, and their get ups looked like they were going to a cosplay event. Two of them looked like they were attending an out-of-season Halloween party (as a mummy and Pharaoh, respectively) and there was also this little, short kid/guy/man among them looked like he hadn't gotten haircut for years. Some of them looked a little bit more normal, but, still, they stood out among the crowd for sporting relatively thin clothes and no jacket in the middle of winter. One of them, a blond, was even wearing a sleeveless shirt, showing off his buffed arms. It made some passers-by wondered if some beliefs that blond were idiot and idiots didn't caught cold were true.

"What is this smell?" One of them, a rather short man clad in black frowned and winced his nose. Feitan was never a fan of sweets. He wasn't familiar with the scent and it made him slightly nausea. He found it disgusting. It was worse than the smell of his hometown or the iron-like odor that came from the abstract dark red pattern on his clothes, some sort of souvenir from a physical activity they had just had.

"Chocolate. It's Valentine's Day!" replied the blond walking encyclopedia cheerily.

"Che. Nonsense." Feitan clicked his tongue.

"Pink, pink, pink everywhere. I swear I'm getting blind." Phinks grumbled as he closed his eyes and massaged the bride of his nose. The Chinese beside him nodded in agreement while Shalnark only laughed, just like always.

"What is Valentine's Day?" Shizuku asked to Franklin.

"I think it's a kind of celebration when couples date and gives stuffs," Franklin explained; there was uncertainly in his voice. Honestly, he didn't really know either. He had never celebrated it nor had he been interested in it. He glanced at Shalnark, asking for the boy assistance. The boy had to know it better than him.

The know-it-all teen understood the look Franklin gave him and started explaining in the latter's place. "You see, Valentine's Day is said to be a day where lovers express their feelings to each other through greeting cards and gifts such as roses and confectionary. It's celebrated all over the world, yet the customs are different in each country. At some places, it's celebrated by exchanging gifts while in other places, only the men presents the gift or the way other. In this country, girls use this occasion to confess their feelings by giving chocolate to the guys they like. Sometimes, they also give chocolate to family or friends as token of appreciation."

"Why do they do that?" It was Shizuku again.

"Isn't that just some marketing strategy to get people buy expensive stuffs? After all, there are people who are stupid enough to buy a box of chocolate of which prize has been tripled or even quadrupled." Machi remarked coldly.

"I guess so." Shalnark shrugged. "These days, people celebrate it kinda extravagantly without even knowing that Saint Valentine, the origin of Valentine's Day, was actually persecuted in the end of his life."

"Is that so? I would never guess that," Franklin asked as he scratched his chin. Somehow he had completely handed over the explaining task to Shalnark and turned into a listener instead.

"I heard it from Danchou. He would never get it wrong," Shalnark said with a big, proud grin.

"Persecuted, eh?" A sadistic smirk suddenly appeared on Feitan's face. "I think I'm starting to like this bloody Valentine's Day."

"Err, I think you got the wrong idea… Oh well." Shalnark sighed and shook his head. People would think he was in disapproval if it wasn't for the smile that never left his face. Actually, it grew wider.

They were oh-so-going to have a bloodbath.

Shalnark blinked twice, adjusting his eyes to the light. The first thing that came into his mind was pain. He got a terrible headache. He scowled as he mentally noted not to drink too much again. He placed his right arm over his eyes and pressed it against his closed eyelids. He stayed in that position for a while before finally mustered his strength and forced himself to get up. He massaged his temple as he looked around the room. The others were still sleeping soundly, mostly due the alcohol's effect. He let out a chuckle as he recalled what had happened last night:

The party had been crazy.

They had held a hunt-the-lovey-dovey-couples-they-don't-mind-dying-as-they-have-each-other-anyway game and had a competition among them to see who had killed the most. Phinks, Nobunaga and Feitan had bickered about who had won. Franklin had tried to intercede but had ended up tangled in the mess and joined the fight. The other members had used this chance to snatch away more targets while those four had been distracted. Machi had hung any men she had spotted, (intentionally) leaving their lovers in despair. Shalnark himself had been enjoying himself making lovers killing each others, turning the scene into a psychopath movie-like. Some policemen then had come to stop the massacre; it had been very unfortunate of them to end up sucked by a vacuum cleaner. After that, they had raided random bars, killed everyone, and emptied the beer stock. They had visited several different places until some of them finally had gotten drunk for real. The sober ones then had decided that it had been high time call it a day and dragged everyone to a small inn in the suburb, where they had made their selves at home after slitting the owner's throat.

Shalnark tiptoed his way out of the room, making sure he didn't wake anyone up. He went downstairs to the kitchen. He took a clean glass from the serving table and filled it with tabs water. He turned around and leaned his back to the sink. He had his glass in his left hand while his other hand fished out his phone He skimmed through the notifications and found an unread message. A smile appeared on his face as he read the content:

'Are you still in Ichimarukyuu? I happen to go there tomorrow morning. Let's have tea together!'

He typed down 'OK' in the reply box, followed by series of letters forming a question regarding time and meeting place and then sent it. He shoved the phone back into his pocket after it beeped once, notifying that the message had been successfully delivered.

He went outside, shuddered a bit when the cold air greeted him. He rubbed his exposed upper arms then started walking. He needed warmer attires, preferably clean ones. Dried bloodstains on his clothes attracted unwanted interest from people around him. Not to mention that they had began to smell fishy and was uncomfortable to wear. He totally didn't want to go downtown in that mess.

Fortunately, there was a market nearby. He blended into the crowded, casually passed the stands then swiftly snatched a set of clothes and walked away. He went to a public toilet and changed his clothes. He wore a maroon faux-fur puffer jacket over a t-shirt and a pair of dark cropped trousers. He threw away his beyond-saving old clothes, but kept his favorite shoes albeit they didn't go really well with his new attires. Now he was ready to go to the meeting place.

The meeting took place in a small café near the station. He was greeted by scent of coffee as soon as he stepped his foot in. He looked around the place and spot a young woman clad in sea green coat. He approached her table and sat down on the empty seat in front of her.

She was Luce Estoile, a strawberry-blonde who was slightly older than him. She was a contract hunter, her job ranged from anything to everything; he never asked the detail of her job, just like how she didn't question his. She was someone he met several years ago during the hunter exam and they had been keeping in touch and meeting up once in a while. She was a friend of his… one among the very few.

"You're slow," she said as she raised cup of vanilla latte to her lips and sips it.

"Sorry, sorry." He grinned sheepishly. "A lot of things happened yesterday. I sorta overslept. I didn't read your text until this morning."

She put down her latte on the table. She leaned forward and rested her chin on her crossed fingers. "My, look at what we find here: someone was having a Valentine date," she teased.

He laughed. "Nah, it was more like Single People Awareness Day party."

"Oh really?" She paused then leaned back to her chair. "You're like… 17 already. Isn't it about time to get a girl in your life?"

"And you're like… still 19. So stop talking like an old lady," he retorted as he took the menu a waitress had just offered to him. He skimmed through the list and picked a random, eye-catching name. "I want… super fluffy double-waffle with love-berry ice cream and juicy chocolate sauce."

" I'm truly sorry, Sir," said the waitress. "The Love-lovely Valentine's Day special menu has expired since… uhm, you know… It's not Valentine's Day anymore. Oh, but if you want something similar, we have double waffle with strawberry ice cream and chocolate sauce."

"What's the difference between the special and the regular one?" he asked.

"It's not really different, Sir. It's just that the former came in bigger size so that you could share it with your date," the waitress stole a glance at Luce then quickly added. "But don't worry, the regular one is also big enough for two since it's double. Plus, you can add extra scoop of ice cream if you want."

"On second thought, I'll have a cup of cappuccino instead." He smiled brightly to the waitress and handed over the menu. The waitress' business smile suddenly turned bitter.

"Wicked," Luce remarked as she watched the waitress stomped her way.

He grinned mischievously as he rested his head against his palm. "Nah, I was just curious about the special menu. It sounded funny. Too bad I didn't get the see it as the period has expired."

"It's already fifteenth after all." She shrugged.

"It's funny that everything changed in that short amount of time. We're still seeing pink decorations around, but I bet they'll have been put down by tonight. It feels like Valentine's Day is so yesterday." He looked at the scenery outside the window. Everything was still pink, but somehow it felt different from yesterday; the color looked dull and cold.

"It was yesterday," she corrected. She then put her bag on her lap and took something out. "Which means this is kinda late but… well, better late than nothing at all." She placed it on the table and pushed it toward him. "Happy Belated Valentine's Day!"

He took the thing, which was a comic-book-sized box wrapped in light purple and pink paper. He looked at it curiously. "What is this?"

"Chocolate, of course," she replied.

He raised a skeptical brow. "Don't tell me… This is something you bought at post-Valentine's Day sale?"

"Aaa… You got me there." She clasped her hands together and laughed. "I saw the chocolate was on big sale on my way here so I thought: 'why don't I take some with me, they'll make good, cheap, stress-reliever snack' and ended up buying a lot. And since I was meeting you today, I thought I should share some with you too."

"As I though…" he murmured. His eyes were still fixed on the chocolate box. "Thanks, anyway."

Her smile softened. "…Hope you like that."

He looked up from the box and turned to see her. "Well, I don't particularly hate sweets…"

"That's good to hear. I don't want my money to get wasted." She grinned as she stood up and picked up her bag.

He straightened his back, looking up at her. "Leaving so soon?"

"I have to catch up with my train," she explained.

"I see."

She tapped his shoulder as she walked passed his seat. "The tabs on you, k? Since it's a date," she said playfully.

He smiled watching her walked to the entrance, having a waiter opened the door for her and disappearing from his sight. He leaned back to his seat and looked at the purple and pink chocolate box.

"Post-Valentine's Day sale, eh?"

"Where've you been?"

That was the first thing Nobunaga said when he saw Shalnark returned to the inn with a paper bag in his hands.

"Getting our breakfast," Shalnark replied as he put the bag on the receptionist desk and sat down in an empty couch.

Nobunaga peeked into the bag and was dumbfounded when he saw what was inside. "Chocolate?" He ripped the brown paper in hope there would be something beneath the freaking chocolate, but they were all chocolate, chocolate, and chocolate. Shalnark just brought home about ten packs of chocolate.

Feitan frowned at this. "I hate chocolate," he deadpanned.

"Aww, don't say like that." Shalnark pouted. "They're dark chocolate. They only have a little sugar and aren't sweet at all. I've also bought some that have liquor in them."

"Shal, did you just raid a chocolate shop?" Machi asked.

"No, actually, there was this crazy post-Valentine's Day sale and they sold the chocolate in cheap price so I decided to buy some," he said.

"Why are they selling chocolate so cheaply? Dark chocolate are supposed to be expensive," Shizuku remarked.

"I think it's because the Valentine's Day has ended," Franklin replied as he took a box of liquor filled chocolate and opened it.

"What is Valentine's Day? What does it have to do with chocolate's price?" Shizuku asked again. She also took a chocolate for herself.

Franklin turned to Shalnark and they exchanged look. It seemed like the glassed girl had already forgotten what the blond said about Valentine yesterday.

Shalnark laughed as he buried his body deeper into the couch. He took out a purple and pink chocolate box from the pocket in his new jacket and unwrapped it.

"Is that mud ball also chocolate?" Phinks pointed at a chocolate ball Shalnark just took out from the box.

"Well, yeah, this is called chocolate truffle," Shalnark said.

"Ew… they sold that kind of thing as well?" Phinks winced.

Shalnark looked at the piece of chocolate in his hand. Its shape was far from a perfect ball. The chocolate coating had melted a bit and the cocoa powder was messy. Rather than a chocolate truffle, it actually resembled a mud ball more, just like what Phinks had pointed out.

He grinned widely and beamed.

"Of course not! There's no way they'd sell such poorly made chocolate."

I intentionally made the ending a bit vague n_n

Here's the conclusion of the story if you're confused (I hope you're not!): the OC lied about having bought the chocolate (truffles) at post-Valentine's Day sale. They were actually hand-made, that's why they looked messy. She intentionally visited the city just meet Shalnark and give him the chocolate. It might mean that actually she regarded him very special even though she didn't say it out loud. He figured it out, that's why he was very happy. Those truffles were most likely honmei choco :3

I hope you enjoy this short piece! Any sort of feedback is very appreciated. Please tell me what you think of this story by leaving some review in the review box bellow. Thank you for reading!