AUTHOR'S NOTES: I needed something sweet and fluffy and this seemed to fit the bill. This is loosely related to "Goldfish". It's the next in my series of 8086 drabbles/short fics.

Thanks for reading (and reviewing if you get a chance)

KHR doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Akira Amano.

It's Not a Love Confession

"Haru? What are you doing here?"

"Hahi!"

Haru jumped and quickly hid the brightly-wrapped package behind her back as Yamamoto approached. "Haru isn't doing anything, why would you think that?" Haru asked, her fingers tightening around the small box of chocolates.

"You're sort of standing outside of Pop's shop on the day that the restaurant isn't open," Yamamoto said.

"Well, um, Haru…"

Haru's cheeks burst into color and she dropped her eyes to the sidewalk still glittering in the aftermath of the late winter storm that gilded everything in ice the night before. "Haru thought you had practice today," she blurted out and then kicked herself.

"It got cancelled due to the snow, the field's unusable today and all the indoor batting ranges were filled," Yamamoto said. "What are you hiding?"

Haru swallowed heavily and then took a deep breath shoring up her courage. "Here," she finally said. "It's a thank you."

Yamamoto blinked at the package that she held out to him. "Valentine's chocolate?" he asked.

"It's just a thank you for helping me out at the New Year's festival," Haru mumbled.

"You already gave me a fish for that," Yamamoto pointed out.

"That was in return for the teddy bear you gave me," Haru said. "This is a thank you. You don't like chocolate?"

"Ah, no, nothing like that," Yamamoto said and scrubbed his hands through his short dark hair. "I just…"

Haru's eyes were immediately drawn to the beribboned items that kept his bag from completely closing. "Oh…" she said. "You probably don't want any more…"

She let the hand holding the chocolate fall and dropped her gaze back to the ground. "Haru knew you would get lots of chocolate today, but didn't think it would be that much…" she said. "Sorry for troubling you…"

Her shoulders slumped and she started to turn away.

"No, wait, I didn't say that!" Yamamoto said.

Haru looked over her shoulder at him hopefully. "You'll take it then?" she asked.

"Yes, please," he said, he couldn't stand to see her look sad.

She turned and presented him with the package and Yamamoto chuckled as he realized it was wrapped in paper that resembled a baseball with bright red ribbons. "Thank you," he said.

"It's not a love confession," Haru said firmly.

Yamamoto chuckled. "I know that already," he said. "Thank you."

The first flakes of another snowfall began to drift down and Yamamoto held out his hand and watched the flake land and melt. "You should probably get home, it could be another bad storm," he said.

Haru wrapped her arms around herself and nodded. "Good luck on your exams coming up," she said.

"Thanks," Yamamoto smiled. "Good luck to you too. Text me when you get home to let me know you made it safe."

"Of course," Haru smiled. "It's not that far."

Yamamoto watched her dart off and smiled wryly. Haru really needed to be careful with what she was doing, if he didn't already know better, he might start thinking all of her protesting was a cover.