Tonight was Naoto's turn to plan movie night, which usually meant an action film – which was awesome – but also usually meant one of her fancy foreign films where they had to read subtitles for everything – not as awesome. He did enough reading in school. At least he got to pick out the snacks, since Naoto's apartment was dreadfully lacking in food she deemed "unhealthy." He knew for a fact she loved chocolate, though, judging by the wrappers in her trash can (you pick up some detective skills, hanging around Naoto long enough), so he always went for the best of both worlds on movie night and brought chocolate-covered popcorn.

At 8 o'clock sharp, Kanji was knocking on the door to Naoto's apartment, and she let him in with a smile that had grown more natural over the past year. She was in her pajamas – a blue flannel button-up shirt and pants, slightly too big and probably bought from the boy's department at Junes – and without her hat on, her hair fell in her face so that she had to brush it back every so often. In summary, she was quite possibly the cutest thing Kanji had ever laid eyes on, and she blushed furiously and ran off to grab a blanket when he told her so. He just chuckled and settled in on the couch, setting the popcorn out on the table. When Naoto returned with the blanket she curled up under it next to Kanji, leaning into him as he draped an arm around her shoulders. They had started out their movie nights awkwardly sitting a few inches away from each other, stiff as boards and hands in their laps, until one evening Naoto finally took initiative. After Kanji had gotten over his bloody nose, they agreed that this method of watching movies was vastly preferable to before.

Once she was comfortable, Naoto grabbed a handful of popcorn and the remote, setting up the subtitles and hitting play. The picture quality wasn't great, but Kanji didn't complain. He knew his TV was at least twice the size of Naoto's – she had only bought one after learning about the Midnight Channel, and picked out the least expensive model at Junes – but holding movie night at his place was out of the question, at least for Naoto. She didn't want his mom to catch them doing anything – not that they were, you know, doing much of anything – because if she found out, word was sure to spread to their friends, which Naoto was against. Kanji didn't mind so much, but the implications worried him. He couldn't help but feel like she didn't want to be seen with him, and wondered if keeping their relationship secret was just insurance to make breaking up with him easier.

Half an hour into the movie, Kanji hadn't been paying attention at all, too busy fretting over the break-up scene on replay in his mind. When he couldn't take it anymore, he took a deep breath and forced out, "Naoto, I need to ask ya somethin'…" Kanji drummed his fingers nervously against Naoto's arm, and she sat up and paused the movie before adjusting her position on the couch to look at him.

"What is it?"

"Well, you…" He looked everywhere but at Naoto, hesitating. "Look, I know ya got your reasons for wanting to keep us on the down low, but…y-you're not…ashamed a'me, are you? I know I'm not that smart, or –"

"Kanji-kun," Naoto said sharply, cutting him off. She waited until he made himself meet her eyes to continue, taking the edge out of her voice. "Of course I'm not ashamed of you." She took one of his large hands in both of her own. "You're kind, and brave, and smarter than anyone gives you credit for. But you know our friends. They'd never let us hear the end of it. Admittedly, I don't want to put up with their teasing just yet. I promise –" She placed her hands on Kanji's shoulders and rested her forehead against his, kissing him before continuing. "I could never be ashamed of you. We can just…tell them once they all decide to be mature adults."

Kanji smiled sheepishly and wrapped his arms around her waist. "So…never."

"…Perhaps."

Half-sighing, half-laughing, Kanji pulled Naoto closer to return her kiss, and the movie was soon forgotten by both of them.

…

Rise flopped face down on her bed with a loud, drawn-out groan only a bored teenager could produce. Naoto and Kanji had both blown her off again, and their senpai were all too busy studying to hang out. She rolled over onto her back, staring at the ceiling and cursing her friends and their stupid busy lives. Naoto she could understand, at least. She was always working on something. But what did Kanji ever do that was so important? She toyed with the idea of Naoto and Kanji on a romantic moonlight rendezvous, giggling at how ridiculous the idea was, before abruptly gasping, squealing, and sitting up with a jolt.

It wasn't that crazy, right? Rise had once played a character in a drama who had to sneak off to meet her secret boyfriend, so she knew it happened. Naoto was always tutoring Kanji – tutoring, right, more like giving him private lessons– outside of the Team's usual study group, and why were they both always busy on the same nights lately? Very suspicious, if you asked Rise. Which, of course, no one had, but that didn't stop her from calling Yosuke over and over until he finally picked up.

"I know you're busy, but this is way more important than your stupid college entrance exams! Listen, Kanji and Naoto…"

…

The next day, Rise and the third years were gathered in the Junes food court after school. Naoto and Kanji, of course, were studying, which Rise punctuated with an exaggerated wink and finger waggling.

"Come on, you actually think those two are dating?" Chie asked skeptically. "I mean, we all know Kanji's always had a crush on her, but…I dunno, I can't see it."

"Well, duh," Rise sighed, "because they're hiding it. Naoto's a detective, I bet she's great at hiding stuff."

Yukiko frowned. "But why would they keep something like this from us?"

"You mean the two most awkward people in the world? They're just shy." Rise smirked. "Or maybe Naoto gets a kick out of it, like she's a spy with a secret identity or something. Hey, whatever floats their boat. But anyway!" She slammed her fist on the table, causing them all to jump a little. "They can't hide it any longer. We're going to catch them in the act."

"In the act?" Yosuke wrinkled his nose, and Rise threw a French fry at him.

"Gross, Senpai. I just meant, like, on a date or something. We need to keep our eyes peeled. Maybe take turns watching them after school, do some investigating."

Yosuke grinned. "Hey, I love messing with those two. I'm in."

"Even if they are going out, it's their business. They'll tell us if and when they're ready," Yukiko said serenely. Chie nodded.

"Yeah, count me out. I have better things to do, anyway." With a pointed glance at Yosuke, she added, "Like studying."

"You guys are no fun," Rise pouted. "Whatever, I guess Yosuke-senpai's good enough. Keep an eye out for either of them buying anything suspicious at Junes, alright? And we'll take turns following them. Naoto's smart, but she's bound to slip up eventually, and I'm sure both of us put together can outsmart her."

Yukiko snorted. "The two of you, outsmart Naoto-kun? That's hilarious!"

Rise scowled and threw a handful of fries at her.

…

It didn't take Naoto long to notice that Rise and Yosuke – neither of whom were very sneaky – had suddenly started taking turns following her and Kanji home after school. On top of that, she caught Rise digging around in her shoe locker on more than one occasion, and Kanji said Yosuke was being more obnoxious than usual, asking him if he was ever going to get a girlfriend and why he was buying so much chocolate. After a week of this, as they sat in the library together while Rise watched them from across the room, Naoto finally decided there was only one possible explanation for their behavior.

"Kanji-kun," she whispered, frowning, "I think they're on to us."

Kanji glanced over Naoto's shoulder at Rise, who quickly pretended to be absorbed in a magazine. "Yeah. Think you're right. Is it time to tell 'em an' get it over with?"

"No, we can't do that." Naoto shook her head vigorously. "If we admit it now, they've won."

Kanji set down his pencil and stared at Naoto. "Won?"

"We can't give them the satisfaction of figuring it out themselves," she explained. "It would completely defeat the purpose of hiding it in the first place."

"So…" Kanji threw his hands up, keeping the motion small so as not to disturb anyone studying around them. "What? We never tell 'em?"

"No, that's unreasonable," Naoto said, tapping her notebook with her pencil thoughtfully. "Preferably, we keep them in the dark until they give up. That way they never see it coming."

Kanji blinked. "Uh…sure. Whatever you say." Naoto had that look in her eye like she got when she was talking about a case she was working on (Kanji called it her Detective Mode), and he knew better than to try and talk her out of this. Sooner or later, he figured, someone would have to get bored with this whole thing, they'd come out with it, and he could just hold Naoto's hand whenever and wherever he wanted.

…

Of course, Kanji was the first one to get bored. Hiding their relationship hadn't been a huge deal before, when just not mentioning it was good enough. He never really wanted to be one of those couples that was lovey-dovey in public anyway. But Naoto had taken Rise's determination to find dirt on them as a personal affront, so now he was having to sneak around the back way to Naoto's apartment building just to see her, and she even came up with a code for them to text in that looked like they were just talking about the weather or what they were having for dinner (not that either of them texted much in the first place, but Naoto had looked so excited when she was teaching him that he didn't have the heart to say anything). Yosuke had pretty much given up bothering him, but Rise was still watching them like a hawk and poking around in their shoe lockers, searching for who-knows-what.

Two weeks had gone by like this, and Kanji was just about done. Today was one of those rare occasions when the whole group managed to get together for lunch, and they had claimed the roof like usual. Rise was interrogating Naoto about why she couldn't go shopping with her yesterday, and Naoto, of course, had an elaborate explanation prepared. It was almost impressive, but mostly stupid, Kanji thought. Yosuke raised an eyebrow at him, and he just sort of shrugged and decided to finally take matters into his own hands. "Oi, Naoto," he grunted. She turned to him, looking awfully proud of herself for managing to counter every one of Rise's questions.

"Yes?"

He sighed, not believing what he was about to do, then seized Naoto by the shoulders and kissed her full on the lips. She froze, making a confused squeaking noise, and Rise leapt to her feet with an "A-ha!" sending rice and fish flying everywhere. When Kanji pulled back, Naoto's face was red, and she didn't quite seem to know whether to look angry or embarrassed.

"Kanji-kun –"

"I've, uh, always wanted to do that!" Kanji yelled, feeling a blush creep over his own face as he crossed his arms. "So, uh, yeah. D-do you wanna…y'know…g-go out with me?" It was embarrassing as hell, going through this whole confessing-his-feelings thing again, and he kind of felt like an idiot doing it, but it was the only thing he could think of to get this over with. Rise was blinking rapidly in confusion, and Naoto kept looking back and forth between her and Kanji until finally she looked down, fidgeting with her chopsticks.

"Um, I – I – v-very well. That – would be acceptable," she stammered.

"Are you serious?" Rise cried, stomping her foot. "You guys just now kissed? Ugh, you're so lame!"

"Hey, whaddaya know, it's time to start heading back to class!" Chie said, jumping up and starting to lead Rise toward the stairs.

"No it's –"

"How about we give the two lovebirds some time alone?" Yosuke interjected, winking at them and helping herd the idol away. Yukiko giggled and followed after them, and when Rise's complaints died away, Naoto looked up at Kanji. He laughed nervously.

"Sorry 'bout that. But, uh, they didn't win, right?"

Naoto shook her head bemusedly, then buried her face against his chest and laughed. "See, Kanji-kun? Smarter than anyone gives you credit for."

Kanji grinned, stealing Naoto's hat and mussing her hair. "And no one ever has to know."

A/N: Prompted by tumblr user mioster: "Naoto tries so hard to keep her and Kanji's relationship a secret but then somehow the rest of the investigation team finds out and then teasing shenanigans ensues." And here is the result! My first (finished and published) KanNao fic! I'm pretty happy with it I guess, and somehow it turned into a big Friends reference? Kanji and Naoto are kinda like Chandler and Monica, right? 8D