It's February 13th.

Everyone knew what tomorrow was - and if you didn't, the overplayed commercials on TV made sure that you did. It's all anyone at school seemed to talk about about, too: who liked who, what brand of chocolate to buy, what to wear and where to go.

Yosuke was sure that at that very moment, no one on Earth was more fed up with Valentine's Day than he was.

He was currently squashed between the couch arm and Teddie, who was sitting as stiff as a ramrod and staring at the television in high interest. A rerun of some cheesy romantic flick was playing on screen. Yosuke was only half-watching it; he was too busy thinking about how agitated he was.

"Oh my GOSH!" Teddie exclaimed suddenly, as the two lovebirds on camera shared a passionate kiss. He whipped his head around to face Yosuke. "Was that a real smooch?"

"Yeah."

Teddie nodded and seemed to be thinking for a moment. He practically climbed on top of Yosuke and whispered seriously, "Are you sure? Are they wearing fake lips?"

Yosuke shoved Teddie off of him (which made Teddie yelp dramatically) and sighed. "No, dumbass. How is that even possible?" Teddie opened his mouth and started talking, but the brunette ignored him and stood up instead. Stretching, he made his way to his room (making sure to lock the door) and sat down on his computer chair. He checked his phone for any new messages. Nothing.

He had never really minded Valentine's Day before, it was just another day to him. But now that he actually had... someone... he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do. Is he supposed to buy something? Wouldn't getting chocolate be a really girly thing to do? What about writing poetry? Do people do that? Does Souji even like that sort of thing? God, the entire concept of the holiday was so mushy that it made Yosuke sick to his stomach.

He leaned back in his chair, making it creak. What if he shows up to my door tomorrow with a whole wheelbarrow full of gifts? What if he sneaks into my room at night and decorates it with a thousand paper cranes while I'm asleep? What if he comes to school with a kitten and says that it's our kid and expects me to name it? The imagery Yosuke got from those thoughts made him laugh under his breath. He wouldn't put it past Souji to do something extravagant and embarrassing for tomorrow. Meanwhile, Yosuke hadn't done a single thing for him yet. He didn't even have an idea of what to do for him.

This sucks.

"Yosuke?" Teddie's muffled voice came from outside his door. "What'cha doin'?"

"Thinking," he replied simply.

"About what?" Teddie knocked on the door once. Twice. After a slight pause, he started pounding on the door non-stop. "About what, Yosuke?"

Yosuke didn't answer right away. He got up and made his way to the door, hitting his foot on the edge of the dresser in the process. Cringing, he swung open the door and looked down at Teddie.

"Are you thinking about Sensei?" Teddie asked, grinning. "You're always thinking about him!"

Yosuke felt his face heat up. "N-no I'm not! Stupid bear!" He attempted to slam the door in his face, but Teddie ducked under his arm and successfully made it inside his room. "Get out!" Yosuke spat, glaring at Teddie over his shoulder. Teddie's smile widened.

"Ah-ha! Your face is alllll red! I'm right, aren't I?"

Yosuke closed the door and leaned against it. He rubbed his face and looked at the curious person in front of him. Might as well tell the truth. His voice was quiet as he said, "I hate Valentine's Day."

Teddie blinked at him and didn't say anything for a few seconds. Then he snickered and said accusingly, "No you don't! It's the happiest day of the year for young people in love!"

"How would you know? And do I look happy to you right now? I'm stressed as hell!" Yosuke began wondering how he could somehow escape this situation. Living with Teddie sucked sometimes.

Teddie gave him an empathic look and walked over to him. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Yosuke turned his head to the side. "Not really." It wasn't just because of the fact that Teddie sucked at giving actual advice, especially when it came to this sort of thing, but also because Yosuke genuinely didn't want to talk to anyone. This was his own stupid personal problem.

"Aww, c'mon! Spill the beans!" Teddie whined, grabbing his arm. With somewhat of a struggle, Yosuke managed to break free of his grasp and sprint out of his room. It wasn't until he out of his house and down the street a little ways did he stop for breath. He slipped his headphones over his ears and picked a random track to play.

He walked aimlessly around Inaba for a while, for lack of something better to do. Everywhere he went, though, had girls whispering excitedly to each other, boys shoving their friends around and laughing, and cutesy couples holding hands, just like every other year. Yosuke stared at the ground as he walked, thinking of nothing at all.

He ended up stopping at Junes, to get something to eat. He couldn't even remember the last time he ate there all by himself. The rooftop was more crowded than usual, and to not look like a complete loner, he pulled out his phone and pretended to text. When he was finished eating, he stood up to throw away his trash. Suddenly, he spotted Kou, Daisuke and Souji out of the corner of his eye. When he was sure they weren't looking his way, Yosuke openly stared at them. The group was getting ready to leave. He heard Souji offer to throw their garbage away - of course - and when he returned, Kou said something that made all of them laugh and then they went off on their merry way to God knows where.

I have to get him something, Yosuke thought gloomily. But what? He checked his phone, 9:10 PM. It was only a few hours until Valentine's Day was amongst them. Souji would be happy with anything that Yosuke gave him, right? That's how it's always been between them.

Yosuke finally removed his headphones and went downstairs. Potential Valentine's Day gifts were literally everywhere in Junes. He checked out the chocolate section first, every box was wrapped and had a fancy, girly bow on them. Yosuke felt embarrassed just seeing them.

Every single card in the store was more hilariously awful rather than romantic, and for a moment Yosuke actually considered buying one just to see Souji's reaction. But in the end, he settled on purchasing some fluffy, tacky, pink kitty cat plush that he found buried under all the other toy animals. It was really cute, but also really dumb at the same time. Yosuke was almost 100% sure that he used those exact words to describe Souji once, which is why he bought it. The cashier teased him at the check out, asking who Yosuke's "new girlfriend" was. Yosuke laughed nervously and didn't reply, just took the plastic bag and quickly walked out.

As soon as he get home, he went straight to his room. He half-expected to see Teddie still in there, but thankfully he wasn't. Yosuke kicked the door shut and decided to just go to bed, even though he wasn't tired.

He laid in his futon staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours, but according to his phone it had only been 15 minutes. He had the cat plushie sitting upright directly next to him. It looked like it was staring at him, which was sort of unsettling, so he made a show of shifting around so that his back was to it. A little while later, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

The following morning went by completely normal, save for the fact that Yosuke seemed more chipper than usual. He helped Teddie make breakfast and he watched a bit of TV before heading out for school, making sure to carefully place the stuffed cat in his bag. He acted surprisingly calm in class, but in the inside he was nervous and restless.

Yosuke nearly jumped out of his seat when Souji sneaked up behind him and announced that they were having lunch together (why did he even have to do that in the first place? They almost always sat with each other.) He laughed at Yosuke's reaction, which was a little embarrassing, but whatever Souji had made for them smelled amazing, so Yosuke let it slide.

And lunch went by well, too. Nothing awkward happened between them, in fact the subject of Valentine's Day didn't even come up (Yosuke knew that Souji was thinking about it, though. Well, he hoped that he was). They just chatted about grades, cats and how cute they are, and video games. Yosuke told Souji about how Teddie thought that the people on TV yesterday were wearing fake lips and Souji was laughing so hard that he choked. When he calmed down, Souji fell silent and looked at Yosuke in the eye so intensely that Yosuke was sure that a serious conversation was about to go down, but instead Souji just started laughing again. Yosuke smiled because he was pretty sure that Souji's happiness was contagious, or maybe that was just him.

When school finally ended, Yosuke was exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to just go home and sleep for 3 hours, but he still had that lame cat thing in his backpack and he promised himself that he'd give it to Souji before he went back to his own place. Mustering up his courage, he went up to Souji and offered to walk him home. Souji agreed immediately, looking smug.

Their trek back to the Dojima household was mostly quiet. Which was weird, because when it came to the two of them, they always had something to say to each other. Maybe he didn't get me anything, Yosuke thought to himself. He didn't really mind, though. You don't need physical gifts to prove your love to someone.

When Souji got up to the front door of his house, he turned to face Yosuke. "Well... I guess that-"

"Dude, hold on a second!" Yosuke cut him off. Perhaps a little rude, but at that moment he didn't care. He went over to him and crossed his arms tightly. Souji looked at him. He had his full attention. What was he supposed to say? A million thoughts were racing through his head. Yosuke decided to just be blunt. "Today's Valentine's Day."

Souji nodded slowly. "It is."

Great, now I feel like an idiot, Yosuke hissed at himself inside of his head, but there's no turning back now. He fumbled with his bag and opened it, grabbing at the item hidden inside. "I-it's just... I... umm... here." Even though he tripped over his words and his heart felt like it was lodged inside his throat, he managed to free his present from his bag and hold it out. Yosuke bit his lip nervously as he watched Souji's gaze drop from him to the toy cat in his arms. He looked stunned.

"I-I know! It's stupid! I know that! But I... dunno, it's sorta cute too, isn't it? And I know very well how much you like cats so I just thought that..." Yosuke trailed off, he knew his entire face was red and oh my god this sucks so much. He couldn't bring himself to face Souji. What was he supposed to do now?

"Oh, wow," Souji said, amusement in his voice, "I can't believe it."

"Can't believe what? How dumb I am?" Yosuke mumbled under his breath.

"No, Yosuke, look-" And Yosuke did just that, turning his head to see his partner reaching into his bag and pulling out a very tacky, very pink, very familiar looking plush cat. Yosuke's eyes widened.

"What the... what the hell?!" They were the exact same. The very exact same. They both bought it for each other. Yosuke couldn't hide the look of horror on his face as he realized what was going on. Souji, on the other hand, found it hilarious. He started cracking up and he went to cover his mouth with one hand, which made him lose his grip on the cat and he ended up almost tripping on the ice underneath him. Yosuke caught him and brought his boyfriend closer so that he could lean against him.

"Souji... Souji... Partner... calm down. It's not that funny!" Yosuke tried. Souji shook his head against Yosuke's shoulder. He took a deep breath and pulled away from him.

"We have to exchange them. Here." Souji handed Yosuke the stuffed cat that he bought, and Yosuke, while rolling his eyes, did the same. Souji examined the one that he now held. "They're the same thing," he said quietly.

'No shit,' Yosuke almost replied. He didn't want to ruin Souji's mood, so he just grinned and nodded instead. "Yeah. We're really lame."

"I'm glad you got me this one. It's cuter than the one I bought for you," Souji said. Which spurred an entire argument over whose cat was cuter, even though they were identical. They were still fighting even after Souji invited him inside and they rid themselves of their shoes and coats.

Yosuke sat comfortably on the couch, flipping through channels. Souji knelt down and handed him a mug of hot chocolate, which he had been preparing in the kitchen for the past few minutes, and then settled down next to him. He casually leaned over and rested his head on Yosuke's shoulder and told Yosuke to skip to the next channel because the movie that was currently playing on the TV sucked, apparently.

Yosuke wasn't sure what to think about how he was feeling right now. It felt like his heart was emotionally ready to burst, that's a good thing, right? He had been worried for nothing - again. He felt content with that thought and allowed his eyes to slide shut tiredly. They snapped open almost immediately when he felt a hand brush over his knee. Yosuke glanced down just in time to witness Souji snatch the cat from his lap and brought it over to the other toy cat, smooshing their faces against each other's.

"They're kissing," Souji announced, sounding pleased.

"That's... uh, great."

Souji chuckled and placed a hand over both the cats' eyes. Yosuke was about to ask what he was doing that for, when Souji nuzzled his cheek. Yosuke turned to face him and Souji leaned in and kissed him gently. Yosuke could feel himself blushing once more.

Souji pulled away and said gently, "Happy Valentine's Day."

Yosuke's gaze focused on the toys in Souji's arms. He slowly reached forward and took one of Souji's hands in his and squeezed hard. "Yeah. You too, Partner."

For Yosukethemostgay c: