Valentine's Day

Summary: Ah-Un Pair. It's Valentine's Day, and Momoshiro is absolutely clueless on what to get Echizen. After all his planning, will he succeed in giving the freshman a day to remember?

Author's Note: Dedicated to my good friend Shiro. My apologies for the epically uber long delay on getting this done (nearly two years, I'm sorry!), but I hope you enjoy it all the same. :)

February 14. Anyone who was anyone knew that this date was a special occasion, as it marked a day of fluff, love and cheesiness, accompanied by the usual profession of love and the giving of gifts. Not wanting to miss out on the occasion was second year power player Momoshiro Takeshi of the Seigaku Tennis Club.

He had plans of wooing the super rookie Echizen Ryouma on this special day, meticulously planning out his preparations for Valentine's Day. This included a shopping spree in the morning, as well as making dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant as opposed to their usual hang-out joint at the burger place. Luckily the club had no pre-conceived practices scheduled that day, which ideally gave Momoshiro most of the day with Echizen.

All these plans relied heavily on his alarm clock, which he set to wake him up at 7 in the morning to include his usual morning jog. The second year took one last look at the device. "You better work this time or I'm screwed! I'll be damn screwed," he warned the clock before he settled to sleep for the day to come.

Momoshiro's alarm clock had a bad streak of conking out on him, which explained why he came to practice late every so often, earning him those extra morning laps aside from his mad cycling dash just to get to school. Several times that the device actually worked, Momoshiro was too lazy to worry about getting scolded.

But nevertheless, he left things up to chance and like clockwork – no pun intended – the next day arrived with the clock failing to wake him up at the designated time. Momoshiro had woken up nearly two hours later when he accidentally fell off the bed after muttering "Echizen", reaching out for a pillow and toppled over.

Once Momoshiro had pushed himself off the floor, he wheeled around to his clock that read 8:45.

"SHIMATTA!" Momoshiro cried, frantically throwing the blanket to the bed, rushed to the bathroom and took a quick shower that lasted about 2 minutes rather than the usual 7.

"I'M LATE I'M LATE I'M LAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!" Momoshiro had shouted, wheedling into his clothes, hopping to get his shoes on after grabbing some toast off the table, got on his bike and zoomed off to the department store that was opening in 10 minutes. "This is not good. Not good at all!" he complained, pushing his legs to the limit to get there before the line started to pile up at the entrance.

Panting, Momoshiro reached the department store, parking his bike and saw a sizable crowd filtering into the department store that had just opened its doors. The second year shook his head in disappointment. "Mou, this was why I wanted to get here early!" he scolded himself. Swiftly, he joined the crowd to head inside. Luckily he already had some idea of what section to go to – the hat section. "Echizen could use a new hat…" he said to himself.

While Momoshiro busied himself locating said section, several others were peeking out from behind one of the shop signs tailing the second year power player. These included the elusive Kikumaru Eiji, responsible Oishi Shuuichiro and data-collector Inui Sadaharu.

"What's Momo doing here so early in the morning?" Oishi wondered.

"Hoi hoi, I bet he's looking for something for ochibi~" Kikumaru piped up.

"82% chance that that's what he's doing," Inui admitted. "Considering today is Valentine's day I wouldn't be surprised," he pointed out.

"Does that mean you've found something to give to Kaidoh, Inui?" Kikumaru teased.

Inui cleared his throat nervously, adjusting his glasses. "In reality I haven't," he admitted. "I'll be right back," he said quickly, shutting his notebook and briskly walking off.

"Haha, looks like even Inui makes slip ups every now and again~" Kikumaru cheered.

"Not so loud Eiji," Oishi scolded, bringing a finger to his lips to quiet him as he glanced over to Momoshiro who was brooding over which hat to get.

"How about you Oishi?" Kikumaru piped up as they walked away from stalking their underclassman. "Did you get me something, nya?" he asked hopefully.

Oishi smiled sheepishly. "That's why we're here… I want you to choose a gift for yourself from me," he explained.

Kikumaru's eyes lit up. "Hontou?! Yoooooooooooooosh~" he cheered, pumping a fist in the air and promptly pulled Oishi away.

"Eh?" Momoshiro said to himself, looking around. "I thought I heard Eiji-senpai…" he wondered out loud before shrugging and turning his attention back to the array of hats. It took him a good ten minutes to finally decide on getting Echizen a blue Fedora. Feeling quite proud of his choice, Momoshiro walked over towards the counter and saw the long line. "Nothing's going my waaaay!" he complained to himself.

He immediately quieted down when heads turned to look at him pointedly, apologizing to those nearest him for the loudness. Again, it took Momoshiro a good 5 minutes waiting in line before he was finally up and paid for the hat, asking it to be lightly gift-wrapped in a box to give to someone. Eager that he had finished step one of his plan, he ran off back to his bike to head back home and make some important phone calls.

By mid-day, Momoshiro had finally managed to get through and get a reservation at a fancy restaurant as he originally planned. So far (after the mishaps of the morning), things were going according to his plans. After settling on a ramen lunch he made himself, he counted his remaining money - money that he had saved for the past 2 months - and deemed it enough for tonight's expensive dinner date.

'I sure hope this works...' he thought idly to himself, tapping his foot impatiently as he watched the clock for a while. This, of course, was pointless, considering it was only nearing 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Admittedly, the power player didn't have a plan of action to account for the afternoon prior to going to meet with Echizen for their date. After staring at the needles of his clock for about another full minute, he jumped to his feet. "MOU!" he complained, grabbing the box, his wallet, his phone and his house keys before zooming out of the house. "I'm definitely not going to be wasting anymore time," he muttered to himself, mounting his bike and made a path for Echizen's house to go and see him.

After the exhausting pedal uphill leading to Echizen's house - the size of which Momoshiro still couldn't get over, he climbed off and moved up to the front gate. "Now where's the doorbell..." he muttered, looking around for a while before spotting the electronic device, which was a sight to see in comparison to the old motif. Pressing down on the button, the power player heard a resounding chime echo inside, followed by slow footsteps making their way across the lawn.

Momoshiro didn't expect that Echizen himself would be the one answering it, but managed to hide the box behind him before the door was completely pulled open.

"Hai?" came little Echizen's drawl voice, looking up and blinked. "Ah... Momo-senpai," he acknowledged.

Momoshiro stared at Echizen for a moment. He had seen the boy in his school uniform without his usual white cap a dozen times before, but Echizen dressed in house clothes was a different story; it was a rare occasion that Momoshiro thrived to see. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Momo channeled a grin. "Yo Echizen~" he greeted.

"What are you doing here?" Echizen asked pointedly.

"Well, it is Valentine's Day," Momoshiro tried. "I was wondering if you wanted to celebrate it with me."

"Momo-senpai, don't girls primarily get treated to those things?" Echizen argued stubbornly.

Without waiting a moment longer, Momoshiro extracted the box from behind him, holding it out to the freshman. "Here! I got this for you!" the second year stammered. "Yeah, you're right, guys treat girls out on this day traditionally, but what if I like a guy?" he defended. "A guy like you? I can't wait until White Day! I just can't!"

Echizen was speechless for a moment before taking the box and thoughtfully opened it, pulling out the blue Fedora. "Ah..."

"Do you like it?" Momoshiro asked hopefully.

Shaking off the stunned expression showing on his face, Echizen nodded, smiling gently. "Aa. Arigatou, Momo-senpai," he thanked.

Momoshiro grinned happily. "Yoosh~ Then get dressed, I'm taking you out!" he proclaimed.

"Eh? Now?"

"Of course! We have a special dinner tonight!"

"But isn't it too early?" Echizen began to argue again.

"Then we'll go see that movie you wanted to watch," Momoshiro fired back.

Echizen paused and wished he had his cap to pull the bill down over his eyes as he looked away. "D-Domo..." he muttered. "Give me a few minutes to get ready then," he requested before turning around to head back inside. "Did you want to come inside?" he followed up.

Momoshiro peeked past Echizen and shook his hands frantically. "No it's okay. I'll wait here with my bike~" he answered with a nervous smile.

Echizen shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself. I'll be right back," he announced. The freshman had Momoshiro wait for a mere 3 minutes before coming back out in a clean outfit to match the blue Fedora he had just gotten. Adjusting the rim of the Fedora for a while, he glanced up at Momoshiro. "We going?" he asked.

"Oh!" Momoshiro confirmed, having already mounted his bike and urged Echizen to hop on, much like he usually would when he would hitch a ride to school. The bike ride off to the cinema was breezy, much to the two boys' relief, with the power player occupying the last bike slot to chain to before they approached the ticket booth outside the theater and bought their tickets for the 3 o'clock showing.

'We're sure to be done in time for our reservation. Lucky~' Momoshiro cheered inwardly to himself, making a small gesture as Echizen insisted on buying them a bucket of popcorn and drinks. It wasn't long before they had settled in the theater to watch the latest Detective Conan movie.

As the moviegoers slowly filtered out of the theater by the end of the movie, the pair walked out with Momoshiro thrusting his arms up in the air, stretching. "That was a great movie!" he cheered.

"But you kept asking me how Conan deduced everything Momo-senpai," Echizen mocked.

"Maa maa, that was just a test Echizen! A test!" Momoshiro defended.

"If you say so senpai," Echizen scoffed.

The power player stammered for a while before he checked the time on his wrist watch. Of course, this hardly mattered since they were already on the way to the restaurant - with Echizen being none the wiser.

"Momo-senpai, where are we going?" Echizen finally piped up when Momoshiro was semi-dragging him along.

"It's a surprise, so just wait until we get there," Momoshiro chided with a glance back to the freshman and winked.

Echizen made a light whine of surprise and overall embarrassment before he huffed and turned away. He wasn't understanding the situation at all, let alone decode what he was feeling.

The pair walked in silence for a while, even taking a detour to buy them more time.

"Momo-senpai, why are we going in circles?" Echizen complained.

"Eh? What are you talking about?" Momoshiro answered absentmindedly, checking his watch again.

"We've been walking around the fountain three times," Echizen pointed out with a pout.

Momoshiro stopped and glanced to the side where the fountain was. This caused him to become disoriented, not sure where they were before spotting particular landmarks to recognize their location. He grinned sheepishly. "Gomen gomen Echizen. Okay, we can head there now!" he announced.

"Head where?" Echizen prodded further.

"Just come!" Momoshiro answered, grabbing the freshman by the wrist and pulled him in a half-jog towards a restaurant. As they neared the establishment that laid across the road, Momoshiro spotted a line forming outside it. Just what he was hoping on. "Here we are Echizen~" he said proudly.

"But senpai... This is a fancy restaurant," the freshman argued.

"I know."

"There's a line."

"I know."

"I'm fine with burgers."

"But today's special!"

"Can you even afford this place senpai?" Echizen quipped.

"For you Echizen, I can afford anything~" Momoshiro insisted.

"Ch'... Why are you being so cheesy Momo-senpai?" he muttered. Echizen shrugged before glancing back towards the line. "Then if you really insist on eating here then shouldn't we get in line?" he asked pointedly.

At this, Momoshiro beamed. "This is where the surprise comes in!" He moved up to the waitress. "I have a reservation for two?" he asked. "It's under the name Momoshiro."

The waitress consulted her list for a while. "Ah. Reservation for a table for two for Takeshi Momoshiro?" she confirmed.

"Hai!"

The waitress took a pair of menus from the stack and gestured towards the restaurant doors. "Right this way then. Your table is waiting for you~"

Echizen held back the look of surprise that came upon his face as he pulled the rim of his new Fedora down to cover his eyes. "Mada mada dane, Momo-senpai..." he muttered quietly.

The pair were shown to a small table by the balcony as the waitress handed out menus to them both, claiming that she would be back to take their orders in a while before walking away.

"What do you think Echizen?"

"It's fancy, just like most fancy places are," Echizen quipped as he stared at his menu.

"Oi oi, give it a chance! I hear they have good pasta here~" Momoshiro argued. "Order anything you like~"

"Domo..." Echizen muttered, nodding and focused his attention on looking for something that interested him.

While this was going on, a faint chuckle was heard a few tables away. Seated here was another couple: Seigaku Tennis club captain Tezuka Kunimitsu, and resident genius Fuji Syuusuke. "Ne Mitsu..." Fuji began endearingly, gesturing with a tilt of his head towards the younger pair. "Look who came out for dinner."

"Hmm?" Tezuka titled his head slightly as he craned to see what Fuji was gesturing to before he spotted Momoshiro and Echizen. He reached up to adjust his glasses. "A rare sight, but today is a special occasion," he quipped, glancing over to the bouquet that joined their table he had given to Fuji when they met for dinner.

Fuji chuckled again. "As special as it gets," he said, reaching out to squeeze Tezuka's hand before he smiled. "Let's enjoy ourselves and leave them alone. Momo would freak if he finds out we're watching them."

"You're tempted to stalk them aren't you?" Tezuka challenged.

"Saa..." Fuji merely replied before their food arrived. "Ah, there's my steak~" he said happily.

Tezuka stared at Fuji's Fillet Mignon for a while before he reached out and kissed the back of Fuji's hand. "Happy Valentine's Day, Syuusuke."

"Awww... Thank you Mitsu," Fuji said gratefully, beaming happily.

"Well Echizen? What's it gonna be?" Momoshiro piped up from his and the freshman's table.

Echizen finally surfaced from hiding behind the menu. "Whatever you're having Momo-senpai."

Momoshiro practically faltered. "O-Oi Echizen... Didn't I give you ten whole minutes to make up your mind?" he asked with a slight twitch.

"Aa. But nothing jumped out at me so now I'm just leaving my dinner in your capable hands," Echizen reasoned out with a snide smirk.

Momoshiro hung his head dramatically for a moment before grinning. "Yooooosh!" He shot an arm to the air to call a waitress' attention.

A waitress came shuffling up to the table with a notepad in hand to take note of the orders. "Hai, thank you for waiting!" she said with a smile. "I'm Ayumi, and I'll be taking your orders tonight~"

"Hai!" Momoshiro answered, holding up the menu. He stared at it for a few seconds longer before pointing out the orders. "I'll have one fettuccine carbonara and one spaghetti lasagna please."

"Excellent choice. Shall I ask the kitchen to split the orders?" Ayumi inquired, listing them down on her notepad.

Momoshiro turned to Echizen, expecting a cue. The freshman proceeded to simply shrug his shoulders. 'Mou, he's letting me decide again!' he argued internally with himself. "What would you prefer?" he prompted.

"Sharing's fine," Echizen answered.

The junior grinned. "Yosh!" he turned to the waitress. "Leave it as is then."

Scribbling this down, Ayumi glanced back at Momoshiro. "What about your drinks?" she asked.

"Got any iced tea? The sweetened kind?" Momoshiro inquired hopefully.

Ayumi chuckled. "Hai, it's one of our bestsellers. We offer a bottomless option for unlimited refills," she explained animatedly.

This apparently got Echizen's attention, considering his shifted significantly in his chair. Momoshiro was sure not to miss this cue. "We'll take two orders of that then," he answered, swiping both menus and handing it out Ayumi.

"Wakarimashita. I'll serve your drinks momentarily. Our serving time for your food will be in about five to ten minutes. Shitsureshimasu," the waitress said politely, bowing and excusing herself from their company to relay their orders to the kitchen.

As soon as the waitress was gone, Momoshiro centered his attention on Echizen. "So... what do you think so far Echizen?" he asked hopefully.

"Think about what?" the freshman quipped.

"Today! Where I took you... what I got you... everything we did today," the power player listed down.

"What about them?"

'Echizen isn't usually this dense, is he?' Momoshiro thought to himself, but shook his head to immediately dismiss the thought. But if he was sure of anything, his face was contorting slowly into a depressed boy who didn't get what he wanted.

At that point, the freshman was stifling a chuckle. Momoshiro wasn't the least bit impressed and frowned. "Oi, what's so funny?" the power player argued.

Echizen pulled the bill of his fedora down to hide his eyes before he burst out laughing. "Momo-senpai... mada mada dane."

The junior's face flushed red in half-embarrassment and half-irritation. "What are you going on about?"

"No one's ever really given me as much attention as you have, so..." Echizen slowly pulled the fedora off and set it down on the table, smiling smugly. "This has been great. Even for someone as lame as Momo-senpai."

"Lame? I'm not lame!" Momoshiro defended heatedly before he paused when he saw Echizen smiling at him. Immediately, the junior quieted down. "But... since it was Valentine's Day, I wanted to... you know... make it special for you..."

"You did. So I'm thanking you. For everything."

"Echizen..."

"Momo-senpai, if you get emotional on me I might just walk out on you," Echizen warned.

They paused again and looked at each other before stifling laughs. They were in mutual agreement. They just enjoyed teasing each other too much. Their food came just in time and Momoshiro found himself beaming. "Happy Valentine's Day Echizen~"

"Domo, Momo-senpai," Echizen answered, taking his glass of water and offered it to Momoshiro, who mirrored the gesture and they clanked it together in good spirits and downed their drinks. "Today was one to remember..." the freshman added wistfully as he set his glass down.

The smile on Momoshiro's face couldn't have been any bigger. 'Mission accomplished!' he thought cheerfully to himself. "I do have one more surprise for you Ryouma."

Echizen paused just as he was about to get himself some lasagna. The power player had rarely called him by his first name. But that wasn't to say he wasn't curious of why the junior thought the situation called for it. "Nanda?"

Momoshiro grinned and used a finger to gesture Echizen to lean in towards the side of the table, which the freshman did. Momoshiro mirrored the gesture and decidedly gave Echizen a peck on the cheek before hurriedly sitting back up. "Yosh, let's enjoy this meal!"

Eyes blinking twice at the action, Echizen's face flushed before he ducked his head in attempt to hide it. "A-Ah..." he agreed before tucking in.

Suffice it to say, the pair finished both pasta dishes, fighting over the final portion of carbonara, but were more than full afterwards. Momoshiro paid for the bill in full before the pair got up and left the restaurant. As they walked, Momoshiro bravely reached out to grasp Echizen's hand, which the freshman squeezed back.

"I didn't think you could be so romantic, Momo-senpai," Echizen teased.

"What can I say, it's Valentine's~"

"So you wouldn't make this much effort after today?"

Momoshiro frowned. "Hey that wasn't my-"

"I was kidding Takeshi," Echizen cut in.

Momoshiro stopped walking and glanced over to the freshman. "You called me..."

As the junior was processing this, Echizen pulled him down and kissed him on the lips. "Arigatou," Echizen repeated with a smile before tugging him along.

The power player followed suit, happy that his plan had succeeded in more ways than one.

OWARI