A/N: Okay, it's ridiculous how much I love Haruto and Dog-chan as a couple. My friend Tori and I have decided their ship name is Puppyloveshipping! They're about 16/17 here, and I'm going to be using Dog-chan's dub name Pip, okay? I hope you enjoy~
"What did you get for number six, Haruto-kun?" Pip asked, turning away from the text book in front of her to look at her blue haired companion.
Haruto looked up from the carton of rice he was devouring, feeling his mouth curve up when he locked eyes with her. Even though they had been dating for a few weeks now, he still felt his heart flip in his chest whenever their eyes met. He'd finished the problem a few minutes ago and quickly answered, "I got x=16. How about you?"
She looked down at her notebook and nodded. "That's the answer I got too."
"Guess that means you're still worthy of being my rival." Haruto said, shoveling another mouthful of rice into his mouth and grinning at the cute little pout that Pip gave him. "What? I'm currently ranked number one in class, remember?"
"Not for long…" Pip muttered under her breath, her eyebrows coming together as she put her pencil to her notebook and started writing down the next problem. Which Haruto had also already finished.
Despite the fact that the two of them going steady, they were still each other's biggest rivals in class rankings. They were constantly competing for the number one spot, and so far neither one of them could hold it for very long before the other had taken it away. Haruto enjoyed their little rivalry though, because it meant that the two of them could study for upcoming exams together, like they were doing right now.
Pip looked really cute right now, concentrating on getting the right answer to her math problem. Haruto couldn't help but stare at her as she carefully erased something on her paper, her lips pursing at having made a mistake. She was amazing, and Haruto could hardly believe that she had even agreed to go out with him in the first place. He was so incredibly lucky to have her, wasn't he?
"I love you." The words slipped out of his mouth before he had even realized he was thinking them. He felt his eyes widen, and quickly covered his mouth, but the words were already out in the open.
Pip's pencil suddenly stopped moving, and the girl was completely motionless as she slowly realized what he had just said. After a few seconds, she turned her wide blue eyes towards him, shock clear on her features. When she spoke, her voice was shaky. "Wh-What did you s-say, Haruto-kun?"
Haruto felt his face heat up, and knew that he must have been as red as a tomato. He took his hands from over his mouth and quickly grabbed another carton of food, eating the orange chicken inside and trying to think of something to say. Unfortunately, the only thing he could think of was, "N-Nothing. Nevermind, Pip."
"D-Did you just say you loved me?" Pip asked, putting her pencil down and turning her full attention to him. Her face was quickly turning as pink as her hair, but her expression was changing from one of shock to one of nervousness. "Haruto-kun?"
"Um…" Haruto averted his eyes, suddenly feeling shy. And he wasn't a shy person at all! But the look in Pip's eyes was making him feel like he could hardly catch his breath. It wasn't like what he had said wasn't true. He DID love her, both as a friend and as a girlfriend. But he had never said it out loud before, and now that it was out there he couldn't just take it back, or try to explain it away.
He swallowed his half-chewed food, wincing a bit as it went down roughly, and laughed nervously as he tried to say something to make things less awkward. "Y-Yeah, I did say that. But I didn't mean to throw it on you all of a sudden! And I understand if you don't feel the same way yet, I mean we've only been going out for a few weeks , but I really do–"
He was suddenly cut off by her lips crashing against his. Her arms quickly came up around his neck as she kissed him, leaving him no room to move away, not that he wanted to. He felt himself blinking from the shock of it all, but it didn't take him very long to reciprocate the kiss, surprised and pleased by her reaction.
When she pulled away, Pip was blushing and grinning and looking happier than he had ever seen her. She said, with her voice barely above a whisper, "I love you too, Haruto-kun. I've been in love with you ever since we were kids."
"Really?" Haruto asked, his hands coming up to wrap around her waist. "You're not just saying that because I said I loved you first?"
"Of course not." Pip said, her face turning a darker shade of red when he said he loved her again. She leaned in and pressed their foreheads together. "I really have been in love with you since the third grade. A-And I'm happy that you said it first. I was actually a little afraid that you didn't feel the same yet."
"Of course I feel the same." Haruto couldn't stop the smile from stretching across his cheeks, feeling his heart starting to race in his chest. Haruto knew that he was pretty dense (it was one of the reasons that it had taken him so long to ask Pip out in the first place) but he knew that he loved her more than anyone. And now he knew that Pip loved him back just as much as he loved her. "I'm sorry it took me until this long to say it."
"It's okay, you said it now." Pip said, her lips curving upwards into that little smile that she only ever gave him. "I don't mind that you took so long."
She might not have minded, but Haruto certainly did. He wanted to make up for all that time he hadn't said it, so he tilted his head so that their lips could meet again, and tried to show her with his lips just how much she meant to him. Pip was more than happy to kiss him back, and she seemed just as eager as he was.
A beep sounded from his D-Gazer a few feet away, just a second before a very familiar voice asked him, "Haruto, how's the studying coming along?"
The two of them immediately sprang apart, their half-embarrassed, half-guilty expressions mirroring each other's. Haruto quickly reached over and grabbed his D-Gazer, hoping that he didn't look too much like he had been making out with his girlfriend, and answered his brother with a nervous, "E-Everything's going great, nii-san. Thanks for asking."
Kaito's expression quickly turned suspicious the second he saw his brother's face. "Are you sure? You look a little flushed."
"Yeah, we're fine!" Haruto said, rubbing at his cheeks in a weak attempt to get rid of the color in them. "Is, uh… there any reason that you called me?" 'Instead of knocking on my door like a normal person?' he as tempted to add, but he held his tongue.
"Yeah, I didn't want to come up there and interrupt your studying. Although…" Kaito's voice took on a slight teasing edge. "I think I might have interrupted something else."
"Nii-san!" Haruto exclaied, glancing over at Pip. Her face was just as red as his was, and she was very pointedly looking at her textbook. He cleared his throat loudly and gave his brother a half-glare. "What did you wanna tell me anyway?"
"Pip's mother called." Kaito said, looking like he was holding back his laughter. "She told me to tell you two that she and Pip's father were going to be a little late picking her up tonight."
"Is that all?" Haruto asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance he was feeling towards his brother from his voice.
"Yes, that's all. Please pass the message along." Kaito told him, giving him a warm smile that was half teasing. "Are you sure you don't need any help up there? I'm pretty good at math…"
"No, I'm sure we don't need any more help." Haruto said, wondering what he had ever done to deserve this. "I'll give Pip the message. Goodbye, nii-san."
"Alright, goodbye Haruto." Kaito said, and the screen went dark as the call ended.
Haruto let out a big sigh and let his D-Gazer fall from his hand onto the floor with a soft thump. Ever since he and Pip had started going out, Kaito had taken every opportunity available to tease him. It wasn't so bad when it was just the two of them, but Haruto really hated it when his brother teased him when Pip was around. He gathered up his courage to look over at his girlfriend, but she was still looking at her textbook.
"Pip, did you hear what he said?" Haruto asked, quickly turning his gaze down when she nodded. "Y-You don't mind having to stay a little longer, right?"
She shook her head. "O-Of course not. You… you don't mind either, do you?"
"Why would I mind?" Haruto asked, moving a little closer to her. "I like having you around. And I like being around you."
A hint of a smile started forming on her face, the embarrassment of earlier slowly starting to fade. "Well, I like being around you too."
Their hands met, and Haruto immediately intertwined his fingers with hers. He gave them a reassuring squeeze and turned his attention to her notebook. He noticed that she had miscalculated one of her earlier problems and couldn't help but tell her, "You got one wrong, Pip."
She stared down at her notebook, a small frown forming. "No way, which one?"
He pointed it out with the hand that wasn't holding hers. "This one right here. You didn't use the right formula, and you got it wrong."
Pip stared at the problem he was pointing at, her mouth falling open when she realized that she had, in fact, gotten it wrong. "Ugh, I can't believe I messed that one up!"
"It's only one question." Haruto said, fighting back a chuckle and ultimately failing. He instantly regretted it at the glare the Pip gave him. For such a cute girl, she could give a pretty heated stare when she wanted to.
"That's it, no more distractions. I'm not going to lose first place to you twice, Haruto Tenjo." Pip said, letting go of his hand and rolling up her sleeves. "Get ready to come in second after exams."
Haruto sighed, knowing that the moment they had been having earlier was now officially over. But that was okay, Pip was still looking cute with her concentrated eyes, and he had the knowledge that she loved him to make up for it.
He reached over and grabbed one of the fortune cookies that were next to the half eaten cartons of food. He would have been glad to finish the rest of them, but this was their shared dinner, and he had to leave some for Pip. He ate the two halves of the cookie and held out the fortune to read it.
'You will find true happiness with a person closest to you.' It read. He blinked, wondering if he was just seeing things, but when he opened his eyes, the words were still there. He almost rolled his eyes at the cheesiness of the message, but then he looked over at Pip, scribbling as fast as she could into her notebook, and suddenly he couldn't keep the grin off his face. "Hey Pip?"
"Yes, what is it?" She asked, not bothering to look up from her notebook.
"Look at this." He held out the little piece of paper in front of her notebook, waiting until she put down her pencil and took if from him before adding, "I think my fortune's already come true."
She quickly scanned her eyes over it, and was about to hand it back to him dismissively, when the meaning of the words suddenly clicked in her head. She brought it back to herself and read it again, her face turning a pretty shade of pink. "Y-You're just trying to distract me so that I can't get the number one spot…"
"I'm not—" Was all Haruto managed to get out before Pip cut him off with a kiss for the second time that night.
"Well it didn't work." She said when she finally let the two of them up for air. She turned back to her homework and stuck her tongue out childishly at him. "But that was very sweet of you to say."
He licked his lower lip, still slightly in shock from her bold actions, but quickly recovered himself. If Pip was that determined to steal his spot at number one in the class, he sure wasn't going to make it easy for her. He brought his own text book closer and started to go through the problems again. It was so on.