A.N: Happy Valentine's Day!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Confession
"Something is burning" Takashi said, causing his fourteen year old daughter to dash in to the kitchen. Something was burning indeed, and that was the chocolate Hana had tried to make.
"Gah, not again!" she complained, moving the pot off the stove "How is this possible?"
"You shouldn't have left it unattended" Takashi said as he too came to the kitchen, folding a news paper on the way "Chocolate burns very easily."
Hana raised an eyebrow, asking: "Since when have you known how to cook?"
"Since I was about your age, or actually a little younger" Takashi replied "Even if I don't cook at home it doesn't mean I can't."
Hana gave him a blank stare which told the thing she left unsaid: she didn't believe him.
"Try to manage with the next batch" Takashi told her "Otherwise you'll run out of ingredients."
Attempting to be subtle about it, Hana glanced at what was left, frowning as she realized that her father was right.
"And more importantly" he continued, getting her attention again "There will be a time when resources are very limited; you need to learn not to waste them."
Right, her parents were very strict of not wasting anything, especially food. Of course Hana understood where the idea was coming from, but in her opinion, they really overdid it sometimes.
"Yeah sure" she said, deciding to focus her attention on more chocolate before her father reached his preaching mode fully. Behind her daughter's back, Takashi shook his head. He knew Hana would learn eventually, but he truly hoped it'd be before she was sent to the future. Well, they still had three years to teach her. After that she'd have to manage on her own.
XXXXX
"Done!" this time Hana had actually managed to make chocolate without burning anything... with her mother's help, of course. She could've tried on her own again, but didn't want to waste her money on new ingredients.
"Are these simply for your classmates?" her mother asked "Or is there a special someone you'd like to tell me about?"
"Mom!" Hana whined, blushing. There was someone, but she didn't want to tell her anything, not before she confessed to him. Hopefully he would accept the chocolate.
"It's the boy who you go to swim with from time to time, isn't it?" Miho asked, smiling as her daughter's face went even redder "Aota-kun, right?"
Hana pouted, asking: "If you knew then why did you even ask?"
"I just wanted to be sure" Miho answered "Is this first special chocolate you'll be giving him?"
Hana nodded, finally asking something that had been on her mind for a while already: "Mom, how exactly do you give someone a more special Valentine's Day chocolate?"
"That" Miho stated "Is something you should figure out on your own."
Hana sighed; as usual, her parents weren't very helpful.
XXXXX
Hana bit her lip nervously, waiting for Arashi to show up behind the school like she had asked him to. She had left everyone else's chocolates to their shoe lockers, but had decided to give Arashi's to him personally since it was special, but she was already regretting it. It would have been so much easier and less nerve wracking to leave it in the shoe locker, but it was too late now.
"Unless I just leave now" Hana thought, but dismissed the idea immediately. If she didn't do this now and just left, it'd be even harder the next time she tried.
"Hana!"
And now it was late to back down anyway.
Hana looked up to see the boy running towards her, almost stumbling a few times. That was odd; normally Arashi was rather athletic.
"Sorry, did you wait long?" he asked after reaching her. Hana looked away shyly before answering: "No, not really."
Inwardly, she was cursing at herself. She had never been, and she truly meant never, a shy person, but for some reason she had to fight off a blush right now.
"So what is it?" Arashi asked, and Hana knew this was it. She had to get herself together now. Determined, she looked Arashi right in the eye as she handed him the box of chocolate she had made "This is for you."
"Thank you" Arashi said as he took the box "To be honest I was surprised that I didn't find a box from you from my locker like every year, since I didn't think you'd give it to me personally..."
Arashi trailed off, seeming to finally connect the dots as he looked at Hana's unimpressed face. She hadn't expected him to be so dense when it came to these things.
"Oh... this is..." Arashi muttered. Feeling like she couldn't contain her blush anymore, Hana turned on her heel and started to walk away.
"Wait, Hana-"
"I'll be waiting for your answer" she called back, trying to sound confident "On White Day."
A.N: Obviously, we all know Arashi's answer. If you aren't familiar with Japan's Valentine's Day custom this might not make much sense though.
Now, some might think that they are a bit OOC, but let's remember that they are 14 here and not together yet. Plus, the Hana (and Arashi) who we see in the manga are obviously very different because their environment is so different, too. This fic is located on a timeline where boys and split hair were Hana's biggest problems, not dinosaurs and the murderous friends of his boyfriend.