[Author's notes: This has been a WIP since 2015, finally managed to polish it up and post it this year :)

A Yu Narukami version is available at Dreamwidth at the following address:
angevon dot dreamwidth dot org/51245 dot html
Every 'dot' should be a '.'

Please enjoy!]

Yosuke opened the door to Classroom 2-2 and stopped in his tracks at the sight of Souji's desk. Every square inch was covered by packages of Valentine's chocolate. The mountain was so high it was overflowing onto Chie's desk.

He shook his head, dazed. Sure, Souji was popular, but this was frankly ridiculous.

A group of underclass girls whose existence he'd only vaguely been aware of pushed past him, only to exchange a few words with Souji. Their additions to the pile threatened to cause an avalanche, but Souji managed to keep everything on his desk through some strategic rearrangement.

Without really thinking about it, Yosuke looked down at the box in his hands. The little cake he'd baked seemed kind of pitiful in comparison to the treasure trove his friend already had.

And the real kicker might've been the fact that school hadn't even started yet. Yosuke had come to school early today in the hopes of catching Souji alone so that he could give him his own gift. Now the thunder had been stolen from him.

As the giggling underclass girls passed by him to exit the classroom, Yosuke's determination returned. He'd been planning this for weeks. He couldn't back down now!

He strode down the aisle between desks, and a moment later, he was right at his best friend and crush's desk. Souji was writing in a notebook that he had balanced on his knee (since his desk was so occupied) and didn't really notice Yosuke.

"H-hey, partner," Yosuke started, his voice sounding completely unnatural due to the sudden nervousness he felt. Reminding himself that this was his best friend and there was no need to be nervous did nothing to steel his nerves. He was trying to confess his feelings, after all, and in just another moment he'd either be the happiest boy in the school or have his heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

"That's, uh, quite a haul you got there," Yosuke continued as casually as he could manage.

"My White Day is going to be a mess," Souji murmured in agreement. He didn't look up from his notebook.

"Well, umm... there's more," Yosuke said, bringing his gift forward. "This is for you—"

"More?"

Souji sighed and splayed fingers over his forehead through his bangs. Barely looking at the proffered gift, he took it from Yosuke's limp hand and then dropped it rather unceremoniously onto Chie's desk, where it landed on another box of chocolates with an audible smack. Chie shook her head, clearly amused at the team leader's unanticipated popularity.

"Thanks for bringing it," Souji said, "but I wish the girls would be brave enough to bring it to me themselves."

"There isn't much time before the bell," Chie pointed out. "I guess they just couldn't wait until lunch."

"Err..." said Yosuke, his eyes darting between the box on Chie's desk and Souji. "Actually, partner, that..."

But as he was still formulating words, Yosuke felt at least three pairs of eyes burning a hole in his back. He glanced behind him to find more girls carrying wrapped chocolates.

One of them stepped forward now.

"S-Seta-senpai, please accept these!" she said, bowing and presenting her chocolates to him. Souji took them with a quiet 'thanks' and dropped them into the growing pile on Chie's desk. The other girls repeated the presentation almost to the letter. Yosuke's gift ended up buried, possibly as deep as his heart.

While Souji began to attempt to clear off a space for his notebook, Yosuke slunk out of the classroom.

There were still a few minutes before class started, and Souji liked to make every minute count. With Chie's help, he was going through the labels on the chocolate packages, writing all the girls' names onto a page of his notebook so that he could return the gesture in March. He would have a lot of baking to do, that was for sure. He sighed to himself. All this attention made him rather uncomfortable, though he tried not to show it. It hadn't been anything like this last year at his old school. He'd always been the type to fade into the background, lucky to receive even obligation chocolate from his classmates.

And vying for attention at the back of his mind was the question of what he was even going to do with all this chocolate. If he gave it to Nanako, the sugar coma would land her right back in the hospital again! Uncle Dojima would never forgive him.

Chie was inspecting the label of a dark brown box. "Ohtani Hanako," she read. "Huh, I don't remember seeing her coming in here to bring this to you."

"Maybe it was the one Yosuke brought," Souji suggested.

"No, that's this one," Chie said, bringing the box in question forward. Compared to all the garish pink and purple glitter-encrusted heart-shaped boxes, this one was a simple white box with an orange ribbon. She read the label and then her eyebrows bunched together. "Huh."

"Who's it from?" Souji asked.

"Uhh... Maybe you should look at this."

She held out the box. Souji carefully took it from her and read the label.

Nanako-chan said you didn't like chocolate. I hope you like cake, partner!

Chie giggled a little. "Boys aren't even supposed to give chocolates out on Valentine's day! What is he thinking?"

Now Souji was frowning. "Where is Yosuke?"

"I thought he went to the bathroom."

"He should be back by now."

"Well, you know Yosuke! He was probably on his way back and then he had to go again." Souji shook his head, and Chie stopped laughing at her own joke. Her expression turned serious. "You think something's wrong?"

Souji's eyes turned down to the box of cake, where his fingers were toying with its orange ribbon.

Yosuke burrowed deep into the blankets of his bed and hoped never to have to come out of their protective embrace. When he'd come home from school before it'd even started for the day, his mom hadn't asked him what'd happened. She'd just let him march himself right to his room and slam the door behind him.

Nothing had happened, and that was the problem.

It wasn't Souji's fault that he'd misunderstood and thought Yosuke's gift was from a girl. In retrospect, Yosuke should've expected it. It was obvious that Souji was beloved by the female population. He'd heard all the rumors. Heck, even innocent little Nanako had heard them, accusing her big bro of being a 'manwhore' during the Culture Festival.

He'd have to find another way to tell Souji how he felt. He buried his face into his pillow. He didn't want to think about it right now. There were only five weeks left before Souji had to leave, anyway. Maybe he could just... not confess. Maybe that'd be better for everyone involved. That way there wouldn't be another chance for fate to punch him in the gut like this.

He sighed into his pillow. He wouldn't cry; he'd already cried too much in the lengthy process of discovering his feelings for his best friend. He was all cried out.

At least his bed was nice and warm.

Eventually there was a knock on his door. Yosuke didn't bother to turn his head towards it. He'd known his mother would eventually come up to ask him what was making him skip school, though she had to suspect it was holiday-related. She'd helped him bake that cake, after all.

"Honey..." Her voice sounded muffled through the door. "Your friend is here to see you. Shall I send him away?"

Yosuke blinked. What friend? If it was Teddie, she'd say his name.

"It's Seta-kun."

He rolled over onto his back. For a moment, he thought Souji might be here just to gloat about all that chocolate, but he knew Souji wasn't like that. Souji was a million times better a friend than Yosuke's old friends in the city had been. That was part of why Yosuke liked him so much.

"Honey?"

Yosuke grimaced and made an effort to get up from his bed, then found that his mom had opened the door and suddenly there was Souji walking right into his room.

Yosuke scrambled into a sitting position and almost fell out of the bed. "Oh, damn, sorry man, I-I was just sleeping so I—"

"Yosuke."

That softly-spoken word was enough to make Yosuke freeze in the middle of his lie.

"You're missing school," Souji said sternly.

"Well, so are you," Yosuke countered, crossing his arms. Had Souji come all this way just to make him go to back to class?

Souji shrugged, and with that, Yosuke noticed that he was carrying a familiar white box in his hands.

His cake.

Souji noticed that he noticed. He held up the box. "You made this for me?"

Yosuke opened and closed his mouth. "Y-yeah," he admitted. There was no denying it now, with him right there.

Souji nodded to himself. Then he stepped forward and sat next to Yosuke on the edge of the bed, setting the cake box in his lap. He opened the box and looked at the cake. It wasn't anything special, just a plain lemon cake with strawberry frosting. Yosuke hadn't even written anything on it with the frosting.

"Thank you," Souji said so quietly that he almost didn't hear it.

"Oh, you're welcome," Yosuke replied distractedly, because he'd just realized that he was alone with Souji, just like he'd wanted to be this morning at school. Now was his chance! He could still confess, and if... if Souji broke his heart, he was at least still in his very inviting bed.

"I really don't like chocolate," Souji continued in a murmur, oblivious to Yosuke's sudden internal dilemma. "Unless it's dark chocolate, but I never told Nanako that."

Yosuke swallowed loudly. "I made it because... b-because..."

It was so hard to say. Souji was blinking at him now, those big gray eyes so unreadable. Yosuke wanted so badly to be so close to Souji that he could see himself reflected in his eyes, and that thought helped him finally spit it out.

"Because I like you!"

Souji blinked again, then his mouth twisted into a humorless smile. "Lots of people like me," he muttered. "You saw my desk this morning..."

"No!" Yosuke shouted. His hands curled into fists. "It's... it's more than 'like,' partner. You're special to me, y'know?"

"Yeah," Souji said. "You told me that before."

"No, no, I mean really special. Like... reeeeeeally special." Yosuke struggled for a better explanation. "Like... Valentine's Day special."

Souji stared politely at him. He wasn't blinking, but there wasn't any sign that he understood what Yosuke meant. When it came to things like this, Souji was so incredibly thickheaded that it was no wonder he'd broken so many girls' hearts by putting them into his friend zone.

It called for something more drastic. Yosuke scooted closer to him until their legs were touching, then wrapped his arm around Souji's back and pulled him close. Then he leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"Like this," he murmured.

And with that, he nearly pulled away. His courage had almost run out, but he forced himself to stay there, to keep his arm around his friend, until he got an answer. His heart thudded a million miles a minute in his chest.

Souji was blushing so hard that even his ears might be red. "I..." he began, then stopped. It seemed like he couldn't think of what to say, and that made Yosuke want to laugh despite how much he was trembling.

Then Souji gave up trying to form words. Instead he moved in and kissed the corner of Yosuke's mouth.

"P-partner?" Yosuke squeaked.

"I like you, too," Souji murmured against his cheek.

Giddy with relief, Yosuke began to giggle, and as his body relaxed, he let his hand fall free from Souji's side.

Then Souji turned to the cake in his hands. He carefully tore off a chunk and held it out towards Yosuke. Yosuke opened his palm, but Souji shook his head and pushed it towards his face. Yosuke crossed his eyes at it until he realized what Souji wanted. His cheeks heating up, Yosuke opened his mouth and let Souji put the piece of cake onto his tongue.

It was a good cake, he was proud of himself for making it, but what he enjoyed far more was the shy but sweet look on Souji's face as he watched him chew. It made Yosuke fall in love with him all over again.

He wrapped his arm around Souji again after that and didn't let go, even after they finished the cake. It was warm and comfortable here with him, and Yosuke didn't think he could be happier. How could he have ever thought that Souji would break his heart?