Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Author: Higuchimon
Fandom: Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE!
Story Title: Success!
Romance: Kinshiro x Atsushi/Atsushi x Kinshiro
Word Count: 1,483||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, C50, write your OTP; Advent 2015, day #13, post something new; KinAtsu Week Day #2, curry
Summary: Kinshiro will never truly be a fan of most curry. But Atsushi thinks he might be taking this a little far. And of course, Atsushi is always there to help.

Kinshiro examined the digital menu on the small screen only for a few moments before slipping his finger over to pick one of the options. The tiny image on the screen waves his hands cheerfully as his new dinner appeared in front of him and Kinshiro allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.

At least for a few seconds when nothing else happened aside from his character eating a delicious steak.

"What is the matter?" he murmured to himself before he saved the game and set it to one side.

"Kin-chan?" Atsushi peered in from the Defense Club room, head tilted a bit. "It's almost time to leave, are you ready?"

"Yes." Kinshiro rose up at once, sliding his gaming device into his bag. He didn't spend much time with it, but he'd finished all of his work early today and needed to do something while waiting for Atsushi to also finish.

His heart beat a little faster at the idea of once again walking home with Atsushi. In the last five or six weeks that had become much more of a regular event, but there still were moments when he couldn't entirely believed it had begun again in the first place.

Atsushi's eyes followed his movements before going back to Kinshiro's face. "You're still playing that one?"

"Yes." Heat rose up in Kinshiro's cheeks and he ducked his head, seemingly very busy in gathering up his possessions, though he had no real need to do so. He didn't offer any excuses. He was the Student Council President. He could play a game if he so wanted to.

Atsushi nodded a little before he reached down to grab his own bag. "So am I. How far along are you?"

Only Atsushi could ask something like that and Kinshiro would genuinely feel like answering it. Almost anyone else would've received one of his specialized glares for it.

"The city in the mountains," Kinshiro replied without hesitation. "The one with the strange pillars." He – or his character – had picked up gossip about those pillars around a few places before and he suspected they would be important to the plot later.

Atsushi nodded, eyes sparkling with excitement. "I haven't gotten that far yet. But I probably will tonight." He hesitated a moment, his own cheeks tinging red. "After I do my homework of course."

"Of course." Kinshiro wondered just how much of Atsushi's homework would get done. Maybe he should offer to help a little. It would be better than letting him lose all track of time playing a game, of course. Kinshiro refused to touch his until he'd finished everything he had in mind.

If he worked through everything a little faster in order to get more gaming time in, that was his own business.

"Have you found your character's favorite food yet? Mine's curry!" Atsushi laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't expect that, honestly."

Kinshiro's lips thinned for a heartbeat. "No, not yet." He wouldn't even let his character eat curry.

Atsushi didn't say anything, but the quirk of his lips said everything. Kinshiro focused his attention on the hallway as they headed down it.

"Your curry is the only curry I like," he said, but only after they'd left the building and headed down the street. "Even if it's only a game, I don't want to have any other curry."

He didn't look at Atsushi. He couldn't bear the thought of his dear At-chan, of all people, laughing or even smiling because of this. He knew it was ridiculous. He couldn't help it, though. The thought of curry that wasn't the sweet, mild curry that could only come from Atsushi's hands made his stomach churn all over again, bringing back foul thoughts he'd tried so hard to get rid of.

But Atsushi didn't say anything at all. Kinshiro reached a point where the silence became so overwhelming that he drew breath to speak with Atsushi beat him to it.

"You know, I think there's a feature in the game where you can have your characters meet up and do things for one another. En and I did it the other day."

Kinshiro blinked; he recalled reading something like that when he'd first bought the game, but he hadn't carried it to that conclusion. He also ignored the use of Yufuin's name. "You'd do that?"

"Of course." Now Kinshiro turned and saw the way Atsushi's smile lit up everything, just as it had on that day weeks earlier. "It'll be easy. We can have your guy eating curry in no time!"

Kinshiro still wasn't completely convinced this would do anything, but it was Atsushi who offered and Kinshiro refused to find himself in the habit of turning down Atsushi again.

Soon enough, with the flick of a few buttons, their two characters had crossed paths, and Kinshiro wasn't surprised that they liked one another. Sometimes, Atsushi mentioned, characters took a dislike to each other, which could have other effects on the game. That wasn't what Kinshiro wanted at all.

Then the question came of where they were walking to, exactly. They normally took turns deciding whose home to go to first, since they didn't live all that far from one another. Two streets of difference and that was it.

"Your place," Atsushi said after a few moments of consideration. "My parents won't be home for another hour or so anyway."

Kinshiro wasn't certain when his would be and it didn't bother him very much. He'd grown used to it. Having Atsushi over would be far more preferable than a house populated only by himself and servants. Wherever he went, Atsushi filled a place with a sense of life that Kinshiro hadn't missed until he'd lost it and hadn't admitted he'd wanted it back until he already had it.

They talked about anything and everything that wasn't curry or the game or school or the months of enmity between Caerula Adamas and the Battle Lovers. There were, surprisingly, quite a few other topics they could discuss at length other than those. The idea of finding some time to go star-gazing with one another again appealed to them both. The idea of laying on their backs, side by side, staring up at the skies, their hands wrapped around one another…

Kinshiro managed not to blush this time. But it was only because he tried so very hard.

They weren't children anymore and other images wanted to pop up in his head.

Soon enough they'd settled into his room, their respective consoles on the table, while Atsushi filled Kinshiro in on some of the more interesting anecdotes that he'd missed from around the school. Being the head of the Council meant he heard what was important, not always what was interesting or just amusing.

He kept an eye on their consoles, though, and only when Atsushi wound up in the middle of some kind of long yarn about something Kinshiro wasn't even certain if he'd remember the next day did he let his attention drift. Even then he paid more attention to the sound of Atsushi's voice than to what he was saying in particular.

"There!" A sudden chime preceded Atsushi's declaration and Kinshiro jerked out of his quasi-reverie, eyes focusing now. Atsushi picked up their consoles; the screens showed an identical scene now, with their characters in an inn of some kind, Atsushi's working behind a counter while Kinshiro's stood awaiting his meal.

When a character in this game found the food that would be their favorite – supposedly set up by choices made during character creation and by other decisions made at other points – it wasn't just a happy perk for the player. Eating that food improved all of their stats and added a bonus to certain options. Everyone knew when their character found their favorite. It was unmistakeable.

Kinshiro expected his character to at least enjoy the curry. After all, he'd based almost all of his choices for creation around himself, and this was Atsushi's curry, to some degree. So, enjoyment would be the least that could happen.

He didn't completely expect his character to squeal and bounce around happily as soon as he ate the first few bites, or for victory music to play, and words to scroll across the screen: You have discovered your favorite food! Congratulations!

"Tha- that..." Kinshiro struggled for words, eyes flicking up to try to meet Atsushi's and skittering away. "Thank you?" What else could he say?

Atsushi smiled back at him and Kinshiro warmed down to the very tips of his toes. "It was my pleasure, Kin-chan."

Kinshiro swallowed, wishing he were as good with words when it came to At-chan as he was for council meetings. But with those bright eyes staring back at him and the victory music playing from both their consoles, he wondered how much better any words could actually make anything.

The End

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.