A Valentine's Day Thing
A short Valentine's Day addition for The Small Things series. Probably won't make any sense if you haven't read the previous stories.
Set maybe a year after Those Everyday Things.
ooo
He immediately knew something fishy was going on when Hashirama quickly shut the drawer of his desk and tried - but failed - to appear innocent as he entered the office. Madara slowly looked around the room, then crossed his arms and glared at his lover. A pair of guilty, dark brown eyes blinked back at him.
"Ok, what it is?"
"What do you mean by that?"
He moved closer. The Senju looked even guiltier.
"What are you hiding in your drawer, Hashirama?"
"Nothing!" he quickly denied. He moved as if to stop Madara from opening it, but then leaned back with a defeated sigh. "You and Tobirama should stop making a habit of feeling so at home in my office."
"Chocolates? Madara asked, surprised. The whole drawer was crammed full of them, all sizes and shapes, small, simple boxes and huge, disgustingly tacky ones too. He was expecting something else, a mysterious scroll maybe. Or a bottle of sake.
"Well, you know, it's that part of the year."
"The part where you start eating chocolates from your drawer in secret? The part when you decide to become an honourable member of the Akimichi and this is how you're preparing for it?"
"It's the middle of February."
"I know that," it was Izuna's birthday just four days ago and as usual the date left Madara gloomy and bad tempered. He picked one of the more sophisticated looking boxes from the drawer and examined its sugary, dried-fruit coated, little flower shaped content. It was quite revolting. Surely Hashirama was not so depressed over the tense mood they had between them this week that he had to resort to chocolates. Although he was simple enough to look for comfort from carnal pleasures only…
"No, I mean it's Valentine's Day. You know - girls giving chocolates to boys… men…"
Madara dropped the box as if it was burning his hand. Hashirama caught it mid-air, so all the bonbons didn't scatter about.
"It would have been very rude of me not to accept them," he explained as if Madara didn't know that.
"So are you planning to eat all these?"
"You could take some."
Madara just frowned. He never cared for the taste and he wouldn't start chocolate eating with suspicious bonbons received from his lover's rabid fans and he told the other man so.
"It's not as if they are my fans," Hashirama protested. "It's just courtesy from their side. I'm sure you'll get them too...if someone will dare to approach you, that is."
"I'd rather if nobody tried to poison me with such filth," he doubted anyone would want to give him a present anyway, not that he minded. "What are you going to do with all these?"
"I guess I'll just take them home for the kids."
"No, you won't. I can't stop you from eating them, but my children certainly won't consume something like that… thing," he pointed out a truly outrageous piece, a tree that had white chocolate as its trunk, green jelly as leaves and, to make it even worse, had For Hokage-sama spelled from sugar coating at the bottom. "You were complaining that you don't know what to get for your brother's birthday next week. Why don't you give him these?"
"I can't give Tobirama sweets I received for Valentine's!"
Madara just shrugged. It would have been still more than the white haired bastard deserved in his opinion.
There was no escape from the damned holiday even at home.
"Madara-san, Takumi got chocolates from a girl, and he doesn't want to share!" Noboru greeted them as soon as they were through the door.
"That's not true, I just didn't want to open it yet!" their older son protested.
"Ooh, who is it from?" Aina asked, trying to take the box.
"None of your business!" the twelve year old boy tried to shield the sweets from his siblings, but it was two against one.
"We should have brought home some from the office," Hashirama muttered to Madara.
"The last thing they need right now is more sugar," the Uchiha denied. The noise the children were making easily got on his nerves, he didn't want chocolates to fuel the volume further. "The whole business around this day should be banned."
"But don't you like chocolates, Madara-san?" Aina questioned him, disengaging from the struggle with her brothers.
"Not at all," she looked disheartened all of the sudden, with no apparent reason. "Why?"
"Oh, it's nothing. I just think them nice."
This mystery was only revealed when they were getting ready for sleep. A neat little box of chocolate, wrapped with a dark blue ribbon sat on Madara's side of the bed.
"Is this from you," he demanded from Hashirama.
"I know better than that," his lover denied. "I'd guess your second greatest admirer left it here for you."
"Oh," he felt a pang of regret for telling Aina he didn't care for chocolates. He would need to reassure her tomorrow that he liked these ones. He untied the ribbon and opened the box. Inside laid nine bonbons in three neat little rows, their surface the darkest, richest, shiniest brown. He picked one and took an experimental bite. Its green tea filling was more bitter than sweet and he found that he indeed liked it.
"Can I have one too?" Hashirama asked as Madara was contemplating eating a second one.
"No. You have all those in your office for your own."
The Senju just grinned, unoffended. He started to undress, but changed his mind and waggled a suggestive eyebrow at Madara.
"Don't you want to unwrap the Valentine's present from me?"
Madara picked a last bit of chocolate, then carefully closed the lid of the box before answering. It wouldn't do to eat all at once.
"I don't see a ribbon on it."
"We can easily remedy that."
FIN :)