A/N: Well, it's not a Dumb Ducks update, but I can't let Momotori Week on tumblr go to waste, now can I?

Now, I'm going to be honest. I wrote this in three hours, so I have no idea what this even is, but it's… what I could produce in three hours. This is the kind of shit I come up with on a deadline.

Momotori Week: Prompt 1: Confessions

Enjoy?

So Aiichirou Nitori might have done something really bad, but you had to understand where he was coming from.

He was going nuts.

"AHHHH!"

Momotarou Mikoshiba, his roommate and the root of all Ai's problems, stood panicked before his desk, jerking his arms forward as he screamed and writhed and wailed—and then promptly fell to his knees to cry out, "SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAS HAPPENED, NITORI-SENPAI."

Ai knew exactly what happened.

But in an attempt to play innocent, he asked, "Oh… What's wrong, Momo-kun?"

"PYU—PYUNSUKE-KUN IS GONE," Momo cried. "HE'S BEEN BUG-NAPPED."

Okay. Hear him out:

For weeks, months even, Ai had tolerated the little stag beetle crawling around the dorm room, had conditioned himself to not screech for the gods whenever Pyunsuke felt like tiptoeing onto his face, and had ignored the fact that an insect had more dominion over Ai's room than he did—even while incarcerated in a glass mason jar. Their relationship was mostly civil, that is as civil as a human and a bug could be; all due to Ai's efforts to bond with Momo and the fact that Pyunsuke was practically Momo's child.

But that all changed this morning.

"How could this happen?" Momo mourned over the loss of his beloved six-legged compadre, and cried, "Who could do such a thing? Is nothing sacred in this world, Nitori-senpai?"

"Are you sure he's gone?" Ai asked, the pangs of guilt stabbing him in the chest. "Maybe he got out of his jar again…"

In all fairness, Pyunsuke had it coming.

The little shit always escaped from his jar. Ai didn't even know how this was possible. Because how? Did his antler prongs have the magical capability to defy the laws of physics? No matter how tight the jar lid was shut, Pyunsuke was like the beetle Houdini, popping up out of nowhere from under Nitori's pillow, drawers, closet, one time his swimsuit while he was wearing it, wherever. Always testing the limit of Ai's strength to carry on with his day.

"You know, I bet it was Toru Iwashimizu," Momo cursed, "that son of a bitch."

"What, why?" Ai said, a bit confused about his kouhai's accusation. If anything, Ai should have been the prime suspect, and rightly so. "Why would Iwashimizu-san want to steal Pyunsuke?"

"He hates bugs."

"A lot of people hate bu—"

"I'm confronting him," Momo said, getting up to his feet. "I'm getting Pyunsuke-kun back!"

Oh no.

Momotarou was not going to get Pyunsuke-kun back and the main reason as to why this was so was because Pysunsuke-kun was… dead.

Dun dun dun.

Ai knew this as he trailed behind Momo to Toru Iwashimizu's room, his hands fidgeting as he recalled the dead carcass of poor, little Pyunsuke-kun under Ai's magazines. To be honest, Ai wasn't exactly sure what happened—it all happened so fast—but one moment Ai was just casually flipping going through his magazines—what kind of magazines is unimportant—when like a black omen of abstinence came Momo's stag beetle, tickling Ai's fingers. The prickly feelers triggered Ai's reflexes, which meant fear and stupidity, and by instinct he dropped the stack of magazines in his hands.

And he heard a squish.

"IWASHIMIZU, YOU BASTARD," Momo shouted, pounding on the door. "COME OUT AND FACE ME."

"Oh my god, Momo-kun," Ai whispered frantically, putting a hand on Momo's elbow. "Quiet down, before everyone hears you."

The door opened to reveal a deeply unamused, blond breaststroker with a set of irritated nose and eyes, the only color on his pale, clammy face. It had seemed Iwashimizu had gotten himself a cold and by the looks of his manic bed hair rising in the spirit of Nikola Tesla's power, he had also just awoken from a nap. So it was natural that his hoarse voice spat out an aggravated, "What, Mikoshiba."

"Oh, oh!" But Momo was not convinced by mere child's trickery. "You think just because you look like you're dying, that I'm just supposed to believe you're innocent? Well, screw you, Iwashimizu!"

Oh god, Ai thought. This was not going to end well.

"The hell are you talking about?" Iwashimizu said, just before hacking his lungs out with brutal coughs. "I've been sick all day."

"Just give Pyunsuke-kun back and we can just forget this all happened."

Sometimes Iwashimizu's eyes appeared cerulean, but right now—and every other time he was a thousand times done with the bullshit of the world around him—they clouded into a stormy, dark gray. Surrounding them, glowed the fiery irritation of both his eyelids and his soul, as the bags underneath his eyes drooped down in pure, unadulterated disgust.

"I fucking hate bugs," is all he said before slamming the door shut.

But then he opened it again and pointed to Ai, hissing, "And keep your boy in check, Nitori-senpai."

And with that, Iwashimizu gave a violent cough and shut the door once more.

Momo and Ai stood there in shock.

This was terrible, almost unbearable, and Ai still hadn't mustered up the courage to break the truth to Momo that he had accidentally killed the bug-baby. After the brash dismissal from Iwashimizu, Momotarou had gone off in a frenzy, accusing the entire Samezuka swim team, spewing out lines like backstabbing a backstroker and you've ruined this family, which referred to Momo and Ai by extension in raising the stag beetle. Apparently Momo had considered Ai the second parent, which both charmed and alarmed Ai.

"Momo-kun…" And it was because of this that Ai couldn't take it anymore. "I have something to confess."

"You know," Momo kneeled down on the grass of the park just outside the school. They had begun the search for Pyunsuke in the wild after Momo realized the swim team was innocent. He said, "It's like none of them care about Pyunsuke-kun, Nitori-senpai."

"Well," Ai hesitated, "I think they're just mad about the fact that you said they were all filthy liars and should rot in a pile of cockroaches."

A lot of heated things were said by the poolside, that's all Ai had to say.

Momo sighed, but agreed, "Yeah. I guess I rushed to conclusions back there. Even Rin was mad."

"Rin was really mad," Ai said, "but you always make him mad, so it should be fine."

"I just wish they didn't act like this was stupid," Momo whispered. "He's my pet."

Oh god, Ai groaned mentally. He had to tell him. This was too painful to bear, knowing Ai was now the root of Momo's very big problem, and he had to confess.

"Momo-kun," Ai gulped and said, "I have something to tell you."

"Same." Momo looked up to Ai, a soft smile on his lips. "Thanks for being there for me."

Oh, this was getting harder to do.

"I have to show you something," Ai said, and by the peaked interest of his unsuspecting kouhai, his heart sank.

When Ai killed Pyunsuke, he could have thrown the little critter in the garbage and called it a day, but Ai had what is called a heart and some form of a conscience, and so he carefully gathered the gooey, disgusting remains of the beetle into a little matchbox, which he tucked in his desk drawer to haunt him for the rest of the day.

And now he held the match box up to Momotarou, accepting his fate.

"I'm so sorry," Ai said, bowing as he presented the matchbox before him. "Forgive me!"

"Huh?"

With cautious fingers, Momo opened the matchbox to reveal the little stag beetle in his disgrace, but it would be to Ai's surprise when he said, "Why are you keeping a dead bug in a matchbox?"

Huh?

"It's…" Ai stammered, "It's Pyunsuke! I… I killed him." And out came it all through a fit of sobs, "I'm so sorry. I was just going through my drawers when I felt something on my hands and I dropped magazines on top of Pyunsuke, but I didn't know, I swear, and then I heard a squish and I feel so bad, oh god, you can't even recognize him! I've distorted the only thing you love!" Ai gasped. "And I would have told you earlier, but I didn't know how, and—"

"Nitori-senpai," Momo interrupted. "This isn't Pyunsuke."

"Wh…" Ai sniffed. "What?"

"I don't know who this is and I send my regards to its family, but no, this isn't Pyunsuke."

"You mean, then… Pyunsuke-kun might still be alive?"

"Of course he's alive!" Momo cheered, "I've raised him to be the finest warrior stag beetle in the world!"

This was all fine and dandy, but this then brought up the question of where the hell was Pyunsuke then? He often went hiding, but never for this long, Ai thought. Trying to get himself together, he sat down on his bunk, sniffling away his tears after having just confessed to a crime he wasn't guilty of.

But it wasn't for naught as Momo sat down next to Ai, patting his knee and said, "Even if you had done it, I wouldn't be mad."

"But it would have been my fault."

"Yeah, but," Momo shrugged, "you're the only one who's ever cared about Pyunsuke-kun besides me. And accidents happen."

The exhaustion of admitting his dark secret of the day was enough to have Ai lean his head on Momo's shoulder after having heard his hypothetical forgiveness. But he still felt guilty for Pyunsuke's disappearance, despite it not being his fault anymore, and so he uttered, "I'm sorry we lost Pyunsuke, Momo-kun."

"It's okay," Momo said, draping an arm around Ai. "He'll come back. He always does."

Like parents mourning the disappearance of their runaway child, Momo and Ai sat together on the bottom bunk, cuddled together. They say tragedy is what brings people together, which might explain why Momo said, "Pyunsuke isn't the only one I care about, Nitori-senpai."

"I know that."

"I'm not talking about family."

Just then, by the window, sauntered a little stag beetle with a black shell and firm antlers by the name of Pyunsuke onto the windowsill. As he made his way back over to his mason jar habitat, Ai gasped. What a relief to see the bug.

And then Momo said, "I'm talking about you."

How interesting the turn of events. It had seemed Aiichirou had done something really bad, which wasn't really bad at all and in fact had turned into something really good. But you had to understand where he was coming from, because why would he go through so much emotional turmoil in the first place?

And so he told Momo another confession and said, "I like you, too."