A/N: Hi friends, hope you're doing well. Just a few clarifications before you read the story:
Japan has a White Day where traditionally, men give women chocolate if they were given some during Valentine's Day. It can either be "義理チョコ" - giri choco, which is "obligatory chocolates" or "本命チョコ" - honmei choco, "true feelings chocolate". It's also a way where they can reply to the feelings or confession they received on Valentine's Day. The story I wrote is based on these concepts.
I also referenced a few things from the drama CDs and arcade game. It's not really important to mention, but brownie points to you if you know which ones they are because I was a huge dork who laughed at them.
Lastly, Sensoji is the character in Vigilantes who gives Shouta a hard time.
Sorry for the long author's note! I hope you like my story!
"So what type of chocolates are you going to get?"
"Hmm?" Shouta nonchalantly hummed in response, stuffing his mouth with melon bread. He was met with an unimpressed pout.
"Chocolates, Shouta! When are you planning on buying chocolates for White Day? Or maybe you're going to make homemade ones?" Nemuri sighed, folding her arms in exasperation as Shouta continued to stare blankly at her.
"Why would I get you chocolates?" Shouta bluntly said, turning his attention back to his lunch to take another large bite.
"Not for me, you idiot. For Hizashi," Nemuri said, rolling her eyes at her underclassman.
Shouta stiffened at the mention of his best friend, nearly choking on his bread. Hizashi was attending a podcast club today so he couldn't join them for lunch, but Shouta still found himself glancing around the rooftop to see if Hizashi had overheard them. The coast was clear, but Shouta had a feeling Hizashi could eavesdrop on a conversation halfway across campus if he really wanted to learn about the latest gossip.
"Fine, why would I get Hizashi chocolates?" Shouta weakly retorted, staring daggers at his half eaten lunch.
"Because you've had a big fat crush on him ever since you broke his nose during the sports festival," Nemuri said, snickering at how Shouta whipped his head towards her in a defiant glare. It was ruined by the blush dusting his cheeks.
"That's not true," Shouta hissed, his shoulders stiffening in response.
"So was it when he gave you your hero name? Or maybe when he ran straight to you to form a tag team during the sports festival?" Nemuri hummed, staring up at the clear sky as if her friend wasn't two seconds away from strangling her. "Oh, or maybe it was when you had that training session and you accidentally tangled the two of you in your capture weapon. I heard his leg was rubbing against your –"
"Nemuri, that's enough!" Shouta nearly fumed, his eyes flashing as red as his face for a brief moment as Nemuri clutched her stomach, hollering out in laughter.
"You're too easy to tease," Nemuri said, wiping away a few stray tears from the corner of her eyes.
"You're so annoying. I don't know why I hang out with you," Shouta said through gritted teeth. He wished he had his capture weapon to hide behind.
"Alright, alright! I'm sorry!" Nemuri said with a smile.
"No you're not."
"Yeah, I'm really not," Nemuri snickered. "But in all seriousness, what type of chocolates are you getting for Hizashi? White Day is tomorrow!"
"I'm not getting him anything," Shouta said, his voice lowering an octave as he pouted at his bread. He hastily wiped at his mouth with his uniform sleeve.
"You have to, Shouta. If I know Hizashi, I'm sure he's been waiting eagerly to hear a reply for when he gave you chocolates on Valentine's Day."
Shouta's mouth formed a thin line as his eyebrows furrowed together in mild frustration.
"He's not waiting for a reply. Those were giri choco," Shouta mumbled, his heart dropping into his stomach in disappointment. He still remembered last month how Hizashi had given him a red box of chocolates that had a pink ribbon and shiny wrapping paper. He had stared at the small written note that had the simple words "To my beloved Eraserhead!" for almost the entire night when he had returned home.
Shouta didn't like sweets, but at that moment he was secretly delighted to receive a gift from his crush. He had eaten a single piece once a day until he finished it. Since Shouta couldn't bring himself to throw away the container, the empty box was now hidden away in his nightstand.
"What are you… Shouta, those were definitely honmei choco. Hizashi was clearly confessing to you!" Nemuri held back another exasperated sigh as she stared at her dense underclassman.
"He always does stuff like this, Nemuri," Shouta said, shaking his head as he crumped up the wrapper of his finished lunch. "I'm sure he gave you chocolates, too."
"Shouta, when I went up to him and asked him where my chocolates were, he offered me a piece of the Hershey's bar he had already bitten into," Nemuri said, eyes narrowing as she recalled how Hizashi was seriously offering her eaten chocolate that had his teeth marks on it.
Shouta shrugged in response, his eyes staring at the floor.
"Hizashi hadn't bought anyone else chocolates, you dumbass," Nemuri sighed. "Do you even know how much those chocolates cost?"
Shouta raised an eyebrow as Nemuri pulled out her phone to look up the price of the specific brand that had been gifted to him. Once she found the brand, she handed Shouta her phone. He blankly stared at the harrowing number, biting his lower lip.
"That's expensive."
"Yeah, no kidding," Nemuri said, taking her phone back as Shouta slouched even further. "Do you believe me now?"
Shouta hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Honestly Hizashi had probably expected a response the moment he had handed you the gift. He must have been on edge all day only to have his confession completely ignored," Nemuri stated. "Considering how he isn't moping around, he most likely told himself that you had given yourself time to think about it. White Day is probably his last hope."
As Nemuri gave him an unimpressed look, Shouta tried to recall the details of what had happened last month. When they had walked home afterschool that day, Hizashi had suggested that they take the route where they could walk through the park together. Shouta remembered that their walk was quieter than usual, his friend appearing a bit more tense than he was use to. Halfway through the walk, Hizashi had hastily pulled out the box of chocolates while screaming "FOR YOU. GIVE YOU. I LOVE YOU!" in English. Shouta had reasoned that Hizashi was being his usual silly self, not truly meaning what he had said. Once the box of chocolates was in his hands, Hizashi had ran off to the train station without him.
For the next few days, Shouta recalled Hizashi acting slightly distant, things like avoiding throwing his arm around him or bumping knees against his under the cafeteria table. Eventually, Hizashi returned to his usual bright self but Shouta remembered wondering why his behavior had been so odd.
Shouta had never put two and two together until at that very moment.
"Oh," he flatly muttered, the blush that had subsided returning with more vigor.
"'Oh'? Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Nemuri sighed.
Shouta pulled on the collar of his uniform, attempting to cover at least part of his face with his jacket.
"Well, what am I suppose to do now?" Shouta mumbled, resisting the urge to shrink into himself. His cheeks were burning from embarrassment. His crush somehow liked him back. He was elated, but at the same time, he felt terrible for making Hizashi wait a month for a response. Shouta could only imagine the devastation of being ignored after such a direct confession. If Nemuri hadn't had this discussion with him, Shouta may have never even noticed at all.
He was an idiot and a horrible friend, he thought.
"It's simple, really. You just let him know how you feel," Nemuri said with a soft smile, pulling out a napkin to wipe a few remaining stray crumbs off Shouta's face.
With a small "tsk", Shouta grabbed the napkin out of Nemuri's hand and gave a small nod, the two finally in agreement.
Shouta elected to head to the mall by himself after class. The idea of Nemuri hoarding him with incessant "tips" on which chocolates to buy gave him a headache. Unfortunately, visiting the mall the day before White Day was incredibly overwhelming. Chocolate decorated storefronts, sale representatives were intensely advertising all of the different brands they carried. Shouta never realized just how many companies sold chocolate. He was completely baffled and confused by the vast amount of flavors and to make matters worse, any type of package he thought Hizashi would like would be far out of his price range.
After walking through the mall for over an hour, Shouta ended up purchasing a recipe book that specialized in desserts. Nemuri had told him that Hizashi would be delighted if Shouta chose to make him homemade chocolates, something about it being domestic, like a husband coming home to his favorite homemade dinner.
Shouta made a quick stop to the grocery store to grab his supplies. He felt like a complete amateur, riffling through the pages of the cookbook while attempting to find all the necessary ingredients by diligently studying all the labels. Once again, he never realized how many types of cocoa powder existed. He found himself staring at the different chocolate molds, his face reddening as he ended up buying a sheet with hearts and stars.
With enough supplies to make several batches in case he failed the first time (which he was sure he would considering how he enjoyed juice pouches and instant noodles), Shouta ran home to his kitchen, quickly arranging everything he needed on the counter. He felt like an uncoordinated child during his little cooking session, powder somehow getting into his hair, burning the chocolate paste and nearly setting off fire alarms. When midnight rolled around, Shouta felt his heart sink into his stomach, time quickly running out.
The chocolates were obviously not going to be perfect, especially with his skill level, he reasoned. But a part of him wished they would be because Hizashi deserved only the best. Eventually after the fifth try, Shouta tiredly settled on a batch, too exhausted to even bother taste testing. He poured the mixture into the molds, placing it in his fridge as he scrubbed at some cocoa powder on his nose with his sleeve.
Huffing in acceptance with his situation, Shouta cleaned up his kitchen and took a quick shower. Even though sleeping was one of his many talents, he found himself tossing and turning in bed, the sound of his heart pounding reverberated against his ears.
Hizashi had confessed to him without him knowing and a month had passed. What if he wasn't interested anymore? He could hear the awkward laugh as Hizashi rejected his chocolates, informing him that he liked someone else now, or worse, the chocolates he had received on Valentine's Day really were giri choco. Shouta rubbed his tired eyes at the thought, throwing his pillow over his head as he begged his body to sleep.
In the end he only managed to fall asleep for an hour before his alarm went off. He groggily left his covers and headed straight to his fridge, pulling out the batch of chocolates he had made merely a few hours ago. Shouta carefully pried the chocolate out of the molds and gently placed both the star and heart shaped chocolates into a baby blue plastic bag, tying it off with a neat red ribbon.
Hesitating for a moment, Shouta eventually decided to include a small sticky note on the outside of the bag. He pulled out his special sticky notes that were shaped like a cat from his desk drawer. Once he scribbled the short message, he taped it to the bag, gently placed the chocolates in his backpack, and went about with the rest of his morning routine.
Shouta was rather protective of his backpack during his trip to school. He cradled it to his chest when he sat on the train and occasionally, he'd check the contents of his bag to ensure the chocolates were still inside. He felt like a child who was adamant on protecting his toy, but Shouta figured it was worth it to give him peace of mind before he gave Hizashi his gift.
While making his way through campus, he could already see couples handing their lovers colorful, extravagant packages of chocolates. He suddenly felt inadequate for choosing to give homemade chocolates rather than the expensive brand-name ones he had stared at yesterday in the mall.
As he pulled open the door to his classroom, he immediately heard Hizashi's loud, bright laugh echoing among the chatter. He hesitated at the door, his hand gripping his backpack strap in apprehension as he tried to reason with his body to hide the blush that was starting to form on his face.
His face only grew redder as Hizashi noticed him, waving enthusiastically as he screamed his usual, "GOOD MORNING, SHOUTA!"
Shouta quickly made his way to his desk and sat next to Hizashi, keeping his head low as he tried to hide behind his bangs. He spent ten minutes agonizing about the chocolates in his bag and right when he was about to throw them onto Hizashi's lap, class had started with their homeroom teacher hollering at them to quiet down.
As the lecture drawled on, Shouta contemplated sliding the chocolates to Hizashi, kicking it directly under his seat. Or maybe he could stuff it in his friend's backpack when he was away from his desk. Instead, he wrote a small note that said "meet me at the P.E. training grounds after school today" and quickly placed the note on Hizashi's desk when the teacher turned around to write on the chalkboard. He chewed on his lower lip, hunching his shoulders even further as he watched Hizashi read the note from the corner of his eye. He received another bright smile and a thumbs up in reply.
Shouta had somehow delayed the confrontation until the end of the school day. He prayed that he wouldn't faint before then.
Shouta leaned against the gymnasium, one hand shoved into his pocket while the other fidgeted with the bag of homemade chocolates behind his back. Even though the school day had been uneventful, Shouta struggled with increasing anxiety every time he was around Hizashi. During lunch time, he had excused himself away from his friend group when Nemuri kept grinning in his general direction, wiggling her eyebrows playfully while eyeing Hizashi innocently. Every time Hizashi threw an arm around his shoulder or smiled in his general direction, Shouta grew more and more nervous.
It was five minutes away from the agreed meet-up time. Shouta stared at the floor, kicking at the dirt beneath him as he tried to perform the breathing exercises they had been taught during training simulations.
"Hey, what are you doing here? I have this area reserved for afterschool practice," a familiar gruff voice growled at him.
Shouta felt himself tense. It was just his luck to run into Sensoji. Somehow today was just filled with anxiety driven events.
"It's none of your business," Shouta muttered, avoiding eye contact with his classmate. He pulled out his phone to quickly glance at the clock, which only seemed to aggravate him further.
"You weren't invited to this training session so get out of here!" Sensoji said, stalking over to Shouta, his large body hovering over his.
"I doubt you plan to train right next to the side of a building unless you were hoping to damage campus property. The training grounds are over there," Shouta said, gesturing with his head in the general direction of the track field. "I'm about to head out anyway so I won't be in your way, not that it really matters since it's not a private event."
If auras were real, Shouta assumed his classmate's would be fuming red right now. They really didn't get along.
With a huff and a raised eyebrow, Sensoji glanced at the hand hidden behind Shouta's back.
"What are you hiding back there?" he asked, pulling on the crook of Shouta's elbow to reveal his hand.
"H-hey!" Shouta startled, gritting his teeth in agitation at the strength difference between the two of them. The sudden jostle made Shouta drop the bag of chocolates, dust and dirt clinging to the shiny plastic.
Shouta wrenched his arm out of Sensoji's hold, his back hitting the gymnasium wall as his quirk activated briefly, his hair flying up for a moment.
"What the hell is this? I didn't fancy you as the type who liked cute stationaries," Sensoji scoffed, nudging the chocolate with the tip of his boot.
Shouta felt burning anger in his stomach as he watched his classmate step on his bag of homemade chocolate, a disgusting "crunch" echoed beneath his shoe. Something seemed to snap inside of him as he lunged at Sensoji against his better judgement, kicking at his knees to make them buckle. As Sensoji stumbled, he punched at Shouta's face. Through the amount of rage and bitterness swelling inside of him, Shouta managed to pin his classmate to the ground, blood dripping from his nose and onto his uniform.
"HEY, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"
Shouta flinched at the familiar voice, turning to face Hizashi who was hastily running over to them. The short distraction earned him a kick to his stomach, tumbling Shouta off his arrogant classmate.
He sniffed, wiping his nose with his already soiled uniform sleeve as Sensoji spat at the ground.
Sensoji shot his classmates another irritated glare, seemingly contemplating if it was really worth the trouble to take both of them on at the risk of expulsion.
"Get off the training grounds. It's reserved," he growled, standing back up to retreat back to the track field. "You both better be gone the next time I come over here."
"What the hell is his problem?" Hizashi sneered before turning his attention to Shouta. He knelt next to his best friend, pulling out a few tissues from his backpack to wipe Shouta's face. "Did he pick another fight with you?"
Shouta shrugged, seething quietly as he silently told himself not to cry in front of his best friend.
"Sorry I didn't get here earlier, but it looks like he took one look at the Shout and Mute team and ran off with his tail between his legs," Hizashi weakly joked, hoping to lighten the mood as he helped pull Shouta to his feet.
Shouta remained silent, adjusting his backpack straps as he grimaced from the bruise that would inevitably form on his face.
"Hey, are you okay? Should I get a teacher?" Hizashi worriedly asked, receiving a quick shake of the head in response.
Glaring at the ground, Shouta glanced at the ruined bag of chocolates he had spent the entire night making. There was no way he could give that to Hizashi. White Day was ruined. Hizashi wouldn't get a proper reply to the confession he had given on Valentine's Day. Shouta wanted nothing more than to run home and cry silently in the comfort of his own bed.
Hizashi followed Shouta's gaze to the ruined bag of chocolates. He blinked slowly, putting the pieces of the puzzle together as he studied Shouta's tussled appearance.
"Hey, Shouta," Hizashi began, his voice soft and vulnerable. "Are those… are those chocolates?"
Shouta nodded.
"Did you make them?"
Another nod.
"Are they…" Hizashi hesitated, staring at the ground just as Shouta was doing. "Were you going to give those to someone?"
Shouta shrugged, hiding behind his bangs as he nodded again.
"Who are they for?" Hizashi nearly whispered.
Shouta wanted to dig a hole and hide in the ground. When Hizashi made no sign of moving, Shouta slowly met his gaze.
"Today's White Day," he simply said, gripping the strap of his backpack harder than necessary.
"Oh."
The two stood awkwardly in silence, unsure of how to proceed.
After a tense few seconds, Hizashi slowly made his way over to the ruined bag of chocolates, picking it up to examine the sticky note that had been taped to the outside.
Sorry it took so long. Happy White Day. -Shouta
Shouta's eyes widened as he watched Hizashi slip off the pink ribbon, take out a piece of broken chocolate, and place it in his mouth.
"Wh- What are you… No! Don't eat that!" Shouta stuttered, running over to Hizashi to tug at his jacket, his face burning red with embarrassment.
Hizashi's eyes widened as he swallowed the chocolate, coughing and sputtering into his uniform sleeve.
"Sh- Shouta, did you use salt instead of sugar?!" Hizashi screamed.
Shouta paused, mouth gaping as his face turned into a deeper shade of red. He quickly took a piece out of the ruined bag to sample his chocolate and sure enough, it felt like he had placed a lump of salt on his tongue. He really wanted to hide in a hole now.
As Shouta contemplated moving out of the country and changing his name to escape his embarrassment, Hizashi snorted, eventually bursting out into laughter.
"Shut up," Shouta weakly said, turning his head away from his not so secret crush, the blush running all the way to the tips of his ears.
After settling down from his bout of laughter, Hizashi wiped a few stray tears from the corner of his eyes.
"I really hope these are for me," Hizashi said, stifling back a chuckle.
Shouta's mouth formed a thin line as he nodded again.
"And I really hope they're honmei choco."
"Yeah, they are," Shouta mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck as he met Hizashi's large grin. "Sorry that I didn't realize you were confessing to me on Valentine's Day. I'm not really good at this stuff."
"Honestly, it was worth the wait since I get a happy ending!" Hizashi snickered, his face growing as red as Shouta's as he shyly reached out to hold his new boyfriend's hand. "Come on, let's head to my place so we can clean you up and then celebrate with some ice cream!"
"'kay," Shouta mumbled, his heart flipping as he felt Hizashi give his hand a squeeze.
As the two made their way home, Hizashi tried to eat another piece of salty chocolate, whining when Shouta berated him for it. Their walk home felt natural, as if nothing had really changed.
Well, except for the hand holding and dating part, Shouta thought. He didn't really mind.