VI

[1st]

Valentine's Day had never really been a huge thing from what I remembered, chocolates wise at least, unless you had a significant other. The only place I'd seen it treated with any weight was manga or anime, I hadn't really been sure if it was as important in real life Japan, and while I still couldn't say that for sure, I could at least say it certainly was for this Japan.

It seemed the deadline for Valentine's drawing closer hadn't been taken all that seriously until the past two days, when all those concerned didn't have the time to try making anymore attempts and folded. While that had been fine with me since I'd gotten used to doing things relatively quickly even before coming here, that didn't mean Naoya had, despite the fact he'd worked here for longer than I had, leading to a longer line for me.

Today being the day before certainly hadn't helped.

Once things relaxed a bit I saw him deflate with relief, "My hands won't stop shaking."

"Is it like this every year?" I couldn't imagine him going through this alone last year.

"I started the month after Valentine's," He said, still trying to get his hands to stop shaking.

"Ah," I said, choosing not to say more in lieu of focusing on work.

The door rang and I went through the usual greetings, only to see that it was Hisashi that had entered, he smiled when he saw me before going about his business, grabbing a bag of chips and a drink. After he grabbed his stuff he came to my register, waiting for the people in front of him to finish up.

"We were planning on hanging out tomorrow if none of us could get dates or anything like that, you in?" He had barely waited for me to start ringing his stuff up before speaking. Even though he didn't specify who 'we' were I already knew who he was talking about: Morita, Kohta and himself; Takashi usually would've been in that group too but we all knew he already had plans.

"Sure, we meeting up at Kohta's? 257 yen, please," I handed him his stuff as he gave me the money. He stepped to the side to let the person behind him up next.

"Probably, Morita said going to hang out anywhere else would just remind him of how lonely he was and at least this way he can pretend we're just hanging as normal," I huffed at that. Morita was the most desperate out of all of us for a relationship of any kind, and so, as deigned by the Comedy Gods, that meant he had the worst luck. I'd heard from Kohta that he'd seen Morita trying to be extra nice to some girls, with results ranging from a polite thank you to a pitying stare at his attempts to cull their favor, I'd even seen him carry some of their things as he passed by the store.

"Alright, just tell me the details later," I waved him off and got back to serving the hordes of people. He followed suit and left, already cracking open his drink while heading outside.

When I had first fainted no one really knew anything except for the Kouno's. Apparently, I'd taken a week off to train more before that happened and no one had heard from me for the duration of my spree. Hisashi had gotten curious about where I was after not hearing or seeing from me for about three weeks and came to the store to ask what happened, only to learn that I'd been hospitalized; by that point I had already gotten home but neither he nor Morita, Kohta or Takashi knew where I lived. They eventually realized the Kouno's, as my employer, probably knew where I lived and decided to ask them. Though that had been before I cleaned up they just shrugged it off as a hobby like Kohta, who had nodded in approval of my seeming dedication to my passion.

I still couldn't understand why I'd worked myself so hard, I could recall the lingering feelings of anger and desperation but the fact that I had disregarded practically everything for survival prowess was odd. It just seemed like another example of how poorly things could've gone at any time until this point due to my lack of planning, but I'd never done something so emotionally fueled before, even as a child. Granted, the situation was certainly heavy enough for a massive reaction, but it still bothered me. Hopefully it would serve as a deterrent for similar reactions should more news blindside me.

I brought my focus back to reality and saw that my hands were reaching out for stuff while no one was there. Looking to the side I saw Naoya smirking a bit as I realized I was caught spacing out. I quickly brought my hands back to my side and cleared my throat.

Nothing to see here, no siree. Just move along with your business and wipe that smirk off your face please.

o0o

When I'd gotten home I had realized that I had a meeting with Shoji about my progress, he had been honestly surprised with how quickly I'd been recovering last week and this one was no different. He'd cleared me for physical labor but I still had to take it easy.

I had gone out and started my run, determined to make up for what was lost. It turns out I'd been pushed back to about 35, 40 minutes

That would be a few weeks worth of recovery, at least at the pace I was going at. Hopefully an increase in pace would shorten that considerably. Nonetheless, I could say I wasn't looking forward to the journey back. I sighed as I sat down, freshly showered, with juice and rice in hand. I looked at my phone while I dug into my rice. It had pinged while I was out and I hadn't gotten around to checking since I had been focusing on the task at hand.

Hirano's out

2010/2/13 8:13

He says his parents are taking him with them somewhere,

says they're doing this to get his mind off of not

getting anything tomorrow. Apparently they've done this

since he was in 8th grade, he had thought they might not

since he seemed happier this year. Either way, this

means we're gonna have to find somewhere else to do our

thing. My place should be fine, my sister's gonna be

spending time with her boyfriend, though it might by a

little cramped, that alright with you?

I just sent 'sure' and continued eating before I heard a reply come in a few minutes later.

Cool

2010/2/13 10:00

Meet up around 4 if you can, later.

I guess it made sense that Kohta's parents would do something for him. From what we'd heard, despite not being around a lot due to their professions, they still cared for him and tried to have as much fun with him as possible. I'd never really taken the time to consider what he or any of the characters did during this time in universe. Takashi and Rei were a no brainer, Kohta would be off with his parents, Sachiko was home schooled so I doubted she or Zeke would be doing anything noteworthy, and I wasn't really sure what Alice or Shizuka would do. I wasn't knowledgeable enough to know if adults and elementary students did that thing and I was pretty sure Shizuka was single. Takagi and Saeko would probably spend their day as any other.

Maybe I could ask when everyone had time to breathe after we got to Shizuka's.

I got up and went to the sink to rinse off my plate and spoon before placing them in. Although I'd been doing alright in the week since I got back the Kouno's still insisted on giving me shorter hours until I got better, a nice gesture that I would've accepted without hesitation if not for the fact that I wanted to be able to afford all the stuff I wanted. Nonetheless, I couldn't argue against it yet so I'd just thank them for their kindness and head over to Hisashi's on time tomorrow.

I raised my cup in celebration, despite no one being here to toast with me. "To those without dates, may all the normalfags rot."

As soon as that sentence left my lips I curdled in disgust and put my cup down. "God, I'm glad no one heard me say that."

o0o

I looked at Morita's sprawled out form. He hadn't even made it past the entrance.

"Why my place? And why couldn't you wait till getting inside to collapse?"

"I had nowhere else to go, my roommate had a girl over." His voice came out muffled due to his face being down on the floor.

"What happened to Hisashi?" Just as I said that his head rose up, some kind of envious glare on it.

"That traitor? He got invited out," He practically spat the words out, slumping back over as he finished. I just shook my head and walked up to him.

"Why are you surprised? He looks good, acts cool and sounds cool." I started to drag him into the apartment so I could close the door.

"I know, I know but he didn't have anyone for Christmas but Valentine's? My most vulnerable day of the year he suddenly gets someone?" A long drawn out sigh came from Morita, one that stopped as he shot up out of my grip and started to get mad. "Even Imamura got someone! Imamura! That guy! He- he's into older woman and yet he still got a girl." When he finished, what looked to be a rising storm of envy and anger suddenly fell apart and Morita plopped himself down onto a seat, heaving out another long sigh.

"Oh," he started dully, digging into his pocket. "Some clerk at a store on my way here gave me this, no doubt she picked up on my loner vibes. Take it, I thought getting any chocolate would feel good but looking at this pity chocolate would just make me feel bad." He tossed the candy to me and I caught it, it was tiny, about the size of a flash drive.

Suddenly I got a sense of deja vu. I looked at him; blonde hair, super bro-y, alone on Valentine's and handing me chocolate, oh, I got it now. "Is this a confession?" I asked, keeping my face and delivery flat.

Immediately Ryu- Morita looked scandalized and shot out of his seat, "What the hell?! No way man, didn't you hear what I just said?!"

As I started cracking up Morita seemed to realize he'd been had and just shook his head, "Not cool dude, here I am just trying to keep someone in the same spot as me from feeling like shit and you pull that? Give my chocolate and sense of companionship back!" He sat down and changed topics. "Anyways, what do you think dude?"

I thought for a second, digging around to make sure there wasn't any feelings that I wasn't aware of, "I only know like, four girls at the moment dude, and I don't think any of them are the type to give out chocolate. Well, at least not to me." His eyes widened and he picked himself up again, clearly surprised.

"Yo-you know people besides us? And girls at that?"

I should probably feel offended by that, but I guess it didn't really matter. I just nodded.

He narrowed his eyes at me, "what are their names?"

I stopped to think; if he recognized any of them, and I was pretty sure he would get at least Saeko, then I was rather sure he would make a bigger deal out of it than I wanted given how he reacted to just this. "Didn't say I knew them well,"

"How well is 'not well?'" He kept his eyes narrowed as he asked.

"I see them around every once in a while," When I finished saying that he put his hand on my shoulder. His face looked pitying, but in a kind of understanding way.

"I know the feel dude," He just nodded and wiped his face of any potential tears. I was pretty sure we were thinking of those words in different ways, but that was alright.

After a brief period of silence Morita smirked and pulled out a notebook with a small illustration of himself on the cover. "To soothe our lonely hearts and for your enlightenment, I present: Master Morita's Top-Secret List of Fujimi Academy's Triple-A Grade Hot Girls!"

"I don't even go to your school," I was just gonna ignore that atrocious name.

"Doesn't matter! I'm sure that as a hot-blooded male you'll realize just how little that matters once I'm through showing you these!" He patted the notebook with an incredible amount of pride.

Seeing as I already knew what was on the list I just tuned him out and started thinking about what Hisashi was doing right now, I hope he's enjoying his date. If he comes over right now Morita would probably start by giving him the foulest look. Heh. He might welcome Kohta though since he hadn't really done anything wrong in his eyes.

I wonder if Morita was done yet.

"-for masochists!"

Beg pardon?

"Can't say I'd hand her over to you though since I've got my eye on her," I looked at the photo as he was saying that. A photo of Takagi in her gym gear greeted me.

"You do you man, can't really say I'm a fan of being verbally lashed like that," Mortia shook his head and snorted at me, like he hadn't expected me to get it anyways.

This was how things continued to go for the next few hours, just talking; banter, jokes, you know, the usual super bro-y stuff.

Morita looked outside, and turned back to me after seeing how dark it was.

"Don't mean to bug you too much man but uh, would you mind letting me stay? Don't wanna interrupt my friend...doing anything." It wasn't hard to get what he meant, I just nodded.

"Cool," he just awkwardly looked around for a bit. "So, uh, where am I gonna sleep?" He scratched the back of his head, seeming to realize that not really planning for this left him without any idea of how things were gonna go.

"As long as it's not my room, everything else is ok," There wasn't really much to think about, it was just me here with an extra room and some furniture, so he wouldn't really be stepping on anyone's toes by sleeping anywhere, even if he just got up in the middle of the night and decided to use another room.

Instead of saying anything at first, a grin slowly crept up on his face, one that most certainly didn't speak to any pure thoughts. "Oh? And what's wrong with going in your room? Is that where the goods are?" It took a second for me to get what he meant by that, silence filling the room as it hit me.

Once again, I'd forgotten where I was and, more importantly, the setup of an oft used gag that seemed to persist even in the year of our lord 2018, well, I guess it was 2010 here but the point was that the joke was definitely not appreciated. The fabled, 'Porn Mag stash gag.'

I could feel my face loosen as I stared at Morita. With the manga being set when it was, there wasn't much room for gags like these since everyone had been moved away from where they were comfortable, including home. Right now though there was plenty of time for buildup of gags and humorous anecdotes which would be fondly reflected on when something came up to remind anyone of simpler times. I could easily say I'd prefer being subject to dumb little jokes like this rather than having to worry about surviving being outnumbered at least 10,000 to 1.

Didn't mean I had to like them though.

"Want me to throw you out?" When I said that he immediately raised his hands to placate me.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything, it was an innocent-" I raised both brows a bit at that "uh, honest, question," he corrected, laughing nervously. When I didn't move to make good on my word he relaxed a bit, "so, are they a little out there or something?"

I sighed, "I don't have anything dude, and even if I did, I am 100% a vanilla/happy man," I said that with as much honesty as I could muster, to make sure he didn't think I was just being defensive.

Again, Morita pushed his hands out to placate me. Apparently, I'd put more force into that statement then I'd meant to. Better than not enough I suppose.

"That's fair dude, just asking," As he let it drop I suddenly realized that the past me could've indeed had some as that always seemed to be the case, no matter how purely the character was portrayed. I really hoped that wasn't the case.

I would wait until he went to the restroom or something to make sure.

"You could take a bath if you want," Morita palmed his face upon realizing something else.

"I didn't bring any extra clothes, not even my uniform," He looked like he was seriously regretting coming here without a plan now.

"I've got new underwear, you can just wear that while your clothes wash or something, you could even borrow some of my clothes if you want." Morita stared for a second before his expression changed to what I could only describe as 'laying it on thick.'

"Vega! Are you some kind of saint dude?" I quickly stepped back as he came in for contact, whether a hug or clasp, I didn't know, I just wanted no part of it.

In my attempt to get away, I forgot to look behind me and suddenly felt panic and lots of air as I tripped on something. My arms flailed around and one even managed to catch on something to stop my fall, which wasn't to say that it stopped my fall. I ended up hitting my head on the door to the balcony and my body, lopsided as it was, thumped onto to the floor half a second afterwards.

...

"Just get in the bath,"

"Ok,"

When he left, I lay where I was for a second, making sure there wasn't any extreme pain. Thanks to how thick my head was I avoided quite a bit of pain and the other half of my body landing first got rid of some of the force that I'm sure would've otherwise sucked quite a bit. All in all, I guess there wasn't really much damage.

I got up when I was sure that Morita would've at least started to get in and headed over to my room. Due to my attempts at cleaning or making sure the place was relatively orderly before I didn't have many places to check.

In the end I came up clean. Nice.

Just had to make sure Morita didn't find out, or else he'd probably suspect I just hid it really well.

o0o

[3rd]

Saeko's father had just left on another trip that would last until early March, though he would only be back for three or four days until going to a self-defense conference for a few months. Regardless, this meant that she could get back to her runs.

Yesterday had been as it always was this time of year, if she tried to talk to a boy, their eyes were wide and filled with hope. What for, she knew, but nonetheless she would not give them what they desired, although she always kind of felt bad when she saw the disappointment in their eyes upon realizing she was there for the teachers or some other academically related thing. The only exceptions were the boys in the Kendo club and they knew by now that their chocolates were obligations.

Even if she wanted to give one her all, she would not have felt comfortable or worthy of giving them out.

Saeko sighed, despite now being an opportune time for exploring such thoughts, she did not feel up to it. She never did really.

To do so would be to dwell on her more savage desires.

As she continued running she noticed that she was drawing closer to his house.

With how long she had stopped running and how quickly he progressed, she wouldn't be surprised if he could go even further than she could now.

Saeko was very much looking forward to it.

Upon approaching the area they'd met up in for a while, she saw him.

Something was off though, he was slower, breathing harder. Thankfully not to an alarming degree but still, he should have gotten better, not worse. She sped up a bit to catch up to him.

"Vega-san?" He turned around when he heard his name being called. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling decent, why?" His head tilted to the side as he continued running.

"You seem slower than before, and more taxed."

"Ah, that," Thomas pursed his lips. "I overtaxed myself, ended up in the hospital. Muscle loss and the like lead to me losing headway." As he finished, Saeko made to get closer, possibly to check whether he was really alright, but Thomas raised a hand. "I'm really fine now, got an expert's approval and everything, I'm even back to working." Saeko thought for a second, trying to see if he was being truthful or not. "I've only recently recovered, even if I didn't learn my lesson, which I have, then I wouldn't be up and about."

Saeko thought for a bit longer, before deciding something. "We shall run together," he raised both brows and she made to explain, "if you are telling the truth then you should be able to go on for at least a while, if not, I will make sure you get home safely." He shrugged his shoulders and they fell silent as the run continued.

Time passed and Saeko found that he hadn't collapsed immediately, but he was very much behind. Thomas had managed to stay within a couple of meters last time, now he would've fallen at least a dozen behind were it not for her slowing down. When she looked at him she could tell he knew as well, though his face showed no signs of frustration, disappointment or anything different than the last time she had seen him, which wasn't really a perfect comparison mind you as she had only seen his face once. As she was thinking this he drew to a stop, she checked her watch as she did the same, they had only been going at it for around 40 minutes.

Thomas raised a bottle of water to his lips and drank deeply for a few seconds before looking at her. "I'm sorry for holding you back, you can go ahead if you want, I'm just gonna head home."

"Please hold on a moment," Saeko called out, Thomas stopping mid-turn. She swiftly walked over to him and handed him a small box.

"What's this?" Saeko though he was joking until she saw him looking at her with genuine curiosity.

"It's chocolate," she replied, hoping that he would get the rest without her explaining. Him nodding his head in sudden understanding told her that he had.

"Thanks," he said simply, dipping his head in gratitude before once again turning to leave. Saeko had not expected him to make a big deal out of it but had been ready to explain the nature of them, she was glad to see that it was not necessary.

Saeko resumed running once he was out of sight, a smile on her face. She was pleased she had not misjudged his character, at least when it came to matters like these. Even with her disappointment at his dilemma, he'd improved more than that in the two months she had had the pleasure of his company, he would be back up to snuff in no time.

Then, she could once again relish in a worthy challenge.

o0o

[1st]

When I got home I wasn't very happy with the fact that I still hadn't gotten past 40 minutes. I was even less so with how sore I felt, I'd even taken the same route back home instead of taking the shortcut. That might've explained some of it actually but still, not a very good experience. Shaking my head as I pulled off my hoodie, I pulled out the chocolates before placing it on the table, looking the box over.

Not quite cheap but not luxury or special in any way, obligation chocolate then. Milk chocolate, that was good. I started to unwrap the chocolate so I could eat it before I remembered something.

Morita was still here.

After he'd spent the night over yesterday we'd decided it wouldn't hurt for him to stay over another one, he had agreed since he didn't want to return to what he deemed an affront to his person. I'd even made him some dinner today since I learned he mostly stuck to simple stuff or convenience store food.

I started to wrap the chocolate back up as quietly as possible. I'd wanted to enjoy it before my shower and what I'd made for dinner, but I suppose I'd have to hide it until sometime tomorrow.

Just had to hope he didn't find out.

Suddenly a thud come from the doorway. I slowly turned to where the sound came from and saw Morita gawking at what I had in my hands, his phone on the floor.

"TRAITOOOOOOOORRRRRRRR!"

Guess it was too much to hope for that to work a second time, huh?

o0oo0oo0o

A little after deciding on Morita coming over by himself on Valentine's, I realized the similarity between this and 'Clearly the Greatest Valentine's Day Option' and decided to use that as a reference. It really helped since I hadn't thought of much other than 'he comes over' and it ended up being my favorite scene to write.