Valentine's Day...

"How much chocolate are you planning on making, Reiko-chan?" Mokuba said as he entered the kitchen. The countertops were filled with cooling molds, cooled molds, and chocolates that had already been popped out of the molds. A large saucepan was on the stove, and Mokuba's stomach rumbled slightly at the smell of melting chocolate.

"Shut up and stir," Reiko commanded, handing Mokuba a spoon and pushing him in the direction of the stove.

The chocolate was still thick, not yet at the right consistency for the molds, and so Mokuba began to half-heartedly stir.

"So…are you giving giri-choco to the whole of KaibaCorp?" Mokuba wanted to know. "'Cos honestly, Reiko-chan, this is a bit excessive - even for you."

"I'm just trying to make a good impression," Reiko said. He couldn't see her face, but he could hear the brittleness in his friend's voice and knew it was probably reflected in her smile. "The newest OL always has the hardest time," she continued in a slightly singsong voice.

"So this has nothing to do with Sanshiro-kun dumping you?" Mokuba had been sidestepping the issue for days now, and as much as he knew they'd have a fight about it, he was glad he had said it.

"Honestly, Mokuba, give me a little credit. I dumped him, remember?"

Mokuba continued to stir the chocolate.

"All right. That's a lie, isn't it?" Reiko said. "He dumped me," she said as if it were a new fact and not something she had known for a week. And then it all came out in a rush: "And I know it's stupid, and I know I should move on. And I know I should stop thinking he's going to come back."

She gave a little gasp, and Mokuba turned off the burner, ready to hold her when she began to cry.

"I didn't even get to kiss him goodbye."

Reiko didn't cry gracefully, but then neither did Mokuba, and the two had been friends for far too long to worry about the aesthetics of crying.

"I'm sorry, Reiko-chan," he whispered as she sobbed, her head buried in his shoulder.

She sniffled pathetically, and Mokuba hugged her a bit tighter.

"And I know it's petty, but couldn't he have waited until after Valentine's Day? I mean, what kind of guy breaks up with a girl one week before Valentine's Day?"

It was on the tip of Mokuba's tongue to say, Assholes like Sanshiro, but he knew it was too soon to start that just yet.

"My mother called you to come over, didn't she?" Reiko asked later, when she had recovered, and the two of them were making up small packets of chocolate for each-and-every KaibaCorp corporate employee. They had a system: Mokuba would place a small handful of the heart-shaped chocolates on a square of plastic wrap, and Reiko would tie up the plastic wrap with pink and red ribbons.

"Well, she was just the slightest bit worried about your sudden Martha Stewart transformation."

"Yeah. I surprised even myself with it," Reiko tried to attempt a rueful grin. "Hell, I've surprised myself about a lot of things this week."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Reiko-chan," Mokuba said. He stopped. Swallowed, and then blurted out, "I'd be devastated if Nisama left me."

Reiko stopped fiddling with the ribbons and looked up, staring at him with those wide-set eyes that were so much like his own. Mokuba knew why: he had flat out admitted what they both knew but never discussed; namely, that Seto was to Mokuba what Reiko's boyfriends were to her.

"H…he…wouldn't leave you, " Reiko said in a whisper. "And he wouldn't let you leave. He loves you. Too much."

"Reiko—" His voice sounded like a stranger's, far too small and tight.

"Did you get him anything?" she asked, her voice sounding faint to Mokuba as the blood pounded in his ears. "For Valentine's Day?"

"I-I made chocolate."

Surrounded as they were by piles of Reiko's chocolates, they both began to laugh, but it had more than a touch of hysteria to it.