"Makoto," Kyoko taps her fingers on the table impatiently. "Let me meet your attention, please, it's been a while since I last talked with it. Or you."
Makoto glances at her with an embarrassed smile, his hand shying upwards to his neck in his usual 'gosh darn it you have my apologies' gesture. Dork. Kyoko rolls her eyes and says flatly, "Will you tell me what the hell you're looking at."
"Hey, you're the detective," Makoto points out with such insightfulness, "so why don't you tell me?"
"That guy," Kyoko indicates with a shake of her head, "from the tattoo shop on the other side of the street." She smiles viciously, corners of her mouth, coated in her favorite dark lipstick, quirking up. "You like him."
"I don't even know him!" Makoto protests with an outrage, his face turning an interesting (and very vivid) shade of pink. Kyoko rolls her eyes again and sighs heavily. Squared dork. Cubic dork, even.
"So you have a damn crush on him. Whatever." She plucks out a fancy, scarlet rose from the composition next to her head and hands it to Makoto with a flourish. "Now, go talk to him. Woo him. Ask him if he fell from heaven or some crap. Just stop being miserable."
"Am not miserable," Makoto mutters, putting the flower back to its respective vase. "And he might not like men."
"He does," Kyoko says dryly. And saying that raptly turns out to be a mistake, because Makoto turns on his 'how did you know that; wow, Kyoko, stop spying on people I may like' mode, and then he drops a random bouquet, so all its leaves are now matted and cracked, and shit goes down, so Kyoko has to leave. Quickly. Either that — or risk being stabbed to death by Makoto's boss, who might be a delicate butterfly of a gal with sky-blue hair and big eyes, but, hey, Kyoko's at least seventy-eight percent sure Sayaka Maizono would be able to kill a man.
"Remind me," Togami sighs and puts the, now gleaming clean, ink gun down, "why do we keep hanging out."
"Because I keep on dropping in here and ensuring you have work," Kyoko answers dispassionately, flipping through an abandoned catalog. "And we are friends. Sorta." She stops at the page with a buff man presenting a pink ladybug tattooed on his biceps. "This one."
"For you?" Togami inquiries with a bemused smile. "I cannot say I can picture you—"
"Not for me, you sad wurst. For you."
Togami promptly takes the catalog from her and shuts it, before turning to her with an annoyed face.
"Kirigiri, my friend, kindly go away."
"Nah," Kyoko replies sunnily. "Unless you don't want to know some stuff about this cute florist."
That shuts Togami up quite promptly. He stares at her in shock, muscles on his jaw going slack. Of course, this lad is programmed to be always as neutral as water or Switzerland, so, after a few seconds, he regains his composure and scoffs,
"Why in the heaven would I like to get this knowledge?"
Kyoko throws her hands upwards and mutters something akin to 'jesus christ my sweetest release another dork on board.'
"What was that?"
"Nothing," Kyoko drawls out, "but you know I know you fancy him a whole lot." When Togami starts to say something, she shushes him up with an acute look. "Don't pretend I'm wrong; I saw you staring at him with a big dorky blush at least four times. Four. Times. First's accident, second's coincidence and so on."
"Even if you're right... I am not sure if he has... similar kind of preferences", Togami tells her quietly, then blinks at Kyoko's grin. "What."
"You know," she answers slowly, "I've heard that question not so long ago."
"I know a thing," she singsongs, petting Makoto on the head. "I know a thing that you don't." She pats him again, but his ahoge keeps standing up. So anime. Makoto is, overall, incredibly anime with that baby face of his. Very moe, as Yamada, god bless his heart, used to say. Even now, when they're all adult and stuff, it's Kyoko who has to get some alcohol for their parties, 'cause no one believes Makoto is legal.
"You know at least three different foreign languages, how to shoot any kind of firearm and way too many French rap songs, so it's pretty likely you're right," he notes while tying a ribbon on a lovely bouquet. He turns to her and adds, "But I do know you can say weird things in weirder ways with a poker face."
"You do flatter me," Kyoko swoons with fake amazement, "but that's not it. It's about Your Chosen One."
"Who?" Makoto furrows his brow, then pointedly looks at the tattoo shop. "H-him?"
"Exactly," Kyoko nods. "First, he's gay. Well, he likes men, so maybe bi or pan or some shit. Second, he's gay for you."
Makoto chokes on air and sputters, hands flapping like some poor chicken's wings. Kyoko almost feels sorry for him. Almost. But she still gives him her cup of coffee. After few solid gulps, Makoto breathes slowly and asks meekly,
"Please don't say you attacked him. Please..."
"Didn't do anything harmful. Just asked him nicely." She puts her hand to her chin and purses her lips. "So, the facts. He likes men. And you. And he's pretty shy underneath that 'used to be high class but they kicked me about because of reasons and now I'm bitter and angry" facade. So please, go and ask him out."
Makoto is, again, reduced to plant shaking with emotion. Dork.
He refuses to meet Togami, so Kyoko steps out from the shop and goes to meet another member of The Gay Dork Commando.
"He likes you. He would want to ask you out, but he's too shy. Do something, or I will implode."
Togami doesn't answer that for a second, just gets an appointment from some little kiddo who looks like a girl, but uses male pronouns and has a snazzy video game character tattooed on his back. Programmer, Kyoko deduces. Definitely.
Finally, after that cute little cupcake left the shop with broad smile, Togami totally growls out,
"What the almighty verdamm did you do, you devil."
"I talked with him. That's all I did." She shrugs. "Stop being so— hell, I'll quote Yamada, so tsundere about this cute kid who thinks you're a pal. Just talk to him. Please. Your gloomy brooding brings me woe."
"Why do you care?", Togami says coldly. Kyoko feels her smile slip from her face.
"Because I am your friend," she replies carefully. "And I'm Makoto's friend too. It's... I don't like seeing you two unhappy."
"I'm not unhappy," Togami denies quickly. An automatic response. Poor guy. Kyoko lays her hand on his forearm, on the tattoo with some German proverb. She feels him tense, before he breathes out.
"Maybe not," she wonders. "But you could be happier. And I know Makoto will help that. I know."
"Still, it's..." He doesn't finish, just shrugs. Poor, poor boy. He might be over six feet tall, have four tattoos and, despite them, look like a heartless CEO, but he's so young and so vulnerable... Kyoko shakes her head and stands on her toes to kiss his cheek.
"Don't overthink it. Follow your heart."
"That's cheesy," he answers with a thin-lipped smile, "and probably too hard."
Shy, angsty dork. What was the word...? Ah. Tsundere.
"Kyoko, please," Makoto smiles uneasily, "I have work to do. Regular work. Please."
He's whining a whole lot, but Kyoko ignores that and keeps on pulling him towards their favorite cafe. When they're inside, the scent of coffee and pastries attacking their nostrils and one bemused worker (that Mukuro girl, probably, she keeps masquerading as her twin sister) glancing at them, she stops and stares at Makoto. As he squirms, she adjusts his hoodie and brushes his bangs from his eyes, and smiles.
"You're so pretty. Like, prettier than gold butterfly sitting on a daisy."
"Thank you, but why..." His voice dies as he sees Togami standing awkwardly only a few feet away. "Oh my god."
"I'm no god, but thanks." She pushes him towards other boy and chirps, "Meet Byakuya, your Chosen One."
"Oh my god," Makoto repeats, both pale and pink, what is.. an excellent achievement.
"Hello," Togami says with his usual air of arrogance, but he's blushing too, so that's a very pathetic air of arrogance.
"Hi," Makoto greets him at half his usual volume. "Nice to meet you, my name is..."
"Makoto." Togami clears his throat before he adds, "Kirigiri told me that."
"Matchmaker," Makoto huffs out. Kyoko grins.
"Isn't she?" Togami agrees with a small smile. "Well. Now, considering that we... finally met... would you mind having some coffee?"
"It'd be nice," Makoto nods, and he's smiling, too, and they look at each other while grinning, like a pair of lovable dorks, whom, surprise surprise, they are.
Kyoko leaves with her own secret smile. Her mission is complete.
After a few months, they both have matching flowers tattooed on their wrists. Kyoko thinks, this is love, and buys herself some good whiskey as a prize.
Next thing, she thinks, is to matchmake Naegi's boss and that girl from the cafe.
