"You're sure you don't want any help laaitie?"

"No. I've got to do this myself."

Urokai continued to decorate the chocolate hearts with coloured chocolate on top. His eyes never left them, even as he spoke to his father who sat beside him drinking a hot cup of his vanilla tea. He couldn't mess this up. Especially not after ruining the previous batches.

"Those are some unique pictures," his father remarked, "Does Raizel really like instant noodles that much?"

"Yeah. It's kinda sickening actually-" just a few more and he'd be done- "auntie Xuvu's banned it from the house. And Conis is worried he's going to get a blocked artery and have heart problems."

His father snorted at that, obviously disapproving at his boyfriend's choices. "I'll have to inform the cafeteria to limit his consumption too. Your homeroom teacher is Anka isn't it?"

"Wait just a minute pa. Let me finish this first."

"Take your time."

After several moments, during the duration of which both of his brothers and his twin sister wandered in, he put down his icing cone with a satisfying plop on the tray. As he put the chocolates in the fridge to cool with all the other ones he'd made, his eldest brother took one of the cones, opening it up from the top out of curiosity.

"Boetie," Femi said, staring at the chocolate inside, "can I have this?"

"Sure, I'm finished anyway."

He'd made chocolate for his family too but it's not like he needed the leftovers for anything. Femi smiled brightly at that, and took just the one he was holding before walking away with it absentmindedly. Almost walking into the door, he clutched the cone to his chest with one hand and lifted up his dress with the other so that he wouldn't trip. Everyone watched him go, too worried that he'd hurt himself to do anything else.

After he was gone, Urokai smiled awkwardly- "Right. But yeah, Miss Anka's our teacher."

"She's your teacher, not mine." Arakei took one of the other cones and a spoon to eat the chocolate with.

"I know. Pa was asking about Rai and me."

Mayamiko snickered at that and Arakei immediately started squabbling with him, causing their father to smile as he poured himself another cup of tea.

"If you end up getting a presentation about the consequences of the overconsumption of instant food, you'll know why."

He shrugged- "I guess. Hopefully it works."

Urokai stared at his homeroom teacher early in the morning the next day as she prepped her board- "Oh. Already?"

Anka laughed at him- "Yes, already. I've had this for a while now, I just didn't feel the push until Vaktel asked me to do this soon."

"Cool." So that's how bad Rai's diet was. He dug through his bag for one of the chocolate packets and handed it to his teacher before taking a seat.

He and Arakei were here pretty early today since his father and the other teachers had a meeting before class so... maths then. It was one of the interesting subjects and he could do some of the extra questions as practice for the upcoming test. Time passed by quickly, and he went through the work just as fast, occasionally looking up when someone entered the classroom. He'd call them over when they did, giving them one of the packets before returning to writing out numbers and signs. Only when his boyfriend entered did he stop completely, eyes lighting up.

"Hey Rai!"

His boyfriend looked at him with his usual blank expression as he walked over, and sat down next to him. That changed completely he looked at his maths textbook and he snickered at how Rai grimaced.

"You want me to help you study later?" he asked as he started packing them up. Homeroom would start in a bit anyway.

"Yes, please."

Urokai tried to keep himself from laughing at how desperate he sounded. Rai was so bad at maths that it was hilarious. Then again, his mother and brother were both just decent at it so it might simply be that they were bad at explaining the details to him. He held one of Rai's hands, holding it tight to prevent any unwanted noise from escaping him.

"I'll come over after school then. More importantly-" he reached into his bag and took out a packet decorated with little stickers of pink, red and white hearts- "here. Happy Valentine's Day."

A soft blush came over Rai's cheeks as he took it with a mumbled thank you and Urokai held himself back from kissing him. PDA wasn't allowed so he just slung an arm around his shoulder in a hug, still holding his other hand. Rai squeezed it gently, and Urokai let his head rest against his, smiling.

"So you like it?"

"Yes. You're the one giving them."

That was a relief to hear. He'd been worried that Rai wouldn't be happy. "I made sure to make them extra sweet for you. Since you like drinking my tea and all."

Rai smiled, before it turned into a puzzled frown. "What does this mean?"

Glancing down, Urokai read what he'd scribbled down at the last second. Ngiyakuthanda. It was pretty obvious what it meant, and he was sure Rai could find out from a quick google search but-

"It's a secret. You have to find out yourself."

"Oh." Rai carefully pocketed the packet and squeezed his hand again.

Ah, today was going pretty great already. Now he just needed to pass out the rest of the packets he'd made and pet the cats that gathered at the cafeteria. Before that though, the bell rang, Miss Anka marked the attendance, and put on the presentation. Urokai grinned.

First he'd enjoy seeing his boyfriend's reaction to a health talk just for him.