Clear to cloudy

Target 18: Valentines chaos

After the absolute hell he's been through after school a few days ago, Kotsu had forgotten that one of the most important days was coming up today. Valentine. He comes down the stairs yawning seeing Ren sitting in the livingroom with Cotton on the table. Unlike normal Ren doesn't seem too happy today. He's still smiling, but his 'aura' is gone. Kotsu won't pretend like he doesn't know why that is. Ren is not a big fan of valentine's day. Why? Well being the target of affection for so many girls is quite troublesome when getting chocolates from the girls on valentine.

"Oh hey lil' bro! Excited for valentine?" He asks with a bright smile. Kotsu sits down laying his forehead onto the table letting out a little grunt.

"What should I be excited for? No one ever gives me chocolates. Which is fair I guess," He says laughing a little. It's quite rare for him to receive such a thing. And by that he means that he's never gotten a single one in his life, except the ones Fumie used to give him back in kindergarten, which he doesn't count since they barely knew the meaning of what they represented.

Ren gives his little brother a few affirmative claps on the back. "You know lil' bro! Who knows!? Maybe today's the day! If not I'll have plenty. We can share a few if you want. I'm not much of a chocolate fan anyway," He says and Kotsu knows he means no harm, but it's still a little annoying, knowing that Ren will have more chocolates than he'll know what to do with. Reborn comes down the stairs sitting at his usual spot pouring a bit of morning coffee.

"What's the matter with him NOW?" he asks looking at the young boy who's lost his will to move.

"It's valentine," Ren simply says hoping the hitman will understand.

"I see. So he's being childishly jealous,"

Kotsu raises his head. "Hey!"

However his anger is quickly shot down. "Quiet. I'm NOT a morning person. Go to school will you?" He simply says and the two boys do as they're told, if only because they had to anyway.

-NII-

On the way they meet up with both Tsugemora and Fumie. They'd luckily been able to convince Fumie that it was just a game and that everything was alright and she wasn't in any danger. "Happy valentine Nii-san!" Tsugemora yells happily pumping his fist. "I will assist you in carrying ALL the chocolate you're going to get!" He says happily. Fumie is of course quiet as of right now, carrying her bag of chocolate behind her back.

"S-so um… Ren-senpai…? I-I know you're probably going to get plenty today but…" She holds the little bag out with a neatly tied bow. "B-but please accept mine too! J-just as the first if nothing else," Ren smiles at her as he's bowing and everything, probably afraid of looking him in the eyes.

He takes the little bag off her hands smiling. "Thank you for the gesture Fumie-san. From you it's alright. After all you're the girl I spend the most time with… other than Cotton and my mom of course," He says and Fumie blushes knowing that he doesn't really mean anything by it.

However Tsugemora is quite annoyed looking at Fumie. "And where is Nii-san's chocolate!?" He demands to know and Kotsu just sighs.

"None for me Tsugemora," he simply says a little let down for some reason. Maybe it was that kiss she gave him for saving her when Geraldino took her…

"Don't worry Kotsu-kun! I'm sure you'll get some this year. You've done a lot of crazy stuff! Like that time the soccer club won't stop talking about! And- And that time when some of your classmates saw you hanging out with some crazy red-haired people!" She says before stopping a little getting a little shyer. "And… that game you played where you saved me… I've been telling my friends about that. About how cool you were…" She says and Kotsu gulps.

"U-um… thanks I guess… b-but it wasn't really… something I'm super proud of…"

-NII-

They get through the school gate, leaving Tsugemora behind and after taking their shoes off they open their lockers and naturally, as they all expected, Ren's has a few confession letters inside them. All pink and with a few heart stickers and such. Ren chuckles a little picking them up. "I guess it would be rude of me not to read these…" he says putting them in his bag. "For later though," he says clapping the pocket they're in.

Kotsu almost can't help but be disappointed that there're none in his own, but oh well! He shouldn't expect anything. Then he won't be let down. He and Fumie go to their classroom and quite a few bags of chocolate are placed on desks around the class. Quite adorable in a way as all the boys pick them up to look at them. Kotsu just laughs sitting down at his own desk, laying his head forward, but it hits something… something… crunchy…? He looks seeing a little bag on his desk. There's a little letter under it. He picks up the bag. It smells amazing! Definitely filled with sweets and other goods. He shakes it a little to make sure he didn't break anything. After all! There's NO way it's meant for him! Someone mistook the person's desk for his own. However at that moment he realizes that the people sitting to both his left and right are girls, so someone'd REALLY have to mess up to place it on his desk.

He checks the letter too just to make sure. 'to Kotsukiba Niruo' he reads and instantly slams it facedown on his table feeling the heat rise to his cheeks. This naturally gets the attention of everyone around hearing the loud noise. Some of them laugh a little seeing how flustered he is. "What's the matter Kotsu? Never gotten one of those before?" One of the girls asks as a joke, but he just slowly nods.

"H-how do you- I mean me- How do I react to… this?" He asks holding up the letter. The girl just looks confused.

"Well aren't you going to read it first to find out who it is…?" She asks and Kotsu gulps at the mere thought of reading the content of this letter. What if it was someone he knew! What if it was someone he'd forgotten at some point. Even worse… what if he DIDN'T know the person. Every single scenario would be awkward for him to deal with. He decides that it's probably the rudest thing in the world to not read it. But right as he's about to open the letter their teacher comes in.

"Alright everyone! Class is starting. Please refrain from reading or passing any love letters around during class. I know valentine is always fun and such, but please," He says and Kotsu quickly takes the excuse to put off reading it. Who WAS it from?

-NII-

After the lesson where Kotsu spent most of it looking around trying to see if any girl from his class is looking at him or anything of the like. But no. He's never been so distracted by a simple letter. The bell rings and they're assigned homework. Kotsu takes out the letter but something's not right. It looks different now… curious.

However all his questions are answered as he hears the intercom turn on and the voice of a certain living breathing torture device comes through. "Evening everyone. My name is Reborn. And during the lesson I've taken the liberty of swapping around EVERY single love letter any of you have gotten. Good luck getting them back. Anyone who has a letter right now, has one meant for them," He says before it turns off and Kotsu instantly regrets every life choice he's ever made. It seems he wasn't the only boy who put off reading his letter. Every other boy is panicking and so are the girls, seeing as their letter might be read by someone other than the rightful owner.

"What do we do!?" One of the boys yells. Kotsu is NOT really in the mood for asking people if they have his letter. But if it's true that everyone has a letter that doesn't belong to them, then there IS one person who is guaranteed to have tons of letters from others. REN! He slowly gets up tiptoeing out of the door. "Hey! Kotsu! Where're YOU going!?" The boy declares and Kotsu blushes.

"Um… I'm going to go try and find the owner of this letter…" He says holding it up, but he's glared down.

"You're just going to read it aren't you!?"

"W-wha…!? N-no way!" He says trying to defend himself.

"I don't believe you!" He says and bolts after him. Kotsu's eyes widen as he makes a run for it. He's quickly joined by the other boys and Kotsu just runs for his life. Luckily for him he's become quite efficient at running for his life with Reborn's training.

He makes it down the stairs and outside. He quickly jumps behind a bush before his classmates come out of the door. He sits completely still, seeing them start the search like a gang trying to locate an escaped prisoner. However he hears a bit of sobbing behind him. He turns to see a girl. She has black hair held out of her face with a little snowflake-shaped hairclip. She looks really closed off just crying to herself. "H-hey… a-are you okay?" he whispers and the girl stops sobbing looking up at him with teary purple eyes. As soon as she sees his face she freezes in place, starting to shake.

"I-I-I-I-I… Y-you…" She tries clearly wanting to just flee from him now. Kotsu sits down next to her, making sure there's a little distance between them.

"Um… you wrote a letter to someone right… and… you're afraid someone else will read it right?" She slowly nods, head buried in her arms and knees. "Yeah… my classmates think I'm going to read the one I have… but I think I know who might have the real one I got… it was really surprising to get a letter AND chocolates. Never gotten that before," He says and the girl jitters a little.

"S-s-so you… y-you're not… u-used to getting… stuff…?" She stumbles through her sentence and Kotsu nods. But before he can answer one of the boys from his class see them.

"I FOUND HIM!" He yells and Kotsu grabs the girl's hand without thinking and makes a run for it, like they're running from a horde of angry zombies.

"Come on!"

"W-w-w-wait…!" The girl tries but just runs along anyway. The two make it into the school where it seems a few of his classmates has gotten other boys in on the idea of Kotsu's ill behavior.

"Uuuuuhh THIS way!" Kotsu says running down one of the hallways. The girl is just really quiet going along with him seemingly too shy to speak up. They make it to a corner and see a few boys looking around for him, so in order to avoid everyone Kotsu instinctively goes into the toilet locking them both in a stall. "Phew… safe for now I suppose…" He says and the girl almost squeals in terror. Kotsu had almost forgotten she was along and he realizes the tight space they're in. "A-alright… this was NOT the plan," He says just to assure her that he's not weird. However she covers her face going as far from him as possible.

"I-I-It's… It's alright! I-I know y-you're not that kind of… guy," She stutters and Kotsu now realizes how weird this must be to her.

"Y-you know what kind of guy I am…?" He asks and she nods.

"I-I-I'm in your class…" She manages to get out, leading the boy to mentally go through the names and faces of every girl in his class, kind of embarrassed that he's never noticed the girl before. After all… she's very pretty… He shakes his head ridding himself of the thought.

"Um… I… can't seem to place your name… c-could you give me the first… syllable…?" He asks and the girl briefly lets her mouth escape her hands.

"Ri," Kotsu once more gets to thinking.

"Ri… Ri… RINOKA!" He blurts out and the girl blushes wildly as he seems so excited to remember her name. She slowly nods to confirm her name and Kotsu is honestly stunned. This is Rinoka? He knew there was someone in class named Rinoka, but he honestly can't say he's ever seen much of her… "A-alright… Rinoka… w-what do we do? About… the guys outside…?" He asks and Rinoka blushes a little looking to the side.

"I-I-I don't know... b-but y-you just…" She starts and he realizes he just dragged her along without any reason.

"Y-yeah… sorry about that… I just… did that without thinking," He says unlocking the stall for her to leave. "You can go… I don't think they'll attack you like they will attack me," However Rinoka doesn't move instead her eyes go wide and she holds up her hands to protect herself again. Kotsu also realizes something's not right. He notes the large shadow looming over him. He looks back seeing Reborn.