Running a "free hugs" stand on school campus was probably one of the last things Kaito Momota expected to be doing, well, in general.
Why was he doing this oddly specific task, you ask?
Well, the answer to that was simple: he was dared to.
Yep. Kaito's friends had dared him to set up a stand (of his choice) during school and see how much business it would get. And business it certainly did get.
Various upperclassmen, underclassmen, and even people from the same class as Kaito had visited the stand, whether it was to actually take him up on the offer or simply out of pure amusement—it was a pretty silly concept, after all. It got him traction either way, so he didn't really mind.
Eventually, like all things, the school day came to a close, and Kaito was ready to take down the stand. Just as he was about to do so, however, two girls approached him—namely, his friends (yes, the same friends who dared him to set up the stand in the first place), Kaede Akamatsu and Maki Harukawa.
"Hey, Kaito," Kaede waved. "How'd the stand go?"
"It was great!" Kaito grinned, turning around to face her. "Got a hell of a lot of hugs in the process."
"Oh, neat." Kaede exchanged a glance with Maki before back at Kaito. "So... did a certain someone visit the stand?"
Kaito scratched his head. "Huh? Who are you talking about?"
Maki rolled her eyes. "She's talking about Shuichi."
Kaito felt his heart skip a beat at that name, and his face flushed a slight pink. "W-Why are you bringing him up all of a sudden?"
Kaede groaned. "Seriously? It's because of your crush on him, obviously!"
"What do you mean, obviously?!" Kaito sputtered. "I don't have a crush on Shuichi, we're just friends! I mean, I like the guy, but not like that!"
Kaede didn't look convinced, however, so Kaito turned his gaze over to Maki instead. To his dismay, Maki just raised an eyebrow at him.
"Right, because I blush and get flustered around all of my friends."
"...Is it really that obvious?" Kaito asked, before immediately realizing what he'd just said and trying to backtrack. "I mean—it's not a crush!"
The moment those words tumbled out of Kaito's mouth, he spotted Shuichi exiting the school's main building a distance away. Tensing up, he tried to resist the overwhelming temptation to duck behind the stand.
Kaede and Maki followed his gaze, and the former smirked.
Kaito's eyes in realization, but he was unable to stop Kaede from shouting "Hey, Shuichi!" and waving him over. She turned back to Kaito one last time, mouthing "Good luck!" to him with a genuine smile before skipping off, Maki in tow.
"Wait, what? What are you doing?!" Kaito leaned over the stand to try and grab Kaede, but to no luck. "What am I supposed to—"
"Kaito?"
Kaito abruptly leaned back over and came face-to-face with Shuichi, who now stood directly in front of the stand with a confused look on his face.
"Oh, uh..." Kaito scratched the back of his bead. "Hey, Sidekick! What are you doing here?"
Shuichi blinked. "Kaede waved me over? Ah, but it looks like she's leaving now, so..." He glanced over at the now empty spot where Kaede and Maki had been standing.
Kaito glanced at the spot as well. "Oh, right. Uh... I guess they had some stuff to do."
"Ah." Shuichi's eyes flickered to Kaito's for a split second. "What about you, though?" His glanced up at the stand. "What's this all about?"
"Oh, this?" Kaito's glanced up at the stand as well. "Well, it was...a dare."
Kaito cringed. Why did he tell Shuichi that? Wait—Why did he even care? It was a simple answer—and the truth; it wasn't like Shuichi was going to press him on it.
Hopefully.
"A dare?" Shuichi repeated.
Kaito nodded, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, but it's not really a big deal, y'know?"
Shuichi nodded, glanced up at the stand once more, then looked back at Kaito. "Are you still taking customers?"
Kaito blinked. "Huh?"
Shuichi's eyes suddenly darted to the ground, now seemingly glued to it. "Ah, s-sorry... That was worded weirdly, wasn't it? I meant... Could I get a hug?"
Kaito's mind froze. What.
It wasn't that he didn't want to; quite the opposite, in fact. Rather, the question had caught him off-guard. The part he couldn't figure out, though, was why. Why did it make him feel like...this? It was just a hug between friends, after all.
"Y-Yeah, of course, man..."
Kaito outstretched his arms and slowly pulled Shuichi into a hug.
Shuichi was surprisingly warm in his arms, Kaito noted as he glanced down at him to see that the detective had his face buried in Kaito's chest. Kaito felt his face grow hot at the sight, causing him to place his chin on Shuichi's head to prevent the risk of him seeing.
"This feels nice," he heard Shuichi say (albeit slightly muffled).
A warm feeling shot through Kaito's body at those words, and, at that moment, he finally came to terms with the undeniable truth:
He had a crush on Shuichi.
The question now was, did Shuichi feel the same way?
Kaito would like to think that he did, but... There wasn't much evidence to support that, as far as Kaito could tell. Then again, Shuichi was the one who initiated this hug, and said hug was lasting longer than a normal hug between friends should probably last...
Kaito glanced down at the boy in his arms, and he grew confident.
"Hey, Shuichi... Can I ask you something?"
Shuichi pulled away from the hug to look up at Kaito (to the latter's slight disappointment). "Hm? What is it?"
Kaito gently cupped Shuichi's cheeks in his hands, causing the latter to let out an audible gasp.
"Can I kiss you?"
All words seemed to escape Shuichi in that moment, so he settled on a nod instead.
Kaito chuckled and pressed his own lips against Shuichi's. Everything seemed to rush at him at once; how warm Shuichi's lips were, the softness of his face... Most importantly, though...
He was actually kissing Shuichi.
Though it felt like an eternity, Kaito pulled away from the kiss mere moments later. Shuichi's face was a spectacular shade of red, and Kaito had no doubt his own was the same.
In the distance, Kaito could hear the not-so-quiet cheers of Kaede, but opted to ignore it in favor of grinning awkwardly at Shuichi. "So, uh... I probably should have told you this before the kiss, but... I like you. A lot. Well, more like love you, actually."
Shuichi laughed softly and placed his hands in Kaito's. "I...love you, too."
Kaito chuckled, squeezing Shuichi's hands. "I guess this makes us boyfriends now, huh?"
Shuichi smiled, staring directly into Kaito's eyes. "Yeah. I'd like that."
Author's Note: So... This is actually a rewrite of a one-shot I wrote about a year ago. It was crap, so I deleted it and typed up a new and improved version, and here we are! So, I hope you enjoyed and will let me know your thoughts! See ya!