Prompt: Favorite Color

Timeline: Pre-pre series. Like, way before – like – everything.

A/N: Hi again, humans. It occurred to me that we don't really know how exactly Kaito and Nonoha met - or at least, I don't remember seeing it anyway. So here's your little Kindergarten fluff because I felt like it.

~Blaze

Kaito gripped his mother's fingers tightly, a worried expression crossing his face. Little kids his age were running around, screaming and laughing and – well – doing what normal five and six year olds did best. Kaito stares at a group of smiling grown-ups before hugging his mom's leg and burying his face into her skirt.

"I don't think I can do this, mom."

She reached down and patted his head gently. "Come on, a friend can't be that hard!"

"But – but – " Kaito stomped a foot. "Who else does puzzles, mom? I'm so weird! They'll think I'm a freak. Nobody's gonna like me."

At that, she kneeled in front of him, forcing him into eye contact. "You can't be so negative about everything. Just go talk to them! I'm sure you'll be fine!"

"Like what?"

"Ask them what their favorite color is or something."

"No way! That's not cool at all!"

Kaito frowned when she gave an exasperated sigh, standing and brushing off her skirt. "Look, I've got to go to work, alright? Daddy will be back after three to pick you up. If you make a friend, then you can go home with them, okay?"

He nodded, but his lips still drooped. His mother rummaged through her purse before handing him what looked like a keychain.

"Here. If you get bored, try solving this, okay? But I'm sure you will be fine."

He didn't smile, but his face did brighten significantly. Kaito waved as his mother left, then turned towards the other kids. Then he stopped, and made a beeline for the empty table.

He sat down, stuck in a world with nothing but puzzles.

"Hey."

Kaito looked up from his desk, his fingers freezing around the rubics cube in his hands. It had been a week since Kindergarten had begun, so he was used to other kids coming up to him and talking to him.

But this was different. He looked at her – a girl, he thought, surprised – and looked over her shoulder. Usually the kids came in packs of three or four, and none of them ever said anything friendly to him when they talked. Well, she didn't seem like she wanted to be nice either – she was glaring at him with bright brown eyes that made him lean away slightly.

"What?" He asked, crossing his arms. This usually made the others go away, their faces turned down and mumbling an apology or two, so he tried it.

It didn't work.

"Why are you always playing with those block thingies?" She asked, pointing to the rubics cube. Kaito swallowed before furrowing his brow, turning his attention away from her. "It's called a puzzle," he said quietly.

"Cool," she mumbled.

But he had already forgotten she was there.

She was there again. The brown haired girl. Every day since he first saw her, she had joined him, watching him as he finished puzzles. It wasn't that she bothered him… it's just that it was only him that she would ever try talking to.

"Why are you always here?" He asked once.

"What do you mean?"

"You could go play with the other kids. But you sit with me instead. And I never even talk to you."

"What? Am I annoying?"

"N-no. It's not that."

She clearly didn't seem to like the question, and Kaito nearly apologized for asking. But then she looked him straight in the eye and said, "Puzzles shouldn't be your only friends. You gotta have more than just that."

He stared as she got up and made her way to her car, laughing and hugging her mom.

It occurred to him that he had never even asked for her name.

"Nonoha Itou."

She had said it randomly once on the playground. They were sitting together on the bench, him with his keychain puzzle and her swinging her feet and staring at the mulch with a glare.

"Kaito Daimon," he replied almost automatically. Then he looked at her. "Why are you staring at the ground like that?"

"Because it got dirt on my new shoes. Yuichi kicked me off the monkey bars a few minutes ago."

"So why aren't you mad at him?"

"Oh, no. I was. I kicked him in the knee. He started crying."

Kaito cringed, scooting away an inch. "Ouch."

"I know, right? I felt like I broke my foot. That kid's a lump. But now my new sneakers are dirty 'cause I kicked the ground too hard."

Kaito found it best not to question her sanity. Whatever that word meant.

An awkward silence passed. Both of them looked between each other, glancing here and there and not directly in each other's eyes. Even though they had sat together for at least a month now, this was really the first conversation they had ever had together.

Both opened and closed their mouths at the same time. Then Kaito spoke.

"So what's your favorite color?"

"Come on, Nonoha. It isn't that hard."

"Don't rush me!"

"But you just have to – "

"I said don't rush me! Let me go! I can do it!"

The both of them wrestled with the puzzle, Kaito forcibly turning Nonoha's hand and her trying to break free from his grip. Both of their parents hadn't come to pick them up, so Nonoha and Kaito sat together in the playground, waiting for the Daimon's or Itou's.

"Fine!" Nonoha yelled exasperatedly. She thrust the keychain into his chest, then stood up and whirled on her heel. "You solve it, if you want to so badly."

"Nonoha…" Guilt began to wiggle in his stomach. But mischief got their first. He grabbed Nonoha's hand and dropped the block keychain into her hand, then ran for it in the other direction.

"K- Hey, wait, Kaito!" She shrieked, waving the puzzle in the air. "I don't even like puzzles!"

Kaito giggled, and she nearly stopped, stuck between angry and thoroughly surprised.

Kaito rarely ever laughed. And even if he did, he had never laughed for her.

"If you don't like it, then just solve it Nonoha!"

They both ran, stuck in a world with nothing but themselves.