Dracus6 - Thanks to you, that story is now in the works. Don't know when I'll post it but it will be made.

This is Lotus

This is Saiki

~This is the thoughts of others~

Chocolate Festival - Who Will Receive the Sweet Treat?

Lotus rolled up her sleeves a determined smile on her face.

"Alright time to get to work."

Grabbing her favorite pink apron Lotus threw it on before tying her hair up in a high ponytail. Scattered across the kitchen counter was a sundry of ingredients ready to be crafted into delicious confectioneries.

"I can't wait, my first Valentine's in Japan."

Lotus had transferred a psychic message to Saiki informing him that she would be running a bit behind and to go on to school ahead of her. He was not okay with that, why? Because that gave Reita the opportunity to slip into Lotus's usual walking spot beside Saiki. So instead of walking with Lotus, having a psychic discussion on different ways to figure out how to enjoy movies without them being spoiled, he was with Reita, whose mind was only on one thing.

"Excited it's finally here!" Reita had flushed cheeks as he elbowed Saiki.

"What's finally here?"

"Come on you don't have to read minds just a calendar. It's February 14th," Reita said

"Wait who are you again?"

"I'm sure I'll find a pile of that brown stuff waiting for me on my desk," Reita grinned

"Pile of brown stuff? Gross."

"I wonder how many girls plan to give me some of that sweet Valentine's Day chocolate?" Reita said

"Oh that, really not interested."

"A box of chocolates could change your entire future. No exaggeration." Reita said

"You are exaggerating."

"That's why I've been doing nice stuff for girls lately. Like carrying their things-" Reita said

"They don't want your help."

"-flattering them-"

"That's sexual harassment."

"-and even getting them cool presents!"

"Too pushy."

"Man I did everything possible to get the chicks of this school to like me and it must've worked because now they all notice me when I walk by in the halls," Reita said

What he really didn't know is that they were thoroughly creeped out and only noticed him to avoid him.

"You're so screwed."

Reita stopped walking facing Saiki. "Come on please use your psychic powers to tell me if I'm gonna get a lot of chocolates."

"Alright fine." Saiki put his arms up making an O.

Reita cheered a large smile coming to his face.

"He thought I was making an O as in okay, but I was making a zero."

"And what about Lotus huh? Every guy would be jealous if I get chocolates from the lovely buxom beauty of the school." Reita said

"No way perv."

To make this clear Saiki crossed his arms in an X telling him no.

"Even if she did have chocolates for you any girl would take them back hearing you call them buxom."

For some reason, Saiki felt really irritated by Reita's statement. Then he thought about Lotus. Was she planning on giving chocolates to others? That thought stayed in Saiki's head all the way to school.

Saiki sat at his desk as girls skirted around the room handing out various boxes of chocolates. Hario had been very popular getting dozens of boxes from grateful girls for all his hard work and help. Lotus had yet to arrive and Saiki's mind kept thinking about her.

"She's normally on time. What could be the holdup?"

His thoughts wandered thinking she might be in a different part of school giving some chocolate to another guy from a different class. He quickly waved the annoying thought away.

"Whooo made it!"

The classroom door opened and there was Lotus. Obviously, she had her school uniform on but accessorizing the outfit was a light pink scarf with darker pink hearts decorating it. Saiki's eyes immediately zeroed in on the bag that was in her hand.

"Morning Saiki," Lotus greeted taking her seat.

She set the bag on her desk and Saiki was able to see that it was indeed a bag full of boxes distinctly designed for chocolates.

"So she did make chocolate."

"Hey what's up with Kaidou?" Lotus pointed at the boy before her who was spazzing out at his desk.

"He got chocolate and is now freaking out."

"Ah, I see."

Kaidou suddenly grabbed the chocolate that was in his desk and ran out.

"Huh? That was odd, but not beyond Kaidou odd."

Lotus looked to Saiki. "So how's your February 14th going? Get any chocolates?"

"I'm pretty sure you know the answer to that."

"You do keep a low profile and steer clear of others so it'd be hard to give chocolates to a guy you don't notice," Lotus said

"Exactly. I see you have a bag of chocolates," Saiki nodded to the bag on Lotus's desk.

Lotus smiled, "Yup, spent all day yesterday making them. It wasn't my first time making chocolate but it was my first time making Valentine's chocolates. My sister and Ethan tried some and said they were pretty good. I just hope the recipients think so too."

Saiki sighed waiting for Lotus to hand over chocolate hoping she does so discreetly enough that other guys in the class wouldn't notice. But much to his surprise Lotus simply faced forward in her desk getting herself ready for classes.

Saiki was beyond perplexed. With all the chocolate she made it was only logical to think she'd give him some, right? Right? Lotus definitely seemed like the kind of person who'd hand out chocolates to friends and people she was close to and with her established friendship with Saiki that meant he fell into that category, in fact, he was the one she spent the most of her free time with. So why was she not reaching into the bag to silently slide over a box of chocolate to him?

Saiki was not only confused but irritated that it bothered him so much.

A few minutes later Kaidou came back and went to a corner of the room sulking. Nendou came over pointing and laughing at the silver-haired boy.

"Hahaha! You fell for it, dude! You'll get chocolate from Teruhashi when pigs fly!"

"There're some lines you just don't cross Nendou."

"Man, that was cruel."

"Aww, what's wrong with you?" Nendou spoke in a baby voice. "You don't need to be depressed just because you didn't get any candy. Gonna be hard to believe but I didn't get any either, so we're in this together."

"Kaidou's life is at zero."

"Pardon me!" A rather cute girl called out addressing Nendou. "Can you come with me for a second? There's something I want to give you!"

A huge smile broke out on Nendou's face. "I'd love to!"

"No not you, Nendou. I was actually talking to Kaidou."

Kaidou followed the girl out the classroom but not before giving Nendou a smug grin.

"Ahhhhh!"

Now it was Nendou's turn to sulk in the corner.

"There's some line you just don't cross Kaidou."

"What in the?"

Saiki looked to Lotus to see her pull several bags of chocolates out of her desk.

"Well, this was a bit unexpected," Lotus said

"Not to me. She doesn't know this, or simply chooses to ignore it, but Lotus has got a fan club consisting of both male and female students of this school."

Lotus got up from her desk grabbing her bag. She walked over to the sulking Nendou.

"Alright, Nendou. I think you've learned your lesson, no more pouting."

She reached into her bag pulling out a green box with a yellow ribbon.

"Here you go," Lotus said handing the box over to Nendou.

The boy was practically in tears as he took the box.

"Friendship chocolates," Lotus said

"Alright!" Nendou cheered

Lotus turned facing Saiki. Now was the time. Lotus was going to hand him his chocolates. He waited patiently for the girl to reach in her bag and pass over the chocolates but instead, she walked right by him.

"Now I best be off. Gotta go hand the rest of these out. Catch ya guys later!" Lotus smiled before leaving.

Saiki's face was blank wondering what just happened.

During her chocolate handing out venture Lotus had been given her own boxes of chocolates from various other girls she had helped out, but a select few were from admirers. As Lotus walked around the school she had to make use of her psychic powers to avoid a handful of guys whose thoughts were less than pure.

"I don't get why some random guys would think I'd give them chocolate. Why would I give chocolate to a person I don't even know?"

Lotus located Kitaro handing him his chocolate, and he even gave her some too. The two had been discussing recipes a few days beforehand since Kitaro wanted to make some chocolate for his mother and siblings. As thanks, he gifted the rest to Lotus.

Lotus was still contemplating on giving Reita his. Yes, he was a pervert but still sort of Lotus's friend, but she also didn't want to encourage his perverse thoughts. Maybe she'll just sneak it into his locker.

Before she made her way back to class Lotus took a short pit stop as the bathroom. As she was in one of the stalls the door to the bathroom was quickly opened before being slammed shut.

"~To hell with Valentine's Day!~"

"Teruhashi?" Lotus thought. "And by the sound of all the voices crowding outside the bathroom seems like the girl was mobbed."

Teruhashi walked further into the bathroom her thoughts ringing loud and clear.

"~They say I've got chocolates. So what if I do? I'll just give this to Saiki.~"

"Saiki huh? I wonder if he'd take chocolate from Teruhashi. It'd sure draw in a lot of attention."

"~Obviously these are just gratitude chocolates because I had dinner at his house on New Years. So really they're for him and his parents.~"

"Whose she making excuses for?"

"~But these are the only chocolates I bought today. What if those guys out there find out I gave them to Saiki? They'll tear him apart!~"

"Yeah no. It's Saiki would destroy them."

"~No! Worse than that World War 3 will break out!~"

"Okay, aren't you going a little too far with that scenario?"

Teruhashi ran over to the window opening it. "~It turns out my chocolates are the most dangerous weapon in the history of mankind.~"

"Yup definitely taking that scenario too far."

"~I can't give this to him. I'm sorry Saiki.~" Teruhashi tossed the chocolates outside the window.

Unbeknownst to her, but known to Lotus, Saiki was just a few floors down. He held his hand out catching the chocolates.

"That's a little dramatic."

"Tell me about it. Now that's enough bathroom stall hiding, I gotta get to class. Maybe if I'm stealthy enough Teruhashi won't notice me."

Lotus quietly opened the stall door peeking out. Teruhashi was draped over the window's edge looking as if she just dropped a puppy out of it rather than a box of chocolate.

Lotus quick-footed made her way to the sinks hoping to just quickly wash her hands and leave. Unfortunately, the sound of running water pulled Teruhashi out of her little dramatic reverie.

"~Rival!~"

"Crap!"

"Oh hey there Teruhashi," Lotus awkwardly greeted

"Hello," Teruhashi greeted back with a smile. She studied Lotus noticing the girl had two bags with her.

"~In her hands it must be chocolates! Who'd she give them out to? Don't tell she made some for Saiki, not like I really care or anything.~"

"I see you've got some chocolates there?" Teruhashi pointed out.

"Yeah, I just made some for my friends and some people I wanted to thank," Lotus gestured to the bag in her left hand.

"~Homemade!? Everyone knows the most delectable chocolates come from a person who made them with their own hands. Is her goal to show off her amazing culinary skills to the rest of the school, so that they'll see her as the perfect girl!~"

"That's not it at all."

Teruhashi held back her emotions but it didn't matter as Lotus could hear the girls thoughts.

"Oh how nice to make chocolates. But what about the other bag?" Teruhashi questions pointing to the bag in Lotus's right hand.

Lotus paused not wanting to really answer the question fearing the ramifications of it, but it would seem suspicious if she didn't answer Teruhashi's question.

"These are just chocolates others have given to me, nothing special," Lotus said trying to downplay the whole thing.

"~What!? She got chocolate!? How is this possible!? I didn't even get chocolate! My rival bested me without me even knowing! No, that can't be right. I bet others are just too blinded by my radiance to hand me chocolate if they step to close I bet they get nervous and can't hand over any chocolate to me…..~"

Teruhashi continued to rant in her mind and Lotus could tell this isn't going to go good for her due to the twitching smile Teruhashi was developing.

"Well look at the time," Lotus checked her wrist as if she had a watch, "Gotta get going to class. Bye!"

She ran out of the bathroom so fast the guys who had been crowding it only saw a pink blur.

The end of school came and Lotus was glad.

"Man who knew Valentine's day could be this exhausting. It's nothing like this in the States or the UK."

She went to the front of the school going to meet up with Saiki so they could walk home together. Saiki was waiting for Lotus but was having his own little inner uproar in his head. Lotus had handed out chocolate to Nendou, Kaidou, Hairo, and Kitaro, but not him.

"Why didn't she give me anything? It's weird that she would give something to Nendou and Kaidou."

This kept playing in his head over and over again. Why was this bothering him so much?

"Saiki! Saiki!"

Saiki turned around to see Lotus coming towards him carrying her now empty bag that used to have chocolate. But she did have a new bag filled with more chocolate. Saiki held back a frown staring intently at Lotus's empty bag that was once filled with delicious desserts.

"Planning on walking home without me?" Lotus jokes

Saiki kept silent just staring at Lotus.

"Well if you want some alone time I can leave you to it but not without giving you your gift," Lotus said

"Gift?"

Lotus started digging through her school bag rather than her chocolate bag. She pulled out a pink box with a green bow.

"Ta-da! As they say, leave the best for last. I had a feeling that it would draw too much attention if I just outright handed you these in school and with how most of the guys were acting like chocolate seeking bloodhounds, I thought I'd be best to wait till after school to give you yours. That way no one will see and it won't cause you any trouble from the male community of the school." She beamed holding the box out to Saiki.

Once again Lotus had thoroughly surprised Saiki taking him completely off guard. He'd been harping on the various reasons why Lotus hadn't gifted him with chocolates, only to discover she waited for his benefit.

*DOKI*

For a brief second, Saiki felt his hands shake as he reached for the box but easily steadied them grasping the gift in his hand. He gazed at the box the euphoria of not knowing what awaited within hitting him. This is the second time he had been given a gift and didn't know what was inside. Well, he knew it was chocolate, that was a given, but he didn't know what kind.

Slowly undoing the bow Saiki took the top off the box. What laid inside was several perfectly square piece of chocolates with a white creme on top.

*DOKI*

"They're coffee jelly flavored, or as close as I could get to it. It's solid hollow chocolate with a gooey inside to resemble jelly and I gave them smooth cream top to mimic the whipped cream that's put on top of coffee jelly," Lotus explained

*DOKI*

Saiki felt heat flush not only his face but his entire being, the feeling gathering gently in his chest. The more he stared at Lotus's smiling face the more intense the feeling got. Not sure how to deal with this onslaught of new emotions quickly building up Saiki vanished, teleporting away.

"Thank you…."

Echoed in Lotus's mind as the other psychic disappeared.

Saiki sat at his desk the pink box of chocolate nearly empty. He wore a calm blissful look placing another piece of chocolate in his mouth, it was a great recreation of his beloved desert. As he chewed a soft pink dusted across his cheeks. Various thoughts of Lotus ran through his head and with each piece of chocolate the warmth he felt grow.

Reaching for another piece Saiki paused. He was frozen like a deer caught in headlights as realization finally hit him.

"Oh…..it appears I've developed a crush. That's something I didn't see coming."

"We're home!"

Lotus stopped cutting vegetables when she heard Ethan's loud greeting.

"Welcome home you two. How was your Valentines Date?"

Violet and Ethan got lovey-dovey eyes as they held onto each other giggling and gushing.

"That good huh?"

"Lotus how was your day?" Violet asked

"Hmmm? My day? It went really well. I gave out all my gifts-"

"Wait! You gave out gifts?!" Ethan yelled

"Well yeah. You saw me make chocolate. I handed them out to all my friends, you know Nendou, Kaidou, Saiki-"

"Those are all boys!" Ethan yelled

"Well yeah...you've met them before."

Ethan was now in the corner of the room sulking a cloud of depression over his head.

"Uh….."

Lotus only stared at Ethan's crumpled form for another minute before the doorbell rang.

"I got it!"

She walked over to the door opening it.

"What the?!"

Lotus gaped seeing the large heart-shaped red box before her. It was huge the size of a person.

"Delivery for the Goddess Angel!"

Lotus grimaced hearing that nickname. A man stepped out from behind the large box a bouquet in his arms.

"Why didn't I see this coming?"

"Hello Ma'am I believe these are for you." The delivery man attempted to hand the bouquet to Lotus but her eyes widened.

"Wait don't give me those!" She shouted startling the man. "Sorry, sorry, but that bouquet got baby's breath in it right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"My sister's allergic to those I'd rather not bring them into the house," Lotus said

"Oh I'm so sorry Ma'am," The delivery man bowed apologetically.

"Well, that takes care of the flowers. Now how to get rid of this giant box of chocolate."

"~This must be one special girl for someone to give her such a large box. *SIGH* I wish I could give my girlfriend something as extravagant as this.~" The Delivery man thought

"You sir have just solved my problems."

"Excuse me Sir but I don't want this," Lotus said

"But I have to give it to you, there's no return to sender."

"That weirdo is getting craftier."

"Well, then why don't you take it?" Lotus offered

"Huh?" The man questioned tilting his head.

"Well I mean it is Valentines, I bet you have someone special you'd like to give a gift too," Lotus said

The man flushed a bit scratching his cheek. "Yeah, my girlfriend would really love something like this but-"

"No buts please take it I insist. I mean technically you did deliver it to me, so you completed your job. There's nothing that says you can't have it after, especially since I'm offering it. You can take the flowers to, given that your girlfriend isn't allergic to them," Lotus said

"No, she isn't. T-Thank you so much!" The Delivery man said

"No problem happy to help spread the love." Lotus smiled

The man left with a new pep in his step, "~Haha that girl must really be an angel cause I just got blessed. Kotoko is gonna love this!~"

Lotus chuckled watching the happy man drive off. She was about to go inside but felt her phone vibrate. She took out the device checking a new message she had gotten.

"Oh. That's gonna be interesting."