"The 14th of February…" Kazuma pondered to himself as he gazed at the dancing flames in the fireplace.
"What's wrong Kazuma?" Megumin asked, interrupting his thoughts as she joined him on the couch on his left. She was dressed in her usual red pajamas, ready for bed, cupping a mug of hot tea that Darkness had prepared for her with her small hands.
"It's nothing important," Kazuma replied, "It's just that back in my home country, on the fourteenth day of the second month of the year, girls would give chocolates to guys they liked,"
"So only the rich participated, right Kazuma?" Darkness asked as she sat with two cups in her hand. She placed one on the coffee table in front of Kazuma before sitting to his left. She was dressed in her pink nightgown, her golden hair left untied.
"No, why would you think that?"
"Oh, it's just that chocolate is a rare delicacy and all. Even I've only had it a small handful of times," the crusader explained, taking a sip from her tea.
"No chocolate is pretty cheap where I'm from," Kazuma clarified, picking up the warm tea from in front of him and taking a sip. He instantly felt the warmth spread throughout my body on the cold February night.
"Some strange place you're from," Megumin blurted out.
"Girls would do to guys they liked and give them chocolates, and they would be called valentines, and the day was called valentine's day,"
"I see…" both of them said simultaneously, then taking a sip in sync.
"You must have gotten a lot of chocolates then Kazuma," Darkness said with a soft smile, tilting her head slightly. Before Kazuma could respond, Aqua's voice cut him off.
"Nahhhhhhh, this guy's never gotten a single chocolate in his life," Aqua exclaimed while poking the top of Kazuma's head with her finger from behind him. "Well except that that one time,"
Kazuma suddenly lost the ability to breathe for a second and almost choked on his tea at the mention of her. He turned to see Megumin and Darkness looking at him with a curious look on their faces. "Who is she talking about Kazuma?" Megumin asked with a slightly confused look on her face.
"Oh… uh.."
The two leaned closer to Kazuma, aa if trying to push the information out of him as he struggled to think of ways to avoid the question. Realizing there was no way to avoid the situation, Kazuma decided to just tell them the truth.
"When I was younger, a girl gave me some chocolates on valentines day and promised to marry me in the future, only for me to find her in the arms of another man a few years later after we didn't see each other for a while," Kazuma confessed, a little red in the face. "There! Now can we drop this topic and talk about something else!"
Kazuma turned to see Megumin and Darkness with a sympathetic but caring look on their faces as he felt his face become even warmer.
"Kazuma, that's terrible, that's awful what happened to you," Darkness said, gently placing her hand on top of Kazuma's. Megumin glanced at Darkness' hand before clinging to Kazuma's right arm.
"Kazuma, you don't deserve to be treated like that! That girl is really starting to get on my nerves," Megumin exclaimed, hugging Kazuma's arm a bit tighter, almost causing him to drop his drink.
"It's fine! It doesn't bother me anymore, really,"
Both girls stared at Kazuma trying to avoid eye contact by staring at his tea. At that moment, both girls realized they had a goal to accomplish by next week; give Kazuma a valentine's day that he could remember fondly.