White Day was always so lame.
Makoto had to return the favors of so many girls just because he happened to be such a cutie-patootie...? How was that fair? He was barely scraping by as-is! Normally he'd just blow them all off, but he was on thin enough ice with the school already...
The last thing he needed was a stampede of jilted lonely hearts making things even worse.
"Haaaaagh," he sighed, slumping out of the club room. That's Mari done... Guess she wasn't so bad, I think she needed something nice like this...
Not like she'll make it through the year at this rate. Might as well leave her with something sweet Makoto clicked his tongue, moving down a slot on his mental list to the next girl in school he had to gift something to.
... Oho? Was that how it was? His slothful, slouched posture perked up a little when he realized who was next. Yuki, floating midair next to him, couldn't help but scrunch her face up at his reaction.
"What's got you so happy? It's gross."
"Hmm~hmm... You'll see...!"
Makoto might not have been able to skip, but he got as close to it as he could while he pushed his way through the crowded hallway, abuzz with White Day drama. His target wasn't anyone out here, though, and Makoto threw open the sliding door to a particular class with an holler.
"Oh Harupyoooooon...!"
At the front of the class, one Haruhi Oohara wondered if it was too late to launch Makoto into orbit. Her face contorted itself into an honest, polite smile even as she prayed for him to disappear behind closed eyes.
"Settle down, Nagai-kun!" As if he ever wasn't settled. "Still haven't fixed your uniform? You do want to graduate, right?"
She was playing the part of the perfect class rep again. Or maybe not playing, but living - especially with so many other pairs of eyes on her. A group of students near the back of the class burst into a cacophany of whispers at Makoto's entrance.
"Yeah, yeah... You're suuuuch a good student." Makoto rolled his eyes.
"... do you actually need anything, Nagai-kun, or are you had here on a social call?"
The gossip's subject himself smiled sleepily as he approached Haruhi, tugging something free from his bag and keeping it hidden behind his back.
"Nooooope. But I think I've got something almost as good as a fixed uniform..." With a flick of his wrist and a deadpan ta-daaaa, a garish bright pink heart-shaped chocolate box was suddenly produced!
The class's shocked whispers doubled in intensity.
Haruhi seriously started to weigh the pros and cons of unleashing her 15th Cost right here and now.
And Makoto just kept smiling, waggling the box before her.
"W... woooow...! That's so, so sweet of you," Haruhi started through grit teeth. If she was going to get a lid on this, she'd have to do it right now. Already, the crowd was whispering scandal. "I'd be happy to accept a White Day gift from such a good friend, but really, it's not necessary...!"
Somehow, this didn't deter Makoto or the gossippers. He pushed the box forward into Haruhi's politely waiting hands... and stayed that way, allowing his hands to linger atop Haruhi's just longer than was necessary.
One of the onlookers started to blush.
"Oh? Is something wrong, Harupyon? Mari-senpai was happy to accept a gift from me...! Are you saying you're too good for something that our club president loved?"
Well, maybe loved was an exaggeration.
Haruhi practically zipped her hands back to snatch the chocolate from Makoto's grip, seeking the path of least resistance to put this nightmare to a close.
"Okay-thank-you-very-much-please-let's-call-it-even-you-can-go...!" Crack by crack, her perfect facade was starting to slip. She couldn't take much more of this... Rudeness was one thing, but Makoto seemed like he was trying to ruin her flawless reputation with nothing more than scandalous implication.
She turned away from Makoto, trying to smile reassuringly to the others in an attempt to put herself back together. "Gee, he always does this...! It's just teasing, don't go getting the wrong idea, okay?"
"... want me to hand feed you the chocos?" Makoto observed an interesting phenomenon. Haruhi's veins ran turgid with trembling rage, but impossibly, somehow she forced them back under control without anyone else being the wiser.
Maybe one more push wouldn't hurt. This was the most fun he could have while conscious!
"I'm just glad we could share something so special together again... This really is like that one time..." Barely hiding a snicker this time, Makoto was laying it on thick. A previous tryst?! The audience gasped.
"... Ma. Ko. To. Na. Gai."
Uh oh. He recognized that voice. The boy immediately pulled back, laughing lightly.
"Whoops, look at the time... Gotta go! Catch ya later, Harupyon."
Before she could summon her unholy strength, Makoto quickly shuffled towards the exit, letting Haruhi reign over her court once more.
"... that was painful to even look at."
Thump. A cardboard box, wrapped in a simple purple ribbon, lightly slid from Makoto's hand onto the Library table before him.
Across the table, the chocolate's recipient cocked a brow. Amusement danced in her half-lidded gaze.
"But you've got this alllll wrong, Ko-chan...!" Yoru's lips curved around the words with a practiced sensuality, even as she traced along the edge of the box with a long, dark nail. Tease... Or trying to be, anyways, with how she coquettishly bent forward over the table.
Yet Makoto had never been very good at reading body language, not even with Yoru spelling everything out in bold, unspoken font.
"Huh?"
"Don't you know? Good girls give out chocolate on Valentine's day; you're a month late, sleepyhead!" Yoru giggled, but slid the box towards her anyways. "Or maybe you just wanted a cute girl to berate you~?"
Makoto blinked one eye at a time, like a confused lizard. His head tilted to one side.
"... whaddya mean...? This is for Valentine's day."
A moment passed in stunned silence, and Yoru almost looked concerned before a grin split the apathetic mask of Makoto's face. "Did I getcha? Juuuust kidding. 'm still a guy, no duh I know what month it is. Happy White Day, Ru-chan...!"
"Still lying to yourself? That's fine, psychoboy. I'm sure it just rares this slut up even more. Oops, I think one of your nails is chipped!" Makoto sighed. He wouldn't rise to Yuki's taunts... Even if he could feel her rolling her eyes every time he asserted his manhood.
"And I bet you didn't get any chocolate from anyone who wasn't one of your simps... Since you're really annoying, and clingy, and kind of batshit crazy... But I wanted to show my appreciation anyways, so..."
Blunt, but when was Makoto not? He almost-shrugged, shoulders losing steam halfway up and simply slumping back down again, while his smug grin abated into little more than a weary smile.
"Thanks for everything, Ru-chan-sensei."
"Awww...!" Despite the harsh words, Yoru's squeal of delight split the heavy Library air, and she held the box of chocolates up to her heart. "You'll make me blush! I wonder what beauty taught you that one! Who's a good li'l protege?!"
Immediate proximity. Yoru's hips pivoted to one side, sliding herself up onto the desk as she closed the gap with Makoto in an affectionate side hug.
"But you know..." The girl's voice lowered itself into the scandalous suggestion of a whisper, lips brushing soft as light against the edge of Makoto's ear. He just wondered if she wanted to take a bite. "This isn't nearly enough to make me forgive you. You'll need to do better than that for making a girl wait a month..."
Like balancing on a tightrope. That's what talking with Yoru always felt like, trying to avoid the abyss on one side of her getting disastrously bored, while on the other was engaging her too close that she got hot and bothered enough to unzip Makoto's skirt.
What a pain... He couldn't stonewall her forever.
As she waited for his reply, Yoru ran her intrusive fingers through Makoto's hair, eye pulsing with an infernal pink light as she left and then unmade streaks of blonde in a sea of black.
She always found little ways of entertaining herself like this while Makoto's slothly brain struggled to keep pace and reply on time. He'd stopped bothering to protest a long time ago, though the frustration still simmered under a blanket of apathy. "I guess so... I don't wanna stay in debt to you, that feels like a bad end waiting to happen..."
"You know me soooo well, Ko-chan~!" Yoru laughed, ruffling his hair. "But Ru-chan doesn't believe in breaking her toys. Don't you fret."
"Scary... Did you have anything in mind? Need help securing the job at that hostess place with the bunny suits or whatever? I don't think that gravure model thing is gonna go through..."
"Cute, but wrong. Next time I go clubbing, you're coming with me, girl~! Mari-chan keeps bailing on me, she says it's not her scene," Yoru pouted, clearly disappointed at losing her chance to see Mari in something strappy and tight. "I need a girlfriend to hold my hair back when I get sick... Maybe you'll get to pull on my hair another way, though~"
"Yuck." Makoto's face scrunched up in automatic disgust, even as his cheeks reddened. Yoru drank deep from that expression like it was wine, leaning further into the hug with a girlish sway.
"Aww, don't be like that! I bet some lucky boy would love to have Ko-chan on one arm and Ru-chan on the other... It's easier with another girl." A pink haze descended over Yoru's eye the more the lust-stricken girl talked. "What guy would say no to two bouncy and fun girls for the price of one~? Follow my lead and they'll be eating out of the palm of your hand!"
"This sucks, man," Makoto mumbled. The fruity taste of watermelon flooded Yoru's mouth as she found herself biting her lip, as her mind started to lose itself in a fantasy. He knew the signs. Makoto tried to open his mouth again, but was immediately interrupted.
"Ooh, maybe you're ready for me to open the deep end of my closet this time! I think my adorable succubus-in-training needs to get used to something a little more daring..."
Yoru's hands traced over the boy's shoulder as though she was already imagining how he'd look with a more petite silhouette, humming to herself. Makoto could only groan as his unwilling passenger piped up, snorting. "Like THIS bitch has any issues with staying in the closet."
"Yoru... Come on, keep it in your paaaaaant..." Makoto frowned, twisting his neck to get a better look at what she was wearing, "...ieeeees...? Well, whatever... So long as I go back in the end."
Halfhearted, like he was a spectator in his own life. He practically was half the time.
"Make him a blonde again," Yuki snickered. "I miss my beautiful golden locks already... You better make him EXTRA cute this time, jezebel!"
He elected not to pass her critique on.
"A~N~D!" Yoru pulled back to boop Makoto lightly on the nose. "I want even more reparations in the future! Yoru-nee has felt so neglected and abandoned lately... Plus, you mugged me for a bento a few years back, you know! Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, I neeever forgave you for that!"
... had he? Makoto's head tilted to one side. His sleepy fluoride stare remained impassive.
Yoru giggled, waving at where she assumed Yuki was floating. "Though maybe you've had that lesson drilled in at this point. From both sides of the equation~! I have to say I like the new Ko-chan lots more."
Yuki, drifting overhead, merely sneered down at the pair.
His past as a delinquent before awakening to his curse wasn't exactly a secret, but there was an age gap here, right...? He didn't remember bullying any high-school aged girls while he was in middle school... Only sad, scrawny high school boys.
It took a few seconds for Makoto's brain to finally catch up.
"Uh... Sure thing. You're sure talking a lot... I'll get you more chocolate or whores or whatever. Speaking of, you gonna open that box...? I'm kinda hungry."
Despite their many differences, maybe there was one point in common that made Makoto and Yoru's odd friendship work:
Absolute shamelessness.
"Ugh," Yoru sighed. Dejected, all the horny energy she'd been building ended up dissipating with Makoto's utter disinterest, and so she leaned back on the table as she slowly loosened the ribbon wrapped around the box.
"You're lucky you're such a cutie, Ko-chan."
This wasn't a very happy part of town. In other parts of the city, it was easy to say that the streets themselves lived, imbued with some unidentifiable quality borrowed from those who lived on them. Like laughter itself had a way of seeping into and staining mere concrete.
Only no one had ever laughed here in a long, long time. There were no children being loud an obnoxious, no old-timers watching bittersweetly from their windows. There was nobody at all, except for Makoto and the ghost tugged unwillingly along behind him.
"But WHYYYYYYY...!? Are you just trying to rub it in?" She whined. "Let's just go back! This place s-u-c-k-s!"
Makoto just shook his head, and turned a corner. Dark vines choked the sidewalk beneath him, competing against each other for the last rays of sunlight.
In fact, there were a lot of vines in this part of town. On the ground, crawling up the sides of buildings, ensnaring even nearby nature that wasn't itself like kudzu.
That meant he was close.
"Not long now," Makoto mumbled, mostly to himself.
And just like a magic trick, there he was.
The alley yawned, open and dark. Makoto felt a breeze pass through it and him like some ancient thing's breath, but more than the feeling, it was what he could hear that left him silent: the gentle, out of place sound of trees shaking in the wind.
The last time he'd seen this place, he hadn't really seen it at all. It had been a lot more moonlit.
"Uhh... This is probably close enough."
"Close enough for WHAT?! It's bad enough I'm stuck with you, now I need to put up with you basically dragging me to my death's doorstep?! You BETTER not be developing a complex, chump!"
Makoto murmurred, "Guess that's what I get for trying to do something good for once."
That stopped Yuki in her tracks, like she had to pause to even imagine Makoto being nice. Transparent eyes narrowed. "Whaaat are you playing at, murder boy?"
"Huuuh? Did you say something?" He was awful at playing coy, immediately turning away from Yuki and whistling loudly.
"Knock it offff! You dragged me all the way here for a REASON at least, right? Out with it!"
His shoulders slumped. Caught already... "And here I thought I was being subtle... Man..."
Almost mournfully, Makoto reached into his bag, tugging out a round box full of sickeningly rich dark chocolate. He shrugged, turning to grin up at Yuki.
"It's White Day. Wanna share a chocolate?"
"... YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO BRING ME H E R E TO DO THAT YOU...! YOU!!"
Before she could go any louder, though, Makoto's hands began to move. One popped a chocolate into his mouth, the other closed around Yuki and twirled her close to - and then into - him.
Blue melted in orange. The world wavered, perceived by four overlapping eyes. Someone stood there, but who? Makoto? Yuki? No indication was given.
For a moment, the two of them could taste something sweet on their tongue.
... and then Yuki crackled with energy, Makoto's left eye blazing orange as her Demon Eye went full throttle, desperate, needy, trying to wring-
POP!
Yuki landed ass-first on the cold pavement. It was a good thing she was just a hallucination, otherwise that tumble would've hurt. Makoto snickered.
"Nice try. Enjoy the chocolate, Kazama?"
But even he knew this wasn't a total victory. Every time, she managed to wrest away a little more of his body, a precious few more seconds. The girl drifted to her feet, refusing to fall for Makoto's taunt as her gaze hardened.
"Utterly shameless... One of these days, you'll let me in enough that I'll never have to ask for control again."
Makoto extended a hand upwards, as though offering Yuki a dance. His eyes squeezed shut, narrow in affection, and his mouth (still tasting of chocolate) opened.
"And I'll beat you to death as many times as it takes, Yuki-chan."
Her face erupted into crimson.
"H-huh?! What kind of promise is that?! Pyscho! Crossdresser! Freak...!"
Makoto started walking. The whole long way home, Yuki kept up her barrage.