Sweet problems
Title: Sweet Problems
Pairing: Jesse Lewis/Matsumura Hokuto
Rating: G
Word count: 2131
A/N: A gift fic for Laura! It was supposed to be for Christmas but I ended up writing it in January and I think now we’re close enough to Valentine’s Day that I can post it. :D
I usually avoid using people’s first names and when I do use them, I try to use them with everyone in the same story. I’m sorry this fic isn’t like that. >__>; It seems the Bakaleya boys are making me break my own rule as they’re the first group of boys ever with which I feel more natural and comfortable when using their given names.
- - -
Despite his half-foreign roots Jesse has lived in Japan his whole life and he is perfectly accustomed with the local way of life. Yet sometimes he wishes he could do some things in a bit less Japanese way and slightly more like in America.
He really likes getting friend-chocolate on Valentine’s Day from the girls he knows but at the same time he finds it stupid that it’s really just girls who can give chocolate on that day. To be honest he has never really thought about the whole thing before but this year it’s different. This year he wants to give the chocolate on the February 14th and there’s no way he can go anywhere near a sweets shop this close before the meaningful day. Had he realized it earlier, he would simply have mailed his relatives in America and asked them to send some chocolate but it’s late now.
He could maybe buy the ingredients at the nearby supermarket and make the chocolate by himself but that would be way too cheesy already. He is a decent cook for a guy of his age but he has never made chocolate and he’s not going to ask his mother for help no matter how cool she usually tends to be about these things.
This is a problem he needs to solve without any family help.
- - -
“Say,” Jesse starts on the morning break when it’s only him and Taiga in their dressing room, trying not to sound like he’s been practicing it in his head for at least seven times. Taiga turns the page of his schoolbook but makes a noise to prove he’s listening. “If you had a girlfriend and you wanted to buy her something, chocolate for example, where would you go to look for it?”
“Uh, to the store? Or in the sweets shop along my way to home. Why?” Taiga says, looking a bit confused, “I can show you the place if that’s what you mean?”
“No, no!” Jesse rushes to deny, “I was just… uh, wondering. I mean, since it’s going to be Valentine’s Day on the day after tomorrow, wouldn’t it be weird if you went to buy chocolate right now? The shops are full of girls and you’d be like the only guy around.”
“Maybe I would just wait until the day after Valentine’s Day,” Taiga says with a shrug and looks at him curiously, “Jesse, what are you up to?”
“Nothing,” Jesse says with a sigh and sees a flash of understanding in the other boy’s eyes.
“You want to buy Valentine chocolate for someone!” Taiga realizes aloud and Jesse winces, slapping his hand over Taiga’s mouth.
“Idiot, don’t shout it like that!” he hisses but even his hand can’t stop Taiga’s soundless snickering and he lets the other go. “Fine. Let’s suppose I want to buy chocolate for someone. And you have absolutely no need to tell anyone I’m supposing things like that unless you want me to tell Fujigaya-kun what I heard you sleep-talking in the hotel last summer.”
“My lips are sealed,” Taiga promises with only a small shift of discomfort when Jesse mentions his slightly embarrassing and very inconvenient habit, “Who are you buying chocolate for?”
Jesse glances around to check no-one is around and even listens until he’s sure there isn’t anyone walking in the corridor outside the open door. It’s not like he’s ashamed or anything, it’s just a personal thing he doesn’t need the whole company to know about.
“Hokuto.”
“Our Hokuto?” Taiga asks in surprise and Jesse rolls his eyes.
“How many Hokutos do we both know?”
“I know… one two… three, I guess,” Taiga quickly counts.
“I only know this one,” Jesse says firmly, “So now, tell me. How will I get chocolate from any shop without it looking like I’m, you know, that kind of a guy?”
“What? Jesse, it’s not like everyone will think you’re gay if you go to buy chocolate right before Valentine’s Day,” Taiga snorts and Jesse really feels like punching the boy on the face with the history book that lies open on the table.
“I don’t need anyone getting any weird ideas,” he hisses, “and you know it very well. You wouldn’t want to arouse pointless attention either.”
“Okay, okay, sorry. I get your point,” Taiga says with a grin and thoughtfully tilts his head, “You could always go in a shop and ask if they have anything not related to Valentine’s Day because… you’re buying it as a birthday present to your sister.”
“My sister was born in September,” Jesse points out, “and I hate lying. I totally suck at it.”
“Well then I guess you’ll just have to… I don’t know. Maybe go to the supermarket and buy some chocolate together with other things so the packet won’t stand out so clearly. Or you could ask your sister or mother buy it for you.”
“Won’t ask them,” Jesse sighs and Taiga shakes his head.
“Man, why don’t you just wait until the White Day? Then you can buy as much chocolate as you ever want to.”
Looking away, Jesse doesn’t answer to that. To tell the truth he has quite a good reason for not waiting until that but he’s not sure if he wants Taiga to know everything.
“You’ll laugh at me.”
“I promise I won’t.”
On the other hand, if he has to tell someone such things he’d rather it is Taiga he’s talking to.
“I’m kind of hoping…” he starts slowly when the secret he’s been thinking about for a while finally gets a verbal form, “I could maybe get an answer on that day.”
“You wish Hokuto would get you something in return?” Taiga suggests and Jesse nods quietly.
“Maybe. Kind of.”
They stay quiet for a while until Taiga glances at Jesse from behind his front hair.
“Say, if you find the Valentine chocolate for him. Will it be a confession?” he asks and Jesse blinks, feeling a bit uncomfortable of getting asked about it so straightforwardly. He takes a deep breathe, being forced to finally say it aloud.
“It might be. Kind of, maybe. Yes?”
“Got it,” Taiga chuckles and a soft smile lights his face, “I’m happy you told me.”
Jesse smiles back at his friend, feeling light in a way he hasn’t felt ever since he realized about his new secret feelings he couldn’t really talk about.
Nevertheless, he still has a chocolate problem and only two days to find a way to solve it.
- - -
He isn’t any closer to the solution on the next day either. If possible, it’s even worse now that all the schoolgirls he sees on his way to work are carrying small paper bags with the logos of various sweets shops. He still can’t bring himself to enter such a shop and he’s seriously starting to wonder if he’ll have to become a pastry-cook in the evening at home after all. He keeps pondering over the problem until the lunch break where he meets Yasui and Hagiya who are having a lunch together. It’s not the boys who draw his attention, however, but the small carton box that’s open on the table next to their empty lunch boxes.
“What’s that?” he asks and leans to get a closer look on the box.
“This? Oh, it’s just some Kisumai chocolate I got from Senga-kun,” Yasui says and drops some colorful candies from the container to his palm, offering them to Jesse, “want to taste some? I like them.”
Jesse takes the candies, notices Yasui is right about the good taste, and after work he heads for the nearest konbini.
“Hi there,” he triumphantly whispers in English as he finds what he’s looking for.
- - -
Hokuto seems sincerely surprised as he finds the packet in his sports bag on the next afternoon when everyone is changing into their casual clothes after the workday.
“Huh, what’s this?”
Jesse feels a shiver run down his spine and turns towards his own bag, searching for a bottle of deodorant even though he very well remembers putting into his locker instead of the bag in the morning. Taiga flashes a smile when he glances at Hokuto but he says nothing and Jesse is thankful for that.
“Moron, of course you know what it is!” Juri yells with a wide bratty smile and Shintaro is immediately peeking behind Hokuto’s shoulder.
“You should open it! I want to know who it’s from!”
“Man, someone must be such a ninja, having sneaked it into your bag without any of us noticing during the day! Right, Jesse?” Kochi says and Jesse actually manages to look like he’s as surprised as everyone else.
Hokuto snorts at Juri and Shintaro’s eagerness and peacefully folds his sweatpants and t-shirt into his bag before taking the packet in his hands again.
“I don’t know,” he says and glances at his friends with an amused smile, “maybe I should wait until I’m at home?”
“You wouldn’t be that cruel would you?” Juri quickly whines with a pleading look and Hokuto snorts.
“Geez, whose present is it, huh?” he says but unwraps the packet anyway, raising his eyebrows as he sees the flat carton box with the faces of his senpais on it.
“Kis-My-Ft2 Valentine Chocolate?” he reads the title and shrugs with a small smile. “Nice, I just thought today that wanted to taste these too!”
“There’s a message attached to the side!” Shintaro notices and catches it, opening the small envelope before Hokuto manages to even look at it.
“Happy Valentine’s,” he reads from the card. His voice gets a disappointed tone when he adds, “and nothing else. No name of the sender. How boring is that?”
“Of course there isn’t a name,” Kochi chuckles and teasingly slaps Shintaro’s head, “Valentine chocolates handed secretly like this are meant to be anonymous! Besides, I would stay anonymous as well if I knew the recipient was going to open his present accompanied with a bunch of such curious brats!”
After another fifteen minutes Juri and Shintaro wave their goodbyes and Kochi leaves soon after them. Usually Taiga is always the last one packing his things but for some reason this time he manages to make it in a record time, zipping up his jacket and leaving the dressing room with a wink and a cheerful “See you tomorrow!”
The two boys left pack their things in silence. Jesse already has his headphones on, the music playing, and he’s reaching to take his jacket from his locker when he feels sudden warmth against his back and his breath catches when Hokuto takes the headphones off and hangs them on Jesse’s neck.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know the handwriting?” Hokuto whispers into his ear and the amusement is audible in his voice.
“Not really,” Jesse truthfully admits since he really, really sucks at lying. He hadn’t bothered at trying to alter his handwriting in any way. It was meant to be a discreet confession after all. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath when Hokuto’s fingertips brush across his waist; he can feel it even through the thick fabric of his hoodie.
“Good,” Hokuto says, “Since I knew from the very moment I saw the card. Thank you.”
The fleeting touch of the other’s lips on his neck is over before Jesse manages to properly register it happening and when he does, Hokuto already has his bag in his hand and the other foot out of the room.
“See you tomorrow,” Hokuto says from the door like nothing special has happened and waves at him before vanishing into the corridor. Jesse stays in the dressing room for a moment, mentally repeating the last minutes in his head until he’s sure he’ll never forget them in his life.
His phone beeps for a message and he checks the new mail. The sender's name is visible on the screen. Matsumura Hokuto.
[[ Want to hang out tomorrow evening? (*`・ω・´*)ﾉ ]]
- - -
On the 14th March Jesse opens his locker in the morning and finds a small flat packet hidden in the pocket of his hoodie. He quickly takes the packet before anyone else sees it and makes sure no-one is paying attention to what he’s doing when opens and reads the card attached into the packet.
Jesse reads the message, and if he ever thought he preferred the American customs of celebrating Valentine’s - and the White Day they don’t even have there - suddenly he has totally forgotten about it as those two days have just become his favorite days of the year.
I’ll accept your feelings if you accept mine.
M.H.
Pairing: Jesse Lewis/Matsumura Hokuto
Rating: G
Word count: 2131
A/N: A gift fic for Laura! It was supposed to be for Christmas but I ended up writing it in January and I think now we’re close enough to Valentine’s Day that I can post it. :D
I usually avoid using people’s first names and when I do use them, I try to use them with everyone in the same story. I’m sorry this fic isn’t like that. >__>; It seems the Bakaleya boys are making me break my own rule as they’re the first group of boys ever with which I feel more natural and comfortable when using their given names.
- - -
Despite his half-foreign roots Jesse has lived in Japan his whole life and he is perfectly accustomed with the local way of life. Yet sometimes he wishes he could do some things in a bit less Japanese way and slightly more like in America.
He really likes getting friend-chocolate on Valentine’s Day from the girls he knows but at the same time he finds it stupid that it’s really just girls who can give chocolate on that day. To be honest he has never really thought about the whole thing before but this year it’s different. This year he wants to give the chocolate on the February 14th and there’s no way he can go anywhere near a sweets shop this close before the meaningful day. Had he realized it earlier, he would simply have mailed his relatives in America and asked them to send some chocolate but it’s late now.
He could maybe buy the ingredients at the nearby supermarket and make the chocolate by himself but that would be way too cheesy already. He is a decent cook for a guy of his age but he has never made chocolate and he’s not going to ask his mother for help no matter how cool she usually tends to be about these things.
This is a problem he needs to solve without any family help.
- - -
“Say,” Jesse starts on the morning break when it’s only him and Taiga in their dressing room, trying not to sound like he’s been practicing it in his head for at least seven times. Taiga turns the page of his schoolbook but makes a noise to prove he’s listening. “If you had a girlfriend and you wanted to buy her something, chocolate for example, where would you go to look for it?”
“Uh, to the store? Or in the sweets shop along my way to home. Why?” Taiga says, looking a bit confused, “I can show you the place if that’s what you mean?”
“No, no!” Jesse rushes to deny, “I was just… uh, wondering. I mean, since it’s going to be Valentine’s Day on the day after tomorrow, wouldn’t it be weird if you went to buy chocolate right now? The shops are full of girls and you’d be like the only guy around.”
“Maybe I would just wait until the day after Valentine’s Day,” Taiga says with a shrug and looks at him curiously, “Jesse, what are you up to?”
“Nothing,” Jesse says with a sigh and sees a flash of understanding in the other boy’s eyes.
“You want to buy Valentine chocolate for someone!” Taiga realizes aloud and Jesse winces, slapping his hand over Taiga’s mouth.
“Idiot, don’t shout it like that!” he hisses but even his hand can’t stop Taiga’s soundless snickering and he lets the other go. “Fine. Let’s suppose I want to buy chocolate for someone. And you have absolutely no need to tell anyone I’m supposing things like that unless you want me to tell Fujigaya-kun what I heard you sleep-talking in the hotel last summer.”
“My lips are sealed,” Taiga promises with only a small shift of discomfort when Jesse mentions his slightly embarrassing and very inconvenient habit, “Who are you buying chocolate for?”
Jesse glances around to check no-one is around and even listens until he’s sure there isn’t anyone walking in the corridor outside the open door. It’s not like he’s ashamed or anything, it’s just a personal thing he doesn’t need the whole company to know about.
“Hokuto.”
“Our Hokuto?” Taiga asks in surprise and Jesse rolls his eyes.
“How many Hokutos do we both know?”
“I know… one two… three, I guess,” Taiga quickly counts.
“I only know this one,” Jesse says firmly, “So now, tell me. How will I get chocolate from any shop without it looking like I’m, you know, that kind of a guy?”
“What? Jesse, it’s not like everyone will think you’re gay if you go to buy chocolate right before Valentine’s Day,” Taiga snorts and Jesse really feels like punching the boy on the face with the history book that lies open on the table.
“I don’t need anyone getting any weird ideas,” he hisses, “and you know it very well. You wouldn’t want to arouse pointless attention either.”
“Okay, okay, sorry. I get your point,” Taiga says with a grin and thoughtfully tilts his head, “You could always go in a shop and ask if they have anything not related to Valentine’s Day because… you’re buying it as a birthday present to your sister.”
“My sister was born in September,” Jesse points out, “and I hate lying. I totally suck at it.”
“Well then I guess you’ll just have to… I don’t know. Maybe go to the supermarket and buy some chocolate together with other things so the packet won’t stand out so clearly. Or you could ask your sister or mother buy it for you.”
“Won’t ask them,” Jesse sighs and Taiga shakes his head.
“Man, why don’t you just wait until the White Day? Then you can buy as much chocolate as you ever want to.”
Looking away, Jesse doesn’t answer to that. To tell the truth he has quite a good reason for not waiting until that but he’s not sure if he wants Taiga to know everything.
“You’ll laugh at me.”
“I promise I won’t.”
On the other hand, if he has to tell someone such things he’d rather it is Taiga he’s talking to.
“I’m kind of hoping…” he starts slowly when the secret he’s been thinking about for a while finally gets a verbal form, “I could maybe get an answer on that day.”
“You wish Hokuto would get you something in return?” Taiga suggests and Jesse nods quietly.
“Maybe. Kind of.”
They stay quiet for a while until Taiga glances at Jesse from behind his front hair.
“Say, if you find the Valentine chocolate for him. Will it be a confession?” he asks and Jesse blinks, feeling a bit uncomfortable of getting asked about it so straightforwardly. He takes a deep breathe, being forced to finally say it aloud.
“It might be. Kind of, maybe. Yes?”
“Got it,” Taiga chuckles and a soft smile lights his face, “I’m happy you told me.”
Jesse smiles back at his friend, feeling light in a way he hasn’t felt ever since he realized about his new secret feelings he couldn’t really talk about.
Nevertheless, he still has a chocolate problem and only two days to find a way to solve it.
- - -
He isn’t any closer to the solution on the next day either. If possible, it’s even worse now that all the schoolgirls he sees on his way to work are carrying small paper bags with the logos of various sweets shops. He still can’t bring himself to enter such a shop and he’s seriously starting to wonder if he’ll have to become a pastry-cook in the evening at home after all. He keeps pondering over the problem until the lunch break where he meets Yasui and Hagiya who are having a lunch together. It’s not the boys who draw his attention, however, but the small carton box that’s open on the table next to their empty lunch boxes.
“What’s that?” he asks and leans to get a closer look on the box.
“This? Oh, it’s just some Kisumai chocolate I got from Senga-kun,” Yasui says and drops some colorful candies from the container to his palm, offering them to Jesse, “want to taste some? I like them.”
Jesse takes the candies, notices Yasui is right about the good taste, and after work he heads for the nearest konbini.
“Hi there,” he triumphantly whispers in English as he finds what he’s looking for.
- - -
Hokuto seems sincerely surprised as he finds the packet in his sports bag on the next afternoon when everyone is changing into their casual clothes after the workday.
“Huh, what’s this?”
Jesse feels a shiver run down his spine and turns towards his own bag, searching for a bottle of deodorant even though he very well remembers putting into his locker instead of the bag in the morning. Taiga flashes a smile when he glances at Hokuto but he says nothing and Jesse is thankful for that.
“Moron, of course you know what it is!” Juri yells with a wide bratty smile and Shintaro is immediately peeking behind Hokuto’s shoulder.
“You should open it! I want to know who it’s from!”
“Man, someone must be such a ninja, having sneaked it into your bag without any of us noticing during the day! Right, Jesse?” Kochi says and Jesse actually manages to look like he’s as surprised as everyone else.
Hokuto snorts at Juri and Shintaro’s eagerness and peacefully folds his sweatpants and t-shirt into his bag before taking the packet in his hands again.
“I don’t know,” he says and glances at his friends with an amused smile, “maybe I should wait until I’m at home?”
“You wouldn’t be that cruel would you?” Juri quickly whines with a pleading look and Hokuto snorts.
“Geez, whose present is it, huh?” he says but unwraps the packet anyway, raising his eyebrows as he sees the flat carton box with the faces of his senpais on it.
“Kis-My-Ft2 Valentine Chocolate?” he reads the title and shrugs with a small smile. “Nice, I just thought today that wanted to taste these too!”
“There’s a message attached to the side!” Shintaro notices and catches it, opening the small envelope before Hokuto manages to even look at it.
“Happy Valentine’s,” he reads from the card. His voice gets a disappointed tone when he adds, “and nothing else. No name of the sender. How boring is that?”
“Of course there isn’t a name,” Kochi chuckles and teasingly slaps Shintaro’s head, “Valentine chocolates handed secretly like this are meant to be anonymous! Besides, I would stay anonymous as well if I knew the recipient was going to open his present accompanied with a bunch of such curious brats!”
After another fifteen minutes Juri and Shintaro wave their goodbyes and Kochi leaves soon after them. Usually Taiga is always the last one packing his things but for some reason this time he manages to make it in a record time, zipping up his jacket and leaving the dressing room with a wink and a cheerful “See you tomorrow!”
The two boys left pack their things in silence. Jesse already has his headphones on, the music playing, and he’s reaching to take his jacket from his locker when he feels sudden warmth against his back and his breath catches when Hokuto takes the headphones off and hangs them on Jesse’s neck.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know the handwriting?” Hokuto whispers into his ear and the amusement is audible in his voice.
“Not really,” Jesse truthfully admits since he really, really sucks at lying. He hadn’t bothered at trying to alter his handwriting in any way. It was meant to be a discreet confession after all. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath when Hokuto’s fingertips brush across his waist; he can feel it even through the thick fabric of his hoodie.
“Good,” Hokuto says, “Since I knew from the very moment I saw the card. Thank you.”
The fleeting touch of the other’s lips on his neck is over before Jesse manages to properly register it happening and when he does, Hokuto already has his bag in his hand and the other foot out of the room.
“See you tomorrow,” Hokuto says from the door like nothing special has happened and waves at him before vanishing into the corridor. Jesse stays in the dressing room for a moment, mentally repeating the last minutes in his head until he’s sure he’ll never forget them in his life.
His phone beeps for a message and he checks the new mail. The sender's name is visible on the screen. Matsumura Hokuto.
[[ Want to hang out tomorrow evening? (*`・ω・´*)ﾉ ]]
- - -
On the 14th March Jesse opens his locker in the morning and finds a small flat packet hidden in the pocket of his hoodie. He quickly takes the packet before anyone else sees it and makes sure no-one is paying attention to what he’s doing when opens and reads the card attached into the packet.
Jesse reads the message, and if he ever thought he preferred the American customs of celebrating Valentine’s - and the White Day they don’t even have there - suddenly he has totally forgotten about it as those two days have just become his favorite days of the year.
I’ll accept your feelings if you accept mine.
M.H.