The Love Project (ShuichixKokichi)

Ice Cream, Photos, and Fluttering

Eventually, every sits down.

"Good idea Rantaro! This place is great!" Kaede says, plopping a strawberry mochi into her mouth.

"Yeah! Nibse call!" Kaito says with a spoonful of "galaxy" flavored ice cream in his mouth. Maki nods while taking a bite of her cherry frozen yogurt.

"Hah, thanks. Ever since this place opened, I haven't been able to get enough of it," Rantaro smiles before scooping up a spoonful of green tea ice cream. Then, he glances at Shuichi's bowl.

"Panta huh? I haven't gotten that flavor before. Mind if I try?"

"Sure," the detective smiles, holding out his ice cream for Rantaro to scoop with his spoon. The survivor takes a spoon full of ice cream and eats it. He makes a face.

"Not really my thing, I guess" Rantaro shrugs. He holds up his spoon. "Wanna try mine?"

"Ah, that's okay. I don't really like green te-"

Without warning, Rantaro interrupts Shuichi by putting a hand to his chin and slightly pulling him forward. He scoops a spoonful of ice cream and feeds it to the detective like a baby, getting a little on the corner of his mouth. Shuichi was frozen in place. What the hell!?

The blue haired boy jolted back in surprise with a hot face and a hand to his mouth.

"Did ya like it?" Rantaro asks nonchalantly. Shuichi didn't know how to respond. He was so shocked he didn't even taste it!

"U-uh, it was fine I-I guess," Shuichi stutters.

"Wanna another bite~?" the green haired boy winks. Shuichi could feel his brows furrow.

"N-no thanks..," he says, turning awkwardly back to his own ice cream.

"Suit yourself," Rantaro laughs.

Shuichi sighed quietly. He felt weird. He was confused and shocked... and baffled at why Rantaro would do that. His heart pounded in his chest and his face felt hot, but he tried to ignore it as he went back to eating his ice cream.

"Shumai!" The detective breaks out of his thoughts to Kokichi poking his cheek. "Ya got ice cream on your face!"

The supreme leader grabs a napkin and puts it Shuichi's mouth to wipe off the ice cream. Then he smiled an adorable smile before shoving a big spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. Shuichi was once again frozen in place.

He put a hand to where Kokichi had wiped his face. His face became hot again as he sat in surprise. He felt the familiar fluttering feeling that had made itself at home in his heart. All the detective could do was continue eating his ice cream as he once again tried to calm down his feelings.

The group continued to eat their ice cream as they talked about whatever came to mind. Neither Rantaro nor Kokichi pulled anymore stunts, but Shuichi still felt awkward sitting between the two. Eventually, everyone finished eating and decided to look at some other shops at the mall.

They stopped at many different stores, from clothing stores to creepy antique shops to an arcade to a photo booth. Kaede insisted on going to the photo booth.

The booth could fit two people in it, so everyone paired off. Kaito paired with Maki, Kaede with Rantaro, though he looked slightly disappointed, and Shuichi with Kokichi.

Once it was Shuichi and Kokichi's turn, they sat in the booth and posed for the camera. At first, Kokichi made faces at the camera as Shuichi tried to smile normally, but eventually Shuichi was also laughing and making faces at the camera. Or at least he tried to.

The camera took six pictures. When the two stepped out, the booth printed two copies of the pictures. Shuichi took his copy and looked at it with a soft smile.

"Nehe! Look at your face in this one!" Kokichi laughed, pointing to an unflattering picture of the detective.

"Hey! I'm not the only one!" Shuichi retorts, pointing to a picture where Kokichi looked like an old man.

"Whatever! You know I'm cute!" The supreme leader giggles before dashing off the catch up with the rest of the group, who had already started waking.

The detective lets out a happy sigh. He looks at the pictures once more. He finds one where the two  were making semi-decent faces. Kokichi had his arm around Shuichi's shoulders a toothy grin on his face. Shuichi was in the middle of laughing. His cheeks were red and his eyes were tearing up from laughing so hard.

The blue haired boy found himself smiling again. Why was it only with Kokichi that he felt so light? Maybe it was because he was so childish and carefree or maybe it was because Shuichi had been living so boringly before being paired with Kokichi for the project. Whatever it was, Shuichi never wanted this fluttering to leave his heart.

"Shuichi! Ya coming?" Kaito yells. The detective realizes he'd been standing by the photo booth for too long.

"Coming!" He shouts back, glancing at the pictures on last time before running to catch up with his friends.

And Kokichi.