The Chocolate It Is

By Cassandra

A/N: Here’s the sequel to “It Must be Chocolate”, I hope you enjoy this one. Thank you for all the reviews for “It Must be Chocolate”! I’m so happy that there still remains some Seiya/Yaten readers out there. Speaking of Seiya/Yaten, there now exists a site for them! It’s called Perchance to Dream and it is owned and run by the wonderful Seito no Senshi (who converted me to Seiya/Yaten in the first place with her fic “Memories”. I’ve been wondering what happened to that one. I liked it a lot despite its dizzying length…). You could go to her FF.net account to see for the URL since I can’t remember it at the moment. ^_^;;; Hehehe…so here you go and I hope you enjoy! Review please!

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own Sailor Moon or Toblerone. ^_^

***

“So…”

“So.”

Silence.

“It’s March 14 tomorrow.”

“Jeez Taiki! Yes, I know! No need to remind me!” A dark head slumped down over a pair of folded arms on a dining table.

“I know it’s White Day tomorrow…”

Thin lips sipped steaming tea from beside a blue mug.

Bespectacled purple eyes shifted to the side.

“What are you going to get him?”

Silence again.

Stillness.

Purple eyes closed in amusement.

A brown ponytail bounced as the head it was attached to shook.

“Could I just tell you right now how happy I am that I am not in your place?”

“Go shine your forehead or whatever it is you do behind closed doors, Taiki. I don’t want to hear it tonight, all right?”

A sigh.

The screeching sound of wood against marble as a chair was pushed back.

“All right, all right. I’ll stop. Lord knows you’ve been teased and uncomfortable for the past month enough to last you two lifetimes. I’m just saying,”

Taiki Kou leaned down to whisper against the pale shell of his dark-haired friend’s ear.

“He might just be expecting something from you even if it did start out as a joke at first.”

The taller Light danced out of the way just in time before his peeved band mate had risen and took a swing at the space he had occupied. The most amused expression was on the purple-eyed Taiki’s face as he leaned against the kitchenette, one hand clutching a steaming cup of tea and the other supporting his weight effortlessly against the white marble counter. He took another sip from his blue mug, ignoring the tea tag that hung over the rim. He opened his eyes again when he was done, giving his annoyed fellow Light that samed amused look.

He sighed, not helping it and a giggle followed his words.

“My, my, I just knew the two of you would end up like this. All those arguments…”

Before he was able to finish his statement and before the subject of his teasing could get something sharp to throw at his direction, the unusually humorous Taiki had retreated quickly to his room with his mug of tea and a flurry of his odd, high pitched giggles.

The harsh sound of heaving breath was the only thing that could be heard after Taiki’s door had closed. Standing by the kitchenette by the kitchen utensils cabinet was Seiya Kou. The knuckles of his left hand were white as he held to the cabinet’s handle as if he wanted to snap it off. Indigo blue eyes were fiery with conflicting emotions of rage, confusion, and weariness. His thin pink lips were twisted as his dark eyebrows creased together in a frown.

Another deep breath and his death grip on the cabinet eased and slowly, slowly he was able to let go. He walked back towards the empty dining table, his steps sluggish and tired. The chair slid against the floor with a slight screech before Seiya lowered himself into it. Folding his arms over the surface of the table, he placed his head over them again and closed his eyes.

He saw darkness and he heard silence.

But his thoughts would not fix on them.

Lime green eyes alight with something mysterious and irresistible flashed in his mind’s eye as soft, smirking lips parted to speak in a lowered, intimate voice,

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Seiya.”

His forehead burned with a kiss.

Soon his whole body burned at the memory.

A soft growl of exasperation.

“Gods why did that happen?”

An almost desperate entreat.

“Why did the whole last month happen?”

Seiya Kou was a poor, tortured soul.

It wasn’t his fault that he had such a big heart that he loved so many people and in almost the same amounts and at the time. It wasn’t his fault that he fell in love with one Tsukino Usagi who happened to have a boyfriend and the fortune (misfortune for Seiya) that she had her destiny set before she was even born, a destiny that included a husband, a child, and the entire Sol System under her control. It wasn’t his fault either that he had been pining away for her, even if he had accepted the fact that she could never be his.

Wait, it was his fault.

Damn his heart that couldn’t forget!

And then there was Yaten.

Things had been so simple before between the two of them.

Yaten was annoyed with him most of the time. He paraded around with his prissy attitude and gave him hell for being so Seiya-like while Seiya reciprocated by calling him ‘Shrimp’ and laughing as he held away his silver-haired companion, literally, by the head as the smaller Light tried to swing at him.

Sometimes Yaten put one over him and actually manage to hit him, but his triumph didn’t last that long and soon enough Seiya would extract his revenge. It was an unending cycle until Taiki got fed up with it and took matters into his own hands, quite literally once again.

The tallest Light would grip their ponytails and pull them away to their own respective rooms where he would lock them in and let them pound for as long as they liked. Then he would sit down and write some poetry or whatever else Taiki did to ignore their noise.

Then that very strange Valentine’s Day happened and Yaten gave him a seemingly innocent kiss on the forehead.

A big pile of foul shit just hit the fan after that.

It got hard being alone with Yaten. The silver-haired Light barely argued with him anymore. He just sat or stood there and looked at him, his lime green eyes flickering with a mysterious, almost teasing light that made him want to bolt for the hills. Then there was that annoying half-smirk on his face that he usually saved for special occasions, which he now only directed on him.

The worst part was when Seiya actually got a bit skittish. When he was at his most terrified worst, Yaten would SMILE and then he’d laugh. It wasn’t his mean, I-am-going-to-eat-you, psychotic sneer that he did when he ran out of conditioner in the middle of the month. It was more of an amused, sincere laughter. It was the kind of laughter that would have been pleasant to hear if Seiya didn’t really know Yaten.

Yaten was jaded and never laughed unless it was at the expense of other people. Yaten had a malicious sense of humor that would have seemed mean to a lot of people, but was typical to him. Well sure, Yaten did laugh about simpler things every once in a while, but these moments were few and far between. Yaten was the kind of person whom you tell a really good joke to and you’d really feel like you’d just wasted your breath when he would look at you with those bored green eyes and arch an eyebrow.

Granted, during some of the times that he heard Yaten laugh like that, he felt happy that Yaten was happy with something, but then he’d remember that he was laughing at him. Then he’d be freaked out again and he’d edge away.

But that just wasn’t what changed with Yaten. He didn’t just sit quietly and look and laugh at him. He was also actually quite NICE.

Like the other day, Seiya had been hungry again and for some reason, even if Taiki had gone to the grocery store earlier that month, the chips had all disappeared. How did that happen? All that was left were some apples of Yaten’s and he certainly didn’t want to touch them, knowing Yaten’s reaction.

So there he was sitting miserably on the couch again when who had to walk in but Yaten and guess what he had with him.

A plastic bag filled with chips.

“I thought you’d be looking for them.” Yaten told him with a nonchalant shrug as he sat down across from him as if to get some distance between the two of them. He tossed the plastic bag over at Seiya who easily caught it.

Then there was that, dare he say, mysterious smile on his face again as he watched him eat the chips.

For some reason, Yaten liked to watch him eat nowadays.

Don’t ask him why. Yaten was just weird that way.

As he was polishing off his chips, Yaten had gotten up to go to his room.

Then he did it again.

“I’m glad you enjoyed them.” Then he leaned down and kissed him on the head as he made his way towards his room.

The kiss was what one would call chaste. It didn’t last long and it was almost impersonal, but Seiya knew there was something different there.

He didn’t know what to think of it.

Sometimes he thought it was just a new game Yaten was playing. Yaten did a lot of things to get on his nerves most of the time, but when you think about it, Yaten was just being Yaten back then. He wasn’t doing stuff to be purposely annoying, well some of the time anyway.

Besides, whatever would Yaten gain from playing a creepy game of making-Seiya-especially-skittish? Sure, it would freak out Seiya surely, but the silver-haired Light got bored with such games easily and would just move on to doing something else.

He’s been doing this for some time now, a month actually.

By now, Yaten would have given up on the game and would just preen himself for a while until a new argument blows up between the two of them. But until then he just kept on smiling at him, watching him eat, and giving him kisses on the head.

Yes, kisses.

He’s been doing that all month without any explanation. Not a single word at all.

Seiya still had his eyes closed, his forehead resting on the crook of his arms. Anytime now, he knew his back was going to ache from his awkward leaning position over the table. He didn’t want to get up from his position for he knew that if he moved, tomorrow would come closer with each second that passed. If he stayed like that, he could just imagine that time had stopped.

Yes, time had stopped and there was no tomorrow to worry about.

“Urrrrk~!”

“Damn you.” He growled, his voice muffled as he remained on his position beside the table but now he had his eyes open, glaring at his grumbling stomach. With a toss of his head, he lifted his head from the cradle of his arms and continued to glare at that awful, evil part of his anatomy.

“Traitor.”

“I was wondering if you were going to stay that way the whole night.” A bored, familiar voice stated across from him.

The chair he was sitting on would have crashed to the floor if he hadn’t reached out to catch it as he tried to steady the thunderous beating of his heart. Seiya gulped as he looked at Yaten who was sitting in the chair opposite his.

The smaller Light had a small frown on his face as always as he looked at him, his hands pushed into his pockets as he sat back against his own chair. Surely, he also had his legs crossed at the knee under the table. Yaten was dressed in a white polo shirt with the top two buttons left purposely undone, allowing him a peek of a smooth white chest and a silver cross somewhere for ornamental purposes. Under that were black velvet pants and his favorite pair of leather boots, Seiya was also sure.

Those lime green eyes were eyeing him boredly before they rolled just so in a perfect expression of annoyance.

“Goodness Seiya, I’m not a ghost you know?”

Seiya tried to steady his voice to answer as he stood awkwardly by the chair he stood by, looking at Yaten as if trying to figure out what to do.

“Er…would it make you mad if I told you I thought you were?”

Yaten lifted him a single eyebrow before he smirked and closed his eyes.

“Since when did you care if you make me mad?”

There was bitterness in Yaten’s tone that Seiya couldn’t ignore. He suddenly felt guilty somewhat. Before he was able apologize as he planned, he heard the crinkling of plastic and he looked up.

Yaten had placed a plastic of what looked like white sugared crinkles on the table. He was looking at Seiya again, his eyes unreadable suddenly. “I got you some crinkles. I passed by a bakery when I was out and saw them. I thought you’d like them.”

There it was again. Yaten was being unintentionally nice.

Seiya had it in mind to politely decline the crinkles and not accept them until he got an explanation of what has been going on in the past month. Why was he giving him food and watching him eat all the time? Why was he so frustratingly nice to him? More importantly, whatever were those kisses for?

“URRRRR~K!”

That was his stomach again and besides, those crinkles did look inviting…

No! I would not succumb! Seiya stuck to his resolve. I’m not like Odango! I could control my stomach DAMMIT!

“Don’t tell me you’re paranoid about me poisoning them again.”

Seiya met Yaten’s bored gaze and drawl with a snort and a skeptical smirk that seemed less taunting than usual for him as he spoke to Yaten.

“Right, like you’d actually do it.”

Yaten suddenly looked like a cat stalking its prey in the dark, his lime green eyes glimmering ominously. The smallest of his evil smirks lifted the sides of his lips. It was a small gesture that made the dark-haired Light think again.

“Wouldn’t you like to know…”

Seiya’s stomach growled once more and Yaten frowned at him in irritation.

“Look, just eat them all right?” The silver haired Light snapped suddenly, his pale hand gesturing abruptly at the crinkles. Lime green eyes closed as Yaten leaned back against his chair, seemingly as if he was tired of their little game. The voice that spoke his next statement sounded patient and slow as if apologizing discreetly for his earlier reaction. “I just want your stomach to stop making noise.”

The plastic with which contained the crinkles, well, crinkled when Seiya reached for them, not wanting to upset Yaten any further with his usual teasing games. Yaten had always been moody so Seiya knew how to handle his mood swings. The crinkles were good, better than most he had tasted. Probably because they weren’t dry and the powdered sugar didn’t make him want to cough. It was chewy and the sugar enhanced the taste, making the crinkle seem exploding with sweetness.

As was his usual custom with good food, he voiced his appreciation.

“Mmm! Again, you’re missing something by not having taken any, Yaten. Are you sure you couldn’t give up your sugar strike for once and give in to the temptation?”

All he got was a stare so intent that he thought he would melt in the spot. Yaten was doing it again, looking at him as if he were the only thing worth watching in the entire universe. He waited for the impending feeling of discomfort, the shame of embarrassment, and the inevitable reddening of his cheeks, but they never came.

For some reason, Yaten’s stare that night was different.

Without the teasing smirk and the secretive glint in his eyes, the stare was nothing but that, a stare: a motion of the eyes that conveyed acknowledgement. He tried to figure out what could have been different when he noticed something.

Yaten wasn’t looking at him.

He was looking through him.

He was thinking of something aside from teasing him.

“Yaten, oi. Are you all right?”

When he spoke, Yaten seemed to have snapped out of his stupor. He blinked and a shimmer of confusion came alive in those lime green eyes.

“Hm?”

“You.” Seiya began, gesturing to the one across him with a crinkle before taking a bite off it and chewing. He swallowed when he was done. “You look out of it. What’s with you?”

Yaten was silent again and Seiya just watched him. He looked thoughtful and Seiya thought he saw reluctance, but that was before his expression became blank again as if it wasn’t even there in the first place. Seiya’s dark eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement and a bit of worry.

“Yaten.” He repeated his companion’s name.

Yaten focused his lime green eyes at him and their gazes connected.

Unreadable lime green eyes looking into puzzled indigo ones.

Seiya saw so much he couldn’t decipher into those eyes but he couldn’t give them names. He wanted to ask what it was that was bothering him again; it just might make him say whatever it was, when Yaten spoke.

"Have I made you uncomfortable?" Yaten asked, his voice quiet and almost a whisper. His gaze was to his fine long fingers, fingers that were made to only touch fragile or else beautiful things. This time, his lime green eyes would not look at him and Seiya wondered why.

Yaten had always been so bold.

As he chewed on the crinkles that his silver-haired comrade had given him, he quickly thought of something to say in answer. He was tempted to just say a frustrated, "That's the understatement of the year!" But he knew he couldn't. Despite how skittish Yaten had made him the past month, he knew Yaten didn't deserve such punishment.

Seiya looked up when lime green eyes fixed on him again. Only this time he wasn't being so bold as he had been before. There was an uncertainty there that he hadn't seen before and for some reason, it saddened him to see it.

Where was the fire and defiance?

He wasn't even aware that it was he who was the cause of this loss of fire.

"I can't lie to you." Seiya answered slowly in a careful tone, not wanting to upset or worse anger his friend if ever he misunderstood. "You have, to some extent."

He glanced up at Yaten. He hadn't even realized that he had looked down too.

The silver-haired Light was still staring at his hands, but the expression on his face was unreadable. It seemed like he was waiting for something important to him. Was it he, Seiya, he was waiting for? Something he had to say?

"Why though, Yaten?" Indigo eyes lifted once more and tried to catch lime green ones in a steady gaze. "I never really understood why."

Yaten didn't disappoint, nor did he give much response as he lifted his silver head and focused his gaze once more to the one he had been teasing and giving special attention to for the past month. He looked back at Seiya but didn't speak.

Seiya wasn't an empath, but somehow he felt a conflict raging within his companion’s conscience. He didn't know how he knew. He certainly couldn't tell by the unreadable expression on his face, the slackness of his posture, the relaxed curl of his fingers on the table, or the way with which he stared with intent. But he knew it was there.

The silence was deafening and before the Starlight leader could prompt him, he finally spoke in the same quiet, uncertain tone,

"Neither do I."

Hearing Yaten speak it didn’t make things easier. Seiya had been desperate for answers. What was Yaten trying to do all along? Was he just playing with him? Was it all just a joke gone terribly wrong?

He was hurt as was supposed to be expected. He didn’t like it when jokes were played on him. This Seiya-sama was supposed to be the only joker around here. He was hurt but he knew he shouldn’t be.

So what if Yaten played a malicious joke?

He’d had worse, most from Yaten himself.

He was holding a crinkle in one hand and he had stopped in mid-chew. There were only two crinkles left in the plastic bag. There was some scattered powdered sugar in the tabletop.

Taiki’s going to have a fit if he sees that.

The crinkle felt powdery moist between his fingers.

Weird.

The sweet taste in his mouth was fading to sour.

“I’m sorry.”

Seiya couldn’t see his eyes. He didn’t even see if he actually moved his mouth when he spoke. Silver bangs obscured the path of his sight and his head was bowed. Looking at him reminded Seiya of tissue paper after it was used.

Fragile, white, precious paper crumpled and tired after use.

Pitiful.

It was only later that he regretted thinking of Yaten in this way.

He was slumped forward and he wouldn’t lift his head to look at him again. It was as if wings were supposed to spring out from his back and engulf him within their protective depths. He would have curled up in a fetal position and he would have looked like an angel.

An angel snatched from flight.

Of course, Seiya couldn’t really be angry with Yaten when he looked like that.

The crinkling of the plastic wrapper caught Yaten’s attention and he lifted his head when he felt it nudge against his hair.

Seiya was holding out the plastic wrapper containing the two crinkles to him. He smiled a bit, his lips turning up like it always did in his familiar grin.

“Try some. I insist.”

Yaten was clearly confused suddenly, but complied with Seiya’s insistence after a bit of consideration and a moment of hesitation. He reached into the plastic and took one crinkle, biting into it afterwards. He was still looking at Seiya as he ate the crinkle. After he swallowed, Seiya asked him,

“Was it good?”

Yaten shrugged, but not without his usual nonchalance.

“I suppose it is.”

“You could have the last one.”

Yaten was of course quick to decline the invitation. “No, thank you.”

“Come on.” Seiya urged, shaking the plastic with the last crinkle inside almost to Yaten’s face. “You liked it, you can have it.”

Yaten looked ready to protest again and he looked warily at Seiya when he shook the plastic again. And with that sounded like the most world-weary sigh, the smaller Light took the plastic and popped the whole crinkle into his mouth. Seiya watched him eat the sweet and didn’t let up until the other had swallowed it.

“There, you happy?” Yaten asked just because he had to and sounding so much like the old grouchy imp that he was. He was frowning a bit at his fellow Light and he had his arms crossed over his chest. He looked like a child made to eat his “yucky” vegetables.

Seiya almost wanted to laugh at the sight of him.

“I’m not happy.” Seiya told him, watching as the frown on Yaten’s face darkened ominously and he tried desperately to keep from laughing. He leaned on the table with his fingers linked loosely before him as he smirked at the frowning silver-haired Light. His tone was playful when he said, “A shrimp wasn’t supposed to eat them.”

Then the frown on Yaten’s face turned into glare so swiftly just the way he always did. Seiya actually heard him growl and he saw how the other was trying to say something quick to him.

“Why you—“

Yaten’s lime green eyes widened like nothing Seiya had ever seen before, but he didn’t see what happened next since he closed his eyes. He liked to have his eyes closed when he was kissing someone. It made things much more intimate and he was able to focus on how it felt.

Yaten tasted of chocolate from the crinkles and a bit of mint. His lips were thin and soft underneath his, even if he didn’t move them. Clearly, he had taken the usually outspoken Light by surprise.

When Seiya moved away, he wasn’t surprised by the bewildered expression on his companion’s face. He smiled softly, almost teasingly over at his Yaten (goodness, that sounded good didn’t it?) just before he rose from the table to turn in for the night.

“Ne, but I think I’ll be able to take it if my Shrimp ate my crinkles.” He mused before turning around and making a show of stretching as he headed to his room. He was not staying for explanations of why he did that as well like Yaten did the month before. Ah yes, White Day tomorrow… “Oyasumi, ‘Ten~chan!”

“Oi Seiya.”

Seiya turned abruptly when he heard Yaten call him. He was a bit put out that the silver-haired tormentor was able to recover from the kiss so quickly, but then Yaten was smiling his small, mysterious smile again as he sat back smugly on his chair.

“My chocolates.” Yaten told him, smiling still and making Seiya want to kill or kiss him depending on what happened next. “I want them white and I don’t like the cheap ones. I want Toblerone you hear me?”

“Well aren’t you a damn lot demanding, my little Shrimp?” Seiya asked in a saccharine voice that dripped sarcasm.

“Hmp.” Yaten closed his eyes and smirked. Yes, Seiya wanted to kill him this time. “Your Shrimp happens to be of the high class variety. I won’t settle for less than the best.”

Seiya glared at his Shrimp as he approached with that infuriating smile on his face and a teasing glint in his eye.

“I knew for a second there that I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

“Ah, but that’s love for you, my Darling Idiot.” Yaten told him in accented English. “It doesn’t come cheap.”

“Who said I loved you?”

Yaten flipped his hair over his shoulder in that overconfident way of his as he stopped in front of his frowning Darling Idiot. “Well, maybe not now, but you’ll come to love me. They always come around.”

Seiya sighed, tired suddenly, but somehow not really regretting what he did by sealing their fate by kissing this infuriating silver-haired imp. Who knows what could happen next after all?

And who knew Seiya’s forgiveness for Yaten would turn into this?

Seiya didn’t know how either. Another mystery of life, but again, who knew where this would lead?

The dark haired Light sighed again as he grinned lopsidedly at his expectant looking friend and possibly more.

“For now, I’ll just be your Valentine all right, Shrimp?”

“Very well. But you’re still going to have to give me chocolates for the future. You will come to love me, Seiya.” Yaten was still smirking in that self-confident way of his, but Seiya noted something different in his eyes. They held a solemn promise.

“You will.”

And Seiya was never really one to doubt what those he cared for said.