Valentine’s Day in Japan is a very celebrated day. Traditionally, the girls and women give homemade chocolates, or store-bought, to the boys and men on February 14. Then on White Day, March 14, the boys and men will return the favor.
How does this work in an all-boys school? Interestingly, the Internet is chock full of ultra-cute videos and pictures of the boys giving chocolates to the other boys as they also want to get in the spirit of this cherished holiday. It’s enough to slay the fujoshi or fudanshi’s heart who watches them.
At St. Catherine’s, it works a little differently. On both days, the school holds classes in its many kitchens to teach the boys how to make chocolates. On Valentine’s Day, the ukes will give chocolates to their semes and other ukes; however, ukes will avoid giving chocolates to any other seme but their own. On White Day, the semes will give chocolates to their ukes, and even sometimes give chocolates to other semes if they are really good friends, but they won’t give chocolates to other seme’s ukes.
Bottom line: “Where there’s chocolate, there’s love.”
—Valentine’s Day at St. Catherine’s
Kato didn’t knock. He gently turned the handle with his free hand and peeked in. The desk lamp was on and Takahashi was sitting on his bunk in his boxers playing on his guitar, without the amp.
Kato felt he should at least be polite and gave a greeting. Takahashi looked up and nodded, watching Kato come in.
“What’s all that?” he asked.
“I need to finish up my project for tomorrow. At 8 o’clock, I need to run to the education building and give them my work so that they can post it. I hope my scratchings will be good enough.” Kato said, humbly.
“Let me see,” Takahashi said. His voice was quite coarse still.
Kato showed him the half-completed image of Ruriko Temple’s five-storied pagoda. Kato would have liked to do some crazy detail but that would have taken a considerable amount of time, so he opted to keep it simple, creating a stark contrast between the detail of the pagoda with the lack of detail of the surrounding area, making the pagoda stand out nicely. Even Kato was a little happy with his work on this.
“Amazing,” Takahashi breathed. “I knew you could draw but this is incredible.”
Kato smiled and felt his cheeks warm a little under the praise of Takahashi. “I could do better if I had the time and the right materials. I got enough to make do but higher quality tools would have been nice.”
Takahashi handed the paper back and Kato cleared a section on the desk, stacking Takahashi’s sheet music neatly to the side. He then continued to work on the project for another hour as Takahashi played on his guitar. They each did their own thing in comfortable silence.
Takahashi put his guitar away and laid down on his side, facing Kato, simply watching him. He would cough from time to time, but it seemed to be less severe than it was this morning. Kato decided to not do the sixth drawing. He spent far too much time on the pagoda so five would have to do.
Kato tidied up his stuff then went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready for bed. He was quite tired after the long day. When he returned to the room, Takahashi was turned facing the wall. Kato undressed to his boxers, doing it quietly. He grabbed his plushie and tried to quietly get in the top bunk.
“What are you doing?” Takahashi asked?
“Going to bed.” Kato replied softly.
“You can sleep with me.” Takahashi said.
Kato’s heart raced. He wanted this so badly. He got down off the bunk and Takahashi had pulled back the covers. Kato could see that Takahashi wasn’t wearing any underwear. Kato quickly took his off and climbed into bed. He pulled the covers over and spooned up to Takahashi, skin against skin. Kato’s heart caught fire again and he almost shed a tear of happiness. He put his arm around Takahashi and his hand on his chest, holding him close.
They laid like that for a little while before Takahashi spoke up. “I’m sorry about earlier. A lot going on that’s got me in a bad mood and being sick sucks.”
Kato gently kissed the back of Takahashi’s neck. He noticed that this elicited a wave of goosebumps on Takahashi. “I’m sorry I got you sick,” Kato apologized.
Takahashi coughed a bit. Kato rubbed Takahashi’s chest gently. He was as close as he could possibly be to his wolf and yet he still craved to be closer. It had been three days since they had sex and Kato’s body was letting his mind know that it was ready, willing, and able. There was an eagerness to it, a pressure that needed to be released. He was horny, he admitted to himself. But he willed it away as he knew Takahashi was not well enough to be doing anything. So, he contented himself to simply hold Takahashi in his embrace.
“I love you, Ren. I didn’t spend three weeks just to kick you to the curb,” Takahashi said quietly.
Kato squeezed a little. “I didn’t mean what I said. I was frustrated. I love you, Ken, more than anything, and I’ve missed being close with you, is all. I think you’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a very long while.” Kato gently kissed one of the bruises on Takahashi’s back, eliciting more goosebumps.
“Thanks,” Takahashi said.
“Why didn’t you want me to move in?” Kato asked softly.
Takahashi was quiet for a minute. “We barely know each other,” he said.
“What?” Kato asked. “I know plenty of things about you,” Kato complained.
“Like what? That I can sing? I suck at ping pong? I’m good at baseball?” Takahashi coughed.
Kato really didn’t want to argue, so he thought to lighten the mood by saying, “You’re good in bed.”
Takahashi started laughing and coughing at that comment. Kato laughed along with him.
After a bout of coughing, Takahashi said, “In all seriousness, we’ve known each other almost a month. I want to date you longer before we move in together. We fight a lot and I hoped that if you decided that you didn’t want to see me anymore, at least you would have that option since you’re not living with me.”
“I see.” Kato wondered at that for a moment. It seemed sensible, yet still disappointing. “I thought it was the other way around. I figured you were already tired of me.”
“Well, again, it’s only been three weeks. Give yourself some credit. I’ll probably be tired of you after the fourth week.” Takahashi started snickering.
Kato gently smacked Takahashi’s arm before putting his hand back on Takahashi’s chest. “You think you’re so funny, don’t you?” Kato asked playfully.
“I think we’ll get to swap a lot more. Something is going on between Xan-san and Handa-san,” Takahashi said.
“Yeah, I don’t get it. I thought they were fighting, and Handa-san was injured and today they were walking with me like nothing happened.”
“They were walking with you?” Takahashi asked.
“Well, Xan-san was, and Handa-san was following him,” Kato replied.
“Ren, I would have let you move in if I had known Handa-san would have been your roommate. For that I am sorry. I don’t know how he got out of segregation.”
“Let’s not worry about it anymore. I wanna spend this time with you, not thinking about that jerk.” Kato began rubbing Takahashi’s soft tummy.
After a little while, Takahashi’s breathing became regular and shallow as he fell asleep. Kato was pleased that Takahashi felt so comfortable that he could fall asleep in Kato’s arms. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep too.
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Crescent Moon Translations 
It’s nice when people don’t say hurtful words at all, but that isn’t realistic. The true sign of progress is when they can acknowledge where they were hurtful and move forward. It’s refreshing to see good communication portrayed in a story, specifically where it is evolving to be better .
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