Sweet Surprise

Aki tried really hard not to look out the window towards the Kurotama bath on Halloween night, but it was quite clear it was being even harder to Haru. He couldn't blame him. It was hard not to wish they were at the Halloween Party with everyone. But they couldn't just ditch their fans and their job either.

They both sighed as they entered their dressing room, but weren't expecting the two small boxes, one pink, the other red, waiting for them on top of the table. They expected it to be some gift from a fan but, when they walked up to it, the little note set underneath one of the boxes proved otherwise.

"We felt bad that you two couldn't come to the party with us, so everyone picked a bunch of candy for you in the pink box! The red one is a bunch of cupcakes I made by myself! Happy Halloween~!" - Yumoto

Aki couldn't help but smile at the note, along with the small doodle of Yumoto doing peace signs right beside his signature. He had to admit it was quite charming.

Without saying anything, Haru opened the pink box. But he immediately beamed as he pulled out a few from the box. "Look!" He handed Aki one of the chocolates that was inside, Aki's favorite kind of chocolate, actually. And Haru had found one of his favorite lollipops in the box as well.

Taking a better view of the contents, Aki could clearly tell there was a lot of variety in the box. He could already imagine who had bought the more expensive ones, or the generic ones, or the fancier ones. But he couldn't really tell who would have guessed their favorites…

He decided to open the red box, and was pleasantly surprised by how nice they looked and smelled. They all had varying icing decorations: Aki's sun symbol; Haru's moon symbol; many of them had hearts, each in different colors; and there were even some with Wombat's face on them.

"Did he really make these alone?" Haru asked, analysing one of the Wombat ones.

"Hm…" He looked at the same cupcake, and it didn't take much time to notice Yumoto's hand had apparently trembled while trying to make one of his ears. Or that one of his eyes had turned out slightly bigger than the other. They had certainly been made by an amateur. "They certainly aren't perfect, though."

"You think he practiced?"

"That must have been the case…" Aki remembered when Yumoto had asked them to help him make cupcakes for Atsushi's birthday. They had certainly not turned out as good as those, even considering only the smell and the way they looked. "Well, the only way to know is trying them."

They each grabbed one cupcake, picking the ones that had their symbols on them. Just by undoing the wrapping, and seeing the cake wasn't falling apart immediately, Aki could tell they were better than the ones Yumoto had made in the past.

He finally took the first bite, and it was surprisingly very pleasant. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't too dry or too wet either. And the chocolate taste was certainly good. He couldn't help but smile about it.

He looked over at Haru, noticing how his cheeks had turned red. Aki chuckled. "Why are you all red?"

"I-I'm not red!"

"Yes you are."

Haru didn't reply after that, just kept eating his cupcake while looking away from Aki completely. Aki just left him be, not really wanting to tease him any further.

It was weird for both of them, the process of getting closer to Yumoto. But Haru was much more easily flustered by it. It had taken them a while to realise that not hating him didn't feel that bad.

And thinking of Yumoto… Aki realised that he must have been very proud of making those. He remembered how disappointed he had been the last time he tried. But seeing how the new ones had turned out… He could even imagine Yumoto's proud smile.

He smiled at the thought. To think they had gotten close enough for Aki to feel like he knew what Yumoto's reactions were.

He glanced at the still wrapped chocolate Haru had given him, and he remembered something… Just two months ago they had told Yumoto what their favorite candies were. It was very likely Yumoto had picked those specific candies on purpose, but it had been so long…

"Crap!" Haru caught his attention. "We're running out of time."

Aki looked at the clock on the wall, and immediately stood up and shoved whatever was left of his cake into his mouth. The boxes had been so distracting they completely forgot they were supposed to be getting ready to be onstage.

"They'll be watching, right?" Haru asked, almost in a mumbling tone.

Aki had almost forgotten their show would also be broadcast on TV. The thought of everyone still being able to see them at their own party made him quite happy. "Of course they will."

The Halloween Party at Yumoto's place had been going quite well. Some of them were even quite surprised that nobody had argued the whole night.

But things had gotten quite lively when the twins' concert had started. Yumoto had immediately turned on the TV and grabbed the lightsticks he had gotten a few weeks earlier.

He wasn't the only one enjoying the show, of course. Ryuu and Akoya also seemed quite excited with the show themselves. But they all had seen how excited Yumoto had been even before Halloween. They had seen how disappointed he was when Aki and Haru said they wouldn't be able to show up to the party, and then how happy he was when he had his idea about the candies and cupcakes. (And all of them had fallen victims of his attempts at making said cupcakes. Really, the twins should be grateful they didn't have to go through all of those as well.) But his joy at getting them right was almost contagious. Specially his smile as he wondered if the twins would like them.

It was certainly something they would expect from Yumoto. And it was hard for the party not to get even more lively with him constantly singing and dancing along with the TV.