The Love Project (ShuichixKokichi)

Shuichi's Antenna

Shuichi works sluggishly through his classes, waiting for lunch time. For some reason, today he was especially excited for lunch.

Finally, the lunch bell rings and Shuichi quickly packs up his things. As he packs his things, Kaede stops to wait for him.

"You seem eager to get to lunch today," Kaede says in her usual happy voice.

"Oh, do I?" Shuichi says, pulling his backpack onto his back.

"Hmm... Are you perhaps... excited to see someone?" She teases, raising an eyebrow. She leads the way out of the classroom and into the hallway.

Kokichi immediately pops into the detective's head. Gah! Shuichi shakes his head. After what Maki and Kaito has said this morning, his mind kept thinking weird things. He was excited to see Kokichi? No way!

"I don't know..." the detective mumbles, putting a finger to his mouth.

"Ooooo! Who?!" Kaede ecstatically questions, leaning into Shuichi's personal space. "Come on! Tell me!"

"Um.. I'm not-"

"Is it Rantaro?!" Kaede interupts.

What? Rantaro? Why would he be excited to see Rantaro?

"You two've gotten awfully close lately!" She continues.

Shuichi pauses. He wasn't really excited to see Rantaro. He wasn't excited to see anyone in particular. At least he thought he wasn't, but now that he was thinking about it, maybe he was? No, no!

The detective shakes himself out of his thoughts. He needed to stop over analyzing every little thing people told him. Kaede was just being her intrusive, matchmaker self.

"No, I'm just hungry," Shuichi sighs. Kaede's face dims, but there was still a little flicker of light in her eyes. That scared Shuichi.

"If you say so~" She sings.

The two enter the cafeteria and look for the others. Shuichi spots Kaito and Maki sitting at their usual table. Shuichi walks over and sits across from the two.

Maki holds Kaito back with her hand on his face as he holds his arms out in a hugging motion. The assassin's face is a light shade of red.

"C'mon Maki Roll! Just one kiss!" Kaito begs, swinging his arms around in an attempt to get around the girl.

"Do you wanna die?" the brown haired girl growls. Kaito just laughs and tries to pull her arm away.

"Aww! You guys are adorable!" Kaede squeals, plopping herself down beside them.

"Thanks!" Kaito grins. "But I think we would be cuter if Maki gave me kiss~!"

"In your dreams," Maki grumbles. She puts her chin in her hand and covers her mouth, but not before Shuichi catches a glimpse of a smile.

Just then, Shuichi feels a hand on his shoulder. Again? Kokichi's been very touchy lately. The detective could already feel his face turning red.

The blue haired boy turns to look at the little leader, but to his surprise, it wasn't Kokichi. It was the ultimate survivor.

"Oh!" Shuichi gasps. "I thought you were someone else,"

"Aw, sorry. I didn't mean to scary you," Rantaro says coolly. He gives Shuichi's shoulder a slight squeeze, which makes Shuichi squirm.

"It's okay..." Shuichi says, awkwardly looking to the side. Shuichi subtly moves his shoulder to hint at Rantaro to let go, but he either doesn't get the hint or ignores it as he sits down next to the detective, hand still on his shoulder. For some reason, Shuichi's heart was pounding.