Chocobaby - A Nino One-shot
He should’ve seen it coming.
From the first time that she did something of that sort, he should have seen it coming.
He should’ve…but he didn’t.
***
Nino remembers how they met. It was the oddest of circumstances but, somehow, their paths crossed. Since then, one odd circumstance came after another as though it was she who was the source of all oddity.
It surprised him how his friends were so taken by her.
Ohno was the first one she met among his friends. They didn’t say much to each other and just silently watched TV. But after watching the fishing channel together and Ohno laughing at her remarks, by the end of the hour they were like best friends. Oh-chan even promised to take her fishing with him.
She met Jun and Aiba next. Nino expected her personality to easily jive with Jun’s, but he didn’t expect her to get along with Aiba. Nino believed that any girl who read fashion magazines and smelled good all the time would get along with Jun. It just made sense to him.
But Aiba and her? Nino expected them to clash and to hate each other’s guts. After a conversation about her favorite stuffed panda bear and all the other panda-related stories that Aiba has up on his sleeve, Aiba has convinced her to join an organization that helped save pandas. They even have a matching panda necklace now-which Nino thinks is just ridiculous.
Sho was the last one she met since he was often busy with work and school. It was during Nino’s birthday that the two finally met. She kept silent while Sho jabbered on about economics, occasionally nodding and saying “Oh really?” like she was really interested in the topic even though she wasn’t…and Sho could tell.
Nino thought that, finally, she didn’t get along with a friend of his. But he was wrong.
The two were paired up for a game of Visionary and they won against him and Jun. Nino found it incredulous that she understood every drawing and every charade done by Sho. He decided right then and there that perhaps she was very smart.
***
Because she became friends with his friends, the odds of them running into each other went up to 70%, excluding the fact that she’s friends with his sister who constantly invited her to their house for their private lessons.
If Nino summed it up, it was like the only time he didn’t see her was when he was asleep or in the bathroom. He wondered how long it would take for him to get sick of her face and her presence.
He guessed that it would be about two months before she finally expires.
***
He should’ve seen it coming.
Nino just stared at the jar and found himself unable to say anything to her for the first time in the six months that they have known each other. Six months… four months past her expected expiration date.
He realized on the third month that perhaps he wasn’t all that indifferent about her. He was probably as taken by her as her friends were, he just didn’t know it.
By the fourth month, he decided that he wasn’t going to get sick of her anytime soon.
Nino looked at the jar again.
***
The first time she did something of that sort was when Ohno had his gummy bear phase-the one when he was often in a state of nothingness while chewing on a gummy bear.
It turns out that she, too, was addicted to the gummy goodness and Ohno generously shared his bears with her. It was their popcorn while watching the fishing channel.
One day she asked Ohno what his favorite gummy bear was.
“I like them all,” was Ohno’s answer.
“Yeah, but which one seems to make you want to chew on it longer?”
“Hmm…I guess…the yellow ones.”
When she learned this, she started to save all her yellow gummy bears for Ohno.
***
“I didn’t see this one coming.” Nino told her.
“Well…” she smiled. “That only goes to show that you’re not as sharp as some people cut you out to be.”
He smirked and held the glass jar closer to his face so he could see the contents better. He wasn’t sure if it was real.
***
“Yatta!” the girl exclaimed as she stretched an arm up. She was holding something tiny between her thumb and forefinger.
“What is it?”
She plopped down next to him on the sofa and showcased the source of her happiness.
“I got one with a smiley face on it.” She said proudly. She placed the tiny piece of chocolate at the center of her palm and held it out for Nino to see.
The tiny chocolate smiled at Nino.
“Those things have smileys?”
Her jaw dropped and she stared at him in disbelief.
“You didn’t know? Seriously, Kazu-kun, you should go out and discover the wonderful world of chocolates a lot more. I think you could use some chocolate in your life. Chocolates make people happy.”
“Chocolates make you happy. Don’t generalize it.”
She laughed and held the chocolate between her fingers again. She looked at Nino with a small smile and handed him the smiley-faced chocolate.
“Here, have my chocobaby.” She said.
***
That was also the day she started calling Nino “chocobaby”-much to the amusement of his friends, who all happen to have their own nicknames from her already. Nino was the last one to have a nickname.
“So you finally got a term of endearment, huh? Good for you.” teased Sho.
“Yeah…” Jun agreed. “How long did it take? Six weeks? We had our nicknames the day we became close with her.”
“Perhaps we were wrong, ne?” said Aiba.
Nino frowned and looked at his friend inquiringly. Ohno answered for him.
“Perhaps she doesn’t like you as much as we think she does, since she gave you a nickname just now.”
Nino didn’t think much of what his friends told him that day.
***
That was six weeks after they met. Now it has been six months, and Nino still couldn’t believe that he didn’t see it coming.
Almost every day for six months he would see her. Eighty-nine percent of the time it was unintentional. The remaining 11% were the rare times when he would actually call her up when he was bored and ask her to come and play video games with him. He didn’t realize-or maybe refused to realize-then that he just simply missed her…that what he really wanted was to see her again.
Without him realizing it, she had been the key ingredient to his day. He liked playing games with her and he didn’t mind that, after a while, she was using his game console a lot more than he was.
He liked that she was always dumbstruck whenever he shows her a card trick, and liked it even better when it was he who was dumbstruck when she showed him a card trick-even though it was just something simple that someone taught her once.
He liked that she would sometimes eat from his bowl of ramen because says she doesn’t like noodles very much and it would be a waste to buy an entire bowl just for herself.
He liked it too when he would eat from her plate and she’ll give him this “How-dare-you-touch-my-food?” look, but would soon be putting food on her plate for him too.
He liked all the little things she did. He just didn’t know that all those little things have now accumulated and reached a degree that told Nino-in a very soft, almost undetectable whisper-that she didn’t have an expiration date.
He was never going to get sick of her. Ever.
And that, in fact, she already had him at day one when she won over his mother when his sister first invited her to come to their house for their lessons.
Nino just wasn’t aware of it. He was never aware of anything when he was with her.
***
But he was aware now.
“Kurisumasu omedetou gozaimasu!” she cheered.
Nino just looked at the sticker-decorated jar she gave him and bowed a thank you.
“Come on, open it! Have some choco, baby!” she said, laughing at her own pun. “Don’t just stare at it. I gave those to you for you to eat.”
Nino opened the lid and looked inside and it was confirmed that the chocolate inside was true. Every piece inside was true.
“How did you-“
“I’m awesome, I know.” She laughed. “You know you love me.”
He looked inside the jar again and then at her. He still couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Are these…”
“Chocobabies for the chocobaby.” She said with a proud grin. “One smiling chocobaby for every time that you made me happy.”
Nino looked at the jar in his hands. It was the size of a large peanut butter jar and it was filled to the brim with the little pieces of chocobaby…all with smiley-faces, none plain.
“For… every time that I…”
He couldn’t breathe. His heart was beating too fast inside his chest. His hands and knees were trembling and he felt as though he was going to fall if he didn’t hold on to something immediately.
Or perhaps that was exactly what he was feeling. That he has already fallen.
He didn’t see it coming. He held the jar tighter between his hands in fear of losing his grip and breaking it. She stepped closer to him and placed her hands over his on the side of the jar, like she knew it was just what he needed.
She smiled at him and shrugged.
“What can I say? Chocobaby makes me happy.”
He smiled back and looked in her eyes, making a mental note that there’s one more little thing added to the many little things he liked about her-her stupid puns. He took in every detail of her, every detail of that moment.
“Well, you’re right about one thing, and wrong about another.” He told her-the first complete sentence he managed to say to her that day.
“What do you mean?”
He looked at the jar and laughed.
“Chocolates do make people happy.”
Her eyes brightened and she nodded.
“I told you so.” She said with a smirk. “What am I wrong about then?”
Nino leaned his forehead on hers and closed his eyes, his heart finally slowing down to normal beats per minute.
“I didn’t know I loved you…” he whispered softly. “…but I do now.”
He closed the gap between them and planted a kiss on her lips.
~o~o~o~
A/N: For those who want to know what the Chocobabies look like, click here and here.