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After the sun sank below the horizon, and the campus grew dark, Yuu stepped outside and waited by the gates of Ramshackle. Sure enough, the air soon filled with green sparkles, and Hornton joined them, holding a box of pocky, and explained why after he greeted them, “Lilia tells me there is some human celebration around this snack. Apparently it involves some manner of game, but he didn’t explain what. I don’t suppose you learned anything about it from your classmates?”
Somehow, Yuu was more surprised to learn Twisted Wonderland also had Pocky Day than they had been to find out they also celebrated Halloween. They answered Hornton quickly, “Actually this exists back home too. I can teach you the pocky game, if you want?” Hornton nodded smiling, and Yuu opened up the box and pulled a stick out. They had been harboring a crush on their charming, elusive visitor for a while now, but had no idea how he felt about them. They didn’t even know his name! And from some of the things he said, they had put together that he almost definitely wasn’t human, and was probably some kind of fae, which they had heard from a few people apparently existed in this world. Even if he was interested in dating a human, who knew if his romantic customs would even be recognizable to them, or vice versa? This could be a fun way to gauge if he shared certain things in common with them, and if he did, how receptive he was to those things, coming from them. “You take one end of the pocky in your mouth, and I take the other. We’ll take turns moving down the stick until one of us breaks it. Whoever gets to eat the most pocky wins.”
Hornton blinked, “That seems too easy for whoever gets the first turn. What’s the catch?”
“How about you go first and find out?” Yuu bit gently on the chocolate-covered end of the snack, sat up in the stone wall so he wouldn’t have to bend so far, and waited. For a moment, it looked like Hornton really was going to just take the entire pocky at once, but halfway to them seemed to realize how close their faces were, blushed, and stopped there. So fae did have kissing, and considered it at least intimate enough to embarrass him, even he had been a little slow on the uptake there. Equally interesting was the way even the pointed tips of his ears turned pink, and how his slit pupils widened when they made eye contact.
It was Yuu’s move now. When they had played the game with a now ex-girlfriend back home, they had liked to surprise her by making exactly the move Hornton had threatened, claiming the bulk of the snack and a kiss at the same time. Something about Hornton’s reaction made them want to draw it out little, though, so they moved forward by barely an inch. Hornton would have to draw in closer by his own volition, or else break off early.
He opted to move forward, but only barely. However, when Yuu responded in kind and moved an even shorter distance towards him, he huffed, and took enough of the snack that there was only a fraction of an inch between them. A moment later his fluster caught back up with him, and he blushed even further. His face was too close now to really see his expression, but from his eyes and action, Yuu could see he clearly wanted them to be the one to close the gap. They leaned in until there was barely any pocky left between them, and Yuu took in the way his pupils had blow out so large that almost none of the green of his eyes could be seen. Briefly, they considered taking pity on him and the way his lips had parted slightly in anticipation. Instead, they bit the snack in two, and hopped back down onto the ground before he could react. “Well, looks like you have the bigger piece! Want a rematch?”
“I— That is— ” Hornton stammered, but before he could answer, they both heard the raised voices of a pair of Diasomnia students who sometimes patrolled nearby, presumably looking for dorm mates straying out past curfew like Hornton clearly was. Instead he hastily bid them good night and disappeared, leaving Yuu with the overwhelming desire to keep teasing him, whenever they next met.