The Gift of Love

Hisoka glared at the small, neatly wrapped package on his desk. For four days in a row, he had found an item like this waiting for him when he arrived at his desk. He looked around. There was no-one to be seen, so he picked the package up and shook it. There was a dull rattle, but nothing that gave any sort of clue as to the contents. Given what he had received on previous days, he couldn’t even predict what it might be – there had been a mixed bunch.

On Monday, the first day of the gifts, there had been a cupcake with a bow tied around the base. Thinking it had been mistakenly placed on his desk, Hisoka immediately moved it to Tsuzuki’s desk. The cake was gratefully received and quickly eaten. On Tuesday, Hisoka arrived to find a sprig of heather. An unusual gift, but a pretty one nevertheless. It was then that it occurred to him that the cupcake from the previous day might have been meant for him. He didn’t bother mentioning it to Tsuzuki. Wednesday brought a small plush rabbit, chewing upon a carrot. Hisoka wasn’t too keen on stuffed animals so he stashed it in his bottom drawer until he could find someone who would appreciate it more than he.

Now it was Thursday and the small box had turned up. Gently, Hisoka pulled on the ribbon, then lifted the box lid and peered inside. Nestled on a piece of dark purple material was a vaguely heart shaped pebble. The giver – whoever that may be – had carefully painted a happy face onto the pebble. He raised an eyebrow.

“Oh well,” he muttered. “I needed a paperweight.”

Pragmatic as ever, Hisoka placed the pebble on top of a pile of papers. He looked up in time to see Tsuzuki striding into the room, a dusting of sugar around his lips and a smear of red syrup on his askew tie.

“What is it today then?” Tsuzuki immediately made his way over to Hisoka and scanned his eyes over the desk, looking for something that hadn’t been there before.

“Oh, it’s that pen!”

“No Tsuzuki. You have one just like it,” Hisoka pointed to Tsuzuki’s desk. “Which you would know if you ever actually bothered to pick it up. By the way, you have sugar all over your chin.”

Tsuzuki wiped his face, still looking at the desk. Eventually, he looked up at Hisoka and shrugged.

“I give up.” His eyes followed Hisoka’s finger until his sight landed on the pebble. “Oh, pretty.”

Hisoka had no idea of who had been leaving the gifts and it was beginning to irk him somewhat. He might have suspected Tsuzuki, had it not been for the cupcake on the first day. Of course, he also had to take into consideration that Tsuzuki lacked both the intelligence and subtlety to pull off such a stunt. Hisoka started to think that Watari or Tatsumi might be the culprit. That theory was firmly knocked on the head when, in need of some supplies Hisoka had opened the stationery cupboard to find Watari on his knees and Tatsumi standing there with a blissful expression. Luckily, Hisoka slammed the door shut before he could see anything else. With the three most obvious suspects ruled out, Hisoka wondered if he was the butt of some elaborate joke. Then along came Friday.

“Wow!” Tsuzuki exclaimed when he entered the small office he shared with Hisoka. “Um, is it your birthday or something?”

The entire room was filled with some sort of decoration. Pink and silver balloons hovered around the ceiling, streamers had been slung over the coat rack and the backs of their chairs, and sparkly confetti was scattered all over the desks and shelves.

“No,” brushing confetti off the seat of his chair, Hisoka sat down. “And this lot isn’t the worst of it. Look above the door.”

Tsuzuki turned, tilted his head upwards and grinned a very broad, very self-satisfied grin. Strung up over the door was a brightly coloured banner that read, ‘I love you, Hisoka’. Wiping the smile from his face, Tsuzuki turned back to his partner.

“Sweet. Wonder who loves you?”

Their possible speculation was interrupted by a courier, delivering an envelope and package for Hisoka. The boy sighed, signed his name and accepted the items. He tore open the envelope and pulled out the note within.

“What is it?” crumbs sprayed from Tsuzuki’s mouth as he spoke around a mouthful of chocolate cake.

“An invitation. To dinner,” Hisoka turned the note over. “Tonight.”

“Oh, so your secret admirer wants to meet? Are you going to go?”

Hisoka shot Tsuzuki a sour look and picked up the package.

“There is a tuxedo in here. In my size. Don’t you think that’s a little creepy, Tsuzuki? To me, it says less secret admirer and more stalker.”

“I think it sounds romantic. Come on, aren’t you in the least bit curious to find out who has been sending you all this stuff?

Hisoka was curious as it happened. Very curious. What kind of person sent clothing along with an invitation to a date? Well, Hisoka was going to go. He would meet his secret admirer/stalker and give them a piece of his mind. And he would absolutely not wear the tux.

Standing in front of the mirror, Hisoka checked that his bow tie was straight and grabbed the tuxedo jacket. He tugged it onto his shoulders and walked out of the office. Tsuzuki had ducked out of work hours earlier, claiming a prior engagement. Hisoka suspected that the man was just using that as an excuse to spend a lazy afternoon at home. He rolled his eyes at the thought of his work-shy partner. Hopefully his date wouldn’t turn out to be like that. Wait. What was he thinking? He was only going along to tell this person to stop sending him gifts. Okay, so there was the curiosity as well, after all it would be interesting to have an insight into the psyche of the person who sent those kinds of gifts.

This was a bad sign. Hisoka arrived at the restaurant only to find it closed. He was certain now that this was all a big joke and somewhere, someone was having an almighty laugh at him. He’d gone to all the effort of wearing the tux – as instructed – had travelled to earth, had found this restaurant and it was all so someone could have a good giggle at his expense. Fury and shame welled up within him.

“Hey!” a perky voice piped up beside him.

“Tsuzuki! I should have known it was you. You appeared too innocent to be true.” Hisoka rounded on his partner, all the anger and embarrassment evident in the venom in his voice. Tsuzuki held up his hands and took a step backwards.

“Woah, why are you so angry?”

“You and your jokes. Where are the others?” Hisoka looked behind Tsuzuki. “Hiding somewhere having a great laugh?” He tried to stop the tremble in his voice, but he couldn’t fully disguise his upset. Damnit, he had a right to be upset. He realised that he’d been looking forward to this. Underneath the apathy he’d felt towards the gifts, the annoyance at being told what to wear, the confusion at the mystery suitor, it had felt nice. More than nice in fact and now, it had all come crashing down around him. Quite spectacularly too.

“Hisoka?” a feather light touch to his cheek and Hisoka was back to reality. He hadn’t even noticed he was crying until Tsuzuki wiped a tear from his face.

“I’m truly sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just though it would be more romantic this way.” The man looked down at his feet, bashful and wary of Hisoka’s reaction.

“What?”

“You’re right. I was behind everything but I promise you, it definitely wasn’t a joke.” Tsuzuki reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a rose, holding it out to Hisoka. The younger male looked at the rose then gently lifted his hand towards it. He appeared to be almost afraid to touch it.

“But…why?”

“Remember what the banner said? I love you, Hisoka. I have done for a very long time and I want you to be mine,” smiling shyly, Tsuzuki gave Hisoka the rose. “How about it? Will you at least have dinner with me?”

“The restaurant is closed.”

A pink flush formed on Tsuzuki’s cheeks.

“Ah well, the balloons and stuff kinda wiped me out, so I was thinking that dinner would be from there.” Hisoka followed the direction of Tsuzuki’s pointing finger. Across the road from the restaurant was a hot dog stand.

“Okay. Why not? I’m here and I’m hungry.”

“Great!”

“But I’m not making any promises. It’s just dinner,” Hisoka chuckled at Tsuzuki’s hangdog expression. “For now anyway.”

The man immediately brightened and the pair crossed the road.

As they sat in a park, contentedly eating their hot dogs, something dawned on Hisoka.

“Hey – you bought me a cupcake and ate it yourself.”

“I love you…”

“Pfft. You’ll say anything to get yourself out of trouble.”

The end.