Under the bright lights of the dorm kitchen, Zero Two quietly hummed a jaunty little tune as she stirred a rather large pot of chocolate over the stove.

Beside her, a hyper-concentrated Miku was cutting a baking sheet of brownies into equal pieces, and behind the two was Ichigo, carefully decorating various cookies with intricate icing designs. The three were completely oblivious to anything except the sugary confections they were making, yet were somehow still able to perfectly maneuver around the two other girls they were sharing the kitchen with as they went about their business of making their sweets.

Letting out the breath of air she wasn't aware she had been holding, Ichigo all but collapsed onto the counter she had spent the last hour or so hunched over - careful to avoid crushing her cookies of course. "Finally done…" she sighed in relief.

Miku rather loudly 'hmph'-ed, knocking her hip into Ichigo's side as she carried her brownies over to where the shorter girl was. "Then get out of the way, you're taking up space."

With the very mature response of sticking out her tongue at the auburn-haired girl, Ichigo gathered up her cookies and carried them to another counter where various types of wrapping paper and assorted materials lied. As she began to slip her cookies into little plastic bags with cute kitten designs, she glanced at Zero Two.

"You okay there, Zero Two?"

The taller girl had been the last of the three girls to start working in the kitchen and it was getting pretty dark out, so Ichigo a bit worried as to how late Zero Two would stay up making her chocolates. She knew the other girl well, and Zero Two's own personal health was not something she paid very much attention to when she was concentrating on something.

Zero Two looked up from studying her bowl of chocolate to flash a bright grin at the concerned Ichigo. "I'll be fine! Don't worry about me!" Ichigo refrained from commenting on the streaks of chocolate that had already found themselves on her cheeks, and instead settled for a kindly (if somewhat worried) smile in response.

Leaning back from her newly decorated brownies, Miku tossed aside her piping bag of icing with a small sigh of relief. "Done!"

Zero Two peeked over Miku's shoulder, while Ichigo had to look around like the short person she was.

"That was fast," Ichigo commented offhandedly. Miku shrugged.

"Oooh, it's so pretty!" Zero Two gushed.

Ichigo nodded in agreement. "Very minimalistic. I like it." She smirked, and gave a knowing look to the auburn haired girl. "I'm sure a certain tsundere will like it too."

Miku was unfazed and met Ichigo's gaze defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah, I'm gonna enjoy the hell out of eating at least half of these by myself tomorrow." She shrugged again. "I suppose I'll gift the rest."

"Tomorrow's Valentine's Day!" Zero Two suddenly cheerfully shouted, her excitement unable to be contained any longer. "Did you know that, Miku? Did you?"

Unperturbed by the sudden outburst, Miku nonetheless gasped in mock-surprise. "It's Valentine's? Why, I had no idea! I just had a sudden urge to make brownies!"

"Wow, that's really lucky for you!"

Miku just barely resisted rolling her eyes as Ichigo quietly giggled at the starry-eyed Zero Two. "Why are you so excited for Valentine's anyway?" Miku asked as she carried her pan of brownies over to the wrapper station Ichigo had been at earlier and began tossing some of her brownies into small plastic bags with little pink rabbit designs on them. "You make food for Hiro practically every day, what's so special about tomorrow?

"It's gonna be our first Valentine's together!" Zero Two excitedly replied. "So I wanna make it special!"

Ichigo eyed Zero Two's big bowl somewhat warily. "That's a lot of chocolate though. Are you sure you need that much?"

Zero Two smirked, striking a pose the other two recognized from an American 'We Can Do It' poster they were shown once in English class. "I'll be fine! Sweets are my specialty!"

"Now shoo, shoo!" She said as she suddenly jumped forward, pushing the other two girls out of the kitchen.

"Hey what the-?"

"Zero Two, what are you doing-?"

Zero Two smiled, raising her chin and shaking her head in a childishly exaggerated matter. "It's gotta be a surprise for darling, and not even you guys get to know! Nope nope!"

"Bleh. Lame."

Ignoring Miku's less than enthusiastic reaction, Ichigo smiled somewhat exasperatedly at Zero Two's antics. "Okay, but don't stay up too late, alright? No point in making a gift for Hiro if you're too tired to give it."

Zero Two saluted, her back ramrod straight. "Aye aye!" She held that pose until both Miku and a chuckling Ichigo disappeared up the stairs. Once they were out of eyesight she waited for a second, leaning forward and craning her neck to try and peek up to the second floor. After confirming no one would come to bother her, she jumped back into the kitchen.

Hands firmly on her hips, she nodded to herself. "Right! Plan Darling-Is-A-Snacc-And-As-Such-Deserves-A-Snacc is a go!"

"What."

Zero Two turned to the voice, finding a thoroughly confused and done-with-life Ikuno that had just come in from the kitchen backdoor.

"Oh hey, Ikuno!" She greeted happily.

"I'm just gonna go to bed," Ikuno grumbled as she trudged past the energetic girl. Just being in close proximity with an amped-up Zero Two made the bespectacled girl (even more) tired.

"I really don't care what you're doing but okay, as long as you get out!" Zero Two's cheerfully replied, beaming despite her tone not matching with her words at all. "Have a good night!"

Ikuno gave a wordlessly wave as she pulled herself up the stairs.

"Now!" Zero Two returned her focus to the much more important task at hand. "Just you wait for tomorrow, darling! Valentine's Day is gonna be amazing!"

"Valentine's Day is awful," Zorome muttered darkly, his eyes bouncing rapidly between all the giggling girls wandering the hallways outside the classroom during their lunch period.

Futoshi chuckled. "And why's that?"

"Look at them!" Zorome grumbled. "Wandering around all giggly! They know exactly what they're doing, making all the guys nervous each and every damn year!" He anxiously shifted in his seat, crossing his arms with a great loud huff. "Damnit just get it over with! Stop teasing us with your stupid chocolates!"

Without any warning whatsoever, Mitsuru reached out and deftly smacked Zorome across the face, the impact actually forcing the smaller boy out of his chair and to the ground. Reacting with a rather appropriate screech, more out of surprise than actual pain, he clutched his cheek and glared up at Mitsuru from the ground.

"What the hell?!"

The olive brown-haired boy's upper lip curled in disdain. "Stop being so jittery, you're annoying me."

"And you had to slap me because of that?!"

Mitsuru looked him in the eyes, trying to make his feelings as clear as possible.

"Yes."

Futoshi's guffaws only barely drowned out Zorome's stream of expletives.

"Fuck you dude, you have a girlfriend! You don't understand how nerve-wracking today is for guys like me and Futoshi!"

The larger boy stopped his laughter at those words and frowned. "Hey."

"Oh shaddup you fat lug, you know it's true."

Futoshi smirked as he pulled something out of his pocket. "Actually…"

Zorome's jaw dropped. "N-no way…"

Futoshi nodded proudly. "Yes way."

Zorome lunged forward, hand reaching out to grab the bar of chocolate in Futoshi's own hand, his momentum abruptly stopped by the larger boy's forearm blocking him as well as lifting the candy high into the air and out of Zorome's reach.

"There's no way!" Zorome raged, clawing uselessly for the chocolate bar a laughing Futoshi held mockingly above his head. "How the fuck did you get a gift?! Those have to be obligation chocolates or something, I refuse to believe this!"

"She gave these to me personally actually. Said that these were not obligation chocolates but didn't say anything aside from that. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

"Hooooww?!"

Mitsuru sighed, leaning over the desk and resting his head on the palm of his upright arm. "Unlike you, Futoshi isn't completely hopeless regarding the other sex. I thought you already knew."

"Knew what!?"

Mitsuru raised an eyebrow. "That Cooking Club he goes to once a week. What do you think he's doing there?"

"I don't fuckin know, I thought he was mooching off whatever they were making."

Futoshi frowned again. "Hey."

"Well, if you had enough brain cells to pay attention," Mitsuru drawled, "you would've noticed there was one girl in particular that was always happy to see him."

Zorome's mouth opened and closed silently as he gaped at a smirking Futoshi.

"Congrats, Futoshi," Mitsuru said, nodding towards Futoshi. "Don't fuck it up."

"Aw, thanks Mitsuru, I knew you cared."

"I really don't."

The two ignored how Zorome had simply curled up into a shaking ball on the floor, muttering darkly as he hugged his legs close to his chest.

"Wasn't he literally just whimpering on the floor during lunch?" Goro asked out loud while looking rather pointedly at Zorome, who was happily prancing around holding a small clear plastic bag high above his head and flaunting it to anyone who was unfortunate enough to make eye contact with him, or even be in his general vicinity.

Ikuno shrugged. "Looks like he finally got some chocolate… what an absolute idiot."

As if the mere mentioning of his person drew his attention, Zorome's eyes turned in their direction. He waved the plastic baggie wildly above him head, a massive grin on his face as he began lightly jogging his way over.

"Oh god he's coming this way."

Kokoro giggled, softly smacking Ikuno's shoulder. It was more of gentle pat to be honest. "Be nice, Ikuno, and let him be happy."

The bespectacled girl huffed. "I'm all for letting someone have their moment, but when Zorome's happy, usually nobody else is."

By then Zorome has caught up to the small group, and continued to wildly wave his gift around a few scant inches from their faces. Ikuno barely bit back a snarl. "Look guys! Guys guys! I got a chocolate! Isn't this great?!" Were it not for the faint handprint still left over from Mitsuru's slap she had heard about earlier, Ikuno would've been sorely tempted to smack him herself.

Kokoro opted for a much kinder alternative, patting his head with a motherly smile. "That's great Zorome, that really is." Zorome preened under her gentle touch like an oversized parrot.

"I wonder who it's from?" Goro wondered. He would be lying if he said he could think of many people that tolerated Zorome like they did (and barely at that), much less to the point of seeing him attractive in anyway possible.

"It's probably obli-"

"LALALALA OKAY BYE." Zorome interrupted Ikuno before she could finish, and sprinted off before his fantasies could be shattered by the taller girl.

The three watched silently as he disappeared around a corner, probably to find someone else to brag to, particularly someone less likely to hurt his feelings.

"Ugh, is he gone?" Miku asked, breaking the silence by coming out of her hiding spot in a small alcove behind them.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Asked Goro, a knowing smile on his lips. "You ate a ton of brownies this morning, and probably saved some of them for gifting."

"If I knew he'd act even more like an idiot than he already does from a single fucking brownie, I wouldn't have given him one." Miku grumbled. She raised an eyebrow, pulling out another small baggie containing a brownie identical to the one Zorome had been touting about and offering it to Goro. "Want one?"

Goro chuckled nervously. "No, I'm good. I've had my fair share of sugar already."

"Pft, you most certainly did. I'm surprised you didn't throw up."

Kokoro nodded in agreement to Ikuno's words, a somewhat concerned expression on her face. "That couldn't have been healthy."

Goro grimaced, placing a hand over his stomach. "It sure didn't feel healthy."

"Hm?" Miku tilted her head in question. "What happened?"

"Ichigo got so embarrassed giving me her cookies at lunch she just dumped like a dozen in my lap and stared at me."

"With a massive blush!" Ikuno helpfully added. "Talk about a strawberry."

"I- well, I didn't know what to do and I got nervous so I just ate all the cookies - every single one - within like two minutes." Goro sighed. "I feel so lame."

"It was pretty impressive to be honest," Ikuno admitted. "I've only ever seen Futoshi eat that fast."

"And Ichigo did seem really happy," Kokoro mentioned, patting Goro's shoulder comfortingly.

"God, I expect something that corny from Hiro and Zero Two but you and Ichigo?" Miku smirked.

"Ugh, stop."

"Hey, at least it wasn't bad as Mitsuru," Ikuno pointed out. "Now that was lame."

Goro and Miku glanced at Kokoro, expecting her to defend her boyfriend, but were surprised when she just giggled and nodded in agreement. "It was pretty lame of him."

Miku gasped, her love for gossip forcing itself to the surface. "Oh my god what happened?"

"Pft, if you think Ichigo's blush was bad, you should've seen Mitsuru when Kokoro gave him her gift." Ikuno smirked. "He was redder than the wrapping paper of Kokoro's chocolates."

Kokoro nodded, a small smile on her face as she recalled what happened. "For the self proclaimed star member of the speech and debate club, who knew he could still stutter so much?" She giggled. "And when he accidentally knocked one of the chocolates out of my hand?"

Ikuno snickered. "If he had bowed any further he probably would've cracked his head on the floor."

"Awww, I can't believe I missed that!" Miku whined.

"Speaking of things we've missed," Goro began, taking a glance around the mostly empty hallways they were walking through. "Where's Hiro and Zero Two? I didn't see them when class let out." The small group were making their way towards the Student Council room, where the Council members were more or less required to spend some time in after school. On the days where there was no work to be done such as Valentine's, they would usually just go there to hang out for some time before leaving for the dorms or whatever else they had planned for the rest of the evening.

While Miku and Ikuno both shrugged, Kokoro looked a bit thoughtful. "Right when class ended, I did see Zero Two drag Naomi off somewhere, and I'm pretty sure she did the same during lunch." She looked questioningly at the other two girls. "Didn't she say something about wanting to surprise Hiro?"

"Yeah, but nothing else," Miku said with another shrug. "I'm sure they'll turn up eventually."

Ikuno grimaced. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't think finding out what Zero Two wants to do to Hiro on Valentine's Day of all days will be a very good time for our sanity… or eyes."

The other three reacted to her words with varying levels of disgust.

"Yeah, good point." Goro shuddered.

"C'mon darling, just a bit further!"

"Zero Two, it's actually really difficult to walk up stairs in a blindfold."

With his version obscured, he heard her giggle from somewhere vaguely in front of him.

"Silly darling, as if I'd ever let you fall!"

He couldn't help the loving smile that spread across his lips. "Fine, fine," he conceded, "but still, give me some time."

The steps they were on gave way to flat ground, but Hiro knew that was only because they had reached one of the landings - just as he knew they were making their way up towards the roof. He had spent more than enough time trekking up these exact stairs day after day. Something as basic as a blindfold did not rob him of his memories, even if they did force him to be extra cautious.

Arms suddenly wrapped around him, and he felt Zero Two push her nose into the crook of his neck. "But darling," she softly whined into his ear. "My surprise."

Hiro grinned, wrapping his own arms around the waist of the girl he could not see and turning his head to plant a kiss on her cheek. She giggled at the ticklish feeling of the cloth around his eyes brushing against her. "Zero Two," he said, smiling exasperatedly against her skin. "Telling me you have a surprise kinda ruins the fact that it's a surprise."

There was a moment of silence.

"Oh."

He laughed.

"Daaahling! You're being mean!" He could hear the pout in her voice. "Hmph! Whatever! Who cares! My surprise is going to be so surprising that it won't matter anyway!"

The arms around him disappeared, a hand grabbing his own instead. Once again she began to lead him up the stairs, albeit much more slowly and steadily, and he dutifully followed along.

After a couple flights of stairs and landings, Hiro recognized that they had reached the top. "Are you sure about this?" he asked, a note of uncertainty in his voice. "It's been windy all day, so being on the roof is going to be freezing."

"Don't you worry darling! I've planned for absolutely everything!"

As he heard the sound of the rooftop door being opened, he braced himself for a gust of cold wind. Instead, all he felt was a light breeze.

"See, I told you!" Zero Two crowed triumphantly from beside him. "Isn't genius?"

Hiro raised an eyebrow beneath his blindfold, his vision filled with nothing but darkness. "Still can't see anything."

"O-oh!"

The cloth around his head was pulled off, and he could finally see Zero Two's 'surprise' she had been talking about all day. The roof of the school was where the two of them had spent many breaks and lunches, and today it was transformed.

A massive curtained canopy tent was set up right outside the door, blocking out most of the windy February weather, as well as a decent amount of the already weakening sunlight. In the center of the tent was a clothed table for two, on top of which lied a tall box. A rather copious amount of fairy lights were strung up, illuminating the shadowed area with the help of a couple lanterns hanging from the tent's rafters.

"D-did you do all this by yourself, Zero Two? How long did this all even take you?"

"I had a ton of help from Naomi, and we've been working in this since the morning! Now come on, come on!" She said excitedly, grabbing Hiro by his hand and leading him towards the table. "I've been waiting for this all week!"

Zero Two pushed Hiro into one of the seats, rounding the table to grab the other seat and drag it next to him so that they could sit side by side. She sat down and beamed at him, before reaching out to the box.

"Now, I'm sure you've has been waiting for your chocolate gift all day…" she purred, staring rather intensely into Hiro's eyes.

"Uh…"

"Well now you shall wait no longer!" She flung the box aside, revealing the tall two tier cake hidden underneath, every inch of it covered with chocolate. "Behold! The Triple-Chocolate-Double-Stacc-Snacc Supreme! I've been working on this bad boy for almost two days!"

Hiro's jaw dropped.

"And that's not all!" Zero Two stood up, pulling out a remote from nowhere and pressed one of its many buttons. Slow, romantic music starting playing from various well hidden speakers Hiro was just now noticing.

She pressed another button, causing all the lights in the tent to dim before diving underneath the table, emerging seconds later with her arms full of electronic candles that she turned on as she placed them on the table as well as the ground around them.

Zero Two then threw herself across Hiro's lap, wrapping his arms around his neck and staring expectantly at the shocked Hiro with a wide smirk.

"How's that, daaahling?"

Overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the past ten seconds, he could only look at Zero Two incredulously.

"All this for Valentine's?!" His voice hitched up an octave.

She grinned, leaning forward to plant a kiss against his cheek.

"No, darling. All this for you."

Resting her head against his shoulder, a hand rose to caress his cheek as she stared adoringly up at him.

"I love you, darling. You know this, I know this, I'm sure I've made it clear enough times that the entire school knows this."

She tilted her head. "But you know what?"

Hiro smiled exasperatedly. "What, Zero Two?"

"That's not enough for me. So I'll make it known each and every day that I love you with everything that I am."

She smirked.

"There just so happens to be a day about letting your affections be known to everyone." She shrugged. "How could I not go all out for Valentine's?"

Hiro shook his head with a laugh, leaning his forehead against hers. "You're absolutely crazy, Zero Two."

She grinned in response. "Crazy for you, darling," she murmured, pressing her lips against his own

They broke apart a few seconds later smiling. Zero Two's eyes glanced at the table before suddenly sitting up straight. "Now eat, eat!"

"Huh- wha-?"

"I told you not to have lunch for a reason, and it's been hours since then! You gotta eat to stay healthy, darling!"

"Zero Two, that's an entire cake. That's literally the furthest thing from healthy-"

"Hah! Who do you think I am?!"

She dove off his lap, once again disappearing underneath the table before emerging seconds later, slamming a picnic basket onto the table next to the cake.

"I've made us an entire lunch and dinner - a dunch!"

"It's like 3 o'clock," Hiro weakly protested. "Zero Two-"

"It's fine!" She tossed a saucy look towards her darling. "Trust me, you'll have plenty to eat tonight," she purred.

Hiro laughed, resigning himself to his fate on Zero Two's Wild Ride with a shrug and a grin.

"Let's eat."

Zero Two beamed, returning to her spot on Hiro's lap with a cry of happiness.

Woah, a story from me! Crazy! And it's only ten days late for Valentine's!

Actually been working on this since Feb.13, cause I wanted to post something on Valentine's. But then that deadline passed and I was like 'oh well'. And then 02/16 was literally two days after and I was like 'I gotta post something then'. But then I didn't and I was like 'oh well'. And then usabuns posted a (fantastic and absolutely amazing(and 5k!)) fic and I was like 'well if that isn't a kick in the butt to finish then I don't know what is'. So here we are. Nonetheless, thanks to both usabuns for her nice fic and everyone who kicked me in the butt to write/finish this. Here's my late Valentine's, 02/16, and 02/22 fic, as well as an early birthday gift to Zero Two.

And believe or not, I am actually working on the next chapter of A New Future, just that it's at the rate of like one sentence a week. I'll finish it sooner or later(hopefully sooner). Yeah yeah dead fandom and all that, but whatever, I'm fuckin dedicated to writing out all my fic ideas - no matter how long it'll take.

Anyways. Traditionally, Valentine's gifts in Japan are various types of chocolate - and strictly chocolate. But that's boring to write, so I took some artistic liberty. Also, I know nothing about baking or making chocolate so please kindly forgive whatever mistakes you spotted in that particular portion.