For the always lovely krisrix who requested either first date kannao shenanigans or first anniversary shenanigans.  I’ve decided to tackle the anniversary one since an idea popped in my head right away  :)

Warnings:  Anniversary shenanigans!

***

“Ya gonna be free tonight?”

Naoto looks up from where she’s standing at her locker, blinking when she sees the hint of a nervous blush on Kanji’s face.  He’s fidgeting in front of her, rubbing the back of his head.

“It is highly unlikely,” she says, grabbing her school bag so she can get ready to leave for the day, “I have to go to the station and I do not know how long I will be there.”

“Y-yeah, ‘course…” then he frowns, looking at everything else but her – it helps that he’s tall and can stare up at the ceiling pretty easily, “… um… what about after that?”

“Studying,” she says, closing her locker, “Why?”

“I-I-I jus-”

“You know my weeks are always busy until the weekends.”

“Well… y-yeah but, this… this is kinda… a special occasion, ya know?" 

Naoto blinks, "It is?”

Kanji frowns.  Suddenly, he doesn’t feel the urge to stutter anymore, “Yeah… it is.”

Naoto frowns a little, opening her locker to look at the small calendar inside.  She notices that she has no particular days circled in red and looks back at him, “I am afraid that you are mistaken.  I am good at remembering dates, and since I have nothing circled-”

“It’s our anniversary!”

Of course this is said loud enough for anyone in the area to hear, the students stopping to look at the two of them.  Naoto feels her cheeks turning red and she quickly grabs Kanji’s arm, slamming her locker shut and dragging him outside.  Once they are past the school gates she frowns up at him, “What have I told you about making a scene?”

“You’re the one who forgot our anniversary!”

Wonderful.  He’s still screaming.  Naoto takes a deep breath before she speaks to him, “Today is not our anniversary.”

“Yeah it is!  We met a year ago today!”

Naoto frowns, “That does not mean that it is our anniversary.  Our anniversary is when we first started dating.”

“So what, yesterday?”

“I-it was not just yesterday!”  Great, now she’s yelling, something she hadn’t really learned how to do until meeting one Kanji Tatsumi.

“Might as well had been.  It took ya long enough to realize that I liked ya.”

“You could have said something.”

“So blushing like a total moron wasn’t clue enough?”

“Forgive me for not recognizing facial expressions when you could have used words.”

They both stare each other down at this point, a rather interesting sight considering the height difference.  Finally Kanji speaks up, “… are we really arguing over my crush on you?”

“… we sound like Yosuke and Chie-senpai,” Naoto mutters.  At this they both smile at each other until they end up laughing together.  Finally, after a long moment,  Naoto stops laughing, “So… did you make plans tonight?”

“… yeah… kinda.  Just… if ya get a second, meet me here tonight,” then he hands her a folded up piece of paper.

“Kanji… you know I have to work, I probably-”

“Just… if ya can.  No big deal if ya can’t.  I’ll wait for half an hour, k?”

“Kanji-” but Kanji is already running off, saying something about needing to take care of things at his mom’s shop.  Naoto sighs from where she’s standing before she shoves the piece of paper in her pocket.

She isn’t going to be able to meet him.  She knows she isn’t.

***

It occurs to Naoto, as she sits at her desk at the station, that Kanji hadn’t specified a meeting time.  Not that it matters.  He knows that she can’t leave work, and besides, he’s wrong about the date of their anniversary anyway.

Right?

She doesn’t meant to text him, really, but she ends up sending him a message in between her paper work what time do you want to meet?  Then she quickly sends not that I can meet up with you!

How about 7?

She frowns at the screen of her phone.  She knows that he’s probably smiling at her message, that annoying grin he gets when he thinks he’s right about something when he is, clearly, wrong.  

You know I cannot make it.

Of course ya can’t.

I mean it!  She didn’t use to use exclamation points in her text messages but she can’t completely blame it on Kanji.  

It’s mostly Rise’s fault.

I know.

Naoto sets her phone down.  She has too much work to do.  She has no time to correct Kanji on his misinformed messages.

She leaves the station at 6:45.  Not because of Kanji, mind you.  She had just finished her work earlier than she had expected – not that she was speeding through it or anything, you cannot rush through important police documents like that.

Naoto is surprised when she ends up standing in front of one lone tree in the middle of a sidewalk five minutes after seven.  Kanji is leaning back against the tree, not at all looking surprised to see her.  Naoto walks over to him, taking in the blanket and the delivered food from Aiya – they really do deliver anywhere, Naoto notes.

“Why did you want to meet here?”

Kanji gives her a sheepish look, “Don’t ya remember?  We walked down this sidewalk a year ago today.”

“Kanji…” but she’s smiling, “That was hardly a romantic moment.  I was questioning you about the case.”

“Yeah I know, but… well… I-I… had been lookin’ forward to seein’ ya.”

Naoto smiles more and pushes herself up on her toes, Kanji lowering his head to meet her for a kiss.  It takes a moment for both of them to realize that they’re in public, both quickly pulling away and glancing from side to side to make sure no one just saw that.  

“Sorry, I just… got caught up in the moment,” Kanji says.

“… perhaps… we should eat?  Then we can go somewhere else.”

Kanji smirks a bit, “Don’t ya got work?" 

"Finished early,” Naoto says, sitting down on the blanket with Kanji.

“Uh huh.  What about studying?”

“… do you want to go back to my place after this or not?”

“'Course I do, just givin’ ya a hard time.”

“You know… two can play that game.”

“Oh?”

Then Naoto smirks, “You said that this is the anniversary of when we first met, yes?”

“Yeah…”

“Well then, that should have been yesterday.  I approached you at your mother’s shop a year ago yesterday.”

Kanji blinks, then blinks again, then he frowns in frustration, “Son of a bitch!”