Author's Note: The wonderful NaeGiriTrash drew Itsuki! She looks so cute in here; I love the colors and the expression! Thank you so much!

Class was... surprisingly boring today.

Well, Rantaro guessed it wasn't too surprising. After all, Kokichi, the main source of the action, was out. (Had he ever been absent? Rantaro couldn't recall.)

And it was painfully obvious.

There was no one around to stir up trouble; no one to prompt Gonta to bring his insect friends to class with him to show everyone; no one to "accidentally" knock Maki into Kaito and almost get murdered immediately afterwards; no one to harass Kiibo about his status as a robot; no one to ruthlessly tease Shuichi and Kaede whenever they sat next to each other; no one to stop Miu from making horrible inappropriate jokes; no one for Tenko to scream at for getting too close to Himiko, and so on. (The other five unmentioned classmates seemed unaffected by Kokichi's absence, but were still curious as to his whereabouts.)

Although the peace and quiet was appreciated at first, opinions quickly changed throughout the day. Gonta looked a little sad since no one was interested in his bugs, Miu had made so many jokes that she wore herself out and actually gave up half way during the day and stopped making them, and even Kiibo, who was the most bothered by Kokichi due to his constant robophobia, had made it a point to bring up how lackluster class had felt.

It wasn't as if his class was dead silent the entire time- plenty of his classmates were able to chat amongst themselves and have a good time; such as Shuichi, Kaede, and Tsumugi- who had asked him about the commotion from yesterday and he answered them in earnest (for the most part). There was merely an elephant in the room that put a damper on the overall atmosphere of the class. Rantaro found it ironic that the elephant in question wasn't even in the room- but was actually in his bedroom, probably taking a nap. He decided to keep that fact a secret from his class. (It wasn't as if he didn't trust his classmates, he was more concerned about the kinds of questions that would arise from them.)

After the unusually plain school day was over, Rantaro decided to swing by a nearby store and pick up a few things. It was all basic stuff, essential items that had run out sometime during the week and a few of the smaller foods on the grocery list so that Fuyumisa had less to worry about whenever she went grocery shopping. He noticed a refrigerator near the check out, green eyes landing on a bottle of grape Panta as he thought for a moment.

Didn't Kokichi like that drink? He vaguely recalls him with a bottle of the fizzy drink at lunch a few times. He shrugged, opening the glass door and taking a bottle. If, by any chance, his memory had served him wrong and Kokichi didn't like it he was sure one of his sisters would drink it.

The walk home was as uneventful as it always was. Rantaro was grateful that no one was looking at him, a stark contrast to the hoard of eyes on him yesterday. Then again, it's not every day you see someone being carried bridal style down the streets- he probably would've looked too if he saw someone else in his shoes.

Rantaro hummed to himself, smiling slightly as he neared his house. "Today was rather bland," He commented to himself absentmindedly.

As he walked up the small set of concrete stairs to the mahogany door (that was now starting to open slightly as it usually did), he was quick to learn that perhaps he had spoken a bit too soon.

"Taro-nii!" Eri ran out of the house and straight towards Rantaro, leaping up for a hug.

Rantaro effortlessly caught Eri, hoisting her up high into the air. "Hey, Eri," A smile came to his face as she giggled. He felt a tug at the bottom of his blazer. He looked down to see Airi, looking up at him with a smile. "Hello to you too, Airi," He hummed. "What brings you two out here, hm?"

"Ranty-nii, can you help us??" Airi asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"With what?" He gently lowered Eri down to the ground.

"We can't get Sleeping Beauty to wake up!" Eri exclaimed, grabbing his sleeve. Rantaro raised a brow. They couldn't get Kokichi to wake up? (Perhaps he was a heavy sleeper- when Rantaro was up and about in the morning, Kokichi hardly budged. It was certainly plausible.) "C'mon," She started tugging him towards the house. Airi moved her grip to his other sleeve, tugging as well. "There's no time to waste!"

Rantaro could tell by the smiles on their faces and their little giggles that it wasn't anything serious or bad. "Alright, just let me set down these bags." He allowed himself to be dragged into the house, closing and locking the door behind him (Airi and Eri had let him go now that he was inside, running up the stairs and giggling amongst themselves.) before heading into the kitchen.

"You're finally home after so long and you're still taking your sweet time?" Rantaro looked up as he set the bags on the kitchen table. Leaning against the wall was Hikari, arms crossed and an amused look on her face.

"I was only gone for around an hour and a half," Rantaro pulled out the bottle of Panta from one of the bags and a bottle of painkillers from the other (ironically enough, the one he had left for Kokichi earlier this morning was the last one from the old bottle).

"An hour and a half too long," Hikari huffed. "Don't wanna keep Sleeping Beauty waiting for longer than he has to, now, do you?"

"I suppose not," Rantaro wondered what his sisters had planned for him as he made his way up the stairs, Hikari following not too far behind.

"Ranty-nii!!" Airi whined, running up to him and grabbing his sleeve. "Why are you taking so looonnnggg???" She drawled out the last word, tugging on his uniform insistently.

"My bad," He laughed, watching as Airi pulled her hand away with an impatient huff. "I'm here now though, so Sleeping Beauty won't have to wait any longer." He assured, entering his room alongside his two sisters.

Unsurprisingly, his other two sisters were in the room as well. Itsuki was sitting on the armchair in his room, putting down the book she was reading when she heard the door open.

Eri was standing next to the bed, facing the door and smiling widely when she saw Rantaro. "C'mon, Taro-nii!" She called out. "Hurry!"

Rantaro allowed his gaze to wander to the person laying right in front of Eri, laying perfectly still and straight with a fake rose held firmly in the hand held over his chest.

Surprisingly enough, Kokichi made a good sleeping beauty. He was genuinely fooled for a moment, glancing at his classmate with a concerned look. The purple-haired boy had briefly opened his eyes the slightest bit, giving Rantaro a quick wink before shutting his eyes. Aside from that, Kokichi still made for a good sleeping beauty.

Chuckling to himself, Rantaro made his way over to the bed, taking a moment to quickly set down his items on the nightstand. He leaned over Kokichi and placed his palm flat against the mattress right next to where Kokichi's arm lay. He just had to kiss him, right? He could do that.

...Although, he's never actually kissed anyone before. But it shouldn't be too hard, right? He's seen it before a few times, and he's read about it once or twice at some point in time. All he had to do was tilt his head and lean in.

Wait, actually, he didn't really have to tilt his head since he was already standing at an angle. After a moment's hesitation, Rantaro just bent down and went for it, closing his eyes and pressing his lips uncertainly yet firmly against Kokichi's.

Kokichi's lips were slightly chapped, yet they still felt soft at the same time. They felt cold against his own lips, and when Rantaro felt the small force of Kokichi reciprocating the motion and kissing him back, a pleasant shiver ran down his spine, strong enough to make his shoulders tremble the tiniest bit.

His hopes of staying like that were crushed by the sound of loud squealing and a light clapping. Rantaro slowly pulled away and opened his eyes. Airi and Eri were clinging to each other and cheering, Itsuki was clapping from where she sat in her chair, and Hikari had shamelessly pulled out her phone and recorded the entire thing with a smirk on her face.

Rantaro turned his gaze back to Kokichi, whose purple eyes had started to flutter open. "Wow!" He exclaimed, his signature grin making it's way to his face as he held out the rose to Rantaro. "Such a handsome prince has come to my rescue~!" He winked.

Rantaro rolled his eyes and scoffed in a playful fashion, grabbing the soda and the pill bottle from off of the nightstand. "This handsome prince of yours got you some stuff while he was at it, too,"

Kokichi's eyes lit up as he tossed the rose aside. "Oooooh! I hate Panta!" Once more, Rantaro was genuinely fooled for a moment, his smile faltering until he remembered exactly who he was dealing with. "Gimmie!" He made those grabbing motions again (similar to the kind that babies make), and Rantaro still found it as endearing as he had the last time, gently placing the bottles in his needy hands. "Thank you~" He cooed.

His sisters approached the bed now that the show was over, making small talk with Kokichi as he opened up the bottles with swift hands. 

Rantaro didn't mind that his sisters were paying more attention to Kokichi than they were to him- he wasn't even paying attention to the conversation (which he felt slightly bad for in hindsight).

Instead, he watched intently as Kokichi brought the bottle of Panta to his lips, wondering if he'd ever be able to feel them again.

1.7k Words

Author's Note: I had this sleeping beauty scene planned since the start, but now that I've actually written it, I officially have no more ideas set down for this story. I have one but it might be a little hard to incorporate for one reason or another, so I'm not exactly counting it. A little warning, anything past this point is come up with on the spot, unless I somehow manage to make my other idea work. (I really like it, though, so I probably will.) I probably won't write about what happens for the entire next week he's out, though, just the weekend and a timeskip of sorts. I'm not even sure how I want this to end LOL; I hope I'm able to come up with something you guys like!