Nue heaved a sigh as all 20 kids of the Black Crow left him, scattering about the dark café in search of their own fun.
He came here often, usually at night, and sometimes the kids would follow him. Most of the time it was the usual few who came with him, and rarely was it ever the whole lot. One of the main reasons for that was he didn't want to bring all of them together so often….he'd go broke!
A waiter instantly came up as soon as he took a seat. "What would you like, King?"
"Cola."
The man shuffled off, passing on his order to the drink bar.
From behind the bar counter, Kumiko watched with wide, bewildered eyes at the latest customer into the café. For all the times she worked here, this is the first time he ever came! Her co-workers who worked here longer than her told her he was a regular, but she didn't believe them for the past weeks she worked, she had not seen him once. And now, he finally came.
Thunderking Nue.
Kumiko gulped, and watched shyly, as the waiter who took his order came up to the counter and poured the glass of drink that the King ordered.
'Coke…' She thought to herself.
Just as the young man was about to head off to deliver the drink, Kumiko quickly moved from her spot in a burst of slight desperation. "A-anou…."
He turned around. "Hmm? What is it Kumiko-chan?"
"S-someone ordered a Bloody Mary just now…And…I cant really make it well. Can you do it?" She lied. She winced when he looked at her oddly. She was a terrible liar.
"Hmm…Alright then! Deliver this to the Thunderking then." That, or this man was dense.
She giddily took the cup, and he went off to make an order that never existed. Looking around, her eyes fell on the table that he was seated at. She began a slow pace towards it, hands shaking from slight nervousness.
"Uumm…"
Nue looked up, tearing his eyes away from the A-T pit. A girl about his age, who looked to be nervous as hell, stood beside him, a glass of coke in her visibly shaking hands.
"Your c-cola..."
He looked at her shaking hands, raising an eyebrow at her, before shrugging it off and taking it. "Thanks."
As he took the glass from her, their hands made a short and brief contact, but Kumiko jumped from it. It was like an electric current passed through her, and she didn't think it was from Nue's regalia.
Quickly clasping her hands behind her back, she wringed them around each other nervously, shifting about on her feet as bit her lip in frantic thought.
"Do you need anything?" Nue asked, finding the behavior of this girl weird. She delivered his drink, why was she still here standing like a rock undergoing earthquake?
"C-can I have your autograph?" She blurted out at the tone of his voice.
Nue stared at her, astounded and confused. No one had ever asked him for his autograph before.
"It's for my little brother. He's a big fan." She lied again.
Nue frowned, wondering if she was lying or not, for her voice wasn't really convincing. But then, thinking back to her nervous antics, he figured that it must be her natural way of speech. "Sure…"
She produced a notepad, which she used for taking orders, and a pen from within her uniform pockets. Detaching a part of his regalia so that he can utilize the pen easier, Nue quickly signed his name on the yellow paper; something he hasn't done in a long while. He never did have the need to sign signatures before…
"T-Thank you!" She bowed, before fleeting out of sight.
Nue watched after her, eyebrows raised in confusion and the quickness of how she left. Was she afraid of him or something?
But he shook his head, categorizing her off as an oddball for now, and returned his eyes to the A-T match in the pit below.
Disappearing into one of the cubicles in the female toilet, Kumiko patted her chest, attempting to calm herself down. 'Idiot…you're overreacting!' She berated mentally, face flushing red at her embarrassing encounter with Nue.
She must have looked like a total fool!
Putting her hand in her pocket, she took out the notepad on which he signed on. The black ink of his name stared up at her, stark against the yellow of the paper.
She ripped the page off the rest of the pad, pocketing the pad again and carefully sliding the signed paper into her breast pocket.
She wasn't sure how long she sat there for, trying to calm down her burning face and racing thoughts. Though she tried to stop it, she could not help but continually berate herself for what she did that night. She looked so stupid!
But she knew that she would not regret what she had did, although she was still slightly embarrassed. She usually would not have done something like that; but that night, she felt that if she did not, she might not get another chance to see him again until months later!
So that signed paper was one treasure she would treasure forever.