Bad Day
Ren was nervous as he made his way towards the cafe, he was meeting Usui Ayane, Usui Horokeu's younger sister.
Horohoro may annoy him, but Ayane was different, she listened to Ren, never made stupid remarks or asked redicious questions.
This wasn't the first time they'd met, Ayane was usually very punctual so much it had taken Ren aback due to her brothers qualities of barely being on time.
However today she was unusually late still Ren waited patiently at the agreed place, in all honesty he needed the toilet but he would wait there for as long as he could stand it.
He leant back against the wall and closed his eyes, hoping not to wait too long.
Forty-five minutes ticked past and still Ayane was not in sight, Ren let out a sigh as he contemplated the fact Ayane might have stood him up.
"Ren?" A male voice asked.
Ren cracked open an eye.
"What Horo?" He asked icily.
"What are you doing?"
"Waiting."
"For what?" Horo asked innocently.
"Christmas." Ren replied smoothly.
"You'll be waiting a while, it's February."
And didn't Ren know it? The winter cold lingering still made it weather for coats and scarfs, Horo seemed to elude the tradition of freezing your arse off as he was sporting his usual shorts and snow jacket.
"Horo wait here a minute." Ren ordered.
"Why?"
"Just wait here for another Ainu less annoying."
So as Ren wondered off Horohoro stood there impatiently wondering which of his tribe living in Tokyo Ren meant.
When Ren returned Horo offered to wait with him but Ren refused.
Usui Ayane was late, late off work and therefore late in her whole sechdule, as the bar waitress came on shift Ayane ran out grabbing her bag and coat on the way.
She just had a few errands to run on the way to the cafe, she completed her errands with little grace unlike usual.
Time escaped her in her run across the city, elbowing past strangers with unusual rudeness, her errands complete she was now running to the cafe, now beyond late, an hour and a half late.
Frankly one minute was late enough for her.
When she arrived she looked around for him.
"Ren!" Ayane called in desperate panic.
Suddenly she spotted the purple haired boy leaning against a wall with his eyes closed.
She had been so frantic she'd missed his calm frame in her quick search.
She ran over to him, panting she rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath.
"I'm.. So... Sorry!" She panted.
Ren slowly opened his eyes.
"It's ok, I knew you wouldn't stand me up."
"Well you see the girl at work that was taking over my shift didn't show up and they couldn't find anyone, so I found someone and they were in no rush to come in and I had to change out of my work clothes and then I had some errands to run on the way for Pirika and-" Ayane babbled on suddenly she stopped and looked at her feet. "And that's a very poor apology... I'm sorry for making you wait so long Ren."
A hand was placed on her shoulder making her raise her head.
"It's ok, honestly, I'm just glad you're here."
Ren in truth was very relieved he had in fact thought Ayane had stood him up.
"Well how about we skip a drink and have lunch instead?" Ren asked checking the time.
Ayane smiled.
"Sounds great."
Ayane was suddenly nerve stricken as she gazed into those golden eyes.
She followed him, they had a rather quiet lunch Ayane was too nervous to speak without stuttering or sounding like an idiot, she didn't mind sounding like an idiot to anyone except Ren, because Ren was so far from idiotic it would insult him if she acted like one she was sure of it.
Ren on the other hand was trying to think of something to say.
Around Ayane, topics eluded him and his mind often went blank, something that annoyed him.
He just hoped she didn't mind.
After they're lunch Ren walked Ayane back to work, as it was a split shift for her today.
Ayane was currently fumbling about with her blue hair tying to neaten it up without a brush seemed quite a challenge.
"Do you always have your hair tied up?" Ren asked looking at its length.
Even tied in a high ponytail it stretched down to the middle of her back.
"Normally, usually for work I can't put it in a bun without it falling out so they settled for it."
"You should wear it down more, I think it'd look nice." Ren mused.
Abruptly someone shoved Ayane roughly she lost her balance and fell into Ren causing him to bang his head against the nearest wall.
He cursed.
"I'm really sorry Ren!" Ayane apologised.
"Some people are just so rude." Ren grumbled his good mood dampened by his headache that hurt like fresh hell.
Needless to say it was quiet the rest of the way.
Ren said goodbye to Ayane and left rather quickly.
She sighed and headed into work.
Work was very busy Ayane was clearing tables and serving, rude customers would complain to her and be very demanding, it would upset her so it was none surprising when a customer unknowingly tripped her up, as she hit the floor along with the tray packed full with dirty dishes, covered in coffee and left over food Ayane sat on the floor feeling defeated.
Tears overflowed and dripped down as she slowly started picking up broken pieces of crockery, cutting her hands not that she was bothered anymore today.
Once she got back into the kitchen she was sent to the office, and boy did she get a rifting off the boss so badly she ran home crying, she'd tried to tell him it wasn't her fault but he wasn't interested in her story.
Ayane burst through the door of the house she shared with her brother, before Horokeu could ask why she was crying she ran to her room and slammed the door shut, she collapsed on her bed and laid there trying not to reflect on her bad day.
A knock came at the door which she screamed at to go away and it did for all of half an hour.
Utterly defeated Ayane didn't answer, the door slid open and silently someone stepped in and shut the door behind them.
The person sat on the edge of her bed and smoothed a soft hand over her food stained hair.
"Horohoro said you could use some cheering up."
Ayane groaned not only was her day bad, it would be Tao Ren that she was sobbing in front of, she felt like a baby all of a sudden.
Luckily it'd gotten dark and the only light was being supplied from the moon.
"You know when I feel crappy Rei always told me I needed a cuddle, do you want one?"
Ayane nodded slightly, in an instant Ren had laid beside her and pulled her into his strong arms.
"Want to talk about it?"
So she did and she told him everything, Ren could only think of one thing that would brighten Ayane's rubbish day.
Ren sat up taking her with him.
"Are you ok?" She asked.
"Yeah, hey Aya I can't make what happened today go away but I have something that'll cheer you up."
"Really?" Ayane asked confused.
"But you have to close your eyes, otherwise it won't be a surprise."
Trusting the Chinese boy the Ainu girl closed her eyes and sat there nervously.
There was a pause.
Suddenly something soft and warm was pressed against her lips, she cracked an eye open to see Ren's face close to hers, she couldn't help but smile into the kiss that made the butterflies in her stomach flutter, Ren pulled away.
"Did it work?" Ren asked.
Ayane nodded shyly as she wrapped her arms around his neck, in agreement they shared one more sweet kiss making it the perfect way to end the bad day.