A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy~
At the corner lot a few blocks away from where the gang liked to play basketball, there lived a family of swans on a small pond in the public park.
Kidd wasn't particularly fond of swans; they were nice to look at for awhile until he started to dwell on how unkept their feathers were. Plus they were mean. One time he had kindly offered his services and tried to trim the tips of the feathers for one and the entire clan decided to attack at the same time.
They were usually asleep by now anyway. And it was nice to just be able to enjoy the park without a lot of people around.
After walking a few paces along the pavement, he noticed a dim light up ahead. He squinted and could barely make out the figure of a girl. She was bent over and appeared to be feeding one of the birds from her hand. Upon getting closer, he found that was exactly what she was doing.
"They seem to like you," he said quietly so as not to scare his classmate. Jacqui turned to him and smiled, throwing another piece of bread absentmindedly into the water. The bird gathered it into its beak before it could soak with water.
"Kidd-kun…you're out here awfully late aren't you?"
"Mm. Felt like walking. I suppose you started off that way too?"
She nodded and stood back up. He offered a hand to her and she took it.
"I remember when you first brought me here," she mused, falling into rhythmic step with him and curling her pale fingers over his. "I come out a lot more."
"Well, I thought it might be nice, since all you ever seem to want to do is read…study…hang out with Kim…"
She giggled. "Are you jealous?"
He pouted and turned away. "I'm allowed to have something only I do with you, aren't I? Is it so bad that I'd want that?"
She stopped walking and moved her hands to pull his jacket collar up.
"No. No, that's not bad at all," she said quietly, pecking him on the lips. He nuzzled his nose to hers and tried to mesh his bangs with hers.
Jacqui was perfect. Jacqui was beautiful. Jacqui was the same on her left side as she was on her right. Jacqui let him trim her bangs when she needed it. Jacqui let him fix her skirt when it tilted up one of her hips higher than the other. Jacqui asked him to feng sui her room and used matching dish wear when she invited him over for dinner.
"…ve you," he murmured, letting his head fall to one of her shoulders. And then she reminded him that he needed to do the same on her other shoulder, using both her hands to rub his back.
"You need to say it again, don't you?" she teased.
"Yes. But we haven't reached the end of the park first. And you haven't replied."
"Oh. Right. You're right."
She put both hands on either side of his face and kissed both cheeks.
"Love you."
He nodded, satisfied in his amusingly prude way, and pulled at her hand so they could finish their walk faster. She smiled and ran a little to keep up, lighting her hand up again so they could see better.
"I think, it'd be better if we walked side by side, wouldn't it?"
"You're right, of course." He loved her. He really did.
Happiness was letting her guide him a little, because a lot of the time it seemed like she was made for just that purpose.