Note: I made a few small edits to chapter one, but nothing really important. Just thought I'd mention it.
A/N: Woof! What a response! Thanks for all the reviews! The first one was supposed to be a one-shot, but oh well… here we go again… ;)
She could safely say that she had never been as nervous as she was just then. It wasn't like her to dwell on things or to worry very much, but this was different. Special.
Kuki chewed the peeling cuticle on her thumb, staring intensely into the crux of her dilemma. This was not like her. This was not like her at all. She just had to stay calm and breathe deeply. It was only a date, after all.
Only a date.
So why was it so hard to decide which pair of shoes she was going to wear!
Well, her black and white sneakers had never failed her before… but maybe he would find them too childish? Too casual? Jeesh! They were only going out for coffee. How would she act when… if… when he asked her out to dinner?
Nope! No sense in worrying now. She'd leap that hurdle when she came to it.
Sneakers laced, Kuki stood and examined herself one more time in the mirror by the door to her apartment. Green t-shirt, jeans, hair down… or up? She toyed with the idea. No, down was better.
Oi, she was going to be late! She looped her handbag over her shoulder and rushed out the door.
As she approached the café, she could see Wally in the front window. He had a table just inside the glass-paned storefront, and the seat across from him was occupied by his white sneakers. He was somewhat slumped in his own chair, reading a paperback novel.
Huh. She hadn't pegged him for a reader.
She tapped on the glass to catch his attention, and waved when he looked up. He blushed (oh… that was too cute), and hid the novel beneath the jacket in his lap. Absurdly, she wanted to crush him close to her, like one of her old stuffies. Kuki had a strange vision of him in a pink costume, using the sugary catchphrase of Mr. Huggykins.
'I wuv you!'
Ok, waaay too early for that just yet (…wasn't it?). But she grinned at the idea, even though it was slightly disquieting to already be relating him to stuffed toys in her mind. She had only ever done that with serious boyfriends in the past (and there hadn't been many of those. Just one, actually.).
Bouncing nervously on the inside, Kuki went into the café.
"Is this seat saved?" she asked Wally brightly. He pulled his sneakers off the chair, then got up to brush it off, though he hadn't left behind any dirt that she could see. She found that terribly charming.
"Thank you," she said, sincerely.
"'S nothin'," he told her.
"Ok, then. What are you reading?" She had to ask.
"Nothing," said Wally, too quickly. "Um, would you like a drink? Coffee?"
He was offering to pay for her already. What sort of sign was that? No, no, no, analyzing was bad. She never analyzed. Now she couldn't seem to help it. She just wanted everything to go right.
"Only if I can pay you back," she said finally. He was shaking his head before she finished her sentence.
"No, I've got it. I'll be right back."
So, he was the traditional type. She liked that. She liked that a lot.
Really, Kuki liked pretty much everything. It was easy to earn a place in her heart. The difficult thing was to become a part of it. And yet, Wally already seemed close to doing just that. That was why it had taken ten minutes to decide what shoes to wear, why she watched him as he went to get their drinks, unwilling to let him pass out of her sight.
Well, not totally unwilling. When she was sure Wally wasn't looking, Kuki reached under his coat for the hidden paperback. She snickered.
"Oi, what are you laughing at, you snoop?"
Wally set a pair of paper cups on the table. He had clearly tried to sound casual, but his face was beet red.
"You read Star Trek novels?" she laughed.
"Well… the book store was fresh out of the Star Wars series… I figured it was the next best thing…"
"Nerd!"
"Am not!" said Wally, defensively. Kuki decided to end his suffering.
"Fine, you're not," she said, still smiling. She watched him poor a packet of sweetener into his cup.
"What?" he asked, looking up at her self-consciously.
"It's cute that you're embarrassed," she told him. He blushed again. Would she ever get tired of that? "I bet you read a lot of comic books as a kid."
"Well, yeah," he admitted. "I bet you were, ah… energetic."
"Nah," Kuki said teasingly.
"I wish I had known you," he blurted, then looked a bit sheepish. "When we were kids, I mean."
She smiled softly at her lap.
"So do I."
This was definitely not first-date conversation. Far from it, really. But Kuki didn't mind. It felt… right.
"I'm not usually this mushy, you know," said Wally, as he took a sip of his drink.
She giggled, pleased. "Then I must have that effect on you."
"Heh… yeah." He looked at her ink-stained hands as she wrapped them around her cup. "Hey, you've been working."
From there the conversation shifted into the generic. She told him about her job, and learned about his. They talked about their families and friends, hobbies and habits, until they reached the dregs of their coffee and were left fiddling with the empty cups.
"Let's walk," said Kuki suddenly. She liked hearing about his life, but she was restless from being seated for so long. Wally seemed to commiserate, because he smiled and got up, stretching a bit.
"Sure," he said, and looked at his watch. "But just for twenty minutes. Don't let me forget."
"I won't," she agreed without hesitation as he held the door open for her. They stepped out into the warm summer air. "Why? What's in twenty minutes?"
"I gotta go pick up a friend from the airport," Wally said, sighing.
"What's wrong with that?"
"Eh, nothing. She's a good friend and all, it's just…"
"She?" Kuki echoed, trying to sound unaffected.
"Uh, yeah, Abbey." Something seemed to occur to him then, for a moment later he added, "we're just friends, you know. I promise."
Kuki still felt an odd twinge of jealousy. She really had to get a grip; she wasn't sure she had ever been jealous before in her life.
"Don't be silly; I wasn't jealous," she lied, smiling at Wally. "How long have you known her?"
"Um…" His eyes rolled upwards as he made the calculations. "Wow. 'Bout seven years now. I didn't realize it had been that long."
"That's a long time," she noted, wishing it had been she who had known him so long. Oh, well.
"Well, I met her back in college. And besides, we don't see each other all that much since her family moved back to France."
"Ooh, France," Kuki murmured. "Have you ever been?"
"Nah," he said.
"Me neither," she admitted, "but I've been to Japan."
"What about Australia?"
She shook her head, black hair flying. "Nope. But I bet you have."
"'S where I was born," Wally told her.
"I can tell," She giggled. "You sound like the Crocodile Hunter."
"Do not!" He eyed her huffily, and then added resignedly, "Besides, you haven't met my dad yet."
"He sounds like Steve Irwin?" Kuki asked, grinning and delighted. She imagined Wally and his family, dressed in khaki shorts and speaking in thick Australian brogue, and laughed.
"Yeah," said Wally, "Looks like him too."
"Really?"
"No," he snorted. "Maybe he'd like to think so, but he works in engineering."
"Aw," she teased, feigning disappointment. "You got me all excited."
"Sorry. Didn't know you were such a croc hunter fan."
"Oh, yes," Kuki said. She forced herself not to smile. "It takes a real man to pull off the safari look, you know."
Wally sighed. "Shoot, I'll never be a real man now."
"That's ok. I'll still like you if you take me to Australia someday."
She was enjoying their friendly banter, but she wondered if he would read too much into that last remark, if he thought she was looking too far into the future or that she was subtly asking for some kind of commitment. She really wasn't. If Wally ever learned anything about her, it would likely be that Kuki Sanban was anything but subtle.
"You're just using me to get to the wallabies," he said in mock offense.
She smiled at him. "No, I wouldn't do that."
He looked a little flustered. "Well, yeah, I believe you… um, why do you like them in particular anyway? Wallabies, I mean?"
"Because they're cute," she answered, without hesitation.
"Oh."
Kuki couldn't resist reaching out and ruffling his hair. It was long, and just lightly curly.
"Hey!" he protested, but made no real attempt to stop her. When she pulled back her hand, he flattened the fly-away hair with his palms. He squinted at her, as if preparing a retort, but then he stopped.
"Wait a minute," he said, and looked at his wristwatch. "You've made me late again."
"Then I guess we'll just have to meet earlier next time," she said, squelching a burst of shyness.
Wally looked surprised, and then pleased. "Yeah, I guess so."
"You'll call me won't you?"
"Soon as I can," he promised. Then there was an awkward moment as they decided how to part ways. Neither of them made a move, but maybe that was good. She didn't want to rush into this and risk ruining it.
"Um, goodbye," said Wally finally.
"Bye," she repeated, both relieved and disappointed. She watched him dash off to his car until he was gone. For a moment Kuki just stood there on the sidewalk, reveling in the squirmy, butterfly feeling in her stomach. She didn't get that way for just anybody.
It was twenty minutes before she was home again and not quite sure what to do with herself. She tossed herself over the arm of the sofa and kicked her feet lazily in the air. And she thought absently about Wally…
The phone rang shrilly, startling Kuki out of her daydream. She leapt off the couch and into the kitchen to grab the receiver.
"Hello?" she said, feeling strangely excited.
"Hi… It's me."
She melted to the floor.
"Hi, Wally," she answered, grinning from ear to ear.
"Um, I just got the air port. Was I soon enough?"
He had said he would call as soon as he could, after all.
A/N: Erm, I thought that since Wally is so into action comics and cartoons, Star Wars novels wouldn't be such a stretch for him…yeah. Huzzah, four pages of WallyXKuki banter! I think there will be a hint of 1X5 next chapter… Let the tooth decay begin.