First Kiss (Part 2)
by BrDPirateMan
Neku arrived in school the next day with a swollen, bandaged head. It gave him some notable problems like a pounding headache and an overall moody attitude, so during lunch he had to retire to the nurse's office to rest for a little while. And brood about his unfortunate accident from yesterday.
His loyal girlfriend Shiki accompanied him, sitting in a chair by the bed he was sitting on, feeding him more of her outstanding fried tofu as usual. It helped to lessen the pain and his emo-ness.
"Here, Neku. Say 'Ahhh'…"
"It's alright… I… I'm not an invalid and I can feed myself."
"I know," said Shiki with a mischievous wink, "but it's much more fun this way. Go on, say 'Ahhh'. You know you want to!"
He really didn't… But she was so cute and it just wasn't done ignoring her request… er, demand, command, whatever… With a little reluctance he complied and parted his lips, and the pristine taste of fried tofu entered and permeated throughout his mouth.
"What's more," continued Shiki, "you're not exactly feeling very healthy at the moment, so it's my job to take care of you… Um, Neku? What's wrong?"
He was so moved that he couldn't squeeze out a sensible reply. But Shiki was waiting for his answer with a concerned look on her pretty face. Stumbling for an answer, he blurted out the first thing he could think of.
"I… I love you very much, Shiki."
She almost dropped her lunchbox when her heart bounced violently inside her entire body. Her face grew red and she had to gasp her words out. "Oh…! Um, gee, I already know that, but it's still nice to hear that from you!"
"Y-Yeah…"
"I love you too, Neku…"
Suddenly an idea came to her. It was not a bad idea at all.
"Neku?"
"Uh…?"
"Say, we never actually got round to doing it… kissing, I mean." She pressed the tips of her index fingers together, blushing steadily. "How about we do that now?"
He nearly choked on his tofu. Luckily he didn't, but he swallowed it whole, and it took a whole bottle of water from a frantic Shiki to force it down his blocked gullet. In a way, choking was much easier.
"Why here?" he spluttered when he recovered. "We're in school! If someone comes in…"
"But we're alone, Neku… It's the perfect place to make out. And…" Shiki took a moment to swallow the imaginary lump in her throat. "And… if we lock the door, we can have all the privacy to ourselves…" Her voice grew smaller and harder to hear as she spoke, and he had to lean in closer and closer to hear her out. By the time she got to the last word he was so close that their faces were right in front of each other. Separated by nine very intimate centimeters.
Startled, Shiki reared back to regain breathing space. "Nekuwhatareyoudoing!"
At this sudden outburst, Neku recoiled in shock in much the same way as she did, but he forgot that the wall was right behind him. His head smashed into the concrete… and let's not forget that his head was already injured to begin with, hit by a flying skateboard of all things!
Oh, and there was a resounding crunch that would make a hardened criminal wince.
He clutched at his scalp, trying to rub the pain away. Shiki was rightfully alarmed.
"Neku!" she yelped. "Your head!"
"Agh… the world is spinning… way too fast…"
She pounced onto the bed right next to him, but it was purely out of concern, because she wanted to examine his poor skull. There was no lust, no hidden desire, no taking advantage of the situation. She just wanted to make sure that her boyfriend wouldn't die (ooh, how morbid). But Neku thought otherwise.
"Sh-Shiki? What are –"
"Hold still and let me take a look at it!" snapped Shiki, nudging obscenely close to him.
"I'm fine, but – GWAAAH!"
"I said hold still! It's hard to see if there're any lumps with all that spiky cactus hair of yours, so stop squirming!"
"My head… not a… cactus!" gasped Neku in pain. "And besides –"
"Besides what? !" grumbled an irritated Shiki, who was still oblivious to the bodily position she was in.
"– your knee is crushing me!"
"Huh? !"
Shiki looked down, and it turned out that in trying to find a good position so she could look closely at Neku's head, her left knee had wedged itself right between his legs. His family jewels were practically dying to be saved from extinction. He had no intention of becoming a eunuch, and a young one at that!
"I-I'm sorry!" She leapt away, freeing him from her knee, much to his relief. But now, Neku had to contend with two different injuries… He didn't want to make her feel guilty by displaying his pain, however, so he tried to pretend like nothing was wrong. Not much, anyway.
"Eh, I'm fine," he lied in a nonchalant manner, though it was hard to do so. "That was nothing."
It backfired, but in a way he never would have thought of: Shiki reprimanded him. "You shouldn't try to act cool, Neku. If you're in pain, be a man and accept it. Now come on, let's see what we can do about this." She checked the nurse's office for any medical supplies that might lessen his discomfort.
Now that she had chided him, somehow the pain in his groin felt ten times worse… a dull, soul-sucking pain…
He spent the rest of lunch with a bag of ice on his nether regions. It was quite the sight.
"I… didn't hurt you that much, did I?" asked Shiki uneasily, her eyes shifting every so often to you-know-where. It was hard to tell which was worse, her guilt or her embarrassment.
"It stings plenty but… I guess I'll survive…"
"I'm sorry, Neku…"
It was almost time for their lunch break to end; ten minutes till classes would resume. And although it was a bad time, Shiki was secretly itching to fulfill her want to kiss him in private. What better chance was there than now? They were alone and it was quiet.
"Neku?" she gulped. "I don't really want to bring this up now, but…"
He nudged the cold compress slightly. "What is it?"
"Um, we have yet to kiss."
Shiki shifted closer (being careful not to cause anymore collateral damage) and Neku gave a start. Seeing her come so close with such a romantic intention made his body temperature rise to increasingly dangerous levels. He could very well melt that ice bag.
"Wh-What? You want to kiss now? !"
"Please?" said Shiki, coy and demure. "Now's the best opportunity, but… if you're not keen, I wouldn't blame you…"
"N-No," stammered Neku, clearing his throat. "I'm… I'm fine. With it. Well… I don't mind if you want to kiss me here, but we ought to be careful."
"So we can really kiss?"
"Sure…"
She smiled. "Okay… Close your eyes."
This he did, but he didn't expect her to clasp his face with both of her hands, much like how so many couples have done in the movies and in TV dramas. It was such an incredible sensation that he thought his brain might shut down. An inaudible whisper from her intensified his feelings of excitement and anticipation, "Neku… I love you…"
Oh my god! We're getting to a good part! Get the popcorn ready and enjoy the show!
They were going to share a kiss, the sweetest, warmest kind… and it really got Neku's blood pumping. That didn't help his headache at all, but he didn't really care or mind. Shiki would be his doctor and she could cure him with those soft luscious lips of hers. He couldn't wait. It didn't matter to him that he had fried tofu breath.
Shiki didn't mind either. After a lifetime of being single and regarded as "ordinary" and even "boring" by many guys, it was refreshing and gratifying to finally be with a boy who saw her inner beauty and loved her for who she was. She never would have thought that the day would come when she would even have her first kiss and here she was. Boy, did she want his lips… and did she want them now.
But just as they were about to seal their place in history as another successful love story, the door swung open. He jumped at the sudden intrusion and she jumped, and when the school nurse who had opened the door came inside and saw the two in such an intimate position, she jumped too. Everyone had a good jump in there. So did the ice bag.
Oh no! Our hapless couple realized too late that they had forgotten to lock the door!
Frozen in time, everyone stayed where they were, their bodies paralysed from shock. The school nurse looked on in horror and tried to piece together what might have happened in her office while it was being occupied by these two teenage lovebirds. They were about to kiss, so of course, they were a couple. And for some unfathomable reason, the boy had a cold compress on a certain sensitive area. Why, pray tell, was it there?
Then, as the most likely scenario unfolded in her imagination, she grew pale in shock. Could it be that these two actually did some… er, "adult" things, and went overboard? They must have been inexperienced about it and made some pretty bad mistakes too… how else could he have an injured groin? !
She stuttered, "Wh-What have you kids been doing? !"
"N-Nothing!" yelped Shiki. "Nothing at all!" Panicking, she grabbed Neku by the wrist, leapt off the bed and forcibly dragged him in the direction of the open door, trying to edge past the nurse.
"Sorry! We're very sorry! W-We wouldn't get in your way. Goodbye!"
Before Neku could offer his own apology, he was nearly out the door, but in the haste, confusion and hullaballoo, his head smacked right into the doorway.
And he passed out for real. Again.
"Neku? Neku!" Shiki was at the collapsed Neku's side together with the nurse, trying to resuscitate him. But it was to no avail. He was totally unconscious.
Guess all that popcorn was wasted, huh…
XOXOXOXOXO
To make a long story short, Neku managed to escape death by repeated concussions, but he, along with Shiki, could not escape the scolding that the nurse gave them. The couple explained everything that had happened – the whole truth – and reassured her that they weren't engaging in any sort of activities of a risqué nature. Luckily for them, although the nurse was angry, she was kind enough to keep their tryst a secret from the school as long as they didn't attempt to do it again in her office.
They kept their promise, up till this day even, but they didn't learn their lesson until later. And that lesson was to never ever try to incorporate romance in your school life. No matter how quiet and private a place may seem, somehow something would crop up and spoil their chances, often in a rude unwelcome way.
Since the nurse's office was now out of bounds, they tried a different strategy. A few, actually. All of which involved finding a place good enough to make out relatively unmolested. But no matter where they went, be it an empty classroom, the science laboratory, or even the hidden alley behind the school, they would always be found out and they would never get to kiss. Classmates, upperclassmen and underclassmen alike, janitors and even the scary security guard all had the chance of a lifetime to disturb Neku and Shiki's love life… unintentionally of course. The boy and girl found no peace.
In a final desperate move, they settled for the rooftop where they often had lunch together. But before they could even start, the sky turned dark strangely quickly, meaning that a thunderstorm was about to descend upon the city. To make matters even more bizarre, a fork of lightning struck very close to where Neku was sitting, nearly zapping a chunk of his beautiful hair off. It put them off dining there for a while, and the poor boy developed astraphobia.
By the way, astraphobia is the fear of thunder and lightning.
"I guess school simply isn't the place for romance, huh?" said Shiki, as she and Neku were walking back from school one day after a harrowing near-miss with a teacher.
Neku sighed in disappointment from yet another failed attempt. "I guess not…"
"Well, let's not give up!" She sounded cheerful despite everything. "If we can't ever get anything done in school, we could always do it somewhere else, right?"
Somewhere else… He took a quick glance around, and saw that they were going to pass through A-East. Now, like many famous streets in Shibuya, A-East was boxed in on both sides by buildings, making it shadier than say, the more open and airy Scramble Crossing. And where there was shade and alleys, there was sure to be privacy…
He was right. A-East was also one of the less populated areas in Shibuya, so that meant there were less people milling about. Today, it was strangely bare. Not a single person was around. He did think it was odd, but chose not to overanalyze things.
"Shiki," he said, subtly guiding her to a nearby wall.
"Neku, what's up? And… what are you…?"
She found herself being pressed against the wall by Neku, with her back to it. He was very gentle about it and made sure not to hurt her.
"Say, Shiki," he whispered. "How about we do it here?"
"Do what? Y-You mean kissing?"
"Yeah… It's not a bad place, don't you think? Not many people and all."
"But…" She took a nervous glance all around. The absence of pedestrians put her heart at ease somewhat, though she was still understandably apprehensive. It was more open than the places in school that they've tried… but it was a street lined with shops and buildings with windows through which people could spy on them!
She bit her lip. "Gee… I don't know about this…"
"Being in the Reapers' Game taught me something, Shiki," said Neku. "I learnt never to take life for granted. So we should always seize every moment we have."
She sighed. "Oh, alright. You've convinced me, Neku. I guess I don't really mind…"
He had her trapped between himself and the wall behind her. When he brought up a hand to stroke her cheek, she twitched in surprise at first, but settled down to enjoy the touch of his deft gentle fingers. Slowly he brought his face towards hers. She grew nervous but trusted him to make their first kiss a good one, even though it was at hardly the best place for it.
Then suddenly, the massive double doors just beside them swung open, knocking Neku down onto his hands and feet. Shiki immediately went to his side and helped him up, before being distracted by a colossal rift in the universe. And by that, I mean that someone she recognized had walked out of those doors. Someone famous. Someone who had a peculiar habit of tagging the word "Fabulous!" to everything.
"It's… It's…" she was struggling to tame her nerves. "It's The Prince! ! !"
Abruptly forgetting about Neku and leaving him behind, she teleported right in front of her favourite idol and started squealing and going on about how she's his biggest fan and how much she loved his music and all that nonsense. Her manic fangirl behaviour seemed to act as a beacon to hail other fangirls in the area, because out of nowhere an entire horde of teenage girls flooded in and crowded around The Prince. Some of them, in their bid to get closer to him, trampled over poor Neku and turned him into a human pancake.
As he struggled to peel himself off of the asphalt, he tried to make out where his girlfriend was amongst the dozens of crazies that were causing such a ruckus. He couldn't. He smartly stayed out of the way lest he should get stomped again, but he felt terrible and betrayed that the love of his life had ignored him to vie for the attention of this aggravatingly popular singer.
"All of you girls are so nice to me," said The Prince with his trademark manly charm, making all of his fans sigh. "I'm touched. Even before my concert has even begun it looks like the auditorium will be bursting at the seams."
Apparently, the place where the double doors led was the concert stage where many of Japan's famous singers performed. The Prince was using it earlier to practice for an upcoming concert, and now he was taking a break. But true to his over-the-top melodramatic ways – whenever he did something it always was in style – he had to open the double doors majestically and oh-so-suddenly, and that was when Neku met an unfortunate and premature end to his would-be kiss with Shiki.
He thought he could hear her voice above the clamour. "You're so amazing, Mr Oji!" she yapped. "I especially liked the wistful way you sang 'Down In The Dumps'!" Several other fangirls nodded in agreement.
"Oh, you flatter me," The Prince said. "Then be sure not to miss my concert this August! You'll have a blast of a time!"
The legion of fangirls, Shiki included, screamed in unison and in insane happiness. Neku's heart dropped to his shoes. What was so good about Eiji Oji anyway? ! He felt as though his wounds had not simply been sprinkled with salt. More like his wounds were generously glazed with chilli peppers, wasabi, curry powder and hot mustard. And left to marinade overnight.
Oh, the pain that bruised the tomato of his soul… Wait, wasn't that said by someone else already?
XOXOXOXOXO
"Uh… Um… Neku…"
"What? !"
"P-Please don't shout like that…" said Shiki sheepishly, but still retaining a little glee from her chance encounter with The Prince (after all, she got his autograph!). "I'm sorry for earlier… It's bad of me to do that to you."
"You got that right," grumbled Neku, who had switched over to angry kid mode. With arms crossed in anger, he continued, "I know you're a fan of that guy but did you have to desert me for a whole hour? !"
"I'm sorry… Really I am. I… I know! I'll make it up to you… But… Hmmm… what do I do…"
He sighed, throwing a hand into the air. "I just don't understand you Prince fangirls. Whatever, I'll let this slide. Make me some more of that fried tofu of yours and we're even."
Shiki lit up and felt better. "Sure! I'll make an extra-large lunchbox for you, okay? I'll even add in some haddock tempura as a bonus."
She was a great cook. This was a pretty good deal he was in. "Then… I'll be waiting."
"N-Neku… you're drooling on the floor."
"Nonsense! I'm just… sweating profusely from the chin."
"That sounds disgusting either way…"
XOXOXOXOXO
Following a few more unsuccessful attempts at kissing outside of school, the couple decided to haul their sorry butts over to a completely different location altogether.
So far they had tried a deserted street alley, but were quickly chased away by a pack of fiercely territorial cats; the Station Underpass was nice and dark, like A-East, but it proved to be a bad idea because the train pulled up right in front of them as they were embracing, much to the amusement of the commuters who got off; and at a quiet unseen corner table of a noodle joint, where they tried to sneak a kiss in… well, let's just say it was a complete mess. Startled by the sudden appearance of the waiter who had come to serve them their ramen, Shiki gave a little scream which caused said waiter to lose balance in shock and spill hot ramen sauce all over himself.
He had to be sent to the hospital. Poor guy. And you know what? It was his first day at work too.
Nothing they tried worked! Their lips never got the chance to touch each other! It was one disaster after another.
That was why, on one particular Saturday, they made it a point to head to the beach that was situated at Shibuya's outskirts, in hopes of satisfying their romantic urges, which were by now charged with about a gazillion hormones, suppressed no thanks to their failures.
Their trip to the beach did nothing to alleviate the effect those very hormones had on them, because it was the first time they had seen each other without clothes on. Without many clothes on, anyway.
Under a parasol erected in the sand sat our beloved awkward couple, nervous and fidgeting like they were about to confess to each other all over again… ah, such sweet memories of youth and all. Even though they secretly wanted to drink in the sight of each other's bodies with their thirsty eyes, they were still very shy. They may have their tasty little fantasies and twisted daydreams but when it came to the real thing in the flesh, right next to them at that, they became very tame and cowardly and all "oh-no-I-couldn't-do-something-like-that".
Still, they didn't want to waste their fine afternoon at the beach by doing nothing. At the very least, they should say something… initiate a conversation to ease themselves into the fun of things.
Neku spoke first. "Uh…"
Shiki was still hesitant to glance his way. "Yes?"
He was struggling for the right thing to say. Anything that would rid them of their ridiculous shyness. "Um… that bikini looks nice on you."
"Th-Thanks… Er…" She still wouldn't look at him yet, now even more so because she had a blush to hide. Wait, for what reason did she have to hide her blushes anyway? After a while, she blurted out, "W-Well, those shorts look good on you."
Neku complimenting her on her swimsuit was fine, but somehow… it wasn't so fine the other way around, and she realized this. It just seemed so wrong.
"Agh, sorry," she sighed, "I know I sound like a pervert."
"Hey, don't worry about it. Besides," he said with a kind smile and an arm around her, "we're a couple now. We should be more honest with each other, right?"
"That's true…" She let out a giggle. "Heh!"
"What is it?"
"You're nice, Neku." She ruffled his hair affectionately, and his own blush mirrored hers. This little scene between them was so irresistibly cute and heartwarming that the romance buff in you will wish you could strangle them out of happiness.
Now that they were more relaxed, they faced each other and made small talk just like they always did whenever and wherever. Aside from the fact that they were in their swimwear at the beach on a warm afternoon, what they were doing was no different from their daily routines. Soon, however, the topic of kissing inevitably came to mind, and suddenly they were in a quandary again.
"So… here we are," said Neku. "We came here so we could have our first kiss, but… what now?"
Shiki had no answers for him. Just as baffled, she could only fix him with a look that said, "Any ideas?"
But even then, she was smart enough to recognize that while they may or may not have problems with lip-on-lip action, they had come all the way to the beach, so they might as well squeeze some fun in while they were at it.
"How about we talk about the kissing later and go have a swim for now?" she said, smiling. "It'll be a waste if we don't, wouldn't it?"
"That's a plan I can get behind. Maybe it'll clear our heads long enough to figure out something."
Indeed, it was a good idea. Shame it didn't go as planned. Wanna know why? Ah well, I guess I'd have to tell you either way, so let's get down to business already.
The plan was to take a nice cool dip in the ocean and have fun, and perhaps at the end of all this, they'd be refreshed enough to think things through. And in the best case scenario, they could finally and literally savour the sweet taste of romance.
The problem was that even though they were swimming, they weren't exactly having fun because they were too preoccupied with formulating ways with which to tackle their current predicament. They had intense frowns from intense thinking, but… who the heck frowns while they're swimming? !
What should I do? groaned Neku in his thoughts as he was lazily doing a back-paddle. I'm a man. I have to think carefully, for Shiki's sake. If I do the wrong thing, she'll be furious. But if I don't do something, eventually she'll be furious. If I wait for too long, she'll be furious. And supposing we manage to kiss and it's not to her liking, she'll be furious… What a furious fix I'm in.
While Shiki was doing slow laps in a small circle, she had similar doubts in her head too. Neku is very nice to me, and I'm happy that he loves me. But would he do something perverted to me while we're kissing? Would he lick my neck or… agh, no! Of course he wouldn't… I think this way because I've been reading too much of that stupid book I bought at Dr Fumiko's pharmacy. Hmmm… Should I lay down some basic do's and don'ts of kissing? Goodness, wouldn't that be just too weird? Argh, I don't know what to do.
Oh boy… These two never have it easy.
"Oof!"
"Ow… Neku?"
They didn't look where they were going because they were thinking too hard, and they collided with each other as a result. A hasty apology from both of them followed, after which they found themselves floating together in close proximity, staring bashfully at their own reflections instead of each other. Their earlier thoughts were straining their ability to think clearly.
The afternoon was dwindling away and giving in to the evening. The sun was starting to glow orange instead of bright yellow, spreading its rays onto the ocean. By this time the beachgoers were thinning out, and now only a pocketful remained, and of the lot, most of them were lying down and relaxing. Neku saw this as a grand opportunity… Not many people would be watching…
Shiki gave a small "eep" as she felt his hands on her hips. He pulled her towards him gently, and she instinctively held up her hands to his chest to steady herself. When they realized the position they were in (thankfully hidden beneath the water surface), they were reduced to a rapid blushing fit. That they were half-naked and clinging to each other in such a delicious intimate way made their blushes even worse. So naughty!
Neku's heartbeat could be felt in Shiki's fingers as her hands stayed plastered to his bare chest. "Wh-What are… you doing?" she stammered, though she wasn't angry or frightened, more like curious.
He took a while to find his voice, stuck like a frog in his throat. "I was thinking that now would be a good time to, you know…"
"…kiss?"
"Uh-huh…"
"Gee, Neku…" gasped Shiki, feeling slightly squeamish from the ticklish feeling of his fingers playing at her hips. "I dunno… it sounds exciting… Should we?"
"Only if you want to."
She looked around again to ascertain that everyone else was busy and not focused on the two of them. The beach was all but filled with lazy sunbathers, so they had a good degree of privacy, that was for sure.
Her heart was going crazy. "Neku…" she whispered, just audible enough to be heard above the roar of the waves, "I… I don't mind if you want to kiss me here."
"You don't mind? For… real?"
"Yeah. I think this might actually be kinda fun." She flashed him a demure yet alluring smile.
"I think so too…" And as he said the words he approached her with his lips. She took this as a sign to do the same, so she did.
Shiki never would have thought that the first kiss they would share would be at the beach, floating near the coast, straight out of some romantic movie. A sexy kiss. Well, Neku was sexy to her, and he thought as much about her too, so it was easy to see how they would feel about this. This was driving them to the brink of insanity, but persevere they must. This was not the time to consult Dr Fumiko's recommended book… That could wait till much later!
The sun was pleasantly warm, the atmosphere was peaceful, and the watery touch of the ocean on the couple's skin was comfortable. On top of that they were this close to their first kiss. Easy now… Just a few more millimeters, and bam! There would be world peace.
Alas, world peace was not possible. Out of the blue, and all of a sudden (seriously, how many "all of a sudden" moments must this story have?), Neku felt something wet and slimy slap against his back. He gave a grunt, and both of them opened their eyes in alarm.
What was this… thing? It wasn't Shiki's hands; they were on his chest. And if you were to hypothesise that she had wrapped her legs around his entire body, I'll whack you on the head because that's not only disgusting, but completely ludicrous. Only an octopus can do that, and Shiki is not an octopus.
But the octopus theory wasn't too far wrong.
A searing pain spread across the skin on his back, and he started yelling and thrashing about trying to shake the offending object off of himself, to no avail. Before a panicking Shiki – as well as the beachgoers who had now perked up – could do anything to help, Neku sliced through the water like a blade as he made hurriedly for the shore, whereupon he immediately resumed his struggle with the unwelcome guest. She quickly followed and the beachgoers plus the lifeguard rushed over to see what the matter was.
Neku sure had bad luck.
Of all the misfortunes to happen, why did it have to be a live jellyfish clinging onto his back?
XOXOXOXOXO
With the help of everyone, Neku managed to have the jellyfish extricated from his back, but its stings made his situation serious enough to be admitted into hospital. It was a good thing, however, that its poison, while painful, was very mild. He would live to see his grandchildren.
But it sure puzzled everyone. True, once in a long while a jellyfish would wash up on the beach. But they rarely posed a problem for swimmers, if at all. So why there was one near to the coast was a mystery.
Mystery or no, Neku was crying inwardly as he lay on his stomach in a stuffy hospital bed.
It was his best chance to kiss Shiki, the setting was both romantic and highly arousing, and she was decked out in a hot bikini to boot! And he had missed it! All because of that stupid jellyfish! ! !
"Neku, are you feeling better today?"
"The stings I got on my back still hurt and my arms are all tingly and paralysed, though the doctors said I'll be fully cured in a few days. Until then, this sucks majorly."
"It's a terrible thing to happen to you, yes," said Shiki empathically, "but I'm just glad that you're alive."
"Yeah… but our kiss… we couldn't do it…"
"Th-That's a terrible thing too, but hey… it'd be ten times worse if I didn't have anyone to kiss."
Neku sighed. "Yeah… Sorry if I sounded like a whiny, complaining kid."
She smiled at him warmly. "It's okay. If I were you, I think I'd feel the same way. Oh yeah, before I forget, I brought along a bento!"
"Fried tofu?" asked Neku with a knowing smile. He brought himself up into a sitting position.
"Yup! And haddock tempura, as I had promised!"
"Whoa, thanks, Shiki. I appreciate all of your effort." His eyes were sparkling with gratitude. This was one great benefit of being in a relationship: there was always someone to care for and care for you! He wanted to cry.
"I can never get tired of this." But before he could even think of taking the lunchbox, Shiki snatched it out of his reach with an "Ah ah ah."
Initially confused, Neku soon realized what it was that she was up to. Don't tell me…
And true enough, as expected, she took up a piece of fried tofu from the lunchbox in her chopsticks, extended it towards his mouth, and with the cutest grin ever, cooed, "Now, Neku, say 'Ahhh'…!"
"Sh-Shiki…" He wanted to slap his forehead in amused exasperation, but he didn't feel like it with the jellyfish poison still in his twitching muscles.
"What?" she said nonchalantly, a hint of mischief in her voice. "It's not like you can help yourself. Plus, you know how much fun this is for me…" She regressed into a fit of silly giggles.
What she said was true. Neku couldn't do much for himself, and so despite his growing embarrassment, he let her have her way, gleefully feeding him mother hen-style. And though he'd rather feed himself, he at least found solace in the knowledge that Shiki loved him as much as he did her, and for that he was eternally grateful.
And of course, her food was exquisite. Fried tofu and haddock tempura were two things he could never get enough of. She was so good at cooking it was unbelievable. He wanted her as his wife.
But they hadn't kissed up until now, no matter how hard they tried. Their personal victory was far from secured…
They weren't the type to give up so easily, though… Oh, you can be sure that even as the world was crumbling, the sun was melting and the apocalypse was close at hand, they would try and try again…
…in the next chapter.
