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Part 1: Repeat

"Christmas Eve…" Kei swung herself around a telephone pole like one might do in a romantic movie. I held up my camera slipping it over my black leather gloves. I had a scarf wrapped loosely around my neck and shoulders, drooping low.

She herself had on the scarf that had caught my eye just last year. Christmas Eve was gorgeous. The city was all lit up with the twinkle of the city. Everywhere people were hustling and bustling with their shopping. They had their arms full of bags and boxes that were gift wrapped.

Even now watching it after I had filmed it only a year ago, I was still amazed.

Kei seemed to be as well. "Are you sure you want to spend Christmas Eve with me? I mean I'm sure a busy man like yourself has better things to do."

"Nope. I spent it last year doing this exact same thing only with Izumi. Now that I'm no longer in the club I don't see why I can't spend it with you." Besides I wanted to spend it with her whether she knew that or not was a complete mystery to me. She seemed happy though although I couldn't tell if it was just the Christmas spirit affecting her or not.

"Good because I want to shop! Last year I had a Christmas party but now I just want to shop until I drop!"

"For clothes?" I asked.

She wrinkled her nose. "Why do I look bad? Do you think I need a new wardrobe?" Making a show of twirling around in her lacy blue and white dress I had to admit she sure was something in that.

"I mean it couldn't hurt for you to dress a bit more feminine-" Instantly a snowball smacked me in the face full of wet goodness that sent the chills going through me.

My camera was thankfully unharmed. It seemed that she had missed it on purpose.

I blinked a few times as the snow melted, falling off, some of it of course going down my heavy jacket. A counter attack was clearly needed here.

So off the camera went and in the bag it was positioned. I gave chase, scooping up snow as I ran. She was giggling and running knowing that I would have given chase regardless. My pride was on the line of course so I needed to do something about her.

"You're not getting away that easy!" I hollered after her. She responded by running backwards for a moment to stick her tongue out at me. I lobbed my snowball at her only to have her duck, it smacked into a business window.

The owner began to laugh from inside the shop at my horrified look. Kei was bent over laughing of course seeming as how she had nothing better to do at the moment.

"Heh…" I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly.

Kei snorted with laughter. "You're such a dork! Most people could care less. Just be thankful that you didn't hit another human."

"Considering how I was chasing after something inhuman…"

"What was that?" She sneered.

I waved her off and shrugged. "Nothing, nothing! Hey let's go and get snow cones or something."

"Snow cones…I don't know if you've noticed or not but it's kind of freezing." As she was saying this I was getting my camera out once again. It booted to life with a nice beep.

I was just in time to get her shaking her head at me a blush on her cheeks from the cold. "I could go for a cup of hot chocolate if you'd prefer that."

"Much." Was her answer.

In our town it wasn't all that hard to find a coffee shop. There were plenty of internet cafes and other sorts of places that catered to the inner otaku. Such as cosplay cafés or maid cafés. It was just the sort of town we lived in.

To my delight she chose a rather normal one. Thanks to the snow we sat inside and ordered. I stuck with a hot chocolate with a dab of whipped cream while she ordered that and a piece of fresh apple pie. Chocolate and apples didn't sound appealing to me at this given moment.

Kei rattled off about how cold it was outside as we waited for our order.

"Hey next week I'm gonna be in the gym all week. Will I see you?"

What a silly question. "You think I'd miss an opportunity to film you in action? Consider me already there waiting for you."

She narrowed her eyes. "Knowing you…you're such a stalker."

"What a mean word," I looked down into my cup. "I like to think of it as part of my occupation!"

"It's your occupation to stalk your targets?"

"Nope. It's my occupation to follow you around like a little lost dog that you occasionally like to kick for following you." I stirred the whipped cream in.

Kei scowled not liking the metaphor. "Idiot. Dogs are much cuter. I would never kick one."

I looked up. "So mean. I'm cute."

"No," She took my spoon from me and stuck it in her mouth savoring the flavor of whipped cream and hot chocolate. "You're handsome, there's a different duh." She used my spoon to point at me so I took it and used it to spoon some sugar into my cup.

"Hey I'll take what I can get. What about Hiro? Is he cute or handsome?"

She had to think about that for a moment so she began to drink some of her hot chocolate. She would blow on it first sending puffs of steam to rise. "Hiro is just Hiro. He's attractive because he is."

How vague. "Well he draws girl's manga. Of course he's going to be popular with the ladies."

"Well so are you. You hold a camera; do you realize how many women love that? They love watching themselves running around acting like a movie star. You should have seen how many women were looking at you while you walked with me, filming everything and everyone. Jeez…how can you be so oblivious?" Pretending to be irritated she sliced into her pie and stuck a good chunk in her mouth.

I already had the answer for my obliviousness. It was rather simple, ever since I had a girl by my side I could afford to be oblivious to others around me. "Women tend to notice things that men don't. Hence they are the perfect partners!"

"Hmmm I always figured men liked us because we have the parts." She stuck another good sized bite of her pie, chewed, and then went in for a drink.

Swallow and repeat.

"Yes and no. You see you can always tell the difference between men by the type of women that they like to have by their side." I pointed my spoon at her this time.

Kei took it using it to fiddle with between her fingers. "And w-what do I say about you when I'm by your side?"

The question took me for a surprise. I hadn't expected her to ask me considering how we weren't together or anything like that. We were friends that was all.

Or at least that's what I think she thought of me as.

"You…when they look at you and me…" I had to choose my words carefully. I'm pretty sure that her hot chocolate wouldn't feel too good going down my back. "When they look at you they see a man who likes a challenge. A man who's willing to put forth the effort to keep you company. They see a good guy you know? You're beautiful, striking, and most of all you put up with me and constant advances. I'm sure that many are jealous both genders."

Due to my fear I was rigid and ready to spring at any moment. Snow was one thing; hot chocolate could ruin both me and my camera.

Thankfully though she was blushing like mad, her entire face was red! I clearly had said something right for a change.

That said she dropped my spoon, picked up her fork, cut a piece of pie off, and thrusts it toward me. At first I honestly thought she was going to stab me with said fork so naturally I flew backwards, the chair bent back, and down I went.

My head cracked against the back of the back of the chair.

"Kyosuke! Oh my God are you okay?" Kei was up and out of her chair in seconds the fork still in her hand her face showing a face of pure shock. She also looked a tad bit guilty as if this was all somehow her fault.

It wasn't though. I blamed no one but myself for this pain.

Who I guessed was the manager had run out at the sound of a chair falling.

"Sir…are you alright?"

With great effort I nodded my head now aching from a much unwanted killer headache. "Y-Yeah…I'm good."

"Are you sure…here let me help you u-"

"I've got him!" Kei offered me a hand nearly pushing the manager out of the way to do so. I took it and she pulled. I knew that she had quite some strength for a girl but honestly she was doing most of the work here. "Are you alright? Do you feel dizzy perhaps? Bleeding?"

"Yes, no, and no. I just have a headache. I'm cool don't worry about it."

"Jeez! Honestly Kyosuke…" Kei looked like she wanted to chastise me but didn't have the energy to do so. She couldn't find the words…they just wouldn't form. "Telling a girl not to worry is like telling you not to film anything for a week."

Point taken. "May I?" I asked. My right hand still clutched the back of my pounding head.

Kei blinked. Perhaps she hadn't noticed that she had still been holding onto her fork nearly dripping with the still warm apple pie. "You really are an idiot you know that?"

"Yeah. I know but I'm an idiot who gets some pie." I took the fork between my teeth. The pie was warm, rich, and absolutely delicious. I could see why she liked it.

Then I took a sip of hot chocolate.

Swallowed.

And repeat?


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