70 - Vignette- Post-Game

xxxxx

Progression

Shiki stretched her arms, having just left the classroom as she had finished working for the day. She had been busy with perfecting the finishing touches on the dress that she was putting together for her final assignment. Formal wear was not her forte - she much preferred street fashion – but she thought that her piece was coming along quite nicely. Soon she could finally relax completely and enjoy the upcoming break from college. While she and Eri both entered the Bunka Fashion College together, they had decided to enter different departments. Much to Shiki's envy, Eri's final assignment for the year was due in last week, so her best friend had already gone off to some hot springs somewhere with her boyfriend. She couldn't blame Eri too much for getting a head start celebrating the end of term; Eri's boyfriend went to university in the neighbouring prefecture, so it was a little more difficult for her to see him.

Speaking of boyfriends –

[Shiki] Hey, just finished up! R u free?

[Neku] I don't have any exams this week, so yeah.

[Shiki] Want 2 meet up?

[Neku] Sure. See you at the usual place in half an hour.

[Shiki] Can't wait (^0^)

Closing Line on her smartphone, Shiki smiled and exited the college building. Her college was only an eight-minute walk to Shinjuku Station, so she was studying even closer to Shibuya than when she was in high school. What better place for a fashion college to be in than near the capital of fashion in Japan itself? Though, the two weren't meeting in Shibuya.

Half an hour later, after having waited in front of Shinjuku Station, sure enough, Neku turned up. It was difficult to tell whether Neku had been working during the day or not by his clothes, as he always wore the same thing no matter what the occasion (he still had his obsession with J of the M) but the way his spikes stood up a little less straight was a tell-tale sign to Shiki that he had in fact been studying earlier.

"Were you standing out here long?" he asked, with a hint of concern for her.

"Nah, I took the walk here a little slower so not too long," she answered, slipping her hand into his. They were now at the stage of their relationship where they could hold hands without turning thirty different shades of red, which was quite a relief to the two of them. She decidedly enjoyed the dynamic between them now more than the 'awkward-teenagers-in-love' stage. That had been unnecessarily nerve-wracking and she would not like a repeat of that experience again (though of course, those times were still a fond memory for her, despite how cringe-inducing they were).

Their 'usual spot' nowadays referred to a café near the station. Eri introduced it to Shiki one day, though she was sure that she and Neku visited the café more than Eri did. It was an easier place to than going into Shibuya, despite the history they had with the district. It wasn't like they had stopped visiting Shibuya entirely, after all, just less frequently.

The café was fairly large and was one of those 'couple-only' cafés. With a vintage décor scheme, it was a popular during weekends and it was sometimes difficult to get seating when it was at its busiest, but for a Wednesday like today, it there was plenty of space for Neku and Shiki.

As they went to sit down she nudged Neku, pointing out a couple that sat nearby them. They looked like teenagers, and neither of them had touched their drinks, simply looking down at their hands. They seemed at a loss of what to say. It kind of made Shiki slightly nostalgic.

"At least the girl isn't carrying around a stuffed animal to her dates," Neku commented, earning him another nudge from Shiki. She knew he liked Mr. Mew, deep down.

While ordering her usual mocha, she noticed that her boyfriend had ordered a stronger coffee than he regularly did. "Got a lot of studying to do tonight?"

"I got up late today, so I have to do a bit of catch-up." Neku shrugged. "I know most of the stuff I need to, I just need to go through everything again to make sure I haven't missed out on anything."

"Sounds tough. You're probably tired of hearing this from me, but I'm really glad I don't have to write any essays for my exams."

"Yeah, yeah. All your work is practical and you love your course so work isn't actually 'work'. You've told me that around – hm – a hundred times, maybe? I kinda am tired of it. Can we change the subject, please?" To many people, Neku's words may have sounded snappy, but Shiki caught the teasing undertones in his voice.

"Okay, fine. Let's talk about what to do after our exams. Eri's gone to the hot springs with her boyfriend, so…" Shiki trailed off, raising her eyebrows expectantly at Neku.

"You want to go a hot spring with me?" She could see that he was smiling, so Shiki took that as him being open to the idea. Praise be to collarless J of M clothing.

"I've been saving up with money from my part time job, so if we both can afford it we can stay for a night or two."

"Never been to one before, so I guess it could be fun." That sounded like a solid 'yes' in Neku-speak.

"It's settled then! I'll book it for next month then," she declared. "We haven't actually been on a proper away trip yet, have we? This is going to be so much fun. We have to take a lot of pictures when we get there, Neku. I know you don't like having your picture taken that much but no excuses for this since it's a special occasion! They usually have table tennis at these sort of places too, so we could also play a few games of that. I may suck at Tin Pin but I am going to totally smash you at table tennis. You may not know this, but I actually played a lot of table tennis during PE back in elementary school, so I'm fairly confident about my skills – " Shiki stopped when she noticed Neku seemed to start laughing. "What's so funny?"

"It's just, you suggested going to the hot springs in a very off-handed way, but you're actually a lot more excited about this, aren't you?"

"Well, I mean, yeah," Shiki admitted. "Aren't you?"

"Hm, I don't know. A whole two nights with you? Will my ears still function afterwards?"

"Excuse me. We spent a whole week together day after day when we first met!"

"I recall wearing some pretty good noise-cancelling headphones at the time…"

"Neku!"

"I'm just kidding," Neku laughed again.

See, Shiki allowed this teasing to go on only because Neku thought he had the upper hand. She knew he liked it when her cheeks puffed out when she was 'annoyed'. She wasn't sure if he knew that she felt pretty proud of herself when she could make him laugh, though. It was a win-win for both of them, in this exchange, really.

She exaggerated her puffy cheeks a bit more and he leaned forward to place his hand over hers.

"Really, I'm kidding. Alright, maybe I'm looking forward to one or two things, but they're kind of embarrassing to say out loud."

This piqued Shiki's interest. "What? What is it?" What could embarrass Neku?

"I told you, it's embarrassing, never mind."

"It's fine! Just whisper it to me!" Shiki stood up from her chair slightly to lean her head forward as well.

"Fine, okay well…"

Neku leaned in closer still, so he was right by Shiki's ear, covering his mouth with a hand.

"I'm hoping we have a private bath all to ourselves. Wouldn't that be great? I could wash your back for you if you want."

Shiki almost crashed back into her seat, prompting a few stares from surrounding tables, while Neku sat back down, looking completely nonchalant. Damn it, she was too old to be embarrassed by something like this, but she could already feel the warmth flushing into her cheeks. Neku wasn't even embarrassed by what he just said at all. In public, no less. Was it a good thing or a bad thing that her boyfriend was getting smoother? Urgh.

He wasn't going to let her live this down if she just left it like this. She didn't know what she could say to get Neku flustered…Unless she could win without doing that.

She smiled as sweetly as she could.

"Where have you been getting your lines from, Neku?" she asked. "From Joshua, maybe?"

Yep. Boom. She won.

Neku's face went from zero to sour-as-hell fast.

"Urgh, Shiki, alright we need to make a rule to not bring Joshua up on our dates, okay?" He grumbled. "It kills the mood completely."

She giggled. "I'm surprised we hadn't made this a rule before."

"You're right. Well, at least since this isn't Shibuya he can't just pop up and interrupt our dates."

"He used to do that a lot. He definitely has a thing for you."

"We've discussed this, I'm pretty sure he just enjoys pissing me off."

"Aw, I like my theory better."

"As my girlfriend, shouldn't you want him not to have a thing for me."

"This and that are separate things! 'Sides even if he does like you – "

"He does not!"

" – I know that you love me."

"Now that you're right about."

Neku had the most stupid grin on his face, and Shiki was sure that her expression mirrored his.

Yep, she most definitely preferred this stage in their relationship.


A/N: Tadaa! Plot twist where I show up again after over two years :D Ahaha…I am sorry for that. Welp, for anyone curious I'm now finishing up my second year of university. During that time I've witnessed the ups and downs of some relationships and have a lot of inspiration for some more Neshiki to write. I will get us to 100! I guarantee it! The Twelve Shots of Summer challenge that my friends and I do on ffnet is starting up early June soon so I thought I'd get back into the writing habit in preparation for that. Hopefully it doesn't seem like I'm too rusty, haha. If anyone's still reading this, hope you enjoyed!

- Dina (17/5/17)