"What I'm trying to say is," He sucked in his breath, "kiss me."
He furrowed his eyebrows and bit his lip in anticipation. I blinked.
"What…"
"Teto, just kiss me."
"I've already kissed you once."
"No, I kissed you. Now it's your t-turn to k-k-kiss me."
"Ok." I pulled my face as close to his as possible, making him stagger in surprise. He wasn't expecting me to agree, I'm sure. It was hard to get my face level with his, and I had to stand on my very tip toes to get my eyes the same height as his nose.
"T-T-Teto." I could feel the warmth radiating off of his skin.
"Don't get all worked up." I wrapped my arms around his neck, "You're too cute when you do that." Closing my eyes, I jumped a little bit and pecked him on the cheek, "There."
"What?" Yuma's eyes widened, "That was it?"
"You wanted a kiss." I pouted, "You got it."
"No, but-" he sighed, "I just-"
I wrapped my fingers around his, "Let's get to work Romeo, before you get all poetic on me." I was about to skip towards the truck, but I felt his hand pulling me back.
"Stop playing with me Teto." The sound of my sneakers squeaking against the dirt echoed through the air, "What are you trying to say? Is this some sort of code?" Brushing his hair out of his eyes, he looked down at a daisy on the ground, "I'm not sure what's going on. Is this all a game to you? What exactly are you trying to do?" He closed his eyes and exhaled, "If this really were a game, you would be that unbeatable final boss, the one who no one can over power. That one that before the battle looks so scary and intimidating that you don't even know how to even begin to lower that health bar. But you want it, you want that trophy, that feeling you've been working so hard for from the very beginning. And now you're just left there on the menu screen, the face of your unsurpassable wall frozen in front of you, impossibly perfect. You're just staring, your hand hovering over "enter", not sure exactly when to press start." He knelt down and held up the flower by the stem, "But now, I think I've been waiting too long." He pushed down on the center of the flower with his forefinger and digitalized his voice.
"Player 1 is ready for combat. Player 2 ready?"
I looked down, just realizing that tears were beginning to dapple the soft ground below. I rubbed my fist against my lashes and then looked up with a stupid grin,
"Player 2 is ready for combat." I straightened my back and bowed.
"Challengers ready. Begin?"
"Where's the enter button?"
Yuma shrugged, "I didn't think I'd get this far."
"What hero says that you idiot?" Water was still dripping off of my chin as a buried my face in his t-shirt, laughing, "What type of hero has ever said that?"
He didn't reply, but held me tighter.
"Don't hold me so close I could stab you. Baka." I managed through giggles and sobs. Drops of water began to roll down my forehead. I lifted my chin up to see Yuma, sobbing with his goofy grin plastered to his face.
"I'm just so happy right now, I don't think I would even care." He gulped, "Teto, I'm so happy. I'm a hysterical mess but I feel like I don't need anything else."
I giggled, "Why are you so happy if you haven't even pressed start?"
He leaned over on his knees and kissed my nose, "Level 1, begin."