Chapter 3 Surprise! Surprise!
For the rest of the month, Dizzy and Matsuda continued to go out to breakfast or lunch together whenever Matsuda's work would allow him to. Whenever he was around her, he could always feel his cheeks heat up and Dizzy laughed when his face turned red. She loved to mess with him and make him blush; she enjoyed it when he was embarrassed and thought he was the most adorable thing when he stumbled over his words. She sometimes felt guilty embarrassing him like she did, but the feeling was not strong enough to make her stop enjoying herself. At that point in the game, she did not know if she loved Matsuda or not, but she did know that she loved his company and he did not mind being around her when he could. Dizzy, being an excellent judge of character just by looking at the way someone acts or even just by seeing someone's face for the first time, knew right away when Matsuda walked into the coffee shop that she and Soi owned that he was the kind of man that she was looking for. He was adorable, cute, young, and a bit clumsy. Dizzy's perfect man.
About a week after their first date, the two of them went out for breakfast after Matsuda got off work. He was tired, but Dizzy insisted they have breakfast together seeing as they both got off work early in the morning and needed sustenance before they went to sleep. The next day, they went for a lunch date again then went back to his apartment to watch the second Mummy movie; The Mummy Returns. This time, as the DVD sat on the disk menu, Dizzy decided to help Matsuda make the popcorn and she insisted they cook it over the stove and promptly forgot to put the lid over the pan. Popcorn kernels flew across the small kitchen until Matsuda, barely able to control his body from fits of laughter, finally managed to put the lid on and let the popcorn finish cooking from there. Dizzy took the pan off the stove top when the popcorn was finished and pored it into a large bowl then the two of them put in the butter and salt, Dizzy always trying to drown the kernels in butter and Matsuda almost drenching it with salt after Dizzy had bumped him with her hip, making him blush, lose his balance, and dump the salt all over the table, dangerously close to the popcorn bowl. They both laughed and walked over to the couch, popcorn and soda in hand and Matsuda pressed "enter" on the remote and began the movie.
Matsuda always kept Dizzy updated on the Kira case. He was unsure as to why he always told her how the case was going, but somehow he knew he could trust her. If L ever found out that he was telling case secrets to someone outside the task force, the sugar-eating detective would have his head. Matsuda remembered clearly when he had told Dizzy when some of the agent's families would be investigated as part of the case. Dezeray had not been happy about the idea until he had told her the whole story.
"What!" she screamed. "We have to get investigated! Why? What did I ever do?"
"Dizzy, please, let me explain." She crossed her arms and glared at him, waiting for him to continue. Matsuda felt himself blushing again but tried to ignore it so he could actually speak to the American girl in front of him. "Ryuzaki only thinks two of the families are worth looking into, and since they don't know about you, you won't be investigated." He had regretted saying this to her the moment he finished talking.
"They don't know about me? Why not?"
His face grew warmer as he looked into her accusing eyes. "W-well, it j-just didn't ever come up in conversation." She relaxed when she heard his lie and looked at him with a sudden warming face.
"That's good, just as long as you hadn't been purposefully keeping me a secret. We might have a problem if that is the case." She smiled when she saw his cheeks grow even redder than they had been a moment before. "Thank God I'm not being investigated. It would suck if I were."
After that, Matsuda strongly hoped she would never find out that he was actually keeping her a secret from the rest of the task force. If Dizzy found out, then she would eat him alive, at least that was how he saw it.
--
By the time February rolled around, Dizzy had become so busy with her coffee shop work and going on dates with Matsuda, she had completely forgotten her birthday. Matsuda was having a difficult time finding something to do for her birthday and was saved when Dizzy's best friend Soi called him one afternoon after he had returned home from his late night at the current hotel L had picked out for the task force to meet. He had met her a few times before and was wondering how she had acquired his phone number because he had never given it to her. Concluding that she must have gotten it from Dizzy somehow, he listened to her proposal she had for the young American's birthday.
"What do you say to a surprise party?" she asked, sounding hopeful. She was obviously trying to bounce ideas off of him. "I think we could hold it at the shop, maybe you could take her out so she isn't there until everything is ready. What do you think, Matsuda?"
The young agent shrugged. "Sounds good, except I think you should take her out to distract her, not me."
"Why? You're her boyfriend. If anyone's going to do it, it has to be you."
Matsuda sighed deeply. He knew she was right but he also knew that if he was the one to distract her, he would fail miserably, plus the Kira case kept him busy for most of the day. If he were to go to the party, he would not be able to stay for very long. Of course Dizzy knew that and would understand if he left early but he felt like it was wrong to leave her like that on her birthday. Realizing that he had no choice, he quietly agreed to Soi's request. The party was at their apartment at 1:30 pm on February seventeenth, Dizzy's birthday.
Matsuda hung up the phone and now was faced with a new dilemma; what was he going to get Dizzy for her birthday? He knew that she liked the Mummy movies, but they had always gone over to his apartment to watch them and by the looks on her face during those times, she really enjoyed them. He was at a loss of what to get her when an idea suddenly popped into his head. She liked adventure movies and movies with humor, maybe he could get her a movie like that. Making up his mind, he grabbed his coat and headed out the door to make a run to the store.
--
Matsuda found it a lot easier to distract Dizzy from the fact she had a party waiting for her back at her apartment than he thought it would be. The day of the party, he offered to take her out for a birthday lunch date. Dizzy had no clue as to what awaited her when she got home, or, that was what it seemed to Matsuda. On the way back from the restaurant, they stopped at a street-corner flower shop where Matsuda bought Dizzy a small bouquet of roses as his gift and also gave her the present he had bought her a few days before; both National Treasure movies on DVD. When the roses were held in front of her, she smiled warmly at Matsuda, who blushed madly, and took them from his hands and thanked him in a sweet voice. When the movies were given to her, she almost screamed with excitement and yelled out that she could not wait to watch them; they were two of her favorite movies after all.
It certainly was a shock to her system when they arrived back at the apartment. Matsuda was almost shaking when they stood in front the apartment door; tired of keeping up the charade of just pretending to go on a birthday date, and anxiety washing over him with the possibility that Dizzy had caught on to the true intentions of their date. As soon as the door was opened, Dizzy almost jumped out of her skin when the word "Surprise!" was yelled out by Soi and everyone else she had invited. Dizzy was startled so bad that she stumbled backwards and tripped over her own feet, almost falling to the floor had Matsuda not caught her just in time.
Matsuda only stayed at the party for a few hours before he had to leave again. However; he enjoyed the time he spent with Dizzy and her friends. He got to meet Soi's fiancé, Jethar, a rather good-looking fellow who worked as a surgeon at the local hospital. All in all, his experience at the party was rather good. The only problem he had was when one of Dizzy's un-named friends attempted to flirt with him in a drunken stupor. It made him extremely uncomfortable and whenever she asked him a question, he somehow seemed to stumble over his words and could not say the right thing to save his life. Thankfully, Dizzy noticed this almost immediately and came rushing to his rescue, shooing the girl off and clutching Matsuda protectively. He was still a bit edgy but felt a bit more at ease with Dizzy there instead of the mysterious girl. He was somewhat relieved when it came time for him to leave. Major parties where girls got drunk and attempted to flirt with every guy they laid eyes on were not his thing. True, he wanted to stay for Dizzy, but he had to leave. L scolded him the last time he was late and ended up doing unglamorous work for a few days following. He was not about to be late again anytime soon. So he left; he said goodbye to Dizzy, Soi, and Jethar, apologized for not being able to stay longer, and promptly left.
What he came home to the next morning would make it his turn to receive a surprise.
--
Matsuda sighed heavily as he fumbled with the keys to his apartment door while he walked up the stairs to the fourth level of his building. Nothing new had happened with the Kira case. L still suspected Light Yagami of being Kira and all twelve FBI agents that had come over to investigate the relatives of the taskforce had been killed by Kira. The only thing exciting that had happened was L received his acceptance letter to To-Oh University, which was not really a surprise at all. At the entrance ceremony coming up in April he would be giving the Freshman Address together with Light Yagami. It was a lot for Matsuda to handle and all he wanted to do was lie down and go straight to sleep.
Arriving at his apartment, he inserted the key into the lock and opened the door only to freeze in his tracks and stare at the sight in front of him. What he saw made his whole face turn beat red and heat up like the inside of an oven. He stopped; his feet glued to the floor, and stared right at Dizzy who stood in the kitchen wearing nothing but a small, white T-shirt and a pair of underwear holding a pan of sizzling bacon over the stove. For the moment, all he could do was stand and stare at her, at her legs, her long, smooth legs. His face was as red as a lobster by the time she had noticed that the door was open and turned around to greet him. Once she was facing him, Matsuda noticed that she wasn't wearing a bra either, obviously, she had just gotten out of bed, and his heart began to race; not knowing what to do and unable to tear his eyes away from her.
Dizzy smiled joyously when she saw that it was Matsuda who had entered and not some random person she did not know. "Touta! Good morning! I hope you like bacon and eggs, because I made a lot of it." Turning back to the stove, she began to scoop scrambled eggs out of a frying pan and onto a ceramic dinner plate; she then took a fork and shoveled out the bacon from the pan it was cooked in. Filling up a second plate with eggs and bacon, she set both plates down on the kitchen table and motioned for Matsuda to sit down because he was just standing in the doorway, not moving. "C'mon Matsu, get in here and shut the door. Your food is going to get cold."
Letting out a big sigh, he closed the door behind him, took his coat off and sat down at the table, his face still red but his heart had slowed down considerably. He wondered how in the world she had gotten in. He had never made her and extra key to his apartment and as far as he knew, her only talents were making coffee and cooking. Maybe one of the neighbors let her in? No, they did not have a key either; then how? More importantly, why was she here? He was about to ask when she spoke first.
"Now, I know you have been out all night and you are really tired, but I think you should eat breakfast first."
"Dizzy." He tried interrupting her.
"I know people say that you will get nightmares if you eat right before you sleep, but I think that is a load of crap," she continued as if she had not heard him.
"Dizzy." He tried again.
"I noticed that you had no milk in your refrigerator last night so I went out and bought some." She pushed a glass of cool milk in front of him and continued on with her rant. "Here, it will help you sleep with peaceful dreams."
"Dizzy!" He ended up almost yelling to get her attention. She finally stopped talking and looked up at him.
"What?" she asked innocently.
He took a deep breath and asked the question that had been plaguing him the whole time. "What are you doing here?"
She was silent for a moment, obviously forgetting that he would want to know this when he saw her in his apartment uninvited. Any normal girl might have been a bit insulted by the question, but not Dizzy. She completely understood that anyone who found someone in their home who was not invited or given a key would want to know how they got in and why they were there. It's normal human curiosity.
"Oh, that." She pretended to think about her answer for a few seconds then spoke as if it had been rehearsed several times. "After you left, my party got really out of hand. I guess they didn't want to get too wild when there was a cop there, I don't know. But anyway, some of the real crazy guys that I know must have broken a few pipes in the kitchen and bathroom. The plumbing got all screwed up and there was a gas leak somewhere so everyone left and Soi called the emergency line (911 in America! I don't know what it is in Japan) and then we packed our things and left; the whole building is under maintenance. Soi went to her fiancé's place to stay until things were fixed up. She offered for me to come as well but I decided that I wanted to come here instead." As soon as she finished, Matsuda was ready with another question.
"And another thing, how did you get in here?" At this, Dizzy's innocent grin turned into a mischievous smirk.
"No problem, I just picked the lock." Matsuda's jaw dropped and all he could do was gape at her. "I see you're speechless. Allow me to explain. My big brother back in the states is an expert lock picker and thief. He taught me everything he knew and I am just as good as he is at picking locks."
Finally, Matsuda was able to find his voice. "But what about the electronic lock on the front door of the building?" He, honestly, did not know how to react to this.
Dizzy just shrugged. "Those kinds are the easiest to pick. All you have to do is take a regular sized card such as a credit card or a driver's license, insert it into the crack between the door frame and the door, move it around a bit, and viola (pronounced: waa-laa)! The door is open."
Upon hearing her words, Matsuda was able to regain some of his composure and strength. "You do know that you're breaking and entering? That's a felony, you know."
"Yeah, I know. But the way I see it, you're not going to press charges considering I'm your girlfriend. Why just last week, you said yourself that I'm welcome here anytime that I wish to stop by. I'm as good as safe."
Matsuda sighed. She was right. No matter how he looked at it, she was right. She was his girlfriend, so even though she had picked his locks to get into his apartment, he would not press charges. Besides, she needed a place to stay and, no matter how anxious she made him, he would let her stay; it was also sweet that she chose to stay with him instead of her friend's. "Alright, Dizzy, you can stay."
No sooner had the words exited his mouth did Dizzy jump up and wrap her arms around his head in excitement. "Thank you so much, Touta!" she cried happily. Matsuda's eyes opened wide, his face turned scarlet from surprise and embarrassment as he stared right into her chest. It seemed like hours before she finally let him go and looked at his face. Still red, Matsuda just gaped at her, unable to speak. Dizzy let out a slight chuckle when she saw how red he was and sat down. "Now, how about some breakfast?" she asked cheerfully. Shaking off the previous event, Matsuda smiled oh-so-slightly and dug his fork into his scrambled eggs and began his first meal with his crazy girlfriend living with him.
A/N: Okay, I got permission from my friend to use Soi, but now I just realized that I forgot to mention that Jethar, Soi's fiance, is my other friend's character. So, Soi and Jethar are not mine. No, Jethar is not a Japanese name. My friend who created him made up the name (I think), but I thought I'd use him anyway.
Review Goddammit! If you don't, I'll find you and jack you up with a rusted knife, don't think I won't! (Seriously, I do own a rusted knife and I am not afraid to use it!) I WILL find you!