For those of you who know about the current weather situation in Britain; yes, I am in an area in reasonable danger from gale-force winds (nothing on the American hurricanes, but still – it's scary when you can't walk along the road without being blown backwards). I'm not in the flooding areas now, but extremely heavy rain and gales do make travelling dangerous, and there have been local floods. So far I've been lucky enough to avoid the power cuts that have been plaguing my city, but if I should end up in the middle of one, as the storm warnings are staying until after the weekend, I will update this as and when I can.

To any of my British readers who ARE in the middle of the floods, winds, storms, and general chaos that is tearing our country apart, I wish you safety and health – and don't do anything silly! Flood safety, people!

Day 5

The Worst First Date In The World

(Mei-Mei/Chao Xin)

"That was..."

"Don't."

"I'm..."

"I said don't."

Chao Xin dropped his head and stared at his knees. She hadn't sounded angry. Just tired. He had no idea how he had thought this would be a good idea.

It was about two hours since he and Mei-Mei had arrived back at Beylin Temple, and still neither of them could face actually entering the main gate. So they were perched just below the walls, seated on a tiny outcrop just down the cliff that would keep them out of the keen sight of Da Shan, who had been just a little too concerned with the fact that two of his team-mates were dating. Well, sort of dating. Not actually dating. As in, hadn't-even-been-on-a-proper-first-date-yet not dating.

She smiled thinly, the expression forced. "I don't mind them, honestly."

"Yes you do. You don't like how noisy they are and you hate how clingy they are."

She looked shocked. Apparently she hadn't realised that he really did pay attention when the girl he liked started looking unhappy. He would have to work harder at getting her to believe that.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this." She sounded so sad. "If that's what's going to happen every time..."

"No! I..." A little quieter. "I want to make this work. Even if it means staying completely out of the public eye, if it means we can only be together all the way up here, I want this to work."

"You're more important to me than they are."

"I know. And you're more important to me than they are too." It hadn't been her fault. It hadn't really been his either, not that he was prepared to think that. He certainly hadn't wanted it to happen. "I'm sorry about the fans, Mei-Mei. I know you don't like the when they get like that."

"There was nothing you could do about them. I know that. I've always known." She shrugged. "You're Chao Xin, it comes with the territory."

"Still. I'll try to persuade them not to throw their shoes at you next time. That wasn't acceptable." He frowned. "You'd think that my fans would have better manners than that."

"Where should we go next time?" she asked after a long moment, unconsciously leaning into him. "I'd like to get ice-cream one day. Yuu from Gan Gan Galaxy says it's really nice."

"So… so you really want to try going down into the town again?" Part of him hadn't expected that. Mei-Mei was beautiful and confident and one of the most amazing girls he'd ever met (and he'd met quite a lot), but he knew she didn't like the amount of attention he got from his fans whenever he went walking. He hardly paid attention to it any more – it was normal for him. But she always pulled back when the squeals became audible, and once or twice had vanished without a trace.

He wouldn't have blamed her if she had wanted to break it – this, whatever it was - off altogether. It was all very well him saying that he was taken, thank-you-very-much, and that would some of his more enthusiastic fans please back off a bit... but that wouldn't stop them. He'd learned that the hard way only two hours before.

"Of course I do," she said, looking up at him, shocked. "I'm a member of Team Wang Hu Zhong; I don't give up on the things I want." She tossed her head proudly. "Just because we fell off the first time we tried to do that human tower in training didn't mean that we didn't keep trying. We just have to keep practising. A lot." A rather fierce grin lit her eyes. "Starting tomorrow."

"I love you so much," he smiled, and realised only a second later that he had said it aloud as her eyes went wide. He swallowed, then mentally punched himself. She might as well know now. "Of course I love you. I've loved you for years."

"Thank you," she whispered, and put her head on his shoulder. "I..."

He waited, but she was silent. After a long moment, she shook her head. He understood. She wasn't quite ready to say it yet (well, he'd been rather fast, but he was telling the truth. He'd loved her ever since he'd first battled her). But it was fine. He could wait for her. He would wait for her, forever if he had to.

"So what was the worst bit?" he asked, keeping his voice light and teasing as he changed the subject. "I think it was when I didn't have enough money on me to pay the bill because that restaurant owner got our orders mixed up with that super-rich guy in the corner."

"He was definitely a bubble-wheeling piece of slime."

He startled for a second, then laughed. "Mei-Mei, I think you mean double-dealing."

"Oh. Yes." Something twitched at the corner of her mouth. "I think it was when we had to help that man to the hospital because he was hit by a car right as we were about to cross that road." She frowned. "Not that it was bad that we helped him. It was bad that no-one else did."

He leaned back against the rock wall at his back and stared into the distance. "Not the part where the police cordoned off the riverside seating area to look for a drugs stash and we both got searched? Or when that guy watering his plants up on the balcony dropped his watering can on my head? Or when..."

"No," she said. "No, it was when I saw how sad you looked when I said we should come back home. That was the worst bit."

He blinked. "Really? Why?"

Her purple eyes met his steadily. "Because I wanted you to be happy on our first date, and because everything went wrong, it was ruined."

"You... you wanted me to be happy?" He tried to laugh, but it came out wrong. "I thought I was taking you to all your favourite places to make you happy. I like seeing you smile."

She smiled, gloriously bright and full of so much Mei-Mei that he couldn't help smiling back. "I'm happy when you're happy."

"Good," he said, not really knowing what words were coming out of his mouth but knowing they were undeniably right. "Because I'm happy when you're happy."

"Maybe we should just have beyblading dates from now on," she suggested. "At least we both enjoy that."

He shook his head. "Maybe. Seems a bit too much like training, though. Perhaps we could explore the mountains. Definitely no fans in the mountains."

"No. That's true."

"And I'm a pretty good cook. You can catch some fish. We'll make a night of it. I'm sure Da Shan would let us out overnight if we asked."

She laughed, and moved a bit closer to him. He smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders Maybe this evening wasn't completely ruined.

.

Two hours later, a long-suffering Da Shan decided that his team-mates had been sitting outside for long enough, and solemnly informed the pair that if they didn't want to have all their town visiting privileges revoked, they had to get inside right now.

He never understood why they both started laughing as they walked past him, holding hands.