Title: He Remembered to Say "Good Night"

Author: Shima And Tempis

Pairing: Akane Narita and Subaru Yagi

Fandom: Hot Gimmick

Theme: #24 - good night

Disclaimer: I don't own Hot Gimmick. It belongs to Viz and Miki Aihara. Besides, why would I want to own it? I am completely and utterly content with Aihara-sama's ending.

Subaru was never sure what to do when he took Akane back to her apartment at the end of a date. For the longest time he figured Akane just knew what she was doing, and he didn't try anything different. Of course all they had ever done in saying "good night" was squeeze each other's hand and look into each other's eyes, but Subaru had just thought that was how Akane was.

So that wasn't completely true. He knew Akane probably did a lot more... intimate things with her other dates in saying good night. But he wasn't one of her other dates. He thought that maybe because he was different from them, that was why Akane didn't try anything after a date.

How could he have realized she was waiting for him to move first?

They had gone to the movies. Subaru couldn't even remember what they had seen, he had been so nervous with Akane sitting right next to him, her hand on his. He remembered how she would tighten her grip when she was scared, or run her thumb over his knuckles if she was content. The simple movement of her hand was enough of a motion picture for him.

They had held hands on the way back, he remembered. They had even interlaced their fingers together, the way normal couples do. In the elevator up to her floor, Akane hadn't said anything, just continued to hold his hand while leaning against the elevator wall, staring at the digital screen that told them what floor they were on.

She hadn't opened her apartment door immediately, either. She was still holding his hand, but her free hand rested lightly on the doorknob. Stranger still, she was leaning against her door, so that she could look at him. Subaru blushed at how, with her arms apart, he could see the gentle curve of her neck as it sloped underneath her top.

He remembered she had bit her lip, tilting her head to the side and staring at him as if trying to read between the lines of something she wasn't sure she understood.

"Are you going to kiss me, Subaru?"

The question had caught him so off guard he had dropped her hand and taken a few stumbled steps backwards. "Wh-what?"

She pursed her lips and looked at him again, her brow furrowed. "Are you going to kiss me?" She repeated, slower this time, enunciating each word as if he were a child.

Subaru couldn't think of an intelligent response, but cursed himself when she folded her arms across her chest, obstructing his view--no matter how embarrassed he was that he kept looking.

"Do you want me to kiss you instead?" Akane added a second later, when Subaru had not answered.

"What? No! I mean, I want you to... But--" He stopped short, embarrassed and frustrated. He had never done this before! Why did saying "good night" have to be so hard?

Akane didn't interrupt the silence that followed. Her eyes fell down to their feet as her grip tightened on the doorknob, as if she was ready to go in. Panicked, Subaru grabbed her free hand again and jerked her clumsily forward, touching their lips together in a feather-light kiss before setting her back on two balanced feet.

"G-good night." He added after she had stared at him, dazed, for a few moments.

"G'night." She responded, smiling in triumph before opening her door and entering her apartment.

Subaru stood outside in the hall, staring at his hand as if he wasn't sure how it worked. "W-wow." He said out loud, before turning on his heel back towards the elevator.

He didn't get the chance to hear Akane, leaning against the closed front door and touching her lips with her fingertips, whisper the same thing.