Part III: Chapter 2
Kiku Honda soon became a regular within her group of friends. Although they talked quite a lot and had more in common than she originally thought, she was wary of him. He was so different from her Watcher. There was the same reservation, the same wisdom and intelligence, but as soon as it came to social situations he became clumsy and confused. He stumbled over his words and turned a deep shade of pink when teased. The biggest difference was both obvious and subtle. He was human. He was endearing, yes, but there was not the same air of mystery and intrigue of supernatural that she felt around her Watcher.
Still, she came to find herself drawing closer and closer to him. He wasn't perfect, but, like her Watcher, was always there when she needed him. She tried her best to slow herself down, to not fall for him so easily. She did not want to love him for resembling someone else and yet he felt so familiar that it was near impossible to distance herself from him. A year passed before Kiku finally managed to bring her face to face with the issue.
They'd been on a few unofficial dates before, but she had a feeling this was different. He'd told her that he had a surprise for her which was unusual because Kiku wasn't one for spontaneity.
Her suspicions were proven correct when the doorbell rang and she opened the door to find him standing there looking as nervous as ever clutching a small bouquet. He turned pink as soon as he saw her.
"Hello."
She couldn't help but smile. She nodded at the flowers. "Are those for me?"
"Ah, yes." He hastily held them out to her and she wondered if Feli had told him that her favorite flower, next to plum blossoms, were pink carnations.
"Is this my surprise?" She took the flowers from him as she motioned him to come in.
"Part of it."
"Just a minute, I'll take these inside." She hurried to the kitchen where her mother was already cooking dinner. Her mother glanced up curiously. "Mama, Kiku's here so I'll be going."
"Okay, have fun." She caught sight of the flowers. "Oh! Are those from Kiku?"
Mei pretended not to see the knowing smile on her mother's face. "Yeah, I'll be home after dinner."
She kissed her quickly goodbye and set the carnations carefully on the table as she left.
He took her to the park where they had a picnic. He'd revealed a cute basket with two obento boxes of dark stained wood and intricately decorated with cherry blossoms with a gloss finish. He said he'd prepared them himself and she remembered with a bit of embarrassment how she'd once gushed about how cute she thought Japanese obentos were and how she wanted to have one someday. Had he been paying that close attention?
They talked easily. Or at least Mei did. Kiku mostly nodded along and gave small, thoughtful comments occasionally like he usually did. But there was a sort of tension in the air; a good kind of tension. She felt his steady gaze on her the whole evening and every accidental, or not so accidental, brush made her cheeks burn hotly. Since when did Kiku have this effect on her?
.
He walked her to her front porch as the sun was beginning to set. A good thing too- her mother would probably freak if they got home past dark.
"Thanks for tonight, Kiku. It was a wonderful surprise." She smiled warmly when they stopped outside her door. Although she meant what she said, she felt a small pang of disappointment. She couldn't understand why though. She had had a great evening.
Kiku winced subtly and looked down at the porch, shifting from foot to foot. "Actually…that wasn't all I planned…"
She blinked. "Really? What else was there?"
"Ah… I was actually going to tell you during the picnic, but the opportunity never really came up…"
"Tell me what?"
"And if I told you then, the car ride home would've been quite unpleasant and I didn't want to cause you discomfort-"
"Kiku," she said pointedly and he glanced up at her before quickly looking to the side again. She prompted him again. "What did you want to tell me?"
His face flushed, his dark eyes darting to her face, and just when he looked as though he were about to say something he stared back down the porch. "I knew I should've just sent you a message," he mumbled mostly to himself. "Feliciano insisted you would rather I said it in person because it'd be more…" the last bit was inaudible as he trailed off. Mei huffed in exasperation.
"Kiku-"
"I like you."
"What?" That certainly wasn't how she'd imagined herself reacting. Not that she'd ever imagined Kiku confessing to her. Maybe a couple of times.
"I really like you, Mei… As in more than a friend. I have for awhile now." He was finally looking at her. Despite the fact that he still looked like he was about to run off any minute from the awkwardness of the situation, his eyes were fixed sincerely on hers. He smiled a little sheepishly. "I know I'm not really the confident, straightforward kind of guy you would prefer, but I have wanted to tell you for a long time and I was afraid that if I didn't say anything, someone else might beat me to it."
Mei stared at him as though seeing him for the first time. She would've never really thought that Kiku would have the courage to confess something like this directly to her."I…I don't know what to say."
His face fell almost imperceptibly, but he smiled understandingly. "That's alright. I hope you will not be too troubled by this. If you do not return my feelings, I'd still like to stay friends… If that is okay with you."
There would be no going back- did she even want to go back?- but she nodded anyway and mustered a smile. "Okay."
He tentatively reached for her hand and, before she could object, leaned forward to give her a quick, chaste kiss on the cheek. "Please think about it." He pulled way and for a moment he looked just as surprised as she was at his sudden forwardness. He ducked his head in embarrassment. "Good night."
She breathed out a good night, watching in a daze as he hurried back to his car and pulled out of the driveway.
A/N: You don't know how many times I had to rewrite that confession part. There were like three variations with different scenarios, reactions, dialogue and all that junk. I just couldn't seem to get Kiku's character down and I feel like I skimmed over the whole thing a bit too quickly, but hopefully I managed to pull it off. Also, I apologize for the excessive '...' in the dialogue haha. Gotta love dorky awkward Kiku though ^^ Major thanks again to inspiration99 for helping me out with this bit!
I meant to add more in the beginning to expand on Kiku and Mei's friendship/Kiku's character rather than moving right onto the romance, but I might've sorta probablyranoutofideas so here we are! I might go back and add a snippet or two later though if I have the time (read: inspiration). Anyways, hope you enjoyed it! ^^