Chapter 13: An Unknown Date

Authors Notes: I am soooooooooooooooooooo sorry about not updating! I feel really bad. I wonder if anyone even cares about this fanfiction anymore..if you do here's a new chapter, and once again, I am soo sorry.

"So…that was my dream."

Mitsuki tried to gauge Meroko's reaction, she felt kind of guilty coming to her with it, but Meroko had always claimed to be an expert in these kind of things, and Mitsuki desperately wanted to know what her dream meant. She hadn't stopped thinking about it since she had got home, and parts of it sometimes still replayed in her current dreams.

For a second Meroko flinched, but it was gone so fast you would blink and miss it. The next second she was back to grinning. "I know exactly what to do."

Mitsuki breathed a sigh of relief. She knew Meroko would have the answer. "What?"

"A date," she answered, nodding.

Mitsuki blinked. "What?"

"A date. If you and Takuto go on date, you can find out if you really have feelings for him or not. Simple." Meroko nodded, as if anyone should know this. Mitsuki did not.

Mitsuki started blushing. A date? She had never gone a date before, a real one. I mean, she had planned to someday of course, with Eichi…but…would it be alright to go on one with Takuto, just to be sure? She wished she could ask him…but it was important that she could be one hundred percent dedicated to Eichi. Yes, she decided in the end, this could be good.

"It's an awesome idea right?" Meroko was clapping, obviously proud of herself.

"But will Takuto really agree? I mean…what if he thinks it's stupid? He doesn't even like me."

Meroko didn't look at Mitsuki when she answered, instead choosing a nice spot on the wall. "Oh, don't worry about that. But anyway, he's not going to know it's a date."

"He won't? But…"

"All that matters is YOUR feelings, right?" Meroko asked. "You're doing this to find out how YOU feel, not how he feels. So he doesn't need to know."

That was true. It hadn't even crossed Mitsuki's mind how Takuto might feel, I mean he did seem to care about her in some capacity; he had blushed a lot…but…that didn't mean anything did it? She felt like she was getting a headache, it was all so confusing.

"Okay, but-"

"I'll handle it," Meroko cut her off again. "You just choose something cute to wear, and be ready to follow my lead. Alright?"

"Alright…and Meroko?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"Thank you for what?" Takuto floated into the room.

Mitsuki jumped so much she almost knocked over the table, but somehow Meroko managed to stay calm. Maybe she was so used to scheming it was second nature? What bothered Mitsuki wasn't that she hadn't just felt nervous about Takuto walking in on their conversation, but because she had felt…something…when he walked in the room.

"For telling her about this festival!" Meroko responded brightly. She then produced some brochure Mitsuki had never seen in her life and held it up. "It's tomorrow, and it's going to be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G."

Mitsuki adjusted her face to match Meroko's, remembering she was supposed to be following in her lead. "Yeah, I don't have any work tomorrow, so I figured we could go! It has, um- Meroko, why don't you tell him what it has?"

"Oh you know, normal festival stuff, but it's supposed to be the best one of the year, size wise."

Mitsuki nodded, as if she knew all of this already. "So…um…Takuto…doyouthinkyouwouldcome?" The words came out a little faster then she intended, but she though she got the point across. She looked at Takuto, blinking nervously.

There was an awkward pause. Takuto looked at Mitsuki, then at Meroko, then back at Mitsuki again. Finally, he shrugged. "Sure, why not? Why you acting so nervous, we hang out at stuff like this all the time. We've even been to a festival before (reference to an episode whose number I don't remember, lol)."

Mitsuki blushed. "Yeah I know, but…" She did wonder for a second, if Meroko was going to be there, how this was going to be a date. But she was sure she had it handled, and obviously couldn't say anything in front of Takuto anyway.

"Anyway, Takuto, I need to um, talk to Mitsuki about something privately. Girl stuff. So you think you could leave?"

"Whatever."

And with that, Takuto left.

"So here's the plan," Meroko said seriously. "We'll get there, and in a few minutes I'm going to "disappear". So don't freak. Your job is to convince Takuto not to look for me."

"G..g..got it," Mitsuki stuttered.

She then continued to give Mitsuki a spew of romantic advice, such as things to say, ways to look cute, etc." Mitsuki tried to listen, and although she did take some stuff in, she couldn't help but let her mind wander. Eichi's picture sat her on desk, and as she looked at it a wave of guilt washed over her. Was this really the right thing to do?

* * * * * * * **** * * * * * *

Mitsuki walked side-by-side with Meroko and Takuto, who were both in human form in order to follow enjoy the festival. And she had to admit, it was nice. They had already had seen lots of adorable stands; Mitsuki had bought a small cat and bunny statue that reminded her of the shinigami, and Meroko had bought some kind of head band she seemed really excited over. Takuto of course, had bought nothing.

Mitsuki had almost forgot the plan, laughing and looking at everything around her, when Meroko said, "Hey, I'm going to go look at that stand we passed awhile back."

"What, why?" Takuto asked.

"It's a secret." Meroko held up her finger, as if she was shushing something, then left.

Takuto sighed. "Well then, I guess it's just you and me."

Now Mitsuki was REALLY nervous. "Yeah…um…" She tried to remember what Meroko had told her. Oh right. She blinked her eyelashes, and tried to push out her lips to make them look bigger. "All…alone…" She sadly failed at looking sexy.

Takuto raised his eyebrows. "Are you okay?"

Mitsuki started laughing hysterically. "I am TOTALLY okay. Like, double okay, like…"

"Right. Want to get something to eat?"

Mitsuki nodded. She wished Meroko was here, she wasn't any good at this.

"Do you think we should look for Meroko?" asked Takuto. "She's been gone for awhile."

"We can, um, once we finish eating," Mitsuki stuttered, stalling.

"Okay."

They got some delicious looking rice balls stuffed with all sorts of stuff Mitsuki wasn't familiar with and then sat done at a table. Here, Mitsuki tried to implement another one of Meroko's tips, touch. In about every romance book/movie, so Meroko said, there was a scene where the couple of the story bumped into each other, whether it be their knees under a table or a collision in a hallway.

So, after they had been eating for a few minutes, Mitsuki tried to casually knock her knee against Takuto's. Unfortunately, she was no nervous, she was shaking, and the light knocking she had been planning turned more into a downright shove.

Takuto dropped his rice ball and winced. "What the-?"

"Sorry! Sorry!" Mitsuki apologized, blushing bright red. This was REALLY not going well.

"Why'd you do that?" He asked, looking annoyed.

"Um…"

"I can tell there's something bothering you Mitsuki," Takuto said seriously. He put his hand on Mitsuki's, and looked her in the eye.

Suddenly her heart started beating a mile a minute…had Takuto's eyes always looked like that? And the feeling of his hand on hers, it felt…nice. Plus, he seemed to care about her so much. I mean, she had known that, but…

Takuto started blushing and removed his hand. "Sorry."

"It's okay.."

There was an awkward silence. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, some random girl squealed. "Oh your guys are so cute! How long have you been dating?"

"We're not dating," Mitsuki and Takuto immediately said at the same time.

The girl, who was probably 13, had extremely bright pink hair that reminded Mitsuki of Meroko. Only, this girl had much shorter hair and was wearing a shirt for some band that Mitsuki had never heard of her. Also, Takuto would have recognized if she was Meroko.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Right? Let me guess, you're too 'embarrassed' to admit your feelings to each other? Wimps."

Takuto was getting pissed off. "You have no right to talk to us like that, you don't even know us."

The girl shrugged. "Whatever, I just call them like I see them, that's all. If you were a real man, you would go ahead and kiss her already or something."

Mitsuki started blushing an insane color of red- kiss Takuto? Also, she was worried because he was starting to look REALLY pissed. She didn't want him to do anything stupid."

"It's complicated," Takuto said icily. "And also none of your business."

"Complicated?" Pink girl scoffed. "Let me guess, you don't want to 'ruin the friendship'…or…one of you is still 'in love with someone' they haven't even seen in forever."

Mitsuki blushed hardy, and seriously wished the girl would go away.

"Like I said, NONE OF YOUR BUISNESS," Takuto growled, looking like he was about ready to explode. "Now I suggest you go away before I do something that I regret."

The girl grinned. "Whoa, no reason to get so defensive. Fine, I'll go. You have fun being a COWARD."

That was obviously the last straw for Takuto. "COWARD? Your calling me a coward? I'll show you how much of a coward I am." And then he grabbed Mitsuki and kissed her.

Mitsuki's first thought was to pull away- after all how could she kiss someone that wasn't Eichi? But- she didn't. She didn't want to. In that moment, everything around her faded. She wasn't thinking about the girl with pink hair, the fact that it was probably about to rain and they should be going, where Meroko was…no all she was thinking about was that moment, and how…how wonderful it was. And then, she started kissing back. She had never kissed anyone before, but somehow it just made sense in that moment, a beautiful moment…and then it was over.

For a moment, they just sat there looking at each other. The pink haired girl was gone (not like it mattered), and Mitsuki vaguely heard some guy whistle and someone else clap. If she had been Full Moon this would have caused so much stir…but this thought only barely crossed her mind. All she could think about was that Takuto had KISSED her.

This must mean…he liked her. He was obviously very defensive with the girl, and he…well he had kissed her. If that wasn't shocking enough, she had LIKED the kiss. She had really liked it. Was this what Meroko had talked about, being sure of her feelings? Was this her answer? In a flash, her mind played out to all the times Takuto had been there for her, cared about her, even if he hadn't always shown it so plainly, it was all obvious now. And it was obvious how much she had depended on it.

Suddenly, she started crying. The tears just flowed one after another, down her face.

"What's wrong?" Takuto asked, taking her hand again. "Should I not have done that? I'm sorry Mitsuki…"

Mitsuki sniffed loudly, but the tears were still coming. "Takuto…I…think…I'm…in…l-l-love…with…y-y-you."

Authors Note: Well if you're still interested in this story, there's still more to come! I still have a little bit of plot left in me. Lol. Once again, sooo sorry about not updating. If people want me to update, I will be much faster next time, promise!