Chapter 4: But If You Kiss Me Now - December 24

Two days had gone by since Joe and Ahim had gone out that night for dinner. They had had a wonderful time at Kizuna, enjoying each other's company in a comfortable atmosphere. As Ahim had said, the staff were professional, the food impeccable and the environment was more than welcoming from the moment they had walked in. When they first stepped through, they had been immediately greeted by one of the waitresses who placed them immediately at one of the open tables. Another waitress had brought their drinks while the head manager himself had taken their order. Joe sat awkwardly through the beginning of the meal, unused to restaurants. Ahim had noticed his discomfort and reached across the table and squeezed his hand, sending a pulse of assurance through her touch, relaxing Joe. Halfway through their meal, Ahim had asked the first waitress if the owner was in tonight to which the waitress had called across the room to the head manager if 'mother dearest' was at the restaurant. Ahim had merely stared at the mention of her friend being called 'mother dearest' and lapsed into a fit of giggles, Joe being left out of the joke. Ahim calmed herself down, promising to explain the joke to Joe at a later date.

The owner came out from her office a few minutes after Ahim had asked, surprising Joe as she was wearing a detective uniform. Explaining to Joe that her friend worked as a detective and had bought the restaurant as an investment, Ahim and the owner chatted for a bit. To Joe, it explained why Ahim knew how the police would operate the previous Christmas.

The dinner ended on a sweet note, with an individual crème brulee served to the two of them. Ahim paid for the two of them and accompanied Joe back to his apartment. Feeling that it was too late for Ahim to walk back or take transportation back to her own living quarters, Joe had insisted that Ahim stay the night. Ahim, all of a sudden, finding herself fatigued accepted and together, they quietly entered the apartment. Joe pointed out the bathroom beside Luka's room, while he went into the room that the boys shared, grabbing his blanket and pillows from his bed and ignoring the combined snoring of Doc and Marvelous' bunk bed. Seeing Ahim waiting for him as he returned back to the living room, he pointed over the couch and Ahim plopped down unceremoniously first, with Joe following suit. Tucking the pillow behind their heads, Joe covered the two of them with his blanket and they fell asleep quickly.

When they woke up in the morning, chaos would be an understatement of the reaction that Luka gave off when she discovered the two under one blanket. Ahim lifted up her head from Joe's shoulder groggily, while Luka and Joe were having a heated conversation.

Eventually, Luka calmed down enough and Joe managed to get Ahim enough time to wash up and refresh herself before returning home. By that time, the two of them knew that their relationship had changed, but neither of them was willing to say it. Ahim quickly hugged Joe as her taxi arrived, once again reminding him to visit her at the concert hall.

Joe shivered as he braved the cold, ignoring the snowflakes falling from the skies above and anxious to reach his destination. His ponytailed hair was whipped messily around as he attempted to sink his face further into his scarfed. Tucked under one arm was a large brown paper bag of breads that were left unsold from the bakery.

Over the past two days, Joe had been thinking. A lot. Somewhat about work, but mostly about his budding relationship with Ahim. With each thought about it, Joe shook his head inwardly, knowing that it would never work out. Ahim had been raised differently, with high expectations and a more respectable background, whereas Joe was... well, Joe was just what you saw before you. A poor man, struggling to make ends meet with his friends. There was no way that he could make Ahim happy, he thought. There was no way that their love story would end happily.

No matter how Joe desperately wished it to be, Ahim would be his impossible girl.

Ahim waited patiently at the concert hall. Once more, she was practicing her cello, preparing for her solo at the Christmas concert tomorrow night. In her pocket, she held four tickets, one for each of Joe's friends and for Joe himself.

She would give them to him tonight, she promised herself. Tonight, she would give them to him and on Christmas, she would officially tell him her feelings.

Agreeing to herself that it was a good plan, she continued to practice her solo, simultaneously keeping a careful eye on the door and listening for any unusual sounds in the concert hall. Deftly moving her bow across the strings, she released a beautiful melody, one that told a story of hope, love and compassion.

A creak of the door announced Joe's entrance into the building as Ahim looked up and saw him come in. She instantly stopped playing and put down her cello, staring in Joe's direction with a smile growing on her face.

Joe looked at the stage and saw perhaps, the most breathtaking sight that he had seen in a long time.

Ahim was smiling at him, waiting for him even. Wearing a simplistic white dress that hugged her figure, her hair was swept neatly in a ponytail, with curls ending.

As he approached her, Joe suddenly lost the ability to talk. All he could do was stare at her unabashedly.

As though feeling the intensity of his gaze, Ahim blushed slightly.

"Hello again, Joe-san," she said as she got off her chair and walked towards the edge of the stage.

"Ahim," he said in way of greeting. And then, "I brought you some bread from the bakery."

"How wonderful," Ahim beamed as she crouched down and then sat on the edge of the stage, directly in front of Joe. Relieved that he didn't have to crane his neck up so high anymore, he offered the bag over to Ahim who took it, giving the bag a cursory inspection.

"My, my," she said, gazing down at the different breads in the bag. "There is anpan, meronpan, kareepan..."

"There's a few other ones at the bottom of the bag," Joe mumbled.

"It is perfect, Joe-san," she said, placing down the bag beside her before she enveloped Joe in a tight hug.

Joe returned her hug, breathing her scent.

Yes, she was his impossible girl, but as long as she was this close to him, the impossible was still just a bit more possible.

Just for a while though as everything must come to an end.

"Would you mind if we ate the breads now?" Ahim asked as she pulled away.

"We?" Joe asked her.

"The two of us," Ahim clarified.

"It's your bread now," Joe said.

Ahim smiled, "Then may I have Joe-san eat with me?"

Joe smiled back at Ahim, "Of course."

Ahim had put away her cello back into its case and was in the kitchen, while Joe stayed back at the stage in a feeble attempt to make it more comfortable.

"Ah, here you are," Ahim said as she pulled out a dusty bottle of wine. Taking a wet cloth from the sink, she wiped it down and grabbed two glasses from the cupboard. She exited the kitchen and walked back to stage to find that Joe had merely laid down his jacket against one of the old backdrops that the concert hall had used in previous years.

"Sorry," he said as they sat down on his jacket. "I couldn't find anything better."

"It is more than enough," Ahim told him. "It is enough that I have you here with me."

Joe made an grunt as he deliberately turned the other way to open the bag. Seeing her opportunity, Ahim quickly found one of Joe's pockets and slipped the tickets into it. Turning back, she found Joe staring at her with questioning eyes.

"I just wanted to see if there was a rock underneath where I was sitting," she lied as she accepted the bread that he offered. She took a bite of it before she rested it on her legs, pulling out the wine bottle and glasses.

"Where did you get that?" Joe asked her.

"One of the conductors always has one hidden away here," Ahim smiled conspiratorially. "I am merely borrowing it for our meal."

She poured each glass halfway up before sealing up the bottle again. Handing one of the glasses over to Joe, she toasted, "Kanpai," before clinking the two glasses together.

Taking a sip, she instantly felt the wine's warmth seep into her body, feeling her face warm up.

Thirty minutes later, a empty wine bottle and four buns eaten, Joe and Ahim were feeling slightly tipsy. Ahim was currently resting on Joe's lap, while Joe had his head against the wooden backdrop. One of Joe's hands were encased by both of Ahim's hands, while his free hand played with Ahim's hair. Ahim's face was very red, but her facial expression was one of satisfaction and comfort.

Joe stared absentmindedly upwards towards the lights, half aware of what was happening right now. Ahim, on the other hand, had her eyes closed, but she slipped out one of her hands and lifted it up to Joe's face.

Feeling the coolness of Ahim's palm resting on his cheek, Joe looked down and saw Ahim staring at him with semi-focused eyes. Pulling herself up, Ahim and Joe found themselves mere centimeters apart from each other, their noses touching. Without any hesistation, Joe pressed his lips against Ahim's. Pulling back, he saw Ahim stare at him blankly before she kissed him, responding to his actions.

For a few moments, Joe enjoyed the kiss, imagining it to be like Heaven, until his subconscious reminded him that the both of them were drunk.

Drunk.

With a jolt, Joe broke off the kiss. As if on reflex, Ahim tried to pull him back into another one, but Joe stopped her.

"Ahim," he said, shaking her lightly.

"Hmm?" Ahim lifted her eyes up, slightly groggily.

"We have to go," Joe said.

"But why?" whined Ahim, taking on a new personality.

"It's not safe here," Joe whispered urgently as he stood up shakily, still feeling the aftermath of the alcohol.

"But I'm always safe with Joe-kun," Ahim slurred.

"That's not what I mean," Joe answered her as he picked her up.

"But Joe-kun makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Ahim told him. "I love Joe-kun, I do!"

Joe stopped dead in his tracks, "I'm sorry?"

"I love Joe-kun," proclaimed Ahim drunkenly as she collapsed into his arms.

"Ahim!" Joe panicked, but checked her for a pulse. "I'm so sorry," he whispered as he carried her out the door and into the cold night.

"Is this going to become a thing?"

Luka stared down Joe back at their apartment. They had gotten home five minutes ago and Ahim was now sleeping peacefully on the couch, covered with a blanket.

"First, I wake up and find you two under one blanket, but now I find that you two were drunk together?"

"It's not like that," Joe shot back.

"Oh yeah?" Luka spat out, already showing affection for the other girl. "Then what was it?"

Joe composed himself before explaining everything that had happened. By the end of his story, Luka's expression had softened to one of compassion.

"You know," she started. "She really does have feelings for you."

"She was drunk," Joe countered. "I was just there."
"A girl wouldn't go into a man's house without feeling safe about the man."

"You were here too," Joe pointed out.

Luka scoffed, annoyed that Joe had to rationalize her arguments. "Go to bed," she ordered him.

Dismissed, Joe stood up, but not before he heard the crinkle of paper in his pocket. He reached in and found four tickets to the Christmas concert where Ahim would debut as a soloist.

"What's that?" Luka asked him.

"Tickets," replied Joe tersely.

He threw them down on the table before retreating in the comfort of the boy's room, unsure of what to make of the day's events anymore.

Whelp. That's the minor reference to alcohol. The only reason why I've made it a point to refer to it in the summary is because this includes a scene of drunkenness... something I've never written into any one of my previous fanfictions that have dealt with alcohol. Hence, in a minor state of responsibility, why I've put in the warning into the summary.

Moving aside, again, another reference to Veneer in the beginning. BECAUSE WHY NOT?! I can do that. Although, once again, if MidnightRosebud should say that I should take it out, whelp, I'll be replacing it with another name and what not.

So... Joe and Ahim have enjoyed their date and now Joe meets up with her at the concert hall... Lightweights, the both of them. Fun fact, I still haven't drank myself to oblivion yet, so all of the drunken scenes were done with insight and speculation haha.

Next chapter will be the one to end it all. It may be a bit late, but we're hoping it won't be. I kinda got distracted on the 26th when I bought Pokemon X and went on a writer's block, Kamen Rider Wizard marathon, finished a oneshot, and went back to school. Yar. Three weeks. But it's coming back soon!

For those that have stuck with me to the end, I thank you. To PhinalPhantasy, I thank you for all your reviews, even though I haven't been able to respond to them. Life of a student is hard, especially with two jobs.

As always, many thanks to Pearl and Lisa for editing. And Pearl found the little reference to Doctor Who in this chapter as well, haha. You two edited during the winter holidays even when I said you didn't need to. Much thanks. So wow. Many edit.

See you soon!