Chapter 3

Back in her apartment Minamo grabbed a quick shower, wrapped herself in a warm towel before sitting down on her sofa and attempting to relax for a bit before she got ready for her date. However she couldn't quite relax, her heart wouldn't quite slow to a normal resting state, after another couple of minutes of sitting restlessly she got up needing to busy her hands. Beyond getting ready for the date she couldn't think of much to do, she didn't want to eat anything, it might spoil her appetite, drinking anything caffeinated or alcoholic would just make her worse, so she was left with juice or plain water and she'd ran out of juice a couple of days ago.

After she filled a glass of water with slightly shaky hands she returned to the living room, but did sit down, she scanned the room, TV? She wouldn't be able to focus, then she spied Yukari's stories, piled neatly on the edge of the sofa where she had left them, normally she would have hidden them back away but she had spent more time at Yukari's during the week than her apartment. She considered reading one of the stories, they normally relaxed her, but it didn't seem appropriate given Yukari was her date, instead she remembered to hide them in the usual place in case Yukari decided to come in.

With the stories hidden Minamo check her watch, she still had plenty of time, guess I'll just get ready really early she thought to herself.

In the end Minamo was glad her had the extra time as she procrastinated quite a bit when choosing her dress, eventually she plumped for another dark blue one, this one was similar to a summer dress, although the material was heavier, the top was cut across the chest, with two thin straps holding the dress up, leaving the rest of the shoulders bare, the bottom of the dress was layered slightly in a spiral of ruffled material, the last strip going diagonally across her stomach ending at her side, under the arm. She added matching heels and a necklace, posing in the mirror she was not entirely pleased with her look, but checking the time she knew she didn't have time to change.

She spent the last of her time finishing her makeup and trying to do something interesting with her hair, before giving up and just neatening up her normal look.

When the knock at her door came it made her jump, immediately her heart started to beat faster. She checked herself in the mirror one last time, breathing out slowly to calm her nerves, 'Good luck girl' she said to herself before heading towards the door.

As she approached the door her heart beat faster again and her hands shook slightly as she grabbed the door handle.

Pulling open the door, there stood Yukari, but not the normal Yukari, her hair was tided back into a ponytail and instead of her normal dress she had on a white shirt with a slightly oversized collar, over which she wore a charcoal gray waistcoat with what looked like a pocket watch tucked into one of the pockets, matching trousers and polished black shoes with a slight heel. She looked every inch the gentleman or gentlewoman in this case.

Minamo stared in silence for a couple of seconds, in all her time with Yukari she had never she her in anything like this and then seemingly out of nowhere Minamo burst out laughing. She fell against the wall and slide down it till she was crumpled on the floor holding her sides, tears starting to run down her face and ruining her carefully prepared makeup.

'Well that's not really the reaction I was hoping for' said Yukari, scratching the back of her head.

'It's… just… so… weird…' managed Minamo, between breaths.

'I guess it is' chuckled Yukari and when her friend had regained some of her composure added 'Now come on get up' helping her up.

'Oh god Yukari, I'm sorry it's just seeing you like that' apologized Minamo, trying to get her breathing back to normal.

'He he, it's cool' grinned Yukari.

'No, you do look quite… dashing' that was the right word, right? 'It just surprised me'

'Like I said its cool, Nyamo'

'I'll be right back' said Minamo rushing to the bathroom to reapply her makeup and straight her dress, a couple of minutes late she came back out, 'Sorry about that, do I look super nice?' Minamo gave Yukari a little spin to show off her dress.

'You always look super nice Nyamo' said Yukari tenderly.

At that comment Minamo felt her insides go all warm and gooey, and might have even squealed a little, but Yukari didn't seem to notice, instead she simply smiled her slightly goofy smile and motioned her to follow her outside. Quickly grabbing her purse Minamo locked her apartment and followed Yukari to her car.

The drive to the restaurant was somewhat surreal; most of the drive was in silence as Yukari endeavored to drive as safely as possible. Obviously not wanting to scare Minamo with her normal driving antics she had been extremely focused on the road, Minamo didn't mind though, they would have plenty of time to talk later, this brief calm let her recompose, after the fool she had made of herself.

When they made it to their destination she wasn't sure if they'd gone to the wrong place. It was a very expensive restaurant that she had come to once, on one of her failed date, a couple of years ago. From what she could remember the food was excellent, now I really hope Yukari won't stiff me with the bill Minamo joked to herself.

Inside they first came it a lobby, it was clean and elegantly design, though not quite how she remembered, maybe they had redesigned recently.

'Do you have reservations?' asked a waiter in the lobby area, stand behind a small podium with a book on it.

'Yes, Tanizaki, table for two' answered Yukari cordially.

The waiter raised an eyebrow at the odd couple but said nothing, looking through the book he found Yukari's name, grabbing two menus from a lower shelf in the podium he lead them through the doors behind him 'This way please'.

Inside the restaurant proper, it was even grander with very high ceilings and chandeliers. Though it was much louder in this main area, with dozens of hushed convocations echoing off the walls, Minamo found that is wasn't as loud as it could have been and felt that they would be able to have a decent conversation without having to strain or shout.

They made it to their table; it was one of the smaller ones along the outside given that there was only two of them, the waiter pulled out the chair for her, which she thank him for and was about to do the same to Yukari, but found that she was already seating herself.

'Would you like anything to drink while you look through the menus, madams?' enquired the waiter.

'Just some water at the moment' answered Minamo quickly before Yukari could say anything. She eyed Minamo suspiciously but then nodded her agreement. The waiter bowed and left the two women alone.

'I'm hope you'll let me drink sometime this evening' said Yukari playfully.

'You're being so good I don't want to spoil it'

'No worries Nyamo' smiled Yukari, 'I'm on my best behavior, did you see my driving earlier?'

'I've never seen you so focused' laughed Minamo.

'Yeah, it was nerve-racking in its own way' smiled Yukari, 'So you decided on what you want to eat?'

'I think so…' said Minamo browsing the menu and still wondering how Yukari was gonna pay for the meal.

'Okay we can get to small talk then'

'Small talk?'

'Yes, like what do you do for work?'

'Yukari, you know what I do for work' sighed Minamo.

Yukari tutted and wagged her finger, as if telling off a small child, 'my dear Nyamo, inane small talk about your job is how every first date should start, you wouldn't want to break a tradition'

'Fine' Minamo relented, before awkwardly starting to talk about her day, half was through a waiter turned up to take their orders and Minamo let Yukari order them a wine, but warned her to be responsible with it. After a glass or so of wine conversation flowed easier, and by the time Minamo had finished her work small talk she had realize that bar a few interjections Yukari had let her do most of the talking, content to simple listen to her friend. This was strange as Yukari normally tended to dominate discussion. However Minamo had little time to ponder this as their food arrived in a convenient dip in conversation.

With this conversation naturally segwayed into a discussion about how delicious the food was, with Yukari going so far as to squeak in delight at the flavours caressing her palette, she then attempted to impress Minamo with her knowledge on the wine she had picked, but not being a connoisseur she wasn't entirely sure how much of Yukari's tale of a poor French vineyard owned by two warring brothers she should believe.

As their eating slowed and they had more time to talk Yukari suggested topics but like before choose to let Minamo do most of the talking and with time the strangeness of it wore off and Minamo began talking about her own interests in great length, with Yukari interjecting only when she didn't understand something, but never complaining. As she talked Minamo could feel that warm feeling in her chest continue to grow. In time she meandered back onto subjects that Yukari had more of an interest in, as she felt she might have hogged too much of the conversation, eventually they evened out with discussion passing freely between them and Minamo felt herself laughing and smiling more than she had in a long time.

During their talk the waiter had reappeared, and inquired whether they would like some desserts. Minamo declined already feeling stuffed from the main meal, so Yukari suggested some coffee before they left.

'You know this has been really fun' said Minamo as she sipped her coffee.

'Glad to hear it' smiled Yukari, 'but it's not quite over yet'

'Really? What else have you got planned?' asked Minamo, but Yukari only winked and smiled mischievously, leaving her friend in the dark.

Minamo didn't really recall much of the drive to their next destination, she was too busy wallowing in this warm pleasant feeling that was invading her body, she didn't know if Yukari had decided to drive fast or her own sense of time had gone hazy but they seemed to arrive quite quickly.

She didn't recognize where they were but before leaving the car Yukari quickly collected a bag from the boot, giving Minamo a wink when she saw her friend's confused look. Eventually there came to what looked like the entrance of a park, though not one Minamo recognized, before entering Yukari turned to face Minamo and held out her hand.

Minamo blushed slightly but claimed the hand all the same, her heart beating faster as their fingers interlaced and she felt the heat of Yukari hand. With that they walked hand in hand into the park, Yukari leading the way, as the traveled along the quiet path Yukari asked if Minamo was cold, but it had been a surprisingly warm night so she shook her head.

After a minute or two Yukari stopped, looking around, seemingly getting her bearings before leading Minamo off the path and to a small clearing. The clearing featured a small hill with a solitary tree. Seeing Minamo was having trouble on the uneven ground Yukari suggested she take off her heels, promising that there was nothing in the clearing that would hurt her feet.

Minamo nodded and using Yukari for stability took off her heels, instantly she felt the cool fresh grass under her feet, as they walk to the center of the clearing the grass tickled the shoes of her feet slightly, but she didn't mind, in fact she was a little glad that her feet were free form the confines of the heels for a bit.

Getting to the middle of the clearing, slightly under the canopy of the lone tree, Minamo begrudgingly let go of Yukari's hand as her friend bent down to open her bag, her hand immediately missed the warm of another.

'Fireworks?' she questioned as she saw the contents of the bag, Yukari flashed an impish grin, 'Are we even allowed to set off fireworks here?'

Yukari shrugged in response 'I won't tell if you don't'

Minamo shook her head in mock disgust, as Yukari set about setting up some rockets. Minamo sat down on the soft grass and looked up at the stars, it was a beautiful night, the sky almost cloudless, making the constellations easy to pick out, though she admitted to herself she didn't know many of the names.

'Nyamo?' she heard her name called, Yukari was stood in front of her, offering a hand and Minamo used it to get up. Then Yukari handed her a small thin stick, at first she was confused until Yukari came to light it, it was a sparkler, she watched as sparks of light danced from it. Yukari having lit her own began attempting to write her name in the air with it, soon Minamo joined her, over subsequent sparklers this turned into drawing pictures in the air, some kind of mock sword fight and generally frolicking around like they were children again. Eventually when the last of the sparklers went out, Minamo collapsed on the floor slightly out of breath and giggling like an idiot, Yukari flopped down beside her, both laid in silence as they listened to the others breathing return to normal.

'Time for the last hurrah' announced Yukari as she scrambled to her feet and walking over to the fireworks she'd set up earlier, once lit she rush back to sit at Minamo's side. As the first rockets began to soar into the sky, her hand searched out Minamo's, their finger lacing together again. After the first couple of explosions Minamo rested her head on Yukari's shoulder.

'Thanks' she whispered, Yukari simply squeezed her hand to let her know she had heard.

After the fireworks had finished they quickly collected any rubbish they could find, depositing it in Yukari's bag and headed back to the car, Minamo elected to leave her heels off, remembering the path was quite clean, they remained hand in hand until they got to Yukari's car.

On the drive back they sat in comfortable silence.

Yukari escorted Minamo to her front door, waiting till she opened it to joke, 'so, you what to meet up tomorrow to tell me how your date went?'

Minamo tossed her heels onto the floor and turned to Yukari, 'I think you have a pretty good idea' with that there was a brief awkward silence, with neither woman quite sure how to leave it.

'Well I'd best be off now that your safely back' smiled Yukari, scratching the back of her head. She waited for a response but Minamo didn't say anything instead she began studying Yukari's features, her beautiful eyes, her cute nose and finally her lips. As she looked, she found she couldn't focus on anything else, she was sure Yukari was saying something, probably trying to fill the silence.

Then she was closer, right next to Yukari's face, she'd stopped talking, not that Minamo had heard, just the lips had stopped moving. It was then that she couldn't stop herself, the feelings that had built up all night, her arms wrapped lazily around the other woman's neck and she kissed her hard.

For the first few second Yukari was stiff in shock, but then she relented, relaxing into the kiss her hands on Minamo's back pulling her closer.

After what seemed like an eternity they separated, both a little short of breath and had turned bright red.

'Well, ere… wow…' stuttered Yukari, trying to regain some composure, 'I should probably go'

Minamo nodded, her head swimming, 'Goodnight Yukari' was all she could manage.

'Goodnight Nyamo' answered Yukari, smiling nervously gave her an awkward little wave. Minamo watched as Yukari somewhat drunkenly walked off before closing her door, resting her back against it and sliding down till she was a heap on the floor. Her hand drifted up lightly touching her lips, her already red face blushed even more.

She bit her lip slightly and whispered, 'best date ever'

A/N While I'd like to do some more, the aftermath and them actually 'doing it' it might be awhile as I have other things I need to do. Sorry!