Never Have I Ever…looked good in pink

Everywhere I look the color seems to overwhelm me.

It crawls through the cracks of the nearby house and into the stones that pave a path around the sheltered area, sickening and far too sweet for my taste.

Pink.

Everywhere I look, it's all PINK.

As petals fall everywhere and the wind blows through the trees, I grumpily shove my hands in my pockets and shift on my feet awkwardly. After spending hours traveling here, I'm pretty disappointed with the way things have turned out.

I was hoping our first trip away from town would be somewhere a little more enjoyable…like the beach or something.

At least there they have turtles.

As I think about this, Rio comes running up to me from where she was discussing travel plans with Charles. Grabbing my hands, she smiles up at me happily and exclaims, "Isn't this place beautiful? It's really pretty here, with the petals, and the wind…it's so peaceful it's almost hard to believe it's real!"

I just grunt in reply as Rio continues to gush, "And to think Charles was friends with such a sophisticated and well off woman! Miss Sakura is so nice to let him bring guests here to her home and experience what it's like to live in the East."

While I grumble under my breath and check my watch, wondering how long this trip will last before Rio grabs my hand roughly, causing me to inhale sharply with surprise. Following her gaze, I look over to see a woman with straight black hair approaching the two of us.

As she reaches us, she bows lightly before straightening up and asking cheerfully, "Hello, I'm Sakura. You are?"

I try not to cringe as Rio digs her nails into my hand with her excitement and replies, "Hello! I'm Rio, and this is my husband, Neil. We're friends of Charles…I'm really loving your home, it's beautiful!"

Sakura's eyes light up at Rio's words, and offering a hand to my wife the woman asks, "I'm very happy to hear that. Would you like to try on some traditional eastern dresses, or a kimono?"

I look over to see Rio practically quivering with excitement as she says, "Really?!"

Sakura just laughs before taking Rio's hand and leading her away from me towards the big house at the far edge of the property. Turning back to me, she says, "You come too; we have plenty of yukatas for you to try on as well."

Quickly I try to reject the offer when Rio looks over her shoulder at me and we meet eyes. Instantly, my gaze drops to the ground and I mutter, "Oh alright. But just one."

When I'm shoved back to the outside garden area again, I look down at the outfit I've been put into and cringe.

It looks like the whole place just threw up all over me; all the outfits given for me to try on were various shades of pink. In the end, all I could do was choose the darkest shade and hope to pass it off as a sunset red color.

I start to take off the robe in the hopes that I can leave it on the nearby bench and go put my normal clothes on when I hear Rio say, "Neil?"

Quickly I turn around protesting, "Rio, these clothes-"

The words die on the tip of my tongue as she blinks at me and asks, "What about them?"

Rio stares at me, waiting for my answer as she pats down the kimono she's been put into. It's elegant, and beautiful in a way that I wasn't expecting. Normally fancy places like this and overly ornate clothing don't interest me, but there's something that's enticing about the way Rio looks now.

It's almost as if she's stepped out of a painting, and even the way the kimono falls around her feet makes her seem more graceful than normal. Taking careful, slow steps towards me, Rio reaches hand out for me to take it as she takes in my appearance.

When I take her hand gently, helping her step over the stones without tripping, I manage to say, "You look…good. You look really pretty."

"Don't I always look pretty?" Rio teases, her loosely braided hair brushing against my arm as she comes to stand right next to me.

"Well yes but…this is a different kind of pretty."

My words just make her giggle a bit before she brushes a hand against my outfit and I'm reminded of the hideous color. As she runs her hand over the material, she smirks before telling me, "I have to say, I never thought there would be a day where I would see you in anything besides black and red…"

"Yeah, I never thought I'd have to do something like this either…"

I fall quiet as she pats my cheek with her hand and smiles up at me, running her thumb across my skin as she giggles, "Don't make such a face, I like it much better when you're smiling at me or blushing. Pink really isn't that bad of a color on you…especially when it's on your cheeks!"

Gruffly I cough and mutter, "You're making fun of me now," while Rio just smiles up at me again and then wraps her arms around my neck. Sighing, I give in and put my arms around her waist before leaning down slightly to kiss her.

Pulling back, I turn away from her and say, "Since we're here, we might as well explore a bit, don't you think?"

She nods, and together the two of us walk towards the small bridge in the middle of the garden. For awhile I attempt to dodge all the falling petals, but as they continue to smack into my face and stick to my clothes I give up and just hope that our trip will be over soon enough and I can get out of this pink horror that I've been stuck in.

When we reach the bridge, Rio lets go of my hand and leans over the rail with an excited look on her face. Taking a deep breath, she murmurs, "It really is beautiful here…"

"It's too pink," I grumble back.

That earns me a frown, and she scolds lightly, "I think it's kind of nice…don't you?"

"Look, Rio," I tell her, "Formal places like this just aren't my thing."

Turning around to face me, she leans even more on the railing before her eyebrows knit together in confusion and she asks, "So why'd you come along then? Should we have gone to the beach instead?"

I blush a bit before coughing, "I came along because you asked me to…and I'd go anywhere with you. Even if I don't like the place, as long as you're happy and enjoying yourself I don't care."

The blush continues to heat my face as Rio gives me a smile, knowing how reluctant I must have been to say such a corny thing-even if I meant every word.

She laughs a bit before reaching out to ruffle up my spikes, saying, "Really Neil, you're such a big softie…"

"Shut up," I tell her, frowning in annoyance as she teases me. Shaking my head, I chastise, "Geez, you're such a kid sometimes. Look, you've even got a petal stuck in your hair."

Blinking, she reaches up to take it out only to completely miss it as she pats the top of her head and says, "Where is it?"

Rolling my eyes, I reach over and take it out, murmuring, "…Here. It's here. Stop that now."

To my pleasure she blushes at that, looking away before muttering back, "Don't treat me like a kid."

"Then don't act like one."

"You're worse than me!"

As we argue, we turn towards the house and slowly start to make our way back to where Sakura is standing. Reaching over, I twine my fingers with hers before hesitating and asking, "So…do I look good in pink then?"

Giving me a look, Rio eyes me before smirking and shrugging, saying, "I guess…but you look good no matter what you wear."

"Hey, that's my line."

Laughing, the two of us head towards the house to change, when I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the pond.

Mentally I make a promise to never wear pink again; I'll leave the color to Rio.

I really, really REALLY wanted to do one about them going on a trip together so I decided to go with the stuff that happens in the Land of the East. To me, the beach would have been the obvious choice and since everyone seems to choose that one first I wanted to be different XD

To me, the Land of the East is more like someone's garden; you've got the house thing in the right corner with Sakura standing next to it, the carefully cultivated scenic trees and pond with matching bridge theme, the bamboo fountain, and to make it even more garden-like there are high stone walls around the whole thing. It's seriously screams "this is someone's garden" to me.

That being said, I also figured Sakura (the person who gives you free stuff) would most likely be the owner of this garden and probably a friend of Charles since she allows him to bring people there as a trip. I wanted to be a bit creative with this one so I hope I'm not too far off the mark XD

Either way, thanks for reading and reviewing, it means a lot to me! I'm still kind of not sure on whether I should do a beach one or not, so if I get a request for it I'll go ahead and if not I'll probably just leave it be with this.

Hope to see you on the next update! :)