AN: Honestly, love these two so much! This was slightly longer than I anticipated, but was mostly an exercise in practicing dialogue anyway heh. Please review if you enjoyed it!

"Ne, Kotoha - have you ever had a boyfriend?" Chiaki asks randomly, one day. Takeru had given the team a day off from training, and the pair had quickly dashed out before he could change his mind (or rather: Chiaki had grabbed Kotoha by the arm before she could insist on training by herself - "Let's try that ice-cream shop you said you wanted to go to!").

"Eh!"

"Ah - haha, it's nothing. I was just wondering..."

"Oh, mmm." Kotoha looks down, smiling that soft smile she always has on. "Well, no, not really. I didn't have a lot of friends, and the other girls at school were a lot smarter and prettier than me so-"

"I told you, you shouldn't always think of yourself that way!"

"Oh - sorry. I for-"

"You shouldn't apologise for that either!"

"Sor-"

"No - I shouldn't have used that tone either."

They sit in silence for a few moments, eating out of the humongous bowl of ice-cream they've bought together.

"What about you?"

"Me?"

"Have you had a girlfriend before?"

"Ye - yea, well, it was just a short while."

"Wow, what was she like? I bet she's very pretty! I'm sure there are a lot of girls who like Chiaki."

"Aaah, not really... Actually, we broke up because she said I wasn't ever serious about anything. Everyone thinks that way of me in school, to be honest. But it doesn't matter! They're mostly right for thinking so, anyway."

"I don't think so! You just hide it very well, how much you care about things. Chiaki just makes it seem as if he doesn't really bother about many things, but underneath it all, you really want to do your best and help everyone."

"Ha, trust you to say these sorts of cheesy things."

"It's true!"

Their spoons clink against the bottom of the ice-cream bowl, having devoured their dessert amazingly quick.

"Ne, Kotoha?"

"Mm?"

"Do you think, after all of this with the Gedoshu is over, you'll want to go out somewhere sometime?"

"Ah, aren't we doing that now?"

"I mean - you know..."

"I don't underst- Oh!"

"Ahaha yea..."

"Oh… oh."

"It's okay! It's not a big dea-"

"Yes, no - I didn't mean it that way. Yes, I would like that."

"Really?"

"Yea! It's a date then...?"

Chiaki smiles, and Kotoha is a furious shade of red.

"It's a date."