The Christmas Date (Japan and Taiwan)

Kiku stood at the door of Taiwan - his sweet Mei - with flowers in his hand, and took a deep breath. He tried to calm his nerves.

It's just a date, he assured himself. Just a date...with a beautiful girl...that he loved very much...and it was up to him to show a good time.

...No, nothing to be worried about at all. He sighed. Why did his mentality have to turn against him at times like these?

He took another breath and lightly rapped at her door. Or tried to do it lightly - the last knock of the bunch came out rather louder - which caused him to pull his hand back, embarrassed.

And just then he also remembered one last thing about tonight that made his face turn red.

Stay. Stay! STAYYY. Guh.

Mei gave an exasperated sigh, narrowing her eyes at her reflection in the mirror. Her clothes, her makeup, both were fine, and she was downright giddy about that. But. That. One stupid strand of hair refused to stop sticking out. She sobbed on the inside.

Why tonight, of all nights?! She had a d-d-date with Kiku. The Asian girl turned away from the mirror when she caught sight of her face turning red. She was nervous. Much more nervous than she should be. Mei wrung her hands, trying to get rid of that stupid anxious feeling inside. Go away, go away. Everything will be fine, of course it wou-

"EEEK!" She let out a soft squeak and nearly jumped, hearing a knock on the door. Her heart felt like it stopped.

He's here!

Her hair was still not cooperating, but no time anymore. She grabbed her coat and opened the door, smiling shyly.

The door was opened to reveal Mei, and for a moment Kiku just stood there kind of stupidly and blinked at her. Taiwan...beautiful island...so appropriate. "Mei..." he breathed.

...And since when had he stopped addressing her as "san"? He blushed furiously. Had he even noticed? Maybe he was being too improper. Maybe he should take a step back, maybe he should...

You're engaged, you dolt, he reminded himself.

"Hello, Mei." He bowed to her.

Then he offered her the flowers in his hand. "These are for you," he told her, while blushing and smiling at her.

Mei blinked slowly. Once. Twice.

"Wha..."

Kiku had brought her flowers. Flowers! She felt her face turn warm and her mind go blank. God, he was sweet. And polite. And-- okay no, no, she had other things to think about. What did she have to worry about? Nothing? Right? Yeah. Maybe. Er...

She snapped out of her thoughts and smiled warmly at him, taking the flowers in her hands. Her stomach flipped when her hands brushed against his. The brunette girl had to remind herself to breathe in, out. Eep.

"You...really... th-thank you!" Mei bowed slightly, then opened the door wider. The cold air outside hit her face, making her feel more awake. "Uhm, you can step inside for a sec so I can put these in water~"

"You're welcome," Kiku responded to her and returned the slight bow. "Ah...yes, I can come in, if that's what you want."

He bowed again at his entrance and looked around. Everything was so very...Mei. But that was expected, of course. And also, he had been here before...it had just been awhile. Quite a long while, actually, since he'd actually been inside her house.

And who would have thought back then that the next time he would be here would be under these circumstances? Certainly if someone had told him this then, he would have been very embarrassed.

He waited for her to take care of the flowers.

After closing the door behind Kiku, Mei scurried off to the kitchen. A minute or so later, the flowers were in a vase along with a good amount of water. At the back of her mind, she hoped her house wasn't too much of a mess, or smelled weird or anything. Hnn. The Asian girl pushed the worrisome feelings away, reminding herself to just focus on the task at hand. She set the vase and flowers in front of a window for sufficient light, before smiling happily at them and returning to where Kiku waited. Her heart still skipped a beat when she saw him, even though she had already seen him only minutes earlier. Mei wondered for a moment how in the world could one survive like this, but shrugged it off and decided to think about that later. They would go out, they would have fun, and she would not let herself worry!

"Alright! Er, sorry if I took too long. Shall we go?" She talked sincerely, her feelings of earlier nervousness starting to ease, though just a little.

"It wasn't long at all," Kiku assured her and smiled. Smiling was something he was doing more often lately, mostly due to the Taiwanese person standing in front of him. He usually had come off as far more unemotional. Why did she have the ability to turn him into a sappy fool?

He took her hand. "I suppose we shall," he responded.

He turned and started to head toward the door once more, but stopped and said, "Oh, right," under his breath. Then he turned back toward Mei and gave her a quick kiss.

Mei's eyes widened in surprise, while she struggled to keep herself calm and collected. Or at least look the part. On the outside, she managed to smile shyly at Kiku, though there was nothing she could blush spreading quickly across her cheeks. But on the inside, well... completely different story.

Squeezing his hand ever-so-slighty as she led him toward the door, Mei sighed happily while wondering-where would they be going?

---

orz replying on phone since my family dragged me out the whole day and we're still not home. sorry! ;w;

Kiku felt her squeeze his hand a bit as they left, and he had another attack of the warm fuzzies. And then the nervousness bubbled up again. What if he disappointed her? He was beginning to think again that perhaps he should have discussed where they were going more with her beforehand, instead of just saying that he'd come up with something. This was so nerve-wracking.

But he took her to the place he had planned, trying to calm his nerves on the way. Sometimes he thought he had succeeded in calming himself, but then his nervousness would flare up again.

The place was a park. A Ferris Wheel a few other taller rides could been seen over the fence. Kiku blushed. "It's too cold for some stuff, but I thought it might be fun. Only if you want to, though. I could take you someplace else."

The park was decorated with wreaths, garland, red bows and lights. It was pretty.

Kiku figeted, waiting for a response.

---

Alright, Mei. Thank you for the cuteness, even when you're not home. ^.^ <3

Oh, and I haven't seen many anime with amusement park dates...no, not at all...ahem

orz I hate having to rp getting from one place to another when it isn't close. It's like...la la la...and somehow they got there. *so fail* Sorry.

Mei felt her breath catch when she saw where they were going. The feelings of cold and worry and uneasiness seemed to fade away after she caught sight of the lights and attractions and, well, everything.

"It's so pretty!" She skipped forward a couple steps ahead of Kiku and twirled, the cold air just making her feel more excited. "So pretty, pretty, pretty~"

She scolded herself for not thinking of a better word. Mei thought she must sound like a silly little child, and started feeling mildly embarrassed. She calmed herself and turned back to Kiku, smiling and taking both his hands in hers.

"Why would I want to go any place else? This place is lovely!"

---

Pffff don't worry. In manga they always seems to magically quickly arrive at the places too! XD

Kiku was a bit startled by her enthusiasm, but happy none-the-less. His feeling of nervousness bubbled up into a happy feeling that made him feel slightly light-headed. He watched her twirl and smiled.

As she took his hands in hers he blushed and felt like a sap again. He still wasn't used to this kind of feeling. He wondered if some day down the line, when he looked at her and felt this way, if it would feel normal. Right now it felt like...a drug or a dream or...he didn't know. It was dizzying.

"I'm glad you like it," he told her. "...Shall we...?" He reluctantly let go of one of her hands so they could walk. The other was still entwined with his.

"Let's go~!" And they started off into the park.

As she walked alongside Kiku, Mei tried to make herself relax. Sure, she was doing considerably better than earlier, but she was still a little worried. But that was her nature, and anyone in this kind of situation would worry, right? Because, well, she had to make sure not to walk too fast and seem rushy, or walk too slow or she'd seem uneager, and what if her hand started to get all warm and sweaty and uncomfortable and gross...?!

Ahhhhh.

Calm down, she told herself. Worrying more would just make it worse.

She surveyed the shops, sights, people. It wasn't too crowded considering most people stayed home on Christmas, but there were still people who had the same idea as them.

"So what do you think we should do first?"

Shops, rides, arcade games-there was so much to choose from, it was a little overwhelming.

It felt nice to be walking beside Mei like this. Really nice. He just hoped his hand didn't start to sweat in hers...but there was no sense in worrying about that.

Now...what should they do first? That was a good question. There was so much here, so much surrounding them...where to even start?

"Whatever you'd like," he offered. Then he supposed that perhaps she was as overwhelmed as himself and amended, "If you can't think of anything you really want to do first, then maybe we'll just pick a direction and go with what we find there?"

"That works!" Mei thought for a moment, before pointing to the right. Other than an information booth, the general path looked like it had the arcade games and those prize draw booths. "We can go clockwise from here, then?"

Arcade games. Flashing lights, dings, buzzes, prizes. They had various shooting games, throwing games, strength games. Mei had forgotten how much variety there were in arcade games. She hadn't played them in... ages. She speculated if she was any good at them now; years and years before, she had been terrible at them, always wasting money trying to win. But that was then, this was now. Hmm...

I wonder if Kiku is good at these?

Kiku looked down the row of arcade games and nodded. "This works."

He was pretty good at these kind of games. After all, they tended to have this sort of stuff at temple festivals nowadays. When they had first started that, he'd been terrible at them, but he'd had years of practice by now.

Of course, the first booth was a test of strength. Not really any skill involved. He considered skipping it, but the man running the booth saw his approach and gave him a look that said something like 'oh great, another skinny loser trying to impress a girl', and that made him unexpectedly upset. What was with him lately?

He could do this. After all, despite what he looked like, he was a nation, and he might not be as strong as some others, or even as strong as he used to be, but he could certainly manage some strength test meant for normal humans.

---

Not anywhere near as crazy strong as America or something, but I always thought the countries would be stronger than normal people. Especially ones that are powerful as countries, you know?

I figure Kiku would normally skip that kind of thing, because he wouldn't want to attract attention like that, but also couldn't bring himself to purposely fail.

Mei was guessing they were going to pass over the first booth, assuming neither of them particularly cared for strength games. It just wasn't really their cup of...wait. She noticed Kiku's gaze lingering on the attraction a little too long, before he slowly stepped up to it. She timidly followed, eying the vendor.

"You're going to play this?" She said, her voice sounding curious and surprised. And just a little bit of excitement, but she hoped that wasn't too noticeable. She didn't want to accidentally make him feel obligated to play it, after all...

But it would be interesting if he did~

---

:U
I can only say

cute. ;u;

"Yes, I think I will," Kiku told her. He would have added 'unless you don't want me to,' but he caught something behind her expression that made him think she rather wanted him to.

The game was the kind where you had to arm wrestle a mechanical arm. Kiku was used to seeing these kinds of games only in arcades. But this game actually did rely on strength. The trick to the game with the mallet and the weight was actually accuracy. But that's not what this was. It was no wonder that the man didn't think someone who looked like Kiku could manage.

Kiku looked at the machine. "Is there only one level?" he asked. The ones in arcades started easy and moved to harder as they went on, but that seemed like it would take too long for such a place.

"Yes," the man answered, sounding bemused.

"Okay," Kiku responded. "I'll give it a try." Kiku handed over the fee and the guy could barely contain a smirk.

"Don't break your arm," the man advised. Sound advice, actually. If Kiku were a normal human, this stunt would be fundamentally stupid.

He grasped the arm and for a moment considered holding back, to make this seem a bit more realistic, but decided that would be silly. In the first place, him winning this wasn't realistic on human terms anyway. In addition, since he didn't know the strength of the thing, holding back could actually lead to a loss. He also was a bit uncertain of his own strength. So it wasn't worth it.

The arm was beaten easily. The man stood there dumbfounded before going over to the machine to make sure it wasn't broken.

"What prize would you like?" Kiku asked Mei while the man checked.

---

dkjda;eiejk I thought I'd never stop typing! orz

Anyways, I was looking up these games just now, and I found out that the most well known test of strength isn't actually...a test of strength. Which would have defeated my original point. Ah well. So I went with this. I don't know if it's in any way accurate, but I give up. OTL This park is unique or something.

One of the arcade arm wrestling games in Japan got recalled in 2007 or some such for breaking three people's arms.

Mei watched with a building anticipation as Kiku paid the man. Though, she couldn’t help wanting to narrow her eyes at the merchant, noticing the looks he was giving her companion. Like Kiku couldn’t do this kind of thing. But he could! And he would! Hmph. She instead opted for just observing as Kiku readied himself for the machine.

When it started up, she found herself holding her breath. But as the mechanical machine began to go down, down, down, she couldn’t help herself from letting out little squeaks of “Go! Go! Go~!”

When it was over, Mei clapped her hands together, strongly resisting the urge to jump up and down. Er, how much immaturity could she get away with? Goodness.

“Yay!” She said, delighted. “You did it, you did it~”

Though, when he asked what kind of prize she wanted, she felt slightly lost. Being who she was, Mei would most commonly ask for a panda, but… no! Something different today!

“Can... I... er, is there a tiger?” She asked quietly.

---

I actually had a feeling you'd end up using the arm wrestling thing. owob Those are common depending where you go, I think.
>:I And man are they hard. Played one with two hands before and it didn't even falter.
Though I was like 12 then lol

The man finished examining the machine and eyed Kiku. "You won," he said flatly.

Kiku smiled at Mei and then looked up at the prizes while saying, "...A tiger...?" Then he saw it. "There!" he pointed. "We'd like that tiger," he announced to the guy running it.

The guy practically threw it at him. Well, that was rude. Kiku handed it to Mei and then turned around to find they had developed a crowd. Oh right, that's what he usually tried to avoid.

And they were being noisy. Some stipulating that he cheated somehow, others saying something must be wrong, or that it was set incorrectly to an easy setting, or that it was a setup.

Regardless, a lot of guys that looked stronger than him were now lining up to give it a try. He hoped none of them hurt themselves.

He was still getting a lot of attention, though. More attention than he'd like. So he grabbed Mei's hand and brought up some of his old stealth skills to get them out of there.

"Where'd he go?" he heard someone say. Then someone else stipulated that he wasn't human. There was laughter at that, but Kiku thought to himself, You're more right than you know.

He turned back to Mei. "...Maybe we should get out of this area for the moment. Sorry," he said sheepishly.

---

Ninja'd

The arm wrestling thing was actually what I was thinking of originally, but then I thought, 'wait, would they have something like that at a place like this?', and decided to google it. Of course, test of strength gave me that hammer thing, and then I felt less sure about what I wanted to do, but ended up sticking with it for reasons stated.

I've never tried it myself.

When Kiku handed her the toy tiger, Mei had a moment of childishness, giggling and burying her face in its fur. Then she looked up, and saw a little too many people around them than she was comfortable with in this kind of situation. Time to slip away...

Following closely behind Kiku, Mei clutched tightly to her tiger. When they were far enough, she glanced back at the group of people. Well, uh, at least that particular vendor would get good business for now. She turned her attention to Kiku again, and found he was apologizing. ...With the cutest expression on his face too-- wait no, no. That was not what she was supposed to be thinking about right now. Mei hid her face in her stuffed toy again, feeling embarrassed at her own thoughts. Gosh. No one could read her mind, yet look at her.

"No, it's okay!" She continued on, more quietly. "As long as we're together, we'll still have fun."

Kiku smiled at her response. She was right. He knew he felt that way, so why shouldn't she as well? He was just so frightened of disappointing her.

This was just the first thing they came upon anyway. It wasn't the be all and end all, and they could always come back later. So, then what else should be next, if they were leaving this place?

He looked around. He wanted to find something before someone who had seen his stunt happened to notice them.

"Ferris Wheel?" he suggested.

"Yeah, let's go."

It sounded like a nice place to go, and there was hardly a line. Mei let her eyes wander up to the top of the tall wheel as they walked towards it. Not that she was terrified, but she still worried. Though, it sounded like a better idea than sticking around and being questioned by one of the bystanders or something. It wouldn't be that windy up at the top... hopefully. And they'd be able to see the whole park, with all the lights and decorations!

Though, she couldn't help thinking about all those shoujo manga scenarios that involved Ferris wheels...

Aaaand again she hid her face in her tiger, inhaling, exhaling, trying to calm down and get rid of those oh-so-cliche images. Those kinds of thing didn't happen in real life! Right? Sure...

Her tiger would most likely become her refuge for tonight, sigh.

It was simply nice enough to just be walking with Mei again, holding her hand, away from that crowd. Never mind any ride or attraction.

Well...attraction....

He blushed suddenly.

He looked up at the Ferris Wheel. It was nice. Thankfully for this time of year, it was one of the ones where the seats you were in were almost entirely enclosed, with windows to see. So they shouldn't get much wind, if any.

Mei hid her face in the tiger again. How cute could she get? He developed the urge to kiss her, if only on the forehead, but couldn't bring himself to do so publicly.

It occured to him that the enclosed space in the Ferris Wheel was also rather private....

He blushed visibly red thanks to that thought.

As they neared the Ferris wheel, the sounds and chatter of the arcade booths began to die away, and Mei felt herself relax. The Ferris wheel was nice and quiet and peaceful. Not to mention pretty, being the most eye-catching attraction in the park with all the extra lights and decor for the holidays. She suspected the view from the top was as equally nice as well, if not better.

After waiting a couple minutes, the few people in front of them were gone. Mei felt her anxiety beginning to creep back into her, but pushed it away as best she could as they climbed into one of the cars.

---

idk if it's a car or a cabin or a capsule.
Wiki is no help. D:

As they sat down in the little enclosed area, Kiku felt his nervousness rise. It's okay, it's just a Ferris Wheel, should have been his thoughts. But instead his head was filled with embarrassing ideas and his face was getting hot.

When the operator shut the door on them, he jumped.

Then they were moved just slightly up and outwards, so the next one could be loaded with the people behind them.

And they seemed to be in their own private world now. No one was watching them in this enclosed space. He looked at Mei, although he was almost certain his face was completely red with a blush.

---

I have no idea either. That's why I've avoided using a word for it, even in my previous post. orz