The Christmas Date (Japan and Taiwan)

Mei was awakened by some sort of movement. For a moment she was startled, wondering what it was, wondering what had happened and who was in her bed and should she panic. But then she remembered, and felt safe and happy again. It was so warm with Kiku so close. She had slept quite well, but didn't know whether to put the blame on the fact that she had been really tired last night, or that he was here. It could have been both, either, or. She didn't know.

He kept moving around until he put some space in between them again, to her disappointment. Not that she said anything, she just wanted to stay there and lay with him forever, so she kept on like she was still asleep. He spoke, and she noted his voice was a very nice thing to hear first thing in the morning.

"Not really, no," she replied quietly, before snuggling closer to him and attempting to tangle their legs again. "Even if I was, I wouldn't want to get up." This might be a little selfish, but her thoughts were all still too sleepy to worry about it.

She clung to him and had no plan of letting go anytime soon. Not that it did much, since her grip was kind of weak in the morning, but she didn't remember that and believed it could work.

Kiku laughed lightly at her assertion that she was still sleeping. He also noticed her attempt with their legs. For a moment, he didn't fight it, then he realized at this rate they might never get up.

Was that a bad thing?

Regardless, he did manage to mantain the the seperate state of their lower limbs.

And then there was the clinging, he couldn't conjure the will to fight the clinging. Well, there was a way to get up and have her cling to him. He held her close, swung them around to the side of the bed, and stood up.

...Or attempted to stand up. He fell back down on the bed pretty much immediately. The leftover sleepiness made his balance a little off, so he couldn't quite hold himself upright with her in his arms.

He just laid still for awhile where he had fallen back, Mei on top of him. "Hm. Predicament."

"Hrmm," she groaned quietly. Okay so, Kiku could keep her from the tangling again. She expected him to do what would be the next step of prying her away, which would be pulling her hands off and then moving. Then that didn't happen, and she found herself holding onto him tighter when suddenly they were around and up... then down again. Her eyes were wide open in surprise by now.

Mei found herself in somewhat of a comfortable position. Somewhat, because really, being on top of him should probably register a thought that she should scramble away and apologize for being heavy or something. But, having been just woken up, her worry process was kind of slow. She simply tilted her head and stared down at him.

"Is it? Maybe it is, just a little bit."

She felt her face get warm and laid down again, finding she liked the position instead of feeling embarassed about it. It was nice.

"Or maybe it's not," she mumbled. Sure, her sleepiness was pretty much gone, but getting up sounded like a chore at that moment.

"Is it not? But...we have to get up." Kiku sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than her. He made no movement to do so for a bit, looking at her on top of him. "We should...get up and...have breakfast or wash or..." he swallowed, "...something."

She was always beautiful, but something about her now, something between her sleepy look and her ruffled hair, made her seem...sexy.

Kiku made a low sound in his throat. Yes, yes, they had to get up. It would be far to tempting to stay like this. And then it would become far to tempting to touch her. Touch her in as many places as she would allow. His face suddenly felt like it was on fire.

He looked away. "We really should get up," he repeated. He moved his body a bit. This was harder to do now that her position was directly on top of him. He moved an arm from around her to help support him and got his top half upward again. Then he sat for a moment, one arm supporting him on the bed, the other cradling Mei, who was now partially on his lap.

There was that temptation again, to stay like this for awhile. He sighed and hesitated again. What to do?

Mei sighed. Maybe time to get up. Maybe. Kiku had moved again and she adjusted with the movement, comfortably positioning herself in his lap and leaning against him.

"You said should. Should. We don't have to... it's not like we... have things... to.. do." Her voice became considerably quieter with each word. They probably did have things to do. Maybe he had a lot of things to do. Or maybe she was making him uncomfortable, positioned like this. But it was so nice, from her point of view. But this wasn't about her. Maybe he didn't like it from where he was. Kiku liked to get things done and such, right? So this might just be troublesome to him. Oh, it seemed her anxiety had finally caught up.

"Well I guess maybe we should?" she sighed. Mei had started to climb off and away from him, but stopped and thought for a moment. She swallowed and moved again, only... differently.

"I forgot to say..." She moved enough so that her face was just in front of his. "I forgot to say good morning, so..." After some hesitation, she finally leaned in and kissed him gingerly, almost smiling at such a nice sensation in the morning. Several seconds later, she pulled away and smiled at him, somewhat shyly. "..Good morning."

This was turning out to be a very nice morning.

Kiku felt Mei shift on his lap. At first it seemed she was moving off, but then she was right in front of his face. And then she delivered a greeting that anyone could get used to.

He returned her kiss - softly, gently - holding himself back. "Good morning," he replied to her when they had broken apart.

He looked away a bit and thought back on what she had said earlier about not having anything to do. He didn't have any specific appointments for the day, but that didn't mean he had nothing to do, either. It was a busy time of year. He had preparations for the New Year to do. In addition, his boss might want him for something. No one would have expected him not to come home last night.

He suddenly felt like a teenager that never really went out, and so didn't have a curfew, but had suddenly stayed out way past midnight and would likely get in trouble.

"Ah..."

But then, what was there to be worried about, really? He may have responsibilities, and even if they would expect him to be in today, he hadn't yet been asked, and he was his own person to some degree, not just something to be controlled.

"Should we have breakfast?"

He wasn't even thinking about his state of dress anymore.

"Breakfast is probably a good idea."

Mei finally climbed off and stood up, stretching a little bit, then peeking out the window for a moment. This day was turning out to be very good, which reflected in her mood. Then she caught a glance of herself in her bedroom mirror and narrowed her eyes at it, as if that would fix her hair. She attempted to pat it down into some sort of semi-neat state, but that didn't help so much. She sighed. It would have to be fixed later. For now, food was the priority.

After Kiku had gotten up, they went out to the kitchen together. Mei couldn't help herself from grabbing his hand while they walked. She couldn't help it, she was happy. It had been a while since anybody had stayed the night. Well, her mornings in general were pretty lonely except for the occasional time Xiaoyun was still up, but he pretty much just slept during the day. It was nice having someone around. It was especially nice having Kiku around. And to make things even better, she remembered this sort of thing would eventually become the daily routine, or at least it would happen quite often. When they were married. She said it again in her head. Married. Heehee.

Mei felt herself blush and hurried over to open the fridge, attempting to look over the contents of it when instead she was probably actually smiling childishly to herself.

"So uhm, what would you like to eat?"

Kiku watched Mei fuss with her hair and was tempted to say something - about the imperfection being beautiful, or that she didn't need to do that for him - but she promptly gave up before he found the words, and so he stayed quiet about it.

He got up from the bed, which wasn't any trouble now that it was only himself and he had both arms free. Then he followed her as she walked out and into the kitchen. He felt her grab his hand, which was...nice. This morning was nice. Everything was nice.

If this is what being married to her would be like, he couldn't have made a better choice than asking her.

After they entered, she looked into the fridge and asked him what he would like.

"What do you have?" he asked her. "I like a lot of things - both traditional and western - so it's hard to say without choices. Whatever you think is good is also fine."

He tried peering over at what she was looking at without being bothersome. He had only minor success, and it seemed she was trying to hide her face more than looking.

"We can make something together," he suggested.

---

Ugh, I hate having to retype. T_T Because I lost everything...grrrrrrrr IT'S NOT THE SAME AS IT WAS, BUT THAT'S GONE FOREVER.

It's the same basic content as far as what actually happens, but that version flowed much better when I read it. This doesn't. Nnnngh, but I don't know how to fix it anymore and I have to go to work soon. ;A;

"Well, I have.. both traditional and western kinds of stuff. Soup and noodles, rice, vegetables and meat. Or, cereal, sliced bread, or those pancake-things. And eggs, which kind of fit into both catagories," she said slowly with a shrug, thinking as she spoke.

Mei closed the fridge eventually and then went to look into one of the cabinets, staring up at the random boxes, jars, and containers. This would be probably be easier if she stopped this overthinking things and just went with what was normal. She usually had soup or cereal for breakfast depending on whichever she spotted first... but for some reason, those things didn't seem like they would fit with today. The day was nice, the wake-up was very nice. Breakfast had to be along the same lines. But how to do that...?

Then she heard him suggest they make something together and suddenly it was that much easier.

"Sure! If that's okay...?" She sighed inside. Of course it was okay! Otherwise he wouldn't have said it. Right? Great, it was barely even noon and she was already messing up. "I mean, well, uh, then... there's still the question of what to make."

---

COPYPASTA :V from last night. so sorry if the quality is weird I was sleepyish ewe

and don't worry, your retyped reply was still kawaiiyo as usual =w= <3

Kiku thought for a moment and kept coming back to the idea of the eggs. Cooking eggs together seemed to be a nice, quaint thing for them to do. He felt it suited the morning. Of course, they held many options within themselves.

He reached over into the fridge and picked up an egg with his fingers. He held it up for a bit. "These hold a lot of promising possibilies. We could hard boil them and eat them with soy sauce over rice," he suggested, "or we could make omelettes, or we could scramble them like Westerners do."

He put the egg back down and starting looking at her spices and other ingredients. He squinted at them, looking at the labels. The question of her opinion that was about to leave his lips halted as he did so.

He sighed lightly. "One moment," he told her and ran back to the bedroom. When he arrived he rummaged through the clothing he wore yesterday and pulled a glasses case out of a pocket, removed the contents and put them on his face. Then he quickly returned to the kitchen.

He blushed, a bit embarrassed, as he entered again. "Ah...I'm sorry. I mean.... What do you think, Mei?"

---

Yeah...I just decided on a bit of headcanon regarding this. There is always room in my head for megane Japan. Mmhmm

Eggs did sound nice. Hrm, still so many options, though... ah. Mei nodded when he excused himself and went back to the room. She wondered briefly what he needed, but then shrugged to herself and went to pull the whole carton of eggs out, taking an egg and rolling it around on the counter while she waited for Kiku to come back. It wasn't very long though, as she found herself replacing the egg within a few seconds.

"Oh." He had glasses on now. And looked kind of cool. She blinked and tried to comprehend what he had just said. "Uh... I think you look very smart with your glasses on?"

...wait. A few awkward seconds and a sputter later, Mei realized she had answered the question completely wrong. "A-Ah, I meant, uhm, ..I-I misunderstood, sorry." She felt her face turn hot and awkwardly laid her head down on the counter, standing up straight again when she realized that was probably just more suspicious and somewhat rude.

"..Uhm, can we have boiled eggs and rice and stuff?" she questioned timidly, sort of wanting to curl up into a little ball and hide. Way to go, self.

---

Oopsie I think some of my fangirl leaked into my reply :'U;;;

Kiku blushed bright red at her first comment. He was about to, probably stutter, out something about how that wasn't what he had meant. But she said she misunderstood before he could get the words out. So she had realized.

"It's alright," he told her, still blushing. "Ah...thank you, though. And yes, we most certainly can have that." He attempted to hide his blushing face with limited success.

"Although..." he went to speak again, embarrassed, "I guess I don't really need these for that one..." With that, he started to reach for the glasses to take them off, then paused, remembering her comment, and dropped his hand back down.

"...Do you really think they look good on me?" he asked her.

He really might as well keep them on now, anyway. Their case was still in the bedroom, and what he was currently wearing didn't have any pockets. He just felt a bit silly.

"O-Okay." Mei nodded and went to retrieve a pot, still a little self-conscious and shaky from her embarassment. She breathed out slowly as she filled the pot with water. Things had been fine and calm and happy until that odd little slip-up, it shouldn't take too much to change it back. Relax, she told herself.

Then again, while she was trying to forget her mistake, Kiku said something that just reminded her again and almost made her drop the pot in surprise. She hesitated for a bit, replaying the question in her head and making sure she just wasn't misunderstanding again.

"I..." She swallowed, speaking slowly, trying to keep her voice nonchalant. "I think they look very good on you."

Luckily the pot had enough water by now, so Mei could go put it on the stove in an attempt to hide her red face and probably-silly expression. She couldn't help peeking back at him and smiling though. He did look nice in his glasses.

---

replied so you have something to do while I'm at school c:
Not much because you said we have to sleep soon, though XD

Kiku watched Mei and grew a bit concerned. Was she really that nervous right now? It seemed to be tied into her mistake. Maybe he shouldn't have asked that question, but...

She answered and then seemed to busy herself with the water and the stove. He blushed at the response. When she peeked back and smiled at him, he blushed even harder.

"Ah...I guess it couldn't hurt to leave them on," he said in an attempt at casually dismissive and then got the eggs to put in the water. Productive, right. He slid what he thought would be enough for both of them carefully into the water. "So now we just wait for it to boil, and then time them. We can start the rice up while we wait."

He was still blushing, and looking away slightly. He was mostly embarrassed at his own thoughts. He had never before considered wearing his glasses when they weren't necessary. Too many years without them and he never quite got into the habit. He would put them on only when he actually couldn't see something without them. He had gotten so used to certain things being slightly blurry, he sometimes forgot how much they helped. Now, the thought of changing that behavior in order to indulge Mei seemed embarrassingly silly.

Regardless, the thought remained.

Mei watched as he placed the eggs in the water, nodding mutely. She heard Kiku say he would leave his glasses on, and that was about it before her thoughts were invaded with odd... images. Well, not necessarily odd, just.. interesting. She thought he looked similar to doctor or teacher, which lead to mental images of him as such. Yes, interesting was definitely the word for it. Only when he spoke again did she realize she had been staring. Shoot.

"Yeah... that's right, start the rice..."

She quickly retrieved the rice cooker and set it on the counter, taking the inner bowl out of it and filling it with water and rice before starting to wash. She concentrated on that for now, trying to keep her mind on other things and relax. Otherwise she would most likely mess up again. Then again, being too careless was probably what led her to make that earlier mistake in the first place. But it was nice not having to worry all the time. But messing up again would... argh. Enough of this.

Wash, just wash and wash and don't think of other things...

After turning the heat on the stove, Kiku watched Mei start up the rice cooker for a bit. She seemed...off? nervous? frazzled? Why? Because of the embarrassment of the mistake? It seemed a bit much for just that. He would almost think she had a glasses comp-

Oh.

Did she? How could he be sure without straight out asking her and embarrassing her further? Maybe it wasn't possible. He thought about how to phrase it while she continued with the rice. She seemed very concentrated on her task. He hoped he wouldn't startle her like he had last night with the drinks, but at least this time she knew he was in the room.

"Mei?" he tried to ask casually as he approached and slid a steady hand on her arm. "...You...said you liked them.... Do they...bother you? As in...not in a bad way?"

It was the best way he could think to phrase it. It was still sort of terrible, but he hoped she would understand, and at the same time, that it was a gentle enough way to phrase it.

She nearly jumped when she felt his hand on her arm, but managed to keep her surprise within a simple "oh", though her voice wasn't exactly calm. More emotion went into that one word than she'd expected. After hearing Kiku's question, she stopped with her washing and thought a moment.

"Bother me...? But not in a bad way? I don't.. understand..."

How does something bother you, but not in a bad way? Bothering you in a good way would be---

Mei nearly froze up when she realized. Her words didn't come out so great either, and her hands flinched enough that she ended up splashing some water up. She used her arm to wipe away some water on her cheek while she tried to think of a reply that wasn't all random syllables and sputtering.

"I-I-I.. well, I.. I don't know if I'm understanding right, but I.." She paused to try and make herself breathe again, only just noticing she had gasped and not let it out. "I don't... know?" Well, that was definitely a bad answer. "I just.. like... the way.. they look on you." Was that a better answer? Yes? No?

Mei went back to washing the rice, though considering how vigorously she had done it earlier, it was pretty much already done. She stood and stared at the water for a bit, wondering if she should have elaborated better or if she should have just kept quiet.

Kiku noticed that Mei had just short of frozen when she realized what he meant. So much for trying to be gentle with the question. But he supposed there really wasn't a way. It was the concept itself that would make her frazzled or embarrassed. So realizing what he meant naturally would lead to that reaction.

He listened to her answer. Or, try to answer. Then he watched her for a bit, not quite sure how to take it. Her words said one thing, and that was sort of unlcear. Then, there was her actions....

"I think the rice is clean," he told her, noting how long and vigorously she had been washing it.

"I just mentioned because your reaction is rather..." he started explaining, then trailed off. "Nevermind. I am upsetting you further. I can drop it and we will just continue making breakfast."

He pulled himself away from her and looked to the other side of the room. "You can pretend I never asked if it helps," he offered.

Mei sighed, still keeping her eyes on the bowl of uncooked rice. "I guess it is.." she said quietly, looking up as he moved away. She felt her heart sink. This definitely wasn't right. This was not the mood she wanted to be in. This was not a suitable atmosphere for this nice morning. Taking a breath, she tried her best to sound carefree and light-hearted as she set up the rice cooker.

"My reaction was weird, right? Or something like that?" She laughed nervously. "It's not really so upsetting, just..."

She wanted to say 'embarassing', but that would most likely send her back to the nervous mood she had been in. That was not what she wanted.

The rice cooker closed with a click, and Mei turned to face him, leaning against the counter and crossing her arms with a thoughtful sigh.

"Time to wait...?"

Kiku nodded. They had to wait for both things now, although the water with the eggs had almost reached boiling, so that would have to be timed soon, but that was all. Their food was cooking. It didn't really require their attention at the moment.

He was, however, regretting having brought that question up. "Can you forget I said that?" he asked and bowed to her. "I'm sorry. I hadn't meant to...I'm sorry. You think they look good on me, I accept your compliment, thank you."

They were having a nice, quaint-feeling morning until then. He was hoping to get that feeling back. Maybe he could save some face with this.

"Is it possible to just start again from there and forget the rest?"

He blushed and approached her again, pressing his lips to her cheek. He stayed in close and whispered, "It's a lovely morning, right?" Hope tinged his words. He reached out for her hand but didn't quite grasp it.

"You don't have to apologize," she mumbled. And now she felt some guilt for making him feel bad. But enough of this negative feeling stuff, she wanted to be happy. She wanted both of them to be worry-free and happy again. Was that so hard to do? It just came pretty naturally earlier, she noted. Maybe it was easier when you didn't think about it so much?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt Kiku kiss the side of her face, causing her to freeze in surprise and then realize she felt some sort of disappointment when he pulled away. Then again, Mei returned to that sort-of frozen state when she felt his breath against her cheek. It was warm. And it felt nice. She glanced at him without moving her face, almost too afraid to. He was quite close. But for some reason, it didn't make her as nervous as other previous times. It just mainly made her happy.

And kind of really tempted to kiss him. Not on the cheek as he had just done to her, either. As much as she was embarrassed to admit that to herself, it would be worse to lie. To herself. What kind of person lied to themselves? No one, right?

Mei almost flinched when she sensed his hand near hers, but instead laughed aloud softly when she realized she was pretty much having a conversation with herself inside her head, while he was here being cute and sweet and trying to make things better. Why did she have to think so much, when she had better things to pay attention to?

She lightly grabbed onto his hand right about the same time she turned her head and kissed him... not-so-lightly.

She was freezing up. For a bit, Kiku worried that the mood of the morning really had been ruined. If just this was making her on edge, then she wouldn't-

And then she grabbed his hand, and before he could be happy about it or think about the pleasant sensation, she kissed him. In an entirely...different way than he had her.

"Mmph!" The muffled sound escaped him in surprise. But he didn't pull away, and soon found himself kissing her back, pressing his lips against hers.

When they pulled away for breath, he gave her a sort of half-smile, blushing, glasses slightly askew.

"So that was..." He played with her fingers casually while he spoke. "...better."

He happened to glance the pot with the eggs in it as he looked up. "Ah...I think the water is boiling now, we should set a timer for 10 minutes." He hesitated to move, however. All he managed at this point was to use his free hand (the one not currently playing with Mei's) to straighten his glasses.

When they eventually pulled apart, Mei smiled back at him then let out a laugh when she caught sight of his now slightly-crooked glasses. Part of her wanted to reach over and fix them, but part of her thought they were sort of cute like that and wanted to leave them like so. So she just left it and giggled at the sight, figuring he would fix them soon enough anyways.

"Mmhmm," she agreed happily. Kiku began playing with her fingers, and she couldn't help but do the same with his in the process. It made her feel better. Kind of like fiddling with her hair did, but better than that.

She looked over at the pot when he mentioned it. Yes, it was boiling, and yes, a timer would probably be helpful. But Mei didn't really want to move again. The feeling was like the one she had felt eariler that morning, when she didn't want to get up out of bed. Deciding not to move, she made no indication of going to get the timer and instead moved to stand just in front of him, learning against him and resting her chin on his chest to watch him fix his glasses. She stared up at Kiku with a small smile, not letting go of his hand and taking his other when he finished readjusting his glasses.

"Or we could just watch the clock closely," she said with a slight tilt of her head, in the direction of the clock on the wall.

"Watch the clock closely?" Kiku repeated. Right now he wasn't confident in his ability to watch anything closely other than the Taiwanese woman in front of him. "But...if we have to watch the clock, we have to keep checking, whereas if I set a timer, it will be done with and we don't have to pay so much attention."

Part of him hated how true those words were. He didn't want to pull away - not for a moment - but it would be better in the long run.

He cast a glance around. "Where's a timer? We'll just do it and then we won't have to worry about the time."

---

I think this is probably the shortest reply I've written for this thread. And yet I've been working on it all day ;u; Sorry! I don't know why this happened. orz

She frowned slightly. Darn. He was right. Mei took a step backwards and looked around, at the cabinets and drawers, wondering which one rang the right bell. There was a slight problem.

"I actually don't know where my timer is," she said with a nervous smile. It wasn't really something she used that often. The last time she had used it was... when, again...?

After some fruitless thinking, she began to open various places it could be, looking for the little device.

"Not here, not here, not here...ah. Oh, great." She took a step back to make sure. "There it is..."

Mei had opened up a cabinet to find it there, only... on one of the higher shelves. Which made sense when she thought about it, considering most of the things she did use frequently were on the lower shelves. She looked up at where it was, sitting on the shelf, then back at Kiku, then back again. It occurred to her that neither of them would be able to reach it without help, and she didn't keep a stepping stool nearby. She sighed.

"If you'll give me a moment.."

She climbed up with a small jump, steadying herself until she was simply kneeling on the counter, then reaching up and taking the timer from the shelf. Well, this was only moderately embarrassing.

"H-Here you go," she said, turning only slightly and holding it out towards him, keeping one hand on the cabinet door for balance.