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“Argh! Why did it have to rain today?! It’s too early for this!”
Ann hurriedly pulls up her jacket over her head so that she could shield herself from the spontaneous light rain that suddenly snuck up on her. The changing of seasons meant the infamous spontaneous rainfall that often happened every spring, and Ann was a little annoyed if she were to be honest. The one time she didn’t have a hoodie on… now she was running down the street clinging to her makeshift hood in the form of her letterman jacket. As she ran through the streets of Aoyoma-Ichtome, Ann takes out her phone and checks her messages in the chat one more time… The messages that she received were the reason why she was running in the rain in the first place.
Akira: Happy White Day, Ann. I got something for you.
Ann: You remembered!
Akira: Of course. How could I forget?
Ann: Ooh, this is gonna be good! What did you get me?
Ann: Cake? Crepes? Candy? Ooh, Chocolate?!
Ann: Pleeeeease tell me you got something sweet, Akira!
Akira: Heh. You’re gonna have to wait and see.
Ann: Ugh… you tease! Just wait ‘till I get to Leblanc!
Akira: Not Leblanc.
Ann: Huh? But aren’t you still working?
Akira: Sojiro gave me the afternoon off for today.
Akira: I was surprised at first, but then he just smiled at me and said:
Akira: “Don’t you have a special lady to meet with today? Go on.”
Ann: Thank you, Boss!
Ann: So, if I’m not going to Leblanc to see you…
Ann: Are we gonna meet up somewhere else?
Akira: That’s the surprise.
Akira: Meet me around the station at Aoyama-Itchome.
Ann: Why there?
Ann: Are we meeting around the school?
Akira: Close, but not quite.
Akira: Look for me out there. I’ll be waiting for you.
Ann: That’s not vague or anything.
Ann: What if I can’t find you?
Akira: You will. I guarantee it.
Akira: Your sharp eyes didn’t get rusty at all after a few months.
Akira: Isn’t that right, Panther?
Ann: !!!
Ann: Not on your life!
Ann: Ugh! No fair pulling out the codenames, Joker!
Akira: Haha. ~
Akira: But am I wrong though?
Ann: Just you wait and see.
Ann: I’m gonna head to the station and find you! Count on it!
Akira: I’ll be waiting.
Ann then looks up from her phone so that she could see where she was going, careful not to bump into any people that were walking past her. She keeps a careful lookout for Akira, trying to see where he was waiting for her. “Where are you…?” she murmured to herself. In a street like this… it shouldn’t be hard for her to spot him. It wasn’t like this particular street was crowded. The stuff around the school were just clothing shops and little stores that the students could get in and out of with little trouble. And it wasn’t like Akira was actually waiting inside one of these buildings for her… at least, Ann hoped not. That’d personally be a little too much trouble for her to enter and leave every store in the street to look for him… but she’d do it nonetheless, damn it.
She takes another moment to stop and adjust the jacket over her head, still trying not to let the raindrops hit her head. Then once she was sure that she was still dry and secure, she takes another moment to look around for Akira. Ann looks over at one of the stores that she could see ahead of her, and remembers that it was a clothing shop that she sometimes checks out whenever she goes shopping. Jeunesse et beaute… it was a store mostly targeted towards young girls with their hip and trendy clothing lines. But it wasn’t the clothes on display that caught her attention. Standing under the canopy of the store was a certain dark-haired boy with his casual black jacket, idly waiting and looking around the street as he stands out of the way of the entrance. A wide smile quickly forms upon Ann’s lips at the sight of him, and she can feel herself getting more excited by the second.
“Found you!” she exclaimed. There was more of a spring to her step as she breaks out into a run, ignoring the splashes of water that hit her lower legs as she runs over the shallow puddles from the rainfall. Ann swerves around the people that were walking the opposite direction she was going and pants under her breath as she runs towards that tricky boyfriend of hers. Once she was quickly closing the distance between them, she calls out to him to grab his attention.
“Akira!”
Akira perks up at the sound of his name and he turns his head to see a panting Ann joining him under the store canopy. Ann was hunched over as she tries to catch her breath, finally letting her jacket slump back to her shoulders like it should. When she straightens herself up again, she’s met with the sight of Akira smiling at her with his hands behind his back.
“Told you I’d find you.” she panted, her tone proud.
“I had no doubt.” Akira replied, chuckling under his breath.
Ann smiles at his response, before she notices how his hands were carefully tucked behind his back. When she tries to take a peek behind him, Akira carefully swerves his body around so that Ann couldn’t see what he had in his hands. There was no doubt in Ann’s mind that he was hiding his White Day present for her, so why was he hiding it now? Just as quickly as that thought came to her, an answer to that immediately crosses Ann’s mind.
“So what’s the surprise you mentioned?” she asked.
Akira kept his smile as his body relaxed, and he turns his head towards the street. “Ann, this place… does it look familiar to you?” he asked.
“Huh…? Well, yeah. I come here sometimes when I go shopping.” Ann answered at first, but Akira shook his head.
“Not what I mean.” he said. “Think back, Ann.”
Ann’s brows furrowed. “How far back?” she asked.
“Back to the start.” Akira answered. “Back to last year.”
Ann’s brows crease further in her confusion, but she doesn’t say anything about it as she switches her focus from Akira to the street. Her expression eases a little the more she mulled in thought, but she was still searching for the answer. What was so special about this store that Akira wanted to meet with her here? It wasn’t like he was a frequent customer to this particular shop or anything, or that the both of them would come to this part of the district whenever they would hang out together. No… Ann had to think harder about this. For as long as she’s known him, Akira never plans things out without a reason. This place was important. It had to be.
The spring rain starts up again after a brief reprieve, and Ann notices it immediately as she looks out at the street. Sighing to herself, she leans forward a little to look up at the cloudy sky without leaving the safety of the canopy, trying to see how bad this little stint of rain was going to be this time. Was it going to last for a few minutes? Or was it going to last a while?
...Wait. She did this before.
“Rain…”
Ann can feel her mind rewinding back to a rainy morning like this, almost like she was rewinding a movie in her head. She remembers a morning where she was going to school in the middle of the sporadic spring rain. She can remember putting up her hoodie as she ran so that her hair wouldn’t get wet from the rain. She can see herself rushing towards a canopy so that she could take a break from being in the rain and dry herself off a little. And she remembers that she did the same thing that she just did a minute ago: checking to see how bad the rain was going to be. It was so… surreal that when she thought about that morning, Ann could remember everything that happened clearly. The things she did were mundane… it was just her trying to go to school.
But… there was one more important thing that Ann remembered about that day, and it made her realize something. The store itself wasn’t important, but this particular spot is.
Ann remembers feeling someone staring at her, and she turned towards that person to see just who it was that was burning a hole through her head. Ann now turns just as she did then, looking towards the person who was looking at her with such wonder in his eyes. When she sees Akira smiling at her, in his place she clearly remembered the image of the stunned-looking boy that was under the canopy with her that day.
Ann’s eyes slowly grew wide as the realization sinks in, and a single tear runs down her cheek.
“Akira…” she breathes, her voice quaking with strong emotions. “This is where we first met…”
Akira’s smile grows warm as he finally brought his hands to the front, revealing what he has been hiding. “You finally remembered.” he said softly, handing his gifts out to her.
In one of his hands was a carefully wrapped box of chocolates that was colored crimson red, held together in a bright pink ribbon with a large bow. It wasn’t hard for Ann to recognize the shade of both colors… those colors were hers. The striking crimson red of a latex cat suit, and the bright pink of her gloves… those were all Panther’s colors. In his other hand was a small bouquet of flowers. Though the bouquet was small, the flowers themselves were all large with colors of red, pink and blue. Ann definitely recognizes red roses when she sees them. And knowing Akira, he probably picked out these flowers carefully. She wouldn’t be surprised if he knew the meaning of them too.
“You’re gonna make me cry…” Ann sniffed, wiping away a few more stray tears that were running down her cheeks. Despite her sniffling, Ann had the brightest smile on her face. She felt so happy that she didn’t even know what to do with herself. Akira’s gift was so simple, and yet she felt like she was completely blown away by how much meaning he put into those simple gifts. The flowers, the colors of his box of chocolates, bringing her back here… Of all the romantic things he’s done since they got together, this definitely blew her away.
She accepts his gifts wholeheartedly, taking the bouquet and the box of chocolates into her hands. Noticing Akira’s silence, Ann giggles to herself as she looks up at him. When she notices the slight blush and the bashful smile that was on his face, she giggles a little louder. Why was he acting shy now? Not that she was complaining. Seeing this side of him was always cute to her. “You know… when we first met, you didn’t say anything then.” she reflected. “I didn’t pay any mind to it back then since I didn’t recognize you from anywhere. I had a feeling that you didn’t mean any harm, so I figured that you were just shy… or just plain weird.”
“Ouch.” Akira chuckled, but he took it in stride. Even he thought that he probably looked like a space case to her, so he completely understood.
“But now… you know me, Akira. You know the real me. And coming back here like this, it doesn’t feel like it’s almost been a year since then. It feels like… we’ve known each other forever.” Ann’s bright smile held a strong feeling of warmth as she gazes at him in fondness, and she giggles to herself once more as she leans forward. “So… why not say something now?”
Akira lets out a light sigh as he shakes his head, smiling as he looks at her with a soft gaze to his eyes. “I’ve already thought of something that I couldn’t say back then.” he replied, before taking a step closer to her. Ann instinctively lifts her head up slightly, closing her eyes as she awaited the soft touch of his lips. In response, Akira gently cups her cheek with his hand before he leans down, pressing his lips against hers in a soft kiss. The two of them held that sweet moment for a long while, the soft sounds of the rain filling their ears. And even as he breaks the kiss for a brief moment, Ann could still feel his hot breath against her lips.
Akira remained so close to her that she could still feel his lips moving against hers as he finally spoke, a loving whisper murmured against her lips before he claims them once again. Every time Akira says those three words to her, Ann always treasures them in her heart. And it rings especially true when he says it at that brief, sweet moment. In her heart she can feel that his words were all a reminder, a statement of fact, a declaration… and a promise all at once. There was never any doubt in her mind that he means what he says:
“I love you.”
Ann almost wished that she wasn’t holding this much stuff right now. She wanted to drop everything so that she could pull Akira into her arms and hold him tight, never letting him go. But she wouldn’t dare drop these precious gifts of his. Instead… she had to improvise. As best as she could without crushing everything between their bodies, Ann presses herself against him. She shifts her gifts towards one side of her arm and raises her freed hand in order to run her fingers through the back of his messy curls. With her hold on him more secure, Ann beams as their lips met in a kiss stronger than the last. And as they remained in that kiss, Ann could’ve sworn that she felt Akira’s lips curve into a smile. That in turn made her smile again too.
From two kids that were silently standing in the spring rain, to a young couple that was kissing in the middle of the rain without a care in the world almost a year later… the two of them really have come a long way from that fateful encounter in the rain.
They finally part, but still stayed close as they gingerly press their foreheads together. Ann softly giggles to herself once more, reveling in their closeness all while Akira smiles softly at her. “...I don’t know how you’re ever gonna top this, Akira.” she said. “You definitely took romantic to a whole new level here. I’d say that you kept your promise!”
“You think so?” Akira asked.
“Um, yeah! You said that you were gonna blow me away when White Day got here. You were really confident about that too!” Ann reminded, closing an eye at him. “But you were right. This… This blew me away. The flowers, bringing me back here… and come on! You even got the box of chocolates in my Metaverse colors! Who even thinks of that? That’s you all over.”
Akira chuckles under his breath as he shook his head again. “To be honest… I don’t think anything I do would ever compare to what you gave me on Valentine’s Day. That’s something that I’ll always treasure.” he said. “But for today… I wanted to do something that would really let you know how I feel. Just coming back here makes me remember how special you are to me… how you’ve always been special to me, even at the very beginning.”
“Akira…”
“Ann… I love you. I love you with everything that I am.” he declared. It was then that Akira gently cups his finger below Ann’s chin, lifting it up gently so that he could meet her shimmering blue eyes. And once their eyes met, Akira forms a warm, loving smile as he gazes at her with a strong fondness. “And come what may, I always will.”
…!!!
That… that got her weak.
“Akira…” Ann trailed off, completely rendered speechless. She can feel the heat rising in her cheeks, and she can feel a few more tears trickling down her face. It was taking everything she had to keep her knees from giving out then and there. How… how does he even do that? Saying those beautiful things to her without missing so much as a beat… looking at her with so much love in his intense gray eyes… (Especially since he’s ditched the glasses ever since he got back from juvie. Composure? She has none under that gaze of his.) She’s defenseless against him. What else can she say to all of that? There was only one simple response that Ann could say, and she says it with all the pure emotion she had for him.
“...I love you, too.”
She then lifts herself up, being more than eager to press another sweet kiss to his lips. And another one. And another. Ann greedily kept pressing quick pecks to Akira’s lips until she was satisfied, and even then she kept giggling in her glee as a light blush colors her cheeks. Eventually she reluctantly brings herself down and stops her little barrage of affection, but even so, Ann still keeps her bright smile as she closes an eye at Akira. “...Now stop making me cry.” she chided.
Akira couldn’t help but laugh at that. “No promises.” he quipped.
“Hehe… Quit that, you jerk.” Ann said, laughing lightly. She casually adjusts the hold she had on her White Day presents, which she was amazed that she was still able to carry all of that while she was pressing herself onto Akira. “I hope Boss doesn’t mind if I steal you away for the rest of the day. ‘Cause that’s totally going to happen. I’m gonna steal you away. I wanna have you all to myself, while I still can.”
“Spoken like a true thief.” Akira said, with that signature smirk sneaking its way onto his lips. “So where are you stashing me?”
“My place, of course!” Ann answered enthusiastically. “It’s better than hanging around in middle of the rain, right? And if we go to my place… we don’t have to worry about bothering customers or anything. We don’t gotta worry about other people at all! It’d just… be the two of us. Together. So… what do you say?”
“I’d say I like the way you think.” With that answer made, Akira casually wraps an arm around Ann’s shoulders before he lightly presses a kiss on her forehead. “Besides… we should probably move out of the way.”
“O-Oh, crap! Were we blocking the store!?” Ann gasps. With that current thought in her mind, she hastily pulls on Akira’s body to get him to move with her as she panics. “C-Come on! Let’s get out of here! We’ll get out of the way of the store, and we’ll be on our way before the rain starts up again… agh, shoot! That’s right! I don’t have my hoodie on… ugh, we’re gonna get soaked…”
“Ann, it’s okay.” Akira assured, rubbing at her arm to calm her down. He eases into his path and guides her to walk with him. Once they were out of the cover of the canopy, he took out the clear umbrella that he had with him and opened it up. Even if it were to start raining again, they would be good and dry… well, dryer than facing the sporadic rainfall with only their jackets on their backs at least. “I didn’t forget about it this time.” he said.
“Lucky us!” Ann cheered, breathing a sigh of relief. She then leans her body more against him as they walk towards the direction of the train station, smiling as she begins to turn the ribbon loose in order to open up his box of chocolates. Besides the surprise that Akira said that he had in order for her, this was the one thing that she was anticipating the most. Since she’s never made Valentine’s Day chocolate before Akira, she’s never really received White Day chocolate in return. Add that to the fact that this was Akira’s homemade chocolate, how could she not be excited over the idea?
“You’re having some already?” Akira asked in his surprise.
“Like I was gonna wait to open up your chocolate!” Ann exclaimed. Grinning to herself, she immediately lifts the top up and stacks it below the box. Akira’s chocolate looked simple enough, with little bite-sized pieces placed and divided neatly inside of the box. Not too fancy, but… that wasn’t the important part. Ann took out a piece of chocolate and eagerly put it in her mouth. Beside her, Akira looks over with an anticipating look to his eye, wondering what she was thinking as she chewed…
Ann immediately stops walking as she reels and squeals in her delight.
“Mmmmm…! Oh my gooood!” she cries, holding her cheeks in place as she jumps in her excitement. Akira had to stop walking so that he wouldn’t accidently pull her the wrong way, but stopping to see Ann’s beaming face was worth it. “I knew this was gonna be amazing! This is sooooo good, Akira! It’s almost unfair. Why is my boyfriend so amazing? He’s kind, smart, handsome and a good cook! I could totally eat this whole thing before we even get to the station!”
“I take it that it’s good, then?” Akira asked, laughing lightly in his relief as he watched Ann pop another piece of chocolate in her mouth.
“Sooooooo good!” Ann squeals in her approval.
“Heh… I’m really glad you like it so much.” A light blush dusts upon Akira’s cheeks as he bashfully rubs the back of his neck. “I haven’t made chocolate for someone else before, so I really wanted to pull this off. Especially since I made it with you in mind.”
“Trust me, you totally did.” she said. As if to prove her point, Ann took out another piece of chocolate from the box and held it up for Akira to take. Akira’s smile turns a little coy as he leans down and bites it from her hand, eating his handiwork with relative ease as he hums in approval.
“...Maybe I’ll get a little fancier next year.” he mused, closing an eye.
“Oh, really? Look at you, already planning ahead.” Ann said teasingly, quirking a brow at him as she giggles at his musings. “I’m not gonna be outdone, y’know! My chocolate will knock your socks off next year! So you’d better give it your best shot to live up to that!”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Akira replied, chuckling under his breath. “Looks like we’ll both have something to look forward to next year.”
“Hehe… yeah.” Smiling to herself, Ann then reluctantly closes the box of chocolates as they resume their walk towards the train station. As much as she really, really wanted to finish Akira’s chocolate in one go, she didn’t want anything to happen while the two of them were boarding the train. With how crowded the trains in Tokyo can be normally, it was an easy way for Ann to bump into someone -- or someone bumping into her -- and accidentally spill every remaining piece of chocolate on the ground. And that was something that she was not going to allow no matter what. She wasn’t going to let anything ruin this beautiful day that Akira provided for her.
“Hey… Akira? About next year…” she began.
“Yeah?” he questioned.
“I was honestly thinking about next year for some time now. I know that we’re still gonna call and text each other and see each other during vacations and stuff. But I’ve been thinking beyond that… Maybe we’ll still need to work out some kinks and talk about it more… a lot more. But I’ve decided something.”
“What is it?” Akira asked curiously.
“Next year, when we both graduate, all bets are off.” It was then that Ann looks up at Akira with a determined grin on her face. “I’m gonna come get you!”
Her sudden declaration catches Akira off guard, as shown by his surprised expression. But it eventually melts into a look of happiness as he forms a wide smile. “That’s a big promise there, Ann.” he said.
“I know,” Ann replied, blushing a little. “But I mean it.”
“I know. But let me just say one thing…” It was then that Akira wraps his arm around Ann’s shoulders again and pulls her closer to him, just so he could draw close to her. As he sees her eyes widen in her surprise and hears her gasp, Akira’s coy smile returns as he spoke again. “Who said that I’m not already planning to make my way to you?”
“...!” Ann gasps in her shock. “Really?!”
Akira nodded in response. “We’ll work it out more sometime, okay?” he promised. “That’ll be something else to look forward to next year.”
“Yeah.” Ann agreed, nodding. “But for now… let me steal you away for the rest of the day. When you go back home, it’ll be a while before I’ll be able to do this again. So… come stay with me.”
Akira’s smile widens a little more as he drew closer, pressing another brief kiss to Ann’s lips. “I’m yours. Always.” he promised, nodding at her. “Let’s get out of here.”
Ann beams brightly as she steals one last peck on Akira’s lips, already jumping excitedly in her glee. Once they pull away, she slinks her arm around his and clasps his hand, with her chocolates and flowers still in tow. Akira in turn, accepts her hand gladly with a light squeeze. The two of them then walk on towards the train station hand in hand, with Akira’s umbrella shielding them from the spring rain as they make their way to Ann’s house. Walking away from the place where it all started, both Akira and Ann start to move towards the future together.
And they knew that after everything that happened in the past year, this was only the beginning.