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“What kind of food or drink would you consider your lover to be?” Akira opened his closed eyelids as the blond beauty next to him asked a random question.
The gentle summer breeze brushed against his wavy black hair as he turned to glance at Ann who was looking at her phone. She was in her familiar summer Shujin uniform, well, for Ann, it was something normal. Normally she should have had the buttons on the top of her shirt buttoned up and her black socks contrasted greatly with the usual white socks that most girls at Shujin wore. While a bit darker, her brown shoes still stood out in the hallways of Shujin where most of the footwear was black. Finally, her blue sweater, while more a fashion touch, was wrapped around her slim waist. Sometimes Akira envied the sweater for no reason other than the fact it could wrap itself around his girlfriend's soft waist. A silly reason to have for an inanimate object, but Akira didn't give a damm.
Those blues eyes Akira usually lost himself in finally tore away from her phone to look at him. Those golden pigtails swishing to the side as her gaze met his.
“Well?” Ann tilted her head slightly as she waited for his answer.
Her desire for a response snapped Akira out of his slight daze as he scratched the back of his head.
“Umm? What was the question again?” Akira chuckled lightly as Ann puckered her lips at his, now, oblivious self.
“You’re sitting right next to me and you’re telling me you didn’t hear that?” Ann asked as she looked at Akira who was smiling warmly at her. Despite her annoyed tone, she still turned to mush under such an affectionate gaze. She could never really stay mad at him and she was beginning to think he took advantage of that fact.
“Sorry, I just kinda zone out. The weather today is real nice.” Akira closed his eyes to bask in the warm sun that cast its light on him and Ann. As he opened his eyes after a couple of seconds, it seemed nature wanted to give him a bit of a reward for the compliment and gave him a sight which was one of the reasons Akira loved coming to the park with Ann.
Another gentle breeze came which lightly made Ann’s hair flow in the breeze. Ann closed her eyes as her hair brushed in her face, her hand was brought up to shield her eyes and combed the stray hair away. The sight seemed to exemplify the bewitching appearance Ann always had, the same appearance that stunned him on that first day.
“Plus,” Ann attention was brought back to Akira as he spoke. “I’m here sitting with my beautiful girlfriend. With the appearance of a golden-haired goddess, I sometimes wonder if I’m dreaming or not?” Akira teasingly said as he enjoyed Ann’s cheeks turn to a slightly rose color.
“Just….answer my question already…” Ann said as she looked away from Akira, lips puckered up as she sometimes felt helpless whenever Akira exaggerated her looks. She would have been satisfied if he just called her beautiful. He just had to add that goddess part. She didn’t deny it made her feel good though.
Akira chuckled as Ann tried to change the subject. “Can you repeat the question?”
Ann glanced at her phone again, the flushed cheeks started to tone down as her focus was put elsewhere. “What kind of food or drink would you consider your lover to be?”
Akira brought his hand to his chin, looking down as he pondered the question. Ann noticed the habit and always found herself patiently waiting for that usual flash of enlightenment he gave whenever he got the answer. Ann took her time gazing at his thoughtful expression, she also contemplated the question.
“Let’s see…He’s mature…most of the time anyway, he’s a bit of a brainiac with those scores he got on his exams, he can be sweet, but also be bitter about somethings,” Ann glanced at the black, curly, unkempt hair that was a basic trademark of his. “Despite the hairdo, he’s usually neatly dressed, the only one out of all of us in Shujin that actually follows the dress code. Even Makoto doesn’t follow it to the exact detail.” Ann gave her own outfit a glance. “Would he like a girl who’s dressed neatly as well?”
As Ann started derailing from her original point, Akira’s, once thought filled eyes, became clear with an answer.
“Crepes!” Akira suddenly said, snapping Ann out of her thoughts on how she should try dressing in the dress code once to see what Akira thought. Though, once her thoughts came to clarity, she finally processed what Akira just said.
“Crepes?” Ann didn’t expect her one of her favorite snacks to be mentioned.
“Well, I always see you eating them, so it was the first thing that came to mind,” Akira explained.
Ann’s eyes narrowed at the reasoning. “So what? You are what’che eat? Is that what you’re saying!”
Akira hurriedly shook his hands as he noticed the angry tone in Ann’s voice. “No, No, No!! I’m not saying that!”
“Then what are you saying?” Ann eyed Akira, listening carefully to his response. Akira started sweating under that look she had in her eyes. One wrong move and he might not get anymore loving today.
“Obviously, what I mean by crepes is that they’re sweet.” Ann’s serious eyes loosened at the answer. “I mean in a way I guess you can say that, only a girl as sweet as you can handle that much sweetness in her.” Akira smiled, knowing he saved himself.
“S-Shut up! I know you just made that up to save yourself.” Ann looked away from Akira, her cheeks turning slightly rose from the comparison. Ann just knew he didn’t plan that out and yet it always worked on her. Just a single praise from him would turn her to gush on the inside and sometimes he didn’t even have try really hard to accomplish that. Why did this happen?
‘Simple, yet effective’ was the only phrase Ann could describe it as.
“No, I didn’t. I really mean it, Ann.” Akira slid a bit closer to Ann on the bench, she still didn’t look in his general direction. Keeping her eyes closed, Ann crossed her arms and continued to look away. “I’m really glad I met you, Ann,” Akira said after, making Ann open her eyes.
“Don’t say that!!!! That’s not fair!!!” Ann started pulling her hair internally. Ann started thinking. She knew with the way things were going, defeat would be the likely outcome. It was always a battle of sorts between her and Akira. Defeat would end with the non-stop teasing from her attractive boyfriend while she just took the onslaught with a tomato-colored face. Ann knew she needed to reverse things. Take the fight to him rather than defending herself.
Ann glanced at Akira and started her plan of ‘attack’. “You know, I’m glad I met you too.” Ann’s already slight rose-tinted cheeks grew more so. This wouldn’t be easy for the girl who was easily flushed with a few words of compliments from Akira. “You know what you remind me of?” Ann pressed her finger against his chest, the small action making Akira glance at Ann’s hand for a second before looking at her slightly smug smile. The sight made Akira wonder what Ann was planning.
“Is this about the question from before or something else?” Akira answered back with his own smug smile. The response made Ann falter for a fraction of a second, but she pressed on.
“Obviously from before.” Ann pulled her finger away. She saw Akira didn’t take his off her for a second. “You wanna hear?”
Akira chuckled at Ann’s attempt to butter him up. “I would love to hear how you think of me as food.” Maybe he would find out if he was something Ann enjoyed having. The thought of Ann enjoying a ‘dessert’ like himself was a pleasant thought to have.
“Coffee!” The result though disappointed him somewhat. Akira ruefully smiled at Ann’s answer.
“Isn’t that bit too predictable?” Akira might work at a coffee shop with Sojiro, but that didn’t mean he loved the stuff like Ann did with crepes. Also, Akira felt Ann was sticking some kind of label on him.
“I think it fits you perfectly. Wanna know why?” Ann asked with a hopeful smile. As always, that smile brought Akira to his knees. He decided he might as well listen to Ann’s reasoning.
“Enlighten me.”
“Well, there’s a ton of things you have in common with coffee. You know? Besides the fact you make the stuff.” Ann noted Akira’s hand reach for her own. Not fighting the attempt to hold her hand, she returned his grasp with her own. “For one thing, Everyone kind of hates coffee at first.” Ann started with an odd point.
“You…hated me at first.” Akira weakly said. Ann turned to see a half-hearted smile and the other half in pain.
Ann quickly shook her head. “Ah! I didn’t mean it like that, Akira!” Ann gave him a quick peck on the cheek to get him out of that sudden slump. The kiss worked like a charm because that smile she loved seeing came back. “I meant when you first came to Shujin, it wasn’t exactly a warm welcome to the school. Everyone was already talking behind your back about your record.” Ann scratched her cheek, a bit embarrassed from what she was going to say next. “I mean, even though me and Shiho weren’t talking about you like that….we did talk about you a little bit.”
Akira didn’t feel hurt about that fact. He and Ann were strangers at the time, so some caution was expected.
“Point is, not everyone’s going to appreciate the taste of coffee at first, but once they start trying it, maybe get to know how deep and wonderful ‘coffee’ can be….” Ann took a glance at Akira’s curious expression as he listened to her. “they eventually start to love it…ya know?” Ann giggled lightly.
Akira could see what Ann was really saying though.
“So…..You really love it now?” Akira asked in a teasing tone.
Ann smirked at the response, not willing to fall for the bait. “I mean, there’s some days where my ‘coffee’s’ a bit bitter.” Akira tilted his head at her reply. “I like it when my coffee’s sweet you know? Sometimes I think the guy behind the coffee just doesn’t really pay attention to how I like it.” Ann tried to make it about coffee rather than 'coffee', earning a grin from Akira.
“Oh? He doesn’t now?” Akira said, obviously knowing what Ann was insinuating.
“Yeah.” Ann felt Akira’s hand squeezing hers, making her giggle on the inside. She knew she was getting to him. “He should be just like the coffee he makes…..the kind of coffee I enjoy obviously.”
“Alright then, what kind of coffee do you like then?” Akira probed.
“You should know that.” Ann didn’t give him the answer right away. Akira suddenly started pushing himself onto Ann. Ann put her hands up to his chest it stop him from continuing. “Alright! Alright! I’ll tell you.” Akira backed off with a content grin. “I shouldn’t have to be telling you this though.”
“Well, Sojiro always told me to memorize the recipe,” Akira gave a sly grin to Ann. “Wouldn’t want the customers to be disappointed if I try and wing it.” Ann rolled her eyes at Akira’s ‘reasonable’ explanation. They both knew what she’s really talking about.
“Alright. I’ll be simple here. The ‘coffee’,” Ann glanced at Akira to make sure he knew she was talking about him. “must be sweet.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Akira let out a chuckle. “No more details?”
Ann gave him a side-eyed glance before closing her eyes. “ Well, any coffee can be sweet if you put enough sugar into it, but….” Ann opened her eyes to shoot Akira with an affectionate gaze. “Only the person behind the coffee can make it feel special for me.” Ann saw a hint of red to Akira’s cheeks starting to surface. The view made Ann smile in delight. It was easy for her to blush, but difficult to get Akira to do the same. So, this was her victory today.
“I seem to remember something you said in Mementos,” Akira said out of nowhere. “You were talking with Ryuji.”
“What was I talking about?” Ann got a bit miffed Akira tried to change the subject, but soon her thoughts were interrupted by Akira’s next action.
In the next second, Ann felt a pair of lips meet her own. They looked into each other’s eyes for a second before slightly closing them, fully immersing themselves in the feeling. After a couple of seconds, Akira pulled away slightly from Ann’s lips. Akira opened his eyes to see Ann’s eyes had a hint of dissatisfaction in them. Seems like she wasn’t finished enjoying that kiss. Akira was still close to Ann’s face though, the possibility of another kiss seemed certain to Ann.
“So I said you’re a crepe, which are sweets, and you said I’m coffee and you said back then that coffee goes well with sweets…" Akira paused for a second to let the words sink in."back then we weren’t dating, but were you talking about me?”
Ann’s eyes stared at him for a couple of seconds before a sly smile showed up on her face. “Did I say something like that?” Ann said in an ambiguous tone. Akira couldn’t tell if she was keeping quiet or really was serious. Why was she good at acting in moments like this?
“I kinda want to try it out some more though.” She wrapped her arms around Akira’s neck and pulled him close.
Ann didn’t give Akira the chance to give any witty response as she sealed his lips with her own.
The two enjoyed the rest of their date and decided to end it off with some coffee and sweets at Leblanc. The two joked about their evening with Sojiro, who didn’t get all the inside jokes they had relating to the evening. All Sojiro could get is that they were talking about coffee and crepes for whatever reason and how the two go really well with each other. Sojiro wondered if he should add crepes to the menu.