Chapter Text
Yagami Taichi’s first date is a good effort, but his plan has one minor flaw.
Asking out Kikuchi from Class B is simple enough. Sure, it had taken him about a week to work up the nerve to say anything, but aside from that everything goes smoothly. He asks, she says yes, all is well.
He’s pretty proud of the location he comes up with. Between his sister and Sora, he’s been hearing about the new baby penguin at the aquarium for weeks. Girls are total suckers for cute animal stuff, right? The timing seems perfect; a trip to see a baby penguin is bound to earn him major points with Kikuchi.
The afternoon of the date arrives, and early signs are promising. Kikuchi is far from the bubbliest girl in their year, but she lights up as they make their way through the aquatic exhibits. “Did you know that sea otters hold hands to keep from drifting apart when they sleep? Isn’t that adorable?” she squeals. No, Taichi did not know that. Yes, it does sound adorable. The ball of nerves that’s been in his stomach for the last several days untangles itself a little as he listens to her gleefully rattle off more marine life trivia.
Finally they reach the penguin habitat. Taichi rushes to the railing, trying to spot the baby so he can point it out to Kikuchi. There are a few penguins swimming in the water, and a dozen more crowding around the zookeeper who is clearly preparing to give them lunch. They all look the same size. “Isn’t there supposed to be a baby?” Taichi urgently asks the person next to him.
“Baby? Oh no, it hasn’t made its public debut yet. It only hatched a couple weeks ago, right? That’s far too young to be set loose in the exhibit.”
Taichi instantly deflates. Kikuchi looks a little disappointed, but he barely registers her expression. How could the baby penguin not be public?! Why did Hikari and girls at school make such a big fuss when no one could even see it yet? So much for his plan of impressing a girl with cute baby animals.
The rest of the date doesn’t matter, Taichi spends it in a funk of outrage and humiliation. After he walks Kikuchi home, he calls Sora to complain. “It’s not fair, I was gonna be so cool for taking her to see the thing everyone’s talking about, and it wasn’t even there,” he whines.
“I could have told you that, but you never asked! How was I supposed to know that was your whole reason for picking the aquarium?” Sora groans. “Stupid Taichi…”
***
Takenouchi Sora’s first date is a little awkward, but not for the reasons you’d think.
It’s her first year with the tennis club, and she hasn’t spent a lot of time with her new teammates yet. She’s a little surprised that Mori from the boys’ team knows who she is, much less wants to ask her out, but somehow he is standing in front of her doing just that.
“So I, uh, heard that you used to be in soccer club, before you joined tennis,” he says, cheeks beginning to flush. “My cousin actually plays for Keio, and I’ve been meaning to go to one of his games. Would you like to go… you know… together?”
Sora lights up. “Really? Keio University? Your cousin is so cool! And I’ve never been to anything more than a middle-school-level game in person. I’d love to go!”
“G-great,” Mori stammers. “So it’s a date.”
“Oh! Date…” The word sends her into a momentary daze as the situation sinks in. A boy actually thinks of her that way?
She snaps back to attention seeing Mori become increasingly flustered. “Yes! Of course! I’m looking forward to it,” she assures him with a smile.
Taichi whines when she tells him in homeroom the next day. “It’s so unfair, you don’t even play anymore and you get to go to a Keio match! Hey, do you think he could get me in, too?”
Sora gently smacks his arm. “Stupid Taichi, I just told you it’s a date, so no, I am not asking Mori-kun if you can tag along on our date. Besides,” she huffs, “just because I stopped playing soccer doesn’t mean I don’t still like to watch.”
That second part, in fact, is so true that it backfires.
The morning of the date she is appropriately nervous. She’s spent a lot of time with boy friends, but this is new territory for her. She fusses over the outfit she discussed with Mimi the night before (morning in New York) and emails one last photo for final approval.
Mori makes surprisingly easy conversation on their way to the university stadium, considering how shy he seemed when asking her out. He’s pleasant enough company, but once the game kicks off, Sora’s attention is elsewhere. The two teams are fairly evenly matched, which makes for both an intense and frustrating display. Sora’s eyes remain fixed on the field, accompanied by a series of groans, yelps and exclamations.
“What is the ref doing?!”
“C’mon, c’mon—NOOO, he was open on the left!”
It comes down to a well-timed goal in the final minutes of the game, and Keio wins the match 3-2. Sora cheers, and it’s only as Mori jumps to his feet next to her that she realizes she has been ignoring him the entire game.
“I wasn’t expecting such an intense game! I think my cousin played pretty well, though,” Mori says. He meets her eyes and raises an eyebrow. “So, you weren’t kidding when you said you liked soccer, huh?”
Sora wouldn’t mind if the ground opened up and swallowed her whole right about now.
“… so I bought him a soda as an apology before we left the stadium and insisted on paying for the ice cream we got afterwards as well. He didn’t seem too offended, but it’s hard to say since I feel like I didn’t get to know him that well,” she says with a sigh into the phone.
Taichi laughs on the other line. “Sora, only you would manage to feel so bad about something on a date that the guy gets out of paying. I’ll have to remember that… But back up a bit, walk me through that last play again…”
***
Taichi’s first date with Yasuda Yuriko is nothing short of a disaster.
The night starts out typically enough. He meets her at the train station and leads the way to this great little Thai place he discovered. (Actually, the restaurant comes at Koushiro’s recommendation, but it’s the thought that counts – Yuriko is thrilled that he remembers her love of Southeast Asian cuisine.) They split a satay appetizer and a large helping of pad thai. Afterward, as Taichi is sipping his coconut milk, he notes that she looks a bit pale and asks if everything is okay. She makes a dismissive gesture, insisting that she’s fine and they should get going, they don’t want to miss the movie, right?
But something feels off the entire walk to the theater, and he asks again if she is okay. He spots a bench a few paces ahead and gestures toward it; maybe she should sit down for a few minutes, he suggests. She brushes him off once again, smile firmly in place, declaring that the worried expression on his face is completely unnecessary.
Two blocks later she hits the pavement, limbs flailing uncontrollably. Taichi’s eyes widen in horror; he’s never witnessed anyone having a seizure before. As soon as he registers that that is what this is, he fumbles around for his wallet and sticks it in her mouth.
By the time the ambulance arrives, her body is limp, and his mind is numb. The paramedic assures him that he did the right thing and that Yuriko has just passed out. He rides in the ambulance but barely registers anything more that happens until her parents show up at the hospital. Their accusatory glares snap him out of his stupor, and a familiar sense of guilt washes over him as he stands in the hospital waiting room. He is eight years old all over again, cheek tingling from the sting of his mother’s slap.
He is not allowed to see Yuriko when she wakes up, though the nurse assures him that she will be just fine. He cannot go home and face Hikari, not now, not like this. Without really thinking about what he’s doing, he finds himself standing on the Takenouchis’ doorstep. After apologizing to Ms. Takenouchi for the late hour, he is ushered inside by Sora. She takes in his sorry state and asks what went wrong. He falls apart right then and there, and just about the only word she can make out is “hospital,” but that tells her all she needs to know. After closing the door to her room she immediately sits down beside him, takes him in her arms, and lets him cry.