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“You better not be peeking.”
“I’m not, Neko.”
“Not that Neko would blame you, she is smoking hot after all~”
“Are you done yet?”
“Almost! Geez, impatient much, Xenon~?”
An exasperated sigh came from the other side of the hands covering the blonde man’s face, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for Neko to put on yet another slight variation of her typical clothing, probably questioning to himself how he let himself get roped into this. She may be 21, but Neko’s typical fanfair left him feeling like he was babysitting a teenager and getting roped into being the unwitting ‘best friend’ supporting character in their childish rom-com.
“Aaaaaaand~ done!” Neko turned around with flourish, striking a pose for her friend to judge.
. . .
Xenon’s blank reaction was much less enthusiastic than she had hoped. “ Isn’t that the same outfit you showed me two minutes ago--” ”NO IT’S NOT THE SAME OUTFIT” Neko defensively butted in before the rocker had the chance to finish his sentence. “The logo is in a different spot! This one has Neko’s branding over the heart and the back and NOT the shoulder this time! Geez Xenon, how are you ever gonna get Sis Cherry to love you again if you’re this thick skulled?”
The blonde’s face flushed slightly, bitterly looking to the side “I already told you, Neko, it’s not like that.”
“I know, I know” Neko fuffed quietly, squatting down to try and see his downturned face “Sorry~ Neko is just anxious and all, since…” her own face flushed gently, “s-since tonight is my date with Aroma-chan and K-Kaori…” She groaned gently into her knees “Neko still isn’t entirely sure how that happened.”
“Pfttt…” Xenon laughed gently at the turned tables, taking some comfort in the streamer’s embarrassment. “You’ll be fine, Neko. Is this really the first date you’ve been on?”
“No! Neko isn’t that inexperienced!” a defensive pout. “Neko went on lots of dates with Linda! N-not that those were really dates. O-or that we were ever officially dating. Or that I even know she officially liked me…” She trailed off as she realized more and more holes in her defense.
“Uh-huh.” Xenon leaned back from where he sat on Neko’s bed, letting himself smile at her silliness. It felt like it was the first time he had done that in a while. “Well.” He cast a glance at his watch “Your date is at 8, right? That means you have 10 hours to come up with a game plan.” Neko’s wide, pleading eyes was the only prompt he needed. He rolled his eyes, wondering again if he was really going to let himself get swept up into this more than he already was. “Don't worry. I’ll help.”
Though Neko’s clothing choices had kept them to the tail end of the lunch period, the mess hall still somehow managed to be bustling with people, all lined up to eat the same mysterious military slop they called food they had every day.
“Are you gonna eat that?” Neko’s muffled question managed to make it most of the way past the food in her mouth and just enough into Xenon’s mind to pull him from his thoughts. The same mysterious military slop some people seemed to think was delicious. Xenon was not one of those people. He passed Neko his tray.
“Where are you going tonight, anyway? A lot of the clothes you picked out were more activewear. Or very flashy… Not exactly something you’d wear to a restaurant or the movies…” he poked at the mashed potatoes he regrettably had decided to keep with the edge of his fork.
“Nwantite!” Neko said, through another mouthful of food, quickly swallowing. “Oop, sorry. Nanite! That new big one in sector 8! Neko has been hearing good things about it on the net for weeks! They have food and a bar there too~ Plus Neko can spy on their sound equipment~~”
That classic Neko giddiness never failed to make Xenon smile, though he would never say it. “Considering it’s supposed to be a date, shouldn't you be more focused on your date, rather than how good their sound system is~?”
“ Of course Neko will be all hands on PAFF-chan, the sound system is to distract me. And keep those hands of Neko’s above the waist.” Somehow, she managed to contort her face into the perfect cat imitation, wiggling her eyebrows vigorously for a moment. Xenon suppressed a laugh. He refused to let himself be lured into the pair’s childish innocence.
“Seriously though…” Neko’s face shifted to more nervousness, dropping the persona for a moment to let her anxiety peak through. “I… don’t know what I’m going to do with them once we get there.” she fiddled gently with her hands as she spoke “When PAFF was staying in Neko’s room… I got to know both of them really well. I was… So happy to have Aroma-chan back…” a faint smile danced across her face as she spoke. “Somewhere along the way, I guess Neko fell in love with Kaori too. And Hayato was so kind and accepting when I confessed to him how I felt about Kaori…” the soft smile only widened as she spoke “Baby Neko would never believe where we had ended up now.”
Oh yeah, Xenon was totally going to get wrapped into supporting their love story.
7:55pm. Almost 12 hours after Neko had practically forced Xenon out of his bed and into her room, then subjecting him to almost 5 hours of going back and forth on outfits, and then 7 more hours of driving him to within an inch of insanity with small, unimportant questions regarding the club’s temperature, the perfect drinks, what to do if someone else starts hitting on her, all the way to how long Neko should wait before offering the Aroma/Kaori pairing her jacket if it looks like it might rain even the slightest bit on the way home. Five more minutes and he was free of the streamer’s anxious chittering.
“...And, I know it's not supposed to snow or anything, but I’m worried if it suddenly drops below freezing, and I try kissing her cheek, the air temperature won't mean my lips suddenly get stuck on her cheek, right, Xenon-kun?” she fiddled with the clip on earrings she had attached over an hour ago another time as she looked in the mirror.
“ No, Neko. ” Xenon gave another exasperated sigh, looking at his phone again. No time had passed.
He pushed himself up from where he lay on her bed, trying to find something to say to her and push himself through the last five minutes. “Okay, let’s just-- lets go over this one more time.”
Neko was obviously wracked with nerves, but she turned to face him, taking a breath to steady herself. “PAFF gets here at 8,” Xenon nodded in encouragement as she spoke, “and we walk to Nanite together. I drag her into the crowd, we have fun, and I offer to get us drinks. T-then we drink together, and I tell them how much I care about them, a-and then we maybe kiss…” her face got red as she spoke, letting her thoughts drift a bit too far. Xenon prompted her to keep going, and not get off track. “A-and if it goes well we.... come back here… o-or just finish dancing… and if it rains or gets cold I offer them my jacket and-”
There was a knock at the door that interrupted Neko’s worried rambling. 8pm. Exactly on time.
“C-Coming!” Neko squeaked out. Nervously, she came to the door, giving Xenon one more anxious look for encouragement. He gave her a small thumbs up, and honestly, that was all she felt like she needed. This was it. The restart to the relationship they had promised just a few days ago.
Taking one last deep breath, Neko opened the door, happily greeting her date.
It was time to start again.