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Tsukasa hadn’t been alone with Emu on the Ferris wheel since the day he apologized and showed him the truth of what motivations lie behind his egotistical front. That’s why he was really confused when Emu asked him to go on it again after they were done for the day. Did she want to talk about something? Or was she just bored? Is something the matter maybe? The reason he was so offput was because she tried to tell him seriously.
But it was Emu. She looked like a duck, waddling over with hands on her hips and puffed cheeks asking Tsukasa in a low voice to come meet her on the ferris wheel. He couldn’t help but chuckle.
But here they were, going up slowly as the sun began its cycle to set some time soon.
“Hehehehehe.” She giggled with her face pressed up against the glass, swinging her legs under the seat. “We’re so high up, Tsukasa! Soon we’ll see the Phoenix Wonderland Stage!!”
He smiled as he looked down to where it would soon peak out. He looked back at Emu who was sneaking a glance at him until she cupped her face around the window more. “Emu?” He knew Emu didn’t ask him all the way up here to sight see the stage they were literally just standing at. Or maybe she did. Emu was a little odd. Not that he minded, he liked those things about her a lot.
“Tsukasa, do you ever get so happy you don’t know what to do with it?” Emu asked, a little muffled since her face was against the window, waiting for the stage to peak out.
“What do you mean?” Tsukasa asked. “When you’re happy, you laugh and smile, and then you go Wonderhoy!” He mimicked her, not in a mocking way. He was unaware of how much he had come to know about her. “Or sometimes you jump and spin around. Other times you get so worked up you tear up.” He added on.
“I know! I just meant a different kind of happiness!” She moved her face from the glass, but her eyes were still glued at the stage soon to be in sight. “When I’m with you, Rui, and Nene, I get really happy. I feel warm and fuzzy. My face gets all warm like a volcano erupting! I’m so grateful to have all of you, I’m so glad we met. Everyday is so fun, even if we stumble into trouble or get into a fight, we always make up in the end and go back to smiling and giving other people smiles. It feels like a dream come true for me, to bring joy with my friends.”
“Then… why are you telling only me?” He asked. “You said we all make you happy, but you only wanted to come up here with me.”
“That’s because I think I’m not doing something right.” She looked down. “I love being with everyone, I am so happy with everyone, but I feel like I’m being unfair with my distribution of happiness!” She looked at Tsukasa who was just as confused as she was, and she started getting the feeling she described earlier again, that unexplained happiness that was crawling from her chest to her face. “Heheheh, maybe I was just being silly…” She hid her face from view again.
Tsukasa didn’t quite understand, and Emu knew that. But the closer she got to explaining it so he could help her identify it, the more she almost pushed back. “Emu, are you embarrassed right now?”
“I THINK SO!” She exclaimed, making Tsukasa jump a little. As much as he was used to her outbursts, they still took him by surprise, especially given this odd atmosphere. “I don’t understand why I’d even get embarrassed. It’s not like I’m performing up on stage with everyone and I made a mistake. I only get this feeling and that other happiness… when I’m with you.”
Tsukasa didn’t know what to say, he just felt his face get hot as he listened to Emu maybe saying something he had thought in the back of his mind. All this time, all he could think about was her and how unlike her this all was, but Emu was being honest with him right now. Not just that, but about her feelings. And these feelings she only seem to have directed at him.
Emu stood up, “Do you think you can help me word this feeling? Because it’s only around you, so I feel like I’m being unfair to Rui and Nene for not being as happy as that around them! Like, when I’m with you like this my face goes fwoom and my chest does this nyoom thingy and I-” She was cut off as she staggered forward, as they were at the top, their passenger car made a stop that Emu didn’t brace herself for, especially since she was standing up.
“Emu!”
After planting her face softly Emu let out an “Oopsie!” She giggled, a little awkwardly which was unlike her, until she held her breath. She was in Tsukasa’s arms as he sprung up to make sure she didn’t fall. Then that feeling washed over her again. She didn’t know she could feel flustered, but why was she happy? And why was it only with Tsukasa? Is this favoritism? Her face got warm, she didn’t know why she felt so hot, it’s pretty cool outside today and the Ferris wheel wasn’t cramped. “Tsukasa?”
She finally looked up at him. His face was funny looking if she was being honest. Somehow he managed to look embarrassed and concerned at the same time, his cheeks flared pink. “I think I feel the same way you do.” Tsukasa mumbled, his voice no longer had the boast or character to it, it sounded so soft and honest Emu felt like spontaneously combusting. He gulped. “I think I love you…”
…
“YES, THAT’S THE WORD.” Emu sprung away, feeling a little bit stupid. “Yeah! Those whooshy badum badum happy feelings I’ve been having around Tsukasa are love!” Her enthusiasm on finding the words, finally, cooled down her face even though she was still very much reddened by having heard Tsukasa say something like that.
“Honestly.” He hid his face, he was embarrassed but also a little disappointed. “Emu, we have got to get you a dictionary. This is ridiculous. Making me say something as embarrassing as that…”
“Tsukasa, look!” She pointed down at the Phoenix Wonderland Stage in sight.
“It looks a lot more lively than the first time we came up here, doesn’t it?” He smiled over her shoulder.
“Yeah. It really does. Putting on shows with everyone has made it feel the way I remember it when I was younger.” She says softly. “I’m very happy.” Tsukasa takes in Emu’s tone, usually she’d say it all bouncy and happy, but to him it sounded more like her heart speaking.
They spent the remainder of the Ferris cycle like that. Staring out the window at nothing in particular after the Phoenix Wonderland Stage left view. When it was time to get off Emu hopped off, back to her usual energetic self, Tsukasa watching her from behind. He struck a whimsical pose. “How is it that you’re the one that technically confessed yet I’m the only one that said the l-word?” Letting out a dramatic sigh in his embarrassment. “You REJECT Tsukasa? You reject him like a beta? Oh! Oh! Jail for Emu! Jail for Emu for one thousand years!”
“I love you tons though!” She pouted. “Don’t you dare quote our lord and savior Miette in vain.”
His laugh was boisterous to hide that he thought he was going to pass out hearing the girl he likes say that to him. “I thought Hatsune Miku was our lord and savior?”
“That reminds me! We should tell Miku! That we’re in l-“ She skipped merrily, now holding his hand. “-ove! I bet Rui and Nene will laugh at how I told you too!”
Tsukasa, despite being human, made a noise similar to that of a balloon deflating upon getting his hand held, dragging his feet as his brain processed her delicate grip. “Emu, you’re moving too fast…”
“I’ll slow my walking!”
“No. I mean, my heart….” He modestly put his head down. “My heart can’t take the speeds at which we are moving. I have only ever held two women’s hands and it was the calloused hands of my mother and the frail hands of my sister. I have taken a critical hit.”
“Oh.” She softly let go of his hand and patted his back. “There, there. Persevere, Tsukasa! One day we will hold hands! Just not today!” He sighed dramatically, as yet soon he was to be roped into something absurd as holding hands. But he didn’t mind. Not one bit.
Yes. They had many more days to look forward to now. Not as they had before on stage or in their Vocaloid pocket dimension as Wonderlands x Showtime. But just as Tsukasa and Emu. And tomorrow they would probably practice holding hands.