Chapter Text
"Al~right! Good to see you're improving, Ringo!" Tee giggled, clapping his hands in excitement. "Your efforts still aren't quite enough to beat me, but you're definitely getting there!" He smirked slightly, with a sort of confidence in his skills that not many could have.
"Well, it's all because of you!" Ringo chirped, tipping her wrist forward. "But it's getting late on Earth. We should probably rest."
"...one more match? Please?"
"Alright, fine. Let's Tetris battle."
Their matrixes warped into the room. They primed both their minds and their bodies for the challenge. It was time to begin. Tee quickly encountered a challenge, however. He was starting to feel himself coming down from his adrenaline high, but Ringo seemed perfectly fine. This was going to be a problem.
On his downswing, Tee wasn't as focused, nor could he find the energy to hard-drop. His board quickly began to get messy, while Ringo's stayed clean as her 6-3 stack piled up, complete with a long B2B streak. In an incredulous haze, he just muttered, "How!?"
"Don't think I haven't been studying your techniques!"
He sighed, physically and mentally exhausted. With no other option, he decided (after painfully downstacking just to get through the mountain of garbage on his board) to just go for a center 4-wide. Soon, he found himself counting up the combos in his head, waiting for that perfect moment. One, two, three...
His combo stopped at 17, and he figured that was enough. He quickly shouted out his spell with all the energy he could get into his voice.
"Turnover!"
Beginning to float slightly, he collected a ball of energy in his hands, creating a T-tetrimino sigil and crashing multiple beams of concentrated magical energy into Ringo's matrix. These beams quickly manifested themselves into waiting garbage below. Speaking of Ringo, why wasn't she attacking? He stole a glance at her board... and gasped as he saw his answer.
A T-spin Triple tower, stacked high, ready to strike with three consecutive T-spin Triples. There was no way to stop it. She already had two T-pieces in a row coming up, and a third one in her Hold queue. The only two thoughts he could form were, "Wow, she's lucky," and, "I am screwed." Panicking, he scrambled to stack for a counter, trying desperately not to get owned.
"Tetris! Dang it, that's not-"
He was quickly interrupted when Ringo initiated the final T-spin of the tower. A bunch of electricity began to collect in her fingers and palms, darkening her face with its dramatic light. She began to float in the air, and he heard crackling noises that signified utter doom for him.
"Like I said, I've been studying your techniques! Permutation!"
Flowers made of pure light began to bloom around her (how that even worked was far beyond Tee's comprehension, which was compromised right now anyway) as she launched a powerful electric attack toward Tee's board, completely countering his combo garbage and then some. He started to stack, quickly but fruitlessly. Every non-line-clearing Tetrimino piled up the garbage in his matrix, and he shrieked as the heavy overflow collapsed upon him.
He surfaced from the pile of garbage Minos absolutely exhausted, gasping for air and collapsing onto his chest. "Heh, sorry about that," Ringo giggled, swiping away parts of the pile so Tee could properly escape from it. "Hopefully this will make up for it?" As he tumbled downwards, ending up with his limbs sprawled around him on the floor, Ringo shuffled through her messenger bag, eventually pulling out a white, heart-shaped box of chocolates. It was delicately wrapped by a rose-pink ribbon, accented with golden trim and detailed lace.
He'd seen this box before, in the window of a shop in Suzuran. But wait- wasn't this... "Hey, hey, hold up," he muttered, barely understandable in his exhaustion. "Doesn't this cost some 15,000 Japanese yen? I couldn't accept thi-"
Ringo shushed him with a finger to his lips, slipping her phone out of her blazer pocket to reveal the date to him. February 14. Valentine's Day. He nearly slapped himself, wondering how he forgot about this date. He could barely get out a word, his face flushed from embarrassment. "I... Thank you..."
"But of course. Now let's get you to bed, sleepyhead~"
Gently and carefully, she picked up the exhausted captain and carried him bridal-style down the hallways of the Tetra. It was... Quite relaxing, actually. He felt like he could fall asleep right in her arms... But of course, there were things that had to be done before bedtime.
As Ringo set him down, he decided to enjoy one of the chocolates she had given him. He carefully untied the ribbon on the box and opened it. He chose a piece at random- one that was shaped like a rabbit, with carefully-iced details on it. It looked so cute- he almost felt bad eating it. Almost. It was sweet and creamy, with a rich caramel center. He felt as though his exhausted, embarrassed thanks was some 0.001% of the thanks he really ought to have given. Oh well, there was that White Day thing, so he could make it up to her then.
Just as he was thinking that, the door to his room slammed shut, just barely avoiding Ringo as she tried to exit. He heard the soft sound of a bell ringing. "Resting hours are now in session," a mechanical voice sounded from the loudspeaker. "All crewmembers should be in their bunk rooms at this point in time." Ringo looked back at him with a confused look that just screamed "explain??"
He sighed, a little exasperated. "A measure that Ai set in to make sure I had a healthy sleep schedule, which I decided to extend to the whole crew," he explained. "If I'm caught outside my room at this time, I'll be restrained and brought back there. It's slightly overboard, but it works, I suppose. Sorry for trapping you in here." He clutched his forearm, before getting up to change clothes.
"Hey, it's okay. I don't mind spending some extra time with you," she said as Tee set down his choker, earrings and goggles on the night desk. She decided to move the box of chocolates there too- less work for her darling star. She undid her hair clip, letting the loose hair cascade down the side of her face. Although she'd planned to go home, she didn't say another word about it, only texting her mother about the sudden change of plans.
Change of plans mom
I'll be staying at my bf's for tonight
Okay just be back by lunch tomorrow
Will do
She looked up from her phone, seeing that Tee had returned. He was wearing galaxy-patterned pajamas with text printed on the shirt. She could barely read it because he was crossing his arms on his chest, presumably to hide it, but it seemed to say 'T-minus 10 minutes to bedtime'. That was cute.
"I'm sorry again... You can sleep in my bed. I'll sleep on the floor." He politely bowed as he said those words.
"Hey, no, don't be like that. We can sleep together. Big spoon or little?"
Tee went pink again, though he was just as confused as flustered this time around. "What do you mean by that?" he asked, and it was Ringo's turn to nearly slap herself. Of course he wouldn't know what she meant by that. Well, it would be easier to show him rather than explain verbally.
She patted the spot beside her, indicating he should sit down. He was hesitant, but he eventually did so. It took a bit more effort to get him to lie down. Gently so as not to startle him, she tucked her right arm under his body and embraced him, her arms wrapped around his chest and belly. He began to sweat a bit from the warmth on his face. "Ringo, are you sure-"
"Come on, don't worry about it. We're official now, and everyone knows that, so it shouldn't be an issue."
Sighing and unable to argue, he rested his hands on her own and closed his eyes. She giggled softly and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Happy Valentine's Day, sugarcube. I love you~"
"...mmmnn... love you too, Ringo..." And with that, he felt himself drifting off to sleep, feeling sweet dreams coming as he relaxed himself.