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An’s fingers easily clasp on top of his, which are planted firmly on a wooden table inside of WEEKEND GARAGE. It’s late, the moon is at its brightest and Touya enjoys that he can still hear musicians singing and playing outside despite the late hour.
An hums a quick tune and gently moves his laptop towards her so she can see the song he’s working on. “Looks good.” She says.
Toya lightly chuckles, “But you haven’t even heard it yet.”
“Well, if you’re making it then I just know it will be.”
“You’re too gracious with your compliments.” A part of him flourishes inside, from her words. She has an aptitude for music production, hearing that from her makes him feel a sense of pride. “But, thank you.”
“Well, I mean it. I’m not being gracious if it’s the truth, at least I don’t think so.”
He’s still got much more to improve upon, but he takes An’s praise and treasures it inside his heart until it swells.
“The cafe closed hours ago, though,” She quickly adds. “Aren’t you tired?”
“Come to think of it…I believe I got so invested in my work that I didn’t notice.”
“You didn’t even ask for coffee that whole time. You know you don’t have to pay, right?” She grins devilishly and squeezes his hand, “Well, at least now I know you’re not dating me just for the boyfriend discount.” She’s teasing him. If this was a year or two ago, he would have thought that she was accusing him of using her…he’s glad it’s not like that anymore. He’s glad that An can look at his face and not have to question his emotions anymore—even though they’ve had a few misunderstandings he’s not fearful of anything falling apart.
He closes his laptop with a yawn. “My father is probably wondering where I am.”
“Oh, you didn’t tell him you were staying late?”
“I wasn’t planning on being here so long, I’ll admit. It was nice having your company so I stopped caring.”
She smiled—the one where her eyes would close and he could count the teeth in her wide grin. “Let me walk you home then.”
“How chivalrous.”
“I learnt from the best.” She does a curtsy with the bottom of her jacket. She holds her hand out to him and he takes it eagerly, standing up from his seat
He grabs his closed laptop and gingerly puts it in his bag before strapping it over his shoulder.
The two of them exit the Cafe, and he's taken aback by how cold it's gotten. The few street lamps and brightly colored neon lights are all that light up Vivid Street.
“It's a longer walk, are you sure you want to come?” He asks her.
“I'm the one who suggested it.”
“That's fair.”
The hand holding came naturally to them. He presumed it was because they already did it a lot even before they started dating one another, and it stayed that way even a month into the relationship.
Sometimes Touya wonders if An wants him to… be more romantic ? He doesn't know if she's satisfied with only hand holding and hugs. It's not like he doesn't want to do anything more—he does, very badly—but he fears that he would be moving too fast.
He glances over at his side and An is already looking at him, her eyes bright like it wasn't midnight but instead the middle of the afternoon.
Well, there's no time like the present , Touya thinks, so he says, “Shiraishi.”
“Hm?”
“What do you think about kissing?”
“Hah!?” It's like it's reflexive when her hands shoot up to cover her burning face.
He furrows his eyebrows, feeling guilty for working her up.
An composes herself, brushing the non existent dust off her clothes. “Uh, I think it's nice. Never done it.”
“Neither have I.”
“...Is this an invitation?” She raises a brow slyly.
“If you want it to be, then yes.”
An takes a moment to ponder this, her eyes still focused on him and only him even though there were a million other things that could grab her attention. There’s still red tinting her cheeks but she doesn’t try to hide it anymore. “But, do you want to kiss me?”
The prospect of doing so suddenly seems more daunting than when he had just asked an innocent question.
He gulps, so An supplies, “Whenever you’re ready, Touya. We can take this whole thing slow, I don’t mind!”
“No, I want to.” He assures her, sounding a bit too frantic judging by how An’s easygoing grin falls into an apprehensive frown. “It’s just…” He’s got to make it worth something. An’s worked so hard to reach an understanding of him…he needs to make their first kiss special . It’s what An deserves.
He trails off. An doesn’t pry for more information, suddenly wrapping her arm around his and leaning her body against him, admiring the sights of the street as they slowly exit and get closer and closer to Touya’s home.
There’s too much on his mind, and his mouth works against his brain so her blurts, “Does it upset you that I still call you ‘Shiraishi’?”
“Woah, where’s all this coming from?” She snaps out of her daze and punches him lightly on the arm—he can’t even feel it. “It's okay, I said we were taking this slow, right? You can start doing that whenever you feel comfortable, I don’t care.”
“But you would like to be called An .”
“I would—hey, you just said it!” She excitedly detached herself from him, beaming. Her smile is the sun. “You said it! Say it again, say it again!”
“An,” He repeats. “An.”
“Touya said my name!” She calls out into the night. She probably has woken up several people, but doesn’t seem to mind it.
“An.” He says again, and grins at how excited she gets once again. The two of them most likely sound like some sort of cult—him chanting her name while she cheers like a little kid on Christmas.
“Now that you’ve said it, you can’t go back, okay?”
“Alright, An.”
She smiles one last time—and the distance between the two of them closes. This is his chance!
However, she goes to wrap her arms around him and his lips touch her’s and—oh wait. He wasn’t supposed to do that.
“Hm!?” An squeaks. She pulls away, reddest he’s ever seen her.
The tips of his ears heat up. “I didn’t mean to—”
“I thought you were—” An stares at him blankly before erupting into a fit of laughter. “What the hell. We just kissed.”
“I didn’t know you were planning to hug me.” He says miserably. He facepalms and groans into his palm.
An’s still laughing, crumpling down in the middle of this sidewalk. “Oh my god.” She’s reeling back and forth.
“…Are you okay?” Had he screwed up so badly? Was this her reaction to kissing him? To hide her disgust behind a fit of laughter?
“I’m fine!” She takes a deep breath and stands back up fully, wiping a tear from her eye. Then she looks at his embarrassed face and stifles another giggle. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so flustered before—it’s funny.”
“ That’s what you’re laughing about!?”
“Yup. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad—you’re always so composed, seeing you like that was—” She starts laughing again and this is not how he had planned for their first kiss to go. At the least, An’s laughter is music to his ears.
“I’m sorry.”
”Sorry? What’re you sorry for?”
”If you were planning on something…romantic when we kissed for the first time. I ruined that.”
An tilts her head, dumbfounded, “You don’t have to be anything special for me, you know? You’re still Touya,” She she points at him and pokes his chest. “and I’m still An. And I like us just the same.” She grins, ”And, hey, I’m open for kiss redos if you’d like”
“Oh look where we are.” Conveniently, they’re right in front of his house. He smirks, and starts walking up the steps to the porch, “I’ll see you tomorrow, An.”
“I-is this payback for laughing at you!?”
“Perhaps.”
“You can’t just—!”
He twists back around, much to An’s shock since her face visibly lights up. “You’re right.”
In an act of redemption, he gently lifts her chin up and presses a proper kiss to her lips. It probably wasn’t perfect—it was the second kiss he had ever done and he was glad it was towards An—and it was short lived but he believed it got the job done.
He pulls away with a satisfactory grin taking custody of his lips.
An flushes again, “Ughhhh, since when were you so unpredictable???”
“I learnt from the best.”