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Hajime Hinata shivered. It sure felt like the "windy city" tonight! Another person leaned into him, a girl, not even trying to hide that she was "borrowing" his body heat. He smiled as he looked down at the top of her head. Chiaki Nanami, who in their high school years had earned the title of being the Ultimate Gamer. She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the gigantic fountain located in a seemingly-random part of this foreign city of Chicago. They'd had a tradition in high school, and she was hellbent on recreating it in America.
The fountain was still a good hike from where they were now, but Hajime didn't mind the walk. Chiaki's gloved fingers were wrapped together with his as they stared at a gigantic metallic...bean...in the middle of the city. Hajime commented dryly, "I'll bet in every planning meeting for this thing, no one mentioned all the bird crap this thing would catch." Chiaki's free hand pulled her well-worn, well-loved cat hoodie over her head as she looked around nervously for birds. After watching other couples ice skate in the nearby rink and deciding against it, they left the area behind, as its radio sent Christmas carols into the air.
When the couple arrived at their destination, Chiaki got much more forceful about pulling him along. Hajime chuckled and allowed himself to be led to a bench. There weren't any near the fountain, but they managed to spot one just as another couple was leaving it, hopefully taking any butt-freezing snow water with them. He thought back to the past several years of his life as Nanami dug through her cat backpack for the twin portable gaming handheld systems. They didn't run any newer games at this point, but they had nostalgic value, so Chiaki had insisted on bringing them when they both decided to spend college overseas.
Had he really just been a "lowly" Reserve Course student? It hadn't felt that way in years, once he'd gotten over the stigma from some and insecurity from himself. Chiaki had been right; he HAD had more options because his talents were more general. He'd worked hard in high school, despite that many of his peers wanted to have success based on the Hopes Peak name alone, and had graduated very nearly at the top of the Reserve Course.
Hajime had randomly befriended an underclassman from the Main Course, Ultimate Programmer Chihiro Fujisaki, who had helped Hajime realize that, while he may not be an "ultimate" at programming, he still had a knack for it and even found it fulfilling and Hajime had decided to make it a career path. In return, when Chihiro had said he wanted to get stronger, (after confiding to Hajime that he was really a guy,) Chiaki had arranged an introduction between Chihiro and the Ultimate Team Manager, Nekomaru Nidai. Now, Chihiro was working on a startup venture to reach out to young men who had the same insecurity issues he'd had, helping them to be true to themselves. Lives were changed because of interactions with the "nobody" of Hajime.
Now here he and Chiaki were preparing to graduate at the end of the year, getting out a semester "early" because of taking as many summer classes as either could. Chiaki had already been offered positions in game testing, in Japan, right out of high school, (not uncommon for alumni of Hopes Peak Academy's Main course,) but she had insisted on studying in America with Hajime. He kind of understood why she didn't want her closest friend to be on a 14-hour time lag. Her course of study had mostly centered on general QA, quality assurance, though she didn't intend to use those skills on anything besides gaming. Both of them already had job offers waiting in the new year, with an up-and-coming game developer with offices in America and Japan, making the experiences gained studying here more valuable.
Speaking of games, Hajime felt a Nantendo handheld poke his upper arm as the theme to Gala Omega rang out of both systems. Hajime wondered if gloves would hamper Chiaki enough for him to hold his own a bit more, though he now cared far more about memories made with Chiaki than he did about winning. He'd come at least that far since high school. As they played, he could tell the gloves were impacting her, but she'd not been the Ultimate Gamer for nothing, and soon Hajime was seeing the familiar "GAME OVER" on his screen. He set down the handheld and smiled at Chiaki. She looked up at him with that smile she KNEW turned his spine to jelly and leaned in on him after putting the handhelds away. The cold seemed to be affecting them negatively anyway, hardly surprising for as old as the hardware was. As Chiaki leaned on his shoulder, her hand finding his and locking fingers again, Hajime felt a particular shape poke into his side from his coat. That reminded him...the real reason he'd asked Chiaki out today.
Hajime gulped and tried to calm his nerves, which had gone from calm to the-world-is-ending faster than Chiaki could speed run her favorite games. He swallowed several times, as his throat had begun to parch as if it was still July. "It's been a long ride, hasn't it?" That was not the script he had rehearsed...oh well, it was what it was, time to roll with it!
Chiaki replied somewhat sleepily, "Huh? Yeah...yeah it has... When Hopes Peak Academy scouted me, I didn't think I'd end up here, or with you." There was that smile again. "I couldn't be happier with the memories I've made with you!" That statement came straight from the bottom of her heart. Well, when she put it that way...
Hajime had to free his hand from hers, to a worried expression on her face. He'd been up at an ungodly hour a week ago, on a Skype video call with Mr. Nanami, who had given his blessing to this so happily Hajime had been stunned. Chiaki was his only daughter, but Mr. Nanami and his wife seemed to just love Hajime Hinata to pieces and were ecstatic when Hajime had asked for her hand. Their families had met, gotten along, everything was ready, so why was Hajime scared out of his mind? Maybe it was because of the distinctly "western" flair to how he was going to go about this next? Possible.
Hajime reached into his pocket and gripped the small box it contained. "Exactly how I feel. I want to make more memories with you." He opened the box, as his heartbeat in his head started to drown out the sounds around him. Chiaki's expression remained puzzled, with a tiny sliver of concern therein. The ground was covered in snow and Hajime experienced a bit of a shock mentally when the snow melted on contact with his knee. Cripes, it was cold, even as he felt his body starting to heat up with nerves. Hajime opened the box, showing a tiny gold band inside. He had specifically chosen a ring that he believed would have minimal impact on Chiaki's movement speed when gaming. "I want to make memories with you for the rest of our lives, if you want that, too..." Hajime managed to avoid his inner wince becoming an external one. He wasn't getting any awards for romantic poetry any time soon, that was for sure!
Chiaki's eyes became as large as dinner plates and her long lashes blinked several times as her mind seemed to try and play catch-up. When everything seemed to "click" mentally, she threw her hands in the air, "You're clearing the character route!" Of course it came back to games. She knelt in front of Hajime on the ground, apparently not even noticing the snow, as she threw her arms around him, "Yes! There's no one in the world I want to spend the rest of my life with!" Hajime let out a huge breath. He'd known that was what she would say, hadn't doubted it for a minute, but he'd still been terrified. Chiaki grinned bigger, "And someday we can level up new players!"
Hajime gulped again, "One step at a time," though he was already grinning at the idea of the Ultimate Gamer becoming the Ultimate Wife and Ultimate Mom. Chiaki Nanami was Ultimate Everything in the world of Hajime Hinata, and he was the same for her. The "nobody" Reserve Course student and the Ultimate Gamer who had thought she would live her entire life as a recluse had found each other, and neither would allow the other to be lonely, ever again. That thought permeated their minds as they sat back on the bench, Hajime's arm around Chiaki and holding her as close as he could in public.
"I love you," he said simply.
"I know," she replied sleepily, her mind dozing off in the feeling of security she had as long as Hajime was by her side.
Maybe it wasn't so cold after all.