𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐝 - s. ᴍᴀɴᴊɪʀᴏ

𝟎𝟐𝟐: 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐲

"You don't go out a lot, do you?" He suddenly asks. Though you wanted to act offended, he was right. "Well, up until now, I haven't had any friends so..." You admit. It was embarrassing, but it was the truth. Mikey continues to glide through, guiding you along the ice. "We should've met earlier, I would've been your friend," he says kindly.

"We have nothing in common," you laugh a little, doubting his statement. You couldn't imagine how a younger Mikey was. Probably way more childish than he is now. "Really?" He says in shock, "I feel like we do." You couldn't tell if he was stupid or onto something.

You both continued to slide around. You overhear mothers tell their children not to copy what you two were doing. "Don't you think this is a little dangerous?" You ask Mikey who questions why you think that. "I mean, what if we fall?"

The boy laughs at you. "You really need to loosen up," he comments, "Do you think falling on your butt is scarier than running into a gang fight?"

"To be fair, I had an adrenaline rush that time!" You raise your voice slightly and the boy laughs more. "Is that all you need?" He asks and you wondered where he was going with that.

Suddenly, Mikey takes your other hand, now holding onto both. He begins spinning around. The sudden rush makes you scream. Mikey, too, was loud but it was only because he was laughing at your reaction. At this pace, you might have a rush of vomit instead of adrenaline.

Mikey loses his balance, unable to contain his laughter and the both of you slip. Mikey catches you, making himself fall on the ice. He was still laughing. Your faces were inches away. You could feel his warm breath hit your face from under you. Mikey's joyous face nearly made you forget you were on top of him in a public area.

You hurriedly get off of him, sitting on your knees beside him. "Is your head okay?" You ask the boy worriedly. Mikey sits up, "As I said before, Gramps says I'm hard-headed!" His tone was proud as he flashes a smile at you.

"That's still not a compliment..." You tell him once again. The both of you get up. You try to glide through the ice by yourself, trying to exit. You slip and fall, landing on your butt and your hands. You turn to glare at Mikey who was, once again, laughing. You were glad he seemed happy but your hands felt super cold, still touching the ice, trying to get back up.

Mikey lifts you up and guides you out. The two of you continued to walk up, going back to his bike. The two of you couldn't stop making fun of how you fell. You both got on the bike. "Have you always been scared of falling?" He asks, you assume he was still teasing. "So what?" You say, slightly annoyed, "It hurts!"

You arrived at the shopping district. Unsurprisingly, it was packed. Other than the people, the area was filled with lights. Snowflakes sparkle as the light hits them. You used to loathe busy places, because of the amount of people. But being behind Mikey, driving around, it felt like it was just the two of you.

"Woah!" Mikey exclaims, he makes a sudden turn and parks. You see where he was pointing at. It was a large Christmas tree at the center of the district. There were hoards of people already crowding around it.

"I wonder how they're gonna take this down," you comment. "Who cares? I wanna climb it!" Mikey says, his eyes were sparkling. You urge him not to.

You both walked closer to the tree to see how large it was compared to you guys. You warm up your hands with your breath, still cold from falling on the ice. Mikey takes one of your hands. Intertwining your fingers together, he puts them in his jacket pocket. You put your free hand in your own jacket and continue to walk to the tree. There were an alarming number of couples surrounding the tree. Though you two weren't official, with the way you two posed, you blended in.

As Mikey was distracted by the large Christmas tree, you turned to him. Pecking his cheek. The blonde was surprised. You turned away immediately, wondering if that was okay for you to do. Though you two were on a date, it didn't mean you were dating.

"You missed," he says, monotonously. With his vague tone, you couldn't tell if he was teasing your being weird. "What?" You asked.

Mikey turns to face you, "You missed," he repeated. You were even more confused. Mikey leans closer to you. Lidding his eyes. Your noses touch.

Wait... is he gonna...?

Mikey's lips press against your own. Even through the cold weather, his lips felt soft and warm. You feel his other hand touch the side of your face. You didn't care about how cold his hand was. Kissing back, you feel your face feel warmer and your heart beats faster. You felt perfectly happy if time stopped at this moment.

Mikey suddenly breaks the kiss, "Did you hear that?" You groan, disappointed at his quick retraction. Mikey ignores your glaring, "I thought I heard Mitsuya's impulse."

"You could tell how your friends' bikes sound?" You ask. "We've all got different bikes, so they all have different sounds to 'em," he responds, "My babu is the loudest!" Mikey says proudly.

You couldn't believe he started talking about bikes after kissing you. Is that really his priority right now?!

"Babu?" You tilt your head, reluctantly engaging in the conversation. Mikey tells you that's what he calls his CB250T. You nod, agreeing that saying the full name of his bike model would be wordy. "Still, I can't help but have a bad feeling after hearing Mitsuya's bike," he continues. You nearly forgot that Takemichi was going to stop Hakkai from killing his brother, Taiju, on Christmas. They must be in trouble If Mitsuya had to be involved.

Mikey turns around, heading back to the bike. You follow since you two were still holding hands. "Sorry, I don't mean to cut our date short, but do you mind if we check on Mitsuya?"

You had no qualms. He lets go of your hand and gets on the bike. Mikey takes out his phone from his pants pocket, "Could you call Ken-chin for me?"

Chapter twenty-two, end.