Suicide Girl (A Diabolik Lovers Story)

Chapter 15: A Date

"Hmm," Shu hummed lowly before grabbing her arm and dragging her over to the rink. Reluctantly, he walks over to the man behind the skate rental desk and goes, "Oi, a pair of skates for that woman over there."

"What size?" The man asks. Shu looks over at Ren dimly as she gingerly mouths "seven" to him. Looking back at the ice rink employees, he tells him a size seven as the man hands him a pair of white figure skates.

As soon as he grabs the pair, he walks over to Ren and shoves them in her hand. She nervously looks at the ground and asks, "You're not going to come with me?"

"That looks far more exhausting than I'm willing to try so knock yourself out," he shrugged as he sat on the bench.

"Okay well, I'm off then," she muttered after lacing up her skates before walking onto the ice. The moment her foot stepped on the ice, her leg went sliding fowards at such a speed that she lost her footing, nearly falling backwards.

Just as she thought she'd hit the ground, Shu stood behind her, holding up her arms with an exasperated expression before snapping, "Oi, I didn't mean to literally knock yourself out. Be careful, ice is slippery. Get used to it slowly."

Ren inhaled as she looked up at Shu, slowly regaining her composure before nodding and trying it again. This time, she leaned slightly foward as the slid her legs back and fourth along the ice. Once she appeared to gain a sense of balance, she tried gaining some speed as she skated in circles around the rink.

Shu watched her from the sidelines as she seemed to enjoy herself skating on the ice. Though it appeared to be a common thing, Shu seemed to feel a prickling sensation in his lower abdomen. Humans were such simple creatures to feel enjoyment out of these types of interactions. So why was he falling victim to that mindset?

Ren continued to laugh to herself as she tried to do a spin and nearly slipped, catching herself on the wall. She glanced up at Shu, whose deadpan eyes were fixated on her. She skated over to him, feeling somewhat brave as she teased, "Are you sure you don't want to try this with me?"

"I'm good," he chuckled lightly before teasing back with a fanged smile, "But I might be more willing to do it if there's an exchange. How about a kiss?"

Ren bit her lip, knowing he was just testing her limits like always. Just once, she'd like it if she was the one to push him.

Feeling an overwhelming sense of boldness, she slid off the ice and stomped towards him, pulling his face to hers into a deep kiss.

"...!" Shu's eyes widened with surprised as she pulled away, her facial expression smiling sheepishly as she whispered, "Now you can't back out."

Shu sighed and scratched his head before muttering, "I can never figure out how you're going to react to anything."

"Lace up, sore loser," she laughed as she got back on the ice, throwing up a victory sign as she cutely skated away.

Begrudgingly, he followed through with the unofficial agreement before getting some skates of his own. As he got out on the ice, he made a face while stiffly holding his legs together, making no attempt to move further.

Noticing this, Ren asked, "What's wrong? You're not good at this either?"

"I already told you, doing something like this is far too much work," he sighed as he continued to stand awkwardly on the ice. Ren laughed and suggested, "Well then, here. Hold onto my arm and I'll pull you. I think I've gotten better at gliding now."

Before Shu could answer, she had already slipped her arm around his and was dragging him along the ice. He fought and complained about how annoying she was being but she simply ignored him and continued to laugh.

She began to gain some speed in pulling him a long before letting go suddenly, to which Shu made a frantic expression as he slid into the wall, collapsing into a tired mess on the ice. At this, Ren gasped and raced after him, half laughing at the scene and the other half genuinely concerned if he was okay.

"I'm sorry, Shu. That's enough. We can stop now," she apologized, still stifling a laugh as she knelt down so she was on the ice as well. It was cold but she wanted to make sure Shu would be able to get back up with ease.

Just then, the Christmas lights around the rink suddenly lit up brightly. The sun had finally gone down and the strings of light were all lighting up one by one. Ren's eyes sparkled as she admired them all. She whispered with wide eyes, "They're so pretty," before looking down at Shu.

Shu's eyes were also wide and in them was the reflection of Ren surrounded by pools of iridescent light. He blinked before agreeing, "Yeah..."

They were silently looking at each other for a few minutes before seemingly coming back to their current predicament. Ren stood up and extended her hand to Shu before pulling him up with help from the barricade. As they slid off the ice, Ren's stomach made a loud growling sound. She laughed in response before saying, "I think the monster in my stomach is trying to tell me something."

"Let's go eat then," Shu suggested nonchalantly as he started to pull his skates off. Ren nodded before feeling the need to ask, "Hey Shu...what made you decide to bring me out today?"

"You said before that there were many things you never experienced. I figured a date was among those things," he snickered with a grin.

Ren raised her eyebrows in response, asking, "A date? Is that what this was? I just thought you were trying to cheer me up or something."

Shu glanced at the ground seriously before muttering, "I might have overdid it last night. You still haven't experienced those things you wanted to yet so I would hate it if you suddenly wandered off again to get nearly killed."

"Ah," Ren gasped, surprised that Shu took her words fairly seriously from when they spoke about her goals forever ago. She had almost forgotten that she had indirectly asked him to help her experience more. She had thought he didn't care about that and was just doing what he wanted to.

She smiled to herself before murmuring, "Thank you. I didn't know if you were taking me seriously or not when I asked you back then."

"Let's go," he said impatiently, cutting their conversation short as he trudged off towards an unknown destination. Ren chuckled, before following along behind him.