One night at Ariana's part-time job, while she was placing empty cardboard boxes outside, she felt hands go over her eyes. "Guess who?"
"Ichthys?!"
"We have a winner!" He took his hands off her eyes, greeting her with wide grin. "So this is where you work?"
"Yes. It's only temporary though. But what are you doing here?"
"Since it's my day off today, I wanted to spend it hanging out with you."
"Well... I am close to finishing up here so you can just wait a few, alright?"
"I can just wait out here. It won't take that long, am I right?"
"Yeah. Just wait here, I'll be right back." After taking care of some business, she went back outside to meet with Ichthys. "See? That wasn't long at all."
"Then let's go!"
"Where do you want to go?" Ichthys scooped her up in his arms and started to fly upwards.She screamed as he was flying and looked down, making herself scream even more. "Go back down! Please!"
"But you'll miss everything!"
"What?"
"Look." They were surrounded by the stars covering the night sky, almost like the stars were putting on a show just for the two of them. Fascinated but still scared for her life, her grip tightened around him. "Keep this up and I won't be able to let you go."
That comment made her slightly blush. "Sorry. I'm just a little scared..."
"You don't need to be scared. I want to show you this. Don't look away." With that, he snapped his fingers and stars started to pour down from the sky. "You like it?"
The scenery caught her off guard that she blocked out what Ichthys said. "So pretty..." After the shooting stars stopped, the constellations began to reveal themselves. "Look at that!" The first constellation that caught her attention was the Pisces constellation, the one she saw on the night Ichthys saved her. "You know, that's my favorite one right there."
He gave her a small smile. "You like mine, huh?" She looked at his face from an angle which made her heart race. 'He looks so mature right now...' Without thinking, she reached out to touch the tips of his hair, the beautiful brown and blue ombre hair that is always tied up. 'It's soft...'
"Um... Ariana?"
Realizing what she was doing, she quickly took her hand away. "S-Sorry!" 'Oh my gosh I was caught up in the moment! Great! Now he thinks I'm weird!' Instead of him being 'weirded out', he let out a laugh. "What's so funny?"
"You are! You're just... So cute!"
Naturally, she blushed. 'Cute..? Me? Is he blind?' At the same time, Ichthys flew down to the surface, gently putting her down. "Thank you."
"No problem! If you ever want to see the stars up close, just let me know!"
"Sure!" It was nice of Ichthys to show her an amazing view of the stars, but that bothered her a little bit also. Why did he suddenly wanted to do that? Was it to forget about the other day? Speaking of the other day, she remembered that Dui told her that whenever Ichthys uses his healing powers, his life decreases. Maybe that's why he did what he did, to make her not think about it, but it failed. "Um... Ichthys?"
"Yeah, what's up?"
"...Is it true that you have healing powers?"
His usual smile turned into a defeated look. "Did Dui tell you?"
"Yeah... I understand why you didn't tell me this earlier. I know it's hard to talk about that sort of thing."
Speechless, he looked like he was thinking of a way to change the subject. "Ariana, have you ever tried these before?" He touched her and snapped his fingers, having a taiyaki appear in her hands. "You see! It's shaped like a fish and it's a pastry! It's really good, try it!"
'It's obvious that he's trying to avoid this topic. I don't want to push him any longer than I already have...' Ariana took a bite of the taiyaki which made her eyes sparkle. "This is good!"
"See?! What did I tell you? There are other flavors besides those, you can try those other ones sometime!"
"I would like that." She couldn't look away from his smile, but she knows that it's fake. She wanted to talk more about his powers and his shorten life, but she knew that he would just only avoid it.
"I'll give you a whole basketful of these! You could eat about three every day!"
"If I did that, then I would be gaining weight."
"That's fine with me! In my opinion, you would feel better in my arms if you were just a little more plumper."
Stunned, she blushed at his little comment. At the same time, she couldn't help but smile.
"That's it." She looked at him, giving him a confused look. "Your smile. I told you that you should smile more often. Remember that?" She nodded in response. "You really do look your best when you smile, so please keep on smiling."
"It's because of you. You know... You really have a talent for making people smile, Ichthys. Thank you for being the reason why I can smile again." Realizing what she said, she looked down blushing. "Well... What I mean is... You were there for me when nobody else was, and saved my life on multiple occasions. So... Thank you for that."
"You don't need to thank me for that." He put his hand on her head. "You just needed someone to have you guide you on the right path, to make you realize to enjoy life and not having one person take that all away from you."
"Yeah... You're right." She felt tears starting to form, but held them back as best as she could.
"What's that behind your ear?" He touched behind her ear and had his fingers brush against her earlobe which tickled. "It's another taiyaki!" He said handing it to her.
She laughed at his cute little prank, she knew that he was trying to cheer her up. It was obvious that he could tell that she was about to breakdown. "Thank you..." She took a bite of the taiyaki. "Hey Ichthys... Remember that kid from the hospital?"
"Yeah, why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?"
"It's just that... He's been on my mind a lot. He may say some bad things, but that doesn't make him a bad kid. So I was wondering if we can visit him again. You have a talent for making people smile, so I believe that you can make him smile, and it's my duty as a future nurse to see a patient smile. So... Please?"
He looked down and sighed. "You really do have a soft spot, but fine... We'll go see him if that makes you feel better. But..."
"...What?"
"You have to do whatever I ask. It's the least you can do." He put his hand on her chin, making her face him directly. She felt her heart racing and felt the feeling of passing out on the spot. Seeing her reaction, he laughed. "Pffffff! No need to be tense! I won't ask anything too bad so don't worry!" She nodded in response, still a little tense. "We'll visit this kid in a couple days. Sound good?"
"Yeah. That's a great day." Without thinking, she put her arms around him, pulling him in for a hug. "Thank you..." He blinked and blushed, and hugged her back. Since he changed her life, she knew that he can change the little boy's life who dreams of wanting to swim again.
A couple days later, they went into the hospital to see the little boy. "Hi, problem child!"
"Hey..." She gave him a glare. "His name is Ryosuke."
"What are you guys doing here?! Are you back for more?!" He said with an angry expression.
"No, we're not. We were just worried about you so we wanted to check up on you."
Ichthys stepped in. "Have you been causing problems for the doctors?"
"That's none of your business!"
In response, Ichthys sighed. "You think it's fun to make people sad? It might feel good for a minute, but then you'll feel bad later. Am I wrong?" Ryosuke looked down and gripped the sheets. "So... Let's do something fun!"
"...Something fun? Like what?"
"Instead of making others sad, let do something that will make others happy."
"Why do I have to do something like that?!"
"So that way you have fun like you used to. Like for instance, how about a prank? Wanna try it out?"
Ryosuke's face lit up only just a little, but quickly hid it. "No! That's stupid!"
"Stupid, huh? Then why don't we play a little game..?"
"Huh?! What are you talking about?!"
"I'll pull a little prank, and if you like it, we can do more together. What do you say?" Reluctant, Ryosuke nodded. "Cool. Now lie down for a sec." Ryosuke did as he was told, and Ichthys rolled Ryosuke's shirt to reveal his undershirt.
"What are you doing?!"
"Don't worry about it! Ariana, help me out here." Ichthys said handing her a marker.
"Uh... What?" She looked back at the marker and Ichthys. "Fill me in!"
"We're just going to draw on Ryosuke's undershirt, that's not a big deal."
"These are permanent markers! Let's use the washable ones and-"
"Relax! And remember our deal?"
She let out a sigh. "Fine... "
They started to draw on his undershirt. "Ariana, can you draw a circle here?" She drew a circle where Ichthys told her to, and he started to draw from there. "And color there..." After drawing for a reasonable 10 minutes, they were done.
"What have we created..?"
"A masterpiece, Ariana. A masterpiece!"
Ryosuke looked down on his stomach and began to laugh. "Pffff! What is this? This looks like the Joker from my favorite show!"
"You like it?"
"But why did you draw it on my undershirt. No one's gonna see it..."
"Wait for it...."
A nurse came in the room and instantly spotted the two. "Who are you..?"
"We're Ryosuke's friends. We just came for a visit." Ariana said.
"I see. That's good. It's nice having friends visit you, isn't it Ryosuke?" Ryosuke gave a quick nod. "Please lie down." He lied down on his bed again. The nurse was surprised that he was being obedient since he's able rebels against his orders. "Good. I'm just going to do a quick exam, please stay still." While the doctor was doing his thing, Ariana was observing. 'Take mental notes, Ariana. This is what you'll be doing in the future.' Once the nurse was trying to look under his shirt, the nurse let out a short scream. "What in the world?!"
"Haha! Gotcha!"
"Make it talk, Ryosuke!" Ichthys said trying to encourage him.
On command, Ryosuke started to make the face on his stomach talk. "Do you know where I got these scars?" He said trying to imitate the Joker's voice. All three of them let out a laugh.
After the full examination, Ryosuke's smile didn't disappear. "That was awesome! I've never seen the nurse laugh like that before! She's going to come back, and I want to make her laugh again. What should I do..?"
"I got an idea that will knock the nurses's socks off! How about having something fall on her head when she enters the room?"
"That's a great idea! Let's do it!"
Ariana was still observing the two. 'I knew he would be able to make Ryosuke smile. I'm glad...'
Ichthys was sticking a stuffed animal between the door and the wall. "All we do now is wait." The door was opening more, and the stuffed animal fell on top of the nurses's head.
"Ah! What the?!"
The three of them let out a laugh. "She fell for it!" Ryosuke said laughing to the point that tears were in his eyes.
The nurse let out a little laugh. "That was great! And Ryosuke, it's time for your physical therapy."
Ryosuke looked down but then back up. "Alright, let's go." The nurse was shocked. Ariana's guess was that Ryosuke was always refusing, but this is the first he agreed to it. "I'll do my best. I'll do my best so that I can... Swim again! And to be able to pull some more pranks on my friends!"
""That's great! If you work hard, you will be able to do all of those things." The nurse helped Ryosuke off the bed, carefully not moving his injured shoulder too much.
"You guys.... Come back and play with me again! I'm looking forward to playing more pranks!"
"We will! Good luck in physical therapy, Ryosuke!" Ariana said with a smile. Ryosuke waved with his other hand with a cheerful smile, and left with the nurse. She couldn't stop smiling as she saw them leave. 'That's it... That's the reason why I want to become a nurse... To make people happy.' She then looked at Ichthys. "Thank you."
He looked at her and gave her a cheeky grin, and poked her nose. "Look! I got your nose!" He had his thumb in between his middle and ring finger. She let out a laugh, and slowly calm herself down, and just stared at him. "What? Why are you looking at me? Did you... Fall in love with me just now?" He said with a chuckle.
"N-No! Geez! Why do you have to say the weirdest things!"
"I don't know... Your face is awfully red..." He poked her on the forehead.
"Quit poking me or else!"
"Or else... What?" He stuck his tongue out at her. "Gee... I was going to ask you out on a date after this."
"...WHAT?!"
He was blushing but covered it with a laugh. "You heard me. I want to go out on a date with you. Remember the promise you made me? The one where you have to do anything I ask?"
"Uh... Y-Yeah..." 'Come on! Say gotcha! So I'll know this isn't some crazy joke!'
"Where would you like to go? The movies, shopping, ooh! How about the aquarium?!" '...This isn't a joke after all. He legit wants to go on a date with me. Uh... Why?'
"S-Sure. We can go to the aquarium."
"Really? Man, I'm so excited! I heard they have a lot of fish at that place, and I always wanted to see that! A date with Ariana at the aquarium... That's like a dream come true! It makes me so happy!"
She boldly took his hand and looked him in the eye. "How about tomorrow?"
He blinked and looked down to see her holding his hand. "Y-Yeah. Sounds good." His face revealed a blush. 'Hehe he's so cute. He's the one who suggested a date, and he's all embarrassed that I said yes! I actually feel excited about our date too.'