Ryuske laughed when Danika explained how the game could time quests and draw people into locations where they might meet. "That"s no different than saying "we only met because our friend introduced us" or something," he argued. "Luck and timing are still involved.""Friends don"t psychologically profile you to judge your compatibility," Danika protested.
"Of course we do," Ryuske said laughingly. "Eat your food and stop letting me distract you."
"Stop being so distracting then," she replied while rolling her eyes and moving her omelette to the plate, while he laughed merrily. She carried it to the table, and then realized she hadn"t grabbed a drink.
He brought a second drink to the table, and then he sat with her while she ate. He kept the topics light though, and they didn"t talk any further about the future or her relationship with Shinichi.
When Ryuske described the cute grandbabies of his friends with as much enthusiasm as if they were his own, Danika asked, "Do you think it"s weird, how excited and nervous Kit is over her game baby?"
"I might have, if I hadn"t seen how excited people in "Living Jade Empire" get about new pets, skills, and equipment in general?" Ryuske answered laughingly. "I think it"s harmless."
"Well, if you compare her to people like that, she"s practically sedate about it," Danika complained.
"We know her well enough to interpret her occasional comments as excitement," he agreed. "But don"t worry, she"s not half as nervous about her virtual child as I was about adopting Shinichi! My friends are such good parents, that I was afraid I"d do horribly at it," he admitted.
"I think you"re a great parent," Danika objected.
"Enticing my son"s lover into a midnight rendezvous?" he teased.
"I was down here first!" she objected laughingly without arguing over the label of lover.
"Oh, right, I"m the one being enticed!?" he exclaimed with questioning amus.e.m.e.nt, and feigned a heart clutching moment.
Danika giggled.
She felt sleepy once she finished eating, so she didn"t argue when he took her plate and stuck it in the dishwasher.
She made her way back to Shinichi"s room with the embarra.s.sing feeling that she was sneaking into his private s.p.a.ce. Even though she tried to be quiet and not disturb him, she woke him up while getting back onto the bed.
"Danika," he identified her after a moment. "I fell asleep didn"t I? I"m so sorry," he apologized contritely.
"It"s alright," she a.s.sured him. "At this point I was just going to lay down next to you to sleep for now?" she explained questioningly.
"You didn"t mean to sleep here, you didn"t bring any clothes," he pointed out.
"It"s OK," she replied tiredly.
He didn"t argue with her, but he covered her with a comforter after she laid down again.
--
When she woke up she felt kind of stiff from sleeping on a different surface than usual, and kind of grubby after sleeping in her clothes. Shinichi was already up, and freshly showered and dressed, and she looked him over a little sourly. It wasn"t like she didn"t know that he usually started the day much earlier than she did, but at the moment she just wanted to go home and take a bath.
He sat beside her and hugged her when she sat up. "You want to go home so you can get ready for work right?" he asked cheerfully.
Danika stared at him in amazement. "Yeah," she admitted.
--
The end of their time together wasn"t romantic, would never have made it into a manga, and nothing significant happened. But at the same time, it was perfect. Shinichi seemed perfect to her the morning before he left.
He laughed when she told him on her break, "I already miss you a lot."
"I"m not even actually gone yet," he teased.
They talked about other things a bit, like how Danika had forgotten to fulfill her promise to let SaltySiamese see her, or at least send her a screenshot if she ever turned into a housecat again.
"I can send her screenshots of your first transformation," Shinichi said, "hold on."
Danika felt petty when she realized that she was a little jealous that even SaltySiamese had Aishin on her friend list now. She reminded herself firmly that he wasn"t the kind of person that she was going to be able to be possessive of, and that she didn"t need to be.
Shinichi asked suddenly, "Can we plan something for after I get back? I don"t really care what it is, and it sounds sillier the more I talk, but just to have something scheduled?"
He was perfect for her, she immediately decided again. And Kobayashi Ryuske was right, they were really lucky to have met in "Living Jade Empire". "Yes!" she agreed happily. "What if we plan another date out, and do another traditional thing, like go to a movie?" she suggested.
"Yeah, that would be perfect," he agreed.
--
Shinichi was the first one into the car that took the members of Underneath to the airport before dawn. The others gazed at him with varying degrees of surprise and Naoki asked, "What are you in such a hurry for?"
Shinichi just grinned and replied, "I"m in a hurry to get back?"
"He"s been packed since before his big night with his little dragon," Akito told the others.
"Oh, finally the big night?" Hideki asked with interest. "No wonder you look kind of smug?"
Shinichi grimaced at them and objected, "Don"t put it like that, we didn"t do anything." Not that he hadn"t thought about it, especially when he"d woken up first and could watch her sleeping so cutely right beside him. But right before he left had seemed like bad timing, so he"d just gotten up instead.
"Why not?" Naoki asked.
Toshi suggested, "Because she"s slow."
Shinichi didn"t argue, or talk about the timing, but he smiled. He"d been kind of euphoric since Danika had admitted that she missed him already the evening before. She struggled with actually saying things sometimes, but she never seemed to say anything she didn"t mean.
Akito was looking out the window at the runways through the tall fence when he commented, "The ordinary days together are the best anyway." He turned back and told Shinichi, "But VR was pretty fun, even if we didn"t do anything like that either."
"How boring," Naoki complained.
Kimitoshi laughed and said, "You didn"t do anything this weekend either."
Naoki rolled his eyes and declared, "Fine! We shall all start this journey cleansed and pure of body! It shall be like a holy pilgrimage!"
"You hid his snacks again didn"t you?" Hideki asked Toshi.