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It started out as just a normal Wednesday morning for Sakura, with him sitting in his usual chair at Pothos eating breakfast. But everything changed when Kotoha suddenly leaned over the counter, “Sakura, would you be interested in going on a date with me this Saturday?” That earthshattering question left him in a state of shock, his fork clinking on the counter. Followed by his face flushing into a cherry tomato red and an astonished, “Huh,” escaping his mouth as he stared at her with disbelief. Kotoha just remained in place, staring back at him with those amber eyes and that irritatingly cute smile. Not that he planned on admitting that tidbit to her, at least not any time soon.
The blush on Sakura’s face started to fade as he regained enough composure to finally respond, “Sure I guess,” he murmured out as he averted his gaze. Kotoha’s expression somehow became even brighter, and Sakura found his face heating up again at seeing the joy on her face. “Meet me here in front of the café at 7pm on Saturday,” she explained to him before she returned to quietly working.
The rest of that morning felt like a blur for Sakura, and that feeling persisted even after he arrived at Furin. His bewilderment had not gone unnoticed, as Suo and Nirei approached him to figure out what had left him in such a state. “Sakura, are you okay,” Nirei asked, his eyes overflowing with concern for his friend.
Sakura had been so lost in thought that he actually jumped a little at Nirei’s question. “What, yeah I’m fine, was just thinking about something,” he answered as his ears reddened a little remembering what he’d agreed to that morning. Suo had his usual casual look on his face as he chirped in, “Anything we can help you with?” Sakura looked off to the side and rubbed his neck, “What exactly does it mean to go on a date with someone,” he grumbled with an embarrassed expression on his face.
“What,” both Suo and Nirei shouted at the same time, their outburst attracting the attention of everyone else in the classroom. Feeling the stares, Nirei frantically apologized, “Sorry about that, everything’s fine, nothing to fret over here.” Once he returned his focus to Sakura, he began to pepper his friend with so many questions and at such a ferocious pace that Sakura’s already confused mind was simply overwhelmed.
Suo placed a hand on Nirei’s shoulder to stop him, “You’re overwhelming poor Sakura’s mind, why don’t we start with a simple question,” he turned to Sakura, “Who are you going on a date with?”
Unable to hold back his now trademark blush anymore, Sakura’s face went crimson as he muttered the answer under his breath. Suo hadn’t caught the response with how quiet it was, so he requested, “Could you repeat that?” Sakura huffed a little, but then in a slightly louder voice replied, “Kotoha.”
Suo and Nirei went stark white hearing her name. Suo had been mentally going through a brief list of who could’ve asked Sakura out, there was no one he was the asker, and this was the worst possible option. He gave Nirei a look and they silently agreed that this needed to remain a secret. They both knew that Umemiya was fond of Sakura, but this was an entirely different set of circumstances. He was extremely protective of his beloved “little sister,” and neither of them were quite sure how he’d react to anyone, let alone a boy from Furin, going on a date with her. Suo doubted the fact that it was clearly Kotoha who had asked Sakura out would change the matter much. But it did mean that in spite of his reservations over the situation, he wanted to help his friend.
He quickly pulled Nirei aside and began to whisper, “Okay we need to keep Umemiya in the dark about this, but at the same time I want Sakura to have a good first date.” Nirei only responded with a nod before they returned to Sakura. They tried to give him the best advice they could, with the most important being to not wear his school uniform and that he needed to compliment her outfit.
~
Initially Suo and Nirei thought they’d have to take Sakura shopping to get him a new outfit for the date. But Sakura had been successfully able to dissuade them by arguing he didn’t have enough money to justify that, and that he could make something work with what little clothes he had. Despite his protests that he didn’t need their help choosing an outfit at first, they eventually broke down his resistance and figured out a decent looking one.
Over the next couple days, Sakura was only barely able to hide his nervous anticipation of the upcoming date. If anyone, other than Suo and Nirei, noticed it and asked what he was so nervous about, he would loudly proclaim, “Nothing,” and then scurry away from them.
Further adding to his nervousness, when he went into Pothos for breakfast those days, Kotoha never acknowledged she had even asked. In her defense, unlike that fateful Wednesday, other customers were always around, and she wasn’t keen on her weekend plans getting out. Not that any of this occurred to Sakura. Instead he was a little freaked out by how she was able to maintain her usual calm demeanor. To the point that part of him was worried she had either changed her mind or the whole incident was somehow a daydream. Luckily for him his concerns were relieved by her texting him Friday night to make sure nothing had come up, which nothing had.
~
When Saturday finally arrived, despite the reassurances of the previous night, Sakura remained a bundle of nerves the entire day. So much so that he found himself standing in front of Pothos about ten minutes earlier than he was supposed to. He had already spotted Kotoha behind the counter inside but couldn’t bring himself to enter. Rather than go off somewhere else to kill time, he just stood there with his hands buried in the pockets of his hoodie. Many of the passerby stared at him, his uniform being so ingrained in people’s mental image that his new outfit forced them to make a double take. Sakura still struggled with the idea that people could look at him with anything other than disgust, so he incorrectly interpreted the stares as meaning something was wrong with his outfit.
Kotoha had actually noticed Sakura standing in front of the café before their agreed meetup time, which she thought was a little bit adorable. She tried to wrap up her shift as quickly as possible, hanging her apron on it’s hook before she hurried out the door. The usual jingle being accompanied by a shout as Sakura leapt into a fighting stance, further broadcasting how on edge he was. She tried, and failed, to stifle a laughter, “You expecting a fight,” she teased. Her laughter eased Sakura’s tension, and he finally relaxed a little, which allowed Kotoha to carefully study his outfit.
Over his usual white T-shirt, he had thrown on a blue hoodie, and rather than his black uniform pants he had on a pair of jeans. It wasn’t all that fancy or really that different from his typical outfit, but she appreciated that he had put in the effort. It still surprised her that people had the gall to call him disgusting given how attractive he was to her.
Sakura’s nerves flared up with her inspection, and as his trademark blush covered his face, he frantically asked, “What.”
Kotoha smiled, his flustered reaction as amusing ever, “You look good,” she told him, causing his blush to deepen even further. Her smile was joined by a teasing expression; she wanted to fluster him even more. Placing a hand on her hip, “What about me, how do I look,” she asked, not actually expecting a coherent response.
Sakura began to carefully observe her from head to toe as requested, and the circumstances under which they were meeting made him examine her with a new light. Her outfit wasn’t actually all that different from usual. Consisting of an orange flannel on top of a white shirt, a black skirt that went down to her calves, pump heels, and a black handbag hanging off her shoulder. As usual, she had a pair of earrings on, and tonight she opted for a familiar pair. It was the exact same ones she had worn on the day they first met. He also noticed she had on that silver necklace that she was almost, if not always, wearing. The final thing he noticed was that she had done up her makeup more than usual. He found himself so enchanted by the sight of her, that he couldn’t stop a pair of words from slipping out of his mouth, “Really pretty.”
The instant he realized what he had said he slapped a hand over his mouth, his face burning with embarrassment. At the same time, he caught a glimpse of a side of her that he’d never seen before. For the first time ever since they had met, Kotoha was visibly flustered by his frank description. Her cheeks had turned a rosy pink, and she was forced to turn her face to the side and cover it with her hands in an attempt to hide her reaction. Under her breath she muttered, “When did you become such a smooth talker.”
Not clearly hearing what she had said, Sakura asked, “What was that.” Kotoha was finally able to regain her composure and let her hands fall back down to her sides, “I said let’s get going.”
In all of his worrying over their date, Sakura had neglected to consider one crucial detail. Which only occurred to him now, she had never actually told him what exactly they were doing on the date. He yelped in surprise when she suddenly locked onto his arm and led him off into the night.
They eventually ended up in front of a restaurant, one which Sakura hadn’t seen before. Though that didn’t really narrow things down much given he pretty much exclusively ate at Pothos. But with his extremely limited knowledge on dating, it did bring a question to his mind. He turned to her, “If we’re just getting food, why didn’t we just eat at the café?”
Kotoha let out a little sigh, but her smile returned almost instantly, “I wanted to be able to solely focus on you tonight,” her smile turned into a smirk, “Also it’s probably better for your diet if you aren’t just the exact same food day after day,” she teased. Sakura began to worry his face was going to be red all night with how much she was making him blush. Before he could argue that he was fine with his diet because of how delicious her food was, she pulled him through the front door of the restaurant.
Almost the instant they stepped in she let go of his arm due to her realizing the owner, an older woman, was here instead of the usual night staff. The owner greeted her, “So lovely to see you again Kotoha,” the owner then noticed Sakura, “And who might this young man be.” Clearly thrown off her guard, rather than immediately respond Kotoha secured counter seats for them. Both of their faces were shades of red as they sat down. Knowing she couldn’t escape this, she finally responded, “This is Haruka Sakura, he’s one of the Furin first years,” gesturing to Sakura as she introduced him.
The owner turned her attention to Sakura, and quickly gave him a once-over, then glanced between the two. She seemed to pick up on the vibes the two were giving off, even without either of them speaking another word. She gave a knowing smirk, “You must be something special to have won over Kotoha,” she said specifically to Sakura. When he and Kotoha both flushed at having been found out, she burst out laughing.
Once the owner calmed down again, she produced a notepad, “Alright I’ll stop teasing you two, will you be having your usual Kotoha?” Sakura presumed that Kotoha was a regular here given the familiarity of the owner. He hadn’t gotten a chance to look over the menu yet, but he felt Kotoha’s gaze on him. Looking over at her, she asked, “I know you haven’t been here before, are you okay with me ordering for you?” As much as he wanted to argue, he trusted her judgement when it came to food, “That’s fine with me,” he told her. She turned to the owner, “We’ll take two sauced katsudons.” The owner nodded and quickly jotted their order down as she rounded the counter back to the kitchen area to begin making their food, leaving the two alone.
As he glanced around the restaurant while they waited, Sakura noted that there were only a few other people in it. Hearing Kotoha clear her throat to speak he returned his attention to her. “This place is a favorite of mine, I like to come here after work every now and then,” she explained to him. He nodded his head, “Seems like a nice place,” and then they returned to silence.
The silence gave him time to think, and something that had been nagging at him ever since she had first asked him out reared it’s ugly head. “Why would you want to go on a date with me,” he broke the silence by asking.
At first, she stared at him like he had asked something crazy, but then that gentle reassuring smile of hers returned. She didn’t even need to think that long or hard about her reasons. “Well to start off, you might not realize it, but you are quite handsome,” Sakura thought that was a shallow reason, and one he didn’t agree with. But then she continued, “You’re also extremely kind, despite that tough guy act you put on, you’ve always been very willing to help people out,” watching him blush at her description of him, she couldn’t help teasing him, “Even if you grumble about it.”
Having never been called kind before, Sakura had the urge to dispute her characterization of him. However he didn’t get that chance, because their food arrived at their moment. The smell made his mouth begin to water, so his desire to argue was forgotten in favor of focusing on eating. The katsudon was so delicious that he found himself wolfing it down within minutes. Kotoha was taking her time to savor it, but she also enjoyed watching Sakura eat. Watching how his face would visibly light up with joy when eating something he liked had become a favorite pastime of hers.
After they finished eating, Kotoha paid and said her goodbyes to the owner, and then they stepped back out into the night. Still standing in front of the restaurant, she turned to Sakura, “That was fun, it was nice spending time with you.” He cocked his head to the side with confusion as he looked at her, “But all we did was eat some food.” Kotoha giggled a little, “Well then would you like to keep walking around for a little bit longer?" Sakura couldn’t help finding her giggle cute, nor could he bring himself to tell her no, “That would be fine I guess.”
They just wandered around town for a little while in an initially comfortable silence. When it started to worry Sakura after a while, he broke that silence once more, “Is this really all that dating entails, it doesn’t seem all that different from being friends.”
Kotoha chuckled, “Well I’m no expert, but from what I’ve heard the best relationships are ones where you’re both friends and lovers.” He looked at her with a mixture of awe and disappointment, “That does sound nice, but you didn’t really answer my question.”
A devious smile appeared on her face, “Well when you’re dating someone, you do things like this,” she said as her hand darted for his and quickly wrapped her fingers around it. His face went crimson, and he began freaking out. Finding his reaction amusing, she decided to keep pressing the matter as she brought her face closer to his, “There’s also kissing, and beyond that,” she was forced to stop mid-sentence. She swore she could almost see steam coming off his head with how much her teasing was taxing his brain. Figuring that was enough for now, she pulled her face back and started to pull her hand out from his. But before she could fully extract it, Sakura firmly grasped her hand. “You don’t have to do that,” he exclaimed, then in a lower voice he admitted, “It feels nice.”
After that, they made their way back to Pothos, holding hands the whole time. They reluctantly, though neither was brave enough to admit this, stopped holding hands and stared at each other. Kotoha brushed some of her hair behind her ear as she gazed into those gorgeous, mismatched marbles of his. “That was fun, I’m looking forward to our next date,” she cheerfully told him, her mind already imagining the numerous possibilities. “Yeah, me too,” Sakura bashfully admitted, he looked around at how dark it had gotten, “Do you want me to walk you home?” Kotoha almost melted at his sweet offer, not that she let it show to him, “I appreciate the offer, but I think I’ll be fine.”
She wrestled with her mind for a minute over if she actually wanted to do something, and then in an instant mustered the courage to just do it. Before Sakura could react, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. Then filled with embarrassment that she had actually done that. She took off towards her place her own cheeks as red, if not redder, as Sakura’s were.
Sakura was frozen in place with shock, once he thawed, he instinctively touched his cheek where she had kissed him. There was still a fleeting warmth from her lips, and he couldn’t explain this warm feeling rising up in his chest. He damn near floated back to his apartment with how giddy he was.