71 – Vignette – Post Game

xxxxx

Green Noise

He finds her staring at him. Which is completely fine, except it's distracting him from the movie they're watching.

"You finding the movie boring?" he asks.

"Mm. Well, we've watched it before."

"You picked it," he points out and she makes another 'hm' sound.

He reaches for the remote that is somewhere between the two of them. Shiki is snuggled right up against him, making it a bit difficult to locate the damn thing. Once he does find it, he presses the pause button.

It leaves the protagonist in an unflattering shot, hair whipping about wildly by the wind, mouth wide open as he's about to shout for the girl he's pursuing to not give up on them. The two make eye contact for a second. Then Shiki laughs and it's not that funny, but her laughter is contagious and Neku finds himself laughing at it too.

"Think we've been sitting on this sofa for too long," says Neku.

"Are you kidding? I could sit here all day! I'm definitely enjoying our stay-at-home Valentines day. I actually think it's one of your better ideas," says Shiki. She eyes their opened box of store-bought chocolates on the table. "Besides, it saves me making something home-made and tracking you down to give it to you."

"This means we can do this for White Day too, right? Because I don't miss having to get Rhyme and Beat to tag along to help me find something acceptable to give you."

"Oh yes, I don't miss the stress of wondering if you would like the taste of my not-quite-honmei but also not-quite-giri homemade chocolates either." Shiki lets her head fall onto Neku's shoulder as if even the thought of it tired her out.

"That confused me plenty back then." As a teen who just started to make friends, Valentine's day was a whole other realm completely. "I do kind of miss your more extreme reactions to my white day gifts."

"I ran away with the chocolates you gave me, once. Gosh, that was so bad. I just didn't want you to see my face, I was blushing like crazy."

"Yeah, I thought I messed up." He finds her hand between them, much quicker than he found the remote, and squeezes it. "Glad it turned out I didn't."

She squeezes back and snuggles even closer (which Neku didn't think was possible).

"You think we're getting old? I feel like we like to reminisce a lot."

"I hope not. Twenty-five isn't old...though, I guess old enough to not make out too big of a deal of today."

"Mmhmm."

He turns to kiss the top of her head.

"Hey, so what was on your mind earlier?" He knows that something was going through her head just before he paused their movie. She loves that movie so she couldn't possibly have grown bored of it.

"Oh, the movie just got me thinking. The main leads met under pretty crazy circumstances. Kinda like us. But I wonder if…we would have met otherwise." Her voice grows quieter, the way it always does when she talk about the Game.

He has wondered about that too. Not today but on those occasions when he's surrounded by his friends, goofing off in Hachiko...Enough time should have passed so that he doesn't check his hand for a timer whenever he's in Shibuya anymore but old habits die hard. Speaking of old habits - he realises his hands are tugging at thin air in the space that, years back, was occupied by his large collar.

"I don't know," is the honest answer.

He feels, rather than sees Shiki's smile. "You're supposed to say something along the lines of 'of course we'd meet Shiki' or 'we were destined to meet!'. Something cheesy like that."

"Would you really want me to?"

"Nah," she replies, firmly. "Honesty is one of your best policies. Even if you're a bit blunt sometimes."

"Good to hear it." He rests his head against hers now. "I don't know if we'd have met at fifteen but I'm thinking we might have met around this time."

"Oh? How come?" Shiki's head shifts from under him, in question.

"You and Eri are up and coming designers. My street art is starting to gain some notice. Maybe we would...I don't know...collaborate or something. Lots of artists are doing that nowadays."

"Is that a 'what if' or are you suggesting I bring that up with our team?" Shiki asks.

"It was a genuine 'what if' but doesn't seem that farfetched of an idea, huh?"

"We are getting old, Neku. Look at us, talking business on valentine's day."

"Hey, my job is my passion, same as yours!"

"As much as I do love my job, I'd rather not think about it today, at least. No more about that until Monday, kay?"

"Yes, ma'am," he says playfully, kissing the top of her head again.

She turns around in his hold and he just about manages to dodge getting his chin getting bumped by the top of her head. "Would you still be doing what you are right now without meeting all of us?"

That is something that Neku's a bit surer of. "No, I think I wouldn't have had the guts to actually go for it."

"Then, I'm glad to have met you. I'd miss having your art around." He knows that Shiki's being sincere, and his lips twitch upwards and he pulls her towards him.

"That the only thing you miss?"

"Maybe not the only thing."

Shiki's hands move to his shoulders as she kisses him. It's sweet, and familiar and tastes of home.

Only -

"Wait, hold on."

Neku pulls back and looks past Shiki's shoulder.

"Can we, uh, get rid of him?"

"Who?" Shiki whips around. She looks between Neku's eye line...to the chair where Mr. Mew is seated on. "Seriously, Neku?"

"I'm telling you Shiki he can see us."

"We're in the RG, he can't 'see' or 'move'!" she insists.

"Nope, Piggy's got to go."

Rolling her eyes, Shiki untangles herself from him and promptly turns the stuffed toy to face the back of the chair. "Happy?"

Neku opens up his arms, gesturing to Shiki. She sighs, settles back to her previous position. "Okay, now I'm happy."

"You're so silly, Neku."

"Look, I just don't think it's appropriate for Mr. Mew. I'm being considerate for him, actually," says Neku, trying to keep a straight face.

"You're suggesting that we're not going to keep things appropriate?" she teases.

He responds by taking her glasses off, placing them on the table beside them and pulling her in for another kiss.

A/N: Tadaa! I had the strong urge to write Neshiki again for valentine's day this year. I actually have written for them in these past three years, especially since Final Mix came out, but I haven't quite posted or finished any of them properly. Maybe 2020 is the year I do this, huh?

Anyway, some of the feel is similar from the last chapter but I wanted it to be a bit more fluffy. Also, some hints of Adulting, via jobs because I'm about to start my first job this year. Wooo! Hope you all enjoyed it and happy Valentine's day!

Dina (14/02/2020)