A/N: full note at the end. p much: I'M REALLY REALLY SORRY. and also as of right now this is going to be considered DISCONTINUED :(

Chapter 21: DATE

6:32 through 6:37 – I took my second shower of the day.

6:38 through 6:45 – I put on clean clothes and I changed the bandages on my broken nose (which thankfully didn't hurt at the moment). I didn't know how fancy to be, so I put on my black school uniform pants and an un-tucked red button down shirt. I didn't know if that was appropriate, so I threw on a black tie, too. (And of course I finished this look off with my white boots, though I didn't tuck my pants into them like usual.)

6:46 through 6:48 – I made faces in the mirror, made sure there wasn't anything on my teeth, checked my breath, and smoothed out my hair.

6:49 through 7:02 – I paced my dorm room, back and forth. Greece was asleep on his bed with his eight cats.

7:03 – I had a heart attack when there was a knock on the door. After recovering myself, I opened the door to my future.

"Hey, sorry that I'm a few minutes late," Hong Kong panted. He was bent over, hands on his knees, obviously regaining his breath. He was wearing tan khakis, brown loafers, a dark gray T-shirt with a panda on it, and a navy blue blazer (much like the one in our uniform, but this one lacked the school's crest).

"It's no problem," I said coolly. "Are you okay? You look like you just ran a marathon."

"Ha, I feel like I just did, too! It took longer than I thought to get everything set up that I had to rush to get dressed and come here." Hong Kong straightened up and took a final deep breath. He let his eyes travel my body for a good ten seconds before he spoke again. "You know, you look pretty hot tonight."

I blushed. "Thanks," I said quietly. "You don't look too bad yourself."

Hong Kong smiled and reached out a hand. "Come on, let's go."

I nodded as I clasped my cold hand onto Hong Kong's warm one. He led me through the hallways of the school in silence. I grew more perplexed as we went further. I know we can't leave the school for this date… And I don't think we're going to the cafeteria… Where is he taking me?!

"Okay, we're here!" Hong Kong announced as we stopped outside a classroom door. It took me a moment to realize where we were. Oh great…

I blushed a bit as I asked, "We're having our date in Mr. N's classroom?" Hong Kong nodded.

"I've worked everything out! Mr. N helped a lot, too!"

"Oh... that was nice of him," I muttered, remembering my very vivid dream from not so long ago about Mr. N.

"It sure was!" Hong Kong beamed at me and then opened the door. "After you, babe." He winked.

7:09 - I walked into Mr. N's pitch classroom, Hong Kong right behind me. "Whooooooa," I whispered to myself. The room itself was dark except for the light coming off the single candle that was set on top of two desks pushed together. The desks had a white table cloth draped over them and the places at the two chairs were already set with fancy, gold plated, plates, red napkins, and tall, stylish, wine glasses. The desk chairs that were at our table had comfy looking cushions placed on them, and I could hear very faint music playing from one of the classroom's corners.

7:10 - After I took in the setting, Hong Kong pulled out a chair and invited me to sit down. I appreciated the gesture and just tried to follow along with the romantic atmosphere. I've never been on a date... I hope I don't do anything stupid!

"Relax, no need to look so worried!" Hong Kong said nervously as he sat at his own chair.

I was about to ask Hong Kong how we were going to be fed if he was also sitting down, since I figured he was the one who knew where the food was, when a familiar voice suddenly came out of the darkness. "Hello, my name is Mr. N, and I will be your waiter tonight." Mr. N appeared in the candle's light, holding a pitcher of sparkling water (at least that's what I assumed it was). He smiled at me kindly and then filled the two wine glasses on the table. "Tonight we have a lovely three-course meal planned out for you two. Are you ready to start off with your refreshing salads?"

Hong Kong looked at me expectantly, and so I just nodded. "Very well, I shall be back in just a moment." Mr. N walked off to one of the doors that's connected to the classroom. When the door opened there was a bright flash of light, and in that quick instant, I was able to see that Mr. N had gone all the way to dress in a full waiter's outfit: white button-down shirt, black dress-pants, black bow tie, black shoes, black apron that hung to his knees, and he had even gelled his spiky hair so that it was flat against his head.

"So? What do you think?" Hong Kong asked quitely. I could tell he was really nervous that I wouldn't appreciate everything that he'd done, so I wanted to assure him that I loved all of the effort he had put into this.

"This is amazing! I can't believe you did all of this just for me. Like... I'm not worth all of this effort!" I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Are you kidding? Ice, I'm willing to do anything to make you happy!"

Hong Kong's words hung in the air for a moment. My eyes widened and Hong Kong himself looked shocked for what he had said. I heard him gulp loudly, clearly uncomfortable with how this was going.

Just then, thankfully, the blinding flash of the door opening distracted us from our awkwardness. "Here you go, a fresh garden salad with a light vinaigrette dressing. Please enjoy." Just like that he disappeared through the bright light yet again.

7:14 - Hong Kong and I begin to eat on our first date. The salad was quite tasty, but the conversation we had was slightly awkward, as we got adjusted to the situation we were in.

7:20 - Mr. N returns and takes away our empty salad bowls. "I will be back in just a minute with your main course," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Okay, and thank you again, Mr. N," Hong Kong said. Mr. N nodded as he went to the room next door, where he was somehow keeping our food.

"Oh yeah... how did you get Mr. N to help you with this?" I asked in my usual dry voice. This had been bothering me since the evening began, and I felt like this was an alright time to pose my question.

"Er... well I kind of went to Mr. N to talk about... us... you know... after everything we've been through. And well, this afternoon I asked him what I could do to have a proper date within the school, and he said that he'd help me do something like this. I think he just feels bad about what happened with you and your nose..." Hong Kong trailed off as he finally lifted his eyes for the first time since we sat down to look at me directly. Our eyes connected and lingered for a moment.

"Well, that was really nice of him... I just hope he doesn't say anything to anyone. I don't want the other students to know about this..." I said a bit angrily. That would be too embarrassing!

"I don't think we'll have to worry about that, Mr. N is actually a really nice guy," Hong Kong said surely.

7:22 - "Yes, yes I am," Mr. N said jokingly as he entered back into the room with two plates full of food. He placed them onto our table, bowed slightly, and then walked away. I watched him disappear into the white light of the next room before I turned my attention to my food. It appeared that Hong Kong had done his homework on my homeland, because our plates were filled with smoked mutton, potatoes, peas, and thinly sliced bread; a typical Icelandic dish. I have no clue how they were able to prepare all of this under such short notice, but I was thoroughly impressed.

"Wow! I can't believe you made hangikjöt! I haven't had this is so long!" I was showing a surprising amount of emotion this evening, which was quite concerning to me, so I tried to catch myself, forcing my small smile into a tiny frown.

"Well I hope it tastes good," Hong Kong laughed nervously. He glanced at his plate, looking terrified. Obviously he'd never eaten proper Icelandic cuisine before.

7:23 - Hong Kong stared at me intensely as I cut off a bite sized piece of lamb and put it into my mouth. I chewed slowly, savoring the taste that brought me back to my childhood. "It's amazing," I whispered. Hong Kong's eyes lit up at this, clearly pleased that I deemed this food worthy.

"I'm so glad! I-"

But I cut him off. "My mother used to make a dish like this every year on Christmas..." I trailed off, staring at my food with a sad expression now residing on my face. Hong Kong's face fell and I suddenly felt bad. Hong Kong's worked really hard putting this date together, I don't want to mess it up by bringing up... "But this is really good! Not as good as her's, but still really tasty! Do... you like it?" I forced on a smile and I spoke it an obnoxiously happy voice.

Hong Kong's face told me that he didn't believe me, but that he was also willing to accept my fake happiness for the evening so that we could have a nice date. But I knew that he was going to bring it back up some time soon.

"Yeah I think it's tasty!" he said after sampling a small bite.

I just nodded and continued to eat my dinner. We stayed pretty quiet as we ate, but we were both comfortable with the only conversation being the sounds our silverware made against the plates.

7:45 - Mr. N collected our empty plates and swiftly returned bearing a single plate that was covered in chocolate-dipped strawberries.

"This has been a really nice evening," I quietly said as we ate the delicate fruits. I had been pleasantly surprised as to how happy I'd been with the entire date.

"I'm glad that you've enjoyed it," Hong Kong said with a warm smile.

We finished our dessert and Mr. N immediately swooped in to collect the dirty dish. "I hope you two have a pleasant end to your evening," he said with a slight bow.

I cocked my head to the side. "Don't you want help cleaning everything up or...?" I asked, trailing off.

Mr. N just winked and replied, "No, I'm fine. You two go off, now."

We thanked our teacher one more time as the two of us left the classroom. Once we were back in the hallway, Hong Kong lightly grabbed a hold of my hand. I blushed but didn't say anything. We silently walked back to my room. "Thank you," was all I could manage to say. I had so many emotions and thoughts at the moment, that a simple thanks seemed like the most appropriate thing to say.

"No, thank you, you gave me a chance and I couldn't be happier." Suddenly Hong Kong leaned in and pecked a swift kiss to me cheek. But, before he could get any reaction from me, he ran down the hall and out of sight.

Blushing, I went into my room. Maybe dates aren't so bad after all.

A/N: alright. so I have 0 excuses. I'm so sorry. I know I'm a sucky author for leaving you guys for so long. to anyone who's been sticking to this THANK YOU and I'm just sorry. this pairing holds a special place in my heart, but I just don't have the motivation or ideas that I once did to make this story into what I'd originally wanted. so as of right now, please consider this discontinued (though I'm not going to label it as completed). maybe some day I'll get the urge to properly finish this... but yeah. this is the part where I want to thank each and every one of you guys who's even bothered to regard my story. I'm so thankful to have such kind and loyal readers, and I'm really just a piece of trash for leaving you for 2 stinkin years just to add this lil thing and call it quits. you guys rock and deserve better! so thank you thank you THANK YOU everyone! if I could I'd individually name each of you and give a personal thanks. if you ever really want to contact me my tumblr is on my profile, and I 100% will write any prompts or whatever that you want to send. so thank you everyone, I love you all, I don't deserve you, I'm sorry, and I hope that someday I can make this up to you people. -theticktalks