It's still a chilly, overcast Saturday afternoon - and whether the chill in the air is because of the tension between the three boys that are waiting for various students to leave Seishou for the day, or the weather itself, is probably still quite worthy of debate. But the agreement was made in as much as it could be, leaving the girls with the likely shocking sight of Takashi Agera and Mamoru Chiba shaking hands and not fighting each other as they leave the building.
Takashi has a large box underneath his other arm as he breaks quite rapidly from Mamoru and Kunzite towards Ami, the person he waited for - and the person for whom he endured Mamoru Chiba's presence, at that. Out of his school uniform for once and his clothes and hair looking a little too neat for anyone not waiting for someone for whom Takashi finds his appearance a great concern, he moves up next to her rather quickly.
There's a big smile on his face as he just settles into walking next to her like he was supposed to be there the whole time. "I hope you don't mind if a certain cad would like to escort you home?" he asks, though he's pretty much already moving as though she'd agreed.
Ami's jaw is nearly scraping concrete at the sight of Mamoru and Takashi shaking hands. "Holy crap," she whispers to Usagi, who shrugs--equally mystified--and runs off to greet Mamoru. Separated from her best friend by mutual ... is boyfriends the right word for this!? Does Ami have a boyfriend? Such an unexpected place for the girl to be in.
And now he's coming to walk her home, which only guarantees tha the term is probably apt. By the time Takashi is next to Ami, the bluenette's face is a shocking shade of red--not from anger, but embarassment. If the rumours weren't bad enough after the swim meet, they certainly will be, now. "It's a surprise," Ami informs Takashi, as if he didn't know. Nevertheless, she does very gently reach up to put her hand in the crook of his arm--physical contact, even if it doesn't give him the choice of it. It more or less looks like she's kind of linking arms iwth him. Almost.
Ami tries to school her blushing features, but it's hard. She manages, somehow, to at least turn back to pink instead of red, but she's a far ways from the 'pale white' of her normal skin tone. "So, you and Mamoru are friends, now?"
Friends. Friends is a really strong term. That's what nearly comes out of Takashi's mouth. But it doesn't - instead he tries to put a positive note on it. "Maybe something on that path. We've agreed to avoid intentionally antagonizing each other, which is more than we did have. So maybe it's a start." he says, smiling. And he looks to her. "I'm really trying to make sure that dating me isn't something that brings you trouble with any of your friends, and I know how close Usagi and you are. So I wanted to keep things from being awkward for you."
"But I didn't come here to speak with him - that just sorta happened. I came here to surprise you." he says, and his grin is a lot more 'real' now, or at least a lot bigger. "I hope you don't mind the surprise too terribly. I guess I'm just not that great at being a gentleman all the time." he adds with a wink, still somewhat self-amused at the last time they met.
He gives her a moment to come down from her red-faced embarassment - or at least as much as she can - and for them to get away enough from the school that she might be unwilling to take it or there might be too many prying eyes, and then he slides the box from under his arm and passes it to her. It's a black box with a blue ribbon on it, and pretty sizeable. "Also, I have another surprise."
"I don't mind," Ami tells Takashi quietly. She gives his arm a gentle squeeze, then admits, "It was just a surprise. I guess if you're going to do this more often, I should tell you my schedule so that you won't have to worry about waiting around when I'm not here. Sometimes I leave via hyperspace tunnel, if I'm in a hurry, so you probably shouldn't try to come pick me up on days when I don't have some after-school activity."
Ah, but then there is a box, and Ami slows down entirely to stop and take it from him. "What's this?" she asks curiously, rather than satisfying her own curiosity by opening it. She looks down at the box, then up at Takashi, then back at the box. Is she supposed to open it? How does etiquette work for these things!?
Takashi smiles at the arm squeeze. "Well, I was prepared to maybe have to track you down, or wait another day - but the schedule would be nice. If I didn't catch you I'd have tried to ask Usagi or someone else where you went off to." he says with a nod. There's a box to attend to, and a convinently placed bench just off to the side of the path in one of Tokyo's many greenspaces, which he gestures to.
"It's a surprise." he says with plain affect. Then he grins. "It's a gift for my girlfriend. Nothing bad. I think you'll like them. But I won't know until you open it, so you should before I detonate from a combination of anticipation and nerves." he says, and it's possibly clear he's not all joking about that. Though it's possible she'll miss that with his blatant use of The Term.
'Giflriend'. Ami blushes at his casual use of the word; as if it were a set-in-stone thing. Embarassed and uncomfortable, Ami moves to the bench anyways and sits down, rubbing her thumbs on the box uncertainly. "Am I your girlfriend?" she asks him, quiet enough that the question might actually be rhetorical. Gently, she undoes the bow, then begins pulling the top off of the box, curious as to what's inside.
Takashi indulges her. "Well, you got the box. The box is for my girlfriend." he says, smiling. "And all of the other indications seem to match up that way, right? I got you homemade chocolate, we've been on dates, I walked you home, I'm walking you home again... oh yeah and we kissed. Potentially end of the world but I'm still counting it." he says, the last bit being very very teasing.
Inside the box there are three smaller boxes - one of them is obviously the same kind of box he gave her on valentine's day (and contains more of the same chocolate.) The other two, however, contain two somewhat different peices of jewlery. One is a subdued necklace, silver chain with silver outside and a black onyx center, with the planetary symbol for Mercury in little blue gems in the center. "That one's special." Takashi says as she opens it. Leaning over, he takes it and pulls it apart, revealing that it comes open and the bottom bit is a USB drive (and, that Takashi is a nerd, but Ami probably gathered that at some point relatively soon after meeting him.)
The other jewlery is the complete opposite. It's a bracelet - also silver - but weaving around alternating sets of small diamonds and much larger sapphires. It is anything but subdued, and anything but cheap.
Ami opens the boxes carefully, then looks up in surprise as he takes one of them from her. She doesn't say anything at all, until the entire collection is finally on display in the larger box in her lap.
Actually she still doesn't say anything; she just looks from the bejeweled mercury flash drive, down to the beautiful bracelet, and the chocolates. Her mouth opens, works a bit as if words should come out ... but nothing does. Finally, she picks up one of the delicious white chocolates and shoves it in her mouth, undaunted by the knowledge that there is dark energy in it. (Perhaps, actually, bolstered by it.)
For a moment, Ami remains frozen in place, chewing, swallowing, staring at the gifts.
Then a slight smile curls up on one half of her lip. "Hmmmm," she mumbles quietly, then looks up to Takashi. "You know, I'm going to gbe spoiled with all of this." Taking up the bracelet, she carefully lays it on her wrist, then holds it up to him. "Help?" she suggests.
Takashi grins. The reaction is pretty good, as far as he's concerned. She's not throwing them back at him or telling him it's too early for any of it or chastising him for making/giving her more chocolate. All of which were very real concerns of his. So the speechlessness - he'll take that for sure.
"So is that to mean that you like it, then?" he asks, trying to sound like himself but really just being incredibly hopeful. That question seems to be answered with the rest of her actions. "I'm happy to spoil you a little bit, you know." he says, as he leans down and helps her clasp the bracelet around her wrist. His hand lingers a little bit long on her wrist, though, as he looks at the bracelet, then eyes roaming up to her face.
Ami's eyes follow his fingers to her own wrist. Once his hands are out of the way, she twists her wrist over once, twice, inspecting the gems as they glitter beautifully on her dainty wrist. "Hmmm," she replies, smiling a little more. "I do," she says faintly, grinning. "My mother is going to ask so many questions," she observes amusedly, "but that's okay."
Grabbing the pendant/usb-stick, she inspects it next, then clasps it around her neck before tucking the pendant beneath her seifuku. Finally, she takes the small box of chocolates out of the larger box, then stands and tosses the boxes away in the trash nearby. "So ... why? Why are you spoiling me like this?"
Takashi considers Ami's question - possibly for more reasons and for longer than she expected. But he finally replies. "Because I like seeing you happy." he answers, honestly. "Seeing you happy makes me happy. So if I can give you things that make you smile, that's good, right?" he says.
"It's good that your mother's interested enough to ask questions." he notes, growing a bit quiet for that commentary before he shakes it off and turns to her. "Is it a problem, though? I mean... this is okay, right?" he says, quietly. "It's okay with you? I don't want to press for too much. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but... I also like calling you my girlfriend, and I think it's not hopeful thinking anymore." he adds, probably giving a little bit of insight into some of his own insecurities today more than usual.
Ami blushes a little, though she's smiling. "Well," she says softly, "I guess that makes sense. I wish I knew how to do the same for you," she notes. "I feel selfish getting all these gifts and not giving anything in return. But I'm not very good at gift-giving," she admits.
Ami starts to open the box of chocolates, then stops herself. "I guess what I'm saying is, I don't feel like I'm a very good girlfriend. I didn't even realise I was you girlfriend; I thought we were still just ... experimenting. But saying that aloud it sounds kind of stupid." Ami takes a breath, then says, "Yes, it's okay. Just ... let's not tell my mother, yet. She'll be planning for tomorrow if we do."
Takashi sits down on the bench next to her, finally. Well, the smiling helps embolden him. "I'm sure you'll figure it out." he says, playfully. "You are a genius, after all." he adds. "But really, it's alright. You did warn me, right? So... don't worry about it. Relax."
"Hey, you've never been a girlfriend before, right? Things take practice to get good at them." he says with a wink. "As long as you want to be one. Would you rather consider this to still be an experiment? I mean... to me it's just a term. It does seem a bit silly, given what we're doing but... I also would rather you not be uncomfortable."
"Hey, I'm not trying to press to meet your mother any sooner than I have to. The last mother I met was a little bit abrasive. I think I'm still recovering." he says, laughing a bit.
For a moment, the bluenette's only answer is a smile and a soft-voiced, "hmh." She moves her hand over to rest on his, then admits, "What I wish is that I wasn't so completely irrationally embarassed by all of this. That I didn't have so much pent up anxiety about what happened between my parents. That I didn't feel so completely awkward and out of my depth.
"I'm not used to any of those feelings," Ami explains, "and yet being in a relationship with someone who thinks of me as not just a friend, but a," ulp, "girlfriend," ulp, "brings all of them to the fore. Now, not only are you saying I'm worth that effort, but also that I'm worth that effort plus a ton of money for gifts. It's a bit overwhelming," she tells him quietly. Yet she isn't taking her hand off of his. "It's going to continue to be an experiment for a long time. But that doesn't mean the parameters can't change to include the word 'girlfriend', or 'boyfriend'. It just ... sounds so serious. Are you really sure that's what you want? To commit yourself to being my boyfriend, even when you could have just about any other girl out there who's prettier, or funnier, or less of a social piece of broccoli?"
Takashi shrugs just a bit. "But... I think it's kinda cute and endearing." he admits after a moment. "So maybe it's helping you, in a way." he says, winking. "I mean... it's something you'll probably grow out of eventually, and that'll be fine too. But I don't mind it."
"I'm sorry if I'm overwhelming you too much?" Takashi says, though it's clear to some degree he doesn't know how to really help, or if he can. "But... you are. I can see it. I'm sure that I could get someone else, but that's not the point, Ami."
"I don't want anyone else. I'm absolutly sure I want to be your boyfriend - as long as that's okay with you. I was sure about that a long time ago! And really, I haven't seen a girl out there who's prettier. That's not the point, of course - what's really key is that I haven't met a girl who's smarter - but you're talking about a girl who I'm pretty convinced doesn't exist."
"And I'm sure you could have a guy who's..." and Takashi stops for a moment, trying to find potential things he could give an example on. "...better at holding himself in check and maybe a little bit less full of dark energy." he finally settles on, instead of 'smarter' or 'better looking' or other such fallacies. "But if your'e happy... I'm happy, rememeber? So I'm not worried."
"Of course you haven't met a girl who's smarter," Ami says, a little defensively. "That was not on the list of things I suggested you could have elsewhere." She turns up her nose a little, and then blinks and looks away. "I mean um. Well, you get the points," she says.
Ami slowly looks back towards Takashi, and studies his profile for a few moments before saying, "If this is really what you want, then I'm okay if you call me your girlfriend. And I'll call you my boyfriend. I just ... wish I knew how to feel like I was good at it. I don't want you to just be happy because I am happy; I want you to be happy because something I did made you happy."
Takashi grins pretty widely at that. "Well my point was that intelligence is a very important criteria - even if it wasn't in your list - and you're very much the top winner there."
"Well, I might normally tell you to go around for information but... given the 'suggestions' I've seen in magazines... and the friends of yours I'd met... I think just basic trial-and-error is the way to go. I'll tell you if I'm unhappy, and if I'm happy, and if I'm happy then you're doing something right... it's not that hard. I mean, it's gotta be easier than rebuilding someone out of pretty much whole cloth, and I hear you succeeded at that, right?" he says, leaning a little closer to her. Of course, Takashi is somewhat very aware of the difference in types of difficulty both of those things represent.
"If it helps, I'm still doing largely the same thing. Just because I've dated before doesn't mean I've dated Ami Mizuno before, so it's not like the knowledge is super-helpful on its own."
Ami blushes at the allusion to Kunzite. "There was no cloth involved," she notes, shifting her eyes to look away from him. Then she giggles and looks back to Takashi with a smile. "I'm goign to ask Makoto," she tells him quietly. "I know you two don't get along, but she really does want me to be happy, and I think I'm not going to be happy until I have figured out how to be a good girlfriend, and she's had like a bajillion boyfriends, and unlike Minako she isn't a complete diva about it, so she can probably help me."
Takashi shakes his head. "That's a figure of speech, you know..." he says, knowing that she knows. But then he stops, and becomes rigid for a moment, at the talk of her asking Makoto. He is now opening and closing his mouth like she was when he passed her the gifts.
Eventually he comes to and coughs audiably a bit. "Well... I'll trust your judgement there." he says, though it's probably clear he's saying it more than believing it. "Just don't... follow her blindly. I have a feeling that... it might be like when I asked my friend Hannah for advice. She wanted me to be... shall we say very active and loud and proclaiming about how I felt about you - real shouting it from the heavens type stuff. I don't think it would've worked out well." he says with all seriousness.
"I don't think that's what Makoto would do," Ami points out gently. "She legitimately wants me to be happy, and if she knows that making you happy would make me happy, she'll do her best to give me good advice." That or she'll scold Ami for the idea, but she certainly wouldn't deceive Ami into doing something wrong. At least not on purpose.
"It'll work out," she says to Takashi with a faint smile. "You'll see." Then, she looks back to her bracelet again, turning it over in the afternoon light. "So pretty," she murmurs, before finally rising up off the bench. "So how are your classes going this year?"
Takashi shakes his head. "No, no. I didn't mean to say that she would mislead you at all - just that what works for Kino-san might not work for Ami." he says with a smile to match her as she rises. He rises, too.
"I know it'll all be fine either way." he says, nodding. "I'm sure of that much."
"My classes are going well. Some of them aren't particularly challenging, but my history teacher seems willing to challenge the rest of the class, which means he's teaching stuff that's at least interesting - in the sense that I haven't gone over it five times." he says with a grin. "And I've managed to secure a lot of lab time. You should come by the Infinity University Labs sometime - I'll chaperone - there's a lot of really useful equipment there. I use it a lot for solving problems."
Ami considers Takashi's warnings about Makoto, but doesn't comment on them actively. Instead, she just frowns and turns, intent on resuming the walk home. She's realatively sure Takashi will walk with her, so she doesn't turn back as she talks.
"Mine, too," Ami says quietly. "Although they're a little boring so far. The first trimester is always boring, though; they can't give us too much before the long break."
The offer of a lab earns a curious and uncertain expression. Ami reaches up to gently touch Takashi's arm again, making that physical connection--this time with a little silver bracelet falling to rest on his arm. "Maybe I'll take you up on that," she says quietly. "I've used the labs after hours here at Seishou, once or twice. They're not great, but the high school chem lab isn't horrible."
Takashi, of course, walks alongside her - he did, after all, arrive to walk her home like the gentleman he's not. "Well, to some degree I find a lot of classes rather boring - not because of the subject matter, but because of the gulf between what I know and what they're trying to teach everyone around me. But they won't let me test ouf of anymore courses. I think they just like having me in class to throw off the grade curves." he says, half-joking, half... not. "You know, to prove to the struggling students that someone /can/ ace it."
Takashi no longer seems incredibly shocked or surprised when Ami goes for physical contact, no matter how slight - just happy to be the recipient of it. "I think they'd be of some use to you, anyways. Open invitation. Just make sure you let me know ahead of time. You don't want to show up unannounced - there's stuff in there the standard high school chem lab doesn't have, so they're real cautious about security." he warns. "But I'd relish the excuse to spend time with you. Or any excuse, really."
"Mmm, I wonder if I shouldn't try to test pass some courses," Ami says thoughtfully. "Although if I did that, I'd be testing pass the first year of high school, since this year's already begun."
She frowns thoughtfully, then moves in just a little closer, wrapping her fingers more completely around his arm. "So why do you need an excuse?" Ami asks curiously. "Aren't you spending time with me now, with no excuse needed?"
Takashi laughs. "You could probably test out of college courses, you know. High school - well, I take what I have to in order to get out, but... that's just meeting the requirements. It's not like I'm not far past that."
Takashi makes a bit of a face. "Well, sure - so maybe I should say what I mean is excuses to spend /more/ time with you." he adds, a bit defensively. "Like, this is nice, but it's not a surprise if I do it every day." he adds with a wink, and leans his head against her shoulder. Well, with the height difference, it's more like the very tall boy is suddenly leaning his whole self against her.
Ami considers the idea of testing out of college courses, then sniffs amusedly. "It's rather difficult to test out of a nursing program," she points out. Right up until suddenly his head is on her sh oulder, and she yelps and jumps away in surprise. She blinks at him worriedly, then turns a little red. "Sorry, you just ... startled me. You're heavy and ... very tall and ... I didn't expect ..."
Takashi un-leans and manages (obviously barely) to contain his laughter. "Sorry. It just felt natural to do it." he says with a shrug. "Didn't mean to startle you - though it was cute." he says, but he doesn't press the issue.
"Well, probably not. But there's gotta be a lot of required courses you can test out of. You know, foundational math and science. Stuff I'm sure you already know."
Ami takes a breath, then continues walking, but for the moment she keeps her hands to herself. "Mmm, maybe," she says of testing out of things. Apparently she's not going to address the leaning tower of Takashi. "I don't know, I worry if I test through something I'll miss something important. It's probably better just to wait and enjoy school while I'm there."
Takashi looks down at her and debates asking some more questions, but he keeps walking. "Well, if you enjoy it, that's fine. I wish I could tell if it was going to be a waste of time or a good experience BEFORE taking the class. Unfortunantly I've been saddled with a teacher half-assing the course to get a paycheck one too many times. I mean... my time is valuable." he says with a slight incline of his head.
"But... it does suck to not know what I've missed. Then again, with the internet... I'm sure I could pick up on anything I missed." he says, with a shrug.