A Gift for Natsuki

"Remind me again why you wanted to come along with me?"

"Not wanted, idiot. I have to come with you, because if I don't you'd probably get the wrong game." Natsuki scolded.

Christmas time was fast approaching and with it, the rush to get last minute gifts. I had asked Natsuki if she wanted anything and after a little bit of convincing she finally admitted that she had her eyes on a game that recently came out. I had no problem remembering the game but she insisted that she'd come along with me in case I got "The first one or the dumb spin off". I'd like to have been able to at least gift wrap the thing, but I suppose going on a trip with her is just as good. Natsuki and I walked along the snow ridden streets, enjoying the static light show dotting the trees. We we're both bundled up but every now and again Natsuki would "bump" into my and stay there for a bit, probably to huddle to me to fight off the bite of the cold. Once I'd look at her she'd scoff at me and back off, before doing it again once the cold got the best of her. This kept happening for the 20 minute walk it took from the station to our destination.

We walked up to the glowing sign green and white neon sign that read "Game Center", the bright lights inside and large windows was more than enough to illuminate the outside all the way to the center of the streets. "This is it" I say as we walk towards the store. We get to the first window we peer inside and see that despite it not being as full as we expected it to be it's still pretty packed. Suddenly I hear Natsuki grunt.

"Crap, he's here." She mutters, gritting her teeth.

"Who?" I ask, confused at this sudden agitation.

"That guy right there with the weird haircut."

I peer through the crowd and sure enough now that Natsuki mentioned it, the guys haircut made him stick out of the crowd. He was talking to someone playing at one of the kiosks. Talking is putting it kindly as the person playing seems very visibly annoyed at him talking his ear off.

"I see him. Friend of yours?" I inquire. Natuski looks at me offended.

"What?! You seriously think I'd be friends with him? God no." she scolds. "He's some annoying dweeb who likes to hang out here and annoy everyone who comes in. He thinks he's being "Friendly" by chatting up everyone there and making the place fun to be around but all he does is talk and talk and never gets the damn hint."

I can hear the venom in her voice. Natuski really doesn't like this guy.

"I take it he's done something personal against you?"

"Yes, he's taking a liking to me because I happen to be a girl who comes here often. I use to hang out here a bit too until he showed up."

"You use to come here often? Didn't think you liked video games that much." Natsuki punches me in the arm.

"That's the not the point stupid! Once he saw that I was there a lot, he would not leave me alone, he'd follow me around and ask if I liked these games and that by "coincidence" he liked the games I liked."

"So how'd you get him to leave you alone?"

Natsuki placed her hands on her hips as she proudly explained. "Easy, I told him I had a boyfriend. He didn't believe me at first but once I started describing him he seemed pretty intimidated enough to leave me alone."

Curious, I decide to ask. "And what did you describe your "boyfriend" as?"

Natuskis confidence swiftly left as she nervously started describing this familiar sounding imaginary boyfriend.

"Natsuki... did you want me to go with you here and pretend to be your boyfriend so you could enjoy yourself here without him bothering you?"

Despite the cold already turning Natsukis cheeks red, her face matched them as she was scrambling to get her words right.

"What?! No! That's such a stupid thing to think! I just came here with you to make sure you didn't get the wrong game like I said! It's not like I planned this in the first place!"

I give her a playful smirk. "Alright then, you go inside, I'll wait out here since it's pretty crowded."

Natsuki face looks like a kid who was told they can only get one toy.

"Come on! That's not fair! You're just being a jerk now!" she says as she stomps her feet a bit. I can't help but smile at the cute tantrum she's having.

"Hey I mean there's no reason for me to go in with you. Maybe you can tell me"

Natuski pouts quickly before speaking through gritting teeth.

"You can pretend to be my boyfriend to make sure that annoying dweeb doesn't bother me."

I quickly give her a hug and pick her up. "See! Was that so hard?"

Natsuki flails a bit, face blushing at the sudden show of affection.

"Hey what you doing?! Put me down!"

I put on a fake smile and talk a bit quietly to Natsuki.

"He's staring at us, I thought I'd put on a good show."

Natsuki quickly attempted to regain her composure before we stepped inside. I survey the room, seeing the mix of people rushing to find their games before it sold out and people making casual conversation. It didn't hit me until now, but I'm actually pretty nervous. These people are going to think me and Natsuki are dating, not just that one guy. Before my anxiety could get any worse, Natsuki begins walking forward. Not wanting to fall too far behind I start following her. I noticed she had a pep in her step, either because she knew exactly what she was looking for, or she could finally be comfortable here without him bothering her. After a few minutes of pondering Natuski jumps with a triumphed "Got it. We both look at the case she's holding in her hands. It had a long verse of something in Japanese followed by "Ultra Extreme Edition".

"I figured it would be a game about Parfait Girls, honestly" I joke. Natsuki scoffs at me. "Not everything I get has to do with Parfait Girls anon!." She quickly averts her eyes and begins to mumble. " Besides, there's no games about them apart from some fan games online.." I give her a smirk and lean in to whisper "That you made right?". She lightly taps my shoulder and pouts. "No idiot! Stop teasing me!" I let up and start laughing while I pet her head, causing her to fluster a bit. In my peripheral vision I notice that guy she mentioned, staring over at us. Subtitle was not his strongest suit, it felt like he was trying to kill me with his vision. I try not to let it ruin the mood so I play it off and tell Natsuki that we should get in line.

The wait wasn't long but with him eyeing me down it felt a lot longer than it needed to be. I could feel his gaze no matter where I was at, either through the props placed around or even through people. It started to put me on edge, it felt as if at any second he was gonna barrel through everyone and try to start something with me. I know Natsuki loves this place but I really wanted to hurry up and get out of there. We finally get to the front of the line and I pay for Natsuki's game, with the clerk playfully teasing us about me buying the game for her. We both thank the clerk and begin to make out way out when I notice that guy standing near the entrance of the store. Oh no...


"Hey Natuski" the guy called out. I wasn't expecting his voice to match his looks but I could see now why simply trying to ignore him is a difficult task, his voice could grate through patience easily. He contused speaking as he started walking to us. "Is this him?" He asked, trying to sound intimidating. Under any other circumstance I probably would of laughed to myself at his efforts but considering the circumstances it puts me on edge, not because the guy is intimidating, just that I'm pretty sure at any second he's going to make a scene and I'd rather not embarrass Natsuki.

I feel Natsuki firmly grab my hand and speak sternly. "Yes, this is the one, my boyfriend" We didn't exactly rehearse lines, but I was hoping she'd sound more convincing. She gives my hand a subtle squeeze, it seems she was hoping I'd carry the conversation then. I clear my throat and try to speak to him politely. I'd prefer telling the guy off, but he doesn't seem like the type to take those kinds of things well, so my best bet is to just try and politely get it into his head to leave Natsuki alone.

"Hey uh, nice to meet you. I'm Anon." I attempt to give a friendly smile.

"I know who you are." He says almost before I could finish saying my name. "Natsuki's told me aaall about you." Not even a few seconds into the conversation and I can already feel the tension rising. "Natsuki says you're a great guy. That you guys like all of the same things and you're a great person to talk to." He continues, almost in a mocking tone. I can't be too offended if what he's saying is true. Natuski's said some pretty flattering things. I try to steer the conversation back to friendly territory.

"Well I try. She deserves the best." I reply, trying to sound like a sweet boyfriend and not like I was just pulled into this 20 minutes ago.

"Yeah, she does." He says with the same stern tone. I saw him talking up a storm before we walked in, what's with these short replies now? Is he trying to sound like the cool quiet type? I'd laugh if it weren't for the fact that he's staring right into my soul.

"Well I-"

"How long have you been dating?" he continues, cutting me off. I look at him a confused. "What?" He repeats himself again. Natsuki never told me how long this was going on, and I'd rather not wing it, lest this guy opens up a book about everything she's said and fact checks us. I squeeze Natsuki's hand as a heads up and look over at her, giving her a sheepish smile. "Oh man. How long have we been dating, cupcake?" My voice nearly cracks calling her that, but I have to play the part. It clearly caught her off guard as she looks more flustered than I was hoping for, but she tries to power through it.

"Oh uh, Anon, you always we're forgetful. We've been dating for 5 months now. " She says, we both slowly start building a backstory.

I let out a weak laugh and continue to play along. "Oh, right! Gosh it only feels like yesterday when we we're reading in the Literature Club. Who'd of thunk we'd be dating months later right?". I see Natsuki is as satisfied as I am about the bluff, but I can see that this guy's patience is running thin. I'm guessing he's trying to poke holes in our facade but is getting upset that he's hearing all these details about us dating.

"Well what do you like about her?" he asks. "What I like about her?" I ask, looking at Natsuki to bide some time. "Yeah what do you like about her? You know like how she's cute and she likes manga and how her taste in games is great." he states, proud that he knows some facts about her. I shoot him a quick glare, I'm starting to take this fake boyfriend thing seriously.

"Is that all you could say? Just stuff you could get from a five minute conversation? It doesn't sound like you know her at all." The annoying guys proud look deflates as he gets ready to say something, but I don't give him the chance.

"What I have with Natsuki isn't just some common interests. We've been there for each other through a lot of hardships and issues we have in our personal lives. No one's understood me and supported me like she does. I care for her deeply and want the absolute best for her. I fell in love with this girl because of a bond we both weren't expecting to happen, but I can tell you for a fact that we're both glad it did. She's my adorable girlfriend and I'll do anything to make her happy."

I'm pretty sure had this been any other situation I would of been to embarrassed but the deceleration of love felt right. The guy was taken back, as well as Natsuki, who's face was bright red.

"Anon.." she said softly.

"C'mon Natsuki, I want to see you enjoy your holiday gift." I tell her, my scowl quickly easing to a soft smile. I walk off with her hand in mine past the annoying guy who was still at a loss for words.

While we we're making our way back to the station, the heat of the moment faded with the cold air of the night. I realized what I said and felt a huge knot form in my stomach. I probably made myself look like a fool in front of Natsuki, I don't think I could even look at her right now. We entered the station and took shelter from the flurries outside for a bit waiting for our train before Natsuki spoke up.

"Hey, Anon. Can I ask you something?" I knew what was coming. I tried figuring out what I was going to say this entire time but it all went out the window as soon as I heard her voice. "Yeah, what is it Natsuki?" I ask, my voice shaking.

"What you said back there. Did you mean it? Is that how you feel about me?" A lump formed in my throat as I stopped walking. I took a minute to gather some confidence and words to tell her.

"Yeah-Yeah I did." I tell her flatly

"All of it? You didn't just say it because it sounded good?" she asks again, prodding for more than just a confirmation.

"Yeah..all of it."

She stared at me for a moment before opening her mouth to say something, but a simple "uh" came out before she was interrupted by the bustling roar of a train. The automatic voice above confirmed it was ours and we quickly stepped in. We noticed we were the only ones on at this time of the night, which didn't help ease the tension since we still had a while to go.

After the first stop and no one else getting on, Natsuki finally spoke up.

"Y'know. You'd make a good boyfriend." She mumbled, trying to hide her face. It wasn't what I expected at all, I thought she would of told me I made things to awkward, or that I was as bad as him, but not that. I tried not to make the situation anymore harder for us so I tried to move the conversation forward

"Really? Think so?". It wasn't the most ideal reply but it was something.

"Y-yeah. What you said back there was really sweet. I never though I'd be someones support like that. It make's me happy that I can be useful." she continued to mumble, as if there was a group listening in on us in this empty train.

"We'll maybe we could "pretend" to be a couple more often? I tell as I lean a bit more to her, to ease her mumbling. Appropriately. She recoiled back, her mouth agape at the proposal.

"What are you saying you idiot!? You don't mean-"

"But I do. We could have more moments like this in the future. There's a restaurant I know that gives nice deals to couples, how about we go next week?"

Natsuki's look of irritation faded quickly as she her faced blushed at the proposal. "S-sure.." She whispered.

"I'ts a date!" I said as I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her closely. Natuski fumbled a bit but quickly relaxed as she started to doze off on my chest. "Guess we're an actual couple now." I thought to myself as I enjoyed the peaceful ride home with Natsuki in my embrace.