283/Perfect

Perfect
Date of Scene:	23 August 2023
Location:	Game Crown Arcade
Synopsis:	It's not a date. Usagi and Darien go to the arcade.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
For a sixteen-year-old, Darien looks strangely hesitant to enter a video game arcade. "Welllll," he's changing his mind, he's about to change his mind, he's gonna make some kind of excuse.

It's an absurdly hot day, too, so the only reason Darien isn't wearing shorts has got to be vanity. Still regular jeans, even if they're so worn they're soft, but at least he's wearing a t-shirt that isn't black, today. He slides his auto-darkening glasses off his face and squints, taking a step back to look at the second floor.

Buying time, he asks, "Wouldn't it make more sense to put the fruits parlor on the ground floor and the video games upstairs?"

On its heels, he makes a counteroffer. "How about I eat *all the fries* upstairs while you play Sailor V?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi is not at all nervous about hanging out with Darien at the arcade. Why would she be? Just because he was using Dark Energy and worked for Obsidian (which might-probably have a connection with the Dark Kingdom) and Inai-sensei had asked her to not spy on him, didn't mean he was a person she should be nervous around! Just because he maybe liked her or had liked her or might still like her, that's not something to be nervous about!

And that he maybe liked Kazuo and that she definitely didn't like-like him but did like him but not like that, that had nothing to do with it!

So she definitely doesn't reach out and snatch his hand, just like that, because she's nervous. Nope! It's because she's picking up on his nervousness, definitely. Even if she is a little surprised to look over at him, in his soft jeans and t-shirt, and realize he might be, maybe, probably, nervous.

"It's cause you have to walk all the way through the arcade to get to the cafe, so you see more games, and then you spend more coins than you planned playing aaaaall those new games you spotted," she says knowledgeably, and squeezes his hand a little. "I was thinking we could play two player games! I tried a dancing game the last time I was here, and it was really fun..."

She is going to be trying to drag him inside, if he doesn't resist. Even if the sight of a girl not even five feet clad in pink flats and an even pinker dress trying to drag a six foot two inch giant of a boy into an arcade is sure to be ridiculous.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Darien pushes his glasses up on his face and regards the storefront noncommittally. He glances down at Usagi (and wants to hug her hand, she took his hand that means he can hug her hand right? that's what that means?) and gives her a little smile, with a little tilt of his head, and he says, "All right. I've never played anything but phone games," he admits, "so I'll probably be terrible."

(HUG >:O)

"Fries after? I'm definitely not bad at fries. Sorry, I can smell them and it's been a while," he says wish a sheepish look, reaching up to rub the back of his head.

He starts being dragged in-- not so much dragged, he goes semi-willingly and even that semi- is exaggerated, and laughs. "U-sa-gi-chan you're so strong!"

His hand is warm and dry and big; hers is ~smol~ and he doesn't want her to let go, so he tightens his a little in a return squeeze. The sun on her hair is blinding and for a half-second, he almost remembers something in all that light.

The door jingles to signal their entrance, and Darien takes his glasses off while they un-darken after being outside.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"We can start with fries," Usagi says magnimoniously, as if she will not herself benefit from fries and the eating of them, then grins mischievously. "You'll have a full stamina bar, and I'll get to tutor you in something for once!"

He's still holding her hand. He hasn't let go. He's letting her pull him around (he's definitely letting her, she can feel it), his hand large and warm and dry, not damp with nervous sweat like last time. That says something, right? He wouldn't let her hold his hand if he didn't like her, right?

Not that it matters. She's not worrying about it! She doesn't like-like him after all! It doesn't matter at all if he likes cool and awesome Kazuo-senpai now!

Her grip on his hand tightens just a little - not nearly strong enough to hurt, but definitely secure, and her fingertips brush against his when he grips her hand back, and she laughs, and laughs, as he compliments her.

"I am! I'm the strongest ever, Dari-kun, and don't you forget it!"

Would he tell her more, if he knew just how strong she was? Would he let her help?

But he was already letting her help. And he didn't want to know. He needed Elephant-san, and she -

The door jingles as they enter and the sound of dozens of video games floats to their ears - sound effects, jingles, cheerful recorded voicelines -

"Welcome to Game Center Crown!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I would never," Darien gets out, laughing too, and then everything's very loud and the air is cooler but busier with the sounds of all the people playing, talking, laughing, not connected to any one game or conversation or person.

It helps a little when he gets his almost-lightened glasses back on his face. Maybe it's the vision, maybe it's the shield. It helps a lot that Usagi hasn't let go of his hand yet.

He gets his bearings and sees the stairs and says, "My treat. Upstairs I mean. The more things you order, the more time I have to prepare for my doom in the world of videogames. But then you get the tokens, okay?" That's a fair trade, right? That's not too uncomfortably datelike, right? Splitting costs?

Why is he worried about that, he'd love it to be a date. Why is he worrying about this? Takashi was so angry that the dark energy was such an issue and he was contemplating a potential relationship despite getting so messed up inside. But it always felt like that.

Nephrite told him to chase happiness.

Darien feels like everything is a house of cards made of ice, and he shivers once, twice, and it's obviously because of the 15-degree difference between the sidewalk and the arcade's interior.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
He's laughing, smiling, and that delights Usagi, who beams and nearly narrowly avoids walking right into a trash can for lack of paying attention. She swings their joined arms a little, mostly as a distraction. His sunglasses hide his eyes, but not the way his head moves minutely as he looks around the room, searching.

"Sounds fair to me," Usagi says, nodding quickly, twintails bouncing about with the motion. "But I wouldn't order too much, so don't worry!"

She can't take advantage of his generoisity. Okay, well, she could, but she doesn't want to! He should see how restrained she can be, how totally cool and ladylike, and all of that. Not for any particular reason, just because.

"Have you really only ever played phone games? I can't believe I get to help teach two people about games, but don't worry, I'll fix this gap! We'll play until your eyes spin and your thumbs beg for mercy!"

And she tries a diabolical laugh, though it mostly sounds like a regular laugh, maybe a little dorkier. Absolutely embarrassing.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"You could teach anything you really loved to anyone, I bet," Darien tells Usagi, and then he laughs again, and his eyes are visible behind the glasses again, and he's looking at just her again, "but eyes spinning and thumbs begging for mercy isn't a great sales pitch. Just for you, though."

Then up the stairs, and everyone here is so normal--

--everyone here is focused on the moment, everyone here is enjoying themselves or at least being really emotionally engaged with what they're doing. They're here and now in the here and now. Darien feels like he's missing a page.

(What do you do when you like two people at once?)

"Here, you go first," and he's going to put the spotlight on at least one of the elephants, because he leans down to say, as they reach the counter upstairs, "and we might need all four hands to carry things. But I-don't-want-to-let-go."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It's not, but you'll play anyway~" Usagi sing-songs, trying to cover up her own failed evil laugh with more things to laugh at - and because, she knows it's true, and it makes her own heart skip a beat. To know he'd learn something from her, even though it's her, even though she doesn't sell it well, just because she asked.

"We're going to have so much fun!"

Everyone who looks at them, who glances their way, comes to the same general conclusion - young love. But at least they're not saying anything - not the giggling girls in the far corner, taking a break between Jurassic Park simulators, not the smirking guys on the racing games, not even the older couple playing Tetris. No flustered denials will spill forth now.

Up the stairs brings them to the cafe, to sweets scents and the sound of silverware scraping plates and bowls, voices chitchatting, and Usagi has wiled away many an afternoon here, avoiding home and lectures about test scores, is too familiar with the place to be distracted.

It's a good thing, because she practically trips on air when Darien leans down to offer that little tid bit, cheeks lighting up red, heart beating in double-time for a second - "We could make two trips?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"We could," says Darien with a grin. "And then we could eat junk food while holding hands, too. Are there any videogames you can play that way?"

He's just outright saying it. His voice is pitched so really only Usagi can hear him, but he's just SAYING it. Right there in front of Sailor Cosmos and everyone, and he's a little bit teasing, but it's not the kind of teasing that aims to make fun. "I'm psyching myself up to let go is what this is, sorry."

He just wants to be close. There's all this noise surrounding them that he's still trying to process, trying to be in the present for, trying to pay attention to because he has to watch his back all the time. There are all these people and Darien's given up on them, because he just wants to be close to Usagi.

He really doesn't want to let go.

I want to be a lifeguard, he had told Kazuo.

Tethers and not letting go and not abandoning--

Right here in the moment, there's Usagi to make blush and food to order.

"So you order! I know I want fries but I don't know what else. So you can make stuff up for me too, if you want. Just not fried dragon gizzards or anything."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Ah," Usagi is completely red, she is out of the room, she is dead, "Y-yeah, we could play Tetris like that -"

He admitted it! He just admitted it! That they're holding hands! That's what they're doing sure, but it's been not-deniable and not-acknowledged and - "We could play Pac-Man like that too."

She's smiling. She hasn't realized it, but she's smiling widely, so much so the edges of her smile are surely going to ache. "But you know - I can always, I can always hold your hand again."

AHHHHHHHHHHHH.

She's fine. She's fine! She's FINE! Externally she's smiling a bit like a fool. Internally, she's losing it.

"Let's get some karaage! And we can share a parfait."

Yeah she's taking the kilometer now that she's been given a meter.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Karaage and a parfait, then," Darien tells whoever's behind the counter today, "and fries. And a regular coffee, black."

His hand is warm and dry and large, grabbed by Usagi's but practically enfolding it, and it twitches in the beginning of a movement-- and he laughs. "You're going to have to hold my hand again, unless you want to pick my pocket. Wallet's on your side."

And there's the smallest problem -- he has a question and he can't ask it. Darien is far too busy looking at Usagi's face, at that smile. He has a question he doesn't have to ask, so maybe he won't, maybe he'll figure it out on his own, and it won't have to involve telling anyone in question 'no' or 'sorry'. Maybe.

He certainly can't ask now. Not in this well of humanity, where there's the grind of machinery for ice cream and milkshakes, the sizzle of frying things back in the kitchen, the laughter and voices from up here and from down the stairs in the arcade, the sounds of the games. Not in this slice of time, where the temperature is best on this floor, warmer than the cold downstairs, cooler than the heat outside, and the air's full of the smell of fried things and sweet things.

Not here when she's smiling like that.

Darien finds that his face hurts too. Why can't this be the kind of hurt he deals with?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The person behind the counter is Unazuki Furuhata, and Usagi waves her free hand at her in greeting, filled with the smug and delighted air of a girl who was liked by a boy she definitely totally didn't maybe sorta like-like back. She and Unazuki had never gone to the same school, what with Unazuki over at T.A. Girl's Academy, but what with Usagi's long burning crush on Motoki and frequent patronage, they'd run into each other enough that Unazuki is looking absolutely delighted.

Gossip achieved!

"I'm picking your pocket then. Watch out~ I'm a master thief."

She's absolutely not, and proves it, reaching into his pocket with careful hands that still manage to fumble and nearly drop the wallet - her efforts to catch it end up slapping the poor thing directly onto the counter, but! Hey. At least Darien can pay that way! It made it to the counter!

Her head? Empty. Her heart? Full. Thoughts can wait, feelings now.

And yes, in the back of her mind, there's thoughts of Kazuo-senpai, and Darien's heart going dokidokidoki, and does she really, really, really like him, and secrets being kept, and Elephant's getting poked with thorns, and -

She's a girl, right now. Just a girl, with the boy she likes. A little bit of a crybaby, definitely a romantic, and living a totally normal life, for just one afternoon.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's nothing in the manual about what to do when Usagi's picking his pocket so cutely. "Ah, just like Arsene Lupin," Darien marvels at her incredible skills, and then he stifles a laugh when she slaps it on the counter.

He flips it open with one hand, and there's his student ID looking very studious in his school uniform -- from the beginning of the year. Darien Shields, grade 10. And there's some cash, and there's a pLaTiNuM cArD?! which he leaves in, opting for the cash instead, dropping the change in the tip jar.

He's going to get gossiped about, and that's fine.

He can't ask.

(What do you do when you like two people at the same time?) (Answer: Hide from your feelings!!)

"I can probably," he says, "play pac-man and tetris. And we could probably play those. Would you want to, or do you want to teach me how to play your favorite games instead?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"A phantom thief, that's me!"

She snoops a little, of course - there's his school ID, confirming his grade, just a year above hers, and cash, and a credit card? Whoa!

She didn't even know you could get a credit card as a teenager. Jeez!

"My favorite game is the Sailor V game," she says very casually, as if this were not Elephant-san's territory, or close to it, "But that's a single player game. I think we should start with the two player games, so I can help you out. Have you ever tried Street Fighter?"

Normal kids. Normal lives. Normal problems: what game to play, and what snack to have, and do you like me -