• At a practice room at the agency •

You politely bowed to everyone as you said you were heading off for the day. A few people said, "Thanks for the hard work, _____! You did great today!" Others ushered you out with "You did overtime for the past few weeks. You deserve the rest of the day off."

The second you were out of the room, you sighed in relief. "Any longer and I would have fainted..." you said to yourself. A familiar flat voice replied, "I don't understand people like them."

Being too tired to be surprised, you looked over at the bench that pat next to the doorway of the practice room. There sat a fellow senior who was looking through his phone. "What do you mean, Ai?" you asked as he continued staring at his phone.

"They obviously just noticed now," he said. "The more exhausted you are, the less quality your work will have-"

Waving him off, you interrupted, "Yeah, yeah. And without quality work, I'll fail as an idol. I know, you've told me that hundreds of times."

Ai stood up to put away his phone and finally looked at you. "_____, let's go somewhere," he said. It seemed more like a command than a suggestion. Ai reached for your hand to make sure you didn't try and ditch.

As he started to pull you along, you whined, "But I'm tired~! Can't we go back to the dorms?"

He shook his head. By then, you had almost made it out of the agency. A few people looked you direction and some even whispered to/with their companion. You looked down to try to hide your face. Every now and then, you'd hear someone's biting remark.

Ai seemed to notice and threw his jacket over your shoulders, pulling the hoodie over your head. "I'll treat you to some [favorite dessert]," was all he said.

• • •

There was a dessert shop not too far from the agency which Ai took you to. It was afternoon on Monday so no customers were there.

Ai let you get whatever you want. There were so many pastries, cakes, etc. that you didn't know what to get. The manager, who was the only other person in the shop besides you and Ai, suggested you have a "tasting party." You gladly accepted and the manager led you two to a table a bit too enthusiastically.

Soon, the table you sat at and nearby tables were covered with sweets. Ai watched as you began to dig in. You squealed with delight as you tasted a really delicious [fav. flavor] cake.

You scooped more of it with your fork and held it out to Ai. "Say 'ahh,'" you said happily. Ai knew you wouldn't stop pestering him until he ate it so he opened his mouth. You fed him the cake and waited for his feedback.

Instead, he stood up and said to the manager, "We'll buy a whole cake of this and please make it two-tiered. We'll come by later to pick it up."

"Yah! I haven't tried all of these yet!" you cried as Ai paid. His response was, "I'm already buying you a whole cake."

You and Ai (lol) left shortly and outside, you stretched your arms. "Those were so good~," you said before thanking him for the food. "Can we go to the dorms now? I wanna take a nap."

Ai shook his head and sighed in annoyance. "You want to go back without burning off those calories?" he asked. "If this keeps up, you'll get fat."

The two of you started bickering about an idol's health. Ai had started walking towards an arcade and because you were too busy talking, you didn't realize it.

Only when you stepped into the dim arcade did you realize that Ai was serious about the whole weight thing. Eventually, you gave up and stuffed your hand in your bag for money.

Except there was no wallet.

You mentally scolded yourself and tugged on Ai's sleeve. "I, uh, forgot my wallet at the dorms," you said sheepishly. "Why don't I run back for it?"

He really must not have wanted to go back because he took out his own wallet and handed you 2,000 yen (Gotta be realistic, right?). "Go exchange this for coins," he ordered.

After you did so and walked back to Ai, you walked around the arcade looking for something to play. Out of the blue, you asked, "Why do you not want to go back to the dorms so badly?"

No reply.

Suddenly, an idea popped into your head. 'Would this count as a date...?' You shook your head when you heard Ai ask something. "Hm? What was that?" you asked.

Ai pointed to a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) machine and asked for the second time, "Do you want to play that?"

You nodded while smiling and put a few coins in before backing up onto one side of the platform. Ai chose the difficulty as you took off your bag. You didn't see how hard he had set it until the first song played. It didn't seem to bother him that you were frantically trying to keep up with the steps. Actually, he seemed too enticed with his own dancing to notice anything.

At the end of the song, you were already out of breath. You looked up to see the score and was shocked to see that Ai had gotten a perfect score. As you let it sink in, Ai chose the next song again.

"Your dancing can use some work," he said as you waited for the second song to play. "Your stamina is horrible as well."

You looked at him to retort, but stopped yourself when you saw a small smile. Your face got a bit warm as you peeled your eyes off of him. During the second song, your chest felt heavy...

The second and last songs went by smoothly. It was no surprise Ai got perfect scores on all three songs.

After that, you and Ai played a few more games that required less physical movement (*wink wink*). A few hours later, Ai led the way out of the arcade and you were surprised how fast time went, seeing how dark it had already gotten.

The sky had turned a bright shade of orange, giving almost everything a marigold glow. It had also become colder. So cold that you could see your breath. You shivered, but for a second time, Ai placed his jacket on you.

As he pulled the hoodie over like the first time, you looked at him and asked, "Won't you get cold? You're wearing nothing else over your shirt..." Ai shook his head and replied, "You're my #1 priority, and if you put get closer..." He held his arm out for you and hesitantly, you linked your arm with his. Now that you were side by side, Ai couldn't see your cheeks had turned slightly rosy.

You remained quiet as he hailed a taxi and the two of you climbed in. The warmth of Ai and the taxi made you feel drowsy. When the taxi stopped by the dessert shop, you were barely awake and Ai had to make sure you wouldn't nod your head forward.

It seemed like forever before Ai came back with a pretty box with the cake. Ai opened the taxi door and found you asleep. As he climbed back in and the taxi started back to the dorms, your arm made its way back with Ai's.

Ai quietly said, "How troublesome...." behind a small grin.

• • •

You were nudged awake by Ai when you finally arrived at the front gates of the dorms.

The sun had already set, making everything freezing cold. But with you being so close to Ai, it was nothing.

Surprisingly enough, you had energy to make it across the courtyard. It was a bit quiet and because of it, it made things seem a bit awkward...

Inside the dorms, it was fairly warm, though Ai insisted you change into lighter clothes. Once you did, you met Ai outside your room.

In his hands was the cake box. "We should eat this in the practice room," he said. "No one should be there this time of evening."

You made your way to the practice room with Ai in complete silence. What was with this...? Suddenly, you have cake and argue about health. Now, it was completely silent?

Ai opened the door for you and you stepped in. It was dark inside, but you could have sworn you heard some sort of shuffling. Once Ai shut the door, the lights flew on.

There, everyone opened party poppers. Heck, even Shining was there, opening multiple poppers at once. They all yelled, "Surprise, _____!"

"What's all this...?" you asked, finally noticing that the room was covered with decorations.

Ringo was the first to speak. "It's a surprise birthday party for you!" he said cheerfully. Reiji added, "And Ai-Ai took you out on a date to distract you from coming here."

Turning to him, you said to Ai, "So that's why you didn't want to return to the dorms." He nodded.

"You even chose your own cake, huh?" Syo asked as he took the box from Ai. Everyone laughed lightly at that.

The party finally started. You were dragged here and there by everyone. Ringo and Tomochika asked how you liked the decor; Reiji pestered you about what you did on your "date" while the rest of QN tried to hold him back; Natsuki even asked if you could try the cookies he made especially for your birthday.

A few hours later, you went out onto the patio to get some fresh air. You looked up at the sky to see the stars and moon when you heard someone join you.

"You might catch a cold in thin clothing," someone said. You were about to reply when you felt a fluffy blanket being wrapped around your shoulders. Grinning, you said back, "I thought idiots don't catch colds."

Silence.

You looked over at Ai and your face felt warm almost immediately. His arms were lying on the stone balcony railing with his head resting on them. He stared at you with his usual poker face.

Instead of looking away, you smiled again. "So. Where's my present?" you joked.

Ai seemed to know you'd ask that even though you meant it as a joke. He straightened up and trapped you between his arms. With a serious expression, Ai said, "I'm your present." You tried holding back a laugh, which resulted in you snorting.

Wait, was he serious...?

He pulled the blanket over your head and his so it kind of made a makeshift tent. Ai started leaning forward with his eyes closed. Of course, you knew what was about to happen, so you closed your eyes as well. His lips finally touched yours, but it only lasted seconds. Ai pulled away soon.

You stared at him for a second before realizing what he just did and turned a shade that matched Otoyan's hair (lols). Ai pulled the blanket off and something about him seemed smug.

"Hm...Reiji was right for once," Ai said, sort of to himself.

Shaking your head, you asked, "What? About what?"

"If I said I was your present and kissed you, you'd blush."
(Or something like that)

You felt your eyes tear up as you asked, "It was a bet?"

"It was," Ai murmured. "But this isn't." He cupped your face and kissed you again.

I'm really bad when it comes to endings and titles :/

Another thing is the practice room in the agency. I just finished a drama (for the tenth time) and they had a practice room at the agency instead of the dorms so yeah...

Lastly, the reason I chose that song for this chapter is I think the whole date thing kinda fits.
(Five fans got to go on a group date with them >/////<)