Was it possible for your life to flash before your eyes when someone else was in danger?

She just rushed right in. Koto didn't even take a moment to explain what her plan was before she acted. I felt ridiculous, standing behind a wall while she risked her life. She shouldn't have to be on constant guard, even with her Hero license. The moment either happened in the span of two seconds or two hours, but I couldn't decide which one.

When it was over, I thought my legs would give out. I had been scared during villain attacks before (I was a UA student after all,) but this was different. This was worse.

Koto signed, but my mind wasn't in it yet. I felt my eyes involuntarily twitch and the sting followed before I asked her.

"I'm sorry, what?"

Koto signed back with so much ease that I almost forgot the last few minutes occurred.

"I asked if you were ready to hit the arcade?"

Seconds more passed before I comprehended what she meant and broke the stare that soon grew awkward.

Like anyone trying to add onto the uncomfortable silence, I answered, "Yeah, I guess so."

We walked the remaining distance to the arcade. My heart was desperate to break out of my chest. My hands, shaky and clammy, tingled with the tics that itched through my nerves. I rubbed them against my jacket, using the friction to ease myself.

As Koto walked a few steps in front of me towards the arcade, I found myself keeping a close eye on her. I knew I had no rational reason to worry that she might leave again and not come back; still, I couldn't pull my eyes off her for even a short moment without the panic rushing back through my breath.

The first few minutes at the arcade passed by in a blur, and I never shook that intense grip on my chest. Every blinking light on the games felt taunting to how I felt when Koto put herself in danger, distressed and unnerving. We played some games together, but I still felt off despite her way of bouncing back like it was nothing. I only then began to realize why the discomfort wouldn't go away.

Whether I like it or not, she's a Hero, and she's going to be put through incidents like that all the time. One way or another, I'll have to learn to deal with the fact that I won't have her around as a friend forever.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

Back at the arcade, Rose dominated in air hockey, which led to a close competition between us. Koto and I never brought up what happened, and we each tried focussing on having fun instead, her succeeding more and I.

Rose was a tough competitor, but she failed to realize that air hockey is all about angles, and I loved geometry. We went back and forth until I caved and let her score, yet I'd never tell her that. We continued to play until Double challenged Rose to a round of ski ball, and they headed off.

I slid the air hockey paddle on the table, letting it slide around until I searched the room for someone else. Without even considering where Dani or Snake were, I instinctively looked out for Koto's curly, red hair in the cluster of people. I finally caught her standing close to a claw machine game by herself, and followed her there without a thought.

When I walked over to her, I rationalized it by thinking that if something were to go down, I didn't want her to be alone. I immediately threw that excuse out though. Not only was it silly to worry about another villain attack, but it was even more foolish to think I would be of any help.

She likely noticed me behind her, but Koto looked focused as she maneuvered through the robotic claw over the sea of prizes. I noticed that flutter, those skipping beats in my heart when I was close to her. The common variable has been her every time, and the dependent variable felt like a corkscrew in my stomach.

After the claw rose without a plush toy in its grasp, Koto gave up and turned around to me. When the sight of that calm smile paired with the softest blue eyes I had ever seen hit me, the corkscrew moved to my heart and twisted ten more times.

I really need to see a doctor.

Before I could try and look up my symptoms on the internet, Koto began to sign for me. "Want a turn? I've been trying to snag the hedgehog for the past ten minutes."

I didn't feel like I could turn down her offer, and I silently agreed by stepping up to the claw machine. The wide pane of glass reflected me, and I noticed how distressed I appeared. My dark and curly hair hung over one side of my face, and my eyes only looked dimmer over the dark spots on my cheeks. The only plus side was my look wasn't much different than any other day. Still, I needed to do something about this.

I glanced down and quickly saw the toy Koto had mentioned. The tiny hedgehog looked just barely small enough to fit in the claw, but it wasn't impossible.

I made a deal with myself after putting in my spare change to the machine. If I could grab the hedgehog toy in one shot, then I would tell Koto every thought ringing through my mind when she's around. If I missed, then I would just ignore these feelings and pray they'd go away someday. Both options felt equally difficult, but I still took my best try at rotating the claw down to grab the plush toy.

Before the claw could reach the bottom of the container, I was too anxious to leave my eyes open. I left myself in the dark until it felt long enough for the claw to rise back up again. While my eyes were closed, I realized something: deep down, I felt disappointed to think about not finding the hedgehog in the bottom of the bin. With that in my mind, I knew what I had to do no matter what I found in the claw machine.

It had been too long of my stalling before I looked in the small black section where the winning toys were dropped. I had thought I would be relieved when I saw the tan hedgehog at the bottom, ready for me to grab and hand to Koto. However, I only felt intimidated. Now, I had no choice but to tell her everything. I had already promised the universe, and I was a man of my word after all.

I reached for the hedgehog toy and looked back up to Koto. She clapped and signed something congratulatory to me, but I couldn't focus. My heart pounded at a thousand miles an hour, and I turned down to the hedgehog toy for comfort. Looking into its large, off-set eyes with my hands wrapped around its prickly yet soft fur, I tried to find the courage to sign out to Koto everything on my mind.

I tried letting out a light breath to ease myself as I started, "You know, I've got to stop telling you important things through kids' toys."

I handed the toy over to Koto and afterward asked if we could talk in private for a moment. I led her towards the doorway of the arcade and stepped out. The noise from inside wouldn't bother me, but I figured it would be less of a distraction for her. We stayed close to the glass doors, and seeing her in the center of the bright sun that only made those ginger curls more fiery brought out all the words I was looking for.

"Listen, Koto, before you, I couldn't picture myself feeling this way ever. But now that you're in my life, I want to be the reason you can smile like that. I want to be the reason you do your best to come back after risking your life while saving others. After today, it's harder to think of a time when you might get badly hurt, and that's something I never want to see, especially before I have the chance to tell you how I'm feeling."

It took only a few sentences to lift such a heavy weight off my shoulders. While I felt liberated from getting everything off my chest, I quickly felt sick in the short seconds before Koto replied. She watched me closely, and it took everything in my willpower not to break eye contact. The tics burned in my wrists and made my fingers twitch, but I couldn't look away from her.

Soon enough, I followed Koto's hands which signed out to me, "Mordecai, are you saying that you like me?"

"I'm trying to at least," I answered, but it was far from easing my nerves.

Koto paused, and the most stressful few seconds passed. I debated turning around and leaving the conversation at that, but something in me, something beyond logic, needed to see her response.

Her eyes moved away from mine, giving me the opportunity to stare at the ground and urged my feet from moving.

Thankfully, she signed back before I had second thoughts. "So, you want to go on a date?"

Now, where did she get that from?

My hands acted quicker than my mind could keep up, but I couldn't honestly find an answer for her. "I think so?"

I saw her lips turn up in a smile, but that didn't tell me anything. She signed back, "Okay."

"Okay, what?" I asked, earning a short laugh from her.

"Okay, I'll go out with you. Where do you want to go?"

What I wanted to ask was if Koto was sure, or if she had something in mind more specific than "out." Instead, I signed back, "I'm not sure. If I'm being honest, I didn't think I would get this far."

She then suggested, "How about we go to dinner at a restaurant?"

"Would that still count as going 'out'?"

Once again, my question gave Koto another laugh, but I wasn't sure why. I just needed some answers here.

"You're cute," she signed, and I felt a tad embarrassed for asking, grabbing the hair on the back of my neck and glancing back down at the ground.

While I had no clue where to start, Koto was patient with me in planning an evening to have dinner. I didn't recognize the feeling that followed after, and I wasn't sure how to describe it. Excited? Terrified? Maybe both? It didn't matter. The reality of it all led to me having a date. My very first date.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

After drowning in my thoughts, my attention was grabbed when the weight of a thick sweater was thrown over my head. I pulled the fabric off my hair to see Dani mouthing something at me. I didn't need to read his movements to understand it was likely critiquing more of my outfit.

I knew I was going into my date with Koto blind as a bat. I had zero clue how to prepare myself, and the time before the date seemed to be fleeting. I decided to consult an expert on the matter and ask Dani for his help. I then invited Double along to keep Dani sane, but it was little use.

As he dug through a bin of clothes in his room, cursing to himself that nothing was right, Dani stepped into his closet and brought out more boxes of old clothes to rifle through. There was nothing he was more passionate about than fashion, and I worried that I might have gotten him in over his head by asking for help.

Double put a hand on his shoulder, careful to stay out of the way when Dani threw the rejected clothes onto his floor.

"Take it- Take it easy, man," Double offered, trying to calm our friend down before he fell off the deep end. Although, I'd argue that we were long past that point.

Dani stood up to Double, leaning back as if Double's suggestion to relax had been a dishonor on his credibility. "Take it easy'? How do you expect me to take it easy when I have one night to turn this into a guy worth dating‽"

The blunt comment wasn't anything worth getting mad about, but I couldn't help but get offended with his dramatic gesture to me as he said it. I simply signed back, "Ouch?"

I thought back on the events that led up to where we were. Dani insisted on bringing Double and me to his family's apartment located above their own thrift store. It didn't surprise me that Dani came from a family of designers, seamstresses, and fashion experts, but I didn't expect his family to be so warm and welcoming... two words I rarely used to describe Dani.

When we first arrived, Dani's mom gave us a tour of their shop and their apartment while his Mada picked our brains about our classes and how we all met. I truly couldn't understand how Dani was directly related to his mother. Other than their matching skin tone, the two couldn't have been more different. When Dani explained that he was helping me with my date, his mom started to gush and ramble about how sweet it was. I didn't mind it until she started to hug me, and I subtly inched for the door. No disrespect to Mrs. Dako, but if anyone talked about my plans with Koto any longer, I'd only grow more anxious about it.

As Dani continued to dig through his pile of clothes, I tried grabbing his attention and motioning to my whiteboard with a message.

"Why couldn't we have just met up at my house?" I asked, receiving a scoff from Dani.

"Because the thought of searching through your closet for an outfit gives me hives."

Offended, I quickly erased my writing and continued on while Double tried lecturing Dani on calming down again. Dani insisted that I wouldn't have anything right in my room, and while he wasn't exactly wrong, I didn't need to hear it.

"Do you think you're just always right about this stuff?" I pointed to my white board again.

Dani looked down to my hand then back up at me with equal, unamused glances.

"Obviously, and rightfully so." Before I could argue further with him and his ego, another piece of clothing was tossed my way.

"Stop bitching about it, and change your shirt."

If we hadn't gone through this fifty times since I arrived at his house, I'd be hesitant. But Dani was stubborn when it came to his fashion sense, and I couldn't find the energy to go back and forth with him.

I tried on the fancy, white shirt, the gold buttons feeling cold against my bare skin while the sleeves fell down to my fingertips. I wasn't liking it at all, and I found it challenging to write with the clean sleeves draping over my palms.

I tried signing to Dani and Double, "It's a little much, don't you think?"

Dani shook his head once more, "Will you trust my process?"

He tried rolling the sleeves up, but it only created awkward chunks on my forearms. Dani soon gave up and had me change back into my original t-shirt just as his attention was brought over to the door to his room.

I rushed to slip my head through the shirt and turn around to see two more faces popping into the room with bins of clothes.

"Backup is here," Snake announced with a sly grin, our pink haired friend following close behind her.

I darted my eyes over to Dani and grabbed my whiteboard again, writing, "You told them?"

"Of course I did!" He burst. "Look, this hasn't been easy, okay? You wanted my help, and I now realize that this is going to take a village." Dani sighed to himself and leaned against his wall, filling in Rose and Snake about how he hasn't made any progress in the last hour and a half. For every dramatic woe he exasperated, Double was right behind him, pretending to play an air violin with sarcastic tears in his eyes.

I didn't see why Dani had to rope the girls in on this. It was hard enough to ask Double and him for help, but I was even less comfortable taking advice from Rose or Snake. I gave Double and Dani a weary glace from the corners of my eyes, Snake soon catching on and assuring me.

"Aww, we promise not to embaras-s-s you," she swore, crossing her fingers over her heart. I realized it couldn't be that bad, having them around. Letting Snake rifle through the clothes with Dani, I didn't let it get to me that so many people tried to help me out even as Rose soon approached me with a thin smile.

"Soooo," she drew out with head nods to accent her sing-song tone. "You have a date with the songbird?"

"Okay, leave," I snapped back, signing quickly then pointing to the door with a glare up at Rose.

She only laughed and waved me off, defending her jokes with, "Aw, don't be ashamed. It's not like it's your first date." When I didn't respond and instead turned my head down briefly, I think I made it clear to her that her statement wasn't at all true.

Rose corrected herself with wide, surprised eyes, "Oh my God, this is your first date."

My shoulders dropped down as I finished signing to her, "Please, stop helping."

Rose's mocking manner shifted into an awkward stance as she wrapped her curls around her fingers and kept talking despite my wishes, "No, no, it's cute, you know? Just, uh, surprising, I guess."

Instead of getting more embarrassed, which I didn't find possible, I took the opportunity to turn the tables onto her. Taking out my whiteboard, I wrote down a quick question and held the board up in front of myself.

"Really, where's your first date?"

My friend's eyes narrowed down at me with that same threatening glare I rarely saw in her. She pointed down at me and warned, "Watch it, Rockefeller." But we both knew I had won.

Since then, Dani continued his fashion montage to figure out my "aesthetic." He had me try on about a hundred different outfits, each one less flattering than the last. I knew finding a style that made me comfortable would be impossible, so I let Dani go as overboard as he needed to. He eventually took Snake with him to find a pair of shoes from downstairs, leaving Rose, Double, and I to take a break in his room.

I sat at the foot of his bed while Double snagged a desk chair, and Rose sprawled out on the carpeted floor. My hands twitched in my lap with every minute that passed by, bringing me closer and closer to my date with Koto. I didn't like admitting when I was scared, but at the time, I couldn't have pictured anything more terrifying.

Double must have picked up on my mood. He slid the swivel chair closer to me and mouthed out, "Be honest, how are you really feeling about all this?"

I wasn't sure what to tell him, mostly considering the fact that I didn't know how I felt. I was worried more than anything, but that might have been obvious to them.

I placed my whiteboard back in my lap and started to write out everything that was on my mind, hoping that telling someone else will help alleviate the stress.

"What am I supposed to say to her? Is this going to be different than when we just hang out?" When I showed them my writing, Double and Rose exchanged a look as they each thought up an answer.

"I mean, yeah, it's gonna be different," Rose suggested.

Very helpful.

I didn't expect her to be too knowledgeable on this, and thankfully, Double was there to add on.

"Look- Look," he stuttered. "the more you stress- you stress about it, the worse it's going to-to be. Just remember, there's no-no pressure to be perfect."

Oddly enough, telling me not to put pressure on the night didn't seem to take any real pressure off. I still feared that she would get bored, and it would wreck our friendship. Or worse, things would go great, and it'll change our friendship into something I knew nothing about.

I erased my board and scribbled another question down, "What do I do if she doesn't say anything?"

Koto had a good habit of keeping a conversation going with her little questions and hypothetical scenarios. Still, my biggest concern was her freezing up and it being on me to talk to her. I was never a good conversationalist, and I certainly wasn't ready to be one on our date.

"That's a good question," Rose commented, turning to Double with a shrug.

Double soon suggested, "So-So, if things get awkward or-or something, you can- you can try breaking the tension with a-a joke."

Going back to my writing, I asked, "I have to learn jokes now?"

Double smiled to himself, but his advice didn't seem to be making any sense. Why would a joke help me calm down? Stage fright was one of the most common traits in adolescents, so logic would dictate that it's the opposite of what I should do.

"Humor is just- is just a good cure for what you're-you're going through." I gave Double a skeptical look, but he insisted, "Just try one."

I thought long and hard about anything that I might consider a joke, but my mind was left blank. I admittedly signed to my friends, "I don't know any."

Before Double could find me a way to learn some jokes or give any examples, Rose quickly beat him to it with an enthusiastic, "Oh! I got one!"

She waved us down until we both faced her as she sat up and began, "Okay, what did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet?"

She took a dramatic pause for us to reply, but it didn't look like either of us knew the answer. Eventually, Double caved and began to ask Rose for the answer, just a second before she screamed it out at us.

"SUPPLIES!"

Double and I flinched, and my heart raced, all the hours spent calming me down now out the window. When the initial shock was over, Double laughed and congratulated Rose on her pun, but I still clenched my fists stressfully.

My hands felt shaky and stiff, but I managed to sign out, "And that works?"

"Yeah, sure," she waved off. "Listen, buddy, the important thing is to not overthink it. First dates are always stressful, but they're no big deal. It's just to get a vibe of each other and see if this is someone you picture yourself in a relationship with. You're going to be fine."

"If you say so." I didn't find it very easy to not overthink it, but as Rose and Double both suggested, I at least tried.

The three of us chatted some more about what I should expect on my date. After a few minutes of pep talking, Dani and Snake arrived with another laundry basket full of pants, coats, shoes, and t-shirts.

Snake smiled at me and set the basket down at my feet. "I think we have a winner here," she hissed happily. "Are you ready?"

After all the help from my friends, I found it in me to honestly reply, "As ready as I'll ever be."

Chapter 15 is dedicated to UAStorytellers