Originally posted March 14, 2010
((I always find it challenging to buy gifts for someone I don't know too well. This gave me a chance to play with that idea as Chance worked through his first romantic holiday with Kori. Ive included the notes from the original posting.))
((Falling a month after Valentine's Day, White Day offers Japanese men a chance to give gifts to the women that bought them something in February. It's a bit of a Hallmark holiday that's picked up speed in the last 20 years. Traditional gifts include white chocolate, flowers, and one of those potential relationship ending presents, lingerie.))
Eventually he settled on something that didn't look so itchy. Lingerie was just one of those things; one of the seven deadly traps of a relationship. The practicalities of women's underwear evaded most men and the definition of sexy changed from person to person.
He sighed. The strawberries were the easiest. He made them himself. The flowers took a little time as he looked for something unique as her. He agonized over the lingerie, looking at different catalogs over the course of days. He imagined the look of her face as he revealed items, cringing at hypothetical laughter and an illusory "Do you really expect me to wear this?"
Eventually he settled on something that didn't look so itchy; something with a smooth line and a classic look. Something he hoped she'd like. Well, something he hoped they both would like.
-- by Kori Arasaka
Dearest Chance,
When your life is forever defined by a single action, it changes time. What feels like a 1000 years ago in my body, in my mind it feels like it happened yesterday.
Yet, time is what I think about with this new path that I have taken. Who I have become and who I want to be is all because of you and Akemi. What my actions in the past have taken from me you have given back to me; my soul.
I thought that my life belonged to the blade which I carry, and now I know that such a fate was my own choice.
Wherever this path takes me and whatever my fate shall bring, know that I walk it together, with you.
Love,
K
P.S. I have a gift for you that I hope you enjoy.
Within the box is a computerized key with the Mercedes symbol on it. A note accompanies it.
"I'm in the parking garage. Now you need to learn to drive me."
-- by Rex Celestis
He held the key as he looked at the car. He had his permit, but would need a licensed driver in the car with him. Chance hitched up his bicycle on his shoulder and made for the garage exit. The first drive would wait. They would make the first drive together. They had a future together, he told himself.
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