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*Knock Knock*
Kazuichi shuffled in place, waiting for the would be Ultimate Inventor to answer the door. It wasn’t that long ago that he and Miu went on their first date. That is, if one could call meeting in Kazuichi’s garage and brainstorming their next invention a date.
Regardless, they both had enough fun to warrant a second date, and since they had already been to his place, Miu insisted that they had to spend the next date at her place. Though he eagerly accepted at the time, trying to figure out what Miu had in store for him made him admittedly nervous.
What does she wanna do at her place? Does she…want to take things further already…? I mean…she did try to hit on Naegi during her job interview, and I heard from Ibuki about how she zapped her and Komaru’s panties off with some ray gun of hers. Then again…maybe I’m just overreacting…
Kazuichi’s thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the door. Greeting him was the sight of Miu Iruma herself, garbed in her standard hot pink dress.
“H-Hi, Miu…”
Kazuichi smiled, awkwardly waving at his girlfriend. The inventor whistled, eyeing Kazuichi’s outfit. Instead of his usual, yellow jumpsuit, he instead donned a pair of blue sweats and track jacket, somewhat reminiscent of his days at Hope’s Peak Academy.
“Wow, Kaz, I didn’t know anyone could make a tracksuit look so sexy!”
Kazuichi turned pink as she winked at him, chuckling nervously and rubbing the back of his head. “Th-thanks…I just thought it’d be a nice change of pace, is all.”
Miu grinned, wrapping her arms around one of his own. “Well, don’t just stand around outside. Come in, Come in! I’ve got a whole day of fun prepared for us!”
His cheeks darkened, wondering just what he had gotten himself into. He couldn’t help but think that today would either be one of the best days of his life…or one of the most exhausting.
“…”
Kazuichi blinked, dumbfounded by what he was just witnessing. Did Miu test some weird hallucination invention on me without my consent, or are we really watching Looney Tunes?
Kazuichi pinched himself, cringing in pain as he indeed concluded that this was definitely real. Sitting on Miu’s couch with the inventor snuggled up against his side, he really was watching a Looney Tunes marathon with her.
I’m not sure whether to feel relieved or disappointed… He admitted to himself, not sure if Miu’s day of fun was a letdown or not.
Miu’s cackles shook him out of his thoughts, bringing his attention back to reality as she slapped her knee. Wondering what made her emit genuine laughter, he turned his attention to the TV screen. The anthropomorphic coyote was charred to a crisp, holding an equally charred arrow as the road runner zipped by, taunting him.
“Haha! I always crack up when the coyote’s plans fail! Isn’t this the best, Kaz?”
Kazuichi sweatdropped, not exactly sharing in Miu’s enthusiasm. I mean…I enjoy cartoon violence a smuch as the next guy…but I don’t think a marathon of imitatable violence is what I’d call the best…
Now composed, Miu looked up at his awkward face, confused by his unresponsiveness. Gently elbowing him, she asked “Yo, Kaz? You still awake? You better not have fallen asleep on me!”
“H-Huh?” Looking around, he frowned once his eyes settled on Miu’s concerned face. “Oh, no, I’m not asleep.”
A moment of silence permeated the living room before Miu sighed. Reluctantly, she grabbed her remote and pressed the pause button.
“Alright, Kaz, what’s up? You’re clearly not having fun with me-”
“H-Hold on!” Kazuichi interjected a little more loudly than he intended. “It’s not that…it’s just…well…I’m…surprised, that’s all.”
Miu raised an eyebrow. “What od you mean, surprised?”
“W-Well…I just didn’t expect you to be into these kinda of old…children’s cartoons, that’s all. If anything, I thought maybe you might have a soft spot for teen or adult anime.”
Miu waved her hand and shook her head. “Nah, too violent and vulgar for my tastes.”
Now it was Kazuichi’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “This coming from the girl who swears left and right and tried to seduce the headmaster during her interview?”
Miu winced at the reminder of how she almost got blacklisted from Hope’s Peak Academy, but quickly recovered. “Kaz, there’s enough vulgarity and sexiness in the real world. Cartoons are where I go to escape from all that; that’s why I love all these old classics!”
Kazuichi blinked, genuinely stunned by this side of Miu. Not once did he actually think that Miu would want to watch something so…family friendly.
“What?!” Miu’s suddenly shrill voice startled him, making the mechanic nearly fall over. “Did you really think I was so degenerate that I’d only watch rude and lewd stuff?” Her eyes widened for a spit second before her teeth gnashed. “Oh, I get it! You thought I was inviting you over for something kinky, didn’t you, Kaz?!”
Kazuichi was struck silent; he didn’t know at the time his imagination started acting up if it really was what Miu wanted to do with him for their date night, but he did at least entertain the possibility. The pause was enough to fuel Miu’s own paranoia; her eyes began to water, her now frowning lips quivering as she began to cry.
“I knew it…every guy just wants to get in my panties in the end. That’s why I flaunted my body to get what I wanted in the first place. If guys were just gonna leer and lust at me, might as well get something out of it, right?” She turned away, sniffling as the tears trickled down her cheeks. “I thought I finally found a guy who liked me for me, but he’s just like all the rest!”
As Miu began to cry, her back turned to Kazuichi, a tense silence passed in the room. Kazuichi bit his lip, guilt clenching his heart from his unintended blunder.
“…I’m sorry.”
“H-Huh…?”
Miu turned to see Kazuichi’s guilt-ridden face, hand rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. He took a deep breath, wanting to make sure he didn’t mess up his chance to patch things up with his new girlfriend.
“…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made any assumptions about you, or what you wanted to do together for our date night. I didn’t know what you had planned, but I…tried to make an educated guess about what you thought of as a night of fun. But I should have just let myself be surprised instead of assuming your intentions. So…I’m sorry about that…”
“K-Kazuichi…” Miu sniffled, wiping her eye with a gloved hand. “You know…there’s another reason why I connected with these old cartoons so much.” Seeing his curious, raised brow, Miu elaborated “…Every time I saw one of the coyote’s convoluted plans blow up in his face, I started thinking about what I could invent to make the plan succeed. In a way,..this show inspired me to become an inventor.”
“Wow…” Kazuichi breathed. “That’s…really cool and inspirational, Miu.”
Miu nodded, her lips tugging into a frown. “Yeah…though I’m guessing this isn’t as fun for you as it is for me.”
“Well…it’s not that I’m not having fun…” Kazuichi sighed, trying to find the right words to explain his feelings. “It’s more that…I just have different tastes than you do.”
A curious twinkle in her eyes, she tossed him the remote. “Then show me what you like to watch, Kaz. You did sit with me through this marathon…might as well share it so you get some say in what we watch.”
Smiling gratefully, Kazuichi started flipping through the channels. Eventually, his eyes widened, and he dropped the remote in his lap. “Alright, Transformers!”
Miu laughed. “Shoulda known you’d get excited about fuckin’ trucks!”
“You don’t know the half of it! Watching them transform into giant, fighting robots and kick ass, made me wish I could take them apart and figure out how they worked so bad! That wish made me interested in trying to figure out how to put machines together and figure out what made ‘em tick, you know.”
“…Guess we both were inspired by cartoons, ne?”
Miu snuggled up against Kazuichi’s side once more, the duo falling into a comfortable silence. Kazuichi smiled, wrapping a loose arm around her torso before their eyes drifted to the TV screen. As the Cybertrons and Destrons duked it out before their eyes, the two partners felt their bond grow stronger, tempered and tested by their misunderstandings and subsequently learning more about each other.