Request From Archive of Our Own
Ayoshi stood in front of his house door. He hadn't been waiting for long when the person he was waiting for arrived.
"Ayoshi! You look wonderful. Were you waiting for long?" Amao asked with a nervous smile.
"No, I just got here."
"That's good. Oh! I uhh–" Amao revealed the hidden arm behind his back. He let out an embarrassed laugh. "I got you some flowers. I wasn't really sure what flowers you liked, so I just asked the florist to combine a bunch of pretty ones. Yo-you don't have to like it…" He started rambling about how it was ok if Ayoshi didn't like the flowers and he didn't have to take them.
Ayoshi quickly shut him up with a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," he said while taking the flowers out of Amao's hand.
Amao gave him a gentle smile, "I'm glad you like them."
"Stay here. I'll go put these in water."
Once Ayoshi was out of sight, Amao's face flushed a bright red, the blush reaching his ear, and going down his neck. With a delicate touch, he felt his cheek and let out a love-sick sigh as his lips formed into a goofy smile. However, once he heard the sound of the doorknob turning, he quickly tried to cool down his face and tried to put a normal look back on his face. He tried to give Ayoshi a normal smile and asked, "Are you ready?"
"Mm, let's go."
***
Amao felt so excited. After he confessed to Ayoshi, he had wanted to take him somewhere nice to prove he was worthy of Ayoshi. He did some research and the restaurant he was taking Ayoshi to is really popular. However, when he checked the prices of the food, it was expensive, but he heard the food was really good. So three jobs and a whole month later he had finally saved up enough money to take Ayoshi and him on their first date.
"Amao, where are we going?"
"I'm taking you out to eat. I made a reservation at a restaurant and made sure they had plenty of delicious desserts."
Ayoshi's eyes started to sparkle and started to walk faster, dragging Amao along with him. They stopped at the bus stop and the bus soon arrived. The doors opened and they quickly got on.
The two sat in peaceful silence as they waited to get off at their stop. Amao held Ayoshi's hand, gently running his thumb against the back of his hand. The bus ride felt smooth and swayed lightly, making Ayoshi sleepy. He fell asleep and his head laid on Amao's shoulder.
Amao smiled at Ayoshi's sleeping face as he stayed awake to watch for their stop. After a few stops the bus soon started to slow down and stop at their destination. He gently shook Ayoshi awake, tightly holding his hand as he guided Ayoshi off the bus. Ayoshi yawned and rubbed his eyes as he listlessly followed along.
They still had to walk a bit until they got to the restaurant. Along the way, they talked a little about their week. The walk wasn't long, only fifteen minutes. When they arrived at the restaurant, there was a line running out of the doors. Amao worried. He didn't know how they were going to get into the restaurant, but his nerves eased down when he noticed a worker outside the door. He walked up them and before he could say anything the worker interrupted him. "Unless you have a reservation, you must wait in line."
"We have a reservation."
The worker smiled, "Great!" He moved to the side and opened the door for them. "You may enter."
Amao smiled and they thanked him as they walked through the door. They were hit with the aroma of delicious food. He could feel his mouth-watering. From where they were standing, they could see a few tables of people eating, and he noticed Ayoshi staring intensely at the desert. He chuckled at Ayoshi as he pulled him away from the food. They walked up to the hostess.
The hostess greeted them and welcomed them to the restaurant. "What name is the reservation under?"
"Odayaka Amao, for 12:30."
"I see it right here. Please follow me." The hostess led them to a private table in the corner.
The two sat down across from each other. The hostess placed down the menus in front of them. "Your waiter will be with you in a moment." She walked away while the two opened their menus.
Ayoshi's flipped straight to the dessert section. Amao flipped open the menu and his eyes widened in shock. He had done some research on the prices of the food, but now looking at exactly how much everything cost, he grew nervous. He wasn't sure if he would have enough money for the bill.
Amao looked up at how excited Ayoshi was as he looked at all the delicious desserts. He smiled as he sighed in a doting manner as he searched for the cheapest thing on the menu.
Ayoshi soon noticed Amao's nervous eyes, "Amao-kun are you ok?"
Amao grew a little red. He understood what Ayoshi meant by the question, "Of course! I brought you here so you can eat delicious food."
"Are you sure?"
"I invited you here. I wanted to bring you here, so don't worry about anything. Order whatever you want."
Ayoshi nodded and went back to looking at the menu. The two talked about what they wanted to eat, and how amazing the food looked in the photos.
After a few minutes, the waiter came over. "Hello, are you two ready to order?"
The two nodded and Amao let Ayoshi order first. Then Ayoshi said his order, which alone was already 7000 yen.
The waiter wrote down their order, "Will that be–" Before the waiter could finish their question, a ring interrupted them.
Amao let out a rushed apology as he quickly took out his phone from his pocket. He answered it, hearing the voice of his mother. "Momo! Today our grocery store is having a flash sale! Quickly, you have to get there before all the good stuff is taken!"
"What, today?! I'm not near the store."
"You have to hurry, this is the annual sale. We've been preparing for this for months, so we can't miss this."
"Ok-ok, I'm going now." Amao ended the call. He got up from his seat, "Ayoshi, I'm so sorry! We have to go." He turned towards the waiter, "I'm so sorry for wasting your time, but we have to go."
"Please do not apologize, sir. Have a nice day." The waiter quickly left to take care of their other tables.
"Amao-kun, is everything ok?" Ayoshi asked as he followed Amao out the door and back to the bus stop.
"I'm so sorry, there is this grocery store near my home that has an annual sale. However, the store never advertises when it's going to happen. It's a really big sale, so in previous years, when they did advertise, people would camp outside the store. Making a big disturbance, so to fix the problem, they made the sale really random. They change the date every year, so you have to be prepared at all times. So we have to hurry."
***
They got off the bus near Amao's house. "Ayoshi, stick close to me at all times, the people at these sales are fierce. The store limits you on how much you can buy of a specific product. Even though they limit people, stuff still sells out fast. People will also not hesitate to steal from your cart or get physical with you if you have something they also want." As they were walking quickly to the store, Amao explained more of what was happening or what happened at these sales.
Ayoshi looked at how he had a very serious look on his face, and how he was very firm with his instructions. 'Cute.'
When they arrived at the store, people were rushing in and out. There were two workers holding the door for everyone, handing out coupons to everyone entering, which they also received.
"You're allowed to use coupons?"
"Yes, sadly, we're only limited to five, plus the one the store gives us, which can really be a hit or miss." Amao grabbed the coupon out of Ayoshi's hand, "This says 50% Off of Toilet Paper, which sounds good, but only rookies use these types of coupons. The coupon is only useful for a specific brand, the store brand, which is more expensive than the other brands. Even with the coupon, it still costs more. Don't be fooled by these stores, Ayoshi. They will take advantage of you." As he lectured Ayoshi about the scams and useful tricks of couponing, the two grabbed a cart and started running around the store trying to get everything off of his list.
The entire time, Ayoshi listened very closely, taking mental notes of all the things Amao told him.
The entire store was packed and they were pushing through the crowd. The two did their best to protect their cart from the grabby hands of other shoppers. The longer they were in the store and the closer they got to getting everything off their list, the more people got rowdy. People were starting to fight for the last of all the items in the store.
The two only had one item left on the list. Amao's hand reached out to grab some pork and at the same time, a small wrinkly hand also grabbed the pork. He made eye contact with this old woman. They both were holding on tightly, unwilling to let go.
The old woman gave Amao a gentle smile. "Young man, won't you let this little old lady have this pork? I'm quite poor and this is one of the only times I can afford pork," she said with a pitiful voice.
Ayoshi had only ever seen Amao be kind and generous, so the next few words that came out of Amao's mouth were a great shock.
Amao looked at the old woman for a few long seconds and with all the strength he had, he snatched the pork out of her hands. "Bitch, I'm also poor." He rushed towards Ayoshi, threw the pork in the cart, and started dragging Ayoshi away.
While the two were running away, Ayoshi could hear the old woman behind them, "You shitty little brat! How dare you be cruel to a little old lady like me!"
The two made it to the checkout line, paid for everything, and left the store with hands full of bags.
After running away from the old woman, Amao felt awkward. He didn't know what to say now. They just walked towards his house in silence to drop off the bags of food. They stopped in front of his door. He felt a little nervous about letting Ayoshi in his house, but he still unlocked the door and let him inside. "I'm sorry if it's a little cramped."
Ayoshi walked through the door. "It looks fine to me."
Amao nodded and walked towards the kitchen. He started to put things away with Ayoshi's help. They quickly finished. "Would you like anything to drink?" He asked.
"I'm good."
Amao just nodded and awkwardly said, "Ok."
After a few minutes of strange silence, Amao couldn't hold it in anymore, "Ayoshi, I'm so sorry for ruining our date."
"Ruined? How would it be ruined?"
"I promised to take you somewhere to eat delicious food, but I had to cut it short and dragged you around while trying to shop for food. It must not have been that enjoyable."
"Don't be sorry, I might not have been able to eat, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy our day. Our date may not have gone as planned, but I had a fun time shopping with you and thought it was a great date. And I got to see a whole new side of you."
"Really? Going to a flash sale was a good date?"
"I don't care what we do, as long as we get to spend time together."
Amao chuckled and walked up to Ayoshi. "Did you really like that side of me? Even the side where I yell at little old ladies?"
"Mm," Ayoshi gave Amao a gentle kiss on the lips, "How about our next date you teach me more about how to coupon?"
Amao smiled, "I would love that."