you're the best around - (daniel larusso x oc)

ch.21

--playing Feel the Night by Baxter Robinson--

[The yellow car pulls into the parking lot of Golf 'N Stuff. Daniel parks his car but just leans back again into his seat] "This is so great.." [He thought, smiling and basking in this great moment. He loves this car, this is the greatest day of his life. Scarlette leans over to him, she smiles because she sees how happy Daniel is]

"So, birthday boy-" [She starts, Daniel continues to smile looking back at her] "Are we meeting up with Ali?"

"Not necessarily. It'll just be you and me, actually." [He strokes the steering wheel, with his eyes back on his new car]

"Oh." [Scarlette ponders for a moment] "I thought they might've broken up, but they seemed so friendly to each other at school today.." [She thinks, then speaks aloud] "Is everything ok?" [She inquires sincerely, Daniel chuckles silently]

"Yeah, everything is great." [He smiles widely, making Scarlette a little confused]

"So it'll just be you and me at Golf 'N Stuff?"

"Yup." [He says making a smug face- Scarlette finally connects the dots]

"So this was just his way to go out with me, huh?" [She thinks with the same smile on her face. She bites her lit, hiding the smile] "Daniel, if you wanted to go on a date with me all you had to do was ask." [She says, successfully hiding her smile]

"But the surprise is more fun, isn't it?" [He says looking over to Scarlette, she shrugs and nods]

"Yeah- yeah it is." [They both laugh. Daniel fixes his hair in the car mirror. Scarlette laughs as she impatiently crossed her arms, waiting for Daniel to be finished] "C'mon, pretty boy- The arcade awaits."

"Hold on- I gotta look good for my hot date." [Daniel smirks. He finishes fixing his hair and steps out of the car. They walk through the parking lot and enter Golf 'N Stuff. The two both excitedly head straight to the arcade, and gather their change]

"Have you been here before?" [Scarlette asks with her arms crossed, waiting for Daniel to gather his change for the games]

"With Ali, yeah." [He fishes through his pockets, turning them inside out- then counting his change]

"Yeah I came here with Johnny a couple times," [She sighs, looking back on those times, they were definitely not the greatest. She uncrosses her arms] "he wasn very attentive though-"

"What does that mean?" [Daniel looks back up at Scarlette]

"I'm pretty sure he was checking out every other girl in the arcade." [She shrugs. Daniel gets a little heated, he disliked Johnny enough already and now that had grown]

"That asshole doesn't deserve you, Scarlette." [Daniel puts his hand on Scarlette's chin, raising it up for her to look at him]

"Trust me, I know, Daniel." [Scarlette says looking away with a sad smile, crossing her arms again. Daniel puts the change back into his pockets and heads to the arcade games. Firstly, they insert 25 cents into the Street Fighter game] "So, are you ready to get your ass kicked, Daniel?"

"Ok competitor, don't be all bark and no bite." [Daniel jokes, pointing his finger]

"Oh, I bite." [She jokes as she chooses her character]

"Bite me, then." [He winks as they begin playing the game. Scarlette shakes her head and bites her lip to hide her smile at the flirty boy she's chosen to be her crush. After they play a couple games around the arcade, they walk around the rooms and spot the photo booth] "We have to go there!" [He points excitedly, jogging over to it. Scarlette raises her brow]

"Ok, ok." [She says as she follows him to the photobooth at her own pace. She thought it was cute how excited he was to take pictures. The two teens sit inside of the photobooth- they take four pictures. Once the camera flashes for the last picture, Daniel excitedly steps out of the booth to get the two strips of photos. Scarlette laughs as she gets out of the photobooth and catches up with her date. He hands her a strip of their photos, he smiles looking at her in his own passionate manner] "Why are you looking at me like that?" [She asks chuckling]

"This is the best day of my life." [He replies with the same look on his face. He looks back onto his strip of pictures- Scarlette cannot help but smile so big. She blushes a little bit]

"You're so fucking cute, karate kid." [She puts her head on his shoulder and looks at her pictures. Daniel blushes and looks at Scarlette, smiling bigger]

"Y-you too." [He replies, his stuttering makes Scarlette chuckle]

--one hour later--

[Scarlette changes into her two piece bathing suit and Daniel does the same with his swimming trunks. They head back out to the parking lot to cross over to the water slide. They look up at the slide, Ali watches it from the gate between, she turns around and waves at Scarlette and Daniel with a bright smile. They both wave back but Scarlette is still confused]

"She seems awfully friendly, Daniel." [Scarlette says with her high posture as always, but she doesn't necessarily feel at her highest. This is just bothering her so much for some reason- it just didn't make sense, and if she hadn't brought it up she would be thinking about it for the entire date and so on]

"So?" [Daniel asks as they enter the line for the slide]

"It's just weird, I don't know." [She crosses her arms, looking at her feet]

"Listen- you really want to know what happened, don't you?" [Daniel looks over at her now-She still has her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised. She was wearing a different bathing suit than she'd worn the night of the beach party, it was a two piece with a matching pattern]

"Well, yeah. How do I know that this wasn't a plan or something to make Ali jealous? How do I know that you're not using me?" [She rants and raises her voice, her insecurities and trust issues become noticeable. Daniel puts his hand on her shoulder, she feels calmer this way but it hasn't cleared everything up]

"It's so hard to talk to her when she looks so hot right now.." [He thinks as he looks at her tan athletic body. She thinks she notices him 'size her up' but was too concerned about the task at hand to talk about it, supporting her stubborn manner. He focuses to tell her the truth] "Ali told me that she noticed me looking at you a lot, she could tell that I liked you a lot." [Scarlette un crosses her arms, she's surprised but very thankful for Ali's selflessness. She now confirmed that Ali was good at reading people] "So she broke up with me and told me to go on a date with you."

"I-I don't buy it.." [Her trust issues overpower her desire to believe Daniel. Daniel shakes his head]

"You don't?" [Daniel asks, Scarlette shakes her head 'no' with her arms crossed again. The line for the slide had moved enough for them to be near a wall. Scarlette had leaned against that wall, in which Daniel puts his hand against it, beside her] "How can I make you buy it, slugger?" [He smiles, Scarlette cannot help but smile back] "Listen, I know it's been tough between us, Scar." [He puts his hand on her chin to lift her head up to look at him] "But that's over now, and we might have some bumps ahead but I just want to enjoy this with you. You make me crazy, Scarlette."

"You make me crazy too." [She can't help but smile. Daniel opens his arms for her to hug him]

"C'mere." [They embrace tightly and he rubs her back, she's calm- and that's a rarity] "I've been wanting to do this since we met." [He continues to rub her back]

"Me too." [She calmly responds, she was never usually a woman of few words. They slightly break the hug and look each other passionately in the eyes, Daniel his biggest smile and Scarlette smiles back as she leans in and closes her eyes. Daniel does the same, and they kiss for a while. They hold each other tightly as they continue to make out for a while longer and then break the kiss, hugging again] "Finally." [She says, Daniel laughs as he holds her closely- If he doesn't win the tournament, if he gets absolutely destroyed- it won't matter. Because he has all he needs right now]