i promise || rini au

19. moonlight

snow continuously fell from the sky as the two made their way through the city on foot. they'd parked the car not too far back and nini wasn't letting on too much as to where they were going.

ricky noticed, however, that they were back in nini's neighborhood and were arriving at her - what he assumed to be - café

she unlocked the door and turned on a little light just so that they could see their surroundings enough and quickly pointed to a table beside the window further to the left.

"um...could you go sit there?"

ricky looked at her for a moment before nodding hesitantly "okay..."

as he sat down, he looked at the surface of the table, fiddling with his fingers, waiting for a few minutes before he jumped up a little at the sight of a plate of two large chocolate chip cookies and a mug of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and marshmallows.

when he looked up, he saw nini with a light smile, sitting down in front of him "that's the order i got you when we first met."

ricky looked down "i ordered this?"

the girl shook her head with a nervous chuckle "um, no...you were kind of just sitting there. and seemed a little down, so i decided to get you something."

ricky nodded and hesitantly broke a piece off of the cookie, taking a bite and widening his eyes

"wow," he hummed

nini looked down with a tint of red in her cheeks before taking a deep breath "you...never really stopped coming into the café after that. it's how we started becoming close."

ricky nodded in thought, trying to imagine the younger versions himself and nini being close and around each other a lot, pre-relationship.

"okay, come on." she smiled, jumping up

ricky opened his mouth "but i didn't finish—"

"we've got a tight schedule, richard let's go!" she exclaimed, instinctively taking ahold of his hand and pulling him up from his seat as she dragged him out of the café.

ricky let out a light laugh and tried to ignore the way the warm, home-felt spark shot up his arm at her touch as she lead him down the sidewalk, passing by a few people in the night, soon arriving to an old diner, entering it and heading towards a booth.

when it was time to sit down, ricky and nini both tensed slightly when looking down at their intertwined fingers and realizing they'd been holding hands the entire way here...

they briskly pulled their hands away from each other, ricky bringing his behind his neck nervously while nini anxiously brought hers to her other arm

"s-sorry..." she squeaked "f-force of habit..."

"r-right, yeah...it's okay." he said, trying to cover up the awkwardness with a light chuckle

they both silently sat down at the booth, ricky took ahold of a paper menu and read through it "so, what are we getting?"

"well, i usually get a hamburger while you get fries and a milkshake." she replied normally "we then sorta share our food...but um, this is kinda where we had our first date."

ricky raised his eyebrows as he put his menu down "we had our first date here?" he asked confused, looking around "i thought i would've taken you somewhere more..."

"fancy?" she finished and he nodded. nini let out a light laugh, shaking her head in disbelief at how different these two versions of ricky were "we weren't the type of couple to dress up and go out to a restaurant to pay for a three hundred dollar steak. we...just loved spending time together. the date was sorta unintentional...we arrived here after spending the day together to get something to eat and sat right here. then we...just talked. all night long. the diner is open all hours, so it didn't really matter..."

flashback

"no, strawberry is the absolute best flavor out there!" a nineteen year old nini giggled, waving the milkshake around

"that's where you're wrong!" ricky exclaimed in a light-hearted yet offended tone "cookies and cream is superior!"

"why would i order a milkshake, where i would just want to drink it, only to have cooky bits in them?? besides, it's literally vanilla with just that. cookie. there's no dough part!" nini replied with a grin

it was currently three a.m, the two were still at their booth with their emptied plates of food and two empty cups of milkshakes before them along with a new order of milkshakes — thus leading to their crucial debate on which flavor was better.

"i am way too sleep deprived for your negativity on that right now." ricky sighed, taking a sip of his milkshake as nini laughed

"wow, you're really obsessed with that show," she shook her head knowingly

"you showed it to me, of course i'm going to like it." he shrugged casually

the brunette girl felt a blush rise to her cheeks and looked down as a nervous smile came onto her face, ricky suddenly widened his eyes at the realization of whag he just said

"i-i mean...well...um-" he swallowed hard, trying to come up with an excuse "i meant that..."

"it's cute that you're nervous." she chuckled, looking up after regaining herself

ricky scoffed exaggeratedly "i'm not nervous..."

"really?" she hummed, leaning forward

"yes really." he replied, leaning towards her to mimic her action to which she instinctively glanced down at his lips before the sound of her phone going off caused them to jump back

"sorry," she excused herself, taking the device before widening her eyes "it's already three in the morning??"

"what?!" ricky gasped, taking his own phone and suddenly laughing "wow...time flies when you're having fun."

nini rolled her eyes playfully "and what makes you say i had fun?"

"you're still here." he answered "and you also haven't stopped smiling since we started hanging out so...i'm hoping that's a good thing."

nini blushed "maybe..."

end of flashback

ricky and nini both got out of the diner after eating dinner. it consisted of the brunette telling him all about their first date and when they came outside, ricky noticed she had the menu in her hands.

"why'd you take that with you?" he asked interested

the girl showed it to him and smiled "you wrote your first lyrics for me on here to tell me how you felt about me...after giving it to me when we arrived back at my old apartment, i read them to myself and you leaned towards me and kissed me on the cheek before telling me goodnight."

ricky gazed at her for a few seconds "what were the lyrics...?"

"the moonlight glow glistens in the night, all i think of is you and wanting to hold you tight, being with you never felt so right, darling i'm already calling you mine." she said without a second thought.

it's her favorite lyrics ricky had ever written for her. so intimate and special. like a piece of the most valuable element on earth that needed to be protected for eternity.

"i wrote that?" ricky asked in awe

nini nodded "you did..." they both stared at each other for a few seconds before the brunette cleared her throat and looked away "uh...you ready for the next spot?"

ricky shook his head out of his trance and nodded "uh, yeah. let's go."