Still Here For You (Arata Sanada x Yuuvo [AI Yuugo] & Yuugo)

~2: The Masquerade~

Arata POV

"Woohoo!" I hear a familiar voice say and I look up to see Yuuvo somehow on one of the ferris wheel cages on the Under Kowloon Level 1 ferris wheel so I run closer to see that he's hacked it to make a door to the cage so one can get in and out of it. I time myself and manage to jump onto the cage and tumble into it, landing on top of him.

"A-Arata-kun?" He mutters in surprise when I notice our faces are centimeters apart from each other.

'I wonder...' I think to myself before leaning in closer and lightly brushing my lips against his. When Yuuvo doesn't try to pull away from me, I lightly kiss him quickly before pulling away while blushing.

"How'd you like that?" I ask him curiously with a small smirk forming on my lips.

"It...felt nice, Arata. I didn't know I needed that." He says to me happily with a soft blush.

"You mind just laying with me for a bit?" I ask him and he shakes his head.

"I don't mind one bit. I don't have to leave at all today. Yuuko won't be logging in using my avatar today..." He says to me.

"Wait...is that what you meant before?" I ask him and he nods.

"There's more to it, but yes." He replies to me as I lay against him.

"You're oddly affectionate towards me, Yuuvo." I say to him.

"I like being around you, Arata. I do hope that doesn't bother you." He says to me with a soft laugh.

"I don't mind, Yuuvo. I'll admit that I'm surprised by it though if I'm being honest with you." I say while turning my head to face him as he looks at me with a bright smile.

"Hmm? Why exactly is it so surprising that I enjoy your company, Arata?" He asks me with a quizzical expression.

"I'm not exactly the easiest to get along with at times. I've been described as arrogant and completely antisocial on more than one occasion, I've even been called a coward before. I won't deny any of those accusations. I'm aware that I have faults." I explain to him.

"I'm not exactly the most pleasant person either at times. To be honest, I don't really have friends of my own, counting you...that would bring the total up to two. And I'm not counting Fei because she just thinks I'm Yuuko. I can at least count you as my friend...can't I Arata?" He says to me before nervously asking the last part.

"I suppose friends works at this point in time. So, does Yuuko know about you?" I say to him before asking the question.

"She has no clue whatsoever and I'm not currently inclined to tell her. I have my reasons for that." He answers me and I nod in understanding.

"You mind if I change the topic?" I ask him, sensing that he might prefer to talk about something else.

"It's fine with me. What were you wanting to talk about?" He replies with his smile slowly returning to his face.

"I realize that I haven't asked about you as a person. So I was hoping to talk more about things like that rather than the more serious topics." I explain to him as he briefly looks surprised before seeming even happier than before.

"So what do you want to know?" He asks me curiously.

"Hm, I'm not sure where to start. I was honestly hoping you'd do more of the talking. No offense, but you normally have no problem with that. Sorry if it was wrong of me to assume that." I say to him and he shakes his head to reassure me.

"No, a lot of my personality bleeds through even when Yuuko's logged in and that's one of my traits. I should've known you'd want me to do more of the talking. I seem to know more about you than you do about me after all. I haven't really talked about myself with anyone other than K before...Maybe I should start with my likes...?" He says to me and I nod encouragingly.