Dinner With A Shark

Chapter 2

Yuma woke up at the obnoxious sound of his alarm clock, a terrible screech shattering the quiet of a white winter morning.
Pissed, Yuma slammed his fist on the device, shutting it up and accidentally sending it straight on the floor, luckily without breaking.
The weak rays coming from the sun where not bright enough to filter through the curtains draped over the window, so Yuma opened his eyes in a dark room, barely lit by stubborn strands of light.
Under the door, he could see Kari's shadow walking down the hallway, but she didn't bother stopping by to check if Yuma was already awake, like she used to do when he was still in high school.

Grumpy because of an almost sleepless night, Yuma sat up and shook off the covers, shuddering at the sudden change of temperature.
With a big and loud yawn, the man dangled his feet down the side of the bed and forced himself to stand up, stretching his arms above his head before glancing at the phone on the nightstand.
A green light was flashing above the screen, and Yuma remembered the message he had sent before drifting off to sleep.
Swallowing, his throat dry all of a sudden, Yuma picked up the phone and unplugged the charger, before checking the new message.
Indeed, it was a reply to that text, and Yuma felt his heart racing as he read the brief response.

"Sure, see you there".

Not at all surprised, Yuma noticed his hands were shaking: was he really that nervous about going out with Ryoga?
It wasn't a date, but he never felt panicky for a simple day of shopping with him. Maybe he should just cancel everything, maybe tell Ryoga he wasn't feeling well...
No.
Yuma shook his head, trying to keep his feelings at bay.
He would go out with Ryoga, spend a nice day with his friend, and then come back home. After inviting said friend for dinner on Christmas day. Because of a desire written on a piece of paper and nanotech.
«Get it together, Yuma», he said to himself, a whisper lost in the empty room.
Astral would have tried to help him, despite his lack of knowledge on the matter, in some way or another. He would have encouraged him, or mocked and tricked him into do the right thing.
But Astral wasn't there.
He was gone, for years now.

Feeling his stomach tangled in painful knots, Yuma opened the curtains, revealing a white and gray street; snow had fallen during the night, whitewashing everything with fluffy, icy snowflakes. The street was relatively clean, thanks to snowplows and similar vehicles, but all the other surfaces were completely covered, notwithstanding the occasional footprints.
The light from outside was not bright enough to lit up the room properly, so Yuma turned on the lights and put his head in the closet, searching for a good outfit.
He rummaged through sweaters and hoodies, and then switched to pants, picking out a simple pair of jeans.
After a quick trip to the bathroom, in order to wash his face and teeth, Yuma put on the jeans and the hoodie he'd chosen, a custom one Kari gifted him on his 20thbirthday: it was white and gold, with a huge "39" on the back.
Yuma loved it.

The smell of coffee, pancakes and toasts lured Yuma down in the kitchen, where his grandma and Kari were having breakfast.
«Morning, Yuma», Kari greeted him, gesturing towards a steaming mug on the table. «With lots of sugar. I figured you needed to hurry up», she added, taking a bite from her toast.
Yuma thanked her, peeking at the time on his phone: 9:30 am.
Suppressing another yawn, Yuma recovered a plate and dumped some pancakes on it, drizzling some syrup on them before swallowing huge pieces of sweet delightfulness.
After emptying the plate, Yuma gulped down the coffee and said bye to his sister and grandma, earning a cheering smile from Kari on his way out.

It was still snowing outside, even if slightly, and Yuma hid his face under a huge striped scarf, knitted for him by his grandma years before.
Around him, children and teenagers were playing in the snow, putting together lumps and balls of it to build snowmen and forts, or to start snowball fights.
A particularly loud group of kids nearly hit Yuma in the head with a stray snowball, and they shouted "sorry!" at him when he turned in their direction, startled.
The mall was not far from Yuma's house, but he got distracted along the way by a newly open Duel Monsters card shop, and arrived ten minutes late.
As always.