The Other Anzai

oof

My family with Yuuki and Tsukasa stood watching and waiting for me in the car park. They didn't know if I'd brought someone, so although they tried they didn't watch with subtlety.

I walked round to the other side of the car to open the door for Akari. I looked through the window to check that she was okay and she looked a little scared. She wound the window down.
"Everything okay?" I asked leaning on the door.
"Yeah I'm just a little nervous," she fiddled with her purse.
"Don't worry, everyone except Tsukasa is a devil and they're all so self-centred that they probably won't even notice you,"
"But what if something happens?"
"If Tsukasa hurts herself Yuuki knows to take care of it and if anyone says something stupid to you I'll throw something at them," she smiled and nodded. I opened the door for her and she climbed out. As we started walking over she linked her arm through mine. She withheld a hopeful look, so did I.

I think my family was debating whether or not to applaud at the fact that I'd actually found a girl to bring with me.

We eventually reached the congregation, despite how slowly we walked, and surprisingly didn't recieve any judgement.
"Hey Reo," Yuuki said as unexcited as usual.
"Hey Yuuki. Tsukasa," I nodded to them before they returned to their phones. I turned to Akari,
"do you understand why I wanted you here?" She nodded and held onto me a little tighter.

After around 10 minutes of awkward conversation with relatives I barely remembered, we finally decided to head inside the restaurant and sit down. I made sure to get seats at the end of the table; closer to the door means a faster getaway.

"So what exactly happens at these get-togethers?" Akari asked as she sat down next to me.
"My great uncle will make a drunk toast, my great aunt will make a serious toast, my cousins will try their crappy comedy out on us and somebody is guaranteed to storm out. This year that somebody's likely to be me."
"What, why?"
"Someone's probably gonna say something like you're way too good for me and could get tonnes better than me and because they don't understand that I actually have feelings they'll piss me off without realising it,"
"Wow. Sounds just like my family. But don't worry, I got you," She smiled at me and took my hand under the table and gave it a squeeze.

Something very bad was going to happen and I  could feel it.

We ordered food quickly and during the wait for it to arrive there were numerous dry conversations with people whose names I couldn't even remember.

When the food finally did arrive although I started eating quickly so nobody could talk to me but one of my many, many aunts persisted.
"So Reo, who's this girl you've brought with you? You never bring anyone with you, if you even show up," I put my hands in my lap as I attempted to conjure a response and felt Akari take hold of the hand closest to her.
"Uh... This is Akari. She's my uh.....friend..." She squeezed my hand like she did earlier and smiled at me.
"Huh, how'd you meet her?" My aunt continued,
"At a club. I was with my friends on a stag night and she was with her friends." I took a sip of my drink in hopes that I'd satisfied her nosiness for a while.
"How many dates have you been on?" She asked out of nowhere. I started coughing on my drink which resulted me pulling Akari's hand on the table with mine.
"One date," Akari said with a slightly grim look.
"Only one? What are you playing at Reo? Don't let her get away!" My aunt chuckled. Akari didn't seem too happy with that reaction, but neither did I.
"Why aren't you just happy that he's happy? And what do you think is so bad about him that I'll leave him?" Akari fought back.
"You weren't much of a talker before I said that huh,"
"No, because what you said before didn't intend to induce pain." She picked up her purse and took my hand.
"Let's go. We have no place among people of such little worth."

She dragged me into the car and got in behind the drivers seat.
"You're driving?"
"Mmhmm. I know a great ice cream place."
"Uh okay. I haven't had ice cream for a long time,"
"What? How have you not had ice cream for a 'long time'?"
"I dunno I just never buy it,"

And that conversation continued on until we got to the ice cream place.

I honestly can't remember much from that night, so I'm just going to say that it was fun and she decided to spend the night at my place.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take you home?" I asked her as we headed down the corridor to my flat.
"No it's okay. To be honest I was planning on stopping by tonight if you hadn't have invited me out."
"Really? What for?"
"There's a movie marathon on tonight and I don't have anyone to watch it with because none of my friends like it, so I thought I'd test my luck," she practically skipped through the door the second I opened it.
"Huh, okay. Movie marathon it is," I turned on my TV and left her the remote so she could find it.

I noticed she was wearing a shirt kind of like a blouse which aren't overly comfortable. I changed my dress-shirt to one of my t-shirts that was probably on the floor that morning.

"Hey Akari, do you wanna borrow one of my t-shirts?" I asked, preparing both the febreeze and my body spray.
"If you don't mind," she said making her way over to where I was.
"Ooh can I pick?" She started sifting through the t-shirts that I hung up because I was too lazy to fold them.
"Oooh I like this one!" She pulled one out from the back of my wardrobe. Let's just say it hummed a bit.
"Lemme just," She held it up looking at it and I just leant over and sprayed it with what I thought was about half the bottle of febreeze and my entire can of body spray.
"Yoink," she said running off into my bathroom with it.
"Mine now!" She shouted from behind the door.
"It's really old you know," I attempted to shout through the door.
"Oh well, still mine.....it smells so nice..." I heard her say. This was definitely a realisation point for me. I think it was for her too, but I really don't know cuz we don't talk about that stuff.

I went and sat down on my bed and had a look at what the movie marathon was. To my surprise it was the Rocky movies. All of them. I  understood why she wanted to watch them with me.

She came out of the bathroom acting like a catwalk model. She strut over and posed in the most eccentric ways possible before bursting into a fit of giggles. She started leaning on me, still giggling, she threw her arms over my shoulders and near enough sat on my lap. I moved over so she wouldn't fall off the bed which resulted in her sitting next to me with her legs on my lap. I had to lean over uncomfortably so she could keep her arms wrapped around me but she smelled nice, which kind of made it better.

For the rest of the night it was all her cuddling me, and the both of us laughing at parts of the movies that aren't exactly funny. Around 1am she started getting sleepy and by 3am she'd fallen asleep on me a couple times. I eventually turned off my TV and just cuddled her as she fell asleep in my arms for the 5th time of the night.