[h2]Mako Moritomi//Game Over Arcade[/h2]
[h3]Saturday, July 4, 2015[/h3]

==~==

Mako tried to force himself to ignore the faint blush that had risen on his cheeks, and tried to resist the urge to fruitlessly try and straighten his unruly hair out more than it already was. He failed on both counts. He glanced again at his phone, and realized it was stupid- he'd get here when he got here, and no amount of fussing over it would change that.

[color=0076a3][i]...Goddammit,[/i][/color] he thought, irritated at himself, checking his phone's screen. The same two-step conversation was there, just as it had been since he'd gotten out of school.

[color=0076a3][i]Hey, Sato. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out at the arcade after school with me?[/i][/color] Sato had promptly sent his response in the affirmative, and so here he was, waiting nervously, constantly pondering whether or not to wordlessly say, "Screw this," and take off running. And then mentally slapping himself for such a stupid idea. Unbidden, a thought came to his head, something his Shadow, of all things, had said to him.

[i][color=fff200]You ran away and you threw yourself into whatever fake life you could come up with in an attempt to get away from me![/color][/i]

Mako winced internally. It was true, he had a tendency to overcompensate. He was definitely a lot more sedate now that that whole tragedy was over and done with, where his insecurities were concerned. But just because he knew his insecurities were there, didn't mean they were automatically fixed. Mako sighed, and focused on the here and now, rather than his jumbled-up past. Particularly, where his feelings lay in relation to his senpai.

There was something about Sato that made him feel at ease- what started out as a bizarre fascination for no reason was turning into... something else entirely, even if he wasn't exactly sure what. He certainly wouldn't mind finding out. And that, ultimately, was the crux of what he was doing here at the arcade, waiting for someone to show up for something that might ostensibly be called a date, if one squinted at it hard enough.

Sato Hashimoto and whatever strange feelings he was developing for the upperclassman was one of the only interests he'd developed that he could honestly call... well, honest, in a long time, even if he'd started out trying to force them down and ignore them. And in the interest of never falling victim to his folly of falsehood, such as before, he had to be willing to ignore his own embarrassment and awkwardness and see where these new emotions led.

Hopefully, Sato enjoyed his company enough that he would be willing to let him do so. Lord only knew how frustrating it would be to have these feelings and not be able to act. He turned again toward the street as he waited just inside the arcade's entrance, hoping to catch a glimpse of his senpai. 

[color=0076a3][i]...Perhaps I ought to stop being so goddamn early for everything.[/i][/color]