Rather Be(Haise Sasaki x Reader)

It was December 27th and today, Haise finally found the courage to ask his special someone an important question.

Haise and [name] has been going out for a few weeks now. It all started from their small pun off in a café until it blossomed into something more. Their first date went great, he was happy enough to see her smile at his ridiculous puns. It was probably the first time that someone ever appreciated them, not to mention, she was also a punny person herself so somehow, she understood how he felt when nobody would laugh at his punch lines.

Haise stood in front of [name]’s apartment door with a bouquet of red velvet roses held by his hand. He takes a deep breathe, inhale, exhale. And finally, knocked on her door.

On the other side of the door, She jumps in surprise at the sound of the door ringing earlier than she expected. “I thought he was going to pick me up by 1 but it’s like, still 12..”She looks up at the wall clock to verify the time, and indeed it was still 12:00 noon “I’m not even done yet.” She looks down at her legs, she was still wearing her denim shorts.

“Ugh..whatever..” She says in frustration and dashes towards the door.

“Coming!” Haise hears from the other side, he quickly panicked and started shaking all over. “W-w-w-what am I being so nervous about? I-i-i-i-it’s not like it’s our first date or something..” He says to himself and slaps himself a few times to shake off his nervousness.

The door finally opens to reveal a petite figure of a girl wearing a white peplum top with her denim shorts complementing her legs.

“U-u-uhmm..” Haise blushes at the sight. Although she was just wearing something casual, she still somehow made the look chic & classy.

“Oh this!” She notices Haise’s gaze going back and forth to her face then towards her exposed legs. “I haven’t changed yet since I thought you wouldn’t pick me up so early.” She attempts to hide it from his stare with her hands blocking his view from her thighs, but Haise only found her actions adorable.

“S-sorry, I guess I was a little too excited this time.” He gives her a cheeky smile, his apology for coming too early. “It’s alright, why don’t you come in?” She steps aside and gestures her hand inside. He gladly accepted and went inside her cozy apartment.

“You can wait here and watch TV for awhile while I change.” Waiting for no reply, she pushes his body down on the couch and turns the TV on. “I’ll be back.” She gives him a quick peck on the cheek and run towards her room. Haise sat frozen in his seat with a blush slowly peeking on his cheeks.

He gulps and shakes away what seems to be a never ending taunt of his nervousness. “Focus Haise, Focus.” He says to himself with determination. “You’re not here to be a stuttering mess in front of her, you’re here to finally ask her to be your girlfriend.” He reminds himself, which only lead him back to his nervous phase.

“Okay, okay, okay..calm down. Just practice what you’re going to say to her, everything will be fine.” He continues to calm himself with his own soothing words.

“[name], Are you a Honeydew, because fruit you know how fine you look---wait,wait, fruit’s supposed to be the firs—“ Something snaps inside Haise and he gives out an exasperated sigh. “I think I need water to calm my nerves.” He walks toward her kitchen, takes a cup and poured water from her water dispenser.

He closes his eyes as he gulps the water, blocking away the negative thoughts his mind kept on thinking about.

“Ahhh..” He sighs contently, “I’m ready.” “I’m ready!”

His eyes widen as he hears another voice saying the exact same word, only with a higher pitch. She walks out of her room and stands in front of him. “Okay, well, maybe I’m not really ready..” It felt like all the courage he built up came crashing down again.

“So, how do I look?” She says as she twirls around in front of him. She was wearing a white peplum top matched with a white knee-length skirt that hugged her thighs.

“Awesome—I mean gorgeous! Not, awesome, gorgeous..y-yeah.” He cursed himself mentally as he, yet again, stuttered like an idiot in front of her. She only chuckled at his response. “Thank you, you don’t look pretty bad too.” She compliments him as she let her eyes scan his outfit. He was wearing a black long sleeved polo with white pants on. It looked a lot like the uniform he always wore in the CCG, but she couldn’t hide the fact that she had always loved the way he looked wearing it.
He blushes and suddenly, he remembered something. “Oh right!” He exclaims and dashes toward the couch and grabbed the flower he left. “For you.” He gave her his earnest smile as he hands it to her. “Haise, you shouldn’t have..” She gladly accepted them and took a quick sniff at the flowers. “Thank you.” She says as her cheeks’ color blossomed into crimson red.

“You’re welcome, let’s go?” He offers her his hand, she smiles and takes a hold of it. “Let’s.” And they went and left her apartment. The ride inside the elevator was silent and all they could hear were their heartbeats thumping rapidly as the sensation of holding each other, hand in hand, played a melodic sound through their hearts.

Haise leads him towards his car, a silver Audi RS6 Avant. When she rode the car for the first time, she couldn’t believe it herself. She assumed that being in the CCG meant, possibly, the check he gets every month might be higher than the usual job out there. But she didn’t expect that it was more than enough to buy such an expensive car.

He let her in first before he hopped to other side and drove off.

“Let’s have lunch first, and then, I’m bringing you to this new café I found!” He exclaims as his eyes twinkle with excitement with every word he spoke. “Really?” She couldn’t help but give out a huge grin, amused by his silliness. “Yeeeeeeeessssssssss! And they’ve got great coffee, my nose kagune says so!” She replies with a giggle, much to Haise’s delight. “And often, no one comes there at this time of the day so it’d be pretty peaceful and the people who work there are pretty nice and there this pretty gir—“ “pretty girl, you say?” She tilts her head as she rose her brow, giving him a sly look.

Haise sweats, sensing that he brought the wrong topic at the wrong day. “I-I mean..n-not as pretty as you of course!” She only chuckles in response. “I was only joking Haise!” She playfully punches his arm. He gives out a quiet ‘phew!’ and smiled at her.

They finally arrived to the restaurant, she raises her brow seeing the elegant restaurant they arrived to. “Well, this is definitely something new.” She says as Haise opens the door for her and steps out of the car. “Is there something going on today?” She eyes him with every word she spoke.
‘Ahh.’ Haise thought, it was always hard to surprise her because she always caught on to his plan. But not today.

“Nothing, I’m just simply giving what a girl like you deserves.” He gives her a chaste kiss on the forehead, making sure to relay his feelings for her through it. She blushes not only because of his sweet words but because of the soft ‘aww’s she could hear from the people passing by. “L-let’s go inside already, I’m hungry!” She changes the topic and drags Haise towards inside.

Her reply was not what he hoped she would say, but the color on her cheeks was enough payment for his efforts.

“I made a reservation for two.” He informs the clerk. “Oh, right this way sir.” He led us to a table, we both muttered a ‘thank you’ and sat down. “I’ve already ordered for us.” He suddenly says, noticing her questioning eyes when she found no menu on the table. “I see..” She nods in the process of replying. “You really prepared for this, huh?” She eyes him again and tried to figure out what was he up to.

A waiter arrives and fills their cup with red wine. Haise grabs a hold of it and started twirling it around, then he suddenly thought of an idea. He had to use the only skill he knows his good at, well in her opinion at least. This time, he already gained and built up enough courage to seize her from figuring his plans.

“[name],” He starts off and by the tone of his voice when he said it, she already knew what he was about to start. “I think all the bottles in this restaurant must be jealous of you.” She tilts her head and says “Why?” “Because your beauty is the most intoxicating thing in this place.” He smirks and takes a sip of the wine. She bit her lip and tried to stop her growing grin.

‘Two can play at this game.’ She mentally says to herself.

Haise suddenly sneezes and she thought of a great pun to say, “I’d say bless you, but it looks like God already did.” She winks and places her elbows on the table as her chin rests on the back of her hand. He loses his cool for a second but immediately regains it. He chuckles and mutters a ‘good one’ towards his lovely date.

He snatches her hand and holds it from across the table. “Are you from Tennessee?” He says as he rubs his thumb on the back of her hand. “No, why?” He lifts her hand up and murmurs on her skin, “Because you’re the only ten I see.” And kissed the back of her hand.

It seems that he said it a little too loud as she noticed that the people around their table started eyeing them with soft giggles coming out from their mouth. She lost it when she heard ‘Ahh, young love’ From one of them.

“H-haise!” She yelped and tried to wiggle her hand away from his grasp. “What?” He only asked, partly amused at her embarrassment. “P-people are staring!” She blushes even more when he flashes her a flirty smirk. “Well, they wouldn’t if you weren’t so fine.”

Another fit of giggles were heard from the people around them. He was going to tease her more but the waiter finally arrived. He frowns as he was forced to let go of her hands and secretly, she was also disappointed that the time shared by their hands were so short.

The waiter beams a smile towards them and places their food on the table.

He gives her a boyish smile before exclaiming an ‘Itadakimasu!’. She sighs as she shook her head. It was a complete mystery for her how quickly he changes his persona, from a daring and flirty Haise to a cheeky and happy-go-lucky Haise.

The rest of the meal was filled with comfortable silence, with a few words exchanged at certain times. Leaving behind the embarrassment and sweetness brought by the earlier events and just purely enjoyed the food in front of them.

They were finally finished, and Haise wasted no time and went towards their next destination.

“That was nice..” She says breaking the silence surrounding the both of them inside the car. “..Except for the fact that you enjoyed teasing me in front of a lot of people.” She huffs and crosses her arms on her chest. He glanced at her for a second and laughed when he saw her pouting mouth. He reaches out his hand towards her face and pinches it. “Cheer up! I bet your liver enjoyed that pun-off.” She whines as she continued to pinch her cheeks.
They stopped when they arrived into a red light.

“You’re mean~” She childishly whined and he finally lets her cheeks go, quickly replacing it with his soft pair of lips. “There, you happy?” He gives her a sly smile and turns his attention back to the road as it signaled go.

An irritated sigh comes out of her despite of the red on her cheeks, leaving him to laugh at his effect on her.

They finally arrived in their next destination.

“re..” She reads the name of the café written on the sign. She turns toward a grinning a Haise, “Let’s go.”

“Welcome!” A short haired girl beams on them the moment they stepped in. [name]’s eyes widen at her beauty. Despite of the simple look she sported with her uniform, her eyes twinkled with kindness and her radiance just beamed towards the people around her.

She both led them to a table and placed a coffee for each. “Haise, I take it back..” She whispers to him, he tilts his head, questioning her choice of words. “She really is pretty, like hella!” She shouted in a whisper. He smiles at her, “Like, dude, if one of these days you decide to hang out here, call me..” She eyes the maiden by the counter again, Haise pouts at her action. “Hey, I brought you here for the coffee. Not for her.” He taps his hand on the table, trying to get her attention back.

She finally broke into a smile, “I’m just messing with ya!” She punches him playfully on the shoulder. “But seriously though..” She looks back at her again, making him frown. “Drink your coffee!” She laughs, amused to know that Haise can got jealous over a girl.

She finally paid attention to the coffee in front of her and her eyes widen. “What’s this?” She asks.

The coffee delivered to them was a cappuccino, and like most cappuccinos are, a foam is placed on it for whatever design that you may like. For her, the foam was designed in a heart shaped with her name written on the middle.

Haise reaches out for her hand and holds on to it tightly. ‘Well, here goes nothing.’

“There are people who say Disneyland is the happiest place on earth.” He looks intently into her eyes. “Apparently, none of them have ever been in your arms.” He gives her a small smile and caresses her cheeks.

“N-not this again..” She stutters, unable to deny with her actions that despite of the embarrassment, she enjoyed the fluttering feeling he made her feel.

‘She thinks I’m still just teasing her..’ Haise thought, he had to step up his game in order to deliver to her that he was damn serious. He stood up and transferred to the seat next to her.

“I’m not a photographer, but I can picture me and you together.” He slyly says as he slid his arm around her waist, and thus, left her to explode and transform into a red tomato. “H-haise, what are you..?” Unable to finish her words, she was completely speechless at his actions. He was always the type to tease her, about her looks, her smile and the list continues. But, he never once attempted an actual pick up line that could sweep her off her feet as these ones.

“Do you have a band-aid?” He asks, his eyes telling her to say something in response. She merely shook her head. “Because I just scraped my knee falling for you.” He finishes off. With his other arm still holding unto her waist, he placed his other arm on the table resting on his elbow as he places his chin on top of it as his eyes stares love sick to hers.

And when she thought she couldn’t turn even redder, she did. She opened her mouth multiple times but failed to utter any words.

When she didn’t respond for a minute, he gave out a troubled sigh. He removes his arm on the table and encircles both of his arms around her waist. “[name], Don’t you get what I’m trying to tell you?” He asks, not expecting for any answer.

“I love you.” His cheeks flush by the mere fact that he finally told her. “I know, we’ve only been going out for a few weeks now but..” He looks away, trying to find the right words to say. “I’ve fallen for you, hard, deeply, tremendously, and as you like to say it ‘hella’.” He chuckles at his own choice of words.

“These past weeks has been the happiest days of my life. I’ve never found anyone as compatible as you are for me. You’re like..a missing puzzle piece of me that I finally found.”

“Haise..” Finally finding her voice, she let his name soothingly be spoken by her tongue.

“I know it’s not going to be easy especially, because of the type of job I have. But..” He looks straight into her eyes. “I’ll gladly take the risk if I’m with you.”

A smile crept up to her face, making him do the same. He peels one of his arm from her waist and points at his shirt. “Do you know what my shirt is made of?” He asks, making her raise a brow and shook her head. “Boyfriend material.”

She laughs, more than she originally planned to. “No, but seriously though..” He places his arm back to her waist and places his forehead on hers. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

“Yes, most definitely.” She finally answered, making both of them smile giddily.

His eyes travel from her eyes towards her soft lips. “Your lips look so lonely…Would they like to meet mine?”

Her eyes widen at his boldness, but nevertheless, nodded to his request.

They slowly leaned into each other until their lips finally met. His arm raises from her waist towards her face so he could hold her cheeks lovingly with his hand as her arms slithers up and encircles it on his neck.

A small clapping from the background woke them up from their own little word.

They both, sadly, separated from the kiss and looked towards the owner of the noise. It was Haise’s pretty friend, clapping enthusiastically with a big grin on her face.

[name] blushes, finally realizing that their little confession towards each other was displayed in public. “Touka-chan, don’t disturb us!” Haise whines. Touka shrugs and started walking off towards the direction of the staff room.

Before she steps inside of it, she turns towards [name]’s direction and gave her a thumbs up with a wink.

Haise, seeing her action, chuckles and faces [name] back. “Now, where were we?” He says and leans in towards her again.

“Opopopop,woah there buddy!”She places her hand on his face, making him kiss her palm. “Whaaattt?” He whines. “I ain’t no kissing machine, one kiss per day.” She decided to tease him. “What?! NO FAIR!” He whines like a little boy and crosses his arm on his chest.

“Awww, maybe you’ll earn two per day or more if you act like a good boy and stop teasing me with your puns.” She coos and hugged him lovingly.

Melting under her embrace, he finally gives up and reciprocates her action. “I love you.” He murmurs and buries his head on her neck.

“I love you too.”

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When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be

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