Cold Hands, Warm Heart (Ai Mikaze X Reader)

Chapter One - Between The Lines

"No man is an island entirely of itself.
Any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind."
― John Donne, No Man Is An Island

The young boy's skin brushed against yours when your hands touched. You breathed in with quiet surprise but quickly put your expression back into sorts. He apologized, he knew he had cold hands, but you were quick to assure him.
"It's alright." You smiled brightly, taking his hand into yours. " You know what they say. Cold hands, warm heart."
You didn't know it, but if the comforting warmth blooming in his chest from because of you was anything to go by, there must have been some truth to that saying.

What is she doing? Ai wondered from his spot on the busy show set. It was break time, but Ai never had much to do in those moments besides look over his tight schedule and go over his scenes. That's why when many workers went to their breaks, he stayed behind next to his marking tape to reassess his approach on how he would deliver his lines.
The large filming room was by no means empty. Actors, directors, supervisors, stage-hands, assistants, the list could go on. Perhaps it was because Ai had seldom known anything else but the hectic life of a show-business star, but out of all the people rushing on the set, he immediately noticed you. You couldn't have been much older than Ai. You were standing about 7 meters from him, slightly sheltered by the branches of a decorative plant. He watched you stare up at something while you moved erratically. You must have been satisfied with your goal because you smiled to yourself.

How odd, he thought to himself. Ai's hobby was people watching so he had seen people make several faces and talk to themselves before, it was a quirk he took note of from others. But he still found it strange, whatever you were doing.
You didn't look necessarily Japanese, there was something about your appearance that made him think you were a foreigner.

You didn't have a stage pass on you so you wouldn't be a helping worker then. But Ai was pretty well-versed in most show stars, especially ones he would work with or in proximity of. You weren't an actress he knew of. So what were you doing on a stage set and what was it that you were doing?
If there was any trait that possibly outweighed Ai's introversion, it was curiosity. He decided to confront this mystery girl himself. As he walked towards you, he thought briefly about the irony. Part of his appeal to his fans was being a 'mystery man" as the media sometimes described him, but now it was him without answers and he was going to get them himself.

"Excuse me. Who are you?" He asked the mystery girl.
He saw you startle. Apparently you didn't expect anyone to come up to you by your reaction.

"Um - uh - Hi! Sorry. I didn't expect anyone to talk to me." You spoke with a slight nervousness in your voice. Your Japanese was understandable but it was evident it wasn't your usual language. Ai's judgement about you was exact and he surprised himself to feel a sense of accomplishment to know information about you before you told him.

Now that he saw your face looking back at him, he noted that you were a pretty girl. Ai knew beauty standards well for his line of business and while he never thought any girl to be ugly, he knew some of them drew more attention when they matched conventional beauty standards. You were a subtle kind of pretty. Your skin tone, hair color and the color of your eyes all suited each other. He thought to himself you were the kind of pretty that was easily overlooked in a crowd of faces, but one that could be picked up on if someone spent even a moment talking to you. And more than just your appearance, he found he liked seeing how your eyes widened in surprise as your irises flickered in his direction when you noticed him. The small stutters from your soft lips. Yeah, he found he liked studying your reactions from him, the best comparison he could make was that it was similar to seeing his fans smile at him from the crowd while he was on stage.