May this promise last a lifetime

Chapter 71 - Disaster of the coat

Two questions I asked myself while writing this:

 How many obvious hints can Wriothesley miss?

 How obvious can I make it that this is a date without having Neuvillette say it?

 Anyway, let the chaos that is Neuvillette and Wriothesley's first date begin!

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Wriothesley's POV

 We went to the mall first, leaving groceries for last.

 It was the same mall as last time and even before we entered Neuvillette repeated a few times that he wanted to avoid Chiori at all costs.

 He was very adamant about it.

 I have no idea why though. As far as I know, he was supposed to bring the kids for costume fitting tomorrow.

 But oh well. All we had to do was avoid Chiori. It shouldn't be that difficult to do.

 We had just gotten out of the car and were walking from the parking lot to the mall when Neuvillette suddenly stopped.

 "Wriothesley..." He called out.

 "Yes?"

 I turned around to see Neuvillette looking at me nervously.

 "May I..." He started.

 May he what?

 "May I hold your hand?" He asked after a short pause.

 I blanked out for a second.

 "You... You want to hold my hand?" I asked blankly.

 His face quickly turned red as he nodded.

 Pfft!

 That's cute.

 "Of course." I smiled.

 I held my hand out to him and he quickly took in, intertwining our fingers.

 As soon as he did that, a small yet incredibly bright smile spread across his face.

 "Shall we go then?" He asked happily.

 A simple hum of agreement was the only thing I managed as a reaction. My mind was too busy writing an essay about how pretty Neuvillette was when he smiled to be able to make up anything better.

 Fortunately, that was enough for Neuvillette to start walking ahead.

 It was only then that it really hit me that we were walking around holding hands.

 Like a couple.

 ...

 This seriously looks more and more like a date.

 But this is Neuvillette we are talking about. He can't even take very obvious hints from someone who was very clearly courting him.

 He probably just considers it a friend thing.

 But that does not help my heart at all. I feel like it's about to jump right out of my chest.

 Phew...

 Calm down.

 We are just out shopping. Nothing more.

 I've been shopping with Clorinde before. I don't see why this is different.

 Except maybe the massive crush I have on Neuvillette.

 Ugh...

 Maybe I should ask him to clarify about today's outing before letting my imagination run wild.