LOVE & ANIME

Chapter Seven

"Ohayo."

Darren opened his eyes and gazed up to see Mimiko standing next to the bed gazing down and smiling at him. She was already dressed, so he figured she had been up for a while. He wiped the sleep from his eyes as he sat up in bed and yawned.

"Ohayo," he replied sleepily. "Ohayo means good morning, right?"

She nodded. "Yes, it does."

"Okay. Thought so."

"How did you sleep?"

He thought for a moment about how to answer her. The truth of the matter was, he didn't sleep too well the night before. He was shocked when Mimiko suggested that he sleep over. And in her bed. He was having such a good time playing music and hanging out with her that he had lost all track of time. In fact, it had gotten so late that by the time he realized how late it was the trains and subways had all closed down for the night. And, when Darren said he could take a taxi, she reminded him that taxi fares at that late at night were usually sky hgh. That's when she suggested he spend the night. When he said it didn't really matter to him how high the fare was since Natsuo Tengan would technically pay for it, she still insisted that he spend the night. Since it was getting too late and he was getting too tired to argue with her, he relented and said that he could go sleep on the floor. He would've suggested sleeping on her couch but she didn't have one in her small apartment.

"I don't mind if you sleep with me," she told him. "And by sleep I mean actual sleep and not the thing that you're thinking of."

"I'm not thinking of anything," he told her innocently.

She gave him a smirk. "Right."

"No, seriously, I'm not that type of guy."

"I've been around enough guys to know a sleazy guy when I see one. And you're not a sleazy guy." She pointed at him and winked. "But you're still a guy."

He was tempted to ask her what she meant by "enough guys" but he, of course, refrained from doing so. They got into bed together. He kept his pants on, which prompted her to say to him, "You sleep with your pants on?"

"Not usually, no."

"Well, why don't you take them off then?"

He gazed at her and was about to protest, but once again he relented as he slowly took off his pants while under the covers and carefully placed them on the floor beside the bed. He laid back down as she scooted closer to him.

"Now don't you feel better?" she asked him. He merely grunted a response. She giggled and said, "Konbanwa."

"Konbanwa means good night, right?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Oh. Konbanwa."

He turned over on his side so he wasn't facing her. Then all of a sudden he felt her snuggling up to him. He quickly tensed up as he felt the warmness and the softness of her skin pressing up against him. He could also smell her scent that smelled like jasmine. He had smelled that scent on her before when she hugged him. He found the scent intoxicating. He wasn't sure if she was doing this to tease him or if it was because it was a small bed. Or perhaps it was a bit of both reasons. But, whatever reason it was, he found it rather difficult to go to sleep. He felt himself becoming more and more aroused. He tried to focus on something else to try to become less aroused, though he wasn't finding much luck. However, when she asked him how he had slept, he told her simply, "Fine."

He then checked his cell phone to see what time it was and saw that he had received a couple of text messages from his interpreter Toshi. In the messages, Toshi texted that he was waiting for him outside of his hotel and asked him where he was.