One step forward, two steps back

Part 15 Fun with loosing

Nishikata stared at the bottle in front of him with the ring that had landed on the neck. 'I need to do something, we're supposed to lose to them to make them feel better.' He looked up at the monster prizes above him. 'Not to mention, I can't carry one of those around with me all day, especially into the Ferris wheel.'

"Man, looks like we lose." Nakai said as he stared at the bottle. "Man, and here I thought this was unwinnable."

"You're not out of rings yet." Takagi replied. "Who knows, you might get lucky."

"It's not going to happen Takagi." Nishikata said as he continued staring at the bottle. "The odds are too far against them."

"You really think so?" Takagi smiled and placed a hand on the table. "It's not over till the last rings thrown."

"Well the odds are so far against him that it might as well be."

She turned to Nakai and smiled. "Give it a throw, see what happened."

"Um ... if you say so." He tossed his last ring like a frisbee and the group watched as it soared through the air. It was as if it was going in slow motion, as it bounced off the top of one of the bottles and continued sailing.

'This is pointless.' Nishikata thought to himself. 'I'm going to need to rethink my entire plan, worse, Nakai and Mano aren't going to be fixing their dilemma.' Nishikata opened his eyes, but what he saw was something he couldn't believe. The ring had landed on the bottle neck, and had stopped moving.

"It looks like we have two winners back-to-back." The stall attendant said. "And here I thought I had seen everything."

"Wow." Nakai said as he stared at it in disbelief. "Then ... we tie."

"Nope." Nishikata quickly replied. "Getting one is very rare, but getting one, right after someone else got one, is something almost impossible." He turned to Nakai. "Near as I can tell, you guys win."

"I second that." Takagi added.

"Wait, really?" Mano asked. "We beat you?"

"This time." Takagi said as she handed Mano her prize from the previous game. "But Nishikata and I are definitely going to win next time."

"Well we look forward to it!" Mano exclaimed.

The stall attendant came back holding two giant stuffed animals in the shame of a lion and an elephant as Nishikata and Takagi pointed to Nakai and Mano.

"Ah." Nakai said, having just realized what had actually happened. "So this is why you let us win."

The stall attendant handed Mano and Nakai the prizes as the began to fall off balance, trying to hold onto them. "Hey, Mano, you want me to hold that?" Nakai asked.

"You couldn't even if you tried." She replied.

"Ha, yeah, that's true." He turned back to Takagi and Nishikata. "Thanks again, this was fun."

"I actually would like to sit down for a bit." Mano added. "Then ... maybe we should head home."

Nakai looked at the monstrous stuffed animal in his hands. "Yeah, that might be a good idea." He turned back to Nishikata and Takagi. "We'll see you guys later."

"Wait." Nishikata began as he held up the small stuffed bear he won from the first challenge. "You guys still get-"

"Keep it." Nakai interrupted as he and Mano began walking away. "We can barely carry what we have."

"Well ... okay." He handed it to Takagi. "Here, you can have this, I'm not into stuffed animals."

Takagi held back a laugh as she looked at it. "Is this supposed to be a romantic Christmas present or something?"

"Huh? No, that's not till-" He stopped himself as he turned slightly to the side. "This ... is ... not ... that."

"Hm?" She looked at the little bear, then back to Nishikata. "Okay, if you say so." She took the stuffed bear and hugged it. "It's so soft."

"Yeah." He looked at her and began to lose himself. 'She looks so beautiful, and innocent ... damn, I hope she says yes.'

"Oh, speaking of which, we're alone now."

Nishikata's face turned bright red. "Uh, yeah ... we are."

"So ... what do you want to do?"

"What do I want to do?" Nishikata began thinking to himself, but only one thing came to mind. "I want to make sure Nakai and Mano manage to patch things up."

"Same here actually." Takagi replied. "So, shall we spy on them?"

"You read my mind." Nishikata paused as an annoyed look appeared on his face. "Again."

She laughed and grabbed his hand. "Then let's go."

The two of them followed Nakai and Mano as they took a seat on a bench overlooking a small lake at the edge of the amusement park, and found a nice hiding spot near a vending machine where they could watch them. "Can you hear what they're saying?" Nishikat asked.

"If you're quiet, you can barely make it out."

They continued to watch in silence as the two placed all their prizes next to them. "Man, I can't believe I made that shot."

"Yeah, neither can I, but I also can't believe that Nishikata let us beat him. From what Takagi says, he's very competitive."

"True, but he will admit when he's lost."

"I guess so."

The two of them looked over the lake at the setting sun. "Those two are so lucky." Mano said as she looked down. "They get along so well."

"Huh? Don't compare us to them, every person is different, meaning every relationship is twice as different." He wrapped an arm around Mano and looked out to the lake. "But if you really want to compare us, then Nishikata hasn't even told Takagi that he loves her yet."

Nishikata's face turned red as Takagi looked at him and let out a small laugh. "I never said that to him." He whispered.

"Well ... thing is ..." Mano turned away as Nakai looked at her concerned.

"Oh, that's right." He leaned closer and whispered something in her ear. They couldn't hear what he said, but based on how red Mano's face turned, it was obvious what it was.

Nishikata nudged Takagi as they stood there. "I think we should get going now."

"But this is the best part." Nakai and Mano leaned closer and pressed their lips against each other. "Those two are the lucky ones." Takagi said as she gave a soft smile.

"We should definitely go now." Nishikata stated.

"Yeah, we've done what we needed to."

They quietly made their exit, being careful to not alert Mano and Nakai. "So, shall we get back to where we were?"

"Uh-" Nishikata's face turned bright red.

"And by that I mean, rides, there's still plenty of day left."

"Oh, right, yeah, let's get back to that."