Save The Date (N-Not That It's A Date Or Anything!) [Maia]

"Right! Sorry, got so caught up talking to you I forgot," Elliot apologized, sheepishly. "There's a ton we can too here, so what do you want to do?" He walked as he talked, opening the door to finally let him and Kuu out of this horrible, smelly place. Frankly, he was amazed he managed to handle it in there for so long. Meeting fresh air again and realizing what non-awfulness smelled like reminded him what a terrible idea he had.

Isaac was doing surprisingly decent at first, but hearing Maia's last comment threw him off a bit. He found his footsteps slowing down a little, his focus on the screen and focus on Maia's worries now grappling for dominance. He tried to push through and keep up the success, but a few critical Miss!es at the end led to his score dipping just barely below Maia's. It was a hard fought war, but in the end it was hers to win. Isaac wiped his brow as he hopped off the platform, checking out the scores as their impromptu audience looked on. Some scoffed at the comparatively low scores. Some applauded the two for putting up one heck of a fight on such a hard difficulty. One accused Isaac of throwing the game for Maia, although his jeer was swallowed up in the general noise of the arcade. Then, as quickly as they assembled, the onlookers went their separate ways. Such was the life of an arcade audience member, bouncing from cabinet to cabinet whenever something interesting happened.

The air was still stifling, so Isaac wasn't sure how long he'd keep sweating for, but he was damn proud of his performance. "Ha! We nailed it our first try," he boasted. However, his grin once more reduced as the worries came back to the forefront of his mind. "What do you mean more helpful?" he asked, voice a little slow and pensive. "You helped keep my brother safe, didn't you? And well, just you being there helped. I was scared as heck heading to the Dark Area, and knowing I'd be with someone as reliable as you really helped keep my head cool.

But come on. That's the past, and this is our victory party. And so far it's been a damn good one! What kind of games do you want to check out now?" He just hoped his little admission would help reassure Maia. It always left him feeling pretty down knowing seeing when she wasn't doing well, and half the point of today was to make sure she'd be able to take her mind off of it all. It was all his stupid fault for bringing ProtoAndromon up, anyway. He knew he should've just shrugged and said "I'm pretty fast" or something instead.

"You ever see Maia playing video games?" Elliot asked. "It's kinda like that, but they're all on different TVs. Some of them are with other people, but usually it's just you against the machine. And there's so many games, too! They all just cost a coin." Elliot was starting to feel a lot more comfortable answering questions and pointing things out. Guiding Kuu around was really helpful for bumping his social skills up a notch. "Ooh, there's two good ones over there! Do you want to race cars, or shoot zombies?" he said, pointing the two machines out. He'd probably hide Kuu under his jacket or something so other people wouldn't see just who player two was. If they didn't directly see the ferret, they probably wouldn't ask any questions.

"Me? Give up? Never. I was just a bit distracted, that's all," he assured Maia. He didn't want to tell her that her comment had burrowed its way in his mind and would now likely leave him worried through the course of the entire day, even if that was what was starting to happen. It didn't help that no two words in the English language caused more worries than "don't worry." He could tell she wasn't convinced by his attempt at reassuring her, either. More than anything, he wished he could let her know that she was the first person he ringed up when they were going on their spirit quest. Or that she was one of the only three people that he actually trusted to back him up. Heck, maybe even that she's been helping brighten up what has otherwise been the most hectic vacation of his life. He just couldn't find the words, though. Even if he could, she was right. This was for fun. He tried to swallow his concerns long enough, and maybe pick a better time to let Maia know his thoughts.

Then they came across the fighting game cabinets. It wasn't Mortal Kombat, but Isaac at least somewhat recognized this one. Could he beat Maia? Honestly, he doubted it. But he was going to give it a solid try. "No clue, but that didn't stop me from almost kicking your butt at DDR," he teased. "Don't see how this'll be any different." He popped the tokens in and made his way to the character selection screen. Immediately he picked the only character worth actually using; the random button. Generally it was a mark of either confidence or having no clue what you were doing. For Isaac, it was both.

Naturally, when the game started up, he would be greeted with the pink-gi'd, smug-grinning Dan Hibiki. "This guy any good?" he asked, curious.

"They're like the living dead. So I don't think they'd taste any good," Elliot explained. Seemed like almost everything was some sort of food in Kuu's mind. He could be so silly sometimes. Of course, as Elliot got a little closer to the cabinet, he found himself having a few doubts. Kuu was really hard to pin down as far as age was concerned. Was he going to be ready for all of this? He slowed the speed of his walk a bit as he spoke. "This game can get a little scary, though. If you ever want to stop playing just let me know, okay?" It wasn't really scary so much as a bit bloody, and the dialogue was often way too stupid to let the game startle, but Elliot didn't want to risk upsetting Kuu or giving him nightmares. Friend happiness always came first.

Isaac found himself pondering Maia's quip. "Why would I be paying attention to the ones in the audience?" he asked, almost unconsciously. Uppn realizing his slip of the tongue he tried to act natural, waiting for the other half of that sentence's implications to kick in. It was a compliment so stealthy he hadn't even realized it, and he was the one who said it! Still, he had to admit, Maia was looking pretty darn cute today. Maybe she always was and he was just way too stressed out from the Digital World to notice. Maybe it was because she was stylish as heck on the DDR machine. Maybe it was just something she did different with her hair. Regardless, he hoped the comment would slip past unnoticed. Even with their kind of flirty banter he hoped it wouldn't be a bridge too far.

"Picked your favorite, huh?" he asked, upon hearing Maia's comment. How was he supposed to know he was playing as the walking set of training wheels? Still, with how much she was backing up it seemed like she had a plan. Walking up to her would be playing right into her hands. He had better put in some defensive pressure of his own. Naturally the first thing he found was the jump on the right stick, which he proceeded to make liberal use of. Jump forward while hitting the quick punch button, jump back while hitting the quick button. That was the ticket! He'd form an impenetrable wall of punches to the head if she ever tried to advance. Isaac's plan was great, except that near everyone had some sort of shoryuken or flash kick. Hopefully Maia was as good of a Street Teacher as she was a Street Fighter, because this boy had a lot to learn.

"Me? Scared?" Elliot asked. "Come on, Kuu, I'm not scared of any-" Elliot's voice started to trail off as he remembered Porcupamon. And the Troopmon. And Tankmon. And Kouhei, when scared. And being alone. And clowns. "Okay. So I'm scared of a lot of things. But these are just moving pictures of dead people. They can't touch us!" With that, Elliot popped some coins into the machines and listened as it whirred to life. That would keep the duo of dunderheads out of Maia and Isaac's way for a good while, at least.

Not that Isaac and Maia needed the help. They were doing a perfect job at distracting themselves, with Isaac's incompetent Street Fighter "skills." "Aw, come on. That wouldn't be fair to you," he said, not even realizing the ironic depths of unfairness that the random button had cooked up for the two of them. "I'm a quick learner. You can trust me." He stopped having Dan Hibiki jump around like a hyperactive flea and started trying out some other buttons, finding his way around the six-button layout through vicious attacks on the empty air. Fast, regular, strong. Punches, kicks. Stick moves. He was pretty sure he could handle it, even if he wasn't sure how to do any of the fancier inputs.

He walked back and forth a bit, trying to bait out an attack from Maia's character, before having Dan dash in with a few of the quick punches. It was a better strategy than the trainwreck he had been showing off earlier, but it kinda had to be. It certainly matched more closely to his hit and run style in the Digital World, even if the limitations of buttons meant it wasn't a perfect translation of his fighting plan. If it worked in real life, surely it had to work in the game. Besides, judging by Maia's offer he was doing something horribly wrong with his previous strategy, and there's no way she would have fun playing with him if he kept demonstrating such suckiness. Maybe this new plan of attack was closer to what she had in mind.

As these thoughts went through his head, he realized he was now officially worrying about disappointing a cute girl by being awful at video games. Definitely not what he expected from going to Japan!

"I dunno. Elliot says I'm too short to ever beat anyone in a fight," Isaac said, only half-joking. He remembered it as clear as day. It was when Elliot hit that 5'1 growth spurt, and for a few days starting insistently referring to himself as the big brother. It was quite the annoying few days, but Isaac didn't entirely mind. It made Elliot happy to joke about it, even if he ran the joke into the ground way too quickly. " 'Sides, why would I ever want to fight you? I'd feel pretty bad about picking a fight with my best friend here." He didn't really mind admitting that. Frankly, hanging out with Maia was quickly becoming the highlight of his vacation days.

However, he couldn't help but notice that something was up. Maia's playing seemed to be halfhearted at best, and she kept mumbling stuff to herself. She did when they were going to the cabinet, when they were at the DDR table, when they were talking about if she was any use in the Dark Area. He started to wonder if Maia was feeling alright today, and found himself wishing that there was anything he could do to help her. "You sure? And here I thought you said you'd kick my butt easily," Isaac said. His rookie mistakes weren't being punished in the slightest, and even if it was by time out he somehow managed to pull off the win for the first round.

"Look, really, you don't need to hold back any," he promised. "I always have a blast hanging out with you. Why do you think I'm even at this arcade in the first place? Trust me, you kicking my butt wouldn't change a thing." The announcer declared Round 2, and with it Isaac waited to see what Maia would do next.

Isaac wanted to be more annoyed at Maia for her sudden burst of laughter about Elliot's comment. He hated feeling too small or too young, and that was basically the entire crux of the joke. Nevertheless, he just couldn't bring himself to be bothered by it. Maybe it was because he brought the joke up in the first place. Maybe it was because he trusted Maia a bunch. Maybe it was because she had a really pretty laugh and he didn't want to even risk interrupting it. Damnit, what was today doing to his brain? Heck, he almost found himself laughing along with her! "Wouldn't expect that from a fluffball like my bro, huh? He's all smiles and hugs, then goes right for the jugular when you least expect it," he warned, half-jokingly.

Of course, while the laughing didn't catch Isaac too off guard, what Maia had to say next certainly did. The boy found his face growing hot, far too busy focusing on keeping down the blush spreading across his own face to notice Maia's. How could he already be her best friend? He had only been in Japan for a few days, and Maia had been there for a long while. Surely there were tons of people lining up to be friends with someone so cool, and he just couldn't imagine himself at the head of that line. "You gotta be kidding. I bet you've got lots of awesome friends around here. You're you," he said, trying to convince himself almost as much as he was trying to convince Maia. Heck, the fact that he was in one of the loudest, hottest places in Japan just to spend time with her before leaving was indication enough.

"I mean, yeah, Elliot wanted to see one of these before he left. Really, I just wanted to make sure I'd be able to hang out with you one last time, doing something you really liked," he admitted. If Elliot wanted to go to the arcade, Isaac would've tossed him a fistful of yen and stood by the relative fresh air of the air hockey table. But seeing Maia in her element and having a blast? That was priceless.

Almost as priceless to Isaac's reaction to Maia's hands-on tutorial. At first the boy was just confused as Maia slipped an arm around his, but figured she was just trying to reach for something around the cramped cabinet. Then she put her hand atop his on the joystick and he promptly turned almost neon red. She began showing off combos and different moves, but Isaac was too busy paying attention to the fact that they were in way too close contact to actually notice what Dan was doing. "Thank you," he said as she demonstrated, voice so small that it seemed like he'd explode if he talked too loudly. It was a pretty intense combo, but he might have only said that because he was too distracted to actually notice its intricacies. Still, he'd do his best to try and replicate it. He'd just have to pretend Maia's hand was there again. Wait, that didn't help at all!

"O-oh, fifteen. How about you?" Isaac said, snapping back into reality. He was a little embarrassed bringing it up. He knew Maia was a bit older than him. It was why he refused to entertain his thought about her cute laugh and smile. But how much older?

At least Maia confirmed it was more of a secret-keeping thing than a loneliness thing. He was a bit worried there that such a cool person was going underappreciated. She raised a distressingly good point, though. Even as a spirit user who could hide it better, Isaac would still have to constantly run off and sneak away to handle Digital World business. Would he ever be able to go to late night parties? What would happen when he was tossed back into the school system? If he had a girlfriend, would she become a target for Digimon that had built vendettas with him? There was no more normal for them anymore, and at this point they were left confiding in other people like themselves. "Guess this is how things are gonna be for us for a while, huh?" he asked, the tone in his voice indescribable. Was it worry? Heartache? Acceptance? Not even Isaac could tell. "But that's all the more reason for me to be lucky to have you backing me up." His voice was still a little small from the hands-on tutorial, but it was starting to return to normal.

"No, really, don't worry about it. I'm having a blast here!" Isaac said cheerfully. It's true, he was. Sure, Maia had only shown him one combo, but from there it wasn't too hard to take that implication and move it into a few more. It was very trial and error, and most of the successes were maybe two hits long at the most, but he was getting into the groove. "I'm at a cool place with a great friend learning something new. What could be better?" Maybe her actually picking up the darn controller would be better. Maia's distraction was letting Dan Hibiki start chipping away at health little by little! She'd have to start stepping it up soon if she wanted to preserve her honor as the toughest gamer of the group. Thankfully, Dan's punches had the strength of wet noodles, and there was still more than enough time to run a comeback.

Seventeen, huh? Not the biggest number Isaac was fearing. If it was nineteen or something he would've probably just politely excused himself before he ended up with an unreachable crush. Not that Maia was even close to reachable, of course. Or that he even had a crush on her. Nope, just best friends being best friends here at the arcade. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little down about how young he was. Maybe growing a beard eventually would help. Nobody looked young with a beard! For now, though, he tried to push away the worry and return to the world's slowest game of Street Fighter.

Apparently, someone else took notice of it took. The distinct feeling of being watched sent a shiver down Isaac's spine, and as he turned he noticed a gangster-looking wannabe reclining on a Pole Position cabinet. He seemed to be smirking like he heard the funniest joke in the world, and Isaac couldn't help but feel like he looked familiar.