“Hey, you still with me?” Chen asks, eyes flitting away for a brief moment.

Was he unable to look you in the eye for a second there?

Letting the thought go you nod, less stiff than before with your renewed mindset of trust.

"Good, just follow my lead and you'll be fine." he instructs taking your hand in his. It’s a simple enough gesture but it’s surprisingly comforting. Using your other hand to grab onto his sleeve you mechanically follow him, keeping your eyes trained on the ground in front of you.

The twinkling of the bakery’s door bell startles you, Chen chuckling lightly as he ushers you in gently. It’s very quaint and warm in the store like a cozy hideaway. There are a few others who are also finding refuge from the storm here, sitting in the little tables set along the walls. Leading you to a free table in the back of the store, as far as possible from the windows where the storm is never ending, Chen pulls out a seat for you. As he goes to take the seat across from you his hand starts to slip out of your own, not holding on any longer than necessary.

You don’t care and recapture his hand in yours.

He gives you a brief quizzical look then sits across from you with a wet squish. Your hands rest on the tabletop between you, yours shaking in his slim grasp.

“Feeling any better?” he asks eyeing your hand with a slight frown.

You open your mouth to speak but your voice is caught in your throat. Slowly shutting your mouth you shake your head, trying to hide under the heavy hood burdening your head.

“You know what will?” he prompts leaning across the table with a goofy grin.

You blink at him.

“Some hot chocolate and cake for our two week anniversary!” he exclaims with a playful grin.

You actually manage a weak incredulous snort.

“Oh look, you reacted! Good, great, okay! Cake it is! Be back in a sec!" he says with a mischievous grin. Whatever he has planned is definitely going to be painfully embarrassing on your part.

Your fears are confirmed a mere ten minutes later when Chen comes parading back with a single slice of cake adorned with a lone candle burning happily. In his other hand is a bright, colorful mass of balloons each saying “Happy Anniversary!” in unmistakably Chen’s own writing. You stare dumbfounded at him along with half the bakery.

“Happy anniversary!” he cheers at an unnecessary volume.

“You are the biggest dork alive.” you say shaking your head and burying your face in your hands

This is so ridiculous. Without a doubt total strangers are sitting around you and severely judging the two of you right now.

“HA! Look who’s talking, idiot!” he exclaims triumphantly.

You blink.

“Oh my God, you dork!” you shout hitting his arm. The balloons in his hand create a chorus of dull thunks as they fumble against one another. Eyeing them entertained Chen smiles placing the cake down on the table.

“Complain all you want, you know you’re enjoying this.” he states walking behind you. Turning you see him working the strings of the balloons around you the back of your chair. Balloons secure he grins up at you and taps your nose. “Smile a little why don’t you.”

Instead you stick your tongue out at him making him chuckle.

“Idiot, your face will get stuck like that. Then how am I supposed to walk around with you as my girlfriend?” he chides ruffling the top of your head as he stands.

Swatting him away you straighten out the disheveled strands of your hair with a disgruntled frown. “If you were nicer to me then maybe I’d make prettier faces.”

“That’s definitely not a valid argument. I spoil you.” he says gesturing to the anniversary display around you.

“Doesn’t mean you’re nice to me all the time.”

“Oh please, I ask for one smile and now we’re arguing? This is not how I wanted our anniversary to go.”

“How did you want it to go then?”

“Not like this.”

“Insightful vision.”

“I think so.”

“Dork.”

“Idiot.”

Laughing the two of you disregard the strange looks of the strangers around you and enjoy your shared joke. When your laughs quiet the two of you grin at one another.

“So, here’s to our two week anniversary!” Chen declares blowing out the cake’s candle. Stabbing the dessert with a fork he scoops up a piece and holds it out to you. “Say ah.”

“Now you’re feeding me?” you question staring the forkful of cake incredulously.

“It’s the gentlemanly thing to do.” he replies waving the fork at you in wait.

“How about no.”

“Aw, come on!”

“I’m capable of eating on my own.”

“Not today you aren’t.”

“Chen, just give me the fork.”

“One bite and you can have it.”

“Fine.”

You lean forward with your mouth open to take the bite of cake. Like the dork he is Chen mashes it onto your nose instead. Glaring at your hysteric friend you lean over the table to pick up the plate of cake. Rising you quickly shove the entire thing into his face before he has a chance to escape. He makes a loud muffled noise of surprise and swats you away with flailing limbs. Pulling the plate off him you’re satisfied to see the mess of cake that coats Chen’s face.

“What have I told you about attacking me with food?” he chides with a large grin, blindly reaching for a napkin. Naturally he sticks his hand into the remaining lumpy mass of cake on the plate in front of him.

“You’re such a dork, here.” you say laughing and handing him some napkins.

“Why thank you, idiot.” he replies throwing the bits of cake on his hand at you.

“Hey! Don’t make me get more food!” you threaten chucking the napkins at him.

“No! You’ll just ruin it! You’re too violent to be trusted with anything! This is why we don’t have nice things, idiot!” he retorts wiping down his face of cake debris.

“Says the one who stuffed my present into your backpack of death.”

“That’s an invalid argument! I protected its cube integrity like I said I would!” He rummages through his backpack and, to his credit, pulls out the box still fully intact with little water damage. “See, what did I tell you?”

You panic. What if he opens it now and reads your horribly fluffy card? What if he reads it in front of you and you see the scornful mockery in his face as he reads it?

What if he takes it the wrong way?

“Okay, okay, I see it now put if back before you break it.” you say hurriedly waving your hands at his backpack.

“Break it? It’s something fragile? Like glass?”

“Yes, well, it’s not glass but it’s delicate, kind of.”

“I’m going to open it to see what exactly I’m protecting with my life.”

“No!” you shout startling the both of you. He gives you a inquiring gaze which you return with a playful grin.

“Not until I get my present too.”

A slow grin grows on his lips but his eyes flit to the window studying the storm apologetically.

“It’s at my place.”

“Then…” you gnaw on the inside of your lip unsurely and wring your hands under the table frustrated, “let’s go.”

He gives you a bewildered look and shakes his head.

“If you don’t want to we don’t have to, we can just—”

“It’s not like we can just wait out the storm here, it could go on for hours or all night. Let’s just get to your flat and camp out there.” you mutter fiddling with the wet hem of your sleeve. As much as you don’t want you’d rather just make the trip to Chen’s apartment quickly and get it over with. Even if the two of you stayed around the café until closing that would just be hours of delaying the inevitable trek into the ongoing storm. There’s no way around it.

Besides, you kind of want your present.