“So, what flavor do you want?”

Amber scans through the menu thoroughly and purses her lips, her forehead wrinkles deep in thought. There are too many choices and she doesn’t know what flavor to choose. After doubting several weird flavors, she finally says, “Vanilla?”

The man sitting across her throws an incredulous look, “Vanilla?” he snorts, “How boring.”

“Hey!” Amber hits his arm, offended. “My owner only introduced us to vanilla ice cream, can’t put the blame on me.” She defends herself and sulks afterward with a little pout. Disturbed by her oh so adorable pout, Kris pokes her nose while muttering, “Stop it,”

Amber blinks twice and realizes that Kris looks somewhat flustered, she props one elbow on the table and rests her chin on her palm, “Don’t you like that?” she teases, fluttering her eyelashes playfully. Kris shakes his head firmly and says a stern no but the beautiful blush gracing his cheeks betrays him. Afraid Amber will notice (when she actually does), Kris excuses himself to off to the cashier to order and pay.

The hybrid puffs her cheeks and heaves a sigh, surprised by her own boldness. That was so confident of her, remembering how malfunction she was earlier, she couldn’t even look him in the eyes this morning. Kris comes back later after ordering his usual and Amber’s choice. He sits on his previous seat, staring at his cat hybrid before casually says, “Tell me about yourself.”

“Huh? Me? Why?” Amber asks confusedly, why does Kris want to know about her all of sudden? She eyes the man who has this sheepish smile and thinks about his real motive. “No reason.” He says with a shrug. “Come on now, speak. I’ll listen to every single thing you say.”

Though she finds it confusing, Amber obeys her master order and begins telling her story, “My mother left me when I was a baby.” Unexpected words spill out of while clouds of sadness float around their table. She doesn’t mean to ruin the atmosphere but the words slip just like that. She looks down at the suddenly interesting table and is scared, her own mother could leave her that easily, then there is no guarantee if someone with no blood relation won’t leave her, someone like Kris.  “I—I, uh,”

Kris takes her hand and squeezes gently, “I’m sorry if I make you feel uncomfortable. Let’s talk about something else?” Amber stays silent, both eyes glued to the hands covering hers. She mutters something, silently and thinks Kris can’t hear it while in fact he hears it clear enough.

“I won’t, I promise I won’t.” he whispers and squeezes her hand tight. Amber looks up with glassy eyes, a drop of tear almost falls to her cheek but she wipes it quickly. The fear of being left alone is so strong. She wants to believe his words, wants to believe that he won’t leave her. But part of her just can’t do it thus makes her feel more miserable. Oh, how she regrets ever saying that earlier.

The two are silent for a brief second before the silence is broken by the waiter who greets them cheerfully while setting down their bowls ice cream. Amber pulls her hand back to her lap, blush prominent on her cheeks.

“Do you want to try mine?” Kris offers, scooping a spoon for himself. He grins like a child when the ice cream melts in his tongue and the taste buds register his favorite taste easily. “What’s the flavor?”

Kris takes a scoop of his ice cream, all the while mumbling, “Mint chocolate chip.” He then lifts the spoon and holds it in front of her face, “Try it, aaah…”

The feline’s eyes widen comically, tail swishes beside her in the air, thrilled. She opens and watches as Kris scoots closer. Amber waits with a fast beating heart. She can hear the blood rushing in her ears.  What she expects is the new taste she’s going to experience, obviously not the sudden coldness smearing her cheek. She jolts when the cold ice cream touches her skin.

Kris laughs noisily, his eyes turn to crescent shape forming an eye smile and his nose scrunches cutely. He has this gummy grin Amber never knew before. She pretends to be mad but subtly watches him laugh his heart out. He looks as great as ever, even more handsome while laughing like that.

She wipes the stickiness with a napkin then back eating her vanilla ice cream. Seeing how she goes silent and doesn’t throw any remarks, Kris halts his laughter and clears his throat, “You aren’t mad, are you?”

Amber looks up from her bowl, “Of course not, why would I?”

“Maybe you don’t like it? I don’t know.”Amber stops devouring her ice cream, her eyes flicker from his eyes to his lips. “You got something there,” she says, pointing at the corner of her own lips.

“Huh? Where?” Kris wipes his cheek frantically but he isn’t doing the right thing since the ice cream still stays there staining his skin. Amber rolls her eyes, she leans closer with napkin in hand to get the tosca-color ice cream off the corner of his lips, “You can’t even take care of yourself.” She scolds him, pulling back her hand after his face is clean.

Her master shows a toothy grin, looking smug. “I have someone to take care of me anyway.” The poor hybrid chokes on her ice cream after hearing his sentence. Her face is red as she coughs furiously. “I’m sorry!” Kris shrieks his apology, trying to pat her back but cancel his decision immediately after receiving her deadly glare. Uhm, okay then.

His heart is filled with happiness. The ice cream date (was it even a date?) was fun.  They talked about many things even after their bowl was empty. There were so much laughter caused by silly jokes coming from Kris. And although some of them, well, most of them were really stupid, Amber would show her adorable laugh. Amber is so precious that he doesn’t want to make her sad.

They are nearing their neighborhood when Kris notices a familiar black sedan in front of his house. “Who’s… th— oh, no,”

Amber turns to look at him then looks at where his eyes strain to. She sees the same black sedan car and an imaginary question mark pops above her head. “Huh? Whose car is that?” Kris grips the steering wheel tightly, a little nervous since the owner of the car didn’t tell him anything, “It’s my mother.”

opens and as the gear in her brain starts working, she asks anxiously, “Kris, do you— do you think she’d mind me? I mean I know you’re an adult and make you own deci—“

“Calm down,” he assures with a smile, “I’m sure it’s fine. She’s nice you don’t have to worry.” They par