Now or Nothing - Zayne X MC
[Door 08:] Christmas Lights ─ .✦ Getting together, a bunch of failed dates ─ .✦ word count: 1.2k ─ .✦ christmas countdown masterlist!
“About today… I know I said that we should check out the Christmas lights, but..”, Zayne sighs and runs his hand through the curtain so that the view from outside slightly peeks through; it’s pouring outside - the once promised clear skies nowhere to be seen, although the weather forecast said otherwise.
“..I think today’s a no, huh?”, a small giggle sounds on the other end of the line that makes his frustration falter for a moment, “Nothing we can do about it. Let’s just reschedule for another day.”
“I-”, he lets out another sigh, “I.. I’m really sorry. I know we have been looking forward to it and made sure to find a day that fits our schedules but-”
“Hey, don’t mind it”, your gentle voice reminds him, “It’s alright, really. We can’t do much about the weather, can we now?”
“But it just hasn’t been working out recently”, he responds, a hint of frustration in his voice, “I have the feeling someone’s pulling a prank on me or something.”
Another laugh - hearty and sweet. It makes something inside his chest feel warm although his head is saying otherwise.
And it’s kind of unbelievable, really. How your past dates have gone wrong every single time although he has tried his best to plan and organize them meticulously. Because that’s just the kind of guy he is; diligent and extra-careful especially when it comes to you. He finds himself browsing all kinds of lists containing the best restaurants in Linkon; researches topics to talk about that he knows you would enjoy and even goes ahead and buys some new clothes occasionally when he finds himself looking through his wardrobe and realizes he has nothing new to wear.
But for some reason he cannot explain, something always happens. It started when, on your first date, you two somehow managed to miscommunicate the place you were supposed to meet up at. Who was supposed to know that the Cafe you two planned to try the new menu out at had two locations in Linkon? It took twenty minutes of awkwardly standing around, thinking he got stood up, until Zayne finally decided to shoot a message.
On your second date, just about a week later, you wanted to pick him up from work and then drive back to his place to cook dinner together. Not only did he have to do an emergency surgery just as he was supposed to be heading home; even after you went ahead and waited for him in the waiting room for another hour or so, the moment you two got into his car, he realized he had a flat tire.
Needless to say, you two decided to re-schedule so he could bring his car to the repair shop immediately and you called it an early night because you remembered that you had to head into work early the next day.
It took him another two weeks to ask for another date. For one, because he was away for a business meeting in another city, but also because he needed time to recover from that little mishap. And hey, third time’s the charm, right?
What can possibly go wrong?
Well, maybe the fact that he gets a call from you two hours before your arranged meeting time where you tell him that you’re about to head to the hospital due to a ‘small accident’ during a wanderer encounter earlier that day. But what you don’t mention is that during that so-called ‘small accident’ you managed to get quite a nasty gash on your leg that required stitches and left you with a slight limp. He insisted on driving you back home instead of the initially planned ice skating date. You two did end up re-doing that dinner from weeks before, but it’s the fact that nothing seemed to go according to plan that drove him absolutely crazy later on.
So what do you call it, when on the fourth time, you two planned to see the christmas lights together and he even made sure to get a box of those fancy pastries from downtown to share during the car ride, only for all his plans to be thrown out of the window, because it was pouring like it never had before this week and they had to cancel the show for safety reasons?
Is it even possible to have an unlucky streak for dates..?
“Then.. what do you think about heading to your place for dinner tonight instead?”, your gentle voice takes him back to his current situation, “If I recall, we still have that bottle of champagne left that we didn’t get to open last time - I think it would go perfect in this kind of weather”
“I mean, sure.. but what about you? Don’t you have to drive back later? I don’t think I can, if we are thinking about drinking-”
“Well, I was thinking of staying over, if that’s alright with you?”
Zayne feels his heart make a big leap, “I- uh, yes, sure. Of course! Of course you can stay over, that’s not an issue at all.”, he runs a hand through his hair, feels his face turn warm, “Alright, then I’ll pick you up later and we can drive back to my place.”
A small hum, followed by a giggle, “Lovely. I’m looking forward to it.”
Well, maybe sometimes it’s fine for things to go wrong if it means getting something better out of it instead.
-
Music, quietly playing in the background to create an atmosphere but not disturb the flow of your conversation. The heater turned up slightly, just so that you can take off that cardigan you would have usually been wearing. The TV is on, playing a live broadcast of Christmas lights from somewhere else, which you two have enjoyed looking at occasionally.
He would never admit it, but most of the times Zayne had stared at you instead - enjoyed the bright light that's coming from your eyes as you watched in awe, which he was sure were prettier than any light show.
Two glasses of wine, now almost empty, sit on the coffee table and a box of chocolates is right next to it, several pieces taken out already to snack on while you two were chatting away.
One might just call this the perfect date, but Zayne doesn't want to jinx it yet.
After picking you up from work and getting caught in the rain while trying to get from the parking lot to his apartment, Zayne has offered you some of his clothes to wear instead as you two got cozy on his couch. Dinner was something simple - a couple of leftover ingredients thrown together to make a simple hotpot, which tasted great considering how spontaneous it was.
It’s weird how he has roped himself into a lot more ‘spontaneous’ decisions lately, when it’s something he has hated for the longest time. It’s just that whenever it comes to you, he finds himself going along with everything, or at least like he wants to do everything.
“What are you thinking about?”, your voice interrupts his thoughts and he looks up in surprise, a flustered laugh leaving his lips. Zayne reaches for the glass of wine and takes one big gulp, finishing it before putting it back down. You look surprised for a second, but let out a giggle instead.
Alright, now or nothing.
“Actually, I was meaning to tell you something..”
