Do You Have a Band-aid? Cuz I Scraped my Knees Falling for You. Part 2

Hand in hand, the pair walked the block and a half to the small cafe, smiling and laughing the entire time. Mei-senpai stopped walking in front of a small cafe that had a picture of an animated cat loafing on the sign. Risa recognized the place right away from a commercial she had seen, and she was immediately excited. If there was one thing that Risa loved as much as gaming it was probably cats. Mei must have remembered and decided to bring her here, to a cat cafe.

Mei saw the excitement written all over Risa’s face and felt proud of her decision to take them here. “Well, what do you think? Wanna head inside?”

Risa excitedly replied, “OMG yes. This place is perfect. Did you remember how much I love cats?”

Mei smiled, “Of course I remembered, you are the one I love. It would be pathetic if I didn’t remember right?”

Risa returned the smile with a huge and honest smile of her own. Mei blushed when she got that response, she was truly taken with everything about Risa. Bringing a smile to her face filled Mei with a sense of pride she had never felt before. She grabbed the door and let Risa into the double doored entry. Once the outside door closed, Risa opened the inner door and let Mei enter first. Mei walked over to the counter and bought them two 1-hour passes. The server set them at a table and gave them a menu and a small bag of cat treats. Mei scooted next to Risa to share the singular menu they were given. She peered over Risa’s shoulder close enough that her hair tickled Risa’s ear. Both girls were breathing quickly when the server bot returned. 

Risa blurted out, “I’ll take a milk tea with tapioca boba, and a turkey sandwich.”

Mei smiled, “I’ll just have matcha tea,” she looked at Risa, “So.. why don’t we start making friends with some kitties?” 

The shop was small, probably the size of a small bookstore. There were three small tables for dining and several lounge chairs scattered between  different cat trees and toys. The coffee bar was behind closed doors to prevent the cats from being close to the food prep area. 

Risa got up out of her chair and grabbed the bag of treats. She shook the bag and was immediately surrounded by seven cats, all with their tails lifted high in the air, some meowing loudly. Risa began to feed each of the cats a treat. All but one readily took the treat. A very small dwarf siamese cat with stubby little legs hesitated more than the rest. Of course Risa was immediately intrigued by the outcast of the group and focused most of her attention on trying to win over the affection of that kitty. 

Since food didn't work Risa grabbed one of the feather toys and jiggled it around. The cat remained uninterested giving a stuck up head turn. Risa grabbed a ball with a bell in it. Rejected. She cycled through six different toys before finally finding one that the stubborn cat showed any interest in. It was a blue little mouse filled with catnip. After shaking it around a bit the cat crouched down low, shaking its butt, the kitty playfully pounced grabbing the mouth and scratching it with its back legs. The kitty finally let Risa pet her when the server came with their order. 

Mei was so focused on Risa and dreamily watching her play with the kitty that she didn't even notice the bot standing behind her. When the bot lightly touched her shoulder, she shot up surprised. She put one hand on her chest and told the bot to charge her for all of the food and drinks. Risa was holding the kitty now, giving it lots of needed pets. When she saw their order delivered, Risa walked over to the sink and washed her hands well before sitting across from the Mei-Senpai. Risa was so hungry, but suddenly felt embarrassed to eat in front of such a beautiful woman so despite her extreme hunger, Risa took sips of her tea instead, the sweet liquid quenching her thirst and leaving a super sweet but pleasant aftertaste in her mouth. 

Mei put her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand as she stared dreamily at Risa sipping on her tea. She could tell that Risa was hungry, but for some reason she wasn’t eating. Mei wanted her to eat, so she decided to do something to ease the tension between the two of them. 

“Risa? I’m gonna be honest, that sandwich looks so good, can I take a bite?” 

Risa’s eyes lit up and she smiled at Mei, “Absolutely, take as many bites as you want to!” 

Mei picked up the sandwich and took a small bite of the sandwich before handing it back to Risa. Risa looked at the spot where Mei bit and intentionally bit right over it. Mei-senpai smirked. 

“That was the tastiest indirect kiss I’ve ever had,” Risa said while winking at Mei. Surprisingly Mei’s cheeks started to redden, she was affected by this majorly despite the two of them having a couple make-out sessions before. What an amusing girl Risa thought. The two finished their meal and played with the cats together until their time ran out.

 Once they exited the building, Risa turned to Mei and asked, “You mentioned we would do something else after this, where are we headed?” 

Mei just smiled sarcastically and said, “If I tell you now that will ruin the surprise.”

Mei-Senpai reached out her hand to Risa who quickly took it. The two walked together hand in hand to the neary strip mall. The small building only had about a dozen different shops in it, most were clothing stores, there was one pretzel shop, and at the very end of the first floor corridor, there was a store that was larger than the rest, it was full of black lights and strobe lights flashing. Risa had never seen a place like this before. As the two approached the counter outside of the store, a bot greeted them, “Welcome to summit laser tag, where vr and traditional laser tag are combined in a fun and unique experience! May I offer you the daily special?”

Mei answered, “Sure, let's hear it.”

The bot rattled off a special of one round of VR laser tag two people for the price of one with the purchase of a laser tag t-shirt. There were several different t-shirt designs, Mei saw one that had an RBG geometric looking cat on it wearing sunglasses and the company logo on it. Immediately she had to have it and agreed to purchase the package deal. The two entered the locker room that was just in front of a darkened room full of obstacles. Mei slipped the t-shirt she just bought over Risa’s head and snapped a quick pic with her phone. The two each put on a vest, grabbed a laser gun that was attached to the vest by a cable and put on a half VR visor.

The narrator on the VR explained the rules of the game, two would be playing a survival deathmatch against the VR in-game characters, the first team to clear all the enemies would win. The girls were equipped with stamina bars and health indicators which could be seen through the VR visor.Risa all the sudden put on her game face and shot herself a couple of times, lowering her health bar to only a quarter of what it was before. 

She looked at Mei and said, “I’m doing this my way, one hit and I’ll deplete my health bar. Let’s give this our best shot, Mei!” 

Mei gave her a quirky smile before shooting herself as well, “If you want a true survival style match, bring it on. I’m down. Now let’s go kick some ass.”

The two headed to the start line, and after a countdown, their VR turned the landscape into a nuclear disaster zone, with fires raging in different spots, rusty cars laying in the middle of the road, dozens of armed soldiers ducking and crawling behind the debris-covered landscape. The two got into position with Risa in the lead, suddenly she let out a few shots and one of the soldiers fell down from a balcony before shattering into blue squares. The two then ran through the course, firing left and right, the soldier counter getting lower and lower. At some point, a soldier popped up right behind Risa, but before he could shoot her in the back, Mei had already saved her, before the pair knew it they had cleared the level.  

Both girls were sweaty and hot so they hurried to get off their equipment. The two were smiling and laughing when all of a sudden Risa’s foot caught a loose piece of carpet and she went flying forward. Mei caught her, and the two looked into each other’s eyes for a moment before they shared a passionate kiss. This one was different from the previous kisses and Risa could feel butterflies in her stomach rather than sheer attraction. Maybe she really could fall in love with Mei-senpai.