Miscellaneous Nicote Dates

Nico was very nice, but frustratingly nosy. That’s what Dante was thinking when he was pestering him about the book he was trying to read, anyway.

“Trapped in a Dungeon Crawler But It’s Okay Because I Have Old GameFAQs Guides? What’s that about?” Nico asked as if it were a completely innocent question. Knowing him, it probably was! Oh, to be naive to the true horrors that is the mediocrity of certain isekai.

Dante folded a corner of the page he was on with one hand and closed the book with the other. “Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like, isn’t it?”

Truly, a masterful dodging of the question. Something that succinct and direct will definitely get Nico off his back so he can read without having his embarrassing tastes questioned any further.

“Eh, maybe, but I wanna hear it from you,” Nico said with a shrug and a patient smile.

Blunder! Foiled by blind curiosity. Dante sighed. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to indulge you. It’s a portal fantasy about someone who ends up in a notoriously difficult game he’s been trying to beat since he was a small child, and can only return home after seeing everything there is to offer. Luckily he has a full stack of guides he printed out from before printers fell out of fashion, but paper isn’t exactly indestructible. He spends more time trying to protect his papers from environmental damage than actually exploring the dungeons properly.”

“Huh! Do you think Kai would like this one?”

“No.”

“Ehh?” Nico tilted his head, shocked and confused. “Why not?”

Dante furrowed his brow and adjusted his glasses. “He’d probably start backseat gaming, which is an odd thing to do with a book, but…”

“I guess that’s fair,” Nico crossed his arms. He had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment – rare for the airhead – before his eyes lit up. “I know! We should go to the bookstore!”

“Why do you say that?” He raised an eyebrow, though that did sound rather nice… “Surely you don’t mean right now, do you?”

“No, no, obviously not! But sometime soon!” Nico backpedaled with the grace of someone who forgot how to ride a bike. “I was just thinking… Kai’s birthday is coming up and he’s probably used to getting games and stuff like that, but I think a book in his ballpark would really stand out. Plus, I’m curious about what else you like to read…”

Dante couldn’t help but smile at that. Sometimes it’s nice to have someone who wants to know you.

#

It wasn’t often that Dante shared his favorite places with other people, but he decided he’d make an exception for Nico after their trip to the bookstore. What could he say? He was difficult to turn down, and it’s not like he’s a stranger. They’re friends, right? Right. Nothing less, and probably nothing more.

“It’s a local coffee shop, not far from the bookstore,” Dante dutifully explained. “Their lattes are quite good, though I’m more of a cappuccino fan myself… either one pairs well with a good book.”

“Oh, I see! You didn’t really seem the type…” Nico remarked, intrigued.

“The type?” Dante, slightly confused, turned to look at Nico.

Nico scratched the back of his head. “I kinda thought you were more of a tea person.”

“I like tea well enough, too. I just like the atmosphere of coffee shops better.”

When they arrived, Dante ordered his usual mocha cappuccino with cinnamon, and Nico ordered a simple black coffee.

“Black, huh?” he tilted his head, amused.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“You didn’t seem the type, is all.”

That seemed to get a chuckle out of Nico. He always liked his laugh. They picked out their seats over some light conversation. Dante pulled out the book he bought earlier that day – a new romance novel by a roboticist turned novelist – and began to read. 

“Sooo, what’s this one about?” Nico asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ll find out soon enough,” Dante swiftly shut down the potential barrage of questions. “If you’d like to know that badly, perhaps I’ll let you borrow my copy when I’m done.”

Nico pouted and resolved to simply watch the world pass by. It didn’t take long for Dante to notice how spaced-out Nico looked, so he put a bookmark in his new acquisition and decided to see how long it’d take for him to notice he’s being stared at. Eventually he caught Dante out of the corner of his eye.

“Sometimes, when I don’t have anything to do, I like to people-watch,” he explained. “You ever think about how crazy it is that every single person you see has a whole inner world? A whole life of their own that you’ll never know about? I think it’s kind of special, to see even a sliver of it.”

“Hmm…” Dante thought about taking up people-watching as a hobby, but there’s only one person he’d like to watch.

#

One thing Dante quickly noticed about Nico when they first started working together was that he seemed allergic to sitting still. He was always moving, always looking for something physically demanding to do. But you wouldn’t know that if you only saw him watching Hurricockroach 2: Microwave Popcorn in the theater, with his stupid nonchalant smile, only moving to reach over for more popcorn. Dante, on the other hand, was shivering with terror and gripping the popcorn bucket for dear life. This is not how this was supposed to go! If he’d known Nico wasn’t easily scared, he would’ve picked literally anything else to watch.

What a pathetic display. Dante almost jumped out of his seat when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, you okay there?” Nico asked out of concern – quietly, of course, so as not to disturb other moviegoers. “This isn’t even a scary scene, but you look like you’re about to die…”

“Aha, sorry, it’s just… cockroaches have always creeped me out, so…” Dante tried to laugh it off, but it didn’t sound right. How does Nico do it so easily?

He looked surprised to hear that. “Really? But they’re totally harmless. They don’t sting or bite, and they tend to stay away from people. Hurricanes are the real terror here.”

Dante looked at him as if he sprouted two more heads. “Cockroaches are gross - they’re likely carrying disgusting bacteria and defecating in every nook and cranny, they’re stubbornly resilient in the face of extermination, and if you see one there’s bound to be a thousand just out of sight.”

Nico shook his head. “They’re not that hard to kill. Just squish them.”

Dante rolled his eyes – which is rather rude of him, but it felt justified. “Oh, please. I can’t go anywhere near them without feeling a need to commit arson…”

“Try not to burn the theater down then, ‘kay? I’m pretty sure it’s almost over,” he said with a fistful of popcorn.

Dante thought about asking to hold his hand, but he bit his tongue.

#

Nico’s never been particularly good at discerning precisely what other people think of him, but he does know when the score’s uneven. Dante’s made a habit of taking him to places and footing the bill. It’s about time he returned the favor, if only to not look like a total bum. But where would he like to go? Nico’s first thought was a fancy restaurant, but that was a little too cliche. Dante has always presented himself as having classy tastes, even if that couldn’t be further from the truth at times – from his middle-grade entertainment to his relentless sweet tooth, Dante was actually quite childish. A playground, maybe? No, no. Dante wouldn’t like that part of himself being pointed out so bluntly, and they’re both a little old for that anyway. What’s a good in-between… Eureka.

“We should go to GisneyLand!” He blurted out inelegantly, causing Dante to half-choke on his tea.

“W–what? Why?” Dante questioned incredulously before clearing his throat. “What’s the occasion?”

Nico laughed nervously. “Ehe, sorry, I was saying things without thinking. I didn’t mean to startle you!”

“Hmm,” Dante couldn’t help but feel – correctly – that there was a little more to it than that. “Go on.”

“Well, I just thought it might be fun. It’ll be 100% my treat!” He explained without really explaining anything at all, while Dante finished his tea.

He set the teacup on the table and smiled. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to take you up on that offer… how does next week sound?”

And so a week later Nico and Dante went to GisneyLand on a whim with exactly one (1) mission: to have as much fun on Nico’s dime as humanly possible. Nico didn’t really think too hard about how they’ll do that, but luckily Dante insisted on making a thorough plan of what attractions to see and when. Were it not for his research into things like peak hours, they probably would’ve spent more than half the day in very long lines. They capped the day off with the ferris wheel (normally the park has a nightly fireworks show afterwards, but allegedly this year’s was ‘underwhelming’).

“Why’d you save this for last, anyway?” Nico asked as their cabin rose up. “Seems a little underwhelming.”

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s the perfect angle to watch the sun set, and you can see almost the whole park from up here,” Dante gestured towards the window, prompting Nico to look and see for himself.

“Wow,” he couldn’t help but put his hand on the glass, his eyes transfixed on the orange light. “That is a great view!”

“Be careful not to stare directly at the sun,” Dante teased Nico, his gaze locked onto an entirely different orange subject. Just a little bit, as a treat.

Nico rolled his eyes, but wasn’t particularly offended. “I’m not that dumb, you know.”

“I know, I know,” he handwaved the matter. “You’re fun to tease, though.”

The air was quiet as the wheel reached its peak, and the pair glimpsed a small slice of the world together.

END