I rubbed my eyes. I had been staring at code for way too long. My brain felt like it was being fried. I needed a break. I half wished I could call Eric to come over. One of his favorite things to do was to help me unwind.

I had gotten spoiled while he was going to school here. I mean, I was proud that he was in New York again. He had gotten into an internship at Marvel through his school, which was a great opportunity for him. It was rather selfish of me to want him to stay here with me. I did my best not to let him know how much I missed him. It'd just make him feel guilty for being gone so long. He was working hard, so he probably wouldn't have time to hang out with me anyway.

I found myself logging into that old game. I don't know why I thought it would help. My eyes would still be strained by looking at the screen. Maybe it was just because this is where I first met Eric.

Since we finished the game, there were others who managed to beat the whole thing. Was it two years ago now? I was 21 and Eric was 20, so that seemed about right. The last place we left off was back in Japan. The trees were starting to bud. It wouldn't be long until the special spring event. Maybe we could make that an online date since he wouldn't be back in time...

UltimateHeroEric: Well hey there beautiful ;)

SakurAssassin: You're out of class!

UltimateHeroEric: Yeah, prof let us out early this weekend to work on our projects. Didn't expect to see you logged on here.

He was here! I really wanted to see his face.

SakurAssassin: Do you have enough time for a Skype call?

UltimateHeroEric: Uh yeah, just give me a minute.

I saw him log out. I pulled open my Skype account and waited anxiously to receive his call. It didn't take long for his face to fill my screen.

His eyes lit up when he saw me.

"Sassy pants!" He said happily. "God, it's good to see your pretty face."

"It's nice to see you too, Eric," I said. I felt a great relief in my chest just being able to see him. "How was your week?"

"Eh, fine," he said casually. He rubbed the back of his head. "I'm having just a little bit of trouble finishing up my project."

"Oh, that's too bad." I guess I really was taking up his time. "Should I let you get back to work?" I felt bad that I wanted him to say no.

"No! I needed the break. How's your project going? Does it look like a game yet?" He gave a playful smile.

"Not quite," I said with a laugh. "It's still a whole bunch of numbers, but I might have a rough demo by the time you get back."

"Sweet! That's amazing, Kiki!"

I flushed. He really knew how to get to a girls heart.

"Yo!"

The greeting hadn't come from Eric. His face turned to the source of the muffled voice.

"Hey, do you think you could keep it down? I'm trying to talk to my girlfriend," Eric asked.

"Gross dude! You're not jacking off to Kiki Nihonda again, are you?"

The shock alone left me speechless. The embarrassment sent thousands of burning needles into my skin.

I saw the shock and embarrassment in Eric's eyes too, quickly followed by rage.

"Excuse me just one second," Eric said as he backed away from his laptop. "Davie, I'm going to kill you!" His voice got more muffled as he went after his roommate.

Breathe, Kiki. Breathe. This wasn't the end of the world. It was completely natural afterall.

"Sorry about that," Eric said when he came back. He plugged his headphones in, so he'd be the only one able to hear me. "That was just a joke and TOTALLY NOT COOL!" Eric said the last part a little louder for his roommate to hear.

I covered part of my face and tried to calm down. "Um...I'm sorry..."

"What are you sorry for, sassy pants?" Eric huffed.

"You...you don't have very good references or at least they can't be too accurate. But I... I'd rather...I'd rather we talk about this in person in case...in case you wanted to exchange better material..."

"Better...?" Eric caught on, his face turned beet red.

"You don't need to be embarassed." It was a rather hypocritical thing to say. I felt like steam could be pumping out of my pores at any moment. He just needed to know that I wasn't embarrassed of him. "I understand you have your needs and..."

"Kiki," he interrupted me suddenly. His face was still rather blotchy. "The only thing that I 'need' is for you to know that I don't need that kind of thing. I'm more than happy just having you. Understand?"

What...what exactly was that supposed to mean? I clenched the fabric of my pants and looked down as I nodded.

"Hey...sassy pants, look at me. Are you okay?"

I looked up and was a little bit startled. There was another face on my screen. His hair was a darker shade of blond that Eric's, and his face was positively covered with dumbstruck freckles.

"Dude, that's really Kiki Nihonda!" he exclaimed loudly. Eric turned to glare behind him.

"Davie, get out of here!" Eric shouted.

"Hey, sorry about that comment earlier. I just thought that Eric was weirdly obsessive. Your hair's shorter than the pictures. It looks good," Davie said to me.

"That's because she got a haircut, genius! Now get out before I kick your ass again!" Eric said. Davie skipped out of the room.

"I'm really sorry about that. He's being a little extra annoying today," Eric muttered.

"Could you tell him thanks for the compliment?" I asked.

"I guess," he sighed. He looked straight into the camera. "But really Kiki, are you doing okay?" It was hard to escape the concern in his eyes.

"I-I'm just a little tired," I said honestly. "I really miss you." Whoops, more honesty than I intended.

His face seemed contradictory after that. His eyes went from concern to sad relief, yet there was a smile on his face.

"Yeah, I really miss you too, sassy pants."

Maybe calling him wasn't a very good idea. There was a palpable ache in my chest. I wanted to hold him. I wanted to feel his warmth around me and not just the warm buzz of my computer screen.

"But hey! Cheer up! We'll get to see each other real soon," Eric said. His arm reached up to touch the screen. "It's not that much longer now."

I moved my arm to match where I thought Eric's hand would be. I nodded.

"Kiki, there's something I need to do, but I'll talk to you later tonight, okay?" Eric said.

"Okay," I said. "I love you, Eric."

"I love you too, Kiki."

He disconnected the call after that. I wasn't that satisfied, but I'd still get to talk to him later today.

I suppose that was enough of a break. I still really missed Eric, though. I got up from my seat and went to my room. Sitting on top of my drawers was a neatly folded hoodie. Eric had left it in my apartment a while ago. I was doing my best to preserve it, but this was a special situation. I picked up the hoodie and hastily put it on. It was too big for me, of course. Eric's shoulders were quite a bit broader than mine, not to mention his arms were longer. But it was worn to soft perfection. It was warm and still smelled like him. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine he was surrounding me. It didn't really work, but it was still nice.

Right. Time to get back to work. I pushed my sleeves up as I went back to the computer room to sit down to work once again.

I had a pretty good streak going. I worked for hours until I heard the door knock. I looked at the time. It was getting pretty late in New York. Eric probably fell asleep and forgot to call me. Oh right, the door. I got up to answer it. It was a little too quiet to be Charlie. Maybe one of my neighbors needed something.

Instead, I found Eric standing in my doorway. He had a duffel bag over his shoulder and a bouquet of roses in his hand. He had a wide silly grin on his face. "Surprise!"

"Eric!" I ran into his arms. The bouquet was pressed tightly against my back.

"Hey there, sassy pants!" Eric said with a chuckle.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. I looked up for an answer and was met by his lips. His kiss was so sweet I thought I would cry.

"What do you mean?" Eric said with an overly happy smile. "Didn't you miss me?"

I shook my head. "That's not the point..." I shut up. I just...

"Kiki, are you mad at me?" he said with disbelief.

I pulled myself closer to him.

"Do we need to have a fight?" he asked gently.

I nodded against his chest. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's okay! It's healthy," Eric said. "Normal couples fight all the time."

Normal couples may fight, but I don't think any of them fought like we did. It's hard for me to fight with Eric. Since we started going out, we found out that I was very non-confrontational. Their was one sure way that we found to be certain that I got my feelings out. Video games.

There were a few conditions. It couldn't be a game made by the Nihonda gaming company. We had to be on equal grounds afterall. A fair fight. I got down an old copy of Mario Kart.

"Mario Kart? Oh man, this is getting pretty serious," Eric said jokingly. He took the controller that I handed him. I turned around so I could sit right beside him on the couch.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second!" Eric grabbed my hips and yanked me in front of him. "You're wearing the present I got you!"

I felt him pull up the hoodie a bit so he could get a proper look at my butt. Bedazzled in fancy script on the seat of my pants was the word "sassy."

I had told him that I didn't want him to spend a lot of money because I knew he'd feel guilty about missing it, so instead he had ordered me this pair of yoga pants for my twenty-first birthday. I was too embarrassed to wear them outside of the apartment

"Yeah," I said simply.

He pulled me towards him and sat me on his lap. He kissed the side of my head. "Okay, let's do this. Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you look good in those sassy pants."

"Hmm," I murmured as we went though picking out our characters and go-karts. I was Yoshi, and Eric was Mario. We'd take a couple of laps on the infamous Rainbow Road.

"First off," Eric started as the countdown began. "Why are you so upset to see me?"

"Do I really seem that upset?" I asked.

"Yeah, you were kind of freaking out for a minute there," Eric said. He played with his arms around me and his controller in my lap. I could feel his muscles tense up as he prepared for the turn.

"You just showed up with no warning and a bag. How was I supposed to react?" I answered.

"Oh I don't know. 'Eric I'm so glad you're here! It's been so long since we were last together. It was so considerate of you to fly all the way over here at the drop of a dime to see me,'" Eric's voice pitched up as he tried to impersonate me.

"It's not that I'm not glad you're here, but it's not like I had any time to prepare for you to visit. Believe it or not, but you don't actually live here. Besides, I thought you had a movie project to do," I responded.

"Ouch." Eric slipped on one of the banana peels and slipped well into second. "Okay, maybe I should have told you I was coming, but you gotta give me props for a nice surprise," Eric amended.

"If you wanted to visit me, I could have paid for your plane ticket. It's not like you have a job or anything," I said.

"Double ouch! My internship is paid, you know. I'm not completely helpless. And I can spend my money however I want, including plane tickets."

I internally groaned. Eric got a lightening bolt at the last set of boxes. He laughed as he shrunk me down and scooted ahead. He chuckled darkly behind me.

"Still, I have to wonder why you wanted to visit me so suddenly," I said. I used the mushroom I was saving to speed ahead.

"I didn't know I needed to have a reason," he said.

"I-is...is it because you just wanted the pictures?" I boldly asked.

Eric accidentally drove off the road. He'd have to wait a while to be put back on.

"What?! Kiki, I thought I told you! I don't need that sort of things!" Eric claimed.

"Is it because you don't need them or because you don't want them," I got down to the point.

"Both!" he insisted.

I turned around. Despite the constant reminder I was driving the wrong way, I stuck to the path. I let Eric get in front of me and released my blue shell.

"Shit! What was that for?" Eric was quite a bit upset by my little maneuver.

"I can't believe you. Have you been lying to me this whole time?" I asked.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Eric bursted forward with three mushrooms once he was back on track.

"Well, I ain't calling you a truther. I thought you were attracted to me," I said.

"Wait, hold up. Who said I wasn't hopelessly in love with you?" Eric said.

I shook my head. "I never said you didn't love me. You're just not attracted to me."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Kiki, you are every type of attractive to me. You're cute and adorable on top of being unbelievably hot and sexy," Eric said.

"Oh yeah, if I'm really so 'sexy,' why don't you want 'sexy' pictures of me?" I asked.

"Because our relationship doesn't revolve around sex! I'm not going to turn you into a sexual object just because I miss you so much I can barely stand it. I respect you way, way too much for that."

I couldn't help but smile at that. "Still. Seems awfully suspicious."

"If we're going to point out a liar here, I'd say it's you," Eric said.

"Me?" Why? I don't think I lied.

"Yeah you! All that time, you never said you missed me. I come back here, and you're wearing your sassy pants and my hoodie. You missed me soooooo bad! Don't try to deny it. Withholding the truth is about as bad as lying," Eric accused.

"I just didn't want you to worry," I explained.

"Well, you made me worry," Eric said. "I thought it didn't matter to you whether I was here or not."

"Well, I love you whether you're here or not, that's true. I just miss you a whole lot more when you're gone. Why do you think I wanted to 'exchange' those pictures? I'm not as strong as you are..." I said.

The race was almost over. Eric and I were neck and neck, but I knew I was going to win. I had one more mushroom burst to use. Before I could release it, Eric suddenly started intensely kissing my neck.

The controller flew out of my hands with a squeak on my part. My balance was compromised. I fell with my back on the couch.

"Cheater!" I gasped.

Eric didn't seem to care. He abandoned his controller and moved on top of me. He kissed me out of near desperation.

I held his face and kissed him calmly. He was nearly laughing when his lips touched mine again and again.

"God, you're amazing," he said in reverence.

"Even though I want to use you as a 'sexual object?'" I hinted.

"Baby, you can do whatever you want with me," he said huskily.

He kissed me again just to leave me breathless.

"You know, we can still exchange pictures even though I won the race," Eric said.

"You won?!" Eric let me sit up so I could see Mario making his victory lap around Rainbow Road.

"You really are a cheat!" I accused.

"Since I won, we get to do whatever I want, right?" Eric said with a cheater's smile. I nodded. I had a pretty good idea I wouldn't oppose to what he suggested.

"Great! Then, I want to show you my project!"

Definitely not the direction I thought he would take. Still, I really was curious. Eric never really told me what his movie was about. I hadn't told him what my game was about either, so I guess it was fair. He got a DVD out of his duffel bag and put it in the player. He used the remote to change the input form the game console to the DVD player. He sat down beside me, but he looked a bit strange.

"Eric, you don't need to be nervous," I told him.

"Of course I'm nervous. This movie is super scary," he said. "I'll probably need you to hold me."

"Geez..." I held his arm tightly. This man needed so much attention.

The video started off right away. No menu screen or anything. It tipped me off that something was a little strange.

It was Charlie. Charlie was on the TV. Did she somehow get a hold of Eric's project.

"So, how did you know?" That was Eric's voice, but it came from behind the camera.

"I told that girl from the very beginning, but she hardly ever listens to me." Charlie crossed her arms as she complained.

"After all I've done for her, too. Look, it's not that complicated. I have this cousin. He works at my Aunt and Uncle's place in New York. One of his best customers is a guy who can't cook worth a damn, so he orders take-out a lot, and I'm talking a lot. Practically keeps the restaurant afloat. Anyway, my cousin was talking to him and found out he had a younger brother who was practically begging for this game because he had this weird attraction to Kiki Nihonda. I had my cousin do a little research to find out that he was perfect for Kiki. I pirated the game from Kiki, sent it to my cousin, who gave it to your brother, who gave it to you. Sound familiar, Kiki?" she said that line to the camera.

"I practically set you guys up in the first place, how could I not know! After knowing you myself, I feel even more confident in my decision."

What was going on? The image suddenly switched from Charlie to Arthur.

"Honestly, I think you're getting into this a little too soon. You both have plenty of time, though I suppose I have no real reason to object. I don't think you could change your mind even if you wanted to. You're just too stubborn. It's inevitable at this point, really. At this rate, I suppose you'll both end up making each other very happy. I can't really understand why she'd choose you of all people," Arthur said.

"Nice, bro. That's exactly the way to boost my confidence," Eric said off screen.

"As if your ego needed any more inflation..."

There was a sharp transition from Arthur to the president of the Nihonda gaming company.

"You can relax a bit," my father said rather nervously.

My father was nervous? What was going on?

"Thank you, sir," Eric said, off screen as usual.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"S-sorry, I've never done anything like this before. Is Kiki going to see this before or after you..."

"Before," Eric said definitively.

"Alright, then, Kiki," my father addressed the camera. "Since a very young age, you've never been one to settle. You've always had a knack for finding what's best for you and sticking to it. I would always worry that you might become too invested in a mistake, but your mother saw differently. She couldn't resist that smile you'd get and said that I should let you commit yourself to whatever makes you happy. Eric makes you happy, Kiki. That's how I know."

"That was beautiful, sir."

"Thank you, Eric. Oh! And Kiki, don't you worry! I've already given my approval."

Approval? Now, I was getting nervous. My palms were sweating and everything.

There was no one on the screen next. I recognized it as Eric's room in the dorm he was staying in New York. He sat down in his chair and looked at the camera.

"Okay, here it goes. If you haven't figured it out, this isn't exactly my movie project. Sorry about lying. And I'm sorry this is slapped together. I would have done more interviews and put in some cool effects, but..."

He struggled to find the words.

"You made me realize that really isn't what's important. I don't need the others to try to convince you. I know we're meant to be together. I knew it from the moment I saw your face, and that feeling continues to grow everyday. So much that I can barely stand being so far from you. So..."

Eric swallowed hard.

"So, basically, what I'm saying is... I don't ever want to be without you. Kiki Ayame Nihonda...sassy pants...will you marry me?"

The screen went black.

"Surprise...pretty scary, huh?" Eric said beside me. I could feel him shaking.

"You...tricked me!" I exclaimed. I shoved my hands up his shirt and started tickling his skin in every way I knew how. "You really are a giant liar!"

Eric's body was convulsing with laughter. I must have gone a little too far because I made him fall off the couch.

"But Kiki...Kiki...Is that a yes or a no?" His breath was still slightly panicked after laughing so hard.

"Of course it's a yes!" I said. Hadn't it been obvious?

He pulled me to the ground with him and kissed me roughly.

He broke away and said, "I have a ring!"

He crawled over to his duffel bag and pulled out a box as proof. His fingers fumbled as he tried to get the little round thing out of the box's hold. He grabbed my hand and slipped the ring on my finger.

I only admired it for a moment. The diamond was modest, but it glittered nicely in the light. It was perfect.

"Do you want to know how I know we are meant to be together?" I asked him.

"How, sassy pants?"

"I actually let you call me sassy pants."

Eric laughed. I had just captured the ultimate heart. He had mine, and I had his. It was as simple as that. We won.

Game over.

AN: Well, this is the end. It was such an honor writing this story for all of you. I'm so happy that so many of you liked it and reviewed it. You are all what made this possible. Really, thank you all so very much!