A/N – When I have more time, I'm going to write a little collection of Mei and Yuzu going on some dates. Here's the first one! I hope everyone enjoys this. I don't own any of these characters.

Mei groaned inwardly as she watched Yuzu fall for what must be the fifth time in as many minutes. She had only left the girl alone for five minutes while she went to store their items in a locker, but apparently that was five minutes too long.

Hurrying back to Yuzu, Mei watched the girl struggle to her feet, only to fall immediately back onto her butt as her feet came quickly out from underneath her.

"I'm such a horrible girlfriend," Mei muttered under her breath as she opened the small gate to the ice rink and quickly skated towards the blonde. All she had wanted to do was plan a cute date with Yuzu, for once.

Yuzu had proved to be the master of cute and romantic dates, always surprising Mei with either extravagance or comforting simplicity. And even when things went wrong (which, honestly, happened quite often with Yuzu being in charge), the effusive girl was able to spin the situation in such a way that Mei was beginning to believe even the mishaps had been planned. Although how Yuzu managed to create thunderstorms and police chases, she would never know…

Mei had quickly realized that, next to Yuzu, she was sorely lacking in the relationship department. Her ideas for dates often ran along the lines of studying, movies, or dinners, in that order. Which is why she had been so excited when she had heard about the new ice skating rink that had been built nearby. Finally, she had somewhere she could take Yuzu that didn't involve one of the three aforementioned activities.

She had been so sure that this was her hole-in-one that she had built it up all week to Yuzu, teasing her about the secret date that she was going to take her on that weekend. Yuzu had been positively ecstatic.

Of course, Yuzu had reacted perfectly when they had gotten to the rink, jumping up and down, squealing, a giant hug…but looking at the girl sprawled on the ice, Mei began to wonder just how good of an actress Yuzu truly was. She couldn't have actually been excited about spending the evening bruising her bottom.

Mei stopped carefully in front of Yuzu. "Are you alright?" she asked as she reached down to help pull the girl to her feet, making sure to keep ahold of Yuzu's arms in order to steady her.

"I'm fine!" Yuzu said, grinning at Mei.

Mei felt her brow furrow; Yuzu surely couldn't be being serious. "Are you sure? That looked like a pretty hard fall…" she began, but Yuzu quickly waved her off.

"I'm fine, Mei. In fact, I think I'm getting a lot better. Watch!"

Before Mei could react, Yuzu squirmed out of her hold and started "skating" away, her ankles nearly touching the ice as she took several clumsy strides. Mei stared at her like she was watching a baby fawn take its first steps. Yuzu turned her head slightly back towards Mei and said, "See?" before her right foot promptly flew out from under her, sending Yuzu crashing back onto the ice with an audible *thump*.

Mei was at her side in an instant, kneeling down on the cold ice as she quickly looked Yuzu over. "Are you ok? Are you ok?" she heard herself asking as she searched for any signs of injury.

The only response she got was an "ow" as Yuzu rubbed her bruised backside. Mei sighed in relief. A bruise was a whole lot better than any broken bones. She decided that it was time to cut her losses on this failed excursion before Yuzu suffered any permanent damage.

"Come on, Yuzu, let's go home before you get hurt," Mei said as she stood up and offered the blonde help up.

Yuzu ignored her outstretched hand and struggled up on her own. Reaching her feet, she said, "But I'm having fun!"

Mei looked at her incredulously. It was nice of Yuzu to try not to hurt her feelings, but there was no need to lie right to her face.

"You can't possibly be having a good time," she stated. "You must have fallen 10 times already!"

"So?" Yuzu replied. "I've almost gotten the hang of it! Plus, I'm spending time with my favorite person in the world, so how could I not be having fun?"

If that last sentence wasn't enough to make Mei's heart melt, the genuinely loving smile that went along with it certainly was. Mei couldn't stop a similar smile from forming in return.

Only Yuzu would have fun while she was failing miserably at something. It was one of her qualities that Mei didn't understand, but absolutely adored. Yuzu didn't determine how much fun she was having by her level of success or failure, like Mei did. Yuzu had fun by simply…being around people she cared about. While Mei would have stalked off the ice after her third or fourth fall, Yuzu would continue to embarrass herself all day as long as Mei was there to keep her company.

Mei didn't know what she could possibly have done in this life to deserve such a wonderful human being, but she knew that she would do whatever it took to make sure Yuzu knew how important she was.

Newly determined, Mei reached out and grasped Yuzu's hands in each of her own. "Ok," she began. "Close your eyes."

Yuzu looked at her a little apprehensively, so Mei gave her a reassuring smile until the girl obliged, closing her eyes. Still holding Yuzu's hands, Mei started skating backwards, pulling Yuzu along with her until they were slowing skating around the edge of the rink.

"You can open your eyes now," Mei said, still steadily pulling Yuzu along the ice. As Yuzu opened her eyes, Mei softly added, "You're ice skating, Yuzu."

Yuzu's eyes widened as she looked down at the ice sliding beneath them before looking back up and breaking into a radiant smile. "We're ice skating, Mei!" she exclaimed joyfully, giving Mei's hands a quick squeeze before looking back towards the ice, giving a delighted squeal. "Can we go faster?" she asked, looking back at Mei somewhat pleadingly.

Mei laughed at the question. Somehow, she had known that the girl would ask that. Instead of answering, she just started skating backwards with more speed until the two of them were traveling swiftly around the rink, with Yuzu laughing and squealing all the while.

Mei watched Yuzu's delight and couldn't help laughing at how happy the girl was to be dragged around the ice rink. Yuzu looked back to Mei and their eyes locked. Mei's heart began beating rapidly, the way it always did when Yuzu looked at her so intently. In these moments, it was almost as though Yuzu could see straight into her soul. The sensation was completely unnerving to Mei, as she felt laid bare in front of the girl. But at the same time, it was intoxicating to think that Yuzu could see underneath the polished veneer Mei projected to the world, and what she saw didn't make her turn and run.

Yuzu broke contact first as her eyes flitted to something that was behind Mei, before her eyes widened and she shouted "Mei, watch out!"

Yuzu's exclamation jolted Mei out of her thoughts as she looked behind her to find they were seconds away from colliding with two small children who were stumbling around the ice.

Mei quickly put on the brakes to keep herself from running into them. Too late, she realized that while she had stopped moving, the person she had been pulling kept right on moving forward. Still going full speed, Yuzu crashed into Mei, knocking her right off of her feet.

She hit the ice hard. Thankfully, she was able to use her arms to slightly slow her fall and keep her head from slamming into the ice. However, Yuzu's elbow managed to find Mei's stomach as the girl collapsed on top of her, knocking out Mei's breath.

"Are you ok?" Yuzu asked, concern etched on her face as she stared down at Mei.

Mei nodded slightly as she tried to catch her breath, which was proving difficult with Yuzu still lying on top of her. "Can't….breathe…." she managed to get out, hoping that Yuzu would understand and get off of her so she could expand her lungs properly.

Instead, Yuzu just giggled as she said, "Oh wow, I literally took your breath away!" Mei glared at her as she kept giggling until finally, she rolled off of Mei. Mei focused on trying to breathe as she stayed flat on her back on the ice, trying to block out Yuzu's continued giggling. Finally, she felt her lungs expand with air. She took several deep breaths until Yuzu's face reappeared directly above her own.

"Better now?" she asked.

"No thanks to you," Mei retorted, immediately wincing at how sharply the words came out.

Yuzu's eyebrows furrowed, but she gave a small smile as she leaned down and gave Mei a quick kiss on the lips.

"How about now?" she asked softly.

Mei was pretty sure she looked like a complete idiot, gaping at Yuzu as she flushed scarlet red. Even when Mei snapped at her, Yuzu positively gushed feelings for her. It never ceased to amaze her how those feelings never wavered an inch. It was almost as if Yuzu gave her a free pass for the first snap. If Mei snapped at her again, well then she was in the dog house, but she found that she mostly used that get out of jail free card when it was offered.

This time was no exception, as she smiled up at Yuzu and answered, "Much better." Yuzu broke back into a large smile.

Mei got up slowly, feeling plenty of new bruises forming all over her body. She helped Yuzu get back to her feet as they slowly skated towards the edge of the rink to sit down.

"You know," Mei began, feeling her face already blushing at what she was about to say, "that's the hardest I've ever fallen for anyone."

Yuzu immediately broke into another fit of hysterical giggles as Mei felt her face growing considerably hotter.

"I'm serious!" Mei said in exasperation, which only made Yuzu laugh harder.

Mei grabbed one of Yuzu's hands and turned her around so that their faces were incredibly close. Locking eyes again, Mei said slowly, "Yuzu…this is the hardest I've fallen, ever." Mei felt Yuzu searching her eyes to find the truth behind those words. Satisfied by the answer she found there, Yuzu beamed and pulled Mei into a tight hug.

"Then I'm glad it was with me," she whispered in Mei's ear before breaking the hug, grinning at Mei with a smile that probably wouldn't disappear for the rest of the day.

As they sat down on one of the benches outside of the rink, Yuzu exclaimed loudly enough for everyone to hear, "This has been the best date ever!" Mei felt her entire body heat up in embarrassment, but she still smiled back at Yuzu.

Because Yuzu was definitely worth it.