Chapter 8: The Dark Night (Part 1)

Chou ran a finger along the DVDs on her bedroom shelf. She had so many that she could start her own video rental store. But the rabbit girl wasn’t planning on renting them out to just anybody. There was only one person she intended to share her film collection with that day.

“Perfect,” Chou smiled, her finger stopping midway through the third row of her alphabetized disc rack and withdrawing her copy of Greet the Parents. “This is the one!”

Most of the digital versatile discs in Chou’s shelf were romantic-comedies. Even though she didn’t understand how romance worked, she knew a funny movie when she saw one. And what better genre to watch with Fumihito! If he wanted romance, he was gonna get it! Chou had been planning this “date” all weekend! The bunny made sure to tell her sister to stay out of her hair for the entire duration of the evening, she made sure to buy plenty of bags of microwave popcorn kernels and she even went out of her way to buy a region-free DVD player! If Fumihito brought his own movie, Chou would be prepared! Likewise, if they decided to watch more than one movie, Chou was ready for a rom-com binge session! She certainly had more-than-enough DVDs to carry them into the early hours of the next morning!

Chou placed the DVD case on her television stand and returned to her bedroom to slip out of her casual clothes in favor of something more… romantic? Date-like? Sexy? She wasn’t sure what she was going for, but as long as Fumihito was satisfied, she could bullshit her way through any date! Chou placed her paws on her no-longer skirted hips and smiled smugly. Perfect… She was planning on saving that outfit for her workplace’s next Halloween costume-party, but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to premiere it a few months early. (Well, ok, maybe July was more than a “few” months, but she didn’t give a shit.)

“Fumihito’s not gonna be ready for this…” Chou cackled, wriggling into her leather succubus costume and checking herself out in the mirror. “Yes, this will do… Fumihito’s gonna have his mind blown by how romantic I am! Nothing could possibly go wrong now!”

The bunny girl hopped to her front door and awaited her friend’s arrival. This was it! She was finally going to have a date with the spaniel that didn’t end in humiliation! She’d get to watch her favorite movie(s), Fumihito would get to spend time with her and Mister Fox would get a manuscript full of romance! Chou’s ears jotted upwards as she heard the doorbell ring.

“Come in,” she called, standing back as Fumihito opened the door and stepped inside.

“So, this is your place, huh?” he smiled. “Looks nice. And you look…” he stared Chou up and down, his tail beginning to wag, “pretty nice, yourself.”

“This is just the hallway,” Chou said, “the rest of the house is cooler!” As always, she was completely oblivious to Fumihito’s obvious attempts at flirting.

“…I see,” the dog chuckled, “I guess you’ll have to show me around, then?”

“I don’t see why not,” the rabbit replied, “but not my room though; it’s a mess!”

Fumihito’s tail dropped between his legs. “Ah,” he sighed, “of-course. I get it.” Chou had once again shut him down unknowingly.

 

After Chou finished showing Fumihito around her warren – including her sister’s room which she had absolutely no qualms with ridiculing for its messiness – she led him to the living-room and directed him to the couch.

“Ready for the movie?”

“Oh, yeah, what are we watching?” Fumihito could hardly contain his excitement. The possibility that Chou would say a romance movie – or maybe even something… spicier – was almost too much for the cavalier King Charles spaniel.

“Well,” Chou called back, stepping into the adjacent kitchen and placing two bags of popcorn kernels into her microwave oven, “I was thinking we’d start with Greet the Parents, and maybe if there’s still time afterwards, we could work our way through my EXTENSIVE rom-com collection? …Hey, Fumihito, could you put the DVD in the player while I set the microwave? It’s on the TV stand!”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Fumihito called back, sitting up and doing as Chou asked.

No sooner than he had grabbed the television remote, settled into the couch and turned on the TV, and no sooner than Chou had hit the timer on the microwave, were the two of them greeted by darkness and the distinct sound of lightbulbs going-out. The house was completely silent for a few seconds. No previews from the DVD, no mmmmm from the microwave, no whirr from the aircon unit. It wasn’t long, however, before Chou broke the silence.

“FOR FUCK’S SAKE!” she whined, falling to the pitch-black ground overdramatically. She thought she was prepared for everything, but she had been utterly defeated by the city’s power grid.

“Hey, Chou, don’t worry about it,” Fumihito said, followed by the sound of his foot banging into some indistinguishable piece of furniture. “Ouch, fuck me,” he cursed under his breath. “There’s still plenty of things we can do in the dark!” As the words escaped his jowls, he hurriedly covered his mouth, realizing what he had just said.

“Like what?” Chou innocently replied. Oh, thank the gods, she didn’t think he was weird.

“We could, uh, play hide-‘n’-go-seek?” Fumihito suggested. “Or maybe we could play something more… adult?”

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“Oh, boy, I love hide-and-seek!” the bunny cheered, hopping up before falling back on her ass unceremoniously. “I wish I could see, though… It’s gonna be more like ‘hide-and-wait-until-the-electricity-comes-back-on-to-find-the-other-person…”

“You ok,” the canine called-out, feeling his way along the walls and inching towards the kitchen, “I think I heard you fall just now.”

“I’m fine,” Chou groaned, finding her footing and rubbing the seat of her leather hot-pants in pain. “Worry about yourself, ok?”

“I’m in the kitchen now! …I think,” Fumihito assured his date. “I think I can still remember your house’s layout from when you showed me around!” he reassured her.

“Great,” Chou groaned, walking in the direction of Fumihito’s barking, “wish I could say the same…”

The spaniel continued to feel his way through the darkness, his arms held out like a drunken jiāngshī. He couldn’t see anything. This was the type of darkness that would waste a lot of a mangaka’s precious black ink. On the flip-side, it would be a blessing for any animation studio, as they’d only need to draw a single pitch-black frame and let the Foley-artists and voice-actors do the rest of the work. “Do you have any candles or flashlights or something?” he asked.

“Yep.”

“You, uh… wanna tell me where they are?”

“I keep a flashlight under the kitchen sink. Y’know, in-case there’s ever a problem with the pipes, or whatever?”

“Right, got it,” the dog replied, “I’ll go grab it!”

Although he had the home’s layout practically memorized, Fumihito still couldn’t judge the distance he had covered in the dark. He lowered his arms slightly, hoping to find any traces of Chou’s countertop. Just as he did, he felt his paws connecting with something. By his reckoning, it was probably Chou, and her shrieking like a banshee zero-point-two seconds later all but confirmed it.

“Fumihito, is that you?!”

“Yeah, I think so,” the dog sheepishly replied, “sorry, I was trying to find your sink.”

“Oh, that’s a relief,” Chou beamed. “For a second I thought it might be a ghost touching my chest!” she giggled.

Even though they were completely surrounded by darkness, one could probably guess how red the two of them had become as they realized their fuck-up. Fumihito’s grip tightened in shock, as Chou fell backwards. If the lights were on, it would’ve been a pretty embarrassing sight. …Which is why Chou and Fumihito felt especially awkward as they heard the microwave firing back up as the kitchen lightbulb illuminated over their heads.

“Uh… found you,” Fumihito sheepishly chuckled, taking a paw off Chou’s chest and rubbing the back of his head.

“I thought I was the seeker,” Chou awkwardly replied, pushing her coworker off as the two of them got back on their feet. “Well, are you ready for the movie now?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Fumihito smiled. “What time is it?” he asked, noticing that all the nearby digital clocks were flashing “00:00”.

“It’s…” Chou peeked around the doorway to check the analog clock in her living-room. Just as her eyes met the clockface, they were once again met with a jet-black abyss. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

“I’ll get the flashlight…” Fumihito sighed.

To be continued…

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