Projects upon projects upon projects, and she was tired. "Dedicated" an anti-hyperbolic understatement, "workaholic" not quite there either as it implied that she actually enjoyed three straight all nighters and the coffee high that was the only thing sustaining her body, Eli tapped away at her keyboard, the words appearing on her screen droning on and on, almost rhythmically, dragging her closer and closer to the table…
"N-No!" She thought to herself, forcing her eyes to open wide, straightening her posture again, uncrumpling her stiff, pale-brown suit.
She had become successful. That was a given. It always had been to everyone who had ever had the great fortune of meeting her. "Eli Ayase was going to become someone in this world." That's what everyone had thought, and no one for a moment doubted that, but along with success came the work with which perpetuated it or even succeeded it.
Eli sighed. Her vacation seemed so far away, her break from this monotonous routine straying further from her path with each passing day. "I want to dance again…" She reminisced the days when she truly, truly enjoyed what she did. "I want to sing again…" The flashing lights, the beautiful costumes, the free-spirited stage, and the shining people upon it, oh how she yearned for those days!
"Ah...I...can't…" She tried to protest against her body as she realised she was about to fall asleep.
'Mrs Ayase...Mrs Ayase…?' She could hear a voice in the distance as her eyes shut tightly.
"I...still...have...so...much...to…"
Her soft breaths were all her secretary heard in response. 'Oh dear. It seems Mrs Ayase has fallen asleep!'
'I'll just let myself in then.' Nozomi began walking towards the large door leading to Eli's office.
'I'm afraid she locked the door in order to deter you, Ms Ayase!'
"That's...really weird!" Nozomi wasn't, of course, talking about the whole locked door thing: Eli knew her well enough to know that was about the only way she had to fight back against Nozomi dragging her back home to sleep (Nozomi knew Eli well enough to know that Eli knew this, of course, and already made a duplicate of Eli's office key). What she thought was weird was the way the secretary had addressed her! "Ms Ayase, huh?" Eli's last secretary had done nothing of the sort! "I'll ask Eli about it later".
Nozomi unlocked the large corporate door, opening it slowly and peeking in.
"This is pretty...bleak." The room was completely dark save for the bright light coming from Eli's desk. There, she could see Eli, peacefully asleep, most likely making a real mess of her work as she lay upon her keyboard.
Nozomi delightfully walked over to her side. 'Heheheh…' She laughed deviously as she got out her phone and snapped a quick picture. "Overworked Elicchi is too cute to miss~" She was sure to bring this picture up later to tease Eli. 'Alright…'
She slowly lifted Eli onto her back, leaning forward such that Eli's arms naturally fell over her shoulders. Nozomi felt Eli's arms tighten firmly around her neck and sighed. This had happened much too often for it to become instinctual even while she was unconscious. She took a quick glance at Eli's laptop and put it to sleep, deciding to "accidentally" forget it on the way out.
Slowly carrying her out of the office, a cursory farewell to the secretary and 40 floors of elevatoring down saw them in the car of Eli's private chauffeur and on their way home.
'Huh!' Eli shot up from Nozomi's lap, waking up. 'W-Where am I?'
'You know…' The sound of Nozomi's voice instantly alerted Eli to the fact that they were on their way home. 'You're new secretary said the funniest thing to me just now.'
She looked at Nozomi, at her smug expression, at her closed eyes, and sighed, relenting to her. 'Oh yeah?'
'She called me "Ms Ayase".' Nozomi opened one of her eyes and glanced at Eli. 'Isn't that weird?'
Eli thought for a moment before responding. 'Well, she asked if I was married and I said that I was absentmindedly. She started calling me "Mrs" and asking me all sorts of things about my "husband". When I told her about you, she was really surprised.' Eli laughed a bit. 'That must be why.'
'Is that so…?' Nozomi said wistfully, leaning on Eli's shoulder. 'Well, we are married~'
'Yes, but only in America. Not here.' Eli responded, leaning on Nozomi's head, smiling.
'Not yet~' Nozomi giggled.
'...Not yet.'
'...Mrs Ayase, Ms Ayase. We have arrived.' The car slowed to a stop in front of the Ayase residence, a normal, two-story, family house on the corner of an ordinary street.
'Oh please, Marie, you don't have to feel obligated to call us that.' Eli laughed, following Nozomi out of the car.
'M-My apologies…' She seemed embarrassed.
'...But I'm not opposed to it.' Eli said, smiling into the front window, before turning around and walking towards her house.
'Ms Ayase...has a nice to ring to it, doesn't it?' Nozomi brought her hand towards Eli's, interlocking their fingers.
'Yeah, yeah.'
They cuddle so closely in bed that it makes you wonder why they need such a big one.
Nozomi had her face comfortably buried in Eli's chest, caught in her firm embrace. Eli had her chin on Nozomi's head, the gentle smell of her hair a familiar and comforting sound. Their legs intertwined willy-nillily, mostly still, occasionally rubbing against each other.
'You know…' Eli started, looking for a reaction. She felt Nozomi perk up a bit, signalling that she was awake and listening. 'I still have a lot of work to do...but thanks.
Nozomi could feel Eli's embrace tighten a bit.
'I know I can be...a bit difficult sometimes...tunnel vision, as it were... but I'm glad that you're always here to reel me back in...to take care of me…'
Nozomi could hear Eli get progressively more embarrassed as she continued.
'What I'm saying is...I'm just glad that you're here…I'm glad that I have you...'
"Ah, but that's wrong, Elicchi…" Nozomi thought to herself. "I should be glad that I have you. If it weren't for you, I would have never become the person I am today. I never would have started caring for people. I never would have started worrying about people. It was because of your stubborn, one-track mind that I was able to become the perfect counterbalance. I should be the one glad that you're here."
That was what Nozomi thought to herself, but if you think that she was going to say that, hell no! That would mean removing herself from the bountiful comfort that was Eli's bosom and perhaps perpetuating her already detrimental need to work. So instead, she just tightened her embrace of Eli. She thought that across her point perfectly~