Eli woke up to the sounds of birds chirping softly. It would have been harmoniously pleasant had it not been for the bright sunlight that had somehow managed to creep through her window despite the fact that her curtains were closed. Groaning, she rolled over to the side in order to avoid the warm beam of light, but when her arm met an uncommonly empty space on the bed, she opened her eyes groggily, somewhat alarmed.
"Nozomi?" Eli croaked, her voice still heavy with sleep. She got up and rubbed one eye with her hand, grumbling lightly when she saw her phone constantly vibrate from all the notifications she was getting. With a sigh, Eli got off of the bed and stretched.
'Why are all these people texting me at,' Eli stopped her train of thought to squint at the clock on the wall, '9am?'
Eli sighed once more as she mindlessly pocketed her phone. After yawning, she called out, "Nozomi? Where are you?"
"I'm in the kitchen!" Nozomi responded, her voice reverberating gently throughout the house.
Too tired to bother opening her eyes properly, Eli squinted as she dragged her feet towards the kitchen. True to her word, Nozomi was in the kitchen. She was cooking eggs and bacon, humming lightly as she flipped one or the other.
Eli stared at her for a second, leaning on the doorway that connected to the kitchen. She took in her appearance, loving how Nozomi liked to take her shirts and wear them at home. They were somewhat big on her considering how Eli had grown taller throughout the years and it was a bonus that she never wore any pants, claiming that Eli's shirt was long enough anyways. Eli didn't mind, especially because she was able to stare at her thighs as much as she wanted to.
'How perfect can she be?' Eli mused as she moved forward, wrapping her hands around Nozomi's waist. She rested her head on her shoulder and kissed her neck, making Nozomi giggle and playfully swat her away.
"Good morning, honey." Eli mumbled as she pressed another kiss on her neck, wide awake at the sight and smell of food.
"Elichi, I'm cooking." Nozomi scolded lightly but Eli just laughed, leaning in once more to kiss her neck again.
"That never stopped us." Eli whispered teasingly, making Nozomi blush and push her away.
"Mou, you've been getting more flirtatious." Nozomi responded as she shook her head with mock-disappointment and Eli laughed.
"You say that as if it was a bad thing." Eli muttered into her ear, making Nozomi giggle once again. She sighed and rested her head on her shoulder, making Eli smile warmly; they fit together perfectly, like a complete puzzle set.
"It's not bad," Nozomi admitted gently before twisting her head to look at Eli, giving her a knowing smile, "but as a result, I've had less time to nap."
Eli hummed thoughtfully before mumbling with a smirk, "But wouldn't you rather spend time with me?"
"You know I love spending time with you." Nozomi replied just as softly before turning around and leaning up to kiss Eli.
It was slow and soft, much like their first kiss years ago. Eli leaned in more, gently wrapping her arms around Nozomi's waist as she returned the kiss. However, the smell of food cooking led Nozomi to break off the kiss so she could turn off the stove from behind her.
"You're as distracting as ever, Elichi." Nozomi spoke as brought Eli closer to her. Eli just shot her a charming smile, leaning in closer so she could kiss her lips.
"Only for you." She whispered softly, making Nozomi stop her and laugh at how cheesy she was being.
"You're terrible." Nozomi said with a wide grin, giggling as she playfully swatted Eli's arm.
"But you still love me." Eli responded with a sweet smile. Nozomi's expression promptly glowed and Eli felt her heart warm at the sight.
"Of course I do. And I'll never stop loving you." Nozomi whispered, smiling gently as she leaned in once more.
Their lips met in a slow fashion, melding and moving in a rhythm they had perfected over the years as Eli's body encompassed Nozomi's. Nozomi brought her arms up, playing with Eli's silky hair as Eli rested her hands comfortably on Nozomi's waist. However, Nozomi pulled away once again and this time, it was because the door bell had rung.
"It looks like they're here." Nozomi grinned with excitement before she pecked Eli on the cheek. "Now, go get ready. We'll be taking you out for the rest of the day."
Eli blinked rapidly in confusion, making Nozomi laugh loudly. She felt her phone buzz again and she took it out of her pocket, looking at the barrage of messages that came from the ex-Muse's group chat.
I can tell Eli isn't awake otherwise she would've scolded those idiots after they posted that scandalous image -Umi
maybe we shouldn't be texting her this early? -Kotori
It's past 9. That Russian dork is always up early out of habit -Maki
how do u know that ;) -Rin
... - Hanayo
...Rin, I have a girlfriend. And she's been with Nozomi for like 10 years or something -Maki
but that would mean shes been with nozomemes before high school :o -Rin
...I was exaggerating -Maki
ooo what if she's busy having fun rn so she's not answering? -Honoka
u better not be doing nasty shit when we get there -Nico
speaking of which, open the damn door already! -Nico
Eli sweatdropped at the conversation, shaking her head before sighing. Some things never changed, she mused.
"I'll go open the door now. Nicocchi is impatient as always." Nozomi spoke as she set down the food on the table. Now that Eli was awake, she had realized that there was enough food to feed the entire neighborhood.
"I'll get ready then." Eli replied as she walked out of the kitchen, shaking her head at the thought of Honoka and Rin eating enough for three people. She also mentally prepared herself because of the combined rambunctious energy Honoka and Rin would bring as well as the combined sass Nico and Maki had.
Eli went into the bedroom and changed fairly quickly, putting on black jeans, a blue shirt, and a white coat. Once she went outside, she was met with a surprise.
"Happy birthday!" Everyone greeted happily, making Eli jump slightly. However, it didn't last long since Eli was always quick to regain her senses.
"Mou, thank you everyone, but you didn't have to take time off for me." Eli smiled warmly at the group; they held a special and eternal place in her heart.
"Of course we had to, it's your birthday!" Nico protested as if Eli had said the dumbest thing in the world, "There's no way any of us would miss something as important as this."
"Aren't you all busy?" Eli questioned as she sat down on the table, now understanding the reason as to why the conversation on her phone earlier was solely based on her.
"We all took a day off, nya! Except for Maki-chan. She just told her dad she had an emergency." Rin supplied with a wide grin, making Maki glare at her.
"She doesn't need to know that!" Maki blushed with embarrassment, making everyone laugh.
"Really though, thank you all." Eli gave them all an appreciative smile before continuing, "Nozomi said something about hanging out today?"
"Yeah! We'll be going to an amusement park and then a fair and then a restaurant and then a karaoke bar and then an actual bar and then—" Honoka exclaimed with excitement, making Umi lightly chop her head.
"We only have Eli for the day, Honoka." Umi scolded before averting her eyes and continuing in a shyer tone, "Nozomi gets to have her during the night."
Eli was astonished how Umi was still so shy about romance yet she couldn't help but laugh sheepishly at her statement. She already knew that Nozomi would have some sort of plans for her and she would be lying if she wasn't excited to find out what. She ignored Nico's disgusted look and Nozomi's smirk, choosing instead to drink some water and avoid their stares.
"Eh, but they live together already." Honoka whined and it was at this moment that Kotori intervened, calming the two down with her special smile.
"Now, now, settle down. Let's all eat first then we can have the birthday girl decide." Kotori suggested and Honoka immediately brightened up at the mention of food, making everyone at the table laugh and start to eat.
'I wish this never changes.' Eli thought with a small smile. However, her thoughts were interrupted when she felt Nozomi tug at her right side and looked at her questioningly.
"What's up?" Eli asked silently and Nozomi just shook her head with a smile.
"There's something on your cheek." Nozomi whispered as she leaned in and kissed her cheek, making Eli blush lightly.
"Gross. I did not come here to see you two leech off of each other; I've had enough of that during college." Nico commented with a revolted expression and Maki just raised her eyebrow.
"They've been together for six years—"
"—seven actually—" Nozomi clarified with a grin but Maki just waved her off.
"—whatever, seven, and they're like—wait, seven years?" Maki looked at the two with shock, making Nozomi giggle.
"Mhm, seven years." Nozomi said as she sighed happily, no doubt thinking about all the times she had spent with Eli.
"That means the two of you dated back when we were in high school." Nico said slowly and at seeing the blush on Eli's face, she groaned out loud. "Oh hell no. The two of you better have not been doing nasty shit in the club room."
"Oh give us a break Nicocchi. After all—" Nozomi said with a mischievous smile but Nico tried to interrupt her.
"—You better not finish that sentence or else I swear to—"
"—Elichi and I had the decency to go somewhere private." Nozomi finished with a smirk, sending a wink towards Nico. Nico glared at her and was about to respond but stopped when Maki kicked her under the table. The glare was then directed to Maki, who glared right back at Nico.
"Don't listen to her." Eli sighed at Nozomi's antics, successfully breaking off the glaring contest between Nico and Maki. She felt a hard stare from her left side and continued, "No, we weren't doing anything shameless in high school, Umi."
"Hm, then what about the picture Honoka and Rin took?" Umi asked and Eli raised her eyebrow.
"What picture?" Eli glanced over to the two culprits, making them laugh nervously at her trademark glare.
"Oh, nothing, nya." Rin averted her eyes with a sheepish smile.
"Yeah, definitely not a picture of you stripping for Nozomi at a bar." Honoka responded nervously but facepalmed when she realized she just gave herself away.
"W-What!" Eli's eyes widened and everyone averted their eyes, making Nozomi laugh.
"It's nice to have a lively breakfast like this." Nozomi commented with a large smile before trying to calm everyone down, "Now everyone settle down. We've got a lot of fun places to go to later."
The conversation drifted off to a more appropriate topic after that, such as catching up with everyone's current jobs. And when Eli grabbed Nozomi's hand from under the table, she knew that she couldn't have wished for anything else.
The gold band wrapped around Nozomi's finger was evident enough.
AN: So here was a somewhat short fluffy fic for Eli's birthday. I might write another chapter containing the night time fun (ay lmao) but I've been really busy as of late because of these dumb ass standardized tests (taking the ACT tomorrow and I'm sick af but whatevs lol). Which reminds me that I still need to update another story. The update for that will come soon enough and a bonus (since I'm updating it late) will be that every pairing will have the spotlight at some point in the chapter! Also it's gonna be like 14-15k so idk if you guys would want it to be split into two chapters or kept into one.
As always, reviews and criticisms are much appreciated!
Side Note: I wonder if anyone caught the reference for that last line :')