Angelic Layer – Burnout
Disclaimer: Don't own Angelic Layer (Duh!), so you no sue...
Description: When Piffle Princess has some sudden trouble with its tax history, Oujirou gets the job of sorting it out, and gets loaded down with more work than he can handle. This makes an emotional and physical burnout a fast reality for him.
A/N: Okay...it's short, but I hope you like it... :-)
Misaki was eating lunch at a small outside restaurant in Tokyo with Tamayo and Kotarou to celebrate her total domination over the Layer, and Tamayo wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Have you two seen Oujirou lately?" Misaki asked casually.
"No, why, Misakichi?" Tamayo answered, looking suspiciously at Misaki.
"Well, I haven't seen him around much at the Layer lately. He's been so busy that he and I haven't been practicing together at all for at least a week now. He also doesn't seem to be everywhere waiting for me like he usual is. It's not like him. I was thinking of visiting him later," She was fighting very hard to keep a straight face while she was saying this, but simply could not keep it up at Tamayo's next comment.
"So now your worrying about him, Misakichi. This is going to end up with you as his girlfriend, and you know it," Tamayo stated with an amazingly serious expression.
Misaki blushed brilliant shades of dark red, then answered, "No, I'm not! We're just friends!"
Tamayo giggled, "It'll happen."
Kotarou looked up from his food at this moment to catch Misaki's expression, and what he saw didn't please him.
Misaki knocked on the door to Oujirou's office. After a few seconds she heard a gloomy, "Come in!" from inside the office and she entered. Closing the door behind her she walked up to his desk. Oujirou didn't even look up, but vaguely pointed to a towering stack of papers with his pen.
"Put them up there with the others..." Oujirou said before putting his pen back to the page he was hunched over, looking at. His pen flew over the page, circling certain things, and putting his signature at the bottom before flipping to the next page on his desk.
"Oujirou, its Misaki. I came to see how you were doing."
Oujirou continued looking through the paper he was now working on for a moment before looking up.
"Misaki?" His eyes traveled to the short girl in front of him. Then putting down his pen, he leaned back in his chair to talk to her properly.
"It was nice of you to come. I haven't had a break in seven hours, anyway."
"Seven hours? Oujirou, that's too long..." Misaki pleaded.
Oujirou nodded, he was too tired to smile.
"I'm glad to see you, anyway. It's been a while since I've been able to poke my head up from this stack of papers."
"So I've gathered. How's it coming?" Misaki asked sympathetically.
"It's not. As soon as I get done with one stack of papers, they give me another stack of papers to deal with."
"Why did they dump so much work on you, though?" Misaki asked, puzzled.
"I don't know really. I guess, everyone else is just out of town or taking their vacation days."
"Can I help?" Misaki asked hopefully.
"Not really," Oujirou said wearily, turning back to the pile of papers on his desk.
Misaki could see shadows under his drooping eyes. His hair and cloths weren't as crisp and clean looking as usual either. It looked as if he had gone at least two days without a proper shower and had slept in his clothes at some point...or maybe just been in the same clothes for several days in a row.
"Oujirou," She ventured, "how long has it been since you last had food and any sleep?"
His pen hesitated as it began to skate over another page, then looking back up at Misaki, he frowned. Then looking down at his watch that showed both the date and the time he raised his eyebrows and sighed, "I think my last meal was sometime around noon yesterday...and the last time I slept was a good seventy-two hours ago..."
He had said this completely calmly, but the strain in his voice had indicated that he was not joking.
"Oujirou..." Misaki whined, "That's not good for you...and you know it. You look awful...and you probably feel awful too."
Oujirou put down the pen he was holding and stared at the page for a moment. She was right...he couldn't keep going like this. He slowly stood up, grabbing his coat from the hanger behind him. For the first time in days, he finally realized exactly how tired, hungry, and dirty he felt. He knew that there would be hell to pay for taking even a few hours off, when he got back, but right now...he needed to go home, sleep, and clean up.
Misaki, who had been leaning over his desk, leaned back and watched as he made his way to the door. When he opened the door, she spoke up again.
"Oujirou," she said quietly, "do you want me to walk with you?"
Oujirou stopped, turning his head halfway towards her, "No...that's alright. You probably have stuff to do anyway." He turned around all the way to face her, "Thanks..." He gave Misaki an exhausted smile. Oujirou's young twinkling eyes could still be seen under his expression of complete stress and exhaustion. With that, he walked out of the office, leaving Misaki looking after him.
It was a good thirteen hours later when Oujirou once again sat down at his office chair, now clean, slept-out, and fed. He looked at the now doubled size of papers on his desk, feeling a sense of dread as he picked up his pen again. He turned to the page that he had previously been working on and his pen started to skate over it once again.
Hours passed as Oujirou went through page after page or company document and memos. He knew exactly why he was getting this much work, he just didn't want to say anything to worry Misaki. Piffle Princess was getting audited and Ichirou had asked Oujirou to go through all the records for him. Ichirou had said that he was too busy to do it and that Shuko was still not completely well. Being the nice person that he was, he had excepted. Now, however, he wished, more than anything, that he had not agreed to it, and vowed never to agree to anything like this ever again.
Hours turned into days, slowly melting into a good week and a half with, once again, no sleep. He had occasionally taken a few hours to get a bite to eat and shower at home, but he didn't have the time to sleep...not when there was still lots of work to be done. He found that, after a while, Misaki's occasional visits were all that kept him from completely breaking down, telling Ichirou to do the forms himself, and going home—not to return for a good week or so. He didn't know why her presence had this affect on him, but he guessed that it had something to do with the love for her that he had and actually confessed too not too long ago.
Sure, it was true he was still waiting for an answer from her to this confession, but to him...in all these visits, her answer could not have been more clear. Why else would she visit him every day or two, just to talk for a few minutes or bring him some lunch. He found that this did not, like so many other things did, explain itself so easily if he thought about it in a different way. Why her, though? She was short, just getting into junior high, and extremely talented. Why did this intrigue him, like no one else had? He had met extremely talented people before...he was even considered one of them to most people who liked Angelic Layer. So why was he so fascinated by her...and no one else? Perhaps it had something to do with her glowing personality. It was true...she could be easily embarrassed and shy at times, but she was almost always smiling and happy.
By the time the end of the second week came, he was becoming very edgy from lack of sleep. Misaki had reduced her visits to once every two days because of this. She watched as he grew more and more exhausted with every day that passed, and his actions became more and more frustrated with the stress and exhaustion.
Misaki walked in exactly two and a half weeks after Oujirou had last slept. It was noon and she took her usual seat at the other side of his desk. When she walked in, she was pleased to see that the stack of papers on Oujirou's desk had been reduced by nearly five sixth's of it's original height.
"Hello, Misaki," Oujirou said dully as he punched some numbers into a calculator on his desk, not even bothering to look up at her.
"Are you finally getting towards the end?" Misaki asked hopefully.
Oujirou's head suddenly shot up to look at her questioningly, "Huh?"
"Are you getting almost done with all the work?" Misaki asked again.
Oujirou turned his head to look at the very small stack of papers, then nodded turning his attention back to his desk, "Yes."
Misaki smiled at him, "That's great!"
Oujirou nodded, rubbing his eyes and resting his index finger and thumb on the ridge of his nose for a moment. Almost immediately he opened his eyes again, "Oh!...God..." He shook his head and turned his attention back to the paper in front of him, "I better not close my eyes now...I might fall asleep," he muttered quietly.
Misaki's face looked at him with sympathy in her eyes. She wanted to help him...but she didn't know how she could. There was silence for a moment before Oujirou began to talk once again. His voice was low and questioning, but also soft and tired, "Misaki?"
"Yes?" Misaki asked curiously.
"I know...this isn't exactly the time to say this...but...have thought about what I said at all?" Oujirou asked, hoping he wouldn't have to explain. He just needed to make sure he was right about what she thought of him. His pen skated over the last paper, punching numbers in his calculator as he went.
"I have..." Misaki answered after a moment, "And...I...well...I don't know..." She shrugged.
"What do you mean 'you don't know'?" Oujirou asked, a little agitatedly, as his pen paused momentarily, then continued its journey towards the bottom of the page.
"I mean...I'm not quite sure how I feel," Misaki said hesitantly. She felt a blush come over her face.
"Not sure?" Oujirou retorted rather sarcastically as his pen reached the bottom of the page and he shuffled the paper in with the rest on the completed stack. Feeling relieved beyond words that he was finally finished with the papers that had been dumped on him, he leaned back in his chair and turned his attention to the situation at hand. He studied Misaki for a moment, watching her turn different shades of red.
"Yes," She said at last, "I'm not sure how I feel..."
Oujirou frowned, feeling a sudden annoyance at Misaki. He shook it off and stood up. He walked around his desk and sat down on it right in front of Misaki. He bent over slightly to look at her face.
"Misaki..." he said at last, watching her gaze shift to him when he got closer. He saw her turn an even deeper shade of red. "I meant what I said...I just don't exactly understand how you could not know how you feel about me." It was quite clear that his exhaustion was taking a great deal of his patience away from him. His voice started to rise slightly.
"I just don't know," Misaki said, standing up suddenly. This side of Oujirou scared her a little bit.
Oujirou barely had to incline his head upward to look her in the eye, "Misaki..."
"I have some stuff to do...I need to go now," Misaki said uncomfortably as she turned to leave.
Oujirou stood as well and walked after her, "Misaki...wait..." His voice was calmer now, as if to apologize for something.
Misaki kept walking, but she wasn't exactly sure why. She felt like she was running away from something...something she was scared of. Suddenly she felt Oujirou's hand on her shoulder.
"Misaki..." Oujirou said, as if to plead with her, to not leave...his grip tightened on her shoulder slightly.
She turned around in an instant, wondering why he didn't want her to go. In an instant one of Oujirou's hands had wrapped around her waist and he was leaning down. His lips had come together with hers, surprising her. She didn't know what to do...she hadn't expected him to do this. Before she knew what was happening, she was kissing him too. After a few moments, Oujirou released her, his eyes were studying her for a moment before he drew himself back up to his full height.
"Oujirou..." Misaki said looked at him uncertainly. Her voice was confused and surprised.
"You cannot tell me that you didn't feel anything. Otherwise you would not have kissed me back..." His voice was trembling. It sounded as if he were angry or very hurt. With that, he walked past her, out of his office, leaving Misaki staring after him once again.
Two days after the kiss between her and Oujirou, she walked into her aunt, Shouko's, dojo. She hadn't seen or talked to Oujirou since he had left her standing in his office that day. The truth had been, he was right...she did feel the same way for him. She just had been too afraid to admit it to herself. She hung up her coat and walked into the kitchen, pausing momentarily to get a few things to make lunch with. Her mind wandered momentarily back to his face and voice before he left the office, "You cannot tell me that you didn't feel anything. Otherwise you would not have kissed me back..." "Oh...Oujirou...I'm so sorry..."
"I forgive you," a voice came from behind her.
Misaki turned around at once to come face to face with a, once again, twinkle eyed Oujirou. He had a pleasant smile on his face as he leaned against the wall, watching her calmly. His clothes were crisp once again and he looked like he had gone back to his extremely clean and neat self.
"Oujirou!" Misaki yelped in surprise. "How did you..."
Oujirou started chuckling, "The way I always do Misaki..."
"Oh..." Misaki blushed.
The smile faded from Oujirou's face and it became suddenly serious, "Misaki, I wanted to apologize for the other day. I was exhausted, and I forced you into that kiss. It was really unfair for me to make accusations. I am sorry."
Misaki blushed a crimson red. She just simply couldn't resist anymore...he looked too calm and collected for her to say something to prove him wrong. She knew that he was expecting her to do that...or maybe even accuse him of something else. She ran forward, throwing her arms around his neck, earning her a very surprised look from Oujirou as he was pulled down to her level. Turning an even deeper red, she turned her head slightly and kissed him. it took him a moment to respond to this, due to his utter shock. Eventually, he put a hand to her cheek and kissed her back. After a long moment, she released him, now blushing an even deeper red (if that were possible...). A wide grin crossed her face as she caught a glimpse of Oujirou with a calm, yet slight blush coloring his cheeks. He straightened up and grinned as well.
It was then that both understood exactly how the other felt.