Chapter Thirteen: Work Visit

I was working on a desk fan when I heard the bell to the front door ring. "Just a minute, please; I'll be right with you."

I didn't hear a response, which worried me a little, so I quickly finished my work on the fan motor and picked up a towel to wipe my hands as I entered the 'showroom'. "Welcome! How may I help-"

"Tomoya-kun!" Kotomi looked terribly out-of-place in the dirty shop. With her white lab coat and red hair ornaments, she made me think of a beautiful flower in a pile of dung. "I wanted to see you so badly!"

"K-Kotomi-chan?!" I took a halting step. I was already ashamed enough of my position, but for her to be here… "What are you doing here?"

"Showing us where you work!" chirped a familiar voice that I really didn't want to hear at work. Kyou appeared from behind Kotomi and finger-waved, with Fujibayashi at her side as usual. "So this is it?"

"Yeah," I answered, scratching my cheek. I just couldn't look my old classmates in the eye. "It's not much, but the pay's good."

"Are you working on this?" she asked while examining a partly-disassembled vacuum cleaner.

"No I'm taking break from that to work on a desk fan. It's in the back," I added, as the twins started looking around.

Kotomi, however, didn't seem interested in the shop as made her way over to me and gave me a hug. "Thank you for the hard work you do for us."

"Y-You're welcome," I replied. "I'm really not doing much, not compared to you. How were you able to get out for so long? The lab's pretty far from here, isn't it?"

"Yeah, and how did you even get to Sci-Tek anyway?" Kyou interjected. "Weren't you going to go to university or something?"

"Go to university?" I snorted. "To do what, teach?"

"Tomoya-kun!" Kotomi immediately went to Full Blush Mode. "I cannot do that!"

"Sure you can," I countered. "I saw the letter. Why didn't you accept?"

"Tomoya-kun!" she repeated, now pouting. "That letter was not for you!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," I said, raising my hands in surrender. "I saw it by accident when I was clearing the writing desk."

Kotomi's pout was apparently not leaving any time soon. "I could not accept the position."

"Why not?" Fujibayashi had finally joined our group. "You'd make a wonderful professor."

Kotomi's eyes darted to each of us before she answered. "I…I…" She took a deep breath. "I would be too far away from Tomoya-kun."

Kyou burst into laughter, Fujibayashi covered her mouth with both hands, and my face burst into flame. I had suspected I was the reason, but it was still embarrassing to hear it.

Kyou clapped a hand on my shoulder, still laughing. "Well, there's no doubt how she feels about you, huh?"

"Shut up," I retorted, but couldn't keep the smile from my face. It really was nice to know the Kotomi felt so strongly about me, regardless of what I thought of myself. I looked over at her to see her duck her head shyly. Here she was, one of Japan's national treasures, standing in a dingy recycling shop and engaged to a salaryman. I really didn't deserve her.

"So, are you going to be able to be there for her dress fitting?" Kyou was, of course, referring to Kotomi's dress fitting on Saturday. Unlike her white summer dress this one was to be professionally made, but Kotomi had insisted on the twins and Furukawa being part of the process.

"Yeah, I made the arrangements," I told her. "It'll cost me my next two days off, but yeah."

"Okazaki-kun…" Fujibayashi said with a giggle.

"That's okay; she's worth it, isn't she?" Kyou chirped.

I looked over to Kotomi, who still had her head bowed and was glancing at me from beneath her eyelashes, before looking back to Kyou. "Absolutely."

Kyou got that wistful look in her eyes that I figured I'd just have to get used to. "Yeah."

I glanced at Fujibayashi who, in turn, glanced at her sister and nudged her. "Onee-chan…"

"Huh?" I waited patiently as Kyou came back to reality. "Yeah, she's absolutely worth it. Damn right!" she said to no one in particular before grabbing onto her sister. "C'mon Ryou, let's give the lovebirds a few minutes alone. They probably want to do…things."

"Onee-chan!"

Kotomi squeaked as she covered her face, and I started to wonder if there was some truth to Kyou's words. "Thanks, Kyou. Good to see you again."

"Yeah yeah," Kyou said as she lifted a hand in a wave.

"Take care Okazaki-kun," Fujibayashi said as Kyou dragged her out the door.

"You too," I said as the door shut behind her…or in front of her, depending on how you looked at it.

"So," I said, trying to break an awkward silence, "how were you able to get away from the lab?"

"I gave my team an assignment and told them I was coming to see you," she said quietly as she approached me. "They were the ones who gave me the idea, in fact."

"Seriously?" I couldn't believe that they would help her skip work.

She nodded solemnly as she stepped even closer; based on her prior behavior I had a pretty good idea what was coming next. "Absolutely," she said.

I went back to wiping my hands on the towel. "Well, I need to get back to work KotomMMPH."

Sure enough, Kotomi had cupped my face with her hands and kissed me. It was still a little jarring though, since she tended to spring kisses on me without warning…not that I didn't enjoy them, of course. Unfortunately, my hands were too dirty to be touching her coat, so I put as much feeling into the kiss as I could.

She finally pulled away, her eyes half-lidded. "I missed you."

I nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed. "I get that. Thank you."

She smiled softly. "What time will you be home?"

I managed to tear my eyes away from her face to glance at the clock. "Probably about six-thirty, maybe seven."

I could still feel the tingle of her touch even after she took her hands off of my face. "I'll see you for dinner, Tomoya-kun," she said breathily.

The way she said my name…I shuddered. What was it going to be like to be married to her? "Y-Yeah…See you later."