Ding-dong!
The noise roused MC from his sleep almost instantly. For a moment, as he flung himself out of bed, he found himself bewildered. The digital clock that lied on the nightstand indicated that it was 6:48 AM.
"Who could that be?" he muttered sleepily. Fortunately, it quickly clicked. Unconsciously, he broke into a smile. Thanks to a sudden wave of energy, he bounded out of his room, down the stairs, and skidded to the front door. Flinging it open, there was the sight for sore eyes that he was anticipating.
Monika grinned. "Good morning, M-" she began, but quickly stopped once she had time to get a good look at him. Her affectionate gaze remained, but it rapidly became intertwined with something more longing. She giggled to herself. "-Good morning, indeed."
MC raised an eyebrow. "What? What's going on?"
Monika struggled to maintain her composure. "B-boxers," she stated through her amused and intrigued laughter.
MC's eyes widened, then he looked down at himself. Sure enough, he was clad in nothing but his boxers. "Ah, not again!" he exclaimed, covering himself up. He glanced up shyly at Monika, who only offered a playful smirk in response. She had seen him a less modest state, yet he still felt the need to cover up. "C-come in!" he offered, stepping out of the doorway. "Come in and, er, make yourself at home. I gotta get dressed."
Monika stepped inside and closed the door behind her as MC dashed up the stairs and disappeared down the 2nd floor hallway. He returned a minute or two later, clad in jeans and a t-shirt, but still rocking a pretty massive bedhead. He didn't really care, and he imagined Monika didn't mind too much, either. Both of them had gone a week without the usual daily visit; the return to routine was sorely missed.
He took a seat next to her on the couch and leaned back. "If I knew you were coming over, I would have gotten up a little earlier and made breakfast."
Monika shrugged it off. "Ah, think nothing of it. I can make breakfast for us, remember?"
Without waiting for a reply, she brought up the mod menu and quickly coded two plates of pancakes and some silverware into existence right on their laps. Once the mod menu disappeared, she winked. "See?"
MC took a bite, the nodded. "They're good, but, well, they're just not quite what Mama used to make."
"Oh, you don't even have parents," Monika chuckled. Then, her tone quickly became somewhat morose. "Come to think of it, none of us have any family except for Natsuki. I know it's been a good year since this whole game revelation happened, but sometimes that fact still shocks me. We have 18 years of our lives that were all imagined, all created in the blink of an eye to serve some higher purpose. It really makes you wonder, eh?"
MC slid the pancakes aside and scooted closer to Monika. "The club is our family," he stated emphatically.
"If that's the case, does that make us siblings?" Monika joked.
"Ewww!" MC interjected. "Gross! Not what I meant by that!"
Monika leaned into him. "I get what you mean, though, that we are all in this crazy situation together. I just. . . I don't see it like you do, you know?"
MC's smile dropped. He gazed down at her. She was staring straight ahead, seemingly lost in her own thoughts as she idly clutched at her hand. There seemed to be the tiniest twinge of self-hatred in her emerald eyes.
"You're thinking about what you did to the others again, aren't you?"
She didn't seem to hear him.
"Monika? Are you alright?"
Monika shook her head fiercely in an attempt to rejoin the present moment. "Y-yeah, I'm fine," she squeaked. "You're right, though. I was."
MC squeezed her palm. "I remember what you told me at the fountain yesterday," he offered. "How you told me you still felt terrible about everything?"
Monika nodded. "I do."
MC kissed her on the forehead, eliciting a squeak from her. "I know it's hard, Monika, but maybe you should try to let go of it. The past is in the past, and none of us could've known the pain and suffering you felt being trapped in that void. The Monika I've known today is a beautiful, creative, and kind woman. She is a woman that has done so many little things for the important people in her life."
In spite of his kind, reassuring words, Monika glance away in shame. "And that Monika is the same Monika that drove two of her friends to suicide and erased the third from existence as if she was nothing at all. They're too sides of the same coin, right?"
"That's nonsense," MC stated emphatically.
"That's the truth," Monika countered. She did not say it angrily, but more as if she were simply reciting the obvious. "MC, I don't think I'll ever be able to get this off my chest until I find the courage to tell them all what happened. But then-" she sniffled, wiping away the first tears that rolle down her cheeks. "-Then they'll sure hate me!"
Monika did her best to choke down the tears. Her best was simply not enough. She began to cry, burying her head in her hands. All those nasty memories, all those feelings of bottled-up jealousy, all that envy she harbored because her only connection to the real world was romancing another girl, it all came back. The sight of Sayori hanging from her noose, her neck and hands serving as a bloody testament to her terrifying last moments, combined with Yuri's grisly self-inflicted stab wounds, was gut-wrenching even if she had not been at fault. Knowing that she was the reason all the happened only made it indescribably worse.
But as the tears fell, a pair of arms wrapped around her body, and she remembered that she was not alone. She was never alone, not as long as she had him. In spite of everything, he had chosen to be her friend. In a sense, he saved everyone's lives. Even when she came to his house every day with a new scheme to win his heart, he had entertained her. He had even fallen in love with her, and that had made all the difference in life.
And then, she remembered something, something she dearly missed. Those schemes, those little things she did every day that made their lives much more exciting. She had largely abandoned them after they had become a couple, and while this argument had proved that they were still very much in love, she realized that re-introducing these little things to show off her gratitude would be something he definitely deserved. It would be, in essence, a return to routine not unlike today's visit.
Some time passed, and the tears eventually stopped. When she finally recomposed herself, Monika opened her eyes and stared up at MC. Their gaze met, and their lips soon followed. As the kiss deepened, Monika's mind was already hard at work planning for what tomorrow would bring.
