Something was wrong with Meiko. Kaito couldn't figure it out. She was usually up out of bed early (usually to get to the studio on time so she could actually have access to a booth), she would be dressed and eating breakfast and lively (or sometimes ranting about something, but again, lively).

But such was not the case lately. Kaito couldn't figure it out.

"Mei-chan?"

He would nudge her in the morning and she would simply curl up tighter, leaving her back turned to him. "Let me sleep in a little longer..."

"Won't you miss work?"

"I called off."

That's been the third time this month.

Now Kaito has had to wake up on his own, his wife still in bed whilst he got ready, ate breakfast, went to the studio. When he came back, sometimes he'd find her still in bed. Was she there all day? Or perhaps simply slipped back in, coincidentally, by the time he had come home?

"Mei-chan?" he'd say softly, sitting at the edge of the bed and trying to wake her. Sometimes he got a response and sometimes he did not.

"Anything wrong?" he finally had the courage to ask.

"I'm fine."

That sounded extremely flat. He knew Meiko well enough that was simply code word for "don't want to talk about it" and has also learned harshly in the past that trying to push it doesn't yield the most positive results.

But he wanted to do something. He couldn't just leave her there to suffer in silence. Was she feeling inadequate? Was he not giving her enough attention? Could this simply be the result of burnout? It could be a number of things, or perhaps a combination of a lot of things.

Regardless, Kaito resolved that he had to do something for her. If she didn't want to talk about it, perhaps he could simply do nice things for her to help lift her spirits.

Oh, but she doesn't even want to get up half the time! Going on little dates like they used to wasn't going to work in this situation. Perhaps some pampering was in order. Everyone likes to be pampered once in awhile, don't they? That way, he didn't have to force her out of bed but could still do nice gestures for her.

The question now remained: what sort of little gestures should he attempt?

The internet and magazines and various videos had a lot of different opinions. There were the classics, like giving gifts or flowers, serving breakfast in bed, showering compliments, etc. Those seemed to be the safest bet. No harm in giving it a try, right?

His first attempt went smoothly. That was, alternating his routine. One morning, instead of trying to nudge her awake and say her name in a tone of concern, he simply brushed his fingers through her hair and said something nice to her.

"Good morning, Mei-chan. You're really pretty today."

"What, am I not pretty any other day?"

"Ah, that is not what I meant, you are always pretty, Mei-chan, but I have not taken enough time to appreciate it."

"Mm..." she didn't say anything more.

Kaito was not sure if this had worked, but she was responsive. Their regular routine of expresse concern, lie say "I'm fine", and end it right there was finally broken. Progress, right?

His next attempt, however, did not go as smoothly as the previous. This time, he attempted breakfast in bed.

"What is this?" Meiko rubbed her eyes as she sat up, Kaito placing a tray of food over her legs.

"Breakfast!" he smiled, forcing his eyes shut. A genuine, bright smile that looked equal parts stupid as it did endearing.

"I'm not hungry..." Meiko huffed.

"Oh, come on, Mei-chan! You have eaten so little. Here—" he lifted up a bowl of porridge. "It's easy for your stomach."

One whiff of that and her face scrunched up a bit. "The rice smells burnt."

"Oh, that's not the rice, it's the toast." Kaito corrected.

Her eyes grew wide. "You gave me burnt toast?"

"It shouldn't taste too bad with a little butter and jam," Kaito told her, buttering and jamming it as he said this. "Try."

Needless to say, she coughed on the attempt to disguise the burnt flavor and refused to eat anything more.

But Kaito was persistent. He wasn't going to let a little fumble damper his spirits. He was going to make Meiko happy, no matter what!

His next attempt was to surprise her with flowers. Red roses, to be exact. Luckily they grew in the garden of their apartment complex. He managed to get permission from the landlord to cut some and make a bouquet.

"Mei-chan ~" he hummed, placing the flowers on her lap.

Kaito didn't get an audible response, but Meiki did set up and the expression on her face said it all. Eyes wide, her fingers slid against the stems only to get pricked and drew blood. "Ow!"

"Ah, sorry, I-I forgot..." Kaito nervously said, yanking away the bouquet and meticulously plucking off the thorns to made them manageable to hold (getting a few cuts and scrapes on his own fingers. Maybe he was making too much out of it, but Meiko's face looked a little amused.

So maybe that didn't go too well, but he managed to save the day, though almost all his fingers now had bandages wrapped around them. Still, he would not be deterred. He would see this list through to the end!

What even was his list? An amalgamation really of various magazine articles, blogs, and videos he came across, extracted, and stitched together to make his own coherent list. 3 down, 5 to go. He wanted to keep things simple.

This next bit could never fail. No woman could say no to ice-cream. He knew he couldn't. And he was even willing to share some of his stash with her. But how to non-chantly go about it without seeming suspicious?

Today Meiko actually go up an hour earlier than she normally was lately. Her work schedules were still off, but progress was being made. After brushing her teeth from a simple breakfast of rice and miso, Kait appears in the doorframe of their bathroom with an ice-cream bar in hand. "Mmm... this is good, do you want some Mei-chan?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "I just brushed my teeth."

"Oh..." Well, that deflated him.

That left only one thing. Foot massage.

Meiko was constantly complaining about her feet aching. She would come home and rant about how her boots were too tight, and that despite complaining to the manager about it, they haven't ordered her new boots yet. If this next show of affection failed, Kaito kept buying proper sized boots in the back of his mind. Her birthday was coming up, anyway.

Today was one of those days, only she would suffer in silence. Having actually gone to work today, she was now backlogged with producer offers and song lyrics to sing and choreography videos to shoot. Her feet were killing her.

Not saying a word, Meiko ripped her boots off, chucking them at the wall before collapsing into bed, staring at the ceiling with a frown on her face. Sighing, she put her left arm over her forehead, trying to stifle her headache (because somehow doing this worked, though she couldn't figured out why).

Kaito knew it was the perfect time to strike. Peering through the doorframe, Meiko was headache induced, lost in thought, completely unaware of his presence. That's when he tip-toed into their bedroom, sitting at the end of the bed as softly as possible, and grabbing her left foot.

"KAITO!" she yelped, and suddenly she began laughing, kicking her legs around. "Ahahahahaha... Kaito... st-stop that!"

"M-Mei-chan..." he struggled. "Hold... still, I'm trying... to make you feel better!"

That seemed to only drive her to laugh even louder, this time not in response to the ticklish sensation. She rolled over onto her belly, her breaths hard and sound muted only for a second, until hot tears ran down her face in amusement and she pounded her fist onto the bed to stifle her bellowing laugh but to no avail.

Kaito, on the other hand, was horrified. Her face was red and flushed, and the tears wetting her cheeks caused him to cringe. "Mei-chan..."

"Oh, Kaito... you're so cute..." she finally managed to say.

"H-Huh?"

She sat up, her hair sticking out in all sorts of directions, eyes puffy, face red and flushed, and her cheeks wet with tears. She looked like a total mess. "You're so cute."

Kaito was visibly confused. "I..."

He reached out her hand to touch her cheek, seething a bit. Meiko was a mess. He too, was a mess. He brushed his index finger underneath her eye, only to flinch when she grabs his wrist. "You're so silly."

She sniffled, the tears continuing to fall. Kaito wasn't sure what to do. How could he get her to stop crying? This isn't what he wanted! And how was she smiling through it? Wasn't she hurting?

"I... I'm sorry, Mei-chan, I seem to have only made things worse."

Meiko's head tilted, she now being the one who was confused. "Eh? Worse?"

"I... I wanted to make you feel better."

She laughed through her sniffles. "But you have!"

"I doubt it."

"It's the thought that counts?"

"I can't even make toast."

"It was... just really crunchy!"

"I can't even give a proper foot massage."

"I've always been ticklish there. Not even a professional could."

Kaito hung his head low, still feeling like a failure.

"Oh Kaito..." she fell into his arms. "You're so sweet."

Closing the distance, they embraced each other – not wanting to let the other go. Kaito still never learned what exactly was bothering Meiko, but in the end, it really didn't matter. Meiko was feeling so much better now knowing that he had taken notice in the first place. Besides, his effort was amusing, to say the least. She loved that blue haired idiot.

.

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Prompt: Character A notices their partner, Character B, is feeling down and decides to follow a magazine's list of "ways to pamper your man/woman/partner", including things like breakfast in bed and massages. Bonus if Character A has no idea what they're doing (or the list isn't that great) and flubs most of the list but B finds it cute and it cheers them up anyways.