Staying Awake
When you're unable to sleep at night, what's the one thing you can do to amuse yourself with? Oneshot.
A figure lay perfectly still in her bed, almost unmovable, with a carmine red sheet wrapped around her body till the mid-back and her head was lying face down in her fluffy pillow. It was a warm summer night, the reason why she left the window half-closed to let the gentle breeze whistle through to the room and caused the high temperature to drop a couple degrees to make it bearable to sleep in—which in her case didn't work at all. It wasn't due to the distant shouting, the occasional music from the cars that drove by nor the noise of night time life filtered dully into her room. She knew it wasn't because of that, but what exactly the cause of her insomnia was, she didn't know.
She rolled over to her side as she groaned inwardly and fluttered her weary eyes open. Well, she tried to open them fully, but only managed to squint them at the brightening, red numbers on her beige with black trims alarm clock—which read 3.18 am. Already so late in the pitch black night and still she couldn't fall asleep. She had already tried every little trick in her book to make her doze off: counting the sheep endlessly, pacing across the room, watching some television, listening to some music, reading a book, drinking warm milk,… but nothing seemed to work.
Frankly, she didn't want to go to sleep, but she desperately needed to fall asleep. The next day was going to be a big day, because it had another reunion of the whole gang in store. She didn't want to be drained of her energy then all because she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep and to have puffy, red eyes with big, ugly circles underneath them as result.
After she switched on her night lamp, she was finally able to open her eyes fully and it took two minutes before she registered her surroundings—her medium sized, rectangular bedroom with cream white painted walls, the half-closed window on her left side and the double-sized bed with the carmine covers she was currently lying in with her snoring husband on the right of her.
With a quick sweep, she tossed the sheet off her body and stood up with wobbling legs from the bed. After she regained her composure and regained fully awareness of her legs, she didn't care about shoving her feet into her slippers and simply walked bare feet to the kitchen where perhaps a second glass of warm milk would help her with her little issue. She took out everything she needed once she made it to the kitchen, poured the white context into her dark blue pot, turned on one of the hot plates on the counter and placed the pot on the heating plate. Anxiously and impatiently tapping her bare foot against the cold, tiled floor, she waited for 3 minutes to turn it off, pour the warm context into a glass to drink the milk after she grabbed one. When she had gulped down the entire glass, she put the glass in the sink with the rest of the dirty dishes and glasses, set the bottle of milk back onto its rightful place in the refrigerator and went to the bedroom once again.
On her way there, she passed the room of her two little boys—Fuuga and Ukon. She opened the door with a crack and peeked her head inside the room. The youngest of the two by only one year difference, Fuuga, resembled her the most with his shimmering cinnamon hair, his sparkling honey-coloured orbs and his pale complexion, but especially his sincerity. If something didn't fit with him, he would stick his nose up and say what he thought about it in an instant. Ukon, on the other hand, was the striking image of his father, inside and out. He had the same unkempt, bush of dark brown hair on his head, his deep chocolate eyes and his tanned skin. His courage and leadershipness, he inherited from his father as well—the two greatest (yet not only) assets.
A half-way smile tucked at the corner of her lips at the sight of her two lovely, yet wretch, children, and she sighed dreamily while she closed the door softly to return to her own bedroom. Once there, she crawled back into the bad with her legs sprawled out in front of her, one leg over the other, her back leaned against the board of the burgundy, wooden furniture and her thumbs playing with one other. She fidgeted obviously, knowing she couldn't fall asleep anymore and eyed her husband, who had a small trace of drool on his pillow and lower lip, pensively. She knew what she was about to do next, was a pure evil stunt, but she didn't care nonetheless.
She leaned over to him, her chin in the croak of his neck and shoulder. "Taichi," she whispered softly in his ear. "wake up."
A moan escaped his parted lips, but he neither didn't respond nor wake up—at which she rolled her eyes annoyed. Then an idea popped into her mind, as if a yellow light bulb was hovering above her head, and she started to shake him back and forth harshly in order to get him to wake up.
"Please Taichi, I want to talk," she begged, frowning at him. "Come on, I know you're awake, so there's no point in faking it."
He stirred, shifted his face and answered her, still with his eyes close. "Mimi, leave me alone, I want to sleep. It's—…" He rolled over as large, chocolate brown eyes opened to glance at the clock on Mimi's nightstand. "3.36 right now." Then he rolled back again so that his back was facing her and drooped his eye-lids completely fatigued and disappeared once again against the stiff fabric of his pillow.
Mimi heaved an exasperated sigh. "I know, I know, but I don't seem to get some decent sleep."
"Count some sheep," Taichi ordered bossily, his words muffled against his pillow.
"Done that."
"Get a glass of warm milk."
"Done that too."
"Read a book."
"Already done that as well," Mimi chuckled, being rather amused by the fact that he was summing up all the suggestions she had tried out by now. "Other brilliant ideas, Einstein?"
Taichi grunted furiously, grumbling a 'no' because he didn't think the situation was as funny as she apparently did. It was not because she couldn't fall asleep that he must suffer the same agony as she did. He, unlike her, at least had fallen asleep and now it was like she was punishing him for it. She pulled him out of his nice, wonderful dream (he had just scored the winning goal in his football match and his team-mates were carrying him towards the dressers) with her evil clutches and dropped him into the hard reality where she was constantly whining—well, she didn't lament all the time, just right now she was.
"No, I don't have other suggestions. Oh wait, I know—Just close your eyes and get some sleep," he snapped, his voice dripping with bitterness.
"God, you don't have to be so rude," she hissed while giving him an angry death-glare by narrowing her eyes at him and furrowing her bow deeply. "Why don't I go for a walk and leave his Majesty be!" She got out of bed and bowed down low when she spoke out the last part of her sentence, then headed for the bedroom door. Normally she would have slam the door shut angrily, but this time she thought of the kids whose bedroom was just next to theirs and closed the door gently in order to not make any loud noise that could wake them up in a fraction of a second.
Taichi opened one eye and watched her trudge through the door hastily. A sigh escaped his lips defiantly, though he kicked the sheet of his body and followed her in the hall-way with only his boxers on. "Mi, wait," he called after her, silently though as to not disturb the kids, and he apologized with a groggily voice. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped on you like that. Will you forgive me?"
Crossing her arms over her stomach, she turned around to face him with an eyebrow arched madly at him and doubted his question at first, until his smile and his cute, big puppy-dog eyes were too difficult to stay mad at. Thus she bobbed her head twice, signalling that he was forgiving for his impudent behaviour and that everything was okay between them. A joyful, goofy smile spread on his face and he intertwined his fingers with hers and led her back to the bedroom once again. There they lay on the bed with her head being supported on his muscular chest and his finger twirling her curly, caramel locks.
"So what's on your mind, darling?" Taichi inquired suddenly, startling her in the process.
With her head raised a tad to look him square in the eye, Mimi quirked an eyebrow inquisitively. "Why do you ask?"
"Because you can't fall asleep. That usually means that something is troubling you. So what is haunting your pretty mind?" he merely pointed out easily.
Mimi paused to ponder over his question. "I think—tomorrow," she answered honestly at last.
Taichi blinked in confusion, stopped wrapping the strand of hair around his finger and stroked her head instead. "Tomorrow?"
"Yeah, tomorrow, you know, the whole gathering party and all."
He sniffed weirdly. "No offence, but why is that troubling you?"
"I don't know," she sighed and attempted to explain the matter thoroughfully, but ended up answering a short sentence instead because she couldn't come up with a better explanation. "I guess I'm a bit nervous to see how everyone's doing."
Softly, Taichi shook his head dully at her. He had always found it peculiar that women could or wanted for that matter crack their heads open for insignificant stuff like that. As a guy, he didn't really ponder over the near or distant future, or what would happen if you did or said this instead of that, but women—they were a total different case. He remembered that Hikari was exactly the same as Mimi in the past and even in the present, she always worried about what the future held in store for her. And not just Hikari and Mimi, but Sora and Miyako were like that as well.
"Oh, Mi, why do you wonder about that? It's not like anything bad will occur. It's only a reunion, to see how everyone's doing," Taichi soothed.
"That's true," Mimi admitted, knitting her eyebrows together thoughtfully.
"Besides," Taichi continued optimistically. "you already know most gossip."
"That's true too."
"There, what a husband isn't good for, huh?"
Mimi gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks, honey. You know, Miyako and Ken are bringing their newest addition tomorrow, their little baby boy or girl. Miyako hasn't told me the sex yet," Mimi uttered, shrugging nonchalantly.
Taichi grinned and began playing with the strap of Mimi's pyjama top. "Great, that's the third one, right?" he asked, already knowing the answer to his question, but asked anyways to be one-hundred percent certain.
Mimi solely hummed as response.
"Do you know more gossip?" he informed eagerly. Curiosity didn't kill the cat, but it was currently killing Taichi—which wasn't in his character at all, it was usually Mimi to dig up all the 'dirt' of everyone and him shrugging at her because he simply didn't care.
"Actually, yes," Mimi said. "Daisuke is finally having success with his noodle cars."
Tears of joy were prickling his eyes as Taichi started to laugh. Although he found it very hilarious, he was glad for the younger boy. He recalled the moment Daisuke said to everyone about his calling—that he wanted to sell noodles with cars and build a whole corporation of those. Everyone thought his plan was going to backfire, but everyone was too judgemental. Apparently, the maroon-headed boy was finally having success according to Mimi.
"Perhaps he can appear as a guest star in your cooking show, Mi," Taichi stated, slightly joking.
Mimi hadn't noticed the sarcastic hint and replied. "That's an excellent idea, I'll ask him tomorrow."
Mimi was already picturing what she could do in that episode. If she asked Daisuke to star in her show, it would definitely do some good for his popularity. That way, he could truly introduce his noodle-car-business to Japan. She was so happy about her cooking show, she never would have dreamt about being this successful on television. But she was a fantastic cook, no one could deny that teeny tiny little fact.
"Got other rumours?" Taichi suddenly questioned.
"Don't think so," Mimi frowned, thinking "Takeru wrote a new novel, Jyou got married a second time, but you already knew that, Koushirou is moving to America with his family, but he has announced that last week,… Nope, that's all. What goes on in Hikari's life, you know as the first one, so I don't have to tell you gossip about her."
"Right. To be perfectly blunt, I actually wonder how Sora and Yamato are doing. The last time I saw them, their marriage wasn't so stable anymore," he wondered aloud.
"I hope they won't get a divorce. They have to think about the kids and besides, it will break my heart if they did. They have been together for ages and we all know how deeply they love each other."
"Not only that, it will get awkward when they will be in the same room. And I don't want to choose between them, they are both my best friends," Taichi added.
"Me either."
It was at that moment that realization hit Taichi square in the face and he gaped as it dawned him. "Mi, is that the reason why you can't sleep?"
"Huh?" Mimi batted her eyelashes in ignorance.
"I believe that Yamato and Sora fighting, is troubling you," Taichi pointed out matter-of-factly. "I understand if that's the case, I'm sick of it too."
"Yeah," she muttered gloomily. "I just don't want their quarrels to mess up a fun day and to torn our gang apart."
"It won't, they know perfectly well that they should keep back their anger towards one other tomorrow. And our gang is unbreakable, by the way. We all been through so much, that nothing can shred us apart," Taichi promised earnestly.
"Once again, you are right," she smiled toothily and was apparently feeling much better. "I just hope we don't end up like them."
"Oh, I know for sure we won't," he said coyly with a smug smirk painted on his lips.
Confused and curious, Mimi raised an eyebrow at him. "How can you be so sure? We were all certain about Sora and Yamato, and that blew up in our faces, didn't it?"
"You can't compare us to them." Taichi cupped her face with his hands and gazed deeply in her eyes. "We are destined for each other, I know it, you know it, everyone knows it. The first moment I saw you, I fell for you and when you returned my love I was in heaven. From then, I knew I wanted to be with you, I knew it when we stood in front of the aisle saying 'I do' and I knew it when we first got Ukon and after him, Fuuga. And I still know I want to be with you. I love you too much to let you go."
Mimi smiled genuinely and kissed him passionately at hearing that lovely and encouraging speech. "I love you too."
"Do you still have any worries?" Taichi asked, rubbing her arm affectively and soothingly.
She pursed her lips in thought, tapping her chin with her slender finger and then she shook her head while replying. "No."
"Fine, then can we get some sleep now?" he queried annoyed again and pulled the sheet higher till under his armpits.
Mimi grinned cat-like and crawled on top of Taichi with both her legs on each side of him. "You know, I'm too awake now," she purred while leaving butterfly kisses on his collar bone. "I don't think I want to sleep. I'm certainly not in the mood to sleep. Besides I also want a third child. Do you still want to sleep?" She put her mouth to his earlobe, from there she traced her mouth over his jaw line to his mouth.
Taichi kissed her back before saying. "Forget sleeping."