A/N: So... I figured I'd be the ever-sadist and twist and prod at your mourning heart a little more. :D
Anyways, I scratched at some of the plot-lines I had in store for this, and switched them for a much more satisfying ending. (However, the definition of satisfaction tends to differ from person to person...) I have good news, though... (which implies that the above-mentioned fact was bad news. Oh dearies.) I bring forth MITSU FLUFFFFFF~ And there's more of it, too! (The sheer feeeeeeeeeels~)
One last thing before we go on... the whole 4yrs/3yrs thing seems to confuse a few (namely me) so I'll explain it for a bit: Ritsu and Mugi reunited four years ago (aka Mugi started working under Ritsu), the affair, however, didn't start till a year later (this was around the time when Mio walked in on them). Bottom line: Congratz, Ricchan, you actually managed to keep it in your pants for a year! :D (Real bottom line: Mio doesn't know when it really started, so she references four years as the start of it all.)
No, seriously though... I'm surprised Ritsu managed. (We all know how sexy those damn eye-brows are. ;P)
(Heads up: I edited Ch1's day from Saturday to Sunday. Because, well... I got rid of a chapter that was supposed to be on a Sunday. But fuck it, just read on...)
Enjoy!
When Puzzle Pieces Fall Apart ~ The Second Piece
Disclaimer: I do not own K-On! or any of its characters.
I let her do what she wanted, and fresh tears ran down my cheeks when I gazed down at our intertwined hands, realizing that I'd already started cheating again on the love of my life behind her back...
"Your place or mine, Ricchan?" The blonde asked casually, acting as though she was discussing my favorite flavor of yogurt, and not deciding where to hook-up. When I didn't answer, the girl settled on her place instead.
"Stop, Tsumugi." I declared a second time, roughly pulling my hand from hers and stopping in my tracks behind her. The girl threw a "What?" my way, looking irritated with the push and pull game I seemed to be playing. But like Hell this was just a game anymore... "Not today. Not ever. I don't want to do this anymore." A blonde brow was raised at my words, and a rare smirk crawled onto rose lips. She accused me of playing hard to get, a claim I denied instantaneously with a scrunched nose. "I'm serious, Mugi." I all but growled at the woman, unaware of where all this new found courage had come from as I used my ex-'s old nickname against her, "Please. Just leave me alone..." My secret lover seemed unimpressed, and the smirk gradually faded as she walked up to me, coming far too close for comfort.
"We've been playing this game for years, Ritsu." She started, slowly running her hands along the sides of my waist, ignoring the fact that I'd just pulled away from her less than a minute ago. "And you go into these phases where the guilt takes over, and you "Just can't bear it"." Palms resting on the base of my neck as she mocked me, she pulled me closer 'til we were eye-to-eye. I tried to recoil from the force, knowing full well where she was taking this, and not at all having the self-restraint to come out of it unscratched... "Try as you might to convince me otherwise, hun', this is just another one of those phases." The girl grinned at me like a gluttonous child lusting after her candy, and my betraying heart sped a beat faster at the words that next escaped those full lips:
"And at times like these... you just need a bit of a crash course."
Her lips collided with mine before I could even think about objecting, her fingers lost in my hair as she pulled me closer. And those sparks that had so adamantly refused to ignite me in my emotional state... Those addictive flames of lust that licked my insides only ever when I was with Mio...
Those sparks came back around tenfold...
"Your place." came a breathless answer.
"Ritsu...?"
"Hmm? What is it, baby?"
"Can you... tell me again?"
"Again? But I already told you this morning."
"But I want to hear it... I want to hear why you love me. Over and over again for the rest of our lives..."
"You know, that would be a much more convincing offer if you weren't naked right now..."
"Ritsu!"
"Got it, got it, love. You know I'd do anything for you..."
"Anything?"
"Of course. I'd take you to Mars and back the second you asked me to."
"Mars? But... but then... then the M-Martians will–"
"Nope, I'd sooner die than let you get hurt – let alone hurt by some psycho Martian experimenters. Speaking of, you should stop reading all those sci-fi novels... and spend that time with me instead."
"You know... I figured with 2 years down the belt we'd be out of the honeymoon stage by now."
"Hey, I love the honeymoon stage! It's so amazing over here! And since we're talking about 'amazing', babe... you wanted me to tell you why I love you, right?"
"Yep. And no skimming! I want the full 108 reasons..."
"Nothing less for my gorgeous wife."
Morning came with a sound I wasn't used to hearing on Mondays: traffic. It also came with a feeling I wasn't used to having any day: the texture of a squeaky leather couch in place of the usual silky sheets. Morning for me, that day, came with a lack of... warmth. A lack of Mio.
"Mio..." I muttered out of habit, knowing full well that she was sleeping in another room, more than a few walls too far to hear my mumbles, "What time is it, baby?" The little wrist watch on my right wrist – a birthday present I'd received from my wife during our dating days – answered the question for me, and I squinted at the thing to make out what it said. Goddammit... the hour hand wasn't supposed to be up there yet!
Almost like a backdrop to all my surprise and panic, my phone decided to pick the perfect moment to harass my eardrums with its screeches. Okay, so they weren't screeches per se, but it was the most annoyingly obnoxious ringtone I had... which meant one and only one thing: Tsumugi.
"Spit." I all but hissed into the phone, annoyed beyond measure that this woman had the nerve – the fucking audacity – to call me after how she'd seduced me last night. The voice on the other end just laughed at my irascible state, ticking me off even more. She wasn't supposed to be the one laughing... I was. With Mio – with the family we'd sworn to have someday... With our love; our happiness...
And it was all my fault we weren't...
"Spit, Ritsu? Sorry, that's a bit too kinky for me..." I clenched my jaw at her words and uncharacteristically hissed at the woman again, telling her to get to the damn point. Thankfully, Tsumugi chose to oblige for once. "Suzuki-san's mad at you for being late." announced her sing-song voice from the end of the line. Of course he was mad... Atsushi was hardly ever not mad. What with his little sister running off with another woman all those years ago... "So what's your excuse, hmm?" The blonde's voice teased in a whisper, breaking my thought's much-welcomed tangent, and her next words reminded me of a sordid fact my conscience was currently running a marathon away from: "Is it sexual soreness, Ricchan? Because I sure am sore after all that wonderful se–"
"One more word, Tsumugi. You'd better watch that damned tongue of yours around me..." I swore at her, trying to remind the blonde that I was the boss around here – or should be, at least. But her words had hit home exactly when I hadn't wanted them to, and the impromptu anger that'd started to build towards Tsumugi turned into something a lot more vulnerable... It was a certain black little monster that had replaced the red; the same monster that had all but denied me the right of sleeping next to my wife the night before...
Guilt.
"Please, Mugi. The last thing I need right now is for you to remind me." My mutter came out devoid of all the firmness it'd had just seconds ago, and my knees started feeling weak as they made their way to the bedroom door. Tsumugi apparently noticed my change of tone, and reluctantly apologized in a hushed voice. But I hardly registered any of her words as my trembling fingers turned the doorknob, and my heart tripled its rate in anticipation of seeing my lovely wife... until my conscience reminded it that it had no right to do so.
Because, really... who was to blame here? Tsumugi, when all she'd done was coax me into getting what I wanted? Or me... for ever wanting it in the first place...?
"Let me guess..." Mugi muttered in response to my relieved sigh, which itself had been a response to the gorgeous ravenette sleeping contently on our silky bed, "Your wife's throwing a hissy fit, isn't she? Neglected to wake you up this morning... giving you the silent treatment..." The blonde just kept mumbling half-true charges as I gently tucked my wife's stray foot back into the blankets, and I largely ignored them until she reached the end of her rant... "and after all that, you're still worried about the damn bitch, aren't you?" Painfully aware that the profanities on the tip of my tongue would wake my lover if spoken – or yelled, which was much more likely – I resorted to angrily dialing my cell-phone's buttons instead, letting the resulting ruckus give Tsumugi a hint of exactly where I wanted her to stuff that insult of hers. "How cute... you don't want to wake her up. You were never like that with me back in the day, Ricchan."
"Dating is different from marriage." I answered as I left my sleeping wife to her dreams, and a slight smile tugged my lips at how true those words were. Dating Mio and marrying Mio, they were two sides of the same invaluable coin. And God help me, I was going to do all I could to keep that beautiful coin...
"And which one do you prefer, Ritsu?" Tsumugi's voice asked in a tease, and I couldn't help but let my smile widen a little despite her prodding. Nothing she could do was going to spoil my mood right now...
"Marriage. With the woman I love." came my truthful answer as I turned to the life-saving coffee machine for a fresh cup, thinking back to the lovely sight that had brought on this sudden burst of happiness... My amazing wife was here, sleeping soundly – Hell, maybe even ignoring me – but she was here. In the same house as me; in the same building... in my life. She'd stayed with me for now, when I'd more-than-half-expected her to just leave a stack of papers in her wake...
Maybe... just maybe... I still had a chance to fix this.
"Are you proposing to me, Ricchan?" Tsumugi sultrily teased again, and I just rolled my eyes at the woman this time, responding with a "In your dreams." when I realized she couldn't tell an eye-roll apart from silence. Paying no mind to the rest of the blonde's flirtatious passes – which were more than just a few – I just silently sipped at my black coffee and settled onto the couch, thoughts stubbornly fixed on the woman just a few doors away...
Mio...
My Mio...
Like Hell I'm letting go of this without a fight.
"So, do you want me to call in a sick day for you?" Tsumugi managed to interrupt the formation of my second back-up plan, and I figured she'd been quiet for a while to have caught me by surprise. My mind played around with her words for a bit, and I realized I'd all but forgotten about my job because of all this mess. Atsushi's angry face finally came to mind... and it was an ugly a thought enough for me to momentarily forget about my making-up plans with Mio.
"That would be nice." came my muttered admittance, and I dragged my feet back to the kitchen to put away a cup of coffee I didn't recall finishing. As Atsushi's damned face crawled into my head again, I tread carefully with my next words, knowing that Tsumugi's offer seemed almost too good to be true... "It'd be nice of you to do that for me, Mugi."
"You know what else would be nice, Ritsu?" Shit, I could've sworn I'd get through that one...
"What?" My submissive sigh inquired, as its owner ran a hand through her hair out of unease. Of course she wanted something out of this! I was probably looking at a week of shortened work-days and another trip to the office to get her a damned raise... or Hell, a damned car.
"My house at 5PM... would be really nice."
My eyes popped halfway out their sockets at those words, and I shakily asked the blonde if she was serious. Hell, there was no way she was serious! Did she really think I'd keep sleeping with her – what with my mess of a marital life in the background? And yet, just as those thoughts made themselves known to me, my secretary went ahead and threw out a seductive yes my way... "I thought you were still sore..." I muttered awkwardly, already working on my second cup of caffeine-filled goodness. God knows this day was going to be a long one...
"But it's a good kind of soreness..." Tsumugi argued compellingly, using a tone of voice that almost made me drop the clean cup I was holding, "The kind I just can't get enough of. Kind of like I can't get enough of you, Ricchan..." Fuck...
I have a wife. I have a wife. I have a wife. I have a wife. I have a wife.
Now just fucking act like it!
"Tsumugi..." I trailed, my tone meaning to be a terse and stiff rejection, but all that seemed to come out instead...was a sigh of longing. My brain immediately mentally slapped itself for letting body come over mind, but before I could correct the little slip up, my secretary's victorious chuckle was already filling my ears.
"5 o' clock, hun'. Don't keep a girl waiting..." and with those as the last words spoken, all that was left for me to hear was the dull tone of a discontinued connection. I clenched my jaw and tore the phone away from my ear to glare daggers its way, hoping that they could somehow affect the blonde on the other side. The damned thing ended up being chucked at a random couch as I inwardly cursed at Aphrodite and her fucking trials of love. Here I was trying to fix things, and there Tsumugi was: getting the wrong impression from my stupid words.
But... was it very wrong after all?
"5... o' clock, huh?" The mutter came without warning, and glazed eyes searched my wrist watch for the remaining hours. Leaning back onto the marble kitchen top, I absentmindedly ran a hand through my ruffled bangs, licking my lips a few times before I could know what I was doing. Thankfully, the coffee machine's little beep jerked me out of my trance before it could escalate any further, and I just shook my head with a sigh, resolving to deal with Tsumugi's advances when the time came. Because right now – as I grabbed my second mug-full and made my way around familiar territory – there was only one name that really mattered...
"Mio?" my little whisper accompanied the creaking door, and I poked my head into our bedroom the second time that morning. A small smile met my lips when I saw her snuggled up under the covers, using my pillow as the body pillow that I always took the place of... "Baby, you awake?" I made my way towards her unresponsive form with each syllable spoken, and smiled a little wider when I saw one of her feet out of the covers again. Silently setting my coffee on the bedside table, I anxiously wondered how to approach the situation after everything that had happened. The bubbling feelings that had just spouted – and the vague daze that had preceded them – had all started to simmer down in the face of renewed guilt, and the making-up strategies I had thought of a while back all seemed unworthy... I seemed unworthy.
No, I need her... I can't survive without her. I don't care if it takes a million begs and apologies to make her stay, I'll do it. God, I'll do it a hundred times over...
Ignoring the pain and guilt ripping at the inside of my chest, I seated myself next to the slumbering Mio and took a deep breath for the sake of dear strength. My fingers flinched back in doubt when I reached to touch her face, but I inwardly assured myself before tucking a raven strand behind her ear, continuing to stroke the silky hair when I was done. It didn't matter if she hated me right now – it didn't matter if I deserved it. I loved Mio, and I had to remind her of that with my every action...
When stormy eyes unceremoniously opened to gaze into mine, I felt the slightest bit taken aback by the abruptness of her awakening. But if the tenseness in her shoulders was any clue – a fact it'd previously been too occupied to notice – she'd been awake for quite a while longer than I gave her credit for...
"Morning." I smiled as I continued to gently caress her hair, feeling the slightest bit of uncertainty leaking into my words. My lover just stared coldly at me for what felt like eternity, staring me down 'til I felt like hiding in a hole, before closing her eyes again without a single word. Oh, God... This was some serious shit I'd managed to get myself into. "Breakfast, baby?" I tried again a little more urgently, my fears clear in my voice. Mio still didn't say a word back, and the message the silent treatment was conveying – and what it meant for us – was starting to make my guilt fall and the fear rise. It suddenly occurred to me how easy it was for me to lose my wife right then; how thin of a proverbial ice layer I was walking on – no, jumping on... making it all worse with very move.
I couldn't lose Mio... she was already gone.
"I..." the letter came out as a wince from my lips, and I took a second to compose myself before starting anew, grasping at the last string that could tie this relationship back together. "Counseling, hon'? Will you come with me?" I left her hair to seek her hand instead, clasping it tight like it was the only thing keeping me afloat. My mind in its dark caverns wondered if the brunette therapist I'd met was actually capable of anything but breaking us even further apart. No, she had to be... after all, counseling was to keep couples together, right? "Please, Mio. I'm willing to do this... I'll fix this, love; just like you asked me to. So... please, please don't lea–"
"I'm sorry." The little whisper interrupted my pleas, and as the hand I was clasping finally clasped back and beautiful grey eyes opened to gaze into mine once again, I could feel that little optimistic ray of hope expanding the slightest. When I opened my lips to argue over her needless apology, her other hand interrupted, and a finger met my lips to keep me from continuing. After releasing both her hands from my contact, a raven mop of hair settled into my lap without another word, and I momentarily felt like the happiest woman alive. "I didn't wake you up. Sorry." Mio explained in whispers, and I could feel the weight of a million skies fall off my shoulders.
"Don't apologize, babe. You never need to apologize... It was my fault, all of it." My naïve little smile returned as I ran fingers through my wife's hair more bravely than I was before, even going as far as to lightly place a palm against her opening lips when I heard a yawn coming. "I love you." I threw it out, wanting to go back to my expression-of-love plan. Mio smiled and returned the gesture with her face snuggled into my stomach. The smile was weak though, and so were the words... "a lot." I added, wanting to elicit a stronger reaction from my wife, "More than anything else, Mio." I should probably have included anyone too, but that might have pushed her forgiving nature too far.
"I know, Ritsu." She chuckled with the weak smile still in place – though a tad wider – and looked up into my eyes. Though I made sure to project my feelings well enough through my eyes, the expression failed to make her truly smile – or laugh at that matter – and made my heart sink a little from its high pedestal. "Coffee?" She asked out of the blue with eyes still locked to mine, probably responding to the smell. I nodded in answer, remembering that she hadn't had breakfast yet either – then again, neither had I, but that was hardly the priority here.
"Want some? I can make you breakfast too... Scrambled, just how you like it." Maybe things weren't perfect like they used to be – maybe they never would be. But I had felt something stirring in those eyes, and all but heard the gears turning in her brain. She might not do it today or anytime sooner, but she was considering it... Mio might forgive me, and that was the one moment I was really striving for.
"Not right now, no." My wife gently objected, closing her eyes and making herself at home in my lap – which would always be her home, as far as I was concerned. Mio softly muttered that she wasn't in the mood to get out of bed yet, and although I found that a little unusual – seeing as she was ever the early bird in the past – I ignored it in favor of getting her goodwill back. God knew I needed it, especially with last night's escapade still weighing down on my conscience...
"What do you want to do, then?" I asked, running fingers through Mio's hair and caressing along her pretty face as I reminded her once again about how much I loved her. It might have seemed like I was buttering her up for my mistakes, but really, I was just putting everything I had on the table and making sure she knew that it was her I wanted, no one else. Mio took a couple of heartbeats too long to answer, which did nothing less than throw my own heart into a flurry of uncertainty. With a million thoughts swirling in my mind, and a hundred reasons why this could never work out, it was no wonder I missed the hesitant murmur being whispered into my lap. Mio tentatively sat up when I asked her repeat those words, admitting that I hadn't quite caught them, and opened her lips to reiterate, leaving the sentence incomplete just an octave in.
Those gorgeous grey eyes gazed into mine in hesitant silence, flashing me emotions I barely had a second to catch before their disappearance. And as my confused mind wondered about those slipped feelings, I only half-noticed Mio moving about to straddle my lap, and barely responded to the soft caress along my cheeks. I hardly registered Mio's O'-so-important motions, conflicted as I was by the mix of emotions I'd caught, and too shocked to shift my focus quite so easily.
Sadness? Pain? I'd certainly seen both of those in her eyes, and God knows it pained me so... But... there was something–
"All I want to do right now is you, Ritsu."
Desperation?
My eyes widened at both the words of my wife, and my own conclusions. But before I could fully comprehend my findings – or link them to how uncharacteristic Mio's currently seemed – silky soft lips claimed their place on mine, chasing all rational thoughts out with them...
Mmm, or maybe desperation was just a fancy way of saying lust, after all...
~Tsuzuku.
A/N: Well, I told you there was Mitsu fluff, although it's not my fault it was more like salt on old wounds. But, hey, I'm sure the chappy as a whole was slightly more upbeat-ish than you were expecting!
And as far as expectations go, the second piece that fell here was a bit of a small one, and pretty hidden by the pieces that were seemingly fixed... but it's a seed that's surely been planted. (In more ways than one...) I'd explain, but I don't really believe I need to at this point...
Now that we're done with the dramatics, go ahead and review an' fave and go crazy with it all. Reviewers get a little sneak peak preview of what's coming up next! Don't worry, there's quite a bit more Mitsu fluff incoming (along with more problems, of course)! Every weed has a herbicide... let's just hope they find it in time.
Don't give up on a happy ending yet! (But don't bet on it either!)
~ScarletDrizzle