Author's note: I should probably mention that neither me or Princess Pana have experienced this kind of thing. Neither of us have been in an abusive relationship, neither of us have suffered physical or emotional abuse from a loved one, nor had to deal with alcoholism with anyone close to us. This sole fic comes from the mind, so you shouldn't worry about us! We only like to make our favourite characters suffer because I don't know...
But yes, this is going to be a painful read, who wants to jump on the pain train with me? Next stop: Hangovers and regret.
Eli awoke with her head hammering, her eyelids heavy and with a mouthful of the bed sheets. Lethargically, she rolled over, facing the sight of her sleeping girlfriend next to her, who looked at peace enough. She frowned at the red mark on her cheek, feeling her stomach suddenly drop with dread.
The feeling of over-drinking she knew all too well, her parched throat and her being fully clothed in the bed prompted her to find meaning in her hungover head. She could have sworn that it would only have been one drink, something quick after work just to relax, but… It appeared that wasn't the case. And that she'd gotten out of hand again.
Rolling off the bed with stumbling, heavy movements, Eli shuffled into the bathroom to grab a full glass of water, dragging her feet and barely being able to bring herself to look at herself in the mirror. When she finally glanced up, she caught sight of her disheveled hair and loosened scrunchie, dull, tired eyes and a face that had seen better days.
She rested her forehead on the cold mirror in front of her, closing her eyes and sorting her thoughts. She couldn't remember much, only slight blurs. She remembered dropping a bottle… Then having Hanayo pushed up against a wall. With a frustrated huff, she gripped both sides of the sink, pulling back from the mirror.
"Eli-chan?"
She hadn't noticed Hanayo enter the bathroom; tilting her head towards her, she managed a weak smile, "Morning." She murmured. It wasn't a good morning after all.
"Good morning," She said with an unfitting amount of cheeriness, "What do you want for breakfast?"
"Ahm, just… Toast is fine. And water."
Hanayo gave her a small smile, betraying a hint of pain that wasn't necessarily just emotional, "A-also…" She swallowed as she began, "I need your help… W-with something…"
Eli felt a lump growing in her throat, "Yeah…?"
"There's… Glass i-in my back… Can you get it out…?" Eli felt her hand grip the sink tighter, as the lump pushed up her throat and threatened to make her burst into tears.
"Y-yeah…" Her voice faltered, "I can." But without the confidence behind it, she sounded weak.
She sifted through the contents of a nearby cupboard for some tweezers, glancing at some painkillers briefly before bringing the container out, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, "Have one… It'll make things easier."
She sat Hanayo down on the bed and placed herself behind her, working off her pyjama shirt and wincing at the sight. Flecks of dried blood stained her skin, but thankfully (or rather, painfully), she could see each shard of glass entry point.
She began to dig the tweezers in as gently as she could manage to. Rubbing Hanayo's shoulder gently with her free hand for reassurance, she felt each shudder and gasp of pain run through her body. It hurt her too. Picking out each shard was an unpleasant chore, but she couldn't leave Hanayo is such a state.
Eventually, after as thorough of an inspection as her hungover mind could muster, she slid off the bed to dispose of the shards, noting that Hanayo didn't move much. She made her way back beside her, twisting her around gently to pull her into a hug, "I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"
In return, Hanayo wrapped her arms around her, swallowing, "It's okay…"
"Y-you always say that," Eli stammered, fighting back tears, "But I don't see h-how it is."
"Because it isn't you, Eli-chan," Hanayo pulled back up a little bit to look up at her, "And I know it isn't," After a short pause, she continued, "Let's go and have some breakfast."
"... Okay."
Eli then remembered that she wasn't supposed to have had even a single drop of alcohol last night. Nozomi and Nico would be coming over for a quick catch up, as they so often did. Despite the fact that her hangover would likely be gone by then, she worried about the red mark on Hanayo's face, and she knew how perceptive the pair of them were.
Draining her glass, she got up and placed her dishes beside the sink, before traipsing back into the bedroom and bathroom to sort out her appearance. With a thorough brushing of her hair, a bit of makeup and a change of clothes she looked a lot better. Not that she felt better, however.
When the doorbell rang, she checked the clock on the wall, before sighing. They were pinpoint on time, not that she doubted their punctuality. Nico, although a firm believer in making herself presentable, was not one to disrespect meeting times and Nozomi tended to follow her lead. They worked much better together than she and Hanayo did, she noted.
Hanayo had already opened the door when she left the bedroom, putting on a smile and listening to the enthusiastic greetings, eventually deciding to join them.
Nozomi and Nico were noisy people when they were together. Nozomi less so when she was alone, but they weren't alone right now. Sculling down another glass of water, she grimaced at the sink with her back to the three of them, fighting off her headache as she plastered on a fake demeanor when Nozomi called out to her.
She replied to Nozomi, turning and sitting herself down in an empty chair beside Hanayo, leaning herself back.
"So, Elichi, how's the work towards your promotion going?"
"Ah, slow," She sighed, "It's all so difficult."
Raising an eyebrow at her short answer, Nozomi pushed the conversation along, "Aren't you racing against Sasaki-san?"
"We're neck and neck for it I think," Eli rubbed her eyes, sending a quick glance towards Hanayo, who was listening to her earnestly, and then another at Nico.
But Nico wasn't looking at her, rather, she was looking at Hanayo. Not exactly an intense gaze, but a scrutinizing one. Eli cleared her throat, drawing Nico's attention away, "Say, er… Nico, how's your, uh… Idol photoshoots doing?"
Nico tilted her attention away slowly, as if not to give away what she was looking at anything else, "They're going fine, thanks."
"Hey, Nicocchi, tell them about that one photographer who suggested that you stuff your bra," Nozomi sniggered beside her as Nico whipped around suddenly.
"Wh-why should I?!"
"Because it's funny, Nicocchi," She nudged her in the ribs, grinning when Nico's expression contorted into a somewhat twisted one, "Well, if you won't tell it… She had her thrown out when she kept going on about it! What, what did you say Nicocchi? 'An idol must not falsely advertise to her fans?'"
Nozomi smirked as Nico stammered out a response, "W-well, I'm not wrong, am I? My fans love me for who I am." She crossed her arms, "I'm not going to do something like that."
Nozomi calmed down from her giggling fit and leant over to plant a small kiss on Nico's cheek, in what Eli interpreted as a little apology for teasing her. As Nico's expression returned back to normal, Hanayo piped up as silence was about to fall.
"Does anyone want some tea or something else?"
"Tea's fine, thank you Hanayo-chan."
"Same here."
Eli rested her hand on her cheek, "Yeah, thank you," She sent Hanayo a slightly weak smile.
"I'm uh… I'm just going to go to the bathroom. Don't mind me," Nico stood up abruptly and Nozomi shuffled to accommodate her movements, watching her exit the room.
Nico slid into the bedroom and after a quick glance around, she continued on into the bathroom. Very little seemed out of the ordinary, but something wasn't right and Nico knew it. Perhaps that wasn't a mark on Hanayo's cheek and it was the light reflecting off her? Maybe she was simply overreacting.
Just as she went to splash some water on her face, she paused before slowly opening the cabinet behind the mirror as to not make a sound. She sifted through the contents, looking for something, anything that could validate her gut feeling.
She pulled out a few items, the painkiller bottle, the aspirin. Those were reasonably normal, she supposed.
Tweezers were normal too, but not tweezers with traces of dried blood smearing the metal.
"What the fuck…" Nico muttered as she looked them over. Nico was well versed in the world of beauty and she knew what tweezers were used for. None of those things really involved bleeding, so what had it been used for? She slid it back into place, frowning. She couldn't make sense of it.
Closing the cabinet, she noticed that some of her makeup had smudged, likely in the ordeal with Nozomi. Rolling her eyes, she reopened the cabinet and pulled out some of the makeup remover, "I'll apologise later…" She murmured to herself, dabbing and wiping off the offending eyeliner.
When it came to disposal, she pressed her foot on the pedal to open the lid, but stopped when she could spot something already inside, "Okay, whilst it's disrespectful and creepy to look through other people's trash…"
She knelt down and pulled out her phone, shining the flashlight on it inside, "... Guess I found out what the tweezers were for… Huh, wait…" She gingerly picked out a shard of glass and saw a Russian letter on it, scrutinizing the details before she shook her head. She stood back up and ran her hands under the water as to not seem suspicious when she came out.
'Okay… It was probably just an accident. Agh, something isn't right. Something tells me it isn't an accident after all… The mark on her face…'
Nico checked herself over in the mirror as her mind began to race about possibilities, but she resorted to shoving them to the back of her mind to call on them later, "Whatever… Gotta get back…"
She padded back into the room nonchalantly, "Hope you guys don't mind, I had to fix my makeup so I used one of your wipes."
"That's fine," Hanayo smiled as she reentered the room, grabbing the only tea that hadn't been drank from.
The group continued normally from then on, after Nico had put off her suspicion that something was wrong only temporarily, however.
When it was time for them to leave, the two said their goodbyes and hugged the other couple before leaving. Nico remained oddly silent Nozomi noticed, as they reached the car. Nozomi entered the driver's seat whilst Nico stared out of the window on the passenger's side.
"Something wrong Nicocchi?"
"Huh? Oh, uh… I guess you could say that."
Nozomi frowned, but kept her eyes on the road, "What is it? You know you can tell me anything."
Nico sighed and turned her attention away from the car door window, "Look, wasn't something off over there? Eli was kinda slow and tired looking and well…"
"Well, I think Elichi had just had a long work day, you know? With that promotion and everything?"
"And whilst Hanayo is as happy as ever, didn't you see the reddening on her face?"
"I didn't see that… It was probably the light playing tricks on your eyes Nicocchi… What are you trying to suggest anyway?"
"Look, Nozomi, I know you don't want to think about anything negative happening in their relationship behind our backs, but… Don't you feel like something is off?"
Nozomi sighed and rubbed her cheeks as she stopped at a red light, "Look, maybe, but I'm sure it's nothing drastic. They're adults, they can sort out their own relationship issues. Maybe it's some kind of work strain?"
Nico, at this point, knew Nozomi wouldn't listen to her reasoning. After all, her suspicions were serious and she didn't want to go around and spread some information she didn't know was really true or not. Not to mention the accusations laid upon Eli, and who would honestly suspect their best friend of doing something so like that?
"I… Suppose you're probably right," Nico resorted back to looking out the window, not wanting to worry Nozomi of course. Absentmindedly, she tapped on her phone in her pocket.
Kotori paused what she was doing, pushing pins into their cushion and leaving the needle inside the fabric. She sighed as she leant back in her chair to retrieve her phone, raising an eyebrow at the caller. It wasn't very often Nico called her, after all.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Kotori, I want to talk about something, just you and me. Are you free tomorrow?"
"Hold on a minute," Kotori stood and flicked through a notebook containing her schedule, "Mm, yeah that should be fine. What's this about?"
"Look, I'll tell you tomorrow. It's serious, but it's something that I would rather talk about to you face to face."
"All right… If you say so, Nico-chan. Is eleven okay?"
"Yeah, I can make that. See you then."
When Nico hung up, Kotori slid her phone back onto the table with a sigh. It was an unusual request, with no mention of Nozomi coming over either, but she couldn't help but feel something was wrong.
As she got back to her sewing, Kotori referred back to the customer's specifications. A wedding dress, sleek, elegant and flattering. A wave of emotion hit her all of a sudden, not quite being able to discern the what was within. Sorrow? Anger? Annoyance? Melancholy. But she couldn't worry about that right now.
There was a girl she had always loved, after all. But she wasn't hers.