A/N: Glad people like this!
Disclaimer: Don't own anything, all rights go to respectful owners.
The alarm buzzed, and Eli groaned. She hated getting up early. Why was she the manager of a flower shop that started work at 7am again? Oh, that's right, it was so she could leave at 4pm to take her little sister to ballet class.
Next to her, Nozomi stirred, and reached out to put the alarm on snooze. Nozomi had no problem with alarms, but that was because she started work later in the day. However, she needed to get up and complete some sketches for clients, and she liked to be on top of those.
The alarm was Tchaikovsky's Russian Dance from The Nutcracker Suite, OP 71.
"Elichi," Nozomi whispered, sitting up in their bed and rubbing the back of her head.
Looking down, she saw her partner, blonde hair sprawled out around her, breathing slowly and clutching at her hand.
"Elichi," Nozomi repeated, a little louder this time to get through to Eli, but to no avail. With a smirk, Nozomi bent down and pressed her lips to Eli's. The hand on hers tightened, and a soft moan escaped the florist's mouth.
"C'mon, you have to get up, it's 6am."
"Niet,"
"Eli," Nozomi smiled, dropping the honorific as she gave another light kiss.
"If you don't get up, you'll have to work from 9 to 6."
The blonde huffed and curled away from her girlfriend. Nozomi sighed and moved back to observe her fingernails.
"If you're that tired, then I guess you have no energy for one of my famous hot chocolates with toasted marshmallows on top."
"Wha?!" Eli jerked awake and threw the covers off of herself. Nozomi chuckled, and pressed a final kiss to Eli's lips.
"G'mornin', Elichi."
"Nozomi…" Eli pouted, drawing the tattoo artist closer to her body.
"Don't say such horrific things."
"Well it worked, didn't it?" Nozomi waggled her eyebrows at the blonde, who huffed and pecked her on the lips.
"It did, so pay up."
The two had hot chocolates in silence, still waking up, then showered and got dressed, ready to start their day.
"It's days like these that I wish you didn't sell your car," Eli sighed, buttoning up her navy blue coat and adorning her earmuffs.
"That makes two of us," Nozomi took a sip from her tea and looked on at Eli. Lucky for the florist, her shop was only a block away, and right opposite Printemps Childcare Centre, owned by their friend Honoka.
"Although, I don't see the point in driving a block down the road to work when walking will take 5 minutes," Nozomi looked down at her tarot cards as Eli huffed.
"Says the girl who drove herself to her apprenticeship when she lived a street away," was the comeback in a fierce tone. Nozomi smiled and closed her eyes, deciding to let Eli win. She knew Eli wasn't a morning person, anyway.
"Touché, Elichi. Now I believe it's almost 7,"
"That it is," Eli walked up to Nozomi and drew her in for another kiss.
"I'll see you tonight,"
"Have a nice day, Elichi,"
"Did your cards say I would?"
"They did indeed," Nozomi winked as Eli turned on her heel and opened the door to brace the cold Japanese winter.
-
With Eli gone, Nozomi took her hot chocolate and cards back to the bed. On her way there, she lit up an insane of roses and cinnamon.
Settling down on the bed, knees up to her chest, the tattoo artist also plugged her mp3 player into the speaker on her bedside table, and set it to shuffle.
The guitar noodling at the start made her smile, 'All My Own Stunts' by the Arctic Monkeys, one of her favourite bands.
Humming along to the lyrics, Nozomi then reached into the drawer of her bedside table and pulled out her A3 sketchbook and a few pencils. She needed to work on a design for a client later in the day.
Customer requests were sometimes very strange, but Nozomi knew better than to turn away a design that was executed in an awkward fashion.
During her gap year, Nozomi went to Italy and developed a fascination for renaissance artwork. She started tracing her tarot cards, and caught up with Maki in Rome to visit the museums and art galleries. During this time Nozomi got her first tattoo on her right bicep: The Chariot.
Being a tattoo artist for nearly 9 years, had developed her own style through copious amounts of practice and pig skin. She had always loved flowers, and soon learnt that every tattooist needs to be able to draw and tattoo flowers, so she was ecstatic when her mentor, Kussun, told her this.
half an hour into her rough sketches of a gardenia, Nozomi felt a familiar craving crawl up from her insides. With a sigh, she reached into the drawer again and pulled out a cigarette and her purple lighter. She continued her sketches with the cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth for some time.
For help, to deign the stem, she looked at the gardenia that on the inside of her left arm. An hour later, the first sketch was finished, and the artist leaned back against her bed head with a smile.
A fist rapped against the door, followed by muffled angry yelling. Eli looked up from her bouquet of roses and saw two girls: one with black hair and one with red, standing outside with frowns on their faces.
Eli opened the door and let them in, "Good morning, where are your keys?"
"We left them here because we went out last night," Maki explained as Nico threw herself into the warmth of Bibi flower shop.
"Come on, get your aprons on and look at the daily planner. Maki, you're on wrapping today, and Nico, you're on the counter. I need to do a stock take so I'll be out the back for the majority of the day, but if it gets super busy, give me a yell."
-
Surprisingly, it did get busy. Many people were buying flowers for friends and loved ones who had gotten sick due to the weather. Eli barely got through her stock take when Nico called for her to help out.
"So, how's Nozomi?" Nico asked her boss as the final customer from the last wave left the store. Eli shrugged, clutching at her clipboard.
"She's fine, same as always. I do know she's training Rin so her hands are full."
"Rin's going to be a tattoo artist?" Maki looked up from her station, disbelief on her face. Eli nodded, and ticked off a box of daffodils she saw from the corner of her eye.
"She's only two weeks into her training, but yes. Nozomi has given her all these things to trace and draw."
"It's weird to think that she will be a tattooist as well as a football coach."
"Soccer. It's soccer."
Maki put down the bouquet of dandelions to glare at Nico.
"Nico, what part of the body do you use to play football with?"
"Your feet."
"Exactly, it's football."
"No, football is that yanky sport where you tackle each other,"
"Why is it called football when you barely use your feet?!" Maki's eye twitched as Nico clenched her fists.
"They kick it to start a new round or whatever!"
"Rounds are used for boxing and wrestling!"
"Halves or quarters or whatever! Anyway it's soccer, not football!"
"It's football! You cannot touch the ball with your hands!"
"Unless you're the keeper!"
Eli watched the two argue as her eye twitched. Finally having enough, she slammed the clipboard down onto the counter.
"Can you two please save this for pillow talk or something?!"
Silence fell over the shop as Eli shut her eyes and counted to ten to calm herself down.
"I'll be in the back to continue stock take. Just… just don't destroy the store with your arguing, please," Eli sighed and pushed her blonde hair out of her face.
On her way to the back room, her hand just touching the doorknob, she looked over at Maki and gave a small grin.
"It's football."
It is football, not soccer.
*If anyone wants to draw a Punk!Nozomi with piercings and tats smoking a cig then please do so! Feel free to message me on Tumblr: .com