A/N: Red Flag - Billy Talent
Eli was set on making her way to Alisa's school to take her to ballet class.
However, the second she had left her shop, her phone started to vibrate in her pocket.
As Eli took her phone out, she felt certain that she was the only person in the world to know the name of her ringtone; "Korobeiniki," a Russian folk song.
"It's not the bloody tetris theme," she thought bitterly, placing the speaker against her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hi Eli, it's Umi."
"Oh, Hi," Eli grinned as she made her way down the street.
"I was just calling to see if your naval piercing was behaving?"
"Ah!" Eli looked down at her stomach and tilted her head. Since Friday night, there had been no massive problems, nor had there been any bleeding.
"It's behaving itself. Thanks for checking up on me, though," Eli thanked the piercer, who chuckled.
"Why were you humming the tetris theme?"
"It's not the tetris theme!" Eli scoffed, picking up her pace.
"It's a Russian folk song that just happened to be used for that stupid game. Besides, they changed it! It's not the original Korobeiniki!"
"Are you still salty about how you can't get past level 5 of Tetris?"
Eli growled, kicking a pile of snow as Umi laughed on the other end of the phone.
"Was that everything, Umi?"
"No, actually," Umi suddenly turned serious.
"It's about Nozomi,"
All of the annoyance about her ringtone left her immediately.
"Is something wrong?"
"Well, that's also why I'm calling…has something happened since Friday night?"
"Um…"
"Like, anything? She seems off lately."
Eli cast her mind around, trying to think.
"Well, she's using those e-cigarettes now. Maybe she's just having a hard time getting used to no nicotine?"
"Uhm…about that…Rin could smell smoke on Nozomi when she got back from the bank today."
Eli's heart stopped. Her fingers clenched around her phone.
"Eli, who did banking today? Was it you or-"
"Nico. It was Nico," Eli's hand started to shake, her grip was surely going to crush the phone into oblivion.
Umi went silent as Eli pieced together everything in under a millisecond.
The blonde stood out the front of Alisa's school, arms folded tightly with her leg resting against the wall.
"I'll talk to you later, Umi," Eli hung up the phone as Alisa came bounding out of the school with a bright smile and gleaming eyes.
"Hi, Eli!" she beamed up at her older sister, who forced a smile onto her face.
"Ready to go?" Eli did her best to push her anger into the pit of her stomach.
"You betcha!"
Eli trudged back to the apartment, and heard music coming from inside. She huffed and pulled out her keys.
"Nozomi, we can't blast music like that, the neighbours will kill us," The blonde mentally scolded, shoving the key into the lock and twisting the handle.
Eli took off her shoes and coat, and then stormed into the living room.
Nozomi was lying on the couch with her sketchbook, drawing multiple cherry blossoms.
She looked up and smiled.
"Good evening, Elichi," Nozomi greeted.
The florist took a deep breath in with her nose and stuffed her hands into her jeans pockets.
"Nozomi," Eli had no idea where to begin.
She could let alone hear her own thoughts over the punk rock that was coming out of the speaker.
Eli walked over and lowered the volume of the music.
"Did you just turn down Billy Talent?" Nozomi grinned at the sudden volume change when Eli walked back to stand over the artist, hands on hips.
"What did you do at 1pm today?" Eli's voice was ice, and Nozomi stopped sketching. The artist looked up, blinking.
"I did a bank deposit. What did you do at 1pm today?"
"I bandaged up Maki because she cut herself," Eli remained strong and started to tap her foot.
"Today, Nico did the bank deposit. Did you see her at all today?"
"Why would I see Nicochi?" Nozomi's voice was silk, and it made the anger inside Eli's stomach rear its ugly head.
"Nozomi," Eli shut her eyes, brow twitching and nails digging into the sides of her hips. Nozomi sat up and placed her sketchbook to the side.
"Elichi,"
"Are you enjoying your e-cigarettes?" It was taking all of Eli's might to contain her anger.
Nozomi wrinkled her nose at the item that was currently sitting on their coffee table, next to a framed picture of them with a deer in Nara.
"Am I enjoying them? No, I'm not, but I'm trying my hardest."
"Really? Then why did Rin say you stink of smoke?" Eli had snapped.
Her control and patience was thrown out the window.
Nozomi's heart stopped, and awkwardly ran a hand through one of her twin tails.
"Rin-chan must be imagining things. The only things I have smoke are those sorry excuses for cigar-"
"You know Nico smokes, don't you?" Eli cut her off, feeling her ears burning.
Nozomi sat up straight and looked Eli dead in the eye.
"She does smoke, and I think she needs to quit, too."
That was enough.
Eli turned around and let out a noise that sounded like a cross between a huff and a squeal.
Nozomi stood up, wondering what was wrong, but then Eli turned around.
"How can you look me in the eyes and lie?! Right to my face?!" Eli snapped, and Nozomi furrowed her brow.
"I…Huh?"
"Don't play dumb!" Eli angrily raked a hand through her blonde hair while Nozomi's face fell into a rare frown.
"You have been smoking with Nico!"
"So? I had one with her!" Nozomi tried her best to keep her voice under control, and Eli leaned against the dining table with gritted teeth.
"You went against me! I bought those e-cigarettes for you! They are supposed to help you quit!"
"Maybe I don't want to quit, Elichi!" Nozomi folded her arms, the tattoos on them melding together.
"Maybe I find smoking to be a relief from stress!"
"But it's not healthy!" Eli looked up, her blue eyes were strained.
"You are killing yourself with those disgusting cancer sticks!"
"The e-cigs are not much better!"
"At least they won't kill you as fast!"
"Eli," Nozomi dropped the honorific and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"The last few days have been rather tough, can we please drop this for now? I promise I won't go for a smoke with Nico ag-"
"Oh, okay, let's just drop it," Eli spat back in a snide tone. Nozomi groaned in frustration: why was Eli always so stubborn?
"Let's just drop the fact that I'm trying to help you stay alive a little longer.
Let's just drop the fact that you went behind my back, and let's just drop the fact that our rent is due in the next week and you haven't transferred the money over to me!"
"I was going to do that tonight! But someone kicked down the door and started yapping on about something completely irrelevant!"
"Irrelevant?! Nozomi you're killing yourself!" Eli's voice was starting to shake.
"I don't want to out-live you! I want us to grow old together and start a family!"
"Who says we can't do that with two packets of cigarettes a week?!"
"Your fucking body!"
Nozomi scowled and narrowed her eyes.
"I have been under a fair bit of stress, Eli, one normal cigarette isn't going to kill me."
"And what about the last five years of constant cigarettes, Huh?! Honestly, you're just like your father!"
It was as if time stopped.
Eli slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
Nozomi snapped her gaze up to stare at her partner, fear and fury etching into her features.
Blood was roaring in Nozomi's ears as Eli took deep breaths to calm herself down.
The artist turned around and leaned her forehead against the wall, her shoulders going rigid again.
"Nozomi…" Eli took a tentative step forward and kept her voice soft.
She knew she had gone way too far, and that last comment was completely uncalled for.
Nozomi didn't say anything, refusing to respond to Eli.
There was just this disgusting awkwardness that loomed over the living room.
Nozomi was currently replaying all the moments she had spent with her father almost ten years ago, and the fear was paralysing.
"Nozomi, I'm…I'm so sorry," Eli's voice was trembling, tears were brimming in her eyes.
Once Nozomi snapped herself out of the swirling pit that was her memories, she glanced over her left shoulder with narrowed eyes.
"Funny you should bring him up," her voice was low and dark.
"Because he's coming in two weeks."
Who's ready for shit to hit the fan?
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