A/N:

Hey, remember that pairing NicoMaki? Because I don't.

Apocalypse Please - Muse

Maki briskly walked out back to collect an order for a bouquet, but couldn't shake the awful things the man on the phone had said yesterday.

'She's a good-for-nothing abomination. I thought my only daughter was going to be a star, a beacon of hope, but she fell into this stupid airy fairy mindset that being an artist was going to get her somewhere in life! It makes me sick just thinking about it.'

Maki shivered as she picked up the bouquet, the man's words rung in her ears still.

It was still there, even when she and Nico shut the shop, and headed off to a restaurant for dinner.

"Who would say something like that?!"

"Nozomi's old man," Nico sighed, one hand had a glass of red wine, and the other had a cigarette. Maki stared at her own gin and tonic, then groaned again.

"What I want to know is why did he call Bibi? It's pretty random, don't you think?"

"It is, Maki," Nico looked down at the gin and tonic, too.

"But there is a method to his madness"

"What? I don't get it," Maki was genuinely confused, unlike her normal aloof persona that she put on. Nico grimaced and took a long drag from her cigarette.

"Osamu Tojo is the CEO of a company that deals in technology. He makes some serious money and always gets jobs done. If he wants something, he'll fight tooth and nail to get it."

"Even if it means disregarding his family?"

"You heard what he did to his wife," Nico's voice was withering away as she stared down at her food again.

"That man is ambitious and strives for the stars. He doesn't like anything that's not 100% perfect, and hates things that ruin people's health, like sicknesses and smoking."

Maki joined the dots mentally.

"But why would he disregard his wife when she got sick?"

"Her illness came out of nowhere: no warnings, no nothing. Because it struck so suddenly, there wasn't much the doctors could do, even with the technology they had at their disposal. O-dickface just turned his back on Ayako because her illness reduced her to a weaker being."

Maki frowned. None of this made any sense. Nico could clearly see the scepticism in the younger woman's eyes.

"Do you know what he did to Nozomi when she was younger?"

"Do I want to?"

"It might help you understand this psychotic fucktard some more," Nico took another drag from her cigarette with hunched shoulders.

"Nozomi has always been an artistic person, ever since she was a wee little kid, whose breasts were always abnormally larger than your average child," Nico grumbled while Maki rolled her eyes.

"So just like you're expected to take over your family's business, Nozomi was exactly the same. O-wankstain was hellbent on making her into his successor, which meant all work and no play. Nozomi's artistic ability was deemed useless, and he shoved her into a private boarding school to…fix her…into the daughter he wanted."

"It clearly didn't work?"

"Not at all. Plus, to make matters worse, the asshat blamed it all on Ayako. Nozomi has never been super close to her parents, but clearly her mother was more caring and, not to mention, a decent human being."

"What did Nozomi's mum do for a living?"

"She was a science teacher, and a damn good one at that," Nico lightly grinned.

"She actually took my class in my first year of high school. They moved around a lot, y'know? O-loser had meetings and work stuff, so he dragged his wife with him."

"I can understand why you keep changing his name," Maki mumbled.

"He doesn't even deserve me saying any variation of his fucking name," Nico spat, then took a swig of her drink.

"Basically, Nozomi wanting to be an artist was a giant slap in the face for O-fucknugget, and he went ballistic. Nozomi hasn't had anyone who's cared for her in a while since her mother passed away…She was lucky to have found Eli."

"True that," Maki sighed, remembering the amount of effort Eli had put in to that one box of flowers that the other two were forbidden to touch.

"I'm guessing that box was for Nozomi, then?"

"It wasn't too hard to join the dots," Nico smirked.

"Nozomi loves white lilies, so Eli did a custom box just for her."

"That's sweet of her," Maki's light smile didn't really fit the atmosphere. Nozomi's father was a cruel man, and upon hearing what he had done to Nozomi, and the people Nozomi loved, Maki could only pray that he would just, by some miracle, leave her alone.

"Here," Nico reached into her bag and pulled out a small box. I was heart-shaped, and had a small tomato sticker on the top.

"I didn't have much time, b-but happy Valentine's Day, Maki."

The red-head took the box, and blushed. She wiggled her toes awkwardly, and felt her throat tighten. It was so sweet of Nico to do this for her.

"Thank you, Nico-chan," she awkwardly smiled, and opened the box.

Her heart stopped.

Inside was a silver ring with a ruby in the centre. Maki felt her hands shake violently, and her throat was practically constricting her.

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