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Blurry vision and acute headaches were typical symptoms of a hangover. Manami of all people should have known that- and she did, but knowledge did little in the way of reversing the events of last night. Events which Manami had no recollection of- and she doubted she wanted to, if she were to be honest.
She wasn’t sure what godly force still resided within her, but she was grateful that it granted her the strength to swing her feet over the edge of the bed. The room spinned with her, but Manami decided to be grateful for the little things in life and made her way to the bathroom, leaning on wall for support.
Drinking wasn’t her forte, she knew that all too well. Karma had once ordered sake for her- he paid the price by carrying her home on his back. Then again, Karma was the reason why she got drunk in the first place- that, her blurry memory could tell her. He needed to leave on a business trip right on Christmas, which just so happened to be his birthday, which doubled the number of events Manami missed spending with him and thus the uncomfortable knot in her heart tightened.
She didn’t hold it against him- Karma was a busy man, and she knew he’d be bored if he didn’t have his work. Even so, he always made time for her, and he treasured each moment they had together at least as much as she did. But she was only human, and greed was a feeling she couldn’t escape, as was the loneliness that was gnawing away at her insides.
Teeth clean and hair brushed, Manami washed her face without minding the environment. The water barely did anything for the pounding in her brain, but at least her bleary eyes regained the ability to focus.
With the promise never to drink again, Manami returned to the bedroom, managing to lean onto the wall less. She reached for a change of clothes, and once she put them on- which was a challenge in and of itself, as each time she had to bow her head came with nausea- she plopped on the bed triumphantly.
The victory of doing the morning chores gave her enough courage to open the luminosity monstrosity known as a cellphone. She regretted it immediately- not just because the light made her head spin and her eyes squint, but because she had at least a dozen messages from her workmates.
What was that last night?
Everybody’s talking about last night.
Damn girl!
Never saw that side of you. You go, Manami-chan!
She swiped through messages that got increasingly worrisome, but decided she didn’t have the energy to deal with it. The wise choice was to fix herself a cup of coffee, a light breakfast and take an aspirin, but she didn’t even feel brave enough to face her coffee machine. All she wanted to do was sleep, so she turned on her side, away from the light filtered through the curtains and facing Karma’s side of the bed. She ran a hand over the empty sheets and felt her stomach churning again. Nothing you can do about it, Manami, she told herself as she forced her eyes shut.
Suddenly, she opened them again. There was something on his nightstand that had caught her attention, a book she hadn’t seen there yesterday. Manami scooped over to his side of the bed and picked up the red book. The Da Vinci Code. It was the book he took with him on the business trip, saying he’d read it on the plane-
Manami jumped out of bed, despite the protests of her ringing head. She crawled into the kitchen as fast as she could, and, surely enough, the smell of coffee greeted her wide awake mind. And then she reached for the knob and opened the door and-
“Good morning,” a way too familiar voice said. The mop of red hair fell on the bridge of Karma’s nose as he looked up, revealing glimmering golden eyes and a sly smile.
“You-” Manami whispered- the only thing the shock and headache allowed her to do- “you’re here. You didn’t tell me.”
“Been here since last night, actually,” Karma grinned as he got up, stopping a step away from Manami, arms opened in invitation.
His arms were warm and he smelled like coffee, mischief and home, and Manami had no idea how much she had actually missed him until he was there. “Welcome home!”
“I’m home,” she felt him smile against her hair, nuzzling his nose in her bangs.
It felt so natural, being embraced by him, spending quiet moments together, and Manami almost forgot all about her hangover and (most likely) embarrassing mishaps when he asked, “So you really don’t remember last night?”
Manami shuddered, “Do I want to?”
“I don’t know,” he said with a mischievous tilt to his voice, “I enjoyed myself.”
“You were there?” Manami asked, horror evident in her voice.
“Sure was. Trying to surprise you by showing up to your office party, but you surprised me instead.”
Manami decided something about his smug voice was dangerous, but hearing what she did from her boyfriend’s mouth was much better than waiting to get embarrassed in the lab on Monday. “So, what was it that I managed to mess up?”
“Oh, mess up is the last way I’d describe it,” Karma cooed. “You only declared your love for me,” Karma proudly said. Manami weakly punched him in the chest, urging him to stop joking. “And you kissed me,” he added dreamily.
It took her a minute to wrap her head around the facts. “You’re serious,” she stated more than asked.
“Several times,” he smiled devilishly, to Manami’s horror. “I think you scared your colleagues with your boldness.” He seemed positively thrilled at the prospect.
Manami buried her head in his chest. Now that he was saying it, blurry memories of the previous night were coming to her as sharp swords, stabbing her brain with the dawning realisation that she did not want to face her work friends any time soon.
“Oh dear God,” she muttered, making Karma laugh out loud. “Stop laughing,” she jabbed at his ribs, “this is horrible. I’ve made a total fool of myself, haven’t I?”
“I don’t know about that. It was the best birthday present ever.”
When Manami looked up at him, the corners of his mouth were curled into one of his genuine smiles, so rare to come across, and she guessed she could forgive him for putting her in that miserable state for a day.
“I guess I’ll deal with it after New Year’s,” she sighed, and tilted her head towards the coffee machine. “Some emotional damage payment would be welcomed, though.”
Karma grinned and kissed her shortly. “Coming right up. Movies afterwards?” he asked as he pulled out a chair for her and started on the coffee.
“ Home Alone again?”
“You know you love it.”
She really did. And despite knowing she’ll want to dig a hole and bury herself in it on Monday, right now, she loved every minute she could get with her red-haired curse.