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"good morning to my favourite person in the whole world."
ei is beaming when she enters the kitchen to wrap her arms around miko’s waist.
it's a normal morning, at least ei thinks it is. unless you could disregard the fact that miko didn't wait for her to wake up before slipping out of bed.
a great morning is one where miko waits for her to wake up, smothers her with tons of kisses and a nice snuggle. that didn't happen today, bummer, but she’ll deal with it.
the large grin on her face begins to wane when all that fills the kitchen is the sound of eggs sizzling — miko didn’t say good morning back. ei begins to find reasons for her silence, like maybe she doesn’t feel like talking today, or she’s just too focused on her cooking to hear her.
but getting a slice of slightly burnt toast with an angry face on it proves ei’s efforts futile. her toast usually comes with a heart shape pressed in the middle with the crusts cut off. not today.
it’s not a normal morning, it’s a bad morning.
miko still sits with her at the table as they share breakfast in a tension-filled silence. it’s a thick, uncomfortable silence and ei tries to break it by attempting to steal a portion of miko’s scrambled eggs, but her fork is swiftly pinned down and swatted away with an icy glare.
ei purses her lips tightly as she looks down at her sad, singular slice of burnt toast.
“are you mad at me?”
“yes.”
her girlfriend is angry at her and she doesn’t know why. and to ask why would be akin to fanning the flames of her ire. she gobbles down her toast in silence, making sure to keep her eyes down so miko doesn’t sense her panic.
ei checks the date on the way to work; it’s not their anniversary, nor miko’s birthday.
valentine’s? no, that’s in february.
the last time she got burnt toast was because miko got upset at her for not knowing that it was national girlfriend day , but that's over for this year.
she doubts she’s forgotten anything, so why is she getting burnt toast?
maybe ei doesn’t need to know why miko is mad at her, she probably forgot to do the dishes, or maybe she stole all the blankets in the night. whatever it is, she’s confident that she could get on miko’s good side by the time she gets home.
nobody could stay mad when they receive pictures of cute cats, right?
her girlfriend absolutely loves these tiny feline creatures and ei thought sending them to her would be enough to appease her. she even got sara to scour instagram for the cutest cat accounts, but all she receives in response is the small little seen word appearing under her messages.
scratch that assumption, everybody, except miko.
her next plan of action comes during lunch time, when her dear friends tries their best to ignore her apparent distress. though, it's mostly zhongli trying to get venti to keep his mouth shut but seeing the incessant pout plastered on their friend’s face and the small sighs and whines escaping her throat did not help.
with a little urging and venti’s relentless kicks under the table, zhongli is partially convinced that they should step in.
“ei, do you want to talk—” zhongli starts but is interrupted by venti’s bold suggestion.
“send her nudes.”
the soda ei had been drinking spills across the table while she coughs and chokes on the liquid. venti nonchalantly tosses her a couple of napkins while avoiding zhongli’s glare.
“what’s wrong with nudes?”
ei's voice rises by a pitch, ignoring the sharp pain at the back of her throat, “what do you mean what’s wrong ?”
“always works for me.” venti rests his chin in his hand and raises his shoulders slightly.
zhongli expels a small sigh, “miko is not xiao, venti.”
“but i know miko will love an apology like that.”
“nudes will not fix everything.”
“but it still fixes something ?”
a small huff escapes ei as she looks at her friends, “how did you guys know?”
“because miko always makes you the nicest bento boxes,” venti motions towards her lunch, “and all you have is a sad excuse of a sandwich now.”
ei presses her lips into a thin line and venti is unfortunately right. the sandwich that rests just in front of her is nothing compared to miko's lunches. she offers up a vague defense with a quiet voice, “maybe she just decided not to make one today…”
her cheeky friend offers a wry smile and scoffs, “yeah, alright, keep lying to yourself and send the nudes later, cool?”
ei responds by tossing a wet, soda-filled napkin at her friend. but she also pops into the bathroom after and unbuttons her shirt just a little bit to send a few suggestive selfies to her girlfriend.
all she receives in response is a singular dot.
and ei makes a mental note to never listen to venti’s advice ever again.
when everything goes wrong, ei decides the best way to fix things is with some good old fashioned flowers and chocolate. red roses and milk chocolate, surely things couldn’t get any worse?
the television is on when ei returns home, miko is reclining on the couch with her attention on her phone.
“i’m home!”
her girlfriend doesn’t come rushing to her as she always does, but at least, she acknowledges her with a turn of her head.
“i got these for you…” ei mumbles softly, padding across the living room with a small pout on her lips, “don’t be mad at me anymore?”
“you didn’t even ask why.”
“i didn’t want to make things worse.”
miko drops her jaw and sighs incredulously, “but you spamming a billion messages today is better? i was having a presentation when your boobs appeared on my notifications!”
heat rushes to her cheeks when she’s reminded of her earlier selfies and she bites the inside of her cheek as hard as she can.
"you didn't like them..?"
"i did but that's not the point, you could've just asked why!"
“so… why were you mad at me?”
“because you scared me in my dream!”
ei blinks, and a beat of silence passes while she takes in her girlfriend’s words.
her dream?
miko stands up from the couch and jabs her finger into ei’s chest accusingly. “you just stood in the corner with a creepy smile on your face and it freaked me out to the point that i woke up! then i tried to wake you up too but you just continued to sleep!”
ei has to bite down on her lower lip to suppress her laugh, “so it’s my fault… for not waking up?” she asks after clearing her throat with a small cough.
“no, it’s because you scared me!”
“o-oh…” ei lets a small snort slip, “i will apologize on behalf of the me in your dream. i’m sorry for scaring you.”
miko allows ei to snake her arms around the small of her back and she buries her face into the crook of her neck.
“sorry for the burnt toast.”
“it’s fine, at least i know when you’re mad at me.”
“actually… i wasn’t really that mad, i just burnt your toast by accident.”
"what about my lunch?"
"i had to be committed."
“miko!”