Work Text:
Although being awoken by the sun was more tolerable than being jarred awake by your alarm, you didn’t appreciate being woken up half an hour before it would have gone off. Not that your alarm would have gone off today. After surviving five days at the office, you had two short days to recuperate before you had to return. You had intended on catching up on your sleep this morning before tackling some of the chores that had built up over the course of the week. Your laundry in particular was looking a bit grim.
Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that the sun slipping through the blinds had woken you early. The sooner you finished all your errands, the sooner you could enjoy your weekend. And while the challenge with that would have been in actually getting up out of bed, you didn’t think it would be too hard today. Despite waking early you didn't feel tired or groggy. In just a couple of minutes you would get up and get started on things.
“(name),” a voice called out in a whisper. Although you heard it, you didn't react at first. You took a few seconds before you turned to your left, the opposite direction of where the voice had come from. When you did you found the bed empty, the sheets not even disturbed. You almost signed but caught it before it managed to slip out.
“(name),” the voice repeated, a little louder. When it got no response it tried again, just a little louder. “(name), are you awake?”
“Yes,” you replied, and as soon as you did, you felt the bed dip. Carefully, Power crawled up onto the bed and over you, but avoided touching you until she dropped herself down on your legs suddenly. It was a bit much all at once but it was nothing compared to how she had used to fling herself up onto you.
“Good morning!” she announced once she was settled. She pushed her hair out of her face, letting the two of you meet eyes.
“Good morning…” you responded, though a bit reluctantly. You were glad to see her but you hadn’t forgotten the empty bed next to you. Last night you had gone to bed without her but she had assured you that she would join you later. It seemed that hadn’t happened though. “You didn't sleep?”
"Not at all!" she informed you proudly, and with that she spun around the clipboard you hadn’t even realized she had brought with her.
You reached over to the nightstand next to you and put on your glasses before you took the clipboard from her. Attached to the clipboard was a single sheet of slightly crumpled paper with shaky but enthusiastic characters along the top that spelled out “Power for President!” Below that there were a few dozen numbered lines, of which only two were filled out. Denji and Aki had seemingly given their full support to whatever she was doing.
"I need one thousand people to swear fealty to me,” Power explained when you looked up at her. It was her second time explaining herself so she was more confident with it this time. The explanation she had given the boys hadn’t been quite so concise, leaving them even more confused than you were now. Power had been patient with you, checking in every hour or so to see if you were awake, but she had had no problem waking Aki and Denji.
“Once I gather them, then I’ll become… a politician.” Power hung onto the last word, giving it an ominous energy.
“Why?” you asked, your face scrunched. She complained when you tried to put on the news in the morning before work, wrestling the remote from you. You couldn’t imagine she had found some issue she needed to take a stand for or against.
“Denji told me they’re powerful and evil,” she told you. “But I know I’m stronger than any of them.”
“Well, it’s a different kind of strength,” you told her. Speaking generally, Denji wasn’t necessarily wrong but you wished he hadn’t explained it like that. Once Power thought she understood something she tended to cling onto it. It had taken weeks to convince her bell peppers weren't literally poisonous.
“Don’t care! I’ll crush them all!” she declared with a laugh. “Just as soon as I collect my one thousand underlings!”
“I’m not sure it works quite like that,” you sighed, but if Power heard you she didn’t show it.
“Sign it,” she insisted, tapping her long fingernail against the clipboard. Slow at first, it grew faster with each strike until it was practically vibrating. You took the clipboard from her but only to appease her enough to get the chance to speak.
“I think you need something more official,” you told her as you signed your name. Even if she collected one thousand signatures you doubted that any government office would accept something like this. A professional petition would help her case. At the very least she needed something that wasn’t looseleaf.
“But you’re gonna help me?!” Power exclaimed, though she followed it with a gasp and brought her hands to cover her mouth. She hadn’t meant to be that loud, not when it was so early. But even with her face half-covered you could tell she was smiling. When you had spoken you hadn’t been entirely committed to the thought of helping her but with her looking at you like that you couldn’t not help her.
“What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn’t?” you asked. You set a hand on her side, guiding her to get up. There was no time to waste. Her political involvement would begin just as soon as you had eaten. There were very few things worth skipping breakfast for.
–
“How does this look?” you asked her, pointing at the screen. For once something you had learned at work was useful outside of it. It hadn’t taken more than a few minutes to whip up a serviceable form for her; it had actually taken longer to get logged onto the library computer. If Aki had had a printer you would have gone next door and borrowed it but you knew he didn’t and so your destination was the library. It was only a few minutes away by bus and the two of you arrived without much hassle.
Power leaned in and scrutinized the form for a minute before she gave you a thumbs-up. It looked official, like something straight off a desk at the Public Safety office. She couldn’t read all of what you had written at the top of the page but as both her campaign manager and her girlfriend she trusted you.
With her approval, you sent a few dozen copies to the printer. Power beat you there and snatched the pages from it. She added the new sheets to the clipboard she had brought with her but left her original petition at the back, just in case. When you joined her at the printer Power took out a pen from the pocket of her hoodie and offered it to you. You took it and signed the first line, officially launching her campaign. Only nine hundred and ninety-seven to go. Denji and Aki could give their signatures again later.
“Excuse me,” a man said, drawing both of your attention. Behind the two of you the printer had just finished spewing out the dozen or so pages of his report. There was probably enough room to squeeze between the two of you and grab it but he would rather not if he could avoid it. Maybe that had been a mistake though. The man felt his heart drop down into his stomach as Power glared at him.
She took a single step forward before snatching the clipboard from you and thrusting it towards him. “Lend me your support,” she declared. When the man didn’t respond, merely staring back at her in disbelief, Power took a step towards him. “Sign!” she insisted, shaking the clipboard at him. The pages rustled as she shook them, though it was hardly enough to attract any attention, much to the dismay of the man. He could see a librarian on the other side of the room but they were tidying shelves. If Power had only been a little louder it might have drawn their attention, but you had made sure to remind her that she had to be quiet before coming into the library.
“I just…” the man began. “My report…” He looked over at you but you turned before he could make eye contact. One of the paintings across the room was suddenly quite interesting.
Running out of time and with no other choice, the man risked a step forward only for Power to mirror it and block him. Grumbling, he took the clipboard from her. He took a couple of seconds to scan it and seeing nothing alarming, signed it. If it came back to haunt him in a few years’ time he would just say he had been pressured into it.
“Thank you very much,” Power told him, and with that she began to walk away. There was no time to waste. You followed after her in search of the third signature but before you had made it more than a couple steps you heard a pronounced sigh from behind you. The report hadn’t printed double-sided.
By the time the two of you left the library Power had managed to gather twenty-one signatures, though you questioned how many people understood what they were signing. Either working on a project or studying, all of the people Power had approached just wanted to get back to whatever they had been doing as quickly as possible. They would have probably brushed almost anyone else off but Power was insistent to say the least. It wasn’t a matter of whether they were going to sign but how much arguing it would take to get there.
But while twenty-one signatures wasn’t bad for the half an hour you had been in the library it was a far cry from the one thousand you needed. It would probably take a few days of dedicated campaigning to reach the number she needed. You wouldn’t be the person to break the news to her though. As unconventional a date as it was, both of you were enjoying yourselves.
“What’s this for?” the man asked, squinting at the clipboard. Power had caught him on his way out of the same café the two of you had just left. It was important to stay energized while on the road.
“I’m running for president,” Power explained, rather matter-of-fact.
“I see,” the man replied with a laugh, though it was less derisive and more amused. Between the cosplay horns on the top of her head and the clashing colours of her thrown-together outfit, she was far from the typical candidate.
He glanced up from the petition at Power, then over at you, then returned his attention to the petition and scribbled his signature. She did have character though. Parliament would be a bit more exciting with her there. Maybe he would even pay attention to it for once. “Well, best of luck,” he told you, as he returned the clipboard and took off.
With the fiftieth signature acquired, Power pointed out a woman in the crowd before starting towards her. Caught by her hoodie, she didn’t get far. She turned around towards you, and when you tugged on her sleeve she came over.
“We don’t have a president,” you leaned in and whispered to her. “You’d be prime minister.” Despite what her original petition had said, you had changed it to the proper title on the petition she was using now. You hadn’t thought it necessary to explain the difference to her at the time but with more than a few people noticing that she was aiming for president you wanted to tell her before someone else did.
Although you expected she might be upset or confused, Power merely laughed. “World president!” she told you. “My ambitions don’t stop at the country.”
“All of you will bow before me!” she shouted, throwing her hands up into the air, her drink sloshing in the cup. A few passersby turned and stared at her as they went but most kept to themselves. Still, it was more attention than you would have liked. Power turned back towards you, and seeing your expression, came over to you. “Oh, that doesn’t include you,” she assured you gently. “You’ll be my first lady.”
“Then you won’t have to work anymore,” she added with a grin. Even though she had her own work at Public Safety and Denji and Aki to hang out with, she always complained when you had to go to work. She had offered to dispose of your boss dozens of times but this sounded like a better approach to the problem. Less murderous anyway.
“Well, I suppose that does sound nice,” you agreed, and with that the two of you discussed where to go next with your campaign. It was a mere coincidence that where you decided to go was one of Power’s favourite places to visit: a ramen stall near your apartment.
–
It took just over a week for Power to collect all the signatures she needed but between pestering people at the nearby subway stations and visiting everyone in the apartment complex she got all one thousand. Admittedly, you hadn’t known what to do with the petition but it wasn’t left to you to figure it out. Power took the petition and dealt with it, only asking for your help mailing it.
With the petition submitted, eventually you forgot about the campaign. Every so often Power would bring it up in a grumble but in time even she forgot. A month passed without either of you mentioning it.
“This one’s for you,” you told Power as you tossed a letter onto her lap. It wasn’t unusual to find things addressed to her tucked in between your own mail but they were usually just advertisements, not proper letters. She wouldn’t admit it to it but you suspected she had signed up to some sort of mailing list she had found in a magazine.
Power ripped open the envelope and tore out the letter. She narrowed her eyes, trying her best to decipher what it said but after a minute gave up and passed it back to you. She had come a long way with her kanji recently but such a dry government document was a bit too much for her.
“Dear Miss Power Hayakawa,” you read aloud. Reading faster than you could speak, you began to smile and it grew with every word. “We are pleased to inform you that the municipality has accepted your application to appear on the ballot in the upcoming mayoral election.”
Power stared up at you. You nodded then nodded some more when she still hadn’t reacted. It was only when you set down the letter and reached out for her that it clicked.
“I’m a politician?!” she screeched. She scrambled onto her feet and threw herself into your arms, squeezing you tightly enough to knock some of the air out of you. She loosened her hold on you when you squeaked but didn’t let go of you until the initial excitement had worn off. When she did, she didn’t drop her hands down to her sides, bringing them up to look at them instead. Staring down at her palms, she flexed her hands a few times, as if testing herself.
“I can feel it coursing through me,” she muttered. Denji was right. This newfound strength was nothing to scoff at. With such strength, she felt as if she could get away with anything.
“I have to tell everyone,” she told you suddenly, and as soon as you nodded she took off towards the door. She swung it open and took a single step out into the hall before she stopped and spun around.
“What are you waiting for?” Power asked frantically, waving her open hand at you. “I need my first lady!” It would make a terrible first impression on her subjects if she showed up alone. You nodded again and hurried after her. When she caught your outstretched hand she yanked you forward, barely giving you the chance to shut the door behind her. You couldn’t blame her for being excited though. Although tonight you would be celebrating her candidacy with Aki and Denji, given time you might be celebrating her victory. She was nothing if not determined.