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Obanai wasn’t sure why he woke up. Any sleep that he had gotten was not enough to leave him well-rested. While he was no longer drunk, his forehead throbbed. He remembered helping to clean up after the party and being invited to spend the night since it had been so late. Afterwards, he stumbled into bed at his home-away-from-home. It was where his heart dwelt.
He rolled onto his side and glanced over at the nightstand. The digital alarm clock’s pink LEDs stared back at him.
“4:27 am,” read the alarm clock.
Obanai sighed. “Hardly even two hours of sleep,” he thought to himself.
He rolled onto his back and squinted at the ceiling. Illuminated by the alarm clock’s glow, he watched the ceiling fan slowly turn. Even with the coolness of the breeze against his face, he felt a growing sensation of warmth across his face. With a grunt, he pushed himself up until he was propped against the bed’s headboard. As he sat in the darkness, he became aware of a gurgling in his stomach. His face warmed up further along with a sense of dryness in his throat.
“Oh no, anything but this…”
Still in denial that this was indeed happening, Obanai stumbled out of bed. He felt around in the dark for the wall as he guided himself toward the bathroom. Droplets of sweat began to drip down his brow, and he swallowed nervously. Fortunately, the bathroom was directly connected to the bedroom. He closed one eye as he entered the bathroom – the nightlight inside the room was too bright in his hungover state.
“Is this really happening?” Obanai thought as he propped the toilet seat up.
He dropped to his knees and looked down into the toilet. His snake-like reflection looked back at him. As he inhaled a shaky breath, he absentmindedly ran a hand alongside the scars on his cheeks that gave his mouth the appearance of a snake’s gape.
Obanai’s hand leapt from his cheek to his abdomen as a sharp pain coursed up from his stomach. His other hand gripped the toilet for dear life. A low groan escaped his lips.
“Fuck! Am I old now?” he thought as he began to dry heave. Sweat dribbled down his face and into the toilet. “Can I really not drink as much as I used to?”
His grip tightened on the toilet until his knuckles went white.
“Breathe…breathe…” whispered Obanai to himself.
He sucked in a shaky breath and shivered as he exhaled after several beats. Gradually, the heat receded from his face. The sweat began to abate, and his grip on the toilet loosened. However, the dryness in his throat continued. Slowly, Obanai stood up and shuffled his way over to the sink. Picking up one of two plastic cups from the countertop, he filled it and greedily drained its contents. He shivered as he felt the coolness of the water snake its way through his system. The uncomfortable warmth that had been building up within him was smothered by each gulp he took. He refilled the cup several times before he switched off the faucet and sank to his knees.
“I really should have drunk more water earlier,” he thought ruefully. It was a rookie mistake that he had not made in a while.
Now that his moment of crisis had passed, he allowed himself to sink further down until his back was flat with the bathroom floor. He gasped as a cold bathroom tile brushed against skin. Even though he shivered, he lifted up the back of his shirt so that he could press his bare back flush with the floor. He exhaled a long, deep breath as the coldness spread through him.
It was as he lay there that he became aware of an odd sound which emanated from elsewhere in the apartment. The noise was of something being crunched down on and slurped up. Something was being eaten with impunity. There was a satisfied tone to the slurps, as if whatever was doing the devouring was having the time of its life as it dug in.
Groggily, Obanai sat up. While the rest of his senses were slow to catch up, his hearing was fully alert. As he sat there in rapt attention, he shielded his sensitive eyes from the bathroom night-light with one hand while cupping an ear with his free hand. No specific words came to his mind as he listened, but he did feel a sense of unease and puzzlement. The gears in his mind turned as he crudely tried his very best impression of a bat to echolocate where the sounds were coming from.
“From…the kitchen I think. I'm sure of it,” he thought. “But what could it be? It sounds almost like an animal. But I'm sure I left Kaburamaru in his travel cage. It can't be him.”
Resolving to double-check if Kaburamaru was indeed safe in his travel cage, Obanai reached a hand up to the bathroom counter and pulled himself to his feet. Each step he took toward the bedroom required extra effort as his legs felt heavier than normal. He took care with his coordination as he swayed from side to side. As he passed through the doorway out of the bathroom, he hissed as his shoulder collided with the frame.
Entering the bedroom, he stumbled past a blanket and several large plushies that had been knocked off the bed. Now that there was no nightlight to go off, his eyes no longer needed to be shielded. In the low light given off by the bedside alarm clock and by a streetlight behind the curtains, he navigated over to the dresser. A sense of relief washed over him as he found Kaburamaru's travel cage. He released a breath that he hadn't noticed holding onto when he saw the familiar flicker of movement within the cage as his albino rat snake slithered about. The relief he felt dissipated as it meant that the easier answer for the noises he heard from the kitchen was shot down.
“Did an animal get inside?” he wondered. He was no stranger to having to wrangle animals that had ended somewhere they shouldn't be. After all, his part-time job was at a pet store where he worked with his friend and roommate Sanemi.
“I swear to God if Giyuu didn't close the door fully after he left with Shinobu…” he thought.
A sharp, metallic ping rang out through the apartment as something clattered to the ground in the kitchen.
“I guess I will need to check it out,” thought Obanai.
He turned away from Kaburamaru and began to amble his way back through the bedroom. He slithered past the blanket and plushies and ignored the siren call of the bed. Once he was halfway to the doorway that led out to the living room and kitchen, Obanai froze. He turned toward the bed and squinted. There was the tell-tale mound of plushies and pillows that his girlfriend, Mitsuri, would surround herself with. It was almost like a nest that she arranged every time she slept.
“She must have heard this too, right?”
He cupped his hands to his mouth. He was just about to whisper when his words died on his lips as a thought struck him.
“If she heard this too, she would be awake. She really must be deep asleep. She really did go all out for this party and worked herself ragged. I'm not going to disturb her now.”
Resolved to solve this problem alone, Obanai turned his back to the bed and resumed sneaking toward the doorway. The sound of something being slurped up and the smacking of lips increased in volume. Not wanting to unduly surprise whatever was making the sounds, he carefully peered around the doorway. His gaze fixated upon a light coming from the kitchen. He froze as he spotted the source of the sounds.
Illuminated by the refrigerator light, Mitsuri stood hunched over with a jar of peanut butter in her hands. Rather than being asleep in bed and blissfully ignorant of the noises, she was the very source. Obanai had mistaken the mound of plushies and pillows for her.
Mitsuri’s pink and green hair stuck out at all angles, and the oversized t-shirt she wore hung askew, exposing her right shoulder. With a spoon in hand, she shoveled spoonful after spoonful of peanut butter into her mouth. After each time she did so, the spoon was returned completely spotless back into the jar where it was refilled.
Occasionally, a few coherent words accompanied Mitsuri’s slurping.
“Oh fuck yeah…yeah this is the good stuff right here….oh my GOD YES,” she mumbled between sticky mouthfuls of peanut butter.
Unequipped to deal with what he beheld and opting to return to bed, Obanai took a step backwards. There was a gentle, metallic clatter as he accidentally kicked an empty beer can that had gone unnoticed during the post-party clean-up.
“Shit,” whispered Obanai as he realized he had awakened the one-woman horde.
The sound of the can colliding with the wall did not go unnoticed. Mitsuri's head snapped up and tilted to the side as her gaze fixed itself upon Obanai. While it was likely due to his sensitivity to light in his hungover state, Obanai could swear that Mitsuri's eyes somehow glowed in the darkness. A dribble of saliva and peanut butter oozed down her chin.
Mitsuri lurched forwards. The jar of peanut butter slipped from her grasp along with the spoon. As she shambled forth, the door to the refrigerator slammed shut behind her. For several heart-pounding moments, there was silence in the darkness. Obanai felt his face grow hot once more and his own chest rapidly rose and fell. Distantly, he remembered the scene of a zombie sprinting at full speed at its prey. What was that movie that Shinobu had insisted that they all watch together? Giyuu had clung to Shinobu when he had been startled during that viewing.
“It was ’28 Days Later',” recalled Obanai. He remembered Shinobu enthusiastically pointing out that the zombies weren't technically zombies as they were not undead.
There was an explosion of movement as Mitsuri lunged forward with arms outstretched. A vocalization that was a cross between a snarl and a snore was released from her as she descended upon Obanai. There was no time to exclaim and certainly no time to reason with her. There wasn't even any time for his life to flash before his eyes as Mitsuri was already upon him.
With a thud that roused a hiss of pain from him, Obanai hit the floor. A force larger and more muscular than him kept him pinned down. He wasn't sure if it was due to fright, due to his tiredness, or something else, but he willingly surrendered himself to the darkness of unconsciousness.
It was the invasive rays of the mid-morning sun that finally roused Obanai from his slumber. The rays slowly slid down his head until they were perfectly aimed at his eyes. He blinked rapidly. Even though he had slept, his body ached and his forehead stung. Gradually, he became aware of something wet against his shoulder.
A low yawn escaped his mouth as Obanai tried to stand up. The yawn turned into an ineffective grunt as his attempt to move was stymied by an immovable force. The force in question had lain across his body and wrapped herself around him. Looking down, he found Mitsuri atop him. Her arms were wrapped around him as if he were one of her prized plushies. While he could not wriggle out from under her, it was not a suffocating embrace. It was the very same comforting embrace that he had become accustomed to over the last few months. He craned his neck to take stock of the wetness he felt. The right shoulder area of his pajama shirt was completely soaked with a mixture of saliva and peanut butter. He did not feel revulsion; rather, he felt relief that it wasn't blood or anything else. He had been bled on and pissed on by his fair share of animals at the pet store.
“Hey…Mochi. Mochi, please. Wake up!” Obanai whispered.
There was a flicker of movement from Mitsuri upon hearing his words. However, she merely readjusted her grip on her boyfriend.
“Hmmm…mochi sounds good,” sleep-talked Mitsuri. She giggled. “Mochiiii…” Her words descended into a snore as she remained asleep.
A smile crept across Obanai's face. It was impossible for him to be mad. With a contented sigh, he turned his head to the side to escape the sun's rays. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift back to sleep.