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The image and sound on the sixty-inch TV faded into nothingness, only displaying Satoru and Mari’s reflection. Although it was he who pressed the button on the remote, Satoru bent forward with an exaggerated, dramatic groan.
“It’s only ten o’clock at night. What do those old geezers need to wake up so early for? Can’t the meeting be at midday?” he mumbled into his hands.
Mari chuckled under her breath, half-tempted to run her hand over her partner’s back. Instead, she propped her elbow on her thigh, leaning her cheek on her closed fist.
“Maybe they want to keep themselves from thinking of how awful they are first thing in the morning.” After a beat, with a hint of amusement in her eyes, she added, “Or maybe they secretly like seeing you and want that to happen as early in the day as possible.”
Satoru raised his head and looked at Mari, an incredulous smile adorning his lips as he shook his head. “I know I’m charming and all that, but they actually can’t stand me.”
“It’s not your fault; not everyone can appreciate greatness.” She patted his back a couple of times. “By the way, what time was it you had to get up?”
“Six o’clock.” Satoru huffed and his shoulders dropped in sync. How did he do that? “It’s just going to be the same thing as every single time: scolding me for my methods, telling me I’m not setting a good example as my clan’s leader… Why can’t the higher-ups accept that their mindset and way of doing things are more outdated than a paper map?”
Mari couldn’t help but chuckle again at that—louder this time—but she put on a serious face right after. “Because they don’t care about leading the Jujutsu Society. What they want is the power that comes with it, but we both know that already.”
“Yeah…”
He eyed his reflection on the TV for a few seconds before making it as if to get up, but he changed his mind at the last second and turned towards Mari instead.
“Before we go to bed, I’m going to ask you for a small favor.”
His girlfriend shifted to face him and leaned her arm on the couch’s backrest. “What is it?”
Satoru lowered his gaze with an almost coy smile on his lips, the kind he knew made Mari melt.
“Can you read something to me before we go to bed? It’ll give me something nice to zone out to when those fossils start lecturing me.”
She grinned and tilted her head to the side, eyeing Satoru’s expression with an almost tangible fondness. “Alright, but you better not zone out on them too much. If they catch you, their lecture will be twice as long.”
“You’re right. That’d be terrible because‐” he leaned forward until the tip of his nose brushed Mari’s “‐it’d mean spending less time with you.”
And he kissed the corner of her lips, the gesture a promise for a proper goodnight’s kiss once they were in the bedroom. Mari froze for a second before returning the kiss on Satoru’s cheek despite aching to plant her lips on his instead.
She got up from the couch and headed to the big bookcase that stood next to the hallway’s entrance. It was custom-made, commissioned by Satoru to a carpenter as a gift for Mari thanks to the first of his biggest paychecks. When she first saw its beautifully crafted structure—made of maple wood and some steel accents—her words were: “I hope you still have enough money left to treat yourself to something.”
“What are you in the mood for?” She scanned the myriads of spines in the shelves, starting with the top one.
“Something lighthearted,” Satoru said from the couch. “Something that can put a smile on my face when I remember it.”
Mari nodded in silence, and her eyes came across what looked like a good fit. Turning around, she asked, “How about The Guest Cat? I know you’ve been thinking of giving it a read.”
“Yeah, get that one! Maybe you reading it to me is the final push I need to pick it up.”
The young woman smiled and grabbed the book from the shelf, holding it between her hands as she made her way back to the couch. Upon sitting back down, Mari reclined herself and turned the pages until she reached the first chapter.
“Should I read it from the start, or will any page do?”
“Any page will do.” Satoru scooted closer to her and draped an arm around her shoulders. “You can go with your favorite part, if you want.”
“I already have something in mind, then.” She flipped the pages until reaching the first paragraphs of Chapter Seven. Satoru leaned his head against hers. “Here it goes: ‘Once Chibi had learned how she could get into the little house, she would slip quietly inside as long as we left the door open a crack. She would never cause any mischief. She would simply stroll through the house in a leisurely fashion’.”
“So Chibi just made herself at home, huh? Sounds like we’d get along.”
“Yeah, I don’t doubt it,” Mari answered with a snort. “‘Often she hid her soft body, with its pattern of lampblack spots floating on her pure white coat of fur, between the various objects in the room. She never made a sound. Nor she would allow us to hold her. If you tried to hold her, she would let a barely audible mew, bite your hand softly, and then slip out of your arms’.”
“That’s a polite rejection… except for the bite part.”
Mari chuckled to herself. How could she have never thought of reading along with Satoru before? With his commentary added to them, any book in her library could become a blast, even the ones she had yet to finish because of their failure to evoke any emotions in her.
The young woman read in a soft, steady voice. Chapter Seven soon turned into Chapter Eight and Chapter Eight, into Chapter Nine. Satoru noted they all were pretty short, which would make for a fast read. Mari confirmed it for him; the first time she went through The Guest Cat, it only took her a single afternoon.
She was in the middle of reading one of the last paragraphs of Chapter Ten when Satoru, still curled up next to her, interrupted his girlfriend’s narration.
“Hey, babe?” His voice had significantly less energy to it.
Mari looked up and faced those blue eyes that comprised the center of her universe. “What is it?”
Satoru gave her a lazy and almost cat-like smile. Chibi’s felinity must have rubbed off on him in some way.
“You should read aloud to me more often,” he said. “It’s relaxing. And your voice is nice.”
Her heart stuttered. For Mari, who hated hearing herself in recordings, having someone—especially someone as important as Satoru—telling her that about her voice was a self esteem boost. She nodded and teased at a smile, gripping the book in her hands.
“I’ll take note of that. We should find a moment for it on your day off or something.”
“Or you can always sneak into my office. I’ll have no complaints.” Satoru winked and rested his head on hers again.
Mari swallowed down a grin and resumed her reading, “‘When I went out to water the garden, taking hold of the hose and turning the spigot connected to the electric pump, a white-tailed skimmer dragonfly, which was always seated on the same large rock beside the pond in a good place to catch the sun would float its pure blue body—’”
Satoru’s breathing had become soft and rhythmic. Mari didn’t need more to know that he had fallen asleep. Letting out a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a fond giggle, she set the book aside on the couch and burrowed into his side, closing her eyes. The last thing she thought of before drifting off as well was how that moment would make for another nice thing for Satoru to zone out to in tomorrow’s meeting.