When he spoke again, his voice dropped into that incredibly soft, deep, and beautifully sleepy tone that absolutely no one else in the world ever got to hear except for her.
"Don't lie to me, Yuna..." Mr. Kamitani murmured right against her warm palm, his breath brushing softly over her skin.
"Telling a lie is not good for a top-tier corporate lawyer. If the Counsellor lies so easily in the dark... how on earth are our children supposed to learn proper morals, hm?"
'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, stop it!' her mind screamed in a total, blushing panic, her heart hammering so loudly she was sure he could hear it.
'Tell him there was a giant mosquito on his face! No, tell him his hair looked messy and you were just fixing it! Or—or tell him he looked cold and you were checking his forehead! Just say anything except the truth!'
But before she could even utter a single word, Mr. Kamitani slowly tilted his head against her palm, his dark eyes cracking open to look straight into her soul.
"Besides..." he whispered out, his soft, sleepy voice carrying a devastating trace of romantic gravity that made her knees go completely weak. "Didn't you say during the evening that you weren't going to say a single word to me for the rest of the weekend?"
His voice was a low, vibrating murmur against her skin, throwing her exact words right back at her.
"That's it! You are completely dead to me, Ayato! I am officially ignoring you for the next Seventy-two hours! Don't you dare speak to me, don't look at me, and don't even breathe in my direction until Monday!"
That was the exact furious speech she had shouted at him while throwing a pillow at his head before stomping away. Yet here she was, barely Eight Hours later at Four in the morning, caught completely red-handed whispering right next to his nose.
Mrs. Kamitani's jaw completely dropped, her mind frantically spinning into a total chaotic blank space as her own broken promise came back to haunt her.
Instant, heavy embarrassment hit her like a physical wave, turning her cheeks from a light pink to an absolute bright, burning scarlet under her reading glasses.
"I-I was simply... checking your forehead!" she spoke out defensively, her voice cracking as she desperately tried to pull her hand back as a sudden retreat into the safe shadows of the bedroom.
"Y-You looked like you were breathing weirdly, so I was just checking your... facial temperature for safety! Let go of me!"
But Mr. Kamitani absolutely refused to let her escape that easily. "Facial temperature?" he spoke lazily, a highly amused smirk finally spreading across his face.
"So you check temperatures by slapping post-it notes on people at four in the morning? Wow, what a very logical legal strategy, Yuna."
Without using any real force or serious pressure, his long, warm fingers lazily slid down from her wrist, shifting to loosely hold her slender fingers, while his other hand absentmindedly held onto the soft edge of her light blue-grey cotton pajama sleeve.
It was an incredibly soft, casual hold, but it was more than enough to completely pin the smart corporate lawyer right next to his office chair.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Mrs. Kamitani became ten times more flustered, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs—a loud, betraying rhythm in the dead quiet of the four-a.m. room.
Thump-thump.
It was completely unfair! How was she supposed to stay calm when her usually strict, stubborn husband was being extra clingy, heavy, and soft in his half-asleep state?! He was entirely defenceless, yet he had her completely trapped.
"Let go this instant, Ayato!" she whispered frantically, her free hand moving around her face as she tried to fix her calm look. "I am ordering you to release my sleeve!"
Mr. Kamitani merely let out another low, vibrating laugh against her palm, his closed eyes glowing up at the corners with a wonderfully lazy, sleepy smile.
"Hah—Why should I?" he murmured softly, his cheek still comfortably leaning straight against her hand as he began listing every single little thing she had done, proving his sharp mind had recorded absolutely everything in the dark.
"First, you aggressively walked over here because my cold coffee made you upset." he said smoothly, his voice a deep and comforting.
"Then you fuss over my desk lamp and my files..." he murmured, his thumb lazily tracing a soft, slow circle right against the inside of her trembling wrist. "And after that... you couldn't even resist loosening my tie."
He let out a low, breathy chuckle against her skin, his closed eyes crinkling with pure, sleepy amusement.
"I was sleeping perfectly fine, Yuna. It seems like you were the one who felt too uncomfortable just looking at me."
"I-I... I completely d-deny... all of those things!" Mrs. Kamitani sharply interrupted, her face burning hotter as she looked absolutely everywhere except at his smug face.
She swallowed hard, her fingers twitching as she stammered out the most ridiculous defense of her life.
"The—the tie knot! It s-simply... it slipped on its own! Due to g-gravity! Gravity loosened it! I—I never... I never touched your tie, Ayato!"
"Is that so, Counselor?" Mr. Kamitani's dark eyes slowly opened a tiny bit, a deeply happy, lazy look washing over his handsome face.
'Gravity? Seriously, how can she be the smartest lawyer in the courtroom, but the most ridiculously adorable creature on the planet when she's lying to me?'
"Then I suppose gravity also reached out to gently smooth my messy hair to the side, only to get grumpily annoyed when the strands sprang back up?" he teased, his thumb gently moving over the back of her captured hand.
Mrs. Kamitani completely choked on her words, her green eyes moving around the dim blue light of the laptop screen in absolute, total defeat.
"And finally..." Mr. Kamitani continued, his sleepy smile widening into a winning grin as the sticky note on his cheek moved slightly with his breath.
"You decided to officially mark me as household property with a rather sharp smack to my left cheek. The proof is literally sticking to my face, Yuna. You are completely caught without any way to argue your case."
Mrs. Kamitani let out a sharp, frustrated breath, trying to ignore the chaotic fluttering in her chest as she looked down at the stubborn attorney.
'Shut up, shut up, shut up... why does he have to be so smug?'
"Hah... seriously, if you have enough energy to argue with me, then you clearly have enough energy to stand up," she muttered, huffing out a breath as she gave her glasses a sharp, defensive tilt to hide her burning face.
She crossed her arms, looking down at his ridiculous position with a sudden, teasing roll of her eyes.
"Are you honestly planning to just sleep bent backward like some broken office statue for the rest of the night, Ayato? Because you look completely ridiculous right now."
Mr. Kamitani's dark eyes instantly widened with an immensely exaggerated, dramatic look of deep despair.
"If I must fall right here, then so be it..." he claimed grandly, his deep, sleepy voice echoing through the dim blue shadows of the bedroom with absolute, ridiculous seriousness.
"The Tokyo High Court demands everything from 'The Shield of the Court.' I shall happily pass away right here at my battle desk, defending what is right until my very last breath."
Mrs. Kamitani rolled her green eyes so hard she was certain they would get stuck, letting out a heavy, thoroughly unamused sigh.
"Ew, please stop, that is genuinely gross..." she muttered, rubbing the bridge of her nose in pure exhaustion.
"Do not start acting like Shido at four in the morning, Ayato. That kind of dramatic behavior is barely tolerable on children, but it looks completely ridiculous on an old man like you."
Mr. Kamitani's grand expression instantly shattered, his mouth dropping open as he clutched his chest in a brand-new, entirely genuine look of betrayal.
"Ouch???" he gasped, his deep voice cracking slightly with offense. "An old man? Yuna, I am literally in my prime!"
"You are being completely absurd," she flatly shot back, crossing her arms as she looked down at him with zero mercy.
"You are clearly just half-asleep and delirious right now, which is the only reason you're spouting all this dramatic nonsense. Get up and go to bed already."
---
🖋️ AUTHOR'S NOTE 🌙
Ehehe... 🤭
I had way too much fun writing this chapter. 😂☕
After everything these two have been through, I thought they deserved a tiny break... even if that "break" turned into Yuna committing approximately seventeen acts of accidental wife behavior. 💀
"I don't care about him."
Five minutes later... ☕
"His coffee is cold."
"His tie is too tight."
"His hair is messy."
"..."
"WHY AM I DOING THIS?! 😭"
And poor Ayato...
This man really woke up and chose maximum teasing. 😭👏
The funniest part?
Yuna probably walked into that room thinking she'd win...
...and somehow ended up getting emotionally defeated by a half-asleep man with a sticky note on his face. 🤦🏻♀️😂
Honestly...
I don't know which one of them is more stubborn anymore. 🤷🏻♀️🌸
As always, thank you so much for reading! 💙
Your comments will genuinely make my day, so don't forget to tell me your favorite moment from this chapter! 👀✨
Until next time...
(づ￣ ³￣)づ
----
✦ 🔮 A GLIMPSE INTO THE NEXT CHAPTER 🔮 ✦
"What awaits beyond this page...?" 🌙
(灬･◡･灬)♡
"You're talking as though one bad night erased every other day we've shared together... as though I need a reason to want to be close to my own wife."
"Tell me... what am I supposed to do with this?"
----
🌙 PAGES FROM FORGOTTEN RECORDS 📖
Sometimes...
the safest place isn't home.
It's the hand that gently says,
"Stay a little longer."
(・﹏・)
----
🌙 The stars may fade, and memories may sleep...
But the Spiral continues to turn.
Until we meet again beneath the same forgotten sky.
\(･◡･)/
— SakuraShinomiya