[Touhou Ship Week Day 4: Habits. Komachi/Eiki, 1.3k words]
Eiki didn't actually catch Komachi napping on the job more than a couple of times per month. To begin with, Komachi procrastinated so often that if Eiki had tried to find her each and every time she slunk away from the river, the queue of souls to be judged would have effectively come to a standstill. Furthermore, it was Eiki's understanding that instead of simply idling away the hours, Komachi spent a lot of her time in Gensokyo talking to people and steering them in the right direction, something which would have been admirable had it taken place when she was not on the clock.
That afternoon, however, Komachi was in fact taking a nap. She lay on her back on a bed of cosmos flowers with one arm serving as a pillow. Despite her relaxed pose, her face showed little restfulness: as Eiki watched her, she tossed her head to the side with a deepening frown.
"Komachi." When calling the name had no effect, Eiki nudged Komachi's shoulder with her foot. "Wake up, Komachi."
Komachi murmured something inaudible in a tone of vague distress. She remained otherwise still.
Eiki crouched down next to her, likewise frowning. She hadn't known Komachi to be prone to nightmares. "Komachi?"
She received another murmur in response, this one somewhat impatient. From this close up, she could almost make out the words.
"Give you what?" She leaned her head closer to Komachi's in hope of catching her next response. "You had better not be asking for five more minutes."
Komachi twisted on the ground, freeing her previously trapped arm, then stilled again. Their faces were almost touching now, and so Eiki began to straighten up as she considered her next move.
Before she could manage it, however, a pair of arms locked around her and pulled her firmly against the flowers.
---
Komachi knew she was dreaming from how her circumstances had suddenly drastically improved. In a mere moment, she had gone from being stalked by hostile spirits indifferent to her warnings in a frozen wasteland to a soft, seemingly endless bed with a kitten curled up next to her.
She concluded she too was a kitten in this dream — she certainly felt fluffy and drowsy enough to be one — and decided to do what kittens did best, which was to snuggle close to the other kitten and relax. Ah, yes. There was that hazy bliss she had been looking for from the moment she had closed her eyes.
She purred contentedly, rubbing her face against the other kitten before resting her face against the soft fur of its head. The most awake part of her knew the dream was about to dissolve back into reality, but then the last moments were always the sweetest. Instead of worrying, she focused on hugging the other kitten and marvelling at just how real the sensations felt.
When she opened her eyes and discovered she was once again herself, the bed was once again a meadow, and the fellow kitten in her arms was now Lady Eiki, she didn't mind. She was still dreaming, after all, and the shift in the dream was a welcome one. She sighed against Lady Eiki's forehead and closed her eyes again, hoping the dream would last for a few minutes longer.
Wait a moment.
Reluctantly, she re-opened her eyes. Sure enough, that was Lady Eiki in her embrace. However, if this were really a dream, wouldn't Lady Eiki have hugged her back instead of lying there as if she had been struck on the head with an anvil? Besides, now that Komachi was paying attention, she could literally hear Lady Eiki's pulse going haywire, wild and bird-like and definitely real.
...Oh crap.
At once wide awake, she launched herself off Lady Eiki and scrambled groggily to her knees, only to smash her head back down to the ground in surrender. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
At first, Lady Eiki said and did nothing. Finally, she made a barely audible shift. By the time Komachi risked a glance upwards, she was sitting upright with a faraway look in her eyes.
"It was an accident," Komachi continued hastily. Better to get the apologies out loud and early. "I didn't mean to do that. Honest!"
"...It's fine." Lady Eiki sounded unusually distant, as if she were the one only just waking up. "You're not accountable for what you do in your sleep."
Komachi studied Lady Eiki's face, and, upon discovering no signs of anger and only continued dazedness, heaved a sigh of relief and sat back up. Now that her initial panic had ebbed, the verdict made sense. "Right." Then, as Lady Eiki still remained frozen, "Are you okay?"
"I'm well enough. However..." Lady Eiki straightened her posture and once again seemed like her usual self until she narrowed her eyes. "Komachi, why were you asleep in the middle of the day in the first place?"
Oops.
Komachi suffered through the ensuing downpour of reprimands with a mixture of mortification and relief. All was at it always was, and there was some comfort in that.
Even so, for the second half of the lecture she found her mind drifting time and time again back to the few brief moments between sleep and wakefulness when things had seemed not just better than always, but like all was right in the world.
---
Komachi's boat lay abandoned against the shore, with Komachi nowhere in sight. Eiki tried and failed not to sigh.
She set off towards Gensokyo at once. There was no reason not to: she had the time today, and besides that, Komachi had been almost absurdly lax in her duties for several days in a row and needed to be warned of the consequences of her deeds once again. This wasn't even the first time she had been completely absent since...
Eiki didn't blush easily. In fact, she was generally capable of keeping her emotions under control: while some of her colleagues disagreed, she felt that maintaining a polite but firm mien was very useful in her line of work.
Then there was Komachi. More specifically, there was the memory of Komachi's arms around her, her hair tickling Eiki's face, her breath soft and sweet and her murmurs caressing as she pressed her body closer to Eiki's.
Glad she was alone, Eiki paused and wrapped her arms around herself, hoping the feeling that something was missing would fade soon. It had been a mistake. Komachi hadn't meant anything by it and would undoubtedly be highly uncomfortable if Eiki brought it up again. It was stupid to keep dreaming about it, let alone to keep interrogating herself over why she hadn't even attempted to pull away after the initial shock had passed. The answer was at once obvious and highly dangerous.
Yes, none of that. She would find Komachi and drag her back to work, and eventually she would be able to look her in the eye without dreaming about things that couldn't be. That was all there was to it.
---
Komachi breathed in the scent of wildflowers and cracked one eye open to see if anyone was nearby. She was still alone on the meadow.
She relaxed again, savouring the coolness of the grass. Lady Eiki would eventually find her "napping". She always did. How exactly Komachi would then suggest that this time they could cuddle a bit less accidentally was still up in the air, but she wasn't worried. The words would come. It was worth the shot.
Until then... she yawned widely and tried not to doze off in earnest as she dreamt of the future.
