[ CARRIED ] sender notices receiver is starting to get sleepy so they pick them up to carry them to bed.
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Melissa had just returned from a trip abroad to see her parents - Ryuji was unable to accompany her for business reasons; her club was able to survive without her constant hovering presence thanks to the influence and active participation of her loyal manager, but the same couldn’t be said of her boyfriend’s takoyaki stand.
They hadn’t spent too long apart - just two weeks, but with daily texting and sometimes videocalls, but mostly because Melissa wished to make up for all the lost time when the brunette believed the ex-yakuza to have been deceased. Ryuji was kind enough to indulge her and to meet her sisters through one of these calls, but the contact had been brief: timezones were not friendly and she couldn’t keep him away during business hours.
Upon returning to Japan and to their shared home, the same energy of the former hostess remained - it was as if she wished to be around him for as long as she could and provided their schedules coincided. Even for a relatively physical person like Melissa, she still seemed to reach out for him in a rather insistent manner - as if a part of the woman’s brain still needed to be reassured that Ryuji was no ghost and that their reunited life was no dream.
And that explained how the ex-hostess fell asleep on his shoulder - they had both been watching a movie, part of this marathon that Ryuji had been keen on following and Melissa had enthusiastically agreed to keep him company. The woman made them popcorn, grabbed a few other snacks on her way home from work, even prepared a couple of fancier drinks - but the jet leg was a heavy burden, and forced the brunette’s eyelids to close.
To Melissa’s credit - she had attempted to remain awake to the best of her abilities, but the fact that the movie was going through a silent period without many explosions or gunshots didn’t help to retain her attention. At some point, Ryuji smiled - knowing that asking if his girlfriend wished to remain would result in a valiant declaration of support despite her exhausted state, he merely took matters into his own hands (quite literally), picking her up from the couch and carrying the ex-hostess to the bedroom.
The brunette stirred when Ryuji deposited her on the bed, as gentle as he had been - the woman looked confused for a bit but then understood what the ex-yakuza was doing, mumbling a protest and then clinging to the fabric of his sweater, pulling him close. Despite the lack of coherence in words, the request was clear - she didn’t want to be left alone. Chuckling, the man complied - it took him a couple of minutes to turn off the TV in the other room and get the lights off, resigning himself to an early night and sliding under the covers with Melissa.
His girlfriend was really incredibly sleepy - as soon as his arm wrapped over her waist and she got comfortable, Melissa’s voice drifted off to silence in minutes and soon enough her breathing was even, denouncing her unconscious state. Sleep didn’t come that fast for the ex-yakuza - but he didn’t betray the brunette’s confidence by escaping the bedroom once she was dreaming; Ryuji stayed there, and the presence of another warm body after a few years alone (but for his thoughts) did help keeping his nightmares at bay.