Chapter 26: Doomed Days

There were some days that were doomed from the start.

This was one of them for Carol.

First she had overslept and had had to start the day without coffee. Then there had been a mix-up with some orders at work, and she had had to spend hours trying to solve that while listening to complaints from angry and quite frankly terrible customers. After being told she should drown herself in cake batter, she was ready to punch someone or at least get out of work. But of course that wasn’t an option so she had to suck it up and wait until her day was over and she could expect to be treated like a human being again.

Then Sage had come home from school with a scowl on his face because he didn’t get maths well enough, and Carol had had to help him for two hours while he sulked and wasn’t being receptive to numbers at all.

She was immensely glad that Akira had invited himself over and arrived during dinnertime, so after eating some leftover casserole Carol could excuse herself for a moment and go vent her frustration over bad customers on her punching bag.

So in the end, nothing felt more rewarding than trudging back downstairs, sweaty and exhausted and watching Sage eat his cereal right on time for his bedtime. On TV, the Adventures of Super Llamas was playing. The cheery morals beat her eardrums, and she could barely lift her arms. Yet she didn’t feel sleepy at all. She was too full of adrenaline, and she was now worrying about her next day at work and Sage’s grades at school, and it didn’t help that she knew that she’d have her hands full tomorrow too, and-

“Mum, can we go to the park tomorrow after school?” Sage asked eagerly, “Please, mum?”

“Hm?” Carol managed, barely hearing what her son said.

“Muuuuum? I said can we go to the park tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” Carol mumbled, “Yeah, we can.”

“Yess! And can we have ice cream! Mum? Muuuum?”

“Your mum is really tired, Sage,” said Akira, and Carol was incredibly grateful, “I think we all need some rest now. We can make tomorrow a yet another super nice day.”

“Akira’s right,” Carol struggled to say, “Tomorrow’s a new day. But right now mum feels like a zombie.”

“Though she’s the prettiest zombie ever,” Akira joked, and Carol blushed. Was he flirting now? They had agreed not to talk about getting together. That they’d be just friends. Sure, Akira often jokingly flirted with a lot of people, and right now Carol was anything but pretty. She was sweaty, with no make-up, her hair messy, and she hadn’t even changed out of her workout clothes. So yeah, it was most likely nothing. Just a joke.

“Do you want to kiss mum now?” Sage asked almost excitedly. His eyes twinkled like mischievous, naïve stars.

Akira laughed. Carol put her face in her hands.

“Alright, young man, it’s time to go to bed now.”

“But-!”

“No buts. Go!”

After Sage was tucked in and quickly falling asleep, Carol waded through metaphorical fudge to get back downstairs. Akira was still there, now holding a bowl of granola Carol had made to get her mind off her troubles. He would stay the night, like he always did when he visited for longer. San Myshuno was too far away for this hour. Carol would have to sleep on the couch in the gym, but usually she didn’t mind if it meant that Akira was there for longer. But after the rough day, she was too exhausted and sad to even feel the normal amount of joy about Akira. She let out a long sigh.

“Well, it’s been… a day,” she said, “Sorry for inviting you over into this sad-fest.”

“I remember inviting myself,” Akira said, “I don’t mind. We all have bad days sometimes.”

He smiled.

“Maybe you just need to forget about all the worries and the messes for a while before you go to bed. Clear your head, you know?”

He nodded towards the TV, where the llama heroes were still hopping around and apparently defeating their enemies by throwing vaguely ninja weapon -shaped food at them.

“Maybe we should start by watching something else on TV. I don’t think that candy cane nunchaku is historically accurate anyway.”

Carol chuckled and picked up the remote.

“Sure. It’s film time on most channels. Let’s see… ooh, Roaring Vice!”

She felt more than saw Akira smile at her.

“Old-timey gangsters and art deco? I’m in!” he said and moved, and suddenly he was sitting next to her, still eating his bowl of handmade granola. Carol straightened her back, not sure what to do.

Stupid. You watch a film with a friend, that’s what!

Wow, sometimes her mind could be very snippy even to herself. At least it wasn’t so dark and blaming her for everything anymore. Just… well, most things.

Ugh. I really need a break. Akira’s right.

Carol had seen the film before at least twice, but she liked it a lot. It was a pretty basic crime drama about a private detective named Garth, who tried to solve a case by posing as a new member of a gangster gang. It all was full of 1930s pinstripe suits, tommy guns, flapper girls, and amazing architecture and really sleek cars that looked amazing during car chases. Usually Carol wasn’t a car enthusiast, but there was something about the old 30s cars that made her aesthetic heart leap. And the main leads were charming and fun. The whole film was fun, and Carol especially liked the part where-

“Look!” she said excitedly, “This is the part where Boss Tommy Toms has a talk with Garth. He suspects him, and it’s so tense!”

“Hey, don’t spoil it,” Akira whispered, “I haven’t seen this yet.”

“You haven’t?”

“Nope. I just know of it. So- man, this is tense.”

“Wait ‘till you see the car chase!”

“I said don’t spoil- oooh, wow, that singer is hot.”

Carol rolled her eyes.

“She’s… alright I guess. But I think the leading lady Anne is way better-looking. I love her hat. And she rocks the black dress.”

“I like women who can sing,” Akira said, “That dress really does suit Anne, though. She’s gorgeous too. As is the gangster woman in red.”

“Oh, so all the ladies are your type now?” Carol rolled her eyes, “You know, you’re so cute and awesome that you can have standards.”

Akira raised a brow. Carol looked at him for a little too long and then realised that the stare was turning meaningful. She turned away awkwardly and barely heard Akira say:

“Oh, yeah? They’re all famous, talented actresses. I’d say that’s standards enough.”

Carol shook her head and laughed to get over her nervousness.

“Just don’t start mooning over the ladies too much. I want to watch this.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Even though Carol felt like she was putting all the feet in her mouth all the time, she had to admit that she was still enjoying herself. Being with Akira was easy, even if there were too many thoughts and feelings involved. He looked so at home in his skin, his grungy clothes and his smile. He even looked at home on Carol’s couch.

Okay, don’t go there. You talked about this.

She forced herself to drown her thoughts in gunfire and classy jazz.

After the credits started to roll, Carol realised that she had just spent almost two hours without feeling so terrible and so much like she had been crushed flat. She rested her head on the couch cushions and watched the names scroll over the awesome cars that were still on the screen.

“This helped a lot,” she said, “Thanks, Akira.”

Akira smiled.

“Anytime. And now I think you should go to sleep. You can have the bed if you-“

“No, it’s for you. You’re a guest.”

“It’s really no problem-“

“Get in bed and stop playing hero, dummy!” Carol swung her arm wildly, pointing a very demanding finger towards the staircase. Akira laughed again, and Carol relaxed even more when she heard it.

“Alright, alright. I’m going.”

Before he walked away, though, he seemed to think very long about something, and then he said in an especially gentle tone:

“Just so you know, none of the ladies were as gorgeous as you.”

Carol stared.

“Wait, wha-?”

But Akira was already gone. By the time Carol got her brain working enough to move, Akira was sleeping, or pretending to be asleep.

Oh, damn, now there was no way Carol could get any sleep tonight. Stupid brain and stupid thoughts and stupid feelings!

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Author’s Note: This was… surprisingly easy to write, considering this was again way out of my comfort zone. Maybe I’ve got better? Or then I’ve just lowered my standards. 😀

I hope you enjoy!

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