Chocolate fic for wendyjoly
To: wendyjoly
From: cupid_johnny
Title: To Have or Have Knot
Pairing: Enomoto Kei/Aoto Junko (Kagi no Kakatta Heya)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Aoto Junko needs a date for her friend's wedding and Enomoto is her only hope.
A/N: For wendyjoly, who wanted a fic about two opposite characters finding themselves together in an extraordinary situation. I don't think I got the "extraordinary" part, but you can't find two more opposite characters than Erika Toda's excitable Junko and Ohchan's taciturn Enomoto! I hope you enjoy, dear. :)
Enomoto Kei was rarely disconcerted. One of the many benefits of having a very logical brain was that he could break down any situation into its most basic pieces, regardless of complexity, and then fit them back together in a navigable sequence. When any event in any given day could be broken down and then reconfigured into a logical pattern, be it selecting a brand of breakfast cereal or decrypting a high security museum vault's dual custody combination lock, there were very few things that could qualify as daunting.
Unfortunately, "very few" was not the same as "none." And right now, this very morning, Enomoto Kei was faced with one of the most intimidating situations he had ever encountered.
"Eh?" he said, though his voice sounded far away in his ears.
"Onegaishimasu!" Aoto Junko, his occasional colleague and friend, stood before him, hands clasped under her chin in a pleading gesture. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She was less standing and more bowing, bent so deeply at the waist that Kei found himself gazing at the small of her back. Her shirt had ridden up a bit, revealing a patch of pale skin and a tantalizing hint of shadow at the top of her slacks that, if it were just a BIT wider, might reveal a little more...
He blinked, then cleared his throat. "I've never done it before."
"I promise, I won't be a bother!" Junko straightened up, eyes bright and hopeful. "Please? I don't have anyone else to ask. I could ask Serizawa-san, I suppose, but that would be a little awkward. And he'd probably say something that would embarrass me."
"Hai."
Junko groaned unhappily and plunked herself down in one of the chairs that ringed his metal worktable. "Maybe I should take up Misato-chan on her offer to set me up with one of her fiance's groomsmen," she mumbled, resting her chin on her crossed hands and staring glumly into space. "It's so embarrassing to have no one to go to the wedding with. No one tells you that when you become a lawyer you end up an old maid!"
She looked like a wilted lily in her cream suit, slumped over his table. "I'll go."
"Daijoubu, Enomoto-kun. I understa- Eh?" She sat up and gaped at him, eyes wide. "Hontoni?"
"Hai."
"You'll be my date for Misato-chan's wedding?"
"...Hai." The term "date" was also disconcerting. He didn't know how he felt about her using it so blithely.
"Uwaaa, Enomoto-kun, thank you!" The pretty young lawyer leaped out of her seat and flung her arms around him in an exuberant hug. "This will be perfect! Thank you!"
Aoto-san had a habit - a disconcerting habit - of invading his personal space. It was something he'd come to expect, and while he didn't always appreciate the closeness he knew that she didn't do it to deliberately make him uncomfortable. Aoto-san was just one of those people who showed her emotions with her whole body, like a jumping bean.
(Not that jumping beans had emotions. They were just seed pods that had been implanted with the larvae of a kind of moth. If the jumping bean had any particular emotions to show it would be hard pressed to show them due to the cramped confines of the-)
He stopped his mental lecture before it got too carried away and he lost track of time. When that happened Aoto-san tended to get very anxious and would usually throw a cup of water in his face.
Suffice to say, Aoto-san reminded Kei of a novelty jumping bean, albeit one that hadn't been impregnated with moth larvae and was just naturally bouncy. Sometimes he considered telling her so but didn't think she'd appreciate the metaphor.
The hugging, though; that was new. Kei didn't consider himself a hugger. He was more of an Observer of Hugs, enjoying them politely from a reasonable distance without actually taking part, and excusing himself from the scene if the embrace carried on for longer than 2.75 seconds. That said, this particular hug was proving to be quite... pleasant. If not for the fact that his entire body had gone rigid as a flagpole the instant she touched him and his arms refused to move from their stubborn place at his sides, he might actually have hugged her in return.
Maybe. Probably not. You had to learn to walk before you could run, after all.
"The wedding's in two weeks," Junko enthused, pulling away from him and simultaneously pulling Kei's attention back into the here and now. "Do you have something to wear? If not I can get you something. I know someone who's about your size. Do you mind? Borrowing an outfit I mean. I'd buy you one but I don't really have that much left over from my paycheck after bills and groceries, and Serizawa-san is a stickler about getting expensive coffee when we're out and about-"
"I have a suit."
"You do?" She blinked in surprise.
"Yes."
"Ehhh? I don't know why, Enomoto-san, but I never imagined you'd have had reason to wear a suit."
"Occasions arise."
"Ne?" She tilted her head, and the jumping bean was replaced for the moment with a bright-eyed, curious squirrel. "It doesn't have to be formal. Just a nice blazer and dress slacks. Misato-chan is having a beach wedding."
"Yes. I have something suitable."
"Ah. Good." She offered him a coy smile. "Thank you again, Enomoto-san. I owe you a big favor for this. You're saving my life."
Kei felt his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed. "Hai." It seemed the best thing to say.
-----
"That's all he said? Just, 'Hai'? Oi, straighten your back, I've got to tie this nice and tight." Misato tugged the knot at the small of Junko's back.
"You don't know Enomoto-kun like I do," Junko explained, letting her friend fuss around her to make the final adjustments to the bridesmaid gown. "When he says 'Hai,' he's really saying a lot more."
"Oh? Like what? 'Yes, Junko-chan, I'm looking forward to attending the wedding with you, and maybe afterwards we can indulge in some white hot nookie?'"
"Mi-chan!" Junko squeaked, swatting at her friend. The bride-to-be giggled and ducked out of the way. "It's not like that!"
"Mm-hmm. Well it will be by the time the reception's over. If Enomoto-san doesn't end up wanting to tear this dress off you and take you to bed then I have to question his masculinity. I might have to question his humanity, actually, because I've got to tell you, Jun-chan, I'm having a hard time keeping my hands off you right now."
Junko giggled and shoved her friend away. "Baka." She turned around to look at herself in the full length mirror mounted on Misato's bedroom door. "Oh..."
"Ne?" Misato peered over her shoulder, beaming from ear to ear. "Didn't I tell you you'd look gorgeous in this gown?"
It had been so long since Junko had had a reason to wear a dress she'd almost forgotten what she looked like in one. It was a bit of a shock to see herself in this dress in particular, since it was so unlike her usual style. She preferred simple dresses that could be washed and worn and washed and worn and hung up in the closet without having to worry that it would get wrinkled. A floral print or pretty check was her preferred pattern, since either one could cover a multitude of sins, from coffee stains to the evidence of a leaky pen. If the dress would suit a nice bolero jacket or light sweater, all the better. She was all about practicality.
The bridesmaid gown, on the other hand, was far from being practical. It was the kind of thing she would never actively shop for, and the only reason she'd agreed to wear it was Misato had been so adamant. It was a cocktail length twist dress, in a delicate shade of buttercup yellow. The skirt was loose and fluttered prettily to just below her knees. The sweetheart neckline was low enough to make Junko blush but didn't show off too much. The cap sleeves were formed by two long swatches of cloth that draped down her back and twisted around each other (hence the name "twist dress"), then wrapped around her midriff a couple of times to cinch the waist before being tied in the back, leaving two long tails of fabric to hang down the back of the skirt. It made her blush a little darker to think that all it would take was for someone to untie the knot and the whole top would unravel...
The cool air on her bare back gave her goosebumps. She felt like a princess.
"Maybe your prince charming will want to pick your lock, ne?" Misato chirped mischievously.
Junko nibbled her bottom lip and bobbed her head in shy assent. "Hai." It seemed the best thing to say.
-----
On the day of the wedding Kei drove himself to the ceremony. "I'll be with Misato-chan until after the ceremony," Aoto had told him. "You can find your way to the beach, ne?"
The sun was warm and bright in the clear summer sky as the locksmith stepped out of his truck onto the pavement, and the breeze off the ocean was a refreshing change from the recycled air of his basement office.
"Ah! Enomoto-san!" He turned from his study of the ocean to find a young woman in a frilly yellow and white sundress waving wildly at him from across the parking lot. Behind her he could see the rows of chairs lined up along an arbitrary aisle laid with boards like a boardwalk, framed at its foot by a trellis decorated with brightly colored irises and cymbidiums, and terminating in a similarly decorated platform that was further draped with fluttering, gauzy curtains. It appeared that a number of guests had already arrived and were splitting their time between their seats and the refreshments that were laid out on a long table under a tent pavilion set back from the staging area.
"You're Enomoto-san, ne?" the young woman asked cheerfully as he approached her.
"Hai."
"I thought so! I saw your truck."
She beamed at him, apparently waiting for him to respond to her statement of the obvious. He glanced over his shoulder at the familiar truck with TOKYO TOTAL SECURITY emblazoned on the side in large blue letters, then turned his attention back to the perky young woman. "Hai," he agreed.
"I'm Miko, Junko-chan's friend. Hajimemashite." She bobbed a quick bow. "Aoto-san wanted me to make sure you got a good seat up near the front on the bride's side. I'm glad I caught you! I saved you the perfect seat. Follow me!" She skipped away.
Another jumping bean, Kei mused as he followed her at a more reserved pace. Perhaps it was contagious.
"Here you go!" Miko chirped, gesturing to the end seat closest to the aisle in the front row. "See, I even put your name on it."
Sure enough there was a sign taped to the chair back with Enomoto Kei written on it in florid kanji, decorated with little hearts and what looked like flying puppies.
Kei nodded. "Hai." Then, because she still seemed to be waiting for a response. "I'll sit here."
"Do you want something to eat? Drink?"
"No, thank you."
"If you do there are refreshments and things back there under the pavilion."
"Yes, I saw."
When it became clear that he wasn't going to offer up anything more substantive, Miko gave him a bright smile. "Well, okay! I've got to get back to greeting the guests. Bye now!"
Kei watched her scamper away back up the aisle. Possibly Jumping Bean Syndrome was something women picked up from each other, like synchronized menstrual cycles. It would make an interesting study. Of course, there were clear differences. Aoto-san's bounciness was oddly attractive, whereas Miko-san's was a little bit cloying...
His thoughts continued to wander until he became aware that the other guests had all returned to their seats and were now standing expectantly. Ah, he thought. It's begun.
The color of the day appeared to be yellow, from the groom and his best man's yellow cummerbunds to the butter-and-egg daisy pattern on the young flower girl's sundress as she clumped along, scattering youthful handfuls of yellow flower petals down the aisle.
The bridesmaids all wore the same shade of buttercup yellow, though Kei was intrigued to see that each gown was different. One was a fluttery tea-length gown with a halter closure; another was a sleek sheath with a pencil skirt and no sleeves. He'd studied up on potential gowns to ensure his own simple blue blazer and linen slacks would be suitable for a beach wedding, and he felt a smug sense of satisfaction that he'd chosen well. With interest he peered down the aisle to see what Aoto-san was wearing.
Oh. Oh...
"Hi, Enomoto-san!" she whispered, eyes sparkling as she drew abreast of him and cast a furtive wave.
She'd already passed him before he had the presence of mind to respond, and he turned to let his eyes follow her the brief distance down the remainder of the aisle. Her back was virtually bare, save for the twisted wrap that served as sleeves and belt. It startled him to realize her calves were visible, as the dress only reached past her knees. It had never occurred to Kei that Aoto Junko had legs underneath her practical pants suits. Quite nice legs. Shapely and smooth, and looking very elegant in a pair of simple yellow sandals with a slight heel; it probably didn't make sense to wear fancier shoes for a beach wedding. She had a freckle on the back of her left knee, at the top of her calf, and he wondered if there were more further up, or if it was just one lonely freckle on an expanse of pale, creamy skin.
Kei suddenly became aware of the sounds of people shuffling around as the wedding guests took their seats and he quickly followed suit. The bride and groom were already gazing at each other, blissfully happy, and Kei took a moment to appreciate the fine tailoring of the man's suit and the excellent beading on the woman's veil, before turning his attention back to Junko.
The sound of the minister faded into the background, blending with the rush and fall of the waves in the background as Kei studied Aoto-san's gown. He found his eyes inexorably drawn to the knot at the back of her dress. It seemed to be all that was holding the gown together, which presented a series of interesting questions. How tight was the knot tied? Was it a special knot? Was it difficult to undo it? Was it all an illusion and there was really a zipper or a button cunningly hidden away under the soft jersey material?
It was like discovering a new lock made of fabric, and Kei realized with a bit of a start that he wanted to know how to open it.
His heart gave a little jump-thud in his chest. That was new. Perhaps he'd picked up the Jumping Bean Syndrome from Miko-san and it was making his organs do strange gymnastics. His stomach, too, he discovered, was starting to move around, fluttering a bit but not really bouncing. It was probably difficult for the stomach to actually jump around, restricted as it was by the barrier of other organs and bone around it.
His eyes were drawn to the solitary freckle on Junko's leg again. There had to be more. It didn't make sense for a person's genetic structure to allow for only one freckle on an otherwise unmarked body, let alone in such an arbitrary place. The sea breeze plucked at the skirt, and Kei found his eyes drawn to the flashes of skin that were revealed each time the fabric shifted around her legs. Looking for freckles, of course.
He felt a stirring in his lap and looked down at his neat linen trousers, which were feeling somewhat tighter than they had that morning as he dressed. "Oh."
The rest of the ceremony was spent trying to focus on the history of modern tumbler locks in an effort to quiet the Jumping Bean Bug that had taken up residence in his pants.
-----
Junko found Enomoto at the reception just as the sun was setting. He was standing off by himself, not far from the open air bar on the hotel's patio, gazing out at the ocean and sipping a glass of ice water. Between photos and toasts and hugs and more photos she hadn't seen him since the ceremony ended, and was afraid he'd left without saying goodbye. Not that she would have been offended; she was used to Enomoto-san's little ways by now and knew he didn't mean any harm with his brusque manner. No, she wouldn't have been offended.
But she would have been disappointed.
"Enomoto-san!" She moved toward him, her glass of champagne still bubbling and fizzing in her hand. "I'm sorry that I left you all alone so long. Misa-chan wanted to take so many pictures of the bridal party, and then I had to help her change into the gown for the reception, and there was just so much to do, and-"
"You have a freckle."
Junko blinked as he interrupted her spiel. "Eh?"
"You have a freckle." And then he reached down and tapped the back of her calf with one of his elegant fingers. "Here."
She gaped at him for a moment, then downed half her champagne in one swallow. "Oh?"
"Do you have others?"
Aaaand there went the rest of her champagne. "I... other freckles?"
"Hai." As always his face betrayed nothing about what he was thinking, his eyes placid and idly curious. Junko found it fascinating. On the surface he was still, but she knew that behind those dark eyes his brain was working, clicking like the tumblers in his favorite locks, moving, moving, connecting and disconnecting, sensing patterns and discarding wasteful thoughts, and summing all of it up with a simple Hai.
No wonder he wore such thick frames on his glasses. Anything else would have melted under the sheer intensity of his mind.
"I... have a few." She blushed and placed her empty glass on the bar, smiling at the bartender in an unspoken request for a refill.
"Where?"
Oh God. The air was suddenly stifling despite the cool sea breeze, the champagne only slightly helping to ease the tension in her belly. "That's rather private, Enomoto-san."
"Ah." He nodded and looked away at the ocean again, sipping his water.
Okay, Junko. Now or never. You can do it. Seize the day. No take backs. Fighting! "Do... do you want to know where they are?"
The heat in her cheeks could have lit a candle as he turned his singular attention back to her. The idle thought occurred to Junko that Enomoto-san wasn't a multi-tasker. Everyone else she knew, herself included, always seemed to be doing a hundred things at once: talking on the phone, sending email, and drinking coffee while running to catch the train. But not this funny little man in front of her. There was a preternatural quality to him that reminded her of a panther; focused, but never really motionless. Always observing, never daydreaming. He seemed to live entirely in the moment, but his ability to solve seemingly unsolvable puzzles indicated that he was always standing with one foot in the past and another in the future, effortlessly straddling the line of cause and effect.
She blinked herself back into the here and now when she realized he was talking to her. "Would I like to see your private freckles?"
He asked it in that steady, unwavering tone of his, and it sounded so ridiculous that Junko had to cover her mouth to hold in the giggles that threatened to bubble out of her like the fizz in her champagne flute. "Well, yes," she finally managed to respond, her lips still twitching. "I suppose you could say it like that."
He tilted his head, watching her quietly for a moment. Junko took the opportunity to sip some more of her champagne, hoping that her yellow dress wasn't contrasting too badly with the tomato red of her face. She must look like a ketchup and mustard stain against the fairytale backdrop of the wedding reception.
"Hai."
Junko nearly snorted her champagne in her rush to respond. "Eh?"
"I would like to see your private freckles," Enomoto explained calmly. "Hai."
The champagne was mixing with her racing pulse and the salt spray of the sea to make her dizzy. "Honto?"
"Hai."
"...Now?"
"Hai." Then, to her surprise, he added, "I've been wondering about them since the ceremony. I thought you must have more. I wanted to know where they were."
That was perhaps the most Enomoto Kei had ever said to her that wasn't in direct response to a question or else an explanation to one of the various Locked Room cases they'd worked on together. For a moment she was too shocked to speak. From Enomoto Kei that much unsolicited talk was the equivalent of a dozen folios of Shakespearean sonnets.
"I have a room," was what she finally managed to say when her voice started working again. "Here, at the hotel."
"Okay."
"Shall we go?"
"Hai."
The universe seemed to be moving much too quickly under her feet as Junko led the placid locksmith back into the hotel's ballroom. When she told Misato that she was going to head up to bed the bride gave her a knowing grin and a hug and then shooed her out of the room, Enomoto a quiet shadow at her heels.
By the time they reached her room Junko's hands were shaking with nervousness. She managed to drop her keycard three times before Enomoto took it from her fingers and easily slotted it into the card swipe. The indicator light flashed green, accompanied by the gratifying ca-chunk of the lock opening.
"I should have let you do that from the start," Junko said with a shy smile as she stepped around him into the room. "Enomoto-san is the master when it comes to locks, after all."
"Hai." A simple statement of fact, and yet it did things to Junko that made her blush.
Enomoto stood in the middle of the simple, western-style room and looked around with calm interest as Junko set aside her clutch and carefully removed her jewelry. She was determined not to make a fool of herself, and the easiest way for her to regain control of her emotions was to act as businesslike as possible. Practicality was Aoto Junko's middle name. Earrings in the jewelry tray, necklace coiled up beside them. Dressy watch with the faux pearls around the face tucked neatly into her purse.
A hand touched her lower back and she gave a little gasp of surprise. "Oh!"
"How does this work?" Enomoto's voice was very close, his breath a warm whisper across the nape of her neck.
It took her a moment to realize he was talking about the knot of her gown. "Oh. It's... I don't know exactly. Misato-chan helped me dress." She glanced over her shoulder at him and felt her skin warm to see the way his attention was focused on the knotted fabric at the small of her back.
"I wondered about this, too," he murmured, and Junko again felt the thrill of hearing him speaking to her umprompted. It was like her birthday, Christmas, and White Day had all come early. "During the ceremony. I wondered how to open it."
She stood very still as she felt his fingers brush delicately across her back. "Do you think you figured it out?" she heard herself murmur, her gaze still fixed over her shoulder on his studious face.
The room was quiet for a minute as Enomoto continued to examine the knot. And then, slowly, he raised his right hand, cradling his elbow with his left, and began to rub his fingers together beside his temple. Junko felt her pulse begin to speed up, her skin beginning to tingle in anticipation.
Then, two short twists of his hand, as if turning the key in a door in his mind.
"Ah," he said, and without looking at her dropped both hands to the knot. "Souka."
"Eh? Did you- OH!" Junko squeaked as he gave a sharp tug on the knot, then she gasped as the fabric parted easily and slithered away from her body like a living thing. Her arms crossed instinctively over her chest as the twist dress untwisted, leaving her bare from the waist up.
She turned around and gaped at her companion. "Enomoto-san!"
He gave her that small, almost imperceptible smile that he so rarely shared with anyone. "Ah," he said softly, raising a hand and drifting his fingers across her collarbone, gently moving her hand aside until his index finger could come to rest on a small freckle in the hollow of her shoulder. "One."
Junko blushed and offered him a small smile. "There are more," she murmured.
His smile got a little wider. "Show me."
----
Aoto-san was sleeping on him.
Kei gazed at the ceiling above the bed, watching the delicate interplay of sun and shadow as the pearly light of dawn slowly gave way to the steadier sun of early morning. He was generally an early riser and today was no different, even though his activities the previous night were more energetic than his usual routine. He'd woken up, reached for his glasses on the nightstand, recognized where he was and with whom, and that was that. It was not an entirely unpleasant way to start the day, he decided. It certainly had its benefits.
The young woman beside him yawned and nestled closer, one leg draped languidly across his stomach. Kei turned his gaze away from the ceiling to study her sleeping face. She was starting to wake up, probably driven by the invasive morning light as much as by her own internal clock.
Aoto Junko hid a lot more than just a pair of pretty legs under her standard business attire. It was going to be difficult to look at her now without mentally cataloging and cross-referencing all the different parts and places she usually kept hidden away from the world. He found that he'd developed a particular fondness for the shadow in the valley between her breasts, and the little crease at the top of her thighs, just beneath her buttocks. His hand drifted down to graze his fingers back and forth across the latter spot, enjoying the way the saccades of her eyes sped up as she drifted closer to consciousness.
"Whosat?" Junko mumbled without opening her eyes.
"Enomoto Kei desu."
"Mmm..."
Suddenly her eyes flew open and she gaped at him. Kei watched with interest as she sat bolt upright in bed, clutching the sheet around her bare body and staring at him with a mix of embarrassment and anxiety. Her face turned a rosy pink - Persian rose his brain supplied helpfully - when she realized that taking the sheet had left him exposed himself, and she hurriedly scrabbled to free a bit of the blankets to throw over him.
"Y-you're still here," she stammered.
Kei tilted his head and wondered, not for the first time, if he was the only person in the world who didn't state the obvious. "Hai," he agreed.
"I... I didn't think you'd stay."
"I'll leave." He started to sit up but found himself borne back to the bed as Junko threw herself at him and shouted, "NO!"
They lay there for a minute in silence. Enomoto took the opportunity to resume his study of the ceiling. An area near the wall was a few shades lighter than the rest of the ceiling; someone had painted it eggshell white instead of cream, probably to cover some unsightly water damage.
"Sorry," Junko said against his shoulder, and he drew his attention back to the blushing young lawyer currently draped across his body. She was giving him an embarrassed look. "I didn't mean to body slam you like that."
"It's okay."
"I didn't actually want you to go away."
"I understand."
"I was just surprised that you stayed. I didn't think you'd want to stay."
"It's okay."
"I'm glad you did, though. Stay I mean. All night." She offered him a shy smile. "Arigatou."
"You're welcome."
They stayed like that for a few more minutes. It was surprisingly comfortable. Kei realized that he didn't mind Aoto-san's invasion into his personal space so much this time. Maybe it was because she wasn't bouncing like usual and seemed much more calm. Jumping Bean Syndrome wasn't a 24/7 condition apparently.
'Bouncing Aoto-san' triggered a pleasant memory of the previous night, and Kei let himself drift happily there until the woman in question chose to break the silence.
When she did it was to groan as she buried her face in his shoulder. "Oh God."
"Is something wrong?"
"Misa-chan is going to be impossible."
"Why?"
"She knows what I did last night with you. She's going to bombard me with awful puns and try to make me blush so she can tease me."
"Puns?"
"Yes. 'Did his key fit your lock?' or 'Did he turn your tumblers?' or 'Did he guess your combination?'" She groaned again and raised her head to give him a pitiful pout. "Can we stay in bed and skip breakfast? Hopefully she'll be gone by the time I checkout."
Kei considered his level of hunger against the opportunity to spend more time lying next to a naked Aoto Junko. "Hai."
She gave him a brilliant smile and pecked him on the lips before pulling back in embarrassment. "Gomen, I shouldn't just … kiss you like that."
"It's okay."
"You... don't mind?"
"No."
"Honto?"
"Hai."
"Oh. Good." Another shy smile followed by another kiss, this one slightly longer.
"Ohayo, Enomoto-kun," she murmured against his lips.
"Ohayo," he replied softly.
A playful twinkle lit her eyes. "Did you find all my freckles?"
"Hai."
"How many were there? Or did you lose count?"
"Thirty-eight."
"Only thirty-eight?" She looked disappointed. "Maybe you missed some."
"No."
"I bet you did. It was kind of dark."
"We left the light on."
She blushed. "Hai, but still. You might have missed some."
"No."
"Enomoto-kun." Her tone was more firm and he blinked at the sudden shift in her expression, from shy to slightly exasperated. "You probably missed some." Her voice was insistent, trying to coax him along. "Why don't you double check."
"I didn't-"
"ENOMOTO-KUN." She raised her eyebrows at him as she removed his glasses, placing them neatly on the nightstand. "Count. Them. Again."
Kei stared at her for a moment until the tumblers clicked into place in his head.
Oh.
"...Hai," he agreed, watching a mischievous smile spread across Junko's face. "That's a good idea."
"You're not the only smart one around here, Enomoto-kun," she reminded him before tumbling back to the bed in a fit of giggles as he started re-counting her freckles with his lips, starting with the one in that ticklish spot at the top of her right breast.
He smiled against her skin and said, "Hai."
The End
From: cupid_johnny
Title: To Have or Have Knot
Pairing: Enomoto Kei/Aoto Junko (Kagi no Kakatta Heya)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Aoto Junko needs a date for her friend's wedding and Enomoto is her only hope.
A/N: For wendyjoly, who wanted a fic about two opposite characters finding themselves together in an extraordinary situation. I don't think I got the "extraordinary" part, but you can't find two more opposite characters than Erika Toda's excitable Junko and Ohchan's taciturn Enomoto! I hope you enjoy, dear. :)
Enomoto Kei was rarely disconcerted. One of the many benefits of having a very logical brain was that he could break down any situation into its most basic pieces, regardless of complexity, and then fit them back together in a navigable sequence. When any event in any given day could be broken down and then reconfigured into a logical pattern, be it selecting a brand of breakfast cereal or decrypting a high security museum vault's dual custody combination lock, there were very few things that could qualify as daunting.
Unfortunately, "very few" was not the same as "none." And right now, this very morning, Enomoto Kei was faced with one of the most intimidating situations he had ever encountered.
"Eh?" he said, though his voice sounded far away in his ears.
"Onegaishimasu!" Aoto Junko, his occasional colleague and friend, stood before him, hands clasped under her chin in a pleading gesture. Well, that wasn't entirely true. She was less standing and more bowing, bent so deeply at the waist that Kei found himself gazing at the small of her back. Her shirt had ridden up a bit, revealing a patch of pale skin and a tantalizing hint of shadow at the top of her slacks that, if it were just a BIT wider, might reveal a little more...
He blinked, then cleared his throat. "I've never done it before."
"I promise, I won't be a bother!" Junko straightened up, eyes bright and hopeful. "Please? I don't have anyone else to ask. I could ask Serizawa-san, I suppose, but that would be a little awkward. And he'd probably say something that would embarrass me."
"Hai."
Junko groaned unhappily and plunked herself down in one of the chairs that ringed his metal worktable. "Maybe I should take up Misato-chan on her offer to set me up with one of her fiance's groomsmen," she mumbled, resting her chin on her crossed hands and staring glumly into space. "It's so embarrassing to have no one to go to the wedding with. No one tells you that when you become a lawyer you end up an old maid!"
She looked like a wilted lily in her cream suit, slumped over his table. "I'll go."
"Daijoubu, Enomoto-kun. I understa- Eh?" She sat up and gaped at him, eyes wide. "Hontoni?"
"Hai."
"You'll be my date for Misato-chan's wedding?"
"...Hai." The term "date" was also disconcerting. He didn't know how he felt about her using it so blithely.
"Uwaaa, Enomoto-kun, thank you!" The pretty young lawyer leaped out of her seat and flung her arms around him in an exuberant hug. "This will be perfect! Thank you!"
Aoto-san had a habit - a disconcerting habit - of invading his personal space. It was something he'd come to expect, and while he didn't always appreciate the closeness he knew that she didn't do it to deliberately make him uncomfortable. Aoto-san was just one of those people who showed her emotions with her whole body, like a jumping bean.
(Not that jumping beans had emotions. They were just seed pods that had been implanted with the larvae of a kind of moth. If the jumping bean had any particular emotions to show it would be hard pressed to show them due to the cramped confines of the-)
He stopped his mental lecture before it got too carried away and he lost track of time. When that happened Aoto-san tended to get very anxious and would usually throw a cup of water in his face.
Suffice to say, Aoto-san reminded Kei of a novelty jumping bean, albeit one that hadn't been impregnated with moth larvae and was just naturally bouncy. Sometimes he considered telling her so but didn't think she'd appreciate the metaphor.
The hugging, though; that was new. Kei didn't consider himself a hugger. He was more of an Observer of Hugs, enjoying them politely from a reasonable distance without actually taking part, and excusing himself from the scene if the embrace carried on for longer than 2.75 seconds. That said, this particular hug was proving to be quite... pleasant. If not for the fact that his entire body had gone rigid as a flagpole the instant she touched him and his arms refused to move from their stubborn place at his sides, he might actually have hugged her in return.
Maybe. Probably not. You had to learn to walk before you could run, after all.
"The wedding's in two weeks," Junko enthused, pulling away from him and simultaneously pulling Kei's attention back into the here and now. "Do you have something to wear? If not I can get you something. I know someone who's about your size. Do you mind? Borrowing an outfit I mean. I'd buy you one but I don't really have that much left over from my paycheck after bills and groceries, and Serizawa-san is a stickler about getting expensive coffee when we're out and about-"
"I have a suit."
"You do?" She blinked in surprise.
"Yes."
"Ehhh? I don't know why, Enomoto-san, but I never imagined you'd have had reason to wear a suit."
"Occasions arise."
"Ne?" She tilted her head, and the jumping bean was replaced for the moment with a bright-eyed, curious squirrel. "It doesn't have to be formal. Just a nice blazer and dress slacks. Misato-chan is having a beach wedding."
"Yes. I have something suitable."
"Ah. Good." She offered him a coy smile. "Thank you again, Enomoto-san. I owe you a big favor for this. You're saving my life."
Kei felt his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed. "Hai." It seemed the best thing to say.
-----
"That's all he said? Just, 'Hai'? Oi, straighten your back, I've got to tie this nice and tight." Misato tugged the knot at the small of Junko's back.
"You don't know Enomoto-kun like I do," Junko explained, letting her friend fuss around her to make the final adjustments to the bridesmaid gown. "When he says 'Hai,' he's really saying a lot more."
"Oh? Like what? 'Yes, Junko-chan, I'm looking forward to attending the wedding with you, and maybe afterwards we can indulge in some white hot nookie?'"
"Mi-chan!" Junko squeaked, swatting at her friend. The bride-to-be giggled and ducked out of the way. "It's not like that!"
"Mm-hmm. Well it will be by the time the reception's over. If Enomoto-san doesn't end up wanting to tear this dress off you and take you to bed then I have to question his masculinity. I might have to question his humanity, actually, because I've got to tell you, Jun-chan, I'm having a hard time keeping my hands off you right now."
Junko giggled and shoved her friend away. "Baka." She turned around to look at herself in the full length mirror mounted on Misato's bedroom door. "Oh..."
"Ne?" Misato peered over her shoulder, beaming from ear to ear. "Didn't I tell you you'd look gorgeous in this gown?"
It had been so long since Junko had had a reason to wear a dress she'd almost forgotten what she looked like in one. It was a bit of a shock to see herself in this dress in particular, since it was so unlike her usual style. She preferred simple dresses that could be washed and worn and washed and worn and hung up in the closet without having to worry that it would get wrinkled. A floral print or pretty check was her preferred pattern, since either one could cover a multitude of sins, from coffee stains to the evidence of a leaky pen. If the dress would suit a nice bolero jacket or light sweater, all the better. She was all about practicality.
The bridesmaid gown, on the other hand, was far from being practical. It was the kind of thing she would never actively shop for, and the only reason she'd agreed to wear it was Misato had been so adamant. It was a cocktail length twist dress, in a delicate shade of buttercup yellow. The skirt was loose and fluttered prettily to just below her knees. The sweetheart neckline was low enough to make Junko blush but didn't show off too much. The cap sleeves were formed by two long swatches of cloth that draped down her back and twisted around each other (hence the name "twist dress"), then wrapped around her midriff a couple of times to cinch the waist before being tied in the back, leaving two long tails of fabric to hang down the back of the skirt. It made her blush a little darker to think that all it would take was for someone to untie the knot and the whole top would unravel...
The cool air on her bare back gave her goosebumps. She felt like a princess.
"Maybe your prince charming will want to pick your lock, ne?" Misato chirped mischievously.
Junko nibbled her bottom lip and bobbed her head in shy assent. "Hai." It seemed the best thing to say.
-----
On the day of the wedding Kei drove himself to the ceremony. "I'll be with Misato-chan until after the ceremony," Aoto had told him. "You can find your way to the beach, ne?"
The sun was warm and bright in the clear summer sky as the locksmith stepped out of his truck onto the pavement, and the breeze off the ocean was a refreshing change from the recycled air of his basement office.
"Ah! Enomoto-san!" He turned from his study of the ocean to find a young woman in a frilly yellow and white sundress waving wildly at him from across the parking lot. Behind her he could see the rows of chairs lined up along an arbitrary aisle laid with boards like a boardwalk, framed at its foot by a trellis decorated with brightly colored irises and cymbidiums, and terminating in a similarly decorated platform that was further draped with fluttering, gauzy curtains. It appeared that a number of guests had already arrived and were splitting their time between their seats and the refreshments that were laid out on a long table under a tent pavilion set back from the staging area.
"You're Enomoto-san, ne?" the young woman asked cheerfully as he approached her.
"Hai."
"I thought so! I saw your truck."
She beamed at him, apparently waiting for him to respond to her statement of the obvious. He glanced over his shoulder at the familiar truck with TOKYO TOTAL SECURITY emblazoned on the side in large blue letters, then turned his attention back to the perky young woman. "Hai," he agreed.
"I'm Miko, Junko-chan's friend. Hajimemashite." She bobbed a quick bow. "Aoto-san wanted me to make sure you got a good seat up near the front on the bride's side. I'm glad I caught you! I saved you the perfect seat. Follow me!" She skipped away.
Another jumping bean, Kei mused as he followed her at a more reserved pace. Perhaps it was contagious.
"Here you go!" Miko chirped, gesturing to the end seat closest to the aisle in the front row. "See, I even put your name on it."
Sure enough there was a sign taped to the chair back with Enomoto Kei written on it in florid kanji, decorated with little hearts and what looked like flying puppies.
Kei nodded. "Hai." Then, because she still seemed to be waiting for a response. "I'll sit here."
"Do you want something to eat? Drink?"
"No, thank you."
"If you do there are refreshments and things back there under the pavilion."
"Yes, I saw."
When it became clear that he wasn't going to offer up anything more substantive, Miko gave him a bright smile. "Well, okay! I've got to get back to greeting the guests. Bye now!"
Kei watched her scamper away back up the aisle. Possibly Jumping Bean Syndrome was something women picked up from each other, like synchronized menstrual cycles. It would make an interesting study. Of course, there were clear differences. Aoto-san's bounciness was oddly attractive, whereas Miko-san's was a little bit cloying...
His thoughts continued to wander until he became aware that the other guests had all returned to their seats and were now standing expectantly. Ah, he thought. It's begun.
The color of the day appeared to be yellow, from the groom and his best man's yellow cummerbunds to the butter-and-egg daisy pattern on the young flower girl's sundress as she clumped along, scattering youthful handfuls of yellow flower petals down the aisle.
The bridesmaids all wore the same shade of buttercup yellow, though Kei was intrigued to see that each gown was different. One was a fluttery tea-length gown with a halter closure; another was a sleek sheath with a pencil skirt and no sleeves. He'd studied up on potential gowns to ensure his own simple blue blazer and linen slacks would be suitable for a beach wedding, and he felt a smug sense of satisfaction that he'd chosen well. With interest he peered down the aisle to see what Aoto-san was wearing.
Oh. Oh...
"Hi, Enomoto-san!" she whispered, eyes sparkling as she drew abreast of him and cast a furtive wave.
She'd already passed him before he had the presence of mind to respond, and he turned to let his eyes follow her the brief distance down the remainder of the aisle. Her back was virtually bare, save for the twisted wrap that served as sleeves and belt. It startled him to realize her calves were visible, as the dress only reached past her knees. It had never occurred to Kei that Aoto Junko had legs underneath her practical pants suits. Quite nice legs. Shapely and smooth, and looking very elegant in a pair of simple yellow sandals with a slight heel; it probably didn't make sense to wear fancier shoes for a beach wedding. She had a freckle on the back of her left knee, at the top of her calf, and he wondered if there were more further up, or if it was just one lonely freckle on an expanse of pale, creamy skin.
Kei suddenly became aware of the sounds of people shuffling around as the wedding guests took their seats and he quickly followed suit. The bride and groom were already gazing at each other, blissfully happy, and Kei took a moment to appreciate the fine tailoring of the man's suit and the excellent beading on the woman's veil, before turning his attention back to Junko.
The sound of the minister faded into the background, blending with the rush and fall of the waves in the background as Kei studied Aoto-san's gown. He found his eyes inexorably drawn to the knot at the back of her dress. It seemed to be all that was holding the gown together, which presented a series of interesting questions. How tight was the knot tied? Was it a special knot? Was it difficult to undo it? Was it all an illusion and there was really a zipper or a button cunningly hidden away under the soft jersey material?
It was like discovering a new lock made of fabric, and Kei realized with a bit of a start that he wanted to know how to open it.
His heart gave a little jump-thud in his chest. That was new. Perhaps he'd picked up the Jumping Bean Syndrome from Miko-san and it was making his organs do strange gymnastics. His stomach, too, he discovered, was starting to move around, fluttering a bit but not really bouncing. It was probably difficult for the stomach to actually jump around, restricted as it was by the barrier of other organs and bone around it.
His eyes were drawn to the solitary freckle on Junko's leg again. There had to be more. It didn't make sense for a person's genetic structure to allow for only one freckle on an otherwise unmarked body, let alone in such an arbitrary place. The sea breeze plucked at the skirt, and Kei found his eyes drawn to the flashes of skin that were revealed each time the fabric shifted around her legs. Looking for freckles, of course.
He felt a stirring in his lap and looked down at his neat linen trousers, which were feeling somewhat tighter than they had that morning as he dressed. "Oh."
The rest of the ceremony was spent trying to focus on the history of modern tumbler locks in an effort to quiet the Jumping Bean Bug that had taken up residence in his pants.
-----
Junko found Enomoto at the reception just as the sun was setting. He was standing off by himself, not far from the open air bar on the hotel's patio, gazing out at the ocean and sipping a glass of ice water. Between photos and toasts and hugs and more photos she hadn't seen him since the ceremony ended, and was afraid he'd left without saying goodbye. Not that she would have been offended; she was used to Enomoto-san's little ways by now and knew he didn't mean any harm with his brusque manner. No, she wouldn't have been offended.
But she would have been disappointed.
"Enomoto-san!" She moved toward him, her glass of champagne still bubbling and fizzing in her hand. "I'm sorry that I left you all alone so long. Misa-chan wanted to take so many pictures of the bridal party, and then I had to help her change into the gown for the reception, and there was just so much to do, and-"
"You have a freckle."
Junko blinked as he interrupted her spiel. "Eh?"
"You have a freckle." And then he reached down and tapped the back of her calf with one of his elegant fingers. "Here."
She gaped at him for a moment, then downed half her champagne in one swallow. "Oh?"
"Do you have others?"
Aaaand there went the rest of her champagne. "I... other freckles?"
"Hai." As always his face betrayed nothing about what he was thinking, his eyes placid and idly curious. Junko found it fascinating. On the surface he was still, but she knew that behind those dark eyes his brain was working, clicking like the tumblers in his favorite locks, moving, moving, connecting and disconnecting, sensing patterns and discarding wasteful thoughts, and summing all of it up with a simple Hai.
No wonder he wore such thick frames on his glasses. Anything else would have melted under the sheer intensity of his mind.
"I... have a few." She blushed and placed her empty glass on the bar, smiling at the bartender in an unspoken request for a refill.
"Where?"
Oh God. The air was suddenly stifling despite the cool sea breeze, the champagne only slightly helping to ease the tension in her belly. "That's rather private, Enomoto-san."
"Ah." He nodded and looked away at the ocean again, sipping his water.
Okay, Junko. Now or never. You can do it. Seize the day. No take backs. Fighting! "Do... do you want to know where they are?"
The heat in her cheeks could have lit a candle as he turned his singular attention back to her. The idle thought occurred to Junko that Enomoto-san wasn't a multi-tasker. Everyone else she knew, herself included, always seemed to be doing a hundred things at once: talking on the phone, sending email, and drinking coffee while running to catch the train. But not this funny little man in front of her. There was a preternatural quality to him that reminded her of a panther; focused, but never really motionless. Always observing, never daydreaming. He seemed to live entirely in the moment, but his ability to solve seemingly unsolvable puzzles indicated that he was always standing with one foot in the past and another in the future, effortlessly straddling the line of cause and effect.
She blinked herself back into the here and now when she realized he was talking to her. "Would I like to see your private freckles?"
He asked it in that steady, unwavering tone of his, and it sounded so ridiculous that Junko had to cover her mouth to hold in the giggles that threatened to bubble out of her like the fizz in her champagne flute. "Well, yes," she finally managed to respond, her lips still twitching. "I suppose you could say it like that."
He tilted his head, watching her quietly for a moment. Junko took the opportunity to sip some more of her champagne, hoping that her yellow dress wasn't contrasting too badly with the tomato red of her face. She must look like a ketchup and mustard stain against the fairytale backdrop of the wedding reception.
"Hai."
Junko nearly snorted her champagne in her rush to respond. "Eh?"
"I would like to see your private freckles," Enomoto explained calmly. "Hai."
The champagne was mixing with her racing pulse and the salt spray of the sea to make her dizzy. "Honto?"
"Hai."
"...Now?"
"Hai." Then, to her surprise, he added, "I've been wondering about them since the ceremony. I thought you must have more. I wanted to know where they were."
That was perhaps the most Enomoto Kei had ever said to her that wasn't in direct response to a question or else an explanation to one of the various Locked Room cases they'd worked on together. For a moment she was too shocked to speak. From Enomoto Kei that much unsolicited talk was the equivalent of a dozen folios of Shakespearean sonnets.
"I have a room," was what she finally managed to say when her voice started working again. "Here, at the hotel."
"Okay."
"Shall we go?"
"Hai."
The universe seemed to be moving much too quickly under her feet as Junko led the placid locksmith back into the hotel's ballroom. When she told Misato that she was going to head up to bed the bride gave her a knowing grin and a hug and then shooed her out of the room, Enomoto a quiet shadow at her heels.
By the time they reached her room Junko's hands were shaking with nervousness. She managed to drop her keycard three times before Enomoto took it from her fingers and easily slotted it into the card swipe. The indicator light flashed green, accompanied by the gratifying ca-chunk of the lock opening.
"I should have let you do that from the start," Junko said with a shy smile as she stepped around him into the room. "Enomoto-san is the master when it comes to locks, after all."
"Hai." A simple statement of fact, and yet it did things to Junko that made her blush.
Enomoto stood in the middle of the simple, western-style room and looked around with calm interest as Junko set aside her clutch and carefully removed her jewelry. She was determined not to make a fool of herself, and the easiest way for her to regain control of her emotions was to act as businesslike as possible. Practicality was Aoto Junko's middle name. Earrings in the jewelry tray, necklace coiled up beside them. Dressy watch with the faux pearls around the face tucked neatly into her purse.
A hand touched her lower back and she gave a little gasp of surprise. "Oh!"
"How does this work?" Enomoto's voice was very close, his breath a warm whisper across the nape of her neck.
It took her a moment to realize he was talking about the knot of her gown. "Oh. It's... I don't know exactly. Misato-chan helped me dress." She glanced over her shoulder at him and felt her skin warm to see the way his attention was focused on the knotted fabric at the small of her back.
"I wondered about this, too," he murmured, and Junko again felt the thrill of hearing him speaking to her umprompted. It was like her birthday, Christmas, and White Day had all come early. "During the ceremony. I wondered how to open it."
She stood very still as she felt his fingers brush delicately across her back. "Do you think you figured it out?" she heard herself murmur, her gaze still fixed over her shoulder on his studious face.
The room was quiet for a minute as Enomoto continued to examine the knot. And then, slowly, he raised his right hand, cradling his elbow with his left, and began to rub his fingers together beside his temple. Junko felt her pulse begin to speed up, her skin beginning to tingle in anticipation.
Then, two short twists of his hand, as if turning the key in a door in his mind.
"Ah," he said, and without looking at her dropped both hands to the knot. "Souka."
"Eh? Did you- OH!" Junko squeaked as he gave a sharp tug on the knot, then she gasped as the fabric parted easily and slithered away from her body like a living thing. Her arms crossed instinctively over her chest as the twist dress untwisted, leaving her bare from the waist up.
She turned around and gaped at her companion. "Enomoto-san!"
He gave her that small, almost imperceptible smile that he so rarely shared with anyone. "Ah," he said softly, raising a hand and drifting his fingers across her collarbone, gently moving her hand aside until his index finger could come to rest on a small freckle in the hollow of her shoulder. "One."
Junko blushed and offered him a small smile. "There are more," she murmured.
His smile got a little wider. "Show me."
----
Aoto-san was sleeping on him.
Kei gazed at the ceiling above the bed, watching the delicate interplay of sun and shadow as the pearly light of dawn slowly gave way to the steadier sun of early morning. He was generally an early riser and today was no different, even though his activities the previous night were more energetic than his usual routine. He'd woken up, reached for his glasses on the nightstand, recognized where he was and with whom, and that was that. It was not an entirely unpleasant way to start the day, he decided. It certainly had its benefits.
The young woman beside him yawned and nestled closer, one leg draped languidly across his stomach. Kei turned his gaze away from the ceiling to study her sleeping face. She was starting to wake up, probably driven by the invasive morning light as much as by her own internal clock.
Aoto Junko hid a lot more than just a pair of pretty legs under her standard business attire. It was going to be difficult to look at her now without mentally cataloging and cross-referencing all the different parts and places she usually kept hidden away from the world. He found that he'd developed a particular fondness for the shadow in the valley between her breasts, and the little crease at the top of her thighs, just beneath her buttocks. His hand drifted down to graze his fingers back and forth across the latter spot, enjoying the way the saccades of her eyes sped up as she drifted closer to consciousness.
"Whosat?" Junko mumbled without opening her eyes.
"Enomoto Kei desu."
"Mmm..."
Suddenly her eyes flew open and she gaped at him. Kei watched with interest as she sat bolt upright in bed, clutching the sheet around her bare body and staring at him with a mix of embarrassment and anxiety. Her face turned a rosy pink - Persian rose his brain supplied helpfully - when she realized that taking the sheet had left him exposed himself, and she hurriedly scrabbled to free a bit of the blankets to throw over him.
"Y-you're still here," she stammered.
Kei tilted his head and wondered, not for the first time, if he was the only person in the world who didn't state the obvious. "Hai," he agreed.
"I... I didn't think you'd stay."
"I'll leave." He started to sit up but found himself borne back to the bed as Junko threw herself at him and shouted, "NO!"
They lay there for a minute in silence. Enomoto took the opportunity to resume his study of the ceiling. An area near the wall was a few shades lighter than the rest of the ceiling; someone had painted it eggshell white instead of cream, probably to cover some unsightly water damage.
"Sorry," Junko said against his shoulder, and he drew his attention back to the blushing young lawyer currently draped across his body. She was giving him an embarrassed look. "I didn't mean to body slam you like that."
"It's okay."
"I didn't actually want you to go away."
"I understand."
"I was just surprised that you stayed. I didn't think you'd want to stay."
"It's okay."
"I'm glad you did, though. Stay I mean. All night." She offered him a shy smile. "Arigatou."
"You're welcome."
They stayed like that for a few more minutes. It was surprisingly comfortable. Kei realized that he didn't mind Aoto-san's invasion into his personal space so much this time. Maybe it was because she wasn't bouncing like usual and seemed much more calm. Jumping Bean Syndrome wasn't a 24/7 condition apparently.
'Bouncing Aoto-san' triggered a pleasant memory of the previous night, and Kei let himself drift happily there until the woman in question chose to break the silence.
When she did it was to groan as she buried her face in his shoulder. "Oh God."
"Is something wrong?"
"Misa-chan is going to be impossible."
"Why?"
"She knows what I did last night with you. She's going to bombard me with awful puns and try to make me blush so she can tease me."
"Puns?"
"Yes. 'Did his key fit your lock?' or 'Did he turn your tumblers?' or 'Did he guess your combination?'" She groaned again and raised her head to give him a pitiful pout. "Can we stay in bed and skip breakfast? Hopefully she'll be gone by the time I checkout."
Kei considered his level of hunger against the opportunity to spend more time lying next to a naked Aoto Junko. "Hai."
She gave him a brilliant smile and pecked him on the lips before pulling back in embarrassment. "Gomen, I shouldn't just … kiss you like that."
"It's okay."
"You... don't mind?"
"No."
"Honto?"
"Hai."
"Oh. Good." Another shy smile followed by another kiss, this one slightly longer.
"Ohayo, Enomoto-kun," she murmured against his lips.
"Ohayo," he replied softly.
A playful twinkle lit her eyes. "Did you find all my freckles?"
"Hai."
"How many were there? Or did you lose count?"
"Thirty-eight."
"Only thirty-eight?" She looked disappointed. "Maybe you missed some."
"No."
"I bet you did. It was kind of dark."
"We left the light on."
She blushed. "Hai, but still. You might have missed some."
"No."
"Enomoto-kun." Her tone was more firm and he blinked at the sudden shift in her expression, from shy to slightly exasperated. "You probably missed some." Her voice was insistent, trying to coax him along. "Why don't you double check."
"I didn't-"
"ENOMOTO-KUN." She raised her eyebrows at him as she removed his glasses, placing them neatly on the nightstand. "Count. Them. Again."
Kei stared at her for a moment until the tumblers clicked into place in his head.
Oh.
"...Hai," he agreed, watching a mischievous smile spread across Junko's face. "That's a good idea."
"You're not the only smart one around here, Enomoto-kun," she reminded him before tumbling back to the bed in a fit of giggles as he started re-counting her freckles with his lips, starting with the one in that ticklish spot at the top of her right breast.
He smiled against her skin and said, "Hai."
The End