Suddenly, her roaming green eyes caught sight of something bright sitting right near his keyboard, and a tiny, wicked smile instantly crawled onto her face.
She quickly glanced back up at Mr. Kamitani's face, inspecting his tightly covered eyes and his completely drained, silent posture.
In order to fully confirm that he was absolutely, completely asleep before launching her tiny attack, she leaned in even closer to his ear, dropping her voice to a barely audible, testing whisper.
"Ayato...?" she breathed out softly, waitingl to see if his instincts would switch on.
When his tall body didn't move a single fraction, she narrowed her green eyes playfully and decided to throw a funny, chaotic talk into his ear to trap him.
"I completely know you are wide awake right now, Counselor." she whispered in a sharp, teasing tone, watching his face with absolute intensity.
"The High Court doesn't train people to sleep this deeply. Get up."
She stood perfectly still, waiting for a few quiet seconds for any kind of sudden response, fully expecting him to stop pretending, open his dark eyes, or at least let out a guilty gasp.
She watched his hands over his face, completely focused on verifying whether he was secretly awake or truly dead to the world.
But after a few long, silent seconds, there was absolutely no response at all.
The room remained completely quiet, and the heavy, slow rise and fall of his chest proved that Mr. Kamitani was, for once, truly and genuinely fast asleep under the crushing weight of his heavy workload.
An immensely wicked, triumphant grin instantly spread all the way across Mrs. Kamitani's face.
She let out a tiny, secret giggle, completely rejoicing in her silent kitchen-revenge victory right there in the dark room.
"Hehe... finally caught completely off guard, 'The Shield of the Court...'" she whispered to herself in pure, dramatic triumph, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
She reached her hand out across the messy wooden table, quietly sliding a bright sticky note pad toward her fingers.
She grabbed a black ink pen, clicked it softly, and quickly began scribbling a formal document right onto the small piece of paper.
Using her sharpest, neatest corporate layout handwriting, she wrote out the text line by line:
* PROPERTY OF
* MRS. YUNA KAMITANI
* NAME: AYATO KAMITANI
* AGE: TOO OLD FOR THIS NONSENSE.
* CONDITION: SLEEP-DEPRIVED.
* MAINTENANCE REQUIRED:
° Coffee
° Sleep
° Hair repairment
° Wife supervision
* WARNING:
° Do not attempt to die.
° Replacement costs are unacceptable.
— Your Completely Unbothered Wife
----
Mrs. Kamitani grinned widely, admiring her absolute masterpiece of a corporate asset tag under the dim blue light of the computer screen.
"Hehehe..."
She carefully peeled the sticky note off the pad, holding it between her fingers like a supreme judge delivering a final verdict.
Stepping in close, she raised her hand and placed the sticky note directly onto his left cheek, letting out a sharp, tiny slap against his skin to make sure the adhesive stuck completely flat against his skin.
SMACK!
"Hmph!" Mrs. Kamitani let out a proud, stubborn scoff, pulling her hand back and crossing her arms tightly over her light blue-grey cotton pajamas as she rejoiced in her brilliant work.
She threw her head back slightly, praising her own legal genius while looking down on the sleeping High Court Attorney with an immensely dramatic, theatrical flair.
"A complete and utter victory for the Corporate Firm." she whispered to herself in a highly exaggerated, boastful murmur, completely proud of her petty revenge.
"The great 'Shield of the Court' has been officially marked and contained by his corporate wife! You are absolutely no match for me, Ayato."
Deep inside his heavy, exhausted mind, Mr. Kamitani was actually not fully asleep at all.
He had been floating in a shallow, half-awake state of deep exhaustion, but the very millisecond his wife's soft, familiar pajama footsteps had entered his workspace, his elite legal instincts had completely kicked in.
He had purposely remained frozen, pretending to be fast asleep with his large hands blocking his face, simply because he wanted to see what she would do.
The moment her gentle fingers had slid under his collar to carefully loosen his suffocating tie, a warm wave of absolute comfort had rushed through his chest.
'Marked and contained, huh?' Mr. Kamitani thought to himself, a soft, invisible smile tugging deep within his mind as the tiny sticky note was slapped flat onto his left cheek.
'My corporate wife seems to be in a very good, mischievous mood tonight.'
Without even opening his dark eyes for a single fraction of a second, he had noticed and felt every single little thing she did.
He had happily remained completely still, purposely letting her fuss over his messy desk and his wild hair because he absolutely loved it when she took care of him like that.
Right beside him, Mrs. Kamitani was still completely caught up in her own little world, happily humming a sweet line of her song while whispering more dramatic, playful insults right to his face.
"Completely contained..." she whispered with a highly satisfied, proud little smirk, completely oblivious to his inner thoughts. "Sleep well, my stubborn opponent."
Believing her secret midnight mission was a total, absolute success, she turned her chin around, her soft cotton pajamas rustling slightly as she prepared to slip away into the dim shadows of the bedroom.
But right as she took her very first step to leave, something suddenly caught her.
Before she could even move an inch, a large, warm hand suddenly reached through the darkness, his long fingers smoothly wrapping around her slender wrist with an incredibly firm, deliberate, and dizzying grip.
Mrs. Kamitani instantly halted in her tracks, her breath completely catching inside her throat.
"Wah—?!" she let out a sharp, startled gasp, her heart violently slamming against her ribs in total shock.
She quickly turned her head over her shoulder, her green eyes widening as she looked down at his desk.
Mr. Kamitani was still stretching his tall frame backward against the leather office chair, his long legs extending under the table.
However, his right hand was no longer covering his face—it was the very hand currently wrapped tightly around her warm wrist, his thumb gently pressing against her racing pulse.
His left hand remained lazily propped up on his forehead, pushing his tangled hair back as he looked straight up at her blushing face, a devastating, intensely handsome smirk pulling at his lips.
"A-Ayato...?" Mrs. Kamitani stuttered out in complete, wide-eyed horror, her legal composure instantly shattering into a million tiny pieces.
Mr. Kamitani's dark eyes gleamed with absolute amusement under the dim blue light of the screen, the ridiculous corporate sticky note still perfectly attached to his left cheek.
"By the way..." he spoke up, his deep voice filled with a thick wave of playful mischief.
"Your Bankai was rather impressive, Darling."
Hearing those specific words, Mrs. Kamitani's face instantly flushed a deep, burning crimson color that rushed all the way down to her neck.
"Y-You...!" she gasped out, her sentences completely messy, and broken as she tried to pull her wrist away, failing miserably against his strength. "You... you heard that?! Did you seriously hear that?!"
"Every single word." Mr. Kamitani smirked wider, his deep voice vibrating softly through the dead silence of the four o'clock hour.
"W-Were you awake this entire time?!" she demanded, her chest heaving as she glared down at him in pure, flustered embarrassment.
Mr. Kamitani slowly closed his eyes for a brief second, letting out a soft, exhausted sigh through his nose before opening them to look right back into her watery green eyes.
"Didn't you say it yourself just a moment ago?" he teased softly, his eyes locking onto her flustered face with immense fondness.
"High Court lawyers are trained not to sleep this deeply. I was simply following your legal logic."
"I-I never said anything like that!"
Mrs. Kamitani panted out, stuttering rapidly as she desperately tried to deny her secret whispers. "You are completely hallucinating from lack of sleep!"
Mr. Kamitani didn't argue with her frantic denial. Instead, his gaze turned incredibly intense and heavy with affection.
He slowly pulled his left hand down from his forehead, his long fingers reaching up to gently capture her free hand.
Without a single word, he pulled her hand closer to his face, lazily and softly resting his cheek right against her soft palm for a long, quiet second.
He closed his eyes, leaning his heavy head completely into her touch as though turning her hand into his personal pillow was the most natural, automatic thing in the entire world.
The rough, prickling feeling of his midnight stubble against her soft skin sent a violent jolt of electricity straight up Mrs. Kamitani's arm, making her entire body shiver.
"A-Ayato...?" she gasped out, her voice completely cracking in the quiet room.
Her face instantly turned a violent shade of crimson. All her proud, boastful confidence evaporated into thin air as she tried to pull back, her fingers trembling against his cheek.
"W-What are you... let go! What do you think you are doing?!"
----
🖋️ AUTHOR'S NOTE 🌙
Today's chapter contained...
❌ No terrifying rituals.
❌ No ancient prophecies.
❌ No world-ending catastrophes.
Just two exhausted adults who somehow turned 4 A.M. into a battlefield over coffee, sticky notes, and wounded pride.
I had way too much fun writing these two.
Sometimes I think Ayato and Yuna secretly forget they're married and start treating each other like mischievous rivals... only to end up taking care of one another anyway.
Also...
Poor Mr. Kamitani.
Imagine pretending to be asleep just to enjoy your wife's quiet acts of kindness...
...only to wake up wearing an official "Property of Mrs. Yuna Kamitani" label on your face.
I'd call that a successful mission.
Thank you, as always, for reading.
The Spiral will return soon.
(≧▽≦)☕
---
✦ 🔮 A GLIMPSE INTO THE NEXT CHAPTER 🔮 ✦
"What awaits beyond this page...?" 🌙
(灬･◡･灬)♡
"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?"
"Ouch???"
----
🎬 BEHIND THE SCENES! 🌸
Yuna: "He's asleep."
Ayato: Pretends to sleep.
Yuna: Writes a sticky note.
Ayato: Keeps pretending.
Yuna: Slaps it onto his face.
Ayato: "...Worth it."
(￣▽￣)✨
----
🌙 The stars may fade, and memories may sleep...
But the Spiral continues to turn.
Until we meet again beneath the same forgotten sky.
(*´ω｀*) ✨
— SakuraShinomiya