Who we are...

battle of wills

Day 201 8:42 a.m.

"You got it?" Rikuo asked as he tutored Emily on this week's missed classes. He watched her scribble furiously at her paper and compare it to his answer. Her frown deepened.

"This doesn't make any sense!" Her voice starting to rise. Glaring at the paper one more time before letting it go, she fell back to lie on the floor.

It took him a minute to realise that she had fallen asleep on the floor. Again. He grabbed a pillow and put it under her head.

"That's the 3rd time she's fallen asleep just this week." Tsurara remarked as she came back to get a blanket.

"At least, she made it inside the house." Rikuo said as he covered the sleeping girl. They almost had a heart attack when they found Emily passed out by the gate a few weeks ago. She was obviously working herself to the ground. They've tried to tell her to take a break. She nodded understandingly but her hands were busy signing documents, glancing at other documents or segregating them. It was like talking to a wall.

But this time, Rikuo has a plan. She was taking a break whether she wanted to or not.

Day 202

Emily was having a bad day. A really, really, really, bad day. She gave Rikuo his most potent glare. The moron had the audacity to smile at her while she sat at the back of her company's van. Speaking of her company, she already deviced a plan on how to take revenge on those idiots. How dare they put a sleeping drug in her coffee when there was work to be done? She had to read a proposed merger and then there was that report from her retrieval team.

"We're here." Rikuo's voice snapped her out her thoughts.

She looked out and saw the gates of a traditional Japanese house. It was smaller compared to the Nuras but it had its own charm.

They untied her and let her out. She was rubbing her wrist as she stepped out. Immediately, she smelled saltiness in the air that could only mean the sea.

Kejoro-san grabbed her shulders from behind and pushed her towards the house. Aotabo-san, and the Kiyotsugi patrol were taking out someof the bags.

"Let me go help with the bags." Emily said as she tried to steer back to the car.

"Kejoro, keep her away from the car. She'll probably slip past and leave us here." Rikuo said to which he earned glare.

Emily stomped her way to the house. It was probably her own damn fault. A few hours earlier back in the office, Riikuo had asked her if she could get a vacation right now, would she take it? Thinking he was speaking hypothetically, she had agreed a bit distractedly, just to get him out of the office. She moved to stand up but she was suddenly hit by a wave of drowsiness. Rikuo caught her and right before she passed out, she heard her staff asking if the drug worked. When she woke up a few minutes later, she was tied up, sitting in the backseat of one of their mini vans.

++++++++++++

"You haven't stopped glaring at me since we got here." Rikuo as he stretched out in the patio. Emily was sitting not too far from him, glaring for what she's worth.

"You kidnapped me." She seethed. "I don't think you've noticed but i have work which would pile up if left unattended."

"Your work is taking its toll on you." He said sharply. He was starting to tire of her stubborn streak. "Not only is it affecting you. Your staff can barely keep up with you working them to the ground. Is that what you want?"

"I can handle the work." She said stubbornly refusing to feel guilty.

"Not anymore. Not with the sleepless nights and how little you eat. You're only human and the same goes for your staff. Kana and Tsurara says so. Stop trying to be perfect." He pointed out.

"Well, tell your girlfriends to shove their worry to where the sun don't shine. I'm aware I'm not perfect." Emily snapped at the mention of the two girls who have been giving her headaches with their pathetic attempts at flirting at Rikuo.

"Why are you angry at them for? They're just worried." He answered starting to get angry.

She gave a sharp bark of laughter.

"They're not worried for me. They're worried I might try to take their favourite yokai heir from them."

"What are talking about?" Rikuo asked.

"Oh for god's sake! Are you deliberately being obtuse? Those two are in love with you, you jerk! The least you could is to acknowledge that."

"You're imagining things."

That phrase was the last straw to her. She's heard that from countless people but she didn't expect to hear that from Rikuo.

"You're right." Her calm answer threw Rikuo off.

"The glares and flirting are part of my overactive imagination. Silly me for forgetting my crazy. If you'll excuse me..."

Then she walked away from him, muttering darkly under her breath. Rikuo was left there confused at how their conversation turned out and angry at himself for speaking so callously.

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"Anybody seen Emily-chan?" Kana asked the group as they were lounging in the patio.

"She's probably just sulking somewhere." Rikuo said which caused a lot of brows to rise. He sounded angry.

"Did you two have a fight?" Kejoro asked though it didn't seem possible.

Rikuo shrugged and stared off at a distance.

++++

"Emily-chan, where have you been? We were worried." Kana said as Emily entered the living room.

"I was out. Jogging. I needed to clear my head." Emily said choosing to omit the fact that she spent the better part of her jog, screaming at the sea.

"Dinner's ready." She said.