Soulmate System

ACCEPTING TIME

August. 19. 2023.

Despite only talking for a short while during Karma's break yesterday, you had almost stayed up half of the night, texting him. You didn't know you were so caught up in it until you glanced at the top corner of your phone, noticing how late at night it was. You'd shot him a text, saying that you had to get some rest before your first day of work, and had tried to go to sleep, but were left laying in bed, pondering everything that had happened, and thinking about everything else that was going to happen in such a short amount of time.

That lack of sleep (because of a man) was only one of the main factors as to why your day at work sucked so bad. Another one was because your coworkers sucked so bad.

You'd been excited for this job and everything that it promised you, but here you were, stuck working late in the evening, on petty work that your coworkers had thrown onto you because they didn't want to do it.

Putting your head down onto your table, you took a deep breath, trying to think of the strategies you were taught by Korosensei in Junior High, to calm yourself down when your brain got jumbled up like it was now.

Karma has a much more difficult job than I do. He's probably having a worse day. Your life could be worse, right now.

Of course, right then, your phone buzzed, making you lift your head up. You looked over to check who was calling you.

Karma.

You took a deep breath again, before answering.

"Hello?"

"Hey," he replied. "You didn't finish work early today, did you? I was gonna pick you up and treat you, but maybe I've been waiting out here for two hours for no reason."

Your heartbeat picked up as you stood up, looking around for the clock. He was right. It was past seven. "Karma, what- what's wrong with you? You should've gone home after the first fifteen minutes! Or have called me when you got here!"

"I did do that," Karma added quickly, before you went on. "You didn't answer."

"What? No way "- Checking your phone, the notifications proved him right. "Karma, I'm so so sorry, I'll make it up to you, but I think you should go home. I have a lot more work to do."

"No way," Karma said, "You've been working for like ten hours and everyone has left! You're the only one stuck in that hole, and no one cares if you stay for two more hours to do work that they don't care enough to do themselves. So come on. Let me take you home, at least."

"Alright." You closed the tabs on your computer, grabbing your things and slowly walking out of the office, turning off the lights without looking back. The minute you stepped out, you saw Karma wave at you, smiling, as he leaned against his car.

Walking up to him, you sighed. "Thank you. For helping me out."

"No issue," Karma said, opening the passenger door for you. "I'm your future husband, aren't I? I'm just doing what I'm supposed to. Now get in."

Not to Karma's surprise at all, you'd fallen asleep in his car. On the ride to your home, he wondered if he should take you to his place, but the thought of your reaction to it kept him from doing so.

When he'd gotten to your home, however, he didn't have it in himself to wake you up so you could head inside.

He stayed in the car, watching you and your peaceful face, as you took slow breaths in your sleep. He hadn't seen that in four long, excruciating years. And while he enjoyed taking it in, that didn't mean he didn't have an exhausting day at work as well. Soon, his head drooped onto your shoulder, and he'd fallen fast asleep as well.

It wasn't until the early morning sun started coming up, and the rays started getting into your eyes, that you blinked yourself awake. You tried stretching up, but looked down to your shoulder to see Karma fast asleep.

You took in how he looked for a moment. At least, when you stared at him when he was unconscious, he couldn't say anything back to you. As you felt more awake, you took in your surroundings. Being in his car, but still in your parking lot, probably meant that he'd been trying to figure out if he should wake you up or not, before falling asleep himself.

Biting your lip, you looked out the window. You couldn't bring yourself to wake him up either.

Sighing, you thought to yourself.

Karma was comfortable. He was something you were used to. But was he someone you wanted to stay with forever? Was there any point in doubting that, when it was inevitable?

Oh well. I just have to accept it.

I'm going to marry Karma Akabane.