The Light of my Life

In Momo we Trust

As the two ate Tamotsu had laid his phone out on the island counter beside his plate. Lily wiggled in her seat as she munched on her Hamburger steak. She loved the runny yolk all over her steak with the tasty burger sauce with it. She was bad at  cooking and if left to her own devices she would purchase fast food and microwavable meals from the convenience store every day. In fact... that was what she had been doing. 

When Illyana was eighteen she decided that it was best to live on her own. She didn't get on well with her mother who was a control freak and was quite selfish for an adult. Illyana was left to do most of their household chores so when she told her father she wanted to live alone, and knowing well her mother's personality, abided by it. He got her an apartment where she could get to the agency with ease and was close enough that if any of the sisters needed help they could depend on the other. Vampir and Devil families were quite close knit even if there were those who committed their beliefs otherwise, but there was always that one outlier and Lilitu was it. She was self-serving, which was not surprising for a Devil, but she failed to uphold the responsibility she had to her clan and caused considerable turmoil within the family ranks. If not for Helel's first wife Lilitu would have been difficult to control. 

Illyana had lived on her own for a few months already. Her father would occasionally check in until he became too busy so left it up to her sisters. Illyana's oldest sister, Silvia, had been the one in charge of checking in Illyana day to day. She was Lily's half sister, but the girls were close nevertheless. In fact Lily was Silvia's favorite, just don't tell the others. Silvia would check in once or twice a day. By what she could understand Illyana was eating quite a bit and semi-regularly throughout the day. With her busy schedule that was expected. 

But it wasn't until the little princess began suffering fainting spells that clued in the elder sibling something was going on. Silvia came to learn that Illyana was mostly subsisting on convenience store food and hadn't a domestic bone in her body. It would have come to her as a surprise if not for the fact Illyana's mother was notoriously lazy and had everything she could possibly manage, done for her. She had thought Illyana a bit more responsible, but she could no longer be trusted to prepare her own meals. With Silvia in charge of that they continued to leave Illyana on her own.

Without meals to worry about all she had to handle was arriving at her jobs at the appointed places and times, but when she started to show up late or altogether miss them her family had to intervene once again. This time it seemed Illyana was having difficulty keeping her timetables straight and missing her departure times by several minutes. The next oldest sister, after Silvia, was Mika. Known as the goddess of secretaries, the silver-blonde bombshell was an expert in time management and was able to get Illyana to get going when she needed to, but further downhill did Lily go. If one ever wondered what happened when they put off doing laundry  for too long, what would happen? You would end up in a situation where you had somewhere to go but nothing to go in. With that the youngest sister came to the rescue. 

Mina and Mika were full sisters, but half sisters to Silvia and Illyana. Well it became Mina's job to get laundry done. Even with all this Illyana insisted on living alone so with Silvia cooking everyone's meal, the sisters would eat together at the apartment she, Mika and Mina shared. Mika would manage everyone's schedule since she didn't have to worry about cooking and washing. Mina did all the washing so didn't have to cook or worry about her schedule. But then it all broke down. 

Illyana lost not only her phone, but Silvia's, Mika's and Mina's in the span of ten minutes when she was left in the apartment alone with her only task being to wash the dishes. Later the poor phones were found in the compost bin with the discarded food scraps. 

That was when the sisters decided Illyana needed her own manager and placed all the responsibility back onto their father. What they weren't expecting was attracting Mori Tamotsu, quite known around Akihabara being he was a ward of the Xie family who ran the popular internet cafe among the gaming elite. The rumored Casanova who had wooed the eligible heir to the Xie family Xie Liu. The Peril of Futaba Highschool that stood over the bodies of his enemies and the Monster of Yokohama. All these rumored titles, exaggerated roles. He had a reputation that went beyond his own recognition. And when he was in his interview with Helel and was asked about all of them?

"Oh that? Rumors. I can't tell you how they came about. My father's a salaryman and my mother is a housewife. I went to Ochiba University for Interior Design. My senpai suggested this position to me, he said it would fit me." 

With that Helel read his resume and his reference. It was perhaps the fastest the man had ever hired anyone. 

Tamotsu became indispensable in Lily's day to day life. Once he took charge she was no longer eating like a trash panda. Her sleep improved, she always had outfits to wear and she was never late to her jobs again. 

"What's that?" Lily leaned over, looking at the calendar Tamotsu kept her schedule in.

He held out his hand and caught some grease that dripped from her fork, which was dangling right over his screen. "You have an interview in the evening, but we have a full day tomorrow so I'll sit here and eat breakfast with you so you don't skip it."

Lily would pout. "I said I wasn't going to skip breakfast again." He didn't let these things go!

"Mmhmm." He disagreed, but set down one of the Onigiri she bought to bribe her. 

The woman gasped. Setting her fork down she quickly unwrapped the plastic from the riceball and would happily stuff her face. These were the tastiest treats and she could and would eat so many if given the chance. Tamotsu smiled softly, but when Lily looked over it was gone and serious Tamotsu was back at it. 

"Now that I have your attention..." He mused. "We have a dress rehearsal in the morning with Shu-senpai. After we're meeting the company's president, your father, for the weekly report. You're still on probation after ruining your sisters' phones." Lily sulked at this. "We have lunch with the rep from Jumper Magazine. And the interview in the evening. After that we'll have dinner."

Lily hummed as she finished off her treat. "So an ordinary day tomorrow, huh?"

"It will be if you don't sneak off while I'm scheduling it." He would smile, still annoyed she had skulked off. 

Lily would grin nervously. "I-it wasn't as if you didn't know where I was going!" She would satisfy her ego with that answer, even if it fell flat on its face like she had almost done in that situation. 

Tamotsu arched his brow. "But that aside since today is officially done now that we've finished with dinner -- you should go wash up and I can do the dishes and start laundry, alright?" 

Lily brightened up. She felt absolutely dreadful and wanted to wash the day's stench and grime off. She would have done so earlier but her shows were on and Tsmotsu was making her dinner. Sigh. He would make a great wife one day.

Xie Liu was lucky. He got to eat Tamotsu's cooking and spend his free time with Tamotsu too! It made her a little envious. She wanted to get closer to Tamotsu. She had known him for four years now, but she felt like she hadn't gotten any closer. She has yet to learn much of anything of his personal life save that Shunso and her bodyguard, Dilwyn, were classmates of his. Senpai. But that meant they knew him even longer than she did! 

Tamotsu was amazing in a lot of ways and she wanted to repay him for everything he does for her. But what could she do knowing so little about his likes and dislikes. 

Tamotsu watched as Lily seemed to have a moment of internal struggle. She was wrestling with something that twisted her mood. He reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder.

"Wait here. I'll draw your bath." His words were softly spoken. "And I'll add your favorite herbs, alright?"

Illyana smiled weakly and nodded. He could probably sense she was stressed after today. A lot of things went wrong before Tamotsu made them better. She knew that were he to ever leave her side she'd struggle and probably would be unable to chase her dream any longer.

"Thanks. Momo always knows best." Her words were warm, but that nickname -- well only if Lily said it, it was fine.

"You're okay Lily. I know you can do more than people think. I'll help you until you succeed." He promised.