[Fanfic, 100% Orange Juice] Domesticated

There were times in Suguri's life when speed was a necessity. Bullets, for example, did not have a tendency to hang around while you leisurely sauntered out of the way; An impending crisis did not allow you the time to drink your last sip of tea and nibble a granola bar before you set out.

Using the computer was another of these situations. Normally, Suguri used it to gather data about the state of the world's environment. While the world had more or less recovered from the Great War of the past, Suguri still had a duty to collate data, locate key areas of environmental crises, do what she could to stop them, and send back first-hand accounts of the severity when she couldn't.

The problem with using the computer was that Hime was bonded to it on a spiritual level and seemed to have a sixth sense that told her when it had been turned on. Within fifteen minutes of it being booted up, she would stop whatever she was doing and wander into the room as if drawn by magnetism. She would look at Suguri, look at the quietly humming machine on her lap, and say, in her most innocent and delighted voice: “Oh, you're using the computer? Can I see?”

The phenomenon, Suguri found, was very strong. Pots of rice had been left to burn, newspapers had gone unread, bowls of porridge had cooled into wintry oat deserts. For a few days Suguri had trialled the tactic of only using it when Hime was in the shower, but that only led to Hime meandering into the living room sopping wet, a towel clinging half-heartedly to her slender body, with complaints about having run out of some obscure bathroom necessity.

Upon discovering the computer, she would plop herself into the chair next to Suguri – curling into her body ever so slightly – and gaze at whatever data Suguri was looking at. She had a good mind for it, often remembering more than Suguri did herself. But after exactly twelve and a half minutes, without fail, she would shift ever so slightly closer and say:

“Suguri? May we watch videos of cats?”

And without fail, Suguri would sigh, look at the occasionally half-naked woman next to her, and open a video of a cat. (She was quite sure that Hime had seen every video of a cat still in existence. She was also quite sure Hime was capable of starting the computer and watching videos of cats by herself, but for some reason never had the desire to).

For the next hour or so, Hime would watch the screen with rapt attention, occasionally pausing to explain that cats were new and wonderful to her, spaceships being generally deprived of feline company. When the hour was done, she would rush off to tend to whatever calamity had ensued in her absence.

Suguri herself was not nearly so fond of cats. But she found it just as fun to watch Hime instead.

A/N: Bah. I couldn't quite squeeze in a better ending here. Oh well.