Endlessly: Doki Doki Literature Club Oneshots

Domestic Innocence (Sayori/MC)

The kitchen floor, or at least as much of it as Sayori could see, consisted of forty-two tiles, she concluded. She hoisted herself up onto the counter to get a better look and, yes, forty-two tiles. No, forty-three, she recalculated as she spotted a lone tile that had been shelled by the refrigerator.

Sayori blew a heavy stream of air through her lips, creating the sound one would use to imitate an airplane to a small child.

So this is what her boredom had come to: counting the extremities of the apartment. What would come next, Sayori thought bitterly, numbering the burst stitches in the furniture?

Sayori turned her gaze to the living room sofa and stared grumpily at the man sitting upon it. His fingers danced across the small laptop he had propped on his legs, his eyes glued to the screen. An open textbook lay on the cushion next to him, and he would occasionally cease his typing to squint at the diagrams on the pages, then promptly return to writing.

"Anon," Sayori called out to him after watching him continue along this manner of reading and typing for a few minutes. "Are you almost done?"

"No..." He responded distantly, not even looking up from his computer. "I'm still five pages short and I need this done by Friday..."

"But it's Tuesday!" Sayori whined. "You can finish five pages by then. Just take a little break for today. Please?"

He sighed, still not meeting her gaze, and poked at the backspace a few times. "I'm sorry, Sayori," he said with a hint of exasperation. "I can't rush this. It's a pretty big grade."

Sayori let out a frustrated "Humph," and glared at him, lips puckered. It had been like this for the past week and a half. Every day, he would come home from work and promptly proceed to his studies and whatever work his professors had assigned him. There was no intermission, no fun; nothing stopped him from working. And Sayori could never persuade him to take a break. Often times she would fall asleep waiting for him to come to bed, and would find him with dark circles under his eyes the next morning.

What had happened to them? They used to be so fun when they were dating, so wild and carefree. But now... Their lives were a constant routine of boredom and dull tactics.

Perhaps it was simply the monotony of adulthood. School and work and bills and living on their own. That in itself seemed like a reasonable explanation than anything else Sayori's head was able to conjure up-all of which were much more negative.

But she didn't like it at all.

Sayori slid off the counter and made her way to the couch. She knelt down and placed her chin right next to his knees, the tip of her nose brushing his laptop.

"Anoooooon," she cooed.

"Sayooorriiiiii," He returned, his typing far louder in her ears.

"I know you're smart enough to write five pages in two days."

"I can," he responded, furrowing his brow squinting at the keyboard, fiddling with a stubborn key. "But I want time to proofread and revise."

Sayori gave a little growl, one a small puppy was sure to churn out, but didn't retreat from her position, as increasingly uncomfortable as it might be. She glared up at him with a crinkled nose for several extended minutes. After her silent efforts proved fruitless, her eyes strayed across the couch, landing briefly on a stuffed lion laying on its side a few feet away. She reached for it and stared down at its face, poking at its nose. She wasn't really sure why she had kept this, let alone her entire stuffed animal collection. She could've easily left it at home, but that made the opportunity for her parents to sell it fair game, and she couldn't bear to part with any of them.