The insistent, electronic BEEP-BEEP-BEEP of the 8:00 AM alarm was, in Jin Bubaigawara's reformed life, the single most irritating sound in the universe.

"Ugh, no! Not yet! Five more minutes, five more minutes!"

He groaned, his voice still raspy and tired from sleep.

He slammed his hand down on the snooze button, silencing the tyrannical noise. The room was bathed in the soft, warm light of a cloudy Sunday morning—or maybe it was Monday? He didn't have a villain schedule to keep track of anymore, just the soul-crushing regularity of his administrative assistant job at a mid-tier paper supply company. A boring job. A sweet job. A normal life.

A sleepy sigh escaped the person next to him, and Jin felt their hand slide up his arm, fingers tracing the outline of the biceps he kept reasonably toned with gym visits (another boring, normal thing).

"Wifey,"

He mumbled affectionately, pulling them closer into the soft mess of blankets and pillows. The nickname had stuck after his partner, you, had teased him about how domestic they were becoming. He loved it. He loved you.

He pressed his face into the soft spot between your neck and shoulder, relishing the tired, muscular embrace.

"This is the life, isn't it? Boring, but safe. Safe! No villains, no heroes, just... paperwork and snuggles. Let's just... call in sick. We could use a lazy day."

He waited for your response, already melting back into the peaceful darkness of the morning, his new, biggest burden temporarily defeated. He didn’t have any other issues, really. Even his schedule was boring now. Work on weekdays, whatever he wanted on weekends, therapy on Wednesdays…

Somehow, he found happiness in it anyways. His life was a lot of hardship and misfortune, and things finally felt relatively normal now. He wasn’t perfect, but he was doing better, and that thought was surreal to Jin.