You. Again.
Summary: AU. Akari Kanzaki is a slightly jaded young woman. Kei Hazuki is an out-of-touch old soul.
a/n: Kei and Akari being awkward. Probably won't be long, and sort of disconnected, like everything I'm doing these days. Any ideas for a chap and I'll see what I can do. Also, anyone want to beta anything?
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
She should probably invest in shoelaces. Not that her shoes currently have the capacity to make use of them. But she can fix that. She has a pair of scissors. She has the ability to poke holes into almost anything. Of course she can fix it.
She should be thinking about work. What about work, she isn't quite sure, but apparently it's normal to have a healthy interest in what she'll do for the rest of the day. It'll probably be something involving a photocopier and hurting her fingers and getting yelled at, not necessarily simultaneously, but close enough is good enough. She should incorporate more idioms into her speech. It'll make her sound more intelligent.
Someone bumps into her.
'Oh… Sorry.'
'It's ok.'
She doesn't remember what she was thinking about. It couldn't have been that important if she can't remember, anyway. She should probably listen to her ipod. The music blaring from the bus speakers is awful. Something about really really really something… She can't remember the last time she willingly listened to bubblegum pop. It was probably in high school. She distinctly remembers forcing some onto Kazuma at some point, and cultivating her evil-genius mocking laughter…
'Excuse me.'
'Un.' She steps aside a little, into a smartly dressed woman – probably a secretary judging by the shovel-load of make-up – before she realises it's her stop.
She rushes to the door, collecting unfriendly looks and disapproving remarks, and makes it out in the middle of the crowd, immediately carried into the Habataki Corp building. Thirty floors up and she's at work, and as she spins her chair around and puts on her headset, Tamami mouths 'Hello' from across the room at the coffee machine.
Another day of work.
He wakes up as the train gets in; not an uncommon occurrence. He's conscious of a couple of people giving him sidelong glances as he heads to the main exit, and wonders distantly if there's something on his face. He decides it's not really worth checking and makes record time by way of five minutes rather than half an hour – usually he's woken up about twenty minutes after the train first arrives; exactly how long it takes to complete another loop.
Goro is waiting for him in true Hanatsubaki style; five inch platforms, a feathered hat and a dozen or so gold chains mean no one escapes the display. If he were newer at this, he might be worried the job might involve a similar getup. Fortunately, he knows better; Goro is simply Goro.
'Here, the yellow one,' Goro says flamboyantly, gesturing to the only vehicle he's ever seen to have what appear to be peacock feathers plastered across the roof. He doesn't mean the car itself is yellow – only the wheels.
Goro talks the thirty minute drive away, and it doesn't seem like more than another five before they arrive at Habataki, and he's greeted by a man he recognises from last week – Amanohashi? – the guy with the inescapable moustache, anyway. They usher him into the elevator and Goro must know the guy better than he thought, because he immediately dives into some rant about the lack of sense the Hanegaski Industries CEO has in selecting patterns. 'Houndstooth is a sin,' he proclaims, and Kei makes a mental note to clear his wardrobe of any trace of it. The moustache agrees, and all is silent, except for Goro, and any sound from him doesn't count.
They reach the thirtieth floor, and moustache says, 'So I'm not going to be present at the shoot today, but I understand that it should be similar to what they did with the test shots last time. Nice to see you again, Mr. Hazuki. See you later, Goro.' They exchange bows while Goro files his nails with his eyes, and then he steps out into reception and waits for someone to lead him into whatever it is he's supposed to be doing.
For a second, he can't see anything. The change in the lighting blinds him, which is ridiculous, because he's constantly being propelled from one place to another, and they're never lit the same.
Then everything clears, and he's three steps away from Akari Kanzaki, the most interesting person he's ever met.
She's embarrassed.
She wasn't really expecting anything of today, but this is probably one of the most unexpected things she could have imagined.
Kei looks as if he's going to fall asleep. She has the sudden urge to scream.
Instead, she asks, 'Are you going to sleep now?' He gives her a bleary look that clearly says 'yes', but manages not to close his eyes instantly, which she recognises as an Herculean effort. 'I'm working,' comes his familiar breathy monotone, and she feels her eyebrows rise. She won't ask the obvious – since when has that ever stopped you? – no matter how tempting.
'I thought we were having lunch.' She lets it hang; if he wants a conversation, it's there. She's not entirely sure how she got into this situation, but it's Kei, and weird things just tend to happen where he's concerned. She's gotten used to it now.
'Yes. Lunch... Are you hungry?' She grasps the escaping sarcasm before it has a chance to leap at him and tries for an informally polite response, 'If I'm not?' It's a miserable failure, but Kei has never really cared about sarcasm, and it doesn't surprise her when he doesn't react negatively.
'We could sleep.'
Things seem to have gotten simpler for him. Good for him; now he can just concentrate on the only two things he really cares about; sleeping and eating, because he looks natural when he does either of them, and there are an endless amount of products that capitalise on making both more comfortable. She's being unfair. But not very.
'Let's just go get something to eat.' He closes his eyes, inclines his head slightly and responds as if he's commanding her; 'What do you want?'
'Nourishment of some kind. Preferably tasty, and – not negotiable – within my price range.'
She's not sure why he's demanded she take her lunch with him, but she knows that this isn't how he was expecting it to go. He's probably thinking it would be more along the lines of 'Yeah, let's sleep.'
'Ok. You look nice with your hair like that.'
He's bizarre.
She looks exactly how he remembers.
Well, not exactly. She has different accessories, clothes and she wears eyeliner. Her hair is the same, though, and when she smiles, she looks the same. But she hasn't smiled at him. He's not entirely sure why, but it's probably because he's 'clumsy and awkward', as everyone keeps telling him. It's not as if it's his fault they haven't met in so long. He went to the reunions and badgered Kazuma incessantly with questions. He's still got the cat, too.
She's probably just in a bad mood. Maybe she doesn't like her job.
He likes that she looks the same. Moonstone would still suit her.
'Do you know what you want?'
He blinks.
'…Uh.'
There's a hint of a smile before she scowls. 'Come on, hurry up and decide.'
Chicken soup. He gets the feeling he might be hit if he orders just that.
'…Pork.'
'Ok, pork it is.'
'Akari?' She turns expectantly. 'Your hair is stuck on your lipgloss.'