Thump! Crash! Stamp! Yukiko Amagi was accustomed to rude awakenings, but never had they been quite so violent.
She didn't even wait for word from one of her maids; it was obvious this was going to be a manager-type problem. Technically, she shouldn't have been sleeping, but her half hour breaks had always devolved into such in recent years. She wasn't ever going to find time for it anyway. Always busy. Always working.
Clad in her 2nd favorite pink kimono, the once heiress glided down the staircase, feeling the usual pain her posture granted her back and heels, and calmly strode to the desk, deciding she was willing to give up slots in the hot springs to soothe the guest from the grievances, or at a push, a free dinner, not including the specials however.
It wasn't a guest. Chie Satonaka, in the muted blue uniform of the Inaba police department, had both her hands on the wooden surface, and was practically seething at her receptionist. Yukiko managed to contain her surprise at seeing her once (Technically still, the manager corrected sullenly) best friend, keeping her expression passive. "Is there a problem?" She asked in her flowery monotone.
Chie's head snapped to her, and she forgot all the terrified employee. Trying to claw back her composure, but not quite being able to force a smile, she said simply, "We need to talk."
The taller girl nodded stiffly. "I'm listening."
The brunette scowled, hotly, intensely, leaving a silence the receptionist tried to unwisely snatch upon. "I told her you were having a break and not to be-"
"Shut up!" Chie roared, sending her cowering behind her desk, Yukiko watching with only a mild disinterest. Her stoicism only further enraged her friend, who closed the gap and started talking low. "I didn't even want to be here, alright? I just saw this building, your goddamn fortress, and I couldn't walk away. I had to do this." She exhaled, but still spoke with quiet fury. "I'm leaving, tomorrow. You can do whatever the hell you want. But before I go, I need to know: Why?"
The kind of anger displayed by a customer is quite different than that shown by someone with legitimate outrage, but Yukiko kept her response the same. "Follow me," she said, turning on her heels, to a room she knew was unoccupied, where they could have privacy. She never looked back, but the creaking of wood behind her told her that her invitation had been accepted. Her friend couldn't help but hate the decor. The inn she had visited countless times was rather plain, which she thought made it look classy. Now its owner had made everything her favourite colour, with red carpets, red throws, red fittings, while odd patches of the old rustic brown wood of the past were, for her, a sad reminder of happier times. She was ushered into a room with little fanfare, while her host geustured to the futon on the floor. "Please, sit."
While she didn't particularly want the manager's hospitality, she slowly took her seat on the mattress, and stared at her flatly. It was only after a few moments of a thick silence that Yukiko realised what she had to do, and sat down cross-legged on the hard floor in front of her guest. Satisfied, Chie rubbed her right eye, and began to speak. "Look at you. Look at us. We're both young. We both have so much time..." She trailed off, and Yukiko let her find her words, the martial artist's slow breathing being an oddly soothing thing about the whole situation. "I know we made that pact. But the murders were years ago now, and I'm honestly not sure where we can both keep going with it..."
Ah, the pact. A double-murder in the town had been its biggest news for a century. At first, Yukiko tried to spin it as a good thing, murder equals journalists, journalists equal customers, customers equal profit, and so forth. That had been the case, for a while. But the truth is, an investigation with so few leads didn't hold much of a story. Worse, a town with a murderer who remains at large to this day is not most people's idea for a holiday destination. With one of the victims having been last seen under the roof of the Amagi Inn especially, business started fading, and the stress of the incident forced the old manager to retire, leaving Yukiko an entire inn to run before even graduating high school. It was a lot to take.
But she wasn't alone. Chie was there. She was always there, pulling shifts at the inn whenever she was needed, cheering her up during the months where they were mere hundreds of yen away from going under. She was her best friend. Forever. One night, they on top of the hill, gazing at the stars, when she had made a declaration. "I want to be here for you, Yukiko," she had said, "To help you run the inn. To help protect the town from any other scumbags who want to ruin the place. To..." her voice dropped to a whisper, "Protect you, really." So they agreed. To stay in the town, to help rebuild, to help each other. But time is something that always erodes such promises.
"...But now I don't know what to think," Chie continued. "I know you hate working here. I know you resent everyone in town. Tatsumi-san said you were barely listening when you picked up your last order from her." She screwed up her eyes and shook her head. "Just... Why? Do you want to hurt yourself? Do you want to live like this forever?"
Yukiko snorted. Not like she did when she was younger, where the strange noises never stopped. This was one of derision, honed during countless time spent having to train employees who were absolutely useless. Hurting herself? This was so melodramatic, so absurd. She caught Chie's eye, and tried to raise her chin in a regal manner. "You still don't understand do you? Hah, why should you even bother at this point..." Her friend saw through her gaze quite easily however, seeing her old friend playing the ice-queen, in one of her mother's many oversized dresses. But just as she could see something fall through, a shine in the eye, a tear perhaps, the woman closed herself up, like one of the fan's she used when greeting her customers. Staring, hard, Yukiko spoke harshly. "I was entrusted with the running of this inn with my birth. The Amagi family has owned this place over generations, hard times or not, and I don't intend to break that tradition." She tried to stop talking, but then began to say much more than she ever planned. "Yes it's hard. Yes I've dreamed of being somewhere else, being someone else. But this is what I have to do, and eventually we will be successful again, and I can pass this burden on to someone else."
The manager's confession burst out of her far too quickly, leaving her red-faced, and breathing heavily. Chie peered at her, the pang of sympathy for her friend larger than ever, but her frustration was many times that. She moved over to her friend, and gently, but forcefully, she took hold of Yukiko's shoulders, and threw her sideways onto the bed. There was little resistance, and the Amagi found herself looking up to her friend, who was pinning her down, with nothing to say. Chie however, had everything. "What do you want!?" She shouted, shaking her friend with her hands. "How successful do you have to be before you can quit, how far will you run yourself into the ground before you give up?!" She leaned in ever closed. "If you go on like this, you'll have no-one, and you'll know nobody. Even me." Her eyes softened. "I can't stay Yukiko. I can't spend any more time watching you hurt yourself. Just... Look."
Taking her weight of her friend, and lightly grabbing her wrist, she brought them both to their feet, and dragged her to the window. Yukiko saw it. The gold sun, piercing through the sky, which seemingly had been perennially grey since the murders took place, but she really saw the hills, the space, the endless infinity of the outside world. The freedom, the choices, the whole world beneath your feet and above your head and piercing through your very self. "Don't you see, Yukiko," Chie whispered gently, "Everything is out there. There is nothing here for you." The voice was far too seductive, and she had to turn away, scared of being tempted from her duty, and now scared even glimpsing Chie's face would weaken her resolve. But while looking at the floor helped, her voice still carried through the air. "I just want to live," she cried pleadingly, "How I want, in a place I want, just as a good person. I'll work. I'll put everything into keeping us where we are. I-" She choked, "I want to love someone Yukiko. S-someone I've always loved, who I know" she emphasised desperately, grabbing her friend's hand, "loves me. C'mon," she sniffed, "why do you have to be like this..."
Yukiko still wouldn't look at her. She looked at their fingers, intertwined, and thought of those few nights they were really together, the ones they never talked about afterwards, to anybody, not even each other. She wasn't the manager of the Amagi Inn. She was Yukiko, standing with the woman she loved, who wanted, no, needed, to run away with her. She could only be the girl for a few fleeting, wonderful moments, before the usual wave as her inner voice spoke up, of all the tasks she had to accomplish, all the numbers she had to check, just to keep the inn running smoothly. The two sides of her battled beneath her surface, and she could only stand there, ashamed, of the way her heart ached. There was only one way she could deal with this.
She smiled weakly, and using their hands, took Chie away from the room, towards the front door, and when arriving, stole a glance. The brunette was smiling. They were doing it. They were leaving. Together. Yukiko took her hand in both of hers, and said "Can you just wait?" She planted a kiss on her lips, lingering, with joy on one side and sorrow on the other. "I just need a moment..."
Yukiko left her lover standing on the doorstep, and once out of eyesight, grabbed the nearest of the inn's phone, and relayed her orders. Out in the distance, she heard it. The confused muffles. The agonised screams as security sent her away. One word. "Yukikooooo!"
But she had no time for that. There was an inn to run, quotas to meet, chores to do. But a single tear rolled down her cheek. The Amagi's battle was never over, and she had lost her only soldier.
AN- Well, this is inspired by Suzanne Vega's 'The Queen and the Soldier', which is a fabulous song. This was written mainly because I thought of something, and personal stuff has kept me away from the keyboard for a couple weeks, when I was pretty damn adamant I was going to be regular with my currently running story, so I felt I needed to write to actually prove to myself I can actually do it. But yeah, I promise I'm gonna be back on that. Tell me what you think of this though, in all it's 'written-at-midnight-and-is-tragically-corny' glory! - WN