Sushi and smoke

Author's Notes: I couldn't stay away from this pairing long, so here's a Yzak/Shiho oneshot. It's inspired by a picture I came across in the Dearka/Miriallia LJ community (you can view the picture at telekinetic-orbingZnetXpicZjpg by replacing X with a slash and the Z with dots or just PM me if it doesn't work). Much thanks goes to The Platters, whose "Smoke gets in your eyes" was the background music while writing this.

Isobune Sushi Bar and Grill was the closest thing that resembled a restaurant in the ZAFT officers' block of Aprilius One. Considering that the other establishments only served fast food, Isobune was the only restaurant that actually had a menu and did not serve their food wrapped in paper or in boxes. At least they had to get credit for that, seeing as other than that there wasn't much speaking for the restaurant's name.

There was always the lingering smell of smoke, even though anyone would rather be dead than to get caught smoking inside the restaurant seeing as the chef could be rather aggressive. The plastic covering the padding on the chairs had not been removed as if they could not afford new ones or bother to clean them from dirt and stains. There was an old jukebox in the corner of the room and no one quite understood why there was a jukebox in the first place seeing as it was a broken old thing that replayed the same album over and over again. The decorations on the wall consisted of various neon signs in Japanese that was basically the only thing lightening up the room, along with the occasional lamp hanging from the ceiling and the small candles on the tables. But the state of the restaurant was good enough for the ZAFT soldiers who came mostly on weekends and days off when they tired of fast-food and actually wanted to eat in an environment where they were expected to stay more than twenty minutes.

It was a Friday night when the restaurant was completely full, all of the tables occupied by ZAFT officers. All of them eating and drinking happily, enjoying their time off. Shiho supposed that it was what the company at her table should be doing as well, but if she had to be honest they were doing a lousy job.

Sitting to her right was Yzak Jule, her recently promoted commander. They had known each other for a little over a year now, although they had both been at the academy Yzak had graduated before her and it was not until she had been placed in his squad that they had gotten to know each other. Her commander was temperamental, least to say, but after getting over the first phase of fear of him, they had moved on to the beginnings of what almost could count as a friendship. Shiho liked to think that she was one of the few people who was not afraid of him and that he appreciated that, at least when he was not throwing a fit about something and then getting even angrier when she would not cower in fear like the rest of the crew on the Voltaire. But their almost friendship was solid, which was why Shiho had been slightly nervous to hear that Dearka Elthman was reenlisting.

She had not known Dearka since he had been declared missing in action just before she had graduated from the academy. But she understood that there was a deep friendship between him and Yzak, as shown by the fact that Yzak spent two days moping around in his room after finding out that Dearka was indeed alive. The latter had not returned to ZAFT after the battle of Jachin Due but the way Yzak spoke of Dearka made Shiho feel a tinge of jealousy. Elthman was a great pilot, better than all of you could ever hope to be, blah blah blah. She started to build up this image of a confident, cocky guy who was able to tackle every mission.

Reality however, was quite different.

The moment Dearka had stepped on board the Voltaire Shiho instantly knew that there was something about her image that was quite correct. Dearka Elthman was sad, depressed, unhappy, disheartened and every other synonym that one could use to describe plain miserable. At first Shiho wondered how such a guy could have made into ZAFT in the first place. But one day, over a cup of bad coffee, Dearka had revealed the reason for why he was acting this way.

A girl.

When Shiho had managed to make Yzak stop laughing in his friend's face, Yzak had slapped Dearka on his back and suggested an outing with just the three of them. Thus, Shiho was stuck with those two on a good Friday night, watching on pouring up one glass of sake after another and the other half lying on the table in his misery.

"Come on, have another drink!" Yzak urged, pouring more sake into Dearka's glass even though the latter had hardly sipped from it. He shoved the glass into Dearka's hands. "Drink up!"

Dearka looked at the glass hesitantly, then slowly drank from it. Shiho watched him from the other side of the table, seeing how obvious it was that he only drank to make Yzak shut up about it. Not that it helped, the moment the glass was empty Yzak filled it up again.

"This is how it should be," he declared, as if this evening was something to be proud of. "The three of us drinking together, women are just more trouble than we want!"

"Thank you for ignoring my gender," Shiho murmured from her side of the table.

Either Yzak did not hear her over the quiet music or he simply just chose to ignore her. He focused on Dearka and how the sake had done nothing to lift his spirits so far.

"I'll drink the next one with you," Yzak grinned, raising his own glass and once again shoving the other one into Dearka's hands. "Toast!"

But rather than raising his glass to toast with Yzak, Dearka just fell back onto the table with his face down and made a sound that reminded Shiho of a whimper. On second thought, it was a whimper.

"What's the matter with you?" Yzak asked loudly, poking at Dearka's shoulder.

"Toast," Dearka repeated, still facing the table. "Milly used to burn her toast all the time."

Sighing, Shiho propped one elbow on the table and leaned her head against her arm. She looked at Dearka and almost felt saddened to see him in this state. The guy was completely heartbroken. Among Shiho's old friends, being heartbroken mostly meant to gather everyone and consume lots of chocolate and ice cream while watching a bad movie. With Yzak, apparently it meant getting as plastered as possible and to be honest Shiho wondered if it would really work with Dearka.

"Um... commander?" she whispered, leaning a little closer to Yzak. "Are you sure this is such a good idea? Perhaps he just needs some time and..."

"Nonsense!" Yzak cut off and poured sake into Shiho's glass as well. "Trust me, he won't miss her in the morning when he's too hungover to do anything but feel sick."

"Yeah, that's great..." Shiho said slowly, looking very unconvinced. "You're gonna replace his heartache with a hangover."

"It's going to work," Yzak snapped and glared at Shiho for daring to disagree with him and doubt his plan.

In response Shiho merely shrugged and turned her attention somewhere else. There wasn't much to look at though, she had been to the Isobune enough times to know that the place never changed and it was always the same people there. The broken jukebox always played the same songs by an old band from back when mankind had not yet invented discs or MP3-players.

Suddenly the scent of alcohol became strong and she turned back to Yzak to see that he was holding up a glass of sake right in front of her face. She blinked, confused as to what he was doing and Yzak rolled his eyes.

"Take it, drink," he ordered.

"I can't, I'm the one driving us home tonight," Shiho answered.

"One glass won't hurt," Yzak insisted, pushing the glass closer to her face so that it touched her nose.

"No!"

"Take it!"

"Just because you're out to get Dearka drunk, doesn't mean that I..."

"Just take the damn glass, woman!"

"In case you two still think that you are talking quietly and that I can't hear you..." Dearka muttered from his side of the table. "Well, then you're wrong."

Scoffing, Yzak placed the glass on the table before Shiho and turned his attention back to Dearka.

"Come on, once more!"

Yzak helped Dearka raise his glass and since Dearka really did not have the strength to argue, he just emptied the glass and Yzak grinned victoriously. He picked up the sake bottle again to refill Dearka's glass but what was left hardly filled a third of the glass.

"Good God..." Shiho muttered, taking the bottle from Yzak and placing it on the table. "What was that now... the third or fourth bottle?"

"Fifth," Yzak corrected, giving Shiho the strong feeling that Yzak was the one who had drunk most in an attempt to get Dearka drunk.

A waitress suddenly stopped by, appearing as if on cue. She looked at the table and saw plates of finished sushi, several empty bottles, Yzak emptying his glass, Dearka with his face against table and Shiho looking like she'd rather sacrifice an arm or two than to stay at the table.

"Should I take those plates?" she asked politely, expecting at least one of the party to ask for the check.

"Yes, and two more bottles of sake," Yzak ordered.

The waitress gathered the empty plates and bottles on a tray before leaving. She returned two minutes later with two unopened bottles and giving Shiho a sympathetic look before leaving. In return Shiho only sighed. If someone who was working at a place like this felt sorry for her then things really could not get worse.

Meanwhile Yzak was working on getting Dearka to drink yet another glass. Only half listening, Shiho tried to ignore Yzak's bashing of females in general to get Dearka into a better mood.

"Women are nothing but trouble... they expect us to do everything and when we do they only nag about it because we didn't do it the right way! Have you ever met a woman who admires and respects you for who you are? Well, of course not..."

Shiho clenched her fist underneath the table.

"And they can never hold serious conversations either, they're all flaky and out of touch with the real world..."

Boy, the glass of sake suddenly seemed really tempting.

"Most of them just rely on their looks to get what they want..."

Smashing the glass seemed even more tempting.

"So just forget about her," Yzak finished, pushing another filled glass towards Dearka.

What Yzak had said appeared to have had at least a small effect on Dearka, who lifted his head slightly. He reached towards the glass and there was a glimmer of triumph in Yzak's eyes. Shiho just sighed and was about to turn away when she heard the sound of glass against wood.

Dearka had managed to overturn the glass and spilled all of the sake out on the table. Rather than getting up so that his shirt wouldn't get wet, he dipped his finger in the pool of spilled sake. Both Yzak and Shiho watched him with puzzled expression, confused about what he was doing. A little while later Dearka lifted his finger, dripping wet with sake, and started to spell out letters on the part of the table that was still dry.

M-I-L-L-Y.

Yzak groaned loudly as if he was in pain.

"Pull yourself together for crying out loud!" he yelled at Dearka. "You're a man, don't let some stupid woman do this to you! They do more trouble than good!"

The rant, which had no effect on Dearka, was about to be continued when Shiho unexpectedly stood up. Yzak watched her, the angry expression on his face replaced by a confused one. Not that Shiho cared, for some reason she found it rather difficult not to yell at him when she spoke.

"I'm... going to switch to another song," she mumbled, inhaling deeply as she left the table.

In the corner of her eye she saw Yzak watching her strangely but at the moment she did not care. She concentrated on getting to the jukebox, swiftly avoiding other tables and waitresses who walked by. When she finally reached the jukebox, she had to put all her strength into her control in order to not unleash her anger by kicking at the jukebox hard. Instead, she took another deep breath, closed her eyes and counted to ten.

The easy, slow and lighthearted love song that was playing seemed to mock her.

Frowning, Shiho dug into the pockets of her jeans and quickly found a few coins. She shoved the coins inside the slot and pressed the button for a record that at least sounded more upbeat and less about love. But nothing happened, the music did not stop and the jukebox showed no sign of even being in the process of changing to another album.

Remembering that the jukebox was broken, Shiho sighed and leaned forward to let her forehead rest against the cool wooden surface. It was really tempting to try and see if she could break the jukebox completely, if not to get the strange anger out of her system she might at least get rid of the love songs.

"What are you doing?"

Turning around, Shiho frowned as she saw Yzak standing there. She crossed her arms defensively and did not answer him. In return, Yzak's expression turned to a mix between a puzzled look and a frown.

"The jukebox doesn't work," he reminded.

"I know that," Shiho snapped.

"Then why did you just put in the coins?" Yzak countered and sneered. "Silly..."

"Well, maybe I am!" Shiho cut off, raising her voice in a way that Yzak wasn't used to. "And before you go off on another rant on why women are so awful... well, I happen to be one! I never relied on my looks, worked my butt off in the academy to wear that uniform! I'm perfectly capable of holding serious conversations and guess what? Do you think I'd still be here if I didn't admire and respect you!"

All the anger seemed to fly out of her at once and Yzak had even taken a step back in shock. Strangely, Shiho noticed how shock was the only thing that Yzak expressed. No anger, no yelling back and not even a scowl.

"But..." Yzak started, his voice quieter than usual.

"But what!" Shiho snarled.

"...I never thought of you as just a woman."

As if she had not been angry before, the rapid beating of her heart echoed inside her and there was this awkward feeling in her stomach like she wanted punch something yet run away at the same time. When she looked at Yzak and his last words still fresh in her mind, the urge to punch something was suppressed and she was overwhelmed with the feeling that she had to get away from him.

Just as she had made her way past him, she felt him grab her arm and pull her right back.

"I think of you as Shiho," Yzak finished, with an unusually soft tone.

Shiho's eyes widened upon hearing his words and she looked almost in disbelief of what he had said. His face was flushed, whether it was from the alcohol or because of the situation she did not know. But his words... did he in his own unique way mean what she thought it did? No matter what it was, it made she feel lighter and it was not difficult at all for her to curve her lips into a smile.

Suddenly the love song made a little more sense.

"Excuse me?"

A third voice disrupting the moment, both Yzak and Shiho turned their heads to see that the waitress from before had approached them. The waitress smiled awkwardly, as if she had been really reluctant to disturb them.

"The gentlemen you were sitting me asked me to tell you that he has paid the check and left," she informed.

Shiho looked towards the table and found it completely unoccupied. She and Yzak exchanged a baffled look before turning to the waitress again.

"Did he say why he was leaving?" Yzak asked.

"Um... he said something about the two of you arguing like that reminded him of a couple and that he found that it was rather depressing," the waitress told, looking extremely awkward.

Her awkwardness was nothing compared to Yzak's and Shiho's, whose faces turned a deep shade of red when they heard what she said. The waitress excused herself and left them alone by the jukebox. Shiho struggled to come up with something to say but every time she opened her mouth nothing substantial came out. After a while of mentally berating herself to come up with something, she finally managed to ask:

"Um... do you want to get out here?"

Yzak turned to face her.

"Where to?" he asked.

Shiho could barely muster up the courage to look up and meet his eyes.

"You decide."

There was a moment of uncertainty that seemed to last several eternities for both of them. Then the hand Yzak had grabbed her arm with slid down slowly until their fingers were laced with each other and he led her out of the restaurant.