A Lucky Toss
Chapter One
A Lost Puppy Gets Lucky
The sun had set hours ago. Dim neon light flew around the crowded streets of Osaka, as two girls walked down the street. The sound of their high heels hitting the pavement was barely audible over the din of the crowd. There were the businessmen, buttoned up in black suits and loaded down by their heavy briefcases as they made their way down the street. There were women, clothes of varied colors and cut, hair mostly long and curled and high heels clanging on the sidewalks. There was even the occasional high school student dashing between pedestrians, ringing the bell on their bikes as they flew past. Despite the variety, everyone on the street seemed to have the same hurried look etched across their features.
"This is such a bad idea, Selphie…" Spoke the taller of the girls, Kairi. She was pretty with strikingly red hair in the sea of black and brown, and rather delicate features, which were now contorted with worry and apprehension. Selphie, the source of the worry laughed lightheartedly beside her.
"Don't be ridiculous, Kairi. You're going to love it!" Selphie said and her voice rung for a few moments in Kairi's ears. It was rather high pitched and had a habit of doing that.
"I highly, highly doubt that. I'm just not the kind of person that would enjoy this kind of… place."
"You can say Host Club, Kairi, it won't kill you…" Selphie mumbled to her friend. They turned the corner onto a street that was, if possible, even more crowded than the one before.
"You don't know that…" Kairi trailed off and sighed in exasperation, before continuing, "Look, this is ridiculous. Selphie, let's just go back. There's still time… You can get someone else to go with you…"
"No backing out. You promised. And we're practically there," Selphie said, her eyes were alight with excitement as she led the hesitant, but now silent Kairi up to the entrance of a building, "Ahhh, Here it is, Club Midori." Selphie practically squeaked the last bit of her sentence, her voice rising to a record-breaking pitch. Kairi looked up.
"As if it wasn't obvious enough…" Some twenty feet above them Club Midori was written in huge neon green letters. Kairi took a moment to stare at the sign, and when she looked away, she found she could still see the shadow of the words stamped on everything in her sight. She looked, now, at the Club Midori branded Selphie, who was self consciously adjusting her yellow dress, her hands running up and down to straighten out all of her nonexistent wrinkles.
Men, hair spiked in imitation of the models in fashion magazines, stood outside the club, talking to women passing by, trying to get customers… or trap them, more like, Kairi thought. Although they technically had no need to approach either her or Selphie, Kairi inwardly prayed they wouldn't in the first place. The last thing she wanted was to make a host feel like he had "captured" her interest. There was nothing quite so irritating as the people who stood on street corners and tried to sell her things, and, of course, these men were selling something.
It wasn't sex, exactly. But at the same time, it probably was.
Selphie dragged her in, quite literally, by the hand.
"You ready yet?" Sora looked up, a man with bleached silver hair towered over him, as he sat. His shirt was half unbuttoned and his brown hair was spiked but askew. In his hands, he held a book on which gold lettering spelled, Principles of Quantum Mechanics. The skin under his eyes was several shades darker than it might have been had he been blessed with consistent nights of uninterrupted sleep, but his blue eyes were sharp. He smiled up at his friend.
He was sitting in a small, rather bare room. It had blue walls and a few plush red couches, of which he occupied the smallest, with his back against the armrest of one end, and his feet propped lazily on the other.
"As ready as always, Riku. Go bother someone else," Sora said jokingly and snapped the book shut.
"Tidus is whining like a little bitch, as usual. Cloud and Roxas are working the entrance, everyone else must be doing something productive, because they're nowhere to be found... and you're reading god knows what, for who knows what reason," Riku shook his head.
"What time is it?" Sora asked. Riku looked down at the silver watch on his wrist.
"Eleven forty five. I'd say about fifteen lovely guests have already been seated," Riku replied. Not a second after he had finished speaking the door was thrown in and a blond man threw himself into the room and onto the sofa across from where Sora was sitting.
The blond sighed heavily, placing his hands to his forehead and shaking his head dramatically. Sora and Riku glanced at each other, knowingly.
"What's wrong, Tidus?" Sora asked, the words carrying the inflection of one who had spoken them often. Riku took the time to grab Sora's legs and push them off the armrest and on the floor, forcing Sora to pull himself upright on the couch. Riku plopped down besides him unaffected.
"I've had a look at the girls tonight… and Ms. Tiny," Tidus made a two handed cupping gesture to his chest, "is back. You know, with the voice and the hair and the tiny…" Tidus made the gesture again, "This is the fourth time this week. And she's brought a friend, I'm sure she's just a crazy as Miss tiny" Tidus made the gesture again.
"You need to get over your fear of the word breasts," Riku said bluntly, "It's like you've never seen a pair before…"
"Hey! I have so, and you fucking know it…"
"You know, it's not even worth throwing in the occasional joke around here," Riku sighed and shook his head. Tidus glared at him, "Maybe if you sleep with her, she'll go away. Probably not, but some of them are that way, the sex just makes it too real. These women like pretend best, anyway."
"Tidus you don't have to do that, it's good to have regulars. They pay better than most of the new ones," Sora said, and then pushed himself off of the couch, and walked over to look in the mirror at the other side of the room. He leaned in and ran a few fingers through his hair. It had to be perfectly spiky. The poor things were paying for it to be perfectly spiky. He didn't want to let them down.
There was a knock on the door, and a tall man with spiky blond hair and a rather stoic face looked in, "Tidus, you're on deck," He said, looking at the still moping man, who now lay face down on the couch. "You two should get out there in a few, too."
"Yes, Cloud," They all said in unison, some more pleasantly than others. Cloud nodded and removed his head from their break room, shutting the door behind him. Tidus rolled off the couch and onto the floor with a thump, then, making sure it looked like a great effort, pulled himself to his feet, checked his appearance in the mirror, nudging Sora out of the way in the process, and dragged himself out of the room.
"Go easy on it tonight, would you Sora?" Riku mumbled, as he too got off the couch and headed for the door. Sora was buttoning up his black shirt, facing the mirror again. He stopped and turned to Riku.
"You know, it's not like I've got much of a choice," He said, "They love it when I do…"
"I know," Riku replied. Sora crossed the room.
"Don't be such a downer, it'll be… fun ,"
"Ah, yes, it always is."
Kairi looked around. Club Midori consisted of an open bar area with tables scattered here and there and smaller rooms off to the side.
"Yes, I reserved that one." Selphie acknowledged a room, somewhat secluded, "More privacy, you know…" She said in an aside to Kairi. Kairi looked around. She was not sure if she would prefer the crowded main room or being shut off in one of the smaller ones with Selphie and her favorite host. Both were somewhat dismal options. Selphie handed her a piece of paper.
Kairi inspected it closely, expecting it to be a drink menu. In fact, it was a menu of a different kind. It listed all of the hosts, their names and pictures were placed with a small description of their personality. Kairi frowned.
"Which one do you like to see again?" Kairi asked Selphie, as they were led to one of the smaller rooms. Selphie grabbed the list right out of Kairi's hands and pointed to a blond man labeled 'Tidus.'
"He's not the handsomest here, but he just really understands me, Kairi. We've got this great connection, you know?" Selphie handed the list back to Kairi for inspection. Kairi got a closer look at the picture. He was very handsome, she had to admit. His light hair and eyes went well somehow with his tan skin. She wondered if the look was natural.
They were seated in the back room. The walls were a dark blue and the lighting was dimmed. Their drink orders were taken and they were informed that Tidus would out very soon. Selphie smiled brightly and pulled out her compact mirror, going over he makeup again, making sure there weren't any mistakes.
"Keep a lookout, Kairi," Selphie ordered.
"Alright," Kairi said. She twirled her fingers absently and looked out at the rest of the club through the open door. People, mostly women, were already seated here and there, some with hosts, some without.
One man in particular caught her eye. His hair was bleached white, but glowed silver in the dim light. He walked across the floor, looking perfectly unhappy to be there. The personification of her own feelings. He was nicely muscled, which was visible under his blue collared shirt. She watched him as he strode across the room, the way that he commanded the attention of the woman in the room, who, while not outright staring, still made quick glances in his direction as he passed; they were almost reverent.
"Who is he?" Kairi asked Selphie. Selphie looked around her mirror and out at the club, knowing already who Kairi was referring to.
"Riku. He's the top host here. He has been for over three years now," Selphie explained.
"So he gets the most customers?" Kairi asked.
"He gets the most commissions… I think that's how they do it, anyway he's probably the best looking of them all," Selphie said. Kairi, not able to help herself, glanced down at the list she had been given at the entrance. She read the label under his name.
"Why The Silent One?"
"He's never spoken a word. Most people think he was traumatized as a child. As far as anyone knows he's completely mute," Selphie faced Kairi as she spoke, lowering her voice, as one might do when discussing scandal.
Tidus took this moment to make his grand entrance. Kairi recognized him immediately, but did not have the time to warn Selphie, who was still balancing her makeup in one hand. Nonetheless, as if she had a sixth sense, she looked up as he approached, shoved her makeup into her bag, got up and greeted him with a hug.
Kairi felt rather embarrassed.
"Well, you know how that is, don't you? Of course you do! And then, I went down to the salon with her, and I told her, 'Yes, they will definitely be able to fix this,' so, we waited for an hour there, because, naturally we didn't have an appointment and you know how they are at salons, don't you? Of course you do! So, we were waiting, and she was so worried. She kept saying to me, 'Oh, Selphie, what am I going to do if they can't fix it!' I didn't know what to say to her! It was such an ugly perm. Whoever did it should loose their hair license… Is there such a thing as hair licenses? Do you know? Oh, well, of course you don't! How silly. So they finally get around to her, and they tell her that they can try to chemically straighten it, but it probably wouldn't work because her hair has already been completely dried out with all of the bleach she's put in it, but they tried anyway. Let me tell you, what a frizzy mess they made! It was worse than it was to start with. Of course, I had to run out and buy her a hat, really quick. She was crying so hard on the way home, I had to call a cab. You know how that is, don't you? Of course you do!"
"Of course I do!" He nodded his head, and leaned in, placing his hand on her wrist subtly, and lighting up her cheeks like a twelve-year-old schoolgirl with a secret crush.
The room was quiet in comparison to the rest of the club, from which loud music was blaring. Selphie had requested the secluded room for some privacy with her lovely host, the emotionally vulnerable, sensitive, charming Tidus.
Kairi sad in the corner. She was feeling a mixture of boredom and repulsion. She stared at the two. Tidus would touch her arm, and Selphie would lean in, she would speak, and he would hang on her every word. Like a lost puppy.
In her hands, she held the booklet that was distributed to all newcomers. It contained a cute description of Club Midori, it's stats (the second most popular host club in Osaka, opened in 2005, etc.) and descriptions of its hosts. It was very much like a menu, from which the girls could select whom they wished to spend time with. She had thumbed through it, and after choking down her revulsion at the dehumanization involved in stamping men's pictures and descriptions into pamphlets like food, she had read through the description of Selphie's personal favorite, and the reason she had brought Kairi to Club Midori.
Tidus was literally labeled the "Lost Puppy," the words were written right below his pouting picture. He was described an emotional, vulnerable, and empathetic man who was looking for a lover to hold his hand through the perils of life. Kairi stared at the two of them again, Selphie was talking yet again, it was unclear how long that would continue, but she had little doubt why Selphie had chosen this man above all others.
Kairi looked away from the two of them for a time, and focused instead on her drink, which was still half full. She picked it up and downed the rest rather quickly. It burned the back of her throat, the sensation fascinated her momentarily, and she stared up at the white ceiling. Selphie had stopped talking, Tidus was lighting her cigarette while she smiled delicately and batted her eyelashes at him. When he was finished, he seemed to take notice of Kairi, and put on a shy smile. She smiled back and raised her eyebrows, in expectation of him addressing her instead of Selphie.
"Are you having a good time?" He asked. His voice was delicate, and soft, like his smile.
"Oh, I'm alright! Lovely place, very nice… furnishings."
"I wish you would brighten up! You do have such charming hair, has anyone ever told you that? No need to look like you lost a bet."
One Week Ago
"I bet I can toss this bottle into that recycling bin across the room," Selphie said. She and Kairi were seated in one of the study rooms in the library. There room was rather large, there were about fifteen students scattered about it, all with open textbooks. Some students were hunched over them with looks of intense concentration; others were asleep, drooling on them.
"It's thirty feet away." Kairi said, then yawned and stretched her arms.
"Say, if I make this, you have to promise to come to Club Midori with me next week," Selphie said suddenly.
"Why would I do that?" Kairi said and laughed.
"Oh, come on! If I keep going alone, Tidus might start to think I'm some kind of loner. That would be terrible. Please, please, please.!"
"Selphie, you're not making any sense…."
"It's not like I'll make it anyway…"
"I guess not."
"So you agree?" Selphie asked. Kairi stared at her and weighed the odds in her head. The situation was so odd, she momentarily wondered if she wasn't one of the students asleep and drooling on the textbooks herself. But, she figured, why not.
"Fine."
Selphie did not miss.
Kairi just wanted to find the bathroom.
She had asked Tidus for an exact location, but his response had been cut off by a verbal barrage from none other than Selphie, who had remembered some trivial occurrence from the past few days that she hadn't told Tidus about yet.
The room was hazy, the combined effect of the unknowable number of cigarettes that had been or were being smoked in Club Midori that night. The effect was magnified by the lights coming from the bar in the otherwise dark room. The room appeared to be moving as the lights at the bar shifted. There were far too many people in the club. They were mostly girls, all well dressed, their faces painted delicately. They gathered round the hosts, leaning in to them, as if pulled by an invisible force, as if it was against their will. Some smiled, some laughed, some shot what they must have thought to be seductive looks. The hosts, for their part, certainly appeared to be enjoying themselves.
Kairi didn't bother to wonder why. She dodged her way around the tables and people, she had spotted the bathroom sign at the other end of the room. She made a beeline for it, smiling to herself in relief, as she reached the door.
Kairi reached her hand forward to grab the silver handle. Just as her hand made contact, the door pulled open on its own. Kairi was quite surprised to see a young man standing in front of her.
He was young, probably her age, with brown hair that had been haphazardly spiked up and very blue eyes. His face looked rather flushed, and the skin under his eyes was a few shades darker than might have been considered healthy.
She didn't know exactly what to say.
"I think you're headed in the wrong direction," He spoke up, and flashed a half smile at her. She glanced up at the sign above the door. He was right.
"ah… excuse me," Kairi replied. She couldn't think of anything else to say.
"SORA!" Came the cry of a girl some feet behind, "Get over here! I'm ordering more drinks!" He looked around Kairi, and Kairi turned unconsciously with him to the source of the voice. A girl in a red dress, with rather expensive, or at least glitzy looking jewelry hanging around her neck and dangling from her ears.
Sora nodded in her direction smiling bashfully, then shifted his eyes quickly back to Kairi, his smile falling ever so slightly, he furrowed his brows and bit his bottom lip for a moment, then smiled again and walked around her to the girl who had been calling, presumably, his one of his patronesses.
Kairi turned on her heel, feeling a little humiliated and very sorry for herself. She walked the three feet to the next door, scrutinized the sign, and finally found the ladies bathroom.
The first rays of morning sunlight were not yet visible as Kairi called a cab. She knew that they must be coming up soon. She stood with her arms crossed on the sidewalk, very much alone. The crowds of people who had passed by earlier in the evening had dispersed now. Everyone had gone home, to bed, to sleep. Everyone but Kairi, it seemed. She shook her head. Alone. She should have figured.
The cab pulled up to the side of the road. She strode towards it, hearing the sound of her heals clicking on the cement somehow grounded her despite her own exhaustion. Selphie had taken off, of course. She remembered their conversation some minutes ago. They had stood in the coatroom, and Selphie had been talking at her, not to her.
"I knew it, Kairi! I just knew it would do the trick, bringing you around! You know, it just gives me a sense of… of… what's the word? Legitimacy? Maybe? Well now he knows I'm not some lunatic off the street! I have friends, and now that he knows that he trusts me."
"Lunatics have friends, sometimes, don't they?" Kairi asked. Selphie ignored her.
"This is it, Kairi, this is the next step in our relationship!"
"Relationship?" Kairi asked, and was ignored yet again.
"So I'm going to hang around here for a little while, and then we're going to go back to his place and…" She sighed deeply, her eyes pointed up and her lips stretched into a smile. She was rendered speechless at last.
"Selphie, are you sure that this is a good decision?"
"Kairi, Kairi, Kairi, when you know true love, you'll understand my choices. Your time will come too!" Selphie reached over and patted Kairi on the shoulder, a consolation. Kairi, repulsed, prayed she would never understand. She was silent. Selphie gave her one last pat and then trotted out of the room. Kairi was alone.
She climbed into the cab, speaking out her address in the process. When she was seated, she reached to close the door, but there was someone in the way, she noted with a good deal of surprise.
"Uhm, this cab is taken," She said, squinting to get a better look at the stranger in the darkness. In fact, it was not one stranger, but two. One, the tall and silver haired host, whom she recognized as Riku, the one that never speaks, was supporting the weight of another, the man with brown hair from the bathroom. Kairi couldn't remember his name. Riku cleared his throat.
"Hey, my friend Sora wants to get home quick, so," He tossed her a few bills, "Here's the fare, if you'll just make sure he gets there..." Kairi stared at Riku, not sure what was more ridiculous, that he had just spoken, or the request he was making.
"You talk?"
"Look, I really don't have all day…"
"No, you look, this is my cab, and I'm in a hurry too, so…"
"Seriously? You're getting paid to spend time with him," Riku shook his head, and proceeded to help his friend into the cab. Kairi got out of the way, not wanting to be crushed under his weight. He was almost limp next to her, leaning this way and that, swaying back and forth in his attempts to sit upright, settling eventually on leaning his head back against the seat, his eyes closing.
"What! He's clearly drunk! You can't be serious? What if he throws up on me?"
"I'm not going to throw up on anyone," Sora mumbled, with shocking clarity. Kairi stared from Sora to Riku, who was now throwing Sora's bag into the cab.
Riku told the cab driver Sora's address and shut the door. The cab pulled away. Kairi looked at Sora, whose spikes were now drifting slowly downwards, partially covering his closed eyes. The cab was silent. Kairi ran her hands down her legs, to straighten out her dress. The windows were a blur. She hated this. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind. The dangers of her situation, the nerve of that Riku to put her in it, the nerve of Selphie to abandon her. It was all infuriating. She looked at Sora again. He didn't seem like he was going to assault her. There was that, at least.
She should have thought to get out of the cab. She wondered at her own self-righteousness and how it got her into situations like this. If she had merely surrendered her cab, if she had just gotten out when this drunk was forced in she could have avoided all of this. Her stomach burned, a mixture of alcohol and anxiety. If only she could have changed Selphie's mind. If only Selphie hadn't been so silly.
They were silent the whole way back, with Sora leaning back as if asleep the whole time. Kairi watched him nervously, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. His pallor was a putrid green. He mostly looked pathetic.
The cab came to a stop in a neighborhood not too far from her own. She recognized it with a great deal of relief. The udon place that she frequented was right around the corner.
Feeling the lack of motion of the cab, Sora's eyes opened groggily, and he climbed out, struggling a little.
Kairi sighed, watching him. She felt a wave of pity. She looked out of the window. It was a very safe area. She instructed the cab driver to wait.
"I'll get your bag," She said to him calmly.
"That's not really…"
"I told your friend that I would see you home safely… so…" grabbing his bag, and vaguely registering that it was surprisingly heavy, she got out of the cab.
He was swaying on his feet. Kairi took him by the arm and shook her head at the ridiculousness of the situation. They walked into the building, and she helped him into the elevator.
"What floor?" She asked.
"Three."
She pushed the button, the doors closed with a ding and he nearly lost his balance with the upward motion of it.
"Where are your keys?" She asked after the elevator had reached its destination and they stepped out onto the floor.
"Bag." After some rummaging she located them. He led her to his door, and she followed unlocking it for him. She threw the key back into his bag.
"You should drink some water and…" She was cut off.
"Look, this… can't really happen…" He said. Kairi stared at the boy again, taking in the serious look in his unfocused eyes.
"What can't happen?" She asked him, in the calm voice she reserved for children and drunks.
"Us, here, tonight… Look, I…" His meaning dawned on her.
"Who do you take me to be?" She asked.
"No one…"
She shook her head at him, and shoved his bag into his unsuspecting hands. He stumbled backwards from the force of it as she turned and exited, taking the stairs.