NieR is Copyright Cavia and Square Enix, 2010. All original characters are property of the author. This is a work for entertainment and no profit will be made. A fiction by Sentionaut.
Aftertaste
Cold, she shivered involuntarily as her feet crossed the threshold into the bathroom. Feeling around for the light, she blinked, grimacing as a long bulb above the sink flickered to life with a clinking shudder. Real nice, she thought, running a hand through pale locks that stuck out every which way. Yawning, the young woman glossed over her reflection in the short mirror. She felt terrible, and didn't need the accompanying reminder.
Toilet, toilet, the silent mantra echoed in the back of her head as the need that had woken her prodded more insistently through the fuzzy cloud that dulled her thoughts. Thankfully, the room was tiny, and relief in plain sight. Aside from a vaguely see-through shower curtain hiding the tub, and the washstand by the door, her goal was the only other fixture. By the time she finished, the light had warmed up, casting her shadow across the remaining empty space.
Sighing in contentment, thin pale fingers reached for the roll of paper and then the flush handle, manicured but unpainted nails clinking absently against the porcelain in the process. The sound was loud in the confines, made tighter by the closed shower curtain. Tiles sapping the warmth from beneath her toes, she padded out of the unfamiliar bathroom, flipping the light switch with a backward flick.
The room she returned to was dark, and it had only been luck that she'd stumbled into the right room in search of relief. She stood there, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the gloom, splaying her toes in the thick carpet to get some heat back. She'd been awake for less than five minutes and still couldn't piece together very much. A little bit of light was filtering in through heavy curtains across the way, revealing a vague picture of her surroundings.
Dark blue, or possibly purple, carpet piled thick across the floor, disappearing under a long piece of furniture beneath the curtains. It was either a couch, or some kind of lounge chair, from the short height. A taller thin shadow rose up to the left of that, a lamp, her mind supplied, starting to fill in the puzzle with bits of conjecture and slowly returning blotches of memory. Squinting, she suppressed another yawn that threatened to ache her jaw.
A bigger shadow took up most of the remaining floor space, a queen sized bed, mattress just off the ground. She'd woken there, so it clicked into place right away. There was less surprise in the bunched up landscape of sheets, cool and soft, her skin recalled. The thicker shadow that splayed across the far side of the mattress was likewise familiar in some way. Likely the owner of the place, or so she hoped. The scrambled egg in her brain was already making things more complicated than necessary. There was no need to add further layers to the dispersing confusion.
The beginnings of a frown dipped her lips and she put a hand to the side of her head, willing herself to remember. But, the best she could dredge up was a sense of thumping music, colored lights and...soap? A familiar face tickled the edge of her memory. It was close enough to what she'd caught in the bathroom mirror to grab hold of. Light hair in disarray, usually tied back in complicated fashion, Nier.
She stared hard at the lump on the bed. It didn't resemble her brother's lanky form no matter how she looked. More pieces flitted into place. Yonah remembered they'd decided to go out for the weekend. A new club had opened up nearby, downtown. It only pulled rave reviews, and the cover charges were pretty affordable, even given how popular the place was less than three weeks after opening night. It was a Live house, too, with several local bands playing in the evening.
She'd been the one to drag her brother out, after seeing a flier for the club's Saturday night lineup. One band had stood out on the listing, Shirayuki Project, a young, up and coming trio, two of which were rumored to be brother and sister, on the drums and bass respectively. The third member of the band played lead guitar, and provided the band's signature vocals. SP wasn't known for mincing words, and their songs cut into the audience with little regard, lent terrible credence by the throaty growls of the vocalist. It was one of the things that had drawn Yonah to the band in the first place. She hadn't missed a single of the band's handful of Lives.
Something tickled in the back of her head as she thought about the band, and the night's performance. She distinctly recalled getting a good spot, right by the club's short stage. It was the closest she'd ever managed at any of the SP concerts, though it wasn't the first time she'd felt the singer had singled her out of the crowd. She'd said as much to her brother, but her flights of fancy had been dismissed as such. Her brother was boring like that, more often than not. It was hard enough to get him to go along with her to clubs in the first place. He usually only went to 'keep an eye' on her.
It never ended up that way, though. Nier stuck to the bar, or hit the floor, more often than she did. Though to be fair, he also showed up 'randomly' whenever any of the guys tried more than just dancing with her. But, she just put up with it, as he had the motorcycle. Besides, he had his fun, and she didn't feel too bad for using him for transport, even if he scared off most of her potential dance partners. He'd also made himself scarce during the SP set, though she hadn't exactly been paying attention to him at the time, as far as she could dredge up.
While she was piecing things back together, the shape on the bed decided to mumble something about there being too much 'damn sunlight'. Yonah's breath sputtered and caught as the voice did more to kick start her hungover thoughts than anything else. There was no mistaking either the tone, or the near growl that formed into terse words. Shirayuki, the young woman seized up, trying to come to terms with the gravity of the situation.