Summary: Post-series Tsubasa AU. The Cat's Eye is not your usual cafe; here, if you tell the owner a good story, you can get a discount. As closing time draws near, Fay decides to tell his assistant Chii the story of his first year surviving in modern Japan.
Note: Despite what the may seem at first, it's not Fay/Chii. And I'm using Fay D. Flourite, the official spelling that Clamp has released.
Fay stacked the last of the dishes into the drying rack and wiped down the counter. He glanced over the bar into the adjacent room of the cafe, where a blond girl was wiping down the tables.
"Say, Chii, how about we close early tonight?"
The girl perked up at the mention of her name, and nodded, smiling up at him. She hung up the CLOSED sign on the door to the Cat's Eye cafe. Fay sighed tiredly, and ran a hand through his blond hair before collapsing unceremoniously onto one of the bar stools.
Business had finally slowed down, and the blond mage was grateful for the reprieve from the bustle of what had been Golden Week in this Japan. Even though the Cat's Eye was a small, wayside cafe, the holiday had brought more customers to their store than two people could normally handle alone. The extra business in the last few days had taken a bit of a toll on the blond magician. The eye-socket that contained his glass left eye had started to throb painfully at times, and his smiles had become more strained from the stress and the discomfort. Even though he had almost no difficulty judging distance with his single right eye, it had taken all his effort not to trip or drop dishes while scurrying to meet the demands of many more patrons.
Fay motioned for Chii to join him at the bar, and she enthusiastically seated herself next to him, nuzzling her head into his shoulder. The mage blinked in response and stopped in surprise, but then he allowed himself to relax as Chii wrapped her arms around his slim frame.
"Fay seemed lonely just now. Is Fay okay?"
The blond mage smiled when the young girl spoke up, concern almost human in her large translucent eyes. Almost absently, he gently ran his fingers through her long blonde hair and over her large cat-like ears, recalling a time when a similar blonde companion snuggled up to him in a country of ice.
"I'm okay. I'm just a little tired, Chii."
He had given her the name of his former guardian spirit, whom he knew he would never see again. Chii was Fay's creation, both in the other world, and in this one. Except, in this world, she could only exist within the kekkai surrounding the cafe. Like Maru and Moro in the Dimensional Witch's shop, Chii had no soul. Even so, she was his only companion--both a painful and comforting reminder of what he had left behind in Celes.
"Fay came to Japan a year ago on this day, right?" Chii's child-like voice spoke up.
"Yes, Chii. It was on this day we returned to the Dimensional Witch's shop."
"We?"
Fay smiled at the inquisitive look on Chii's face, and suppressed the stab of loneliness that threatened to pervade his heart. Sometimes, Chii seemed so alive, he could pretend that she was a curious child, and not simply a doll brought to life by his own magic.
"Yes. Since we won't have any other customers for today, would Chii like to hear a story?"
Chii clapped her hands together in a show of excitement. "Chii wants to hear the story of how Fay came to Japan."
Fay's smile turned genuine, and he replied, "How about Chii make Fay some tea, in exchange for the story." Chii nodded her head enthusiastically, and hopped into the kitchen to fix up some tea. Fay's smile softened. It had been some time since he was the one who told a story.
The young girl eagerly returned with a tea cup on a tray, and set it down in front of the wizard. Fay took a sip, set down the cup, and began his tale.
"Looks like it's going to rain."
A slender drugstore clerk with soft, ash-brown hair who had been stocking the shelves turned his attention toward the cash register, when his dark-haired companion spoke.
"It wasn't on the news forecast."
The bells to the door of the shop jingled, and both clerks turned to greet the customer at the door. A tall, willowy, blond man peered inside and greeted both of them with a sheepish grin.
"Excuse me, may I stay?"
The smaller clerk blinked, "Stay?"
He was particularly confused by the man's foreign accent and strange use of grammar.
"Until rain gone." The stranger explained.
"Oh! You're welcome to come in! Please do."
The smaller, slender clerk bowed politely, and introduced himself as Kazahaya. The blond man grinned broadly in response and stepped quickly inside. The right sleeve of his white sweatshirt snagged on one of the shelves, and several boxes of cold medicine clattered onto the floor. Kazahaya immediately jumped up to help him, but the man replaced the boxes, straightened up the shelves, and his grin widened in a way to indicate that everything was alright. Kazahaya let out a sigh of relief. He noticed their strange blond customer looking around the shop curiously.
"Is there anything I can get for you?"
The blond turned his attention back to Kazahaya, and seemed to puzzle over the words a bit before shaking his head, grinning and shrugging in a manner that indicated he didn't understand a single word.
Kazahaya blinked and turned to Rikuo, the dark-haired teen at the register. Though Kazahaya's English was limited, Rikuo was able to converse better with the foreigners.
"What?" The dark-haired man asked the smaller store clerk.
"Maybe you should talk to him. He's a foreigner. My English isn't that good, you know."
"May I help you?"
The dark-haired one asked the blond in English, but the man seemed even more confused.
"I don't understand."
"But you're a foreigner. You don't speak English?" Kazahaya asked in Japanese, amazement apparent in his eyes.
There was no mistake that this man was a foreigner--his unusually fair skin, flaxen hair and blue eyes stood out in Japan. There had not been a single foreigner they met who could not speak English.
The blond man shook his head with an innocent grin. He looked the very picture of the naive foreigner so often stereotypically portrayed in media; the kind that smiled foolishly, and said "hai" and "ohayo" in response to everything said to him.
"English...not Japanese? See everywhere. Don't understand."
"Where are you from?" Kazahaya asked, in a more patient tone. He was careful not to sound condescending, but he couldn't help leaning forward with curiosity.
"Very far, cold country. Never-mind."
Despite the stranger's limited vocabulary and plastic grin, Kazahaya could pick up the stranger's reluctance to talk about his own country. Even though he thought it was an innocuous question, the foreigner did not seem willing to discuss it. He noticed the shuttered gaze in the blue eyes, and realized that the foreigner was not as stupid-looking as he seemed at first. What he lacked in vocabulary and understanding of the culture, he made up with in reading body language and tone of voice.
"I search. Place. Maybe you know?"
The blond pulled out a folded piece of paper, that had been cut from a newspaper advertisement. Rikuo and Kakahaya exchanged glances, and Kazahaya stepped forward to take a look at the paper the stranger held. The paper was a job advertisement for a bakery shop named Chiroru. The shop owner of the ad was looking for a part-time helper.
"You're looking for jobs?"
The blond nodded, the smile back in place on his face.
"From friend. Need money."
Kazahaya blinked, and could barely hide his surprise. He had thought the blond was a tourist, when in fact, he was an immigrant, looking to stay in a foreign world where the language was still a barrier. He could not help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the foreigner.
"Okay. I'll give you directions. Can you understand writing?"
"A little. Thank you."
Kazahaya roughly drew out the neighborhood region on a spare piece of paper and slowly explained, tracing out the route from the Green Drugstore to the bakery. The blond had grabbed another pen and started to scribble a bunch of strange symbols along the edge of the paper as Kazahaya explained the route. The symbols resembled a mixture of Russian cyrillic, Greek, and other incomprehensible characters. Kazahaya did his best not to openly stare; the stranger's exotic, neat scrawl was mysterious and mesmerizing. Meanwhile, Rikuo was studying them from the corner of his eyes, his expression unreadable.
The blond looked up to meet Kazahaya's gaze after he finished his explanation and flashed him a sunny smile, one that seemed a lot brighter and more genuine than his previous ones.
"Thank you. You...kind to me. First time."
The meaning of the stranger's words sunk in to Kazahaya's heart, despite the awkward grammar and thick accent. And Kazahaya returned the stranger's smile with a bright one of his own.
"Your welcome. Good luck with your job search."
The stranger stood up and bowed gracefully, then turned and swiftly stepped outside the drugstore. The rain had lightened to a faint drizzle. When their unexpected guest was out of sight, Rikuo leaned in conspiratorially, a little too close for Kazahaya's comfort. The smaller teen had been obvious to the brief flash of jealousy that crossed the dark-haired teen's face.
"You have ink smudged all over your cheek."
"I do not!" Kazahaya retorted heatedly, and visibly took a step back from the offending hand that attempted to brush his cheek. Rikuo's eyes twinkled with amusement.
"I can't believe you fell for the oldest trick in the book."
Kazahaya seethed, and debated whether or not to dump the contents of the nearest canned drink all over his colleague's head. If he were not afraid of adding on to his debt to Kakei, he would have flung a good number of the stock-up items at his dark-haired friend.
"Did you see anything strange about him?" Rikuo added in a more serious tone, nodding towards the door. The smaller teen calmed down and his expression seemed more thoughtful.
"Well," Kazahaya started, hesitating, "I didn't want to pry because he seemed so guarded. At one moment, when our fingers touched, I saw a girl, a boy, a tall, dark man dressed in black, and a white, round creature with long ears."
Kazahaya felt that those people seemed to be very important to the stranger. They didn't look like they were from the local vicinity, or any country he knew of. In fact, he got the feeling they were from a different world.
"I wonder who they were?"
Fay continued on his way to the bakery shop. It had only been a month since he had started living in Japan, but with the few instances in which he had to communicate with the natives, he had an idea of what their attitude toward foreigners were like. On the outside, they were all smiles and politeness, often bowing to him respectfully. He frequently received special attention from the store clerks and serving ladies. However, he didn't miss the sidelong glances from other customers, or the clerks whispering to each other and giggling when they thought he didn't notice.
Kazahaya, the clerk from the Green Drugstore, was different. The blond had originally dodged inside to get away from the rain, but he was surprised by the teen's sincerity and kindness. Other Japanese he'd approached with his awkward speech had dismissed him as a silly fool, smiling at him in a condescending manner, and he had simply continued putting up his idiot's grin, playing the part they wanted him to play. The young clerk had been genuinely curious about his origins, but was polite enough not to pry. In some ways, the teen had resembled Syaoran, the boy he had met on the journey.
Fay smiled fondly at the memory, and wondered how his companions were doing ever since they had parted ways. He was interrupted from his thoughts when a young girl, not more than 4 or 5 years of age, holding onto her mother's hand, pointed at him and commented loudly enough so that everybody on the crosswalk could hear.
"Look mom. Why does he have yellow hair? Is he sick, mom?"
Fay turned towards the little girl, trying to reassure her with his most charming smile. However, before he could say anything, the mother abruptly pulled the child away, and glared back suspiciously at him, muttering something under her breath about "gaijin".
Fay blinked back the hurt that popped into his eyes, and just waved politely to them, playing the part of the silly, foreigner. People stared at him while they passed. The blond was secretly relieved when the signal turned green, and he hurriedly crossed the street, trying not to make eye contact with anybody.
Fortunately, he arrived at the Chiroru bakery shop without further mishap. The magician was a little disappointed to find that the lights were off and the shop had closed. He peered inside, and noticed that a light was still on in the back room of the cake shop. He rapped firmly on the glass door and listened for any sounds of movement. After a few minutes, he could make out faint footsteps approaching, and then the tall, dark-haired shop owner appeared and unlocked the door.
"Hello? It's after hours. Can I help you?"
The shop owner had a kindly face, although he was surprised to find a smiling blond stranger at the door with raindrops matting his hair, looking slightly bedraggled and a little worse for wear.
"This is place?" The blond spoke up with a very unusual accent and strange grammar, all the while, pointing to a newspaper clipping.
The owner, took the clipping the blond held out to him, and recognized that it was his own advertisement for part-time help. He studied the willowy blond with mild curiosity, who stood with arms akimbo, staring back at him expectantly.
"You're here for the job?"
The blond beamed and nodded enthusiastically. The baker chuckled lightly with good-natured mirth; there was something almost endearing about this stranger's eager-to-please attitude that seemed vaguely familiar. He had never had a foreigner work for him before, but he was a fair-minded man, and gave every applicant an equal chance. He opened the door wider, stepped aside, and motioned for the magician to follow him inside.
The blond carefully stepped inside the shop, and made an appreciative noise that sounded like "hyuu", when he took in the cute decorations on the wall, and stared in wonder at the petite, delicate cakes through the window behind the counter. The soft colors, swirly decorations, and cute figures made of bread conjured memories of sweets he had loved back in Celes.
"You see," the owner explained, "My shop is very small, but we have loyal customers. Normally, my wife, Yumi, helps me run the shop. However, she's pregnant with our first child, and I've been a bit busy preparing for the baby and making trips to the hospital."
The foreigner blinked and stared back at him, as if trying very hard to absorb everything he said, a small crease forming between very fine blond brows.
"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Ueda Hiroyasu. You can just call me Ueda."
The blond bowed politely to him.
"Name...Fay."
"Just Fay?"
The blond nodded.
"Fay-san, do you know how to make cakes?"
"Make...cake. Yes." The smile returned to the blond's face. "Travelling, make many cakes. Sweet food."
The baker seemed pleased with the response and stepped behind the counter, "Then maybe you can help me."
Ueda led him into the lighted room behind the shop. The blond uttered a soft gasp of surprise when he stepped into the spacious kitchen. Except for the royal kitchen in Celes, Fay had never seen so many tools, cutlery, and implements in the same room. To his pleasant surprise, he noticed that Ueda had kept the workspace neat and clean. Fay was familiar with most of the baking tools on his previous journey to other worlds, although there were a few strange machines that remained a mystery to him.
Ueda showed him around the kitchen, pointing out where the ingredients were stored, where the tools were kept, and named each of the gadgets in the room. He watched the blond carefully, and noticed the fierce intensity in which the blond stared at each object Ueda had named for him. It wasn't as if the blond was an ordinary job seeker--one hardly encountered foreigners searching for jobs--however, aside from Fay's apparently foreign features, Ueda had already begun to sense something extraordinary about the young blond man. Ueda finally stopped, and turned to his eager, prospective employee.
"What do you think so far?"
The blond flashed him a pleased smile, then much to Ueda's surprise, pointed out each of the tools and machines the baker had named and repeated the name of the appliance without mistake. Ueda was struck speechless, but he quickly recovered. He had pretty much picked up from the foreigner's fragmented speech and exotic accent that the blond's understanding of Japanese was very limited. Either the stranger had worked in a Japanese bakery before, or his easy-going attitude belied an uncanny intelligence and excellent memory.
"Have you worked at a bakery before?"
"Before?" The blond blinked at the question.
"This is not the first time, right?"
"I cook. Make cake, sweets. Not in sweets shop. Different."
"Is that so?"
Despite Fay's fragmented response, Ueda had pieced together that Fay had some experience with bakery, but had probably worked in a different kind of setting.
"Ah!" Fay cried out suddenly, and Ueda nearly jumped, thinking the blond had injured himself, but then he noticed the willowy man had run to a small machine with a cylindrical metal tank sitting on top of a motor, with an electric cord plugged into the wall. The blond patted and examined it curiously. "Ueda-san said...aisu kuriimu maker. How?"
"You've never used one before?"
Fay shook his head.
"Once, saw. Alike, but different."
There were a few times on their journey in which Fay and the other travelers had ice cream. It was a wonderful treat, but he had never seen how it was made. In Outo City, he had examined a similar hand-cranked version in another cafe, but this version had no handle--how did it work?
Ueda found Fay's curiosity amusing, and motioned for the blond to watch closely. He demonstrated by pulling a bowl out of the freezer and pouring in a mixture that he had just finished preparing. He placed the bowl with the mixture into the machine, and switched it on. The blond stared, fascinated by the whirring noises coming from the machine and watched wide-eyed through the clear plastic cap as the mixture was stirred around.
The shop owner noticed the pure, childlike delight on the magician's face, and it brought back memories of a previous employee who had worked at his store before. Now that he thought about it, there was also a bit of physical resemblance between the two. The girl who had worked here previously had been smaller, with long, blond hair, and soft, doe-like brown eyes, while this man's blue eyes were more mysterious and full of secrets. Even so, Ueda did not detect any malice from his mannerisms.
He found himself taking a liking to the stranger. Fay was eager to learn, had a quick mind, seemed right at home in the kitchen, and despite the language barrier which Ueda was sure he would overcome in time, there was an inherent ingenuous charm to him. He somehow felt that he could trust the blond to take care of his shop, which would allow him to spend more time with his wife and the child they were expecting. Although there was more paperwork involved with hiring a foreign worker, he still wanted to give the blond man a chance.
"What's going on dear?"
Both men turned at the sound of a young woman's voice, and looked up to see a brunette with short curly hair, an ample bosom, and an equally round belly standing at the rear doorway. She tried to suppress the girlish giggle when she saw her husband's shocked face quickly turn into deep concern.
"Yumi! Shouldn't you be resting?"
"But I've been lying in bed for so long, I just had to stretch my legs for a bit. I came to see what you were up to."
The tall blond standing next to the owner looked back and forth between the two of them, and then smiled at Yumi in greeting.
"Making ice cream," the blond beamed, then nodding toward the store owner, he added, "Ueda-san show me."
"Oohh!" Yumi gushed, clapping her hands together in sudden understanding, "Is he the new helper? I like your choice. He's cute! Most of our visitors are high school girls. I'm sure we'll draw more customers this way."
"Yumi!" Ueda exclaimed, and quickly found a chair, which he gently ushered his pregnant wife to sit down upon. "You should worry more about your health."
She sat down, obliging her husband with a kiss, but turned and gave the blond a quick wink.
"What's your name, blondie?"
"Fay." The mage bowed courteously to her, and she giggled.
"Fay—-that sounds just like it came out of a fairy tale. Say, dear, if we have a boy, can I call him Fay?"
Fay hardly understood the words that transpired afterwards between the couple, but he shrugged and watched with amusement as Ueda fussed over his wife, while she laughed and hugged him. This couple reminded him of the young Sakura and Syaoran at times--the affection they had for each other was very apparent. The blond suddenly recalled the ice cream they were making, and he turned his attention back to the machine.
The mage peered through the clear plastic cap, and noticed that the ice crystals blended smoothly with the mixture. He called for Ueda's attention, and motioned excitedly. The owner stood up to check the ice cream, and he gave the blond a thumbs-up signal, indicating that the ice cream was finished. He turned off the machine and removed the bowl, revealing a delicious batch of vanilla ice cream.
"Here you go," Ueda offered Fay a cup of ice cream to take back with him.
"Thank you, Ueda-san. My friends too."
The magician felt warmed by Ueda's kindness. He had decided to save some ice cream for Yuuko and the Mokonas, knowing that next to sake, the three of them had the biggest sweet teeth in all the dimensions they'd ever traveled.
"Can you come in next week?" Ueda addressed Fay, and the blond nodded.
"Good, come here next Saturday at eight. Be sure to bring your passport and ID. There are some papers to sign, but we should have time to do some baking in the afternoon."
Ueda patiently wrote the instructions on a piece of paper and handed it to Fay, who squinted at the characters, and then nodded in understanding before tucking the paper away. The blond suddenly took Ueda's hands into his own.
"Thank you...for your kindness, Ueda-san."
The owner smiled when he saw the genuine gratitude radiating from the bright blue eyes, and gave the blond's fingers a light squeeze. He could not help but be reminded of Chii, the girl who had worked in his shop years before he and Yumi were married. The blond let go of his hand, and waved to him as he turned to leave the shop.
"Come back again, blondie!"
Yumi also waved to him, and winked again.
As the door of the shop closed behind him, Fay's spirits lifted. Despite the hardships he had encountered living in Japan, he counted himself lucky to have met three very friendly people today.
To Be Continued...
Ending Notes: Please excuse the horrendous length of the first 1/3 of the prologue. I started to realize how monstrous it was becoming by the time I started to flesh out an outline. Furthermore, I have no intention of telling/retelling the journey of the five of them traveling. So, please don't beg me to write about what happened between Fay and his companions, or how they parted ways. Also, I am not going to go into Fay's past with Ashura--there are enough fics out there already who do a much better job of it than I ever will. With that said, I hope you look forward to the next part. I enjoy comments and reviews.