The various prompts in this won't always be related to one another, though this story and the first chapter share a canon. I'll mention which other ones do as the rest of this series is posted.
Enjoy!
Day Two: Rainy Day / Cards
From the view at the piano atop a slightly raised platform in the back of the restaurant, Riko felt more nervous to perform than she ever had. Idol concerts, piano recitals, events with far bigger crowds than the 60 or so people in the high class eatery...none of these affected her like this event did. "Maybe it's the intimacy of a small venue", she wondered for a moment.
"10 minutes, Miss Sakurauchi" said the maitre d', standing behind the stage as if he also felt as nervous as Riko did. He had no real reason to, but perhaps it was simply because he didn't trust the former idol not to mess up.
"Sure." she nodded, rising off of the piano bench as quickly as she could. She walked back to the small closet-like room in the rear of the restaurant and closed the door behind her quietly, sighing as she sunk down into the lone, hard wooden chair sitting in the center of the room. Her skin prickled as she realized how thin the material of her simple coral-colored dress was, even with her white cardigan wrapped around her shoulders. It was freezing, though this should be expected in the midst of the Fall, and certainly during the rainiest week Riko thought she'd ever experienced.
To get her mind off of the cold, and off her itchy nerves, Riko reached into her purse and pulled out a neatly tied bundle of cards from her purse. She untied the red silk ribbon wrapped around the bundle and looked at each card once again after tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Back home in Uchiura, all of her friends had sent cards wishing her good luck, or telling her they missed her, or congratulating her on the talent agent she managed to land. Each card was like a little piece of its creator's personality in such a genuine way that it made Riko's heart clench in some mixture of longing and joy. Mari's card was obvious from its ostentatious golden English writing strewn about on the cover; with her limited knowledge of the language Riko could just make out the word "shiny!" about 10 times, though she smiled anyway. Ruby's, Dia's, and Hanamaru's cards were also very obvious from the covers alone. Ruby's might as well have been made of the very concept of 'cuteness', what with all of the hearts and smiley faces and adorable, bubbly hiragana. On the other hand, Dia's was diametrically opposed to her sister's. Everything about it was neat, clean, and simple, though nonetheless just as heartfelt. Riko knew Hanamaru's immediately upon seeing that it was set on tan, tea-bag-colored paper that imitated old parchment, and written in painstaking calligraphy. Riko placed those cards down safely and picked up the rest of the pile.
Yoshiko's card was more like Yohane's card, if the deep black of the thing - and the the pentagrams covering it- meant anything. Kanan's and You's were similar in color and at first she had a problem determining whose was whose, until she spotted a tell-tale "yousoro!" on the inside one of them.
As she sorted through the cards Riko's mood lifted considerably. Those wonderful well-wishes from her dearest friends meant so much to her that she normally left the cards on a small shelf visible from just about every inch of the small student apartment she lived in. They made her so happy that she could actually stand the pain of the fact that Chika hadn't sent her one.
At first Riko thought the missing card was a mishap from the post office, and later that her girlfriend might simply have sent her card late - after all, she was not the kind of person to do things on time, if the way she wrote song lyrics was any indication. It wasn't until a week and a half followed the arrival of the other cards without Chika's appearing that she allowed herself to grow more and more heartbroken. Coincidentally, this happened at the same time as lead gray clouds covered Tokyo in a downpour of heavy raindrops that seemed to fall without end, and had lasted a week already.
The door to the small guest room opened before she knew it, and the same man from earlier poked his head in. "It's time, Miss Sakurauchi." he announced. She sent a small smile and nod his way before quickly tying up the bundle of cards again. She placed them in her purse, smoothed out a few wrinkles in her dress, and took a deep breath before heading out to the dining room.
In the minutes she'd been gone, the dining room went from "lunch" to "dinner" seemingly out of nowhere. The once bright lights dimmed considerably and the hum of the diners' conversations lowered, taking on a far more intimate cadence. The restaurant she'd been given a chance at was a famous Western-styled eatery deep in downtown Tokyo, a place where some of the city's wealthiest dined nightly. The wealthiest and the most influential. Riko absolutely didn't want to make a fool out of herself in front of people, and certainly not those who might be able to help further her musical career.
She stood in front of the piano as the maitre d' introduced her to the crowd, whose collective eye was turned on the slender girl standing in front of them. She bowed once, flashed the crowd a confident smile that in no way reflected her feelings, and took her seat on the bench.
It was just as her fingers played the very first notes of the very first song that the restaurant door banged open, loud as a gunshot. The room, already quiet while waiting for Riko to begin, fell down a layer into more of a charged silence that weighed upon the whole room. 62 pairs of eyes - including Riko's - turned towards the door at once to find the source of the disturbance.
Standing in the doorway, sopping wet and soaking every inch of the floor below her, was the bent over form of a heavily-breathing orange-haired girl with a single ribboned braid. Riko stifled a gasp but couldn't stop her fingers from slamming down into a discordant set of notes that, for a moment, caused the mass of eyes to turn to her accusingly before returning to Chika Takami.
Two or three members of the staff came rushing over after the initial shock of Chika's entrance and they stood over the girl with expressions ranging from anger to irritated confusion. Riko longed to hear what they were saying to the girl, but she was too far away to make out anything besides aggressive voices. She could see Chika looking over a staff member's shoulder (ignoring the man entirely) right at her. Chika mouthed some silent words, but Riko couldn't make those out either.
"Play, Miss Sakurauchi." the maitre d' whispered to her loudly, and she nearly jumped out of her skin; all of her attention was so focused on Chika that she hadn't even noticed the man standing beside her. "Get their attention away from this problem." he urged.
Riko hesitated. If she ignored Chika she'd feel terrible - not to mention that she wanted to defend the girl from being referred to as a 'problem'. On the other hand, refusing to do what the maitre d' ordered might mark an early end to a contract that had hardly begun. Before she could even make her decision, however, one of the staff members who'd spoken to Chika walked up to the stage.
"The girl is here for Miss Sakurauchi." he told the maitre d', as his eyes flicked disapprovingly to Riko for a moment. Both men turned towards Riko, who blushed in embarrassment.
"D-don't get the wrong idea," she tried to explain. "I hadn't invited her like this, but yes, she's my friend."
"That doesn't excuse her behavior." the maitre d' said.
"I know, I know, but...could she wait for me in that guest room? Please?" Riko pleaded.
The man stared at her for a few seconds, but begrudgingly agreed. "Please don't let this happen again, Miss Sakurauchi."
"Of course not." she bowed her head. "Thank you."
The four hours of that very first dinner service she was contracted to play might have been the longest four hours of Riko's life. Six to ten passed more like twelve to twelve, and even during her one and only intermission she couldn't find the time to sneak away to the guest room. "I wonder if they even gave Chika a towel," she thought to herself. Instead of seeing Chika, the pianist spent her break speaking to the owner of the restaurant.
"Very impressive playing, Miss..."
"Sakurauchi." Riko answered the restaurant's owner. "But thank you very much, sir. I appreciate the compliment."
He was a tall, slender man wearing clothing that must've cost twice what Riko's entire closet cost, though the smile on his face seemed genuine enough as he praised Riko's piano playing. He walked over as she had tried to unassumingly walk away from the stage during her single break of the night, and she felt frozen to her spot on the floor.
"I'm only speaking the truth." he laughed. "One of your professors, Mr. Murakami - he's a good friend of mine. I'm glad I took his recommendation and gave you a chance here."
"Thank you again for the kind words, and for the opportunity." Riko smiled, though inside she was practically itching to get to that guest room. Her hands almost betrayed her as they began clenching at her side, and she forced herself to take a breath and use that nervous energy to smooth out nonexistent wrinkles in her dress. Minutes speaking became half an hour, and while she was glad to have left such a good impression on the owner of the place, the fact that she couldn't see Chika burned deeply.
It was only after her whole set was done, after the final customer of the night walked out satisfied with both music and food, that Riko was able to finally leave the stage to see Chika. She just about leaped off the bench and ran to the guest room, but she froze outside the door when she reached it. She was tired from her set that night, slightly sweaty as well thanks to the heat that came from the overhead light hanging above the piano, and this wasn't even counting her frayed nerves, sparkling with worry and impatience throughout the night. A million ways to start a conversation passed through her head. Should see be excited to see Chika? Should she confront the girl right off the bat about the lack of a card? Should she just cry from relief? After all, this was the first time in a month and a half that she'd even seen Chika. They hadn't met face to face since Riko's move to Tokyo.
Riko bit her lip and opened the door, and in that same moment Chika bowed low, holding out something thin and rectangular in her hands towards the pianist.
"A...card?" Riko asked.
"Take it please, RIko." Chika had still to rise from her bow.
"Alright."
She pulled the card out of Chika's hand gingerly and opened it; Chika's hands fell to her side. Glancing from the card to Chika and back just once, Riko opened it to find nothing more than a heart. There were no words, no notes, no other pictures - nothing, nothing except for the heart on the page.
"Chika?"
The girl finally lifted herself from the bow, wearing a sheepish grin that caused Riko's own heart to skip a beat or two. "I thought of way too many things to write to you." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I must've gone through a hundred cards!" she laughed. "But, after everything, I think this sums it up pretty nicely. Sorry it took so long to get here."
Tears sprung to Riko's eyes and she threw herself at Chika, wrapping her arms around the girl as tightly as she could. "Oh, Chika! That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard."
Chika returned the embrace, holding Riko just as tightly, before her eyes widened and she pushed Riko away quickly.
"Huh?" Riko asked, her heart filled with worry.
"I'm still wet from the rain. I don't want to get you soaked too." Chika shrugged with an apologetic smile.
Riko bit her lip. Now that she noticed it, she could feel a large wet spot on the front of her dress ("I guess they never gave her a towel" she thought), but found that she just didn't care about being wet. "That doesn't matter." she smiled, and once more wrapped her arms around Chika and kissed the girl quickly on the lips. They stood silently, holding onto one another all alone in the guest room.
"Miss Sakurauchi, we're closing up for the night." came the voice of the maitre d' following a series of knocks. Chika was at the door before Riko even had a chance to answer. She opened it to find the man standing patiently in his impeccably neat uniform.
"I'm really sorry about earlier." she apologized before the man could even say a word. "Please don't hold this against Riko. She had no idea I was even coming."
"Is this true?" he looked above Chika to the pianist.
"Honestly, I was just as surprised as all of you."
A beat passed as he pondered his answer. "I'll make sure the owner doesn't even know about this incident. He wasn't in the room at the time. Just don't let it happen again, alright?" he answered, before walking away towards the kitchen to round up the cleaning crew.
Chika turned to Riko and beamed.
What a nice apartment this is!" Chika said when Riko opened the door to her home. They had just arrived and the rain was still drip, drip, dripping without end.
"You haven't even been inside yet. Come on in, you have to get out of those clothes before you catch a cold." Riko ordered.
Chika walked in first, slowly, and RIko followed after. She turned on the lights in her apartment as she walked through it, while the orange-haired girl stood dripping on the welcome mat in the entrance.
"Wait right there, I'll get you a towel." Riko disappeared into the bathroom as she spoke, returning a few moments later with a fresh towel, soft and red.
"Thanks." Chika started to dry her hair and her exposed arms when Riko gave her a sympathetic smile. "Why don't you go and borrow some clothes? Dry up and change and while you do that I'll make us some tea."
"I can stay over?"
"Is that even a question?" Riko responded with playful sarcasm.
While Chika was getting dressed in the pianist's room, Riko was returning the cards her friends had sent her to the small wooden shelf above her window. She placed each one down carefully, and could hardly contain her excitement as she put Chika's where it should have been all along.
Minutes later Chika walked out wearing a large pair of gray sweatpants that Riko kept to lounge in, as well as a very large white t-shirt kept around for the same reason. The t-shirt was filled with holes. Despite trying to keep her intentions pure, Riko found herself eyeing the girl intently, hoping to see if she was wearing a bra under that thin t-shirt; the holes seemed to tease a truth without giving it away. A lucky glance through one of the arms of the shirt gave the answer Riko could only blush at. Steam rose from the kettle, but in a moment all of that was forgotten.
Without saying anything Chika hugged Riko from behind and buried her face in the girl's smooth back. "I really missed you, Riko."
Riko turned around, managing to stay in the embrace, and returned the hug. She kissed the girl softly on the forehead.
"I missed you too."
Outside, the autumn rain continued to fall without end. The incessant dripping music of the rain drops insulated the intimate apartment from the rest of the world.
Thanks for reading!
Reviews, criticisms, and responses are all welcome!
