| Chapter Two: Drag the River |
For Yukiko, these days go well.
Seldom do they ever change; it's a steady float on calm waters, and that's never really a bad thing. So Yukiko's content with the wave of patrons, the ebb and flow of business, and the drifting idle chatter.
She's not complaining, but she finds she has an old habit of wondering and wanting more.
And, given summer vacation coming to a slow end and a final school year of decisions coming in, she has plenty of time and plenty to think about.
She plans to inherit the inn – with honour and delight – when her time comes. Until then, she's set herself on training to be a manager, cooking being the first improvement.
"Good night, Yuki–chan," her mother says sweetly before walking down the hallway with a sort of well-aged poise Yukiko has only ever seen on her.
Lately, Yukiko's mother has been happier, if a bit more drained. Yukiko too feels happier these days, because they aren't weighing her down with uncertainty and fear.
Still, as Yukiko whispers, "Sweet dreams, Mother," and slides through the paper doors, she wonders if those days at least kept her mind from floating away at night.
Inn work is consuming, but these nights Yukiko is filled with a sort of pent–up energy; something excited bubbles inside her, and she just doesn't know what to do with it.
She wonders if this is what Chie feels like most of the time – because Heaven knows that girl eats enough to power their entire town, bless her soul – and that maybe she should take up morning jogging, or marathon Kung–Fu movies all night.
But it just wouldn't work for Yukiko: she's got the inn, day in and day out, and she's got her future planned. The things that don't sum up to that whole just seem like they can't be made part of the balance.
Which leaves Yukiko wide–awake these nights, and her mind wanders at sea as her eyes stare at the same ceiling they have seen for the past sixteen years.
Seventeen, this December. Yukiko's never quite been a fan of the cold, and nowadays she thinks it's because of the fire the TV brings out of her.
Her phone buzzes, and the screen lights up the room. Given how late it is, Yukiko's not certain who it could be and is unsure if she's even awake when she reads the text.
comin in 5. got company
"Yosuke and...company?" Yukiko whispers to herself, just to be sure she's read it right. Since when does Yosuke text Yukiko so late – even if Chie's told her his nature of late night jokes – and why would he be coming to the inn at almost midnight?
Another text follows – meet me alone – and Yukiko is officially confounded.
But as much as rational thought tells Yukiko to consider the situation more, a small part of her just shrugs and says why not.
Somehow, that part gets her out of bed and into her sandals.
She's waiting just outside the inn gate – at the corner that grows the indistinct blueish flowers – with two parts confusion and one tiny, tiny part excitement. Yosuke, true to - well, Yosuke - arrives right on schedule, grinning tiredly, and for a moment it's like the team is trudging out of Junes on a late autumn evening.
The reverie gently ripples away when Yosuke closes the distance between them and huffs out a, "Mornin'."
Yukiko's senses seem to come back then – even the ones that doubted being out here in the first place – and she draws the hanging sleeves of her kimono closer.
She starts to answer, but her mind is distracted. "Morn-wait, no -"
"Kidding," Yosuke whispers, smiling.
I knew that, Yukiko means to say, but she's looking over Yosuke's head and isn't exactly sure if it's a trick of the lack of light – supplied in drops by the hanging lanterns - but there's a baby there.
"Uhm," Yukiko manages intelligibility.
Yosukue grins too widely and scrunches his eyebrows. "So you see it too?"
"The-uh," What am I even doing outside? What would mother and father think? "The baby?"
"Pretty sure he's, like, two or something," Yosuke supplies. He shrugs, and the bundle moves with his shoulders. "This is Naoto."
Yukiko has a lot of questions, but at least the least important is answered.
Still, when logic and reason and all else fails, Yukiko's manager blood doesn't. "Maybe you should come inside."
They enter the inn the same way Yukiko left: through the window reached by scaling the far gate's wall, as none other than Rise devised, saying that a girl always needs an escape route planned.
Maybe a girl like her, who always has at least five someones running after her. But when has Yukiko ever really been so sought after?
When they're in her star-lit room – which is a first, given Yukiko's never really brought either a boy or a baby home – Yukiko is mildly uncomfortable for a moment. Maybe Yosuke senses this, or maybe he's just in the habit of putting his foot in his mouth, but he whistles quietly.
"So where do you keep the good stuff?"
"Wh-what? What goods?" Yukiko splutters, before getting shushed by Yosuke.
"Kidding, kidding. We gotta keep it down, Naoto'll wake up."
Instead of suggesting the more pressing issue with being loud is getting caught in her room past midnight – oh goodness does saying it like that put things into a context – Yukiko whispers, "Naoto?"
Yosuke raises his brows up and shrugs the saddle on his shoulders. "This little guy."
Which brings about so many other questions, in part because Yukiko's now become a philosopher at night, but she first notices, "- he's not sleeping."
"Yeah he is," Yosuke says, as he tries to look over his own head. It's an amusing picture, and Yukiko smiles just short of a giggle.
"I don't think he's been asleep at all," Yukiko says, looking at Naoto – who looks a lot more at peace than the Naoto she's used to seeing. His eyes are half-open, and his face has an easy sleepiness to it.
"What?" Yosuke says a little louder, reaching a hand to tap Naoto's head. "Have you been hitching a free ride?"
This time, Yukiko lets out a giggle. "He certainly is as smart as Naoto-kun."
"Smartass," Yosuke huffs as he gently pries Naoto off his shoulders. When he catches Yukiko's look, he grimaces. "Sorry."
As Yosuke holds Naoto in his hands, mock-arguing with him, Yukiko adjusts her pillow and blankets.
"You should put him down here," she suggests, and Yosuke follows, stuffing his earphones in his pocket.
When Yukiko tucks him in, she sees Naoto stare up at her with a sort of innocent curiosity. It's really, really cute.
"Are you sleepy, Naoto?"
Naoto shakes his head, and Yukiko thinks maybe it's not just her who's not finding sleep easy lately.
"I am," Yosuke yawns out, dropping on the floor and propping himself up against his hands. "So can I nap here too?"
"N-no!" Yukiko whispers as aghast as she can manage.
"K-i-d-d-i-n-g," Yosuke says, chuckling. When Yukiko gives him a derisive stare, he holds his hands up defensively. "Okay, okay. Serious talk now. So what're we gonna do with him?"
Somehow, somehow, it feels like they're sitting at a round table. "What do you mean? Is he your cousin?" But even Yukiko can tell that's a stretch.
"What? No, he looks nothing like me." Yosuke glances over at Naoto, who looks back at him. "He's cuter than me – but don't-" Yosuke grumbles off, then repeats louder, "don't tell anyone I said that."
Yukiko isn't even sure if anyone would believe her if she told them Yosuke called anything "cute", even if it was a sweet toddler.
But then, since Souji left, it wasn't like she had many excuses to spend time with Yosuke and know him better, anyway. Or at all.
"He is cute," Yukiko agrees, nonetheless. "How old did you say he was?"
"Dunno. How old are ya, little man?" They watch Naoto expectantly, who watches them just the same. Yosuke shrugs. "He does that most of the time. But if I'm guessing, he's two or three, prob'ly."
"Really? I would have said one-and-a-half, maybe." When Yosuke's expression prompts her, she adds, "He's very quiet, and small. A little mysterious."
Yosuke yawns again, stretching his arms out. "Maybe. I dunno. You'd know better than me."
Yukiko's not too sure – kids don't visit the inn all that often. Mostly just infants or adults, because kids don't have the patience for traditional temporary living.
"Anyways," Yosuke says, still looking sleepy, and a bit – dodgy? "Can he stay here tonight? He got lost at Junes and he doesn't wanna go to the station to call his parents, and I really couldn't think of a better place to leave him. I really don't mean to dump anything on you, but..."
"Oh, of course."
"What?" Yosuke bolts up, startled, and Yukiko shushes him. He continues in a harsh whisper. "I thought you'd be all up in my grill for kidnapping or something."
Grill reminds Yukiko of Chie.
In any case, Yukiko's lived in this town long enough – over a decade longer than Yosuke – to know that this isn't all that out-of-the-ordinary: every so often a tourist will lose a friend or child, but no one ever bothered the police with it – there was a sort of stigma against involving the force where kindred townsmanship could help just fine.
"I'll let my father know in the morning, and when he goes out to maintain the garden, he'll let the word out and they'll find his parents."
"Huh." Yosuke looks almost disappointed, but then shrugs. "Man, the boonies will never cease to bore, eh? Someone can just grab a kid off the street and everyone's chill about it."
"Is that such a bad thing?" Yukiko asks. She's never questioned it herself; it's just been a way of life.
"Good and bad, I guess."
After that, the conversation goes pond-water still, and a silence falls between them, where Yukiko finds herself smoothing out Naoto's already smooth blanket just to busy herself. Naoto watches her, and she almost engages him but decides their conversation has probably kept him up long enough as it is.
She looks at Yosuke, who's spinning his phone around in his hand, and can't think of anything to say – which, in it's own right, is a little disappointing, knowing that they used to be better company to each other.
Well, no: everyone together was better company. Divided, they're back to their old ways.
Before Yukiko can come up with anything, Yosuke draws himself up and stands, wincing a little.
"Well, if everything's all right, then I'm off. Got school in the morning and all. Y'know -" he smiles, like he's about to tell a joke that no one else will get, but it turns into a grimace and he stuffs his hands into his pockets. "-a-anyway, I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."
It strikes Yukiko that even seeing each other when they go to the same school has become a probability more than a promise. She's not sure what to make if it.
But if she's sure of one thing, it's how to be hospitable. "Why don't you stay?"
Yosuke blanks, quirks an eyebrow. "Uh."
"It is an inn after all. It's open to everyone." Yukiko stands up herself, shoulders held stiffly forward by wont. "It's the slow season, so there's a few rooms free, and no one would mind if you stayed until the morning."
Yosuke looks weirded out still, but manages to chuckle to himself. "I mean, I could just stay here with Naoto. And you," he adds, with a wink as slick as sandpaper.
Yukiko's about to switch into her defensive mode – the one she uses with the lewd-acting men – but Yosuke chuckles again, waving his hand.
"I'm just kidding – you gotta get that by now. But man, your face just hardened." He grins, but it's not so arrogant as it is light-hearted. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm gonna pass this time."
He starts to make his way out, and Yukiko almost asks him to stay again – because the way he walks, he just looks exhausted.
But she doesn't, and instead Yosuke looks over his shoulder as he leaves out the window they came from.
"But, if there's a big enough opening, we should get everyone together and have another Amagi inn party." He flashes a strained, tired smile. "We can all hit the hot springs together this time."
Yukiko watches him clamber out the window, and hears the clattering sounds he makes on his way down until he apparently trips on something and consequently swears before calling out a hushed, "Sorry!"
A moment later, and Yosuke's gone as the night's quiet spilled over the inn again.
Yukiko sighs. She feels pensive, and now more than ever has food for thought. But, stressed as she is, she also feels a certain sort of – happiness. Something inching close to excitement.
Maybe seeing Yosuke again has something to do with it, or maybe it's the late night sneaking around. Whatever it is, it's lit the tiniest of sparks inside Yukiko.
Speaking of tiniest.
"Are you okay with sleeping here tonight?" Yukiko asks Naoto, who's still staring out at nothing in particular.
Naoto nods, and shuffles deeper into his blankets.
Yukiko pulls it away from his face just slightly, because she's been warned enough by plastic bags that everything is a choking hazard to kids.
"Will you be scared without your mom and dad?"
This time, Naoto looks at Yukiko, and pauses for a moment. He shakes his head.
Well, he seems like a well-behaved child, Yukiko muses, as oppose to most kids that end up staying at the inn and driving staff and stay alike crazy.
"Well then," Yukiko starts as she brushes Naoto's messy hair back, "sweet dreams, Naoto. And if you need anything, just let me know."
In place of answering, Naoto burrows under Yukiko's blanket until only his eyes peek out. Yukiko smiles, then sets off to her closet and pulls out whatever leftover blankets she has.
She makes do with a winter comforter as a futon, and a just-short quilt as a blanket – which is better than nothing, Yukiko thinks, because she could sleep without a futon or pillow, but couldn't catch a wink without something to wrap herself in.
Yukiko rolls her makeshift bed beside her actual one, and Naoto turns over to watch her. When Yukiko lies down and curls herself until she fits under the quilt, she sees Naoto nodding off, and it occurs to her that children are the most precious thing when they fall asleep.
And something about it brings her a peace that gently leads her into a sleep in kind.
"Good night, Naoto-kun," Yukiko whispers, the smell of last winter surrounding her as she leans her face into the comforter.
As her mind shuffle through random thoughts and moments, she manages to pinpoint one that floats around like a bottle at sea, in which a letter inside brings promise of a new day, where things begin to change.
For the most part, these days leave Yukiko happy.
But watching from the shore gets boring, and she thinks – sleepily, almost in dream – that if she could take off her shoes and catch that bottle, she just might find the greater contentment from just a few months ago.
A/N: Apologies for the late and probably unsightly update. Do express your thoughts on it if you wish, please.
(Does my exhaustion show yet?)