Disclaimer: I don't own Recettear.
Story:
Recette stared at her new, corrugated home, her dreams crushed under the cruel weight of compound interest. She sniffled. It was all that stupid little girl's fault, taking up her valuable time but never buying a single thing. If only she had been able to give her full attention to paying customers instead of noisy brats with no disposable income she would still have a roof over her head.
"Waaah!" she wailed. "Why'd it have to end in a box! All my work, decorating the shop, building an inventory, and gouging customer after customer, and somehow I end up living in a box!"
"You're the one who insisted you couldn't sleep in my bed," Charme replied. "Of course if you changed your mind we could toss that thing out right now. I miss my floor space anyway." She didn't have a lot of it. The one room apartment she rented above her favorite tavern didn't offer space for much beyond a bed, Charme's twin piles of dirty and less dirty laundry, and now Recette's 'house'.
Recette let loose a fresh sob. "No, I failed as a merchant, so now I have to live in a box. Just like Tear always warned me I would if I slacked off."
"Aw come on, don't talk like that." Charme slid forward and wrapped Recette in a hug (just a hug for now, she wouldn't take advantage of Tear's absence until she could cheer Recette up a bit more). "You still have your merchant license, don't you? Plus all the money you had for next month's payment, and whatever was left of your inventory. We just need to find somewhere to store it all and then you can get it from Tear."
"What do you mean the bank owns it all!?" Charme shouted at Tear as Recette wilted.
"The terms of her father's agreement with our organization were quite clear. Both the house and any contents are forfeited in the event of non-payment, along with all assets of the debtor. Frankly it was all I could do to convince my superiors not to invoke the organ sale clause," Tear replied primly. "As my superiors elected to leave this property as a shop they are even less willing to part with the merchandise within."
"That's bullshit! Recette didn't even make that deal, and that was definitely her stuff, not her dad's!" Charm shot back.
"The debt fell on the house, and Recette assumed it in her attempt to keep her home. It isn't ideal, but that's the situation we're in," Tear said, studiously avoiding eye contact.
Charme felt a tug on her sleeve. "Let's just go. Please?" Recette asked. Seeing her former partner was more than she could bear, after failing her.
"Okay sweetie." She turned back to Tear. "Don't think this is over, though." Tear just sighed as they left.
"If that bitch thinks we're taking this lying down she has another thing coming. When I'm done with that place there won't even be wallpaper left." Charm said.
"Please don't, Charme. She's just doing her job." Recette said.
"Oh I'll drop it, for now. But only because we have other things to worry about." Charme replied, leading Recette through a maze of side alleys. "Come on. I'll need you to do the haggling."
"What haggling? Where are we going?" Recette asked, finally becoming aware that Charme had brought her to a strange, run down part of town.
"With your shop closed I need to go back to my old contact to sell my loot. Only I might have burned that bridge when I realized I could deal with you instead. If you bargain with her for me I'll give you five percent of the take." Charme explained.
"Eight percent," Recette replied reflexively.
Charme smiled.
A little while later Recette walked out of the dingy pawnshop that housed Charme's contact with a lighter pack and heavier purse. The thief had waited outside, claiming the broker wouldn't deal with her anymore.
"Well, how did it go?"
"Not great," Recette replied, handing over her purse.
Charme opened it and sighed. "I was hoping for more, but this isn't exactly bad. I guess you're used to selling from a shop instead of to them."
"It could have been worse. If it weren't for the jewelry shortage of the last few weeks I might not have been able to get her to pay even market price, "Recette said, unaware she was speaking to the cause of said shortage. "But a merchant from out of town just started selling a lot of nicer tableware, so I had to hang on to all of that stuff. The value won't go back up for a while. I might use my cut to stock up, actually."
"Wait, you didn't sell everything?"
"Of course not," Recette said, genuinely confused. "A lot of that stuff isn't worth anything right now. If we wait a few days we'll make way more." The girl thought for a moment. "Do you normally just sell everything right away?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Going hunting for good deals would take up time I could just use to get more stuff to sell," Charme replied, raising her hands behind her head with a sheepish grin. "Easier to get rid of everything now and hope for the best. But I guess if you're handling my finances for now you can do all that."
Recette nodded, barely listening by the end. Her mind was a whirl with possibilities, and filled with the sound of cash registers chiming.
A day later Recette had started her hunt for clients. Which was why she was now struggling to keep her patience with a particularly stubborn child.
"So let me get this straight, you want me to sell my latest haul to you, but you can't even pay me now?" Cailou said, looking down his nose at Recette. "If you want charity you should go to the chapel."
"I keep telling you, I don't want to buy anything from you. I'm offering you my services as a middleman. Middlewoman. Whatever." Recette took a deep breath, an imaginary Tear on her shoulder reminding her that slapping clients is bad business. "We go through everything you pulled out of the dungeon, and pick out the stuff that isn't worth much now. You take the rest and sell it off to fund your next trip, and while you're off doing that I wait for good deals and sell whatever you leave with me for a better price. I give you that, minus a cut for my services."
"That still sounds like giving you stuff for free. And how do I know you could get a good deal anyway?" The boy demanded. "Without your boss around you'd probably trade anything I left with you for magic beans or something."
"Don't insult me," Recette shot back, face reddened by irritation. Being lectured about business from a boy who had never even noticed any of her price gouging irked her to no end. "The magic bean market has been way too hot to get into since Big Bash lost their supplier. They cost an arm and a leg, but the price will fall out the moment something higher level than the cloud dungeon opens.
Cailou froze, staring at Recette like she'd grown a second head. "Y-you actually know something about business?"
Recette facepalmed.
Recette staggered back into Charme's apartment late and promptly flopped facedown onto her box.
"Rough day?" Charme asked from a similar position on her bed.
"If I didn't need his business I'd wring that brat's neck." Recette groused. "Turns down the offer of a lifetime just because he doesn't understand brokerage."
"I dunno why you started with the the lil' mage. Didn't you say he'd be the hardest one?" Charme asked.
Recette rolled over. "He was the easiest to find, and I need more business than yours. Its almost the end of the month."
Charme raised a bleary eye to the merchant. "Why does that matter? I'm not charging you rent or anything."
"I need to make my monthly payment to... SWEET ADAM SMITH! I don't have any monthly payments to make!" Recette exclaimed. She stared into the middle distance. "I can just keep all my profits. And spend them on more money." A single tear rolled down her cheek at the beauty of this vision.
"Uh, well I can't just keep hosting you free forever. But maybe you could give something else in return?" Charme asked with half hearted optimism.
"Well cooking is out. I guess I could clean up a bit or something," Recette offered.
The thief sighed. "Not what I meant. Ah forget it, I'm too tired to flirt properly right now. I started work at the crack of noon."
"Sorry, I'll try to keep it down so you can get some rest." Recette needed to recount her money and plan how to use her profits from selling Charme's loot, but didn't think that would be a problem. In her opinion the clinking of coins was the best lullaby.
"Wait, did you say something about flirting?" Recette asked. But Charme was already asleep.
The next day found Recette alone, Charme remarkably having woken up and left while she slept. The merchant had just finished disposing of her host's collection of liquor bottles and was rewarding herself with breakfast at the tavern below when she heard a familiar voice.
"Hi, Recette! I haven't seen you in forever. Is this where you've been hiding?" Recette looked up from her breakfast and recognized Tielle, one of the adventurers she had befriended during her time as a shop keeper. The orange haired elven archer looked as perky as ever, waving from across the room.
"Tielle" What brings you to a place like this?" Recette asked as the elf approached her table. A seedy tavern was the last place she expected to see the other girl.
"Oh. Uh. I heard they sold some kind of sweet berry treat here," Tielle said.
"They don't really have any sweets here. Maybe one of the drinks, but you're probably too young for those?" She wasn't totally clear on how elves aged, but a scatterbrain like Tielle probably shouldn't be drinking regardless of how old she might actually be. Not one to let an opportunity pass her by, Recette changed the subject. "Since you're here though, why not have a seat? I have a business proposition for you."
"So I just leave stuff with you and you'll do all the selling for me?" Tielle asked. "But I pick up a lot of stuff in the dungeons. And it sounds like you want to work with other adventurers too. Where will you keep it all?"
"Storage space at the edge of town is pretty cheap. I have enough to rent it for a while just from dealing with Charme." Recette explained happily, briefly going misty eyed as she pictured the future of her new venture. "With a few more clients I can get something permanent, and maybe set up a drop off location closer to the guild. Then I'll get everyone to sell through me, sieze control of the dungeon crawling industry, and use the profits to destroy the Terme Finance Company!"
"Um." Tielle said, she thought eloquently.
Recette shook her head clear."But that's for later. Right now this is just a little business arrangement between friends. So what do you think? Just meet up with me after an adventure and I'll pick out the stuff that isn't worth much today and sell it when prices rebound. If you decide you want it back just pick it up."
"Alight, it's a deal! I'll get in touch next time I plan a dungeon run." Tielle declared. "But I've gotta go now. It's nearly time for my favorite bakery to start throwing away yesterday's sweet rolls. Later!" With that the elf girl slipped out of the tavern.
That had been curiously easy, Recette thought. Tielle hadn't even haggled over rates. Maybe she really hated selling stuff? Some people were strange like that.
Later that night Recette had grown suspicious. Tielle mistaking a cocktail for candy and showing up in a bar wasn't that strange. Running into Nagi while scouring the outskirts of town for cheap storage space was surprising, but really the directionally challenged woman could be found anywhere other than where she was trying to go.
Running into Louie in a store that sold cheap boxes though? That was a bit much. Recette was beginning to think her adventurer friends were searching for her. They didn't do anything when they found her though. Anything but listen to her sales pitch, that is. Actually Louie hadn't really heard much of it before agreeing and running off.
Hang on a minute! Were they looking for her just to hear her offer? That would explain why her friends were showing up everywhere she went, but not why they waited for her to mention it, or how they knew about it in the first place. Someone had to be telling them, but who? Cailou? Recette suppressed a snort. Not Cailou. The only other person who knew was Charme, and she had been busy all day working for the last few days. At least that was what she'd been saying.
When Charme returned to her room a little while later she found her roomate staring intently at her.
"Hey Charme? I have a weird question for you. Do you know why all my adventurer buddies have been looking for me today?"
"Oh, have they been looking for you? They must be worried, not seeing you at the shop anymore."
"Maybe, but the thing is not one of them asked about where I was staying, or how I was doing. At least they stuck around long enough to hear my business proposal though."
Recette heard Charme mutter something like "Idiots," before responding, "Then I don't know. Were they hoping you'd sponsor a dungeon run?"
"No, not that either. It almost seemed like they knew I wanted to talk to them. But the only person who could have told them about that was you, and you've been too busy working to spread around news like that."
Charme sweated, but said nothing.
"Charme, did you send them all to me?" Recette asked.
"Maybe," Charme answered.
"Okay. But why would you pretend you weren't? You usually brag every time you do something useful," Recette said.
"I kinda thought if you knew I was helping you'd think I was looking down on you as a businesswoman." She added under her breath a moment later, "Plus I didn't want you to know I haven't been working."
"What? I've always had help though. Why would it be different now? You're already the only reason I'm not living on the street. And I already knew you were a bum," Recette said with a smile.
Charme flushed and avoided eye contact with Recette. "I'm just worried about driving you off. You're putting up with a lot, living here. I was worried this would be the thing that was finally too much."
It wasn't like Charme to be this timid. Something was off, and Recette had a suspicion about what it was. She'd been putting together clues for a while, and decided now was the time to confirm her theory. "Charme, do you like me?"
*Sometime later*
"Stop laughing," Recette demanded. "How was I supposed to know that was all flirting? You just said weird stuff and wiggled your eyebrows until Tear chased you off." The merchant pouted. "No one would explain what had happened when I asked."
Charme finally managed to get her giggles under control, wiping her eyes and saying,"Sorry sweetie, you were just being very cute." She stepped closer to Recette, raising a hand to cup her cheek. "So cute I could just Eat. You. Up."
"Wait, were all those times you talked about eating me flirting too? How is that supposed to be sexy?" The younger girl asked, thoroughly confused.
"How about I show y-!" Charme flinched and cut herself off, looking around. "Sorry, I'm just used to being attacked by a fairy by now. How about I show you what I meant all those times?"
Recette stared at her for a long moment, before uttering a quiet, "Okay."
"Eh?"
"Okay, show me what you were talking about." Recette said, more confidently this time.
"Wait really!?" Charme asked, perking up immediately. "Oh man, if I'd known this would happen I would definitely have shaved. Pretend I didn't say that."
"Yes really. You aren't actually going to bite me though, right?" Recette asked, once more uncertain.
Hearing that last bit Charme paused in the middle of pulling up her shirt. "You actually have no idea what's going on, do you?" A pained look crossed her face. "Hmm. I think I'd actually feel bad if I took you up on that right now." She let her top fall back into place.
"How about starting with a date instead?"
Two months had passed since Recette started acting as a sales agent for local adventurers, and things were going well. Way, way too well. At the start she'd been able to turn a steady profit finding buyers for a few items per day as prices shifted. That steady trickle of income had been a boon to her clients, allowing them to recover far more easily after quests gone wrong.
Then word started to get out, and Recette found herself with clients from outside her social circle. With them had come far more items to sell. Including some that she had never even heard of. Sorting through it all and tracking down news on market shifts had gradually taken up more of her life. The strain was enough that Recette was starting to consider turning away future clients, profits be damned.
Recette shook her head, mentally apologizing to her wallet for that last thought. It was getting late, and she was sorting through one of her storage rooms trying to find her scarf pile. A sudden cold snap had driven prices for them through the roof, and she'd make a killing if only she could dig them out before stores closed.
"Oh come on, you have to be here somewhere!" the girl wailed, pausing in her frantic search to pull at her hair in frustration. "Okay, okay. If I were me, where would I put a pile of scarves?"
"Probably packed below something fragile, since you haven't invested in proper shelving," came a reply from the doorway.
"Right! I had them bracing the snowglobes. In the back right I think." Recette was partway through scrambling over her book pile when she realized one of those voices hadn't been her's. She slid down the stack and turned to face her visitor.
A familiar fairy floated in the doorway, sweeping a disapproving gaze over the cluttered room.
"Merde, did you just pile everything in the order you received it?" Tear asked.
"It's organized. Sort of." Recette replied defensively. "Business has been pretty good though. A lot of new inventory. Things have gotten a little mixed up lately, that's all."
Tear smiled. "You never did have much of a head for inventory management." She recalled that Recette had always been great at the parts of business involving other people, but when it came to accounting and record keeping the girl was hopeless. Maybe I could help her out a little bit? The wording in my noncompete clause is fairly vague. But she was pulled from her musing before she could voice the thought.
"Did you just come here to insult me?" Recette snapped. "I'm doing pretty well on my own you know." Convincing everyone to take her little startup seriously had been a struggle from day one. Another person looking down on her efforts was the last thing she needed. Especially if that person was Tear.
"I- I know that. I actually heard about this place when I looked into why adventurers haven't been selling much to the shop lately. You've managed to make an impact on the local economy on your own." A small but noticeable slice of local traders' profits came from adventurers selling to them while prices were depressed. Meeting the quota set by her employers at Terme had become that much more burdensome as that slice vanished.
"So now that I'm hurting your profits I'm worth speaking to again?" Recette had never really believed the fairy's cold, businesslike facade was her real personality, but being abandoned had taken its toll on her.
"No! I wouldn't have bothered you for that. I must be the last person you want to see right now, but I became concerned when I heard you were still staying with Charme. You're a very trusting girl, and Charme is the sort of person who might take advantage of that trust. She hasn't done anything...inappropriate, has she?" Tear asked.
"I don't see how that's your business," Recette replied. "And I'd rather trust her than someone who only shows up when there's money at stake."
"If she stayed with you it was doubtless because she wanted something other than money," Tear said.
"Maybe she wanted something I didn't mind giving her, did you ever think of that? Maybe that's just how relationships work," Recette said. "Maybe you'd know that if you had any relationships that weren't about money." A silence held for a moment after that, and Recette realized she might have said too much.
"I need to get back to work. Can you just go? Please?" Recette pleaded before turning back to continue looking through her inventory heap.
"I'm sorry," Tear said. "I did not come here to fight. I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Recette didn't respond, continuing her search in sullen silence. "I will leave you alone now. Just...just try to put in the time to reorganize all of this soon. And write down where you put it all. And maybe hire a part timer. There is enough here to keep two people busy. Good evening."
With that Tear left.
Later that night Charme stumbled into the storage room.
"Recette?" she called, "You in there? I swear, if you aren't in this one I give up."
"Charme? Yeah, I'm back here," a watery voice replied from somewhere in the mess. "I'm almost done here. I just- *sniff* just need a minute."
Not in the mood to wait, Charme started climbing over obstacles towards Recette's voice. "The heck are yah still doin' back here? Thought you'd be done hours ago."
"What? How late is it? Oh no, am I late for our date?"
"You were late an hour ago. Now you jus' plain stood me up," Charme slurred a bit while replying. She managed to vault over a stack of crates in her way, finally laying eyes on her target. "What's wrong?" She asked, noticing Recette's red eyes and disheveled appearance.
"I'm sorry. I just started trying to reorganize everything but nothing is where it should be and I don't know what I'm doing and now I stood you up and," Recette trailed of into a tearful babble.
Charme was quite thoroughly unprepared for this, having arrived prepared to give Recette a tongue lashing if the young merchant didn't start groveling right away. Instead she gingerly pulled the younger woman into a hug.
"Hey, come on sweetie. What's got ya all worked up like this? If yer business is so busy you can't manage it isn't that a good thing?" Charme asked.
"But if I'm struggling now it means I can't grow any more," Recette said. "And if this is all I can do maybe I was never any good at business. Maybe I was just Tear's assistant."
"Psh, yeah right. Its been like two months since you were totally broke and now we're ass deep in the crap people want you to sell for them just cuz you're so damn good at it. Sure you prolly need to figure out how to keep track of it better, but you'll figure it out," Charme said.
"Now come on. Looks like you've got enough space for all this crap, you just need to pull it all out and sort it. We'll do that, get yer notes about what's here straight, an then you can get back to sellin' it."
Charme stood up, trying to pull Recette with her but instead overbalancing and falling back into the junk pile.
Recette sniffed once more, this time not because of tears. "So how drunk are you right now?"
"Pretty very," Charme answered, still laying flat. "Oh don't look at me like that, my girlfriend stood me up tonight. 'Course I had a few."
"Uh huh. Maybe we should get you home and tackle this tomorrow."
Some weeks later Recette was closing up shop a bit earlier than usual. Business had been good lately, and as a result Recette had an errand to run. She was locking up her new building, a stout two story affair she'd purchased after her second rented room had overflowed.
"Are you feeling ready for this, Recette?" Charme asked.
"Not really, but I can't put it off any longer," Recette said. "Just stick with me, okay? I really don't want to face her alone." The thief didn't say anything back, just slid an arm around her and pulled her close.
Their moment of intimacy was interrupted when window on the second floor opened, surprising the girls for a moment before Nagi's head popped out. The spear woman had been a counter intuitive hire for Recette, given her inability to navigate even the simplest terrain without getting lost. But she'd turned up right after Recette began looking for staff, terribly eager to help. The soft hearted merchant simply hadn't found it in herself to say no.
"Oh, I see. So this is an exterior window," Nagi observed. "Have I wandered into another dungeon perhaps?" She began crawling through, and was halfway before Recette could speak up.
"Nagi, we've talked about this. What are you supposed to do when you realize you don't know where you are?"
"Oh, hello there Boss. I didn't see you there. Let's see...I'm supposed to stop where I am, turn slowly in a circle, and if I recognize anything around me head that way." Nagi recited with a smile. It had taken all parties involved a great deal of effort to get her to remember that rule. Her instincts normally lead her to blunder forward until she stumbled on her destination.
"And what do you do if you can't recognize anything?" Charme asked.
"Call for Griff," Nagi answered. "Griff! I'm lost in a room full of shelves and swords. Can you hear me?"
"Please don't shout. My hearing greatly exceeds a human's, and I am in the same room besides," came a muffled reply from above. "Please don't wander off again. We were meant to depart some time ago."
Finding Griff had been a blessing. He'd seemed menacing when Recette and Charme had first run into him, but he was only wandering around at night because the unemployed didn't need to keep normal sleep schedules. She'd offered him a job that night, and after a few weeks of prodding (and one thorough beating in the obsidian tower) he'd relented and taken it, becoming Recette's official assistant and Nagi's unofficial guide dog. To observe humanity more closely, he said. Recette was pretty sure he was just lonely though.
"Go on, young lady. I'll ensure my colleague finds her way out of here shortly. You have more urgent matters to take care of this day," Griff called.
"Thanks Griff. You're a sweetheart!" Recette responded, not seeing him sigh.
She and Charme left, winding through the city until they found themselves standing in front of Recette's old home. The sign on the front still read "Recettear" though at some point Recette's hand made plaque had been replaced with a more impressive metal version. Otherwise little had changed. The windows still displayed the mix of food, medicine, and weapons they had when Recette was trying to attract adventurer clients.
Seeing that Recette didn't seem interested in moving forward, Charme rested a hand on her girlfriend's back and gave her a shove through the door. Facing your fears is easiest, she reasoned, when you aren't given time to think about them.
The inside had changed a bit more than the outside. Tear had found money for that last expansion at some point. Or Terme had paid, maybe. The old vending machine Recette had lovingly restored had been replaced with a pair of enormous modern units. Her welcoming barrel tables had been replaced with a fancy set Recette suspected would scare off poorer customers.
One thing hadn't changed much. Tear was still floating above the back counter, though for the moment at least without a human helper.
"Hello, Tear," Recette said.
"Hello, Recette. You look well," Tear said, To fill the silence stretching between them she asked, "How is your current venture progressing? Have you reconsidered my offer to go over your books?"
"Its going very well, as a matter of fact. And no, I'm actually here to make a purchase," Recette declared, forcing the words out past her anxiety.
"Oh?" Tear asked, more than a little surprised. "What can I get you? Are you interested in our sweets selection, or maybe clothing?"
"The shop," Recette said.
"Pardon?" Tear said.
"I'd like to buy the shop," Recette repeated, with confidence this time. "I've prepared an offer for you. The building recently traded hands for less, I happen to know." She slid a slip of paper across the counter, the way she had always imagined high powered business women would when negotiating deals.
Tear lifted the slip and read it in silence. She placed it back on the counter and withdrew a pen, writing a counteroffer. Apparently Recette's image of how these deals played out was accurate. Or Tear was just willing to play along. She'd been more than a little afraid of getting a flat rejection, or maybe laughed out of the store.
"You must understand that this building has increased in value since it was acquired by Terme. Both from the expansion of the sales floor and from the reputation of the shop itself," Tear said. "As such, I believe this figure represents a more accurate valuation of the shop."
And with that the haggling began in earnest. It wasn't so different from bargaining with anyone else, really. Recette was surprised to find Tear actually missed a lot of opportunities to push the price up. Part of her hoped it her old partner was going easy on her, another wanted to believe she was just that good. After all dealing with people had never been Tear's specialty. Maybe she really did need someone else for that. But then why would she be handling this instead of calling in a specialist?
That thought nagged at Recette throughout the negotiations, but there wasn't a smooth way to bring it up while bargaining. So she put aside the issue, until Tear finally said, "That will most likely be acceptable. I'll present the offer to my superiors, and begin drawing up the necessary paperwork shortly."
A great deal of tension bled out of Recette at that statement. That was her first goal here accomplished. Still, that wasn't necessarily the hard part. At least she had a way to shift the conversation where she needed it to go now though, probably.
She asked, "So Tear, why is it that I'm dealing with you? I kinda expected you to send me along to a different Terme agent, or maybe call someone in about it."
To her surprise, the fairy blushed.
"Well," she began, "Recent marked instability has become a concern, you see. Adventurers are no longer selling to the same merchants, and the pattern of shortfalls and surpluses has become difficult to read. Local investments have not been paying out the way they were a few months ago, and so I've been given authority to liquidate assets at my discretion."
All of that made perfect sense, except for the way Tear said it. She spoke in a hurried manner that reminded Recette of the time she'd suggested stocking some of the more salacious books available at the market, and Tear had claimed (inaccurately, Recette later discovered) that this required additional licenses that simply could not be acquired.
In short, even though everything she said sounded right, Tear was lying about something.
Given the circumstances, Recette had to fall back on a conversational tactic she loathed using. It went against her very nature, but lacking other leverage it was her only option to get the truth from her partner.
Recette said nothing. She said nothing in the most verbose way she could, maintaining eye contact and body language to suggest intent listening, as though Tear obviously had not finished her explanation and must simply be pausing for breath before continuing. And she waited.
Tear shrank, and broke eye contact. Recette waited, more aggressively now.
Tear sweated. Recette waited.
Tear broke. "Naturally market shifts are to be expected in this sort of 'Gold Rush' economy, with new dungeons opening all the time. A decline in profits would not normally be a reason to terminate operations so eagerly," she spoke hastily, just barely too practiced and proper to trip over her own words. "But Terme has been demanding reports from their 'boots on the ground' so to speak. It is possible that mine may have seemed, ah, pessimistic enough to lead my superiors to believe this trend might continue for some time. As such they prefer to exit the market for now, to reinvest at a later time."
Recette narrowed her eyes and waited at Tear with all her considerable might, feeling the strain of not talking but unwilling to give up now.
Tear continued after just a moment. "It is possible I overstated the severity of the situation. After all, one must at times exaggerate to coax one's superiors into taking a problem seriously. Convincing them to take caution is often so difficult I can hardly be blamed for pushing too hard. It isn't as though I wanted them to sell off their assets in town. Though obviously being able to return your home to you is a pleasant, um, side effect."
Recette, with the last of her strength, waited one more time.
"Alright I admit it! I wanted to sell your house back to you! Ever since I found you had a steady source of income I've been planning this. Getting the managers at Terme to panic is simple if you toss the word 'recession' into a few reports in a row. Are you happy now?"
"So you actually cared? You didn't just forget about me as soon as I left?" Recette asked, tearing up a bit.
"Of course not!" Tear replied, her own eyes getting misty, voice cracking a bit. "I've never been more ashamed in my life than when I failed you, Recette. I promised to help you pay back the debt but I just couldn't manage it."
"You were ashamed? I was the one who failed. I decided what we would stock, and I was the one who set the prices. It was my fault we couldn't sell enough to make payments!" Recette said.
"But I couldn't get the payments spaced out enough! If they'd given you just an extra week you would never have ended up on the street!" Tear retorted.
"You did the best you could," Recette sniffled. "You gave me a chance, and stayed with me, and taught me how to run a store, and encouraged me when I was feeling hopeless, and, and, and you were like the big sister I never had!"
"And helping you was the first time I didn't feel alone since I came to live among humans. You're like family to me too, Recette."
Tear floated forward and hugged her small body to Recette's. For a few minutes nothing more was said.
A little later, Recette finally tired of sobbing and hugging. "Well I'm glad that's finally settled. And that I have my house back! And that you're going to quit working for Terme and be my accountant," Recette stated, drying her eyes and releasing Tear.
"What?" Tear asked, nonplussed.
"You just said they don't listen to you enough. You really should work for someone who respects you, Tear. So you should obviously work for me. As an official partner, not just helping me out. And move in with me. Or I guess I'd be moving in with you, since you already live here. Even though its about to be my place again." Recette mused.
"Well, if you're offering I believe I shall accept," Tear said, a little bashfully. "My current vocation has never been particularly satisfying. Working with you aside, of course."
"Oh, and Charme is moving in too."
"What?"
"Come on, don't you have paperwork to do? I don't really want to spend another night in Charme's place if I don't have to. The drunks downstairs don't ever really seem to sleep, and the noise keeps me up. Even when Charme doesn't."
"WHAT?!"
"Come on, hurry up Tear! We've got business to take care of."
THE END