Author's note- Well, despite a recent statement in which I claimed that I would not be doing CCS anytime soon, my first story to be posted is CCS. ^^; I am still slaving away at my 'first' much rumored about fic, but we'll see when it finally goes up. In the meantime, enjoy this and tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: Anyone who thinks the owner of a successful manga/anime would be posting fan fiction on the internet is a complete baka. But for those of you with the attention span and mental processes of Tsukino Usagi, I don't own CCS or the song "The Very Thought Of You."
Into The Gray- Chapter 1 "Nan desu ka?"
The sky wept over the grayness of the day, a grayness that seemed to seep into everything it graced. Puddles formed in the alley as a lone woman made her way down it. She was in no hurry and was apparently unconcerned with the fate of the expensive-looking black heels she was wearing. Her trench coat swayed lightly with the breeze and cold rain spattered her face, but she noticed none of it, seemingly lost in contemplation. Her feet slowly edged her closer to the wall without instruction, as though an unseen groove in the asphalt guided them. She reached out a slender hand to a large metal door that looked as if it had seen one too many of such gray days, but the door jerked open before she could touch it.
"G'd evening, Miss Kinomoto," the tattered face that appeared in the opening grinned out. It could easily have been an appendage of the weathered door. She gave the aging man a wry smile before adding, "Good evening, Charlie."
"They're ready anytime you are, ma'am."
"Thanks," the deep, sultry voice returned, entering the dark room that smelled strongly of smoke. Her heels clicked distinctively on the industrial tile as she strode to a straight-backed chair to deposit her coat. There was nothing besides that chair in the room. It was, after all, the back of a stage. Turning her eyes, she caught the glance of a black-haired man. Giving him a curt nod, she proceeded to shake water from her hair. At her gesture, he advanced into spotlights and could be heard to announce, "Ladies and gentleman, I give you Miss Sakura Kinomoto!" The words caught in the pit of her stomach. Given name first. They do things differently here. She prepared herself and stepped on to the stage, taking the microphone from the announcer as he passed.
"Thanks, Sam," she pronounced huskily into the mic, leaning back against a baby grand. During the momentary pause, the audience took time to look her over. She was certainly beautiful, chin-length auburn hair and flashing green eyes that held a twinge of melancholy, but that was nothing new, it was the common defect of every person in the room. Her coloration contrasted sharply with the tight, black lace dress that ended just above the knee.
The piano and saxophone began to churn out a slow, seductive tune and soon her voice was mingling with theirs.
The very thought of you and I forget to do
Those little ordinary things that everyone ought to do…
Her mind went on auto-pilot as she stared off into the smoky haze. The familiar lyrics spilled over her crimson lips of their own accord and her body moved in time with the music almost by instinct.
The time seemed to pass quickly. Song after song performed in pseudo-alertness over the drone of conversation and clink of glasses in the background. When she finished, the room applauded politely but unaffectedly despite her obvious over-qualification for the position. She bowed mechanically and made her way off stage and into the audience. Oblivious to the crowd, she seated herself at the bar and ordered a martini.
"That was really great, Miss Kinomoto," the over-enthusiastic youth behind the bar spoke up. She raised her chartreuse gaze to him.
"I've told you, Tom, call me Sakura," she chided, feeling the power that came with knowing she held the young man's heart in her hands, but trying to fight the urge to toy with it. The young bartender flushed red and barely managed to stutter out, "Y-yes ma'am, err…Sak-Sakura." The songstress smiled in mild amusement and turned her attention elsewhere, but her line of vision was abruptly cut off by a stocky body.
Glancing up at the rather obese man now seated beside her, Sakura was disgusted to see unadulterated desire in his over-fleshed face. "Hey honey, did it hurt?" his first words. She growled deep in her throat. How original.
"You mean when I fell from heaven?" she asked mock-sweetly.
"W-well…yeah," he stumbled, robbed of his favorite line.
"Not half as bad as you're going to hurt when I'm through with you." Seeing an opportunity, he leapt blindly at it, "Why, what did you have in mind?" snaking its way out, accompanied by a leer.
"Why don't you find out?" she breathed, beckoning him toward her. The corpulent man closed his eyes as he leaned in, her hand sliding around the back of his neck, but he was greeted only by the smooth stainless steel bar that she slammed his forehead into. This was followed by a surprisingly strong left hook that sent him sprawling unconscious onto the linoleum behind her stool. Tom gave a gulp and went back to mixing a Bloody Mary with shaking hands. The curtain surrounding the stage fluttered and Charlie materialized from it, moving ghost-like through the crowd. Silently, he took the man by the back of the collar and drug him to the stage door with a strength and mien that implied it was not the first time.
She raised a finger from the edge of her glass and Tom came running nervously to fill it, but the bar received more than did the glass. The woman smiled wearily and placed a hand over his. "That's alright, Tom. I'm heading home now," she told him in an attempt to ease his nerves. It did not have the desired effect.
"Good night, ma'am," he rushed out too quickly. She nodded, too tired to waste further amusement on him, and went to collect her coat.
Outside, the setting of the sun had done nothing to alleviate the gray. It grudgingly stood watch, appointed at time's beginning the unwilling guardian of a forsaken planet. All who journeyed there shared its melancholy. But unlike the others, who saw the smoky shadows as apparitions of haunted pasts, Sakura was comforted by the odd hue. She was reminded of her brother-in-law, Yukito, with his steel-colored hair. He had more the position in her world of a favorite uncle than someone of separate blood, but it had been years since she had seen him or her brother. So with that memory, the gray enfolded her like a blanket. It was her security blanket. Dodging the body of the freshly unconscious man, she moved down the damp but clear alleyway, making her way home with the same lack of haste she had shown hours before.
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Well, that's it for now. More of a teaser than a real chapter, but hopefully it was interesting enough to make you want more. Leave a review or send me an e-mail, whatever you like. Ja, ne!
-Caol