Chapter 6: The Aftermath
I just realised I lack disclaimers. Bah. Who needs 'em anyway?
Oh. And before I do start, I'd like to thank whoever who reviewed, you know who you are, if you wanna feel special just tell me and I'll mention you guys the next time. wink
5 am in the morning:
Naomi was at home, a little flabbergasted at the gang who stumbled into her apartment, some laughing and singing, some drunk and half conscious, and Rukawa fuming and black-faced. They bombarded the couch with Ayako and Haruko apologising profusely for all of them.
"Wow. What a nice house you have, Naomi-san," Hiroshi slurred, leaning heavily against Mitsui. He leaned against the sofa and fell over, somersaulting onto the floor with a thud. Miyagi giggled frivolously.
"I'm so sorry to have disturbed you, but I think we've lost our keys to the hostel," Haruko supplied, her face pale and withdrawn. "I'm in so much trouble..."
Naomi only shook her head, and being the magnanimous person that she was; made tea for all of them. "Just sit and be comfortable. If both of them want to get sick though, the bathroom's down the hallway. Please don't dirty my floor." She meant the drunken duo that was now fast asleep on the couch.
"Oh. I'll take care of that," Ayako said.
Mitsui went over to help Naomi with the tea and brought them over to the coffee table which the gang took gratefully, sipping it with care.
"Thanks for everything, Naomi-san," Sakuragi said, suddenly remembering his manners. "It has been a long night."
"Tell me about it," Mitsui said, shaking his head. "A funny one, nonetheless,"
"What happened?" Naomi asked, and Rukawa excused himself. "What's up with him?" she asked when he disappeared into his room. "He seems so moody. Moodier than usual, anyway."
"Nothing. Bruised pride gets to everyone," Mitsui told her, and related the night's events. Naomi was highly amused, but she wasn't laughing.
"That was... interesting," she finally said. "Well, stay the rest of the morning if you wish, I've got extra blankets and mats in my room. Let me go get them," she hopped off the kitchen counter and went into her room.
Mitsui went after her. "She needs help with that many things," he explained, as Ayako wiggled her eyebrows at him suggestively. "Stop looking at me like that Aya-chan." He looked offended.
Ayako shrugged. "Whatever you say Michi."
They had settled themselves in the living room while Rukawa slept in his, claiming he couldn't share his room because he needed all the beauty sleep he could get as he was working the next day. Naomi told them to make themselves at home and went off to take her aromatherapy bath.
"I can't sleep," Mitsui spoke up after a while, bathed in the moonlight than shone in through the slit between the curtains. He was tired physically, but his mind was still active.
"Mmm?" Ayako murmured, and there was a shuffling noise as Ayako sat up, leaning against the television. "What's on your mind?"
"Nothing much. I was thinking about last night's game." He mused. "Say, when did you learn to play like that?"
Ayako gave a little chuckle. "Me? I've been playing in the streets since I was old enough to walk," she said, fingers playing with the sheets. "My family was always busy working; my sister was into Barbie dolls and playhouses, and I wasn't, so I had to find my own entertainment. Then I found streetball." She smiled in the darkness.
"So you picked basketball up in middle school too?"
"Yeah, I did, but the style was just so different, you know? I was so used to dirty tricks and stuff it took me a while before I got on track with proper basketball. But still, most of the girls in my team were biased against me; thinking that I'm always showing off with the moves I've got. Then one day..."
"One day what?" Mitsui asked, eager for her to finish her story, but she shook her head, the moonlight glinting off her curls in a flashing manner.
"Nothing. I don't really want to talk about it," Ayako said softly.
There was a moment of silence as they sat thinking of their own difficult times in middle school.
"Well, I'm going to get some sleep. You had better turn in too," Ayako said, sliding under her covers. "Goodnight," she mumbled.
"Goodnight Aya-chan," Mitsui said softly, waiting till her breath steadied before going to bed himself.
Hiroshi was awakened by clanging of pots and pans followed by the smell of food as he sat up and stretched, letting out a huge yawn. Lying on the couch for a moment, he blinked, taking a look around his surroundings. Feeling a little disoriented, he turned around to see who was making the noise.
It was Naomi at the stove, cooking up a storm. There was rice, unagi, and miso soup on the table, and she seemed to be scrambling eggs. Getting up unsteadily, he padded towards Naomi silently, and muttered a "Good morning."
Naomi jumped a mile in the air like a released spring, nearly throwing the pan and the eggs away in fright. She whipped around, and seeing Hiroshi, calmed down and her lips stretched in a small smile. "Hello, how'd you sleep?"
"Pretty well actually, though I'm still tired." Hiroshi yawned again, and blushed. "Thanks for letting us stay the night, Naomi-san."
"You're very much welcome, and do drop the formalities and call me Naomi. I'm not that much older than you guys anyway," she told him, returning her attention back to her eggs. "If you want to wash up, take a shower or whatever, the bathroom's down that way," she pointed in the shower's general direction. "Towel's in the cupboard on the top right hand corner. I've got extra toothbrushes in the cupboard above the sink. Help yourself," she told him.
"Thanks," he said, plodding towards the bathroom. He opened the door to find Rukawa at the sink, foaming at the mouth with toothpaste, his hair wet from a shower. A white towel hung loosely on his hips. "Morning, Rukawa-sempai," he said blearily, looking for the cupboard with towels and took one and stepped into the shower before closing the transparent glass door and turning the water on.
Rukawa let out a muffled "Gah," and spat into the sink. "Did you have to do that?" he moaned and turned away, frantically rinsing his mouth and face before stepping out of the bathroom. "You're lucky I haven't eaten yet."
Hiroshi seemed oblivious as he continued to let the water beat down on him, eyes shut and hummed tunelessly, enjoying the heat of the water as steam clouded around him.
Rukawa dressed and headed out of his room, a little amused by the sight of a sleeping Miyagi lying sprawled across Ayako's stomach. Mitsui was on the couch; his head tilted back and mouth open slightly, snoring softly. Sakuragi was curled up in a ball at a corner, and Haruko was lying on Miyagi's thigh, sound asleep too.
"Morning, oneechan." He greeted sitting by the kitchen counter.
Naomi smiled at him, handing him a bowl of rice he started eating, picking at the dishes. "Thanks," he muttered between mouthfuls of rice.
"Coming back early? I'm off today," she told him. "We could go around town shopping."
Rukawa looked at her, and replied without preamble, "Sure,"
"They could come along if they wish," she gestured to the slumbering group. "I was thinking of playing some pool,"
Rukawa raised an eyebrow. "Never played it," he said, gulping down a glass of water and looked at his mobile. "Gotta run. Call me later, oneechan," he nodded once and stepped down the stool, rushing for the door and put on his shoes before shutting the mahogany oak behind him.
Shizue was already rearranging the tables when he got to the restaurant, so he changed into his uniform quickly before joining her on the floor. Her hair was back in its usual neat ponytail and she looked like she hadn't slept at all, a slight shadow under her eyes, not really concealed by her makeup. She still looked bright and alert though, and he marvelled at this.
"Good morning, Shizue-san," he greeted, helping her arrange some of the tables. Mia was in the expo, making lemonade. The expo was halfway set up, with the salad dressing still wrapped and covered, and the bin mary empty and unheated. The tortilla warmer was also turned off, and there were no cutleries in the tray.
"Hi Kaede," she smiled tightly. "Go help Mia won't you? I've got this covered," she told him and he nodded, heading towards Mia.
"Hey Mia," he greeted, opening some packets of napkins and placed them by the cutlery tray for standby.
"Kaede-kun! Nice to see you! You look really cute today," she said as if it was the most normal thing to say every morning. She was darting around, pouring the sugar syrup into the cambro(a container to hold liquid, like those you see at field functions or something); and going to the bin mary and filled it halfway with water, turning the knob by the side to 90 degrees Celsius.
"What's the bin mary for?" Rukawa asked.
"It's to keep the sauces warm. We keep barbeque sauce, the baked beans and the soup of the day here," she explained, flipping the switch of the tortilla warmer on. "Help me fill the cambro with 4 and a half jugs of water will you? I had put the lemon juice and the sugar syrup already. The jugs are in the bar," she informed, grabbing the ice bucket and heading to the ice machine at the back of the restaurant.
Rukawa trodded to the bar but there wasn't a bartender around. Looking around, he went into the bar and grabbed 4 jugs, going back to the expo to fill it with water. After that was done, he turned the boiler -which lay by the side- on, heating up water for the tea bags that lay in the other cambro. He then took some bottles of mustard, side plates and pasta condiments and headed to the other side of the restaurant where the side station was. Shizue had said that the side station was there so that they didn't have to go back to the expo every time they needed something, as it takes to much time and effort.
He checked that the side station was properly stocked up, then went back to Mia and asked if he could help with anything else.
"Yeah. Be a dear and look for cutlery at the stewarding area?" he walked to the washing area of the restaurant, and sorted the cutlery into the tray, bringing it back. Taking the cutlery cloth that was placed over the tortilla warmer so that it dries off easy when wet, he started wiping the eating instruments awkwardly, being very new to this.
Shizue came back into the expo and looked at the clock. It was already 1030. She took a look at Rukawa who was wiping the cutleries one by one, and gave a little sigh. "You're going to take forever if you do it like that," she pointed out, taking the cloth from him gently. "Here, do it like this." She had the cloth over both her hands which were slightly apart from each other and using one hand to grab and handful of forks, the cloth stopping the forks from coming in contact with her hands. Using her other free hand which was still under the cloth, she wiped the fork one by one, dispensing each fork into the cutlery tray as she did so.
"Like this, see? Try it. You'll feel like a fork dispensing machine," she smirked and handed the bunch of forks and the cloth over to Rukawa, who did it easier this time. "Good work. You learn fast," she told him, and looked behind him. "Yukio's here, it's time for a pre-shift meeting."
They stopped whatever they were doing and sat behind the expo counter, facing Yukio who was in the expo, inspecting their work. Looking at Rukawa, Yukio smiled slightly and asked, "How's everything, Kaede? Has Shizue been mistreating you?" his face was so poker, Rukawa couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
Shizue rolled her eyes while Rukawa looked at Yukio, shaking his head. "She's quite nice to me," he enunciated carefully and heard Shizue shift beside him.
"That's good. She usually isn't as nice to trainees. Mia got the brunt of it," he told Rukawa, and opened his organiser. "Hmm, let's see. Sales have been good recently, but I don't want you guys to slack off on service. I just had a complaint the other day about a server ignoring him although he raised his hands several times to get his attention." He said, lips set in a grim line. "I really don't have to tell you how to open your eyes, we're not paying for you to sleepwalk here," he stopped, and glanced around for the missing bartender. "Where's Skye?"
Shizue spoke smoothly. "He called to say he'll be late. Traffic jam," she explained and Rukawa looked doubtful. The telephone by the host stand did not ring at all. Why was she covering up for him?
"Okay," Yukio nodded. "Is the bar set up?"
"Yeah. It has been done," Shizue nodded.
"Good. One more thing before you go for lunch. We're having this promotion with Amex. Whenever they pay with that card, they'll get a 15 discount; and a free dessert if they so choose. Also, if it's their birthday on that day, they'll get a t-shirt. Oh yeah, before I forget. There's a function this Friday, up at the mezz. I need you to schedule extra manning for that day," Yukio directed at Shizue, who nodded tiredly.
"Again?"
"'Fraid so. Natalie had just received the paperwork this morning. She wants it to be done," Yukio said. "Don't worry; we'll help if necessary,"
"Ok," Shizue said, and the meeting was adjourned. Facing Rukawa, she gave him the rest of the month's meal money. "Go get your food and come down in 45 minutes," she said and walked towards the bar.
"What about you?"
"I gotta set up the bar. Skye won't be here till 1130, and I lied about having the bar ready," she said, the corner of lips lifting in a quirky smile. "Don't worry, just go,"
Rukawa nodded and headed off with Mia, who was waiting by the side of the expo for him. "Want to lunch together?"
Rukawa shrugged. Although he hadn't wanted the company, he figured it wouldn't be that bad having a friend who was a girl, for once. "Alright," he replied and Mia smiled at him brightly.
"Where would you like to go?" she chattered as they walked out of the restaurant, into the lively streets of Tokyo.
They sat at a booth in a fast food restaurant, both munching their burgers silently.
"What made you decide to work here?" Mia broke the silence, dabbing a fry in ketchup and stuffing it in her mouth.
"I don't know, just happened that this place had a vacancy and I was looking for a job," he shrugged. After a moment's of hesitation, he asked, "what about you?"
"Me?" she sounded surprised that the question was directed back at her. "Well... you could say I'm just waiting for the acceptance letter from Tokyo Uni. In the meantime though, I might as well make myself useful. I have been working here for more than half a year."
"Uni?"
"Yeah. I'm 19. Never thought I'd be the type to study huh? Most of my friends have gone to work after high school. I was the odd one out who wanted to learn more I guess. I really like journalism, and want to try my hand at it," she paused, taking a sip out of her drink. "You're in high school right? Which year are you in?"
"Second,"
"Nice. I remember my 2nd year. It was so awkward for me because I had a crush on this guy who played basketball. He's so cool..." she trailed off dreamily.
Rukawa swallowed nervously, and leaned away from her unnoticed by Mia. "Hn. Really." He commented offhandedly.
"Yeah. I would always cheer for him during matches, and he liked me too, I could tell. We went out several times together, but in the end it didn't work out, because of his over domineering parents," she looked up and noticed Rukawa's sick expression. "What's wrong? You ok?"
"It's nothing." he tried his best not to get up and run for the hills. "I'm just... not comfortable around girls," What an understatement, he mused ruefully.
Mia laughed. "You're so funny. Don't worry, you'll get used to them one day," she said. "You seem to get along fine with me and Shizue." She noticed.
"You guys are different," he struggled to express himself. Different? How so? They're still the female species. "Slightly more..."
"Mature?" Mia suggested.
Rukawa shrugged again. "Maybe,"
"How do you find Shizue-san then?"
"She's... alright."
"...Alright?" Mia looked at him doubtfully.
Sigh. "She's nice," he managed lamely.
"I think she's cool," Mia gushed. "She was my trainer too, and was really harsh, but I learnt a lot from her. I heard that she used to be really quiet, kinda like you," she put up her hands. "No offence meant of course," Rukawa shook his head. "Good."
"You were saying she used to be quiet? What made you say so?" Rukawa's interest piqued.
"She wouldn't tell anyone what she did last time, and you know how people are, whatever they don't know, they make it up. So, really bad rumours started flying around, since she was so mysterious and all until one day, she came to my place and broke down in tears." She bit her lip. "I hugged her as she cried, but she still didn't say anything about it, and I didn't want to probe," she finished, the light in her eyes dousing out like extinguished coals.
Rukawa chewed on her words. A mystery... his thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his mobile phone and he flipped it open. "Hello?"
"Hey boy," Naomi chirped from the other end. "It's decided. We're meeting for dinner at 630pm so call us when you're done ok?"
"Uh huh. Where?"
"We'll go down and look for you. Later then," Naomi ended the call.
Mia looked at him. "Girlfriend?"
He shook his head, feeling nauseated. "No,"
"Oooook. Well, shall we get going then? Let's buy some food back for Shizue, shall we?" she stood up and took her wallet, and they left the fast food joint, going down to the ramen stall to buy her some noodles, as suggested by Rukawa.
They got back 5 minutes before time, around 1125. Rukawa came down the stairs, seeing that tables 4 and 5 were already occupied. He took a look at his name tag again, which had the layout of the restaurant drawn to the back of it. Yep. Tables 4 and 5, he thought to himself, and went to Shizue, who was keying in the orders on the POS(the machine that sends the orders to the kitchen.)
"We got you some lunch. It's in the staff room," he told her and she nodded in appreciation.
"Thanks. Table 4 is a couple and they're having burgers. Table 5's a group of four and here are their orders." She showed him the POS. "Ryoko is coming down soon, and since she's captain, you follow her until I come back ok?" he nodded. "Right, I'll be back as soon as I can," she ran off.
A woman who looked about 24 came towards him. She must be Ryoko. She was a head shorter than Shizue, and was a lot curvier. Her brown hair lay framing her face in layers. "Kaede?" she looked at him with her piercing blue eyes.
"Yes?"
"Has Shizue handed over to you?"
"Yes she has," Rukawa replied.
"So what is table 5 having?"
"Nachos as a starter, a Caesar salad, chicken penne pasta, rib-eye steak medium done on mashed potatoes, and a bacon cheese burger well done." Rukawa stated methodically.
Ryoko nodded in satisfaction. "And drinks?"
"An MGD, a Corona and 2 lemonades." He paused. "I think."
"Not too bad. It was an orange juice and a lemonade, but you did well. We got to remember roughly what orders we took for them because sometimes, especially when the kitchen gets slammed with orders, they'll just serve whatever they've cooked, sometimes sending it to the wrong table. It's the staff-working-in-the-expo's duty to check that each table's order is correct before the food is sent out, but because when you're in a hurry, mistakes might be made," she looked at him to see if he understood what she was saying.
Rukawa nodded. Ryoko patted him on the back. "Alright, go to where Mia is and watch the tables with her," he strolled to Mia's side, a little relieved.
"Hey Kaede. How'd it go with her?" Mia asked, looking over at Ryoko who was checking on the soup in the bin mary.
"Alright."
"Thought so. I think she might like you. You're one of the fastest learner yet. By the end of this week, you could be on your own," Mia beamed at him. "Way to go, Kaede-kun,"
He shrugged politely. "Whatever."
Mia cocked her head to the side, eyeing him knowingly. "You know, I think I'm beginning to see through to you. I might break through that stone wall of yours," she joked, nudging him lightly.
Rukawa almost smiled. "You think?" he asked, smirking.
"Give me two weeks. And you'll be yakking at me soon enough," she drew up into her full height exuding tons of confidence.
When 12 o'clock came around, the restaurant was almost full and Shizue was practically running around, taking orders and clearing plates at the same time. Since Rukawa wasn't allowed to take orders yet, he helped Shizue buzz tables, and serve drinks.
As they rounded off to the back of the stewarding area, Shizue explained, "See the washed cutleries? Whenever we come here to clear the plates, we gotta see if there's anything that we can stock up in the expo. Like these," she pointed at the cutleries, quickly sorting them out in the tray and carrying back to the expo. Shizue ordered Rukawa to wipe them while she went back on the floor, taking more orders.
Keiko was working at the expo today, and her hands were flying over the salad dressing containers, scooping them into 2oz and 4oz ramekin bowls. The counter in front of her was slammed with plates of food, and she called, "Runners!"
Shizue and Mia came to the rescue while Ryoko stayed on the floor. Keiko shoved the ramekin bowls by the side of the plates and handed it to them, saying, "Table 51!" they nodded and Rukawa stared after them as they moved off, juggling 3 plates each.
"There's more food over there, get them and follow me to 51," Shizue instructed.
Keiko spotted Rukawa and motioned him over. "A chicken club sandwich, penne pasta and a chicken salad." She touched each plate as she named it. "Can you carry all 3?"
"Show me how,"
"Hold the first plate on your left hand like that, yep, that's it, then balance the 2nd plate on the first and on your forearm. Here we go... Woah!" Keiko caught the plate before it could go anywhere else and giggled. "Bend your arm inwards a little. Yeah. Hold it there. Ok," she balanced the 2nd plate on his arm. "There we go. Ok. Steady?"
Rukawa nodded and took the last plate in his right hand. The plates weigh a ton. Walking carefully to where table 51 was, he waited as Shizue and Mia emptied their hands of plates and took the plates from him. "A chicken club sandwich?" Shizue asked, before placing it in front of the guest who raised his hand.
After that was done, they went around the restaurant again, buzzing tables and setting them up for the next group of people. Lunch time passed by pretty quickly and it was 3pm before they knew it. The restaurant has quietened down to its pre lunch state and only a few tables were occupied.
There were still unwiped cutleries lying on the opposite counter of the expo, wet and glistening under the light. Rukawa took the cloth and was about to continue his job when Shizue stopped him. "Come here. I wanna teach you something."
She stood by the chilli and ketchup bottles which were used and dirty. "Every time we set up a table, you noticed how we change the sauces with a new bottle?" Rukawa nodded. "well, thing is, we don't throw the old ones away. They are refilled in here, and the rim is cleaned before we use them again," she told him, giving a sigh. "It's quite tedious, but that's how this restaurant works. Go figure," she shrugged. Then, showing how she refills the bottles and cleans them, Rukawa followed suit, tipping one bottle into the other and then he wiped the rims off with paper roll.
After his first 5 bottles, his hands were smothered in ketchup. Mia came into the expo for a drink and saw that. "Ewww..." she pointed and giggled. Rukawa swiped his fingers in front of her face, and she snapped her head back. "Don't do that!" she laughed, sipping her iced tea.
He gestured at the bottles lying neatly on the rack. "How do you do all these?" he asked rhetorically, more to himself than to Mia.
She shrugged, taking a ketchup bottle with expert fingers and wiped them clean. "Takes practice I guess. No biggy, really." She placed a clean bottle cap on it and put it on the rack. You gotta wash the bottle caps too,"
"What?" Rukawa's tone was low, but Mia could tell the underlying supercilious tone that came with it. She smirked.
"Of course, we always push the jobs to trainees. I mean, we do it too, but well, if there're trainees around, why not let them do it instead? It's hierarchy after all," she said haughtily and grinned afterwards. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it. Worse come to worse, just quit. That's what a lot of people do anyway."
"I don't quit," Rukawa stated, wiping the ketchup bottles with greater intensity.
"Kaede, go for your 15 minute break," Shizue came into the expo lugging more wet cutlery. "I'll get Keiko to do this. It's her job as the expo anyway. Mia, Ryoko told me to let you go for you break too."
"And you?"
"I'll be going later. There aren't enough people on the floor," she pushed them out of the expo. "Go on. I'll see you upstairs in a bit. Keiko's coming back from her break soon."
"Alright," Mia sighed and went up with Rukawa to the staff room.
"Isn't Shizue in charge of allotting time for your break too?" Rukawa asked feeling a little confused. Shizue seemed like a captain, but yet she's only a senior. So why is she always around and the captain no where to be found?
"Ryoko is training Shizue to become a captain. Although Shizue's only 18 and has only worked for a year, she is deemed to be a really good worker." Mia looked proud. "At least she's getting somewhere after dropping out from the first year in high school,"
"Do you know anything about that?"
"Know anything about what?" Shizue came in with a coffee cup and sat down opposite Rukawa. Taking the newspaper lying by the side, she flipped through it casually, taking a sip of her coffee. Noting the sudden silence that swamped the room she looked up to see Mia playing with her fingers absently. "Am I interrupting something?" she switched her gaze to look at Rukawa instead.
"No." he replied tonelessly.
Shizue remained unconvinced. "Ok..." her eyes flickered as she remembered something. "Oh yeah, by the way, good game; last night." She smiled at him cheekily.
Rukawa felt the heat rise unto his cheeks, and spoke tightly. "Glad you were entertained. That's why we were playing anyway, wasn't it?" his voice dripped with malice.
"Hey, hey. Don't get all offended. You must admit, it was pretty funny. Everyone had a great time cos of you," Shizue felt the need to reassure Rukawa; she had no idea why.
"Sure. At my expense." He sounded a little bitter, as he should. Mia shifted in curious attentiveness, her eyes growing bigger at each statement made by both of them.
"What's this about?" Mia finally asked twisting the chain on her neck around her fingers.
"Nothing," Rukawa said, ending the conversation with a meaningful glare directed at Shizue. If she says anything about it... he thought he could hear a neck crack deep in his subconsciousness.
Shizue shrugged. "The man calls the shots," she flipped another page of the paper. She toyed with her ponytail and twirled it around her index finger, sneaking a look at Rukawa every few seconds.
Mia sighed exaggeratedly. "C'mon guys! Out with it! I feel left out," she pouted, her delicately arched eyebrows knitted in confusion and annoyance.
Rukawa let out a breath of haplessness. "Just say it, Shizue. I'll try my best not to scream," he said dryly.
Shizue flicked her dark blue eyes at Rukawa who was looking at her intently with his black ones. "Well," she started, her eyes still locked onto Rukawa's, "Kaede and his team headed to our local streetball haunt and decided to take part in a match. They lost, but they had real good showmanship, as well as sportsmanship. We were all very impressed." She finished, and broke away from Rukawa's stare.
Mia looked dazedly at both of them. "You're not keeping anything else from me?"
Rukawa's voice was flat. "No. That's exactly what happened," he felt as if a guilt weight has been dropped onto his head.
Shizue got up and grabbed her coffee cup. Before she could leave, Mia stopped her asking if she was going back to work already and that she still had 10 minutes before time was up. "I know," Shizue had told her, looking down at her shoes; anywhere except Mia and Rukawa. "I'm just going for a smoke,"
"You promised to stop smoking!" Mia spoke vehemently, pushing against the table and standing up too. "Where are those cigarettes? Give me those," she demanded, holding her palms out expectantly.
"Shut up Mia." Shizue turned around, her shoulders slightly hunched and walked briskly away.
Rukawa felt like rolling his eyes at the melodramatic scene unfolding before him. "Let her smoke if she wants to. She knows it's bad for her," his voice came out hard.
Mia threw her hands down, slamming against the table and brought her face to his menacingly. "You won't understand," she snarled before running after Shizue.
Rukawa went back down after his break, and didn't feel like doing much after that. He went to the bar where Skye was, looking at the bar menu disinterestedly.
"Hey man, what's up?" Skye juggled a few bottles back to the cabinet. "Shift's almost over man. Just take it easy, alright?" he grinned.
"Yeah sure," easy for you to say. Rukawa strode over to the occupied tables and buzzed them, searching for things to do. Shizue came towards him and he stiffened, not knowing how to apologise to her.
When he turned around to face her though, he changed his mind about talking to her. The 'hurt' Shizue he saw upstairs had disappeared, what was left behind was like a shell. Her eyes were glassy and her face expressionless and she spoke to him as if nothing had happened earlier. As if I hadn't hurt her by doubting her...
"Ryoko has something to say to you. I think you had better go to her now before you leave. She's over at the bar," she smiled a little, and he thought her face would crack.
"Ok." He trudged towards Ryoko who patted on the seat beside her. He sat furtively, feeling as though he might bolt at any given chance.
"Shizue finds that you are ready to handle your own station," Ryoko said in a calm tone, her face carefully blank and judged his reaction. "What do you think, Kaede? You think you're ready for that?"
"I can't say. But if she thinks I'm ready, then I must be," Rukawa replied simply.
Ryoko nodded. "I'll schedule you to PM shift tomorrow then. Report to work at 530pm, but you'll finish up pretty late," she warned.
When he went back to get changed, Shizue was already there, braiding her hair in little strands like she did the previous night.
"Playing ball again?" Rukawa asked, striking conversation.
Shizue looked up and smiled, this time genuinely. "Yeah. Nothing can keep me from my game," she sounded like a child who had found her favourite toy and vowed never to let go.
"I didn't see you play last night,"
"Oh. We were just fooling around on the other court, learning new moves and all. You might wanna come down some day for that. To learn street moves, that is," she held a rubber band with her lips, and braided the length she was holding with blinding speed, using that rubber band to secure it.
"I will. And about just now..." he trailed off, unsure of how to continue.
Her eyes darkened slightly, but she waved it off. "Don't worry about that. It's so yesterday," she said, her mouth twitching slightly, "it's hard to be mad at a cute guy like yourself," she winked and pulled a oversized t-shirt over her head before wriggling out of her uniform.
Rukawa was caught slightly off-guard by the way she was undressing and by her words. His eyebrow wrinkled, and said nothing. Going into the locker room to grab his things, he changed out of his uniform into a Diesel shirt and loose jeans. "I'll see you around," he waved and went to meet his sister who was waiting for him outside.
a/n: Boring chapter, if I do say so myself. I think the writing fever has finally left me. I've no idea where I'm going with Rukawa. But by the end of the story, he'll have opened up to more than one girl. I'm still trying to pair him up with someone, but at the moment, my writing is so uncontrolled it just goes where it wants too, and I'm glad cos even I don't know where this is headed.
Next up is pool time! Sakuragi and gang show off their unbridled talent in pool... imagined talent, that is. See how much they suck at it. Till then!