Title: Riding the Roller Coaster (Part XIX)
Author: ficeler37
Note: Don't own Mai-Hime. I'll let Sunrise take the credit.
Rating: PG
Word count: 1778
Summary: Revenge is at hand.
A/N: Wow, this chapter is just insanely long for me. Took me a long time to figure out when to end it. I laughed when I was reading what I wrote. Hopefully that will be a nice indication of what is to come.
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Despite the extremely rude behavior of the rapper wannabe, the receptionist remains cordial as she directs him towards an unoccupied recording room. On the way to rap his heart out, he does a double take on the stunning blue haired girl sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed. Nice legs. Let's fuck! "Yo, hot chick! Wanna know what a real man feels like?"
"Talk to me again if I'll be the last person you ever talk to." Sharp green eyes pierce the crude idiot with no mercy. Why do I keep running into these jerks?
"Chill, girl. It's all good." The guy subconsciously takes a step away from the sofa. She has got to be bluffing, but somehow … I believe her. Damn, where my submissive hot chicks at? Rapid footsteps are followed by a loud slam of the door.
(sigh) I already feel bad for intimidating that poor receptionist earlier. I just wish it was possible for me to pull off this trick without her help. I owe you one, Ms. Receptionist. With a determined look on her face, Natsuki walks over to the reception desk once again. "Hello. I'm sorry to bother you again. Can you just tell me how the music video recording works?"
Seeing the intense girl walking towards the desk disturbed her at first, but the receptionist was relieved to hear that it was just a normal question coming out of her mouth. "Of course. At the back of the corridor is the music video recording room. There is a closet filled with costumes inside and you can welcome to try things on in the changing room. When you are ready, come back out and pick a background for your music video from our wide selection of settings from the New York Central Park to outer space. When you get back inside the room, press the red button that reads 'ready' on the wall, and I will play the music for you and you can start dancing in front of the blue screen. The video will play on the tv in the lounge once while you're recording and once after you are done with the recording so that you can look at the result." After reciting the speech almost in one breath, the receptionist remembers the blue haired girl's special request all of a sudden. "I will hook up the flat screen next to the billboard so that the showing will happen simultaneously both inside and outside the building."
"That's great. But listen, I need another favor from you …"
As soon as the chestnut haired girl comes out, Natsuki repeats what the receptionist told her earlier. "So why don't you go put on a kimono in the changing room right now? I'll wait for you in the lounge area."
A cute little pout finds its way to the Kyoto woman's face. "You're waiting outside again? (sigh) It's so difficult to put on a kimono. Does Natsuki want to help me put it on in the changing room?" Shizuru hooks her finger on the other girl's tight jeans pocket playfully and tries to pull Natsuki closer.
"For someone who wears kimono as much as I wear t-shirts, that argument was not convincing at all. Now stop being a big baby and go." The younger girl gently pats the chestnut haired girl's head as if she is coaxing a little kid.
With a sigh of defeat, the older girl starts dragging her feet towards the back recording room. How can I say no to her when she speaks to me in that gentle voice with that cute face on? I hate having to do everything by myself. I thought the whole point was for her to see me sing and dance. Now it just feels like I'm going to be singing and dancing with me as the only audience.
Right before the Kyoto beauty walks into the room, the blushing blue haired girl decides to let out what has been in her mind ever since she heard the voice of an angel. "Shizuru! Your voice was beautiful by the way. I heard you." If only she didn't make a fool out of me at the magic show, I could have given her this compliment without feeling guilty. Argh!
The chestnut haired girl turns her head around quickly and sticks out her tongue at the meanie who refuses to help her (un)dress. "Thank you, Natsuki." The corners of Shizuru's lips rise up and form a nicely shaped arc as the singer of the day enters the room.
A few minutes later, Shizuru steps out of the recording room in a white kimono and wooden clogs with a fan in hand. "So? What do you think?" She walks in a sensuously slow pace towards the blue haired girl frozen at the spot.
Through the clear green eyes, time stops around the chestnut haired beauty whose natural elegance seems to be affecting time and space. Kimonos really suit this woman. When was the last time I saw Shizuru in a kimono? Probably during the hime festival … Still, what has changed since then? I don't remember feeling this way before … "It's perfect."
Shizuru flashes a sweet smile to Natsuki then walks towards the receptionist to pick her music video background. In the end, she chooses a series of scenery shots in a Japanese stone garden. Come to think of it, dancing in the music video might actually be kind of fun. I guess I got lucky if this is all I have to do to get Natsuki to forgive me. "So I'll see you in the lounge after I'm done with the recording, Natsuki?"
Ahhh! It's too late to feel sorry for Shizuru now. It was her fault to begin with. The vendetta must go on! Trying her best at a casual smile, the younger girl replies, "Yea, I'll be here afterwards. I look forward to see your video."
The moment the kimono-clad woman disappears from sight, the girl on a revenge rampage gives a hand signal to the receptionist, who gives her a cheesy thumbs-up as confirmation of the plan.
During the entire process of the video recording, Natsuki has had trouble sitting up straight due to an excruciating stomach pain. Oh my god, this is so much better than how I had imagined it in my head. Green eyes never tearing away from the lounge TV for even a split second, Natsuki holds her stomach down roughly with her hands to minimize the muscle convulsions from laughing her head off.
Unknown to Natsuki is that a congregation of spectators has also gathered outside the building to stare at the bizarre scene on the flat screen. Men, women, old people and children alike are cracking up to the point where tears are coming out of their eyes.
As Shizuru finishes her dance in the back room, she cannot help but feel a sense of accomplishment. Hm, that was a pretty good run. I didn't miss a step in the dance. I wonder how the music video will look. When she walks out of the room, what she sees in the lounge is definitely not what she expected.
"Natsuki! Natsuki! Are you alright?" When the chestnut haired girl saw the trembling younger girl curled up in a fetus position facing away from her on the sofa, her first instinct was that Natsuki must be sick. What happened while I was in the back room?
Unable to hold it in any longer, Natsuki uncurls herself and starts laughing like she got poisoned by smiley mushrooms (think Chie in Mai-Otome).
"Natsuki?" Was my dance really that funny? Just then, a tune that she recognizes but does not expect starts coming out of the lounge TV. I thought they were going to show my music video now. Crimson eyes follow the sound and land on the TV in horror. WHAT IS THAT?
What Shizuru and many pedestrians outside the building are witnessing is a music video featuring music from Sir Mix-A-Lot's 'Baby Got Back' while the image of a kimono-clad Shizuru doing an elegant fan dance in outer space is in the background. The serious look on the Kyoto beauty's face on TV only adds to the absurdity of the entire video production.
The cacophonous laughter resonating from outside the building intensifies the despair in Shizuru's mind as she can already guess what is playing on the flat screen outside. My heartthrob image … gone forever … She stares at the TV blankly long after the end of her music video.
"HA! Shizuru! Now we're even." Natsuki smiles triumphantly at the petrified Kyoto woman. I am not going to be teased forever by you, Shizuru. It's payback time!
"Oh. I see." Emotionless words leave the pale lips of the older girl. Without taking a second look at the blue haired girl, Shizuru slowly exits the recording building.
Truly not expecting this turn of events, Natsuki can only jog after the Kyoto woman after a few seconds of a confused pause. She was supposed to do the fake crying trick again to make me blush then forgive me. That was the perfect plan! Shit, did I really piss her off this time? "Shizuru, wait up!"
The girls walk in silence for quite a while in the exact opposite formation compared to when they first walked out of the magic show. This time it is Natsuki who is dragging her feet with a regretful look behind the fuming Shizuru. Suddenly the older girl takes a look at her watch and stops in her track, causing the not-so-vigilant Natsuki to almost run into her.
An about face later, crimson eyes meet green eyes for the first time since leaving the recording building. "I'm hungry."
"Okay?" That's the first thing that came out of your mouth after how you have ignored me for the past twenty minutes?
Not another word leaves those luscious lips on porcelain skin and the older girl starts marching forward again. Natsuki decides that the best course of action is to just do what Shizuru wants her to do until her anger disappears. Five minutes later, Natsuki begins to notice a strange pattern in the people around her. Why are there so many old people around?
"We are going to eat here." It is neither a question nor a suggestion, merely a declaration. The Kyoto beauty points at the building that resembles more like a temple than a restaurant.
An audible gulp comes out of Natsuki's throat as she reads the wooden sign with elegant calligraphy carvings. "Tofu Palace?" You have got to be kidding me!
TBC.