Chapter Two:

Catnap

Tomo sat quietly in the waiting room at the police station, slumped forward in her seat so that her hair hung down in front of her face, acting as a curtain between her and the world. Her eyes were closed, her breath soft and slow as she slept, her life, or as much as she could remember, playing in fast motion as she dreamt. Every waking moment of her life, and even some of her dreams, rushed through her mind at top speed, until one night…

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"Hey, Yomi! Kags and I are goin out drinkin' tonight! You wanna come?" Tomo shouted from the front door to her girlfriend, who was back in their bedroom, diligently at work. She heard her lover stand up as she replied.

"Jeez, Tomo, I'm really not that far away, you don't have to shout, y'know…" Tomo simply gave her a silly grin, causing the bespectacled girl to shake her head in slight annoyance.

"Well, even if you had told me about it sooner than five minutes before you were heading out…" she paused for a moment to glare at Tomo, "I'd still have to say no. Unlike you, I have a lot of work to do tonight".

Tomo sighed and waved the comment away dismissively, though her voice sounded slightly hurt. "Hey, hey, that's low. I have an interview on Thursday, y'know? I'm not that pathetic…" Yomi closed the remaining space between herself and the shorter girl, pulling her into a gentle embrace and murmuring comfortingly. "I know, I know, I'm sorry…" she backed off slightly and smiled at her lover. "Go, have fun. Just try not to get too drunk. The last thing I want is to wake up next to a hung over, grumpy Tomo". She chuckled softly, as did Tomo, who at the same time gave her lover a gentle squeeze.

"Well, if I do get wasted, I'll just remember to sleep on the couch, eh?" Tomo added sarcastically. Yomi gave her another annoyed look, sighing softly. "Aw, come on now, if ya keep up like that, you'll be all wrinkly and old by the time you're thirty. Stop getting so serious about everything!" Before she could continue her rant any longer, Tomo heard a horn honk outside, and pressed her lips to Yomi's for a split second before charging out the door, shouting back "I'll see ya tomorrow or somethin'! Love ya!"

Tomo bolted down the stairs at top speed, nearly knocking a few of her neighbors onto the ground as she darted past them. She slammed into the entrance hall doors with all of her might, nearly knocking them off their hinges as they slammed open, leaving only a small patch of open area between Tomo and her waiting friend. Unfortunately, this patch of ground was covered in ice and snow, and although Tomo neared the vehicle, her pace did not slow. She slammed into the side of the car, her face pressed against the glass of the window, twisted into a look of discomfort, her body already aching from the impact. Kagura nearly jumped out of her skin as her friend crashed loudly against the car, sighing heavily once she realized it was Tomo. She scooted to the middle of the seat to give Tomo room as the door opened and the grinning girl stepped in, rubbing her cheek.

"Heya Kags. Sorry 'bout that, kinda forgot the ice was there…" Tomo apologized, still grinning, but looking a little embarrassed.

"Stupid as always, eh Tomo? I'm surprised you passed high school. Maybe I was too lenient." a familiar voice taunted. Tomo's head bolted to the front passenger's seat, a brunette with wavy, long hair sitting there with her arms crossed, looking very pleased with herself. She looked to be about thirty, had a soft peach skin tone, and was wearing a very light brown woolen sweater with red and black zigzag designs making a ring around her chest and lower shoulders. She shrugged, and her smirk softened into a warm smile. "But in any case, it's good to see you".

"Y… Yukari-sensei…?" Tomo stared at her for a few moments, and then slowly turned her head to Kagura. A few more awkwardly silent moments passed before she asked, "Why the heck'd you invite her?" She received a swift smack on the head from her teacher as a response. "Ow…"

The taxi ride to the bar was full of excited chatter, the three women discussing what they had been doing since they last saw each other, which had been quite a while in the case of Yukari. She was still an English teacher, although she had been searching for a new job. Aside from her newfound drive to better herself, though, nothing much had changed about her; she was still just as sarcastic and immature as she had been four years prior. Kagura, on the other hand, had undergone at least some notable change since high school. She had grown a few inches, now 5' 9", and her mahogany hair had grown with her, reaching down a little ways past her shoulders. Her tan had darkened to a deep chocolate color as well, her work as a swimming instructor exposing her to a good deal of sunlight each day. Tomo didn't talk much about herself during the ride, knowing that discussing herself would likely drag down the carefree mood that hovered around the three. After all, failure is a hard thing to accept, much less discuss.

The trio finally arrived at their destination; a rather low class looking bar nearly coated in graffiti, a homeless man taking a piss outside. The girls took no notice of this, though, and happy banter continued until the group entered the bar. It was incredibly dark inside, neon signs posted on every wall but dong nothing for lighting. The building was small, crowded with booths, a pool table in the very center of the place. A lamp hanging over the pool table was the only non-neon light to illuminate the room, and it was flickering.

"Jeez, Kags, why not just take us behind the crack house and have us drink the crap in the drainpipe?" Tomo joked, receiving a glare from more than a few patrons. Kagura looked somewhat horrified as well, obviously not expecting what she saw.

"I… I heard it was a nice place, g… good service or somethin'…" she stammered, obviously doubting her own words. "W… well, I suppose we should make the best of it, hm…?" she took a seat at the bar, and was quickly followed by her two friends. There was a long, uncomfortable silence before they all said in near unison "This seat is sticky…"

The silence continued until the three received their drinks, three unnervingly unlabeled bottles of beer, since the prospect of the sweaty man behind the bar dripping into their drinks was more than a wee bit disgusting. Yukari was the first to restart the conversation.

"So, uhm… I got a pretty awesome new game a few days ago. It's a shooter game, you play as a secret agent who shoots ghosts and such. It's pretty creepy… what about you two, played any good games lately?"

"Well, I haven't had a whole lot of times for games lately, and I haven't played any new ones for a while. What about you, Tomo?" Kagura looked to her friend questioningly.

"Yeah, what with not havin a job or anything, I bet you have a whole lot of free time, eh?" Yukari burst in, grinning widely. Tomo shot her an angry glare, then let out a heavy sigh.

"I wish everyone'd get off my back about that. Seriously, like I don't feel shitty enough about it" she replied, voice heavy with both annoyance and self-loathing. Kagura gulped and began to pat her friend comfortingly on the back.

"Well, hey… how about that baseball, hm? I heard that's a pretty cool thing nowadays" she started in an attempt to change the subject. Tomo grinned and chuckled softly, lifting the mood considerably and allowing conversation to restart.

Two hours and a six-pack later, the doors of the bar were thrown open, and a very smashed Tomo Takino was sent sailing through the air, her last bottle of beer not leaving her hand. She landed face first in a patch of yellow snow, and cut her cheek on some broken glass as she continued sliding.

"Zhu shunnufabish, Ah'll gehsha fer zhat…" she slurred, standing shakily and stumbling toward the door, which was promptly shut in her face. She slammed into it, again face first, and cursed loudly.

Y'know, maybe you shouldn't have thrown an ashtray at the bartender… or yelled at that biker guy… just a couple of suggestions for next time.

Tomo yawned and shook her head. "Meh, zhey dishurved it anywey…ashholes…" At that, she wandered in the general direction of her and Yomi's apartment, dwelling the whole way on how much assholes pissed her off and rubbing the cheek where the glass had penetrated. After a long walk back to her complex, and a few angry shouts from her neighbors, who didn't seem to enjoy the loud banging on their doors, she finally made it home. The door was unlocked and left slightly ajar, so of course Tomo leaned against it for a rest, pushing the door open fast and causing her to hit her head on the doorknob. The loud bang sound from the front room brought Yomi running from her office to her girlfriend's side.

"Holy crap, Tomo, you scared the shit out of me! You're so cold, did you walk home or something? And why is your cheek bloody? What did you do to yourself?" Yomi hit her lover with a barrage of questions as she helped the girl to her feet. Tomo was turned away from her, and she could feel her shorter friend trembling. She waited for a few moments, the asked again. "Tomo, answer me, what did you do?"

Tomo whirled around faster than lightning, bringing the surprisingly unbroken bottle around and slamming it into her girlfriend's face, hard. The bottle shattered on impact, sending bits of glass flying all about. Yomi was thrown to the floor, both by the force of the blow, and her lack of preparation for it. Tomo's breath was heavy, her voice full of anger as she yelled.

"It's always my fault, isn't it, Yomi?! It's always me who does everything wrong, isn't it!?" She hurled what remained of her bottle at the now cowering girl before her, hitting her left arm as it flew up to protect her face. "I'm never fucking good enough, am I!? Just because I'm not fucking successful, because I'm the fucking dropout, you think I don't have feelings or something?! You think I wanted to drop out of college?! Thought that was Takino's master fucking plan, to drop out and fucking mooch off of you forever?" she took a few moments to catch her breath, holding her face in her left hand and shaking her head slowly. "Well you know what? Maybe I am just numbnut Tomo, maybe I am just the fuck-up queen…" her hand shot from her face to a flower vase on the entrance room table, shoving it onto the floor and shattering it. Her eyes locked intently on her girlfriend's quivering form, her gaze now tinted with malice. "But at least I have character, Yomi! At least I'm not some fat fucking cow, some work-obsessed fucking lifeless bitch! I might not be some fucking secretary high up on the corporate ladder, but I'm not just another fucking rung, either! Let me tell you something, you fuckin snotty bitch…" her voice became a low growl at this point, and Yomi brought her arm down cautiously, revealing the cracked lens in her glasses and the blood trickling from a cut above her eyebrow. "Let me tell you… the people you turn your nose up at, they're always the underdogs. Just you watch, someday, I'll do something fucking amazing, and you'll wonder if it's the same fuck-up you knew so many years ago, and I'll just fucking laugh in your face as I pull in a fucking fortune. Just you wait, you'll see". At that, Takino stood up, picked up a fair wad of cash from the smashed vase, spit at her now almost definitely ex-girlfriend, and stormed from the apartment.

She began to head immediately to the train station, her mind racing with self-congratulations, with ideas for what she'd do with her newfound inspiration, every care in the world stricken from her thoughts. It wasn't until she had taken her seat on a train to Yokohama that her thoughts began to turn. Suddenly, above all the happy chatter within her head, a lower, darker her began to speak.

Do you even have a plan? Do you have any clue what you're going to do? You have three hundred thousand yen, but what will you do when that runs out? Turn tricks in an alley? Because believe me, knowing you as well as I do, you won't have a great idea by the time that money runs out. Hell you probably won't have a good idea period. Haven't had one since you were five, and I doubt you'll start now. And what the fuck was that, anyway? Your girlfriend worries about you, and you fucking beat her? Who the fuck do you think you are? Well, a least you're not considering using that vase money on a wedding ring, cause there's no way she'll forgive you for that. You push and you push, Takino, and she's been a god damned saint to put up with you for so long, but this is definitely the ten ton weight that broke the camel's back. Go ahead, go live in your fuckin fairyland for long as you can, because pretty soon, it'll end, and your life'll come crashing down around you.

And there, in a crowded train car speeding across Japan, Tomo Takino broke down and cried.

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Tomo bolted upright when she felt a hand on her, shouting loudly "I don't need your help, just go away!" It took her a few moments to realize she was in the police station,and the hand was not that of a curious stranger. Instead, a tall, fit woman with long, soft brown hair and a pair of square-rimmed glasses stood before her, smiling softly. The light twinkled and glowed around her, as it would an angel. Tomo stood up quickly and almost threw herself against the woman, arms wrapping around her in a tight embrace, tears streaming from her eyes. She murmured into the girl's ear, "Yomi, I'm so sorry… I… I missed you". Yomi simply nodded, running her hands along her friend's back comfortingly for what seemed like forever, until she finally decided it was time to go.