.replay.
By ZAFO
[2.]
She had changed; simple as that.
In place of the infamous, barely-there belly dancer's garbe, "Lotus" now wore something akin to a real business woman. A ruffled white blouse peeked out modestly from behind a buttoned-up designer pinstripe blazer; complimented by a tight, matching pencil skirt and simple black pumps...
Raising an eyebrow, "Santa" then looks to her face.
Why didn't he recognize her before?
Although her dark hair is now styled distinctively into a chic bob cut—free of the numerous tacky braids that had once adorned her crown before—her face has very much stayed the same, albeit accented now with more natural make-up...
The older woman simply smirks before shifting slightly on the heels of her feet, placing a slender, well-manicured hand onto her hip.
"Well, what do you know?"
Aoi scowls.
"Shut up, hag."
"Rude as ever." she remarks, looking down on him amusedly as his irritation continues to simmer.
She had changed.
The insult that would have sent her into a flying rage just one year ago...now bounced off her person harmlessly; blocked by the sheer aura of confidence she seemed radiate from within.
'Not confidence.' thinks Aoi, growing stiff as she begins to circle him casually. 'Cockiness.'
"Is that the way you talk to me?" she asks. "After all this time? I haven't heard from you or your sister in nearly a year."
"She's busy." he retorts crossly. "And what the hell are you doing?"
"It's funny." she muses, reaching out to pat his white hair curiously. "You still look like more of a punk than a stockbroker..."
"Hey—don't—fucking—touch me!"
'Santa' swats her hand away defensively, anger written plainly across his face.
'Lotus' simply remains impassive, though she steps back generously so as to circumvent any more outright hostility.
To outsiders looking in, however, the pair look almost affectionate...and deep down, Aoi supposes that they really should be.
It takes a lot of forgiveness to excuse someone for the kind of trauma he had put her through, so he knows he is in debt to her. He knows that he must be kind(er) to her—or civil, at the very least—but with the piling amount of nuisances (a.k.a. Junpei) that had ruined his day, Aoi finds it hard to abide to this common courtesy.
Never the less, 'Number Three' swallows his pride and bites back a snarl.
"I'm...sorry." he grits finally. "I'm having a bad day."
"Are you?" Lotus asks coolly, not bothered in the least. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm having a bad day myself."
"I can't tell."
"...People usually can't." she remarks.
The crowd continues to pass them now in the mist of their odd, new-found silence. Aoi shifts his eyes and realizes that a small gap has formed between him and Lotus and the rest of the world. It was as if the faceless flood of people had actually held some consideration for them; was giving them space to sort out their awkwardness and kiss and make-up as old friends—
'No, acquaintances.'
—should.
Cautiously, he then shifts his attention back to the older woman and becomes all-too-aware of himself and his words and his actions, realizing that he is boorish as fuck.
'What am I?' he thinks, almost flustered upon noticing, finally, that Lotus has been waiting for a reply all the while. 'I feel like a fucking kid again...'
"Shit." Aoi mutters, running an elegant hand through his hair.
Lotus smiles.
"Problem?"
"Nothing that concerns you." he sighs roughly.
"We'll see."
He looks up.
The glint in her eyes that had been present since day one had...dimmed, somewhat, as he could no longer validly call it "mischievous" or "scheming." Rather, it was quietly intelligent.
He wasn't suspect of it anymore; merely wary.
"...we'll see?" he echoes.
"We'll see." she repeats. "Now, how 'bout some coffee hmm?"
She points snidely to his rapidly reddening hands.
They were cold.
"I'm sure it'll warm you up a bit."
When Santa walks into the small coffee shop he hears the delicate tinkle of tin bells that had been attached onto the top of the glass door.
He has a flashback of a time when himself and Akane had went and gotten ice cream from a dinky little family-owned store in their old neighborhood. The freckled, red-headed teenager from behind the counter (a foreigner, surely...no Japanese man ever had natural red hair) would always give her more than they paid for just because she was so "cute."
Perhaps from a different point of view he had merely been friendly; but promptly afterwards he had never taken her there again.
'...guess I've always had that problem, huh?'
Lotus leaves him to go order the house special, whatever that was. She speaks to the barista with a calm, relative ease he can't help but envy.
'But it's all for the best. Always was.'
"They'll have everything ready in a moment." says Lotus, snapping him out of his melancholy haze.
She ushers him over to a nearby table immediately, making flippant shooing motions all the while. Thinking back to his earlier awkwardness, Aoi doesn't think he's ever felt like more of a child in his life.
"Coffee definitely shouldn't even take that long to make." he grumbles, obediently taking a seat nonetheless.
Lotus crosses her arms before she joins him.
"You didn't even pull out my chair for me." she comments casually. "Some gentleman you are."
"You just called me a punk like 10 minutes ago." he smirks. "What the hell would you expect?"
Her tone is sarcastic.
"You're right...what was I thinking?"
"Exactly." he snorts. "Now I hope you're paying for my portion too, hag. You're the one who invited me after all."
"You sure know do how to kill a conversation." she marvels in mock wonder. "But, I do have a name you know."
Aoi scowls irritably.
"What? You still wanna go by 'Lotus?' Or maybe you want me to call you by your real name?"
She stops.
For a moment, the older woman looks genuinely stunned.
"You...know my real name?" she asks slowly.
"Of course." he scoffs. "I had to, in order to track you down for the game."
Lotus offers him no immediate reply.
A pretty young waitress carries over their drinks now along with two expensive-looking pastries. She gently sets the order down onto their table and briskly walks away; feeling as if she were intruding on something private.
Aoi rubs his chin thoughtfully.
"Hazuki, right? How are you?"
He takes one of the fancy pastries—a buttery croissant—and munches on it slowly. It was like a game now. Hazuki Kashiwabara is no longer so friendly...
….at least on the outside. Reminiscing to a time not-too-long-ago, 'Lotus' actually takes comfort in the fact that 'Number Three,' for better or for worse, has barely changed.
"We've discussed this already." Hazuki says calmly. "I'm having a bad day."
"Is it worse now, due to me?"
They lock eyes for but a fraction of a second.
Lotus turns her attention to the rest of their order. She reaches for a steaming cup of caffeine and takes a small sip; careful not to let her lips touch the foamy white cream swirled on top.
A wry smile.
"Don't be so cocky, Aoi. On the contrary, you've actually made my day better."
"...you aren't hitting on me, are you?" Aoi asks, half-jokingly.
"Arrogance again." she says airily. "Far from it. Work's been getting stressful, you see, so I gladly welcome any opportunity these days to take a break away from it."
"Hmph. So I'm just a excuse."
"But a nice one, nonetheless."
Hazuki snickers a bit, and at that moment, Aoi can finally see some small vestige of the devious, scheming woman he had picked from the Nonary Game.
He smirks.
'Still, underneath all that prissy business attire...'
"...so what exactly is 'work,' huh? Something tells me that that suit ain't for belly-dancing."
Hazuki rolls her eyes and scoffs with a light flick! of her head. Delicate wisps of her luxurious, blue-black hair fall back daintily into place when she turns to him once again.
This new cut, curling towards the apples of her cheeks as she leans forward, frames her face very nicely, he thinks.
"Please." she says breezily. "When you and Akane spirited me away to Nevada, I was in the middle of one of my fitness classes. Belly-dancing's only for fun."
"Tch. Then what do you do?"
"I'm the CEO of an online match-making company."
"...ew."
"Ew?'" exclaims Lotus. "How dare you! What's so 'ew' about it?"
Aoi feels a tiny spark of delight welling up at the sight of her animated reaction, but suppresses it in favor for a more laid-back, disinterested attitude. This type of response, he figures, will only serve to rile her up further. Being the taunting prick he usually was was most likely not about to affect her any longer: he needed a new approach to be as annoying as possible.
He digs a pinky finger into one of his ears.
"The way I see it," he drawls. "Only losers need help finding love over the internet."
"Then have you found love yet?" she asks icily.
The question catches him off guard.
"Wh-what?"
"I asked." Hazuki leans closer. "Have you found love yet?"
"That's none of your damn business."
"Then I've got my answer."
Hazuki Kashiwara falls back into her chair, looking infuriatingly smug.
Aoi curses his glass-like pale skin and fights back the tomato-red blush spreading across the whole of his face.
"Nosy old hag..."
She hums, satisfied.
"If you want, I could offer you my services."
"...that's what she said."
"Don't be a brat now. I'm being serious."
"I don't need a fuckin' girl in my life!" he snaps defensively. "Fucking shit, do you know how busy I am?"
"Of course, Mr. Millionaire. But I'm sure that as soon as the right girl come into your life, all that work won't even matter anymore..."
"Gold diggers, the lot of them!"
"Now you're over-generalizing."
"Sluts! Cunts! Bitches and whores!"
"It's no wonder you're still single..."
Hazuki gives a tragic sigh, and Aoi simply sneers in disgust.
"Shut up."
"Just give me a chance." she says. "I'm sure it won't be too hard finding a girl who's just as crude as you are..."
"I've only got one girl in my life." Aoi shoots back. "Akane and that fuckin' Junpei kid...it ain't even my relationship, and I'm tired enough!"
Lotus stares at him incredulously, then rubs her chin with something akin to confusion.
"Well. I guess I can't say I didn't see it coming but..."
"But what?" he asks. "What's with that face?
"It's nothing." Lotus says dismissively. "I just thought that Clover would've gotten her hands on Junpei before Akane did."
"Clover liked...Junpei?"
The woman shrugs.
"Still likes, I believe. I still keep in contact in her. She talks about him all the time, so I just assumed—"
"—Hazuki."
Aoi slams his hands down onto the table, nearly tipping over his companion's coffee and his own untouched drink.
"Looks like I'm gonna need your services after all."
A/N: omg dying *headdesks*