Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of the God Eaters except for my OCs and the plots.
Warning: AU setting, T-rated for foul language, mentioned of red light district, possibly violent and rating may go up in the future chapter.
A/N: I know it has been a while. I'm being ridiculously slow. Being bombard by mountains and mountains of assignments and projects is not a pleasant feeling…. Urgh, I feel awful for not being able to spare time to write something I want aside from overload schoolwork and deadlines.
Anyway, it's a rather short chapter, but hope you guys like this chapter and tell me what you think!
Another week had passed, and the temperature was getting lower and lower by day; so as Soma's mood that couldn't get any worse than they were.
Ever since the last unwanted run in with that man who loved to torment him at the Fenrir building, he had wrecked his mind coming up with some plan to avoid that blasted invitation for Christmas dinner in a matter of two weeks. Just the thought of sharing the same air with the three people he despised more than anyone on the surface of the earth in the dining room made his stomach churned unpleasantly, let alone eat.
Suddenly, his remembered the blind date set up by Alisa which he had ditched weeks ago. Like Alisa said, he might be able to discourage the arranged marriage made by those two bastards by chance. Moreover, he remembered how Alisa talked to him excitedly over the phone regarding her friend she was about to set him up with. If anything, even if it was just a set up for a trial date, that friend whom Alisa was so proud and spoke highly of would definitely better than Garland's daughter.
Either way, he had rudely stood her up without informing anyone, and Alisa had also mentioned about not wanting to set them up anymore. He was not that shameless of a guy to ask for another chance to meet up so that he could use her friend as a tool to effectively postpone that two mans' plans.
No point beating himself over it, he just had to come up with another plan.
His barrage of thoughts was interrupted by the short chiming sound from his smartphone, notifying him the new text received. Fished out the slick black from his pocket, his brow visibly twitched at the name of sender appeared on the screen, annoyed, but his read the text either way.
Hey! Today's the re-opening day of my Ma's restaurant! Wanna drop by and grab a lunch? Everything is in the house!
Kota.
Now that the red-haired monkey reminded him, today was indeed the re-opening day of Mrs. Fujiki's family restaurant after relocated and months of renovation. It has been a while since he had a good meal made by that kind woman. Whatever he had consumed for the past months was either the same old bland lunch boxes bought from nearby convenient stores or simple crappy stuffs he made for himself to get by without starving himself, it won't hurt to reward himself a decent meal after enduring few weeks of disasters.
Replied Kota with a simple 'OK', he kept his phone back into his pocket and proceed his way to the railway station. He could easily go to the restaurant if he still had his bike, but it was still in the progress of repairing after the damaged state it was in a few days ago when he went to the place he left it. He would have to make do in taking public transport for the time being.
Collected the ticket he bought from the vending machine, he headed towards the ticket gate. There was still an hour before the lunch hour, and the station was not packed with people to the point you have to squeeze your way through the crowds, hence it should be impossible to bump into someone when the station was not crowded. However, it still happened to Soma. It was almost like he was hanging a signboard around his neck that says 'Hey, piss me off!'
Not allowing him to have a smooth and uneventful day for once, a drunk sleazy looking man with bulged belly bumped on his right shoulder as he was making his way down the stairs to the platform. Quick in reflex, Soma firmly grab on the handle to prevent his body from tilting backwards, escaping the fate of hurting his spine on the staircase.
"Wa'ch 'er yer goin, you fuck'in toy boy!" the rude drunk cursed, recovered his balance after a few stumbles, glowered at Soma as though the young man was the one who roughly bumped him.
Toy boy? Such vulgar and baseless insult in the morning was the last thing he needs.
Pissed, he narrowed his blue eyes and return the glower several times more intense than the one made by the drunk man, and said, "Don't lump me into the same filthy category as you, you hear me? Shitty old drunk!"
Being intimidated by Soma's anger, the drunk man gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to be visibly coward over the younger one's quiet rage.
"Forget it! Hurry up you fil'hy slut! We're head'into teh nearest hotel!" The drunk man spat and shouted to a woman who was taking her sweet time climbing up the stairs, sounds of heels clacking rhythmically on the tiles each steps she took. By the time she was on the same step as Soma, she tripped, almost to painfully obvious that it was on purpose and pressed herself against the platinum blonde's lean frame. The young man was immediately assaulted by scent of disgustingly sweet perfume, and did not even bothered to hide his grimace.
"Oh, my bad." The woman chuckled, ignoring Soma's obvious displeasure and shot him a sultry gaze, sensually sliding her hands on his clothed chest to feel toned sensation under the fabric. The woman has her permed brown lock tied up in a loose bun, leaving the right amount of random strands frames at the side of her cheeks; her makeup was not gaudy except for her deep red painted lips; her choice of wearing underneath of her winter coat has a very low cut, proudly showing off her cleavage to the world for all she cares. Soma had to admit that the woman was indeed attractive, but she was a harlot nonetheless, and that reason alone had him feel nothing but antipathy.
Without a second hesitation, he shoved her away, though not rough enough to make her fall off from the stairs, paying no heed to the startled gasp by his sudden shove, he made his way down the steps with evidently foul mood, ignoring another fit of shouting coming from his back by the drunk man.
As he passed by a trash can placed beside the staircase, he threw away the piece of small paper which had numbers and name written on it. That harlot managed to slip the piece of small paper into his coat pocket, and he didn't even need it.
All he could think of for that particular one hour until he reaches his destination was nothing but negatives.
"This world is so messed up."
It was undoubtedly the busiest day yet for the Fujikis and Hatsuyuki. Since nine in the morning, the family restaurant was swarmed by regular diners and new comers, giving words of congratulations and so on. Kota and Hatsuyuki had worked for hours straight, in within, taking turns to had at least 15-20 minutes break before plunging themselves into the crowds.
All thanks to Kota's surprise and Mrs. Fujiki's genuine happiness to have her back, Hatsuyuki was able to earn herself a week worth of well rest to re-energize herself. Even though it was not all that obvious, but Kota and Mrs. Fujiki was convinced that she definitely looked healthier and more cheerful compared to months ago. That sight alone was a pure relieve and both mother and son couldn't be any happier. After all, against such headstrong and principled girl, they could only do so much to help her.
Clearing away the table and wiped the table clean, Hatsuyuki takes the tray which stacked with dirty dishes and cutleries and headed straight into the kitchen, momentary leaving Kota and another one of the newly hired part-timer to take orders and attend the customers.
Barely seconds later, the small bell hanged on the doorknob chimed loud enough to alert the red-haired young man to greet the new comers, "Welcom-, oh hey! Soma!" Kota grinned at the sight of his older friend, handed the orders he had just received to the other part-timer before strides toward Soma to give him a friendly at on his back, which the latter replied with a soft grunt, "Come on in! There's a vacant seat in the corner over there." Knowing his taller friend's seat preference, Kota pointed at the corner table that are meant for four person. Since Alisa was on her way and it was almost time for his and Hatsuyuki's lunch break, they all just gonna share the table either way, so the idea of letting Soma hog the table for himself for a little ten minutes won't be unfair at all.
"The usual?" Kota asked.
"Yea." Soma nodded and proceed to make his way to the table to be seated.
Order received, Kota stopped himself at the door the kitchen and poked his head in, "Ma, he's here! The usual!"
Even though there're only three people present in the kitchen, it was just as busy as it does compare to the dining area.
"Sure, sweetie!" replied Mrs. Fujiki, loud enough for Kota to hear before making herself busy in front of the stoves along with another hired chef. She constantly juggling herself between the stoves and the oven to check on the cakes and bread that were baking in progress. At the other side of the kitchen, Hatsuyuki was standing by the basin, dedicatedly scrubbing the filthy off the dishes and cutleries before placing them to aside for air dry.
With the final plate being scrubbed, rinsed and cleaned, Hatsuyuki carefully placed the cleaned dishes on top of one of the stations which could be easily reached by the two busy chefs. She exhaled and looked up at the standard clock that was hanged above the door, noting that it was her and Kota's turn for the lunch break. As she was wiping her hands dry using the black waist apron she was wearing, Mrs. Fujiki approached her with four plates of deliciously cooked meal that was carefully placed on the tray, smiling, "Thanks for your hard work."
"Thanks!" Hatsuyuki carefully took over the tray from the kind woman, but soon confused when she spotted an extra dish on it. She knew Alisa should be in the restaurant anytime soon to join her and Kota for lunch, and the Russian was no stranger to Mrs. Fujiki, so she was not surprised that the woman prepared Alisa's favorite food beforehand. But what was it with the forth dish that wasn't even on the restaurant's menu? Not to mention that the portion was more than a grown man could handle.
"Someone ordered extra-large serving of Salisbury Steak that wasn't even supposed to be on our menu?"
"The young man who ordered it is one of my favourite regular diners, "Mrs. Fujiki chuckled when she saw Hatsuyuki's mildly dumbfounded expression, said, "Don't worry, Kota knows who ordered it. Go on and meet a new friend!"
"New... friend?" Was all Hatsuyuki could say as she was practically being pushed out from the kitchen by Mrs. Fujiki who seemed suspiciously sprightly than she used to. As much as she hates to doubt the kind woman, Hatsuyuki was unable to fight off the urge of incredulity that something was going to mess up her day.
Which she hoped not.
Determined to stay optimistic, she began searching for her red-haired friend in the dining hall. Soon enough, she spotted Alisa was already there, sitting across Kota. For unknown reason, her red-haired friend seemed kind off fidgety, even Alisa's looked stiff. Frowned, she placed their meals in front of them along with her, and stared at the remaining dish on her serving tray with a troubled look, and said, "Hey, Kota. Who ordered this?"
"It's... well, how should I put this?" Kota nervously chuckled and sheepishly scratches the back of his head, lacking the usual spider-printed bandanna, and gave Hatsuyuki a helpless gaze, "Promise me you won't kill us, or him, Okay?"
Took in the sight of her friend's perplexed expression, Alisa chipped in, "It's the one who ditched you on the blind date weeks ago ordered it."
Hatsuyuki returned them a blank stare. To be honest, she had already long since forgotten about the blind date to even bother. Since that ambiguous date when so far to ditch her, that could only mean that he was on the same boat as her being set up by Alisa and Kota. She had decided not to hold against him since she would never have thought she would meet him anyway.
If only she knew in the next few minutes later that she would instantly regret what she just thought.
"Fine, I won't kill either one of you." Hatsuyuki shrugged, and place the Salisbury steak and the unoccupied seat and sat down at the opposite side of the seat, looking unperturbed and start eating her own meal. Alisa and Kota were too worried to be convinced, but as well start to eat, though the lack of the usual chattiness they had.
Soon enough, someone pulled back the chair of the unoccupied seat and sat down casually. It was all so sudden that Hatsuyuki failed to notice the additional presence as she was lowering her head to take a bit out of her spoon, until a deep voice with hinted with confusion rang directly to her, "Who're you?"
Hatsuyuki was stunned for a second and looked up from her plate. She then instantly regretted it and wished that she never raised her head at all. Because after she did, she sat there looking stupefied, eyes could be as big as saucers when the painfully familiar guy sat across her returned her the same dumbfounded expression on his face only with jaw slacked as extra.
Dumbly, or hopefully assumed that the petrified two friends were speechless out of love at first sight, Alisa and Kota immediately forced a grin on their own faces and started to officially introduce the both of them to each other.
"So," Alisa started after clearing her throat, gestured and Hatsuyuki then to Soma as she goes on, "Soma, this is Hatsuyuki. And Yuki, this is Soma."
"See, Yuki! I told you he is good looking and not all that bad!" Kota grinned and threw his arm on Hatsuyuki's shoulder.
Both cheery friends began to bombard the other two with things that they should know about each other excitedly and failed to notice neither Soma nor Hatsuyuki was listening at all. Everything sounded like muffled sound into the pillow for them as they felt their brain was fried by shock at each other's' familiarity.
When the gears in their head finally start spinning, both Soma and Hatsuyuki's expression changed from stupefied to appalled, and lastly, scowling at each other as though each of them had owed one another a centuries worth of fortunes.
It doesn't take long to be Alisa and Kota's turn to be astounded because both of their friends suddenly slap one of their hands down on the table and pointed at one another simultaneously.
"You're that heavily perfumed hooker who pushed yourself against me at the station!"
"You're that half-dead bloody thug who passes out at my doorstep!"