Notes: So, here we are with the first of the collection of side stories that I promised everyone.
Some of these are deleted scenes from this fic that I couldn't find a good spot for within the main story, others were inspired from conversations I had with some friends.
Roughly, these are in chronological order, with the first taking place before the storyline began, and the last two from after the epilogue. Tacked on at the very end of this is the list of songs/albums that inspired me while I was writing this fic - a couple people asked me for a song list so I decided to include them here.
I hope that you guys enjoy these short stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Interlude 1: In which Soldier Game discovers never to let Maki cook ever again
Umi met Eli outside of the downtown office building that she was working in that afternoon.
"How was work?" she asked her automatically when the blonde exited through the glass doors of the lobbying, retying her long hair into a ponytail.
Eli scowled at her as she snapped the elastic into place. "The same. Did you really expect the members of the corporate rich to have changed since the last time you asked me that?"
"No," Umi replied, adjusting the strap of the bow on her shoulder as they began walking. "But it's a nice sentiment."
"It would be, if it was within the realm of possibility. Speaking of nice sentiments, did you tell Maki she was in charge of dinner tonight?" Eli asked her, looking at the inside of her wrist for the time on her watch.
Umi gave her a grim smile. "I did. I can't say she looked enthused when I told her, though."
Eli laughed. "How bad can it be? She's spent a few years watching us do it. If nothing else, she has the microwave."
"She does, but don't forget you had to teach her how to use the vacuum cleaner the first time we told her to clean up the apartment," Umi reminded her dryly.
"Good point."
Umi opened her mouth to say something else when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Pulling it out, she scanned the message quickly, unable to suppress an exasperated smile as she read its contents.
"Kotori again?" Eli asked her, catching the expression on her face.
Umi nodded. "She wants to know if I can make it to her coworker's party with her over the weekend. I don't like it, but I suppose I'll have to go with her."
She looked around to find a small smile playing at the corners of Eli's lips at her words. "You really care about her, don't you?" her friend asked her, her voice suddenly quiet and sincere.
Umi took a breath, holding it for a few moments before letting it out, looking up at the fiery orange sunset above Tokyo's skyline. "If you put it like that, I suppose you're right." Unconsciously, the fingers of her free hand tightened into a fist in her pocket. "I just…" She paused, searching for the right words to convey how she felt. "She is the best thing to happen to me since then. I know it. So… even if I don't like some of the things she wants me to do, I want to be there for her."
The smile on Eli's face widened. "Keep this up, and you might actually turn out to like going to social events."
Sliding her phone back into her pocket, Umi grimaced. "And I sincerely hope that that does not happen." But even if it does, it's worth it. I know that too. Out loud, she said, "So… what about you?"
"What about me?" Eli asked her, raising an eyebrow.
Umi gave her a sidelong glance. "You know what I mean. Isn't it about time you… found someone? For yourself, I mean."
Eli frowned, and was quiet for a few moments—enough time for Umi to wonder if that was not a question she should have asked.
When the blonde finally spoke, however, her tone was musing, rather than offended. "I don't know," she said slowly. "Like we discussed earlier, I guess it's a nice sentiment. It's just… I've never had time to think about any of that—and even if I did, I don't think I've ever been attracted to anyone in my life before. That's all."
The candid, astute way in which she spoke made Umi press her lips together; to push for a further answer was none of her business and she was all too aware of the walls Eli usually erected around herself. Those walls came down ever so slightly when she was around either Maki or herself, but Umi knew that her personal life was not something Eli particularly liked to discuss, and decided it was wiser for her to stop pursuing the topic.
When she unlocked the front door to their apartment twenty-five minutes later, she wrinkled her nose at the acrid, burnt smell drifting from the kitchen. Beside her, Eli inhaled once through her nose before coughing, holding the crook of her elbow over the lower half of her face.
"Maki!" Umi called into the apartment, trying not to breathe in the smoke. "What is going on? Are you okay?"
"Are you trying to burn the apartment down?" Eli yelled after her, the end of her question cut off by a cough.
"No!" came the indignant reply. "If only this stupid, goddamn thing was easier to use, we wouldn't be having this problem!"
Exchanging a dubious look with Eli, the two of them stepped into the apartment. When they reached the kitchen, Umi stared at the black smoke unfurling from behind the microwave door that nearly obscured the silhouette of the redhead standing beside it, flapping frantically at it with her hands.
"What happened?" she asked, setting down her bow quickly on the dining room table to open the window above the sink.
Eli cautiously approached the still-smoking appliance, carefully prising open the door with one hand as Maki took a step back, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her head to one side.
"You asked me to make dinner, remember?"
"Go on," Eli told her, reaching into one of the drawers for a pair of tongs. Umi watched her reach into the microwave with the utensil, carefully removing what looked like the still-smoking, blackened remains of a plastic container before dropping it on the counter.
"So I tried to heat that up," Maki snapped, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do?"
Umi took a few steps forward to examine the plastic container that Eli had left on the countertop. Picking it up with a rag, she attempted to read the characters on the outside of the flimsy cup underneath its blackened exterior.
"Instant noodles?" she asked, furrowing her brows. "How did this happen?"
"I don't know, okay?" Maki fired back. "Aren't you supposed to heat it up, then add water? Isn't that how it works?"
Umi found herself meeting Eli's incredulous cerulean gaze over the potted plant in the middle of the countertop. The two of them stared at each other for a full five seconds as Maki tried to gauge their reaction to her response.
"What?" the redhead asked eventually, evidently incensed by the lack of an immediate response.
"Maki," Umi began, unsure if she was supposed to sound exasperated or stunned, though she had a nasty feeling that what ended up coming out was a combination of both. "You're supposed to put the water in first, or else—"
"Or else this happens," Eli finished for her, putting down her tongs and soaking another rag in the sink so she could wipe the counter space around the microwave.
"Is it broken?" Umi asked her, watching her work out of the corner of her eye.
"Probably," the blonde replied without looking up from her task. "I mean, I wouldn't risk putting anything else in there."
Umi sighed, turning back to Maki. "Perhaps it's better if you leave dinner up to me tonight."
"H-How was I supposed to know that you were supposed to put in the water first?" the redhead demanded. "It's not my fault that the goddamn thing doesn't work that way." With that, she crossed her arms over her chest and strode out into the living room to where she spent most of her evenings studying.
The squeak of the rag against the counter behind her had stopped for a few heartbeats before it resumed. Umi did not need to turn around to know that that was Eli's reaction to what Maki had just said, before it resumed. The kitchen was silent for a few minutes as she stood there, trying to process it for herself.
"Are you sure it's just tonight you don't want her cooking?" Eli asked her, breaking the silence after she closed the door of the now-useless microwave and wringing out her rag in the sink.
Umi looked at the remains of the plastic cup in her hand. "No. It might be better if we share that duty in the future. For the sake of our health, and hers, to be honest."
Eli laughed. "Probably wise," she agreed.
Interlude 2: In which Umi discovers the meaning of alcoholism
Maki looked up from her lab notes to find Umi looking through the back of her laboratory near her kitchenette. Presumably, the bounty hunter was looking for something edible before she had to leave—privately, she wished her luck. Her definition of edible was sadly not up to either of her friends' standards, and she doubted that Umi would find something that she would deem suitable.
She flipped a page in her lab notebook to reread her results from the previous week. Chewing on the end of her pen as she highlighted some of her results to bring up at her next conference, she had almost tuned Umi out when her friend's voice broke through her concentration.
"Maki, what is this?"
Maki looked up to find Umi holding a bottle of her wine in one hand, examining the label underneath the bright glow of the laboratory lights. She raised a dark red eyebrow, tapping the pen on the surface of her notebook.
"My wine. What else would it be, Umi?"
Umi looked at her, brows furrowed. "Why do you keep wine in your laboratory?"
"I don't know," Maki replied sarcastically, one of her shoulders rising in a shrug before she let it drop. "So I can drink it when I feel like it?"
The blue-haired bounty hunter frowned, turning the bottle over in her hand to look at the back of the label at the price. "You keep wine this expensive in your laboratory?"
"Yeah? I don't want to drink that cheap crap they serve at bars, much less bring it home. Have you ever heard of quality, Umi?"
"No," came the reply. "You know that I don't approve of alcohol."
Maki snorted, knowing all too well that her blue-haired friend vehemently disapproved of alcohol in all its forms before a thought crossed her mind. She smirked. "Then I've got a suggestion for you—if you've got a problem with my wine, don't ever go drinking with Eli."
Interlude 3: In which Eli discovers having the head of state as her girlfriend isn't as glamorous as it sounds
"Eli."
Maki slammed both her hands flat on the desk she was sitting at, wearing a worn-out, exasperated expression on her face as Eli regarded her over the lid of her laptop.
"Yes?" she inquired coolly, raising an eyebrow.
"Tell me," the redhead started, tightening her hands into fists. "What, exactly, do you see in her?"
When she didn't immediately react, Maki leaned in closer, narrowing her amethyst eyes. "Well?" she demanded.
Eli took her to mean Nozomi.
"What happened?" she asked, avoiding the question—not because she didn't have an answer, but because she knew that no matter how well thought-out and eloquent her answer might be, it wouldn't be nearly enough satisfy the redhead when she was worked up.
Maki let out a low growl. "All I wanted to know was if she had looked through my proposal for more funding, since, you know, the research the hospital wants me to do was requested by her senate. Instead of giving me a straight answer, she says, 'I don't know, Nishikino-san, do you think it's legible enough for me to read?' Like, are you serious? Who says that? Honestly Eli, she's a fucking nightmare. How the hell do you put up with her on a daily basis?"
Eli resisted the temptation to laugh out loud at her friend's recount of Nozomi's question—she could imagine the exact tone of voice the violet-haired woman had used. Laughing, however, would earn her the silent treatment from the physician standing in front of her for the next few days, and she knew it. "You know, it would be a lot less of a hassle for you to talk to her if you didn't take everything she says so seriously," she told her lightly.
The redhead glared at her. "Let me guess. She doesn't talk to you like you're five."
"Well, no," Eli admitted, "but she also knows that I don't react to what she says the way you do."
Maki straightened, turning her head sharply in the other direction. "Why is always me?" she fumed. "Like, why can't she actually do something useful for once? Like, she could ban stupid, loud people from the hospital and I would call that actually productive. Now that I think about it, can you ask her that for me when you go see her?"
Eli glanced over her work at her, initially unsure if her friend was serious or not before she realized that she was. "Are you serious?" she asked in disbelief, just as Umi opened the door to the laboratory to let herself in.
"Are you serious about what?" the blue-haired bounty hunter asked, hanging up her bow on a hook near the foot of the stairs. Eli couldn't help but notice that she already looked harassed—there was no doubt in her mind that Umi had been wedding planning with Kotori again. Few things tested Umi's patience as much as tulle, skirts and flowers, and if the look on her face was any indication, Kotori had gotten her fiancée to agree to something else she was already regretting again.
Not missing a beat, Maki turned around to face her. "You know, Umi, now that Eli's dating our distinguished head of state, have you ever considered asking her about a new law you'd like to pass in this city?"
Umi looked from one of them to the other, clearly wondering what had incited that particular question, before she shook her head. Before Eli could open her mouth to voice an objection, Umi strode over to the other table, pulling out a chair and sitting down in it, an exasperated expression on her face.
"If she could ban excessive weddings, that would be the best thing I have heard all day," she muttered under her breath, burying her forehead in a hand.
Maki smirked, turning back to her. "Well?" she asked. "What do you think, Eli? Do you think you can get all those passed as new laws for us?"
"Are you kidding me?" Eli asked, finally goaded into a less-than-collected response. "Who do you think I am?"
"I'll tell you who," Maki replied smoothly. "You're the district ruler of Tokyo's girlfriend. Please don't tell me that doesn't get you some sort of free pass with her."
"It won't be a free pass for long if you think I'm actually going to ask her all of this stupid crap," she retorted. "That's an abuse of power, and you know it."
The redhead snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "So... what's the point of dating the most powerful person in Tokyo if you're not going to take advantage of it?"
Interlude 4: In which Soldier Game attempts to rectify Umi's (non-existent) dancing skills
For what seemed like the umpteenth time, Umi missed Eli's hand and slammed her fist into her shoulder instead, which caused the blonde to wince. Muttering darkly under her breath, she walked a few paces away, shaking out her arms in an attempt to relieve her frustration.
"For the last time, Umi, this is a dance, not a wrestling match," Eli sighed as she followed her.
Umi swallowed the knee-jerk reaction to her words; instead, she headed over to the edge of the park lawn that they were practicing on, and sat down on a bench. "Let's face it Eli, if the success of my marriage is being predicted by how well I can dance this with Kotori, I may as well be doomed."
"You can dance, Umi. You just need to stop thinking about it like it's the worst thing that could happen to you."
"Sadly, that is easy for you to say," Umi replied, letting her head drop back on her shoulders until she was looking at the wilting blossoms the trees above them. She took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the fallen petals that lay scattered on the grass around them. "It's so peaceful here," she remarked, watching a small flock of birds pass by overhead in the sunset. "At least the weather is going to be nice in a few days."
"Unlike your performance in the dance Kotori picked," Maki called, striding up the long, shallow slope of grass toward them, "which was abysmal. Please tell me that this isn't your… what, tenth lesson from Eli?"
Umi let out a sigh as the redhead approached. "It is," she ground out between her teeth, too worn out and frustrated with herself to rise to Maki's quick derision.
Maki pointed a finger back in the direction she had come from, jerking her head at Eli. "You. Go and help Kotori with her flower placements before she suffocates me with the smell over there. Clearly, whatever you two have been doing isn't working. I'll teach her."
"It's not her," Umi said dejectedly, "I just—"
"Yeah yeah," Maki waved a dismissive hand. "You're also the most skilled archer I know, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to be facing you in a hand to hand fight. Therefore, I refuse to believe that this talent does not reside within you." She made a shooing motion at Eli, who was standing a foot or two away from them. "I believe I told you to go away? You're putting too much pressure on her just by standing there. Go help Kotori before she comes screaming for her fiancée."
Eli shot her an uncertain glance, a silent question in her cerulean gaze as she looked back. Umi sighed again, before nodding at her once. How much worse can this session go?
"Good," Maki said the moment Eli turned away to leave, walking out onto the flat expanse of grass they had been practicing on earlier.
Unsure, but willing to make another attempt to make her unruly body obey, Umi followed her.
She faced the redhead, tense and poised for combat.
Maki laughed. "My god. Watching Eli dance has really got you convinced that you're no good, hasn't it?" She took a few steps forward, taking her wrists and shaking out her arms, snorting when she met resistance. "For starters, you need to relax. Breathe in and out through your feet."
Umi resisted the temptation to raise an eyebrow, but she did as she was told. "Fine."
"Close your eyes," Maki ordered her. "Don't frown at me, Umi. Just do it."
Even though she followed Maki's commands, focussing on her breathing and inhaling and exhaling with her feet, Umi could not resist peeking out through an eyelid.
"Stop peeking," Maki snapped immediately. "I know you've trained in hand to hand combat. You've tried fighting with your eyes closed?"
"Yes," Umi replied, unsure of what her friend was trying to accomplish with that question. "But what does that have to do with dancing? Eli just told me that this wasn't a wrestling match."
"Well, she was wrong then, wasn't she? It's been awhile since I've done karate, so you're going to have to put up with my terrible posture while we spar."
"We're sparring?" Umi asked her, startled into opening her eyes.
Maki let out an exasperated, noisy breath. "Yes. Shut up and close your eyes so you can pay attention to what we're doing."
Umi heard the sound of Maki's arm slicing through the air as she came for the side of her face and swung her right hand instinctively to sweep it aside before it could come in contact with her cheek.
"Okay," she heard the redhead say. "Keep breathing, and keep your eyes closed, but instead of blocking me, meet my hand with yours and hold it there."
Nodding, Umi concentrated on following through with every one of Maki's movements, coming into contact with her palm for the briefest heartbeat before moving onto the next motion. There was the occasional clumsy fumble as one of them would inevitable trip over their own feet, but Umi felt like the two of them were reasonably well matched when she had her eyes closed.
"Faster." Maki commanded her after a few minutes of neither of them losing their balance. "Can you anticipate me?" she challenged, tossing the words before her arm came in again, low and wide.
Umi thought about what she knew about her redheaded friend as she matched the motions, one by one. Maki was aggressive, easily flustered and refused to show any of her emotions unless she absolutely had to—a warm appreciation ignited somewhere in her chest when Umi realized that she had abandoned all of her usual pretense of dignity in order to make sure she did not make a fool of herself in her upcoming wedding.
Each incoming strike hit her hands as the two of them moved back and forth across the grass, neither of them pressing an actual attack, but refusing to give way—simply matching each other move for move.
"Good. You can open your eyes now, but don't change what you're doing. Keep breathing with your motions. Keep that fluidity you're using."
Umi opened her eyes, but did not focus her vision as she matched Maki's movements, instead taking in the entirety of her vision field around her. With a growing, relieved sense of lightness, she realized that Maki was adding in motions from the dance that Kotori had picked out, more and more of them as time went on.
For the first time, her body did not feel like uncoordinated lead as she moved. Instead, the way that Maki had introduced her to the movements allowed her limbs to feel fluid—graceful, even. Umi would have never imagined that she could apply that word to anything that did not involve the use of her bow, but it was the truth.
"There you go," Maki said with a wry smile as their hands came back together before pushing apart once more, their arms sweeping back as they stepped back in unison. The quick, light movements sped up as the dance intensified, their bodies matching the fast tempo of its climax before the motions broadened, slowing to a still and profound conclusion that signified the weight of the vows the dance promised.
They stopped, both gasping, chests heaving.
"And you say… you can't dance," Maki said between breaths, hands on her knees.
Umi offered her a hand to pull her back up. "I didn't know you could. You're a pretty good teacher." She tried not to sound surprised.
Maki laughed as she took her offered hand, still breathing hard. "I had to attend all sorts of formal parties with my parents when I was younger. Came with the profession, you know? Unfortunately, I had to perform at some of them, so I've taken some lessons before. I'll never beat Eli in a dance competition, but at least I can teach other people. You can dance, Umi," she reiterated, "you just can't think about it like it's something embarrassing. Thankfully for you, I'm not hopeless at defending myself."
Umi met her gaze as she straightened. "Thank you. Really. I thought I was going to make a fool of myself for sure."
Maki gave her a satisfied look. "Do that in a few days and everyone who thought that Sonoda Umi couldn't dance will be in for a nasty surprise. Keep practicing. You better not disappoint me, you got that? Or else Eli will never let me hear the end of it."
Smiling, Umi shook her head. "I'll do my best."
Interlude 5: In which Umi learns to never invite her friends to any social gathering again
Umi watched herself wince in the mirror as Eli accidentally pushed a hairpin against her scalp.
"Sorry," the blonde mumbled through a mouthful of decorative pins. "The lighting isn't that great in here, and it's hard to see. I'll try to be more careful."
They were standing—to be precise, Eli was standing, while she was sitting in a chair—in the dressing room of the venue that Kotori had chosen for their wedding, and Umi was currently getting her hair pinned to the top of her head by Eli, who was the only person Kotori trusted other than herself to do her hair.
She could not help but attempt to quash the butterflies that were already beginning to flutter at the bottom of her stomach. Eli noticed her expression in the mirror. "Breathe, Umi," her friend said, frowning a little. "You've been looking forward to this day forever, haven't you?"
"Yes," she replied through lips that were pressed together. "But… I just…"
Eli's reflection smiled at her as she maneuvered another pin underneath the knot that she had created with Umi's long, dark hair. "It's Kotori," she reminded her gently. "Unless you're trying to tell me you're making a mistake."
"No." The conviction in her words did not waver as she spoke the monosyllable sentence. "Whatever else has happened, this isn't a mistake. I know it."
"Good," Eli told her, twisting a lock of her hair into a braid before she slid the large, decorative ornament into place above her bangs. "There. Stand up and turn around so you can look at the back."
Shakily, Umi stood and half-turned, looking at herself in the mirror. The hair at the back of her head had been twisted into an elegant knot that rose just above the hairpiece, framed by longer locks that had been left alone on purpose.
For some reason, the sight of her hair in its intricate coiffure only made the nausea in her stomach worse. "Thank you, Eli," she said, turning to her friend. Even her voice shook a little.
Eli gave her a concerned look. "I still have to do your makeup. Can I trust you to hold yourself together for two minutes while I go get dressed?"
Umi took a few steadying, deep breaths, and tried to focus on keeping them that way. "I… think so?"
The blonde rolled her eyes at her before she darted out the door.
She concentrated on counting the movement of her lungs as she sat down again, trying to ignore the way her knees were trembling. Umi tightened the fists of both hands over her knees as she tried not to look at herself in the mirror, convinced that her reflection would send her anxiety over the edge.
Eli was back before the butterflies at the bottom of her esophagus could take over completely, in a dress that flowed down her slender body like a silvery waterfall. The glint of a flowery, jewelled hairpiece in her hair that she did not recognize caught Umi's eye as her friend went to retrieve the makeup kit. "Is that from Nozomi?" she asked, trying to divert the attention to anything but herself.
Eli did not reply, but the small smile on her face told Umi everything she needed to know.
"You should be careful," she warned her as Eli gently pressed the edge of the makeup brush to her skin with an expert hand. "Or you could be the one sitting here next."
Shaking her head, Eli snorted softly in amusement, though the smile lingered at the corners of her lips. "That's a nice thought, Umi, but no. We have plenty of time before that happens. Besides," she added, raising an eyebrow, "I thought you and Maki didn't approve of her."
It seemed so long ago that she had had that particular conversation with her friends that had she not been so nervous, she would have laughed too. Now that she knew Tokyo's district ruler in person, she almost could not remember a time that she had thought otherwise.
Kotori was right, after all. They are good for each other.
"Yes," Umi admitted truthfully. "But things have changed." She had been about to say something else—anything to take her mind off what was going to happen in less than two hours—but she was cut off by the sound of the dressing room door opening.
Maki, her red hair piled into a bun on top of her head, poked her head through the doorway, wearing a slightly disdainful expression on her face. "Is she still going through with it?" she demanded, pointing at her, but directing the question at Eli.
"I'm pretty sure," the blonde replied, casting an amused look in her direction. "I'm just finishing up her makeup. Is something wrong?"
"She better," the redhead muttered under her breath, half to herself, before raising her voice. "I just went in to see Kotori. She's getting antsy."
"Well, she won't be the only one," Eli commented briefly as she took a step back to inspect the layer of pale makeup on Umi's face. "Okay, I think you're ready. Sit," she commanded, as Umi made to get up in an effort to expend the nervous energy consuming her arms and legs. "Sit, Umi—all you're going to end up doing is tripping over your clothes."
Maki strode up to her, holding her dress above her ankles so as not to impede her movement, until they were practically face-to-face. "Listen to me, Umi. You're going to be fine, so stop sweating your new face off, okay? Actually take a deep breath and relax. You two belong together, and you know it. Who else is going to put up with your incessant anxiety and constant worrying?"
Maki's words were enough to draw a weak smile from her as Umi looked at her two friends, trying to calm her shaking to a trembling. "You're right," she said at last. "Thank you both." She paused. "I mean it. I wouldn't be standing without either of you."
She saw the corners of Maki's mouth turn up in a dry smile as Eli shook her head again. "Yeah yeah," her redheaded friend snapped impatiently. "Now quit getting all sentimental on us. Just get out there and get married."
Eli did not particularly like champagne, but the slightly alcoholic drink was all Umi would permit at her wedding as she sat in a somewhat secluded gazebo with Nozomi, watching the spectacle from afar.
She wasn't a particularly social person, and as most of the wedding guests had come from Kotori's side, she had no desire to go out and interact with people she didn't know—especially when Nozomi was with her. The district ruler had already attracted a fair amount of attention and Eli suspected that it could've been worse had the violet-haired woman not had the foresight to bring several security guards with her.
The downside to that situation was, of course, that they would never let Nozomi out of their sight, but she considered it a fairly small price to pay for the fact that no one had approached either of them directly.
"Minami-san is pretty good at planning a wedding, isn't she?" Nozomi commented as she picked up her champagne glass to sip on it.
"I'm pretty sure that's an understatement," Eli told her. "If everything didn't go exactly according to plan, Umi would've had a panic attack before she even made it to the podium."
Nozomi laughed softly. "Now that you mention it, she did look rather nervous to me."
Eli smiled at the memory of the blue-haired bounty hunter and her brunette fiancée exchanging their vows—she had never seen someone look more terrified than Umi had on what was supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life. "Unfortunately," she said, "that's the way Umi's always been. I'm sure that the crowd around them after the ceremony didn't do anything for her anxiety either."
Dinner had been mostly comprised of rowdy conversation while people milled around, trays in hand—exactly the type of atmosphere she knew her blue-haired friend hated the most. Eli had given Umi a sympathetic glance when Kotori had dragged around her new wife by the hand, introducing her to what seemed like every guest at the reception, and she had been glad to escape the majority of the crowd that was centered around the two of them.
There was a rustle of footsteps on grass behind them.
"Hey."
She looked around. "Maki?"
The redhead looked worn out, her hair coming out of the bun at the back of her head, trailing around her face in wispy ends. "You two seem to be avoiding the crowd pretty well," she commentated without preamble, sipping on the wine in the glass she'd brought with her. "Wish I could say the same for me."
Eli raised an eyebrow. "What happened to that woman you brought with you? Yazawa Nico?"
Maki grimaced. "Don't say the name out loud. She's probably looking for me right now, and trust me when I say that you don't want her to know you're here."
She frowned at her. "So if you don't like her, why did you bring her?"
"Because!" Maki flared up, "I thought it would be a nice thing for me to do, you know? Common courtesy. That's all."
"So how did your date go last time?" Nozomi suddenly spoke up from beside her, and Eli watched Maki instantly flush.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" the redhead snapped. "It wasn't a date! We just happened to have several things in common and she invited me to her café so we could chat!"
"Oh, I'm sure," Nozomi said lightly, a mischievous smile lurking at the edges of her expression as Maki scowled at her, tightening her grip on the stem of her wine glass as though she could take her anger out on it.
They were interrupted before the situation could escalate by the sound of someone tapping on a microphone. Looking around, Eli spotted Kotori's mother standing on the podium, microphone in hand. Behind her stood Umi and Kotori. Kotori looked relaxed, beaming at the crowd as she lifted a hand in a small wave. Umi, on the other hand, looked like she would've done anything to be standing anywhere but there.
"Oh for heaven's sake," Maki muttered behind her. "She's still nervous?"
"Maybe you didn't do as good of a job teaching her how to dance as you thought you did," Eli replied.
Maki snorted. "Please. She's going to be great—if she stops looking like someone is going to lynch her any second."
Ignoring Umi's facial expression, Kotori's mother went on. "Friends, family, and guests, draw near," she began, reading off a small piece of paper. "Becoming partners is about more than seeing to one another's daily needs and supporting each other. It is also about two people moving through life in balance with one another and the world around them." She paused as a hush settled over the crowd.
"This dance represents that balance, and allows for partners to demonstrate their understanding of one another, to anticipate, and to make up for each other's weaknesses so that they can bring harmony to their union." She raised a hand. "It is time for us to bear witness to that partnership."
In silence, Kotori and Umi crossed to opposite sides of the dance floor, facing away from each other as they waited for someone to start the music. Eli watched Umi shake out her shoulders underneath her formal kimono slightly and roll her neck.
Slow drums announced the beginning of the dance, but both Kotori and Umi waited for the sound of the harps before moving. The dance started off slow, ponderous as the two of them raised their arms in near unison, coming together and touching their palms together once before breaking apart.
Umi moved left while Kotori curled around her to the right as they pressed their hands together once more before stretching their arms out, the dance speeding up and the movements becoming more frenetic. Eli noticed that, unlike when Umi had been practicing with her, she had learned to compensate for her partner. Whenever Kotori's movements were just a little bit short, she lengthened hers to make up for it.
When the dance slowed once more, Umi's hands did not falter once as they never lost contact with Kotori's. The added burden of having to keep their hands clasped together did not seem to hinder her in any way as the dance became heavy, each movement poignant and meaningful.
As the dance finally ended, and Kotori and Umi came to a stop, arms around each other, eyes closed, chests heaving, Eli found herself exchanging a relieved smile with Maki.
"See," the redhead announced in a whisper. "I knew she could do it."
"I'm impressed," Eli remarked. "How did you get her to stop thinking about it like it was the worst thing that could happen to her?"
Maki shrugged as the crowd began to applaud. "It was easy. Once you stopped being around to intimidate her, all I had to do was translate it into a language she understood."
A new voice called out behind them. "Maki! There you are! Where have you been for the last half an hour? I've been looking for you forever!"
The three of them turned around to find a very short, obviously flustered black-haired woman looking at them with a pout on her face, standing just far away enough that she didn't aggravate the few security guards that were lingering in the area. Her hair was pulled up into twintails, curled gently at the ends, although Eli could discern in the darkness that her bangs were uneven underneath the decorative hairpin she wore in her hair. She suppressed her amusement at the fact that the woman was calling Maki by her first name—that was something Maki did not permit lightly, no matter how much she had tried to insist otherwise about the nature of their relationship earlier.
"I-I had to go to the bathroom," Maki stuttered as Nozomi hid a smile behind a hand.
"And you didn't think about looking for me afterwards?" the other woman demanded, placing her hands on her hips. "Why did you bring me if you were going to ditch me?"
"I'm sorry, okay?" the redhead snapped as she took a few steps away from them towards her.
Eli felt Nozomi slip her hand into hers. "I think it's time for us to leave them alone, don't you?" she whispered in her ear.
Turning back to glance at the redhead, standing with her hands balled into fists—an identical posture to the shorter woman she was confronting, Eli laughed. "Agreed," she said quietly.
As they turned to go, Eli heard the black-haired woman raise her voice. "Wait, Maki, is that Toujou-sama? Do you know her?"
"No," she heard Maki reply shortly. "I don't know who you're talking about."
"That's her! I'm telling you that's her! Do you think she'll let me perform at her next conference meeting if I go up to ask her personally?"
"Oh my," Nozomi commented as they walked away, leaving Maki and her companion behind. "She's going to have her hands full for quite some time, isn't she?"
"Strangely, I think she knows exactly what she's in for," Eli told her. "She's just pretending she doesn't at the moment."
Stopping by a small koi pond, away from the crowd, Nozomi stopped and looked back at her on the pretense of examining a late lilac blossom next to the water. "And you?" she asked. "Do you know what you're getting yourself into?"
There was a moment of silence as Eli processed that particular question. She knew exactly what had spurred the violet-haired woman to ask it, although that fact did nothing for the sudden lump at the back of her throat.
"Yes," she replied, swallowing it. "Unless there's something about all of this that you haven't told me about yet."
Nozomi let go of her hand then, taking a small step away from her until they were facing one another. The violet-haired woman slipped an arm around her neck, pulling her forward until their brows touched. "No," she answered softly, her tone suddenly unusually serious. "I would never do that." There was a pause. "I'm still… really glad we met, you know?"
A small smile twitched at the corners of her mouth as the familiar words washed over her. "Me too," Eli told her, closing her eyes when she felt Nozomi brush her lips against hers.
The rest of what she wanted to say could wait.
The Inspiration Playlist
Albums: (by release year)
Kataru More - Nanjou Yoshino
Tokyo 1/3650 - Nanjou Yoshino
N no Hako - Nanjou Yoshino
Kimi no Na Wa - RADWIMPS
Singles: (in alphabetical order - songs that are included in the above albums are not repeated down below)
A/Z - Mizuki
Anatanideawanakereba -Kasetsutouka- - Aimer
Arifureta Kanashimi no Hate - Ayase Eli (CV Nanjou Yoshino)
Ash Like Snow - The Brilliant Green
Black Bullet - fripside
BURN - Flow
Catch the Moment - LiSA
Connect - ClariS
Friends - Stephanie
Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi - UVERworld
Heaven is a Place on Earth - fripside
illuminate - Minami
Kimi ga Inai Mirai - Do As Infinity
Kimi ga Iru Kara - Sayuri
Kirameki (Acoustic ver.) - Wacci
Korekara - μ's
Kyoukara Omoide - Aimer
Life Goes On - Mika Arisaka
A Little Pain - Olivia
Meiro - Kurono Kiria (CV Nanjou Yoshino)
Mijuku DREAMER - Aqours
Mirai - GARNiDELiA
My Hands - Leona Lewis
Ninelie - Aimer ft chelly (EGOIST)
only my railgun - fripside
One more time, one more chance - Koda Kumi
Proof - angela
Qualia - UVERworld
RE: I am - Aimer
Reincarnation - Kurono Kiria (CV Nanjou Yoshino)
Saigo no Kajitsu - Maaya Sakamoto
Sakkaku CROSSROADS - BiBi
Sekai no Subete ga Teki da Toshitemo - Nitta Emi
Separation - angela
Shirushi - LiSA
simple feelings - Nanjou Yoshino
Sora Hoshi Hitotsu - Nanjou Yoshino
Trust You - Yuna Ito
Unlimited Sky - Tommy Heavenly6
Wasurenai Tame ni - Yanagi Nagi
Yeah guys I think it's pretty obvious who my favourite voice is. :^)