A/N: The last chapter might have been silly and senseless, but so is most comedy shows that do episodes or scenes that involves classic comedic series. But we're past that now. Teams PASM and CPER are now on another mission. One that Marina never thought she would be apart of.
Aria belongs to my friend Aria.
Chapter 73: Latte Love
Mid-November.
Teams PASM and CPER are on their way for a mission they're assigned to in Atlas. Now, they are resting for the day at Argus.
Marina is alone sleeping in her room at the inn, tossing and turning while moaning in panic sweat. Marina's eyes tighten in fear and pain. In her dream, Marina sees herself as a Maid Waitress, serving the customers with their drinks and meals. While she does, the customers are giving her looks and flirtting with her, all of which Marina only answers back with a "why thank you, master."
The scenery fades and time skips up to the point where Marina is with a drunk-passed-out customer. A Barista girl with long black hair in a ponytail is standing beside her. "Marina, this is a bad idea. You know we let the authorities handle this."
Maid Marina looks back at her with a smile. "I don't mind, Yudori. It's only a block away, plus it's my last day. What's the harm?"
Marina watches herself help the customer stand. "No! Don't do it!"
In the real world, Marina is still tossing and turning, her moans now turning into her sleep talking saying: "Don't. It's a trap."
Back in the dream, Marina watches herself taking the unconscious customer to a dark ally, where on the walls are faces of Vanessa and her wicked smile. Her voice filling the air as if echoing inside Marina's head. "Enjoy your freedom, Slave!" The word 'slave' echoes, with the last one happening at the moment Dream Marina gets hit in the back of the head and falls. The moment Dream Marina hits the ground, the whole scene shatters, leaving Marina alone in the dark void. In the void, an image of Mashika appears, the Mashika who was a slave to the Agency. Chained up and suffering from the effects of the Lover's Poison. Then an image of the enslaved Elizabeth showed up beside Mashika. Marina is horrified by the sight, but it grows worse when she turns and sees the young Patrick witnessing the death of Saurfang, and Rufus gives the order to the men who hold the boy in place: "Lock him up in the Dark Cell!" And the man drags the boy away.
Alone in the darkness once more, chains pierce out of the darkness and shackles Marina. Bound and helpless. Even worse, her clothes start fading. This worries Marina, but it grows even worse when she looks ahead to find countless Shadow Silhouettes of men creeping on her with their insane chuckles, arms reaching out to grab her. Marina can only panic as the hands grow closer and Vanessa's voice once again echoes: "You all thought that this was over, but it never will be!" Vanessa then suddenly appears right in front of Marina, grabbing her face, staring down at the professor's panicked face, then lends into her ear and whispers: "One day, I will reclaim you!"
Then Marina screams and jumps her upper body up. "NO!" Marina sweats and pants heavily like crazy. She sits in bed, frozen in this panic. She grabs her chest hard, feeling her heart pounding like a jackrabbit. Marina tries to calm down, realizing she's back in the real world, but can't. The horrifying images and voices from her nightmare still haunt her.
Marina then buries her face in her hands. She wants to get up to do anything. Get some fresh air. Splash some water on her face. But she can't walk.
Just then, there's a knock on the door. Marina doesn't react to it, and after a moment of silence, the door opens. Mashika walks in. "Marina?" Marina doesn't look at Mashika. She just sits frozen on her bed. "You all right, Love?"
"I'm...fine." Marina says in a hollow tone.
Mashika walks towards her until she's sitting on the side of the bed. "Are you sure? You seem like you've seen a ghost." Marina doesn't say anything, just looks away in sorrow. "Marina, you've been having nightmares again these past few weeks. If you don't want to talk about it, I understand. But it might help if you do, Love."
Marina lets out a deep sigh before answering. "It's just...what the Vanessa woman said." Marina swallows hard before she continues, but from this point on, she struggles to get the words out. "I-I just c-can't...can't stop thinking about what she said." Tears start building up in Marina's eyes. "I-I still remember...when they first abducted me...W-when I was their slave...Violated. A-abused...E-even poisoned...By their drug. S-she...She said I was gonna...b-be..." Finally, the tears escape her eyes, and Marina speaks in between her sobs. "I-I...don't want that...to happen again...I...I-I'm scared."
Mashika doesn't say anything as Marina cries. After a moment, Mashika then puts her hands on Marina's face. She makes Marina look right at her, right into her eyes. Marina is surprised, even when her eyes are still crying. Mashika is offering Marina a soft smile. Marina can feel herself blushing a little, witnessing Mashika's beauty in the dark moonlight.
"That will never happen." Mashika says in a calm whisper. Mashika wipes the tears from Marina's face with her thumbs. "You have the best students and huntsman here. Even me. No matter what happens, no matter who or what comes at us, we will protect you. I'll protect you." Mashika leans in closer to Marina's face. Marina feels nervous, thinking she's coming in for a kiss, but that changes when Mashika places Marina's head on her shoulder and wraps her arms around Marina. "That's a promise."
Marina feels flustered as she feels Mashika's warm embrace, and then her body relaxes as she lets out a sigh. Marina moves her arms to return a hug, but stops after a moment of hesitation, deciding not to. Marina just lets herself enjoy the warmth and safety of Mashika's embrace.
The two of them remain this way for a long while. Finally, Mashika checks on Marina to find her peacefully sleeping. Mashika can't help but giggle. She then lays Marina back on the bed, pulling the cover over her body.
Mashika looks at the sleeping Marina as she gently strokes her hair. "Sweet dreams, Love." Mashika then leaves the room, closing the door behind her. All alone in the dark, as she is sleeping peacefully, Marina lets out a relief exhale as she smiles.
The next morning, all of Teams PASM and CPER are waiting outside of the Inn until Marina and Mashika finally arrived.
"Professor Rishima, good morning." Clawdia says. "Are mew doing okay? We were hearing screams from mew-r room."
Marina smiles. "I'm fine, Miss Stone. I was just having a bad dream." Marina looks up at Mashika. "But Mashika paid me a visit and helped cheer me up."
Hearing that just has Patrick raise his eyebrow in suspicion, he even thinks back during their little "date" on his Birthday, where she exposed her feelings for Mashika at that clothing store. But he just dismisses it. "If we're all here now, can we get moving?"
"Of course. We should board an airship to Atlas." Mashika pushes Marina towards the airport with both teams following them. Once they explain everything to the obnoxiously annoying Caroline Cordovin, they are able to rent an airship. Mashika pilots the airship with Marina as her co-pilot. "We should be arriving at Atlas in a few hours." Mashika tells everyone on board.
Teams PASM and CPER are doing their best to keep themselves occupied. Selena is playing a game on her Snitch Device. Clawdia and Peter are watching a video on their Scrolls. Patrick is just sitting in his seat just waiting for this trip to be over with. Marlene is drawing up some blueprints for a personal project. Earnest is reading a book.
And lastly, Aria and Rayla are practicing Sign Language. Rayla speaks while Aria tries to understand what she's saying. "How. Are. You...Doing?"
"Very good, Mistress Aria." Rayla says.
Aria claps with excitement. "Oh, goodie. I think I'm getting the hang of this." Aria then speaks in sign language but says what she's trying to say. "I'm. Doing. Fine."
Rayla only laughs, leaving Aria confused. "You said 'Dry doing hobby.'" Aria makes a serious frowny face. "Now, now, don't beat yourself up about it, Mistress. It just takes time to learn."
While everyone was having their moments, Mashika decided to start up a conversation with Marina. "So, Marina, we're going to meet our client at Latte Love. Must be thrilled to head back to the place you worked with."
"To be honest, I'm nervous. I haven't been there ever since that day." Marina says.
"Don't be nervous, I'm sure everyone will be happy to see you." Mashika says.
Soon enough, the airship arrives in Atlas. When the airship lands, the whole group makes their way across the city. Marina feels uncomfortable the whole time. It feels like forever since she's been in this part of the city. The only time she's been into Atlas since her abduction was when Patrick went berserk and she stayed at the headquarters.
They finally arrived at the Latte Love Cafe. Only it wasn't something that they were expecting. There's a long line just outside of the cafe, and most of the customers seem pretty upset. Several of them complaining about how long it's taking for them to go inside and be seated.
"What's going on?" Selena asks.
"I don't know. I've never seen a waiting line like this." Marina says.
"Let's go inside, maybe we'll find out." Mashika says.
Teams PASM and CPER head inside, only to earn themselves spiteful comments from the waiting customers yelling at them for 'cutting in line'. They all go inside to find the place packed, and several customers are complaining loudly. Marina has never seen the place being this chaotic. It worries her. What's more, there's only a single Barista Girl rushing through tables, trying to deliver drinks or orders. Several of the customers complain to her about not getting their stuff but each time, she apologizes to them.
The Barista Girl rushes over to the entrance to quickly speak to the "new customers" without even looking at them, while at the same time, she's grabbing a tray and filling it with dirty dishes. "Welcome to Latte Love. Sorry, but you'll have to wait for a table."
The girl dashes off, but... "Yudori!" The girl comes to a sudden halt, shocked at not only hearing her name but being called by a familiar voice. Yudori turns to see the teams, but her focus is solely Marina. Marina nervously waves a hand. "H-Hey there."
Yudori lets out a gasp as she mindlessly drops the tray, all the dashes breaking from the impact. Yudori doesn't say anything, just stands there frozen in place. The kitchen door bursts open, and an adult woman rushes out. "Yudori? What happened?! I heard a loud noise and-" The woman is speechless as she sees who arrived at the cafe. "I...I don't believe it...Marina?"
"H-Hey there, Miss Hart." Marina nervously says.
Tears are instantly forming and pouring from the woman's eyes. She rushes to Marina and hugs her, much to Marina's surprise. "You're here! You're alive!"
Marina doesn't say anything, and the rest of her team is speechlessly confused. "We've heard about what happened! That you were abducted." Yudori says. "We looked everywhere for you. We thought...We thought you were gone."
"I-I'm sorry." Marina says. The woman lets go of Marina. "A lot has happened and I guess I forgot to reach out to you all. Anyways, what's going on Miss Hart? Why is this place so crowded?" Marina looks around. "And where's everyone else?"
"Ah, right...You see-" She's suddenly cut off when the customers start complaining loudly, some even threatening to leave. The woman then turns to the crowd and shouts at them. "I'm sorry, okay! We're very shorthanded and we're doing our best! Please! Just be patient!" She then rushes back to the kitchen.
Yudori lets out a sigh as she watches the woman leave. "It's been a stressful day for us all." Yudori tells Marina. "Today's our busiest day and all of the other maids became abducted."
Mashika and Marina are surprised to hear that. "Abducted?" Mashika asks.
"What's more is that the cooks called in sick at the last minute. With all these customers, Manager and I are doing our best to handle things." Yudori explains.
"Oh dear." Selena steps forward. "Please, let us help out."
Yudori is surprised to hear that. "Really? Are you sure?"
Mashika nods. "We heard how well you all treated Marina during her hard times, allow us to repay that favor." Patrick's against the idea but knows there's no getting out of it.
Yudori smiles and nods.
They all divided up the workload. Yudori has Mashika and Clawdia go to the changing room to dress up and help out with the Waitressing. Rayla's helping out as well but she doesn't need to change given she's already dressed as a maid. Marina wanted to help out with the waitressing like she used to but couldn't cause of her condition. So Yudori has Marina handling the bar, and Patrick helping her out. Selena was offered a Waitressing job but she says she has an 'alternative method' and left. Everyone else is helping the manager with the kitchen.
With everything set, Yudori explains to the customers that help has arrived and hopefully, things will begin to settle down. However, they don't believe it and start raging. But all that changes when the doors burst open, and a certain teen idol announces her arrival.
"Hello, Latte Love! Selena Akimura enters the stage!" Selena shouts, all dressed up in her girly idol image.
All the customers look at Selena and are astonished with excitement. Meanwhile, Patrick just facepalms. "Oh, good grief. What is she thinking?" Marina nervously laughs. She enjoys Selena trying to brighten things up but can't deny this is a risky move.
Selena walks across the cafe to the karaoke stage. When up on stage, Selena grabs a microphone. "I have heard from a friend of mine this cafe's in bad shape, so I've come here to bring some joy to its hungry customers." Selena lets out a chuckle with a love wink, and the audience all lets out a shocked gasp. As Selena does a song performance, Marina and Patrick take notice of the crowd and how calm they become. Some even say "This is so worth a 2 hour wait."
"Well, it seems Miss Akimura managed to tame the crowd." Marina says.
"An 'idol's Charm' I suppose." Patrick looks at the line he and Marina have. "Should we really be doing this?"
"It'll be fine, Hon. I did use to help out with the bar when short-handed." Marina starts pouring a drink into the shaker. "I only did it a few times and it's been so long. So, I may be a bit rusty." Marina closes the shaker and starts shaking it, with excellent rhythm then giving it a flip toss and catching it professionally. Then she pours the drink into a glass and slides it over to the customer.
"Yeah, you're pretty rusty all right." Patrick says sarcastically.
Marina goes on with the drinks, she looks ahead and lets out a shocked gasp, her face blushing, even her hand moving far off to the right as she's pouring the drink, now spilling on the counter.
Mashika is walking out, all dressed up in a maid uniform. Put on a cheerful personality. The way Marina sees her is just as how she saw her in that dress during that date, only she can't help but feel like this is far more beautiful given the charming cuteness of a maid's outfit. Marina even goes deaf as something goes muffled. But it does grow louder and louder, until the last one pierces through her fantasies.
"EARTH TO MARINA RISHIMA!" Patrick shouts, and it startles Marina back into reality. The bottle goes flying out of Marina's hand, and Patrick manages to catch it as it falls. Marina noticed she was messing up and was pouring the drink on the counter. "Honestly, you are damn hopeless, woman."
Marina lets out an embarrassed groan. Yudori watches the whole thing while carrying a tray, feeling confused at Marina's sudden behavior, but returns to her job Hearing a customer shouting at her for their drinks.
The day goes on, and soon enough they are finishing up serving their customers faster than they receive more. But they still have a lot to work with. At least Selena's surprise concert is keeping the customers tame. During the whole time, Marina keeps getting distracted seeing Mashika wearing a Maid's Uniform. For some moment she's blushing seeing her beauty. However, she does feel worried and upset seeing the customers flirting with her. Patrick keeps trying to snap her out of it, while Yudori takes constant notice of Marina's behavior towards Mashika.
By sunset, things have finally settled down. There are only about three tables of customers left. Rayla is able to handle serving them by herself, leaving everyone else to take a break.
"Man! That was brutal!" Clawdia says. "I gotta give props to Rayla and mew, Miss Sapphire. Mew both make waitressing so easy."
"Well, I've had years of experience, and I'm sure Rayla's just comes naturally from her job as a Maid." Marina says.
"I'm just glad we were able to keep everything under control." Selena says.
"Yeah, but I think you did most of the work, Selena Akimura." Mashika says. Selena nervously laughs while Patrick facepalms. He still thinks it's a bad idea for Selena to risk her identity.
"I still can't believe you guys know Selena Akimura." Yudori says. "Must be pretty awesome being a Huntsman."
And just like that, Aria bursts right out of the kitchen, panting with excitement. Everyone looks at her while Aria has her eyes set on Selena. "I-I-I...I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Everyone's confused by her sudden behavior, and then she speaks it. "S-S-Selena Akimura! H-here! And now!" And now everyone feels awkward, they forgot Aria is kept in the dark about Selena's identity. Aria lets out a bunch of unintelligible stuttering words until finally the pressure of the overwhelming excitement as well as nervousness causes Aria to faint.
Everyone looks at Aria, but not with concern. Patrick then turns his attention to Selena. "Should we tell her?"
"Uh...M-maybe later. But I guess I should 'get going'." Selena says.
Late at night, the store is mostly empty. As Selena said, she left the cafe to go change back into Sherry Farron. By then, Aria came to and they explained that Selena had left. With the cafe empty, Yudori and the manager sit with everyone.
"I apologize for the way today's been. I just didn't expect for you all to be here so soon." The manager says.
"So you're the one who put out the mission request." Mashika says.
The manager nods. "My name is Ayame Hart. I'm the manager and owner of Latte Love. And I'm assuming she told you, but I'm Marina's Guardian, at least when she was a teenager."
"She didn't say that, but we pretty much figured it out." Patrick says.
"Right. Speaking of which." Ayame turns her attention to Marina. "I can't believe you're here Marina."
"I agree, we all thought you were gone. Manager was really upset." Yudori says.
Marina looks down in shame. "I-I'm sorry. I should have reached out to you but, a lot has happened I guess I just forgot." Marina looks up and turns her attention towards Mashika and Patrick. "But, I-I have Mashika and Patrick to thank. They were the ones who rescued me and took care of me afterwards."
Yudori smiles while looking at Patrick. Ayame does a respectful bow. "Thank you, Mashika and Patrick for taking care of Marina."
"It was nothing. We're just doing our duties as a Huntress and student." Mashika says.
"By the way, Marina. I've noticed you're on a wheelchair." Yudori says. "Did something happened? ..." Yudori starts to go worried. "D-did those...Abductors...?"
"Oh, no. It's nothing like that. I've lost my ability to walk, and the cause of it was...from something different." Patrick can only look down, tightening his hand on his knee. "But I am trying to get back on my feet with some Physical Therapy. It's just a slow process."
Ayame chuckles. "Typical Marina. Having a frail body condition. It's actually a mystery how it is your body didn't break this much when your father tortured you." Marina looks saddened hearing that. Amaye takes notice of Marina's expression. "Oh? Did I bring up some bad memories about him?"
"I-It's not that, Miss Hart. It's just..." Marina doesn't say anything, but Mashika finishes for her.
"It's a long story, but Marina and her father patched things up...In a way." This only confuses Ayame and Yudori. Mashika then clears her throat. "Anyways. You called us here for a mission?"
"Right, of course. With everything that's happened, I nearly forgot." Ayame says. "Listen closely, 'cause this is going to be a long story."