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[wip amnesty] every time i tried to write teashop hajime w the oddballs
Hajime sits on the edge of the pond as she waits for dawn to break, singing softly the tune Ritsu wanted her to learn. Her voice lingers high on the end, and from behind her, she hears a second voice, harmonizing just below. The sound dies in her mouth with surprise, and she turns to find out who it is, but after a moment relaxes. "Oh! Oh, Kanata, hello," she says, near-babbling, and Kanata, leaning against the doorframe draped in one of Rei's kimono like a jacket, smiles at her.
"it's a nice 'tune'," they say, moving with a quiet rustle of their feet on the flooring of the hallway, and reach up to pull off the fabric lying across their shoulders. Hajime finds it tucked around her body, and she tries to protest.
"im going to 'play'," Kanata tells her, patting her atop the head. "be a good girl and keep it dry."
"All... all right," she attempts, before they're up, wading down into the water. It laps at their loose pants, and they settle into a crouch to reach out a hand across the water's flicker-taut surface. From beneath the surface a single inky tentacle rises, and Kanata smiles as it curls around their fingertip. Hajime shivers and sinks into her new robe. The creatures in the pond are frightening. (So is the seaweed, when she's not expecting it, but she can at least talk to that--)
"are you 'afraid' of my 'friends'?" Kanata asks, turning star-bright green eyes on her.
"I - well - I'm sure they're friendly, but they - yes." She's babbling. Closing her mouth with a nervous purse of her lips, she reaches into her pocket for the sachet she keeps on her. Pressing her fingertips to the well-worn familiar seal, she hears the whispering calmness of lavender, smells the scent even though it's winter.
Kanata looks pensive.
----
Hajime - likes her work. The tea house where she serves tea and sings (usually not simultaneously) pays extremely well, for hours that work with her time studying and looking after her little brother and sister. She can see them off to school after cooking them breakfast, packing their lunches, and preparing dinner one of their parents merely needs to reheat. She'd been unsure about her rapidly nocturnal sleep schedule, but her boss has always been understanding. And, of course, they gave her a week off to charge a sleep amulet once, leaving her in no danger of sleep deficit. For all that Miss Eichi says she should move into the Tenshoin mansion overlooking the town and prepare tea or sing soft lullabies when the coughing fits get too bad, Hajime thinks what she has now suits her fine.
Even if sometimes she isn't sure whether her brushes with forbidden magic have gone unnoticed or not.
----
Hajime works in a tea shop, but her work is as much steeping the customers as it is the leaves of the tea. She bows her head to a customer - a recent repeat, soft-spoken and a good tipper, if not somewhat stubbornly reticent and clearly clueless about the wares of the house - and turns on her heel with teas in her mind. She's almost rounded the corner at the edge of the main dining room into the hallway back toward the kitchen when she catches the jingling sound of bells, and she stops. Turning away from the kitchen, she looks up, to find the shop's proprietor shaking their hand to make that exact noise with the bracelet around their wrist. She straightens up, pulling her empty tray closer to her chest, and steps in to touch her fingers to their pale wrist and stop the ringing. "Yes?" she asks, tilting her head.
Rei - they insisted she call them by their first name, when they'd taken her on - lifts their hand through the loose circle of her fingertips and reaches up toward what she at first thinks is her cheek, but after a moment she feels (and sees, out of the corner of her eye, in the mirror by the entryway) their fingers adjusting her hair ornament. Ah. She knows what that means.
"The man whose order I just took?" she guesses, and Rei laughs, earrings glittering against their collarbones with the motion.
"Oh, my little rabbit, you are clever. But no, not this evening. I have someone special in mind."
Hajime swallows. Their eyes have gone dark and flat, and it sends a chill down her spine. Her voice is soft when she knocks it out of her ribs. "...oh?"
"You learned that from Tenshoin, didn't you," they say, mild, and continue, without pause. "The answer is very simple - " they lift their hand from absently readjusting her hair, a weight she finds she misses, and points one of their long fingers straight up, at themself. "I need your song for myself."
She's quiet for just barely too long, eyes wide. "I - I'm not sure that would work," she admits, after a moment, and they laugh.
"Hajime, you misunderstand. I don't need to be convinced. But there is something of a - ward - on me. I'm sure you're aware of it." They wait for her nod, and smile without humor when she provides it. "It was left behind, by someone. My energy will poison Kanata if it remains fully intact. Normal humans are in danger, trying to help them, and Chiaki is away. This is the only option."
"...what about... Hibiki?"
They laugh. "Wataru's contributions are far more regular than mine, little rabbit. But they can only provide for so long on their own. Together, however, we will - manage. As we always have. Until this is all over."
"You mean the magic going out," she says, softly.
"Exactly that," they answer, as soft. She holds their gaze for another moment, weighing how much they're keeping from her. Most of it, probably. The tilt of their mouth and the sun peeking out on its way out of the sky tells her they're worried, and uncertainly, she nods.
"If you know what I need to do," she says.
"I believe I always do," they say, and she sighs.
"I need to put in that man's order before I sing anything," she says, and they pull away to let her go. Their presence lingers, tingling on her skin, when she leans into the back room, and she ignores their presumably looming presence to look around for Tomoya. "...Tomoya?" she calls, confused, when she doesn't see him.
"Ah - Hajime?" Her childhood friend leans out of the side room where the big sink is, and she juggles her belongings to hold up the order sheet she'd written on and wiggle it at him. "Mr. Sakuma needs you," he guesses.
She nods. "The teapots will take care of the tea for you," she says, gesturing at them with the order, and hums a note to send the paper flying to the right bin. "If you could run this order out... I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Don't be hasty, little rabbit," Rei says, filling the doorway. "I've sent for young Nito, and Ritsu will arrive at dusk, I'm told."
"Ah, Mr. Sakuma," Tomoya says. "O-Okay! I'll do my best until Niichan gets here!"
"I knew I could count on you, Mashiro," Rei says, leaving the doorway to cross the kitchen toward the sliding door that opened into the house attached to the shop. Tugging at her apron strings, Hajime scurries after them, setting her tray down on the counter for Tomoya. She trills a sequence of notes, running her palm over the stone inset into the top, and watches it light up.
"If you tell it to 'stay', it'll float wherever you leave it," she reminds him, as she follows Rei into the house they share with the other neighborhood outcasts - with their friends. (Well. "Friends", if Eichi's opinions are even half right.)
The house is unnaturally still in a way she's never seen it. Rei turns down a familiar corridor to the hall looking out onto the courtyard warded so powerfully the air around it ripples when the sun breaks through the trees or the moon is high and full above it, where a shock of bright blue hair cuts through the water of the fountain at the center. As they step into the ward, she realizes that the house is so still because the yard's ward has locked in the noises of Wataru Hibiki speaking. They turn from the garden, looking every inch a housewife in a gardening apron and strawberry print gloves. (She knows they're strawberry, because she bought them.) A crown of butterflies flutter at the tip of their head, and they look wan, but it doesn't seem to stop them any more than usual.
"Rei! And the little miss rabbit, hello! It is I, your Wataru Hibiki."
"Good evening," Hajime says, looking between them and the head slowly cutting through the water. Low-angled bright green eyes open, and she bows to Kanata as they sit up out of the water, leaning forward onto the edge of the fountain.
"Hajime," they say, quiet. "Why are you here?" They blink wide at her. They sound half-asleep, but there's too much energy. Like Ritsu when he smells a chance to put his mouth on a pretty girl's neck so Mao will drag him into his arms, instead. She clutches her hands together.
"Rei--Rei asked me to come," she says, ignoring the shiver that spreads over her shoulders in favor of stealing a glance at Rei themself. Perhaps she shouldn't have.
"it's a nice 'tune'," they say, moving with a quiet rustle of their feet on the flooring of the hallway, and reach up to pull off the fabric lying across their shoulders. Hajime finds it tucked around her body, and she tries to protest.
"im going to 'play'," Kanata tells her, patting her atop the head. "be a good girl and keep it dry."
"All... all right," she attempts, before they're up, wading down into the water. It laps at their loose pants, and they settle into a crouch to reach out a hand across the water's flicker-taut surface. From beneath the surface a single inky tentacle rises, and Kanata smiles as it curls around their fingertip. Hajime shivers and sinks into her new robe. The creatures in the pond are frightening. (So is the seaweed, when she's not expecting it, but she can at least talk to that--)
"are you 'afraid' of my 'friends'?" Kanata asks, turning star-bright green eyes on her.
"I - well - I'm sure they're friendly, but they - yes." She's babbling. Closing her mouth with a nervous purse of her lips, she reaches into her pocket for the sachet she keeps on her. Pressing her fingertips to the well-worn familiar seal, she hears the whispering calmness of lavender, smells the scent even though it's winter.
Kanata looks pensive.
----
Hajime - likes her work. The tea house where she serves tea and sings (usually not simultaneously) pays extremely well, for hours that work with her time studying and looking after her little brother and sister. She can see them off to school after cooking them breakfast, packing their lunches, and preparing dinner one of their parents merely needs to reheat. She'd been unsure about her rapidly nocturnal sleep schedule, but her boss has always been understanding. And, of course, they gave her a week off to charge a sleep amulet once, leaving her in no danger of sleep deficit. For all that Miss Eichi says she should move into the Tenshoin mansion overlooking the town and prepare tea or sing soft lullabies when the coughing fits get too bad, Hajime thinks what she has now suits her fine.
Even if sometimes she isn't sure whether her brushes with forbidden magic have gone unnoticed or not.
----
Hajime works in a tea shop, but her work is as much steeping the customers as it is the leaves of the tea. She bows her head to a customer - a recent repeat, soft-spoken and a good tipper, if not somewhat stubbornly reticent and clearly clueless about the wares of the house - and turns on her heel with teas in her mind. She's almost rounded the corner at the edge of the main dining room into the hallway back toward the kitchen when she catches the jingling sound of bells, and she stops. Turning away from the kitchen, she looks up, to find the shop's proprietor shaking their hand to make that exact noise with the bracelet around their wrist. She straightens up, pulling her empty tray closer to her chest, and steps in to touch her fingers to their pale wrist and stop the ringing. "Yes?" she asks, tilting her head.
Rei - they insisted she call them by their first name, when they'd taken her on - lifts their hand through the loose circle of her fingertips and reaches up toward what she at first thinks is her cheek, but after a moment she feels (and sees, out of the corner of her eye, in the mirror by the entryway) their fingers adjusting her hair ornament. Ah. She knows what that means.
"The man whose order I just took?" she guesses, and Rei laughs, earrings glittering against their collarbones with the motion.
"Oh, my little rabbit, you are clever. But no, not this evening. I have someone special in mind."
Hajime swallows. Their eyes have gone dark and flat, and it sends a chill down her spine. Her voice is soft when she knocks it out of her ribs. "...oh?"
"You learned that from Tenshoin, didn't you," they say, mild, and continue, without pause. "The answer is very simple - " they lift their hand from absently readjusting her hair, a weight she finds she misses, and points one of their long fingers straight up, at themself. "I need your song for myself."
She's quiet for just barely too long, eyes wide. "I - I'm not sure that would work," she admits, after a moment, and they laugh.
"Hajime, you misunderstand. I don't need to be convinced. But there is something of a - ward - on me. I'm sure you're aware of it." They wait for her nod, and smile without humor when she provides it. "It was left behind, by someone. My energy will poison Kanata if it remains fully intact. Normal humans are in danger, trying to help them, and Chiaki is away. This is the only option."
"...what about... Hibiki?"
They laugh. "Wataru's contributions are far more regular than mine, little rabbit. But they can only provide for so long on their own. Together, however, we will - manage. As we always have. Until this is all over."
"You mean the magic going out," she says, softly.
"Exactly that," they answer, as soft. She holds their gaze for another moment, weighing how much they're keeping from her. Most of it, probably. The tilt of their mouth and the sun peeking out on its way out of the sky tells her they're worried, and uncertainly, she nods.
"If you know what I need to do," she says.
"I believe I always do," they say, and she sighs.
"I need to put in that man's order before I sing anything," she says, and they pull away to let her go. Their presence lingers, tingling on her skin, when she leans into the back room, and she ignores their presumably looming presence to look around for Tomoya. "...Tomoya?" she calls, confused, when she doesn't see him.
"Ah - Hajime?" Her childhood friend leans out of the side room where the big sink is, and she juggles her belongings to hold up the order sheet she'd written on and wiggle it at him. "Mr. Sakuma needs you," he guesses.
She nods. "The teapots will take care of the tea for you," she says, gesturing at them with the order, and hums a note to send the paper flying to the right bin. "If you could run this order out... I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Don't be hasty, little rabbit," Rei says, filling the doorway. "I've sent for young Nito, and Ritsu will arrive at dusk, I'm told."
"Ah, Mr. Sakuma," Tomoya says. "O-Okay! I'll do my best until Niichan gets here!"
"I knew I could count on you, Mashiro," Rei says, leaving the doorway to cross the kitchen toward the sliding door that opened into the house attached to the shop. Tugging at her apron strings, Hajime scurries after them, setting her tray down on the counter for Tomoya. She trills a sequence of notes, running her palm over the stone inset into the top, and watches it light up.
"If you tell it to 'stay', it'll float wherever you leave it," she reminds him, as she follows Rei into the house they share with the other neighborhood outcasts - with their friends. (Well. "Friends", if Eichi's opinions are even half right.)
The house is unnaturally still in a way she's never seen it. Rei turns down a familiar corridor to the hall looking out onto the courtyard warded so powerfully the air around it ripples when the sun breaks through the trees or the moon is high and full above it, where a shock of bright blue hair cuts through the water of the fountain at the center. As they step into the ward, she realizes that the house is so still because the yard's ward has locked in the noises of Wataru Hibiki speaking. They turn from the garden, looking every inch a housewife in a gardening apron and strawberry print gloves. (She knows they're strawberry, because she bought them.) A crown of butterflies flutter at the tip of their head, and they look wan, but it doesn't seem to stop them any more than usual.
"Rei! And the little miss rabbit, hello! It is I, your Wataru Hibiki."
"Good evening," Hajime says, looking between them and the head slowly cutting through the water. Low-angled bright green eyes open, and she bows to Kanata as they sit up out of the water, leaning forward onto the edge of the fountain.
"Hajime," they say, quiet. "Why are you here?" They blink wide at her. They sound half-asleep, but there's too much energy. Like Ritsu when he smells a chance to put his mouth on a pretty girl's neck so Mao will drag him into his arms, instead. She clutches her hands together.
"Rei--Rei asked me to come," she says, ignoring the shiver that spreads over her shoulders in favor of stealing a glance at Rei themself. Perhaps she shouldn't have.