Characters: Kurosaki Karin, Kurosaki Yuzu, Open
Location: Coffee Shop
Date: Wednesday, January 23 - Afternoon
Rating: PG
Summary: Yuzu decides to pay her sister a visit...and find out a few things while she’s at it.
Yuzu looked at the clock. 3:24. Hanatarou had told her she could take a break around 3:30 if she wanted to. Today had been a quiet day in the infirmary. Normally Yuzu felt guilty taking breaks other than lunch, especially on the days when she was only working after school, but she could not ignore her supervisor’s words, and so, for once, she decided to take advantage of his kindness. Besides, she had been wanting to pay Karin a visit for some time now, but the only times she had been down to the coffee house were during lunch, when the place was most crowded, and so she never got the chance to say anything more than “Hello” or “How are you?” to her sister.
Yuzu glanced over at Hanatarou’s desk. The young man was not in the office right now; Yuzu did not know where he had gone, although he had left with his usual worried expression on his face, muttering something under his breath about toilets. (Sometimes Yuzu wondered if she ought to tell him that looking so worried like that all the time was not good for his health, but since he was a medical assistant, he probably already knew that.) Deciding it was okay not to wait for him to return, she scribbled a note to him and left it on his desk, then grabbed her coat and sashayed over to the elevator.
It was not raining, but it was still damp and cold outside. Clutching her coat tightly around her against the air that attempted to bite through her clothes, Yuzu hurried across the street to the main building and into the coffee shop. Just as she had predicted, the place was pretty quiet: there were only a handful of employees seated at a couple of tables by the window and two people waiting in line at the counter. Yuzu’s eyes brightened when she saw who was behind the counter. She waved to her sister, then sat down at a table near the counter.
While she waited for her sister to finish serving the customers, she took the opportunity to look around. The other employees were mingling about, and Yuzu tested her memory to see if she could remember who was who. Let’s see… the one-armed woman is Shiba-san… the dark-skinned woman is Shihouin-san… and then there’s Jinta-kun and Ururu-chan… where are Urahara-san and Tessai-san? They must be in the back room.
As soon as the second customer left, Yuzu jumped up and practically hopped over to the counter.
“Ne, Karin-chan, do you have a few minutes? I haven’t been over here to visit you in ages!” she exclaimed. "Besides, I have something I want to ask you..."