Re-post
;___; I have so much writing to do. If you see me online, slap me and tell me to get to work. (I will get to comments when I can, I swear.)
In other news, this was my story from the short-story contest over at Ohmiya. You'll have to page back a few to find all the entries but there was some SERIOUS awesome there. I wrote MINE in two hours and I'm surprised it even got a vote and I don't think I did vintage_belle's prompt justice. I might try to write something with this prompt again sometime when I am not so swamped. (On the plus side for ME is that honooko did a flail-worthy cute fic with one of the prompts that I left. Find it over at abscondpress. I LOVE HER.)
Prompt: Ohno the stock broker meets girl!otaku!Nino at a maid café
The Girl She Isn't
Sweet Maid Café Wish was not the sort of place that Ohno regularly frequented. In fact, if he hadn't been out with Aiba and Jun he probably wouldn't have even gone in at all. But Aiba was curious and Ohno was interested in Aiba's curiosity and they were both senior to Jun and so Jun had no choice.
"Welcome home, Master," a maid greeted them at the door, bowing deeply. She was dressed in a typical French maid's costume, with lacy cuffs at her wrists. Her name tag (above a very nice set of breasts) said 'Sweet Heart'. Her long hair swung forward, and when she straightened it brushed against the pink of her cheeks in little wisps and curls in a very becoming fashion.
"Uh," said Ohno, blinking and bowing back.
"Cool!" said Aiba.
"Sorry," apologized Jun.
Sweet Heart giggled, covering it with a delicate, long fingered hand. "If Master would like to come this way?" she said sweetly and curtseyed before gesturing elegantly toward a table.
Ohno looked at his co-workers and followed them after the girl, glancing around the café as he did. It looked to be fairly upscale, clean and polished and rather luxurious. There were a few other maids attending to customers. One man was being fed by 'his' maid, another maid was having her picture taken nearby. Two maids were leading another group of men into a private room and one maid was setting drinks at a table and talking animatedly with the men sitting there.
"A list of our offerings for Master." The maid's voice brought Ohno's attention back to his own particular surroundings and he realized that he'd taken a seat at a small table without noticing. Their maid was holding out a very elegant menu card to Aiba.
"You hand feed people?" Aiba exclaimed delightedly. "Cool!"
Jun took the menu card away. "You're not making her hand feed you."
"But-"
The maid giggled again. "If Master would like to take a moment, Sweet Heart will fetch Master a hand towel," she said politely before executing another curtsey and hurrying back to the back room.
Ohno noticed that the maid who had been talking to her customer had disappeared. "I have to go to the toilet," he announced. He felt a little uncomfortable in the café the goal of which was to give allusion to a lifestyle rich enough to call a maid and a little embarrassed, as well. He wanted to get good and drunk if he had to endure it.
Stepping out of the restroom he took a moment to orient himself and heard the voice of Sweet Heart saying "-please, please, don't get fired."
"I'm not going to get fired," said another voice, high and clear and pleasant. "It's not my fault if I know more about Dragon Quest than those idiots."
"I know!" said Sweet Heart. "But please don't tell them that! I can't do this job without you here and if you get fired for calling the customers idiots and showing them up at their favorite games-"
Curious, Ohno peeked around the corner where the voices were coming from and saw his maid standing with the maid who had been chatting. The second maid had her arms around Sweet Heart's shoulders and their foreheads were tipped together. She was, Ohno realized, tiny. She was shorter even than he was (a rarity which never really bothered Ohno at all) and delicate, all slender bones and big eyes and with dark hair that fell sleekly to just above her shoulders.
"Relax, I'm not going to get fired. I'll just keep being rude and when they call me on it, I'll cry. They'll like that."
Sweet Heart did not look reassured. "It's not that sort of café," she protested with quiet vigor.
"He'll still like it," said the other maid. "Don't worry about it. Worry about the enthusiastic guy at your table instead. If he tries to make you do anything you don't want to do let him pay you for it and then signal me and I'll give him the pervert treatment, okay?"
"You can't," wailed Sweet Heart.
Ohno went back to his seat.
"Oh-chan," Aiba beamed. "Did you know that they'll kneel down and stir the cream into your coffee for you?"
"Towels for you, Master?" said Sweet Heart. Her smile looked a little forced.
Ohno took his with a quiet thanks.
"We want coffee," Aiba said. "With cream and sugar and…"
"Black," Ohno interrupted. "We'll all drink it black."
Aiba looked betrayed.
Jun looked surprised but thankful.
Their maid looked at the other table where the other maid had started to cry. "Oh, no," she whispered.
"You should go comfort her!" Aiba said.
"He means it," Ohno said to the maid softly as Jun slapped the back of Aiba's head. "Aiba can't stand sad things."
Sweet Heart looked surprised and then smiled and Ohno realized that all her giggles before had been fake. "If Master will excuse me," she said and went to collect her friend. "Oh, my! Sweet Honey, whatever is the matter?" she cried in sweet concern.
Her friend, Honey, collapsed against her. "I upset Master!" she sobbed. Her eyes were wet and her face was crumpled and she looked devastated.
She was, Ohno decided, either a wonderful actress or a perfect brat.
Ohno became a regular customer at Sweet Maid Café Wish after that. He's careful not to ask any of the maids anything about their personal lives or the personal lives of the others who worked there but it quickly became known that the reason he was there was either Sweet Heart or Sweet Honey. One of them was almost always 'his' maid when he came in.
"Master shouldn't lead Sweet Shimmer on so," Honey told him one day, placing a piece of chocolate cake on his table.
"Eh?" said Ohno, blinking at her and then over at Shimmer. Shimmer was even tinier than Honey, with round cheeks and an adorable smile. "She's just a little girl, isn't she?" he asked. She looked like a grade-schooler to him and he sort of wanted to pat her on the head like a puppy.
Honey dipped her head and smiled. "Sweet Shimmer thinks the sun rises and sets on Master's word."
It took a moment for that to processes fully. "EH?!" He nearly choked on his cake. "Tell her to stop! Please! I'm just…I'm only…I'm Satoshi!"
Sweet Heart turned up at the corner of his table. "Ne, Sweet Honey," she said in a cute voice, "Master wants to take a picture of me and I thought we could take one together since we're special friends!"
Honey bowed to him. "If Master doesn't mind…?"
He never minded. The maids got paid extra for things like that. "Of course," he told her.
She bowed and then skipped over to the register. "Master would like Sweet Shimmer to see to his needs while Sweet Heart and I take a picture with Master!' she caroled.
Sweet Shimmer nearly tripped over herself getting to his table side.
Ohno kept his eyes trained on where Honey and Heart were posing together, Heart's face pressed against Honey's dark, dark hair, nearly obscured and Ohno knew for a fact that he had a better angle to see her face than the guy taking the picture did.
They always posed like that. He wanted to ask why Heart felt the need to hide her face but he knew better.
"Is there anything I can do for Master?" Shimmer asked breathlessly, excitedly.
"Uh." Ohno's eyes darted around the room. "Uh. G-go take a picture with Honey?" he asked.
Shimmer sparkled at him.
He all but ran after tossing the money for the photo down on the table, managing to get out of the shop before the camera flashed.
There were times, however, when he didn't need to know things about the maids to know that something was going on. Especially when it involved Honey smiling sweetly at a whole table full of men, her tray held against her chest by crossed arms, Heart fluttering nervously beside her.
He bit his lip and then crossed to the register where Mistress Sweet Song was standing. "I-" he took a deep breath. "I want Honey and Heart in a private room, please." He didn't know what went on in private rooms but he knew that he didn't like what they were doing at that table.
"Right away, young Master," said the shop owner, bowing him through a door before leaving to fetch the girls.
The room was small, filled with a sofa, a low table, and a rack of costumes that went from really strange to really revealing. "Oh, no," he muttered.
"Master?" said Heart's voice.
He hadn't realized that the door had opened. "This room…" he said, gesturing to the costume rack with a wince.
"Whatever Master wishes," said Honey, shutting the door behind herself and Heart with a loud and ominous click.
Ohno backed away from her and stumbled, landing to sit heavily on the couch. "It's been a rough day," he said quickly, holding up his hands. He was going to assume that whatever was going on out in the other room had been rough, at any rate. "I just didn't want to be out there with all of those guys."
It must have been the right thing to say because both Honey and Heart seemed to relax infinitesimally. "Poor Master," said Heart, coming to sit beside him. "The stock market was really nasty today for him."
…he hadn't been aware that he'd ever mentioned his profession. "Huh?"
Honey swished her skirt and sat down on Ohno's other side. "Master's kouhai, Master Aiba and Master Matsumoto like to talk about their work when they arrive home," she said. "They talk about Master Ohno a lot because he is their respected senior."
Heart blushed. "Sweet Heart is very interested in Master's business," she said. "It is a fascinating job, isn't it, Master?"
"I…guess so?" Ohno said. He never really thought about his job. It wasn't a bad job and it could be interesting but mostly he just did it.
His answer seemed to make Heart blush even more darkly and a prolonged silence fell on the room. "Perhaps Master wants a massage?" Heart said, breaking the silence.
If he hadn't been sitting between the two girls, Ohno would have scrambled away. "No. No, it's fine! We can…we can just…sit."
"Maybe Master would like to see a magic trick?" Honey asked. She held up a deck of cards.
"Sweet Honey," Heart said with a very distinct hiss.
"Magic?" said Ohno eagerly.
Honey smiled and began to shuffle.
The card tricks were amazing. He'd never known that such little hands could be so lightening fast. Honey's fingers weren't long like Heart's were; in contrast, they were short and round with neat, unpainted nails but the cards flew between them, all but dancing. He barely noticed Heart going out of the room and coming back with snacks, barely noticed eating and drinking. He was too busy watching Honey.
He was dazzled. Utterly.
"You're supposed to be watching the cards," Honey said snappishly. Ohno was suddenly aware that the cards had stopped moving and were lying still on the table as Honey waved a hand in front of his eyes. She sounded like she had that first night, months and months ago. "Cards, not hands," she repeated. "Master," she added, sounding tense and unhappy.
"Ah, I'm sorry!" he apologized. "I'm sorry! The tricks are amazing! You just have such cute hands!"
Wrong thing to say, he thought as Honey stood up and grabbed the tray of empty cups and plates, making the dishes rattle as she marched out the door, her chin held high.
"Thank you," Heart said softly.
"Eeh? I upset her!"
"Mm," said Heart, humming in disagreement. "Ka-Sweet Honey thinks her hands aren't cute at all. Those guys earlier made her feel bad about them. But Master Ohno isn't like that. He says what he feels, we all think that. Sweet Honey is probably really pleased that Master said that her hands were cute."
If she did feel that way, Ohno couldn't tell. She never came back into the room even though he spent another hour talking about the stock market with Sweet Heart.
As the spring approached, Ohno noticed that he was seeing less and less of Heart in the café and when she was there her smiles were strained. She seemed constantly on edge, running with nervous energy. It was only as he and Jun and Aiba went to guest lecture at the university's economics department's senior symposium that he figured out why.
Out of the maid costume, with her hair neatly braided back, wearing dark framed glasses and sitting in the front row was Sweet Heart. She was taking diligent notes and was asking intelligent, interesting questions and offering her opinions with a clear, strong understanding and thoughtfulness when questioned in return. Jun and Aiba were positively beaming at her and whenever they caught her eye, she would look away with a mild blush.
Her name, Ohno found out from the professor, was Sakurai Yuki and she was one of their top students. The professor didn't know much about her but he did know that she held down a part time job. At the campus tutoring center.
Ohno went to find her at the café the next day but wasn't surprised when she wasn't there. He did manage to find a corner table and Honey, however. "About Sakurai-san," he said as Honey deposited his cup of soup in front of him.
"Who?" Honey asked dangerously.
"Sakurai Yuki," Ohno repeated. "I found out her name from her professor and-ahhhh!" he cut off with a low, indrawn breath.
Honey was curled in his lap, stroking his tie. With something very sharp. "If you in any way attempt to threaten Yuki's future with information about this stupid job I will tear your balls out with my bare hands and I will smash them up and dump them into your soup and spoon feed it to you," she said with sweetly veiled venom. "And you'll flavor the soup with the salt of your tears as I make you eat your nuts."
Ohno breathed in shallow, careful breaths. "I wrote her a letter of recommendation for my company," he said cautiously. "Because I thought…I just thought…"
"You thought what, exactly?" Honey snarled.
"She's really smart and she's a really hard worker," he said. He had no idea how to get out of this one. "She'd…my company could really use somebody like her. Especially in an economy like this."
"Sweet Honey!" the Mistress's voice was dulcet but definitely a warning.
"I asked her to!" Ohno said instantly, pulling his wallet out of the inner pocket of his coat. "It was wrong of me. I'm sorry. I'll go." He tossed down a handful of bills and gently put Honey on her feet while he got to his own. He bowed to her. "I'm really very sorry." He slipped the letter out of his pocket and discreetly left it on his chair. "Please, if she seems at all interested, give that to her," he said.
He didn't see what Honey did with the letter.
In fact, he didn't see Honey ever again.
He did see 'Sweet Heart' though. At the start of summer, Sakurai Yuki came to work as the most junior member of Aiba's department. She sought Ohno out on the first day, bowing deeply and thanking him softly.
Though he wanted to ask about Honey, he didn't. He knew better.
As he'd thought, Yuki was an asset to the company. She worked harder than anybody, except maybe Jun, and was obviously the owner of a quick and clever mind. The fact that she had a sense of humor made her tremendously popular and she was often drafted to be on this project's team or that project's committee.
Ohno rarely saw her at work but one day, as summer gave way to fall, he saw her outside of work, struggling with a large, awkward case that he knew was full of presentation charts and graphs. She was also juggling several grocery bags and her cellphone. "Pull over for a moment," he instructed the taxi driver, "and wait here a second."
"-no, I can handle it," Yuki was saying into her phone. "It's only a little bit further to the station, okay?"
"I can help you," Ohno said, touching her lightly on the arm to get her attention.
He managed to catch the groceries and she managed to catch the presentation case, but the cellphone was beyond both of them and landed on the ground, cutting off the call completely. "She's going to take my head off," Yuki sighed.
"Who?" he asked as he led her to the taxi. Yuki looked at him as though weighing her answer and that, in itself, seemed like answer enough. "She doesn't work at the café anymore," he said after Yuki had given the driver her address and they were moving smoothly through traffic again.
Yuki's face closed. "No, she doesn't," she said shortly.
"Did she get fired for threatening to feed me my testicles?" he asked.
Yuki closed her eyes. "No. She quit. She was only at that stupid job because I was."
I know that, Ohno thought. "When I heard she left I'd hoped she was all right," he said instead. "Sometimes I still think about her." The cab pulled up to a modest building and Yuki struggled her things out. Ohno took the groceries from her, ignoring her cold look and following her up the stairs.
"Look," Yuki said, unlocking a door and dropping her things immediately, reaching out to take the bags. "You've been incredibly kind, Ohno-san, but we've been through this before. Not you and me," she said at his obvious confusion. "Me and Ka-Honey. Guys who met us at that dumb café find out who we are or they recognize us on the street and they just want to talk or just go for drinks, or just one date and they get upset because we're not Sweet Heart and Sweet Honey."
"I didn't like Honey," Ohno said. Yuki looked skeptical. "I liked who she was when she wasn't being Honey."
"Even if she was threatening to feed you nut soup?" Yuki asked dryly.
Ohno smiled. "Yeah, even then."
"Did you want to come in for coffee?" Honey's voice asked from behind him.
"Kazuko!" Yuki said. "What are you doing home already?"
Honey-Kazuko-was wearing faded blue jeans and a t-shirt with James Dean on it. If it weren't for her hair and the gentle swell of her breasts beneath her t-shirt, she could have almost passed for a boy. A very lovely boy.
"Uh," said Ohno, blinking at her.
"Kazuko," Yuki repeated firmly.
"Isn't your brother waiting for you to pick him up from swimming lessons and help him with his homework?" Kazuko asked.
"Shit," said Yuki. She shoved the grocery bags at Kazuko and darted into the apartment. "I dropped my phone! Call him and tell him I'm on my way. I just have to change."
"Um," said Ohno.
"Coffee?" Kazuko asked, following Yuki into the apartment.
"Okay," Ohno agreed. He went to the sofa that Kazuko pointed to and watched her walk to the kitchen. Looking around it was obvious that Kazuko and Yuki were roommates. The apartment was filled with newspapers and video games, kids' artwork and pictures of cute kids doing cute things as well as framed playing cards and game posters.
Yuki paused on her dash through the room to give him a stern look and say, under her breath, "I know how to make nut-soup, too."
Ohno grinned at her. "I like you this way, too," he said. He enjoyed the startled blush that popped up on her face before she whipped away and rocketed out of the apartment.
The silence settled in, staying even as Kazuko came to the couch carrying a cup of coffee and a saucer. She set both on the coffee table in front of Ohno and then knelt down beside it, at his feet, and began to add cream. "Sugar?" she asked politely.
"Stop it," Ohno said, looking at her. "I like Kazuko."
Kazuko looked at him placidly. "You don't even know her," she said.
Which was true. But… "If I wanted to know Honey, I'd go back to the café," he told her. "I haven't been back since they told me that you didn't work there anymore. I missed Kazuko," he said firmly. Since she didn't seem like she was going to join him on the couch he slid to the floor, sitting next to her. "Honey was an annoying twit. Kazuko did magic tricks and knew more about video games than her stupid customers. Honey probably doesn't even know what nut-soup is and Kazuko-"
"Shut up," Kazuko said over him.
Ohno snapped his mouth shut.
Kazuko leaned over, leaned in to his personal space, and stopped with her lips hovering inches away from Ohno's own. "Take me to a movie on Saturday," she commanded. "And then to dinner."
"Is ramen okay?"
Kazuko kissed him.
Ramen, it turned out, was just fine.
In other news, this was my story from the short-story contest over at Ohmiya. You'll have to page back a few to find all the entries but there was some SERIOUS awesome there. I wrote MINE in two hours and I'm surprised it even got a vote and I don't think I did vintage_belle's prompt justice. I might try to write something with this prompt again sometime when I am not so swamped. (On the plus side for ME is that honooko did a flail-worthy cute fic with one of the prompts that I left. Find it over at abscondpress. I LOVE HER.)
Prompt: Ohno the stock broker meets girl!otaku!Nino at a maid café
The Girl She Isn't
Sweet Maid Café Wish was not the sort of place that Ohno regularly frequented. In fact, if he hadn't been out with Aiba and Jun he probably wouldn't have even gone in at all. But Aiba was curious and Ohno was interested in Aiba's curiosity and they were both senior to Jun and so Jun had no choice.
"Welcome home, Master," a maid greeted them at the door, bowing deeply. She was dressed in a typical French maid's costume, with lacy cuffs at her wrists. Her name tag (above a very nice set of breasts) said 'Sweet Heart'. Her long hair swung forward, and when she straightened it brushed against the pink of her cheeks in little wisps and curls in a very becoming fashion.
"Uh," said Ohno, blinking and bowing back.
"Cool!" said Aiba.
"Sorry," apologized Jun.
Sweet Heart giggled, covering it with a delicate, long fingered hand. "If Master would like to come this way?" she said sweetly and curtseyed before gesturing elegantly toward a table.
Ohno looked at his co-workers and followed them after the girl, glancing around the café as he did. It looked to be fairly upscale, clean and polished and rather luxurious. There were a few other maids attending to customers. One man was being fed by 'his' maid, another maid was having her picture taken nearby. Two maids were leading another group of men into a private room and one maid was setting drinks at a table and talking animatedly with the men sitting there.
"A list of our offerings for Master." The maid's voice brought Ohno's attention back to his own particular surroundings and he realized that he'd taken a seat at a small table without noticing. Their maid was holding out a very elegant menu card to Aiba.
"You hand feed people?" Aiba exclaimed delightedly. "Cool!"
Jun took the menu card away. "You're not making her hand feed you."
"But-"
The maid giggled again. "If Master would like to take a moment, Sweet Heart will fetch Master a hand towel," she said politely before executing another curtsey and hurrying back to the back room.
Ohno noticed that the maid who had been talking to her customer had disappeared. "I have to go to the toilet," he announced. He felt a little uncomfortable in the café the goal of which was to give allusion to a lifestyle rich enough to call a maid and a little embarrassed, as well. He wanted to get good and drunk if he had to endure it.
Stepping out of the restroom he took a moment to orient himself and heard the voice of Sweet Heart saying "-please, please, don't get fired."
"I'm not going to get fired," said another voice, high and clear and pleasant. "It's not my fault if I know more about Dragon Quest than those idiots."
"I know!" said Sweet Heart. "But please don't tell them that! I can't do this job without you here and if you get fired for calling the customers idiots and showing them up at their favorite games-"
Curious, Ohno peeked around the corner where the voices were coming from and saw his maid standing with the maid who had been chatting. The second maid had her arms around Sweet Heart's shoulders and their foreheads were tipped together. She was, Ohno realized, tiny. She was shorter even than he was (a rarity which never really bothered Ohno at all) and delicate, all slender bones and big eyes and with dark hair that fell sleekly to just above her shoulders.
"Relax, I'm not going to get fired. I'll just keep being rude and when they call me on it, I'll cry. They'll like that."
Sweet Heart did not look reassured. "It's not that sort of café," she protested with quiet vigor.
"He'll still like it," said the other maid. "Don't worry about it. Worry about the enthusiastic guy at your table instead. If he tries to make you do anything you don't want to do let him pay you for it and then signal me and I'll give him the pervert treatment, okay?"
"You can't," wailed Sweet Heart.
Ohno went back to his seat.
"Oh-chan," Aiba beamed. "Did you know that they'll kneel down and stir the cream into your coffee for you?"
"Towels for you, Master?" said Sweet Heart. Her smile looked a little forced.
Ohno took his with a quiet thanks.
"We want coffee," Aiba said. "With cream and sugar and…"
"Black," Ohno interrupted. "We'll all drink it black."
Aiba looked betrayed.
Jun looked surprised but thankful.
Their maid looked at the other table where the other maid had started to cry. "Oh, no," she whispered.
"You should go comfort her!" Aiba said.
"He means it," Ohno said to the maid softly as Jun slapped the back of Aiba's head. "Aiba can't stand sad things."
Sweet Heart looked surprised and then smiled and Ohno realized that all her giggles before had been fake. "If Master will excuse me," she said and went to collect her friend. "Oh, my! Sweet Honey, whatever is the matter?" she cried in sweet concern.
Her friend, Honey, collapsed against her. "I upset Master!" she sobbed. Her eyes were wet and her face was crumpled and she looked devastated.
She was, Ohno decided, either a wonderful actress or a perfect brat.
Ohno became a regular customer at Sweet Maid Café Wish after that. He's careful not to ask any of the maids anything about their personal lives or the personal lives of the others who worked there but it quickly became known that the reason he was there was either Sweet Heart or Sweet Honey. One of them was almost always 'his' maid when he came in.
"Master shouldn't lead Sweet Shimmer on so," Honey told him one day, placing a piece of chocolate cake on his table.
"Eh?" said Ohno, blinking at her and then over at Shimmer. Shimmer was even tinier than Honey, with round cheeks and an adorable smile. "She's just a little girl, isn't she?" he asked. She looked like a grade-schooler to him and he sort of wanted to pat her on the head like a puppy.
Honey dipped her head and smiled. "Sweet Shimmer thinks the sun rises and sets on Master's word."
It took a moment for that to processes fully. "EH?!" He nearly choked on his cake. "Tell her to stop! Please! I'm just…I'm only…I'm Satoshi!"
Sweet Heart turned up at the corner of his table. "Ne, Sweet Honey," she said in a cute voice, "Master wants to take a picture of me and I thought we could take one together since we're special friends!"
Honey bowed to him. "If Master doesn't mind…?"
He never minded. The maids got paid extra for things like that. "Of course," he told her.
She bowed and then skipped over to the register. "Master would like Sweet Shimmer to see to his needs while Sweet Heart and I take a picture with Master!' she caroled.
Sweet Shimmer nearly tripped over herself getting to his table side.
Ohno kept his eyes trained on where Honey and Heart were posing together, Heart's face pressed against Honey's dark, dark hair, nearly obscured and Ohno knew for a fact that he had a better angle to see her face than the guy taking the picture did.
They always posed like that. He wanted to ask why Heart felt the need to hide her face but he knew better.
"Is there anything I can do for Master?" Shimmer asked breathlessly, excitedly.
"Uh." Ohno's eyes darted around the room. "Uh. G-go take a picture with Honey?" he asked.
Shimmer sparkled at him.
He all but ran after tossing the money for the photo down on the table, managing to get out of the shop before the camera flashed.
There were times, however, when he didn't need to know things about the maids to know that something was going on. Especially when it involved Honey smiling sweetly at a whole table full of men, her tray held against her chest by crossed arms, Heart fluttering nervously beside her.
He bit his lip and then crossed to the register where Mistress Sweet Song was standing. "I-" he took a deep breath. "I want Honey and Heart in a private room, please." He didn't know what went on in private rooms but he knew that he didn't like what they were doing at that table.
"Right away, young Master," said the shop owner, bowing him through a door before leaving to fetch the girls.
The room was small, filled with a sofa, a low table, and a rack of costumes that went from really strange to really revealing. "Oh, no," he muttered.
"Master?" said Heart's voice.
He hadn't realized that the door had opened. "This room…" he said, gesturing to the costume rack with a wince.
"Whatever Master wishes," said Honey, shutting the door behind herself and Heart with a loud and ominous click.
Ohno backed away from her and stumbled, landing to sit heavily on the couch. "It's been a rough day," he said quickly, holding up his hands. He was going to assume that whatever was going on out in the other room had been rough, at any rate. "I just didn't want to be out there with all of those guys."
It must have been the right thing to say because both Honey and Heart seemed to relax infinitesimally. "Poor Master," said Heart, coming to sit beside him. "The stock market was really nasty today for him."
…he hadn't been aware that he'd ever mentioned his profession. "Huh?"
Honey swished her skirt and sat down on Ohno's other side. "Master's kouhai, Master Aiba and Master Matsumoto like to talk about their work when they arrive home," she said. "They talk about Master Ohno a lot because he is their respected senior."
Heart blushed. "Sweet Heart is very interested in Master's business," she said. "It is a fascinating job, isn't it, Master?"
"I…guess so?" Ohno said. He never really thought about his job. It wasn't a bad job and it could be interesting but mostly he just did it.
His answer seemed to make Heart blush even more darkly and a prolonged silence fell on the room. "Perhaps Master wants a massage?" Heart said, breaking the silence.
If he hadn't been sitting between the two girls, Ohno would have scrambled away. "No. No, it's fine! We can…we can just…sit."
"Maybe Master would like to see a magic trick?" Honey asked. She held up a deck of cards.
"Sweet Honey," Heart said with a very distinct hiss.
"Magic?" said Ohno eagerly.
Honey smiled and began to shuffle.
The card tricks were amazing. He'd never known that such little hands could be so lightening fast. Honey's fingers weren't long like Heart's were; in contrast, they were short and round with neat, unpainted nails but the cards flew between them, all but dancing. He barely noticed Heart going out of the room and coming back with snacks, barely noticed eating and drinking. He was too busy watching Honey.
He was dazzled. Utterly.
"You're supposed to be watching the cards," Honey said snappishly. Ohno was suddenly aware that the cards had stopped moving and were lying still on the table as Honey waved a hand in front of his eyes. She sounded like she had that first night, months and months ago. "Cards, not hands," she repeated. "Master," she added, sounding tense and unhappy.
"Ah, I'm sorry!" he apologized. "I'm sorry! The tricks are amazing! You just have such cute hands!"
Wrong thing to say, he thought as Honey stood up and grabbed the tray of empty cups and plates, making the dishes rattle as she marched out the door, her chin held high.
"Thank you," Heart said softly.
"Eeh? I upset her!"
"Mm," said Heart, humming in disagreement. "Ka-Sweet Honey thinks her hands aren't cute at all. Those guys earlier made her feel bad about them. But Master Ohno isn't like that. He says what he feels, we all think that. Sweet Honey is probably really pleased that Master said that her hands were cute."
If she did feel that way, Ohno couldn't tell. She never came back into the room even though he spent another hour talking about the stock market with Sweet Heart.
As the spring approached, Ohno noticed that he was seeing less and less of Heart in the café and when she was there her smiles were strained. She seemed constantly on edge, running with nervous energy. It was only as he and Jun and Aiba went to guest lecture at the university's economics department's senior symposium that he figured out why.
Out of the maid costume, with her hair neatly braided back, wearing dark framed glasses and sitting in the front row was Sweet Heart. She was taking diligent notes and was asking intelligent, interesting questions and offering her opinions with a clear, strong understanding and thoughtfulness when questioned in return. Jun and Aiba were positively beaming at her and whenever they caught her eye, she would look away with a mild blush.
Her name, Ohno found out from the professor, was Sakurai Yuki and she was one of their top students. The professor didn't know much about her but he did know that she held down a part time job. At the campus tutoring center.
Ohno went to find her at the café the next day but wasn't surprised when she wasn't there. He did manage to find a corner table and Honey, however. "About Sakurai-san," he said as Honey deposited his cup of soup in front of him.
"Who?" Honey asked dangerously.
"Sakurai Yuki," Ohno repeated. "I found out her name from her professor and-ahhhh!" he cut off with a low, indrawn breath.
Honey was curled in his lap, stroking his tie. With something very sharp. "If you in any way attempt to threaten Yuki's future with information about this stupid job I will tear your balls out with my bare hands and I will smash them up and dump them into your soup and spoon feed it to you," she said with sweetly veiled venom. "And you'll flavor the soup with the salt of your tears as I make you eat your nuts."
Ohno breathed in shallow, careful breaths. "I wrote her a letter of recommendation for my company," he said cautiously. "Because I thought…I just thought…"
"You thought what, exactly?" Honey snarled.
"She's really smart and she's a really hard worker," he said. He had no idea how to get out of this one. "She'd…my company could really use somebody like her. Especially in an economy like this."
"Sweet Honey!" the Mistress's voice was dulcet but definitely a warning.
"I asked her to!" Ohno said instantly, pulling his wallet out of the inner pocket of his coat. "It was wrong of me. I'm sorry. I'll go." He tossed down a handful of bills and gently put Honey on her feet while he got to his own. He bowed to her. "I'm really very sorry." He slipped the letter out of his pocket and discreetly left it on his chair. "Please, if she seems at all interested, give that to her," he said.
He didn't see what Honey did with the letter.
In fact, he didn't see Honey ever again.
He did see 'Sweet Heart' though. At the start of summer, Sakurai Yuki came to work as the most junior member of Aiba's department. She sought Ohno out on the first day, bowing deeply and thanking him softly.
Though he wanted to ask about Honey, he didn't. He knew better.
As he'd thought, Yuki was an asset to the company. She worked harder than anybody, except maybe Jun, and was obviously the owner of a quick and clever mind. The fact that she had a sense of humor made her tremendously popular and she was often drafted to be on this project's team or that project's committee.
Ohno rarely saw her at work but one day, as summer gave way to fall, he saw her outside of work, struggling with a large, awkward case that he knew was full of presentation charts and graphs. She was also juggling several grocery bags and her cellphone. "Pull over for a moment," he instructed the taxi driver, "and wait here a second."
"-no, I can handle it," Yuki was saying into her phone. "It's only a little bit further to the station, okay?"
"I can help you," Ohno said, touching her lightly on the arm to get her attention.
He managed to catch the groceries and she managed to catch the presentation case, but the cellphone was beyond both of them and landed on the ground, cutting off the call completely. "She's going to take my head off," Yuki sighed.
"Who?" he asked as he led her to the taxi. Yuki looked at him as though weighing her answer and that, in itself, seemed like answer enough. "She doesn't work at the café anymore," he said after Yuki had given the driver her address and they were moving smoothly through traffic again.
Yuki's face closed. "No, she doesn't," she said shortly.
"Did she get fired for threatening to feed me my testicles?" he asked.
Yuki closed her eyes. "No. She quit. She was only at that stupid job because I was."
I know that, Ohno thought. "When I heard she left I'd hoped she was all right," he said instead. "Sometimes I still think about her." The cab pulled up to a modest building and Yuki struggled her things out. Ohno took the groceries from her, ignoring her cold look and following her up the stairs.
"Look," Yuki said, unlocking a door and dropping her things immediately, reaching out to take the bags. "You've been incredibly kind, Ohno-san, but we've been through this before. Not you and me," she said at his obvious confusion. "Me and Ka-Honey. Guys who met us at that dumb café find out who we are or they recognize us on the street and they just want to talk or just go for drinks, or just one date and they get upset because we're not Sweet Heart and Sweet Honey."
"I didn't like Honey," Ohno said. Yuki looked skeptical. "I liked who she was when she wasn't being Honey."
"Even if she was threatening to feed you nut soup?" Yuki asked dryly.
Ohno smiled. "Yeah, even then."
"Did you want to come in for coffee?" Honey's voice asked from behind him.
"Kazuko!" Yuki said. "What are you doing home already?"
Honey-Kazuko-was wearing faded blue jeans and a t-shirt with James Dean on it. If it weren't for her hair and the gentle swell of her breasts beneath her t-shirt, she could have almost passed for a boy. A very lovely boy.
"Uh," said Ohno, blinking at her.
"Kazuko," Yuki repeated firmly.
"Isn't your brother waiting for you to pick him up from swimming lessons and help him with his homework?" Kazuko asked.
"Shit," said Yuki. She shoved the grocery bags at Kazuko and darted into the apartment. "I dropped my phone! Call him and tell him I'm on my way. I just have to change."
"Um," said Ohno.
"Coffee?" Kazuko asked, following Yuki into the apartment.
"Okay," Ohno agreed. He went to the sofa that Kazuko pointed to and watched her walk to the kitchen. Looking around it was obvious that Kazuko and Yuki were roommates. The apartment was filled with newspapers and video games, kids' artwork and pictures of cute kids doing cute things as well as framed playing cards and game posters.
Yuki paused on her dash through the room to give him a stern look and say, under her breath, "I know how to make nut-soup, too."
Ohno grinned at her. "I like you this way, too," he said. He enjoyed the startled blush that popped up on her face before she whipped away and rocketed out of the apartment.
The silence settled in, staying even as Kazuko came to the couch carrying a cup of coffee and a saucer. She set both on the coffee table in front of Ohno and then knelt down beside it, at his feet, and began to add cream. "Sugar?" she asked politely.
"Stop it," Ohno said, looking at her. "I like Kazuko."
Kazuko looked at him placidly. "You don't even know her," she said.
Which was true. But… "If I wanted to know Honey, I'd go back to the café," he told her. "I haven't been back since they told me that you didn't work there anymore. I missed Kazuko," he said firmly. Since she didn't seem like she was going to join him on the couch he slid to the floor, sitting next to her. "Honey was an annoying twit. Kazuko did magic tricks and knew more about video games than her stupid customers. Honey probably doesn't even know what nut-soup is and Kazuko-"
"Shut up," Kazuko said over him.
Ohno snapped his mouth shut.
Kazuko leaned over, leaned in to his personal space, and stopped with her lips hovering inches away from Ohno's own. "Take me to a movie on Saturday," she commanded. "And then to dinner."
"Is ramen okay?"
Kazuko kissed him.
Ramen, it turned out, was just fine.