lifeinit | VRDR sidebar: Yaeko and Rose

The tower is breathtaking.

Yaeko didn't know what to expect from the board's description of the Dark Hour. She hardly remembers Apathy Syndrome as it is; it was something that was happening in the outside world, while she was absorbing every art lesson Madarame could drill into her. But she knew she would have to see it in order to come close to understanding, and - the tower is breathtaking. She watched it unfold from the school and she still doesn't understand how it did so, or how it will all fit back again when the anomaly passes.

"Please tell me you're not planning on going in there alone."

The voice draws Yaeko out of her thoughts, and she finds another girl - considerably shorter, but somewhere around her age - approached while she was enraptured. Her companion's wardrobe is too dark to properly blend in with the Dark Hour's greenish cast, and she's more interested in Yaeko than the tower.

"Certainly not. I know better than to mess with that sort of thing by myself; I simply wanted to see it."

"Wanted to see it? You're an odd one, aren't you?" Her companion is smiling, and not in a cruel way, for all she seems genuinely amused by someone finding beauty in such an ominous structure.

"I know no other way to be." She offers a bow. "Kitagawa Yaeko. I've only just arrived."

"I see. My name is Haru - or Rose, if you need to differentiate. Neither of us want to drag our father into things."

It takes Yaeko a moment to place the alias's familiarity; she's mentioned on the board, apparently a close associate of one of the baker's dozen of Akechis. Why any one place needs so many of one person, she has no idea, but she won't say so in front of a friend to at least one of them.

"I can understand that," she says instead.

"Oh?" There's an invitation to elaborate in Rose's voice, but Yaeko doesn't feel obligated to do so. Perhaps that's why she does anyway.

"My former teacher took on the responsibility of raising me after my mother died, most likely so he could turn my talents to his own gain. It recently came to light that he was also responsible for the negligent homicide of my mother, by not getting her medical attention in a timely fashion."

Rose says nothing, and when Yaeko tears her eyes away from the tower again, she looks stunned. "You were thrown away too," she says, sounding as though she's never found that kinship with someone - or if she has, that it's a rare event indeed. (It's enough for Yaeko to consider what little she knows about Akechi in a new light, but that could also be a false lead.)

Before she can respond, Rose shakes off her lack of composure. "In any case, even if you don't enter the tower, it's dangerous to stand around here the whole time. The local Shadows do mostly restrict themselves to the tower, but they have been known to go wandering. Were you planning to stay in Iwatodai, or are you just sightseeing?"

Yaeko sighs. "I don't know where I'm planning to stay, truthfully. The closest thing I have to a home base at home is my school's dorms, which I'm considering moving out of anyway." Truth be told, she's not sure she can bear it a second longer - the noise and especially the smells are wearing thin on her. "And I refuse to go back to that damned atelier."

"Well, you can choose anywhere you like that's not occupied - the cognitive people are too insubstantial to care if you invade their homes - and even if it is occupied, the space will expand to accommodate people. What would you look for in a place to stay, if you had the choice?"

"At least one room with good natural light," Yaeko says immediately. "Preferably north-facing windows, to mitigate sun damage to my artwork."

"Is that so?" A look of pure mischief creeps across Rose's face. "I know a place that might suit - I'll have to run it by Noir, though I doubt she'll object, and I can't take you there until the Dark Hour ends regardless, so we might as well wait until tomorrow. You can come with me for tonight."

***

"You're staying in a love hotel."

Rose shrugs. "Father would hate it. Besides, the beds are comfortable, and it's not like anyone else was using it for anything. You're free to choose another room, if you'd like."

Yaeko hesitates, suddenly unwilling to let this tenuous thread of connection drop. (It doesn't hurt that Rose is just as devastatingly attractive as her other new friends, clearly a powerhouse in her own right, aloof yet taking the time to make sure Yaeko's not utterly at sea in this new environment... gods damn it all, she's smitten once again. This is becoming a problem.) "And... if I'd prefer not to?"

"Then I expect nothing you don't wish to share with me, even the bed - don't give me that face, you'd never fit on the couch up there lying down."

She judges that the bed in Rose's claimed room is large enough for them both to use without inconveniencing each other. And somehow, as the night draws on and they talk instead of sleeping, they draw closer to each other anyway; by that point, it hardly feels like an inconvenience. By that point, Yaeko has determined that Akechi probably is the Black Mask they're looking for at home - Rose calls it a distressingly common theme that he's doing so utterly alone - and that someone is likely pulling his strings, just as surely as Madarame once pulled hers. By that point, she knows Rose understands her on a far deeper level than even Akira has managed so far, given the nonsense her own father has put her through.

"I'd like to draw you sometime," Yaeko blurts out, close enough to touch Rose but not quite daring to bridge the gap.

"I'll think about it."

Rose rests her hand on Yaeko's hip, and her brain short-circuits. Touch is a bit overstimulating, after so long in relative isolation; it's not unlike a jolt of electricity. She can't catch her breath. She wants more, anything Rose is willing to give her.

"If you want to continue," Rose says, "bear in mind this will most likely be a casual arrangement. Aspen comes first - I will drop everything for him, as he will for me - and I'm not sure either of us know how to share well. But you are gorgeous, and I wouldn't mind seeing quite a bit more of you, if you want to show me."

Yaeko blushes - she's sure she's not the gorgeous one in this bed - and somehow manages to nod. "I don't - I've never done this before."

"That's all right. I'm sure you're a quick learner." Then Rose leans over and kisses her.