savetheearth | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Natalie and Fuyuka
What: A change of direction
Where: Their hotel room in Vegas
When: October 27th

Fuyuka sat, staring at her laptop screen. On it was material related to the various information she'd been gathering, the people she'd been following. People missing. Attacks. People dying.

All of her investigations had quite literally blown up in her face. Vegas had been attacked, a new echo boundry had appeared. To say Fuyuka felt frustrated was a great, profound understatement. And that fact was made abundantly clear by the fact that she was currently squeezing Bardiche very tightly in one of her hands.

Which, all things considered, was a bad thing, given the device was a metal triangle.

As such, Fuyuka let out a sharp cry when she felt the point of the device digging painfully into her skin. She opened her hand... dammit, she'd drawn blood. Cursing, Fuyuka got up and hurried to put a bandage on it.

Except on the way she stopped, staring... staring at the hotel room's mini-bar. Longer than she should have, in any case.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For her part, Natalie's been trying to keep up a cheerful attitude. It's not easy, really. She's been constantly checking in with her family, gently urging them to maybe take a vacation. She doesn't know still if the mafia has any idea what she is, but... she was rather blatant about the use of her powers during the monster's attack in this city. It's not really something she can avoid, is it?

The string of deaths in Locke City... is something she's worrying about a great deal, more than she's really showing. She wants to help, to find some way to do something for the people out there, but...

It's escaped her, for the time being, and also shows her just what could have happened to her family or students had she stayed. It feels as if she made the right decision, but...

For the time being, she has to work with what she has. Which also means working with Fuyuka, and she's certainly noticed some stress from her of late. So, she's come bearing a gift! In this case, something from a local place in lieu of having her own kitchen to work with.

So, as she enters, she's all smiles.

"Good afternoon, Fuyuka! I got you something while I was out. You like cheesecake, right?"

Edited 2014-10-27 23:14 (UTC)

That causes Fuyuka to suddenly snap out of it, jumping a bit. "Ah!" she cries, accidentally dropping Bardiche. "Natalie... you startled me..."

The device tumbles to the ground, with a little bit of her blood on it, before landing right in front of Natalie. Fuyuka stares at it for a moment, before frowning and moving to retrieve it.

"I... I had a bit of an accident... I love cheesecake, just let me go take care of it for a moment..."

"Had an..."

She blinks a little, staring down at the dropped Bardiche... or more specifically, the blood on it. She gently sets the cake down on a nearby table, and then as Fuyuka reaches down to grab the Device, she reaches down to snatch her arm by the wrist and turn her hand over to look at it.

Fuyuka freezes a bit when Natalie grabs her hand... she'd see the cut across the palm; something that could only be made by a pointed end. Fuyuka frowns, and looks down.

"Like I said, an accident" she said. "I gripped it a bit too tight..."

Natalie's cheeks puff up a bit in irritation, before she... well, basically moves to drag Fuyuka to the bathroom, like a child. There, she places the other woman's hand over the sink, grabs a nearby bottle of hydrogen peroxide and pours it over her hand to start cleaning it out.

"Honestly, you need to be more careful."

A beat, and she frowns.

"And if you're that worried, you need to talk to me."

Fuyuka let herself be led along without a word. When Natalie began to clean her wound, she gave only the smallest flinch, but her other foibles were already well on display without her having to cringe at something like that.

"... I do," she said. "Once this is taken care of... We'll sit down and I'll tell you what's on my mind."

Natalie just gives her a frustrated pout as she cleans the cut. Then goes for the bandages. Being on her palm, a normal one isn't going to stay put, so it means she has to wrap it - and she does it probably a little tighter than necessary. She says nothing, only giving her a pointed look, before pushing her back out of the bathroom. Then forcing her to sit down.

She still remains quiet, going back to her cheesecake. She grabs a foam plate from a nearby pile of them, cuts a slice, a plastic fork, and walks back over to Fuyuka before just shoving it in her face.

"Eat."

Fuyuka sat there, looking more than a bit surprised. Of course, she'd just let Natalie leader her around... which was of course to be expected, so she nodded, and picked up her fork.

After taking a bite, she smiled at her. "It's good," she said, quietly.

A sigh, and Natalie pulls up a chair, plopping herself down. She still has a look on her face that reads like a teacher about to admonish an unruly child, and... well, that's actually probably not too inaccurate.

"Good," she says, and then frowns. "Fuyuka... what's wrong?"

Fuyuka sighed, tapping at the plate with her fork. She wanted to open up to Natalie, but it was a matter of finding out how to find the right words.

"I feel like I've failed," she said finally. "The mafia is still more or less running the streets in Locke. I've made friends and allies, but it seems it hasn't gotten me any closer to unearthing answers. I feel as though... I'm failing everyone, Natalie."

Natalie rises up out of her seat just enough to reach over, planting her hands onto Fuyuka's shoulders. She gives her a grave look, and shakes her head. "Don't be silly! You're trying, aren't you? You're trying just as much as anyone! More than-"

Her frown deepens and she sighs. "At least you know what to even try and do. Meanwhile, I'm just scraping by and don't even know where to go."

"... Natalie, no..."

Fuyuka reacted quickly, pulling Natalie into a hug; an insistent one, but a hug nonetheless. "Please, don't say that. Do not disparage yourself to make me feel better. It is absolutely useless for us both to act like that..."

Fuyuka let out a sigh of her own. "Even if it's just me... you're helping me a great deal just by being here..."

Natalie is a bit surprised at the sudden hug. Fuyuka never struck her as much of a hugger. Still, she sighs and wraps her arms around her neck, hugging her back, and smiles slightly.

"Except I'm not beating myself up for it. So... you shouldn't either."

Did she walk Fuyuka into that reaction on purpose?

Maybe.

Probably.

...okay, she did.

"..."

Fuyuka is so surprised as realization dawns on her, she is quite literally stunned into silence. She stays like that for a moment, jaw hanging open a bit, just staring at Natalie.

Then, her cheeks red, she sighs, and looks to the side.

"You are absolutely diabolical, Natalie Tamura..."

Natalie pulls back and beams, giving her a friendly slap of her palms on the other woman's shoulders. Just as planned.

"I'll take that as a compliment!" she chirps, grinning from ear to ear.

She hasn't been living around you this long and not paid any attention to how you are about things, Fuyuka.

Fuyuka lets out an unladylike grunt as Natalie claps her on the shoulders, but she laughs all the same.

"Where would I be without you? Really?" she sighed, shaking her head and sitting up straighter in her seat. "Thank you, Natalie. I won't give up my efforts, even if it means changing or refocusing my efforts..."

"Mm, we've all had to be doing that a lot, haven't we?"

She sighs, slipping back down into her own seat, but she's still smiling. "We've got a long hanging over our heads, but... so long as we keep doing our best and whatever we can, then I think we'll make a difference. Even if I don't know where to start, in all honesty."

"In that case, we're in the same boat," Fuyuka said with a sigh. Then, she thought for a moment, her eyes widening in realization.

"Perhaps... we should begin by talking to mister Kevin Steele..."

"Ah, well he seems very nice! I was a little weirded out getting memories just by meeting him at first, but... well, that's not his fault, and he was in the same situation," she says, leaning back a little. "But about what, exactly?"

"Well, he's part of the FBI for one," Fuyuka replied, "and the fact that you got memories from him implies we're all connected. Speaking to him... feels like a decent way to start again, you know?"

Natalie muses for but a moment, and then nods, quietly. "For not having anywhere else to really look, I guess it would be, wouldn't it? And it's probably overdue... So, absolutely. Under one condition."

Fuyuka raised an eyebrow at that.

"... Condition? And what would that condition be, Natalie?"

Edited 2014-11-08 04:05 (UTC)

She takes on a stern look, and shoves a finger into Fuyuka's face.

"Stop leaving me out of things! If you're worried about something, or if you need help... say so!"

Fuyuka... nodded, rather quickly, despite herself.

"You're right," she said. This... this was something she knew she couldn't really deny any longer. As private as she was, Fuyuka knew, as a detective, the deck was effectively stacked against her.

"I'm not going to make excuses, Natalie. I've lived my life holding everything back everything that hurt me, I just... let it build up. I've never had someone I could confide in... or rather, I did, I was just too blind to see her right in front of me."

She passed a furtive look towards the mini-bar, and sighed. "I think it's time... I weaned myself off of old habits."

"And you should know I'm always willing to listen, no matter what it is," she says, and follows Fuyuka's look. She manages not to frown actually, and reaches over to pat her on the shoulder.

"And if it's something you need help with... all you need to do is ask."

Fuyuka nodded again. "Then... there is something I would like to talk to you about," she said, looking down.

She took a deep breath before continuing. "There was an echo I received," she began to say. "Where... I was fighting an enemy. It was a woman in black. She had magical powers like the both of us. I tried to attack her, but... somehow, I was captured by her. I lost to her, Natalie, and she imprisoned me inside of this... this strange place."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only