Kasumi Goto has more to talk about! (shipseveryone) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-09-22 23:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kasumi goto, mai |
Who: Mai and Kasumi
What: Talking over drinks
When: Thursday night
Where: JoeyRay's
Ratings/Warnings: PG-13 for brief mentions of violence
Status: Complete
JoeyRay's bar wasn't the kind of bar that people like Mai went to, generally speaking. It didn't cater to her kind of people, and that was probably how the owner wanted it. Mai's people were, after all, upper class, stuffy, and generally boring or too annoying to be around.
But it was where Mai found herself on Thursday night. She'd tracked Kasumi down as a bartender there, and something in her just desperately needed to talk to her. Maybe it was the part of her that kept being afraid she'd get lost in everything. Or that she already was. She admired Kasumi. The woman had had the strength to leave that world completely. Mai didn't even know if she'd ever have it in her, herself.
So she walked on into the bar, wearing plain clothes - Jeans, sneakers, and a black hoodie with angel wings on the back. The hood was up, and her hair was covering her face. She'd taken 5 busses to get there and avoided the paparazzi. By the time she sank onto one of the stools on the bar, she really just wanted some coffee.
Thursdays weren't especially busy at JoeyRay's. Sure, lots of college kids went out drinking on Thursdays, but they didn't come to JoeyRay's, and Kasumi was fine missing out on that headache. She liked their clientele. Older, ex-military types, several bikers, but old enough and smart enough not to cause trouble, most of the time. They had some younger guests, but most of them understood they were there for a few quiet drinks, maybe listen to a few war stories, and head home. Most nights didn't feature much dancing.
So, as with the calendar, Thursday nights fell somewhere between the boringness of Wednesdays and the busyness of Fridays. On most Thursdays, Kasumi could name off the regulars and their respective drinks. It wasn't unheard of to get someone new, but it was notable, and note it Kasumi did.
"Welcome to JoeyRay's, sweetheart, what can I get you?"
“You’re going to think this is stupid, but does this bar have coffee?” Mai seriously hoped it did. There were probably coffee pots around the bar somewhere, or a machine she could have picked out that answered her question for her. But Mai wasn’t feeling very observant. Mainly, she was feeling lost.
She wasn’t even sure what she was doing here, “Cream and sugar, if you do.”
"Sure thing," Kasumi said, reaching under the bar for the coffee. Not many customers asked for it, so Kasumi didn't keep a fresh pot running. "It'll take a few minutes. And I'm afraid the only cream I have is Bailey's. Want anything while you wait?"
Mai had only just turned 21 this year, and never bothered to drink much, despite the fact that it was now legal. However, Bailey’s in the coffee sounded wonderful, so she shrugged a shoulder, “Bailey’s in the coffee is fine. I’ll take some straight while I wait.”
Maybe some ‘liquid courage’ as they called it would get her to the point where she dropped the pretense and told Kasumi who she was and what she was doing there.
Kasumi smirked. She couldn't help but find this adorable. Mai's little disguise and everything. It reminded her of the scene in Aladdin where Jasmine sneaks into town in that robe...
"Coming right up, Kitten," Kasumi said, giving the girl a wink as she poured her some Bailey's over ice while the coffee brewed.
Kitten?. That was a name that hadn't been tossed in Mai's direction for quite some time. It made her wonder if Kasumi was already onto her, because that had been a pet name of hers, years ago.
Maybe she just called everyone kitten. That was probably the case. She picked up the glass of Baileys and took a long sip off of it, "Do you call all of your customers Kitten, or is just my adorable appearance?"
Her voice was her usual monotone, which probably gave her away anyway.
"Don't be silly," Kasumi said, reaching out to nudge the hood down from Mai's face if the girl would let her. "You were 'sweetheart' until you came close enough for me to recognize you." Kasumi used a few generic monikers, but 'Kitten' wasn't one of them.
"... That's true, you did." Mai ducked her head a bit as the hood fell down to her shoulders and her face was revealed, "Hey there. I wasn't stalking you, promise. I just..."
Still don't actually know what I'm doing here. Mai darted her eyes off to the side and took another sip off of her drink, "I had this impulse to come find you. I don't know if you know what's been going on over in that world you left behind. If I was you I'd probably have forgotten it existed."
Kasumi shrugged. She didn't pay 'that world' much mind. "The gala was the first time I've 'checked in' in a while," she said, not sounding overly concerned. "I didn't forget about it. I just found a few other things that are more important to me, nowadays."
She was rinsing and drying a coffee mug while she talked. "Everything all right, Kitten?" She couldn't care less about the ins and outs of the socialite world, but she did worry a little for Mai. She seemed... frazzled.
There were things that Mai never said to Zuko, and couldn't say to Azula and Ty Lee. Kasumi was someone who'd been out of her life for a while, and had some distance from everything going on in it. She wondered if she could just be truthful with her.
And the truth was, that she was beyond frazzled, "You have no idea how much I wished I was you for the longest time, you know. Just... picking up and leaving it all. Not caring about what everyone would say. And they had plenty to say. I got lectures, you know. You were the poster child for what we all weren't supposed to be like."
She chewed her lip, "Do you ever think about what would have happened to your life if you'd stayed?"
Kasumi frowned a bit. She hadn't thought about what life would be like for the other girls after she left. She certainly didn't intend for them to be lectured on her behalf. Gossip, she'd expected. She was, frankly, a bit surprised Mai wanted anything to do with her, after the stories people must have made up. But she didn't want anyone to be punished because of her.
"I don't know, Kitten. I guess I'd probably be married off to some boring business contact of my father's by now, and be just as miserable now as I was when I left."
Mai snorted through her nose, "That sounds about right."
She drained her glass and pushed it over to her old friend. The ring on her finger was noticeable by how large and sparkling it was. Mai wore it everywhere, simply because if it was on her finger she'd know where it was. She didn't want to think about the amount it was insured for.
"You would have gotten lost in a sea of ball gowns and social functions, and no one would remember who you were, beyond the fact that you were Mrs. Stuffypants, and had hosted this or that function last summer."
Kasumi wrinkled her nose. "I don't particularly care for being famous or well-known," she said, pouring the coffee for Mai and topping it off with Bailey's. "But hosting functions and being a Mrs. Anything sounds exhausting." Kasumi didn't comment on the ring yet.
"If you'd stayed in that life, you wouldn't have been famous or well known, not the way you are now that you're gone." Mai let out another sigh and took a long swig off the coffee. "Even if you don't like that. It's hard to tell, with you."
She chewed on her lip a bit, then finally blurted, "I feel so lost."
“I was always more comfortable fading into the background,” Kasumi said, remembering the functions and dinners. “But my parents would never have let me marry Keiji.” She smiled a bit, nostalgic. “I don’t know if you ever met Keiji. He didn’t go to our school. We usually snuck off.” She shook her head a bit, sighing.
“Mai...” She reached out and took the younger woman’s hand. “I don’t regret leaving. It wasn’t always easy, but I’m glad I did.” She gave Mai a small smile. She really did want to help her old friend. If Mai was seriously considering leaving that world behind her, Kasumi wanted to be there for her.
“Just leaving won’t make you feel less lost. But it would give you the freedom to find yourself.”
"He sounds like the kind of man that would have been worth it," Some part of Mai wished that she had met Keiji. Or that Zuko hadn't been a part of her life, the social one, but had instead been someone she could run away with. She thought maybe the person you loved was supposed to be someone you could get lost in and then find yourself.
More and more often these days, she felt like Zuko was less someone to get lost in and then be found, and simply someone she'd get utterly lost in. And it wasn't fair to him. It wasn't him, at all, but his father, and the life they'd end up in.
Mai squeezed Kasumi's hand, "I think it's too late to just leave. It's all a mess. I woke up this morning and... I hate myself. I've always hated my parents, or that life, but never myself."
Kasumi nodded. She really did think Keiji was worth it, even now. Even though they'd only had a few years together, he had been worth it.
She squeezed Mai's hand back. "It's not too late, Mai. You can make your own choices. They might be more complicated now, and you're probably going to analyze them a lot more than I did when I was a kid, but.. It's not too late." Kasumi's voice was urgent, full of emotion. "Kitten, you can't hate yourself."
"I did things, you know." Mai lowered her voice and leaned forward a bit. Her eyes were rimmed with tears, though none of them actually ran down her face, "I've killed people, I joined ... I've become someone's assassin, and he has my brother. I have to marry Zuko, not because I want to, but because he'll kill my brother and my parents if I don't."
I have his eyeball in a jar...
"I hurt him once and I look forward to doing it again. I don't know how to get out of this. It's so complicated. There's a lot more to analyze, Kasumi. And I can't believe I just told you all this."
Kasumi’s face darkened. Okay, that was a lot more complicated than she’d been expecting. But she'd be damned if she'd let Mai be forced into anything like that. She placed her hands on either side of Mai's face. "We're going to get you out of this." Kasumi was going to help.
"I have a friend. She can help. We'll rescue your brother." Kasumi probably shouldn't let one little dream make her so overconfident, but.. "We'll figure it out."
A long moment of silent passed while Mai envisioned just taking Kasumi up on this. Some part of her wanted to believe it was that easy. That the Fire Nation wouldn't somehow exact revenge on the woman and her friends if they tried, and succeeded. Just being here was putting Kasumi in danger.
She'd been feeling pretty selfish when she walked in. She just wanted to talk to a familiar face, a woman she knew was stronger than her, but she thought she'd made a mistake.
And part of her knew that this was something that her and Zuko, Azula, and Ty Lee needed to handle on their own. She shook her head, "I want to take you up on that, and I'm ... I want to. But I think this is something I need to do. I just... I don't know what's going to happen when it's over. I think more than anything I just came here to talk to you so that I could find the strength to climb over this."
Kasumi nodded. She could understand that. And if what she did was give Mai the strength to handle it, that's what she would do. "Kitten, I want you to be able to look at yourself in the mirror. You do what you have to do, but when it's all over... If there's anything I can do... I have a little money saved up. And my couch is very comfortable."
"Be careful," Mai warned her, while swirling her coffee mug in her hands, "I might take you up on that."
Kasumi smiled. “I might end up making you take the bed,” she said, chuckling. “That’s how awesome the couch is.” Unless she wound up finding another friend to invite over. But that was an entirely different story.
For possibly the first time since Mai had sat down on the bar stool, she smiled a bit. Most people that knew her would probably make a joke that her face would crack off if she smiled - usually they were teasing, but this time it felt like it really would. And she didn't care. Maybe the face under the mask was a better one.
She took Kasumi's hand and squeezed it, then finished off her coffee, "Thanks, 'sumi... I really mean that."
“I know you do, Kitten.” Of course she meant it. Mai was entirely too serious, most of the time. Kasumi squeezed her hand back. “And you’re welcome here any time, or at my apartment. And I mean that.”
“Call me if you need anything. Including my friend’s help, if you decide you need that.” She should probably ask Shepard first before volunteering her for missions, but she had a feeling she could count on the woman. “She’s kind of a badass,” Kasumi said, giving Mai a wink.
Mai took out a 20 for the drink and the coffee, and set it down on the counter, then got up off the stool. She wasn't sure how much longer it was safe to be there before something crazy happened, and didn't want to press her luck.
"It's always good to have a friend who's kind of a badass. If we can't get this settled, I might have you call her. I'd better head home for now, though. You know how men get when you leave them home alone for too long. they start whining about how bored they are and wonder where you're at." Mai's dry tone indicated she was joking, at least partially.
She put her hood up, and headed for the door, "I'll come down here again sometime."
“Good luck, Kitten.”