Homeplot (2)

[babyviper]

Chapter 1:
The Empty Room in Osaka

Apartment 217, in a nondescript block of an apartment building on the outskirts of downtown Osaka, Japan.

Laying on a bare floor, a clunky mobile phone began to ring. Despite the amount of money such a phone would cost in the late part of the eighties, before the big rush really began, it wasn't even the most expensive item in the room. The real treasures in this tiny, bare apartment had to do with what was in the closet, which bore a simple combination lock.

The ringing seeped into O-Ren's consciousness even as she struggled to wake up. How late had she been out last night? That wasn't like her, and surely Angua and Dean would have had questions. Was she sick, then? Why the heavy haze around her? The fucking ringing was beginning to wear itself out, too.

O-Ren snapped up from her futon so quickly that she had to brace against the window. She was no longer even a bit sleepy, so aware she couldn't keep her hands from shaking as she patted herself down. Same self that had gone to bed the night before.

But a look around confirmed this was her old apartment. Only a few pots to boil ramen in. Blood spots she'd never bothered to clean up. Locked closet. Mobile phone ringing on the ground. She'd cut the regular telephone line herself, preferring this.

It stopped ringing, and O-Ren took a deep breath. "What the fuck."

Comments

[lonewolflives]

"Hai," Arya said, leaning out to the side again, letting one leg dangle over the other side of the beam as a balance.

"It's a pity there's no snow."

There'd been snow in the movie, at the end... which hadn't gone well for O-Ren, but they'd fixed all that, sort of. And she'd liked to have seen the city snowbound.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

O-Ren scooted just a little closer. In this short time, it seemed she'd gotten to know the warmth of having someone, of having Arya, so near, and she didn't mind it.

"The real pity is there's no sakura," she answered. "I wish-- I wish we could come back again, some time."

[lonewolflives]

"There's one of those on the island," she said, but she knew it wasn't the same, just like having the single weirwood wasn't the same as being in the North.

So she added, "That'd be nice. I don't think it works like that, but it'd be nice."

Did anyone ever dream themselves to the same place twice? If they did, would they just have to do it all over again?

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

"After everything, even just this little time is perfect," O-Ren said. "That's how it works. Beautiful, perfect moments, they don't last very long. That's how it has to be."

[lonewolflives]

"The longer summer lasts, the harsher winter is," Arya said, frowning slightly, then taking another sip from her can and looking up at the sky. "That's how they say it works, back home."

It seemed like it was the same kind of idea.

[babyviper.livejournal.com]

O-Ren nodded, also looking up at the sky, the bright lights filling the heavens with a neon kind of aurora, stars just barely visible beyond that. She flicked the tab on her can back and forth.

Her heart had filled up so much that there were no words left for her.