Stir Crazy
Mireille puffed her breath out in a little sigh. It was always
difficult, the wait between jobs, and this one was going on a bit
longer than most. The graceful blonde saw Kirika looking out the
window at the street, fascinated by the all the passerby, and she knew
that she'd get no intelligent conversation out of the black haired
girl.
She walked over to the pool table, pulling out her chair to
settle in front of the computer dressed only in her panties and a
T-shirt. Mireille clicked on her secure mail account, checking it for
any new assignments, but there was nothing yet. Casually, she began to
surf the 'net, checking out her favorite web sites as well as any that
stirred her interest.
So engrossed was Mireille in her internet surfing that she
didn't even notice Kirika standing right behind her until the girl
calmly remarked, "You've got porn on your computer."
"Eep!" Mireille quickly closed the window on the lesbian
erotica site, whirling around to look worriedly at Kirika. The younger
woman had her typical deadpan look, though there was just a bit of
amusement in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Kirika asked her simply.
"Don't sneak up on me like that," Mireille gasped out. Kirika
just looked at her oddly, but it gave her a chance to recover her
composure. She looked at the dark haired girl, and realized that they
had been cooped up together in this little apartment for the past two
days straight. 'No wonder I'm getting a bit jumpy,' she thought.
Kirika tilted her head to the side, looking at her curiously.
"We're going out," Mireille suddenly declared, getting up and
walking over to her dresser to pull out a set of fresh clothes.
"We are?" Kirika blinked.
"Yes, we are," Mireille said firmly. She looked Kirika over
and said dryly, "You might want to get changed."
Kirika looked down at her clean if plain T-shirt and shorts,
then up to Mireille. "Into what?" she asked her reasonably.
"Something nice," Mireille's voice dropped down into the
dangerous range.
Kirika shrugged silently, then she moved off. Mireille picked
out a long red skirt and white blouse, slipping them on quickly over
clean panties and a fresh bra. Matching purse and shoes, a summer
jacket over it to help conceal her gun, and she was ready to go.
Kirika stepped out, and Mireille blinked I surprise. The black
haired woman wore black pants and jacket, both in a boy's style. A
gray T-shirt, black shoes and gray socks finished off the striking
look that the surprisingly boyish girl was carrying off.
Kirika noticed Mireille's gaze and asked softly, "Is this all
right?"
Mireille smiled, "You look good."
They locked up the apartment, venturing out into the streets
of Paris. The city was vibrantly alive all around them, as these two
dark maidens of death moved along, the people unaware that beautiful
angels of death stalked among them...
"That's fairly pretentious," Mireille noted, looking up at the
piece of florid description the Author just wrote.
"Hmm," Kirika agreed in her quiet way.
The Author decides to move right along.
They walked on for awhile, eventually sitting down to have
some lunch at a nearby cafe. "Have I ever taken you out drinking?"
Mireille asked her companion curiously.
"Not in the episodes the Author's seen," Kirika answered her
coolly.
Mireille nodded firmly, "All right then, let's go find
someplace where you won't be carded and get you a drink."
Suddenly a chibi-Kirika pops up, holding up a sign saying,
"The Author does not advocate under-age drinking. Thank you and have a
nice day!"
Mireille swings a giant mallet and sends the chibi-Kirika
flying into the distance. "That thing was creepy," she said to Kirika
softly.
"Uh huh," a wide-eyed Kirika nodded.
Mireille frowned, "But where are we going to find a bar like
that?"
Just the a redhead walked by their table, accompanied by her
blue haired companion. "It really sucks that our movie only got a wide
release in France, B-ko," the redhead in a Japanese school girl's
uniform complained to her friend.
"I feel your pain, A-ko," B-ko agreed. She perked up a bit,
"Wanna go drown our sorrows over at Arisugawa's Locket?"
"Sounds like a plan," A-ko agreed, and the two headed off.
"That was a convenient plot device," Kirika noted.
"Let's go," Mireille took the dark haired girl's hand, leading
her along.
They left their table and followed the two women down the
familiar streets of Paris. They finally turned a corner and saw the
bar, a bouncer standing in front of the door. Above it a neon sign
read, 'Arisugawa's Locket.' The muscular young woman nodded to A-ko
and B-ko, letting them inside with a wave.
Kirika looked at their quite familiar surroundings, then over
at the bar. "Was this here yesterday?" she asked Mireille softly.
Mireille gave her a frown, "It's always been here."
"Yes but," Kirika started, "but was it always here,
yesterday?"
Mireille sweatdropped.
They made it by the bouncer fairly easily, Kirika offering
Mireille her arm in a gentlemanly fashion. It felt a little odd, but
the bouncer ate it up. A cheerful girl offered to take their coats, of
which they both declined, then they made their way over to a table.
"There's only women in here," Kirika noted, looking around the
bar.
Arisugawa's Locket was quite an interesting place, Mireille
noted. It had the expected bar, though the twin bartenders there
looked a bit odd, long blue hair and all. The dance floor wasn't that
unusual, though the music being mostly Japanese seemed a bit strange.
But over to one side were dining tables, being served luscious
smelling meals from the kitchen, and just beyond that was a library,
bookcases, couches and all the rest.
'I'm just glad that the karaoke isn't on,' Mireille noted,
spotting the empty stage in relief. She looked over at Kirika and
asked, "Do you want to leave?"
"No," Kirika shook her head slightly, "it's all right."
Mireille scanned their surroundings, noting a table with
several off duty police officers sitting there. The tallest, a brown
haired woman, got up to walk over to talk to an orange haired woman
leaning up against the bar. She started to read their lips, when her
view was blocked by a cheerful, blonde headed young lady.
"Hi, I'm Excel," she smiled at both Mireille and Kirika
cheerfully, "What can I get you?" A hand was placed on her shoulder,
and the orange haired woman from over at the bar smiled down at Excel
comfortingly.
"Why don't you come back later," the orange haired woman made
it a order, not a question, and Excel left. "My name's Arisugawa
Juri," she smiled at the two of them as she gracefully pulled out a
seat and sat down, "welcome to the Locket."
Mireille and Kirika exchanged a glance, and then the blonde
smiled at Juri smoothly as she introduced herself simply as,
"Mireille."
"Kirika," she said softly.
"There's a rule in the Locket you might be unaware of," Juri
said to them pleasantly, "we prefer that the customers be unarmed." A
little smile, "Could you please surrender your weapons? They'll be
returned when you leave."
Mireille looked up to meet Juri's eyes, noting how the woman
prepared herself for their possible reaction. 'She's good,' she
thought even as she asked her, "Can you guarantee our safety?"
"If someone comes after any of my customers," Juri chose her
words quite carefully, "they have to go through me first."
Kirika met Juri's eyes steadily, weighing her words. Then from
under her coat she smoothly produced her gun, laying it down on the
table. Mireille hesitated for a moment, then she followed the other
woman's lead.
"Can I serve them now?" Excel suddenly popped up, startling
them all.
"Don't do that!" Mireille gasped, clutching at her chest
dramatically even as Kirika smiled slightly, remembering startling
Mireille that was earlier that day.
Juri carefully collected the two guns, "They'll be up at the
bar with Ryouko and Minagi when you're ready to go."
"Thank you," Kirika said simply.
"Think she knows about the other weapons we're carrying?"
Mireille asked Kirika softly once Juri had left them.
Kirika softly answered, "Probably."
Mireille looked across the table at her companion, weighing
her words carefully as she asked, "Would you like to dance?"
Kirika's eyes showed a bit of surprise, then she smiled a
little, "Yes."
Mireille stood up, offering her hand to Kirika. They went out
on to the dance floor together with her taking the lead. Kirika
followed her gracefully, the smaller woman looking up at her with just
a little smile on her face. Kirika wrapped her arms around Mireille's
neck and drew her down into a gentle but very thorough little kiss.
"That was wonderful," Mireille said softly, hugging Kirika
close.
"Hmm," Kirika agreed, then "Too bad it's only a dream."
"What?" Mireille blinked in surprise...
....when a soft hand shook her awake. Mireille noted with a
bit of irritation that she had dozed off on top of the keyboard, and
that the letters were indented into her cheek. The web browser was
open to a fan fiction webpage, about some anime series.
Kirika quietly said, "You fell asleep reading."
"Guess so," Mireille blushed faintly, thinking about her odd
dream. She got out of her chair, stretching and then she saw how dark
it was outside, "I'd better get to bed."
Kirika watched her move off silently, then she thoughtfully
noted what the webpage was before clicking it shut.
Mireille was nearly asleep when she felt her slip into the bed
right beside her. She turned to meet Kirika's calm gaze, "What..."
"Shh," Kirika placed her finger against Mireille's lips,
before she snuggled close.
'Is this a dream, too?' Mireille wondered, even as she
hesitantly wrapped her arms around the smaller woman's body.
The End... ?
Author's Notes: This started out as an simple appearance of Noir in my
Arisugawa's Locket fic, but even at the time it kind of bothered me.
They really were sort of out of character (OOC) in their appearance,
but I couldn't do much about it then. But eventually it occurred to me
it might be fun to do an totally OOC fic about them, so here it is. I
should say that I've only seen the first four episodes at an anime
show quite a while back, so if I get things really wrong, please
forgive me.
The movie Project A-ko, from which the characters of A-ko and B-ko are
taken from, really did have a broad release in France. The
conversation about the bar 'always being there' is based around a very
similar sequence in Soul Music, by Terry Pratchet.
Arisugawa's Locket, for those who don't read that series, is an
lesbian bar that exists across multiple dimensions, allowing for
crossovers with a broad variety of fictional universes. The bar's
owner is Arisugawa Juri from Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ryouko and
Minagi are from Tenchi Muyo and Excel is from Excel Saga.
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