OOPS SORRY GUYS, WHAT DISTRACTED ME AGAIN?!
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Tuesday 6thNovember
“Looking smart today.” Reika commented as Tasha slumped at the table they had shared for the last couple of days.
“Work tonight.” Tasha grouched, “I have to dress well. Part of the job description.”
“At least you get to wear sensible shoes.” Reika offered, trying to be reassuring.
“Ha.” Tasha opened her backpack and revealed her work shoes, “These are what I’m wearing tonight. The trainers I have on now are what I normally wear.”
“Oh.” Reika grimaced as she took in what the shoes actually looked like, “You realise that in a zombie apocalypse those would be completely impractical right?”
“No, no, I could use them as a weapon.” Tasha pointed out with a chuckle, “See?” She indicated the heels, “Pointy.”
Reika just laughed, turning her attention back to her laptop. Taking that as the hint it was, Tasha joined her, taking her backpack off the table and leaving her laptop to boot up while she joined the rather short queue at the counter. Her phone vibrated as she steadily moved up the queue causing her to glower as she checked the caller I.D.
“Denied.” Tasha hissed, cutting off the incoming call from her former friends in the Duelling club. She didn’t want anything to do with them. Not after the explosive row she had had with them on the day she had graduated from university.
“Everything alright?” Jen asked as her sisters bustled around behind her, trying to find odd jobs to do.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Tasha shrugged it off before pausing and staring as she noticed Dee rearranging the counter. “I thought she got...”
Jen let out a nervous chuckle, “Yeah, then mum had a word with the pair of them. Steffan is the boss here, but our mum owns the bakery and...”
“Ah.” Tasha nodded her understanding, feeling sorry for Steffan. It could not be fun to be constantly undermined.
“She’s not allowed to take orders anymore though.” Jen confided in her with a small smile, “Mum did agree that was a bad idea.”
“Oh good.” Tasha looked relieved at that, trying to ignore the vibrating in her back pocket. Obviously they were desperate to reach her. Well she did not feel like reciprocating. She would phone back between leaving here and work but not before. She collected her order and darted back across to the corner table, where her laptop was finally fully booted up and Reika was lost in her novel.
It was not hard for Tasha to settle at her own keyboard and get going, pausing to semi-distractedly to take a sip of her drink and a bite of her cake, and she was about finished with her day’s goal when the door opened and voices she recognised but wished she did not floated in.
“Seriously, what did you do?” One of the girls entering the bakery asked the only male in the group. “Tasha never used to ignore her phone.”
“I didn’t...okay... you remember the day you guys came back to the clubhouse to find it wreaked?” The guy looked sheepish, gazing around the cafe section and causing Tasha to wheel around and attempt to bury herself in her laptop top. “That was her.”
“Seriously?” The other girl asked, “Why?”
“Because he was being a complete and utter moron and it was the only way to get through to him.” Tasha grumbled, just loud enough for Reika to hear her and look up, concerned confusion on her features.
“I wanted some help with an idiot idea.” The boy sounded as embarrassed as Tasha felt, “When I was... insistent, Tasha and I got into a fight and well...”
“She hasn’t spoken to us since.” The first girl sounded frustrated. “You’re a moron, you know that?”
“Yeah. I do.” The boy was embarrassed, “Still, we need her right now and...”
“Not here.” The second girl sounded sharp, Tasha could almost feel a gaze drilling into her back, the tension ramped up. Her hand twitched towards her deck in response to the power she could feel boiling near the counter. She glanced up and realised that Reika’s gaze had turned to the trio at the counter, her expression hard.
“I know, I know.” The boy said as they passed on their orders, “I just wish... she knew stuff, even before everything changed, you know?”
Tasha sank further and further under the table, wanting to avoid being spotted by her former team mates.
“Out.” The first girl ordered.
“What?” The boy yelped.
“We’ll bring your drink out, just shoo.” The first girl reiterated her order.
The door’s bell tinkled as the boy left again and Tasha relaxed slightly though she did not come up from where she was hidden until Reika murmured, “It’s safe to come out now.”
Tasha was embarrassed as she emerged from underneath the table. “Sorry.”
“I felt that.” Reika’s eyes flickered towards the door, “You want to talk about it?”
“I...not here.” Tasha shook her head, realising that Reika had a deck of Duel Monsters cards in her hands too, “It’s a long story.”
Reika smirked at her as she put her deck away, “I’ll protect you from the scary Duellists if we go for lunch.”
“They’re not scary.” Tasha protested, “I just...” She trailed off with a sigh, “Somewhere else. Not here. Please?”
“Sure, anywhere you fancy or is it back to McDonalds?” Reika asked, shutting her laptop and swiftly packing away her stuff, keeping an eye on the door as Tasha did the same.
“Sandwiches and the park?” Tasha asked, wanting to avoid talking about the subject where there would be a lot of people gathered.
“In November?” Reika blinked at her, then realisation hit her and she nodded, “Sure, I could go for a brisk walk.”
“Sorry.” Tasha was embarrassed as they exited the cafe.
“It’s fine.” Reika shrugged as they headed for the nearest Subway, “I’ve already long surpassed today’s target and you’ve got me intrigued now.”
“Heh.” Tasha let out a bitter chuckle. “This is going to sound mad. Just warning you.”
Reika watched her for a little bit, considering her companion carefully. The brunette, Caucasian woman honestly seemed to think she would not believe her.
“Tasha, you want to know why I moved away from London?” Reika asked her finally, causing Tasha to blink at her.
“You said your dad got a job up here.” Tasha was confused, wondering if Reika had lied to her the other day.
“He did, but he got it so he could move out of the area.” Reika sighed, seemed to gather up her courage and then spat it out as fast as she could, “I’m Shadow-Touched.”
“You’re...” Tasha paused, then felt a huge smile cross her features, “You are? That’s great!” She hugged her friend, then realised that Reika did not seem as happy about that as she was. “What’s wrong?” She asked as she let go.
“People back home weren’t as accepting as you.” Reika explained, “Not after Shadowmorn. It didn’t matter I’d helped to save people during it. I was Shadow-Touched, that meant people thought I could bring the problem back down on their heads and after CardCon...”
Tasha shivered, “I was at that convention.” She murmured to Reika, “It was horrible and I was one of the ones who could fight back.”
“Ouch.” Reika winced in appreciation. “You got out alright though?”
Tasha shook her head slightly, “Not quite.” She tapped her right leg below the knee, “Prosthetic.”
Reika blinked and looked down at the limb in question. From here she could not tell that Tasha’s leg was not real and she seemed so sturdy on it that it came as a surprise. “You’re...”
“I know. Kaiba Corp funded the medical care for anyone injured that needed specialist treatment and couldn’t get it quickly on the NHS, so I was given a prosthetic long before the NHS waiting line could have gotten me one.” Tasha had a small, proud smile on her face, “I need a walking stick when it’s playing up, but I surprised everyone with how well I’m coping.”
“I am too, it’s been what, three months?” Reika looked impressed, “And you had a falling out with your club because of your leg?”
“No,” Tasha shook her head, her proud smile fading, “I’d all but left long before that. I...” She sighed, “You’re Shadow-Touched, so you know the cards are all real. Every card that responds to a Duellist has a monster attached to it right?” She asked, becoming reassured when Reika nodded. “Well I was friends with this kid called Ryou when I was younger and got myself caught in what he called a Shadow Game.”
“Shadow Game?” Reika blinked at her, pausing as they bought their food and then starting again outside the shop, “You mean...”
Tasha nodded, “I lost. Got my soul stuck in a figurine from some tabletop RPG. Was there until the Pharaoh freed all the souls Ryou had in his collection.”
“You know, before Shadowmorn I’d have said you were crazy.” Reika snorted.
“I thought I was crazy for a long time.” Tasha assured her, “Especially after I started hearing things. Turned out that I could hear the Duel Monsters in people’s decks. I gave up duelling competitively after that, it seemed a little unfair.”
“I suppose I can understand that.” Reika nodded approvingly. “You still joined a Duelling club though.”
“I liked playing. I didn’t want to give up the game completely.” Tasha shrugged, “My ‘friends’ though wanted me to help them rig Duels by listening in to the conversations being held by peoples’ decks. I refused.”
“Lovely.” Reika grimaced. “Let me guess, that guy wanted you to help him do something else unsavoury when he realised your powers got a boost during Shadowmorn.”
“He wanted to rob a bank.” Reika laughed but Tasha was dead serious, “No, I’m not joking. I wish I was. I got into a fight with him over the fact he wanted to use his new powers to lord it over people. We wreaked the clubhouse.”
“Bloody hell!” Reika yelped, “Now I see why you were avoiding them.”
“Whatever trouble they want me to get them out of, they can bugger off because they’re bound to be in it because they did something ridiculous.” Tasha grouched.
“Well,” Reika looked thoughtful, “If they try anything while I’m around I’ll back you up.”
“You don’t need to.” Tasha shook her head, feeling guilty for dragging Reika into her problems. “I’m fine on my own. “
“I can tell.” Reika teased, “You did a very good job of hiding under the table.”
“Shush.” Tasha grouched, pretending not to still be embarrassed by that little incident. “I couldn’t think of any other way to hide at the time. I didn’t want to be spotted.”
“Oh I understand that.” Reika grinned, “But I’m pretty sure that they spotted you. At least the second girl did.”
“Julie was always on my side.” Tasha sighed, “She won’t give me away.”
“That’s good.” Reika looked relieved at that. She glanced around, noting that Tasha seemed really uncomfortable and wanting to change the subject, finally giving up and asking, “So what do you run?”
“Harpies.” Tasha looked embarrassed, “You know, the old retro Harpie ladies. I never saw a point in upgrading out of a deck that I would never use competitively.”
“No harm in that.” Reika allowed, “Though I would have thought that you get beaten quiet regularly.”
“Actually no.” Tasha shook her head, “If I combo my harpies with some of the newer winged beats creatures they do quite well, especially now that I have a few synchros around.” She looked sheepish, “You’re a Guardian Beast player. Sorry, I heard your deck. A couple of them were growling at my cards.”
Reika paused and then grinned back at her. “It’s okay. I’ve had my cards a rather long time too. I can’t hear them all the time like you but I swear they like me.”
“Oh they do.” Tasha reassured her with a return grin, “And being able to hear the beasts within the cards isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It can drive me mental. I mean they’re silent most of the time, because you know, the creatures are paying attention to what’s going on in their world, rather than ours, but when we get all het up, they come to the surface, just waiting to be called. That’s when it can get loud.”
“I’m surprised you don’t end up having to take painkillers at tournaments.” Reika shook her head, imagining the potential noise.
“I did. That was another reason I stopped going. I couldn’t put up with having to take a ridiculous amount of headache meds every time I went within twenty yards of any tournament.” Tasha chuckled, “Of course I handle it much better now, but I was like fourteen when I woke up from the Shadow Game. I couldn’t cope with it.”
“Ouch.” Reika hugged her friend, “At least you’ve got the knack now, right?”
“Yeap.” Tasha chirped happily, “And as long as I stay away from any morons like my old Duelling Club there won’t be any more issues.”
Reika slipped into silence as they turned a corner and found a wall to sit on, watching the few birds that were hardy or foolish enough to try and swim on the partly frozen lake in front of them swim around looking for a meal. She had wanted to know more about the reason Tasha had tried to hide, and now she knew. That reason would have freaked her out a few months back, but then she had changed since Shadowmorn. Freaking out because Tasha was touched by the Shadows was ridiculous when she had been too. She had been, in her eyes anyway, perfectly normal before the crisis had happened.
Now she was a freak, much like Tasha and it was a nice feeling, though a little bit of a selfish one, to know that there were people who were weirder than her. She had to wonder though, since her deck leader had told her that the Court were stronger than your average Shadow-Touched because they had been to the Shadow Realm before Shadowmorn, if Tasha was as strong as some of those, or whether she still had a long way to go to match any of them.
Not that she would want to do anything to cause a test of that. The Court were powerful, it was not advisable to get into a brawl with them. Besides, it did not matter how much you wanted to get into a fight with them, you did not want to bring the Pharaoh down on your head. She had heard the rumours of how powerful Yugi Mutou was and with the recent demise of his family, no one wanted to risk pissing him off.
“So... you know all about my sordid little tale of woe.” Tasha said finally, as she finished her sandwich and turned to look at Reika, “What’s your story?”
Reika considered the young woman before her. Tasha’s wavy brunette hair had come loose from its ponytail in places and there was honest curiosity in her slate grey eyes.
“Well,” Reika sighed, “You know I come from London and I’m Shadow-Touched, what else do you want to know?”
“What happened? I mean...” Tasha trailed off.
Reika stood up and offered Tasha a hand off of the wall, “Another day, okay? I don’t feel like talking about it today. Besides there isn’t much to tell. Pissed off the wrong person, got into trouble for it and had to skip town.”
“Reika...”
“No, Tasha.” The Asian woman shook her head, “Tomorrow. Or maybe Friday considering I’m in work for the next couple of days, but not today.”
“Okay.” Tasha allowed. “Shall we head back to Crumbs?” She asked, shivering slightly. “I want to get tomorrow’s count finished before work.”
“Sure.” Reika nodded, relieved to be changing the subject back to the nice safe topic of National Novel Writing Month. “You can’t be far off of that now.”
Small talk filled the gap between leaving the park an getting back to Crumbs, nothing heavy, no talk of their powers or back stories, just the quiet chatter of a pair of women who had found a mutual interest in something. Tactics and past experiences with silly mistakes and fateful cockups got them back to the bakery in plenty of time to snatch their table away from the pair of teenagers that looked like they were trying to skip school and wanted somewhere out of the way to do so.
The afternoon quiet was punctuated by only one minor event, they got to see a rather harassed husband come in around three in the afternoon and practically beg on his hands on knees for a speciality cake. Of course it was far, far too late to start from scratch, even when they had made the cake for the woman whose son had an allergy to the filling Dee had written down they had been lucky and had another red velvet cake on the go. He did manage to at least get them to ice some words onto one of the pre prepared cakes in the counter, but that was as much as they could do for the rather desperate young man who had fallen into his wife’s bad books because he had forgotten their anniversary.
When Crumbs closed for the day the pair of them went their separate ways, Tasha heading for work and Reika heading for home, but they did exchange phone numbers before they went so they had an easy way of contacting each other. Tasha found she was surprisingly upset when she realised that Reika would not be there for the next couple of days. She had found that she rather enjoyed the company of the other young woman, and it was rather nice to have a friend around who she could discuss anything with and she would not turn away or demand anything.
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