Utena, Revolutionary Girl Fan Fiction ❯ Alongside the Geese ❯ Alongside the Geese: Part 1 ( Chapter 1 )

Author's Notes: I'm not going to say much about the story so far, however I will shamelessly advertise my two other Utena fanfics: “In a Theatre” a story set a few years after the end of the series where Utena and Anthy are very much a couple and “To Be Friends Like That” a snippet exploring episode 25 and foreshadows events that will take place later on in the Apocalypse Saga. (AU is implied -) Read all, Review and prosper-or some jazz.

 

Along Side the Geese

 

 

A few loose strands of violet hair were pulled behind her ear, for self-assurance more than anything else. She looked to the small group of men sitting patiently several tables away. Her eyes surveyed the room; upturned chairs littered the thick woodened tabletops. The lights were on high as various workers were scrambling to finish off little odds and ends: re-screwing a light fixture that had met with an unfortunate accident, or painting the last bit of baseboard that had somehow been neglected earlier on. And there was a lot of sweeping and dusting and wiping resulting from the band of cleaners who were navigating around them.

Considering the chaos contained within the confines of the building, it was fairly quiet. It smelled faintly of sawdust, varnish, dirt, and the labors of men battled off by the fumes of the various commercial products currently in use. Wouldn't it be nice to capture this wonderful, interesting smell? She knew that by the time they were open for business this place would have an entirely different scent. It would smell new, it would smell of perfumes and colognes and food of all sorts.

Her eyes came to rest on the open songbook before her, the notation known better to her than the arrangement of letters in the alphabet. She looked back to the small group of men, decked, of course, in business suits.

"If you please." One of them said.

Her fingers ran with rust. It had been so long since she'd done this but she seemed confident in her ability. There was a reason why people fell into utter enchantment when her fingers graced the keys of a piano. The tension she felt began to wane as she went on and she idly thought, that playing was like reacquainting herself with a lover from far off in the past, and it wasn't long before her digits had completely rediscovered their grace. They glided over the white and black keys and for a few fleeting moments she was lost in a sanctuary she hadn't visited in a long time.

When at last she'd finished, she took a moment to sit and reflect before addressing her perspective employers. They were murmuring amongst themselves. She couldn't make any of it out, though surely she could have if she'd wanted to. They made no indication for her to rise and so, she continued to sit; her back straight, her hands in her lap and her ankles, hidden by the long dress she wore, crossed one over the other.

At last, a hand gesture. They were signaling her over. Elegantly, she stood from the cushioned bench and made her way over to the men. Ah, so apparently there was a woman in among them. Perhaps it was time again for her to have a visit with her optometrist. . . The woman's skin was slightly dark but not nearly as dark as her own. And while her hair was long and wavy, free to hang as it pleased yet stylized and very appealing, the woman across her had her hair up in a bun and little could be said about it.

"That was rather moving," the woman said.

"Oh, thank you."

A man to her right flipped through some papers. "You've quite an impressive background."

"Yes," another called. "And you've listed that you're able to start by the twenty, sixth?"

"Yes, although now it's turning out that I may be available as early as the fifteenth."

"Ah, that's good." another said after clearing his throat.

"Though we wouldn't need you to start until the eighteenth."

Her head whipped around to look at the man who'd last spoken. "I beg your pardon?"

"Is that date not good for you?"

"Not at all. I just-I'm sorry. This is just a wee bit sudden. I wasn't expecting to be employed right away."

"Nevertheless, we'd love to have you," the woman cut in. She held out her hand.

"Thank you." They weakly shook.

She strode rather happily into her apartment. It was undeniably a good day. She waltzed over to the fridge passing her old, white, black and brown-patched cat as he leapt up onto a piece of furniture. Her ever faithful friend, Chu Chu could be heard snoring in the distance. She scratched the cat's ear and stroked his back once before moving on to drop her purse on the counter. She continued over to the sink. The cat prowled into the kitchen behind her faintly meowing.

“What?” She asked. Knowing full well what the creature was after.

He meowed again walking over and pressing his side up against her lower shin.

“Alright, alright.” She retrieved a can of cat food from the cupboard above her head and then quickly found the can's opener. It took her several tries before she was able to successfully remove the lid and shortly after she scrapped half of the can's contents into the small metal bowl beside the fridge.

With her cat happily feeding she opened the fridge door and glanced inside. She had some orange juice, a couple eggs, some cheese, the last of a package of deli meat, a tub of margarine, a container filled with stew that had probably passed its expiry date, and a fallen over box of baking soda. She stood the small orange box up and decided on a sandwich.

Dessert consisted of chipped ice in a bowl laced with lemon syrup on one side and raspberry on the other. By this time, Chu Chu had roused himself from his sleeping quarters and was squeaking, demanding to be fed.

Anthy took a moment to find a half eaten package of crackers and offered it to the little beast. He took them hungrily, delving into them and making a terribly crumbly mess on the counter where he was now perched.

She chose to eat on the couch where she snatched up the remote and flicked on the television. The news was apparently what she was to watch. The reporters informed her there'd been a massive pile up coming off one of the highways. She wasn't really paying much attention. She was too busy nursing her chipped ice.

Having finished his meal, Chu Chu scurried over to his master, but not before stopping to pull on the old cat's tail who promptly hissed and took a swipe at him.

“Chu . . .” The creature sighed after surviving the self imposed danger. He made his way onto the arm of the couch and began to cry for Anthy's attention.

“Hm . . .?” She asked glancing at him. She ran her tongue over the spoon licking off its contents. “Should I give you some?”

He continued to make a fuss. She allowed herself a light chuckle before offering him a small spoonful.

“I'm going to be playing the part of a pianist for a while.”

Chu Chu wrinkled his nose up at her, though it's arguable as to whether the expression was directed to this news or to the lemon syrup.

She watched the weather forecast with some interest, mostly because she found the wrinkles on the old man's forehead amusing. He looked like a pug. Though her attention was kept for a short time on the matter, ultimately she tired of it and fell into a light sleep.

She was rudely jumbled awake when the television blared; some dramatic teens' show was on. It took her a moment to calm her nerves. She rubbed her eyes, flicked off the noisy box and stretched.

There was a yawn and to her discovery it was late evening. The rest of this drawn out day consisted of her flipping through a two day old newspaper where she smiled fondly upon coming across and reading the centerfold of the black and white comics section. She wasn't finished with the paper but decided to begin tidying the apartment after thinking about the cleaners from earlier that day. A pair of sweatpants accompanied with a tank top seemed more idyllic for dusting and scrubbing washroom tile, and so she changed. To compliment her new set of attire, a bandana with droplets of bleach stain was used to hold back her hair.

The shed cat hair on both the furniture and the floor was the first thing to disappear. Her cat hated the vacuum and fled into the bedroom when she turned it on near him. He did not emerge when she'd finished with it, even after she shook the small bag of cat treats she kept in the cupboard under the sink. She left two in his dish regardless and went off to tackle the grout work in the washroom.

Her weapon of choice was an old toothbrush of hers smeared with all-purpose cleaner. There wasn't much in the ways of grime but she scrubbed furiously between the tiles on the wall all the same. When she finished, she rinsed it all down and removed the makeup she'd worn to her interview.

Leaving the washroom she surveyed her surroundings. The cat had left the bedroom sometime ago and was curled up on the chair. She took a few more steps into the room and pulled back the few strands of hair that had fallen loose from the confines of the bandana behind her ear.

What should she do now? She returned to the washroom and made her way over to the tub. She filled it with hot water, undressed and bathed.

Tonight she would wear a long nightgown.

Having little else to do, she spent much of the remainder of the evening combing and then brushing her hair. Let it be known that wavy hair can be something quite beautiful to behold, but without near constant brushing, it is susceptible to massive, unmanageable tangles. To brush it now would make it that much less of a hassle in the morning, unless of course, she was to implement some of her more . . . unique abilities . . .

The day following was uneventful save for coming across a peculiar book in the local bookstore; a book by one Akio Ohtori.

The name in and of itself struck a chord of fear? No. Anxiety was more fitting. He was within the walls of his precious school; he couldn't reach her outside his world. This she knew. He would have to abandon his coffin in order to find her and she doubted very much he would attempt that. There was too much for him to loose by doing so.

Still, she could not fully shake the ill feeling that he was looming over her. Perhaps she felt that, by reading his work, she would somehow find herself back in his world . . .

After much deliberation, she decided to, at the very least, glance through the pages.

She found that he'd left something for her. It was small and on the inside of the cover, at first glance it looked like nothing more than elaborate, overlapping designs, but she knew better and she doubted anyone in existence would recognize the script. He probably thought he was being clever in doing so.

To simplify he was asking for her return.

She wore a grim smile and purchased the tome. Along with a foreign book; she had a few loose ends to tie up.

When she'd returned to her current living quarters, she opened her brother's book, running her fingers over the writings. She lured the words of desire off their respected pages in a fashion similar to how she'd once summoned the noble sword of Tenjou.

She arranged the words accordingly, forming a message and then flicked her hand. The kanji blew away, vanishing in mid air. How she was able to do this is a question that will forever remain unanswered.

The day after that was spent entertaining Chu Chu who no longer felt that dancing in the ashes of the recently killed book was fun.

On Anthy's first day of work, she woke around the usual time. Groggily she went through her morning ritual: Yawn, stretch, undress, and dress for the day, brush her hair, brush her teeth, feed Chu Chu, feed the cat, feed herself and brush her teeth again.

With her shift not starting until early evening, she busied herself with performing the everyday house hold tasks. She made her bed, cleaned the liter box, swept the floors, vacuumed, and washed the few dishes in need of being cleaned. Chu Chu attempted to help by drying the cutlery but then became most entertained by the shiny objects, leaving Anthy to dry the rest.

She bagged her dirty clothes and took them to be laundered. A novella accompanied her while she waited for the load to wash and dry and then folded it before packing everything up again and returning to her apartment. By the time she finished the story it was time to go.

Anthy was earlier than she thought she would be. She stood outside looking up at the tall grey building for a short while before entering.

Anthy's shift started just on the tail end of the evening rush. The room was filled with men and women of business and refinement, out together or in small groups for fine dining and comforting atmosphere. She was hit with waves of conglomerated smells; from expensive perfumes and colons, to fresh bread and rich pasta dishes, to seafood meals, to wine and beer, cakes and pies, among many other things that she was not yet able to identify.

With a level of confidence that had for the longest of time been unknown to her, she made her way through the masses and successfully avoided several waiters and waitresses as the sped by her, nearly running her down and over to the piano which sat in a somewhat darkened patch of the room waiting for her.

She elegantly took her seat and was just about to begin the first composition when something caught her eye, but when she looked up from her song book, whatever it had been was gone. She felt slightly disoriented but dismissed it and began to play.

The room calmed a great deal as the diner rush came to its end, with the evening falling into night. When an opportune time came, Anthy took a quick break. Upon finishing with her personal business, while washing her hands her eyes were once again caught by something. It took her a moment to register the pink hair, cut short and she quickly left the women's room in pursuit.

In the few years past since Anthy and Utena's dramatic parting, Anthy had searched and pushed the extent of her resources trying to find the self proclaimed girl-prince and yet every time she'd ended up with nothing. There had been several times where she'd gotten her hopes up. Certain-believing that she'd finally stumbled onto the right path and that Utena would be there waiting for her. But of course, she never was.

Keeping that in mind, she wasn't overly surprised to discover that the person she'd pursued was indeed not Utena. Rather, she was simply a women, a coworker of hers apparently whom held a striking resemblance to the one she sought. Save for the fact that the women's skin was not as fair as Utena's and furthermore, her eyebrows were much too thick to belong to Utena.

Returning to her post, Anthy scolded herself. How foolish it was for her to think that she would just happen upon her like that.

She had wanted to clear her mind of Utena but found it difficult to do so. Her eyes stared at the arrangement of musical notation she was to play and began. She surprised herself moments later as she came to realize that she wasn't playing the notes she was reading but rather, it was “Miki's” The Sunlit Garden.

TBC