Face to face [Susanna, Yeka]

[Susanna Achrenius]

Her thoughts failed her completely.

Susanna sat in a table, alone, a half empty glass of liquid in her right hand. She looked quite absent, yet all the same her hand was waving the glass slightly, lazily, and the brownish green eyes of hers followed as the golden liquor in it swirled and bubbled. It had been a while since she had come to a place like this, but today she had felt like it - it had been her last day at work, and soon the Ashford Academy, in which she had had the pleasure of spending the last year or so, would become but a memory among others. Soon enough, nobody wouldn't probably even remember the substitute teacher, and life would continue as it was even before her.
Like so many times before.

She sighed slightly, taking a sip of her glass.
Moving on usually didn't feel this... peculiar, for the lack of a better word. But this school had had something to it - well, no wonder when even few of the younger royalty had attended to it for a while - and then there had been this whole test pilot ordeal, from which she had decided to retreat at the last second. Today she had wondered if it really had been a wise thing to do - if she had accepted, she would've at least had something to do for now.

Alas, no, she had thought, in the end it would've still been but way too risky. And in her heart she knew, that she wouldn't have sustained for too long the fact that even if she would have been 'just' piloting, it was in the end weaponry for the war she would've helped them to create. And that idea was pretty far of her idea for a right thing to do.

But what to do now?
Maybe the evening would decide, or the next morning - but for now, she would sit and feel the atmosphere of once again being free of everything else except of her own, personal binding.

[Yekaterina Tsurugi]

Kак шумных...(1)
The streets, the city, the people. Yekaterina had longed for some peace, some comfort, some sort of leisure for the night that was one of the few which after she might as well meet her last. The Great Wedding - oh what a great day it would be - was finally right around the corner, only a few days away. And if she was going to make it there, with all her beloved companions also known as the Black Knights, and follow her precious Commander to the fullest, she would do it well. Oh, they'd so be crashing to the wedding, and they'd do it hard. Maybe then would these way too loud Britannians also shut their trap for a moment.

Gradually had the Secretary General made her way to a bit quieter surroundings - there were still people passing by, but no so loud, not so conceitedly cheerful. These people made a gentle smile cross Yekaterina's face - these were her people, her father's people, Japanese people. And soon, soon she hoped she could present them with their own country once more with it's rightful name, and where they could live without the oppression of some aristocratic, inhuman chimeras with the lions head and a snake as a tail.

But the chimera would get to wait for a few days still - now, it was time to forget the future and celebrate the past. The Secretary General had found a place looking shabby yet cozy enough, somewhat lively but with Japanese only. Knocking the ashes out of her kiseru pipe she made her way in, and headed straight for the counter for a drink before she bothered to inspect the room any further. In this case, doing the latter first might have been the better option. As soon as she had got her drink, Yekaterina turned - and what did her eyes see. A lone woman, clearly not that of a Japanese descent, sitting there, all alone. Yekaterina wasn't sure whether she should have been amused or rather irritated, even amped - hence the fact that the woman looked but a bit too familiar, a bit too Britannian to her liking. And Yekaterina couldn't help but wonder, that she was somewhat, quite vaguely yet still, somehow familiar to her. But how, she could only ponder...

No way she would let such a thing just pass by her nose, никогда. (2)
So, firmly grabbing her glass, the Secretary General then made her way towards the said table and promptly sat herself onto a couch at the opposite side of the table. Turning her head and the eyes of deep purple scanning the woman on the other side, she but stated, much more than asked:
"Hope you won't mind."

***
(1)How noisy...
(2)never

[Susanna Achrenius]

"Hope you won't mind."

The sudden voice snapped Susanna out of her thoughts, and she now noticed the woman who apparently had - how ever uninvited - decided to bless the Finn with her presence. Although, the immediate, spontaneous response for her words was a frown and a silent glance from Susanna's direction. The voice supposedly meant for greeting hadn't exactly been the most friendly ever. But little she had time for an argue before the woman had made herself comfortable on the couch opposite her. So, she but shook her head silently - although she never really let her eyes off the comer, which proved out to be a good intuition. Susanna could almost feel the sharp gaze of the other woman. There was something in that gaze, which made a chill run through her spine. Why on earth would a total stranger be that interested in her? Unless....

The thought made the Finn try and sharpen up. She wasn't yet that drunk that she wouldn't be able to defend herself, or at least escape, but now she had the feeling that she might even have to prepare for either, or even both. The other woman - her eyes had that certain something. That of a fighter, of another warrior. Susanna shivered.
Who the hell..? And in a place like this..?
But, she tried to keep her calm, and before anything else, she decided to try and pry for some further information.
"Well, I don't. But I do little ponder why..."
She tried to find a bit better wording but in the end her output wasn't exactly that subtle.
"Something wrong with me for you to stare like that?"

[Yekaterina Tsurugi]

"Something wrong with me for you to stare like that?"

The coerced mask of a subtle smile didn't leave the Secretary General's face, yet when the supposed Britannian spoke, it clearly anything but pleased her.
"Now, let me see... I just think you're clearly out of your place here." A sharp tone was used, as sharp as the flash in the purple eyes.
"You see, I was on may way to enjoy a bit of refreshment... Some tea, some liquor perhaps, and good company..." She glanced around the room as if there'd been a gang of people waiting for her. Truth was it wasn't her first time in this specific little bar, but it wasn't like she'd had some sort of a meeting tonight here either. Not that it was the point. What mattered, was that a few of the regular customers returned her smile and winks of an eye - what didn't was, if the redhead would fall to her bluff or not.

Yet after the supposed 'round of greetings' she returned her piercing gaze back at the other woman, and put on a bit more disappointed-looking face.
"But you see, they're not really fond of... outsiders, понимаем(1)? So when they saw you, they simply didn't dare to disturb you..."
Yekaterina made an indicative look around the corner they were sitting in.
"...you see, you happened to sit into our table."
She left the last word hang - hang for loooong enough to the Brit to get the hint. The Secretary General had decided that if her fun for the evening would be humiliating this Britannian in front of her own dear Japanese people, so would it be then. She was stressed, tired, and had had the purpose of getting rid of that in many other ways than bullying innocent civilians. But this would do, as well. She wouldn't go too far, of course, but it had to be said that Yekaterina was never one of the kindest ones towards Britannians, whether the situation demanded or not. And, by the looks of it, at least his fellow Japanese didn't seem very eager to defend this woman, either. Mostly they just stared at the nascent quarrel, some amused, some slightly suspicious. By the looks of it most of them also had to think the redhead was a Britannian indeed, so Yekaterina could understand also the less amusing side for them. Some of them still wouldn't dare to even look at a Brit in a wrong way to avoid what might have been the consequences of such foul action in the eyes of any esteemed Britannian.

But by the way this other woman had returned her gaze, which was one of those enough to make a spineless noble wet themselves and run, Yekaterina wasn't entirely sure if she even was just anybody who you could pass by on the street. So, she wasn't too eager to let go of her either, not yet.

***
(1) understand?