New York Minute: These Dark Days

[x-kaminari.livejournal.com]

And in these days
When darkness falls early
And people rush home
To the ones they love

9:34 pm:

Taking the train into New York City really had not been the original plan. Actually, when Nori went storming out the door back at the mansion there really hadn’t been a plan. She’d been angry, and she’d just needed to get away. Running would do that, and pretty much the second she was out the front door she’d just taken off. And she hadn’t cooled down any by the time she reached the end of the grounds, so she’d just kept going, heading towards town more because she knew the way even in the dark than from any real purpose.

It wasn’t until she made it to the station that she decided to catch the train. Unfortunately, stuck in a train car for two hours unable to do more than fidget hadn’t so much given her time to cool off as to brood, and by the time she hit the streets of New York she was in almost as bad a mood as when she’d left, and wandering the streets wasn’t helping much. It reminded her too much of Tokyo, in a way, but at the same time was so totally foreign, especially since Apocalypse. Things were open again, life was going on, but everywhere there were signs of what had happened, and it was just making her depressed and jumpy.

The sight of the flashing neon sign really just crystallized the yearning that was already there, and for all that normally she remembered all the reasons she was fighting it, Jennie’s faith and Julio’s concern and Dr. Voight’s disapproval and Kevin and Karo and all her friends, this time she didn’t even pause before walking straight into the bar.

---

10:12 pm:

The trick was to never approach the bar. There were bars and bartenders who wouldn’t card or care, but she’d learned not to risk it in New York. No, the trick was to find some guy sitting at a table, definitely there to find company, but not brave or something enough to go up to the girls at the bar. Find him, slide into the seat opposite, and make with the charm.

If they asked how old she was, well, remind them that Asians always looked younger than they were; let them make their own conclusions, because she certainly didn’t dress like a kid. If they push, claim nineteen, lean back and cross the legs so the skirt falls a little too high. If they still push, she’d picked the wrong mark, and probably the wrong bar.

But they almost never pushed that hard.

Nori was four drinks in and in a much better mood. Calmer. Smoother. Happier.

And now she wanted to dance.

---

11:53 pm:

The old guys were the best. It was what she’d learned on the streets in Tokyo; they wanted to dance with the pretty young thing, flirt with her and buy her drinks, and they had the deep pockets to buy a lot. Maybe she’d let them cop a feel, but for the most part that’s where it ended with them. They were responsible adults, married maybe, but even if not it never went too far. It was all about image. They’d earn points with their friends for spending time with someone so young and cute. But they risked losing too much if they took advantage of her, if they pushed for too much. Didn’t want to risk her causing a scene. Didn’t want to know the truth of how old she wasn’t.

The old guys were the best. The safest.

But the young guys were the most fun.

College guys. They could really move, keep up with Noriko, even at her fastest, had the energy to keep on dancing forever. And how they danced... They made her feel, and they made her forget, and gods how she loved it.