[Fiction] Making Friends, Finding Enemies

[z-Gu Saori]

Saori shivered in the afternoon air, hustling toward her appointment. It was a new client, one she'd never met before, and Saori was eager to get back to work. The slush squished under her boots, making the young nova wince. She'd just bought these leather boots, and she didn't look forward to get them stained the first time she wore them.

The address appeared on her right, and Saori hurried to the doors. The doorman stopped her and asked her name; when she gave it, he opened the door for her with a tipped hat and a smile. Saori gratefully rushed into the warm lobby, pausing only to shed her hat and straighten her hair.

The elevator carried her to the fourth floor, and Saori blinked as the doors opened to a riot of purple and blue. The walls of the hallway were painted in blue and purple waves, and the carpet tried to decide between one of the two colors and failed. Saori walked to 402 and tapped on the sky blue door.

The door opened in a blast of smoke and music. A white woman stood there, leaning against the doorjamb, a burning cigarette in her mouth. "You have to be Saori," the woman said, pulling the cigarette away from red, red lips. "You look just like all your pictures, but even prettier."

"Thank you," Saori said, bowing her head. "Your words are kind." Her client was of average height, with straight dark hair and hard eyes. She was wearing too much makeup, though the overdone, dramatic look favored her. "Are you Ms. Indepedence Sydney?"

"Yeah, call me Indie," Indie smiled, standing back to let her in. The apartment was done in dark shades of purple, and the thick curtains added to the overall gloom the dark color caused. In here, Saori had no clue that the noon sun stood high overhead. "Soooooooo," Indie drawled, "how do we start this?"

"Let us discuss the piece you wish," Saori suggested, setting her paint box down. She took off her coat and glanced around trying to figure out where to put it.

Indie took it from her, tucking it over a hook next to the door. Taking Saori's hand, she drew her into the room. "First, can I get you something? A drink, a smoke?" Saori hesitated, and Indie said, "No, really. I know that the Chinese sometimes have this ritual where they insist while the guest denies three times; I'm a baseline, my life is too fucking short to dance around like that. If you want something, hon, say it."

"A smoke," Saori said, bowing her head slightly.

"Straight or doctored?"

"Pardon?" Saori asked.

"Straight, as in a cigarette, or doctored, as in I add something fun, or give you something besides tobacco," Indie explained.

"Straight, please," Saori murmured, smiling. Indie lit a cigarette off her own, and passed it to Saori. The young nova gratefully pulled in a lungful of smoke, smiling a touch at the burn. As a rule, it was bad form to be drunk or stinking of smoke when she went to a client, and she'd been suffering the full force of her quiet grief.

"Now, for my piece," Indie said, pulling out a stack of papers. They were riddled with doodles, and the woman pawed through them before producing one and pointing at one of the sketches. "I was thinking something like this."

Saori studied the gothic image of an winged woman, probably meant to be an angel. The wings were outspread, but her arms were stretched over her head, reached upward toward whatever the angel's eyes sought. Her body was naked, her breasts hidden by her hair, and her feet faded into a glittering nothingness.

Reaching deep inside herself, Saori called forth the image from the paper, forming a vision of it in the air between them. Indie smiled, a genuine expression that removed years from her face. "That is so cool," Indie said, her fingers sliding through the image, making it waver.

"Where do you want it?" Saori asked.

Indie unbuttoned her shirt, revealing a toned upper body and no bra. "From here," she said, touching her stomach just above her bellybutton, "to here." She touched a point between her breasts. "And before you start, yes, I know that it's one of the worst places to have a tattoo, do to the fact that the stomach and chest distend first on a woman. It's where I want it."

Saori nodded; the client was paying for it. "Let us see how it looks at various angles," Saori said, holding up a mirror and making the image appear on Indie's skin.

Indie grinned broader and said, "An inch higher?" Together, the two began to work out the exacting details of the tattoo.

[z-Gu Saori]

Indie lay on her back, one hand tucked behind under the pillow. She had amazing skin, Saori noted as she straddled the young woman's hips. Indie smiled indulgently up at her, the mirage of her tattoo still on her skin. "Are you ready?" Saori asked, her needles in her hand.

"Sure," Indie said, drawing in a mouth-full of smoke. Saori had been pleased to see that the woman already had a tattoo, up high on her shoulder. Dealing with first-time clients could be nerve-wrecking, and Saori was pleased that this wouldn't be the issue this time. With a nod, Saori started the procedure.

It was only after an hour of small talk that Saori felt comfortable enough to ask, "How did you get your name? It is very unusual."

"Yeah," Indie said, rolling her eyes. "That's what happens when your mom is a B-actoress and your father is a weak moron living off her money and therefore unable to rub two brain cells together long enough to object to her stupid ideas. And that's assuming that he would anyway, knowing that she's got a vile temper and the tendency to emasculate men."

"You could change it," Saori suggested mildly.

"Sure, then I'd be cut out of the will," Indie said. "And lose my allowance, and I like my current lifestyle." She flicked some ash off her cigarette and grinned at Saori. "See, she has this idea that naming me 'Independence' proves she's this great intelluctual and humanitarian, as if she had the word wedged so far in her brain that she couldn't pick anything else for her daughter."

"I'm sorry," Saori said softly.

"Why?" Indie giggled. "It means that I grew up doing pretty much what I wanted, so long as I didn't piss Mommy off. So yeah, it was to my advantage."

"It sounds disruptive," Saori said, "no assurances, no feeling of safety or comfort... I would have disliked it."

"So I guess your family was the cradle of warmth and love," Indie said, her smile a little tight and unhappy.

Saori's face remained calm, but inwardly she cursed herself. Part of her job was to chat comfortably with the clients, not to upset them. "No," she answered truthfully. "My parents were very strict; I was the product of my mother's affair with another man. Both parents hated me as the sign of her indiscretion. But I was cared for, and I was safe." She gave Indie a sweet smile. "Perhaps if I had been raised as you were, I would feel the same as you do."

"Maybe," Indie said, tossing her butt into a ashtray. "But that's a deep philosophical mess involving nature vs. nurture. And frankly, that is all bullshit. You are what you are, and no one can change it."