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Mayuri would never understand why Urahara got so much attention.
Whether it was the soft wavy blonde hair that called out for the hands of men and and other women alike. Perhaps it was the stereotype that went with it that made her so popular, that you could easily have her knees resting on your shoulders, her heels to the sky as you put her through her paces in the most uncompromising positions.
Mayuri despised women like that. And as much as she didn’t want to believe it, Urahara wasn’t just a dumb blonde who strolled about the place like she had sawdust between her ears. She only acted like it, because it got her the information, the attention, endearing looks, everything that she needed for an easy life.
In fact, sometimes she wished that "that time" would come for Urahara, as it always came to Office Ladies. The comments started around when you were 22 from the surrounding salarymen and bosses.
"Why don't you find a nice young man to settle down with."
"A girl as pretty as you shouldn't waste away in an office like this."
Mayuri had already gotten a few of these, to which she merely smiled and inwardly seethed as she poured tea for the CEO like a good girl. Oh how her fantasies were bathed in blood.
By the time girls were 28, they practically threw them out the door. Only the rare bird made it into her thirties as an Office Lady. And eventually, even they flew the nest, even if Mayuri wasn't sure exactly what happened to them.
The office had celebrated Urahara's 28th birthday after the New Year's holiday. She had to admit that Urahara would probably have no problem at all attracting somebody well-off. Hell, she could already be seeing somebody, or if she didn't have the time to date, maybe she sent her photo in to a matchmaking agency. Urahara was a woman born in the year of the Fire Horse, but people weren't so superstitious here anymore, not in the city.
It's not like Mayuri cared. She didn't want to think about it, because then she had to think of her own fate. She was younger than Urahara, but time marches on and stops for no one.
The sun was setting, and even the overworked salarymen had left the building to go drinking with their bosses. Mayuri sipped at her tea, peeking around the room, seeing the emptied desks. She liked the office this way. It was noiseless except for the hum of the machinery, the computers, the heater, the lights. The sounds of technology set her at ease, the song of a life in parallel.
The tea was gone and Mayuri picked up a stack of papers put into her inbox tray. Right, she had to make copies of all of these for the big meeting on Monday. She walked down the hallway to the copy room, the clicking of her heels echoing against the empty walls.
The work was boring, but there was a certain type of zen to it. Placing the paper, putting down the top, pressing the button and seeing the green light flash as it scanned the page...there was a rhythm, and in that monotony she could free her mind and think. Think about the science fiction books she had been drawn to as a child, the National Geographics she managed to check out from the library filled with the weird and wonderful in the real world.
But like a soap bubble, the peace was lost.
"Mayuri-san! I didn't realize that you were here late tonight!"
Urahara's Amazonian figure rested an elbow against the door jamb, blocking what little light had been coming in from the hallway.
"You're rarely one to burn the midnight oil. What would you know of my afterhours working habits?"
Urahara laughed. "I didn't mean it that way. You always are so absorbed in your work during the day, I'm jealous you can keep up that kind of a focus."
"It's a gift," Mayuri said sarcastically as she hit the copy button with more force than she expected to.
"But you are gifted, Mayuri-san. With many things."
Mayuri narrowed her eyes, studying Urahara through the uneasy corner of her gaze. She restacked the papers, each page of the pamphlet stacked in a different direction. Grabbing the pile, she blew past the woman standing in the doorway and defiantly walked back into the main office space, placing the still-warm papers in her outbox.
"I heard on the radio today that there's going to be a full lunar eclipse in about an hour. Did you know about it, Mayuri-san?"
Urahara still stood behind her, a warm smile brightening her face. Mayuri did know, she always read magazines containing popular science, but she still wasn't exactly sure what Urahara's point was. The woman might be talking about the night sky, but usually her words sought a second truth. That digging was what made Mayuri so uncomfortable. Mayuri wore the most expensive skirt-suit she could afford, hid her face behind heavy, luxurious makeup, the burgundy lipstick so dark it looked black, and yet Urahara paid no attention to the outer self she presented to her superiors, the facade that let her hide from normal people. No, right now, she might as well be completely naked under a spotlight.
"Come watch it with me. I know the perfect place." Urahara played with the end of a strand of her long gold hair. "Everyone's gone, so they'd never know."
"Never know what?" Mayuri finally decided to bite.
"Come with me!" Urahara grabbed the corner of her shirt sleeve and Mayuri ungracefully ran after her, Mayuri's smaller stride tripping up as the much taller woman pulled her along.
After a quick run up the stairs and through a maze of hallways, they got to a big open area, with a shut-down reception desk in front of a short recessed area graced by double doors. Mayuri looked at the doors, puzzled. This was the CEO's office. Sure, she'd seen the CEO in meetings before, but she'd never had a reason to actually go to his office. Urahara jiggled the door handles and sighed.
"This was what you brought me over for? Of course the office is locked!"
Urahara laughed. "It's no trouble. I was just making sure!"
She looked inside the reception desk and pulled out a very small flat-headed screwdriver, and pulled a pin out of her hair.
"What are you doing?" Mayuri asked, her interest now piqued.
Urahara smiled gently at Mayuri over her shoulder. "You'd be surprised at what you can get to learn from the right person and the right opportunity. Everybody with a secret...secretly wants to spill the beans."
She continued. "This door has a fault in it. If you apply a little pressure against the locking mechanism through the crack in the door and push in the pins here..."
The doors swung open.
"Useful, no? I'd say that the security here is appalling, but really, who's going to take the time for anything here."
Mayuri stood up warily. This was useful information. Did it work on other doors here too? Or just this one? She followed Urahara into the room and shut the doors behind her.
The back of the office was one giant window. She could see the desolate street below, the empty offices in the neighboring buildings. But, most shockingly, she could see the stars emerging from the twilight. The silver light brightened her blue-toned hair, her fair powdered skin. Mayuri sat on the edge of the leatherbound wooden desk that belonged to the CEO.
"Well, what do you think?" said Urahara. She sat down on the desk, too, scooting closer to Mayuri. She placed a hand on the desk behind Mayuri's back and leaned into it.
What did she think? What the fuck was she supposed to think? Mayuri frowned. She found it hard to think with Urahara so close, the blood rushing in her ears.
"Well, I thought it would be the perfect place to take someone like you," said Urahara. "Look at the sky, look at everywhere we've never been, the worlds we don't know. It's just so exciting."
As a child Mayuri had certainly found such things exciting, but somewhere along the way it tarnished. Power was to be found in harnessing the forces of the real world, in studying people, interactions, events. Her mind was a ruthless note taker, and nobody would know the depths of what she knew.
She knew Urahara wore "model size" shoes. That she was right handed except for when she threw something. That she took two sugars in her coffee, but preferred tea. They had graduated from the same high school six years apart, and every time she went to gym class, she had seen Urahara's face in the hallway, smiling in a picture as the sickeningly perky manager of an old kendo club. Ugh! These facts! They came streaming to Mayuri from everywhere no matter how much she tried to stem their flow.
"Are you all right?" Urahara asked. Her eyes were warm, a contrast from the chilly starlight.
"What do you care?" said Mayuri, coolly.
"You think nobody notices, but I can tell there's a lot going on up here." Urahara tapped Mayuri's forehead gently.
"So the pot calls the kettle black." Mayuri pulled away. "I'm honored at your flattery, but what do you want?"
Urahara smiled.
"What?" Mayuri said, demandingly.
"You really want to know?"
"Just spit it out!"
Urahara brushed her hand against Mayuri's cheekbone and buried her fingers in her hair. "I'll show you another secret, Mayuri-san."
A pair of lips came down and covered her own. They were soft and sweet, the youthful lip balm Urahara wore was so different from the dry matte of her own mouth.
A secret? What was this now? That Urahara was secretly insane, unbeknownst to the office population? That she wasn't leaving even though she was 28 because she was actually a rezu? That she said her favorite fruit was cherry, and yet Mayuri's mouth was certainly full of strawberries? What!?
Urahara pulled her closer, and strangely, Mayuri felt herself giving way into this warm body. It was hypnotizing, it detached her mind from her body, like when somebody slaps you after you're long gone drunk. The hand in her hair tightened and the tiny movements of the strands made her shiver.
Eventually, Urahara let go.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"You didn't flinch. You didn't run away."
Mayuri shook her head. "Well, no. I am well aware that human beings know how to kiss. I'm still waiting for the punchline. And if you're not willing to tell me that, please, just let me go home and I won't mention anything about this to anybody at work."
Urahara searched over Mayuri's face, her knowing look breaking Mayuri's mind further. She could see that the most obvious fact of her life was completely obscured by Mayuri's inability to recognize that she was sought after, too.
"I like you, Mayuri-san," said Urahara.
Mayuri looked at Urahara as if she had grown a second head. She liked her? Why? How?
"I hope one day, you'll like me, too."
Mayuri sighed. This was going to be a mess. She knew it.
Mayuri opened her mouth to chastise Urahara, but the edge of the moon started to become covered in shadow, and it stole her thoughts.
"Look," she pointed to the sky.
"Indeed," said Urahara.
There they sat on the desk as they watched the shadow pass from the side, to the center, to the other side. Neither one of them moved, except to breathe.
Mayuri stole a glance toward Urahara, who looked completely at peace. Somehow she felt like the demons in her mind were quieting, but maybe she was just looking for a way out. The world might change; it might stay the same.
It didn't matter. Right now, her mind was eclipsed. How rare indeed.