Chapter Text
“Grande iced green apron blend with two sugars no cream, do you think you can handle that Celjska?”
Elisa was about halfway through her shift, by this time she was well into “the grind” and was working with the efficiency and unconsciousness of a machine.
A woman with a baby in a stroller, likely a girl judging by her flower hair clip, walked up to receive her order. Right as she was about to grab her drink the infant started to cry, after rocking the stroller failed to provide relief she picked her up and rocked her, which seemed to do the trick.
It was such an innocuous moment, but it brought a smile to Elisa’s face. The kind of love she saw in the mother’s eyes was one she was intimately familiar with.
An impatient looking man in a suit waiting behind her threw up his hands and rolled his eyes.
Well that’s uncalled for, your order isn’t even ready yet.
She finished the order she was preparing.
“Tsuda, Ken-”
A mere second after she called the name on the order the man shoved the mother aside. Elisa’s stomach dropped as she saw the infant fall from her mothers arms. The baby was caught right before she touched the ground, the mother looked understandably shaken and the baby began to cry again.
“Wouldja stop gawking and give me my coffee?!” The man demanded in an irritated tone.
Elisa saw red.
“WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM!?” She bellowed. “You could have seriously hurt that baby, would it kill you to pay attention to your surroundings for once?!”
There was no trace of guilt on the man’s reddening face.
“Just who the hell do you think you are!? I’m not gonna get lectured by someone like you, just give me my damn coffee already!”
Elisa had to stop herself from crushing the cup in her grip. Fury begin to well up inside her like a kettle about to boil over. She wanted so dreadfully to make him pay for what he did to that woman and for looking down upon her.
The man yelled something else but she didn’t register what he said.
Without even looking up she threw the drink at the man. The impact removed the lid, splattering coffee onto the man’s suit and then the floor as the cup fell.
For a moment someone could probably hear a pin drop in that store.
“I’ll help whoever's next in line,” Elisa said in a monotone voice.
Ui heard her phone ringing.
“Hello, Ui? It’s Melissa, Elisa hasn’t come home so I was wondering if she was with you?”
“Elisa? No, she isn’t with me.”
“Okay, thanks…”
There was a hint of concern in Melissa’s voice.
“Do you want me to visit the Starbucks she works at? It’s closer to where I live.”
“They said she wasn’t there but I suppose it couldn’t hurt. Thank you Ui…”
Ui boarded a train to Minaminagi, where Elisa’s Starbucks was located.
“Scuse me? Is Elisa Celjska here?”
The young man behind the cashier muttered something to a female employee behind him.
“She’s not here, she left a couple hours ago.”
“Also she…doesn’t actually work here anymore…” the girl divulged.
“What?! But…she definitely was working here today…!”
“It was…a recent development,” the girl clarified. “We probably can’t discuss the details with customers.”
“Well…do you at least know where she might have gone…?”
“I could have sworn I saw her go left.”
“Okay, thank you!”
Elisa sat and watched as the boats came in and out of the harbor, as the brine-tinged wind flowed through her hair periodically.
She figured that Melissa and the others were probably wondering where she was.
She pondered what would happen if she boarded one of those ships, went somewhere far away and was never seen again. The others seemed to have been doing pretty well without her for almost a month before she woke up here, she reckoned they’d probably be fine.
“ELISAAAAAAAA!”
“…Ui?”
Elisa turned her head and saw Ui running towards her.
“There you are! Melissa and the others are worried about you!” Said the child. “Why are you here anyway?”
Elisa gazed across the water again.
“Something…happened, and now I’m not sure I can bear to show my face there again…”
“What do you mean…did something happen at your job? Why did they say you don’t work there anymore?”
Elisa uttered a sigh.
“Because I got fired.”
“Fired?!?” Ui reeled back. “Why would they fire you???”
Elisa told her about the incident with the baby and the man she blew up at.
“I just…I got so angry! I got so worried for that baby, I couldn’t help but imagine myself in the mother’s position…and because of my mistake our income will suffer!” She buried her face in her hands. “Why can’t I stop being a burden to everyone…”
“You’re not a burden…you just made a mistake, and I would be mad too if that happened to me!”
They were both quiet for a moment. Ui sat next to her on the bench.
“Hey…didn’t you tell me one time that you had a baby before you got reborn in Kamihama?”
“…Indeed I did.”
“So that’s why you got so upset…”
Elisa nodded her head.
“I haven’t found myself able to talk about him that much…but to tell you the truth I think about him often…”
“Of course, I'm sure you miss him a lot…do you wanna talk about him now?”
“What sort of things do you want to know?”
“Well, you could start with his name.”
“His name...was Ladislaus. He had blond hair like me and looked almost nothing like his father, which was a relief. And he had these deep blue eyes, they kind of reminded me of Melissa’s, funnily enough.”
“He sounds really cute!”
“Oh he was adorable, an adorable and happy baby. He had begun crawling during the last month of my life, and you’d be surprised how fast he could disappear from your sight!”
Elisa didn’t know exactly how much time passed as she talked to Ui, but by the time she wrapped up the sun was starting to sink beneath the horizon.
“Huh…I didn’t think I would feel better after talking about him but I actually do,” Elisa remarked.
“Yeah! It’s not good to keep things inside!” Ui advised her. “You should try talking about him more often!”
“Maybe...anyways, it’s getting late. You should be on your way home, wouldn’t want your sister to start worrying about you.”
They boarded the train together.
“You’re going to go home, right?" Ui prompted. "You’re not gonna run away anymore?”
“No, I’m done with that. I’m not looking forward to telling them what happened though…”
“I’m sure it will go fine, they’re you’re friends after all!”
Ui got up to leave when the train came to her stop.
“Byeeeee Elisa!”
“Good bye Ui, thank you for everything…”
Elisa’s palms began to sweat as she rode the elevator up to the 3rd floor. When she got to their apartment she took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell.
Immediately the sound of footsteps could be heard. Melissa opened the door and uttered a sigh of relief.
“Oh thank goodness, I was started to get worried about you!”
“Is she finally back?!” She heard Tart calling out.
Elisa’s housemates welcomed her back warmly and then invited her to dinner. It felt nice to know that they were happy to see her but she still dreaded having to tell them what happened to her.
“So um…”
Everyone turned their gaze towards her.
“There’s something I need to tell all of you…”
She took a deep breath.
“I was fired. I no longer have a job.”
“Oh no…” said Tart.
Elisa braced herself as she prepared to see them express their disappointment in her.
“I’m so sorry to hear that Elisa…what happened?”
She recounted the incident once again.
“What an awful situation…it sounds like he deserved it!” Melissa opined.
“Indeed,” said Liz, “but unfortunately that sort of thing doesn’t fly in the customer service world.”
“Yes, it was a poor decision on my part,” said Elisa. “I feel like I’ve just caused nothing but trouble for you all lately, and for that I apologize…”
Melissa looked somewhat perplexed.
“Trouble? What do you mean by that?”
“You know, what happened last night with the microwave oven and now this...”
“Oh don’t even worry about that!” Melissa waved her hand dismissively. “The microwave’s fine, none of the damage was permanent. And I understand why you had such a strong reaction in that moment considering what you’ve been through…”
“It seems like this just wasn’t an occupation that suited you,” Liz interjected. “My first job wasn’t right for me either, and from what I’ve seen it’s a normal experience.”
“We can help you find another job if you’d like!” Tart offered. “Maybe a better one than the last!”
“Why don’t we do a job search over dessert?” Melissa suggested. “I made milk jelly for everyone this afternoon!”
Wow, they really aren’t mad at me…I don’t know why I even worked myself up!
Together they ended up finding several job openings around Kamihama and planned to make some calls the next day. By the time they called it a night Elisa was actually feeling rather optimistic about her life prospects.
After doing her nighttime routine Elisa sat in her bed and did some writing exercises Sakurako assigned them. As usual Melissa joined her sometime later.
“Hey…”
Her lover gazed at her tenderly.
“Hey!”
Melissa tucked herself under the covers and held Elisa’s hand in hers.
“I’ve been thinking about all that happened today…and there’s something I wanted to tell you. I know that you’re used to constantly having to prove that you’re worthy of acceptance, but you don’t ever have to prove yourself to us. Just being here and being yourself is enough.”
“Even when I mess things up?”
“We all mess up, this is new for all of us! Even if you mess up it’s clear to us that you care, I mean you memorized the entire Starbucks menu in a language you’re still learning to read in for God’s sake!”
“Aha, I did do that didn’t I! I must admit it didn’t occur to me that the rest of you struggled too, especially with how well you handle being as busy as you are. I suppose that was short-sighted of me though.”
“It’s not so much that it’s easy per say…it’s more that I’m used to being busy, in a way it brings me comfort,” Melissa confided. “Modern day life is so idle compared to what I’m used to. I know I shouldn’t feel this way…but a part of me felt relieved to hear that we may end up going to war against Promised Blood. It’s not that I want us or any of our allies to get hurt, but I can’t deny that this is closer to what I know.”
“No, I get what you mean. It’s ironic isn’t it? During war we dreamt of peace, but now that we finally have it we didn’t know what to do with it.”
Melissa nodded in agreement.
A wave of languor came over Elisa and she yawned.
“Okay, I don’t think I can keep my eyes open much longer.”
Melissa leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Good night dear.”
“Good night dearest.”
Elisa drifted off to sleep and dreamed of the future.