Espresso Compresso

Ness had been, at first, reluctant when confronted with the prospect of a date. Especially a blind date! She wondered what had happened to her. She used to be so flirtatious! it was true, sort of, that Ness was a bit of a player, and simply liked the attention of men... No, boys following her around. But nowadays it seemed as though she didn't want any kind of attention at all, in particular. She was happy in her little apartment north of town, reading fairy-tales and comparing them to the strange delusion she had been living in. She had watched "Whisper of the Heart" recently, that old Studio Ghibli chickflick anime about the girl and her fairytales and so Ness herself felt quite similar to Shizuku.

The time came to leave the house; phone, purse, keys. These are the types of check one must do when they leave the house as a mortal. But Ness had always been mortal. She was clad in a pretty summer dress that pinched in her waist and plumped up her already ample bosom, but left the lower half up to the imagination due to its floating, swishy, pleated shape, coupled with a dark petticoat. The print on the dress was of kind of hipsterish; a pale yellowy cream map with lines of lattitude and longitude criss-crossing upon it. Coupled with her bright blue hair, Ness might be mistaken for some "cool girl".

She had chosen a dress that augmented her bosom for a single reason only; her date was American. Kyuri, fellow "assistant sales manager" (i.e. shelf-stacker) at the Super Yuki had set her up with one of her husband's old army buddies, and while Japanese would never display their chest, she was determined to look her best for Mr. USA, so that even if she snubbed him, he would feel like he was missing out.

Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, the T she rode to get downtown was a little late, and so she wasn't exactly punctual. The American was hard to miss, sitting with his sandy blonde hair and weeny cup of coffee. Ness was here not infrequently nowadays; that other café with the white haired owner and that creepy guy Hidane had been so put off her radar.

"Hey, sorry I'm late!" she said, giving him a sunny smile as she removed her shades with the bright red frames from her face and stowed them in her purse, sitting down across from Alex. "You're here from Kyuri and Brad right? My apologies, the train ran late. I must be a horrible date! she said, with mock horror, clapping a single hand to her cheek. "Excuse me, Yuna, could you please get me a flat white, with a french press, none of that machine shite." she called sweetly to the waitress who merely bowed at her.

"Ahh of course Miss Ness-San!" the waitress responded, finally allowing Ness to turn back to her date and drink him in. And drink she did. He was pretty hot; he had that rugged army man look, with the beard and wild blonde hair. His brow game was pretty on point and he resembled more of a mountain than a man; compared to the other people around here. "Sorry, but Kyuri never told me your name..." she said, giving the grumpy but rugged man an encouraging smile.

"Ahh well yanno, any buddy of Brad's is... Well, is a buddy of Kyuri's is a buddy of mine." she told him with a satisfied grin. Where was the old, sarcastic Vanessa? Ness seemed much nicer. Though she wondered if he would take wrongly to the use of a word like "buddy" or "pal". He was American, they were all friendly like that, right? Actually, Ness had only met Brad once or twice when he had picked her co-worker up. She smiled at him as he seemed to limber up slightly, a little warm colour spreading in her ordinarily snow pale face. Her face had been one of the things that had distinguished her here, other Japanese were seldom as pale as Ness, and she didn't for the life of her know why. Some people had taken to calling her "Aoi" because of her blue hair too, a name which annoyed her immensely but she couldn't quite remember why. "Your Japanese is pretty good by the way." she complimented him with a smirk. "Just to warn you, I am not a good person to get tips off of." she said with a short laugh; Ness spoke in Osaka-ben and sometimes even had difficulty conversing with Tokyo-natives.

She nodded and extended her hand to shake when he asked her name. Vanessa's handshake was firm but would likely be dwarfed by this guy with his big hands and everything. Ness was pretty tall for a girl but this guy still seemed like some kind of giant or something. "American-size" she thought to herself with an inside chuckle.

"Ahh well there's not so much to know. I'm an Osaka U drop out and I moved to K-town recently to escape a bad breakup." Not that she exactly remembered much of the breakup. "Are you in Japan for work? You look like you do something cool, like maybe a Pilot or something." she laughed.

A detective but not a good one, huh? At a guess, Ness could tell fairly quickly that that was because of one reason; he was Gaijin. A detective had to be... Well at least somewhat inconspicuous. They had to blend in effortlessly. With his blonde hair, full beard, and large frame, Alex just stuck out like a sore thumb, he was unmissable. Propping her elbow onto the table, Ness cradled her chin in a single hand. Her nails were painted a visceral red colour that looked extra bright against her pale face.

He had a good handshake; he was truly a "man's man". At that moment, Yuna arrived with her coffee on a saucer and set it down on the table. Face still held in a pretty little hand, Ness smiled at the waitress, who winked back, before slinking off to serve some other table. That girl! Ness would have to
have words next time she was in. She hadn't responded to Alex, but turned back to him to laugh. This didn't seem to be a total disaster after all.

"Well maybe the longer you stay the luckier you'll be." she sighed deeply. "But you look a bit... Different if you catch my drift. Don't be too surprised if Japanese treat you slightly different." she said. It was true. Japanese loved foreigners, but they were also incredibly xenophobic. Visiting Japan was always lovely but living there was described as unpleasant by many gaijin. When he told her about his military service, Ness began to have those strange flashbacks again. Hundreds of people wearing samurai robes, wielding swords. The thirteen court guard squads. Her free hand balled into a fist in her lap, the knuckles turning white as many lifetimes of service recalled themselves to her in a blur. It was only Alex's apology that calmed her down.

When he spoke it was as if he had snapped her out of her dream. Her fist unclenching, she looked at him for a brief moment, her brain struggling to catch up and process what he had just said. When she finally understood she let out a little giggle. While she hadn't exactly just been laughing for show before, this would seem more genuine. More vulnerable. Thoughts of black robed people at bay she just wanted to continue with this date for now.

"Well I mean I'm an "assistant sales manager" so maybe I should apologize too. In American, that job is called 'shelf stacker' ne?" she said with a smirk. She had pulled her chin up and had used her fingers to mimic double quotation marks around assistant sales manager. She wondered if she had said 'shelf stacker' right- her English wasn't absolutely terrible but it was sure as hell worse than this guy's Japanese. She sipped on her coffee; it was good coffee.

"Not to mention legally, right?" she asked, with a wink. Ness had, until recently, been a person who would solve problems no matter the cost. She had seldom been constrained by any particular system of morals, feeling that the laws of Soul Society were restrictive enough as-is. But now... She couldn't remember Soul Society, she didn't even know what that was. To Ness, it had been her ex who had made all these rules, rules that had chained her down. She felt that now she was a little freer, she should make an effort to be better. Nicer. Alex seemed like a standup guy, at least.

The idea of this caricature punching the lights out of someone did amuse her however, and she could see why he would go through life with people thinking that's the kind of person that he was. She took another couple sips of her coffee, with a contented sigh. The cups looked comically small in his large hands. His twang was quite peculiar, but it made his voice sound quite friendly.

"To be honest, everything was so... Complicated before. I'm enjoying simple. I have this little apartment north of town. I know all the regulars. I don't really have any savings but it's not as though I have so much aspiration. Maybe one day I will decide I want to go to college or something but I need some time, y'know." she paused, gazing wistfully into the middle distance of the passers by outside. "Just to work through some things, get my head in the right place." She slid her focus back onto Alex, her vision snapping into clarity on his face. She blushed ever so slightly and laughed, a rich throaty sound. "I guess that's probably not the kind of thing you wanna hear on a first date." she admitted.