Akuma With Me

Syd had been gone all night, and only returned to the penthouse to sleep most of the day behind her shut and locked door. She was stubbornly tight lipped about the places she went. She was determined to come and go as she pleased, no matter how much it displeased Allie.

When she eventually awoke and dragged herself from her messy bed to the shower, it was already late afternoon. A proper shower was a time consuming ordeal for Syd, given that she had a great deal of silky white hair to care for, and she was not just going to slop some random shampoo on it. She had a line of products that she used, along with a wide-toothed wooden comb and a boar-bristle brush. She didn't ever blow dry her hair, not in a million years would she ever do that. Instead, she laid across her bed sideways, propped up with her laptop on her stomach, so that her hair dangled off the side of the bed so it could air dry. Finally, she put clothes on, and with hardly a word to Allie, she was out the door again.

Japan was much different. She didn't like it. Everything was so neat and organized and polite and cute, everything she hated all rolled up into one infernal culture. It was a little consolation that the average Japanese person was small and spineless, a nation of cowards, and if she wanted to she could certainly beat any one of them down. If someone looked at her the wrong way on the street or tried to cop a feel on the subway, she could end them. Her height, her American features, her long, lustrous, straight white hair, her villainous red eyes, all caught the attention of passersby, but it was undoubtedly her considerable bust that drew the most stares. She hardly remembered she had them, aside from the annoyances they provided. She could scarcely understand how she had them; she was otherwise tall and skinny. Athletic, but not muscular, and certainly not curvy, not like Allie was.

Allie.

What a weird, stupid little problem that was. It was on her mind more often than not, lately. She had mulled it over long enough, and though she would never admit it to herself, she was working up her courage. But she was tired of thinking about it, and today was the day to put it all to rest, whatever that meant for this adventure in Japan.

She wore a gray dress shirt tucked into black pants, belted, with shiny patent leather shoes and a purple ribbon tied in her hair, a lightweight black jacket slung over her shoulder while she walked the stairs to the penthouse. It was good exercise, climbing the stairs over the many floors between the street and the lofty, luxurious apartment. Even if she didn't train every day, she still had to climb a billion steps several times a day, and that was something. Probably more than most of the lazy little sheep in Friction did.

She paused in front of the door, as if she didn't live there, and raised a hand to knock. She hesitated. She looked down at the floor, and then huffed out a breath and pounded on the door with her fist.

The longer they were in Japan, the more Allie started to believe she had recruited a child rather than a woman who was older than her. They were supposed to be business partners but Allie had felt more like the mother of a petulant teenager. Everything with Syd was a fight. Well, not a fight, Syd could, and often threatened, to kick her ass. It didn't stop Allie from nagging though. She had her own tricks to cajole Syd into doing what she asked on matters that were important enough.

Like the apartment. Allie was not going to live in Japan like some common salary woman. The place was full of tiny people with tiny lives. Allie needed BIG spaces to hold her dreams and her ego... and her tits. She wasn't going to settle for second best no matter WHERE she lived, that was for sure. Syd would probably live in an alley if she was left to her own devices. She had tried to get her own place. Allie was having none of it. The more Allie's eyes were upon Syd, the less she'd have to worry about getting a phone call from the Japanese police. The less her partner could screw things up by being a stupid emo jerk that hit first and asked questions second. She loved it when it happened in the ring but not so much when it happened everywhere else.

Allie sighed as she sat on the loveseat that came with their suite. She had her own laptop on her lap and some a Japanese baseball game on the television. She'd been trying hard to learn the language but it wasn't coming along so well. They just talked too fast and ran everything together! What a horrible way to communicate! She HAD to try though. It's not like Syd was going to learn Japanese. She barely spoke English half the time. Though somehow she was perfectly capable of quoting old, ugly dead guys and how cool and introspective they were. How dumb!

Allie HAD come to like japan though. Everyone stared at her. Everyone. She didn't really care if it was because of her bright red hair, her ridiculous chest or her shining and pleasant personality, they looked and they looked hard. And when they weren't looking, they were bowing. Everyone went out of their way to practically worship her. It was like an entire kingdom dedicated just to her. She WAS a princess after all.

Allie had become fixated on the game when the loud knock shook her out of her glaze. She yelped and tried to keep from flinging her laptop off of her. After setting it down, she looked at the door with a racing heart. it sounded like someone was about to beat it in. If only Syd were here! But who could it be? The police? Had Syd already gotten busted for shanking a poor salary man with a broken sake bottle because he looked at her wrong? Allie ran her fingers through her silky orange hair and stepped to the door.

She peeked into the view hole and then sighed loudly. Allie flung the door open and furrowed her brow at Syd. "What the hell, Syd?" She questioned irritably. "You have a key! Or, you had better. Don't tell me you lost it, I'm not getting you a new one!"

Syd scrunched up her brow and frowned at the reception she got at her own place. "I didn't," she said.

She stood there the same as ever, a mix of apathy and compressed anger and contrarian pseudo-intellectualism, but her face showed something else as well. A hesitation that was never there before.

"Uh..." There was obviously more to come, but she needed a moment to work up to it. "Hey."

"Ooohkaaaay..."

Allie said, looking sideways at Syd. She let the exasperation leave her in a sigh and watched as Syd stood there like she was waiting to be invited into her own home. Allie's arms dropped and one of them gripped the side of the door sill as she leaned against it.

"Why are you acting weird, Syd?" The red head questioned expectantly. She tapped her foot and looked Syd up and down. "I mean... weirder than usual." She amended.

Syd's face tightened. "I'm not acting weird."

She dragged her long, white pony tail over her shoulder and began to fidget with it, twirling her finger around in the end while her other hand smoothed out the length of it. She found that her heart was beating hard, and there was a tightness in her chest. It was weird. She imagined that maybe she was having some rare kind of heart attack. That might actually be better.

She tried to cover for her hesitation with indignation, but it was unconvincing. She waved a hand in the air as if to dismiss Allie's stupid questions.

"I... had a question."

"Well?" Allie said when Syd tried, and failed, to get to the point. "Let's just stand out here and talk about it in front of everyone!" Her voice had the most sarcasm she could dare to muster around a Syd who was probably going to beat her up and who looked like she had something genuine to say. THAT probably weirded Syd out the most but after a second of continued irritation at Syd's hesitation, she broke her stance with a sigh.

"Cooome on, Syd. We'll go inside. I'll make you some..." Tea? Alcohol? Lunch? "Just come in side." She grabbed Syd's hand and tugged her into the room, closing the door so they were alone again.

"Seriously, what's goin on?" She asked with a hint of concern in her voice. "I'm your manager Syd, you can ask me anything. I mean, I might laugh at you, but then you can just beat me up!" She said almost too cheerfully. She was just trying to bring some levity to the situation.

Syd didn't protest when Allie led her inside, at least not on the outside. The inside of the penthouse just seemed a lot less comfortable to her than the outside. She was less at home there than she was in most of the rest of Tokyo, for... reasons.

It wasn't about taking someone else's money. Allie was paying for the place, but that didn't bother Syd at all. Why should it?

She realized after the fact that Allie was making a joke, and she tried to force a small laugh, but it didn't take. Syd beating up the little redhead was only a joke to her, probably because Syd had yet to actually beat her up. So the threat didn't carry any weight. Allie had probably never been beat up.

But bearing that in mind... What's the worst that could happen? Syd waved a hand uselessly in the air in front of her again and without looking directly at Allie, she decided to go for it.

"So do you wanna go out?"

"W-what, huh?"

Allie blinked as Syd spoke. Allie had gone out on her own. She'd gone to clubs and checked out the Tokyo nightlife while Syd was out doing who knows what. Even when she pushed herself to the partying limits, she still never got back after Syd.

She thought that Syd would never want to be around her unless she HAD to be so she was caught off guard by what should have been a completely innocuous question. Still, the smaller red head couldn't help but light up a bit at the thought.

"Really?" She asked. "You don't think I'm gonna be a drag or somethin?" Allie said, getting a little giddy. "The two of us could wreck this town!" She was full on grinning now. "Yeah, let me change!" She said as she started to think about what she could wear out. She ran into her room, expecting Syd to follow. "Where do you wanna go!?" She called out from her closet.

"I dunno..." Syd said, almost irritably. She didn't think Allie would be a drag. But maybe. Whatever.

Then Allie ran off, leaving Syd standing awkwardly in her own home like a visitor. Home might be a strong term for what the place was to her, though... It was where she slept, but she was never comfortable there.

"I dunno!" She replied, raising her voice for Allie to be able to hear her and in the process sounding even more irritable. "We could... see a movie. Or get dinner, or... I dunno, drinks. If you already ate."

Allie popped out and stuck herself halfway out of the door. She had a bra on but it did little to cover her large chest as it swayed under her. "No need to pick." She said as she fit an earring into her ear. "Why don't we do all three! If we leave now, we can grab some food. By the time that's done, the movie will be ready and then the bars will just be warming up!" Allie beamed at Syd. She never took the white haired nihilist for a party girl. She assumed that Syd wandered off somewhere to do lines of coke in a seedy back alley poker room. She HOPED that she was just out getting into fights or stoned but she could never be sure about the former.

Allie popped back into her room and finished getting ready. "Is there anything you wanna see!?" She asked. "Or eat!?" Allie still wasn't all that thrilled about Japanese cuisine but she'd tried to be a little adventurous and was pleasantly surprised.

"Or drink?" She said as she strolled out of her room. She had a mauve spaghetti strapped tank top with a black kitty and some kanji on it. She had a red scarf wrapped around her neck to give off the perfect window to passersby. She wore tight fitting bell bottoms and had a pair of navy wedges. She had also put in modest sized hoop earrings into her ears.

Allie did a little spin when she looked at Syd. "How do I look?' She asked. She was feeling pumped for going out. "I've only been out a little bit, so this should be fun."