[Gift] Walk of Shade

Yoshino yawned and stretched, reaching their arms as far above their head as they could until something in their upper back popped. Sighing in relief, they dropped their arms and picked up their pipe again, reflexively bringing it to their mouth to inhale, only to think twice as the last moment; they had been smoking a lot this evening, and their throat was feeling scratchy. With another sigh, they set the pipe back down and instead reached for a glass of water.

All Sinners’ Day might have been over, but the wheelers and dealers of Burrowgatory’s upper crust never stopped. The dinner parties in the first few days after the big event were quieter affairs, but the buns putting them on were still rich, and they still wanted eye candy to charm their own prospective clients. Escorts like Yoshino formed a key part of a nice little ecosystem like that.

And… given what had been going on in the darker corners of Burrowgatory lately, it felt like the ones up top were clinging to whatever normalcy they could, harder than ever.

Across the room, Yoshino caught Kikyo’s eye. The two of them didn’t work together all the time, with Kikyo flitting between escort work, modeling, and whatever else interested them, but they made a particularly effective team for the right kind of clients. Some buns wanted their balls stepped on, and some just wanted a pretty face to be mean to them while they talked business; the second kind were ideal for the two of them. Kikyo’s striking looks drew people in before their barbed tongue drove just as many away, and Yoshino’s low-energy snark seemed positively sweet in comparison after getting a taste of that. It kept them from having to do too much work themself to reel someone in on these nights.

Everyone seemed a little more hesitant than usual to trickle out into the night, even though the function was over. Yoshino was sure that wasn’t just their imagination, even though nobody acknowledged the way they all lingered. They emptied their pipe into the nearest ashtray and pretended that they weren’t hesitating right along with everyone else as they drifted towards Kikyo as casually as possible.

Kikyo arched an eyebrow at them when Yoshino entered their orbit, but the two of them hung back and watched the business buns gradually drift out the door. “These jackoffs are stressing me out with the milling around,” Yoshino finally said, bluntly. They spun their pipe idly and definitely not nervously as they spoke. “Where are you going after this?”

“Home. Where else? Don’t try to tell me that there’s some party you were going to hit up and drag me along to.”

“Why would I invite you anywhere? Maybe I have company, you don’t know.”

Kikyo snorted. “Who’d want to spend time with you if they weren’t paying to look at your ass?”

“I don’t want to spend time with people who aren’t paying to look at my ass,” Yoshino retorted. “Present company included.”

Kikyo made a derisive noise, but the two of them stayed side-by-side against the wall and watched as the room slowly cleared. Finally, Kikyo pushed away with a sigh that could have been annoyed, or just tired. “Whatever, let’s go.” It was said like a command, like they just expected Yoshino to follow.

On a different kind of night, Yoshino would have fired back. Now though, they did follow, trailing along behind the butterfly-shaped motes that orbited Kikyo. As they exited the building, Kikyo strode out into the night with their head held defiantly high. Yoshino did the same, obviously; nobody could prove that they were sticking any closer to Kikyo than absolutely necessary.

Still, the shadows on the street outside seemed to stretch just a little longer and loom just a little darker than usual. Yoshino knew that it was just their imagination, and that irritated them. They weren’t a baby bun. There was no reason to go around jumping at shadows.

(Unless the shadows really concealed something lurking, of course.)

They didn’t communicate any of these thoughts to Kikyo, knowing it would only receive mockery, but Kikyo seemed to be feeling much the same. “This whole situation is bullshit,” they muttered. Yoshino noticed how their eyes darted around the darkened sidewalk, especially the spaces between streetlamps and the shadows of buildings, but they didn’t comment on it.

“Yeah,” was all they could muster up in agreement.

Despite their best efforts, the silence was uneasy. The street was deserted; nobody wanted to be out right now. Only the sound of their footsteps could be heard, and they seemed to echo off the surrounding buildings. Yoshino had never seen Burrowgatory so… empty. It just felt wrong after the liveliness of the All Sinners’ Day celebrations just a short time before.

The strained quiet obviously prickled at Kikyo as much as it did Yoshino. “Can’t believe you fuckin’ dragged me into this,” they said, as if Yoshino had done much (or any) dragging at all. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

Yoshino scoffed in spite of themself. “What, haven’t you seen any horror movies? The hot characters always die first.”

Kikyo scoffed back. “If being hot is a requirement, you should be fi-” They cut themselves off with a little yelp, the likes of which Yoshino had surely never heard before from their mouth, when a sudden clatter erupted from a nearby alleyway. Yoshino started violently themselves and grabbed Kikyo’s arm; the fact that they weren’t immediately shaken off was a testament to how rattled they both were.

They both stood frozen to the spot, hearts pounding, until a couple of imps scampered out into the light of the streetlamps, and then just as quickly darted back into the alley. They must have been scrounging in some trash cans and knocked one over or something.

“...Fucking imps,” Kikyo growled, finally realizing that Yoshino was clinging to their wrist and pulling their arm free. Yoshino let them go without resistance, exhaling slowly as they willed their pulse to slow.

“This is ridiculous,” they said after a few moments, aggravated at the little wobble in their own voice.

“Like I said, there’s nothing to actually be scared of.” It was hard to say if Kikyo was trying to reassure themself or Yoshino more, but either way it wasn’t really working.

“...Yeah,” Yoshino replied, even though they didn’t believe it.

The two of them started walking again, a little more quickly. Just when the tension seemed about to break, another, louder banging from the same alleyway made them both jump again. This time, it was Kikyo who seized Yoshino’s arm and squeezed tightly.

“Fucking- your place is close, right?”

“Yeah-” Kiyko interrupted before Yoshino could say more.

“I’m coming over.”

Despite the situation, Yoshino snorted at them in disbelief. “Are you going to pay me?”

“I’m not asking for an invitation to hang out, I said I’m coming over.” Kikyo started forcefully steering Yoshino down the sidewalk at an even faster pace, until they managed to extricate their arm enough to grab Kikyo in return and pull them in the right direction.

The whole situation was incredibly rude, really. On top of the dangers that may or may not have been lurking around every corner, it had robbed Yoshino of the opportunity to point out that Kikyo claiming they weren’t hot contradicted their previous statement that people only hung around them to check out their ass.

Their irritation wasn’t quite strong enough to drown out the fear that drove them forward, as much as they didn’t want to address the fear at all. It also didn’t stop Yoshino and Kikyo from clinging to each other’s arms, though they didn’t acknowledge it, until they were safely in the well-lit lobby of Yoshino’s apartment building and determined not to emerge again until morning.