Chapter Text
“Shit. Where did I put my clips?”
“They’re in the box next to the one with your hair straightener. Have you seen my glue gun?”
“You chucked it in the sewing box last night.”
“Oh, right!”
Alisa and Miwa dart around the room, carrying boxes of cosplay as well as cases of water, snacks, and any other necessities out the door and into Miwa’s car. Every year they manage to squeeze all their belongings in, but it’s at the risk of potentially—
“Careful!”
—definitely almost backing into an unsuspecting pedestrian when they set off to the hotel.
Alisa slumps in her seat, the back of her hair lifting and sticking to the headrest. “Can I get an extra shot in my iced coffee?”
“I’m getting two,” Miwa grumbles.
Traffic in the middle of the day on a weekday is much more bearable considering rush hour is still hours away. Only once does Alisa have to grab Miwa’s arm before she attempts to flip off some guy in a Maserati for cutting her off. Miwa switches between anime openings and Vocaloid covers while Alisa flips through her cosplay binder. Her lists have been checked twice and all of her reference photos are protected by clear files.
They get to the hotel about half an hour before check-in time and the hotel parking lot isn’t quite at capacity, securing them a decent spot near the elevators.
“Can you text Lev and Shiba that we’re here?” Miwa asks.
Alisa obliges and sends Lev a quick message.
From: Me
Help us unpack the car plz ✨
From: Lyovochka
coming! 😁😋
“They’re on their way,” Alisa says.
“Good,” Miwa replies, beginning to unload some of her wig commissions from the car. She has at least three she needs to deliver before the end of the day, and another four for later in the week. “D’you know if Akiteru and Tenma are here yet or has their flight not come in?”
“No clue. No updates on their Twitters, so I assume they’ll get here later.”
Alisa does most of her cosplaying in the United States, but she’s also been to a few cons in Japan just to experience the difference and meet more international fans. When she broke off a piece of her Mercy staff and had no idea how to ask for super glue in Japanese, Akiteru came to the rescue. He’d originally been a U.S. cosplayer as well, but after meeting his husband-then-boyfriend, he decided to stay in Japan permanently.
“Tenma’s got a new release, yeah?” Miwa asks.
“Some new volume of his sports manga I think? It got picked up by Shonen Jump recently, so it’s been all everyone can talk about.” She scrolls through Tenma’s Twitter and finds a post about the panel he’ll be hosting during the con. “Everyone’s pretty sure they’re going to announce an anime at AX.”
Miwa laughs and shakes her head. “So we get to see Akiteru fully animated.”
“Tenma is allowed to insert his husband into his manga if he wants,” Alisa chides jokingly.
“Alisaaaaaa!”
What Alisa deems six feet of adorable Haiba – and Miwa deems six feet of pure nuisance – barrels toward the two of them in the parking lot.
Alisa throws open her arms.
“Lyovochka!”
“Alisochka!”
The two siblings laugh as if they haven’t seen each other in years rather than just a few weeks. Miwa fake gags in the background.
They catch up while they check in and proceed to lug every box of Alisa and Miwa’s to their hotel room. The room itself could easily fit four congoers if they decided to share with two others, but they knew both of them need the space for their belongings more than for their own need for personal space.
Once they finish, Alisa nods. “Let me just get dressed and we can head to the convention center.”
With her hair already braided, her outfit already worn, and her makeup already applied, she goes from box to box searching for her Aerith wig. Despite all the movement, it stayed in place without a single frizz in sight.
She heads into the bathroom to put it on, using a bit of spirit gum to paste some strands down on her face. It’s a technique she’s only started using this year, but the degree of realism it adds to her wigs has her addicted. It’s a pain to get rid of the stickiness which really doesn’t disappear until at least a few days after any given con, but it’s one of many sacrifices she makes for cosplay.
She reemerges, once Alisa Haiba, model extraordinaire, but now Aerith, a flower seller on the streets of an imaginary world with issues resembling the real world’s own.
“Ready?” Miwa asks, holding out a basket of yellow lilies.
Alisa smiles, picture perfect. “Ready.”
The four of them all get into Miwa’s now virtually empty car, Lev with a backpack containing a cosplay repair kit should Alisa need a spot of hot glue or a handful of safety pins. She even put a few extra flowers in it just in case she runs out of the ones in her basket that she’s planning to hand out to fellow Final Fantasy VII cosplayers.
“Weebs are out in full force already,” Miwa comments as they pass by cosplayers of various skill levels. The closer they get to the convention center, the more elaborate they become. She spots a large pair of red wings on one person as well as someone carrying a sniper rifle – the nozzle of which is painted bright orange just to assure security they’re not bringing in a real weapon.
The parking lot isn’t packed the way it will be once the con really gets started. Even though they’re down the street a bit, any one-day visitors will choose to park anywhere they possibly can since they don’t have the luxury of hotel parking.
“Yeah,” Miwa says, rolling her eyes when Alisa points this out. “The luxury of throwing down more money than we’ve already spent on that hotel.”
“Technically we got a discount because it’s part of the hotel block,” Alisa reminds her.
Miwa shrugs. “I’m still gonna complain.”
Unlike the eternal wait it’s going to be starting tomorrow, the line only takes about five minutes to get their extra goods. They’d thought about buying the extra Day 0 badge for the sake of being able to experience the panels early, but decided not to, since they always end up wanting to get food and wasting the day away relaxing in their hotel rooms instead.
On the way back to Figueroa Street – the main street running alongside the convention center as well as many of the other entertainment venues in the area – Alisa catches sight of a Tifa cosplayer posing for a couple of squealing girls. The first flower of the day and it’ll be for her favorite character from Final Fantasy VII. She taps Miwa’s shoulder and says, “I’ll be right back.”
As she approaches, the girls’ eyes grow wider. Alisa smiles and holds out a flower to the woman dressed as Tifa.
“For you.”
The cosplayer grins and wow does she look familiar. Alisa doesn’t recall any of the people she follows on Instagram posting about wearing their Tifa cosplay on Day 0, so this must be someone completely new. The cosplayer’s contour sharpens her jawline and her eyelashes say, “I may be feminine, but I could kick your ass without even using a weapon.”
“A flower from the famous Nekonyan?” the cosplayer says. “Dreams seem more real than this.”
That voice.
“You’re…”
“Ooh, you still recognize me? It’s been forever since we hung out properly.”
No no no.
Alisa’s eyes dart to the two girls who are busy looking at their phones now. She can just slip away before they even notice. No need to deal with this situation in front of others.
She giggles awkwardly and lifts her basket, slowly backing away. “Well, lots of flowers to give out.”
Karasukyun raises an eyebrow and steps forward. “Don’t wanna take a picture together first?”
The girls’ heads pop up. “Wait, can we get a picture of that?”
Karasukyun nods. “Yeah, of course!”
Before Alisa has a chance to run off, Karasukyun poses next to her. She can’t stand the idea of a weird-looking photo of her cosplay circulating when she knows she can make it look good, so she does the only thing she can.
She poses.
“Thank you!”
Alisa smiles tightly. “Don’t mention it.”
She rushes away toward where her friends are arguing over where to eat, posture poised but expression in obvious distress. Miwa catches her eye and stops kicking Lev’s shin.
“What happened to you?” she asks.
“Let’s just say,” Alisa says with a sigh, “I ran into my favorite cosplayer.”
Miwa bursts into laughter, which further confuses Lev and Shiba.
“What was she wearing?”
Alisa crosses her arms. “Take a wild guess.”
Miwa laughs harder.
Alisa grabs onto the hyena hairdresser and drags her toward the parking structure.
“This is gonna be great, huh Alisochka?” Lev says, wrapping his arms around Shiba’s neck. Shiba nods in agreement as they follow behind the girls.
“Yeah,” Alisa grumbles. “It’ll be just great.”