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Riko smoothed out her dress. It was a little black dress, not unlike what many of the women at the bar were wearing. But Riko wasn't one of them. She was sitting at the piano, ready to play another piece.
The Equilibrium was an upscale sort of bar. The baby grand piano was off to the side, sitting humbly in the corner. White floors provided a stark contrast to the black tables and chairs. The ceiling lamps and barstools were a deep red, the color of wine.
The patrons were absorbed in their own conversations. No one paid Riko heed as her fingers danced across the keys. She merely provided the background music, the soundtrack, the insert songs. A splash of smooth jazz for this little bar scene.
It was nice, in a way. It was just Riko and the piano. She was surrounded by other people, of course, but she ignored them. Riko looked up to where the wall met the ceiling and felt herself drift away. It was therapeutic. She let her fingers do what they had done countless times before as she relaxed and floated somewhere else far away from reality.
The piece ended quickly, or so Riko felt. The sound of someone clapping brought her back to earth. Riko looked around for the source of the sound and found that a woman around her age was the one clapping. The woman’s dark blue hair was put up into a high ponytail. She wore a black sweater vest with a white collared shirt underneath, her sleeves partially rolled up. Dark grey slacks and a pair of simple black flats completed her outfit.
Riko blinked. Did this person know the unspoken rules of this place? This was an ‘Ignore the pianist and the pianist ignores you’ kind of bar.
“That was nice.” the woman said. Her voice was calm and mellow. “I’m Kanan.”
Riko tucked a stray red hair behind her ear. “Kanan-san.” It felt odd addressing a stranger by their first name, but Riko didn’t mind too much. She found herself introducing herself as well. “My name is Riko.”
Kanan nodded. “I’ll let you continue.”
With Kanan’s violet eyes now directly on her, Riko felt a ripple of anxiety. Normally she didn't get nervous while playing at this bar, because she knew knew she could pass off mistakes as intentional, but when someone was watching… that was a different story.
Riko took a deep breath and set her fingers on the keys. She debated between several songs, knowing that as the pianist she had the ability to change the atmosphere of the bar. Riko settled on a piece she had recently written to be played there. When she had played it for the bar’s manager he enjoyed it, saying that he could see it being played late at night.
/
Kanan took a sip of her wine. It had been a while since she had gone out for a drink. She had almost forgotten how nice it was to just relax and have a glass of wine while listening to piano music.
She was a professor at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. Kanan had always preferred life science and she now taught a course on ocean ecosystems. She was happy with teaching, truly, but sometimes she yearned for the sea she had grown up next to in Uchiura, to feel the breeze and the sand and the saltwater all over again.
That was the reason she kept her hair dyed the same striking blue it was when she was younger. It reminded her of the ocean and of everyone she knew back in her hometown. Everyone she had to say goodbye to.
Kanan took another sip of her Merlot. She could feel herself starting to get buzzed, the warm feeling spreading throughout her body. She tried not to think about how expensive the wine was and how her sober self would react the next morning to a high charge on her credit card.
It was getting late, and Kanan was glad that it was a Saturday. She glanced at the redhead at the piano. Riko seemed to be concentrating on the music she was playing more than before. Her startlingly red hair didn’t seem all that startling anymore, color balanced out the stark black of her dress.
The time ticked away as minutes turned to hours. Kanan’s watch told her it was a dash past two in the morning. Upon looking around she realized that most of the bar’s patrons had already left. Riko finished the last piece of the night and excused herself to collect her pay from the bar’s owner. Kanan would be remiss if she did not acknowledge that she had noticed the way Riko’s hips swayed as she walked through a door into a back area, presumably where the owner was.
When Riko returned, Kanan asked her the question that had been poking at the back of her mind since she first laid eyes on Riko.
“Would you like to come over to my house?” Kanan asked.
Riko’s eyes widened slightly. She hesitated before responding, and Kanan quickly interjected. “Sorry, are you not interested in women like that?”
“No, it’s just…” Riko trailed off. She looked out the window at the darkened cityscape. The lights of the cars and late-night bars were reflected in her eyes. She shook her head and turned towards Kanan. “That sounds like a fine idea. I can pay for the taxi, if you’d like.”
Kanan opened her mouth to respond, but immediately shut it. Her wallet was suffering after that bottle of wine, and to refuse someone paying for her ride would be rude.