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The bell signaling a customer has entered the establishment rings, and Amame Doi turns to face them, smiling brightly. "Hello, Sea King! Welcome to…" Unprofessional as it is to trail off like that, she can't help but do it when she sees who it is. Her father drops by on occasion, so she's not entirely unsurprised to see him, but with him is…
"Hey, honey," Andes Komeji says, scratching the back of his head. "I hope you've got a table for two."
"Um…Sea King, can I have just a few words in private with you?" Amame asks, her smile not slipping an inch. Komeji seems to understand what he's about to get into, because he just sheepishly nods and lets her lead him toward the kitchen. "Why did you bring Shoma?" she hisses, eager not to draw attention.
"Amame, listen. He said he misses you, and since I was thinking of coming by anyway, I thought…well, this isn't one of those maid cafes, so…"
She sighs. "That…is true, but…it's still embarrassing to have to put up this act in front of my own little brother!"
"Oh, Amame! Is it your dad again?" One of the other mermaids has spotted them in their corner. "Hey, my grandpa's a huge fan of that show you're on, Mr. Komeji."
"O-Oh! Is that so? Heh, you see, Amame? Still haven't lost my touch!"
No one has the heart to point out to him what he must have surely already realized: the mermaid didn't say anything about her grandfather being his fan. But rather than linger on it, Amame chooses to address her coworker's question. "If it were just my dad, it'd be fine, but my little brother's here too…"
The mermaid thinks for a second. "Okay. How about this? You take an hour off, and then when I take off an hour early, you can have that time instead."
"Huh? Why?"
"I just thought you might wanna spend some time with them, that's all!" The girl gives her a smile. "Plus I gotta bail an hour early anyway to catch a movie with my friends, so you'd be really doing me a favor…"
"Okay, okay. Just give me a few minutes to change, alright?" She turns back to Komeji. "Junko will be taking care of you today, so go take a seat with Shoma and I'll join you as soon as I've changed."
"Oh, thank you, Amame…really, thank you so much!" Komeji's voice is brimming with emotion, and Amame gives him a smile before Junko leads him back to the front of the restaurant.
By the time she slips out of her uniform, Shoma and Komeji have been seated and ordered drinks; a third drink, a fruity bubble tea that Amame likes to have on her breaks, has been placed in front of an empty seat between the two of them as well. She slides into the seat, though she doesn't bother looking at the menu—she knows it all by heart.
"Hey there, Shoma," she says, ruffling his hair. He grumbles and smooths it, giving her a quiet smile when she laughs. "It's been a long time, huh? Sorry I haven't been around to visit very much. The restaurant is pretty busy this time of year."
"Yeah, it's packed." Shoma looks around again. "And everyone's got one of those weird tridents. They even gave one to Dad, too."
"It's part of the theme of the restaurant. See, Dad's the Sea King while he's holding that, and the mermaids are like his subjects."
"Huh." Shoma's either too young or too disinterested to really get it, which works out great for Amame, who isn't quite emotionally prepared to explain the purpose of maid cafes to her prepubescent brother. "So what on the menu is good here?" he asks, flipping his open and staring at it.
"Well, I like the omurice. You can even ask them to write your name on it."
Shoma's eyebrows furrow a little. "Oh. No, thanks."
Amame looks over his shoulder at Komeji, who shrugs a little in response. She doesn't doubt he's doing his best, but he's not always the most observant, and especially with Shoma keeping things bottled up, it's not impossible he's missed something. She reaches over and pats him on the back. "They'll just do the regular ketchup squiggle, too."
"Well, I'll have my usual." Andes Komeji always orders the cheapest thing on the menu, a pair of rice balls, but Amame shakes her head.
"I'll treat you, okay? Get what you want, Dad."
"Oh…Amame, I could never…"
"They're giving me an employee discount, so don't worry about it!" She doesn't actually know if that's true, but it does seem to make him less resistant to the idea, and he looks back over at the menu. "What are you thinking about getting, Shoma?"
"The omurice sounds fine to me. If you like it, I know it's good." He closes the menu. "Sorry for dropping in on you while you're at work."
"No, it's okay. I'm glad you came."
"Really? You dragged Dad off to scold him, didn't you?" he asks.
"Well…" How does she get out of this? No matter how she looks at it, it does look like she was mad at Komeji for bringing him along.
"Hahaha! Don't worry about that, Shoma. She was just telling me how much she loved watching me last week!"
There's a dubious expression on Shoma's face as he turns to Amame for confirmation, but she nods, smiling brightly. "That's right. He was really funny. Did you watch him too, Shoma?"
"Well…not really, but…maybe I'll catch it next time," he says, uncertainty in his voice.
Komeji looks a little put out, so Amame rallies again. "Then, you must have been building a robot, right? I know how you get focused when you're concentrating. Sometimes I'd have to call your name two or three times just to get your attention."
"Huh?" Shoma blinks over at her, but quickly catches wind of what she's doing. "Oh, yeah! I totally lost track of time."
"Is that how it is…" Komeji mumbles to himself.
Amame's heart sinks a little. They're obviously troubled. Is that why Komeji brought Shoma to see her? Because he needed a little help?
She skims her schedule in her head, one more time. When's the next day she has off? When can she visit her dad and her brother? There must be an hour or two to spare somewhere, some gap she's overlooked while stuffing it with overtime.
"You know what," she says, after a few moments of high-speed thinking, "why don't I come over in a few weeks? We can watch Dad on TV together, and you can show me all the new robots you built."
Shoma lights up immediately. "Yeah! I'm working on one right now that's really amazing. Thanks so much for getting me those tools I needed!"
"No problem! I'm so glad that they were useful." She gives him a bright grin. "Make sure you think of me every time you use them, okay? It's one of the ways I can be close to you, even though we live apart."
Shoma nods, eyes looking a little misty. She wishes she could just take the rest of her shift off and spend it with him and Komeji.
"You'll stay long enough to at least let me see you off, won't you, honey?" Komeji asks.
"Of course. I wanna be able to spend more time with both of you. When the restaurant is less busy, then…"
But her words are empty, even as they spill from her mouth. It doesn't matter whether the restaurant is busy or not: it's a simple fact of the matter that Komeji is continuing to struggle with money, and he won't be able to support Shoma's hobbies. There's no way he'd be able to afford sending Shoma to school, but with a grant, or a scholarship, from those robots…
The restaurant will simply always have to be busy, until Shoma's accepted into a university. It's a fact that Amame has accepted. She can only hope he'll thank her someday for it.
When the food arrives, it's the same stuff Amame's gotten used to eating on lunch breaks. It's really only okay at best, but the company makes it some of the best omurice she's ever had.
"Enda Shoma?" the guard calls. Shoma stands in a hurry, nearly tripping over himself.
"Uh, yes, that's me. Thanks," Shoma says, bowing hastily as the guard leads him to a visitation cell. He waits patiently, eventually breathing a sigh of relief as another person on the other side leads his big sister in. Even behind the glass, her brightly colored hair stands out, though it's been growing out at the roots for some time now.
"Hi, Shoma," she says. Her voice is a little weak, and she's obviously bolstering it for his benefit. She puts her hand on the glass, and he presses his own against it on the other side. "Thanks for visiting."
"No problem. Sorry I haven't been able to make it recently. School's been pretty busy lately."
"School…" Amame smiles brightly, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes just a little. "You're going to school?"
"Yeah. Got into college for robotics. The classwork can be pretty tough, and people always think I'm a kid, but…" His sister worked her ass off to give him the things he needed to get into the program to begin with, so while he's got some complaints, they're not for her to hear. "But it's so much fun, too. I'm learning a lot, and…someday, I just know I'm gonna make a robot that'll change the world."
"Yeah?" She nods encouragingly. "I wanna hear as much of it as you can tell me."
"I'm thinking about going into R&D, so I can join ABIS. Then I can invent even more ways for them to help people."
"ABIS, huh…?" Amame gives him a wry smile.
"Yeah. I mean, I know that they're the ones who caught you, sis, but…" He struggles to find the words. They've always been so kind, even so. Ryuki and Mizuki regularly visit Amame in prison, and they check in on Shoma from time to time too.
She shakes her head. "You don't have to explain it to me. I know what you want to say, and you're right."
"Hey…they say you'll be out before my graduation, you know."
"Yeah. My sentence got reduced, after some testimony from Ryuki and Mizuki." She sighs. "But it's still a few years. I'll miss most of your college days, too…even though I already missed so much of you growing up."
Shoma shakes his head. "No, sis, don't say that. It's only because of you that I have this chance now, so…just hold on until you're released, okay? I'll be the one who can take care of you then."
Amame tries to smile again, but the tears that have kept building in her eyes spill over. "Shoma…"
"You were always taking care of us. Covering for Dad's blunders, covering for my moodiness, giving me parts and tools for my robots even though it meant you had to overwork yourself…you even avenged Dad. You've been holding the whole family together for such a long time, and I'm so sorry I didn't realize it earlier."
"I didn't want you to realize it. So I'm glad I did a good job keeping you from it." Amame wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm really proud of you, Shoma."
"I'm proud of you too, sis. I don't know when I'll be able to visit you again, but…I'll come as soon as I can, okay?"
"Bring me pictures of your robots, okay?" Amame asks. "I want to see them. I want to know all about your time at college."
"Of course!" Shoma gives her an encouraging smile. "It's my turn to step up."
The guard in Amame's cell coughs, and she sighs again. "Time's up. I'll see you soon?" she asks hopefully.
"Yeah. I'll see you soon."
The guard leads him out of prison, and Shoma blinks in the harsh light of day. His schedule is free for the rest of the day, and he's feeling a little peckish. Some lunch might be in order.
He pulls his phone out of his pocket and enters the name of a particular establishment into his map app. He's sure it won't taste as good without his sister sitting next to him, but today, he feels like eating some omurice.