Chapter Text
A soft breeze caressed Toko’s cheek. She loved sleeping next to an open window and waking up to the morning breeze, it made her feel like a woodland fairy or a princess with no engagements. Far more soothing a wake-up than getting shocked back into life by an alarm clock. That change was too sudden, too harsh. Feeling the wind lifting her hair, Toko smiled to herself, wondering how much time she had left before her alarm was set to go off.
Today was Saturday. That meant no school, no terrifying students to avoid, no break times sitting awkwardly by herself, just waiting around for the school bell to ring and for class to resume so she wouldn’t have to be so obviously alone. Instead, she was home, in her warm bed and with her laptop gently humming nearby, always switched on, always waiting for her to continue her latest novel.
A door slammed.
Toko’s eyes fluttered open. She was in a bed, sure, but this wasn’t her bed back home. And the humming wasn't her laptop, it was the generator under the floorboards. With a lurch she remembered - home didn’t exist anymore. She wasn’t even a student anymore. Instead, she was in the assigned bedroom she shared with Kyoko and Hina at the Future Foundation’s headquarters, with its popcorn textured walls and lack of any real floor space.
It was a Saturday but she worked on Saturdays.
She felt the weight of reality boring down on her. There would be no writing today - the Future Foundation didn't have funds for spare paper, or even for novels for that matter. At least she was safe from bullies here though, which meant being at the Future Foundation was marginally better than being at school at least. Reluctantly, she sat up in bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes. Hina and Kyoko had already left for their early morning breakfast and duties. The sound that had woken her up must have been them leaving.
Toko sighed. Real thoughtful of them to slam the door like that, as if she hadn't been peacefully dreaming of better times. Nice way to bring her out of her reverie to another day of nothing - nothing remotely interesting that is. Since she wasn’t allowed to be a member of the Future Foundation, she had been assigned all of the menial roles. It would have been bearable if she’d been allowed to be on kitchen duty, but the Future Foundation had decreed they didn’t want her to be around kitchen knives and meat mallets, no matter how much she insisted that Genocide Jack was interested in scissors exclusively and that she’d therefore be perfectly safe in the kitchen.
But no. She was stuck with cleaning duties - sweeping the corridors, emptying the bins, making sure the bathrooms had enough toilet paper. Hers was an important job, Makoto and Hina would constantly remind her, but they were wrong. How could it be important if she was part of the only crew in the whole building that didn’t have a uniform? Even the kitchen staff got given aprons with the Future Foundation logo embroidered on the breast pocket. All Toko got was access to the Clothes Bin, which everyone had, and instructions to wear black and grey.
The Clothes Bin was a room the size of a cupboard that stored clothes gathered by the Future Foundation’s supply team. Everyone had access to it and could take anything they wanted. But the clothes gathered there were, for the most part, practical and plain, and so Toko was left wearing plain black t-shirts, several sizes too large, and sweatpants. She hated to be seen in her “uniform”, the oversized t-shirts did nothing for her figure and just made her look younger.
Grumbling to herself, she got dressed and stood in front of the bedroom mirror, brushing her hair. How was she meant to attract Master Byakuya like this?! She felt embarrassed to be anywhere near him in sweatpants, he would never be seen dead sharing the same air as someone in such uncouth clothing. She rummaged through her assigned wardrobe, just on the off chance that a nice grey skirt or black knitwear had magically appeared, but there was nothing. Other than her work clothes, the only other set she owned was her old school uniform, but she saved this outfit for Tuesdays - the one day each week that both she and Master Byakuya were off. It wasn’t a flattering cut on her either - too small for her now she was no longer a teenager and ripped at the skirt’s edges, but it was still better than an oversized t-shirt and sweatpants. At least her school uniform was feminine.
Really, the only benefit to being on the clean-up crew was that she was allowed to wake up slightly later and it was therefore easy to take her breakfast alone. There were only three other members on the clean-up crew, and they were much older than her and easy to avoid. If she sat alone at a table, they never asked her to join them, and that was how she liked it, thank you very much.
Though she did miss the fact she couldn’t ever have meals with the rest of her ex-classmates, Master Byakuya in particular... The canteen at HQ was small, much too small for the whole company to dine together, so they took it in shifts. And it just made sense that the clean-up crew would eat last, so they could clear the space once everyone had been fed.
But because of the late breakfast, at least that usually meant she could sleep in more. But this morning Hina and Kyoko hadn’t been as quiet as they usually were. Toko wondered if she'd done anything recently to piss them off and slumped onto her bed. She gazed at her alarm clock. There was a full hour to wait before she was allowed down into the dining hall, and there was so little to do when she wasn’t working. She gazed out the window, trying not to glance over at the clock’s minute hand. She tried to empty her head, to not think about anything at all.
Outside, the sun was rising, casting a perfect glow over HQ’s garden, encircled by high brick walls. There were birds in the oak trees and the flagstones had recently been polished. That pretty light from the sun almost made you believe the world was getting back to normal, but Toko knew there was a lot of work left to do… or so she assumed. Not being granted a full membership, she wasn’t privy to any of the conversations the rest of her ex-classmates were allowed in on.
Toko heaved a sigh. She'd certainly started off the day on the wrong foot. It was gonna be a long day.
But just then, a familiar figure stood up from one of the benches.