Work Text:
In an hour, the show was to begin, and Hiyoko was to perform and dance and show Alola what she could do, all over again, for the millionth time. She couldn’t say she was particularly excited about it.
Her eyes stared, blank and empty, into the middle distance. The reflection of the green room’s back wall looked back at her. She vaguely felt a brush on her face; the makeup would probably be done soon. She closed one eye, then the other. She let her face be covered.
It wasn’t that she didn’t like dancing. It had always been part of her life, after all. Ever since she was little, Hiyoko had shown a natural propensity for dance the likes of which — so she had been told — many people had never seen in one her age. And, of course, nobody could deny that she was really good at it, least of all Hiyoko. The crowds she and her Setsu-style Oricorio drew would’ve been enough to convince her if she didn’t see it already herself.
No, disliking dancing wasn’t the problem.
Hiyoko blinked, and the hand near her left eye flinched back. “Your mascara, Saionji-san,” said a low, feminine voice.
“Oh.” Hiyoko hummed. “Yeah. Whatever. Sorry, Tojo.”
Tojo was quiet, then continued her work on Hiyoko’s eyelashes. Two years of being Hiyoko’s personal maid and dance coach had done Tojo Kirumi well — she knew exactly what look Hiyoko’s grandmother was expecting, and could execute it flawlessly. Hiyoko was almost grateful.
After a few minutes of finishing touches, Tojo leaned back, straightening her spine and observing her work. “All done,” she said.
Hiyoko stared at the mirror. She saw, in the reflection, her Oricorio getting to her feet behind her, and Tojo’s Lurantis looking up from where he’d been leaning against the far wall. They both knew what time it was, and so, too, did Hiyoko.
Tojo, from her spot by the mirror, offered a little smile. “Are you ready to warm up, Saionji-san?”
“...Sure.” Hiyoko didn’t look directly at her. “I guess.”
There was a moment of hesitation, and Hiyoko watched an unreadable look cross Tojo’s face. Soon, though, it dissipated, and Tojo approached her Lurantis, exiting Hiyoko’s immediate line of sight.
“All right,” she said. “Come here.”
As Hiyoko stood to begin warming up, she finally allowed her gaze to rest on her face. It was made up perfectly, almost doll-like. She was beautiful, like she had been during every stop of this Alolan tour, and like she would be as it continued along. She almost gagged at the sight of herself, her rosy, innocent youth.
“Ugh,” she muttered. “I hate how my makeup looks today.”
Tojo let out a sigh. “I did it the same way I always do.”
“And I always hate it!” Hiyoko snapped. She crossed her arms with a pout and turned around, stomping over to Tojo across the little makeshift green room. “It makes me look childish. I’m nearly eighteen, you know! I’ll probably have a growth spurt soon!”
“I am simply doing what has been requested of me,” Tojo responded. She then nodded to Hiyoko and Oricorio. “Are you two ready?”
Oricorio looked up at Hiyoko, giving her purplish-blue feathers a small ruffle as she did so. Hiyoko met her gaze and, with a sigh, turned back to Tojo and Lurantis.
“Yeah, okay,” she muttered. “Let’s get this over with.”
It began with warmup steps, as it always did. Stretches, easing into the rhythm. Usually Hiyoko could do this with her eyes closed. That day, however, she was off somewhere else. Her eyes wandered around the room and her feet followed, bumping each other and Oricorio, who replied with a flustered ruffle of her feathers.
It didn’t take long for Tojo to hold up her hand, indicating that Hiyoko should stop. She walked over to the CD player on the floor and turned it off, then turned to Hiyoko.
“What is on your mind?” she asked.
Hiyoko puffed out her cheeks. “Noth-iiiiiiing.”
Tojo’s brow creased, and her head inclined downward at a slight angle. “Please,” she said, “do not lie to me.”
That sentence hardened in Hiyoko’s chest, forming a ball of ice where her heart should be. Her fists clenched. “I’m not lying!”
Tojo hesitated. After a moment, she approached Hiyoko with a couple of slow steps, which Hiyoko shrank away from.
“I am just concerned about you, Saionji-san…” Tojo frowned. “This is unlike you.”
“You’re not concerned about me, you’re concerned about the show going bad and you losing your job.” Hiyoko pouted, crossing her arms and turning away. “It’ll be fine.”
A deep sigh came from Tojo’s chest. “All I am saying is that you seem distracted,” she said. A couple of seconds passed, and then she spoke once more. “You know, you do not have to perform if you don’t wish to.”
Hiyoko froze. She whipped around to look at Tojo, her eyes now wide with panic.
“D-don’t say that!” Hiyoko snapped. “They might hear you!”
To that, Tojo calmly shook her head, an action which felt drastically underwhelming, considering the gravity of the situation. Hiyoko was about to protest again, but just as she opened her mouth, Tojo began to speak.
“Your family is not permitted to enter the green room,” Tojo said. “I have made sure of that in my list of demands to the venues in which we perform.”
Hiyoko squinted. “...What?”
“Their presence always seems to, for lack of a better phrase, ‘throw you off’, with the exception of your father,” Tojo said evenly. “So I requested that they not be allowed in the green rooms. It was only natural.”
“...You can do that?”
“I can.” Tojo nodded. “I know your grandmother is of a high station… But the venues care deeply about their profits. If I threaten that you will not perform, then they will comply, regardless of anyone’s status.”
Hiyoko was quiet for a moment. She felt Oricorio reach up for her, and she gently petted her wing.
“I’m just so sick of this,” Hiyoko mumbled.
“Mm?”
“I’m… I’m sick of not having any control over my life.” Hiyoko ground her teeth, then her voice rose sharply into a shout. “I — I hate it!”
“That is understandable,” Tojo replied.
“It’s like…” Hiyoko pressed a hand to her forehead. “I perform constantly and I never see any of the money I make. I bring in these huge crowds, and for what?! They all think I have this happy, cushy life, but I — I can’t do anything! It’s all just performing and earning money for my family, and I can’t even pick where and when I perform. It’s hurting Oricorio, too! And she’s my best friend ever, my… My only friend, so I…”
Hiyoko trailed off, feeling tears prickling in her eyes. Before Tojo could say anything, though, Hiyoko felt herself beginning to yell again.
“I hate all of this!” She used her fist to push some tears from her eyes. “I want to be on my own, with Oricorio, and do what we want to do!”
Silence overtook the room. Tojo was quiet. Hiyoko glared tearily over at her, and she was about to snarl some nasty remark when Tojo spoke once more.
“So be on your own,” she said.
Hiyoko… paused.
“...Huh?”
“You can leave. You have that power.” Tojo nodded. “If you desire it, I will help you.”
…Help her? Help her leave?
“What do you mean?” Hiyoko murmured.
“I mean…” Tojo hesitated, then glanced at Lurantis, who was looking up at her supportively. “I know what it is like to feel trapped somewhere that you do not wish to be. We both do.”
Hiyoko frowned, clicking her tongue. “Yeah, I bet. You hate me.”
“I do not hate you.” Tojo’s gaze returned to Hiyoko, and it was sharp, but not in the same way that Hiyoko’s mother or grandmother could look at her sharply. It didn’t feel like she was about to be cut open. “In fact, being able to work with you is one of my and Lurantis’s greatest pleasures. Isn’t it, Lurantis?”
Lurantis nodded gracefully. His long forearms preened over his antennae.
Hiyoko pressed her lips together. “How can that be, though? I’m always so mean to you.”
“Well…” Tojo hummed. “It is a defense mechanism, is it not? And besides… You are not as mean to me as you could be. You have never hurt Lurantis, nor have you seriously insulted me or my work in the ways that you insult others. You also show your appreciation in your own way.” She smiled softly. “I have seen you secretly giving Lurantis treats, when you think I am not looking.”
Hiyoko’s face flushed red-hot. “Well — that’s, I mean…”
“The point is,” Tojo continued, “I have been trapped in places I do not wish to be before. My family… trained me to be a very specific sort of person.” Her gaze was sorrowful, but turned resolute. “I broke free of that. And, to tell the truth… You mean very much to me, Saionji-san. Truth be told, I see you almost as a younger sister.”
Hiyoko frowned. “We’re the same age.”
“Ah, I could have been fooled by all the times you referred to me as an ‘old hag’,” Tojo said, with just enough of a lilt that Hiyoko could tell it was meant to be a joke.
Hiyoko’s face reddened further. She turned and looked away, arms crossed, and she saw Oricorio mirroring her out of the corner of her eye.
“Well…” Tojo’s voice was soft. “All I can ask is that you think about it. We can put a plan in place and get you out of here. Perhaps a move to the mainland would suit us both.”
Hiyoko blinked, turning back to Tojo. “You’d come with me?”
“Of course.” Tojo nodded. “I would want to.”
The feeling of being genuinely cared for… It was unfamiliar to Hiyoko. It only ever came from her father, and she saw him so rarely these days. She swallowed hard.
“I’ll think about it,” she said. “But… If we leave, my father has to come too.”
“Very well.” Tojo bows her head. “Let us prepare for this show, then… And we can discuss further.”
“...Okay.”
Lurantis and Oricorio mirrored one another with graceful dance moves, and Hiyoko did the same with Tojo, matching her step for step. Later that evening, when Hiyoko was onstage with Oricorio, she remembered what Tojo said… and when she turned to give her final bow, spotting Tojo and Lurantis in the backstage wings, she could not help but smile.