[Finished] Back in reality

[Saaga Sun]

The shop stood on a street corner a couple blocks away from the Central City Station on the route of a busy tram line. Walking past it people could see colorful vases and sculptures displayed in the windows, all made out of glass. Inside it was divided into two areas; the small front parlor where they received customers and past the parlor a sliding door led to the workshop.

The day was slow, which was not all that unusual since most of the business Zhang’s Glass Emporium received came from special orders from regular clients, not walk in customers. New orders came in by way of appointments which had to be booked well in advance. Master Zhang did not shoo away visitors who just wanted to come in and see the shop, but he was always in a foul mood after suffering through moments of spontaneity.

Saaga was glad to be rid of him that day. The man had gone to a late lunch meeting with his old apprentice who had come to visit from Omashu. She hoped he would go drinking with him afterwards, so she didn’t have to suffer his condescending attitude and the way he stroked that thin ratty beard of his right before showering her with complaints. It was twice as aggravating because she knew most of the time that he was right to correct her on her work, but the way he spoke to her made strangling him seem like a great idea.

She would have been glad for Shou’s company, but the junior apprentice was away on sick leave suffering from a nasty cold apparently. The senior apprentice Tseng had disappeared for a delivery run after counting stock left over after the Fairgrounds festival and most likely he would stop somewhere to eat before returning to the shop.

It was just Saaga.

She had sat in the front parlor for a while, lazily playing with the turtleduck figurine she'd received from Tahrro, in the hopes some random passerby decided to walk in, but it had not taken her long to get bored and lock up the cash register. She did leave the sliding door open though, so she could hear the bell ring if a customer came in or master Zhang or Tseng decided to return.

She took up an order from the folder they were kept in and started working. It was for a large vase, and she could immerse herself on the job for a couple of hours without having the need to think of anything besides the work at hand.

She gathered the molten glass onto her blowpipe and rolled the resulting glob on the steel marver, after which she proceeded to blow air into the tube. She had worked on the vase for quite a while and was about to start on the finishing touches when she heard the bell ring. Someone had arrived in the shop.

“In here! Sorry, I’m in a bit of a sticky spot,” she called to whoever it was and continued work on the item. Just a few touches and she could put it in the annealer and be done with it.

[Narye Matsuya]

Saaga was right when she said that her place of employment, a glassblowing shop, was not all that hard to find once Narye got into the area. It was the only shop in the general area that specialized in glass, both commercial and artisitc, and they had a primo location on a street corner. No better place for visiblity considering that the front of the shop glittered in the sunlight and that trams passed by it regularly. Though he wondered if Satomobile drivers often got distracted by the sight.

Since that night of the Masquerade Ball, Narye and Saaga hadn't seen or heard from each other. The lack of communication didn't seem to stem from animosity, but just from the two of them being kind of busy, with the possibility that they both might have needed some time apart to think. Narye himself knew that, while he thoroughly enjoyed what happened that night, he needed time to sort out his thoughts a bit.

After a while he came to the conclusion that he actually did want to see where things could go with him and Saaga. That's when he also decided to visit her at the glassblowing shop.

Stepping into the shop, he found it empty of people, but filled with some beautiful works of glass art. Narye suddenly felt very cautious and afraid to move, nervous that he might bump something and shatter everything in the store.

From somewhere in the back Narye heard a familiar voice, it was Saaga.(Narye resisted the urge to shout back "You were also in a sticky spot last time I saw you", feeling that it didn't sound very gentlemanly of him) So she was working today, and possibly the only one working considering no one else answered Narye's entrance. Quietly, he came up to the front desk and waited for Saaga to come around, hoping to surprise her with his visit.

[Saaga Sun]

When she heard no reply Saaga shrugged and thought the customer might just be on the mood to look around the shop. In any case she could not leave the product unfinished even though courtesy dictated she should be present in the shop. She heated the vase in the furnace and then blew more air into the pipe, before giving it a good spin. The vase elongated slightly and after careful review she decided it was ready enough to proceed to the next stage. It was a tricky maneuver to detach the blowpipe from the product, but somehow she managed. After some finishing touches to the top she could finally put in the annealer and write down a review sheet of her work for master Zhang to read.

She emerged from the workshop hoping that the customer had hung around and that he or she would not be annoyed with her taking some time to come over and attend them. She took off her gloves and stuck them inside her trouser pockets, then wiped her hands on her leather apron. Her auburn hair was combed back and for the large part covered with a green scarf.

“I’m sorry for the wait. How may I help --?” she started to say and then realized it was no stranger standing there at the desk.

Saaga was not actually sure as to how she should categorize Narye. She did not know him well at all, but then again she knew him alarmingly well in other respects. And to be honest, she had not really expected to run into him again. Sure they had not left in bad terms, and he was nice and all that, but somehow seeing him at her workplace made her feel a little awkward.

“Hi. It’s been a while. Got an interest in glass?” she said to him, managing even to smile. She was at work and he was a customer, act accordingly, she told herself.

[Narye Matsuya]

Saaga may have looked like she had just come from some down and dirty work, glassblowing no doubt, but she still looked mighty pretty to Narye. So when she finally came out and offered up a practiced sales line, before she knew it was him, he shot her a toothy grin that apparently caught her off guard a bit. Her momentary pause didn't bug Narye much. After all, this was a surprise visit at her work after only one night together.

"I guess I could get an interest if it was you givin' me the introduction, and if you can convince me that I'm not gonna break everythin' in the shop."

He leaned on the counter a bit, towards Saaga.

"But I'm mostly here for you. How've you been, Saaga?"

There was also a nice handful of other questions he wanted to ask her. Did she regret the other night? How did she feel about him? But those were defnitely questions for another time and place. Right now, it was time to keep it a little casual in case Saaga wasn't too keen on persuing the relationshop further than a single night.

As it stood now, Narye was feeling a little confident that things weren't going to get too wierd with him showing up unannounced. She was smiling and welcoming, and it all boded well in his head. Sure, there was bound to be some hint of the nerves seeing as how they only kind of knew each other from one night of dancing and talking, but REALLY knew each other in a completely different sense. But that could easily be remedied with time and little effort.

[Saaga Sun]

”I should imagine you’d get a better appreciation for the art if you got that introduction from an actual master. And I don't think I need to convince you much, just give you some motivation. If you break it, you buy it,” she gave him a reply in a half joking tone, though there was a hidden truth to her words.

She didn’t think she had to worry about a grown man stumbling into a glass cabinet and managing to knock it over, not at least if the man in question was sober. She looked around the shop and everything was still in place. All the items were safely shelved in their cabinets and though the room was pretty small there was still enough room to walk around without feeling claustrophobic. One would need to put some effort in if he intended to trash the shop and Narye seemed like the sort of man who was fully capable of minding his steps.

When he leaned on the counter Saaga pulled out a ledger beneath it and shuffled through it in search of the right materials list. The shop had a pretty tight system. The use of all materials needed to be reported in the ledger so master Zhang could make orders for the right amounts. The junior apprentice had gotten into a world of trouble when he’d failed to do so and Saaga suspected he was still doing penance for it even though half a year had passed. Conversing with Narye was fine with her as long as it did not impede with her work.

“I’ve been busy. Our whole staff had to pull a few all-nighters to prepare for the festival and now we’re catching up on orders that were delayed because of that,” she told him, jotting down the amounts of each material she’d used and making a note of the red canes running out.

“How about you? No class today?” she asked, closed the book and placed it back where she’d taken it.

[Narye Matsuya]

"I'll try to keep my hands to myself then."

There were better things Narye would like to have put his hands on other than the fine glass pieces. Yeah, Narye's... confidence had been revived thanks to Saaga, and now he found his mind wandering to other places more often than usual. It wasn't nearly as common an occurance as when he was a teenager, but it had definitely been more frequent than in recent memory. It was kind of why he spent time with Ira at the Festival too.

Narye could sympathize with Saaga's predicament of being overrun by work as she filled out reports or something. While Narye only rarely had to pick-up the slack of other coworkers, the work of teaching tended to come in waves. Most of the time the stress was pretty even. Then tests, projects, or end-of-the-year cruches came along and buried Narye under paper, scrolls, and grades.

"Yeah. I got the day off today, and I wanted to come and visit you. See if things were alright."

He chuckled a little bit before the next statement, thinking about how corny or cheesy it sounded in his head. It could probably only sound worse outloud.

"Y'know, I've kinda missed you, Saaga."

The way he was looking at her, it was fairly evident that Narye was tipping his hand again and telling her exactly how he felt. It was a trait that proved not-good sometimes, in that Narye sometimes came off a bit strong and that turned-off some women. He didn't know what to do about it since it was a turn-off sometimes, and an endearing characterisitc at others.

Narye promptly stood back up straight and put on a smiling face like he was trying to pretend he didn't just say that and continue on with their casual conversation.

"So! You think you got time for a break or something? Or if you're too busy... Think I could see you work your craft in the back?"

[Saaga Sun]

”Please see that you do,” Saaga wanted to say to him, but she didn’t want to sound like she was bitter or angry about something, when she wasn’t and had no real reason to be. She just happened to be one of those practical types in whose eyes the current situation known as ‘work’ was a higher priority to her than whatever was going on between her and Narye.

After the masquerade ball her life had not changed significantly. She had stopped by a bathhouse on her way home the next day and spent a good amount of time just soaking in the water. Then when she got home nothing had happened. No one asked her any questions and she had just changed clothes and gone to work. Of course she had thought about what had happened but there was a certain feeling of relief in the world not caring about what she’d done. It had been an experience, a heat of the moment thing and just one more thing to add to the list of ‘things she could not have done if she still lived on her island home’.

But now the man was there in the shop and suddenly it seemed like she could not just chalk the encounter up as a onetime occurrence. Or maybe she could if he chose to refrain from doing anything. In all honesty Saaga did not really know what to think. She was so distracted by him that she just stood by the counter for a moment before realizing she ought to do something and so to keep her mind off him she started organizing things that were on the counter table.

“Things are perfectly alright. Why wouldn’t they be?” she chuckled and grabbed Lula, the turtleduck figurine from the counter and put it in her pocket. She would no doubt forget it at work otherwise.

She was surprised at how happy she felt that someone had used their precious free time to come and meet her at work, but at the same time it made her feel rather anxious. What did he expect of her?

When he said he’d missed her Saaga smiled at him, unable to say anything. She didn’t know how to feel about his confession. To say nothing at all might seem insensitive but if she blurted out one her harsh remarks then he’d feel insulted. She did not want to do either, but luckily he switched the subject.

“A break would be nice but I can’t leave until someone comes back to attend the shop. And we’re not really allowed to let people in the work shop. My boss is pretty paranoid about his trade secrets so he’ll throw a fi—Tseng! About time,” she started to explain but the ring of the doorbell and the arrival of a bearded man around his forties made her turn her attention elsewhere.

The man came to the counter, looked the customer over and gave him a little bow. Then he turned to Saaga and grinned.

“You got yourself a customer Saa-Sun?” he asked and was met with a sullen glare.

“You know I don’t like it when you call me that. I want to take a break. Mind the shop while I’m gone. Oh, and there’s a vase in the annealer, so keep an eye on that,” she said to him, not really making requests so much as bossing him around.

“Sure when you ask so nicely,” he replied sarcastically and took her place behind the counter, as Saaga took off her apron and hung it on a nail by the door to the work shop.

“Shall we?” she asked as she came to Narye, ready to usher him out of the shop before her colleague could engage in a conversation with him.

[Narye Matsuya]

Narye wanted to answer her question, by giving voice to the concerns that were still buzzing in his head, but again he stopped himself. This was just supposed to be a casual meeting and asking those kinds of questions sounded like a great way to freak her out and never hear from her again. Which was the exact opposite kind of reaction Narye was hoping for at the moment. But, believe it or not, it was something Narye had to actively think about.

"I dunno. Is it bad to think about you sometimes?"

Maybe it was too late to dial it back. Saaga had already been struck dumb, apparently, by him saying that he missed her. There went his confidence... It didn't show because he still kept up his facade. Plus another person came into the shop and took his mind off the feeling.

It was an older gentleman, older than Narye, and judging by Saaga's reaction he was another worker at the glass shop. Narye gave him a bow in return and stepped back to let them get back to their work or do whatever it was they needed to do. He thought that maybe he should come back later when Saaga actually did have a break since checking out the glassblowing process was off-limits. But Narye was pleasantly surprised to find that she instead took that opportunity to take her break instead. His grin widened.

"Yes. Lets."

Narye offered her his hand as he walked out of the shop.

"Want to get some tea or something? Coffee?"

[Saaga Sun]

Getting out of the shop gave Saaga a chance to sort out her thoughts without feeling pressured by too many things coming at her at once. At work she always needed to keep up certain appearances and talking to an older gentleman who was not a customer would strike her colleagues as odd and make them ask all sorts of unnecessary questions she did not know how to answer to.

As she got ready to leave she glanced over to Tseng one more time to see if there was any visible change in his expression or attitude, but to her relief he was busy checking the ledger she had just filled in and as she walked to the door she saw him go into the workshop from the reflection on the window glass. If it had been Shou or even master Zhang, they would have been all over this piece of gossip, so at least she had some amount of luck on her side.

Narye offered her his hand to hold but she did not take it until after they’d safely left the confines of the shop. Even then she was hesitant at first, but she felt he didn’t deserve her slighting him. After all, he’d gone to the trouble of coming all the way to the emporium to see her and she did not want to drive him away even if his attentions were a little…overbearing. She just hoped he would not rush her in coming to terms with how she felt about the whole situation.

“There’s actually a very nice teahouse not too far from here. I visit it frequently when I’m on breaks. You want to go?” she inquired and checked her vest pockets to make sure she had not forgotten anything at the shop.

All ready to go she looked him over and said, in an attempt to apologize: “I know I might’ve seemed a little cold in the shop, but you really surprised me by coming there. Sorry about that.”

[Narye Matsuya]

"Well, if it got your recommendation, then I'm up for it."

When Saaga mentioned her behavior in the shop, and even apologized for it, Narye felt a mix of relief and depression. He was relieved maybe her reactions were affected by the stress of work and wanting to hide things from her coworkers. He also felt a little ashamed because what he thought earlier was basically true, just showing up at her work was way too strong a gesture. The thought made him sigh and shake his head at himself.

"No... You don't have to apologize. I haven't courted anyone in a long time, so apparently I've completely forgotten how to comport myself and such."

Coming out to visit Saaga on a whim, Narye hadn't expected to eventually start hating himself a little. Now he was starting to question or doubt just about everything. Should he have even gone out to the Masquerade Ball in the first place? He did go out for the almost expressed purpose of trying to court someone. Should he have come out to visit her unannounced? Now that he thought about it, it sounded kind of desperate or clingy. Narye kind of wanted to crawl under a rock out of embarrassment and just resign himself to being alone.

But he was already out there with Saaga so he might as well see it to the end, and enjoy some tea in the process. Looking over at her a little, he was reminded a little of why he did all of that. She was a very pretty young woman and he seemed to get along with her well enough. The thought didn't do too much to comfort Narye against the creeping specter of doubt.

"Look, if you're at all uncomfortable with this, or if you wanna just, I dunno, cut it all off, just tell me. I won't hold it against you."