Eternal Play

By K-chan

Rewritten after consulting Ktin the Coffee Guru.

The little details the strange group replayed, as if the only routine they knew, didn't go unnoticed by the waitress. For example, Kazuki's order never strayed from an almond or vanilla-flavored latte and Shido liked plain espresso. Hevn's orders, once random, had settled into just getting a cappuccino.

If Ban and Ginji fought over sushi, then Natsumi was happy, because at least they were eating. She never tried to stop the fights- that was what they were going to do, and if was pointless to try and stop it.

So on this rainy Thursday afternoon, the cheerful, accepting girl found herself wondering if she had changed as Ginji electrocuted Ban to get at the unpaid food. Kazuki and Shido sat at the bar, their usual orders filled. Pore was out for a while, leaving his trusted employee in charge.

Hevn stepped into the Honky Tonk Café, the motion causing her immense chest to bounce as she smirked. "Hello!"

Ginji stopped his fussing to shout out, "Hevn-san!" Ban crammed the rest into his mouth.

"BAAAANN-CHAAN!" he whined, reverting to his tare-Ginji form and crawling on Ban's spiky head.

"Mmf mm mf!" Ban struggled to talk, spitting pieces of rice onto the bar top.

"Ban-chan, that's disgusting!"

Natsumi quickly wiped the offending bits away. "Hello Hevn-san!" the waitress greeted, optimistically feeling that the two would finally get a good job and pay back Pore today.

"I have a job for you," the busty woman said in a singsong voice.

"Yay!" Ginji barely had time to yell before Ban slid up to her with false cheer and wrapped an arm around the blonde's shoulders.

"Well, come sit then!"

"Ban-chan is so easy to see through." The former-Thunder Emperor muttered, lowering his hands from when he raised them in 'yay'.

Hevn stepped forward away from Ban. "Not you two- Shido."

"WHAT?" was Ban's outraged yell.

"What-why?" His blond partner was confused and his brown eyes were wide with hurt of rejection.

"It was a request." The older woman said shrugging. Her amber eyes were sparkling with mirth at some secret.

Now Ban's rage was focused on the beast master with the espresso.

"You've stolen out business, Monkey boy!" Then he lunged past a still-sipping-his-vanilla-flavored-latte-Kazuki, at Shido, grabbing him by the edge of his shirt.

"Let go of me, Snake bastard!" the bandanna-ed male growled.

"Ban-chan!"

Crash!

"Chill!" Hevn rolled her eyes as she sat on a stool and slapped her palm on the wood of the tabletop. "I've got a recovery job for you guys too, jeez! I was just kidding."

Ginji climbed down from where he was clinging to Ban's head, and Ban in turn released Shido from the headlock the 'Monkey Boy' was in.

Kazuki took a long sip of his latte. The beastmaster put a few yen on the table to cover the bill, then eying the mess his broken mug had made, he dropped a few more in an uncharacteristic tip for the hard-working girl. Natsumi went to get a mop for Shido's spilled coffee, so she didn't hear the bigger details of their assignments, but she wished them luck all the same when they went out to meet their clients.

"Ugh... I always feel like something bad is going to happen after I say that." Natsumi mused to herself, leaning on her mop handle.

"Maybe its like theater, where it's bad luck to say 'Good Luck', so they say 'Break a leg' instead." Kazuki offered. The young waitress jumped. She forgot the quiet man was still there.

"Oh! Uh, maybe." Natsumi searched her mind for a time when she said that, but if she had, it was lost in the folds of familiar memories.

She began clearing away the broken bits of mug. Because Kazuki had spoken to her, the need to continue conversation hung over her head and made the air in the room tense.

Kazuki cleared his throat and questioned, "So, how old are you now?" Something about his eyes told Natsumi he was just as nervous as she, which made it easier on the girl to talk to him.

"Nineteen." Natsumi was happy to answer. "I'm doing this job while attending college now." There was Natsumi's true problem- while Ban, Ginji and their companions seemed forever youthful and were able to live like they had year after year because of their jobs, Natsumi was a waitress and a student. She would be forced to enter the real working world eventually. To leave her role as happy, ever-smiling Natsumi at the Honky Tonk. "How old are you, Kazuki-san?"

"Uh, I've forgotten."

Natsumi smiled understandingly. "Oh well! That's your role."

The brunette frowned, his eyebrows drawing in. "Role?"

"You." She gestured vaguely. "You all. Ban-kun and Ginji-kun, and Shido-san and Hevn-san and you. You guys seem to be roles in an eternal, stagnant play, y'know?"

His eyebrows drew higher on his effeminate face. "I hardly think so."

"Well, you never seem to change, anyway." Now she smiled apologetically. "You must think I'm crazy."

Kazuki didn't respond to that and instead stared at his cold latte contemplatively. "Things did seem like they'd changed for a while..." She knew he was talking about Volts and Ginji... and how he changed after meeting Ban. She could only imagine what the chipper boy was like way-back-when.

The brunette male stood and pulled out his wallet. Natsumi finished cleaning up the floor.

"Off to spy on Ginji-kun and Ban-kun?"

"If I am?" the tall man asked quietly, the bells in his long brown hair tinkling.

"It's okay." Natsumi said, smiling. That's your role."

Another note, I've only seen pictures of Juubei... no idea what he's like. Anybody willing to tell me about him? I do want to do more of this story, but until my friend forks over the manga, I'm not going to be able to. Sorry.