Metal!verse Gift Fic for Tiff
Aug. 2nd, 2007 04:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dethoratsThanks for letting me play in your sandbox!
Title: Bisexuals Are Brutal (But Bartenders Are Metal)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Nami/Kaya, Kaya/Usopp, Nami/Robin
Word Count: 1,886
Note: Metal!AU
Under normal circumstances Nami’s heart would have been thundering along in time to the thumping bass beat that was literally shaking the club. She would have been sweating, dying for a drink but completely unwilling to leave the dance floor, having the time of her life. Seeing and being seen and more often than not holding a soft and willing body in her arms as she moved to the music. That night, a night that should have been practically perfect, her heart just couldn’t seem to find the energy to batter against her rib cage in a struggle towards freedom. Certainly it wasn’t every Friday night that an act as big as Lords of Acid came to town and played for the local techno industrial club scene. Nami had been thrilled five months ago when word first got out that the group would be stopping for one evening as part of their current world tour. But that had been before she’d introduced her newest college friend to the group of guys she’d hung out with since high school.
Kaya was lovely; delicate, pale, and blond but with a steely core of determination and a mischievous streak broader than Nami’s own. She was everything Nami wanted in a friend, everything she’d been looking for in a lover. Over the course of the semester, they’d moved from absent greetings in class to studying together to spending Friday nights hitting clubs and bars to finally waking up together Saturday mornings in the warm comfort of Nami’s single in the dorm. It was on the third such time, with only the hectic stretch between Thanksgiving and the distant promise of winter break allowing a spare moment, that Nami had made up her mind and dragged Kaya with her on a two-hour drive back to her hometown. The blond had laughed when she realized where they were headed, lightly punched Nami in the shoulder as they both realized the conversation about just where they were from had never arisen. They were from the same place, albeit opposite sides of town and different high schools, and they spent the last half hour of the drive talking about places they had in common.
Sanji’s fledgling restaurant was still largely empty on Saturdays as word of the young chef’s place had been slow to circulate beyond the immediate, somewhat shabby vicinity. When Nami had escorted Kaya through the doors, the only customers had been of the non-paying sort. Her mooching friends - Luffy and his wickedly grinning older brother over by the ancient Centipede cabinet, and Usopp and Zoro huddled together around a copy of Metal Hammer arguing vigorously about the relative merits of Hammerfall versus Blind Guardian - were all present and Nami made sure to give them all a stern glance, the kind that said ‘don’t be the dicks I know you are in front of this one.’ She’d expected Ace’s disarmingly charming smile and Luffy’s eager bouncing, Zoro’s abrupt and rude yell for Sanji to ‘get his skinny ass out of the kitchen.’ But she hadn’t thought to see Usopp go as white as he got when watching horror movies, all the blood draining out of his face as his eyes widened. Nor could she have anticipated the way Kaya gasped, one hand suddenly fisted against her bosom, as she stared at the long-nosed boy.
“Usopp?”
“K..K-Kaya?!”
After that Nami’s planned introduction had turned into an impromptu reunion for the long-parted friends and she’d told herself she wasn’t jealous of the way Kaya had promptly stolen Usopp’s bandanna, her nimble fingers slipping into his dark curls with familiar ease. She tried only to be attentive as she listened to stories of past exploits, doing her best to ignore the way Usopp’s cheeks colored every time Kaya laughed, the way the blond girl kept leaning into his shoulder. And it was certainly understandable when Kaya spoke of little besides Usopp on the ride home. Nami pretended their parting kiss was light and quick only because Kaya was tired and not because she was thinking of someone else. But the truth was already lodged in her heart although it took her another three months to acknowledge it.
Even knowing that Usopp and Kaya were perfect for each other, watching them move in the pulsing strobe lights to the driven thumping of Cybersex Scherzo still hurt. Kaya led, wicked grin on her face as she grabbed Usopp’s hips and pulled the flushing, sweaty young man against her as she gyrated. And Usopp, in spite of his obvious embarrassment, followed eagerly after. Five months ago Nami had imagined herself and Kaya writhing together to the beat, eagerly enacting every naughty lyric they thought they could get away with while they still had their clothes on. But that wasn’t to be and she smiled broadly and shook her head when first Kaya and then Usopp waved at her, urging her to come join them.
Nami, for all of Zoro’s frequent complaints about her being a tight-fisted witch, was very generous when it came to her friends and her feelings. She would never try to come between Usopp and Kaya, not when it was clear to everyone that saw them how happy they were, how they fit together like smooth rum and bubbly coke. But knowing and seeing still couldn’t keep her heart from aching in her chest, beating fitfully as it wallowed in sorrow instead of rejoicing in the hardcore techno beats. Nami gave them one last glance and turned away from the packed dance floor. Maybe a drink would dull the pain enough to let her enjoy the music.
The bar ran along half of the front wall, very narrow and poorly lit as was often the case in dance clubs. Nami leaned up against the polished, sticky wood at the least crowded end and waited, turning her attention to the row of bottles lined up above the ice bin. The labels were hard to read in the dim light and she squinted, trying to make out a particularly shadowed brand. When a touch ghosted across her arm, she actually jumped but the scowl on her face died when she saw who had been so presumptuous. The bartender was new, had to be because Nami would never have forgotten a face as striking as the one before her. Patrician nose, full lips, and incredibly luminous cerulean eyes all on a face framed by a raven’s fall of hair, the bartender was gorgeous and it took the small quirking of that delicious-looking mouth for Nami to remember herself and stop staring.
“Can I get you something?”
A mellifluous voice to go with that face and Nami licked her lips once before she managed to answer.
“Scotch, straight up.”
One dark eyebrow arched before the bartender nodded and turned around, reaching for the very bottle Nami had been studying earlier. Amber liquid, smoky gold as it poured into the bottom of the small glass tumbler, flowed out easily as the woman tilted the bottle. Nami didn’t notice, too busy tracing the contours of skin she could see peeking out between the top of the low-slung jeans and the hem of the snug-fitting baby doll tee. The glass settled on the bar without a single hint of sound and Nami wrapped her fingers around it, made a show of swirling the scotch before tossing it back and swallowing smoothly. The alcohol burned down her throat and into her stomach, a pleasant heat, and she nodded once in satisfaction as she set the glass back down.
“Hit me again.”
It took three more shots before Nami had the courage to toss a twenty on the bar and turn around, resting her back against the steady, solid wood. The hurt that had been shuffled aside to make room for good liquor and the svelte form of the bartender came scurrying back out as she directed her attention back to the dance floor. From there Nami unerringly picked out Kaya and Usopp, easily following the couple as they danced together as almost a single body. Why did she always have to fall for the ones who liked boys too? There had been that girl back in high school she’d lost to the captain of the soccer team, and then sweet sweet Vivi to Kohza, and now she’d lost Kaya to one of her closest friends. At least Usopp was one of the few men out there she considered worthy. If she had to lose, she could almost stand for it to be to him.
The opening strains of Rough Sex came on, Nami’s favorite song, and she sighed and dropped her gaze to her feet. None of that for her tonight but, knowing Kaya, Usopp would be in for an interesting evening once they got back to the dorms. As she wallowed a bit in self-pity Nami was surprised again. Fingertips danced across her skin for a second time, a less casual brush that traced one whorl of her tattoo. It was deliberate, not something that could have been a chance contact, and Nami slowly turned her head to look at the hand on her arm. She followed the line to wrist and elbow and up over the round curve of shoulder to gaze once more at the bartender. The woman was tall, Nami realized, as she had to look up into the woman’s face. Tall and leaning over, moving closer so that she could murmur into Nami’s sensitive ear, stirring her orange hair and sending strands tickling across her cheek.
“This is my favorite song.”
“Mine too.”
The words left her in a whisper before she had a chance to think, heat settling in her belly that had nothing to do with scotch, and then Nami turned her head further, tilted her chin up just enough as the other woman stretched across the bar to close the last bit of distance between them. Warm and slow but with the threat of teeth against her lower lip and Nami opened her mouth and tasted something spicy-sweet, a concoction that her brain couldn’t quite pin down. Her eyelids fluttered shut and she sighed a little bit in regret when the bartender finally pulled away. The woman was smiling at her, enigmatic and knowing at the same time, and Nami felt her cheeks go pink from something besides alcohol for the first time in years. Nothing more was said as the attractive bartender was called away and Nami grinned, finally feeling better.
Dancing helped even more, Nami throwing herself back into the music with a gusto she wouldn’t have thought possible earlier. She even stole Kaya away for one song, letting her hands roam suggestively without actually touching while Usopp’s eyes bulged and the blond laughed brightly in her arms. And the night only got better when one of the staff approached her during the final song of the incredible set with another shot of scotch and the club’s business card. There was a cell phone number neatly written on the back in purple ink and a name. Nami slipped the card into the safe confines of her bra and savored her liquor. The club was closed on Sundays and that meant she only had to wait one night before she called Robin.
Title: Bisexuals Are Brutal (But Bartenders Are Metal)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Nami/Kaya, Kaya/Usopp, Nami/Robin
Word Count: 1,886
Note: Metal!AU
Under normal circumstances Nami’s heart would have been thundering along in time to the thumping bass beat that was literally shaking the club. She would have been sweating, dying for a drink but completely unwilling to leave the dance floor, having the time of her life. Seeing and being seen and more often than not holding a soft and willing body in her arms as she moved to the music. That night, a night that should have been practically perfect, her heart just couldn’t seem to find the energy to batter against her rib cage in a struggle towards freedom. Certainly it wasn’t every Friday night that an act as big as Lords of Acid came to town and played for the local techno industrial club scene. Nami had been thrilled five months ago when word first got out that the group would be stopping for one evening as part of their current world tour. But that had been before she’d introduced her newest college friend to the group of guys she’d hung out with since high school.
Kaya was lovely; delicate, pale, and blond but with a steely core of determination and a mischievous streak broader than Nami’s own. She was everything Nami wanted in a friend, everything she’d been looking for in a lover. Over the course of the semester, they’d moved from absent greetings in class to studying together to spending Friday nights hitting clubs and bars to finally waking up together Saturday mornings in the warm comfort of Nami’s single in the dorm. It was on the third such time, with only the hectic stretch between Thanksgiving and the distant promise of winter break allowing a spare moment, that Nami had made up her mind and dragged Kaya with her on a two-hour drive back to her hometown. The blond had laughed when she realized where they were headed, lightly punched Nami in the shoulder as they both realized the conversation about just where they were from had never arisen. They were from the same place, albeit opposite sides of town and different high schools, and they spent the last half hour of the drive talking about places they had in common.
Sanji’s fledgling restaurant was still largely empty on Saturdays as word of the young chef’s place had been slow to circulate beyond the immediate, somewhat shabby vicinity. When Nami had escorted Kaya through the doors, the only customers had been of the non-paying sort. Her mooching friends - Luffy and his wickedly grinning older brother over by the ancient Centipede cabinet, and Usopp and Zoro huddled together around a copy of Metal Hammer arguing vigorously about the relative merits of Hammerfall versus Blind Guardian - were all present and Nami made sure to give them all a stern glance, the kind that said ‘don’t be the dicks I know you are in front of this one.’ She’d expected Ace’s disarmingly charming smile and Luffy’s eager bouncing, Zoro’s abrupt and rude yell for Sanji to ‘get his skinny ass out of the kitchen.’ But she hadn’t thought to see Usopp go as white as he got when watching horror movies, all the blood draining out of his face as his eyes widened. Nor could she have anticipated the way Kaya gasped, one hand suddenly fisted against her bosom, as she stared at the long-nosed boy.
“Usopp?”
“K..K-Kaya?!”
After that Nami’s planned introduction had turned into an impromptu reunion for the long-parted friends and she’d told herself she wasn’t jealous of the way Kaya had promptly stolen Usopp’s bandanna, her nimble fingers slipping into his dark curls with familiar ease. She tried only to be attentive as she listened to stories of past exploits, doing her best to ignore the way Usopp’s cheeks colored every time Kaya laughed, the way the blond girl kept leaning into his shoulder. And it was certainly understandable when Kaya spoke of little besides Usopp on the ride home. Nami pretended their parting kiss was light and quick only because Kaya was tired and not because she was thinking of someone else. But the truth was already lodged in her heart although it took her another three months to acknowledge it.
Even knowing that Usopp and Kaya were perfect for each other, watching them move in the pulsing strobe lights to the driven thumping of Cybersex Scherzo still hurt. Kaya led, wicked grin on her face as she grabbed Usopp’s hips and pulled the flushing, sweaty young man against her as she gyrated. And Usopp, in spite of his obvious embarrassment, followed eagerly after. Five months ago Nami had imagined herself and Kaya writhing together to the beat, eagerly enacting every naughty lyric they thought they could get away with while they still had their clothes on. But that wasn’t to be and she smiled broadly and shook her head when first Kaya and then Usopp waved at her, urging her to come join them.
Nami, for all of Zoro’s frequent complaints about her being a tight-fisted witch, was very generous when it came to her friends and her feelings. She would never try to come between Usopp and Kaya, not when it was clear to everyone that saw them how happy they were, how they fit together like smooth rum and bubbly coke. But knowing and seeing still couldn’t keep her heart from aching in her chest, beating fitfully as it wallowed in sorrow instead of rejoicing in the hardcore techno beats. Nami gave them one last glance and turned away from the packed dance floor. Maybe a drink would dull the pain enough to let her enjoy the music.
The bar ran along half of the front wall, very narrow and poorly lit as was often the case in dance clubs. Nami leaned up against the polished, sticky wood at the least crowded end and waited, turning her attention to the row of bottles lined up above the ice bin. The labels were hard to read in the dim light and she squinted, trying to make out a particularly shadowed brand. When a touch ghosted across her arm, she actually jumped but the scowl on her face died when she saw who had been so presumptuous. The bartender was new, had to be because Nami would never have forgotten a face as striking as the one before her. Patrician nose, full lips, and incredibly luminous cerulean eyes all on a face framed by a raven’s fall of hair, the bartender was gorgeous and it took the small quirking of that delicious-looking mouth for Nami to remember herself and stop staring.
“Can I get you something?”
A mellifluous voice to go with that face and Nami licked her lips once before she managed to answer.
“Scotch, straight up.”
One dark eyebrow arched before the bartender nodded and turned around, reaching for the very bottle Nami had been studying earlier. Amber liquid, smoky gold as it poured into the bottom of the small glass tumbler, flowed out easily as the woman tilted the bottle. Nami didn’t notice, too busy tracing the contours of skin she could see peeking out between the top of the low-slung jeans and the hem of the snug-fitting baby doll tee. The glass settled on the bar without a single hint of sound and Nami wrapped her fingers around it, made a show of swirling the scotch before tossing it back and swallowing smoothly. The alcohol burned down her throat and into her stomach, a pleasant heat, and she nodded once in satisfaction as she set the glass back down.
“Hit me again.”
It took three more shots before Nami had the courage to toss a twenty on the bar and turn around, resting her back against the steady, solid wood. The hurt that had been shuffled aside to make room for good liquor and the svelte form of the bartender came scurrying back out as she directed her attention back to the dance floor. From there Nami unerringly picked out Kaya and Usopp, easily following the couple as they danced together as almost a single body. Why did she always have to fall for the ones who liked boys too? There had been that girl back in high school she’d lost to the captain of the soccer team, and then sweet sweet Vivi to Kohza, and now she’d lost Kaya to one of her closest friends. At least Usopp was one of the few men out there she considered worthy. If she had to lose, she could almost stand for it to be to him.
The opening strains of Rough Sex came on, Nami’s favorite song, and she sighed and dropped her gaze to her feet. None of that for her tonight but, knowing Kaya, Usopp would be in for an interesting evening once they got back to the dorms. As she wallowed a bit in self-pity Nami was surprised again. Fingertips danced across her skin for a second time, a less casual brush that traced one whorl of her tattoo. It was deliberate, not something that could have been a chance contact, and Nami slowly turned her head to look at the hand on her arm. She followed the line to wrist and elbow and up over the round curve of shoulder to gaze once more at the bartender. The woman was tall, Nami realized, as she had to look up into the woman’s face. Tall and leaning over, moving closer so that she could murmur into Nami’s sensitive ear, stirring her orange hair and sending strands tickling across her cheek.
“This is my favorite song.”
“Mine too.”
The words left her in a whisper before she had a chance to think, heat settling in her belly that had nothing to do with scotch, and then Nami turned her head further, tilted her chin up just enough as the other woman stretched across the bar to close the last bit of distance between them. Warm and slow but with the threat of teeth against her lower lip and Nami opened her mouth and tasted something spicy-sweet, a concoction that her brain couldn’t quite pin down. Her eyelids fluttered shut and she sighed a little bit in regret when the bartender finally pulled away. The woman was smiling at her, enigmatic and knowing at the same time, and Nami felt her cheeks go pink from something besides alcohol for the first time in years. Nothing more was said as the attractive bartender was called away and Nami grinned, finally feeling better.
Dancing helped even more, Nami throwing herself back into the music with a gusto she wouldn’t have thought possible earlier. She even stole Kaya away for one song, letting her hands roam suggestively without actually touching while Usopp’s eyes bulged and the blond laughed brightly in her arms. And the night only got better when one of the staff approached her during the final song of the incredible set with another shot of scotch and the club’s business card. There was a cell phone number neatly written on the back in purple ink and a name. Nami slipped the card into the safe confines of her bra and savored her liquor. The club was closed on Sundays and that meant she only had to wait one night before she called Robin.
