Smells Like Sugar - Aki

She was about to flip the switch, at the back of her neck, when she was hit with the all too familiar smell.

Her eyes scanned the crowded square, expecting to catch a glimpse at her shadow. Instead she was met with a cotton candy vendor. Hear heart dropped. What had she expected? She hadn’t had his nightmares in over a month now and the times she had seen him in her travels was all far more dire than this future was. Still, she couldn’t help but worry. What if something had happened to him? Then again, it’s not like the traveling version of him would know that either.

She shook her head. It wasn’t good to think about this. She learned that long ago.

The world blurred and for a second everything flew by as soon as she flipped the switch. And soon the bright lights from the office blinded her. Crap! She had forgotten to close her eyes.

“Welcome back!” Her engineer and best friend, Kumi Shiraki, handed her a bottle of water. “Forgot to close your eyes again?”

“Yeah.” She grabbed the bottle and pushed down the breakfast rising in her throat. “Stupid mistake.”

“You’re handling it better than most.” Kumi chuckled. “So, how bad off are we?”

“It’s not the first time I kept my eyes open.” She couldn’t help but smile. Kumi cared a lot, but they also knew each other good enough to know when not to worry. “And we’re fine. Just some greedy company to prevent.” She sighed and opened the bottle.

Her job was important. Gathering information from the future to keep peace in the world. But lately she felt less and less needed. They had already prevented tragedy to strike more times than she could count and every time the human species seemed to grow more and more content with peace.

“Oh, come on!” Kumi turned off the traveling system. “I know you’re kind of a masochist but this is good news.”

“I’m not a masochist, Kumi. I just feel kind of useless when it’s this peaceful.” She handed Kumi the traveling device and got out of her pod. Her legs was still shaking but she would manage.

“Aki Hiraoka! World peace is not your problem.” Kumi put the device away. “It’s your own peace that’s bothering you.” Kumi was the only person in the office who knew about her nightmares. She was also the only one who knew that they had stopped.

“It’s not the nightmares.” Aki rubbed her eyes, more out of habit than actual need. “I just want answers.”

“And we’ll get them some day.” Kumi pulled her into a hug. “But for now, I’m just happy that my best friend finally gets some peaceful sleep.”

Aki felt her heart warm up. Kumi might be her traveling engineer, but the two of them had been best friends since collage.

“What do you say about lunch?” As much as she wanted her own answers, Aki knew that the topic of connected persons was somewhat painful for Kumi.

Humans hadn’t always been connected to each other, it was something that came with evolution. Strongly believed to have been a response to the loneliness that had troubled humanity long ago. But for the past few thousand years everyone had one person whose dreams were connected to theirs.

It was supposed to be comforting, and while not everyone fell in love with their person, many did. But they almost always cared for each other, even the ones who never met.

Kumi was no different. She and her person had even dated at one point. But something had happened between them. Aki didn’t know what, since it had happened before she and Kumi had met, but she assumed it had been bad. So she tried her best to avoid the topic.

“Are you sure you can eat yet?” Kumi grabbed Aki’s hand and dragged her out to the hallway. “But lunch sounds great. I’m starving.”

Despite knowing he wouldn’t be there, Aki found herself scanning the cafeteria for the boy. Her connected person. At least that’s what she assumed he was. Despite never feeling that sense of comfort she had heard about, and she invaded his dreams without ever feeling him in hers. And he always seemed to be surrounded by the smell of sugar.

“You’re back already?” A younger co-worker called out for them. Rika Kuroda was their junior both in age and years in the company. She was also one of the few others who traveled instead of managing the things around the travels.

“You too it seems.” Aki forced a smile. Rika was a good time traveler, and she was nice, but their interactions had always felt forced. Rika saw her as a rival to out perform and she didn’t hide it.

“I assume things are calm for you too?” Kumi stepped in. She got along well with everyone, including Rika, and was often the one who kept the two of them off each other’s throats.

“Totally! Only small fry. It’s pretty nice to not have to fear for your life anymore.” Rika sat down beside Kumi. “By the way, did you know the higher ups are here this week?”

“All of them?” Aki froze mid bite. The company’s higher ups usually kept to a different building, but she knew one of them well enough. And their relationship wasn’t the best.

“All of them.” Rika repeated. “Why? You’re on bad terms with them?”

“Something like that.” Aki turned her attention back to her food. Suddenly the tofu salad didn’t look as appetizing anymore.

“You better get your shit done before you run into them then.” The younger woman chuckled and stood up. Aki knew she would do everything she could to impress them.

“You still haven’t told him that they stopped, have you?” Kumi’s eyes were filled with worry.

“I haven’t really talked to him since mum died.” In reality, Aki had stopped telling her parents about the nightmares as soon as she was old enough to see that they bothered them. So there was no need to tell her dad about how they had stopped now.

“He always asks about you when I meet him.” Kumi sighed and took a sip from her smoothie. “You should talk to him.”

“He’s probably keeping up the act.” She shrugged and bit into a piece of tofu. Her mother would’ve scolded her if she didn’t eat after traveling. Aki swallowed the lump with a tomato. She didn’t want to think about her mother.

“You’re so dense.” Kumi shook her head and took another sip.

Kumi was waiting for her in the lobby when Aki returned from the report office. But so was Rika. They both waived when they saw her.

“How did it go?” Rika seemed somehow happier than usual.

“Like always.” Aki shrugged.

“You’re such a grump.” Rika faked a pout. “I thought you’d bee happier now. It looks like you’re actually sleeping.”

“What are you even doing here?” Aki assumed that she had been talking to Kumi, but that didn’t change her tone.

“Can you two calm down for once.” Kumi, once again, stepped in. “She just told me she was waiting for her boyfriend.”

“He’s meeting you at work now? Cute.” Aki scrunched her nose. This wasn’t the first time she heard about Rika’s boyfriend, it wasn’t even the first boyfriend she had heard of. But she couldn’t ignore the opportunity to make fun of her for it.

“You’re just jealous.” She turned and walked out the big sliding doors.

“Would it kill you to be normal with her?” Kimi’s green eyes pierced her and made Aki feel a bit ashamed for stepping over the line.

“I’m sorry. It’s hard not to.”

Kumi sighed in response and turned towards the doors.

Outside Rika was greeting two men. Even from a distance, it was clear which of them was her boyfriend. She clung to him like a lovesick teenager.

The group turned to them when Rika waived at Kumi. And her boyfriend seemed like he had seen a ghost.

“Ku—Shiraki? Nice to see you.”

Aki saw Kumi straighten her back. “Mukai. I see.”

She wanted to focus on them. Aki wanted to figure out what was going on, but her eyes fell on the other man. He was slightly taller than the other man and his dark hair was tied in the back. His purple eyes were framed by dark circles and he seemed familiar. But even more—

“Aki.” Kumi grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”

“I was not prepared for him to be the boyfriend I’ve heard about.” Kumi stopped.

Aki wanted to worry about her best friend. Kumi was clearly bothered, but her mind was still spinning thinking about the dark haired man. It couldn’t be. He was too old. No, she must’ve been mistaken.

“Aki?”

She blinked back to reality? “Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?” Kumi’s eyes were filled with worry.

“He smelled like sugar.”