Morning Disasters
Adagio breathed heavily as her eyes shot open. She looked over at the clock on her bedside table, barely making out the digital numbers that read 1am. She sighed.
She leaned back in bed. This was the fifth time since she had gone to sleep that she had jolted awake. Nightmares were a regular thing for her, sure, even something she had come to expect. But just waking up like she had been forcefully pulled from drowning in deep, freezing waters was new.
Ever since they were defeated by The Rainbooms things had taken a turn for the worst. Sonata had become a space case, Aria picked up bad habits, and Adagio routinely had awful nightmares.
She sat up and got out from under her sheets. Shoving her feet into her slippers, she made her way downstairs to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Not to her surprise, she wasn't the only one up.
Aria sat at the kitchen island on her phone, lit cigarette hanging from her mouth. And if the the three extinguished ones in the clear ash tray beside her were of any indication, she had been there for a while.
Adagio poured herself some water from the tap in a cup she had washed out and sat across from her. The other girl didn't even bother to look up at her. The only way that she was sure that Aria knew of her presence was the grunt she let out when she had sat down.
Puffing out some smoke, Aria asked still not making eye contact, "Couldn't sleep?" Her fingers deftly danced across her phone as she typed a message to someone.
"Yes," Adagio answered hoarsely. She cleared her throat. "What are you doing up?" Aria worked in town as a bartender. The grouchy girl had always had a strong liking for liquor, even helped run a speak easy back in the 20's. Adagio assumed that if she was going to get a job, it might as well be doing something she liked.
Though the oldest siren wasn't really sure it was the right choice for her. Sometimes Aria didn't come home until the wee hours of the morning, sleeping all day then slipping out again at night. She usually came back drunk or peeved.
Adagio didn't bother her much after the first few days. She just didn't see the point. Aria was Aria, and whether Adagio liked it or not Aria was going to do what Aria wanted to do.
"Just got home from my shift an hour ago," Aria answered, shaking off a few ashes from her cigarette. "Thought I'd have a smoke before going to bed,"
"Uh huh," Adagio responded dully, eyeing the extinguished cigs in the ash tray. "How much did you make tonight?"
Aria paused as she put the cancer stick back in her mouth. "As much as I always make, Dagi." she responded cooly. "Are you going to keep asking me that every time I come home?"
"No," Adagio sighed, getting up to put her now empty glass in the sink. "But I think more of your pay check goes towards those cigarettes than it does taking care of us."
Aria snorted. "That's rich coming from the girl who works for some sleazy business man as his underpaid assistant. We both know you got the job because he thought you were hot." Aria looked up at her with a crooked smile.
Adagio shook her head. "Okay, Aria. If that's what you want to believe," she told her, her voice sullen and resigned. She didn't have the energy to deal with the other girl's snide remarks. She was simply just too tired.
"I'm gonna head back to bed. When you go upstairs, please turn off the light," she instructed the bartender with a slight frown as she realized that Aria wasn't paying her any mind.
"Yeah, yeah," she responded, waving the older girl off.
Without another word, Adagio ascended up the stairs and made her way to her room, hoping that sleep would find it's way back to her.
Fortunately for her it did, but unfortunately for her, it knocked her out like a fright train, making her sleep through her alarm. Now she was rushing to brush her teeth and button her blouse at the same time. "Why didn't either of those insufferable little wenches wake me up?!" She grumbled, rinsing her mouth out before hurriedly stumbling into her bedroom trying to find a decent pair of heels to wear.
When she was satisfied with the black pair she had found nestled under her bed, she grabbed her purse off her bedside table and stomped down the stairs two at a time. Her boss never liked when she was late, and she was too tired to be willing to put up with his grouchy attitude for the rest of the day.
Sonata was in the kitchen humming to herself as bacon sizzled in the pan in front of her. She, out if the three of them, had probably taken their defeat the best. Sonata honestly didn't care if she had her powers or not, just that as long as she had the two women she had spent many a millenia with, she was content. "Morning, Dagi!" she chirped, watching the older girl quickly pour herself a cup of coffee and and slather on an unhealthy amount of butter onto a piece of toast.
"Good morning, Sonata," Adagio responded through her teeth, the piece of buttered bread in her mouth muffling her words. "Would you be a dear and get Aria up for work?"
"Sure thing!" Sonata told her with a mock salute. "Have a good day at work!"
Adagio resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she shut the front door behind her. A good day at work was a day she didn't get yelled at for being late. And as she looked at her watch, she already knew this was shaping up to bea very bad day.
By the time she reached the office it was a quarter past nine. Which meant she was more than late. The worst part was that her boss' office was right in front of the door so as soon as she walked in she knew she was going to get chewed out.
"Adagio!" Came the gruff voice.
She sighed. She might as well had jinxed herself. Fixing herself, she entered his office. "Yes, Mr. Shot?" She asked sweetly, her fake smile beginning to twitch with irritation. If there was one person she despised more than the Rainbooms it was her boss, Hot Shot, CEO of one of the largest companies in Canterlot city. He was also a loud, garish jerk, who couldn't keep his grubby hands off his new assistant.
"You're late," Hot Shot said, glaring at her. "You're expected to be here at nine on the dot." He said, his eyes roaming her body.
Pretending to ignore his rude stare, Adagio tried to explain herself. "You see sir I-"
"No excuses!" He said, holding up a finger. "Make this the first and last time you're ever late. Am I clear?" He asked, raising a brow.
"Crystal," Adagio responded, starting to grind her teeth. "Is there anything you need me to do, sir?"
"Yes," He answered, not even bothering to look at her this time, nose deep in some sort of paperwork. "Go get me some coffee from the coffee shop down the street." He threw her his black card and made a shooing motion with his hand.
Continuing to grit her teeth, Adagio responded, "Yes, sir." Walking out of his office and onto the street again, Adagio had half a mind to take his credit card and max it out of spite. Siren or not she despised pretentious people, and she wanted nothing more than to teach him a lesson. (And if he put his hands on her again, she definitely was)
She sighed as she opened the door to the coffee house, the bell above the door tingling to announce her entrance. She was greeted with the smell of freshly brewed coffee and warm pastries. If there was one thing she could endure her terrible job for, it was this. This place had some of the best coffee she had ever tasted in the world and she had even befriended the local barista, Cinnamon Spice.
The line wasn't too long this morning either, which meant she could probably salvage this day with a nice steaming cup of joe. She smiled. Maybe things just started off on the wrong foot. Maybe things were just going wrong because she woke up late.
And then she spied the unmistakable red and gold hair of the girl in the leather jacket in front of her and frowned.
Or, maybe this morning was just the beginning of a really long day.
Sonata had knocked on Aria's bedroom door twice since Adagio left and still couldn't get the dour girl up. Aria wasn't lazy, but she wasn't exactly the most enthusiastic about working for a living either.
Sonata and Adagio on the other hand, while both had their individual doubts in the beginning, sucked it up. And as much as they hated to admit it, this was their life now. Nothing was going to change that.
Sonata worked as a waitress at a local grill. She had gotten Aria the job of being the bartender. They spent their breaks together talking about the good old days and making fun of patrons who clearly had too much to drink. It was nice, and definitely a first, for Sonata.
Over the past two thousand years, Sonata had grown to know Aria as a dour loner who made snarky remarks and sneered at anyone who dared to irritate her. But after their defeat, she began to become withdrawn and barley spoke to anyone. She picked up smoking as a way to cope, and would stay cooped up in her room blasting rock music and getting high.
After about a month of that, Adagio was tired of her not contributing anything into the household amd told her that if she didn't get job that she would stop supporting her.
Sonata told her there was an opening for a bartender down at the grill and the rest was history. Using the skills she aquired over a millennium, Aria became one of best bartenders the grill had ever seen.
And because she had found a new passion in life, a flicker of happiness in her despair, she soon opened up to the blue Siren. And they found that they had more in common than they thought.
Sonata was sitting on the couch when Aria finally emerged from her room, wearing a grungy t-shirt of some obscure band from the 90's with a tattered flannel shirt on top of it, and black skinny jeans. A lit cigarette hung from her mouth as she sat next to her, beginning the process of putting her combat boots on.
"You look like the living embodiment of teenage angst," The younger girl teased.
"Har, har," Aria responded sardonically. "What time does our shift start?"
"Oh," Sonata sighed, pretending to think. "In about fifteen minutes," She answered.
"Shit," Aria cursed under her breath. "You think Cherry will give us a break?"
"Probably not since this is the third time this week you've been late," Sonata reminded her. "But on the bright side she could probably just dock your pay."
Aria puffed out some smoke. "Yeah, and then I'd have both her and Adagio's foot up my ass." She sighed, leaning back against the couch. "Why have our lives come to this?" She whispered more to herself than the girl beside her.
Sonata shrugged anyway. "Karma, probably. We've done some terrible things over the years." She gave Aria a side glance. "And just think, for once in our lives, in over a millennium we're finally able to do our own thing without Adagio telling us what to do."
Aria barked a laugh. "Yeah, we went from that bitch telling us what to do to some other chick. At least this one has a nice rack,"
Sonata snorted at that. "I never knew you swung that way, Ari," She said, calling the girl her childhood name.
"I don't swing anyway. I call em as I see em," She responded, extinguishing her cigarette in the ash tray on the coffee table in front of the couch. "Now hurry up, let's go. I can hear Cherry yelling at us now."
Adagio was pretty sure if she had heat vision like in one of those comic books Sonata used to read, she would have already bore a hole into the back of Sunset's head. How dare she show her face after what she had done to them?
It's been three long months since the Battle of the Bands and she hadn't seen Sunset or any of the other Rainbooms since then. Which was by the grace of the gods, Adagio was sure.
She'd spent the past three months planning her and the other girls' demise. Murder, arson, anything else her tired, demented brain could come up with. But now that Sunset was in front of her, she couldn't decide on what to do.
Strangely enough, all the anger she held towards the younger girl had dissipated. Now she was just frustrated and confused. She wanted answers. Why did someone who once possessed such power decide to just let it all go? What happened? And why was Sunset considered better than her for letting go of what she had obtained?
Whether Sunset liked it or not, Adagio was about to find out.
As soon as Sunset reached the counter Adagio slid in front of her and handed her boss's black card to Cinnamon. "One black coffee with two sugars and a mocha latte for me, and you can just tack on whatever she's having to the bill," She dictated.
Both young women stared at her in awe and disbelief. There was a long beat of awkward silence before Cinnamon wordlessly took the card and rang her up. She looked over to Sunset for her order.
"Oh! Um, black coffee, two sugars," She said, jumping out of her stupor. She eyed Adagio as the older woman took back the card and shoved it in her purse. Her eyes widened when she turned to her.
A dastardly grin appeared on Adagio's face that widened when she saw the pure look of fear on the other girl's face. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Sunset Shimmer. Let's have a little talk, shall we?"