YMATA fanfic, slight AU, Celine & Antonia
Someone walked into the empty, half-shadowed soup kitchen.
"Lunch is over." Antonia spoke from the open storage room. "Come back tonight."
“It is me.” Celine replied.
Antonia stepped out into the mess hall. Celine stood by the door, wearing a black shirt and long dress, her wild hair wrangled in a bun.
"What happened?" Antonia asked.
"Jude died." Celine spoke, sad.
"I do not know. It does not make any sense."
"Come." Antonia turned back toward the storage. "Sit." She dissipated in the other room.
Celine sat at the closest table.
Antonia returned with a bottle of rakia and two glasses. She sat opposite Celine and poured them shots, holding one glass up between them. "To Jude."
Celine took the other drink and clinked the glasses together. "To Jude." She downed the drink.
Antonia followed, then poured them another round. "Drink."
"It is medicine from home country."
"Better?" Antonia asked. "Feel warm? Relaxing?"
Celine nodded repeatedly.
Antonia nodded once, firm. "Start from beginning."
"We were investigating a cult. It was on an island. Nobody was coming back."
Antonia frowned. "Suicide?"
"No." Celine shook her head. "We had to get married to get in."
"Married to get in? Nobody coming back? It is obvious."
"I suppose it is." Celine sipped again. "We pretended to be different people. Got married under different names. But the kiss was real."
Celine didn't question how she knew. "We left the cult as soon as we saw there was nothing divine about it. ... We slept together."
"And then you left the church?"
"Not right away. I wanted to. Jude wanted to find the Messiah. Mother superior told me we could not live honestly and be breaking our vows."
Antonia squinted. "Which?"
"Then Jude came to my convent and told mother superior he left the church. I left the convent and went to his office. ... I found the body."
Antonia took her hand across the table.
"The cardinals said he killed himself. It is wrong. He wouldn't. They said he had a crisis because we did not find the Messiah, but I know he didn't. Mother superior said he was happy."
Celine looked bewildered.
"They had a crisis because you didn't find a Messiah."
Antonia frowned. "You did?"
It was Antonia's turn to look bewildered.
"She was in a car accident. Pronounced dead. Woke up in the morgue."
Celine nodded, smirked. "Doctor shit himself."
"We talked. She said she heard voices after waking up. She knew sister Sofia liked to knit."
"A friend. I took care of her when she fell ill. I went to the interview for Jude's assistant after she died."
"The girl couldn't know." Antonia understood.
"No, she could not. No one outside the convent knew. Not even Jude. Frankie - the girl - she said not to worry if I saw four horses, that it was part of the plan."
"It was a metaphor, yes?"
"The horses were a merry-go-round on a billboard for an amusement park."
"She didn't think she was a Messiah. I didn't know what to think. I didn't tell Jude."
"What didn't you tell him?"
"That Frankie knew about Sofia. ... Then we learned she is his granddaughter and I was even less sure. I fell in love with the grandfather of the Messiah? That could not be. But what else could it be? Jude's son, Jamie, he said his birth mother left him because God told her. That Jamie was the son of God. But when she preached it, she got hit by bricks and died."
"That was her? That family was on the news all month. First the girl, then Jude saving that man, now you say the poor woman was one of them?"
"The cult was right. ... And Jude mocked them. ... I should have told him. On the plane, after we left Poland, I should have told him. He would have the Messiah. He would still be here." Celine cried.
Antonia got up, rounded the table and pulled Celine to herself. "It is not your fault."
Outside, something shattered. A commotion was brewing. Antonia ran to the radio and turned it on.
"The president of the United States is dead." A man announced. "I too will perish with you."
"I knew it." Antonia sighed, tired.
"Like you, I am afraid. And, like you, I intend to spend what time I have left with the people I love."
"What does he mean?" Celine was confused.
“They lied.” Antonia said bluntly. "The rocket failed.”
"I wish you good luck. May the world rise to meet you."
"It will." Celine smiled. "I have met the Messiah. She knew Sofia. She knew what would happen." She looked up at Antonia. "We will all wake up in heaven."
"I hope so." Antonia muttered. "Sleep here tonight. It will not be safe out."
"I am not afraid to die."
"That’s not only thing that can happen. There will be a lot of angry men out there. Men who accomplished nothing. Who thought they would meet someone but now know they won't."
Antonia picked up the bottle and glasses. "Come.” She turned to the kitchen. “Time to make dinner. People will still be hungry."
Hours later, after a small crowd came and left, Celine rinsed the last plate and added it to the stack. "How long will you work?"
"I am done." Antonia picked it up and started wiping. "Not enough food to serve breakfast." She set the plate to another stack. "I will not go to the port tonight."
Celine nodded. "You still clean up." She noted.
Antonia shrugged. "I do not want to wake up and find a mess." She put away a stack of plates. "It makes me tired as soon as I get out of bed. Ruins my whole day."
Celine smirked, frowned. "Where do you live?" She wiped her hands and hung the towel to dry.
Antonia put the plates way. "Above the kitchen." She made her way to the stairs.
Upstairs, Antonia opened a door and entered a hole-in-the-wall studio apartment with a kitchenette in the corner of a modest space. Celine glanced around and through the single open door, at a tiny bathroom which was basically an open shower stall inside a toilet. Antonia moved the coffee table and unfolded the sofa into a queen-size bed.
"It'll be tight." She half warned, half apologized, before taking the bedding from the hamper under the sofa.
"It is fine." Celine spread the sheet over it.
"We will sleep like sardines."
"At least we will not be alone."
Antonia glanced at Celine briefly, studiously, then returned to making the bed.
Celine and Antonia slept in their underwear, back to back in the small bed. In the middle of the night there was a crash and a scream, and Celine made a little whimper in her sleep. Antonia half awoke and rolled over to spoon with Celine, to comfort her and make both of them more comfortable. She slipped her hands around Celine's waist and shoulders. Celine rolled over too, hands on Antonia's shoulder and arm, then began nuzzling the side of her neck. Antonia tipped her chin up and looked at her inquisitively, studying her expression in the indirect streetlight. Celine's eyes were fear, guilt, sadness and loneliness all rolled into one. Antonia pecked her forehead and set her own against it, carding Celine's frizzy hair and thumbing her side. The two spent the night alternating between light dozing and petting. They didn't need to undress. They woke late next morning in each others arms, to a cacophony of partying and destruction.
Antonia propped her head up on one hand. "What do you want to do?"
Celine rolled on her back and stared at the ceiling. "Let's go to the riviera and walk."
Antonia smiled. "Good idea."
After untold laps up and down the seaside dotted with colorful houses and boats, Antonia caught sight of a flash in the sky.
"It's starting." She spoke quietly. "Let's sit down and watch."
Celine nodded and they sat at a nearby stone wall. Even in broad daylight, the meteor shower was beautiful.
"Make a wish?" Antonia asked.
"I wish to see Jude again."
"I wish to relax.” Antonia confessed. ”I am so tired."
Celine watched her, listening intently.
"Always someone to take care of. So much sad people. But not any more. I love music. I would like to learn all the instruments and songs and dances."
"There will be plenty of time." Celine reassured. "All the time."
The sky darkened. A large, angry cloud spread above them, past them. Celine took Antonia's hand. The ground under them shook fiercely. They held onto the wall. The quake subsided for a moment, before the ground shook again, faintly at first but stronger and stronger. Celine looked over her shoulder at the mountain behind the city. It was rumbling, louder and louder. Antonia closed her eyes and twined their fingers. Celine turned back and leaned on Antonia.
