Yumihisu

Hoping To See You

Ymir tugged her shirt into place over her jeans and unfastened the button that was probably going to pop open anyway. She cleared the last few steps of the hall stairwell and walked into the living room of the house where she'd lived for the last five weeks. Ymir assessed the small crowd with mild annoyance. The party had doubled in size in the last twenty minutes.

Annie, her best friend and unofficial landlord, had insisted that Ymir change into something sexier for the party, and then threatened to come find her if she took too long. Ymir hadn't given her outfit much thought - jeans, boots, a black shirt that was tighter in the chest than it used to be - but now she was worried that it looked like she was trying to get laid.

Ymir absolutely, positively was not trying to get laid.

She thought about changing clothes again but then decided she wasn't going to be down here long enough for it to matter. No matter what Annie wanted, Ymir herself was not in a partying mood. While her recent breakup didn't hurt as much as it had when it was fresh, it was still on her mind and she wanted to keep to herself. At her earliest opportunity, she'd head back upstairs and hide out for the rest of the evening.

Her eyes wandered over the packed crowd of New Years Eve revelers and Annie's impressive decorations. By day, the old house looked rundown to the point of condemned, with clearly visible ductwork and pipes and electrical wire between exposed two-by-fours in walls that had been stripped of sheetrock. Now that it was after dark, though, with strings of lights along the walls and ceiling and candles lit throughout the room, it looked almost rustic.

Ymir thought about finding Annie and logging some face-to-face time before she snuck off to her room, but saw her roommate busy near the entryway, greeting the kitchen manager from the pub where they all worked for her father. Reiner had brought a couple of friends, and Ymir watched one of them, a tall guy dressed in tight black everything that screamed musician, head over to the kitchen. Annie's friends from the bar kept pouring into the house, and most of them were some kind of artist or another - several musicians, a few street performers and at least one graffiti artist Annie had bailed out of jail the previous summer.

After a few minutes of attempting to play wallflower, Ymir decided she should at least have a beer and maneuvered her way through the crowd to the corner of the living room where the keg was stashed. The guy in black spandex tried to flirt with her, but she wasn't interested.

"One of these damn days, I'm going to tattoo lesbian on my forehead." She mumbled and headed off to find another spot to give wallflowering another chance.

Ymir sighed, sipped from her cup, and went back to people watching. With this crowd, there was a lot to see. One guest, though, seemed out of place. Ymir couldn't make out her features, but while everyone else at the party was in costume or wearing some sort of nightclub evening wear, one woman wore a simple yet elegant little black dress that fell to just above her knees. There was an empty path in the crowd, and she could see the woman's full figure from head to toe as she stood talking to Reiner in the kitchen. She had long, blonde hair, muscular shoulders and a back revealed by the thin straps holding up the dress.

Ymir admired the lean definition of the woman's legs and the sleek black pumps on her feet. She was surprised to feel a hint of interest on her part - she hadn't looked at anyone twice in weeks.

At that moment, the woman happened to look in Ymir's direction. To Ymir's surprise, a warm smile appeared on the woman's face, and she raised a hand to wave at Ymir. She didn't look away when Ymir waved back. In fact, she was acting like she knew Ymir.

There was something familiar about the woman, but Ymir didn't remember her. Who was she?

Ymir's curiosity got the best of her, and since the woman was still looking at her expectantly, she decided to walk over and solve the mystery.