Across The Years (CITRUS)

Nine - Never Pass Up A Chance To See Freddie

No One's POV.

Shiraho was at the controls when the Yuzu hit the recall signal. As she had promised her, she widened the wormhole from microscopic to normal size. Then she sent the basket down. A minute later she could see the gondola coming back with Yuzu in it. Her normal scowl had been replaced by a look of intense anger.

"So...you were gone almost the entire night. You had fun... yes?" She said hoping the look was just Yuzu being overly grouchy.

Yuzu quickly got in Shiraho's face and narrowed her eyes.

"Fun....NO! You need to check your machine. It was a bit off."

Shiraho backed up with a worried look. "OFF? By how much?"

Yuzu huffed and hardened her jaw. "3 years and 5 months. So instead of the rather festive May 12th, 1937, I instead got the rather terrifying, October 9th, 1940. Which as it happened to be, was during the London Blitz. So I got to see a German air raid first hand and let me tell you. NOT FUN. Not fun at all. I even got to see some poor bastard they were pulling out of the rubble on my way back. He didn't look too good. Normally I'd loved to see a dead body. But because of my long night, I couldn't even enjoy it. I spent the entire night sleeping, rather uncomfortably I might add, in a corner of an underground station. and I'm tired, my back hurts and I'm hungry as hell on top of it. So NO, I didn't have any fun."

Shiraho turned white and took a rather nervous sip from the coconut she was holding. "Oh... My. I'm so sorry. I... I... need to check the calibration."

Yuzu nodded and grabbed the bag of her modern clothes that were in the corner. "Yes...you do that." She said in a rather chilling voice, followed by an equally chilling glare.

"Now. I'm going to change, go home, take a shower, eat, down about 10 aspirins and half a bottle of bourbon, watch the scissoring, then go to sleep. Bye..."

Shiraho felt terrible, not to mention she was half scared out of her wits. "Uh....take the next week off with pay. While I fix this."

Yuzu just grunted and left the room.

For the next week, Yuzu relaxed and attended her classes as normal. Though her thoughts remained on Mei, she pushed asides any thoughts of her eventual trip to the 1800s. She returned to the lab a week later to work. No trips had been planned so Yuzu figured she would just run errands, as she did normally.

"So did you get the thing fixed? Because the rather unnerving buzzing which is the sound of a few hundred German Heinkel bombers headed in my direction is not one I care to hear again." Yuzu said abruptly, as she walked into the lab.

Shiraho stood up and handed Yuzu a small box. "Yes. A circuit board had failed, causing the calibration to drift. I need to watch that in the future. I also took the time to install a secondary backup. I feel very bad for what I've done and I've got something to hopefully make it up to you. Here."

Yuzu looked at the box and opened it. Inside was what looked like a small but old ticket. Pulling it out, Yuzu could see it was well preserved and unused concert ticket.

"You've mentioned that you like Siouxie and the Banshees a lot. So I found this on eBay and ordered it for you."

"Hell yeah. It's probably my favorite band, period." Yuzu then read the ticket.

Siouxsie and the Banshees's

8:00 PM. August 25th, 1981

Hammersmith Odeon, London England.

"Oh... Cool. Thanks." Yuzu said as she looked back up at Shiraho. "I'll have to frame this and put it on my wall."