Abyssmare and Unichord Rarepair Week 2023

Neo/Kyoko (Neoko)

Prompt: Bar/alternate universe/"You can stay the night... If you want..."

Pathetic. This place was... mediocre. At best. Then again, Neo was hardly the type to frequent this sort of establishment on a regular basis. She preferred bars of music to bars of alcohol. Alcohol was not the best for one's throat or voice, especially in a large enough quantity over a long enough period of time. But Neo wasn't here for the "fine" selection of beverages anyway.

Fate wasn't something she really believed in. Hard work and cunning, she was sure, had a far greater impact on one's life. After all, her history was far from idyllic, and yet look where she was now. Granted, some would argue that her meteoric rise to fame was fate in and of itself, but she and her years and years and years of singing and waiting would've begged to differ. Tonight, there was no singing, but she was waiting.

Neo managed to hear the faint tinkling of the golden bell hanging over the doorway. She did not turn around in her stool to see who approached. Instead, she waited until one of the other stools beside her slid out of her peripheral. A young woman in a black skirt and red top with a white jacket sat down. Neo saw the bill of her black and white cap slide back into view under the golden lights of the bar.

Well, what do you know? Elsie is good for something after all. Neo smirked to herself, the first smile she'd worn all day. Neo respected Elsie's intelligence, both in the sense of her pragmaticism and the connections she had that allowed her to so easily uncover the secrets of others, but it was still a rare day when Elsie put any of her skill, outside of music, to good use unless she saw a direct benefit to herself.

I suppose that is what makes us so eerily alike, however unfortunate that is. Because she knew how Elsie's mind operated, it didn't take her much to convince Elsie to do her bidding. All she had to do was frame it as an objective critical to all of Abyssmare. Much like Neo, it was evident that Elsie didn't have much love, if any, for the unit, but both of them needed the unit to succeed in order to achieve their ulterior motives.

Neo's icy blue eyes shifted over to the other girl, the other vocalist and unit leader. Kyoko Yamate of Peaky P-key, the winners of the first revived D4Fes and runners-up in the next, second only to the unexpected return of a once-disbanded unit, the Call of Artemis. As Elsie's intel found, CoA was currently on an extended stay on a remote island. That left the door open for Peaky to reclaim its crown. At least, that was their plan.

Neo's smirk widened slightly. "Is it fate that draws us together? Or is it something more?"

"Something more?" Kyoko scoffed. In the back of her mind, she wondered why she wasn't more surprised to run into Neo, of all people, at a little old bar like this, but she was too defeated to really care. She saw her dull surprise reflected in Neo's eyes, but only for a second. A second later, Neo's unreadable, apathetic expression returned. Two wine glasses sat between them, one red and one white, almost gold in the bar lights.

"Abyssmare has... not been performing as well as I would expect," Neo said conversationally. Ordinarily, to admit something so grave to an enemy would be nothing less than the utmost treason and stupidity, but Neo wove lies and truths together so expertly that even she didn't know how honest she was being. Abyssmare was performing spectacularly, but Neo could not forget her first loss with the A_Wave voting system.

Even a single drop of black ink stands out on a pure white dress. Neo scowled. "I wonder, does the leader of Peaky ever feel the same? Have you been unable to forget your first loss, even for a single second?"

Kyoko's grip tightened around her wine glass, a half-eaten burger beside it. The gesture alone was enough to coax Neo's smirk back out.

"If I am not mistaken, your unit used to be called the Kings and the Queens." Neo could hear an Abyssmare song playing in her mind as she taunted the vocalist of Peaky. Winner, winner time! She was revving up for a legendary chess match with the other leader.

"If you're trying to start a fight, save it for the next D4Fes," Kyoko interrupted coldly. "Unless you think you can't win, so that's why you're resorting to shady stunts like this!" She gestured to the space between them.

"I prefer a fair fight," Neo replied with a shrug. The meaning of her words were up to Kyoko to interpret.

ooo

Time ran away from them as they continued their back-and-forth battle of wits. It was almost like a dance, each one giving and taking, but careful never to reveal too much. They were guarded and distant, yet close and personal. They were almost in each other's faces, and yet their words were clipped, and their tones were hushed. It was intimate and isolated, as contrasting as black and white and as complimentary as red and gold.

When Neo looked at Kyoko, she felt as if she was looking into a mirror, an alternate universe, and she knew that Kyoko felt the same. The only difference, the similarities amused Neo and shamed and frightened Kyoko. Neo could read Kyoko's subtle expressions like an open book and she could tell that the other leader hated thinking that they were alike in any way. That made the lone wolf flash her fangs in dark triumph.

At one point, Neo even hooked a finger under Kyoko's chin and tilted her head back so that she could get a better look at her. The golden lights of the bar made her brown eyes shine. To Kyoko's credit, she didn't break Neo's gaze for even a single second. Instead, that same old defiance made her brown eyes even brighter as she glared up at the other vocalist. Neo smirked back down at her, blue eyes dark without the light in them.

It was only when the bartender kicked them out at closing that they were finally forced to enter a ceasefire. It was not a truce or surrender, for their war was only just beginning, but...

"Alas, it appears that, for now, we must part," Neo said. "And what sweet sorrow it is," she added with a mock-melodramatic sneer.

"Good riddance," Kyoko slurred, slipping from her barstool. Neo caught her. Or rather, it just so happened that Neo was there when Kyoko started to fall. Was it fate, or had Neo been waiting for such an opportunity the entire night? "I don't need your help," Kyoko growled, trying and failing to pull away from Neo.

Neo only watched with blue eyes wide, bright, and intent, like a predatory wolf waiting for the perfect chance to sink claws and fangs into helpless prey. She ached for the thrill of the bloodred kill! But then, she felt as if she was looking into a mirror again, at an alternate-universe version of herself. This time, though, there was no smug satisfaction, just something small and distantly hollow, echoing in from ages past...

"You can stay the night... If you want..." she suddenly said, voice soft. She was no longer able to hold Kyoko's burning brown gaze. If she had, she would've seen Kyoko's eyes narrow warily, but even though she did not see Kyoko's face, it didn't take a genius to guess what she was thinking and feeling. "I prefer a fair fight," Neo continued, voice back to its usual flat, disinterested tone.

There was silence for a moment more, then... "Yeah, ok, fine, whatever." It wasn't Kyoko's most eloquent or defiant moment, but it was enough to coax a smirk out of Neo yet again. Kyoko really was like her in an alternate universe, Neo but a little to the left.

Perhaps, in an alternate universe, our dynamic—our... relationship—would be different... But then again, in an alternate universe, they wouldn't really be themselves, now would they? Besides, they were not in that alternate universe. They were in this one.

"Very well then, let us be off." The alpha led the pup out of the pub and back under the watchful eye of the full, glowing, golden moon, its illumination cutting through the black night like a silver knife.

AN: Alternate universe (hey, that's today's prompt!) where they're both legally old enough to go to bars and drink. Also just realized that even their color schemes match up, kinda. Red, black, white, and gold are all very Peaky/Abyssmare-esque colors.

Also slightly by inspired by a friend who wished Peaky could've been a more aggressive rival to Hapiara. Now that we have Abyssmare...

And, fun fact, this fic was originally going to be the "I want you, not anyone else!" fic because I was going to have Neo be more actively manipulative and psychologically destructive, maybe in attempt to weaken/seduce her opponent. Then I got the Weronika/Miiko idea, LOL!

Also unrelated, I find it interesting that Abyssmare is associated with red while Unichord sits on the opposite side of the color wheel at green.