Five Years Later

It was a beautiful summer evening, and a 17 year old boy was standing at Tokyo trainstation looking at a piece of paper. It had taken him 5 years, but he had finally found her adress. He knew where she lived, and he knew where she worked. Now he only had one problem. He had never been to Tokyo and had no idea where he was supposed to go. He looked at the piece of paper again and sighed. Maybe he should just ask someone. He looked around and walked up to the first person he spotted.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a friend of mine, would you tell me how to go to get to this adress?"

The man that he had asked looked at the paper then smiled at him.

"If the second adress is where your friend works then I'd say he or she is probably there right now, you know."

The boy looked puzzled at him.

"But would she be there this late? Aren't most jobs during the day?"

The man smiled again.

"Not at this place. I'm going that way myself, so I'll show you where it is."

The boy slowly nodded and followed the man down the street.

Fifteen minutes later the man showed him to the front doors of a night club called Fusion. He looked at it in wonder for a moment. Did she really work here? And would he even be able to get in? He thanked the man and started walking towards the entrance. Well, if he didn't get in he would just have to wait outside until she finished work. Because he was going to see her. Much to his surprise he had no problems with entering the club and he headed straight for the bar. He didn't have much money so he just ordered a cola and sat down looking out at the dance floor. He couldn't see her anywhere. He turned to the bartender and said:

"Excuse me, but I'm looking for a friend of mine. I heard she was working here. Her name is Haneoka Meimi."

The bartender looked at him for a moment before he called out to someone behind the bar.

"Me-chan, you have a visitor. Says he's a frind of yours."

The boy looked at the door behind the bar labeled "Staff only" and waited.

Heneoka Meimi had just changed her clothes and finished her make-up when she heard Zed, the bartender at Fusion call her. A visitor?

"Who?"

She head him talk to someone out there before he called back.

"He says his name is Asuka, do you know him?"

And in that moment Meimis heart stopped beating for a moment. Asuka. It couldn't be. What would he be doing here? And how did he know she worked here? She felt her face warming up and in that moment she took back the control of her body. She calmed down her heart, checked the mirror to be sure her face was it's normal color, took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Yes, I know him. We'll take my usual table, and could you get me a drink?"

Zed nodded at her and smiled.

"The usual right? I'll come over with it."

"Thanks." Meimi finally turned to face Asuka and it struck her how tall he had become. Otherwise he looked pretty much the same as when she last saw him, 5 years ago. She came out from behind the bar and started walking towards a table. "Follow me."

Asuka could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the beautiful woman that exited the staff door. Her hair hang loose like it used to, but it was much shorter and hardly reached her shoulders. But what took his breath away was the clothes. She was wearing a black u-ringed top without sleeves and a short black skirt topped off with a pair of high-heeled boots. The make-up brought out her eyes in the most beautiful way and at one glance nobody would have guessed that they were the same age. He followed her to a booth that was put quite some way from the others and sat down to face her. She didn't say anything and neither did he for a while. They just sat looking at each other, taking in all the changes in the other. Just a few moments after they sat down the bartender came over with a glass for Meimi and she immediately started to fidget with the straw, looking straight down in the glass. Asuka on the other hand was looking suspiciously at the bartender. He wasn't sure he liked the way he looked at Meimi. But before he got time to think too much about it Meimi spoke up.

"So... How did you find me?"

He looked at her in surprise for a second. She had almost sounded angry. But he quickly found his voice.

"I'm the son of a police officer you know. And ever since the Saint Tail case they kept wanting me to help them, so I had a lot of resources. But it still wasn't easy. You made yourself hard to find."

Meimi sighed. She had known that he would try to find her, so she had made it hard on purpose, hoping that he would give up, and she had thought that she had succeded. Apparantly not.

"I thought I asked you not to look for me. Why did you come all the way here?"

She saw his the hurt in his eyes and immediately felt a sting of guilt. She knew very well why he had come here, how could she not know...

"I told you that I wouldn't let you go, didn't I? And I ment it. Do you have any idea how I felt when you just left without a word? You even lied to me! And then you go hoping I won't follow you? Do you really know me that badly?"

Meimi looked in slight horror at the boy, no, he wasn't a boy anymore, the man at the other side of the table. He seemed unaware that he had raised his voice at her and the pain in his eyes made it hard for her to look at his face. She suddenly felt the need to defend her actions.

"Don't you think I know how much it must have hurt you when I left? Don't you think it hurt me too to have to lie to the one person I didn't want to lose? That was the hardest decision I have ever made and I hoped that you would one day understand that I didn't have a choice but to distance myself from the people I knew and start over."

She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up. There was Zed, and he looked worried.

"Is there a problem Me-chan?"

She shook her head warily and managed a smile.

"No problem Zed, but could you call in Rei to take my place tonight? I don't think I'll be able to work properly until I sorted a few things out with Asuka."

Zed nodded understandingly and immediately took up a cellphone. A few moments later he winked at her and made a thumbs up. Meimi sighed in relief, Rei had been able to jump in for her. She looked at Asuka again and sighed once more. They had a lot of talking to do when they got to her apartment. Luckily it wasn't very far.

"Wait outside, while I change. Then we can talk, I think we need that."

And with those words she turned her back on him and walked to the changing room behind the bar, without looking back at Asukas confused and hurt face.