DISCLAIMER: Paradise Kiss and NANA belong to Ai Yazawa.

~ Gehenna Embrace ~

Takumi didn't really think much of that model at first. She was an extra in one of their music videos, playing some minor part. He didn't even notice her in the video when it was played back for the band before and after editing. She was pretty, but not in an extraordinary way. When not in her role, she was bitchy to the staff and practically glued to her phone.

No, he really didn't take much notice of her at all... not until he overheard Naoki and some of the staff referring to her as 'the female Takumi'. That certainly caught his attention.

Somehow, things had gone from Miwako tagging along with Arashi to band practice sometimes to the entire Paradise Kiss crew joining Blast at Nana and Hachi's apartment after band practice. Which usually led to drinking. Which somehow led to the idea that ParaKiss should create a clothing line specifically for Nana in order to promote both the band and the clothing brand.

"We can call the 'Nana from Blast' clothing line 'Punk Rock Kiss'," Miwako suggested.

"It fits," Arashi agreed.

"That name is a bit too literal for my taste," George said. Before anyone could protest - and he knew they wanted to; he could see it in their faces - he continued, "But, since the collection will be a collaboration with Nana and not solely a product of ParaKiss, Nana should have the final say."

"I like Punk Rock Kiss," Nana said, directing a drunken double thumbs-up to everyone in the room.

Hachi and the rest of ParaKiss, except for George, cheered and rushed to hug Nana. George sighed and shook his head at the resulting dogpile.

"Hey, maybe we should make a male version of this outfit and give it to Ren, since you two always match anyway," Arashi said half-jokingly to Nana.

"I don't make clothes for men," George interjected.

"We can make them without you, you know!" the short-tempered guitarist snapped.

"Although..." George mused to himself aloud, as though Arashi hadn't spoken. "I wouldn't mind designing something for that lead singer of theirs."

"Traitor!" Nana accused, swatting George on the shoulder. Luckily for him, it was the hand that didn't have her ring on it, because she actually put some force behind the strike, and that thing would have hurt a lot more than the bare hand which did hit him.

"If we're making clothes for Trapnest, then I want to make something for Takumi!" Hachi piped up excitedly, and her friends could have sworn she sprouted puppy ears and a wagging doggy tail in that moment.

"A brand for men's clothing separate from ParaKiss should have its own name," George said.

"But what should we name it?" Miwako asked, nonplussed.

"Well, what's the opposite of 'Paradise Kiss'?"

A long, somewhat awkward silence followed in the wake of the question as everyone tried to think of an answer.

"Gehenna Embrace...?" Yasu put forth hesitantly.

George actually looked up from his current crop of new design sketches for a moment, something akin to shock stamped on his features as he gave voice to his opinion in an uncharacteristically simple statement: "I like it."

"No one cares about your opinion, asshole!" Arashi snarled, punctuating this statement with a middle-finger salute. Belatedly, he added, "And yeah, the name sounds good to me."

"Well, that's settled, then," Isabella declared, clapping her hands. "Gehenna Embrace it is!"

"If you want this relationship to work, then you really need to stop smacking me whenever you're pissed off!"

"And if you want this relationship to work, then you have to stop cheating on me at every opportunity!"

Takumi wasn't sure how to respond to that. Yes, he cheated. Yes, he'd been caught several times. There was no point in denying it. But the fact of the matter was that Yukari accused him of his sin more often than he actually committed it. He definitely wasn't cheating on her with the girl who'd designed his new outfit - a girl he'd never even met.

She looked like she was going to start yelling again... And then he smirked and said, "Make me."

His cheek was still numb from the previous assault when her palm was violently reintroduced to his face once more.

"It's not like you stand a chance with Takumi anyway."

"... Nobu said, still salty over the fact that Hachi was crushing on an actual rock star rather than himself," George narrated quietly, much to the amusement of the rest of the peanut gallery.

"Haven't you heard?" Nobu continued, seemingly unaware of the blue-haired designer's antics. "He's going out with that famous model - the one who was in Trapnest's music video for their latest single."

At this pronouncement, the remaining members of both Blast and ParaKiss attempted to drag George out of the room. Stubbornly, George refused to move. He didn't know why they suddenly decided to abandon the drama that was brewing between Nobu and Hachi, when they had been perfectly content to observe and event comment on it up until this very moment.

"Yukari Hayasaka?" Hachi inquired innocently. Her friends could tell from her rapidly-cycling expressions the exact moment she went from being crushed by the news to deciding to celebrity-worship the two of them as a couple. "Well, I suppose someone as beautiful and famous as her would be the perfect woman for him."

To which George barked a short sarcastic laugh and said, "I suppose it depends on how much he enjoys being slapped in the face."

Finding themselves on the receiving end of four blank stares from the ones who had not known them during that time period, the ParaKiss crew hastened to fill in Hachi, Nana, Nobu, and Yasu on the details of their former association with the now-famous Yukari.

"Wow, so George dated her in high school?" Hachi asked, turning sparkly puppy eyes on the fashion guru.

"It's not that impressive..." George replied, in an abnormally subdued tone. He was a bit ashamed of having the sordid details of his past relationship trotted out in front people he had known for barely half a year.

"Doesn't sound like it ended well, based on that comment he made earlier about being slapped in the face," Nana remarked.

"Yeah, well. All I can say is good luck to Takumi with that one."

~end~