Still the same disclaimer as usual. :o
This started off as the drabble for Four Seasons, but eventually morphed into how Kunzite meets Minako. It's still in that same world, though - so, enjoy!
P.S. Kris (Kristof Styrka) = Kunzite.
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the meeting
Summer is a time where he likes to make an escape from his home city, as schools let out and the city is flooded with gabbling teenagers, tourists and heat, and so Kris jumps at the chance to head the auditing team that the company's sending down to California for a few months – like he always does. Jaden knows his habits, and when Kris calls, Jay says casually, that he's been keeping two apartments free of tenants, one in San Francisco and one in Santa Monica, and Kris breathes a sigh of relief. It's one hassle out of the way (although it's never a real hassle, since every year, the same thing happens - same habit, same phone call.) Somewhere in the conversation, Kris mentions he's been having odd dreams (he doesn't say its about a strange version of him that seems to talk to an "Endymion" and a girl he keeps calling "Lady Venus", and that the dreams seem to take place either on the moon or in what looks like Earth millenia ago.) Jay also mentions that he hasn't been sleeping well recently, and Kris frowns – its so unlike his genial, fun-loving friend to be stressed to the point of insomnia that for a while, after the call ends, he wonders, and resolves to find some reason to fix whatever problem Jay's going through.
It can't be love – Jay still runs through a stream of girls monthly – the business is fine, surprisingly enough, and the kid was born into money – and the tabloids haven't had any dirt on his family this year, as they already found out he was born out of wedlock a few years ago, and he'd finally met his half-sister, who was supposedly some famous model, - Melinda? Miranda? and unlike normally, in the phone call, Jay hadn't complained about his half-sister's ridiculous antics either – Kris shrugs, and makes a mental note to himself to ask Jay about it later.
That worry makes him forget to double-check the list of companies that the team's been assigned. He doesn't realize of course, that it's not the same list as the last year, (even though before that, it hasn't changed in the past four years) - a LA branch of a New York based modeling agency has been added. And he doesn't realize either that Jay might just be going through the same process that he's going through – but Kris doesn't remember Jay in his past life - the only memories he has from his past life are of the dark-haired man, and the sunshine girl.
And so for the next month, while he's run down with business affairs, the worry lingers in the back of Kris' mind, but he never really has time to think on it for more than a few minutes or two, and by the time he's in California, Kris has completely forgotten. He calls Jay, who picks him up at the airport, bleary-eyed for some reason (Kris figures Jay is just hungover), and who says something odd over lunch, about thinking of seeing some psychic medium or another.
Jay gives him a set of keys to a loaner car and the apartment, which is just outside the city, in a quiet neighborhood near the beach. The sea sings softly in the background, the beach dazzles outside, the surfers aren't too loud when they walk by, minus a few, and the summer weather is perfect – life is pretty decent, Kris thinks. But, for now, business first. He runs through his portfolio of stuff, checking the list again (or so he thinks – it's actually for the first time) - and finally notes the addition of the modeling agency, but it's just another name to check off for him. Tomorrow and the mess of accounts that's the city government of Los Angeles is far, far more important.
It's maybe a month later, when Kris finally gets to that modeling agency to pick up some extra files that he requested. That day, he should have gotten an inkling that the addition of Gold Models would be important, but he's running late - which is a rarity - after getting stuck in LA traffic - which, sadly, happens a little too often. He doesn't recognize the opportunity, or the situation...but if he did, oh...if he did.
The golden doors to the agency office have a large pad to push to open them from the outside (which, Kris notes to himself, is quite an efficient way of stopping the ridiculous trend of automatic doors opening for people who pass by in their range, and he ought to suggest that idea to his boss. The moment before Kris pushes the pad, though, the doors open by themselves, and a woman walks straight into him. He apologizes hurriedly, helping her up, and she waves it off, easily, watching as he rushes off to his meeting with the head of the finance department. Of the girl, he doesn't remember anything other than a slender figure with golden hair the color of sunlight, sunglasses that looked like they were stolen from Jessica Simpson, and a purse that hurt like hell.
When he meets Jay for lunch that weekend, he has the second heart attack of his life (and the year) not when Jay's half-sister slides into the seat beside him, nor when he realizes its the girl he collided into a few days ago. It's when she takes off those ridiculously large sunglasses and the face that smiles back at him is the same one from the Rembrandt billboard, and his exquisitely painful dreams.
"Minako Aino, or perhaps, better known as Mina Anteros stateside. And you are?" She says, with a crooked, serious smile that looks oddly becoming on her – but then again, if he remembers correctly, everything did.
He doesn't let her faze him, even though his heart suddenly feels like it's about to rocket out of his body and possibly straight into her hands, again. "Kristof Styrka – Kris, really. Pleased to meet you, Mina."
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done! R/R, please.