Hello everybody! I had some unexpected free time and I was able to get the next chapter up sooner than expected. Thank you for all the nice things you've been saying about my efforts, just remember I didn't start this story Pixel Alice and TicTac101 did. "I'm" only fleshing the idea out with a little more detail. And I hope you all don't mind I kinda went a little bit overkill with this next chapter and it's longer than the last post. Well that said I hope you like it and will grace it with a review. Thank you and on with the fic:)!!
I flopped myself onto my favorite overstuffed chair with a resigned sigh, just yesterday my worst fears had been realized. Alice Cullen had had a vision of me. Which meant I might possibly have to see the Cullen's again; it had been a little over twenty years since I became a vampire and met Gackt. I took one of the throw pillows and screamed into it. It made me wonder after all these years Alice finally gets a vision of me. Talk about late! I couldn't help but think it strange why now out of all those years that had passed when they could have found me. If it was one thing about Alice's all-seeing third eye it was a balanced trade-off what her visions lacked in unpredictability they made up for in an accuracy that any Psychic hotline would have sold their souls for at a discount. Ugh! Now I know I said that Gackt and I didn't like to be apart, but I never said that there were times that we weren't. Just that they were very few and far between and today was one of those times.
After my little 'freak-out' in the parlor a couple of days ago, Gackt had not only been as attentive as any true romantic in love can be. But he also had gotten very protective after I had filled in the blank spots of what really had happened. Which was now the result of my current house arrest, he didn't want me stepping foot outside our home until he could draw up some plan of attack. What can I say, he's extremely sweet, but also extremely overkill in some situations namely that which involves me!
Now I won't lie Gackt knows all about my past in Forks and my vampire 'family' along with my first boyfriend, Edward. Even Charlie, Renee and Jake, his pack just basically all the people and stranger circumstances that I had hoped to permanently leave behind, emphasis on the permanent part.
It's safe to say, I'm still a bit clingy after all this time. What did people expect he was like my security blanket, everything when he was near was just, how could I explain it just...right. I didn't like to be apart from him for too long, and if that stupid vision hadn't happened. I guarantee that I would have tagged-along with Gackt to his photo shoot. There I would have been able to hang with a few of his old friends/bandmates, Yuu and Hyde were my favorites not to mention were the most fun. They liked to make up all sorts of weird games to pass the time when they weren't working or checking out any foreign supermodels on set. More fun for me I should say, I always beat the socks off them. Or maybe kicking back in a lawn chair where I'd let said supermodels envy me because I looked better in casual clothes than them in their expensive labels. Just to let them nurse the 'green-eyed monster' bites at my perpetual youth (not that they knew it) up close.
As they watched me watch Gackt modeling in this or that, I didn't care he looked good in whatever and if it was tight that was all I cared about. He liked to play with me and try to catch my eye because I knew he liked the attention from me. Everybody knew it, and all the girls were jealous of it.
This time I had planned to discretely flash the rock Gackt had given me for our engagement. Then let the flashbulbs from hiding paparazzi who'd managed to sneak on set. Let the ring catch the momentary light and blind them in a literal 'flash' if they got too close. Another toned down version of "Mess with the Gullible Human," One I liked better than messing with Keto-san. Because women are so much more fun to provoke due to the intricate rivalries and paper-thin truces that people like to pretend don't go on at these affairs. I mean you pull one string, let a whisper of gossip go to an unsuspecting ear on the wind, or something of that nature then sit back and watch the fur fly. Secretly, I think the men (and maybe some of the women) like it better than sumo, the national sport. I know for a fact that many of the assistants and lower staff people take bets on it. Just don't mention it in public, they'll flatly deny it anyway of course. I also know a few of the regular hairdressers and a couple of times they've been allowed to bring some of their kids to the set, three or four of them at most ranging from grade school age to just entering middle school.
Plus, the older ones are big fans of mine and unlike American children remarkably well-behaved when meeting their idol. I let them hang around and tag along behind me, humor them when they whipped out the camera phones that all kids in this country seemed to be armed with. For a mini-photo shoot of our own for 'proof-pics' for their friends at school, it usually ends up being a lot of fun. Even with the crazy stuff those kids can come up with, what is it about having their picture taken that makes people give up all common sense? Still just because I gave up any chance of having my own doesn't mean I still wasn't overall fond of them.
But fun was definately off my schedule for the day, and here I was bored out of my skull with nothing remotely interesting to do. I knew it wasn't really fair, but on some level I blamed Alice for ruining my whole afternoon. I put on a disgusted pout thinking about it, and was nearly upended onto the hardwood floor by the loud peal of the doorbell. Yeah, it was safe to say I was distracted with stewing in my own sulkiness and was powerfully irritated at being pulled out of the pot. The thought of guests something I would have usually welcomed under normal circumstances, was a thing that I was secretly dreading at this point. As well as hugely annoyed, strange as it may sound, there is a live-in staff the size of a small army that cares for the house and surrounding garden where Gackt and I live. As many as three are wandering in groups, like little herds at any given time doing one thing or another making a very good wage for this current recession, especially when it comes to certain simple things celebrities didn't like to do, like answering the dang door for instance.
"Somebody care to answer the door?!" I cried down the back stairs to the downstairs kitchen, when no answer was forthcoming and the bell had been joined by heavy pounding some person probably thought was the proper way to knock. It sounded more like a battering ram, I cringed that door was original to the house when we bought it, over two-hundred and fifty years old at least and solid hand-carved cherry wood. Thus valuable in itself, if it was the Cullen's I prayed that the hand-shaped craters would come out because my fiancée would not be happy.
"Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" I tried again hoping that someone would get the hint. I waited a few seconds. No dice. If my life had been an anime, I would have sweat dropped at the frustration of all this.
"BBRRINGGG!" The stupid thing now protested, practically squealing into my sensitive hearing to be acknowledged. Though it was across the house, it still hurt.
"I'm coming! Hold your horses!" I growled in the direction of the offending party, making a mental note that unless a good excuse was forthcoming this place would be experiencing some significant downsizing in the near future.
I was still grumbling all the way on my long walk through the place, which was more of a hike really getting a major migraine as the racket increased in volume. There I debated about tearing out the hem of my favorite and expensive "Baby Phat" tank top just to attempt to drown out the noise. It wouldn't help anyway, the cold dread descended into the pit of my stomach and froze my already cool body when I finally got to my destination. Looking up at the crucifix that had been carved into the doorframe centuries before (which ironically was actually put there as a detourant for my kind) I pleaded my case, "PLEASE don't let it be the Cullen's, I'll do community service, adopt-a-highway or what the hell, Work for World Peace in a third world country, fourth or tenth if need be." I begged making my frazzled self presentable in the process.
I slowly opened the front door in order to minimize the shock value (for me, not them) only to once again be nearly knocked off my feet by two squealing brightly colored projectiles. I almost went into attack mode before I got a combined whiff of 'Sumomo Sunrise' perfume up one nostril and 'Bubblegum Blitz' Body Splash in the other.
"Ami! Yumi!" I sighed both relieved and delighted, letting out a breath of relief I hadn't even realized I'd taken.
I should have known. Even though our mansion was an import, the grounds surrounding the place were more native Japanese. Which also included a high wall and enough security (both an electronic system and service detail) to turn the place into a mini-military dictatorship. The fact that the Head of the Security was also a retired general in the National Army, and most of the bodyguards were ex-cops. Not to mention a few 'extras' added over the years that I won't go into other than to say they are really, really, really special. Basically nobody got into the place unless by express invitation or unless you were on the 'list' at the front gate.
My silly fear got the best of me; it would have taken a significant effort for the Cullens to get out of the United States. Being 'vegetarian' vamps most of their food source only resided within the heavy forested and mountained areas of North America and Canada. Japan has nothing like that, forests sure, but nothing so thick as that unless it's around a shrine property or a habitat in one of the national zoos. I'd kill them before they even touched the local population; most of the 'strays' around here are in fact family pets. Not that I'd ever seen them consider it as a possible food source mind you, but one never knew. It'd be a while before they could put a trip that big together anyway. I was safe, for the moment.
I didn't get a chance to elaborate any further because their hug got tighter, and I heard Ami screaming in my ear. "You're getting married, this is awesome!"
A more level-headed, but no less excited Yumi screaming in the other. "Bella, I can't believe Gackt-teme proposed to you on National T.V.!"
"Yeah! Somewhere out there are fan girls with runny mascara who are ripping up their princess dresses and burning me in effigy for corrupting him with my foreign wiles." I said, we shared a quick snicker over that.
"Let's celebrate, Bachelorette Slumber Party at my house!" Squealed Ami happily.
"Let's see the ring; they didn't get a clear shot of it on the Evening News." Yumi said, as they both let go of me. I giggled. Grateful that I was now able to showoff my new pride and joy to some fellow girly-girlfriends who knew how to make a proper fuss over it and thus my ego. Needless to say, they were struck speechless.
They gasped together in surprise. "It's beautiful." Ami continued in a breathless tone, she'd known Gackt for a long time and had a brother-sister thing going on with him. I think she knew that if he gave me something like that, the relationship had to be lasting and heartfelt. She didn't realize how just true that was.
"Come on, let's go inside." I said, they followed nodding dumbly still in awe of my ring. As we entered the foyer, my cell phone starting wailing like Johnny Depp, the Sweeney Todd theme actually. Don't know why I picked it, maybe it was just my morbid side making an appearance. I didn't know. But the man just has a dang good singing voice, not as good as my fiancée, but enough for me. Still, I quickly grabbed the phone from my back pocket flipping it open.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Hi Bella, it's me." Came Gackt's voice from the other end.
My eyes lit up, it was so perfectly obvious that I was in love. "Hey sweetheart, what's up?"
I could just hear the smile in his voice. "Nothing really. Just checking up on you."
Ami prodded my arm, "Is that Gackt-teme?" I nodded. Then got worried when both girls exchanged the evilest grin, one that even made me shiver. So you know it was bad.
"Put him on speaker now." replied Yumi slyly, it didn't take Einstein to figure out those two were up to something. But before I could come up with an excuse.
"Is someone there with you?" asked Gackt.
"Yeah." I replied hesitantly. "Ami and Yumi and they want to talk to you." I heard him groan in response and what I could swear was the distinct sound of a blunt object hitting a table. Before I could inquire, he was back again. "Put me on speaker." He said. I shrugged and did as requested and punched the specific button on my Razor.
"Konichiwa Gackt-teme!" They sing-songed innocently in unison, pretending nothing was amiss. I was just glad he couldn't see their faces they just screamed impish.
"Konbawa Ami and Yumi-san." He replied acting all formal, it was so cute. I almost laughed outloud at that, when it came to those two even his voice sounded like it was bowing all the time.
"We're so proud of you." Heckled Yumi.
"Yeah, we can't believe you actually got up the nerve to propose to Bella-chan." Yumi said sweetly back.
"Yes, I did." We heard him say smugly in a way only a guy can get.
What they said next though confirmed what the earlier 'evilness' had been about. "Gackt-teme can we stay over at your house tonight?" Heckled Ami in such a way that to the average person would have been irresistiably cute and thus defenseless against it. But this was my fiancée we were talking too and he didn't have such a big hole in his defenses.
"NANI! HELL NO!!"He shouted into the phone, I groaned I hope he wasn't getting weird looks on his end, penguins probably could hear it all the way in Antarctica. And the high (echoing) ceilings in the foyer certain ally didn't help much. "Gackt sweetheart, please 'inside' voice." I begged trying to shake off the ringing in my eardrums.
What I didn't count on was Ami and Yumi's infallible back-up plan. "Fine then. We'll kidnap Bella instead." Replied Yumi in an evil voice.
"No. Leave Bella alone, you hyperactive freaks!" Gackt yelled yet again into the unfortunate appliance.
"Gackt-te...honey," I blushed, slapping my forehead at my stupid faux pas. "Everything will be fine and it's only for one night. Its supposed to be like an overnight bachelorette party." I explained casually, refusing to meet Ami and Yumi's what I'm sure were smug faces.
"Fine, but just one day." He didn't seem to have noticed before heaving a sigh, fully caving in.
"YES!" We three shouted giving each other an enthusiastic high-five. Unfortunately like when Gackt proposed to me, I got a little too excited and well...Ami and Yumi came away with hands a little redder than normal as a result. I smiled sheepishly mouthing apologies for their benefits as they mouthed their momentary pain silently. If Gackt had heard he'd have never let them live it down for a month at least, so it was more like a dignity and pride thing than anything else.
"That reminds me there was another reason that we came. Gackt-teme, Bella-chan can we interview you both for our show?" Yumi asked nicely, flashing me an "apology accepted" smile.
I remembered vaguely hearing something about it; it was popular in the United States. "The Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Show?" I inquired.
"Yep, that's the one. So, will you both? Please, for us?" Ami nodded.
"I don't see why not, it could be interesting and it won't hurt anything." Gackt said after a moment of thought, it probably seemed safer. Because deny Ami something she wanted then it would get 'screechy' to whosoever had tempted fate. That same trait caused her voice to get somewhat of a high-pitched squeakiness when she got excited and had caused me to dub her aptly, "Squeaky-chan" when it happened. Yumi thought it was funny until I christened her with one of her own, "Dinky-chan." But I'll get to that later.
"We'd just have to ok it past His Royal Majesty the "Red Brake" first." I chuckled. Everyone laughed, that was the Keto-san's nickname. And no truer title there was his favorite hobby was to put quick stops to any fun Gackt and I wanted to have. Then his face turned beet red while yelling at either one or both of us for doing it anyway, ergo "The Red Brake".
Ami started to clap her hands, squealing and doing a little jump for joy. It almost reminded me of...no, I couldn't think of that now. I had long ago made a new life for myself here in the Ancient Land of the Rising Sun with Ami, Yumi and most importantly, Gackt. Nothing else mattered to me.
"Bella?" Gackt's voice brought me from out of my daydream.
"Oh sorry, what did you say honey?" I heard him laugh good-naturedly on the other end of the line at my absentmindedness.
"I said goodbye and Aishiteru."
I almost had tears in my golden eyes over that. "I love you too. Come home fast, ok?" I said quietly. Ami had an "Aww" expression going on. While Yumi rolled her eyes making fake gagging motions with her finger looked somewhere between "Oh Brother!" and "Look out, I'm going to hurl!". I gave her a glare in response as Ami gave her partner in crime a warning 'thwack' on the shoulder for emphasis on my behalf. To which I gave a smile and thumbs up with my free hand, while Yumi turned a glare to the both of us.
"I will, but I have to get off now. Hyde and Chachamaru are giving me the evil eye. Later Ami, Yumi." He groaned the last part. "Now get out of my house."
"Aww, Gackt-teme, you know that deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep down you love us like family." Ami cooed in a cutesy, childlike voice.
"HAH! Not a snowball's chance in the desert!" Yumi huffed indigently, but with an undertone of playfulness. So you know she didn't really mean it.
"Whatever. Now play nice, girls." He chuckled.
"Always." We chirped innocently in unison like perfect little songbirds.
"Bye Gackt, see you in a few sweetheart and tell the guys I said Hi." I know it seems a little stupid, I blew an air kiss into the mouthpiece for good measure and with that I hung up.
"What?!" I snapped as genuinely indignant at Ami, as Yumi's had been playful. Because she was flashing me a look that was so unlike her, unless Yumi was involved. A sly one.
"He really loves you." She said both ignoring my comment and stating the obvious. I couldn't help but flash a toothy grin that would have put both the Mad Hatter; The March Hare even the Old Chestshire Cat himself to shame. Because nothing in Heaven, Hell or Earth itself can knock that goofy smile off of the face of one who is utterly in love. Which I was. Totally, utterly and completely.
"I still can't believe you two get to look that good for the rest of eternity." Yumi huffed in that playful way of hers. Now you might be shocked at that considering that two natural humans were standing in a room with their natural predator pretending to be one. The equivalent of a cat playing with mice most of my kind in the States would think. Not true, Ami and Yumi were my best friends and the only people Gackt and I truly trusted with our secret.
"Ok that takes care of everything, we'd better get going. We don't want to face the wrath of Gackt-teme, if he finds is here when he gets home. Besides our driver is circling around the block and he gets really cranky if you make him wait." Ami shuddered theatrically. Yumi and I burst out laughing.
"Don't they all?" I replied, remembering my experience with my own staff earlier, though still not quite understanding. "But isn't Yoshiyuki-kun your regular driver?"
"On vacation. Got a babysitter for the time being ." They shrugged in unison.
"Oh." I understood, perfectly.
All really big, truly successful stars are so rare that record labels are more dependent on them than they would like to admit. So they tend to get pretty neurotic at "protecting investments" against things like crazy fans, misc. accidents and etc.. Even going so far as to actually discreetly "planting" glorified spies and babysitters amongst a celebrity's regular staff at home and on the job for various periods of time. Especially if the star has a reputation for outrageous behaviour or a so-called trouble magnet (grin). It's sort-of a hidden loop-hole in any standard contract one signs, kind of like the darker side of the force to get us to behave. Kaito Keto is a classic example of what's called "The Watchdog," he's as tenacious as a cross between a steel bear trap and a rabid pit bull. Like they think we won't figure it out, yeah right! Why do you think that Gackt and I mess with him so much, we make that boy earn his paychecks?! Still, the thought of a human actually babysitting a pair of vampires, if he actually knew the real truth like Ami and Yumi did he'd probably pee his pants just before he died of an aneurism. What a way to go, huh?
"Well we can't have you getting grounded now can we? That would spoil all the fun. Scoot along, you two I'll call you around eightish, ok? Then we can go from there." I said, playfully shooing the pair from my sight.
"M'kay that works for us, till then Ja ne." Yumi said satisfied. We waved our goodbyes to each other, as I showed her and Ami out the front door like a good hostess.
After they left, I heaved an immense sigh of relief finally realizing just how stressed out I was, like a well oiled machine wound a little too tight. I had to let off some steam before I blew a serious gasket, and there was no telling when or where that would happen. Not a good thing for a vampire. Fortunately, there was an easy solution at hand or rather underwater. When Gackt and I had bought this house we had one of the larger rooms in the back completely remodeled, I think was an old series of storerooms or pantries. Either way, it was now a very nice and gigantic indoor pool that looked more like a lush, hidden garden in the middle of a rainforest complete with mock volcanic rock waterfall.
Needless to say, it was my favorite place in the entire house. My own personnel equivalent of a child's playroom, I never ceased to be enchanted whenever I walked into its enclosed perfection. I went to our bedroom and pulled my favorite swimsuit from the closet, an impulse buy Gackt had convinced me to get from a charming little shop on the beach on a trip to the Bahamas. Ok, so at first it had been more to humor him than anything else, still it was a tasteful black bikini. It was patterned with red roses criss-crossed just-so in shiny silver barbed wire which caused them to appear as if they were weeping tears of blood. As I headed towards the pool, I grabbed a matching wrap dress out of a nearby drawer. It's just basically a long piece of cloth you can tie in various ways anything from a long beach skirt to an actual full-coverage dress. Very useful on sea-side trips when you don't want stalkerazzi pictures of certain "problem areas", not that I do of course. Just a small force of habit, I'd picked up over the years.
Anyway, the pool has a nice little custom feature a temperature control it that goes way over the norm. My personal fave is a lovely, even 100 degrees. It just feels so good against the skin, like a warm chlorine bath. The smell is really the only bad part of the whole deal, with having superhuman senses and all. Everything else lumped together does tend outweigh that one small annoyance, anyhow.
I was literally floating in that little somewhere between sleep and awake when I thought I heard something give a resounding, "Bang!"
"Bella?" I heard Gackt's deep voice as if he was right there in the room next to me.
"I'm in the pool." I said in a lazy, contented tone, knowing full well he could hear me from where he was across the house.
"Want some company?" Was the next thing I heard definitely right next to me or rather my floating head. I cracked open an eye, to see Gackt on the edge towering over me and I got worried in a hurry. He was smiling down at me with the wickedest grin that he only got when he did something spur of the moment. My fears turned out to be well founded, then without warning; he dropped the bag he'd been carrying. Before cannonballing straight into the pool, fully clothed in several thousand yen worth of designer clothes. I gave a screech of surprise as pool water came raining back down on my already wet head and making me more drenched than I already was, if that was possible.
Did I say he was impulsive? Forget it, sometimes the guy's just simply nuts?!
Before I had time to scold him like some errant child, he managed to do one of the things that made me fall in love with him in the first place. Make it all better, in a romantic way that appealed to my bruised ego.
"I missed you." He whispered into my ear, wrapping his arms around me. Romantic and Lovable. You tell me now what girl doesn't like to hear that directly from her man?
"Hmm, I noticed." Was my brilliant response. He started to lay gentle butterfly kisses from my lips, leaving a trail down my jaw and neck. As I wrapped my arms about his own pulling him closer. The temperature seemed to get hotter and you better believe it had nothing to do with the thermostat.
"Gackt, I..." I whispered as the doorbell suddenly rang. "...damnit!" I hissed. Gackt gave a weak chuckle at my slip-up as he rested his forehead on mine.
"If that's Ami and Yumi, don't count on Maids-of-Honor at the wedding. Because I WILL strangle them." He growled from deep in his throat, I could feel his fists balling up into the skin of my back. "I say we let somebody else get the door, let them deal with it."
"First it shouldn't be them, I said I'd call them and good luck with the second." I drawled rather sarcastically. At his questioning look, I answered. "Everybody around here seems to think it's a national holiday, the house is pretty much deserted right now. Still if you want something done, do it yourself. So the saying goes."
I jumped out of the pool grabbing my wrap off one of the deck chairs where I'd lain it. Gackt didn't see any reason to protest and followed my example only to catch up with me wrapping his arms around my waist as if to prevent Yumi's promised mock threat against my person, even though knowing her it was probably half-serious. If I had chosen to allow it to happen, of course. That and kind of putting myself in the position of living shield at the same time, if it was Ami and Yumi that is. I wanted those Maids-of-Honor; I still hadn't had the opportunity to spring the 'Poofy Nightmares from The Pit of Hell' as Yumi dubbed bad bridesmaid dresses. Just call it payback for all the years of being the butt of one or the other's practical jokes, not to say I haven't gotten a few pot shots of my own. But there are once in lifetimes times when opportunity knocks and you just have to answer. I just had to remember to get pictures for posterity, future blackmail and maybe my MySpace blog.
We walked awkwardly to the front door leaving a long wet, trail throughout the house as a kind of mini-revenge on the housekeepers. Before Gackt resumed kissing my neck. I smiled again preparing to relish the looks on anybody's faces that were stupid enough to come around at this inopportune moment. Only problem was I forgot to plead my case again to the higher power, I opened the door. Then froze dead in my tracks.
"No." I choked out.
"Who is it, Bella? Gackt asked looking up momentarily.
As I saw the absolute last person I wanted to see, Edward Cullen.
"YOU!" Edward snarled, Gackt didn't know who he was at the time or what it was all about. Still nobody expects a threat to be dumped directly onto their doorstep at any given time. All I know is one minute I'm facing down my enraged ex, the next Gackt put his arm around my waist pushing me behind him a strange role-reversal, eyes never leaving Edward the whole time. Edward had obviously given lee-way to the 'inner beast' we all have, pupils dilated and fangs extended crouched in a hunter's stance ready to pounce. They were just about to fight when...
"AHHHHHH!!" There was no mistaking the shrill war cry of excited fan girls, or who had made them. It'd been over two decades but how could I forget that pair?! All of us cringed in response, as Rosalie and Alice came running up to us. They pushed Emmett, who up till now went unnoticed out of the way. Then heaved Edward like a sack of garbage into a nearby topiary bush.
"Oh my God! Do you know who you are?! You're Camui MS Gackt!" Rosalie screamed openly gawking at my fiancée.
"I LOVE your music AND your fashion choices!" Alice said, bouncing up and down in that 'bubbly' mode of hers.
"Specially this one!" Rosalie drooled. I looked at Gackt to see that he had no shirt on; I blushed lightly at that, realizing it was still probably floating innocently back on the surface of the pool. Now only having on his trademark necklace, rings and bracelet and his jeans were clinging to his damp body.
"Wow, you have such big muscles!" Rose said dreamily, feeling up his arms.
"Hey!" Emmett cried, not so forgotten anymore voiceing his opinion.
I felt a sudden surge of possessiveness and jealousy and I wrapped my arms around Gackt's waist, which he returned uncertainly. His eyes not leaving my hyperactive 'older sisters' the whole time. These two made Ami and Yumi's antics look like a Norman Rockwell painting, idylic, charming and completely normal.
"So does your husband, Rosalie!" I growled back.
"Thank you!" Emmett responded relieved, somebody had noticed him amid all the chaos. Even tough he was still in what counted as the background.
But she didn't hear me. Alice was the next to kick up a fuss, I don't know how she managed to slip behind us. And at first I thought she was checking out Gackt's rear. This in turn had me seeing red, until I realized she was actually looking at the label sewn onto one of the back pockets. I could let it slide; it wasn't like she was pant seating him to get to his underwear. When that particular little thought started running around in my subconcious like a runaway freight train however, I made a mental note to lock our bedroom door anyway.
"Oh my AH! He is wearing Dolche and Goldoana!" She screamed. Her inner shopper must have been somewhere between absolutely delighted and the Rapture at that little piece of information.
"Bella, this is really creeping me out." Gackt said through clenched teeth in Japanese, moving closer to me which was the most familiar at the moment. Me.
"Bella, you are SO lucky!" Both girls practically squealed at me in unison.
I didn't know at the time both had spent the entire seventeen hour flight listening to every album Gackt had put out since his early Malice Mizer days along with an entire stack of old record and fashion magazines. That they had just happened to pick up in Little Tokyo in San Francisco on the way to the airport in LA, then formed their own fan club to boot. Apparently, they wanted to see just how much mischief their 'little sister' had gotten into. Then had instead both ended up as diehard fans, no pun intended. Oh joy and rapture, I beat out half the girls in the Eastern Hemisphere for one man only to end up with this! And these two are supposed to be how much older than me, again?!
Anyway, Emmett and Jasper were both yelling, "Hey!" that time.
"Alice, Rosalie please stop drooling over my fiancée." I gloated smugly. Yeah, I couldn't help but want to monopolize him, so sue me. I knew a good thing when I had it.
"Fiancée?! Ha, I'll believe it when I see it." Edward commented rather rudely, which I thought was pretty damn bold coming from a guy that looked like he had just made a mad dash escape from a rabbit hutch. His clothes were covered in dry grass and a few leaves, a few dirty patches here and there. There were bits of evergreen sprig still sticking out of his once perfectly combed flyaway hair, and his face was red and scratched from fighting his way out of the bonsai styled branches. This guy currently had all the sex appeal of a fire hydrant to me. Although I would have been too perfectly happy to pull a fire hose on him to just keep him from dukeing out a Battle Royale with Gackt on our front porch. Did I seriously think I was in love with him once?
"Excuse me?" I heard Gackt say in English, in a calm almost deathly voice.
"Gackt precious, please not here. Control your temper." I pleaded with all the gentleness one would give to handling an active nuclear warhead. This was the one area where my annoyance at Edward was overridden by the concern for the general overall well-being of my vampiric family. Gackt's a sweet, fun-loving and pretty mellow guy. Usually. If he likes you, you couldn't have a better best friend in the world. But on the other hand, his hair-trigger temper is legendary in the industry. It only gets out rarely, but when it does, two words...LOOK OUT!!
"Edward, behave yourself! This is not our home, and make yourself presentable. We're guests here ourselves." Esme scolded, as she finally arrived up the long walk with Carlise at her side. He looked properly ashamed, he did as he was told but the scowl remained pointedly fixed. And I in turn, let out a mental sigh of relief that I wouldn't have to organize any damage control.
"Hey Bella! Forget the hothead, come here and give me a hug!" Emmett smiled in that boisterous school-boy way of his, how could I resist such a request? I laughed and gave him a little squeeze lifting him off the ground for good measure; he was just as big a teddy bear as I remembered him to be.
"Whoa! My lil' sis got strong. Oh, I like your outfit." He laughed mischievously with just a hint of admiration when I placed him back on the ground.
Crap! I had completely forgotten about my bikini, well that's what I had brought the wrap for. In less than two seconds, I had finished tying it about my neck for a finished result. Not too bad for a rush job, and it covered all the goods so no more fights would break out hopefully. I put my arm around Gackt who in turn wrapped his arms around me as I leaned into him like I was going to kiss him. Edward let out a growl, but said nothing as per ordered by Esme.
Only I didn't kiss Gackt, I whispered in his ear. "I'm going to shower and change clothes, so behave until I get back." I said firmly yet with a fond tap on the nose, as I pulled away from him.
"I could go with you, but then I can't promise that'd I'd behave." Gackt whispered into my ear, momentarily forgetting that anyone else was there. And lapsing back into the romantic vibe we had started earlier in the pool. Rosalie and Alice squealed happily, while Emmett and Jasper chuckled knowingly. Carlise and Esme looked like they were about to burst into laughter. Esme was blushing prettily at the same time murmuring something to her husband about, 'young love' and all that jazz, I couldn't quite catch all of it. What do you want from me; I was on another planet with a two-digit population at the time?!
I felt so comfortable and at ease then and was so sure that no further problems were going to pop up, wrong! A snarling Edward launched himself at Gackt. In what I know was more of an effort to protect me than out of his own self-preservation, my fiancée launched himself at Edward at almost the same time.
This was the one of the few times in my life where I was insanely glad that my mouth occasionally runs off without checking with my brain first. "STOP!" I cried, with such authority even Aro of the Volturi probably would have listened to the command. Either way, my command was heeded. Both men froze in mid-air.
"What the hell?!" Edward screamed in utter shock and surprise at finding all of himself five feet off the ground, and one shorter foot away from the intended target and not one inch of his body, other than his face was responding to his higher mental functions. Which I was honestly starting to doubt he even had in the first place!
"Not again." My fiancée sighed dramatically. The other Cullens were openly gawking at me with utter disbelief written on their stupefied faces, except for Alice who stood beside me.
"You should know better." I hissed, pointing my finger at Gackt, then to Edward. "Both of you!"
"And you shouldn't be saying anything!" Alice yelled at Edward even more before I could. Good old, dependable Alice! I humbly retract my earlier comments. It was nice to know I had a reliable ally in all this, because I had a sinking feeling that 'World War III' was just getting started. Oh how right I was, both of them continued to hiss and spit at each other like drenched tomcats despite our combined efforts. I just prayed things didn't get any worse.
Then Gackt's cell phone rang.
"Dear God, please don't let it be them." He groaned ignoring Edward who had stopped being uncivilized a moment and whose interest was roused.
"Who?" He asked.
"Evil Cuteness Incarnate." Came the reply, I glared at him in return. I know they weren't there, but that was no reason to be rude. Edward however, was momentarily forgotten over more pressing concerns.
"Pardon me a moment," I bowed politely then was gone in a flash, and back in an instant. Gackt's cellphone in hand.
"Hello?" I asked.
"GACKT-TEME!! Bella promised to call, she didn't so I know you're holding her hostage. So, I'm ordering you bring her over to our sleepover NOW!" Screamed Ami from the other end, oh boy she was really mad.
"Ami, it's me Bella. I'm sorry, I'll have to postpone for the time being." I said sadly into the receiver.
"Why?" She sounded so disappointed, I hated doing that to her. She asked for so little in our friendship, I felt like I'd just punctured her fondest dream balloon just too callously watch it die. For fun. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Unfortunately, I felt just bad enough to let my guard down. With Ami, major mistake!! Only I realized that a little too late.
"I'm truly sorry, Squeaky-chan. Let's just say I have some old friends over right now and they've traveled a long way to be here. I can't just up and leave them." I answered in what I hoped was a dejected enough tone.
"Bell-Bell-chan, I think you're leaving out the details from me." She cooed in a sickly sweet tone.
DAMNIT!! I forgot she knows I only use the 'pet' names when something's up or I'm hiding something.
"Not exactly." I protested.
"Then you won't mind if "Dinky-chan" and I come and see for ourselves why you would leave your best friends, who have been with you through thick and thin, taken you under our wings when you came to a strange country..." Ami started laying it on real thick, she knew what she was doing, she was the baby in a large family that included multiple siblings and cousins. So, you do the math literally in this case.
"Alright, I get it enough with the guilt trip. Just sneak past your "babysitter" get your partner-in-crime, and grab the nearest taxi down here and I'll explain everything." I snapped at her, pretending I didn't see Gackt frantically shaking his head mouthing 'NO!' in both English and Japanese, plus several other languages. Like that would detour me, Ami or Yumi, as if.
"Thanks don't mind if we do. We'll be there in no time; you'd better have some great answers because Yumi and I have some Fantastic questions. Buh-bye for now, Bell-Bell-chan." She chirped thoroughly satisfied with her manipulation, as the line went dead. Now I was starting to understand why Gackt never did let himself not be emotionally rigid in front of the pair.
"Sorry, he wasn't listening." I said sympathetically to him, nonchalantly flipping the cell phone closed with a resounding 'click'.
"Perfect. And my day goes from frying pan to the incinerator." Gackt groaned. I ignored him, turned to the Cullens and Hales and smiled.
"Would you like to come in?"
Well that concludes yet another chapter, and here's a few translation notes.
Konnichiwa means "Hi".
Konbawa is a really polite way of saying "Good Afternoon."
Teme is a calling name, it means a lot of stuff stupid, ugly but mostly translates as "idiot." (It's Naruto's favorite insult to call his teammate, Sasuke.)
Ja ne, I know it looks like a bad spelling of "Jane," but trust me it is spelled right. It loosely translates to "Until next time" or "See you soon." A really quick way to say goodbye.
Nani means "What."
Kun is a very personal prefix only used to address a boy or guy you know extremely well, its like a term of endearment.
Sumomo means "plum." I don't know what Ami and Yumi really wear, I just tired making something up to fit their personalities.
Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi is one of my favorite Japenese import shows, at the end of every one the Ami and Yumi would do a live taping in Japan with a special message for the fans in America. Unfortunately, you could never understand it because they were talking in Japanese, but who cares those two are awesome anyway!!
And as for Gackt for those who don't know, Yuu pronounced "Ju" in Japanese and Hyde are indeed Gackt's bandmates and Best Friends and have been for almost the last ten years. Chachamaru is a bandmate of his in Gackt's hit band.
Thanks for looking and please click on the pretty purple button to make me happy!! Thankx;D!!