A/N: Oh man, I am so sorry this update took so long! I had it nearly completed a while ago, but work got very hectic and I recently had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled out, I've been in a great deal of pain and my face is swollen like a blowfish! Ok i'll try to get the next chapter out fairly soon, sorry for the wait! thanks again for all the reviews!
Disclaimer: Nothing here is mine.
Ch. 9
I woke up the next morning feeling guilty. The whole dinner last night I was focused on Natsuki. I am a married woman for crying out loud. I'm married and Natsuki is with Nao, even though Nao definitely does not deserve her! What does it matter? Why do I care who Natsuki is with? Because I love her. But I love Reito right? Ugh all this internal arguing is leaving me with a feeling of guilt and tiredness. I sigh out loud opening my eyes and staring at the ceiling in our bedroom.
"Shizuru what's wrong?" Reito sets down the newspaper to gaze at me.
"Nothing Reito, I'm fine." I say not sure of whether I am trying to convince him or myself.
"Well something HAS to be wrong you were tossing and turning the whole night and grumbling in your sleep."
"I'm fine, just a little restless I suppose."
"Well I know what we can do to drain your energy." He says with a smirk on his face while waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"I'm not quite in the mood for that this morning Reito." I smile at him gently.
"Fair enough. Well this might cheer you up, I got tickets to the soccer game, I know how it's a secret love of yours!" I can't help but love the look of triumph on his face.
"Reito! How wonderful of you! When is the game?" I hate to admit it but I really do love that sport.
"Tomorrow night, I'll get you at 5pm for the game after I get home for work. Deal?"
"DEAL!" I jump on him and give him a big hug. He laughs and returns my hug kissing me softly on the lips.
"Hey Reito, my parents want to go to the carnival tonight do you want to go as well?"
"Ah yes, the parents, of course I'll go Shizuru." I kiss him on the cheek and head into the bathroom to get ready for the day.
I woke up in a sweat. I definitely did not get a good night's rest. Dinner with the Kanzaki's was definitely not something I wanted to do again any time soon. Things were just so… complicated. I know my feelings for Shizuru, but at times it seemed as though she felt for me what I felt for her. Like when I would catch glimpses of jealousy in her eyes, but I can't ever be sure with her, she covers up her emotions so well with that constant mask she wears. Then, she goes from teasing and caring to aloof and withdrawn. She sends so many mixed signals I'm not even sure she knows she sends them. It could just be innocent friendship that she seeks though. I'm sure I'm reading into her too much. I can't help how I feel, and I can't just turn my heart off like a light switch, though I wish it were that easy. The dreams I had last night didn't help matters either. They were so graphic. When I woke up I swear I could feel Shizuru's breath against the inside of my thigh. I shudder as I recall my dream and immediately I feel my face flush with heat. I'm such a pervert, I need a cold shower and I need one now! I jump up and run into the bathroom for a quick morning shower. After my shower I feed Duran and myself then get dressed for the day. I decide to go simple today it looked like a nice day today so I put on some faded jeans that are a little more than worn out with rips and tears everywhere but are my favorite, with a tight spaghetti strap black tank top, and my converse. I pull my hair up into a fast ponytail grab my camera and my helmet and head next door to Mikoto's. I knock quickly and lean down to stroke Duran on the head, he was getting bigger by the day. As I pet Duran the door opens to reveal a very groggy looking Mikoto,
"Natsuki? What time is it? Do you need me to watch Duran today?" She yawns and stretches,
"Hi Mikoto, it's 9am, and if you could please? I am going to the shop for most of the day and then heading to the carnival later tonight to take some pictures."
"Yeah it's not a problem, maybe Duran and I can meet you later tonight at the carnival?" She pats her leg and Duran happily trots into her apartment.
"Sure that would be great. Thanks Mikoto!" I am about to leave when I hear a very familiar voice.
"Mikoto, what the hell are you doing? Who's at the door? It doesn't matter, if you don't come back RIGHT now I'll start without you!" the voice ends in a threatening yet teasing tone. I smile to smugly and look at Mikoto; she is sporting a blush worthy of competing with mine.
"Well well Mikoto, when did this happen?" She blushes even brighter and looks to the floor.
"Well, I don't know, she was at the club last night and I don't know, we just I guess hit it off."
"I would have never thought…" Before I can continue the voice gets louder as I hear it getting closer.
"Mikoto I said…" the voice trails to an end as the source of the voice walks out of the bedroom and spots me, the blush on her face is as bright as her bright red hair.
"Hello Nao." I grin at her.
"Oh Fuck." I burst out laughing even Mikoto can't help but to laugh.
"Natsuki, uh, we'll talk about this later!" I continue laughing as Nao rushes to shut the door in my face. I shake my head as I walk down to my motorcycle, I can't believe Nao hooked up with Mikoto, I would have never even imagined! Good for them. Good for Nao, she deserves someone as kind as Mikoto. I get on my bike and take off towards the shop. As I get there I see that Mai has already opened up for the day I walk in to find her reading one of her favorite travel magazines, I roll my eyes at her.
"Mai, when are you going to stop reading about traveling and actually go and travel?" She looks up at me startled.
"Natsuki! You startled me!" She says happily at me beaming me a bright smile. "Natsuki, if I left who would take care of you?" I laugh at her motherly concern.
"Mai, I think I can survive without you for a month or two, but probably not much longer than that." She laughs with me before becoming serious.
"You know, if you found a woman to take care of you, someone with a big heart, and a lot of patience, I would feel better about going on vacation." I roll my eyes again, but this time out of frustration, Mai is constantly trying to set me up. "Natsuki I'm SERIOUS!"
"I know you are Mai, but really, there's just no one I am interested in like that." She looks at me skeptically.
"Really Natsuki? NO ONE?" She crosses her arms over her chest as she looks at me. I look away quickly and mumble,
"No Mai, no one, no one that is available anyway." I sigh and walk away towards the black room to work on photos. I'm in there for about 2 hours working on photos before Mai interrupts me.
"I'm sorry Natsuki, I don't mean to press the issue, I just want you to be happy that's all."
"I know Mai, I just, I don't know, I always get myself into situations like this don't I?" My shoulders slump in defeat as I take my picture out of the fixer chemicals and drop it into the rinsing station. I turn around to face Mai.
"Natsuki lets go to the market and get some snacks and supplies to make sandwiches, I want to have a picnic at the carnival." I smile at her sadly. "I can make you a few Mayo sandwiches." She says hopefully to me, I know she's just trying to cheer me up, and it works. I smile broadly at her.
"Ok Mai lets go." We leave the black room, it's like we never work when we go to work. We hop onto my motorcycle and head towards the local grocery store.
Most of my morning was spent cleaning up around the house and working in my garden that I love dearly. My garden was my pride and joy. The theme of my garden is done in a traditional Japanese garden style. There are plenty of trees and plants that line my garden, but the high light is the beautiful koi pond I have in the center of the garden. There is a bridge that extends over the pond so that I can walk out to the center and feed the fish. Whenever I have an especially stressful day all I have to do is come out to this garden and I'll feel immediately relaxed. I haven't had any stressful days in a long time though, once Reito and I got engaged two years ago he had insisted I quit my job and stay home. He wanted me to get used to being a stay at home wife/mother, at first I was appalled with the idea, I had gone to school and graduated with a master's degree in business economics. Upon graduating I took up a job at my mother's company as head of her accounting department, I loved my job, but it did come with a fair amount of stress. I couldn't even begin to imagine what I would do at home all day. Once I quit I felt restless almost immediately, it wasn't until Reito suggest I take up a hobby that I finally settled into being a stay at home wife. That is when I began to develop my garden. I even had a traditional teahouse built in the garden, sure I never served tea in it, but I liked knowing that I had the option of doing so if I wanted to. I sighed happily to myself as I walked around my garden sipping my favorite tea. After taking a walk around my garden I walk into the house to see what I could fix for an early dinner. I open my refrigerator and realize that I'm running low on groceries.
"Reito dear?"
"Yes Shizuru?" I hear him respond from the living room.
"Would you care to accompany me to the grocery market? We need food for the house."
"Of course I would!" Reito and I get into the car and drive off to the local grocery market. Once there we start grabbing all the things we need for the house and extras for the game tomorrow. We're just having mindless chatter when Reito brings up the dinner from last night.
"You know Shizuru I thought Natsuki and Takeda were going to hook up for sure." He says, but there's a trace of mischievousness in his voice.
"Oh? I don't know it didn't seem like they were all that compatible."
"Oh ho! So you did get a feeling from her huh?" He continues on smirking,
"Reito what are you going on about?" I look at him slightly annoyed.
"Well Takeda was telling me that Natsuki…" He trails off as he stops in the aisle to greet someone coming towards us. "…Is right in front of us!" He finishes his sentence smiling.
"Oh. Hi, Reito, Shizuru." I look up at the sound of Natsuki's voice and my heart does a somersault in my chest. Our eyes connect as she says hello and I feel a smile come across my face.
"Natsuki what a pleasant surprise!" Reito exclaims, I roll my eyes; he's making it too obvious that we were just talking about her.
"Yes, it's nice to see you again Natsuki." She nods at me in acknowledgement, but that's it. I frown to myself mentally, why is she being so distant.
"We were just talking about you Natsuki!" I mentally face palm myself, why would Reito say that?
"Oh were you? All good I hope!" Natsuki says this casually though I can see through her body language that she's nervous about something.
"Always, say Natsuki, who's your friend here?" Reito looks questioningly at Mai.
"Oh, this is my friend Mai, Mai, this is Reito Kanzaki, and you remember Shizuru right?" I look at Mai and smile my greeting, she smiles back and extends her hand to Reito, and I can't help but notice that Mai is making dreamy eyes at Reito. I don't really mind, Reito is handsome, many girls fawn over him. Then to my horror as Reito releases her hand he blurts out in a not so subtle manner,
"Mai, are you gay?" my jaw literally hits the floor.
"Am I gay? I'm ecstatic!" Mai responds smiling brilliantly. I shut my eyes and squeeze the bridge of my nose; I can't believe he just said that, as if it couldn't get any worse though he continues,
"And well, are you two, you know, together?" He says frankly, my eyes snap open and I look quickly to Natsuki to gauge her response. Natsuki's face flushes red and she begins to stammer and sputter,
"What? Who? How do you know that I'm a lesbian?!" I can't help but smile at the faces that Natsuki is making. I smile at her fondly and her eyes dart over to me and hold the gaze for the first time since we bumped into her. My heart flutters but I continue smiling at her, she becomes noticeably calmer but just as quickly her gaze is redirected to the floor and before she can say more Mai cuts in,
"Who? Natsuki and me? Well honestly I've tried and I've tried but she loves another." I look to Mai who has her arm draped around Natsuki, giving her a half hug. I feel my insides tug, glad that Mai is indeed not with Natsuki, but jealous and upset that she's tried with Natsuki. Then I feel another pang as I realize what Mai has just said, she LOVES another. Her love must be for Nao. I glance at Reito realizing that he's going to say something else and to end my own self-torture I grab onto his arm grabbing his attention.
"Reito, we should get going, it's getting a little late."
"Oh, you're right, well Mai, it was wonderful meeting you! Natsuki take care."
"Same to you Reito!" Mai smiles and waves. I notice that Natsuki just nods in agreement and has already begun walking away; she didn't even look at me. As we walk down another aisle Reito begins to talk, I'm not even sure of what until I hear him mention Natsuki again,
"So I've found out that Mai and Natsuki are NOT a couple." I roll my eyes.
"Yes dear, it was an incredibly subtle inquiry." He smiles his goofy smile at me.
"Hey do you think Nao is the one that Natsuki loves?" He asks completely unaware of the dark scowl covering my face.
"Reito, I really don't care about Natsuki's love life. Can we please talk about other things?" He frowns at me but quickly shakes it off,
"Yes, of course sweetheart." The rest of the shopping trip goes smoothly and we find ourselves back at home cooking dinner before the carnival.
"Natsuki, there is definitely something there!" Mai says to me as we walk around the market. I exhale slowly trying to calm my rapidly beating heart. My heart started pounding in my chest the second I saw Shizuru. I look over at Mai, I feel exhausted. I hate that one person can effect me so greatly.
"Mai, the only thing there, is friendship."
"No, Natsuki, she didn't even bat an eyelash when I was making heart eyes at her husband, but when I draped my arm around you, she was shooting me daggers."
"Listen Mai, I'm sure you're just reading into things, I'm sure that's not what happened. Lets just let it go please? I just wanted to continue the rest of my night without thinking about Shizuru Kanzaki." Mai's shoulders slump, a sign that she's going to give up and drop the subject. I sigh in relief, I was in no mood to argue this with her for the remainder of the night. We finish our shopping and head to my house to prepare the sandwiches for the carnival. Once home we stop by to pick up Duran, I knock on Mikoto's door and we wait, I didn't tell Mai about Nao yet, I wanted her to be just as shocked as I was. The door opens and our mouths drop open, there standing in just her panties and a tight tank top is Nao.
"Jesus Nao put on some clothes!" I shout as I cover my eyes.
"Relax Natsuki it's nothing you haven't seen before. Oh hi Mai." Nao says casually as she stands in the doorway.
"Nao! What are you doing here in your underwear!?" Mai shouts waving her arms frantically.
"Mai, isn't it obvious what I'm doing?" Nao pointedly looks down at her attire.
"We're just here for my dog! Duran! COME!" Duran comes rounding the corner and jumps on my chest. I topple over as he covers my face in kisses.
"You are such a child sometimes Natsuki." Nao says in a huff and shuts the door on Mai and me.
"Oh my god Natsuki! I can't believe Nao and Mikoto are dating!"
"I know I was shocked when I found out too." Once we get to my place we relax for a bit before getting our things ready for the picnic we wanted to have later that night.
"Hey do you think Mikoto and Nao want to come with us?" I shrug my response and continue lathering a piece of bread in mayonnaise. Mai scrunches up her nose in disgust. "You are disgusting." I look at her innocently,
"What?"
"I'm going to call Nao and invite them." Five minutes and one conversation later Nao and Mikoto are at my door. We gather everything and head out the door, intending on walking to the carnival since it was just a few blocks away. Once we get there we spread a blanket out on the lawn in order to stake out a place to watch the fireworks later that night. I lay down on the blanket staring up at the stars in the sky, I look around me and take in the scene, Mai is chattering about one thing or another, Nao is sitting to my immediate left with her arms around Mikoto's waist, and Duran is sitting to my right resting his head on my abdomen. Aside from the ache in my chest I feel happy, I have my best friends and my dog, my night is turning out better than the beginning of the day.
I walk alongside my mother, I hear her talking but I'm not really listening to her. All I can think about is how I felt my heart thump against my rib cage when I saw Natsuki earlier in the day. I'm jostled out of my thoughts suddenly when my mother shakes my shoulder.
"Shizuru, are you listening dear?"
"What? Yes, of course I am mother." She nods curtly believing me,
"Well as I was saying, when should I be expecting grandchildren?"
"Mother…"
"Well, dear, one should have them while one can still pick them up!"
"MOM!" I turn away from my mother and am rescued by Reito.
"Shizuru would you like to take a walk with me?"
"YES." I lean in and whisper in Reito's ear, "thank you so much for saving me."
"Any time sweet heart anytime." He hugs me close and takes my hand in his dragging me away from my parents, who are yet again arguing about something.
"Where are we going Reito?"
"To find a good place to watch the fireworks of course!" I smile at him as he continues to lead us through the crowd. "Ah ha! Here this is perfect!" We are in an open clearing with a spectacular view of the sky. Reito takes me into his arms and hugs me from behind; I lean into his embrace and look around us. There are parents with their kids, young couples making out on blankets, and groups of friends all just hanging out. I feel Reito lean down and brush his lips against my cheek. I turn and peck him lightly on the lips. As my eyes begin to wander again I spot familiar bright red hair. I look more closely and see that it is indeed Nao that I spot, and no surprise to me, Natsuki is sitting right beside her. I grumble to myself and stiffen in Reito's embrace. "Shizuru what's the matter babe?"
"Nothing Reito, can we maybe find another spot?" Reito looks at me curiously but nonetheless he leaves to find another spot for us to view the fireworks. As we wander around I spare a glance back at where Nao and Natsuki were seated on a blanket, I see Natsuki staring up at the stars a beautiful blissful look on her face. I sigh as I try to ingrain the image of her perfect face into my memory forever. My view of her face is abruptly cut off when Nao, who had been lying on her back sits up and to my horror she wraps her arms around Natsuki's waist and pulls her close. I instantly look away feeling myself heat up with anger.
"Shizuru, what's the matter?"
"What? Nothing, can we just go home Reito?"
"Oh, well yeah sure anything you want." We begin walking towards our car and I try my hardest to erase from my mind the image of Nao holding Natsuki around the waist, with Natsuki practically sitting on Nao's lap. As we arrive home Reito heads into the kitchen to grab us something to drink.
"You want some tea babe?"
"Ah, no, how about a glass of wine?" I notice a slight frown on Reito's face.
"Oh, I would have offered but I thought that maybe,"
"You thought what Reito?"
"Well, Shizuru, are you pregnant?"
"What?!" I stare at him my mouth agape.
"Well, we've been a little slack in the romance department, and you've been acting strange I thought maybe you were."
"Uh, no, I'm not sorry."
"Oh, well it doesn't matter," He grabs a bottle of wine and two glasses, "Well unless you want to have a baby?" He looks at me hopefully,
"Oh brother, you and my mom,"
"Well no, it's just…" before he could finish his thought Reito's cell phone began to ring, "Hold on one second babe, it's Tate I have to pick up." He hits the answer button and immediately switches to the Reito I hate, the ass kissing one, "Oh hi Tate! Yeah sure, I have time right now, let me go get the papers." He rushes off into the other room. I sigh and go about pouring myself a glass of wine. I pick up the house phone and begin dialing a number that I memorized for no apparent reason at all. I hear the ringing on the other end and hold my breath.
I struggle out of Nao's embrace. "Nao! What the hell are you doing?"
"What? Can't I hug my best friend from time to time?"
"No! We've never been touchy feely! What's gotten into you?" As if on cue Mikoto shows up with Mai.
"Hey guys!" I cringe at the slapstick humor in what just happened and glare at Nao daring her to voice the answer to my question.
"Now ladies, we're all friends here, lets just relax and enjoy the show ok?" Mai steps between us effectively cutting off the glaring match between Nao and myself. I sit gazing up at the stars, my mind begins to wander and as usual I find myself thinking about a certain brunette with wine red eyes. Was Mai imagining earlier today? Did Shizuru really get jealous when Mai had her arm around me? I wouldn't know, I only looked her way once and when I did all I could feel was warmth seeping through my body, I could lose myself in her eyes forever. As I sat there losing myself in my thoughts about Shizuru my phone begins to ring and vibrate in my pocket. I pull it out and check the display, it reads 'The Kanzaki's' I sigh, I wonder why Reito would be calling from their home at this time of the night. I answer slightly irritated.
"Hello?" I hear nothing on the other end, just air. "Heeelllooo?" then the line goes dead. I wonder what that was about? I hit the redial button and wait as I hear the phone begin to ring.
After about three rings I hear the voice I'd been longing to hear since earlier that morning, "Hello?" I want to say something, I open my mouth to speak but just as quickly close it, what was I doing calling her? I hear her voice again and I hold the phone tighter to my ear, "Heeelllooo?" I am about to say something when I hear Reito coming back into the kitchen; I quickly hang up the phone and set it back down on the counter. I turn to look at him.
"Bad news babe, Tate needs me to go in tomorrow so that means I can't go to the game with you."
"What? Oh no! I really wanted to go!"
"You can still go, maybe Haruka will want to go with you?" Before he can finish saying anything the house phone begins to ring. I immediately feel nervous, what if it was Natsuki? He grabs the phone and answers, "Hello?"
"Hi, Reito, it's Natsuki, my phone just…"
"Natsuki!" Reito exclaims into the phone, "Perfect timing, I was wondering, would you mind escorting my wife tomorrow night? I got pulled into a shitty work thing, and I just know you two will have a great time, go on say yes!"
"Um, well, then yes."
"Fabulous! Shizuru will ring you later with the details! Take care!"
"Uh, great you too." Reito hangs up the phone and looks over at me.
"You shouldn't have done that, I barely know her." He frowns slightly before speaking,
"But she's your soul mate for life thingy isn't she?" he quotes me on what we had spoken about before.
"Well, does she even know where we're going?" Reito smiles as he grabs the bottle of wine and two glasses and walks off into the living room,
"No but I'm sure she won't mind!"
I glance down at the cell phone in my hand, what had I just agreed to? Reito hadn't given me a chance to say anything, and all of a sudden I'm taking his wife where? He didn't say. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. I sigh and put the phone back into my pocket.
"Natsuki?" I look up and meet Mai's concerned gaze. "What's wrong? Who was that?"
"Oh it's nothing, it was just Reito, he talked me into going somewhere with Shizuru tomorrow night." At the mention of Shizuru Mai's eyes light up with excitement.
"Shizuru! That's wonderful, you can spend some alone time with her!"
"It's not like that Mai, I'm just going as a favor to Reito, he needs me to take her somewhere because he has to work tomorrow."
"Yes, but Natsuki you get to be alone with her!"
"We're just friends." Are we just friends? I'm sure we are there's nothing more in it than friendship right? Right. Just friends. The night finishes with a beautiful fire works show my friends and I gather up our things and head home. I walk into my apartment with Duran leading the way, he seems exhausted with being out all day, he hops onto my bed and promptly collapses on it passing out. I smile and walk to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Tomorrow night I had a "date" with Shizuru, it would be fine, I'm sure, we were probably going to some stupid art thing, or whatever else fancy rich people do. I sigh as I walk back over to my bed and collapse; I wish my heart didn't make me feel this way for her.
