Hey all, Im so happy to have finally reached a double digit fanfic, so exciting :D hope you're enjoying this! Also, just letting you know that there is some rather intense language used in this one, just warning you incase you don't like that sort of thing. PLEASE REVIEW!

Lov u all, Rimah xx

"Yo, Ren! Guess which lucky fuck is about to get a promotion?" Adam rushed up to Akihito as he entered the official communal 'coffee room'.

"Oh man, congrats, you lucky dick." He spoke with exasperation, giving him a crooked smile of dismay.

"What... Oh. no" Adam shook his head, "It's you, stupid. I'd have though by now you'd realized that I don't gloat that much." Akihito stared at him, wide eyed, he could feel his excitement growing.

"Holy crap. Are you serious, I can't believe this. How do you know? are you sure?" He spoke back as calmly as possible, in his current situation.

"Yes I'm sure, I over heard Jay and Sam talking about it, they're making you some sort of manager of something directly related with the magazine and model photo shoots or something. You'll get to go out and do heaps of photo shoots and international business meetings and shit. You get like a team and all, and.. Oh man, I can only imagine the pay rise." He spoke without a breath and Takaba almost screamed in response. People had all gathered around by now, telling him how lucky he was and all the rest.

"This deserves a celebration, tonight I think." Everyone cheered and whooped and Takaba joined in with a huge grin.

It had been just over a year, a wonderful and exciting year of perfect normality. He hadn't been raped or kidnapped or shot at, once. He loved his job, it suited him far more then the whole freelance thing and he actually received the right amount of reward at this job. A promotion was such an honor and he had worked so hard for it, it was almost like a dream.

"But are you sure though, what if I don't get one now, how awkward" Akihito intercepted, earning a pinch in the arm from Adam. He shut up after that.

"...And you can take Emma too, you and her are so great together did you know, she's so bloody hot, I don't even know why she is so into you!"

Akihito palled, before chucking his cup toward Adams head, he laughed as the other young man attempted to duck but failed and earned a coffee cup in the cheek. Akihito cracked up into a fit of laughs and ran off when Adam death glared him and made in his direction yelling; "Asshole, you're gonna pay for that!"

But his enjoyment of life could not destroy the guilt he felt, however. Often he would wake up with Emma next to him and wish that it wasn't like that. Because his heart would crash... he only wanted to be with one person.

At times- everyday- he would kick himself for running away, for causing everyone he loved so much trouble, he had been so selfish, never thinking about his mother or the fact that he had caused his sister reason to lie to everybody. And of course, he couldn't help but wonder what his life might have been like with Asami. Would he have died at a later date anyway, on one of his jobs or when he got mixed up in Asami's work again. Would Asami have thrown him out by now, or would he still be living with the man?

But he would never know, and he would have to live with that for the rest of his life.

"Ok I'll call her, lets do this then" he laughed, as Adam crouched over and almost wrenched from his former lack of physical exercise. Akihito on the other hand, had always been fit and hadn't stopped since coming to Miami.

"Oh by the way, a bunch of us are going surfing at south beach this weekend, you should come along, Emma can come to if she insists." Adam gasped out, slowly catching his breath.

"Hmm" Akihito played, "yes, definitely, how could I refuse to that one." He chuckled, turning away towards the elevator and taking it back up to the fifth floor, where he began with a conference on the new design of the magazine, beginning in the new year. Which was now less than a month away.

~interlude~

"Ren, would you step into my office for a moment, please" Jay spoke from around the corner, as Ren left the conference. Aki froze, turning around with a small smile, hoping it was in fact for the reason he hoped. Walking sheepishly toward his Manager, he followed him inside the comfy office. "Yes, is there a problem?" He asked, a worried expression on his face?

"Don't be stupid Ren" Jay answered, as though they were on great terms still. Akihito visibly relaxed.

"No, quite the opposite in fact. I'm going to get straight to the point, you have been elected for a promotion to Manager of Photographic Affairs within the magazine enterprise. Or MPA, the outline has been emailed to your computer and so feel free to take your time deciding and make sure you read it over. We would be delighted if you accepted the job... Well done, you really deserve it."

Akihito's smile broke out, and he couldn't drown it. Jay chuckled as Akihito thanked him over and over again, telling him how happy he was and what an honor it was.

As he rushed down the hall and toward the elevators, he couldn't help the huge grin that totally disrupted his usually cool cascade. Those who had found out, all congratulated him and offered their 'luck' in his approaching in-devours.

As he got in the elevator, he dialed Emma and told her the brilliant news, she cheered and congratulated him beyond anybody else. He asked if she wanted to come out that evening for some fun, and how could she possibly decline? He then headed home, showered, changed and then went straight back out again to pick up Emma from work. She was a model for the agency, they'd met on one of his photoshoots and she had obviously liked him and he thought she was nice. She was funny and, though it shouldn't have mattered, absolutely beautiful. She had long chestnut and blond-highlighted hair, -much like his own before he died it- that hung down to about the middle of her back. She was about one and a half inches shorter than him, which was perfect, with stunning features and large expressive ocean blue eyes. They had been going out for about three months, and though he knew it would probably never work out, he did like her and had worked hard to treat her well since their first date. Almost everybody was jealous that he had managed to pick up such a beauty.

"Ok, you ready?" Takaba asked as Emma opened the door to her apartment. She was wearing a glossy black dress which, in his eyes, couldn't really have gotten any shorter if she had tried to make it so. She looked him up and down once before smiling and gesturing for him to come inside which she put on her makeup.

Twenty minute and she was finally ready, she looked gorgeous even without make up and so when she put it on, with all her experience, it was rather scary for him to believe that this girl actually liked him. He enjoyed the clubs in America, they were great on so many levels, they had great music and sound systems, awesome people and all the rest, but one thing weighed above all the rest. None of them were owned by Asami, as they frequently were in Japan. In fact, it was as if the man had owned, or had influences in every bloody club in Japan.

Of course, in his time in Miami, he had actually managed to come across one or two that were owned by the man, it had been a huge shock but he just stood his ground and there were no problems. To tell the truth, he had simply not gone within a two mile radius, opting for the very, very safe side.

"Took you a while to get here…" Adam said when Takaba finally walked in the door of his favourite club.

"Hmm, yeah. And who's fault do thnk that might have been" Takaba said, whilst eyeing Emma who blushed and apologised. He shook his head and shoved Adam before he grabbed her hand, taking her over to the dance floor.

"I'm so happy for you, you're so great getting a promotion after like just over a year at the place, it's amazing. And you get a team and all, and you get to travel all for free." She smiled at him, transforming into her party self as she heard her favourite song come on. Jumping up and down against her, with all the people squishing around them and the music blearing, he couldn't help but get taken down with the mood.

The danced till the end of the song before they decided to order drinks and start the more enjoyable phase of the night. Taking a seat at the bar, they ordered a shot and Ema shouted out the first one she saw on the board. "Haha, how about a scooby snack, I've heard they're awesome." Takaba chuckled and nodded to the bartender who went about to prepare it. Bringing out the small glass a moment later and filling it the next.

"To your promotion" she laughed, holding her cup out.

"To being able to spend the moment with you" he smiled back, only half meaning it and knowing he sounded cheezy. She blushed profusely and downed the drink, he followed eagerly.

After that, they went and sat down with the rest of the group, where the others cheered and decided to order a group shot and more drinks. Everybody knew that he was a profoundly light drinker, but they didn't seem to care, and neither did he.

Four drinks later, he was giggling like a girl as his friend, Glenn, joked about his first crush in high school. Emma was on Takaba's lap and giggling too as Glenn told them of how he had idiotically asked her to marry him at the beginning of Prom, telling how the poor girl had blushed and slapped him across the jaw as answer.

"So I just turned around and walked back inside, she left the school after that and I never saw her again." At this they all balled, none of them even knowing what was so funny but finding it particularly hilarious at the time. "I propose another toast" Glenn yelled raising his hand to the waiter who placed the shot's down in front of the large group, and everybody cheered. "To idiotic first loves" he yelled and everybody agreed, downing the drink. Takaba watched the drink through his blurred eyes and felt heavily inclined not to drink it, for what it signified. But he tore his thoughts away and downed the drink with the rest of his friends, repressing the urge to cry as the liquor entered his mouth. Shaking his head, he grabbed Emma's drink too, which she was about to place down on the table for lack of wanting to get more drunk than she already was. She turned to look at him as he drank it down and offered her a small smile, she furrowed her brows but said nothing, unable to comprehend anything much, in her current drunken state.

"Oh man", he cried to Adam as the two of them sat at the bar together, having moved from the table when a few others left or went to the dance floor. "I'm such an idiot, I'm so freaking drunk, why did I do this again?" He questioned, letting his head drop to the sticky surface of the bar counter bellow him. Adam chuckled and shook his head, he was just as drunk and so he didn't really have much to say on the subject.

"Meh, you got the whole weekend to get over it, you'll survive I'm sure." he laughed when Takaba grunted and punched him in the arm, but smiling all the same and finishing his drink.

"Excuse me, Sir" Takaba turned toward the Bartender, realising he was talking to him and smiling, he was a happy drunk after all, he couldn't stay on many depressing subjects for long. "We received word that you are here in celebration of a promotion, as congradulations from the staff, it is customary to receive a complementary drink of your choice. On the house." The young man smiled, he was pretty young, probably only just of legal age to actually work in that place.

"Aww, sweet." Takaba and Adam chimed together and, chucking goofy faces in the direction of the other as Akihito ordered is 'last drink of the night'. "Cheers" He spoke to the young boy when he received the drink, Adam had decided to order his own drink as well and they let the two glasses clash together. As the cool liquor entered his mouth, Akihito felt a strange chill passing over him. He frozed and looked down and the falf-empty glass in front of him. "Fuck, Adam" he whispered, "This tastes funny..."

Bom bom bommmm! **decending ominous tune!** hehehe. Please tell me what you think, hope you enjoyed this, remember I write these for you, so please show your gratitude by actually bothering to review! thanks in advance... Rimah xx