Fans of Kouichi, this chapter is for you...even if one of his otherwise well-thought out plans goes all whacko on him.

A bit of a transition, or else you're never going to understand what happens next. Outline for next chapter is done, first draft is halfway.

EDITED. Sorry for all the inbox spam, I guess DX

Chapter 9: Long story short

Love, a race

Without an end

Men and women

must contend

They were late.

Kouichi huffed slightly out of the corner of his mouth and flipped another page of the book over. Outside, the sun was just beginning to set, which meant that the windows were utterly useless for watching the roads outside. It was just bright enough indoors that the glass would reflect back like a mirror. Kouichi pressed his hand against the windowpane and watched it fog up around his skin.

Mimi laughed.

The sound made him tune in to the conversations around him, long enough to hear his fiancée giggle at an inside joke. The redhead – Sora? – said something about a cowboy hat. While Kouichi didn't know what that meant, it made Mimi blush in a very becoming way and he resolved to find out by the end of tonight.

Where was his brother? For that matter, where was Izumi?

He had called both of them earlier, at the proper meeting time, but…no dice. Kouichi scowled and swore to find them both after all this was over and beat them over their heads. What was the point of avoiding the party? Everything was already inevitable.

Although Kouichi's fingers were still turning the pages at regular intervals, nothing in the book lodged firmly into his head. In fact, the only thing he knew about the story was that it was much less interesting than speculating about his brother's whereabouts. World War I just couldn't compare – as utterly fascinating as that subject was.

The clock hit eight o'clock and Kouichi sighed. It was time to stop wondering about his missing brother, even if something inside of him protested that Kouji wasn't this much of a coward. Not enough to break a promise…Being the clueless one for a change wasn't a comfortable feeling at all. A dull sense of foreboding settled in his stomach.

In the background, Mimi was asking Sora – that should be her name, right? – about wedding dresses.

Kouichi blinked slowly through an immense fog of confusion. It made his head spin to go from the topic that he was most serious about – dear little brother – to that. He listened with half an ear to the chatter of lace and cloth, but spent more time watching the cheerful expression on his fiancée's face. Selective hearing was something that he had learned a long time ago so that he could put up with Kouji, since it was so much easier to appreciate a bizarre conversation if it made the other person happy. Really, his fiancée was more like the so-called Jerk than she thought.

Mimi turned around, somehow sensing his gaze, and smiled at him. "What about you, Kouichi?"

He blinked. "Eh?"

She gave a great dramatic sigh, but in such a cheerful way that it completely canceled out any ill feelings. "What are you going to wear?"

"A tuxedo?" he offered sheepishly, not knowing what she wanted him to say.

Mimi giggled but shook her head. "No, no, listen. If we're going to have a Western-style wedding…"

"Which we probably will," he pointed out, "since you like them and I don't really care either way."

"Exactly, so I need to wear white."

"You need to wear white even for a normal wedding."

"All the more reason for you to do the same!"

"Wait, what?" Kouichi stared at her, wondering how such an unassuming, straightforward girl managed to catch him off guard more often than his best female friend, who was considerably more mischievous, or his brother, who was considerably more cunning. And then he remembered that he was in a relationship with her, which automatically placed Mimi in a category of her own.

She smiled at him. It took a while for Kouichi to realize that she was just joking, thankfully. He had no desire to look like a ghost, which was exactly what would happen with a white suit on his pale skin. Mimi, being Mimi, already knew better than to suggest it.

She was just trying to distract him. The dear, dear girl…he smiled cheerfully and joined in the fun. "So if I wear black, would you wear it with me?"

Mimi looked scandalized. "Black at a wedding?!"

Sora quipped, "Shows off your figure, right?"

"No, no, no," the brunette groaned. "Black looks awful on me."

Kouichi blinked slowly, puzzled. "But I heard that every girl has little black dress somewhere in her closet?"

"Usually," Sora said, with her nose slightly wrinkled. "But I'm not really sure why."

"For you, the problem's not the color, it's the dress," Mimi sighed.

"That too."

"Sora, please!"

"Wearing the bridesmaid's dress for you," the girl retorted with a smile, "is already enough!"

"Ooh, you're just like Izumi – can't understand these things at all…you would have loved her, you know."

Sora rested her head on her knees and rocked back and forth. "Would have?"

"Well, Izumi's not exactly here," Mimi pointed out.

"But where is she?"

The girl exhaled slowly. "Well, I'd love to tell you, but…"

"She's not exactly cooperating with us," Kouichi sighed, struck by a black cloud of depression. Part of the problem with having friends like Izumi was their spontaneity. It was entirely possible that she had completely forgotten about everything in favor of some rabbit lying in the street. And that she would turn off her phone for the express purpose of allowing the animal some peace and quiet.

Although he assumed that she would at least send him a message if that happened.

Plus, it was too suspicious that both of them were absent, because Kouji would never miss a chance to see his brother. Or, at least, the old Kouji wouldn't have. Kouichi completely understood why his brother was so uncomfortable with the state of their relationship. Things were changing, even the good things. It would be a while before everyone could stop walking on eggshells all the time. On the other hand, Kouichi wasn't afraid of letting his life spiral out of control for a while, while Kouji…

"I don't know where they are," he said quietly, not voicing any of his suspicions, "I've tried calling, but it doesn't seem to work."

Mimi huffed. "Well, if they don't hurry up, we'll be doing things without them." She tapped on the flowery stationery on Kouichi's coffee table.

Sora giggled. "Not that we haven't been doing it already."

"Well…just the dresses. And the flowers. And anyways, Izumi would have been dragging her feet the entire way, saying that everything was too fancy," Mimi grinned.

A satisfied smile tugged at Kouichi's lips. "That sounds like our Izumi alright."

"And I don't think your brother would have helped much either."

"Of course not. He's not exactly the type to spew romantics."

"Geez." Mimi shook her head. "How on earth did you guys grow up to be so different?"

"Well, actually…we're both a little screwed up in the head."

"But you're not as bad," Mimi protested generously.

Kouichi groaned, "Oh, that was cruel. Not even my own fiancée denies it!"

"Your insanity?" Mimi batted her eyelashes. Then she paused. "Well, maybe not insanity. We need a better word."

Sora suggested, "Eccentric?"

Mimi shook her head.

"Quirky?"

"Mean?"

"Outlandish?"

"Strange?"

"Oh, you two!" Mimi huffed. "Don't go dictionary crazy on me."

They all laughed. Then Kouichi said, "I like the word bizarre, personally," and that was that. Mimi leaned over to kiss his cheek, long lashes fluttering against his skin. He smiled.

Sora eyed them indulgently before asking, "What are they like?"

"They?" Mimi leaned against her fiancé's shoulder, trying to find a comfortable place by his side. "You mean, Izumi and Kouji?"

"Yeah."

"We-ll." Mimi scrunched up her nose.

Kouichi laughed at his fiancée's reaction and took the lead. "My brother is pretty different from me. He's a lot more physical, for one thing…"

"Not the best choice of wording, Kouichi."

"Oh," he smiled sheepishly to hide the slight blush on his cheeks. "Sorry. But he is, you know. More physical. You would probably just call him violent, but that's not completely true. It depends on his mood. And on whether or not I'm in the room with him."

Mimi exhaled slowly. "You're making excuses for him," she said.

Kouichi sighed, knowing that his fiancée and his brother didn't and probably wouldn't ever get along very well. Mimi just couldn't take pleasure in bantering with him the same way Izumi did. And Kouji didn't know how to treat a girl like Mimi. It was one of the many reasons that the younger twin would probably end up dating his best friend rather than his 'ideal woman'.

Although Kouji was pretty resistant to the idea of dating anyone. Hence Kouichi's frustration.

Sora was still rocking back and forth on the white couch impatiently. "So he's a jerk?"

"Nope," Mimi said, "He's not a jerk, he's the Jerk."

They all laughed. Kouichi himself admitted, "It's true. Even I can't say anything about that, and I'm his brother!"

"You'll understand when he gets here. If he ever gets here. It's probably physically painful for him to say something nice."

Sora began to frown. "I'm not sure if I want to meet him now."

Mimi nodded in agreement. "He told me that I was alright, you know that?"

"Huh?"

"It was just last week," she said, scowling. "When he saw me, he looked up and down and said, 'You're alright.' And then he ignored me for the rest of the party!" Curiously, Mimi didn't even sound offended about the remark anymore. She was surprisingly quick to forgive, if not to forget.

Kouichi felt an irrational urge to defend his brother. "That's really the best you can expect from him, you know."

"Which is awful," Mimi retorted. "He could at least try to say more than four words, you know."

And what could Kouichi say to that? His brother wasn't shy at all – Mimi just happened to be used to affection, not teasing, and Kouji was very obviously on the other end of the spectrum. "I think he did. Just, you know, not to you."

She groaned. "Yeah, because I'm not a childhood friend." Was that disappointment in her voice?

Kouichi stifled the feeling of unfounded jealousy by remembering that Kouji was very, very unlikely to give Mimi a reason to like him. Immediately afterwards, he felt awful for thinking that way. Did he or did he not want them to get along?

In the meantime, Sora had moved on to the subject of the missing blond girl. Mimi was considerably happier to be talking about Izumi than about Kouji. In fact, she was so enthusiastic that Kouichi was cut off every time he so much as opened his mouth – but he didn't mind. With his long-time friends, especially Izumi and Kouji, he was used to playing the third wheel and profiting from it. A minor thing like that didn't bother him at all, especially with so much blackmail material just waiting to be found.

Even if some of the stories made Kouichi wince slightly. Hopefully, Mimi wouldn't tell Kouji just how many guys Izumi had to turn down or how many chocolates she ended up donating on Valentine's Day. Kouichi wasn't afraid of very many things, but when his twin was honestly, truly angry, there was always hell to pay.

Since the girls were locked in a conversation again, Kouichi couldn't resist calling the two missing people one more time. Kouji's phone, as expected, went straight to voicemail. After already leaving three messages, it wasn't like one more would count for anything. He scrolled back to Izumi's number, and was entirely caught off guard when she answered.

"Hello?"

He almost forgot to say something in his shock. "Izumi, where are you?"

Mimi's voice faltered in mid-sentence and she looked over at her fiancé with an expression of confusion and impatience. Sora stopped rocking and started listening intently to his half of the conversation.

"Kouichi!" Izumi's voice came out indistinctly over the phone line. "Um, I'm really sorry if I'm late?"

"You are very late," he replied, grinning helplessly, "but I might forgive you if you have a good excuse –"

Someone was talking in the background. The phone rattled and clacked when it changed hands. Then there was a young man's voice, one that Kouichi would recognize it anywhere. "Hey, Aniki."

"Kouji, where the hell are you?" Actually, a better question would have been why are you with Izumi, but Kouichi decided that patience was more important when talking to someone like his brother. All in good time, all in good time.

"Ah. About that, something's come up."

Kouji's voice danced on the borderline between apologetic and…something else. It sounded like rage, though Kouichi had no idea why his brother would be so angry. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that unless you want to cut me in half, I can't come to your house. Sorry about that. You can yell at me when I drop Izumi off if you want."

"Kouji, I told you a week ago –"

"And I told you, something's come up." Kouji paused, then said reassuringly, "It's okay. I'll talk to you later. Don't worry so much about me, alright?"

"But where're you going?"

"Work," he said distantly.

"Oh." Kouichi tried to ask the question burning on the tip of his tongue, but his brother suddenly cut him off again.

"We'll be at your apartment soon."

"Where are you right now?"

"At the train station."

"You do remember the way, right?"

"I'm not like Izumi, you know," Kouji muttered. A woman's voice responded indignantly in the background, and Kouichi couldn't help but laugh.

Mimi looked at him with a puzzled frown on her face. Kouichi held one finger up to tell her to wait, then he proclaimed to his brother, "She's really not that bad."

Kouji didn't say anything; the soft, restrained snickers did it all for him. For someone who was headed to work, he didn't sound all that disappointed. "Okay, I'm off then. Don't call me on the road. You know that I can't exactly answer you on a motorcycle."

"Why's Izumi there, by the way?" Kouichi asked, just a little too late. The sound of static filled his ears. Sighing with frustration, he turned his face back to the living room. "They'll be here soon. Should be only five minutes if they're at the station and Kouji drives the way he always does."

"Finally," Sora said, stretching all four limbs into a star-shaped position on the couch. "I was getting tired of waiting."

"But Kouji's not staying," he finished, wondering if he was the only one disappointed by the news.

Mimi certainly wasn't. "Oh, really?"

Kouichi didn't know Sora well enough to decipher the expression on her face…but she certainly didn't look very unhappy. He sighed again. "Well, he's dropping her off here."

They both blinked at him. Mimi finally asked, "Wait, they're…?"

He grinned ever so slightly. "What did you expect?"

"Not that," she admitted. "Your brother doesn't seem the type to move fast." Sora stared at them both, looking completely lost.

"He's not." Which begged the question, what exactly was going on?

"Did you expect for them to…you know?" Mimi made a vague gesture with her left hand.

Kouichi shook his head. "I don't think that they're doing anything, actually. Best friends, remember?"

"I think I'm missing something," Sora declared suddenly. "You know, like the invisible elephant in the room." Kouichi looked at Mimi, who looked back. Both were slightly flushed, as if they had been caught doing something underhanded. The redhead just rolled her eyes. "Could someone please explain what is going on here?"

Mimi suddenly held her palms up like sock puppets. "Okay, this is Izumi," she wiggled the fingers on her right hand, "and this is the Jerk," she waved her other hand. Then she clapped them together. "This is what should be happening, but isn't."

Sora and Kouichi both stared at her. Then the redheaded girl began to shake with laughter. "Only you, Mimi, only you."

She glared at them and huffed, "What?"

"Never mind," Kouichi finally said, hiding a smile of his own. "But yes, that's what's going on, so I'm trying to get them both to stop being so stubborn and actually – "

"Get on with it?" Sora finished cheekily.

"Bingo!"

"Which is a lot harder than it looks, you know."

"I can imagine," Sora said dryly, "since we can't even get them to show up."

"What could they possibly be doing so late at night?"

"Most likely? Nothing."

Mimi tapped her cheek thoughtfully with one perfectly manicured nail. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Of course," Kouichi agreed, though not without uncertainty. He couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something else going on – there always was with his brother – but it was weak enough to ignore for the moment. Besides, Sora was talking again and he didn't want to risk alienating his fiancée's friend by getting lost in his own thoughts.

"So, let me get this straight. Being the nice older brother that you are…"

"Why, thank you."

"…you've taken on the job of getting them together?"

"There's nobody else to do it."

"Why? Are they in denial?"

Kouichi propped his elbow on the arm of the sofa. Thoughtful creases appeared on the skin of his forehead. "See, that's the thing. I'm pretty sure that they know that I know that…well, they know. It's just that Kouji won't act on it. And apparently, Izumi won't do anything if he doesn't."

"I don't understand why, either," Mimi frowned, "He's not nearly as mean to her as he is to the rest of the world."

"Does that actually mean anything?"

"Who knows."

Kouji leaned against the bike and stretched his neck muscles with a groan. The way to his brother's apartment was familiar enough for him to let his mind wander. Not that he had much to wonder about. His life used to be constant, and monotonous, and almost boring. It was only recently that his much-loved control had crumbled to pieces. No, not just recently. Things had begun to fall apart much earlier than that, right?

Not that any of that was important. Never had been, never would be. What was most important right now was the pristine white envelope hidden under his jacket.

Decisions, decisions. Why were they ever invented?

Probably to torment people like him.

Absently, Kouji kicked his feet against the pavement. Izumi had gone inside to get a bottle of water, so he took the opportunity to make another call. Just to prove how much of a glutton for punishment he was.

It rang three times before someone picked up. Apparently, the offices were still busy with the usual afternoon clientele. Kouji being there would probably make things even worse, but it wasn't like he had a choice.

"Good evening, this is Minamoto Kouji. Yes, I know. May I speak to Father, please...."