Authors Note:I think I've run out of excuses now. So... here XD -flails- Enjoy ;)

Disclaimer:I am so past this.

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"This belt? Or this one? Oh, oh, or this one?"

"I... uh–-that...one?"

"Which one?" Mimi held up the second belt and started to wrap it around her waist. "This one? Oh, you are so right! God, you little hidden fashion genius, you!"

"Yeah, uh...what can I say?" Kari said, more than a little flustered.

Mimi and Kari had gotten to talking the previous day and Kari mentioned being stressed out. Mimi had jumped in gracefully, extending an offer to take her shopping.

Kari had looked doubtful so Mimi had said, "It's sooo therapeutic," with her brown eyes twinkling excitedly.

Kari cast her a look.

"What?" Mimi said defensively. "I know that word!"

Kari blinked and then rushed to assure Mimi that's not what her look meant. "No, no! I just meant...well, it's just...clothes."

"Just clothes? Honey, clothes are what we wear. Like it or not, clothes give off our impression on the world. And when you get cool clothes, you look cool and when you look cool, you are cool and…I don't know, whatever. It helps, I swear it!"

In the end, Kari was persuaded to go which brought them here. Shopping. Mimi would be holding up three belts that looked exactly the same and Kari would be randomly guessing which would look best. She didn't really have a hidden fashion eye or anything. She was just...lucky.

Lucky when picking out fashion choices for Mimi. Not lucky when it came to her love life. Or lack thereof. Or...tangled mess it was. Almost was. The thoughts continued to override. How was this supposed to be therapeutic again?

Mimi grabbed a random hat off a rack and stuck in on Kari's head. "It's so pretty!" she said with a giggle, ushering the younger girl toward a mirror.

"It's pretty uh, cool," Kari teased, making a play on Mimi's previous nonsensical battle about 'coolness'. She looked in the mirror however and found she couldn't smile. Her eyes had gigantic rings around them and she looked thinner than she had a week ago. If she didn't fix all that soon, her mother was going to start on her case.

"Why are you frowning?" Mimi demanded, looking at Kari through the mirror. "We are totally bonding here which is way important since I am dating your brother and you could one day be my sister or something."

Kari finally cracked a grin. "Okay! So, do you want to marry my brother?" It was nice, concentrating on other people's romantic problems. Or non-problems. Whichever.

"I wouldn't mind," Mimi said with a happy smile. "He's really stubborn but I kinda like it. Ooh, especially when he does his one thing, it's really hot, wow! And then–"

"Mimi!" Kari interjected, looks of horror appearing on her face. "He's my brother!"

"Oh. Right." She laughed. "I always forget about that when I start going off in my own world...heh, oops. Sorry! I can imagine how immensely disturbing that probably is."

Kari waved her hand dismissively. "It's fine!" she said airily, writing it off as nothing.

"You know, you're way too forgiving for your own good," Mimi told Kari with a grin, before taking the hat of Kari's head and placing it back on the hat rack she'd originally taken it off of.

That caught Kari's attention. "What? I...I guess." Liar. Liar, liar, liar. Heinous, disgusting liar. Forgiving? Definitely not! Did a forgiving girl reject her ex-boyfriends plea to date her again? No.

"You guess? Kari, you're like the most virtuous person I know. I think it's cool. People could learn like, a lot from you," Mimi continued offhandedly, eyes scanning some chic scarves.

An influx of guilty feelings hit her all at once. She did not deserve any of this praise. Considering all that had happened within the last two weeks...she definitely did not deserve it at all. She continually yelled at her boyfriend and drove him to break up with her and drink. She was a complete bitch and acted so pathetically not like herself she could cry thinking about it.

"I'm really not..." she protested weakly, trailing off.

"You kidding me? You're like a freaking saint. But I guess that's why you're the Crest of Light, huh? You tend to see the good in everyone."

Kari felt as if she were going to be sick. The more Mimi went on and on about her supposed 'sainthood' the worse the felt. She was less than a saint lately and…Oh, had she ever changed. It was disastrous really. But for the sake of her own sanity, she managed to pull together a smile.

"Thanks," she said with forced appreciation. "I do what I can."

"Ooh! Skirt!" Mimi seemingly forgot the conversation at hand and plucked a tiny, short skirt off the rack and held it up against herself. It was a fading yellow. "Ew, my skin looks sallow when I wear this. So not my type. Ahh, but it's so cute!"

"Aw, I'm sorry," Kari offered sympathetically.

"Oh, wait! You used to wear that yellow...top...thing. Here, try it on!"

Before Kari could blink, Mimi was shoving the minuscule skirt her way and into her hands. She had no choice but to latch onto it.

"I... um... Mimi, I appreciate this but it's not really my type and–"

"Oh, please?" Mimi begged. "Come on? Don't you want to bond with me? This is what I do! This is my bonding! Come on, Kari, you owe it to that skirt to try it on! Just once, please?"

Kari exhaled. She was weak. "Okay," she relented, going off toward the change rooms, skirt in hand. "But I'm not showing you."

"Yes you are," Mimi insisted stubbornly, eyebrows arched. It reminded her so freakishly much of Tai. Guess they were rubbing off on each other.

Figuring it was futile to protest, she sighed once more and with the approval of a sales lady, stepped into a stall.

The first thing she did was glance at herself in the full-length mirror within the stall. There was Kari. Plain hair, pulled up. Wearing normal jeans and shirt and shoes. This skirt was...so not normal.

Turning around to change, she easily slid on the small yellow thing and gaped at her reflection. The skirt was short. Well, not obscenely short but short enough to feel awkward in it. She cringed.

"Kari?" Mimi's voice came from the other side of the room. "I want to see!"

Shyly, Kari exited the dressing room, wanting to cover her thighs. She felt so... on display, despite the fact she always wore shorts.

"Whoa!" Mimi cried. "You are a babe!"

Kari awarded her with a blank stare. "I...um...I'm going to change," she mumbled, ducking back in the dressing room before her face could flush red and changing back into her normal jeans.

"Much better!" she said with relief, tossing the skirt back to Mimi.

"What? Honey, you are totally buying that skirt!"

Kari's eyes widened. God no, she was so not buying it. No, no, no. "I'll uh, pass. I don't have a lot of money with me, so..."

"Then I'll buy it!" Mimi assured her, leading Kari out of the hallway and back out into the main part of the store. With a quick look left, she began to map the way to the tills.

"For yourself?" Kari asked hopefully, knowing what the answer would be.

"No! For you!" And that was the answer Kari expected.

"No…Mimi, I can't take your money," Kari protested feebly, wondering why she couldn't just assert herself and let Mimi know she hated the skirt. Well, not so much hated as felt totally exposed in it.

"Why not? It's my dad's money! Consider it a birthday present," Mimi said after a moment of thought, approaching an empty till and flinging the skirt over.

"My birthday was a few months ago."

This fact was lost on Mimi as the skirt (along with a few other items) was rung up.

"And there you go!" she told Kari with her perpetual perky voice, handing the bag over to the younger—but taller—girl.

"Thanks," she said politely enough, not wanting to sound ungrateful even though she'd totally gotten roped into this.

"I'm sure TK will appreciate it," Mimi said with a suggestive wink, pushing the doors open to leave the store. Her words made Kari stop short. Mimi had continued walking and only realized Kari had stopped a few moments later. "Whoa, Kari! Why'd you stop walking?"

Collecting herself, Kari quickly caught up to Mimi (no hard feat, what with her long strides) though her cheeks were burning a brilliant crimson. "I doubt it," she said quietly, once the two were in step once more.

Mimi's eyebrows wrinkled. "Why would you say that?"

"...I broke up...he broke...we broke up," she revealed, tone even quieter than before.

"Oh my God!" Mimi said in a hushed but urgent voice. "I'm sooo sorry Kari! Oh, wow. I never saw that coming...Come here, sweetheart." Mimi held her arms open for Kari and Kari gratefully accepted the hug, letting the older girl envelope her.

"Breaking up is the worst," Mimi said knowingly with a sigh, parting with Kari and bringing her over to Mimi's vehicle, snaking in between several other vehicles.

"When did it happen?"

"Y-yesterday," Kari recalled, forcing herself not to cry. She wasn't crying because it was over. Well, not exactly. Yeah, TK had been her boyfriend for the last two years. Of course that hurt. But rather she was crying because she had been an absolute bitch to TK. And even if she knew this, she didn't change it. Didn't let him off easy. Just...finally manipulated him until he was forced to break up with her. That's exactly what she had done, wasn't it? She never knew she had it in her. Virtuous? She was disgusting.

"Aww, sweetheart. Well, if you're meant to be, you will be in the end," Mimi said reassuringly, slipping behind the wheel when they got to her vehicle.

"I…" She trailed off. How exactly did one say 'I don't want to be with him' without sounding completely heinous?

"You...wait, I know that look. Is there someone else?" Okay, so Mimi was a complete mind reader and it was scary.

Kari's guilty, flushed face gave it all away.

"There is!" Mimi said with astonishment.

God Damn. Why hadn't Kari taken Drama like everyone else? Because now her face was burning and she couldn't even look up at Mimi because her acting skills hit a grand level of, oh, zero.

"Maybe," Kari mumbled even though it was already blindingly obvious.

"Who, who, who?" Mimi pressed, eyes widened. To Mimi, this was big news. Like, colossal and gigantic and every other big word that exists. For the last decade (read: few years) Kari and TK had been an item. And even before they'd been all official, they were still an item in everyone's mind. So this was just...mind blowing.

"Do I know him?" she continued, looking at Kari expectantly.

Kari's mouth opened and closed several times. "Y-y... no. No. Well... y-yes. Yes. Yes, you do." Honesty was the best policy, right?

"Who?" Mimi said again, fingers drumming on the steering wheel.

"I can't say," Kari muttered, face turning a brighter red than before.

Mimi frowned. "Okay," she said, glancing at Kari suspiciously. "I won't force you to tell me anything. But if you tell me, I can probably match make! I'm an excellent matchmaker! Just give me two people and boom, I can get them together like that."

"N-no thanks," Kari stammered, feeling overwhelmed.

They arrived at Kari's apartment shortly. Mimi had 'bought things she wanted to show Tai'. Kari did not desire to know any details. She let them fall to silence.

She entered the apartment, bag in hand.

"I bet Tai's napping," Kari predicted, opening the door further so Mimi could get in.

Voices. Kari was wrong. Tai was not napping. No, he was very much awake and as the sadistic, cruel excuse for the universe would have it, he was hanging out with Matt. They were at the kitchen table, attempting to eat some cookies Tai and Kari's mother had bought for them.

So they made up.

Kari felt her knees go weak and felt like throwing up because she was such a pathetic person. She was like every girl in those cheesy romance books that she read occasionally out of near suicidal-induced boredom.

Tai looked up and burst into a smile. "Hey, gorgeous," he said to Mimi. "And hey, Kari. What were you guys doing?"

"Shopping!" Mimi answered brightly. Kari was still not able to form words. Her tongue felt like it was sprinkled with sawdust. "I have things to show you."

Tai's eyes lit up. Kari's urge to puke was growing stronger.

Matt had not yet said a word. Him and Kari were staring at each other though, one daring the other to talk. Kari won; Matt spoke up. "Hey, Kari. Hey, Mimi."

Mimi chirped a 'hi' back but it took Kari a moment to say anything at all. "Hello," she said softly. Staring at Matt for too long was lethal because he was so petrifyingly hot so she tore her eyes away.

"We can go in my room," Tai suggested, glancing at Mimi's shopping bags. Mimi nodded and began to make the way to the familiar room.

Kari rolled her eyes until she realized Tai and Mimi had stranded her and Matt alone.

Fate was a bitch.

"I'm gonna get some fresh air," Kari babbled, not emotionally equipped enough to stay in the same room as him anymore. Everything was still so up in the air between them...it was unsettling. She couldn't do it. Yes, she was a pansy. She was aware of that. She dropped her bag that held the flimsy skirt in it and booked it out to the hallway. Leaning against the door outside, she breathed a sigh of relief... until she heard the doorknob turn. Panicking, she jumped up and began to stride down the hall as if that had been her original plan the entire time.

"Kari." Matt's completely unmistakable voice. "Kari, please." He was pleading now.

Hesitantly, she whirled around and swallowed. Was it even possible someone could be so handsome? Those eyes, his hair, his skin, his eyelashes...it all screamed 'PERFECTION' at the top of it's lungs. She was powerless but to notice and fall for it. Fall hard. She didn't know when this attraction to Matt began, this obsession...only that it had and now she could not get out of it. Maybe before. But now, after that kiss which had been the most beautiful moment in her entire life…

"Why were you sorry?" she finally managed, the questioned that'd been burning in her since she left Matt and TK's the day before. I'm sorry, he had said. She never understood why.

"For...kissing you," Matt answered, looking uncomfortable and voice lowering considerably.

Kari felt like Matt reached in and had squeezed her heart till it popped. It hurt. It hurt so fucking much. Tears were pooling up in her eyes. He regretted it? Of course he did, what else, right? It was just a momentary thing that didn't mean anything.

"Oh," she choked out, turning once more so he wouldn't see her cry.

"No, Kari!" Matt said quickly, sensing what she thought he meant and that wasn't it at all. "I just meant that you had like, broken up with TK and you were vulnerable and stuff and—" He stopped abruptly.

Kari waited patiently for him to finish that sentence. He never did.

"Why did you kiss me?" he said instead, voice quiet. He neared toward her and put his hands on her hips like it was completely natural and turned her body around so she was looking at him. At those blue eyes she had fallen so completely in love with.

"I wanted to," Kari answered faintly, impressed that she had managed to find her voice. His hands on her hips made her spine tingle and basically go numb. The urge to kiss him again was unfathomably strong.

"Why?" he pressed, voice urgent. One of his hands lifted from their very comfortable place on her hip and his thumb gently rubbed over one of the tears that was sitting on her cheek. He kissed her forehead tenderly and then leaned in, leaning his forehead against hers.

That touch alone rendered her into silence for a moment and then she spoke up again. "Because I like you, Matt."

She was just confirming what they both knew.

He raised his other hand so one was on each cheek, holding her head firmly though gingerly so it wasn't stiff and uncomfortable. His thumbs stroked the smooth skin of her cheek. She looked so young right now, so precious...and yet, so beautiful. She was always beautiful in that effortless way that made her shine so much more than those who caked on make up and lip gloss and whatever else the Ally Gonsaku's of the world did.

Christ. He was falling for her.

Or rather, he had fallen. Because all he wanted to do...

His eyes closed.

"Matt?" she prompted in a whisper.

"Yes?"

"Why are you so silent?"

He smiled serenely at that. "Wondering what the hell we're doing."

Her eyes fixed into a confused look. "We haven't done anything yet," Kari pointed out in that sensible way of hers.

His head dropped down a few inches and their lips met once more. But this time, neither was caught off guard. Matt didn't have to worry about her being vulnerable; Kari didn't have to worry about Matt being repulsed by her. Right now, this is all she could ask for.

And it totally kicked ass.

They continued kissing for a moment, each silently deciding Tai and Mimi wouldn't emerge for a while and that it was safe. Her hands were possessively around his neck. His were lightly exploring the sides of hips and her waist. In fact, they probably wouldn't have stopped at all if they hadn't heard footsteps coming from the staircase at the end of the hall. The two pulled apart and instantly began to fix their hair and wipe their mouths and that stupidly happy look on their faces that both possessed.

It was Mrs. Kamiya, carrying some bags of groceries.

"Hello, Matt," she said cheerfully, looking up at the taller boy. Mrs. Kamiya was exactly the same height as Kari.

"And Kari, it's good to see you! Haven't seen you since you left for Suki's yesterday."

Suki. Right. The lie. It didn't even make her feel guilty anymore. She smiled. "Sure. Suki's was fun."

Matt had told enough lies or covered for enough friends (read: Tai) to play it cool and not even shoot Kari so much as a questioning look.

"I'm glad, sweetheart. Now, can you open the door? These bags are heavy!"

"Sure, Mom," Kari quickly agreed, heart still racing furiously. She twisted the doorknob again.

Matt courteously took the heavier bag from her and helped her in, smiling at Kari who was holding the door open as he passed.

"Thanks, Matt," Mrs. Kamiya said gratefully, wiping her hands on a dishtowel though it wasn't as if they were dirty. Then she mumbled something about her feet hurting and disappeared into her room.

Kari could not stop the stream of giggles that erupted. "Aren't you the Boy Scout," Kari teased, going back out into the hall with Matt. Seemed safer that way because this way there wasn't as high as a risk factor of Tai and Mimi spotting them.

"I'm just helpful," Matt countered with a smile. "Boy Scouts wear the uniforms."

Kari giggled again and Matt enveloped her in his arms, smiling broadly and feeling...blissful, really. It was a great feeling. He wasn't sure what was happening with him and Kari...wasn't sure when he began to fall for her but he wanted her now. He wanted to protect her and be with her.

"I should go home and check on TK," Matt said after a small silence. The thought of TK didn't even make Kari's heart plummet downward like it generally tended to. No, she felt...okay about it. She felt okay about everything right now.

"You should," she agreed because despite it all, she was genuinely concerned with his well-being.

"Okay," he said, bending his head down to plop a brief kiss on her lips once more. He could get used to this.

Then, before either of them could react, the door swung open.

A jaw dropped.

"Oh. My. God!"

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Authors Note: Dun dun dun! Anyway, so I've hit 100+ reviews guys and... man, thank you SO much, everyone who has ever reviewed! -smothers with kisses- I just... sincerely, thank you. Lovelovelove. Tell me what you think of this chapterrrrrr, okay? And In ten days, I'm starting gasps grade ten! Where I live, that's the beginning of high school. Scary stuff, huh? Wish me luck!