***Author's Note***
Wow! Wow wow wow! I got soo many reviews in
so little time! Thank you all soo much! I didn't think that many people would
actually read the first chapter. Anyway, umm....not too many people guessed the
couple correctly. Before you continue, I want to say sorry if I disappoint any
of you. Which I know I will. There is always someone who gets disappointed by a
fic no matter what or who it's about. So again, I'm sooo sorry!
Disclaimer:
Look on previous chapter.
Dedication:
Look on previous chapter but I'll still say it again, ~*Liz*~, this is for
you...and did you review the first chapter twice?
Lost and Found
in New York
Chapter 2:
Recognition
By: ME
jus1digigirl *Maura*
The young man followed
his friend through the revolving door of the club. After showing their ID's and
being admitted, his friend immediately spotted an empty table and sat down, the
young man across from him.
"May I help
you?" A haughty looking waitress walked up to their table holding a small
notepad.
His friend looked up and
grinned. "Sure, I'll have a beer and he'll have a...uh...what do you
want?"
The young man looked
startled for he had almost dozed off. "Umm...give me a Coke with ice
please."
The waitress nodded and
walked off towards the back. "What's wrong with you? Ordering a Coke in a
place like this?"
Shrugging, the young man
looked towards the stage, which was still empty. "Wonder when the
entertainment's up?"
His friend too looked up
and noticed a small side by the stage. Squinting, he read aloud, "Miss New
York City, Carrie Crawley. Hey, I've seen her once before! Good lookin' I must
say!" he turned to the young man who looked uninterested.
In his mind, the only one
who would look good to him was the girl in the picture but she was long gone.
Or so he thought.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"You're on in five
honey!" said a stout, plumb woman with a whiny sort of voice walking into
the young woman's dressing room.
Nodding, she fixed the
final adjustments on her blond-haired wig. Glancing in the mirror, she seemed
at last satisfied. The wig would make her unrecognizable to the people who knew
her before. She had tried dying her hair but she couldn't bring herself to do
it permanently so she took to wearing a wig from time to time when her hair
wasn't dyed. Standing up, she followed the stout woman out the door and to the
side of the stage. She peered out slightly and groaned inwardly. Every night,
she always hoped there wouldn't be so many people but so far, he wish never
came true. It was packed wall-to-wall adults, mostly males.
A tall man in a tuxedo
brushed pass her suddenly making her step back into the wings. It was the
announcer. As soon as he walked on, all laughter and talk stopped in the
audience and everyone clapped.
"Thank you, thank
you! Good evening ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the club and tonight, we
have a special guest dancer and singer. Please give a warm welcome toooo Miss
Neewww York City, Carrrriieee Crawley!"
The young woman walked
out gracefully and waved, jutting her hips out as she walked. Despite how much
she despised doing this, she had to do it. Flashing a brilliant white smile to
a man in the front, she began dancing to the music, her legs moving to the
music, her body swaying as perfectly as in rehearsal.
After a few minutes
dancing, catcalls, and moon howling, she took her spot in front of the mike and
opened her mouth. A sweet sound filled the room and she took of the mike from
the stand. With that in her hand, she started her dancing again. This way and
that, showing off her female figure and not enjoying a bit of it. Still smiling
forcedly, she gazed around the room and suddenly her heart stopped.
It couldn't be. No, it
possibly couldn't. He was in Japan! Where she last saw him and he her. But
there he was, sitting with another man, watching her make a fool of herself.
Confused, her singing began to falter but she took no notice. Her eyes were on
the young man and then, she dropped the microphone straight to the floor and
everyone knew, the show was over though not why. The face under the orange-red
hair was unmistakable. It was her friend from so long ago, Izzy Izumi.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The young man sat at the
table, making small talk with his friend until their drinks arrived. While his
friend drank deeply, he only wet his lips with the Coke. "This is going to
be one looonng night."
His friend however did
not answer and instead, had turned his attention to the stage. Turning as well,
the young man saw a man wearing a tuxedo walk on. He began to clap politely
along with the others as the man started to talk.
"Thank you, thank
you! Good evening ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the club and tonight, we
have a special guest dancer and singer. Please give a warm welcome toooo Miss
Neewww York City, Carrrriieee Crawley!"
Suddenly, from one of the
wings, a beautiful girl stepped out, swinging her hips, dancing to the music
that had begun playing. She was wearing short, tight, hip hugging shorts and
her shirt wasn't made out of enough cloth to even be called a shirt if that's what
it was at all. Her blond hair swung perfectly as she made her way to the
microphone.
The young man stared at
her. She was beautiful all right but he couldn't help thinking that the young
woman's face looked very familiar. But it was hard to tell. He continued
staring, and peered intently at her face trying to block out her singing but
then, he gasped. This Carrie's singing even sounded so familiar. Sure he hadn't
heard the person, whom he was thinking of, sing since she disappeared but it
sounded so much the same!
Suddenly, as he watched
before his eyes, the young woman dropped her microphone and she was looking
right at him. Everyone had gone quiet wondering what had caused her to drop the
mike as the two stared into each other's eyes. A deep understanding swept over
both and the young woman, with a terrified face and tears running down her
cheeks, ran down the stage steps and out the door of the club.
The young man sat, in a
daze, oblivious to the shouts of protest from the audience and to the announcer
trying to calm them down. In the few moments that he had been staring at the
young woman, he had realized her true identity. This woman was not Carrie
Crawley and had never been Carrie Crawley. He knew who she was then. That's why
she had seemed so familiar to him. She was Mimi Taichikawa, his friend whom
everyone had believed to disappear without a trace and now suddenly, after all
these years, here she was, singing and dancing as a showgirl in a club.
"Hey!" Izzy broke
out of his trance and looked up. His friend was waving his hand in front of his
face. "Did you see what just happened? I can't believe that chick just
made a run for it!"
Instead of answering,
Izzy stood up and made his way through the sea of people in the club. Not
caring about anyone or anything at that moment but Mimi, his mind full of
questions. Unaware that his friend had followed him out, he glanced down the
brightly lit streets. Upon hearing a slight panting from behind him, he turned.
"Yo man! What's the
rush? Are you ready to go already?" his friend asked glancing at his
wristwatch.
"No Jake. Look, I
just remembered something I had to take care of," Izzy said looking him
and then down the street again. "Just go on back in and have a good time.
I'll meet you back home alright?"
Jake ran a hand through
his red-brown hair and shrugged. "Are you sure? Is it something to do with
that girl?"
Izzy sighed and pushed
Jake towards the club doors. "Look. I'll explain later okay? I don't have
time right now to discuss this here. Just listen to me and I'll see you
later." And with that, he walked off down the streets, looking right and
left.
Shrugging again, Jake
reentered the club.
~*~*~*~*~*~
After Mimi had run out of
the club, she had continued until she was a good four blocks away. It wasn't
far and the streets were filled with its usual traffic of cars but there was
one place near the club where she could always go if ever she had to be by
herself. There was an old shack behind the fish store, which had three tiny
little rooms. The shack had once been a
lively little bakery but soon after, the owner had relocated. Mimi had found it
not long after she had started her showgirl job and the fish store owners had
allowed her to use it as a hide-a-way for they had taken a liking to the young,
lonely girl.
It had a tiny lantern,
which she had found in an empty alley, and there were a few old, ripped
cushions lying around. However, she never left any of her treasured possessions
here for she knew that others used this place but so far, she had met no one in
her last visits.
Once she entered the
little shack, she flopped down on one of the tattered cushions on the floor and
broke down completely. She hadn't seen any of her old friends for such a long
time and now, she had such a new and different life that when she had seen
Izzy, it had brought back memories of the life she had left behind as Mimi
Taichikawa when she had become Carrie Crawley.
Sobbing uncontrollably,
thoughts floated around her mind of Izzy. She had never known that he had been
in New York. Every day since the incident, she had wondered what had become of
him and the others. Sora, Tai, Matt, Joe, Kari, TK, Davis, Yolei, Ken, and
Cody. But mostly, she had thought about him.
For what seemed like an
eternity, she cried into the cushion until a noise made her jump. Sitting up,
she wiped her tears and looked around, eyes and ears alert. The room she was in
was the one in the back and it had sounded like someone had opened the front
door. Her hands felt the cool, wooden floor for any sort of weapon. In the
streets, being alone was bad enough but in the back streets, wearing what she
was, and being a young woman, well, she was quite a target.
Grabbing a long piece of
wood that had been sitting beside, she braced herself for the expected but what
she heard was unexpected. A soft male voice had called out her name. Her old
name.
"Mimi?"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Izzy ran down the
streets, his heart and mind set on one goal. To find Mimi. After running about
four blocks, he stopped and rested against the brick walls of the fish store.
Deciding to go in and ask if they had seen her, he did so and about ten minutes
later, he walked out with a small grin.
The owners had eyed him
suspiciously when he mentioned Mimi, leaving out her name of course. Suddenly,
the had burst out, yelling at him though in a calm voice that if he wanted
something with her, he would have to go through them first for they were
protecting her. In alarm, Izzy had hurriedly explained everything in about
seven minutes and they finally believed him.
Jumping over the fence
behind the store, he saw the little shack and noticed a slight glow coming from
it. Walking a quietly as possible, he made his way to the door and opened it.
It creaked, but not much however he was sure that if she was inside, she would
have heard. Not wanting to scare her, he stepped in and quietly called out for
her, by the name he had known her by, before.
"Mimi?"
***Author's Note***
::dodges rotten tomatoes from people who
dislike Kouimi:: Sorry to those of you who don't like Kouimi ::dodges again::
but I like it but I hope it was good anyway. Kouimi fans and non-Kouimi fans,
please review and tell me what you think! Thanks so very much! Chapter 3 will
be out once I finish writing it! Who knows when but I'll try to get it ASAP. Oh
and FYI, the clues, small as they were, that I gave to hint towards the
identification of the characters were: 1) the young man carried a laptop, Izzy
had a laptop and 2) the young woman has wavy, brown hair…Sora has brown hair
and it could be long when she's older but it's not wavy like Mimi's. Those
hints weren't as obvious as I thought but oh well. Jake is my original
character. I didn't want to make him one of the DD because they're all supposed
to be in Japan or wherever and he doesn't know Mimi and if he was one of the
DD, he's jump into trying to help her soo…yeah, that's why he's Jake. Anyway,
REVIEW now! Thankies!
*Maura*
