by Terrie (striket@stu.beloit.edu)
Author's Note: Set when Kimiko is about twelve. Ah, the dreaded teenybopper age.
Kimiko shuffled her feet and pulled her coat more tightly around her. "How much longer are we going to have to wait?"
Shina jumped up and down in excitement. "Who cares? I have been looking forward to this all month. I'll wait all day if I have to."
"But it's *cold* out."
"Kimi, this is Yamato. Who cares how cold it is or how long we have to wait," said Hanae. "How often do we get a chance like this?"
Kimiko rolled her eyes. "You guys are pathetic."
"Who cares? He's gorgeous!"
"Shina, he's fifteen years older than you."
"Fifteen years, and four months. He turns twenty-nine next month. I can never remember the days."
"This is ridiculous. He has a *boy*friend."
"Do you really believe all that trash they print in the tabloids? I've seen him in the society pages surrounded by women."
"And thirty seconds later, Tai kicked all their asses," mumbled Kimiko.
"What did you say?"
"Hm? Oh, nothing." She looked down the line. "Hey, we're almost inside!"
Shina squealed. "Oooo, I can't wait."
"We know," said Kimiko. "You've said that before. Several times."
"Oh, cheer up, Kimi," said Hanae. "When we get there, you'll be as excited as we are."
"I really doubt that."
Matt leaned his chin and his hand and suppressed a yawn. He'd been signing autographs for hours and his hand was starting to cramp. He glanced down the line and smiled. Looked like things were starting to look up. He spent the next few minutes hurrying through the autographs and keeping an eye on the small group, until they reached the table. "Ladies. What can I do for you?"
The first girl, with a dark brown pageboy, pushed a copy of his latest album. "Can you sign to Shina?"
"Sure." He scribbled a short message on the CD insert, before turning to the girl's friend. "And what about for you?"
She handed him a standard publicity shot. "My name is Hanae."
Repeat with slight variation. Finally, Matt turned to the third member of the group with his first genuine smile of the day. "And you are?"
"Unimpressed."
"C'mon, what would you like?"
"How about less bullshit?"
"Miko! Do your parents know you talk like that?"
Kimiko glared. "Hey, I'm not the one letting twelve year old girls throw themselves at me while my boyfriend is at home by his poor lonesome self."
"Tai is at work. And leave him out of this." Matt grinned. "Now, come here and let me give my biggest fan a huge."
"I'm not a fan, Matt. The only reason I have your stuff is that you keep giving copies to my brother and he foists them off on me."
Hanae tugged on her sleeve. "Kimi..."
She glanced around. "Hanae's right. We should get out of the way and let you finish."
Kimiko dragged her two friends out of the store. Shina stared at her. "You know him? You know Yamato?"
She shrugged. "He's a friend of my brother's."
"And you never told us?!"
She looked at the other two girls. "What was I supposed to say? You two would have wanted to meet him, and there's no way he'd want two of friends drooling over him like a couple of crazed fangirls. Even if they are my best friends."
"So why come along if you didn't want us to know?"
"Because it's Saturday. And we always spend Saturdays together. And you'd never forgive me if I skipped out just because I didn't want you to find out." Kimiko slumped in defeat. "It was kinda a lose-lose situation."
"I don't believe you sometimes, Kimi," said Hanae. "We tell you everything about ourselves, and you hold back on something this big?"
"I'm sorry, okay?"
"Sorry isn't enough. You lied to us. Come on, Shina, I think we have better things to do."
Kimiko watched her friends go, then slunk back into the store. She ducked under the rope that separated Matt's table from the rest of the store. The bodyguard moved to stop her, but Matt held him off with a wave of his hand. "Hey, Miko, what's wrong?"
"My friends sorta bailed on me. They were angry that I'd never told them I knew you. Can I get a ride home when you're done?"
"Sure. Haro, can you get her a chair?" He added to her, "Sorry, but I think we're going to be here a while longer."
Kimiko flipped through the channels on the tv, trying to drown out her mother puttering around in the kitchen. Normally, it didn't bother her, but this was her mother's 'I'm here if you need me' puttering, rather than her standard 'Maintaining a happy household' puttering. When she didn't take advantage of it, her parents would called Ken and ask him to find out what was bothering her. It was an age-old ritual. As old as Kimiko's age.
There was a knock on the door and her mother went to answer it. "Miko, sweetie, it's Hanae."
Frowning, she pulled herself off the couch and went to the door. Hanae stood there, her arms crossed, and a scowl on her face. "Shina and I have been talking. She'd be here to say the same thing, but she has to go to some recital of her cousin's. We've decided that we're both still mad at you. We're mad that you could have gotten us to the front of the line, and you didn't! We wasted our entire Saturday standing in line when we didn't have to."
Kimiko blinked. "Um, can you run that by me again?"
"You know Yamato. You could have gotten us to the front of the line and we would have been out of there in no time, instead of spending hours in line."
".... Actually, I'm not sure I could have done that. I don't think the store would have let him."
"Oh." Hanae frowned. "Well, anyway, Shina and I are both sorry about yesterday. When my mom came to pick us up and I told her why you weren't there, she got really mad. She said that even if we had promised to tell each other everything, Yamato is your brother's friend, which means it's not something about you."
Kimiko smiled. "Thanks. I wanted to tell you. But I was worried that he'd be mad. I mean, he's known my brother longer than I've been alive. He used to baby-sit me. He's even changed my diapers. If he wanted to, he could humiliate me in front of all Japan."
"You had your diapers changed by Yamato? That is so cool."
Kimiko glared at Hanae. The other girl smiled. "I'm kidding. Friends?"
"Always."
The End