Chapter Four

Sora, I could use a little help here!" Mimi yelled as the large black television slanted down towards her and she struggled under its weight to keep it on the unsteady shelf. When Sora didn't immediately appear, she tried again. "Like now!"

"What could possibly be so important that you couldn't wait five flippin' minutes for me to get out of the bath-" Sora broke off as she came out of the bathroom and stared at Mimi for several seconds before she rushed to her side to help.

"What happened?!" She asked as she loaned her strength to Mimi's and tried to help her lift the television. They slid it back into place and were withdrawing their hands when the low groaning of the shelf alerted them to trouble and they hurriedly gripped the television just as the wood snapped at the middle, spilling everything on it and leaving the full weight of the television to them.

"To…the… bed!" Mimi bit off as they staggered toward her parents' wooden four-poster.

"What happened?" Sora asked as they laid the dusty machine on the bed's clean coverlet.

"I don't know." Mimi snapped in irritation, glaring at the television. "I was wiping the screen off when the damned thing fell on me!" Sora burst out laughing, to Mimi's obvious annoyance. "It was not funny!" But her best friend continued with her hilarity.

Mimi looked towards the broken shelf, with its knickknacks scattered over the floor, a few of the small, glass things shattered. Tears filled her eyes. My mothers… She started forward and bent to gently gather the fallen objects. Sora came up behind her, all amusement gone from her posture.

"I'm sorry Mimi, I wasn't thinking…"

"It's all right, it was my fault anyway, I should have been more careful." Sora watched her with sad eyes, wanting to help her pick up the pieces of her mother's curios, and her life, but she was unsure if her overture would be accepted. Perhaps, if Mimi were more willing to weaken the armor she kept around herself; she used to be such an open person, but that had changed during her years in New York. Not for the first time, Sora wondered what exactly had happened to her there.

****

Yamato wasn't anywhere in sight when Mimi drove back to the motel. Relief didn't come immediately, but it did when she was safely inside her room. Her nerves were going haywire and her mind had locked itself into a circle of all consuming grief and shocked denial, always turning back on itself just when she thought she had things under control. She was even beginning to resent her parents for dying. She caught herself mentally cursing them several times a day, as if it had been their fault they'd died. She supposed that was a normal stage for getting over the death a of loved ones, but she didn't like it, not one bit!

The next week was a routine Mimi wanted nothing more than to break and to break viscously. The only day away from of going through her parent's things was the funeral, which could hardly be called a relief. Mimi couldn't bring herself to wear black. Black didn't mean mourning to her, it was just another color, her favorite as a matter of fact; so she wore a dark blue suit. She'd seen her parent's lawyer directly afterward, attempting to get everything out of the way immediately. He calmly informed her that, since there had been no other relatives mentioned, everything her parents had owned now belonged to her. Just thinking about it made her sick.

She came back to the motel after talking to her parents' lawyer to find Yamato waiting by her door with a dozen white roses and a plain, golden wrapped rectangle of sweets. She felt herself smiling. She'd been avoiding him like the plague for the past week and when he hadn't made any move to talk to her she'd been surprised to find that she was disappointed and terribly afraid that he might have lost interest. She'd been secretly elated to find him at the door to her room at six in the morning demanding to know why she never wanted to see him. She'd let slip quite accidentally that she had a funeral to go to but no more than that. It had been hard keeping a smile off her face until she'd mentioned that and she'd practically ran to her car so he wouldn't notice her tears.

Now he was smiling at her and she felt her heart rise up from somewhere in the vicinity of her shoes to take its rightful place in her chest. Maybe, just maybe, getting to know this Yamato Ishida wouldn't be so bad. Whenever she was around him, even when she was fighting off his blatant sexual advances, she forgot about her parents and the problems in her life and, if nothing else, maybe she could use him as a balm for her pain.

"Hello Angel." He handed her the roses and chocolates as soon as she was within distance and took the key she had in her hand to unlock the door.

"Hello, yourself." She answered, trying to sound annoyed that he took control of things so easily, but she suspected that it was that trait that drew her to him and had made her so wary at first. It felt strange and awkward now that she had decided to trust him; she didn't really know quite what to say. She looked at the presents she had in her hands and felt embarrassed, she had never learned how to except gifts graciously, it had always made her feel guilty that people were willing to give her things. She shuffled uncomfortably.

"What are these for?" She asked as she followed him into her room. He shrugged his shoulders, his back to her as he walked straight through the living-room and into the kitchen. She heard the refrigerator door open and then the pop and hiss of a soda can being opened.

"Would you like me to get you something?" She asked, amused sarcasm spewing forth from her. He came out of the kitchen smiling, a can held contentedly in his left hand and a large empty cup in the right..

"I think I managed quite well by myself, but thanks for the offer." He replied pleasantly before plopping down on the loveseat across a table from the chair Mimi always sat in. She sat the box of chocolates on the little table and looked around the room in vain for something to put the roses in.

"Here." Mimi looked down at the cup Yamato was holding up, realizing that it wasn't empty but filled with water. She looked at him curiously, not understanding. He nodded his head towards the roses. "For those."

"Oh!" Mimi took the cup out of his hand and placed it on the table next to the golden box, then opened the plastic around the bottom of the roses and gingerly lowered the severed stems into the water. "Thank you." He shrugged again.

"I thought you might need a little cheering up, funerals are so gloomy."

"Thank you." She repeated quietly, reaching out a hand to touch one of the petals with disbelief. No one had ever given her flowers before, not even the boys when she was in highschool. She said the thought out loud.

"I guess I'll have to give you flowers every day to make up for it then wont I?"
"Oh no! You don't have to do that!" Mimi jerked her hand back from the roses and stared at him in horror. She hadn't meant to make him feel guilty, the thought had only slipped out, she hadn't even meant to say anything about it. Yamato shook his head.

"I want to."

They didn't really talk about anything after that, the weather mostly. Nonsense stuff that neither really cared about, but Mimi found herself smiling even about that. He really was good medicine. He left barely an hour later and Mimi realized after he was gone that he hadn't made a serious pass at her all the time he'd been there. She was curiously disappointed but she didn't dig to deep into that. She took a shower that night and went to sleep in wet hair and a bathrobe.

****

The next morning she woke up to a gentle tapping. Probably just some bird. She thought, burrowing her head under the pillows. The sound didn't stop. It doesn't sound like a bird. She lifted the corner of a pillow and concentrated on the noise. Actually, it sorta sounded like someone knocking on glass, almost like a window. Listening more closely, she thought it might be coming from the sliding glass door to her deck and groaned in frustration. Who the hell would be tapping at her sliding glass door! She let the pillow fall back on her head.

She jerked straight up in bed, sending pillows flying. "Who could it be!" She said to herself in disgust as she stumbled out of bed and was halfway across the room before she realized that she'd left her robe behind. "Who else could it be you moron!" She found her white cotton robe and ran a hand through her hair as she fumbled her way through the kitchen to the glass door.

She felt odd… as if she were dreaming. She was maneuvering her way around objects, barely managing to miss them except the once where she hadn't turned in the right direction fast enough and ended up slamming her hip against the kitchen table. Biting her tongue to keep from crying out, she rubbed her side and kept walking towards the deck.

She pulled the curtain back and smiled at Yamato waiting on the other side, wearing a dark green turtleneck sweater with blue jeans and holding a single red rose in his hand.

****

Beautiful. He thought with reverence, gazing at the way her hair curled around her face and over her shoulders. She was clutching the white robe to her in a way that suggested it was all she wore and it made he blood pound in his head just thinking about it. He abruptly told himself to stop thinking about it. He wasn't used to hiding how he was feeling with women, but everytime he made his longings known, she flipped out in some way. He didn't want to scare her away, not when he was just getting her to trust him.

"Morning Angel." He said as she opened the sliding glass door. He wanted nothing more than to swoop her up in his arms and carry her back to her bedroom, but he settled with handing her the rose.

"Good morning." She replied absently, staring at the rose he'd given her as if she wasn't sure she was really holding it. He frowned. Her voice sounded a little hoarse and if he wasn't mistaken, she looked somehow paler than she had the day before.

"If you weren't planning anything this morning, I thought we could go into town and get something to eat?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. She looked indecisive.

"Well… I… I kinda have some things to do, but…" She looked around the room nervously, as if searching for a reason not to go. For the first time since he'd met her, he wondered if there could possibly be another man somewhere in the picture. She was very beautiful, with an angelic face and a body to die for. That would explain some of her strange behavior. Not all, but some.

"If you don't really want to go…" He purposely allowed himself to trail off, watching as she jerked her attention back to him.

"Oh no! It's not that, it's just that… well, my friend is expecting me and… I… guess... it wouldn't hurt to have a quick breakfast." She finished a little uncertainly.

"Excellent!" He stepped into the room before she could change her mind, thinking that her friend must be male if she was so nervous about going somewhere with him. "I'll wait in here while you go put on something warm."

****

Mimi laughed, she couldn't help it, he used just enough sarcasm in his stories to make even the most serious situation seem amusing. "Was that it?" She asked, her voice still somewhat hoarse. Her lungs felt as though she'd been yelling, all raw and soar, and she had a tickling feeling in the back of her throat, but she ignored it.

"No, but I prefer to keep the rest of that tale to myself and save you the blushes." He told her with a particularly rakish smile and Mimi's lips turned up in an answering one.

"Thanks for the consideration." She replied sarcastically, recalling that in the time she'd spent with him he hadn't once tried to save her any blushes.

"Hey, just looking out for my favorite gal." He drawled, reaching an arm across the table and affectionately tapping her chin with his fist. "I'm not sure if I should tell you this just yet, but… I kinda like ya." Mimi choked down another laugh and spared a glance for the clock. She jerked with surprise and spilled coffee all over the front of her shirt and jeans.

"Oh dear!" She exclaimed, standing from her chair, her face red with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry! It's just that I looked at the clock and realized what time it was and I really-"

"It's all right." Yamato told her calmly, cutting off her explanation, coming around the table with a handful of napkins to help her clean her shirt off. "Come on, lets go on out to the car." With his hand around her waist, Mimi let him guide her out the door, the money for their meal left behind on the table.

After Yamato dropped her off at a small, blue and gray house down a little dirt street, he realized as he was pulling away that he still didn't know anything personal about her. Well damn!