Yamato Ishida looked like he was in an entirely different world. Probably thinking of poor Mimi and what she'd told them about. Sora watched him curiously from across the table. He wasn't what she'd expected, handsome enough sure, but he certainly didn't seem as charming as she'd heard. She wondered if he was planning on running, if he would ever come back after he left and went back to what ever life he led when he wasn't around Mimi.
Most likely. Men usually did in Sora's experience. They were fine as long as they were getting a little tail for free, but if things started to get complicated they couldn't get to the door fast enough.
"What was she like before?" He asked unexpectedly. Sora wasn't as surprised at the question as she was by the voices it was spoken in, he almost sounded choked up, as if he was close to tears.
"Happy." She answered, and it was the truth. They'd both been two carefree young girls. Flirting with the boys, giggling with their friends, hanging posters of the hottest new movie stars and musicians on their walls and in their lockers. Mimi had been the clichéd "most popular" girl in school. It had seemed like it was a coming of age ceremony for the teenage boys to ask her out to a dance or to come to their particular sports game. She'd never gone of course, her parents had been old fashion in their belief that a girl shouldn't date until she was eighteen, but when Mimi had been that age, she'd banished herself to New York City where she'd had that horrid experience that may have scarred her for life.
"She's changed so much." Sora said, feeling the need to talk, if she didn't, she was afraid she'd start to cry. "She was always laughing, a person never saw her with a tear in her eye. She never complained to anyone either, though I imagine she wanted to, she had the same problems as the rest of us and the Lord knows we griped to anyone who'd stand still long enough." She smiled sadly at the memories of a time that seemed so long ago. "She was absolutely beautiful, she still is. She walks into a dark room and suddenly it seems full of sunshine and flowers. The boys would flock around her, it's really a wonder there were any left over for the rest of us, I can hardly believe she's still a virgin, but then I guess it would have been hard to get over that kind of experience." She would have continued, but Yamato cut her off while she was pausing for breath.
"She's still a virgin?"
She shut her mouth immediately; not deigning to answer him. Had she just blurted out something Mimi didn't want anyone to know? Sora didn't remember her saying it was a secret, but what if she had assumed her friend could be trusted not to tell anyone and she had just spilled? But she might not have even tried, for he was once again locked in his own mind, mumbling to himself, his eyes fixed on the floor, as he mulled over the information he'd just learned.
Distractedly, he rose to his feet, then walked towards the front door. He was closing it behind him before Sora finally comprehended that he was leaving. The bastard! The last thing she heard before he was gone was a muttered "-virgin." He didn't even have the decency to make up a convincing excuse, he just got up and left.
"Charming." She mocked aloud. She honestly wanted to know what the woman who wrote that column in the paper had been smoking when she'd written that description, and if she'd share.
****
Mimi blinked a couple of times to dispel the blurriness of sleep from her eyes and make sure she was seeing what she thought she was. There were roses everywhere! All different colors! She sat slowly up in bed, staring straight ahead of her in amazement, unable to believe what was before her. "Do you like them?" She turned to look at Yamato sitting on the edge of the bed, she'd known he was there of course, she seemed to have some kind of radar on him, she knew when he entered the room, when he was sitting beside her, even when she was dead to everything else, his presence always shone through. As she looked at him now, those blue-blue eyes, the golden hair that tumbled over his left eye, that oh-so handsome face, she felt the prick of tears and blinked to hold them back. "I love them." She said, her voice not at all steady and still croaking. He smiled a lopsided smile, opening his arms, and Mimi hesitated only a moment before curling up against him, feeling the security that being in his arms gave her. "How are you feeling?" He whispered into her hair, his warm breath rustling her chestnut strands. Cherished. She wanted to say, but she didn't have the nerve. "Better," was as close as she dared come.She felt him pulling back and looked up. He smiled, his eyes half concealed by drooping lids, dark azure filled with warmth and affection, and deeper emotions she couldn't fathom. She smiled back tentatively.
"In that case, how about dinner?"Dinner? Was he talking about going out? She was still croaking and felt like microwaved shit and probably looked twice as bad and he wanted to take her out to dinner!
"I'm not sure I'm up to going out to dinner just yet." She said, but he just smiled enigmatically.
"No problem." Without another word, he stood and left the room, the smile still in place.
What's he planning?
****
Thirty minutes later she found out as he came back into the room carrying a tray filled with steaming vegetables. Mimi could feel her stomach rumble as she watched him enter, eyeing the food hungrily.
"Dinner." He announced, seeing her interest. He sat on the edge of the bed, settling the tray in his lap. "I'm afraid I've never cooked for a vegetarian before, I hope this is okay."
"How did you know I was a vegetarian?" She asked, her hand slowly approaching the food as she swung her legs off the bed. She hadn't realized how hungry she was before, and gosh was she hungry!
"I strangled your friend for the information." He said with careless irritation. "She thinks that I'm some kind of stalker and she's terrified to speak to me lest she slip up and tell me some kind of secret."
"You two aren't getting along too good are you?" Mimi asked, snatching up the fork as she scooted closer and proceeded to shovel food into her mouth with complete disregard for manners. Yamato watched her with affectionate amusement, a wry twist to his mouth as he answered her question.
"Well, she's a rather…. Interesting young woman." He said kindly.
"She is that."
"You don't find her… well, somewhat irritating?"
"Of course I do."
"But isn't she your friend?"
"She's my very irritating friend. Has the bad habit of never shutting up, especially when one is thinking. Or trying to."
"Oh, so you noticed that too." Mimi smiled at his sarcasm.
"I don't supposed she asked you about your castle?"
"Castle?"
"The one you're building on your twenty-eight acres on Green Horn."
"A castle… Is that what they're saying it is?"
"That's what Sora said it was." Mimi said, looking at him curiously when he started to laugh. "What?"
"A castle!"
"It's not a castle?"
"It's just a house. A large house, but certainly no castle."
"Oh." They lapsed into silence for several seconds as Mimi continued to eat.
"So what other interesting information have you heard about me?" He asked when she finally set her fork down in her empty plate with a clank.
"Just that you're rich, and charming, and too handsome for your own good."
"You heard all that?"
"Well, Sora told me you were rich, but I observed the other two myself." She replied as she tucked her legs beneath her and burrowed into the fluffy comforter.
She carefully made herself comfortable before looking back up at Yamato, her heart skipping several beats at the smile he sent her way. He hadn't made a single pass at her in such a long time, hadn't indicated that he wanted to be anything but friends and shed begun to wonder if he'd lost interest in her physically. But could he look at her like that and not want her? She wasn't an expert, but she didn't think so.
There was also something new in his manner, a kind of admiration mixed tenderness that she couldn't quite place, but she liked it. She wondered what had changed, it certainly couldn't have been anything she'd said- unless it had something to do with what had happened in New York, but somehow she didn't think so. Whatever it was it made him happy with her, and she doubted an attempted rape would do that.
Before either of them could say anything else, Mimi yawned so hard her jaw ached and she blinked in surprise at Yamato. He just smiled wider and reached out to steal her blanket.
"Alright Angel, time for bed."
"I'm already in bed." She pointed out, but crawled up towards the headboard anyway. He spread the comforter across the bed and was tucking it around her when she summoned her courage and reached out her hand to touch his arm. "Don't leave."
He paused, his face over hers, an uncertain expression on his too-handsome face, then his eyes softened. "Scared?"
She nodded weakly. "A little."
He lifted his hand and twirled a strand of wavy chestnut hair between his fingers. "I'll stay." He said, replacing the hair before pulling up the corner of the blanket and sliding into the bed beside her. She snuggled against his welcome warmth, her back to his front, and sighed contentedly when he wrapped his arms around her, feeling like she was finally where she belonged.
"You're the sweetest person I've ever met. " She said sleepily over her shoulder, her eyes slowly drifting closed. "I think I could love you."
Me too, my Angel. She thought he might have said, but by then she was already fast asleep.