Love is Just that Way

Chapter Four: A Map Needed For A Mansion

The ride to Matt's mansion was a quiet one. Sora and Tai had accompanied Mimi and Kate to Matt's place, but that did not lighten up the mood much. The couple had tried to start a conversation, but it was futile effort.

Mimi, for reasons only known to her, was staring out of the window, her slender finger absently tracing the expensive, Italian leather seats. In her mind, she was already formulating Sora's wedding dress. When Mimi became like this, Kate called it 'creative sulking.'

Kate was also busy. Even though she was technically on vacation, she was still doing bookwork for the company. On her lap was her laptop, carefully balanced so that even if the car hit a bump in the road, her laptop would not end up flying into somebody's face.

Matt was sitting in the corner of the limo, ignoring everyone as he read a magazine. Every now and then, he would absently look up for a moment, his sea blue eyes scanning everyone in the limo as if taking in a head count before he looked back down.

'Hm…Jun Motomiya has recently divorced her husband…' Storing that information in his head for later, he absently looked up when Sora cleared her throat.

"Is something wrong Mimi?"

"Hm…?" Mimi lifted her head from the window, immediately slapping a smile on her face. "Of course not."

Sora frowned lightly, biting the bottom of her lip. She saw the immediate mood change in Mimi. Even though she was doing a very good job of covering her concern, Sora had spent too long with Mimi during high school to be that easily fooled. Mimi's physical appearance may have changed, but in the interior, Mimi was still Mimi: her caring friend.

The redhead opened her mouth, expressing her concern to her friend, but Mimi beat her to it.

"Sora, your wedding is in a few months, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Sora mentally pouted, wanting to speak first before Mimi could start the topic, but she made a mental note to ask the real reason why Mimi was trying so hard to cover up her true feelings about the arrival here in Japan.

Tai, oblivious to all, had been staring off into space snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the word "wedding".

The soon to be married couple looked at Mimi curiously as the brunette grinned at them, rummaging around in her large, black suede leather purse that she kept constantly by her side.

"Aha! Found it!" Mimi squealed as she held triumphantly in her hand a thick, black portfolio.

"Eh?" Sora and Tai simultaneously cocked their heads to the side, looking at the object held in Mimi's hand questionably. Occasionally, Mimi would send Sora a gift, and to their amusement, it was always something out of the ordinary. Just this year, Sora had received a painting of a phoenix that Mimi has seen at an art expedition in New York.

Kate curiously looked up from her bookkeeping. Even in a foreign country, after all the excitement was over, it was work as usual for the girl. A small smile tugged on her lips when she saw the black portfolio. Even through her fear of actually coming here, Mimi always knew better to put her emotions last when it concerned a customer, especially when that customer was a friend.

Matt looked up from his magazine, another article about him breaking up with 'what's her name' chick he had met up with earlier during a party. His face held his usual bored expression, but there was a faint trace of curiosity in his eyes as ice blue eyes scanned the thick portfolio. In a bored manner, he questioned off-handedly, "What the hell is that?"

Mimi's proud smile immediately turned into a small frown as she glared lightly at Matt, a haughty glint in her chocolate brown eyes before she turned to Sora and Tai.

For the first time since…well, since in a LONG time, he was actually ignored. For a moment, his cool mask was dropped as he openly showed his surprised as he, Yamato Ishida, was looked over as a nobody. No one ignored him!

Covering up his exasperation as professionally as he could, Matt disregarded her look of annoyance at him as he picked up his magazine once more.

Mimi, without skipping a beat, began an explanation of the contents of the portfolio. She gave them a professional synopsis of what the contents were before handing it over to the eager bride. "I already drew up a few dress sketches for you and your bridesmaid, and if you look in the back, there is a quick sketch of what Tai will be wearing. Something simple, yet handsome."

"Let me see," Tai said eagerly as his hands made way toward the portfolio. However, all he received was a hard bop in the head from his beautiful fiancé. "What the hell?"

"No you don't," Sora childishly stuck her tongue at him, scooting over to wear Mimi and Kate were sitting, "It's bad luck seeing a bride's wedding dress before the wedding!"

"I thought it was supposed to be if the bride was actually wearing the dress…" Tai muttered as he rubbed the bump on his head. It was glowing a rather nice, pink color. Mimi had chosen the same color for the bridesmaids.

Again, he was smacked with the portfolio.

"Ouch… Tai whined as he backed away from Sora, who completely ignoring him by now, already completely submersed in the project of looking through what she was going to wear for the wedding.

"Just let them be Tai. You know how girls are," Matt said casually as he flipped another page of his magazine.

While Sora interrogated the defenseless portfolio, Mimi watched on with a practiced and courteous smile on her face. In the bottom of her heart, Mimi could feel a worn out tug of sorrow in her heart. Mentally, she bopped herself in the head. She should be happy for her friend. Getting upset would just make the bride-to-be worry, and she had better things to worry about now.

Mentally sighing, Mimi leaned closer to Sora, pointing out one of her favorite sketches. "Here, this one would look nice for the bridesmaid and will go with almost any wedding dress that you pick out.

'Just…hold out a little longer…Don't…break…Not here…'

"We've arrived at the front sir." The chauffeur lowered the black window down, his elderly face peering from the front. He smiled at the politely from his seat, placing the limo on 'Park' before getting out of his seat to open the door for the occupants in the back.

Mimi was about to let herself out when Matt stopped her by putting his arm in front of her. "Don't bother. Shino is getting the door at the moment."

"Why should I wait for your chauffeur when I can just open the door myself?" Mimi demanded, as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her mouth was set in a straight line as she stared defiantly at the man who was coolly closing the magazine.

Matt placed the magazine back where it was sitting at before looking up. He matched her rebellious stare with his own cold one. "Because," he said slowly, talking as if he was having a conversation with a small child, "it's not the way things are done here."

"Yeah," Mimi snapped abruptly as she continued to glare at him, "like I give a damn what you do here, you obnoxious jerk!"

Mimi was thinking of something more foully in her mind, but her pride refused to allow her to use blasphemy on her first day back in her home country.

Matt opened his mouth to retort when a sudden flood of bright sunlight fled into the limo. Shino had opened the door and was now patiently standing behind the door, waiting for everyone to get out before he drove the limo back into the large garage a couple of yards away.

"Sorry of the long wait sir, by the noise coming from your seating arrangements, I thought it would be best to wait," Shino said politely as he tipped his cap respectively to his employer.

Matt returned Mimi's glare with his own cool one. Turning to look upward, he replied to Shino with a friendly tone as if the argument with Mimi did not exist. "It's no problem. I won't need the limo for a little while, so you go grab something to eat."

Acting as if the argument with Mimi did not exist, he benevolently got up from his seat and headed toward his colossal mansion.

Tai, and Kate looked at one another, a weary grin on each other's faces at Mimi and Matt's…interesting conversation. Quietly, they followed the blonde, Kate, obvious admiration on her face as she stared up at the large mansion. Tai, making sure that Sora did not trip on anything as she kept her nose in the portfolio.

'That insensitive, egoistic, self-centered, idiot,' Mimi thought angrily, balling up her fists as she literally stomped her way down the expansive walkway. By the way she was twitching, it looked as if she was about to run after him and punch his lights out. A gentle hand on her shoulder made her snap out of her angry bubble.

"Kate?" Mimi sagged her shoulders in defeat when Kate gave her a gentle look that said, 'Don't even think about it.'

"Now, now, no need to hurt someone on your first day back." Kate, being unusually calm, said as she released Mimi's shoulder and began walking toward the huge building that Matt called home. "I don't think Sincerity can afford loosing its boss to the paparazzi when they find out that rising fashion designer slugged one of the world's famous billionaires."

Mimi looked crestfallen, but reluctantly followed Kate. Kate suddenly paused a second before turning toward Mimi, winking mischievously, "But on the second day, it's all right."

Mimi brightened enormously before following the others, plotting her revenge against Matt for later. It involved a frightening amount of rope.

When the group arrived at the doorstep matched unlocked the door. Even Mimi, who had been so caught up on her revenge plot could not ignore the splendor of the huge mansion. It was decorated in an elegant, but simple fashion. It was somewhat homey after you looked at it for a few minutes. They were in the foyer, a large, glass chandelier standing in the middle of it. A few potted plants were near the doors, adding a touch of color to the mainly white foyer. A few antique vases, Ming Dynasty if Mimi judged accurately, were standing proudly near a set of twin oaken staircases that were leading toward the second and third floors.

Tai, Mimi noticed, went straight toward the living room where she could see the top of a large T.V poking out of it from the distance.

"What are both of staring at? It's just a house," Matt said casually as if his mansion was nothing but your ordinary run of the mill house. To him, it probably was, but to Mimi and Kate, who were used to living in a small apartment and just recently moved into a spacious penthouse, this was similar to heaven to the both of them.

"I'll see you in bit. I gotta make sure Tai doesn't make himself too comfortable," Sora said as she quickly tailed after Tai.

"What? You're leaving?" Mimi froze as she saw Sora, her only other lifeline, quickly walk away. 'They want me to get sued, don't they…?'

"Don't worry! Matt will make sure you two will be comfortable," Sora called out from the living room as she found her fiancé lounging around on the large, leather couch. Give him a beer and he would be good to go.

"Yeah, I'll make you two are okay," Matt said a little too innocently as he walked forward, waving a hand at the two to follow.

Mimi slowly advanced toward Matt, a look of death of on her face. Kate, seeing the "look", decided to intervene. Briskly walking toward Mimi, she wrapped her arms around Mimi's neck; her feet jumping up to wrap themselves around Mimi's wait, making sure the brunette had too much luggage to move quickly enough to catch Matt.

"Come on, you promised. Besides," she said, struggling to hold onto Mimi's unsteady body. One arm unwrapped itself to point at Matt's retreating backside, "We might as well enjoy ourselves with a few 'sights' while we're here."

It took a moment for the information to fully process in Mimi's head before the little bell in her head went 'ding!' She rolled her eyes, saying sarcastically, "Yeah, right."

"See you later Mimi!" Sora waved in goodbye as she literally dragged a crying Tai away from the living room and toward the door. "I'll tell you which wedding dress I like best tomorrow!"

Mimi had a look that was similar to an abandoned puppy as she weakly waved goodbye to her cheerful and naïve best friend.

Kate, seeing that her friend was shortly distracted, jumped down from the nearly crying brunette's back.

"Hey, lover boy," Kate called out to Matt who had decided to stay and watch the scene from the hall's doorway. "You mind giving us a quick tour?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," shrugging, Matt waved a hand behind him for the two to follow, "Lord knows what Sora will do to me if she finds out that her two dress designers got lost here."

Assuming the lovely job as a tour guide, he led them throughout the main parts of the house, pointing out the important parts that the two would be mainly using.

-Kitchen-

Arriving at the kitchen, since it was the closest, Matt immediately pointed toward the staff of chef that were currently making the dinner for tonight.

"Here's the kitchen," Matt said lazily as he examined the menu that one of chefs had given him, "Just eat whatever you want. If my kitchen doesn't have it, tell one of the chefs to order it."

"This is a kitchen!" Kate blinked at the enormous kitchen, bewilderment clear in her expression and voice. The kitchen was probably bigger than the penthouse that she and Mimi shared. That, and there were probably three or four chefs in the vicinity. "This is more like a five-star restaurant!"

"Well it should be with the money I paid for all of them," Matt replied, nodding at the menu. Spotting a tray laden full of 'snacks', he grabbed himself a toast point with a good dollop of beluga caviar.

"Why are there are so many chefs in here?" Mimi asked curiously, as she looked around the giant sized kitchen, mild amusement on her face. Just leave it to a pig-headed billionaire to overdo it with everything.

To her annoyance, Matt shrugged once more, licking a bit of the caviar from his fingers, "I can't have just one chef cook all my meals, can I?"

"Great answer," Mimi said nonchalantly as she followed Matt who was heading toward the living room. Kate was in tow, a tray full of pre-dinner food in her arms.

-Living Room-

"Here's the living room," Matt walked in, his head cocked lazily to the side in boredom as he saw his 'plain' living room for the umpteenth time since he bought the mansion a few years back.

"…" Kate's mouth was wide open, her eyes the shape of dinner plates, the tray in her hands tipping slightly, yet not enough for the food to fall.

It was furnished simply, but the items in it made up hundred-fold for the simplicity. In the middle of the spacious living room was an incredibly large, half circle Italian leather sofa so that a dozen people could sit in it comfortably. A foot away from it was a large, glass table, a simple, aqua colored, twenty-thousand dollar vase standing in the middle, a few, freshly cut pink roses in the vase.

Kate stood in front of it, her amethyst eyes wide as she stared at the large T.V as if it was god himself. The platter in her hands tilting precariously as her mind was elsewhere.

"It has a few thousand channels, if you're wondering," Matt said as he immediately swooped down and took the platter as it was about to tip over. Not only was he not in the mood to have one of his house cleaners clean it, but he had just refurnished his carpet from navy blue to a soothing cream color.

"Thousand…channels…" At the side of Kate's mouth, a small dribble of drool was starting to fall down her mouth and chin if Mimi coughing lightly had not snapped her out of her T.V induced reverie. Now that the drool was gone, Kate's eyes refused to be torn from the utter magnificence that was the T.V with satellite. "I think I'm in heaven."

"How about we go now?" Mimi said calmly, her eye twitching slightly as her friend, growing ever more…eccentric, tried to hug the T.V. "Let's go, Mr. Blondie over there is starting to look as if he's gonna leave us here without telling us where are rooms our."

"Good idea," Matt nodded, popping a cracker with salmon spread into his mouth, amusement clear in his eyes as he watched Mimi successfully dragging a wailing Kate with her.

"Shut up," Mimi growled as Kate waved her arms frantically, nearly hitting Mimi in the head, trying to reach for the T.V that was slowly moving away out of view.

"I'm not doing your taxes anymore!" Kate cried as the T.V disappeared from view as they moved outside to the gardens.

Deciding that now was the best time to bring them outside, Matt sidestepped, and allowed Mimi and a still angry Kate see the gardens. It was the length and width of a block in New York, yet, instead of dirty, paper covered streets, it was covered in lush grass. A storybook-like walkway marring the grass, traveling to different parts of the garden. Around the backyard were scatters of lush, colorful flowers, trees crisscrossing across the scores of flowerbeds. It had a wild, yet tamed look as vines of blooming purple blossoms surrounded the nearby stonewall, the blossoms and vines nearly covering every inch of the wall that from their view, it seemed as if the wall was made out of flowers instead of stone.

In the middle stood a large, majestic tree, probably a few hundred years old. Luckily, for both Mimi and Kate, they had arrived while it was at its full bloom. Pink and white flowers erupting everywhere in the tree, the wind blowing by, making the blossoms fall to the ground like snow. The sweet scent of the blossoms drifted in the zephyr, filling the grounds with a delicate scent that reached even them. Behind the tree stood tall hedges, a maze that Matt himself had designed for his amusement and for guests to entertain themselves with whenever he had an outdoor party.

"Gorgeous…" Mimi whispered as her hand tentatively reached out to touch a pale, pink blossom that was hanging from the crisscrossing, miniature fence separating the back porch from the garden. Kate stood beside her, clear awe in her eyes.

Silently, Matt stood a few feet away from the girls. His eyes scanning both women attentively from the feet up. They were pretty, no doubt, and he had dated many women that were just as beautiful, if not more, than these two. Yet…there was something about both of their personalities that amused him more than simple sex did, which was strange for him. In particular, the feisty brunette that sent a glare his way any chance she got.

"Come on, you can do your whole girly thing later," Matt said abruptly, shattering the soft, dream-like state both Mimi and Kate were in, earning him another hard glare from Mimi, and a pout from Kate. Knowing fully well that he was right and that they had to be settled in, they obediently followed, but Mimi kept her expression of uttermost disdain as she grudgingly followed him.

Quickly Matt showed them the rest of the house from the live-in servants' wings to the many bathrooms that littered the hallway, and even the manmade hot spring he had made in one wing of the house. He shrugged at their exasperated glares, "I like hot springs and so do my servants, so I thought I'd have one, just in case they didn't want to have a shower or bath."

"Over indulgent snob," Mimi muttered as they tailed him from a good three feet away, secretly impressed with the hot spring, but knowing fully well it was another way to flaunt his wealth.

"Heard that," Matt replied, sticking his tongue childishly at her. For some reason, Mimi made him want to take away his mask of utter coolness, and fight back. It was the first time someone had actually made him do the action rather than just think it.

"He's good," Kate said observantly as she ran up the stairs to catch up with Matt, her hand wrapped tightly around Mimi's as she forced the girl to follow. Mimi simply rolled her eyes, trying to make it as difficult as possible for Kate to follow the blonde.

"And here are the guest rooms," Matt sighed as he opened the white door to one of the adjoining rooms of his guess rooms, relieved that his temporary job as tour guide was over. "They should meet your needs just fine. If you need anything, just call downstairs, and tell my butlers what you need and they'll get it for you right away."

Completely ignoring him as she walked past him into the room, Mimi could not help but openly gape at her room. Kate was beside her, the same exact expression of astonishment on her face.

"This is rather…large," Mimi said slowly, trying to fully comprehend the fact that this room that was probably bigger than their penthouse, was where they were going to stay for the trip. Talk about overdoing it.

Kate simply nodded in concurrence noticing the huge, king-sized bed sitting in the middle of the room. "Interesting…"

"There's another room beyond that door over there," Matt said, nodding his head at the door sitting across where he as currently standing. "It's connected to the other guestroom that one of you will be sleeping in. Now that that's settled," Matt turned away, waving absentmindedly behind him, "I have other things to do, so I'll see you at dinner."

"Buh…" Kate giggled as she flew into the air, gasping as she hit the bed and somehow made herself go even higher. "Bye!"

Kate flew into another fluffy of giggles as she landed on her back on the bed, sending several of the pillows flying into the air with her. That is, before accidentally jumped too hard and fell off the bed in an undignified heap on the plush, white floor. "Ouch…"

Mimi sighed wearily, "Clumsy as ever, aren't you Kate?"

The response was a weak chuckle and a wave of hand telling Mimi that the owner of said hand was intact…somewhat.

Honey brown eyes blinked wearily as she took a tentative step forward, her hand idly splayed against the elegantly decorated wall beside her. The small bumps of the wall keeping her from feeling as if she was walking in complete darkness that was the hallway.

'I'm not in Kansas anymore…' Mimi thoughtfully frowned as she continued to roam the dark hallways of the mansion. She wasn't even too sure she was even in the right floor. One minute, she was in her bathroom. Walking a few steps in her room and not blindly hitting her bed, she realized she wasn't in her room anymore. It couldn't be helped, her bed was a few good meters away from the bathroom, and too lazy to turn on the light and get all owl-eyed, she decided to walk to the bathroom half-blind.

Presently, Mimi was dearly wishing that she had turned on the light after all. The sinking feeling of doom about walking around a dark mansion late at night had worn out about ten minutes ago. The only thing she felt now was boredom.

Unluckily for her, Mimi tripped on an unknown item and, thanks to gravity, was about to get an excellent look at the floor. That is, until she felt powerful arms surround her petite frame pulling her away from near sure collision.

"Are you alright?" A deep, soothing voice murmured near her ear. The warm air brushing lightly pass her ear sending a tremor throughout her body. Looking up, she couldn't clear his face clearly; the hallway's window was covered by a thick, red, velvet curtain, blocking the moonlight.

Instinctively, she knew the person was a man by the rich sound of his voice, and the smell of the expensive, but earthy cologne. The warm grip of the person was still around her slender waist, and it tightened even more as the person felt her tremble. They must've thought she was afraid.

"Are you hurt?" There was a sense of concern in their voice, as they received no answer from the mute Mimi.

Lightly placing a hand on her savior's chest, she gently pulled away from him. Bowing her head, she quickly murmured her reply. "Thank you…thank you so much for saving me from falling, but I…I-I should be going now…"

Mimi slowly backed away from him, trying her best not to collide into anything as she pressed her hand against the wall. Coincidently, her hand absently pressed past against the light switch, switching it on. Blinking owlishly, Mimi couldn't help but idly appraise the small, pretty blue dots that were dancing around in her vision. After the fifth or sixth blink, she saw that was only about twenty rooms from her bedroom. 'Oh, so that's where my room is.'

Remembering the fact that her savior was still in the vicinity, Mimi looked up to say her thank you face to face.

"…"

'SLAP!'

"YOU!" Mimi cried in shock, pointing a long finger at him in front of his face. Grabbing the closest thing to her, which was coincidentally an authentic Roman statue vase; she raised it above her head, aiming it at Matt. "You perverted ass!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Matt hastily grabbed the statue away from Mimi's homicidal grip, making sure it was out of arm range, "No need to get all psycho on me."

"Why did you do that?" Mimi cried, trying to find any other antique that would cause a nasty bruise on his head. A concussion would be good too.

Cleverly looping his left arm around Mimi's waist, Matt pulled her close to him, making sure they were both away from anything that could do any damage to him. "You seemed to be in trouble, so I thought I'd save you from bruising that cute nose."

'Why did I just do that anyway?' He asked himself mentally, frowning in the inside of his head. 'Sure, she's cute with that pout, and that cute, pointy nose and …those rosy lips…HOLD UP!'

Immediately, he put the brake on his train of thoughts, trying to occupy his wandering mind to the girl in front of him who was glaring at him.

Mimi froze at the intimate contact. This was different; he was holding her purposely without the intent of saving her. She could feel heat come up from her neck and slowly make its way up to her cheeks. "G-get away from me you…you jerk…"

Ignoring her obviously weak, he moved his face closer to her. Ignoring the distracting pink lips that were currently slightly parted in front of him, he pressed a finger under her chin, lifting her glaring face up at him. "You were crying earlier."

It was more of a statement than a question, but it still made Mimi turn her eyes away from him, not wanting to answer him.

"It's nothing," Mimi freed herself from his grip and started to hastily walk away, but she paused for a second. Quickly walking back up to, she has a look similar to a boxer readying for a knock out with their opponent. However, a shy smile appeared on her face as she flung her arms around his neck, giving him a hug.

"Thank you," she softly whispered before detaching herself and running toward her bedroom.

Matt stood in the hallway in shock. Instead of being slapped by her, he was hugged instead. 'That woman…'

Unconsciously, a small smirk formed on his lips, 'So…that little filly does have a soft side after all.'

Sighing softly, he silent walked back down the hallway to her bedroom door and stared at if for a moment. Roughly shaking his head, he headed back toward his own room downstairs. 'Tch, she's not worth all the trouble to get.'

In the back of his mind, he stubbornly tried to push back the tiny voice that was gleefully feeding him the memory fragments about what her small body felt like in his arms.

Leaning back against the door, she slowly slid down to the ground. Mimi let out a sigh of relief. Moving a slim hand through her chestnut hair, she closed her eyes, a small smile on her face as she pressed the back of her head against the wooden door. 'That buffoon.'

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SS: Man, that was so long. -dies-