Disclaimer: I don't own nothing of any value except the crazy ideas in my
head.
Chapter 4
The sunlight filtered into the room sending its rays across her sleeping face. Her eyes fluttered slightly open trying to bat away from the traitorous light trying to seduce her out of the sweet darkness her mind craved. It was too soon, too soon to be thrust into the real world to face another day. Tsukushi tugged at the sheets trying to shield her face while burying herself deeper under the covers. Fingers gently traced circles on her flat stomach sending tingling sensations through her body. Her body quivered showing signs of her half awakened state. Sensing her body's apparent pleasure of his fingers ministrations, he leaned his head down planting butterfly kisses along her shoulder while using his free hand finger the thin strap of her nightgown. He playfully tugged the strap letting it slide off her shoulder and revealing a teasing peek at the pale creamy skin of her breast.
"What do you think you're doing?" she sighed as she rolled over to face him. She pulled herself away from him and propped her head up on one arm.
Akira rubbed his face into the pillow out of frustration. He suddenly felt very cold and alone on his side of the bed even though she was less than half a foot away. Lifting his head up he looked into the only face that could make his heart flutter with a simple indescribable look. "Nothing at all," he sheepishly grinned. Inside his body and mind were battling in an inner turmoil of so many choices. He fought back the urge to flip her onto her back letting his primal urges ravage her until they both collapsed into two sweating heaps lying on top of one another.
"I recognize that look on your face, and not to mention your ahem friend. I hope you realize this is the end of the line, buster."
He tapped his fingers against the mattress obviously becoming annoyed with his damn promise to do things right this time. However, there was another option he could settle for at the moment. "It's not like I haven't seen it all before," he cheekily whispered into her ear before crushing her lips with this own. His expert tongue nudged her mouth open letting him dive deeper into her mouth. His hands slid beneath her thin nightgown stroking her soft skin.
Beneath the hurried gasps of air in between kisses faint moans and gasps of pleasure escaped her lips betraying the point she was trying to make earlier. A stray hand pushed up on her short nightgown bunched up at her waist, and lingered up her thigh towards her panties. Alarms went off in her head signaling her to put and end to this. Even though her body would be violently protesting this later with the aching hot sensation in the pit of her stomach, she had to stop. She pulled a hand away that had been grabbing at his hair and gently pushed him away from her. She struggled to regain some minute sense of composure and put on a smile showing much mirth, yet her eyes revealed a little bit of disappointment. "Why Mr. Mimasaka, are you trying to seduce me?"
"Well it was working, wasn't it?"
Tsukushi slid her way out form underneath him and skipped towards the bathroom. Peeking her head out for a moment she laughed, "Close, but not enough."
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Tsukushi tore open another box sifting through its contents. After much persuasion, she had ridden her apartment of Akira to focus on taking care of settling herself in. Her eyes lit up in recognition of what the boxes contents actually were. She picked up the worn out book and flipped through the pages gazing at each and every photograph that captured some of the happiest days of her life. She giggled as she looked at her younger self standing in the middle of F4. They were dressed in their Eitoku uniforms while she in her Eirin uniform. It was almost comical recalling how that was probably the only time F4 ever wore their uniforms to school due to her own insistence that being the first day of high school they should wear the uniform at least once for appearance sake. She could barely even remember how she got that stubborn Tsukasa to wear it. As she flipped through the pages, more and more of her life unfolded before her eyes.
To say, that life was dull for Tsukushi would be an understatement. Although she never quite enjoyed the jet set life F4 reveled in, she had made it her goal to see the world and take any opportunity to make her dream come true. That first year at Okinawa had been pleasant with the birth of her new baby brother, Susumu. She enjoyed being the one to witness most of his firsts, his first steps, his first words, and his first smile. She would never have traded those memories for anything. She did wish she could have returned to Tokyo for her last year of high school, but then she was offered her once in a lifetime chance. Her grades were good and she had the signs for a promising future. It was an offer to study abroad for a year. She had never once left the country and this was an opportunity to study in a different environment and a new culture she wasn't accustomed to.
She took it leading her to her new life in New York. It was strange leaving her family and friends, but she everyone seemed to accept her decision well. Her father explained it best as saying she was always a bird that needed to spread its wings. New York changed her life, and for the first time, she could fly.
The one year she spent completing high school in another country opened her eyes to the multitude of possibilities she could have. In retrospect, her intentions in life had been to return to Tokyo and complete high school with Rui and her friends, leading to college to study a degree in business. Although everyone always applauded her on her fanciful lifestyle, her parents could not help but worry over her lackadaisical attitude towards her future. So, her plans changed a bit giving her more freedom for a year before she would return and be locked into the path her parents had deemed the "safe" path.
Little did she know, that her hidden talents would be discovered that year. It all started so simply when a friend in the dormitory invited her to go to the school's darkroom to help her in putting together her portfolio. She watched as the rolls of negatives turned into beautiful photographs waiting to be mounted, preserved, and displayed. Slowly, she began to spend more and more time in the room learning how to develop and alter photographs in the way she wanted them. It was always a hobby of hers to take pictures of whatever caught her interest resulting in a camera being perpetually found in the bottomless pit called a purse she carried. Se had a natural talent for capturing moments that the normal human eye would have missed. With a little persuasion by her friends, especially Rui, and a careless whim, she presented her portfolio for critique to the visual designs school nearby and was accepted to her surprise. The surprise hit her parents a few months later, when she told them over the phone she would be staying in America to pursue college. It would be putting it likely to say that the argument that ensued was anything less than World War III. They flew in to see her the next day trying to persuade her to reconsider her acceptance into Eitoku University or even Tokyo U. She was adamant on staying. Her mother pleaded, but accepted, Her father ranted and exploded. In the end, he pulled out his final threat and made true to his word, he cut her off.
College turned out to be an eye opening experience. No longer being able to live in any style she pleased due to her parents' limitless credit provided by her credit card, she caught a break with an offer by a group of her high school friends to let her move into a spare room in their modest apartment in the Village. Another friend was able to hook her up with a job working at a small developing center on Canal Street that catered to various photographic needs ranging from headshots for the many aspiring actors hoping to catch a break on Broadway to processing summer vacation photographs for one hours development. It was a pretty crappy job, but it paid for her bills with a few unwanted donations from Rui.
Tsukushi almost burst out laughing at a photograph taken for her eighteenth birthday when her roommates decided to surprise her with a homemade birthday cake that wound up looking like a lopsided pancake. It was the thought that counts anyway. That was also, the same day that her parents had finally forgiven her and reached a compromise on the situation, which to this day she still believes had something to do with Rui's mother reprimanding her father for the mistreatment of his child. She was reinstated into the family on the condition she would double major in art and marketing satisfying everyone's wishes. It was a win-win situation.
Finally, her eyes fell upon the one photograph that turned her world around and would begin a new chapter in her life. It was the one that brought her and Akira together.
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The door opened with a tinkling of the bell hanging overhead. A petite woman bearing the burden of a large portfolio case in hand with a Starbucks latte in the other stumbled her way inside fighting to close the door behind her with her foot. The cold winter chill hit her face like a cold slap in the face even underneath the barrier she made with her scarf wound tightly around her neck.
"How's my favorite employee doing today?!"
"Freezing her ass off!" Tsukushi yelled as she settled her coffee onto the counter and proceeded to strip herself free underneath layers of coat, sweater, scarf, gloves, and hat. She brushed out the small flakes of snow collected in her hair with hr fingers.
"You do realize that it's only forty degrees outside, right?" the man chuckled from behind the counter checking off the day's accounts in his ledger. "This is one of the warmer New York winters."
"I don't care. No matter how long I've been here, I'll never get over how cold it is," she retorted. Her body shivered as she pressed herself closer to the heater hidden underneath the counter trying to warm her frozen hands. "I really wish you would take that poster down in front, Mike."
"Why? Ever since you let me put that up it's been attracting a lot of business. I've even had a few offers to buy it." The older man scratched his chin with a contemplating look on his face on how much money he could have made on the sale if she would have allowed it. The scratchy sound of his fingers brushing against the stubble on his chin grated in the air.
Tsukushi glanced up at the enlarged poster recreated from the smaller photograph she had created. Her last project theme had been angels, and the one hanging by the window was her favorite one. The final product included only photographs of models she recruited, but somewhere towards the end of the shoot she decided to put on one of the dresses and angel wings. Thinking it would be fun to pretend to be a model, she arranged all lighting and camera perfectly to create a perfect black and white photograph of herself standing on the ledge of a rooftop overlooking the city. Her long hair had been let down, which at the time fell to her waist, and her slightly outgrown bangs fell over her face. Her face was turned upward looking up at the sky with her hands arms extended behind her as if she were about to take off in flight. It was a rare photograph considering she never liked having her own picture taken much. She always preferred to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. With the help with one of the models to snap the shutter they captured a Tsukushi she never thought existed. Her employer Mike had allowed her to use the studio to develop and work on her portfolio in peace in return for a copy of the photograph, which he blew up into a poster. After a lot of arguing and a major guilt trip Mike had won justifying that she gave him the photo ergo he could do whatever he wanted with it.
"Don't even think about it!" she screeched into his ear punching him in the shoulder. "I'll kill you if you sell it. How would you like it if some stranger had a three-foot picture of you in some barely visible dress hanging on their wall?"
"I think I would rather enjoy that."
"That's because you're a pervert. Not all people have the dream of strangers admiring you for your body and lusting after you," she laughed. She looked up at him noticing his rather handsomely defined features. "You can be so vain. What if I told Jen about your future aspirations for millions of women to worship you?"
He turned to her in shock of the thought of his girlfriend and Tsukushi's roommate giving him an earful about giving up his playboy attitudes. "You wouldn't."
"Try me," she smirked. She smiled to herself knowing that when it came Mike's girlfriend Jen, who was one of the sweetest women she had ever known, Mike was whipped. She never tolerated his playboy lifestyle and threatened to dump him the moment he tried to do anything funny. In a way, Mike reminded her a lot of Soujiro, which made gave her an instant connection to the man that resembled one of her old friends.
"You're a tough one, Kushi." He patted her on the head like a little puppy and sweetly mumbled under his breath. "So is there any chance you'll ever let me sell that poster?"
"Hmm." she pondered to herself mimicking his earlier actions. "How much have the offers been?"
"I think the biggest one I got was fifty bucks."
"Fifty bucks?" she laughed. "I thought I would be worth more than that."
"You've got such a big head."
"Fine. How about this? If you can find someone to pay $500 than you can let them have it. We'll split the profits."
"Geez, who the hell would pay so much for you? I guess I'll never make a sale," he shrugged.
"Can we stop talking about this and get to work already. What have we got scheduled today?"
He dragged his pencil along the appointment book checking off the list of clients that requested for Tsukushi to take their portraits. She was slowly gaining a small following and a list of clientele for her studio portraits. Their old photographer had unexpectedly quit putting them in a tight spot with a very angry model wanting her portfolio shots. Tsukushi stepped in offering her services and a guarantee that if her pictures didn't get her work the pictures would be free. Suffice it to say, that young model was now contracted as a print model for the new Revlon ads running all over the city. She got the job she wanted and Tsukushi was building up a reputation.
"We've got a last minute fill in for your 1:30 cancellation. The woman on the phone was really adamant about you taking some shots of her daughters. She offered to pay double to get you to take the job on such short notice. I think the girls are about eight and nine."
"God, don't tell me it's another one of those Park Avenue mothers wanting to get some shots of her daughters dressed up as dolls in matching outfits."
"Sounds like the type. Anyway, you should go back and finish setting up the equipment in back. They should be here any minute and the have the studio booked for the rest of the afternoon."
"Send them in when they get here!" she yelled over her shoulder.
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Akira grumbled to himself as he pulled his two sisters behind him down the street. He was still annoyed as hell over the fact that his mother had decided he would drop off hid sisters at the photographer's while she went shopping. It still bothered him to no ends the way he was treated by his parents. He was already eighteen, in college, and still forced to go along on family vacation during Christmas instead of spending it skiing with F3. What he wouldn't give to be in a warm cabin snuggling up to a Swiss ski bunny by the fire right now? He shrugged settling for the hot waitress he had met in the hotel the other day and planned to meet up with after he dropped off the girls.
"Onii-chan! Stop walking so fast! We can't keep up to you wearing this!" Aiko yelled as she hiked up her long frilly lace dress covered in a heavy petticoat.
"I can't believe Okaa-san thought these outfits were cute!" Suzume griped as she scratched her neck where the lace had irritated her skin.
"We're almost there!" he yelled silencing them in mid whine. Throwing his hands up in the air, he decided tell Aiko to cling to his back while he picked up Suzume bridal style. It was quite the sight to see the young man run through the streets with two squealing girls clinging to him fro dear life screaming at him to go faster.
Ten minutes later, he arrived out of breath and with very wobbly legs. He dumped them on the ground before collapsing on the counter in front of the chuckling blonde haired man. "Photo. 1:30. Take them!"
Mike nodded his head in understanding. He motioned the two girls forward and helped them take off their coats to hang up. He tried his best to keep a straight face at the awful mass of frills, lace, and puffy sleeves the girls were forced to wear. "Don't you two look pretty today," he smiled trying to keep a straight face.
"Shove it!" the two girls muttered under their breaths.
"Well!" he clapped his hands together. Our photographer is waiting for you two girls in back. why don't you go in and I'll introduce you in a few minutes. Will you be staying as well? he asked looking at Akira.
"No. I'll be back in a few hours to pick them up."
"Okay, well I just need to you to sign a few papers before we get started. I'll take the girls back and I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Whatever," Akira dismissively waved as he began punching numbers into his cell phone.
Mike pulled the back curtain open and ushered the two dazed girls into the large studio in the back. He nodded his head in warning when he saw Tsukushi peek out from behind the backdrop. "Are you ready back here?!"
"Yeup!" She ran forward and made a small bow. "Welcome to my world girls. I hope that we can have some fun today while I take your pictures. What are your names?"
"Aiko."
"Suzume."
Tsukushi frowned at the two glum faces and almost wanted to cry at the dressed they were forced to wear. They weren't exactly made for kid comfort. She waved at Mike who smiled knowing she would know how to rectify the situation. "You can call me Kushi." She took a hand form each of them and led them onto the set telling them to sit on the stool she had already set up. Seeing as how their dresses were a dark navy blue and reminded her of something out of the Nutcracker she set to work getting the proper props.
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Akira clapped his phone shut and glanced around wondering when that guy would come back so he could sign the release forms and leave. He impatiently paced back and forth in the room waiting for his return. He stopped near the window and curiously noticed the fact that whenever pedestrians would pass by they would slow down and take a few moments to stop and stare. His eyes locked on the poster in the front window as he craned his head more to the right to get a better view. There was something mildly familiar about the picture that he couldn't quite put his finger on.
"It's a beautiful photograph, isn't it?" Mike asked amusedly by behind him.
"It is," he agreed.
"Well, all I need you to do is sign these and you can leave. You look like you've got better places to be than here."
"Yeah, thanks." Akira absentmindedly signed the papers and buttoned up his coat. "I'll be back at seven to pick them up." He turned out the door and stepped out onto the cold street pulling up the collar of his coat. After hailing down a taxicab he stepped in before taking one last glance at the picture in the window.
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"Okay, girls. Just a few more minutes and we'll be all done!" Tsukushi yelled from behind the camera. It was the same like all the others. Turn to the left, turn to the right, point, click. Her heart went out to the two girls wearing dresses that should be burned. It was her job to make them look less hideous and that was what she was going to do. "Okay, last shot! She listened to the last click of the shutter and put her camera down to wind the film back on her manual camera. "You can take a break now and get yourself some hot chocolate from the table there. I think Mike bought some cookies too."
"Thanks," the two eager girls yelled back in unison.
Tossing the last roll of film with the other ten rolls she had taken in the last hour she locked the box and wrote the account number onto the label. She wiped the seat forming on her forehead from the glare of the hot studio lights. She glanced around the room and noticed that technically she was being paid for he next five hours, but she finished it in one. Grinning to herself, she ran towards the front of the store and came running back in with their coats. She tossed the coats towards the two girls. "Put these one. We're going out!"
"What?!" Aiko asked in confusion. "What about the pictures?"
"Where are we going?" Suzume asked while putting on her coat. "We can't do much in these."
Tsukushi cocked her head to the side. "Don't worry we'll take care of that," she smiled. She helped the girls bundle up before putting on her own coat and hurried them out the door.
Mike looked up from the magazine he was reading and he smiled knowingly. "See you later!" he waved. He leaned back in his chair and laughed to himself.
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"Whoo! We made here back with ten minutes to spare." She planted a kiss on each of their rosy cheeks from the run back to the studio and handed them the bags with their dresses. "Go get changed. I hope I see you two again soon the next time you come by New York. I've got to go now. Bye!"
"Bye, Kushi!" Aiko smiled as she bounded into her arms and gave her a big hug before running into the back to change.
"Thanks for today. We had a lot of fun," Suzume smiled. She gave her a small hug and turned around waving goodbye.
"I see you gave them the special treatment," Mike grinned. "You can't help yourself when it comes to kidnapping the kids."
"They needed some fun," she responded in defense. "Anyways, I've got to go. My job is done here and if I want to get those photos ready by tomorrow I should get to bed early tonight."
"See you tomorrow!"
"Later!" she waved as she ran out the door in a hurry. She turned towards the left straight towards the nearest train station.
A few second later, a man entered the shop appearing to be in a much better mood than earlier. The lipstick stain on the collar of his shirt was enough to hint he had found himself a good time during his break form babysitting. "Hello," he cheerily greeted Mike.
"The girls will be out in a few minutes."
"Sure." Akira stepped towards the window noticing his reflection glaring back at him. The same stupid grin was plastered on his face much like the one he had on when he left his date, Maya's apartment earlier. He wondered whether or not he should try to set up another quick tryst with her before they went back home to Japan. His eyes lazily wandered back to the photograph in the window. There was just something about it that seemed to mesmerize him. Something in him just screamed at him to have it for himself. He looked around noticing that there were a few framed pictures on one side of the wall for sale, which was set up for local artists to try to sell their work. He perused through them not quite finding anything interesting. His eyes just kept wandering to the poster in front.
"See anything you like?" Mike asked. He stepped beside him and pointed to the wall. "All the photographs here were made by the students at the visual design college nearby. They're all hoping someone will come in here and buy one of their photographs. Nothing feels better than an artist's first sale. That's when you know you've made it."
"They're good," Akira shrugged. "How much for the one in the window?"
Mike glanced up at the poster and nodded his head. "That one's really not for sale."
"Everything has a price," Akira cockily stated walking over to the framed poster. "I'll pay you $40 for it."
"Sorry, but I can't"
"$75."
"Please stop asking. It's not for sale."
"$100."
"Why don't you take this nice one here."
"I want this one. $120."
"I really can't sell this."
"Forget this. Tell me how much you want it for already.
Mike's inner greed got the better of him as he watched the dollar signs dancing before his eyes. "$500?"
"Okay."
"What?" he gasped in disbelief at such a large sale He winced knowing that he would have hell to pay later.
"Can you wrap it up, please?"
"Umm yeah." He took the photograph and placed it on the counter taking out some paper to wrap it up. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Why would you pay $500 for this?"
"I dunno," he shrugged. "I guess, I can't resist a beautiful woman. Who's the picture of anyway?"
"Oh, I guess in a way it's a self portrait of the artist. She etched her initials on the bottom of the frame."
Akira bent down and looked at the small etchings in the wood. "TM."
"Onii-chan!" Aiko squealed as she ran into Akira nearly knocking him over.
"You look like you're in a much better mood?" he laughed picking himself off the ground.
"We had so much fun today!" Suzume joined in. "Kushi took us to Central Park to ice skate and then we had frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity's."
"We even got to take the subway there! Okaa-san would never take us on the subway!"
"I'm glad you had fun today," he smiled. "How did you manage to do all that in those dresses, though?"
"Oh, Kushi took us to the Gap and got us some new clothes. Look!" Aiko held up her shopping bag proudly showing a slightly damp pair of jeans from the snow and a blue sweater.
"She's a lot of fun."
"All done here," Mike called out as he tied the last knot in the string binding the package.
Akira pulled out his wallet and slapped a small clump of bills onto the counter. "Thanks."
Aiko and Suzume waved goodbye as Akira lead them outside into the waiting car parked in front. Mike watched as the car sped away and he counted the bills in his hand.
"Hey Mike!"
"What?!" he jumped up from his seat in surprise. "
Tsukushi laughed at having startled the man. "I forgot my cell. I was expecting a call from my dad," she laughed as she ran behind the counter and pulled out her phone from a drawer. She leaned over his shoulder staring at the bills in his hand. "Where'd you get all that money?"
He slid off his seat and backed away in fear of what was to come. "Before you kill me, here's your half," he gulped.
"What are you talking about?" she asked holding the money. "There's got to be about $200 here."
"Actually $250."
"$250?" she quizzically asked. Her head snapped towards the window and her mouth fell to the ground. "You didn't?!"
"Hey, you said if someone was willing to pay $500 I could sell it."
"Who did you sell it to?! Maybe I can give him back the money for the photograph."
He contemplated whether or not it would be a good idea to tell her that that guy who picked up the girls bought it. Figuring it would be better to keep his identity confidential and to spare him the harassment of Tsukushi trying to get it back he remained tight lipped. He paid in cash. I don't even know his name," he lied.
"I can't believe you did that?! You don't even know what he's going to do with it. If I find my face or head posted up on some nude body for Internet porn I'll kill you with my bare hands!"
"He didn't look like some porn king," he answered begging for mercy. "He really wanted the picture."
Ring.
"Hello!" Tsukushi barked into the phone. Her face softened as she recognized the voice on the other line.
Seeing this as a chance to escape Mike grabbed his coat and ran out the door. "I'll see you tomorrow. Lock up will, ya?" He dashed out the door running for dear life to get away from a murderous Tsukushi.
Tsukushi watched his sly grin disappear out of sight. She cursed under her breath as her father asked her how her day was.
"I'm fine, Papa," she cheerily replied trying to veil the anger in her voice. How are Mama and Susumu doing?"
"They're good except for Susumu who seems to have caught some sort of stomach virus. I think the plane food didn't agree well with him. I was going to ask you to do me a favor."
"What is it? Do you want me to come over to your hotel and watch Susumu for you guys?"
"I was getting to that. You know, I have to attend a small business function on behalf of Hanazawa-san, and your mother was supposed to accompany me. She decided she would rather watch Susumu herself, so she suggested that you accompany me instead as my date. How would you like to go out to dinner with an old man tomorrow night? There will be dinner and dancing."
"You know I hate those kinds of things, Papa," she whined.
"Why don't you humor an old man? We haven't had a chance to go out just the two of us in a while. We can catch up and I promise if you want we can leave early if you're not having fun."
The prospect of a free meal and dancing was quite enticing to her. He was right that she hadn't had any free time to spend with him lately. "Fine. What time will you be picking me up?"
"Good. I'll pick you up at your apartment at about six."
"I'll see you then."
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Tsukushi cursed under her breath as she ran back towards her apartment to get ready for dinner that night. She had already had a long day of submitting her final projects to each of her classes ending another semester. All she wanted to do was curl up in front of the television to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas", a tradition she and her roommates had done each year since she first came to New York.
"Outta my way!" she yelled running into her room and dropping her coat on the floor of the entrance.
"Whoa! Look out, Kushi is on the rampage again!" a red head yelled from the couch. She picked up the remote and flipped through the channels trying to find something good to watch. "You're dad just called and said he might be a little late.'
"Got it!" Tsukushi yelled from the bedroom. A few crashes were heard from her inner domain as well as a few select words.
"Are you okay in there?" Tsukushi's other roommate, Maggie asked. She carefully pushed the door open and watched in amusement as Tsukushi hopped on one foot nursing a stubbed toe.
"I've got everything under control," Tsukushi replied as she unzipped her dress from its bag.
Jen hopped up from her comfortable position on the couch and stood opposite of Maggie in the doorway.
"I think she needs our help."
"Let's get to work," Maggie sighed as she pushed Tsukushi onto the chair and grabbed a brush. She pointed towards the make up bag on the table. "You take care of the make up and I'll try to do something with this."
"Got it!" Jen enthusiastically yelled as she evilly picked up an eyelash curler. "We'll have you ready in no time."
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"Akira, can you get the door?" a woman called out form inside the bathroom. "I'm not quite dressed yet."
"Okay," Akira replied getting up from the couch.
He was still a bit grumpy about the fact that his mother had taken his rather expensive purchase the day before and proclaimed it hers. She was always acting like a big kid thinking anything wrapped up was a gift for her. He was never the one to deny his mother; she was a very persuasive woman. She liked the portrait so much she decided to hang it in his father's newest office building she was decorating while in New York.
He trudged over to the door while smoothing out the wrinkles in his tuxedo. As he swung open the door, his two sisters running up from behind him pushed him back.
"Kushi!"
"Sorry girls," Mike answered holding a package in his hands. "Kushi had to meet up with her father today, so I had to come to deliver this. He looked up at Akira and sheepishly grinned. "Sorry if it's a little late. Kushi wanted to make sure everything was perfect before it was delivered."
"That's fine. We didn't really need them that desperately."
"Is that the photographer?" Akira's mother asked as she emerged into the living room.
"Oh no, madam. I'm the owner of the studio. Normally our photographer would have delivered these, but she couldn't make it."
"That's fine," the woman replied. She took the package from his hands and set upon unwrapping it to display the two framed portraits and photo album she had ordered. The moment she caught sight of the portraits her breath caught in her throat. "They're perfect."
"She's really good," Akira gasped as he stared at the individual portraits of Aiko and Suzume. "She actually made them look good in those hideous dresses.'
"Don't say that about those dresses your grandmother sent your sisters. Although they were quite dreadful," she laughed. "Your studio's work is as good as I've heard Mr. Richardson. I'll have to remember to recommend your studio to my friends."
"Thank you," Mike blushed. "Oh yes, before I forget. These are for the girls. It's a small gift from Kushi." He pulled out two tiny photo books and handed each of the girls one with their names inscribed in silver ink on the outside in Japanese. "Sorry, I can't read Japanese. I'm not sure which ones which."
Aiko and Suzume giggled as they switched the books in their hands. When they opened them up their eyes lit up.
"Wow!"
"I didn't know she took pictures when we went out yesterday."
"Yeah, Kushi does that a lot. She's always taking candid shots when no one's looking. I think she wrote each of you a note inside."
Akira picked up one of the albums from Aiko's hand and flipped through it laughing at a few of the shots of his sisters ice skating and chasing pigeons in the park. He stopped at the short note on the last page studying the carefully penned characters. "She knows Japanese?"
"Yeah, well she's originally from there. I think that's why she took such an easy liking to the girls She rarely gets to speak to anyone except her parents in Japanese. It makes her feel less homesick, I guess."
"When were these taken?" their mother asked.
"Oh, don't be angry but whenever Kushi has a job she generally finishes early and takes the kids out to have some fun for the rest of the day after being cooped up in the studio for so long. I hope you don't mind. She always makes a little memory book for them afterwards."
"These are even better than the portraits," the woman sighed. I think I would like to have a few more copies of these. Would that be possible?"
"Sure, we get that a lot from the parents after they see the memory books. I'll have a few more sent over as soon as possible. I'll give you a call when they are ready." Mike buttoned up his coat and stood up to walk towards the door. "I'll show myself out."
"I think I would like to meet this Kushi myself," Akira's mother laughed. "She sounds like a miracle worker."
"So would I," Akira agreed.
------------------------------------
"Hey, Rui," Tsukushi chirped through her cell phone while riding in the car beside her father.
"Yo," a monotone voice answered.
"So how is the ski trip?"
"Soujiro has run off with one of the ski instructors. Tsukasa's been skiing all day long. And I? Well, I caught up with some sleep."
"You're one of the few people I know who would fly halfway around the world to sleep in a different location," she laughed. "Did you guys get my Christmas presents I sent?"
"Yeah. By the way, thanks for the new sheet music and just so you know I plan to put that new pillow to good use. Soujiro wanted to tell you thanks for the book, but he wouldn't show it to the rest of us. He said he wanted to study the pictures before he showed anyone. Tsukasa ate the pineapple you sent. Why do you send him a pineapple every year?"
"Cause he's a pineapple head. It's been a joke between the two of us since I left. Every year I send him a pineapple and every year he sends me daisies, calling them weeds like me. So what about Akira?"
"Didn't I tell you? He went on vacation with his family this year. I don't really know where he went exactly. I'll give him your gift when he gets back next month. Did you like your gift?"
"Like always your presents never cease to surprise me. I think I've become obsessed with folding paper cranes now. I want to try to a make a thousand. Did Shizuka like the Tiffany's bracelet I sent her?"
"Yeah, she loved it. It's kind of scary how you know her taste without ever meeting her. I don't think it's fair for my best friend's gift to up show my gift for my girlfriend."
"How is it my fault she is just a woman of good taste? Well, all you ever talk about is her," she giggled. "I feel like I've known her forever."
"What about Junpei? Shouldn't you be spending Christmas with your boyfriend, too?" She sighed heavily into the phone. "I broke up with him last week. I knew I should never have dated a model. He's a little too preoccupied with his looks for my taste."
"Well, Shizuka is a model, too. I mean she cares about her looks, but it couldn't have been that bad."
"Listen, if a guy takes longer than me to get ready then there definitely is something wrong. We were never that serious anyway."
"You probably broke the poor guy's heart like all the others. He's just another to add to the list."
"It was mutual! You make me sound like some heartless heartbreaker. Not all of us can find the perfect mate like you. I want to meet the woman who is insane enough to put up with you."
"Maybe if you got your butt back here you would."
"I'll come home when I'm good and ready. Right now I'm having too much fun here. I promise I'll go back one day. Anyway, you could always come here."
"I like my bed too much to move away from it."
"You could bring it with you and become a starving artist like me. You could play your violin on the street for money and I can sell my photographs beside you. Think of all the quarters to be made, man."
"As enticing as that sounds I'll have to pass."
"You're no fun. I've got to go. We're almost at the party."
"Have fun."
"I always do. Same time next week."
"Okay. Bye."
"Bye."
"I see you still call Rui every week like always?" her father laughed as he helped her out of the car.
"Like clockwork for the last three years," she smiled as she tucked her cell phone into her purse. "I've never missed a call."
"Shall we, madam?" her father smiled offering his arm.
"Of course, kind sir," she replied hooking her arm through her father's.
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Akira looped through the guests trying to escape yet another mind numbing conversation with one of his father's business associates. He hated these parties and all the shoptalk that went on around him. The torture was only heightened when his mother would sidle up next to him with another girl in tow trying to play matchmaker. Grabbing another glass of champagne he disappeared into the next room where all the children were holed up in. In away, he missed the days when these parties only meant stuffing his face and hanging out with F3 making fun of all the adults. He looked on at his sisters as they remained in a tight circle with a few other girls giggling about something or another.
"Akira!"
"Damn!" he muttered to himself as he felt an arm on his shoulder.
"I've been looking for you everywhere. I want you to meet Hino Aya. Her father has just joined in a merger with your father's company."
"Hello," he politely bowed at the rather plain girl in front of him.
"Why don't you two get to know each other a little better?"
He glared as his mother walked away giving him a thumbs up sign. He hoped that the glare he was sending to the back of her head would burn a hole right through her. Not wanting to be rude to the poor girl left stranded with him he offered his hand. "Would you like to dance?"
Across the room Tsukushi was bored out of her mind as she sat at her table sipping on champagne. Her father had abandoned her a half hour ago to discuss the latest project he was working on with some man whose name she had long ago forgotten. She twirled a lock of her curled hair in her fingers staring into nothingness. Deciding to make some sort of effort to mingle she wandered around the room trying to make out any familiar face. As she stood up and smoothes out the wrinkles in her dress, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around she gasped, "Tsubaki?"
"I never thought I would see you here?" she laughed. "I always thought you stayed away form the evil corporate dinners."
Tsukushi moved forward to give her friend a hug. "I haven't seen you for awhile. I thought you'd be too busy as a newlywed and all. Where's the lucky man anyway?"
"He's over there discussing some sort of business with my mother. I find it utterly disturbing that he likes her so much."
"Well she did pick him out. I'll never get over how weird you rich people can be choosing your own children's spouses."
"I was relatively lucky. Hiro is the average boring doting husband and all. He gives me the space I need and it all works out, I guess."
"I can hear the love in your voice."
"Love doesn't equate in a Doumyouji marriage," she sighed. "Did your father drag you here? I heard Hanazawa- san couldn't make it, so he sent a representative."
"As always, my father agreed to it. Hey, it was a free trip to come and visit me, too."
"I think I better go. My mother is giving me that evil eye of hers."
"How does she do it?"
"I have no idea, but I better go before something bad happens. Give me a call. We should meet for lunch sometime."
"Sure."
She watched as Tsubaki gracefully walked to her husband's side. The rather timid looking man offered a weak smile and wrapped his arm around her waist. Tsubaki plastered a big smile on her face pretending nothing was wrong in the world. All Tsukushi was frown at the sight of what looked like an indication in the increase of the current divorce rate.
"May I have this dance?" a masculine voice asked from behind her.
"Of course." Tsukushi turned around and followed her father onto the dance floor twirling her around. A small section of the dance floor cleared at the sight of the beautiful young woman in the off white silk gown. The bottom of her gown fanned out as she was pulled back into her father's arms out of the spin. "You were always a show off," she smirked.
"How about we show them how dancing is really done?" he smirked.
The crowd slowly parted making more room for the father daughter couple dancing in the middle of the room. Tsukushi almost burst out laughing when she heard the snide comment from a woman on the side about her father flaunting a mistress. Along with the apparent gawking and staring from other men around the room old enough to be her father, the situation was becoming funnier by the minute.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. What will people Mama say when rumors spread that you brought a younger woman with you to this party?"
"Maybe we wouldn't be on the bad side of gossip if you showed your face around society a little more often. I warn you now, stay away from these lecherous men who dare gawk at my daughter. I never thought them to be pedophiles."
"I am eighteen, Papa. It is legal."
"You'll always be my little girl in my eyes." He spun her out and tossed her back into a deep dip. "Oh!"
Tsukushi pulled herself back up balancing herself out. She bent over and helped support her father who looked like he was about to fall over. "Are you okay?"
"Just a little dizzy," he whispered as he tried to stand up properly. He staggered forward and grasped onto his daughter's shoulder for support.
"Why don't you sit down," she worriedly suggested as she led him to the nearest chair.
Akira glanced over Aya's shoulder trying to catch a glimpse of the young woman causing quite stir amongst the old bags whispering. All he could catch was a brief glimpse of the back of her head over the gathered crowd. From what he could see, she had quite a nice body. Too bad, she only went for old men. He continued dancing forgetting the mysterious woman and began to count the hours until he could leave.
"Why don't you drink some water? You're face is very pale."
"Thank you," her father replied as he took a few small sips from the glass. His head was swirling once again forcing him to close his eyes in an attempt to stabilize his sight. He felt Tsukushi's hand on his forehead.
"You're burning up!"
"I think I might have caught something from Susumu," he winced as another pain shot through his head.
"Come on, I'll help you to the car. We're going back to the hotel and getting you into bed as quickly as possible."
She grabbed her father's coat and put it under her arm while she placed her father's arm around her shoulder helping him walk towards the elevator.
------------------------------
Tsukushi slunk into the backseat of the cab as she was being driven back to the party. Apparently Susumu's stomach virus had spread like wildfire infecting everyone in her family except her. Thus, she would have to spend the next few days without her family while they were quarantined in their hotel room. It had been a long couple of hours before she felt better about leaving them all lone and made sure they were tucked into bed for the night.
She sighed I relief as she slipped her sore feet out of her heels and massaged the soles of her feet. She glanced out the window watching the cars pass by as she was being driven through Midtown Manhattan. All she wanted to do was get home and crawl into bed for a good twenty hours of sleep, but she was now being forced to go back to the party after realizing she had forgotten her purse and coat in the rush to get her father home.
It was freezing outside as she ran into the building startling the security guards with her frazzled appearance. Luckily the man pitied her, and allowed her to go upstairs to the main ballroom to retrieve her lost items. Inside she found her purse was still on the table with everything inside intact, and she just made it in time before the clerk at the coat check closed for the night. She happily skipped down the hall, but something caught her eye around the bend. She peeked around her making sure no one saw her and to her surprise, her portrait was hanging in one of the large offices.
In most circumstances, she would have considered it stealing to take back the portrait without asking, but after careful deliberation she decided she would be taking back only what was rightfully hers. To make sure it was really hers, she checked for the side of the frame and felt for her signature carving in the frame. It was definitely hers the moment she felt the TM mark. She climbed onto the chair and carefully pulled it off the wall Deciding to leave the frame behind, she popped the frame open and rolled up the enlarged photograph and tucked it beneath her coat. Feeling a little bit guilty, she placed whatever cash she had in her wallet onto the table to pay them back for her thievery. With a smile on her face, she walked out the door and towards the elevator thinking no one would be the wiser.
Akira pulled off his tie as he wandered through the halls of his father's office building. The party had finally come to a close and he had finally managed to shake off that piranha, Aya. It was as if she had attached herself to him the rest of the night not wanting to let him go. He slipped into his father's office hoping she wouldn't come looking for him in there. To his surprise, he heard someone enter the room, so he hid behind the door of the bathroom. He peered out to catch a glimpse of who entered the room. He quickly recognized the familiar dress and the back of her head as the woman that everyone was gossiping about earlier. Silently he watched as she picked up the photograph his mother had decided to hang in his father's office and threw few bills on the table. A few minutes later, she dashed out of the room like the thief she was.
He jumped out from his hiding place and gawked at the money left on the table It was rather odd to see a thief pay for something they stole, but it didn't matter. All he wanted back was what had been taken. He stuffed the money into his pocket and ran towards the elevator heading fro the lobby, where she most likely was headed.
Tsukushi rushed out the front door sighing relief for not being caught. She let out the breath she was holding and began walking down the street hoping to hail down a cab.
"Where do you think you're going?! I think you have something that is mine." An arm grabbed her wrist from behind and spun her around.
"Let go of me!" She screamed as she kicked him in the shin.
He bent over in pain, but still held his firm grip on her wrist preventing her from escaping. "Ow! You stupid bi..!"
"Kushi!" two voiced high-pitched voices called out from behind the fighting couple.
Tsukushi stopped her struggle and turned towards the two little girls running over to her. "Aiko? Suzume?"
"What?! You two know her?" Akira asked in shock.
"Of course, we do," Aiko matter of factly stated. She hugged Tsukushi's waist. "Thank you for the memory books."
"It was nothing," Tsukushi replied smiling down at the little girl.
"Who's this?" their mother asked out of curiosity. It wasn't every day she caught her son trying to maul a girl on the street. "And why were you attacking her, Akira?"
"This is the photographer who took our pictures yesterday, Okaa-san," Suzume interjected.
Akira released her wrist in confusion of what was going on. Why was the photographer in his father's office stealing the portrait he bought?
"Hello, I'm Mimasaka Naoko," she bowed. "I've been wanting to meet the woman who created those wonderful portraits of my daughters."
Tsukushi was stunned. "Mimasaka? That would make you two?" She asked pointing towards Aiko and Suzume.
"Mimasaka Aiko and Mimasaka Suzume," they answered together.
Tsukushi spun around and looked at the man that had attacked her earlier putting two and two together. She stared at him finally realizing why he had seemed so familiar. It had been three years since she last saw him, and he had grown up a lot since then. "Akira!" she laughed pointing at him in recognition.
"How did you know my name was Akira?" he asked rather disturbed by her.
She held back the huge smile on her face ready for his mouth to drop. She turned back to Mrs. Mimasaka and extended a hand. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Makino Tsukushi."
"Tsukushi!" he screamed in disbelief.
"I think these two need to get to bed, and you two seem to know each other already. I'll see you back at the hotel later," his mother laughed as she patted him on the shoulder and pushed his lower jaw closed.
-----------------------------------------------
"You were the Kushi my sisters kept talking about?" Akira laughed as he leaned back into the soft cushions of the booth they sat in. He swirled his spoon around in his coffee as he looked at the woman in front of him.
"And you were the jerk that bought my photograph," she laughed. She took a long sip of her coffee smiled. "It's been a long time Akira. I barely recognized you. Then again I would never have thought you would be trying to attack me when you saw me. She stabbed at her piece of pie in on her plate and held the warm piece of pastry in her mouth savoring the flavor.
"I wasn't trying to attack you. I was just trying to get the picture back. God, you've changed a lot these last few years. Rui never showed us pictures of how hot you got."
"I think I should be flattered by that statement. Yeah, well getting contacts, growing out of puberty, and getting my braces taken off can change a person. Rui never mentioned you were coming to New York."
"Well, he left a few days before my parents decided where we would be going. I just arrived two days ago. I didn't even know where you were in New York. Tsukasa told me to come and try to look you up, but I forgot to ask Rui where you lived."
"I guess, we haven't kept up in contact with each other much since I left. I guess it was just fate that we would meet under these rather odd circumstances." She unraveled the rolled up poster and laid it flat on the table. "I still can't believe you paid five hundred bucks for this."
"Well it is pretty amazing," he chuckled. "It still baffles me that all along I knew the girl in the picture. You should wear the wings more often. Then again I'm a sucker for hot girls in tight dresses."
"You're still the same horny teenager as always, I see."
"Well, at least one of us has changed. Why were you at my father's company party with some old geezer?"
"That old geezer was my dad! I filled in for my mother at the last minute since she came down with a stomach virus. I don't blame the women in that room for gossiping. All the time I've lived in New York, I've never gone to any of my father's business functions. Half the time people don't realize that my father had a daughter living in the city. I didn't even know the party was being held by your father."
"Yeah, well it was a last minute thing he wanted to have to celebrate the opening of his New York office."
She glanced out the window seeing how in a few hours there would be daylight. "I've completely lost track of time. I should be getting back home." She stood up from her seat and folded the photograph back up and placed it beneath her arm. She proceeded towards the door out into the darkened streets with Akira trailing behind her. A taxicab stopped in front of her. "It was good seeing you," she whispered as she hugged him.
His entire body tingled upon the sensation of her warm lithe body pressed against his. "I'll see you again, right? he asked.
"You've got my number," she smiled. "Give me a call sometime and we can hang out before you leave. She opened the door to the cab, but stopped halfway in. She turned to Akira who had begun to walk away. "Hey Akira!" she yelled running after him to stop him.
He stopped in his tracks and turned to see her breathlessly running up to catch him. "What is it?"
"You forgot this." She handed him the photograph and kissed him on the cheek. "Merry Christmas."
He watched her jump into the waiting cab and speed off. He smiled looking down at the rolled up poster in his hand. For a moment, he pondered the red coloring on her cheeks wondering whether or not she was blushing or just reacting to the cold. He shook his head erasing those thoughts from his mind.
"I must be crazy? That's Tsukushi," he laughed to himself as he headed back towards the hotel.
-----------------------End Flashback-------------------
A/N: Here we go a very very long chapter that took me a pretty large chunk of time to complete. Like everything else I write I'm very long winded. I've gotten quite bored writing some of this, but I didn't want to rush some faulty explanation to get myself out of this Akira x Tsukushi pairing. Love takes trust, awkwardness, and tons and tons of angst! This kind of explains a bit of what's going on. The next few chapters will be basically more flashback explaining how things came to be up to the point where they are now. Next time, will start out AxT, but will be a more Rui-centric chap overall. Till then, ja!
PS: For those waiting for a Last Resort update it'll be a little while. I've gotten a rough outline of where I'm heading, but only a quarter written. Maybe in two weeks it'll be out. Watch out for Last Resort Chapter 9: Mating Rituals!
Chapter 4
The sunlight filtered into the room sending its rays across her sleeping face. Her eyes fluttered slightly open trying to bat away from the traitorous light trying to seduce her out of the sweet darkness her mind craved. It was too soon, too soon to be thrust into the real world to face another day. Tsukushi tugged at the sheets trying to shield her face while burying herself deeper under the covers. Fingers gently traced circles on her flat stomach sending tingling sensations through her body. Her body quivered showing signs of her half awakened state. Sensing her body's apparent pleasure of his fingers ministrations, he leaned his head down planting butterfly kisses along her shoulder while using his free hand finger the thin strap of her nightgown. He playfully tugged the strap letting it slide off her shoulder and revealing a teasing peek at the pale creamy skin of her breast.
"What do you think you're doing?" she sighed as she rolled over to face him. She pulled herself away from him and propped her head up on one arm.
Akira rubbed his face into the pillow out of frustration. He suddenly felt very cold and alone on his side of the bed even though she was less than half a foot away. Lifting his head up he looked into the only face that could make his heart flutter with a simple indescribable look. "Nothing at all," he sheepishly grinned. Inside his body and mind were battling in an inner turmoil of so many choices. He fought back the urge to flip her onto her back letting his primal urges ravage her until they both collapsed into two sweating heaps lying on top of one another.
"I recognize that look on your face, and not to mention your ahem friend. I hope you realize this is the end of the line, buster."
He tapped his fingers against the mattress obviously becoming annoyed with his damn promise to do things right this time. However, there was another option he could settle for at the moment. "It's not like I haven't seen it all before," he cheekily whispered into her ear before crushing her lips with this own. His expert tongue nudged her mouth open letting him dive deeper into her mouth. His hands slid beneath her thin nightgown stroking her soft skin.
Beneath the hurried gasps of air in between kisses faint moans and gasps of pleasure escaped her lips betraying the point she was trying to make earlier. A stray hand pushed up on her short nightgown bunched up at her waist, and lingered up her thigh towards her panties. Alarms went off in her head signaling her to put and end to this. Even though her body would be violently protesting this later with the aching hot sensation in the pit of her stomach, she had to stop. She pulled a hand away that had been grabbing at his hair and gently pushed him away from her. She struggled to regain some minute sense of composure and put on a smile showing much mirth, yet her eyes revealed a little bit of disappointment. "Why Mr. Mimasaka, are you trying to seduce me?"
"Well it was working, wasn't it?"
Tsukushi slid her way out form underneath him and skipped towards the bathroom. Peeking her head out for a moment she laughed, "Close, but not enough."
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Tsukushi tore open another box sifting through its contents. After much persuasion, she had ridden her apartment of Akira to focus on taking care of settling herself in. Her eyes lit up in recognition of what the boxes contents actually were. She picked up the worn out book and flipped through the pages gazing at each and every photograph that captured some of the happiest days of her life. She giggled as she looked at her younger self standing in the middle of F4. They were dressed in their Eitoku uniforms while she in her Eirin uniform. It was almost comical recalling how that was probably the only time F4 ever wore their uniforms to school due to her own insistence that being the first day of high school they should wear the uniform at least once for appearance sake. She could barely even remember how she got that stubborn Tsukasa to wear it. As she flipped through the pages, more and more of her life unfolded before her eyes.
To say, that life was dull for Tsukushi would be an understatement. Although she never quite enjoyed the jet set life F4 reveled in, she had made it her goal to see the world and take any opportunity to make her dream come true. That first year at Okinawa had been pleasant with the birth of her new baby brother, Susumu. She enjoyed being the one to witness most of his firsts, his first steps, his first words, and his first smile. She would never have traded those memories for anything. She did wish she could have returned to Tokyo for her last year of high school, but then she was offered her once in a lifetime chance. Her grades were good and she had the signs for a promising future. It was an offer to study abroad for a year. She had never once left the country and this was an opportunity to study in a different environment and a new culture she wasn't accustomed to.
She took it leading her to her new life in New York. It was strange leaving her family and friends, but she everyone seemed to accept her decision well. Her father explained it best as saying she was always a bird that needed to spread its wings. New York changed her life, and for the first time, she could fly.
The one year she spent completing high school in another country opened her eyes to the multitude of possibilities she could have. In retrospect, her intentions in life had been to return to Tokyo and complete high school with Rui and her friends, leading to college to study a degree in business. Although everyone always applauded her on her fanciful lifestyle, her parents could not help but worry over her lackadaisical attitude towards her future. So, her plans changed a bit giving her more freedom for a year before she would return and be locked into the path her parents had deemed the "safe" path.
Little did she know, that her hidden talents would be discovered that year. It all started so simply when a friend in the dormitory invited her to go to the school's darkroom to help her in putting together her portfolio. She watched as the rolls of negatives turned into beautiful photographs waiting to be mounted, preserved, and displayed. Slowly, she began to spend more and more time in the room learning how to develop and alter photographs in the way she wanted them. It was always a hobby of hers to take pictures of whatever caught her interest resulting in a camera being perpetually found in the bottomless pit called a purse she carried. Se had a natural talent for capturing moments that the normal human eye would have missed. With a little persuasion by her friends, especially Rui, and a careless whim, she presented her portfolio for critique to the visual designs school nearby and was accepted to her surprise. The surprise hit her parents a few months later, when she told them over the phone she would be staying in America to pursue college. It would be putting it likely to say that the argument that ensued was anything less than World War III. They flew in to see her the next day trying to persuade her to reconsider her acceptance into Eitoku University or even Tokyo U. She was adamant on staying. Her mother pleaded, but accepted, Her father ranted and exploded. In the end, he pulled out his final threat and made true to his word, he cut her off.
College turned out to be an eye opening experience. No longer being able to live in any style she pleased due to her parents' limitless credit provided by her credit card, she caught a break with an offer by a group of her high school friends to let her move into a spare room in their modest apartment in the Village. Another friend was able to hook her up with a job working at a small developing center on Canal Street that catered to various photographic needs ranging from headshots for the many aspiring actors hoping to catch a break on Broadway to processing summer vacation photographs for one hours development. It was a pretty crappy job, but it paid for her bills with a few unwanted donations from Rui.
Tsukushi almost burst out laughing at a photograph taken for her eighteenth birthday when her roommates decided to surprise her with a homemade birthday cake that wound up looking like a lopsided pancake. It was the thought that counts anyway. That was also, the same day that her parents had finally forgiven her and reached a compromise on the situation, which to this day she still believes had something to do with Rui's mother reprimanding her father for the mistreatment of his child. She was reinstated into the family on the condition she would double major in art and marketing satisfying everyone's wishes. It was a win-win situation.
Finally, her eyes fell upon the one photograph that turned her world around and would begin a new chapter in her life. It was the one that brought her and Akira together.
------------------------- Flashback----------------------
The door opened with a tinkling of the bell hanging overhead. A petite woman bearing the burden of a large portfolio case in hand with a Starbucks latte in the other stumbled her way inside fighting to close the door behind her with her foot. The cold winter chill hit her face like a cold slap in the face even underneath the barrier she made with her scarf wound tightly around her neck.
"How's my favorite employee doing today?!"
"Freezing her ass off!" Tsukushi yelled as she settled her coffee onto the counter and proceeded to strip herself free underneath layers of coat, sweater, scarf, gloves, and hat. She brushed out the small flakes of snow collected in her hair with hr fingers.
"You do realize that it's only forty degrees outside, right?" the man chuckled from behind the counter checking off the day's accounts in his ledger. "This is one of the warmer New York winters."
"I don't care. No matter how long I've been here, I'll never get over how cold it is," she retorted. Her body shivered as she pressed herself closer to the heater hidden underneath the counter trying to warm her frozen hands. "I really wish you would take that poster down in front, Mike."
"Why? Ever since you let me put that up it's been attracting a lot of business. I've even had a few offers to buy it." The older man scratched his chin with a contemplating look on his face on how much money he could have made on the sale if she would have allowed it. The scratchy sound of his fingers brushing against the stubble on his chin grated in the air.
Tsukushi glanced up at the enlarged poster recreated from the smaller photograph she had created. Her last project theme had been angels, and the one hanging by the window was her favorite one. The final product included only photographs of models she recruited, but somewhere towards the end of the shoot she decided to put on one of the dresses and angel wings. Thinking it would be fun to pretend to be a model, she arranged all lighting and camera perfectly to create a perfect black and white photograph of herself standing on the ledge of a rooftop overlooking the city. Her long hair had been let down, which at the time fell to her waist, and her slightly outgrown bangs fell over her face. Her face was turned upward looking up at the sky with her hands arms extended behind her as if she were about to take off in flight. It was a rare photograph considering she never liked having her own picture taken much. She always preferred to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. With the help with one of the models to snap the shutter they captured a Tsukushi she never thought existed. Her employer Mike had allowed her to use the studio to develop and work on her portfolio in peace in return for a copy of the photograph, which he blew up into a poster. After a lot of arguing and a major guilt trip Mike had won justifying that she gave him the photo ergo he could do whatever he wanted with it.
"Don't even think about it!" she screeched into his ear punching him in the shoulder. "I'll kill you if you sell it. How would you like it if some stranger had a three-foot picture of you in some barely visible dress hanging on their wall?"
"I think I would rather enjoy that."
"That's because you're a pervert. Not all people have the dream of strangers admiring you for your body and lusting after you," she laughed. She looked up at him noticing his rather handsomely defined features. "You can be so vain. What if I told Jen about your future aspirations for millions of women to worship you?"
He turned to her in shock of the thought of his girlfriend and Tsukushi's roommate giving him an earful about giving up his playboy attitudes. "You wouldn't."
"Try me," she smirked. She smiled to herself knowing that when it came Mike's girlfriend Jen, who was one of the sweetest women she had ever known, Mike was whipped. She never tolerated his playboy lifestyle and threatened to dump him the moment he tried to do anything funny. In a way, Mike reminded her a lot of Soujiro, which made gave her an instant connection to the man that resembled one of her old friends.
"You're a tough one, Kushi." He patted her on the head like a little puppy and sweetly mumbled under his breath. "So is there any chance you'll ever let me sell that poster?"
"Hmm." she pondered to herself mimicking his earlier actions. "How much have the offers been?"
"I think the biggest one I got was fifty bucks."
"Fifty bucks?" she laughed. "I thought I would be worth more than that."
"You've got such a big head."
"Fine. How about this? If you can find someone to pay $500 than you can let them have it. We'll split the profits."
"Geez, who the hell would pay so much for you? I guess I'll never make a sale," he shrugged.
"Can we stop talking about this and get to work already. What have we got scheduled today?"
He dragged his pencil along the appointment book checking off the list of clients that requested for Tsukushi to take their portraits. She was slowly gaining a small following and a list of clientele for her studio portraits. Their old photographer had unexpectedly quit putting them in a tight spot with a very angry model wanting her portfolio shots. Tsukushi stepped in offering her services and a guarantee that if her pictures didn't get her work the pictures would be free. Suffice it to say, that young model was now contracted as a print model for the new Revlon ads running all over the city. She got the job she wanted and Tsukushi was building up a reputation.
"We've got a last minute fill in for your 1:30 cancellation. The woman on the phone was really adamant about you taking some shots of her daughters. She offered to pay double to get you to take the job on such short notice. I think the girls are about eight and nine."
"God, don't tell me it's another one of those Park Avenue mothers wanting to get some shots of her daughters dressed up as dolls in matching outfits."
"Sounds like the type. Anyway, you should go back and finish setting up the equipment in back. They should be here any minute and the have the studio booked for the rest of the afternoon."
"Send them in when they get here!" she yelled over her shoulder.
------------------------
Akira grumbled to himself as he pulled his two sisters behind him down the street. He was still annoyed as hell over the fact that his mother had decided he would drop off hid sisters at the photographer's while she went shopping. It still bothered him to no ends the way he was treated by his parents. He was already eighteen, in college, and still forced to go along on family vacation during Christmas instead of spending it skiing with F3. What he wouldn't give to be in a warm cabin snuggling up to a Swiss ski bunny by the fire right now? He shrugged settling for the hot waitress he had met in the hotel the other day and planned to meet up with after he dropped off the girls.
"Onii-chan! Stop walking so fast! We can't keep up to you wearing this!" Aiko yelled as she hiked up her long frilly lace dress covered in a heavy petticoat.
"I can't believe Okaa-san thought these outfits were cute!" Suzume griped as she scratched her neck where the lace had irritated her skin.
"We're almost there!" he yelled silencing them in mid whine. Throwing his hands up in the air, he decided tell Aiko to cling to his back while he picked up Suzume bridal style. It was quite the sight to see the young man run through the streets with two squealing girls clinging to him fro dear life screaming at him to go faster.
Ten minutes later, he arrived out of breath and with very wobbly legs. He dumped them on the ground before collapsing on the counter in front of the chuckling blonde haired man. "Photo. 1:30. Take them!"
Mike nodded his head in understanding. He motioned the two girls forward and helped them take off their coats to hang up. He tried his best to keep a straight face at the awful mass of frills, lace, and puffy sleeves the girls were forced to wear. "Don't you two look pretty today," he smiled trying to keep a straight face.
"Shove it!" the two girls muttered under their breaths.
"Well!" he clapped his hands together. Our photographer is waiting for you two girls in back. why don't you go in and I'll introduce you in a few minutes. Will you be staying as well? he asked looking at Akira.
"No. I'll be back in a few hours to pick them up."
"Okay, well I just need to you to sign a few papers before we get started. I'll take the girls back and I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Whatever," Akira dismissively waved as he began punching numbers into his cell phone.
Mike pulled the back curtain open and ushered the two dazed girls into the large studio in the back. He nodded his head in warning when he saw Tsukushi peek out from behind the backdrop. "Are you ready back here?!"
"Yeup!" She ran forward and made a small bow. "Welcome to my world girls. I hope that we can have some fun today while I take your pictures. What are your names?"
"Aiko."
"Suzume."
Tsukushi frowned at the two glum faces and almost wanted to cry at the dressed they were forced to wear. They weren't exactly made for kid comfort. She waved at Mike who smiled knowing she would know how to rectify the situation. "You can call me Kushi." She took a hand form each of them and led them onto the set telling them to sit on the stool she had already set up. Seeing as how their dresses were a dark navy blue and reminded her of something out of the Nutcracker she set to work getting the proper props.
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Akira clapped his phone shut and glanced around wondering when that guy would come back so he could sign the release forms and leave. He impatiently paced back and forth in the room waiting for his return. He stopped near the window and curiously noticed the fact that whenever pedestrians would pass by they would slow down and take a few moments to stop and stare. His eyes locked on the poster in the front window as he craned his head more to the right to get a better view. There was something mildly familiar about the picture that he couldn't quite put his finger on.
"It's a beautiful photograph, isn't it?" Mike asked amusedly by behind him.
"It is," he agreed.
"Well, all I need you to do is sign these and you can leave. You look like you've got better places to be than here."
"Yeah, thanks." Akira absentmindedly signed the papers and buttoned up his coat. "I'll be back at seven to pick them up." He turned out the door and stepped out onto the cold street pulling up the collar of his coat. After hailing down a taxicab he stepped in before taking one last glance at the picture in the window.
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"Okay, girls. Just a few more minutes and we'll be all done!" Tsukushi yelled from behind the camera. It was the same like all the others. Turn to the left, turn to the right, point, click. Her heart went out to the two girls wearing dresses that should be burned. It was her job to make them look less hideous and that was what she was going to do. "Okay, last shot! She listened to the last click of the shutter and put her camera down to wind the film back on her manual camera. "You can take a break now and get yourself some hot chocolate from the table there. I think Mike bought some cookies too."
"Thanks," the two eager girls yelled back in unison.
Tossing the last roll of film with the other ten rolls she had taken in the last hour she locked the box and wrote the account number onto the label. She wiped the seat forming on her forehead from the glare of the hot studio lights. She glanced around the room and noticed that technically she was being paid for he next five hours, but she finished it in one. Grinning to herself, she ran towards the front of the store and came running back in with their coats. She tossed the coats towards the two girls. "Put these one. We're going out!"
"What?!" Aiko asked in confusion. "What about the pictures?"
"Where are we going?" Suzume asked while putting on her coat. "We can't do much in these."
Tsukushi cocked her head to the side. "Don't worry we'll take care of that," she smiled. She helped the girls bundle up before putting on her own coat and hurried them out the door.
Mike looked up from the magazine he was reading and he smiled knowingly. "See you later!" he waved. He leaned back in his chair and laughed to himself.
------------------------------
"Whoo! We made here back with ten minutes to spare." She planted a kiss on each of their rosy cheeks from the run back to the studio and handed them the bags with their dresses. "Go get changed. I hope I see you two again soon the next time you come by New York. I've got to go now. Bye!"
"Bye, Kushi!" Aiko smiled as she bounded into her arms and gave her a big hug before running into the back to change.
"Thanks for today. We had a lot of fun," Suzume smiled. She gave her a small hug and turned around waving goodbye.
"I see you gave them the special treatment," Mike grinned. "You can't help yourself when it comes to kidnapping the kids."
"They needed some fun," she responded in defense. "Anyways, I've got to go. My job is done here and if I want to get those photos ready by tomorrow I should get to bed early tonight."
"See you tomorrow!"
"Later!" she waved as she ran out the door in a hurry. She turned towards the left straight towards the nearest train station.
A few second later, a man entered the shop appearing to be in a much better mood than earlier. The lipstick stain on the collar of his shirt was enough to hint he had found himself a good time during his break form babysitting. "Hello," he cheerily greeted Mike.
"The girls will be out in a few minutes."
"Sure." Akira stepped towards the window noticing his reflection glaring back at him. The same stupid grin was plastered on his face much like the one he had on when he left his date, Maya's apartment earlier. He wondered whether or not he should try to set up another quick tryst with her before they went back home to Japan. His eyes lazily wandered back to the photograph in the window. There was just something about it that seemed to mesmerize him. Something in him just screamed at him to have it for himself. He looked around noticing that there were a few framed pictures on one side of the wall for sale, which was set up for local artists to try to sell their work. He perused through them not quite finding anything interesting. His eyes just kept wandering to the poster in front.
"See anything you like?" Mike asked. He stepped beside him and pointed to the wall. "All the photographs here were made by the students at the visual design college nearby. They're all hoping someone will come in here and buy one of their photographs. Nothing feels better than an artist's first sale. That's when you know you've made it."
"They're good," Akira shrugged. "How much for the one in the window?"
Mike glanced up at the poster and nodded his head. "That one's really not for sale."
"Everything has a price," Akira cockily stated walking over to the framed poster. "I'll pay you $40 for it."
"Sorry, but I can't"
"$75."
"Please stop asking. It's not for sale."
"$100."
"Why don't you take this nice one here."
"I want this one. $120."
"I really can't sell this."
"Forget this. Tell me how much you want it for already.
Mike's inner greed got the better of him as he watched the dollar signs dancing before his eyes. "$500?"
"Okay."
"What?" he gasped in disbelief at such a large sale He winced knowing that he would have hell to pay later.
"Can you wrap it up, please?"
"Umm yeah." He took the photograph and placed it on the counter taking out some paper to wrap it up. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Why would you pay $500 for this?"
"I dunno," he shrugged. "I guess, I can't resist a beautiful woman. Who's the picture of anyway?"
"Oh, I guess in a way it's a self portrait of the artist. She etched her initials on the bottom of the frame."
Akira bent down and looked at the small etchings in the wood. "TM."
"Onii-chan!" Aiko squealed as she ran into Akira nearly knocking him over.
"You look like you're in a much better mood?" he laughed picking himself off the ground.
"We had so much fun today!" Suzume joined in. "Kushi took us to Central Park to ice skate and then we had frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity's."
"We even got to take the subway there! Okaa-san would never take us on the subway!"
"I'm glad you had fun today," he smiled. "How did you manage to do all that in those dresses, though?"
"Oh, Kushi took us to the Gap and got us some new clothes. Look!" Aiko held up her shopping bag proudly showing a slightly damp pair of jeans from the snow and a blue sweater.
"She's a lot of fun."
"All done here," Mike called out as he tied the last knot in the string binding the package.
Akira pulled out his wallet and slapped a small clump of bills onto the counter. "Thanks."
Aiko and Suzume waved goodbye as Akira lead them outside into the waiting car parked in front. Mike watched as the car sped away and he counted the bills in his hand.
"Hey Mike!"
"What?!" he jumped up from his seat in surprise. "
Tsukushi laughed at having startled the man. "I forgot my cell. I was expecting a call from my dad," she laughed as she ran behind the counter and pulled out her phone from a drawer. She leaned over his shoulder staring at the bills in his hand. "Where'd you get all that money?"
He slid off his seat and backed away in fear of what was to come. "Before you kill me, here's your half," he gulped.
"What are you talking about?" she asked holding the money. "There's got to be about $200 here."
"Actually $250."
"$250?" she quizzically asked. Her head snapped towards the window and her mouth fell to the ground. "You didn't?!"
"Hey, you said if someone was willing to pay $500 I could sell it."
"Who did you sell it to?! Maybe I can give him back the money for the photograph."
He contemplated whether or not it would be a good idea to tell her that that guy who picked up the girls bought it. Figuring it would be better to keep his identity confidential and to spare him the harassment of Tsukushi trying to get it back he remained tight lipped. He paid in cash. I don't even know his name," he lied.
"I can't believe you did that?! You don't even know what he's going to do with it. If I find my face or head posted up on some nude body for Internet porn I'll kill you with my bare hands!"
"He didn't look like some porn king," he answered begging for mercy. "He really wanted the picture."
Ring.
"Hello!" Tsukushi barked into the phone. Her face softened as she recognized the voice on the other line.
Seeing this as a chance to escape Mike grabbed his coat and ran out the door. "I'll see you tomorrow. Lock up will, ya?" He dashed out the door running for dear life to get away from a murderous Tsukushi.
Tsukushi watched his sly grin disappear out of sight. She cursed under her breath as her father asked her how her day was.
"I'm fine, Papa," she cheerily replied trying to veil the anger in her voice. How are Mama and Susumu doing?"
"They're good except for Susumu who seems to have caught some sort of stomach virus. I think the plane food didn't agree well with him. I was going to ask you to do me a favor."
"What is it? Do you want me to come over to your hotel and watch Susumu for you guys?"
"I was getting to that. You know, I have to attend a small business function on behalf of Hanazawa-san, and your mother was supposed to accompany me. She decided she would rather watch Susumu herself, so she suggested that you accompany me instead as my date. How would you like to go out to dinner with an old man tomorrow night? There will be dinner and dancing."
"You know I hate those kinds of things, Papa," she whined.
"Why don't you humor an old man? We haven't had a chance to go out just the two of us in a while. We can catch up and I promise if you want we can leave early if you're not having fun."
The prospect of a free meal and dancing was quite enticing to her. He was right that she hadn't had any free time to spend with him lately. "Fine. What time will you be picking me up?"
"Good. I'll pick you up at your apartment at about six."
"I'll see you then."
-----------------------------------
Tsukushi cursed under her breath as she ran back towards her apartment to get ready for dinner that night. She had already had a long day of submitting her final projects to each of her classes ending another semester. All she wanted to do was curl up in front of the television to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas", a tradition she and her roommates had done each year since she first came to New York.
"Outta my way!" she yelled running into her room and dropping her coat on the floor of the entrance.
"Whoa! Look out, Kushi is on the rampage again!" a red head yelled from the couch. She picked up the remote and flipped through the channels trying to find something good to watch. "You're dad just called and said he might be a little late.'
"Got it!" Tsukushi yelled from the bedroom. A few crashes were heard from her inner domain as well as a few select words.
"Are you okay in there?" Tsukushi's other roommate, Maggie asked. She carefully pushed the door open and watched in amusement as Tsukushi hopped on one foot nursing a stubbed toe.
"I've got everything under control," Tsukushi replied as she unzipped her dress from its bag.
Jen hopped up from her comfortable position on the couch and stood opposite of Maggie in the doorway.
"I think she needs our help."
"Let's get to work," Maggie sighed as she pushed Tsukushi onto the chair and grabbed a brush. She pointed towards the make up bag on the table. "You take care of the make up and I'll try to do something with this."
"Got it!" Jen enthusiastically yelled as she evilly picked up an eyelash curler. "We'll have you ready in no time."
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"Akira, can you get the door?" a woman called out form inside the bathroom. "I'm not quite dressed yet."
"Okay," Akira replied getting up from the couch.
He was still a bit grumpy about the fact that his mother had taken his rather expensive purchase the day before and proclaimed it hers. She was always acting like a big kid thinking anything wrapped up was a gift for her. He was never the one to deny his mother; she was a very persuasive woman. She liked the portrait so much she decided to hang it in his father's newest office building she was decorating while in New York.
He trudged over to the door while smoothing out the wrinkles in his tuxedo. As he swung open the door, his two sisters running up from behind him pushed him back.
"Kushi!"
"Sorry girls," Mike answered holding a package in his hands. "Kushi had to meet up with her father today, so I had to come to deliver this. He looked up at Akira and sheepishly grinned. "Sorry if it's a little late. Kushi wanted to make sure everything was perfect before it was delivered."
"That's fine. We didn't really need them that desperately."
"Is that the photographer?" Akira's mother asked as she emerged into the living room.
"Oh no, madam. I'm the owner of the studio. Normally our photographer would have delivered these, but she couldn't make it."
"That's fine," the woman replied. She took the package from his hands and set upon unwrapping it to display the two framed portraits and photo album she had ordered. The moment she caught sight of the portraits her breath caught in her throat. "They're perfect."
"She's really good," Akira gasped as he stared at the individual portraits of Aiko and Suzume. "She actually made them look good in those hideous dresses.'
"Don't say that about those dresses your grandmother sent your sisters. Although they were quite dreadful," she laughed. "Your studio's work is as good as I've heard Mr. Richardson. I'll have to remember to recommend your studio to my friends."
"Thank you," Mike blushed. "Oh yes, before I forget. These are for the girls. It's a small gift from Kushi." He pulled out two tiny photo books and handed each of the girls one with their names inscribed in silver ink on the outside in Japanese. "Sorry, I can't read Japanese. I'm not sure which ones which."
Aiko and Suzume giggled as they switched the books in their hands. When they opened them up their eyes lit up.
"Wow!"
"I didn't know she took pictures when we went out yesterday."
"Yeah, Kushi does that a lot. She's always taking candid shots when no one's looking. I think she wrote each of you a note inside."
Akira picked up one of the albums from Aiko's hand and flipped through it laughing at a few of the shots of his sisters ice skating and chasing pigeons in the park. He stopped at the short note on the last page studying the carefully penned characters. "She knows Japanese?"
"Yeah, well she's originally from there. I think that's why she took such an easy liking to the girls She rarely gets to speak to anyone except her parents in Japanese. It makes her feel less homesick, I guess."
"When were these taken?" their mother asked.
"Oh, don't be angry but whenever Kushi has a job she generally finishes early and takes the kids out to have some fun for the rest of the day after being cooped up in the studio for so long. I hope you don't mind. She always makes a little memory book for them afterwards."
"These are even better than the portraits," the woman sighed. I think I would like to have a few more copies of these. Would that be possible?"
"Sure, we get that a lot from the parents after they see the memory books. I'll have a few more sent over as soon as possible. I'll give you a call when they are ready." Mike buttoned up his coat and stood up to walk towards the door. "I'll show myself out."
"I think I would like to meet this Kushi myself," Akira's mother laughed. "She sounds like a miracle worker."
"So would I," Akira agreed.
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"Hey, Rui," Tsukushi chirped through her cell phone while riding in the car beside her father.
"Yo," a monotone voice answered.
"So how is the ski trip?"
"Soujiro has run off with one of the ski instructors. Tsukasa's been skiing all day long. And I? Well, I caught up with some sleep."
"You're one of the few people I know who would fly halfway around the world to sleep in a different location," she laughed. "Did you guys get my Christmas presents I sent?"
"Yeah. By the way, thanks for the new sheet music and just so you know I plan to put that new pillow to good use. Soujiro wanted to tell you thanks for the book, but he wouldn't show it to the rest of us. He said he wanted to study the pictures before he showed anyone. Tsukasa ate the pineapple you sent. Why do you send him a pineapple every year?"
"Cause he's a pineapple head. It's been a joke between the two of us since I left. Every year I send him a pineapple and every year he sends me daisies, calling them weeds like me. So what about Akira?"
"Didn't I tell you? He went on vacation with his family this year. I don't really know where he went exactly. I'll give him your gift when he gets back next month. Did you like your gift?"
"Like always your presents never cease to surprise me. I think I've become obsessed with folding paper cranes now. I want to try to a make a thousand. Did Shizuka like the Tiffany's bracelet I sent her?"
"Yeah, she loved it. It's kind of scary how you know her taste without ever meeting her. I don't think it's fair for my best friend's gift to up show my gift for my girlfriend."
"How is it my fault she is just a woman of good taste? Well, all you ever talk about is her," she giggled. "I feel like I've known her forever."
"What about Junpei? Shouldn't you be spending Christmas with your boyfriend, too?" She sighed heavily into the phone. "I broke up with him last week. I knew I should never have dated a model. He's a little too preoccupied with his looks for my taste."
"Well, Shizuka is a model, too. I mean she cares about her looks, but it couldn't have been that bad."
"Listen, if a guy takes longer than me to get ready then there definitely is something wrong. We were never that serious anyway."
"You probably broke the poor guy's heart like all the others. He's just another to add to the list."
"It was mutual! You make me sound like some heartless heartbreaker. Not all of us can find the perfect mate like you. I want to meet the woman who is insane enough to put up with you."
"Maybe if you got your butt back here you would."
"I'll come home when I'm good and ready. Right now I'm having too much fun here. I promise I'll go back one day. Anyway, you could always come here."
"I like my bed too much to move away from it."
"You could bring it with you and become a starving artist like me. You could play your violin on the street for money and I can sell my photographs beside you. Think of all the quarters to be made, man."
"As enticing as that sounds I'll have to pass."
"You're no fun. I've got to go. We're almost at the party."
"Have fun."
"I always do. Same time next week."
"Okay. Bye."
"Bye."
"I see you still call Rui every week like always?" her father laughed as he helped her out of the car.
"Like clockwork for the last three years," she smiled as she tucked her cell phone into her purse. "I've never missed a call."
"Shall we, madam?" her father smiled offering his arm.
"Of course, kind sir," she replied hooking her arm through her father's.
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Akira looped through the guests trying to escape yet another mind numbing conversation with one of his father's business associates. He hated these parties and all the shoptalk that went on around him. The torture was only heightened when his mother would sidle up next to him with another girl in tow trying to play matchmaker. Grabbing another glass of champagne he disappeared into the next room where all the children were holed up in. In away, he missed the days when these parties only meant stuffing his face and hanging out with F3 making fun of all the adults. He looked on at his sisters as they remained in a tight circle with a few other girls giggling about something or another.
"Akira!"
"Damn!" he muttered to himself as he felt an arm on his shoulder.
"I've been looking for you everywhere. I want you to meet Hino Aya. Her father has just joined in a merger with your father's company."
"Hello," he politely bowed at the rather plain girl in front of him.
"Why don't you two get to know each other a little better?"
He glared as his mother walked away giving him a thumbs up sign. He hoped that the glare he was sending to the back of her head would burn a hole right through her. Not wanting to be rude to the poor girl left stranded with him he offered his hand. "Would you like to dance?"
Across the room Tsukushi was bored out of her mind as she sat at her table sipping on champagne. Her father had abandoned her a half hour ago to discuss the latest project he was working on with some man whose name she had long ago forgotten. She twirled a lock of her curled hair in her fingers staring into nothingness. Deciding to make some sort of effort to mingle she wandered around the room trying to make out any familiar face. As she stood up and smoothes out the wrinkles in her dress, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around she gasped, "Tsubaki?"
"I never thought I would see you here?" she laughed. "I always thought you stayed away form the evil corporate dinners."
Tsukushi moved forward to give her friend a hug. "I haven't seen you for awhile. I thought you'd be too busy as a newlywed and all. Where's the lucky man anyway?"
"He's over there discussing some sort of business with my mother. I find it utterly disturbing that he likes her so much."
"Well she did pick him out. I'll never get over how weird you rich people can be choosing your own children's spouses."
"I was relatively lucky. Hiro is the average boring doting husband and all. He gives me the space I need and it all works out, I guess."
"I can hear the love in your voice."
"Love doesn't equate in a Doumyouji marriage," she sighed. "Did your father drag you here? I heard Hanazawa- san couldn't make it, so he sent a representative."
"As always, my father agreed to it. Hey, it was a free trip to come and visit me, too."
"I think I better go. My mother is giving me that evil eye of hers."
"How does she do it?"
"I have no idea, but I better go before something bad happens. Give me a call. We should meet for lunch sometime."
"Sure."
She watched as Tsubaki gracefully walked to her husband's side. The rather timid looking man offered a weak smile and wrapped his arm around her waist. Tsubaki plastered a big smile on her face pretending nothing was wrong in the world. All Tsukushi was frown at the sight of what looked like an indication in the increase of the current divorce rate.
"May I have this dance?" a masculine voice asked from behind her.
"Of course." Tsukushi turned around and followed her father onto the dance floor twirling her around. A small section of the dance floor cleared at the sight of the beautiful young woman in the off white silk gown. The bottom of her gown fanned out as she was pulled back into her father's arms out of the spin. "You were always a show off," she smirked.
"How about we show them how dancing is really done?" he smirked.
The crowd slowly parted making more room for the father daughter couple dancing in the middle of the room. Tsukushi almost burst out laughing when she heard the snide comment from a woman on the side about her father flaunting a mistress. Along with the apparent gawking and staring from other men around the room old enough to be her father, the situation was becoming funnier by the minute.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. What will people Mama say when rumors spread that you brought a younger woman with you to this party?"
"Maybe we wouldn't be on the bad side of gossip if you showed your face around society a little more often. I warn you now, stay away from these lecherous men who dare gawk at my daughter. I never thought them to be pedophiles."
"I am eighteen, Papa. It is legal."
"You'll always be my little girl in my eyes." He spun her out and tossed her back into a deep dip. "Oh!"
Tsukushi pulled herself back up balancing herself out. She bent over and helped support her father who looked like he was about to fall over. "Are you okay?"
"Just a little dizzy," he whispered as he tried to stand up properly. He staggered forward and grasped onto his daughter's shoulder for support.
"Why don't you sit down," she worriedly suggested as she led him to the nearest chair.
Akira glanced over Aya's shoulder trying to catch a glimpse of the young woman causing quite stir amongst the old bags whispering. All he could catch was a brief glimpse of the back of her head over the gathered crowd. From what he could see, she had quite a nice body. Too bad, she only went for old men. He continued dancing forgetting the mysterious woman and began to count the hours until he could leave.
"Why don't you drink some water? You're face is very pale."
"Thank you," her father replied as he took a few small sips from the glass. His head was swirling once again forcing him to close his eyes in an attempt to stabilize his sight. He felt Tsukushi's hand on his forehead.
"You're burning up!"
"I think I might have caught something from Susumu," he winced as another pain shot through his head.
"Come on, I'll help you to the car. We're going back to the hotel and getting you into bed as quickly as possible."
She grabbed her father's coat and put it under her arm while she placed her father's arm around her shoulder helping him walk towards the elevator.
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Tsukushi slunk into the backseat of the cab as she was being driven back to the party. Apparently Susumu's stomach virus had spread like wildfire infecting everyone in her family except her. Thus, she would have to spend the next few days without her family while they were quarantined in their hotel room. It had been a long couple of hours before she felt better about leaving them all lone and made sure they were tucked into bed for the night.
She sighed I relief as she slipped her sore feet out of her heels and massaged the soles of her feet. She glanced out the window watching the cars pass by as she was being driven through Midtown Manhattan. All she wanted to do was get home and crawl into bed for a good twenty hours of sleep, but she was now being forced to go back to the party after realizing she had forgotten her purse and coat in the rush to get her father home.
It was freezing outside as she ran into the building startling the security guards with her frazzled appearance. Luckily the man pitied her, and allowed her to go upstairs to the main ballroom to retrieve her lost items. Inside she found her purse was still on the table with everything inside intact, and she just made it in time before the clerk at the coat check closed for the night. She happily skipped down the hall, but something caught her eye around the bend. She peeked around her making sure no one saw her and to her surprise, her portrait was hanging in one of the large offices.
In most circumstances, she would have considered it stealing to take back the portrait without asking, but after careful deliberation she decided she would be taking back only what was rightfully hers. To make sure it was really hers, she checked for the side of the frame and felt for her signature carving in the frame. It was definitely hers the moment she felt the TM mark. She climbed onto the chair and carefully pulled it off the wall Deciding to leave the frame behind, she popped the frame open and rolled up the enlarged photograph and tucked it beneath her coat. Feeling a little bit guilty, she placed whatever cash she had in her wallet onto the table to pay them back for her thievery. With a smile on her face, she walked out the door and towards the elevator thinking no one would be the wiser.
Akira pulled off his tie as he wandered through the halls of his father's office building. The party had finally come to a close and he had finally managed to shake off that piranha, Aya. It was as if she had attached herself to him the rest of the night not wanting to let him go. He slipped into his father's office hoping she wouldn't come looking for him in there. To his surprise, he heard someone enter the room, so he hid behind the door of the bathroom. He peered out to catch a glimpse of who entered the room. He quickly recognized the familiar dress and the back of her head as the woman that everyone was gossiping about earlier. Silently he watched as she picked up the photograph his mother had decided to hang in his father's office and threw few bills on the table. A few minutes later, she dashed out of the room like the thief she was.
He jumped out from his hiding place and gawked at the money left on the table It was rather odd to see a thief pay for something they stole, but it didn't matter. All he wanted back was what had been taken. He stuffed the money into his pocket and ran towards the elevator heading fro the lobby, where she most likely was headed.
Tsukushi rushed out the front door sighing relief for not being caught. She let out the breath she was holding and began walking down the street hoping to hail down a cab.
"Where do you think you're going?! I think you have something that is mine." An arm grabbed her wrist from behind and spun her around.
"Let go of me!" She screamed as she kicked him in the shin.
He bent over in pain, but still held his firm grip on her wrist preventing her from escaping. "Ow! You stupid bi..!"
"Kushi!" two voiced high-pitched voices called out from behind the fighting couple.
Tsukushi stopped her struggle and turned towards the two little girls running over to her. "Aiko? Suzume?"
"What?! You two know her?" Akira asked in shock.
"Of course, we do," Aiko matter of factly stated. She hugged Tsukushi's waist. "Thank you for the memory books."
"It was nothing," Tsukushi replied smiling down at the little girl.
"Who's this?" their mother asked out of curiosity. It wasn't every day she caught her son trying to maul a girl on the street. "And why were you attacking her, Akira?"
"This is the photographer who took our pictures yesterday, Okaa-san," Suzume interjected.
Akira released her wrist in confusion of what was going on. Why was the photographer in his father's office stealing the portrait he bought?
"Hello, I'm Mimasaka Naoko," she bowed. "I've been wanting to meet the woman who created those wonderful portraits of my daughters."
Tsukushi was stunned. "Mimasaka? That would make you two?" She asked pointing towards Aiko and Suzume.
"Mimasaka Aiko and Mimasaka Suzume," they answered together.
Tsukushi spun around and looked at the man that had attacked her earlier putting two and two together. She stared at him finally realizing why he had seemed so familiar. It had been three years since she last saw him, and he had grown up a lot since then. "Akira!" she laughed pointing at him in recognition.
"How did you know my name was Akira?" he asked rather disturbed by her.
She held back the huge smile on her face ready for his mouth to drop. She turned back to Mrs. Mimasaka and extended a hand. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Makino Tsukushi."
"Tsukushi!" he screamed in disbelief.
"I think these two need to get to bed, and you two seem to know each other already. I'll see you back at the hotel later," his mother laughed as she patted him on the shoulder and pushed his lower jaw closed.
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"You were the Kushi my sisters kept talking about?" Akira laughed as he leaned back into the soft cushions of the booth they sat in. He swirled his spoon around in his coffee as he looked at the woman in front of him.
"And you were the jerk that bought my photograph," she laughed. She took a long sip of her coffee smiled. "It's been a long time Akira. I barely recognized you. Then again I would never have thought you would be trying to attack me when you saw me. She stabbed at her piece of pie in on her plate and held the warm piece of pastry in her mouth savoring the flavor.
"I wasn't trying to attack you. I was just trying to get the picture back. God, you've changed a lot these last few years. Rui never showed us pictures of how hot you got."
"I think I should be flattered by that statement. Yeah, well getting contacts, growing out of puberty, and getting my braces taken off can change a person. Rui never mentioned you were coming to New York."
"Well, he left a few days before my parents decided where we would be going. I just arrived two days ago. I didn't even know where you were in New York. Tsukasa told me to come and try to look you up, but I forgot to ask Rui where you lived."
"I guess, we haven't kept up in contact with each other much since I left. I guess it was just fate that we would meet under these rather odd circumstances." She unraveled the rolled up poster and laid it flat on the table. "I still can't believe you paid five hundred bucks for this."
"Well it is pretty amazing," he chuckled. "It still baffles me that all along I knew the girl in the picture. You should wear the wings more often. Then again I'm a sucker for hot girls in tight dresses."
"You're still the same horny teenager as always, I see."
"Well, at least one of us has changed. Why were you at my father's company party with some old geezer?"
"That old geezer was my dad! I filled in for my mother at the last minute since she came down with a stomach virus. I don't blame the women in that room for gossiping. All the time I've lived in New York, I've never gone to any of my father's business functions. Half the time people don't realize that my father had a daughter living in the city. I didn't even know the party was being held by your father."
"Yeah, well it was a last minute thing he wanted to have to celebrate the opening of his New York office."
She glanced out the window seeing how in a few hours there would be daylight. "I've completely lost track of time. I should be getting back home." She stood up from her seat and folded the photograph back up and placed it beneath her arm. She proceeded towards the door out into the darkened streets with Akira trailing behind her. A taxicab stopped in front of her. "It was good seeing you," she whispered as she hugged him.
His entire body tingled upon the sensation of her warm lithe body pressed against his. "I'll see you again, right? he asked.
"You've got my number," she smiled. "Give me a call sometime and we can hang out before you leave. She opened the door to the cab, but stopped halfway in. She turned to Akira who had begun to walk away. "Hey Akira!" she yelled running after him to stop him.
He stopped in his tracks and turned to see her breathlessly running up to catch him. "What is it?"
"You forgot this." She handed him the photograph and kissed him on the cheek. "Merry Christmas."
He watched her jump into the waiting cab and speed off. He smiled looking down at the rolled up poster in his hand. For a moment, he pondered the red coloring on her cheeks wondering whether or not she was blushing or just reacting to the cold. He shook his head erasing those thoughts from his mind.
"I must be crazy? That's Tsukushi," he laughed to himself as he headed back towards the hotel.
-----------------------End Flashback-------------------
A/N: Here we go a very very long chapter that took me a pretty large chunk of time to complete. Like everything else I write I'm very long winded. I've gotten quite bored writing some of this, but I didn't want to rush some faulty explanation to get myself out of this Akira x Tsukushi pairing. Love takes trust, awkwardness, and tons and tons of angst! This kind of explains a bit of what's going on. The next few chapters will be basically more flashback explaining how things came to be up to the point where they are now. Next time, will start out AxT, but will be a more Rui-centric chap overall. Till then, ja!
PS: For those waiting for a Last Resort update it'll be a little while. I've gotten a rough outline of where I'm heading, but only a quarter written. Maybe in two weeks it'll be out. Watch out for Last Resort Chapter 9: Mating Rituals!