Thank you all for the great reviews you've given. There's only 4-6 chapters left before this story comes to an end. Right now, I'm working on my fourth story & hopefully it will be as successful as this one. I'll give you a glimpse on the last chapter.

Chapter Twelve: Complicated

She was still running ten minutes later when she collided with Matt in the main lobby by his office.

"Oooof!"

His strong arms grabbed her & he stepped back with one leg to stop them from falling over. "Whoa! I know how excited you are to see me, but really, there's no rush. I'd still have been here after lunch."

Mimi was breathless for a moment. She looked up into his smiling face & was horrified to find herself close to tears. She tried to struggle free. "I'm sorry."

He saw the tears before she could looked away. "Hey, what's wrong?"

She laughed nervously. "Nothing, really. You know us girls. Always on the verge of some emotional crisis."

"Bullshit."

"What?"

"I said bullshit." He tightened his hold when she continued to struggle free. "You are the least emotional person I know."

Mimi managed to look annoyed through her tears. "Well, thanks a lot!" She thought for a moment. "I think."

"Tell me." He raised an eyebrow.

Concern was the very last emotion she could deal with at the moment. At least from Matt. She shook her head. "I can't, not right no, Matt."

Something caught her eye through the large windows. She saw Michael walking towards the building. "I have to go."

He followed the direction of her gaze & his concern grew to the size of Asia's continent. "What's going on?"

She noticed the soft tone of his voice & the determination in his eyes. "Not now, Ishida." Again she struggled to get away.

"I think I have the right to know, don't you?"

"As my concerned friend or my jealous lover?"

"As both." His gaze was sure & steady.

Mimi looked around, noticing the look people gave them. "I'll tell you later."

His arms tightened slightly in a reassuring hug. "Tell you what, go out with me? Just the two of us, like a real couple. You can tell me what's troubling you & I'll try to take your mind off whatever it is."

The suggestion in his low tones brought a smile to her face. He always had that ability to make her smile.

"Okay," she glanced around again. "Only if you let go."

He released her with a slow smile. Watching her walk away, he thought for a moment about what was troubling her. The paranoid voice in the back of his head wanted to know why Michael still had the power to make her upset…and again, why she didn't want Michael to know about their relationship.

Worse, maybe it was he, Matt, who made her upset. Did she regret making love to him? Hell, what if didn't enjoy it as much as he did? A memory entered his mind of soft female cries & he smiled. Nope, that wasn't it.

Then he thought about what she said before she left. "Only if you let go." Matt realized that he was fast approaching the stage of not wanting to do that. Not wanting to let her go…at least, not this time.

Matt made sure that their 'date' was the perfect distraction. He brought her to the harbor & they sailed across one of the smaller islands & had a picnic dinner. Now they sat together watching the sunset.

"You know something?" Mimi leaned back against his chest, a glass of wine in her hand. "You remind me of someone I thought I knew."

"Was he good looking?"

She smiled. "Very much."

"Does he have an incredible sense of humor?"

"He can be funny at times."

There was a slight pause & then his words tickled softly against her ear. "Good kisser?"

She turned to look up at him. "I didn't know back then."

"Wish you did?" He kissed the tip of her nose.

"My life was complicated enough at the time. Thanks anyway."

Matt was silent for a moment, looking down at her face. "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if things were different?" He placed a light kiss on her mouth.

Mimi set her glass on the ground beside them, moving away so that she could look properly at him. "Sometimes. Actually, I did just recently."

"We might never have met, never been friends. You might never have dated Michael. You might never have gone to America and you & I wouldn't be lovers right now."

Her honey brown eyes stared into his ocean blue as he reached forward to brush a long strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers trailed along the side of her cheek before tracing her mouth.

"I want you to know that I have no regrets about anything that happened between us. I don't regret meeting you & I especially don't regret being your lover," she said.

His fingers trailed down over her chin & down her neck, while his lips formed into a relieved smile. At least some of his questions were answered.

"I'm not ashamed of what happened between us last night," she added.

His fingers moved over the top of her light sweater, allowing his fingers to touch the soft skin he found there. "It's called love making." He smiled seductively at the question in her eyes. "You referred to it as sex last night. I know that difference. What we did wasn't just sex. It may sound cliché, but it's true."

Her chest rose & fell a little bit faster beneath his hands. "I know that."

"Good."

She moved her hand up to where his hand lay against her skin & twined her fingers with his. "Really, I do."

Moving his other hand to cup the back of her head, he pulled her forward for a long sensual kiss, igniting her senses again. "I'm glad because when it happens again, I need to know you know what it is we're doing."

Mimi caught the teasing glimmer in his eyes & rose to the bait. "Oh, and we're going to do it again, are we?"

"Oh, yeah."

"You mean that one time wasn't enough for you?"

"Now, baby, if you think for one minute that what we did made me want you less then you're mistaken."

"Well then," a sense of femininity swept over her bones. An old-fashioned sense of sexuality. She leaned forward & spoke against his mouth. "Now that that's sorted out, maybe you should talk less & kiss more."

He looked up, as if he was thinking about it, & then he said, "Okay."

Mimi thought that once they made love, the spark in her belly wouldn't be so quick to fire up when he kissed her. But she was wrong. The flames spread all over her body burning it faster. It felt so good. They kissed for long, glorious minutes before they eventually pulled themselves apart for air.

Matt brushed her hair back, kissing her forehead gently before resting his there. "Do you want to tell me now?"

Her eyes looked up into his. Matt saw her hesitation & waited patiently. If she was going to tell him, he wanted it to be her choice.

"We used to talk about problems all the time, didn't we?"

He smiled. "Indeed we did."

There was silence.

"C'mon, Tachikawa, if you can't talk to your best friend when you have a problem, then who do you talk to?"

Mimi moved her head away a little, her eyes never leaving his. "It was different back then. We weren't…we weren't doing all this."

"Shouldn't the fact we're doing ALL THIS mean we talk more?"

"Technically…"

"So what's the difference? Why is it so difficult for you?"

She took a deep breath. "It's about Michael."

Matt felt the temperature around them drop. He leaned away from Mimi without even realizing it. The paranoid voice in his head got louder. "I'm listening."

Mimi noticed the moment he moved away from her. It was as if a wall came between them. For a moment she felt lost. But she spent the entire afternoon thinking about nothing else & decided that she needed to tell him…because he might overreact if he found out on his own.

She took another deep breath. "He came to talk to me."

"That's good. You two haven't had a serious conversation since you came home. So he decided to catch up on everything in your life & you told him about us." He folded his arms across his chest. "Right?"

Mimi blushed. "Not exactly."

The voice in his head became louder. "So what did you talk about? The weather?"

"No," she noted the sarcasm in his voice. "He…he has some…doubts about his engagement to Kynna."

Matt stared. Stay calm, Ishida, stay calm.

"He's not quite sure if he's ready to get married to her."

His eyes stared coolly into hers. "And you told him it was only natural to have doubts & he'll be fine."

She nodded, clasping her hands unconsciously in front of her.

"So that was it," he began putting away the remnants of their food. "Great, we'll send a nice gift & maybe you'll have the nerve to tell him that we're together so that we can hold hands or something at the wedding."

"It's not that simple."

Matt frowned, unable to look at her anymore. "Why?"

"He wants to know if we…Michael & I…" she swallowed hard in an attempt to moisten her dry throat, "still had a chance together before he settles down."

There was a deadly silence everywhere except in Matt's head. So that was it. He would never stand a chance against that kind of history. What they had was years old & this was brand new & fragile. He continued packing their things away.

Mimi watched him. Of the many reactions she imagined him having, silence was not one of them. It scared her more than anything else could. "Ishida?"

He stood up & began walking towards the small sail boat.

"Ishida," her voice was louder, maybe even a little nervous. "Talk to me, dammit!"

He stretched to his full height, then turned slowly to face her. His face was expressionless, his eyes cold. "What do you want me to say?"

Mimi got angry. "Something…anything that might indicate you give a damn would be really good!"

"He's supposed to be my friend too, you know. So I'm hardly likely to go beat him up because he still wants you. In fact, I can see more closely where he's coming from now."

Her sharp intake of breath tapped the door to his conscience. His last statement had been uncalled for, & he knew it. "I'm sorry, Tachikawa. That was uncalled for."

He saw the hurt in her eyes. "I just don't get what you expect me to do here." He held his hands out to his sides. "You come out on a date with me, we spend the evening together like any normal couple, & then you tell me you're going back to your ex, who just happens to be my friend. What do you want me to say to you?"

As she stared at him, he shook his head & turned away. "I don't remember saying I was going back to him."

There was another deadly silence.

"All I said was that he asked me whether or not we should try again. I just wanted to tell you before he came to talk to you about it…which I'm pretty sure he will."

Matt heard the sadness in her voice & his heart twisted. He overreacted, but he still knew that Mimi & Michael had a history. They were in love back then & they've been happy. Maybe Michael was right. Maybe they did have a chance of being together. But that didn't mean Matt wanted it to happen. He was acting like a selfish jerk & he knew it.

"What do you want?"

Mimi swallowed down the sob threatening to come out of her chest. "I want my life to not be so complicated."

He nodded. "I can agree with that."

"Matt," she reached out towards him, hesitated, & then lightly touched his arm. "Look at me."

With a steadying breath, he turned & was surprised by what he saw in her eyes. She looked absolutely terrified. Without thinking about anything else, he reached out & touched her cheek. "You look like the world's about to end."

"I don't want to lose my best friend." She turned her face closer to his touch. "I want to be honest with you, but how can I keep doing that if every time I tell you something difficult you walk away from me? I need you through this because I don't know where we're going any more than you do."

"You're not on your own."

"Then don't walk away from me."

With a sob, she stepped forward into his arms. Resting her cheek against his chest, she listened for the steady, reassuring beat of his heart.

"This is tougher than I expected."

Mimi smiled at his words. She knew it took a lot for him to say them. In all the years she had known him, he was never the type of person to flaunt his emotions. She never had to doubt because he worked passionately for the things he cared about. First his family, then his friends, his job, & now the town he loved so much. He showed how much he cared through actions, not words.

"Don't shut me out."

He stroked her hair. "What about Michael?"

"Give him time. He'll see that Kynna's the girl for him & this will all be over." She looked up, eyes shimmering. "But until then…"

"You still don't think that he should know about this."

"No."

"Then we'll not discuss it again."

Mimi felt a small pang of uneasiness. But rather than risking another confrontation on the subject, she nodded her head instead. Things would be better when Michael & Kynna went home. And until then, they just wouldn't discuss it.

AN: Sorry if it's a little bit short. I'll try to make the next one longer. 'Till then, don't forget to review!

Cole the Demon Hunter - you've got a really good point there, but it really isn't that simple. Don't worry, you'll find some action later on...promise! PnkSaKuRaSyAoRaNS2 - it's great to hear from you again! I've missed you. Oh, yeah, I'll be putting Rachelle again later on. And I'm thinking about putting your friend, luvfaytdestini, in my next fic. Angel - great! Do you want to post your own stories too?