Chapter 2: Indiscretion

The old man was feeding the pigeons. With small bits of bread crumbs in his hands he sprinkled the crumbs all over the pavement as he chuckled and watched the pigeons peck over the few morsels of bread. Craning their necks they swooped at whatever bit they could see that resembled food, and snatched and stole from their own, and the old man continued to toss bread crumbs until he had literally swarms of pigeons around him.

She watched this with gentle fondness as the pigeons cooed softly to the man, all the while he fed them until they trusted him completely and were content to dawdle around, no longer stiffening their feathers at his slightest movement. She sat alone on a bench adjacent from him, and her hands felt cold against the sides of her pockets from the biting cold that now invaded her skin, but she waited. Soon enough though, the man ran out of bread crumbs to feed them out of his lunch and with that the pigeons lost interest and idly, blankly looked at each other and cooed, then left.

Minako smiled a smile of hers she used from time to time akin to that of a smirk, and a small crease in her cheek could be seen as she looked up above the old man's head and saw the holocaust, a golden arch over the man's head advertising the smell of artificial food, and hamburger patties.

Nothing could describe the complete feeling of unadulterated bliss when every cell on your body was nurtured and embraced in warmth and contentment, and the slow easy heat that washed over your body when you take the first dip into the foamy bathtub, and like a lover's breath the water slowly massages away your stress, the dirt, and the grime allowing you to sink further away into nirvana.

Minako hears muted noise as she submerges her head in water and her eyes close on contact with liquid. Everything was silent underwater, Minako found it peculiar and strange when all sound was stilled, and all you could see was blurred. Muted noise echoed through the water depths to Minako's ears from the outside world, she heard a familiar tune..."these feelings are a part of life...I'm running...I wanna be with you..." Her head broke through the surface of the water as she gasped for air and rubbed her burning eyes when they met contact with air. It always burned her eyes when she came to surface, and coughing slightly she reached for her cell phone sitting patiently on the marble floor next to the tub, splashing slightly she flipped open the cell phone.

"Hello?" Minako sighed into the phone as static crackled in her ear.

"Hey." it was him again.

"How have you been doing?" Minako asked as she leaned against the side of the bathtub for support.

"It's okay...I saw you on the news today. You look pretty," he answered her in the same way he answered her all the time, it didn't bother Minako very much to be reminded that he said the same thing, everday. "I was wondering why you didn't pick up your phone, it must be busy in New York all the interviews, and sights to see."

Minako hopes he cannot hear the splashing of water in the background when she shifts and tries to formulate her sentences. She wonders where she should manipulate the conversation, she wonders where she should trim the edges of her experiences, and she wonders where she'll have tell half-truths.

"I don't get to see many sights, but I am around a friend here, and Zoisite like always is a pain in the rear end. He's been taking care of me like you asked him to."

"I found a nice place by Shibuya in Saitama, the moving men said they could finish with the rennovation of the house, but I want to check with you to see if it's okay to"

"I've got to go," Minako whispered into the phone, and noticed the long pause when she said that for him to answer and she felt a splash of guilt flare in her chest and she had to breathe in deep the hazy herbal perfumated air around her and swallowed down the lump in her throat.

"Oh..okay. What do you want me to do about the house?"

"Just..." she can't find the solution, she had expected him to say goodbye. "Just do whatever you want to do. Everything's just fine with me."

"I could reschedule so we could do it together..."

"No. It's all right," Minako refused the splash of regret fading from her subconsciousness.

"But"

"Only if you want to, if you feel you need to, other than that it'll be fine when I get back home, kay?" she interrupted him again.

At once Minako knew she had said something wrong as there was another lengthy pause between, and time seemed to speed up to her as her hot bath was now cold, and her contentment now replaced by stress.

"Well...bye." and the line went dead as the flat tone was all that Minako heard now and across Minako's delicate features was a curiosity of what to expect, what to do now?

Gently placing the cell phone back into its rightful place Minako decided to settle back into her delayed bath even now as the water was only lukewarm Minako was determined to get what she could out of it.

Zoisite stared at the wafting steam coming from bathroom door left slightly ajar as his hands tapped the barrel of ink on his pen as his hands stilled across the sheet of white albeit empty paper. He moved his pen aside just as a drop of ink was about to fall and blemish his composition. His thoughts were coarse against his music as he tried to still the thoughts that were swirling in his mind right now, and deciding, yes, it was time for a talk with Minako he clipped the pen gently to his starch shirt pocket and without the slightest hint of hesitation entered the steamy bathroom without caution. Minako was sitting submerged to her neck in foamy bath water, but the steam that had once wafted about the bathroom had cleared, she seemed cold now instead of warm.

"So you've given up your infatuation with hot baths and scalding showers?" Zoisite asked catching Minako's attention as she surprised made a move as to grab a towel but seeing that it was Zoisite settled back into the bathtub.

"The water went cold while I was on the phone," she replied as she twisted a strand of wet hair in her fingers and eyed Zoisite to make sure that he stood in the farthest corner of the bathroom.

"Ah...your husband not interesting enough for you? My assumption was correct he is quite a wallflower personality-wise," Zoisite replied with the same biting tone a smirk undisguised on his features.

"For such a delicate looking man you seem to spare no one your tongue," the Singer shot back laying her head back against the marble support of the bathtub resting her eyes.

Zoisite idly toyed with the fuzzy orange towel that Minako always used, and his smirk only widened at how predictable Minako really was, but her effort was applauded for such a strong woman she really didn't know when to back down. He could always read Minako like a book, but sometimes she occasionally did something that raised his eyebrows a few centimeters, but comparing the Minako of now it seemed very likely he'd be questioning his assumptions just yet.

"Marital pains need to be taken out on someone? I'm not to blame if your marriage is failing, it seems your husband thinks it's going along quite well, maybe it's just you...dear," Zoisite sipped his hourly victory in triumph as Minako was constricted to just sitting in the tub and having to play Zoisite's games which he knew highly displeased her.

"Well, maybe I'm always supposed to feel this way, don't you think?" Minako replied softly the harsh edge gone from her voice.

Upon hearing Minako's retreat Zoisite straightened up as he dropped the foot he was leaning against the wall and he stared at Minako, her pallid form, her thin hair, and mostly her eyes which were drawn to the world outside the window. He found Minako in a position similar like that in her room staring listlessly at morning, evening, and midnight traffic, never sleeping, but just looking at New York with a wide-eyed gentle hunger of curiosity and fear intermixed with each other. Sometimes he caught her listlessly staring at nothing outside her window, and studying the faces of the American people, and her face would seem strange compared to those people, they seemed more lively than Minako, but the spell would soon be broken when she sensed his presence and time for Minako would start moving again.

"Isn't that something to see..." Zoisite whispered in a mixture of awe and sadness. "The Goddess of Love is gone."

"What?" Minako asked alarmed her eyes snapping from their position.

"The Goddess is gone," Zoisite replied his smile returning but faltering slightly on his pale face.

Zoisite only showed this one moment alone in worry, but his outsides did not reflect his insides as he watched Minako give him the quizzical look of questioning, but he neither elaborated the statement or built on it as he leaned back once again and was in the position of an observer.

"You're toying with me again aren't you, Zoisite?" Minako asked icily her warmth toward Zoisite now a mere flickering spark.

"Whatever you want to take it as, I don't think I could change your mind about it either way, what do you think I'm doing?" Zoisite replied just as cold.

"If you've come here to be instigating you're wasting your time," the Singer replied not satisfied with Zoisite's easy transition into accepting her anger.

"I've been mocking you for the last few minutes already and you've only noticed that now?" Zoisite answered feigning disbelief as he cocked a hand on his hip and smirked at her with ease.

"Get out," Minako snapped not having enough patience within her to put up with Zoisite's taunts anymore especially when his sarcastic wit refused to curb.

So the Singer had grown a backbone somewhat on her, Zoisite thought as he licked his dry lips, and cocked his chin at the Singer as if in challenge, and with as much spite and venom as he could muster-he was not one to just take Minako's game of holding people away lying down-answered her. "So you're spiraling back down into that hole in which you hide."

"I'm not hiding," the Singer retorted her eyes flashing slightly with a brief look of hurt, but the moment was over before Zoisite could exploit the singer's show of weakness, the game wasn't fun at all if he was the only one playing.

"It is you who is pursuing the matter. You who is...romping around with another woman in fact, and it is you who is on the verge of infidelity," Zoisite replied his voice lowering as if he was telling Minako a secret.

"Why do you have to label it that way Zoisite? To fit into the square must you always be so crude and malevolent with my intentions? It's not an affair," she retorts in defense and she can't see why Zoisite perceives her intentions to Rei impure, that she would be as unjust to her husband as taking it upon herself to look for a shoulder to cry on, to look for someone to physically comfort her. "It's not what you think."

"What is it that I'm thinking of, but a way that you and your miko comfort each other that your husband cannot do for you, is that what you do with her? It's fine by me if you want to jump the fence it all depends on who you want to hurt in the end after all," Zoisite shrugged his gaze causing Minako to falter a bit in her reply.

"You don't trust my decisions, Zoisite?"

"I think you've firmly established by now that you can't be trusted at all if you quite remember not taking the good advice of your dear miko when you were on the verge of death and refused to take a chance," another ice-cold prick of accusation entered into the Singer's reverie as Zoisite's hand got used to the feel of the doorknob in his palm.

Minako cannot remember a time where she has felt so helpless against a situation she is in control of.

"Well then, I'm sorry Zoisite, it looks like your good counsel has come many years too late," she replies sharply letting all that is on her chest off.

Zoisite looks at her as if studying her, taking notes on how she is right now, and how she will be a few years from now. His eyes hold a strange light, and his milky white face seemed like a part of the room now to Minako as if everything in this hotel room had eyes that watched her, and waited. Waiting for what? The silence was clenching as Zoisite refused to budge, and the cool air could be felt over her exposed skin, and she shuddered from the air or something else she didn't know. Minako had never disappointed Zoisite before, she had surprised him, and impressed him with her music and her strength, but now she got the heavy feeling of something gone awry as Zoisite folded his arms across his chest and gazed at her. He held no accusation in his eyes or even anger at her rebuttal of his good will. She hoped that he would get angry at her at least, just to make things feel a little like yesterday, but no words came. It felt like she had to ask Zoisite for permission to speak but she reached forward and grabbed the towel from its stand and started drying her hair in the tub.

Finally, what seemed like hours of just the sound of water droplets hitting her arms, shoulders, and marble floors Zoisite unfolded his arms and resigned.

"It always has."

And with the click of the door Zoisite was gone leaving Minako alone in the small bathroom to finish her necessities and stew in her guilt.