Hey everyone! This month I had to postpone this new chapter because of the Sorato week last week, but in March I'll go back to posting on the second week. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Reviews are appreciated.
Chapter 9: The Secret Wedding
Mimi woke up the next morning feeling really happy. She rolled over and came across a sleeping Jou right next to her. A smile came to her lips when she thought about what happened last night. She did have the time of her life and was absolutely sure so did he. She snuggled close to him and threw her left arm around his waist. Having her body right next to him made him slowly open his eyes.
"Good morning." She whispered and reached up to kiss him.
"There's no way I can't have a good one receiving this treatment as soon as I wake up."
"Is that so?" She moved down to his chin and neck as she sat on his lap. Her long brown hair locks falling over her big round breasts. "How about this?"
Jou placed one of his hands on the lower of her back while his other one rested on her left cheek when she moved away from him and looked intensely straight into his eyes. He sat up straight, a gesture that made them stay only a few millimeters away from each other. They could already feel the heat between them rising and hear their heartbeats getting louder by each second. Mimi tilted her head to her right and gave him a short kiss. They shared another look before getting into another session of short kisses. She threw her head back a little when his lips moved away from hers and went down her body, leaving a hot trail along the way. She let out a low moan and held his forearms a little tight.
"Jou… Jou…" Mimi's voice came off weaker than she intended to and she could feel his smile against her naked skin. "I hate killing the mood, but there's something I need to ask you."
"Okay, what is it?"
"What if we get married today?"
"Today?" He asked surprised. "But you don't want a big ceremony?"
"Why should we wait more?" Mimi looked straight into his black eyes. "We already know we love each other and how strong it is, so we would only be anticipating things."
"You really don't mind it?"
"Not at all. But I know how important traditions are for you. I'm not saying we should have no ceremony at all, we can definitely have a party at some point. My parents would kill me if there was no party whatsoever." She began to stroke his hair softly. "So what do you say?"
"I'm not really sure. The idea does seem tempting for me, but I can't help but think this seems a little rushed for me. There isn't any other reason behind it that you're not telling me about, is there?"
"I can guarantee to you there isn't." She hoped with everything she had Jou wouldn't know she was lying and that it wasn't a desperate action to fight against the feelings she didn't want to admit to herself.
"Alright. Let's do it."
"For real?" She couldn't believe her luck.
"Yes, for real. I mean, it would happen eventually one way or another, right?"
"Right." She moved a little closer to him. "Don't you have to work today?"
"No, today is my day off."
"So I'm sure you don't mind having a second round right now."
"Absolutely not." Jou wrapped his arms around Mimi as her lips came crashing down on his.
.
Sora slowly woke up feeling a little disoriented and tried to find out if she was actually hearing her phone ringing in the middle of the night or just imagining things.
"Sora, aren't you going to answer that?" Yamato mumbled beside her, and she knew she actually heard it.
"I am, I'm just trying to find it." She tapped over the bedside table near her and found it without much trouble. She answered the call and yawned before putting it on her ear. "Hello?"
"Sora, you won't believe what happened!"
"Mimi, do you realize it's after midnight here, right?"
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry about that!" Mimi exclaimed loudly and Sora took her phone away from her ear for a moment. Beside her, Yamato buried his head on his pillow and covered his ear with its edges. "I always forget about the time difference between USA and Japan."
"Japan? What are you talking about?"
"I came to Japan to spend a few days with Jou."
"When did that happen?"
"A few days ago. I arrived here yesterday and guess what? We are going to get married today."
"Wait, what?" All the sleepiness and tiredness Sora felt vanished with her scream and her eyes going wide.
"That's what you heard. Jou and I are getting married today."
"You simply decided to get married? I thought you wanted a big party and ceremony."
"Who's getting married?" Yamato asked beside Sora and she made a gesture for him to shut up.
"Nah, that can be given anytime. How we feel about each other is more important."
"Mimi, can I ask you a question?"
"Yes."
"You're not doing this because you are running away from your feelings, are you?"
"I have no idea what you are taking about, Sora."
"Sure you do. You are running away from your feelings for Koushiro and think getting married to Jou will be the answer, but you'll only end up hurting him."
"Sorry, my connection is bad and I have to go. I'll talk to you later."
"Mimi, come back here. Mimi!" Sora yelled to her phone, but it was too late.
"Sora, what happened?"
"Mimi is in Japan and just told me she and Jou are getting married today out of nowhere and it's obvious this is just a way to run away from her own feelings."
"Run away from her own feelings? What do you mean?"
"She has feelings for another man, Yamato. That's what I mean."
"How long has this been going on?"
"For a few months. Since she was involved in that car accident when she was going to pick Jou up at the airport, to be exact."
"That's like two months ago."
"I know, and I think she has this idea that her feelings will fade away when she'll marry Jou and that's not true at all. It will be the opposite actually."
"So what are we going to do?"
"I have no idea."
.
Mimi went through her clothes, looking for the white dress she had brought along with her. It wasn't a real wedding dress, but it was perfect for what she had to do. She spread it on her bed and went to work on her hairstyle first. She sat in the chair in front of the mirror and started curling her hair with a device she had bought just for this. When she was done, she grabbed one lock from each side of her head and tied it in the back of her head while the rest of her hair was loose. She took a look at herself after she was done and a smile appeared on her lips. She had done quite a good job at it, and didn't even mind the fact she didn't have a veil to put on her head. Then she grabbed a large eye shadow palette she had won from one of her sponsors and looked at it for a moment, wondering what would happen regarding this if they found out about her secret marriage. Would she lose them as a sponsor? Would they sue her for this? Eventually she shook her head and returned her focus back to her make up. She chose a lavender tone and put on some blush on her cheeks and mascara in her eyelashes to finish her make up.
"Mimi, love." Jou knocked on her door as he fixed the fist on his white shirt. "The city hall closes at six and it's 3:30pm already. We need to hurry."
"I'm ready." She unlocked the door and her jaw almost fell to the floor when she came across him. "Wow."
"I know I'm not supposed to see the bride before the wedding, but… I could say the same thing about you. "
"It's just a stupid superstition truthfully. But I'm actually glad we are a little out of time, or I would drag you towards this bed and rip off your clothes."
Jou couldn't help but laugh. "As long as you are the blindfolded one this time."
"Sounds like a deal to me."
"Great, so we should get going or we might not make it on time if we have to wait to get married."
"You're right. Let's go."
.
Mimi had no idea that the city hall was so beautiful, as she had never been there before. She had been in a lot of fancy places due to her job and fame, and she thought this could be easily in her top 3 list.
"It's very beautiful, isn't it?" Jou asked after he noticed the surprise in her face as she looked around the place.
"A lot. I don't think I 've ever seen such a beautiful and fancy hall in my life. I'm blown away." She looked down at him. "Have you been here before?"
"A couple of times I think, to solve some issues. They went through a massive change though. It wasn't like this at all a few years ago."
"It must have been an ugly place back then."
Jou could barely hold his laughter. "I guess you can say that. So, how are you feeling?"
"I'm a little nervous, to be honest. We are getting married, you know?"
"Yeah, it's a little scary when you think about it. But a good scary, if that makes sense."
"A little bit. What about you?"
"Nervous too, but not as much because I know we would be doing this one way or another eventually. I just will have to deal with my parents' anger for marrying you in secret."
"You think they will be really angry about this?"
"I have no doubt about it. You know they are very traditional about some things. My mom always made clear she wanted me to get married in a big ceremony with hundreds of people. Maybe thousands."
"Yeah." Mimi sighed. "I wish sometimes they wouldn't force what they wanted on us. We should be able to decide what is better for us or not. We are the ones getting married, not them. We have the right to have at any way we want."
"I agree. Eventually it's our choice, not theirs." Jou reached down for her hands and intertwined his fingers with hers. "Are you ready?"
"Not really." She squeezed his hand tight. "But let's do this."
"After the wedding, we're gonna have a romantic dinner in one of the best Tokyo restaurants."
"You made a reservation for us?"
"Of course. It wouldn't be a proper wedding if there wasn't any celebration afterwards."
"I know. Wow, we haven't had a romantic dinner for such a long time. Things have been so crazy lately. It feels good to get away from everything, you know?"
"I do." Jou nodded. "But you're here now and that's all that matters."
Mimi touched his left cheek and looked intensely into his eyes. "I love you."
"I love you too, Mimi." He pulled her towards him and kissed her briefly.
.
Mimi and Jou were now standing in front of one of the City Hall staff, ready to sign their wedding papers. She watched him go first and couldn't help but feel her heart pounding on her chest. That was it, there was no going back now.
"Are you okay?" He asked her with concern when he returned to her side.
"Yeah, just a little nervous to be here right now. I'm minutes away from being Mrs. Kido."
"I didn't realize you wanted to change your last name."
"I wish I could use both of them, but…"
"Mimi, it's totally fine if you don't want to. I completely understand it."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely." He said with a smile. "We won't be less married because of it."
"You're right. So, I'm not changing it, but I'll still use it because I really like the sound of it. Mimi Tachikawa Kido." She said proudly with a grin. "Don't you?"
"Of course. It has the best ring ever. I don't want to sound rude, but you need to sign the papers."
"Oh right. Are you sure you want to marry someone as clumsy as me?" She asked in a playful tone.
"Just sign the papers." Jou replied in the same tone.
.
On their way to the restaurant, Jou suddenly stopped after turning around in a different corner and got out of the car, much to Mimi's surprise. She was so taken aback that couldn't even react at his attitude, so she simply watched him enter a go back to the street they were before and disappearing. When he returned about five minutes later, she was ready to give him a lecture when she noticed he was carrying a big bouquet with lots of roses with different colors.
"What's this?"
"It's a flower bouquet. I thought it'd be obvious."
"This I know, silly." She laughed. "But you didn't have to buy it for me."
"It's not a real wedding if there are no flowers."
"You have a point." She grabbed the bouquet from his hands. "Thank you so much, husband."
"You're welcome, wife."
.
The whole second floor of the restaurant was decorated in dark red tones and the lights were off, being replaced by candles spread all around the place. The fact there weren't other people there didn't go unnoticed by Mimi and she frowned for a second.
"Did you book this whole floor for us?"
"That's one of the advantages of being friends with the owner."
"And he agreed to it, even if he was going to lose money?"
"I explained him the situation and he said there was no way he couldn't do it for us."
"I'm impressed."
"I thought you would." Jou took the bouquet from her hands and placed it on a table nearby. At the same time he grabbed her hands softly and their eyes met, a low melody could be heard as it gradually got louder.
Mimi looked over her shoulder and couldn't feel more surprised and shocked. "You hired a band too?"
"Not really. They were already going to play here tonight. They are playing a few songs for us and then perform downstairs."
"You're unbelievable, you know that?"
"I can guarantee I'm as real as possible." He released one of her hands to put away one of her locks, returning to its previous position right after. "So, I thought we could share our vows to each other here, since we didn't at the City Hall."
"Okay, I like that. Can I start?"
"Sure."
"Jou, being here with you tonight feels like a dream. That was quite a journey. To become your wife is one of the things I was looking forward to the most, and here we are now. Thank you for choosing me to be your partner for life. I can't wait to see what life holds for us from now on, but I'm excited to find out. With you by my side, I know I can face anything that ever comes my way. Today I took a big step into my future, and I'm glad I got to do it with the love of my life." She looked at him tenderly. "My speech isn't so good because I don't deal with pressure that well."
"I thought it was great." He sighed and looked down at their hands laced together before returning his focus to her eyes. "Mimi, when I first laid my eyes on you, I just knew you were the one for me and as I got to know you better, that made me surer of such fact. You are the most amazing, caring, sweet woman I've ever met. I'm happy to be here with you tonight, ready to step into another level in our relationship. Like you, I can't wait to see what comes next for us. But I'm sure it will be great and thrilling. I hope I can make you at least half as happy as you make me."
"You already do." Mimi touched his left cheek with her hand. "There's no one else I'd rather be with tonight than you."
"I feel the same way as you." His free hand moved to the back of her head and he pulled her towards him, kissing her slowly and passionately. "I love you."
"I love you too, Jou." She rested her head on his chest. "More than I'll ever be able to express."
A smile formed in his lips as he wrapped an arm around her tight and they slowly moved in the rhythm of the song around the place. Mimi couldn't help but feel like she was in a fairytale. Everything was so perfect, even if it wasn't at all planned. Jou had really surprised her that night, making it the best wedding reception she could ever ask for considering they had such a little time. She pulled away from him and they shared a tender and passionate look before she slid her hand all the way up to behind his neck and reached up to kiss him passionately and urgently. She was right where she belonged all along.