Disclaimer: I do not, in any shape or form, own Paradise Kiss.
A/N: Well, I was reading Paradise Kiss and although I know it's rather old, it is definitely one of the best that I have ever read. And seeing as I have no idea how models are picked, please excuse any mistakes and if there is anyone who knows, any suggestions or even critiques are welcome.
-Blue Roses-
Yukari fingered the artificially colored blue rose, dried out and used as a bookmark. She was happy, she supposed, but she was also sad, she supposed, like George was. She was unhappy unless she was with him yet she declared her eternal love and happiness by Hiro's side.
So she was happy and she was sad and in the times when she didn't know who she belonged to anymore, she put on her butterfly wedding ring, symbolizing her first marriage over her wedding band, symbolizing her real marriage. She was a washed out model, and although her superiors would never tell her, the truth was that she was beautiful, yes, but lacked the magic that made so many famous. She wasn't working for herself, it seemed, not like the big names, but worked instead to show up someone else. And as everyone in the entertainment business knows, that can only carry you so far.
Yukari was still beautiful, tell you the truth and still young, enough so people mistook her for twenty two or twenty three even though she was almost twenty eight. If she wanted, she would be signed up for a modeling gig only if she had the magic.
There was no age too young to rediscover magic and the paradise it held. In paradise, there are blue roses.
In some ways, Yukari mused, she was like George's blue rose. She allowed herself to be experimented on and pampered but in the end, she was only good for a while. She was a white rose, she decided, but she was dirtied by George's blue dye.
Kaori, she guessed, was never a rose. Kaori wasn't even a flower, instead being something beautiful and wonderful and amazing. And the chase all too enticing for George not to take. Yukari was just one of a million beautiful yet never enough. Kaori, wasn't beautiful, Yukari could admit that. She wasn't half as beautiful as Yukari was, pretty, rather, in a simple way. But all George really needed was a person who wouldn't bend to him, the sun, but could fly blithely in the other direction, crash into a wall and keep on going.
Yukari wasn't like that. Yukari was a flower, through and through, and couldn't resist bending to his will. She had made one act of defiance, however, by not going with him because she knew that he didn't meet her eyes and that eventually, he would be happy and laugh the laugh that meant he was delighted. Yukari wasn't sure if she regretted it yet but she did know that she was terribly lonely. What with Hiro always away at work and Miwako busy at Happy Berry, she had nothing to do now.
She will never forgive Kozue.
"You WHAT? Listen, Kozue, I'm old now, and I'm well, I'm retired. I'm not beautiful anymore and don't you remember what you said? I don't have that 'magic'." Yukari held on to the phone tightly. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Now, Yukari, calm down. I think you'll like this job."
"Why?" Yukari snapped back. She was actually ecstatic that she even had a possibility of a job, but Kozue couldn't know that.
"You know the designer. He's an old friend of yours. George Koizumi."
-x-
"Is there a stage name you would like to use?" The bored receptionist was busy filling out some application thing for Yukari at Kozue's. Yukari thought for a moment, and then it hit her.
"Yes, I would, as a matter of fact."
-x-
"George, the new applications and head shots just came in."
"Okay, thanks. Drop them off."
George, being who he was, needed to see all of his possible models' applications, because as he himself said, only he "could find the models needed; the ones that have that magic." His assistant bowed himself out of his eccentric boss' office.
George's office, even, showed a reflection of himself. On every wall, strategically placed at 3-feet intervals, were pads of drawing paper because "you never know when inspiration might strike." Surprisingly, his office looked a lot like the old Paradise Kiss office. Not like he would he ever acknowledge that he was feeling nostalgic or anything though. He turned to the pile of applications and already, the first girl was out. Her eyes were ridiculously large and purple, and she had obviously had her nose done. George sighed and tossed it into the garbage can. He flipped through it nonchalantly, making noises of admiration here and there but he never stopped.
But he at one picture, he stopped flipping and dropped the rest on the floor. This picture was one of a girl naturally beautiful, with long, straight black hair, and naturally wide black eyes. He flipped over the photo to read the name. At the sight of the name, a happy sound filled the room: one of him laughing. His assistants in the hallway looked at each other in surprise. The last time they had heard their boss laugh, when that weird guy from the Glitter Planet, Seiji or something, came to visit, or maybe that time with the designer Kaori.
Caroline.
-x-
Yukari smiled sadly to herself. Things never changed, did they? She wondered idly how she had ever let him go. Maybe it was Miwako's explanation that suited her best.
"You never really let him go, Caroline. Because it doesn't matter how far you guys are from each other, as long as there's still the love, there is still a chance. Miwako believes that, and this is how Miwako gets through the times that Arashi is gone. Because Miwako knows that Arashi still loves her and Miwako still loves him."
Standing in line with what seemed like a thousand other people, Yukari was suddenly aware of her flaws. Her eyes which had seemed pretty earlier, were too large, she was too tall, her nose too thin and high and her curly hair was messy now, not appealing. Her hands sweated nervously until she was first.
"Welcome to Blue Roses, miss."
AN: And so, that concludes the first chapter. Well, it's really more of a prologue. This is my first and probably will be my only Parakiss fanfic so please give me any suggestions!