Disclaimer: "Detective Conan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama, and "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi.
This is an alternative story to my other fanfic "Encounter in Venice" and one of the possibilities of what could have happened if Ai had taken the antidote before Shinichi brought down the Organization.
Thanks a lot to my friends and betas Rae (Astarael00) and SN1987a and the Aicoholics on LiveJournal, without whom I would never have started this fic.
FS
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Ghost at Twilight
(edited version)
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The miko's smile…
The miko's smile—warm and engaging only seconds ago—freezes on her lips and vanishes from her eyes the moment she hears your name. You're Miyano Shiho, "Seiya's new friend," who would like to talk to Taiki-san because Seiya and you have forgotten to exchange phone numbers—you tell her, making a valiant effort to explain the situation although the dangerous glint in Hino Rei's dark amethyst eyes show you only too clearly that she has already heard about you from the Despondent Duo and is ready to tear you limb from limb for hurting her friend.
"Unfortunately, Taiki-san and Yaten-kun don't have time for anyone apart from their closest friends at the moment." She doesn't even pretend to smile. "I regret to inform you that Seiya-kun's affairs and one-night stands don't fall into that category."
If you weren't positive that stranger-san was inexperienced when he met you—Taiki-san's refusal to believe that his brother was with a woman when he tried to knock down the door was final proof of Seiya's innocence—you would have been rendered speechless by the realization that your stranger has intentionally lured you into his bed. As things are, you're only surprised and mildly irritated by Hino-san's unconcealed contempt.
"I'm not a one-night stand." You make an effort to keep your voice low, exhausting your supply of patience to stay polite despite the frosty, almost hostile reception. To prove that last night wasn't only a casual encounter, you show Hino-san the key to Seiya's apartment. Instead of placating her, however, it only fuels her anger.
"You can give it to me or throw it into his mailbox." She gracefully holds out her long, slender hand, and reluctantly adds, "He must have liked you a lot to give you his key since he usually doesn't give it to other lovers. It seems you've been special."
"Other lovers?" Your voice falters when you realize for the first time that Taiki-san could have been surprised at the fact that Seiya has brought a woman home with him and not the fact that he was in the company of a woman. Taiki-san has also called his brother a "naive idiot" for letting a complete stranger, who could be a lovesick groupie, seduce him, which doesn't necessarily mean that Seiya has never had any secret lovers…
Hino Rei raises her fine raven brows, blinks in astonishment, and gives an annoyed, defeated sigh.
"How, do you think, did Seiya-kun get his reputation? You can't blame him since the women keep hurling themselves at him even when he is in disguise. I'm sure he has only accepted their feelings out of pity and never initiated anything. But afterwards they all get clingy and beg us for his phone number because they've obsessively fallen in love with the unattainable guy… Of course he always swears on everything he holds dear that he hasn't even touched a hair on their heads. But since he is the greatest actor alive—when he is in the mood, he even believes his own lies!—and three-quarters of the paper wishes on this cherry tree must belong to his past one-night stands," she points an accusing finger at the heavy hope-laden branches, which are swaying in the gusty wind, "I doubt all the girls have been lying."
You stare at the young woman in front of you in stunned silence, taking in her classical, contrast-filled beauty. With her slight stature, long glossy ebony hair, alabaster skin, regular features, blood-red lips, and slightly slanted eyes framed by long, thick eyelashes, Hino Rei is the very image of a Japanese fairy. But beneath that calm exterior, her fiery temper and impatience shine through like an intense, uncontrollable, inextinguishable blaze. It dawns on you that she is madly jealous because she is not a normal friend as you assumed but most probably one of Seiya's special friends, ex-girlfriends, or spurned lovers. Having had to watch the object of her desire pining for a friend of hers for years (while distracting himself with other women and ignoring her?), meeting the stranger whom he has given his key after one night must have been the last straw.
Notwithstanding her bitterness, Hino-san looks guileless and proud—the type that calls a spade a spade and never stoops to underhanded stratagem. As the hundreds of delightful caresses and kisses Seiya lavished on you flash through your mind and once again fan your desperate, heartrending longing for his voice, his scent, and his skin, you tremble with murderous, impotent rage at the realization that Kudo was right and that the notorious heartbreaker must have lied to you, seduced you, and manipulated you for a whole night. Abandoned by his unrequited love, he must have chosen the first pretty woman he met to keep him company in his depression. It's a win-win situation—you can imagine him winking at you with his unapologetic, irresistible smile, pecking you on your cheek before he sets out to tempt his next victim. The irony that he ended up falling in love with you and had his heart broken for a change isn't enough of a consolation. Ablaze with fury, you wish he were here so that you could scratch out his eyes, hang, draw, and quarter him.
Hino-san's friends and Taiki-san appear in the corridor just when you've made up your mind to leave, eyeing you with three different expressions on their faces. The long-legged, curvaceous, handsome brunette, whose heavy-lidded hazel eyes are smartly brought out by her verdigris blouse and her pink rose-shaped earrings, darts Hino Rei and you worried glances. Taiki-san, who looks even more haggard than usual beside the tall, voluptuous woman, seems oddly relieved to see you. Aino Minako (who must be Seiya's on-and-off lover if the rumours about them are true), is studying you curiously, with a hint of a mischievous smile in her cornflower eyes. It makes sense to you that Seiya would visit her whenever he goes to Venice, as she resembles Odango so much that she might as well be Odango's more beautiful, much more seductive, and infinitely more confident twin.
"What's up, Rei-chan?" the brunette girl asks while Taiki-san steps forward and grasps your arm in a gesture of urgency. After "Rei-chan" has summed up the situation to her friends in unambiguous, derogatory terms ("Seiya-kun's latest fling is begging for his number!"), Taiki-san leads you from the door to the cherry tree and informs you in concise but jumbled sentences that his younger brother has disappeared and that you've just dashed his hope that Seiya is with you.
"Seiya is furious at Yaten and me—told me on the phone that we're wrecking his life. He doesn't even answer Yaten's calls anymore. Shizuka-san is searching for him as well since we need to pack for New York and drive to the airport in one or two hours at the latest." Stick lets go of your arm to gesticulate. "I've even left a message and apologized to him but he didn't respond. I'm glad that Yaten is napping at the moment. He'd gladly kill you for what you did to Seiya."
"New York?" You try to make sense of his words. "Why New York?" Although you'd have loved to comment that you'd have expected Shortie to be ecstatically happy that you've released his youngest brother from your clutches, you're not in the mood for the resulting discussion.
All the three of them have been shuttling back and forth between New York and Tokyo ever since the downfall of the Organization, Taiki-san explains. Now that they've found a studio in New York, they're going to stay there until their comeback in July because the producer and the director of the new movie franchises are living in New York as well.
"I know it sounds rushed." Taiki-san looks almost apologetic. "But Seiya has been delaying his decision for so long that Shizuka-san was afraid they could rethink their decision to keep the original cast in the original roles. We're also considering swapping the roles between Seiya and me in Detective Boy Holmes because our director would rather have me as Moriarty and Seiya in the main role. Since Akane-san, who is in New York at the moment, will be on another set in Africa next week, we have to meet up with her and the producer tomorrow night. But you know Seiya…" Stick has taken your arm again and led you back to Hino Rei and her friends. "It's impossible to talk sense into him when he has clammed up. And now that he has run off, all we can do is wait for him here in the hope that he shows up within the next hour."
"Usagi is searching for him as well," Aino-san tells you as she openly studies you from head to toe. With a compassionate smile and the self-assured air of a woman who knows her worth, she adds, "She is the only one he will listen to."
"If he listens to anyone," the brunette girl, who has a remarkably strong, resonant voice, muses. Hesitantly, with a sidelong glance at Hino Rei, who only rolls her eyes in response, she bows. "I'm Kino Makoto, one of Seiya-kun's friends. We were classmates in high school." Although you can tell that she resents you for hurting her friend almost as much as Hino-san does, she is trying hard to be civil.
"Aino Minako, Seiya-kun's future sister-in-law, hopefully," Aino-san, imitating her friend, bows as well. "But I have to add that I wouldn't ever reject the offer to become his girlfriend on the side if he turns up on my doorstep!" She grins. "I hope that you don't mind sharing him with me." Feeling Taiki-san's disapproving, embarrassed gaze on her face, she turns to give him a brazen wink. Apparently, Aino-san, who has Seiya's sense of humour, isn't only Seiya's friend with benefit but also shamelessly flirts with his brothers as well.
Keeping your temper in check despite the hot waves of extreme jealousy that sweep over you at the remembrance of the night she alluded to in her card and all the celebrity gossip Sonoko has told you about Seiya and her, you introduce yourself again and prepare to leave, as you can sense that you're not welcome in their tightly knit circle.
"You can wait here if you want to," Hino Rei reluctantly offers. "That is, if you can deal with Yaten-kun's reaction when he wakes up and finds you here."
For a moment, you try to picture yourself at Hino Rei's coffee table, making small talk and stealing Two Lights' last two hours with their friends in the hope that Seiya will return with Odango and you can talk to him for a few minutes in the presence of his brothers and his former, potential, or part-time lovers—not to mention the married woman he has been in love with for the last eight years, who presumably has feelings for him as well…
"No, thank you." You return the key to your pocket. "I'll be looking for him at home instead."
"That's a good idea," Taiki-san agrees. "Maybe he has shut himself up in his apartment and only played dead when we rang. After you left him, he was so beside himself that anything is possible."
From the look of things, Stick is just as delighted by the thought of seeing you at Hino-san's coffee table (and the prospect of preventing his older brother from murdering you after waking up?) as you are.
"I doubt that Seiya-kun is at home," Aino-san remarks. Flashing Hino-san an apologetic glance, she sighs. "Usagi thinks he is waiting at the place where they usually meet up. She didn't want to tell me where it was, though."
You've come to the same conclusion although the thought of stalking him and her in Ueno-koen appeals to you even less than making small talk with Hino Rei and defending yourself against Yaten Kou's jealous fits. The suspicion that Odango could be so shocked at the news that Seiya has seriously fallen in love with a stranger overnight that she breaks off her happy marriage like Kudo his long-time relationship with Ran is nagging at you, torturing you with the vivid images of your own imagination. I can't live without you. I'm going to get a divorce. If you let me, I'm going with you to New York…
"I think I know where he is. I'm going to search for him there if I can't find him in his apartment."
"Ueno-koen," Hino-san obligingly says, much to your surprise, as she is the last person from whom you'd have expected help. "But Ueno-koen is huge, and it's already a quarter past five." With her long dark hair and her serious eyes, she looks like another Queen of Spades, you absently observe, comparing her to Kino Makoto, whose athletic looks resemble the Queen of Clubs more.
"I'm going to leave the key in his mailbox then," you tell her, resigned. In detached amazement, you wonder why you're going out of your way to say farewell to an unscrupulous womanizer who has deceived you for the whole night. It will only take the little cheat another kiss to turn your head again and convince you that he is the very epitome of innocence. You've wrestled with yourself for so long to let go and find your hard-earned peace while Seiya embodies the unexpected mess that will throw your life into disarray again.
"If he is at home, please tell him to be ready at half past six," Taiki-san sighs. "At least he should grab his favourite guitar and his notebook if he doesn't have time to pack because we'll be staying in New York until July." Noticing the quiver on your lips, which you haven't managed to hide, he gives you a puzzled look, in which intellectual curiosity is mingled with pity. "I knew that you'd break up with him when I told you about Kakyuu and our parents—but I thought you'd do it in a less brutal fashion since you appeared so sensible… Anyhow, Seiya will listen to you although he despises all of us at the moment." He takes his hands out of his trouser pockets and steps aside to prevent his long ponytail from flying into your face, reminding you almost of stranger-san in profile. Unlike Seiya's smile, however, Taiki-san's smile is like the reflection of moonlight in a lake—tranquil, enchanting, cool, and distant.
"I hope you can convince him not to throw away this chance because of a small quarrel." He hands you a tiny piece of paper he has just pulled out of his jacket pocket. "Two main roles in two large franchises. These are the sums they offer him for the first two movies—not in yen but in US dollars, mind you! Seiya can't possibly refuse this now that he is nearly broke. He will be the best-paid actor of his generation if he doesn't mess this up." For once, Taiki-san's violet-grey eyes are filled with remorse. "Please tell him I'm sorry for selling out and betraying him like that. But he has been wasting his talents for years… I really believed it was for the best."
Staring at the two eight-digit figures on the innocuous scrap of paper, which is going to separate Seiya from you for good, you need a moment to readjust your face before you can fold it up and look Taiki-san in the eye. He calmly holds your gaze even though you can tell that he is racked with guilt. Without a word, you turn on your heel and look back only once when you've already arrived at the stone stairs. In the scarlet light of the gathering twilight, the wind is tearing at Taiki-san's long auburn ponytail and his midnight-blue suit, evoking the image of the shooting star he is supposed to represent on the posters for the first time. Like a hand of cards, the three queens are gazing after you with mixed emotions. Distractedly playing with the gold chain of hearts around her hips, the lovely Aino Minako raises her free hand to wave you goodbye while Kino Makoto is only leaning against the cherry wish tree with a doubtful expression, shaking her head. Taiki Kou—more Joker than Jack with his unpredictable mood changes—turns away with unreadable eyes while beside him, the beautiful Queen of Spades smiles.
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A/N: I'm trying to edit the rest of the story before Christmas so that I can focus on continuing my WIPs afterwards. * apologizes in advance for spamming the mailboxes of the people who have this fic on their alert list