A.N:This is set in the same universe as the Tropical Island Vacation and Ringtones bit (chp. 25), and is probably going to be the more definitive version of how the mice meet up again.
This is also my tribute to the late Russi Taylor as I write this on the 3rd of August 2019. She and Wayne will always be the best Minnie and Mickey respectively.
While it was always nice to unexpectedly make new friends especially while on vacation to a place one has never been, even Minnie couldn't ignore the urge to be in the presence of another altogether, an old friend to be precise. The most precious one to her at that. She hadn't talked to Mickey in months, and it was her own fault for pushing him away in the first place. The urge to talk to him again was always strong, but of course the initial apology for not talking to him after all this time gave her great anxiety every time she was about to call him at the very least, and she couldn't even text him this anxiety of hers was so bad.
Her bouts of sadness when she missed him most didn't go unnoticed by her new friend, a vixen with strawberry-blonde hair in a nearly old fashioned 50s era hairdo not unlike Rebecca Cunningham from Cape Suzette (TaleSpin), named Summer decided to bring it up with her.
"Alright, Minnie, who is it?"
"Huh?" Minnie squeaked back, fully startled and easily wondered if her mind could be read like an open book.
"You sighed in a way that can only mean that it's about someone extremely close to your heart enough to pine over them. So, man or woman, or someone decidedly undecided?" Summer persisted.
"Man." Minnie relented, sighing in slight defeat, her cheeks becoming even redder than when she was caught pining. "His name is Mickey, and…I made the terrible mistake of breaking things off with him about five months ago."
"More like she put him on the back burner using the stupid excuse that she was too busy getting the bow business off the ground." Daisy quipped to clarify.
"Daisy!" Minnie scolded.
"No, no it needs to be said and I'm with Daisy on this one." Cuckooloca pipped up from her perch at the top of Daisy's sunhat. "We both heard his side of that last phone call and he's waiting on her to call him back but now it's been so long she can't even bring herself to text him!" The cuckoo clock bird told the vixen.
"The two of them were like this," Daisy continued, making her index and middle fingers cross to emphasize the closeness of the mice. "And honestly this is the longest they've ever been apart from each other romantically. Not to mention it's about time we started talking about it!"
"Ditto! We never brought it up to respect the space you initially wanted to put between you and him Minnie, but these days it's getting ridiculous! Just call him already!" Cuckooloca added with the urgency of any worried friend, even though with her voice it came off a bit harshly.
"It's been too long, there's no way he'd want to talk to me now." Minnie defended with her usual pitiful excuse. She was starting to tear up because of how scared she was of possibly making things worse with him.
Again, that bit of thinking was read and caught before it could go any further by the girls' new friend, as Summer scooped up Minnie's hands into hers.
"Minnie, its okay to be scared of the outcome of talking to him now, but you'll never know for sure if it's what you expect if you don't at least try. I know I've only known you girls for a few days, and I'm only just hearing about this wonderful fellow now, but I can almost feel that he misses you too." Summer insisted gently. She then looked to debate something before settling on bringing it up. "You wanna know how I know I'm right?"
She didn't bother waiting much for an answer but she did bring up Minnie's left hand to eye level and made her extend her pinkie to emphasize whatever point she was trying to make.
"Because I can see the red string of Fate that connects you to him, and it's pretty strong. It's so strong that it's actually tripping the squirrels who can feel it but can't see it." She would've said island spirits instead of squirrels but she didn't want to go through the fact that she was a bit weird routine with them just yet not to the furthest extent anyway.
To prove that it was there, Summer tugged on the red string that only she could see, and Minnie actually felt it. Somewhere on the other side of the island, Mickey fell backwards because that's how strongly he felt it on his end.
"I felt it." Minnie said in absolute awe.
"Ooh! Can you see and tug on mine too, please?" Daisy requested excitedly, fully believing it since she saw Minnie's hand twitch when Summer wasn't even touching it and was definitely tugging on her red string of Fate.
Summer complied with a fond look of amusement. Daisy gasped and giddily remarked how weird it felt.
"He adores you." Summer told her, and then directed an apologetic look at the smaller bird on Daisy's hat. "Sorry, Cuckooloca, you don't have one yet."
"Meh, I expected as much, and I doubt I'm gonna find a hunk of a cuckoo clock bird anytime soon." Cuckooloca replied coolly. This earned a giggle out of all the girls.
When their giggles died down, Summer had one last trick up her sleeve as she looked down at her watch on her left wrist.
"Oh, look at the time, I better get going for rehearsal at the Breezy Rendezvous restaurant. I'll see you all there tonight." The mouse and the two birds looked to each other in confusion before Summer continued. "I pulled a few strings and got you all reservations, including Mr. T. Gato so it didn't look suspicious unfortunately, but I have a surprise for you Minnie that I'm sure you're gonna like."
"Oh, Summer you really don't have to-!" Minnie started but Summer interrupted her.
"Buh-buh-buah! I must. Think of it as a thank you for when we all first met." She was referring to Minnie managing to get Summer's own sunhat back from the wind, going through all sorts of shenanigans to do so out of the kindness of her heart. The girls didn't think any more thanks was really necessary since Summer was native to Natsukaze Island and was showing them around in return of sorts. Thus, the vixen corrected herself upon remembering that. "Or better yet, as thanks for being my friend."
"That's so sweet! I'm looking forward to it already." Minnie couldn't help but gush.
"I have to go, but make sure you all wear something nice, it's a swanky kind of restaurant. See you later!" Summer said quickly as she started to head off.
The girls waved her off and enjoyed the rest of their day. Managing to find something fancy to wear within their luggage despite the usual what to wear panic.
They ended up getting a table by a balcony that overlooked the stage, as it was a dinner and a show kind of place.
The surprise Summer had in store for Minnie was a two-in-one, as the vixen had dedicated a song to her, but the other surprise was one that Cuckooloca noticed first as she leaned over the side of the railing to get a good look at the whole restaurant.
"Say, Minnie, correct me if I'm wrong but is that who I think it is down there?" Cuckooloca asked as she pointed down at a table in front of center stage.
Minnie looked over the railing herself and nearly had a heart attack at the sight of her beloved Mickey in a white tuxedo, sitting across from his cousin, Manfred who complimented him in terms of having white fur and wearing a black tuxedo, making them have a Yin-Yang theme.
Her eyes stayed on Mickey of course as she drank in his handsome image. She hadn't seen him in five months, and her excuse to not see him wasn't entirely an excuse as she had gone into full workaholic mode and quite simply didn't have time to even think about him…at first anyway. As soon as her business partnership with Alfonzo started to cross the line of professionalism, memories of her time with Mickey would always come flooding back whenever she was in a meeting.
"Want me to get their attention?" Cuckooloca asked, derailing Minnie from her thoughts and oogling, though the latter was for only a half second after comprehending what the cuckoo clock bird had asked.
"No thanks. I'd rather just enjoy the view for now." Minnie replied. She was being careful because Alfonzo was sitting across from her as he was designated to be there according to the reserved seating cards. After five months of putting up with his far too casual business meetings, she knew all too well the billionaire honestly thought he had a chance. Although she wasn't too innocent either as she actually accepted this lovely vacation from him, as Daisy oh-so kindly reminded her when they first arrived on Natsukaze Island, though the duck phrased it as 'mooching the vacation from him'.
Regardless, she was enjoying her eye candy, already wishing she could just waltz on down there and fix his bow tie as her usual lead up to give him a kiss. Then the lights dimmed a bit to signal the start of the show, and she pouted in annoyance at having her oogling cut short.
It was then that Summer came out with her song dedicated to Minnie, but surprisingly it was also dedicated to Mickey as well. The vixen wore a sparkly periwinkle blue dress and she was accompanied by an orange striped tabby cat gentleman in a baby powder blue suit with black lapels on piano, but also for vocals…vocals that were clearly mimicking how Mickey sounded even when singing.
Minnie sucked in her lips in amusement while Mickey and Manfred were trying to stay quiet while they freaked out. Mickey especially was freaking out for obvious reasons, and even from up here in the balcony seats she could hear him fervently whisper to Summer to not apologize since she obviously wasn't sorry for her choice in art direction.
The song was a duet, one that she didn't recognize but the cousins below seemed to as they had both made noises of amused recognition upon Summer's first few notes, but for Minnie, it fit her estranged relationship with Mickey at the moment perfectly. Summer even stepped down from the stage, using Mickey, Manfred and their table and chairs as props to help her down, to walk around the audience on the first floor to further emphasize the song's theme of two people being apart.
It made Minnie sigh wistfully as she related to the song all too well. It certainly didn't help that because the accompaniment was clearly supposed to be Mickey, that meant that Summer was supposed to be her, and she did notice that Summer would purposely look at Mickey for certain lyrics, as one does when being a singing actress. The vixen looked up at her too on occasion though, as if making sure she got the subtle message, which Minnie replied silently with a nod.
After the song was done and the mouse cousins below helped Summer back up onto the stage and gave her a standing ovation since they were already standing, Minnie's heart nearly stopped again but instead just skipped a beat as Mickey slowly turned to look up at her with a sheepish smile and a small wave. Of course she waved back, with a soft elated smile no less, as she had missed those beautiful brown eyes of his.
Minnie then made a decision that she knew would put her fate back on course as she mouthed 'wait right there' to Mickey. She then excused herself from the table and headed down stairs, all but running into Mickey's arms, where she belonged in the first place.