Chapter 8

"You are such a bad influence," Tsukushi huffed. Her face remained flushed from their earlier activities. The engine of the car hummed around them and the windows were sealed tightly keeping their conversation private. Tsukushi unbuckled her seatbelt, and proceeded to climb over her chair leaning into the backseat searching for that naughty bra that seemed to have vanished in the confines space during their tryst.

"Hey, I didn't make you do anything."

"Who was the one who practically tossed me into the backseat of his car? Which one of us decided that we both could fit comfortably in the backseat to do that?"

"In my defense, I do recall a certain someone who couldn't get my pants off fast enough. It takes two to do what we did. That reminds me, you owe me a new shirt. You ripped a few buttons off of this one."

She blushed recalling the hurried rush back to the car. It wasn't exactly how she would have preferred their first time to be after such a long absence, but she had to admit the sex was great. It probably ranked up there with that time they went to Vegas for Spring break last year and the hot tub incident there. Her body shuddered at the thought. An all too familiar warmth pooled between her legs recalling what they had just done. Luckily, Akira was too immersed with driving the car to see the faint blush and quiver of her body or he would have seen the obvious tell tale signs of her bodily reaction. He probably would have pulled the car over right away with that hungry look in his eyes basking in pride at how he could affect her so.

"Not necessarily. I've heard guys can get the job done with their trusty hand. Perhaps you and Mr. Righty need to get reacquainted with your buddy down there. We can't always go running off into the car when the urge comes along."

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. you don't know me that well, do you? I've got things all planned out. I've been mapping out spots around campus for us to christen."

The side of her face twitched uncontrollably. Something told her he wasn't exactly joking about mapping out the campus. "Uh huh." She decided to end the conversation knowing that whatever she said would lead to a loss on her side. "

Akira chuckled to himself watching her shapely and just asking to be groped posterior wriggling next to his head. He slowly pulled up into the driveway of the Hanazawa mansion keeping his eyes trained on the road ahead of him. Temptation gave in when he let one hand go off the steering wheel and rested it on her rear. "This is a nice way of driving." A lazy grin spread over his face as he drove.

"Get your hand off my ass!" Tsukushi growled. She blew a wisp of hair out of her face, as she dug under some of the junk Akira had apparently accumulated in the bottom of the his car. Finally, she slumped back into her seat, and crossed her arms over her chest huffing. "There must be some kind of black hole in here or something. How do you lose a bra in a car?"

"It happens. You know how it is. Lose a bra here, lose a panty there."

"So, you have ravaged many a woman before in your car?" The words were coated with a hint of malice and annoyance at what he was implying. It was a rule between them that they leave past relationships and escapades in the past. There was a certain limit to sharing.

He sighed to himself knowing that tone of her voice and the meaning of her silence. Silence was never a good thing when it came to Tsukushi. Silence was never a good thing with any woman. He silently wondered to himself if there was some sort of biological thing with women and their sulking deathly silences. Slowly, they came to a stop in front of her house, and he pulled the car into the small driveway.

She moved to get out of the car as quickly as possible not wanting to deal with him anymore. A few minutes before she considered inviting him inside for an encore performance of the car in her bedroom, but the mood was pretty much killed. Her hand reached to pull the car door open, but she found herself unable to open the door. "Unlock the door," she ordered.

Akira sighed and leaned his head back in the seat trying to contemplate the best route of defense to get back in her good graces. "I didn't mean it like that. How long are we going to focus on what I used to do? I'm marrying you, doesn't that mean anything to you? I want you, Tsukushi, and not any of those other women." He cupped her chin in the palm of his hand pulling her to look at him. "I love you, and I mean that. I screwed up once. I'm only human, and all I'm asking is that we just forget what happened. We can't let my past track record hang over us all the time. They can have my past. You are my now and my future."

She leaned into his touch feeling rather foolish now for overreacting. She hated the twinge of jealousy that always seemed to loom in the back of her head that perhaps everything they had built could be destroyed so easily, that maybe one day Akira would wake up and decide he wasn't cut out for the whole monogamous thing. It was that exact sentiment that restricted herself from marrying him tomorrow. Her trust in him had been shattered after the incident, and in a way, and she blamed herself for contributing to his lapse in faithfulness. It was her fault that no one knew of their relationship. She selfishly let him handle the stress of having to keep their big secret from practically the world.

"I know." Tsukushi grasped his hand before pulling it up to lightly kiss the back of it. "We both have a lot of mistakes to make up for." She pulled back, but was only pushed further into him by his insistent hand grabbing the back of her head and pulling her towards him. Her shock wore of quickly as her lips brushed against his before being pressed more forcefully into a deep, languid kiss.

He pulled back keeping his face downcast and his gaze away from her. His heavy breaths echoed in the car intermingled with hers. "I think we better get out of this car before we have a repeat of before. My back still kinda hurts from being jabbed by the stick shift."

"Mhmm," she murmured through heavy lidded eyes.

Akira leapt out from his side of the car and met Tsukushi at her side before she even had a chance to step out. Slipping an arm beneath her, he scooped her up bridal style kicking the car door closed with his foot. "The next thing on my list was to christen your place," he smirked. "How about we get an early practice on the wedding night?"

A sudden boldness took over her as she brought his face down into a crushing kiss. "Less talking," she growled against his lips. "Inside now!"

The happy couple stumbled towards the front door not even realizing the small show they had put on for their visitor waiting at the front door.

"Ahem."

Tsukushi broke away from Akira's lips and looked up turning a dark red upon seeing the person at her door. "Rui!" She squirmed in Akira's hold, and managed to slip onto the ground onto her feet. Her hands grabbed at her shirt and skirt trying to tug them into some resemblance of order. "What are you doing here?

"Yeah, Rui, what are you doing here?" Akira ground out letting his frustration and annoyance show for being interrupted.

He pointed towards the open door and the van parked behind the house. "My mother sent me here to help the delivery men, since no one was home to let them in."

"Oh god, I completely forgot about the time. You're a lifesaver, Rui."

"Well, one of us has to keep their feet planted on the ground and their pants closed."

Akira cocked his head to the side shocked at the sudden jibe from Rui. Previously, the stoic young man had found his lascivious nature entertaining and for lack of a better word, endearing, embodying all that was one of his best friends. The only difference now was that the object of his affections happened to be another one of their best friends. "What the hell crawled up your ass?"

Tsukushi put her hands over her face in mortification. Being caught by Rui in such a compromising position oddly felt like being caught by her parents. However, it was perturbing to see how overprotective he was being after she had asked him to not make such a big deal out of the confidential information she had given him. "Please drop it, Rui."

"Fine, I will, but I won't forget."

"We need to talk later. I don't think we clearly discussed the information I gave you," she whispered to him as she brushed past him leaving behind a brooding Rui and a confused Akira. Putting on a brave face and cutting right through the awkward tension, she plastered one of her genuine happy smiles. "I'm going to go check out my new darkroom."

"Hey Akira." Rui's face remained impassive with a stony contemplative mixture in his expression. A hint of distrust and anger radiated from him. "You're fly is open."

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Rui descended the steps stealthily wincing when the wooden board beneath his foot let out a low groan. He stopped for a second making a mental not to get someone to check out the faulty step in case the next person to pound their foot into it ended up falling through. He was only brought out of his thought when Akira's knee jabbed into his back.

"Sorry," Akira laughed. "You could move a little faster."

"Oh my god!"

"What?! What's wrong?! "Akira and Rui both yelled simultaneously. They both leapt down the last few steps and resulting in a small collision from behind for Rui. They both stumbled forward barely missing a run in with the nearby wall.

Tsukushi spun around and began jumping up and down in excitement. Actually, it was more of a little jumping dance that she was quite well known for among her friends. No real words could coherently come out of her mouth, so basically, she resembled more of a shrieking, giggling, ball. After a few more jumps and a few more "oh my gods" she finally managed to catch her breath and speak. "Look at this equipment! It's so freaking awesome!"

"I'm sorry, but what is the big deal?" Akira asked. He walked into the room inspecting the equipment that took up most of the small space. Everything pretty much looked the same as the developing lab Tsukushi had left behind in New York for the exception of the new quality of the machinery.

Tsukushi shook her head in disbelief and quickly began to piece together what had happened. Her tone came out accusing as she pointed a finger at Rui. "You did this didn't you?!"

His lips twitched into a smug smirk at how well his small surprise was. "I don't know what you are talking about. All I know was that you faxed a list of equipment you needed for your lab to the house. I just sent it over to the store with a few adjustments."

She was still gobsmacked by the absurdity of it all, but the seemingly good mood she was in darkened. "The stuff I asked for was the normal quality stuff. Do you realize that this enlarger costs $10,000! The one I ordered was only $500 and even I thought was stretching my budget. You are crazy if you think I'm keeping half of this. There's no way I can afford it all."

Rui shrugged his shoulder opting to ignore her rants. To him, the amount he spent was trifling. "Forget about it. My father told me to make sure you had everything you needed before you started working for us. You couldn't have expected our company to allow you to work with shoddy second-rate equipment. We do have an image to uphold. Like it or not, the equipment is yours. I also ordered a few of the latest camera models, which are in the case to your right. Use it or don't use it." He spun on his heel to make a hasty exit smirking to himself how much she hated it when he got in the last word.

"Umm.... Rui?" Akira meekly spoke up.

Rui shook his head refusing to look back. This was one argument he was going to win. And that was the last thought before a shoe went flying through the air connecting with the back f his head.

"Ow!" he groaned rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head where a rather familiar size six flat had hit him. He bent down on one knee picking up the dangerous weapon and began waving it angrily in the air. His small moment of regal dignity went out the window. "What the hell were you thinking hitting me in the head with your shoe?!"

A muffled snort, which slowly progressed into sputtered laughter echoed in the room. Akira's face was all but about to explode with held in laughter. Already his cheeks were burning red and small specks of tears formed in the corner of his eyes.

Tsukushi stood her ground and planted her hands firmly at her hips with her shoulders squared in what could be construed as a either offensive or defensive stance. "I don't take any of that rich boy crap and don't even dare try to use that tone with me, Hanazawa Rui."

"Oh, she used your full name. You're in for it now," Akira mumbled.

Her glare shot to the side at her boyfriend not liking his need to butt in. The meaning was apparent by the way he instantly clamped his mouth shut. "I will take the equipment as a loan from the company. Thank your father for his concern, but as smug as you think you are you aren't doing me any favors. Let's get this straight, the both of you." The meaning was not lost on either of them at her references to the only other two people in room besides her. "For this year, I am Makino Tsukushi. I am not Rui's childhood friend. I'm not Akira's fiancée. I don't want any of your so called favors drawing any extra attention to me besides the fact that some nobody shows up deciding to live at the Hanazawa mansion, conveniently has situated herself in good terms with the infamous F4, and has landed herself a coveted position in the Hanazawa Corporation. It baffles me to think that you two are expected to one day handle multi-billion dollar deals with a complete lack of commons sense. People do have eyes and ears, and I don't need to deal with people getting all freaked out by me because of who I associate with. I like to keep my life as normal as possible, so that means you two have to get it through your thick skulls that I don't want anymore favors." The tension in her shoulders eased at the winding down of her tirade, but she had a few more spurts of frustration to vent. Her voice lowered and softened a bit. "Listen, I'm not saying I'm ashamed of you guys, but you have to realize how hard this is going to be for me. Akira, I need to learn to trust you again just as much as you need to learn to trust yourself and me. Pushing me to pick up exactly as we were before is going to take me some time. I love you, but don't push me. And Rui, you need to learn to not coddle me so much. I'm all grown up and I can fight my own battles. It's a big deal to me that all my work is created from me alone. The favors end with this studio. I didn't make a big deal of it before when you helped me go down to register for my classes, but I don't feel right about doing things the unconventional way. Not everyone can waltz into the registration office and demand that a space be made in a class when there already is a heavy waiting list. So from here on out, I pay for myself and I take care of my problems by myself. When I need your help I'll ask. For now, I need both of you to back off. " A cool sensation of relief washed over her at having said her fill of what had been bothering her for quite some time. She had her reservations before she came back to Japan that most of what she predicted would happen. All of the stress that had been building broke through the damns after the inadvertent confession of the true state of her engagement and the deep rooted fears she hid so long. Taking shaky steps across the room, she chastely kissed each of them on the cheek. "I love you both, but I swear you're going to smother me to death one of these days. By the way, I'm keeping the equipment, but that doesn't mean I'm not finished being annoyed at you Rui. And Akira, you can burn that map of yours, but I made this spare key for you to come here anytime you want." Slipping the key into his hand, she walked away.

"What was that?" Rui asked. "Geez, you're fiancée has some mood issues."

Akira contemplatively tapped a finger over his chin. "She doesn't start her period until the twenty third. Then again, I like my women feisty."

"Idiot!"

The matching shoe whacked its target on the back of his head, "Ow! Damn, I forgot how good her aim is."

"How did she hear us?"

"I don't know, but it really creeps me out," Akira laughed. His ears searched for the sound of the door closing at the top if the stairs. Pulling his ring of keys from his pocket, he latched the new one to the bunch sighing. "I guess my plans blatant voyeurism around campus have gone up in flames."

"When has a girl ever stopped you from getting your way? You always get what you want one way or another."

In the dim, musty basement Akira's head remained lowered. His eyes were fixated on his task toying with the jangling keys in his hand. "I knew we would have to have this conversation sooner or later," he resentfully stated. "I guess this was exactly what Tsukushi feared the most about letting everyone know about us."

"I don't want to be in the middle of you two."

"Neither do I. Who am I to intrude between Tsukushi and Rui, two names that have become synonymous." Shaking his head, a nervous laugh emitted from his lips. "Maybe this is what I deserve. No one can better give you such a debilitating sense of self loathing rather than the master himself, Hanazawa Rui."

A frown settled on his pursed lips as Rui thoughtfully contemplated where this conversation would be heading. He had no intentions of telling her. He knew better than that. By his quick calculations and rather astute memory, the dates and times led him to a conclusion he dreaded to be real. "She told me about what happened."

"I would have guessed she would sooner or later. Nothing goes left unsaid between her best friend and her. So, we're not that perfect. It's not a crime. Or better yet, I'm not so perfect."

He advanced on him snatching the set of keys from his hand. "If you hurt her, I swear I will hurt you tenfold. She's not just another one of your girls. I can forgive how callous you can be at times. It's ironic how everyone sees you as the most caring and loyal one of us all. Then again, you hide it all so well. The slightly transparent laid back façade. You've just learned to hide your tracks so well. I know one thing for certain. That night, that girl, she wasn't just any girl either. I can bet that if Tsukushi knew who she was, she wouldn't have come here."

"Well, it's not like we all don't have our indiscretions. What happened between her and me will never happen again. It was a one time thing. I haven't touched another woman since that night."

"And what about all the others before her? Were those one time things, too?"

"That's none of your business. I made a promise to never screw up again and I won't. I need her a hell of a lot more than you'll ever understand."

"Oddly enough I do. I'll what she wanted of me. I won't get involved unless she asks for my help. However, be forewarned that I won't let you ruin her life. If this isn't the real deal you know what will happen."

"I know." Akira nodded his head. "I've already got Tsukasa on my ass about this."

"I think we have an understanding then."

"We do."

While this secretive agreement was made a few feet away from her presence, Tsukushi had no idea of the ramifications that would come. Already a few obstacles had been cleared, but how long could she last. She tipped the cup of coffee she had made for herself to her lips taking slow sips to let the warmth it provided take effect. Her eyes would glance over at the closed door leading to her basement every few minutes. It had been about twenty minutes since she had finished her outburst and left the two men to deal with their issues on their own. It was a becoming a bit too easy to pretend to not see what was so apparent, to ignore what she knew. After some deliberation, she put her cup down ready to go down and check on them, but was stopped by the ring of the telephone.

"Hello," she answered breezily with an innate ease. Quickly the smile on her face slackened to be replaced by a bit of shock.

"I thought I asked you to call us as soon as you got there."

"I'm sorry, I forgot to call you last night. I was a bit too busy moving in and stuff. Everything is going fine. Don't worry so much."

"Well, I'm supposed to worry about you sometimes. These past few years, you've been a bit too impetuous for your own good. You've been lucky that things have always seemed to work themselves out. Are you sure you want this?"

She nodded her head listening to the speaker over the line even thought they could not possibly see her. "He's a bit different, I guess, but nothing seems out of place. He seems to be taking it all better than I expected. I know you and he aren't exactly thrilled by my choice, but I need to live my own life. If it's all a mistake, then it's my mistake."

"We won't stop you then. You seem pretty much intent in going through with this."

"I need to do this. And if he hates me for it, then at least I won't have to live with the regret of what if."

"Your love runs deep, doesn't it?'

Leaning back against the kitchen counter, she sighed. "So much that it scares me."

"I don't want to see you get hurt. I really hope you know what you are doing."

"I do, Mama. I do."

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A/N: It's bad. I know it's bad. Bwah! This is what happens when you try to finish a chapter that's been sitting on your desktop for the last three months. Maybe it'll jump start some kind of plot. One day it'll come to me.