Ruki walked into the PSC building donning his sunglasses and holding his head low. It wasn't that he didn't want to be recognized by all the people standing around, but that he didn't want her to notice him. Because if he saw her, he was pretty sure that he would go into cardiac arrest.

She walk walking through the lobby at that exact moment, looking amazing in her little skirt and t-shirt. She was the only one the boss allowed to wear crazy things like skirts with combat boots, because she was the hardest working make-up artist in the whole company. And her father gave a lot of money to PSC.

She looked beautiful today. The way her long, red wine hair waved down her back, just the way Ruki liked it. Her bright blue eyes were shining today, just like everyday, darkened with black eyeliner. Her full lips were perfect and glossed with her favorite accessory, clear lip gloss.

Ruki had barely noticed that he had frozen where he stood, his mouth half open as he stared at her, and people were beginning to give him strange looks. He himself wondered about his behavior.

And then she started walking this way. She looked straight ahead, not really noticing him in all his awkwardness. And then her eyes flickered to him, and a bright smile came upon her face.

"Moshi-mosh, Ruki-san!" She raised a gloved hand in greeting before walking straight past him.

He took slow deep breaths, willing himself not to turn around and watch her walk away.

Instead, he walked towards the elevator.

Unfortunately, Miyavi was there.

"Ruki-kun." Miyavi patted him on the back. "I saw Mori-chan. Did you?"

"So?" Ruki mumbled.

"Just wondering." Miyavi smiled. "You know, considering you have that huge crush on her and everything."

"I do not!" Ruki objected loudly, making several other people in the elevator look at him.

"Ruki-san, be calm." Miyavi chuckled. "It's not like everybody doesn't already know. I wouldn't be surprised if she knew."

"Whatever." Ruki muttered, turning away.

He was not in a very good mood today.

He pushed his glasses further up on his nose, and then crossed his arms before the elevator dinged for his floor.

He stepped out, stalking down the hall in an unhappy frenzy.

When he slammed the door to the conference room, his band mates and thier manager raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why the hell is everyone giving me that look?" He demanded, taking his seat beside Uruha. "Can I help you?"

"Ruki, are you oka-" Kai started.

"Yes, Kai, I am okay." Ruki said sharply. "Now that we're done with the therapy session, can we get on to more important band matters?"

"Grumpy." Aoi snickered.

"Shut-"

"You know, I bet he saw her downstairs." Reita smirked as he watched Ruki closely.

"Saw who?" Kai asked.

"You're so oblivious, Kai." Aoi chuckled. "Mori-chan, of course. That cute make-up artist that has 'Ruki wants me' written all over her."

"Oh." Kai shook his head, still not understanding.

"When he sees her, he gets all clamped up in a little shell because he thinks he can't have her." Uruha shrugged. "Same old Ruki."

"I do not!" Ruki said. "I have no idea what you guys are talking about!"

"Ruki-kun, honestly." Thier manager sighed. "Everyone knows. Quit denying it."

"Not you, too!" Ruki buried his face in his hands. "I do not have a secret school-boy crush on Moriko Yaoke!"

They all froze when there was a soft knock on the door.

"Yes?" Thier manager finally called.

Woe-and-behold, that door opened to reveal the petite little Moriko in all her blushingness.

"Um, sorry to interupt your....important meeting." She kept her eyes on the floor. "But I have the contracts you requested from the photography department, Kai-san."

"Oh..." Kai stood, smiling as he walked up to her, taking the papers she handed out. "Arigato, Mori-chan."

"You're - um - welcome." She nodded slowly. "Good bye."

She turned on her heel, nearly running out of the room.

"Wow, Ruki." Uruha sighed. "I think you hurt her feelings."

"Ugh." Ruki stood up in a huff. "Be right back."

He stomped out of the room, seeing her back disappear around the corner of the hall. He started running. He couldn't have her mad at him, then she would never talk to him. And he loved her voice...

"Mori-chan!" He yelled as she almost got around another corner again.

At the sound of his voice, she froze.

Turning slowly and conspicuously wiping off her cheeks, she looked up at him.

"Yes...Ruki-san?" She asked.

Ruki put his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.

"Ruki-san, you really should stop smoking..." She suggested.

"Forget...about that." He waved it off. "I wanted to tell you, what you heard back there-"

"Back where?" She said quickly, obviously trying to cover her tracks.

"I didn't mean for you to hear what I said before you knocked." He stood up straight, his breath still a little labored.

"Ruki-san, I really don't mind that you don't...um...like me." She lied. "I mean, you're a rockstar, with fans. I'm a make-up artist. There really isn't any copatibility there, right?"

She tried to laugh, but it came out dry.

"No, no, you don't understand-" He tried again.

"Ruki." She stopped him. "It's okay. I was only running because...I have a meeting of my own to get to."

He knew she was lying through her teeth. Only because lying wasn't exactly her forte.

"So...bye!" She turned, running again.

"Wait! Moriko!" He called.

She didn't stop this time.

"Shit." He hissed, punching the side of his fist into the wall.

He walked off in the other direction, wondering just what he had gotten himself into this time.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"Ruki, quit moping." Aoi said as they walked towards the photoshoot two days later.

He hadn't seen her very much since thier little incident. And whenever he did, she nearly speedwalked as fast as she could to get away from him.

So he had hurt her. He hadn't meant to, but he had hurt her. He saw it in those once bright and hopefull eyes that now looked completly lost.

"Honestly, man." Reita patted him hard on the back. "You look majorly depressed. Is this about Moriko-chan?"

Ruki's frown deepened at the mention of her name.

"I'll take that as a yes..." Reita sighed.

"Man, just talk to her." Aoi suggested.

"How am I supposed to talk to her when she's avoiding me at all costs?" Ruki demanded. "It's like, I repell her, now. She won't come near me. She won't talk to me. She barely even looks at me..."

"Well, you're the one who kept denying it and it finally blew up in your face." Uruha shrugged. "I blame you."

"I blame all of you for making me say that!" Ruki snarled.

"Okay, okay, calm down." Kai rubbed Ruki's shoulders. "We're sorry we're such bad friends. Now, since I'm trying to make up for it, I arranged for Mori-chan to do your make-up."

"What?!" Ruki gasped. "No! Kai! She'll...like, stab my eye out with eyeliner! Or make me look like....like....Gackt or something! Or worse...She'll make me look like Uruha!"

"Hey." Uruha grimaced. "I resent that."

"Ruki, calm down." Kai chuckled. "Look, there she is. Try to start a conversation with her or something. Don't go into apologizing at first. Just talk with her, then tell her your sorry."

"Uhhhh..." Ruki couldn't think.

"She looks nervous." Kai said before pushing Ruki forward. "Be nice. Hey, Mori-chan! Make Ruki pretty!"

"On it, boss!" She did a wavering fake salute and then lead Ruki her station. "Sit."

He did so, suddenly fearing for his life.

"Okay, so you want a purple theme for the new shoot?" She asked, keeping her eyes on her make-up kit.

"Right..." He muttered.

"And Yuuki is off today, so I'll have to do your hair, too." She muttered. "But, don't worry. I'm actually pretty good at it."

She never meant his eyes once as she plugged in her flat-iron.

Ruki thought, trying to bring a nice small-talk topic up. He had to think of something...

"So, where are you from?" He asked out of the blue, wincing as soon as he said it.

That sucked. He sounded so desperate. He might as well have asked about the weather.

She laughed, though.

"Actually, I've lived in two places." She said. "I grew up in Kanagawa, but I moved to Kyoto when I was twelve."

"You lived in Kanagawa?" Ruki asked as she walked behind him and began brushing out his blond hair. "That's where I'm from."

"Wow, cool." She nodded. "I sort of already knew that."

"What?" He laughed. "Did you Google me or something?"

"No...um." She shook her head. "We went to high school together."

Wow. Wasn't expecting that.

"I never saw you." He said, looking at her in the mirror intently.

"I know." She nodded. "It might sound crazy, but I was the little dorky kid back then. I even had braces. And my hair was a little weird. I used to bring my dolls to school and give them make-overs during class..."

"In high school?" Ruki asked.

"Yep." She sighed. "I know, I sound totally lame. But we had English together a couple times. You were always the best in the class. And...I always sucked. I cannot speak english to save my life."

She laughed dryly.

He frowned. Why didn't he remember her?

"The funny thing is," she looked sad now, as she worked through his hair. "I saw all of your soccer games. I went to a couple of your lives when you joined with that first band...Lord knows I can't remember the name. I was never so good with those. God, I sound creepy. 'I stared at you in class, watched all of your soccer games, and stalked you to your gigs!' "

She couldn't help but laugh a little more fully this time.

"I'm such a freak." She shook her head with a smile.

"No, you're not." He mumbled.

"Ha, yeah." She objected. "Trust me, my cat's name is Snaggle. Don't doubt my freakishness."

"Snaggle?" Ruki chuckled.

"She has a snaggle tooth." Moriko shrugged, grinning as she reached for her comb and hairspray.

"Of course she does..." Ruki smiled. "I don't see how you knew me all those years, and I don't remember you. I must've saw you one time..."

"It's okay." She half-smiled. "I don't really get noticed much."

"If only you know..." Ruki then slapped a hand over his mouth.

Did he actually say that out loud?

"If only I knew what?" She asked, rubbing hair wax on her hands and then running her fingers through Ruki's hair.

He gulped, ignoring the intimate feeling of her hands in his hair.

"I..." He sighed. "Alright, Kai told me not to, but I need to. I'm sorry about what you heard the other day in the conference room. I didn't mean for you to hear it, because, for one thing, it isn't true. And...I didn't exactly want you to know that it wasn't true."

She raised an eyebrow, her eyes still on his hair.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

He brought a hand up grabbing her wrist. He knew his hair was probably sticking up everywhere, but he didn't care. He kept ahold of her wrist as he stood and turned to face her.

She couldn't help but look at him.

"I mean, that it's completly stupid to think that I don't like you." He muttered, looking at his feet. "Because I do. A lot. And if you only knew how many times I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw you, you would probably think I was insane. But, it's true."

He looked up at her then, staring deep into her blue eyes.

"You're beautiful." He told her, touching her cheek softly. "You're sweet. You're cute. You're everything. And...I don't care about the difference between rockstars and make-up artists, because all I want is you."

Her eyes got a little glassy and her mouth was ajar. She looked up at him with frozen eyes, unable to breathe. She tried to take a deep steadying breath.

"Ruki..." She whispered. "I've waited twelve years for you to say that..."

He smiled. "Well, not that I finally got around to it, will you be mine?"

She nodded frantically, unable to form coherant words.

Ruki swept her up off her feet, pressing his lips to hers. Her eyes fluttered closed as the sensation of it caught in her belly.

"Woo!" Reita yelled from where another person was fixing his hair. "Go Ruki!"

There were cat-calls from all around, but neither of them noticed.

Moriko tangled her fingers in Ruki's hair, breathing a laugh when she realized it was completly screwed up now.

But she forgot entirely when Ruki's tongue slipped past her lips. She moaned as she tilted her head and he explored her mouth.

When they broke apart, they were both breathing heavily.

"Ruki..." She whispered against his lips.

"Yeah?" He muttered.

"You're hair looks funny." She giggled.

He rolled his eyes with a smile as he turned around without taking his hands off her, giving himself a strange look as he saw it was sticking out everywhere.

"Ugh." He shook his head. "Can you fix it?"

"Well, yeah." She lead him back to the seat, walking behind him and kissing his cheek before going back to work.

Comments:

This 'twas for my Ruki-obsessed long lost sister, Moriko-chan. I only wrote it so I could have my birthday presents early! mwahahaha!!! but now I have to write a very DETAILED one if ya KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!! and that is NOT going to be fun...