Hidden Storm
Author's Note: This is possibly the shortest fanfiction I've ever written. Without title and meaningless author's note, exactly one page. But I like it, which is more than I can say about the last thing I wrote. Only thing I don't like about it is the really crappy title.
Dislaimer: Paradise Kiss and all characters contained therein are property of Ai Yazawa.
Sometimes she'd get that look in her eyes.
She'd turn her head and stare out the window, and Arashi knew she wasn't really sitting in a café with him any longer, she was in some other place where he wasn't permitted.
He wondered if Hiroyuki was there with her. He wondered if he'd ever know.
When he'd issued her the ultimatum years ago, he'd hurt her, and he'd known it then. Miwako loved him. And she loved Hiroyuki. But he'd made her decide between them, and lost his best friend in the process. Because he was jealous.
His jealousy had cost him. Miwako had given up on Hiroyuki, but now she locked him out when she had to think about something she knew he wouldn't like.
Sometimes, he was jealous of George and Caroline. They lived their lives on the precipice; they didn't have a comfort zone, just an edge that they were always ready to fall off of. But still, he was jealous. They could never keep something unspoken between them for very long; they burned too hot, and too quickly, for that.
Miwako couldn't keep details from him. She'd blurt them out at the first opportunity, afraid of what he might say and what he might think, but equally afraid of keeping them from him. Afraid that another secret would just hurt them more.
But the big secrets remained unspoken. Arashi wondered if Miwako and he would be together, if he hadn't forced the issue. Maybe she would have discovered that she loved Hiroyuki enough that their differences didn't matter.
Neither of them would ever know, but both of them would always wonder.
If they didn't break it out into the open someday, then their living ghost would break them apart. Someday, he would have to talk to Miwako about it.
But not today.
"Miwako," Arashi murmured tiredly. He smiled as big startled eyes whipped away from the bustling Tokyo street outside and met his. His Miwako was beautiful and gentle, and worried far too much about other people's feelings, and too little about her own.
He wouldn't want her to change. He would just want her to trust him more.
Such problems could not be solved in a single day, however, so Arashi just raised his eyebrows and eyed her tall frosted glass askance.
"Your parfait is melting."