Author’s Note: George is very hard for me to write, for some reason. And I don’t really know enough about Kaori yet to due justice to her. So if either one of them seems OOC, that’s why.

Disclaimer: Paradise Kiss is the property of Ai Yazawa.

For All the Tomorrows

Chapter Two

Midorino Mizu

George would have rather come alone, but he bowed to Miwako’s wishes and brought a date instead.

It was, after all, the rehearsal dinner for her wedding.

So instead of standing alone against the wall, staring into nothing, waiting for the evening to end, he was standing against the wall with Aso Kaori, holding a plate of food that he hadn’t touched.

He was still staring into nothing.

“George?” attempted the other designer. He inclined his head to one side to indicate he had heard. “I don’t think this behavior is quite what Miwako had in mind.”

“What do you mean?’

“Well, she keeps looking over here, and she might be getting worried enough to come over soon.”

“Ah.” George leveled one of his devastating smiles on his partner. “Then I’ll have to be more convincing. Should I start feeding you from my plate?’

Kaori flushed red. “I don’t think that will be necessary, George. But perhaps if you demonstrated some enthusiasm for something other than the wall.” She took a deep breath. “It has been a year, you know.”

“Yes,” murmured George as he picked up a delicately crafted hors’ d’oeuvre and popped it into Kaori’s open mouth. “I know. But I find it difficult to move on when I can’t understand why she left.”

Kaori’s eyes scowled at him as she chewed on the appetizer he’d fed her when she’d had her guard down. He grinned back at her.

Kaori swallowed quickly, washing the creamy food down with wine. “You don’t understand, George, because you are an idiot.”

“Really? I was not aware.”

“It’s the truth.” Kaori’s eyes flashed and she poked her old classmate squarely in the chest. “You spent five years with Yukari, and your expectations of a relationship were impossible. You wanted an independent woman, but you were furious when she showed those kinds of tendencies. The two of you fought at least once a week.

“I confess I don’t know how you expected that to last for your entire life.”

George said nothing, but his lips tightened at the corners.

“Yukari,” Kaori continued, gazing across the room where the model was laughing and chatting with her new boyfriend, Tokumori Hiroyuki, “is someone whose dreams make her fly. So are you. That’s why it couldn’t work out. You both need someone who can keep you grounded on Earth occasionally.”

George’s face flushed, and he took several ragged breaths before speaking. “I think I need to go out and get some air, Kaori. I’ll be back before long.”

Long after George Koizumi had swung through the doors of the restaurant, Aso Kaori stood rooted where he’d left her.

“I would bring you back to Earth, George,” she whispered. “But you never want to depend on anyone, do you?”

***

Isabella and Miwako looked up from their conversation as George left and sighed in unison.

“Do you think that he’ll ever be back to the way he was?” asked Miwako.

“No,” replied Isabella distinctly. “But that’s not a bad thing; Yukari isn’t the same as she was when she lived with George. She’s still driven and independent, but calmer and more centered at the same time. Having someone like Hiroyuki, someone who isn’t afraid to be depended upon, has been good for her.”

The bride-to-be cast a curious glance over at the couple in question. “Do you think they’ve moved in together yet?”

“No,” said a familiar male voice behind them. They turned to stare at Arashi, who had just wandered up. “It’s too soon in their relationship for that. Hiro’s always been kind of reserved, and Yukari might be wary after…” Arashi waved an arm to indicate the door George had disappeared through. “But there have definitely been sleepovers.”

“Really? How do you know, Arashi?” asked Miwako.

“And aren’t we all a little old for sleepovers?” drawled Isabella.

Arashi’s eye twitched. “Never mind, Isabella.”

“Very well,” said Isabella as he patted his elegantly curled blond wig. “Be that way, Arashi. It’s not my fault you failed to articulate yourself properly. Miwako, let’s go to the powder room.”

“But Miwako wants to know how Arashi knows that!”

“He’ll never tell, anyway.”

Arashi groaned slightly and rubbed his temples. Sometimes he wondered how he had let himself into such a permanently crazy situation

Then, he thought, as he watched the slim and petite figure in the lavender wig skip after the tall and stately one, he remembered.

***

George Koizumi didn’t smoke, but he thought maybe that he should be holding a cigarette.

He was, after all, leaning against a lamppost in the middle of the night, and he was thinking of things from the past.

According to all the American movies, you were supposed to smoke when you did that.

He sighed and rubbed at the space between his eyebrows. He was glad Yukari was happy. It had been years since she had even smiled at him very often, and laughter had become increasingly rare in their apartment.

So, perhaps it had been inevitable that their relationship would end. Perhaps, if they had stayed together, the pressure and the fighting would have destroyed them both.

He didn’t want to see Yukari turned into his mother, a mere shadow of her former personality, and George had no desire to be his father.

Still…he loved Yukari, even now. And it still hurt to she her smiling up at the man who had always been, in George’s own mind, a rival.

But maybe it was okay to still love her; she was, after all, the first girl he had fallen hard for. He wouldn’t be surprised if he always loved her, a little bit.

As for the pain…well, eventually, everything stopped hurting.

He’d just have to be patient.

***

“It hasn’t been as bad as we thought it would be, has it?”

Yukari looked up at her tall boyfriend, and shook her head with a smile. “No. A little uncomfortable at times, but sometimes fun, too. So, not bad.”

“That’s good. If it had been as horrible as we had anticipated, the wedding would be a nightmare.”

“No,” disagreed Yukari. “Even if George and I had been unable to get along, I don’t think we could have ruined the day for Miwako and Arashi.”

“Probably not,” said Hiro. “But it still would have been nightmarish for you, and that would have darkened it for Miwako. You know how she is.”

“Yeah.” Yukari looked around at the thinning out party. “What time is it, by the way?”

“It’s after midnight. Do you want to get going?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you out to late. You have all those important morning meetings.”

Hiroyuki laughed. “I could sleep all the way through them, and not miss anything important. But I wouldn’t dream of depriving you of your beauty sleep, so we’ll say our goodbyes.”

They thanked Miwako and Arashi fairly quickly, and made for the door.

Aso Kaori, it seemed, was also leaving.

“Hello, Kaori,” said Yukari. George had been dating the other designer almost as long as she had Hiro had been seeing one another, but she had the feeling that George couldn’t bring himself to give the relationship a real chance.

“Ah, hello Yukari. You look well.” Kaori’s voice was normally cheerful and happy, but now it was subdued, as if the evening had taken a toll on her.

“So do you.” Yukari paused for a moment, uncertain as to whether she should say anything else. “We’ll see you next week, then, at the wedding?”

“Yes,” replied the other girl simply.

“Ah. I’ll see you then, I guess.”

Kaori stared after the two as they walked out the restaurant doors and climbed into the sleek black German car. She knew that she had made the model uncomfortable, and she didn’t blame Yukari for the situation they were in now at all. She had, however, always felt a little uncomfortable around the tall girl.

George had loved her a long time, and still thought himself in love with her, after all.

Kaori sighed deeply, and stepped outside the restaurant herself. George was leaning against a lamp post half a block away.

“Are you ready to go now?” she asked as she walked up to him.

“I think so, but I’d like to walk.”

“Okay.”

The stroll was a quiet one, and George seemed to be fascinated with the burning fluorescent lights of Tokyo, even though he’d grown up with them. Once they got to her apartment building, however, he finally looked her in the eye and spoke to her.

“I’m sorry, Kaori. I’ve been using you.”

Kaori blushed slightly. “It’s okay, George. It’s not like I didn’t know.”

“Somehow,” he said with a crooked, sad smile, “that makes it worse. I’ll call you in a couple of days, though. Okay?”

Kaori nodded. “Okay.”

“Goodnight, then. And thank you.”

Kaori smiled as she watched George disappear into the night. She thought that, maybe, he had finally decided to move on.

That was good. She wanted him to be happy again.

She wanted to be happy again, too.

Chapter One

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