"Konnichi'wa, Toki-chan. It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

~~~

She was here.

She was in that office, with him.

Just the two of them...

He could finally tell her those three words that he had wanted to, since he found out that she had left Japan.
 
'I Love You'

~~~

Tokiya had quickly sat up when she had walked into the room and saw him, lying on the couch. And when their eyes met, he could have sworn that he felt electricity fill the room.

'You sound like a trashy romance novel author,' he noted grimly to himself. And when he had greeted her and she had replied, his heart began to spin. Her voice...it was like tinkling bells...and again he asked himself...
 

'Why didn't I notice this before? You were such a blind, stupid man, Tokiya.'

'But now...everything can be fixed...and you can tell her.'

Slowly, he stood up, and walked over to her.

She stood there, her eyes wary.

And until there was barely three feet of floor between the two of them, he asked her, "Why did you leave?"

Fuuko looked away, her face showing a faint blush. Suddenly, she grasped onto her last preserver. One that would tear them apart- she thought - so he wouldn't think that she was still the lovesick fool that he had known all those years ago.

And she wasn't.

And she was.

She really had gotten over him...

She had found a new person...one that would be there for her...forever.

Or would he?

"I was a fool, Toki-chan," she said, meeting his eyes. "I fell in love with someone that I could never have...He pushed me away, until I had no where left to turn. But...that's all history now, and I-" she said the next words with honesty and truth, "I've gotten over him. I've found someone new."

His broken heart...the pieces that were shattered...The tiny pieces shattered again, when he heard those words.

He should've seen this coming. He was a fool to think that she would still love him.
 
And yet...

He gently held her arms, and forced her to look at him. Her feminine 5'9" frame against his masculine 6".

"Really, Fuuko?" It took all of his courage to say that, for he knew that with one little word...
 
"Yes."
 
...It could crush him forever.
 
She had said it so firmly, and it had echoed the feeling in her heart.

She was over him.

"And...I've found some one new, Toki-chan..."

His eyes zoned out. She had found some one else to replace him. But then, he thought, full of self-hatred, he had had her for a while, and what man would deny her every wish?

"His...his name is Maruko, and I met him when I was in France..."

Maruko? He knew that man... Why, Maruko worked at his company, and was the President...One step higher than he was. In everything, he supposed. However, no matter how much shock he was going through, he knew one thing.

Fuuko...was gone...forever...

~~~

He had left the office early that day, but not before asking Fuuko if he could meet her somewhere, to 'Catch up on the time they had missed,' while she had been away.

Too happily, she had agreed, and he had invited her to his apartment.

To talk.

But...what would they talk about? He felt as though his heart had been drained, and it was useless to even think about being with her. 'This must be how she felt when I was with Anna...But...It's a different situation,' he told himself stubbornly. 'Very different.' And yet, in his heart, he knew.

He knew that everything would be different, no matter how much he wanted everything to stay the same.

And he would never be able to tell her those three words that he had dreamed of, ever since that fateful day, two years ago...

He had waited, not as patiently as he would have liked to, for her to come back. He had phoned Yanagi at least once a week, to see if she would tell him just when Fuuko was coming back. She would never tell him, only reminding him of the sweet past- and future- that he could've had with Fuuko.

Lying down on his bed, he thought back to the happy past...When Fuuko really as his...although he didn't know it. And then, he felt his stress overtake his body, and he succumbed to sleep, half- aware that Fuuko- his Fuuko- would be coming over in just two hours...

~~~

She stood there, looking at her watch so casually, 'Two hours...' She looked up at her boyfriend who watched her with interest.

"My, my Fuu-chan, it must be the twentieth time you glance upon your watch? Have a hot date?"  He said, his voice deep as she walked over him, sitting in his lap and staring into his eyes.

"What if I said yes?"  She placed her arms around his neck.

"Well, if you did, I would definitely be force into destroying that man." He said, as Usagi laughed, giving him a soft peck on the lips.

"Nada, Maru-chan, I just have a rendezvous avec mon copain."  She told him, as he raised his eyebrows.

"Mon copain - a guy?" She rolled her eyes and scrambled out of his lap.

"My best friend actually, I known him since I was little. I use to have a crush on him too, but I'm over it." She said with a smile.

'Just a crush?' Was all her mind could question. She shook that notation out of her head as she continued on, "You must know him...I believe he's the CEO of this corporation."

"Mikagami, ne?" She nodded, as Maruko seemed to grin at that. "It's so strange how fate has brought us together."

"Oui, oui mon amie, ai shiteru."

"Fuuko, you should learn how to stop mixing the two languages..." the brunette haired man said, shaking his head.

She pouted at him, "But I love confusing you..."

Un-noticed by him, she glanced at her watch once more.

'Still two hours...? Toki-chan...'

~~~

She stood in front of his door, wondering what he was to find. He probably changed everything, because he always complained about how her designing clashed awfully with her stuff. They had different taste. He had sophisticated taste, and enjoyed dark tones. She was different; she enjoyed fresh bright colors that lit up the room.

Maybe he was married off, to Anna? Or to some other woman that was more like him. She sighed, knocking the door softly. She pushed the doorbell, as she waited patiently.  The door opened, as her eyes glazed upon ice blue.

"Hello."  He said, leading her into the apartment.  She nodded, and followed in.  Her eyes looked around and -

Everything was the same.

"You didn't change a thing." She breathed out softly.

Tokiya took a seat on the sofa. "I couldn't find the heart to change anything...if I changed things, any final trace of you would slowly disappear...And then I would have nothing left...Nothing but memories."
 
His memories...

****Flashback****

"Tokiya-chan," a 15 years old pouting Fuuko told him, "you're ignoring me again!"

He was surrounded by girls his age, and he could do nothing. He wanted to get rid of those girls- honestly- but they wouldn't leave.

"Fuuko-chan," he said to her, watching the other girls glare at her, when hearing his pet name for Fuuko, "I'm trying! Really!"

She stood there, her full bottom lip stuck out. "Could've fooled me," she said softly, looking into his dark blue eyes.

****End Flashback****

He only had memories left of her...

They could have created more together, but...it all came down to one fact.

It had always come down to this one fact.

He was a fool.

"Toki-chan..." She called out his name softly, making his cerulean eyes focus on her, "Gomen ne if I caused you to feel any guilt when I left."

"Fuuko, when do I tell you to stop calling me 'Toki-chan'? It ruins my reputation." Tokiya said giving her a friendly icy smile.

"Gomennsai, Toki-chan!" Fuuko said.

He could have laughed aloud at those words. 'Any guilt...' Really, he should've laughed out loud, but he guessed that she wouldn't find it funny. Did she know about the sleepless nights that he had had? Oh, he =
thought bitterly, 'there had been many...Many, many sleepless nights...Staring out at the moon and the stars, wondering how she was doing...how she was faring...with out him.

But now it would always be that way.

With out him.

"But I couldn't stay here anymore. I needed to spread my wings and fly away...And being here wouldn't have helped."

He was hurt by her words, but he covered it quickly. Had he held her down? He knew her spirit was wild and free, but he never thought he stopped her from doing so much.

"After I went to France, I found it difficult to live there, for it was my first time being on my own...

'No', he thought. 'You were practically alone here, too. When I was with Anna all the time...'

"But I adapted, and sometimes found it wonderful to be alone - well, not always though.  I had Saicho there though, and as busy as he got, he always found time to squeeze me in and made me feel wanted."

'Wanted.'

He remembered those neglectful days years ago.

He had made her feel as if she had no use in his life. That she didn't matter.

He hated himself for doing such a thing...he deserved this then. The change of heart, the indifference...

"And now I have everything I ever wanted. I have a business with my friend Michirure-chan, I have a boyfriend who would always be there for me, and I have a life with the future I want."

"That's good Fuuko..." He choked out.

She smiled at him, a friendly smile that she remembered she would always give to Recca.  He knew that this smile was not one of a lover, but a friend, a family member...

"How about you, Toki-chan?"

"I'm happy too...I have a business that is going straight."

"What about your love life? You had always been popular with the girls..." She said with a smile upon her lips.

What was he to say? That the girl that he had been waiting for all these years had finally moved on with her life? Had found someone new?

"I don't really have one...I had been working on my business too much."

She shook her head, "Ohh Toki-chan, you shouldn't do that. Love is eternal, while a business only brings worry and stress."

"Hai, I know." He agreed, his eyes filled with over whelming sadness.

'But love also brings heartbreak and pain.'

~~~

The tension had been high, as Fuuko tried to sooth everything, talking about her internship that she had in France. Soon after, she looked at her watch.  "Ohh Toki-chan, I have to go. Maruko is going to pick me up
soon and take me to dinner...I could have sworn that he was quite jealous of you when I told him that I was going to meet you here...but hey, I told him that you were just like my older brother."
 
Older brother...

Those two words were jabbed painfully into his heart. But then...hadn't he always treated her like a younger sister? She had been...some one...who would always be there for him...

But what would happen after she got married? Their 'relationship' would never be the same. Ever. Not that it was now...

"Good...I wouldn't want him to misunderstand our relationship."

She nodded, picking up her purse and grabbing her coat. "It's been wonderful seeing you Toki-chan," she smiled at him, peaking his cheek softly and walking away. As the realization came to his mind.

No matter how hard he tried.

No matter what he would do.

Kirisawa Fuuko was out of his life. And it would probably stay that way.

Dark blue eyes became even darker. 'Probably...'

~~~

She walked out to the sidewalk, as she watched as Maruko's silver car came up to the front of the apartment lobby entrance. He parked, getting out to open the door for her. "Thanks," she said, as he closed the door, buckling, she the looked up at the apartment buildings, her eyes landing upon the one where Tokiya and she once shared.

'I use to be so foolish, to be so in love with him. Now I see that the love that I once had for him was not love, but a simple infatuation. Maybe because I didn't know what love truly was, so I mistook the love of a sibling to another as the true, hot and heavy love that I now have with Maruko...' She looked at her love, her eyes glazing at him kindly.

'If it wasn't for him, I would never have realized how beautiful love truly is.'

~~~
Author's Note:

Wahh! It's still too short! ...Maybe I miscalculated with the four chapters? Er...Am I talking to myself again? Gomennasai!

Pity, Tokiya, ne? Heart broken over Fuuko even if he is Mr. Freezer. Anyway, I divided the four chapter again. The two one, I still have to fix.

Whew, be right back! -=3DChi-chan=3D-

Oh, e-mail me here: chi_chan1012@hushmail.com

I do accept flames but so sorry if I flame you back! Revenge is MY middle name ...BWAHAHAHAH! ^^;; Gomen!