Friends and Lovers

Ssj_hotaru

Prologue

It was a beautiful late winter day, more like spring really with the flowers blooming and the lush baby grass popping out of the ground one blade at a time to create a veritable sea of green. Scrub Jays danced and screeched from the bare branches of a wisteria, then flew down to hop among the flowers before returning to their perch as the sun set beyond them.

It really had been a beautiful day and a glorious sunset too; to bad she wasn't in the mood to enjoy it. With a sigh, Sora let the curtain fall and turned toward the kitchen for a glass of tea.

Mimi Tachikawa. Honestly, what could he see in her? Besides the fact that she was gorgeous with her long, wavy hair and miniskirts. Damn Yamato anyway! Sora slammed her plastic cup down on the counter so hard that it sloshed over the rim and onto her hands. Who cared about him? Not her. She had better things to do than trying to get inside his thick head, she thought as she dried her hands. Yes sir, she could… Well, she could…

It was no use. She sank into one of the kitchen chairs and rested her head in her hands. What was wrong with her anyways? She never used to care who Yamato spent his time with. He could have slept with the entire female populace and she wouldn't have cared. Or would she? She wasn't quite sure anymore.

In the last few years Yamato had earned the love'm and leave'm reputation that women loved him for. But he seemed serious about Mimi and her about him. Just this afternoon she'd been talking on the phone and Mimi had been simply gushing about him, eager to share everything with her best friend. If only she'd known. In fact, if only Sora had known. Until Mimi had called her up she hadn't even known Yamato had been seeing her. It was while Mimi was talking that the emotions had erupted inside her, bowling her over as surely as if they'd been a tsunami. She'd stood there, receiver in hand, not hearing a word Mimi was saying as she waited for some sense of equilibrium to return.

Of course, maybe it was normal for a girl to feel anger and betrayal and so many other emotions she couldn't name when her closest friend was getting serious about someone else. Maybe… but she doubted it. What was different from the other women? She should be happy about the prospect of Yamato finding the woman he loved, but all she could feel was a terror at the thought that that woman might not be her.

Could it be possible that… just maybe… she was in love with him? The idea was so unbelievable that she almost dismissed it. Her! In love with Yamato Ishida. Why it was down right laughable when she thought bout it. Sure he was every woman's wet dream with his blonde hair, blue-eyed masculinity and he could cook, but Sora knew all his flaws as well. She knew that he snored like a dragon, how he hated cleaning the kitchen and put it off until he had nothing to eat with, he lounged around his house in old, shabby clothes that smelled like they hadn't been washed in years, and- Well, there were many more, but Sora preferred not to think of them, she was starting to get a warm, butterfly feeling in her chest just thinking of the ones she did. And those were his worst habits!

Oh God! She was in love with him. How else could she explain the way she was feeling? And wasn't it just her luck that she would discover this now that he seemed a hop, skip, and a jump away from marrying Mimi. She felt frustration well up inside her. Now that she knew how she felt how could she stand by and watch him give his heart to another woman? The answer was she didn't think she could. Should she stand by and hope that he realized the true love he searched for was right under his nose? She didn't think she could do that either. So the only solution to her problem was to fight for him; and she would.

Mimi had said Yamato was taking her to a club when they'd talked- oh what was the name! While thinking back over their conversation (what she could remember of it) she ran to her bedroom closet and proceeded to tear through the clothes, hunting for the sexiest thing she could find. Just as she found a long, black, spaghetti strap dress, the name hit her and she began to smile. Look out Yamato, she warned him silently as she took a pair of scissors out of her sewing box, Sora's on her way!