Chocolate Fic for sparklynoodles; part 2
To: sparklynoodles
From: kaminikaku
Title: A Winter's Day
Pairing: Kazuya Kamenashi/Anne Watanabe
Rating: PG
Summary: Hokkaido in winter is the coldest place in Japan. Anne is a cable car attendant at the Mount Moiwa Observatory in Sapporo. When a magazine photo shoot chooses the Observatory as a shooting location, Anne finds herself meeting a person who may change her life. Can one day be long enough to melt the icy determination of a wounded heart?
A/N: Dear sparklynoodles, I tried to pitch this towards some of your wants and interests, and I hope you aren't disappointed at the sweeter rather spicier rating and tone. I hope you enjoy it, and it was a pleasure writing for you. Also, I found Anne quite difficult to write as there seems to be little in translation from her in terms of interviews etc, so there may will be moments where she appears to be Bera-lite, and I hope the sweetness is balanced out enough to not be too saccharine. Now, prepare for winter in Hokkaido.
Mount Moiwa Cable Car Terminus Stage 1, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
February 4, 2013 5:53 am
Riisa's reaction is everything Anne hoped for, and Kame grins in pride that he managed to stifle his own laughter to ensure the video was crisp and clear. It was all worth it to see Anne's face light up with such laughter as he strutted out of the cable car like it was a fashion runway. He is also proud of the fact that he was sneaky enough to call his own phone, so he had her number. He was after all known for having many talents.
Shikotsu National Park, Chitose, Hokkaido, Japan.
February 4, 2013. 5:30 p.m.
“Wake up. We are here.” Anne nudges Kame's shoulder. “Kame. Wake up.”
Rubbing his eyes, Kame groans and protests. “We can't be. You said it was going to take us an hour to get here.”
“It actually took us an hour and ten minutes. Plus we have been parked here for ten minutes. We are most definitely here.”
Kame looks out the window, but can only see lines of cars parked in the darkness. No buildings, no lights … where were they? Wait. He had been asleep for an hour? “I'm sorry. Was I asleep the whole way?”
“Almost,” Anne smiles at him, and he relaxes slightly. “You made it past the corner of my street before you were dead to the world. That's some handy skill you have there, the ability to sleep in a moving vehicle.”
“Come with the territory. I take sleep when I can. Still, it was rude of me to leave you alone without company for the drive, and I do apologise for that!” Kame opens the door and is hit by a cold gust of wind. He closes the door. “Maybe we should just stay here where it is above freezing and almost cosy?”
“Where is your sense of adventure?” Anne leans across him and pushes the door open. “Stop being a baby. Get out there.”
“It's really cold.”
“You agreed to go wherever I suggested, and left the plans up to me, so that's what you get. I fed you, gave you a place to sleep, didn't embarrass you by answering your phone when your manager called when you were in the shower, I didn't laugh while we watched you dressed up as a polar bear on that TV show you recorded yesterday, and I even remade lunch when you forgot to tell me that you don't like tomatoes. So. Stop being a baby. Get out there.”
“I had no idea that you could be so bossy.”
“I had no idea that you would be such a baby. Out!”
“As my Lady commands!” Kame steps out, and hurries around the car, to open Anne's door with a flourish. “Where may I escort My Lady tonight?”
“Up a nearby mountain would be lovely.”
Kame raises an eyebrow. “Didn't we do that last night?”
“Yes we did.” Anne grins. “This mountain has a volcanic lake though - well technically I think it's three or four mountains all joined by one huge lake, but up a mountain we shall go. I thought mountain sounded a little nicer than volcano?”
Kame shivers. “If it's this cold down here -”
“It will be icy up there,” Anne finishes.
“So the hat, mask, scarf and glasses -”
“Weren't just for a disguise.”
“Right.” Kame waits while Anne locks the car, and then playfully straightens her scarf and snaps the elastic on her face mask. “What wonders shall we discover on this volcano like mountain that has a lake?”
Linking her arm through his without thinking, Anne nods towards the path. “Well, Sapporo has a snow festival. This is Lake Shikotsu, and they have an ice festival. With fireworks.”
Kame raises an eyebrow. “Fireworks in this wind?”
Anne nods. “Fireworks, and buildings made of ice, snow illuminations and things like that. Plus - they serve buttered potatoes here which are amazing.”
“Lead on.”
They carefully make their way over the snowy ground, and follow the winding path up to the lake. There are hundreds of people crowding around, and Kame tightens his grip on Anne's arm. Everyone is dressed warmly, rugged up against the cold, which makes them all faceless bundles of coats and scarves. He may be unrecognisable, but so is everyone else here, and no one is paying the slightest attention to them. Anne most definitely had the right idea. He relaxes, and for the first time in months, maybe years, doesn't feel like the world is watching him.
Together they walk alongside the lake, and Anne laughs as Kame threatens the cold wind with anything he can think of. Their bones ache in the cold, but once they are a little further along, there is a small sheltered cove, and Kame realises that this is where the festival is set. It's hardly warm, but the wind passes by overhead, and the cove is sheltered by pine trees, so it's comfortable to walk around.
Anne is right, the festival is a mix of structures made of ice, lit with either white or coloured lights, and it's crowded and happy and … normal. He can see many many couples, arms entwined, matching scarves, walking around as if they were the only people there. Much as DisneySea is a haven for couples and families side by side, this festival works in the same way. Everyone is welcome, and no one is pretending to be anything they aren't. It's relaxing.
Which reminds him. He checks Anne's feet. “I'm glad to see you are wearing sensible shoes today.”
Anne snorts derisively. “Thanks. I got to choose my shoes for this adventure.”
“Where do you want to start?”
Anne checks her watch. “We could look through the ice buildings, then duck into the stores to grab some buttered potatoes, and then head back out for the fireworks? We will need to leave soon after the fireworks to make sure that you make it to the airport in time for your flight.”
“Sounds good.”
They make their way around the festival, laughing and exploring, and Anne forgets that he is a famous celebrity and Kame forgets that he intended to be impressive, and instead it's playful, fun and enjoyable, and everything a date should be.
When it comes time to try the buttered potatoes, Anne remembers long enough to give Kame the seat with his back to the room, so he can take off the mask and eat unobtrusively.
“When they say that Hokkaido milk and butter is better than anywhere else, they really aren't joking, are they?
“Not at all.” Anne scoops up the last of her baked potato and swirls it through the melted yellow butter. “This may not be Tokyo, but the food here is great.”
“Do you miss Tokyo?” Kame holds up a hand. “I'm not going to pry into why you are here and not there, I was just wondering if you missed the place. For a while, it looked like I might end up at the Hanshin Tigers rather than the Giants, and even though I like visiting Osaka, the thought of leaving Tokyo was really hard.”
Anne closes her yes for a second as she thinks; she normally avoids talking about Tokyo because its telling how much she misses it, which bring the conversation back to why she is in Sapporo, and …
“Yes.” She settles on the truth. “I really really do miss it. I love Sapporo but it's not the same.”
“Can you … Any chance …” Kame searches for a way to ask. “Any future plans to return?”
“Um ... yes. My department here has allowed me to take an intensive subject at Keio University over the March Spring Break, which means I get to go to Tokyo.” Anne flushes slightly as Kame grins at her. “It's just for Spring Break though. It will be my first time back since I moved up here.”
“Can I see you? In Tokyo?” Kame is still, focussed, and completely honest. “I would really like to.”
For a moment, Anne feels like everything hangs in the balance, as if there are wants and desires and obligation and responsibilities and should do and can do and want to and maybes and dreams and terrors and everything else all precariously balanced on her head, and if she moves it will all come toppling down. She can't tell anymore whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing. She takes a deep breath, and isn't sure until the word leaves her whether her heart or her head would win the battle.
“Yes.”
“Really.”
“Yes. I would like that.”
She looks away, and Kame wonders if she has any idea how hard it is for him not to lean across the table and kiss her senseless. He doesn't though, much as he wants to, because he saw some of the struggle. She clearly wanted to say yes, but there was a very real moment where she might have said no. She didn't want to, but she might have said it anyway. He was going to be careful here, whatever he needed to do to find out what was worrying her, and to fix it if he could, he would do it. Whatever it took.
They sit in silence for a few moments, but it's a sweet comfortable silence that gives both of them hope.
“It's almost time for the fireworks.”
“Yes we should head back.”
“Into the cold.”
“Well you can't have fireworks inside.”
“I don't know,” Kame says. “It seems to me that's something our technology industry could be working on. Maybe I will have a word with Panasonic the next time I film a commercial with them.”
Anne snorts. “Baby. Let's go.”
**
She can't see him anywhere.
She lost hold of his arm when a group of teenage boys jostled through to set up their cameras, and now she can't see him anywhere.
Gone.
He is gone.
She has lost Kamenashi Kazuya.
What in the world is she meant to do now?
Breathe.
The first ten minutes she holds it together, but when she hits the twenty minute mark of trying to subtly push her way through a huge crowd of people looking for man whose name she can't call out, she realises that she has no idea how to solve this.
**
Her heart thunders as she waits for the call to connect. Pick up, pick up, pick up...it echoes along with her heart, and when she hears his voice, she wants to cry.
“Hello? Anne?”
“Shige!”
“What's wrong?”
“I lost him Shige, he's gone, I can't see him..
“Anne.”
“And I can't find him, and he's lost, and it's freezing and what am I meant to do, he's gone...”
“Anne.”
“He's gone, he's gone...”
“Anne!”
“He's gone.”
“Who is?”
“Kame!”
“You lost a turtle?”
“No you idiot, I lost Kame. Kame!”
In the sudden silence, Anne can hear her own ragged inhalations, each one dragging the icy air into her throat, and numbing her lungs.
“As in Kamenashi Kazuya?” Shige asks finally.
“Yes.”
“Why are you with Kam … Never mind. Tell me later. Are you in public? Where are you? What happened?”
“He wanted to come and see the Ice Festival at Shikotsu National Park near Chitose, and it's dark now and the fireworks are almost over, and it's cold and there are people everywhere, and I lost him. He's out there somewhere and I can't find him.”
“Ok, ok. Deep breath. Exactly where are you? Exactly, Anne.”
“I'm at the Ice Festival, near the entrance to the ice illuminations.”
“Ok, how close to the lake?”
“Not exactly beside the lake, I'm at the bottom of the road that takes you back up to Visitor Centre building and the shops.”
“What's on your right?”
“Entrance to the iced over pine tree forest cave.”
“Left?”
“I don't know.”
“Yes you do. Tell me, what's on your left?”
“The Igloo with the money frozen into the walls.”
“Ok. Stay there, don't move, and don't hang up.”
“But I need to -”
“Trust me. Stay there.”
Meanwhile elsewhere in Shikotsu National Park...
The wind was even more bitterly cold where Kame was, on top of the two storey tall ice viewing platform, scanning the crowd for Anne's face. Of course, given she was covered from head to toe in as many layers of clothing as possible, including a hat, face mask and a scarf, and it was dark apart from the fireworks exploding overhead, and there was approximately 799 other people down there, he was not holding out much hope that this was going to be easy. Not that he was easy to spot at the moment either. Next time, he was going to insist on holding onto her in crowds, and if she didn't want to hold his hand, he was going to have to find another way to... hold her hand, and be damned with any scandal that might cause.
When he finds her, the first thing he is going to do is program his number into her phone himself, so that he knows it is there, and so that she could call him whenever the hell she wanted, regardless of time or location, and really, when you are lost on the side of a volcanic mountain by a lake that never freezes regardless of sub zero temperatures, in a crowd of 800 similarly dressed people, it would be a really good idea to have saved his number in her phone before they got separated.
It would also be an even better idea if she would hang up whatever phone call she was currently on, so he could damn well call her himself. Given he had saved her phone number in his phone himself.
He tried again.
Still engaged.
And no voicemail.
They were going to have words when he found her.
And the cold air up here is burning his lungs, and the wind is freezing his bones, and if he keeps scanning the crowd below him as quickly as he is, he is going to get dizzy and possibly fall from this platform, which would definitely be a problem. Not to mention noticed.
His phone vibrates against his palm, and he is so startled he almost drops it over the edge in his rush to answer it.
“Sorry Kei-chan, I can't talk right now, I'm in the middle of something -”
“Like the middle of Shikotsu National Park?”
Kame stills.
“How did you know that?”
“Anne called Shige. She's waiting for you near the entrance to the ice monument park, between the pine forest cave and the igloo with the money in the walls.”
“How do you know that?” Kame stares blindly across the crowd. There is no way he can see that area from where he is standing, and it will mean pushing his way through almost the entire crowd, but the fireworks are still holding people's attention, and it might just work. Wait.
“Why did she call Shige?”
“That's a story for later I think and is not entirely my story to tell. You better get moving, I think she is really upset.”
“Understood. I'm on my way.” Kame ends the call, and. carefully hurries down the icy staircase, and slips through the crowd as unobtrusively as he can. He mainly manages it, but he's sure he features on a few family photos of the fireworks, the crowd is packed too tightly into the space, and there are just too many people taking photos. Hopefully, he's just unremarkable enough to pass unnoticed.
The snow is packed hard under his boots, and the wind cuts into him like icy knives. He hurries as fast as he can, Anne is away from the crowd, by herself, and not moving, so she must be even more cold than he is...
There she is. He spots her, standing beside the pine forest cave, a phone clutched to her ear, and she is shivering. Kame takes the phone from her shaking fingers.
“Shige? I found her. Thanks.” He ends the call, and slips her phone into his pocket, as he looks searchingly at her.
Her cheeks feel even colder than they did a moment ago, and Kame is oddly blurry. It's only when Kame gently swipes his gloved fingers over her cheeks that she realises she is crying. Kame moves closer, and she steps forward, into his waiting arms, and throws her own around him. She buries her head in the crook of his neck, and somehow this time the air is slightly warmer as it burns its way into her lungs. He rubs gentle circles over her back and sides, as broken words and sobs escape her, and in return he whispers soothing nonsense which she can't take in, gentle words and her name, and reassurances and platitudes, until finally the sob catches in her throat, and she manages to swallow it down into silence.
Kame pulls back a little, just enough to shift so his jaw line brushes near the top of her head. He squeezes her gently, and asks, “Are you ok?”
“I'm sorry. I couldn't find you, and I couldn't work out a way to find you without everyone seeing you, and knowing you were really here, and then if everyone knew you were here with me, then ... ” She is exhausted, the words are scratchy to her own ears. “I thought it would happen again.”
Kame quirks an eyebrow at her, but she can't see it under the hat and glasses. “Again?” he asks softly.
“I can't let that happen. Not ever.”
Kame raises a hand to pet her jaw line, and turn her face towards his. “Let what happen?”
The movement seems to wake her, and Kame feels her pulling back, slipping through his fingers like sand, and withdrawing back into her shell. The 'Any mention of Tokyo shell' he nicknames it for himself. The same reaction, the worry - it was the same.
“It's nothing,” she mutters. “I'm just being silly.”
“It doesn't look that way to me.”
“Please forget it.”
“Anne, you were crying.”
The smile she obviously forces onto her lips makes him want to rage. “I was just worried. I thought I'd lost you forever.”
“Anne.”
She straightens her hat, and surreptitiously wipes her cheeks under the guise of checking to see if the fireworks have ended. “You know I don't deal well with a crisis,” she says softly, and stares as Kame snorts.
“We may have only known each other for a day, but even I can tell that is a blatant lie.”
“Kam..” She stops and quickly glances around, checking to see if anyone had caught her starting to say his name. “This isn't the time,” she says tightly. “We should go.”
The soaring bursts of color in the sky are spectacular, and Kame decides to take a chance. He smiles and points as a particularly loud rocket soars overhead, as it builds to the grand finale. “The fireworks are beautiful. They are almost done. You don't want to stay and see if it's true?”
Kame leans in close, pulling his mask down with one hand, and loosening her scarf with the other.
“If what's true?”
“If you see fireworks when I kiss you.”
“When you wha-”
The flash of light is much closer this time, a white hot burst that bounces off the ice surrounding them. Kame automatically turns away, shielding his face, while Anne turns toward the source.
“Sorry. I'm really sorry.” A young girl steps forward, lowering her camera, and babbling apologies. “You just looked so cool and romantic, and there is a photography competition at my high school, and it just looked like the perfect opportunity. I didn't mean to disturb you. I just didn't think, I'm so sorry.”
Anne nods, and mutters the standard acceptance for apologies, then bites her lip, unsure what else to say, while Kame quietly slips his mask back on and pulls his hat further down over his eyes.
The girl checks the viewfinder of her camera. “It's a good picture though! The framing worked really well, and the contrast between both of you and the white ice is really striking … Oh ...” Her voice trails off, and she stares quietly at the camera, then raises her gaze and finds Kame's eyes. “I'm so sorry. I don't mean to intrude, and oh, I didn't realise that it was … I'm so sorry to bother you.”
Kame stays quiet, holding her gaze.
“I heard that you were in Hokkaido but I never dreamed that I would …” She steps closer. Anne moves sharply, placing herself protectively beside Kame who remains still. “It's a good photo. It is. I know it will cause problems for you. Should I delete it?” She holds the camera out to them, and Anne can see she is right, the photo is lovely. Very clear. Way too clear. Anne feels sick. Not again.
Kame inclines his head, and says evenly, “That has to be your choice. I can't ask you to.”
Her finger hovers for a moment and then the picture disappears, replaced by a little trash can icon. “I want to go to Tokyo and study photography and work with the fashion magazines. I've wanted to do that since I was a little girl. I … I feel like a paparazzi photographer right now. I'm so sorry I intruded.”
Anne looks at Kame, and then turns back. “Thank you,” she whispers and her tone is enough to alert Kame to the fact that there is more going on here than he knows.
“I'm really sorry,” the girl says again, and bows deeply.
Kame pats her shoulder, and she raises her head slightly. “You have a good eye for framing. Maybe one day I'll see you working in Tokyo?” She bows one more time and Kame adds quietly, “If I do, we can try for an even better shot, yes?”
The smile she beams towards them is even brighter than her camera flash. “Yes, please! That would be great.” Kame nods in farewell and the girl nods in reply, before hurrying away to catch the last of the fireworks. Anne watches her disappear into the crowd, her stomach turning over with anxiety and relief, and she barely notices Kame taking her left hand, and lacing his fingers with hers.
“Let's get out of here,” he whispers in her ear, and tugs gently. Silently, they walk up the snowy path, through the icy wind, and somehow, Anne doesn't feel the cold anywhere in her left hand where it rests in Kame's.
Tully's Coffee House, Chitose Train Station, Hokkaido, Japan.
February 4, 2013 9:05 p.m.
Kame places a cup of white hot chocolate in front of her. “I thought this was better than coffee. Even if you have the drive back to Sapporo, it's late.”
Anne nods and curls her fingers around the ceramic mug.
Kame hesitates and then ignores the chair on the other side of the table, and chooses to sit on the bench seat beside her. The place is almost empty, only the employees and two high school boys in the other corner. It appears that the larger Starbucks closer to the platforms gets all the traffic at this time. No one is paying them any attention, and no one blinked an eye when he ordered their drinks.
He stretches across the table for a napkin, and as he does, he slips an arm around Anne. She stiffens and begins to pull away, but he lets his hold tighten a bit. “Don't pull away.”
“I'm not,” she says tightly.
“What are you worried about?” he asks.
“Nothing.”
“Liar.” He loosens his hold, but leaves his arm there, curled easily about her. “I can't force you to tell me, but I would like it if you did.”
“I … I don't think this is a good idea.” Anne picks up the mug, and takes a gulp of chocolate, heedless of how hot it is. “I don't think we should …” she says hoarsely. “Tokyo. I mean, I don't think Tokyo is a good idea.”
“The only reason Tokyo is a bad idea, is if you don't want to spend time with me,” Kame keeps his tone even and treads carefully. “Nothing that happened tonight changed my mind in the slightest.”
“It should have!” Her reply is quick, and is telling on its own. “That girl could have sold that photograph to the tabloids.”
“She didn't. She deleted it.”
“There might be other people with pictures though. Every time you go out, there will be more people watching and waiting, and making things up, and hurting people, and ...”
Kame takes the mug away, and clasps her hands in his. “Stop.”
“You don't understand. All it takes is-”
“Stop.”
She quiets.
“I do understand. It's unfair. It's confronting. I've been in the papers before, and sometimes it's truthful and sometimes its not. Have I been drunk in a club after a big win? Yes. Was I an adult and was it legal? Yes. Have I been dating every single one of my co-stars and left them heartbroken, or even worse, devastated on the way to the altar? No. You have to ignore it.”
“That's not always an option.”
“It is.”
“It's not. It's not.” She repeats it, and pulls her hands away. “It's not always an option.”
“The people who matter, the people who know me know the truth,” Kame tries, but is interrupted as her phone rings. She glances at the screen, and Kame says, “Ignore it.”
“I ... I can't.” Anne feels the tears threatening to appear, pressing against her throat, ready to spill over.
“Try.” Shaking her head, Anne tries to pick up her phone, but Kame says, “I'm not just talking about the phone.”
The first tear spills over, and she whispers, “I know you aren't.” She pulls her hands away, and Kame lets them go. “I can't. I... Please give me a minute.” She picks up the phone, rejects the call, and heads to the bathroom.
Ten seconds later, her phone rings again and Kame sees the name on the screen. Kato Shigeaki. His fingers itch with the urge to answer it. He knows she would be upset, but Shige would have answers. He doesn't move, as the battle between his conscience and his need to know grows. His hands stay curled around his mug, and later when Anne returns, with a red nose and a determined air, he only says, “Your phone rang again.”
She checks the missed call log, and when she sees the name, she grows pale. “Did you answer it?”
The fear in her tone, answers any doubt he may have had about the wisdom of answering that call. “No. I told you that you could trust me. In all honesty, I saw the name and was tempted, but no. I didn't answer the call.” Kame pulls her down onto the bench. “You should call him back though. He must be worried.” He gets up. “I'll be back.” This time, it is Kame who heads towards the bathroom, and Anne never knows how much it costs him not to look back over his shoulder.
Anne stares at her phone, at the screen and the bright blue case with stars on it, at this piece of plastic and glass and metal which could ruin her life or make it better. The only problem is, she really doesn't know which path will lead in which direction. Her head and her heart are pulling her in two directions.
This time when the phone rings, she answers.
“So you are there,” Shige says.
“Yes.”
“That's all?”
“Yes.” She barely manages to breathe that time.
“Are you crying? Did he make you cry? What's happening?”
“I'm not,” she lies through the tears sliding down her cheeks. “Not his fault. None of this is his fault. He's trying to make it better, but I- Shige I don't know what to do.”
“Give the phone to Kame,” Shige orders.
“I can't. He's gone to the bathroom.”
“So he's not there? He's not with you at the moment?”
“No.” She swallows. “He told me to call you, but I couldn't.”
“What's going on Anne?” Shige softens his tone, and Anne feels it, almost like a hug through the phone. “What happened? How did you guys even meet?”
She had no idea how to tell him anything. Maybe the last question was the place to start. “He came to the Observatory for a photo shoot. They put me on the schedule to work an overnight shift for it.”
Shige whistles. “What are the odds of that happening?” When she doesn't continue, he asks her, “What else happened?”
“We got locked in overnight at the Observatory.”
“And then you lost each other at the fireworks. Sounds like the start of a romantic comedy movie. May I borrow it for the start of my next novel?” he jokes, and Anne gives a weak laugh.
“No.”
“Why? Everyone loves a romantic comedy.”
“Not if they don't end up together.”
“How can you tell that?”
“I … It won't work. There was a girl with a camera at the festival and it almost happened again.”
“Why did you go the festival if you were worried about that?”
“Kame wanted to go on a date, and do what couples in Sapporo do, so I thought it was the best idea. We had hats and masks and scarves, and no one paid him any attention until then.”
“You went on a date with Kame?”
“Yes.”
“He asked and you said yes?”
“Yes.”
“I said I would see him in Tokyo in March as well.”
“And now you think it can't end well?”
“I ... Yes.”
Shige quietly says, “I see.” Anne is almost positive that he does, and waits for him to tell her that she made the right decision, the right call, anything. Instead, he is silent.
“Aren't you going to say something?” she finally asks.
“I've known you for almost twenty years Anne-chan. I remember when you had no front teeth and the time you cried because that Nishikido kid tried to kiss when you didn't like him, and I know when you need me to ask questions and when you need me to listen.”
“Then tell me what I should do!”
“Anne.”
“Talk to me Shige, please, just talk to me.”
“Ok. Let me tell you how I met Kame. He's quite a good friend of Kei-chan you know. He introduced us, brought Kame along to my third novel release I think. Last year it would have been. I think they met for the first time when Kei was going out each week for news every, at the start of that baseball season. They didn't really become friends until later though, when they started ending up on the same TV variety shows. Kei started to joke that he should join the Johnny's agency and they could put Kame with him and Kusano in K.K. Kitty, but Kame said he was never going to wear their atrocious costumes.”
Anne inhales, on half a laugh, half a sob. Kame sits down across from her, and Anne looks at his hands resting on the table as Shige says, “What can I say about him? I've only known him for a while, but I can say that he seems like a good and decent man. I know that Kei counts him as a friend and trusts him. I know that he is considerate, and has a wicked sense of humor and apparently one of the best fashion senses around. He's a friend.”
Anne nods, even though Shige can't see her, and Kame raises an eyebrow at the action. She looks up and meets his gaze as Shige says, “I also know that you have had a crush on Kazuya Kamenashi the actor for years. Can see who he actually is underneath the image, like you can see Keiichiro Koyama and know what makes Kei tick? When you look at him Anne, who do you see? The perfect dream idol, or the man?”
“Kame.” Kame looks at her, a question in his eyes. “I see Kame,” Anne says.
“Have you told him that?” Shige asks gently.
“No.”
“Maybe you should.” When Anne doesn't respond, Shige asks, “Is he there now?”
“Yes.”
“OK. You wanted to know what I think? I think you should tell him. I think you should tell him about Tokyo, about how you see him, and I think you should give him a chance. That's what I think. Now Anne-chan, put Kame on the phone.”
Anne hands the phone over automatically, and then realises that might have been one of the stupidest things she has ever done.
“Yes?” Kame says.
“Kamenashi. Kato Shigeaki here. Is Anne sitting there?”
“Yes, she is.”
“Ok, listen up. She is one of my oldest friends, and if you hurt her in any way I will hunt you down and make you suffer. If through some miracle you escape me, you won't escape Koyama. Do you understand?”
“I've already promised Anne that I will never hurt her, and I think she's the one that matters regarding that.”
“True. I just wanted you to know where we stood.” Shige hesitates, then says quickly, “Kame, you need to be careful with her. There are things that you don't know, but I think she needs to tell you herself. If you were just looking for a friend to spend time with up there and you walk away now, no harm no foul. If you want more, you need to listen to her and look past the surface.”
“I understand.”
“I'm also serious about the hunting you down if you hurt her part.”
“If I do that, I promise you won't need to hunt me down.”
“Good luck. Put Anne back on please.” Kame hands the phone back to Anne.
“Yes, Shige?”
“You are not a coward, Anne-chan. He asked you on a date, he took the risk. He deserves to know why you are pulling away now. I think you can trust him. What do you think?”
“I … Shige, I don't know.”
“Well, don't forget, he also knows Koyama. I'm not the only one he could ask for the extra details. Wouldn't you rather he hear it from you?” Shige takes her silence as agreement. “Talk to him. I think you want to. Good night.”
“Thank you Shige.” Anne ends the call, and places the phone on the table between them.
“Do you want another drink? Coffee?” Kame asks.
“No, I'm fine.” Anne replies, puzzled.
“I'll just grab a coffee.”
Three minutes later he returns with a hot caramel latte, and two chocolate chip cookies. He pushes one towards her. “Everything always works out better with chocolate chip cookies.”
“Only chocolate chip ones?” Anne asks, and manages a half smile.
Kame smiles at her effort. “Well, I'd imagine any cookie works out fine. Or ice cream. Cake. Mochi. Anything sweet. They only had chocolate chip cookies here though.”
Anne looks up at him. “Could you please sit next to me? I think it might be easier.”
He turns serious, and slides onto the seat next to her. “Thank you. I don't really know where to start. Maybe with Shige?”
“That sounds good.” Kame sips, and takes a bite of cookie. “Eat while you talk.”
Anne crumbles a bit of cookie from the edge, and says, “I've known Shige since we were in elementary school.”
“That's a surprise. I thought maybe University - but all the way from elementary school?”
“Yes. We lived in the same area, and went to the same schools, the same juku. We were close friends, never really lost touch. In High School we had different groups of friends, and we drifted apart a bit, but then we started University together, and well … I've known him for almost twenty years.”
“So you knew him before he became a famous novelist?”
“Yes. Well before. I even knew him before he met Koyama.”
Kame taps the back of his fingers against Anne's hands. “You know I told you to eat and talk, not destroy the cookie and talk.” Nodding, she takes a small bite. “Better. That sounds so odd, I thought Koyama and Shige were practically born knowing each other.”
“Nope. Didn't meet each other until Shige was in High School. In fact, I never met Koyama until our University days. I think Shige was a little worried that my head would be turned by his older friend.”
“And was it?” Kame thinks that there is no undertone of jealousy in his voice, but he is wrong.
“No. Not in the way you might think. I am most definitely not Koyama's someone.” She sees Kame's puzzled look. “We are very good friends, and always will be.” Taking a deep breath, Anne says, “I need to tell you about Koyama - and about me. We have a bit of a history.”
“Anne -”
“Wait. I don't know how to say this. Could you - could you maybe put your arm around me?”
Kame does, and Anne snuggles a bit into the warmth of his side. Somehow, just feeling the heat of him there, and not having to watch his face, made this easier. Hopefully. “So. I met Koyama because he was Shige's friend. We got to know each other, we became really good friends. One night … There was one night when we ...” Anne's hands are shaking so badly that she barely feels Kame clutching them. “They took photographs of us one night.”
“A tabloid photographer?”
“Yes. They were hidden and we didn't see them. They took photos of us and published them. It was a huge scandal. They took photos of Koyama and I leaving Shige's apartment one night. It wasn't even that late, but it was dark. Koyama forgot his scarf, I didn't think anything of it, I just ran down after him with it.” Once the words start flowing, Anne lets them. She doesn't think, she just speaks, and is taken by surprise at the relief once the secret is out. “I ran down stairs calling his name, and I caught him as he got to the street. I don't know whether they were waiting, or whether they heard me, but they took pictures of me running after him. When I caught up to him, his hands were full of shopping bags, so I looped the scarf around his neck, and then we walked to the train station together. The tabloids made it look like we were lovers. The angles of the photos and the captions, they made it sound like it was the middle of the night, and we were on our way to a hook up. They said that I was Shige's lover first, and that we were betraying him, having an affair behind his back. They found out my name, and published it. They followed me into classes at University, I couldn't go to my part time job because of them, and they even called my parents at home, asking why they had raised such a bad daughter.” Anne turns her face into Kame's shoulder, hiding against Kame's neck. He strokes her hair, gently, and Anne manages to continue. “They stalked me for two weeks, until I was fired from my job, and withdrawn from my University classes at the request of my professors. The interruptions were distracting everyone else, they said it wasn't fair to the other students. My friends … only one or two believed me and stood by me. The others, they believed I was capable of hurting Shige like that, or they couldn't cope with the press attention. If you google my name, the first page is all articles and photos related to it. The press only stopped following me because I moved here. It will never go away.”
“I don't remember it.” Kame brushed his palm over her cheek, then cupped her jaw. “I don't remember the scandal happening, but that was because I was shooting that taiga drama, the one where I played Ranmaru.”
“How do you know that?”
“I got a message from Senga while you were on the phone with Shige.”
Anne retreats, pulling herself back, but he refuses to let go, clutching her tightly. “Hear me out, please. I didn't know anything about the scandal before now. I never saw it, never read the articles or saw any of the photos, and I still haven't. Senga recognised you today, he thought you looked familiar, and today he put your name and your face together. He sent me a message asking if I knew how to contact you, and asking me if I remembered what happened between you and Koyama.”
“You knew? You knew and you let me -”
“No! I didn't know. Damn it Anne, all Senga said was he remembered your name and face now, and that it was a pity that you got caught up in that Koyama scandal. That is all he said, and I didn't ask him for any more details. I wanted to hear it from you. I needed you to tell me and you did.”
“Why would Senga send you a message like that?”
“I think he realised that I didn't go home with everyone else, and that the last person he had seen me with was you.”
“It doesn't really matter.” Anne shakes her head, and when she pulls away, this time Kame lets her go. You have to see what will happen if we get spotted together. It will be like last time, only worse.”
“Why? What happened to Koyama?”
“He gave an interview before Johnny could talk to him. He said we were friends, and he called the tabloid rumours a lie. Johnny almost fired him outright, he threatened he would do so if we were ever caught together again. He cancelled all the promotions for the next K.K. Kitty single, and he did fire him from his hosting role in Shounen Club. He said that he couldn't have someone lacking moral fibre in that role. It took months for them to leave Koyama alone.”
Snorting, Kame says, “Accusing Koyama of all people of lacking moral fibre. The man is an idiot.”
“A powerful one.”
“Of course. He's spent his life making it that way.” Kame ran his hands through his hair. “Look, I'm not saying that it could never happen to us. I'm not saying it's just words on paper that no one believes. I know that they hurt you badly. I can see that. People who should have stood by you didn't and they have to answer for that. From what you say, Koyama suffered professional consequences due to the lies. The only thing is - if you let them dictate what you do, if you let them dictate whether we can have a relationship of any kind, sweetheart, be it friendship or romantic, then we have let them win.” A rueful smile curves his lips. “I know its very easy for me to say that. What do you need me to say? I can't promise that they will never catch us together, it's probably inevitable if we spend time together. Your previous appearance may even increase attention, but Anne I promise you - we are the only ones who matter. If we choose to be together, we will be. We can make that choice. I don't have an agency like Koyama does, my agency would simply not comment based on it being my private life. Unless I asked them to, and believe me I would ask them to if I thought it would help a situation we were in. What I am saying is that I would take any risk, any chance required to see where this thing between us goes.”
“I promised myself that I would never let that happen again.”
“That's a promise you can't hope to keep as it's beyond your control.”
“It would certainly be easier to keep if I am not involved with a celebrity like you.”
“True.” Kame sits quietly, and then taps her nose. “The problem I see with that argument is that when you look at me now, you see me - Kame - first, and Kamenashi the celebrity second.” He opens his phone, and scrolls, then places it in front of Anne. “Senga didn't send me any of your scandal photos, but he did send me this picture. Look at it.”
Anne does, and sees a photo from the previous night, of the bell tower, an exhausted Kame clutching her to his chest, while she cradled his head and held him in place. “When did - I never saw him taking pictures of us.”
“It wasn't intentional, I'm sure. The thing is, Senga has a talent for taking great photographs that show true emotion. He sent it to me, because he wanted to know if I could contact you and ask if he could use it in the shoot. That's entirely up to you if you want to allow him to do it. My point is, I look at this photo, and I can see that you care. That when you look at me, you see me - the human being who is tired, or happy or worried. You see me. I can't promise you that things will work out or last forever or be perfect. No one can. If you see me, the real me, though that's a good place to start. That's why I think it's worth the fight to try.”
Anne studies the photo. It is a beautiful one. “No.”
“No?”
Kame withdraws, Anne sees it happen and then she is speaking frantically, “No, no, I meant, Kame, no, I meant that no Senga can't use the picture. No for the picture. Only the picture.” She looks up at him, and Kame stills as for the first time Anne reaches for him, and places her hands on his face, cradling it. “Yes for you. For us. I want to try. If - you still want to.”
“I still want to.” He swallows. “I really do want to.”
“Then - we can?” Anne asks hopefully, and Kame nods. He leans forward, and brushes his lips against Anne's and she can taste hope and happiness and possibilities. When he leans back, she follows him, and the second kiss tastes of even more specific possibilities and types of happiness.
“Last orders please!” The lady at the register calls out, and they break apart, smiling and flushed and happy.
“What time is it?” Anne asks, pushing her hair back from her face and gazing into his eyes.
Kame looks away, and checks his watch. “It must be late if it's last orders, oh.” He sheepishly says, “It's 11:50. Almost midnight. Guess I missed my flight.”
“It can't be!” Anne checks her own watch, and stares at him in shock. “What are you going to do?”
“Stay with you?” he suggests. “Take a plane back tomorrow? See if the station in Sapporo will let me do a live cross for the NHK variety show I am scheduled to be on at 10 am tomorrow and take a little holiday instead. There are many possibilities. The holiday is looking tempting.” He brushes another kiss onto her very willing lips.
“Is that going to be your solution for everything? A kiss? I wonder how long that will take me to get used to it?” Anne grins and then laughs. “Wait, it's midnight?”
“Yes, almost.”
“Then, let me tell you Mr Kazuya Kamenashi that I met you almost exactly twenty four hours ago.”
“That's true. I guess we can say you never know the difference a day can make until you live through it, but if I get to spend another day with yo -”
Anne lays a finger on his lips, shushing him. “Careful. You don't want to use all of your best lines on the first day. Save some for the second. Who knows where we will be in twenty four hours time?”
“One can only dare to dream,” Kame murmurs, and neither of them notice the coffee shop employee smiling at the picture of two happy people who are so wrapped up in their own world they lose track of everything but each other.
From: kaminikaku
Title: A Winter's Day
Pairing: Kazuya Kamenashi/Anne Watanabe
Rating: PG
Summary: Hokkaido in winter is the coldest place in Japan. Anne is a cable car attendant at the Mount Moiwa Observatory in Sapporo. When a magazine photo shoot chooses the Observatory as a shooting location, Anne finds herself meeting a person who may change her life. Can one day be long enough to melt the icy determination of a wounded heart?
A/N: Dear sparklynoodles, I tried to pitch this towards some of your wants and interests, and I hope you aren't disappointed at the sweeter rather spicier rating and tone. I hope you enjoy it, and it was a pleasure writing for you. Also, I found Anne quite difficult to write as there seems to be little in translation from her in terms of interviews etc, so there may will be moments where she appears to be Bera-lite, and I hope the sweetness is balanced out enough to not be too saccharine. Now, prepare for winter in Hokkaido.
Mount Moiwa Cable Car Terminus Stage 1, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
February 4, 2013 5:53 am
Riisa's reaction is everything Anne hoped for, and Kame grins in pride that he managed to stifle his own laughter to ensure the video was crisp and clear. It was all worth it to see Anne's face light up with such laughter as he strutted out of the cable car like it was a fashion runway. He is also proud of the fact that he was sneaky enough to call his own phone, so he had her number. He was after all known for having many talents.
Shikotsu National Park, Chitose, Hokkaido, Japan.
February 4, 2013. 5:30 p.m.
“Wake up. We are here.” Anne nudges Kame's shoulder. “Kame. Wake up.”
Rubbing his eyes, Kame groans and protests. “We can't be. You said it was going to take us an hour to get here.”
“It actually took us an hour and ten minutes. Plus we have been parked here for ten minutes. We are most definitely here.”
Kame looks out the window, but can only see lines of cars parked in the darkness. No buildings, no lights … where were they? Wait. He had been asleep for an hour? “I'm sorry. Was I asleep the whole way?”
“Almost,” Anne smiles at him, and he relaxes slightly. “You made it past the corner of my street before you were dead to the world. That's some handy skill you have there, the ability to sleep in a moving vehicle.”
“Come with the territory. I take sleep when I can. Still, it was rude of me to leave you alone without company for the drive, and I do apologise for that!” Kame opens the door and is hit by a cold gust of wind. He closes the door. “Maybe we should just stay here where it is above freezing and almost cosy?”
“Where is your sense of adventure?” Anne leans across him and pushes the door open. “Stop being a baby. Get out there.”
“It's really cold.”
“You agreed to go wherever I suggested, and left the plans up to me, so that's what you get. I fed you, gave you a place to sleep, didn't embarrass you by answering your phone when your manager called when you were in the shower, I didn't laugh while we watched you dressed up as a polar bear on that TV show you recorded yesterday, and I even remade lunch when you forgot to tell me that you don't like tomatoes. So. Stop being a baby. Get out there.”
“I had no idea that you could be so bossy.”
“I had no idea that you would be such a baby. Out!”
“As my Lady commands!” Kame steps out, and hurries around the car, to open Anne's door with a flourish. “Where may I escort My Lady tonight?”
“Up a nearby mountain would be lovely.”
Kame raises an eyebrow. “Didn't we do that last night?”
“Yes we did.” Anne grins. “This mountain has a volcanic lake though - well technically I think it's three or four mountains all joined by one huge lake, but up a mountain we shall go. I thought mountain sounded a little nicer than volcano?”
Kame shivers. “If it's this cold down here -”
“It will be icy up there,” Anne finishes.
“So the hat, mask, scarf and glasses -”
“Weren't just for a disguise.”
“Right.” Kame waits while Anne locks the car, and then playfully straightens her scarf and snaps the elastic on her face mask. “What wonders shall we discover on this volcano like mountain that has a lake?”
Linking her arm through his without thinking, Anne nods towards the path. “Well, Sapporo has a snow festival. This is Lake Shikotsu, and they have an ice festival. With fireworks.”
Kame raises an eyebrow. “Fireworks in this wind?”
Anne nods. “Fireworks, and buildings made of ice, snow illuminations and things like that. Plus - they serve buttered potatoes here which are amazing.”
“Lead on.”
They carefully make their way over the snowy ground, and follow the winding path up to the lake. There are hundreds of people crowding around, and Kame tightens his grip on Anne's arm. Everyone is dressed warmly, rugged up against the cold, which makes them all faceless bundles of coats and scarves. He may be unrecognisable, but so is everyone else here, and no one is paying the slightest attention to them. Anne most definitely had the right idea. He relaxes, and for the first time in months, maybe years, doesn't feel like the world is watching him.
Together they walk alongside the lake, and Anne laughs as Kame threatens the cold wind with anything he can think of. Their bones ache in the cold, but once they are a little further along, there is a small sheltered cove, and Kame realises that this is where the festival is set. It's hardly warm, but the wind passes by overhead, and the cove is sheltered by pine trees, so it's comfortable to walk around.
Anne is right, the festival is a mix of structures made of ice, lit with either white or coloured lights, and it's crowded and happy and … normal. He can see many many couples, arms entwined, matching scarves, walking around as if they were the only people there. Much as DisneySea is a haven for couples and families side by side, this festival works in the same way. Everyone is welcome, and no one is pretending to be anything they aren't. It's relaxing.
Which reminds him. He checks Anne's feet. “I'm glad to see you are wearing sensible shoes today.”
Anne snorts derisively. “Thanks. I got to choose my shoes for this adventure.”
“Where do you want to start?”
Anne checks her watch. “We could look through the ice buildings, then duck into the stores to grab some buttered potatoes, and then head back out for the fireworks? We will need to leave soon after the fireworks to make sure that you make it to the airport in time for your flight.”
“Sounds good.”
They make their way around the festival, laughing and exploring, and Anne forgets that he is a famous celebrity and Kame forgets that he intended to be impressive, and instead it's playful, fun and enjoyable, and everything a date should be.
When it comes time to try the buttered potatoes, Anne remembers long enough to give Kame the seat with his back to the room, so he can take off the mask and eat unobtrusively.
“When they say that Hokkaido milk and butter is better than anywhere else, they really aren't joking, are they?
“Not at all.” Anne scoops up the last of her baked potato and swirls it through the melted yellow butter. “This may not be Tokyo, but the food here is great.”
“Do you miss Tokyo?” Kame holds up a hand. “I'm not going to pry into why you are here and not there, I was just wondering if you missed the place. For a while, it looked like I might end up at the Hanshin Tigers rather than the Giants, and even though I like visiting Osaka, the thought of leaving Tokyo was really hard.”
Anne closes her yes for a second as she thinks; she normally avoids talking about Tokyo because its telling how much she misses it, which bring the conversation back to why she is in Sapporo, and …
“Yes.” She settles on the truth. “I really really do miss it. I love Sapporo but it's not the same.”
“Can you … Any chance …” Kame searches for a way to ask. “Any future plans to return?”
“Um ... yes. My department here has allowed me to take an intensive subject at Keio University over the March Spring Break, which means I get to go to Tokyo.” Anne flushes slightly as Kame grins at her. “It's just for Spring Break though. It will be my first time back since I moved up here.”
“Can I see you? In Tokyo?” Kame is still, focussed, and completely honest. “I would really like to.”
For a moment, Anne feels like everything hangs in the balance, as if there are wants and desires and obligation and responsibilities and should do and can do and want to and maybes and dreams and terrors and everything else all precariously balanced on her head, and if she moves it will all come toppling down. She can't tell anymore whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing. She takes a deep breath, and isn't sure until the word leaves her whether her heart or her head would win the battle.
“Yes.”
“Really.”
“Yes. I would like that.”
She looks away, and Kame wonders if she has any idea how hard it is for him not to lean across the table and kiss her senseless. He doesn't though, much as he wants to, because he saw some of the struggle. She clearly wanted to say yes, but there was a very real moment where she might have said no. She didn't want to, but she might have said it anyway. He was going to be careful here, whatever he needed to do to find out what was worrying her, and to fix it if he could, he would do it. Whatever it took.
They sit in silence for a few moments, but it's a sweet comfortable silence that gives both of them hope.
“It's almost time for the fireworks.”
“Yes we should head back.”
“Into the cold.”
“Well you can't have fireworks inside.”
“I don't know,” Kame says. “It seems to me that's something our technology industry could be working on. Maybe I will have a word with Panasonic the next time I film a commercial with them.”
Anne snorts. “Baby. Let's go.”
**
She can't see him anywhere.
She lost hold of his arm when a group of teenage boys jostled through to set up their cameras, and now she can't see him anywhere.
Gone.
He is gone.
She has lost Kamenashi Kazuya.
What in the world is she meant to do now?
Breathe.
The first ten minutes she holds it together, but when she hits the twenty minute mark of trying to subtly push her way through a huge crowd of people looking for man whose name she can't call out, she realises that she has no idea how to solve this.
**
Her heart thunders as she waits for the call to connect. Pick up, pick up, pick up...it echoes along with her heart, and when she hears his voice, she wants to cry.
“Hello? Anne?”
“Shige!”
“What's wrong?”
“I lost him Shige, he's gone, I can't see him..
“Anne.”
“And I can't find him, and he's lost, and it's freezing and what am I meant to do, he's gone...”
“Anne.”
“He's gone, he's gone...”
“Anne!”
“He's gone.”
“Who is?”
“Kame!”
“You lost a turtle?”
“No you idiot, I lost Kame. Kame!”
In the sudden silence, Anne can hear her own ragged inhalations, each one dragging the icy air into her throat, and numbing her lungs.
“As in Kamenashi Kazuya?” Shige asks finally.
“Yes.”
“Why are you with Kam … Never mind. Tell me later. Are you in public? Where are you? What happened?”
“He wanted to come and see the Ice Festival at Shikotsu National Park near Chitose, and it's dark now and the fireworks are almost over, and it's cold and there are people everywhere, and I lost him. He's out there somewhere and I can't find him.”
“Ok, ok. Deep breath. Exactly where are you? Exactly, Anne.”
“I'm at the Ice Festival, near the entrance to the ice illuminations.”
“Ok, how close to the lake?”
“Not exactly beside the lake, I'm at the bottom of the road that takes you back up to Visitor Centre building and the shops.”
“What's on your right?”
“Entrance to the iced over pine tree forest cave.”
“Left?”
“I don't know.”
“Yes you do. Tell me, what's on your left?”
“The Igloo with the money frozen into the walls.”
“Ok. Stay there, don't move, and don't hang up.”
“But I need to -”
“Trust me. Stay there.”
Meanwhile elsewhere in Shikotsu National Park...
The wind was even more bitterly cold where Kame was, on top of the two storey tall ice viewing platform, scanning the crowd for Anne's face. Of course, given she was covered from head to toe in as many layers of clothing as possible, including a hat, face mask and a scarf, and it was dark apart from the fireworks exploding overhead, and there was approximately 799 other people down there, he was not holding out much hope that this was going to be easy. Not that he was easy to spot at the moment either. Next time, he was going to insist on holding onto her in crowds, and if she didn't want to hold his hand, he was going to have to find another way to... hold her hand, and be damned with any scandal that might cause.
When he finds her, the first thing he is going to do is program his number into her phone himself, so that he knows it is there, and so that she could call him whenever the hell she wanted, regardless of time or location, and really, when you are lost on the side of a volcanic mountain by a lake that never freezes regardless of sub zero temperatures, in a crowd of 800 similarly dressed people, it would be a really good idea to have saved his number in her phone before they got separated.
It would also be an even better idea if she would hang up whatever phone call she was currently on, so he could damn well call her himself. Given he had saved her phone number in his phone himself.
He tried again.
Still engaged.
And no voicemail.
They were going to have words when he found her.
And the cold air up here is burning his lungs, and the wind is freezing his bones, and if he keeps scanning the crowd below him as quickly as he is, he is going to get dizzy and possibly fall from this platform, which would definitely be a problem. Not to mention noticed.
His phone vibrates against his palm, and he is so startled he almost drops it over the edge in his rush to answer it.
“Sorry Kei-chan, I can't talk right now, I'm in the middle of something -”
“Like the middle of Shikotsu National Park?”
Kame stills.
“How did you know that?”
“Anne called Shige. She's waiting for you near the entrance to the ice monument park, between the pine forest cave and the igloo with the money in the walls.”
“How do you know that?” Kame stares blindly across the crowd. There is no way he can see that area from where he is standing, and it will mean pushing his way through almost the entire crowd, but the fireworks are still holding people's attention, and it might just work. Wait.
“Why did she call Shige?”
“That's a story for later I think and is not entirely my story to tell. You better get moving, I think she is really upset.”
“Understood. I'm on my way.” Kame ends the call, and. carefully hurries down the icy staircase, and slips through the crowd as unobtrusively as he can. He mainly manages it, but he's sure he features on a few family photos of the fireworks, the crowd is packed too tightly into the space, and there are just too many people taking photos. Hopefully, he's just unremarkable enough to pass unnoticed.
The snow is packed hard under his boots, and the wind cuts into him like icy knives. He hurries as fast as he can, Anne is away from the crowd, by herself, and not moving, so she must be even more cold than he is...
There she is. He spots her, standing beside the pine forest cave, a phone clutched to her ear, and she is shivering. Kame takes the phone from her shaking fingers.
“Shige? I found her. Thanks.” He ends the call, and slips her phone into his pocket, as he looks searchingly at her.
Her cheeks feel even colder than they did a moment ago, and Kame is oddly blurry. It's only when Kame gently swipes his gloved fingers over her cheeks that she realises she is crying. Kame moves closer, and she steps forward, into his waiting arms, and throws her own around him. She buries her head in the crook of his neck, and somehow this time the air is slightly warmer as it burns its way into her lungs. He rubs gentle circles over her back and sides, as broken words and sobs escape her, and in return he whispers soothing nonsense which she can't take in, gentle words and her name, and reassurances and platitudes, until finally the sob catches in her throat, and she manages to swallow it down into silence.
Kame pulls back a little, just enough to shift so his jaw line brushes near the top of her head. He squeezes her gently, and asks, “Are you ok?”
“I'm sorry. I couldn't find you, and I couldn't work out a way to find you without everyone seeing you, and knowing you were really here, and then if everyone knew you were here with me, then ... ” She is exhausted, the words are scratchy to her own ears. “I thought it would happen again.”
Kame quirks an eyebrow at her, but she can't see it under the hat and glasses. “Again?” he asks softly.
“I can't let that happen. Not ever.”
Kame raises a hand to pet her jaw line, and turn her face towards his. “Let what happen?”
The movement seems to wake her, and Kame feels her pulling back, slipping through his fingers like sand, and withdrawing back into her shell. The 'Any mention of Tokyo shell' he nicknames it for himself. The same reaction, the worry - it was the same.
“It's nothing,” she mutters. “I'm just being silly.”
“It doesn't look that way to me.”
“Please forget it.”
“Anne, you were crying.”
The smile she obviously forces onto her lips makes him want to rage. “I was just worried. I thought I'd lost you forever.”
“Anne.”
She straightens her hat, and surreptitiously wipes her cheeks under the guise of checking to see if the fireworks have ended. “You know I don't deal well with a crisis,” she says softly, and stares as Kame snorts.
“We may have only known each other for a day, but even I can tell that is a blatant lie.”
“Kam..” She stops and quickly glances around, checking to see if anyone had caught her starting to say his name. “This isn't the time,” she says tightly. “We should go.”
The soaring bursts of color in the sky are spectacular, and Kame decides to take a chance. He smiles and points as a particularly loud rocket soars overhead, as it builds to the grand finale. “The fireworks are beautiful. They are almost done. You don't want to stay and see if it's true?”
Kame leans in close, pulling his mask down with one hand, and loosening her scarf with the other.
“If what's true?”
“If you see fireworks when I kiss you.”
“When you wha-”
The flash of light is much closer this time, a white hot burst that bounces off the ice surrounding them. Kame automatically turns away, shielding his face, while Anne turns toward the source.
“Sorry. I'm really sorry.” A young girl steps forward, lowering her camera, and babbling apologies. “You just looked so cool and romantic, and there is a photography competition at my high school, and it just looked like the perfect opportunity. I didn't mean to disturb you. I just didn't think, I'm so sorry.”
Anne nods, and mutters the standard acceptance for apologies, then bites her lip, unsure what else to say, while Kame quietly slips his mask back on and pulls his hat further down over his eyes.
The girl checks the viewfinder of her camera. “It's a good picture though! The framing worked really well, and the contrast between both of you and the white ice is really striking … Oh ...” Her voice trails off, and she stares quietly at the camera, then raises her gaze and finds Kame's eyes. “I'm so sorry. I don't mean to intrude, and oh, I didn't realise that it was … I'm so sorry to bother you.”
Kame stays quiet, holding her gaze.
“I heard that you were in Hokkaido but I never dreamed that I would …” She steps closer. Anne moves sharply, placing herself protectively beside Kame who remains still. “It's a good photo. It is. I know it will cause problems for you. Should I delete it?” She holds the camera out to them, and Anne can see she is right, the photo is lovely. Very clear. Way too clear. Anne feels sick. Not again.
Kame inclines his head, and says evenly, “That has to be your choice. I can't ask you to.”
Her finger hovers for a moment and then the picture disappears, replaced by a little trash can icon. “I want to go to Tokyo and study photography and work with the fashion magazines. I've wanted to do that since I was a little girl. I … I feel like a paparazzi photographer right now. I'm so sorry I intruded.”
Anne looks at Kame, and then turns back. “Thank you,” she whispers and her tone is enough to alert Kame to the fact that there is more going on here than he knows.
“I'm really sorry,” the girl says again, and bows deeply.
Kame pats her shoulder, and she raises her head slightly. “You have a good eye for framing. Maybe one day I'll see you working in Tokyo?” She bows one more time and Kame adds quietly, “If I do, we can try for an even better shot, yes?”
The smile she beams towards them is even brighter than her camera flash. “Yes, please! That would be great.” Kame nods in farewell and the girl nods in reply, before hurrying away to catch the last of the fireworks. Anne watches her disappear into the crowd, her stomach turning over with anxiety and relief, and she barely notices Kame taking her left hand, and lacing his fingers with hers.
“Let's get out of here,” he whispers in her ear, and tugs gently. Silently, they walk up the snowy path, through the icy wind, and somehow, Anne doesn't feel the cold anywhere in her left hand where it rests in Kame's.
Tully's Coffee House, Chitose Train Station, Hokkaido, Japan.
February 4, 2013 9:05 p.m.
Kame places a cup of white hot chocolate in front of her. “I thought this was better than coffee. Even if you have the drive back to Sapporo, it's late.”
Anne nods and curls her fingers around the ceramic mug.
Kame hesitates and then ignores the chair on the other side of the table, and chooses to sit on the bench seat beside her. The place is almost empty, only the employees and two high school boys in the other corner. It appears that the larger Starbucks closer to the platforms gets all the traffic at this time. No one is paying them any attention, and no one blinked an eye when he ordered their drinks.
He stretches across the table for a napkin, and as he does, he slips an arm around Anne. She stiffens and begins to pull away, but he lets his hold tighten a bit. “Don't pull away.”
“I'm not,” she says tightly.
“What are you worried about?” he asks.
“Nothing.”
“Liar.” He loosens his hold, but leaves his arm there, curled easily about her. “I can't force you to tell me, but I would like it if you did.”
“I … I don't think this is a good idea.” Anne picks up the mug, and takes a gulp of chocolate, heedless of how hot it is. “I don't think we should …” she says hoarsely. “Tokyo. I mean, I don't think Tokyo is a good idea.”
“The only reason Tokyo is a bad idea, is if you don't want to spend time with me,” Kame keeps his tone even and treads carefully. “Nothing that happened tonight changed my mind in the slightest.”
“It should have!” Her reply is quick, and is telling on its own. “That girl could have sold that photograph to the tabloids.”
“She didn't. She deleted it.”
“There might be other people with pictures though. Every time you go out, there will be more people watching and waiting, and making things up, and hurting people, and ...”
Kame takes the mug away, and clasps her hands in his. “Stop.”
“You don't understand. All it takes is-”
“Stop.”
She quiets.
“I do understand. It's unfair. It's confronting. I've been in the papers before, and sometimes it's truthful and sometimes its not. Have I been drunk in a club after a big win? Yes. Was I an adult and was it legal? Yes. Have I been dating every single one of my co-stars and left them heartbroken, or even worse, devastated on the way to the altar? No. You have to ignore it.”
“That's not always an option.”
“It is.”
“It's not. It's not.” She repeats it, and pulls her hands away. “It's not always an option.”
“The people who matter, the people who know me know the truth,” Kame tries, but is interrupted as her phone rings. She glances at the screen, and Kame says, “Ignore it.”
“I ... I can't.” Anne feels the tears threatening to appear, pressing against her throat, ready to spill over.
“Try.” Shaking her head, Anne tries to pick up her phone, but Kame says, “I'm not just talking about the phone.”
The first tear spills over, and she whispers, “I know you aren't.” She pulls her hands away, and Kame lets them go. “I can't. I... Please give me a minute.” She picks up the phone, rejects the call, and heads to the bathroom.
Ten seconds later, her phone rings again and Kame sees the name on the screen. Kato Shigeaki. His fingers itch with the urge to answer it. He knows she would be upset, but Shige would have answers. He doesn't move, as the battle between his conscience and his need to know grows. His hands stay curled around his mug, and later when Anne returns, with a red nose and a determined air, he only says, “Your phone rang again.”
She checks the missed call log, and when she sees the name, she grows pale. “Did you answer it?”
The fear in her tone, answers any doubt he may have had about the wisdom of answering that call. “No. I told you that you could trust me. In all honesty, I saw the name and was tempted, but no. I didn't answer the call.” Kame pulls her down onto the bench. “You should call him back though. He must be worried.” He gets up. “I'll be back.” This time, it is Kame who heads towards the bathroom, and Anne never knows how much it costs him not to look back over his shoulder.
Anne stares at her phone, at the screen and the bright blue case with stars on it, at this piece of plastic and glass and metal which could ruin her life or make it better. The only problem is, she really doesn't know which path will lead in which direction. Her head and her heart are pulling her in two directions.
This time when the phone rings, she answers.
“So you are there,” Shige says.
“Yes.”
“That's all?”
“Yes.” She barely manages to breathe that time.
“Are you crying? Did he make you cry? What's happening?”
“I'm not,” she lies through the tears sliding down her cheeks. “Not his fault. None of this is his fault. He's trying to make it better, but I- Shige I don't know what to do.”
“Give the phone to Kame,” Shige orders.
“I can't. He's gone to the bathroom.”
“So he's not there? He's not with you at the moment?”
“No.” She swallows. “He told me to call you, but I couldn't.”
“What's going on Anne?” Shige softens his tone, and Anne feels it, almost like a hug through the phone. “What happened? How did you guys even meet?”
She had no idea how to tell him anything. Maybe the last question was the place to start. “He came to the Observatory for a photo shoot. They put me on the schedule to work an overnight shift for it.”
Shige whistles. “What are the odds of that happening?” When she doesn't continue, he asks her, “What else happened?”
“We got locked in overnight at the Observatory.”
“And then you lost each other at the fireworks. Sounds like the start of a romantic comedy movie. May I borrow it for the start of my next novel?” he jokes, and Anne gives a weak laugh.
“No.”
“Why? Everyone loves a romantic comedy.”
“Not if they don't end up together.”
“How can you tell that?”
“I … It won't work. There was a girl with a camera at the festival and it almost happened again.”
“Why did you go the festival if you were worried about that?”
“Kame wanted to go on a date, and do what couples in Sapporo do, so I thought it was the best idea. We had hats and masks and scarves, and no one paid him any attention until then.”
“You went on a date with Kame?”
“Yes.”
“He asked and you said yes?”
“Yes.”
“I said I would see him in Tokyo in March as well.”
“And now you think it can't end well?”
“I ... Yes.”
Shige quietly says, “I see.” Anne is almost positive that he does, and waits for him to tell her that she made the right decision, the right call, anything. Instead, he is silent.
“Aren't you going to say something?” she finally asks.
“I've known you for almost twenty years Anne-chan. I remember when you had no front teeth and the time you cried because that Nishikido kid tried to kiss when you didn't like him, and I know when you need me to ask questions and when you need me to listen.”
“Then tell me what I should do!”
“Anne.”
“Talk to me Shige, please, just talk to me.”
“Ok. Let me tell you how I met Kame. He's quite a good friend of Kei-chan you know. He introduced us, brought Kame along to my third novel release I think. Last year it would have been. I think they met for the first time when Kei was going out each week for news every, at the start of that baseball season. They didn't really become friends until later though, when they started ending up on the same TV variety shows. Kei started to joke that he should join the Johnny's agency and they could put Kame with him and Kusano in K.K. Kitty, but Kame said he was never going to wear their atrocious costumes.”
Anne inhales, on half a laugh, half a sob. Kame sits down across from her, and Anne looks at his hands resting on the table as Shige says, “What can I say about him? I've only known him for a while, but I can say that he seems like a good and decent man. I know that Kei counts him as a friend and trusts him. I know that he is considerate, and has a wicked sense of humor and apparently one of the best fashion senses around. He's a friend.”
Anne nods, even though Shige can't see her, and Kame raises an eyebrow at the action. She looks up and meets his gaze as Shige says, “I also know that you have had a crush on Kazuya Kamenashi the actor for years. Can see who he actually is underneath the image, like you can see Keiichiro Koyama and know what makes Kei tick? When you look at him Anne, who do you see? The perfect dream idol, or the man?”
“Kame.” Kame looks at her, a question in his eyes. “I see Kame,” Anne says.
“Have you told him that?” Shige asks gently.
“No.”
“Maybe you should.” When Anne doesn't respond, Shige asks, “Is he there now?”
“Yes.”
“OK. You wanted to know what I think? I think you should tell him. I think you should tell him about Tokyo, about how you see him, and I think you should give him a chance. That's what I think. Now Anne-chan, put Kame on the phone.”
Anne hands the phone over automatically, and then realises that might have been one of the stupidest things she has ever done.
“Yes?” Kame says.
“Kamenashi. Kato Shigeaki here. Is Anne sitting there?”
“Yes, she is.”
“Ok, listen up. She is one of my oldest friends, and if you hurt her in any way I will hunt you down and make you suffer. If through some miracle you escape me, you won't escape Koyama. Do you understand?”
“I've already promised Anne that I will never hurt her, and I think she's the one that matters regarding that.”
“True. I just wanted you to know where we stood.” Shige hesitates, then says quickly, “Kame, you need to be careful with her. There are things that you don't know, but I think she needs to tell you herself. If you were just looking for a friend to spend time with up there and you walk away now, no harm no foul. If you want more, you need to listen to her and look past the surface.”
“I understand.”
“I'm also serious about the hunting you down if you hurt her part.”
“If I do that, I promise you won't need to hunt me down.”
“Good luck. Put Anne back on please.” Kame hands the phone back to Anne.
“Yes, Shige?”
“You are not a coward, Anne-chan. He asked you on a date, he took the risk. He deserves to know why you are pulling away now. I think you can trust him. What do you think?”
“I … Shige, I don't know.”
“Well, don't forget, he also knows Koyama. I'm not the only one he could ask for the extra details. Wouldn't you rather he hear it from you?” Shige takes her silence as agreement. “Talk to him. I think you want to. Good night.”
“Thank you Shige.” Anne ends the call, and places the phone on the table between them.
“Do you want another drink? Coffee?” Kame asks.
“No, I'm fine.” Anne replies, puzzled.
“I'll just grab a coffee.”
Three minutes later he returns with a hot caramel latte, and two chocolate chip cookies. He pushes one towards her. “Everything always works out better with chocolate chip cookies.”
“Only chocolate chip ones?” Anne asks, and manages a half smile.
Kame smiles at her effort. “Well, I'd imagine any cookie works out fine. Or ice cream. Cake. Mochi. Anything sweet. They only had chocolate chip cookies here though.”
Anne looks up at him. “Could you please sit next to me? I think it might be easier.”
He turns serious, and slides onto the seat next to her. “Thank you. I don't really know where to start. Maybe with Shige?”
“That sounds good.” Kame sips, and takes a bite of cookie. “Eat while you talk.”
Anne crumbles a bit of cookie from the edge, and says, “I've known Shige since we were in elementary school.”
“That's a surprise. I thought maybe University - but all the way from elementary school?”
“Yes. We lived in the same area, and went to the same schools, the same juku. We were close friends, never really lost touch. In High School we had different groups of friends, and we drifted apart a bit, but then we started University together, and well … I've known him for almost twenty years.”
“So you knew him before he became a famous novelist?”
“Yes. Well before. I even knew him before he met Koyama.”
Kame taps the back of his fingers against Anne's hands. “You know I told you to eat and talk, not destroy the cookie and talk.” Nodding, she takes a small bite. “Better. That sounds so odd, I thought Koyama and Shige were practically born knowing each other.”
“Nope. Didn't meet each other until Shige was in High School. In fact, I never met Koyama until our University days. I think Shige was a little worried that my head would be turned by his older friend.”
“And was it?” Kame thinks that there is no undertone of jealousy in his voice, but he is wrong.
“No. Not in the way you might think. I am most definitely not Koyama's someone.” She sees Kame's puzzled look. “We are very good friends, and always will be.” Taking a deep breath, Anne says, “I need to tell you about Koyama - and about me. We have a bit of a history.”
“Anne -”
“Wait. I don't know how to say this. Could you - could you maybe put your arm around me?”
Kame does, and Anne snuggles a bit into the warmth of his side. Somehow, just feeling the heat of him there, and not having to watch his face, made this easier. Hopefully. “So. I met Koyama because he was Shige's friend. We got to know each other, we became really good friends. One night … There was one night when we ...” Anne's hands are shaking so badly that she barely feels Kame clutching them. “They took photographs of us one night.”
“A tabloid photographer?”
“Yes. They were hidden and we didn't see them. They took photos of us and published them. It was a huge scandal. They took photos of Koyama and I leaving Shige's apartment one night. It wasn't even that late, but it was dark. Koyama forgot his scarf, I didn't think anything of it, I just ran down after him with it.” Once the words start flowing, Anne lets them. She doesn't think, she just speaks, and is taken by surprise at the relief once the secret is out. “I ran down stairs calling his name, and I caught him as he got to the street. I don't know whether they were waiting, or whether they heard me, but they took pictures of me running after him. When I caught up to him, his hands were full of shopping bags, so I looped the scarf around his neck, and then we walked to the train station together. The tabloids made it look like we were lovers. The angles of the photos and the captions, they made it sound like it was the middle of the night, and we were on our way to a hook up. They said that I was Shige's lover first, and that we were betraying him, having an affair behind his back. They found out my name, and published it. They followed me into classes at University, I couldn't go to my part time job because of them, and they even called my parents at home, asking why they had raised such a bad daughter.” Anne turns her face into Kame's shoulder, hiding against Kame's neck. He strokes her hair, gently, and Anne manages to continue. “They stalked me for two weeks, until I was fired from my job, and withdrawn from my University classes at the request of my professors. The interruptions were distracting everyone else, they said it wasn't fair to the other students. My friends … only one or two believed me and stood by me. The others, they believed I was capable of hurting Shige like that, or they couldn't cope with the press attention. If you google my name, the first page is all articles and photos related to it. The press only stopped following me because I moved here. It will never go away.”
“I don't remember it.” Kame brushed his palm over her cheek, then cupped her jaw. “I don't remember the scandal happening, but that was because I was shooting that taiga drama, the one where I played Ranmaru.”
“How do you know that?”
“I got a message from Senga while you were on the phone with Shige.”
Anne retreats, pulling herself back, but he refuses to let go, clutching her tightly. “Hear me out, please. I didn't know anything about the scandal before now. I never saw it, never read the articles or saw any of the photos, and I still haven't. Senga recognised you today, he thought you looked familiar, and today he put your name and your face together. He sent me a message asking if I knew how to contact you, and asking me if I remembered what happened between you and Koyama.”
“You knew? You knew and you let me -”
“No! I didn't know. Damn it Anne, all Senga said was he remembered your name and face now, and that it was a pity that you got caught up in that Koyama scandal. That is all he said, and I didn't ask him for any more details. I wanted to hear it from you. I needed you to tell me and you did.”
“Why would Senga send you a message like that?”
“I think he realised that I didn't go home with everyone else, and that the last person he had seen me with was you.”
“It doesn't really matter.” Anne shakes her head, and when she pulls away, this time Kame lets her go. You have to see what will happen if we get spotted together. It will be like last time, only worse.”
“Why? What happened to Koyama?”
“He gave an interview before Johnny could talk to him. He said we were friends, and he called the tabloid rumours a lie. Johnny almost fired him outright, he threatened he would do so if we were ever caught together again. He cancelled all the promotions for the next K.K. Kitty single, and he did fire him from his hosting role in Shounen Club. He said that he couldn't have someone lacking moral fibre in that role. It took months for them to leave Koyama alone.”
Snorting, Kame says, “Accusing Koyama of all people of lacking moral fibre. The man is an idiot.”
“A powerful one.”
“Of course. He's spent his life making it that way.” Kame ran his hands through his hair. “Look, I'm not saying that it could never happen to us. I'm not saying it's just words on paper that no one believes. I know that they hurt you badly. I can see that. People who should have stood by you didn't and they have to answer for that. From what you say, Koyama suffered professional consequences due to the lies. The only thing is - if you let them dictate what you do, if you let them dictate whether we can have a relationship of any kind, sweetheart, be it friendship or romantic, then we have let them win.” A rueful smile curves his lips. “I know its very easy for me to say that. What do you need me to say? I can't promise that they will never catch us together, it's probably inevitable if we spend time together. Your previous appearance may even increase attention, but Anne I promise you - we are the only ones who matter. If we choose to be together, we will be. We can make that choice. I don't have an agency like Koyama does, my agency would simply not comment based on it being my private life. Unless I asked them to, and believe me I would ask them to if I thought it would help a situation we were in. What I am saying is that I would take any risk, any chance required to see where this thing between us goes.”
“I promised myself that I would never let that happen again.”
“That's a promise you can't hope to keep as it's beyond your control.”
“It would certainly be easier to keep if I am not involved with a celebrity like you.”
“True.” Kame sits quietly, and then taps her nose. “The problem I see with that argument is that when you look at me now, you see me - Kame - first, and Kamenashi the celebrity second.” He opens his phone, and scrolls, then places it in front of Anne. “Senga didn't send me any of your scandal photos, but he did send me this picture. Look at it.”
Anne does, and sees a photo from the previous night, of the bell tower, an exhausted Kame clutching her to his chest, while she cradled his head and held him in place. “When did - I never saw him taking pictures of us.”
“It wasn't intentional, I'm sure. The thing is, Senga has a talent for taking great photographs that show true emotion. He sent it to me, because he wanted to know if I could contact you and ask if he could use it in the shoot. That's entirely up to you if you want to allow him to do it. My point is, I look at this photo, and I can see that you care. That when you look at me, you see me - the human being who is tired, or happy or worried. You see me. I can't promise you that things will work out or last forever or be perfect. No one can. If you see me, the real me, though that's a good place to start. That's why I think it's worth the fight to try.”
Anne studies the photo. It is a beautiful one. “No.”
“No?”
Kame withdraws, Anne sees it happen and then she is speaking frantically, “No, no, I meant, Kame, no, I meant that no Senga can't use the picture. No for the picture. Only the picture.” She looks up at him, and Kame stills as for the first time Anne reaches for him, and places her hands on his face, cradling it. “Yes for you. For us. I want to try. If - you still want to.”
“I still want to.” He swallows. “I really do want to.”
“Then - we can?” Anne asks hopefully, and Kame nods. He leans forward, and brushes his lips against Anne's and she can taste hope and happiness and possibilities. When he leans back, she follows him, and the second kiss tastes of even more specific possibilities and types of happiness.
“Last orders please!” The lady at the register calls out, and they break apart, smiling and flushed and happy.
“What time is it?” Anne asks, pushing her hair back from her face and gazing into his eyes.
Kame looks away, and checks his watch. “It must be late if it's last orders, oh.” He sheepishly says, “It's 11:50. Almost midnight. Guess I missed my flight.”
“It can't be!” Anne checks her own watch, and stares at him in shock. “What are you going to do?”
“Stay with you?” he suggests. “Take a plane back tomorrow? See if the station in Sapporo will let me do a live cross for the NHK variety show I am scheduled to be on at 10 am tomorrow and take a little holiday instead. There are many possibilities. The holiday is looking tempting.” He brushes another kiss onto her very willing lips.
“Is that going to be your solution for everything? A kiss? I wonder how long that will take me to get used to it?” Anne grins and then laughs. “Wait, it's midnight?”
“Yes, almost.”
“Then, let me tell you Mr Kazuya Kamenashi that I met you almost exactly twenty four hours ago.”
“That's true. I guess we can say you never know the difference a day can make until you live through it, but if I get to spend another day with yo -”
Anne lays a finger on his lips, shushing him. “Careful. You don't want to use all of your best lines on the first day. Save some for the second. Who knows where we will be in twenty four hours time?”
“One can only dare to dream,” Kame murmurs, and neither of them notice the coffee shop employee smiling at the picture of two happy people who are so wrapped up in their own world they lose track of everything but each other.