Koshino sat up straight when the trio emerged a few minutes later, the redhead cheerful while the other two had uncertainty on their expression. Nevertheless, as soon as Sakuragi picked up the phone, Yohei was calling the butler while Kogure called for the car to be prepared.

"Ai, I'm leaving Japan. Have four tickets ready for Netherlands," Sakuragi said to the person on the other line, "Yeah. Thanks."

"Sakuragi," Koshino began, walking up to the redhead, "Mitsui has to face the company tomorrow. Will there be time?"

The redhead motioned for silence and dialed another number, talking a few seconds later, "Takeshi, call Bill in the States for me. Tell him that the joint venture is off... I know, I know, our stock will drop but we can stand to lose a bit of money. Okay, that's all. Ja."

"Ano..." managed Koshino, stunned at how serious the situation seemed to be going, "Shouldn't we just contact the company's head office in Tokyo?"

But Sakuragi was dialing again, talking to another person on the phone, "Hanako, have my lawyer call me. Doumo."

"Is it that serious," Koshino gaped.

At that moment, Kogure and Yohei appeared, telling the redhead, "Ok, we're ready."

"Great," Sakuragi grinned putting down the phone and ushering Koshino out the door, "Let's go."

"Where to?" Koshino asked, stepping into the limo with Yohei and Kogure.

"We'll talk while we're on the road," Kogure smiled, "Relax. We'll let Sakuragi tell you all about it since it's his idea."

"When he gets off the phone that is," said Yohei, looking at the redhead now using a mobile phone to call yet another person.

"Masa, yeah, got that? I'll meet you in the plane with the documents. Oh yeah, and prepare me an 80 million dollars budget. Doumo."

"Nani?!" exclaimed Koshino, gripping at the upholstery in horror, "Sakuragi! Forget it! I'm sorry but this is costing so much money!"

"That's nothing for him," Kogure assured, patting the man to calm him down, "Don't worry."

A few minutes later the limo stopped and, climbing out, Koshino was surprised to see the entrance of the busy airport.

"W-Why are we here?" asked the young man.

"No time," Sakuragi said, pulling Koshino to where the VIP departure area was situated, "the plane leaves in five minutes. I'll tell you all about it on the plane."

"Sakuragi..." Yohei began.

"Not now, Yohei," Sakuragi cut in, brushing away any protests that he knew would come from his step-brother. Yohei frowned and looked at Kogure for help. The spectacled-man merely stayed silent but after a thought lifted his hand to rub Yohei's back for comfort.

As soon as they were sitting inside the first class area occupied only by the four men and four other people Sakuragi seemed to know, only then did the redhead face Koshino in the beginnings of what seemed to be a serious talk.

"Koshino," Sakuragi began, taking hold of the man's hands, "I need to ask you something important."

"Sure," Koshino nodded, "Ask away."

"Marry me?"

Koshino stared at the redhead, speechless. The silence went on and was palpable that Sakuragi felt the need to break it, "Is that a yes?"

"Wh-What? No! I mean... Sakuragi! Why are you asking me this?!" Koshino sputtered.

"Because I want to marry you, baka," Sakuragi laughed, bringing Koshino's hands up to his lips for a kiss, "So will you?"

"Th-This is so sudden," Koshino stammered, "Why now? Can't we wait?"

"Iie," Sakuragi replied, clutching tightly onto Koshino's fingers, "I can't afford to."

The older man blinked, "What do you mean?"

"I don't want to lose you."

Koshino's blue eyes looked deep into the redhead's brown ones, so sincere with love and hope that he had to look away.
"Then tell me this," Koshino asked, "Why me?"

"That's easy," smiled Sakuragi, "It's because you're fun to be with, you're smart, patient, you've got a good heart and you're really cute."

Koshino blushed, overwhelmed with the praise that he has never heard anyone utter before, but he brought himself to ask again, "Is that it?"

"Yeah, that's it," the redhead nodded, looking down at their joined hands, "That's why I love you."

It's not what I wanted to hear but... Koshino bit his lip and sighed, "Can I call someone first?"


~~~~

Mitsui was busy cleaning up the toilet when the phone to his apartment rang. Pulling the rubber gloves off he picked the phone up and answered, "Moshi moshi."

"Mitsui, it's me, Koshino."

"Uh, yeah... hi..." Mitsui said, hands itching to start dusting the table where the phone was sitting at.

"Mitsui, I went to Sakuragi to ask him to help us... and he... he asked me to marry him...."

"...Congratulations..."

"I haven't said yes yet," Koshino cut in, "What should I do?"

"Really? Where are you?" Mitsui straightened up, gripping at the rubber gloves in his hand.

"I'm on a plane to Holland... can you come? Onegai? I want to see you."

"When does your plane leave?" Mitsui asked urgently.

"In four minutes time."

"Wait for me!"



****

Mitsui was going at the highest speed in the speed-o-meter, zipping easily through the countryside and into the suburb where the International airport lies when his car suddenly sputtered and stopped.

"K'so!" Mitsui cursed, trying to start the car up again. When it refused to do so, he jumped out and scanned the road for any passing vehicle but upon realising that it was the weekend, he instantly knew that not a lot of people use that stretch of road that leads to a business centre.

Mitsui kicked the front tyre of his car and cursed again. After a moment, he took a deep breath and stuck his arms back into the car, snatched the amulet hanging from his mirror and clasped it in his hands. Desperate enough to believe in anything that could even marginally help him in his helpless state, the scarred-face man began to pray, "Please, help me. Please. Please. Please."

The dim sound of a motorcycle made Mitsui look up and what he saw made him want to shout out in relief. Instead, he planted his feet on the road and waved wildly at the oncoming bike. The black-clad rider screeched his metallic blue motorcycle to a halt in front of the scarred-face man and quickly Mitsui walked up to him to plead, "Hey, man. You gotta help me. I need a ride to the international airport. I know this sounds crazy but I've got to stop this person from marrying this redheaded millionaire-"

"Hop on."

"Honto ni?! I mean- thanks!" exhaled Mitsui, gratified, before climbing behind the rider whose face was hidden under the black tinted visor.


****

As soon as they reached the airport, Mitsui jumped down, yelling out an "airgato" to his saviour before he disappeared into the busy building. Quickly scanning the flight information board, he found the gate where the sole flight to Holland would be leaving from and ran there as fast as he could.

Just as he was about to go past the gate to where the passengers go through, he was instantly stopped by a flight attendant who gave him a chastising look, "Sorry sir, but the plane is leaving."

"What?" Mitsui demanded, checking his watch. It was already one minute past the time for departure. Striding towards the window, he saw with dismay the plane slowly making its way towards the runway.

"Chikuso!" Mitsui swore, before an idea hit upon him. Looking around, he scanned his surroundings and saw a tarpaulin covering what looked like a renovated section of the airport. Lifting the cloth up, he found a bucket of paint and a few square planks and pulling one out together with the paint he quickly painted a message on the plank and waved at it furiously towards the plane hoping that the one that mattered to him saw what he wrote.

I NEED YOU

Mitsui walked out of the airport, dejected, and stuffed his hands in his pockets before they encountered a small thin plastic object on the right side. Taking it out he found the crumpled red and white amulet and sighed. With a shrug he opened the packet and took the piece of paper out, unfolding it carefully and saw to his surprise what was written on it. There were the words "I need you" with a small familiar sketch of a basketball drawn with pen.



"Just write on the amulet what you want the love of your life to say to you and your wish will come true..." Koshino heard the girl say.

Before he thought about throwing the paper away and call himself all kinds of romantic fool, Koshino quickly jotted down the words he wanted to hear most from the person he loves on the paper and slipped it back into the wrap. Closing his eyes he let the string attached to the wrapper dangle from his fingers as he bowed and clapped his hands twice before uttering a silent prayer from the heart.

Mitsui's hand trembled and the paper slipped out of his weak grasp to be flown up into the air, carried by the strong wind of the airport area. He watched the paper flying higher and further until the sunlight hurt his eyes that he had to close them.

Koshino....he loved me...


****

In the nearly bare office, Mitsui was busy packing his things into the cardboard box Ayako helped him find. Taking one last look around the room he had used for over eight years, Mitsui walked out, watched by everyone in the office. He had given his resignation notice, unable to prove his innocence and not wanting to fight a useless battle without any hope he decided to leave the company. No doubt, Kishimoto would be overjoyed, being able to point at Mitsui as a scapegoat.

After taking the elevator down, he squeezed past the workers who were rushing to go up and walked across the lobby building to go to his car. Suddenly, a person zipped past him carrying an arm load of papers and Mitsui came to a stop, turning around so quickly in shock that he nearly dropped his box.

"Koshino!" Mitsui breathed, running after the young man but Koshino has already disappeared into the elevator going up to the floor of their office.

Koshino ran into Mitsui's office but finding that it was empty, he gathered the papers into his arms again after dumping them on the desk and was about to go back out in search for the scarred-face man when he ran into Kishimoto and sent the papers and the man sprawling onto the floor.

"What's this?!" demanded Kishimoto, standing up and fixing his suit back properly.

"Nothing," mumbled Koshino, trying to pick up the papers as quickly as possible when Kishimoto picked a piece up and inspected the contents.

"Chotto matte," growled Kishimoto, "These are the copies of the transactions in Jiang Men."

"That's right," Koshino said lowly, "So what?"

"This makes them company property and since I am firing you, you have no right to hold them," Kishimoto answered maliciously.

"Oh really," Mitsui drawled, appearing at the doorway and glared at Kishimoto hatefully. Putting his box down, he picked up an armfull of the papers on the floor and threw them out of the room and with them, out ran Kishimoto desperate to retrieve them to cover his bad tracks.

Triumphantly, Mitsui closed the door shut from the surprised crowd before turning around to see Koshino still on the floor, picking up what was left that was not thrown out.

"You idiot!" Koshino cried out, "You just threw out your chance from being fired! Sakuragi's secretary and lawyer helped me look for these and you just threw them out!"

Suddenly, he was lifted off of his knees and strong arms wrapped around him to envelope him in a tight hug.

"All that matters is that you're back," whispered Mitsui, "That's what I want."

Koshino suddenly went still before he pushed Mitsui away. Looking at the man before him, he said quietly, "When I was at the plane, I didn't see clearly what you wrote. Can you tell me what it was?"

Writing the words was easy but saying them in front of Koshino was a different matter all together. For the first time in his life Mitsui was tongue-tied but a shake from Koshino brought him out of his embarassment.

"Tell me," Koshino urged, tugging at Mitsui's jacket lapel, "Come on."

"I need you," Mitsui mumbled.

"What was that?" Koshino cocked his head to the side.

Lifting his head up, Mitsui looked at the young man in the eye and said softly, "I need you."

With a laugh, Koshino threw his arms around Mitsui's neck and sighed, "That's all I want to hear."

Ayako slowly opened the door to the room and her eyes went wide at what she saw. With a gasp, she quickly shut it closed and blushed bright red.

"I guess the rumours were true," she murmured, trying to dispel the image of Mitsui and Koshino sharing a lip-locking kiss from her mind.



****

At a lonely spot, overlooking the town of Kanagawa was a tall redhead leaning against his blood red motorcycle, talking through his mobile phone.

"I'm sorry that the trip to Netherlands was a waste of time, Sakuragi," Yohei said, using the speaker so that Kogure can hear the redhead as well.

"That's ok," Sakuragi sighed, "At least we get to help Mitsui, ne? Hey, why didn't you two marry when we landed there. It could've saved you the trip from next time."

Sakuragi grinned when he heard Kogure chuckle and he could just imagine Yohei glaring at the speaker phone before he heard the man growl, "Shut up, Sakuragi."

"Oh," the redhead heard Kogure's teasing voice, "You don't want to marry me?"

Then Sakuragi heard the muffled sound of kissing before the breathless voice of his spectacled-friend was heard, "I guess we'll get married some other time then."

"Geez you two," huffed Sakuragi, "Get a room!"

"We already are in a room," Yohei's smug voice came through before the line went dead.

The redhead shook his head as he pocketed the phone in his jacket and looked out into the distance when suddenly the roaring sound of a motorcycle made him turn his head to stare at the metallic blue bike approaching him.

When the black-clad newcomer stopped beside him, Sakuragi watched the rider step down from his bike before slipping the black helmet off, revealing a handsome face, pale but cheeks red by the warmth of the helmet. The dark blue eyes framed by thick lashes scanned the horizon before they turned to regard the redhead closely.

"I heard you nearly got married," the young man said, running his gloved fingers through his dark hair which was cramped by his helmet.

"Yeah," shrugged Sakuragi carelessly, "What does it matter to you, anyway, Rukawa?"

"A lot, ahou," came the sincere reply.

The redhead stared at the brunette in surprise before he turned away frowning.
"When did you come back?" he asked gruffly.

"Yesterday," the raven-haired man answered, "I took the team's private jet and we landed at a private airbase. I had to ride to the airport but you were already gone."

"Couldn't you have just called?" Sakuragi said, still not looking at the brunette.

Rukawa shook his head, "Iie," and pulled at the redhead to stand in front of him so that they were facing eye to eye.
"We need to talk... about you and me."



~owari