Title: Fools Rush In

Pairing: Matsuzaka Tori x Uno Misako

Rating: G

Summary: Tori has a little crush on a certain sometime co-star.

Author's Notes: I realized that Umechan Sensei is the second time now that Tori and Misako have worked together...

~ ~ ~

Tori posed nude for his second photobook, but he's never felt as naked or as self-conscious as he does when she first turns her head and sees him standing there, a little way behind the cameras. For one brief, crazy moment, he gets the idea that she's not going to recognize him. It's been a year and a half since Galactic Heroes, and somehow he hasn't seen her since then, even though there's been plenty of occasions when they could have - *should* have - run into each other. They all swapped numbers on closing night, but he's never called her, either. It's like he's been scared of what's going to happen if he does; like if he sees her just one more time, it's going to wreck, in a heartbeat, all the good work he's been doing trying to forget about her.

He could have avoided her on the set here: she's playing a small role, and their characters don't have any scenes together. It wouldn't have been all that hard for Tori to just conveniently not be around at the same times she was, if he'd tried. Maybe he hasn't tried enough. Maybe, deep down, he doesn't want to try. Either way, he knows he should have turned around and gotten out of there as soon as she'd finished shooting, before she noticed him, and his brain's yelling at him to do it, but as loud as it yells, he's still standing there, and his feet aren't moving.

He raises his arm and waves, a playful little wiggle of his fingers. Misako blinks, and then her mouth curves into a sudden, dazzling smile, the smile that he knows makes her eyes crinkle at the corners, even when he's too far away to be able to watch it happen. Her gaze doesn't falter as she makes her way down from the stage and weaves through the tables and chairs, and she's still smiling when she reaches him, reaches out, plucking for his sleeve. She's never been hesitant about physical contact.

"Tori! Oh, God... you should have called, let me know you were in! We could have gotten together, had lunch or..!"

He's tall, and the top of her head barely comes up to his chin, her slimness making her seem even tinier, but she can still make him feel inadequate. She's two years his senior, but it goes further than that. He covers it with an answering smile of his own. "Nope, no way! This is a surprise!"

Misako spreads the green polka-dot fabric of her 'forties dress. She looks as if she's stepped out of an old photo album, or fallen through a crack in time. He feels like he should be seeing her in sepia, or in slow motion. "This is *embarrassing!*"

Tori ducks his head, moving from side to side, pretending to inspect her. "Well, maybe better makeup..."

"Don't!" She's laughing now, trying to hide her face. "They wanted it to be authentic, but I look like I just got out of bed! Ten years older - or younger! I don't know which one's worse!"

The studio lights slant across her hair, and Tori suddenly has an overwhelming urge to touch it, release it, see it blow in the wind and feel it spill over his hands. She peeks up at him, one barely-outlined eye visible through her fingers, pale lips, pale skin. Even here, like this, she's got something that turns heads, an inner luminosity that stands her a little way apart in his mind from any of the girls he's been with before.

"If this is what you're going to look like in ten years, I kind of hope I'm still hanging about then." He tries to say it like he's kidding, fooling around the same as always, but he can't quite keep the wistful note out of his voice.

Misako lowers her hand. Behind it, her expression's grown soft. "Are you trying to ask me something?"

"Nothing I haven't wanted to ask you before."

"And what's that?"

Tori hesitates. A world hangs on his lips, then the chance teeters and sidesteps him, and he exhales. "Whether you feel like grabbing the latest lunch in history," he says.

Misako smiles. "Take me to it."

Before they turn to go, she unexpectedly lifts her hand again and brushes his cheek. Her skin's so soft it's almost unreal, her touch both arousing and strangely relaxing, and in that moment Tori feels his heart sink a little as he knows he's finally done it; let himself get suckered in the worst possible way.

He's in love with Uno Misako, in love so hard he's amazed and breathless at the same time.