"Slow Burn" (def.): an attraction for someone that is not instant, but grows over time.

-x-

Chapter One: Homecoming

-x-

They weren't supposed to be friends that was for sure. He had barely ever spoke to her and her him, they never felt it necessary to establish any sort of relationship considering there had been more important tasks at hand.

Like simultaneously trying to stop two worlds from falling apart.

Plus, there were just so many things he just never understood about her. Her eternal optimism for one. Seriously, was it possible for one person to be so damn happy all the time? Because she was, and he really just didn't get it.

At first it annoyed him because god it was irritating when all he wanted was to be brooding over whatever it was that was plaguing him that day and she was just there, her very presence just exuding that old adage "it could be worse" on to him.

But then, there were times where that blind hope, that faith and light literally kept him alive. Because there were nights that stretched eternities, days that seemed like their last and times where death was knocking on their door.

And her constant reminders that they would see their families again, that they would all be happy again that one day it would all be over, was the only thing that kept him going after a while.

He needed that, they need that, someone to keep up morale and remind them what it was they were fighting for.

They'd seen a lot of bad, a lot of death, a lot of devastation and it would have been really easy to shut it all off, keep it out and become numb to it. Especially for him, he'd done it his whole life, first with his parents fighting, then with their divorce.

But she kept him in touch with his humanity and more importantly his empathy. Because she never let him or any of them become desensitized to the concept of death when it otherwise would have been easy to. There had been times they had witnessed the senseless slaughtering of entire villages, friends turning to foes, betrayals from people and things they had trusted but most of all the heartlessness of the world at such a young age.

Because no matter how easy it would have been to just accept that this was the way things were, survival of the fittest and all that, there she was, annoyingly positive that everything would eventually be okay.

And then… it was.

Sure it wasn't so cut and dry and they fought like hell to get there, but that wasn't the point, the point was that somehow, some way they got there.

Home.

And they did see their families again and eventually it was all over.

But before he'd had the chance to properly thank her or even realize that he needed to, she was gone.

Just like that.

And he was left with all these thoughts that built up into regrets and long distance phone calls that really burned a hole through his wallet because there were so many things he just never got to say.

It just felt like every time he'd gotten everything off his chest, there was another thing that crept back up into his brain and wouldn't let him go until he vocalized it.

It started out with just a phone call to see how she was doing, how she adjusted to the new place and all that. It lasted too long though, he knew that by the time he hung up.

There was something comforting about her voice, because admist all the chaos and carnage, they had each other and somewhere along the way that started to matter a lot more than it had in the beginning.

They were a team, a family and without her, everything seemed lost.

Incomplete.

Broken.

Before he really had the chance to question it or stop it the phone calls became more frequent, once or twice a month. Then they were weekly, and then all of a sudden she was as constant in his life as school or work or his band.

She too had become a part of his routine.

Somewhere between never having a real conversation in person, and feeling disconnected from the way things were, they'd built a real friendship. And as the years passed, their relationship as well as their problems maturing, they became something like therapists to each other.

He kept her up to date with the various dramas and trivialities that went on in their friend group, hoping to keep her at least somewhat in the loop that way. But he also told her his various issues, whether it be with his band or the girl he was seeing at the time or TK and she would just listen to him. Letting him vent or whatever it was he needed at the time, before offering him some perspective usually along the lines of her classic at least you don't have it as bad as this person that usually annoyed him at first but really did help in the long run.

She complained about her otherwise pampered life, mostly about her absentee parents who didn't take much time to get to know her but kept her living lavishly with a black card and a house to match. She didn't talk to him much about her romantic problems, mostly because he had grown protective over the years and she'd made the mistake of sharing something along those lines with him once before and it really got him angry.

There was no use for him to be angry though, he couldn't exactly protect her from heartbreak or all the ugly things people could do to a person like her who was so willing to believe the best in people, he was too far away.

So for his sake, because she didn't want to stress him out or put him through that unnecessary lamentation, she just held it in.

They'd fallen into a pretty good groove over the years, their relationship one of mutual honesty, comfort and most of all trust. She didn't have to worry about being too open or too whiny or too vulnerable. And he didn't have to worry about her telling someone or making him feel a little too in his feelings.

"So, I kind of have to tell you something." He could tell by her voice that this was something she'd been holding back for a while because she sounded guilty.

He cleared his throat, waited patiently for her to continue.

"But I don't know how you're going to react or if you're going to even care. And I feel like you're going to kinda be pissed I didn't say anything earlier and Matt I so don't wanna hear a lecture because it's kinda weird to—

"Stop rambling." Matt interrupted.

Mimi took a deep breath on the other side, "So, you know how my parents are never around?" She asked.

"Mhmm."

"Well, I kind of convinced them to let me go away to school." By school, he assumed she meant college.

Though he wasn't angry at her for not telling him, it was kind of odd, but it probably slipped her mind. Last they'd talked of her college, she had a lot of options, and hadn't narrowed them much.

She'd always been indecisive as all hell.

Usually, with these things he would try to help her out, since he had already been through the process of applying to schools the year before but he didn't know anything about American universities, so his input was kind of limited.

Still, with classes starting up in not even two weeks, he felt bad for not even following up with her about it.

"That's good. Where?"

"Far."

"Okay… how far?" He didn't understand why she was being so cryptic, it wasn't in her nature to be secretive.

Especially with him.

"Like… Tokyo, far." Her voice was meek, getting higher towards the end of the sentence.

He nearly choked on the sip of water he had decided to take at that moment, "Are, are you serious?" He sputtered.

"Oh no, you think it's a bad idea don't you. I just, I figured what does it matter where I go because it's not like they're here anyway and I'll be eighteen in a few months so I mean really I should be able to make these decisions on my own and I thought hey if I'm going to go away then it may as well be somewhere I know so I'm not totally starting over but you think it's a bad idea, and I guess it was stupid to begin with because I haven't seen any of you guys in like years—

"Mimi, can I talk?"

"Yes, please. Do." She breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Well, before I ask you why you didn't tell me, I'm going to say that I don't think it's a bad idea you're coming back. I think it's great."

"You, you do?" She asked, the disbelief evident in her voice. "Seriously?"

Matt grinned, "Of course I do. I mean, it's not like everyone just forgot about you. I know Sora would be thrilled to know you're going to be joining us at TU in the fall and so will Tai." He promised.

"And you?" She asked, her voice was small and so adorable Matt couldn't stop the grin from expanding on his face.

"I'm happy, it'll be nice to have my friend around."

"Really?" Her voice perked up considerably. "Because, I'm excited, I was nervous but I'm really excited."

Matt chuckled, "Now, why didn't you tell me again?" He asked.

"I honestly didn't really make the decision to come for sure for sure til I talked to my parents and I didn't know if they would agree. I actually thought it was a bit of a shot in the dark anyway considering everything that went down in OBA, ya know?" She had really not even dwelled on it as a viable option because she was pretty convinced her parents would veto. "But then they said yes and I got all anxious coz I so hadn't thought that far ahead. Like what if you guys were just like ugh why is she back she was so annoying to deal with—

"Well, you are annoying." Matt said playfully.

"Shut up, where would you even be without me?" She laughed.

"Nowhere, I'd be utterly lost." The sarcasm was evident, but it usually was with Matt.

"Of course you would be." She said triumphantly.

"Are you going to tell the others?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of giving Sora a facetime call tomorrow and telling her, that way I can gauge her reaction." She said conspiratorially.

Matt laughed, "Great plan." He shook his head.

"Whatever. Just have that welcome home party ready for me, Ishida."

"I'll get right on that."

"You should, coz I'll be there before you know it."

"Two weeks, Meems. Got it."

-x-

2 weeks later…

She had said she would just meet them all at Tokyo University, but Matt had skeptical. Mimi wasn't great with directions and she got sidetracked far too easily, so when he saw her walking towards him with Sora in tow, he was more than surprised.

Tai, on the other hand, was surprised for other reasons, he assumed. Matt was very aware that Mimi had blossomed into a very attractive young woman, having been on the receiving end of many facetime phone calls as well as seeing her on pages like Instagram and Twitter. Tai, however, was neither so interested in keeping up with technology nor keeping in touch. So Matt just smirked as the brunette tried to pick his jaw up off the floor.

"Dude, you didn't tell me Mimi got hot!" He whistled.

"Gee, sorry Tai. I didn't realize I was supposed to inform you of your friend's various bodily changes." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I didn't really notice. I mean, it's just Mimi."

"Just Mimi, Matt. She's…" If there was an accurate way to describe Tai right now, it would be the heart eyes emoji, because that was literally how he was looking at Mimi.

"Quit acting like you've never seen a girl before. It's embarrassing." Matt elbowed him.

A small, shy smile of recognition appeared on Mimi's face as she saw the two boys standing in front of her. "Matt!" She couldn't stop herself from launching her body into his arms.

Matt, caught her with a surprised chuckle. "Hey, Tachikawa." He murmured affectionately into her hair. "What brings you to town?" He said playfully.

"No, don't let go yet." She hugged him a little tighter.

He obliged, a little red-faced at the look he was getting from Tai, but happy to see her nonetheless. He was glad to have her here, something always felt missing without her.

She let him go, "Hey Tai." Mimi smiled, giving him an obligatory hug as well.

"Sor." Matt greeted with a one armed hug to her shoulders.

"So after you told me that you were coming, Mimi, I made some calls to the university, my uncle actually knows the director here and he got you a last minute switch so we could be roommates." Sora went over the piece of paper with the brunette. "We're in Frey Hall, it's the one by the Chemistry building." She was pointing out various locations on the map, while Mimi tried her best to keep up.

Sora looked up from the map, "They changed the layout of the buildings this year to start work on that new Physics lab. Do you two know where you're going?" She asked with a raised eyebrow that told them she knew the answer already.

A guilty look was exchanged between both boys, "Don't you worry your pretty little head, Sora. We'll figure it out." Tai assured her. "We navigated an entire other world at age eleven, how tough can it be to find our classes?" He winked at her.

"Tai, sooner or later you're going to have to stop using the digiworld as a point of reference for everything, you do know that right?" Sora said with a roll of her eyes.

"Says who?" He humored her. " 'Sides, the way I see it, if me and Matt get "lost"—He paused to put air quoates around the word, "It gives us an excuse to chat up some sorority girls." He rubbed his hands together.

Mimi laughed, "Smooth." She mentioned, as she continued to look at the map in Sora's hands.

"You can be such a boy sometimes." Sora said distastefully.

"I can't help my nature." Tai stuck out his tongue childishly. "But speaking of sorority girls…" His eyes wandered to a group of girls a few paces clad in shorts and midriff tank tops, who were making eyes at the two boys.

A few minutes later one of the girls came over she had shining blonde hair that glittered in the sunlight and an easy smile. "You're Tai Kamiya, aren't you?" She extended out a hand, completely ignoring the two girls who were standing there.

Tai nodded, "Sure am." He said, the old Tai confidence seeping back in easily.

"Zoe." She introduced. "You're on the soccer team."

Another nod, "I am." Everyone knew that, he had become a prominent member of the team by the end of the last season, the freshmen wonder boy.

He had no idea who this girl was though.

"My brother is Ryo Akiyama—well, step brother but still." She grinned.

"No way! You're Ryo's sister?"

"Yeah, small world huh?"

"I've known Ryo since soccer camp—not that soccer camp though, guys." He gave his friends a knowing grin.

Matt just chuckled.

"Oh, I'm so rude." Zoe registered that there were other people besides the brunette there. "I'm Zoe." She extended a hand out to Matt. "I'm a freshmen at TU."

"You know, our friend Mimi here is too." Matt said, "And this is Sora." He made it a point to introduce the two girls that were now glowering daggers into the blonde's back.

She turned around, blonde hair moving behind her. "Nice to meet you guys." She said swiftly, her blue eyes sweeping over them. "Anyway, there's a party tonight. A guy I know—Sam, he's throwing it, it's at the Pi Sigma Delta house. You guys should come." She invited good-naturedly.

"Thanks, Zoe. We'll see you there." Tai accepted on their behalf, earning dirty looks from the two girls in his presence.

"Well, my friends are waiting. But it was nice meeting you guys." She gave a quick wave, before she was on her way.

"Real nice Tai." Sora deadpanned, before her and Mimi walked away as well.

Tai just looked over at his best friend. "Was it something I said?"

Matt just shoved his shoulder. "Let's get out of here, I'm hungry." He shook his head.

-x-

Mimi found her return back to Japan not just odd but also rather anticlimactic. Not that she was complaining. She also thought Matt would be a little bit more enthused to see her, but then he wasn't the most vocal of people so she knew couldn't expect too much.

What she found the most odd though was that she and Sora slipped into their old friendship as if no time had passed at all, let alone seven years. They were just children when she moved, now they were teetering on adulthood, starting a whole new chapter of their lives and it didn't feel as though they had missed out on anything at all.

"That girl was…"

Sora gave a short laugh, "I know what you mean." She said, settling on the bed beside Mimi's.

"Thanks, by the way. For situating the room thing, it would have been horrible if I had to be stuck with someone I didn't know."

"No problem, Meems. I'm glad to have you back." The redhead said sincerely.

"So, anything of consequence to tell me?" Mimi asked, begging for some juicy gossip.

"Well,..Kari is dating Davis." Sora pointed out.

"Knew that from facebook, saw it coming from a mile away. But continue." Mimi was very up on her social media.

Sora nodded. "So that's happening. Oh! Joe is with you know fan girl obsessed with Matt Ishida—" She snapped her fingers trying to recall the name.

"Shut up! Jun Motomiya!" Mimi shrieked.

"Yes! Her! Davis's sister." Sora laughed.

Mimi laughed too, clutching her stomach as her breath came out in pants.

The two of them tried to catch their breaths for a few minutes, as their laughter began to abate. "That's classic." Mimi wiped the corner of her eye. "Who could have seen that coming." She said, some residual laughter escaping her throat.

"I know." Sora agreed. "In a funny turn of events, Izzy actually left to study abroad. He got into the engineering program at Columbia."

"Wow…" Mimi let out a low whistle. "You know, he had a crush on me back in the day. Probably should've banked that in when I had the chance, he is going to be rich one day." Mimi sighed wistfully.

"Definitely."

"So… question. You and Tai?" Mimi raised an eyebrow.

Sora shook her head. "Uh do you see him, he's a dog in heat, constantly." She rolled her eyes fondly. "That's a for sure no, but we're still as close as before even if he gets on my nerves all the damn time."

Mimi smiled, "Well, I just thought I'd ask. Considering I just always thought it would happen." She confessed.

"You and everyone else." Sora said. "What about—

"No, me and Matt. Strictly friends." She couldn't entertain the possibility, not even for a second, because thinking about it meant letting her mind go there and letting her mind go there meant possibly ruining what they had and what they had was far more important to her than any temporary relationship could ever be.

She loved Matt, he was probably her best friend, whether she admitted it or not. He had made her transition into a new country so much easier and it wasn't even on purpose. He just did. He held her together when she felt like her entire life was falling apart, being ripped away from the people she had literally spent every waking moment with for almost two years. It was so hard at first, especially being so far, but he made things better. When she needed someone the most, he was there for her. And there was nothing in the world that could come close to meaning more than that.

"Dually noted." Sora held her hands up teasingly.

"Sorry, didn't mean to cut you off." Mimi apologized. "It's just not ever gonna happen."

Sora nodded, "So I guess we can be the four best friends anyone could ever have." She said with a smile.

"That sounds great to me."

-x-

A/N: Surprise! Thought you'd seen the last of me?

So truth time, a couple of things happened between then and now. First, I lost the password to this account and I had no idea how to access it. After a while, I just gave up because it wasn't like I was doing much writing for it anyways.

I started writing a harry potter story (Shades of Green: a Draco/Ginny epic romance if anyone is into that sort of thing. Check it out, it's under the penname TJ King.) and stopped keeping up with this fandom as a whole.

But a couple months ago, something made me come back, just to check out the scene and it made me sad and nostalgic. I wanted to write for it again, and like do something Mimato but it also didn't feel right to post under my new penname because like, it just didn't. It felt all weird and not normal. So I tried really hard to find this account and the password and I did even though it took forever and a lot of work. So here I am, back with this.

I can't make any promises on updates, right now I have about two or three chapters written but you know me I'm kind of unreliable. This isn't gonna be long though, that's for sure.

Anyway, drop me a review, I wanna hear from you guys. And let me know who's still around! It'll be nice to see some familiar faces as well as hear from the new ones!

Thanks for reading, regardless!

References:
1. Instagram: social media platform created to share videos and pictures
2. Twitter: Also a social media platform, sharing thoughts and ideas.
3. Facebook: Same as above.
4. Emoji: You know, those smiley faces you can use in texts and messages. The heart eyes emoji is just the smiley face with hearts for eyes usually used to indicate falling in love or finding someone really beautiful/hot. (Like me when I see Chris Hemsworth, for example)
5. Pi Sigma Delta is a made up fraternity, not sure of what the significance of frats are in Japan or if there are even any but for the sake of this story (and because they're pretty much a staple in America) I have made it a thing.