So, this idea came from me just listening to a love song that applies to a movie. Guess which movie it is? If you know movies, you'll know it when you see it.

And so, I'm going to be modifying some of the behavior so expect a bit of Out of character stuff. I'm sorry for that, but it's going to need to be that because this is a HUGE AU story.

So here's what's going to happen.

This story is not set in Japan but the US so...language and stuff will be modified and why some of this is going to seem off because we're dropping some of the Japanese speech patterns. But I'm going to try and keep the core personalities as close to original as possible...but give me some slack on this, I'm stressed from my other story, so this is my way of just working off some of the tension from that because that story is getting heavy.

I hope you guys like this.

Also 39 just wholly...kinda...took away a bunch of stuff from Uncomfortable Truths...do you guys...still wanna read that even with the canon that was just shown? I want to continue it; I, want to know if you guys will still like it.

Ps...this was supposed to be a one-shot...it is not going to be a one-shot.

Chapter 1

"I can't believe you talked me into this," grumbled Mei as she adjusted her jacket and stared around at the large crowd and painting covered walls of the Udagawa Art Gallery.

Mei didn't know why she'd allowed Yuzu to drag her to this event as she wasn't the main attraction, but if there was anything the past eight years had taught Mei, it was that she had a hard time refusing the blonde. Which was why, instead of working, Mei allowed Yuzu to take her out for the evening, despite knowing Yuzu knowing Mei's distaste for being put out on public display, no matter how crucial it was for her career. Even so, Mei avoided them whenever possible, preferring to let Yuzu do her job while she focused on her artwork.

Mei was already behind on several commissions not to mention the issues with her latest attempt on a new project wasn't going as planned and it was frustrating the crap out of her.

"I know, I know." Yuzu grabbed a couple of glasses of wine from a passing waiter and handed one to Mei. As it was a work event, Yuzu dressed in a pair of slacks and a blue button-up shirt with a red bow. The outfit was a stark contrast to the leather jacket and paint covered jeans, and shirt Mei was wearing making the black-haired woman feel rather out of place. "But Udagwa asked me to bring you, and I promised I would bring you as a personal favor to him. A few buyers have been asking to see you, and they said they'd be willing to spend a bit more if they saw some of the artists show up. So it benefits everyone, not just you."

"Of course." Mei sipped her wine and winced at the acidity. "Why am I not surprised that it's about the money?"

"Because that money pays your bills." Yuzu took a sip as well and nearly spat out what was in her mouth. "Oh God, this is foul."

"I've had worse." Mei downed her drink and pointed at Yuzu's glass. "Are you going to finish that?"

Yuzu chuckled and reached out for Mei's paint and clay covered hand, and once their fingers locked she handed over the glass. Mei drank this one a little more slowly, and after walking around for a few minutes, she quietly said, "And just so you know, the bills that get paid through these things are ours, not mine."

"That's true." Yuzu took her glass back and finished the rest of the wine, slightly more accustomed to the taste, but still finding it unpleasant. "If that's the case then maybe try and be a little nicer to them? I like having a big house to come home to."

"We'll see." Mei started leading Yuzu through the gallery, stopping every so often to greet a patron or admire some of the other works that were on sale. "But if I recall you're the one who decided to let Harumi take over the sales of my works, so if we fall behind, it's your fault, not mine for you giving up the extra income."

"I'm not complaining." Yuzu nudged Mei with her shoulder before kissing her on the cheek, in clear sight of several guests. Some of them giggled while a few turned their heads up at the display. "I make more than enough from other clients. Besides it's a little unfair to take all the money from your sales when other people work just as hard as me."

"I wouldn't mind it," snorted Mei as she stared up at a large abstract landscape painting of a nearby mountain range. "But I understand why you're willing to give up the money. It's one of the things I love about you."

From the corner of her eye, Mei spotted Harumi who was in the process of finishing up a sale on a more expressionist piece Mei had turned in for this exhibition. She wasn't particularly proud of it, upon closer inspection, Mei found her brushwork to be sloppy, and in retrospect, Mei found herself wishing she'd have chosen a darker orange for some of the background shadings not to mention she wasn't happy with the shade of green she'd used. But it couldn't be helped since she'd had six other pieces to finish and couldn't waste her time being finicky and so long as the customer was happy, Mei wasn't going to spend too much time worrying about it.

When she finished her sale, Harumi excused herself from the guest and waved at Mei and Yuzu, both of them waving back, and as Harumi walked toward them, Mei found herself thinking about the moments that had led up to her current predicament.

It had been roughly ten years since Mei had first met Harumi; back in the latter half of their senior year of high school shortly after Mei had first visited the tattoo parlor where Harumi's sister had been apprenticing. They had seen each other around school from time to time, but after Mei's first appointment at the salon, the two began managed to strike up a close, but slightly awkward friendship.

While her sister shared a similar disposition as Mei, both of them being rather blunt and straightforward people, Harumi was a little more open though she tended to avoid conflict. However, being around her had been good for Mei as if it hadn't been for their friendship, Mei wouldn't have met Yuzu.

At the time of their first meeting, Mei was still in recovery from not only the death of her grandfather but also several months fallout of fighting to get back tens of thousands of dollars worth of paintings her previous dealer and broker had sold without her knowledge.

Not that Mei was entirely against selling them, her grandfather had said that if she needed to, she had his blessing to sell them. But the fact the man stole them from right under her nose while she was in mourning was something she couldn't forgive.

Many of the pieces had been unfinished works her grandfather had started, but due to his illness, his body had become too frail even to hold a brush, thus leaving them half-done or barely started. Mei had offered to help him finish, but when she did, he'd steadfastly refused her.

"These are my works, Mei," he'd said after her what had to have been her tenth offer to help him complete his work. "If I'm to end my life without finishing them, then so be it. Concentrate on your vision and let mine die with me."

But Mei refused to give up, and each time she offered, her grandfather refused to listen, and Mei had to watch him slowly slip away, and when he finally did pass, the vultures arrived.

Within days of his death, several dealers descended upon the house that had been her family home for at least four generations, ever since her great-grandparents had moved from Japan and settled in Chicago, being one of the few Japanese families in the area to avoid being locked away in the camps during the forties. But that hadn't stopped her grandfather from having to watch his friends be locked away for the crime of "being Japanese." At the time, he couldn't actively speak out, so in the act of defiance, her grandfather had spent much of his youth painting traditional Japanese art during his childhood, earning him the disfavor of his parents for a time as it brought unwanted attention toward the family along with a small criminal record.

But eventually the war did end, and when it did, his works caught the attention of a few more popular artists in the area, and they wrote him several letters of recommendation that allowed him to attend the art college in Philadelphia and begin his career as an artist.

Over the years her grandfather had managed to create a name for himself and through his works managed to amass a large following and with that came a private fortune that put his parents to shame. Luckily for him, he managed to stay relevant throughout the majority of his life until he semi-retired after Mei's father left her in his care shortly after the death of her mother.

Unlike his father, Sho had a bit of wanderlust, and though lacking the talent of his father in creating original pieces, he made a successful career out of doing restoration work of older works and teaching art history in famous colleges, museums, and artistic institutes.

Despite his seemingly neglectful nature, Sho did his best to give Mei the attention he knew she craved. He visited often, sent her letters and gifts, and called her every few days. Mei could remember eagerly anticipating every single one of those things, but the visits were what she loved the most. How he'd come home wearing some new outfit from a country he'd visited or showing her how to make some new kind of recipe he'd learned. Sho always brought her lavish gifts and spent every minute he could with her if she didn't have school when he came home. They were the best memories she had of her childhood, outside of the times she spent with her best friend Himeko, but they were also the worst because no matter what, in the end, he always ended up leaving her.

She remembered each night before going to sleep, hearing her father and grandfather argue about how Sho needed to stay behind for Mei's sake. After one such argument, Mei remembered waking up to find her father sitting next to her bed and asking her if she'd like to travel with him. She didn't know if it was because of her age or the fact that she was half asleep, but she'd refused, and he didn't push it, saying that he understood and that he'd always love her.

Even after her refusal, he still came home to visit, but each visit became shorter and shorter until, by the time she turned eighteen, he only visited during the major holidays or when he happened to be in town for something work-related. Outside of that, their communication was limited to strictly digital means and the occasional letter.

By the time their relationship had reached that level, Mei rarely answered any attempt he had made at communicating with her, throwing herself into her studies and after high school focusing solely on her art, practicing the styles her grandfather had spent years drilling into her.

Mei had to admit that he'd been a hard teacher, enforcing in her the need to always practice the basics of each style before allowing her to go off and experiment. Despite his rigid adherence to the basics, never stifled her sense of creativity, even if it took her off the traditional styles of art he'd pounded into her brain.

Mei remembered the first time he'd caught her attempting to draw something out of a comic book using a digital tablet she'd bought with some money she'd earned doing sketches in the park. Thinking that he'd punish her for using a digital medium and for attempting to draw something so childish, Mei had buried them in her closet, only bringing them out when her grandfather thought she'd gone to bed.

When he did find her, Mei expected him to yell at her for not adhering to his perspective that the traditional methods were the only real ones. But he'd surprised her, telling her that he was proud of her curiosity and her willingness to try and incorporate new techniques that he'd been unable to figure out.

"I'm just too old," he'd said with a laugh and waved at his hand at her computer. "Don't get me wrong; I understand that this is how much of my art is sold these days. But I think the digital style is something I'll never be able to learn, so I'll leave that to you. But remember never to neglect the fundamentals, Mei. If you become too reliant on things that make your work easier, you'll forget what it's like to put in the effort."

Mei had taken that advice to heart and did her best to stick to them, and for a few years, she'd managed to resist the lure of using digital programs to do her artwork.

She'd solely worked through the physical medium, allowing her grandfather to teach her what he could as his body weakened and by seventeen she'd managed to find a dealer on her own, despite his recommendation for using the family he'd worked with for years. It wasn't that she was ungrateful to him for trying to look after her. He had done it for so long that if someone were to ask him about her father, she was more likely to talk about her grandfather than her actual one, but like most eighteen-year-olds, she felt the compelling need to prove that she was an adult and could make it on her own.

Around the time that happened though, her grandfather had slowly slipped to the point of no return and while she was making decent money through her broker, the man had made off with nearly fifty of her grandfather's pieces along with taking off more than his fair share of the money he'd made from selling her works. This forced Mei to pull all her remaining works from Amamiya's gallery, locking them away, and begin trying to make a name for herself via the digital spectrum.

It had been a painstaking process seeing as how mei had neglected using her tablet for several years. When she first started out, Mei had no clue what she was doing, and it took her over a year to finally master the use of the programs required to do her work. For some, this would have been a monumental task, but luckily for Mei, she had very her needs were few, not just financially but also regarding hobbies and food, so she had plenty of time to engross herself in her studies. But she didn't shut herself off completely, and she managed to make time to hang out with Harumi, her sister, and the few other friends she had, but most of her time was consumed with offering up samples to gaming, comic publishers, and other companies that still required conceptual artwork or illustrators.

At first, her work had been ignored, but with enough time and perseverance Mei had finally earned some recognition, and she was beginning to make a decent living as a freelance artist. Much of that had been due to Mei figuring out ways to transfer her paintings into her computer and using her editing software to touch them up, giving her an edge over her strictly digital counterparts. Not only that, but thanks to her lawyers, Mei not only earned residuals from the projects she worked on, but Mei now had a rather impressive collection of distractions ranging from, artbooks, movies, video games and when she had the time she spent her days looking for any signs of her work and was rewarded with seeing characters looking almost exactly the way she'd designed them. For a time, Mei had found herself happy with the way her life was going. But as the months turned to years, she'd received no word about any of her grandfather's paintings; she slowly slipped into a depression that led to her almost wholly abandoning her grandfather's teachings. But that all changed the day Harumi called her and asked her to come to her boss' office to verify if a painting a woman had brought in was a genuine was, in fact, an authentic Reo Aihara painting.

When she'd received the news, Mei had been in the middle of doing a painting concept for a book cover and after hanging up nearly broke her leg running down the stairs while simultaneously balancing a box of photographs and trying to pull on her boots and jacket trying to reach her taxi before it drove off. She vaguely remembered yelling at the woman for not driving faster, despite the icy roads and throwing at least three times the amount of her fare before running into the gallery, grabbing Harumi away from a customer and yelling, "Where is it?!"

"Sir, can you give me a moment," said Harumi nervously to the man who'd been interested in a small sculpture that the brunette had been showing to him. "I'll have one of my co-workers finish showing you those few other pieces before you decide. Does that work for you?"

The man gave both Harumi and Mei a curious look but nodded and allowed Harumi to set him up with one of the junior dealers, and once they were in the hallway leading to Udgawa's office, Harumi rounded on Mei, seething.

"You are so lucky that guy works with me on a regular basis! If he'd been someone else, my ass could have been fired!"

"I doubt, Udagawa would fire you over my being impolite," snorted Mei, leaning back against the wall and picking at some of the paint that had gotten under her nails. "You bring in too much money, but if he did fire you, I'd hire you."

"To sell what," laughed Harumi as she began leading Mei toward the back. "You told me you weren't gonna focus on selling physical paintings until you got your grandfather's stuff back."

"Well, maybe today's my lucky day," said Mei offhandedly as she flicked the last bit of paint from her finger, "and possibly yours if things work out."

"Maybe it is." Harumi stopped just before the door and turned back to Mei with a strained expression on her face. "Don't get your hopes up, Mei. I know you've been spending a lot of time and money looking for his stuff and we're doing our best, so if it's not the real thing, please don't lose your shit."

"No promises," chuckled Mei as she shifted the box of photographs under her arm and pointed at the doorknob. "Are you going to open it?"

Harumi rolled her eyes and knocked on the door before opening it and letting Mei in.

"Well, part of it was because of this," was the first thing Mei remembered Yuzu saying as she knelt down toward the far right corner of the painting and began pointing at what Mei figured were the characters that made up her grandfather's name. "It's the way they're painted onto the canvas, and when I asked the person who brought it in where they'd got it, she said it was an estate sale, but..."

"It wasn't an estate sale," growled Mei as she walked forward and slammed down the small box of photos she'd brought with her and began flipping through the contents, trying to find the series of photos that matched the painting.

"I'm sorry?" Yuzu brushed some of her hair out of her face and glared up at Mei, annoyed that someone had just interrupted her. "Harumin, do you know her?"

"Well yeah." Harumi seemed as annoyed with Yuzu as she had been with Mei about the situation, but was doing a better job at keeping her emotions in check. "This is Mei Aihara; she's a friend of mine and the granddaughter of Reo Aihara. She's here to verify if this really is one of her grandfather's paintings."

"Oh." Yuzu stood up and straightened the long skirt she'd been wearing and nervously approached Mei.

"I'm Yuzu Okogi," said the shorter woman with a slight bow. "I'm the agent that..."

"I'm not concerned with that right now," said Mei tiredly as she pulled the pictures she needed out and pushed her way past the blonde, ignoring her cries of anguish at being ignored. "Udagawa do you mind if I..."

"Go right ahead," said her grandfather's former broker with an anxious smile. He was a tall man, dressed in a fine suit with a slight bit of gray hair. He was one of the few people Mei still trusted, and she vowed that if she ever returned to painting, she'd only work with him and his people. "From the look of it, it is the genuine thing, but you never know. There are a lot of decent counterfeiters out there.

"That's true," sighed Mei as she began inspecting the lines, looking for the occasional marker her grandfather put into his works. She knew that a few of them were very easy to spot and could easily be replicated, but those weren't the ones she was looking for. The ones she needed were usually hidden in corners or in shapes that people typically didn't pay attention to.

Usually, Mei wouldn't have had much of a problem finding the symbols she needed to identify it, but this painting was one she had little knowledge about. She was more familiar with his finished works which is why Mei was so keen on finding the symbols. Given the knowledge of how many unfinished works her grandfather had in progress, it would have been easy for someone to attempt to recreate his style and try to pass it off as one of his, which is why Mei had the photos. She was painstakingly aware of how her grandfather meticuously catalogued his work, having taken several of the photographs herself during her youth and after nearly twenty minutes Mei finally found what it was she was looking for hidden in an odd looking

blob near situated between two dark circles.

She grew so excited at her discovery that Mei dropped the stack of pictures and began chuckling to herself while the others all eyed her cautiously.

"This really is one," gasped Mei after she'd found the small symbol of her name her grandfather had hidden in what Mei could only guess was some bird. She'd gotten so excited that outside of sheer relief, Mei turned to Udagawa and pulled the shocked man into a bone crushing hug as she loudly said, "You actually found one! Udagawa you're incredible."

"I'm glad you think so Mei, but it wasn't me that found it," explained Udagawa, looking rather uncomfortable at Mei's sudden outburst. "It was Yuzu."

"Yuzu?" Mei broke the hug and stared up at her friend, perplexed by what he'd just said. "Who's Yuzu?"

"I am," said the disgruntled looking blonde that Mei had shooed away earlier.

"Oh." Mei stepped away from Udagawa and straightened her jacket and stared the woman over.

Compared to Mei's disheveled appearance, Yuzu was dressed in a lovely button up shirt with a bright bow instead of a tie that was the same shade as her eyes along with a pair of crisp blacks slacks. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a neat pony-tail and sleek reading glasses that accentuated her round features. Mei could instantly tell that she was either an agent or a broker and decided to keep her distance, regardless of what the woman had done for her.

"Is that all you have to say," growled the blonde indignantly after Mei refused to say anything else.

"Thanks," shrugged Mei before staring at the painting and then at Udagawa. "Is it okay if I take it home with me?"

"No you can't," huffed Yuzu while Harumi held her back in an attempt to keep the two from destroying the office. "I've already called the police, and they said that it has to stay here."

"Did they say why," snorted Mei, growing more annoyed with the blonde by the second.

"How should I know!?" Yuzu had nearly knocked over Harumin as she shook her arms in frustration at Mei's indifference. "All I know is what they told me if you want to know why then maybe you should ask them!"

"Then I'll do that," yawned Mei before asking Udagawa if she could crash in his office for a bit while Udagawa ushered Harumi and Yuzu out of the office saying that they should go to lunch and that it'd be on him.

When they were gone, Mei finally felt a sense of peace at knowing that it was, in fact, possible for her to reclaim her grandfather's legacy and for the first time in she couldn't remember Mei fell into a peaceful sleep until she was woken by Udagawa saying that the police had arrived.

The talk with the cops took forever, and despite being in the same room, Mei ignored most of what the blonde had said, focusing more on when and how she could get her grandfather's painting home. Unfortunately, Mei was forced to admit defeat when the police told her it would be a while before she could take it home since they needed to question the woman who'd attempted to sell it to Yuzu.

After receiving that news, Mei returned home in a fit and shut herself in her studio, pulled out a large number of her paints and began furiously painting and before she knew it two days had passed. On the verge of collapsing, Mei retreated to the shower, devoured and gorged herself on a meal of three-day-old Chinese food before slipping into a hard, uneasy sleep.