Youkai
By kira
Author's note: the following was written to go along with my beta, Jen's, art homework. She had to take some stock photos that she found and make a CD cover out of them. After talking about it, I asked her if she could make one for the fictitious band Youkai from my AU Ban/Jak universe. She agreed and the rest they say is history. At the bottom of this fic is the cover she came up with. (Hopefully it showed up. If not, a link to it can be found in my profile in the fanfiction section.)
Special thanks go out to Jen, for not only polishing this, but also for providing the inspiration behind it!
888
Bankotsu looked at his watch again and said irritably, "Does anyone know if Naraku is going to grace us with his presence this morning? I purposely scheduled this meeting now since I knew his highness has trouble rolling out of bed early in the morning, but I thought eleven was late enough.."
Jakotsu entered the room and hurried over to his life-partner. Leaning towards him, he said, "Ban honey, I just got off the phone with Kikyou and she said he just left. My guess is he'll be here in a half hour or so, depending on whether or not he caught the train."
Bankotsu rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease the tension he felt, before it exploded into a headache. "Great!" he moaned. "Anyways… let's get this started as Ueda-san is a very busy man." He looked over at the photographer and smiled.
Ken Ueda nodded in reply. He had photographed more celebrities than he could remember, so he was used to them getting things wrong and the endless delays. If only they were more professional like Jakotsu-chan over there and the geiko I've shot in the past…he mentally sighed. This was supposed to be a piece of cake; a simple group shot of the band and some stock footage of them to be used to create a photomontage for their latest CD's cover.
"So what have you got planned for the band?" Bankotsu asked.
Ueda looked down at his notes. "I've looked over the material you sent and I was thinking maybe having them dress up like various youkai, oni, tengu, things like that."
"Yeah?" Sesshomaru Nishi looked over at him with interest. "Sounds like fun." He grinned.
"Yeah, you would think playing dress-up is fun," his brother, Inuyasha, said sarcastically.
"What do you mean by that…?" the elder Nishi growled.
"Well… you're always going on about Jak for one thing," Inuyasha started to say when Jakotsu interrupted.
"Hey! Leave me out of this!"
"Sorry…" Inuyasha grinned, "and for another, who was pissed he had to choose between being in the band and being the school mascot during football season? Hmmm…?"
"Hey!! Being the mascot was a great way to meet chicks! And not just any chicks, Baby Bro, but cheerleaders!!" Sesshomaru said as if that explained everything. "Think about it… you get to spend hours hanging with them, toss them up into the air and catch them… Feel the best parts of them and not get into trouble, cuz you're 'cheering.'"
Inuyasha stared at his brother in disgust. "Only you could turn cheerleading into a way to pick up chicks and cop a cheap feel at the same time."
"Hey!!"
"Hey!!" Bankotsu repeated, slamming his hands down on the desk as he stood up and glared at the Nishi brothers. "Enough! If you two want to stroll down memory lane and talk about each other perversions, do it on your own time." He rubbed his forehead tiredly with one hand. "We're having a meeting, remember?"
"Oh yeah…" Sesshomaru said airily as he wadded up a piece of paper and flicked at his brother.
Bankotsu sighed. "Anyone have anything intelligent to add?" He looked at the band, who was sitting at the far end of the table, expectantly. "No?"
"Then I will have a few concept sketches sent to your office in about a week, Kusao-san," Ueda said, closing the notebook he was writing in.
"Sounds good to me, Ueda-san." Bankotsu stood and walked over to the side of the table where the photographer sat. They were about to shake hands and seal the deal when Naraku walked in.
"I miss anything good?" he said cockily as he grabbed a donut on his way over to the band.
"No, they were just discussing your upcoming album art," Jakotsu added helpfully.
"Yeah? And…?"
"We're going to dress up like youkai," Sesshomaru said.
"You're kidding." Naraku laughed.
"Nope."
"That's a stupid idea. That would have been cool for our first album, but we've got what…?" Naraku trailed off.
"This is going to be your tenth album and your ninth with Ban producing," Jakotsu said sweetly.
"Holy shit! It's been that long?"
"Yup…" Bankotsu said softly. The throbbing he had been feeling in his left temple just exploded into a tension headache of epic proportions.
"Cool… So why are we doing something stupid like dressing up for it? Shouldn't we just sit there like ourselves and get our pix taken and be done with it?"
Inuyasha grinned. "Now that's the first intelligent thing I've ever heard you say!"
"Why thank you, Nishi Jr."
"You're welcome, Mr. Morikawa."
They laughed.
"Uh… what other ideas did you come up with, Ueda-san, if I may ask?" Miroku asked.
Oh crap! Why couldn't you have been five, ten minutes later? Bankotsu mentally groaned.
"Well, nothing actually… I thought the youkai theme would fit in beautifully with the temples and gardens in Kyoto," the photographer replied.
"It sounds good to me, Boss Man," Sesshomaru said to their producer. Turning to Ueda, he asked, "Ueda-san, do you think we could dress up like samurai too?"
"I suppose so…" Ueda trailed off helplessly as Bankotsu wondered when and how he had lost control of the meeting.
"Awesomeness!!"
"No, stupidness! I'm not dressing up like an idiot," Inuyasha said, folding his arms neatly across his chest. "It's bad enough you guys talked me into it for the last video, although, I have to admit, you make one helluva geisha, Jak."
"Thanks… My Ban honey thought so too," the cross-dresser, who was there simply because he and Bankotsu were going to spend the day together in Shibuya buying maternity wear for his character, Emiko, giggled.
"You're welcome, although the rest of us looked like a bunch of cosplayers on crack," the younger Nishi added.
"No, you didn't…" the cross-dresser assured him.
"Yes we did!"
"Did not!" Sesshomaru said.
"Did too!" Inuyasha got up into his face.
"Did not!!" Sesshomaru repeated.
Just as Inuyasha was about to add another "did too" to the conversation, Ueda coughed, drawing everyone's attention.
"Kusao-san, when did you say you wanted to arrange to do this?" he asked.
"Two weeks from Friday, why?" the recorder producer-slash-manger for Youkai asked, although he had a sinking feeling that they were about to lose Ueda as the photographer for the album cover shoot.
"I'm sorry, I just remembered, I have another job lined up for then. What if we reschedule for next month?"
Bankotsu sighed. "I'm sorry; the new CD is going to be released on August the sixth, so we need to be in production way before that."
"Oh… that's too bad, as I'm not free until after that. Please forgive me for wasting your time."
"No, forgive us for wasting your time," Bankotsu replied and with that the meeting ended.
888
"So what are you going do now, Ban honey?" Jakotsu asked as they rode the elevator down to street level.
"I have no idea, Sweetness…"
"Hmmm…"
"What?"
"Well, the other day when I helped Sango take Kirara to the vet, I saw she had these really nice pictures on the wall of their kids and her cats."
"So…?" Bankotsu said, his curiosity piqued.
"So, I told her I could use some new headshots for my portfolio as well as a few of me dressed like this," he patted his padded stomach, "so I asked her who shot them. You're never going to believe it."
"Don't tell me Ueda shot them."
"No! Some college kid took them. Damn it! I can't remember her name… Anyways, she's good with animals and kids…" Jakotsu grinned.
Bankotsu laughed. "Youkai certainly has its share of both."
"Oh yeah…" the cross-dresser giggled.
888
After dinner, while Jakotsu was enjoying a nice long soak in the tub, Bankotsu picked up the phone and dialed.
"Hello, Tsujitani speaking…"
"Miroku? It's me, Ban. Is your wife home?"
"Hey, Ban. Yes, hold on while I get her…"
Bankotsu waited patiently, his curiosity piqued about the college-aged photographer.
"Ban?"
"Yes?"
"Miroku said you wanted me?"
"Yeah. We need a new photographer for the band's upcoming album and Jak said you knew someone who's really good."
"Oh… I see. Her name's Arike Uno, or rather Uno Arike. I know her from the vet's. She looked after my cats that time Jak's friend, Watanabe, couldn't and she's also babysat for my kids."
"Yeah?"
"Yup. If you'd like, I'll give her a call and set something up. Don't worry, Ban, I'm sure she'd be happy to do as a favor for me."
"No… I want to pay her. This is a real job and it's something she can put in her resume as well as her memoirs."
They laughed.
"Okay, then I'll give her a call tomorrow. That's it?"
"Yeah."
"Then give my love to Jak."
"Will do. Bye, Sango, and thanks."
"You're welcome. Good night, Ban…"
Bankotsu hung up the phone. Now we sit and wait and see what you can do, Sango… He turned at the sound of soft footsteps coming closer.
"Did you manage to get a hold of Sango?" Jakotsu asked.
"Yeah." Bankotsu replied. He melted into his life-partner's warm embrace.
"Don't worry, Ban honey. It'll work out, you'll see." The cross-dresser sighed. "Why don't you go have a bath and when you get out, I give you a back rub." He smiled sweetly. "You're so tense you're going to break if you don't relax," he added seriously.
It was Bankotsu's turn to sigh. "I know. If only they would behave-"
Jakotsu put a finger on his lover's lips and said, "But then life wouldn't be as interesting. Besides, they're rock stars; they're supposed to act like naughty lil kids."
Bankotsu laughed. "'Naughty' doesn't begin to describe it. And thanks for staying out of it earlier."
"You're welcome. Now go take bath while I go look for the massage oils," the cross-dresser said huskily.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Bankotsu smirked.
"Sounds more like to the start of a fun evening to me," Jakotsu said. Kissing his life-partner on the cheek, he pushed him towards their bedroom.
888
A week later, everyone assembled in the rented studio space, wondering what Arike Uno had planned for them. So while the band members changed out of their street-wear, the wives gathered around the catering table while Bankotsu had a private conversation with the photographer.
"Kusao-san, there's nothing to worry about. Tsujitani-san told me all about them so I know what to expect and how to nip any tantrums in the bud. Besides, I've photographed the kids in the campus daycare center, so I've got plenty of experience working with naughty children." Arike smiled and adjusted the light boxes. She took out her light meter and checked the results. "Would you mind tilting that up a bit…?" She pointed towards the light box next to Bankotsu. "That's it…Thanks!" she said as he complied. "Perfect!"
"Oh good…"
"Relax, Kusao-san." Arike looked over at the catering table. "Is that Jakotsu-chan, over there talking to Nishi-san?"
"Yeah…"
"Squeeee!! He's amazing! I loveJougen no tsuki! He really gets into his part, doesn't he? So when's he's due?" She grinned and Bankotsu laughed.
"Jak said Emiko was due around ratings week."
"Figures." She shrugged. "You know, if I had known Nishi-san was going to be here, I'd have brought her proofs. They came out really good if I may say so myself." They laughed. "Seriously, Tsujitani-san has been really great in getting me all this work."
"She's really good at networking. She showed me the pictures you did of her kids and cats, and I must say I was very surprised to learn you're still in college."
Arike nodded. "Yeah, a lot of people are at first, but then they wind up happy with the results."
"I know what you mean. I started Lucky Seven Records when I was twenty and at first not many people took me seriously too."
"Really?"
He nodded.
"Any way… Let me go see what's keeping everyone. Not that I care, since you're paying me by the hour and very generously too, thank you very much, but it's not right they're wasting your money."
"I don't mind."
"But I do." And with that she hurried over to the dressing rooms.
888
"Kagome," Jakotsu said as he pulled her aside.
"Yeah?"
"Have you figured out where you're going to hold Rin's shower?"
"No… I was thinking of having it at my place, why?"
"Well, I was kind of hoping you'd let me host it."
"Really?"
"Yeah," the cross-dresser said. "I thought it over and I think it would be a good place to have it. For one thing, she'll never suspect a thing if Ban calls Sessh and tells him to get his arse over here, plus it would make life so easier for me. I'm contractually bound to wear this stupid thing when I'm out in public, which means a trip to and fro wherever you'd hold it."
Kagome nodded.
"And I really don't want to upstage the new Mommy-to-be if you know what I mean."
"I do! And it's perfect! You have no idea how much this means to me, Jak. Thank you." She hugged him.
"You're welcome! Honestly, it was the least I could do."
888
Arike knocked on the dressing room door. "Everyone ready?"
"Yeah!"
"Good, then get your butts out here so we can start."
The dressing room door opened and they filed out.
"Ooh…" Arike whistled at them. "You look even better in person."
"Yeah?" Sesshomaru said as he sauntered over to her.
"Yup. And if you're ready, Fluffykins, I'd like to start with you."
"Fluffykins…?" Sesshomaru repeated as his bandmates snickered.
"Yeah. You're Fluffykins, he's Studmuffin," the photographer said as she pointed out Inuyasha and the others. "He's Pookie, he's Hotsie-totsie, and he's Bubbles or Bubba for short." Arike grinned.
"But why 'Fluffykins' of all things?"
Arike fingered the white fur stole he had draped over his right shoulder. "Fluffy… Fluffykins."
"Oh…"
The photographer turned her attention to the band as a whole. Get whatever props you want, if you want to hold your instruments, that's fine with me, but whatever it is, I want you to get it and get it now because I want to get started while the lighting's still good," Arike said in a tone that had them scrambling to obey. "Works every time…" she said softly to herself.
888
"Okay, Studmuffin, I want you to look into the fan. No not you, Pookie! You, Studmuffin! Pookie, you and I are finished for the day. In fact the rest of you are free to go. I just need Studmuffin and Fluffykins to stay put."
The Nishi brothers groaned and looked longingly at their fellow bandmates, who hurried over to the dressing room. It had been a long boring day and they were just as tired as the rest of them and just as eager to go and put this all behind them. Sesshomaru looked at Arike and pouted.
"That's perfect, Fluffykins!! I want you to go flop down over there on the floor under the lights, and pout just like that!"
Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and moved to do as he was told.
Arike picked up her camera and started snapping pictures. "You know what?"
"What?" the elder Nishi replied, the boredom he felt evident in his tone.
"I think you should undo your pants and use your strat to somewhat fig-leaf you. I don't want to see anything, but I do want to give your female fans a lil tease. Got it?"
"Do I have to?"
"Fluffy, if you do that along with that sexy pout of yours, you'll sell millions!"
"Really?" Sesshomaru said, his natural vanity responding to her subtle flattery.
"Hell yeah! That… good…ooh… real good, I can see why your wife is pregnant. You two must have a ton of kids by now; I know I would if my guy looked at me like that… Now lick your lips and give me a look that says you want to pound me deep into the mattress… Yeah…" she murmured as he turned on the charm for the camera.
Rin, who had waddled over to watch the shoot, arrived just in time to hear "pound me into the mattress." If looks could kill both the photographer and her husband would have been dead in an instant. Fighting back her tears, she stood there for several minutes, staring at them, before Sesshomaru caught the look on her face.
The elder Nishi visibly cringed at the hurt look on his young wife gave him.
Arike noticing the "oh crap!" look on his face, quickly turned around. "Perfect! Nishi-san, I need a huge favor from you. I want you to do whatever you did to get that hunk of hubby of yours to get you pregnant, okay?"
Rin hastily wiped her eyes at stared at the photographer blankly. "Excuse me?"
"Just give him a come-hither look. It's painfully obvious he only has eyes for you, so I need you do whatever it takes for him to get his horn-dog on." She grinned at Rin.
"Oh… Well, I don't know…"
"Hey, if you want to strip down to nothing, I'll kick everyone out of here."
"You would?"
"Yup! So what'll it be?"
"Ummm…" She looked over at her husband.
Sesshomaru shook his head.
"Okay, I won't get naked," Rin said, fighting the urge to waddle over and kiss her husband when he looked greatly relieved. "But I will tell you exactly what I plan on doing to you later on," she said. Rin licked her lips. "First of all, I want to slowly unbutton your shirt and slip it down past your shoulders while I…" she breathlessly recited all the things they liked to do together in bed while Arike started to snap some more pictures.
"Beautiful… Maybe I should have called you Studmuffin instead… oh yeah!! Oooh baby… Fluffykins, give it to me… No give it to your darling wife… yes… that's it… that's it… perfection!!" Arike cried as she snapped the final shot. "Wanna see?" She asked as she came over to him and showed him the image on her digital camera.
"Damn I look good!" Sesshomaru said.
"I know! It's the hundred billion yen shot." Arike winked. "Anyway, I have enough to work with from you."
Thank God! "Oh good, I should have taken my poor wife home hours ago." He turned and headed over to Rin and kissed her long and hard.
"Sorry, Nishi-san!" Arike called out as he walked away. "Okay, Studmuffin," She smiled at Inuyasha, "You're up." At look on his face, she added, "Alright, let's take a quick break while they start up the fan. I can see you standing there, hair blowing in the breeze… you know stuff like that."
"Whatever…"
888
While they waited to get the right speed on the fan, everyone stood around and chatted by the catering table.
"So you think you could fit me in your busy schedule? I would really love it if you could shoot a few new head shots for me and maybe a couple of body shots too," Jakotsu said as he helped himself to some salad.
"Jakotsu-chan, it's alright if I call you that, right?"
"Yeah." He smiled. "Everyone does as it's my stage name, but my friends call me Jak. I grew up in the States, Uno-san, so having a 'san' or 'chan' or not at the end of my name, doesn't bother me in the least. So address me in whatever way makes you comfortable."
"Thanks. So tell me about yourself, it'll help when we get together in say… two weeks?"
"Hmmm… can we make a week? Nishi-san is due really soon and I'm hosting the shower and I have a million things to do to get ready which is hard, since I spend most of my time in Kyoto. After she has the baby is fine too."
"Sure, no problem, I can work around your schedule. This is just living expense money while I'm in school. And speaking of which, I'm off for the summer next week, so as long as I can get the day off from the animal hospital, we're good to go."
"You work in an animal hospital? I thought you were there with a sick pet."
"Yeah… I mean no. I work there part-time and I have this giant rabbit, named Chou. She likes to come to work with me, don't ask, but I was there to get my paycheck when I met Tsujitani-san."
Jakotsu nodded. "Oh…"
"Yeah… Ummm… so what's your guilty pleasure?"
"You mean besides, Kusao-san?" he teased.
Arike laughed. "Yeah… if you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine."
"Okay… and promise not to laugh when I tell you."
"I won't," Arike said.
"I like to read fanfiction…" the cross-dresser said softly. He laughed nervously.
"Really? Me too! Who's your fave author, or what's your fave story?"
"Well, I found this really great Fruits Basket fic, called 'Rising Affections' by cheshirejin."
"Oh my god! I love that fic! Have you read "Yuuri and Wolfram's Excellent Adventure?"
"Not yet! I've been so busy lately; it's hard to keep up with all the latest stuff. So what's it about?"
"It's a DN Angle crossover with Ouran High, and of course KKM. Without giving too much away, Wolfie gets sucked into the Ouran-verse and Yuuri goes with him…it's really good. There's a magical artifact that's been awakened leaving the fate of the world in a thief's' hands!"
"Cool!! I need to start reading that one, since she hasn't updated RA in a while, not that I minded, as I've been busy. She's got so many good ones there; it's hard to choose..."
"I know…" Arike agreed. "With a bit of luck, she'll find enough free time to get another chapter out."
Jakotsu nodded. "Damn that 'Real Life!' It's always interfering with our fave authors' work!"
Arike laughed. "I'll tell you what, you read it when you get a chance, and when you're done, call me and we'll set something up."
"Will do! Anyhow, you'd better get back to work before Studmuffin," he giggled over the name, "has a fit."
"Okay… see you when you get back from Yuuri and Wolfie's Excellent Adventure!"
"You've got a date!"
They laughed.
888
Arike sat at her computer, a cup of tea off to one side, her pet frogs floating lazily in the small tank off to the other side. Kermit appeared to watch her intently as she looked through the pictures she just finished downloading off her camera, while Klingon simply ignored her. "No…no…no…" she murmured softly. "Yes!!"
Having found the pictures she wanted to use, the fun part was about to begin. Arike sipped her tea while she waited fro Photoshop to open. "Wish me luck, Kermit," the young photographer said. "What do you want?" Arike said to the large California rabbit that hopped up onto her lap.
Chou twitched her whiskers at her, before settling down into her lap. Arike absent-mindedly stroked her, while she sorted through several stock photos. Finding the perfect one to use as a background, she set to work compiling the various photos into one for the cover collage.
First Arike took the picture of Inuyasha and carefully erased the background so that she could set him in the picture of the ruins. Then she searched her stock footage for a pile of rubble to add in front of him to help integrate the guitarist into the background better. Once she was satisfied that he looked good, Arike turned her attention to Sesshomaru. He was going to be a bit harder, since she liked the photo of him sitting on the ground. After some background erasing and some minor tweaking, she had the elder Nishi comfortably "resting" against the wall.
"Break time, Cho!" Arike said after she hit save. "I don't know about you, but I would like some lunch." She set the rabbit down on the floor and pushed away from the comp desk. Standing up, she stretched and headed into the kitchen.
888
"Societie's Ruins," Arike murmured softly to herself as she looked at the notes Bankotsu had emailed her. "That doesn't look right, but I guess they want it spelled that way. Maybe it's a comment on how bad the educational system is in general?" She said to her rabbit.
Cho looked up at her in reply, before hopping away.
"Oh sure, leave me to figure it by myself. See if I share that bag of apples, I just bought, with you…" She called out to the rabbit's retreating figure. "What do you think, Klingon?" Arike asked her pet frog. She looked at the other one doing its best froggy Zen pose in the tank. "Kermit?"
When both frogs ignored her, she shrugged and went with the odd spelling. As strange as the misspelled word looked, it fit with all the graffiti in the background, so she left it, figuring she could always fix it later if it was wrong. After adding the record company logo to the lower left-hand corner, and a bit of color correction, Arike hit "save" and "save for web" to make a copy that could easily be emailed. Minutes later the completed image was on its way back to Bankotsu along with a note asking how he liked it.
888
Jakotsu stood in front of the CD display for Youkai, while Bankotsu spoke with the manger of the Yamaha music store. Youkai was there to do a meet and greet to promote the new album. The cross-dresser picked up the CD and hurried over to his life-partner.
"Excuse me, but uh, Ban honey, can I speak to you for a moment?"
"I'm busy, Jak. What is it?"
"We've got a problem…"
Bankotsu rubbed his forehead tiredly. After excusing himself, he took the cross-dresser by the arm and steered over to a more private corner of the store. "What is it?"
"Ban honey, you do know this is spelled wrong." Jakotsu handed him the CD.
"What's spelled wrong?"
Jakotsu giggled as it hit him. "Ban honey, I love how your English has improved since we've been together, but your spelling leaves much to be desired. Or maybe it's your grammar that's off…" he trailed off softly to himself. "Anyway, 'society's' is spelled, s-o-i-e-t-y apostrophe s, not s-o-c-i-e-t-i-e apostrophe s."
"Hunh?"
"You've got bad 'Engrish' there," the cross-dresser chuckled.
"What?" Bankotsu took another look at the CD cover. "Shit!"
"Yup!" Jakotsu said smugly. "Just leave it… when you do the next pressing, you can fix that. This way this one'll be a collector's item. Although, I don't understand why Arike-san never said anything, she'd know that was misspelled."
"I, uh… I sent her an email and that's how I had spelled it," his life-partner sheepishly admitted.
"And I guess she figured that's how everyone wanted it."
"Pretty much…"
"Anyway, don't worry about it. I doubt anyone else noticed."
"I hope so."
Two weeks later, as Bankotsu read through the reviews for the album, every single one mentioned the misspelled word and what a great comment it was on the "dumbing down" of society. It made him glad he had forgotten to call and have that changed for the next printing…