A/N: I wanted to do a songfic with this song in particular since the lyrics are absolute genius. Seriously, if you're going to bother reading anything on here, read the lyrics.
Anyways, the song is "All the Pretty Girls" by the band fun., and the song is pretty Queen-ish so if anyone's interested in stuff like that then you should go listen to the song.
Also, this entire thing, excluding the lyrics, was beta'ed by the wonderful En ar Ciel, and without her, this thing would seriously suck and would not have smart words like "contrabass" or "sanctioned" in it. She didn't beta the lyrics though, because FFN keeps on screwing them up, so if you notice any mistakes in the lyrics then it's 100% my fault.
Anyways, enjoy!
All the pretty girls on a Saturday night!
So I call your name,
Cross my fingers,
Uncross the others.
Hesitate.
Oh, I don't think straight,
With nothing to prove.
Kuukai never thought of his relationship with her as "normal." After all, what was a normal relationship?
Sure, they went out to movies several times, but they never made out in the theatres (God, it was annoying when people did that; why would you pay money just so that you can kiss in a dark room where everyone else who actually wants to see the movie is glaring at you?), and he sure as hell never tried to do that whole yawn-and-put-your-arms-around-her trick (His arm would definitely end up in a cast if he did).
He didn't get her chocolate for Valentine's Day, because she thought chocolates were too clichéd and unoriginal, and he agreed. Instead on Valentine's Day, they would head out, buy a jar of every kind of hot pepper they could find, and have a contest to see who could eat the most without any water (And although he got strange looks whenever he told people this, he wouldn't have had it any other way).
Instead of winning her a oversized bear at one of those impossible carnival games, they would both play them all, counting up to see who actually beat them and won the most prizes in the end. They donated the toys to one of the shelters downtown, so that they could get good karma points later on, so it wasn't like it was a total waste.
Kuukai loved the relationship they had. She never asked him to come shopping with her, or talked about other guys or bug him about her period, and he never tried explaining soccer to her or convince her to play X-Box with him. Their relationship wasn't normal, and he liked to keep it that way. If he was ever stuck in a normal relationship with some other girl, he was sure he'd go crazy.
That's why, he was hoping, praying, that things weren't going to change once she stepped through that door.
I don't wanna say I'm leaving.
I will stay until the weekend.
You can take all the things;
The boxes and rings,
And get going...
He knew that their relationship wasn't as great as it should've been. Lately, she'd been distant, unfocused most of the time, as if she was stranded on a completely different planet and Kuukai was futilely attempting to rescue her. Her eyes were blank when she addressed him, and she stopped commenting on his jokes. She hated his jokes! They were awful, and they both knew it, and he loved it when she would give him a thump on the head or roll her eyes whenever he talked about the chicken that crossed the road.
Now, she barely even heard him.
When she came through the door, Kuukai immediately got up from the couch and kissed her, taking her by surprise. "Alright," she said, gently pushing him away, "what did you break this time?"
"My heart," he told her earnestly. She laughed. "I'm serious!"
She sighed and looked up, her violet eyes far away even though she was staring right at him. "Mm-hmm. Tell me, how did you break your heart?"
"I think that my girlfriend wants to dump me," He waited, hoping that she would start laughing and tell him that he was crazy, or at least hit his head for even thinking of such a thing.
Instead, she sighed, and said the dreadful words that he feared the most:
"I think we need to talk."
'Cause I've been waiting for...
All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
Let it be, and come to me with the look in your eyes.
Will you break and take all the words from my mouth?
I wish all the pretty girls were shaking me down.
Kuukai said nothing as he threw the last bag into the trunk of her car. She merely sighed and looked down as she muttered a "thanks" in return. He grunted, not even looking at her.
Biting her lip nervously, she told him, "I hope you understand that this isn't about you." She began absentmindedly playing with her hair (Something she only did when she was anxious about something, he noted) and said, "I know that the whole 'it's not you it's me' speech is really overrated and everything, but I just want you to know that I need to figure my life out before we -"
A loud ring cut her off and Kuukai wasted no time answering his phone. He would take any excuse to stop listening to the reasons why they were over.
"Hey Kuukai! How are you? I feel like we haven't talked in so long!" Yaya had really impeccable timing, he had to admit.
"I'm fine. What's up with you?" He could hear his (Now ex) girlfriend sigh and wait impatiently for him to finish. Call him rude, but Kuukai thought that he had every right to snub her. She did it first, after all.
"I'm just fantastic. My friend's cousin's barber's nephew's ex-girlfriend knows this band that's going to appear at this totally rad little restaurant that just opened up downtown, and I was wondering if you could join me? Tonight's the opening night of the restaurant and I was hoping you could go with me."
From the corner of his eye, Kuukai saw his ex texting someone on her phone, and momentarily wondered if she was making plans with some guy. They were separated now, right? She moved out and everything. So if it was okay for her to hang out with other guys, then he can surely hang out with other girls.
"It's a date," he told her, trying not to grin when he noticed his ex had stiffened at his words.
So I call (I call) you out (Out baby),
Just to feel a little bit about myself (He does).
And I do (You do), baby I do, I do, I do (Really don't get it, yeah we know you do).
After saying his goodbyes, his ex finally looked him straight in the eye and said, "I probably won't be able to reach you once I leave." He merely raised an eyebrow and she sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that day. "My brother lives downtown, and I'm going to be spending a lot of time with him, trying to, uh, figure things out. I just haven't been myself lately, and things have been going on -"
"If you didn't care enough to tell me when we were together, then there's no use telling me now," he told her coldly, noticing her flinch slightly and give him a hurt look. He tried to pretend that it didn't affect him and that he totally had every right to be a jerk. After all, what kind of girl goes and dumps her boyfriend of four years and give nothing but a bunch of overused excuses stolen right out of a bad romantic comedy? She could've at least talked to him. Or let him talk to her. It's her fault for acting so distant. It's her fault for dumping him.
And it's totally fine if he decides to walk away from her without saying goodbye and get ready for his date with another girl.
Totally fine, and totally not his fault.
'Til their lips start to move,
and their friends talk music.
I say "I've never heard the tune."
But I have, I just hate the band,
Because they remind me of you.
"…and then he was like 'I don't care if you're carrying my child. You promised me you'd get the drugs!' And then they actually got physical. Well, I mean not like that, but you know, the other one." Yaya started giggling, despite the fact that she was telling a somewhat-serious story about Julio and Angela's abusive relationship. So far she managed to re-tell the entire first and second seasons of her favorite drama and the main course hadn't even arrived yet.
"I still don't get why she doesn't break up with him," Kuukai muttered, who was sitting across from Yaya, and took yet another sip of his soda, soon realizing that he had already finished the whole glass. He honestly didn't even care what happened to Julio and Angie. He just wanted the band to play already and get Yaya to talk about something other than her Spanish soap opera.
"She can't. Don't you remember? Julio is a major gang leader and it'd be even worst for Angela and the baby if she left, especially once he finds out that the baby is actually-" Then Yaya started to ramble on and on about Angela's affair with a vampire or something while Kuukai asked the waiter for a refill.
Just as he was about to go back to ignoring Yaya, he felt something hard hit him in the head. "Ow! What was that?" He looked up, confused, and frowned slightly when he saw Yaya trying hard not to giggle at him.
"The band is starting," she whispered as the lights in the restaurant began to dim and the band began to introduce themselves.
"Why did you throw a bread roll at me?" he whisper-shouted, trying to get his date's attention. When he couldn't do that, he picked up one of the olives in his pre-course salad and threw it at her, ignoring every old-fashioned rule that says you can't throw food at your date, grinning when it hit her directly in the temple.
Yaya smiled but didn't say anything as she went back to watching the band, who were still busy tuning up and mumbling to each other about which song they were supposed to sing first. Kuukai sighed and started wondering when his drink would arrive.
"Kuukai? Is that you?" Recognizing the voice that said his name, Kuukai tried not to groan as he turned around, plastering a fake smile and greeted the girl standing behind him in a waiter's uniform.
"Amu!" he said through clenched teeth, his palms getting sweaty as his friend gave him the famous Hinamori glare (Usually reserved for her sister and a certain violin-player, both who had trouble with her personal boundaries). "It's been so long."
"Too long," she said slowly, pursing her lips as she surveyed the scene in front of her, her eyes looking back and fourth between him and Yaya. "What are you doing here with… Um, with Yaya?"
Nice save, he thought to himself as he noticed how hard she was trying to keep herself from saying something along the lines of "What are you doing dating some other girl, when you just broke up with your girlfriend of four years?"
Of course Amu would know about the break up. She was his ex's best friend and it was no secret that she had once gotten pretty cozy with his ex's brother. But the ex had never told him that Amu was working as waitress now. Last he heard she had quit her job as a barista and was making Happy Meals for minimum wage. Now, she was trying to balance a tray of drinks as she gave the people at the table next to him their water.
"Kuukai!" Yaya threw yet another bread roll at him as she tried to grab his attention. "The band's about to-" She suddenly noticed the bright glob of pink in the corner of her eyes and her face broke out into a grin. "Oh my gosh, Amu! What are you doing here?" Around half a second later Yaya noticed the uniform. "You're working here now?" Yaya gave her friend one of her famous pouts as she asked, "What happened to that job I got you at McDonald's?"
Amu frowned, obviously remembering a bad experience. A lot of her part-time jobs usually end that way. "After realizing what exactly goes in those McNuggets, I never even want to even step near a Micky-D's." She gave Kukai a look that he wasn't unfamiliar to as she placed his drink in front of him. "Regular, right?"
"Uh, yeah," he mumbled as he literally dove for it, wondering how the situation could get any more awkward.
The band suddenly seemed to get their act together, literally, because pretty soon the lead singer-slash-rhythm guitarist that Yaya described as having a voice that's like "Paul McCartney-mixed-with-Gene Kelly-mixed-with-that-guy-from-"Mary Poppins"-mixed-with-'Finn'-from-Glee-mixed-with-Justin Bieber," spoke into the microphone, introducing themselves as "Queen Of Apocalypse Survivors Crashing At The House Of Blues" (Or something like that).
"This first cover goes out to all the happy couples out there, enjoying a nice night out in the town." Kuukai felt like throwing up as the band began to play the opening of a "kick-ass rock ballad" (As the band put it): Heartful Song.
Amu's uncomfortable stares proved that things could be a million times more awkward if you believed enough.
"Let me get that," Amu muttered, breaking the tension that hung heavily in the air as she grabbed the empty glass in front him, making Kuukai realize that he had been sucking on air for about the first ten second of the song.
"This band stinks," Yaya said, noticing the awkward tension. "My friend's cousin's barber's nephew's ex-girlfriend has terrible taste in music."
Amu rolled her eyes. "Yaya, I'm your friend's cousin's barber's nephew's ex-girlfriend. I'm the one that told you about this place, remember?" she said as she refilled Kuukai's soda and placed it in front of him.
"On the house," she told him, trying to talk over the cursed song that was taking over Kuukai's brain.
Muttering a "Thanks," he went back to focusing on his soda and the conversation the two girls were having while trying to ignore the song that was driving him insane at the moment.
Yaya paused for a moment at what Amu had said, giving the light bulb in her a head some time to light up. "Oh, yeah!" she said, her face lighting up as she began to remember, right before frowning. "But why would you tell me to invite Kuukai to see a band that sings her songs? I thought you said that she and Kuukai - ow!" Yaya was unprepared for the bread roll that Amu threw at her head (Seriously, where do they keep getting those from? Kukai wondered). Yaya frowned, tears forming in her eyes. "Amu… Why did you do that?" she whined.
Before the rosette could reply, a tall, thin woman in her late twenties came up to their tables, holding Kuukai and Yaya's entrees. Her eyes narrowed, looking bacl and forth at the crying girl who was muttering something about bread rolls, and Amu, who had bread crumbs on her fingers, and began putting two and two together, coming up with five. "Hinamori! What are you doing attacking our customers with the food?" Amu started stuttering excuses and the woman merely glared at her as she scolded, "It's opening night and already you're causing a catastrophe. If it weren't for the fact that there's more people than we know what to do with, I would fire you on the spot."
Amu looked down at her feet shamefully, her face burning red. "S-sorry, ma'am." Yaya bit her lip trying to stifle a laugh as she watched her friend get scolded, like a kid being caught red-handed sneaking a cookie from the jar right before dinner. Right before sending a glare Yaya's way Amu told her manager, "It won't happen again," and she cleared away their salad plates and made room for the entrees the "couple" had ordered.
Every single night ends up the same:
I don't say much at all, but I bring up your name.
(Over and over and over).
I think it's striking me out.
"How did you know that we broke up?" Kuukai asked Yaya right after Amu left their table, knowing that with the pink-haired girl around to throw more bread rolls at his date, he wouldn't get any answers from her.
Like a frightened doe in headlights, Yaya realized that the jig was up and that she had given herself away earlier. "Well… It was kind of obvious by the strange way you were acting tonight." She nervously picked at her food as she said, "I mean, I wasn't going to say anything tonight because who wants to talk about a break up right after they just broke up, am I right? But then that stupid band started to play the song and -"
Speaking of the stupid band, the cursed song finally ended and there was a silent discussion going on between the lead singer and someone else. Looking up on stage, he saw Amu talking to the band, then yelling at her manager something about being on break, then going back to talking to the band again. The bass player asked her something while smiling, obviously checking out the pink-haired girl as she nervously looked out into the crowd of tables and pointed right at Kuukai, her face getting even redder when she noticed him glaring at her without meaning to.
She was obviously talking to the band about the his 'situation,' clearly wanting to avoid the same thing that just happened during the first song, and thanks to her stupid hero complex and habit of butting in every little thing that's none of her frickin' business, she decided that her help was needed in order to avert another terribly awkward crisis.
As soon as she got down from stage and began muttering more apologies to her manager, the band started discussing some more things, much to the annoyance of some of the people who had come to see them play. Pretty soon, they seemed to have decided on something and the lead singer began to speak in the microphone again. "This next song is a special request from a certain pink-haired cutie -" Kuukai could swear that he could feel the intensity of Amu's blush from the other side of the restaurant as the bass player sent a wink in her direction, "- who wanted us to sing this song for a friend of hers who had their heart recently broken."
Kuukai was going to murder the girl.
"This next cover is another favorite of ours. A classic pop ballad that you simply can't go wrong with." Kuukai has a feeling that something was about to go wrong just from the way the guy was introducing the song. "Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for our rock rendition of Blue Moon!"
Scratch that. Kuukai was going to murder her, bring her back to life, murder her again, and then do an Irish jig on her grave. It didn't matter if he didn't know how to do the Irish jig. All that mattered was that Amu Hinamori was going down.
"I am so sorry," Amu said to Kuukai, who was gulping down his soda as though he hadn't had a drink in years, while she refilled Yaya's half-empty iced tea. "I told them that you were upset over a bad breakup and that they probably shouldn't sing anymore songs like the first one. I didn't actually think that they would play another one of her songs!"
"Probably busy staring at your boobs to think about anything else," Yaya snickered as she took a sip of her drink, yet soon became serious, as serious as Yaya could get anyway, when she saw Kuukai hold out his empty cup and demanded that Amu "hit him" again.
"I could lose my job if I do that again," she said, trying to make a joke out of it, but ended up refilling his cup without another word.
Kuukai was angry. Kuukai was infuriated. Kuukai was outraged. Kuukai was so furious, that he couldn't of another synonym for the word "angry." Noticing that the two girls were staring at him with wide eyes, obviously nervous and waiting for him to knock tables over, he sighed and took a slow, long sip of his soda. "I'm fine, just fine." They still stared at him as though they were waiting for him to throw something, anything, even if it was just another bread roll.
It could've been worse, he decided. He was glad that it was Paul McCartney/Gene Kelly/Dick Van Dyke/Cory Montieth/Justin Bieber's voice singing the song and not the real thing. He quickly knocked on the wooded table to make sure that that didn't happen.
What does it matter anyway? he thought, remembering that it didn't matter if they were singing her song because they weren't even dating anymore, but that fact just made him even more outraged. He continued to angrily inhale his soda, suddenly caught by surprised when he actually did inhale his soda and went into a violent coughing fit, catching the attention of all the other people sitting around him, and even causing the band to stop the cursed song mid-way through.
Amu, apparently having dealt with this sort of thing before, shoved the tray of drinks into Yaya's hands and was about to pull the Heimlich right before Kuukai held up his hand, alerting her that everything was alright, but ended up knocking Amu backwards and crashing her into a nearby table, taking an family's unfinished dinner down with her.
"I am so fired," she groaned as a child's spilled cup of water dripped down her forehead.
The band stopped playing the song (Thank goodness) and the bass player looked over their way and gave a dumb, cheeky grin towards them. "Having fun back there?" he asked, clearly thinking that he was hilarious.
"Oh tons," Kuukai seethed, or at least he tried to, except it came out as more of a weak, wheezing sound.
Yaya was enjoying this too much, snapping photos of Amu with French fries in her hair and Kuukai's incredibly red face that was now identical to Amu's, once she realized how many people had witnessed the entire fiasco.
Amu's manager rushing towards them, her eye's narrowed down on her targets and steam coming out of her ears. She marched in front of Amu, who needed some assistance getting up, and started to screech at the poor pink-haired teen right before her lecture was cut short. "I know, I know," Amu sighed as she accepted Yaya's hand.
"About time," she muttered as she finally was able to stand up. "I was down for like thirty seconds and you decide to take pictures of me." Yaya merely giggled. Amu then stood up to face her manager, no longer scared or too nervous to look the woman in the eye. Without saying anything, the manager frowned and held out her hand, allowing Amu to take off her apron and hand it over to her.
"An entire week of training and lasted three whole hours. This is a new record," Amu muttered as she walked out of the restaurant, sure to never to return again. "I'll pay for the table," she shouted at her (now ex) manager.
"Don't bother," Kuukai answered. The manager looked like she was about to cut his head off right before Kuukai saved her the trouble. "Here," he said as he handed her several crumpled up bills. "That should be enough for the food and damage."
The manager scoffed and thrust her pointed chin up in the air. "Don't ever come back here again. Now get out!"
Yaya pouted. "Aw, but can't we have a to-go box or something -"
"Out!"
Yaya frowned in disdain. "How rude!" she said and marched out of the building.
Kuukai could hear the lead singer chuckle into the mike. "Alright then. Moving on… This next song is one that I'm sure all of you know: Meikyuu Butterfly!"
"You've got to be kidding me," Kuukai grumbled, walking out of the restaurant as fast as his legs could carry him.
All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
Let it be and come to me with the look in your eyes.
Will you break and take all the words from my mouth?
I wish all the pretty girls were shaking me down.
" 'Frozen yogurt topping dispenser?' " Kuukai said as he read aloud Amu's job on her new nametag. He nodded in approval. "Sound legit."
She grinned, clearly proud of her new job. "I'll admit, it's not really my style, but if I can handle taking orders from Japan's largest family during rush hour at Micky-D's, then I can handle putting sprinkles on yogurt."
"You just got fired last night. How'd you get another job in less than twelve hours?"
Kuukai noticed Amu's cheeks turn pink, making him incredibly suspicious. "Remember the bass player from the band?"
"The one who was drunkily checking out your boobs?" Kuukai nodded, noting his friend's incredibly red face (It was a talent, being able to change color like that so quickly) and her attempt to cross her arms over her chest area. "Yea," Kuukai said solemnly, "I remember him."
"Well, he convinced my manager to give him my number, and he called me early this morning telling me that he felt bad about what happened and said that there was an opening here at Yogurt Palooza. Apparently, he's assistant manager and managed to pull some strings and get me a job." Kuukai raised an eyebrow suspiciously at his friend.
"So you took the job from a perverted musician," Kuukai drawled out slowly, making sure to emphasize that certain word, "who, after seeing you fall flat on your ass last night, pitied you and decided to 'pull some strings' and get you a job that doesn't involve you asking someone, 'Would you like fries with that'?"
Amu glared at him, daring him to continue. "Yes, that's what I just said. Your point is…?"
"My 'point' is that you have a thing for musicians that come to your rescue whenever you need help."
Amu's mouth hung open, shocked that her friend would even say something like that. "That is so not -"
"George."
"He was a composer."
"A composer from England who helped you ace your English final." Kuukai couldn't help smirk when Amu didn't have a rebuttal. "And what about Cris?"
"Cris taught music to kids. He wasn't a -"
"He helped you fix your car when the engine broke down."
"…Are you going to stop anytime -"
"And whatever happened to G.G.?"
"G.G.?" Amu frowned, trying to remember him. "He wasn't… Oh my God, Kuukai, don't you dare bring that up again!"
"He worked at a triple-X club and you were actually considering introducing him to your dad at one point."
"He was a DJ," Amu rolled her eyes and started focusing on organizing and re-organizing the spoon container. "Plus he got me that job at the club, and the tips were incredible."
"You always complained about people throwing their drinks on you."
"The tips were incredible," she repeated, trying to get her point across. "And besides, I got you those awesome sneakers because of that job, remember? You can thank G.G. for that."
"Did I just hear Amu say she worked at a club?" Kuukai groaned, remembering that voice from the restaurant, belting out some scream-o version of Blue Moon and made him want to kick something.
Amu smiled like a stupid flirty teenager. "Hi, Ty."
Ty grinned, obviously loving the attention he was getting. "So what's this I hear about you working at a club? I didn't see that on your résumé." Amu started giggling like an idiot, and Kuukai wondered what happened to her brain a second ago while she twirled her pink hair like she was in an 80's high school film.
"She was a waitress," Kuukai said, rolling his green eyes at the two idiots inches away from sucking each others faces off. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Tee."
"It's Ty," the idiot boy said, glaring at the strange kid who was insulting him. "You know, like the noodles, only spelled different." Amu sighed and shook her head, smiling at the special boy like he was a puppy who ripped up her slippers yet was so cute it was hard to care. Kuukai rolled his eyes, comparing the restaurant job with this new yogurt one, and couldn't decide which one had more terrible management.
"Who are you anyway?" Ty asked, giving Kukai a quick once-over ands started calculating if how long he could last in a fight with the athlete. Five seconds, possibly six. Seven, if he catches him by surprise.
"Do you seriously not remember?" Kuukai asked, wondering if that was even possible. It's kind of hard to forget about the guy who had his bad relationship publicly announced to a crowd full of people and then had a spaz attack at the table right before knocking over the girl he was trying to flirt with at the very moment. Then again, the musician did act a bit wasted last night as he screwed up the notes during the chorus of Heartful Song.
Ty scoffed. "No. Should I?" he asked, puffing up his chest, which looked incredibly ridiculous considering how lanky the kid was, and how even Amu could take him on if she ever decided to stop starting at him with hearts in her eyes.
"I'm her appointed body guard, and a black belt in MMA." Ty paused for a moment, trying to process all of that information into his tiny brain, yet was having difficulty remembering why he was talking to an mixed martial arts fighter in the first place.
"Um, yeah." Ty shook his, as though trying to shake off his dazed expression. "Amu, we don't open till eleven today, so go…organize the fruit toppings."
Amu smiled and gave her new manager a salute. "Roger that, captain." Kuukai just stared at her. "What?" she asked after her assistant manager left to go "inspect the yogurt" or something.
"That was incredibly lame. I'm pretty sure you turned him off right then and there."
Amu glared at him, and started to put little tongs in the fruit piles for any customers that wanted her to put fruit on their yogurt. "I'm not interested in him. He's just a cute guy who was nice enough to get me a job after you and your 'date' got me fired from my last one."
Kuukai frowned. He was just starting to forget about that night. "I was embarrassed and practically tortured with your boyfriend's impeccable taste of music last night, and you certainly weren't any help."
Amu sighed, and gave her friend an apologetic look. "I know, and I'm sorry. I was… I just wanted to help you out, I swear."
"I know."
"I wish you would just stop pouting forgive me," Amu groaned, starting to sound more and more like Yaya. "Would some apology yogurt make things better?"
"Key lime with chocolate sprinkles, please." Kuukai grinned. "Oh, and you're forgiven. Sorry about your last job, by the way."
Amu snorted unattractively as she filled one of the small yogurt cups with key lime-flavored yogurt. "I should thank you. The manager was a nightmare, and besides," she smiled at him, "the music was terrible."
"Tell me about it," he said as Amu poured some sprinkles for her friend. "Add some chocolate sauce while you're at it." As soon as she finished and handed him the treat, he asked, "What ever happened to Yaya's friend's cousin's barber's nephew?" he said, recalling yet another one of Amu's failed relationships.
"The stage manager?" Amu asked, remembering. "He's the one that introduced me to Ty and the band, and got me my last job after I got fired from McDonald's for refusing to touch the fryer."
"Hmm." Kuukai took a spoonful of yogurt. "And Ikuto?" He could see Amu freeze up at the mention of him. "What does he think about you dating so many musicians?"
Amu scoffed. "Who cares what he thinks? He's not my dad." She began to organize and reorganize the bottles of assorted sauces. "And besides, I haven't heard from him in a while. He's too busy with…" She paused for a moment. "Too busy with his dad and…stuff."
" 'And stuff'? " Kuukai asked looking at her suspiciously.
"You know, his dad and mom and…stuff."
"By 'stuff' you mean his sister, right?" Kuukai asked, suddenly not in the mood to finish his apology yogurt. Amu shrugged and started to adjust her ponytail, running out of new ways to distract herself from the suddenly awkward tension that hung in their air. "She's living with Ikuto now, isn't she?" he asked, remembering the last conversation he had with his ex.
"Would you quit bringing that kind of stuff up? Thinking about him gives me a headache. Besides, I thought you wanted to forget about her. If I'm not allowed to bring up your ex you're not allowed to talk about what'shisface," she muttered, retying her apron. "We open in fifteen minutes and I don't get off until four. What are you doing until then, Romeo?"
"You know that really short blonde chick that moved to Seiyo right after I graduated?" he asked, twirling his spoon in his half-melted pool of yogurt and chocolate. "She asked me to take her out today for lunch at the place on Russell Lane."
Cue the Hinamori Glare. "You're going out with Rima? Are you joking?" If looks could kill, Kuukai would've been massacred in seconds. "It's barely been a day since you got out of your first serious relationship, your first relationship ever, and you're already dating two of my best friends."
"I never said I was dating her," Kuukai muttered, taking the last few bites of his yogurt.
"You're the definition of a man-whore."
"Look at the pot calling the kettle black. I barely know her. She just got out of a relationship with that other guy and said something about how 'miserable people need other miserable people,' or something like that."
Amu looked up, surprised. "What? She broke up with Kirishima? Since when did that happen?"
"Apparently he got this basketball scholarship from a school in Europe. They both decided it'd be best to move on since a successful long-distance relationship is nothing but a myth."
Amu frowned, looking genuinely upset. "They went out for a full year. I can't believe I didn't even know about this. When did she tell you?"
"Around the same time you and Ty were having phone-sex this morning." Amu replied with a glare. "When are you going to tell Ikuto about him being your -"
"Oh, look! We're about to open." Amu picked up Kuukai's finished yogurt cup and tossed in the trash. "I'm so sorry you have to leave because you're so busy cancelling plans with Rima, because you have to call what'shisface and get back together with his sister."
"I don't think so."
"It was worth a shot. I'll see you later."
"Like when? At your wedding with Ty?" Amu was about to chuck a plastic spoon at him until she remembered that she just lost her last job doing that. "I can imagine it: You'll say your vows at that rock-and-roll chapel they have in Vegas -"
"Goodbye," she growled, crushing the plastic spoon in her hand.
Kuukai grinned and put some spare change in the tip jar. "I'll tell Rima you said 'hi,' " he said as he strolled out of Yogurt Palooza.
"Be sure to mention that Nagihiko's single as well," Amu replied as she began counting the change.
But not you,
You still wear boots and your hair is too long.
And then this one doesn't want to admit she's fallen in love.
Oh c'mon, c'mon, what's a boy to do,
When all the pretty girls can't measure to you?
"Kirishima hated the hot chocolate," Rima muttered after Kuukai had ordered his drink. "We used to joke about how there was more hot water than chocolate in it. It was stupid, but we thought it was really funny at the time. I have no idea why."
Kuukai paused for a moment. "On second thought," he told the cashier, "I'll have grape juice instead." He handed the cashier the money for his juice, and when Rima made no move to pay for her hot tea, he paid for that, too.
Rima sighed, obviously taking another trip down memory lane. "Kirishima never paid for me. He was so fair. He only paid for the dates that he set up. On everything else we split the bill."
"Well do you want to pay me back?" Kuukai asked warily, carefully walking on eggshells around the short blonde.
She just shrugged as she sat down at their table. "Well, you already paid for it. It would be rude if I demanded that you shouldn't pay for me, since it is your own choice after all." Kuukai just stared at her, wondering how the former Queen managed to swindle him for a free drink. "And shouldn't the man pay for the first date, anyway?"
Kuukai frowned, knowing that if his girlfriend… ex-girlfriend were here, she would've gotten into a heated debate about feminism and sexism and a whole bunch of other topics with "-ism" at the end.
"That's kind of old-fashioned thinking, isn't it? I mean, it doesn't really matter who pays for it in the end. Whenever I went out on dates, the girl would usually just go Dutch."
"And that's why she broke up with you," Rima said coolly, then frowned. "I'm sorry, that's was rude."
"It was," Kuukai agreed, "but it's fine. I get where you're coming from."
"I mean -" Rima sighed as Kuukai prepared himself for a girl rant, "- we went out for a whole year, and we knew each other longer than that. Suddenly he's boarding a plan for the UK and I'm bawling my eyes out like a pathetic child, with fluids coming out of my eyes and nose and it's just such an ugly moment for me. He's leaving me and I can't do anything about it." She paused and took a deep breath. "I'm crying for God's sake and there are people passing by, asking, "Is that little girl okay?" but it's not okay because he's leaving and I can't do anything except cry like a stupid little girl!" Rima let out a wail and hit her forehead
against the table in agony.
The waitress stood beside them for a few seconds right before slowly placing their drinks on the table, watching Rima in case she needed to get someone to deal with her. Apparently she had never dealt with a short, bipolar girl before. "Is she going to be alright?" she whispered to Kuukai when Rima refused to get back up.
"I…think." The waitress nodded slowly and walked away, looking over her shoulder several times in case Rima decided to go crazy again and pull a gun on everyone.
"I just don't understand it," Rima whimpered after she calmed down and had her tea. "You were in a relationship way longer than I was and yet you seem to be taking it quite well."
"How do you even know about that?" Kuukai asked her. "Is my public life being broadcasted to all of Japan and I'm not realizing it? Am I on some stupid reality show?" He inspected his straw. "Is there a hidden camera in here?"
Rima rolled her large amber-brown eyes at him. "Amu told Yaya and Yaya told me. Not that hard to figure out."
Of course, Kuukai thought to himself. "Speaking of which, Amu says 'hi,' and that you should date Nagihiko because he's single as well."
Rima frowned in distaste, wondering when her best friend developed such a terrible sense of humor.
"What, did his boyfriend dump him, too?"
Kuukai frowned back. "Yeah, I don't think this is going to work out." Before the blonde could continue insulting his friends or cry again, he rushed out of the restaurant, reminding himself to call Amu and tell her to get new, non-homophobic friends.
I don't understand your reasons.
Please just stay over for the weekend.
You can't take all those things.
They define you and me,
Everything we've become,
You're all that I need.
Please don't make me face my generation alone.
"You need to stop whoring around and man up."
Kuukai just stared at the blue-haired man in his apartment. "How did you get in here? And what do you mean 'stop whoring around'? I've dated like two girls in my entire life, whereas Amu's been with fifty different musicians!"
Ikuto ignored that second part and helped himself to more of Kuukai's cereal. "It wasn't that hard to break in. After all, who do you think taught Amu how to pick locks?"
"Amu knows how to pick locks?" Ikuto rolled his eyes while Kuukai continued to stare at him in shock. "Wait a minute, you picked my lock and broke into my house just so that you can convince me to get back together with your sister?"
"I just told you that didn't I? Stop repeating things for emphasis, that's so 90s." Ikuto scoffed and continued to scrape the last few bits of cereal robotically. "I have no idea what my sister sees in you."
"She broke up with me. Even if I wanted to get back together with her, which I don't because she's an insensitive brat, I couldn't do so without looking desperate and needy."
"Any guy who goes out with all of his ex's friends is desperate and needy." Ikuto tried to eat more cereal but his spoon came out empty. He looked into the bowl, wondering where all the cereal had gone. "Do you have any Lucky Charms?"
Kuukai snatched the bowl out of the man's hands and put it in the sink. "I'd be less worried about my relationship and more worried about yours."
Ikuto frowned, upset that he had no more cereal. "Why, is Amu getting married or something?"
"To a bass player in Vegas."
"A contrabass player?" Ikuto glared at the athlete in disbelief. "Not her type."
"A bass guitar player, not the other one. He's in a scream-o band and the Assistant Manager at Yogurt Palooza," Kuukai told him, trying to hide his grin as he washed the cereal bowl. "You've got some tough competition."
"Yogurt Palooza? Who the hell would work at a place called 'Yogurt Palooza'?"
"A certain pink-haired, bass-playing-dater is the official topping dispenser there." Ikuto froze. "It's on 116th Street."
"Call my sister," Ikuto said as he rushed out the door of the apartment, accidentally-on-purpose leaving his cell phone on the counter, leaving Kuukai with the responsibility of returning it to him.
All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
Let it be, and come to me with the look in your eyes.
Will you break and take all the words from my mouth?
I wish all the pretty girls were shaking me down.
"I hate my life," Kuukai muttered as he glared at the phone in his hand. He never actually expected to come over to his ex's bother's apartment complex and be forced to converse with her. He tried going to Yogurt Palooza, but he'd lost the violinist when Amu had grumbled something about him getting her fired and ruining things between her and the bass player. She refused to go return Ikuto's phone for him but didn't hesitate giving Kuukai the address to his house downtown.
Slowly, he started knocking on the door. It was incredibly unlikely that Ikuto would be hanging around his house late Satuday afternoon. The musician had a terrible case of cabin fever and only went home to sleep, according to Amu. So, either he'd get a rare chance to see Ikuto greeting the door or be face-to-face with a perfectly bratty blonde, who'd put him in his place the second she opened the door.
He got neither.
He had imagined what it would be like when he faced his ex again for the first time. Fantasy number one involved her dating an incredibly rich and perfect guy and snubbing him as she showed off her new beau, whereas he was forever alone. Fantasy number two involved him making out with Megan Fox while his ex watched on by, forever alone while begging on her knees that he'd take her back. Fantasy number three was sort of the same, except she got into a cat-fight with Megan Fox instead and shirts were torn off.
He didn't expect the spitfire that he used to date open the door, stand right in front of him and be completely speechless for once in her life.
He did, however, know that he'd be a blubbering idiot no matter what the scenario was.
"Uh… I… Phone," He held up the phone and she took it from him silently. She opened her mouth a few times, as though she wanted to say something, but ended up quickly shutting it again. She probably expected him to say something first, since he was the one that decided to bang on her door and was still standing there like a douche. "Well, uh, bye!" he tried to say, but it came out as something like "Whu-biyee!" and then he turned around and slowly trudged down the hall, hoping that some lame-ass rom-com moment would happen and she'd rush out the door and call out his name, begging for him to come and take her right then and there.
She slowly shut the door and he could hear her take two steps away from the door through the paper-thin walls.
He was such an idiot.
Seeing her again, in the flesh, with her hair still messy yet neat somehow and put up in the same style it always was and with her eyes still wide and bright and her hands still so slender and her nose still whistling whenever she would breathe -
If she had said something instead of standing there strangely quiet and out of character, then he wasn't sure what he would've done.
Right before making his way down a flight of stairs (He was feeling too pathetic to realize that he was on the third level and used the elevator to get up), he heard the loud, unmistakable voice of his (ex) beloved screeching through the paper-thin walls.
"I'm such an IDIOT!"
It was so faint that he almost thought he imagined her shrill voice uncharacteristically screaming at nothing. But it wasn't and he knew it, and he wasn't thinking at all when he ran back down the hall and banged on her door, sweeping her in his arms the second she opened it and kissed her as though he were in a terrible Hollywood chick flick and doing something like kissing his ex was completely sanctioned.
SMACK
Okay, so maybe not.
But not you,
I feel your faith is destroying the world.
And then this one never really understood
The 80s is over and done.
Oh c'mon, what's a boy to do,
when all the pretty girls can't measure to you?
"I do the most romantic thing ever and you hit me," Kuukai groaned as he held the ice packet up to his swollen cheek. "It was straight out of a rom-com. Matthew McConaughey would take off his shirt for that because it was just so cheesy and stupid. I kiss you out of nowhere, which is something that you used to love, as I recall, and you attempt to break my jaw just as I was getting into the moment. Where did you learn to hit like that?"
The perfect angel who had almost knocked all his teeth just a few moments ago sat across from him with her face in her hands. "I am so sorry. I don't know what happened, I was just caught by surprise and I've started taking self-defense classes and I just hit you on instinct even though I have no idea why, because it's not like I disliked kissing you…" She stopped rambling as her voice trailed off mid-snetence. She looked up at him, her face flushing pink, something that rarely ever happened, and only seemed to happen whenever she was sharing something personal with him. "…And I think I'll stop talking now."
This wasn't fair. This wasn't supposed to happen. His life wasn't supposed to suddenly turn into some terribly clichéd and depressing romance. He was supposed to move on from his ex, not come rushing back to her. He was supposed to date Megan Fox and millions of other girls and not kiss the girl that took his heart and crushed it into ten million pieces without batting an eye. She was a cruel, cruel bitch and insensitive and he hated everything about her.
She talked too much and didn't know when to stop. She would get her point across and voice her thoughts, even if it meant people would criticize her. She didn't care what people thought, and he hated that because her big mouth often lead to people say things that were just plain mean to her, and yet at the same time he loved it because she never gave a damn about what a random critic said.
She was a bitch. A cold-hearted bitch who demanded that he take her seriously and go out with her, and then took everything back and broke his heart. She was a terrible person for making him start to like her again, because he knew that she was going to just play with him and hurt him again.
There were a million other girls just like her. Rima was a bitch, a refined bitch who knew she was a bitch and didn't care if you knew it, too. Yaya also talked to much, and that big mouth of hers got her into more trouble than she could handle but she always managed to pull through in the end. Even Amu spoke her mind when she felt like she needed to, and she would stand up for what she believed in even if people would question her morals and hate on her. He could live without her. He could move on. He could…
"I've missed you," she whispered, and all of a sudden Kuukai forgot everything that was going on in his head and redirected his attention on the blonde seraph sitting beside him with her head down and her ears turning pink. "I missed you so damn much and it's so pathetic because I'm the one who made the stupid decision of letting you go, even though I never could imagine myself without you, which sounds even more pathetic now that I'm saying it out loud -"
"Just…" Kuukai forgot everything he was going to say the second she looked at him again. "Just shut up, Utau."
And he kissed her.
And like she should've done before, she kissed him back.
And even though this wasn't how it was supposed to happen, it did. And even though it was a totally screwed up way of getting back together, they didn't care. It wasn't straight out of a fairytale or a teen's favorite romance movie. It had to be the most absolutely imperfect way of getting back together (Matthew McConaughey would be so disappointed that his shirt would stay on), but they were never the perfect couple in the first place. They were perfectly imperfect, and no other pretty girl could replace what he had with her.
All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
All the pretty girls on a Saturday night.
A/N: I think this is the first fic I wrote that's written from Kuukai's POV. I think this is the first legit KuuTau fic that I finished, so hooray for that.
Songfics are hellish and I hate writing them, but it's so addicting that I can't stop.
Anyways, thoughts?