Working late all those nights had paid off. Shuuhei was able to buy a huge ring. One he knew Rangiku would like. She hadn't been happy that he had been working so late all the time. Shuuhei hadn't liked it either. Between his job and her, he rarely had time to play his guitar. When he did manage to find time, Rangiku interrupted him. The new editor position was quieting down, and he thought he could find the time for both his music and her.

He walked into the apartment he shared with her. There were some things he needed to prepare before she got home, and he had taken off early. She would be surprised, and he couldn't imagine her saying no. In fact, he could hear her saying yes.

Shuuhei walked back to the bedroom. The screams he heard were getting louder. The scene he saw when he got to their bedroom was not what he was expecting. A naked Rangiku lay on their bed, her strawberry blond hair falling over the side. There was a redheaded man with tribal tattoos that lay on top of her, and it was obvious to Shuuhei what they were doing. He cursed.

Rangiku leaned her head back and looked at him, her eyes wide. "Shuuhei!"

He said nothing as he walked out of the apartment.

...

Shuuhei sat with his friend, Kira, at a bar and told him what he had seen.

"That's low man," Kira said as he drank his beer.

"Yeah. So you can see why I need a place to stay."

"You can crash at my place for a while."

"Thanks."

"When are you going to go get your stuff?"

"Tomorrow. While she's at work."

"Need some help?"

"No. Thanks anyway."

...

Shuuhei packed quickly. He didn't want to be here when she came back. Right now, he'd be happy if he never saw her again.

However, that was not what Rangiku wanted. "Shuuhei, I'm sorry," she said quietly as she watched him pull his clothes out of their closet.

"So am I, Ran. Sorry I didn't see this sooner. Out of all the people, you pick my best friend?"

"You've been working a lot. I was lonely. Renji came over a few times for dinner and..."

"Working that much wasn't my idea, but things were left in disarray. I had to sort it all out. I'm still not done. I should be there now."

"Go to work, Shuuhei. We can talk tonight when you get home."

"I'm not coming here tonight. Or ever. I'll leave my key on the table when I'm done."

A tear fell down her cheek. "Shuuhei, I love you."

"Having sex with another man is a strange way to show it."

She walked over to him and put her hand on his cheek. One thing she loved about Shuuhei was how handsome he was. He didn't have tattoos like Renji. "It was just sex, Shuuhei. Nothing more, and nothing like what we have."

Shuuhei brushed her hand away. "We have nothing now."

"You aren't going to try and work this out?"

"Ran, there is nothing to work out. I'm not interested in spending my days wondering if you're with someone else or wondering if you lied to me."

"I never lied to you, Shuuhei."

"You just never mentioned that you and Renji..." It was a sentence he couldn't complete. Shuuhei picked up the box and carried it into the front room. There were several piled up along with his guitar. He ran a hand over the case. This would be his only love now. He didn't need a relationship to be happy.

...

Shuuhei spent several nights a week at a bar with or without Kira. It had been the night he was out alone that had been the worst. He had been drowning his sorrows in his beer when a woman came up and sat down next to him. She gave him a show, but Shuuhei wasn't interested. There were other men in the bar, and they were not pleased that he was ignoring her. Four of them decided to teach Shuuhei a lesson. Luckily, the bartender stepped in before things got too bad. Shuuhei was bleeding. The cuts on his face burned. Kensei, the bartender wouldn't let him leave. He took Shuuhei's phone and called Kira who came to pick up Shuuhei.

"Man, those are not going to be pretty," Kira said when he got Shuuhei home.

"That girl was ugly, and she was trying to get me to sleep with her."

"You are a warrior, Hisagi. You took on four guys at once."

Shuuhei grinned, dropped on to the couch and fell asleep. Kira looked at him. The cuts down his face would scar. He probably should have taken his friend to a hospital, but Shuuhei was in no condition to go anywhere. With a sigh, Kira tended to the wounds as best he could.

When Shuuhei woke the next day, he tried to remember why the whole right side of his face hurt. Getting up, he walked into the bathroom and stared at his reflection in the mirror. Three lines ran down his face. He tried to remember what he had done to provoke the men who fought him, but he could only remember Kensei breaking up the fight.

"Kira!" Shuuhei shouted as he walked into his friend's room.

"What's wrong?"

"I want to get a tattoo."

...

It had been a month since the bar fight. Shuuhei had gotten a 69 tattoo on his cheek like the one he had seen on Kensei. Kira had called him a warrior, and Shuuhei had also gotten a blue strip above the 69. He had wanted it to go all the way across his face but the tattoo artist couldn't tattoo over the wounds or the scars they would become. The blue line stopped just past the bridge of his nose.

"Hisagi-san, I'm tired of drinking inside. I wanna go out," Kira said.

"Go. I'm not stopping you." Shuuhei strummed the strings of his guitar.

"Come on, it's time to move on." Kira threw a shirt at Shuuhei. "It's a great time to live, and it's time to stand up and pick up a woman."

"I'm done with women."

Kira sighed. "I'll buy."

"Fine." Shuuhei put on the shirt Kira had thrown him over top his muscle shirt. "Let's go."

As he sat at the bar an hour later, he had a couple of phone numbers in his pocket. Not that he was intending to call them. Shuuhei wasn't a one-night stand kind of man, and he wasn't interested in starting a relationship. His phone rang, and Shuuhei grinned at the caller ID. It was a voice from the past that he hadn't heard in a long time.

There was no greeting. "Do you still play?" the frantic voice asked.

"What?"

"The guitar, Shuuhei. Do you still play?"

"Yeah. What's up, Yumi?"

"It's Iba. He got into another fight. There are talks of him getting fired. We can't be a band with only three people. We need a guitarist."

Shuuhei grinned. His friends Yumi and Ikkaku had moved to a different city to be in a band, and they had found band mates there. "I can fill in for a while if you need me to."

"As long as 'a while' to you means permanently, that's fine."

Shuuhei thought a moment. He had already resigned from the newspaper. The position didn't hold the same thrill it used to, and it had become more of a hassle to get his articles written. "When do you need me there?"

"Next week."

"Send me the address."

"Sure thing. See you soon, Shuuhei."

...

Yumi answered his phone. "You better not be calling to say you can't make it."

Shuuhei laughed. "Actually, I was calling to say I was here a couple of days early."

"That was fast, Shuuhei."

"Yeah. Do you want to get some dinner so you can fill me in on what's going on?"

"Sure." Yumi rattled off the name and location of a restaurant.

It didn't take either of them long to meet there.

"It's good to see you, Yumi."

"Same here, Shuuhei. You didn't bring Rangiku with you?"

"We aren't together anymore. Haven't been for a few months."

"What happened?"

"I came home one day to find her in bed with Renji. I'm an idiot for not seeing it sooner. I was actually going to propose to her."

"I'm sorry, Shuuhei."

He shrugged. "You would have been proud of the ring I bought her."

"Let me see."

"Yumi, I sold it. I'm thinking of getting a motorcycle with the money."

"Must have been some ring." Yumi looked at his friend. "Tell me about the tattoos."

Shuuhei told him what he remembered of the fight. When the waitress came by to fill his beer again, Shuuhei declined. "I don't drink more than two. It keeps me out of trouble," he explained when Yumi gave him a look.

They talked for a long time, catching up with each other. Yumi filled Shuuhei in on what was happening with the band. They had started writing songs, and they had local gigs occasionally.

"We're meeting tomorrow night. Kana likes to meet once a week even if there isn't a gig. You should come."

"What's the situation with Iba?"

"Iba's leaving at the end of the week."

"Everyone else is ok with me taking Iba's place?"

"Kana wants to hear you play, but I don't think you'll disappoint her."

"Let's hope not."

...

Shuuhei met Yumi for a tour of the building the band rehearsed in. They put his guitar and Yumi's bass in their rehearsal room and walked through the hallways.

Kana's first glimpse of the man Yumi wanted to hire as their guitarist was from behind. He was taller than Yumi and wore jeans and a t-shirt on his lean frame. They were headed back to the rehearsal room with Kana not far behind them. She couldn't hear what they were talking about, but she could tell that Yumi was doing all of the talking. They walked into the room, and Kana hesitated outside the door. She really hoped this guitarist would work out for them. Iba's departure was not helping her reach her goal of a successful career. Taking a breath, she walked in and greeted Yumi.

"Kana, this is my friend, Shuuhei. He's the one I was telling you about. He'll be perfect."

Shuuhei shook Kana's hand and had the vague feeling like he had met her before. Her hair was pink and her eyes were violet. He was sure he would remember someone that looked like her. She was beautiful. Not that he was interested.

"Pleased to meet you," she said.

"What's that smell?" someone called from the door. Shuuhei turned and looked at him. "Stinky Shoes!"

"You still don't have a better one than that, Baldy?"

Ikkaku's mouth dropped. "I am not bald!"

"Right." Shuuhei muttered. Kana cleared her throat, and Shuuhei looked at her then down at her hand which was still held by his. "Sorry," he said as he let go of her hand.

"So you know Ikkaku and Yumi."

"We went to school together."

"I see." Kana saw more than most people would when they looked at Shuuhei. His scars and tattoos made you think he was a punk, but she saw warmth in his dark grey eyes. He was kind, friendly and maybe even a little cute. Not that she was interested. "You didn't come with them when they moved out here?"

"No. I was pursuing another career."

"Shuuhei was the editor of our hometown newspaper," Yumi bragged.

"I wasn't the editor for very long."

"You gave it up to come here?" Kana asked.

"Yumi asked me to come, and I was ready for a change." He didn't consider it running. He had said everything he'd needed to say to Rangiku when he had packed up his belongings. Shuuhei needed a change. His passion wasn't with the paper anymore.

"Despite what these two say about your skills, I'd like to hear you play.

"Of course." Shuuhei took his guitar out of its case. Kana noticed the case was plain. Most guitarists she knew had stickers on the outside of their cases and photos inside but not this man.

He played through a couple of songs she knew, but Kana also wanted to hear him sing. Iba hadn't been able to sing well.

"Will you sing something, Shuuhei?"

"Uh." He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Sure. Anything in particular?"

"Anything you like."

As he began to sing, Kana smiled. He sang well and could probably make it on his own if he took some voice lessons. She was also smiling because of the song he had chosen to sing. It was a classic that most people their age didn't know. She found it interesting that he had chosen a song that wasn't about love.

"Showoff," Yumi muttered.

"Shoe off," Ikkaku said.

"I like the classics," Shuuhei said in defense.

"I liked it," Kana said.

Shuuhei looked up at her. "Thank you."

"Welcome to Rolling Star."

...

"How's your new guitarist working out, Kana?" Nanao asked.

"He's great. I think he is perfect for us."

"Kyoraku asked me not to accept any gigs until you thought he'd be ready. How much longer do you think that will be?"

Kana shrugged. "Not long. Another week, maybe two." She finished chatting with her manager and walked down to the rehearsal room where Shuuhei was learning from Yumi. He had to learn so much, but Shuuhei never complained.

Standing in the doorway, she listened while he played. The music sounded better coming from him than it had when Iba played.

As they finished, Shuuhei looked over at Yumi. "I need a place to live. I'm tired of living in a hotel and out of boxes. I haven't had a real home in months."

"Shuuhei, you're my friend, and I like you, but I don't have roommates."

"I need a roommate," Kana said from the door. The men turned and stared at her. "Aki is getting married in a couple of days. You'd have your own bedroom and bathroom. The kitchen and living room would be shared, and there's a gym in my building."

Shuuhei gaped at her for a moment. "You barely know me."

"I barely knew her, and we turned out to be good friends."

"Okay then."

"Yumi knows where I live. You can stop by after you're done here," Kana said.

Shuuhei nodded, and she left them alone. He looked at Yumi. "I've never lived with a woman I wasn't dating."

Yumi shrugged. "How bad could it be?"