A/N: Since Unseal is almost finished and I'm listening to the song that inspired this, I thought 'fuck it, I wanna write'. So here we go, my new fic that is intended to be only five chapters. This came into being when I was listening to a song that I really liked, but I don't know the title so I can't really recommend it. It's on my profile, so if you wanna hear it, the title's up there. This was mostly because of the picture, though, so not much will be in relation to the lyrics. Hence the title, but that'll come into effect later.

Underground Rainbow

Chapter 1: The festival

The skies were gloomy, the sounds of pouring rain echoing through the silent club room. While practice had been cancelled due to the rain, the team really had nothing better to do, and none of them were willing to go back out into the rain, thus deciding to wait for the storm to pass.

Hiyoshi sighed, his arms growing cold from where they lay folded across the windowsill. Choutarou glanced curiously at him, but returned to his book. The rain always made his friend depressed, so he wasn't surprised to hear another sigh. The shorter boy suddenly straightened out his back, looking out curiously.

"The rains really comin' down." He mumbled, if only to keep the others from overhearing.

"Mm." Choutarou hummed, flipping the pages of his book. He looked up to see Gakuto and Shishido arguing over their board game, Jirou falling asleep between them. Oshitari was helping Atobe with paperwork, while Kabaji worked on the math assignment he recognized from class.

"It's really gloomy and stuff." His friend continued, oddly enough.

"Mm."

"Doesn't look like it's gonna let up soon."

"Mm."

"I can see the flag."

At this, Choutarou turned to look out with him, noticing the red flag high in the air, untouched by the rain. He smiled.

"It's almost time, huh." He said, a little too loud for Hiyoshi's liking. The shorter boy held a finger to his lips with furrowed brows, signalling to lower his voice, but the damage had been done. Far too soon for Choutarou to cover his mouth.

"Almost time for what?" Shishido asked, looking at their two kohai. Hiyoshi ignored the question, opting to stare out the window at the flowing red cloth. Choutarou looked between them, leaning on his friend's shoulder.

"It's nothing, Shishido-sempai." He smiled. Shishido raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anymore. Gakuto, however, felt the need to pry into his younger teammate's buisiness once again, and pounced on both light-haired boys.

"You guys keeping secrets from your sempai?" He asked jokingly, arms around their necks. While it was meant to be a joke, both boy stiffened and stayed quiet, not making eye contact. "Wait, seriously?"

At this, Atobe looked up. "Your not allowed to keep secrets, it's a team rule." Hiyoshi raised an eyebrow.

"Since when?"

"Since now."

The younger boy grumbled something inaudible. The silver-haired captain turned his attention to Choutarou, who had managed to detach his sempai's arms from around their neck. He looked between his captain and his friend, before tapping Hiyoshi on the shoulder when Gakuto got up. The shorter boy leaned in.

"They never said we couldn't tell anyone, it won't hurt to at least say something." He whispered. Hiyoshi thought it over.

"Fine," He mumbled. "But watch what you say, or this could end badly."

Choutarou nodded, turning to the others, who were watching them curiously.

"Well, how do I say this." He started, rubbing the back of his neck. "There's, uh, this festival every year that we go to, to 'help out' with one of the stalls. It's only for a week, but it's always at random when it happens."

"A festival?" Jirou said, his interest rising with every word. Choutarou nodded.

"We went through a lot of trouble to get a stall there, but it's pretty popular." Hiyoshi said, closing his eyes and falling back onto Choutarou's lap. "There are a lot of... people... in costumes there, too." He paused at the 'people' part, but no one seemed to notice. The team showed lots of interest in their apparent line of work, and if he knew them well enough...

"Can we go?" Jirou perked up, dropping his cards onto the floor. His eyes shone with glee and he was sure if it was anyone else, he'd have knocked them over the head. The others seemed to have the same question in mind, by the looks in their eyes.

Hiyoshi and Choutaoru exchanged worried looks. Should they? It wasn't exactly a... 'normal' festival, and they weren't sure how the other guests and stall owners would react to them.

"...We'll ask permission. Today's the first day, so it'll be really busy. Can you wait til tomorrow?" Hiyoshi said carefully. He was well aware of the danger he could be putting them in, but by the look in Choutarou's eye, he could tell his friend wanted the team there too.

After all, it was pretty fun.

xXxXxXx

Hiyoshi grunted as he lifted himself onto the back of Choutarou's bike. He held the umbrella above their heads, shielding them from the rain. Choutarou looked over his shoulder at him.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" He asked. It was quite a surprise to hear his friend make such a suggestion back at the club house, but he was happy none the less. It simply meant he was opening up to them more.

"I think." He said, adjusting when Choutarou began to pedal. "I mean, you saw the looks on their faces, and I don't think the Boss will mind if we bring some guests."

Choutarou hummed. "I guess your right, but we gotta be careful. Remember our first time there?" Hiyoshi laughed.

"How could I forget. We're just lucky we made it home. How many years has it been since we started going there?"

"Six." Choutarou said with a laugh. Hiyoshi leaned back, their backs pressed together.

"And how many since we got a stall?"

"Five."

"To think that they're already so used to seeing us." He said, his hand clutching the umbrella a bit tighter, his other arm around a cloth bag.

The bike came to a stop at the entrance to a shrine. Both boys dismounted, Choutarou moving the bike behind a signpost, wrapping the chain around and slipping a lock on. They walked in silence through the trees near the shrine, backs staright and faces blank. They stopped at a large cave entrance, staring up at the sign that hung over head.

"... Like they couldn't make it any less obvious." Hiyoshi sighed, shaking his head. The sign bluntly read 'festival area'. The only thing that kept them there were the dancing lights in the distance. He looked up at his taller friend.

"Ready?"

xXxXxXx

The only thing that distracted him from the overbearing stares he recieved was the thoughts that kept running through his head, thoughts of how to go about asking their Boss to let their team into the grounds. While it wasn't difficult to get in via cave entrance, it certainly was dangerous. Any unskilled or inexperianced person would find they've lost their way home if they blindly followed the lights in the back of the cave. Not only would they be lost, they'd be perfect game for any wandering spirits or guests.

Hiyoshi shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind, intending to focus on arranging to stall to his liking. Colored boxes were strewn across the floor, atop the shelves and stacked on top of tables. It was a wonder this ammount of items fit into their tiny tent as it was, but he had no time to ponder the possibilities. They had less than thirty minutes to get prepared before starting buisiness, and god knows they didn't want to repeat the same mistakes twice.

Choutarou turned to him, reaching up and straightening out his mask. He nodded in thanks, running his index finger over the half-fox face he wore. The sharp porcelain edges cut into his skin, drawing blood. The mask was obviously broken, having suffered a blow to the front that left it's wearer with many scars for quite a while. One mistake he vowed never to repeat.

Using the blood dripping off his finger, he drew familiar characters onto the cover of each box, making sure every line, every circle, every strange shape was to his liking. The shuffling in the back told him Choutarou had finished setting up the front, all that was left was to finish the boxes and they could open up. He heard Choutarou hiss slightly as he joined the shorter boy, still not as used to the sting as his friend was. It was, after all, always his job to prepare the inventory. Hiyoshi looked up at the old, ticking clock to his left.

Thirteen minutes had past. Just in time.

Lining up the colored boxes at the counter, Hiyoshi watched as Choutarou pulled the curtains open.

xXxXxXx

"You want to invite your friends?"

Hiyoshi saw Choutarou nod out of the corner of his eye. Despite it initially being his idea, the thought of him asking their boss would have seem a little out of character to her, which would have been a bad thing. After all, they needed to stay 'in character' as she always told them.

He watched as the women seemed to think it over, examining her features carefully. It had been a year since they last saw her, and somehow he always seemed to forget how she looked. She was a tall lady, at least a head taller than him(he didn't want to admit he sometimes felt a little short around her, but he blamed it on genes) with long, silvery-white hair, tied up into a high ponytail. She wore a pure black yukata, to 'get into the festival spirit' as she so bluntly put it the previous year. Her eyes were still the same green he remembered, bright and shining, but just as cold as the rain outside.

She watched them carefully, eyes roaming about them, before bursting out in laughter, causing both boys to jump.

"Sure, go ahead." She said once she had calmed down. They both let out relieved sighs, shoulders slumping. "However," She started darkly. "they're your responsibility. Anything happens , it's not my problem. I'll give you as many masks as you need, just don't break them. And write them in your own blood, mine won't work on 'foreigners'." At that moment, an assortment of white masks appeared before them, their's to pick from. Choutarou swallowed.

"Um, is it really alright?" He asked, eyes scanning over every mask. Memories of their fist time choosing came flooding back from the depths of his mind, causing his heart beat to quicken. She looked back at them.

"Sure, who knows, they may just attract more customers." She laughed. Slightly put off that his friends seemed to be treated as bait, Hiyoshi opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it.

In character, in character... He thought, taking a deep breath. Upon opening his eyes, a certain mask caught his attention, and he had to fight back a smile.

"We can pick from any of these, right?" He asked, staring at the white item in front of him. She nodded again, taking a sip of the sake she had them pick up from the stalls. Choutarou gave him a look as he picked it up, a grin on his lips.

After a few minutes of choice, the sound of rain stopped, and the two immediately stood up, masks stacked in their arms.

"Okay boys, festival times over." Their Boss said, standing up and pushing them out the door. "Oh, and one word of advice, Hiyoshi." He turned around, Choutarou waiting by the door to the large room. She smiled.

"Don't let them end up like you."

xXxXxXx

A/N: So there it is, hopefully while writing this I'll be able to figure out the next chapter of Unseal. Ugghh, the most important chapter and I can't write it. But yeah, for those of you waiting for the next chapter, not gonna happen any time soon. Just wish me luck and hope i can work something out. Luckily, this is relatively easy to write, only being five chapters. I'm also gonna try to do another extra for On the Other Side soon, so look out for that.

I'm gonna try to make the other chapters a bit longer, since there's a lot I wanna put here.