You touched my heart, you touched my soul.
You changed my life and all my goals.
Chapter 1: One Moment In Time
Haruka didn't know how long she had already sat on the bench when he dragged himself over to her. To sit down next to her looking as if he didn't want to get up again. Not very soon anyway. He slumped into the hard wood and breathed in a forced way, gasping hard for air. Ice cold air. Winter air.
Haruka raised her head and silently watched the snow fall. Little flakes sparkling like diamonds in the street lights danced all around them. Night was falling fast, but neither she nor the other one did move to stand up. She didn't want to. He obviously wasn't able to.
"…" Surely, he wanted to say something, maybe even to curse, but he didn't have enough breath to do so, didn't seem to have enough breath to do anything else than simply sitting there, crouching there, coughing there.
Slowly, Haruka turned her head and looked at the small person sitting next to her. He was not very tall which was no surprise for a Japanese. However, he seemed to be too small even for a teenager. A teenager he was, maybe 16, maybe 17. No adult yet, but still looking quite old for his age. Small but experienced. Experienced in pain.
He looked up and their eyes met. Her dark green eyes grew wide behind her sunglasses as she stared in light green ones. Then he slowly bowed his head again, pushed his blue cap deeper over his light hair. Maybe it was as blond as hers. She couldn't define it in the street light's orange shimmer. He seemed to shield away from her, to escape, although he was not strong enough to run away, to do anything else than sitting there next to her and breathing very hard.
Haruka was tempted to stand up and walk away. Simply walk away and pretend to have never seen him. To have never thought about him. To have never noticed him at all. She didn't want to get involved with other people, especially not today. But then she had looked into his eyes, had seen the pain and the silent plea there, had stared in eyes that had been so familiar. So cruelly familiar.
"Can I help you?"
She put her sunglasses away. Her own personal twilight had already settled into the real world; she didn't need them any longer.
"…" He shook his head and moved his lips, but no words escaped him. Instead he turned his head away, clearly blocking her out. A reaction she knew too well.
"You're not feeling well. Let me help you." Haruka glided over the fresh fallen snow nearer to him until their bodies almost touched on the ice cold wood. She could feel how he trembled. Obviously, his thick jacket couldn't warm him any longer.
Again the answer she received was a shook of his head, fainter this time, more slowly. He was losing strength. Suddenly, she was determined to help him. To get him out of the bitter cold. To be useful, at least this one time in her life, even if it was today of all days.
"Do you want me to take you home? Shall I get you a cab? Is there anyone I should call?" Haruka put a comforting hand on a small shoulder, felt the teenager stiffen, trying to get away from her. Trying but failing.
"…no…" was all he finally managed to gasp after several tries. Tears sparkled in his light green eyes, threatened to wet a ghostly pale face.
No?
Did he mean that he had nowhere to turn to? That there was no one to call, to search for him, to worry about him? Or did he really not want her to call someone, anyone, didn't want her to get involved?
Tough luck! Now you're stuck with me!
Haruka carefully touched his chin and forced him to look at her. His eyes were wide and glassy, staring right through her into nothing. She could feel his temperature right through her glove.
"You have a fever, little one." She whispered and made up her mind. Of course she didn't want to take care of him. Not today. Not any other day, but especially not today. On the other hand there was no way that she couldn't take care of him. He was a small boy and he needed her help. It was as simple as that. Even though he obviously disagreed, didn't want her help. He would get it anyway.
"Can you tell me where you live?" she tried again and again she didn't receive an answer. Therefore, she had no other choice.
Haruka took a deep breath before she finally rose. Then she leaned forward and gently took his arms to pull him up to her. He tried to defend himself, but he was too weak to be successful, so he couldn't stop her from literally carrying him away from the bench, not knowing where she would lead him.
"I'm Haruka and I live just around the corner." The tall blonde smiled comfortingly down at him, but he didn't feel any better. On the contrary, he felt worse with every moment, felt more tired and more exhausted. He only wanted to lay down and sleep. Simply sleep.
You just live around the corner! Live! Ha!
It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth, either. Haruka had booked a small room in an even smaller pension and she had paid the rent for only two weeks. Tomorrow this time would be over and she didn't even know why she had paid for this night in the first place. Twenty minutes ago she had thought that she wouldn't return to that sticky little room again.
However, only five crossings later she entered the small building, dragging the teenager behind her who had given up all resistance. Now he hang in her arms like a sandbag. But he was still gasping for breath and that was all that counted to her.
She pushed open the door while trying not to stumble over her boots as she kicked them into the corner. Then she threw the key on the ground and closed the door with her right foot. The teenage boy leaned all the while against the wardrobe and tried hard to breathe. Only to breathe and nothing more.
"Sorry that it's so messy. I didn't have time to tidy up."
Never had intended to ever tidy up that mess at all.
She gave him a goofy grin, but didn't expect any reaction anyway. Therefore, she carefully took his arms again and guided him over old newspapers and used clothes lying on the ground towards her bed. It wasn't very big nor did it look very comfortable. She hadn't slept in it at all. But now it came indeed in handy: its thick mattress and its warm blankets. Gently, Haruka pushed her guest down on the bed and took off his jacket and his boots. He wore a pale blue suit. An extremely expensive looking suit. Very unusual for a teenager. She had expected worn out jeans and a crumbled pullover, just the way she had looked only 5 years ago. An eternity ago. He, however, looked more like he came from a wedding. Or from a funeral judging his gloomy stare.
Haruka blinked and concentrated on the task before her. She had other problems than wondering about his clothes. Her major task was to keep him warm and call a doctor. As she reached for his dark blue cap he came up with the rest of its strength and grabbed her wrists to hold her back. Panic was plainly written all over his white face and he obviously didn't want her to have his cap. However, he was too ill and she too healthy, therefore the struggle was a short one.
"…no…" mouthed the teenager and some tears ran over his hollow cheeks. He bowed and closed his eyes, not seeing how hers grew wide. How she went on her knees in front of the small bed. How she shook her head in disbelieve. How she stretched out her suddenly trembling hand. How she wanted to reach him, to touch him, to feel that he was real, but couldn't. Simply couldn't, because she knew that it was only an illusion. A coincidence. A cruel trick of an even crueller fate.
That it could only have happened today. On a day like today. On a day on the edge.
Especially today.
Get a grip!
Haruka gulped and forced herself to stand up again. Her treacherous hands still trembled as she stroked gently through silver strands, feeling his fever that brought her back to her senses.
"You just lay back and I'll bring you something to drink. Hai?" she whispered and smiled a shaky smile as he looked up. This time his eyes were full with surprise and doubt. And finally resignation. He didn't have enough strength left to care any longer. Therefore, he let her push him gently into soft pillows, let her cover him with a warm blanket that felt so much nicer than the bench's hard wood.
Only seconds later she was back, holding a glass with nicely cold water in her hands. She helped him to drink, soothed him as he had to cough, wiped away the spilled water without complaining. His eyes felt so tired and he laid back and sunk into a deep darkness, still hearing her moving around, feeling something cold being pressed against his burning forehead moments later.
He knew that he had to tell her his name. Obviously, she hadn't recognized him. Maybe she didn't like pop music, maybe she didn't even listen to any music at all. However, he felt strangely safe and secure. She wasn't a reporter selling his story to a stupid magazine. She wasn't a sick fan kidnapping him. It seemed like she was just an ordinary woman extraordinarily helping him. Yes, he should tell her his name. As he should tell her to get his mobile phone from his jacket and call his brother. There was only one number on his mobile and it was linked directly to his oldest brother. Just in case. Just in a case like this. Only that he didn't have enough strength to call him lest alone tell a total stranger who he was and how to reach his family.
He tried it, nevertheless. Tried and failed. Again.
"Hush. It's okay. I'll call a doctor and soon you'll be fine again."
Haruka changed the wet flannel and then went to hunt down her own mobile. Of course she owned one of those pesky little bleeping things, but there had been no one to call during the past couple of months, therefore, it had started to get lost at every opportunity. Feeling embarrassed, she stroked through her short blond hair and chewed on her lower lip while she looked around. Just as she decided against her better judgement to tidy up in order to find it did a strange melody evolve in her room's silence. She needed some time to understand that it surely wasn't her mobile that was calling out to her. Haruka had never changed her first ring tone. Looking around in confusion, she followed the persistent sound which lead her to her patient's winter jacket. Briefly, she hesitated, but then grabbed into its pocket and pulled a tiny, very modern mobile phone out. Right at that moment it stopped and Haruka already wanted to kick herself for not having been faster as it started again.
"Moshi moshi?" she said after some very awkward attempts to open it.
"Who's there?"
The voice on the other end of the line belonged to a man. He was apparently not pleased to hear her. To be honest she wasn't, either. Whoever he was, he should have been by her patient's side and not far away, only calling on a stupid mobile where he wouldn't have been able to help anyway.
"Haruka."
"Who?"
"Do you happen to know a teenager with silver hair and a really bad cold?"
"Yaten?"
Now she finally could put a name to her ill stranger, although that didn't help her much.
"What have you done…"
"Calm down! I'll give you my address and you can come over if you care. Then I'll hang up and call a doctor. Is that clear?"
It was clear.
They arrived even before she had finished dialling for an ambulance.
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"Yaten?"
They didn't greet her, didn't really acknowledge her when they rushed into her tiny room. They were older than her patient and she had no idea who they were. But all she needed to see was the fear in their eyes when they spotted the pale teenager in her bed.
"Fuck, Tahiki, he's practically burning!" Cursed the one with the long black hair and sat down on her thick mattress to carefully touch a pale face. "Why did you have to leave our rooms, baka?"
"Maybe because you blamed him for cancelling our concert yesterday and he didn't want to tell you that he wasn't feeling any better." The other man's voice wasn't angry, but Haruka saw that he wasn't happy, either.
"But Michiru-san already agreed to play some more solos so that our concert's covered tonight."
The one called Tahiki gently but persistently pushed the other one from the bed and leaned over Haruka's hard breathing teenager. She didn't trust the dark haired guy one bit, but she felt that Tahiki wouldn't hurt her patient. He was strong and he was in control. Obviously, he knew what he was doing.
"Maybe you should consider your words better in the future, Sejya." Tahiki glanced meaningfully at Sejya. "He may not show it, but you can hurt him easily, especially you."
Sejya's face turned red, then white. Then he looked away.
"… niichan…" whispered Haruka's patient while she stood strangely detached in front of her wardrobe. Tahiki gently took the teenager in his strong arms, together with her blanket. However, she didn't mind. She hadn't used that blanket and she surely wouldn't start tonight. If it warmed her patient they could keep it.
"Everything's okay. We're here, Yaten. We'll take you home." Smiled Tahiki and walked out of the small room without a second glance at Haruka. She knew that he didn't do it on purpose. His mind was simply centred on the hard breathing teenager in his arms. She could forgive him. However, she couldn't let the other one escape that easily. Just as Sejya wanted to ignore her, as well, she grabbed his right arm and held him back.
"Who the hell are you?"
He stared at her blankly for a moment, before he pulled himself free. He opened his mouth for several times and closed it without actually forming a word. He looked extremely like a dumb fish in an aquarium, staring at her through thick glass without really seeing her.
"His brothers." He finally managed and shook his head in disbelieve, although Haruka couldn't quite define what was so disbelieving about this situation. Maybe it was his own stupidity.
"Then you should take better care of him."
"Yeah…" he muttered, although he had wanted to shout at her to mind her own business at the first moment. But then he remembered that she had saved Yaten and therefore it had been her business, as well. "Yeah…" Sejya still felt too stunned about the fact that she hadn't recognized them to be able to form a more intelligent sentence, any proper sentence at all. He was too surprised that she didn't know who they were. That she wouldn't tell the press all about this so that they could read it in all its glory the coming morning.
We should thank her.
"Arigatou." He felt stupid and she looked stupid. Well, not exactly stupid, more dumfounded as if she hadn't expected his gratitude. Before the entire situation could get even more embarrassing and before Tahiki's cab would drive away without him, he reached into his cloak and pushed some sheets of paper into her hand. Then he turned around and ran down the stairs as fast as he could, never looking back.
Haruka frowned and closed the door. Turned around. Leaned against it. Only then did she look down to the crumbled paper in her hand. She had expected to see notes there. Maybe some thousand yen. Money she didn't need, didn't want. However, the strange trio's reward hadn't been of financial nature.
Instead Haruka stared at a thin leaflet showing a violin surrounded by three sparkling stars, illuminated in front of a dark background.
And a ticket.
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Why am I here?
Haruka glanced cautiously around and felt incredibly uncomfortable, and incredibly stupid. Today was special. There was something she had to do. Needed to do. Before she could finally walk away, forever. No, she didn't have to rush, however, she didn't want to go there in the middle of the night. And the middle of the night it would be, she was sure as she read the programme again which they had given to her in the entrance hall.
Why did I come?
She surely had no intention in sitting on a too soft chair for hours. Or at least one hour, then a thirty minute break and then another hour. Endless minutes trapped in a stupid opera hall.
Why didn't I tear it up and left it at that?
Haruka had no idea why she had stared at the trio's ticket for five minutes, grabbed her black cloak and ran all the way to the opera hall. To stare at the posters telling her that a concert of the Three Lights would start soon. A boy group who performed in an opera hall! Together with a classical musician, if she was to believed what the leaflet told her about Kaioh Michiru, 22 year old granddaughter of Kaioh Sonoko, the grand dame of Japan's classic music, the opera star of her time, still today. Michiru, as the leaflet continued, held her first violin in her delicate hands at the tender age of 3 and was after her parents' early death raised by her grandmother to be a famous violinist. Haruka had never heard of her before. Nor had she ever heard of the Three Lights. A boy group that obviously needed a grand piano on their stage along to their songs. Even though Haruka rather wanted to get up and go, she knew that this performance would be interesting. Would there be screaming teenagers around? Fainting when one of their idols winked at them? Crying hysterically when they sang the evening's last song? Haruka suddenly wished to have taken some aspirin with her. Wished she would have stuck to her original plan.
"I've heard that one of them is ill."
"What a pity!"
"Hai, it's Yaten."
"Oh no, not the cutest of them."
"The cutest? I think Sejya's the cutest."
"No, it's definitely Tahiki!"
There they go.
Haruka rolled her eyes and crept even deeper into her chair as the Three Light's unofficial fan club sat down next to her. It seemed like it was going to be a long evening indeed.
"So no piano music today."
"Looks like."
"At least not from him."
"Let's see what they'll do instead."
"Yeah."
Haruka wanted to hide inside her cloak as they actually started to enfold big banners with stars and hearts on them. She swore silently when she remembered that she had to leave it at the cloakroom. On each banner glittered another name written and since the girls knew that the youngest member of their favourite boy group was ill they put the third one under their seats. It was already hard enough to hold two banners like that.
I haven't the slightest idea why I'm here.
Haruka groaned in pain as the lights were dimmed and the girls next to her started to shout, to wave with their arms and to try to get an empty stage's attention.
I've saved a teenager's life and that's what I get for it.
Although Haruka had got to know that Yaten wasn't a teenager. Surely he was the youngest member of the Three Lights, but he was already 20 years old, even though he didn't look his age, not at all. His brothers, on the other hand, didn't act their age. They should have taken better care of him so that he wouldn't have fallen ill in the first place or at least that he didn't wander off in his weakened condition.
You're the one to speak!
Haruka clenched her fists and was grateful for the curtain to rose to interrupt her dark thoughts leading her down an even darker road to a nightmare she wanted so badly to leave behind, to finally end. To never have happened in the first place.
The fan club calmed down a little bit and Haruka congratulated herself for not having kicked them already. She looked up to the stage and knew why the teenager's enthusiasm was somehow lessened, because there were no Three Lights, or better this evening Two Lights, coming out behind the curtain. Right now in the middle of the stage stood a young woman. She wore a long evening dress. Its hem almost touched her bare feet and seemed to slightly move in an invisible, unnoticeable wind. Haruka could not make out its colour, but it looked like freshly fallen snow in the stage's spotlight. Or like feathers.
Like an angel…
"I know that you're waiting for my colleagues right now." The young woman smiled in an apologizing way and stepped closer to the microphone standing in front of her. Haruka was surprised not to see wings on her back. "But the boys need some more moments to get ready. And I thought that only I couldn't decide which clothes to wear."
There was amused laughter in the audience.
"So I think I'll give them a couple of minutes and step outside the programme. I know that this is probably driving the hall's manager crazy, but don't worry, after that we'll stick strictly to our programme. You don't have to fear for your champagne to get warm."
More laughter. It seemed like the audience liked her, even though she was the only female member of a group consisting of three cute boys every teenage girl wanted to have for herself. Obviously, they weren't jealous of her. Or they simply didn't see her as a threat, as a rival. Although Haruka couldn't imagine how anyone could have ever ignored her. Her smile. Her dark blue eyes. Her slender hands absently touching an old instrument very gently.
"I'm going to play a little song to you which I only got a couple of weeks ago. Well, to be honest, my grandmother got it couple of weeks ago." The young woman stroked her curly green hair on her back and put the violin on her shoulder. "I don't know where it came from nor who wrote it, but we both like it very much. So wherever you are, stranger, thanks for it." She smiled into the dark auditorium and closed her eyes. And started to play.
Haruka caught her breath.
"Do you like it, honey?"
Cherry blossoms floated weightlessly in warm spring wind. The sun was shinning, bathing the awakened garden in a peaceful light. She was a child again, wearing her beloved yellow summer dress. Even the air was still a little bit too cool for not freezing in it. However, she didn't. She danced around, sprang around, literally flew around on the grass trying to catch those tender snowflakes that didn't melt in her small hands.
"Hai." She nodded enthusiastically as her mother put her instrument down. As always she was wearing a beautiful kimono. Her beloved oka-san. And she was her beloved daughter.
"It sounds like a spring day. Like this day." She turned around and ran over to her mother. Her wonderful mother who crouched and took her little tomboy in her arms, rocked her, swung her around, laughed with her.
"You're such an intelligent girl. My little girl." Blond strands hang into her young face and she wanted to stretch out her hand to feel them. To feel her mother's soft hair on her still clumsy fingers. "I love you, my little girl."
"Luv ya, too, mommy."
Haruka blinked as the audience started to clap. Hesitatingly, slowly. They had liked that song, very much, however, it had been so silent, so tender that no one dared to interrupt the silence that followed. Kaioh Michiru lowered her violin, opened her eyes and smiled at all the people sitting in the dark around her illuminated stage. Then she bowed deeply and the applause gained strength and confidence. She bowed again and the excited screams were mixed into her applause as two long awaited young men entered the stage. They both grinned and the oldest stepped forward to take the microphone.
Haruka never heard what he had to tell her, or rather, to the screaming and crying and hysterically waving girls next to her. She got up and stumbled over the unfolded banner on the ground while she tried to get out of the row as fast as she could. As she tried to escape. As she tried to run away and hide where no one could see her. Her and the tears burning in her eyes. The girls were annoyed as she pushed past them, but she ignored them. Ignored the music evolving on stage. Ignored the startled young man on the entrance trying to stop her. Ignored the nice woman at the cloak room. Ignored the cab driver calling out if she needed a lift when she stumbled down the snow covered steps of the opera hall's staircase. Ignored that she had forgotten her cloak. Ignored the bitter cold engulfing her body like a wild snake.
Tried to ignore the images raging in her mind.
Tried to ignore the memories overtaking her sanity.
Tried to ignore the pain eating her soul.
Haruka slipped on the icy ground and fell hard on her knees where she crouched for the next eternity. Gasping hard for breath.
Trying in vain.
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Haruka didn't know what she had expected. Some mysterious light at the end of a dark tunnel? Some hidden door leading her to a far away land ? Some secret window showing her a time long gone?
All she saw now was an abandoned house. Abandoned five years ago, preserved always in the hope of return. One day. Soon.
Now she had returned. Alone. To a house by the sea that looked ghostly in the moon's light. She could hardly believe that this was the same place she had always dreamed of. Together with her parents and later on together with him. To walk through the rooms and to ran through the garden. To laugh again. To be happy again. To be home again.
Haruka gulped and wrapped her arms around her slim body in a protecting gesture. She didn't even feel the winter's cold through her thin pullover, didn't see the snow dancing around her shadow like cherry blossoms. Like the cherry blossoms the tree behind the house would soon carry. She didn't have the strength to go into the garden to look at it. She didn't have the courage to step into the old house. She didn't have the power to face what would await her once she'd closed the front door behind her.
Memories she could not bare.
Shattered hopes she could not face.
Unforgotten dreams she would not survive to see again.
It was all in vain.
Haruka sat down on the front steps and covered her face with her ice cold hands.
I've failed you.
She didn't want to get up again. She hadn't planned anything beyond this point, anyway. To come back, settle all formalities, take care of their last wishes and take a last glance at her childhood. And then? She hadn't renewed her room, hadn't paid tomorrow's rent. Her fridge was empty and she had given her last cash to a beggar near the opera hall. Of course she always had her credit card, but she hadn't even planned on using it once she had stepped out of the plane and felt her home country's soil beneath her feet. No, she had simply wanted to get through the past weeks to come to this house and to sit down. To search for her childhood and maybe to stay there. In the past. When she had been happy. When they all had been there. When he had laughed with her and had made her feel special.
I'm so sorry.
Yes, it sounded logical. To stay here, on these steps, in the end of this world. Her world, anyway. To stay here and wait for them. She knew they would turn up. If she'd wait long enough they would turn up and tell her how sorry they were for leaving her alone. That everything was fine now, that they'd found her. That she had found them.
It was a lesson she had learned early in her childhood. If she wished hard enough and waited long enough her dream would come true. All she had to do was sit here like the good girl she had never been. She had been too tomboyish, too wild, but still loved by her parents. No matter what. And she had loved them. As she had loved him. As they all had loved him. Right from the very beginning. Right from the moment when they met him. Ignoring what it meant, ignoring the pain, ignoring the consequences. Knowing that he would be worth it.
Haruka sobbed quietly and curled up on the hard steps.
He had been worth it. Every moment. Every nightmare. Every laughter.
I'm so sorry.
Yes, she would stay on these steps until they would come and take her home. Finally take her where they had gone. Where she belonged to.
Soft music slowly evolved in the night's silence, snaked its way through the curtain of snowflakes, grew stronger. Grew more tender. Grew more hopeful. It brought with it a high voice humming along. Giggling when it missed a note. At first, there was only a violin urging the snow to dance for it. A violin and a self-confident voice. Then there were soft piano notes, sneaking into the duo's harmonic play. They, too, grew stronger as the giggle turned into bright laughter. Happy laughter. Carefree laughter.
Once more!
And so the song started anew. Fresher, bouncier, funnier.
Haruka peered through her stiff fingers and could almost see the shadow dancing through the snow, throwing it into the air and turning around while spreading its arms to catch most of it. Almost she could see sparkling eyes glancing up to her, showing her to come over. To dance, as well. To be happy, as well.
Once more!
The shadow didn't have to tell her twice. Both piano and the violin kept on playing, kept on floating, kept on dancing. Weightlessly. Carefree. Hands clapped to the rhythm of the music and warm fingers seemed to take Haruka's ice cold ones. She didn't feel her body any longer as she was lead onto the snow covered street. However, she felt the shadow by her side. Guiding her, holding hergently tight, swirling her around.
Once more, Haru!
Her legs wouldn't carry her any longer and so she went on her knees, watched with wide eyes the shadow dancing in circles around her. Touching her arm. Stroking her messed hair. Wiping her face. Then it was gone, took the music with it. The light. The laughter. The happiness. Left her in the dark. Alone. Tired. Cold.
Haruka gulped and raised her head. She looked over to the abandoned house, to the lonely steps, to another hour of waiting until they would come and take her.
She sighed in exhaustion and stumbled to her feet to drag her freezing body over to the place where she had been sitting the past hour.
Once more, Haru!
Haruka stiffed and turned around, but the street behind her was empty. Gloomy. Frightening. There was no shadow. Only silently falling snow. White snow and the faintest notion of a violin playing the most gentlest of songs.
Once more.
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"Finished playing with the big boys?"
Setsuna grinned as the door opened to the big suite the Three Lights were staying at right now. Although Michiru had her own flat in Tokyo and was welcomed in her grandmother's house as with her friends all over Japan, she had decided to share the suite with the brothers. It was easier to talk to them about their concerts, about their mission and to agree on rehearsal times. And it was also a lot funnier than staring at her flat's white walls or talking to her grandmother's various guests. She loved the old lady dearly, however, she wasn't always in the mood to talk to the most famous pianists or flautists after a long and tiring week on stage. Her friends mostly had their own lives now and as much as she loved to visit them from time to time she knew that she would have only been a nuisance no matter what a freshly wed Usagi or a hard studying Ami told her otherwise.
"Finished feeding my most favourite goddaughter?" smirked Michiru and carefully put her Stradivarius down before she fell into the nearest armchair to throw her aching feet over the armrest.
Yes, Michiru didn't want to burden her friends and her grandmother, wanted to start to live her own life, even if that meant to start it in hotel rooms. Luxurious hotel rooms, but hotel rooms, nonetheless. With the exception of Setsuna. Somehow she was always around. She always had a key or an entrance card or the code to their suite. The staff knew that she practically belonged to the Three Lights and she was free to roam the backstage. Maybe it was due to the fact that they were both Outer Senshi. Maybe it was simply because they had been friends for such a long time.
"You only have one goddaughter."
"Don't tell her that."
Michiru grinned as she glanced over to the cradle that stood next to Setsuna's couch. No matter where they went there was always a cradle in their rooms. Just in case Setsuna decided to use her free time to visit them, even if they weren't in Tokyo or even in Japan. Elza once had put it in a nutshell: Setsuna, being on maternity leave, simply had too much money and too much time, therefore she easily got bored and whenever she was bored she had to annoy Elza and if her beloved partner was at university she had to annoy Michiru.
The young violinist loved her for being bored.
"How's he been doing?" Of course Setsuna knew what was going on. Sometimes it occurred to Michiru that maybe she knew even more than they did which could have something to do with her being the Senshi of Time. Or extremely clever. Or simply a good listener.
"Still feverish. But we've already managed three concerts without him and there are only two more to go before we'll have a break." Automatically, Michiru looked at one of the closed doors which led to Yaten's bedroom. After his foolish stunt three days ago he had hardly left his bed and took his medicine without complaining. Probably, he had seen his own stupidity in running out into the cold feeling sick. Or he didn't want to anger his brothers any further. While Tahiki had mostly looked very concerned, Sejya had not been able to hide his frustration about such a silly baka like his youngest brother.
"Five concerts in row? You know what they call that, Michi." Setsuna stretched her long legs. It was long after midnight and she looked a little bit tired herself, although little Hotaru had completely changed her sleeping rhythm.
"No. What?" Michiru glided from the soft armchair and robbed over the soft carpet, not caring if she crumbled her white evening dress by doing so. She knelt next to the cradle and peered into it. A proud smile blossomed on her face as she saw her goddaughter sleeping, covered in soft blankets. Little Hotaru was only three months old, but she had already bewitched them with her cuteness and her charm. They all loved her and would have done anything for her. Except maybe changing nappies, although Michiru doubted that Setsuna wanted Sejya to bath her daughter. He might be a great singer, however, he was only 22 and still a child in Setsuna's eyes, especially when he behaved like a complete idiot. Which was almost always.
"Slavery."
"Well, at least it's funny slavery." Michiru leaned back and told Setsuna about the last concerts while she unconsciously rocked the cradle. Hotaru smacked in her dreams and smiled a happy baby smile. She told her about the audience, about Sejya's performance and Tahiki's improved guitar play - and her new song.
"So they liked it?"
"Liked it? They loved it! Whoever wrote it must have been a genius." Michiru smiled tiredly and tried to hide her yawn, but Setsuna had seen it.
"Go to bed, sweetheart. I'll make myself home on this couch."
"Does Elza know where you are?" Michiru rose and stroked some curly strands out of her deep blue eyes.
"Hai, and she's jealous like hell." Setsuna laughed good naturedly. "She has an exam next week and therefore she's happy when we're not around: no crying baby and no demanding partner. Enough time to learn all those stupid muscles."
"So you've decided to have breakfast with the famous Three Lights instead."
"If I can't avoid it. And with you, of course, my bestest friend."
"Bestest friend? And here I thought I'd talk to one of the most successful new generation writer Japans."
"Artistic freedom."
"Of course."
Michiru giggled silently, but decided not to ask Setsuna how her new book was doing. Probably suffering through long nights with a crying baby, or prospering because of it. Setsuna had always been a night owl, spending half her nights before her computer screen writing fantastic stories that didn't sound as fantastic if you belonged to her Senshi team, if you knew that she was indeed Sailor Pluto. Not even her literature courses at university early in the morning could change her inner clock. Michiru still wondered how she had managed to sleep through all of them and still pass her exams with distinction.
"Oh, and can I ask you a favour?"
"Trying to take advantage of my tired body and exhausted mind?"
"Always, Michi."
"Then come out with it."
"Well… it's our anniversary next week and I've wanted to go out with Elza."
"Let me guess: Candlelight dinner and a hot bath and a warm bed and all the other romantic stuff."
"Right."
"Wouldn't be great if Hotaru started screaming right in the middle of it."
"Double right."
"So you ask me to baby sit my most wonderful goddaughter for a night."
"Arigatou, Michi. You are the bestest."
"Hey, I haven't even agreed."
"We all three love you, you know."
Michiru only laughed silently and waved her best friend good night. Of course she would baby sit little Hotaru as she had done several times before. As great as it was to become young parents as great it could be to simply sleep an entire night without being woken up by a loving but very demanding little girl. Michiru helped whenever she could, whenever there was no concert or rehearsal to keep her out all night, as well. She loved the little girl and always tried not to be jealous that Setsuna had found the love of her life while her soulmate had turned around and simply walked away from her.
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Sejya stubbed out his cigarette before he entered the hotel suite. Tahiki didn't like the smoke but he could not press his brother to give up his bad habit. Therefore, he had strictly permitted him to smoke inside their hotel rooms. Tahiki's word was law and so the popular singer sticked to it, even though it sometimes annoyed him endlessly.
Sejya briefly glanced over to Tahiki's closed door. It was long after midnight and he knew that he had better not disturb his older brother. Right now Tahiki was probably sitting at the open window, no matter how cold it was, and listened to the silent night, hoping to hear her calling out for them, for him. Somehow. Hopefully.
Setsuna's sprawled body on the couch didn't surprise him at all. It had merely astonished him to not have seen her the past couple of days. Maybe she had had some appointments with her doctor or some baby swimming courses to do. He had no idea. She was Michiru's best friend, although he respected her. As one of the raising writing stars in Japan she had resisted to write a book about the Three Lights during the past years, although she had more than enough dirty linen to wash in public for them, had enough unbelievable tales to tell which were exactly those stories their female fans hungered for.
However, she didn't. And he thought highly of her for it.
As silently as possible he crossed the room to peep into Hotaru's cradle just like Michiru had done some hours before. The little girl slept deep and tight. Her hands were clenched into tiny fists and she had drooled on her left one. Sejya leaned forwards to correct the white blanket. Then he sneaked as quietly as possible over to the room's other end.
While Setsuna liked to sleep in semi darkness and there was always some little light shinning, it was complete darkness that welcomed him in this sleeping room. Sejya would have stumbled if it weren't that each of their room looked the same. He knew that there was a mean chair right next to the door in front of an even meaner desk and therefore tried skilfully to avoid a loud and crashing collision. The window was closed, nevertheless the air was fresh. Probably, Tahiki had been here shortly after the concert and shortly before he retired to his own room to listen and hope.
Sejya loosened his tie and opened the first buttons of his suit's shirt. Carefully, he sat down on the bed and waited until his eyes adjusted to the darkness, waited until he could see the figure under the thick blankets. Sleeping. Breathing easier than yesterday. Sounding better, even though not completely healthy yet.
Slowly, Sejya leaned forward and touched a warm forehead. Warm, but no longer so dangerously hot. Stroked soft strands of silver hair out of a sweaty face. As silver as a star. Our little star, as his mother had always called him.
"Sej?" Yaten's voice was full with sleep. Sejya wondered for a moment how his little brother knew that it was him, but then he was reminded bitterly that there were only two people left who would come to Yaten in the middle of the night. Well, now there was Michiru, as well, who cared for the three brothers beyond the stage and their concerts, strangely enough, but Michiru used a sweet perfume which neither Sejya nor Tahiki would touch even if their life depended on it.
"Did you take your medicine?" Sejya sounded stricter than he had intended to. Maybe he was really tired and should go to bed, too.
"Hai. Michi-oneechan gave it to me when the concert ended."
Sejya nodded into the darkness and tried to ignore the unease he felt when Yaten called their violinist that way. Not Michiru-san or even Kaioh-san, although Tahiki tried really hard not to be so formal to her. After all, Michiru had been part of their group for the past four years. They hadn't become a family, even though they fought together as Sailor Senshi against Sailor Galactica and other monsters. But still they had become very good friends.
Yet it felt strange when Yaten called her in such a familiar way.
"Then go back to sleep."
"How was the concert?" Yaten's small voice sounded anxious.
"It was okay." Sejya felt suddenly irritated and angry. "Although I doubt that we'll have reached her with our performance today. Michiru-san's doing her best, but it's us she's looking for. Us and not some stranger from a strange planet."
He hadn't intended to say all those things. Not aloud. Not yet.
Shit. I'm definitely more tired than I thought.
Sejya felt terrible as he heard Yaten's shaky intake of breath, as he saw how the small figure curled up even more under the soft blanket.
"I'm sorry. I'll be fine tomorrow, I promise."
"Don't worry. Michiru-san already agreed to play some more solos and we already announced that you'll be sick for the rest of the concerts. There are only two more left, anyway."
"But…"
"Get back to sleep, get well soon and for once stay it longer than just a couple of days." Sejya clenched his fists and wanted to kick himself. But as always his anger had taken the better of him. Maybe he should stop talking to Yaten altogether. Although he doubted that Tahiki would tolerate that. He believed that it was natural for two brothers to fight the way they did. That it showed that they both cared for each other. It only showed Sejya that it simply didn't work. Not this way. Never had, never would, no matter what Tahiki would ever tell him. No matter what their parents had wanted them to be.
"Gomen…"
Sejya didn't respond anything, didn't know what to say. Silently, he shook his head and left the room via his entrance route. Only when he had closed the door of his own bedroom behind himself did he dare to take a deep breath and kick the next chair.
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"I can't believe that you've only given him a ticket."
Setsuna buttered herself another roll and shock her head in disbelieve. Her daughter slept fitfully in Michiru's arms and the young mother tried to get as much of the delicious five star hotel breakfast before Hotaru would wake up hungrily and demand all of her attention. Not wanting to share it with any rolls, no matter how tasty they looked to her mommy.
"What should we have done instead?" Tahiki stirred sugar into his black coffee and tried his best to wake up. "We were in a hurry to call a doctor and get back to get ready for our concert in time."
"You could've at least given him two tickets. I mean, maybe he would've wanted to take his girlfriend or anyone else with him. I mean, who wants to got to a concert all on his own?" Setsuna leaned back and enjoyed her roll in her left and her hot cacao in her right hand. She was still nursing little Hotaru and therefore wasn't allowed any caffeine. However, she discovered very quickly that cacao was an excellent substitute drug.
"I think he didn't even want that ticket. I had to push it into his hand." Sejya shrugged and sucked at his spoon, wishing it to be a cigarette instead.
"Did he come?"
"How should I know?" Sejya's raised eyebrows made it clear that he really had no idea. "It wasn't marked in a special way, if that's what you ask. Maybe he came, maybe he didn't."
"Maybe he sold it on ebay."
"There wasn't enough time left, you crackpot."
"Likewise."
Sejya and Setsuna grinned at each other. They understood each other or at least knew that they never actually offended each other. At least not as long as Setsuna was still able to write books and threatened them lovingly to put him into one of her crazy stories.
"You should at least have thanked him in an appropriate way." Interrupted Michiru while rocking little Hotaru gently. "I mean, he obviously didn't know Yaten and yet he helped him."
"You're right, Michiru-san, but there was no time for heroic deeds."
"She's always right." Setsuna was very proud with her intelligent statement and decided to reward herself with another roll. A small one. Or a bigger one? She was a nursing mother, she needed the calories after all.
"Maybe we should thank him now. For his help and especially for not going to the press and telling them all about it."
There was not really much all about it, however, Tahiki and Michiru knew too well how much the newspapers could exaggerate. Last year he had given Michiru roses for her birthday on stage – in name of the Three Lights and all her friends. Only one day later the rainbow press had declared them a couple and not even one week later they were officially married – with exclusive photos and interviews. Michiru could only guess how desperate you had to be to manipulate some old concerts photos and to make up silly interviews on a computer. Well, not all of them could earn their money with music or imaginative, but at least well written books.
"Hm…" Tahiki gazed out of the window and squinted into the snowfall. The sky was overcast and although they were only eating breakfast, it looked like the sun was already setting. So much for a new year and longer days to come. Right now he didn't believe those weathermen on TV one bit.
"Why not? We still have his address. I've wanted to get out of this suite anyway." Sejya jumped to his feet, already thinking of a good cigarette to smoke while they walked through the pleasant cold, hopefully unrecognised by all their fans.
"Better I'll come with you this time." Michiru rose, as well, and carefully placed a waking Hotaru in Setsuna's arms. "Could you stay here until we come back? To see after Yaten when he wakes up."
"Hadn't intended to miss your concert this evening."
"You mean you hadn't intended to miss our five star hotel dinner."
Setsuna and Sejya shared an intimate moment showing each other their tongues like the grown up adults they were.
"Arigatou. See ya later."
"Yup, see ya."
Setsuna smiled in amusement as the three finally grabbed their cloaks and thick jacket and stumbled out into another cold winter's day. At first, she had been very sceptical when Michiru had told her that she didn't want to go to university, at least not right now. Instead she had wanted to play her violin in Japan's big opera halls. No, not alone, but accompanied by the famous boy group called the Three Lights who happened to have seen her live and now wanted her in their ensemble. Of course Setsuna had imagined them to be leery young men who only wanted to have sex with her Michiru. Then she actually met them and discovered that they were quite nice. Tahiki seemed a little bit distanced and Yaten too childlike for an almost grown up, but Sejya had a great humour and they did care for Michiru. Not only as part of their ensemble, but also as a friend. Especially after they had found out about their secret identities and had started to fight side by side in a never ending fight against Sailor Galactica and other monsters. The war was not over, although they had won the first battle, but right now there were not so many youmas around and they had had a relatively peaceful time the past year. Setsuna was grateful for that, because she hadn't wanted to fight in her narrow Sailor fuku while being well advanced in pregnancy with her little Hotaru.
Not that I would have been able to squeeze myself into it, mind you.
Setsuna cooed in the incoherent baby language only young parents were able to understand, and nursed her hungry daughter.
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Michiru held on tightly to her cap as they slipped through the snow storm. Although only one month parted them from spring, the weather got worse every week. On the other hand it was highly unlikely that anyone would recognize them. They looked like any other Japanese trying to run as fast as possible to reach their goal as quickly as possible. No one would glance twice at them in a weather like that.
Sejya and Tahiki guided her down a small alley and entered a small house only minutes later. Michiru was too happy to be out of the storm to really take a look at it. She freed herself out of her already clammy gloves and tried to shake the snow out of her cloak. They sounded like a small army as they trudged on the rug.
"Can I help you?"
They looked up and saw a woman smiling down at them. She was in her mid seventies and wore a crumbled yukata, probably her usual work clothes.
"Hai." Tahiki pulled his own cap from his wet hair and bowed formally. "We want to visit the young man who lives on the first floor." He smiled friendly back at her and wanted to climb the staircase, but stopped on the first step as he heard her answer.
"I don't have male tenants. I fear I'm a little bit conservative, but I only rent my rooms to women."
Tahiki and Sejya exchanged confused glances.
"But we've visited him only three days ago." Declared Sejya, frowning. "He lives just there." He pointed with his hands upstairs.
"Ah, you mean Haruka-san." The old lady's troubled face brightened up. "At least two head's taller than me, with blond hair?"
"Hai, that's him, I mean, that's her." Nodded Tahiki visibly relieved while his younger brother shook his head in disbelieve, thinking back at the person leaning against the wall, looking so coolly at him.
That's a girl? And pigs might fly!
"Easy mistake," laughed the old lady and shrugged her bony shoulders. "First I didn't want to let her in until she showed me her ID and proved me otherwise."
"Well…" Tahiki finally climbed the staircase, only to find out that he could have stayed with Michiru and Sejya anyway.
"She's moved out three days ago."
"What?"
"Nani?"
Both Tahiki and Sejya looked really surprised, because the room hadn't looked as if someone was about to move out. Too many old newspaper on the floor, too many used clothes – and no women's clothes, as that – and empty ramen bowls and water bottles all over the table. Tahiki might have been occupied with an ill Yaten, but Sejya had nevertheless looked around. To see if there was a camera hidden somewhere or even a newspaper reporter.
"You confused her with a boy and now she's not here anymore?" Michiru frowned as she studied the young men critically. "She's saved your brother and you didn't even bother to ask her her full name?"
"Well…"
"You see…"
Two Three Lights looked really guilty and shrunk under her gaze.
"It's a pity that she's moved out. She was a really nice person, you know. Very quiet, never brought anyone home, never turned the radio on too loudly. I really wanted her to stay. It's hard nowadays to find nice tenants. But she had intended to stay for only two weeks and those had been over three days ago. She paid and left." The old lady folded her arms before her chest and looked down at them. She seemed to enjoy this conversation. Surely, she would have asked them to come inside for a cup of tea had her room been big enough to fit them all in.
"Do you happen to know where she's moved to?" asked Michiru, still not believing that her colleagues literally ran into that room, grabbed their ill brother and dashed out of the house again without thanking his saviour. Only giving the poor girl a single ticket for a concert that had started only an hour later. Most likely she hadn't been at the opera house and didn't even receive any reward, probably not even a thank you for taking care of a total stranger, not even knowing that she had just rescued one member of Japan's Number One boy group.
Men!
"No, sorry, my dear. She's said that she wanted to stay with some relatives but wasn't sure if she'd stay there, so she gave me no new address."
"What a pity."
"Hai, what a pity."
"Arigatou for your information."
"You're welcome, my dear."
They all bowed and Michiru grabbed one sleeve of each a cloak and a thick winter jacket to drag the brothers out of the small house.
"I can't believe that you've been so ungrateful." She shook her head. Then she pushed her cap into her curly hair which was soon covered with snow.
"Yaten was more important at that moment." Tahiki raised his hands in a defending gesture. "Besides, she didn't look like she wanted a big hug and a million yen cheque."
Michiru sighed deeply.
"She's gone and we can't change it." Sejya wrapped his right arm around Michiru's waist in a playful manner, although they both knew that they didn't flirt. Sejya was surely not Michiru's type and no one knew who Sejya's type was. Probably Claudia Schiffer. "Don't rack your smart brain over something like that, Michiru-san. What's done's done."
Still…
Michiru knew that he was right. Yaten's saviour moved out and no one knew where she was right now. They couldn't search for her, not with those two concerts the following nights and even more concerts in two weeks' time in Kyoto. As always they didn't have time and they surely didn't want to broadcast a Have you seen this woman? – picture on TV. They should be happy that no newspaper had talked about Yaten's illness and his mysterious rescue, and that no reporter ever would.
Still…
Michiru felt bad for the stranger, but then again there were more important things to do. Things that could make a difference. Things that could change destiny. Songs to sings, music to play. Calling out to the Three Lights' princess. Michiru knew that she couldn't thank the woman who had disappeared so suddenly. But she knew that she could help the three brothers in finding Kakyuu.
"Give my chocolate to Setsuna and tell Yaten I said hi." Michiru blew in her stiffened fingers while they fought through the snow storm their way back to their hotel. "I have some music pieces to rehearse."
Still!
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"That was very good."
She knew that she hadn't been that good, that she had made mistakes, had missed a note here and there, hadn't strictly kept to the rhythm. However, she had tried her best and as she looked into her mother's smiling face she knew that she knew that.
"You've made progress, my darling."
"That's not me. That's your song, mommy."
The young woman laughed even more brightly, seemed to outshine the sun behind them bathing the wide room in a warm light. Birds were singing outside in the garden and the door that lead to the terrace stood wide open.
"Let's play it together, honey, to surprise daddy when he comes home!" The young girl's green eyes sparkled and she was sure that she had the most beautiful mommy on earth. She was sitting on her lap and wobbled excitedly with her small legs. She loved to play on her daddy's grand piano, loved to hear the soft music, those wonderful sounds only his piano could make. Together with her mommy's light laughter.
However, to play it together with her mommy was the greatest thing she could imagine. For her parents it looked like hard work to rehearse to play the big instrument, but for her it was like playing with her toy cars.
"Hai!" She shouted excitedly and they both leaned forward to touch the black and white keys. Her mother's tender arms engulfed her and she loved being so close to her, being embraced, being loved.
Soon a gentle melody filled the evening air of a late summer's day. Accompanied by a girl's high giggle and a woman's lower laughter. They both played as if time didn't exist. As if they could stay this way for all eternity. In their little world. In their never ending dream.
"There's daddy."
"Daddy! Come! Quickly! We play your piano together! Do you hear us?"
"Of course I do, honey. Play again. For me."
"Hai!"
Without ever waking up.
She wished they hadn't.
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Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers…
Yaten didn't hear her enter. He was too involved with the book on his lap. An old book that looked well-thumbed. The jacket was missing and there surely had been a time when an outsider had been able to read its title. Now, however, it was yellowed, illegible. None of the three brothers read a lot: Tahiki always read the current newspaper during lunch or at a rehearsal, Sejya a music magazine and Yaten would borrow one of Usagi's mangas now and then. If you were looking for a thick book you had to go to Michiru instead. However, it looked like Yaten loved this one on his lap. Well, it wasn't too thick and she knew that the texts weren't too long, maybe it could count as an exception.
"Don't tell me you've seen one of those stupid programmes that tell you to read Shakespeare to your baby child so that it gets smarter than you." Setsuna grinned as Yaten startled and turned around quickly. A little bit too quickly, because the book escaped his hands and he seemed to double over on the couch.
"Hey, take it easy, you're still ill." Setsuna was by his side the next moment and held his shoulders while he willed the stars to stop dancing before his eyes.
"I know. I just got bored." Yaten leaned back and she saw that he was still very pale. "I didn't touch her, Setsuna-san, so that she won't catch my cold. I only read her some good stuff, although it's not Shakespeare."
"What a pity and I've wanted to have a smart daughter."
"You do have a smart daughter, Setsuna-san."
"Right answer." Setsuna's grin grew and she leaned over to him to correct the warm blanket around his shoulders. "Did you take your medicine?"
"Hai." He brought his legs to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Then he laid his head on his hands and looked up to her. "The concert's still running, isn't it?"
"They probably only started the second part." Setsuna checked her watch and stretched out next to him. Hotaru was awake right now, but she was neither hungry nor wet nor had other things on her small mind that could bother her which she had to tell them about with angry wails. Right now she was in her cradle and watched them with her cute baby eyes. Setsuna wanted to hug her and cuddle her and carry her around all day long, but she knew that she still had to wash her hair and should take advantage of this unexpected baby sitter, even if he was still weak and tired.
"Sejya was very upset."
"He's always upset about something, even if it's the sun shinning or the rain falling." Setsuna shuffled through messed silver hair and smiled reassuringly. "But still try to stay healthy a little bit longer, will you? We were all worried."
"I really do try, but your planet's so cold."
Setsuna sensed that it was wiser not to argue that Tahiki and Sejya hardly ever sneezed or showed any signs of even the slightest cold. They all came from the same planet after all.
"Soon it's spring and then it gets warmer."
Yaten glanced at the window, saw the snow storm still raging behind the thick glass, but said nothing. Didn't mention that he had managed to catch a flu last August, at almost 40 degree air temperature – if you sat in a shadowy place.
"You'll be up and bouncing when you'll have your concerts in Kyoto. Then you'll have a great time."
As I will have with my Elza at our anniversary.
"Hai…" Yaten shrugged his shoulders and bowed to pick up his book. He quickly found the page where she had interrupted him.
"I'll just disappear into the bathroom. It won't take long."
Only one hour, two at the maximum.
Setsuna rose and couldn't wait to use the huge five star hotel bath tub. At home she often shared a bath with her daughter, however, she didn't want to embarrass any of the Three Lights in seeing her running around nakedly, searching for Hotaru's fresh nappies, new pyjamas or beloved bathing ducky. Therefore, she would take care of her hair while Hotaru was occupied listening to Yaten and playing with her toy doggy, then she would bath her little princess, nurse her and put her to bed. And wait for Michiru to tell her everything about Yaten's saviour and their concert.
"Don't worry, we get along quite well." Yaten smiled a small smile before he concentrated again on the text, his most beloved poem.
"Arigatou. Shout if you need anything." She had almost entered the bathroom when she turned around again. "Or throw something against the door, I'll hear it."
Yaten shook his slightly aching head carefully and wondered how Elza and Setsuna managed their household. With a tiny baby. No, he didn't want to imagine it. Hotaru was still alive and kicking, therefore it somehow had to work.
Like our lives somehow had to work after mama and papa's decision.
Yaten sighed silently.
Like our lives somehow had to work after the battles began.
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
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"It's the last concert." Hashitzou, a man as tall as a wardrobe, walked quickly through the opera house's labyrinth of tunnels stretching out behind the stage. He wore jeans and like all his co workers a black t-shirt that read Three Light Crew. He was head of almost thirty people and was responsible for all the equipment, for the instruments, for the computers and about 80 miles of cable to be packed up and send safely to their next concerts' location. There they had to be unpacked and put on stage and were hopefully still working.
It was a hard job and he needed nerves of steel to not freak out when they had only three hours and everything went wrong. Today, however, they had more time. An entire week to be exact, because their next concerts wouldn't start before the following weekend. In Kyoto. That was a challenge, but he had mastered greater distances like China or even France the previous year. Nevertheless, he wanted everything packed up and shipped as quickly as possible to Kyoto so that he and his crew would be able to check every cable and every single equipment to be sure that they functioned perfectly for the next tour.
Hashitzou liked his work and he took it seriously. He respected the music his employers made, especially Kaioh-san's violin play, and he was very proud when they talked to him in person and praised his good work. He didn't want to disappoint them.
"Twenty minutes after the curtain has fallen we'll start. Is that clear?"
Several crew members nodded and he frowned.
"Where's the new guy?" he asked and looked around. Normally, he didn't hire new staff during a tour, especially not when he didn't have the time to talk to Kou Tahiki about the future crew member before. However, he had needed the extra help badly since two of his regular co workers fell ill and a third left on maternity leave. The new crew member seemed to have been good luck. He worked hard, even did overtime without complaining and treated the instruments with respect. Hashitzou didn't like people who didn't see the grand piano's value. It's true value, not only the money on its insurance policy but its ability to make the most wonderful music.
Yes, the new guy was definitely well chosen, even though Hashitzou had been in quite a hurry and would have taken almost anyone. However, sometimes he seemed to simply disappear. Only for a couple of minutes but he couldn't be found then.
It made Hashitzou nervous.
"Isn't she playing wonderfully?" Suzanna, a music student being in her period of practical training, sighed longingly. "It's a pity that Yaten-san's ill right now. This violin needs a piano as partner, that's what I say."
"Hai, and I've heard you say that a thousand of times." Hashitzou shook his head and kept looking around. Suzanna noticed it and followed his glance.
"What are you looking for, boss?"
"The new guy. He's done it again."
"Done what?"
"Disappeared."
"Disappeared? No, he didn't. He's where he's always when Kaioh-san plays her solo."
"Where?"
"Well, there."
She pointed behind herself and Hashitzou raised both of his eyebrows in surprise. In fact there was his new employee, standing behind the stage, peering through a slit in the curtain. His face was sparely illuminated, but his eyes seemed to glow as he watched Kaioh-san playing her violin. Her new piece of music.
It really is a great song.
Hashitzou sighed silently and waited until the song ended. He had intended on calling the new guy, but he had already turned around and walked over to him.
"I want you to work together with Suzanna-san. You're responsible for the grand piano. Don't worry, Suzanna studies this bloody instrument, she knows what she's doing. She simply needs two strong arms to help her."
The new guy pushed some blond strands out of his green eyes and grinned a sheepish grin.
"No problem, boss."
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"Why are you out of your fucking bed?"
Sejya was in an extremely bad mood. Without Yaten it had almost been impossible to perform their most important song, the one with which they tried to call out and reach for their princess. And then he had forgotten his line. Simply like that. The audience didn't mind. The girls sang along anyway and probably didn't even notice his slip. However, Tahiki noticed it and looked exhausted, hurt. Another wasted chance to find her!
Angrily, Sejya had smoked his last two cigarettes and drunk a couple of wine glasses. There was always some alcohol on the buffet in their dressing room, even though Michiru only drank one glass now and then while Tahiki and Yaten strictly stuck to their mineral water and soda. Sejya felt slightly tipsy and extremely pissed off.
Yaten awoke with a start. The book that had been lying on his chest only moments ago tumbled on the carpet, followed by the crumbled blanket as the youngest singer looked wildly around.
Like a deer in the headlight.
"Do you think that's funny? We did your job the past days and you decide to walk around our suite, even though you had a fever only yesterday!" Sejya didn't scream. He knew too well that Hotaru's indignant wail could drown him out easily. And he surely didn't want to face a raging Setsuna emerging from the bathroom if he located her bad singing correctly. Therefore, his voice was quiet. Dangerously quiet.
"I've only read a story to Hime-chan." Tried Yaten to defend himself and stood up. His legs were still shaky and he supported himself on the couch's back.
"For Christ's sake, you don't even wear socks or slippers!"
"No, because we have an extremely soft and warm carpet in this suite." Yaten's voice was still rough from sleep, but he was slowly getting furious, as well. "We even have an underfloor heating, because this is a five star hotel as Setsuna-san has pointed out several times this evening."
"Did you at least manage to take your medicine?" Sejya leaned nearer and Yaten automatically backed away.
"Of course. I'm not a child!"
"Then stop behaving like one. Start finally to take responsibility for your actions!"
"I didn't fall ill on purpose, you know."
"Sometimes I do really wonder if you really didn't." Sejya blew out an angry breath. "Because I can hardly think of a time when you didn't cough, sneeze or had a fever. Maybe you actually want to be ill so often."
"Are you drunk, Sej?" Yaten sniffed and pulled a disgusted face. "Because you are making no sense."
"Maybe you only want to draw everyone's attention. Just like you've always done since you've been a small child." Sejya moved forward and didn't even notice that he stepped on Yaten's beloved old book. Hotaru didn't hear them, wasn't disturbed by them She had fallen asleep twenty minutes ago and smiled happily in her baby dreams, them probably being about her mothers or the next meal or her toy doggy.
"You are drunk. You stink of alcohol. Take a cold shower and go to bed." Yaten wanted to turn around and go to his room, but Sejya grabbed his right arm and held him back.
"You've ruined it, Yaten."
"Let me go! You are hurting me!"
"This is Tokyo. Our concert was transmitted to many important radio stations all through the country. It was a big chance for her to hear it. To hear us calling. And you've ruined it."
Tahiki hadn't wanted to tell Yaten after he fell so ill, because he hadn't wanted to put him under further pressure, to make him feel even worse. However, Sejya didn't understand why Tahiki always wanted to spare their youngest singer. He was to blame for this evening's disaster and he damn fucking had to live with the consequences!
Yaten's light green eyes widened and his face went as white as the wall behind him. Sejya sneered as he saw that he had driven his point home.
"I didn't know…" stammered the smaller man, still a teenager in their audience's mind, still a child in Tahiki's eyes. Still the same Yaten in Sejya's thoughts.
"Of course not. Why care? As long as you get everyone's attention to fuss about you."
"No, Sej, that's not true."
"Stop calling me Sej, I'm not a child any longer!"
"No, you're not." Tears shimmered in Yaten's eyes and suddenly he seemed to be small again. Small and alone. So damn alone. As abandoned as the first time Sejya had met him. Oh, how he hated that hurt look on the younger one's face!
"You've changed, Sejya." Yaten gulped and was finally able to free himself out of Sejya's clutches. "Sometimes I wonder if you're still my niichan."
As I have wondered all my life.
Sejya watched Yaten picking up and wrapping the blanket around his trembling body and, after having checked on Hotaru still being sound asleep, slowly walking over to his own room.
"Don't you dare to disappoint us like that again!"
Sejya's voice was not more than a sharp whisper, but Yaten's reaction told him that he had heard him, nonetheless. The youngest singer froze and gulped. Then he nodded, unable to say anything more. Carefully, he closed the door behind himself and silence stopped off once again into the suite's main room. It was only interrupted from time to time when Setsuna remembered another line of her bathing music on the radio and sang very loudly and very wrongly along to it.
Did I just threaten him?
"Fuck!"
Sejya let himself fall onto the soft couch and pulled at his dark hair. The plait was long gone and the strands hang into his face, covered his flashing eyes in shadows.
"Fuck…"
He leaned back and discovered the book he had trampled on only minutes ago. Awkwardly, he bowed forward and laid back on the messed couch as he finally held it in his hands. It truly was an old book and he didn't understand why Yaten liked it so much that he literally dragged it around the globe. He opened it and read some of the lines the youngest singer had marked with an ugly neon yellow highlighter.
He frowned and understood less what Yaten saw in this strange planet's poetry.
But it's only fair enough, isn't it? He doesn't understand me any longer as I have never understood him in the first place.
"That's really stupid stuff, Hime-chan. Don't tell me he read that to you. No wonder you fell asleep."
Sejya shook his head and read two lines out loud whose sense simply escaped him.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily.
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"Hi." Michiru smiled friendly at the two crew members as she walked over the huge stage. The auditorium was empty, the audience long gone home. It was well past midnight and the opera hall was silent except for the Three Lights' crew packing all their equipment away to send it to Kyoto for their next performances. Two women whose names Michiru could not remember right now were taking care of the grand piano. They hardly made a noise and even if they would have Michiru wouldn't have minded. She wouldn't hear them, would only be concentrated on her music.
They both stopped in their work and looked up to her. She remembered one of them, the one with the long red hair. Michiru believed to remember that the young woman studied at Tokyo university and was now in her period of practical training. She wanted to write her final paper about the organization of professional musicians on a tour and therefore hardly ever took a day off. Michiru had seen her often before and was a little bit ashamed that she couldn't remember her name right now. It was something with "S", something foreign, because she was born abroad, only came to Japan to study. Michiru had to ask Hashitzou for her full name again, because she hated to be too distanced to her crew who helped them silently and inconspicuously behind the curtains to make their show possible and moving.
However, she could not remember ever having seen the other one before. Maybe she was a new crew member. Michiru made a mental note to ask Hashitzou about her, too.
"Don't let me keep you up." She said and stepped towards the stage's edge. She was still wearing her evening dress and knew that she would change as soon as she went back to their suite. And then she'd have a long hot shower. But right now she wanted to use those few moments of peace she always felt right after a good concert.
Michiru brought the violin she had still been holding in her hands to her left shoulder and closed her eyes. Then she started to play. It was the new song she had fallen in love with right at the moment when her grandmother had shown her the sheets of music. Michiru did not know where they came from nor who had written this bitter sweet melody, but she loved to play it. In an empty opera hall after a successful concert. After a long evening. When she was exhausted and tired. When her mind, however, was still alter and wide awake. When her violin was almost playing by itself while her thoughts could wander off.
So beautiful.
Still, something was missing. The song wasn't complete this way, no matter how much she tried, how much she improved her skills, how much she listened to the music to bring it alive each time her bow caressed the Stradivarius.
So much alive.
Michiru decided that she had to talk to Tahiki again. About the song's arrangements. She didn't want to play it alone any longer. Not as a solo. Not when it had been originally written as a duet. And she wanted to talk to Yaten. To ask him if he could manage to accompany her. If he wanted to.
So wonderful.
"It's amazing. She just gave five concerts in a row. It's after midnight after a hard week and here she is, playing her violin to an empty opera hall. Don't you agree, Tenô-san?" admired Suzanne Kaioh Michiru and watched her for another moment as if put under a spell. By a magic which had never lost its mysticism.
So much like her…
"But we've got some more work to do." Sighed Suzanne, didn't even notice that her co-worker hadn't replied. She turned and concentrated again on the piano, still listening to Kaioh Michiru's perfect violin play anyway.
"We can do it a little bit more slowly, if you don't mind. Normally, she plays for another half an hour. Hashitzou-san won't notice."
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Haruka still didn't know what exactly she was doing on the big stage after another long concert. Her plan for the past three days had looked completely different. It had surely not included an announcement ripped from a newspaper in the next 24 hour diner, a quickly written letter of application which she never sent but took to a very busy Hashitzou by herself, only to have been made a member of his crew merely minutes later.
Once more.
No, Haruka had wanted to sit on the steps of the long ago abandoned house for those three days. Or longer. Depending on when they would have found her, or at least her body for she had planned her soul to be reunited with her parents. With him.
But then she couldn't have stayed there. Not as she had originally planned. Not after he had come to tell her to try it again, to do it once more. To face life once more.
Haruka turned around and watched Michiru playing to an empty opera hall. The beauty's eyes were closed. She was smiling, being happy to stroke her violin. Looking so much like her. Loving this song just as much.
The blonde gulped and concentrated again on Suzanna showing her what to do with the expensive grand piano.
No, she hadn't been allowed to die on those steps in the winter's bitter cold. Not when there was still a young woman out there who played their song with so much enthusiasm, with so much understanding, with so much love. Just like she had used to.
Not when Kaioh Michiru's violin play brought them back to her. Brought him back to life. In her imagination. In her dreams. With her bitter sweet violin play.
Not when this soft melody kept Haruka alive.
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She grew up. Grew into a teenager. But still she was her mother's little girl. No matter if she would be old and wrinkled one day, if her blond hair would turn grey or if she would have her own children one day, she would always stay her mother's little girl. As her mommy would always be the young, beautiful woman.
Just like her smile would always lighten up her life. Her happy smile. Her right now exhausted smile.
Her father was outside, looking for a vase for the flowers, probably driving everyone he met crazy. She briefly wondered if he had behaved this way when he first met her. Probably. Fathers never changed, which was good.
The walls were white, but the coloured trees made it up outside an open window. Golden leaves rushed gently in the late summer's wind. Rocking gently to a melody her mother hummed silently. Their song. Sharing it again with the people she loved most in her life.
"Come over, honey."
Nervously, she wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans and stepped closer, peered into her mother's arms and looked up into her face, was once again met with the most beautiful smile. A smile that told everyone I love you, that told her You are special, that told him You are welcome
"Say hello, honey."
She gulped and leaned over her mother.
And finally met him.
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I hope you liked it so far. I'll be on vacation for the next 2 weeks, therefore expect the next update (and the answers to your hopefully nice comments :) ) by the end auf August.
April