Disclaimers: Same as before. No plot bunnies, Kumagoros or singers were harmed in the making of this story.

Author's Notes: So here we go - the start of something new. While the first few paragraphs follow Splinter's, the rest heads off to new shores. After this chapter, the differences will show up. There is a hint of a Tohma & Ryuichi pairing here.

track two

Six in the morning was way too early to get up. Only that strange breed of person called a morning person or a milkman could be happy getting up before the sun had a chance warming the day. Being nocturnal, I could never function properly until I had several cups of coffee in me, and even then I usually ended up taking a nap around noon. Unfortunately for me Tohma was a natural morning person.

Burying my head under blankets, I swatted ineffectively at the hand shaking me by the shoulder. Tohma only laughed softly, his voice slightly muffled by the thickness of my blankets. He then leaned down and goosed me, and making me abandon my blankets in order to protect myself from his wandering hands. Without me hanging onto them, he yanked the blankets away.

"Tohma! It's cold!" I said, flailing with one hand while trying to cover myself with the other hand at the same time.

He laughed again, sounding happy and relaxed. I squinted at him, noticed that not even a strand of his bright hair was out of place, and picked up a pillow to bop him with. Tohma let go of the blankets and held out his hands, still smiling even as I tried to hit him.

"Evil morning people and their evil blanket stealing and their big cold feet and their evil morning evilness," I said, trying to get around his hands. So help me, I was going to hit him a good one and knock that hat off his head.

"I do not have cold feet," he stated, grabbing the pillow and trying to tug it away.

"Do too! Big cold feet and very evil coldness too!"

"Ryuichi," he said and gave a shake of his head, letting go of the pillow and kissing me instead.

I stopped trying to hit him and instead tried to drag him back into bed. He kept the kiss short, pulling away and spending a moment to smooth the front of his shirt and finger comb his hair back. I licked my lips and put his hat on my head, not really caring that I was still a mess from last night.

"I need to catch my plane," he said, reaching over and stealing his hat back. "I still have some business to conclude and I had only planned to see you perform."

Suddenly cold, I turned around in the bed, reaching down to grab my blankets. I knew that this would happen. I should have stayed as far away from him as I could, but as always, I had found myself breaking my own rules.

"Ryuichi?"

I waved a hand at him, and felt the bed shift with his weight. Looking over my shoulder, I could see him sitting on the edge of the bed, a very un-Tohma like expression on his face. I attempted to smile at him but he wince, looking away. I shifted, sitting up and draping myself against him.

"Sa, Tohma, you really make it hard for me to want to share you with others," I said. His hands curled around mine, holding me close. I smiled and nibbled ever so lightly on his neck. "I suppose I should let you go back to London."

He sighed and gently pulled away from me. I looked up at him, and he bent down to give me another kiss, and then he tossed my blankets over my head. Flailing, I missed his goodbye but that was okay since we both sucked at them. Grumbling a bit more about evil blonds and their need to ruin my beauty sleep, I straightened out my blankets and cuddled Kumagoro.

Blissful sleep soon claimed me again and I was dreaming about climbing the world's largest sundae when everything was jerked into daylight and I, my blankets, and Kumagoro were flying through the air. I landed in a tangle of cold limbs and blankets, fingers still twitching for the spoon I was going to stab the large cherry with. After a moment, I realized that I was no longer dreaming and that someone had decided to make a singer pile in the center of the room. And since Tohma had left already there was only one other person who would do such an evil thing to cute little me.

Unearthing myself, I glared at the evil blond number two aka K standing the middle of my bedroom. K didn't flinch at my look of death, only grinned wider at me and the mess of my room. Grumbling under my breath that everyone was trying to kill me, I decided that since no one was letting me sleep in my bed, then I would just sleep on the floor. But before I could actually tug the blankets over my head, K ripped them all away from me.

"It's time to get up!"

I blew him a raspberry and tugged a couple pillows over my head. Since I wasn't getting my blankets any time soon, I just had to make do with whatever I had to stay warm. But K was waiting for that. He swooped down and pulled all the pillows out of my grasp as well, leaving me alone, on the floor, with a pink rabbit acting as my only claim to modesty.

"So, hot date last night?"

"Eh?"

I was seriously working on one brain cell and didn't exactly get his words until that brain cell caught another brain cell's attention. And then my cheeks heated up and I tried to curl up in a very tight ball to keep K from noticing everything. Of course, that exposed the bruising and the scratches along my back and the rather nice love bite on my shoulder. K's laughter boomed in the small room as I felt a slow heat across my cheeks. As my manager, he had seen me with worse marks, but these were different. I sat upright and threw Kumagoro at him. K caught him and sat the bunny on his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at my pout.

"Time to get up, lazy bones!"

"I dun wanna," I muttered, crossing my arms and sticking out my tongue. Of course by this point, I was just protesting in name only since I was pretty much awake. And cold. And wanting to just day dream about last night.

"Even Kumagoro says it's time, isn't that right?" He turned to the rabbit and I sighed, eyed the traitor and climbed to my feet grumbling. I marched to the bathroom and closed the door behind me, still grumbling while I took care of business and brushed my teeth. Deciding that K and whatever insane mission he had for me could wait, I went into the shower, turning the water on scalding and leaned into the spray, thinking.

Last night wasn't what I expected. I'd figured that Tohma would just allow a couple kisses before pushing me away. Instead, he clung to me almost desperately, his mouth hot on me, his hands clawing and gripping like he was afraid of falling. I was afraid to let him go, so I tried to make him remember everything the nights spent lazing in bed, the soft looks, and the heat of the stage. I wasn't sure if I succeeded though I was sure that he missed me. He'd never been so possessive before.

Giving myself a shake now was not the time to drift off with K standing around and no doubt making plans I washed, rinsed and dried myself in a hurry. I tore through my closet and pulled on some jeans and a shirt three sizes too big and grabbed a jean jacket from my overnight bag. K was puttering around in my cozy kitchen, so when I emerged from the soothing dark bedroom and growled at the sunlight, K appeared and shoved a mug into my hands.

"Have some coffee - extra black just the way you like it."

I took a sip, and squinted at the fuzzy room, wondering where my sunglasses were. It didn't help much that K was chattering away non-stop about some kind of interview or something and trying to steer me out the door and shove a pink rabbit in my hands. I stuck Kumagoro on top of my head for safe keeping and continued to wander about the place, looking for my sunglasses to block out all that morning sunlight. After I nearly tripped over his big feet, K finally understood that I was looking for something and came to my rescue. Sunglasses finally in place and caffeine finally working on my poor sleepy self, I was able to catch some of K's words.

"- of course, we don't have to talk to them right now, but if we get it out of the way "

Oh. Business stuff. I buried myself into my mug until it was empty and I realized we were on the road in a rather ugly mini-van. Peering over the edge of my sunglasses, I watched the Tokyo skyline move around us, the streets going by quickly with K's hands on the wheel. Strange. I'd thought that I would have felt a lot more nostalgic than I did. Tokyo was home after all. I was raised here, I had family here, and yet it just seemed like another town.

"You're being awfully quiet, Ryuichi," K said, merging seamlessly into another lane, heading for downtown.

"Probably jetlag," I replied, leaning back and making sure Kumagoro was still sitting where he belonged.

"Jetlag, huh? From all reports, you were pretty hyper last night."

I smiled a little and shrugged. "It's the stage, you know that."

"True, true. Noriko said you destroyed her plans for a surprise."

"Don't I always?" I was starting to feel a little bit better, spotting the nice gleaming walls of the N-G Productions building up ahead.

He laughed, glancing over at me. "Of course you do! I don't understand why you even came here if you weren't going to follow a plan."

I remembered the call Noriko made, and how happy I was to do something for her. I rarely got to see her since she really was just a stay-at-home mom these days. Unlike Tohma, she never had a reason to come to America and look me up. Even though I did mess up the whole surprise, it was still nice to see her again.

"Because!" was my reply as I bounced a little in my seat. He had just pulled up to N-G and I was eager to see how it looked. Tohma had told me about the latest renovations and how he decorated his office, but I haven't been in there since I had left Japan. I had seen some pictures, but not actually explore the place.

"Oh? Sounds like a good enough reason for me," K replied and turned off the engine. He let me out and I bounced in place, waiting for him to unload his brief case and guns. I don't know how he managed to get his guns through Customs and I really did not want to know. I hummed to myself and adjusted Kumagoro so he wouldn't fall off while I waited. All geared up, K lead the way to the building, and I followed as I started to hum a child's song.

N-G was Tohma's brain child. After we hit it big, Tohma wanted to make a place where we could call the shots and help other artists that weren't quite right by the rest of the music industry. We had barely gotten a label to sign with our first few records and it was only because of something Noriko called 'our nose bleed appeal'. Our labels had been some of the worse things we ever faced in the recording business and Tohma felt that it could be much better if we controlled our own. Of course, he owned most of it, but Noriko and I still had our little says in things.

I think the best part about it was the financial security it offered us. Our music wasn't going to last forever, but holding some shares in a successful company would. That plus the bank accounts Tohma made sure we had set up were part of the reason why I could go off and do whatever I wanted in America without trying so hard at trying to make a hit. I did, of course, but I didn't need to work so hard if I really wanted to be lazy.

"Do you remember what we are doing today?"

I turned around and walked backwards, pouting up at K. "Am I supposed to remember? I thought that's why you follow me around."

"Do I have to get standby out?" he replied, his hand going to his inside pocket. I held up my hands and bounced backwards a couple times.

"Nah, K. It's fine! I don't need standby! I looked up at the sky and stopped, too busy to notice Kumagoro had just fell off my head. "I am seeing a music news reporter about my new American album?"

"Almost!"

I chewed on a fingernail. "I am seeing a reporter about last night's concert?"

"Bingo!"

I clapped my hands, realized that my rabbit wasn't on my head and went looking for him. Unfortunately, K caught up fast, shoving the rabbit back into my hands. I grumbled at his speed, sulking behind him as we went into the building and up a few floors. The elevator doors binged open and I was treated with the pale yellow walls of a typical office space, the floors a soft white tile and the furniture of good heavy Western pieces that had the battered look of being well-used by the workers. As typical the furniture and dcor was, the sound systems and video playback machines were all of top quality in each room I walked past. The sound-proofing was also of high quality, dimming what could be very loud voice to a distant murmur once the doors were shut.

K led me to a room with blue trim, the TV on and showing last night's concert in grainy home made quality. The reporter had brought with her a photographer and a tape recorder, the photographer looking almost as tired as I felt. I hugged Kumagoro to my chest and beamed at them, letting K lead me around to a chair and sitting down. They took a couple pictures and then the interview started.

I admit that I play up my childish side for the press. They loved it, the public loved it, and I enjoyed how off-balanced people got when they first meet me. It didn't discourage some people, and I knew there were always people who found the idea of an idiot savant attractive, but for the most part people want to protect me from the world instead of hurt me.

The reporter was a nice lady, asking a few questions about my own musical plans, but for the most part stuck with talking about this new star Bad Luck and my thoughts concerning them. I answered truthfully without making it sound like the kids needed a few more tweaks, sometimes, letting Kumagoro do the talking. Once the interview wrapped up, she asked me for an autograph before leaving. I leaned back in my chair and yawned, sticking my rabbit on my head.

"Anything else, mister manager sir?"

K checked the time and shook his head. "Nope, nothing."

"Great!" I jumped up to my feet and headed for the door. "I'm gonna visit Tohma and check this place out, okay?"

"Now don't get lost," he replied, looking at me over his sunglasses.

I pushed mine on top of my head and grinned. "Don't worry, I'll be okay!"