***Judal***

Before he moved on to Tahoe Judal noticed a relatively new name landing a spot in the top 10 charts once again with a song from a recently released album. The newbie was, in fact, second only to the hit single he had recorded shortly before he left. He smirked. The newbie was doing well-and didn't sound half-bad either-but Judal was still a step ahead, even without having done anything active in the business for roughly four months. But still, interesting.

In Tahoe he walked into a house right on the lake. The water was beautiful he had to admit. He had originally planned to avoid this house and rent a cabin, but he couldn't find one he liked so he came to his parents old summer house, which they had left to him in their will, along with all of their other belongings. His parents had taken him here every summer before they had been killed in a car accident with a drunk driver. Miraculously, he had escaped unscathed. He had no idea how. He had been passed on to a rather abusive uncle. So he worked his ass off and signed with Al Thamen. And spent his teenage years making music. He rolled his eyes. None of that mattered anymore. For now, he needed to get his shit together.

First off, he unpacked the things he had brought with him. His ukulele and guitar were set to lean against a wall in the music room. He looked around. The grand piano stood under a cover in the center of the room. All of the instrument cases were in the same positions he remembered leaving them in the last time he had been here. And it was all covered in a think layer of dust. He shook his head, turning around and pulling out his phone to call a cleaning crew because he sure as hell wasn't going to clean this place up, and he definitely wasn't going to live in a huge house that was filled with dust and cobwebs. No, that wasn't happening, it would drive him insane. He gave up on unpacking until the house was clean. The maids arrived half an hour later and began working quickly; dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, sanitizing, washing, and polishing the house to perfection. It still took them all day to get the house into running order. He paid them and they left.

He walked through the house, satisfied with their work. They had been very thorough. He would have to keep them on as the regular team to keep the house maintained during his stay. He flopped onto the freshly made bed in the master bedroom, staring at the ceiling and thinking. He was bored. There was no drama here to entertain him. There were no fans throwing themselves at him in hopes that he would take a liking to them. No stupid dancers or crappy musicians or singers to piss him off. It was nice, but it also sucked. There was a reason why he was in this business. It was fun to watch all the drama unfold around him, to instigate it. He sighed.

The calm of the past few months was boring, although probably needed. He had broken himself of his bad habits. It had been hard the first month; seemingly impossible the first week, but he had done it. And every day after he had gotten over the shaking, stomach-churning phase had been easier. The withdrawal from the drug had been a royal pain in the ass; he couldn't sleep, moving hurt like hell, he had a fever, and he couldn't stop puking. He forced himself to get up and drink water and walk around as much as his wrecked body could. After the first week, he had felt better.

Now that he was in Tahoe, he started working out more. His muscles and body had completely protested. He ignored them. He downloaded several apps on his phone. Every day he walked into the gym in the house and began a new set of exercises based on what muscle group the app had planned for him to work on that day, in addition to the cardio routine he had designed for himself. It hurt. His muscles were extremely weak from the drugs effects and the alcohol abuse. He ignored it. He wanted to get back in control of his life. He was starting with this. If it hurt, well, life sucked.

He used another app to keep track of what he ate and drank. He documented everything. It wasn't so much to count calories as it was to make sure he wasn't eating to much crap. He drank eight glasses of water a day, made sure to eat mostly fruit and vegetables, protein, and minimal carbs. He stayed away from pasta, bread, and rice as much as possible, cutting the portions he ate of them in half and replacing it with healthier choices, peaches mostly. He ate a lot of peaches.

He spent his days differently. He went hiking on several different trails, enjoying the mountain air and view. He spent time at the lake. He pulled out all of the old equipment in the garage. He inspected everything for any sign of damage but it all seemed fine. He went kayaking on the lake. He brought out the little boat and sped along the water. He biked around the lake. He shopped, ate at overpriced restaurants, and got massages. He played his instruments, dedicating several days to each. He wrote lyrics for new songs that were sure to be popular. He played around with different melodies.

He brought himself the rest of the way back from the hellhole he had been getting himself in. Every day he was able to control, every time he made a decision, every time he did what he wanted, he got a little bit more normal. A little bit less frustrated. And he continued to do so for several months.

***Aladdin***

Aladdin continued to spend as much time with her friends as possible. The more time she spent with them the more she realized she had been lonely, still was lonely. They were great, and Ugo was great, and when she saw her parents they were great, but none of them took the loneliness away. Her music filled that hole temporarily, but it didn't last. And every time she slowed down in preparation for the end of a performance she felt the hole grow bigger than before. She felt as though she was missing something, like she had lost something but she didn't know she had ever had it so she didn't know how to get it back.

Instead of getting depressed she kept pushing forward. She found ways to keep herself busy so she didn't focus on the emptiness. She wrote more lyrics, she spent time with her friends when they weren't at school, she worked on her schoolwork. She worked on melodies to go with her lyrics. Normally, she wrote the lyrics to songs and someone else worked with her to write the music. It wasn't like she couldn't write the music too, but Sinbad insisted that she turn out as many songs as possible, and it was faster to have someone who knew the instruments well write the music. She started working on the piano again. She stumbled at first, not having practiced in over a year. It took some time to get her fingers to move over the keys the way she wanted. Although she wasn't very good at it, she was determined to write every part of the next album, even if it took a little longer than normal. Sinbad could be a little patient. The music never really sounded exactly the may she wanted if someone else wrote it. Sinbad always found a way to convince her that it was close enough, that what she was looking for was perfection, and perfection couldn't be achieved.

Sinbad started taking her out to do things. They went to lunch, got ice cream,-which she viciously ran on the treadmill later to recover from-watched the premiere of a new movie Sindrian Entertainment had just finished. Aladdin found it a little weird. Sinbad should have been spending time doing work as the CEO of Sindrian Entertainment, not spending time with her. She ignored it, passing it off as him wanting to avoid paperwork or something. Sinbad intended to keep his company's most popular singer happy.

Aladdin kept an eye out for news about her favorite singer/musician, but nothing new came up. The big news as of late was the Al Thamen had taken over Kou, joining the two under the Al Thamen name. Aladdin wrinkled her nose, the Al Thamen had kept Kouha super busy recently. Normally he was the one she could see most often, because he didn't go to school either. When wanting to spend time with her friends it was so annoying that she always was free during the time that they were at school, so she spent quite a bit of time with Kouha who had a similar problem-well, not anymore it seemed.

She continued on like this for several months, hiding the loneliness to the best of her ability, convincing those around her that she was okay, just tired.

Hello!

I have a wonderful reviewer out there who has requested more characters and different pairings. I am more than happy to do so. More characters are coming up and will get more time; I just wanted to start off with Aladdin and Judal. Is there anyone specific you would like to see with another character paired with or with an original character? If it's an original character do you have any ideas for appearance and personality or do you want me to make it up?

Thank you for reading so far. More chapters are coming soon.

Until next time!

-Kizuna