A/N: I would just like to say thatUta No Prince-Sama Season 4 is pissing me off because they seem to have forgotten that this is a reverse harem, meaning that Haruka should be involved in helping to solve the guys' problems (hence partly why they fell/fall in love with her). She should have helped Masato with his dad and she certainly should have been there for Otoya during his crisis, but apparently she just composes music now while being oblivious to troubles around her. Ugh. At least there's fanfiction.
Haruka stared in surprise at the giant poster of HEAVENS hanging from the ceiling of the mall. Apparently, they were appearing today to sing a brand new song and do a signing. No wonder the mall was so crowded today. She had started wondering if there was a holiday going on that she'd forgotten about.
She'd picked the wrong day to come pick out a gift for Tomochika's birthday. The mall was crowded almost wall-to-wall with people, which made sense, since HEAVENS was so popular. Though they lost the Triple S, it had still given them great exposure within the country. The number of fans for all three bands involved had multiplied hugely.
As Haruka squeezed into a clothing store she wondered if she should stay to hear HEAVENS' new song. It was always a good idea to listen to songs other than the ones she composed. It gave her ideas of what she felt worked and didn't work, and let her know what people enjoyed. It would especially be interesting to see the reaction of the crowd to the song.
Her eyes lit up when she spotted a shirt similar to one she knew Tomo had been eyeing. Thoughts of HEAVENS was temporarily pushed from Haruka's mind as she contemplated the surprise party she and STARISH were throwing for Tomochika in a few days. She hoped everything went well.
After purchasing the shirt, Haruka tried to navigate the crowd to find a sweets shop that carried Tomo's favorite brand of dark chocolate. Spotting a large gap in the crowd, Haruka blindly went toward it and entered through a pair of doors, then walked hurriedly down the hall.
Her steps slowed as she realized she didn't recognize anything around her. "Eh?" She said quietly as her head turned this way and that. There were no people around her now, only a concrete floor and grey walls. She blinked in confusion before realizing she must have somehow ended up behind the stores. Where only employees should be. She flushed when she realized her mistake and turned to hurry away, but heard frustrated yelling before she could take any steps.
"What do you mean he's not coming? The song that we have isn't finished and the file that he sent us is corrupted. If he's too incompetent to send us the finished product, which he promised we'd have three days ago, then he should be professional enough to come in person and bring it. Does he expect us to act like lowly delivery boys and go pick it up?"
A quiet voice gave a response that Haruka couldn't understand, then another angry voice spoke up.
"We can't go out there and sing half a song. We're HEAVENS, our fans expect something great, not the work of some pathetic garage band who can't even finish their work."
The angry voices sounded familiar and Haruka's brow furrowed when she heard the word 'Heavens'. She slowly began moving closer to the room.
A younger and higher-pitched voice asked, "What are we going to do? Our agency has been bragging about us singing an all new song today for weeks. We can't go out there and sing one of our old songs."
"And we've already practiced choreography and wrote lyrics for what this song is supposed to be," a calmer voice pointed out.
Haruka bit her lip as she stepped into the doorway, hoping she wasn't butting in unnecessarily. "Um, excuse me, but I couldn't help overhear, and I thought maybe I could help."
Eight pairs of surprised eyes turned to look at Haruka, the seven members of HEAVENS plus a very stressed and harried looking older man in a suit. His eyes narrowed as he took her in. "What are you doing back here? Fans aren't supposed to—"
"Ha-chan!" Van interrupted, looking utterly relieved as he stepped forward and grabbed Haruka's hands in his owns, pulling her into the room. "You're an angel sent to save us. Our agency hired a new up and coming composer to write our new song, but the last time we met with him the song still wasn't finished. He was supposed to send it to us a few days ago, but we got nothing until this morning, and the electronic file he sent is corrupted. We can't listen to it or use his song."
Eichi stared at Haruka with calculating eyes as he tried to calm down. This whole situation was infuriating and never should have happened. This is what his father got for trying to hire an unknown to compete with the work of Haruka Nanami. The work that they'd heard of this guy was impressive, but he'd struck HEAVENS as flighty and irresponsible, which was exactly what he turned out to be. However, if anyone had a chance of fixing this mess, it was Haruka.
"We're supposed to go on in half an hour," Eichi told Haruka. He put two pieces of paper down in front of Haruka. One was the lyrics HEAVENS had written for the song, the other was the unfinished composition of the song. "Can you finish this?"
Haruka looked over both papers with clear, focused eyes. Her tentativeness from when she walked into the room vanished the moment she had music laid out in front of her. "Yes," she said, looking up into Eichi's eyes. "But you guys won't have any time to practice it beforehand." Her eyes lit up after she said those words and her gaze turned back to the paper. "We can make it sound like the song is supposed to be that way. Rough and unpolished, like it's raw, coming straight from your souls."
Eichi grinned and shivered at Haruka's words, not bothering to reply as she took out a pen and went to work. STARISH, as good as they were, were a waste of Haruka Nanami's talents. If she belonged to HEAVENS, they would bring out her full potential.
The members of HEAVENS were silent as they watched Haruka work feverishly, her eyes jumping from the lyrics back to the composition. After twenty minutes, Haruka stopped and looked up, gesturing for the members of HEAVENS to gather around her. "Hyuga and Amakusa, you two will start out the song, giving it a powerful and mysterious beginning." She made a note on the paper about where the two of them were supposed to sing.
"Eichi, you and Eiji will sing next, and then everyone will join in for the next part. Then Nagi will sing to give the song a moment of lighter quality and almost hopefulness. Then Sumeragi will break in as Nagi fades out, followed by Kiryuin and then Hyuga." The band members nodded as Haruka continued, feeling that her choices made perfect sense with the lyrics they'd written and the final version of the song Haruka had just completed.
When the members of the band didn't offer up any complaints to her work, Haruka took out her iPad and opened up her music program. She quickly put in the newly composed song and layered on more sounds. It wouldn't sound professional, though Eichi had told her that some of the band members could play live instruments to help things sound better, and maybe with the unpolished sound of the song, it would be okay that it didn't sound perfectly professional.
Eichi shivered again as he looked everything over. Haruka Nanami had just turned a disaster into a masterpiece in under half an hour. Now all that was left was for HEAVENS to pull it off.
"You're the best, Haruka," Nagi said, wrapping his arms around Haruka and giving her his best idol smile.
"Um, thanks," Haruka said, blushing. "I'm just glad I was able to help. Good luck!"
Nagi pouted. "You're going to stay and watch us, aren't you? If you don't, it'll show that you don't have faith in your song or in us."
"Yes, I plan to watch," Haruka assured him, though she had no intention of staying through the signing. The mall was chaos with fans of HEAVENS crowding it.
The band members nodded to her as they walked out, Van being the last one. "Wait, Kiryuin," Haruka said, impulsively reaching out to grab his arm. He turned his head to look at her curiously and she blushed as she said, "Would it be all right if I talked to for a minute after you sing? Just for a minute. I have something I want to give you."
Van stared at Haruka, dumbfounded. Did she have to tell him this now? He was under enough stress, hoping he and the band would be able to perform at their normal quality while singing a song they'd never practiced before in front of an audience. Now he'd have to struggle to keep his mind away from Haruka and whatever it was she wanted to give him. "I'll come back and see you," he promised, before leaving to trail after Kira.
~.~
Haruka beamed as she watched the song. HEAVENS performed amazingly. The sound quality wasn't what she wanted, but she thought HEAVENS voices and dance moves helped make up for it. No one in the crowd would guess that much of this had been done at the last minute.
As the song finished, fans screamed wildly, yelling for more to the point that HEAVENS sang the song again. Haruka noticed employees of the surrounding stores standing just outside their stores to hear and watch HEAVENS. Thank goodness everything had turned out okay.
~.~
Van stood in front of Haruka a few minutes later, his hands in his pockets as he waited nervously. Why did he feel nervous? The song was over with and had gone off better than any of them could have expected or hoped. The song itself was amazing, of course, and Haruka's instincts for where everyone should sing were spot on. The woman was born to compose music.
Haruka shyly reached into her purse and pulled out a folded piece of paper, holding it out to him. "I wanted to give you this as a thank you for helping me write the song about falling in love. I couldn't have done it without you and wanted to give you something in return."
"You didn't have to," Van said, automatically reaching for the piece of paper. "I was happy to help." Haruka's trouble with the song had given Van an excuse to take her out on a date. Or, pseudo date, as Haruka viewed it. He was grateful she felt she couldn't have written the song without his help.
He unfolded the paper, wondering what it was. Once he saw it, he thought he should have figured, should have known all along. It was a solo song. Written just for him. By Haruka. He looked up to see her biting her lip and looking at him uncertainly from under her eyelashes. "Ha-chan…this is amazing. You absolutely didn't need to do this, but thank you."
"Do you like it?" She asked worriedly, surprising Van. Like it? How could anyone not like one of her songs?
"It's perfect," he answered. And it was. The song felt like Van. Haruka had obviously incorporated what she knew of him to compose the song. Just like she had done for all of HEAVENS in the song she just finished for them. He felt a twinge of jealousy as he thought of STARISH and hoped they knew just how lucky they were.
As Van stared at the song again, he wondered why Haruka had the song on her. Was it just a coincidence? Or had she been carrying the song with her ever since she finished it, hoping to run into him? Was it possible she thought more strongly for him then she let on?
"Well, thank you again, Kiryuin," Haruka said, waving as she started to walk away. "I'll see you later."
"Wait," Van said, catching Haruka's hand before she could get away. As usual, this wasn't an opportunity Van could let go to waste. Haruka stared at him curiously as Van kept ahold of her hand, pulling her closer to him and rubbing his thumb over her fingers. He smiled down at her. "We're friends, right, Ha-chan? We get along well and help each other out when we can?"
"Yes," Haruka answered slowly, blushing as she stared at Van's hand holding her own.
"Well, then," Van said, pulling Haruka even closer and bending down so he could look into her eyes. "Shouldn't you call me Van instead of Kiryuin then?"
Haruka stared up at Van with wide eyes. "I-I…I suppose I could…"
"Will you?" Van pressed. "It feels lonely with me calling you Ha-chan and you calling me by my last name."
Slowly, Haruka nodded, a blush covering her cheeks.
Van grinned. "All right. From now on, you'll call me Van."
"Y-yes…Van."
Van almost thought his heart would stop, Haruka was so adorable saying his name. He swooped down to plant a quick kiss on her cheek before letting go of her hand and stepping back. "I'd better get back to the signing. I'll see you around, Ha-chan." He walked backwards as he waved good-bye to her, pleased to see the blush still covering her cheeks and the hand coming up to tentatively touch where Van had kissed her.
~.~
"Awww, Haruka already left?" Nagi asked in disappointment after their signing event ended. "How lame."
Yamato frowned and crossed his muscular arms. "She's really good."
"No, no, Ha-chan is the best," Van corrected, spreading his arms wide. "Who else could pull off an amazing song like that in so little time? She's a genius."
Kira nodded and quietly said, "She is very talented. The best composer we've worked with."
"The stars were smiling down upon us today," Shion said. "How else could Haruka Nanami appear exactly where we needed her when we needed her?" He paused. "It seems to be the stars will that she compose for us."
"It's not just her talent for composing," Eiji commented. "It's that the song fit us so well, and she knew intuitively where each of us should sing. She's only worked with us a little, but she still knows us well enough to know our strengths and our weaknesses, to know our personalities enough to show it through song. I'm sure a large part of STARISH's success is because of how flawlessly she showcases who each of them are through music."
"We need that," Nagi said petulantly, folding his arms and pouting. "How can she want to compose for STARISH over us?"
One band member was surprisingly silent as HEAVENS sung Haruka's praises and bemoaned the fact that she wasn't their composer. Eichi had one hand at his chin as he thought, his eyes staring at Van. "What did Haruka talk to you about?" He finally asked.
"What?" Van asked in surprise, looking back at Eichi.
"Haruka asked specifically to speak to you. And after our performance, you left for a minute to talk with her. Why?"
Van blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, Ha-chan just wanted to thank me for something I did for her before. That's all."
Despite Van's words, Eichi suspected that that wasn't "all". He had never seen Van blush before. Nor was it common for Haruka to focus on one man out of the bands she composed for. She treated everyone equally, never showing favorites within a group. He grinned. This information could be very useful going forward.