DISCLAIMER : I DO NOT OWN UTA NO PRINCE SAMA IN ANYWAY SHAPE OR FORM
Tokiya was looking over his students' essay questions when he happened to see most of his former band mates once again coming out of Masato's practice room.
"Well, at least he didn't have to go through the humiliation of being mistaken for being gay or something," he heard Syo say.
"Do I want to know what you guys are talking about?" Tokiya asked.
"Ah, Tokiya!" Otoya shouted in surprise.
"What are you doing here?" Natsuki asked.
"I do work here you know," Tokiya said as he rolled his eyes and tried to walk past them, but stopped. "By the way, did you hear about Hijirikawa?"
"How he's getting a divorce? Yeah we heard," said Otoya, "we were just talking about it with him."
Tokiya nodded. "I supposed having your wife leave you isn't as bad as having her die," he said softly.
"Yeah, probably," said Natsuki.
"Anyway, are you getting ready for the big exam coming up?" Tokiya asked quickly trying to change the subject.
"As best we can," said Otoya, "hopefully we've gotten those kids ready for it."
"They'll need to be if they wish to pass the final audition at the end of the year," said Tokiya. "I'm so busy with it, I can't take Rui to her doctor's appointment."
"Rui-Chan has another doctor's appointment?" Natsuki asked.
"Just a follow up from her recent one," Tokiya assured the men. "Nothing serious. She's been doing a lot better recently."
"I bet a lot of it has to do with the way Miss Kyouou has been helping her," said Otoya.
"You may have a point. Although, I hope it's too much on Miss Kyouou," said Tokiya. The three men all looked at each other.
"What do you mean?" Syo asked.
"She just seems really exhausted lately and I just hope the work I'm having her do isn't overwhelming her," said Tokiya, "Well anyway, I got to go."
"He's catching on to us isn't he?" Natsuki asked.
"Not if we do something stupid," said Syo.
"But if this really is having a bad affect on Miss Kyouou? We don't want to hurt her do we?" Otoya asked.
"We're almost done. How much harder could it be?" Syo asked.
Yuina sighed as she sat at a random table, softly tapping the glass in front of her.
"Well, I didn't think the drink was that bad," said her mother walking up to the table.
"I'm in so much trouble Mom," Yuina said.
"Is this about that song you're helping to compose behind your boss's back?" her mother asked slightly smug.
"He starting to think he's overworking me and is trying to lighten my work load," said Yuina.
"Well at least he cares," said Sagako.
"And it's not like you haven't tried doing things behind your boss's back before either!" Wacui added as he came and put a plate of food down in front of Yuina. "I saw a lot of things you and your sister tried pulling growing up to get out of work!"
"Yeah, but you wouldn't have fired us," Yuina pointed out.
"True," Wacui admitted before heading back to the kitchen.
Yuina waited until she was sure her father was busy before looking back to her mother.
"Mom, there's something else that's bugging me about this," she started to whisper.
"Oh my god, Yuina!" The two suddenly heard Chiho shouted as she came running into the restaurant, holding two different magazines. "Thank God you're here!"
"What, what's wrong?" Yuina asked as her sister ran to the table.
"I wanted to know if you knew anything about this!" Chiho asked as she threw the magazine down onto the table. It happened to be a gossip magazine and the title read, STARISH SET TO REUNITE?!
Yuina snatched up the magazine with her eyes wide. "Where did you get this?!" she asked.
"At the store I was shopping at. Do you know anything about this?!" Chiho asked eagerly.
"No!" Yuina insisted. She assumed it would happen once the song was finished, but they were already going on about it?! What if Tokiya found out? What would he do? She opened the magazine to read the article and saw it was talking about a rumor that Otoya Ittoki had been trying to get into contact with the band's 7th member Cecil Aijima which many were assuming meant that the band maybe somewhat getting back together.
"Could they really be getting back together?!" Chiho kept asking.
"Well just because he's trying to get in contact with Cecil, doesn't mean they're getting back together. For all we know, he just wants to get in contact with his old friend," Yuina tried to argue.
"You think?" Chiho asked disappointed, "but, what about this then?" She laid down another magazine with the title, HIJIRIKAWAS TO SPLIT.
"Oh-no," Yuina said as she opened the magazine to see it talking about a rumor going around that Masato maybe separating from his wife. "He is leaving her!"
"Did you know about that?" her mother asked.
"Kind of, yesterday, when Mr. Hijirikawa and I were working together, I may have said something that may or may not have triggered something in Mr. Hijirikawa. That's what's also been bothering me Mom. I can't help but think some of the guys kind of like me, in a weird way."
"Oh my god are you serious?!" Chiho asked excited, "you are so lucky Yuina!"
"I don't feel lucky! I may have caused a couple's divorce!"
"I doubt you're the soul reason they're splitting up my dear," said Sagako.
"I hope so, but still. I don't know if I like any of these guys that way," said Yuina.
"How could you not?" Chiho asked.
"Because your sister's human and thinks like a human," said their mother.
"Oh thanks Mom," said Chiho. She knelt down close to her sister, "listen to me Yuina. Don't blow this great chance. So many women would die to be in your place, to be the center of attention of the former members of STARISH! Don't be stupid about. I'm sure if you got to know them better, you'll find you like and then I'll have one of them as my brother-in-law!"
"You're crazy you know that?" Yuina said.
'I'm sure that if you got to know them better, you'll find one you like,' Chiho's advice kept ringing in Yuina's ears later at her apartment.
'God she's so crazy,' Yuina thought. She laid on her floor again. 'I have been spending time with them and I know how I feel. I just don't like any of them in that way. Well, maybe, except for, no no, not even him. I don't see a future with any of the STARISH guys.'
"Good morning Mr. Tokiya," Yuina said the next day when she arrived at the Ichinose house. Tokiya was already at the kitchen table reading a morning paper and drinking come coffee.
"Good morning Miss Kyouou," said Tokiya, "I tried doing your coffee recipe this morning, but I don't know if I did quite right."
"Would you like me to make you a new batch?" Yuina offered.
"If you wish, this isn't so bad, it's just not as good as when you make it," said Tokiya.
"I see," said Yuina as she started making some coffee. "Well if you want some handmade by me, it's right here."
"Thank you," said Tokiya.
"Anything good in the paper this morning sir?" Yuina asked.
"Nah, nothing much," said Tokiya, "read somewhere in the gossip section someone thinks STARISH is planning on reuniting."
"What?" Yuina asked, trying to hide her panic.
"They're always making rumors up about STARISH. Comes with the territory. I think I read something not too long ago that Syo and Natsuki were finally in a relationship. As if," Tokiya said like it was nothing.
Yuina breathed a sigh of relief. At least it didn't sound like Tokiya was suspicious about anything.
"I guess they did get one thing right though, about Masato finally separating from his wife," Tokiya kept going on, "good riddance I say. It was actually kind of painful to watch him suffer in that marriage."
"You think?" Yuina asked.
"Very much so," said Tokiya.
"Well if you say so," said Yuina.
"Don't worry about it too much," Tokiya assured her, "I'm sure he'll be able to move on and find himself a new love."
Yuina nodded. "Do you ever think about dating again sir?" she asked.
Tokiya was quite for a moment. "I, uh, I don't know. I guess if I did, she'd have to be a kind of woman that can fascinate me the same way Haruka did."
"That won't be easy huh?" Yuina asked casually.
"No, but, stranger things have happened," said Tokiya studying Yuina from the back. Yuina looked over her shoulder and saw the way Tokiya was looking at her. She turned away so he wouldn't see her blush.
Otoya had a big smile on his face as he drove up to the Ichinose house. He couldn't wait to see Yuina and the kids and get to work.
He practically skipped to the door and rang the bell. Yuina was quick to answer holding Shinako in her arms. "Hi," he said cheerfully.
"Oto!" Shinako said happily.
"Oh good, I was kind of hoping it was you," Yuina said.
"Huh, you were?" Otoya asked, his heart racing.
"Yes, I wanted to know if you knew how the rumor of STARISH getting back together got started," said Yuina, "mostly because I heard in involves you personally trying to get in contact with Cecil or something like that."
"Oh that," said Otoya rubbing the back of his head, "that's actually a funny story. You see, the other five of us had sort of figured we should try to contact Cecil about what we were doing and well the only way I could think of getting his contact information was to go to see my boss, Shining Saotome."
"Hello, Chairman?" Otoya asked as he walked into the office. No one was there that he could see, "Hello?"
He tried asking again.
Suddenly a loud powerful laugh echoed through the room.
"Mister Ittoki!" Shining shouted as he suddenly leaped down from the ceiling laughing as usual. "To what do I owe this honor of your visit?"
"Uh, hello sir," said Otoya, trying to calm down, "I was hoping you could help me with something."
"Of course, anything you can think of, I would love to help with!"
"Do you have any contact information on Cecil by chance?" Otoya asked. At that Shining stopped laughing and looked serious.
"Of course I do," he said, "but let me ask you something. What has provoked you into wanting to contact him all of a sudden?"
"Well, for one thing, we kind of miss him," said Otoya.
"And is there any other reason?" Shining asked.
"Well, we may have something here he may want to be involved in. Something that affects all us former members of STARISH," Otoya confessed.
"Hmm," Shining said as he seemed to be pondering over the notion. Suddenly he jumped up again and started to laugh. "Something that is bringing STARISH back together huh?!" He laughed some more, "sounds most intriguing! Whee!" He twirled around fast towards one of his book shelves where he managed to flip a folder off it with ease over to Otoya. "Here it is, all the information you'll ever need to contact Mr. Aijima! Let me know once you have made contact with him! I would like to know the process of this current situation!"
"Uh, yes sir, I'll try to keep you updated," said Otoya as he slowly backed out of the room while Shining kept laughing.
What Otoya didn't realize was what had happened after he had left. Shining took a seat back at his desk.
"So STARISH may be getting back together? Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I were to help flap the flames a little," he said before laughing again and reaching for his phone.
"My only guess is that the chairman somehow leaked it to the press," said Otoya.
"Great," said Yuina, "We're just lucky Mr. Ichinose thinks it's just that, a gossip rumor with no merit."
"Sorry Yuina, I know you want to keep this under wraps as much as possible. Not only could Tokiya get mad but, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't appreciate the idea of an amateur like you finishing Haruka's last piece of work."
Yuina seemed to nearly drop Shinako at Otoya's comment.
"That thought had never acute to me!" She admitted. She gently put the little girl down as she leaned against the wall upset. "This is too much! Is it really worth it?!"
"It is to us!" Otoya said as he came over to try and comfort her. Yuina was surprised when he tried to hug her. "This is so wonderful for us and we couldn't have done it without you! Whatever happens, both with Tokiya or the public, we'll help you Yuina, I promise!"
Yuina felt surprisingly happy over the notion that Otoya was comforting her a little. She looked up at him and smiled. "Well then, we should get to work huh?" she asked. Otoya nodded.
"Yeah, let's really make it worth it!" He said.
"Yeah!" Shinako also shouted. Both the adults laughed at her cheer.