Once again, apologies for the delay in updating! Admittedly, I've been having a little bit of trouble with writing lately, and finding the inspiration to do so even with the majority of the story planned out. Hopefully I can break this block and we'll have more chapters soon, because from here on out, it gets INTENSE XD I suppose if anything that could be my resolution for this new year. Thank you very much Cosmic Crow and GinMado for the reviews! I'll do my best to get an update up quicker next time :D
I do not own Metal Fight Beyblade.
Christina had mixed feelings about the concert Midnight Embrace was currently attending.
Dauntless Inferno was playing their first big, real show at a famous venue in the center of the city. It wasn't huge, but it was the biggest venue they'd played so far, and was supposed to help them get ready for their upcoming tour, and generate more interest. Most of DNMM's bands under Nebulous Records label had shown up to watch, to see what could be for them if they were successful, too. With so many other prospective bands in attendance, it would've been weird for them not to show up so Midnight Embrace had decided to suck it up, even if almost everyone continued to go out of their way to avoid them. Besides, Dauntless Inferno had been pretty nice about the whole thing, offering support and advice to help the girls through this rough patch. The least they could do was show up to support them as well.
The thing that bothered her most though, was that the Garcias were opening up for them. Rumor had it they were about to be officially signed any day now, since their third single had been released to great response. It irked Christina more than she cared to admit. Similar rumors flew that the Garcias might be going on tour alongside Dauntless Inferno once the last few dates were finalized. This particular show was probably a test to see how well the bands' musical styles worked together.
Midnight Embrace's second single was thankfully doing fantastic, but other than keeping them from getting kicked out it wasn't doing much to help them at the moment, thanks to Selen. They could've been the ones up there if not for the fact that they were still on probation. Their next show was in a few days, though, so hopefully that would be changing. They needed the chance to redeem themselves and as far as the girls were concerned, it couldn't come fast enough.
The lights dimmed, and Christina couldn't help rolling her eyes. She didn't like bashing fellow musicians, but the Garcias got under her skin worse than practically anyone.
Fortunately their set seemed to go by quickly and she felt like she could actually begin enjoying the show once they were off stage. She couldn't wait to see Bao- and the rest of the band- play again.
Whatever tips and tricks the choreographers and other experts had given Dauntless Inferno must've worked, because the boys confidently walked across the stage like they owned it to thunderous applause. Their album was skyrocketing towards the top. Rumor had it they were definitely going to be the next big thing, if they weren't already. As the headliners, they'd managed to easily sell out the venue, one with a capacity of roughly 1,000. With this success, they'd quickly be moving on to larger ones.
As the music started, the crowd danced along, cheering. Christina stared up in awe at Bao, completely envious. She could only begin to imagine how it must feel, thinking back to the festival she'd played so long ago.
Bao's red hair flopped in front of his face, but it didn't distract him one bit. He hit every note.
"Yes!" Christina cheered just as loud as the rest, wishing she were just a bit closer so that Bao would see Midnight Embrace had come to support them. He suddenly glanced in her direction and smiled, but Christina wasn't so sure if he had seen her, or if it was just a general reaction to the energy of the night.
An hour later, everyone still radiated that same manic liveliness, both the crowd and the band, but it was time for the night to come to a close.
Dauntless Inferno launched into their last song, the crowd around the girls going wild. Surprisingly, there were a large number of teenage girls swarming the stage, despite the fact that the band played fairly heavy rock music.
"Well at least they've got good taste," Christina commented, though it felt a bit like a pop concert with all the earsplitting shrieking.
"And for some reason Kyoya insists they're not a boy band," Gin giggled.
The girls fought to hold their spots as the crowd surged around them. Three minutes later, it was over with. They gasped for breath, sweatier than they expected.
"I really hope we can do this some day," Avari said wistfully as Dauntless Inferno walked off and the lights went up, officially signaling the end. Techs and roadies immediately swarmed the stage to start breaking things down. It was strange to think that in about half an hour, the packed venue would be completely empty.
The girls sneaked backstage after the show, waiting until the crowd dwindled. Dauntless Inferno was getting big, but they hadn't started offering meet and greet opportunities yet. For some reason, security seemed pretty lax. They slipped through the door unnoticed, not a single bouncer in sight.
"Where could they be?" Ninel looked around, confused. Roadies were still busy clearing off the stage, and hardly paid the girls any notice.
"The bar?" Stella suggested.
"What are you doing back here?" The girls spun around and saw Selen glaring at them, hands on her hips. "Last I checked, only the talent was supposed to be back here. Although, there have been a few groupies back here. You girls would make great groupies, considering you're not good at much else. Other than fawning over boys, I mean." Selen's brothers walked past, grabbing their own instruments to bring to the car.
"For your information, Dauntless Inferno invited us back here," Avari glared back, lying through her teeth. "Particularly Dashan, if we're being specific."
Ninel and Christina exchanged a look. Hadn't Avari been the one who told them they should go out of their way to avoid antagonizing the Garcias?
It didn't really matter. If Avari was ready to pounce on Selen, so was Christina. She was done with letting a brat like her call the shots.
"Yeah, aren't you supposed to go on a date with him next week?" Christina nodded at Ninel, who caught her cue and played along.
"Yes. We're getting dinner at the new Italian restaurant downtown."
The jab clearly hit its mark as Selen squirmed. "Whatever," she hissed. "I told you to stay away from him, but it really doesn't matter. You guys will be gone after your next show."
Ryuto, as if he'd been summoned by sensing the impending drama and the need to quell it, appeared. "Oh, hi Midnight Embrace. Good to see you all here. Did you enjoy the show?"
Avari's lips curled up in a smile. "Of course." It seemed like the two of them shared some sort of secret between them. Christina wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Avari had pretty much morphed without much explanation back to her normal self after their interview, but Christina was fairly certain Ryuto had something to do with it, even if neither of them were saying anything.
"Where is Dauntless Inferno?" Gin asked, trying to draw attention away from the spat.
Selen snorted. "You mean they invited you backstage then didn't tell you where they'd be? Obviously they're at the merch booth. You know, signing autographs, meeting fans. Things you'll never get to do. It's common sense, but I suppose none of you are smart enough to understand basic marketing." Clearly Ryuto was not one of the DNMM employees Selen cared about sucking up to.
"We should go catch up with them," Christina suggested, wanting to get as far away from Selen as possible. She wanted to see Bao again. He'd killed it on bass tonight. The girls turned to walk away, glad to put space between them and Selen.
Before anyone knew what was happening, Argo had grabbed Gin and twirled her around. Gin shrieked, but the noise was silenced by Argo kissing her. She turned her head away, pushing him back, but he only pulled her in closer. A flash temporarily blinded her vision.
When Argo finally let her go, Gin felt sick to her stomach and utterly confused. She stumbled away, shoving him as hard as she could. Stella and Christina reached out to steady her. Argo looked disgustingly pleased with himself and Selen wore a nasty, victorious grin.
Stella and Christina were the only forces holding her up in that moment. Gin wasn't sure how to react. Mad was definitely an understatement, and she didn't understand why he'd done it, but shock was preventing her from doing anything other than standing there, mouth half-open.
Multiple people who'd been backstage flocked to watch the display. Including…
Kyoya.
He must've just returned from the merch table. He wore a repulsed look on his face. Panic pushed through every other emotion she felt, winning out. Of all people to have witnessed that ugly scene, he was the last she would've wished there. Gin wanted to call out to him, to let him know it definitely wasn't how it looked. But no matter what angle it was spun from, she was certain whatever she said would sound like an excuse. He stomped away, back towards the emptying pit. Tears stung the back of her eyes. Even if she could find him in the crowd, Gin knew there was no way he'd let her follow her. Instead, she did the next best thing.
Gin ran. Leaving the venue was the one thing she could do. The rest of Midnight Embrace tore after her, wanting to get as far away from this disaster of a night as possible.
"This is awful," Gin moaned. She was curled up on the couch, a blanket covering every part of her, including her head. She stared at her phone. She'd sent Kyoya several messages since last night, but he hadn't responded. Worse yet, he'd turned on read receipts, so Gin knew he'd seen the messages. He was purposefully ignoring her, though she supposed she couldn't blame him. She just wished there were some way to get through to him.
"I'm sure it'll blow over soon," Stella reassured her.
"I just can't believe Argo thought he could do that," Christina fumed. "He's lucky it caught everyone off guard, or he'd be in a ton of trouble. They're lucky they aren't playing the next show with us. They better not even show their faces, I don't care if we're all part of DNMM, they need to go down. If they miss with our equipment again, I'm not holding back."
"I just wish Kyoya would let me explain," Gin said in a small voice. Though she hadn't said it out loud, Kyoya's reaction kind of confused her- it felt like it had been just as emotional as hers. She absolutely liked him, but she wasn't so sure the feeling was mutual. They'd hung out together a few times, but Kyoya had never made a move or done anything obvious to show it, at least not that she could think of. She tried wracking her brains for any small detail that could give her a clue.
Gin knew Kyoya didn't like Argo, but that was no reason to go storming off just because he'd seen him kissing one of his friends who, from Kyoya's point of view, seemed to be kissing back. She felt nauseous again. By that logic, maybe Kyoya did return her feelings? It was so confusing. She'd be upset if she saw him kissing another girl, but if he did, it wasn't like she could do anything about it. Her "kiss" with Argo hadn't been mutual, though. Gin wasn't even sure why he'd done it. All she knew was she hated Argo for putting her in this position.
Gin grabbed a pillow and held it against her face, groaning. Maybe Kyoya was just so disappointed in seeing her with someone like Argo he didn't want to see her again. She wished she could just stay in bed and everything would resolve on its own.
"On a positive note, it looks like our article is up," Ninel tried to sound upbeat, as she brought up the link on her laptop, sitting next to Gin on the couch.
"Cool," Avari scanned the page quick before heading back to the kitchen. As they'd been expecting, there weren't any surprises. They'd squashed Katie's hopes of getting a juicy story, so she'd simply written a nice introduction to them and their music. It was a relief to see something finally going their way.
"Ooh hey, look!" Christina pointed at the bottom of the screen. "Stella, your name's on one of the related articles."
"What?" Stella squished closer, but the couch was reaching its limit with the four of them. Gin sat up to make more room.
Ninel clicked on the headline. The page loaded, bringing up a photo of Stella and King when they'd gone out for rum and cokes. From the pictures, the two looked to be having a great time.
Stella wore an uncomfortable expression across her face. "I thought it felt like we were being watched."
Ninel frowned as well. "I'm not so sure how I feel about this."
"'Newcomer Stella Celatum Finds Love With Dauntless Inferno Rock Star,'" Christina read the title. "That's pretty presumptuous of them. I wouldn't worry, this looks like tabloid trash. No one's going to believe it."
Stella looked freaked. "How'd they get my name? They were just taking pictures!" She ran her hands through her hair nervously.
Gin peeked over at the article, the blanket pulling back a bit to reveal her hairline. "I'm with Christina on this one. It looks like a bunch of nonsense someone came up with when they were desperate to hit a deadline and only had a few photos to go off of. There's no quotes, or anything."
Stella finished reading the article. "I guess, the author even admits it's mostly speculation, but this is still really, really wrong." She shifted uncomfortably.
"It's got a lot of comments, though," Ninel mused, pointing at them.
Stella's face fell as she looked them over. "Wow. Some of these people are just mean."
"I wouldn't worry about it too much," Christina brushed them off. "Everyone's brave behind a keyboard. Besides, it looks like they're mostly from teenage girls obsessed with Dauntless Inferno. They're going to have a problem with any female the band is associated with. I wouldn't let it get to you."
"You're right," Stella tried to smile.
"We should all keep that in mind," Avari called from the kitchen. "Ninel and Christina have been seen with Dashan and Bao a few times, too. I wouldn't be surprised if an article about that pops up soon."
"Then we'll be ready for it," Ninel said confidently.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll post one about Dashan and Selen so the comments section can rip into her," Christina snickered. "See how she likes being on the other end."
Gin was still looking over the website. She noticed a headline from an article posted this morning. Hesitantly, she clicked on it, taking control of the laptop.
The flash that bothered her last night hadn't been nothing liked she'd hoped after all. Sure enough, a picture of Argo kissing her slowly loaded onto the screen. She didn't bother reading the words printed beneath it. She already knew what they said.
"Ugh!" Gin stuck her head into the pillow again, blanket fully over her head, and Christina and Ninel went back to comforting her.
While the other girls were distracted, Stella pulled up the article about her and King on her own laptop, which had been lying on her beanbag chair, again. She scrolled down to the comments section.
She really should not be eating that mozzarella stick.
What's King doing with a girl like her? He can do so much better. She looks like total trash.
I'd seriously consider salad if I was her. And she wants to be famous?
The list went on and on. A few times there were some nice comments, hoping there really was something between her and King, but those were few and far between. Stella slammed her laptop shut.
She glanced over at the bathroom, where the scale was. It'd been a while since she'd last checked, and they'd been through a lot lately. Maybe she had gained some weight.
Stella pushed the thought out of her mind. The others were right. These people had nothing better to do than hide behind their keyboards and take shots. She couldn't let some hateful, jealous Dauntless Inferno fans start messing with her head. Not when there was so much on the line.
As the girls arrived for load-in at their next show, the only thing on Ninel's mind was the absolute refusal to allow for a repeat of last time. Stella was keeping her stick bag on her. Gin would go backstage during the last song of the band before them to double-check her guitars were still correctly tuned, and make sure no one outside of the tech crew touched them before they were brought on stage. While she portrayed a calm exterior, on the inside Ninel was shaking.
If something went wrong tonight, they could forget about probation. Their dreams would be finished.
Almost the entirety of Dauntless Inferno was there, minus Kyoya, and Ninel recognized a bunch of other bands that had come out to watch, too. She felt a little unsettled, wondering if some of them had just wanted to see if Midnight Embrace blew it again.
Having Dashan and the others around was reassuring, though. Ninel didn't see Selen, but she figured she and her brothers would be showing up any minute, especially if they were planning more sabotage.
Sitting down in a seat near here, Gin looked pale as she sipped a water bottle, pulling her knees close to her chest. "He didn't come."
"What?" Ninel cocked her head.
"Kyoya. He promised me he'd be here, to help watch our stuff," Gin looked impossibly sad, and Ninel was afraid she might burst into tears on the spot. They needed to keep it together, now more than ever.
Ninel sat down next to her. "He could be busy tonight, right? That's happened before."
"He's still not answering my texts." Gin peeked over at her phone.
"I'm sure things will work out," Ninel tried to sound optimistic. "He'll come around, just give it some time."
Ninel stood up to give Gin some space. Stella was by the bar, and Christina was over with Bao, which left Avari unaccounted for. Ninel frowned. Hopefully their lead singer wasn't getting trashed in a corner somewhere. Unfortunately, as much as she hated to admit it, she wouldn't put it past her.
She resigned herself to looking for Avari. After their disastrous last performance, Midnight Embrace was performing first, so it was probably best to locate her now anyway. The girls would be playing the set of their lives in twenty short minutes.
As far as she could tell, Avari was nowhere near the bar, which was a relief, but also out of character, and Ninel had no idea where else to look for her. They'd already taken everything out of the van, and it wasn't like Avari had a lot of equipment to tote around anyway, outside of her mic and some cords.
She decided to check around backstage a bit more. This close to their set, Ninel didn't think Avari would be wandering around much at the front of the house.
She was peeking down a dimly lit hallway, when a noise coming from a nearby alcove captured her attention. It sounded like a high-pitched, girlish giggle.
Ninel cautiously peered around the corner, careful not to be seen. Her hand flew up to her mouth to stifle her shock as her eyes widened.
She'd found Avari… With Ryuto. Ninel squinted. She definitely wasn't supposed to be witnessing this, obviously since the two had gone to such lengths to hide, but familiar irritation picked at Ninel. If Avari was secretly seeing Ryuto, why was she hiding it from the rest of the band? They all knew she had a crush on him, but Ninel hadn't realized anything was actually happening.
She needed answers, and Avari was going to give her some. Ninel marched up to the happy couple, interrupting their series of kisses.
"Care to explain?" Ninel said frostily. If this put the band in danger, she'd never forgive Avari.
"Oh, crap," Avari wiped her lips, smearing her lipstick a bit. "Ninel, I promise, I can explain."
Ninel folded her arms. "Then you'd better start talking."
"I should give you two space-" Ryuto tried to head down the hall, but Avari yanked him back, begging him with her eyes to stay.
"We started… seeing each other, I guess, after the interview. But we had to keep it a secret, from everyone. We could put the band in even worse trouble. If anyone at DNMM catches on, he won't be the one managing our probation anymore."
Ninel softened a little. With a crush of her own, she could understand, but this wasn't quite the same. There could be serious consequences if this tryst were uncovered. "I suppose I can understand that. But this is so risky right now! Can't you wait?"
"When you redeem yourselves tonight, DNMM will take you off probation," Ryuto said confidently. "I've heard the higher-ups talking. They're ready to do it, as long as you perform a clean show."
"You two are still making out in a corridor anyone could walk down and see you," Ninel reminded them.
Avari started to protest, but Ryuto stopped her by putting his hand on hers. "She's got a point," he said gently, and Ninel realized he how much he really must like the singer. "Once you're off probation, we can start going public. Tonight, we should keep our distance, at least while we're here."
Avari nodded, and the three of them made their way back, with Avari hanging closer to Ninel rather than Ryuto. To anyone on the outside, nothing would seem out of the ordinary. On a positive note, Ninel thought darkly, at least she'd been the one to discover them, and not Selen. Ninel checked her phone. Ten minutes to go until they were on. The other girls were probably getting everything prepared on stage.
"What do you think you're doing?"
The voice jarred Ninel out of the mental checklist she was going through as they reached the main backstage area. It seemed strangely familiar. Avari seemed similarly caught off guard.
Up ahead, she could see a tall slender woman with honey blonde, chin-length hair peppered with loose rose pink streaks that peeked out from the bandana headband she wore. A dark green cardigan sweater was on top of her dusty rose pink crop top, which had been paired with light-wash denim shorts and black fishnets. Black knee-high boots completed the ensemble. The girl, who had to be around Ninel's age, turned to face her, her expression cold. Her dark brown eyes were unreadable.
As she focused in on the girl, Ninel instantly recognized her as Daphne Puente, lead singer and keyboardist for mega-famous band Heavenly Waters. Daphne was also known for dating Julian Konzern from Excalibur, the two of them being one of the foremost power couples in the industry.
But what was she doing here of all places? Heavenly Waters hadn't been at Dauntless Inferno's release party due to a touring conflict, and that was one of the biggest parties of the season. This was such a small-scale show. It made sense for Dauntless Inferno to be here, but they were still up-and-coming, and friendly with some of the acts. Heavenly Waters had been churning out hits for a few years now.
Ninel brought her attention back to the matter at hand, and followed Daphne's gaze.
Lera was crouched holding a loose cable, easily identifiable by her vivid pink pigtails. Her expression could only be described as guilty.
Ninel's stomach curdled. The cord Lera held connected Christina's guitar to her amp. It was undeniable, since Christina had put silver duct tape around it with her name around it so no one else would take it by mistake.
"Lera…" Ninel managed to choke out. "What are you doing with that?"
Avari's blue-green eyes had hardened to sea glass. "I think it's pretty obvious, don't you?" Daphne nodded her agreement.
Ninel felt sick as everything fell in to place. This whole time they'd been blaming the Garcias, when really the ones sabotaging them all along had been a band they'd trusted, one that seemed to support them the same way the girls supported Lovushka.
Daphne marched away, in search of officials from DNMM, but Avari and Ninel just stared at Lera while a strange sadness pulled at Ninel's heartstrings.
Could they really trust anyone when the stakes were so high?