Drifting Souls
a Gravitation fic by
Mitsukai
'Souls are strange beings. The move where they will and are yet confined within the contours of the body. Greeks thought the body the temple of the soul, where it dwelt freely. During the middle ages, it was thought that the body was the prison of the soul. It is hard to tell which is correct, in this day in age, though it seems to be elements of both. Yet when bouncing around on the pinball board of life and existence, certain souls find and attract others. There is no pattern in these kindred souls, perhaps they belong to man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, human and animal; each attraction and bonding is a special thing. In strange instances when a group of souls are brought together by one...
It is called Gravitation.'
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Chapter VII - All That Glitters...
Gold is Soft, but Pyrite can Wound
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Hikari stretched languidly under the dubious covering of her trenchcoat, the sunlight lancing through the uncovered windows to fall across her unprotected eyelids. Muzzily the cellist wondered if she had knocked her pillow off the hotel bed, and lowered her un-occupied arm to the floor to grope around for it. Her hand met only wood paneling, and flopped around for a while like a landed fish trying to locate the elusive feather stuffed case. Giving up after a while, she pulled it back, snuggling into the arm she had been using as a pillow.
Footsteps padded quietly across the floor, and suddenly there was pressure near her feet. It seemed as if her bed was inverting itself, and she stretched out a probing foot to see if there was immediate danger to her existance. The extended appendage met with something, and she poked it experimentally.
It uttered a squeek, and she pulled her legs up to her chest quickly, opening her gold-flecked eyes to small slits, to see if something was living in the inverted hole in her bed. The sun blinded her for a moment, but her vision soon returned. Her eyes slid across to the area her feet shoud be occuping, and was surprised to see that she wasn't in her hotel after all. The memory came flooding back, and with chagrin she realized that she had just kicked her host.
Amethyst eyes blinked back at her from under wine-coloured hair, greeting the half-concious cellist with a smile. She chuckled for a moment, and then let her head fall back onto her arm, not quite willing to give up her peaceful slumber quite yet. She heard a click, and then the sparkle of static as Shuichi undoubetedly turned the televi on with a remote that he had grabbed from the table.
The morning news was on, and Hikari groaned softly, willing her ears to shut out the noise so that she could sleep. However, as Shuichi had said before, her luck was slowly dissapearing from prolonged contact with the band, for the object of her thought had begun to shake her excitedly. She opened her eyes, and looked questioningly up at him.
"Ah, Hikari-chan!" he cried excitedly, pointing towards the screen. Her eyes listlessly followed the pointing finger, and rested on the screen, where a very familiar person stared lifelessly back at her. "You're on TV!" He plunked back on the couch to watch the news program which had gone from being white noise to something of abject interest. Hikari bounced a little inadvertantly as Shuichi thudded back onto the couch, and then propped herself up with an elbow to watch the black box with her on it, as the anchors began their customary, energetic, morning speech.
"Today's Morning Time features an interesting news story! A statement from the president of SoundSoft Tokyo!" the female anchor was saying. "It was just released that Yamishika Hikari-san, the popular new soloist, severed her contract just yesterday morning with the famous company," The other anchor continued cheerfully, as if talking about someone who didn't actually exist.
The popular new soloist, who was up until that moment sleeping on someone else's couch under a trenchcoat, groaned, crossing her eyes, and buried her face in her arm. The learhter creaked in protest as she tried to bury into it, not wanting to hear the story. Shuichi was raptly watching the collection of pixels on the screen as they unfolded the story; what they knew of it at least.
"The president is at a press conference now, but Yamashika Hikari-san has not been able to be contacted. It seems that she is not answering the phone at her hotel room, or the apartment she just sold... Could this all be a large plot? Please stay with us. When we come back from the commercials, we will be at the conference room." They bowed, and the familiar strands of music floated around the room.
When Hikari looked up again, a group of children were running across the screen with full bowls of ramen, trying to eat out of eachother's bowls with oversized chopsticks. Wondering disinterestedly how many takes that took to get right, she swung her legs over the side of the couch, and sighed.
"...Ohayou gozaimasu, Shuichi-san." she yawned, her gold-flecked, dark brown, eyes squinting slightly as she did. Stretching like a cat, she swept herself off the couch, catching her coat deftly as it fell towards the floor. The ramen children were still running, and Shuichi looked up at her.
"Ohayou, Hikari-chan." He nodded brightly. She made as if to move past the screen, but he grabbed the edge of her sleeve and blinked piteously at her. "Ne- aren't you going to stay and watch the news with me?" She glowered a bit at the screen, where a car was being coated with non-stick cooking spray, and sat down on the couch again.
After watching a few more minutes of commercials, she turned towards Shuichi.
"Shuichi-san?" He blinked at her from under his mane of pink hair. "Where has that other man gone off to?" Looking blank, he mouthed 'other man' to himself a few times, as if wondering who she was talking about.
"Tatsuha left." said a serious voice from the enterance to the room, before heading off into the kitchen. She nodded thoughtfully.
Shuichi scrambled up onto the couch, leaping off it in a single bound, and skipped off to the kitchen to bother the awakened writer for some tea. Hikari, who had stayed to watch the program at his bidding, was alone on the couch. Just as the car was burning in the oven, she stood up to escape.
And was thwarted by the Morning Time theme over the speakers.
Slowly, she sat down again, and watched as her erstwhile boss walked onto the platform. Hikari glowered. If looks could kill, the televi would be downstairs by now. He began to speak.
"Everyone, thank you for joining me. I am Hanakara Tokuru, the president of SoundSoft Tokyo." flashbulb lights went off, as the man's image was captured on film again. "Since we can not, at this time, reach Yamashika-san to hear her thoughts on the matter, or the reasons for her departure, we can not say much about this unprecedented event. However, we can all say, at SoundSoft Tokyo, that we miss her presence very much." flashes went off again, and the cellist was reminded suddenly why she hated these conferences so much. In all her time at SoundSoft, she had absolutely refused to go to another one, after her first. The staring, the questions, and the flashbulbs. Press conferences were her own private hell.
"We have no idea what made her quit." Hanakara was saying. Hikari leaned back in her seat, pointed a slim finger at the screen, and smiled wryly.
"Bullshit." She intoned, crossing her legs. She turned away from the screen. "Complete and utter bullshit, Hanakara-san." Shuichi looked a little taken aback as he sat down on the couch with a cup of tea for himself, and one for his guest.
"Hikari-chan!" admonished the singer, tsking a finger at her. "That's not very nice. Hanakara Tokuru-san is a very powerful man."
She blew a raspberry at him, that same slim finger reaching up to pull her eyelid down. Her serious mood lifted quickly, and the leather creaked in an annoyed fashion as Yuki joined them on the couch.
"Yuki!" crowed Shuichi, glomping the taller man about the waist, Hikari forgotten. The jolt of this shook the writer's arm a little, and his tea spilled on the back of the unfortunate Shuichi's neck. "Itai~iii!" He squawked indignantly, rubbing at the burned patch at the nape of his neck. He looked up to see his lover smirking at him, and then turned to face Hikari for support.
Her small frame was shaking with laughter, now amber eyes sparkling with mirth. One of her hands was covering her mouth to pervent the laughter from escaping.
"That's not fair," Shuichi whined, "You're all against me, even the tea!". His adamant protests were suddenly silenced by the almost electric feel of Yuki's lips brushing gently against the enhanced sensitivity of the scalded portion on his neck. His entire frame stiffened, and his amethyst eyes slid to the side, just in time to see the writer lean forward and nibble gently at his ear. He shuddered, and closed his eyes, cheeks warming with a blush that ran like ramen children across his face.
"I'll make it up to you later." came a light breath into his ear, followed with a gentle puff as his lover blew into his ear, then released him.
'Yuki is in a good mood', the vocalist thought absently, once he had the capacity of thought again. He didn't realize that he had toppled bonelessly back into him once released, eyes still wide. Only then did he remember that the cellist was still there.
She was grinning inanely, inordinantly pleased with herself for figuring it out before Yuki went and did something interesting like that.
Without even changing clothes, Shuichi was slowly becoming colour- coordinated as the colour of his face began to resemble his hair, and muttered someting inaudible, sounding suspiciously like 'They're still against me,' before attempting to support his own weight again. After a few tries he was successful, and leaned against the back of the couch instead.
After a few moments, Hikari turned back to the televi, where the program was finishing up.
"There will be a follow-up meeting on the findings of this conference tomorrow," said the president, gathering his notes into a briefcase, as if he already knew what the subject of the next day's meeting would be.
Flashbulbs.
"Hold on a moment, president!" called a reporter from the front row. Obediantly, Hanakara stopped for a moment, turning to face the last question of the day. "If you don't mind me asking... why all this fuss about a single cellist?"
Hikari sighed, rubbing her head. The president was silent for a moment, before leaning forward, resting his palms flat on the table.
"Have you ever heard Yamashika-san play?" The flustered pressman was forced to say that he hadn't, and he chuckled. "You have your answer. I didn't even have to answer that one."
He looked towards the camera, almost seeming to know the cellist was on the other side of the glass, watching intently. "She'll be playing for SoundSoft soon again... Very soon. I'd expect sometime tonight. Then you'll have your chance, sir."
Flashbulbs.
He refused to answer any follow up questions, and strolled jauntily off the screen. The Morning Time anchors were in the middle of their summing up when Hikari suddenly stood up, silently, and pulled on her trenchcoat. Her face was slightly disturbed, as her mind ran over what Shuichi-san had said earlier.
"Hikari-chan!" admonished the singer, tsking a finger at her. "That's not very nice. Hanakara Tokuru-san is a very powerful man."
"Ah, Hikari-chan, where are you going?" queried Shuichi, blinking slightly with surprise.
"NG." She replied, slipping on her boots, and standing up. "I want to see Seguchi-san about that contract offer as soon as possible." Yuki nodded thoughtfully, then stood up.
"...I'll drive you there." It wasn't a question, nor an offer. Recognising this, Hikari nodded, and looked at Shuichi.
"What about you, Shuichi-san? Don't you have practice today?"
"Aa." He nodded, "At one." hazarding a quick glance at the clock, he saw that it was almost twelve thirty now. He blinked. He had woken up at seven, with his head on Yuki's knee. He had been quite surprised to see that the writer had still been asleep. While his position was comfortable, he decided not to push his luck, and had come out to see if Hikari was awake. Tatsuha had already been up, and, to Shuichi's embrassment, was covered in an all-knowing smirk when the vocalist emerged from his aniki's room in the morning.
He had left, having no reason to stay, and then the genki boy had gone to watch the morning news, waking up their guest in the process.
It was already twenve thirty?
His blank expression was not an asset to the current conversation, so he shook his head to disloge it, and grinned.
"All right! Let's go." Shuichi cried, and grabbed his coat, pulling it on in one swift movement. It seems that the movement was too swift, for a moment later, Hikari had pulled off his coat and turned it rightside out for him. Without saying anything about it, he nodded, and then set off for the car, Hikari and Yuki behind him.
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"Seguchi-san," called the cellist from the door to his office. Tohma nodded to himself. After seeing that conference, had he been her, he would have done the same. Acknowledging her with a nod, she came in. With a slight smile, he realized that she was now wearing shoes.
And the same clothes as yesterday.
Shuichi must have invited her to spend the night.
"What is it, Yamashika-san?" He asked, already beginning to search through the papers on his desk for the forms that he needed.
"I was wondering if that contract offer still stood." she asked, unconciously pulling her lengthy hair from the back of her coat, where it had lodged itself.
"Of course," Tohma said, deft fingers finding the papers he had been searching for just a moment earlier. He pulled them to the front of the desk, selected one of his better pens from the holder on the surface of his desk, and set it down on top of the forms. "Please take as long as you need to look them over, Yamashika-san." She nodded, and lifted the papers from his desk, careful not to disturb the pen.
She bit her fingernail slightly as she read carefully through the entire content of the form. Nodding slightly.
"This is a two-year contract, is it not, Seguchi-san?" she queried, having finished the slips. He nodded slightly. "You place a lot of trust in me. I just recently severed my contract with SoundSoft. How can you be so quick to know that I won't do the same to you?"
"Maa, Yamashika-san." he sighed, his intense green eyes peered up at her, as he clasped his hands, resting his chin on them, and his elbows in turn on the desk in front of him. He knew she wasn't expecting a serious answer, not at this point anyway. He'd tell her the real reason soon enough, but for now... "I'm sure you know K-san." He closed his eyes, reason implied. "I am willing to bet he knows you as well."
She chuckled. That was good. It seems his stalling technique had been recognised for what it was, but she was not going to press for answers. He could hear the scratch of the pen as she signed the contract that bound her musical proceeds to NG. He nodded with catlike satisfaction, and took the important document back.
"Broken and signed in the space of two days. I'm a two-timer." She sighed, shaking her head, and turned to walk out. She must have been at NG for the entire day, watching Bad Luck practice; he'd seen her in the hall. It was dark out now, and what with Tokuru's position...
"Yamashika-san... Be careful, ne?" He asked softly. She heard him.
But did not stop.
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She walked out of the building into the hazily lit streets of Tokyo, and shivered. Night's velvet blanket was the coverlet for a bed of nails tonight. Even the cellist could sense the tension. Shuichi was still inside practicing. She had told him that she was going to walk back to her hotel room, and thanked him for the couch.
"Na, Hikari-chan; It must be really lonely back at your hotel, right?" he had asked.
"...I suppose. Why?" She had tilted her head at the singer, who was tapping his fingers together at a steady rate.
"Anou... do you want to come and stay with us? I'll walk back with you, just wait for a little longer, okay?" She had nodded.
"Aa.. Arigatou, Shuichi-san. I'm going back to the hotel now to sign out and pick up my things." With that, she pulled on her coat, and made her way out of the building.
The area was normally bustling, somehow it was different today. The lighting, instead of endearingly faulty, was sinister. A single light fizzled beside her, fading in and out like some sort of spectre.
She knew the way to her hotel quite well, but somehow she kept waiting near the NG building as if afraid to be lost. She started to walk slowly away from the building, but for only a moment. It was the kind of night that was just cold enough to make you shiver, the deer of an indian summer baring their fangs in promise for the lions and beasts to come bursting from their hides.
She looked behind her again.
Nothing.
She shivered slightly, and dug her hands into her pockets again, walking a little faster. The fine hairs at the back of her neck were raising of their own accord. This time, she shuddered, hating when they did that.
Thay were always right.
After a few minutes, she had regained her calm. However, no sooner had she realized that nothing was going to happen, fate suddenly became malicious.
"Good evening, Yamashika-san." A voice from behind her. Damn, she had been caught, and by him, none the less. His voice hadn't lost any of its oiled quality that made him so successful with the press; and so unsuccessful with her. "I wonder what my poor cellist is doing out here by herself, in the middle of the night, near the NG building, hmm?" She whipped around, and swore to herself. There, under the fizzling light, stood President Hanakara Tokuru of SoundSoft Tokyo. Back to the wall, she glowered at the man in front of her, her normally soft brown eyes hard as rock, the gold glittering with anger.
"I'm not your cellist. Not anymore." She muttered, backing away slightly. He simply smirked. Now she wasn't just angry, she felt fear seeping in like cold mist into her numbing mind. When he smirks like that, he's already got what he wants.
"Sign with someone else, did you? I'm afraid I can't have that. You see, you're worth millions of yen to me." He stepped forward, one hand latching onto her shoulder in a deceptively weak manner. It gave the guise of friendship, yet steel lurked beneath the surface.
"Hanakara-san, I told you , I won't play-" she was suddenly cut off as she was slammed to the wall by the taller man, his hand bruising her shoulder painfully. She winced, and tried to twist away from his grip.
Then he shifted it, catching her throat in a viselike grip.
"Oh, you will. You will play, Yamashika-san." Her hands flew involuntarily to her throat. She was not a weak woman, but she could not dislodge her grip. He tightened his grip automatically, and the struggling cellist ceaced to struggle, uttering a weak curse before slumping against the wall, her vision fading to black.
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Notes: It seems that everyone has problems! Yuki has his mysterious headache which still has to be elaborated on, and what's with Hikari and this producer? Search me, I don't know until I write the next chapter.
o.o;; One more time now,
Please review for me?
Remember...
All the characters are copyright of Maki Murakami, as is the series as a whole (please don't sue me, I'm so poor I have to use flames to eat. ;.;), except for Kari-chan, who is mine. You're welcome to use her (Who would want to?) if you'd like *cough* just tell me beforehand, because I want to read whatever happens to have her in it.
The moral of the story is, there are no morals
a Gravitation fic by
Mitsukai
'Souls are strange beings. The move where they will and are yet confined within the contours of the body. Greeks thought the body the temple of the soul, where it dwelt freely. During the middle ages, it was thought that the body was the prison of the soul. It is hard to tell which is correct, in this day in age, though it seems to be elements of both. Yet when bouncing around on the pinball board of life and existence, certain souls find and attract others. There is no pattern in these kindred souls, perhaps they belong to man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, human and animal; each attraction and bonding is a special thing. In strange instances when a group of souls are brought together by one...
It is called Gravitation.'
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Chapter VII - All That Glitters...
Gold is Soft, but Pyrite can Wound
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Hikari stretched languidly under the dubious covering of her trenchcoat, the sunlight lancing through the uncovered windows to fall across her unprotected eyelids. Muzzily the cellist wondered if she had knocked her pillow off the hotel bed, and lowered her un-occupied arm to the floor to grope around for it. Her hand met only wood paneling, and flopped around for a while like a landed fish trying to locate the elusive feather stuffed case. Giving up after a while, she pulled it back, snuggling into the arm she had been using as a pillow.
Footsteps padded quietly across the floor, and suddenly there was pressure near her feet. It seemed as if her bed was inverting itself, and she stretched out a probing foot to see if there was immediate danger to her existance. The extended appendage met with something, and she poked it experimentally.
It uttered a squeek, and she pulled her legs up to her chest quickly, opening her gold-flecked eyes to small slits, to see if something was living in the inverted hole in her bed. The sun blinded her for a moment, but her vision soon returned. Her eyes slid across to the area her feet shoud be occuping, and was surprised to see that she wasn't in her hotel after all. The memory came flooding back, and with chagrin she realized that she had just kicked her host.
Amethyst eyes blinked back at her from under wine-coloured hair, greeting the half-concious cellist with a smile. She chuckled for a moment, and then let her head fall back onto her arm, not quite willing to give up her peaceful slumber quite yet. She heard a click, and then the sparkle of static as Shuichi undoubetedly turned the televi on with a remote that he had grabbed from the table.
The morning news was on, and Hikari groaned softly, willing her ears to shut out the noise so that she could sleep. However, as Shuichi had said before, her luck was slowly dissapearing from prolonged contact with the band, for the object of her thought had begun to shake her excitedly. She opened her eyes, and looked questioningly up at him.
"Ah, Hikari-chan!" he cried excitedly, pointing towards the screen. Her eyes listlessly followed the pointing finger, and rested on the screen, where a very familiar person stared lifelessly back at her. "You're on TV!" He plunked back on the couch to watch the news program which had gone from being white noise to something of abject interest. Hikari bounced a little inadvertantly as Shuichi thudded back onto the couch, and then propped herself up with an elbow to watch the black box with her on it, as the anchors began their customary, energetic, morning speech.
"Today's Morning Time features an interesting news story! A statement from the president of SoundSoft Tokyo!" the female anchor was saying. "It was just released that Yamishika Hikari-san, the popular new soloist, severed her contract just yesterday morning with the famous company," The other anchor continued cheerfully, as if talking about someone who didn't actually exist.
The popular new soloist, who was up until that moment sleeping on someone else's couch under a trenchcoat, groaned, crossing her eyes, and buried her face in her arm. The learhter creaked in protest as she tried to bury into it, not wanting to hear the story. Shuichi was raptly watching the collection of pixels on the screen as they unfolded the story; what they knew of it at least.
"The president is at a press conference now, but Yamashika Hikari-san has not been able to be contacted. It seems that she is not answering the phone at her hotel room, or the apartment she just sold... Could this all be a large plot? Please stay with us. When we come back from the commercials, we will be at the conference room." They bowed, and the familiar strands of music floated around the room.
When Hikari looked up again, a group of children were running across the screen with full bowls of ramen, trying to eat out of eachother's bowls with oversized chopsticks. Wondering disinterestedly how many takes that took to get right, she swung her legs over the side of the couch, and sighed.
"...Ohayou gozaimasu, Shuichi-san." she yawned, her gold-flecked, dark brown, eyes squinting slightly as she did. Stretching like a cat, she swept herself off the couch, catching her coat deftly as it fell towards the floor. The ramen children were still running, and Shuichi looked up at her.
"Ohayou, Hikari-chan." He nodded brightly. She made as if to move past the screen, but he grabbed the edge of her sleeve and blinked piteously at her. "Ne- aren't you going to stay and watch the news with me?" She glowered a bit at the screen, where a car was being coated with non-stick cooking spray, and sat down on the couch again.
After watching a few more minutes of commercials, she turned towards Shuichi.
"Shuichi-san?" He blinked at her from under his mane of pink hair. "Where has that other man gone off to?" Looking blank, he mouthed 'other man' to himself a few times, as if wondering who she was talking about.
"Tatsuha left." said a serious voice from the enterance to the room, before heading off into the kitchen. She nodded thoughtfully.
Shuichi scrambled up onto the couch, leaping off it in a single bound, and skipped off to the kitchen to bother the awakened writer for some tea. Hikari, who had stayed to watch the program at his bidding, was alone on the couch. Just as the car was burning in the oven, she stood up to escape.
And was thwarted by the Morning Time theme over the speakers.
Slowly, she sat down again, and watched as her erstwhile boss walked onto the platform. Hikari glowered. If looks could kill, the televi would be downstairs by now. He began to speak.
"Everyone, thank you for joining me. I am Hanakara Tokuru, the president of SoundSoft Tokyo." flashbulb lights went off, as the man's image was captured on film again. "Since we can not, at this time, reach Yamashika-san to hear her thoughts on the matter, or the reasons for her departure, we can not say much about this unprecedented event. However, we can all say, at SoundSoft Tokyo, that we miss her presence very much." flashes went off again, and the cellist was reminded suddenly why she hated these conferences so much. In all her time at SoundSoft, she had absolutely refused to go to another one, after her first. The staring, the questions, and the flashbulbs. Press conferences were her own private hell.
"We have no idea what made her quit." Hanakara was saying. Hikari leaned back in her seat, pointed a slim finger at the screen, and smiled wryly.
"Bullshit." She intoned, crossing her legs. She turned away from the screen. "Complete and utter bullshit, Hanakara-san." Shuichi looked a little taken aback as he sat down on the couch with a cup of tea for himself, and one for his guest.
"Hikari-chan!" admonished the singer, tsking a finger at her. "That's not very nice. Hanakara Tokuru-san is a very powerful man."
She blew a raspberry at him, that same slim finger reaching up to pull her eyelid down. Her serious mood lifted quickly, and the leather creaked in an annoyed fashion as Yuki joined them on the couch.
"Yuki!" crowed Shuichi, glomping the taller man about the waist, Hikari forgotten. The jolt of this shook the writer's arm a little, and his tea spilled on the back of the unfortunate Shuichi's neck. "Itai~iii!" He squawked indignantly, rubbing at the burned patch at the nape of his neck. He looked up to see his lover smirking at him, and then turned to face Hikari for support.
Her small frame was shaking with laughter, now amber eyes sparkling with mirth. One of her hands was covering her mouth to pervent the laughter from escaping.
"That's not fair," Shuichi whined, "You're all against me, even the tea!". His adamant protests were suddenly silenced by the almost electric feel of Yuki's lips brushing gently against the enhanced sensitivity of the scalded portion on his neck. His entire frame stiffened, and his amethyst eyes slid to the side, just in time to see the writer lean forward and nibble gently at his ear. He shuddered, and closed his eyes, cheeks warming with a blush that ran like ramen children across his face.
"I'll make it up to you later." came a light breath into his ear, followed with a gentle puff as his lover blew into his ear, then released him.
'Yuki is in a good mood', the vocalist thought absently, once he had the capacity of thought again. He didn't realize that he had toppled bonelessly back into him once released, eyes still wide. Only then did he remember that the cellist was still there.
She was grinning inanely, inordinantly pleased with herself for figuring it out before Yuki went and did something interesting like that.
Without even changing clothes, Shuichi was slowly becoming colour- coordinated as the colour of his face began to resemble his hair, and muttered someting inaudible, sounding suspiciously like 'They're still against me,' before attempting to support his own weight again. After a few tries he was successful, and leaned against the back of the couch instead.
After a few moments, Hikari turned back to the televi, where the program was finishing up.
"There will be a follow-up meeting on the findings of this conference tomorrow," said the president, gathering his notes into a briefcase, as if he already knew what the subject of the next day's meeting would be.
Flashbulbs.
"Hold on a moment, president!" called a reporter from the front row. Obediantly, Hanakara stopped for a moment, turning to face the last question of the day. "If you don't mind me asking... why all this fuss about a single cellist?"
Hikari sighed, rubbing her head. The president was silent for a moment, before leaning forward, resting his palms flat on the table.
"Have you ever heard Yamashika-san play?" The flustered pressman was forced to say that he hadn't, and he chuckled. "You have your answer. I didn't even have to answer that one."
He looked towards the camera, almost seeming to know the cellist was on the other side of the glass, watching intently. "She'll be playing for SoundSoft soon again... Very soon. I'd expect sometime tonight. Then you'll have your chance, sir."
Flashbulbs.
He refused to answer any follow up questions, and strolled jauntily off the screen. The Morning Time anchors were in the middle of their summing up when Hikari suddenly stood up, silently, and pulled on her trenchcoat. Her face was slightly disturbed, as her mind ran over what Shuichi-san had said earlier.
"Hikari-chan!" admonished the singer, tsking a finger at her. "That's not very nice. Hanakara Tokuru-san is a very powerful man."
"Ah, Hikari-chan, where are you going?" queried Shuichi, blinking slightly with surprise.
"NG." She replied, slipping on her boots, and standing up. "I want to see Seguchi-san about that contract offer as soon as possible." Yuki nodded thoughtfully, then stood up.
"...I'll drive you there." It wasn't a question, nor an offer. Recognising this, Hikari nodded, and looked at Shuichi.
"What about you, Shuichi-san? Don't you have practice today?"
"Aa." He nodded, "At one." hazarding a quick glance at the clock, he saw that it was almost twelve thirty now. He blinked. He had woken up at seven, with his head on Yuki's knee. He had been quite surprised to see that the writer had still been asleep. While his position was comfortable, he decided not to push his luck, and had come out to see if Hikari was awake. Tatsuha had already been up, and, to Shuichi's embrassment, was covered in an all-knowing smirk when the vocalist emerged from his aniki's room in the morning.
He had left, having no reason to stay, and then the genki boy had gone to watch the morning news, waking up their guest in the process.
It was already twenve thirty?
His blank expression was not an asset to the current conversation, so he shook his head to disloge it, and grinned.
"All right! Let's go." Shuichi cried, and grabbed his coat, pulling it on in one swift movement. It seems that the movement was too swift, for a moment later, Hikari had pulled off his coat and turned it rightside out for him. Without saying anything about it, he nodded, and then set off for the car, Hikari and Yuki behind him.
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"Seguchi-san," called the cellist from the door to his office. Tohma nodded to himself. After seeing that conference, had he been her, he would have done the same. Acknowledging her with a nod, she came in. With a slight smile, he realized that she was now wearing shoes.
And the same clothes as yesterday.
Shuichi must have invited her to spend the night.
"What is it, Yamashika-san?" He asked, already beginning to search through the papers on his desk for the forms that he needed.
"I was wondering if that contract offer still stood." she asked, unconciously pulling her lengthy hair from the back of her coat, where it had lodged itself.
"Of course," Tohma said, deft fingers finding the papers he had been searching for just a moment earlier. He pulled them to the front of the desk, selected one of his better pens from the holder on the surface of his desk, and set it down on top of the forms. "Please take as long as you need to look them over, Yamashika-san." She nodded, and lifted the papers from his desk, careful not to disturb the pen.
She bit her fingernail slightly as she read carefully through the entire content of the form. Nodding slightly.
"This is a two-year contract, is it not, Seguchi-san?" she queried, having finished the slips. He nodded slightly. "You place a lot of trust in me. I just recently severed my contract with SoundSoft. How can you be so quick to know that I won't do the same to you?"
"Maa, Yamashika-san." he sighed, his intense green eyes peered up at her, as he clasped his hands, resting his chin on them, and his elbows in turn on the desk in front of him. He knew she wasn't expecting a serious answer, not at this point anyway. He'd tell her the real reason soon enough, but for now... "I'm sure you know K-san." He closed his eyes, reason implied. "I am willing to bet he knows you as well."
She chuckled. That was good. It seems his stalling technique had been recognised for what it was, but she was not going to press for answers. He could hear the scratch of the pen as she signed the contract that bound her musical proceeds to NG. He nodded with catlike satisfaction, and took the important document back.
"Broken and signed in the space of two days. I'm a two-timer." She sighed, shaking her head, and turned to walk out. She must have been at NG for the entire day, watching Bad Luck practice; he'd seen her in the hall. It was dark out now, and what with Tokuru's position...
"Yamashika-san... Be careful, ne?" He asked softly. She heard him.
But did not stop.
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She walked out of the building into the hazily lit streets of Tokyo, and shivered. Night's velvet blanket was the coverlet for a bed of nails tonight. Even the cellist could sense the tension. Shuichi was still inside practicing. She had told him that she was going to walk back to her hotel room, and thanked him for the couch.
"Na, Hikari-chan; It must be really lonely back at your hotel, right?" he had asked.
"...I suppose. Why?" She had tilted her head at the singer, who was tapping his fingers together at a steady rate.
"Anou... do you want to come and stay with us? I'll walk back with you, just wait for a little longer, okay?" She had nodded.
"Aa.. Arigatou, Shuichi-san. I'm going back to the hotel now to sign out and pick up my things." With that, she pulled on her coat, and made her way out of the building.
The area was normally bustling, somehow it was different today. The lighting, instead of endearingly faulty, was sinister. A single light fizzled beside her, fading in and out like some sort of spectre.
She knew the way to her hotel quite well, but somehow she kept waiting near the NG building as if afraid to be lost. She started to walk slowly away from the building, but for only a moment. It was the kind of night that was just cold enough to make you shiver, the deer of an indian summer baring their fangs in promise for the lions and beasts to come bursting from their hides.
She looked behind her again.
Nothing.
She shivered slightly, and dug her hands into her pockets again, walking a little faster. The fine hairs at the back of her neck were raising of their own accord. This time, she shuddered, hating when they did that.
Thay were always right.
After a few minutes, she had regained her calm. However, no sooner had she realized that nothing was going to happen, fate suddenly became malicious.
"Good evening, Yamashika-san." A voice from behind her. Damn, she had been caught, and by him, none the less. His voice hadn't lost any of its oiled quality that made him so successful with the press; and so unsuccessful with her. "I wonder what my poor cellist is doing out here by herself, in the middle of the night, near the NG building, hmm?" She whipped around, and swore to herself. There, under the fizzling light, stood President Hanakara Tokuru of SoundSoft Tokyo. Back to the wall, she glowered at the man in front of her, her normally soft brown eyes hard as rock, the gold glittering with anger.
"I'm not your cellist. Not anymore." She muttered, backing away slightly. He simply smirked. Now she wasn't just angry, she felt fear seeping in like cold mist into her numbing mind. When he smirks like that, he's already got what he wants.
"Sign with someone else, did you? I'm afraid I can't have that. You see, you're worth millions of yen to me." He stepped forward, one hand latching onto her shoulder in a deceptively weak manner. It gave the guise of friendship, yet steel lurked beneath the surface.
"Hanakara-san, I told you , I won't play-" she was suddenly cut off as she was slammed to the wall by the taller man, his hand bruising her shoulder painfully. She winced, and tried to twist away from his grip.
Then he shifted it, catching her throat in a viselike grip.
"Oh, you will. You will play, Yamashika-san." Her hands flew involuntarily to her throat. She was not a weak woman, but she could not dislodge her grip. He tightened his grip automatically, and the struggling cellist ceaced to struggle, uttering a weak curse before slumping against the wall, her vision fading to black.
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Notes: It seems that everyone has problems! Yuki has his mysterious headache which still has to be elaborated on, and what's with Hikari and this producer? Search me, I don't know until I write the next chapter.
o.o;; One more time now,
Please review for me?
Remember...
All the characters are copyright of Maki Murakami, as is the series as a whole (please don't sue me, I'm so poor I have to use flames to eat. ;.;), except for Kari-chan, who is mine. You're welcome to use her (Who would want to?) if you'd like *cough* just tell me beforehand, because I want to read whatever happens to have her in it.
The moral of the story is, there are no morals
