Friday
K was a nuisance and a menace, as far as Eiri was concerned. All Thursday evening and all Friday morning and afternoon, K had stayed close to Shuichi. Eiri wanted to spend time with his lover, but he didn't want to be watched, either. Instead, he spent his time isolating himself and pushing Shu away. Eiri was certain the situation wasn't fun for Shuichi or himself, but K seemed to be in his element.
At precisely 5:00, the expected car arrived. It was a limousine with an escort of five professional-looking bodyguards in black suits, white shirts, black ties, and sunglasses, plus a chauffer. A team of four burly men surrounded Eiri and Shu, when they stepped out of the apartment. A fifth man stood by the car, watchfully. They all moved quickly and alertly from the apartment door to the car and from the car to the heavily guarded door marked 'Back Stage'. Shuichi had been whisked away by one pair of guards to be painted, dressed, and fussed over. K went with Shu, probably for a last-minute pep-talk with the band. Eiri's pair of bodyguards were set to guard the dressing room door, wherein Eiri lounged on a couch, smoking. He didn't know where the fifth guard went.
Tohma sat across from him, sitting up straight with one knee on top of the other and his hands in his lap. He wore a dark purple suit with pinstripes, a black shirt, black half-boots with black side zippers, and his trademark black hat. He looks happy and healthy, Eiri thought. Seeing his brother-in-law's smiling face made him feel bad for his sister. There was a strange silence between them. Tohma had been Eiri's friend for a long time, and in some ways, Eiri wanted to ask him about the new person in his life that Mika had hinted at. In another sense, Tohma was betraying Mika. If Eiri admitted knowing this, or discussed it, did he somehow condone Tohma's actions or share Tohma's guilt? Past 'hello', what could they talk about? While Tohma was on his quiet little get-away vacation, there were all kinds of things Eiri had wanted to speak with his friend about. Now, most of it fled his mind, under the stresses of the current events.
Eiri was saved— sort of— when Sakano came in. The producer was having an attack of nerves. The man adjusted his glasses, and wiped the sweat off his forehead nearly continuously, using a wide white handkerchief. Directing his frantic babbling toward Tohma, Sakaono voiced concerns about everything from a minor sound system malfunction, to the would-be assassin offing the lead singer in the middle of the concert. Eiri gritted his teeth, severely annoyed. He wished he did not have to tolerate this . . . nervous wreck of a human being. He would not allow anything to hurt Shuichi! He refused to let morbid possibilities worm their way into his mind.
"Sakano-san," Tohma said, smiling easily. Tohma stood to pat the producer's shoulder, reassuringly. "Everything will be fine. There is a technician working on the speaker. He said it would be repaired in plenty of time. Someone just pulled a wire loose when the cords were tripped over." Tohma glanced at Eiri. It was probably a simple task for NG's president to notice Eiri's tightened jaw muscles and a slight twitch in the writer's right eye. "Why don't you go check in on the opening act, Sakano-san?" Tohma made it sound like a suggestion, but the producer took it for the order it was.
The man bowed and nodded. "Of course, Boss, right away!"
A moment later, Bad Luck came in, Shuichi leading with a spinning leap. Hiro and Fujisaki trailed after him. Shu was pumped up with the adrenaline of his impending performance. The other two band members were more subdued than they usually were before curtain-call. Eiri could tell that all three were trying to get themselves revved up and put on bright faces for the show tonight.
Tohma smiled at all of them. "You all look great! This will be a terrific concert!" He patted Shuichi's shoulder once, saying, "Do your best, Shuichi-kun." Tohma's tone almost sounded like a threat, Eiri thought. Shu nodded, confidently holding up a 'victory' hand sign. 1 Tohma smiled, his eyes crinkling. "If you'll excuse me, I need to find Ryuichi," he said, and left.
Eiri saw that when Shu moved his head, the kid's hair didn't move. Ick. Eiri hated it when the make-up people did that to Shu's hair. He grimaced. He liked to touch Shu's hair and it calmed both of them, but he wouldn't touch it when that goop was in it. It felt awful; stiff and a little sticky. Shu had also been covered in glitter tonight. Even in the moderate glow of the ordinary fluorescent lights, Shu's skin and hair cast sparkles around the room. A quick glance at the others confirmed that all three band members had been liberally glittered.
Shu's concert clothes were normally skimpy, but tonight . . . Mmm. He wore a pair of black leather short-shorts, a belly-baring, cropped-short, short-sleeved shirt covered in colored sequins, and a black long coat. The coat's sleeves were sheer fabric ending in an opaque shiny black fabric for the cuffs with large sparkly buttons and multi-colored sequin trim running around the cuffs. The rest of the coat was the same shiny opaque stuff as the cuffs and the bottom had two rows of the colored sequins. The open front had more large sparkly buttons that caught and reflected light. The bottom of the coat must have been weighted or stiffened somehow to flare out around the calf-hugging black boots with sequin trim around the tops that completed his ensemble. It really was too bad about the hair, Eiri thought, and the other people, because he wanted to touch his lover. A lot.
Hiro and Fujisaki looked good, too, but they paled in comparison to Shuichi's shining, exuberant presence. Hiro's long, dark red hair looked like a disco ball it held so much glitter. Like the singer, he wore a shirt of sequins, but his covered more. He was complaining about it itching when he came in. The shirt was tucked into relatively ordinary black leather pants and under those; he wore his usual black boots which had been shined and polished. Fujisaki wore a sequin shirt, too, but it was mostly covered by a short black jacket with silver braid across the front. It reminded Eiri of a marching band uniform. The keyboardist wore black pants, too, and black boots along with a black neck collar. Fujisaki's short brown hair looked like it had been painted with glitter and goop until you couldn't tell that it had ever been brown. It stuck up at weird angles, casting light from the glitter into onlookers' eyes. The three of them really would look great on stage, Eiri thought.
He stabbed his cigarette out in the already-full ashtray. He crooked a finger at Shuichi and the singer came to him, smiling happily. "Eiri! This is gonna be so good! Did you peek at the crowd? There are already so many people here!"
Eiri smiled indulgently. Bad Luck had been at the top of the pop charts for two years and it seemed as if Shu never tired of the attention. The singer still peeked out of the stage wings or through the curtain to catch glimpses of the audience at every concert. Usually, he did it to look for people he knew in the crowd, but tonight, Eiri would be watching Shu from the wings. Eiri pulled his lover's glittering body into his lap as soon as the kid was close enough to reach. "You look great," Eiri whispered, sliding his hands under the coat and groping Shu's butt.
Shuichi blushed bright red. "Eiri!" The kid laughed and leaned in to kiss him. Shu's body froze a moment in surprise when Eiri kissed him back, then relaxed as both of them poured themselves into the kiss.
"Hey!" Hiro objected, breaking off his quiet conversation with Fujisaki. "Don't get carried away in here!"
"We have a show to do in a few minutes," Fujisaki added. "Shuichi-kun needs to be thinking about his vocals, not—"Hiro elbowed the keyboardist, cutting him off.
Eiri chuckled, letting Shuichi go. His young lover looked over-heated and his eyes shined as much as the rest of him. As Shu moved off his lap, Eiri trailed his fingers over the fabric of the long coat as it slithered off of him.
K walked in, giving everyone a glimpse of the bodyguards clustered in the hall. "Falling Star is just taking the stage, now," he told them. Falling Star was the all-girl band that would be opening for them for the first month of the tour. Eiri didn't know much about them. He didn't think Shu did, either. He had only heard Hiro talking about them, earlier. "Everybody ready?" His booming voice brooked no arguments.
"Yeah!" The band yelled.
K stood there grinning, with his hands on his hips. "We just have to hope that Tohma can find Ryuichi before the duet!" The tall American laughed. Shuichi's grin turned weak. Hiro shook his head.
Fujisaki put a hand to his chin, considering. "Well, we could always save that for the end. If we re-arrange the song schedule, we could—"
"Don't worry," K said in a burst of English. His eyes narrowed and he punched one large fist into his other hand. "We will get him." Shuichi let out a little, 'eep'. Hiro shook his head again and Fujisaki shrugged.
---
Eiri was given a special spot in the wings to stand, flanked by his two appointed bodyguards. He was also given a hard metal stool, in case he chose to sit. He had a decent view of the stage, but he wasn't allowed to smoke here. Bad Luck moved into place as Falling Star cleared the stage. From what Eiri could see in the dim back stage lighting, all four of the young women were cute. They giggled as they left, chatting to each other in high-pitched feminine whispers.
An MC 2 came out and made a brief introduction. Eiri doubted the man was heard over the wild screams and chants of 'Bad Luck! Bad Luck!' The lights came up; momentarily blinding. The band members made their own light show with their flashy clothes. They kicked off the show with 'Airplane,' to showcase their latest number one single and moved into older favorites, like 'Rage Beat', and 'Sweet, Sweet Samba'. Eiri thought 'Airplane' had started a little cold. Maybe the band had been too conscious of the danger of being up on the open stage at first, but they soon lost themselves in the music. Shuichi was pure, shining, and beautiful, singing his heart into the music.
Eiri, on the other hand, was turning himself into a wreck. He wanted a cigarette in the worst way. There were a handful of uniformed policemen in front of the stage and one or two wandering around back stage. A line of bouncers kept the screaming crowd at bay and off the stage. Shuichi's bodyguards stood on the opposite wing of the stage from him and his two goons. Despite all this trained security, Eiri scanned the crowds as if he, personally would make the difference. Whenever the body guards moved, or a police radio crackled, he focused on it. Was there trouble? Had they caught someone with a gun, or found another saboteur near the vehicles?
Eiri knew he was jumpy. He didn't realize just how jumpy until Tatsuha said, "Aniki," 3 and he nearly leaped out of his skin. How embarrassing, Eiri thought. He could usually control himself better than this! A body guard stepped between the brothers, until Eiri confirmed Tatsuha's identity.
Eiri sat down on his stool, still wanting a cigarette. He fondled his lighter instead. Tatsuha laid an arm across Eiri's shoulders and Eiri noticed that his younger brother held the infamous rabbit, Kumagorou, in his other hand. "I suppose you're the reason that half of NG was out looking for Ryuichi?"
Tatsuha grinned. "Yeah. That's why I'm back stage, too. Ryu-kun had reserved a seat for me, but when we got here, he was swept away to makeup and wardrobe. I was swept here." He leaned over some more, to be heard only by Eiri, "What's with all the muscle-men? I was frisked twice, getting through here."
"Death threats. Body guards," Eiri said, succinctly. Tatsuha whistled. The brothers watched the concert. As the music continued and nothing bad happened, Eiri began to relax. He wasn't sure if Tatsuha's presence had anything to do with relaxing, or if his muscles were just tired of being strung so damnably tight, but it was a comfort to have sympathetic company.
About halfway through the concert's scheduled run-time, K flashed a hand signal from the other wing and produced Sakuma Ryuichi. The singer was dressed in the same black-with-sequins theme as Bad Luck. Seeing him, Tatsuha said quietly, "I just want to eat him up!" 'No! Virtual' finished in flashing array of lights and keyboard that faded to black.
Dimmer lights came up and a spotlight settled on Shu. "We have a special treat for all of you!" He smiled and sparkled while the crowd screamed and girls swooned. Shuichi held up his hand for quiet, holding the crowd with his personality. "Sakuma Ryuichi and I," more excited screaming, "have composed a duet we'd like to sing for you!" Another spotlight hit the stage and Sakuma made his entrance, moving to stand with Shuichi. The crowd surged. Eiri jumped to his feet as one of the bouncers fell down and the sharp report of a gun sounded loudly from near the foot of the stage. The band members went flat against the stage, as they'd been coached. The curtain fell, protecting the band from sight.
There was terrified screaming, now, and another shot was fired. Spotlights centered on a pile of security, subduing the threat. Everyone could see, in the glare of the lights that a gun was wrested away from a grey-haired man, face-down at the bottom of a pile of people. A policeman produced handcuffs and the man was turned upright. Miyamoto!
Shuichi came running into Eiri's arms, crying hysterically and rubbing face paint onto the writer's shirt and neck. Eiri didn't mind. He held his lover, hugging him tightly. He almost stuck his fingers in Shu's hair before he remembered the nasty goop. Instead, he ran his hands over Shu's back, and under the shirt. The kid was sweaty. The coat had been discarded earlier and Hiro had been right; the sequins were scratchy. Eiri looked out at the audience. Paramedics and police were grouped around the fallen bouncer. Eiri mentally shuddered, squeezing Shuichi to him. That could have been my Shuichi. Thank god it wasn't. Eiri didn't know if the bouncer had seen the danger and moved toward it, or if Miyamoto was just a bad shot. Either way, Eiri thought, if ever Buddha listened to me, I hope that man's life is spared and that Miyamoto is punished . . . harshly.
Over all the noise and yelling, Eiri spoke to his lover, "It's all over, now, Shu. The police are taking Miyamoto away. He'll never bother us again." Behind the curtain, Tatsuha knelt next to Ryuichi, holding him. The other singer had fallen apart in much the same manner Shuichi had; shocked and scared. "It's okay," Eiri repeated, partly for himself, partly for Shu. "It's all over."
1 I don't know what they call this V-fingered hand sign in Japan. In America, it is used for 'peace' or for 'victory' depending on generation and on the situation. Victory seems to suit, here.
2 I don't know if MC is universal, or some American adaptation. . . It stands for Master of Ceremonies. It's the announcer for a stage performance.
3 Aniki an old form of 'big brother', just in case you didn't know. ; )
