Hikaru's say: Thankyou so much to everyone who reviewed! *hugs reviewers*
So anyway, those of you who pointed out that Yuki had golden eyes are
correct. I was typing the chapter after work when I was completely mentally
and physically exhausted, so please don't banish me to a corner where I
have to sit on a stool wearing a white cone on my head with idiot written
on it.
Now just one more important note before you guys read the chapter. How do you spell the name of the evil guy from ASK? I've seen it spelt as Taichi, Tachi and even Taki. Could someone drop a hint? Thanks a lot and the sooner I find out, the sooner the chapter comes.
**********************************************
"And people say the subway in New York is bad!" Lily yelled to herself in English as she jumped off the bus.
She had just spent the last forty minutes on a bus crammed with servants of the devil that had cleverly disguised themselves as high school students. There had been enough passengers to fill two buses and several kids were making a general nuisance of themselves.
There had been a kid spiting out the window, kids thinking that if the smoked up the back no one would notice them and one guy had nearly set Lily's hair on fire when he'd been running around with his cigarette lighter.
Lily walked down the street, breathing heavily as she tried to recover from the bus trauma. From now on she'd wait the extra fifteen minutes and catch the later bus.
She'd been worried at first that she wouldn't be able to find the NG building, but upon reaching it she felt really stupid. To have missed it you'd have to be blind in one eye and have a cataract over the over. This building put Joan's so called 'house' to shame.
Lily walked up to front glass doors and swiped her card through the little machine next to it. The blinking light above the door flicked from red to green and the glass doors slid open with a small humming noise.
'Cool,' Lily thought and headed for the elevator. She pressed button 14 and headed up. The elevator gave a chime as it reached its destination and the doors rolled open.
She had no idea where Tohma's office was so she decided to just walk around until she found it.
*********************************************
Shuichi punched in the code for the strawberry pockey on the vending machine and pressed his nose up to the glass. Ever so slowly the little box moved forward before it stopped.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Shuichi wailed and thumped the glass on the machine. "This is too cruel!"
He grabbed the machine with both hands and started to shake it furiously. He stopped when he saw a hand appear next to him and placed some coins in the machine.
There was a collection of beeps from the code pad before the strawberry pockey rack started to move again. Two boxes fell and Shuichi let go of the machine.
"Lily san!" he said in surprise as he saw her fishing the boxes out of the machine.
"Good afternoon Shindo san," she said with a smile, handing him a box of pockey before stuffing the other box in her school bag along with her wallet.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, holding onto his pockey as he looked at her with amazement. He'd hadn't really expected to see her again so soon. Maybe even never.
"My dad's friend works here," she said.
At the mention at her father, Shuichi recalled the incident in the recording studio after his return to Japan.
"None of you are to say anything to Lily chan about her father," K said with a frown as he waved his Cougar Magnum around in a threatening manner at the three young rock stars and their producer. "Understand?"
No one had lodged a complaint after that persuasive speech.
"Hey Shindo san," Lily said waving her hand in front of Shuichi's face. "Are you in there?"
"Huh?" Shuichi asked with a blank look on his face.
Lily smiled at the young rock star. He could be just like Joan at times.
"Do you feel like taking a walk?" she asked.
*********************************************
The crisp Autumn wind blew some orange and yellow leaves around as the two walked through the park. Shuichi was now wearing his baseball cap and sunglasses to disguise himself.
"It'll be getting cold soon," he said brightly as Lily walked next to him, "and no one will want to buy ice cream anymore. I'll have to buy more pockey to make up for the loss. I guess the weather will be strange for you since the weather in America is different at this time of year."
Lily didn't answer him and just kept her eyes focus on the path ahead of her.
"Anyway, I hope K san doesn't notice I've been missing for long, but I'm sure....
"I lied to you the other day."
Shuichi stopped mid-sentence as Lily cut him off.
"Eh? What do you mean Lily san? Are you an illegal immigrant or something?"
Lily couldn't help but laugh, just being around Shuichi put her in a good mood.
"No, no nothing like that," she said and walked over to a park bench. "I lied to you about my Dad."
Shuichi sat down on the bench while trying to hide a worried look. He had the feeling that Lily was going to tell him something he already knew. The hard part was to fool her into believing that he was completely ignorant. If he let even the tiniest thing slip, he would be eating K's lead.
"I told you that he was an American," Lily said slowly as she watched the beautiful park scenery in front of her. "That was a lie, he's Japanese."
"Why would you lie about something like that?" Shuichi asked, tilting his head to one side. "It's no big deal where he or you come from."
"It's a long and complicated explanation," Lily said, her posture sagging as she sighed, "but it's mostly got to do with my grandmother."
Shuichi didn't say anything and Lily continued speaking.
"Unlike most other people, I don't take my father's name. Barton was my mother's name."
"How come?" Shuichi asked.
"Because my parents never married, they had a de facto relationship. That was the thing Grams had a problem with you see," Lily explained.
Shuichi swallowed uncomfortably. 'Lily san is an illegitimate child,' he thought. 'I asked a bad question.'
"After Mum died," Lily said quietly, "Dad left America and returned to Japan for work. I had to stay with my Grandmother on her farm. She was nice but was really strict about mentioning my father. She always told me that I could never mention his name, his nationality or what he did for a living. If I told anyone it could make trouble for us."
Shuichi was getting more uncomfortable by the minute. The secret he was holding was like a balloon inside his chest that getting bigger and bigger by the minute. He knew why she couldn't reveal any of that information.
Lily suddenly gave a small hollow laugh.
"And do you want to know what the funny part is?" she asked Shuichi, her gaze shooting past his sunglasses into his baby blue eyes. "I know hardly anything about him. I don't what his job is, why he never came back to visit or even what he has for breakfast. My own father is a complete stranger to me."
She then broke the gaze and looked down at the cement beneath her school shoes.
The cool breeze caused some golden leaves to dance in front of them for a minute before they blew down the path in the uncomfortable silence that followed.
"Lily san," Shuichi said slowly, wondering if what he was about to say was such a good idea.
Lily lifted her head and looked at him. He couldn't help but notice the sad look that resided in her eyes.
"Do you..do you want to see your father?" he asked slowly in a soft tone.
She looked Shuichi dead in the eye. "For nine years I haven't seen him or heard his voice on the phone. I can barely recall his face and any memory of him is hazy."
She paused before she spoke again.
"But still, I want to see him. He is my dad after all."
Shuichi didn't know what to do or say. He didn't do well in these kinds of situations and he was always the one that needed comfort from either Hiro or Yuki.
Slowly he reached over and put a comforting hand on Lily's back.
"I'm sure that you'll see him soon," Shuichi said with an encouraging smile. "He's not the sort of person who would disappear from your life forever."
"Huh? How do you know that?" Lily asked with a surprised look.
'Oh f@*% I've stuffed up big time,' Shuichi groaned mentally as a panicked look covered his face.
Something cold and small connected with the back of his head. He realised what it was and it robbed him of his speech, making him unable to cover up his mistake.
Lily was slowly moving to the other end of the bench in horror as she looked at the person behind Shuichi.
"You have ten seconds to get back to the recording studio, Mr Rock Star," K said in a cold voice. "Ten, Nine.."
Shuichi screamed and jumped up off the bench. He ran back towards the NG building in such a hurry that his feet set some fallen leaves on fire.
K finished his countdown and started to fire shots randomly in Shuichi's general direction. He then lowered his gun and smiled at Lily's cowering figure under the park bench.
"Hey Lily chan," he said after his shooting fix, "would you like to come watch Bad Luck's recording while you wait for Tohma san? He won't be finished for a while yet."
Lily crawled out from underneath the park bench and stood up.
"Is it safe?" she asked weakly.
"Don't worry," he said confidently and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You'll be with me the entire time."
Lily didn't even have time to yell for help before K dragged her away.
**********************************************
"Hooray! The park!" Ryuichi squealed as he ran towards the play equipment, Kumagoro in hand.
"I just love to play! Don't you Kumagoro?" Ryuichi said as he slid down the slide, the pink bunny sitting in his lap.
A father who was supervising his child on the swings caught sight of the thirty one year old jumping from one piece of play equipment to another and frowned.
"Excuse me," he said awkwardly as Ryuichi ran past him for the fith time in 3 seconds.
"Eh?" Ryuichi said stopping and looked at the man with a childish look, Kumagoro hanging off his head.
"Haven't I seen you some place before?" the man asked.
"No you've never seen me before in your entire life," the rock star said happily and ran off again.
The parent went back to watching his child play on the swings as he heard a chorus of made up words being sung out again and again behind him.
Ryuichi placed Kumagoro on one end of the seesaw and sat on the other end. The stuffed toy went up into the air and that's where he stayed.
"Aww this is no fun," Ryuichi said with a pout and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Enjoying yourself Ryu chan?" someone asked behind him.
Ryuichi's brown head turned around and he gave a huge grin.
"Noriko!" he cried happily and hugged the purple haired woman.
"There, there Ryu chan," Noriko said easing out of her friend's grip. "We're meant to go see Tohma now remember?"
"Oh yea!" he said laughing and scratched the back of his head. "Me and Kumagoro were having so much fun that we forgot. Right Kumagoro?"
Both adults took his silence as a yes.
"Come on Ryuichi," Noriko said taking his arm and the two (or three if you counted Kumagoro) headed off through the park.
"Are you going to go see Shuichi kun sing at his concert next week?" Noriko asked happily, even though she already knew the answer.
"Yes yes!" Ryuichi sang. "I just love to hear Shu chan and the others play! They make me and Kumagoro happy."
The two adults saw a blur go past at the end of the path and they stopped walking.
"What was that?" Noriko asked, holding the singer by the arm more tightly so he wouldn't run off.
"That scream sounded like Shu chan. Didn't it Kumagoro?"
A collection of gunshots rang out before there was silence once more.
"I think you're right, because that was most definitely K san," Noriko said with a smile.
"Let's go see K san Kumagoro!" Ryuichi cried happily and tried to get his arm out of Noriko's grip.
As Noriko held him back, she saw K appear and walk in the same direction a Shuichi had moments before. He was waving his gun around casually and had one arm around a young girl as he talked. The brown haired girl looked as if she wanted to be anywhere else but there.
Ryuichi stopped completely. Kumagoro fell from his grip and landed on some scattered leaves. Noriko could feel his entire body trembling as she held his arm.
"Ryuichi?" she asked in a worried tone. She had never seen Ryuichi act like this.
He turned around to face her slowly. The childish innocence that had once glistened in his eyes was now gone. He grabbed Noriko by the shoulders and squeezed tightly.
"Did you see? Did you see?" he gasped softly.
Noriko broke out of Ryuichi's grip and took a step back. His current state was beyond strange and very scary.
"Did I see what Ryuichi?" she asked seriously. "What's wrong?"
"Lily. That girl with K san was Lily chan. My Lily chan."
Now just one more important note before you guys read the chapter. How do you spell the name of the evil guy from ASK? I've seen it spelt as Taichi, Tachi and even Taki. Could someone drop a hint? Thanks a lot and the sooner I find out, the sooner the chapter comes.
**********************************************
"And people say the subway in New York is bad!" Lily yelled to herself in English as she jumped off the bus.
She had just spent the last forty minutes on a bus crammed with servants of the devil that had cleverly disguised themselves as high school students. There had been enough passengers to fill two buses and several kids were making a general nuisance of themselves.
There had been a kid spiting out the window, kids thinking that if the smoked up the back no one would notice them and one guy had nearly set Lily's hair on fire when he'd been running around with his cigarette lighter.
Lily walked down the street, breathing heavily as she tried to recover from the bus trauma. From now on she'd wait the extra fifteen minutes and catch the later bus.
She'd been worried at first that she wouldn't be able to find the NG building, but upon reaching it she felt really stupid. To have missed it you'd have to be blind in one eye and have a cataract over the over. This building put Joan's so called 'house' to shame.
Lily walked up to front glass doors and swiped her card through the little machine next to it. The blinking light above the door flicked from red to green and the glass doors slid open with a small humming noise.
'Cool,' Lily thought and headed for the elevator. She pressed button 14 and headed up. The elevator gave a chime as it reached its destination and the doors rolled open.
She had no idea where Tohma's office was so she decided to just walk around until she found it.
*********************************************
Shuichi punched in the code for the strawberry pockey on the vending machine and pressed his nose up to the glass. Ever so slowly the little box moved forward before it stopped.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Shuichi wailed and thumped the glass on the machine. "This is too cruel!"
He grabbed the machine with both hands and started to shake it furiously. He stopped when he saw a hand appear next to him and placed some coins in the machine.
There was a collection of beeps from the code pad before the strawberry pockey rack started to move again. Two boxes fell and Shuichi let go of the machine.
"Lily san!" he said in surprise as he saw her fishing the boxes out of the machine.
"Good afternoon Shindo san," she said with a smile, handing him a box of pockey before stuffing the other box in her school bag along with her wallet.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, holding onto his pockey as he looked at her with amazement. He'd hadn't really expected to see her again so soon. Maybe even never.
"My dad's friend works here," she said.
At the mention at her father, Shuichi recalled the incident in the recording studio after his return to Japan.
"None of you are to say anything to Lily chan about her father," K said with a frown as he waved his Cougar Magnum around in a threatening manner at the three young rock stars and their producer. "Understand?"
No one had lodged a complaint after that persuasive speech.
"Hey Shindo san," Lily said waving her hand in front of Shuichi's face. "Are you in there?"
"Huh?" Shuichi asked with a blank look on his face.
Lily smiled at the young rock star. He could be just like Joan at times.
"Do you feel like taking a walk?" she asked.
*********************************************
The crisp Autumn wind blew some orange and yellow leaves around as the two walked through the park. Shuichi was now wearing his baseball cap and sunglasses to disguise himself.
"It'll be getting cold soon," he said brightly as Lily walked next to him, "and no one will want to buy ice cream anymore. I'll have to buy more pockey to make up for the loss. I guess the weather will be strange for you since the weather in America is different at this time of year."
Lily didn't answer him and just kept her eyes focus on the path ahead of her.
"Anyway, I hope K san doesn't notice I've been missing for long, but I'm sure....
"I lied to you the other day."
Shuichi stopped mid-sentence as Lily cut him off.
"Eh? What do you mean Lily san? Are you an illegal immigrant or something?"
Lily couldn't help but laugh, just being around Shuichi put her in a good mood.
"No, no nothing like that," she said and walked over to a park bench. "I lied to you about my Dad."
Shuichi sat down on the bench while trying to hide a worried look. He had the feeling that Lily was going to tell him something he already knew. The hard part was to fool her into believing that he was completely ignorant. If he let even the tiniest thing slip, he would be eating K's lead.
"I told you that he was an American," Lily said slowly as she watched the beautiful park scenery in front of her. "That was a lie, he's Japanese."
"Why would you lie about something like that?" Shuichi asked, tilting his head to one side. "It's no big deal where he or you come from."
"It's a long and complicated explanation," Lily said, her posture sagging as she sighed, "but it's mostly got to do with my grandmother."
Shuichi didn't say anything and Lily continued speaking.
"Unlike most other people, I don't take my father's name. Barton was my mother's name."
"How come?" Shuichi asked.
"Because my parents never married, they had a de facto relationship. That was the thing Grams had a problem with you see," Lily explained.
Shuichi swallowed uncomfortably. 'Lily san is an illegitimate child,' he thought. 'I asked a bad question.'
"After Mum died," Lily said quietly, "Dad left America and returned to Japan for work. I had to stay with my Grandmother on her farm. She was nice but was really strict about mentioning my father. She always told me that I could never mention his name, his nationality or what he did for a living. If I told anyone it could make trouble for us."
Shuichi was getting more uncomfortable by the minute. The secret he was holding was like a balloon inside his chest that getting bigger and bigger by the minute. He knew why she couldn't reveal any of that information.
Lily suddenly gave a small hollow laugh.
"And do you want to know what the funny part is?" she asked Shuichi, her gaze shooting past his sunglasses into his baby blue eyes. "I know hardly anything about him. I don't what his job is, why he never came back to visit or even what he has for breakfast. My own father is a complete stranger to me."
She then broke the gaze and looked down at the cement beneath her school shoes.
The cool breeze caused some golden leaves to dance in front of them for a minute before they blew down the path in the uncomfortable silence that followed.
"Lily san," Shuichi said slowly, wondering if what he was about to say was such a good idea.
Lily lifted her head and looked at him. He couldn't help but notice the sad look that resided in her eyes.
"Do you..do you want to see your father?" he asked slowly in a soft tone.
She looked Shuichi dead in the eye. "For nine years I haven't seen him or heard his voice on the phone. I can barely recall his face and any memory of him is hazy."
She paused before she spoke again.
"But still, I want to see him. He is my dad after all."
Shuichi didn't know what to do or say. He didn't do well in these kinds of situations and he was always the one that needed comfort from either Hiro or Yuki.
Slowly he reached over and put a comforting hand on Lily's back.
"I'm sure that you'll see him soon," Shuichi said with an encouraging smile. "He's not the sort of person who would disappear from your life forever."
"Huh? How do you know that?" Lily asked with a surprised look.
'Oh f@*% I've stuffed up big time,' Shuichi groaned mentally as a panicked look covered his face.
Something cold and small connected with the back of his head. He realised what it was and it robbed him of his speech, making him unable to cover up his mistake.
Lily was slowly moving to the other end of the bench in horror as she looked at the person behind Shuichi.
"You have ten seconds to get back to the recording studio, Mr Rock Star," K said in a cold voice. "Ten, Nine.."
Shuichi screamed and jumped up off the bench. He ran back towards the NG building in such a hurry that his feet set some fallen leaves on fire.
K finished his countdown and started to fire shots randomly in Shuichi's general direction. He then lowered his gun and smiled at Lily's cowering figure under the park bench.
"Hey Lily chan," he said after his shooting fix, "would you like to come watch Bad Luck's recording while you wait for Tohma san? He won't be finished for a while yet."
Lily crawled out from underneath the park bench and stood up.
"Is it safe?" she asked weakly.
"Don't worry," he said confidently and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You'll be with me the entire time."
Lily didn't even have time to yell for help before K dragged her away.
**********************************************
"Hooray! The park!" Ryuichi squealed as he ran towards the play equipment, Kumagoro in hand.
"I just love to play! Don't you Kumagoro?" Ryuichi said as he slid down the slide, the pink bunny sitting in his lap.
A father who was supervising his child on the swings caught sight of the thirty one year old jumping from one piece of play equipment to another and frowned.
"Excuse me," he said awkwardly as Ryuichi ran past him for the fith time in 3 seconds.
"Eh?" Ryuichi said stopping and looked at the man with a childish look, Kumagoro hanging off his head.
"Haven't I seen you some place before?" the man asked.
"No you've never seen me before in your entire life," the rock star said happily and ran off again.
The parent went back to watching his child play on the swings as he heard a chorus of made up words being sung out again and again behind him.
Ryuichi placed Kumagoro on one end of the seesaw and sat on the other end. The stuffed toy went up into the air and that's where he stayed.
"Aww this is no fun," Ryuichi said with a pout and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Enjoying yourself Ryu chan?" someone asked behind him.
Ryuichi's brown head turned around and he gave a huge grin.
"Noriko!" he cried happily and hugged the purple haired woman.
"There, there Ryu chan," Noriko said easing out of her friend's grip. "We're meant to go see Tohma now remember?"
"Oh yea!" he said laughing and scratched the back of his head. "Me and Kumagoro were having so much fun that we forgot. Right Kumagoro?"
Both adults took his silence as a yes.
"Come on Ryuichi," Noriko said taking his arm and the two (or three if you counted Kumagoro) headed off through the park.
"Are you going to go see Shuichi kun sing at his concert next week?" Noriko asked happily, even though she already knew the answer.
"Yes yes!" Ryuichi sang. "I just love to hear Shu chan and the others play! They make me and Kumagoro happy."
The two adults saw a blur go past at the end of the path and they stopped walking.
"What was that?" Noriko asked, holding the singer by the arm more tightly so he wouldn't run off.
"That scream sounded like Shu chan. Didn't it Kumagoro?"
A collection of gunshots rang out before there was silence once more.
"I think you're right, because that was most definitely K san," Noriko said with a smile.
"Let's go see K san Kumagoro!" Ryuichi cried happily and tried to get his arm out of Noriko's grip.
As Noriko held him back, she saw K appear and walk in the same direction a Shuichi had moments before. He was waving his gun around casually and had one arm around a young girl as he talked. The brown haired girl looked as if she wanted to be anywhere else but there.
Ryuichi stopped completely. Kumagoro fell from his grip and landed on some scattered leaves. Noriko could feel his entire body trembling as she held his arm.
"Ryuichi?" she asked in a worried tone. She had never seen Ryuichi act like this.
He turned around to face her slowly. The childish innocence that had once glistened in his eyes was now gone. He grabbed Noriko by the shoulders and squeezed tightly.
"Did you see? Did you see?" he gasped softly.
Noriko broke out of Ryuichi's grip and took a step back. His current state was beyond strange and very scary.
"Did I see what Ryuichi?" she asked seriously. "What's wrong?"
"Lily. That girl with K san was Lily chan. My Lily chan."