10 years ago
"Ryuichi can you take Lily for a while? I have to get some stuff from the post office," a woman in her early twenties said to her boyfriend and handed the toddler over.
"Sure Chris," Ryuichi said with a smile and propped his daughter up on his shoulders.
Lily grabbed onto his long hair with both hands and looked around at the world keenly with her blue eyes.
"Meet you back here in half an hour ok?" Christina said. "And no trips to the toy store."
"Sure. Let's go Lily-chan," the young man said and with a wave to her two favourite people, Christina went off in the opposite direction.
Naturally, Ryuichi headed in the direction of the toy store. Christina had banned him from buying Lily toys because he was always short on cash. Being a musician didn't pay a lot when you were just starting out.
Christina was putting herself through medical school to be a psychiatrist so they weren't exactly living the high life. She did have a huge inheritance by her late father, but she couldn't touch that account until she was twenty-five, so there was still a few years to wait.
Ryuichi didn't have any known family still alive, and trying to get financial support from Chris' family was like getting blood from a stone.
'Nasty pack of back stabbing sell outs' Ryuichi thought and pushed the door to the toy store open.
He lowered Lily off of his shoulders and put her on the floor.
"Ok sweetie," have a look around and pick a toy to take home," Ryuichi said crouching down and patting Lily's brown hair.
"Yay!" she cried and toddled off.
Ryuichi stayed where he was but made sure to keep his eye on her at all times.
Sure Christina would string him up by his ankles when she found out, but Tohma had told him that their new single was doing well, so some money was bound to be coming their way soon.
"Daddy!" Lily cried from across the store. Ryuichi walked over to where she was and crouched down beside her.
"What is it?" he asked with a smile.
"That one," Lily said standing on her toes and pointing to the toy sitting on the shelf way above her head.
Ryuichi stood up and grabbed the toy for her with ease. He handed her the pink rabbit and Lily hugged it tightly.
"Come on Lily chan," he said looking at his watch. We'd better go and meet your mum.
After paying, he propped Lily and her new toy up on his shoulders again and walked back towards the meeting place.
"What's your new friend's name Lily chan?" Ryuichi asked his daughter.
"Kumagoro!" Lily cried happily.
"Err 'Kuma' is bear honey," Ryuichi explained nicely. "Don't you mean 'Usagi?'"
"No! Kumagoro!" Lily said firmly.
"Ok whatever," Ryuichi said with a shrug of defeat. He and Christina had decided to get Lily to learn Japanese along with English at an early age. She was doing quite well considering she was only three, but sometimes she got a word wrong and wouldn't budge.
'If only she was as healthy as she is smart,' Ryuichi thought and bowed his head a bit.
"Ryuichi! Hey Ryuichi!" a voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He could see Christina waving at him with her beautiful smile across the road.
"Wait right there! I'll be right over!" she yelled over the noise of the traffic.
Those words proved to be her last.
**********************************************
"The characters were cardboard?" Yuki repeated with a mouthful of cigarette.
"Yea, none of them had any personality whatsoever. It wasn't believable. All the women were drop dead gorgeous but for some strange reason hopelessly single, and the guys were perfect and just far too good to be true," Lily said with a shrug. "It just didn't make any sense."
She looked at her new companion to try and get some form of emotion from his face. She didn't have much success, this guy clearly wasn't much of a talker.
"Umm do you want to hear more or was that it?" Lily asked slowly.
"Continue if you want," he said lighting up a new cigarette.
"Well I think the passionate love scene, if you could call it that, would have crashed Thesaurus.com single handedly. Some of the worst metaphors I'd ever heard of were in there. It was like reading the graffiti off the back of a toilet door."
"What did you think of the ending?" Yuki asked. Sure his book was being torn to pieces in front of his very eyes, but he had to hear what this girl had to say. It was the most honest review he'd had from a female in years.
Lily was caught rather off guard. The stone human had spoken.
"Interesting..but predictable," she said trying to wave the cigarette smoke away from her face.
"Was there anything about the book that you actually liked?" Yuki grunted after taking a long drag on his cigarette.
"Uh, let me see, no," Lily said and coughed for a bit. When she stopped she took a deep breath and with a cautious glance, turned to the stranger sitting next to her. "Sorry."
"You certainly think very high of your reviews," Yuki tuttered blowing more smoke out of his mouth while holding the cigarette between two fingers.
"If you didn't want my opinion then why did you ask?" Lily snapped back. "It doesn't hurt to look at things differently."
She coughed some more as the cold air brought more smoke towards her.
Yuki didn't answer and the two sat silently for a few moments. They both watched the dark clouds over the city from their perfect spot on the park bench. Without the noise and pollution, Tokyo looked rather peaceful and pretty.
The first drop of rain splashed down on Lily's hand and she looked up at the rain clouds. It was time to get going.
"Nice talking to you," she said and after a quick bow set off down the path at a quick walk. She'd already done enough running for the day.
Yuki finished the rest of his cigarette before butting it out on the metal bin cover and threw it in to join his rejected book. He then stood up and grabbing the grocery bag, headed home, the rain growing heavier by the minute.
By the time he reached the apartment the noise of the rain was almost deafening and his jacket was soaked through. He left his shoes by the door and hung his dripping coat on the coat rack.
It was time to get back to work.
**********************************************
"Sparking Love huh?" Hiro said as he held the piece of paper in his hand. "It's a good title, but what about the lyrics?"
"Um, lyrics, right. Let's burn that bridge when we come to it huh?" Shuichi said nervously rubbing the back of his head.
All of the crew gave him dark glares.
"Do you at least know what the song is going to be about Shuichi?" Hiro asked, his tone getting more serious.
"It's about love."
"And?" growled Hiro, leaning in closer to his friend's face.
"It's sparkling."
Everyone fell over in disbelief.
"Shuichi, I, you, song, grrr," Hiro couldn't get the right words out and just buried his face in his hands with defeat.
"What? You can't rush art you know," Shuichi said with a shrug as the crew picked themselves up off the floor.
"Why don't we call it a day?" Sakano suggested looking at his watch. It was quite clear to him that they weren't going to get any more work done for the day.
His idea was widely supported and the musicians started to pack up their things. They were all worried about Shuichi's new song. He needed to have it finished before Tokyo Bay Music Festival and with his tendency to go into a slump before deadlines, it wasn't looking too bright.
"I'm a going now!" Shuichi cried brightly and the band exchanged goodbyes.
The pink haired singer set off at a run with his backpack strapped on. He was keen to see Yuki, even if Yuki never seemed to be happy to see him. After a short trip in the elevator Shuichi dashed towards the front door.
It was pouring with rain but that didn't really matter to him. At the speed he ran he'd be home in no time. He stepped outside and took a deep breath of the moist air. It felt cool and refreshing after being cooped up in a stuffy building all day.
He turned to start his run and nearly fell over something on the pavement. He didn't notice it a first because it was dark, but a small figure was curled up against the building.
"Lily chan!" he cried in amazement.
Lily lifted her head off of her knees and looked up at Shuichi with a dull expression. "Oh hi," she said wearily and put on a thin smile.
"What are you doing out in the rain? You're getting all wet!" Shuichi proclaimed and grabbing her wrist, hauled her to her feet. His face lost its energetic smile and a look of concern crossed it.
Lily's face was red and sweaty, like she'd just finished running a marathon. He could see that the smile she had on her face was fixed there like a mask, trying to hide what she was really feeling.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"Oh I'm fine, I just think I have that flu that's going around." she said softly as she breathed deeply.
"The one that's killing all those people at the airports?"
"No not SARS!" Lily exclaimed and then coughed loudly. We actually it was more of a hack, like the sort a grandfather has after smoking for fifty odd years.
Passers by moved away at the sound of disease and Shuichi rubbed her on the back. When she stopped coughing he held her hand and took her inside the building.
He sat her down in a large sofa chair near the reception desk and Lily tried to get her breathing back to normal.
"Are you all right?" he asked kneeing down beside the chair.
"Yea-every-thing-is-cool. Can-I-have-some-thing-to-drink please?" she said in between deep breaths.
Shuichi ran like a frightened gazelle to the drink machines and thrust a bottle of cold water in Lily's hand upon return.
Lily took a large gulp but managed to get more down her front that in her mouth. Giving up, she let her head fall back on the top of the sofa chair and puffed for a bit. "I'll-be-fine. Don't-worry-about-me. Go-home-see- Yuki."
"Are you really fine? You don't sound well at all," Shuichi said with concern and placed his hand on her forehead.
Lily brushed it away quickly. "I-just-need-to-rest. Go-home-Shindo-san. I'm- not-worth-the-trouble."
"What does that mean?" Shuichi grumbled with a frown. "You're my friend! Of course you're worth the trouble! I care about you."
Lily rolled her head to face him and gave him a smile in between the puffing.
"That makes you the first."
"Lily chan, what's going on?"
The two looked up and saw Tohma standing before them, holding Lily's bag in his gloved hand. Shuichi stood up and his posture stiffened. Regardless of what reasoning Tohma had for his past actions, Shuichi still didn't trust him.
"Hi-Tohma-san," Lily said sitting up slowly with sweat dripping from her brow.
"Does it hurt?" he asked crouching down in front of her and brushed her long fringe out of her eyes with his free hand.
Lily nodded and let out a loud exhale.
"I think we should go and get you something for it," Tohma said grimly and helped her up slowly.
"No-it's-ok," Lily said softly and took a deep breath. "It's just because of all the running this morning, and I ran to get out of the rain when I was half way here."
Shuichi was wearing a dumbfounded look, What was going on here? Lily didn't want to tell him what was going on, and by the way Seguchi was ignoring him, it looked like he wanted to keep him in the dark too.
"We'll talk more at home," Tohma said and they started to walk away slowly.
"Bye Shindo san," Lily whispered and rose her hand in a gesture of goodbye.
"Hey, wait a minute," he said.
"I thankyou for looking after her Shindo san," Tohma said finally acknowledging Shuichi's existence. "But I will take over from here."
Lily gave another wave and with that, the two of them left.
'What's going on?' Shuichi thought.
"Ryuichi can you take Lily for a while? I have to get some stuff from the post office," a woman in her early twenties said to her boyfriend and handed the toddler over.
"Sure Chris," Ryuichi said with a smile and propped his daughter up on his shoulders.
Lily grabbed onto his long hair with both hands and looked around at the world keenly with her blue eyes.
"Meet you back here in half an hour ok?" Christina said. "And no trips to the toy store."
"Sure. Let's go Lily-chan," the young man said and with a wave to her two favourite people, Christina went off in the opposite direction.
Naturally, Ryuichi headed in the direction of the toy store. Christina had banned him from buying Lily toys because he was always short on cash. Being a musician didn't pay a lot when you were just starting out.
Christina was putting herself through medical school to be a psychiatrist so they weren't exactly living the high life. She did have a huge inheritance by her late father, but she couldn't touch that account until she was twenty-five, so there was still a few years to wait.
Ryuichi didn't have any known family still alive, and trying to get financial support from Chris' family was like getting blood from a stone.
'Nasty pack of back stabbing sell outs' Ryuichi thought and pushed the door to the toy store open.
He lowered Lily off of his shoulders and put her on the floor.
"Ok sweetie," have a look around and pick a toy to take home," Ryuichi said crouching down and patting Lily's brown hair.
"Yay!" she cried and toddled off.
Ryuichi stayed where he was but made sure to keep his eye on her at all times.
Sure Christina would string him up by his ankles when she found out, but Tohma had told him that their new single was doing well, so some money was bound to be coming their way soon.
"Daddy!" Lily cried from across the store. Ryuichi walked over to where she was and crouched down beside her.
"What is it?" he asked with a smile.
"That one," Lily said standing on her toes and pointing to the toy sitting on the shelf way above her head.
Ryuichi stood up and grabbed the toy for her with ease. He handed her the pink rabbit and Lily hugged it tightly.
"Come on Lily chan," he said looking at his watch. We'd better go and meet your mum.
After paying, he propped Lily and her new toy up on his shoulders again and walked back towards the meeting place.
"What's your new friend's name Lily chan?" Ryuichi asked his daughter.
"Kumagoro!" Lily cried happily.
"Err 'Kuma' is bear honey," Ryuichi explained nicely. "Don't you mean 'Usagi?'"
"No! Kumagoro!" Lily said firmly.
"Ok whatever," Ryuichi said with a shrug of defeat. He and Christina had decided to get Lily to learn Japanese along with English at an early age. She was doing quite well considering she was only three, but sometimes she got a word wrong and wouldn't budge.
'If only she was as healthy as she is smart,' Ryuichi thought and bowed his head a bit.
"Ryuichi! Hey Ryuichi!" a voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He could see Christina waving at him with her beautiful smile across the road.
"Wait right there! I'll be right over!" she yelled over the noise of the traffic.
Those words proved to be her last.
**********************************************
"The characters were cardboard?" Yuki repeated with a mouthful of cigarette.
"Yea, none of them had any personality whatsoever. It wasn't believable. All the women were drop dead gorgeous but for some strange reason hopelessly single, and the guys were perfect and just far too good to be true," Lily said with a shrug. "It just didn't make any sense."
She looked at her new companion to try and get some form of emotion from his face. She didn't have much success, this guy clearly wasn't much of a talker.
"Umm do you want to hear more or was that it?" Lily asked slowly.
"Continue if you want," he said lighting up a new cigarette.
"Well I think the passionate love scene, if you could call it that, would have crashed Thesaurus.com single handedly. Some of the worst metaphors I'd ever heard of were in there. It was like reading the graffiti off the back of a toilet door."
"What did you think of the ending?" Yuki asked. Sure his book was being torn to pieces in front of his very eyes, but he had to hear what this girl had to say. It was the most honest review he'd had from a female in years.
Lily was caught rather off guard. The stone human had spoken.
"Interesting..but predictable," she said trying to wave the cigarette smoke away from her face.
"Was there anything about the book that you actually liked?" Yuki grunted after taking a long drag on his cigarette.
"Uh, let me see, no," Lily said and coughed for a bit. When she stopped she took a deep breath and with a cautious glance, turned to the stranger sitting next to her. "Sorry."
"You certainly think very high of your reviews," Yuki tuttered blowing more smoke out of his mouth while holding the cigarette between two fingers.
"If you didn't want my opinion then why did you ask?" Lily snapped back. "It doesn't hurt to look at things differently."
She coughed some more as the cold air brought more smoke towards her.
Yuki didn't answer and the two sat silently for a few moments. They both watched the dark clouds over the city from their perfect spot on the park bench. Without the noise and pollution, Tokyo looked rather peaceful and pretty.
The first drop of rain splashed down on Lily's hand and she looked up at the rain clouds. It was time to get going.
"Nice talking to you," she said and after a quick bow set off down the path at a quick walk. She'd already done enough running for the day.
Yuki finished the rest of his cigarette before butting it out on the metal bin cover and threw it in to join his rejected book. He then stood up and grabbing the grocery bag, headed home, the rain growing heavier by the minute.
By the time he reached the apartment the noise of the rain was almost deafening and his jacket was soaked through. He left his shoes by the door and hung his dripping coat on the coat rack.
It was time to get back to work.
**********************************************
"Sparking Love huh?" Hiro said as he held the piece of paper in his hand. "It's a good title, but what about the lyrics?"
"Um, lyrics, right. Let's burn that bridge when we come to it huh?" Shuichi said nervously rubbing the back of his head.
All of the crew gave him dark glares.
"Do you at least know what the song is going to be about Shuichi?" Hiro asked, his tone getting more serious.
"It's about love."
"And?" growled Hiro, leaning in closer to his friend's face.
"It's sparkling."
Everyone fell over in disbelief.
"Shuichi, I, you, song, grrr," Hiro couldn't get the right words out and just buried his face in his hands with defeat.
"What? You can't rush art you know," Shuichi said with a shrug as the crew picked themselves up off the floor.
"Why don't we call it a day?" Sakano suggested looking at his watch. It was quite clear to him that they weren't going to get any more work done for the day.
His idea was widely supported and the musicians started to pack up their things. They were all worried about Shuichi's new song. He needed to have it finished before Tokyo Bay Music Festival and with his tendency to go into a slump before deadlines, it wasn't looking too bright.
"I'm a going now!" Shuichi cried brightly and the band exchanged goodbyes.
The pink haired singer set off at a run with his backpack strapped on. He was keen to see Yuki, even if Yuki never seemed to be happy to see him. After a short trip in the elevator Shuichi dashed towards the front door.
It was pouring with rain but that didn't really matter to him. At the speed he ran he'd be home in no time. He stepped outside and took a deep breath of the moist air. It felt cool and refreshing after being cooped up in a stuffy building all day.
He turned to start his run and nearly fell over something on the pavement. He didn't notice it a first because it was dark, but a small figure was curled up against the building.
"Lily chan!" he cried in amazement.
Lily lifted her head off of her knees and looked up at Shuichi with a dull expression. "Oh hi," she said wearily and put on a thin smile.
"What are you doing out in the rain? You're getting all wet!" Shuichi proclaimed and grabbing her wrist, hauled her to her feet. His face lost its energetic smile and a look of concern crossed it.
Lily's face was red and sweaty, like she'd just finished running a marathon. He could see that the smile she had on her face was fixed there like a mask, trying to hide what she was really feeling.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"Oh I'm fine, I just think I have that flu that's going around." she said softly as she breathed deeply.
"The one that's killing all those people at the airports?"
"No not SARS!" Lily exclaimed and then coughed loudly. We actually it was more of a hack, like the sort a grandfather has after smoking for fifty odd years.
Passers by moved away at the sound of disease and Shuichi rubbed her on the back. When she stopped coughing he held her hand and took her inside the building.
He sat her down in a large sofa chair near the reception desk and Lily tried to get her breathing back to normal.
"Are you all right?" he asked kneeing down beside the chair.
"Yea-every-thing-is-cool. Can-I-have-some-thing-to-drink please?" she said in between deep breaths.
Shuichi ran like a frightened gazelle to the drink machines and thrust a bottle of cold water in Lily's hand upon return.
Lily took a large gulp but managed to get more down her front that in her mouth. Giving up, she let her head fall back on the top of the sofa chair and puffed for a bit. "I'll-be-fine. Don't-worry-about-me. Go-home-see- Yuki."
"Are you really fine? You don't sound well at all," Shuichi said with concern and placed his hand on her forehead.
Lily brushed it away quickly. "I-just-need-to-rest. Go-home-Shindo-san. I'm- not-worth-the-trouble."
"What does that mean?" Shuichi grumbled with a frown. "You're my friend! Of course you're worth the trouble! I care about you."
Lily rolled her head to face him and gave him a smile in between the puffing.
"That makes you the first."
"Lily chan, what's going on?"
The two looked up and saw Tohma standing before them, holding Lily's bag in his gloved hand. Shuichi stood up and his posture stiffened. Regardless of what reasoning Tohma had for his past actions, Shuichi still didn't trust him.
"Hi-Tohma-san," Lily said sitting up slowly with sweat dripping from her brow.
"Does it hurt?" he asked crouching down in front of her and brushed her long fringe out of her eyes with his free hand.
Lily nodded and let out a loud exhale.
"I think we should go and get you something for it," Tohma said grimly and helped her up slowly.
"No-it's-ok," Lily said softly and took a deep breath. "It's just because of all the running this morning, and I ran to get out of the rain when I was half way here."
Shuichi was wearing a dumbfounded look, What was going on here? Lily didn't want to tell him what was going on, and by the way Seguchi was ignoring him, it looked like he wanted to keep him in the dark too.
"We'll talk more at home," Tohma said and they started to walk away slowly.
"Bye Shindo san," Lily whispered and rose her hand in a gesture of goodbye.
"Hey, wait a minute," he said.
"I thankyou for looking after her Shindo san," Tohma said finally acknowledging Shuichi's existence. "But I will take over from here."
Lily gave another wave and with that, the two of them left.
'What's going on?' Shuichi thought.