"Yea, so anyway Joan, was there any other work I have to do before
tomorrow? Yes, that does mean you're actually going to have to do your own
work today," Lily said with a thin smile as she talked into her mobile
phone. "Yea, I'm fine. Tohma is just over reacting, but never mind. A day
off school is a day off school right? Ok see ya."
Lily ended the call with a press of a button and flipped the top down. She was stuck at N-G for the day because Tohma was demanding that she took the day easy and relaxed.
'That wont be a problem,' she thought as she rubbed her sore eyes and yawned. 'I have nothing to do at all today. Except for that thing.' Her lip curved into a sneer as she thought about it. This was one assignment she wasn't looking forward to.
She was distracted by that thought by her parched throat. There wasn't a vending machine on the floor so she jumped in the next vacant elevator down.
She got off at the bottom floor where she knew where the machines were. She jammed some coins in the slot and the buttons lit up.
'Which Fanta shall I have? Orange, tropical, or grape?'
Lily wrinkled her nose at the thought of grape. Joan had bought her a can of it once and Lily didn't quite know what to make of it. It hadn't been bad, but it hadn't been great either. Orange was definitely the go.
Her finger pushed the bright button and with a thump the can bounded out the machine. Lily managed to catch it before it hit her in the head and took a cautious step back. She'd never come across a vending machine with a temper before.
The hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she turned around. Whatever had been looking at her had vanished around the corner. Lily jogged over and swung around to just see the elevator door close with a snap.
'Who was that?' she wondered.
Someone clapped their hand on her shoulder and she whirled around with a small scream. Sakano took a step back and raised both his hands like a hostage at gunpoint (he had plenty of practice at it thanks to K).
"Excuse me!" he said loudly. "I didn't mean to scare you! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Sakano then started to bow deeply repeatedly like a novelty drinking bird.
"It's Ok!" Lily said quickly, a little alarmed by his deep feeling of regret. "You just startled me."
Sakano sighed and pushed his glasses back up. Lily looked back around the corner for a second before giving her full attention to the producer.
"Are you all right? For minute there you looked nostalgic," he said.
"Yea, I'm fine, I just thought that I knew a person from somewhere," she thought for a second before shrugging. "Must be a de ja vu sort of thing I guess."
'But I wonder.'
"LILY CHAN!!!!"
"What the.. arrgg!"
Someone ran right into her at full speed and trapped her in a bone- crunching hug, lifting her feet off the ground.
"Shuichi, Shuichi!" she gasped and waved her arms around. "It hurts when you do that!"
"I was so worried about you! You looked like you were in a whole heap of pain the other day; I couldn't stop thinking about it. But I had to when Yuki told me to shut up so he could.."
Sakano clapped his hand over Shuichi's mouth and looked around fearfully for Tohma. "Shindo kun!" he squeaked
"Work," Shuichi said completing his sentence when Sakano removed his hand. He threw a filthy look in the producer's direction, whom might I add was looking thoroughly embarrassed.
Lily was blue in the face and with her free hand, pulled on Shuichi's sleeve.
"Hmmm?"
"A-a-a-ir!" she gasped.
Shuichi let her go and Lily sucked in enough air to fill a balloon.
"So how are you feeling?" Shuichi asked cheerfully.
"Just peachy," Lily replied sarcastically.
"That's good! Hey do you want to come with us to our press interview? It might be a little boring, but afterwards I'm sure we can do something fun. You aren't going to school today, right?" he asked looking at her jeans, windcheater and rollerblades.
"Yea," she said with a big sigh and straightened up. "That does sound like fun."
"Great! You can help me with my new song! I need to put some English in it somewhere, but I'm not sure what to say-or if it would make sense," Shuichi said and started walking to the waiting car outside.
A pink rabbit stuck its head around the corner and said at the sight of the retreating figures, "Good thing Shuichi is looking after Lily chan na no da."
*********************************************
"I know, what about 'Hot Ice cream'? Does that work?" Shuichi asked excitedly as he lent over Fujisaki to talk to Lily.
"No, not really," Lily said slowly, leaning over Fujisaki while holding the crumpled piece of paper.
"What about 'Cold Ice cream'? Is that any better?"
"Well that kind of goes without saying don't you think?"
"You're sitting here on the way back," Fujisaki grumbled to Hiro.
So far Shuichi had been able to write about half a verse, but as for the rest of the song, they weren't getting very far.
The car pulled to a halt outside a caffe that had a huge sign announcing that it was closed for the morning due to a large booking.
"Hey how about 'Dark Light'?"
"You seem to have trouble with adjectives don't you?" Lily asked with a look of discomfort as they all climbed out of the car.
"Let's get a move on shall we?" Sakano said clapping his hands. "It's always good to be punctual."
"Welcome!" a well-dressed lady said as the group walked into the caffe. The tables and chairs had been moved to make room for cameras and lighting and there were about half a dozen reporters focusing their attention on them.
Lily inconspicuously shuffled back behind K who was at the tail end of the group. The mere sight of reporters made her stomach drop.
The throbbing pain that had started when she'd got out of he car grew in her chest with every heartbeat. Fingers wrapped themselves around each cushion like lung and squeezed. Her throat burnt like a growing fire that fended off any water or wind. It was painful, and it was something she knew very well.
'By God not now,' she thought as the pain continued to rise. She broke out into a sweat of fear and covered her mouth with her hand as she coughed up mucus. The pain was almost unbearable.
Looking up, she could see the rest of the group was talking a laughing with the reporters, completely oblivious to what was going on behind them.
Quickly as possible, Lily crept across the caffe without being seen. She pushed the door open and stepped outside.
She dug into her small backpack while she continued to cough and wheeze. It she didn't get some of it soon there'd be trouble. Her heart lifted when her hand found the much-needed object.
She pulled out the L-shaped piece of blue plastic, and pulling the small cap off, placed it in her mouth and pushed the top.
Nothing happened.
Lily pulled it away from her lips and shook it like a small child would shake an unfortunate family pet.
Empty.
'Oh crap.'
Lily looked through the glass window and saw her friends sitting down with drinks and talking about their upcoming performance. She couldn't go in there and tell them. It wasn't worth interrupting something so important.
Some people call it karma, some call it an act of God while others refer to it as fate. People who don't believe just call it sheer dumb luck. But whatever it is, it showed up. It the form of a shop.
Well actually, in the form of the man who ran the shop, but who cares, the point of the matter is that it saved our heroin.
The man walked out of the store across the road and placed a billboard on the pavement. Lily saw him and her eyes caught sight of the red paint on the sign.
GENERAL FAMILY CHEMIST OPEN 9AM TO 11PM
**********************************************
13 years ago
Christina walked up the street deep in thought. In her head she tried to think of how she was going to tell Ryuichi. It wasn't going to be easy, but she decided that it should go somewhat along the lines of this.
'Hi honey how are you? What do you think of the number three? Good things come in threes don't they? There are three members in your band after all, and you like your band don't you?' She pulled open the door to an old building where Nittle Grasper would be recording later that day and tried to think about what came in threes. Everything good she could think of came in a pair.
Socks, gloves, twin CD sets, back to back TV episodes, batteries, earrings, Twix bars, the list went on. A pair was what they already were and they were happy.
She walked into a room where Tohma was playing blackjack with Noriko, and loosing badly. They both looked up and smiled.
"Hi Christina," Tohma said with his pleasant voice.
"Hiya little cutie," Noriko chirped and rose to hug her. Tohma took this opportunity to look at the cards she'd left on the table.
"Hi guys," Chris said with a smile while hugging Noriko. Seeing her friends took her mind off of her situation for just a few seconds.
The two musicians resumed their game and Christina sat down on the couch next to Tohma. She took one of her medical books out of her backpack and tried to read.
"Large amounts of pain are caused by the mother's contractions as she tries to push the baby out of.."
She closed the book in a real hurry and stuffed it back in her bag, closing it tightly as if she was afraid the book was going to jump out and tell her more gruesome details.
"Hey Tohma," she said slowly, averting her eyes from her backpack.
"Yes?" he asked looking at her through his long blond fringe.
"What comes in threes?" she asked.
Tohma looked up thoughtfully and Noriko used the opportunity to look at his cards.
"Witches come in threes according to legend," he said after a moment.
"That really doesn't help," Christina said with a sigh and sagged down.
"What's the matter sweetheart?" Noriko said, sensing Chris' worried feelings, got up and sat next to her.
"You guys have known Ryuichi for a long time right?" she asked, looking back and forth between Noriko and Tohma.
"That's one way of putting it," Tohma said throwing his cards on the table.
"What do you think is the best way for telling him something major?" she asked.
The two band members exchanged confused looks over Christina's head and then looked back at her.
"What's wrong honey?" Noriko asked pushing some of Christina's long blond hair behind her ear.
"Well I went to the doctors today, to see why I've been feeling so nauseous lately," she started.
Tohma picked up a cup of water from the table and took a mouthful.
"And he said that I'm pregnant."
The water shot out of Tohma's mouth like a power packed sprinkler, spraying it all over Christina's head.
She turned to give him a dirty look and he covered his mouth as the droplets fell from her face onto the carpet.
"Sorry," he murmured.
A faint squeak from the doorway caught their attention and they all turned.
A man with long brown hair wearing a red headband and jeans with holes in the knee area stood in the doorframe, eyes wide as fishbowls on his pale face.
"Oh Ryu chan," Noriko said standing up in a hurry with an awkward smile. "We didn't hear you come in."
Tohma whipped the remaining water away from his lips and stood up.
"Now Ryuichi," he said calmly. "Just take a deep breath and come and sit down."
There was a loud thump as Ryuichi hit the ground.
**********************************************
"I guess she didn't sleep well last night," K said as he watched Lily sleeping on Hiro's shoulder in the rear view mirror.
"I guess, or maybe she's been pulling all night study sessions for school," Shuichi said as he poked Lily in the cheek a few times.
Fujisaki lent over and slapped Shuichi's hand. "Stop that!" he commanded with a frown.
Shuichi was about to yell back at him when Hiro spoke. "Hey everyone shut up for a minute."
K and Sakano stopped their conversation and Shuichi withheld his comment to Fujisaki. There should have been silence, but there was one little thing interrupting it.
No one noticed it at first, but ever so slowly, they became aware for a small rasping noise. Sakano tapped the air vent on the dashboard, however the noise continued.
"Where's it coming from?" Shuichi asked fearfully. The idea of ghosts and people hiding in the car boot started to creep up on him.
"It's Lily," Hiro said after a minute.
Shuichi leaned in closer to her and strained his ear, trying to find the problem. Her chest moved in and out, and every time the noise escaped.
"Her breathing," Shuichi muttered.
Her raised his head and spoke louder. "It's her breathing. I think she's finding it hard to breathe."
Lily woke with a yelp and everyone jumped. She covered her mouth with her hands and started to cough loudly. Hiro rubbed her on the back and slowly she started to stop coughing and took long, deep breaths.
"Are you ok?" Shuichi asked touching her arm.
"Yea, yea," she said quickly. "I just had a bit of a bad dream." She then stopped talking and a look of embarrassment crawled over her face. "Err, who did I fall asleep on?"
"Me," Hiro said with a charming smile.
Lily went red and nearly fainted.
"We're here," Sakano said pulling up outside an ice cream parlour. "K and I will be back to pick you up in and hour."
"And if you're not ready," K left the sentence hang and removed the safety catch on his gun.
The musicians and Lily climbed out of the car and walked inside the building.
"I'll be back in a minute," Lily said and headed for the Ladies.
The three males sat down at an empty booth and put on hats and sunglasses. They were at the ice cream parlour to fulfil Shuichi's promise of doing something fun. The place was pretty empty since it was a school day, but it was always good to play it save and be incognito.
Suguru and Hiro each grabbed a menu but Shuichi was deep it thought. Well, about as deep in thought as he could get anyway.
'She's tired, having trouble breathing, has bloodshot eyes, a bad cough, wont tell me what's wrong and Seguchi san keeps me it the dark. What does this all mean?'
A conclusion popped up in his mind and Shuichi started to cry and scream at the top of his lungs. Waitresses dropped their orders, other customers threw the trio strange looks and Hiro raised his menu up to his face to avoid getting wet.
"Shindo san what's wrong?" Fujisaki asked with a dazed expression.
"Lily chan is taking drugs!"
Lily ended the call with a press of a button and flipped the top down. She was stuck at N-G for the day because Tohma was demanding that she took the day easy and relaxed.
'That wont be a problem,' she thought as she rubbed her sore eyes and yawned. 'I have nothing to do at all today. Except for that thing.' Her lip curved into a sneer as she thought about it. This was one assignment she wasn't looking forward to.
She was distracted by that thought by her parched throat. There wasn't a vending machine on the floor so she jumped in the next vacant elevator down.
She got off at the bottom floor where she knew where the machines were. She jammed some coins in the slot and the buttons lit up.
'Which Fanta shall I have? Orange, tropical, or grape?'
Lily wrinkled her nose at the thought of grape. Joan had bought her a can of it once and Lily didn't quite know what to make of it. It hadn't been bad, but it hadn't been great either. Orange was definitely the go.
Her finger pushed the bright button and with a thump the can bounded out the machine. Lily managed to catch it before it hit her in the head and took a cautious step back. She'd never come across a vending machine with a temper before.
The hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she turned around. Whatever had been looking at her had vanished around the corner. Lily jogged over and swung around to just see the elevator door close with a snap.
'Who was that?' she wondered.
Someone clapped their hand on her shoulder and she whirled around with a small scream. Sakano took a step back and raised both his hands like a hostage at gunpoint (he had plenty of practice at it thanks to K).
"Excuse me!" he said loudly. "I didn't mean to scare you! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Sakano then started to bow deeply repeatedly like a novelty drinking bird.
"It's Ok!" Lily said quickly, a little alarmed by his deep feeling of regret. "You just startled me."
Sakano sighed and pushed his glasses back up. Lily looked back around the corner for a second before giving her full attention to the producer.
"Are you all right? For minute there you looked nostalgic," he said.
"Yea, I'm fine, I just thought that I knew a person from somewhere," she thought for a second before shrugging. "Must be a de ja vu sort of thing I guess."
'But I wonder.'
"LILY CHAN!!!!"
"What the.. arrgg!"
Someone ran right into her at full speed and trapped her in a bone- crunching hug, lifting her feet off the ground.
"Shuichi, Shuichi!" she gasped and waved her arms around. "It hurts when you do that!"
"I was so worried about you! You looked like you were in a whole heap of pain the other day; I couldn't stop thinking about it. But I had to when Yuki told me to shut up so he could.."
Sakano clapped his hand over Shuichi's mouth and looked around fearfully for Tohma. "Shindo kun!" he squeaked
"Work," Shuichi said completing his sentence when Sakano removed his hand. He threw a filthy look in the producer's direction, whom might I add was looking thoroughly embarrassed.
Lily was blue in the face and with her free hand, pulled on Shuichi's sleeve.
"Hmmm?"
"A-a-a-ir!" she gasped.
Shuichi let her go and Lily sucked in enough air to fill a balloon.
"So how are you feeling?" Shuichi asked cheerfully.
"Just peachy," Lily replied sarcastically.
"That's good! Hey do you want to come with us to our press interview? It might be a little boring, but afterwards I'm sure we can do something fun. You aren't going to school today, right?" he asked looking at her jeans, windcheater and rollerblades.
"Yea," she said with a big sigh and straightened up. "That does sound like fun."
"Great! You can help me with my new song! I need to put some English in it somewhere, but I'm not sure what to say-or if it would make sense," Shuichi said and started walking to the waiting car outside.
A pink rabbit stuck its head around the corner and said at the sight of the retreating figures, "Good thing Shuichi is looking after Lily chan na no da."
*********************************************
"I know, what about 'Hot Ice cream'? Does that work?" Shuichi asked excitedly as he lent over Fujisaki to talk to Lily.
"No, not really," Lily said slowly, leaning over Fujisaki while holding the crumpled piece of paper.
"What about 'Cold Ice cream'? Is that any better?"
"Well that kind of goes without saying don't you think?"
"You're sitting here on the way back," Fujisaki grumbled to Hiro.
So far Shuichi had been able to write about half a verse, but as for the rest of the song, they weren't getting very far.
The car pulled to a halt outside a caffe that had a huge sign announcing that it was closed for the morning due to a large booking.
"Hey how about 'Dark Light'?"
"You seem to have trouble with adjectives don't you?" Lily asked with a look of discomfort as they all climbed out of the car.
"Let's get a move on shall we?" Sakano said clapping his hands. "It's always good to be punctual."
"Welcome!" a well-dressed lady said as the group walked into the caffe. The tables and chairs had been moved to make room for cameras and lighting and there were about half a dozen reporters focusing their attention on them.
Lily inconspicuously shuffled back behind K who was at the tail end of the group. The mere sight of reporters made her stomach drop.
The throbbing pain that had started when she'd got out of he car grew in her chest with every heartbeat. Fingers wrapped themselves around each cushion like lung and squeezed. Her throat burnt like a growing fire that fended off any water or wind. It was painful, and it was something she knew very well.
'By God not now,' she thought as the pain continued to rise. She broke out into a sweat of fear and covered her mouth with her hand as she coughed up mucus. The pain was almost unbearable.
Looking up, she could see the rest of the group was talking a laughing with the reporters, completely oblivious to what was going on behind them.
Quickly as possible, Lily crept across the caffe without being seen. She pushed the door open and stepped outside.
She dug into her small backpack while she continued to cough and wheeze. It she didn't get some of it soon there'd be trouble. Her heart lifted when her hand found the much-needed object.
She pulled out the L-shaped piece of blue plastic, and pulling the small cap off, placed it in her mouth and pushed the top.
Nothing happened.
Lily pulled it away from her lips and shook it like a small child would shake an unfortunate family pet.
Empty.
'Oh crap.'
Lily looked through the glass window and saw her friends sitting down with drinks and talking about their upcoming performance. She couldn't go in there and tell them. It wasn't worth interrupting something so important.
Some people call it karma, some call it an act of God while others refer to it as fate. People who don't believe just call it sheer dumb luck. But whatever it is, it showed up. It the form of a shop.
Well actually, in the form of the man who ran the shop, but who cares, the point of the matter is that it saved our heroin.
The man walked out of the store across the road and placed a billboard on the pavement. Lily saw him and her eyes caught sight of the red paint on the sign.
GENERAL FAMILY CHEMIST OPEN 9AM TO 11PM
**********************************************
13 years ago
Christina walked up the street deep in thought. In her head she tried to think of how she was going to tell Ryuichi. It wasn't going to be easy, but she decided that it should go somewhat along the lines of this.
'Hi honey how are you? What do you think of the number three? Good things come in threes don't they? There are three members in your band after all, and you like your band don't you?' She pulled open the door to an old building where Nittle Grasper would be recording later that day and tried to think about what came in threes. Everything good she could think of came in a pair.
Socks, gloves, twin CD sets, back to back TV episodes, batteries, earrings, Twix bars, the list went on. A pair was what they already were and they were happy.
She walked into a room where Tohma was playing blackjack with Noriko, and loosing badly. They both looked up and smiled.
"Hi Christina," Tohma said with his pleasant voice.
"Hiya little cutie," Noriko chirped and rose to hug her. Tohma took this opportunity to look at the cards she'd left on the table.
"Hi guys," Chris said with a smile while hugging Noriko. Seeing her friends took her mind off of her situation for just a few seconds.
The two musicians resumed their game and Christina sat down on the couch next to Tohma. She took one of her medical books out of her backpack and tried to read.
"Large amounts of pain are caused by the mother's contractions as she tries to push the baby out of.."
She closed the book in a real hurry and stuffed it back in her bag, closing it tightly as if she was afraid the book was going to jump out and tell her more gruesome details.
"Hey Tohma," she said slowly, averting her eyes from her backpack.
"Yes?" he asked looking at her through his long blond fringe.
"What comes in threes?" she asked.
Tohma looked up thoughtfully and Noriko used the opportunity to look at his cards.
"Witches come in threes according to legend," he said after a moment.
"That really doesn't help," Christina said with a sigh and sagged down.
"What's the matter sweetheart?" Noriko said, sensing Chris' worried feelings, got up and sat next to her.
"You guys have known Ryuichi for a long time right?" she asked, looking back and forth between Noriko and Tohma.
"That's one way of putting it," Tohma said throwing his cards on the table.
"What do you think is the best way for telling him something major?" she asked.
The two band members exchanged confused looks over Christina's head and then looked back at her.
"What's wrong honey?" Noriko asked pushing some of Christina's long blond hair behind her ear.
"Well I went to the doctors today, to see why I've been feeling so nauseous lately," she started.
Tohma picked up a cup of water from the table and took a mouthful.
"And he said that I'm pregnant."
The water shot out of Tohma's mouth like a power packed sprinkler, spraying it all over Christina's head.
She turned to give him a dirty look and he covered his mouth as the droplets fell from her face onto the carpet.
"Sorry," he murmured.
A faint squeak from the doorway caught their attention and they all turned.
A man with long brown hair wearing a red headband and jeans with holes in the knee area stood in the doorframe, eyes wide as fishbowls on his pale face.
"Oh Ryu chan," Noriko said standing up in a hurry with an awkward smile. "We didn't hear you come in."
Tohma whipped the remaining water away from his lips and stood up.
"Now Ryuichi," he said calmly. "Just take a deep breath and come and sit down."
There was a loud thump as Ryuichi hit the ground.
**********************************************
"I guess she didn't sleep well last night," K said as he watched Lily sleeping on Hiro's shoulder in the rear view mirror.
"I guess, or maybe she's been pulling all night study sessions for school," Shuichi said as he poked Lily in the cheek a few times.
Fujisaki lent over and slapped Shuichi's hand. "Stop that!" he commanded with a frown.
Shuichi was about to yell back at him when Hiro spoke. "Hey everyone shut up for a minute."
K and Sakano stopped their conversation and Shuichi withheld his comment to Fujisaki. There should have been silence, but there was one little thing interrupting it.
No one noticed it at first, but ever so slowly, they became aware for a small rasping noise. Sakano tapped the air vent on the dashboard, however the noise continued.
"Where's it coming from?" Shuichi asked fearfully. The idea of ghosts and people hiding in the car boot started to creep up on him.
"It's Lily," Hiro said after a minute.
Shuichi leaned in closer to her and strained his ear, trying to find the problem. Her chest moved in and out, and every time the noise escaped.
"Her breathing," Shuichi muttered.
Her raised his head and spoke louder. "It's her breathing. I think she's finding it hard to breathe."
Lily woke with a yelp and everyone jumped. She covered her mouth with her hands and started to cough loudly. Hiro rubbed her on the back and slowly she started to stop coughing and took long, deep breaths.
"Are you ok?" Shuichi asked touching her arm.
"Yea, yea," she said quickly. "I just had a bit of a bad dream." She then stopped talking and a look of embarrassment crawled over her face. "Err, who did I fall asleep on?"
"Me," Hiro said with a charming smile.
Lily went red and nearly fainted.
"We're here," Sakano said pulling up outside an ice cream parlour. "K and I will be back to pick you up in and hour."
"And if you're not ready," K left the sentence hang and removed the safety catch on his gun.
The musicians and Lily climbed out of the car and walked inside the building.
"I'll be back in a minute," Lily said and headed for the Ladies.
The three males sat down at an empty booth and put on hats and sunglasses. They were at the ice cream parlour to fulfil Shuichi's promise of doing something fun. The place was pretty empty since it was a school day, but it was always good to play it save and be incognito.
Suguru and Hiro each grabbed a menu but Shuichi was deep it thought. Well, about as deep in thought as he could get anyway.
'She's tired, having trouble breathing, has bloodshot eyes, a bad cough, wont tell me what's wrong and Seguchi san keeps me it the dark. What does this all mean?'
A conclusion popped up in his mind and Shuichi started to cry and scream at the top of his lungs. Waitresses dropped their orders, other customers threw the trio strange looks and Hiro raised his menu up to his face to avoid getting wet.
"Shindo san what's wrong?" Fujisaki asked with a dazed expression.
"Lily chan is taking drugs!"