AN/Warnings: Sugoi! We're back for another round. Domo for the reviews! ::glomps reviewers:: Lemmie see, the only thing of potential interest in this chapter is a gig and lots of phone calls.
Kitty in the Box: Don't worry, I honestly can't write smutty stuff, kissing is about the extent of my 'talent'. Yuki isn't featured as much as he has been in this chapter, it's mostly about Bad Luck scraping for some attention. I know what you mean, everyone except Hiro's brother is rolling in moolah. Tohma's furry coats have started to bug me. O-o;
Rinuah: Yup, I'll be throwing in Tohma later on. Possibly Ryuichi, K, Ayaka, ASK, etcetera. They'll most definitely make an appearance if I feel like causing Shuichi to angst, which is always fun. Tatsuha's in this chapter as well. Yay Tatsuha!
Driven to insanity: Hmm, Yuki had been prone to violent outbursts, but I'm not sure myself is he was going to hit Shuichi or just wanted to see his reaction. I'll have to think about that. o-o;
HikariChang: XD Hot Shuichi/Yuki action, do I hear? Maybe eventually, but Shuichi just too damn reluctant. ::rolls eyes:: Ukes, what can you do?
Bishies 'R' Us: Damn straight (or…not?), Yuki needs to have some sugar. Lots of sugar. Thanks for reviewing!
Liss: Ah, no, don't read my YGO ficcies, they're not any good. ;-; Domo for reviewing! Yes, Yuki is such fun to write, he's so moody. X3
Info: Shuichi/Yuki (oh sweet, sweet canon), mild language. Gravitation belongs to Maki Murakami, I also don't own any songs mentioned in this chapter (The Rage Beat and briefly Shining Collection). The lyrics Shuichi sings are in Japanese, simply because I don't exactly trust animelyrics.com's translations, sorry about that.
This takes place the day after the last chapter, which I think is a Monday. Heh.
Life Doesn't Rhyme
"Hello, Hiroshi Nakano speaking."
"Mr. Nakano. We've considered your application, and your group has been accepted as the opening act. May I ask, what is the name of your group?"
Hiro paused, twirling a few strands of hair around his finger. Looking down at the phone, he chose a name from the top of his head. Shuichi was always ranting about how everyone was against him, wasn't he? If the other two didn't like it, they could always change it. Suguru had been saying they would have to think up a name sooner or later.
"Bad Luck."
"Thank you. See you at the hall at six o' clock sharp for rehersal. Don't be late or you'll miss your chance."
Whoever was on the other end hung up, and Hiro rolled his eyes at the receiver. With Shuichi in tow, it'd be a miracle if they made it in time for the encore. Grinning to himself and punching in Suguru's mobile number, the phone on the other side was picked up after two rings.
"Suguru Fujisaki."
"It's Hiro."
"Oh, hey. What's up? Calling during lunch is rather strange."
"We got a gig tonight. Can you make it?"
Suguru sighed, he hated being informed on such short notice. Hiro heard a few shouts from Suguru's end, and what could have sounded like the beginning of an argument.
"What time?" Suguru asked. None of them were ever really busy these days.
"Nine sharp, but we've got to be there at six."
"Alright. You calling Shuichi after this?"
"Yeah. You all right?" Hiro's voice was tinged with friendly and unprying worry, an instinct after so many of Shuichi's rapid mood swings.
There was a pause, and Suguru finally spoke up.
"I'm fine. What song?"
"Since Shuichi is our almighty leader, probably whatever he tells us to play."
"Rage Beat?"
"Yeah. You've been with us too long, Suguru. It's not healthy." Suguru's light laugh seemed rather strained, and Hiro coughed. "Right. See you tonight, Suguru."
"Okay. Bye."
Hiro hung up the phone and sighed. Lunch break was almost over, he'd have to go back to class soon.
Shuichi was cutting school, probably after sobbing, begging and puppy-dog-eyeing to stay home for 'just one day, promise!'. The poor kid had been having some rough days, with the sudden spark of interest from the only person he had drooled over in a long time. Besides his ongoing obsession with Ryuichi Sakuma, god forbid Hiro forget that.
Dialing Shuichi's home number, the phone was picked up after quite a few rings.
"Hello?" Shuichi's voice was groggy, tired and excellently timed.
"Cut the crap, Shindou." There was a giggle on the other end, and Hiro rolled his eyes.
"Oh, hi Hiro. What's the matter?"
"We've got a gig-" Hiro stopped and held the phone at arm's length from his ear.
He could still hear Shuichi's screams, as did a quite a few other students. Actually, everyone on campus heard.
"Oh my god, really Hiro? That's fucking awesome! When, when, when?!" Shuichi's voice nearly split his eardrum, but Hiro laughed anyway.
"That place we offered to be the opening act for a few months ago, remember? Guess they finally got around to us."
"That's great, Hiro! My mom knows I just needed a break from school anyway, hopefully she'll let me go." Hiro could see Shuichi's smile from here, one big beaming ray of infectious happiness.
"Alright, I've got to go back to class. I'll come by your house right after school, and try to get Suguru to come too. See you then, Shuichi."
"Bye Hiro!"
---
"Hi, Mrs. Shindou!" Suguru chirped, and Shuichi's mother let him inside. "Are Hiro and Shuichi upstairs?"
"Only my son, Hiro's not here yet. Shuichi told me about your performance, so don't worry. I'm only letting him go because this is the biggest chance you three have had in a while. That, and he did his homework already." Her smile was rather menacing, and Suguru laughed uneasily and ran upstairs. Reaching Shuichi's door, he knocked twice before opening it.
"Suguru! Glad you could make it!" Shuichi shouted, waving the boy over to one of his many keyboards. The boy had borrowed some of his sister's makeup to cover up his black eye, and his skin once again looked flawless. "Can you still play? Eh?" Suguru smirked.
"Can I still play?" He jokingly scoffed, and teasingly shoved Shuichi away from the keyboard. The pink-haired boy laughed, but started to hum as the familiar beat and simple tune. This wasn't one of the fancy synthesizers used at performances, and it sounded lonely without Hiro's guitar, but Suguru's music still sounded amazing.
Shuichi had taken to shamelessly dancing around his room as Suguru laughed and continued playing. The singer had missed the first verse, but was about to catch the next.
"Kiss shining-" Shuichi's voice had started to make its appearance, just as Hiro walked in, guitar case in hand. Suguru, not one for an abrupt stop to his melody, improvised and faded out.
"Hiro! Great, we're all here! Suguru's a little rusty, though." Shuichi yelped and dodged a swipe from the younger boy.
"Alright ladies, we better make sure we can still do this."
"Rawr." Shuichi giggled. Suguru rolled his eyes, while Hiro smirked.
---
"Eiri! I haven't seen you for such a long time." The raven haired teen grinned as the door was slammed in his face. "What, can't even face your own brother? You're not a man, Eiri Uesugi!"
The door was reopened slowly, and the blonde let what could have been his twin in.
"What do you want, Tatsuha?" An eyebrow was raised as his brother held up two tickets.
"ASK is playing in town tonight, and my girlfriend cancelled on me." This earned a snort from his blonde brother.
"Girlfriend? What, abandoned Ryuichi already?"
"Blasphemy! Ryuichi is the only one for me, I don't need girls anymore. Anyways, I saw the opening act when I went to pick up my tickets, and let me tell you, the lead singer is Ryuichi if he had a pink and leather fetish." The younger didn't seem to care that he was drooling. "I don't wanna waste a ticket, Eiri."
The blonde was skeptical about Tatsuha's 'girlfriend', but let it slide. A pink and leather fetish? He wasn't too sure about that. Tatsuha did have a strange taste in men, and his judgment wasn't always…sound.
"I'm only going with you because you'd be wasting money, and I have nothing better to do." Actually, Eiri was supposed to be finishing off his next novel, but he honestly didn't care.
"Great! It starts at nine thirty. Can I stay here until then? Can we take your car? It's a whole lot cooler than mine."
"Fine."
"Eiri, you're the best!" This was scoffed at, and Tatsuha went into the kitchen to get something to eat.
---
"Hiro, I'm nervous." Shuichi whined, latching onto his friend's arm. "What if they hate us?"
"Who could hate us?" Hiro looked down at Shuichi and smiled reassuringly. "Don't look at the crowd, look at the back of the hall and pretend you're just with me and Suguru."
The three were backstage, with ten minutes until they opened the show. Those precious ten minutes seemed to fly by, and soon the manager of the event approached them.
"Bad Luck, you're on. Now." The three headed towards the stage, as the announcer was finishing off.
"Please give a warm welcome to Bad Luck!" The crowd clapped and shouted enthusiastically, hoping that the opening act had some talent to jump start the show.
The stage went pitch black, and the entire hall fell silent.
"Ooh, Eiri, this is so cool!" Tatsuha exclaimed, and the blonde shrugged. Whatever. Drugged up teens bouncing around like disturbed dust bunnies wasn't exactly his idea of a good time. That, and turning off the lights wasn't exactly a feat of great proportion. The two brothers were in the middle of the crowd, and Tatsuha was dodging around, trying to see past the rest of the spectators.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, an electronic beat pulsed. The crowd screamed appreciation, absorbing the techno-esque sound. Just as another layer of music was added, the lights instantly came back on, in time to the throbbing beat.
"Obieta metsuki de…"
It took a few seconds for Yuki's eyes to adjust, and another few to realize who the lead singer was.
Him. The pink-haired freak. He had continued singing, eyes closed as he danced, in what appeared to be perfect time, fluid and almost alluring. Near him were the other two, one on the guitar and the other on keyboard. His voice wasn't perfect, but it was above average. Dare he say it, good.
"I don't believe it."
Tatsuha stopped screaming over the Ryuichi look-a-like to curiously gaze at his older brother.
"What is it, Eiri?" When the blonde didn't answer, he followed his eyes, which was fixed on the performing pink haired boy. "Do you know him? The lead singer? He's cute!"
The performance went astoundingly well, Shuichi's voice never lost its quality, tone or appeal. By the end of the song, he had hypnotized the crowd into dancing with him, many had caught the tune and were humming with the singer.
As the end of the song drew near, Shuichi found his gaze drawn from the back of the hall to the middle of the crowd. But why? Oh…
There were two Yukis. Almost grinning and loosing track of the song, Shuichi continued on, both Yukis aware that he had sighted them.
"Eiri, he's looking at you. Does he know you too?" Tatsuha always was painfully curious. Silencing his younger brother with an intense glare, Yuki continued to watch the performance.
"I want new world…"
The last words were sung with almost complete confidence, even though the actual English was a bit shaky. High on the thrill of performing and the appreciation of the crowd, Shuichi grinned sweetly, and bowed. Hot and sweaty from the intense lights, Hiro and Suguru took their bows behind him. The audience screamed, yelled and overall went insane as the lights turned off once again.
Shuichi stumbled off stage, feeling out-of-this world. He was above everything else, he was the music.
"Who would have known. Techno-induced high." Suguru stated, disapproving. Shuichi continued to spin around backstage, oblivious to the rest of the world.
That was, until Hiro poured a bottle of water over his head. Everything snapped back, cold, sharp and almost painful.
"No…lemmie go back, Hiro!" Shuichi nearly tripped over a spare amplifier, Suguru catching him only by luck.
"Come on, Shuichi. You're exhausted."
"Hiro, I saw Yuki! He was there, and there were two of him! Except, except, the other had black hair."
Hiro eyed Suguru, who shook his head and shrugged.
"Oh, by the way, Hiro," Suguru raised his eyebrows and smirked. "Bad Luck?" Hiro laughed sheepishly, before explaining.
"I was asked what the name of our band was. Since we didn't have a name yet, and Shuichi's always bitching about how everything is unfair, I guess it fit at the time. If you want to change it, that's-"
"No, Hiro, I like it!" Shuichi chimed, having sobered up. "Besides, everyone is against me. What about you, Suguru?"
"It's fine with me." The boy shrugged, appearing indifferent.
They had reached the exit, Shuichi waved goodbye as Hiro and Suguru took their route home, once again in a different direction than Shuichi's.
Back inside, a boy with black hair pulled his sunglasses down on the bridge of his nose, so his calculating eyes could be seen.
"Ma-kun, Ken-chan. Watch those three. They spell trouble."
--------------------
Yay! Tachi! And Tatsuha! Whee! ::is hyper:: :D Oh, and this gig doesn't mean much, Tohma isn't here, I just wanted to spice up the story a little, the bar was getting rather monotonous.
I also had to use 'Ma-kun' and 'Ken-chan', even though I try not to write like they're somehow magically speaking Japanese and English at the same time, because it can get annoying and confusing. Just putting 'Ma' and 'Ken' simply didn't sound right.
I'd also like to say that I got the snippets of lyrics (really only the beginning and the end), from 'In the Moonlight', a very nice Gravitation site. :3
I think totally messed up Suguru's character, sorry about that. X-x; Suguru's too normal. Shuichi = hyper, glompy, adorable, Yuki = cold, moody bastard with occasional outbursts of lurve, Hiro = cool, affectionate, slightly protective, long-haired dude. Suguru = …
There was my in-depth guide to writing Gravitation fanfiction. XD Until next time, folks, hope you liked.