"Night Night Into the Night"
Beat skates up the dragon. Reaching the roof, he scares some civilians away. Finally all alone he lies back and takes his goggles off. The sky is a neon pink, reflecting the lights below. The world seemed so pink just then; he almost started to believe it was green. He closes his eyes thinking back on the day's events. He's so tired. He hears chattering. More civilians he thinks. Beat doesn't care, but he still opens his eyes to look anyway. A couple could be seen holding hands looking over the side. He always wondered how they got up there without skates. "Whatever," he whispered out loud to the chilled night air. Closing his eyes again he suddenly feels cold. The feeling makes him think of Yoyo and how the boy would hide like a turtle inside his hood whenever he was cold. Thinking turtles, Beat drifts off to sleep.
The next day, everyone sleeps in late, as always. Yoyo is the first one to wake. He rolls out of bed and puts on his hood, sunglasses, and skates. Upon opening his door, he finds it is raining outside. He goes back into his room to look for his umbrella, finding one. It was a bit misshapen from lying under his bed or something. Yo opens his umbrella and skates towards the doghouse. He looks in but nobody is home. He looks under the platform and finds Potts sleeping on the couch. After filling the dog bowl and putting it next to the couch, he sits down next to the sleeping Potts and rubs the dog's head.
Beat wakes up to the feeling of pitter-patter rain on his face. He had spent the entire night at 99th Street. Slowly, he picks himself up, gets off of the tower, and heads back to the Garage. Upon entering he sees that Yoyo is the only one around. Yo notices Beat skating towards the platform. He is excited to see Beat but doesn't want to stare. Beat stops just under the platform, soaked to the bone.
"Man, it's really pourin'," he states, taking off his goggles, headphones and shirt.
"Yeah," says Yo, looking at Potts who was awakened by talk.
Beat rings his shirt out and skates off to his own room.
A few moments later he comes back out wearing a new shirt and shorts, but no goggles or headphones or skates. He runs under the platform,
"Whew... made it," he says. Yoyo liked it when Beat didn't wear his goggles; he liked to see his eyes. Beat makes his way towards the couch and motions for Yoyo to scoot over. Yoyo does as commanded. Beat turns on the TV. Nothing is on, it was just the same old, same old. He puts an arm around the back of the couch behind Yoyo.
"Gawd! Rainy days are so damn borin'!" exclaims Beat tossing the remote on Yo's lap. Potts looks up and barks. "Shut the hell up, dog!" Beat usually doesn't mind Potts but he is in a cranky mood. Potts growls and Yoyo rubs the dog's nose to comfort him.
"Hmmm..." Beat formulates an idea! Yo is looking at Potts when a cold hand touches his face. Yo gasps, surprised, what is going on? Beat turns Yoyo's head to face his face, which has a sly grin smacked across it. Yoyo is slightly red, what is he to do? Beat leans closer and kisses Yoyo's lips. Yo's face is being smushed. "Ah! What's happenin'? Beat's kissin' me and smushin' my face at the same time!" Yo screams in his mind, but before he knew it, it was all over, and he didn't even have a chance to enjoy it. Beat bursts out into hysterical laughter. "There's nothing funny," thinks Yoyo, he huffs, hiding himself in his hood as always. Beat changes the channel on the TV and watches it.
Cube comes out of her room,
"What's so funny, Beat? I heard you laughin'."
"TV," Beat answers.
"Oh... where's your regular gear?" Cube questions again.
"I got caught in the rain and everything's soaked," Beat tells her.
"Aahh! Shite!" Cube curses, "My laundry!" she dashes towards the clotheslines. "Aw, man!" she yells grabbing everything and going back into her room.
The day is almost entirely over as the rain ceases. Everyone couldn't wait to stretch his/her legs and tear up the town. There is a glorious sunset as everyone heads out. Gum and Corn goes to 99th Street again, Gum loves to drag Corn shopping there. Boogie, Cube, Yoyo, and Garam decide to go to Shibuya Terminal and practice grind combos, while Combo, Clutch, Soda, Rhyth and Jazz went to Rokkaku-Dai Heights to look at the stars. Beat stays in the Garage because his skates were still dripping wet, and he hates the soggy feeling they had.
"You think you can do it, Yo?" Cube questions.
"Yeah, man, you're pretty short," interjects Garam.
"Well there's only one way to find out," Yo says going as fast as he could, jumping on to a rail and grinding, going faster and faster until the railing ended and he jumps. Doing six different tricks he landed on a moving bus oh so ungracefully, tripping and rolling off the back. He lands on his arm and stomach. It really hurts. The others all dash over to him.
"Yo! Yo! You all right?" exclaims Boogie.
"Man, you ok?" Clutch is the first to him. He picks Yo up off of the ground and sits him on a rail next to the street. Cube, Boogie, and Garam follow. Cube lifts Yo's hood and looks at where he had landed. A giant bruise could be seen beginning to form.
"Does it hurt to breath?" she asks worried. Yoyo shakes his head no. "That's good..." Cube smiles. Garam then exclaims,
"Yo man I thought you were gonna die! I didn't think you could do it!" he messes Yoyo's hair up. Yoyo forces on a smile.
"But I think I'm out for the night..." Yo says softly.
"Do you want somebody to help you back?" asks a Boogie concerned.
"Nah, I'll be fine," Yo says. He breathes deeply and hops of the rail going in the direction of the garage.
Skating in very slowly Yoyo sees Beat was watching TV with Potts. Beat looks up and sees it was Yo. He is curious,
"Hey, why are you back so early?"
"I fell," says Yoyo.
"Was it so bad that you had to come home? You fell plenty of times before," Beat states turning his attention back to the TV. Yoyo glares, though it could not be seen by Beat, knowing he didn't say that out of concern. Yoyo skates under the platform and sits down on the couch beside Beat and begins taking his skates off. As soon as each of them are loose enough he kicked them off, each landing in different places. He then hshdkhasdlkjasd. Beat changes the channel and puts it on something good, maybe. Yoyo doesn't think it was good,
"Hey, change it back," he complains, "The other show was better."
"Too bad," Beat says rolling up a blunt.
He lights it and takes a puff. Beat offers Yo a hit without saying a word. Yo doesn't want any. President Kerry, do you think that sounds cool? President John Kerry. President Dean. Jimmy Dean. John Kerry jumps outta the airplane landing on the platform.
"What was that noise?" asks Beat.
"What was what?" asks Yoyo, "What's in that blunt? You must be hallucinatin'." It was all in his imagination. Beat shrugs and takes another hit. They sit to the theme song of Wowoweee, a game show on the Filipino channel, playing through the TV.
"... Ya know, the radio hadn't been on fer a while," Beat says stupidly. "Heh heh," he pokes Yo's cheek. "You know you're really cute... mmeheheeeheheh" Beat makes a funny noise. Yoyo looks at him weirdly. Beat moves in closer until his forehead is pressed against Yoyo's. Yo could smell the marijuana on Beat, and starts breathing heavily. He can't resist the impulse to put his gloved hand on Beat's chest. Beat pulls backed a little, eyes in a haze but still fixed upon Yoyo. Yoyo throws his arms around beat, kissing him. Beat reacts with a muffled groan. Yoyo doesn't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. He opens his eyes in mid-kiss and discovers that Beat has closed his. Potts jumps off of the couch and begins to bark at the kissing couple. Yoyo lets go of Beat and looks at the dog, fixing his own glasses. He is embarrassed to have a witness. Beat leans back all of the way, taking over Potts' spot. He places his arms behind his head and goes back to watching the tube. Yoyo feels so embarrassed, but Beat seems unaffected.
Yoyo runs up the stairs to the platform and, as always, Roboy is there.
"Hey there newb," says the robot. Yoyo ignores the machine getting on his knees he begins fiddling through the records in a crate. "Lookin' for anything in particular?" asks Roboy.
"Well not re---"
"Nobody cares!" Roboy interrupts. Yoyo ignores the comment and pulls out a Hot Pink Kiddies record. He starts the record using his headphones to listen, lying on the couch Corn usually was on. He phases out and before he knew it, everyone is back and he doesn't have to worry about being alone with Beat.
Yoyo avoided Beat for about a week after what happened. He was both embarrassed and confused about the whole situation.
Then, more stuff happens, just everyday normal stuff. Everyone did their thing; as per usual, but when night came they all got together. That Saturday night they took to the skyscraper district. They make fun of all the good God-fearing citizens of Tokyo. Clutch and Beat seem to be having an especially nice time. They find a group of sweet innocent schoolgirls, who are all dolled up to impress the bad boys of town, and were properly hitting on them. A great time was had by all.
Yoyo is not as small and innocent as he seems, always hiding under an aura of boyish charm. He is a real bad kid, a compulsive liar, the group's trickster, and an all around little prick. However, for the past few weeks Beat got deep under his skin like an infectious itchy fungus.
Yoyo became more kind and quiet and shy. The normal Yoyo was forever playing tricks and telling jokes, annoying and loud. Tonight though, he seems to be acting like his old self again. He trips the regular folk and almost makes them fall over the sides of the very tall buildings. He skates as graceful as a fruit fly, doing a million zillion combos all at once. He felt normal again. No one knows what the heck in a hamster-ball made his mood change, but then again no one really made a conscious recognition of how Yoyo was behaving, or did they? Anyways, Yoyo was normal for Yoyo again.
Beat sees Yoyo going from rooftop to rooftop and decides to follow him. Going along the tops of the skyscrapers pretending to be going somewhere else. When Yoyo stops on the top of a building; however, Beat stops too. Yoyo sees Beat out of the corner of his eye, and reaching into his hood pocket, growls
"What are you lookin' at?" He pulls out a joint.
"Nuthin', what the hell are you looking at?" Beat shoots back.
"I was lookin' for a place to be by myself," Yoyo says with an emphasis on his words.
"It's not like I was gonna stay, I was just takin' a break!" says Beat angrily, "The nerve of kids these days!" He skates away.
The conversation stings more that Yoyo would like to admit to even himself, so he doesn't. Pushing thoughts of Beat clear out of his mind, he sits down and lights his self-rolled marijuana cigarette. Hunched over he stares at the lights of the district below and takes a slow drag. He lies on his back, placing one hand on his tummy-tum-tum and taking the joint out of his mouth with the other. He exhales through his nose allowing the smoke to cloud his face.
Going back to Pharaoh Park, Beat mumbles curses under his breath. "Whatever! That brat can do anything he fuckin' wants, ain't my problem. Fuck, why should I care?" he thinks to himself. Landing on solid ground, he hears someone call his name.
"Beat!" it's Clutch along with Rhyth.
"Where ya goin?" she questions politely.
"I'm fuckin outta here, man," he tells them. "C'ya, suckas!"
"Later."
Clutch and Rhyth wave good-bye to Beat as he skates up the pyramid and out of sight.
Beat heads back to the Garage. Upon getting there he sees Corn and Gum under the platform cuddling up on the couch and watching the TV. Beat doesn't disturb them, he goes to his room. He takes off his skates only to throw them against the wall opposite of his bed. Still mad at Yoyo, he takes off his shirt and falls into his unmade bed. He lays his large goggles and headphones on the table next to him. Soon enough, the Sandman comes to sprinkle sand in the sulking boy's eyes.
"So, I was thinkin'…" Beat heard a voice say. The sun was high; it must have been around noon. "… about leavin' this town…" the voice coming from above him trailed off. It clearly belonged to a boy. Beat was lying on his back, with the sun shining directly in his eyes. He tried to block it out with his right hand but it was no use. So bright, everything was so bright, he could barely make out anything. The vague figure stood over him, the sun behind the head of this person, making it impossible to see his face.
"Leave? But why?" Beat asked.
"I… I don't know? It's just not as fun as it used to be," said the voice.
"But it's gonna be less fun, if you leave." Beat found himself without his goggles or headphones, "Must be why everything was so bright and clear," he thought.
"Ha ha ha, that's cuz I'm da man!"
"Get real, you ain't that cool."
Beat stirs in his small bed, having already woken up. He blinks a few times, then rubbing his eyes he gets up. Walking is something he does not do often, so one might see him stumble when he does walk. The boy heads for the outside; turning right he walks straight for the bathroom. After taking a groggy piss, he rinses his hands and splashes a couple of handfuls of water on his face. He swings open the door covered with layers upon layers of stickers yawning. Beat finds before him a green haired little shrimp of a punk, patiently waiting his turn to use the facilities.
"Oh, hey, Beat," Yo says nonchalantly.
"Yea," Beat returns unenthusiastically.
Beat goes around the short lad sleepily. Yoyo turns to watch him walk back into his room. He feels disappointed, he didn't mean to agitate Beat earlier, he only wanted Beat to leave him alone. Yoyo no longer wants to feel the way he does whenever he saw, heard, or even thought of Beat. He is tired of acting like a fool around him, tired of devoting so much brainpower and time to the other GG. The sad little boy walks into the only bathroom in the Garage and closes the door behind him.
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Disclaimer, yo: The game Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio Future and all characters involved belong to Sega, Xbox, SmileBit, and any other owners of stuff.
Note: Part one and part two were originally one story, but I thought it was too long so I split them up. READ PART ONE FIRST. There will be a sequal of sorts, eventually.Hope you like this.