Oh, CRAP. I'm so sorry, I forgot that fanfiction doesn't accept stars anymore, hence the lack of dividers. Here, I've put them in, and fixed up that last scene(had written it while being yelled at to get off the computor), so THANK YOU ALL for being so forgiving and patient! So sorry about the long pause in updates, and then for this mistake...
-Ally
iiiii
Disclaimer: I(Allyson, aka Aquajogger) do not, in any part, shape, or form, own any characters mentioned anywhere in this chapter or story(Fame and Fortune). They all belong to Miss Ohkami and Tokyo Pop. Not me.
I also don't own the lyrics to "Real World" or "Superman", ok?
Warning: Dirty mouths("Orbit gum cleans yet another dirty mouth!" ...Ok, I've seen that commercial too many times.), teenagers, mentions of gay couples.
IMPORTANT: Hitler did terrible things. There is nothing funny about him. There is, however, a disturbingly large amount of strange information on him. Please, please nobody take offence at the Hilter joke. I don't mean to poke fun at WWII or at the holocaust, just at the random facts collected about Hilter.
Kat: Don't glare at airlines! I don't want to crash(Obviously I didn't because I am posting now... But when I wrote this part it was still May.)! I love Bierrez. Not as much as Thats, however. Oh well.
Ginsing1: Shydeman/Shyrendora? That must have been while I was gone... I didn't stray onto the DK turf from early October until about Valentines day... I was too ashamed... V.V;
insaneoveranime: I'm glad you like it. :freaks out: Don't be not interested! That's one of my pairings, I swear! This whole fic has sprung from that pairing! Just hold on a second, k? It shall have plenty of RxC by the end...
Lexzzz: Wow, thank you! Updated!!
Charna: Whoo! 2008! Yeah!!high fives Yeah, that last chapter should have been longer. Oh, well. I hope the length of this one makes up for it!
Lisa: Yes, RuneTintlett DOES equal cute! o Book fiftten, CUTE!
iiiii
"I wish the real world would just stop hassling me..." Thats trailed off, stalking back and forth diagonally across the room.
"I wish..." His voice blended into the background noise of his feet padding across the hard ground.
Rune looked up from where he was seated infront of a piece of folder paper, partially written on, but still dissapointingly blank.
"We could use that part for a chorus. What do you think, Rath?"
The last boy shrugged.
"I guess. Pretty crap chorus, though."
His eyes followed the moving figure of his friend.
"Are you trying to wear down the cement, or something?"
Thats shook his head irritably.
"Course not. I'm trying to think, but I've got another song stuck in my head. It's distracting me."
"Oh."
Rune nerviously tapped his foot on the ground a few times.
"What song is it?"
Thats glanced at Rath as he passed by him again.
"Superman."
"Superman?"
"Yeah. You know, 'I can't stand to fly, I'm not that naïve'," He quoted a few lines of the song, trying to jog the other's memory.
"Never heard it."
"Yeah, you have. It plays on the radio all the time. Here," Thats proceeded to hum a few bars for his friend's benefit.
Rune had been watching all this, wondering absentmindedly if he should tell them to get back to work, and decided to speak up.
"Thats, stop that. You're reminding me of my history paper on Hilter."
The brown haired Junior stopped short.
"What?"
"Rune had to do a paper on Hitler," Rath piped up, "He found out all sorts of weird facts, like how he wouldn't take off his coat in public, no matter how hot it was, and howhis doctor was giving him drugs that ended up making him parinoid."
"And this is relevent how?" Thats asked, raising an eyebrow.
Rath ignored him and kept talking, more to himself than to anyone else.
"He also found out that he had only one testic--"
"One of the other things I found out," Rune hurridly cut him off, before Rath could finish his statment, paving the way for a wide array of dirty comments, "Was how he would, when pacing, always walk across a room diagonally, and to the tune he was humming."
Thats raised his other eyebrow.
"Researchers... Some people have too much time on their hands," he muttered.
"Thats?"
"Yeah?"
"We shouldn't be the ones talking."
iiiii
Kitchel lay on her back on the carpeted floor, staring up at the cealing of the room she shared with her younger cousin, Fiji. The fact that Fiji was seven would explain why she was looking up at a large number of glow-in-the-dark stars.
"I seriously don't feel like doing homework."
She rolled over onto her stomach, glaring at the pile of schoolwork lying a few feet away from her head.
"But I should get a start."
She reluctantly sat up, slowly reaching forward for the thick book on the top of the stack.
The noise of a car pulling up into the driveway caught her attention, and she jumped up, climbing onto the younger girl's bed, and craning her head to look out the window to the garage below.
An old beat up blue truck had just pulled up, and as she watched the driver turned off the engine and opened his door, stepping out into the afternoon sunlight. He was of a slim build, with messy shoulder length red hair, falling into his deeply tanned face and green eyes.
"Gil's home!"
The passengerside door opened as well, and another young man got out. He was larger, with closely cut brown hair and light skin. As he shut the door behind him, talking to her cousin, and laughing at a joke, Kitchel slid off the bed, heading for the door.
"And Laam!" she grinned, "He's a guest! Can't work while there are guests here! Not polite!"
It was with this cheerful thought that she opened the front door , calling out to the two college students walking towards her.
"Hey, Gil, Laam!" she enthusically hugged first one, then the other, letting them in and shutting the door behind them.
"Barl's not home yet, and Bierrez went to pick up Fiji. Are you both staying for dinner?"
When the red head nodded, she continued, "Great! I'll call Bierrez and tell him to get more food while he's at it, too. Any preferences? Because it's his turn to cook, and unless you tell him otherwise, he'll get some health food junk," she thought for a moment, "Or pizza. He'll bring home pizza sometimes."
Laamgarnas laughed again. He had met everyone Kitchel mentioned a long time ago, and was practically considered family, but this oddball mixture of people never failed to entertain him.
"Pizza's good."
"All right!" Kitchel grabbed the cordless phone off the nearby floral print sofa, "I'll tell him that. Hawaiian ok?"
Without waiting for an answer she began to dial, still happy for the excuse to postpone her work.
Gil rolled his eyes goodnaturedly and motioned for his friend to follow him as he walked up a flight of stairs to the second level of his house to the sound of the younger girl arguing with his brother about the health benefits of pineapple.
iiiii
"Ok, so what about something like 'Yeah, speak up, what did you want to hear/ If I were someone else, would this all fall apart?/ Yeah, where were you when we got this started?/I wish the real world would just stop hassling me,'" Rune looked up into the startled faces of his two compainions.
"...What?"
They shared a glance.
"Um, Rune?" Thats looked at him questioningly, "You realize we have no idea how you did that so quickly, right?"
The blonde glanced down at the piece of paper, brushing a stray strand of hair out of his face and behind his ear as he spoke.
"Well," he started, "I was thinking about us starting up the band, and about Rath's line, and just started writing."
Thats nodded.
"Thought so. In that case, Rath and I vote you our lyrics man."
"What?!"
"You can write all the songs."
"But," Rune fumbled for words, "Why?"
"Because Thats and I suck," Rath supplied, sitting down and plucking a few chourds on his instrument.
"Correction. You suck. I just have no inspiration."
The black haired boy shrugged.
"The point is, Rune, that you get to write everything."
The eldest teenager sighed.
"Great..."
He drummed the pencil on the dusty chair he was using as a table, then looked up again.
"Wait, if I'm in charge of writing the songs what are you two in charge of doing?"
"Well," Thats thought for a moment, "Rath is the lead singer, so he just needs to make sure that he knows all the music and lyrics, since he's the one people will be paying the most attention to, and I'll," he paused again, then grinned, "There's nothing else to do, so I'll be in charge of sitting here and making sure you two do your jobs!"
He dropped down to the ground, somehow managing to pull out his C.D. player, pop the headphones on, and hit the play button before anyone was able to object.
"Waitaminute! Thats!"
The boy in question reached up and pulled the headphone off one ear, "Yeah, Rune?"
"You can't just sit there! You need to do something! Teamwork!"
The teen smirked, "Well, what else is there for me to do? Rath's gotta learn his part, you need to write the lyrics. It looks like we're all out of jobs. Nothing for me to do!"
With that, he let the headphone snap back to it's comfortable position of wrapping snugly around his ear, and turned the volume up in an attempt to drown out the other's protesting voices.
Rune paused in his torrent of accusations and complaints, the gears in his head swiftly turning, helped along by the faint strands of music they could now hear in the background, coming from the small silver object held in their bassist's lap.
A more than slightly evil smile lit up his face.
"Actually, Thats," his grin broadened as the other looked up suspiciously, "There is something else for you to do."
iiiii
Cesia sat down behind the screen of her computor, pressing the space bar and watching as the machine woke up, it's screen turning from black to a picture of her and her two friends at the beach. This background was covered slightly by an open window, on which part of an idle conversation could be seen.
She glanced at the last few lines, then began to type a response to "FarieDreamer06".
WindSorceress6669: bk. Yea, idk. Never told me.
There was a moment's pause, then a new message appeared on the screen from her friend.
FarieDreamer06: Really? I thought you asked her last week? Wasn't she supposed to tell you?
Cesia nodded, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't be seen, then typed an answer, continuing their exhange.
WindSorceress6669: she was. Didn't, tho. It's irritating! It's just a simple question, you'd think she'd b able 2 answer me!
FarieDreamer06: Do you think she forgot about it? It's Kitchel. Seems likely. ...No offence to her.
WindSorceress6669: hmm...Maybe. She's not on now, tho, so I can't ask her. Think we should give her a ring?
FarieDreamer06: It's 6 o' clock. Wouldn't she be eating dinner?
WindSorceress6669: Ah, right.
About to add in more, Cesia was interrupted by a knock on her closed door, then by said door opening to reveil her younger brother, two of his friends flanking him.
"What is it, Zoma?" Cesia asked, spinning her chair around to face him and ignoring the irritating beep her computor made to alert her to the fact that "FarieDreamer06", the screen name Tintlett had chosen in sixth grade and never gotten around to changing, had just sent her another message.
"Um," the boy shot a glance at the computor screen, "I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to go to the movies with my friends."
Cesia looked briefly at the boy and girl on either side of him.
"Hi Ringleys, Riima," she turned her attention back to her sibling, "Fine by me. Taking the bus?"
Zoma nodded;less than a block away from their house was a bus stop.
"All right. Have fun!"
The three younger teens waved goodbye and started to walk away.
"Wait!"
Zoma looked over his shoulder.
"Do you have correct change?"
"Uh, yeah," he said, fishing in his pocket to eventually retrieve a small pile of coins.
"See you later, Cesia!" he turned back to his friends, when his sister interrupted him again.
"Do you have money for the movie, too?"
About to speak, Zoma was cut off by the short Asian girl next to him.
"Yeah, it's my turn to pay," she held up a glittery pink wallet for the older girl to see.
"Oh, thanks," Cesia acknowledged the gift, then spoke to her brother once more.
"Did you get jackets?"
"Yes..."
"Money for snacks?"
"Yeah..."
"Don't buy too much, it'll spoil your appitite for dinner! And make sure not too buy anything that is obviously overpriced!"
"Uh," Zoma sweatdropped as Riima began to giggle and Ringleys put a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter, eyes rolling towards the cealing.
"I'm sure we'll be fine, Cesia," he said, grinning nerviously, "But if we don't go now, we'll miss the bus!"
"Oh. Right," the Junior said, snapping out of maternal mode, "Have fun, then! I'll see you later!"
"Bye!" Zoma called as he dissapeared out of her sight, listening to Riima launch into a monolouge about a particularly attractive warrior from her Dungens and Dragons game.
He opened the front door, and closed and locked it behind him as all three of them stood blinking in the bright light on the sidewalk in front of his house. About to walk down the street towards the bus stop, he was halted in his tracks by the calling of his name.
"Zoma!"
Slightly worried, he turned around, looking back towards his house.
Cesia had opened her bedroom window and was leaning halfway out of it, asking him something in a voice loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear.
"You've finished your homework, right?"
"Agh," Zoma winced, reaching up and brushing a too-long lock of black hair out of his face, "No, but..."
"Zoma!"
He looked up into the furious face of his elder sister, instinctivly taking a step backwards.
"I'll do it! Swear!"
"Zoma..." she growled.
"I will," the Sophmore protested, "I just want to--"
"Get back in here now! You knowyou're not supposed to go out before finishing your work!"
"Yeah, but," he glanced down at the ground, then back up at Cesia, putting on the cutest face he could muster.
"Please, Cesia?"
The older girl glared ferociously at him, but relented.
"Fine. Don't blame me when you fail," she added in menicingly.
"Thanks!" he said, relieved that she had let it drop that quickly, "I'll be back in a few hours!"
She sent him a slightly softer look, then pulled her head back into her room, slamming the window after her.
"Lord," Zoma let out a deep breath, "That's over."
"She's pretty loud when she wants to be," Riima said, stating the obvious, "But back to what I was saying. So I was on level fifteen, and you know that blue soldier? If you press A and up, then..."
Ringleys intterupted her, as he pulled his jacket off in the heat, "No way, you're supposed to hit A and right! It said on this game faqs webpage I found--"
"That's not what I'm talking about! I'm talking about the way to get that Light Sword, not the Healing Water!"
"Riima, I know what you're talking about," Zoma said, giving the girl a tug on her long dark hair to get her attention, "No need to shout!"
The afternoon sun beat down on the three teeangers, quickly falling into an alternative universe of their own creation.
iiiii
"No way. No, no, no, no, no. No damn way!"
"Thats," Rune put on a patronizing tone of voice that made Rath cringe, "It's only fair. Besides, it really needs to be done. And as you pointed out, Rath and I already have things to do. This will be a big help."
Thats crossed his arms stubbornly, shaking his head as a bunch of rust-colored hair fell into his set face.
"No way!"
His hand strayed to the CD player now resting at his side, the word 'paused' flashing on it's minute screen.
"But," Rune switched tactics, "You're the one who is the best at things like this! You listen to music all the time," he swatted away the other boy's hand, preventing him from proving that last statement true, "Rath and I can't do this, but you would be able quite easily. Please, Thats? We really need your help."
The tanned Junior sent a look into his friend's blue eyes that screamed, 'Yeah. Right.', but reluctantly relented.
"Fine, no need to grovel," he rolled his eyes at the other boy, "Your buttering up really needs some work, by the way."
"You mean you'll do it?" Rune asked, enthused.
"Yeah, yeah," the teenager waved his hand at him, "I'll do it."
Rath looked up from where he had been spacing out, staring at a spot a few inches from his face.
"Said yes?"
The blonde boy nodded, "We've got ourselves a composer!"
iiiii
"So."
Gil glanced over his shoulder at the young man standing in his door way, from where he was busied with struggling to open the glass window above his bed.
"What? Umph," he finally succeeded in opening it, letting a breath of fresh air into the small room, "Laamgarnas?"
"Nothing," the older boy responded, walking in and closing the door softly behind him.
He plopped himself down on the other's bed, and began talking again, cheerfully this time.
"Thanks for the lift! I can't believe I forgot my spare tire!"
Gil shrugged, a motion that he somehow managed to convey as catlike, then pulled out a chair from where it stood next to his desk.
"No problem," he sat down.
"And thanks for letting me stay for dinner," Laamgarnas added with a broad grin.
Gil shrugged again, messy locks of crimson fire falling rougishly into his green eyes.
They lapsed into silence, the only sound Laamgarnas nerviously fidgeting with the loose blanket spread over the other's bed.
Then, abrubtly, he spoke.
"What you said before. It's not--"
The was the harsh scraping of wood against wood as Gil roughly shoved the chair back, jumping up and sending a frightened glare down into the his friend's face.
"Look, sorry," Laamgarnas started to quickly retrace his steps, hazel eyes flashing with worry.
"No," Gil had gotten himself under control now, and had erased his feral look, "I told you. I can't just do that. Maybe if mother was still here, but not with the way it is now. Now there's just dad," a pause, "And Kitchel..." he trailed off, not wanting or needing to repeat what he had just explained earlier that day.
"It's ok," Laamgarnas forced himself to smile reassuringly at the other young man, "I understand completly. You can't just throw everything away like that. I'm sorry."
The redhead relaxed, sinking down into his seat again.
"But, Gil, you--"
Whatever he was going to say was cut short as the door to the room burst open, a smiling seven year old running in.
"Gil! Kitchel said you were back!" she exclaimed joyfully, running to her older brother, and jumping into his lap.
The two collage students shared a startled look, then Gil slowly stood up, giving the younger girl plenty of time to slide down to the ground.
"I take it Bierrez is back, then?" he said, walking to the now open door, and breathing deeply as the smell of food wafted up the stairs.
"Yeah," the little girl nodded, squeezing past her brother who still stood in the doorway, and skipping out into the hallway.
"He got pizza!" she exclaimed, grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the nearby staircase, "Kitchel wanted Hawaiian, but he wanted Vegitarian, so they let me choose!" she chatted away, pulling Gil after her as she explained the events of her day, "And now we have--"
"YOU GOT MUSHROOM AND ANCHOVIE?!"
"LOOK, IT WASN'T MY IDEA!!"
Gil winced.
Looked like they were in for a long night.
As the sound of Gil's little sister dragging him away faded, and the racket made by Kitchel and Bierrez turned abruptly into muffled laughter, Laamgarnas stood up.
Gil was right.
He couldn't expect him to leave all this behind.
"Hey, Laam! You coming?" Kitchel's voice called up from the first floor.
"Yeah," he shouted back , starting to make his way out of the other boy's room, "I'm coming!"
He soundlessly closed the door behind him.
He couldn't ask that of him.
iiiii
"And where do you think you are going?"
Thats sweatdropped, one foot raised above the first step on the stairs leading up to the main level of his friend's house.
"Uh, why?"
"Because," Rune snapped, roughly pulling him back, "You need to be working!"
"I have been!" he protested, giving the other an indignent look.
This was partially true. Over the past two hours he had dutifully sat on the ground, trying for the most part to come up with a melody to which their lyrics could be played to. It was rather hard to stay focused, however, and although Rune was nearing completion with the first draft of their song, just needing another verse and a few more ryming words, Thats was still stuck humming the tune to 'Superman', and wondering how to get out of this sticky prediciment he had gotten himself into.
"Not hard enough!" Rune growled, oblivious to the way that Rath, standing directly behind him, was mimicing his every word, much to the ammusment of the boy he was currently berating.
"Geeze," Thats stifled a laugh, "What sharp object is wedged up your ass? It's just a tune, we still have time. You still haven't finished the lyrics. Since when have you been this concerned about this gig, anyway?"
Rune sent him a dirty look, mentally chalking down the word 'gig' as usable in the still-forming lyrics.
"I know what this means to Rath, but it's never seemed to hold this much water for you," Thats continued, "What happened?"
"I," the Junior started, then realized who he was talking to, and decided that, although the other boy was a great friend, he was also seriously getting on his nerves at the moment, and did not deserve to be told.
"Never mind," he noticed the curious look sent in his direction, and decided to change the subject.
"Sorry. So, you wanted to take a break?"
"Um, yeah," Thats said, now slightly suspicious, "I can work on this break, you know. Think," he dug around for an excuse as to why he shouldbe allowed to leave, "I can't think down here, it's too inclosed and," he snicked as Rath, slightly crazed with bordom, made innapropriate gestures behind Rune's back, "Very distracting. I'll be able to think better if I can just get out; walk around for a while."
"Fine by me. You know where everything is. Just come back down if you come up with anything, all right?"
"Um," Thats blinked, very surprised that he was going to be let off that easily, "Sure. Yeah, will do. See you guys in a bit."
He left his friends behind, taking the steps two at a time at he darted upwards, out of the cool basement, and into the pleasent warmth of the rest of Rune's house.
As thats pushed the door open, stepping out into a sudden change of temperature, he was suddenly hit by a strong nagging feeling in the back of his mind. A feeling of pieces slowly falling together, strangly enough, on several different levels.
"Weird," Thats muttered to himself, "I guess I really did just need to get out of the clastrophobic room."
With a shrug, he none-to-gently closed the door behind him, and set off in the direction of the well stocked kitchen not too far away, rubbing his hands together as he went.
"So let's just see what Runey-boy has in his fridge, then I can head outside and relax..."
iiiii
FarieDreamer06: Cesia?
FarieDreamer06: Cesia, are you there?
FarieDreamer06: .........Cesia?
WindSorceress6669: Oh, sorry. got distracted.
Tintlett smiled to herself.
"I could tell. What happened?" she typed, reading the quick reply from her friend.
WindSorceress6669: Zoma! ARG!
The blonde girl giggled at the evasive answer, then asked why.
WindSorceress6669: Schoolwork. Not doing it, AGAIN!! he can be so frustrating at times!
Tintlett casually reached over to the small cellphone resting on her desk. She dialed Cesia's home phone humber, and was soon speaking directly to the other girl, instead of sending hastily typed messages through a computor screen.
"Cesia?" she listened as the other girl spoke rapidly for several minutes, getting whatever problem that was bothering her out of her system, then interrupted, right as Cesia was about to start in again from the start.
"Wait, Cesia. I think I have a solution. You said that it's just that he doesn't apply himself, right?"
She stood up and started searching for something in her room, looking first through a set of drawers by her bed, then on her bookshelf, then finally coming to a stop at her dresser drawers.
"Well, it sounds like all he needs is someone to make sure he stays on track, then. You know, one of those afterschool programs where they help you with your homework and everything. And," she smiled, brushing a strand of fine blonde hair behind her ear as she picked a slightly bent business card off the wooden top of her dresser, "I think I know just the number for you to call."
iiiii
The Junior stole a look out of the open window, glancing down at the grass below.
"Man, this bites."
He was irritated, as that annoying feeling of being so close and yet so far away from an important discovery was still upon him.
"Plus, I've gotta work after school again tomorrow," he sighed, leaning on the whitewashed window sill in Rune's bedroom, "With Kitchel."
Thats rolled his eyes.
"Isn't that going to be fun."
He shook his head, trying to clear the persistant feeling from it.
"Unless, of course, she manages to worm her way out of it. She's pretty good at stuff like that," he puased for a second, thinking, "Although 'Feegi's pretty pissed. I don't think he'll let her get out of it. Is that good or bad?" Thats wondered, weighing both options.
He shrugged.
"Oh, well."
Having run out of things to talk to the empty room about, he lapsed into silence, staring moodily out of the window, silently pursuing his last trian of thought, but not caring to turn his mental conversation into spoken words, as they would not make much sense, anyway.
It was then that he heard the clear beat of music.
Jerking his head up, forgetting what he was thinking about, he looked around the room, then realized that there was nothing present that would have -for it had dissapeared almost as suddenly as it had sprung up- created that noise.
Tentitvly he began to speak again, continuing where he left off.
"So if Kitchel is there, then..."
There.
There it was again.
He didn't move, and it took him a few heartbeats to realize that he wasn't actually hearing anything at all.
The music was floating in on an invisible breeze, skipping past his nervious system, and forming directly in his mind.
"Then I'll have someone to be annoyed by, and someone to,"
Gears on two differnt levels worked at the same time, both trying frantically to get their interlocked messages across.
Emerald irises widened, their small black velvet centers shrinking, as he once again heard what he was searching for, the answer to the problem posed to him by two teenaged boys a floor below.
But with it, the melody had planted the seed to different answers as well.
There was a moment of silence, as the tune engraved itself into his memory, and then he suddenly jumped up, eyes shining, and a smile on his face.
A frantic and suddenly understandable confusion briefly clouded his veins, but was pushed off to the side by the tune reverberating in his head.
After all, inspiration had finally struck.
The pieces had snapped into place.
"Alright," he whispered, confidantly rerunning the fresh music in his mind, "I've got us a song."
iiiii
I don't like Hawaiian pizza. But that has nothing to do with anything...
Review, please!! I promise to update my other stories soon if people review this!!!(::is evil::)
