I have decided, quite seriously, that school is the devil. The DEVIL, I tell you! Especially math. Math is the worst. And boys are so very, very confusing. But that's enough about my screwed up life, and let's get on with my darling story.
Pairings: Yami/Yuugi, Ryou/Bakura, Malik/Mariku. Maybe Kaiba/Jou if they fit into the plot. Perhaps Rishid/Isis… if enough people ask for it
Disclaimer: Saying that I own Yuu-Gi-Oh! Is like saying that Bush is supported by lots of people. It's just not right. Still, the plot's mine, and I don't tolerate plagiarism. If you want to borrow something, just ask. ALSO! All songs are MINE. I WRITE ALL OF THE SONGS IN THIS STORY. DO NOT TAKE THEM. THEY ARE MINE. (I'm just a little protective of my songs. Sorry.)
Notes on this chapter:
FUU- From CLAMP's Rayearth. It means "wind".
KEI- From CLAMP's Legal Drug. It means "fire".
I decided on Wind and Fire because Water against Fire is so cliché, isn't it?
And off we go.
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Shaadi stared at the newspaper in front of him, crinkling it as his grip tightened ferociously. "Well, damn it," he said blandly, as though he were commenting on the weather. His eyes were cold in his expressionless face as he set the paper down gently on his desk, and then flipped his laptop open. Yami and Mariku needed to be contacted again.
But still… what to do? His fingers tapped idly on the desk as he waited for the webpage to load. That stupid, stupid FUU clan! How in hell had they gotten to Takahashi Bakura and Mutou Yuugi first? He'd fired off emails as soon as his spy in the club had contacted him, mere seconds after the announcement. The only way that conniving Isis could have gotten there first would have been for her to be there in person… But Isis didn't go to clubs. And even if she did go, it wouldn't be at the exact club that was hosting the Bandits for the last time. And on the very night of their announcement – ! No one could ever be that lucky… could they?
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Oh, for the Gods' sake, Shaadi," Mariku groaned as he logged into his email. "Damn you…" He clicked the message open reluctantly.
"As you undoubtedly know by now, our valiant efforts have been thwarted. The FUU clan got there first, and the members of Bakura Ryou's old band have been dismissed. They are holding auditions for new members, and I expect you to be there. You needn't… lie about your family, per se. Just… gloss over it a little. Yami will be there as well, to keep you in line. I expect you to meet him there. Say that you are siblings; if anyone asks, one of you was adopted or something. That should explain your dissimilar looks. Don't fail me. I'll give you further instructions if you make it into the band. In the meantime, familiarize yourself with Bakura Ryou's music. The auditions are at NGI studios today at 1:00. Shaadi.
Mariku stared for a moment at the message before clicking the window shut. Screw all of his other emails; Shaadi's alone had made him angry. They were probably all SPAM, anyways.
Muttering to himself angrily, he stepped into the shower, soaking himself in the almost too-hot water. His skin tingled before finally adjusting to the heat, his tense muscles relaxing somewhat.
Who the hell does he think he is? He thought furiously, before mocking himself. He's only the head of your clan who can fucking order you around…!
After rinsing shampoo out of his hair, he stepped out and wrapped a towel around his waist, then grabbed another and began to roughly dry his hair. It didn't seem to be helping; water still ran in rivulets down his chest and back. Shit. It'd better not dry puffy again this time…
He got dressed quickly, in clothes he knew Shaadi would definitely not approve of. He brushed his hair out, then grinned evilly as he lined his eyes with black and covered himself with layers of gold jewelry.
He clanged at himself in the mirror. Hmm. A sleeveless black turtleneck, slightly low-cut black denim jeans, a belt of layered golden chains, as well as bracelets and a gold armlet… yes, that was good.
Peering more closely at his face, he frowned before carefully smoothing away a smear in the black around his eyes. His hair was… somewhat behaving: it stuck up in spikes, but at least the spikes weren't out at all angles this time.
Grabbing his car keys from the kitchen counter, he slammed the door to his apartment penthouse shut, and locked it. He was halfway down the hall before he turned back with a growled curse, and returned for his bass guitar.
Starting up the engine of his car, he saw that the clock read 12:45.
… I have 15 minutes to get to the other side of town, he thought dazedly, then grinned insanely and shot out onto the road. Adrenaline… endorphins… they sounded pretty good. Yep.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"He's late!" Yami growled, pacing in front of the NGI building. "Where the bloody hell could he be?" He whipped out his cell phone, pressing the speed-dial 2 (Shaadi was number 1). "Pick up, pick up, pick up!"
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Mariku glared at his cell phone as it rang again. It wasn't like he didn't like his ring tone; he did! That's why it was his ring tone in the first place… but by all that was insane, it was damned irritating when you were driving at 100 miles per hour and it rang 14 times in a row!
All of a sudden, Mariku realized that he was in the very left lane of a four-lane highway, and his exit was in sight. He blinked.
Oh dear. This is a wonderfully difficult problem…His eyes glinted as he jerked his steering wheel to the right.
All right, let's do this thing.
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Yami considered, very seriously, smashing his cell phone. He breathed in deeply, and then let it out. It wasn't the phone's fault that Mariku was an idiot… no, not the phone's fault…
A loud screech of tires made him start. Mariku grinned at him, before hopping out of his car.
"Where have you been? We're late!" he screeched, following it up with an inventive string of curses. "And you can't just leave your fucking car fucking there," he protested as Mariku dragged him into the building. "It's going to get fucking towed!"
"Dear brother, in case you haven't noticed, we're late," Mariku said sweetly, honey dripping from his words. He flipped open his cell phone and checked the time, ignoring the "20 missed calls" prompt. "…20 minutes late, in fact. Is this really the time to be worrying about a car?"
Yami's hands twitched involuntarily, itching to wrap themselves around his second cousin's neck. His smile was fragile and razor thin. "You're right, brother dear. Let's just go inside."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Ryou was about to cry. There were lots of talented people here, but they just weren't right. On his right, Malik leaned back and balanced on only two of his chair's four legs, and yawned, clearly bored. Yuugi sat primly, back straight and ankles crossed, a politely blank look on his face. Bakura had long left; Malik would have left as well, but had stayed because of Ryou's sad expression.
Isis stood behind them, tall and regal; but when she spoke, it was easy to detect weariness in her somewhat hoarse voice. "NEXT!"
The door opened, and a boy stepped in, carrying a guitar case. "Yo," he said smugly. "I'm Rex Raptor, nice to meet y'all, and Ryou, may I say that you're lookin' fiiiine today…"
Malik cut him off with an abrupt, "Okay, you can leave now. That's all we need."
Rex Raptor didn't seem to understand. Slinging the guitar strap over his shoulder, he began to slam through the barely recognizable opening electric guitar solo of one of Ryou's previous songs.
Wait a second… electric guitar? Malik thought, opening his mouth to speak. But before he got a chance to, the door slammed open again, revealing a not-so-happy Bakura. "What the hell is that God-awful noise?" he demanded, eyebrows snapping together, sparks flying from his eyes.
"He was just leaving," Yuugi said tersely, hands moving up to cover his throbbing ears.
"He damn well better be leaving!" Bakura snarled. "I've heard wailing cats that've sounded better!"
He stalked over to the amp, and unplugged Rex's guitar. "Thank you," he snapped. "You sucked. Now get your ass out of here."
Rex glared at him indignantly, but then saw silver in Bakura's hands, and seemed to think twice. He picked up his gig bag angrily, and stalked out.
Isis glanced at Ryou, who had gone pale, eyes wide. "Gods, will this nightmare never end?" he moaned finally, burying his face in his hands.
Isis tried to smile encouragingly. "We've only got a few more bass guitarists to go, and then we can go have lunch," she promised.
"But we've got keyboardists after that," Malik muttered gloomily.
There was a collective sigh from around the room. "Come on! We can do this!" Yuugi said unconvincingly. "Really!" He paused. "Maybe?"
"Just the bass guitarists, then lunch," Isis repeated, rubbing her tired eyes. "Bakura, you were just out there… how many do we have left?"
Bakura shrugged. "Only two or three. It's not that bad."
"Fair enough," Ryou sighed. "Isis?"
She nodded, then took a deep breath. "NEXT!"
A girl with pink ribbons in her hair stepped in timidly, and closed the door behind her. Ryou blanched and shrank back. It was the girl from the antique shop.
She stared at them all for a second, before her face split into a wide smile. "I just want to be your friends!" she said brightly. "Everyone needs friends, don't you think? They make you feel warm and fuzzy inside! And with friends, you can do anything, doncha know?" She giggled, her voice squeaking.
Malik stared. "That's got to be the worst squeak I've heard in my life," he said, while Yuugi nodded dumbly.
Ryou had had it. "That's it!" he cried. "Get out, get out, get out!"
Isis pulled out a walkie-talkie, given to her earlier by the manager of the building. "507, we've got a fangirl masquerading as a bass guitarist here," she said firmly into the instrument.
"Soo," she continued, "Like, since we're friends and everything, could I have autographs? As a reminder of our friendship?"
She rambled on and on, always coming back to the subject of friendship before three security guards burst in, and dragged her out. They could hear her squeals echoing down the halls, and Yuugi could faintly make out a few words: "I thought we were friends, you know! How could you betray me this way? But it's okay! I'll forgive you, if you call them off!"
Ryou moaned, slumping forwards. "Holy Goddamn mother fucking dumbass-ish SHIT!" he cried. Everyone stared. Ryou never cursed.
Even Isis looked frazzled. "Just one more," she promised. "Just one more, and then lunch. And you don't have to sit in for keyboardist auditions."
"Yes I do," Ryou disagreed miserably. "I'm the singer, so I've got to make sure I can work with all of the members of the band. I've got to be here, and you know it."
Isis sighed. It was true. "I don't know how she got in here, though," she muttered to herself. "I only called a few top agents… I'll have to have Rishid look into that…"
"Okay, everyone, sit back down," Bakura ordered. "One more guy." He barely waited until everyone was seated at the long table, and yelled, "NEXT PERSON! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!"
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Mariku grinned when he was called. It seemed that they had been having problems… but that fangirl incident had been ugly, though. He shuddered.
Yami had left to call someone – Mariku didn't know who – and so he'd been left here alone. He sighed, thinking of the reason he was ere. Shaadi. Hmph. Bastard.
Mariku walked into the room, and plugged his electric bass into the amp and straightened. "So how does this work?" he asked, brushing his fingers across the four strings lightly.
A small porcupine-head who looked scarily like Yami answered. "Ryou wrote a new song yesterday, and we recorded a snippet of it."
Malik snorted at the use of the word "snippet". Yuugi glared at him, and then continued, "You're going to listen to it once, and then play along with it the second time."
Mariku nodded. Simple enough. Ryou reached forward, and hit "play".
'Cause I'veBeen wasting my time
Waiting for you to say good-bye
And I've
Been out of my mind
To think that you were always on my side…
Mariku pursed his lips in thought after the song was over. He was dimly aware of why critics were raving about this "angel-voice". It really was pretty, but this wasn't the time to think about the voice.
Hmm. The song was slow, and drawn-out, and in the key of D. Hmm. Yes. He could do this.
"You ready?" Malik asked. Mariku quirked an eyebrow at him in answer, thinking, Holy Ra, he looks like me…! Although, I wonder how he gets his hair to behave…
The "snippet" of the song was starting again. Mariku sighed, and let his fingers have free reign. Bass guitar wasn't hard; just stay with the beat, stay in key, and improvise if you wanted to. Yeah.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBakura didn't gape: it was a Gods-cursed fact. But after Mariku played, he almost did. Just almost. Not quite (though the others would argue otherwise).
He'd blown them away, which was hard to do with such an insanely short snip of music. He'd kept the beat easily, and had done tricky finger-work, even hitting every offbeat. After playing with Bones for so long, Bakura was almost salivating. I want to play with this guy.
Ryou jumped up and ran around the table. "You were wonderful," he exclaimed breathlessly. "And you just saved my sanity. Thank you so much!"
Malik sidled up behind him. "Good job," he drawled, extending a hand. "Ishtar Malik. And you?"
Mariku took the pro-offered hand. "Istali Mariku." Malik's hand was warm and firm, calloused while thin and fragile. "Pleasure to meet you."
Mm… he looks delicious close up.
Malik nodded. "Same here. Why haven't we heard of you? Everyone else here we've heard a little bit about, even that Rex idiot… the fangirl was an exception, of course," he grimaced.
Pretty and smart. How cute. He chose his words carefully. "I decided to perfect my technique before joining up with anyone, and I just signed with my agent half a year ago." Hehe, liar. I don't practice at all, really… and I was born signed to Shaadi, he thought somewhat sourly.
Isis joined them, Bakura at her side. "Let's all get some lunch, shall we? Istali-san, you're welcome to join us. Yuugi's gone to tell the keyboardists to come back later, and we'll meet him outside."
Mariku thought for a moment. Lunch with Yami, or lunch with these people? Yami would be awfully angry if he just disappeared…
"Lunch would be wonderful," he said, smiling with all his teeth.
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After Mutou Yuugi had told them to come back at around 3:30, Yami growled. Mariku was nowhere to be found, and he had turned off his phone. "I'm going to kill him," he told himself thoughtfully. "Yes… that sounds nice…"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"If auditions started at 1:00, then why haven't you had lunch yet?" Mariku asked. "Granted, I haven't either, but that's because I woke up at 12:20."
Bakura snorted. "Because the fucking NGI people wanted us at the building by 10:00 to run through security measures, show us the room, set up, bore us to death…"
"Bakura, they just wanted to be sure that everything was to our satisfaction," Yuugi scolded. "You just have a short attention span!"
"Be that as it may, I still say that they were fucking bastards," Bakura said virtuously. "Oh, finally," he said, as two waiters bearing their meals arrived. "That only took forever…"
"I'll thank you to have some manners," Isis said calmly, then wrinkled her nose at the bloody mess on his plate. "What is that?"
He blinked innocently. "A steak? Rare? Aww, Mariku got the same thing," he whined when she glared at him disapprovingly.
Ryou shuddered, forking into his fettuccine alfredo. "I think I like pasta better," he said, face somewhat green as he peered at their plates.
Yuugi giggled as he began downing his gigantic chocolate milkshake. "That's lovely," he sighed happily, grinning slightly scarily. Ryou shook his head. "You and your sweets, Yuugi… eat your actual food, too!"
"Eww… all that fattening food," Malik shuddered. He himself had only ordered a salad and some fruit.
"Ohh, shut up, you silly dancer," Isis chided affectionately. "You like bacon, you know."
"That's different!" Malik protested. "Bacon is… bacon!"
"Nuh-uh!" Ryou disagreed.
"Uh-huh!"
"Oh, don't you 'uh-huh' his 'nuh-uh'!"
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At 3:30, Yami was ready to kill. He sipped his frauppacino, letting the cold rush down his throat in a futile effort to calm himself down. His features hardened as he saw a certain blond skipping towards him.
Skipping.
"Where. Have. You. Been?" The words were short, bitten out through gritted teeth. "I looked everywhere, you evil… evil…" Yami struggled, trying to find a noun that would describe the damnation that was Mariku, and came up empty handed.
"Some 'Congratulations!' that is," Mariku sniffed, mock-wounded. A too-wide smile spread across his face. "But you don't count, anyways, so it's all good. I made it into the baaaand!" He paused to glare reproachfully at Yami. "I hope you do terribly."
He skipped a few paces away, and then turned around and smiled again, scarily. "Good luck!"
He turned again, and left, leaving Yami to blink a few times before shaking his head as if to clear it. He then began to make his way to the waiting room.
What the bloody hell was that?OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Malik sank into the splits when they got back into the audition room, sighing happily as his muscles stretched. "Mm… yeah, that's good…"
"Malik, you sound orgasmic!" Yuugi snickered. "And get up off the floor! You don't know where it's been!" he said warningly, before dissolving into a fit of giggles.
"You shouldn't have had that second giant milkshake, brat," Bakura said wryly as Ryou looked on, bemused.
"We have to start the auditions in five minutes," Isis said distractedly. "Okay, the piano's over there, and Mariku'll be here in a second…"
Ryou went to her. "Isis, the piano will not grow legs and walk away, I promise," he told her firmly. "If it does, you have permission to gouge my hear out with a plastic spoon for lying. All right?"
She breathed in deeply. "Yes… yes. I'm all right, Ryou."
Ryou beamed at her, and was about to speak, but – "Of course you're all right! The world is gorgeous! Rainbows and bunnies and hearts!"
Ryou turned around slowly. "Er… Yuugi?"
Yuugi had the grace to look sheepish. "Hehe… he?"
Mariku burst in. "Let's start!"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A little bit shorter than usual, I know, but it seemed like a good place to end the chapter. I had fun writing this, especially the little sections about Yami being annoyed. Next chapter, I'll focus mostly on him, because I feel like I've been neglecting him a little bit. Aww.
Anyways, review and make my day!