Moonlight Sonata
By Luna Stop Swearing
A/N: Yay, I'm back! My apologies, I've gone 10 weeks without watching a single (complete!) GTO episode, so it may be a little different than previous chapters (in that they may be slightly out of character?). Wow. Massive influx of K/K fics since my departure. Not that I mind, of course. Wonderful fics. And someday, schedule permitting, I may be able to read some of them. :D Not much seriousness here as in previous chapters. Remember, italics are character's thoughts. Words in bold are the character's conscience. It may get a little sloppy later.
Disclaimer: I'm a poor graduating senior who shops at the P99 Store in Glorietta. Please don't sue me. Puss-in-Boots eyes
Episode 7: Sforzando
"Tadaima!"
"Ne… Kunio-kun… do we still have any beer?"
Kunio Murai frowned as he saw his mother in an orange bikini, leaning over the refrigerator, looking for her favorite afternoon thirst-quencher. Okay, maybe not limiting it to afternoons, beer was her Gatorade.
"Why are you wearing that?" He practically screamed, outraged, grabbing the nearest piece of cloth that came into contact with his hands. Despite the fact that it was a dishrag, he tossed it onto his mother's bare back. "Who do you think you are, Maki Gotou?"
Julia Murai stood up straight, hands on her firm hips, so she could give her son a good frowning. At 31, she was still the amazing specimen of womanhood and embodiment of lust that she was at 28. Three years hadn't changed her much- her glares were still quite intimidating, and when she exerted effort, they could rival those of Heero Yuy's. But that didn't mean that her son paid much attention to them. "And who do you think you are to tell me these things, Gakuto Camui?"
Kunio rolled his eyes. His mother, along with millions of other women all over Japan, was in love with the metrosexual poster boy and ex-lead singer of Malice Mizer. Sometimes when she and her girlfriends would have their 'all-vice day' (a day filled with smoking, gambling, drinking, chatting, and eating fattening foods), she would always announce that he was the only man who could make her settle down. And that would launch a very fangirlish discussion about his private life, which led to celebrity gossip, which led to Utaban… Kunio knew better than to stay at home during All Vice Day- he usually camped out at Fujiyoshi's or Kusano's. He tried to steer the discussion away from Gackt and sexy ex-members of idol groups. "Never mind. Listen, 'kaasan, I have to sleep over at school later tonight…"
"Why?"
"Helping Urumi and Ryu pull some stunts on the admin."
"Okay, okay, you can go… have fun and try not to get expelled. You're graduating for goodness' sake." Julia was pretty lenient when it came to her son's activities. She still knew what it felt like to be young and restless. Kunio knew that, even though he lacked a dad, he had the loosest, funnest mom among his peers, which he was quite thankful for.
"Hai, hai, 'kaasan…" He ran up to his room to change, all the while ignoring his mother's sparkling rendition of Sonin's Curry Rice no Onna.
"Oniisan, what are you doing?"
"Aren't you supposed to be with Yuki today?" Yuki Sakaki was his 20 year-old cousin, who worked as a model at Sakuya, a famous modeling agency located in the heart of the city, renowned for being the starting point of many gorgeous models.
"They called her back at work for another photo shoot for FCUK, so she's picking me up later. We're going to this new place downtown called Utopia."
The person speaking, the person that Yoshito was speaking to, was none other than Maika Kikuchi, his younger, more colorful, 15 year-old sister. No one in their right minds would even guess that the two were related, they looked so unalike. Sometimes even their friends couldn't believe that the two were siblings. Every time a person was calmly told, "She's my sister," or "That's my brother," the double take was the most common reaction. Or, if not that, the "NO WAY!" Rarely was she brought up in conversations he conducted because, well, he just didn't feel like talking about his rocker chic, smoking, partying, goofing-off, black-sheep, model kid sister. Not that he didn't love her, though. Their parents being away most of the time (their mother had a clothing line whose main office was in Okinawa, while their father was a big-shot exec at a gas company based in France), he was the only thing she had that resembled any boundaries in her life. Him and Yuki. He tried making her cut back on her gimmicks (although he himself knew the exquisite aching, the longing for independence, for freedom), tried making her focus more on her studies. It was hard, but he wasn't giving up, though.
"Aha. Just watch your drink, don't leave it alone."
"I know, I know, people sometimes put drugs in it."
He sighed. It was so easy to say 'I know.' "Just look out for yourself, okay? Yuki won't be around to babysit you 24/7."
She rolled her eyes. "Geez. I've only been going out since I was, what, 13? And has some stranger drugged me yet? Christ, you act like I'm some defenseless little kid."
"Aren't you?"
That earned him her specialty, the Magnum Bitch, the look she says got her a lot of modeling jobs in and around Tokyo. Her explanation was that, everyone was tired of the Morning Musume-type teenage girl, filled with spunk and energy. For the model agencies, a bitchy teenager was a breath of fresh air. Hence, more jobs.
"Oniisan, what are you doing?"
"We're sleeping over at school."
"Why?" As she opened the refrigerator, he scrutinized what she was wearing. Practically nothing- her favorite denim miniskirt with the strategically placed holes and chains along the pockets, a floral tube top, and combat boots. On any other person, this would have looked completely ridiculous, but on Maika Kikuchi, it looked as if Donatella Versace had done her outfit from head to foot. At times like these, Yoshito wished that she wasn't his sister.
Argh, you perverted bastard Does her being your little sister…ring any bells? Prevent anything from happening, maybe?
"Project." He started throwing various edible odds and ends into a plastic bag from Wu-Mart.
"And does this 'project,' as you dare call it, involve destroying school property and leaving your batch's mark in the annals of school history?"
The Styrofoam cup of Hot 'N Spicy Szechuan Pork Instant Noodles he was holding fell to the floor. Bending over, he inquired calmly, "So, who called?" That was pure Kikuchi- immediately taking into consideration HOW his little sister could have gotten the information. Since no one had dropped by, he surmised that someone could have called while he was showering.
"Urumi, while you were in the bathroom. She said to meet at Scales and Tails along Ichijoji Stadium Avenue at 7:30, sharp. Hmm, something involving animals. Have you no pity? Shame, even?"
He checked his Swatch, a present from Maika on his 18th birthday. It was still 6:30. Still an hour to kill. "Obviously not."
Maika made herself comfortable on the marble kitchen counter, a large bottle of Sprite in one hand, a bag of chips in the other. She uncapped the bottle and expertly chugged the liquid once, twice, before speaking to her brother again. Dave Barry would have been proud at her uneffemininity. "So when are you going to get a girlfriend?"
"Are you really asking me that question?"
"It came out of my mouth, didn't it? So I'm guessing the answer is… YES. Well?"
Yoshito took a deep breath. The two women in his life, Maika and Yuki, had always been pestering him to go out and find a girl, saying that a girl would probably stop him from being too serious, and would probably get him to loosen up some more. They kept offering to pair him up with model friends of theirs, but he knew better than to date models. No matter what they said, he still held the stereotypical view of models (with exceptions to his cousin and sister, of course). "It's so hard to find a girl nowadays…to find beauty and intellect in one being. Okay, look, I'm not gay, imouto. I'm just looking for someone beautiful who I can maintain intelligent conversations with."
"You're putting words in my mouth! I never said you were gay."
"I know you're thinking it."
She pouted. "Am I that transparent?"
"You're easily read."
"What time are you leaving?"
"In 30 minutes. I have to do my physics homework."
Maika made a face. "You can do that in school, you know."
"There's a reason it's called homework."
"School's like a second home, right?"
He sighed. "We're dropping this conversation now."
Nothing more was heard for a while as Maika nursed her softdrink, and Yoshito did his physics homework on the kitchen table. The slow, steady humming of the refrigerator seemed to fill the void caused by the silence. Occasionally, a truck or some other vehicle would pass by, sometimes a motorcycle. At one point, they overheard a young couple discussing the perfect place to have sex that night. "Do you have protection?" The girl was saying. The boy replied, "Oh yeah, I stopped at the vending machine before I went to school."
Maika giggled, and then said, "How about Urumi?"
The lead on Yoshito's mechanical pencil broke as his hand applied more pressure on it. "What about her?" What are you getting at, brat?
"She's smart. And she's good looking… enough. Why haven't you two hooked up yet?"
"WHAT?"
"Why does your brain completely shut down when we talk about girls? God, I'm really starting to question your sexual preferences."
"She's not my type."
Maika arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow. "Really. Someone who has actually read Aristotle and Plato and is probably the only person who can challenge your intellect. Someone who listens to the same type of eclectic music you do. Someone who I can safely say is a female you. And she's not your type?"
He raised the bridge of his glasses. "That's just it. We're too much alike." Liar liar, pants on fire. You want her, I know it. Stop lying to yourself.
"So what, you're looking for some ditzy…airhead to satisfy your carnal desires?'
"I didn't say that, Maika. And why do we always focus on my love life, or sheer lack of one, whenever we talk? Do all roads lead to my nonexistent love life?"
"No, they lead to Rome."
"Very funny. This is turning into a circus. And why don't WE focus on YOUR love life."
"I don't mind. I'm not sensitive about it. I have a FWB, you know."
No good doing physics now. He sneered and put down his pencil. "The relationship for the commitment-scared. That's not real. It's a… a pseudo-relationship. It's open. Friends with benefits."
"At least I have a relationship."
"With no strings attached. How wonderful it must be for you."
Okay, he's getting me pissed. She slammed the bottle down on the counter, jumped off, and marched towards him, being careful to look directly at her brother. Many people said that his eyes were scary, that they looked like they were always guarding some dangerous secret, or pushing people away. Some people had told her that if they gazed at his eyes long enough, all he had to do next was snap his fingers and they would be at his every command. Intimidating, her friends claimed his eyes were. But she wasn't scared of them. She thought they were quite captivating, in fact.
"You know what? It actually is. It actually feels great to have someone you love kiss you, and touch you, and make you feel good. Make you feel wanted. Maybe you'll crave that someday, when you're in your lonely world filled with meaningless words and numbers. Or are you too much of a rock to actually feel anything?"
She's going too far. Little bitch with the big mouth. Thinks she knows everything. Eventually, she'll have to learn that that an open relationship isn't going to work out in the long run. The guy has no emotional ties in this relationship. He just thinks of her as a friend, that's about it. A friend with benefits, duh. But she's probably invested feelings in this, whether she admits it or not. She loves Negi, but I doubt he reciprocates…
Damn. You REALLY think too much.
A honk, familiar to both, was heard outside.
Thank God. "That's Yuki."
Oh yes. Congratulations. You have just graduated from the plane of the obvious, Kikuchi Yoshito.
Thank you, Yuki. "Yeah. I should get going."
Yes, leave me alone. "I'll be leaving soon, too."
Both despised small talk, but after her monologue, there seemed to be nothing more appropriate to say. It wasn't the first time that he was rendered speechless by something she had said.
Grabbing a black leather jacket draped over her seat at the dining table, she said without the slightest hint of sarcasm, "Enjoy your little school prank."
"We plan to. Have fun, uh, hanging out with Yuki and Negi."
"Hmm. Oniisan?"
"What?"
"I'm sorry for saying that. I didn't mean it. You know how I get when I'm worked up."
"Or when we talk about your pseudo-relationship in the negative light."
"Can we not start again? I like Negi. As a friend. And we make out and touch each other sometimes. I do not have any emotional attachments in this… arrangement, if it's not a relationship to you."
"Just helping you think things through before you do something you'll regret."
"I am NOT going to lose my virginity just like that to Negi Tomokazu. Nephew of Seki Tomokazu or no."
"You'd better not." Sometimes he couldn't help but feel amazed that he could endure hearing his little sister (whom he'd practically raised) talk about such mature things like kissing, sex, and the like. Were today's kids really growing up that fast? Ah, I feel old. I wonder what Urumi would say.
"You should ask Urumi out. Really. You two click."
Before he could come up with a quick, witty rebuttal, she'd already slammed the door. Sounds of her heels clacking against the cement were heard, then a loud, "YUKI!" followed by an equally loud, "MAIKA-CHAN!" A car door was slammed, then after a nanosecond, the screeching of car wheels on asphalt. Yoshito closed his physics notebook, then looked up at the ceiling. Then he wondered the possibilities of pursuing a relationship with the cynical biatch (which is worse than a bitch), Urumi Kanzaki.
Frequent trips to Kichijoji General Hospital as a child (for she was quite a sickly when she was a child and had to keep going back each week for treatment) had made her accustomed to the plastic-death-and-medicine scent of the place. She remembered that she had disliked coming here every Friday morning, several years ago, to get her shots. It always felt like with every injection, a part of her was also being extracted. Another reason why she hated this place was because it was a 'portal of death,' as she called it. Friends, family, they came in, and never came back out. What scared her most back then (even up to now) were the little children her age in the cancer wing, whose innocent faces looked so hollow and pale, void of life, who remained hopeful that they would get better, when the truth was that they might fall asleep now and never wake up tomorrow.
Determined to find him by herself, on her own merits, she'd told her friends not to go with her. It was her mission. She'd been practicing how to deliver it for months now, in front of her vanity, sometimes I and now seemed as good a time as any. With prom coming up and all.
"Radiology, OB/GYNO…" She read from a placard on the wall. "Dammit… where are the wards?"
"Excuse me, miss? Are you lost?"
She turned around to find a decent-looking man in a doctor's coat, young, maybe late twenties, early thirties, clean-shaven, brown hair, amethyst-colored eyes. That was pretty normal in Japan, anyway. Not bad looking, actually.
Seriously, are we actually HAVING that thought now?
"Oh, uh, hi. I was looking for a patient? He's suffering from heatstroke, they just brought him in a little while ago. I was looking for the heatstroke wing, in case you have one." She'd heard on the news that hospitals all over Japan were converting some of their cancer wards into temporary housing for the heatstroke patients, there were so many.
The doctor smiled. "A patient. Well, Miss…"
"Aizawa."
"Well, Miss Aizawa, you'll have to be a little more specific. There are a little over a hundred and twenty heatstroke patients in here today. Do you at least have his name, or did you accompany him in an ambulance and realize that you two might actually hit it off well together?"
"What?" He did NOT say that.
"Do you at least have his name?" The doctor repeated.
"Koji Fujiyoshi."
"Oh, him!" The doctor laughed. "He's doing William Hung impersonations, dancing and singing on his hospital bed… we keep trying to sedate him, you know. Go straight, then first door on the right. You can't miss it."
Oh God, William Hung. Thankfully I'm going to knock some sense into him. "Thank you, Doctor… sorry, I didn't get your name."
"Tsuzuki. Asato Tsuzuki."
"Thank you, Doctor Asato."
"My pleasure, Miss Aizawa."
Are all Japanese parents businesspeople who live in faraway countries or are never at home to supervise their children? What the hell is Scales and Tails? What's Miyabi going to do to Fujiyoshi to straighten him out? (wink wink!) WHEN ARE THE PRANKS GOING TO START?!? All this and more in the next episode of Moonlight Sonata!
A/N: Ooh, plot twist. Kikuchi's sister. I must explain. Yoshito acts the most human around three people: Maika, Yuki, and Urumi. I hope the banter was acceptable for all of you, and I hope, not too OOC. Just trying to show that, genius or no, he's still human. And although he rarely shows the world, he feels like we do, too. And yes, the typical story set in Japan… sans parents! :D Sorry if it seems a bit cheesy, but I thought doing that would also contribute to Kikuchi's maturity and independence. On to the reviews!
Garnet-chan: Oh, someone noticed perhaps the most glaringly obvious of references imbedded in MS. Rika wasn't even supposed to be there, but when I wrote down the chara description (and did a little research on the actual Rika), I decided to toss in Terada-sensei.
Miguel Artadi: High praise from a great author. Thanks!
Kairi21, Aeris TheCrimina1, SVZ, Shadow Angel5, SILENT TROWA, Hermionini, Fallen Angel980, urumi-chan, Ayce Shade, Intel Inside Pentium 4: Thanks for the feedback! (Pentium 4? That's my model!)
DarkFusion: Fujiyoshi/Miyabi. Hmm… Well, you got what you wanted! A little F/M for all. Mayu… no, I haven't forgotten about him, and it really is a shame that he would miss out on the pranks K and Co. are going to pull. Watch our for him.
GreatLight432: Kunio and Kujirakawa? I'm not sure. If people bug me enough about it, probably. wink
Scarlet: Sign of intellect? Hmm… Well that's something to add to my knowledge bank. Thanks for reviewing!
Allence of the Weed: Well, dear, because Kikuchi, genius or no, is only human (although I know he's achieved something of a deity status with you ). That was just a mind game. Let's say a person approaches you, rubbing his neck. He'll tell you to rub your forehead. You'll most likely rub your neck instead. Sorry, didn't bring home a papa for you. Wouldn't fit inside my trunk, and I had already reached the baggage limit there.
arukas: I don't know, really, I guess I just feel like going through the trouble of doing so. Always a pleasure to hear from you.
taiyou: I hear you. Yes, there'll be more. THAT, I wouldn't worry about. I want them together as much as anyone else.
19Nina Sakura07: Twists. Stick around, dear, there'll be more.
Miriae: I think a lot of people find the same piece endearing. I love it too, but can't play the piano for shit, so I'm asking my shobe [little sister, pardon me for slipping into Fookien] to learn it.
tacky-kun: I applied at STC, but got rejected because of my Math grade. And because my father wasn't Catholic. Oh well. Their loss. [/bitch mode] (Theresians, I mean no harm. I'm just touchy about that.)
smilingidiot: Yeah, most people tend to think that I'm not a Filipino writer, for some reason. Do you read Culture Crash, by the way? Anyway, thank you for the, um, idea. If I dare to ever use it, I'll give you credit.
Elle30: Wow… that puts a little pressure on me and Moonlight, pero okey lang! I'll still try to make quality fics, hindi basta basta lang. I'd be an insult to yaoi/yuri fans if I were to call myself a yaoi/yuri fan. I don't exactly crave it, but I'm not repulsed when I do see it. It's acceptable in my mindset. And yeah, I had fun.
=-yemen-=: Haha, a Pinoy found that reference. That station's my favorite, by the way. My favorite DJ is… Francis Brew! Ganda boses e! Love the way he says "NU Rock, NU 107" after the set of songs. [/fangirl mode]
svnte2n: As much as I like to keep readers guessing, I have a heart, too. Wow, you're new to ficcing? Hmm, that seems like eons ago to me. ;; In the beginning, you just can't get enough and will seem to read anything you get your hands on, but as time passes, you keep getting pickier and pickier. I hope you find all the gems the fanfiction world has to offer.
kyria valkyrie: Ah, sis. Goosie, don't forget to keep writing as well. I'm looking forward to reading more of your work. (ribbit! Hehe… )
Odd Tailor: Yeah, you got my name right! Of course I don't mind you using the term 'Onikumi.' (Not that it's copyrighted or anything!) I'm quite honored, actually.
Wow, that's it! Whew. And I've reached my hundredth (and one!) review! Your worries of me abandoning Moonlight are OVER! And, you guys got your regular dose of angst and mush. Putting out a chapter feels so good. I hope you guys liked this chapter!
Until the next episode!