A/N: Hey! It's me! I'm actually back really quickly with an update today, which is incredibly unusual for me. Oh well. Anyway, I firstly wanna thank all of you that reviewed. Coming home from school to my computer this afternoon and finding about seven emails with reviews for my story really made me feel all special : ) Usually I only get, like, two reviews per chapter I write or four reviews if it's a one-shot, so I feel all grateful to all of ya : )

Anyway, here's the update you were all waiting patiently for. Hope you enjoy it: )


Pure as the Snow

Chapter II

Touma was in hell.

Because of the rising popularity of Bad Luck and Nittle Grasper all over the world, the poor keyboardist was being worked over-time. He hardly even had the time for his own wife now. N-G just seemed to be working harder than ever. However, there was just one small problem.

Shindou hadn't come into work for week.

Bad Luck didn't even have his lyrics for the new song so they couldn't even start piecing it together without the vocals. Everything just seemed to be going hay-wire. The worst part was that Touma couldn't ever seem to get a hold of Shuichi, because whenever he called their home either no one would pick up or Yuki would answer, saying that Shuichi had already left for work and to stop calling him and disturbing him.

Something was definitely wrong.

"Touma! You're working tooooooooo hard again!" said the pink bunny that had now popped up next to him. Touma smiled one of those fake smiles he gave to everyone.

"Ryuichi, I know I am. But I'm afraid I haven't got much of a choice. The place has been in a bit of a panic since Shindou stopped turning up for work. But I'm fine really. I enjoy what I do," he replied. Ryuichi stood up, shook his head and muttered a few unintelligible words to Kumagoro. He then turned to Touma and sighed.

"Kumagoro-kun says he doesn't understand why you push yourself so hard, and so we're going to pop round and go and check on Shuichi today after work. We'll find out what's wrong!" he said. Touma opened his mouth to argue, but Ryuichi was already out the door bouncing and hopping from foot to foot, as if doing some sort of dance, singing something like 'Sparkly Shuichi!' as he turned the corner outside Touma's office. Touma sighed, closed his eyes and then resumed work. There would be no point in arguing with Ryuichi anyway. It wasn't like the 31 year old singer would listen anyway. He had the mind-set of a child, and he wasn't happy unless he got his own way. But that, perhaps, was what made him such a talented vocalist.


Yuki stared as the clock seemed to tick on forever.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

He stared at the blank document that was sitting on his laptop. He was supposed to have finished this chapter by today, but he just couldn't seem to focus. He felt like something in the universe had shifted, something huge and powerful. But he wasn't sure what it was.

He rose to his feet and went into the living room. Perhaps he could shake off this bout of writer's block in an hour and have the chapter finished and typed up by the end of tonight if he relaxed for the moment and allowed the thoughts to come to him. For some reason, today the ideas weren't flowing through his mind and onto the paper as they should. He sighed and set off back to his study, when something out of the window caught his eye. He blinked.

"Strange… since when does it snow in July?"


The snow was cascading down from the sky. It was a white wonderland, full of endless possibilities. He stood, on the mound of snow once more. Once more, the pure white snow lay untouched, devoid of any human intervention or creature intervention at that. The snow continued to fall, never ending. He could not see anything, no matter how far he looked. The world was white, pure and white.

The sky above gave birth to stars. The stars shone beautifully in the sky. The snow still fell. He stood, staring up at the sky, when again it happened. The snow falling turned black. The snow on the ground was black too, and the entire world seemed to be covered in darkness. The stars suddenly went out, and everything was dark.

Then, the sound of crying echoed in his mind. Crying, from somewhere deep inside this dream world. Someone's sobbing. It sounded so sad. The sound seemed to drum through his mind like a constant rhythm that he couldn't chase away.

Light emerged from this world of darkness, if only for a brief moment. The world's crying continued. And the skies above turned red. That same red which he hated. Blood red. The snow too, was once again red. He fell to his knees. He didn't understand. In his cupped hands he picked up snow, which returned to it's once pure white state, and the blood was left on his hands once again.

He cried.


Shuichi awoke to find himself lying under a tree in the park. The day had been beautiful. He'd been skipping work for a week now. It wasn't because he didn't want to come in. He just didn't feel right recently. He felt like something in the world had shifted, but was unsure what. It seemed like a powerful force was calling him… calling him…

… From inside the dream.


A/N: Nehehe. Sorry, it's a short update. But I think I have a pretty good idea where I'm going with this now : ) Anyway, thank you all once again for your generous reviews. They mean a lot to me, and I view every single review I get and treasure them all. All your input is greatly appreciated : ) Well, that's it from me for now. Ja ne, and review soon!