Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation; I make no profit from this story.

Pressure
by R. M. Weiss

Chapter 5:

"I don't understand how this could happen. Everything was fine last night. Everything was saved and stored and—what am I going to tell the president?"

Sakano's shrill voice rang out above the din of the gathered onlookers outside the recording room. Employees from around the company had hurried over when they heard about the "accident". Somehow the data on all of the recordings that Bad Luck had done the night before had vanished, even the hard copies were no where to be found. All that was left in their place was a tape, crackling with white noise for ten minutes before very suddenly clicking off.

The band was being called in as the producer slumped over the provided table, covering his head with his arms. "All our work," he murmured, "all of it…"

A frown tugged at K's lips as he watched Sakano pull at his hair in frustration. 'I'm sure I locked this place up last night. I know I did. No one could've gotten in here without a key.' Reaching into his pocket he felt for his key chain, fingers closing over the cool metal the second they brushed it. The American let out a deep sigh and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'll call the kid," he whispered, touching Sakano's shoulder. "We're going to have to start from square one. Think you can handle Tohma?"

The producer loosened the death grip he had on his hair. Already his head was pounding from the tension and stress of spending five minutes of listening to the list of problems rattled off by the employee who had discovered the disappearance. Slowly he straightened up and fixed his glasses. "Of course. L-let me get that tape." Going into the sound booth he picked up the little handheld recorder that held the white noise tape. He pocketed the device quickly, careful not to hit any buttons that might cause it to record over what was already on the tape.

Like a man condemned to death the producer left the room. He counted the tiles of the floor as he walked, each number feeling like another nail in his coffin. 'Sacho, you trusted me with Bad Luck. How could I have let you down like this? How?' When Sakano looked up he was in front of Tohma's office, his hand already resting on the doorknob to push it open. "Excuse me," he called before entering, polite to a fault as always.

The first thing Sakano noticed was that Tohma was not at his desk. In fact the blonde's desk was tipped over, drawers hanging out, some even on the floor. Papers were everywhere, spilling out of their folders. The painting covering the wall safe lay punctured against a crashed filing cabinet. The floor lamp next to the easy chair had been rammed into the safe and was nearly bent in half from the force of the blows. On the floor, mixed with spilled coffee ground and water, was the bouquet of ume blossoms, otometsubaki, bells of Ireland, and pink chrysanthemums (1) he had brought in the day before.

"Tohma?" he whispered, and then upon not seeing the blonde, yelled, "TOHMA?"

"I'm here."

Whirling around, Sakano stared at his long time boss and friend who had been behind the door to the office holding the heavy phone from his desk, prepared to use it as a weapon.

"Sacho—"

"For a minute I thought I was going to have to bludgeon somebody. I come in late and I find my office torn apart and no one at their usual stations...I thought there was some kind of threat made against the building and I was the only one who didn't know about it."

Sakano reached out and took the phone from his boss. Grabbing Tohma's elbow with his free hand he helped him get over a wide fallen filing cabinet. The tape recording in his pocket was all but forgotten. Going over to the desk, Sakano righted the upturned executive chair and dusted it off. Briefly he toyed with the idea of trying to fix the desk as well. Reaching for the corner he was stopped by a hand on his arm, the grip surprisingly tight.

Tohma shook his head silently before releasing the producer. He didn't so much sit down in his chair as he fell into it. "You'll break your back if you try and pick that up."

"I was only going-"

"It's not worth bothering with," the blonde said, eyes closing as he smiled.

Sakano knew better than anyone what that smile meant. Taking a step away from the desk the producer bowed politely.

"Was there something you came here to tell me?"

Looking up, the brunette finally remembered the recorder stuffed into his pocket. He handed it over to Tohma quickly before bowing again, "This was in the recording booth right where Bad Luck's recording from yesterday should have been. K said that the lock wasn't picked. He thinks someone with a key tried to sabotage Shindou-kun."

Blue eyes opened slowly and Tohma gazed around his destroyed office. His fingers formed a steeple as he leaned forward onto his knees. "Does anyone else know this?"

"No, sacho."

"Keep it that way. At least until we gather some probably suspects. In the mean time…." Tohma's voice trailed off and one hand fluttered like a dying bird in the general direction of his office.

"In the mean time?" Sakano prompted.

"Bring in more security. If whoever did this can tear up my office and still have time to steal recordings then we're not dealing with a simple robbery. I want twenty-four hour surveillance on all exits. And Sakano?"

The producer paused as he made to dig out his cell phone.

"Go home with Shindou-kun tonight. Make him convince Eiri to hire a guard."

Sakano nodded quickly and bowed deeply once again, "Yes, sacho."

Tohma took a moment to look the other over. Baby blue eyes followed the seam on the back of Sakano's jacket, the traced the wrinkles by his shoulders. Black hair had been finger combed it seemed, and yet the producer still had managed to look his part. The blonde closed his eyes and tried to freeze the afterimage of his friend in his mind. Yes, Sakano was everything anyone could want in an employee. Always on time, always producing work above the average caliber, his dress matching regulations, his form when bowed—perfect.

"You can go" the blonde murmured after a minute, his hands coming up to thread through his hair as his chin fell to his chest. Already his mind had moved to how much cleaning up he was going to have to do for his office to look at least somewhat like I used to.

Sakano was gone when he looked up. Staring at the space where the brunette had been only moments before, Tohma blinked his eyes once, twice, to recall the mental picture he had taken. A deep breath rushed from his lungs before his hand began feeling around for his coat pocket. He'd have to call Mika. He doubted he'd be home for dinner tonight.

Back down in the recording booth, Sakano was doing everything he could to calm Shuichi, the pink haired pop star having arrived in a matter of minutes after K's phone call, bursting into the recording studio past Hiro who had been in the area when K had called him.

"Suguru will be here when school lets out. The principal won't let him go until then," the American said, dropping his cell phone onto the table in aggravation. He didn't see how this didn't count as an emergency. It was the boy's career being talked about. It wasn't as if K was trying to pull him out of class to go play hooky.

"All our work…I can't believe it," Shuichi whispered as he lay slumped over the table, his hands buried in his hair as fists. "We spent three weeks trying to just get the first song right. It took us two months to get the first half of them done…"

"We still have some of the files backed up on the computer, Shindou-kun," Sakano murmured, placing a gentle hand on the singer's back. "We can record again and edit them together. We could push the release date too if we have to."

"No. The CD goes out as planned."

Everyone in the room turned to look at the American manager who stood over the keyboard of the computer that helped with the recording sessions. The track lighting above him flickered briefly as he touched a few of the keys and woke up the computer, the hum filling the room. "The CD goes out as planned," he said again, "because we will get those recordings back in time."

"K-san finding them is nearly impossible." Sakano sunk down into a chair next to Shuichi.

The blonde held up a finger in the air for silence. Never once did his eyes stray from the computer screen. "Nothing's impossible. We're going to get to the bottom of this. I want answers and I'm going to get them."

From his spot at the table Shuichi let out a heavy sigh and buried his head in his arms. To his left, Sakano closed his eyes in resignation. Somehow he had a feeling this was going to be a very long day.

TBC...

Please excuse the extremely long wait on this chapter. School work takes priority in my life so I had to put my writing aside for a number of months. Now that the majority of things are out of the way I will resume updating on a more frequent schedule. Thank you for reading this chapter of Pressure

(1) ume blossoms – means: nobel/high-mindedness, perseverance, refined

Otometsubaki – the maiden pink camellia; means: charm

Bells of Ireland – means: Good luck

Chrysanthemums – if not red, white, or yellow they mean "cheerfulness" or dd "you're a wonderful friend."