Chapter 6: Broomsticks

Ryuichi read over Shuichi's lyrics once back in their room. "These are wonderful. We'll be sure to do a good job."

Shuichi grinned impishly and gently whapped Ryuichi with a pillow. "I know I'm awesome."

Ryuichi yanked the pillow from Shuichi's grasp and fwumph hit him on the head with it.

Shuichi crawled across the bed, giggling, quickly grabbing another pillow to ward off Ryu's attack.

He got hit a few times, then with a shriek of laughter, lunged after Ryuichi.

They continued loudly for a few minutes until:

"Cut it out!" A green-haired head poked through the door that joined all the rooms. "Some people are trying to sleep!" Suguru snapped. "Besides, Shindou-kun; don't you have lyrics to write?" The scathing pianist seemed to ignore Ryuichi.

"I already have, thank you very much."

Suguru scowled. "Fine, just be quiet with it," he said, closing the door behind him with a decidedly irritated snap.

Shuichi muffled his giggles into the pillow. "We should get to bed," he mumbled after a moment. "Tohma wants the song tomorrow, and then we need to help write the score," he said, trudging over to his bed.

Ryu nodded. "Okay! Me and Kumagoro are going to take a shower, so you just go to bed, Shu-chan," he advised.

Shuichi nodded, smiling at the older man. "I will; goodnight."

Ryuichi walked over to Shuichi and placed a childish kiss on his cheek. "G'nite!"

I left the bathroom to find Shuichi asleep. He was curled into a ball around his pillow, still in the clothes he was wearing all day.

He looked so… small and fragile… and lonely. It saddened me. During my shower I had thought I had heard someone crying, and my suspicions were confirmed as I stroked a hand down Shuichi's damp cheek.

I looked at his hand, and there was a cell phone clutched tightly in his slim fingers. It didn't take much for me to pull it out, he was deeply asleep, and he relinquished it after a few seconds of wiggling.

I pressed the message button and held the slim, pink phone to my ear.

"Shuichi Shindou, you have one missed message," a cool, recorded female voice said. "Press one to play."

I pressed one. Had he been waiting for a call?

Can you guess who that message was from? Huh, Kumagoro?

… Yeah, you got it right. Eiri Yuki-san.

"Look, Shuichi, I'm sorry about what I said," the writer's annoyed voice grumbled. "I over-reacted. I was tired, and wasn't thinking straight. I didn't mean any of it. I know that you wouldn't cheat on me. You can come back here, or whatever you want. Bye."

I frowned, feeling tears well into my eyes. "Do you know what that means, Kumagoro?" I mumbled.

My bunny stared at me dolefully, just as unhappy as I.

"Yeah," I mumbled miserably. "Shuichi still loves him. He'll go back as soon as he hears this."

I don't want this at all! I want Shuichi happy, but he's not truly happy with this jerk! I see him crying all the time at N-G. He gets kicked out at least twice a week!

A familiar weight settled in my stomach, and I feel like throwing up. An invisible hand has reached into my chest and grabbed my heart, and by, god! It's playing RUGBY with it!

Well, I won't have it! No way will my Shuichi will be subjected to that… dipwad any longer!

I raised a trembling finger, and I deleted the message. Simple. Tohma would have done it, so why not me?

The next three days were a whirlwind. Practice, interviews, photo shoots, video tapings, and more practice. Shuichi and Ryuichi were never far apart for very long. During interviews, they held hands, and in car rides Shuichi was prone to sitting in Ryuichi's lap. It seemed that they were hell-bent on leaving New York with evidence that they were together at last. But, finally, the day of the concert was there.

Shuichi was lounging backstage, having just completed a very exhausting sound check. He was watching Ryuichi play around onstage, waiting for the sound engineer to work up the perfect mix setting to his voice.

Hiro clapped a hand on Shuichi's shoulder. "Are you happy?"

"Very much so," the vocalist mumbled, licking his lips.

Hiro smiled. "Well then. I'm happy too," he said, sitting down beside his friend.

"STOP EVERYTHING!!!!" Sakano cried, skidding in from stage left. "STOOOP!"

No one paid him attention. K raised his gun in the air and fired. Everyone jumped, turning to look at K and Sakano.

Ryuichi frowned, and everyone walked over to the flailing manager.

"What's wrong, Sakano-san?" Tohma asked politely, the glare in his eyes telling Sakano to calm it.

Sakano swallowed nervously, and adjusted his glasses. "Th-the producers just told me that ev-everyone has to be in costume!"

Ryuichi and Shuichi seemed to be the only two actually pleased with this news.

Tohma's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Excuse me?"

"Well, one of the producers came and told us that everyone had to be in costume," K said nonchalantly, pocketing his semi-automatic.

"Yeah," Sakano squeaked.

Noriko stepped forward and balled Sakano's top in her fist. "They didn't tell anyone we had to dress up! Why should we!"

"Well, it is a Halloween concert," Hiro mused. Noriko scowled and let go of the bespectacled manager.

"We have no costumes!" Suguru protested.

Sakano looked uncomfortable. "They said they'd provide us with the costumes from their selection…" he mumbled.

"Well, if we have to, we have to," Tohma said with a sigh and a shrug. "Lead the way, Sakano-san."

Shuichi gaped at the mass amounts of clothing the costume department of XMR had. "Wooow," he mumbled.

Ryuichi laughed, squeezing the boy's hand. "Never seen a costume department before, huh, Shu-chan?" Shuichi shook his head. "What are you going to dress up as?"

"A witch!" Shuichi squealed.

An hour later, everyone was dressed up and ready for the concert. Hiro was dressed as someone from some odd American movie, clad in shades, all black, and a long black leather jacket; Suguru was a cowboy; Noriko a flapper, and Tohma as a black-jack dealer (he has so-far refused to relinquish his fedora). Ryuichi was dressed up as the trusty Kumagoro.

But Shuichi had, by far, the best costume of them all. He was clothed in a black, mock turtle-neck tank that laced up the sides; short black shorts that showed off his legs, knee-high leather boots, black lace, cut-finger gloves, a hat, and a cape.

He twirled around, giggling like mad. "My mic stand should be a broomstick!" he declared as he was handed an ornate broomstick.

Ryuichi laughed and hugged Shuichi. "That's a last minute request."

"We have thirty minutes till they open the gates," Tohma said, glancing at his watch.

"Let's go then," mumbled a grump Fujisaki.

Everyone at the concert was dressed up, Shuichi noted, as he peered out at the audience.

Bad Luck was supposed to go first, introduce their new song "Ya Never Know", perform, then Nittle Grasper do the same routine. Then was their duet. That made Shuichi nervous. More nervous than he had ever been before.

One of the stage hands looked at their watches. "Bad Luck, you're on!"

Hiro, Shuichi, and Suguru walked onto the stage, grinning and waving at their fans.

"Hey! Happy Halloween!" Shuichi cried; Ryuichi had taught him how to say it in English for the occasion. For everything else, there were translations on the screen.

He felt better about the upcoming duet, now that he was on stage. Singing always made him feel better. He began to sing his heart out. This time, not to Eiri Yuki, but to Ryuichi Sakuma.

"This is our newest single, Ya Never Know!" he announced as the song started. This was their last song.

"You never know what's missing;

'Till you've found it in my eyes.

You never know what's missing;

'Till resentment fills the skies.

You never know what's missing;

'Till your hand is in the wall.

You never know what's missing;

'Till you pull up from the fall.

Only until you come;

Will you run away from you.

Only until you come;

There is nothing I can do.

Only until you come;

Will your anger be controlled?

Only until you come;

Then your future will unfold.

When you find yourself;

Will you come back to me?

When you find yourself;

Will you never cease to be?

When you find yourself;

Willwe ever be in love?

When you find yourself;

You'll find the answers up above.

You never know, so

Live

Love

Breathe

Die."

They left the stage, the crowd cheering hysterically.

A few minutes later, Nittle Grasper entered the stage, and began their part of the concert.

After every song was done, Noriko and Tohma left the stage. Ryu stayed.

"Even though we're done, guys, you all need to stay!" Ryuichi purred into the microphone in slightly accented English. "Me and Shuichi have a duet together! It's going to be awesome! Stay where you are!" and then he left as well, leaving an excited crowd.

They couldn't wait.

A/N: The song is by me. Underlined is English. You won't have to wait long, either, because I'm about to post the next chapter as soon as this one is posted. Because I've had it uploaded since I started this story. It was actually the first chapter I wrote.