Title: Complicated
Author: Mat (matkashi)
Chapter(s): 1/??
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Drama/Romance/Comedy/Angst/AU
Warnings: Sex, adultery, character death, violence, some blood
Bands: the gazette, Alice Nine, Miyavi
Pairings: Reita/Aoi, Aoi/Uruha, Kai/Uruha, Kai/Ruki, Tora/Aoi, Hiroto/Uruha, Tora/Shou, Reita/OFC, Nao/OFC, Saga/Nao

Summary: Yuu sees an imaginary man who likes kittens. Takanori has to stomp three times before he can walk through a doorway. Shinji is about to be made Chief of Surgery. Akira hasn't been attending his anger management class. And Takashi just started his own fashion label. What do all these people have in common? They're friends—and they're about to have their lives thrown upside down.

-

Chapter 1: Who We Are

Yuu Shiroyama…

Yuu was born into a middle-class family. His father ran a music shop and his mother was a housewife who had way too much fun making pies and other pastries. Yuu grew up learning how to play the guitar and other various instruments throughout his childhood.

Yuu was a slacker of a high school student. He did only as much as he had to do to get by and the rest of the time he was either playing guitar or working in his dad's shop to earn some extra cash. So that he could save up and move to the city. He was a very talented musician—a skill earned by years of intense practice—and it was discovered in his mid teens that he suffered from a severe case of Schizophrenia that manifested itself in the form of a man who called himself Miyavi.

Miyavi, though playful and excitable for the most part, had a dark side that emerged when Yuu was stressed out or upset. During these times, the invisible man would do his best to insult the raven-haired guitarist and make him feel even more depressed than he already was. Medications were tried, but nothing seemed to work to make Miyavi go away, so Yuu learned to accept the imaginary person as part of his everyday life, trying desperately to listen to others over the loud and constant sound of Miyavi's voice.

His best friend's name was Akira Suzuki. During high school, the two would always ditch classes together only to later get scolded by their friend, Yutaka Uke, for missing class. Akira defended Yuu from bullies at school who made fun of him for his Schizophrenia and Yutaka cleaned both their wounds after such fights, making sure to scold them both thoroughly.

After graduation, Yuu decided to skip out on college and instead move to the city with Akira as his roommate. He played guitar in all the clubs around, making a name for himself as a talented musician in Tokyo. Pretty soon, he was being called to perform at high-priced establishments and it was at one such place that his show was seen by the newly rising fashion designer, Takashi Sakamoto. Impressed with Yuu's musical skills, Takashi introduced him to his friend, a famous actor named Takanori Matsumoto, who then got Yuu's foot in the door in the movie industry and hired him on to compose movie soundtracks.

Miyavi became worse after Yuu's rise to fame and soon he was following Yuu absolutely everywhere, causing him to take a break from work and become almost reclusive in his apartment for five months. It was Akira who finally talked him into going out into the world again and starting back up his composing.

Yuu is now a well-known composer for many movies and even has his own cd out.

He has never been to a single premiere of a movie using his music, although he was invited to all of them.

. . . . .

Akira Suzuki…

Akira's mother died at childbirth, leaving him to be abused by his father, who was a drunkard. After years of both physical and psychological abuse, Akira developed a serious anger problem and therefore took to releasing his anger in the form of intense exercise and rough street fights. Buff and with a foul temper, he got suspended from school on numerous occasions for picking fights and causing trouble. He protected his best friend, Yuu, with a dangerous temper and iron fist that took out anyone who tried to fight him.

He was sent to a juvenile detention center when he was sixteen for a year for beating a fellow student unconscious with only his bare hands. When he came back out he declared that he wanted to become a kickboxer and he trained religiously afterward, bulking up and becoming a dangerous opponent for anyone who crossed him.

After high school graduation, he moved to Tokyo with Yuu and they became roommates. He quickly jumped into the world of professional kickboxing, a brutal sport, and made himself known by his trademark noseband that he started wearing just after high school. Mocked constantly by Yuu for wearing the noseband, Akira ignored all the remarks and ended up becoming famous for the facial adornment.

One day after a fight, Akira met with his fans and ended up meeting Hiroto Ogata, a cab driver in the city. The two hit it off and became close friends afterwards. Since Hiroto was looking for something to do with his time and was a huge fan of Akira's, Akira gave him a job as his ringside coach, which Hiroto happily accepted.

Akira's fame as a fighter began to spread around the streets. Soon, he was being accepted into all the high-end bars, where he met bartender Naoyuki Murai. Every time Akira finished up with a fight, he would go back to Nao's bar and talk to the bartender for hours about his thoughts and worries.

Anger problems got in the way, however, after one bad fight. Defeated for the first time in month, Akira took his loss badly and picked a fight with the competitor after it was over. The two beat each other senseless and were both arrested. Akira was sentenced to parole and anger management classes, which he refuses to go to, saying he doesn't have an anger problem.

He then met his girlfriend, Tennicia, an American who recently moved to Japan and was a large fan of Akira's. Hiroto introduced the both of them and they hit it off immediately. Akira later moved out of Yuu's apartment and into a new one with Tennicia, where the couple became engaged two months later. They are due to marry in a year.

Akira is now a nationally known kickboxer with six months of anger management classes to complete.

He has only attended two classes, both of which he ended up getting into a fight with another member.

. . . . .

Yutaka Uke…

Yutaka was born into an upper-class family that pushed him constantly to excel at everything he did. Forced to play the violin, learn English, Latin, and Korean, take part in the school soccer team, and make the honor role at school every year, Yutaka was the perfect student and a very talented and intelligent individual.

He hated every moment of his schooling and in an effort to rebel from his parents, he dropped off the soccer team, refused to learn Chinese, and befriended Akira and Yuu, the school rejects. At first, he hated the other two boys, thinking them crude and unrefined, but after a while he became a sort of guardian and word of wisdom to the both of them. He became the one to criticize them for cutting class, talk Akira out of fights, and clean up the cuts and bruises when Akira didn't listen.

He was the one who initially took Yuu to the doctors when Yuu's Schizophrenia began to rear its ugly head. He helped him with medications and even talked to him about ways to get Miyavi to shut up and leave him alone.

After graduation, Yutaka went to a university in Tokyo, majoring to become an architect instead of a doctor like his parents wanted. He lived in the dorms on campus with his roommate, Kouyou Takashima. Kouyou was very shy and Yutaka worked hard to get him out of his shell when they were alone. After two years of college, he finally got Kouyou to open up and soon after they became lovers.

Kouyou's best friend, Shinji Amano, ended up becoming their third roommate in their fourth year and the three of them became inseparable. After college, they all moved into the center of Tokyo, reuniting Yutaka with Akira and Yuu and setting Yutaka into the world of freelance architecture. After applying to work for many companies and being turned down, Yutaka finally got a chance with a well-known architecture and design company and he made his name known with his designs.

He and Kouyou moved in together and Yutaka started running his own architecture business, becoming a talented professional architect that was commended for his unique designs. What man to not know or realize from his designs is that he has an almost compulsive obsession with symmetry. He is constantly adjusting photo frames, aligning books on shelves, and making sure that everything on his desktop is perfectly aligned.

He is now responsible for over ten building structures in the Tokyo area and it grows by the year.

All of his building designs are one hundred percent symmetrical.

. . . . .

Kouyou Takashima…

Kouyou was born to a single mother who did her best to take care of her children. She worked two jobs and left him home alone with his younger sister, Aki. Kouyou took care of Aki to the best of his ability as a young boy, feeding her, entertaining her, and cleaning up her scrapes when she fell. He was more of a parent than his mother due to her constant absence by being at work.

In high school, Kouyou was beaten up constantly and made fun of for his feminine looks. The abuse from his peers caused him to become very introverted and shy. He rarely said anything until he met Shinji, who convinced him to smile a little and try to talk more. Shinji became the only person Kouyou would ever talk to and the two remained friends throughout all of high school.

Kouyou's mother married when he was a senior in school and she was finally able to drop one of her jobs and take care of Kouyou and Aki more. Grateful for the freedom, Kouyou decided to take up a part time job as a preschool teacher to save up money and have fun with the children there. He enjoyed the job so much that he decided upon graduation to become an elementary school teacher.

He and Shinji both went to the university in Tokyo, where Kouyou studied how to become a teacher and became roommates with Yutaka. After her and Yutaka became lovers, Kouyou began to be more social again, still only speaking when he absolutely had to. When they got their degrees, Yutaka and Kouyou moved into an apartment together in the city, where Kouyou became a teacher at a school nearby.

His attitude with the children is far different than when he is with adults his own age. With children, he laughs, smiles, and is contrastingly outgoing, surprising all those who know him and making everyone want to see what he's like at school, just to see the "alive" side of Kouyou.

When he had developed an established place at the elementary school, he was offered the position of principal at the exact same time that he received word of his mother's death. Refusing the promotion, Kouyou went back to his hometown for his mother's funeral and to make sure his sister was alright. When he returned to Tokyo, the position had been filled and he was forced to remain a homeroom teacher.

He is now the most liked teacher in the elementary school and is adored by the parents.

He keeps drawings from his students on the fridge at his and Yutaka's apartment.

. . . . .

Takanori Matsumoto…

Takanori was born prematurely to a poor family that didn't have enough money to keep him. He was put into foster care and was raised by a kind family that lived simply. He constantly put on plays for his family when he was a child, entertaining them all with his creative mind and desire to perform. When he was nine, his foster father passed away and the family could no longer afford to keep him, so he was sent back into the system again.

His second family was nowhere near as loving as his first. They found his desire to perform annoying and forbid him from acting in the house. Due to the fact that his new foster parents were neglectful, he was often left alone to watch movie after movie and being left to his own devices, he developed a very overactive imagination. Soon, he began to have irrational fears about becoming injured somehow and the paranoia developed into a full blown case of obsessive compulsive disorder that manifested itself when he was twelve.

He had an overwhelming fear of hot water, thinking it would burn his skin off. He couldn't touch sharp objects, afraid that he would cut himself too deeply and bleed to death. He began needing to eat plain sugar before he ate his meals, for fear it would upset his stomach and make him ill otherwise. He found himself stamping his feet in doorways so as not to trip when he walked through them, and he started to hum whenever he heard a siren so that his eardrums wouldn't burst. The list of compulsions was endless and his foster family became so fed up with it all that they refused to take care of him any longer and put him back into the system once more when he was fifteen.

His third family was very helpful with his condition. They took him to a psychiatrist and got him medication, but that didn't stop some of his odd habits from appearing at school and causing kids to mock him and call him retarded. Not allowing himself to be weighed down by his OCD, Takanori held his head high and graduated high school with honors, leaving his home to try and become an actor.

He got roles in a few B movies at first before he was discovered by a director as asked to play a leading role in his upcoming movie. With that opportunity, Takanori shot to stardom overnight on the luck of the draw. The more movies he starred in, the more famous he got. Soon, directors were catering to his needs as an obsessive compulsive and he was no longer mocked for his condition. His fame quickly rose and he made friends of Takashi, a fashion designer who designed a lot of Takanori's clothes.

Takashi introduced him to Yuu, a guitarist, and Takanori liked the musician so much that he helped him get a leg into the movie business and become a composer. For the first time in years, Takanori found a friend in Takashi and Yuu and they were practically inseparable.

He is now one of the most famous actors in Tokyo with over ten hit movies.

His first foster mother keeps in touch with him to tell him how proud she is.

. . . . .

Shinji Amano…

Shinji was born in a poor family that could barely afford to take care of him and his two brothers. His father worked in a factory and his mother was a waitress that did her best to juggle taking care of him and his brothers with working. Neither of his parents ever completed college, and Shinji being their eldest son, they wanted desperately for him to become educated and successful in their place.

During high school, Shinji worked his hardest to take care of his little brothers to help his mom while working to keep on the honor role at school and stay at the top of his class. He met the shy and meek Kouyou during his school days and immediately took the other boy under his wing, trying to convince him to open up and become more social. Kouyou took to Shinji and Shinji alone, only smiling on rare occasion for him and talking somewhat. The two became the best of friends and Shinji made sure to make it so people stopped bullying the feminine blond.

When they graduated, the both set off to university in Tokyo, where Shinji went to medical school to make his parents proud. It was his intention to become a doctor and send the money he got back to his family so that they could live better. Unfortunately, during his stay at university, one of his younger brothers was in a car accident and die, causing Shinji to leave university to go back home and help his parents and little brother cope.

When he returned to college six months later, he became roommates with Yutaka and Kouyou, where the three developed a deep bond. He continued on with his schooling for the next few years and then became an intern at Tokyo hospital. Barely able to live by his current salary, Shinji was forced to only watch as his father lost his job due to the economy and his family began to struggle. He took on a part time job, barely leaving himself any time to sleep or eat, and he sent all the money he could to his family.

When Yutaka hit success as an architect, he gave Shinji some money to help his family, for which Shinji will be forever grateful. When Shinji became a resident at the hospital, he got a pay raise and was able to drop his second job and sent his family small bits of money here and there. His father found another job and his family began to get back on its feet just as Shinji became a full-on surgeon.

During one of his days off, Shinji decided to hire an escort service just to see what it was all about, which was how he met the young escort by the name of Kazamasa Kohara. He and Kazamasa quickly became friends and the boy was brought into his circle.

He is now one of the leading surgeons in his hospital and is up for the position of Chief of Surgery.

His parents are very proud.

. . . . .

Kazamasa Kohara…

Kazamasa was given to an orphanage as a baby. Raised by the nuns who ran the orphanage, he grew up being taught all the ways of the bible and how he should follow it. Being a very rebellious and active spirit, he never chose to follow their teachings. He was constantly causing trouble at the orphanage and being punished, which was why he ran away when he was fourteen.

Uneducated except for the orphanage's teachings, Kazamasa had a lot of trouble finding work that he could perform. He was completely broke and was forced to sleep in alleys and parks for almost a week without food or a roof over his head. So, when he met with a suspicious man who offered to give him a place to stay if he worked for him, Kazamasa was quick to accept. Naively, he became a worker for the man, whose business was prostitution. Sold on the street corner for high prices of cash because he was so young, Kazamasa became a quickly popular piece of flesh.

Somehow, Kazamasa didn't allow his area of expertise to dampen his spirit. He was shamefully skilled at what he did and he always left with a smile, even if it was a broken one. In fact, he became so well-liked that he was offered a position as an escort in a high-class escort service—a position that he gladly accepted, liking the lack of sex that was involved. He was liked immediately in this new line of work, his bright smile and melodious laugh just as appealing as his young face and sparkling eyes.

During his work as an escort, he took up art and began sketching the people that he saw. He would remember the faces of all the men that hired him for his services and draw them when he went home to his small apartment. He pasted the pictures up on his walls and would smile as he walked by them.

It wasn't long before he realized he could sell his pieces of art, and when he wasn't working as an escort, he would go to the park and offer to draw people's pictures for cash. It wasn't enough to support him, but he thought that maybe, just maybe, he could have his own art gallery one day, so he saved his money in thought that he might be able to have his own gallery display in the future.

One day, a man named Shinji asked for his services and the both of them hit it off dramatically. For the first time in a very long time, Kazamasa gained a friend. The two became very close and Shinji was the subject of many of Kazamasa's drawings, leading to Shinji buying several of his works.

Kazamasa continued to sell his work where he met a man who worked at an art gallery nearby in the city. Impressed by Kazamasa's eye for detail and the beauty of things, the man, named Goshi, offered to show some of Kazamasa's drawings in his gallery. Thrilled, Kazamasa accepted immediately.

He is now a featured artist in one of Tokyo's most known traditional medium galleries.

He is still an escort boy, but hopes to get noticed and have his artwork bought for higher prices.

. . . . .

Hiroto Ogata…

Hiroto was adopted as a baby by a blind woman and her husband. They were both loving and devoted parents that were well-off enough to take care of Hiroto comfortably. He grew up being taught to say who he was whenever he spoke to his mother because she was blind, so Hiroto grew accustomed to referring to himself in the third person in order to let his mother know who he was when he spoke.

During high school, he got teased a lot for how he spoke, but Hiroto simply never thought of changing his speech to first person because he spoke that way at home already and he couldn't seem to break the habit. He didn't have many friends in high school because his peers thought he was a bit strange and far too nice to be for real, so Hiroto stuck to staying at home and watching sports on television. His favorites were sports car racing and kickboxing, which he watched religiously.

He dreamed of moving into the city and becoming a famous racecar driver, but his mother fell ill and he wasn't able to get the driving training he needed, so he forgot about his dream during his high school years and focused on helping his father take care of his mother.

When he graduated high school, he attempted to get training to become a racecar driver, but failed, so he used his license to become a cab driver in the city and earn some money to pay for an operation his mother needed. By day he worked driving a cab and by night he worked in a gas station, trying to scrounge up enough cash to help his parents.

Unfortunately, when he was nineteen his mother passed away. Devastated, Hiroto became a fulltime cab driver and distracted himself by getting to know the people he drove around. He loved listening to their stories and hearing about how their days had gone. It was his hobby and his life. One day in a cab he met a lovely girl named Tennicia and they exchanged numbers, becoming friends.

One night, he heard that a kickboxing fight was being held in the city with one of his favorite fighters, Akira Suzuki. So, he bought a ticket with a backstage pass to meet Suzuki himself and went to the fight. That night, he met Akira and they quickly became friends, which led to Hiroto introducing Tennicia to Akira.

The problem was, Hiroto had saved up a bunch of money for his mother's surgery, but now that it was no longer needed, he wasn't sure what to do with it, so he stashed the money aside and decided that one day he would use it for something good that would make his mother proud.

In telling Akira just how big a fan of kickboxing he was, Hiroto found Akira offering to him the position of his ringside coach, which Hiroto gladly accepted and took up a spot on the sidelines of the fights as well as continuing his cab driving.

He is now the most enthusiastic ringside coach Akira has ever had.

He has cleaned up more of Akira's wounds than Akira's doctor.

. . . . .

Takashi Sakamoto…

Takashi grew up in a normal, everyday family, but his parents knew right from the start that he wasn't like any other child. Even when he was a toddler, Takashi would dress up in his sister's and mother's clothing, giggling like a fool when he was walking around in heels and a dress.

As he grew older, his parents saw how he acted in an extremely feminine way and showed no interest in sports or "normal" boy activities. He was mocked in school for how flamboyant he was, but it never bothered him in the least. Takashi was happy to be who he was, and in high school he began to fill notebooks full of clothing designs. His dream was to become a fashion designer, and he ever got his own job so he could have enough money to afford fabrics and sewing kits.

He became the costume designer for the drama club and theatre in school and his clothing was incredibly impressive for the designs of a teenager. His parents, luckily, were supportive of him and his decisions and interests and helped him go to design school where he managed to hone his skills after he graduated high school.

He moved to Tokyo, where he showed off his clothing designs to the best fashion labels, and after three long months, a label picked up his designs and he got his name. After two years of working for that label, he decided to bravely start his own and with the best luck possible, the label took off and he became the best new fashion designer in Tokyo.

His own fame rising, he was hired on as the actor Takanori Matsumoto's main clothing designer and paid a high price for his designs. When he was in a bar one night, a guitarist came to play and he loved his music so much that he decided to meet him. The guitarist was Yuu Shiroyama and with a strong desire to help the musician, Takashi introduced him to Takanori, helping him get into the movie music composition business.

He is now one of the top fashion designers in Tokyo, with celebrities modeling his fashion.

He is a chain smoker who smokes about two packs a day.

. . . . .

Naoyuki Murai…

Nao was born into a family of six children. He was the middle child, younger than his two sisters and older than his three brothers. Because their parents had to work hard to keep all mouths fed and beds warm, Nao and his sisters were the ones to take care of the three youngest boys. Nao became the one his siblings would go to when they had trouble. He was the mediator of the family.

Nao was the kind of kid with friends in every group. He was always easy to talk to and loved striking up conversation with just about anyone. He was voted most popular in school, but he was never really interested in how popular he was. He simply loved people and being in groups.

During high school, he was on the football team. He was so good that he got a scholarship to Tokyo university if he played on their football team. He graduated and took the scholarship, making his way to university and playing on the team. Tragically, during a game Nao was tackled by an opposing team member and he broke his ankle.

The injury itself wasn't serious, but the manner of the break meant that Nao would never be able to fully walk on it again. Because of this, he was forced to drop out of college and off the football team, never to play again. With nowhere to live and not wanting to go back to his home, he took up a job bartending in a nice club and began serving drinks to the rich and famous of Tokyo.

He saw many interesting people in his job as a bartender, including the famous kickboxer, Akira Suzuki. Akira would come to the club many nights and just talk to Nao about his life and trouble. Nao, having been the person everyone would talk to in his family and at school, was the perfect friend to lend an ear and give advice to the trouble kickboxer.

Nao met his girlfriend, Kihiko, one night at the bar when she came asking for a drink crying her eyes out. He found out that her boyfriend had just broken up with her and she was devastated, so Nao talked her through it and ended up getting her number after that. They've been dating for three months.

He is now lead bartender at the club he works at.

He still walks with a limp.

. . . . .

You will never know what people you will meet in your life or for what reason, but all you should know is that every person in your life is precious. For whatever reason—whatever purpose—the people are in your life were meant to be there, so cherish them.