Author's notes: So here we are, at that one point in time where Ryu and Tatsuha end up together at the zoo and then Ryu tells Shuichi to get lost. Parts of this comes from the manga.

track eight

Tatsuha was more than willing to drop everything to hang out with me. Tatsuha was more than eager to find a way to keep me from getting swamped by fans. Tatsuha was not exactly what I expected given his less than stellar first impression several months ago.

He showed up at N-G about an hour and a half after Tohma called him, his face flushed and his eyes huge as he just stared at me. I had gone back to coloring, adding some walking trees to my already big drawing of the Rambo butterfly and I didn't realize at first that he was there. Stretching out, I got up and smiled at him, making Kumagoro wave hello as well. Tohma looked a little drawn as he got up from his desk and started talking to the teen in a voice I couldn't hear.

The wide-eyed fan look faded as he listened to Tohma. Tatsuha looked far far better when he wasn't gushing all over the place about me, his face and body much more mature looking than a normal sixteen year old's. I waved at him and set Kumagoro down in Tohma's chair before bouncing over to them.

"So, Tohma gave you the rules?" I asked, smiling up at him. It must be a family thing because they were all tall, even Mika.

"Um, yeah he did," Tatsuha replied, looking over at Tohma. Tohma smiled back, his eyes dark and hard. I really hoped he didn't scare the kid too much. "I'm sure we could find something suitable to do."

"Great! Let's go!" I grabbed his hand and dragged him to the door. "Bye, Tohma!"

"Have fun, Ryuichi. Remember what I told you, Tatsuha."

I slammed the door to cut off any more abominations and continued dragging Tatsuha around, talking rapidly about how great it was to have a day off finally and how much fun it would be and how Tatsuha needs to take me everywhere. After hitting the elevator button about twenty times, Tatsuha managed to pull his hand free of my grip.

"Do you know where you would like to go?"

I put my sunglasses on and thought about it. There were always shops and arcades and stuff like that, but really, I've been going to those places for years and years now. I wanted to do something a bit new.

"Can we go to the zoo?"

He blinked and scratched his head. The elevator dinged and we got on, and I hit a couple random buttons before he pressed the lobby button.

"I guess we could do that, but aren't you afraid of getting mobbed?"

"Not with Tatsuha around," I said with a big smile. "Tatsuha can think of a way for us to go there and no one would notice!"

I admit I was playing up the child act, but I really did not want to hurt the kid's feelings if I totally ignored him or worse. I liked fans after all, but I knew that having a fan babysit me for a day would be either a total wet dream or a complete let down if I was myself. I couldn't do that to one of Tohma's relations-in-law. That would be mean of me.

He seemed to relax at the child act and managed a less nervous smile. The elevator stopped on the lobby and I bounced out, chatting wildly about visiting the zoo and seeing all the animals. Truth be told, I never been to the zoo in Tokyo. Either I was way too busy with work or way too poor, so this would be a good experience all around. I just needed to remember that I had to act right and not give away the game or let Tatsuha feel disappointment about hanging out around me.

Tatsuha rode a motorcycle. I stared for a very long moment at the bike sitting at the curb and then looked over at the teen as he straddled it and waited. I've rode on one a couple of times, and even had tried to get K to let me own one, but I never thought I would be allowed about on one here. I bounced in place, working up a good load of excitement and tackled him, nearly sending him, the bike and myself to the pavement.

"So cool! You've got a bike!"

"Nothing's cooler than you, Sakuma-san," he replied.

I whacked him lightly on top of his head. "Don't call me that! Call me Ryuichi and I'll call you Tatsuha, okay?"

"You mean it?" he asked, clasping his hands together. I pulled away, expecting a huge tackle from him.

"Uh-huh! We're friends, right?"

He was crying, and hugging me so hard that it felt like he was trying to break my ribs. "Yes, yes! I'll be friends with you, Ryuichi!"

"Okay! Okay!" I said, laughing and patting his shoulder. He let go at once and took a deep breath, calming himself down. I smiled and grabbed his waist, tapping my heels against the side of his motorcycle. "Let's go!"

To his credit, he didn't jump into full-blown fanboy mode like I had expected. He swallowed hard and shifted, but he went back to business and drove off into traffic without breaking down. I clung on to him and hummed while he drive, feeling some of the tension leaving his body. I could see why motorcycles were so popular they were fast and small to go through traffic and it allowed a person feel the wind better than any car. Tatsuha drove like he had been doing it for years, which he probably had.

We reached the zoo in under an hour, and Tatsuha parked in the small zoo parking lot. I got off and stretched, eyeing the line at the gates and wondering just how we could go look at the animals without me getting swamped by fans. Sunglasses were okay for the usual places, like airports and stores, but people didn't look at people in those places. A zoo would be totally different, especially with the way I normally acted around cute fuzzy critters. Tatsuha must have been thinking the same thing, but then his face brighten and he grabbed my hand.

"I've got an idea, Ryuichi," he said, tugging me along to the main office. He talked to the cute girl behind the desk for a couple minutes and then to the manager. After another minute, he and the manager shook hands and then he led me through the offices to a small dressing room filled with animal costumes. I bounced in place at the sudden cuteness.

"So, guess what?" he said, picking a rabbit costume out of the pile. "They normally have these people running around in these outfits for the kids but the normal guys are out on break and haven't come back. They'll let us go around in costume so long as we draw the kids in."

"I wanna be the rabbit!" I said, tugging at the costume. He let go and dug out a bear costume while I stripped off my shirt and pulled the bunny costume on.

"There's masks and everything," he said, holding the bunny ears hat and mask out to me. I glomped him and took them away, putting them on.

"This is the best idea ever!"

He laughed and put his own mask on. "Yeah, it is. Ready, Ryuichi Bunny Rabbit?"

"Ready, Tatsuha Bear!"

Then we were off. We went all over the place, fooling around and being very weird at some of the displays. We jumped a couple low fences to pet some of the tamer animals. We did a dance over by the bear enclosure and had pictures taken by a group of school girls. We wrestled and fooled around and I think Tatsuha got over some of his giddy fanboyness to just relax, although there were times that his words dropped into some serious flirting. I was flattered. He was when he wasn't clinging and crying and freaking out about his Ryuichi a nice looking guy that probably had his fair share of girlfriends. He was just so young and I felt a little like a very perverted old man even with the harmless flirting. A very perverted old and icky man thinking very bad thoughts about a young kid with more going for him than a has-been singer like me.

We were in the middle of the zoo, looking for the capybara enclosure when Tatsuha's phone went off. I pouted at the distraction and concentrated on trying to get over the bars to see the animals close up while Tatsuha talked quietly on the phone with whomever. I figured it was Tohma seeing how things were going and reminding him to treat me extra nice or something like that. After all, we have been gone for nearly three hours. Even workaholic Tohma had to worry a little bit about his favorite singer.

I didn't expect a suddenly serious look fall over Tatsuha's face, nor did I expect him to hang up and rush over to me. Grabbing me by the arm he dragged me off towards the gates, no longer spending any time acting like a big goof.

"What happened?" I asked, trying to get him to let go of me.

"Tohma screwed up," he said, getting us outside without having to hit anyone, although it almost looked like he was going to there. "You've got ten minutes to get to the Music Fan studio."

"Music Fan? You mean I had a TV spot and Tohma forgot?" I pulled free and ran for his bike. "The fuck!"

"Yeah, no kidding! Since when does Tohma forget things, right?" He jumped on and gunned the engine. I grabbed his waist and hunkered down.

We sped through the parking lot and into traffic, Tatsuha really letting loose and driving like crazy. Tohma rarely ever forgot things when it came to our careers. Even if he wrote it all down in a daily planner, he only used it to make notes that he might need to know like mentioning someone's operation or their birthday or something. I needed a daily planner because I really didn't remember some things that well. Not that I actually needed to look at it myself, since that's why I had managers and producers and Tohma. But still, Tohma must really be working hard over that business with ASK and Bad Luck to have forgotten.

"Right, right!" I shouted, even as Tatsuha went through a red light and down the wrong way on a one-way street.

"I'm doing it, I'm doing it!" he replied, the bike's tires squealing around the next corner.

Why didn't Tohma send K at least? He could have at least cleared the road with a few pounds of TNT oh wait, I left Kumagoro back at Tohma's office, didn't I? I squeezed Tatsuha tighter, feeling the mask pull away from my face. K, Kumagoro and millions of fans would so be mad at me if I didn't make it in time for the show.

"Which way is stage seven?!"

I peered around him and pointed and he gunned the engine more and sped through the doors. If I wasn't having a mild panic attack at missing a spot on a live show, I would be cheering at how cool riding a motorcycle through a building was. We scattered a couple interns, ran over someone's script and I pointed down the last corridor.

"All right! We've made it to stage seven! We're here, Sakuma-san! Are you ready to rumble?"

Someone was singing my song. I could hear it, over the roar of the bike, the pounding of my blood, the yell of some stage hand.

Someone was singing my song.

". . .Looks like I'm already on stage," I said, staring down at the set and the lone person standing center stage. Messy dark hair cut like mine, bright orange hoodie and khaki pants. Was he just some kid that they made up like me and threw on stage?

"Whoa!" Tatsuha glanced back at me. "So you are!"

"Wait," I said, recognizing the voice at last. "That's Shuichi!"

He had turned a little, and I got a clear of his face. It made sense that they would have tossed him in my place I know Tohma sometimes thought the kid was a younger, less jaded me. But to see it happen. . . I got cold. Is this kid going to become my replacement? I could almost see it. Everywhere. People talking, people comparing him to me. And the dry wind of knowing that someone was finding me wanting when compared to this new singer from N-G Productions.

". . .He is," I said out loud. Tatsuha touched my arm, leaning close, his dark eyes looking concerned.

"That's a pile of shit! No one's cooler than me! Let me down there!" I grabbed the railing, throwing my legs over it and ignoring Tatsuha's panicking yells as I dropped down. K heard me, spinning around in place and looking up, his mouth one big 'O'.

I had a nasty thought concerning K and his part in this farce. He must have dragged Shuichi into this, even knowing my tendency for jealousy concerning my music. But I had bigger things to think about, like wearing a bunny outfit onstage was not the kind of image I needed to show these fans of mine.

"K! Give me your leather and mic me up!"

I could always make K pay later on. Or tell Tohma to make him pay. Or find Kumagoro and make him swat K for being such a silly head and throwing Shuichi onstage. What was that guy thinking with anyways? Shuichi can't replace me. He can't.

K's leather hung off my shoulders like it was meant to look that way. I left it unbuttoned and rolled up the sleeves, holding the mic in one hand as I stepped into the lights. The faint buzz of noise reached me someone called my name and it was picked up by someone else, the orchestra stopping the music, and Shuichi's singing stopping with them. I kept my head down, gaining control of the childish urge to push him aside. But he called my name like he was happy to see me and I wanted him to realize that he had stepped over the line. He was good, but he can't reach me. He wasn't there yet.

"Beat it, kid," I said, raising my head and looking him straight in the eye. He paled, his own eyes growing huge and whatever else he was going to say stayed unsaid. I walked past him and smiled for the cameras.

"Sorry I'm late, but you wouldn't believe the traffic I ran into while trying to get here," I said, playing up to the hosts. I didn't look back to watch Shuichi leave. "Everyone give Shuichi a big thank you for keeping the show going until I got here! Be sure to catch him and his band Bad Luck when their new album hits the shelves next week."

There. Smoothing over things for the public and still smiling, still playing the gentle showman. At least Tohma should be happy enough that I didn't get surly on stage. And K would not threaten me with guns until after my segment was over. So I just had to continue being nice to the cameras and the spotlight and not act like a spoilt child that just had his favorite toy manhandled by someone else.

So I acted nice and answered a bunch of questions about Nittle Grasper songs and what everyone was doing, about my own solo works and how well the American public liked them, and then the rumors about my love life. I felt bad for the one person they kept on asking about she was a sweet kid but I haven't done anything more than hang out with her at a couple parties because she was still new to America and so very shy.

Three hours was a long time to stand around and talk with other people I didn't know that much. Sure, there were breaks and times where I left the stage to the other people, but things just kept drifting back to me. It was weird, I mean really weird. These other people were good too. They deserved more than a couple minutes to talk about themselves too. Although I admit I can be a greedy little diva when I felt like it and boy did I feel like it. I did not like the way my thoughts had been going for a while now, especially when I saw Shuichi singing one of my songs.

The little punk had to stop being such young before he got chewed up by the business.

After the show was over, we still hung around and gabbed for a while. It felt good to talk to some other professionals out there, and hearing what their styles were like. We posed for a few photographs taken for the Music Fan website, and then everyone was saying goodnight and the stage was getting locked up. I stood outside the big doors, my hands in my pockets as I looked up at the ceiling, just thinking over the whole day. Then I thought about Shuichi.

I turned on my heel and headed for the studio's entrance, hands in my pockets and K's borrowed shirt falling off my shoulders. I needed to talk to Tohma and Noriko. I just didn't know where they were, which was why I nearly jumped out of my skin when the two appeared, standing by the doors and talking quietly. I clutched at my heart and glared at them.

"Miss us, Ryu?" Noriko asked, leaning forward and winking. "You've been a bad boy running off and making K work so hard to find you!"

"Now now, Noriko, it's not all Ryuichi's fault," Tohma told her, raising his hands.

Noriko grabbed me tightly and buried her head against my chest, making fake sobbing sounds. "I was so worried! Ryu was gone for so long and no one knew if he was kidnapped or being used for evil things!"

"But I'm safe now?" I sort of asked, sending Tohma a mental distress signal.

Tohma just smiled at me, letting me wallow in Noriko's drama. "I'm sure Tatsuha did nothing to harm our Ryuichi, Noriko."

"How do you know? The thought of our sweet innocent Ryu in the hands of such an infamous old hound makes me quiver in shame!"

I pat her on the shoulder, and made a face at Tohma. "I'm fine, Noriko."

"Besides, we all know that it is the other way around," Tohma added. "Ryuichi is still single and open-minded when it comes to hot bodies."

"You're no fun, Tohma," Noriko said as she turned around and stuck her tongue out at him.

I slung my arm around her shoulders and tugged her along until I could reach Tohma's shoulders. Then bringing them close to me, I hugged them. Taking the hint, they copied me and so we stood there in a group hug, arms over shoulders and hips against hips. This was what I wanted no, needed. This. It all suddenly clicked into place.

"What would you guys say to getting the band back together again?"