Author's Note:
Longest chapter yet, wooo. I'm just about finished setting everything up and things are about to get interesting! Please take the time to review, it really helps me to have some feedback on what you're liking and disliking about the story and my writing.
Thank you all!
Two silver haired men stood shoulder to shoulder, their arms neatly crossed. They had stayed in the same position for the better part of an hour, wordless and blatantly scrutinizing the four twenty somethings that performed before them. As Jin and Zumi thrummed out the final notes of the guitar solo that ended the final song of the demo, the room's atmosphere immediately shifted from mildly uncomfortable to tense. Naro and Jin, easily the most timid of the group, quickly averted their gaze, taking extra care to never to look directly at their stoney audience.
Keito never cared for the submissive and chose to meet the men's eyes with an icy stare of his own. He noticed from his peripheral vision that Usagi who stood to his left, clutching her standing microphone with white knuckles, joined him in his tiny defiance. Agitated, he spun his drumstick through his right, ungloved hand, letting the wood effortlessly bounce back and forth between all of his slender fingers.
Bass player fingers, they were, and such at an early age he had taken up learning to play the bass. Situations had changed since then, but he'd been able to teach Naro everything he knew before he had permanently switched to drumming. Looking over at Naro, he felt only pride to see his younger brother clutching his vintage Yamaha Gakki bass.
After what felt like a small eternity, Luna, the dark haired woman that had discovered Usagi last week at the Smash Hits karaoke bar, spoke.
"Well, we all think it was an excellent performance. Do you have a band name?"
The four men all shifted to look at Usagi expectedly. Though they'd only been a fivesome for a few days, it was already becoming clear that Usagi was their master. As a man who typically hated authority, it was surprising how little Keito found himself minding her so called rule.
Some would call him a heartless cynic, but as far as Keito was concerned, his assumption that every stranger he met was just trying to fuck him over had proven itself true countless times. Still, even after this short time, he didn't feel anything negative towards Usagi.
"No. We have some ideas but we haven't all agreed on one yet." She shrugged as if it weren't a big deal and Luna smiled at her nonchalance.
"Well think of a name as soon as possible, because we'll need something to put on the paperwork." She winked at Jin who let out a strange gawking sound at her words. The silent men offered only the slightest hint of a congratulatory smile.
All business, Keito decidedly did not like these managers.
The Crescent Moon Music Group building was just outside of downtown Tokyo. The offices were older, but well kept. The uppermost floors of the building were used for housing for the signed band members, and the floor below them was the recording studio. The carpet was a dizzying pattern of yellow and red swirls and the fluorescent lighting was starting to give Keito a headache. Meanwhile, his brother, Zumi, and Jin exchanged enthusiastic high fives.
"I'm off work tonight, do you guys want to meet up with me at Usagi's job and keep her company?" Jin exclaimed joyfully. Naro immediately accepted the invitation, followed by an over eager Zumi. Keito got the impression that Zumi's calm confidence and super brain left him with few close friends.
"Can't." Keito declined in his low voice, "Got plans." He didn't, but that was irrelevant. This whole social endeavor had put him in a foul mood.
"Please." Usagi whined, fluttering her long lashes at him. "I have to work every night until the Blast concert next weekend."
"Sorry." He offered with a slight shrug, still standing firm. Not even Usagi's feminine wiles could move him. Truthfully, he was much more susceptible to guilt from his younger brother, to whom he'd always felt a strong sense of duty towards, but Naro didn't seem to think much of his rejection to the invitation and had already started off after Jin towards the building's exit.
Naro, you follow these people like a puppy, Keito thought sorely. Naro had always been the perfect foil to Keito's cold demeanor. The were brothers bound by blood, but in many ways, they were like yin and yang. Despite being the one with the darker coloring, his brother Naro lived in the light, clearly oblivious to how the world really worked. Keito always assumed Naro had maintained his cheery demeanor because he'd been too young to understand the gravity of their youth: deadbeat parents who left them near starving, Keito had taken to petty theft at the age of eight just to feed his wailing three year old brother.
If only I'd stopped at stealing rice and fruit… He boarded the elevator with the rest, completely tuning out Luna's speech about the next steps for the band. It wasn't that he wasn't thrilled to have a chance to go pro as a drummer - music had always been his escape - he just hated the nitty gritty details and the back end business of the industry.
The two men who had joined Luna didn't follow them onto the elevator, but instead just continued to glare at Keito as the elevator door closed. As soon as the metal doors had closed concealing him, he let himself shiver slightly.
Suits just never suited him.
Mamoru sat in only his boxers at his long cherry stained desk, absentmindedly tapping his ballpoint pen against his temple in a basic rhythm. Behind him, a woman's form stirred in her sleep, reminding him of her presence.
He had laid beside her for half an hour after they both had finished, wishing for nothing more to sleep, but sleep never took him. Despite Rei being in tears when she'd knocked on his door at 11PM, she had fallen to sleep almost instantly. It was the third time this week she'd stopped by, and he hadn't had the heart to refuse her even once. He knew that selfishly his response to her went beyond just wanting to comfort his friend, he welcomed the distraction.
Rei… I'm sorry. Mamoru scolded himself mentally, glancing back at the curvy form under his navy, satin sheets. Despite his attraction for the dazzling woman, his heart seemed to long for something unknown to him.
He still wasn't exactly sure how the two of them had even gotten started on this downward spiral. He'd met her for the first time the night after the Black Stones concert in that god forsaken town of Niseko. He'd been so angst ridden for some reason and Rei had seemed to mistake his anger for the same brand of fire she felt inside herself. She'd practically thrown herself at him that first night, though he had eventually declined like the true gentleman he was. Unfortunately, as it often goes with strong willed women, his refusal only made her want him more.
Due to her busy schedule he was able to avoid her with ease, that is, until he'd somehow landed the job writing music for Venom. The rest was a blur of her near constant advances. At some point, his will had bent…
Women will be the death of me. He thought again of the blonde girl, Usagi, and her exquisite voice.
He'd finished composing all the instrumental parts of Venom's planned second album - the arrangements came naturally to him, and he loved to write the notes out on paper - but he was struggling with the lyrics. He only wrote lyrics for a few songs from their debut albums as lyric writing wasn't his forte. Most of Venom's fans wanted songs dripping with love and pain, but Mamoru hadn't known an excess of either of those things in his lifetime. His parents had passed away before he was old enough to even remember their faces. One might think this could be great source material, but Mamoru didn't have enough memories to really be sad about it.
As for girlfriends and "great love", he'd always had women interested in him, but he found himself preferring the solitude of single life.
Somehow despite his serious lack of inspiration, the few Venom songs with lyrics he'd written just happened to end up being the chart topping singles.
He sighed, cursing his luck. Typically writing lyrics for Venom's lead singer Minako was fairly mindless to him. She had a sweet voice, like candy. It was pleasing to the ear and you always craved more after she was done…
But candy can't sustain you.
The room was quiet except for the soft crackling of the candle flame Mamoru burned for light. When he stopped actively trying not to think of her, he could hear Usagi's profound voice calling out to him. After another hour in front of a blank page, he did just that.
Picking up his pen, he let the ink flow.
"Five Kirin Lights, a Whiskey Sour, and a Cosmopolitan for the fancy looking guy who clearly doesn't belong here!" Usagi had to shout over the booming music and extra talkative crowd as she expertly dolled out the orders.
"Thank you kindly!" She called to the gentleman who left her a crisp twenty dollar bill on the far side of the bar. She stuffed the twenty into her half full jar and began pouring her next order of drinks. The Forgotten Crown's bar was a large rectangle that made up the center of the joint. Usagi and Motoki worked from the middle, attempting to service the waving hands coming at them from all directions. Discerning drink orders over the noise had been particularly overwhelming for her the first few weeks of work, but she'd quickly developed what Jin referred to as her "bartender ears" and now he joked that she could hear a mouse piss outside a movie theater.
"Alice! We need another keg of Kirin." Motoki called to her from his designated half of the bar.
"You got it boss." She quipped, heading briskly towards the stock room. The night had turned out to be busy for no particular reason, and her friends still hadn't shown up as promised. She hoped they would at least stop by after midnight when the crowd was sure to die down. She was eager to discuss their impending deal with Crescent Moon. At the start of her shift, she'd told Motoki that she'd been scouted and was soon to be signed. He had excitedly wrapped her up in one of his signature bear hugs and told her that after the bar closed all her friends could stay to celebrate. Usagi had a sneaking suspicion that the so called celebration would mostly include helping clean up. Blushing at his closeness, she had shyly admitted how incredibly scared and excited she felt.
"Is this really happening? Am I mad?" She'd asked him after he'd released her from his strong arms. "It feels like I've fallen into some kind of wonderland."
He'd only laughed and rustled her hair. "We're all mad here, little Alice." He'd been using the nickname all night.
The storage room was small and cluttered as Motoki was never one for organization. She made her way to the back left corner where the Kirin was stored in racks. Each keg weighed in at just over 150 pounds but Usagi always just chose one from the lowest rack and rolled it out to the floor. She briefly wondered if the top shelf have ever been touched…
She rolled the heavy barrel towards a bustling Motoki and he took a second to give her a crooked grin as thanks. She pondered why he hadn't called in another bartender to work so he wouldn't be stuck behind the bar the whole night, but as she took a second to watch him happily chatting up his section, she realized it must be a nice break for him from his stressful managerial duties.
His side is mostly women and mine is mostly men, she thought with a smirk. She wasn't jealous of Motoki, the men always tipped better anyway.
Another hour passed with Usagi earning more than her fair share of cash. She suspected that the high-waisted tattered jean shorts she'd chosen to wear were helping her cause. By the time Jin, Zumi, and Naro showed up, she was covered in two parts sweat, one part beer foam, and her blonde locks were piled in a messy bun atop her head.
Zumi whistled at her, gaining Usagi's attention and garnering a playful punch from Jin.
"Hey, that's my sister. Besides, there shall be no inner band relationships." He said, not able to suppress his smile as he said the word band.
"Do you three plan on showing up an hour late to our concerts as well?" Usagi teased. The bar was just settling down into a manageable roar and her bandmates were all able to find barstools right by Usagi's post. The antique juke box rattled a classic rock mix and the average age of the bar-goers had to be at least thirty: mostly the bearded biker types that Usagi preferred. They always looked meaner than they actually were.
Zumi fiddled with a napkin while Naro and Jin argued over band names.
"How do you not think Four Kings is a cool name?" Naro whined, his blue eyes sparkling. He wore his wavy red-brown locks in a loose ponytail under a backwards trucker hat that made him look almost American.
"It just doesn't make sense!" Jin argued, "It completely leaves out Usagi, who happens to be the focal point of the band."
Usagi grabbed the water dispenser and pointed the hose threateningly at Jin. "Don't try and make me out like some sort of Princess. I don't care if the band name has nothing to do with me."
The rest of the hour before closing passed without the boys making any progress on a band name. They did however decide that they should each have a stage name like Jin's "Jadeite". Zumi, being clever, had suggested they all choose mineral names as well. They had shouted and cheered at the man for his brilliance, something he was obviously not accustomed to as he turned a deep crimson all over.
Six beers later it had been settled. Zumi was to be Zoicite, for his yellow green eyes. Keito would, likely against his will, be called Kunzite because he was icy and striking. And finally, Naro would be Nephrite.
"Nephrite comes in a wide variety of colors and sizes." Zumi said matter-of-factly.
"That's totally me," Naro stood, fist in the air. "I'm a dynamic and colorful man!"
"And also that's the only mineral I can think of that starts with an 'N'" Zumi added.
"Yeah!" They exclaimed in unison, clinking beers as Motoki ushered the last customer out of the bar and locked the door. Usagi poured herself a tall glass of water and hopped onto the bar, her muscled legs dangling off the side of the bar where her friends sat.
"Two hours and you guys have some nicknames I'll never remember. Congrats, you're all officially useless." They simply grinned stupidly at her in response.
"Hey Alice. Quit sitting on the job and help me roll these empties outside." Motoki's said, descending with an empty keg and a garbage bag down to the Crown's cellar.
"Alice?" Jin asked, slurring the word slightly at the end.
"Yeah, he's taken a fondness to calling me that. Thinks he's clever and whatnot." She hopped down from the bar, picking up cans on her way to the cellar stairs.
"More like the white rabbit!" Zumi snorted, making a joke at her name Usagi which translated to rabbit. She tossed an empty beer can at him from across the room. It whizzed just past his head, flinging foam in a spiral.
"Hey wait, Alice in Wonderland, huh? That's actually not half bad….." Jin trailed off, a pensive look on his handsome face.
"She's got the blonde hair and blue eyes." Naro added, mimicking Jin's face while stroking the stubble that had started to grow on his strong chin.
"And she's clearly off her rocker." Zumi fumed, dabbing at the flecks of beer foam that now dotted his retro Nirvana t-shirt.
"We can't name our band Alice in Wonderland guys. I'm sure that's copyrighted as hell."
"ALICE, GET DOWN HERE!" Motoki's voice boomed from downstairs with mock anger that still made Usagi jump.
"Down the Rabbithole!" Jin screamed as if he'd discovered the cure for cancer. Naro and Zumi echoed their enthusiasm for the name. Even Motoki called out his approval from the cellar, before adding a detailed threat of what he'd do to Usagi if she didn't bring the empty cans down in the next five seconds.
Grabbing all the empties she could carry, she made the somewhat treacherous hike down the concrete stairs while Jin, Zumi, and Naro chanted "Rabbithole! Rabbithole!"
"I'm about to put my foot up your rabbit holes…" She muttered under her breath. Still, she smiled.