Ah, it took longer then I expected to write this chapter and I have no idea why... .-.

Anyway, I do not own UtaPri and I also do not out the Fall Out Boys. They own themselves. xD

Chapter 1:

"Mr. Kotobuki-san!"

Orbs of bright silver looked up towards the dressing room door when the womanly voice spoke from the other side. "You will be needed out on set in exactly five minutes! Be out and ready to go by then."

A sigh came as a response to the command, soon followed by a small, "M'kay" that was practically grumbled under the subject's breath. Once the sound of footsteps faded away, the brown-haired idol let himself slouch back in the leathery chair placed in the center of his dressing room, lazily tossing the phone in his hands off to the side. The device landed on a low-standing wooden dresser that had a large standing mirror attached to it. "Ughhhhh" A long groan left his lips as he forced himself to stand up, stretching his arms out in front of him. Once his stiff muscles finally relaxed, he let out a long sigh and pressed his palms against the dresser, his head tilting to the side a bit as he looked at himself in the mirror.

To think, three-hundred and sixty days are already up...only five more to go until the new year starts.

The softest of chuckles left Reiji's lips, his bright, mercury-coloured eyes falling half lidded; he couldn't believe how quickly the year had gone by. It had almost been a full twelve months since he first left Quartet Night, and now that he thought about it, that was quite a long time to go without seeing his closest of friends. [Who, to add, probably hated his guts now.]

After announcing his leave from Quartet Night to the media, within three months of being out on his own, Reiji already had multiple different recording companies call and request him be a part of their organizations. Of course though, he could only pick one to join, so he chose the seemingly most interesting one that went by the name "Radioactive Stars", which he had been with for officially ten consecutive months now. Working for this company had brought the twenty-five year old wealth, a fanbase of his own, and an amount of fame he could've never experienced by being with three other, beautifully voiced teens like he had been.

As much fun as that sounded though, every good thing comes with disadvantages. The year had also been incredibly stressful for him because of how much he had to handle on his own now. Along with that, the long time he had away from his friends had changed him considerably.

At first, after joining Radioactive Stars, Reiji had kept performing and showing-off like his normal self with that bright, loveable little smile of his and his warm, to-die-for personality. Sadly enough to say though, as the stress started to get to him and the fame gradually went to his head, all of that changed; he still had that handsome smile and gentlemanly personality, but neither of those aspects ever showed much anymore. In fact, Reiji had started being more snappy when it came to talking to other people and his ego had skyrocketed through the roof by the sixth month of being with his new company. Even the way he dressed changed, for his outfits stopped being as bright and colourful and became more skin-tight and provocative as time went on.

Ah...this'll be the last performance of the day...at least after this I can go home and get some damn sleep. Reiji thought with another deep sigh, letting his eyes skim their way down the mirror and over the reflection of the outfit he had on, simply to make sure everything had been put on correctly: a black tee clung to his torso, the leathery jacket over his arms matching in colour, much like the skinny jeans he was wearing. The studded belt that went around his hips was checkered white and black, and the multiple arm bands adorning his wrist had much the same design. The boots that were covering his feet were attached with little chains that would jingle and hit against his heel when he walked.

A small smirk slowly formed on Reiji's lips, his fingers skimming across the dresser until they grazed over a piece of silver string, in which he then used to tie his hair back. He had long ago noticed that the wavy brown locks had grown longer, now just a few centimeters away from being as long as Camus' hair had been the last time he saw him, but to be honest, he really liked the way the dark-coloured locks flowed over his shoulders, so he didn't bother cutting it.

"Kotobuki-san!" Just when his assistant had shown back up at the door would always be a mystery, but Reiji did know that the fact that she continued to pester him about getting out on set was becoming incredibly annoying. "I'm coming, god dammit! Stop rushing me!" He snapped the woman, who he couldn't see flinch from the other side of the door. "Jeez..." He snatched up his phone from the dresser and shoved it in his back pocket, an irritated look clear on his handsome face. He then turned and made his way across the room, flicking off the lights just before he threw open the door.

His said-to-be 'assistant' was a pale woman obviously quite a few years younger then him with strawberry blond hair that she kept tied back in a messy bun. Her eyes were a lavender purple the gleamed in the light and her curvy figure showed that she watched over her weight.

She wore a silky white dress that fluffed out at the bottom slightly and a white collar covered with jewels was wrapped around her neck while white, open-toed heels were on her feet. "Sixty-seconds until the commercial break ends; you /need/ to get out there and set up. /Now/." She spoke in a firm tone that held no room for complaint or questions, and when she turned and strode off down the hallway, all Reiji could do was mutter under his breath and trail after her.

"Thirty seconds people! Thirty seconds!"

Sets for on-going shows weren't anything knew to Reiji, he was actually quite used to them by now, but to be honest, he actually enjoyed guest starring on talk-shows then he did performing actual concerts. He never really knew the reason why though. Maybe it was because he didn't have to do as much work with getting everything set up before hand. With concerts, he normally had to have specific costumes for each song, a special kind of hair-style, make-up, ect ect, and here he was, allowed to dress how he pleased with his hair completely natural and the only source of artificial painting on his face being the black eyeliner that brought out the colour of his eyes.

Shaking his head to keep himself focused, Reiji jumped up on the set stage with the rest of his band, adjusting the ear-piece his assistant had clipped on his right ear moments before and blinking his eyes to adjust to the blue and purple lights that were blaring down at the group from above.

"Hey, Nezumi! My mic, hand it to me."

The green-haired boy who must've been 'Nazumi' turned around from where he had been talking to the golden-haired teen seated behind a platinum-coloured drum set, his naturally ruffled blond hair streaked red in multiple different places. "There you are! We were starting to get all freaked out thinkin' you weren't gonna' show." Nezumi said, the blonde he had previously been speaking to reaching behind his drum-set to hand a purple and white-stripped microphone to him. "As if; where's Hirakou?" Reiji asked, taking the microphone from Nezumi.

"Here~!"

Reiji turned back around, being met with the sight of a girl so obviously taller then him, whose jet black hair reached down to her mid-back. "Sorry, I was busy talking to my agent."

"Fifteen seconds people!"

"More like sweet-talking him."

"Rei-kun's probably right about that."

Hirakou's neon green eyes rolled and she gripped the neck of her grey guitar with her right hand, the fingers of her left just gently grazing over the strings softly enough so that she could hear herself play. "You guys say I flirt with every guy I know, but I don't flirt with you guys, now do I?"

"Ten seconds!"

"Well, you were all flirtatious with Rei-kun a few months back." The blond-haired drummer blankly said, spinning the wooden sticks in his hands around. "Well that's because-"

"I'm hot?" Reiji smirked, taking a few steps forward to push his mic into its holder on the mic stand. He looked up as he did this, letting his eyes skim over the huge crowd of people in the studio itself.

Hirakou awkwardly coughed at his question and slid off to the side a bit so that she was behind the brunette on his right side. "I never said that..."

"C'mon, Hirakou. If I can admit that I think Rei-kun is gorgeous, then you should be able to. For gods sakes, I'm a guy, this kind of this should be extremely awkward for me." Nezumi said, reaching down with one hand to pick up his own bass guitar from its place on its stand, slinging the strap on over his shoulder. The instrument was black with yellow paint splotches all over it.

"Five seconds-!"

"Well you're all flamboyant about your bi-sexuality. Nothing is surprising coming from you anymore." Hirakou countered, the blonde behind the drums laughing.

"Four; Three-!"

"That couldn't be anymore true." Said blonde laughed, gripping his drum sticks and setting the tips of them on two different drums, showing that he was ready to start at any given moment.

"Two-!"

"Even though I should be offended by that, I can't help but agree with it." Nezumi said with a light laugh of his own, sliding over so that he was behind Reiji on his left side and completely opposite from Hirakou.

"One-!"

"Well, it is true." Reiji fully agreed, raising both of his hands so that one was gripping his mic and the other was gripping the stand, a short breath passing his lips to blow a few strands of brown hair out of his eyes.

"And we're on!"

The sound of an electric guitar accompanied by bass and drums quickly followed the call.

"Put on your war paint."

When Reiji opened his mouth and sang that first line, the crowd in front of the stage started screaming like fans at a typical concert would, most of the shouts coming from girls, which was to be expected, but quite a few coming from the men as well as they all pushed themselves closer to the stage.

Here goes.

"You are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down

Strike a match and I'll burn you to the ground

We are the jack-o-lanterns in July

Setting fire to the sky

Here, here comes this rising tide

So come on

Put on your war paint!

Cross walks and crossed hearts and hope-to-dies

Silver clouds with grey linings

So we can take the world back from a heart attack

One maniac at a time we will take it back

You know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start

So dance alone to the beat of your heart-"

"Ranmaru, Ai, come here!"

Camus-who was sitting in the recliner he had pushed to be in front of the T.V-called, his eyes fixated on the large screen.

A groan soon filled the room as Ranmaru came shuffling in, his silver-locks tousled and messy, showing he must've been sleeping when he had been called.

Ai trailed behind him, his laptop under his left arm and his bright blue hair pulled out of its usual ponytail, leaving the soft, shiny blue locks to cascade over his shoulders like an icy waterfall. "What is it?" He asked, making his way over to stand on one side of Camus' chair, Ranmaru yawning and doing the same, only leaning against the other side instead. "Look." The sitting blonde pointed at the screen, Ranmaru and Ai's eyes following in that direction until they landed on the T.V. screen itself.

"-Hey young blood

Doesn't it feel like our time is running out?

I'm gonna change you like a remix

Then I'll raise you like a phoenix

Wearing our vintage misery

No, I think it looked a little better on me

I'm gonna change you like a remix

Then I'll raise you like a phoenix-"

Reiji had abandoned his mic stand and had pulled the microphone from its holder so that he could make his way to the edge of the stage, leaning down at that same time and letting his fingers grazed over the hands of his fans, who in turn, only screamed louder.

"-Bring home the boys and scrap scrap metal the tanks

Get hitched, make a career out of robbing banks

Because the world is just a teller and we are wearing black masks

"You broke our spirit," says the note we pass

Put on your war paint!

The war is won

Before it's begun

Release the doves

Surrender love!"

"Is that...Reiji...?" Ai was the first one to speak up, his eyebrows knitted together. "Jesus fucking christ, there's no way..." Ranmaru breathed, finding himself not able to take his eyes off the screen.

Was it.../weird/ that he suddenly found Reiji incredibly attractive...? It was...rather odd to be honest...Ranmaru was into things like black, leather, and the whole 'bad boy' get-up, so it must've been because the look worked really damn well for Reiji that he liked it so much. [Not that he would ever say that out loud.] "Guess we found out what happens when one of us goes solo..." Camus grumbled, setting the remote down in his lap and folding his arms over his chest, a frown on his lips as he continued to watch his old friend perform. "Is this what he's been doing ever since he left?"

"I guess that's what we can assume." Ai said.

Quartet Night hadn't been able to keep up with Reiji over the course of the year because they had been busy themselves, that and they /really/ hadn't expected to see much of their brown-haired friend, especially something like this. "He surely has changed..." Camus said, tipping his head back to look up at Ranmaru and Ai. "Is he the reason we've been having such a slow year? I remember hearing about a new prodigy, but I never expected it to be Reiji."

"Guess we got our asses handed to us." Ai said simply, letting his own attention drift away from the T.V and over to Ranmaru. "And more so Ranmaru over me and you, Camus."

"Hey, shut up." Ranmaru snapped at his blue-haired band member, glad that he had a reason to tear his attention away from the T.V. "What's even worse is that-since it seems he's the reason business for us has been so slow lately-he's growing even more popular then Quartet Night."

Camus nodded in agreement. "Yes. That's what I thinking. That, and I think someone owes Reiji an apology-"

"No way am I apologizing to that brat. He ran off because of a simple insult. Plus, with fame like that, what makes you think he'll even /want/ to come back?" Ranmaru asked, earning himself a sigh from Camus. "He's Reiji, Ranmaru. All he ever asks for is an apology, along with that, you and I both know he goes to total extremes to get what he wants. Like he has done now."

"I also assume he wants not only the apology from Ranmaru, but for him to say that he was as important to the band as the rest of us." Ai added in, Camus nodding in agreement. "Yes, I thought that as well..."

"Well where the fuck would we even find him?"

"That was an outstanding performance, Mister Kotobuki!"

Ranmaru, Ai and Camus all looked back up at the T.V when the host of the show spoke, meaning that the song must've already ended. She had climbed up on the stage and made her way to Reiji's side. "That wasn't the song we expected you to sing though, so what made you choose that one specifically?"

Reiji blinked his bright silver eyes, a slight, surprisingly cute tilt coming to his head. "Oh, that? Tomorrow's my twenty-second birthday, and as an early present, the band let me pick what song we performed~."

"Oh really now? I didn't know your birthday was coming up anytime soon; what are you planning on doing for it?"

"Eh, nothing big." Reiji shrugged. "I'm just going to hang out at the arcade in Tokyo for most of the day. That and I'm hosting a DDR tournament."

Screams of joy came from the crowd of fans, which brought forth a grin from the brunette.

Camus gestured to the screen, looking up at Ranmaru with a face that just screamed, 'Obvious enough for ya'?'

"I think at the arcade in Tokyo tomorrow."

"Shut it." Ranmaru snapped, letting out a sigh. "If I go and apologize to the guy tomorrow and get him to come back, will you get the fuck off my back?"

Ai and Camus both replied in unison. "Yes."

"Oh fuck off, tomorrow's my day off, Yumi." Reiji said into the blue-tooth he had taken out of his ear as he quietly slipped out the back door of the building, the hood of his leather jacket pulled up and over his head; he had said his goodbyes to the rest of his band members minutes before, and to keep himself from being followed and mobbed by fans, he had gone out the back way and just planned on walking home. He didn't even really mind if it it was cloudy and a bit cold outside.

"But Reiji-"

"No means no. I'm relaxing tomorrow."

Reiji tossed the ear-piece over his shoulder and proceeded to close the metal door behind himself, making his way down a small set of stairs. He could hear the communication device hit the ground somewhere behind the door, but he didn't bother to go back and check and see if it was still intact.

...That's when he heard sniffles.

'What the-...' That sounded like someone crying...but the back door had lead him into an abandoned alleyway behind the studio, so who would be back here?

Reiji stopped to let himself turn to look around, the cracked, granite walls of the alley surrounding him on both sides, and it wasn't until he set his sights on the trembling dark figure at the back of the alleyway that he realized he really wasn't alone. "Hello...?" He spoke in a defensive tone, slowly making his way over to the huddled up figured and letting a sigh pass his lips when he got close enough to see that it was only a little girl.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked, kneeling down beside the girl and reaching out let his thumb brush over her plump but dirtied cheek; the child must've been five at max, her little cheeks covered in dirt and her soft looking, blonde hair matted with mud. Her little pink blouse looked as if it hadn't been washed in weeks and her feet were bare.

Really, the only thing that still looked clean was the bright pink bow in her little fists. "I-i-i-..." The little girl's voice trembled and Reiji felt his eyes slowly softening the more he looked at her. He couldn't be snappy at such a frightened, small little girl, no matter how hard he tried.

"I wont hurt you..." He said gently, the child's watery eyes looking up at him; he noticed that her eyes were a bright blue. "I just want to know why you're out here all by yourself..."

"I-i...m-momma' a-and dadda' a-and s-sissies and b-bubbies gone..." With the girl being so young, Reiji wasn't shocked with how hard speaking properly must've been for her. "You're mommy is gone?" He softly asked, the little girl nodding. "Ah...I see..." He offered the child a small smile. "So you really are all alone..."

Reiji had learned quite some time ago that being by yourself was not fun. Deep down, he really missed the rest of Quartet Night, so he understood how this young girl must've felt. "Well, my name is Reiji, and I pinky promise you I'm really nice and I wont hurt you." He extended his pinky out to the little girl, who slowly blinked and let her tiny, trembling hand reach up, her pinky wrapping around Reiji's, whose was much bigger in size. "Can you tell me your name, dear...?"

"T-twis..."

"Tris?"

The child gave a short nod.

"Well, Tris, would you like to come with me? I can take care of you, I live alone anyway...Plus, tomorrow I'm gonna' have a super fun day! I'm gonna' go play games with my friends and we're gonna' have lots of fun." He was speaking in a child-like way to make the girl more comfortable, and he nearly sighed in relief when Tris' rounded eyes lit up. "G-games? T-twis w-wike games!" She opened her little arms and Reiji took that as a sign to pick her up, shifting to hold her up with his right arm. "Well I'm glad, then how about you come with me to play games tomorrow?"

Tris clapped her little hands together, a happy look clear on her face. "Yes, yes!"

Reiji let out a small chuckle, smiling at the little girl before beginning to walk out of the alleyway and off down the street.

He didn't know why he had felt had felt so lonely in the first place, especially when he had a new band and great friends he had bonded with over the months, but now...for some odd reason...Reiji didn't feel so alone anymore.

This is where this chapter ends~.

The song that Reiji performed was titled "The Phoenix" and it's by the Fall Out Boys, the band I mentioned before the chapter started.

Reviews are welcomed~. :3