Chapter 5: Obsession
The light that crept through the window woke the brunette up from his slumber. He placed his guitar in its stand and went downstairs just to be greeted by a blue alien freak. 'Not again.'
"Why hello there my favorite cuz, had a nice beauty sleep?" Syaoran slap his hand as it tried to reach his hair.
"You decided to join us, no?" Eriol teased. "Miss me?"
Stretching his arms to hug him, Syaoran ducked from his reach, "Not in your weirdest wildest dreams! Why the hell am I related to you?"
"Because…" Eriol placed his arms in his cousin's shoulder and another arm threw wild gestures in the air like a proud monkey, "if you weren't related to me, then how can you have my good looks and charming personality, my talent…"
Syaoran tried to wiggle free from his grasp as he goes on boasting and blabbering about his "qualities" which he was certain never existed. But still drowsy from sleep and lack of energy for he hasn't eaten since last night, he had to endure everything he pathetically says. Syaoran sighed as if doomed for the rest of the morning, until thankfully his dear cousin Rika butted in.
"Hey stop your weird morning ritual and look at this," Rika motioned her cousins to come up to her and watch the video in her laptop.
Telling Layla's story spoken
'Bout how all her bones are broken
Hammers fall on all the pieces
Two months in the cover creases
Here she stands today,
In her brilliant shiny world...
Fully alive,
More than most ready to smile,
(A love life?)
Fully alive,
More than most ready to smile,
(A love life?)
"Whoa, who are they?" Miyu asked. "They're good."
"They're really good." Eriol added, squeezing his way through to have a better view.
"Guys, look closer. Can't you recognize these two?" Rika pointed the two familiar girls in the video.
"Andy and Tomo?" Miyu squinted, wildly guessing.
Syaoran gawked in astonishment. "That's them?" Confusion etched on his face, 'Wait a minute, isn't she with convicted minds too? Two bands? Impressive.'
"Yup, I was merely curious so I checked them up on the net and this is what I got. There are a few other videos here too."
Eriol read aloud the details at the information at the side of the video. "It says here, Raging wings members: Ren: lead guitar/back up vocals; Andy: drums/back up vocals; Tomo: bass/vocals; Ikki: rhythm guitar/vocals.
All my complaints shrink to nothing
I'm ashamed of all my somethings
She's glad for one day of comfort
Only because she has suffered
Here she stands today,
In her brilliant shiny world...
Fully alive,
More than most ready to smile,
(A love life?)
Fully alive,
More than most ready to smile,
(A love life?)
"Whoa, they can all sing?" Miyu interjected.
Syaoran gaped at Andy's artistic figure and talent. 'A guitarist and a drummer…'
"No wonder they got into THE camp." Eriol conclude.
Rika added. "They even have their own official website and a couple of other fan sites. It also says here they're all expert with the keyboard, drums and guitar."
Scrutinizing the video Syaoran frowned with the obvious familiarity the members have with each other. 'Are those their boyfriends?'
As if reading his mind, Eriol voiced out his exact question. "Are those two their boyfriends?"
"According to a comment here, it seems that Tomo and Ikki is now officially a couple…" Rika paused. "Just this Monday."
Eriol heaved a sigh miserably while Syaoran rejoiced inwardly. 'Two down at least, there's still those three goofballs in the other band.'
Fully alive,
More than most ready to smile,
(A love life?)
Fully alive,
More than most ready to smile,
(A love life?)
Fully alive,
More than most ready to smile,
(A love life?)
Fully alive,
More than most ready to smile,
(A love life?)
Unknown to them, a raven-haired girl cautiously made her way behind their backs and screamed, "BOO!"
The girls shrieked and the boys jumped from the disturbing freak that sneaked up behind them.
"What the hell!"
Syaoran instantly dropped Eriol who jumped in his arms and glared at her sister. "Are you trying to kill us all by giving us heart attacks?"
The girl just heartily laughed; satisfied from the reactions she got from the group.
"Hey cuz," Rika hugged her. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Tokyo for the benefit concert?"
She smirked at the video on screen and said, "Jeez, you just sounded like our parents. And nope, it got canceled a week ago coz we're going to be your facilitators in the camp."
"What? When? How come I didn't know that?" Syaoran interrogated her sister, and his eyes narrowed suspicious of his sister's motives.
Ignoring his brother, "They're good aren't they?"
"Huh?"
"Didn't know you're that obsessed to Google them up." She smiled slyly at her brother.
"I—"
"It's Andy isn't it?" Mei Lin caught the blush his brother was forcing to hide. 'Though Kura would be a perfect match for him.'
Rika and Miyu laughed hysterically also ignoring their cousin's venomous glare.
Shrugging from her thoughts, Mei Lin chuckled along with her cousins. She then looked at Eriol eyes still locked on the video. "And you, with Tomo?"
Hearing her name, made Eriol snapped back to reality. "What about Tomo?" he asked curiously.
Mei Lin ignored him and changed the subject. "You should know that they're not the only ones with videos on the net."
"What do you mean?" Miyu inquired tensely, sensing something suspicious behind Mei Lin's words.
Mei Lin gently shoved Rika out of her chair and typed calmly to annoy the impatient teens more. A video feed of their performance last school fair (which was just a week before) in Kyoto appeared in the screen.
"You did this?" Syaoran pointed at the screen.
She nodded. "Mei Lin!" They yelled.
Mei Lin uncovers her ears and rubbed her temples from the painful yell that she just received from four annoyed teenagers. She calmly sat down at the couch smiling like an insane clown.
"So care to explain?" Syaoran crossed his arms in his chest and gave his sister a deathly glare.
"Nope," shaking her head, blowing her nails from the invisible dust.
"What… the… young lady where have you been for the last whole week? You were supposed to be in Nagoya on that day? Why didn't you inform us about your return? Where did you—"
"Hold up," Mei Lin flicked her hand, palm facing his face, gesturing him to stop, "I'm your older sister so don't you dare raise your voice at me and I don't have to explain anything to you. I'm old enough to do whatever I want to do." Mei Lin returned the glare to his brother.
Syaoran huffed and looked out the window, realizing fighting with her older sister wouldn't do any good. He never win with her anyway, just a waste of energy to do so.
"But Mei, why did you post our performance on the internet?" Miyu curiously inquired.
"No particular reason, just want to boast my cute little brother and his minions to the world." Mei Lin teased a seething Syaoran.
Miyu pouted. "We're not his minions."
"No, seriously Mei," Rika asked.
"I am serious." The three sweats dropped animatedly.
Unaffected with what her cousin was implying, like it was a very normal thing, Eriol sat beside Mei Lin put an arm around her shoulder, "So Mei-mei where did you stay in those particular days and why did you not inform us?"
She looked up at Syaoran who is apparently irritated by this, faced Eriol and answered, "Well, I was with the band at Touya's place since his grandparent's house was empty at that time. And I…"
"You're what?! You were with that GAKI all along?" Syaoran shouted, burning up with anger.
Mei Lin winced with his reaction but kept a mischievous smile knowing very well his brother's behavior towards men around her. Rika, Miyu and Eriol quickly covered their ears, anticipating more of Syaoran's outbursts.
"I told you to stay away from that GAKI, his nothing but a hormonal perv and a…"
Mei Lin stood up and covered Syaoran's mouth from any more blabbering. "I can obviously protect myself from that perv and for your info I have no choice, his one of my band mates so I can't stay away. You know clearly that I hate him."
Syaoran gradually loosen up and hugged her sister protectively. Mei Lin chuckled at this but hug him in return. "Mom and Dad even knew about it and they didn't have a fit about it. Jeez you're even worst than them."
"Kawaii," Eriol yelled dreamily.
Eight pairs of eyes stared at him.
"Kawaii? Dude, are you finally losing it?" Miyu voiced out.
Rika waved her hands in front of his face trying to snap him from his reverie. But Eriol, who seems so preoccupied, did not hear Miyu nor noticed Rika's hand and just beamed at his cousins.
"Guess that's a yes. No wonder he is insanely vain lately." Rika thought loudly.
"And clingy," Syaoran added.
Shrugging from his indifference, Mei Lin smirked. "Oh Well, that's our Eriol."
"Syao, dude, you alright? What are you doing here?" a midnight blue hair teen, asked, teasingly poking his ribs just for the fun of it.
"I was fine awhile ago until you came." He smirked at his annoying cousin who had bugged him again. 'Just when I thought I could have some peace and quiet, he suddenly pops out of nowhere. Talk about great timing.'
"Aww… that hurts!" he mocked, scrunching his face like in too much pain and clutching his chest with both hands.
"Doesn't seem like it." Syaoran pointed out and rolled his eyes. "Tell me, what do you want now so that I could have a decent time alone?"
Eriol heaved his shoulders up stiffly, "nothing", he innocently said, swaying like a shy little girl. "The guys were wondering where the heck you were, the party has begun hours ago. And…"
"And, what," he raised one of his eyebrows. Anticipating what Eriol's next question, he closed his eyes and attempts to suppress his smirk. "That I have a rendezvous with one of the fans?"
Taken aback and restraining his shock of Syao predicting the exact words that haunted him while looking for him, Eriol defensively countered, "Well, yeah, dude you're known for that. Heck, every end of the gig, a bunch of girls follows you around and you just pick one out of the bunch randomly like some kind of a raffle or something."
"Why, thank you for pointing it out," he said with sarcasm dripping in every word he said, sitting up straight, back against the trunk of the tree.
"It's as if you haven't done that every time too. You're shock I'm not with anyone right now?" Not waiting for an answer he continued, "Well its one of those days…"
Eriol's eyes widened in astonishment, "What you have a-a period..." Eriol stuttered as he ridicule his favorite cousin to the extreme, while grinning from ear to ear. He then felt numb on his right cheek when a fist swiftly touched it.
"You just have to say that, don't you? I'm not playing for the other team. Do I look like a girl to you?" Syaoran completely annoyed from Eriol's stupid remarks, shook Eriol so hard his glasses slip to his nose, waiting for an answer.
Eriol totally unaffected with the warning punch still bravely continued teasing his cousin. "Well not really, sort of. You-"
"What do you mean sort of?" Syaoran grabbed Eriol's collars now really livid at him, almost choking his cousin to death.
As quickly as he grabbed his cousin's throat, he loosens his grip and allows Eriol to talk, shoving him away from him.
Caught in between expectation and disappointment, Eriol rubbed his soar neck, "Let me finish will yah? You have mood swings like a girl in period, you love shopping and you're a vain, sensitive neat-freak."
Syaoran began to advance again but Eriol quickly back away and outstretch his hands palm facing Syaoran, gesturing him to calm down and let him finish, "Jeez, dude you're so easy to piss off. I'm just messing with you."
"Then stop messing around. I'm already in a mess?" Syaoran slumped at the couch and grabbed the laptop, staring blankly at it.
"What? With her?" Eriol pointed out the girl in the video his cousin was watching in his laptop.
Getting no response from him, Eriol shuts down the laptop and place it in a safe place before his cousin go berserk again.
"You really had it bad." Eriol shook his head in sympathy. "Dude, this isn't healthy. You're way too obsessed with her. Just go talk to her."
Syaoran just sighed. 'Not just with her.'
- to be continued -
A/N: Words that are bold and italicized are lyrics to the song, "Fully Alive" by the band FLYLEAF. Thanks please review.
Jan 31, 2009 bangag_pa
June 21, 2013 revised
September 23, 2015 updated