A/N: Another chapter for you guys. Enjoy and please R&R. The songs used in this fanfiction are not mine and neither are the characters aside from the band members, Amu's four new charas, and the workers at the Midnight Mistress.
"I like it." Hikaku said breaking the silence after a while.
"Yeah, sounds cool." James said.
"Okay, The Guardians it is." Takki said as he walked away.
'Amu are you sure it's such a good idea naming the band that?' Zena asked from within my heart.
'I'm sure. Guardians can stand for a multiple of things. Who's really going to figure out where I got the name from?' I said.
'I guess you have a point.' Zena said finally.
"Hey Xena, is there more to that song you were singing earlier?" Alice asked.
"Huh? Oh yeah why?" I asked.
"Let's practice it." She said with a smile and I nodded.
"Okay." I said.
"What's the name of it anyways?" Hikaku asked.
"Starless Night." I said remembering when I had come up with it. It was the night right after Tadase had said all those things to me.
"Did you write it yourself?" Chikari asked.
"Yeah, I have alot more though." I said and I saw all of them smile and could tell they'd want to hear them.
"Alright enough chitchat, let's practice." Grey said and we all nodded. We practiced Starless Night again, then they played two other songs that I matched with two more of my songs. By the time the doors to the Midnight Mistress opened to the public we had a small playlist ready. Though I'm not sure if you can call three songs a playlist.
"We only have three songs, what are we going to do? Play them over and over all night?" I asked slightly freaking out. I had never preformed infront of so many people.
"Xena calm down. We usually just cover other artists. You do know other songs right?" Alice asked.
"Yeah."
"Then it's fine." She said with a smile.
"If you say so." I said.
"You've never preformed infront of this many people have you?" Grey asked in a knowing tone.
"No. The most people I've sung infront of would be you guys." I said truthfully.
"Oh shit. Tell us you're not a nervous stomach type." Alice said stepping back.
"A what?" I asked and Grey just shook his head.
"Nothing, Alice is just being Alice." He said.
Hikaku walked up to me and placed a hand on my back.
"Take deep breaths and let them out slowly. When the feeling goes away try telling yourself that there's only me, Takki, Ben, Jo, and the others with you in the club." He said in a soft voice that I wouldn't have thought would come from him. I did as he said and took a few deep breaths. When the feeling of nervousness went away I did what he said.
"Better?" He asked with a smile and I nodded.
"Yeah, thanks." I said.
"No problem, now let's show them what The Guardians are made of." He said as he took his spot on stage. Everyone nodded and took their spots. I walked up to the microphone, then realized Zena and I were still transformed as Gothic Rebel. I'd never held a transformation for this long.
'Zena are you okay?' I asked worriedly.
'Yeah I'm fine Amu, why?' She asked.
'Just wondering. I've never held a transformation for this long.' I said.
'Oh, why not?' She asked.
'Because the others always said it tired them out to transform for long periods of time.'
'That's not true Amu. In truth it doesn't effect us at all, but it does effect you. Are you feeling okay?' Zena asked.
'I'm fine, a little nervous but that's because we're about to preform.'
'You truely are a one of a kind bearer.' Zena said and I smiled at her compliment.
'Thanks.'
'Let's do this.'
'Right.'
The midnight blue curtains pulled back and the people in the bar all turned to look up at us before looking away bored.
'What the hell?' I thought.
"Don't worry about it Xena, they're never really into us." Alice said sadly.
"That was when we didn't have vocals, now that we do they'll be trying to jump up on the stage just to get a good look at us." James said with a smile and I sighed.
"Enough guys, let's play." Grey said and everyone started the intro to Amy Lee's Lithium.
'So we're going to do cover songs first. Okay. At least they're playing songs I know.' I thought as I started to sing when it got to my part. I saw how everyone in the club turned to look up at the stage when I hit the high notes and carried them in a strong voice. I started to feel self-concious when they all moved towards the stage, but a smile from Hikaku had me remembering what he said. I nodded and took the microphone off the stand and started moving around the stage as I sang. We preformed about four cover songs by several different artists before finally playing the first one of my songs.
'So Alice decided to put Starless Night first.' I thought with a smile as I started to sing. When that song finished we played A Little Pain next. The crowd was going wild, and I was enjoying myself as well. Finally, we started to play the last song of the night. One of my favorites of mine, Wish.
"Vibrations you present startles my understanding
A challenge to my ordinary
Unusual to find a special curiosity
I hold my breath to still the excitement" I sang.
"Can you feel it now?
Can you feel it now?" Alice and Chikari sang in unison. I smiled when my part came up again.
"Parallel connection hiding out." I sang as I moved about the stage.
"Pulling on my heart.
Pulling on my heart." Alic and Chikari sang in unison again. They didn't sound all that bad. Wonder why they didn't ask to be the singer.
"Undisciplined eruption
Baby, I know it's comin' around
I'm totally upside down
I can't get it together to tell you what I feel
Baby, my wish on a wing
And I'll send it off to you
Search with sensitivity follow the traces
I can't pull away from you, you steal all my attention
Sometimes so much that I feel empty
I have to fill it back up so I can shine my brightest
It'll leak out further and further into your heart"
We kept playing until the song finally ended. When we were done the crowd was still yelling as the curtain closed. Once it shut and hid us from view I turned to face the others.
"That was awesome." James said.
"They've never been so enthusiastic before." Grey said surprised.
"So I did good?" I asked.
"Yes!" They all said in unison and I smiled.
"Come on, drinks on me!" Alice said.
"Only if you're shirtless." James said and got hit by Grey. I laughed as I followed them backstage and over to the backroom where I had met them all earlier today. Zena changed back with me and she went off to find the others. I sat down next to Alice and Hikaku sat on my other side. Grey sat next to Alice, James sat next to him, and Chikari sat next to him. Takki came back and asked us what we wanted. Alice ordered a cherry whine, Grey ordered some kind of drink I'd never heard before. Chikari asked for a strawberry jello shot, James asked for a Green apple bootlegger, and Hikaku asked for a shot of Irish Whiskey. They all turned to me.
"You help Jo bartend?" I asked instead of giving him my order.
"I usually don't have to, but we've never been this packed before. What'll you have?" Takki asked with a smile.
"I'll just have a coke, I don't feel like drinking tonight." I said and he wrote down my order.
"What! No, you have to celebrate with us. Takki give her a shot of the strongest stuff you've got." James said.
"No! We don't want her to be sick, we still have to preform tomorrow night dumbass." Grey said smacking him upside the head.
"Fine, then just give her some beer." He said rubbing his head.
"I don't like beer." I said.
"Well then what do you want?" Takki asked.
"Well if I have to..." I said and they all nodded. "I'll have a shot of Irish Whiskey." I said and Takki nodded before walking off.
"You sure you can handle that stuff?" Grey asked.
"Yeah." I said.
"Have you ever drank before?" Alice asked worried.
"Yeah, a few years back." I said truthfully. When I was in my final year of elementary school my aunt had come over with her entire collection of booze. She had cheap wines, expensive wines, beer, bootleggers, whiskey, jello shots, and more. Kaito and I had gotten into it and were sick for days, but we had fun. After that we learned to ration how much we drank. Now the only thing that can make me even remotely drunk is Irish Whiskey.
"I like this girl." James said and was once again smacked in the head. I couldn't help but laugh at how they all acted like a family, a family that loved on another and that I was now a part of.
-NORMAL POV-
Once Takki had brought everyone their drinks they toasted to Amu joining the band, naming the band, and having a sucessful night. After about an hour James was drunk off his ass, Grey and Alice wanted to go home, Chikari had gone off to her room, and Hikaku and Amu were having a drinking contest that Amu was winning with a drunk James cheering them on.
"Hikaww are ew reaaawlly goowng to let a gwerl outdaank ew man? rere's ew're pride?" James asked slurring his words.
"My pride is pewrfectly fine, she ain't gowna outdrink me." Hikaku said only slightly slurring his words. Amu smiled to herself, she was only feeling a slight buzz.
"Keep 'em coming." Amu said as she slammed her shot glass down.
"How much can you drink Xena!" Alice asked from her spot on the couch next to Grey.
"Girl you're going to be sick as a dog tomorrow." Grey said.
"No I won't. It's these two you'll have to worry about." Amu said pointing to the two before her.
"No we won't. Hikaku never gets sick, he always mangages to sleep it off. James is the only one who ever gets sick." Grey said.
"Weey!" James yelled before slumping to the ground. Amu smiled as Hikaku poured himself and her another shot of Whiskey. Amu lifted it and shot it back no problem and slammed the glass down. Hikaku did the same, but Amu could tell he was at his limit. She poured them each another shot and tossed it back. It was both their twentieth one. Hikaku shot it back and fell out of his seat.
"Ha! I win!" Amu yelled as she stood up, but then she wobbled and had to catch herself on the table before she fell too.
"You're as drunk as they are!" Alice said.
"No I'm not, I just stood up too quickly." Amu said when she was stable.
"Oh yea? Prove it." Grey said.
"Alright, I will." Amu said as she pushed her chair back. She walked over to Alice and Grey sitting on the couch no problem.
"Okay, so I was wrong. Since you can walk fine on your own would you mind helping Hikaku to his room?" Grey asked as he tossed Amu a set of keys. She caught them and looked back at Grey.
"Where does he live?" Amu asked.
"In the apartment complex down the street from here." Grey said as he and Alice stood up. Alice helped James to his feet and laid him down on the couch before covering him up. Then both she and Grey walked out the room and headed for their rooms upstairs.
"Wait a minute, he lives close to me?" Amu asked as she walked over to Hikaku who was laying on the floor mumbling to himself.
'Oh well, I live on the third floor. What are the chances that he lives on the same floor as me?' Amu thought to herself as she helped Hikaku to his feet and left the Midnight Mistress and headed towards the apartment complex. Her charas were following behind.
"Which level do you live on? Hey, Hikaku!" Amu said.
"Hn? Third floor." He mumbled and Amu froze before sighing and walking up the stairs.
'Okay, so he lives on the same floor. That doesn't mean he lives close to me.' Amu thought to herself.
"Which room?" Amu asked, but didn't get an answer.
"Hikaku." Amu said.
"C4." He said and Amu inwardly groaned.
'Why does he have to live right next door?' Amu thought as she fished out his keys and unlocked his door. She pushed it open and helped Hikaku to his bed. He went down, but brought Amu down with him.
"Hikaku let me go! I've got to go to my room!" Amu yelled trying to get up but Hikaku just tightened his hold on her. He was surprisingly strong.
"Call me Kaku." He mumbled as he nuzzled Amu's neck.
"What!" Amu yelled as she started to blush.
"Call me Kaku." He said again.
'What the hell?' Amu thought to herself, but did as he said.
"Kaku, please let me go." Amu said and Hikaku loosened his grip on her and she got up. She reached the door and turned back to see Hikaku taking his shirt off. She blushed and ran to her room. She slammed the door and jumped onto her bed.
"Why does he have to live right next door!" Amu screamed into her pillow.
"I think Hikaku likes you Amu." Nami said and Amu looked up at her charas.
"You think so?" She asked and they all nodded.
"What do you think of him Amu?" Ran asked.
"I barely know him, but he is cute. Almost cuter than Ikuto." Amu said then blushed when she realized what she'd just said.
"Amu you think Ikuto's cu-" Miki started, but Amu pulled the covers over her head.
"I'm going to bed. Night!" Amu said and closed her eyes. After a while she really did fall asleep.
-BACK WITH THE GUARDIANS AT SCHOOL-
"I can't believe Amu left." Nagihiko said as everyone sat down in the Guardian clubhouse.
"I personally can't be happier not that that bitch is gone." Tadase said crossing his arms across his chest.
"Do you want me to rebreak your nose?" Rima asked and Tadase flinched.
"That's what I thought." She said sitting back down.
"And her family's taking it really hard." Kukai said.
They all nodded in agreement, except for Tadase, but nobody really cared about him.
"Where do you think she went?" Yaya asked.
"I'm not sure." Nagihiko said.
"Do you think she'll ever come back?" Kukai asked.
"I hope that bitch never co-" Tadase's sentence was cut short by Rima's fist connecting with his nose, breaking it again. When she sat back down everyone acted as if nothing had happened, though Nagihiko had a smile on his face.
"We can only hope that she will." Rima said and they all nodded solemly. They had all felt so bad when they found out Amu had left. Their charas didn't feel like leaving their eggs, and the other Guardians barely even wanted to go to school. The bell for fourth period rang and everyone stood up and went to class. Tadase sat up and gently touched his nose before standing up and heading to class.
-AMU'S POV-
I didn't wake up until well past eleven. I groaned and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. When I finished I got dressed in a black gothic frill skirt with purple lining, purple and silver stripped leggins, my black combat boots, and a black blazer with a purple scarf tied around my neck. I clipped my red X clip in my hair after straightening it and headed over to where my charas were sleeping. I smiled at how they all seemed to have gotten along so well so far. I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost eleven thirty.
"I need to leave soon." I said to noone in particular.
"Can I come?" A voice said from one of my eggs. I turned to see Yumi pop out of her egg again and smiled at her.
"Sure. You finally ready to meet your other sisters?" I asked as I grabbed my keys and headed for the door.
"Yeah, but you might want to leave a note telling them where you went." Yumi said as she followed me. I nodded and quickly wrote down where I was going and who was with me, then Yumi and I left. Halway to the Midnight Mistress I realized that I always preformed with Zena transformed with me. By the time I walked in I was freaking out.
"Calm down Amu, Zena is a part of you. You can do this on your own, believe in your own abilities." Yumi said and I smiled. She was right.
"Thanks Yumi." I said in a whisper as I went into the backroom to talk to the guys.
"No problem."
"Xena! There you are!" Alice said as she ran over to me and gave me a hug.
"Yeah sorry, I kinda overslept." I said as she let go of me.
"We're going to have to have Hikaku wake you up if you can't get up on your own." Grey said and I blushed as I remembered last night. Did he remember any of it? I looked around and caught his gaze. He smiled and I blushed an even darker red.
'Yep he definately remembers.'
"Alright we have twenty minutes til we open for business. Ten minutes to hear all of Xena's songs and ten to warm up." Grey said moving back to the couch and Alice followed and sat in his lap.
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"Well we want to hear the other songs you have so we can play them." James said with a smile. Seems like he's recovered from the night before. I walked over to the empty seat on the couch next to James and as far away from Hikaku as possible.
"Okay, but I don't want to sing by myself. Can't one of you play with me?" I asked. Grey smiled and nodded to Chikari and she left the room briefly before coming back with her guitar.
"We're all good at coming up with songs, but not lyrics that sound good going with it." She said as she sat down and started to tune her guitar.
"That's funny, I'm good at coming up with lyrics, but not songs to go with it, mainly cause I'm better at singing than playing." I said with a smile.
"Wait, you can play?" Hikaku asked.
"Yeah." I said in a whisper hoping they wouldn't hear me, but I had no such luck. James got up and ran upstairs. He came back down with an electric guitar and handed it to me.
"I told you I can't come up wit-"
"Don't worry about it, just copy what I do until you get it down. Try to match something with this." Chikari said as she started to play a variety of different notes. She played it normally first and I recognized each note, but she slowed down when Grey said to take it slow so I could learn it.
"No don't, play it again." I said as I tossed the shoulder strap over my head. Chikari nodded and played it again. I played along with her. I messed up twice, but she corrected me and once I could play it perfectly she said to play by myself. I sighed, but did as she said. I tapped my foot as I played, then when I felt it was perfect I started to sing one of the songs I recently wrote. I closed my eyes as my voice carried throughout the entire club.
"I have been watin all day for ya babe
So won't ya come and sit and talk to me
And tell me how we're gonna be together always,
Hope ya know when it's late at night,
I hold on to my pillow tight,
And think of how you promised me forever
Could make me feel this way
Is just a chance to say
Get out, right now
It's the end of you and me
It's too late, and I can't wait for you to be gone,
'Cause I know, about her, and I wonder
How I bout all the lies, you said that you would treat me right but you was just a waste of time
Tell me why your lookin' so confused,
When I'm the one who didn't know the truth
How could you ever be so cold?
To go behind my back and call my friend,
Boy you must have gone and bumped your head,
Because you left her number on yo' phone
Maybe I'm the one to blame but
Well it didn't work out that way
Get out, right now
It's the end of you and me
It's too late, and I can't wait for you to be gone..." I stopped singing after a while and opened my eyes to look at the people around me. They all had their jaws dropped to the floor and staring at me wide-eyed.
'What is with people and always looking like that after I sing?' I asked myself.
"Well there are some parts that'll need Alice and Chikari to sing backup like last time." I said hoping to break the silence. They only nodded and I sighed as I stood up and handed James the guitar back. I walked out the back room and went up to the bar where Jo was polishing a glass.
"Hey Jo." I said as I sat down.
"Hey." He said.
"Can I get a coke?" I asked and he smiled as he fixed me my drink.
"Was that you just now?" He asked as he went back to polishing the glass in his hands.
"Yeah, what'd you think of it?" I asked as I sipped on my coke.
"I think you've been through a lot to be as young as you are." He said and I only smiled.
"But?" I asked.
"You seem to have a think for singing songs about a breakup, want to talk about it?" Jo asked. I looked over my shoulder towards the backroom and heard Jo laugh.
"I'm sure they're still stunned you played that good. They'll stay like that for a while." He said as he set the glass down and sat on the stool on the other side of the bar. I sighed and started to tell him what had happened between me and Tadase. When I finished it looked like he wanted to kill someone.
"He said that to you!" Jo yelled and I smiled sadly.
"Yeah." I said as I looked down into my glass.
"Hell, no wonder you left." Ben said coming down the stairs.
"You heard that!" I asked standing up and knocking over the stool I had been sitting on.
"We all heard that." Grey said from the end of the bar.
"Oh my god!" I said as I covered my face and tried to hide the blush rising to my face. I hadn't meant for them to hear that.
"It's okay Xena, if we ever see that Tadase kid we'll kick his ass." James said being serious for once.
"Yeah." Chikari and Alice said as they gave me a hug. I looked around and noticed that everyone was nodding in agreement and I couldn't help but feel loved.
"Thanks guys, but I already did." I said with a small smile.
"Eh?" They all asked.
"Hehe, guess I left that part out. He called me a bitch and I jumped on him. I broke his nose, busted his lip, and gave him a black eye." I said with a sheepish grin as I remembered the look on Tadase's face when I attacked him.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side girl." Grey said as he walked up behind Alice and pulled her into a hug. I looked away as they kissed, somehow I had the feeling they were together.
"Oh! Sorry!" Alice said as she noticed me looking away with a somewhat pained look on my face. I quickly smiled and waved her apology away.
"Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I left to start over and that's just what I'm doing. You guys said you wanted to hear the rest of my songs right?" I asked as I walked back to the backroom. I heard them mumble to eachother before they followed me. For the next ten minutes they played songs and I matched them with the songs I had written. By the time the doors opened to the public we had an entire playlist of about twenty songs we could choose from.
"Damn Xena, you're really talented." Chikari said as we got ready to preform for the night.
"If you say so. Let's play a few cover songs before doing our own okay?" I said and everyone nodded. Alice started to play the intro to Evanescene's The Change.
"Thought that I was strong
I know the words I need to say
Frozen in my place
I let the moment slip away...
I've been screaming on the inside
And I know you feel the pain
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me...
Oh... Oh... Oh...
Say it's over
Yes it's over!
But I need you anyway"
We finished that song and did about two more by Evanescence before finally doing a few of our own. We did Starless Night, Wish, and A Little Pain. We moved on to the final song of the night, Zero. I took a deep breath as Alice and Chikari started to play the intro.
"My reality is something weird
My unfriendly smile on my way
Nothing new this wearisome day
This world is full of narcissist
The girls dressed up and just a put on
Oops, I'm all thumbs
I'm not like you
Everybody's raping me
Everybody's lying to me
Everybody's looking at me
Everybody's laughing at me
So what
Don't care what people say
I'm going my way
I believe in my way
I'm better than you guys
I'm living for my sake
Not for their sake, yeah
I'm finding my way
I'm finding my love
I'm not stupid like you
All that I need is
I only need is selfless love
All I don't need is
I only need is selfless love..."
When we finished the rest of the song the crowd was going wild. We made our way to the back room again and sat down.
"I think there might have been more people here tonight than last night." Grey said as Takki set down everyone's drinks.
"There was, you guys are getting to be quite popular." Takki said before leaving and walking out of the room.
"Xena, what are you thinking about?" Alice asked when I didn't say anything for a while.
"I was just wondering if we'd be able to go big, you know make it pro." I said.
"We should!" Chikari and James said in unison.
"I don't know guys, we're still pretty new." Grey said.
"Aww, but now that Xena's joined we've gotten so much better and the people love us." Alice said.
"I don't know." Grey said.
"Let us at least try. Even if we don't make it as pros we'll still have fun trying." Alice said batting her eyelashes at him.
"Alright, I'll talk to Ben about it." He finally said.
"Yay!" They all yelled in unison. Grey got up and went to talk to Ben about what they had just talked about.
"Do you really think we'll be able to make it as pros?" Hikaku asked.
"Probably, you guys are really good. Even if they don't like me, you guys can always get another singer." I said as I finished off my coke.
"That's not true, they'll love your voice. You can sing with anyone." Chikari said.
"Enough, how 'bout we just agree to stay with eachother." Alice said and everyone agreed.
"Guys we've got some news." Takki said from the door and everyone turned to look at him.
"What is it?" I asked as we all stood up and went to the doorway.
"Well I'm not sure how Ben's going to react, but I just got a call from one of my high school friends and he says his daughter is a huge fan of you guys and he wants to sign you guys to a company." Takki said and we all screamed in joy.
"What's all the screaming about?" Grey asked as he walked into the room with Ben right behind him.
"Takki says there's someone who wants to sign us to a recording company." Alice said with a smile on her face.
"That's great, Ben's been thinking of getting us out there." Grey said.
"I'll be your manager of course." Ben said and we all agreed.
"Alright then. Takki call your friend back and set up a day we can go record." Grey said and Takki nodded before going out to make a phone call.
"Thanks for everything guys." I said to everyone and they all looked at me confused.
"If Ben and Takki hadn't given me a job here then I wouldn't have been as happy as I am now. Thanks." I said as I started to cry. Alice gave me a hug and everyone else just smiled at me.
"It's us who should be thanking you Xena. If you hadn't shown up then the Midnight Mistress would have gone out of business and we all would have lost our jobs." Ben said and everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Good news guys, he said we can go in tomorrow." Takki said walking back into the room.
"What's going on in here?" He asked as he saw everyone hugging.
"We're thankful!" Everyone said in unison and he just shook his head. I can't believe I've found somewhere in the world were I'm wanted and loved. I couldn't help but smile to myself as we all pulled away.
"So what time does he want us to come in tomorrow?" I asked getting down to business.
"Three. So we'll have to close the club tomorrow." Takki said and looked at Ben.
"Alright, tomorrow the Midnight Mistress will be closed." Ben said.
"Okay guys, get some rest. We'll meet outside the club tomorrow at two, then Takki will drive us to his friend's recording company." Grey said and everyone nodded. Alice and him went upstairs to their room and Chikari went to hers. James went home and Ben and Takki closed the club after making sure everyone left. I grabbed my keys and headed out the door. Halfway home Hikaku caught up with me and walked beside me.
"You really think we'll get signed?" He asked as we climbed the stairs to the third floor.
"I don't know, we'll find out tomorrow." I said as we reached my door.
"Night Xena." He said as I opened my door.
"Night Kaku." I said with a smile and closed the door after me. I smiled to myself before crawling in the bed. I couldn't wait for tomorrow.