Track 09

The next morning, Hikari woke up to the bright sunlight shining in from the large window on the wall. She rubbed her eyes and stretched, looking around the room and remembering where she was.

She got up and changed her clothes. As she was brushing her long flowing hair, she took a deep breath, taking in the scent of a home cooked breakfast. It sure was nice to wake up to something like that.

The snow leopard made her way down the stairs to the dining room. There, she found both of Crow's parents sitting down to breakfast. "Good morning, dear. Did you sleep well?" his mother asked her. "Sit down and have something to eat!"

Hikari looked down at the table. There was so much food! Eggs, pancakes, toast, bacon... and of course milk to drink! In the same spot she sat the night before for dinner, there was a glass of chocolate milk. They remembered... how sweet! She took a seat and smiled brightly. "Thank you so much!"

As she fixed her plate, she looked to Crow's seat and noticed it was empty. "Is he still in bed?" she asked, finding herself a slight bit disappointed that she didn't get to see him that morning.

"Actually, he's been up for hours. He went outside to get some work done before breakfast and hasn't come in yet." Crow's father told her. She looked out the window and wondered how much longer he'd be.

"Uhh... is it okay for me to make an extra plate and take it out to him?" Hikari asked, looking to both of them.

His mother looked like she was about to start crying... oops. "Why of course, dear! I'm sure our little Hoglet would love that! Pancakes are his favorite, so be sure to take extra!" For some reason she seemed really excited over the fact that she made this offer.

She chuckled and filled two plates with pancakes and bacon, one for each of them. "Thank you. I will make sure he gets it!"

She grabbed one of their baskets to put their milk bottles in and hung it on her arm as she carried the two plates outside. Where exactly was he working? It probably would have been a good question to ask...

Hikari made her way to the barn next to the house. It seemed like a safe bet. As she grew nearer, she could hear the sound of cows mooing on the inside. She peeked inside to see if Crow happened to be in there. Much to her surprise, she found the hedgehog wearing nothing but a pair of black jeans, shoveling hay to each of the cows. She noticed on his back was a tattoo of black angel wings. How had she not noticed it the night before...? It was kind of nice.

When she caught herself staring, she lost her grip on one of the plates, which shattered on the dirty ground. Whoops... that one was hers, too. How was she going to replace that?

The sound of the plate breaking caused Crow to jump and turn around. "Oh! Good morning, Hikari. Everything okay...?"

She cleared her throat and kicked the plate and syrupy mess to the side. "Umm... yep! Everything is just fine! I brought you some breakfast! Your parents thought you might be hungry."

"Ah, great! I didn't even realize breakfast was ready!" he said as he sat the pitch fork down. He walked over and took the plate from her, as well as his bottle of milk. "Did you get anything to eat? Ma makes the best pancakes ever!"

She glanced down at the mess on the ground. She really needed to clean that up... "Uhhhh... Yeah, uh huh! They were definitely delicious!"

Crow followed her gaze to the pile of broken plate and pancakes on the ground. He knew he had heard something break! What exactly did she do? 'Ah well,' he thought. 'I'll get that cleaned up later. If Ma asks anything, I'll tell her I'm the one who dropped it...'

He looked back up to Hikari, who was super embarrassed that she was found out, and flashed her a smile. Since she went through the trouble of bringing breakfast out to him, he knew how to make it up to her. "Follow me! There's a big tree on the hill that will shade us from the sun."

She nodded and followed behind, her poor stomach growling. She sure hoped he couldn't hear it. She didn't need any more embarrassment.

He lead her to the big tree he was talking about and sat down, making sure she had enough room to sit in the shade with him. He cut the stack of pancakes in half and handed her his fork. "Here... You can go first."

She blinked and took his fork. "Wha? What are you doing?"

"You need to eat, too. So I'm letting you use my fork first. I don't mind sharing!" He held the plate up to her, a warm smile on his face.

She blushed out of embarrassment and cut a bite off for herself. When she put the bite in her mouth, he entire face lit up. "Wow... These are really good! Your mom sure knows how to cook!" She happily enjoyed her breakfast as she held the plate in her lap. Next to her, Crow watched her, feeling content being with her. He inched closer to her, slowly moving his arm behind her.

She turned to look at him with the fork still in her mouth after taking another bite. She pulled it out and looked back to the plate nervously. It was getting harder and harder to resist that boy. She gulped, swallowing her bite of pancake and put another piece on the fork. However, this time, instead of eating it herself, she turned and held it up to him. "I... uhh... Don't let me hog it all to myself! You have some!"

His eyebrows raised out of surprise when she pointed the fork in his face. The reason he let her go first was because he figured she wouldn't want to eat after him, and now here she was trying to share with him. She looked a little flustered. Maybe he could have fun with this, considering he could tell exactly what caused her to drop her own plate. He knew he was amazing, but to have a girl like Hikari react to him the way she had? She was nothing like the cattle that constantly fawned over him and the guys, so that had to mean something, right?

Rather than taking it from her, he leaned in closer to her and ate the bite off the fork while it was still in her hand. Her jaw dropped slightly, a little taken back by his action. "Uh... Th-That wasn't what I meant... for you to..." She stared up at him for a moment, her entire face red, before looking away from him and growling. What was he trying to do to her, exactly? She was having a tough enough time with him, already, so whatever it was, she wasn't going to let it work.

He chuckled and watched her eat the rest of her half, angrily. Her little temper was adorable. When she was finished, she shoved the plate to him and crossed her arms. "Aww come on, Hikari... I was only playing. I know you can take a joke."

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Maybe you should warn me next time!"

"Fine," he replied with a smile. "Next time I will warn you. You need to be more careful! You could have had your own plate."

Another growl escaped her throat in response. "Yeah, whatever..."

He lifted the arm that was behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder, pulling her close to him with a one armed hug. "But I definitely appreciate the gesture. No one has ever brought my meal out to me while I was working. So thank you, Hikari."

Finally, the frown on her face disappeared. "It was no problem. You're the one who brought me all the way out here to get away. I felt like I owed you."

"Nah, you don't owe me anything. I could tell you needed it, and to be honest, I'm glad you came here with me." He leaned back against the tree, his arm still around her. Inside, poor Hikari was dying. She hoped he couldn't feel the heat coming off of her face.

"I need to try and get some work done on my song today. A week is a short period of time, so I can't waste it," she told him, trying to change the subject a little.

"You're right! That is the reason you're here, after all," he said with a small hint of sadness in his voice. "Why don't we head back inside. I'll get cleaned up and you can get started. Then if you need any help, I'd be happy to look over it."

Had she said something wrong? He didn't seem to have that same cheerfulness in his voice as he had just a few moments before. But he was offering to help... She couldn't turn that down! The last time they worked on music together, it turned out great! "I'd really like that, Crow!" She flashed him a bright smile, hoping he would do the same.

He took his arm away from her and stood, holding his hand out to her. "Then let's go. You can use the little studio in my room." As she took his hand, he smiled back to her, giving her those same butterflies again.

Just a few hours after they went inside and Crow showered, he and Hikari sat in his mini studio looking over the sheet music Hikari had for her new song. "I know it isn't bad, but for some reason, I just can't be happy with it. I feel like there is something missing..." She sighed. She used to write music all the time, but now that it came down to writing music for her and Kamiko's band, it was different. It had to be perfect.

Crow took the pages from her and glanced over them. "I don't know what it could be. This song is great! You don't have any lyrics yet, but other than that I don't know what it could be missing."

Hikari shrugged. "The lyrics come later, when Kamiko and I can work on it together. Lyrics are her thing... But it's not that. It's something with the way it sounds. It's missing something."

He sat the pages down on his lap. "Well when I am struggling to write lyrics for our songs, I go back and play some of our current music for inspiration. I know this is your first song, so that won't exactly work... but we can play something together if you think that will help you get in that mindset. You know all our music, don't you?"

She nodded. That could work... It would definitely help her get in the mood. "Alright. Let's do it, then."

She got up from her seat and moved to the drums, while Crow grabbed Red Tomahawk. "Why don't we do Falling Roses? It's fun to play, and it usually helps." Crow turned around and flashed her a smile. "Just try to keep up, I'm sure it's a big deal for cattle to play with the amazing Crow of Shingancrimsonz," he teased, making a joke to her after all the times she had called him Hoglet.

She scoffed and gave him a smirk. "Just shut up and play!" Oh, she'd show him...

The two played the song together, Crow even singing to an imaginary mic as they played. It felt so good to play such a powerful song. When they finished, Hikari sat in silence for a moment. Crow turned back around to her, noticing how quiet she was. "What's up...?"

"I think I get it now... After we played, I think I figured it out," she said, not looking up from the drums. She tapped the drumstick on her leg for a moment as she processed her thoughts. "What's the one thing your band has that ours doesn't?"

Crow tapped his finger to his chin before answering. "My amazing lyrics, obviously."

"No, no, no! What instrument does Shingancrimsonz have, that Monochrome Blush does not?" she asked.

He took a moment to think about it. Kamiko sang and played guitar, which covered both him and Aion's playing. Hikari played drums, so that covered Rom. But then there was Yaiba. "Bass! Your band doesn't have a bass player."

"Exactly! And did you hear how different that song sounded without it? Maybe the thing my song is missing is bass," she told him. Because Kamiko's family had connections with just about every music related business around, they had just about every instrument and electronic musical device there was. As they grew up, Kamiko taught herself how to use many of these, though not many of them stuck. It was possible that she could talk her into adding in the bass to their music digitally later on. It wasn't like they were going to meet anyone with a bass anytime soon.

"Hmm... good point. Then we should add some in and see what sounds good, and then you two can work on lyrics! And I happen to know a damn good lyricist that could help you, too," he said with a wink.

Hikari playfully shoved him away and chuckled. "Yeah, yeah... I get it, Hoglet. You wanna help us write the lyrics. We'll have to see if Kamiko gets anything done over vacation, first." Surely, even with her busy schedule, Kamiko would still work on the one task Hikari gave her to do while she was gone, right? It was hard to say.

The two moved to sit at the piano as Hikari used it as a writing surface to add some notes in for a bass. Without having one there, it was hard for her to tell if it was going to sound right, but that was something that could be fixed when they made it that far.

Even though Crow didn't have the same experience as she did with writing music, he tried to help her in any way he could by giving advice and feedback as she wrote down her ideas. Occasionally, she would sing or hum the parts she had in mind, which Crow found himself highly fond of.

"Alright," Hikari said as she closed her notebook. "I think that's enough for today. We got a lot of work done. I owe you big time for your help."

"Yeah...? I think I have something in mind." Crow tapped his fingers on the piano as he spoke, watching her carefully.

Unfortunately, she didn't take the hint, and looked up at him with a curious look on her face. "Oh? And what exactly would that be?"

He quickly flipped open the cover that was over the piano's keys. "You're going to play for me. You promised you would, so now's the time!"

She blinked out of confusion as her cheeks grew red. She had never played for anyone other than Kamiko's butler, who happened to be the one to teach her. "Wha-? Alright, fine! But just know that I'm no professional. I've never even played for anyone. I just use it when I'm writing music to hear the notes."

He shrugged. "I don't care if you're a professional or not! I just want to hear what you can do!" He clenched his fists together in front of him out of excitement.

She took a deep breath and sighed, then turned the pages in her notebook to the one with the song he saw when they were on the bus. "I'll be honest with you... This song is the first one I wrote after learning the piano. I've always wanted to add to it, but never found the inspiration." She placed her fingers on the keys and paused for a moment. It had been a few years since she had played, so she wanted to be sure she wouldn't mess up. "Here it goes..."

She started out slowly with the song, but felt herself really get into it and sped up the tempo. As she played the piano music, she hummed a tune to herself, which was how she imagined the lyrics would go if she had any.

Crow's eyes widened as she played. She wasn't a professional, but played that well? It wasn't just her playing that had him, however. There was the song itself. He could feel the passion in her music, which totally spoke to him.

But when she started humming...

He never would have imagined that she had such a pretty singing voice. Being the drummer of her band, she didn't exactly sing many of their songs. To Crow, it was like hearing the voice of an angel. It was so soft and sweet...

When she finished playing, she closed the notebook and stared down at the keys, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Hikari... You... are amazing. And you wrote that?" Crow asked, just moments after she finished.

"I did... Every once in awhile, when Kamiko had things to do with her family or her boyfriend, I would lock myself up in the dance hall where the piano was and I would work on this song. To be completely honest with you, it took years to write it..." She looked over to him with a smile. "You're the first person to ever hear it, so I'm really glad you like it. I put a lot of heart into it, but even to this day, I haven't decided what the song is even supposed to be about, so I haven't put any lyrics to it. I might even like it best this way."

Crow nodded. If she ever wanted to add lyrics, he would have been happy to help, but until then he made sure to respect her feelings about the song. "I'm glad you shared it with me." He really enjoyed the fact that she was sharing something so special to her.

He wasn't sure why, but without thinking, he slowly reached over and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Hikari's eyes grew wide at the contact. The moment she noticed him leaning in to try and kiss her again, she quickly stood up and grabbed her notebook. Her face was completely flushed. "U-Uhh... Well thank you for your help today. I think I'm going to turn in early." She fumbled around before holding the notebook close to her and tried swallowing her nerves. "...See you tomorrow?"

Crow's ear twitched when he felt her stand and he opened his eyes, feeling a similar disappointment to when he tried on the bus ride. "Yeah... of course, Hikari. Enjoy the rest of your night..."

She gave him an embarrassed smile and left his room, closing the door behind her. She pressed her back against it and hit herself in the forehead a few times while repeating the word 'stupid' over and over again. Crow was being so sweet to her and she rejected him again... What was wrong with her?

She turned around to knock on his door to apologize, but sighed. She would just see him in the morning...