Disclaimer: You can’t have Malice Mizer!!!! *thinks* Apparently, neither can I.
Mana: *doesn’t notice Gackt* Soup would be wonderful, Puff.
Puff: The cooks should already have it going by now. So it won’t be that long of a wait.
Mana: Is Gackt going to have soup as well?
Gackt: No, Gackt is not going to have soup.
Mana: Why not?
Gackt: *trying to decide if he should tell Mana the truth while being given death glares by Puff*
Puff: Yes, Gackt, tell us why.
Playing House
Chapter Twenty-Two
A long string of silent moments fell over the group as everyone stared at the beautiful guitarist. He fascinated the neighbor men because of their pure lecherousness. Gackt, on the other hand, had better reasons for his gaze not leaving Mana; the first reason was that he finally knew what Mana had been sewing earlier, the second reason was that he was surprised at his friend’s daring, and the third reason was that he was desperately attempting to figure out what the blue-haired man was planning.
“Gackt, aren’t you going to introduce me to our guests?” Mana asked quietly, leaning a bit closer to the stunned vocalist. Without batting an eyelash or disturbing the black parasol he loosely clutched, Mana surreptitiously let go of Gackt’s hand and poked his friend sharply in the ribs. The small amount of pain jolted Gackt back into the realm of reality.
“Of course, Mana, I was just getting around to doing that,” Gackt lied, shuddering vaguely when Mana smiled enigmatically at him, “These men are friends of our close neighbors.” He didn’t say anymore, because he knew that he’d forget somebody’s name.
“Pleased to meet all of you,” Mana said sweetly, tilting his head slightly forward, “It really is nice to be able to meet more of the people in our neighborhood.” The group of staring men simply nodded in unison and didn’t tear their unfaltering gazes away from the guitarist.
“Hey, Gackt, I think Adair wants me to tell you some…” Adam began to say as he rushed out through the glass doors, his voice trailing off when he spotted Mana standing outside, “You look gorgeous, Mana!” He began salivating, quite literally, when he moved closer to the pair of musicians and procured a better view. Exchanging looks of disbelief, his employers watched their butler with sympathetic eyes that were normally reserved for mentally impaired persons.
“What did you need to tell me, Adam?” Gackt prompted loudly, waving around one of his hands in the air before he caught the butler’s limited attention. Rubbing at vivid green eyes for approximately 10 seconds, Adam searched his mind until he managed to recover that tidbit of information that he had been sent out with.
“Oh, yeah, Adair said that if anybody is planning on leaving anytime today, they have to go now,” Adam said cheerfully, grinning like a fool, “He doesn’t want anybody walking over the carpet before it’s properly installed.” Mana and Gackt directed their gazes towards their slew of guests, who, miraculously, noticed and took the cue to leave. The men all said their good-byes and waved as they filed into the house slowly, desperate to let their eyes linger on Mana for as long as was possible.
“Adam, great job, you got the message delivered perfectly,” Adair congratulated as he strolled into the backyard to praise his twin, the matching brothers beaming at each other, “I’m so proud of you!” He turned towards Gackt, about to tell him something about the carpet, but didn’t get as far as speaking. His jaw only dropped slightly as the word faded off of his tongue and Gackt was completely forgotten.
“My name is Adair. I’m Adam’s twin brother,” Adair chirped, extending his hand towards the vision of loveliness standing beside Gackt, “You must be Mana. Adam has told me so much about you and his descriptions don’t live up to your beauty.” The guitarist relaxed when he realized that he wasn’t seeing double and smiled faintly as he momentarily took Adair’s hand. Dual sets of green eyes swept over Mana, whose smile had already faded away from his doll like face.
“I’m so surprised that Adam is doing so well for himself this time around,” Adair said proudly, running a hand through his short blonde hair as he grinned broadly, “He really managed to net himself a perfect one this time. I mean, Mana you are so much better than Adam’s last few. How did he manage to get you?” The butler looked utterly horrified, his face painted with terror and humiliation as his employers looked at each other with confusion.
“What do you mean by ‘how did he manage to get you’?” Mana asked coolly, his blank stare enough to make deities recoil in fear. Gackt’s gaze matched his friend’s in intensity, their frozen blue eyes focused on their butler. Well, on what they could see of him; Adam had shifted and was hiding behind his oblivious twin.
“Oh, don’t worry, you two can trust me. I won’t tell anyone, since Adam doesn’t think it would seem right if everyone knew about you two dating and I don’t want to betray him,” Adair soothed, patting Mana’s shoulder with the tips of his calloused fingers, “Personally, if I were in his shoes, I’d be telling the world but I don’t know what kind of situation you two are in so I really can’t make any suggestions.” He glanced over at Gackt, noticed how the musicians’ hands were entwined, and bewilderment lit his emerald eyes.
“Gackt, how do you fit into all of this?” Adair questioned, becoming very apprehensive when he saw the silver wedding rings, “Adam mentioned you once, in passing, but never elaborated on who you are.”
“I’m Mana’s husband,” Gackt said simply, fighting down the extreme urge to crack up with laughter when the twins reacted to the comment. Writhing with mortification, Adam began frantically trying to explain himself while still hiding behind his puzzled brother.
“Adair misheard me. I was talking about Mana and how she’d make a perfect girlfriend. I never said that we were together, Mana, never. He must have gotten things mixed-up. In fact, I remember saying that Gackt is such a lucky man to have Mana as his wife,” Adam screeched nervously, glaring fiercely when Adair shook his head, “Well, we both have work to get to, don’t we, Adair?” The butler dragged his protesting twin back into the house and slammed the glass door.
“That is oddly amusing,” Mana said with a hint of giggles in his voice, his dark lips curled into a wide smile, “I wonder what else Adam said about me.” Gackt gave his friend a look that read ‘Like you don’t really know what he said’ and finally let himself dissolve into the laughter that had been plaguing him for the past few minutes.
When the vocalist forced himself to calm down, he stepped away from Mana to get a better look at the new outfit he was dressed in. Gackt slowly walked around his friend, taking note of every minute detail just in case Mana decided to ask for suggestions or opinions.
“You look nice. Stunning, really,” Gackt said truthfully, cautiously allowing his azure eyes to flick to the dangerously short skirt, “I’d just be very careful about bending over or reaching for items on high shelves. One bad movement and our cover story would be ruined.”
“I know. I wanted to get your opinion on it before I did any alterations,” Mana explained, blushing slightly when he realized just how high the hem was sewn, “I think that I should put another, longer, layer underneath this top one. It should give the skirt more fullness and, as you pointed out, much needed length. Will that look alright?” Gackt smiled softly because he knew that his lovely friend was truly worried about the outfit looking good and not just fishing for a compliment.
“It’ll look great, just like everything else you wear,” Gackt said sweetly, pushing a few strands of auburn hair off of his face when a zephyr disturbed them, “Do you mind me asking why you came outside in that outfit if you didn’t think that it was finished?” Mana glanced up at the rapidly rising sun and gestured for the vocalist to follow him inside the house.
“I didn’t know that you were outside. I figured that, if I went down the staircase, I could call you back upstairs without anybody else seeing me,” Mana elucidated, silently shutting the door and fixing the curtain before continuing to speak, “Obviously that didn’t work and I knew all the workmen in the hallway would notice me if stood there any longer. I went outside because I didn’t think that anybody else would be there.” The musicians ignored the blatant stares from Adair and his coworkers as they walked back up stairs, into the safe quiet.
“Look on the bright side,” Gackt suggested, opening the door for his friend, “At least you know that all those guys like your clothes.” Mana rolled his eyes and snatched the dress he had been wearing earlier off of the bed, heading for the bathroom to change back into it.
“I think they were looking at my legs,” Mana countered, much to Gackt’s amusement. The vocalist shrugged and grinned, earning himself another playfully annoyed look from Mana.
“Should we do anything to Adam?” Gackt asked deviously, his mind running rampant with evil thoughts, “I think he earned himself a punishment for lying to his brother like that. Besides, it’ll give us something fun to do.” As he was shutting the bathroom door, Mana stopped momentarily and glanced over his shoulder at Gackt.
“If you help me with my dress, I’ll tell you my plans for Adam,” Mana stated brightly, their minds obviously running on the same track. Gackt nodded his agreement as the door closed, sitting down to wait for the guitarist to get back into the room.
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