Tomodachi o Eien

A fic by MizunoTenshi/ Ami, a story of gig tickets and a friendship which starts to go very wrong.
Setting in Tokyo, Japan, some random usage of Japanese.

Disclaimer:I do not own L'Arc~en~Ciel, they just happen to be one of my favourite bands. Otherwise all characters in the fiction are my own work and property.

Characters

Yochino Misaki
Ainoura Ami
Sawanoguchi Hitomi
Sakamoto Ryoko
Sawanoguchi Megumi
Sakamoto Yuki
Ainoura Rika
Tange Rei

Chapter 14

'Well?' a classmate asked eagerly upon their return. It had not gone un-noticed that Misaki had seemingly replaced Ryoko.
'Ryoko was lying. She stole the ticket and it's all really complicated but trust me she won't be back in school for a while' Yurika spoke with a little undue nastiness to the enquirer but she felt hurt and betrayed. She had apologised to Misaki, Ami and Hitomi, and although all three had accepted her apologies she felt incredibly depressed inside. Misaki wanted to make amends with Yurika, she tried to talk to her kindly as a friend. She explained how she wanted to place it all behind herself, and forge a new friendship.

'Why?' Yurika asked as she sat alone on the playing fields at lunch.
'Because I can't hate anyone really.' Misaki replied with a smile 'I know you hurt me but it's not right for me to then go on hurting you' The sprightly girl acted with so much warmth it humbled Yurika somewhat. She allowed herself to cry for her misdemeanours and Misaki was there to comfort her. Ironically Misaki's actions while kindly did act as a sort of retribution. She was shown to everyone to be a truly wonderful and forgiving person, and Yurika did not dare say a word afterwards.

Misaki's goodwill extended equally to Ryoko. She went to visit a couple of evenings later, just one night before the concert. Half of her had wanted to get Ryoko a ticket, a gesture of friendship but she knew that Ami and Hitomi who while accepting the apologies with grace, couldn't help feel triumph and superiority over Ryoko, and as thus they would not like to see her there. They had not forgiven her, they would act friendly enough if they ever saw her, just to rub her face in it, but they were not like Misaki. Misaki understood her friends' feelings, they had been very hurt by the events and she let her idea go. Instead she called upon Ryoko.

'Oh Misaki-chan. Ummm I am so sorry for every...'
'It's no problem. All in the past now' Misaki made great gestures with her hands sweeping to one side to show she really wasn't too bothered anymore then smiled brightly at Yuki.
'Really? How could you just brush aside what my sister did?'
'Life's too short for hate' she chirped. 'Can I see Ryoko?'

'Ne...Hitomi-chan, did you hear what Misaki did?' Ami yelled trying to get above the raucous cheering, laughing, talking and background noise, which filled the cavernous hall.

Hitomi was only half-listening to her, it was surprising that she actually did hear Ami's voice through the din. She wondered at everything around her, from her standing place on the floor her eyes tried to take in the surroundings. The darkness of the arena only prevented by a few colourful glowing lights above her, the noise, the shouting. Girls covered in glitter and outrageous shades of eyeshadow along with various finery and sparkly clothes. The heat, it was so hot where she stood, the lights were far away but the bodies closing in made-up for that. Bodies, crowds, it was so crowded. She watched the crowds in the seating areas, the noise of whistles and singing. That was most apparent, the jubilated noise, along with neon lights that people waved in the air that punctuated the darkness. Glow in the dark sticks, glow in the dark make-up. It was so colourful, so bright and overwhelming to the senses. Hitomi was in heaven.

She spun round excited.
'I did hear yeah' she yelled back 'It's crazy but hey that's our Misaki. It's why everyone loves her. But don't think of that now Ami-chan. We're here finally and I'm gonna see Laruku I'm gonna see Laruku.' she was so happy, she began dancing in a strange little circle as she sang. A couple of other girls first watched her strangely then laughed. Ami did notice this
'Um, she's just a little excited' she explained
'Yep, so're we' the girls smiled back at Ami.
'Oh' she replied, glad that they weren't annoyed at Hitomi. But perhaps not everyone gazed at life as cynically as she did.
'We're going to see Hyde for real' one of them grinned making conversation with the two girls.
'Yep' Hitomi stopped her dance to grin back in agreement at them.

'You know what Ami' Hitomi turned back to her friend with a very serene smile across her face 'I think that given what we've been through....'
'NOOOO' Ami held her head over-dramatically in a sort of play. 'If you are going to say ANYTHING remotely corny Hitomi-chan...'
'I was going to say, that we've learnt to become better friends and what this has meant to us makes me even more excited. We've come through a lot Ami-chan. Thank you'
'NOOO THATS WHAT I MEANT' Ami cried out, but she did agree with Hitomi internally. It did mean more because they had been through so much to get there.

She was about to start a mini-play fight with Hitomi when Misaki came bounding through the crowds. Ami quite forgot about Hitomi as her other friend came into view. Her eyes were lined with a glittery glow-in-the-dark liner to compliment a light blue sparkly strappy-top and black trousers. Even her hair had glitter as she replaced her usual green bobble clips with a pair of diamante blue flowers. Over one shoulder she had flung another t-shirt of some sort and carried in her hand a rather scrunched up red box.
'Got your top then?' Ami asked as she approached.
'Yep yep' Misaki gave a great beaming smile back. 'It's such a cool strappy' she showed off the dark blue top with glittery designs all over it. Hitomi leant past Ami to examine the material, as Misaki held it up oblivious of what Misaki was saying. She found the price tag, pulled a face and nodded. Then she noticed the red cardboard box held in Misaki's firm grip and with one eye on her clueless friend, carefully removed a chocolate-tipped biscuit from the box, popped it into her mouth and stood up grinning manically at her friends with the Pocky hanging from her mouth.

'Where'd you get that?' Ami was first to notice, she still had to yell above the noise.
'Misaki'
'Where?'
'MISAKI' Hitomi pointed at the box yelling
'Why the hell have you got Pocky?' Ami turned to Misaki
'I was hungry' Misaki yelled back. As she said this the lights suddenly went out and the screams rose above a deafening level. Hitomi was no stranger to join the screaming too
'OH MY GOD THEY'RE HERE' she screamed very loudly and hugged an equally hyper Misaki. Ami put her fingers in her ears only to have them yanked out again by Misaki as the stage was illuminated in bright blue lights.
'Come on Ami-chan, cheer-up' she laughed at her funny but sullen friend. Misaki then turned back to face the stage besides Hitomi who seemed to be screaming 'HAIDO-KUN HAIDO-KUN' over and over while jumping about in a pure happy bliss as the band launched into the first bars of Loreley.