Blackmalice’s notes: hmm, it sounded like I despise Kisaki. Well, I barely know him, so, no. it was just for the sake of my plot. And thanks to MENIK for beta-ing my fic, and for bearing with my stupidity of sending the wrong file. And thanks to reguretto for posting my fic because my laptop’s acting up



Chapter 7: Meeting everyone, surprise?


“What do you think, Kyo?”

“You mean you haven’t asked him?”

“He somewhat looked content and gloomy at the same time. In this kind of mood, the chance was fifty-fifty of whether he would tell us or not.”

“Okay, now what?”

“We could ask him out. Get him drunk. Make him speak.”

“Geez, I can’t believe we’re planning to set up our own friend.”

“Do you have any better idea?”

“Do we really have to know?”

“I know you want to know, too.”

“I’m just worried, Die. You too should’ve been more worried rather than simply curious.”

“Ah, I just remember. A friend of mine is having a gig at a live house nearby. I could ask him for a free entry and beers. Sounds like a plan?”

“What are we planning actually?”

“Gah.”

“Die, you go ask Kaoru.”

“No,” Die grinned at seeing their drummer walked in after getting his drink. “Let Shin-chan ask Kaoru.”

“Perfect,” Kyo grinned along, “Kaoru has a soft spot for Shinya.”

************

The live house was fully packed with people. It was not large, but famous for having good bands performing on the stage. The four of them found their way through the mass of people, heading toward the bar.

“So,” Die opened the conversation when they finally seated, “What do you think of this place?”

“Nice,” Kaoru answered shortly, his interest caught by the current band playing. Their music was pretty good, pretty much up to this live house’s standards. He hasn’t touched his drink, and didn’t seem to have any interest on it.

Die and Kyo exchanged stares, knowing their plan to get Kaoru drunk might take a while. But then, Shinya said something… unplanned, which made them widened their eyes. “Kaoru… How was yesterday?”

Kaoru turned his head slightly, “Yesterday?”

Shinya nodded before continuing hesitantly, “You went to the sushi bar, right?”

Kaoru smiled, giving a clue to the rest that at least something good happened. He opened his mouth to answer, but then…

“NOW!! A BAND FROM NAGANO!! THEY HAVE PERFORMED QUITE A FEW TIMES HERE, AND SEEMED TO GET POPULAR FAST! GOSICK!!”

Some loud cheering could be heard from the frontlines. It was kind of rare for bands from another town to have plenty of local fans. Kaoru turned his attention back to the stage. Something in his head was telling him that this band could be good. He watched as the members walked onstage, waving at the crowd and preparing their instruments.

Then he blinked.

The bassist. The tall, long-haired bassist. Make-up and costumes covering him up, but… he could still recognize those lips, those eyes, and other features, even with the distance between the bar and the stage.

Could it be…?

The cheering continued, now they’re shouting the names of the band members.

There, he caught it.

“Toshiya,” Kaoru muttered.

“Huh?” Shinya followed his line of sight, “What?”

“Toshiya!!” Kaoru rushed to the crowd, pushing his way to the front.

“Kaoru!!” The others followed him. Kaoru ignored them. He also ignored the annoyed grumbles of people who he had been pushing aside for the sake of getting his way through the excited crowd.

“Hello, everyone! Thank you for coming! Maybe some of you haven’t heard about us. We’re Gosick from Nagano! My name’s…” The vocalist’s voice barely reached Kaoru’s ears. His attention was fixed only on the young bassist.

“…And here’s our lovely bassist, Toshiya!” Kaoru shouted Toshiya’s name instantly, but his voice was drowned in the loud cheering from the fans. A girl beside him was screaming Toshiya’s name almost hysterically. The vocalist apparently noticed her, “Yes, yes, Toshiya loves you too. Don’t you, Toshiya?”

The crowd burst out with laughter. Toshiya smiled shyly and waved at the girl, who instantly waved back rapidly while screaming, “Kawaii!!” Kaoru wondered if Toshiya noticed him, but Toshiya had already turned his head to the vocalist and nodded.

“Ok! It seems like we’re ready!” The vocalist announced as he received more nods from his other bandmates, “Are you ready??”

Kaoru’s attempt to call Toshiya failed once again as the fans cheered and the music blasted through the sound system.

************

Kaoru walked through the backstage doors. He saw the word BAND written on one of them, and he walked in through it. The large room was rather packed with people. Some preparing for their performance, some packing up their things. On one of the corner, Kaoru saw the person he had been looking for. He walked closer and called, “Toshiya.”

The said man turned his attention from his bass to Kaoru, “Kaoru!” Toshiya gasped, “You’re here!”

Kaoru smiled enthusiastically, “My friends brought me here, I have nothing better to do, so… I didn’t think I’ll meet you so soon.” His heart was still thumping with excitement, both from Toshiya’s performance and their meeting. “Why didn’t you tell me you’re in a band?”

Toshiya blushed slightly and slung his bass-case on his shoulder, “Well… We’re kinda new here, and I’m not so good either, so…”

“Not so good?!! You gotta be kidding me! You were awesome!!”

Toshiya laughed, his hands waving swiftly, “You don’t have to be nice…”

“I mean it! Oh, my, Toshiya… Damn, you were… I couldn’t explain how—” Kaoru stopped short. Before he realized what he was doing, Kaoru already had his hands around Toshiya’s. Kaoru quickly let go, despite of his enjoyment. “Sorry. I got carried away.”

“…’s okay. I-I’m glad you think that way.”

The older man scratched his head nervously, “Umm, you look great too.” He said, gesturing to the make-up on the other man’s face.

“Ah, the make-up,” Toshiya blushed, cupping his face with both of his hands, “It was too much trouble to clean it here, so I intend to do it at home. I know it must’ve been messed up already, but—”

“No, no. I said you look great. And you didn’t tie up your hair like usual.”

Toshiya chuckled, “The customers were complaining about how sushi-boy shouldn’t have long hair. I should tie it up to shut those customers a little.”

Kaoru chuckled along, “Err… Are you free now?”

The younger man nodded and patted his bass-case, “Yeah. I’ve finished my packing, and my bandmates went home already.”

Kaoru pondered a while before asking, “Do you mind meeting my friends?” Seeing the questioning look on Toshiya’s face, Kaoru hurriedly added, “If you remember, they were the ones who were with me two days ago.”

Toshiya’s eyes wandered in the process of remembering. Then he smiled to Kaoru, “Sure.”

************

“…”

Toshiya fidgeted nervously.

“…”

The tall man glanced at Kaoru, who sweatdropped and smiled apologetically, “Guys, it’s very impolite to stare. It’s not like it’s the first time you see him.”

Kyo finally closed his hanging-opened mouth and rolled his eyes towards Kaoru, “Well, yeah, but at that time we were too busy to stop you from freaking him out.”

That earned him a flushed Kaoru and a nudge on the side from Shinya. “Kyo!”

Die leaned in and whispered to Kyo, “At least we don’t have to make Kaoru drunk. They seemed to get along well.”

“Guys, please.” Kaoru threw them a slight glare.

“Kaoru even glared at us for his sake,” Die whispered more, “Such protective attitude, don’t you think?”

Shinya ignored his idiotic friends and gave Toshiya a smile, “Nice to meet you, Toshiya. My name’s Terachi Shinya, just call me Shinya.”

Kyo nodded, “Kyo.”

“Kyo-chan, to be exact.” Die added, whilst avoiding the blonde’s bites. “And you could call me Die.”

Toshiya chuckled. Kaoru lead him to take a seat on the empty ones in front of the three. Kyo, who happened to sit right across Toshiya, stared some more. “Really,” he mumbled, “You look a lot like our Toshiya.”

“Yeah,” Die agreed, “The only differences are you wear make-ups and play bass.”

Toshiya blushed, “I’m sorry about the make-up. I know it was all messed up, but Kaoru insisted that it’s okay…”

Kaoru took a piece of tissue. “But I really mean it when I said you looked good. It doesn’t matter whether the make-up’s messed up or not.” He tapped the tissue to Toshiya’s forehead and cheek. “Here, you’re sweating.”

Toshiya blushed some more, “Ah… thanks.” Kaoru realized what he was doing and blushed as well.

Kyo whispered to Die and Shinya, “Is it just me or they really seemed to get along VERY well?”

Die smirked, “Hell, I could see some sparks already…”

“But they just knew each other two days ago!” Shinya said with a higher pitch than necessary, though still in a small voice, “And Kaoru didn’t exactly give Toshiya a good first impression.”

“Aww! Little Shin-chan is jealous!” Die laughed and poked the effeminate man, whose face reddened in an instant. “W-what are you talking about?!”

“What are you talking about?” Kaoru suddenly asked, Toshiya’s curious face on his side.

“Nothing,” Shinya answered firmly and changed the subject, “Eh, Toshiya, you played the bass really well.”

Toshiya smiled shyly, “Not really…”

“Hell yeah. Your bass lines were well-made, and the feelings you delivered when you played it just… wow.” Kyo grinned. “You do have some technical mistakes, but I’m not a perfectionist like Kaoru.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Kaoru shook his head at Toshiya, “I really think you’re good at it. Don’t listen to him.”

“Since when do you play bass?” Die asked.

“Not too long ago, actually. Not even a year had passed.” Toshiya laughed, “To tell you the truth, I’ve been trying other instruments. But I was a lazy person, you see.”

Kaoru smiled, teasing slightly, “You must’ve thought ‘hey, bass must be much easier since it only had four strings!’.”

Toshiya nodded in embarrassment, “Apparently I was wrong. But my friend didn’t let me to give up on yet another instrument. He forced me to learn bass all the way.”

“Your current bandmates taught you?”

“No, I just joined this band three months ago. My friend who introduced me to the vocalist of the band was the one who taught me. When the vocalist heard me playing bass, he instantly asked me to join the band.”

“Gosh, too bad.” Kyo sighed dramatically. “I wish you could have join our band.”

Toshiya’s eyes widened, “You’re bandmates? All of you??”

“Oh, Kaoru hasn’t told you?” Kaoru blinked and shook his head whilst Die threw a knowing smile, having figured that Kaoru must’ve been too absorbed on meeting Toshiya that their second meeting must’ve lacked significant talks. “He and I played guitar, Kyo on vocal, and Shinya played drums with the strength that nobody knows where does it came from.” Die playfully raised Shinya’s hand. “I mean, look at these skinny limbs!”

Everyone laughed and Shinya smacked Die playfully on the head. Toshiya decided that he likes these crazy people. “What about the bassist?”

“Yeah, the bassist,” Kyo scrunched his face in hatred, “That’s why I said I wish you could join our band.”

“Kyo!” Shinya scolded him, “Sorry, it’s just that we… have a few problems with him.”

“Some conflict within the band?” Toshiya asked, but then realized that he might’ve sounded too nosey. “It’s okay if you want to keep it to yourselves.”

“No, it’s okay.” Kaoru stated quickly, making Kyo and Die snickered at each other. Their leader was obviously head over heels with their new acquaintance.

“Well, I don’t mind to tell you, though,” Kyo shrugged. “Our bassist thinks of himself as the king of absolute idealism.”

Toshiya raised an eyebrow. Die laughed, “Sorry, Toshiya. This midget –ouch, Kyo, stop that— really despises him, because he is a man full of idealism himself. Two idealists never get along well with each other, see?” He shoved the growling Kyo away, “So our bassist Kisaki doesn’t want to go major, because for him everything is enough and going major would just put a cage around our freedom on making music.”

“Smart talk, Die.” Shinya chuckled, enjoying the pout from the red-head who usually was the one who teased him.

“Hmm,” Toshiya smiled, somewhat sadly, “There seemed to be a lot of people like that.”

Kyo’s eyes sparkled with interest. He leaned in towards Toshiya. “Don’t tell me… you’re current bandmates…?”

“Oh, shut it, Kyo!” Kaoru glared at the shorter man. Obviously, Kyo was talking his way to get Toshiya inside the band. But it’s not … ethic to just hop in from one band to another. And it’s not like Toshiya would want it. Added with the fact that they just knew each other, that was somewhat rude.

“What? It’s not like you don’t want him to—uuumh!” Kyo struggled, but Die clasped his hands firm on Kyo’s mouth. The red head noticed that although Kaoru has the same thought as Kyo, their leader tried his best to make Toshiya comfortable around them all. And Kyo’s careless attitude might screw it all.

“Just ignore him.”

Toshiya giggled amusedly, “Your band seemed pretty lively. I would love to see you guys on the stage. Any live scheduled sometime soon?”

Kaoru’s expression was a mix of pleasure and regret. “Uh, no. But I’ll surely tell you as soon as possible when we have a plan on that.”

“Perfect.” Toshiya grinned, and Kaoru found himself lost for the umpteenth time in those sincere eyes.

“Toshiya!”

A voice called out, and Toshiya turned his head to see a man waving at him. His eyes widened and he slapped his head, “Oh my! How could I forgot!”

“Is there something wrong?”

Toshiya smiled apologetically, “I’m supposed to meet my friend after the live! And to think that I almost went home straight away!”

“Oh,” Disappointment filled Kaoru’s face, but he quickly hid it.

“I have to thank you for keeping me here, I guess.” Toshiya smiled at Kaoru, who couldn’t help but smile back although he didn’t want him to go.

“Umm… Toshiya,” Kaoru spoke, “I can still meet you tomorrow, right?”

“Of course, Kaoru. You don’t have to ask that all the time.” Toshiya laughed freely, while Kaoru blushed and the others snickered. The tall man then waved to all of them. “Nice to meet you all! See ya!”

“He’s gone, Kaoru. You can stop blushing now.”

“Shut up, Die.”

************
Tbc~
Somehow I didn’t like this chapter very much… but, uh, comments anyone?
I promise the next chapter would come sooner ^_~