Title: Blind
Chapters: 1/2 (?)
Genre: Angst. Romance?
Warnings: Angst.
Ratings: PG-13
Pairings: AoixUruha
Disclaimer: I only own my imagination ♪
Synopsis: Uruha wondered. What got Aoi so full of anger so he'd smash his guitar on stage?
Comments: Okay so this little tantrum at the Nagoya's live got over-interpreted by my twisted mind.
Uruha wondered.
What got Aoi so full of anger so he'd smash his guitar on stage?
It wasn't even the smashing. It was the fact he used a guitar.
When usually, Aoi was a man who knew how to handle them, how to stroke delicately to create harmony. It was as if Aoi could speak to those pieces of wood, as if they had made a pact, that whenever he would touch them, they would of course, never miss a note, never produce any wrong sound.
Aoi was a lover to his guitars and that was why Uruha had been dazed by his gesture.
What did happen to their guitarist for him to lose his mind to that extent? On stage? In front of the fans? Of course they silently exchanged worried glances but none of them uttered a single word in front of Aoi. Because before being bandmates, they were friends, and Aoi needed them, not their reproaches.
After soothing him, making him smile through his tears, they went back on stage and spoiled him a little too much, giving him the attention he loved to get from the world around him.
The Star could finally shine, the dust covering him previously all gone and it wasn't a surprise that he insisted to apologize, by himself, to the crowd that night.
Uruha saw Aoi crying on some occasions. The last time had been at their live at the Tokyo Dome...Until that night. It seemed Aoi was full of emotions and that the only mean for him was to release them by crying.
No shame. At least, not for the moment. Maybe later Aoi would be mad at himself for this fragile side he had showed.
Uruha had been touched too by the sight, and naturally, a group hug had been inevitable around an Aoi complaining he wouldn't be able to breathe anymore.
Uruha opened his eyes in the thick darkness of his hotel room and sighed.
They were friends and Aoi hadn't told anyone about his problems. He had vaguely explained that he was too stressed, that some days he couldn't ignore all of the bad things and they had piled up until he couldn't take it anymore. Uruha didn't believe any of that. Maybe the other didn't as well and decided they would respect Aoi's silence but Uruha couldn't.
Even Aoi's work seemed to be tainted. He was still the talented guitarist he had always been, but, his work with the band wasn't as performant as before. The recording had been longer than usual, and Aoi, apart from old singles, hadn't seen any of his songs picked up for the new album.
When Ruki and him proposed mostly heavy songs, Aoi had mostly proposed ballads. He did helped Uruha on the long process of arranging guitar lines, but didn't get involved as much as in the past.
He was almost like withdrawn.
And it was worrying Uruha a bit too much tonight. He couldn't sleep, overthinking about the situation, about all of those signs he should have noticed a while ago. But even when he was trying to blame himself for that, a voice in his head was replying that Aoi had been the first person to hide his uneasiness.
He remembered their talk the day the band completed the recording...
- Coffee?
Uruha smiled and Aoi could only smile back, his beautiful hand reaching out to welcome the little treat.
- Thank you for the hard work. You really slaved yourself all these weeks, didn't you?
He blushed.
Coughed.
Tilted his head on one side and scratched the back of his head with an embarassed smile.
- I couldn't help it, sleeping was impossible so, I used my time and lost myself in the music. You know...
Aoi knew but it had been too long he was finding it hard to soothe his lonely heart in it.
- I know. It's going to be our best album, thanks to you and Ruki.
Uruha shaked a hand in the air.
- Ah no no no! We did it altogether!
A chortle. His eyes for the carpet, his silver hair hiding his pain.
- You helped me a lot for the guitar parts. As always. Without you it wouldn't have been possible, I need your light upon my work, you always find the right notes.
Aoi grinned and Uruha felt somewhat proud for chasing away that hidden sadness in his bandmate's face.
- What's with the compliments seriously. You made a bet with Reita didn't you? The first one who'll make me blush wins?
The blond laughed.
- I swear this time it's comes from the heart. I'm not trying to fool you Aoi, but, I couldn't have asked for a better stage partner as you.
And with that the lead guitarist had left, uncomfortable for being so blunt suddenly, calling out a staff member as an excuse to avoid Aoi's troubled gaze. He hadn't seen Aoi's smile afterwards.
If Uruha had allowed himself to tell such words to Aoi, it had been because, he had noticed a change in his attitude. An evident sadness...
There was this Twitter problem Aoi had had to deal with, and it seemed that even if he pretended feeling better without it, Uruha suspected the other to miss it strongly.
If there was something he had never doubted about, regarding Aoi, it was the fact this man loved to be loved and hated to be despised. At times Uruha had taken a look at his twitter and whenever Aoi was trapped in the role of the victim, he would lose his temper quickly to the pleasure of his haters and enemies.
Uruha often wondered why he did bother that much but everytime it would struck him: Aoi, despite the strong image he was trying to display, was a fragile man with a confidence that could be easily destroyed.
Where did it come from? Why would this man ever doubt about himself when he was truly admired and adored by his fans?
By Uruha even.
That was another mystery he craved to decipher.
But Uruha doubted he would get the replies he wanted.
There was a certain distance between them he couldn't fill. Maybe it was his own imagination but sometimes, it was disconcerting, how he and Aoi were supposed to be more than simple bandmates and how most of the time, they were reduced to this. Uruha was aware of the other's needs, of his consuming loneliness he was always complaining about but he had never been able to propose anything.
Aoi was intimidating and when he wasn't, Uruha was either drunk or inebriated by the adrenaline of being on stage. Being with Aoi had nothing to do as hanging around with Reita for example...The bassist had seen Uruha in the weirdest and the worst states and he could be perfectly at ease with his best friend.
Ruki was a different type of person, but the fact the singer could be as much of a dork as Reita was making it easy for Uruha to get on well with him too.
Kai was a friend Uruha was happy to rely on, mostly, and the one who could give him some great headaches when he was in the mood to talk endlessly. But being around Kai and talking with him about various subjects was only natural.
And there was Aoi.
The mysterious man with raven hair and a cocky smile, desired but lonely. A man who would show confidence on stage but shyness behind the spotlight.
It seemed too tiring for Uruha to try to understand Aoi, his complexity was at some points disconcerting. Whenever Uruha had tried to be close to him, Aoi had simply refused.
Questioning the other members of the band didn't seem like a good idea to Uruha, he knew he'd catch their attention and not in a good way. They would either worry to death and make it a problem that needed a meeting with Kai as a therapist or simply make fun of Uruha, teasing with sexual jokes or implying that their guitarists were having couple issues.
And Uruha deep down knew that if he wanted to have the replies to his questions, the best was to corner Aoi and to put cards on the table. For sure, the dark haired would feel less embarassed to talk to Uruha than all of them, to his double even because it was as if the blond was realizing it. He and Aoi were like very different twins, both holding on to the same love for guitars. They shared this special bond and without it, they would probably have been even more distant to each other than in this situation.
And because of their roles in the band, people would often assume they were close, in some sort of way.
But they were a paradox.
And this sudden and violent act had sowed doubts into Uruha's mind, had drastically troubled the way he was thinking of Aoi and of their friendship.
A friend had to be here for the other in the good and in the bad. Somehow Uruha felt like he wasn't worth their friendship because he wasn't that close to Aoi. He wasn't supportive enough.
He wasn't.
It irritated him suddenly.
He sat up on the large bed of his hotel room, eyes trying to see through the obscurity to look at the hour. Almost midnight. He was sure Aoi wasn't sleeping, because he never was before hours that weren't decent anymore. On this point, they were quite alike.
Uruha instantly imagined Aoi's back leaning against the headboard, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and his fingers strumming the cords of his acoustic guitar in the middle of the night.
He left his hotel room and quietly made his way to Aoi's one, eavesdropping.
He couldn't hear anything. Not any melancholic melody. He stood up back straight and his hand went to rest on the wooden surface of the door. Uruha sighed, looked around him, relieved to know none of his bandmates seemed wandering out of their rooms. He sighed again and tried to find the strength to knock and face Aoi but weirdly his heart was beating fast and there was a certain dizziness he felt in his body.
His supreme shyness surfacing when he had to confront reality.
A weak sound.
He thought Aoi wouldn't hear it anyway and was about to turn around and leave when the door opened and his eyes met Aoi's. Uruha smiled shyly and was about to speak when the other put a finger in front his mouth to tell Uruha not to say a word, then opened wide for him to enter his hotel room.
The taller obeyed and found himself wondering what he should do, to sit on the bed, well-no-the-bed-is-a-bad-idea-it-is-a-private-space-even-if-we-are-in-a-hotel, and finally stood awkwardly somewhere between the bed and the bathroom's door.
Aoi indicated him the bed but Uruha refused politely. He noticed Aoi wasn't smoking and remembered why, he had quit few weeks ago and seemed doing well in the process of his smoking cessation.
The older proposed a chewing-gum to Uruha but the blond refused with a movement of his head and the next seconds were only filled with the chewing noises coming from Aoi's cavity.
When he cleared his throat, Uruha focused again on the reason why he was here and he almost regreted not accepting a chewing-gum too.
- Uruha...
His full lips showed a gentle smile.
- Hm, I wanted to talk to you.
- Obviously.
Uruha didn't get the mocking tone of his bandmate, instead he pouted and wondered how he'd tackle the subject.
- Does it have something to do with my attitude on stage of today?
Aoi could read minds? Uruha let out an embarassed laugh and replied:
- Well spotted.
His silver hair looked blonde in the warm light coming from the lamp on the nighstand and Uruha found Aoi's face expressionless.
- What do you want to know that you don't already? Because I've been pretty clear earlier.
Uruha wanted to leave already without understanding a single thing from Aoi and avoid feeling like this, like he was bothering his friend.
- The real reason, not the excuse you used because you didn't feel like telling us, even though we're all friends.
Aoi crossed his arms.
- The technical problems really got me on the edge until I couldn't take it anymore.
Uruha raised an eyebrow Aoi couldn't see because of the dull lighting in the hotel room.
- Technical problems?
- Yes.
- We're used to them on tour. I mean, it's daily routine, some days are perfect and some aren't. So it must be something else that bothered you today Aoi...
The older leaned against the bathroom's door and laughed:
- Why are you making a big deal of it?
Uruha was mentally urging himself to keep calm.
- You did this on stage in front of our fans. That's why.
Aoi shook his head and went to sit on the bed.
- It could have happened anywhere else.
- So without any technical problems you would have crashed anything around you? So I'm right, there's something else Aoi.
He focused on the silver bracelet he was wearing, playing with it and it seemed he completely forgot Uruha's presence but after few seconds, he said:
- Why should I tell you anyway?
- Because I'm your friend.
Uruha thought Aoi wouldn't say anything anymore and that it would mean he could now leave his hotel room but after an uncomfortable silence, Aoi stood up from the bed and took his phone from the nightstand, put it in the back pocket of his jeans and again since he's been avoiding Uruha's eyes, he drowned in his hazel stare.
The expression on his face was almost saddening Uruha who couldn't exactly grasp what he could read. It was too complicated, countless emotions contradicting each other...And Aoi spoke again, voice soft and cold.
- I don't want you to talk to me, to come to me only because you noticed something's wrong.
- What for then Aoi? When we feel down we need friends to cheer ourselves up...
Aoi interrupted him:
- I want you to come to me because you're really interested by the perspective of knowing what kind of person I am. I'm not talking about Aoi right now, but the real me.
- You make it appear like I've never tried before.
Aoi could hear the irritation piercing through Uruha's words.
- When did you Uruha?
- Since forever. You wouldn't just let me.
This time, the older had perfectly heard the resentment coming from his bandmate. And all Aoi wanted was to snap back at him. Their voices had gradually raised, from the audible whispers to the lively conversation they were having now.
- Do you even have any example available right now?
- Plenty of them. Why did you turn off all of my demands? I've been wanting to play video games with you but all you did was to refuse, all the time.
- I don't want to play video games with you Uruha.
- Then what do you want?
Uruha hated him. He hated how it was easy for him to throw reproaches when he had his responsibility in the matter. How easy it was for Aoi to break his guitar on stage and still get love and hugs in return from everybody around. He hated how much of a piece of cake it was for him to express his emotions, to let them out without being afraid of the consequences.
He hated that even if Aoi was within reachable distance, he couldn't touch him at all. Even at this moment when he was trying to help.
What do you fucking want from me Aoi?
- Obviously not the same thing.
Aoi closed the door of his hotel room behind him, suffocating from the atmosphere filled with reproaches and questions he didn't want to reply, leaving Uruha alone with a taste of where-the-fuck-are-you-going-we-are-not-done-yet.
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Tadaaaaaa *appears swirling around* I mean of course that little something made me so curious I had to write about it with all the storyboard I create in my head all the fucking time when it's about AoixUruha...
I really let myself wander with the mind while writing this and try to understand both of them through interviews I've read until now, through random acts etc...
I don't know about the result, you tell me lol. But, it's the essence of my Aoiha love, if I can say so! If you find me weird, it's maybe the polish vodka I had yesterday that's remaining.