Forever & Ever 4.2
Title: Forever & Ever (Miseinen Sequel)
Author: Zion Shadowlet
Beta: butterflysaga(the bitch)
Characters: Aoi, Uruha, Ruki, Reita, Kai and many OCs (Fuwa etc.)
Pairing: Aoi/Uruha and more~
Genre: Drama, Romance, Friendship, Comedy
Rating: NC17
Summary: Six years have passed since the summer at the Dazai Bright Future Retreat for Troubled Children. The boys meet in an unexpected way perhaps bound by fate in the underground world of Visual Kei. With broken hearts and promises; the boys-now young men look to regain some of what they lost by the wild and reckless pursuit of the same dream.
Previous Parts: Part 1.1 | Part 1.2 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4.1
(MAKE SURE YOU'VE READ PART 4.1!)
Uruha stared at the phone for several minutes. He didn’t think that Aoi would call back. But for some reason, he just stared at it as it laid there, its dead weight cradled in the jack. Perhaps, he wanted to still be in that moment, on the phone with him.
Breaking his thoughts, several loud knocks slammed against the front door.
He looked up at it. More knocks.
Getting to his feet, he opened the door to find Seiko standing there. Her hands were full with what looked like a cake box, her shiny pink purse dangling in the crook of her arm. She must have knocked with her foot, Uruha realized hence the volume. He stared at her wondering why she had a cake with her.
“Can you take this, silly?” she smiled, tossing her pretty head to the side. She must have gone to the salon earlier because her bleached blonde hair was perfect. She wore bronzer over her tanned cheeks and ice pink lipstick.
Uruha grabbed the box from her and walking into the kitchen, set it down on the counter.
“Kouyou, honey, I tried to call you on my way here but I couldn’t get through,” she said as she pulled off her pink pumps. Even though it was freezing outside, she was wearing a white flowing short skirt.
“I was talking to someone,” he said as he watched her put herself back together, straightening up her skirt and fixing her hair.
“Guess what that is,” she smiled.
“A cake.”
“Not just any cake,” she frayed out her fingers, their French manicured tips little dancing specks of white. “It’s for our 3 month anniversary.”
“Doesn’t anniversary refer to years,” Uruha said, killing the magic.
“Silly baby,” she said pecking him on the forehead. “3 is our lucky number.”
“Why?”
“Because I want it to be,” she laughed, happily. “If you want the truth, the cake place was having a sale this week and the girl that works there makes the cutest cakes! And I mean the CUTEST!!!” she popped open the box to reveal the cake.
On the top was two random cute little chibi people kissing. Surrounding them in pink, blue and yellow frosting were hearts and stars with happy smiling faces on them.
“It’s strawberry with banana too! Isn’t it so cute?!” She looked at him for approval.
He stared down blankly at the cake. It was kinda cute. In a sick Kawaii kind of way. “It’s cute,” he admitted.
“Okay, let’s pull out the champagne and celebrate!” she said with gusto. “You don’t have any plans right?” she asked quickly.
He shook his head no.
She quickly pulled out the champagne that she knew the Takashimas always kept. Both of them were arguably alcoholics. Quite an unattractive feature for a woman, Seiko thought thinking of her beloved little handsome Ko-chan’s frumpy plain sister.
“Before you touch it, let’s take a photo first!” she said setting the glasses down. She pulled out her camera from her little purse. She took several frames of the super Kawaii cake. “Alright, one together!” she announced and snuggling up next to her cool, guitarist boyfriend, held the camera up at a high angle in the air, puffed out her pink ice lips and widened her eyes. Uruha realizing that he should pose in some way, curled his lips like Billy Idol and gave the camera a peace sign.
After she finished taking the photo, she looked at it in the little screen on the back of the camera. “Oh my God, Kouyou, we are so cute!” she said with a charming, girly laugh.
***
Moon Lady was one of those types of restaurants whose clientele consisted mostly of truck drivers and construction workers. Even the outside didn’t even look respectable. It was nestled in with a bunch of small, rinky-dink businesses that catered to the lower middle class. Its front consisted of old woodened panels on the top of which the name of the business was etched out in English; “Moon Lady” written in white paint, trailing off into the silhouette of a naked woman lying down. Certainly wasn’t the kind of establishment that most women would walk into.
Aoi was surprised that Kai would work at a place like this.
The four of them walked inside. There must have been about 5 other patrons in the place, mostly middle aged men eating their food and watching the baseball game that was being projected from a small black television nestled into the corner.
As soon as they entered, Aoi immediately recognized Kai’s laugh. He stood there behind the counter, leaning forward and smiling at what he expected would be the last thing he’d see in Moon Lady: a young woman. She sat there, covering her mouth politely. Her long black hair dancing across the middle of her back. She was wearing a long crème colored skirt.
Aoi could immediately tell that Kai was into her. He tilted his head and he laughed charmingly.
“Yutaka!!” Kawai said loudly as he approached him.
“Hey,” he smiled at him.
“Guess who I brought?” he pointed with his thumb back at Aoi.
Kai surprised, dragged his eyes over to his old friend’s face.
“Oh!” his mouth dropped. “AOI!” he quickly rushed around the counter and hugged his friend.
“Kai!” he patted him on the back.
“Wow!” he pulled away and gave him a good look up and down. “You have a lip piercing now.”
“Yeah,” Aoi smiled.
Everyone in the restaurant was watching them.
“Wow, it’s really great to see you,” Kai smiled. He seemed young and healthy, Aoi noted. “Please sit down,” he said excitedly, directing them to the chairs in front of the counter. “Wow,” he looked at Aoi once more and then smiling happily, quickly went to get them tea, leaving the four of them briefly alone with the young woman he was just talking to.
“Hello,” Kawai said to her politely.
“Hello,” she said back. The girl had very clean features. She wasn’t extremely pretty but there was something comforting about her face. Aoi giving her a quick look put her down as the nurturing type. He wondered if she liked Kai back.
“Here you go,” Kai said emerging from the back and lining up the tea cups for the four of them. “Oh, I’m sorry!” he giggled. “Mr. Johnson it’s a pleasure to see you again too! I just got carried away with seeing Aoi,” he bowed apologetically. “And hello,” he said to D’Marcus.
Before he could properly greet him, Mr. Johnson interrupted. “No problem! This is my nephew D’Marcus.”
“Oh!” Kai smiled and nodded. “I’m Uke Yutaka,” he bowed. “Some people call me Kai though,” he smiled widely and extended his hand.
D’Marcus in disbelief that this guy could constantly smile like that tentatively lifted up his hand and shook his. Kai nodded repeatedly and quickly went to pouring them tea.
“So, can I get you anything to eat-Oh, I’m sorry!” he threw his hands in his face embarrassedly and laughed. “This is Haru. Her father owns this restaurant,” he said gesturing to the girl.
Oh, so that’s why you work here, Aoi wanted to say but kept quiet and smiled.
“This is Mr. Kawai. He was a counselor of mine when I was teenager and this is Mr. Johnson. He was my Judo instructor and this is my old friend Shiroyama Yuu.”
“Nice to meet you,” she smiled sweetly.
“Whatever is fast and cheap,” Kawai said answering his previous question. He looked at the other three and since they made no objections, he turned back and nodded for the four of them.
“Alrighty. I’ll give you today’s special then!” Kai smiled yet again and quickly turned around to prepare the food. Since it was already made, it didn’t take long to serve them. “Here you go,” he said happily and placed the bowls of food in front of each of them. When he set the food in front of D’Marcus, he said in English “Hot. Spicy” causing the young man to start laughing.
“I speak Japanese,” he said to him.
“Oh!” Kai giggled. “I’m so sorry. I just-”
“I understand,” D’Marcus smiled.
“You know who you look like?” Kai said suddenly.
“If you say Denzel Washington I am going to flip,” he joked. Most Japanese people thought he looked like every famous black person in the world. He could kinda understand the way they thought though. For the most part, they never saw black people in real life. Back home in the States, a lot of his friends thought that all Asian people looked alike. Unlike him, they couldn’t tell the difference between a Korean person and a Japanese person.
“No, no, no,” Kai laughed. “You look somewhat like Sam Cooke. Do you know him?”
“Do I?” D’Marcus laughed, shocked. “How do you know him?”
“I’m a musician,” he smiled.
“Ohhhhh…” he nodded.
“He does, kinda,” his uncle agreed, looking at him.
“I don’t know if I can accept that compliment,” D’Marcus shook his head and looked down at his food.
Kai smiling-as usual, looked at Aoi. “So?” he said.
“I’m good,” he mumbled as he ate.
“That’s it? Good?” he folded his arms and leaned against the counter.
“Well, I met up with Uruha and Ruki.” He picked up one of the white napkins and wiped his mouth off.
“Really?” Kai smiled and leaned in.
“Yup,” he nodded as he started working on his food once more.
“How?”
“Well, I saw Uruha last December. We talked a bit and then I didn’t see him again until a couple weeks ago when I ran into him and Ruki at the Sakana Sakura.”
“Sakana Sakura?”
“Yeah, it’s a livehouse.”
“Oh, I know. I’ve played there before actually.”
“Oh don’t fucking tell me, you are in a band to?” Aoi asked, shocked.
“Of course I am! Didn’t I tell you that I was going to do that?” Kai giggled.
“Well, I didn’t believe it!”
“Yeah, my band is doing pretty well I think. We have a manager and I think we may be getting a contract with an Indie label soon.”
Aoi shook his head with a mix of disappointment and happiness. “Let me guess, you sing?”
“Sing?!”
“No, you play bass?” Aoi asked.
“Bass?!” Kai laughed, playing along.
“No, you are a guitarist?”
“Guitarist?!”
“No, you play the keyboard?”
“Keyboard?!”
“No, you play the clarinet?”
“Clarinet?!”
“No, I know!! You play the triangle!”
“Triangle?!”
“Ok, you two stupid sonavabitches continue with this shit, I am going to deck you both in the face,” Kawai interjected.
“I’m guessing that you play the drums?” D’Marcus said wiping his mouth off.
Kai nodded. “Yup!”
Haru smiled to herself and looked down.
“He’s cute when he’s happy, right?” Aoi asked her.
The poor girl blushed madly. Somewhat impulsively, she quickly got to her feet and bowed. “I have to go,” and hurried out the back door.
“Wow,” Kawai said blankly. “That came out of nowhere.”
“You scared her away!!!” Mr. Johnson announced, breaking his long silence.
“So, you like her right?” Aoi lifted up his eyebrows suggestively.
“Er…yeah but…to be honest,” Kai sighed. “I don’t think she’s interested in me.”
“I beg to differ~” Aoi brought the bowl to his mouth and drank up the rest of the broth.
Kai didn’t continue with the subject. He folded his arms and took a long sigh. “So, are you in a band then?” he asked Aoi.
“Yup. But me and Uruha and Ruki are thinking about forming a band together. We’re looking for a bassist and a drummer if you are interested,” he smiled.
“Don’t put pressure on me!” Kai giggled. “I don’t know. I really like the band I am in now,” he nodded.
“Sure thing,” Aoi said. He smiled and looked up at Kai standing there. “You seem really happy.” His tone was sincere and serious. He didn’t care that the other three were there.
“I am happy,” he smiled sweetly at his friend. He didn’t quite understand where that was coming from but from the way Aoi looked, he could tell that the last 6 years hadn’t been kind to him. He wanted to ask about Uruha but something told him to steer away from it. Aoi had said that they had seen each other in December and then met up again several weeks ago. If they didn’t immediately get back together that must have meant that they both had moved on. “So how are Uruha and Ruki?” he asked.
“Good for the most part. Uruha is staying with his sister. He plays guitar. Ruki is living out of a car. He used to play drums for Madie=Anubis-”
“No shit! I saw them! I couldn’t get a good look at the drummer though….that singer…”
“Yeah, I know. He’s beautiful.”
“He’s a prick,” Kai spat out. “I couldn’t stand watching him up there. He was so full of himself and his lyrics…God, they were awful.”
“How were the drums?” Aoi smiled.
Kai looked reluctant to answer the question. “Um…The only thing I am going to say is that I play better than him.”
Aoi laughed. “Doesn’t matter. Ruki is going to sing in our next band whenever we get around to forming it.”
“Sounds like a done deal,” Kai folded his arms and leaned against the back wall.
The other three just ate patiently listening to their conversation.
“Pretty much is,” he smiled.
“Well, I wish you luck,” Kai said tenderly. “Do you have a phone number?” he suddenly asked.
“Uh no…” Aoi said pulling out his little black book. “Give me your number. I have Uruha’s new one in here.” He flipped through the pages and coming upon Uruha’s handed it to Kai who copied it down and then wrote his in there.
“That is my home phone, the second one is the number to this place and the third is my manager’s number.”
“Great,” Aoi nodded.
“So, we can catch up more one on one, later right? Do you have plans this evening?”
“Um…I don’t think I have anything to do. You want to go out and get some drinks or something?”
“Sounds great! I’m done here at 8. I can meet you some place.”
“Err how about the Blue Ribbon? Do you know that place?”
“Is that a bar?”
“Yeah.”
“Write down the address,” Kai said handing him a napkin and a pen. Once Aoi had wrote it down, he looked at it, folded it up and put it in his back pocket. “Well, how have you two been doing?” he asked Mr. Johnson and Kawai. “I had no idea you two were friends.”
“We’ve been working with each other for almost 10 years now,” Kawai said. “Can we smoke in here?”
“Sure.”
“Well, the Retreat closed its doors,” Kawai said pulling out a cigarette.
“When?” Aoi asked.
“About a couple years ago. Kuramoto passed away and Dazai, who started the place with him, couldn’t go on without him. You know how it is,” he nodded.
Kai and Aoi went quiet.
“I loved that old guy,” Aoi said with a small smile, remembering that time they were sitting in the garden and he recited that poem about monkeys to him. “Well, he is with his wife now.”
“Damn straight! Loving up in Heaven,” Kawai agreed. “Do you have beer?” he asked Kai who nodding quickly pulled out four from the fridge and gave each of them one. “We only worked there in the summer you know,” he said taking a drink.
“So what are you up to now?” Aoi asked.
“Well, I work at a school here in Tokyo and Mr. Johnson runs his own Dojo. He’s getting married in a couple months by the way.”
“Really?” Kai smiled.
“Yes!” Mr. Johnson nodded. “Her name is Mary,” he pulled out his wallet and presented a photograph of him and her. She was an impossibly short chubby Chinese woman with a really pleasant face. “She’s just lovely,” Mr. Johnson said adoringly as he looked at the picture of the two of them standing in front of the Niagara Falls, his tall muscular form towering over her. Even though he was so much greater in size, one however, could easily tell by looking at the picture that she was the dominant person in the relationship.
“Is she American?” Kai asked, handing Aoi the photograph.
“No. She’s from Hong Kong. She doesn’t speak English. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese,” he smiled.
“I see! Well, Congratulations!” Kai patted him on the shoulder.
“Thank you,” he smiled.
“How is everyone else then?” Aoi asked looking at Kawai and handing the picture back to Mr. Johnson.
“Well, Dazai is living in Shikoku at the moment. He moved there with his wife and two kids. Kodama met some Canadian woman and now, he’s living in Montreal. Fuwa is living in Tokyo last time I checked-”
Before he could continue, Kai interrupted “Seriously?” he said with a smile.
“Well, it’s not for any good reasons…I mean…Its unfortunate,” he said with a deep chug of his beer.
“What do you mean?” Aoi asked.
“Him and Isao had to move up here because Isao got real sick you see,” he nodded. “Hospitals are better in the city so…” he stared at the counter, his mind off elsewhere.
“Poor Fuwa,” Mr. Johnson said. D’Marcus, feeling he had no place in the conversation just played with the paper on his bottle.
“That’s harsh,” Kai said in a low voice.
“That’s getting older,” Kawai responded with a shake of his head. “It sucks…it certainly sucks. Can I have another?”
“Sure,” Kai said, fetching him another. “Is there a way you think we can meet up with him. I’m sure, Ruki will really want to see him.”
“Um…I’ll tell you what. I don’t have his number on me at the moment but how about we do that little phone number exchanging thing and you can call me or I can call you.”
Kai nodded and handing him a pen, started writing his own contact information down.
“You seem tired,” Aoi said to Kawai.
“Huh?” Kawai realizing what Aoi was talking about shook his head. “Life has been rough for me too. I got divorced last year and I don’t know…things just aren’t the same,” with another shake of his head, he took a long drink.
“Here,” Kai handed him his number and Kawai, in turned handed him his. “I’m sorry by the way,” Kai said looking at D’Marcus.
“Hm?” he looked up at him surprised.
“For talking like this, leaving you out.”
“Huh? Oh god no, I mean I understand. Please, don’t worry about me,” he smiled handsomely.
[A/N So I decided to post this longish part as a whole chapter because these beginning chaps are meant to set things up but at the same time, I still want you readers to feel like each day you get to read something with value and "meat" so to speak. My schedule is really weird so I'm not posting at the same time of day for the first weak or so. I have sporadic rehearsal times and my friend is staying over so I have to steal some time away to post!]
Author: Zion Shadowlet
Beta: butterflysaga(the bitch)
Characters: Aoi, Uruha, Ruki, Reita, Kai and many OCs (Fuwa etc.)
Pairing: Aoi/Uruha and more~
Genre: Drama, Romance, Friendship, Comedy
Rating: NC17
Summary: Six years have passed since the summer at the Dazai Bright Future Retreat for Troubled Children. The boys meet in an unexpected way perhaps bound by fate in the underground world of Visual Kei. With broken hearts and promises; the boys-now young men look to regain some of what they lost by the wild and reckless pursuit of the same dream.
Previous Parts: Part 1.1 | Part 1.2 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4.1
(MAKE SURE YOU'VE READ PART 4.1!)
Uruha stared at the phone for several minutes. He didn’t think that Aoi would call back. But for some reason, he just stared at it as it laid there, its dead weight cradled in the jack. Perhaps, he wanted to still be in that moment, on the phone with him.
Breaking his thoughts, several loud knocks slammed against the front door.
He looked up at it. More knocks.
Getting to his feet, he opened the door to find Seiko standing there. Her hands were full with what looked like a cake box, her shiny pink purse dangling in the crook of her arm. She must have knocked with her foot, Uruha realized hence the volume. He stared at her wondering why she had a cake with her.
“Can you take this, silly?” she smiled, tossing her pretty head to the side. She must have gone to the salon earlier because her bleached blonde hair was perfect. She wore bronzer over her tanned cheeks and ice pink lipstick.
Uruha grabbed the box from her and walking into the kitchen, set it down on the counter.
“Kouyou, honey, I tried to call you on my way here but I couldn’t get through,” she said as she pulled off her pink pumps. Even though it was freezing outside, she was wearing a white flowing short skirt.
“I was talking to someone,” he said as he watched her put herself back together, straightening up her skirt and fixing her hair.
“Guess what that is,” she smiled.
“A cake.”
“Not just any cake,” she frayed out her fingers, their French manicured tips little dancing specks of white. “It’s for our 3 month anniversary.”
“Doesn’t anniversary refer to years,” Uruha said, killing the magic.
“Silly baby,” she said pecking him on the forehead. “3 is our lucky number.”
“Why?”
“Because I want it to be,” she laughed, happily. “If you want the truth, the cake place was having a sale this week and the girl that works there makes the cutest cakes! And I mean the CUTEST!!!” she popped open the box to reveal the cake.
On the top was two random cute little chibi people kissing. Surrounding them in pink, blue and yellow frosting were hearts and stars with happy smiling faces on them.
“It’s strawberry with banana too! Isn’t it so cute?!” She looked at him for approval.
He stared down blankly at the cake. It was kinda cute. In a sick Kawaii kind of way. “It’s cute,” he admitted.
“Okay, let’s pull out the champagne and celebrate!” she said with gusto. “You don’t have any plans right?” she asked quickly.
He shook his head no.
She quickly pulled out the champagne that she knew the Takashimas always kept. Both of them were arguably alcoholics. Quite an unattractive feature for a woman, Seiko thought thinking of her beloved little handsome Ko-chan’s frumpy plain sister.
“Before you touch it, let’s take a photo first!” she said setting the glasses down. She pulled out her camera from her little purse. She took several frames of the super Kawaii cake. “Alright, one together!” she announced and snuggling up next to her cool, guitarist boyfriend, held the camera up at a high angle in the air, puffed out her pink ice lips and widened her eyes. Uruha realizing that he should pose in some way, curled his lips like Billy Idol and gave the camera a peace sign.
After she finished taking the photo, she looked at it in the little screen on the back of the camera. “Oh my God, Kouyou, we are so cute!” she said with a charming, girly laugh.
***
Moon Lady was one of those types of restaurants whose clientele consisted mostly of truck drivers and construction workers. Even the outside didn’t even look respectable. It was nestled in with a bunch of small, rinky-dink businesses that catered to the lower middle class. Its front consisted of old woodened panels on the top of which the name of the business was etched out in English; “Moon Lady” written in white paint, trailing off into the silhouette of a naked woman lying down. Certainly wasn’t the kind of establishment that most women would walk into.
Aoi was surprised that Kai would work at a place like this.
The four of them walked inside. There must have been about 5 other patrons in the place, mostly middle aged men eating their food and watching the baseball game that was being projected from a small black television nestled into the corner.
As soon as they entered, Aoi immediately recognized Kai’s laugh. He stood there behind the counter, leaning forward and smiling at what he expected would be the last thing he’d see in Moon Lady: a young woman. She sat there, covering her mouth politely. Her long black hair dancing across the middle of her back. She was wearing a long crème colored skirt.
Aoi could immediately tell that Kai was into her. He tilted his head and he laughed charmingly.
“Yutaka!!” Kawai said loudly as he approached him.
“Hey,” he smiled at him.
“Guess who I brought?” he pointed with his thumb back at Aoi.
Kai surprised, dragged his eyes over to his old friend’s face.
“Oh!” his mouth dropped. “AOI!” he quickly rushed around the counter and hugged his friend.
“Kai!” he patted him on the back.
“Wow!” he pulled away and gave him a good look up and down. “You have a lip piercing now.”
“Yeah,” Aoi smiled.
Everyone in the restaurant was watching them.
“Wow, it’s really great to see you,” Kai smiled. He seemed young and healthy, Aoi noted. “Please sit down,” he said excitedly, directing them to the chairs in front of the counter. “Wow,” he looked at Aoi once more and then smiling happily, quickly went to get them tea, leaving the four of them briefly alone with the young woman he was just talking to.
“Hello,” Kawai said to her politely.
“Hello,” she said back. The girl had very clean features. She wasn’t extremely pretty but there was something comforting about her face. Aoi giving her a quick look put her down as the nurturing type. He wondered if she liked Kai back.
“Here you go,” Kai said emerging from the back and lining up the tea cups for the four of them. “Oh, I’m sorry!” he giggled. “Mr. Johnson it’s a pleasure to see you again too! I just got carried away with seeing Aoi,” he bowed apologetically. “And hello,” he said to D’Marcus.
Before he could properly greet him, Mr. Johnson interrupted. “No problem! This is my nephew D’Marcus.”
“Oh!” Kai smiled and nodded. “I’m Uke Yutaka,” he bowed. “Some people call me Kai though,” he smiled widely and extended his hand.
D’Marcus in disbelief that this guy could constantly smile like that tentatively lifted up his hand and shook his. Kai nodded repeatedly and quickly went to pouring them tea.
“So, can I get you anything to eat-Oh, I’m sorry!” he threw his hands in his face embarrassedly and laughed. “This is Haru. Her father owns this restaurant,” he said gesturing to the girl.
Oh, so that’s why you work here, Aoi wanted to say but kept quiet and smiled.
“This is Mr. Kawai. He was a counselor of mine when I was teenager and this is Mr. Johnson. He was my Judo instructor and this is my old friend Shiroyama Yuu.”
“Nice to meet you,” she smiled sweetly.
“Whatever is fast and cheap,” Kawai said answering his previous question. He looked at the other three and since they made no objections, he turned back and nodded for the four of them.
“Alrighty. I’ll give you today’s special then!” Kai smiled yet again and quickly turned around to prepare the food. Since it was already made, it didn’t take long to serve them. “Here you go,” he said happily and placed the bowls of food in front of each of them. When he set the food in front of D’Marcus, he said in English “Hot. Spicy” causing the young man to start laughing.
“I speak Japanese,” he said to him.
“Oh!” Kai giggled. “I’m so sorry. I just-”
“I understand,” D’Marcus smiled.
“You know who you look like?” Kai said suddenly.
“If you say Denzel Washington I am going to flip,” he joked. Most Japanese people thought he looked like every famous black person in the world. He could kinda understand the way they thought though. For the most part, they never saw black people in real life. Back home in the States, a lot of his friends thought that all Asian people looked alike. Unlike him, they couldn’t tell the difference between a Korean person and a Japanese person.
“No, no, no,” Kai laughed. “You look somewhat like Sam Cooke. Do you know him?”
“Do I?” D’Marcus laughed, shocked. “How do you know him?”
“I’m a musician,” he smiled.
“Ohhhhh…” he nodded.
“He does, kinda,” his uncle agreed, looking at him.
“I don’t know if I can accept that compliment,” D’Marcus shook his head and looked down at his food.
Kai smiling-as usual, looked at Aoi. “So?” he said.
“I’m good,” he mumbled as he ate.
“That’s it? Good?” he folded his arms and leaned against the counter.
“Well, I met up with Uruha and Ruki.” He picked up one of the white napkins and wiped his mouth off.
“Really?” Kai smiled and leaned in.
“Yup,” he nodded as he started working on his food once more.
“How?”
“Well, I saw Uruha last December. We talked a bit and then I didn’t see him again until a couple weeks ago when I ran into him and Ruki at the Sakana Sakura.”
“Sakana Sakura?”
“Yeah, it’s a livehouse.”
“Oh, I know. I’ve played there before actually.”
“Oh don’t fucking tell me, you are in a band to?” Aoi asked, shocked.
“Of course I am! Didn’t I tell you that I was going to do that?” Kai giggled.
“Well, I didn’t believe it!”
“Yeah, my band is doing pretty well I think. We have a manager and I think we may be getting a contract with an Indie label soon.”
Aoi shook his head with a mix of disappointment and happiness. “Let me guess, you sing?”
“Sing?!”
“No, you play bass?” Aoi asked.
“Bass?!” Kai laughed, playing along.
“No, you are a guitarist?”
“Guitarist?!”
“No, you play the keyboard?”
“Keyboard?!”
“No, you play the clarinet?”
“Clarinet?!”
“No, I know!! You play the triangle!”
“Triangle?!”
“Ok, you two stupid sonavabitches continue with this shit, I am going to deck you both in the face,” Kawai interjected.
“I’m guessing that you play the drums?” D’Marcus said wiping his mouth off.
Kai nodded. “Yup!”
Haru smiled to herself and looked down.
“He’s cute when he’s happy, right?” Aoi asked her.
The poor girl blushed madly. Somewhat impulsively, she quickly got to her feet and bowed. “I have to go,” and hurried out the back door.
“Wow,” Kawai said blankly. “That came out of nowhere.”
“You scared her away!!!” Mr. Johnson announced, breaking his long silence.
“So, you like her right?” Aoi lifted up his eyebrows suggestively.
“Er…yeah but…to be honest,” Kai sighed. “I don’t think she’s interested in me.”
“I beg to differ~” Aoi brought the bowl to his mouth and drank up the rest of the broth.
Kai didn’t continue with the subject. He folded his arms and took a long sigh. “So, are you in a band then?” he asked Aoi.
“Yup. But me and Uruha and Ruki are thinking about forming a band together. We’re looking for a bassist and a drummer if you are interested,” he smiled.
“Don’t put pressure on me!” Kai giggled. “I don’t know. I really like the band I am in now,” he nodded.
“Sure thing,” Aoi said. He smiled and looked up at Kai standing there. “You seem really happy.” His tone was sincere and serious. He didn’t care that the other three were there.
“I am happy,” he smiled sweetly at his friend. He didn’t quite understand where that was coming from but from the way Aoi looked, he could tell that the last 6 years hadn’t been kind to him. He wanted to ask about Uruha but something told him to steer away from it. Aoi had said that they had seen each other in December and then met up again several weeks ago. If they didn’t immediately get back together that must have meant that they both had moved on. “So how are Uruha and Ruki?” he asked.
“Good for the most part. Uruha is staying with his sister. He plays guitar. Ruki is living out of a car. He used to play drums for Madie=Anubis-”
“No shit! I saw them! I couldn’t get a good look at the drummer though….that singer…”
“Yeah, I know. He’s beautiful.”
“He’s a prick,” Kai spat out. “I couldn’t stand watching him up there. He was so full of himself and his lyrics…God, they were awful.”
“How were the drums?” Aoi smiled.
Kai looked reluctant to answer the question. “Um…The only thing I am going to say is that I play better than him.”
Aoi laughed. “Doesn’t matter. Ruki is going to sing in our next band whenever we get around to forming it.”
“Sounds like a done deal,” Kai folded his arms and leaned against the back wall.
The other three just ate patiently listening to their conversation.
“Pretty much is,” he smiled.
“Well, I wish you luck,” Kai said tenderly. “Do you have a phone number?” he suddenly asked.
“Uh no…” Aoi said pulling out his little black book. “Give me your number. I have Uruha’s new one in here.” He flipped through the pages and coming upon Uruha’s handed it to Kai who copied it down and then wrote his in there.
“That is my home phone, the second one is the number to this place and the third is my manager’s number.”
“Great,” Aoi nodded.
“So, we can catch up more one on one, later right? Do you have plans this evening?”
“Um…I don’t think I have anything to do. You want to go out and get some drinks or something?”
“Sounds great! I’m done here at 8. I can meet you some place.”
“Err how about the Blue Ribbon? Do you know that place?”
“Is that a bar?”
“Yeah.”
“Write down the address,” Kai said handing him a napkin and a pen. Once Aoi had wrote it down, he looked at it, folded it up and put it in his back pocket. “Well, how have you two been doing?” he asked Mr. Johnson and Kawai. “I had no idea you two were friends.”
“We’ve been working with each other for almost 10 years now,” Kawai said. “Can we smoke in here?”
“Sure.”
“Well, the Retreat closed its doors,” Kawai said pulling out a cigarette.
“When?” Aoi asked.
“About a couple years ago. Kuramoto passed away and Dazai, who started the place with him, couldn’t go on without him. You know how it is,” he nodded.
Kai and Aoi went quiet.
“I loved that old guy,” Aoi said with a small smile, remembering that time they were sitting in the garden and he recited that poem about monkeys to him. “Well, he is with his wife now.”
“Damn straight! Loving up in Heaven,” Kawai agreed. “Do you have beer?” he asked Kai who nodding quickly pulled out four from the fridge and gave each of them one. “We only worked there in the summer you know,” he said taking a drink.
“So what are you up to now?” Aoi asked.
“Well, I work at a school here in Tokyo and Mr. Johnson runs his own Dojo. He’s getting married in a couple months by the way.”
“Really?” Kai smiled.
“Yes!” Mr. Johnson nodded. “Her name is Mary,” he pulled out his wallet and presented a photograph of him and her. She was an impossibly short chubby Chinese woman with a really pleasant face. “She’s just lovely,” Mr. Johnson said adoringly as he looked at the picture of the two of them standing in front of the Niagara Falls, his tall muscular form towering over her. Even though he was so much greater in size, one however, could easily tell by looking at the picture that she was the dominant person in the relationship.
“Is she American?” Kai asked, handing Aoi the photograph.
“No. She’s from Hong Kong. She doesn’t speak English. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese,” he smiled.
“I see! Well, Congratulations!” Kai patted him on the shoulder.
“Thank you,” he smiled.
“How is everyone else then?” Aoi asked looking at Kawai and handing the picture back to Mr. Johnson.
“Well, Dazai is living in Shikoku at the moment. He moved there with his wife and two kids. Kodama met some Canadian woman and now, he’s living in Montreal. Fuwa is living in Tokyo last time I checked-”
Before he could continue, Kai interrupted “Seriously?” he said with a smile.
“Well, it’s not for any good reasons…I mean…Its unfortunate,” he said with a deep chug of his beer.
“What do you mean?” Aoi asked.
“Him and Isao had to move up here because Isao got real sick you see,” he nodded. “Hospitals are better in the city so…” he stared at the counter, his mind off elsewhere.
“Poor Fuwa,” Mr. Johnson said. D’Marcus, feeling he had no place in the conversation just played with the paper on his bottle.
“That’s harsh,” Kai said in a low voice.
“That’s getting older,” Kawai responded with a shake of his head. “It sucks…it certainly sucks. Can I have another?”
“Sure,” Kai said, fetching him another. “Is there a way you think we can meet up with him. I’m sure, Ruki will really want to see him.”
“Um…I’ll tell you what. I don’t have his number on me at the moment but how about we do that little phone number exchanging thing and you can call me or I can call you.”
Kai nodded and handing him a pen, started writing his own contact information down.
“You seem tired,” Aoi said to Kawai.
“Huh?” Kawai realizing what Aoi was talking about shook his head. “Life has been rough for me too. I got divorced last year and I don’t know…things just aren’t the same,” with another shake of his head, he took a long drink.
“Here,” Kai handed him his number and Kawai, in turned handed him his. “I’m sorry by the way,” Kai said looking at D’Marcus.
“Hm?” he looked up at him surprised.
“For talking like this, leaving you out.”
“Huh? Oh god no, I mean I understand. Please, don’t worry about me,” he smiled handsomely.
[A/N So I decided to post this longish part as a whole chapter because these beginning chaps are meant to set things up but at the same time, I still want you readers to feel like each day you get to read something with value and "meat" so to speak. My schedule is really weird so I'm not posting at the same time of day for the first weak or so. I have sporadic rehearsal times and my friend is staying over so I have to steal some time away to post!]