[Fic] Cosmos 1/9
Title: Cosmos
Author: Sanzu
Pairing: Ryoda
Raiting: PG-15
Genre: AU (semi), romance, angst
Beta by: -
Disclaimer: I only own the plot
Summary: Music industry brings back together Ryo and Tatsuya who used to be best of friends 5 years ago until that horrible misunderstanding separated them
Warning: unbetad
Author Note: Relatively short chapters and includes an OC. Give it a try, ne ^^
Chapter 1
Ueda Tatsuya, 22 years old, stood next to a stage, right behind curtains to hide himself from all the fans that were in front of the stage listening to the music the Cosmos was playing. He watched how the band members were drowning in the world of their music, the enjoyment was clear in all of their faces. Those faces brought warm memories to him. That was exactly how he felt whenever he was on stage himself with his band members.
The most shining of all the Cosmos members was the blond singer, a beautiful young woman who looked clearly foreigner with her blue eyes and natural blond hair. She was singing from the bottom of her heart, revealing all her feelings to the crowd. Tatsuya loved to listen to her voice and how the emotions could be heard so clearly from it.
He smiled and clapped among the crowd as Cosmos finished their final song for that evening. The band members left their instruments and thanked the audience with deep bows and words of love. The band members greeted Tatsuya with smiles as they walked past him to the backstage. The last to come was the beaming singer.
“Tatsuya! Thank you for coming to see our show,” she said and was about to hug Tatsuya. Tatsuya also was about to hug the girl but she frowned and pulled back.
“What?” Tatsuya asked confused.
“I’m all sweaty,” the girl said.
“Mika. You’ve hugged me probably zillion times when I’ve been covered in sweat. I do not mind,” Tatsuya reminded the girl grinning at her. Mika laughed and smiled then again showing her beautiful smile.
“You’re right. Come here,” she said and hugged Tatsuya.
“You were great there,” Tatsuya complimented.
“Thanks,” Mika smiled and kissed Tatsuya’s cheek. He smiled at the girl and started to lead their way towards the backstage.
“We’re still going to the club, right?” Mika asked to make sure.
“Yeah. But what about Josh?” Tatsuya asked. Josh was Cosmos’ guitarist and the gig that night had been his last. The fans were sad about that but Josh had to return to America, so there wasn’t much they could do about it. Besides Mika, Josh had been the only foreigner in the band. The others were Japanese.
“A, we’re having a small party for him tomorrow,” Mika smiled a bit. There was sadness in her eyes. Josh was dear to them all.
“We can go some other evening you know,” Tatsuya told her. Mika just shook her head.
“Who knows, maybe I’ll find a new guitarist from the club. Good enough reasons to get guys’ phone numbers without getting our manager go all crazy, don’t you think?” Mika winked. Tatsuya couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Many thought that Tatsuya and Mika were a couple because they were so close but that wasn’t the deal. They were just best friends. There had never been anything more than that between them. Tatsuya didn’t know if it was because Mika was a foreigner or what but it was easy to say that they were that close because of the culture difference. Besides that, Tatsuya had never been interested in girls that way. Indeed, he had only been in love with one person who happened to be male.
An hour later they were at their favourite club at the VIP section sipping their drinks, talking and laughing. Mika had done some harmless flirting with a few guys at the club but so far none of them had known how to play the guitar.
“Seriously, isn't there even one person here who knows how to play the damn instrument?” Mika whined looking around herself. At that point Tatsuya had caught someone in his eyesight. At the counter there was a short black-haired young man who he had recognized right away. It was such a long time since he had last seen that man. Back then they had been only 17 years old. And now, there he was, drinking and laughing with some guys Tatsuya didn’t recognize. He heard Mika’s question but forgot to answer it while staring at the handsome person.
“Not bad,” he heard a whisper right next to his ear. He jumped slightly and turned to look at Mika who had a knowing look on her face.
“W-what?” Tatsuya looked slightly panicked and the smug smirk on Mika’s face got wider.
“You know, there’s nothing bad about being gay. Go talk to him,” Mika encouraged. Only a thought of that made Tatsuya’s stomach get full of butterflies. But he knew he couldn’t do that.
“N-no. I, I can’t,” Tatsuya stuttered.
“Of course you can!” Mika smiled. Tatsuya lowered his head and didn’t say anything else. Mika sighed.
“I’ll go get us new drinks,” she said then and stood up. Tatsuya was afraid he knew this innocent ‘I go get us new drinks’ sentence meant that she would go and talk to that man on the counter. He hoped the guy wouldn’t fall on any of her traps. Unfortunately Tatsuya knew that most of the guys did fall on Mika’s traps in the end. Tatsuya couldn’t do anything but sigh.
“Two beers,” Mika told the bartender who nodded and looked then around herself. She had managed to get next to the guy Tatsuya had been staring. She looked at him, the guy was good looking. If Tatsuya hadn’t been interested in him, she might have just gone after him herself. She couldn’t help but think how well the guy would fit with her and the guys in the band. Then her eyes fell on the man’s hands and her eyes widened. There were clear signs of playing guitar or bass or violin or some other instrument with strings.
“Hi,” Mika smiled sweetly at the guy who now noticed her and turned his head towards her.
“Hey”, he answered back looking at the blond girl in front of him with a confused expression.
“I’m Mika, what’s your name?” Mika introduced herself and offered her hand to the young man. Her hand was stared at for some while before the guy took it.
“Nishikido Ryo,”
“Do you mind if I call you Ryo?” Mika tilted her head to the side, a motion she had noticed made the guys think she looked cute, sweet and innocent. Even when in reality her head was plotting more or less twisted evil plans.
“I guess not,” Ryo answered.
“I haven’t seen you here before. First time?”
“No, third. I just found this place recently,” Ryo showed some interest towards her. It made Mika feel more confident about her plans that had pretty much already formed. He wanted this guy in her band. Now all she needed was for him to play guitar, to play it well, and the place would be his. She was sure the other guys would like Ryo as well.
“Aa. That explains it. I’ve been busy recently,” Mika turned her body towards Ryo.
“I bet a celebrity like you would be busy,” Ryo turned to his glass and took a new sip. So Ryo had recognized her.
“True,” Mika chuckled. “Ne, do you play any instruments?”
“Why do you ask?” Ryo turned to her eyes widened.
“Curious,” Mika smiled.
“I play the guitar,” Ryo answered and Mika just barely managed to stop herself from jumping up in joy.
“Really? Are you good?” Mika leaned slightly closer now, feeling enthusiastic.
“W-why do you want to know that?” Ryo looked surprised that Mika got so close to him.
“You clearly know who I am,” Mika started, “so maybe you know that I lost my guitarist. I need a new one. Interested to try out and come to an audition?”
“Do you always find your members from clubs?” Ryo asked amused.
“No, this is the first time. It’s also a great excuse to flirt with guys. My manager goes crazy whenever I do that,” Mika winked at him, not really talking about Ryo at that point, but she thought it wouldn’t hurt the guy’s pride saying that. Ryo smirked and chuckled.
“I’m afraid I may not be that good,” Ryo said then.
“Is that your opinion or someone else’s?” Mika asked rising an eyebrow.
“Mine,” Ryo answered.
“Then I insist you come to the audition,” Mika said. Ryo looked hesitant. “Please? Pretty please?”
A minute or so went by, Mika already had the drinks in front of her but she wanted Ryo for two reasons: to be her new guitarist and to give Tatsuya a possibility to have his happiness.
“Ok. But you better not laugh at me when I suck,” Ryo agreed then. Mika clapped her hands together once and then took out her cell phone.
“Give me your number so I can call you about the audition. And I swear, I will not laugh,” Mika promised. Ryo took the cell phone and wrote his number there.
“I may not be able to answer between 8 and 16,” Ryo informed her.
“I’ll remember that. Hey, wanna come to my table over there. My friend is waiting there,” Mika offered. Ryo looked at his friends who had been surprisingly quiet during their conversation. Ryo then returned his eyes on Mika.
“Sure,” he answered and they stood up. Mika started to lead the way towards the table. Tatsuya was reading a magazine so his face didn’t show.
“Your guyfriend?” Ryo asked looking confused once he realized the table they were heading to have a guy sitting there. He had clearly expected Mika to be there with another girl.
“Yeah. He’s a great person, don’t worry,” Mika assured and landed the drinks on the table. Tatsuya lowered the magazine and looked at Mika smiling a bit.
“Tatsuya?!” he heard the hateful but surprised voice and flinched. He lifted his head slowly to face Ryo and his hurt and hate flaming eyes.
“Um… hi?” Tatsuya tried carefully.
“I’m sorry Mika-san. I will not sit in the same table with him,” Ryo turned to Mika, bowed a bit and walked away before Mika had time to say a word. She sat down next to Tatsuya who looked after Ryo longing in his eyes.
“You two know each other?” Mika asked quietly.
“We used to… 5 years ago,” Tatsuya said sadness in his tone. Seeing Ryo once again made him realize just how deeply the other was hurt, how deeply he himself was hurt.
“I bet that didn’t end well,” Mika said. Tatsuya noticed then there were tears in his eyes. All past memories had come back to him and he had become emotional.
“He hates me,” Tatsuya said a bittersweet smile on his face.
“What did you do?” Mika asked concerned about her friend.
“For him… I betrayed him,” Tatsuya answered.
****-----****
Three days later Mika was sitting at the audition room with her other band mates. They had seen so many guitarists already during those three days and none of them had what she was looking for. She couldn’t get her mind off of Ryo whose looks were perfect for their image. But she hesitated now that she knew that Ryo hated Tatsuya. Though, she had to say she was extremely curious about what had happened to those two.
Tatsuya hadn’t told her more about the so called betrayal but it was clear that from Ryo’s point of view it looked like Tatsuya had betrayed him. Mika was sure that wasn’t the deal, though. The hurt and hate in Ryo’s eyes told clearly he had trusted Tatsuya and that the two of them had been close, otherwise he wouldn’t be that mad at Tatsuya. Tatsuya wasn’t the kind of person to betray his friends. Mika had known Tatsuya for two years. She knew Tatsuya had gone through a lot but they never really talked about it. Now she wanted more than ever to know what had happened.
“Can’t we just pick one of them and get this stuff over and done with?” Yamapi, the drummer, whined looking at the audition pictures.
“No! We need to get along with this guy for as long as he’s in the band and I hope he’s going to be there till the end,” Mika said.
“You’re not satisfied with any one of them!” Hiroki, their bass player, noted. Mika sighed. Of course she wasn’t satisfied when it was Nishikido Ryo she wanted.
“I have one in mind. I need to call him,” Mika stood up and left the room leaving behind confused band members. She walked towards their dressing room while picking up her phone and rolling down the contact list towards ‘Ryo’.
She closed the door behind her and took a deep breath finally pressing the call button and brought the phone to her ear. The answer came on the 6th or so ring.
“Moshi moshi?”
“A, Ryo? It’s Mika here,” Mika used her cheerful tone, not wanting to remind the boy of the painful meeting with Tatsuya.
“What do you want?” the tone was colder than it used to be when they first met. Mika shivered slightly at the sound of it. She guessed Ryo still remembered clearly the encounter with Tatsuya the other night because of her.
“You. In the audition. Tomorrow. Can you make it?” Mika asked trying to sound pleading. A long silence followed the question.
“Is that Ueda in your so-called band or somehow involved in it?” came the next question from the boy. Mika could hear Ryo was interested to try out and go to the audition.
“Tatsuya? Oh no! He’s not part of the band. He has his own boy band. I swear, he’s only my best friend and in no other way part of the band,” Mika promised and that was the truth.
“You are still not allowed to laugh,” Ryo reminded her. Mika chuckled.
“I promised you already, didn’t I? What time can you come here?”
“Around 2,”
“I’ll see you then. You can play whatever you want to us,” Mika told him. Ryo sounded warmer already when their call ended and Mika was beaming once more. If Ryo was any good, she would immediately make him part of the band. He seemed like a social person and easy enough to get along with. Of course he needed the others’ opinions as well but she had a really good feeling.
“Please prove me right Ryo and I promise to fix you and Tatsuya,” Mika whispered to the room before she exited it to return to his band mates to tell the good news
****----****
Tatsuya walked out of the dance practice room covered in sweat, panting and running a towel around the bare skin to make himself feel better. His seven band members looked exactly like him. Their choreographer had made them practice harder than in a long time. But that was to be expected. They were preparing their first real album after three singles which meant more songs to learn and also more dance steps to master into perfection.
He got along well with all his band members and they hung out a lot on their free time, though Mika was still his best friend. Mika was his first best friend and the only person he had let that close after his and Ryo’s friendship had crashed. He missed Ryo, a lot. He thought they would be side by side forever. He thought Ryo had trusted him. He thought Ryo would let him explain. He thought he had mattered enough for that. But he had been wrong. He smiled sadly at himself and the memories of himself and Ryo.
After the encounter with Ryo in the club, Tatsuya had been thinking about the past a lot. He remembered all the happy times he spent together with Ryo but also the times followed after those happy times. He couldn’t forget about Ryo no matter how much he tried.
He went to the shower listening to his band mates talking and laughing together. He remembered when he and Ryo were like that, they were 17 years old, high school delinquents and best friends. They both had sad family backgrounds but together they had been stronger. And then they had run into trouble with that gang. The gang that ended up being the reason why Ryo thought he betrayed him. The reason why Tatsuya had to change schools in the end because Ryo couldn’t bare a sight of him.
“Tatsuya, are you coming with us?” the youngest member, 18-year-old Yuya, asked him pulling him away from his thoughts.
“Um, sorry, where?” Tatsuya asked drying up his hair already half dressed.
“To eat!” Yuya rolled his eyes.
“Sure”, Tatsuya agreed. He had nothing else to do anyways. Mika was busy trying to find a new guitarist so she wouldn’t have time to hang out. Besides Mika, he only had his band mates and few other idols from their agency to hang out with.
He had never thought about becoming an idol but becoming part of the talent agency had actually saved his life. He was in really bad shape some months before he turned 19, it was literally the lowest he could get in his life. His manager found him and wanted him to come and try out the new kind of life. Tatsuya found out in the audition that he could sing and when he was accepted, he had to tell his manager about his situation in life. For his luck, his manager was a powerful man and helped Tatsuya out of all the mess he was in. Apart from his manager, no one, not even Mika, knew about his past.
Soon after, he had been put together in a group with his band members. They worked hard together to get their debut as a group. Between the long practice hours of singing, dancing and other more or less important things, Tatsuya came to accept the other members as his friends. The memories or his friendship with Ryo were clear on his mind and he couldn’t bring himself to get as close to the boys but he enjoyed their company more than being alone.
One year ago they finally managed to debut with a single followed by two other singles and their friendships grew all the time. But still, if any of the members had to tell who they weren’t the closest with, every one of them would answer 'Tatsuya'. The others had shared secrets with each other and actually knew about each others’ pasts but no one knew anything about Tatsuya’s past. Which was good.
Tatsuya was grateful to all of his band members but the most grateful he was to Mika. Mika and her band had come to their agency a year after Tatsuya got in. They were a ready band, they had their own songs and just needed some coaching and help with studios and concert arranging and such. All in all, Tatsuya was content with his life even when his past haunted him constantly, mostly as nightmares and other disturbing dreams.
He didn't dare dreaming of reuniting with Ryo and he certainly could not even guess what was going to happen in very near future...
tbc
~.~
How do you find this fic ? Interesting? Boring? Let me know!
I'll try to update this often but I've been so stuck in both planning and writing this fic that there may be some delays. I'll try my best, though. ^^
Author: Sanzu
Pairing: Ryoda
Raiting: PG-15
Genre: AU (semi), romance, angst
Beta by: -
Disclaimer: I only own the plot
Summary: Music industry brings back together Ryo and Tatsuya who used to be best of friends 5 years ago until that horrible misunderstanding separated them
Warning: unbetad
Author Note: Relatively short chapters and includes an OC. Give it a try, ne ^^
Chapter 1
Ueda Tatsuya, 22 years old, stood next to a stage, right behind curtains to hide himself from all the fans that were in front of the stage listening to the music the Cosmos was playing. He watched how the band members were drowning in the world of their music, the enjoyment was clear in all of their faces. Those faces brought warm memories to him. That was exactly how he felt whenever he was on stage himself with his band members.
The most shining of all the Cosmos members was the blond singer, a beautiful young woman who looked clearly foreigner with her blue eyes and natural blond hair. She was singing from the bottom of her heart, revealing all her feelings to the crowd. Tatsuya loved to listen to her voice and how the emotions could be heard so clearly from it.
He smiled and clapped among the crowd as Cosmos finished their final song for that evening. The band members left their instruments and thanked the audience with deep bows and words of love. The band members greeted Tatsuya with smiles as they walked past him to the backstage. The last to come was the beaming singer.
“Tatsuya! Thank you for coming to see our show,” she said and was about to hug Tatsuya. Tatsuya also was about to hug the girl but she frowned and pulled back.
“What?” Tatsuya asked confused.
“I’m all sweaty,” the girl said.
“Mika. You’ve hugged me probably zillion times when I’ve been covered in sweat. I do not mind,” Tatsuya reminded the girl grinning at her. Mika laughed and smiled then again showing her beautiful smile.
“You’re right. Come here,” she said and hugged Tatsuya.
“You were great there,” Tatsuya complimented.
“Thanks,” Mika smiled and kissed Tatsuya’s cheek. He smiled at the girl and started to lead their way towards the backstage.
“We’re still going to the club, right?” Mika asked to make sure.
“Yeah. But what about Josh?” Tatsuya asked. Josh was Cosmos’ guitarist and the gig that night had been his last. The fans were sad about that but Josh had to return to America, so there wasn’t much they could do about it. Besides Mika, Josh had been the only foreigner in the band. The others were Japanese.
“A, we’re having a small party for him tomorrow,” Mika smiled a bit. There was sadness in her eyes. Josh was dear to them all.
“We can go some other evening you know,” Tatsuya told her. Mika just shook her head.
“Who knows, maybe I’ll find a new guitarist from the club. Good enough reasons to get guys’ phone numbers without getting our manager go all crazy, don’t you think?” Mika winked. Tatsuya couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Many thought that Tatsuya and Mika were a couple because they were so close but that wasn’t the deal. They were just best friends. There had never been anything more than that between them. Tatsuya didn’t know if it was because Mika was a foreigner or what but it was easy to say that they were that close because of the culture difference. Besides that, Tatsuya had never been interested in girls that way. Indeed, he had only been in love with one person who happened to be male.
An hour later they were at their favourite club at the VIP section sipping their drinks, talking and laughing. Mika had done some harmless flirting with a few guys at the club but so far none of them had known how to play the guitar.
“Seriously, isn't there even one person here who knows how to play the damn instrument?” Mika whined looking around herself. At that point Tatsuya had caught someone in his eyesight. At the counter there was a short black-haired young man who he had recognized right away. It was such a long time since he had last seen that man. Back then they had been only 17 years old. And now, there he was, drinking and laughing with some guys Tatsuya didn’t recognize. He heard Mika’s question but forgot to answer it while staring at the handsome person.
“Not bad,” he heard a whisper right next to his ear. He jumped slightly and turned to look at Mika who had a knowing look on her face.
“W-what?” Tatsuya looked slightly panicked and the smug smirk on Mika’s face got wider.
“You know, there’s nothing bad about being gay. Go talk to him,” Mika encouraged. Only a thought of that made Tatsuya’s stomach get full of butterflies. But he knew he couldn’t do that.
“N-no. I, I can’t,” Tatsuya stuttered.
“Of course you can!” Mika smiled. Tatsuya lowered his head and didn’t say anything else. Mika sighed.
“I’ll go get us new drinks,” she said then and stood up. Tatsuya was afraid he knew this innocent ‘I go get us new drinks’ sentence meant that she would go and talk to that man on the counter. He hoped the guy wouldn’t fall on any of her traps. Unfortunately Tatsuya knew that most of the guys did fall on Mika’s traps in the end. Tatsuya couldn’t do anything but sigh.
“Two beers,” Mika told the bartender who nodded and looked then around herself. She had managed to get next to the guy Tatsuya had been staring. She looked at him, the guy was good looking. If Tatsuya hadn’t been interested in him, she might have just gone after him herself. She couldn’t help but think how well the guy would fit with her and the guys in the band. Then her eyes fell on the man’s hands and her eyes widened. There were clear signs of playing guitar or bass or violin or some other instrument with strings.
“Hi,” Mika smiled sweetly at the guy who now noticed her and turned his head towards her.
“Hey”, he answered back looking at the blond girl in front of him with a confused expression.
“I’m Mika, what’s your name?” Mika introduced herself and offered her hand to the young man. Her hand was stared at for some while before the guy took it.
“Nishikido Ryo,”
“Do you mind if I call you Ryo?” Mika tilted her head to the side, a motion she had noticed made the guys think she looked cute, sweet and innocent. Even when in reality her head was plotting more or less twisted evil plans.
“I guess not,” Ryo answered.
“I haven’t seen you here before. First time?”
“No, third. I just found this place recently,” Ryo showed some interest towards her. It made Mika feel more confident about her plans that had pretty much already formed. He wanted this guy in her band. Now all she needed was for him to play guitar, to play it well, and the place would be his. She was sure the other guys would like Ryo as well.
“Aa. That explains it. I’ve been busy recently,” Mika turned her body towards Ryo.
“I bet a celebrity like you would be busy,” Ryo turned to his glass and took a new sip. So Ryo had recognized her.
“True,” Mika chuckled. “Ne, do you play any instruments?”
“Why do you ask?” Ryo turned to her eyes widened.
“Curious,” Mika smiled.
“I play the guitar,” Ryo answered and Mika just barely managed to stop herself from jumping up in joy.
“Really? Are you good?” Mika leaned slightly closer now, feeling enthusiastic.
“W-why do you want to know that?” Ryo looked surprised that Mika got so close to him.
“You clearly know who I am,” Mika started, “so maybe you know that I lost my guitarist. I need a new one. Interested to try out and come to an audition?”
“Do you always find your members from clubs?” Ryo asked amused.
“No, this is the first time. It’s also a great excuse to flirt with guys. My manager goes crazy whenever I do that,” Mika winked at him, not really talking about Ryo at that point, but she thought it wouldn’t hurt the guy’s pride saying that. Ryo smirked and chuckled.
“I’m afraid I may not be that good,” Ryo said then.
“Is that your opinion or someone else’s?” Mika asked rising an eyebrow.
“Mine,” Ryo answered.
“Then I insist you come to the audition,” Mika said. Ryo looked hesitant. “Please? Pretty please?”
A minute or so went by, Mika already had the drinks in front of her but she wanted Ryo for two reasons: to be her new guitarist and to give Tatsuya a possibility to have his happiness.
“Ok. But you better not laugh at me when I suck,” Ryo agreed then. Mika clapped her hands together once and then took out her cell phone.
“Give me your number so I can call you about the audition. And I swear, I will not laugh,” Mika promised. Ryo took the cell phone and wrote his number there.
“I may not be able to answer between 8 and 16,” Ryo informed her.
“I’ll remember that. Hey, wanna come to my table over there. My friend is waiting there,” Mika offered. Ryo looked at his friends who had been surprisingly quiet during their conversation. Ryo then returned his eyes on Mika.
“Sure,” he answered and they stood up. Mika started to lead the way towards the table. Tatsuya was reading a magazine so his face didn’t show.
“Your guyfriend?” Ryo asked looking confused once he realized the table they were heading to have a guy sitting there. He had clearly expected Mika to be there with another girl.
“Yeah. He’s a great person, don’t worry,” Mika assured and landed the drinks on the table. Tatsuya lowered the magazine and looked at Mika smiling a bit.
“Tatsuya?!” he heard the hateful but surprised voice and flinched. He lifted his head slowly to face Ryo and his hurt and hate flaming eyes.
“Um… hi?” Tatsuya tried carefully.
“I’m sorry Mika-san. I will not sit in the same table with him,” Ryo turned to Mika, bowed a bit and walked away before Mika had time to say a word. She sat down next to Tatsuya who looked after Ryo longing in his eyes.
“You two know each other?” Mika asked quietly.
“We used to… 5 years ago,” Tatsuya said sadness in his tone. Seeing Ryo once again made him realize just how deeply the other was hurt, how deeply he himself was hurt.
“I bet that didn’t end well,” Mika said. Tatsuya noticed then there were tears in his eyes. All past memories had come back to him and he had become emotional.
“He hates me,” Tatsuya said a bittersweet smile on his face.
“What did you do?” Mika asked concerned about her friend.
“For him… I betrayed him,” Tatsuya answered.
****-----****
Three days later Mika was sitting at the audition room with her other band mates. They had seen so many guitarists already during those three days and none of them had what she was looking for. She couldn’t get her mind off of Ryo whose looks were perfect for their image. But she hesitated now that she knew that Ryo hated Tatsuya. Though, she had to say she was extremely curious about what had happened to those two.
Tatsuya hadn’t told her more about the so called betrayal but it was clear that from Ryo’s point of view it looked like Tatsuya had betrayed him. Mika was sure that wasn’t the deal, though. The hurt and hate in Ryo’s eyes told clearly he had trusted Tatsuya and that the two of them had been close, otherwise he wouldn’t be that mad at Tatsuya. Tatsuya wasn’t the kind of person to betray his friends. Mika had known Tatsuya for two years. She knew Tatsuya had gone through a lot but they never really talked about it. Now she wanted more than ever to know what had happened.
“Can’t we just pick one of them and get this stuff over and done with?” Yamapi, the drummer, whined looking at the audition pictures.
“No! We need to get along with this guy for as long as he’s in the band and I hope he’s going to be there till the end,” Mika said.
“You’re not satisfied with any one of them!” Hiroki, their bass player, noted. Mika sighed. Of course she wasn’t satisfied when it was Nishikido Ryo she wanted.
“I have one in mind. I need to call him,” Mika stood up and left the room leaving behind confused band members. She walked towards their dressing room while picking up her phone and rolling down the contact list towards ‘Ryo’.
She closed the door behind her and took a deep breath finally pressing the call button and brought the phone to her ear. The answer came on the 6th or so ring.
“Moshi moshi?”
“A, Ryo? It’s Mika here,” Mika used her cheerful tone, not wanting to remind the boy of the painful meeting with Tatsuya.
“What do you want?” the tone was colder than it used to be when they first met. Mika shivered slightly at the sound of it. She guessed Ryo still remembered clearly the encounter with Tatsuya the other night because of her.
“You. In the audition. Tomorrow. Can you make it?” Mika asked trying to sound pleading. A long silence followed the question.
“Is that Ueda in your so-called band or somehow involved in it?” came the next question from the boy. Mika could hear Ryo was interested to try out and go to the audition.
“Tatsuya? Oh no! He’s not part of the band. He has his own boy band. I swear, he’s only my best friend and in no other way part of the band,” Mika promised and that was the truth.
“You are still not allowed to laugh,” Ryo reminded her. Mika chuckled.
“I promised you already, didn’t I? What time can you come here?”
“Around 2,”
“I’ll see you then. You can play whatever you want to us,” Mika told him. Ryo sounded warmer already when their call ended and Mika was beaming once more. If Ryo was any good, she would immediately make him part of the band. He seemed like a social person and easy enough to get along with. Of course he needed the others’ opinions as well but she had a really good feeling.
“Please prove me right Ryo and I promise to fix you and Tatsuya,” Mika whispered to the room before she exited it to return to his band mates to tell the good news
****----****
Tatsuya walked out of the dance practice room covered in sweat, panting and running a towel around the bare skin to make himself feel better. His seven band members looked exactly like him. Their choreographer had made them practice harder than in a long time. But that was to be expected. They were preparing their first real album after three singles which meant more songs to learn and also more dance steps to master into perfection.
He got along well with all his band members and they hung out a lot on their free time, though Mika was still his best friend. Mika was his first best friend and the only person he had let that close after his and Ryo’s friendship had crashed. He missed Ryo, a lot. He thought they would be side by side forever. He thought Ryo had trusted him. He thought Ryo would let him explain. He thought he had mattered enough for that. But he had been wrong. He smiled sadly at himself and the memories of himself and Ryo.
After the encounter with Ryo in the club, Tatsuya had been thinking about the past a lot. He remembered all the happy times he spent together with Ryo but also the times followed after those happy times. He couldn’t forget about Ryo no matter how much he tried.
He went to the shower listening to his band mates talking and laughing together. He remembered when he and Ryo were like that, they were 17 years old, high school delinquents and best friends. They both had sad family backgrounds but together they had been stronger. And then they had run into trouble with that gang. The gang that ended up being the reason why Ryo thought he betrayed him. The reason why Tatsuya had to change schools in the end because Ryo couldn’t bare a sight of him.
“Tatsuya, are you coming with us?” the youngest member, 18-year-old Yuya, asked him pulling him away from his thoughts.
“Um, sorry, where?” Tatsuya asked drying up his hair already half dressed.
“To eat!” Yuya rolled his eyes.
“Sure”, Tatsuya agreed. He had nothing else to do anyways. Mika was busy trying to find a new guitarist so she wouldn’t have time to hang out. Besides Mika, he only had his band mates and few other idols from their agency to hang out with.
He had never thought about becoming an idol but becoming part of the talent agency had actually saved his life. He was in really bad shape some months before he turned 19, it was literally the lowest he could get in his life. His manager found him and wanted him to come and try out the new kind of life. Tatsuya found out in the audition that he could sing and when he was accepted, he had to tell his manager about his situation in life. For his luck, his manager was a powerful man and helped Tatsuya out of all the mess he was in. Apart from his manager, no one, not even Mika, knew about his past.
Soon after, he had been put together in a group with his band members. They worked hard together to get their debut as a group. Between the long practice hours of singing, dancing and other more or less important things, Tatsuya came to accept the other members as his friends. The memories or his friendship with Ryo were clear on his mind and he couldn’t bring himself to get as close to the boys but he enjoyed their company more than being alone.
One year ago they finally managed to debut with a single followed by two other singles and their friendships grew all the time. But still, if any of the members had to tell who they weren’t the closest with, every one of them would answer 'Tatsuya'. The others had shared secrets with each other and actually knew about each others’ pasts but no one knew anything about Tatsuya’s past. Which was good.
Tatsuya was grateful to all of his band members but the most grateful he was to Mika. Mika and her band had come to their agency a year after Tatsuya got in. They were a ready band, they had their own songs and just needed some coaching and help with studios and concert arranging and such. All in all, Tatsuya was content with his life even when his past haunted him constantly, mostly as nightmares and other disturbing dreams.
He didn't dare dreaming of reuniting with Ryo and he certainly could not even guess what was going to happen in very near future...
tbc
~.~
How do you find this fic ? Interesting? Boring? Let me know!
I'll try to update this often but I've been so stuck in both planning and writing this fic that there may be some delays. I'll try my best, though. ^^