Clueless
Title - Clueless
Author - unwritten_ideas
Rating - PG
Word Count - 1,658
Pairing - implied Gackt x You
Characters - Gackt, Chacha
Disclaimer - don’t own squat and if I did, I’d be posting this with pictures
Summary - Chacha knows something about You that Gackt doesn't
The band were having a much needed break from their recording in Gackt’s home studio and Chacha was after a nice, quiet place to relax for a few moments. Gackt had quickly been dragged away by management to deal with some other work that was piling up and You had offered to give the new members, Sato and Kei, the grand tour of Gackt’s labyrinth of a house.
Chacha wandered along the dark corridors to the lounge and was surprised to see that Gackt had already beaten him there. The singer was alone and his lap was covered in a pile of printed papers that were no doubt important, but Gackt was paying them no attention. He was instead staring into space, his eyes covered by his ever present sunglasses.
Chacha considered walking past and finding somewhere else to relax, but Gackt looked peaceful enough and the guitarist was intrigued by Gackt’s calm silence to want to know what the younger man was thinking about.
“Mind if I join you?” Chacha asked softly.
For a few seconds Chacha wondered if Gackt had heard him as Gackt made no reaction, but eventually the singer turned to him and smiled lightly. “Go ahead,” Gackt said, gesturing to the seat next to him. “I was just thinking.”
“I thought I could smell smoke,” Chacha joked. “What were you thinking about?”
“Management suggested the possibility of doing a photobook that covered my career,” Gackt explained, “from the Mizerable days through to right now. They gave me an outline of their idea.”
That would be papers sitting on Gackt’s lap, Chacha knew. “You don’t sound very enthused about it,” Chacha said.
Gackt shook his head. “I haven’t really considered it yet. I was just thinking about some of the photos from those early days and it reminded me of how many people are no longer here.”
Chacha nodded his head. “Yeah… So many people have moved onto other things. But that’s the way of the music business.”
“I know,” Gackt said. “I’m not surprised that so many band members and staff members have come and gone, I’m more surprised by how many have stayed for as long as they have. Do you know that there’s only one person still here from the Mizerable recordings?”
“No, I didn’t,” Chacha said. After a pause, he spoke again, “but I can guess who it is.”
“Who else would it be?” Gackt chuckled.
“I think you’d need to get a restraining order to get You away from you,” Chacha laughed.
“I don’t think that he had any idea what he was signing up for when he agreed to join my band,” Gackt said, “it was a very hard adjustment to make.”
“I can imagine,” Chacha said. “Hey, did I ever tell you why I agreed to work with you?”
Gackt looked at his lead guitarist. He was slightly surprised by the change of conversation topic but he quickly regained his footing. “Obviously it was due to my charming personality and beautiful smile.”
“Well it certainly wasn’t due to your modesty,” Chacha laughed.
Gackt thought for a few seconds. “I remember that at the time, you said that it was because for a pretty little thing, I was surprisingly talented.”
Chacha laughed again. “I did say that, didn’t I? That was half the reason. Do you know the other reason?”
“You needed the money to pay off gambling debts?” Gackt joked.
“The gambling debts only accrued after I started playing cards with you,” Chacha replied. “No, the other reason was because of You.”
“You?” Gackt asked. “What did You have to do with it?”
“I spoke to the other members of the band before I agreed to work with you. They all had grand ambitions of becoming famous and successful musicians and saw working with you as a way of achieving that. Of course, they all had other motives but that was their main motivation.”
“And You?” Gackt asked.
“He didn’t have that ambition at all,” Chacha said.
Now Gackt really was puzzled. “But he worked so hard… so much harder than anybody else. He was practising guitar and violin every waking second and spent hours in front of mirrors perfecting his stage presence. Why would he do that if he didn’t want to become a famous and successful guitarist?”
“Because he didn’t want to let you down,” Chacha replied. “He joined the band because you asked him to. If you hadn’t have asked, he would have stayed in Kyoto making ramen and never picked up a guitar again.”
Gackt paused before speaking again. “If that’s true, what does it have to do with your second reason?”
“He told me about how the two of you had been best friends since before you were famous and now here he was, building his entire life around you and your career. It told me a lot.”
“You is a very special person,” Gackt said softly, “I don’t think anybody else would have done that.”
“Oh, it told me a lot about You, of course,” Chacha said, “but it told me even more about you, Gaku.”
“Me?”
“I’d been warned that you were a precocious diva who threw temper tantrums when you didn’t get your own way and that working with you would be part producing and part baby-sitting.”
“Who told you that?!” Gackt asked incredulously.
“Your record label,” Chacha answered honestly. Before Gackt could voice any argument, Chacha carried on speaking, “and you were a precocious diva who threw temper tantrums. But I figured that if You, this nice and honest guy that had known you since before you were famous, still wanted to be around you then maybe there was more to you than simply being a precocious diva.”
Gackt was silent for a few moments, his fingers drumming a tense rhythm on the arm of his chair. He had been hard to work with back then as the stresses and strains of recording his first album and proving to the music world that he was worth so much more than just a pretty front man who sang songs written by other people had quickly piled on top of him.
He’d wanted to prove to his ex-bandmates, the media, and the father who had ordered him to come home before he embarrassed himself on the national stage that they were all wrong. He could do this himself, and he could be a success.
Thankfully, he’d managed to prove just that.
“I wasn’t the easiest person to work with,” Gackt grudgingly admitted. “I don’t know how You could stand to be around the person I was back then.”
“He told me that he saw enough flashes of the guy you had used to be to convince him that was who you still were. He thought that his friend, the old Gackt, would resurface soon enough.”
“He had a lot of faith in me,” Gackt said quietly.
“He was right though, wasn’t he?” Chacha replied. “You were a nightmare to work with most days but sometimes, I could see exactly what he meant. The real you did surface enough to show me that I’d made the right decision when I agreed to work with you.”
Gackt relaxed back into the sofa and closed his eyes, although the gesture wasn’t seen by Chacha due to the always present sunglasses. “When I look back at my career, I think that You is my main regret.”
“Regret?” Chacha asked. This time it was the guitarist who was confused. “What do you regret?”
“He’s put his whole life on hold for me, to help me chase my dreams,” Gackt explained. “You’ve found the time to do other projects and build a relationship with that beautiful girlfriend of yours, but You… he just takes photographs and waits for the call saying that there’s work to be done. His entire life is my career.”
“Your entire life is your career too,” Chacha said.
“Yeah, but I chose that,” Gackt said. “I chose to do as much as possible and to find new dreams as soon as old ones had been accomplished.”
“Maybe You chose that too,” Chacha said softly.
Gackt opened his eyes and turned his head to stare at his guitarist. “Why would he choose that? There have been no partners to speak of or outside achievements… just me. Why would anyone choose such an empty and lonely life?”
“Maybe You doesn’t think his life is empty or lonely. Maybe, he has everything in his life that he wants.”
“Like what?” Gackt asked.
Chacha sighed. “If you don’t know by now, you’re never going to know.”
Gackt sat up, the papers on his lap falling to the floor in a disorganised mess. “And what does that mean?”
“For a clever guy you can be very clueless sometimes,” Chacha said with a gentle smile. He patted Gackt’s knee with a soft touch and stood up. “We should head back to recording.”
“No,” Gackt disagreed. “You should tell me what you’re talking about.”
Chacha shook his head. “Figure it out yourself. You think that something is missing from You’s life and I think that he has it.”
Gackt stood up and folded his arms across his chest. “The only thing You has in his life is me…”
Chacha could almost hear the cogs in Gackt’s brain click into place.
“Oh,” Gackt said simply.
“Oh,” Chacha repeated. “Now come on, this album won’t record itself.”
Gackt nodded and meekly followed Chacha back to the recording studio. He owed You so much, he always had, and he knew that the other man had a special place in his life but did that mean… Did he feel that way about You? Could he…?
Gackt didn’t know.
When You came back to the studio with an overwhelmed and impressed Sato and Kei in tow, Gackt looked at him with new eyes. He knew that he had a lot of thinking to do.
~owari
Notes
1) You can decide what happens next....
2) I think this upcoming best of tour and album is going to make me nostalgic
3) This was written today in about an hour and then posted immediately. I hope it flows as well as I think it does!
Author - unwritten_ideas
Rating - PG
Word Count - 1,658
Pairing - implied Gackt x You
Characters - Gackt, Chacha
Disclaimer - don’t own squat and if I did, I’d be posting this with pictures
Summary - Chacha knows something about You that Gackt doesn't
The band were having a much needed break from their recording in Gackt’s home studio and Chacha was after a nice, quiet place to relax for a few moments. Gackt had quickly been dragged away by management to deal with some other work that was piling up and You had offered to give the new members, Sato and Kei, the grand tour of Gackt’s labyrinth of a house.
Chacha wandered along the dark corridors to the lounge and was surprised to see that Gackt had already beaten him there. The singer was alone and his lap was covered in a pile of printed papers that were no doubt important, but Gackt was paying them no attention. He was instead staring into space, his eyes covered by his ever present sunglasses.
Chacha considered walking past and finding somewhere else to relax, but Gackt looked peaceful enough and the guitarist was intrigued by Gackt’s calm silence to want to know what the younger man was thinking about.
“Mind if I join you?” Chacha asked softly.
For a few seconds Chacha wondered if Gackt had heard him as Gackt made no reaction, but eventually the singer turned to him and smiled lightly. “Go ahead,” Gackt said, gesturing to the seat next to him. “I was just thinking.”
“I thought I could smell smoke,” Chacha joked. “What were you thinking about?”
“Management suggested the possibility of doing a photobook that covered my career,” Gackt explained, “from the Mizerable days through to right now. They gave me an outline of their idea.”
That would be papers sitting on Gackt’s lap, Chacha knew. “You don’t sound very enthused about it,” Chacha said.
Gackt shook his head. “I haven’t really considered it yet. I was just thinking about some of the photos from those early days and it reminded me of how many people are no longer here.”
Chacha nodded his head. “Yeah… So many people have moved onto other things. But that’s the way of the music business.”
“I know,” Gackt said. “I’m not surprised that so many band members and staff members have come and gone, I’m more surprised by how many have stayed for as long as they have. Do you know that there’s only one person still here from the Mizerable recordings?”
“No, I didn’t,” Chacha said. After a pause, he spoke again, “but I can guess who it is.”
“Who else would it be?” Gackt chuckled.
“I think you’d need to get a restraining order to get You away from you,” Chacha laughed.
“I don’t think that he had any idea what he was signing up for when he agreed to join my band,” Gackt said, “it was a very hard adjustment to make.”
“I can imagine,” Chacha said. “Hey, did I ever tell you why I agreed to work with you?”
Gackt looked at his lead guitarist. He was slightly surprised by the change of conversation topic but he quickly regained his footing. “Obviously it was due to my charming personality and beautiful smile.”
“Well it certainly wasn’t due to your modesty,” Chacha laughed.
Gackt thought for a few seconds. “I remember that at the time, you said that it was because for a pretty little thing, I was surprisingly talented.”
Chacha laughed again. “I did say that, didn’t I? That was half the reason. Do you know the other reason?”
“You needed the money to pay off gambling debts?” Gackt joked.
“The gambling debts only accrued after I started playing cards with you,” Chacha replied. “No, the other reason was because of You.”
“You?” Gackt asked. “What did You have to do with it?”
“I spoke to the other members of the band before I agreed to work with you. They all had grand ambitions of becoming famous and successful musicians and saw working with you as a way of achieving that. Of course, they all had other motives but that was their main motivation.”
“And You?” Gackt asked.
“He didn’t have that ambition at all,” Chacha said.
Now Gackt really was puzzled. “But he worked so hard… so much harder than anybody else. He was practising guitar and violin every waking second and spent hours in front of mirrors perfecting his stage presence. Why would he do that if he didn’t want to become a famous and successful guitarist?”
“Because he didn’t want to let you down,” Chacha replied. “He joined the band because you asked him to. If you hadn’t have asked, he would have stayed in Kyoto making ramen and never picked up a guitar again.”
Gackt paused before speaking again. “If that’s true, what does it have to do with your second reason?”
“He told me about how the two of you had been best friends since before you were famous and now here he was, building his entire life around you and your career. It told me a lot.”
“You is a very special person,” Gackt said softly, “I don’t think anybody else would have done that.”
“Oh, it told me a lot about You, of course,” Chacha said, “but it told me even more about you, Gaku.”
“Me?”
“I’d been warned that you were a precocious diva who threw temper tantrums when you didn’t get your own way and that working with you would be part producing and part baby-sitting.”
“Who told you that?!” Gackt asked incredulously.
“Your record label,” Chacha answered honestly. Before Gackt could voice any argument, Chacha carried on speaking, “and you were a precocious diva who threw temper tantrums. But I figured that if You, this nice and honest guy that had known you since before you were famous, still wanted to be around you then maybe there was more to you than simply being a precocious diva.”
Gackt was silent for a few moments, his fingers drumming a tense rhythm on the arm of his chair. He had been hard to work with back then as the stresses and strains of recording his first album and proving to the music world that he was worth so much more than just a pretty front man who sang songs written by other people had quickly piled on top of him.
He’d wanted to prove to his ex-bandmates, the media, and the father who had ordered him to come home before he embarrassed himself on the national stage that they were all wrong. He could do this himself, and he could be a success.
Thankfully, he’d managed to prove just that.
“I wasn’t the easiest person to work with,” Gackt grudgingly admitted. “I don’t know how You could stand to be around the person I was back then.”
“He told me that he saw enough flashes of the guy you had used to be to convince him that was who you still were. He thought that his friend, the old Gackt, would resurface soon enough.”
“He had a lot of faith in me,” Gackt said quietly.
“He was right though, wasn’t he?” Chacha replied. “You were a nightmare to work with most days but sometimes, I could see exactly what he meant. The real you did surface enough to show me that I’d made the right decision when I agreed to work with you.”
Gackt relaxed back into the sofa and closed his eyes, although the gesture wasn’t seen by Chacha due to the always present sunglasses. “When I look back at my career, I think that You is my main regret.”
“Regret?” Chacha asked. This time it was the guitarist who was confused. “What do you regret?”
“He’s put his whole life on hold for me, to help me chase my dreams,” Gackt explained. “You’ve found the time to do other projects and build a relationship with that beautiful girlfriend of yours, but You… he just takes photographs and waits for the call saying that there’s work to be done. His entire life is my career.”
“Your entire life is your career too,” Chacha said.
“Yeah, but I chose that,” Gackt said. “I chose to do as much as possible and to find new dreams as soon as old ones had been accomplished.”
“Maybe You chose that too,” Chacha said softly.
Gackt opened his eyes and turned his head to stare at his guitarist. “Why would he choose that? There have been no partners to speak of or outside achievements… just me. Why would anyone choose such an empty and lonely life?”
“Maybe You doesn’t think his life is empty or lonely. Maybe, he has everything in his life that he wants.”
“Like what?” Gackt asked.
Chacha sighed. “If you don’t know by now, you’re never going to know.”
Gackt sat up, the papers on his lap falling to the floor in a disorganised mess. “And what does that mean?”
“For a clever guy you can be very clueless sometimes,” Chacha said with a gentle smile. He patted Gackt’s knee with a soft touch and stood up. “We should head back to recording.”
“No,” Gackt disagreed. “You should tell me what you’re talking about.”
Chacha shook his head. “Figure it out yourself. You think that something is missing from You’s life and I think that he has it.”
Gackt stood up and folded his arms across his chest. “The only thing You has in his life is me…”
Chacha could almost hear the cogs in Gackt’s brain click into place.
“Oh,” Gackt said simply.
“Oh,” Chacha repeated. “Now come on, this album won’t record itself.”
Gackt nodded and meekly followed Chacha back to the recording studio. He owed You so much, he always had, and he knew that the other man had a special place in his life but did that mean… Did he feel that way about You? Could he…?
Gackt didn’t know.
When You came back to the studio with an overwhelmed and impressed Sato and Kei in tow, Gackt looked at him with new eyes. He knew that he had a lot of thinking to do.
~owari
Notes
1) You can decide what happens next....
2) I think this upcoming best of tour and album is going to make me nostalgic
3) This was written today in about an hour and then posted immediately. I hope it flows as well as I think it does!