New Beginnings

Kirito sat at the table, legs crossed, phone to his ear. After a moment, he turned it off and held the phone in his hand, his face thoughtful. Bou set a plate of boiled eggs and an english muffin infront of the older man before sitting down to his own breakfast.

"No answer?" the blonde asked, taking a sip of water.

"Nope."

"Try his cell. Maybe he's sleeping in, for once."

Kirito looked up, one brow raised. "Since when have you ever known my brother to be a deep sleeper?" A small grin crept across his face. "Besides, I haven't looked outside yet, but I never heard him come back for his car. And if didn't come back...."

Bou grinned and took a bite of his eggs.


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The first rays of orange and pink filtered through the open window, warming Tsukasa's face. But he didn't seem to notice, only took another slow, deep drag from his cigerette, blowing smoke out into to the chilly morning air. He stood by the window, half leaning against the wall, his eyes gazing out at the just waking world. His face showed no emotion, but his eyes held deep sadness, and worry.

What are you doing? came the voice in his head.

I only want to be happy, he replied, and he makes me happy.

But he doesn't know you, the real you. came that evil whisper, so very much like his own voice. If he knew what happened to your last lover, would he be so willing to bed you?

That won't happen again. He frowned furiously.

But what if you hurt him in other way? What if it's really you. After all, you never heard from the Other again. There was a sneer in that voice, so cruel in his head. I guess your love wasn't strong enough to keep him from leaving, never to see you again.

"Go away," Tsukasa whispered out loud. "I'm going to make this work." He reached out the window and stubbed his cigerette out on the brick wall under the window, then let go of the butt, watching as it fell to the dumpster below.


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Hakuei opened his eyes as a slight breeze blew through his room. Someone had opened the window, the long white curtains rippling. He streched his arms wide, then suddenly realized he was alone, though he was damned sure he hadn't fallen asleep that way. Heart thumping in his chest, he threw back the overs, padding to the bathroom to grab a bathrobe, eyes wandering to the single set of clothing, his, crumpled on the floor. He opened his door and walked down the hallway. As he did, the sounds of quiet laughter drifted towards his ears, as well as the smell of bacon.

At the kitchen table his lover sat, a small glass of orange juice in one hand, a plate of pancakes, bacon and eggs infront of him. He was laughing merrily at something Yoshiki had said, who happened to have his back turned to tend a hot skillet. Hakuei stood there a moment; on the one hand relieved that Tsukasa was still there, but completely horrified that his father by now had to have guessed how the young men had spent the evening... in his room....

Tsukasa looked up, a smile on his ips. "Ohaiyo gozaimasu, Hakuei."

Hakuei jumped slightly. "I, uh, that is.."

Yoshiki turned around. "Sit down, boy," he said, waving the spatula in one hand. "Where you planning on sleeping the whole day away?" He dished out some eggs onto a plate. "Bacon?"

"Uh, sure." Hakuei sat down gingerly beside the other man, shooting him a wild look.

"It's alright, he knows." Tsukasa took a small bite of egg and shook his head. "He's ok with it."

Hakuei's carmel eyes grew wider. "Er...how??"

Yoshiki sighed, dropping a small plate and biscut before his son. "Your mother never did tell you why she left, did she?" He grabbed two cups of orange juice, set them on the counter and sat opposite the boys.

"Your mother and I were very young when we married. It wasn't arranged exactly, but pretty close. It helped that we went to the same college, but really didn't know each other for we had none of the same classes. We grew to love each other eventually, but then I fell in love with someone else... a man." He looked down at the plate infront of him. "I never ment to... but it didn't matter. I was hopelessly in love with someone else, and she found out. She got a divorce and went crawling back to the States, taking you along with her." he shrugged. "I tried getting you back, but her family was far more persuasive to the courts, and nothing I did helped."

Yoshiki pulled a cigerette out of the pack in his pocket and lit it, taking in a deep drag. "Eventually your mother got over being mad at me, and she starting getting suspicious of you, thinking maybe you didn't like girls the way you should. Evidently not having anyone else to pester about such thing, she began actually calling me for a change." he chuckled. "At first it was under the pretense of just complaining, bad jeans, bad influance even at a young age, that sort of thing. But after a bit, she started asking questions, curious I guess. She wanted tell-tale signs or something, anything to know for sure.... She didn't want to ask you outright if you were gay, but...." He looked up at his son. "Did you ever have any girlfriends?"

"Oh course I did!" Hakuei cried, indignant, making Tsukasa giggle behind one hand. "I just.. didn't bring them home often. God, I never knew she suspected. Now Richard, he suspected; that was our problem. But I didn't think he ever said anything to her. She never gave me any indication that she knew."

Yoshiki nodded, sprinkling red pepper over his eggs.

"Wait a minute." Hakuei said. "What happened to that classmate you loved so much?"

Yoshiki stared down at his food, eyes hard and narrow. "He eventually decided to quite school and form a band. Evidently the made it big and we lost touch." He kept his voice even, but the other two could easily tell that it still hurt him. "I haven't seen him in, eight, nine years?" He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I'm better off without that impulsive, pig-headed man." he voice dropped to a near whisper. "He always knew how to push my buttons..."

Hakuei's mind reeled as he tried to process so much information.

"So, what are you two up to today?" Yoshiki asked.

"That's right," Tsukas said. "You don't have to work tonight, do you?"

Hakuei shook his head. "No, I don't. I actually hadn't though about it, really." He cast a sideways glace at the younger man. "Do you have any plans?"

"Well," Tsukasa took a sip of his now warm juice, "now that we all have more time on our hands, Kirito wanted to start practicing again. Remember when he told you we'd all formed a little, amataur band? He wanted to know if you'd like to come along sometime."

"Really??"

Tsukasa smiled. "He said you'd expressed great interest in music, but he didn't know what you could do. We have practice at his house at noon."

Yoshiki looked at his watch. "Don't have much time to spare if you're going to make it on time."

Hakuei glanced up at the old clock on the wall. "Ack! 11:45 already? I really did sleep late!" He jumped up from his seat and started a mad dash towards his room, but a moment later ran back, grabbing Tsukasa by the arm and hauling him out of his seat.

"Ah!" the younger man squacked as he was practically dragged back into Hakuei's room. The door slammed shut behind them and Hakeui leaned down, kissing him passionatly.

"We don't have time to go by your house to grab you a clean change of clothes," he said a bit breathless, "but you are not going over there in the clothes you left in last night." He turned around, rifling through his closet.

"Uh, Hakuei?"

"HM?"

"Well, see, I left my car at their house," Tsukasa said, grinning, "so they're already going to know I didn't come home last night."

Hakuei sighed, tossing a shirt at the shorter man. "Great, one more thing for Hide to harp on." He eyed the other man wearily. "Your brother isn't going to be mad, is he?"


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Kirito drummed his fingers on the arm of the small, worn out love seat in their practice room. He checked his watch again, then sighed dramatically.

"It's only a couple of minutes after 12." Bou said, quietly strumming his unplugged guitar. "I'm sure he just lost track of time."

Kirito said nothing, but then the sound of the opening front door caused him to look up. As Rose absently drum rolled on his snare, Tsukasa, followed closely by Hakuei, strolled into the room. The drummer's head flew up, brows furrowed.

Tsukasa immediatly went over to his older brother. "I'm sorry I'm late."

Kirito smiled slightly and shrugged. He cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes a bit. "Where'd you get that shirt? Never seen it before."

"I, uh, didn't have time to change before coming over." Tsukasa said, a slight blush on his cheeks.

Rose stopped messing around and leaned forward, elbows resting lightly on his drums. "And where were you last night? Is that why you where late?"

Tsukasa coughed and shot a glance at Hakuei, who's face had turned an interesting shade of red. Rose's eyes widened.

"You mean... you.. and you???" Tsukasa nodded and the drummer slumped back on his stool. "Figures." the blonde muttered, crossing his arms.

Bou bounced over to Hakuei. He looked up at him, then grabbed Tsukasa by the arm and dragged the two of them over so they were standing next to each other. He looked at one, then the other, his face frowning in concentration.

"Bou..." Tsukasa said, his eyes narrow. "You aren't trying to picture us together, are you?"

Hakuei's eyes went wide as Bou giggled and shook his head up and down.

"I think you two make a cute couple!" He said, then retreated to his guitar leaning up against the wall.

Tsukasa shook his head, grinning. "Hentai," he murmered and picked up his guitar from a stand by the wall, "What ever are we going to do with you."

Hakuei cleared his throat and took Kirito's vacant chair. "When does Toshiya get back?"

"I asked Hide that the other day." Kirito said as he set up his mic stand. "But he didn't know either. He normally doesn't spend this long with his folks."

"Maybe he had other things to do while there." Bou said.

Kirito turned to the little man, hands on his hips. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing." Bou said, slinging the guitar strap over his shoulders. "I just ment, maybe he has other reasons to be there. Business or something."

"He sells cell phones," Kirito said, "in the mall. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have business there."

The little guitarist shrugged. "Just sayin'."

The other man watched him a moment, then let it go. Hakuei was pretty sure he'd question him thoroughly later, when the rest of them were gone. Kirito then turned to the seated man. "So, what can you play?"

"Well, I mostly sing," he said. "but I also know the bass, a little drums and guitar. Been wanting to learn the piano, but have never gotten around to it."

The vocalist nodded. "We'll run through a couple of songs, and if we come across one you think you might be able to play, or sing even, let me know, ok? Especially the bass, since Tochi's still MIA." Hakuei nodded and Tsukasa passed around their lyric and music sheets, handing Tochi's to Hakuei so he could follow along.

The four men played 3 songs, stopping every once in awhile to correct a line, or a note sequence, still feeling out how they wanted the songs to flow. After about an hour, they stopped for a break. Tsukasa plopped down in the small chair with Hakuei, draping his long, thin legs across the other man's lap and offered him a cigarette, to which he accepted gratefully. Kirito and Bou exchanged quick glances.

"Don't the owners ever get annoyed by the racket?" Hakuei asked, taking a long drag on the smoke.

Tsukasa shook his head. "They are rarely home, and when they are, they don't ever seem to mind. We try to schedule practice around their comings and goings anyway."

"Have you ever played anywhere public?"

"Oh yeah," Bou piped up from behind him. "We've played at the bar on numerous occasins, but we've just been so busy lately, we haven't had time."

"That's cool. You guys really sound great, even without a bassist."

"Do you want to try one of the songs?" Kirito asked. Hakuei looked at the man sitting beside him.

"What are you looking at me for?" Tsukasa grinned and dropped his legs to the ground. "If you want to, go for it!"

Hakuei grinned and stood, rifling through the papers until he came to the song he wanted. Kirito handed him his mic and took his vacant seat as Tsukasa took up his guitar once more. Rose started the slow, steady beat, and Hakuei closed his eyes.

Look at me .....dangerous
those eyes so full of lust
I feel the heat .....taking me
How can anyone resist your love
You are the enchanter ....and I am caught

Under your spell......

Your embrace, those fingers..... swiftly
you send chills down my spine
your breath on my neck .....softly
I never want you to let go
You are the enchanter ......and I am caught

Under your spell

This spell that .....holds me
For you I will... surrender
I forever stay .....only yours

Come to me now, hold me....

The last cord died away and the room grew deathly quiet. Hakuei slowly replaced the mic on its stand and stood there, staring at the ground, heart racing, He'd put all he had into that song, the lyrics, the tone, a very deep feeling in his heart. Suddenly, he felt hands turn his head and hungry lips press against his own. The guitar trapped between them, Tsukasa embraced the taller man, pulling him close.

Breathless, Hakuei finally drew back, his eyes wide. The younger man grinned up at him.

"You definately have to sing that again."