Like a Demon

“So is it true, then? You and Kyo are an ‘item’?” the female interviewer asked Jayne with a knowing smile, that only made her look more ignorant. Akuma had been in the interview for half an hour, and still she had yet to ask about anything to do with the tour. All she cared about was the pictures and cell phone footage of Kyo and Jayne at the club.

“No… we are not an ‘item’. We aren’t anything more than friends.” Jayne answered calmly, though her band mates knew that she wanted to strangle the woman.

“But you two look so loving!”

“He’s holding my hair back because I was heaving… he was also threatening me because I was about to vomit into his lap… yes, very loving, Ma’am.”

The audience laughed, as did Kyo, Kaoru, Die, Toshiya, and Shinya, who were watching live from Kaoru’s room, while Ray played cars in front of them on the floor.

“He looks so concerned for you though in the picture here, holding you as you cry! What happened?”

“If that means they’re together, she’s having it with Shinya too.” Mei muttered.

“Mei!” Kaoru frowned as the interviewer’s eyes lit up.

“Shinya too? You certainly do get around!”

“There will be questions about this in our next interview.” Die frowned as Jayne gritted her teeth and glared at her friend.

“I’m not sleeping, with EITHER member of Dir en Grey.” She informed.

“We have this picture of you and Toshiya together as well… can you explain this?” she asked with a smirk, showing the picture of her and Toshiya asleep together in her living room floor, wrapped around each other. “It seems you two were very comfortable in that cheap hotel room.”

“A few facts you’ve gotten mistaken,” Drew sighed, clearly agitated, “That is not a cheap hotel room, it is our apartment’s living room. That ‘cheap’ room is our home. Two, she and Toshiya, though technically ‘sleeping together’ weren’t SLEEPING TOGETHER… it was really cold in that room that night.”

“Mei took that picture when we were all asleep.” Jayne frowned, giving her friend a look that the whole band knew to mean “I’m going to let you have it when we get done here”.

“Oh… well we are out of time I’m afraid. Thank you so much for coming today! Akuma, everyone!” she smiled. All four musicians gave big smiles and waved, bowing and bidding farewell as the show came to a close.

“Mama doesn’t like that lady.” Ray frowned, looking up to Kaoru who was trying not to laugh at the train wreck that was the show they just sat through. “And why is that?” Die asked, hiding his laughter very well out of respect for the Akuma members, though if the roles were reversed he knew that they would not have the same courtesy for him. “She is like Veronica. Pretending to be nice and like them, but mean.” Ray explained, frowning more, “I don’t like her either.”

“I don’t blame you. Some interviews are like that, and you have to smile and take the show with your head held high. It’s a difficult lesson to learn, but respect is the key.” Kaoru explained.

“Mama said respect is earned not given.”

“That’s true at times as well, so instead of respecting the woman, show respect to her because you respect your Mama, and Mei, and Dex, and Drew, so that they don’t get into any trouble.” Toshiya nodded as Shinya’s phone rang.

When he answered, his eyes went as wide as they could go, and his face went white. “What happened? Is everything all right?!” he demanded in a panic.

“F-fine, Shinya,” Mei breathed as the screams around them continued.

“WE’RE HIDING IN A BATHROOM!” Jayne roared in the background.

“There was this kid, who pointed and shouted our band’s name when we were walking down the street to get some food. Then a few other people noticed, and a few squeals, and all of a sudden it’s a fucking riot outside the bathroom door! We don’t know what the fuck to do!” Mei explained, causing Shinya to laugh.

“Hey, what’s going on? You at first looked like someone had died.” Die pushed, poking the drummer in the back of the shoulder and making him squirm.

“We just wanted to explain why we are going to be late. Don’t worry! We’re all good… just stuck.” She laughed as Dex shouted “Dude, window!”

“On second thought… write this down and give it to Carl to give to Robert.” She beamed, giving directions to the bathroom they were stuck in.

Kaoru and Shinya rode with Robert to get to the hiding band. Kaoru drove, since Robert couldn’t drive in Japan. As soon as they noticed the mass of fans, both Kaoru and Shinya started laughing. Robert just went into a fatherly panic over his “kids” as he called them, and had Kaoru back up to the window Mei had mentioned, and Shinya opened the hatch of the van.

It was like a jailbreak when Dex jumped out of the window and into the van, followed by Drew as he climbed into a seat, then Jayne, and finally Mei. “They saw us, Drive Kaoru Drive!” Dex breathed as the fans started making their way to the van while Mei and Jayne pulled the hatch closed.

“Damn it! We have some really creepy fucking fans!” Drew ranted, rubbing the side of his head where a fist full of his hair had been pulled out. “Tell me about it! Look at my shirt!” Mei pouted, pointing to the huge rip where a fan had grabbed her and held on for dear life.

“I’m serious when I say this to you two. You’re fucking crazy for going out in public as popular as you are.” Jayne frowned, looking from Shinya to Kaoru and resting her head on Robert’s shoulder as he hugged her.

“You get used to it. It’s all part of our lives now.” Kaoru laughed, but Shinya looked a little sad over something.

“What is the relationship between you two? You seem closer to him than most musicians are to their managers.” Kaoru pointed out.

“Robert’s like a father to me.” She smiled fondly, “I got really lucky when we all came together like this. I couldn’t ask for a better band.”

The rest of the ride to the hotel was silence, as was the walk to Kaoru’s room where everyone was still hanging out. As soon as the door opened though, Ray was darting from his place on the floor with his cars, to jumping into Jayne’s arms. “I missed you!” he squeaked, kissing her cheek and hugging around her neck. “I missed you too!” she beamed, returning his actions while spinning him to make him giggle.

“We were just talking about taking him to an indoor playground, what do you think?” Toshiya asked hopefully. “We don’t have anything else going on? No promotions, or interviews?” she asked.

“Nothing. We all have the rest of the day off.”

“Then sure, let’s go!” she nodded, sending her son to go pack his backpack while she and the others in her band changed out of their interview clothes and into regular jeans and comfortable shirts.

As soon as he was given the okay, Ray was running into the brightly colored jungle that Toshiya led him to, promising to check in every ten minutes, when his little Cars watch beeped.

The noise in the room made it impossible for the musicians to hear one another to hold a conversation, so they all settled on sitting quietly and watching Ray play with the other kids excitedly. After a few hours of playing though, he came back and crawled into Jayne’s lap, burying his face in her chest as she held her.

“What’s wrong, Baby?” she asked worriedly as everyone else in their group watched with curious and concerned eyes.

“Nothing.”

“Ray, honey, what happened? Why are you so sad now?”

“Mama,” He frowned, pulling back and looking her dead in the eyes, “Why don’t I have a Daddy? Those kids have mommies AND daddies. I have a mommy, and two uncles, but I don’t have a Daddy. Why?” he asked sadly. Since they were speaking in English, and it was too loud for Toshiya, Kaoru, Die, Shinya and Kyo to hear their conversation anyway, the five rock stars had no idea what was making both Ray and Jayne cry as they watched helplessly until Mei turned to Shinya with the most heartbroken of expressions.

“He’s asking about his father. He wants to know why the other children have fathers, and he doesn’t,” She explained as Ray started to cry more.

“But why, Mama? Why does he not live with us? Does my Daddy love us? Daddies and Mommies are supposed to love, and get married! And live together with their babies! Why is he not in the band too?”

“Ray, sweetie, sometimes mommies and daddies don’t love each other, and live in those houses. Sometimes the Daddy leaves, like he did. But Dex, and Drew stayed, because they love you a whole bunch! They love you more than your daddy ever could! And I love you, more than anything else in the whole world! You are my perfect Ray of sunshine. Please don’t be sad, because your daddy is not someone to be sad over. HE is the one who is losing out, because HE doesn’t have YOU.”

“Did he love you, Mama? Did he leave because I was borned?”

“No, no Ray. You had nothing to do with why he left. Come on, let’s get something to eat now, your tears make everyone sad. You should be happy, so that we can be happy too. We don’t like seeing you cry. Even Kyo looks sad when you cry.” Dex cut in, rubbing the upset child’s back as his mother rocked him, humming his favorite lullaby.

“I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time with this,” Mei laughed to Shinya, still watching Ray and Jayne, “We all knew he would be asking questions one day. We tried to keep it from him, but… kids are curious people. This just hurts so much to watch, I really do want to cry with him.”

“Everything will be all right.” He nodded as Jayne stood up.

“Heading back?” Die asked, trying to stay cheerful for Ray’s sake.

“Yeah, we’re heading back.” Drew nodded as Jayne carried her son to the door.

Ray fell asleep on the way back to their hotel while holding Jayne’s hand, and Jayne fell asleep on Kyo’s shoulder. Shinya watched with hidden eyes full of sadness and jealousy as Kyo wrapped his arm around her, comforting her when a soft whimper escaped her lips.

“Are you all right, Shinya? You seem different today.” Die questioned, catching Kaoru’s attention as he sat on the other side of the drummer.

“I’m all right, Die, I just need some sleep. You know how tiring touring can be.” He smiled, though only one guitarist was convinced.

“When we get back to the hotel, I need to speak with you.” Kaoru announced quietly, receiving a nod from Shinya as their van stopped at a red light.

“How much trouble would we be in, if we raced a Chinese Fire Drill right now?” Dex laughed. “That’s racist, frowned upon, and holds up traffic. Not only that, but two people are asleep and one is in a baby seat! How the hell do you plan on that working out, moron?” Drew demanded, making Mei laugh loud enough to wake Jayne, who woke Ray by jumping when she realized who she was using as a pillow.

“No one’s asleep now.” He beamed.

“And the car is moving again, dumb ass.” Drew smirked.

As soon as they arrived at the hotel again, Kyo went with Jayne back to her room with Ray, Kaoru went with Shinya to his room, and everyone else went to find some entertainment.

“Now what is wrong with you, Shinya? Since we went drinking you’ve been different. Since I found you on the roof especially. What really happened up there? Why did I find you bleeding, and the both of you crying?”

“It isn’t my place to tell.”

“She didn’t fall on accident.” He frowned, making more of a statement than a question.

Shinya answered by refusing to even look at his fellow band member.

“Was she pushed?”

“No.”

“Then she jumped?”

Silence.

Kaoru’s eyes widened to their largest possible size as he stared at his friend.

“You can’t tell anyone, or even let her know that you know. I found her just as she started to lean the final inches. She changed her mind and woke up when she began to fall, and I caught her. I’m sorry for lying to you, Kaoru, please understand that I couldn’t tell you then what happened, and it would be wrong of me to have told you at all.”

“I understand, Shinya, but is it safe to have her finish the tour?”

“She’ll be just fine. I have faith in her.” The drummer smiled, looking out the window as he let himself be lost in his own thoughts. Kaoru chuckled and leaned back in the chair, watching his so obviously love stricken friend daydream.

As Kaoru entertained himself thinking of what Shinya could possibly be fantasizing about, Jayne was falling asleep on Kyo’s shoulder again while Ray napped in the bed beside them. “Are you ready for the show tomorrow night?” he asked quietly, not wanting to wake Ray.

“At this very moment, Kyo, no.” she yawned, “Tomorrow night, I should be though.

He smirked as her eyes drifted closed and she fell asleep against him.

“Are you fucking Jayne, or not Kyo?” Toshiya texted twenty minutes later.

“With Ray in the room, you sick bastard?”

“Right, I forgot about him. Kaoru and Drew have word from Management that we are all to go out to dinner tonight before leaving tomorrow for our show. So get ready and get out here before they send Die, Dex, and myself to come and get you three.”

“We’re coming, Toshiya.”

Kyo sighed heavily while nudging Jayne awake.

“What?” she groaned, turning and burying her face in his stomach.

“Dinner.”

“You cook?” she asked, still mostly asleep.

“We are all going out to dinner, both bands and management. Come on.” He explained, getting up without caring about the way she fell off of him and bounced on the mattress. “You’re so mean,” she muttered while waking Ray.

“Dinner with an angry four-year-old who didn’t get his nap, and two cranky singers. What could be more fun?” Dex snickered as they all rode the elevator together down to the vans. “Just inject them with coffee, they’ll all be fine.” Drew smirked before getting kicked in the ass by Mei. “Ray does NOT need coffee!” she scorned before explaining to those who didn’t understand what was happening why she kicked him.