Like a Demon

“You, be good for Kaoru, do you understand? When we see each other again in two weeks I want to hear ONLY good things!” Mei sighed, kneeling down in front of Ray as the flight she, Robert, Drew, and Dex would be taking back to the US was called.

“I don’t want you to go,” he pouted with tears in his eyes, hugging her tightly as a few tears of her won fell.

“Only two weeks. Fourteen days. Okay? We will be back together before you know it!” she smiled sadly, but he didn’t care.

“We have to go, Ray-Ray. We’ll be back soon I promise.” Dex smiled as Ray’s tearful goodbye was now focused on him.

“No! My family doesn’t s-say goodbye!” he cried while Dex let go so Drew could hug him goodbye.

“Then we won’t say goodbye.” He smiled, squeezing him tightly before setting him down and looking at him with his most serious expression. “Ray, I’ll see you later.” He grinned.

“S-see you later.” He sniffled while Mei and Jayne continued their emotional hugging.

“Okay guys, let’s go!” Robert pushed, and finally got the tearful rock stars out of the airport and onto their plane.

“Oh, come here baby.” Jayne sighed picking her son up as his sniffling turned to full blown tears again.

Kaoru, Shinya, Toshiya, Die, and Kyo just watched as she stood there and rocked him, trying with everything she had to calm him down. He had never had to say goodbye to his family before. Drew and Dex were ALWAYS right there, and even though Mei lived with Michio, she was always visiting and taking him to go do fun things. Robert wasn’t around as much, and he was used to saying goodbye for a week or two to him, but Dex, Drew, and Mei were ALWAYS there. And now they weren’t even going to be in the same country.

A few minutes after Ray finally calmed down, another flight was called and Kaoru sighed. “That’s ours.” He announced and stood up. A few more tears built up in Ray’s eyes as he looked at Kyo, Die, Shinya, and Toshiya.

“Don’t cry, we will see each other again soon. We are not staying away for the entire two weeks.” Die nodded with a smile.

“We’ll be at Kaoru’s for rehearsal of our new song we’ve been working on for the last few days of the break.” Kyo explained, as Ray nodded sadly.

“See you soon!” Shinya smiled, waving as Jayne and Kaoru walked away, and she carried Ray carefully while Kaoru politely took their bags. As Toshiya gave his farewell, they rounded the corner to their flight.

Before the flight even took off, Ray was asleep.

“It’s amazing how close he has gotten to all of you.” Jayne smiled, breaking the silence that had fallen over most of the flight. “Is he not normally this friendly?” he questioned quietly, being sure to keep his voice low to avoid waking Ray.

“He’s friendly, but he doesn’t trust people the way he trusts you. He’s seen us all be hurt too many times. But with you five, all of those walls crumbled instantly. He’s loved you all since the day he met you.”

“What do you mean, he’s seen you all be hurt? Is it his father?”

“No, he doesn’t know who that is. The ‘Yelling Man’ is a stranger to him. I want to keep it that way too. He doesn’t like men in suits, because he grew up seeing them making me cry, and stressing the boys out. He doesn’t trust anyone outside the band, the Tochikura family, Mel, and Jun’s family, because they have always looked down on our family, and we have had a lot done that hurts us in many ways because of it.”

“What has been done to you?”

“People have tried to take Ray and put him in foster care, we’ve been evicted, lost jobs, have had rumors spread about us, and have had very little respect from the world.”

“Many respect you now.” He smiled.

“Not anymore with that video.” She sighed and leaned her head back, trying not to fall asleep and leave him with no one to talk to.

“That will be forgotten in time.” He assured, and let her fall asleep for the rest of the flight.

When they landed, he gently shook her awake and tried not to laugh when she whined just like Ray. “So that is where he gets it from,” he teased as she sat up and pouted before Ray JUMPED from his seat to hers. “Ray!” she gasped, wincing at the pain it caused her, “You are getting just a little too big for that.” She laughed.

“I’m not fat!” he argued, offended at the thought.

“No, you aren’t. However you are bigger than you used to be, and still have a lot of growing to do. That hurts a little bit when you jump now.” She explained while carrying him off of the plane to get their luggage. Kaoru grabbed their carry on bags, and refused when she offered to carry them for him, since they weren’t his to carry. She felt bad seeing him carry the Cars backpack, and large pink, purple, and black purse, but was at the same time thankful; carrying both bags, and her son, often got quite heavy.

“Mama, Kaoru said he would get ice cream. Can we go? Please?” Ray begged once they were in the car being driven to his home. “You don’t need the sugar,” she laughed. “I will sleep tonight! Promise!” he pleaded, using his best puppy pout. “Okay, okay.” She sighed before laughing when she noticed the victorious smile that crossed the guitarist’s face.

“Mama look!” Ray breathed once they had arrived at Kaoru’s home.

“I see,” she laughed, helping him take his shoes off before walking through the door.

“It’s so big!” he whispered in amazement, staring wide-eyed at everything around him. “It isn’t that impressive, really. Only a house.” Kaoru nodded while leading them to their room, which was as big as their living room at home.

“Wow,” Jayne muttered while looking at the beautifully decorated room.

“The bathroom is here, this one is for guests so feel free to leave anything you would need in here. The kitchen is down the hall here, and that door leads to the basement; we turned that into a studio for rehearsals. All of the instruments you would need are down there, but the guys usually bring their own, except for Kyo. In his eyes a microphone is just a microphone. We can leave yours there as well, if you want.” He explained, giving them the tour.

“I’ve never seen a big house like this, Mama!” Ray whispered excitedly once the tour had come to an end. She just smiled and giggled as they sat quietly in his living room.

“The only HOUSES he has seen are Mei’s and Michio’s, which is very small, and Tochikura’s.” she explained, “And though the small houses are very nice, this is very impressive in comparison.”

Kaoru nodded and silently watched Ray bounce excitedly as he sat on his couch. “Mama, can I play my guitar?” he asked randomly, looking hopefully up at her.

“It’s late, Baby.”

“If you’re worried about the neighbors, the studio is also soundproof. Anything played down there can’t be heard anywhere outside the studio. Even inside the house.” Kaoru announced.

“If it isn’t any trouble for you,”

“It isn’t. He has a lot of talent, if he is ASKING to play, then I am more than happy to help set things up for him.” He smiled and led them down to the studio.

After helping Ray set up his guitar to the expensive amps, and adjust the sound to be exactly what he wanted, both he and Jayne sat on the floor beside his teddy bear and watched him play some scales to warm up. Once he has his usual warm ups done, he started playing some of his favorite songs, eventually ignoring his “audience” as he lost himself in his playing. Having amps that made that much noise took him to a whole different place when he played at Kaoru’s.

His little trance was broken when a second guitar joined for the cover of Cage that he had began playing, and a bass soon after that Jayne had picked up. “Can we play it again?” he asked hopefully when the song ended. “Of course,” Kaoru nodded and went to adjust some settings on his amp.

“Mama, sing!”

“Oh no.” she frowned.

“Why not?” Kaoru asked curiously, “The microphone is already set up. All you have to do is turn the switch on the soundboard over there.”

“I’m not very good at covering your songs. Everything in them is so far above my musical ability. Your guitar riffs, Die’s parts, Kyo’s vocals, Toshiya’s bass, and I’ve never been any good with drums, so playing ANYTHING that Shinya does is a complete failure,” she rambled.

“I’ve heard you sing this song myself, when we returned Ray’s birthday card to the shop. You did make a mistake on the lyrics before the song ended early, however it was still an impressive cover.”

“Mama, sing! Please? Pleeease?”

“Okay, okay.” She sighed, walking over and turning the microphone on before standing in front of it with the borrowed bass guitar. “Then, I think it’s time for you to get to bed.”

“Fine,” he pouted before she nodded to Kaoru to start them in.

Throughout the song both she and Ray made countless mistakes, but every one of them were laughed off. Kaoru at one part when Jayne’s vocals failed ended up laughing so hard he couldn’t play anymore, and had to stop for a minute. Instead of playing the song once, like Jayne had planned, they played it six more times. Four with her playing the bass and singing, and once without vocals, but with her TRYING to play the drums. Out of respect Kaoru tried very hard to hide his amusement, but her playing was extremely terrible.

“I’m not a drummer,” she announced after their last round through the song.

“That is painfully obvious. With more practice though you will be much better.” He nodded.

“Stop being nice. I’m terrible; you can say it. I won’t be offended!” she laughed.

“Yes, you are very terrible. I’m sure I’ve heard worse somewhere, though.”

“Where?”

Silence.

“Keep practicing for the next week, and when Shinya and the others come to rehearse that song, we’ll see what he can do to help you. Practice and you'll improve.” He nodded finally.

“Sounds like a plan!” she beamed and took Ray to bed. She had planned on going back out to keep him company before falling asleep, but while singing Ray to sleep she ended up singing herself to sleep as well. On his way to bed later that night, he carefully opened the door and turned off the light for them before closing it back and retiring to his room for the night.