Like a Demon

“Jay, your son is all over this magazine cover and a few websites too.” One of her co-workers at the music and entertainment shop sighed, handing her a tabloid with the entire event at last night’s concert retold.

“Perfect. My little man’s a celebrity.” She laughed sarcastically and went back to playing around with one of the drum kits they had set up. They had been there for three hours without a single customer, and were bored out of their minds. Ray was at work with her, since she couldn’t bear being away from him after the concert, and playing along with her his little electric guitar Dex had gotten for him for his birthday. It was dark red, and looked very similar to one that Die played often, so he had to buy it for him.

“Mama, one day I want to play like that, for lots of people!” he beamed excitedly, slowly picking out a few notes to play a very, very simple version of his favorite Dir en Grey song.

“You will baby, just keep practicing.” She smiled.

“You too mama! If they hear you play like that, Shinya will cry.”

“Hey, I’m not that bad at drums!” she laughed, lightly tapping him on the head with one of the sticks.

“Yeah, you are.” Mel, her co-worker, snickered as she sat in the corner, letting Veronica, the store’s resident bass tech, work the counter.

~

The members of Dir en Grey decided to spend their day off following their translator around the city for some shopping and sight seeing. Their first stop was a music shop called “SOUND!” to leave the card Shinya held in his hand for its proper young owner. Carl, the translator, recognized the studio in the picture of Ray and his family, and told them that it was taken in the basement of the store, and that he knew the owner would be able to return the birthday card to their little fan.

As soon as they walked through the doors, Kyo and Toshiya were trying not to laugh at the very poor rendition of Cage being played on drums, with single note picking on the guitar. Not only was it at a quarter of the normal speed, the drummer, whoever it was, had no idea what they were doing.

Carl walked back to the counter to ask the woman working if she could return the card to its owner, with the guys following close behind until they were distracted by the instruments and albums that were on display.

“Hey, that room’s off limits at the moment, the studio’s being used!” she announced when Die went to open the door that led to where someone was playing an instrumental cut of Obscure at what had to be the stereo’s highest volume. Carl translated, and gave Veronica Die’s apology as the song started over.

Suddenly a woman’s voice started screaming the lyrics with a second woman backing her up. “Kyo, come hear this!” Die shouted across the store, waving his friend over to listen to the impressive display on the other side of the door until the singer messed up the lyrics, saying something completely random before replacing the next line with one in English.

~

“I can’t sing this song, because my Japanese SUCKS!” Jayne screamed in place of the next line, clearly trying not to laugh as she, Drew, Dex, and Mei wrapped up the song early and started laughing hysterically.

“Damn, does their guitarist have to have such complicated parts?” Dex laughed.

“Fucking which one?” Jayne panted.

“I don’t know, they both have complicated lines!”

“Try the vocals next time. I had to keep up with Kyo and Die’s parts. Tell me that’s not a fuck up.”

“Or the drums… damn that guy is good.” Drew panted before hitting a few random beats.

“Another cover?” Mei suggested as sudden boredom washed over the band.

“No, Ray’s dancing, so potty break.” Jayne laughed and carried her son through the back door of the studio to the bathrooms. They all decided to call it a night, and followed her out to go to lunch.

It was a long walk to the restaurant after practice, and once they got there Drew and Dex both looked uneasy as she knelt down to her son’s level. “Okay, now this is a grown-up place, okay? Can you act grown up for me in here? I expect you to behave yourself, Ray-Ray.” She announced, receiving a firm nod as he stood up straight and grabbed her hand.

“Can we afford this?” Drew whispered as they all walked to their table at the five-star restaurant. “Don’t worry, I can cover it. Just order cheap, okay?” she nodded and sat down with Ray on one side, and Mei on the other. The guys claimed their seats at their little round table and looked over the menu.

“Mama, I want sushi.” Ray announced quickly as she looked for something on the kid’s menu. Instantly Drew glared at Mei, who was giggling while reading her menu. “Are you sure?” Jayne asked while trying not to laugh. “Yep!” he nodded happily and kicked his legs waiting for everyone else to get done so that they could order.

When everyone’s food arrived, all conversation stopped so they could shove their meals down their throats. That was until Ray noticed someone at another table using chopsticks, and wanted to try as well, accidentally throwing a small piece of sushi into Drew’s lap.

“Sorry,” Jayne and Ray apologized together as she tried to help her son, but she didn’t know how to use them either. Mei was now laughing as hard as she could, standing up and moving to try and instruct the four-year-old, but it wasn’t going very well. Another piece of sushi hit Drew, this time in the face.

“Keep your mouth open, I think he wants to share.” Dex joked as Mei finally got Ray to keep a piece between the sticks long enough to get to his mouth. Laughing as he ate it proudly and then stabbed the next one.

“So what’s the occasion, Jay?” Drew asked after a while of silent dining.

“I lost my job at the Store, and was given a gift certificate to this place as a parting gift.” She explained.

“You what? But Jay, we’re hardly making rent as it is between the three of us! Sound doesn’t pay enough to cover your bills!” he hissed as Ray continued to eat happily.

“I know, and I’m already looking for another paycheck. Between Ray’s school, rent, electricity, the car payment, food, gas… believe me, I know how hard it is to support all of us, I’m paying more than half remember?” she sighed.

“I’m sorry, I’m trying to get a job, I really am.” Dex frowned sadly.

“No, don’t feel bad Dex, we’ve all been there. Besides, it’s not like selling hotdogs at the park really pays much. I’m killing us too.” Drew nodded.

“Hey, cheer up guys, we’ll be okay.” Mei smiled.

“Easy for you to say, you have a house with your boyfriend. We are sharing an apartment to keep rent up on the car, the van, and the studio, plus lighting and equipment, and Ray.” Jay sighed and continued her meal in silence.
~

When the music stopped Veronica announced that they could go into the studio, since the band was gone. Mel walked out shortly after, laughing and smiling as she reclaimed her place at the counter.

“Evening Carl,” she nodded while pulling out a bottle of neon blue nail polish.

“Hey Mel, we were just leaving this card for a little boy the guys helped out last night. He got separated form his mom at the end of the concert, and gave the card to Die to show him what she looked like, but he forgot to give it back.” He explained as the band continued to occupy themselves in the music store.

“Let me guess, cute little boy, near perfect Japanese? Mom’s a cute little short chick with long wavy blonde hair, and his aunt is half Japanese with colorful pigtails? Oh, and his uncles are protective, one has blonde hair and the other has very dark hair?”

“You know them?”

“Yeah, they just left for lunch.” She laughed, watching Die and Toshiya start a mock swordfight with a set of drumsticks, eventually ending in Shinya getting hit on the top of the head.

“Well, when you see them again, make sure they get the card; I gave it to Veronica here. I’m gonna take these guys out of here before their boredom breaks something other than each other.” He smiled and collected the rock stars before leaving SOUND.

“God he’s sexy!” Veronica breathed, watching Karou’s backside closely as they walked through the door.

As Mel and Veronica conversed about the band, they were focused on finding something interesting to do. Carl suggested a place that might make them feel more at home, and took them to a Tokyo themed area of a strip mall, where all of the signs were in both languages, and all of the store workers were bilingual and of Japanese descent.

Every magazine cover there has the band, and Ray, and everyone who noticed them had questions about their little fan.

“Shinya, you should read this one.” Carl laughed, handing him a magazine from the rack that was opened to a page with him smiling with Ray sitting nearly in his lap.

“It is suspected that the young American boy, who speaks fluent Japanese, is the illegitimate son of Dir en Grey’s supposedly shy drummer, Shinya.” He read before blushing lightly and handing it off to Die who was reaching to take it anyway.

“The two seemed very close, and there were no shy moments between the rocker and the boy’s mother as they were the first to embrace after her reunion with her son who had been separated by the concert’s crowd of fans. Is there more to this quiet man than meets the eye? We believe so, and according to the online activity, the fans agree!”

“Awe, Shinya, you’ve been sneaking trips to America to visit a beautiful woman, and refused to share?” Toshiya pouted as a group of whispering fans watched from a café table.

“He is not my son. I met them the same time as you.” He nodded calmly, though unable to keep from smiling as the conversation turned from the publicity Ray was getting, to Kyo, Toshiya, Die, and Karou trying to see how much they could get their drummer to blush.

“Is she good in bed at least?” Die questioned, finally earning a slap to the side of the head from his blushing friend. “We only met her once, and she seems like a very hard working woman with a strong dedication to her son. Have at least a shred of respect, Die.” He scorned and continued to follow their translator around the mall.

By the end of the day, all six men were exhausted. They had walked from the hotel, and didn’t have a car with them, so when it started raining they had to suffer through the cold and wet until they returned. As soon as they made it to their rooms, they all took hot showers to de-thaw themselves, and went to bed.

Before Shinya fell asleep though, his phone buzzed and signaled a text from Carl that read only seven numbers.

“What is that?” he texted back, purely confused.

“Call her tomorrow.” Was all he got as a response before Carl turned his phone off. Either that or he began ignoring the confused drummer until he fell asleep.