Like a Demon

Michio and Mei entered the apartment through the fire escape window, expecting to hear laughter, or music, or both coming from the people who lived there. Instead, they heard Ray and two other voices muttering quietly in Japanese, giggling softly here and there through their conversation.

Mei quickly went to investigate, but Michio pushed her back to the window and announced that he would make sure it was safe. When he walked into the living room, it took everything he had to remain quiet after being given a stern “Shh” from Karou.

Karou and Shinya were sitting in the floor in the corner, playing cars with Ray, while everyone else slept in various places and positions over the rest of the living room. Kyo was still face down on the table, Drew was curled into a ball in the corner across from Karou, Shinya, and Ray, and his head was between Die’s feet, Die was sleeping on his face with his arms out to the sides, and Dex was on his back, spread eagle, under the glass coffee table. Jayne and Toshiya were between Die and Drew, and Dex and Kyo. He was on top of her slightly, with his face against her neck, and she had her arms wrapped around him, keeping him close to keep warm.

Mei ran in to see what had Michio so messed up, and at once took her camera out and began taking pictures. She got one of everyone, including Shinya, Karou, and Ray sitting in a corner playing with racecars. “She won’t be happy when she sees that photo.” Karou reminded, but Mei just shook her head and walked over to join them.

“She won’t care. She’ll probably laugh, and make a joke about having slept with the bassist of Dir en Grey.”

“You have to be careful though, Mei. If that picture gets out, it won’t be good for either of them.” Michio frowned, though trying very hard not to laugh when Toshiya shifted in his sleep, and Jayne moaned.

“I bet he’s turned on.” He smirked.

“Turned on what?” Ray questioned curiously, only growing more curious when Shinya’s eyes widened as he tried not to laugh with Karou, and Mei punched her lover before answering, “Ask Drew when he wakes up.”

Several groans rang out when Dir en Grey’s “Child Prey” played throughout the living room, waking every sleeping musician, except Jayne and Toshiya, who just groaned and buried their heads deeper against each other’s bodies.

“Turn that fucking shit off!” Kyo growled in his native tongue as he woke to his own voice screaming around him.

“Where is it?” Drew whined after getting kicked in the face by Die.

Kyo growled again furiously after falling off of the table, kneeing Dex in the crotch, causing him to sit up and bang his head on the table.

The entire time, Karou, Mei, Michio, Ray, and Shinya were laughing, especially when Dex’s loud cursing finally woke Jayne and Toshiya, who surprisingly didn’t move right away.

“Uhm… good morning.” He grinned awkwardly.

“Good morning.” She laughed, finally pushing him off of her and darting to the pile of shoes by the door just as the song stopped playing.

“What was that?” Die questioned.

“My phone. That song plays when an unknown number calls.” She shrugged, and hit redial while walking into the bedroom and locking the door.

“She does that whenever someone calls.” Dex sighed.

“Only because you two idiots never leave her alone when she’s on the phone!” Mei laughed.

Both boys looked at her and frowned. “Because she always gets the fun phone calls, and we never get any good calls.” Drew explained.

“You never press your ears to the door when I talk on the phone.”

“Well duh, you always have mushy love conversations that are in Japanese. BORING!” Dex answered dramatically.

She replied a string of insults in Japanese before walking into the kitchen to find something to eat. “There is never enough food in this house!” she muttered, choosing to stay with her mother language.

“What does Ray eat then?” Toshiya smirked, though she could tell he was also genuinely curious.

“Usually whatever Jayne makes him. She can make a dinner out of anything. What the problem is, we’re all completely broke. This is the only home they can afford, and I live with Michio. They’ll all kill me if they found out I told you how bad off we all are on funds, but the yesterday when Jayne was crying, it was because she lost her job at Sound when it burned down. She also lost her other job, and now she doesn’t have any money coming in. Drew doesn’t make much, and Dex doesn’t make anything at the moment. Basically, her biggest fear is being realized; she isn’t able to take care of her son.

“He’s her world, Toshiya, he’s everything to her.”

Toshiya frowned and stood quietly while watching Mei throw together something to call a meal, though he knew that no one in his band would want to touch it, and chances were, no one in hers would either.

Just as he was about to speak, Jayne came bolting out from the bedroom and locked the front door, as well as the fire escape window.

“Jayne-Chan, what’s wrong?” Michio demanded quickly, noticing the distress that was written across her face.

“Nothing you, or they, have to worry about.” She answered shortly, and picked her son up to kiss him on the cheek before letting him sit in her lap beside Die on the couch.

“Okay, then what about us? What do we have to worry about?” Mei pushed.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it. For now, let’s just worry about what we’re all going to eat, okay?” she laughed as Ray squirmed in her arms to get to Kyo, who was holding one of his cars and smirking at the demanding child.

“Tochikura’s has good food.” Michio smirked, earning a slap on the arm from Mei.

“Your mother doesn’t need to cook for all of us, every day.” She laughed.

“When you two are married, she will be anyway.” Drew smirked, only laughing harder when he realized that Dex was the only one who didn’t know what was happening, since everyone was speaking in a language he couldn’t understand.

“Let’s go shopping first. We need groceries, and such. Then I’ll just cook for us tonight.” Jayne smiled, “But first we can drop you all off at your hotel.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that yet. We still have the whole day to kill before going back. We don’t leave for Japan until tomorrow morning.” Die shrugged, receiving a very stern look from Karou.

“Shinya wants to stay.” Toshiya teased, nudging the shy man in the side as he quickly looked off to the corner of the room, away from anyone.

“You’re all going home now?” Ray asked Kyo sadly, still waiting for his car back since the two had started racing them on his remote control track. Kyo of course was winning, but Ray was having a blast nonetheless.

“We will be tomorrow. We have to go back to our home in Japan, before doing another tour.” He explained.

“Will you come back?” he asked sadly, refusing to let any of the guys see him cry, which they all admired, though it was obvious by looking at him he was heartbroken.

“One day, we will. Maybe for your next birthday!” Toshiya smiled.

“Come back for Mama’s birthday! It’s closer!”

“Really? When is it?” Die pushed, leaning forward in his seat.

“One month!”

“We’ll have to send her a gift then.” Karou nodded, sending a quick glance to the drummer to see his approving, but shy smile.

“Okay. Where do you five want to go before I go shopping for food?” Jayne asked, standing up and walking to grab the keys and her phone.

“How about, shopping for food with you?” Die asked.

“Sounds good to me.” She smiled and let him put his arm around her to lead her out the door to their van. “Car’s parked on the side!” Mei shouted. “Right, Dex, Drew, you go with her then!” she replied and made sure her home was locked up before jogging out to their van.

“Mama, Mama! Mama Mama Mama Mama Mama!”

“What?” Jayne laughed as Ray dragged Karou over to the juice isle where she, Mei, Michio, and Toshiya were standing.

“Look what he found!” he shouted in English.

“Wow, where did he find that?” she asked, looking up to see Kaoru smiling as Die and Dex caught up with them.

“Toys!”

“It’s really cool; but honey I can’t afford it right now. I’m sorry.” She sighed, wishing more than anything that she could buy him the little black acoustic guitar painted with smoky grey skulls.

“Uhm, yeah… we don’t have to afford it.” Dex laughed, scratching the back of his neck as the rock stars joined their bassist and began to walk out of the isle.

Jayne left Ray in Dex, Michio, and Mei’s care, and quickly chased after them.

“You didn’t have to do that, he has a guitar already, and that cost fifty dollars.”

“We have the money for it; besides, he had an electric, not an acoustic. Now he has both!” Die beamed as Toshiya tried his hardest not to laugh at her expression.

“Think of it as a late birthday gift to him.” Karou shrugged.

“Don’t spend any more on us, you earned that money yourselves, not for some American family you hardly know.” She sighed.

“We earned this money to do whatever we want with it, and believe me if Die is going to spend money on guitars, he is going to do it no matter what you tell him. Karou just likes to make sure we have all of the equipment.” Toshiya defended.

While Jay, Toshiya, Die, and Kaoru were discussing guitars, and Mei, Michio, Dex, and Ray continued to buy the items on their shopping list, Drew, Shinya, and Kyo were in the breakfast isle completing their own list.

“Shit, I’ll be right back; I left the list Jay gave me in Mei’s cart.” Drew announced, and left the rockers alone while he hunted down their sheet of paper.

“I called about the tour; I’m just waiting on an answer before I tell the others.” Kyo smirked proudly, earning a shocked look from his friend.

“What if they all say no??”

“We tell them to live with it.” He shrugged as Drew came jogging back and filled their cart with the needed breakfast foods.

After the grocery shopping adventures, everyone went back to the apartment to put everything away while Jayne got to work making macaroni and cheese for lunch, by Ray’s request.

“Kyo, play cars with me!” Ray pleaded, earning a tired groan as a response, and nothing more.

“I’ll play cars!” Toshiya volunteered quickly at the same time Dex and Die volunteered.

“You understood what he wanted?” Drew asked his friend.

“He walked up, holding his cars, and asked a question while handing one of the cars to him. What else is he asking?” Dex shrugged and took his usual purple car to begin their game.

“Come eat!” Jayne shouted in both languages after setting out everyone’s bowls and forks.

“Why are you sitting on the floor?” Karou questioned blankly. “We only have five chairs. There are eleven of us here. You five get the table.” She shrugged as Dex and Die sat down on the floor as well.

“You have a chair up there, you two.” She laughed as he and Toshiya sat on either side of her, scooting against her as much as they could to squish her.

“But the floor is so much more comfortable!” Toshiya validated, dramatically stretching and leaning his head on her shoulder.

“So no one is eating at the table?” Mei giggled as Kyo, Shinya, and Kaoru also moved their plates to the floor.

“It isn’t right to take the table from you, this is your house.” Shinya explained.

“And you are our guests.”

He was about to argue, if anyone could call his polite debating an argument, when Kyo and Jayne’s phones both went off at the same time.

“Moshi Moshi,” they answered while standing up and walking in opposite directions. Kyo went to the living room and Jayne to the bedroom.

As Kyo continued his conversation in Japanese, everyone could hear a few words of Jayne’s conversation in English from the other side of her locked door, though they only got one or two here and there.

“No……. Ass… He’s my…. Not coming…” and then furious arguing as she walked away from the door to keep anyone from hearing her anymore.

“Well, whoever called has pissed her off pretty quick.” Dex laughed to Drew who nodded and continued to eat his lunch.

“I have great news! Your manager should be calling any second!” Kyo announced to Mei as he rejoined them, seconds before Jayne stormed out of her room.

“Guys, I have some bad news. You know that person we never talk about, who is never allowed here?”

Mei, Drew, and Dex all nodded.

“He just called and promised to be here tomorrow morning to pick something up.”

“What happened, Jayne-chan?” Shinya asked, also asking her to speak Japanese so he and his band could understand.

“Nothing you have to worry about, Shinya, we’re all right.” She sighed and slid back down to the floor, only to have Die and Toshiya move across the room to sandwich her again.

“Don’t worry. Whatever it is, will be all right.” Toshiya smiled, and snuggled up against her, putting his arm around her waist. She replied with a small noise and focused on her meal.

A few seconds later Jayne’s phone rang again. “It’s… Robert.” She announced, clearly surprised. Kyo instantly began grinning ear to ear as she answered and put it on speaker.

“All right, I have some amazing news for you… but it will come with mixed emotions.”

“Fair warning, what’s going on?” Drew questioned.

“I think I have you set up to go on tour.”

Mei choked on her apple juice and squeaked a few Japanese swears.

“Don’t get too excited, it isn’t official yet. The band you’ll be touring with, as an opening act has to agree. We already have one okay, but the other members have their phones off at the moment.”

Kyo discretely kicked Shinya and muttered something to him. Shinya turned his phone on and quickly started texting something while the rest of the band followed his lead. Of course, Jayne, Drew, Dex, and Mei were oblivious until Robert started laughing.

“They must have heard me; you just got the full band’s okay! Congratulations, guys, you’re going on tour with Dir en Grey!”

“Kyo, you set this up, didn’t you?!” Jayne laughed in slightly poor Japanese due to her excitement and surprise.

“We needed an opening band.” He shrugged plainly and finished his lunch.

“Who’s in for the tour? It’s in Japan.”

“Mei is going!” Michio announced in very heavily accented English.

“We’re going too, Ray and I.” Jayne nodded.

“Well the whole band’s in, so why not us?” Dex shrugged as Drew agreed.

“Great, you leave tomorrow morning! They want you all to stay at the hotel with the guys though tonight, so we can leave early in the morning. See you all tomorrow! Start packing!” Robert beamed and hung up, leaving his band to get ready.

Lunch ended instantly as everyone quickly started getting everything they would need before going to the hotel.

All five members had their own rooms, and offered the spare beds to their new tour-mates. Ray and Jayne went with Die, Mei went with Karou, Dex went with Toshiya, and Drew went with Die.