Like a Demon

“Who has Ray?” Jayne demanded as she and her band followed Dir en Grey and their crew through the airport after landing in Tokyo.

“Toshiya has him.” Dex nodded.

“No he doesn’t, he’s right beside you!” she gasped, instantly going into a panic.

“Calm down, I’m sure he’s fine, he’s just… not with Drew, Karou… Toshiya, Dex… Kyo, Die….” Mei started in Japanese but trailed off suddenly, finding it difficult to breathe.

“Where’s Shinya?” Karou demanded, almost sounding exasperated with the drummer.

“Very sorry, you were all busy, and Ray had to use the bathroom, so I took him. I should have said something. I’m sorry.” Shinya explained after jogging to catch up to them.

Jayne wanted to thank him, but was too overwhelmed by relief to acknowledge him as she lifted her son off of the ground. “His feet will not touch the ground, for the rest of the day.” Mei sighed to the band as Dex and Drew grabbed the mother and son’s luggage.

"Oh, we're being rude! Welcome to Japan!" Die laughed as they reached the van.

True to Mei’s prediction, Ray stayed in his mother’s arms until they got to the van. After getting to their hotel, she carried him to the room, and then to dinner, and back to the hotel.

The next day Toshiya decided to take the Americans sightseeing. Ray was more than excited as he bounced alongside him, holding his hand lightly while pointing to every little thing that intrigued him while speaking the most excitedly rapid Japanese anyone had ever heard from him.

“Look at that!” he gasped, tugging his guide towards a brightly illuminated guitar in the window of a music shop. “Very nice!” he laughed, allowing himself to be pulled along by the small excited child.

“You know, rumors are coming out about you dating Diru members?” Mei giggled as Toshiya, Ray, and Dex all walked into the music shop to look at guitars and ironically using the four-year-old as the translator between them.

“It’s been going on since the first concert! Remember the day after we met, we were all over the place. Shinya’s Ray’s father, remember?” she laughed, jogging to catch up with the guys after realizing even Drew had left the girls behind.

“Hey, I thought you and Kyo were having sex?

“No, I’m screwing Die.”

“I have pictures of you and Toshiya!”

“Poor Karou, he’s all left out.”

Both girls started laughing as they rejoined their group, to see Dex, Ray, and Toshiya all playing with some instruments they had picked out, while Drew played on a nearby drum kit.

“I know that song!” Jayne laughed, watching the guys play in their own little world.

“They need a singer.” The clerk nodded, handing her a microphone he had set up, “We were all half expecting the rest of his band to come in, but this is just as interesting, if not more. That child is very talented.”

“Thank you, he’s my son.” She smiled proudly and began singing Ray’s favorite part of the song, letting him sing the repeated vocals.

“Now I lay me down to sleep.”

“Now I lay me down to sleep.”

“I pray the lord my soul to keep.”

“I pray the lord my soul to keep.”

“If I die, before I wake.”

“If I die, before I wake.”

“I pray the lord my soul to take.”

“I pray the lord my soul to take.”

Ray grinned proudly as he watched his Mama finish the rest of his favorite part of the song, even more into the song than he was when they started it.

“Hush little baby, don’t say a word, and never mind that noise you heard. It’s just the beast, under your bead! In your closet, IN YOUR HEAD!”

“EXIT LIGHT! ENTER NIGHT! GRAIN OF SAND!

“EXIT LIGHT! ENTER NIGHT! TAKE MY HAND!” they all sang together before Jayne finished the line whispering, “We’re off to Never Never-Land!”

“We’re off to Never Never-Land!”

Everyone in the store applauded their show as they put the instruments away, and Ray jumped into Jayne’s arms to be swung around so the butterflies would get his tummy.

“When are we going to see Die-Sama again?” he asked Toshiya curiously as they left to get something to eat.

“When we get back to our hotel, why?”

“He is going to play the car game with me! He thinks he will win, but he is wrong.”

“If it has to do with cars, you’ll win every time.” Mei giggled, taking him out of Jayne’s arms and tossing him to Dex, who caught him and took off running, letting his excited laughter echo down the sidewalk.

“Wait! You two don’t know where you’re going! Dex bring him back here!” she ordered, starting to chase after them, but Mei and Drew held her back and let Toshiya catch the boys for her.

“What are you doing?!”

“You can’t carry Ray everywhere, he needs to be a big boy sometimes. They’re okay, Jayne. Calm down, you act like if he isn’t in your arms all the time you’ll never see him again lately.” Drew explained softly.

“You don’t understand, if I’m not with him I really might not see him ever again! Thomas called me twice, talking about taking him! I can’t let him take Ray away from me, I have to protect him!”

“Oh my god.” He muttered as Mei started laughing.

“It’s a good thing Kyo got us on this tour then, what better way to protect your son than to take him out of the country?” she beamed.

“He could always follow us. All he needs is the tour dates, and he has us tracked for the next four months.” Drew frowned as Dex and Toshiya brought Ray back. All three were laughing, and two were covered in chocolate.

“What the hell happened to you two?” Drew laughed.

“We were running from Toshi-Sama, and Dex tripped over a ice cream cart! He made a mess!” Ray giggled, getting as close to addressing Toshiya properly as he could, since he Mei and Jayne had come to the agreement that they would treat the band with their highest respect.

“You cleaned it up, didn’t you?” she demanded, glaring at Dex.

“As best as we could, she wasn’t mad at us though. We’re okay!”

“Dex, I swear I’m going to choke you one of these days.”

“Kinky.”

“Dex!” she gasped as the rest of her band started laughing and Ray tugged on Toshiya’s shirt.

“What’s that?” he asked curiously.

“What’s what?”

“Kinky, what is it?”

“Okay! Back to the hotel! When we get there, ask Robert.” Mei announced, saving Toshiya the awkward moment of explaining anything sexual to a four-year-old.

As soon as they got back, Ray asked Robert his question. Of course he answered the usual “I’ll tell you when you’re older” and got right to business as Jayne picked her son up and let him sit in her lap as she took her seat between Die and Karou.

“Your first show is in a week. They are going to go home and relax for a while before starting another tour, while you four go through some serious Japanese lessons, and get ready to tour this country.”

“Uhm, Robert, you do realize Japanese is my first language? Jayne speaks it as well as I do, and Drew can understand it. I’ve also caught him writing it. So, these facts lead me to believe that he can also speak it, he just chooses not to. Dex is the only one who needs lessons in the language.” Mei argued.

“And I expect you to help him. Drew, get over being so shy, and start speaking the language. I heard you talking with Karou this morning before breakfast, and your Japanese is fine according to him. Trust that, and move on. I expect you to speak only in Japanese in your interview tomorrow. You’re going to be on television beside Dir en Grey talking about the tour. Dex, get with the rest of your band, you’re the only one who doesn’t know the language now.” He laughed before turning to Ray.

“And you, little man, will have to listen to everything we tell you on this tour, okay?”

“Okay!” he grinned, bouncing on Jayne’s lap and making her wince each time.

“Are you okay?” Karou asked quietly as Robert continued to lecture her band.

“I’m fine, I really have to use the bathroom, and his bouncing isn’t helping.” She laughed. He nodded and continued to sit respectfully through Robert’s lecture.

“Finally, your shows. No more nerves before you go on, I don’t want to see you passing out backstage anymore, Jayne. These guys have more fans here than they do in the States, so the crowds are bigger. I expect you to handle it like the performer you are.”

“I’ll do the best I can.” She sighed and quickly handed her son off so she could get to the bathroom.

“Jayne doesn’t use public bathrooms. So she’s been holding it all day.” Mei announced to the five guys who were clearly confused by her actions.

“Yeah, she won’t even use the bathrooms at the venues we go to.” Drew shrugged in English, earning Robert’s famous Clearing of the Throat, ordering him to translate it into Japanese.

“I think you are more shy than Shinya!” Die snickered.

“You are able to speak some of my language, but choose not to. Why?”

“Because, his English is horrible.” Toshiya jeered.

“And so is my Japanese.”

“It’s fine, you have an accent, and it’s obvious that the language isn’t your first, but you still speak it very well. You shouldn’t be ashamed of it, you’re perfectly easy to understand.” Kaoru nodded as Jayne rejoined them.

“Okay! Now for some racing!” Die announced, preparing the lesson in video gaming he had promised Ray.

Die let him win a lot, but they were both having a blast with the game, only stopping when it was time for dinner, and after dinner, Jayne took Ray to bed, singing him to sleep like she always did.

“Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, smiles await when you rise. Sleep, pretty baby, do not cry, and I will sing you a lullaby.” She sang softly, cuddling her son closely and rocking him as he slowly drifted to sleep in her arms.

“Cares you know not therefore sleep. While over you a watch I’ll keep. Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry, and I will sing you a lullaby.”

“Sing another, Mama.” Ray yawned, snuggling closer to her.

“Shh, one more.” She smiled softly, laying him in the bed and tucking him in before starting her song.

“Close your eyes, my baby, toora, loora, li. Rest my pretty child, safe through the night. I’ll be here to hold you, toora, loora, li. A guardian to protect you, until morning’s light.”

By the time her second song ended, Ray was asleep and she was able to sneak out of the room and rejoin the others, though twenty minutes later she was asleep, using Die’s lap as a pillow. Originally she was sleeping on his shoulder, but he, with the help of Drew, moved her so that she would be more comfortable.