Marchen Room

Claire had finally arrived to Keiyuu's apartment quite late that same night. "It would probably be best not to disturb him…" she thought as she opened the door and held back her urge to call out the usual greeting of 'Tadaima!' For the past few days he had seemed as if anything could set him over the edge at any moment...A bit worse than usual. Maybe things weren't working out between him and... what was her name again.... E... Eiko..?Eri..? well.. whatever her name was. As Claire's eyes adjusted to the dimly lit apartment, she noticed the tiny man curled up on the couch, his face tranquil as he slept. Claire edged into the apartment slowly, being careful not to let the bright hallway light flood in, and shut the door as quietly as she could. As she turned the lock, the tiny click was like an raging avalanche to her ears in the still quiet. The redhead peered over her shoulder to be certain that Keiyuu was still snoozing lightly and sighed in relief when she saw that he hadn't even stirred.

A single desk lamp illuminated the room and also cast a flattering shadow over the man's face; It made him look somehow…handsome? Younger? As she slipped off her heels by the door, Claire quietly tip-toed in her stocking feet over toward the couch to get a closer look.

"Oh…" she whispered to herself, gazing at the sleeping man. When he wasn't scowling or yelling, he could actually be quite... "Kawaii…" Keiyuu shifted and murmured in his sleep at that particular moment and Claire covered her mouth with her hand quickly. Waking him at such a late hour might have severe reprecussions... Especially if he had came home in a bad mood. After a few moments, she pulled her hand away but still held her breath slightly.

Keiyuu shivered slightly in his sleep and Claire came crashing down from the dream world her thoughts had lifted her into. "He must be cold," she thought looking around the still dark apartment, "I should get him a blanket or something. After all, it would be bad for the band if he caught a cold." Her eyes swept across the area looking for something she could use to cover him with. She slowly spun around and around in her own little self-contained circle searching for a blanket. Claire stopped spinning and stumbled a bit, "Kuso…" she thought, "I didn't even think about it… Where am I going to sleep??" She then spotted a small folded blanket at the end of the couch and noticed amusingly that Keiyuu's feet only reached a tiny bit past the second cushion. She picked up the blanket and unfolded it smiling; maybe this situation wasn't SO bad after all.

Claire found herself starting to feel a slight affection towards Keiyuu as she gently laid the warm blanket over him. She wasn't exactly sure why... She couldn't stand him when he was awake and in turn screaming at her, but for now at least… she might… want to kiss him...? Claire eyed the man's face closely, taking in his features perhaps as a way of trying to understand the sudden urge she was feeling. Her line of sight wandered to his mouth, his lips were parted slightly and his breathing was light. Before the girl could stop herself she was kneeling next to where his head lay against the couch pillow. "You shouldn't…" her thoughts echoed as she slowly closed her eyes and leaned in closer. The rest of her body wasn't listening, the rest of her wanted to know…wanted…to…

"POPI-PO-PIPO-PO-PI-PO~!" Keiyuu's message tone startled Claire and her eyes opened suddenly, but instead of seeing his peacefully sleeping face, she was looking back into the tiny vocalist's wide, frightened eyes. "A-a-ah…!" Claire pulled away quickly as her face took on a scarlet red hue. She looked down and stared at the floor in embarassment, "WHAT WAS I THINKING????" Claire kicked herself mentally for having such a ignorantly impulsive thought in the first place.

Keiyuu blinked slowly as he attempted to collect his jumbled, confused thoughts. She had-- he couldn't believe-- what the hell was that foreigner thinking?! He sat up quickly and his attention went to the blanket covering him, had she put that there…? That didn't matter now! He couldn't believe he had almost been molested by some disgusting foreigner! In his OWN home no less!! There would be hell to pay the next time he saw Gocci, oh yes, serious hell… He turned his head and glared down at Claire, whose attention seemed focused solely on the floor. "Oi, gaijin! What the hell did you think you were doing?!" Claire flushed redder and muttered something under her breath he didn't quite understand. "Eh? What was that?? If you have something to say speak up, Kurea-chan!!"

"I-it wasn't…I…you…" she stuttered softly still looking at the floor. Keiyuu continued glaring at the redhead, "If you're going to apologize then you should at least do it right!" He tossed the blanket off of himself, and stood up and added, "Especially if you get caught trying to molest someone in their sleep!!" Claire tilted her head up and glared at Keiyuu. "I was not trying to molest you!" she yelled and stood up, "Don't have such ecchi thoughts! There was a bug on your face and I was trying to get it for you!" Before Keiyuu could blink Claire's hand came from out of seemingly nowhere and slapped him across the face hard. Hard enough for his head to turn involuntarily, and his cheek stung causing tears to prick in the corners of his eyes.

Claire smiled triumphantly, even though her hand hurt and wiped the non-existent bug off of her hand and onto her skirt, "I got it!" Her moment of victory was short-lived however when Keiyuu turned his head to face her. If looks could kill Claire would have been six feet plus under, actually... make that buried even closer to the core of the earth. She winced when she saw the bright red handprint that glowed painfully on his cheek, "Maybe I hit him a bit too hard…" she kicked herself again mentally and braced herself for the screaming that was sure to follow in the next few moments. Much to Claire's immediate surprise, he only turned the other cheek and stormed off to his room. Keiyuu only turned to glare at her one last time and without saying a word, slammed the door in her face.

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High disgust! She'd better not try to do that ever again!!" Keiyuu's voice seemed to bounce off the walls of the live hall and hit everyone's ears twice as loud, making the guitarist, bassist and drummer wince slightly in pain. Keiyuu had been yelling about the same thing over and over again to the three taller men. 'You'd think that he would have calmed down, since it happened more than a week ago..' Yuura thought to himself.

"Are you sure there wasn't actually a bug on your face..?" Mai offered up. Keiyuu glared up at the guitarist and opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by a much gruffer voice.

"It could be possible with his housekeeping..." Yasuno added to the conversation, snickering. The vocalist's glare shifted to the tallest man. He was only serving to fuel the tiny man's rage.

"Iie... She was this close to my face when I woke up!!" Keiyuu seethed, holding his thumb and index fingers about ten centimeters apart.

Yasuno shrugged, "Maybe it went into your hair, then?" Keiyuu crossed his arms and snorted in a very indignant fashion, "I honestly doubt that…"

"I bet you just dreamed this whole thing up, didn't you? She definitely doesn't look like the forward type..." Yuura trailed off, when he saw that Keiyuu's face conveyed otherwise.

"HELL NO!" He yelled loud enough to make his voice reverberate off the walls again and induce another round of wincing from his band mates, "WHY THE HELL WOULD I DREAM ABOUT THAT IDIOT?!?! I CAN'T EVEN STAND TO BE AROUND HER!!"

Yasuno rubbed his ear and muttered something about two people being in denial of their true feelings. Keiyuu opened his mouth to retort when Mai interjected into the conversation, "Why don't you just pretend to get along with her? After all, its not forever… You might as well try to make it as pleasant as possible. For BOTH of you."

Again Keiyuu opened his mouth to complain at the unfairness of his situation when another voice interrupted him, "Oi... here she comes now."Yuura stated, pointing toward the entrance of the dressing room. Sure enough, Claire had walked in, muttering her greetings and bowing to the rest of the staff. Keiyuu looked over his shoulder at the girl, her hair was pulled back into a high, messy ponytail, she wore a light pink blouse with dark blue jeans and, he noticed with slight disgust, that both were slightly wrinkled.

Claire looked up at that moment to see him looking in her direction, she gave him a polite smile, "Konban wa, Kei--" she stopped when he turned back around and walked off away from her. "I Guess he's still mad about that…." Claire felt a blush creep onto her cheeks and bowed her head to hide it from the rest of the world. She herself could still not believe she had tried to kiss him and almost succeeded. She shook her head to rid herself of the bad memory and plastered a friendly smile on her face as she walked over to the rest of the band, "Minna, konban wa~" she greeted the three cheerfully.

"Konban wa, Kurea-san." Yasuno answered her first, "Genki?" Claire nodded, "Un! Genki da!" She was glad that the chibi's band mates had manners, unlike him. "Konban wa," Mai said quietly giving her a small half-smile, "glad to see that you are in a good mood."

"Unlike some people..." Yuura muttered tuning his bass and strumming it, the instrument emitted a low thrumming sound. Satisfied with the noise it had made, he set his bass down in it's stand. "Ah…I guess that may have been my fault…" Claire scratched her head nervously.

"What's your fault Kurea-san..?" Gocci asked as he walked up behind the girl, "oh, nevermind that, has anyone seen Keiyuu-san?" The manager looked around the live hall trying to spot the vocalist for himself.

"He's over there…somewhere," Yasuno waved his hand in the direction Keiyuu had walked off. Gocci squinted in the direction indicated and then nodded. "I see him. Whatever it is he's brooding about over there, he needs to snap out of it soon. You all need to be backstage for styling and wardrobe in five minutes."With that the manager turned on his heels and walked off.

Claire felt all six pairs of eyes turn to her and her cheeks subsequently reddened, "Gomen…" she gave a small bow, "I didn't mean to-" Yuura waved her off, "Kurea-san shouldn't you be following Gocci? You are supposed to be helping backstage, yes?" Claire's eyes widened, "Ah, hai!" She bowed again, "Shitsurei shimasu!!" She ran off after Gocci and the three men all looked at each other.

"So…" Mai spoke up, "Who wants to try to go get the spoiled little Hime-sama out of his own world?" Yuura and Yasuno chuckled but did not answer their band leader. Mai sighed and looked over at Yuura pleadingly. The bassist crossed his arms, "Don't look at me." Mai then turned to Yasuno giving him the same pleading look, but the drummer shook his head, "Chigau. You know he only listens to you." he twirled a pink drumstick in his fingers, tossed it up slightly, and caught it gracefully, "Might want to hurry it up, you heard Gocci-san." Seeing that neither of his two band mates would be helpful to him Mai sighed heavily, "Ganbarimasu…"

Claire watched Mai walk over to the vocalist who was sitting just offstage fuming to himself in his own dark corner. "Yabai…" she muttered to herself, "I didn't mean to upset him." She figeted with the bottom of her blouse as she watched the two talk, wanting desperately to hear what they were saying to each other. Were they talking about her? Was Keiyuu telling him all about the almost kiss?? She groaned and hit her palm against her forehead, "Why did you do that!? Baka!!" She hit her hand against her forehead with each syllable. How could she have been so…so…well, baka!

"Its only a little longer… just a little while--"

"What is, Kurea-san?" Claire turned to face one of her fellow stylists, Maruyama Noriko. Noriko was around Claire's height, maybe a bit shorter, and she had long brown ringlet curls that fell well past her shoulders. Her wide brown eyes gave her an almost innocent, childlike appearance. An innocence that didn't quite match with her extremely large bust. Claire had to admit she envied the woman a bit... Noriko was far prettier than she could ever hope to be. "Ah, Noriko-san," she shook her head, "Nandemonai, betsu ni…" Claire forced a small smile and the busty brunette reached out and patted her shoulder.

"Are you sure, Kurea-san? Its fine if you tell me.... I wont tell anyone else." Noriko smiled reassuringly at Claire and before she could stop herself, the story was unvieled to the girl. From the moment the decision was made for she and Keiyuu to move in together, Yuura helping her move all her things in and taking a random photo of her, and the night, when she had came in late.

"Okay, maybe not the whole truth…" Claire admitted to herself. She had omitted the part about the kiss…well, almost kiss. Noriko listened intently and added the proper interjections where it was necessary, nodding her head understandingly when proper to do so.

"Oh Noriko-san," Claire sighed, "I don't know how long I can put up with him anymore..."The brunette patted her shoulder, "That is quite a story Kurea-san, demo... I find it hard to believe you actually live with Keiyuu-san… You aren't making all of this up, are you..?" Noriko arched one of her perfectly shaped brows questioningly. Claire shook her head furiously as the words escaped Noriko's glossed lips. "Hai! Hontou da-yo!! Why would I make up something like that?? It's not exactly some kind of fairytale romance or anything! He's so annoying and frustrating, and there's just no escape!" Noriko nodded, "Gomen nasai, I didn't mean to imply you were lying. It just really is hard to believe..." she smiled at Claire, "ganbatte, ne?"

Claire smiled back. It felt so good to finally get all of those frustrations off her chest. "Kurea-san!" A high-pitched female voice called out her name and Claire turned around, "Ah, hai...?" A dark-haired, slightly older woman shuffled quickly to where Claire and Noriko were huddled behind the curtain, "Would you mind going out and getting some of the staff coffee?"

"Eh?" Claire blinked, "So close to show time?? But I'm supposed to be working on Keiyuu-san!" The woman shook her head, "Not tonight you're not. Maruyama-san is scheduled to work on Keiyuu-san for this live. The coffee shop is right around the corner. Now, hayaku!" The raven-haired woman shooed Claire away and turned to Noriko, "You too Noriko-san. Hayaku ne." Noriko nodded at the woman and smiled at the very perplexed-looking Claire, "Mata ne." She bowed to the two and walked off to go get ready. Claire continued to stand around confused, she was sure that couldn't be right…

"Kurea-san, hayaku!" The dark-haired woman yelled and proceeded to walk off to harass two more of the stylists who were standing around gaggling. "Something's going on here..." she muttered to herself, "and I'm going to find out what it is!" Her outburst had recaptured the attention of the dark-haired woman who scowled at her menacingly. Claire bowed and walked off; she would get to the bottom of all this… right after she got that coffee.

Noriko stood by her assigned styling chair and watched Claire leave a small smile crossed her face momentarily then she turned to meet Keiyuu who was just barely sitting down. "Konban wa, Keiyuu-san," she greeted him smiling. He gave her a small nod and turned his head to see Yuura sitting in the next chair a few feet away smiling and flirting awaywith his own stylist... a tallish, raven-haired girl with a toothy smile who seemed to giggle at everything the bassist said. Keiyuu rolled his eyes, at least he didn't have to deal with the gaijin pest anymore. "Keiyuu-san? Keiyuu-san?" Keiyuu turned back around and looked at Noriko, and he couldn't believe the beauty standing in front of him.

Ringlet curls framed her flawless, oval face perfectly and her eyes were doe-like with a hint of a child's innocence. Then he looked a bit lower. Noriko's smock top button had come undone in her haste, and he could see a quite lowcut top underneath it. Keiyuu raised his eyebrow at the scene before him.

'He's definitely interested...' Noriko thought to herself as a slight smile slide across her face.There was sure to be a victory in her midst, all she had to do was go in for the kill...

"Sumimasen," Keiyuu's voice interrupted Noriko's thoughts, "Demo, O-namae wa…?" He smiled sheepishly at her with those words and she smiled back radiantly. "Maruyama Noriko desu. Hajimemashite, Yoroshiku onegai shimasu." She gave him a slight bow and quickly went to work styling his hair.

Noriko, eh? A cute name for a very cute girl... His eyes followed her every move as she went about her work. Keiyuu liked watching her as she flitted about him, especially when she worked on the front of his hair. Any time she leaned forward, he caught a good glimpse of what the smock was supposed to be covering. He gripped the arms of the chair and held his breath when she had leaned in particularly close, finding himself a bit uncomfortable in his current sitting position, he shifted slightly in the chair. Noriko stopped working for a moment to look at Keiyuu, "Daijoubu?" she asked.

The vocalist nodded and gave her a strained smile, "Un, daijoubu....Eeto... Maruyama-san?"

"Hai?"

"Would you…"he trailed off while trying to find the right words to ask her out without seeming seedy. "Would you like to go get some coffee together later…? Maybe after the live…?"

"Eeto…" she blushed slightly and looked down in what he hoped was her seriously considering his offer. Slowly, and still blushing,she looked up at him and smiled sweetly, "Un, I would like that." He let out a small sigh of relief, "Yokatta…eeto, I mean--!" Keiyuu's face turned a deep red and Noriko giggled, "Mo yokatta."

They smiled sheepishly at each other, "Yes," Noriko's inner thoughts rang out, "I've got him right where I want him…" she finished teasing a section of his hair and gave it one last good hit of hairspray, "Keiyuu-san..." She purred lowly and leaned against his arm. A growing blush crept up his neck and turned his ears red. "owatte." She smiled and stepped back and he nodded silently still flush from her actions. "otsukare."

"Iie, betsu ni." she undid the cape that was protecting his clothes, and folded it up, "You can head over to wardrobe now and…"Noriko bowed and smiled brightly at Keiyuu, "Ill meet up with you later, ne?" Keiyuu nodded and got up from the styling chair, "Mata ne, Maruyama-san." He bowed his head slightly and walked off to the waiting stylist who tossed several articles of clothing at him and shooed him off to another dressing room.

Noriko smiled to herself as she went about cleaning her station, she could smell a definite victory coming her way. All she had to do was wait patiently…

Claire interrupted her thoughts a few moments later, "Noriko-san," she said, holding up two styrofoam cups of coffee in her hands. "I brought you a coffee also... I didn't know how you took it, so I got it just black, but I've got some sugars and creamer in my jacket pocket." She rambled on for a few more moments as Noriko took a moment to reflect on the plans she had in store for the naïve gaijin. "Its so pathetic…" she thought, "I almost feel pity for her." Almost.

"Kekko desu, Kurea-san..." she smiled, "demo, otsukare." She smiled and bowed slightly to the girl. "I have a date later, so I'd like to get ready. Shitsurei shimasu." Noriko walked off quickly as Claire watched her leave, a confused look on her face. So the gaijin thought they could be friends? Well, wasn't she in for a surprise...

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