Marchen Room

Two weeks after the last live, Claire was sitting in the tiny two-bedroom apartment Julie and Alex shared. They were working on a group project for their class... Julie had designed an outfit and sewn it together, Alex was... in her own opinion, the unfortunate model, and Claire had been assigned to work on the 20 page report, all due by Monday. It was currently Thursday...

"If you had started working on this shit sooner... When we got the assignment- AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER... we would probably be done by now!" Alex crossed her arms and looked at Julie, annoyed. Julie waved her away dismissively and pinned an embroidered strawberry to the skirt of the dress she had sewn together the night before. "You can't rush creativity~"

"You can when the project is due in TWO DAYS!!" Whilst her two classmates argued, Claire typed methodically on the keyboard. Her eyes glazed over as she lost herself in her own little world.

Keiyuu had been gone a lot in the evenings those past two weeks, when she had asked him what he was up to, the man simply told her to mind her own business. "You may live here but this is MY home. You don't pay the rent or bills, so you don't get a say in what goes on. Now buzz off." He retorted, slamming the door in her face.

Claire scowled at the memory. She had only asked out of nothing more than cordial concern... Why was he always such a jerk?! The girl let out a deep sigh, resulting in Alex and Julie's bickering ceasing momentarily just to look over at her.

"Are you alright Claire-chan..?" Julie asked looking concerned. Claire looked up at the pastel-clad girl. "Eh? Ah, yeah…I'm fine…" She went back to her methodic typing for a few moments, looking extremely deep in thought. The two friends looked at each other and shrugged. When they averted their line of sight back to the red-haired girl, they both noticed she had stopped typing and was staring at the screen blankly.

Julie crawled over to where Claire was sitting and pricked the back of Claire's hand with one of her straight pins. "Ouch!" Claire jerked her hand back in pain and looked at her attacker. "What??" Julie sat back and tilted her head at Claire. "What's going on with you? You look like a zombie…"

"Its nothing, honestly," Claire lied with a fake smile plastered across her face. "I'm just a little distracted, I guess..." She laughed it off whilst scratching her head rather nervously.

"Ah…" Julie took the laptop from Claire and set it aside. "Lets all take a short break then!" Alex let out an irritated sigh. "We don't have TIME for a break…"

Julie ignored the taller girl and tapped her chin, looking deep in thought. "What should we talk about…?" Alex sighed again and sat down with the other two, being careful not to poke herself on any of the twenty-something pins still holding parts of the dress together.

"Oh!! I know what we can talk about~!" Julie exclaimed excitedly.

"Here we go..." Alex muttered lowly. She knew exactly what Julie was up to... The short girl's violet-colored contacts did nothing in the way of hiding the curious sparkle in her eyes.

"How have things been going with Keiyuu, ne~?" Julie said with a nudge to Claire. "Has he been distracting you lately~?" Julie sang out as a smirk slid across her face.

"...Julie..." Alex warned the petite female. The next question would be much worse if Claire even muttered an answer.

"Well..." Claire said, unsure how to answer the question. Somehow she could feel that the next question would be very uncomfortable no matter what she answered with, so she decided to take the dive. "Actually... He's been too busy to do so..." The red-head trailed off slightly. Ah, hell... that was the wrong choice of words to tell pervert girl.

"Awwwww..." Julie replied with a look of condolence. "It's okay, ne? Maybe once things calm down with his band, he'll focus more attention on you!"

"Julie... I don't think that's the case-" Claire started to say, but was interrupted by small girl's words, once again.

"Ne, I bet you can't guess who ALI-CHAN has a crush on~!" Julie taunted with a bright, cheerful smile. At that moment, if Alex's complexion were any redder, it would be purple. "JULIE!!" Alex exclaimed, attempting to hide her embarrassed face.

"Ne~ It's not anything to be ashamed about~! Just... really odd that someone like you would have a SHORTY COMPLEX~!!" she replied with a giddy laugh.

"ARGH, DAMMIT JULIE!!!"

Claire looked up quickly. "...Keiyuu-?'

"Nope~ another Shorty, Claire-chan~! But they do look a bit similar to each other..."

"THEY DO NOT!"

Claire thought back a bit. There wasn't anyone else that looked like him... except for the one guy from another band... the one with the headphones on his ears most of the time... Well, maybe he was kind of on the short side- Okay, maybe most of the men were a bit on the short side to Alex.

"Shinpeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~!" Julie squealed out, impatient with the red-head's guess.

"Eh???! Really?!??"

"JULIE!!!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Around sundown, Claire had finally made her way to the waiting apartment building. 'It's a good thing I declined drinking with Julie... I didn't realize that it was already so late.' she thought to herself as she opened the door and started walking down the first hallway took a left at the next, then walked up the steps toward the final hallway. There was no one in sight at this particular time of day usually, so she had no reason not to speak to herself while so lost in her own thoughts. "Hopefully he's home by now... I'd hate to walk into a completely empty apartment..." she resolved audibly.

At that moment, she saw a figure coming down from the opposite way of the hall. A tall man, maybe in his late twenties? Whomever he was, he looked a bit familiar to the redhead.

"Sumimasen" she started to speak to the man as she walked closer. "You look familiar, have we met before..?" If she had, she really couldn't place him... Though such a face should have stuck out.

"Chigaimasu." the man spoke in a rather low tone. The voice! That voice definitely sounded familiar to Claire!

"I had something to drop off...O-namae wa... 'Kurea-san' desu ka?" The man said. At that moment, Claire kind of thought that the face of the man and voice she was hearing reminded her of the vocalist of Duel Jewel. It was too bad that she couldn't remember his name...

"Un..." the girl said rather hesitantly.

"Ah... Hayato desu. Gomen... Eeto... He wasn't answering..." The man spoke. Hayato! Of course... It really was him!

"Oh! Well, he may not be home. I'll let you in~!" Claire could hardly mask the enthusiasm in her voice.

"Ah... I don't think it was that kind of... Well, he said he was at home earlier--" Hayato began to say as the woman side-stepped him and proceeded down the hallway once more.

"Ah!! Ch-Chotto matte!" Hayato bounded past Claire and stood in front of the door to Keiyuu's apartment. "There's no need to let me in if he isn't home, after all!!" the man stated, loudly. Keiyuu was sure to hear his voice if he was there...

"Well... Then I'll take it and give it back to him if you want. You don't have to come inside."

"Ah, it's fine, Kurea-san... I'll return it another day-- Are you thirsty? It would be my treat..." Hayato trailed off as his eyes stayed on the door.

Claire had to think for a moment... Did she really want to just…turn Hayato down?

"Eeto... Iie... It's been a long day, and I just want to go in and relax..." Claire resolved much to her own regret.

"Ah, gomen nasai!!" Hayato spoke loudly again.

"Dai... joubu...?"

"Hai, daijoubu!--" He said, loudly, forgetting the force of his voice. "Daijoubu... I think vocal training is getting to me lately." he said, as he cleared his throat a couple of times for emphasis.

"Souka... Well then maybe you should head home. You can return whatever it is tomorrow then."

"Un..." Hayato muttered. 'Whatever happens next, he probably deserves anyways...'

With a quick nod, the girl walked around the taller man. "Oyasumi, then."

Hayato bowed politely to Claire. "Oyasumi, Kurea-san." he said as he turned on his heel and started walking the opposite way.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Eh? Noriko-chan, did you hear something..?" Keiyuu started to say as he walked back to the couch and sat down. The two had been talking for a while, until Keiyuu's message tone had gone off, and he blushingly excused himself.

"Who was it, your other girlfriend..?" Noriko asked, playfully.

"Ah... Iie..." Keiyuu stated a bit confused. "Yuura... again. He just had to ask when I would return one of his DVDs..." he trailed off.

"I see," Noriko smiled, "I was a bit worried for a moment, 'the kind of girl who likes to have a guy all to herself." She gave him a flirtatious smile and scooted closer to Keiyuu.

"Ore-- eeto..." he stammered. Noriko hadn't really shown any interest in a physical relationship until that very moment. Keiyuu was slightly taken aback by her change of behavior.

"Shh..." She placed one of her prettily manicured fingers against his lips. "Don't be so shy... We are both adults after all." Noriko grinned and leaned in closer, closing her eyes.

"Souka..." he whispered, grinning triumphantly. Finally she was letting her guard down! He leaned in toward the brunette, closing his eyes at the last second and capturing her lips in a sweet kiss.

'Well,' Noriko thought, 'that's a bit surprising...' As she kissed him, she also kept an ear out for the two outside in the hallway. She didn't recognize the deep male voice, but Claire's annoying, whiny pitch was impossible to miss. The sound of the door handle jiggling caught Noriko's attention and she grabbed Keiyuu's hand quickly and pulled it against her right breast and held it there. Wouldn't this be a nice surprise for the gaijin...?

Keiyuu's inner thoughts raced about in his head. 'Is that--??' He rested his left hand for a second. Finally realizing exactly what it was, and much to his own regret, he tried to pull away from the woman.

Noriko held his hand against her chest tightly, when suddenly the door opened. The sound of something heavy falling to the floor caused the two on the couch to look up suddenly. Claire stood in the doorway to the apartment; her face was a mixture of shock and confusion. Noriko, realizing her moment of Victory, pushed Keiyuu's hand away and stood up quickly muttering and blushing. "Sumimasen!" She bowed quickly to Keiyuu, "Sayounara!" She then turned to Claire and gave a slight bow before grabbing her purse off the coffee table and rushing out of the apartment. She also held her head down to hide the growing smirk on her face.

"N-nandayo?!" Keiyuu stammered out at the confused redhead. His face was completely red and thoughts were jumbled. Had what happened... really... happened?? If that was the case, then that damn gaijin had ruined the very first kiss that he had shared with Noriko. 'And then some...' he thought, looking at the palm of his left hand.

"Why...?"

Keiyuu looked up at Claire, had she really just asked him that?? He opened his mouth to yell at her when another figure appeared in the doorway, "Hate to intrude but" the figure walked in slightly as his figure became more familiar to the shorter vocalist. "I just wanted to return this." He tossed the plastic cover at Keiyuu who caught it deftly. "Ja ne." Hayato gave Keiyuu and Claire a salute and walked off.

Keiyuu stood up quickly. "Arigatou..." he called back at the taller man, even though he was sure not to hear it. So they would have been interrupted no matter what... Maybe this time he could save his breath and just not yell at the repulsive girl. As he turned to walk away, he heard an unfamiliar sound... Was she...?

He looked over his shoulder and sure enough, still standing in the doorway stood Claire, tears streaming down her face. Shocked, Keiyuu turned around to face her, "A-are you...are you crying??"

"G-g-gomen nasai..." Claire stammered out. At this point she didn't know what to think of the situation anymore... Apparently Noriko had been hiding a secret from her and so was he... but the two together?? Claire wiped at her cheeks the best she could with her shirt sleeve, and tried to plaster a smile onto her face, but the corners of her mouth drooped and just made her lower lip quiver even more. "I-- It's j-just--"

"N-nani?" Keiyuu shifted from foot to foot, he didn't know whether to walk away or try to comfort her. Claire burst into tears suddenly and he jumped back. "KEIYUU-SAN, DOUSHITE??" she began to wail and Keiyuu panicked. "K-kurea-san! Yamero!" He walked over, pulled her into the apartment, and slammed the door shut. "Oi, nakunai! Yamero, you look like a child!"

The girl paid no attention to him and continued wailing. "Oi! Did you understand me?! Nakunai kudasai!" Keiyuu grabbed the sides of his head out of frustration. Should he comfort her?? Or would that just give her another opportunity to try to molest him like she had tried to do in his sleep a little over two weeks ago? Maybe he had a better idea... "Go sit down." he commanded the wailing girl as he took her by the wrist and pushed her over toward the couch.

Claire sat down obediently but still continued to cry although not nearly as loudly as before. Keiyuu sighed annoyed, "Stay here," he handed her one of the couch pillows, "hold this, it will probably make you feel better." Claire nodded and took the pillow holding it close, "Arigatou," she whispered and sniffled. "Betsu ni." Keiyuu sat down on the opposite side, grabbed the box of tissues off the coffee table and handed them to Claire.

Taking the box of tissues, Claire tried to recollect her thoughts. "I- I just..." she said softly between sniffles."You just...?" asked Keiyuu, who seemed kilometers away from the girl. "I just... didn't expect-- I sleep on this couch, you know!!" she scowled at the man with those words. He groaned in exasperation. Did she really want to pick another fight with him? Too much had already happened that day for him. As he went to stand up, Claire's hand shot out to grab his wrist. "Please stay... for a while..."

Keiyuu looked down at Claire and raised his eyebrow, "Doushite?" The girl blushed and looked down, "I would feel better if you just...sat here with me..." Keiyuu sighed and sat back down again. She watched Keiyuu out of the corner of her eye, a little shocked that he was being so nice to her. She half-wished he wouldn't, she was feeling her feelings intensifying and hugged the pillow tightly. "Keiyuu-san..."

Keiyuu didn't look up; he was now busy texting away on his cell phone. He had to let Noriko-chan know that what happened... On any other day, it just wouldn't have! "Keiyuu-san..." the girl's voice rang out again. He put his phone away quickly. "Nani..?"

'S-SUKI-YO!' she wanted to blurt out. There was no reason for saying something so childish... There was no way that he would return those feelings... was there..? She turned to face him. "S--"

Keiyuu's phone rang just then, Claire sighed exasperatedly, "You might as well answer it." He looked at her confusedly, and drew his phone out of his pocket to answer it. She looked down and felt the tears start to well up again. Why was the world so against her? Claire heard him set the phone on the table and looked up at him, confusedly."Its just Yuura, he can wait..." he gave her a half smile and she felt herself starting to smile back.

"Ah... What was it that you were about to say, Kurea-san...?" Keiyuu asked the redhead. She only waved him away. "It wasn't important..." Keiyuu raised his eyebrow. "It might make you feel better. Whatever frustrations you have, for one night only, just say them..." he trailed off. He always did hate to see a woman cry... and Claire was no exception, no matter if she was annoying or whiney.

Claire bit her lower lip and hugged the pillow tightly. She could tell him, right there, right now... She gave the pillow a determined squeeze and gazed into his eyes. "Keiyuu-san..."

Keiyuu looked at Claire expectantly. She couldn't seem to put the next words together, and he felt an uncomfortable silence about the room. A silence that just didn't seem right to the vocalist. He scratched his head nervously."Eeto... Kurea-san... would you like to..."

"Hai?" her eyes light up when she looked at Keiyuu and he was taken aback a bit. He had never seen such an enthusiastic look on her face before.

"...play Monster Hunter...? It always makes me feel better when I'm most frustrated..." he trailed off as all traces of her enthusiasm disappeared. "Monster Hunter...?" she couldn't believe it... He was taunting her unknowingly! "Hai... Mohan..." he said, noticing that the redhead had shifted a bit towards him. Was she moving closer..?

"Keiyuu-san...I don't want to play some videogame... gomen nasai." She reached her hand out towards his own, and then stopped. "Although..." Claire sighed, "I guess it couldn't hurt anything...I just couldn't stay up too late...I have to go back to--nandemonai." she shook her head and placed the pillow aside.

Were all women this confusing?? First Noriko had made such a sudden move, and now Claire was acting odd... Almost like she might... "Eeto... maybe Monster Hunter wouldn't be such a good idea anyways... Not too many girls would be interested in something like that, after all..." He said, laughing to fill the rest of the silence between them.

Claire shrugged. "I don't see any harm in playing," she said, "I just cant stay up too late..." Keiyuu looked at her shocked, "Honto...?" She smiled and nodded, "Un, if you want to, we could play."

Keiyuu smiled and Claire felt her heart skip a beat. "Iie, you can play. I have something else to do."

"Oh..." the girl's words fell a bit flat."But... I don't know how to play..."

The man sighed frustrated, of course she didn't know. "Well," he got up, "I can show you how to play, but then you're on your own." Claire smiled brightly at him and stood up quickly. "Daijoubu! I'll go get a chair! Chotto matte kudasai!!" She ran off quickly. He shook his head and walked over to the computer and turned it on. "Hen gaijin..." He looked around to make sure she wasn't close by and pulled out his phone. He flipped it open and moved his thumb quickly across the keys to finish the message he'd been writing earlier to Noriko. When he was satisfied with what he'd written, he hit "send" and flipped his phone shut.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Noriko was already walking quite a ways away when her own message tone went off. A smile slid across her face. 'It must be him.' she thought. 'Apologizing for the actions of that gaijin, most likely.' She let out a small giggle and flipped open her phone. Sure enough, the message was an apology. "Well at least he can kiss." she said to herself with a smirk.