Marchen Room

"Maruyama-san!" that voice rang out to Noriko like no other.

"Ah, Takeru-san! You're well, ne?" the girl sang out and flashed a sparkling smile to the vocalist. Somehow, she would get his undivided attention that night.

"Yeah, Totally!" the colorfully-clad blond man sang out with crushing enthusiasm. Noriko's heart skipped a beat... or two. Takeru always ran through her mind, ever since she had become involved with his band... Make that, since SuG had came together.

"Ahhh! It's a good night tonight, isn't it?" another female voice echoed backstage. Noriko rolled her eyes.

Of course... it was Claire.

"Kurea-san, are you well?" Takeru sang out to the foreigner as Noriko seethed and clenched a round brush in her tightened fist. She didn't like the fact that the girl acted so comfortable around everyone.

Especially him.

As she looked off to the side , a small red box peeked out of her pale pink Betsey Johnson bag. She had planned on giving the box.. well, the homemade chocolates that she had slaved over that day.. to Takeru at the end of the night. She had had also planned on confessing her feelings to the vocalist.

"Ah, we have one extra pair of hands tonight, don't we?" a dark-haired woman called out, writing on a clipboard. "No matter, we'll just have to work you in somehow, Kurea-san." Noriko looked up to see the annoying, in her opinion, girl walk up to Takeru and start to work on his hair. What? Since when did she-

"Ah, are you okay, Maruyama-san..?" a low voice spoke. Noriko looked up to see.. of all people.. Chiyu. Not that she despised him, but seeing Takeru chatting and laughing with the red-head just made her more annoyed with her current chair. She flashed a fake smile at the bassist. "Lets get started, ne?" she said as the plaid cape flew over his clothing. As she worked on him, the only thing she could think of was the chocolates in her bag that might as well have been burnt.. seeing as she was in no mood to confess on that night.

*~*~*~*~*

"Hey, Noriko-san?" Claire asked the light brown-haired beauty as her thoughts came crashing down to reality.

"Ah, sorry~! I was just a little lost in thought..." Noriko replied as she smiled again. Another very fake-feeling smile. She needed to clear her thoughts, though all were jumbled in her head at that moment. The feeling of regret for not confessing to someone she truly liked, and even more regret for what she allowed herself to fall into. With that in mind, the pretty brunette walked off down the hallway and disappeared around the corridor.

"Well that was strange.." Claire thought aloud. She watched as everyone around her, in a jovial manner, drank, ate and were merry. Particularly Yuura, who was putting a bit too much emphasis on the drinking part. He looked up from the group of guys around him, and smiled drunkenly at Claire. "There's my favorite foreigner... How ya been? Get anything to drink yet?" he managed to halfway slur out.

The current party was supposed to be a release party for the new album, but the underlying fact was that one of the guys were about to leave for good. Everyone did their best to mask the fact that this was going on, and all but maybe a few staff members were in on this fact. The fact had hit Yuura just a little harder than everyone else, and considering that he liked to drink, he was much more intoxicated than Claire had ever seen him become.

"I haven't gotten anything to drink... In fact, I don't think I'll be drinking at all, because I'd be worried about you getting home safely." she spoke with concern.

"Oh... Can ya do me a favor..." the bassist said, putting his arm around Claire for support. "Ya know your friend... uhh... Juuri...?"

Claire's eyes widened, "What about Julie?"

"Mind settin' up something..?" he uttered, withdrawing his arm. Claire smiled nervously. "I guess I can.. I'm sure she'd be thrilled about that." she nodded in response.

Yuura muttered something in gratitude and staggered off toward Yasuno, who wasn't exactly his next target, but rather, the bottle of vodka in the drummer's hands. At some point during the stagger, he lost interest and went off toward the refreshment table.

Claire shook her head. The redhead knew that she'd have to keep a close eye on him- Make that him especially, that night. It had become her unofficial duty to keep Yuura, (who was known for being optimistically random, sometimes a little too much for his own good) out of trouble during parties and anytime he could get anything to drink. He wasn't exactly a lush, but... Considering the stories she had heard about him passing out in a drunken stupor, she wasn't about to let anything else go on.... Especially considering the sadistic nature of some of his band mates.

Speaking of sadistic natures, she wondered just why Yuura was so intent on meeting Julie, of all girls! He didn't even give her a second look the night that she and Alex had came to return her Macbook. It wasn't exactly the time or place to worry about that, though. Claire followed the bassist at an arm's length, hoping that maybe he would have revealed it as a joke.

*~*~*~*~*

"I told you, I'm not really interested..." the woman spoke into her phone, softly. "I have someone already... ... Well, he'll have to do for now!", The winter air was cold, but Noriko couldn't risk taking that particular call within earshot of anyone at the staff party. What was she supposed to do, not take the call? Impossible...

"What? At least let me set you up with someone actually good-looking to make that one guy jealous..", the feminine voice on the other line stated. It was a good friend of Noriko's back from high school. She was always looking out for the brunette, even after a few years. Noriko tightened the grip on her phone.

"Well, listen, I can't just tell him that I don't want him anymore...! I can't just say that it isn't working out... I kind of..."

"Don't tell me that you're starting to like this guy... Are you Nori-chan??" the voice sighed. Noriko hadn't planned on it, but maybe she really was starting to like him. This someone that she had been less than nice to in the past... Well, not within earshot of him, but to the other bands' staff members.

"Maruyama-san...? Are you out here...?"

She panicked and hung up the call without warning, and turned to face Mai.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just out here getting a bit of fresh air..." Noriko said with a smile. The lanky man raised his eyebrow, "It's a bit cold to do that...."

Noriko's inner thoughts raced about her head, 'I wonder if he heard me talking to Yuri...' The pretty brunette studied the guitarist's impassive face with no luck; Mai's pokerface was just too good. What seemed like forever of a pause was finally broken as the guitarist finally spoke.

"Are you going to come back inside, then?" he asked with half of a smile.

"I'll be back inside in a little while... Please don't worry about me." she smiled. "Shouldn't you be worried about your health? I mean, because..."

Mai held up his hand, shook his head and walked off, leaving Noriko to her own thoughts once more. She dialed the number once again, hoping that her friend wasn't too upset to help her out, after all...

She couldn't let herself fall for him, not this close to her main objective.

*~*~*~*~*

"And you're sure that you don't want to go somewhere? That's fine, we can just go to your apartment-- What's that?" Keiyuu jabbered on and on to someone on the other line. It was the last studio rehearsal before a tour final. He wasn't on the line with Claire, that was for sure. Noriko had been forced to work with another band, upon the discovery of a relationship between the vocalist and the hairstylist. Claire was off running errands for the band, getting coffee, if Mai remembered straight. That night, was his last night with Kra. He couldn't just leave those idiots thinking that everything was just fine. He had a list of things that he wanted to reveal to everyone at the end of the night, and Noriko's 'private' conversation was starting to come up as the last thing on the list... Well, besides the mention of taking one of Yasuno's beloved pink vodka bottles. That was blamed on Yuura, if memory served correctly.

"Ah... You'll have a guest... No! No, it doesn't bother me at all! Take all the time that you need!" the vocalist continued speaking into the phone, laughing nervously. "Well, what about the next week? Or the week after that?"

'Damn, I was right...' Mai thought to himself, as he heard Keiyuu get shot down again and again... He was starting to sound desperate for her attention, but Mai didn't want to come out and tell his fellow band mate about the conversation he happened to hear. Then again, he didn't want to have a bawling vocalist on his hands, either. Or a pissed off one...

"...Why are you looking at me like that?" Keiyuu finally asked. Apparently, the guitarist had been dazed, off in his own space, but ended up setting his field of vision straight toward the short man. Keiyuu shifted uncomfortably and messed with his phone nervously.

"No reason... I guess I was just thinking." Mai said with a sheepish smile. The two were waiting for the impulsively late bassist, and the drummer that had just called to say he was on his way. It was three o' clock, in the rehearsal studio, and they were all alone. Awkward...

The scene felt especially uncomfortable for Mai; He masked the need to tell Keiyuu what he heard a few weeks before, resolving to just wait it out, at least until the final curtain that same night. After all, it could be a misunderstanding, right? Right.

"So... What DSi games have you been playing lately..?"

*~*~*~*~*

The crowd murmured restlessly for what seemed like an eternity before the main attraction finally took their places onstage. The four shadows were slowly lowered down from the platform until they got to the stage, then took their respective places and waited out the set entrance.

The last live with that particular member set-up. The last song would be heartbreaking, at the least....

What would be the next step for Kra..?