Out of Darkness

“Ooh, someone’s excited to go home.” Toshiya smiled to Kyo and Die as they watched their drummer anxiously grabbing his bags so that they could leave for the airport. The last show of the tour was last night, and now they were going back to visit Tori and Brandon before going to relax at their own homes. Die and Kaoru had a bet on how long it would take for Tori to end up at Shinya’s house to stay, and Kyo joined in placing a bet on how long it would take for her to move in with him.

Everyone agreed that they would be a relationship to last, even with the stress of him being in the band, and the band coming first in nearly every case. She was very understanding, and kind, and they all figured he would just bring her with him anyway.

“You do know that our flight doesn’t leave for another four hours, correct?” Kaoru questioned once Shinya was done loading his things.

“Yes, but now I don’t have to pack anything up. I can just get into the van, and leave.” He answered while playing with something he had on his wrist.

“Where did you get that?” Kyo asked, noticing the very intricate silver cherry blossom charm hanging from the thin chain that was wrapped around the drummer’s wrist.

“It is a gift for Tori-san. They were selling them at a gift shop in the last hotel we stayed in and I thought that she would like it.”

“Have you ever gotten her a gift that doesn’t involve that flower?” Die questioned in honest curiosity.

“Yes. I have gotten her brail copies of her favorite books.” He answered with a somewhat-shy smile.

“Well, she will love it. It is detailed enough for her to feel and see what it would look like. And it is small… she doesn’t seem like the kind of woman to wear very flashy jewelry.” Kaoru smiled.

“I know. I wonder if she will like it.” Shinya nodded thoughtfully, still playing with the flower charm.

“Considering it is a gift from you… she will love it. You could give her a bag of Miyu’s poop and she will be happy with it.” Die shrugged, making Toshiya bust out in laughter at him.

“That is disgusting!” he laughed, shaking his head, “he would never do that!”

“Probably not.” Die laughed and sat quietly, apparently running out of things to say.

“How has she been doing? I know the two of you have been on the phone together.” Kaoru half asked, and half teased.

“She is just fine.” Shinya answered shortly, already wanting to find some way to occupy his band members and keep them from continuing their teasing, “She is excited to visit with us again, and has been practicing drumming to show us when we see her next.”

“So she is going to be a drummer, then?” Toshiya asked happily.

“She has asked me to become her teacher.”

“You should, I think there is a lot that you will be able to teach her.”

“I couldn’t turn her down. Her first lesson is already scheduled.” He smiled, and continued to smile as the band plagued him with questions about Tori and his relationship with her. He couldn’t answer very well, as he wasn’t sure himself what their standing was. They were closer than friends, but were they considered lovers? He would want to be her lover, but was afraid to call himself that, as she may not see him as quite that just yet. They had confessed that they felt love for one another the day he left to finish the tour, but he was terrified to call himself something and feel the pain of learning that it wasn’t so.

He was nervous as a schoolboy on his way to his first date as they left for the four-hour flight. The entire time he was on the plane he was looking forward to landing and seeing Tori. She and Brandon were going to pick them up in a van that Brandon had borrowed from a friend of his, and he couldn’t wait to see her again.

“There they are!” Toshiya announced once they landed and made their way to the doors of the airport where Tori and Brandon said that they would be waiting. Shinya’s eyes lit up as he quickly searched for Tori, amazed to see her dressed in a purple skirt that came down to her ankles, and flowed like something from a fairytale, and black shirt that looked like a long sleeved shirt that had it’s sleeves cut to be simply flowing bits of fabric from the shoulders. Her hair was done nicely as well, tied in a top-notch with a purple ribbon that flowed beautifully into her red hair, and her eyes were hidden behind her dark glasses.

“Stop staring and greet her.” Kaoru chuckled while pushing the awestricken drummer forward.

“Tori, they’re here!” Brandon smiled, noticing Shinya walking up to her, smiling and holding something shiny in his hand.

“Good morning,” Shinya smiled once he was close enough to speak to them, bowing his head in greeting.

“Shinya!” Tori beamed, clapping her hands together excitedly, wanting so badly to hug him, but had no idea where he was. Only that he was somewhere in front of her. Her smile grew when she felt his hands take hold of hers, placing something in her palm.

“I brought you a gift.” He smiled, “It’s a necklace… I don’t know if you wear them or not, though. When I saw it I thought of you and had to buy it.”

“What does it look like?” she asked excitedly, rubbing her thumb over the small charm.

“It is a small silver cherry blossom charm, on a simple chain. Nothing elaborate.”

“It sounds beautiful! I’ll bet it looks wonderful… I wish I could see it myself.” She smiled with a hint of sadness, “Will you help me put it on?”

“Of course.” He nodded and stepped behind her to clasp the chain around her neck while the rest of the band talked to Brandon. They all wanted to give Tori and Shinya some time to reunite properly before getting into the van and driving off.

“You look very beautiful,” he complimented.

“Brandon dressed me. These are just some old clothes that I have had in my closet.” She blushed.

“You still look beautiful.” He smiled unable to prevent himself from laughing when Die hugged her from behind and nearly terrified her to death.

“He’s right, you look amazing!” he beamed.

“DIE!” she squeaked, but gasped after feeling around his shoulders, “You cut your hair!”

“Yes. And now it won’t get into your face when I help to guide you.” He laughed.

“But your hair was one of the ways I could recognize you.” She frowned, “Now I will easily mistake you for Kaoru when you grab my hand to guide me.”

“They look nothing alike.” Toshiya pointed out, but instantly felt dumb. Of course that wouldn’t matter if she couldn’t SEE them.

“But they are both guitarists, and have the same calluses on their fingers from playing. You have calluses too, but yours are different. Bass strings do different things to your fingers than regular guitar strings because they are thicker.” She explained simply, “Die’s hair always being in my face was one way I recognized him.” She added with a giggle.

“And how do you recognize Kyo?”

“Other than he is shorter than all of you? He usually guides me by the shoulders, instead of by taking my arm or hand.” She giggled.

“Well… that makes perfect sense! But maybe if he took your arm instead of shoulders, you wouldn’t trip or walk into things.” Kaoru teased.

“If I remember correctly, it wasn’t Kyo that walked her into a wall while trying to help her through a doorway.” Shinya reminded with a smile.

“It was late, and dark in your house.” The guitarist defended, making the others in their group giggle and laugh before slowly packing themselves into the van. Instead of riding up front with Brandon, Tori sat between Shinya and Kyo in the seat farthest to the back, while Die and Toshiya got the seats in front of them, and Kaoru took the front passenger seat.

“I do have rules against heavy kissing and touching in Yumiko’s van. Also, no sex back there!” Brandon joked, looking hard at Tori and Shinya through the mirror and making everyone, except for the two lovers, laugh.

“Brandon, stop.” Tori frowned, snuggling closer to Shinya as the van took off. She couldn’t help wanting to be close to him. He made her feels safe, and loved, and that was something she had been without for what seemed like too long.

“Shh, don’t move so much, Kyo! Your jacket is making so much noise.” Shinya scolded once they arrived at Tori’s house. They had never been inside the Death residence before, and the only time Shinya or Toshiya had ever seen it was when they dropped Tori off that day to her father’s shouting.

“You could always wake her and let her walk into the house.” Brandon reminded.

“She is so peaceful in her sleep, I always feel guilty to wake her.” Shinya admitted while carefully lifting her and maneuvering out of the van with her in his arms before carrying her to the door.

“Holding her like that, you’re both going to get hurt when Achilles sees you.” He smirked and opened the door, only to have the beast of a dog jump up on the drummer and his sleeping friend, sending both to the floor while the dog barked in his excitement.

“Brandon, just how many people did you mean when you mentioned bringing ‘a few friends’ over?!” Mrs. Death demanded while fussing over her daughter, who had cried out in fear while falling to the ground, but was now cuddled up to Shinya, laughing while Achilles barked and nipped at her ears.

“Mom I’m fine,” she giggled, still trying to hide her face more in Shinya’s shoulder and neck to hide from her dog’s affectionate attack.

“We only brought five men home. Now we are going either to my room, Tori’s, or the lounge, to drink, party, and invite girls over so we can take turns having sex with them, and then Tori will lose her virginity to some Japanese rock stars.” Brandon informed, making Tori laugh and blush as he helped her to her feet before guiding her away from their now-flustered mother.

“What did you say to your mother? She looked offended. Should we leave?” Die questioned as Brandon led their group to the lounge that was once their father’s.

“He basically told her that you five were going to take turns with me.” Tori informed.

“Take turns with you?” Toshiya asked blankly.

“Consider her virginity your welcome home gift!” Brandon joked, making all five musicians instantly awkward.

Shinya stopped mid-step and stared in shock while the others seemed to take offence. “We would never treat her like that.” Kyo frowned, “Even as a joke you shouldn’t talk about her that way.”

“And that is exactly why he can do that around you.” Tori giggled while being sat in her father’s old chair. She would never let her brother know that just being in that room broke her heart. It was where she used to spend time bonding with her father. It was where he hit her the night of the Dir En Grey concert. And it was now empty without even his smell left behind.

“I trust all of you with her to the fullest extent. Any other men that I know, I wouldn’t leave alone for five minutes with her. You five, I trust would take care of her, and treat her respectfully. There are friends of mine that would have taken my comment about giving her to you as a welcome home gift literally, and would have acted on it the first chance they get.” Brandon explained, “Those are the friends that I never leave alone with her.”

“Perhaps you should make better friends.” Kaoru nodded.

“He has better friends, they are sitting around us right now!” Tori beamed as Shinya sat beside her, lightly taking her hand in his.

There were few times when he felt the need to be physical. Culturally not being consistently physical was normal, but even so he was less physical than the people around him. With her though it was different. He understood that for her to “see” him near her, she had to feel him. She couldn’t look into a room of people and know that he was smiling at her, or waving her over to him. She could hear him, but even then it wasn’t the same knowledge that he was there. He noticed that she was content with something as simple as his hand resting beside hers so that the sides of his fingers touched hers. Or if he rested a hand on her shoulder as they stood together in a crowd.

However he had taken a liking to holding her small hand in his, and even letting her lean against him as they sat together. He WANTED her close to him. He wanted to hold her, and feel her as much as she needed to feel him.

As the “party” went on, Tori ended up falling asleep on Shinya’s shoulder, and a few hours later, he had fallen asleep as well. Kyo was the first to notice, and started laughing quietly while pointing at the way Shinya had repositioned himself to have his back against the arm of the couch, holding Tori as she slept with her head against his shoulder and hand on his chest.

“I know that the flash won’t wake my sister, but won’t your drummer wake up?” Brandon questioned when Kaoru took the camera from Toshiya to get a good shot of their sleeping friends.

“No, we have a lot of sleeping photos of him over the years. There are only a few that he knows about though.” Kyo answered with a smirk.

“He doesn’t go through the pictures as often as he should.” Toshiya added as Kaoru took the picture.

Shinya twitched a little, and Tori snuggled farther into his chest once he settled, making Brandon smile ear to ear to see his sister so peaceful. She even had a smile on her face, completely relaxed and content resting in Shinya’s arms.

“Brandon, Tori, I-” their mother went to announce that she would be out for the night, but stopped short when she saw the group of men standing around the couch, and Tori and Shinya’s legs. She couldn’t see what was really happening, but after Brandon’s joke, couldn’t prevent her worry.

“Shh, Mom, they’re asleep.” Brandon smiled; tugging her over so that she could see that what was happening on her couch was completely innocent.

“She looks so happy!” she gasped, shocked to see how different her daughter looked in comparison to the last few months.

“She always looks like that around him.” Die nodded.

“You should see them awake… I think they are falling in love. Real love.” Brandon sighed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked her troubled son.

“Nothing.” He smiled and let her leave for her errands, and let them party.