Transaction

Disclaimer: We only own the made up members of Opium!

Author’s Notes: Ah, this is where Kel and I realized that Opium had taken on a life of its own. This is kinda where we knew our one shot couldn’t be salvaged. In the end, I don’t think I was sad to see it go. I can’t speak for Kel.

Enjoy!
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Transaction

Chapter Thirteen
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Keiko walked out of the practice room, clearly agitated and immensely annoyed. What the hell had gotten up Taki's ass? She was almost inclined to believe that Kenji's theory (whatever the hell it was) may hold some weight. Or... a little tiny bit more than she'd given it credit.

"I'm havin' a smoke!" She shouted behind her, not caring how rude it sounded. "Kenji, I'll find you later!"

She went over to the elevator, punched the down button and got in when it came to the floor.

Haido was fine tuning a little part of a song they had just practiced, large headphones only covering one ear. Taki had seemed... odd to say the least, but he wasn't bothered by it. Keiko had certainly seemed to be more than pissed off with him though.

On the other side of the glass, Kenji watched as Taki glared at the door. There was something seriously wrong with their manager, he decided. Seriously, mentally fucked up. He was like, in a permanent bad mood. No one could seriously be that pissed off for over eight hours straight.

It was unreal. Kenji had never seen anything like it in his life.

If they'd thought Tohma was a slave driver, they'd been wrong. Taki was worse, making them repeat the songs over and over again. Even Kenji had kept his mouth shut, just doing as they were told to get it over with.

But now practice was over, and he didn't have to listen anymore. It was only him and Haido on the studio side of the glass, and Haido was working.

Kenji wasn't, and he was bored.

Bored, and too curious for his own good.

Moving away from the microphone, Kenji moved over to the synth, shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet in front of it. Haido wasn't looking up, so he leaned forward, looking down at the keys. "What're you working on?"

He tried to ignore the explosion of nervousness in his stomach, making him feel sick.

He listened closely to the recorded beat. He counted it out in his head. He listened in on the guitar, where his next beat came in, Kenji's cue. Good, good, good... off.

He paused it. Rewound and played it back.

Haido felt someone leaned near him and he slid his eyes over, catching sight of shocking red. He did feel a small spike in his heartbeat. Then again, seeing the color red is known to make your adrenaline levels rise on an instant. Nothing big.

He looked fully at Kenji, blinking. "What?"

Kenji's eyes widened as he looked up from the keys and into Haido's face. It would have been innocent, save for him just being the way he was. He couldn't pull off innocent worth shit.

He leaned back, settling down onto his feet again. "What are you doing?"

Sometimes, he doubted his own sanity. He'd started a conversation, and he didn't know what to say. It was a stupid question, and what would happen if it annoyed Haido? What if he had some sort of spastic temper that came out with stupid questions?

Well, he was used to Keiko. It couldn't be too bad.

"Fixing track eight, first chorus," Haido replied, looking back towards his instrument, turning it off so he could give his full attention to Kenji.

It was the only polite thing to do.

"So, do you think Aizawa-san is going to be like this from now on since Seguchi-san has decided to remove himself from the group?" Haido asked quietly as he removed his headphones, setting them on the machine.

It was a fair question, to say the least.

Haido was quiet, even when he spoke. Kenji thought it was strange. He was only quiet when he was asleep or thinking, otherwise he was constantly making noise. It was strange, and still... intriguing.

The curiosity only grew.

Shrugging thin shoulders, Kenji glanced through red hair toward the glass. Taki had left the room, and he looked back at Haido. "I don't know. He's freaking crazy. I've never met a man who needs therapy more then Taki."

They'd have to pay for the shrink's therapy, though. Kenji didn't think anyone would be able to live through an hour session with Aizawa Taki and come out completely sane.

Haido smiled slightly, shaking his head. "To put it bluntly, I suppose."

What a strange thought process Kenji had. Then again, no one said he was normal. He hadn't stuck Haido as that type in class at all. But it made him more interesting, which was good.

"So," Haido said with a bit of settling finality. "Why the sudden urge to strike up conversation?"

Quiet, but Haido had a nice smile. It took Kenji by surprise, and he found himself wanting to see a real one.

"I don't know..." He shrugged awkwardly, glancing away from Haido's eyes because he couldn't keep up the stare.

If nothing else, though, Keiko's reasoning would come in handy. "I just figured, we've got to spend the next two years together. We might as well try to get to know each other."

He glanced up at Haido again, one brown eye hidden behind the red of his hair. And that was just fine with him.

Haido kept his face even, though he wanted to show a looked of... amused disbelief. Just because they were in a band, Kenji wanted to get to know him now? They'd gone through years of school without all that. And the way he avoided eye contact and looked at him like that?

Perhaps there was something more?

Or maybe Haido was looking a tad too much into things.

"That's true," he agreed. "Well then, why don't we go to the break room? Get some coffee. It's better than staying around here. Aizawa-san might come back."

Haido smiled a little more, showing it was a little joke.

Kenji had always laughed easily. It was a habit he'd kept on through childhood, and it came into play now. He pulled a hand from his pocket, pushing his hair back subconsciously as a smile played over his lips.

"Good point. I wouldn't mind getting away from him for awhile." Kenji stepped back, away from the synth and toward the door.

He wouldn't mind a little more time with Haido, either. He wondered how long Keiko could nurse a cigarette. He hoped it was a long time.

Maybe she would get distracted, and he would have more time. Yeah. He could hope.

Haido moved away from the machine as well, cracking his fingers and shaking his hands out before following Kenji to the door. He had to admire something about the singer though... he was... kinda cute.

...

In a dorky way.

Haido didn't mind openly assessing a male in his mind. He'd owned up to his own sexuality long ago. He was comfortable with it, but that didn't mean he had to announce it either. If it came up, it came up. That was his philosophy.

"Do you think we should go find Takashi-san would like to join us?" he asked politely, opening the door.

They could make it a little band thing then.

Kenji was stretching as he left the room, arm above his head and movements loose. He pushed up the violently red hair at the back of his neck, shaking his head as his arms lowered again.

"No... She doesn't like it when I interrupt her nicotine intake." It was true, too, but that wasn't why Kenji was against it.

There was not a single moment in their conversation that he really understood. He didn't want Keiko with them. It was almost as if... he wanted Haido to himself. All to himself, with no one else to take away his time.

Trying to understand it made his head hurt, and Kenji was happy enough to let it be.

Haido smiled, nodding in understanding. "She seemed more than a little pissed off today. I wouldn't want to bother her either."

That made perfect sense to him at least. Angry females weren't exactly fun. Especially since you couldn't hit them back. It could be just the two of them. Keiko could join them another time. No one could be that scarily pissed off forever.

"So, what do you thi-" he was cut off by someone calling out Kenji's name from down the hall.

"Kenji, move your ass! You wanna do this thing, let's go now before I lose patience with you," Keiko shouted. It sounded as though she had already lost her cool.

Kenji groaned, shooting a pained glance at Haido. She was going to hit him, he knew it. "I'm sorry..." He sighed, already taking a step back. It didn't even occur to him as strange that he'd apologized.

He never apologized.

"I've got to go. She's going to kill me, but... We can get coffee later, right?" He tried to keep the hope from his voice, and reminded himself that it was only because he really liked coffee.

Yeah.

Haido stopped walking, looking over his shoulder at Keiko. She was slightly intimidating. It was rather frightening to say the least. But Kenji was still offering to spend a little time with him outside of work, which was certainly interesting.

"Uh, of course," he said, waving him off to go with their other bandmate. But something hit him. "Oh, wait! If you want to meet up later, would you like my number?"

Keiko was starting towards the two, looking how a bull must as it gains speed when charging. It was slightly cartoonish.

"Um... yeah." Kenji glanced at Keiko from the red covered eye and winced, digging in his pocket and pulling out a small flip phone. On impulse, he shoved it in Haido's hands. "Just... program it in, okay? I'll get it back from you tomorrow."

He offered Haido a hurried smile, backing away again, though it put him closer to Keiko. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

And, he was off, turning around to catch Keiko around the waist and pick her up as they went down the hall.

Haido stared at the small phone in his hands, almost unsure if he should keep it, or run after them and return it. What if he missed an important call because of this? Well... then technically it would be Kenji's fault. Not that he wanted to pass blame, but he was only human.

"Bye," Haido said, still staring at the phone. Well, he may as well do as he was asked. He flipped it up punching in his number and snapped it shut when he was done, slipping the phone into his pocket.
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Author’s Notes: Here’s where we get into Haido. At this point, he was mine completely to use as I wanted. Suddenly I have this little nothing of a guy who didn’t stand out like the others, and he was supposed to do something other than say ‘Yes, sir’ ‘no, sir’?

I did my best at first. I gave a rough back story for Haido’s life. It wasn’t very good, but I don’t want to change it in the least. I like showing the progress of the work. We can see here, that Haido seems to come off as sweet. Naïve even.

Just keep watching him, folks. Trust me on this one.

Drop us a line!

~Subby