Transaction

Disclaimer: We own Opium! YAY!

Author’s Notes: This is so packed full of drama-y-ness, that it’s about ready to explode!

Enjoy.
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Transaction

Chapter Fifteen
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"I'm very sorry, Aizawa-san," Haido apologized, head bowed. His right hand was wrapped up from wrist to his middle, ring and pinky. He'd had an accident. Pretty big, but nothing serious.

...

He just couldn't play.

Keiko was walking back from the break room with Kenji (had to have his coffee, didn't he?) when they came across the sight of Haido apologizing to Taki.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking at the with a raised eyebrows.

Taki sighed, a long suffering sound as he turned away from the injured synth player. His arms crossed over his chest as he faced Keiko and Kenji, expression dark. "Haido burnt his right hand. We'll be put back on our schedule until it heals enough that he can play."

Either that, or they would have to find someone to stand in for him. Then they could pull the stand-ins recordings and replace them with Haido's. That could work, but it could ruin the band, and the songs.

Kenji's eyes were wide behind the white plastic lid of his coffee cup. "Is he okay?" His eyes narrowed as he realized he was asking Taki a question he knew he wouldn't get an answer for, and leaned around their manager to look at Haido. "Are you okay?"

Burnt his hand? Keiko frowned heavily at the next comment. It put them behind schedule now. Not good considering how hard Taki had been working them before. She sighed, crossing her arms. This fucking blew.

Haido nodded, not looking up yet. He felt horrible. He'd let band mates down in a moment of stupidity. How could he not feel like an idiot? He reached with his left hand into his pocket and brought out Kenji's cell phone.

"Here," he muttered, holding it out to him.

Kenji had always been a little more caring then it was appropriate for a Japanese man to be. For the longest time, his parents had tried to enforce more of the traditional values into him, but they'd never taken, and Kenji was all the more wild for it.

So, when Haido handed him back his phone, Kenji set down his coffee and hugged Haido instead. He wasn't thinking about it, he just did it. Kenji was the sort of person to hug a stranger if the mood came upon him.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Haido was shorter then he was, but not by much. He came up to about Kenji's nose.

Haido wasn't expecting a hug. Then again, he didn't even know until he felt himself pressed up against something, two arms holding him. He looked up a bit, spotting Keiko and Taki over his shoulder. He went to open his mouth, a breathless whoosh of air escaping. His vision blurred and he stepped out of Kenji's arms.

He accidentally wiped at his eyes with his bandaged hand, and hissed as is throbbed with pain. He quietly excused himself and left the room quickly, but didn't run.

Keiko let him pass without a fight, and looked at Kenji's back. She sighed and went over to him, hitting him in the back of the head.

"Whatever you did, apologize. We need him, remember?" she said in a low voice.

A hand immediately came up to rub the back of his head, but Kenji nodded slowly. "Yeah..."

He was confused though, he admitted to himself as he left the room to the sound of Taki's derisive snort. What had he done wrong? He'd just hugged him. Haido didn't seem so proper as to not know how to react.

It was a strange set of events, surely, but Kenji decided it was just easier to let it go as it would. Really, who was he to question when his life only had one set purpose? To fulfill a dream he never thought would come true.

But, here he was, walking down the hall in search of their synth player.

Keiko turned to Taki and shrugged, blowing the whole ordeal off. Wasn't her problem, now was it? Kenji had to fix whatever it was he broke.

Haido sniffled quietly, curling up in a chair in the break room. Sure, not the best place to go, but for some reason he had to get out. At least to compose himself. He didn't know why he'd started to cry to begin with!

"Stupid," he muttered. He even still had Kenji's phone! Damnit.

None of this was going right.

The bathrooms were empty, and the halls held no sign of Haido. Kenji was beginning to grow frustrated, scowling as he reached the break room. If Haido wasn't in here, he was turning back and giving up. The scowl melted, though, when he caught sight of Haido in the chair farthest from the door.

In fact, Kenji found himself feeling unnaturally quiet.

"Hi." For a voice that was normally so loud, it was surprisingly soft, and Kenji shut the door behind him as he stepped into the room.

He felt almost like an intruder. Like he was breaking into some highly personal time that he just shouldn't be a part of. But, not only did Haido have his phone, they needed him, and Kenji felt like it was his duty to fix whatever he'd done.

Haido looked up and saw Kenji. Carefully, he shifted the cell phone to his bandaged hand and wiped at his eyes with the heel of his left hand. Great, now Kenji had to see him all weird. This wasn't good.

"Hey," Haido answered softly, looking at the phone in his hand. "Here."

He held it out again for Kenji to take, and this time he couldn't hug him and start this all over again.

"Sorry about that."

"It's okay." Kenji smiled as he took the phone, and even that felt quiet. What was Haido doing to him? It was really starting to drive him nuts!

But, he crouched in front of the chair anyway, playing with the flip phone in his hands. "Look... I'm sorry." Wasn't that the second time he'd apologized to Haido? That was so weird. He never apologized to anyone! "I don't know what I did, but..." He shrugged, looking up at Haido with a helpless expression.

"You didn't do anything," Haido assured him with a quick smile that was gone almost instantly. "I'm just all weird because of yesterday..."

He lifted his right hand weakly. How stupid of him. And top it all off, Kenji was in here apologizing to him! Things couldn't get worse. Well, he supposed they could, but he was in a moment right now.

"If you want to get a replacement... for the time I'm out," he said. "I wouldn't blame you, or feel bad."

He was throwing it out there right away. After all, it wasn't really his band, Kenji should do what he wanted with it.

Kenji shook his head violently. "No way!" He was very adamant about it, and if nothing else, his voice expressed that. "I'm not going to work with anyone but you and Kei."

He looked like a small child when he made any face that wasn't happy, but he'd never really noticed before. It was all in the way he set his mouth, distinctly reminiscent of a pout.

Standing, Kenji pushed his phone into the tight back pocket of his jeans. It was cold, but he shrugged it away, arms crossing over his chest to assume an all around stance that looked frighteningly like Taki.

Haido looked up at Kenji, smiling slightly as he got up too, though he still had to look up. Hearing that somehow made him feel better, if not a little teary again. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but he definitely enjoyed hearing it.

"Thanks, Sonoda-san," he said quietly. "I don't know what happened, but... well, I'm sorry if Aizawa-san gets really rough on us once I can play again."

It would be his fault after all. But Kenji looked dorkily adorable again, standing around like Taki, making orders.

"Uh... well," he said, looking away. "Um... maybe we should go back? Or maybe... I don't know. Sorry."

Something was stirring deep in his stomach, and with a jolt, Kenji realized he was nervous. His mouth was too dry, and he swallowed, nodding.

He nodded, but he couldn't make himself look away from Haido's face. "Yeah..."

It was hot, muggy in the room. And somehow, it made Haido seem... different. More appealing? Something like cool air floating into the room. Kenji was drawn toward it, but forced himself back with a quick shake of his head.

What the hell was he doing?

"Yeah! You're right." He cleared his throat. "We need to go back, to... see Kei. Cause she has something she needs to explain." He bit his lip, grabbing Haido's unbandaged hand to drag him out of the room.

Haido had noticed how weird Kenji had acted only a few minutes previous. How strange he was acting these days, but it had gotten his heart pounding. It was nothing though, nothing. He'd been acting weird himself lately.

Dragged off by the hand, Haido was taken out of his thoughts. He kept pace with Kenji, though he had to take more steps to match a few of his. Four for every one of his two. It was a tad annoying.

"What needs to be explained?" he asked. "Did something happen?"

Kenji shook his head as he walked, not realizing that he still had Haido's hand in his. It was a pleasant feeling, and he was a believer in pleasant things carrying on. "No... It's just a theory I have. She's better at explaining things, though, because I get sidetracked, and..."

He made a hand gesture, shaking his head again. "Just... trust me. It's easier this way."

Glancing to his side, he gave Haido a small smile, something akin to a half-grin.

"Alright, alright," Haido said with a small laugh.
~~~
Author’s Notes: I know, I know! We just don’t get into Haido anymore than the surface. I can’t say that’ll change. Haido, like the rest of Opium, was supposed to be temporary. And he was a hard character for me to tap into in the beginning. He wasn’t the kind of person I could keep writing for long periods of time. I didn’t know a thing about him. Sounds weird, I know.

Keiko was loud, brash, in a bad mood all the time, but she loved Kenji in her own way. That’s like a certain part of me, I can admit. I just took all my bad moods and my smoking habit and problems waking up and crammed them all into Keiko.

Haido was hard. Haido was the person I hate being. He’s quiet, reflective not much of a history or present life it seems. We get snipits. Mostly cause that’s all I got. He reminded me a lot of myself when I first moved out to California. Reserved and thinking. I hate those moments in my life, cause there’s always someone I’m thinking about that I don’t want to anymore.

At first, I was going to give Haido that problem. A boyfriend with trouble handling himself. It just didn’t work out that way. He hurt himself, and I’m still, to this very day not sure how it happened. I’m going with cooking accident. But that’s a big accident to have on a stove. I think.

This story got so confusing for us after a while.

But he’s developing. More and more he’s coming out of his shell. Kenji’s personality is becoming more stable in the story too.

Drop us a line.

~Subby