No Escaping Fate

I will let you know when it changes in the chapters, but for now all regular spoken words are in English and underlining is Japanese. The songs have been stolen from various bands and will be credited at the end of each chapter.

Chapter One

~Third person POV~

“I didn’t ask you, Rick!”

Neo put his head in his hands and sighed. Rick Davis, James Wit, Eric Phighter, Craig Nickels, Tami Coolter, and Franki Winter made up the other six members of the band Seven Sins. Neo thought that the studio was insane to pack seven people on stage together, but the fans decided otherwise and the band had been a hit across the US for three years now.

Of those six other people, Rick was the only one that even came close to being someone that Neo would call a friend. He was also the only one who knew anything about who Neo really was.

The studio had done a good job of creating a past for Neo prior to putting him in the spotlight. “A born in Japan to an American mother and Japanese father. Immigrated to America as a child. Only child and orphan. Raised in a Japanese community in northern California.” It went on like that. The studio had gone so far as to rush through the paperwork for him to become an American citizen. What a crock.

The studio had crated an image that they would do just about anything to protect. ‘Neo’ was the personification of the American musical dream; crappy background, extreme talent, mysterious, and beautiful. Oh if his fans only knew, but he really didn’t care.

Ever since Neo had come to America that had been his outlook, ‘I don’t care.’ Because of that his music tended to appeal to the generally angsty and depressed youth of the world. Whatever.

His fans were just as jaded as he was. Hm, he reminded himself a lot of someone he used to know.

“Neo, I know that this is bugging the shit out of you. Why the hell did you let them talk you into this?”

Neo looked up at his friend and pushed his long black hair out of his face. He thought about it for a moment and arched an eyebrow. “Rick, it really doesn’t matter. It is public knowledge that I am from Japan. It would look suspicious if we stopped everywhere in Asia and the south pacific then skipped Japan altogether.”

“Neo…”

“Rick…”

Rick sighed. Neo was impossible to deal with. The man was stubborn to a fault and so emotionally closed of that it was almost impossible to tell if he was in a good mood or a bad one. The only time he came to life was when he was performing. Then he was like different person altogether. The petit man put everything he had into his music and it showed. His fans loved him and that seemed to be the only thing that he did care about. For them he would do no wrong and he sacrificed everything to make them happy.

“Just be careful. I don’t know what happened in Japan, but I know that it is scaring the shit out of you. I know that because you are letting your mask slip.”

Neo snapped his eyes from the window and onto his friend. He felt an angry retort die on his lips. Rick was right. He had been letting his emotions show more since he found out that Japan was going to be on the tour. It had been like someone ripping open a slow healing wound and pouring salt all over it. He had left Japan for a reason.

Neo shook his head. “I’ll be fine Rick, it is not like I am going to see any of them anyway.”

He turned back to the window and watched the Tokyo skyline grow larger and larger on the horizon as they made the decent.

As for Rick, he couldn’t help the ominous feeling that seemed to settle in his bones. This wasn’t going to turn out well for his small friend.

*

“…we then have a meeting at the corporate headquarters. The president of the company wants to talk to you about putting out a Japanese language album.”

“No.”

“Neo…”

“I said no, Dick.”

Richard ‘Dick’ Stevens bit his lip. Neo had a reputation for his bad attitude and stubbornness. He had been warned a year ago, when he took over as manager for Seven Sins, that the little singer was a handful. He had told his predecessor that it wouldn’t be a problem. He had worked with difficult clients before. The man had laughed himself silly before wishing Dick good luck. He now understood why.

Neo Zolton wasn’t difficult he was impossible.

Dick took a deep breath. “Neo, Mr. Seguchi is personally requesting this.”

Neo froze. He felt his heart thumping wildly in his chest. He slowly turned his head toward his manager. “Since when dose NG own LA Reform?”

Dick looked confused. He turned his head to look for help, but he remembered that he was the only one riding with Neo besides the driver on the other side of the partition. “Um, about three years or so, since before Seven Sins was signed anyway.”

“That son of a bitch!”

Dick looked confused. He knew some Japanese, but not enough to know what his singer had just said. He did get the feeling that it wasn’t good.

“I am such an idiot.” Neo ran his hand through his loose hair several times so that it fell into his face. “I knew that I should have stayed the fuck of the stage, but no I just couldn’t stay away.” Neo cracked his neck and looked back out of the window as Dick stared at him. He gave a great sigh and looked back at his manager. “Just when is my meeting with Mr. I-think-I’m-GOD Seguchi-sama?”

“Um, it is a dinner meeting at seven.” Dick looked nervous and Neo couldn’t blame him. He wanted to hurt someone, preferably a Seguchi Tohma someone.

Neo looked at his watch, it was after four already. It was just like Seguchi to not give a shit if someone had jet lag or not. “And is the whole band invited or is it just me who had the honor?”

Dick cleared his throat nervously. “Um, everybody knows that you are the one who is running the show Neo and Mr.…”

“So it is just me, wonderful.” Neo laid his head back and closed his eyes. He had the strong urge to tell the driver to take him back the airport, but the Nittle Grasper keyboardist turned NG president wasn’t going to let it go that easily. It was going to be a long night.

He didn’t know how long he was lost in though before Dick plucked up the courage to speak. “Um, Mr.…”

“Shut up Dick and you had better not say a word about any of this to the others until I talk to Seguchi.”

The man squeaked, “Yes Sir.”

*

~Japanese plain text/English underlined~

Neo followed the hostess to his table and sure enough there sat his former and present boss.

He sat down silently and locked eyes with the bleach blond. Tohma had his usual serene smile locked in place. Oddly enough though none of the man’s lackeys were present. He waited knowing that Tohma was waiting for him to speak first. Fuck that.

There were several long moments of silence before Tohma broke down. Neo knew he would, he had become a right bastard while in America and nothing intimidated him anymore.

“It has been a long time Shindou-san. I have been watching your carrier closely and I am pleased that you are doing so well.” Tohma’s voice was as calm and smooth as ever.

Neo kept his gaze cold and hard. “It’s Neo. No matter how much I hate the name I hate the old one more. Now, what do you want?”

Neo smirked inwardly when the man sighed. “I know that we did not part on good terms and I am partly to blame for that, but I do not want that to affect your decision tonight.”

“I’m am not now, nor any time in the future, planning on doing a Japanese language, Japanese style, or anything else Japanese related record ever again. I didn’t even want to play Japan. So now that we have that issue settled I’ll ask you again. What do you want?”

Tohma closed his eyes briefly, but gave no other indication of his frustration. “Shin… Excuse me… Neo, why did you leave?”

Neo sat back and crossed his legs. Before he could answer the waiter came for their orders. After glancing at the menu he decided to just have a salad and water. He had to watch his girlish figure after all. When the waiter was gone again he looked back at Tohma.

“You know damn well why I left. Yuki filled in the details that your spies couldn’t I’m sure.”

Tohma leaned back. “Actually Eiri was just as clueless as the rest of us. He was quite inconsolable for some time.”

Neo snorted. “Well isn’t that a change. Serves him right, the bastard countless times over the two years we were together. Suffice it to say that I ran out of tears.”

Tohma looked at him thoughtfully for several long moments. The waiter came back with their order in what seemed like record time, but Neo was no longer hungry.

“You don’t know why you left, do you?”

Neo looked up at him. “What kind of fucked up question is that? I left because I was sick of the bullshit. I left because I was tired of being hurt. I left so that I could have a life that did not end and begin with Eiri Uesugi. I left so I could write the music I wanted to write. Does that answer your question?”

Tohma looked more crestfallen than Neo could ever remember seeing him. It said something to him that the perpetually serene and slightly upbeat man could look so sad. “Shuichi-kun, I wish you would have talked to someone before you left.”

Neo felt his jaw clench. “‘Talk to someone?’” He gave a derisive laugh, “I talked to everyone who I thought gave a shit. No one listened. Get over it. I have gone to great lengths to put Shindou Shuichi in my past. I went so far as to undergo plastic surgery so I didn’t have to look at his pathetic face anymore. I am not coming back to Bad Luck. Seven Sins is not putting out a Japanese album. I am never going to speak to Eiri Yuki again. I am going to stay in Japan any longer than I have to. You can do what ever you want to Seven Sins. If you break us up, I’ll go somewhere else. If you cancel our contract I’ll find us another one. If you sully our names then we’ll sell better in the states. If you come out with who I am then I will disappear somewhere you will never find me. I love music, but I will not hesitate to give it up if I have to.

“I don’t give a shit that you knew all along and custom made me a band and a life that I could start over with and be successful without having to try that hard. In fact that makes it worse. So now do you have any more questions?”

“Just one.”

Neo threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. The man really was a bastard. “By all means, oh great and wonderful OZ.”

“Do you still love him?”

“Fuck you, Tohma.” Neo stood up and started to walk away.

“He still loves you. He tried to kill himself when you left.”

Tohma’s words stopped him dead. Neo expected Yuki to have long since moved on. It had been six years after all. “What makes you think that I’ll believe that?”

“Because you know in your heart it’s true. I know that you know it and I know that you still love him. I know that because I can hear it in every single song you have written since you left.”

“Go to hell.” Neo walked out and didn’t look back.

*

Neo hadn’t cared where his feet took him when he walked away from Tohma until he realized where he was. He was in the park. He was in Their Park. This was the place where it had all started.

Eight years ago he and Yuki had chanced upon one another here. The words of the song he had been writing played in his head.

He hit his palm against his forehead several times, “Get out, you don’t belong there anymore. I’m not that person anymore.” He mumbled it over and over again to himself, but it didn’t stop the song playing in his head. “Damn you Tohma, I had gotten over all this shit and moved on with my life, but you just couldn’t leave it alone could you?”

Neo pulled his trench coat around him tighter and kept walking. It was ironic that he had come hear and he silently cursed his own feet from bringing him. This place brought back too many memories. As he crested the hill he paused in his steps. He could see the dark silhouette of his one time lover standing there under the streetlamp reading his lyrics. He could feel the cold breeze that had blown the paper away from him. He could hear Eiri’s dark voice whispering, “You have zero talent.”

He shook his head, but the vision persisted. “Get a grip.” He forced himself to keep walking, but the image was still there. As he drew closer he realized that it was not his imagination. Someone really was standing there and that someone really was Yuki. ‘He must still live close by.’ Neo thought to himself.

He felt his feet faltering in their steeps, but then he remembered that he now looked totally different from the last time Yuki had seen him so with determined steeps he kept walking. He watched as the taller man tried to light a cigarette, but the lighter seemed to be dead. Still Neo kept walking. When he was within a few dozen feet of the man, Yuki looked up.

“Got a light?”

Neo froze in his steps. Fate was a bitch. As it so happened he did have a light. He couldn’t remember when or why he had started smoking, but right then he was very conscious of the fact that he had a lighter in his pocket. He tried to think. He couldn’t fane ignorance of the language because Yuki spoke English. He could pretend that he didn’t have a lighter, but that would require lying and he could never lie to Yuki to save his life and he doubted he could now.

So Neo opted to just pull the lighter from his pocket and hold it out to the man. He kept his head down and was careful not to let their fingers touch as pulled his hand back quickly. It was a nice lighter, a Zippo that he had been given by Rick a few years back after he had heard Neo complain one to many times about the cheep ones. Neo turned to keep on walking when Yuki’s voice once again caused him to pause. “Hey your lighter?”

“Keep it.” He still kept his face down when he said it and started walking again when Yuki just stared at him.

He had made it a few hundred feet from the other man when he heard running. He didn’t turn back, but he knew what was coming. Yuki had recognized his voice.

There was suddenly a hand on his arm and he was jerked around so that the light was cast onto his face. Yuki tilted his head up to get a better look. Neo felt his heart pound in his chest, but there was no way that Yuki would recognize him. He waited for a long moment and slowly pulled away from the man’s slack grip.

“Sorry, I thought you were someone else.” Yuki held the lighter out to him.

“I told you to keep it.” He turned and started walking again.

Maybe he was a fool and a coward, but Tohma was right about one thing if nothing else. When he was far enough away that he knew that Yuki couldn’t hear him he whispered, “I still love you, Yuki Eiri.”

*

So? Too much? Not enough? Well, there will be more to come.