Transaction

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah band members of Opium are ours. Nothing else.

Author’s Notes: A special thank you to Silverone for reviewing this story. You’ve been encouraging and intelligent with every review. It’s always exciting to see a review, but to know it’s from someone who genuinely enjoys your writing and not just posting to point something out in passing or whatever, it’s a nice thing.

So, thank you very much from Kel and I.
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Transaction
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Chapter Six
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"I'm serious, Kei! The guy's frickin' lost it!" Kenji was ranting again, absently pushing viciously red hair out of his face as he paced. He glanced at Keiko, who was sitting on the floor with her legs crossed, and stopped, folding his arms over his chest. "And you don't believe me! Why do I even bother?"

She looked up at him, the perfect picture of a bored three year old. Her dark eyes were wide and staring, her head tilted to one side. Her bleached hair was shocking, but not as bad as Kenji's red hair, even if it did fade to an orange at the tips.

Keiko was sitting cross legged on the floor, the semi large tee shirt she'd worn to bed giving off a child like look. Her lips were parted as she let her mouth hang open as she stared, not paying any attention. She. Wanted. Sleep.

And she'd been getting it too. Until Kenji had busted in, waking her up, pushing her out of bed to wake her up, and started... ranting! She really did not care in the least.

"Well, why should I believe it?" she asked, coming to. "You have no proof, just crazy rants."

Keiko started crawling back to the bed, hauling herself into it, pulling the covers over her head.

"If you have anything better than 'he's fricken lost it' I'm all ears."

Not.

Following her onto the bed, Kenji pulled the covers down to her shoulders, glaring at her through the red of his hair. "Did you see the way he and Seguchi were looking at each other the other day?" He demanded. "Taki looked like he was going to shit a brick, but Seguchi hadn't done a damn thing. There's some kind of history there!"

And he wanted to know what it was. What did it matter to him that it was three o'clock in the morning? He had nothing better to do with his time, and Keiko didn't either.

"Come on! You've got to help me figure out what it is. Please, Kei?" He sighed, giving her the look that had worked ever since they'd met.

"No. I did not see any brick shitting look," Keiko grunted, burying her head under a pillow. "I was too busy keeping an eye on an idiot singer who made us fucking late. Go home before I kill you. And I will-"

She stopped, daring to peek out at Kenji. The bastard was looking at her in a sadly expectant manner. Evil little shit. Quickly she knocked him upside the head with a pillow.

"Why do you care so much? It's not like we should worry. After all, we got the damn deal," Keiko rationalized. "'sides. Taki'll kill you once he finds out we've been snooping."

Yes, the transfer of 'you' and 'us' was apparent. Keiko wasn't going down for anything Kenji dragged her into.

The pillow hit him squarely in the head, and Kenji dropped dramatically onto the bed. Rolling onto his stomach, he propped his elbows up and rested his chin in his hands. "But you'll help, right? He won't find out. I promise!"

Often his promises that they wouldn't get caught proved to be false, as there had always been some sort of parent, adult, or supervising figure to catch them and put them into the trouble they'd been trying to avoid.

It was incredibly irritating.

And those looks in the conference room had been irritating. He couldn't have been the only one to notice. He had to get Haido to admit it, too. Something, because there was no way he was the only person to see Taki glare at Seguchi Tohma.

Who in their right mind would openly glare at Seguchi Tohma?!

It only secured Kenji's suspicions. Taki was insane.

Tick, tick, tick, tick...

"Fine!" Keiko said, trying to kick him from under the covers. "Fine, fine, fine, I'll help you! Just let me go to sleep! If you asked me, you're the fucking nutjob!"

Eventually her feet stopped kicking and a light snore was heard from under the sheets. Keiko had fallen back asleep in the middle of her rampage. She was just too tired to care. Maybe she'd gotten lucky and Kenji got bruised somewhere.

~x~

Taki was right. Kenji hated what "Bright and early" was. And Taki loved it.

"Man! It's six o'clock in the morning! I just got to bed!"

Taki snorted, and gave the blankets a great tug. Kenji curled up into a ball as the cold air hit him, glaring at his manager over his arm. "Get to bed earlier, then. We're not going to be late again. Get up."

It was a very tired, very annoyed Kenji that met the rest of the band out in the car. It was a sedated ride to NG, and Taki felt a little better as he glanced at the clock.

They were on time. Early, even.

It wasn't even seven yet.

Keiko was curled up on a seat in the car, still sleeping. She didn't wake up well, and she would kill all of them if she wasn't left alone to sleep on the ride there. Even Taki. She would light them all on fire.

The thought brought a small smile to her lips as she slept.
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Author’s Notes: You get to see a little more of Opium’s assorted collection of miscreants. You can tell already, if you can read that is, that Kenji and Keiko have something special between them. We really tried to get a grasp of that deep down friendship some people have. You can see a little of it here, but it keeps growing as we feature them more and more in the story.

And trust me when I say, they’ll be back and around often.

Please review!

~Subby