Transaction

Disclaimer: Wooooo!

Author’s Notes: Well, I'm trying to keep myself distracted as hell, these days. Been a big rough spot in life and I'm trying to work through it. Better things to come, right? Kel says it's weird to hear optimism from a realist. I have to agree. Sometimes I think I sound like I'm shitting unicorns and rainbows! But that is not the point. lol

Silverone, thank you for the story. I'm not sure if that one was exactly it, but it seems like it! I'll pass it along to my friend person thing and see if that was the one they were looking for.

This is the fun chapter. It's full of fun. Yes it is!

Enjoy!
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Transaction
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Chapter Sixty-Four
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Keiko was not as hung over as she would've liked to be, but it was still obvious from the look on her face that said, 'make any loud noise and I will kill you'. They did celebrate after the concert. Kenji couldn't shut up about it.

Keiko celebrated after that on her own. She was having fun, until Taki informed her of an early meeting in the morning. She had to pack up and get to bed if she wanted to get to work on time.

Now, they were in the meeting room that they hadn't seen the inside of for a while, and even though she was sitting up straight and her arms were crossed, she was starting to nod off. Tohma was here writing down something, Haido and Kenji were here. Taki had yet to arrive on the scene.

Taki didn't seem at all perturbed by the hung over faces as he came into the room. Hands on his hips as the door shut behind him, he was well aware that he was going to have to sit down in a few seconds, because his legs were beginning to ache in a serious way.

"Did you celebrate last night?" Kenji gave him a sleepy grin in answer, and Taki snorted, shaking his head and dropping himself into a seat at the table. "You shouldn't have. The performance was horrible. Your stage presences need work, and I don't intend to let you near another stage until you meet my standards."

And he and Tohma were very clear on their standards. They were both expecting the same thing from this band, and Opium wasn't touching a stage instrument until they were ready to handle them.

Tohma set his pen down, folding his hands in his lap and leaning back into his chair as Taki had come in. He watched the group before him with the usual amount of interest, letting them all speak before he would say anything.

Keiko was the first to get defensive. She bristled immediately, sitting up, awake and at full attention. She slapped a hand down on the table, making Haido blink and flinch back even though he was sitting on the other side of the table.

"The hell are you talk about?" she snapped. "Considering you threw us up there in front of a crowd at the last minute, I think we did pretty well."

Her eyes narrowed, flickering over to her bandmates for support on this. Haido averted his eyes, feeling guilty, like it was a bad show because of him. It was a natural reaction.

Kenji flared defensively, sitting up with an almost-glare. "You didn't give us any warning! We didn't have any time to prepare!" He was adamant on it. They'd done fine! Better then they should have, considering, but he knew by Taki's face that according to him, what they were saying wasn't true.

"You're wrong." Taki shot them a positively pleasant smile, hands clasped innocently on the table. Really, he was closer to breaking then they knew. This was so pathetic. "You've known about your upcoming concert for months - you should have been prepared for a tiny club appearance."

He stood, cutting Kenji off before he could leap to the defense again. "You should have been ready, should have already formed a set, or at least thought of one. The songs didn't go well together, they clashed and sent Kenji's voice up and down the scale in a way that's horribly unappealing at a concert. It's impressive, but it's grating. It won't happen again."

Slipping his hands in his pockets, he took his time moving around the table, toward Tohma. "Haido's stiff, the keyboard was mechanical. It needs work. I'm not a synth player, I'll leave that to Tohma's expertise." His voice sharpened as he focused in on Keiko, and he felt almost as if he were dealing with Ma.

"A guitarist has no business trying to show up the head of the band. It's your job to start in the songs, carry the tune and set the tone, but it's Kenji's job to make the audience feel it. Playing with a smirk that has your head up your ass isn't going to get you on a big stage any sooner."

At the head of the table now, Taki put his hands on it. This was his job. Tohma was the president of the company, but Taki was the manager of the band. "Another performance like last night will not happen again. Starting today, you'll each begin a separate training in the morning, and choreography in the afternoons. There will be no compromise, this is not a debatable schedule."

Tohma smiled slightly as he watched Taki go about. He raised an eyebrow when he heard the direct announcement of the schedule. Well, that certainly covered everything. It made him want to laugh at how it had all been handled.

Keiko was beyond pissed. "Head up my ass? Head up my ass!" She stood up now, face reddening in anger. "Because I took charge when Kenji was clueless, I have my head up my ass?"

Haido was sitting there quietly, glancing over at Tohma discreetly. He'd done something wrong. He didn't like having anything wrong. It meant he was letting his bandmates down. He hated letting others down on his account.

"Sit down, please," the blond said easily, staring Keiko down.

"No! I want to know why I'm the only one-"

"You're not," Haido said quietly. "They've pointed out faults in all of us as a band."

Tohma nodded, looking at Keiko expectantly. She was visibly trembling, holding everything back. Swallowing it back.

"Do we have any other complaints?" he asked pleasantly. When no one said anything, he got up from his chair. "Then, Haido please come with me. I'm working with you in private for the first few times."

Haido got up from his chair, muttering his thanks. "Taki, can you handle both of them today?"

Shooting Tohma his best, 'of course,' look, Taki didn't seem to notice that Kenji was slipping over to Keiko, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and whispering those strict friend things, the things that always got them in trouble if they were heard. Things like, 'don't worry, he doesn't know what he's talking about; you were fine.'

Taki DID know what he was talking about, and he'd show it to him using whatever means he had to. If he had to call Ma back from America to get him to teach Keiko how to really play a guitar, then dammit, he'd do it.

"Come on. We're taking the studio today." Haido and Tohma could use a different one, but for now, their original studio had both a guitar and a microphone, though Taki wasn't entirely sure how he was going to handle both Keiko and Kenji at the same time.

Things could end up becoming just a little bloody.

"Have fun," Tohma said cheerfully, nudging Haido out of the office. They were going to go out for a walk. He didn't need to be thrown back into a studio. He needed to learn how to live and enjoy things.

Not exactly according to the book, but nothing had been this far.

Keiko shrugged Kenji away from her. She was still livid, but by this time it had turned into a choked up feeling. Her throat was thick and her eyes bright. She would not say another word until she could do it without the slightest hint of tears.

She just waited, glowering until they were told where to go.

"Kenji." Taki didn't turn as he addressed the singer, who was trying hard not to look hurt as Keiko shoved him away. He knew she didn't really mean to hurt him, but it still hurt on an emotional level that he couldn't help. "We'll meet you in the studio. We won't be long."

Nodding his head slowly, Kenji took the underlying order and moved ahead of Taki with a soft, "okay."

He had a feeling this wasn't a conversation he wanted to hear. Not any of it. He hoped Taki was ready to be hit, or cried on, because Keiko's mood right now could go either way. Taki didn't really seem like the kind of guy who would know what to do.

When Kenji was gone, Taki turned to face Keiko, looking less imposing then he had in the meeting room and more like the thin, tired man he was fast becoming. "I think we need to make a few things clear, Keiko."

It was a soft voice, a regular speaking voice that Taki found himself using less and less. Concerts were stressful for everybody, both the band and the staff. Taki knew they weren't the only ones feeling it.

"I'd talk with you," she said tightly, teeth clenched, as her hands curled into fists at her side. "But my head must be too far up my ass."

Keiko blinked hard, and turned away sharply to storm over to one corner of the room, closest to the window. She knew she was acting like a brat. She knew she had no right to question two professionals in the business.

It didn't make it hurt any less.

Looking out the window, she decided she'd rather be home and working a few shitty jobs than have someone like Taki say something like that about her. Keiko thought Taki had nothing to say to her that would fix anything. She was a little arrogant, so what? What had he been, then?

After what he'd done with his career, she didn't think Taki had a right to say anything about how she played. Hearing it from Tohma would've been better than this. Knowing what he had done to a rival band made her all the angrier.

"Keiko." Taki didn't continue with the soft voice, but snapped right back into the hard, 'I'm your manager, and you are going to listen to me' tone. "Opium's best interests come above mine, or Tohma's, and right now, they need to come above yours." He wasn't into making another speech. Taki felt way too tired for this shit.

Pushing a hand through his hair, he didn't follow Keiko to the corner of the room. He wasn't a comfort sort of person. He was business today, because they were behind and they needed to catch up.

"I know you're pissed, but as a musician, I know you're going to try to play better now then you ever have before. Right now, Tohma and I don't have the expertise to focus on what you need," Taki had had a profession where he NEEDED to be the focus, he'd been able to get away with a haughty stage presence. Keiko couldn't, and Taki knew he would have had the very same reaction she was having now if someone had said to him what he'd said to her. "We're trying to work with Kenji and Haido to get them to the place they need to be. After that, everything might come together; or it might not."

And the might not was most definitely up to Keiko. She could make or break this band, and Taki wasn't entirely certain that she knew just how much. It wasn't unheard of. One member could leave a band, and nine times out of ten, the band wouldn't even try replacements. They'd just drop a record label entirely.

"You're a talented artist, but I'm not sure how to get you to understand what I'm trying to tell you." See, this was why he was gay. Women confused the fuck out of him.

No, she understood completely. It didn't mean she liked it any. And that was fine with her. Really, she wanted to break the fucking window. On impulse, she felt that need, but she held it back.

And what made him so sure of anything? Maybe she would play worse, just to prove some non-existent point. What did he know? It would just be proving she was a bitchy, bratty kid, but she would feel better.

Until the outrage and anger wore off, and then she'd feel guilty.

"What the fuck do I do if you're busy with Kenji, and he's busy with Haido?" Keiko asked, still as angry as before, but her resolve was weakening just slightly.

It made Taki smile, even if it wasn't necessarily happy. At least she was quick to the point, though it was starting to grate on his nerves. Still, it didn't reflect in his voice, and Taki was seriously convinced he was spending too much time around Tohma to be healthy.

"That's what I want you to tell me. What do you need out of this, Keiko?" She'd know best, after all, and if she didn't, he would stick her in with all of the studio musicians who knew how to perform onstage.

In fact, he might end up doing that anyway. There was an excess of them. Too many bands on the NG label and not nearly enough positions for the poor losers signed only to fill places.

Well, he could give them something to do. They knew their choreography, at least. They knew how to be natural on stage.

Opium needed that.

Keiko gave a tight lipped sigh, rolling her eyes, and looking back out the window. How was she supposed to know? After all, they were the ones that had a problem with her.

"I guess I need to learn my place," she muttered, resting her head against the window.

And that was hard. When you had a friend like Kenji and a family like hers, her place had always been to be domineering, bitchy. Some times, that did take over to a point where she just took what she thought was hers.

Now, suddenly, she was supposed to drop to the back and let Kenji take control. When she did things for him, she did it because she cared. Maybe it did get to be too much sometimes. After all, he was growing up, in a sense.

Grudgingly, she said, "You tell me what I should do next. I'll do it."

The smile was still there, and Taki was fucking convinced it was going to break his face. How could Tohma smile like this all the time? It was no wonder he could be such a damn bastard sometimes.

"I want you to meet a few people. Then I want you to pick two of them, a location - a studio or a lounge, it doesn't matter - and I want you to work."

That was his final decision. It was sealed with a nod, and Taki turned, heading for the door again. "Come on. We're going downstairs."

Yes. The cafeteria, someplace he never went, but realized the necessity of. That was where they would all be, usually separated by what instrument they played because it was always easier for artists to identify with others of the same genre.

She let her arms drop, stuffing them deep into the pockets her baggy pants, slouching like a child who didn't want to be hanging out with her parents. She followed Taki quietly, sticking to what she had said. She would do what had to be done. For the band.

Keiko hoped Haido was doing better than she was. Surely, Kenji would have a better day, even it was spent all alone with Taki. Man, how had everything gone from a big celebration the night before, to this shit?

She made her way to the elevator. No way in hell she wanted to spend more time walking down flights of stairs in this silence, when it could take a second in an elevator. She just didn't know where Taki was taking her.
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Author's Notes: Aw, there's another side to Keiko! Cute, right? Well, not really I guess. Keiko's as close to the person I am as it gets personality wise. And we do have our breaking moments. Life's just been a little unfair to her recently, so of course a nasty comment from Taki would almost have her crying. Almost! Mean Taki. Bastard.

I really liked how Tohma just kind of sat back and watched. I think he likes watching Taki. I think he really likes when Taki is all hot and bothered about something. Tohma the quiet watcher I am sometimes. It's neat! And poor Haido. He has no idea the horrors we're about to bring upon him. Or Tohma and Taki for that matter.

And now, a rambling A/N by Kel!
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I loved writing that scene. Really, I don’t think anyone has any idea just how much I enjoyed that. Taki’s best when he’s telling people what to do, he really is. And, I sort of get the impression that Tohma’s intent watching just egged him on and pushed them a little harder.

But, holy crap, he’s on a power trip. Sleeping with his boss, ordering his band around… Just wait, he’ll come in with a crown and a scepter next.

…Nah, he was always better in a miniskirt.

I really like that Kenji wasn’t the one to freak out in this chapter. I’m also rather fond of the image of him as a comforting friend. He doesn’t get to be that for Keiko much, and I figure he sort of revels in the moments when he can. It makes him feel needed, and that’s something Kenji doesn’t get much of.
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See? I'm not crazy! She's real! And, no, we won't be putting Taki in a miniskirt in either this story, the sequel... maybe the High School one just for shits and giggles, though. I'm trying to keep busy, and I don't know when Kel might be able to start writing again. Hopefully soon. I'm left with my thoughts a lot of the time, which isn't fun.

Drop us a line!

~Subby