Transaction

Disclaimer: Wheeeeee!

Author’s Notes: This is where things become a little foreboding. Yay for good words! This is an interesting chapter because I like how Keiko acts in it. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's a very 'best friend' type of thing. I like it. The ending is the foreboding part, really. But I end all my chapters on whims like that.

Anon, I'm not sure how you'll enjoy this chapter considering your thoughts on Keiko. I went with gut instinc and how I act when I get pushed around. Especially at work. You kind can't blow up if you wanna keep your job, y'know? Otherwise, not that much changes.

Enjoy!
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Transaction

Chapter Sixty-Five
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By lunch, Kenji felt close to a collapsing point. He didn't like spending time with Taki, and he didn't like the idea that Taki was trying to turn him into something he wasn't. In fact, it was pissing him off, and he was quite the unhappy sight as he left the studio with a frown instead of the happy smile at the idea of a break that he normally had.

He didn't want to stay at work today. He wanted to go home and sleep. Choreography sounded like hell in accompaniment to the rest of the day.

If he found anyone in a good mood, he was going to kill them. He was so sick of being told how he should act, what he should do, how he should sing HIS songs. The next commanding word from anyone's mouth was going to earn one hell of a reaction.

Keiko had spent most of her time in the cafeteria, talking to other guitarist. They were trading stories, and welcomed her in like an old friend. She had nothing much to add as they talked about concert blunders and backstage drama, although a few funny garage stories from when Opium was starting and it was just her and Kenji came up and got the usual rolled eyes and sympathetic nods of those who had been there before.

Many came and went, and a few offered to take her to their practices, more then happy to give her tips and advice, and though she was tempted, she declined. She'd rather get in control of her own new surroundings and what was expected of her before breaking away from her own band in that way. She felt like she'd be getting away from the band if she submersed herself with guitarists only.

By lunch time, she was sick of being in one place, and excused herself to go find Kenji. Maybe they could have lunch together if he wasn't already with Haido, or all of them could go. Whichever.

She took the elevator up to the floor that held their studio and when the doors opened, Kenji was standing there waiting for the lift. Keiko, gave a heavy sigh, noticing his demeanor and motioned for him to get in.

"Lunch'll be on me, brat," Keiko said, both tempting him to come, and hopefully cheering him up at the same time.

The frown didn't ease away, and Kenji just nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets and glaring at the floor as he walked. He hated Taki. Hated him. It bugged the fuck out of him that they couldn't get a different manager, because they'd have to get an entirely different producer, too. As much as he didn't like the idea of Taki and Tohma, they put out good music.

...Their attitudes just pissed him off! It was worse then him! So much worse. He didn't care about what Taki said would work, because obviously if it had worked so well, ASK wouldn't be a thing of the fucking past!

But, he'd had to bite his tongue and keep from exploding, because that would give Taki more ammunition then Kenji was ready to hand over. He didn't care what he had to do so long as he got to do what he loved, but two weeks of that shit, and he'd go insane.

"What are we getting?" It was a question that was full of something, though Kenji wasn't entirely sure what.

"Whatever you want," Keiko offered, trying harder still to lighten him up. She leaned over and hit the button for the lobby. She guessed Kenji really didn't do well with all of this today.

They ran down the floors in silence for a moment or two, and when the doors opened and the stepped out, she reached over sympathetically and put an arm around her shoulders, doing what he had done for her earlier.

"Do you feel like venting?" she asked. "It's obvious you had a pretty hard day so far... I'm here if you want to."

Managing a smile, Kenji shrugged thin shoulders. "I'm never going to like him." He decided with finality. "He talks like he knows what he's saying, but I don't think he can put it into practice."

No, it was just something that was too obvious. As much as Taki knew about performing, he couldn't go back to the stage and excel the way he had again even if he had the means. He didn't have the capabilities anymore, whether it was in his voice or the rest of him, Kenji didn't know.

Sighing, Kenji turned and gave Keiko an awkward hug, rubbing at his forehead as he pulled back. "Have you seen Haido?" Had Tohma let him go yet?

"It doesn't matter if he can put it into practice now," Keiko said, not to defend Taki, but to prove a point. "He put it into practice before. Sure, ASK didn't last long, but if you look back, their hype was pretty good."

Maybe the methods needed to be updated, and, true, stars weren't made memorable by doing what everyone else was. Still, Taki is what Kenji had to work with. It just sucked how it all had to be.

"Haido? No, I haven't seen him, but I wasn't looking for him," she said. Haido seemed like he could make the best out of anything. Kenji couldn't. Besides, Kenji was her friend. Haido was someone she had to be nice to because of Kenji. Not that she didn't like him, there was just no connection.

Haido was leaving Tohma's office, feeling both a little better, and a little more pressured. What Tohma had been telling him all day was true. The advice he'd given was good. But now he had to exemplify what Tohma was teaching. He felt if he didn't, then he'd be letting an obvious genius of music down.

He figured he'd call Kenji and see what was going on with him. Maybe go out on break if he was up to it. Being around Taki all day couldn't've been fun.

Kenji just gave her a look on her ASK defense. He wasn't an ASK fan. He hadn't liked their music when it was popular, and he didn't like it now. He'd accepted Taki as their manager because Taki had connections that they didn't, and now they had the connections Taki did.

The only problem was, they couldn't get rid of Taki.

"Oh..." Kenji tried not to look too let down, because he really, really wanted to see Haido right now. Still, he pulled up another smile for Keiko's sake, because he absolutely hated to make her worry, and shrugged. "Maybe we can find him and go out to lunch. We can all pay." Because he didn't want to make Keiko pay for all three of them, either.

Crap. He snapped his phone shut as it hung up on him without even ringing. No service. All the damn electrical equipment in the place must be interfering. Well, he'd either see Kenji or he wouldn't. Since it was lunch time, Taki wouldn't keep him hostage, and Kenji would be dying to get out.

If got down to the lobby quick enough, he might be able to catch him. The elevator felt like it took forever. But it was because he was getting his hopes up on catching Kenji before he was out of the building. If nothing else, once outside, he could at least call Kenji. Unless he was in the building. Therefore, no connection.

Keiko knew the smile was fake, and he was doing it for two reasons:

1.) He didn't want her to think that he wanted to see Haido more than her, or

2.) Something bigger was bothering him and he didn't want her to worry about it.

"Well, let's wait for a few minutes, okay?" she offered, with a half smile. "I give him five minutes, he's not somewhere here, I'll grab some stuff from a store and come back with it and you can stay and find him. Alright?"

Better than nothing.

The lift opened and Haido stepped out, searching around. It couldn't be that hard to find him. With hair that color, how could you miss him? And Haido didn't. But saw that he was with Keiko. He didn't want to interrupt...

Well, he still wanted to talk to Kenji. And he and Keiko were past their little issues. For now. He walked up to them, smiling a little as he tapped Kenji on the shoulder.

Kenji gave Keiko a thankful, relieved smile, a genuine one. Really, she was being so understanding of the entire situation, and it made him want to hug her until she shoved him away, which wouldn't be a very long hug at all.

Keiko was spared, though, because the tap on his shoulder made him jump, and Kenji turned around only to break into a relieved smile. Haido got landed with the hug instead, though it was definitely a different sort of hug then the hug that Keiko would have gotten.

In this case, it was tighter.

"We were just going to look for you." Kenji made himself pull back, one of his hands dropping to hold onto Haido's. "Do you want to go get lunch with us?"

Haido hugged Kenji back, glad to see him smiling like that. Maybe his morning hadn't gone so badly. Still, no jumping to conclusions.

He nodded at the offer of going out to lunch. Although he'd been out most of the morning, walking, and things. He was a little tired, and had turned down the of having lunch with Tohma. Being split up like this was so strange to him.

"Sure," he said, looking towards Keiko, who just shrugged. But it didn't make him feel unwanted. He realized now that some things were just her way.

"Well, now the big question is, what do we want to eat?" Keiko said, jokingly. They still hadn't come to any decision.

"Oh." Kenji smiled, clearly more happy now that Haido was with them. He frowned a little as he thought, and it was the small frown that gave way to how much he'd been frowning all day. The lines were far more obvious now then they had been in the morning. "I really want yakisoba chicken."

Noodles and chicken. Ooh, hell yes.

Kenji nodded, having firmly made up his mind. "I don't care where we go, as long as they have yakisoba chicken." Hell, it didn't matter to him if it was any good, but it was what he wanted. It was the chicken more then the noodles, because he could get noodles out of ramen.

Alright, alright. Yakisoba was fried noodles, but it was still the same general concept.

"Well, I did pass a place that looked pretty good when I was out earlier," Haido said. "A few blocks down. I don't know if it's any good. I never tried it."

"Same here," Keiko said, never even noticing the place. "Let's go check it out. We probably don't have that much time left."

Being late probably wouldn't help any of them. Taki and Tohma seemed determined to go through with every plan they had implemented in the meeting.

Lunch had been mildly relaxing for all three of them, but it was back to work and too soon. They had to meet with the choreographer now. Up in the studio, the met, and took a car to the dance studio where they would learn and practice.

A woman in her late thirties with short dark hair, a pretty face and a fit body was there to meet them. Tohma had put away the paperwork to accompany them to the studio.

"Fuyumi," Tohma greeted warmly, giving the woman a brief hug.

"Ah, Tohma, I haven't seen you in a while," Fuyumi said, smiling. "I'm guessing I won't be helping out on any more Nittle Grasper concerts?"

The blond laughed. "No... at least not any time soon."

With the way his life worked, one could never know completely.

"Well, let's take a look at what we have to work with," she said, stepping to the side to take in the three band members standing fairly close together.

Her smile turned into a thin line of contemplation. They weren't prepared for this, dressing like they were. The girl in baggy clothes, the boys in fairly tight clothing. Baggy ones would throw off movement, and tight, unmoving pants would restrict movement.

She sighed. "You've already got my work cut out for me."

Tohma just smiled pleasantly. "I trust you can fix it though. You always do."

"Flattery gets you everywhere, Tohma." She turned her attention on the band again. "First, you have to change. And from now on, when you come here, I expect loose clothing. T-shirt and sweat pants. Shorts, sports bra, I don't care how you dress for it, but these clothes are out."

Keiko rolled her eyes. Great. Another dictator.

"We do keep extras here. Washed, I assure you." Fuyumi looked at Tohma. "Will you be staying?"

"No, no. I have other things to attend to.

"Then follow me," she said to the band, leading the way.
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Author's Notes: Oh, what could we possibly be planning? Why would we actually write out them going to a dance studio if not for another hidden bump in the road? YAY! You know you guys love it. Otherwise, why bother reading? And Tohma makes me happy on the inside, too. I always like making him 'proper'. Mostly because it's silly considering he used to be a rocker. You'd think he'd a little less formal all the time, right?

Maybe it's just me. Oh well, drop us a line!

~Subby