Friction[Squared] - part three
Oct. 10th, 2007 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infinitestarlightChapter Three: Spotlight
Pairing(s): Kurogane/Fai
Chapter Rating: Work Safe
Word Count: ??
Chapter Summary: Despite it being sold out, someone still managed to sneak into the sold-out concert hall.
new reader? ---> Part One
There in the darkness, with the voices of thousands of eager onlookers screaming in anticipation, he lowered the hood of his sweatshirt for the first time since leaving the house. The air was stifling and smelled strongly of sweat and women’s perfume. The stage lights before him pulsed steadily in a dull yellow, the electric buzz of the giant speakers sent a slight static through the air he could actually feel on his skin.
He kept his fingers loosely gripping the edge of his hood, just waiting for someone next to him to look over and see. His hope was that once the show began, he would not have a thing to worry about. No one would be looking at him then. He would just be another face in the crowd. And while he knew he would be wisest to remain hidden until the music began, it was just too damn hot.
A single strum of an electric guitar.
An eruption of screams that shook the floor.
The crash of lights.
And then…. a single spot light.
He thought he had prepared himself for it, but the catch of breath in his throat suggested otherwise. Perhaps it was just the way the light caught his hair, or the strangely confident way he stood that caught him off guard.
No. He was not off guard. Kurogane was never off guard.
But there he was, regardless; center of the stage and looking out over a crowd of faces he would never know with those same blue eyes.
The drums. The guitars. The synthesizing keyboard. They all began in perfect queue and harmony. And then…
That voice.
He was quite certain he had never heard Fai sing before. He was even more certain that he had never had any real desire to. But even still, he could not help but simply stare at the face of the man on stage and wonder if his own Fai were to do so… would he sound anything like the man before him?
Not that Fai was his Fai or anything. He was just the Fai Kurogane happened to know was all.
He had tried to suppress the thought of someone else being on stage as well. But when the single spotlight began dancing around stage once the beat of the music upped its pace, and then one spotlight became four. Five. Ten. He could no longer ignore the fact that “Fai” was not alone up there.
He supposed curiosity caused him to look.
The man dressed in nothing but black leather played a silver guitar with a dragon design running almost the entire length of the instrument, a point Kurogane found strikingly ironic. But while looking at him, he did not fully see himself.
Sure, they looked similar. Same hair. Same eyes. But that man was not him. Kurogane scoffed at the thought of ever even comparing himself to the man on stage. They were nothing alike. How could they be? What honour and strength ever came from anything like music?
Though it was good music.
Nihon did not have music such as this. Tomoyo would often sing. Kendappa would play her harp. But there was no instrument that vibrated entire stadiums in Nihon, and there was certainly not anyone he knew of who possessed such a haunting voice as the blonde man before him. If there had been such a thing in Nihon, he certainly would have known.
He was glad to have come alone. Glad to be able to stand and feel the vibrations of the screaming crowds around him, watch the flashing lights change from blue, to red to green before his eyes as he listened to every note strummed through the guitar, every key pounded into the keyboard and every syllable that slipped from the lips of the blonde on stage. Glad to feel all of it and not have to worry about the mage saying something weird, or be worried about something happening to the princess.
The thought soon came to him that just as Kurogane did not see himself in the man on stage, he also did not fully see Fai in the blonde.
That man was calm. Confident. Such words Kurogane certainly would not associate with his Fai. The Fai he knew.
Silver screens above the heads of the crowd projected his face. Covered every moment as he sang into the microphone with his eyes closed. It was only then that Kurogane regretted having come. The realization that he had escaped the confines of the apartment to get away from Fai only to stand and watch his mirror sing was all too suddenly unnerving.
No. He had not come to see Fai.
He had come to make sure they had been properly informed. To make sure that they were not keeping themselves trapped uselessly while the children struggled to support them. To make sure that his desperate feeling of utter uselessness was not all for nothing.
He should be happy to know that everything was true. That their case of mistaken identity was something more than just some huge misunderstanding.
But he wasn’t happy at all.
The longer he stood there hearing the calm, haunting melody spill from those pale lips, feel the steady beat of each struck chord resonate through him, the more he began to wonder.
How did the two of them meet? Were they friends? Business partners?
How much did the man with the silver guitar actually know about the lead singer?
Did the lead singer get under the other’s skin every waking day?
He had never really cared to know anything about any of the other people in any of the other places they had been. He had also been rather convinced until now that if the crazy magician had not been forced into his life by the witch, he’d never have had anything to do with him. At all.
So why were they up on stage at the same time?
How was that possible?
He hated not understanding. His entire life seemed to be full of things he did not understand, and it was about to drive him crazy.
Four songs in, he decided that he could not take any more. Could not take watching either of them a moment longer.
To be safe, he pulled the hood of his sweatshirt back over his head and edged his way out of the row his seat had been in, and down the stairs that cut through the center of the crowd that swayed in unison to the unique melody pulsing through every molecule in the air.
But the hood had not saved him. After all, no matter what world he was from, Fai would always know that face.
He had thought it would be safe to take one last look. One last glimpse of a forward, confident, calm and strong Fai that Kurogane could picture in his mind whenever his own Fai drove him three seconds from going over the edge. Something to give him hope that the mage had the potential in him to be normal.
But the look in those blue eyes was surprisingly readable. The blonde had seen his face, and recognized it the moment Kurogane had looked up. It was obvious by the glance the singer gave to his guitarist, as if to double check he were still there.
Without another moment to spare, Kurogane pushed toward the doors. But in the end, his attempt to flee the stadium without any further complications turned out rather fruitless. He only made it to the stadium’s exit doors that would lead him to the hallways before he was intercepted by two large men wearing security uniforms.
“You’ve been asked to go backstage,” one of them said in a way that seemed to leave him very little room to argue.
Kurogane was not typically one to just go along with such demands. In fact, his instincts told him to fight them both then and there and be done with it. But there might be some good to come out of meeting with the others. Perhaps the other Fai was just as cunning and deceitful as his own, maybe he could come up with a way to do something about his problem with the adoring public.
Part Four
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Date: 2007-10-11 12:41 pm (UTC)Oh man, I love how you write sooo much =D You always have everyone in perfect character ^_^
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Date: 2007-10-11 03:17 pm (UTC)Sorry for the cliffhanger - it's a nasty habbit of mine ;)
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Date: 2007-10-11 02:51 pm (UTC)Kya~ I wanna know what the other Fay is like! And his Kuro XD and how they met! =D
So much like Kuro to check whether it's neccessary ^.^
Please continue soon~&hearts
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Date: 2007-10-11 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-11 07:44 pm (UTC)*rofls at your icon*