Two bands, one set of lovers

Isu Headagawa took his guitar out of the case and sat down on his couch with a loud creak. He had been having a block lately and the band really needed to get some new tracks laid down. He sat and thought for a bit, mindlessly strumming his guitar until he hit something he found intriguing. He nibbled down on his lip, a habit he had picked up from him exboyfriend, and started writing out some sheet music. After he had a little bit of it done, he tried it out on his guitar to see if it seemed right. The melody was nice and smooth, almost romantic, and it sounded beautiful. “With Kyoichi singing to this I’m sure it’ll sound amazing,” he sighed resting his guitar in its case and going to the fridge to get some food.

Daisuke Niimura sat down at the piano in his home. Armed with his pencil, sheet music, and coffee he was ready to start laying some lyrics down to the music that his drummer wrote. The band had been getting after him lately to write more songs for their new album that they want to make, but he just hasn’t been in the mood. He tickled the piano lightly with his fingers, playing out what the drummer had down, then started writing out some sample lyrics.
Isu peered around in his cupboards and his fridge, trying to find something to cure his munchies, but to no avail. His cupboards were as empty as an abandoned warehouse, with only the few things that people never use, but feel that they should buy them just in case. He grabbed his wallet with a sigh and looked in it, “hmm, about enough to get a cheap bento box[1].” He made a face and went towards his apartment door, grabbing his keys with a slight jingle, and his favorite hoodie that his ex had given him. He slipped into the hoodie and took a deep breath; the scent of his old lover was almost gone from how often he used it. He walked out of his apartment, making sure all of his locks were locked, and made his way to the nearest store.
Daisuke was on a role, he finished the lyrics for two of the four songs that his drummer wrote, and he figured it was time for a celebration smoke. He stepped out onto his apartment balcony and fished his smokes out of his pocket and searched around for his lighter. “S***… I think I left it at Shinya’s house,” muttering he put his smokes back into his pocked and went inside, searching for a couple minutes for another lighter. His kitten walked up to him and started rubbing against his legs, “hey Mr. Tadakichi, looks like I gotta go out and get myself a new lighter,” he picked the little white cat up and set it down on the couch, grabbing his wallet off of the counter next to him and put it in his back pocket, “I’ll be back in a few Mr. Tadakichi, keep watch on the house for me alright?” the cat gave a short purr as Daisuke walked out of his apartment, not bothering to lock his door.
Isu got to the store and looked around for the bento boxes. ‘I swear, they make these things like mazes, impossible to find what your looking for in just a few short seconds’ he though as he searched around. After a few minutes of searching, he found the bento boxes in the very back of the store in the corner. Looking over them to decide what he wanted to eat that night, he quickly decided on his favorite out of the selections he had, crab meat. Quickly calculating in his mind how many he could get for the little money he had, he grabbed three bento’s and headed for the front of the store.
Daisuke arrived at the nearest place that sold lighters, a maze like store, he had originally stopped at the gas station near his apartment, but soon found out that they were out of the lighters he liked using. He looked around the store a few minutes and quickly decided that there was nothing else he needed. He spotted a man in the back of the store, whom was looking at the bento box’s. He looked to be around the same age as himself, but slightly taller, and had a little bit more of a muscular frame, and green hair that was stuck straight up in spikes. He was wearing a black tee that was just tight enough to show the contours of his body, and blue jeans that were slung slightly low on his hips. Daisuke licked his lips at the image in front of him, liking everything he saw.
Isu turned around to start heading back to the front of the store and stopped in his tracks. A younger man was staring at him, looked to be about two, maybe three years younger than him, and about three inches shorter. He had more of a lithe frame, and looked slightly fragile, like if you touched him in the wrong spot he would break. He had a spiky tuft of blue hair jutting every which way off the top of his head. His shirt was black and loosely hanging from his frame and ending just at his midriff, his black jeans hung just as loosely as his shirt did from his hips, showing off his nice hip bones. His mouth went instantly dry at the sight of the other man, he tried swallowing, but to no avail, the lump in his throat wouldn’t go away. He tried to resume walking back to the front of the store, tripping a little over his own two feet.
Daisuke watched the man watch him, then stumble as he started to walk towards the registers. Daisuke giggled at the other mans clumsiness and nibbled down on his lip, sending the other man a quick wink with his perfectly done eye. Just like every other day, today he made sure his makeup was perfect, even though he hadn’t planned on going anywhere, and now he’s glad he did.
Isu saw the little wink given to him by the other man and the lump became bigger, he gave the other man a small grin, that probably looked more goofy that it did mysterious like he wanted it to. He mentally slapped himself as he got closer to the man for being such an idiot. Once he was about five feet away from the other man he gave another quick smile and tried to discretely swallow the lump in his throat while lightly saying a quick “hey.”
Daisuke giggled at the other mans attempt to hide his gulp and gave a cute smile, “Hello, and what might your name be?” Daisuke could feel the little butterflies start to swarm around in his stomach as he spoke to the man.
Isu’s eyes widened for a second as he tried to remember what his name was. “Oh, um, my name? Right, my name’s Headagawa, Isu[2], a-and yours?” he could feel the lump returning to his throat and the light blush that was creeping across his cheeks.
“Headagawa, Isu? Hmm, I think I will call you… Isu-chan, it sounds cute,” Daisuke said giving a larger smile, the butterflies in his stomach felt like they all swarmed to the front to try and tip him over, “my name’s Niimura, Daisuke, but everyone calls me Die-chan, so I expect you to also.” The grin on his face contradicting the feelings in his stomach.
“Die-chan?” Isu asked smiling, “alright, I shall call you that then.” He could feel the blush burning red on his face, “so… um… w-why are you here so late?” he felt like a moron for asking such a stupid question, but his mind was so jumbled that he couldn’t think straight.
“Oh, me? We’ll I left my lighter at a friends house, and the gas station by my apartment is out of the ones I like, so I had to walk here, what about you? Wait, let me guess, you had unexpected company show up at your house, and didn’t have anything to eat, so they forced you to come all the way here to get them a bento?” He motioned to the three bento’s in Isu’s hands.
“Huh? Oh, no, you were partially right, I don’t have any food at home, and I have just enough money to get these until my next pay day, which is in two days,” he hated how pathetic he sounded, only having enough money for three bento’s, but this month had a lot of unexpected expenses, and by the time he could sit down and check his wallet he didn’t have much left.
“Oh, that sucks…” Daisuke stood there awkwardly not knowing what to say.
“Attention shoppers, the store will be closing in five minutes, please finish your shopping and check out, have a nice day”
Daisuke and Isu both jumped at the sound of the woman announcing the closing of the store. “Well, we should probably check out and be on our way shouldn’t we?” Isu asked, shuffling his feet a little.
“Yeah, probably,” Daisuke said flipping the lighter in his hand around and started walking up to the counter to pay for it, looking behind him to see that Isu followed.
Isu was right behind Daisuke and gave him a slight smile when he looked back. ‘Alright Isu, when you two get out of the store your going to give him your number, and ask him to call you sometime, like to hang out or something.’ He told himself as he paid for his bento’s.
After Daisuke had paid for his lighter he waited at the end of the checkout lane for Isu, taking a piece of paper out of he pocket he fished out the pencil he was using to write lyrics with and jotted down his phone number, once Isu walked up to him, he placed it in his hand, “call me sometime, we can hang out, and talk some more, or better yet, how far away do you live from here?”
Isu looked at the paper in his hand with the numbers on it, at first not realizing what it is. “Umm, like about two blocks, why?” he said staring at the paper.
“Really? Me too! Do you live in those apartments across the street from that one thing?” the butterflies in Daisuke’s stomach were going this way and that, like they were stuck in a jar and wanted out, but couldn’t find the opening no matter where they went.
“Um, you mean the ones across from that steakhouse or whatever it is now?”
“Yeah! That thing! Is that where you live?”
“Yeah, actually it is,” the lump had officially vanished from his throat and he was able to speak clearly, but Isu could still feel the blush on his cheeks.
“Ohmigod! That’s where I live too! Which floor?” Daisuke started bouncing up and down like a child who had too much sugar and was forced to stay still.
“Really!” Isu’s eyes went wide, ‘how could I have not noticed this guy before?’ “First floor, apartment four.”
“That’s right below mine! So is that you I always hear playing the guitar late at night? Because if it is, you’re really good!” he exclaimed jumping more like a preteen girl who got asked out by the hot guy in school.
“Oh, yeah that’s me, sorry if I keep you up at night. So I take it you’re the one who’s always playing the piano?” Isu gave a sly smile.
“Yeah, I am. I kinda suck at it, but oh well, its just to write out lyrics for my band, and don’t worry; you actually help me fall asleep.” Daisuke returned the same smile.
Isu perked up at the mentioning of a band, “you’re in a band too?”
“Too? So I take it your in one? And yeah, I’m in one, we’re actually working on our new album, so I needed to get some lyrics out tonight. We’re Kuro Shoushi[3], what’s your bands name?” His bouncing slowed down as he grabbed Isu’s hand to and started dragging him towards the apartments.
Isu’s face and neck went bright red when Daisuke grabbed his hand and he almost fell on his face when he tugged him. Quickly regaining balance he answered “Our band’s name is Pa-puru Kusa[4], don’t ask about it, Kyoichi, our singer, came up with it. We’ve been laying some tracks down, but Kyoichi wanted to do a love song, so he gave me the lyrics and I had to come up with the sheet music,” he explained while they walked to their apartment building.
They got there a few minutes later, conversing about their bands the whole time.
“How about I walk you up to your apartment?” Isu asked, not wanting to let go of Daisuke’s hand just yet.
Daisuke blushed a light red, “sure,” was the only thing he could think of to say. They walked up the stairs to Daisuke’s door, and stood outside of it for a second, just looking at each other. “Is it alright if I stop by sometime tomorrow? To, ya know, hang out and talk some more,” Daisuke finally asked after a silent minute.
“Anytime,” Isu replied with a shy smile forming on his lips. He finally let go of Daisuke’s hand and was about to walk away.
“Wait,” Daisuke grabbed his hand again turning Isu back towards himself and, lifting himself up onto his tip toes, gave him a small kiss on his cheek, “alright, now you can go.”
The End





For those who don’t know:
[1] Bento Box – A typicial lunch box in japan, normally has onigiri (rice balls), fruit, and some kind of meat.
[2] Headagawa, Isu – In Japan, when introducing yourself to a person, you say your last name first, then your first name last.
[3] Kuro Shoushi – Translation: Dark Midnight
[4] Pa-puru Kusa – Translation: Purple Grass