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"Stay at your place?"
Well, it would be closer to work, and closer to everything else that was nice and fun. There was no need for them to go back to the vacation house, after all, so...why not?
"Yeah, we can stay there. I'll have Tsubaki see to it that everything we need gets packed up from there and brought down."
Yeah...it would be good being back in the city. Late night runs for ice cream, popping into a ramen stand at any given hour...that was more his speed, anyhow.
Ryu was going well over the speed limit now, music screaming through the speakers. It was a high-energy mix that he had playing, and that always put him in a speed-demon sort of mood.
Barreling around a curve, the violinist was laughing to himself, singing along off and on to the song when a deer came out of nowhere, running onto the road from off of the mountainside.
With a gasp, Ryu slammed the brakes, throwing an arm out in front of Naoko. The car came to a squealing halt, the violinist's body lurching forward. The deer simply stood in the middle of the road, blinking at the now stopped car, before walking off into the valley below.
Ryu's head hung limply in front of him, his breathing heavy.
"Naoko..." he said, trying to catch his breath.
"Naoko...are you alright?" he looked over to the blond, rather amazed that he hadn't wrecked the car or sustained any injuries...no...none at all it seemed.
But Naoko...he had to be sure....

I embrace the torn rose to my chest
And fall into the crimson sea...





"His apartment burned?" Hayato blinked, hearing Narcissus mention the fire. Well, he was very surprised, seeing as this was the "first time" he was hearing such a tragic tale.
Heh.
"I'm..I'm really sorry to hear that. Please, send him my condolences. I agree with Shou-san...that's more than enough reason to have taken ill." Hayato picked at his meal, eating a little less than half, and pushed aside the wine, opting to just drink the glass of water he had ordered. Cleansing of the palate.
After all, there were things he wanted to taste later...

All the conversations came to a close and Hayato paid his bill as he watched Shou exit. He bid the man a polite farewell, Narcissus still sitting behind him.
Then he heard it.
"Ten minutes? Yeah... I'll be behind the Blue Elephant."
Oh..providence. Fate. An early birthday present.
He really shouldn't...he should hold back, just be patient...but opportunities like this just didn't come around very often.
And how lucky...he still had a mask in the back of his car. Probably should have disposed of it...but that could be taken care of later.
He waited a moment after Narcissus went out back, then headed to his car a lot over. Inside his car, he grabbed the mask, and grabbed a thin cloth bag and a shoelace.
Slipping into an alleyway, unseen, he slipped the mask on, pulling his hair into a tight bun in the back.
Stepping out into the small area behind the restaurant, he crept silently up behind the musician who was smoking a cigarette.
Drawing back, he struck the man forcefully in the back of the head, catching his body before it hit the ground.
Quickly, he put the thin bag over Akihiko's head and tied it shut with the shoelace, lifting the star into his arms and carrying him quickly back through the alleyway and into his car.
Oh, so very lucky. Nobody was around where he had parked, and it was shaded from sight of anybody who could be near.
Tossing Narcissus in the back seat, he popped his trunk and pulled out the supplies he might need...a few needles, a few homemade glass containers of various substances, only labeled by color...and a pair of handcuffs. He want through a lot of those...but he managed to always have at least one pair on hand.
Getting back in the car, he handcuffed the star's wrists behind his back before popping the lid off of a syringe, filling it from a bottle labeled in green. Heroine.
Sticking the needle in vein, he forced the drug into the star's system. It would keep him out for a while. A long while.
snapping on his seat belt, he removed the mask, for now.
Hell, as hopped up as Narcissus would be now...he could look him right in the eye and not know who he was....if he could even open his eyes right now.
Hayato knew exactly where he was going. To the warehouse. He was going to do this to Narcissus in the exact same spot he had done it to Izzy Lucky.
After all...it was impossible to make friends with this ******** him.

"I'm so sorry...that's....I mean...there aren't even that many deer around here...I didn't think. I'm stupid, I know...oh god! If anything had happened to you..." Ryu worried and fussed, completely ashamed of what he had done, angry at himself for what could have happened because of his foolish frivolity.
And Naoko had made a point...that he didn't feel like at any moment his life could end with Ryu.
Perhaps he should...Ryu thought. Though...it seemed a somewhat pleasant upturn in his luck...than nothing worse had happened. Normally, he would be speaking to angels as paramedics gave him CPR right about now.
"I'm glad you're..." Ryu paused, watching the way Naoko waved his right pointer finger at him.
Unusual....when the pianist was upset, he always used his left hand for angry motions. That was something Ryu had become quite familiar with.
"Why would you lie to me, Na-kun? Let me see your left hand..." he held out his hand waiting for Naoko to explain what was going on and let him look at it.
"Before you even ask how I knew, you gave yourself away, angelface. You always use your left hand when you chide me."

I embrace the torn rose to my chest
And fall into the crimson sea...





"Yes...both of your hands..." Hayato whispered, his voice nothing more than an unrecognizable hiss.
Narcissus lay now on the hard, damp concrete of the abandoned warehouse floor, handcuffed and drugged out of his mind. So very convenient.
"You don't know where you are, do you?, you smug little ********." he hissed.
"I'll tell you where you are...." he knelt beside Narcissus and chuckled.
"You're right where I roughed up your manager, Izzy Lucky. And oh, did he scream and beg..."
With that, he stood suddenly and kicked Narcissus hard in the back, knocking him over onto his stomach, the force flipping him again right back onto his back.
So much fun. So, so much fun.
But..suddenly he had the strangest feeling of deja vu.
He had kicked a lot of people in his time...but he had kicked someone...once...and it had affected him...somehow...everything...just....and the motorcycle...then...
Hayato shook his head, coming back to his senses.
What had that been about? he wondered to himself, but put it quickly out of his mind.
More important things were at hand.

Amber eyes dropped as Naoko held out his left arm to the violinist. "It's fine. Just a sprain. I didn't want you to worry... it's the sort of pain I can deal with just fine."
After all... the blond had a bit more of a pain tolerance than one might expect.
Sometimes...
"Besides, it won't affect my playing. So Shou doesn't need to know about it, alright? Damn, he'll think I get hurt every five seconds if he gets wind of this..."
He had liked chiding Ryu... had liked being the responsible one for once.
It felt good.
"Just... lets drive slower next time, ne?"
However... he didn't answer the question of why...
Why would he lie to Ryu?