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Toao had been feeling better recently. After making some new friends he'd started venturing out more. His family was helping keep his spirits up at home, now he just wanted to find some happiness outside in the world. Some noodles had been talking about a new club that just opened, Seimei had gone and giggled afterwards talking about it and recommended that Toao gets out there for some fun. He'd agreed and headed out over the next night. The night was full of stars and he smiled staring up at them, so many memories from those stars...

He walked into the club, the music hopped and bopped and Toao couldn't help but find his head swinging to the music. I wonder what will happen tonight. He wondered, smiling.

Toao noticed all the happy people on the dance floor, many of them seemed intoxicated with happiness. He sniffed and the strong smell of liquors floated across his nose. He scrunched it against the smell. He was never one to drink... Too many bad experiences from others he had heard about when they had decided to just have a "small drink".

The band that was playing was smashing but it appeared that they were on their last song for the night. He watched the band, entranced by their sound when a particular noodle up on the stage caught his eye, the lead guitarist. He seemed to be the only "sober" one of the group. The band finished the song and they all walked off the stage swaying back and forth except of the guitarist. Toao watched him as he approached the bar and gestured for a bottle of some sort.

Toao approached the bar to the stool next to him and spotted what the man was drinking. "Water eh? Just the thing to drown ones sorrows in." He joked lightly. "Hey bartender, hit me up with one of what he's having!" Toao turned toward the other noodle and gestured toward the stage. "Great set up there, I really enjoyed listening to it."

Toao chuckled at the other noodles joke, at least this guy was willing to talk to him, off to a decent start for the evening. He opens his own water bottle that the bartender drops off and takes a swig as the other asks him a question. "My sister, Seimei, you might know her. A stunning noodle, a goddess of plants, nature, and eternal flirtation." He smiles at the thought of his younger step-sister prancing around showing off her wings and stylish haircut to all who will see. "She comes here from time to time to hit up the crowds and recommended it to me. Hence..." he spread out his arms to encompass the place, "here I am."

He shook Echo's paw, "My name is Toao." He looked into the other noodles eyes, "so I heard you slinging some soul music up there, and it had to come from somewhere." He pointed at the other noodles chest, "did it come from in there?" He didn't mean to pry, but he felt like he could understood and could connect with this noodle.

Toao laughed lightly at the first comment, that sounded exactly like his sister Seimei to a T. Toao laughed a bit harder, his sides shaking and his paw held up to his mouth as he tried to stifle the laugh, the other noodle must've been deep in thought if he hadn't noticed the water. Man it felt good to laugh again.

Toao began to somber up as Echo started talking, his face softening in understanding of exactly what this other noodle had been through.

Toao's nose and mouth twitched as he tried to hold back tears of understanding. The only thing he could muster was a hug. He reached out and hugged Echo, not caring what the other thought of this action. "I'm so so sorry for what you've been through," he chocked out, still holding the hug.

Something wet hit Toao's shoulder and he couldn't hold back his tears any longer either. He cried, not caring what other people around them thought of two grown men crying. This meant something, he knew it did. "No. No no no." He shook his head and then slowly moved out of the hug. He smiled and looked at Echo. "Your music has soul because this is all inside you. The only way you've ever been able to express it is through your music." He reached out and touched the place where Echo's heart was. "By telling me you're cleansing this. Your releasing your sorrows and sadness. You're accepting it. You're allowing yourself to possibly feel again. To maybe move on."

He smiled at the other noodle, his own tears having stopped almost as fast as they began. "I understand. I understand so well." He removed his paw and took a sip of water.

"I once knew a noodle when I was small." He smiled remembering running around as a kit. "Her name was Rayna and she was best friends with my adopted sister Rimi. I grew up surrounded by love for both of them, but my love for Rayna as I aged became something more, something more powerful than I could understand. I fell head over heels for her and when I told her... She just walked away and left me standing there." A single tear fell from his eye. "I was terribly depressed and my human brought home one day a small tea pot for me. From it grew a pig that I named Nessta, seemingly my only friend in the world. I spent all my time with Nessta and she made me smile. She made me believe in something again." He looked up at the bar, all the lights reflecting off the different colored bottles. "That's when I met Maheya. She was a sweet noodle and helped me find my feet again. We were just friends, but one day she just left, just like Rayna, never to be heard from again." A second tear fell. "Nessta and I spent several weeks in the house together with no reason to go out. I never wanted to go out. Ever. I felt that all these women just wanted to take advantage of me... Of my feelings. That no one actually "cared" about me except Nessta. My human had boyfriends and was happy with her own life, Rimi found a mate and had a son. It was only me and Nessta. One day Rimi brought over her mate and her mate's adopted sister Roxie. She was intrigued with me, with my silence, my mopping. And everyday she'd just come and stare at me and smile. Sometimes she'd say 'hello', but I never answered her and just pretended she didn't exist. Eventually she stopped coming over all together, and I was okay with that." He looked back at Echo now, his face stern. "It's been a couple years now since all that happened and I feel myself hardened inside. But I'm ready to give life a chance again. I can't have a life and just grow old living in my house. I need to be out. I need to be free again. Hence..." He trailed off, his story had come to an end.

He bowed his head, almost ashamed of the pain his words seemed to be causing upon the other. But he shook his head and set a paw on his shoulder, he wasn't upset, he almost seemed, relieved. Toao managed a small smile. "It isn't easy. Moving on, finding yourself, learning to love and accept yourself again." He choked on the last bit but then cleared his throat out again.

Toao reached up his own paw onto the other's shoulder. "But your allowing it to bleed into your music allowed us to come together like this, it almost seems like fate huh?" He laughed. He didn't know if he believed in fate, destiny, or even true love anymore at this point. He'd been hurt so many times over and over again that it all just seemed like a fictionalized concept, like the fairy tales, told to children to give them hope.

Toao's eyebrows raised and his ears perked up as the other stated his first sentence. So he does believe in fate... Toao wondered yet again if he still did. He knew he had once, but look where that'd left him. If he believed in a higher being, he would've cursed their demented form of fate, it was twisted and cruel. But... Maybe that was the true definition of fate all along. Like a roller coaster, it leads you up first to ecstasy to only drop you down again; but you had to remember that there was always another hill of happiness to climb. That at the end of the ride they had to end you at a high place, otherwise the ride wouldn't start correctly for the next person.

The next thing that Echo did though, truly shocked him, so much that he wasn't prepared for it. He let his arms drop down from Echo's shoulders as Echo reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet. Toao's eyebrows rose at first thinking he was about to be ditched here at the bar, after all of that. That, Echo was going to pay and run, get out while he still had a shred of masculinity left. Toao wouldn't blame him honestly... Instead, he did the exact opposite thing.

Toao accepted the picture from Echo, carefully and looked down at it. It looked like... a family. He took in a sharp in-take of a breath. Echo had a family... That's all he had ever wanted. His eyes filled with tears again, even though he had promised himself no more. He brought a paw up to his mouth to stifle the pathetic sound that was forming there. "You have a family." He croaked up. The statement was neither a question nor truly a statement itself and he could feel it hanging in the air. Not sure what to make of it, even though he had posed it. A tear escaped down his cheek and fell onto the photo. He looked up at Echo, "You have felt a strong enough love to make a family."

Toao listened to Echo talk, something had begun to hurt in his chest and it seemed to be trying to pull him apart, away from what was hurting him. But, his mind told him to stay. He felt conflicted. He wanted to run, he didn't want to be hurt again. This was hurting him, but why couldn't he just turn away? He could pull into himself again. Run back to Nessta, his bear that would always love him.

Toao had been spacing out, but looked back at Echo in time to see a striken-look with a pained expression cross his face. He quickly tucked the photo away and then hesitated before asking Toao his next question. Toao tensed as the words came out, but his heart almost felt a sigh of relief. What was going on with his emotions? With his body? With his mind?! He felt like he had no control over himself. "A family..." He tripped over the words, trying them out. That's when the tears began to flow hardier, longer, faster. His whole body let out a sigh of relief, finally in sway with each other. He wanted a family. How could he not have realized this before now? He wanted someone to unconditionally love, and who would unconditionally love him in return.

He looked Echo straight in the eyes. "Yes, I do want a family." He couldn't help himself. He reached out and hugged Echo tightly.