Title: Shine 3?

Author: SVZ

Fandom: Hikaru no Go

Pairing: AkiHika (eventual?), WayaSumi (eventual?)

Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru no Go.

Notes/Summary: Gratuitous cliche Hikaru no Go boyband AU. PWP without the sex. A hell of a lot of clichés and Japanese music industry references…

Simply Pulls the String

…. Oka-san says she hopes you visit soon, so I assume she’s forgiven you for the Great Carpet Fiasco. It’s probably because she wants to subtly mention your visit to the women in her book club since you’re now famous and all. My mother is such a teenybopper stuck in an adult’s body, it's kind of sad. In any case, don’t let the fame get to your head, Hikaru! I’d set you straight otherwise.

Come to think of it, I’d never imagine you would join a rock band after Sai…

Me neither, Hikaru thinks, absently. He frowns and smooths out an invisible crease in the paper, while skimming the rest of the content in the letter.

While lost in thought, Waya takes the opportunity to snag the letter away. By the time Hikaru noticed, it was too late.

“Shindou’s got a girlfriend,” Waya sings, horribly off-key, reminding all present why he’s the drummer opposed to the lead vocalist.

“Waya, Akari’s not my—“Hikaru protests, attempting to grab his letter back.

“Cute stationary. She must really like penguins. Blah, blah, blah… wow,’ Take care of yourself Hikaru—and I might be seeing you sooner than you think’?” Waya snickers, “That sounds kinda ominous if you ask me… hey, there’s a postscript… Er, Shindou? Who’s Yuki?”

“Her boyfriend,” Hikaru answers, pointedly. “Can I have my letter back now?”

“All right,” Waya sighs, tossing the piece of purple stationary back at his bandmate. “Tell your friend,” Waya says with a wide grin, “that I think her stationary’s cute and ask where she got it.”

“I never knew you liked penguins,” Isumi remarks, mildly from the window.

Waya rolls his eyes. “Not for me, dumbass.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Hikaru stuffs the letter into the pocket of his cargos. A quick look at the clock tells him that they have fifteen minutes left for their lunch break. Frankly, Hikaru knows that everyone is just grateful that they even have official lunch breaks on Sundays—but after Ogata’s rather foreboding announcement at breakfast, none of them feel too hungry,

Speaking of which…

“Wonder what Ogata’s going to say,” Touya says, softly. He looks pensive, “It’s not really like him to cancel all recording and training in the afternoon for just an announcement. It must be something big.”

“Maybe he finally decided to soundproof the walls of his room?” Waya suggests, earning scandalized look from Isumi. “What? I know you can hear that too, you know.”

“Is that why you keep coming back to our room even though you guys now have your own?” Hikaru asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Well, your room’s nicer and you guys get a nice view.”

“What’s wrong with having a room next to Ogata?” Touya asks, curious. “He’s perfectly nice.”

“To you maybe,” Waya retorts.

“Yesterday morning, a guy around my age came out of Ogata’s room,” Isumi says, running his fingers through his hair, shuddering.

“Without his shirt on,” Waya pips in.

“…. You’ve got a point there.” Touya coughs. “Back to before, what do you think Ogata wants?”

“To get inside Ashiwara’s pants,” Waya answers, promptly.

“—Aside from that, Waya,” Touya sighs.

Hikaru nudges Touya, calling his attention back to the clock. “We’ll find out in a minute, we’re going to be late.”

--

Thankfully, even though Hikaru thought he lost his voice, Akira immediately recoils and gives Ogata a tired but irritated look. "No," he says, firmly. "Last time we checked, we're a rock band, not w-inds--is that pink spandex?"

"Let's just hope Ogata doesn't pull a Johnny on any of us," Waya whispers, just loud enough for Hikaru to hear which causes him to quickly change his snort into a fit of hacking coughs.

"Very well," Ogata says, sighing loudly. Hikaru can't be completely sure but did he just sense disappointment in his voice?

He doesn’t want to know.

--

“That was rather…” Touya starts, his voice cracking, once they were back in the safety of Hikaru and Touya’s shared and thankfully unbugged hotel room (“Shut up about that already, it could have happened!” Waya grumbles, his ears reddening).

“… disturbing…

“Mentally scarring…”

“Complete proof that Ogata is a repressed sexual predator in love with Ashiwara due to his innocent and child-like nature and is currently channeling his desire through us.”

“Waya!”

Waya rolls his eyes. “Pfft. Touya, you know I’m right.”

“Guys, we have the rest of the afternoon off,” Isumi cuts in, hoping to distract the two of them. “We might have to call back some interviewer from this magazine later, but that aside, we have nothing planned.”

“Video games,” Waya and Hikaru both say at once, thinking to their unfinished game.

Isumi frowns. “That’s all you guys ever do,” he says, exasperated. “It’s nice outside, we could go for a walk…” He turns to Touya, “How about you, Touya?”

Touya shrugs, reaching over for his bag and pulling out a thick novel. “I haven’t had a chance to finish this.” He taps the front cover.

“… Guess I’ll just check my e-mail then,” Isumi murmurs, dejected. He goes to plug his laptop in.

“WAYA, CATCH THE FAIRY.”

“Why bother? We could just—“

“You dumbass--give me that! You’re supposed to catch the—“

“Our goal is to save Zelda, not catch some dumb fairy! Give that back!”

“Waya, you know shit about video games!”

“I do not! Ocarina of Time is one of my favorites.”

“Well, you idiot, you’ve been playing it wrong all this time!”

“Says who?”

“Says me, you dolt.”

“We could have gone on a nice, peaceful walk,” Isumi mumbles, logging in, while trying to ignore the argument five feet away from him. He shakes his head and sends a look at Touya who nodded sympathetically from his place on the windowsill, “If we’d just went to the park, we could have avoided this.”

Touya makes a small noise of agreement.

Feeling a migraine coming on, Isumi raises his voice. “Waya, wasn’t your screen name Zelda at one point?”

Shindou pauses from the tug-of-war game with Waya over the game controller. “Zelda?”

“… It was a long time ago!” Waya protests. “It was when I had just gotten the game and I hadn’t played it yet—“

“…. Keep talking…”

“… I didn’t know Zelda was a girl’s name! I thought it was the name of the main character.”

“You mean Link?”

“He’s the one with the funny green hat, right?”

“… God, you are such a poseur.”

“SHINDOU, TAKE THAT BACK!”

Isumi hopes the loud crash behind him wasn’t Waya tackling Shindou onto the ground. Before he can check to verify, the page on his monitor loaded.

“According to Oricon, our old single is doing pretty well,” Isumi comments, skimming down the chart on the official webpage. “Number fifteen. We’re ahead of Ayu, at least.”

“Our next single will stay number one longer,” Hikaru promises, confident. “Ogata’s already working us to death with it.”

“We keep doing covers,” Touya remarks, frowning. “I wonder why…”

“Maybe it’s because you suck at songwriting,” Waya suggests, watching Touya’s face flush to an unattractive shade of purple. “After what happened last time—“

“There’s a new Avex group forming,” Isumi intervenes. “They’re supposed to debut soon.”

“Who cares,” Waya says, rolling his eyes. “Our main competition is with Johnny’s boybands.”

“Which is pretty fucked up once you think of it,” Hikaru comments, thoughtfully. “You’d think we’d attract fans of Ellegarden or Porno Graffitti.”

“You’re too pretty to be a rock star,” Touya retorts, smirking. He ducks when Hikaru throws a pillow in his general direction.

“Pot calling kettle black, don’t you think?” Hikaru scoffs, looking Touya up and down—from his perfectly pressed oxford shirt and jeans to his expensive leather shoes. “You have four different bottles of shampoo and conditioner each and you alternate between all of them.”

“He’s got a point there,” Waya comments, thoughtful. “I’ve seen your bathroom Touya and…”

“Maybe we should all just dress like Shindou then,” Touya shoots back, slanting another look at the other vocalist. The singer in question shudders, looking over his own clothes and imagining them on Touya.

“Waya might be able to pull it off…” Hikaru starts, contemplating. “We wear a lot of the same clothes...”

“I’m not copying you,” Waya says, shaking his head. “I’m not punching five holes in my ears.”

“It doesn’t hurt!”

“You pierced it yourself!”

“And your point is?” Hikaru asks, flatly. “I don’t see the problem, lots of guys have piercings.”

“Waya’s afraid of needles,” Touya volunteers. “He almost always passes out whenever he has to get vaccinated and poor Isumi has to deal with him.”

Isumi starts to close all the windows on the screen and prepare to shut down his computer once he notices the all too familiar expression on Waya’s face and the rigidness of his posture. Not again, he thinks, preparing himself for the storm of loud protests coming from the drummer.

Isumi isn’t disappointed when Waya and Touya end up bickering and Waya stalks out of the room in anger.

“I’ll see if I can calm him down,” Isumi promises, giving Hikaru and Touya a tired smile. He shifts his laptop case slightly so it wouldn’t strain his back. “I think he’s just—“

“I understand. Tell Waya I apologize, all right?” Touya says, sounding just as tired. When Isumi shuts the door behind him, Touya crosses the room and takes out his book again.

“Waya doesn’t seem to like you very much,” Hikaru observes, saving the unfinished Zelda game. “I’ve noticed that from the start. Any reason?”

“Long story,” Touya mumbles, sighing. He rakes his hand through his hair, cursing. “I don’t even know why. We just didn’t hit it off when we first met.”

“Which is strange since we get along pretty well for the most part and Waya and I are a lot alike.” Hikaru continues, “Although you do have to admit that you don’t exactly go out of your way to be nice to him.”

“I’m never rude to him either,” Touya replies, sounding slightly affronted. “Waya just doesn’t like me.”

“Why?” Hikaru presses, staring at him. “I don’t get it. You’re quiet for the most part and when you do talk, you kinda have a stick up your ass at times, but you’re a pretty nice guy otherwise.”

“Thanks, Shindou, for that vote of confidence. You do wonders for peoples’ self esteems.”

“No, really. Why doesn’t Waya like you?”

Touya shrugs. “Probably because he thinks I’ve had it easy since my father’s in the music business. My father has always shuffled me from recording studio to another when I was young because of his work and when I became interested in music; I’ve always had voice coaches and such.”

Hikaru stares at Touya as though he had just told him the moon was made out green cheese. “Well, that’s screwed up,” he says, finally.

“No kidding.”

“Waya’s just being dumb. You can sing, you can play the guitar and you can read sheet music…”

“Shindou,” Touya reminds him, looking amused. “Most musicians can sight read.”

“Well, I can’t,” Hikaru retorts, sounding put-out.

“You’re just special then.” Touya pauses. “Listen, it’s not like I don’t appreciate it but it’s okay, Waya and I have been like this since we’ve met. I think he’s just been stressed lately—remember Ogata was short with him the past couple of days? He’s just taking it out of me.”

“If you say so,” Hikaru sighs, unconvinced. “Any idea where our complimentary pen and stationary paper went?”

“Desk, second drawer.”

“Thanks, tell me if that book of yours is any good, all right? I think we have a long magazine shoot tomorrow and last time, my mp3 player died on me.”

--

Touya’s usually the insomniac, not him, but Hikaru feels like every little sound echoes in the room. Creaks from the hallway from noisy and intoxicated guests, the traffic in the street… it makes him uneasy, as though his subconscious is telling him to watch out for something.

Hikaru shifts, trying to make as little noise as possible. Touya is an exasperatingly light sleeper and the last thing he wants to do is wake him up.

Still.

Come to think of it, I’d never imagine you would join a rock band after Sai…

What the hell is he doing here, anyway? Of course, Touya “discovered” him and he agreed after Akari tricked him—but still, a rock band? Why did he accept Touya’s offer? Was it because Touya thought he had potential?

Probably not, he knew he was good and he had the chance to become big a few years ago---right before the accident happened.

Was it because of Touya, Isumi, and Waya?

Maybe. He liked them and he liked the music they were doing—real rock, unlike all those wussy boybands out there. He liked everyone well enough. Maybe that was why he joined and stayed.

He supposes he should be grateful they’re doing pretty well, but at the same time, he wonders how long this will last. The music industry is fickle, after all, and there’s no telling…

--

The girl in the white blazer and long, tan skirt looks apologetic when she informs all of them that due to an unfortunate scheduling mishap, someone from the magazine had asked a new group for an interview and photo shoot session as well.

“I’m really sorry, please accept my apologies,” she stammers, her face flushing, bowing a few times. She twists her hands nervously, biting her lower lip.

Ogata sighs heavily, looking irritated but Ashiwara just smiles and tells her not to worry. The young manager glares at his partner when Ogata reaches in his pocket for a lighter and his pack of cigarettes and drags him away for coffee (“At least caffeine won’t kill you,” Ashiwara says, shaking his head).

“You’re all free to stay here or chat with the members of Avex’s new group,” she says, looking much more at ease now that Ogata left. “They’re consisted of two girls and a guy,” she adds.

“Don’t they have a name?” Waya asks.

“They’re untitled as of now,” the girl says, leading them to another room. “Avex is actually having a contest for naming them.”

Hikaru shudders. “That’s so tacky.”

“We better hope that Ashiwara doesn’t hear about this,” Waya comments, grimacing. “He’ll love the idea.”

“They’re in there,” the girl comments, pointing to a door at the end of the hallway . “I have to go back to get things ready so…”

“We’ll be fine.” Isumi smiles, thanking her and reaches to turn the door knob when the door opens. A girl around Isumi’s age stands before them, her pretty features twisted in a frown before her brown eyes lit up in recognition.

“Shindou, no time no see,” she says, grinning.

“Nase?” Hikaru blinks, well, this is unexpected… then again, hadn't Akari mentioned that Nase was looking into singing?

“Hey Nase, who’s at the door?”

“Kaga!”

Hikaru turns around in time to see Waya and Touya’s baffled "fish-out-of-water" expressions, even Isumi looks surprised. Now, he muses, where have I heard his name before?

Nase nudges him, her eyes sparkling with mirth. “Well, this is unexpected... but Shindou, the surprise doesn’t end here,” she adds, smirking.

“I’m not sure I like the sound of that…” Hikaru starts, but the guy called "Kaga" interrupts him before he can finish his sentence.

"Hey, aren't you that kid who replaced me in 'Go Jumpy Boys'?" he asks, leaning forward to get a better look of him. The smoke from his cigarette makes Hikaru's eyes water.

Well, Hikaru thinks, at least I now remember why he seems familiar.

---

Thanks goes to Storyteller, Kisha and Kish, Kotomine, and Sesca3 and all of you guys on LJ. The ending of this chapter is a bit shot (okay, more than just a bit-- I wish I remembered how I ended it in my first draft)and I'm honestly making this up as I go along, so I'm not sure if I'll continue this AU. Everything's up in the air. (Also, no, Akari is not the new member.)

Constructive criticism and comments welcomed.