I’m so glad you came back! Now, without further ado, Chapter 2. Don’t forget to read and review please!

Disclaimer: I do not own Nana, that belongs to my manga-ka heroine, Ai Yazawa! But, I do own all characters that aren’t part of the original storyline.

PS I have switched tenses from the present to the past because that’s where I’m most comfortable. Sorry for any confusion. …heh heh.

Chapter 2: Invited

Miki sat down across from Nobu at his booth after her shift was over. Nobu’s hands were shaking like a leaf and she felt maybe more than awkward than him. She twiddled her thumbs as Nobu sipped his soda.

“Running away?” she asked, breaking the deafening silence and eyeing his suitcase.

“Uh, yeah…” Nobu swallowed, choking on his soda and caught off guard by the sudden question. “I’m not sure where I’m going to go, though… Maybe I should just go home.”

“How old are you?” she asked, leaning over the table.

“Uh, well, I’ll be finishing up high school in a year, if I go back, anyway…” Nobu trailed off, he’d completely forgotten about school this fall.

“Really? You look much younger than that. Hm… Maybe it’s your height that’s throwing me off. Did you know you’re kinda on the short side?” she pondered allowed.

“My height? But, I never stood up!” Nobu protested, blushing that she noticed he wasn’t very tall.

“I saw you when you came in. You’re cute, though. I just got out of high school this spring.”

“That’s cool, are you in university?” Nobu quickly asked, blushing by the fact that she thought he was cute.

Miki smirked, “Nah, Man, that’s not for me. I just got the high school diploma to get a job while my band and I do what we love. Play music.”

Nobu saw the brightness in her eyes when she said the word music and he enjoyed the way the word sounded when it came out of her mouth. She was studying his face and when he realized that he was staring he quickly turned away and said the first thing that came to his mind, “Sure is dark out there…” As soon as the sentence was out he felt a little surge of something going down his back as he realized how silly that sounded.

“Sure is,” Miki replied, turning her attention outside, too. She had worry in her eyes, which Nobu caught before she could collect herself.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with deep concern for a girl he had just met.

“Nothing, it’s just, someone usually comes to pick me up, my band’s drummer, but he’s sick tonight and won’t be able to…”

“Oh…” Nobu said, his heart sinking for some reason.

Miki chuckled, “No, no, it’s not like that. He’s not my boyfriend or anything, we just live together, my band and I that is. He doesn’t like me walking home alone; he’s like a protective older brother. He’s planted these insane, horrible scenarios in my head about walking alone.” Her eyes grew sad as she looked down at her hands and played with her neon blue nail polish on her fingernails.

“I could take you home,” he offered, being brave again.

“That’s sweet of you, um, what’s your name anyway?”

“Oh, Nobu, did I never mention that?” he asked, blushing pink again. “Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s cool. I should have thought to ask earlier.”

Nobu took out his wallet and went to the counter to pay while Miki went into the back to change into her street clothes. She bid goodnight to her bosses and co-workers before heading out with Nobu into the eerie darkness of the night.

“I live close by so we don’t have to take the train,” she said to him as they began their trek down the side of the road on a sidewalk that was over grown with grass.

About five minutes into the walk Nobu could see why Miki’s band mate didn’t want her walking alone. From the corner of his eye he could see two men watching them from the darkness behind the almost invisible guard rail. Even though she had changed out of her uniform and into a black T-shirt and old pair of jeans with army style boots with a pink hoodie he could tell they wanted to make a move on her. Nobu took her hand to her surprise and looked sternly ahead. She was glad that it was dark and that Nobu couldn’t see her blushing or that he didn’t have supersonic hearing because her heart was racing. Her house came into view 15 minutes later and she sighed in relief.

Two much larger men stepped out in front of Nobu and Miki just towards the end of the walk and they eyed her, then they turned to Nobu to size him up.

“I think we can take him,” one grunted with a sarcastic smile.

The other cracked his knuckles and neck, “Definitely. Hey, Little Lady, how’s about comin’ with us?”

Miki narrowed her eyes and Nobu moved in front of her protectively, again he had no idea why. They scoffed at him and stepped forward with stupid grins on their faces. One of them took Miki’s arm and the sound of quick steps came out of nowhere and with a loud smack he was hit, releasing her.

“Not a wise choice, My Friend,” said a man with midnight hair that reached just over the tops of his ears and was a little longer than Nobu’s.

“Hiro!” she cried in surprise and relief.

The big guy rushed onto this man’s slim figure, which was definitely not a disadvantage for Hiro. He gave the big guy a sharp kick to the backs of the knees and then swiftly came to the front and winded him by kicking him in the chest. The other one had decided to go for Nobu and Hiro quickly grabbed the fist that was about to strike Nobu and kneed him in the gut.

“Leave and don’t come near here again,” Hiro warned the two of them, making them scamper off into the darkness. He walked over to Miki and she quickly hugged him in thanks for the rescue. Nobu turned to leave when Hiro’s voice stopped him, “Who are you?”

Nobu jerked a bit and then turned to face him, “Terashima Nobuo, Sir!” He said, feeling fear and a sense that he should be very polite with him. “I was simply escorting Miki home. I’ll go now.”

Hiro’s gaze was soft for Nobu, “Thank you, Nobuo.”

As Nobu turned to leave Miki took his wrist, “Stay with us. We could use a new guitarist around here.”

“Guitarist?” Hiro asked, then seeing Nobu’s guitar case he smiled brightly, “We certainly could since Takashi quit yesterday to focus on his studies.”

“So we can keep him? He’s still in high school.”

Hiro thought about it for a bit and then said, “A stray? We can take him in, but only if he promises to keep going to high school. Can you do that, Nobuo?”

Nobu was silent, stunned by the warmness that they offered him, a stranger whom they’d just met. When she waved a hand in front of his face Nobu shook his head and said, “Yeah, I’d love to and I’ll definitely go to high school if that’s all it is. I’m in a band again and now I even get a place to stay! Thank you, thank you! You guys have given me hope!”

Hiro smiled warmly and led Miki by the wrist into the house. The house was one story with three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and living area with an old TV and a somewhat beat up couch. The walls were white underneath the random painting that decorated the walls. Splashes of color were everywhere. The lights added a nice look to the room, the bulbs weren’t too dull and it wasn’t too bright. There was a bookshelf standing by the wall. There was a heavy door that led into the garage. None of them had cars. There were three motorcycles to the side, but the main thing in the garage was the band’s set up. The instruments looked shiny and new, except for where they were mostly played. An acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, drum set, keyboard, and microphone were spread out over an old crimson rug. On the wall of the garage, painted beautifully was the band name, Shadow Veil. The instruments faced the garage doors where there was a painting of a music hall in Tokyo in front of them. Underneath it said, That’s the goal. Nobu smiled at it.

“Nobu, you’ll be rooming with Hiro during your stay. The rest of the band should be home soon,” Miki called to him from the door leading into the house.

“Oh, okay. Hey, I thought you said he was sick.”

“Oh, Hiro? Yeah, he got better. One of those twenty-four hour things. If you don’t believe me there are tons of tissues in the garbage in the kitchen. Oh, you’ll need to get a job, the others won’t be so cool with you eating food you didn’t help pay for.”

“Oh, okay. So, there are three others?” he said, looking back at the instruments as he followed her into the house.

“Huh? Oh no. Only two others, I play keyboard and sing.”

“Yeah? What does Hiro play?”

“Drums.”

Nobu nodded, imagining Hiro on the drums with Miki singing front and center.

“So what are the others’ names?”

“Kai and Celestial are the other two members. They’re brothers. Kai is older by a year, but they look so alike that you’d think they were twins!”

She pointed to one of the doors and on it was a picture of two guys joking around with big smiles. They had the same length strong coffee colored hair with dark blonde highlights, one of them had their eyes open and they were a brilliant hazel. One of them looked a little stronger than the other and just then the door’s many locks, seven of them to be exact, opened and the two guys came in. They were much taller than Nobu, standing about six feet.

“No, I think she said that she’d be there tomorrow. You should check her out later, Celestial, I know she’ll like you,” Kai encouraged.

“…right. Whatever you say, Kai,” Celestial, the smaller one answered.

“Nobu! I want you to meet Kai, he plays guitar, and Celestial, who plays bass. Guys, this is Nobu, he’s going to be our new second guitarist, not that it matters which each of you play. He’s our replacement for Takashi!” Miki introduced quickly before Kai could ask who we was.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Nobu said, sheepishly.

Kai looked a little annoyed and Celestial smiled and said, “It’s nice to meet you!” Nobu returned Celestial’s smile, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of absolute dislike that he got from Kai. Kai didn’t say anything, he simply walked into his room and shut the door.

“Well, that was rude,” Miki scolded through the door.

“I’ll check on him,” Celestial told her and turned to speak to Nobu before he left the room, “Don’t worry about him. He’s just not good with meeting new people.” Nobu gave a little nod as Celestial followed his brother into their room.

Inside of the boys’ room Kai was sitting on his bed in the dark. Celestial flicked on the light and sat down next to him.

“Come on now, Mr. Gloom and Doom. It can’t be that bad. He seems like a nice enough guy.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. I don’t want anyone else taking Takashi’s place. I’m sure Miki made up some bogus excuse to keep from telling him the truth about why Takashi isn’t in the band anymore.” There was deep hurt in Kai’s eyes and Celestial put a hand on his shoulder.

“Wouldn’t you?”

“Wouldn’t I what?”

“Make up an excuse? You can’t recruit new band members if you tell them something as awful as what happened to the former one,” Celestial reasoned.

“…I guess,” he mumbled.

Kai came out of the room later and found Nobu settling into Hiro’s room. Nobu turned, a little intimidated. “Sorry,” Kai said and held out a hand.

“Um, yeah, it’s okay,” Nobu stammered, shaking it. Hiro smiled from the corner of the room, happy to see that Kai had come around.

“Tomorrow, we’ll teach you our songs and play them for you,” Hiro told him after Kai bid them good night.

“Right, okay. Hey, who writes the songs anyway?”

Hiro paused for a moment and then replied, “Takashi wrote the music and Miki writes the lyrics. Which reminds me, can you write music?”

Nobu nodded, “I did that for my old band. I can try to help write new songs.”

“Good, I’m glad Miki found you, you’re the perfect band replacement.”

Nobu smiled to himself as he settled into his new bed, which must have belonged to Takashi. It had a soothing smell to it that put him gently to sleep once Hiro shut off the lights.

Hi! Sorry, it took so long to get this out. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, I know it’s short and I’ll try to make it longer next time. Please read and review! ~ Hatori’s Snowdrop Princess