Millions of Dreams

Chapter Six - The Family Reunion

By Aikawa Fuuko

       

“Hey, Seishirou, over here!” A cheerful voice called out amidst a small crowd in the studio. The dark-haired director immediately turned and spotted out his handsome blond-haired partner. It seemed that Yuuto was being buried under tons of problems with the preparation for the meeting one hour later. However, to Seishirou’s and everyone else’s surprise, he still managed to look cheerful as usual.

Seishirou couldn’t help but felt a pang of guilt. To tell the truth, he should have also been here since earlier with Yuuto, but in the end he’d suddenly got an ‘emergency’ call, so Yuuto had told him that he would go and do the preparation without Seishirou.

The Sakurazuka made his way through the running people in the studio easily. He smiled apologetically when he approached the blond-haired man, but before he could say anything, Yuuto had bombarded him with tons of information. Seishirou also happened to find a mountain of papers and documents being thrown at him.

“I’ve finished arranging the schedule for the camera group, but Kasahara-san is still whining that she is not free all the afternoons this week. You should find a temporary one to replace her this week, or go convince her to re-arrange her own schedule because we can’t re-arrange the filming schedule. You should hurry up; she’s over there sulking… Oh, and here…” Yuuto shoved another pile of documents into Seishirou’s hold. The poor man stumbled backwards with a bemused expression under the weight of the documents he was holding. He was completely unable to find the chance to say anything, because Yuuto was still determined not to stop yet.

“…This is the list of the cast, including all of their information. Yatouji-san finished it last night. It will help us at the meeting later on, you should study it carefully. Oh, and Toshihiko-san can’t come today, he’s just called me. Here, this is the schedule of his work…You see if any of those days you’re free, then go and call him, okay? Ouch, I must go now! Talk to Kasahara-san, Seishirou!” Yuuto shoved the last pile of documents into his awestruck friend’s hold and dashed off to another direction.

Seishirou stood, feeling as if a storm had just fallen in and gone within five minutes. After a few minutes blinking, his mind slowly registered all the information he’d received and sorted out the things he needed to do. Seishirou slightly shook his head in amusement and went to find somewhere to drop this mountain of papers off. He had almost forgotten how things had gone when he’d worked with Yuuto the first time. The blond-haired man definitely hadn’t changed a bit, a producer or a director. Oh yeah, now he needed to talk to Kasahara-san. The woman could be considered a disaster to anyone in this studio…

“SAKURAZUKA-SAN!!!” A girlish voice screeched through the whole studio and made him nearly drop all the documents he was holding. Speaking of the devil…Seishirou thought wryly and turned to where the voice had come from, preparing for the worst. Better safe than sorry. And he was right.

“How can it be, Sakurazuka-san? You told me that we would start next week, didn’t you? Why now why now why now?” A pink-haired woman appeared like a tornado, hissing in frustration at the man in front of her. If it had been anyone else, that person would have had a heart attack. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t cancel any appointments this week! They’re all very important! I don’t wanna miss any of the filming days, Sakurazuka-san! Re-arrange your schedule!! This is a mess and I don’t want to-“

“Calm down, Kasahara-san. Please talk slowly. We will sort things out, all right?” Seishirou politely cut off the woman’s outburst and used his best gentlemanly smile to calm her down.

Nobody wanted a pissed off and frustrated Kasahara Chiyo, he knew that for sure. She was a very hot-tempered person and a fierce independent woman, but unfortunately also the best make-up artist in Japan. That explained why her schedule was always filled up by tons of important appointments. Everyone did their best to get her to work in their movie or show or video clip, and Seishirou had also had to spend a whole day to convince her to work in X.

The dark-haired man sighed inwardly. Okay, here they go again…

       

“Yuuutooo!!” A cheerful girlish voice sent the blond-haired director stumbling forwards. Yuuto hurriedly turned and greeted the too familiar over-cheerful faces of the Sumeragi twins. No, wait, it was ‘the over-cheerful face’, because Hokuto was the only one who could have that angelic kind of evil expression, not her twin brother.

“Oh hi, Hokuto-chan! Hey, Subaru! You two are early!” Yuuto smiled cheerfully back, waving the papers he was holding in his hand. He knew that the Sumeragi twins had a tendency to show up early before any party or filming preparation. They –or rather, Hokuto- always wanted to go around exploring the place and making friends and gossiping with anyone possible.

“Ooh! Of course we are early! Subaru here really can’t wait any longer to meet his ‘Seishirou-san’, can he?” The young girl started cackling evilly and patted her brother’s back. Subaru had a ‘What-the-hell’ expression on his furiously blushing face, but decided not to say anything, or else his evil sister would drag him into even more embarrassing situations.

Yuuto raised his eyebrow at Hokuto’s evil laughter and Subaru’s red face. So she was playing matchmaker again huh? And with anyone but the Sakurazuka… Yuuto smirked. This was gonna be fun. Every film with Hokuto was fun.

Subaru looked around nervously. He was not nervous because of the up-coming filming meeting; he was a famous actor, for god’s sake. Indeed, he was feeling nervous because of the way Hokuto kept teasing him around about the handsome dark-haired director…

The thought of Seishirou brought a leap to his heart, and his face also unconsciously heated. Subaru hurriedly turned his attention to some equipment on the floor and silently wandered off as far as possible from Hokuto, in order to hide his blush from his evil sister. Fortunately, she was too occupied in chatting and cackling with Yuuto to notice anything.

Subaru absently looked at the busy people in the studio, but his mind was wandering somewhere else. Now that he thought about it, he realized that Hokuto had been partly right when she’d said that he couldn’t wait any longer to see Seishirou. Partly, because he was also a little afraid of facing the older man right now. And it sure had something to do with the fact that he had fallen asleep on the man’s shoulders a week ago.

Every time he thought of that incident, Subaru felt his face flush with embarrassment. He couldn’t believe that he had been so… offhanded like that. He had known the other man for what? Some weeks? A month? Falling asleep on the other’s shoulders was definitely unacceptable to him. He firmly told himself that they were still not that close. They were still only coworker; that was all.

But he really hadn’t thought clearly enough on that night. He didn’t know why he had been so sleepy… Subaru suddenly doubted that his sisters had had something to do with that. After all they were the ones who always paired him up with Seishirou, weren’t they? And the scene that night really hadn’t helped either. He had to admit that it had been really romantic…

He didn’t know why but he had felt it so natural to be close to the older man like that. It had felt so right, like they were two pieces of a puzzle, meant to be fit together… Subaru mentally snapped out of his wandering thoughts. That was only wishful thinking, he firmly told himself again.

Now the problem was: he liked being near to Seishirou, but the event that night was making him afraid. He was kind of embarrassed and didn’t know what Seishirou would say when they met, or what he would say to the older man. Subaru, once again, blushed furiously when he recalled what had happened.

He remembered that when he had woke up later that night, he had been too sleepy to realize that Seishirou had been carrying him in his arms and heading inside. He remembered his sisters’ chirpy voices and Seishirou’s warm voice when he’d been set down to his bed. He hadn’t opened his eyes the entire time, but he’d felt warm and safe, and settled down to sleep again, not thinking much about Seishirou’s departure. It had only been the next morning that he’d recalled all of that and started to blush furiously. To make it worse, Hokuto and Sakura hadn’t said anything at all. They’d just looked at him and smirked evilly the entire time. Since then, Subaru hadn’t had the chance to meet Seishirou again, until now.

He scanned through the crowd absently. Today was the first meeting of all the cast, everyone would be here. It seemed that Hokuto and he were the first ones to arrive. Umm, maybe not, Yuuto had been here for the whole morning, and somehow he knew that Seishirou was here already too. Not for long, he caught a glimpse of the dark-haired director’s graceful figure.

Subaru noticed a familiar pink-haired woman talking with Seishirou. She seemed quite pleased about something, and Seishirou was smiling gently down at her. He was so handsome…*blush*…Subaru wondered why he was feeling this way. He felt a bit annoyed at the woman. He wanted her to stay away from the older man. Why? Subaru shook his head in confusion and frowned at scene in front of him…

“It seems like Seishirou has finally managed to calm Kasahara-san down.” Subaru turned to see Yuuto’s happy face right behind him with Hokuto’s. So that woman was Kasahara Chiyo – Japanese best make-up artist. That was why she was familiar. Subaru turned again and suddenly felt as if lightning had stricken him. Seishirou was looking directly at him.

The older man flashed him a smile and waved goodbye to the pink-haired woman. She hurriedly disappeared into a small room. Seishirou walked towards Subaru, Yuuto and Hokuto, the smile never left his face.

“You are early.” Subaru loved Seishirou’s delighted warm voice, he knew that. He suddenly felt happy, anxious, and confused at once. What would the man say now? What was he supposed to do?

But it seemed that the older man had forgotten about that night. Seishirou was being cheerful and gentle as usual towards Subaru, and he hadn’t mentioned anything about that incident. They talked about the preparation and the actors who would soon arrive. Subaru was not sure if he should feel relieved or disappointed. And he could imagine Hokuto rolling her eyes behind him very well.

Just when Subaru was about to think that everything was back to normal and felt quite content, a too familiar voice brought everything upside down.

“You’re early again, Mr. I-hate-him-but-I-also-love-him!!”

Subaru turned 180 and found him face to face with the most unexpected person in the world. The shock sent him into a bemused state, and for a minute, he just stood there, wide-eyed, gasping at the person who was standing calmly in front of him with an evil expression on their face.

“You!” Subaru finally exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the smirking guy. “What the hell are you doing here?” He was not sure if he was really not dreaming. This was gonna be a disaster if it was true. Unfortunately, Hokuto’s greeting confirmed that fact.

“Ah, Kamui-chan! It’s so rare to see you coming so soon like this!” Hokuto beamed at the handsome violet-eyed boy. She had known that Subaru would react like this when he found out Kamui would be here too, and she felt incredibly amused. Apparently Kamui had got the hints from her script, and now Subaru would definitely not here the end of the teasing. She knew that greeting was only the beginning.

“Ha! This is one of the best opportunities to work with my best friend, how can I miss it?” Just add the evil laughter effect and he could become Hokuto’s twin brother already, Subaru thought bitterly. He cringed inwardly when Kamui emphasized on the words ‘work’ and ‘best friend’. What kind of best friends was Kamui to tease and fight with him all the time? That baka… He was not going to let Kamui have his advantage.

Kamui was an actor, he knew that. He was here meant that he also had a role. The problem was ‘Which role?’. “So what are you doing here, kid? Is your role a dead victim of the Apocalypse in this movie?” Subaru glared at Kamui in a mocking manner. His mocking mode was on, ready for a new fight. Predictably, Kamui glared back and growled at him.

“Don’t call me ‘kid’! You are only one year older than me!! And I am the main character!!” Kamui was curious to see how Subaru would react to the news.

Oh? Subaru raised an eyebrow. He turned to look at his sister, who was whistling far too innocently and looking anywhere else but him. Okay, so fact was confirmed. Conclusion? Just one word: disaster. How the hell was he supposed to survive when he had two people teasing him to death for months from now on?

Yes, although he really didn’t want to admit it, Kamui was his best friend; so of course he was also one of the few people who had read Tokyo Babylon. Kamui was not stupid to not be able to find out that his best friend’s romantic love story was going to be played out on the screen soon. Kamui’s smirk was too wide for his own good, Subaru grumbled. This is bad, bad, bad. I’m going to kill you, Hokuto-chan. Just why hadn’t she told him anything? Oh yeah, knowing his sister, of course she would think it was amusing like this…

Wait a minute. If Kamui was the main character, then… An evil thought popped up in Subaru’s mind. With this he would turn the tables on Kamui soon… Kamui watched as Subaru’s expression slowly changed from annoyed to thoughtful, and finally evil. Absolutely evil. He automatically cringed away; the only thought in his mind was that he had to defense himself immediately.

“So… Kamui… What did you call me when you first arrived here?” Subaru walked towards the violet-eyed boy slowly, like a graceful feline ready for its strike.

“Err…” Kamui took a step back warily, knowing that he was in danger now.

“Hmm, Mr. I-will-cry-my-life-out-to-get-my-friend-aka-my-lover-back?” Ah, he knew it. If Kamui was the main character, then he got even more wonderful advantage over the boy. This time it would be him to tease Kamui to death about that wimpy role of his. Just as he had guessed, Kamui’s face immediately turned pale, then bright red.

“Are those two close friends?” Seishirou and Yuuto asked the smirking Hokuto questioningly while watching Subaru and Kamui continuing to attack each other with words in the background. Hokuto nodded. “Yes. Don’t worry. They have been like that for ten years.” She smiled, waving her hand absently at the fighting scene in front of her, as if it was something that happened everyday between two normal kids. Seishirou and Yuuto blinked, but said nothing. Now they knew that Subaru and Hokuto were at least alike at some point.

In the mean time, Kamui was still yelling…

“…I’m definitely not a love-sick teenager who always chases after someone almost ten years older!!”

“Yes, that’s right. You are a love-sick teenager who always chases after a guy who wants to kill you!”

“I’m not--“ Kamui suddenly stopped dead on his track. Subaru wasn’t the one who had said that sentence. It couldn’t be… He turned slowly and found himself face to face with… his sister. Kamui yelped loudly and stumbled away hurriedly. His face turned pale and his wide eyes widened more.

“Nee-chan? What are you… doing here??” Kamui’s voice faltered into almost nothingness. In fact, he had known the answer already. Of course she was here because she also had a role. But why hadn’t she told him? To make it worse, Arisugawa Sorata also appeared not so far behind her. The alarm bell in Kamui’s mind rang out when Kotori smirked at him.

Seishirou looked at the newly arrived girl with confusion. She was wearing a bright red mini skirt that went with a black shirt and dark crimson jacket. Her short hair was dyed red violet to go fit with her clothes. Her outfit was definitely very fashionable to young girls at this time. She looked like some famous pop star… He didn’t remember meeting her, so obviously it was Yuuto who had chosen her. But just what role did a girl like her have?

“Hey, Yuuto, who exactly is she?” Seishirou elbowed his friend in confusion. Knowing the blond-haired man’s style, he just hoped she wasn’t the maiden at Ise Shrine.

“Oh, she’s Shirou Kotori, Shirou Kamui’s sister and also an actor. But in the movie, her name will change into Monou Kotori, because she is supposed to be Monou Fuuma’s sister.” Yuuto answered casually, completely unaware of Seishirou’s shocked face.

“What? But… I thought… Fuuma’s sister was supposed to be a weak innocent girl with long blond hair…” Seishirou stared at his friend and then at the girl (who was bickering and cackling with her poor brother). Okay, this was even worse than the maiden at Ise Shrine.

“That’s a small problem. She can use wig.” Yuuto smiled brightly, ignoring his friend’s weird look.

“That’s not the point!” Seishirou sighed desperately. However, seeing no point in arguing right now, Seishirou decided that he would just get on with it. He really should have checked… knowing his friend so well…

“Oi, Subaru-chan! You and Kamui will hit it off well in this movie, don’t you think? Love-sick Angsty Boys!” Kotori, in the mean time, had started to attack on Subaru as well. Yes, she was Hokuto’s friend and she had also read Tokyo Babylon. Both Kamui and Subaru considered quitting the film now. Seishirou looked at the two cackling girls and the two desperate boys with sympathy.

“Sakurazuka-san!” A cheerful girlish voice made Seishirou turn his head in surprise. The genki young girl appeared in an equally bright and cheerful outfit to her face. She was practically bouncing up and down in excitement towards him.

“Yuzuriha-san?” Seishirou looked at her with surprise. She looked… different. Her long hair had been cut short and dyed back to black. “Your hair…?”

“Oh yeah, my boyfriend said it suited my role, so I cut it… Does it look good?” Yuzuriha shyly touched her hair. Seishirou nodded wordlessly. The girl’s face brightened immediately. Short hair really suited her well. It made her look even more cheerful and bouncy. “He’s over there…” Yuzuriha motioned towards the studio’s main door. Seishirou guessed that she was talking about her boyfriend and looked at the doorway. His jaw dropped as he recognized the guy who was walking in.

Segawa Keiichi. Seishirou sweat-dropped when he remembered the role Keiichi played in the movie. He looked at Yuzuriha’s happy face and at Keiichi’s bright smile. Too much happiness. And then he remembered something else. Keiichi was not only an actor in the movie; he was also the one who would do the computer graphics for the movie, with a woman named…

“Hey, that’s Tooru-san!” Yuzuriha chirped when a beautiful woman also walked in and immediately stalked towards Keiichi. The young girl’s eyes widened when Tooru suddenly smacked a stack of papers over her boyfriend’s head and started to yell at him. Keiichi just backed off and smiled apologetically at her. Yes, Yatouji Tooru was Keiichi’s partner in the computer graphics group. She also had a role in the movie, if Seishirou’s memory served him right. He also heard that the computer girl role in the movie was given to Tooru’s younger sister – Satsuki, since she was also very good at computers.

Yuzuriha had run off to her boyfriend. Seishirou shook his head in amusement. He didn’t know why but it seemed that this movie was some kind of family reunion. He looked at the list of actors and shook his head again. There were plenty kinds of relationships between the actors. Best friends, sisters and brothers, boyfriends and girlfriends, lovers, fiance and fiancee (yes, Yatouji Tooru and Seiichirou Aoki had just been engaged last month). But that was fun anyway… Seishirou’s drifted off when he felt a familiar pair of arms around his neck…

Subaru looked at the gathered actors and smiled. They were starting to arrive. He felt quite anxious to meet all of them. His smile suddenly faltered when he saw a woman walking towards Seishirou and… embracing the man from behind. She was a very beautiful woman with fiery hair and a perfect figure. Subaru’s eyebrow rose as he saw Seishirou turning and smiling sweetly at her. They were absolutely close, and he had a bad feeling about this.

“Hey, Subaru, what are you looking at?” Yuuto piped, patted his head slightly. Subaru didn’t mind him though. He continued to look at the smiling man a few meters away, and then asked Yuuto hesitantly. “Yuuto-san, who is that woman?”

“Oh?” Yuuto looked at where Subaru was pointing and smiled. “She’s Kasumi Karen, Seishirou’s girlfriend. He hasn’t told you about her?”

Subaru suppressed a gasp. His girlfriend? He felt as if his heart stopped when Seishirou suddenly leaned down and… kissed her on the lips…

~*~*~*~*~*~End Chapter 6~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Aww…Don’t kill me!! And please don’t be angry with Sei-chan or Karen either! I will explain it in later chapters! ::gulps nervously:: Err, next chapter is:

Chapter 7: A Cute Little Stalker!!

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