A/N: Just a few hints of shonen-ai. A short introduction of the members, and their fanboys.
1st Night
“Leave me…
Let me die in this nightmare;
I can’t feel anything anymore…
Along with your lies,
Just disappear…”
Yoru let his voice trail off as the slow drum beats and bass stopped. Yoru left his eyes closed until he heard Kage pluck the last note on his electric guitar to mark the end of their original song, ‘Nightmare Bound’.
The crowd cheered, screamed, clapped and jumped. Yoru opened his eyes, welcoming the sight of cheering Jrock fans hungry for music.
This was their first mini-performance live ever since they went major and released their first single 3 weeks ago. They had the support of their own contacts, their own fans when they performed on their first few gigs and also their friends that helped to spread the word about them. Now, they managed to get their single to be in the top twenty singles list of Visual Kei bands in a matter of weeks; an achievement their band, Eternal Midnight deeply felt and appreciated.
“That first song is from our first single Eternal Scream which we released quite recently,” Yoru said to the crowd. “We hope you liked it and support us by buying our single which is on limited release only, with about 100 copies left, so please support us.”
The crowd, overwhelming with apparently bishie-hunting girls with a small handful of guys cheered. Yoru noticed a few familiar faces, 2 guys and 3 girls – their regular audience when they haven’t went major. He smiled at them, and they obviously noticed as they waved frantically for him to see.
Yoru glanced at the rest of his band members; Hiai was adjusting his pedals; Akatsuki and Akumu were adjusting their guitar and bass respectively while Kage, he finally noticed, was staring at him.
“What?” he mouthed to his green-eyed friend, hiding a blush of embarrassment.
“We’re waiting for you. Next song is ‘Screaming Shadows’ right?” Kage replied with a scoff. “Better remember your lines.”
Yoru frowned at him, but shrugged instead and raised the microphone to his lips, “Okay, guys, here’s our next song for you to headbang along with.”
Yoru gave a deep low growl as the Kage and Akatsuki jammed a hard low note on their electric guitar. Hiai sped up on his bass beats while Akumu skillfully plucked on a couple of strings on his bass guitar with strict choreography.
The crowd roared with pleasure at the deep dark music they were about to hear. Yoru gave his signature evil grin that he earned as he publicly labeled himself as the ‘vampire’ of Eternal Midnight. The night is still young, and his passion to scream out the lyrics was still overflowing. He looked at Kage from the corner of his eye with hidden lustand screamed out the first few lines of their song.
“Hey, you guys are awesome!! Are you guys gonna release your next single, or better yet, album, soon?” That was the same line that Eternal Midnight kept hearing as the fangirls lined up to get their Eternal Midnight singles autographed during the autograph session after the Jrock gig.
The last few people to get the autographs were their long-time fans, the 3-person group of girls, who merely giggled, blushed and thanked the members while they got their autograph, and the 2 guys.
“You guys are awesome!! It’s so cool to see you guys going big!!” the taller of the duo commented with clear fandom in his eyes. Yoru felt it was strange for such a comment to be given to them by a guy who looked more like a serious metal music fan rather than a visual kei Jmetal band. Akatsuki giggled; Kage and Hiai looked awkward while Akumu smiled in amusement. The other guy with him, who looked rather pretty, with long dirty blonde hair and streaks of black looked shy and uneasy.
“Uh… sorry… we just want your autograph…” the long-haired blonde said.
“O-okay…” Yoru smiled, trying to suppress his confusion. “Um, so what’s your name?”
“I’m Gail! I’m seriously you guys’ number 1 male fan. You guys do recognize me, right?” the tall short-haired one said with a hopeful tone.
“Yeah, you were always in front with…?” Yoru looked at the long-haired blonde.
“Oh, I’m Rayne. It’s spelled as R-A-Y-N-E,” Rayne spelled out while blushing all the way as Yoru signed the singles and passed down to the rest of the members.
“This is awesome; I love your playing, Hiai-sama, Kage-sama!!” Gail practically exclaimed dramatically, drawing curious and amused stares from fellow fangirls. Kage gave a small smile while Hiai looked away, uncomfortable and embarrassed from the flattering comments.
“I’m a fan of Yoru…” Rayne quietly said. Akatsuki and Akumu suppressed their laughter as Yoru shot a glare at them.
“Well, since you guys are our number 1 fans, we’ll give you guys a call alright? Write your number here; great fans would always be remembered,” Yoru said kindly as Kage stared at him in disbelief. Gail and Rayne meanwhile looked baffled at their luck and quickly scribbled their number on a piece of torn paper and handed it to Yoru.
“Thank you so much!! Keep on screaming!!” Gail waved as Rayne, irritated, dragged him away in embarrassment. The Midnight family noticed that Rayne was dragging Gail by the hand, their fingers tightly entwined with each other.
“They’re… interesting,” Akumu grinned.
“Awww~ I think they’re cute,” Akatsuki added with glee, “especially that blonde one; he’s so pretty! They must be a couple, from the way they keep minor body contact with each other.”
“You’re observant,” Kage said to his younger twin, while Hiai smirked in agreement. Yoru blushed at the thought of him doing the same thing with Kage, in which he drove the thought away. Though their relationship wasn't truly official, their family and friends had already acknowledged about it. Besides, Yoru and Kage had been caught kissing a couple of times by the other Eternal Midnight members.
“Nii-san, are you really going to give them a call?” Akumu asked as the band started to pack up and said they goodbyes to the other bands who performed at the gig, while Akatsuki rushed to take pictures with some of the other band members she is a fan of.
“Yeah… actually they’re quite known in the underground music scene as well, especially that Gail; he’s a very talented guitarist, but he doesn’t wish to be in a band. He just plays as a support guitarist for bands which have members calling in sick,” Yoru explained. “And that Rayne guy, he owns a rather known jamming studio which also sells high quality music instruments. It’s called -”
“Storm Studios,” Kage continued. “We jammed there a couple of times last year.”
“Ah! That one! I loved that place though we only went there once…” Akumu said thoughtfully. “Oh, no wonder that blonde looked so familiar… And seeing that he swings that way apparantly, he was ogling at Nii-san in that same manner! Hahas!”
“Akumu?” Yoru shot a glare at his younger brother who was still laughing, “Please shut up.”
Kage called to his sister, who was dragging Hiai around and forcing him to take pictures of her and the other band members. Yoru smiled; they still had a long way to go to improve themselves and be on par with those bands that some have been known globally. He took another glance at the numbers of the duo earlier, smiling away. Mentally thanking them, he smiled once more and called to his other members to hurry up.
