Shishido leaned against the door and gave a loud wolf-whistle at Neil, who was dancing around his living room dressed in a pair of boxers – Shishido's boxers, in fact – and a cotton dressing gown while singing to ABBA.

Neil turned around and fell flat on his ass as he yelped, "RYOU!"

Shishido dropped his bag on the floor near the door with his jacket and plopped himself on the floor in front of Neil sitting crossed legged. "Nice boxers," he grinned. "And nice ass!"

"Eh?" Neil blinked, and looked down and scowling at the hole in the boxers. "I need to fix that. They're mine anyway, right?"

"Mine. You stole them."

"When did I do that?"

"College."

"Oh. Bugger. Can I still keep them?"

"Of course. You've had them longer than I did."

"Possession is nine-tenths of the law, anyway," Neil grinned, scooting closer so that their knees touched. "So, darling, how was the vacation?"

"Keigo and Jiroh are getting married," Shishido said promptly.

"Wait," Neil blinked. "Married? I didn't think Japan did civil unions."

"They don't," Shishido said. "We're saying marriage, but I suppose it'd be more like…a pledge?" He frowned and played with a random strand of hair. "They both swear the same sort of vows you would in a marriage, and there're rings, but it's just done in front of a bunch of witnesses and no one else."

"Ah, so, a marriage without law or god," Neil said with a quirk of his mouth. "I like it."

"It does the job," Shishido shrugged. "Now then. You have me for, what, eight months now?"

"Yeah, eight months and then your contract's up," Neil pouted. "Gonna renew? Mine just came up for review, and I signed again. I like this life too much."

Shishido bounced his knee a bit and smiled slightly, "It's not entirely up to me anymore."

"Ah, that's right. You have your darling and most assuredly gorgeous lover to think about too," Neil teased. "Think he'll let you sign again?"

"Neil," Shishido said sternly. "He's not about to tell me what I can and cannot do. He knows that if he tries, I'll leave and won't come back. I won't let anyone control my life for me anymore. For almost my entire life, I've let other people run my world and tell me what to do. I've had enough of it; it's my life, and I'm going to live it my way."

Neil had a sappy smile on his face before he lunged in and pulled Shishido into his arms and hugged him tightly, "Hello there, Ryou Shishido. I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Neil Lucas, someone who's been friends with your shadow for about six years now. I've seen glimpses of you, but never met you, though I've wanted to."

Shishido blinked and raised his arms slowly to hug Neil back. "Neil…"

Neil pulled back after one last good squeeze and smiled sadly, "It's about time you stopped being a timid little bitch and started putting yourself out there again. If this is what your friends and that Choutarou of yours has done, then I'm happy."

"Neil," Shishido sighed, leaning forward and resting his head on Neil's forehead. "You are so absolutely silly at times."

"You've given us a lot of scares over the years, boyo. We've worried and loved, and now we get to see who you really are."

"Yeah, well… I'm not totally sure that my friends have noticed," Shishido said dryly.

"Your Choutarou?"

"He's been very busy lately with the concert and I pretty much didn't let him dwell on it."

"You want to shock him," Neil accused happily.

"No," Shishido correct, "I want to surprise him. He used to tell me he fell in love with my fire. I don't have that anymore, and I haven't for a long time. It's about time I started to be Shishido Ryou again."

Neil grinned and pulled himself to his feet, reaching down and helping Shishido to his. "Well then, we're just going to have to get used to the new you."

"I'm still me," Shishido protested.

"Liar. You're…different, in a way I can't quite place," Neil said with a smile. "But trust me, I'll get there. Now: coffee, shopping, and vegging."

"And then?"

"And then you get to do the last leg of your modeling career and then you get to go home to your passionate lover," Neil said with a bright smile.

Shishido smiled and watched as Neil sauntered to his room to get dressed. Neil wasn't fooling anyone, Shishido thought with amusement. He was all choked up about the idea that he was going to lose Shishido.

Well, he still had eight months to decide, and three or four of those would be here in London. He had time enough to decide how he was going to spend his life.

~

Atobe watched Choutarou poke through his dinner with an amused smile. "You're miles away," he teased gently.

"I think it's more like he's in London," Oshitari drawled around a smirk.

"Oh, haha," Choutarou muttered, stabbing at a potato and chewing on it viciously. "I'm allowed to woolgather, all right? I've been running around nonstop for this concert, and I'm tired. Give me a break."

"You're not just, oh…running around like such because you miss a certain someone, right?" Gakuto teased, leaning over Yuushi's lap and ruffling Choutarou's hair.

"He has his job, I have mine. It's fine," Choutarou grumbled.

"You could go visit him," Jiroh suggested.

"No!" Choutarou said vehemently. "I'm not going to do anything that makes it look like I don't trust him or like I want to lock him away for only me. That's stupid, and I've already made that mistake."

Atobe shook his head. "Choutarou, calm down. We're teasing. He knows things have changed, we know things have changed. Now, eat your dinner and allow us to continue teasing you."

"So cruel," Choutarou sighed plaintively. "You all teasing me and having back up as well."

"We're tied to them," Gakuto snickered. "We have no choice but to back them up."

"Must be nice," Choutarou murmured.

Atobe smirked and watched the other man carefully for the rest of dinner. This was going to be very interesting, he mused with a smirk. And poor Ryou had no idea. Well, in eight months, he would find out about it, perhaps.

~

Shishido threw his book at the back of Jesse's head, grinning when it made contact. "OY! Agent!"

Jesse turned and glowered at Shishido. "What do you want, brat?" he half snarled.

"Give me a kiss to tell me how happy you are to see me," Shishido flirted happily. "And don't you have something to say?"

Jesse frowned and looked Shishido over from head to toe. A slow smile spread over Jesse's face as he pulled Shishido into his arms and hugged him tightly, depositing a small, chaste kiss on the corner of his mouth. "Now, that's my Ryou."

"Zak said this shoot had to be a normal color, so I'm behaving," Shishido said sweetly, fluffing his now normal colored hair.

Jesse smoothed the brown hair out of Shishido's eyes and smiled at him, "Who are you and what have you done with my troublemaker?"

"Jesse!" Shishido protested, pouting. "You're acting like Neil!"

"Ah, so we both notice that you went away our stressed out little troublemaker and came back someone completely different. I'm looking forward to seeing what surprises you have in store for me. Now then, Ryou, shall we get ready for the show?"

Shishido smiled slowly and nodded, "Let's."

~

Neil's cell phone rang half way through the practice run through of the show. Hopping off the runway, he grabbed up his bag and fished the phone out. Not recognizing the number, he picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Neil?" a feminine voice asked lightly.

"Who is this?" Neil asked warily.

"You beast!" the voice cried. "How dare you forget about poor, little Shiva!"

"Shiva…?" Neil frowned.

"Oh, phoo. Rachel Rogers? From college?"

Neil's jaw dropped, "Rachel?"

"Ah, you do remember!" Rachel cheered. "Only, it's Shiva now. I'm a designer, sweetie. And I demand you and Ryou become my victims. I tried to go through your agents, but apparently my name isn't big and flashy enough to get you pretties to pay attention to me."

Neil grinned, "I'll talk to Ryou and we'll bully Jesse into it. But, before we do that, do you want to meet us for dinner tonight? Ryou and I were just going to gorge on take out and get drunk, but it'd be better if we had an old friend with us to catch up with!"

"Still living at that apartment near that park thingy?"

Neil laughed, "Yes, silly. I still live near that park thingy."

"Brilliant!" Rachel cheered. "When should I drop by?"

"Uhm," Neil looked over at the runway where one of the stagehands was lecturing Ryou on the position he was supposed to stop in. The annoyed look on Ryou's face made Neil want to cackle with glee; Ryou had gotten rusty during his vacation. "Uh, yeah, Rachel? I'll text you the time. Will that be okay?"

"That'll be fine. Give my best and a kiss to Ryou!"

Neil smirked, "Sure, babe. I'll pass that along." He hung up the phone and stuck it back in his bag before hopping onto the stage, grabbing Ryou around the waist and dipping him back and kissing him passionately.

Ryou sputtered, face going slightly red, as he tried to choke out curse words.

Neil grinned and righted Ryou, "That, doll, was from our dear friend Shiva."

Ryou blinked, "Shiva? You mean Rachel?"

Neil grinned. "Hope you don't mind if she crashes dinner with us tonight."

"So long as she brings the salt, tequila, and limes, who cares?" Ryou shrugged.

"We'll hit the parties later."

"YOU WILL NOT!" Zak cried, hitting both models over the head while the stagehand stood nearby in frustration. "You'll give us way too much to cover up if you both come in with horrid hangovers! I know you both with your drinking!"

"We're not that bad," Neil muttered, rubbing the top of his head.

Ryou sighed dejectedly, "Can we party tomorrow night, then?"

Zak took Ryou's chin in his hand and tilted his face up to him a bit. A slow smile spread over his lips, "My, my, my…what do we have here?"

"I hate you all," Ryou muttered sulkily.

Neil hugged him and kissed his cheek loudly. "Well, we love you to bits, babe!"

"Do you mind if we continue?" the stagehand asked in a pissed off attitude. "We have a lot of work to do before the show tomorrow night!"

"Eight hours for fifteen minutes," Ryou muttered. "Explain this to me, Neil."

"Sorry, sweetie," Neil whispered back. "Can do no such thing since I don't understand it myself."

~

Shishido answered the door when the bell rang since Neil was half in the refrigerator looking for more beer. A pretty woman, with wildly colored blonde hair stood at the door, an oversized messenger bag slung across her chest and a paper bag in hand. The moment she saw him she flung herself at him and hugged him while screaming happily.

"RYOU!" she cheered, hugging him so tight that he could barely breathe. He grinned nonetheless and hugged her back, letting her go when she released him go. "Oh my god, look at you! Those pictures do nothing for you, by the way. You look so much better in real life. My luscious beauty!"

Shishido laughed and kissed her cheek, "Hello Rachel, or is it Shiva now?"

"Shiva," the woman said, narrowing her eyes. "Rachel is so plain. I need something big to make a smash."

"Ah, the Hindu Goddess appears!" Neil said from the doorway to the kitchen. "That better be tequila and limes in that bag or you can leave right now."

"Not just that, but I have that lovely stuff that makes it look like we weren't drinking," Shiva said, flirting. "That way, no one can complain tomorrow at your wonderful show."

Shishido slipped an arm around her waist and squeezed slightly, "Ah, our love for you knows no bounds!"

"We worship the ground you walk on!" Neil said, falling to his knees and bowing so low his forehead touched the floor.

Shiva preened, smirking and taking out both bottles. "I should come over here every night if this is the way I'm treated!"

Neil rose to his feet and kissed Shiva's forehead, "Of course you should. Now then, you naughty girl, show us those drawings of yours."

Shishido let Shiva go and went into the kitchen as the other two went into the living room. Grabbing three shot glasses, two shallow dishes, a knife and a few limes, and salt he made his way over to the other two. Neil grinned and grabbed the tequila bottle that Shiva had brought while the woman began laying out various designs over the table and opening it easily.

"Now, I want your help with these," Shiva said, handing a few sheets to each of them as she took the bottle from Neil, prepped the glasses with salt, and poured the tequila in. "I know they seem a little…"

"Outrageous?" Shishido asked with amusement as he held up a Gothic French Maid's outfit with enough bondage to allow the wearer into an S&M bar without much fuss. "Love, what style do you design for?"

"Clubbing and evening," Shiva said smoothly. "Evening for women and clubbing for both."

"Is this fem or masc, then?" Shishido asked.

"Either," Shiva shrugged. "I could stick you in it and there would be a real gender bender."

Shishido grinned, "I'd wear it."

Neil grabbed the design out of Shishido's hand and smirked, "I'll pay to see you in this. What's more, I'd pay to see you in it, in front of a camera, doing the whole 'come over here and fuck me because I'm so naughty' thing you do every now and then."

Shiva grinned, "Would you, Ryou? If we got this made?"

Shishido snickered and nodded, "Sure, I'll do it. Camera and all."

Neil cut up the lime, bit it, and then grabbed his shot and tossed it down. "Well then," he said, shaking his head with a grin, "let's get drunk and plan this out. Shiva, get these made and we'll be your adoring dollies."

Shiva smirked and handed a lime wedge to Shishido and took one herself as they both bit them and then tossed the shots down. "Oh, all I need are your measurements. I'll leave the sweet talking of photographers and agents to you two beauties."

Shishido whooped and poured himself another shot, "Well! Let's have some fun now, shall we?"

~

Jesse watched as Neil and Ryou fooled around while waiting for their clothes. The two of them did this before every show, driving the makeup artists to distraction and fear that they would mess up all their hard work. Despite frequent near misses, there was never one time when either of the models had to be dragged back to makeup to be fixed.

"Neil!" Ryou whined. "Let me go!"

"Oh, you squirm so nicely against me," Neil purred, stroking his hands down Ryou's bare chest. "Feel how happy you've gotten me?"

Ryou flushed brightly and struggled harder, which only made Neil purr louder and grope Ryou harder.

Jesse bit back a laugh; it was a well known fact how much Ryou hated doing shows that required him to be the scantily-clad androgynous beauty that he was for one simple fact – G-strings. Neil always took advantage of the fact to torment the brunet, as he was always prone to doing.

"LUCAS! You muss him up, I'll string you up by the balls!" one of the attendants snarled.

Neil blinked and let Ryou go automatically, "Yes ma'am."

Ryou put some distance between them before crossing his arms and pouting. "You're just behaving because you like your balls."

"Uh, duh?" Neil grinned. "You've always liked them too."

Ryou rolled his eyes, "Don't flatter yourself."

Neil looked comically stricken, "Ryou! How cruel!" He looked away, one hand covering his face as he began to fake tears. "You hate me, don't you? You're going to leave me! But, Ryou! I still love you! AND WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!"

Ryou assumed a haughty expression, sticking his nose in the air and glaring down the length of it at Neil, "You dare assume I care about the children? How stupid of you. You can have the children, they always liked you best anyway. But you can forget about my paying child support or alimony!"

"I KNEW IT!" Neil screeched, pointing an accusing finger at Ryou. "You've got someone on the side! All this time…I waited for you! Every night dinner grew cold while I waited with bated breath at the table! Home cooked meals every night and this is the thanks I get? I'LL SEE YOU IN COURT!"

Jesse hide is face in his hands; Neil and Ryou's dramatics hurt to watch. Obviously the attendants felt the same because they pulled the two apart and started dressing them quickly before pushing each one into line to strut onto the catwalk.

"Well," Kitty said, standing at Jesse's elbow, "I think I need to track down Ryou's Choutarou and give him a big kiss."

"Oh?" Jesse asked, turning and looking at the shorter woman.

"Mm…he's done in two months what we couldn't do in six years," Kitty smiled. "He's made Ryou happy."

"Yes, he has," Jesse sighed. "But does that mean we're about to lose him?"

~

Neil waited, bouncing slightly, for Ryou to come out in the outfit that Shiva had designed. "Ryou!" he whined. "Get out here! I want to see how kinky you are!"

Something made a loud crashing noise and then there was a thud and several curse words came from the changing room. Neil and Shiva exchanged worried looks before Shiva knocked on the door.

"Love, you okay in there?"

"Too many straps!" Ryou whined. "Less straps, Shiva! I can't reach half of these!"

Shiva rolled her eyes, "Men." She pushed Neil out of the way, yanked the door open, and strode in, closing the door behind her,

"Oy! Mean!" Neil complained at the shut door. He stalked back to where Zak was still setting up the camera and playing with the lights, sulking as prettily as he always did.

A few minutes later Shiva emerged from the changing room and walked in to sit next to Neil, grinning with satisfaction.

"That nice?"

"That kinky."

"How bad?"

"You're going to molest him."

"How badly?"

"Strip him down and fuck him right there."

"Ooh, I approve."

"If you had a strap on here, I'd do it myself."

"Oh, even better!"

"I can hear every word you're saying!" Ryou shouted from behind the door.

"Then get that pert little ass of yours in here!" Neil shouted back with a grin.

Ryou gave an audible sigh and walked carefully out onto the studio. Neil's jaw dropped as he took in his friend.

A black silk tank top draped down to the tops of Ryou's thighs and was strapped closed by a series of straps and buckles across his chest, keeping it closed but showing off enough flesh to make someone sit up and pay attention. There was a very, very short skirt that was more white lace and black pleated mesh than actual cloth that fell to the same length as the top and resembled a school girl skirt with the pleats. Ryou wore thigh-high black tights that looked like they were strapped and laced to his legs, connected to garters with enough straps to make someone with a bondage fetish orgasm in sheer delight. Even his shoes – four-inch platform boots that laced up to the knee and had straps all over them – were a perfect blend of fetish, kink, and Goth.

It wasn't any part of the actual outfit that got to Neil, making him need to readjust himself and stare in shock; it was a tiny thing, really, something that typically went with the outfit and shouldn't really make Neil feel any different.

Around his neck, Ryou wore a simple black leather choker.

Shiva cleared her throat and got up, circling Ryou and playing with his hair. "We need to do something with this," she said softly, eyes raking over Ryou's body.

Zak walked over to them with awe in his eyes. "I'm sure Jessica and Emily can figure something out," he breathed.

Ryou shifted uncomfortably, flushing slightly at all the attention he was getting. "Shiva," he growled.

Neil walked over and pulled Ryou into his arms, grinding up against him before pulling the startled man's lips to his. "If you weren't involved with Ohtori, I'd fuck you in front of the camera," he growled.

Ryou swallowed and stared at Neil like a cornered rabbit. "Neil," he said weakly.

Neil let him go, "Shiva! Where's mine?"

Shiva licked her lips and grabbed a dress bag from the rack and went back with him into the changing room. "He really is something else, eh?"

Neil nodded and stripped out of his clothes, glad to be rid of his pants. "He is, and he's even more desirable now than he was in college."

"He's got fire in him," Shiva observed as Neil grabbed the leather pleated mini skirt and wrapped it around his hips, buckling all the straps with shaking hands. The buckles were large and placed at the hip to show off the curve of Neil's ass; Shiva knew how to sell bodies.

"He's different," Neil agreed.

"You might want to take care of that," Shiva said, pointing to Neil's erection, "before going back out there."

"Why?" Neil muttered. "It'll just go right back up when I see him again."

Shiva laughed and offered Neil the white oxford blouse that was strapped and buckled instead of knotted. She helped him knot the tie and made it long and loose and then left. Neil sat down in the chair and pulled on fishnets with holes big enough to drive trucks through and then slid on the six-inch platform stiletto heels with an ankle strap.

Neil's outfit was naughty, a perfect mix between sugar and spice, but was tame compared to Ryou's costume. Running a hand through his hair, Neil took a deep breath and walked out with practiced ease.

Ryou looked over at him and Neil's breath caught; Ryou's hair had been swept up into a high French twist and had tendrils of hair escaping everywhere, giving him the look as if he'd been freshly fucked against the kitchen table.

Ryou's lips quirked, "How high are those heels?"

"Six."

Ryou laughed, blue eyes dancing wickedly, "You're up to six now? What, are you practicing when we're not looking or are you hiding some kinky fetish we don't know about?"

Neil mimed a smack at Ryou's head. "Shut up, brat."

"Neil, shut up for makeup while we have fun with Ryou. Then we'll do you, and then you both together," Zak said, pulling Ryou over to stand in front of the white screen between all the lights.

Ryou grinned, "What? No feather duster?"

"Some with, some without," Zak hushed. "Now, just imagine you're a porn star. Or that your Ohtori is here and you want him to come fuck you against that wall, mmkay?"

Arching an eyebrow, Ryou did as he was told, using his body to scream, "Darling, come here and fuck me up the rear." Neil was amazed at how easily Ryou was going between smoldering to sweet and innocent back to a kinky dom. The feather duster made Neil want to kill himself and laugh himself sick.

Even when Neil went up for his part in the pictures, he didn't forget that this was Ryou, his friend and someone who was already involved with someone else. He congratulated himself on his restraint, only occasionally sneaking in gropes and pinches to make Ryou yelp for the camera.

Through the whole thing, Neil had one thought in his mind: Ohtori Choutarou was one lucky man.

~

Ohtori excused himself from his conversation with Atobe and went to answer his door. He was surprised to find a delivery man there with an envelope. Frowning, he took the envelope and signed for it, walking back into the living room.

"What's that?" Gakuto asked, sitting down next to Ohtori as the others gathered around as well. They were all over for dinner, claiming it was a preemptive strike against his moping over Ryou being gone.

Ohtori shrugged and pulled the tab to open the envelope and took out the letter in there. "Hunh. It's from Neil."

"What does it say?" Atobe asked with interest.

Ohtori scanned the contents and frowned. "'A mutual friend of ours designed these clothes, and Ryou and I decided to help her out. Ryou doesn't know I had Zak make these relatively professional and that I'm sending them to you. Enjoy, I know all of us in the studio did that day! Thank you. Neil.'"

"Pictures?" Jiroh asked.

Ohtori set the letter aside and reached into the envelope and brought out a series of photographs of Ryou.

"Holy…" Oshitari gasped, taking one of the pictures from Ohtori.

Atobe blinked a few times. "That cannot be Ryou," he breathed.

"No," Ohtori said carefully, looking through them. "That most assuredly is Ryou." He tilted his head to the side, taking in the photographs. "It's very interesting that they got him into that in the first place."

"Clothes like that exist?" Jiroh breathed in awe.

"Apparently they do now," Oshitari drawled. "Oy, Gakuto, how about you dress in that for me?"

Gakuto leveled him with a glare, "How about the other way around, Yuushi?"

Oshitari looked at the pictures again, "I wouldn't be against it."

Atobe, Jiroh, and Ohtori shared a collective shudder.

Atobe took the pictures from Ohtori and shook his head as he looked through them. "These are practically pornography."

"Not like he hasn't done that before," Ohtori said with a small grin.

Atobe shrugged and handed the pictures back. "It's been, what, three months? It looks like he's been doing well."

"Yes, three months," Ohtori muttered, putting the pictures back into the envelope with the letter. "It's fine. We're both busy."

"That's right, you're seeing if the CD thing is going to happen!" Jiroh cheered.

Ohtori grinned and stood up, "Yep. It seems like it will happen, too." He went into his bedroom and set the envelope on his bed before going back out to join his friends.

~

Shishido's cell phone went off in the middle of a heated battle between Zak and the designer. Checking the caller ID, Shishido grinned and excused himself to Neil as he answered it.

"Choutarou!" Shishido said happily.

"Ryou," Ohtori said, sounding pleased. "I was half afraid you wouldn't pick up."

"Nah, Zak and the designer are having fits at each other, so we're just sitting around," Shishido said, wandering away from people.

"Ah, you and Neil?"

"Mmhm…"

"I bet you're loving sitting around," Ohtori chuckled, causing Shishido to grin. There was a pause before Ohtori said, "You looked good in that outfit your friend designed."

Shishido's jaw drop. "How did you…?" he whispered.

"Neil sent me pictures," Ohtori said, sounding amused.

"I'm going to kill him," Shishido moaned.

"No, don't," Ohtori said. "You looked good, Ryou. Well, actually, you looked more than good. Atobe termed it as 'pornographic.'"

Shishido walked into his dressing room and leaned against the door, "I don't even want to know which pictures you got."

"You were being quite suggestive." There was a rustle on the other end. "Did you kept the outfit?"

Shishido laughed lightly, "Choutarou, are you saying you liked the pictures that much?"

"How much is that much?" Ohtori teased.

"Made you hard?" Shishido asked wickedly.

"Yes," came the simple answer.

"You want to fuck me dressed like that?"

"Yes…"

Ryou smiled and moved the phone to his other ear. "I want you to fuck me dressed like that too."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I miss you," Ohtori whispered.

"I miss you too," Shishido sighed.

"What's next for you?"

"Uhm, I have this shoot, one more, and that's about it. Somewhere in between that Jesse and I will be going over my contract with lawyers and other people to decide what's going on," Shishido said, hopping up and sitting on the counter of the vanity.

"Are you going to keep modeling?" Ohtori asked slowly.

Shishido sighed, "I'm not sure. I have a few options of what I could do."

"Like what?"

"Uhm, I could do nothing," Shishido said with a grin, "but that would get boring rather fast. Could continue what I'm doing now, but renegotiate my contract to make it a bit looser." He snickered, "I could become a fashion photographer. I sure as hell know the field."

Ohtori laughed on the other end, "I don't think I could see you doing Zak's job."

"No, I can't either. Zak is just too…Zak to be imitated or replaced."

"Whatever you do, Ryou, I know you'll do with your best interests represented."

Shishido grinned, "Okay, enough about me. I've barely had a decent conversation with you because of these goddamn time zones and erratic shooting hours. Tell me what you and everyone else are up to!"

"Mm…A recording studio approached me a few weeks ago to talk about making a CD and it seems like that's going through. I'll be talking with that studio and my manager in the morning about it to hash out the contract."

"Sounds like fun," Shishido said. "Also, it's better than you giving thousands of concerts and going all over the place like a pop star."

Ohtori burst out laughing, "Oh gods. I hadn't thought about that."

"Heh, see? That's what I'm for. Besides, this way you can sell them at the concerts you do give. Another source of income and another way to get your music out there. How many pieces would you put on it?"

"Anywhere from one disc of possibly twenty to two-discs of eighteen, with nine on each disc, depending upon the length and what songs," Ohtori said simply. "The majority of them would be new, with a few ones I've done at concerts, and maybe a few classic pieces."

"Not bad," Shishido chuckled. "You'd be having fun writing everything and organizing the orchestras for it."

"Mm, it would be fun," Ohtori yawned. "I've got a few pieces that no one's seen yet, mainly written randomly. If I clean a few of those up, redo some parts of it, they would be decent enough to be played."

"Stop being stupid," Shishido admonished lightly. "Everything you've written or played, that I've heard, has been nothing less than brilliant."

Silence reigned for a few minutes before Ohtori laughed softly, "I'd forgotten that."

"Forgotten what?" Shishido asked, frowning.

"That you lecture me when I'm too hard on myself."

"Oh," Shishido blinked. "That. Yeah, I'd forgotten I did that to. Just seems so natural to smack the back of your head, verbally or literally, when you're being down on yourself."

"I love you," Ohtori said warmly.

"I love you too, dork," Shishido said with a small chuckle. "It's late where you are, isn't it?"

"Mm…about 1:30."

"And you have to be up at…?"

"Seven."

"To bed with you!" Shishido laughed. "Talking to me is not an excuse to be sleep deprived!"

"I know," Ohtori said softly, "but I really wanted to hear your voice."

Shishido smiled softly, "I really wanted to hear yours too, love."

"All right, I'll talk to you later then."

"Sleep well. No naughty dreams of me and that French maid's outfit, got it?"

Ohtori groaned, "Now you know that I'm going to!"

Shishido cackled, "And that's what your hand is for, sweetheart."

"Evil."

"You love it."

"Yeah, I do," Ohtori said softly.

"Night, love."

"Night."

Shishido closed his phone and sighed, resting his chin on his hand.

"Miss him?"

Shishido jumped a few feet in the air in shock, clutching at his chest and staring at Neil. "BASTARD!" he yelped.

Neil grinned and kissed Shishido on the forehead. "C'mon, pretty one. They're waiting for us."

"Hate."

"Love."

"Mass amounts of hate."

Neil just laughed.

~

Jesse looked at Ryou in surprise. "Are you sure? I thought…"

"I'm fine with this," Ryou said with a carefree smile. "I've said it before, Ohtori has very little say in my choices in life. He understands and respects this."

"You're choosing this based on someone else?" Ryou's lawyer asked with a scowl. "Ryou, I do not agree to that line of thought!"

"Ryou, are you 100% sure?" Jesse pressed.

Ryou laughed easily, the sound squeezing Jesse's heart as it warmed it. "Will you two stop fussing? This is my choice. I'm happy with it, and it is the choice that I will live with."

Jesse sighed as Ryou's lawyer tried not to spaz. "Well then. There's nothing to do about it. You're not going to change your mind."

"Of course not," Ryou laughed.

"Brat," Jesse said affectionately.

"100%!" Ryou affirmed with a happy and heartfelt smile.

~

"Heard you made Jesse and your lawyer spaz like crazy when you told them," Neil said, leaning against the wall of the roof.

"Mm," Ryou said, looking out and over, standing next to a gargoyle. "If it all wasn't so serious, I would have laughed the moment Tobe started to twitch, sputter, and spaz."

"So, what was your choice?"

"You don't know already?" Ryou asked, tilting his head to the side and tucking a stray piece of hair behind his ear. "C'mon, Neil, you know me better than that."

"Honestly?" Neil asked, regarding the gargoyle. "I'm not sure that I do anymore. I knew you as you were in college; knew what to say to make you laugh, to piss you off, and what signs to look for to see if you were on the verge of freaking and bailing. Ryou, I don't think you've noticed, yet, but you have changed."

Ryou shrugged, "Maybe."

Neil shook his head. "You are so strange, Ryou."

"Haven't heard that line from you in quite a few years."

"Haven't given me reason to call you weird."

Ryou grinned, "You'll have more chances, I promise."

"Freak. You almost sound glad of it."

"In a way, I am."

"Strange."

The End

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