“Why me?” I question as I look down at the broken guitar, well it could be fixed but it would take way too long.

 

“No idea boss but it has not been your lucky day” Ken says as I sigh and close the case. He is right; it has not been my day. I woke up late, tripped down stairs, had a mix-up at the airport, sat beside the smelliest person on the plane, legs fell asleep and for the second time, broke a guitar. “Have you noticed it’s always near the Sydney concert?” Ken adds as I simply glare at him as the car pulls up to the hotel.

 

“This is not the theater we usually use” I simply state as we leave the vehicle and walk to the front desk.

 

“Well duh, Ebony Rose, concert venue, alternative gothic clothing and music store inside, where a group of cosplayers slash amateur musicians called Eternal Crimson Butterfly work and own.” Ken says as I raise an eyebrow while we walk to the room we booked for the remainder of the month.

 

“You know quite a bit about them” I mutter as he simply shrugs.

 

“I did my homework and today we or should I say you, have to sort out things for the concert at the end of the week and for the next week” Ken adds as he pushes open the door and claims the room closets to us. I sigh and took the other room while Ryonai silently took the middle room between us. I sat the case down with a huff and look at my guitar.

 

“I really liked this one” I mutter as I look around to see my lone suitcase beside the tallboy. Ryonai walks in shortly after I got changed.

 

“Kiwamu, do you mind if I go for a look around the city with Ken?” he asked as I simply nod.

 

“I’ll contact you when I need you at the venue” I say calmly as I pull out some files and stuff I may need for the people at Ebony Rose.

 

“Ok, so you’re going there now?” Ryonai asks as he slowly turns away.

 

“Yea”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[At Ebony Rose]

 

“So Mr. Kiwamu, nice for you to choose us” Elizabeth says happily as I look at one of the owner’s, feeling nothing but a mild dislike. The girl just showed what modern society normally endows themselves with, pink tank top that reveals what she lacks, a ‘please rape me’ mini-skirt and ‘I aim to break my ankles’ stilettos, her hair told me ‘look at me, I look rich but this “do” cost me 20 bucks’. I felt myself die a little inside just by looking at this woman, let alone talking to her. I hope the other owners are saner.

 

“I just hope you prove to be the right choice for me to keep coming back to your company” I mutter as she gives me a horrified expression.

 

“Don’t worry Kiwamu-san, we aim to make your stay and use here appeal to your every needs” I hear a cool voice say. I turn and see a fiery red head decked out in black with a mass amount of chains around his slender waist. I felt hope that all was not loss.

 

“I am oddly glad to hear that” I say as Elizabeth continues to scowl at the man.

 

“Piss off Ghost, he is dealing with my area not yours” Elizabeth snaps as Ghost gives a cruel grin.

 

“Yes, but what about merchandise? I have to be there for that” He retaliates as she gives a hiss. “Then again, our Muse should be here, since she keeps more an eye on bands than you” he concludes as the prep remained silent. “Have a good day” he says to me as he turns on his heel and disappears into the double doors that sat unnoticed to the side.

 

“Mina, take Kiwamu to Muse” Elizabeth growls as a short blonde girl appears at my side. “I have to set up the stage and such for Short Stack tonight” She adds as the girl nods and tugs me towards a concealed stairwell.

 

“The main offices are up here and overlook the mosh pit and seats and has a great view of the stage” Mina says.

 

“What do you do here?” I ask as we round a corner and stop in front of a door.

 

“Me? Well, I am the assistant to the Muse and I help hire bands, I was the one you spoke to on the phone” She says as I nod and open the door, only to hit someone.

 

“Sugar, Honey, Ice and friggen Tea” someone says as me and Mina peers around the door to see a red haired girl in Lolita wear sitting on the floor with an empty cup beside her.

 

“Oh dear” Mina says as she grabs some towels from a nearby table and press it against the fallen girls chest. “Hot or Cold?”

 

“Warm, just got it off the window sill just then” She softly says as she looks up and notices me. I look at her small pale face with big blue eyes and child like innocence about her whole being. I felt my heart just die then.

 

“I am so very sorry” I say as I offer her a hand as she simply accepts it.

 

“It’s alright, no real damage to me but the dress should be fine, I shall be back, Mina come with me” She says as she leaves the room. I calmly sit down and collect myself. I look around the office to see an open guitar case. Curiosity took over as I walk over to it and peer. A shiny black guitar sat settled in red velvet, but what made me gasp in awe was the Crimson Butterfly design on the body, flying around a soft silver moon while pale pink blossom petals ran from the base of the body all the way up the bridge and ending at the other end of the guitar. I ran a finger along the body.

 

“I wish I had a guitar like this” I mutter.

 

“Well, I design them for a cheap price” I hear a similar soft voice say as I look over to see Muse peering over my shoulder. I quickly back away and peer at the girl who is now wearing an old looking GPKISM band tee with a pleated skirt and boots. She gives me a smile as I nervously lick my lips.

 

“I didn’t mean to touch it”

 

“Oh, it’s alright, actually this is my prized guitar, if you like it, you can use it during the performances or until you get a new one” She says as my jaw drop.

 

“How did you know?” I ask as she smiles brightly.

 

“I received a call not long ago from your vocalist informing about the situation” She informs me as I was silently glad she wasn’t angry and that I am going to strangle Ken.

 

“So why are you giving me permission to use your guitar?” I ask as she closes the case and tilts her head, her hair gently cascading over her shoulder.

 

 “It’s until you get a replacement and besides, I am suppose to make sure the performers are happy” She adds as she walks over to me and hands me the guitar. “I hope you enjoy performing here. Anyway, I have business to attend to in connection with tonight’s performers and I hope to work with you again” she adds as she guides me out where Ghost was grinning. 

 

“Ok Kiwamu-san, I just finished with the last band, now let’s talk merchandise” Ghost says happily.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[The 1st Concert Night]

 

I spent the last week working with the Butterflies, the companies’ nicknames for the 12 main ‘puppeteers’ of the Ebony Rose Company. They also have 40 other workers but I rarely saw them, and then again, out of the 12, I only worked closely with 4. Ghost, well his real name is Amber, was an amusing guy who simply likes to play war based games when Elizabeth wasn’t around, he claims he likes the name Ghost, because his actually name feel really girly. Then there is Elizabeth, but who cares about her. Then Itsukino, he tests and looks after all the instruments, he got along better with Ryonai and Ken anyway, he also spent more time with them over me, personality differences I believe.

 

Lastly, Muse or Amethysts or Amy, I mostly worked with her and mind you, I never thought I find a girl so perfect, to me anyway. She mostly worked with me about when the groups perform, what the set lists were, what is needed and what each member likes and dislikes and half of the time, I was just to busy watching how here eyes twinkle when she starts talking about the upcoming performance and how her face seems to light up when we actually talk and not work. I also found out she adores the music we make and that I actually inspired her to learn guitar when I was still with BLOOD, when she told me, I felt myself warm up inside and desired to hug the woman and tell her, that I have the hots for her…

 

“Kiwamu” Ami says as I turn and look into her big eyes.

 

“Yes, what’s the matter?” I ask as she leans in front of me, even though her Lolita dress fitted her perfectly. I could see so well down her top, I realized what I was doing and quickly look back to her face; she was smirking at me, a knowing smirk to be exact, she knew what I was doing.

 

“The fact that you’re ogling my goodies is quite obvious and somewhat unexpected of you, you’re next on stage” she says as she straightens up and leaves the changing room.

 

“Oh busted” Ken says with a smirk. I turn and glare at him, Ryonai had a small smile while Ken was laughing his ass off at me.

 

“Shut up Ken, can’t you see Kiwamu really likes her” Ryonai says calmly as he stretches and walks over to me and rests a hand on my shoulder, Ken stopped laughing and pretend to wipe away a tear. “I’m sure you’ll get her” he says as well all silently went on stage, I just hoped he was kind of right, the sound of people chanting our name reached my ears and then I was back in Cold Kiwamu personality, then the darkness slowly light up revealing fog and the crowds eager, yet sweaty faces.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[The 2nd and last Concert Night]

 

During that time I have been trying as hard and discreetly to tell Amy that I had feelings for her but she never seem to have noticed, heck I even said, I would like a girl like you, how obvious can I get?. Even though I had a new guitar, I asked Amy to customise it for me…I still wanted to use her’s. I never could figure out why, maybe cause I am sort of use to using it or because it was her guitar that made me want to keep using it.

 

“Hey Kiwamu” I hear a voice and turn to see Amy looking like a princess from one of the fairytales, a long black and red corseted gown, her long red hair sitting in a low bun with stray pieces hanging from it. I felt myself internally gasp as I notice that the choice of dress made her look paler but it greatly enhanced her blue eyes and making her seem more surreal than usual. I wish that beauty could be mine forever, trapped in my encircled arms.

 

“Hi Amy, what brings you here?” I ask as she moves closer to me, I calmly look around to see that Ryonai and Ken weren’t here. I turn and watch Amy place a black guitar case on the table. I slowly walk to her side, her long flowing sleeves danced along my finger tips and a soft smell of flowers and strawberries reached my nose.

 

“I finished it but I haven’t tuned it yet, so I kind of left it for you to do, since you know how you like your guitar” She says as she opens the case and showed me a deep purple guitar with light purple birds with a deep pink cherry blossom sitting on the left bottom corner, a few stray blossoms glimmer in light pinks and white here and there. I felt overjoyed, even though I rarely show emotion, I suddenly hug the girl. I heard her gasp as I nestled my head against her neck, cautiously breathing in. After a while she relaxes in my arms.

 

“Whoa, hey, this is so unlike you Kiwamu” Amy says as she slowly returns the hug, I smile as I slowly let her go and look at her. She had a smile on her face and it made me feel lighter inside.

 

“So what, thank you for doing this but can I use your guitar for one more night?” I ask as she smiles and nods, I lift her hand and plant a small kiss on the back of it. I slowly walk over to the mirror and put some make-up on, mainly the lipstick. I turn and smile at Amy and just as I was going to ask her about how she feels for me, Ghost walks in.

 

“Sup people, your on stage Kimu” Ghost says with a grin as he loops his arm around his sister and led her out. I sigh as I close the guitar case, grab Amy’s guitar and walk onstage.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[The end of the performance]

  

“Before we depart, Kiwamu has something to say” Ken says as I turn on him, he had an evil smirk on his face, right now I questioned what he wanted me to announce.

 

“No I don’t” I sternly say without much emotion in my tone, Ken just smirked and just when he was about to say something Ryonai walked up to me.

 

“So you’re not going to tell Amy you like her” Ryonai innocently says as I glare at him and calmly look around but I couldn’t find her. I look down at my platforms. Great, now everyone here and Amy knows I like her, Ken groaned and hit Ryonai in the arm as I silently fume offstage.

 

I gently put her guitar away, remove my arm corsets and let the sleeves flow from my shirt. I sigh, look around and silently sneak outside for some fresh air. I stare up at the starry sky in wonder and amusement, it looks so different to the skies I usually see in Japan, and oddly it was clearer here. I carefully lean against the wall without damaging my clothes and sigh.

 

“So when were you going to admit you liked me? After you gone back home?” I hear a voice and turned to see Amy sitting arms length away on a few crates, her gown barely covering the platforms she wore, I look away and towards the skies again, I felt embarrassed and cornered. One side wanted to say that they were lying and wanted to make me feel insecure and the other side just wanted her to know the truth and nothing but that.

 

“I hoped to tell you today but Ghost…” I start to say but I look over to where she sat but noticed that she was already inches from my face. I let out a small gasp as I question on how she got there without making so much as a noise.

 

“I knew since the first concert here, I just didn’t know how to actually confront you. I hoped to have asked you out for a drink or something a few times, but alas, I didn’t. Well I might as well give you a small gift” She says as she leans closer and plants a small kiss on my lips. I stood there in shock as I notice a faint smudge of my black lipstick on her lips.

 

I continue to stare at her as I watch her head drop down.

 

“I guess I better get back to work” She says as she starts to walk away, I bet she felt stupid at this moment and before she could get far. I reached over and grabbed her wrist and push her against the wall.

 

“Not before I give you something” I say as I pull her closer to me and kiss her softly at first, I pull back and smile at her. Her blue eyes was filled with shock, before she could say anything I lower my head back down and went for a stronger kiss, her lips felt soft against mine as I reach down and pull her closer to me. Her arms gently encircle me around the waist; I pull her closer and felt her chest sit comfortably against mine. It felt like hours before I decided to pull back and gently wipe the lipstick off her lips and felt myself smile. Her eyes were still closed as she breathed deeply yet softly. She opened her eyes and I felt a flutter in my chest.

 

“So what now?” I ask as she shrugs, I give a chuckle as I continue to hold her, even though her feet sat on top of mine. I slowly let her out of my tight embrace as we continued to stare at each other.

“You know, you do have to sign stuff with Ken and Ryonai” She says as she holds my hand, I strongly squeeze her hand as she leads me back inside. As we enter, I walk over to Ryonai and Ken without letting her go. They both smile at us as I sat down while Amy sat on a nearby table but within reach of myself.

“So you got the fair maiden?” Ken says as a group of fans gasp, I glare at him while Ryonai gives me a peace sign.

“Yea, so what” I emotionally say as I start signing things to help end a beautiful night, such as this one.