Pocky!: Chapter 1

Author’s notes: The Japanese at the end of this is the beginning of the song “like a cowboy” by Kontani Kinya. It’s from the “WHAT? x x PHYSICAL x x album (2001). Since he has “sung” for Shuichi in the anime, I thought it was only fitting that another song of his be featured. Unfortunately, I have no idea what he’s singing about... ^^; but the tune’s catchy! :D

Hiro watched his friend Shuichi as he dashed off the lyrics to a song he had just played. Amazing... just give him a box of pocky and play the melody through once and he’s off and writing. It doesn’t matter if he’s had a fight with Yuki, or they just spent the weekend in bed. He chuckled softly to himself as he shook his head at their fellow bandmate, Suguru.

“He come up with anything yet?” the keyboardist whispered, reluctant to disturb the “genius” at work.

Hiro shrugged. “Looks like it, but I’m not sure. K just handed him the pocky two minutes ago.”

“Think? I know it’ll work. Pocky’s the best thing to get him out of a slump and into working mode. It was the same in high school, if we had a test coming up and he couldn’t wrap his brain around the material, a box of pocky later, and I’d swear he could teach the class the next day. No, just give him a bit and he’ll have something for us.”

“I thought Yuki-san was the best thing as far as he’s concerned,” the dark haired boy said dryly.

Hiro laughed softly. “Besides Yuki. You do know that if Yuki was here, he’d get no work done at all.”

“So let’s just sit back, and enjoy ourselves for a change. We’ve never been this far ahead of schedule before, even if it has taken him a week so far to get the last song done, and besides, he’s been at this nonstop all morning.”

“Sound like we have a hit on our hands?” The keyboardist grinned.

“You never know...” The auburn haired guitarist grinned back at him.

Shuichi looked up and blinked at his fellow bandmates a few times as if seeing them for the first time that day. “What’s awesome?”

“Ummm...” Shuichi blinked again and as he did so Suguru heaved a long suffering sigh. “What’s wrong?”

“Ummm...” Shuichi pushed the paper he had been writing on towards them.

Suguru picked it and frowned. “That’s it?” He handed the paper to Hiro, who also took a look at it.

“I like pocky it’s so sweet and yummy!

But not as sweet and yummy as my Yuki!!” Shuichi wrote amid the hearts that decorated the paper.

“I was... but all I could think of was last night and the fun I had with Yu-” the pink haired singer had started to say when Suguru brought his hands down on the conference table with a resounding thwack.

“Too much information! All I care about is the last freaking song for our next album!!” the keyboardist said, all his frustrations bubbling out over the week long delay over finishing their album, in an uncharacteristic outburst. He briefly glared at them before regaining his self-control. “Ahem...” he coughed, running a hand through his short dark hair. “I’m going to lunch. I trust we’ll have something by the time I get back?” he said hopefully.

“Good... I’ll see you later.” With that, Suguru left for the relative calm of the cafeteria.

“So uh... I’ll know I’ll hate myself for asking, but...” Hiro trialed off expectantly.

Shuichi grabbed another pocky stick from the pack sitting in front of him. He took a few bites, letting the sweet strawberry goodness slide down his throat in a blissful swallow. “We watched this old western. Yuki wanted to set his new book in the Wild West and I told him K-san said something about ‘ride ‘em cowboy’ and he took one look at me and...” It was Shuichi’s turn to trail off as his lips curved upwards in a dopey smile while thoughts of the night before danced in his head.

Hiro laughed. “So there you go...” He reached for the pocky before his friend ate them all.

“Just write something about cowboys or being like a cowboy or something...”

The two of them grinned at each other. Shuichi was happy he able to start writing as the pencil danced across the formerly blank sheet of paper before him. Humming the tune Hiro had played for him earlier, he managed to once again put his feelings for his lover to music.

Hiro was happy too. It seemed that whenever Yuki was involved, even if it was just a happy memory like now, they would have a hit on their hands. “I’ll leave you alone so you can get some worked done. Want me to bring you back anything from the cafeteria?”

“Nah... this is fine...” Shuichi said airily, his mind busy telling his hands the words that scrawled across the page.

Hiro peered over his friend’s shoulder before leaving and the beginnings of their latest song,

“Wasurekaketa yume hikari kakageta yume

“Doko ni tsuku no ka wa ima wa shiranakutemo...”

“Yup. I’d better go so you can finish,” Hiro replied as he started to walk away as the pink haired singer went back to work on his song.

Shuichi, busy scrawling lyrics on the paper, said, “Bye... Ummm... and can you get me some more pocky?”