Chapter 10

Ren pulled up to Misaki's apartment and parked in the visitor's area. By the time she got out of his car, he had rushed over to her side.

"I can handle getting in and out of a vehicle, you know?" Misaki chuckled.

"I know, but I like helping..." he trailed off, holding back. "Lead the way." He swayed his hand towards her apartment building.

First person I'm letting in, and it's a guy! I didn't leave a big mess, right?

They walked up to the elevator together to find a sign: Out of Order.

"Of course it is," Misaki sighed.

"Happen often?" Ren asked.

"More often than it should. Stairs it is." Misaki led him off to the side, and with the first step up, her leg wobbled. Crap!

"Whoa there. Are you okay?" He automatically grabbed her waist.

"I-I'm fine, thanks." She tapped his hand, hoping he'd let go.

"That's not the first time that's happened today. When you got off the bus, you stumbled, too. Did you hurt your ankle?"

"Nope. Legs are tired; nothing more." I have to learn to control myself better. Control my eating and my exercising.

"Tired? Were you up to something? Exercising? Practicing your dance moves to keep yourself up to par?"

"Uh..." Too many questions! Her head spun as she went silent.

"Sorry about that; I'm just worried. Wouldn't want you tumbling down the stairs on tired legs. Please excuse me."

"Hmm? For what? Oh!" Misaki gasped as he swooped her off her feet. She wrapped her arms around his neck, instinctively leaning towards his firm body. "W-what are you doing?" Her heart raced.

"Seemed like it'd be hard for you to make the trip upstairs, so I'm walking for you. No big deal, right?" Ren flashed a sparkling smile, his grip on her secure.

"This can't be good for you. What if you fall, but can't catch yourself because you're carrying me?"

"Not happening—but at least I might break your fall then."

Not sure how that's supposed to be a good thing. "And what if someone sees us?"

"We still have our masks on, and the stairway is empty. Quit worrying about every little thing."

"But I must be heavy..."

Ren raised an eyebrow. "Please tell me you're kidding. You're so light I wonder if you're eating properly."

Probably not.

"Which floor?"

"Third. Seriously, you can put me down—"

"Not happening. Just enjoy the ride up, like one of those electric chairs. Bzzt, bzzt." Ren grinned as he rounded the corner up to the next flight of stairs.

Misaki burst out laughing. "A bit hard to see you as one of those."

"Yeah, I'm smoother on the corners." He chuckled and stopped on the third floor. "See, no problems." He pumped his arms a little, jostling her playfully. "I can keep going with ease."

"That was plenty, thank you." She pointed at her door, so he set her down in front of it.

"How's the soundproofing in this place? Don't want to get you in trouble for playing music."

"I soundproofed my room." Wait, that's only my room. He has to come into my bedroom to play, or we'll disturb my neighbours! What have I done?! She unlocked her door and turned to him. "Stay here for a moment."

"Hmm?"

The door clicked shut behind her, leaving him in the hallway alone.

Sorry, Ren. Misaki rushed to her bedroom as she threw off her disguise, to grab the piles of clothes she had left everywhere while deciding what to wear and shoved them into her closet. Holding the pile there, she forced the door closed. Should be good enough for now.

Anything else? "Ah!" She turned and tripped over a tissue box that had gotten knocked over as she carried the pile of clothes.

Footsteps padded towards her. "Misa?"

She saw his feet as she pushed herself off the floor.

He held his hand out to her. "What happened? Is there a bug? I can get rid of it."

"No, no bug." Thank goodness. "I just tripped over the tissue box." She took his hand. "Thanks."

"Sorry about entering without asking, but it was unlocked, and you screamed." Ren couldn't help but look around her room, noting the bunny plush on her bed, and the bookcase full of novels and books on music.

"Yes, my apartment is small."

"Nothing wrong with that, as long as you're happy with it."

Misaki closed the door. "The soundproofing is only in this room." She pointed at the acoustic panels going all the way around. "Here's my keyboard." She gestured towards the seat in front of it and sat at her desk next to it. "Let's hear it."

Ren sat at the keyboard, stretched out his fingers, and played his melody. Starting off slow and picking up a bit into a beat, Misaki could practically hear a guitar coming in.

She pulled out a sheet of paper to write on and knocked over her stack of folders. Such a klutz today. "Dammit," she muttered to herself, reaching down to pick them up at the same time as Ren.

Bonk. Their heads collided.

"Ouch." Misaki rubbed her head.

"Sorry." Ren picked up the folders. "Reflexes kicked in."

"Even though you were playing a second ago?"

"Yes. Hey, are these all songs? Geez, how many do you have in here?" Ren peeked at the sheet music as he pushed them back into the folder.

"Yeah..." She snatched the folders and shoved them into her bottom drawer, but not before she spotted a picture from their youth. "Here, you can look at this instead." She handed him the picture.

"Aw, look how cute you were." He smiled and pointed at Misaki standing with them.

"Me? You two were already shining at this point. See? Radiant, even eating ice cream."

"The rare occurrence they gave us dessert," Ren mumbled, but couldn't help but smile. "You know what? This might help with it. Do you have more pictures? We lost ours a long time ago."

"Oh, sure." Misaki pulled an album out from under the folders. "This should be training days, but I'm not sure how many you're in."

"Works either way." He flicked through the pages, his smile growing. "Shun really was always the first to react to protect others. Always used to try to mimic him, but I'd blunder it."

"I'd say you held your own back then." Misaki wrote down a bunch of words and thoughts, hoping to inspire lyrics in Ren. "But you really used to look up to him, right?"

"More than that; he was my inspiration. He still is. Unlike me, he never storms out of meetings. I don't know how he keeps his cool like that."

Misaki tapped the eraser of her pencil on her chin as she thought. "It's good you two aren't the exact same, or your duo wouldn't work as well as it does. And please don't forget you have a lot of strong suits. I think your hotheadedness is actually your passion ripping its way out. Hard to control, I imagine."

"I guess, but it makes me come across as immature. Being the younger brother, I'll be seen that way, regardless. Oh, look at this one. Us performing on stage together. Our original collaboration, but this time we're writing lyrics together."

Misaki couldn't help herself and started writing lyrics based on her notes.

"Hey, what are you writing?"

"Keep looking and talking about Shun. Best if you add in more for current to contrast it."

Ren's eyes widened. "Have you been writing lyrics while I looked at pictures?"

Her hand froze. "Was I not supposed to?" Just kinda happened. Helps he already played the music for me.

"It's not that; just surprised to see the pencil flying across the paper like that. If anything, I'm jealous you got it flowing in no time. May I?"

"One moment." She wrote a few more lines and handed it over.

Ren read it through and chuckled, smiling the whole time. "Boy, did I ask the right girl or what? I think your knowing us back then also plays a part. Like this one about learning to laugh at yourself and getting back up. Definitely came from Shun. And this one about choosing my own voice. Despite always trying to mimic him, he always encouraged me to be... me."

"I think he tried to encourage me to be that way, too."

"I can definitely work with what you've started. Let's flesh this out."