Prompt: 007 ~ One Last Kiss                                                                                                                                                        May 2011©
Fandom: Antic Cafe
Focus: Takuya x Akira & Kanon x Bou
Word Count: 1,617

            An Café and their closest friends were lounging in the band’s private room.

            Five Oshare Kei musicians, a Lolita companion, a Roadie who occasionally acted as a more-than-back-up-vocals singer, and an old friend that could sometimes be convinced to come hang out on a school night; they made for quite the cosmopolitan group. Tonight they were convened minus two of their usual members, one lost to a cold for the night and the other due in class by morning, in the one room that they were sure would keep any disturbances at bay.

            Akira was the most recent addition to the group, but already her presence had become the expected state of things. The staff and security that An Café worked with had already come to know her features so well that she could be recognized easily even when she was in her full Lolita costume. She hadn’t needed a pass to get back stage since the first time she’d come looking for her friends at their enthusiastic invitation. Now that she’d made an appearance at six different venues, even the fans were beginning to recognize her in even the blurriest of concert photos.

            The overwhelming hawk-eyes of the general public were the reason that Akira made sure to come to these amazing shows only when she was cloaked in a full Lolita disguise. The unfortunate and almost flattering invasiveness of the fans was catastrophic to the integrity of one’s sanity. It was the publicity, and the need to simply accept it and thank fans for their hard work, that had made Bou ‘quit’.

            The ex-guitarist of An Café was currently lounging in Kanon’s arms on one end of the band’s private room, making everyone laugh as he tucked his soft blonde hair up, with a string of cursing complaints, into the ridiculous wig of golden curls that Miku had dreamed up to be his cover ID. How nobody had seen though “Yuuki’s” wig and hideous sunglasses, and the obviously contrived antics designed to be as un-Bou-like as possible was a thing beyond Akira. Discovering that Bou was still a full and active member of An Café seemed like it should have been a no-brainer for Cafekko.

            “Don’t laugh!” Bou was protesting as he completed his transformation into Yuuki, the current keyboardist of Antic Café. He crossed his arms over his chest in a sulk, even pushing aside Kanon’s kisses for a solid ten seconds of petulance. After that he gave into his boyfriend’s attentions with a happy sigh and used the kiss he turned into as a way to distract the bassist from his hands as he moved to begin a short burst of a tickle fight.

            Not to be outdone, the other An Café member with his partner in attendance, turned Akira’s head away from the fan-favorite pairing. Takuya, the supposed replacement for half of the pair she’d been watching intently, fed Akira a fizzy piece of soda candy through a kiss and leaned back with a smirk. “Giving them attention like that only encourages them more,” he accused.

            Swiveling around to face the guitarist fully, Akira arched an eyebrow, sucking archly on her sweet treat. “Eh? Who says they’re the ones I’m trying to encourage?”

            Takuya grinned back. “Touché.”

            Akira giggled and kissed his nose, making sure to arrange her soda candy just so to make it bubble against Takuya’s skin briefly. He wrinkled his nose at the sensation, prompting another giggle.

            “Nee, nee, Akira-chan!”

            She turned back to see Bou scrambling out of Kanon’s arms. He tumbled over to her while only just keeping on the green and white striped hat, the design of which he’d stolen from an anime. Tugging on Akira’s arm excitedly, Bou got her to stand and turn around so that the ex-guitarist could see her full back. When she’d turned to Takuya it had been the first time Bou had seen the back of this particular costume, and he liked what he saw.

            “Aish! It’s so cute!” He was cooing over the patchwork of bows and ribbons in varying shades of blue that made up an intricate design on Akira’s back. “It’s so intricate! How did you come up with this design?” Bou demanded.

            Akira laughed. “Well, I had to find something to do in math class, didn’t I?”

            Teruki was grinning, even as he chided, “You should pay more attention to your studies! I thought you were the one who was making sure that Bou listened in class!”

            His voice was quickly over powered as Miku joined Bou in marveling over Akira’s outfit. “How high are those heels?” he asked, adding with just a hint of taunting in his voice, “You’re at least as tall as Bou is!”

            “Eh? No way!” Bou exclaimed, protesting immediately. He yanked on Akira’s arm to turn her to that they were back to back. “Akira-chan’s not really as tall as I am, is she? Is she?”

Miku shrugged and commented sadistically with a smirk, “I don’t know. It’s anyone’s call really.”

Coming to Bou’s rescue, Teruki said, “It’s impossible to tell when you’ve got the hat and wig on.” He explained, “It could be making you as much as five inches taller. Without it you could actually be the same height as Akira-chan.”

            Bou pouted. He reached up to take the measurement-impeding articles off, but Kanon caught his hand. “We don’t have time for that, Bou baby,” he crooned, kissing the palm in his grasp and towing Bou toward him and away from Akira and Miku.

           Practically squeaking with petulant protest, Bou only submitted to Kanon’s plea when a knock came at the door. “An Café-sama, we’ve got five minutes until curtain.”

            “Ah, arigatou,” Miku called to the staff member, still smirking at Bou.

            Kanon stood and stretched, keeping Bou’s hand in his throughout. Then he kissed away the pout of the ex-guitarist, new-keyboardist, and gave his hand a final squeeze at the door. Any lovey-dovey-ness out in the open between them would give Bou’s identity away in an instant. The no longer pouting Bou bounced up to give Kanon’s cheek one last kiss before they bounded toward the stage.

            Following after them, Teruki and Miku left Takuya alone with Akira for a private moment before he went onstage and she went to join the crowd below. They shared one last sweet kiss before the show. Outside the break room, Takuya was almost as protective of Akira’s identity as Kanon was of Bou’s. The public assumed that Akira was dating one of the An Café members, but no one really knew which one for sure. With the others keeping their private affairs hush-hush, it wasn’t too difficult to confuse the observing crowds.

            The occasional member of Cafekko made the supposition that Akira was nothing more than a modernized Geisha girl, someone invited into the band’s inner sanctum to calm their nerves before a show. Akira was fine with the assumption, seeing as it meant that when she wasn’t in Lolita garb, she could take the superstar Takuya out on a weekend date as regular guy Tatsuya without the slightest worry. The biting accusations made Takuya seethe, but he couldn’t set the record straight without giving everything away.

            He held Akira tightly before each show, kissing her softly and whispering, “I’m sorry to leave you in the shadows, but please, enjoy the show.”

            “Tatsu-aho,” Akira purred into his ear. “I always love watching you play.”

            Akira skimmed her fingernails over the soft skin at the back of Takuya’s neck, in the way she knew he liked best. The shivers that ran though him at the sensation helped him put his worries aside as she said, “Play well for me, okay?”

            “Hai, hai,” he replied with a chuckle as Akira kissed his cheek encouragingly.

            She then released him, seeing him off to head further backstage before she trotted out to join the security guards in the shallow bay that lay between the stage An Café stood on and the wall of fans reaching out to them.

            The final light checks were already underway as one of the massive men in charge of protecting An Café from the people that loved them gestured Akira over to him. “You’re presence is requested back stage, go through here and take the first two rights.”

            Perplexed, Akira thanked him and followed his instructions to find Takuya waiting for her just out of view of the fans off stage. His guitar was already strung over his shoulder and the hand he used to help Akira up the stairs to meet him flittingly held a pick as he stretched out his hand muscles for his routine of pre-show prep.

            The moment Takuya had Akira on his level, he pulled her close for one last lingering kiss.

            The kiss was only broken when Miku physically dragged Takuya out onto the sage by his collar. Akira laughed and waved them off, her giddy heart fluttering high in her chest. She may have gotten used to being a part of the An Café family’s craziness, but she would never come to find herself used to the craziness itself. Nothing was ever dull around her best friends in the world.

            Akira’s heart was still racing as she made her way back to her seat. It stayed pounding away at an elevated rate throughout the show, knowing instinctively that every kiss Takuya blew blindly to the crowd was meant for her.

            There was really no such thing as a ‘last kiss’ between Takuya and Akira. The closest thing to one was the most recent contact before they managed to snatch another in a moment to themselves.

            There was never anything last about it.



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