Promise to Sirius (An Utapri / Uta no Prince-sama Fanfiction)

Chapter 35: District of Flames

Ranmaru Kurosaki

"Why are you always happy?"

It was more than a year ago. Ranmaru hadn't meant to say the words out loud. Or that rudely. Or that angrily with that harsh tone. Or with a voice too loud to be considered an irritated mumble or mutter. And especially not right at the face of the person who had been standing near the sofa on which he laid, grinning and laughing as he shook those incessant green maracas of his while trying to get the rest of them to join in the "fun". He and the rest of QUARTET NIGHT had been resting up in the greenroom after the video shooting of a drama that they would all star in when Reiji tried to enlighten the mood and Ranmaru, at one point, let those words slip from his tongue.

And immediately, the shaking of the maracas halted like they had been frozen and for some reason, he felt a cold yet foreign aura overtake the formerly-light atmosphere. His eyes slowly widened as he turned to face the person that he had accidentally said those words to, Reiji, who was motionless in place, even as Camus lifted his gaze from his book and Ai looked up from his laptop. Reiji was staring at him with an expression that was as unreadable as it was strange and somewhat disturbing considering his normally, annoyingly-flamboyant exterior. Ranmaru had half the mind to expect Reiji to come up with some nonsensical blabber about this being the way he was, but then the brunet spoke.

"Err, Ran-Ran..." Reiji chuckled awkwardly, rubbing his chin with his index finger, "whaddya mean by that?"

Ranmaru figured that he had to say something to get Reiji to shut up about this, so he shrugged and replied. "'Cause you're always like this. Laughing like a madman, playin' pranks on all of us, joking around and smiling like the world's all bright and green, always tryin' to lift the mood and make sure we're all happy... I mean... don't you ever get tired of it?" Almost as soon as he said the last statement, regret fell upon him, so he tried to rephrase it. "I mean, you look as though it's all permanent. That happiness."

Honestly, Ranmaru felt like the most useless trash at wording at that very moment. Why did he have to be such a blabbermouth and let his words spill out into the open in the freaking first place? But he could not help but stare when he saw the look on Reiji's face. His grey eyes were averted to one side, away from all three of them in the greenroom, his precious green maracas hanging limply from his hands' loose grip. With his maroon fedora overshadowing his face a bit, his grey eyes were somehow... darker. Serious. Sad. Like this conversation had stripped away whatever mirth or humour or glee that had initially shone in those eyes, and Ranmaru really wished he had not been that big of a moron to say all that stuff at Reiji's face. But at the same time, Ranmaru really did not understand what on freaking earth was going on. He hadn't been trying to offend Reiji, so why was Reiji acting like this to the point that it was real unsettling? That was when Reiji lifted his face back up to look straight at Ranmaru and much to the silver-haired rocker's shock, the brunet beamed, a bright smile spreading across his lips, and he shook the maracas a few times and spoke.

"Don't worry 'bout good 'o Rei-chan bein' unhappy."

Reiji shook the maracas even more times, each shake more vigorous and vibrant than the last, and let out a few laughs.

"I'm merely a young, vibrant man tryin' to hold onto some happiness here. But then again, aren't we all?"

Camus then scoffed and remarked that Reiji was not that young, causing the brunet to whine as he protested that he was not old even though he was older than the rest of them. Ai joined in and agreed with Camus' statement and Ranmaru threw in his own snide remark, and Reiji cried out that they were all ganging up against him. From there, Ranmaru didn't think much about that brief exchange. If Reiji could revert back to his happy, annoying self in the snap of fingers, there was nothing to worry about, right? Things were all just peachy, right?