Seoshi Toma loved Mirage's songs. He had video ideas for three of them. Mirage was reluctant to commit to making three videos before seeing the first one, so Seoshi proposed that they do Mirage's title song first. They'd travel to the beach, they'd all need white outfits, they'd need a girl, he said.

When they met with him Thursday afternoon, Ryuske asked, "Why do we need a girl, when we already have a girl?"

Seoshi surveyed Hikaru critically and agreed that Hikaru would work if she'd be willing to wear a padded bra and a sleeveless dress that he would provide.

Hikaru protested violently against the dress.

Rin laughed and asked, "You're willing to wear fake breasts but not a dress?"

"My scars will show," she replied unhappily.

Ryuske said, "Sorry, I forgot. You don't have to."

Seoshi asked, "What scars?"

Hikaru grimaced and pulled up her sleeve enough that a few of them showed and said reluctantly, "They're all over most of my body."

Seoshi shrugged. "So what? We'll just cover them with makeup."

Hatsuharu asked for Hikaru when she just sat and stared, "On her arms and chest?"

Seoshi replied, "Sure, it's easy, we do it in photos all the time."

Rin said, "Ow, man, you are shattering my illusions."

Seoshi grinned and told him, "The illusion is what people see everyday in the mirror, I've been showing how beautiful they really are."

They planned the trip for Friday night, since Seoshi wanted to try and get video at dawn.

Hikaru asked, "But we haven't recorded the song in the studio yet, how will we match the timing?"

Ryuske replied calmly, "The timing in videos is always tweaked after, don't worry."

Seoshi protested, "But it would be easier if we had recordings to play for some scenes."

"Takeda has arranged for us to start recording Saturday night," Ryuske told them.

"Saturday is going to be really long," Rin commented.

Ryuske said, "I arranged for evening checkout at the hotel, so we can go back to our rooms and sleep until about 6pm before we head back and go to the studio."

When they exited into the rain, Rin said, "I hope that it's clear when we go to the beach."

Everyone except Seoshi nodded. He held his hands out to the rain and said unhappily, "Man, this would be perfect, are you sure we can't record 'Hotter than the Sun' tonight?"

Everyone stared at him.

Hikaru offered tentatively, "I have my homework done, but I should still sleep by midnight."

"Give me two hours?" Seoshi begged them. "Go get your instruments, dress in your black and silver and I'll get a hotel room!"

Ryuske asked, "Hatsuharu?"

Hatsuharu grinned and answered, "Why not?"

They broke up in a rush. Seoshi to get his equipment and get the location he wanted, everyone else to dress and grab instruments.

Seoshi texted the hotel and room number to them, and within an hour they were all there.

"Wow," Hikaru said. "How'd you get the piano?"

Rin and Ryuske were helping move a baby grand into the position Seoshi wanted.

Seoshi grinned and replied, "It comes with the penthouse.

Hatsuharu said, "No wonder making videos is so expensive. What I want to know is why we're recording a video about the sun in the rain?"

Seoshi grinned and looked at the dark windows with rain pouring and said, "Record first while it lasts."

He had them set up the drum set beside the piano.

For the first play through, Ryuske put Hikaru at the piano, Rin with his bass between her and Hatsuharu, and took up his violin.

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"This isn't our usual arrangement," Hikaru said nervelessly.

"Time is passing," Seoshi reminded them fretfully.

"I've got it set up to record through our outputs," Ryuske said calmly. "Let's do this."

Mirage played. Ryuske sang, "Hot hot hot, hotter than the sun, so deep your kisses run."

Rin and Hikaru joined in, "Deep deep deep, deep within my brain, a recurring sweet refrain."

Ryuske cried, "Slam slam slam, the slamming of my heart, is tearing me apart…"

And then the violin wailed to the rhythm of Rin's bass and Hatsuharu's drums.

And Ryuske sang, "Hot hot hot, hotter than the sun, so deep your kisses run, don't stop until we're done."

And the piano carried them through the shimmer left by the cymbals, and they sang, "Sweet sweet sweet, sweeter than the rain, a warm and tender pain, that I just can't explain."

They wound their way through the verses and finished softly, as Ryuske sang with tears in his eyes, "Hot hot hot, hotter than the sun… you were hotter than the sun."

Silence fell, and after a moment Seoshi grinned and said, "You guys are amazing! I thought we'd have to record a dozen times with amateurs at recording, thank god I set up all the cameras on the first run."

He had them stand and sit in various poses and took still pictures. Most of them on the balcony in the rain. For these Hikaru and Hatsuharu came in for a lot of poking and prodding.

Seoshi complained, "You were doing so well earlier, what happened?"

Hikaru and Hatsuharu shrugged helplessly. Ryuske and Rin laughed.

Ryuske explained, "We were playing, not posing before. Rin and I have both worked on other publications, Hikaru and Hatsuharu are new to it."

Seoshi frowned and said, "OK." He had them sing or play lines from their songs as he moved them around after that. He had them do jumping jacks and then sprawl lazily. Finally he had enough stills that he was satisfied.

He looked at the time and asked, "Want to play the anniversary song through once? We could use some shots from here in that one too."

They agreed and played through that one, then they packed up to go home.

Hikaru said, "It seems like a waste."

"What does?" asked Rin.

"Renting a room that nobody's using," she replied.

Seoshi said, "I only paid for three hours, since you all said you have to sleep early."

"Wow," Hikaru commented incredulously, "I had no idea you could rent this kind of room by the hour."

Seoshi grinned and told her, "I have an arrangement for photo shoots."

Rin took Hikaru home after they finished loading Hatsuharu's drums into his mini-van, and Seoshi's lights and equipment into his cab.

"Got any food?" he asked when they arrived.

"Sure," she replied.

"Hello Geda-san," she greeted when her neighbor peeked out.

"Who's this? Your lover?" the elderly lady asked inquisitively.

Hikaru laughed and Rin thumped her shoulder. "No, I'm her bass player," he said with a grin.

"Oh my," Geda said faintly, "I always wanted to have a bass player."

"Do you play?" he asked with an interested smile.

She put her hand to her cheek and said, "I used to play a flute some."

"We should hang out some afternoon," he suggested flirtatiously.

"Rin," Hikaru protested.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't flirt with my neighbour, and she's married!" Hikaru scolded.

Rin bopped her on the head and said, "Brat, get your mind out of the gutter."

Geda laughed and asked, "Would you like some cake?"

"Hell yeah," Rin agreed.

She brought out half a cake on a plate and insisted they take the whole thing.

Hikaru made ramen and muttered at the refrigerator.

Rin leaned over her shoulder and pointed out, "It's a little empty?"

Hikaru nodded and replied, "Yeah, so much has happened, I didn't do the shopping I meant to. But since we're leaving tomorrow night, I think I'll just wait 'til we get back and shop after work on Sunday."

Rin poked around the house a little, much as Yuki and Kaoru had before he left. "No plants," he commented.

"What?" she asked.

"Your boyfriend doesn't have any houseplants," he said.

"So? Neither do I?" she replied.

"It makes the house feel dead," he complained.

"Well, Kiri travels for work quite a bit, I suppose that makes it difficult to keep plants alive?" she suggested.

"I should bring you a plant as a housewarming present," he told her.

Hikaru looked at him warily and said, "I don't know how good I'll be at keeping a plant? I had no idea you were into houseplants."

Rin grinned and informed her, "If the two of you can't keep a plant alive, you better not have kids."

Hikaru blushed.

"Thanks for the food, see you tomorrow," he said with another grin and headed out.

"See you," she replied.

She called Kiri after she climbed into bed.

"Hey," he said. "It's pretty late for a school night?"

"We stayed out and recorded some video, because it was raining tonight," she replied.

He smiled tiredly and told her, "It rained here all day too."

"You sound tired," she said.

"I am, but there's another couple hours to go with the post concert signing. Everything's going pretty well considering the delays we had due to weather," he explained.

"Was today's concert outside?" she asked.

"No, but there was a power outage during the afternoon, it made some delays that carried over," he explained.

"Tomorrow we're going to the beach, to record video for 'Mirage' at dawn on Saturday," Hikaru said.

"I know, I saw the schedule update," he replied.

"Oh,"she said.

"Hikaru, I love you, go to sleep," he said softly.

"I love you too." She sighed. "I guess, goodnight?"

"Goodnight Hikaru," he said, and ended the call.

She plugged her phone in and fell asleep within a few minutes.