Mirage rose like a wave of zombies from a very small graveyard, complete with authentic creaks and groans. They collected their tech crew, loaded their gear, and begged the shuttle van to take them through a drive thru. At the station they crawled onto their train with a chorus of caffeine laced sighs.

Saturday afternoon travelers were only slightly friendlier than Friday night travelers had been about the amount of gear they were carrying. Ryuske confessed that he'd answered Hikaru's phone after they were as settled into the journey as they could get.

Hikaru tried calling Kiri, but it went directly to message. "Sorry I slept through your call, love you," she said to the recorder. She sighed when she hung up.

"What's wrong?" asked Nezumi.

Hikaru stared at him blankly and then blushed. "I just wondered if I should have tried to explain more," she said uncertainly.

"There's no point," Rin said.

"Explain what?" Nezumi asked.

Ryuske said, "Why we were all sleeping in the same room, I expect."

Hikaru looked away from everyone for a moment, then turned back. "Kiri asked if I could send a picture later, when can we have pictures from the filming?" she asked.

"I'll email shots and the rough draft of the video to you in the morning, or when I wake up," Seoshi promised.

Mirage showed up at the studio on time, somewhat to their own amazement. Takeda had been waiting at the station with a van. He guided them in but then they had to stop at security. Nezumi had come along and Takeda hadn't had an ID made for him.

Nezumi was extremely upset when the security team refused to put Nezumi down as his ID. Takeda talked them into it finally, pointing out that it was no different than an actor going by their stage name.

They made it to the recording room with only a couple minutes lost. The sound crew were reluctant to let Nezumi mess with their set up. Finally, exasperated, he said, "Then give me the raw feed, but stop wasting our time."

Mirage was ready and waiting and their zombie facade had disappeared completely when the sound crew finally signaled them to start. Ryuske had them begin with their competition entries, since they'd put the most practice into those songs recently.

"Who the hell are these people?" one of the technicians asked after the first three songs were finished.

Takeda grinned and said, "Mirage."

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"Why?" demanded Nezumi grumpily.

"No one does that!" exclaimed the tech.

"Does what?" asked Nezumi, surveying Mirage.

"Records a song in one go, let alone three songs in a row," answered the tech incredulously.

"Is there a technical problem?" Ryuske asked as Mirage waited for the light.

Mirage recorded two more without a redo, but they stopped and reworked part of the Anniversary song. Hatsuharu had written the words for his wife and Ryuske had put it to music.

Ryuske frowned after they played it through and said, "Since there's a real piano here, let's try it again with that." He had Hikaru move. "And Hatsuharu, sing out a little more, on the stars lines?"

Hatsuharu nodded. Mirage played it again. And Ryuske sang, "Do you remember when we were young?"

Hikaru and Hatsuharu joined in, "And we danced across the stars?"

Ryuske sang, "Now we're getting older, but we're not old."

And together they continued, "Sometimes out in the park, we still go dancing in the dark."

The song went on, until they traded leads. Then Hikaru sang, "I can see us when we're old, wrapped in wrinkles, casting smiles."

And they chorused, "Winks at lovers, that's our style!"

Hikaru almost whispered, "And when we reach the bitter end, we'll go dancing once again."

Together they finished, "Then we'll dance across the stars, on and on and one more time, until we do it all again."

Ryuske nodded in satisfaction and they recorded the rest of their songs smoothly, until they reached the last, and newest.

They tried four different arrangements and several more runs through before Ryuske was satisfied with 'Don't Go'.

They were finished by midnight even though Ryuske insisted on listening to the recordings and had the techs tweak the balance here and there a little. He overrode the techs without hesitation. He also checked that Nezumi had what he needed for the music videos.

Hikaru watched in awe. Rin laughed at her expression and poked her. "Hey," she protested.

"Why do you look so interested at the most boring step?" he teased.

"Is this the most boring step?" she asked curiously.

He thought about it and replied, "No, I suppose not. I guess the wait between production and publication is the most boring. But since I'm usually just a backup musician, I don't stick around for that part very often."

"I'm glad you're sticking with Mirage," she replied seriously.

"Was there a question about it?" asked Ryuske, throwing an arm across each of their shoulders.

"Nope," replied Rin.

Hatsuharu asked a little plaintively, "Can I go home to be scolded by my wife and sleep all day now?"

"Not all day," reminded Hikaru. "We play at that hotel tomorrow."

"You mean later today," groaned Ryuske, burying his face in Rin's shoulder.

Rin laughed and pushed him off.

"Go home and sleep," advised Takeda. "I'll wrap things up here."

The Mirage zombie hoard creaked and groaned it's way to their respective homes. Hatsuharu had gotten the keys to the company van from Takeda and drove them. Hikaru was the first to be dropped off. She stuffed her black and silver clothes into the wash. The whites she left for later since the makeup showed more on them.