She messaged Kiri before she slept. But when she woke and crawled into the shower barely more than six hours later, there was nothing in reply.

She moved the clothes, put her hair up in a simple fashion and got dressed. She looked in the fridge before she left and sighed, she shut it again and went to work.

After her shift at the restaurant she had messages waiting, but none were from Kiri. She forwarded the email with the photos and the rough music video to him, while she ate lunch with Miri, Izumi and Kaoru.

"You look tired," Izumi commented grumpily.

"I am tired," Hikaru replied and leaned on her uncle.

Kaoru laughed and hugged her. "Kiri keeping you awake at night?" he teased.

"He's in Korea," Hikaru replied.

"Oh, right, I forgot," Kaoru said. "What's up then?"

"We recorded for our music video and our album, want to watch the rough of the video?" she asked.

Miri bounced in her seat and exclaimed, "I do!"

Hikaru opened the email and played the video, propping her phone at the head of the table so they could all watch. It cried out about low battery and went dark just as the video finished. She frowned and picked it up.

"I guess I forgot to charge it," she said and sighed.

"That was great though," Kaoru said and hugged her. Miri nodded enthusiastically and agreed.

Even Izumi grudgingly offered, "It looked professional."

Hikaru bit back her reply.

Kaoru said with amusement, "It was professional."

"Do you get to rest for the rest of today?" asked Miri hopefully. "I thought we could come visit."

Hikaru shook her head and said, "We've got a show this afternoon."

Miri sighed with disappointment.

Hikaru offered, "You could come over while I get ready, but I need to go soon."

Miri shook her head. "It's OK, she said. I'll visit when there's more time to visit."

Kaoru let her out of the booth saying, "I need to get back to work too."

Hikaru hugged him and then hugged her mother. "Thanks for the food. See you next weekend if not before," she said.

When she got home, she plugged her phone in first. Then she pulled her black and silver clothes out of the dryer and dressed. Her phone was only at five percent charge, so she left it home, after messaging Kiri again.

'Accidentally let my phone run out, leaving it home to charge,' she sent. And then after a moment sent a question, 'are you OK?'

Mirage gathered once more and played for four hours. Rin drove Hikaru home and dropped her off. She still hadn't gone grocery shopping, but she swore to herself that she'd do it tomorrow for sure.

She made herself ramen, slapped a token effort at her small amount of homework, and crawled into bed. She woke up at midnight and realized she hadn't checked her phone.

She sighed as she looked at it. There was a message from Yukito asking if she'd work Tuesday. She replied that she would. There were two words from Kiri, 'Fine, tired'. She tried calling, but it sent her straight to messaging, so she disconnected and crawled back into bed.

She woke up groggily to the sound of her phone ringing. She had brought it onto the bed with her and it was lost in the blankets. By the time she found it, it had stopped ringing.

The call had been from Kiri, frantically she called him back.

"Good morning sweetheart," he answered cheerfully. "Did I wake you up?"

"Yes, but I don't care," Hikaru replied anxiously. "I was worried when I didn't hear from you."

Kiri didn't reply immediately, and then he said, "I know, I could tell from the messages you left. I'm sorry."

"Did I leave too many?" Hikaru asked unhappily.

Kiri sighed and said, "No, let's switch to video?"

"OK," Hikaru agreed.

He disconnected and then called back.

Hikaru looked at him anxiously. He looked rumpled and tired, but cheerful. She relaxed a little.

"Hikaru," he said with a wry grin, "I'll still love you even if you cheat on me."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Hikaru stared at him aghast. "I won't cheat on you!" she protested.

His grin widened and he replied, "I'm just telling you in case you worry that that's why you can't get ahold of me in the future."

"OK," she replied dubiously. "But Kiri, I think if you cheat on me I'll get really mad at you."

He laughed and said, "OK."

Hikaru looked at him uncertainly.

"You still look really tired, I shouldn't have woken you up early," he said reluctantly.

"You look pretty tired too," she replied, "what happened yesterday?"

Kiri grinned at her and asked, "You didn't look at my schedule?"

Hikaru said, "Um, not since Friday, I guess."

Kiri said wryly, "I guess that was useless then. Sorry. Yesterday we finished up the last of Saturday's concert stuff at about 5am, then I had to have them up and presentable again by noon for a TV interview, and then they did a live at a shopping mall. Then we got everyone onto the train and transferred to this little village, where the venue for tonight is a field that the villagers seem to be trying to coax every goat in the area into mowing before the band plays tonight."

"Wow," Hikaru said.

"I suspected a booking error, except when I inquired my boss guiltily admitted that he arranged this stop," Kiri said with a quirk to his lips.

"Why?" she asked.

"He wouldn't say, but I suspect that this is where a particular song writer retired to," Kiri replied.

Hikaru looked confused.

Kiri smiled gently and said, "I think seeing a live performance is supposed to coax him into wanting to write again, or at any rate, that's my working theory, since it's kinder than assuming we're here to rub his nose in the fact that his old songs are still being used whether he wishes it or not."

Hikaru gasped and asked worriedly, "Why are they being used if he doesn't want them to be?"

Kiri replied, "Because Inline owns them. They were submitted to fulfill a contract, along with a depressed letter about how they were useless crap and we were welcome to use them if we wanted to produce crap."

Hikaru stared and then asked hesitantly, "They can't be that bad if you're using them?"

Kiri shrugged and said, "They're mediocre, but sometimes mediocre is better than nothing new, so they've slowly gotten used. This group in particular is pretty bad about intermittent productivity, so they've used a half a dozen of them."

"Oh," she replied.

He frowned at her and asked, "What are you planning to eat for breakfast?"

Hikaru shrugged and said, "I don't know, I meant to go shopping last night, but I was too tired and just had Rin bring me straight home."

"What did you eat for dinner?" Kiri asked worriedly.

"Ramen," Hikaru replied.

"Hikaru!" he protested.

"You can't claim you never eat it, with so many packets in the cupboard," she replied defensively.

"Hardly ever plain!" he said. "Did you even add an egg?" he asked.

"No, out of eggs," she replied.

"Hikaru," Kiri started.

"I'm fine," she interrupted. "Kao-ji-chan put lots of vegetables in our lunch. I'll buy lunch today, and I'll go shopping tonight."

"What about breakfast?" he asked.

Hikaru sighed.

"Sorry," he said and ran a hand through his hair.

"I guess I should end this call and get dressed so I can get something on the way," she said regretfully. "But I'd rather talk to you than eat."

He smiled wryly and said, "I'm sorry, I should have taken time out to message you yesterday."

Hikaru told him a little anxiously, "It would have been reassuring."

Kiri replied, "I would have found it reassuring if you hadn't been sleeping in the same bed as Ryuske-san."

Hikaru opened her mouth and shut it again. After a moment she said, "You were mad."

He shrugged.

"We arranged ourselves with rock paper scissors," she explained.

He laughed, and said, "I see." He watched her for a minute and added, "I think I was only mad for about five minutes. Then common sense clicked in and I realized you were both sleeping in your clothes."

"Ryuske didn't tell me he video chatted with you," she said questioningly.

"I'm pretty sure he didn't realize, he held the phone against his face most of the time," he replied.

"Why didn't you message?" Hikaru asked.

Kiri shrugged and said, "I wasn't trying to make you worry. I called as early as I dared." He smiled. "Go check my schedule from yesterday, then go out and find breakfast. And call me when you get out of school."

"OK," she agreed.

"I love you, have a good day," he said quietly.

"You too Kiri," she replied quickly.

He smiled and closed the connection. She sighed and brought up the calendar. Sunday Kiri's schedule had an all day event marked, in addition to the things he'd listed, as well as a few extras. It was labeled, "5 weeks sharing rings." Under notes it said, "Hikaru love you like crazy, busy as hell, not enough sleep, call you in the morning."

… H TO K

She messaged him after she got on the bus:

Hikaru: Sorry I didn't read it yesterday.

Kiri: It's OK. Go eat.

Hikaru: I'm on the bus. Is five weeks special for a reason that should be obvious to me?

Kiri: Wink [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/smilies/wink.png] That's my secret I guess.

Hikaru: I thought usually it was one month, 3 months, 1 year?

Kiri: Do you want to mark those? You didn't say anything at one month.

Hikaru: Neither did you? I'd like to do something at six months?

Kiri: From when we met or when you got your ear pierced?

Hikaru: Which would you prefer? I assumed from when we met. I don't know, I've never done this.

Kiri: That doesn't matter, what matters is what makes you feel happy.

Hikaru: I don't want to feel like I'm missing something important by not understanding.

Kiri: We should talk about this after you're done with school.

Hikaru: OK, sorry.

Kiri: Don't be sorry. I wish I could cuddle you.

Hikaru: Six more days.

Kiri: Yes :) [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/smilies/smile.png]

Kiri: Although I plan to do a lot more than cuddle.

Hikaru: OK

Kiri: Just OK?

…

Hikaru had to exit the bus. And she replied late, 'I want to do everything with you.'

'Me too,' he agreed a while later.