#100ships

   Ushiro gripped on even tighter to the newspaper, until it scrunched underneath his fingers going white as he hardly contained his frustration. He read through for all the little details but found nothing useful. Just the statistics of the weather and Roa’s favourite food or holidays on sale for seniors or if Romin had a favourite fast food joint. All stuff either irrelevant to him or something he could get if he asked his fellow bandmates. 

   Not even lip service to either him or Taira. Ushiro’s mouth quivered. Frustrated or annoyed didn’t begin to describe, truly, just how shafted he felt not just for himself but for Taira, too. But at least he was memorable, all thunder and lightning! Roa’s bestie! He was just… 

   He was just their friend.

   Ushiro huffed.

   “Hey, you okay?” Romin asked as he gently placed her hand on Ushiro’s shoulder.

   Funnily enough, she startled him.

   His eyes went wide and he had a full shiver response, alarming Romin. She retracted her hand and awkwardly stepped back as Ushiro was sent whirling and she could only watch. 

   Ushiro shuddered as he ripped himself from the pages of the newspaper, all but falling back into the soft middle part of the lounge in the studio where he had been practising… Until vanity had gotten the better of him and he’d seen the newspaper lying about on the provided coffee table.

   He looked up at Romin and she seemed genuinely concerned. Once she had calmed down some from seeing Ushiro Omaeno, of all people, get startled from an unexpected shock.

   “Oh, uh, Romin, yeah, I’m fine.” Ushiro said and he tried to play it off cool.

   He crossed his arms and the newspaper half folded into his armpit because of it. He blew a puff of hair to move his fringe out of most of his face and leaned back only for it to flop back where it started over his forehead, eyes, and nose. Romin watched, unimpressed.

   “You’ve been reading these dumb gossip rags again, haven’t you?” Romin accurately deduced.

   She snatched the newspaper out from underneath the edge of Ushiro’s bony arm. She glanced through it and saw enough when she saw her cousin’s face on no less than three pages. Romin sighed. She tossed it aside and it messily fluttered back down onto the coffee table from where it had been laid initially by Roa, probably.

   “You really shouldn’t pay any mind to these hack journalists, they just want a quick buck and the most eyeballs on their words. They don’t care if it's fair or true, or even accurate.” Romin complained.

   “I know, I know, but…” Ushiro conceded and he leaned forward, elbows on his knees as he stared, glumly, at the floor “it's just… it would be nice… if once in a while someone remembered I - or, uh, Taira - existed.” 

   “We know you exist.” Romin offered with a smile.

   She was so bright, Ushiro couldn’t look her in the eye. They were true and blue and kind. She offered her hand and Ushiro made a point of not taking it, he retreated further under his fluffy mop of black-brown hair. 

   “I’ve been practising the bass for, like, as long as I can remember. I want people to remember that.” Ushiro miserably admitted.

   Romin sighed and put her hand on her hip, she jostled her guitar which was strapped to her back in its bag. “You are the best bassist I know.”

   “I’m the only bassist you know.” Ushiro said.

   “In real life!” Romin clarified, her voice going squeaky as made fists in front of herself. “I know of plenty of bassists and you are my most favourite.”

   “Am not.” Ushiro grunted.

   “Are to!” Romin argued back. “I’ll prove it!”

   She then proceeded to list off all the bassists she knew of and thought were inferior to Ushiro and it was… a surprisingly long list. Filled with grown ups from near and far in the annals of rock music history. Some of them were pretty good, even favourites and idols of Ushiro’s who had inspired him to pick up the bass guitar barely out of toddlerhood. 

   He couldn’t believe it but Ushiro found himself blushing which meant Romin was satisfied. She had done her job to hype him up again. She sat down next to Ushiro and elbowed him in the side playfully, he squirmed and tried to suppress a giggle.

   “Believe me now?” Romin smirked.

   “Maybe.” Ushiro lied quite obviously. 

   “C’mon, you are instrumental to our success, Ushiro, I promise.” Romin said as she readied her own guitar, wordlessly inviting Ushiro into a jam session with her.

   Ushiro straightened up his posture. He leaned over and picked his bass off its stand by the lounge. Romin made more room for them both. She began to play a couple chords, some to check tuning and others because she liked how they sounded. Ushiro mimicked and he could feel his head cool as he got into a better frame of mind rhythmically following along until they actually found themselves in the middle of a song. It was second nature to them both to meld into a familiar melody of one of their hit songs. 

   It was a lot of fun for the two of them to tear up and down those four-chord progression scales. 

   Ushiro felt his heart begin to race. It was a bit sopping wet and embarrassing, after all how many great bands before them had broken up because of members catching feelings for each other but yes. Ushiro had something of a crush on Romin. Only a small one, though. A really small one which didn’t give him insomnia at all.

   Like, sure, he wanted better conditions of fame for not just himself but Taira too but Taira had a leg-up on Ushiro because he came in kind of a pair with Roa. He and Romin didn’t really have that. They weren’t a duo within the quartet. They were just friends. Just bandmates.

   But what if?

   Ushiro had to be careful not to get too far into his own head as these kinds of mushy thoughts made his palms sweat. He didn’t want to slip from the position he held on the neck of his bass as he played it. He really respected Romin for her talent on the lead guitar. He thought she was cute and ferocious and hard-headed at times and a lot of fun to be around.

   Case in point: right now. She was great to play with and did a great job at sticking up for him, too. She looked gorgeous, head-banging in magenta, sweat on her brow, as she practised hard enough to make more than perfect. There were absolutely worse places to be than right beside her, Ushiro thought.