#modbabbles

It takes a little under thirty minutes to get the stage cleared. The audience is still whispering as they’re ushered away, just loud enough to be heard backstage.

Shinobu is huddled up on top of a speaker, poised and ready to pounce as ever; but there’s a spark of fear when his attention darts around the stage, especially up towards the lighting equipment, waiting for something to fall again.

Tetora is close to him, a little less shaken up in favour of anger. His face twists into a confused, furious frown, that says he isn’t sure how this happened. He doesn’t try to squirm free when Kuro appears from nowhere, turning his face to check for injury. (As opposed to earlier, when Hajime tried and had gotten little more than an agitated hiss that prompted the poor thing to find Kuro in the first place.)

Blue eyes survey the scene passively before landing on the red form just beyond the curtain. A soft hum fills the air when Kanata approaches and smooths a hand across the other senior’s back, “Chiaki?”

Chiaki doesn’t react immediately. He lets out a slow breath before sending a smile up at the blue ranger, “I couldn’t find Takamine.”

“Midori’ll be found in his own time~ Let me worry about that~” Kanata knows how fake the smile is. He’s known Chiaki long enough--known others that do the same long enough--to know how fake it is. But if that’s what it takes to keep him on his feet, he’ll let it go. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“No, I know.”

“I know you know... now I just need you to believe it.” The smile falls a little and Kanata shakes his head, “I’ll look for Midori? Shinobu looks like he needs to talk.”

It isn’t a lie. Kuro’s dealing with Tetora, trying to sooth his anger and get him to redirect the adrenaline rush of emotion towards something more productive than scaring other first years. Shinobu still hasn’t come down and is beginning to wiggle and squirm in place in an anxious manner. Chiaki gives a mild nod; he tends to be the best choice when Shinobu gets like this and doesn’t need to be asked a second time to go trying to get the boy down.

Kanata smiles after him, waits until he’s sure they’re all fitfully distracted before his smile falls. His attention drifts around the stage. Thankfully, nothing had crashed to the floor. One of the lights had fallen just enough to knock into a speaker, which caused a sharp static to interrupt the music and thus the entire live, and put everyone off beat. The first years reacted the worst, by fair, and while Kanata’s extremely grateful none of them were hurt... he would have liked them to have been sheltered from the reality of a failed live just a little bit longer (forever, if he could have his way, but he knew that was entirely unrealistic).

As much as he worried about the first years and as much as he knew he would need to pay mind to Midori when he found him (he had a very good idea of where the boy had run off to hide), he was just that little bit more worried about Chiaki. He and Chiaki knew, very well, that lives occasionally faced technical difficulties. Whether purposeful or purely coincidental, they both knew things happened and knew well enough that things went on. Things could be salvaged and they would be, they would both make sure of that. The problem with Chiaki, however, was that when something went wrong, it took him days and sometimes weeks to get back on his feet. To convince himself that it wasn’t his fault, when he knows it wasn’t. Because if there was one thing that could ever be said about Chiaki, it was that he hated to disappoint people that looked up to him. Fans, schoolmates, their underclassmen... everyone. 

Kanata let out a slow breath, willing himself back into a calm state of mind. Getting upset wouldn’t do anything. Not until he had someone appropriate to aim the anger at. With a smile and a hum, he strolled off stage, intent on finding Midori so that the five of them were at least together and they could assure the three first years that everything would be ok.

All the while, he chose to ignore the interested gazes following him.

♠

“That... could have gone better.”

“It could have; but, it did not.” A small, mirthless and empty chuckle, “It’s always quite an event when one of us puts on a show... the young ones would have had to learn that sooner or later, no matter how hard Morisawa and Shinkai wish to protect them from that reality.  I’m rather surprised we got so far in the year without any other... incidents.”

“I’m sure the rumours about Tsukinaga coming back are enough of an incident, never mind if he does come back.” Shu sends a sidelong glare to his companion, his arms crossed to accommodate Mademoiselle, “Should we stop him?”

Rei gives another laugh, harsher than before, his expression becoming a disbelieving sort of amused, “Do you wish to cross Shinkai’s path when he’s like this? You aren’t worried about the boy--the green one. I know you aren’t, you’ve your own young one to worry for, as do I. Besides, we’ve no reason to worry about the boy. He won’t be caught in the crossfire.”

“Perhaps not... but someone is going to end up crossing him sooner or later.” Shu gives a short scoff, “We both know it won’t be his Majesty.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. At any rate, Shinkai knows what he’s doing and Tenshouin... well....” Rei’s eyes close when he smiles this time, a marvelously innocent mask to hide just how malicious the amusement really is, “If it was him, of course... we’ve never quite been able to prove anything, save words of gossip. But if he were to involve himself in something so silly as interfering with Ryuseitai’s show... well... gods have mercy on those who challenge the sea, I suppose~”

♠

There’s a lot of things that Midori’s learned since he started at Yumenosaki. A lot of things he kind of wishes he didn’t know, but also a lot of things he never thought would be as useful as they are... but then there was his newest discovery.

Not that live shows really were as terrifying as he always thought (his heart is still pounding against his rib cage with nervous, excited adrenaline; while simultaneously trying to plummet to the depths of his gut in disappointment) but this...

When Kanata finds him (and that alone is terrifying because how does he always do that?), when his eyes open from their closed smile, Midori feels a new sort of dread.

“Midori~ Everyone’s worried about you.” Kanata holds out a hand to him, “Come back to the stage. Chiaki and I have something to tell you three. Don’t worry~ I promise, it’s not bad news at all. It’s very good news, in fact. And then we can all go get something to eat. Ice cream sounds good, doesn’t it?”

It takes a moment for Midori to accept the offered hand. In that moment, he’s lost in the rare sight of seeing the upperclassmen’s eyes so clearly. Not hidden behind his bangs and not hidden behind a smile. Not the calm blue they usually are; true to his legacy as RyuseiBlue, there’s an uncommon and terrifying mystery in them today. A cloud and clash that reminds him of watching the sea during a storm. 

A second later, they’re calm again, curious and patient and waiting. Midori finally takes his hand and lets the third year pull him upright, leading him off with a gentle hand against his back, humming a happy tune to himself that’s almost enough to make Midori forget the terrifying expression. He almost wants to ask Chiaki about it--or maybe one of the others in Kanata’s class, someone who’s known him longer. 

Almost. But he’s also quite content pretending he never saw that and hoping that maybe, just maybe, this talk really will be good news.

... This is what I do at work and I am not the least bit sorry just a little bit ashamed ah-hahahahaha. I have two Valkyrie drabbles and another Ryuseitai one in a notebook somewhere. Stop me.