Stage Lights

[remy]

Title- Stage Lights
Author- Savvy aka Eros
Summary- Gackt watches Hyde perform The Cape of Storms
Characters-Gackt/Hyde
Rating- PG-13
Warning- Fluffiness
Author Notes- Idea came to me while listening to Love Stoned by Justin Timberlake. If you play the song (Cape of Storms) while you listen, it'll really help get the feel of the story. Play it after reading the sentence before the player. Note that you don't have to play the song to enjoy the story. XD Also, I have no idea what Gackt’s favorite song by Hyde is so don’t fault me there please. If you happen to know then please, by all means, let me know.
Disclaimer- I do not own these guys or any of their music.



Stage Lights

Gackt sits in the balcony auditorium idly picking at a chipped nail when the first chords of Hyde’s music begin to vibrate from the stage below sending the crowd into a fit of claps and cheers. He doesn’t have the best seat in the house, but with fame comes lack of privacy and with that in mind, he has chosen the seat highest up, but closest to stage left. Hyde’s good side. Broken nail forgotten he leans closer to the balcony’s edge and looks down at the stage where a violinist is playing the chorus melody to his favorite song, The Cape of Storms. The rest of the orchestra sits in the pit, all preparing to play.

He watches as Hyde walks onto the stage to yet more cheers and his heart swells as he sees him bow to honor his audience and then takes a seat on a black stool with one leg propped. He adjusts his ear piece as the lights dims and an ominous dark consumes the entire room. As if on queue the room quiets and only the sound of the lone violin can be heard playing in the darkness. As the last note of the chorus is played one single light falls on Hyde. His eyes are closed and his head bent down and to the side. His hands are placed one over the other on the microphone and the only movement he makes is to tap his right foot lightly, giving eights to the orchestra below.

Following his lead the orchestra begins to play.

Gackt has never seen anything like this before. The lights, the aura of the silenced room as everyone watches Hyde on stage; it’s all very surreal. He strains his ears to hear each note that is played and he pushes his sight to the limit to capture every movement Hyde makes as he prepares to sing. He has watched several of Hyde’s performances but has yet to experience anything like this.

Then Hyde begins to sing and his voice vibrates through the quiet auditorium like a soul awaking from a restless sleep.

This was new. This was different. This was the soul and heart of a man laying everything inside himself out for everyone to see. Though they, his audience, would never know the true art behind the vibrato in his voice or the change in emotion in his words as he sings the same lyrics to a song he has sung many times before. The words are the same. “Where do I sail? A ship losing control. My cries swallowed up. Lost in the raging seas.” Yes, the words are the same, the meaning too, but the emotion behind the words are different. Only someone close to him can notice that.

Gackt can. But no one else.

“The Cape of Storms echoes the pain I feel inside.”

Beautiful.

Gackt shifts in his seat and props his arms beneath his chin as he swims in Hyde’s tenor voice. He lets it consume him; take his breath away, and when he’s breathless and dizzy from lack of air, he gasps and dives right back in for more. For he knows there is only one way to listen to Hyde’s music, and that’s with your whole being. He hadn’t known that at first; those many years ago when he’d first heard Hyde’s music on the radio. He had listened with only his ears then and had missed out entirely on the art of such a profound creation. But after working with the man, after having listened to the reasoning behind the music, he’d grown to understand his music as well as love the man behind it.

His soul had since been deprived of an unknown. That unknown was Hyde’s soul song.

But something about this performance is different. The emotion is there behind the words, but he can’t quite read it as well as before

The words vibrate inside him and he is awed by the amount of emotion coursing through his veins, but he doesn’t understand it. He is lost.

Gackt leans further still to view Hyde below and he can’t see his eyes from so far up.

His seat. His seat was wrong. He would need to move closer. He needed to see Hyde’s eyes to understand what it was that was different in Hyde’s voice for a person’s soul can be seen through the eyes. He remembers Hyde telling him that so long ago.

Gackt moves from his seat avoiding his people as he descends the stairs to the ground floor. He pulls his hoody over his head so that he will not be recognized and walks to the back of the auditorium. He keeps his eyes on Hyde as he walks toward the stage, completely shadowed by the dimmed lights. No one takes notice of his movement for he brings little attention to himself. Those in his way seem to part at his will making a path for him as he continues his journey. His feet hardly make a sound as he walks and even if they had; his steps wouldn’t be loud enough to drown out the bass pounding from the speakers and the beauty flowing from Hyde’s lips.

His heart seems to pull like the violin strings as he stands at the stage’s edge and looks up at Hyde who towers over him for the first time in their lives. An amusing phenomenon he tells himself to relate to Hyde after the show. He stares at him, willing Hyde with his eyes to look his way, but Hyde’s eyes close and for a brief moment he sings to his own soul. It’s as if Hyde is trying to remember what it was he felt when he first lay these words on paper for others to read. They were a part of him. They were a piece of a man tiny to the eye, but huge to the soul. Gackt closes his eyes too, tries to envision that day as well. He can see him, curled up on his bed with his guitar perched in his lap, a pencil behind his ear. He can see the initial attempts on the paper at his side. There are words in both English and Japanese as well as drawings of things Hyde imagines in his mind’s eye. He recalls something Hyde said. “I think music can make colors easier than painting,” Hyde had said once in an interview. “I can express colors in music better.”

Gackt sees those colors. They swirl and flash before his closed lids like stage lights. An uncharacteristic smirk creases his handsome face as he imagines and as he opens his eyes to look at the man on stage, he finds Hyde’s eyes on him.

Hyde smiles and Gackt and seeing the hilarity and mingled surprise in his eyes, smiles back. Hyde continues to sing, his eyes fixed on the man below. His narrow eyes widen in private awareness and sparkle with a life of their own. Though the song has a meaning by itself, Hyde’s eyes hold a meaning all its own. They shine of love. A love neither of them had known before tonight when they shared their entire hearts with each other.

Love. Secret love, but love all the same.
---

As Gackt sits in the balcony watching the show below, he can see the show with clear eyes. There was no need to interpret Hyde’s words to this song anymore. He knows his heart, he knows the man behind the lyrics. He knows his love.

The stage lights rise illuminating Hyde as he bows and honors his audience yet again and another song taks the place of his favorite love song. Gackt leans closer to the balcony’s edge and holds his breath as “Angel’s Tale” meets his ears. He smiles as he remembers the first time he heard this song. It was the first time he laid eyes on his lover below.

He gasps in remembrance and dives back into the colors of Hyde’s art swirling below. They sparkle like stage lights. This is Hyde’s heart.

This is Hyde’s soul song.