"You got it?"
Norio nodded, pocketing the length of black electrical tape he had just removed. "Yep. You're good!" He rose from his knees, helping feed the newly-freed bundle of audio cable toward Jacob.
The green-haired keyboardist, unfettered by the extra slack granted to his instrument, began wheeling its black anodized aluminum stand forward on the stage. He nodded to Shinji as the bassist passed him on his way behind the curtain.
Ranko strode to the front edge of the stage, giving Jacob space to reposition his keyboard at its center. "I mean it, you guys," she said, reengaging with the crowd. "I don't know if I'm ever going to get used to how this feels, being up here, freezing my butt off, singing for all of you. I hope not. I hope every one of these butterflies stays right down there in my stomach forever. I'll never be able to express, no matter how many shows I do or how many songs I write, what it means to me that you all saw a girl that was sleeping in train stations four years ago and decided you wanted to hear what she had to say. I get letters and e-... whatever those computer messages are, all the time from people who say my music has made a difference in their lives somehow, and I just can't believe they're talking about me. But all I can do is keep doing what I do, trying to be real, and hopefully making you dance a little bit along the way."
"Girls! C'mere!" Utaru gestured hurriedly to Emi and Hitomi as the pair hustled off the stage behind the curtain. He led them to the back corner and the cordoned-off changing area, where one of the two space heaters they had rigged up backstage after the previous night's performance waited. Draped over it were two iridescent purple dresses and two pairs of black leggings.
"I don't know if it'll make that much difference, but I tried to get 'em warm for you," Utaru offered with a smile. "Hope it hel-"
The rest of his sentence was lost in a fit of stammering and blushing after Hitomi stretched up on her tiptoes to give the roadie a grateful peck on the cheek.
Ranko beamed, waving to the cheering crowd. "That said, we're gonna slow things down for a minute, if that's okay. I mean, I'm fine, but I think Zo needs a nap." She grinned, laughing along with the crowd. "This next one is one of the first songs I ever wrote, and it's still one of my favorites. I wrote it for the love of my life."
On the other side of the cramped backstage area, Shinji handed his backup instrument off to Kaz, trading it for his more modern Yamaha. "Let's see how you did." He plucked one string at a time, but not before double-checking that it was not connected to the audio system. "Not bad, Kaz! Not bad." He twisted the knob on the G string with his fingers, tightening it just a little more. "If you aren't careful, we might just make a musician out of you yet!" He reached out, handing the instrument back to the stagehand. "Now, see if you can keep this safe and not fuck it up 'til we get through the next one, kay?"
"Oh, fuck off, Yokota," Kaz said behind a smirk and a chuckle as he took the bass guitar in hand. "Fuck all the way off, until you get to the end of the world, and then, fuck off just a little bit more, for good measure."
Ranko walked over to the keyboard, lowering herself onto the stool Jacob had carried out and placed behind it. "I'm gonna play this thing for ya, if I can. I'm still learning, so don't laugh too much if I mess it up. Honestly, I'm just worried I'm gonna break the damned thing and Jake is gonna kill me." In reality, she had practiced the simplistic chord progression of the song hundreds of times, and performed it live in concert at least fifty times between the previous thirty-some shows of the Wildfire Tour and her residency at the Phoenix. Her nervousness was just part of the act - mostly.
As a slow, soft melody began to flow from the synthesizer, its usual master plopped down on an empty amplifier case backstage, sipping from a bottle of water. "Fuck me, it's as cold as a witch's tit out there!"
"Quit yer bitchin', lover boy. Spare a thought for poor Blue out there," Zoe admonished, tossing a flannel throw blanket at their boyfriend. "She's wearin' a third o' what you are, and she dun' get a break halfway through the show to go sit and get warm with a blankie and a cuddle."
Chuckling, Jake reached out for his partner, patting the thigh of his jeans and holding the blanket out at shoulder level by way of an invitation to join him under it. "Well, if you're gonna give me a cuddle, get your little ass over here, already. What's the matter? Aren'tcha cold?"
With only Crash and his six-string remaining on stage to accompany her, Ranko opened her mouth to sing. Her voice was soft and almost hauntingly tender, in sharp contrast to the pop edge that most of her songs oozed with.
"Did you know… the way time stopswhen our eyes meet? The way that everything else fades out of my mind? Did you know… I hear your name in each heartbeat? That you're the one my soul was always meant to find?"
Behind Ranko and Crash, the video display showed the hardwood floor of the Phoenix from above. All of the furniture had been cleared, and the floor was arrayed with hundreds of burning white votive candles. The video had been shot on Mei's handheld video camera, mounted to a tripod and stood atop a nearby six-seater table for extra height.
"Did you know… I've never felt this way before? I didn't know that it was possible at all. Did you know… no matter how much I get, I want more? The more you raise me up, the harder that I fall."
Zoe sighed happily as Jacob rocked them on his lap in time with the music, rubbing their back through the thick flannel blanket cocooning the couple.
"I hope you did, but if you didn't…" Ranko's fingers danced softly over the plastic keys of Jacob's instrument, adding a bit of extra flourish to accompany the chorus. "... I wanna tell you endlessly! Don't want a second to go by that you don't kno-o-ow… you are the very best of me."
Ranko bit her lip hard between lines, trying her best to suppress her body's overwhelming urge to shiver in the chill breeze. Fuck.It's even worse when I'm sitting still, she thought. You can do it, Ranko. Let's go, martial artist toughness.
"Most people say my li-ife is music. They hear me sing, and they're not wrong. But when they see the joy I feel up on this sta-a-age…"
She smiled dreamily, pausing for half a second before resuming the melody with her slender fingers.
"I'm just the singer. You're my song."
Emi emerged from behind the changing curtain in her shimmering violet minidress. Her shoulders seemed to melt with relief as she found Sanyo waiting for her, holding a gray flannel blanket open for her. She stepped forward, and her fellow dancer wrapped her in the blanket like a cloak. "My hero," she cooed, drawing the blanket up around her neck and snuggling down into it.
Gentle, Ranko, the redheaded vocalist coaxed herself as her fingers plied the keyboard. Remember what Jake said. Pretend I'm touching Akane. Softly. The keys get louder and harsher if you push them harder. She rolled her eyes, throwing her head back in an effort to mask the gesture from the crowd. Of course, it's hard to be gentle when I can barely feel my fucking fingers. How crazy is it that the Sapporo show on Wednesday will be warmer, and it's in a freakin' ice skating arena?!
An excited smile crossed Ranko's lips. I'm so jazzed to be heading back to Japan tomorrow, though. And I get to see Kumi! I can't freaking wait, she thought, bouncing on her borrowed stool.
"Did you know… I'm not the person that I was, and I have changed so many things inside of me? Did you know… that I'm so proud of that, because it made my arms a place that you could wanna be?"
Hitomi gratefully accepted the blanket Utaru offered her, draping it over her head in an effort to shield her ears from the bitingly cold wind. "Whaddya think the temperature is out here, anyway?"
"I dunno. One?" Emi chuckled, wrapping her lover in her arms. "We're halfway done, babe. Little more than an hour, and then we can leave the boys to clean all this shit up, and I'll take you back to the hotel and warm you up."
"Mmmm. Promises, promises," Hitomi mewled playfully, nuzzling into the taller girl's chest and not entirely for her body heat.
"Did you know… that I feel safest when you're holding me? You are the shelter I can build my life beneath. Did you know… that I can feel your love re-molding me? I need your presence like the very air I breathe…"
Norio's headset crackled to life in the dark, cavernous space under the stage floor with the voice of Masa from the control room. "Alright, boys. Break time's over! Where's my boric?!"
The roadie chuckled in response, rolling his eyes as he torqued his wrench to the right one more time to ensure a tight seal on the fuel canister he was changing. "Keep your pants on, Scorch! I've already got the floor jets done! Heading to the front now. Kaz had to finish getting Shin's bass fixed, but he'll be down in a second to help."
"I hope you did, but if you didn't… I wanna tell you endlessly. Don't want a second to go by that you don't kno-o-ow… you are the very best of me."
Adding a short glissando for flourish, Ranko leaned forward, jabbing at the pressure-sensitive keys with a bit more force to coax the instrument to keep pace with the more fortissimo end of the chorus.
"Most people say my life is music. They hear me sing, and they're not wrong. But when they see the joy I feel up on this sta-a-age… I'm just the singer. You're my so-o-ong."
Ranko's finger slipped, and she narrowly managed to bring it down off the edge of the keyboard to skip a note rather than playing the wrong one and souring the song. Her hands were shaking so badly in the cold, it was all she could do to keep them in place over the keys. Uttering a series of choice invectives in her mind, she tried to shake it off and threw herself into the piano solo that served as the ballad's bridge.
With his hands freed from his guitar for a moment, Crash left it to hang from its strap and pulled his arms out of the sleeves of his leather jacket. He stepped forward, wordlessly draping the warm black coat over his best friend's bare shoulders as she played.
"Alright, left bank's go for green," Kaz announced into his radio.
Masa sat forward in his raggedy office chair in the control booth, chuckling. "Nice of you to join us, Mr. Asai."
Ranko looked up as she finished her piano solo, flashing Crash a grateful smile as she shrank into the coat. It was still warm with his body heat. "Did you know… that everything is falling into place? That everything is fin'lly starting to make sense? Did you know… that my whole universe is just your face? I never dreamed I'd find a love half this intense."
Kaz laughed, shouldering another tank of boric acid-infused fuel and following the front edge of the stage toward the next dormant jet. "Look, Masa, I can hook up these gas tanks, or I can come up there and whoop your ass, but I ain't got time to do both, so, work with me here. Take your pick."
"Right bank go for green. I'm gonna head topside and get them set up. Finish it up down here, Kaz! We're out of time!" Norio hustled to the ladder leading up from the understage to its surface, inhaling sharply through his teeth at the biting cold of the metal rungs on his hands.
"Just be careful," Masa coached into his headset. "Yes, we're running behind, but I'd rather tell Ranko to stand up there and juggle for a minute while you wrap it up than have you leave a loose gasket and blow her halfway to Pyongyang."
"Did you know… the way I crave the sweetness of your lips? The way I ache for you each second I'm alone? Did you know… that there's a magic in your fingertips, and when you touch me, anywhere we are is home?"
Jacob lowered his hand on Zoe's back, patting their backside gently. "C'mon, you. We gotta get back out there."
"Better plan: stay here under the blanket," Zoe pleaded, burrowing their form against Jacob's firm chest. "I bet Sanyo could jus' beatbox or summat. Blue dun' need the drums. Besides, she's already got the synth goin'."
Laughing loudly, Jacob withdrew the flannel wrap from around their bodies, tossing it over the empty case for Crash's guitar. "I thought you weren't cold!"
"I hope you did, but if you didn't…" Ranko sang. The extra insulation provided by Crash's jacket had stabilized her hands somewhat, and she played the piano-voiced synthesizer with greater confidence as a result. "... I wanna tell you END-LE-ES-SLY! Don't want a second to go by that you don't kno-o-ow… you are the ve-e-ry best of me!"
If only the jacket did anything about my freakin' legs, she thought. At least I get to move around in a second.
"Kaz, what's the word?" Masa asked, drumming his fingers nervously on the countertop on which his control board sat.
Kazuki growled, grunting with effort as he turned his tool with both of his hands. "Working on it. It's hard to grip the wrench for long when it's so damn cold. Shoulda gotten some gloves after last night."
Masa sighed, nodding to Ariel to indicate a decision had been reached. "Alright, man. Do your best, but do it right, and let us know when it's done."
"Most people say my li-i-ife is music. They hear me sing, and they're not wrong! But when they see the joy I feel up on this stage…"
Ranko sighed dreamily, lifting her eyes from the keyboard to survey the crowd and let them see the sincerity in her expression.
"I'm just the singer. You're my so-o-o-o-ong."