Izumo: KENJIIIIIIROOOOOOO

Izumo: I heard from mum that u got a job, congrats, m'boy

Izumo: I got a couple of beers, wanna call a taxi to me and celebrate?

Kenjiro: Sure, but not too much tonight

Kenjiro: I got work tomorrow

Shirabu read over last nights' texts, with a head that hurt like hell. That didn't go according to plan. Unlike his younger brother, he never handed hangovers well. He was a pretty solid lightweight and was in the foulest of moods the day afterwards.

Not to mention, he had completely forgotten about work the moment he had taken the first swig. This was why he didn't like jobs he didn't run. Too much pressure.

Well, E-Harmony was about to have an interesting time with their new assistant manager. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too bad...

.:*:.

"No, auntie, don't leave me with them," Whined Goshiki, clinging to Arisa tightly while Tendou cackled maliciously.

"Aw, Tsutomu, you know it'll be fine!" Promised Arisa. "If anything happens, you just tell me, okay?"

Once Arisa left, Taichi made a face in Goshiki's' direction. "You're so whiny, little auntie's baby!"

"And you're such a bitch, don't make me snitch on you," Goshiki replied quickly, mimicking the expression.

Ushijima put his hands on their shoulders. "Both of you stop. The assistant manager should be arriving very soon and we want to make a good impression after last time."

"Wait, we do?" Tendou said. "I thought the plan was to scare him off." Yamagata made a noise of agreement.

Reon sighed. "No, that's not the plan."

"Okay, okay, so let's make Tendou's' plan 'plan A', right?" Semi piped up. "I've got no problems against it."

"Of course you don't," Reon began, when the door swung open soundlessly.

Shirabu was standing there, looking bossy, powerful and pissed. He swept them all with a commanding glare, singling out Semi. He marched over, with such efficiency that it made the band member a little nervous and he stepped back a little.

"H-Hey, what the hell-?"

"Shut up," Shirabu huffed gruffly, pulling at the back of the collar and checking his shirt label.

Semi flushed. "Hey, dude, what the hell?! You don't just do that!"

Shirabu let go of him the moment he was done and whipped out a notebook, making note of the shirt size. Then he rounded on Tendou and forcefully checked, ignoring Tendou's' screams about his audacity and personal boundaries. Shirabu swept across the entire band, checking their shirt size before pulling out his phone next and going onto Amazon.

"Okay, uh, Shirabu, or whatever your name was," Yamagata started. "You can't just do that, it's kinda weird."

"I'm doing my job, sorry if my methods don't exactly work with pussy bitches like you," Shirabu retorted.

Reon frowned. "That was a little unnecessary."

"Rude behaviour isn't usually tolerated or taken well," Ushijima said sternly.

Shirabu grunted and reached into the side of his backpack where he had pure black coffee in a thermal flask. He took a swing grumpily and kept clicking away on his phone. He went to take another swig and then frowned.

"Shit, I'm out," He muttered. "This day's going great..."

"What's the problem?" Goshiki asked politely.

Shirabu glared at him menacingly and the bowl-cut shut up swiftly. The assistant manager yawned and turned off his phone. "Please tell me there's some instant coffee somewhere."

"Uh," Taichi nodded. "Sure, this way."

He led Shirabu to a small kitchenette and suddenly got shouldered out of the way as Shirabu started to drowsily make coffee. He dumped two heaped teaspoons of coffee into a pretty small mug and tipped in the hot water nearly up to the brim, entirely ignoring the milk Reon offered him. He downed a quarter of the coffee in the first sip.

Taichi glanced at him and then at his bandmates. "So... Are you good?"

"Brothers are demons," Was Shirabu's' only answer and he pulled out the schedule Arisa had handed to him when they ran into each other only minutes ago. "Alright, so do what you gotta do. I'm crashing out somewhere, my head hurts. You, big guy," He pointed at Reon. "You're in charge. If you have to, wake me up. But only if someone's about to die. I will accept no other emergency."

"Uh, sure," Reon said and Shirabu nodded at him before downing the rest of his coffee. Then, their new assistant manager made his way over to an armchair, curled up in it and fell asleep quickly, in the span of a minute or so. Until he had passed out, E-Harmony said nothing.

Ushijima stared. "This was a rather interesting first impression. I assumed he would be more responsible."

"What's up with him?" Goshiki asked.

Tendou shrugged. "A migraine, probably. Maybe he pulled an all-nighter. Hangover, general sleepiness, hungry, the list goes on for why someone would need so much coffee."

"People need coffee when they're hungry?" Goshiki frowned.

Semi peered down at the new assistant manager disdainfully. "He's pretty bland if you know what I mean."

"No, I don't know what you mean," Yamagata said.

"Well, he's not pretty but he isn't ugly. He's just, like, bland."

Taichi arched an eyebrow. "That's what your thinking of when someone checks your shirt size?"

Semi shrugged and Reon looked at the half-crumpled schedule Shirabu had shoved at him. "Well, I guess we better start..."

.:*:.

When Shirabu woke up, an hour and a half later, he felt a lot better. He yawned and stretched, then yelped loudly when he realised he wasn't in his apartment. He fell out of the armchair he'd been lying in, landing on his back when he hit the floor.

"Ow," He groaned, slowly shuffling to his feet. "Where the fuck-?"

A brief memory began to stir in his head.

Late-night drinking, taxi home, crashing out in his bed... Waking up late, serious headache, need for coffee... Calling a taxi, running into someone, E-Harmony...

E-Harmony. Shit.

Shirabu paled and hit his head against his knees. "I passed out the first day on the job," He muttered angrily. His phone vibrated and he saw a text from his brother appear on the screen.

Izumo: k e n n n n n n n n 

Izumo: Hows the hangover?

Shirabu unlocked his phone and texted back quickly.

Kenjiro: Why did i agree to go drinking w/u?

Izumo: uh oh, abbreviations, i must b in troubleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Kenjiro: I got to work and then fucking passed out

Kenjiro: how much did we even drink????

Izumo: you passed out???????

Izumo: we drank like 8 bottles each idk

Kenjiro: EIGHT FUCKING BOTTLES? THE FUCK?????????????

Kenjiro: you bloody hoe

Izumo: mean, kenken, mean q-q

Kenjiro: i am d o n e with yo a s s

Kenjiro: Im gonna do ma job, ya w h o r e

Kenjiro: no more drinking

Izumo: noooooooooooooooo

Izumo: Kenken don't goooooooooooooo

Shirabu turned off his phone with a grumpy huff, letting it light up and buzz repetitively. With his brother dealt with, Shirabu now needed to find the band.

With another stretch and an adjustment of his choker, he began to look around the place. He felt like he had just woken up at a friends' place with no recollection of how he got there, and uncomfortably tried to be quiet and subtle about what he was doing. Every few steps, he'd yawn or stretch, feeling lazy and groggy.

His phone was still blowing up but he calmly ignored it. He poked his head around a corridor that had a lot of noise coming from it and saw a door with clouded glass. With a sigh, he tiptoed his way over and peered through. It wasn't a recording room, but it definitely seemed like a practice room. He could hear heavy drums and low guitar bass blaring from inside and, with a few quick prayers, Shirabu opened the door a crack to peer inside.

Large black speakers made the room vibrate and the beat was one that compelled you to nod your head along to it. He could see E-Harmony, gathered in the small room, jamming out an instrumental to a song Shirabu didn't want to admit he listened to. It wasn't one of E-Harmony's', though. It looked like they were rehearsing a cover.

The instrumental was tuning out and he saw Goshiki and Tendou grab their microphones at the same time, leaning in close as they belted out two different, harmonising notes on cue. It sounded so perfect, Shirabu's' jaw dropped. Despite being a secret die-hard fan of the band, he hadn't expected a crazy redhead and a whiny bowl-cut brat to actually be able to sing, let alone make such a beautiful sound. Goshiki's' voice was higher-pitched than Tendou's', whose voice seemed to have a deeper vocal range.

Reon was on drums, slamming away a rock-heavy beat. Ushijima, very passively, strummed his bass guitar with the tiniest smirk of enjoyment. Taichi was playing the saxophone, rocking back and forth to his accompanying music. Yamagata was on the keyboard, playing away eagerly, and Semi was obviously on the main guitar.

It wasn't an acoustic guitar, like the one he had half-heartedly been tuning yesterday. This was the guitar. The one he'd often have with him in photoshoots or magazine covers. The one he was rumoured to have been gifted by his grandmother before she passed away. The guitar that people saw and thought of Semi Eita instantly. Shirabu quietly watched the band, slightly in awe and instinctively reached for his phone to record, only to remember he had left it by the armchair he had fallen asleep in.

The cover was nearly over and went out with a roll on the drums before the only sound was the bands heavy breathing and the speakers' hum.

"Good rehearsal, guys!" Reon complimented brightly. "Let's pack up now, hmm?"

"Oh, hey!" Yamagata said, spotting Shirabu's' hazy silhouette through the cloudy glass and half of his face peeking out from behind the door. "The new manager finally woke up!"

Tendou, despite his heavy breathing and slightly red face, grinned evilly and began to rush over to Shirabu with his arms stretched out for a hug.

"He watched us perform! He does care!" The singer cried happily.

"Not today, Satan!" Shirabu yelped, shutting the door on them and letting Tendou run into it.

"...Yeowch, that's gotta hurt," Winced Taichi, his voice drifting in from the room.

Shirabu could see Goshiki's' blurred figure move and poke Tendou, who had collapsed dramatically to the floor. "Uhm, Tendou-san? Are you okay?"

"Satori, are you alright?" Ushijima's' blank voice asked.

"Shit, you guys, is that blood?!" He heard Semi exclaim loudly.

Shirabu felt his heart skip a beat, but in a bad way, and he rushed open the door quickly, only to see Tendou grinning up at him, with no blood or injuries.

"Wow, you look almost worried," He commented and Shirabu sighed in annoyance.

"Look, I've still got a bit of a headache, the last thing I need is sarcastic remarks coming from someone wearing a pink Dora The Explorer shirt with brown shorts," Shirabu sneered, glaring at Tendou's' fashion choice.

Semi made a face. "My God, you really are a brat."

Shirabu gave him a withering look. "And you really are more ugly in person."

"Eh?!"

"Oh, sorry!" Shirabu sniffed, brushing his bangs out of his face, only for them to fall back in place. "I must've forgotten to mention, but I've always thought you were the weirdest-looking person I've ever seen and, honestly, I see it's worse in real life than on an album cover."

Semi lifted his guitar off his shoulder and handed it to Yamagata carefully as he made his way over to Shirabu threateningly. "Okay, buddy, I know that you probably can't help being a little bitch but your first impression here isn't all that great right now. So apologise, and we can try to act like mature people."

Shirabu stuck his tongue out in a bored way, rolling his eyes and turning away from the guitarist.

"Hey, don't fucking walk away from this!" Semi shouted after him.

"Sorry, Semi-san, but some of us can't goof of singing all the time. I've got jobs to do and Reon is taking care of one for me so I don't have to be around your ugly ass!"

He could hear Yamagata, Taichi and Tendou laughing loudly as he walked down the corridor, hands in his pockets. Ushijima could be heard telling Semi to 'calm down and not hurt anyone' while Semi shouted angrily down the corridor. Shirabu, for the effect, turned and shot him a peace sign with the saltiest smirk he could muster and left them alone.

Tendou managed to gasp out, "Best- assistant- manager- ever!" Before getting kicked in the ribs by an angry Semi.