You know it’s “just one of those days” when you wake up and feel like doing nothing. The only problem is that when you realize you are going to do nothing, you remember that you have done nothing for as many days as you can remember. Suddenly you are motivated to do something, simply to dispel the complete lack of productivity, but are too lazy to really get up and do anything. You finally come to terms with the fact that you will do nothing, just like every day in your recent history. Every nothing that you do is boring, but every time you try to think of something to do you are confronted with the feeling of utter laziness.

Today was one of those days. Gackt was stretched out on his king size bed, still in his pjs which consisted of nothing more than a pair of boxers, and was idly flipping through channels on the TV. It had been months since he had a proper vacation and even longer since he enjoyed time off. Having just finished his part in the production of the ‘Gackt Live DVD’ from the Sixth Day and Seventh Night tour, he no longer had any projects lined up. He had recently finished a few other major projects and was in need of a rest; the only problem was that he had no idea what to do with this newly found free time.

He had been around You, Masa, and the rest of Gackt JOB constantly for the past few months and really had no interest in going out clubbing and such with them at the moment. That had been fun for the first four days of his break, but now he found it rather tedious to be around so many people at once. Most of his friends were off on different projects and had little or no time for anything fun.

Gackt sighed and grumpily decided that channel surfing was doing him no good, and settled on taking a shower to motivate him… or something. As he kicked the blankets off his bed and rolled from the center to the edge, he was suddenly hit with an overwhelming feeling of sadness and lonelinessThat feeling was soon forgotten as he discovered how much he really needed a shower.

"OH, nasty!” he thought to him self, “ I guess that's what I get for working so much- I don't have time for anything else, not even cleanliness,”

With that he waddled over to his far too extravagant bathroom. Well, everything in his home was far too extravagant. Even he thought so, but at least it all matched.

When he reached the thresh hold he leaned against the door-jam for a moment to get used to the feeling of standing up. He looked across the bathroom at the mirror that covered the adjacent wall. He stared and stared at himself in the mirror for what seemed like hours trying to figure out what was wrong with his reflection. There was no particular thing that bothered him. He had no unsightly bruise or cut, and the bags under his eyes were not particularly noticeable, but there was just something wrong with the way he looked. He eventually brushed it off as morning fatigue and proceeded to turn on the water.

Contrary to popular belief, Gackt really did not like to bathe. Well, it was not so much that he did not like bathing; it was more that he did not like the process. Taking a shower was his least favorite thing to do. Standing there under the scalding spray of the water seemed to always leave him feeling empty and broken. It was the only place where he simply couldn’t manage to convince himself that his life was perfectly happy. He really had no idea what caused this negative emotional reaction to bathing, so he just showered as quickly as he could and tried not to pay it much mind.

At around 10:30 am You and Masa called, practically begging Gackt to go out with them for the day.

“So Gackt, what you up to?” chirped You after Gackt finally picked up the phone on the fourth ring.

“Nothing really, I just got out of the shower and was about to go have a smoke, why?” he had to ask, even though he already knew why You was calling.

“Masa and I are heading out for the day and we were wondering if you wanted to come along, we don't have anything in particular planned so feel free to make suggestions. But that does not mean we have to listen to them!” You was talking with far too much enthusiasm for Gackt at the moment.

“No, you guys go on with out me, I’m fine here. I don't really feel like going out any way,” he lied. It sounded nice to go out and do… something, anything, Even if there were lots of people there. But something about You’s chipper attitude rubbed him the wrong way.

“Oh, but come on. That's what you’ve said for the past few days. We want to do stuff with you.” You was begging now.

“I told you no. I’m not in the mood to go out right now! I would rather be left alone today. Maybe we can try for next week, hmm?” With that he hung up the phone.

Not even 30 seconds after he hung up the phone it rang again.

“Persistent bastard,” Gackt said under his breath. He usually didn’t swear much, unless he was really agitated. “I told you that I don't want to go out today!”

“But what harm will it do, really?” This time it was Masa on the other end.

“Look, it has nothing to do with you, it sounds like you’re going to have a great time, but I’m just not in the mood.” Gackt said trying to sound polite as he could.

“Alright well se…” There was shuffling and it sounded like the phone was dropped.

“Come on Gackt, you haven’t been out in days I’m sure you’re itching to go out. Do you have like a zit or something? You always over react about things like that, Mr. Perfect, Mr. 6% body fat. No one will even notice! Just chill out and come spend the day with us.” Apparently You had taken the phone from Masa before he got the chance to hang up.

“GOD DAMIT! I SAID THAT I DID NOT WANT TO GO OUT TODAY! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY NO! NO NO NO NO NO!!” He had no intention of becoming this angry, it just sort of happened. It happened a lot actually, whenever he had been working on a tough project and was really stressed out.

The last time he remembered being this irritable was after the filming of ‘MOON CHILD’. “God that was a time consuming endeavor,” he thought, but it had been fun. He enjoyed working with people he had never worked with before, and scriptwriting was something he could definitely see himself doing again. His fondest memories were when he was working on scenes with Hyde; being in his presence was something Gackt found calming. He felt that the best parts of ‘MOON’ were the ones that they compiled together. He though that maybe it was the memories of them goofing of while they thought of ideas that made those scenes feel better than the others.

After the filming had finished he had become particularly hostile, but not only to others like he usually was. He was not eating or sleeping properly and only talked to people if it concerned business. He would not even pick up his phone unless the caller left a message about the relevance of the call. It took lots of persuasive talk from Masa and You to get him to even think about leaving the house.

“It would be nice to see Hyde again,” Gackt thought out loud to himself.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen Hyde since the congratulatory party that the crew threw on the last day of filming. Well that was not entirely true, he had seen Hyde at the press meetings that they did and all the promotional crap that comes with trying to get people to see a movie. But they never had time to talk one on one like they did during filming. They were always in a panel in front of a bunch of reporters. Gackt was slightly saddened by this thought, even thought they seemed to be ‘fast friends’, or so Hyde had dubbed it, he had not seen much of Hyde after all the hype about the movie was over.

Gackt did not realize in his daze that he had wondered over to the kitchen, found a box of cigarettes and was in the process of lighting up. He had been holding his lighter at the end of the cigarette to long and it had caught fire. Startled by the ball of fire at the end of his nose he threw the cigarette across the room. It took him a second to realize that was probably not the right thing to do.

“Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit…” he repeated it like a mantra as he franticly looked for his hell born cigarette. He looked under chairs and tables, throwing pillows every which way, not caring that he just cleaned his house. He even looked under his couch that was all the way on the other side of the room, probably not with in throwing distance. There was a huge stain under the couch from when he first bought the house. Every one had managed to get themselves plastered and You just couldn’t hold his liquor as well as he thought he could. He remembered now why the couch was all the way over on the other side of the room; the stain had now turned the once white carpet a gross purple/grey color. From dust he assumed.

Gackt seemed to be getting side tracked a lot lately. What was he looking for in the first place? Then it hit him: the smell of burning fabric. Well, to be more precise, burning carpet. He turned around and to his horror he saw a happy little bonfire burning in his entrance hall.

“Shit! What the hell am I supposed to put it out with? Its huge!” In reality, it was only about the size of a fist. But to a rather distressed Gackt, anything flaming was huge.

He ran to the kitchen, filled up a pot with water then ran back to the ‘huge’ fire and began to dump the pot’s contents on the poor defenseless cigarette that set fire to his home. By the time he had dumped all the water, the fire was long put out and he was left with a sopping carpet and a black burn, dead center between the door and living room.

He threw the pot aside and squatted over the big mess he’d just made, and his feet squished in the carpet. Gackt sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do with his now blemished hallway. He stared at the spot, hoping that maybe he really was a god and the spot would obey his will. When that did not work he slumped against the wall behind him and covered his face with his hands, trying to think of something to do.

Just when he thought he was on a roll with some yarn and a box cutter the phone rang. What the hell. Hadn’t he just told You off and told both of them to leave him alone? If You thought Gackt was pissed before, he had another thing coming.

He stomped over to the phone and picked it up by the third ring.

“I fucking told you to leave me alone! What do I have to do to get you to stop fucking calling me! We have the rest of out fucking lives to go out, why is today so important?” today was not turning out to be a good day at all.

“Oh, umm, sorry. Is this a bad time? I could call back later if that's ok?” The voice on the other end sounded rather startled.

“I TOLD… what? Who is this?” Gackt calmed down a little when he realized the voice did not belong to You or Masa.

“Umm… this is Hyde… its ok I’ll call back later, you are obviously busy.” He said rather shyly which was uncharacteristic for him, at least in Gackt’s opinion.

“What? No, no, it’s ok. Sorry. I’m just not having that great of a day”.

“ Yea, I can tell.” Hyde was having a giggle fit on the other end of the phone line.

“What's so funny?” He was puzzled by Hyde’s sudden out burst.

“Oh, its just that I’ve never heard you swear like that before,” Hyde said so matter-of-factly, “ It sounds, I don't know, out of place…”

“Hrm, I guess it is sort of funny, I only get like that when something is really bothering me…” Gackt didn’t think it was that funny, but then again he just cussed out Hyde for no reason.

There was a pregnant pause and both of them felt it. Gackt wondered uncomfortably what to say when Hyde broke the silence.

“Oh yea, I called because I was wondering if you wanted to do something together today. We haven’t seen much of each other since ‘MOON CHILD’ came out and I just got back from the US and don't have any plans. Megumi is out god knows where and I thought I would give you a call.”

“That sounds great! Yea. I don't have anything to do today and actually I was thinking about calling you too, but I didn't know if you had gotten back yet.”

“Well I'm back and have nothing to do. Why don't I pick you up in a half an hour and we can talk over lunch or something?”

“ Ok sounds good. See you then.”

“Well that was unexpected,” Gackt thought to himself after he hung up the phone. He walked over to where the pot had fallen, picked it up and what was left of the cigarette and threw them both in the kitchen. Suddenly he was struck with the sudden question of what to wear.

The feeling was strange; it wasn't like he was going out on a date, but he felt nervous. He had finally decided on a deep purple button down shirt with his favorite pair of jeans, and was patiently waiting by the window to be able to see when Hyde arrived at his house. He had no particular desire to let Hyde in considering the state of his foyer and living room at the moment. He had tidied things up a bit, but had no idea what to do about the charred entrance hall.

Gackt tried to control his anxiety. He couldn’t seem to sit still. He walked back and forth between his bedroom and the living room, and put away the pot he used to put out the fire. He constantly readjusted his cloths. Finally after what felt like an eternity, he heard a car park in his driveway. He did not want to give Hyde the impression that he had been waiting for him and open the door before he approached the house, so he sat down and waited for Hyde to ring the bell.

“I wonder what Hyde’s’ wearing, maybe I’m too dressed up for just lunch…” before he could finish his thoughts the bell finally rang.

Gackt ran to the door, rather than just walking, and when he opened it he found Hyde standing in the middle of his porch smiling up at him.

“Ready to go? I thought we could eat at this deli that I know, it’s not too far from here.” He said giving Gackt the once over.

“ Yea, sure. Let me just grab my coat.” Gackt noticed that Hyde was dressed in a black tank top with white writing all over it, and jeans.

Good, he wasn’t over dressed; it was simply going out to lunch with a friend. But was Hyde just checking him out…? By the time Gackt got back from finding a coat Hyde had already spotted the stain in the entrance hall and was staring at it in earnest.

“What happened to your carpet?”

“Oh, that. Well I kind of dropped a lit cigarette… and well…” Gackt was hoping he did not have to explain any further.

“But its kind of big to be from a cigarette, don't you think. And the stain, it’s so dark.” Today was just not his day.

“Thecigarettewasonfire” Gackt spit it out as fast as he could. He didn't know why he was so embarrassed, but he just wanted to get going.

“What was that? The what was on fire? The cigarette?” Why did he care do much about the stupid stain?

“Yea, umm… I got distracted and set the end of my cigarette on fire. It scared me so I threw it…” Now Gackt was really ready to just do something else, he felt stupid enough as it was.

“Oh… shall we go then?”

“OK” That was not as bad as he had hoped. Could have gone better, i.e.: Hyde not seeing the stain, but not bad.

Hyde had a nice car. It was small, which suited Hyde, but still nice. It must have been new because he did not recognize it from the assortment of cars Hyde drove to the ‘MOON CHILD’ shootings. When they got in he could tell immediately that he was right, it still had that new car smell.

When Hyde started the engine a CD started playing as well. After a few seconds he recognized it to be his own song, ‘VANILLA’. Why would Hyde have that playing in his car?

“Sorry… I uh, happen to like that song” From the way Hyde suddenly turned off the music and was looking at him, his eyes must have been bugging out of his head.

“Huh? No its ok, I’m just not used to hearing my music in other peoples’ cars, that's all.”

“Oh, so you don't mind? Cool.” And again he heard the intro to ‘VANILLA’.

“So you just came back from the US, right? How was it? I heard you were playing at some convention.”

“It was fun, but to be honest, American fans are well, insane.” This was all said with a very serious face.

“Really…” He stared at Hyde’s face for a moment and then they both crack up.

After they had contained themselves Hyde seemed to get serious again.

“ I think you should tour over there, maybe we could even tour together, we could even go sight seeing… on second thought, better not, the rabid fan girls might kidnap us. Who knows what would be done with us.” Again the car was filled with laughter.

“I think I would enjoy it. Touring in the US I mean,” Gackt almost didn't catch him self. What he really meant was touring with Hyde would be fun, but for some reason he did not want Hyde to know that.

“Yea. So what have you been working on while I was being hounded by fan girls?”

“I just finished compiling a DVD from my latest tour. Haven’t had much time to do anything else.”

“Oh yea, I heard about that, you pushed back the release date, right?”

“Right, I wanted to add a PV also, I thought it was incomplete with out it.”

“Had to get it perfect for your fans, right! Hey wanna sing along?” Gackt realized it was the song the two of them had recorded for ‘MOON CHILD’ how many songs of his did Hyde have? If he remembered correctly all of the songs that had played so far were his.

“ Ok sure.”

By the time the song had finished Hyde had parked his car outside a quaint looking deli. There were few costumers so the chances of them being hounded was slim.

“You can order anything you want, all they have are American sandwiches and stuff. Its really good though, better than the real thing!” Hyde said with a rather amused look on his face.

When they got inside, Gackt realized that although he prized himself in having eaten a wide variety of different foods, he had no idea what would be good from the selection he was given.

Hyde had either seen the look on Gackt’s face or just assumed Gackt had no idea what to order, because he spoke for both of them.

“I hope you like crab salad. Actually, I’ve been wanting to try this place’s spin on it, so I might just have to take some from you.”

“Sure, what was it that you got?” he said, peering over Hyde’s shoulder. Not that that was difficult, given he was a full head taller that the older man.

“Oh, its one of my favorites, I get pastramied beef almost every time I come here,” he followed Hyde to the back of the deli and stopped right in front of a table, which was next to a rather large window that over looked a rather large bush. ”I like this table the best because you can see the street but no one can see you!”

After they seated themselves, they each took half of the other’s sandwich and ate in silence for a few minutes. Upon looking around, Gackt realized his first assessment was right; the deli was in a nice part of town drawn back from the busy streets. It was one of those restaurants that only had a few costumers, but those that came were very loyal.

“…ackt?” he was suddenly called back to reality by Hyde calling his name, “Gackt?”

“Yea…? Sorry.” He realized that Hyde was staring at him, waiting for him to answer.

“No, its ok. I was just asking if other than your DVD if you had been working on any other projects?” Hyde did not seem in the least bit annoyed at thee fact that he had not been listening.

“No that one was fairly time consuming. I didn't even have enough time to bathe!” he tried to laugh it off, but given that it was true, it was a little bit hard.

“Yah, I know what you mean. Even though I was only doing a concert I spent half the time trying to get away from fan girls. Those Americans they are sure persistent, you can’t go any where without getting hounded!” Hyde in turn tried to make his life seem more humorous than it was in actuality.

“How did the concert go? I mean - I’ve hard that you can be pretty silly during lives.” Gackt had not only heard… he had seen too.

Hyde laughed for a minute and tried to regain his composure. “ Well… I tried to tone my self down a little, considering that this was the first time I have ever performed in the US, but well at least I didn’t forget any lyrics… I think so any way.” Hyde still was trying not to laugh once he had finished talking.

“Really? I would have never pinned you as one who thought to restrain himself for the fans! What about your comment about kissing Yukki?…” Crap! He had said too much. Sometimes Gackt’s mouth had a way of getting away from him.

The rest of the meal was eaten in relative silence, with the occasional comment. It had not even occurred to Gackt that Hyde had paid for his meal until after they had gotten into the car.

“No problem, its my treat! Think of it at a present for finishing your DVD if it will make you feel better.” Hyde said with a smile as he pulled the car away from the curb. “So how your love life going?”

“HUH… oh, umm I don't know…” Gackt had a girlfriend but…well, things were just not working out at the moment, because… well, he just plain didn't like her.

“Oh, what does that mean…?” Hyde was slightly anxious.

“Nothing really, my last girlfriend and I have had sort of a falling out recently, nothing too bad, really. It just sort of ended. Conflicts with work and such.” He was not quite sure why he was telling Hyde this. No one, not even You or Masa knew. “How about you? You have a new daughter I hear.” He wanted to change the subject as quickly as he could.

“Yeah, she’s an angel, but Megumi, I guess it's the whole new mother thing, but she’s been a little hard to deal with recently.” Hyde spoke with a sort of twisted face, like he was trying to find the right words.

“Hrm… yea it’s probably the new mother thing.” He wondered why Hyde would divulge the problems in his marriage to him.

Again there was an awkward silence. But this time it was not broken till they had reached Gackt’s house. Gackt did not want to miss this rare opportunity to see his friend, so he decided to be bold.

“Hey, umm. Do you want to come up? Maybe get drunk and go down to my shooting range or something?” He did not want to sound…sound something, but he knew he did not want to sound like whatever it was.

“Ok sure, it sounds better than going home to a crying baby.” Hyde seemed to perk up at the thought of not having to go home for a while.

When Gackt opened his door, they were confronted with a rather sad looking entry hall. It seemed that Gackt had forgotten all about his little mishap with his cigarette. Hyde had not, and he looked rather amused when they both stopped to stare at the black thing now commanding attention in his hall.

“What are you going to do with that?” Hyde asked, as if he already had an answer.

“ I was actually thinking about it when you called…” He was interrupted by the sudden outburst of Hyde’s laughter, “ What?”

“THAT’S what you were so perturbed about when I called! I thought you were in the middle of a composition session, I know how involved in those you can get.” Hyde still could not stop laughing.

All Gackt could do was pout. He knew that it was true. After a minute of standing and looking at each other, Hyde finally calmed down enough to speak properly.

“Its not that big of a deal. All you have to do is buy carpet in the came color, cut out the burnt part and replace it with the new carpet.” Hyde spoke as if he knew from experience.

“Oh really? I never thought of doing that…” Gackt felt kind of stupid, but the emotion subsided quickly.

“Yeah its pretty simple. Anyway, where is that alcohol you promised me?” Hyde was looking around again, as if the intoxication beverage would suddenly appear.

“Its in the kitchen. Make yourself comfortable while I get it; you remember where the living room is, right?” Hyde had been to his home a few times before, to work on the “MOON CHILD’ script.

“Just over there?” Hyde gestured down the hall and to the right looking at Gackt, who nodded.

As Hyde sauntered down the hall, Gackt found himself staring blatantly at his ass. When Gackt caught himself, he was confused as to why, but coming up with no explanation, he turned and went into the kitchen to get the wine.

“Is red OK?” he called to Hyde and hoped it was, because that was all he drank.

“Yes, thank you. Actually its all I’ll touch, for some reason I don't really like white wine.” Hyde spoke with a pleased tone to his voice, like he was very happy all of a sudden.

Upon walking into the living room he found Hyde sprawled out on his couch and watching TV.

“Damn how many channels do you have?” Hyde was flipping through channel after channel, trying to decide what to watch.

“To be honest I don't really know. Because I’m always working I don't have that much time to watch TV, but I have the premium cable package or something.” He spent more money on cable than he would like to admit, especially since he did not use it.