It was the ending of Ikuto Tsukiyomi's final concert of the year and he had just finished singing his last song of the night. Even with the plugs in his ears to protect his hearing from the instruments, he could hear all his fans cheering and screaming for an encore. "I'm sorry guys, but tonight I cannot give you an encore. Though it shall not be without a cause! Thank you all for coming out tonight and I love all of you! Have a good night!" With the last of Ikuto's words, the fans screamed and cheered as we walked off stage.

The blue haired teenager turned off his microphone and sighed as he walked into his tour bus. "Hello Tsukiyomi-sama. Are you ready for tomorrow?" His manager, Yuu Nikaidou asked him. The tall orange-brown haired man stood there, waiting for an answer. Satisfied that he got a nod out of the teenager, he started to talk again. "Good. Take these next couple of weeks to rest. They won't need you until the scheduled start date and remember to get there early. It would look bad on all of us if you were late."

*~OoOoOoO~*

It was a late night and three girls were still up, watching whatever was currently playing on the television that was in pink bedroom. Two blonde haired girls sat next to each other while the pink haired girl stood up. "Girls, guess what time it is." She spoke as the two blondes looked at each other in confusion. "Ice cream time! Obviously!"

"Amu," the smaller blonde said as she moved some of her bangs out of her golden-yellow eyes. "We have to participate in The X-Factor tomorrow. We can't stay up all night. Even our bass player is asleep."

"Rima does have a point, Amu-chan. We need to rest up and practice in morning for it. It's pretty important if we want our dream to come true." The taller blonde said as she messed with her pigtails, causing them to come undone and her hair to cascade down her shoulders and back naturally. She stared at her pink haired friend, a knowing look in her purple eyes.

Sighing, Amu knew she was defeated. "Alright, girls. Alright. You win." She brushed her own pink bangs out of her golden gaze before sitting on her bed, next to Rima. "Though, we have been practicing for weeks now. I'm not sure why you want to practice in the morning." Feeling a tug on her sleeve, she looked down at her smaller friend who was already laying down on her bed. It was a clear indication that Rima wanted her to lay down next to her.

"Because, Amu-chan, this could be our one shot. We've been dreaming about this, as a band, for four years." The purple eyed friend, Utau, stated with a pout. She wasn't exactly happy that Amu had to share a bed with the other girl—but they had come to an agreement that they would take turns, and tonight it was Rima's. "We can talk more about this in the morning."

*~OoOoOoO~*

The girls sat down in the waiting room, though this time the bassist was with them. The brown-haired girl smiled, holding a case as her pigtails bobbed as they walked to sit down in one of the open seats. "Yaya-chan is excited!" Almost dropping her case, the brown-eyed brown-haired girl known as Yaya jumped onto Amu in a hug. "Amu-chi are you excited?"

Amu visibly paled before prying the girl from her. "Yes, I'm excited. You need to calm down before you use all your energy before we even get on stage." Watching the girl's face as she gave her a nod, Amu sat down and attempted to calm her beating heart. She always dreamed about this, but that didn't' mean she was any less nervous or scared. Have all the attention on her was never thing—even if her classmates disagreed on that.

Utau smiled and shook her head, her blond pig-tails following suit. Her purple eyes followed the pinkett in her movements, concern showing through. "Amu-chan, you need to calm down yourself." It took no time for the blonde to sit next to her friend in an empty chair and set her case down, which earned her an empty glare from Rima. "We can do this, we've practiced for years for a chance like this."

Rima took this chance to sit in front of Amu and lay her head in her friend's lap to get her attention. "Dumb-chi is right. We can do this. We've dreamed of this." The blond-haired girl smiled as her best friend started to play with her hair. "We will be fine. We know what we're going to sing and all we have to do is hope they will like it."

"Which they will because Amu-chi has an amazing voice and we're amazing!" This caused each girl to pause and look at their bassist before they started to laugh together. Yaya always had a way to liven up the mood. After a few minutes of quiet giggles, Amu continued to play with Rima's hair as they discussed the song they were singing and prepare answers for questions that they thought they would be asked.

It wasn't until a camera came into their faces as a man sat next to them that they stopped their conversation and smiled. "Hello there!" the man said as he looked into the camera with a microphone in hand. "We are here with a group of girls, which from how they are acting, it's safe to assume you're a band." His questioning look toward the girls changed as they nodded. "Please, let me welcome you to The X-Factor Finals! Congratulations on making it this far. I know entering and competing wasn't easy!" Each girl took note that this wasn't the usual guy who talked to them, he must have been new.

Each of the girls laughed and smiled. "No, it wasn't." Utau stated for them, her purple eyes gazed at the man. "Even so, we're glad we made it this far and we are excited to see who this guest judge will be. I know there are only a hand-full of us left and this is the finals after all."

Utau humored the reporter until they were told that they had five minutes left before going to perform. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but it looks like we have to take our leave!"

The reporter smiled as each girl left before looking back to the camera. "I don't know about you, but I am excited to see how these girls will turn out with the final's guest judge!"

Ikuto sat down next to the judges. Why did I agree to do this? Sighing, he looked up at the stage waiting for the next group or individual to walk on. He was bored to say the least, no one seemed to have peaked his interest. While they were good, none of them seemed to have what it took. Straying from his musings, his attention changed toward the stage once the crowed started clapping. His eyes watched four girls walk up, one brown-haired girl, one blond midget, his sister—to his surprise—then finally a pink haired girl.

The brown-haired girl wore all black. Her shirt was sleeveless, but it was a turtle neck and hung down a little. He had long black gloves on that went from her wrist to just above her elbow. She wore block boots and black shorts with it, and to top it all off, she had a spiked belt on. Her hair was pulled back into two little pigtails that were held in place with black ribbons. She bent down and opened her case, revealing a bass guitar. Soon she started tuning and she started talking to the others.

The small blonde one was wearing a white dress shirt with a black tie on. She had long black pants with a chain hanging from them. Parts of her hair were pulled back by a small headband with a blow in the middle of it, also black. She walked over to the side of the stage and pulled a drum set out that they kept for them.

His sister had on a purple tank top and a long black shirt that turned into pants. A part of it went off her right shoulder to form a long sleeve. She wore a dark purple belt to keep her outfit in place and black heels. She also bent down and opened her case, taking out an electric guitar and started tuning. It was surprising to him that his sister wasn't in front of the microphone. That honor seemed to go to the pinkett.

Said pinkett wore a white shirt that showed off her midriff and fell off her left shoulder. The sleeve on that side was long enough to go to about her forearm. On the right side, the sleeve was short, and she had on a pink glove that went a little above her elbow. She wore black short shorts that were held up by a pink belt. She even had black and white stripped stockings that went up to her thighs to match the tie loosely tied long her neck. Her pink hair partly up in a side ponytail with a black x-clip holding in place.

The judges looked at them and started talking. "Well, looks like Bad Harmony is back. How have you girls been?" Ikuto stared at his sister, who seemed to stare right back. It was clear that neither of them had expected to see the other. At least, not like this.

The pink haired girl seemed to open her mouth, but the smaller blonde soon spoke from behind her drum set. "We've been alright."

"And what will you be singing for us today?"

"You shouldn't be surprised that it's something that we wrote, it's called Homecoming."

Being dismissed by the judges with a smile, the girls looked at each other. Ikuto watched the four girls with amusement. There was no way Utau would give up being the lead singer so easily, so what made her do so? The pinkett nodded toward the girls as the sound of a music box seemed to echo through the auditorium before the girls started, putting their hearts into it.

(Homecoming - Hey Monday) (Italics = Amu) (Bold = Backup) (Both = All)

Homecoming
I'm coming
My sweet mistake
Summer's over
Hope it's not too late

I'm pacing
Impatient
Up in my head
Taken back to the sidewalk
Where we met
And carved out our names
Do you remember that?

I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Did you take off while I was gone?
I missed it all
I messed you up
I missed you
I'm coming home
I wanna know
When all the leaves begin to fall
If I'm falling
Falling apart
For you

Descending
I'm spinning
Lost all defense
How could you swallow me again?
I left you
I meant to
Couldn't let you in
Nevermind a single word I said
Carve out your name
Do you remember that?

I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Did you take off while I was gone?
I missed it all
I messed you up
I missed you
I'm coming home
I wanna know
When all the leaves begin to fall
If I'm falling
Falling apart

You've got control of me
Is this the end of me?
'Cause I just can't cut up the strings
I'm coming back for more
Don't let your heart go
Please don't walk away

Homecoming
I'm coming
I'm coming back

I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Did you take off while I was gone?
I missed it all
I messed you up
I missed you
I'm coming home
I wanna know
When all the leaves begin to fall
If I'm falling
Falling apart

I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Did you take off while I was gone?
I missed it all
I messed you up
I missed you
I'm coming home
I wanna know
When all the leaves begin to fall
If I'm falling
Falling apart
For you

The girls stood there in silence as the crowd clapped and cheered. Amu looked to her friends as they put down their instruments-or in Rima's case, drumsticks-and walked to her, engulfing her in a hug.

One of the judges spoke out, "Who wrote this?"

Amu spoke up, mustering all the courage she could. "I did. I write all of our music."

"It's spectacular!" The other judges, besides the pop singer, nodded. "We expected nothing less from Bad Harmony. You've surprised us every step of the way!" Each judge took their turns saying yes, until they got to Ikuto. He sat there and just stared them down, not wanting to waver. He enjoyed watching the panic is the girls' eyes, including his sister's. "Your playing was armature, I've got to give you that...but I guess yes."

All the girls smiled, and Yaya started jumping, and grabbed onto Amu for dear life. Amu only smiled at their bassist; he was in shock to say the least. They had won with four yesses. This was the start of their break—at least that's what she hoped.

The girls quickly packed up their instruments and ran off stage giggling. The reporter quickly caught up with the girls. "For yesses! Girls that was amazing! How do you girls feel about being the ones to open for Ikuto's next concert?"

Amu smiled and let Utau take the lead. It was well known among the group that the pinkett didn't care much for the guitarist's brother. "It's an amazing opportunity for us all! We can't wait."

Smiling, the report turned back to the camera. "There you have it folks! This year's winners of The X-Factor: Bad Harmony!"