Whats up people. This Chapter is NOT complete, but I wont be able to work on this for a little while so I decided to just post this as it is to try to keep up with OnceUponAnOriginal's wonderful story 'Every Good Girl Needs A Bad Boy'. So. read this chapter, tell me what you think, go read her story, tell her how much better she is than I am, then have a great weekend. Is that asking too much? If yes, feel free to skip ahead to the having a great weekend part. Anyways, with out much more blabbering.

Sounding of a Distant Land Chapter Seven: You complete...

"Look, I just need some time to myself. Okay? It's been nonstop for the last seven years, and I've given it my all every step of the way." Matt stared inside his mug as he swirled the remaining coffee 'round. "I don't want to make any final decisions, I just need some space right now."

"It's kind of cute that you brought me here to break up with me. Really it is." Akira said sarcastically sweet. "You really could've just called. You really SHOULD'VE just called. Because, as you know, which is partly the reason, as I'm sure you'll understand, why I'm so pissed off right now, we're incredibly busy. We have studio time booked in 10 days, the crew documenting the entire thing is supposed to arrive tomorrow."

"Akira I…"

"No, no, no. Please don't bother. You need some alone time. I get it. But all this time, you were so tirelessly doing this, were you alone? No, we were right there with you. Missing birthdays, and dates with friends and family, never mind the relationships we've all burned through because of this. Whenever things were going south in any of our lives you pushed us to keep going."

"I'm not sure what you want me to do man. I've thought about it a lot and I think that…"

"You think, 'oh, instead of talking to my best friend about what's going on in my life, I'm just going to quit on him and the band.' We have one bad tour and all of a sudden you're just going to pout because this is hard." Akira just stared at Matt, his mouth agape. "You suck, man."

Matt buried his head in his heads and collected his breath. The sound of the busy café, the espresso grinder and steam wands cutting through many other lively conversations and a generic soundtrack, helped to put him at ease. He sat up straight momentarily before leaning in, resting his elbows on the table and trying to look the person who'd shared his dreams for so long in the eyes. "Come on," he took a deep breath, "It wasn't just this one tour. I'd been thinking about this for…"

"Then why not fucking say something? Why wait til now?"

"I don't know." Matt said. " I just… didn't want to do anything that'd hurt our friendship."

As the words left Matt's mouth, Akira scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Well done Ishida." Akira stood up and grabbed his sunglasses. "That worked out real well."

Matt hung his head silently as the fuming Akira walked out of the café. He took a deep breath and picked himself up n his seat. He peered around the room, nobody seemed to have noticed what had just happened. The patrons in line all staring at the sign hanging above the staff behind the counter, who all wore a smile that he suddenly wanted to rid them of. Those who had already received their drinks were all engrossed in conversations or in their laptops and phones.

"Hmmm." he wondered to himself as he slouched back in his seat. He spent the next 10 minutes or so watching the people of the cafe before deciding to make his exit. Needing to clear his head, Matt decided to take the long way home around Odaiba Beach. Matt felt his pocket vibrating. He looked to see his band manager, Shinji, calling his phone. Not really feeling up to dealing with it at the moment he let it go to voice mail. That wasn't going to be a very pleasant conversation. Not that many conversations were going to be very pleasant the next few days. He felt his phone vibrating, his band manager had left a voice mail, and then vibrated again. He checked to text, also from Shinji. 'Is it true?'

The message from Shinji had made what had happened earlier start to feel real. As Matt walked down the road he saw a neon Sapporo Ichiban sign in the window of a bar down a ways. Just beyond that bar was a small grocery store, which is how Matt realized what would help take his mind off of everything that was going on. He unlocked his phone and typed a message to Taichi. ' Dinner at my place. Bring the household.'

Matt set his grocery bags on the floor and set about preparing his kitchen to cook for his guests. After setting his oven, he laid his cutting board on a damp rag and cut the apples and onion, dropping them into a roasting dish then covering them with a few sage leaves and apple cider. After cleaning the counter of the onion skin and sage leaves and sharpening his knife, Matt placed the pork belly in the center of the cutting board and gently scored through the fat, just to the meat, in neat parallel lines down the entirety of the piece. He rubbed a salt/vinegar combo into each cut before placing it on top of the vegetables and setting it in the oven and setting a timer.

After finishing the prep of the potatoes, carrots and garlic to be added to the roast halfway through, he gently washed rice in the sink while preparing an ice bath for the salad. He was thinking a simple mixed green salad with a basic vinaigrette and maybe onions, tomatoes and capers, nothing too fancy.

With some time to kill, Matt decided to have a beer and throw a movie on. He settled for the first film Netflix recommended to him, Porco Rosso, and opened a bottle of something missing its label- it was really sweet, maybe a cider?- and took a seat on the couch.

Shortly into the movie, Matt felt his phone vibrating, he reached into his pocket to find an incoming call from Yukata. Matt stared at it briefly, considered answering the call, before sending it to voice mail. He felt bad about ignoring him, he even thought about calling him back, that is, until he called right back. Matt looked at the screen intensely as he though about what to do. All of this was going to have to be addressed sooner or later, so Matt decided to do what was right.

For him.

He sent him again to his voicemail, later sounded much better than sooner. His phone began to ring yet again and, instinctively, he again ignored the caller. As his phone messaged Matt about Yukata's voicemail, he noticed the previous caller had actually been Tai.

"Oops." Matt quickly tapped Tai's contact and called him back.

"Hey, man." Matt called into the phone, pausing the movie.

"Hey I just wanted to let you know I got your message, and that its probably going to be just the four of us tonight.

"Cool, that sounds good."

"Should I bring anything?"

"If you want, but I think I have everything covered though."

"Right on man, I'll see you later."

"Later." Tai hung up, and Matt settled back into the movie.

A few more times Matt had to pause the movie. First, an hour or so into the movie, the oven timer went off so Matt retreated into the kitchen. He pulled his toast out of the oven and added in the garlic and vegetables he'd prepared earlier drizzling olive oil over all the contents of the pan and dropping in a few sprigs of thyme. He put the roast back in the oven, set a new timer, and settled back in in the couch. Before he paused the movie again to head back into the kitchen to take the lettuce out of its ice bath and finish putting the salad together, which he did, covered the bowl in plastic wrap, and set it in the fridge. He started the rice maker and put a pot of water on the stove to boil when he heard a knocking at his front door.

"Heeey, good to see youuuthat smells fucking good." Tai smiled and gave Matt a small hug as he entered.

"Wow, it does smell great in here." Sora echoed with as she too embraced Matt. "Good to see you, thanks for having us." Sora smiled as she walked past and into the living room. "I love this movie." she motioned to Tai.

"Hey Matt." Kari greeted, stepping into his apartment, gently wrapping her arms around his waist. "Nice to see you cleaned up a bit."

"Yeah, thanks it's good to see you too." Matt shut the door behind her and rearranged their shoes before joining everyone in the living room.

"Drinks?"

"Yes"

"Sure."

"Please." his guests answered simultaneously.

Matt wandered into the kitchen, and opened a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, pouring a glass for everyone.

"Here we are." Matt passed out the drinks with a smile, and held up his one remaining glass. "Thanks for being you, and for always being here, you guys are awesome, cheers."

"Cheers." the rest of the group joined in, clinking their glasses together.