Chapter 1
"Okay okay, and now the bits you've all been waiting for! The collaborations! I would never have made it so far in my career if I wasn't constantly inspired to work as hard as I did, so please everyone put your hands together for my friend: Yuzuru Hanyu!"
The performer on the stage set the microphone back in the stand and applauded along with the crowd as a singer with a black electric guitar over his back walked on. His black hair was gelled out of his eyes, and his ripped jeans and tour shirt gave off a different vibe to the other performer's soft grey jumper and pale blue jeans. They exchanged a hug, being mindful of the guitar, before they parted. The guitar was set down before they both took a microphone in their hands.
"Thank you so much Yuzu for joining me here." The crowd screamed and both the men exchanged a smile. "It means the world, and I know the people of Madrid are so happy to see you."
"I love performing, and everyone in Spain is always so lovely. Hola Madrid!" Yuzuru called into his microphone and was met with screams of happiness. "Gracias!"
"Do you want to announce the song, or should I?" the other teased him. "Is your Spanish good enough?" He turned to the crowd, laughing and bringing them on side. "What do you guys think? Should Yuzu introduce the song?"
A yell of YES rippled through the arena and Yuzuru giggled into the microphone, scrunching up his nose as he spoke with the most adorable Spanish accent. "La siguiente canción es Lovely!"
The gentle notes of the piano and strings rang out through the speakers as the screams from the crowd died down, and the two performers looked over at each other before Yuzuru started off, singing the song that they'd written together in the studio all those years ago. Lights from people's phones lit up the darkness of the crowd, creating a sea of stars around them. They didn't have an intense dance to distract from the music; it was just them and the light accompaniment. The crowd loved it, and there was a very brief moment of silence after the last notes and the word "home" finished resonating through the venue. The two performers turned to each other and exchanged a smirk when more upbeat music came through the speakers eliciting a shriek of excitement from the crowd. The pair of them danced to this one, looking like polar opposites between the softness of the Spaniard and the hard rock of the Japanese. Their performance to Beautiful Liar, another duet that they had written together, had the crowd cheering and dancing along with them as the two moved in beautiful synchronisation even though they hadn't practiced it in forever. They swapped the lead and backing vocals between the pair of them and the song was over much too soon for anyone. It was a fan favourite song; the two men were both attractive but in very different ways and their styles brought it out. Yuzuru was androgynous with heavy dark makeup and combat boots whereas Javier looked much more masculine and softened it up with his clothing choices. On the stage, they looked like a dream and a nightmare rolled into one and the crowd screamed and cheered for at least one more song between them.
"Do you think we should give them one more song?"
"I don't know Javi," Yuzuru tapped his chin with that cheeky smile, black painted nail trailing over his soft skin, "Do they really want a third song?"
The crowd screamed and cheered but Javier just tilted his head at them. "I'm not sure, Yuzu. I don't think they do. Do you?" He asked the crowd, earning louder cheers in response. "We can't hear you!"
The crowd screamed even louder and both performers burst out laughing into their microphones.
"Well," Javier said with a chuckle, "then we have another guest to welcome to the stage! Ladies and gentlemen, Damas y caballeros, please welcome, por favor bienvenidos, Korean superstar, Jun Hwan Cha!"
From the wings, a nervous but smiling Korean teenager in one of the tours' shirts and soft pale blue jeans stepped out, waving to the crowd and saying his thanks to them into his microphone. While the other two used standing mics that they would take off the stands, Jun had a microphone that wound around his head so that he had both hands free for the legendary dances that got his videos millions of views and sent him skyrocketing up the charts. The crowd cooed for him as he made his little Korean hearts to them before he sat down at the piano, looking to the other performers before he started to play the sad and gentle chords that started of the Spanish duet that the two had recorded together. Javier had taught it to Jun before the tour so that the three of them could do this beautiful performance at the very last stop.
A pin drop could have been heard as the two performers sang the emotional duet together. The emotions could be felt through the music, through the Spanish words, through the soft piano notes, and from the very simple performance. They didn't do a flashy intense dance. The two singers stood beside each other, looking to the other instead of the audience as they performed. Me muero por conocerte was one of Javier's best selling songs ever, and the emotion was most of the reason why. They held the audience in the palm of their hands for the entire duration, and there were a good few seconds of silence after Jun had ended the final piano chord. The crowd then erupted into applause and the three bowed together in a line.
"Alright!" Javier spoke into his microphone when the screaming died down. "We're getting near the end but there's just enough time for a few other performances. So Yuzu and I are going to go and give this one," he patted Jun on the head, much to the amusement of the crowd, "his moment in the spotlight. Once again ladies and gentlemen, Jun Hwan Cha, performing Really really!"
As the two left the stage, the crew cleared off the microphone stands and Yuzuru picked up his guitar so that Jun had space for his complicated dance with his backing performers. The peppy and upbeat song started and Yuzuru sighed, sitting down backstage as he adjusted his guitar tuning quietly.
"Two minutes until you're performing again," he was instructed and he nodded, accepting the water bottle handed to him as he watched Jun dancing around on the screen. How the child had that much energy, he wouldn't know; he guessed adrenaline had something to do with it. He and the crew bopped along to the music, enjoying the performance Jun gave and they applauded him when he pulled his final pose and was enveloped in rapturous applause.
"Gracias Madrid!" His accent was almost as cute as Yuzuru's and he made his Korean hearts before waving to the crowd. "And now, y ahora, por favor bienvenidos, sensación de rock japonés, Yuzuru Hanyu!"
The crowd screeched with excitement as Jun left the stage on one side and Yuzuru came on with his black electric guitar. A microphone was set up for him at the front of the stage and he spoke into it with a bright smile.
"Hola again Madrid! How are we all doing?" He was met with a scream before he over dramatically looked down at his guitar and shook his head. "Looks like I've got the wrong guitar for this song. Oops!"
The crowd squealed with excitement as a crew member brought out Yuzuru's other black guitar. It had Kaneki's face on part of it and Yuzuru strummed a couple of chords before he grinned.
"Oshiete oshiete yo sono shikumi wo."
The crowd went insane as Yuzuru started to play his most famous song. Made extra famous by the Tokyo Ghoul anime, Unravel was a fan favourite out of all Yuzuru's songs and he liked to end his concerts on it. He'd got the Kaneki guitar when he'd recorded it for the anime and it became as much a part of the Unravel performance as the lyrics or chords. With his dark eyes framed with heavy and intense eyeliner, Yuzuru threw himself into the performance and the crowd soaked it all up, enjoying every moment right up until the last chord. The screamed again, cheering for him and clamouring for more, and Yuzuru took the microphone in his right hand.
"Thank you so much Spain! Gracias España! And now, for his final performance, de España, Javier Fernandez!"
Yuzuru gestured to the other as he came onstage, giving Yuzuru a hug as they both minded the guitar before Yuzuru left and Javier took the microphone.
"For this last piece, I need some help I think." He gestured to the piano and waved at the wings. "Come on Jun! I need your help here!"
The teenager rushed out, bowing to the audience again, before he took his place at the piano coloured in pastel blues and pink. He played the gentle opening notes and, as the crowd recognised it, they lit their phone lights and started swaying too. Javier's voice was delicate, gentle, and held an almost sad, wistful tone as he sang. Prometo. I promise. Audience members started crying partway through as the performance seemed to hold a different emotional weight. Javier always finished off his performances with Prometo, like Yuzuru finished them off with Unravel, but this time it felt much more emotional and felt like it held more weight in it. The crowd in Madrid applauded much louder than they had at the end of the song and Javier bowed to them several times before he brought Yuzuru and Jun to stand with him and bowed with them.
"I just wanna say, just before you all go, thank you so much for coming here. All of you. I've been considering this for a while now, and as I'm sure many of you have guessed, this is my last tour as a performing artist." Gasps and little shouts of no echoed around the arena but almost everyone was focused only on Javier. "I've loved it. It's been the best thing in the world, getting to perform for all of you and spreading my love of music to the world, but I think I'd like to go into production rather than performance. So, what better place to end it than the city I started in?" Javier gave a very tearful smile before he kept speaking. "Thank you Madrid. Gracias Madrid! Y te prometo que vamos a volvernos eternos."
Applause broke out through the crowd as the three performers left the stage, letting it go dark. Backstage Jun was all but whisked away by one of his managers who was speaking rapid fire Korean at him, leaving Yuzuru and Javier backstage together.
"You are so bad," Yuzuru shook his head at Javier as tears ran down his cheeks. "You're so lucky that I only wear water and tear-proof eye makeup and eyeliner. You didn't think to tell me before hand that this was your last ever tour?"
"Because you would have begged me to stay," Javier said with tearful eyes before he sighed and gave Yuzuru a weak smile. "You know, you're welcome to stay in--"
"I'd love to," Yuzuru mumbled to him, "but you know I can't."
"Yeah. Fans, huh?" Javier stood by him as Yuzuru packed up his two guitars, letting his managers and stylists pack up everything else for him.
"Fans," Yuzuru said with a little grimace but he burst out laughing when they reached the gift boxes Javier had left in the foyer of the arena. Yuzuru's was overflowing with Pooh bears and flowers, and Javi's was overflowing with flowers and heart plushies. They exchanged a smile when they spotted Yuzuru's stylist and, separating the flowers and letters out, they put the plushies in a large pile before they let him film the pair of them jumping into them, giggling.
"Thanks for an amazing tour!" Javier said to the camera before Keiji uploaded it to his Instagram live. "And thank you so much for coming, Yuzuru. It wouldn't have been the same without you." He and Yuzuru gave each other a tight hug before Yuzuru was all but ushered into his vehicle by Keiji.
"See you soon!" Yuzuru called after him before the door was shut and he slumped down in the seat in the car, sitting between his guitars and a bag filled with the pooh bear plushies he'd been gifted by the fans. "What now?" He mumbled to Keiji.
"Now," his stylist waved plane tickets in front of him, "we're going to rest at your hotel room. Then, tomorrow morning, we'll go and donate these pooh bears to a hospital, and in the afternoon we're going back to Toronto."
"To start work on my new album," Yuzuru nodded. "I've got some ideas already."
"Great, great, you want to tell me so I can start designing your cover art and we can arrange photo shoots with Ryuju for the promotional material?"
"The theme is grief. It's my seventh album. The Seven Stages of Grief."
Keiji raised an eyebrow at him but nodded, jotting something down in his notebook. "I've already contacted Brian for you so you can rest up tonight."
"Thanks, Keiji."
"Hi everyone!" Yuzuru waved at the camera before he held up a Kaneki decorated Pooh bear. "Thank you so much for all your kind gifts! I picked out this one and Keiji picked out," he reached around and picked up a pooh bear in a bee costume, "this one! The rest we will be donating to Hosptial Infantil Universitario Niño Jesus for the kids! Thank you guys so much for all your support and I'll start working on the next album soon! Bye bye!"