Author's Note: Yay! My second story! …Even though I haven't finished my first! So sue me I was struck with inspiration, can you blame me?

Anyhow … all characters belong to me. And me alone ::cheers:: and…well, "Mystrel" was the name of my brother's band before he changed it to…Carrion. Though I think Mystrel sounded prettier…but who am I to criticize? The only instrument I can play is the piano.

And the violin!

…Well, not really since I suck at violin. But I sing fairly well… well, apart from my life story which I seem to be giving in the friggin' author's note…go ahead and read.

And if you're wondering why in the title it has the band name next to it is because I'm thinking of doing another fic like this except through the point of view of one of Mystrel's rival bands or something.

Yes, as in my other one light traces of both shoujo and shounen-ai. And … well if you don't know what that is and are homophobic then I suggest you don't read, ya know?

Rise to Fame - Mystrel
Chapter One

The lights dimmed, hearts hammered, the crowd quieted into a dull murmur and then in the blink of an eye the stage brightened and the crowd erupted in a cry so loud that it set my blood on fire.

This was the moment. The moment I'd anticipated my entire life. My moment of glory, of fame; the moment in which I was assured that all my efforts were not in vain and that it was indeed possible for dreams to come true.

I waved at the crowd as I stepped up to the mic, grabbing it in my left hand and flashing a smile at the crowd which didn't even begin to express the utter happiness I felt at that moment.

Fan girls went wild and I cleared my throat as if asking for silence, "Hello everybody! It's great to be here! You are all a wonderful crowd. One of the best, wouldn't you agree? I think we should come here more often." I said, directing my attention to the band members who simply smiled as well sending the crowd into more squeals, screams, and shouts of: "We love you Mystrel!"

Mystrel being our band name by the way.

My heart still pounded as I nodded to the band members to begin the introduction to the song. We played punk rock, maybe even sort of pop-like ((A/N: My brother plays metal)) which I didn't like as much as other things but all I really cared about was singing.

"Just to show our sensitive side we've decided to play 'Mourning a Lost Cause' as our opening song."

The crowd became even louder still as I began singing into the microphone, packing as much emotion and feeling into my voice as possible wondering if they could hear the music at all over their own noise.

"Saw her face, fell in love.
Sorry to say that ain't the case."

I took in a short breath to keep my breathing even as I continued singing my song. Sure, the lyrics weren't that good but if I liked singing them and the crowd liked hearing them then I would never have any problem with them.

"Blond hair, blue eyes.
Sorry, but I just can't deal with the sacrifice.[1]
I need my freedom,
Can't be so demanding!
Ya gotta understand…
My cries for the future that could have been,
..a lost cause.

I couldn't help but smile at the crowd once again, making most of them stand up and cheer from their seats as my band members took over in an instrumental solo.

I don't really know what came over me then. Some sort of nostalgic wave just sort of washed over me, and I sighed and before I knew it I had jumped down into the mass of fans.

My fans.

I just thanked whatever God there was that my fate didn't lead me into the part where a group of people that were fighting to show how much they liked the music. They had a specific name for that, but it slipped my mind at that moment.

The rest of the concert passed quickly, and I soon found myself ushered back into our tour bus by our manager, Rose, er…Ross.

And for some reason Ross seemed very, very angry with me.

"What did you go and do that for! That wasn't planned! What were you thinking?!" he yelled angrily.

I shrugged, "What do you mean? If you're talking about the whole me jumping into the awaiting arms of my fans thing --"

"Of course that's what I'm talking about!" he replied, still not calming down.

Hehe, oops. "Is that all, Rosey?"

Just as Ross looked like he was about to yell a reply Cristopher; our lead guitarist and the ladies' man out of us all, stepped in.

"C'mon Rosey, just let it slide. He's spontaneous, the fans love it. I don't see why you're so upset."

Ross calmed down a bit listening to what the only natural blonde in the group was saying.

Michael, our drummer, coughed out a sentence sounding something like. "Ross likes Chris." This of course gained a playful whack from Jacob, our keyboarder.

"Looks who's talking." Jake said.

Mike rose an eyebrow and acted disgusted, "Are you suggesting that I'm gay?"

Jake laughed, "Are you admitting to being homophobic?"

Mike paused as if to think about the possibility, "Maybe I am."

"Better stay away from Rosey then." Jake replied, and both shared a long laugh.

We all teased Ross about being gay for two reasons: one, being he was way too pretty to be straight, and two, …well, his name.

Mike and Jake teased him most though. But that's how they were, and that's how they always were, and most likely will always be.

They were the type who pretended to be gay to ward of female fans, pretended to be homophobic, they would try anything that interested them really. Out of all of us Jake and Mike had been friends the longest and had stayed the closest even through our endless struggle to stardom. Most really believed that the two really were gay, or at least bisexual because of the way they always acted around one another.

Sylvie coughed to interrupt the staring contest between the two that had followed their short laughing fit.

Sylvie was our only female member, and strangely enough her instrument of choice was the bass guitar. She looked more like a pretty boy that you would see in a shounen-ai manga then a girl, or at least she looked like a tomboy-ish girl…which she was. She'd recently changed her hair color again, from shocking pink to viole(n)t purple.

Sylvie, Jake, and I were the three in our group with insane hair colors.

Ross insisted upon at least three band members having outrageous hair colors an/or styles at all times. He said it would help define Mystrel.

So, my hair was blue. Just plain old blue. Sylvie's was now purple, and Jake had sky blue hair.

And while I'm at it I may as well tell you everyone else's hair colors. Ross's hair was dark, blood red. Which gained him another nickname: Rose Red. I've already explained about Chris being blonde, and our last member, Mike, had dark brown hair.

"All joking put aside." Ross said going into serious mode, "Old man Edgar wants to see us tomorrow evening. He'll be coming to the concert and we're to meet him after the performance."

"What does old Eddie want to see us for?" I asked as I dug through the small refrigerator for some snacks. I always craved junk food after long concerts, or lectures.

"I'm not sure…" Ross replied, expression grim.

"Eh? It must be either really good or really bad for our manager not to know what our producer wants to see us for." Chris said, voicing the thoughts I couldn't voice myself due to the Oreos I'd just stuck in my mouth.

Ross didn't say anything more and sat on the couch next to Mike to watch Sylvie and Jake duel on the Playstation 2 game Tekken 4.

"Xiaoyu versus Jin." The game's computerized voice announced as our tour bus began moving towards our next destination and everyone had seated themselves either on the couch (Rosey & Mike), on the floor (Sylvie), on beanbags (Jake & Chris), or on a swivel chair (Me!).

"I play winner." Chris said as he watched Xiaoyu kick Jin's ass through endless combos.

Sylvie grinned and continued to attack Jin, knowing that it took a very skilled player to 'own' with Xiaoyu's fighting style, "Only if Jake-y boy here is willing to give up his controller."

"Don't corner me! Fucking cheater!" Jake yelled becoming pissed off as Sylvie only laughed.

"Perfect." The computerized voice said as if mocking Jake's defeat.

"What? No second round?" Jake asked confused as Chris took the controller from him.

"That was round two." Sylvie stated simply cover her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing too loud.

When it came to choosing characters Sylvie chose Xiaoyu again, since she was her favorite female character.

And with a wicked grin Chris chose none other then Xiaoyu's pet/friend…

…Panda.

"You can't use the bear!" Sylvie yelled, "It's not fair!" She had created that rhyme especially for this situation.

Chris shrugged, "Who wants to play me when Sylvie loses?"

"I'll play you next." I would've said, if I hadn't just finished stuffing my face with Teddy Grahams so instead I raised my hand and made small noises.

"So, J.T. plays me next then. After I kick Sylvie's ass!" he added with a purposely evil laugh.

J.T. stood for Jon Terry by the way. Terry being my middle name, so therefore everyone called me J.T.

Needless to say Panda almost beat Xiaoyu with flawless victory.

Sylvie's words were comprised of angry shouts of: "Argh!!! Let me hit you! Stupid bastard!! GAAH!!!" then some strangled cry and indiscernible words. She all but threw the PS2 controller at me, glaring at Chris and mutter things under her breath before saying out loud, "I'll rape your ass in both Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance AND Soul Calibur 2!"

Chris chuckled at his victory, "Sure Syl."

This time Chris chose Steve and I went ahead and chose Eddie by pressing one of the buttons on Christie.

I won. Without any effort.

"Anyone wanna play against me?" I asked, and to the silence I said, "VICTORY! I am the WINNER. All of you must worship me."

I was hit with one of Sylvie's combat boots and my bragging was silenced. I supposed the bragging rights weren't bestowed on the winner this time.

"Well, I'm going to go ahead and get some sleep. Long day tomorrow." Ross said stealing some of my Pocky.

"You better plan on buying me another bag of those then." I added motioning to my strawberry flavored Pocky.

Ross laughed, "I control all the numbers on your paycheck."

As if I needed to be reminded, "Take as much as you want, Rosey!" I replied crossing my arms and shutting off the Playstation before hooking up the Xbox. "Well you guys go to sleep or whatever you feel like I'm doing. I'm going to stay up and play Silent Hill."

"You do that." Jake replied in unison with Ross, though Ross sounded more uninterested then Jake. Jake went and fell onto the bottom bunk, Chris climbing to the one above his, and Jake and Mike heading to their bunks.

"Don't worry J.J.," I have no clue why she liked to double the J instead of having two separate letters, "I'll stay up and watch you play." Sylvie said, and went ahead and turned off the light, so the glow of the TV was all that lit the inside of the tour bus.

So, we were the only ones who would slowly begin to develop the dark circles underneath our eyes, eh? Well so be it!

Sylvie was perhaps my closest friend from Mystrel. She was just…cool. You could treat her like a guy and she'd be cool with it. She was like my older sister. There was nothing romantic between us though, but that made our friendship even stronger. Sometimes I even got the notion that she liked girls…but I think it might be my imagination.

She climbed onto my beanbag (that I sat on once Chris went to sleep) clutching at my arm and pointing at the screen with her free hand, "Look! Kill it, kill it!"

"Where'd it go?" I asked, wondering why they made this game so dark.

"How can you not see it? It's the bloody mass writhing around by that open door."

"Would you mind fixing the brightness for me Syl?" I pleaded.

She shrugged, "Sure thing." She replied and grabbed the remote control to the TV to raise the brightness.

After two hours of game play, I still felt as if I hadn't really accomplished anything in the game. So I saved the game and turned off the Xbox, after informing Sylvie and we both decided that it was sleep time.

"Know what game we should get?" Sylvie whispered as we felt our way to our bunks through the darkness.

"Hm?" I asked climbing to the top bunk as Sylvie got into the bed underneath mine.

"Doom."

"Or Resident Evil…" I added.

"Why not both?" she suggested.

"And Final Fantasy XI." I added again.

"Cool, an RPG for a change. I hear it's sort of like Baldur's Gate."

"Do you think we play too many video games?" I wondered aloud.

I couldn't see it but I could imaging her shrug, "Doesn't matter, though we should get more hobbies. I live for the animanga and all you have is you singing and video games."

"Goodnight." I replied with a yawn.

"Morning." She corrected, "Don't let the bed bugs bite. They bite pretty damned hard for microscopic things and I'll get the Raid out if I have to."

I couldn't help but laugh before falling will to the Sandman.

The Next Morning…

"Heey, get up you lazy bum." Sylvie said poking at my cheek before pinching and pulling at what she lovingly called 'flab', "We're at Burger King, aren't you hungry? It's 12:30. Time to get up."

I grimaced, "I hate Burger King."

She rolled her eyes and jumped off the ladder, "Anyway…hurry up."

I sat up bleary eyed and swung my legs over the top bunk rail before pushing myself off and jumping to the ground.

"You should make yourself presentable." Ross told me, "We're meeting the producer later today, in case you've forgotten."

I shrugged, "The concert's not until 5:30."

"5:00." Ross corrected, "And you have to be there a lot earlier to get ready." He then gave me the look that tells you there's absolutely no room for argument before he exited the tour bus and entered the Burger King, fully equipped with sunglasses, and a baseball cap.

I sighed and after playing Silent Hill all last night I decided I was uncomfortable being alone and adopted my own sunglasses, trench coat, and hat, and entered the fast food restaurant.

We all got our orders and ran back to the tour bus before any rabid fans could catch up to us or figure out who we were.

After the concert…

"Mystrel! How good it is to see all of you again. You're looking well. But I came here tonight bearing news which many of you can view as good, and others can view as bad."

That's how Edgar was, he said hello and got straight to the point before you even had a chance to greet him back.

"I've assigned you a new band member who will travel along with you all. Your music is good, but there is always room for improvement. So I hired someone who is specifically assigned to writing lyrics for you all."

I paused. Hey… my lyrics weren't that bad…okay, so maybe there were a bit pointless….

"So, I'd like you all to meet him now. Mystrel meet Benjiro [2] Harashi [3]. Ben meet Jon Terry Philips, Sylvie Copperwell, Ross O'Hagan, Cristopher Cunningham, Jacob Thompson, and Michael Lee."

We all looked towards our new member. Yes…the fangirls would now be pushed to their limits.

He had short, flipped silver hair. Not grey really…but silver. Silver silver. Bright green eyes, and all in all very ethereal looking.

He as our first green-eyes member. The following are our eye colors.

Me: Gray

Ross: Honey-colored/yellow-ish

Jake: Hazel

Mike: Blue

Chris: Brown

Sylvie: Wears one purple contact and one gold.

"Call me Ben." He said simply as an introduction.

"Jake."

"Chris."

"Mike."

Sylvie shrugged, "Er…Syl or Sylvie's fine by me."

"J.T." I said finally blinking, "Nice to meet you. Our producer's Ross, though we all call him Rosey, or just Rose."

Ben smiled slightly, "Well…that's an interesting nick name."

Not nearly as interesting as just continuously losing oneself in those intense eyes. I mean seriously…you need to meditate then all you have to do is look into his eyes and find your inner sanctum.

"I hope you all get to know each other well, and I have an appointment scheduled for 7:45, I'll be late if I don't leave now. Ciao." And with that he left. His goodbyes just like his hellos, never waiting for a damn response.

To be continued in Chapter Two.

I know, I know…how many times can you use the word 'crowd'? But I'm using a laptop with a lower version of Word and it doesn't have a thesaurus and there's no internet connection on it ::holds up floppy:: so don't kill me.

[1] ::giggling:: Instead of this line I was tempted to replace it with 'Sorry girl, I'm into guys.' But I didn't. Though my lyrics suck so much I doubt anyone would have minded! ::laugh::
[2] pronounced Ben-jee-rO
[3] pronounced Hah-rah-shee