The hotel was amazing, wicked, intense, insane, made for royalty. Okay, so the guys didn’t hold as high an opinion as I did but I had never stayed in a five star hotel before! The band rented out the whole top floor and it was killer! The view over the street was gorgeous in the city view kind of way.

Like most upper class hotels. Most of the rooms had doors that connected to another room next to them. Lucky me, I had the room in the dead center of the floor, so my room connected to both of the rooms on either side of me. I was guessing it was probably Georg on one side because he’s by bro and Gustav on the other because I’ve known him for years. The logic of a music crew, it never ceases to amaze me.

Aside from the doors to other rooms, I had a nice king size bed; a couple comfy chairs by the floor to ceiling widows; small counter complete with sink, cabinets, mini fridge, and a microwave; a closet; and, my favorite feature, a large bathroom with Jacuzzi bathtub. I couldn’t wait to try out the tub! But that would have to wait until after the concert.

I let out a happy sigh and dropped onto one of the chairs, throwing my legs over one arm and leaning against the other. A slow smile spread across my face as I realized that I really was in America. I’d finally come to the U.S. It was so weird hearing everyone around me speaking English. Yeah, sure, I could understand most of it but I wasn’t used to it at all.

Just for the fun of it, I plucked the hotel phone from its cradle and ordered some room service. The boy who answered the phone sounded cute, or maybe it was just the accent, either way I was hoping he was going to deliver my snack. I’d just dropped the phone again when I heard a loud rapping on the door connecting me to the room to the left of mine.

I knocked on the wall next to me as a response that I was coming and to chill out. It was probably Georg wanting to borrow the hair straightener that I got at the airport knowing that his would probably blow out the power if he tried to use the adapter. I winced remembering the story my friend in Washington told me about when she and her friend went to Paris and London for a week and blew out the power in both hotels.

I rolled my eyes as my loser brother kept knocking. Seriously, he had no patience. I unlocked and yanked the door open saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, chill out, Geo-” Of course, to my surprise, it wasn’t my older brother standing in front of me. “Oh. It’s you. What do you want?”

My glare was met by an equally surprised yet equally pissed off face. Tugging his cap lower, Tom said, “What the hell? This is supposed to be Bill’s room! What are you doing here?”

I just cocked my hip to the side and rested my fist on it. “Excuse me?” I accused. “This is my room. Bill is elsewhere. You can try checking but I’m pretty sure I’m not hiding your brother in my closet. Try checking with the front desk or Jost before banging on people’s doors, ‘kay?”

With that said, I slammed the door in his face and locked it from my side. Jerk, I thought. He thought he was king of the world and God’s gift to women. Well, news flash, dude! You’re not that great! Jeeze!

I pulled at my labret lip piercing that I got just before leaving with the guys. Yeah, it was still slightly sore but I didn’t care. When I was ticked I had taken to lightly tugging on it with my teeth to calm my nerves. It was just a simple silver stud in the middle of my lip. I thought it was rather elegant but still gave off that “yeah, I’m bad” attitude that I thrived on without even trying.

I gave up on giving a damn about the wannabe gangster and started to unpack. We were only there for one night but I threw everything together so much I had to dig for anything I might need. It was easier to just throw it all over the floor. After only a few minutes I heard knocking again.

I huffed in annoyance before yelling, “Go away, Tom. Bill isn’t in here!”

The knocking continued so I decided to go knock him down an ego level or two but as I reached the middle of the room I realized the knocking wasn’t from the door to Tom’s room; it was from the other door. Slightly confused, I padded my way over to the door silently before tugging it open.

Tilting my head back a bit, I looked up to see the other Kaulitz twin. I was surrounded. Great. But rather than come off as a bitch I decided to be nice. “Hi, Bill. Sorry but Tom is in the next room over.”

“Oh,” the look on Bill’s face clearly read surprised and maybe even disappointed. Freaky twins. “Well, I guess it’s nice to connect to your room for the first night so that I can get to know you a bit more.”

I smiled at Bill’s kind face. “Yeah,” I replied. “That would be fun. But if you need to talk to Tom, my room connects to his too. If you want you can just come through here. He seems convinced that this is your room and I’m just at the door to keep him out.” I gestured over my shoulder at the other door as I mentioned it.

“Oh, okay, thanks!” Bill beamed. I saw why all the girls swooned for the singer. He wasn’t just gorgeous, he was adorable. “What I need to say can wait till later. Oh! But Jost told me to tell you that if you’re going to the concert with us you need to be ready in one hour.”

“Got it,” I said, making a mental note to recharge my iPod. “Thanks. I take it it’s a meet in the lobby at a certain time thing?”

“Not really,” Bill responded, shifting to lean on one foot. “We generally meet in the hall with security so we don’t get attacked by fans on the way down. Trust me, it’s happened before.

I just shook my head sadly. “No offense, but your fans are insane.”

Bill just shrugged and smiled. “That may be true but they’re our fans and for that I can’t help but love them.”

My eye twitched as I held in a laugh. Oh boy would his fans go insane to hear him say those last six words. I quickly recovered, noticing the funny look I was getting, by saying, “Well, have fun with that. I’m going to start getting ready even though I’m not the one on stage.”

“Alright,” Bill smiled. “I’ll knock on your door when it’s time to go.”

I nodded and closed the door as he closed his. Yeah, weird double layer door thing so we can open a door from both sides. I decided to leave the door to Bill’s room unlocked. I really had no reason to distrust him anyway.

Scurrying to my bag, I pulled out my beloved laptop. It took only minutes for it to boot up so I could plug in my baby. Having iTunes open already I decided to crank up something to listen to. I just went with the first thing that caught my eye. This time it was The End by Simple Plan.

I really didn’t have anything to do to get ready so I grabbed Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison out of my bag, plopped into the same chair again, and cracked the book open to the page I had left off on.

~*~

I glanced at my watched and jumped up a millisecond before Bill knocked on the door again. Oh I am good! I just smiled and set the book down before making a beeline for my computer. Yeah, I was going to a concert and I was going to hang out just off stage but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to listen to music on the way there or back. My lime green baby went everywhere with me.

“Coming!” I hollered before glancing in the mirror. All I saw was the usual. Currently that consisted of brown cargo pants, kick ass combat boots, a Vanilla Ninja tee shirt with dark blue fish net underneath, and my favorite sunglasses on top of my head. Yeah, I was set for anything.

As I walked out the door to the hallway I plugged in and cranked up Liar by Vanilla Ninja. If anyone had a problem with my music they could shove it up their butt or I would do it for them. I barely remembered to swipe my key card off the table by the door before heading out. I found that everyone else except for Tom was out and ready to go. Gustav was pounding on Tom’s door telling him to get his lazy gangster ass moving.

I just rolled my eyes and proceeded to look bored. By the time Tom finally joined the rest of us we were being rushed to the elevator while Jost was going on about being crunched for time as it was. Jeeze, managers were so uptight. Maybe he was the one who needed a break, not the band.

We hadn’t been in the hotel for more that two hours and there was already a sea of girls outside all screaming and chanting the band name. Talk about needing to take a chill pill. Tokio Hotel was just a rock band. It’s not like they were Jesus Christ come back to walk the earth and spout wisdom. While the guys were signing random things shoved at them, I was cover with a blanket and escorted by security so no one would see me leaving with the band.

The screams were muffled once we were inside the van and my eardrums were grateful. I put my music on pause, knowing I wouldn’t be able to hear much of anything for a few minutes. I rubbed one ear and commented to no one in particular, “That’s it, I will never be famous. Ever!”

I could hear a couple chuckles but didn’t care to see who it was. I just relaxed back into the seat and waited to get to the venue. It wasn’t that far but with lack of music I was bored. Watching the city was only so entertaining after I realized it looked like almost any other major city in the world. So, I made a try for music and was grateful I could hear it without turning it up so loud that the driver could hear it.

I grinned at the thought of subjecting everyone in the van to Estonian music. That would be hilarious, especially if it was actually in Estonian like Klubikuninga. Thinking I might try that sometime, I was pulled out of the van by Gustav before being pulled through a back door.

Crew was busy everywhere; setting things up, running errands, anything to get the show ready and the stars happy. My head was snapping from side to side lazily as I watched people scurry like rats. They seemed to move faster as they spotted the band. Pathetic.

Meanwhile, the band was lead to a separate room to chill out and work through pre-show jitters. It was actually pretty entertaining. I got to hang with them before the show and watch them silently freak out about the first show of the new tour. Plus, for Bill, new songs in English along with the old ones; he was probably the most nervous of them all. He was pacing the room, humming and singing scales over and over again.

Georg and Gustav were trying to not seem nervous but Gustav was in the corner with woofer headphones blasting some kind of rock (I would bet money that it was Metallica) while he tapped out the drum beat on his legs. Georg was sitting next to Tom on one of the couches fingering and strumming an unknown song.

I, on the other hand, was just lounging on an empty chair with my arms crossed and an entertained grin as I watched the boys. I was trying to decide whether I should say something supporting, wise, distracting, or to just plain shut up. I sided with the wise old woman shit that people never really believe but generally helps.

“You know, whether it’s anger, passion, excitement, or nerves you have adrenaline pumping through your system. It has to be let out somehow. So save that energy you’re all feeling now and use it to give the audience a wicked awesome show! You choose how to release it. You know the moves, you know the songs, let your muscles take over and rock it out!”

I was starting to feel like a total idiot when no one reacted at first. It wasn’t until Bill stopped pacing that I had hope. First he smiled, but it grew until he was full out grinning. Georg seemed to be thinking about my words with a bit of a smile on his face. Even Tom looked thoughtful about it. Even more amazing was Gustav slowly pulling his headphones off to rest around his neck without facing me. I knew then that he had heard me.

I felt very good about myself when Bill said, “You’re right. We really need all the energy we can get to kick of this tour and our bodies are feeding it to us. Thanks, Ebony! C’mon guys! Let’s pump up the energy!”

As if knowing that the guys were turning their nerves into pure energy, Saki opened the door and told us all it was show time. Nodding, we stood up and headed back to the back stage area. While the boys got in position, I was ushered to a small platform off to the side where I could see the whole stage without the crowd seeing me.

“Ready, set, go!” On cue, the boys ran out on stage with smiles, smirks, or grins on their faces. The dull roar of talking and screaming from the audience was nothing compared to the eruption the ensued when those guys hit that stage. Again, I found myself rubbing my ears, wondering if I’ll ever be able to hear the same again.

Soon I heard the guitar chords that I had come to recognize, though I still couldn’t have named the song. That is, until Bill began to sing. “I’m starin’ at a broken door/ There’s nothing left here anymore/ My room is cold/ It’s makin’ me insane.”

I just leaned my elbows on the railing in front of me and enjoyed the show. The performance was so much more intense than the sound check. Something told me it was the equivalent to acting; the audience drives the performance for better or for worse.

“Runnin’ through the monsoon/ beyond the world/ to the end of time/ where the rain won’t hurt/ fighting the storm/ into the blue/ and when I lose myself I think of you/ together we’ll be running somewhere new/ and nothing can hold from you/ through the monsoon!”

As the last chords faded out, even I, from back stage, was clapping. I could see the quirk of smile as Gustav and Georg heard me. After all, I was behind and between them so they probably heard applause coming from a different direction.

The energy continued to soar as the band lost themselves in the music. Glancing around, I was laughing my ass off when I saw Tom practically humping his guitar on stage. It was really cute at the times that Bill would dance with and sing to his older brother. I bet the girls went crazy over that. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of Tokio Hotel fanfiction site full of stories about the band, most of them pairing Bill and Tom.

A few songs later there was a pause where Bill talked to the crowd. I began to tune it out. Well, only until I heard what he was saying. Then I wanted to run on stage and strangle him. But that would probably cause a nasty riot from the Bill lovers.

He was saying, “Thank you everyone! Thanks so much for coming out to the first concert of our new tour! It really is great to be back here in America! But since you’re our first concert, I’m going to let you in on a secret. We have someone new touring with us. I’m sorry but you won’t meet her tonight because she would probably murder me if I even tried to drag her on stage right now. She probably fuming backstage as I speak.”

He glanced in my direction and he was wrong. I wasn’t fuming. I was full on flaming. It was like that angry face on the MySpace status message that had a flame over its head. Yeah, I probably looked like that right now. And Bill knew it, the son of a bitch.

He just grinned and turned back to the audience and continued, “But we are going to let you in on the secret of why she’s with us. No, none of us are dating her so you can calm down!” Bill just laughed as he saw the looks on the faces in the first few rows. “She’s actually Georg’s younger sister. She’s traveling with us to learn about the US. We’ll probably introduce her later in the tour when she’s done firing for us. So look forward to that! In the meantime, hit it Tom!”

Break Away started up but I really could care less. The instant that human porcupine got off stage I was going to kill him. I was literally going to fucking kill him! How dare he blow my secret! Yeah, sure, it was going to get out at some point but I wanted to be the one to choose how and when damn it! Bill’s life was going to be hell from now on.

For the rest of the concert, I fumed and plotted. I decided slow and torturous would be best, little things that wouldn’t seem like much until they added up. Hide the hairspray. Keep all of his eyeliner. Replace all of his clothes with things in Tom’s size. Oh I was going to have fun with this.

When the show finally ended and the guys came off stage Gustav and Georg went straight for me. Georg was holding my hands behind my back and Gustav was using himself as a barrier between me and Bill. “Ebony, you can’t kill him yet. The tour just started and, without being wanted for murder, you would probably be murdered by the fans. Think before you act for once in your life.”

I just gave an innocent smile that made all the guys flinch, even Tom who was standing beside Bill. “Why, Gustav, do you honestly think I don’t think before I act? Please, I’m not going to do anything to little Billy Boy… yet.”

Though I added the last part under my breath so I don’t think Gustav heard it. I knew he didn’t when he said, “Bullshit, you’re always one for revenge.”

The smile on my face stayed in place while I responded, “Karma is a bigger bitch than I could ever be.”

“Ebony, if there’s one thing I know by now,” Georg said firmly from his place behind me, “Is that you are karma. Just try to leave Bill in one piece with a face and a singing voice.”

“Yes, brother dearest,” I said sweetly. I could see by the looks on everyone’s faces that they didn’t believe me. But, hey, it’s not like there was anything they could do about it. “Now, would you mind letting go of me? I’m sure you’re all exhausted and ready to head back to the hotel. C’mon, you seriously think I’m stupid enough to do anything within a hundred miles of those rabid fans? Give me more credit than that.”

The boys all exchanged unsure looks. I could see Tom fidgeting. He obviously seemed to dislike me and now he believed that I was a threat to his precious baby brother. How cute. I’m going to puke. But still, it was good to have a protective older brother. I should know, I thought looking over at my protective older brother.
I turned on my heel and strutted to the van. The boys followed tentatively behind me. The whole ride back to the hotel I knew they were still glancing at me like any second I was going to jump Bill again. Psh, no thanks. I was too deep in my thoughts to really care.

I really didn’t want anyone to know that Georg was my brother. I mean, I loved him and all, but I was supposed to be the normal kid! Okay… maybe not normal but I was supposed to be the one with a chance at as normal a life as I could get. Guess that wasn’t going to happen now. Though Bill never did say my name, plus I never went on stage, so, no pictures. But now I was going to have to watch my step, the fangirls were going to be looking for me.

Ugh, just shoot me now.

Then again, maybe it was a good thing. I mean, someone was bound to notice that there was a girl with the band at several locations. Then the rumors of sex scandals and a stalker fan and maybe even kidnapping would come out and we’d be in a world of hurt. Maybe it was a good thing that Bill blew my biggest secret in front of millions of fans… I guarantee it’s on the internet already and the papers were definitely writing up a storm for tomorrow morning.

I let a sigh slip from between my lips as I was hypnotized by the passing city lights. My thoughts began to wander the pros and cons of this new situation I was stuck in. I guess I was going to have to deal with it somehow.

My head whipped around as I felt a soft, hesitant hand on my shoulder. I came face to face with a worried looking Gustav. I could see the questions pooling behind his eyes. “C’mon, mein Kätzchen, we’re here,” Gustav said softly. I could tell he was dying to ask or say something else, though I don’t know what. Maybe he wanted to know how I planned to kill Bill (heheh, ‘Kill Bill’, bad American movie).

I simply nodded and pulled my self out of the black car to find that everyone else was already headed inside. Gustav hung back with me, still looking worried and on edge. I walked past him and headed for the elevator where everyone else had boarded. Just before I got there the doors closed. I huffed in annoyance but reserved myself to be patient. Tom probably didn’t want me in a tiny, suspended, metal box with his baby brother.

Gustav came level with me in time for the ding of another elevator door opening. I walked into the elevator and punched the button for our floor. I leaned against the side of the elevator and let my head fall back to the mirrored glass. Gustav was leaning against the wall opposite of me, arms crossed, eyes riveted to me.

“Can I help you?” I asked, not bothering to crack an eyelid.

I heard him shift from one foot to the other nervously. “Ebony…” he started quietly. “Are you… okay?”

I must admit, that caught me off guard. I really wasn’t expecting him to think something was wrong. “Um,” I started, very intelligently. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Gustav just looked at me very skeptically.

“Okay, I’m feeling a little One X by Three Days Grace and Hate Me by Blue October,” I shrugged. Gustav was used to me expressing my feelings through songs. So, generally, if I wasn’t sure how describe how I was feeling I would give the person who asked a song that fit my mood. Whether it was by lyrics or sound varied.

Gustav just smiled a bit. “You’ve been thinking very deeply about Bill revealing you and Georg.” It wasn’t a question or an accusation, merely a statement of fact. To that I just nodded. “Just remember, I’m Anytime by Kelly Clarkson for you.”

I smiled, Gustav always knew how to make me feel better. Plus he knew I was listening to new music. The bastard must have gone through my iPod and memorized the new songs. Song speak was just something that Gustav and I did and it would always stay ours. “Thanks, Juschtel. You always know how to make my feel better.”

Swiftly, I crossed the elevator and closed the space between Gustav and myself. I wrapped my arms around his middle and squeezed, my face buried in his chest. I was confused when Gustav’s first reaction was to stiffen. But shortly after he relaxed and wrapped his arms around my shoulders making me feel safe.

“You know I’m always here for you, Ebony,” Gustav mumbled into my hair. “I always have been and always will be.”

With one final squeeze I let go just as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. I stepped back and headed into the hallway with a renewed (and probably creepy to the guys who didn’t know what happened) smile on my face. Jost and the others were still in the hallway waiting for us.

“Sorry we took so long,” I said in a bubbly tone. “Some jackass wouldn’t hold the elevator so we had to take the next one. But we had a nice time, didn’t we, Juschtel?”

Gustav stumbled out of the elevator blushing. “Jeeze, Ebony, don’t give them the wrong idea! Your brother might kill me.”

I just giggled and skipped (yes, skipped) down the hall to my room. I just felt like skipping. I was having a mega bipolar night, wouldn’t you agree?