“Coffee, two creams and two sugars,” Keely proclaimed.

Seth just made a distracted sound in the back of his throat, blindly snatching the mug from her hand.

Frowning at him, she flung herself into her seat. “No need to say thank you or anything, it wasn't like I just made you a coffee or something,” muttered she grumpily, turning her gaze through to the booth where Marco was playing the bass.

He sent her a smirk, making Keely blink at him having thought he wouldn't hear.

“Oh, I'm so very thankful, Staub,” Seth replied, sounding amused.

“Bloody well better be,” she told him, her eyes narrowing.

Shaking his head slightly, he redirected his gaze to through the window again.

Marco was in the middle of the bass track, his eyes slightly unfocused as he played, the headphones covering his ears. Unconsciously, Keely felt her foot begin to tap on the ground as she raised the cup to her lips. A smile touched her lips as she watched Marco, he hadn't even noticed her reappearance in the studio, so engrossed in playing.

Yet her gaze was stolen from the boy playing bass to the one sitting beside her in the studio. He'd taken a sip from the mug, and the winced, not trying to hide his reaction at all.

Before she could snap at him to get his own coffee next time, Seth leaned forward, pressing down upon the intercom button. “Marco... hey, Marco! Yeah, we're dropping this track, too much finger noise, let's do it again.”

Bashfully, Keely began tapping her foot again.

Marco, on the other hand, had ripped off his headphones, letting go of the bass guitar and glowering at them through the glass. “Seriously? You want me to it again, are you trying to kill me or something, Seth?”

“Stop being a drama queen,” replied Seth, very much unaffected as he took a sip from his coffee. “Let's just start from the beginning.”

“My fingers are going to start bleeding soon! This is like the twentieth take!”

When neither of them replied, Marco changed tactics, whining, “Keely!”

Chewing on her bottom lip, she tried to hold in the grin, but failed awfully. “Sorry, Stevenson, I agree with Seth on this one. The finger noise was loud...”

“I hate both of you sometimes,” he mumbled, but fixed his headphones all the same.

“Aw, don't hurt my feelings,” Keely said, still finding that she was smiling. Maybe she was being a bit mean to Marco, getting him to play it again, but she did want the track for the club song, which they'd named For You, the song was becoming her baby. She and Seth had been spending all their time on the song for the past three days, and she hadn't even recorded the vocals yet.

Anyways, it was nice to see someone else in the sound booth, being tortured by redoing a track over and over again, and then about another million times.

An hour later, they'd finally gotten a track that Seth deemed appropriate.

And it found them at their base of the little kitchen. Keely had boosted herself onto a counter top, leaning her back against a cabinet drinking from a water bottle, while Seth made more coffee and Marco stood on the other side of the island from them, putting on his jacket.

“Okay, I'm going to go eat something,” Marco decided, flipping the collar of his dark jacket. “Want to come, guys?”

She was about to say yes, her stomach was already jittering uneasily, only containing the granola bar she'd eaten for breakfast before running to the studio and copious cups of coffee. She could really use something of substance inside her.

“Go on without me,” Seth answered, moving next to her so he could grab something from the cupboard before hastily moving away.

“Are you staying to work on the song?” Keely asked, hesitating.

He nodded, not so much as glancing her way. “Yeah, might as well.”

“I'll take a rain check too,” she decided abruptly, looking at Marco.

He just shrugged. “Suit yourselves, I'll see you two tomorrow.”

“Aw, I didn't know you liked me that much.”

Groaning, Keely buried her face in her hands. “God, now I'm wishing that I just left with Marco, you're already annoying me, Ryan.”

“Well you should go catch up with him then.”

She glowered across to him, raising her head from her hands. “If you're going to be working on my song then I'm going to be here."

"You're starting to piss me off."

"The feeling is mutual."

They glared at each other over the space bridging between them. Not even noticing when someone came to grab a water bottle from the fridge, sending them curious looks. Nope, they didn't even see when Maureen clipped past at a brisk pace, people scurrying behind her.

It ended to be Seth who broke off the staring contest, giving a loud sigh and turning around to rummage through the fridge.

"What are you making?" Keely asked, seeing the carton of milk in his hand.

He rolled his eyes, "My speciality. Captain Crunch."

"... Make me some?"

"Why should I?" he countered, now digging through yet another cupboard.

"I made you coffee!"

"Oh, so difficult," he muttered, "You should get a medal."

Yet he made her a bowl beside his all the same, gruffly passing it to her without so much as a glance in her direction. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately, the not looking at her. But Keely didn't mind, eye contact made attention to the other person rise. And whenever she paid attention to Seth, she had an urge to rant about him being a sell out.

They ate together in silence. So, therefore, no bickering and no violent urges to yell at him at least on Keely's part.

"You done?" he asked abruptly when she dropped her bowl into her lap.

Keely nodded mutely.

He snatched the bowl from her possession wordlessly.

Not knowing what else she could do at that moment, Keely gave a bored sigh, dropping her cheek into her cupped palm, watching Seth throw the dishes carelessly into the sink, beginning to rinse them out. She fully realized she might seem like a stalked, but she was ready to sacrifice dignity for knowledge.

Seth Ryan was still one giant mystery to her, and she wanted to know something about him. If he wasn't her producer, she'd never have even bothered since she dislike him too much to care. But here he was, almost having forced himself to be producer for her new album.

So she was curious.

The time at the abandoned club still bothered her. How could someone who was that good put out music like he did? It just didn't compute. Because he was incredibly talented, as much as it bothered her to admit, at both the song writing and playing.

Seth leaned forward slightly into the sink, pushing up the sleeves of his plain grey long sleeved shirt. Even if she was far from liking him as a person - tolerating seemed more appropriate - she had to admit he looked good. Well, really he looked hot, but she would never say that. The shirt was just flirting with being tight, and at the base of his neck, the shirt opened into a few little white buttons that he'd left open.

Yeah... she definitely didn't like him, but she wasn't in denial!

He leaned forward farther to shut off the water, and a chain fell from it's hidden place beneath his shirt.

Instantly Keely's eyes narrowed on it, following the long plain chain with her eyes carefully. Her eyes traced it until she what was attached to the thin chain, and she found herself frowning as she resisted the urge to lean over and snatch it up.

"Are those dog tags?" she blurted thoughtlessly.

Unless she was very much mistaken, those were army dog tags, they looked much too official.

Hastily he grabbed the chain, and shoved it back into his shirt. He looked at her, frowning slightly as if pondering how to answer. Although she blinked to make sure it was true, she was seeing that dark look in the hazel eyes she'd noticed only once before when he'd been playing at the old club.

"Yeah," he answered simply, apparently finding that the damage was done and it'd be pointless to lie.

"So you were in the army or something, you did the whole Elvis thing?" she asked hurriedly, straightening in her perch upon the counter. "Did you have to shave your head?"

Yet he just gave a snort, looking at her incredulously as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Really, that's what you think? Staub, I was working on my first album when I was seventeen, it was released when I was eighteen and I've been touring, producing and recording ever since. No time to join the army there."

She frowned, "Then why do you have dog tags?"

"C'mon," he said, taking a step towards her, filling in the space between them so he could grip her by her forearm, and tug her off the counter. "Let's just go back to the studio."

"Seth," she whined.

"I was thinking you could do the guitar track on For You, even if we don't finish it tonight we could keep going on it tomorrow."

It was becoming clear he wasn't going to share, but Keely only pouted for a moment. Because, really, did she have to know everything about him? She couldn't even stand him when they were out of the studio. Yes, she was curious, but she didn't need to know everything about him.

"I thought we were going to get Colton to do the drum track tomorrow and if we had time I could lay down the guitar..."

"I changed my mind," Seth answered stiffly, hauling her down the hall.

Keely was no fool, she knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he wouldn't be able to get her to leave the studio, so he was shoving her into the booth to record where she couldn't pester him with questions. Well, he could be as secretive as he wanted! It wasn't like she cared or anything. She was quite fine with not knowing and playing the guitar instead.

"You sure you can handle it?" Seth asked, finally letting go of her arm when they pushed through the door into the studio. "It's not the easy song to do on the guitar, especially on the solo, it gets pretty heavy."

She scowled up at him. "I wouldn't write something I couldn't play, I'm good at this, Seth."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he muttered, grabbing one of the Stratocasters that belonged to UAE Records, and handing it to her by the neck. "Just watch the finger noise, we already had to deal with Marco today."

Although she would have liked to reply to his comment with an insult, Keely held it back. That seemed to be becoming a habit too. So she simply pushed through into the sound booth without a word, hooking the guitar up to the amp as she slipped the strap around her shoulders.

It wasn't until the fifth take that they were interrupted.

Keely was the first one to see Rachael as she happened to be looking through the glass to Seth as she played, Seth having his back to the door.

The girl looked gorgeous as always, model worthy looking as if she'd just stepped out of a magazine before she came to see them. Her hair was artfully curled around her shoulders, and she was wearing a black dress that made her legs seem to go on forever with her makeup done up perfectly. It made Keely feel a bit self-conscious in her torn old jeans, green bohemian style shirt, no makeup and she suddenly realized she'd forgotten to brush her hair before coming to the UAE Records.

But even if Rachael looked beautiful, Keely easily recognized the signs of anger when she saw them; flushed cheeks, narrowed eyes, flared nostrils and her mouth in a straight line. Yeah, that girl was pissed off.

Seth swung around in his chair, looking at her with wide eyes, and then the arguing started.

Awkwardly, Keely dropped her hands from the guitar, finding it pointless to play. She dragged the headphones off her ears, but still couldn't hear what they were saying. For that she was more than thankful, she didn't really want to get in the middle of their fight.

But Seth chose that moment to turn around and press down on the intercom button. "Keep playing, Staub, start from the beginning now."

In the background she heard Rachael's shrill voice say, "-Always in the studio!"

That gave Keely a twinge of guilt, because Seth really had been in the studio for days with her, that was all they'd been doing, working through the songs. But even though she'd like to apologize, she slipped her headphones back on and began to play again.

It looked as if Seth was trying to pay attention to her guitar playing, but Rachael wasn't leaving any time soon. Her face was getting redder by the moment, which Keely knew was never a good sign.

He turned back to his girlfriend, and Keely could see his eyes darkening in anger. What the hell was going on in there?

Obediently, she kept playing, but she knew the track was going to get scrapped by Seth. It wasn't going to be the best take when she was focused on the arguing between them.

"Just wait a minute," Seth said, pressing down on the button again, seeming to have the same thoughts as she. "We'll do it again soon."

Once again Keely heard Rachael's voice from the background, cracking slightly in the high note it was said in. "It's not as if anyone expects her album to be good or something!"

That had Keely's eyes bulging.

Were they talking about her? After a moment she decided they had to be, who else could they be talking about? Anyways, Rachael obviously wasn't too happy with Seth being in the studio with her, it only made sense that they were talking about her. But the sentence didn't make sense! Everyone expected your first album to be good, because if it wasn't, you could get trashed before you blinked. You had to have a first good album.

Keely felt her eyes narrow on Rachael through the glass as the girl threw her arms through the air hysterically. No wonder she can't hit a high note in her songs, she thought nastily, thinking of when her voice had cracked over the words, she can't even hit anything close to me!

Seth looked discouraged by that point, rubbing his palms over his eyes, saying something that Keely wished she could hear.

Apparently it wasn't something good, because Rachael sent him one last glare before swinging around and shoving her way out of the studio.

There was a pause.

But then Seth turned to the soundboard again. "From the top, Staub," he told her, holding down on the intercom.

Keely just looked at him for a moment. She wanted to ask what that had been about, had they been speaking about her, why was Rachael so angry, but she kept her mouth shut. She had absolutely no reason to pry into whatever was going on between the two of them, it really wasn't her place.

But she had to say something, so she said, "I don't like your girlfriend as much anymore."

He gave an unamused little laugh, "Tell me about that."

Biting her lip to hide a smile, Keely looked back down to the guitar, starting the beginning chords to what was proving to be a very difficult song.

- Not exactly the happy couple, are they? Ha ha...

Okay, this is the chapter. I'm very excited for something... someone should know what lol!

Anyways, I don't really have any advice today. Actually, learn how to turn your brain off or else you'll be kept all night imagining all these scenes for a crossover and sleeping is a good thing. Really, I swear it is lol.

Well, that's it.

Now I'm going to go get ready for the Pearl Jam concert!!!!! Oh, yeah, I'm so excited for tonight! I literally even planned out my outfit, and I really don't care too much about clothes. Well, it includes my beloved leather jacket and awesome boots.

Well, that was a lame rant...

Anyways, cover on the side was made by abconetwothree!

Song on this side is just because I happen to be listening to that song at this moment.

Okay, I'm officially done -