[Week 68] [Word Count 500 words] [Theme: Unrequited]

Title: That Lunatic
Author: beyondthemoor on LJ
Genre: humour, fluff, friend-fun-love
Word Count: approx... 1,185-ish (way over again. DAMNIT!)
Rating: light T
Characters: Shuurei, Eigetsu, Ryuuren
AU/Canon: Modern University AU
Theme: Unrequited

AN: Follow-up to "The Misery Fairy", prequel to "Opera", crack-tastic Shuurei-Eigetsu-Ryuuren family-fun. Some wrongs are better unrequited than righted.

"Shuurei, you know this is nothing personal against you or anything you have done; however, as an upper-year student, you're to set an example for your younger peers. I'm terribly sorry, but Ryuuren's nocturnal visits are leaving the other girls a bit…"

The young woman watched Shusui, her dorm-mother, struggle to find a polite way to describe her frequent night visitor.

"… uncomfortable."

With a sigh, her shoulders slumped dejectedly and her hands kept their grip on the box of personal effects in her lap and she gave a final nod before signing the residence-withdrawal form. She was now officially sans-domicile-fixe, or, less elegantly, perfectly homeless.

"How about this one?"

Sitting on one of the stained couches that curved around a sizable table in the Student Commons Building, the tired young woman glanced up at Eigetsu as he read aloud from the Housing section of the undergraduate student union's newspaper. "Bachelor apartment, utilities included, close to all amenities, six-fifty a month, walking distance to two major bus routes," her heart beat faster, "… oh wait, never mind. Sorry, this one isn't available until next term."

… and consequently plummeted.
Finding student housing mid-term was a nightmare, as it was turning out. The young man across from her smiled apologetically, which she appreciated, before going back to his search. If there was anything available, they would definitely find it!

But…

Shuurei stifled another yawn, refusing to rub her sore eyes. Even with Eigetsu helping her, she admitted to herself, it was slim pickings.

"No one's posted anything new to the bulletin board here or online, either, since the second week of term," she mused aloud. "Not even the usual 'Desperately Seeking Roomate to Make Rent!' or 'Sublet Available!' posters are listing anything close enough…"

The pair of young people frowned dejectedly. Shuurei's lack of personal transportation put a definite limitation on their search radius.

Spying his best friend's downcast features, the young man re-doubled his efforts. "Well, let's keep trying! I'm sure something will come up!" he insisted.

Shaking off her blues (and refocusing her energies to more productive avenues), Shuurei nodded once in determination, and went back to scouring the local rental housing listings.

"And Ryuuren said he'd help us, too, once he was finished with his own things today," offered the young man with a hopeful grin.

With his head buried in the newspaper, he missed the flash of Shuurei's eyes; he didn't miss the sound of her teeth grinding, though.

"This is a bad idea."
"We don't have a choice…"

She whirled around to face a cowering Eigetsu in the backseat. "No one is going to rent me a place when they see that lunatic!" hissed Shuurei between her tightly clenched teeth. Oh, she would definitely be wearing her bite-plate that night, her head was killing her from all the day's tension.

'That lunatic' was currently strolling confidently up the front walk of the upscale apartment complex that was their last hope as a new potential home for the displaced young woman.

"We still have to try. Look, he knows he made a mistake—."

"A 'mistake'!? He got me kicked out of residence!"

"—but he's trying to make up for it," continued the young man earnestly. "Give him a chance, Shuurei. Please? He means well."

Shuurei's red-eyed, tight-lipped expression didn't bode well for Ryuuren's efforts to correct the so-far unrequited wrong, however.

Rubbing a hand over his face, he looked at her through the part of his green hair. "Is it the car that has you upset? Look, it's dark outside, no one will be able to tell who we are, so just go inside, talk to the property manager, and see if they have any openings. Let him make it up to you. For me?"

Brow pinched, Shuurei bit her bottom lip; glanced at the walkway where Ryuuren had turned around to look curiously at the car with a 'why aren't you following?'-look on his face; and so with a growl, she grabbed her purse and set off.

Some time later…

Stunned, Shuurei slumped down in the front passenger seat of Ryuuren's Jaguar, her eyes glassy and her face wan. The eccentric young Ran settled himself with leisurely grace back into the driver's seat, and with an almost practiced ease strapped a shell-shocked Shuurei snugly in with her seatbelt, as if he was used to chauffeuring life-size marionettes around frequently in his car.

"Well, let's go get a late dinner!" he beamed, starting the ignition and pulling wildly out onto the street (as usual, without checking for oncoming traffic – how the man had lived so long honestly baffled Eigetsu at times, as he clung desperately to the arm rest.)

Anxiously waiting for an answer, the youngest of their trio couldn't contain himself any further.

"So what's the verdict? How did it go?"

"Oh, Shuurei's things are already in the apartment; it was arranged first thing this morning!"

Eigetsu's head snapped around from Shuurei to Ryuuren so quickly he felt a nerve pinch in his neck; he raised a hand to rub it out.

"What?!"

"And so are ours!"

"WHAT!?"

"My bosom-family, now we can spend all our time in class together, all our time in the car together, and all our time at home together, too! Our perfect lives are now one! We are a true family!"

The scritch-scratching noise coming from the front seat at that moment distracted everyone, as Shuurei's reed-thin voice murmured softly, "if you could please pull over, I think I need to throw up again for a minute…"

Cutting across four lanes of traffic, oblivious to the horns and screeching tires behind him, Ryuuren, still smiling happily, pulled to the curb and turned to look at Eigetsu who still sat white-faced in the back seat. Shuurei's belt unlatched, she lurched sideways and emptied her stomach through the opened door while her driver continued animatedly, rubbing her back all the while.

"I talked to my other family this morning," the unimpressed tone he used when saying 'other' was clear, "and we can have my place!"

"Y-y-y-your place, Ryuuren?" he asked hesitantly. Oh Kourin was going to kill him if he ended up off-campus… The only reason her uptight guardians allowed her to visit with him overnight was because he stayed in a nice, supervised, well-chaperoned dorm with a guest room he could book once in a while.

"Yes!"

The sound of a second head retching joined the first in a sick concert from the gunwales of the luxury car.

"… should I join in, too? Or…." mumbled Ryuuren to himself as he pulled out his cellphone, watching the heaving pair. "No, but maybe I'll cancel the supper reservations…"

Good deed done for the day, the proud young man cheerfully explained to the maitre d' that due to his repaying a debt to a friend, they were too ill to join him for supper to celebrate that evening, and could they please bundle up the meals and forward them to his new address, at …..

That night, lights out, in the new dysfunctional-family-homestead…

"Good night, bosom-brother!"

"… good night, Ryuuren…"

"Good night, bosom-sister, treasure of my heart!"

"… good night, Ryuuren…. Thank you…."

"Good night, Shuurei. And I'm so sorr-."

"Good. Night. Eigetsu."

"Oh, there were three in the bed, and the pretty one said--!"

"RYUUREN GO TO SLEEP! ARGH!"

With a muffled sob of despair, Shuurei covered her eyes with her hands and prayed to all that was holy that they could buy separate beds to sleep in come the morning…

R&R?