Situating: Inspired upon chapter 12 and later chapters where Hotsuma discovers that Shusei has a cell phone and is pissed off cause he ain't got Shusei's phone number. The brunet however points out to Hotsuma that the blond hasn't a cell phone to begin with so there is no need for Hotsuma to have Shusei's cell phone number. And as shown later in the small, funny comics with the boys in their chibi-form, Shusei also isn't too thrilled about the idea of Hotsuma actually getting a cell phone. Perhaps God's eyes does have a point …

Characters present in this story at various stages: Hotsuma, Shusei, Toko, Lia, Yuki, Luka, Isuzu, Tachibana, Tooma, Tsukumo

Implied pairing: Shusei X Hotsuma

Warnings: yaoi! If you don't like yaoi or have a problem with boy X boy relationships, then please read some other story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Uragiri. This fic was written for fun. Not to make any profit.

Voicemail

Chapter1

Hotsuma sat on his unmade bed. The blond Zweilt held in his hands a cell phone. The phone had an orange casing, orange buttons and a black screen. The screen was lit as Hotsuma was scrolling through his mobile's functions.

It had taken a while, but finally Hotsuma had caved in and gotten a cell phone. He'd been against it for a long while. A mobile to him only equaled some other means for people to control him and his free time. But when he had discovered that his partner Shusei had gotten a cell phone and he had seen how the brunet boy had been getting messages one after the other from various people, Hotsuma's jealousy had taken flight and brought him to a small electro shop where they sold cells. There his eye had fallen on an orange, tough looking mobile. Back at home had he proudly shown off his latest acquisition in the living room of the Twilight Mansion and had promptly received everyone's mobile number. The best however had been when Shusei had walked in after doing some work for Takashiro at the police station. Shusei had taken Hotsuma's cell phone out of the blond's hands and had inserted his number in Hotsuma's contact list.

Contently Hotsuma stared at the number that stood on his screen. Shusei's name stood in small letters above the number but the blond Zweilt didn't need that little aid anymore. He had already looked so many times at the number that he knew it by heart now.

Bubbling with excitement, the blond pressed the call button and waited for Shusei to pick up. Giddy smiling, Hotsuma was already busy forming in his head what he would say to his partner when the one year older boy picked up.

"Shusei Usui," Shusei's firm voice said, immediately followed by some unknown woman's voice, "is currently unable to answer your call. Please leave your name, number and a message after the tone." A beep tone sounded, followed by silence.

Hotsuma blinked a few times, lowered his mobile and stared dumbfound at the phone. What the …

Convinced it had to be some error, Hotsuma hung up, punched Shusei's number in with the orange buttons and hit the connect button anew. Again Hotsuma patiently waited for the other to pick up which happened after a few rings. Ready to talk to his friend, Hotsuma opened his mouth, drew air in his lungs and fell silent as once again Shusei's voice stated only the boy's name and got directly followed up by the mechanical woman's voice.

Angrily Hotsuma threw the brand new phone on his bed. He slid off the bed and stomped to his bedroom door. More forceful than needed, the blond Zweilt pulled the door open, stomped into the hallway and made with an angry huff his way over to the room beside him. Not bothering to knock, Hotsuma yanked the door open and stepped inside, zooming directly in on his target. His partner was sitting at his desk, bent over a piece of paper and a pen in his hand with which the brunet boy was scribbling something down on the paper. Knowing that Shusei was well aware of his presence, Hotsuma crossed his arms, remained stubbornly silent and awaited for his friend to acknowledge him. He didn't have to wait long. Shusei laid his pen down and turned on his chair towards him. The brunet's facial expression was blank, not giving anything away of what the older boy may currently be feeling or thinking.

"Barging in as usual, Hotsuma?" A small, teasing smile came to play around Shusei's lips.

"Fuck you," Hotsuma immediately snarled back. "Why don't you pick up when I call you?! You always pick up no matter what! Is it because it's me who's calling?!" he accused, pissed off. It was true, Shusei always picked up his phone when he could, even if he had to excuse himself out of class for it. But now, now that Hotsuma had finally gotten a phone himself and had been so generous as to sacrifice his very first call to Shusei, the brunet simply refused to pick up. And it wasn't like Shusei was even busy with something important. The brunet easily could have interrupted his schoolwork for a few seconds.

Shusei's slender eyebrow rose lightly. "Is there some reason you can't just come to my room and talk face to face to me instead of calling me? You never seemed to have a problem with that before."

A light embarrassed blush colored Hotsuma's cheeks. His friend had a point of course. It was a bit silly to have called Shusei when his friend was right next door, but still … Still, that wasn't the point, now was it? Why couldn't Shusei understand what a big deal it was for him to have gotten a mobile and to have called Shusei as the very first person with it? But instead of calmly explaining this to his friend, Hotsuma let his anger steer him. "Fuck you," the blond Zweilt snarled angrily at Shusei before he whirled around on the ball of his feet and stomped back out of the brunet's room.

Hotsuma made his way back to his own bedroom and forcefully slammed the door shut behind him. His orange cell still lay innocently on his bed but all Hotsuma could see was how it was mocking him. What good was it to have gotten a cell phone if Shusei refused to talk to him? Cross Hotsuma stalked over to his bed and snatched the offending communication device of his bed. His fingers clenched angrily around the mobile and the blond whirled on the ball off his feet, ready to throw the offending piece of electronics against his door when suddenly an idea popped into his head. He had been searching for weeks now for a way to express his feelings to Shusei, but each time when he had been confronted with his partner, all his courage had fled. And confessing his feelings in a letter had turned out to be a big bust too as the words refused to come out on paper like they were present in his head. But perhaps he could call Shusei and leave his confession behind on the brunet's voicemail. He could pretend that he was talking to Shusei instead of his partner's voicemail, right? And there was also a big advantage to this way of declaring his feeling for Shusei. The brunet wasn't there for real so there would be no teasing remarks during his attempt that would leave him a stumbling and stuttering mess who failed to trully get his desired message across to the older boy.

Hotsuma's fingers absently stroked lightly the mobile in his hand as the blond thought over his plan. The more time passed, the better the idea started to sound to him. Finally he would be able to come clean with Shusei.

Hotsuma arranged himself back on his bed and quickly scrolled though his contact list to choose Shusei's number before he would lose his courage. His thumb paused a final time over the connect button. The finger lightly trembled - betraying Hotsuma's nerves - but the blond quickly swallowed them away and hit the button.

He could hear the phone going over on the other end of the line. One ring, two rings, three rings … Hotsuma's heart started to thumb harder in his chest, the beating echoed in his throat and in his ears the closer he came to Shusei's voicemail springing into action. What was he going to say? Should he just blurt out his feelings and leave it at that? Or would it be better to build up to his confession? Perhaps outline how they had gotten to where they were currently. But how far did he have to go back then? And should he add something about how they had been more than just friends in their previous lives or would Shusei come to think then that Hotsuma wasn't truly serious and was just feeling obligated to feel more than friendship for Shusei in this life due to their shared past ones? Come to think of it, wasn't there a limited time only one had for leaving behind a message on a voicemail? A minute or so? God, what if he was in the middle of confessing and right before he could tell Shusei about his feelings, he would get cut off? Would he even know when he would be cut off or would he keep rambling stupidly on for no reason at all cause Shusei wouldn't come to hear it after all?

Hotsuma felt himself break out in a sweat. Why had he ever thought that this would be a good idea? The blond's finger moved to the disconnecting button, ready to tap it, when the blond got a change of mind. No, he could do this. He was a man and men didn't run away when things got tough.

Hotsuma cleared his throat and waited, only to suddenly notice that it was dead silent on the other end of the line. Somehow during his inner ramblings had he missed how Shusei's voicemail had activated.

New panic set in. How much time had already passed since the signal had sounded? How much time had he left? Hotsuma's palms turned sweaty. And all the blond could think off, was how this was all turning into one giant catastrophe. He hadn't uttered a single word yet and already was he messing up what should have been a grand and beautiful moment. But like hell would he back down now that he had gotten this far! He was going to confess to Shusei and he would do it now!

Hotsuma cleared a second time his throat and then started, letting the words come to him as he spoke.

"Hey, so euhm, I'm sure you are wondering why I am calling you well euhm, it's like this … I like you. No, no that's not right. I love you. I don't know when it started. Perhaps it has always been there, I don't know," Hotsuma nervously scratched the back of his head. "But the point is that you are the one for me. I know you think that Yuki is the most important person to me and you are right, he is important to me. I like him and all that stuff, but I don't love him. At least not the same way I feel for you. You are it for me. The one I need and want to be with. You are the first person I think off when I wake up and the last one I see before I fall asleep. I know that sounds corny and cheesy and like it is picked right out of one of those stupid girly books, but it is the truth. I can't and I don't want to imagine a life without you by my side. And not just as a friend or as a partner in this battle against the duras but as more. I want you there with me every second of the day. In the good moments and the hard moments. The normal moments and the crazy fucked up ones. And I know that we seem to have more fucked up ones than normal ones but that has to change sometimes, right? And then I want you to be there with me and share these ordinary moments with me too. You are so much more to me than just a comrade in our war against the duras. You mean so much more to me. Losing you … I'd rather lose a limb than have to face just a second of a day with you no longer being there. I want you and I hope you want me too …" Hotsuma paused, unsure what he could and perhaps should add even more. He knew this was probably not the sappy declaration loved ones dreamt off, but this was the best he could do. He had said what he wanted to say and he just hoped that Shusei would be able to understand what he was trying to convey to the brunet boy.

"So, euhm …" Hotsuma continued, only to fall silent suddenly when his ears picked up on a sound that didn't belong on Shusei's voicemail.

Hotsuma swallowed. It couldn't be … Surely his ears were betraying him. The universe couldn't be that cruel to him … But the longer he remained silent and just listened, the clearer it became that in fact someone was breathing in and out on the other end of the line.

Panic seized Hotsuma's heart. When had Shusei broken off his voicemail and picked up? Had Shusei been listening from the very beginning? Had his partner heard the entire thing? Wait, had he even heard Shusei's voicemail to begin with?

Hotsuma's eyes widened in horror as the blond suddenly realized that he indeed hadn't heard the woman's mechanical voice at all to inform him he would be connected to his partner's voicemail. Shusei had fucking picked up and he hadn't realized it!

Hotsuma's cheeks turned bright red and the boy felt like dying. Any second now Shusei would start laughing that amused laugh of him and then say something teasingly and embarrassing back. Thank God, the other boy wasn't in the room here with him cause that would have made this awkward situation even more horrible.

Hotsuma swallowed thickly and waited for the inevitable. The person at the other end of the line took in another deep breath and then a high pitched squeal sounded.

Hotsuma quickly held the mobile away from his ear and stared shocked at it. He didn't know Shusei could make such a sound. Confused he brought the phone back to his ear. He opened his mouth to utter Shusei's name but it got drowned out by his conversation partner's excited screams.

"Hotsuma! I knew it! I knew you secretly loved me! I'll be right over! Finally! I have begged you for so long to let me properly examine you and finally the day is here! Finally you will bare everything to me!"

Hotsuma's eyes widened in horror as he easily recognized the eager and excited voice. He pulled his phone back away from his ear and quickly pulled up his contact list. There, underneath Shusei's number stood the number he had accidentally called in his haste to confess to Shusei. The name next to the incriminating number mocked him. The letters becoming larger and larger, the dread fallen over Hotsuma bigger and bigger until finally the blond snapped. The orange mobile fell out of Hotsuma's hands as he grabbed his head with both of his hands and let out a blood hurling scream. He had just confessed to … ISUZU, their resident, perverted doctor!

TBC