Don't Eat the Dasies!
A new fic begins! This will be the latest continuation of (in backwards order) 'Commitment', 'Bad Luck for Bad Luck?' and 'Authors Have Parties, Too?' but I promise that this, too, will stand on its own. All four are set after the series (manga and anime) so there are bound to be spoilers. . . it just happens that way.
I appreciate all criticism, so please read, enjoy, and review. To those who do review: THANK YOU!!
Disclaimer: I think it's obvious that I don't own Gravitation. I'm borrowing characters from Maki Murakami. My stories are for fun, not profit. Shonen-ai, swearing; PG rating.
~ Don't Eat the Dasies! ~
Part 1: It's a Monday.
". . . No, mom, I really don't think that's necessary." Shuichi was pacing back and forth across the living room floor, cell phone to his ear. Eiri could almost swear he was wearing a V-patterned groove in the floor. He walked from the hallway door, toward his computer, turned to pace in front of the deck windows, moving toward the kitchen door; then he turned again and paced the pattern backward. "Okay, I'll ask him, but I'm telling you . . ." The pink-haired pop-star turned toward Eiri, where the writer sat on the couch. He looked up from his reading, frowning. "Eiri, my mom wants to throw us a party. You know, to celebrate the wedding?"
Eiri frowned harder, blond brows drawing down over clear golden eyes. He wasn't looking forward to Shuichi's mother's next set of hysterics over her lack of grandchildren. "Why?" He asked, suspecting a trap.
Shu rolled his eyes and covered the phone, holding it against his stomach. "She wants to have a wedding reception, you know? With no plans for Maiko to get married soon, she's pushing." Shuichi shook his head. "Never mind, I'll just tell her 'no'." He brought the phone back up to his mouth and started pacing again. "Mom? No. . . . No. Mom, what do you mean, you already invited the neighbors?!" Eiri looked up at his new husband, watching him and taking more interest in following the conversation. "Mother! Not . . . NO. N--" Shuichi was the type of person who would have tangled himself in phone cords before the advent of wireless phones. He twirled and paced and wouldn't meet Eiri's eyes. He was shaking his head and looking at the floor.
"Shuichi?" Eiri called. The kid's blue-violet eyes turned toward him like a lodestone. He looked a little paniced. Eiri could just hear the voice of his mother-in-law, howling into the reciever. "Hang up," he suggested. "She'll call back when she's coherent."
"I can't do that!" Shuichi said, eyes wide with disbelief at the idea that he could do that to his mother.
Eiri gave him a sly look, lowering his book and removing his glasses. "Give me the phone." He uncrossed his legs and laid both book and glasses on the coffee table.
"Eiri? What are you going to do?"
"Let me talk to her," he said mildly. Shuichi reluctantly handed him the phone. The woman's wailing was worse than her son's. "Shindou-san?" he said. She blubbered. "We do not need a formal reception. If you would like to throw a party with your neighbors, maybe we could come for a little while." The noise on the other end of the phone stopped, cut off more swiftly than if they had been dis-connected. She started blathering about how that would be fine and Eiri held the phone out to Shuichi. "All fine," he said.
Shuichi accepted the phone in wonder. He smiled in thanks at his husband. "Mom?"
"Be sure to get the date and time from her," Eiri instructed. Shuichi had a tendancy to forget details like that.
Shuichi nodded to him. "Okay. Yeah. No, Mom, no oil lamps! [1] A blessing!?" Eiri scraped one hand through his loose blond hair. That woman wasn't giving up easily. Her son was a lot like her. Shuichi was shaking his head and pulling at his hair. "She thinks we should go and get blessed, too!" he said to Eiri with deep exasperation.
Eiri shook his head. Most Buddhists sought a priest's blessing after getting married, but he and Shuichi had decided not to. Since they were married in San Francisco, last Friday, it seemed as if everyone had pointed out the need to *not* skip the traditional blessing. They could have gone to a Buddhist temple in the 'States— there were several in the bay area— but they had decided that since they'd been married American-style, they would be satisfied with that.
Privately, Eiri thought Shuichi was just afraid of being blessed again. The last time he'd been blessed, Shuichi had been afraid of bad luck. He had convinced Eiri and Tatsuha to perform a blessing for him. The next day, old Uesugi was dead. Shuichi had blamed himself for 'sending' bad luck to the brothers and inadvertantly killing their father. Now, Shu was enjoying a run of good luck. The gullible idiot probably figured that If he was blessed, his good luck would rub off on the priest who blessed him— them.
Eiri shrugged. "Just tell her 'no'."
Shu sighed heavily. "M-- Mom— No. Mom . . . Ahhhrrrg!" He plopped onto the floor. "No, no, no, no . . . Mom, stop crying!"
This could go on for a while, Eiri thought. He walked into the kitchen to make tea. While he waited for the water to boil, he poked around in the cupboards for something dinner-like. He set out a box of noodles and checked the refridgerator. The meat had gone bad and the veggies looked sad and sickly. He threw them all in the trash.
A few minutes later, Shuichi came in, kicking the door stopper to make it stay open. He leaned in the door frame and yawned. A glance at the mircrowave told Eiri it was almost 9 p.m.. San Francisco had a sixteen hour time difference and they had only returned late last night. As a result of sleeping on the plane, Shu had been up all night and gone in to work for a full day today on little sleep. While neither of them had ever kept 'normal' hours, they were still adjusting. "She's planning on April third, at 3:00," he stated.
Eiri nodded and stuck the noodle box back in the cupboard. "You need to do some grocery shopping." He removed the tea kettle from the stove, pouring the water into the teapot. "Do you want some?"
"Mm. Yeah, what kind is it?" Shu asked, propelling himself off the doorway.
"It's that stuff you bought— in the blue cannister." Eiri grabbed one of Shu's mugs and set it on the counter, waiting for the tea to steep. "Did your mom bring up grandchildren again?"
"No, thank god," Shu replied, slipping his arms around Eiri's midsection and resting his head against his chest.
"Get off," he said. Shu made a whiney sound, but didn't budge. Eiri pushed him back, but he resisted, clinging. "Tell me what your mother is planning and get off of me." Eiri pulled at his t-shirt.
Shuichi looked up at his face, still wrapped around him. "But you're warm."
"Idiot. You're the one wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts."
Shu pouted. "That's because I have to do laundry."
Eiri gave in, putting one arm around his shoulders. He sighed in defeat. "So what is she up to?"
"I don't know. I don't want her to make a big deal . . ."
"Even though you know she will," Eiri concluded. "What about the grandchildren issue?"
Shu pulled away, to stand before him, small fists on his hips. He was frowning. "*You* keep bringing it up! What are *you* getting at?"
Eiri turned and poured the tea. Shu seemed to keep avoiding the conversation. He had to know what Shuichi thought about kids. The topic had come up briefly after he had proposed, but Shu denied a desire for kids while admitting that he hadn't really considered it.
"Damnit, Eiri!" Shu stomped his foot. "I thought you weren't interested in having kids. Are you . . . do you already regret—"
Eiri spun around again to face his husband, alarmed that he could even mention such doubts. "Shuichi! No! You idiot!! I keep bringing it up because you keep avoiding it!"
"Because *I* can't give you children!!" Shuichi burst into helpless tears.
"I know that! Geez! That's not what I was asking at all." Eiri pulled Shuichi to him, gathering his small, shaking, frame against his chest. Shu's hands wadded up in his shirt along each of his sides.
"I don't want you to sleep with some chic just to get kids, either," Shu confessed between sobs. "You're mine, now; really, really mine. You promised!" Shuichi squeezed him tightly.
Eiri was incensed. "Why do you have to be so dense?! You think I'm going to forget those promises?? Damnit! I made them three days ago and I meant them!"
"It hurts, Eiri," he whined. "When you keep asking, it's like . . . salt in a wound. If you want kids, I-I can't give you any!" His weeping intensified.
"Shhhh." He stroked Shuichi's hair gently, trying to calm him. He hadn't even considered that the question would be a painful subject for the singer. Eiri wrote about love affairs and romance, but sometimes, he felt completely oblivious to his own immediate surroundings. "It doesn't matter, Shu-han. I don't want kids. I think we're both too busy to bother. I was asking to find out what *you* want."
Shu's sobbing lessened. He said, "I'd like kids, I think," he said hesitantly. Eiri heard an odd yearning in his voice, but the kid banished it, saying, "But you're right; we're both too busy. What kind of parents would we make, anyway?" He sniffled and chuckled a little. "I didn't want to think about you wanti— "
"Then don't," Eiri growled. Shu giggled and hugged him again. His moods were almost mercurial. There was no guessing what would happen next. So, Shu did want children. Eiri didn't, really. The only option for them would be to adopt. Eiri frowned, deep in thought. He said, "Your mother will just have to pin her hopes on your reluctant sister, Maiko."
"Yeah!" Shu agreed. He let go of Eiri and grabbed a dish cloth to wipe his face. He was so much like a kid, himself. Shu he looked in the refridgerator. "I'm hungry. Do we have anything to eat?"
Eiri rolled his eyes. "No. I just told you that you need to go grocery shopping."
"Oh, yeah." He let the refridgerator door fall shut. "Let's get a pizza!" He threw his hands up in the air like a cheer, still holding the dish cloth.
"We're out of tabasco sauce," he reminded. As far as Shu was concerned, pizza wasn't any good without tabasco sauce.
Shu's shoulders slumped, hands falling to his sides. "Oh."
"Why don't you just call and order some sashimi for both of us? I'll make some rice to go with it."
"Okay!" Shuichi yawned widely and dialed the local Japanese restaurant from memory.
Eiri set a pot of water on the stove to boil, feeling conflicted. He would feel better knowing that the two of them could present a united front against having children. Why was it that as soon as two people married, the production of children was considered obligatory? He silently cursed the nosiness of others. He was sure there were many nosy people who would be questioning them. . . Eiri wasn't sure what he wanted to do about this.
***
[1] traditionally, during a wedding reception, oil lamps at each table are lit by the bride and groom.
***
Author's Notes: To all of my devoted reviewers from Commitment: thank you so much!! I really wasn't going to give them kids. I couldn't really see it . . . but several of you thought it would be a good idea. So . . . I re- evaluated and here it is. I am posting the first three chapters here as an intentional teaser. Because of later content (which is disallowed by ff.net), I urge adults to finish reading all the chapters at gurabiteshiyon.net. Look for me there as "Aja".
A new fic begins! This will be the latest continuation of (in backwards order) 'Commitment', 'Bad Luck for Bad Luck?' and 'Authors Have Parties, Too?' but I promise that this, too, will stand on its own. All four are set after the series (manga and anime) so there are bound to be spoilers. . . it just happens that way.
I appreciate all criticism, so please read, enjoy, and review. To those who do review: THANK YOU!!
Disclaimer: I think it's obvious that I don't own Gravitation. I'm borrowing characters from Maki Murakami. My stories are for fun, not profit. Shonen-ai, swearing; PG rating.
~ Don't Eat the Dasies! ~
Part 1: It's a Monday.
". . . No, mom, I really don't think that's necessary." Shuichi was pacing back and forth across the living room floor, cell phone to his ear. Eiri could almost swear he was wearing a V-patterned groove in the floor. He walked from the hallway door, toward his computer, turned to pace in front of the deck windows, moving toward the kitchen door; then he turned again and paced the pattern backward. "Okay, I'll ask him, but I'm telling you . . ." The pink-haired pop-star turned toward Eiri, where the writer sat on the couch. He looked up from his reading, frowning. "Eiri, my mom wants to throw us a party. You know, to celebrate the wedding?"
Eiri frowned harder, blond brows drawing down over clear golden eyes. He wasn't looking forward to Shuichi's mother's next set of hysterics over her lack of grandchildren. "Why?" He asked, suspecting a trap.
Shu rolled his eyes and covered the phone, holding it against his stomach. "She wants to have a wedding reception, you know? With no plans for Maiko to get married soon, she's pushing." Shuichi shook his head. "Never mind, I'll just tell her 'no'." He brought the phone back up to his mouth and started pacing again. "Mom? No. . . . No. Mom, what do you mean, you already invited the neighbors?!" Eiri looked up at his new husband, watching him and taking more interest in following the conversation. "Mother! Not . . . NO. N--" Shuichi was the type of person who would have tangled himself in phone cords before the advent of wireless phones. He twirled and paced and wouldn't meet Eiri's eyes. He was shaking his head and looking at the floor.
"Shuichi?" Eiri called. The kid's blue-violet eyes turned toward him like a lodestone. He looked a little paniced. Eiri could just hear the voice of his mother-in-law, howling into the reciever. "Hang up," he suggested. "She'll call back when she's coherent."
"I can't do that!" Shuichi said, eyes wide with disbelief at the idea that he could do that to his mother.
Eiri gave him a sly look, lowering his book and removing his glasses. "Give me the phone." He uncrossed his legs and laid both book and glasses on the coffee table.
"Eiri? What are you going to do?"
"Let me talk to her," he said mildly. Shuichi reluctantly handed him the phone. The woman's wailing was worse than her son's. "Shindou-san?" he said. She blubbered. "We do not need a formal reception. If you would like to throw a party with your neighbors, maybe we could come for a little while." The noise on the other end of the phone stopped, cut off more swiftly than if they had been dis-connected. She started blathering about how that would be fine and Eiri held the phone out to Shuichi. "All fine," he said.
Shuichi accepted the phone in wonder. He smiled in thanks at his husband. "Mom?"
"Be sure to get the date and time from her," Eiri instructed. Shuichi had a tendancy to forget details like that.
Shuichi nodded to him. "Okay. Yeah. No, Mom, no oil lamps! [1] A blessing!?" Eiri scraped one hand through his loose blond hair. That woman wasn't giving up easily. Her son was a lot like her. Shuichi was shaking his head and pulling at his hair. "She thinks we should go and get blessed, too!" he said to Eiri with deep exasperation.
Eiri shook his head. Most Buddhists sought a priest's blessing after getting married, but he and Shuichi had decided not to. Since they were married in San Francisco, last Friday, it seemed as if everyone had pointed out the need to *not* skip the traditional blessing. They could have gone to a Buddhist temple in the 'States— there were several in the bay area— but they had decided that since they'd been married American-style, they would be satisfied with that.
Privately, Eiri thought Shuichi was just afraid of being blessed again. The last time he'd been blessed, Shuichi had been afraid of bad luck. He had convinced Eiri and Tatsuha to perform a blessing for him. The next day, old Uesugi was dead. Shuichi had blamed himself for 'sending' bad luck to the brothers and inadvertantly killing their father. Now, Shu was enjoying a run of good luck. The gullible idiot probably figured that If he was blessed, his good luck would rub off on the priest who blessed him— them.
Eiri shrugged. "Just tell her 'no'."
Shu sighed heavily. "M-- Mom— No. Mom . . . Ahhhrrrg!" He plopped onto the floor. "No, no, no, no . . . Mom, stop crying!"
This could go on for a while, Eiri thought. He walked into the kitchen to make tea. While he waited for the water to boil, he poked around in the cupboards for something dinner-like. He set out a box of noodles and checked the refridgerator. The meat had gone bad and the veggies looked sad and sickly. He threw them all in the trash.
A few minutes later, Shuichi came in, kicking the door stopper to make it stay open. He leaned in the door frame and yawned. A glance at the mircrowave told Eiri it was almost 9 p.m.. San Francisco had a sixteen hour time difference and they had only returned late last night. As a result of sleeping on the plane, Shu had been up all night and gone in to work for a full day today on little sleep. While neither of them had ever kept 'normal' hours, they were still adjusting. "She's planning on April third, at 3:00," he stated.
Eiri nodded and stuck the noodle box back in the cupboard. "You need to do some grocery shopping." He removed the tea kettle from the stove, pouring the water into the teapot. "Do you want some?"
"Mm. Yeah, what kind is it?" Shu asked, propelling himself off the doorway.
"It's that stuff you bought— in the blue cannister." Eiri grabbed one of Shu's mugs and set it on the counter, waiting for the tea to steep. "Did your mom bring up grandchildren again?"
"No, thank god," Shu replied, slipping his arms around Eiri's midsection and resting his head against his chest.
"Get off," he said. Shu made a whiney sound, but didn't budge. Eiri pushed him back, but he resisted, clinging. "Tell me what your mother is planning and get off of me." Eiri pulled at his t-shirt.
Shuichi looked up at his face, still wrapped around him. "But you're warm."
"Idiot. You're the one wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts."
Shu pouted. "That's because I have to do laundry."
Eiri gave in, putting one arm around his shoulders. He sighed in defeat. "So what is she up to?"
"I don't know. I don't want her to make a big deal . . ."
"Even though you know she will," Eiri concluded. "What about the grandchildren issue?"
Shu pulled away, to stand before him, small fists on his hips. He was frowning. "*You* keep bringing it up! What are *you* getting at?"
Eiri turned and poured the tea. Shu seemed to keep avoiding the conversation. He had to know what Shuichi thought about kids. The topic had come up briefly after he had proposed, but Shu denied a desire for kids while admitting that he hadn't really considered it.
"Damnit, Eiri!" Shu stomped his foot. "I thought you weren't interested in having kids. Are you . . . do you already regret—"
Eiri spun around again to face his husband, alarmed that he could even mention such doubts. "Shuichi! No! You idiot!! I keep bringing it up because you keep avoiding it!"
"Because *I* can't give you children!!" Shuichi burst into helpless tears.
"I know that! Geez! That's not what I was asking at all." Eiri pulled Shuichi to him, gathering his small, shaking, frame against his chest. Shu's hands wadded up in his shirt along each of his sides.
"I don't want you to sleep with some chic just to get kids, either," Shu confessed between sobs. "You're mine, now; really, really mine. You promised!" Shuichi squeezed him tightly.
Eiri was incensed. "Why do you have to be so dense?! You think I'm going to forget those promises?? Damnit! I made them three days ago and I meant them!"
"It hurts, Eiri," he whined. "When you keep asking, it's like . . . salt in a wound. If you want kids, I-I can't give you any!" His weeping intensified.
"Shhhh." He stroked Shuichi's hair gently, trying to calm him. He hadn't even considered that the question would be a painful subject for the singer. Eiri wrote about love affairs and romance, but sometimes, he felt completely oblivious to his own immediate surroundings. "It doesn't matter, Shu-han. I don't want kids. I think we're both too busy to bother. I was asking to find out what *you* want."
Shu's sobbing lessened. He said, "I'd like kids, I think," he said hesitantly. Eiri heard an odd yearning in his voice, but the kid banished it, saying, "But you're right; we're both too busy. What kind of parents would we make, anyway?" He sniffled and chuckled a little. "I didn't want to think about you wanti— "
"Then don't," Eiri growled. Shu giggled and hugged him again. His moods were almost mercurial. There was no guessing what would happen next. So, Shu did want children. Eiri didn't, really. The only option for them would be to adopt. Eiri frowned, deep in thought. He said, "Your mother will just have to pin her hopes on your reluctant sister, Maiko."
"Yeah!" Shu agreed. He let go of Eiri and grabbed a dish cloth to wipe his face. He was so much like a kid, himself. Shu he looked in the refridgerator. "I'm hungry. Do we have anything to eat?"
Eiri rolled his eyes. "No. I just told you that you need to go grocery shopping."
"Oh, yeah." He let the refridgerator door fall shut. "Let's get a pizza!" He threw his hands up in the air like a cheer, still holding the dish cloth.
"We're out of tabasco sauce," he reminded. As far as Shu was concerned, pizza wasn't any good without tabasco sauce.
Shu's shoulders slumped, hands falling to his sides. "Oh."
"Why don't you just call and order some sashimi for both of us? I'll make some rice to go with it."
"Okay!" Shuichi yawned widely and dialed the local Japanese restaurant from memory.
Eiri set a pot of water on the stove to boil, feeling conflicted. He would feel better knowing that the two of them could present a united front against having children. Why was it that as soon as two people married, the production of children was considered obligatory? He silently cursed the nosiness of others. He was sure there were many nosy people who would be questioning them. . . Eiri wasn't sure what he wanted to do about this.
***
[1] traditionally, during a wedding reception, oil lamps at each table are lit by the bride and groom.
***
Author's Notes: To all of my devoted reviewers from Commitment: thank you so much!! I really wasn't going to give them kids. I couldn't really see it . . . but several of you thought it would be a good idea. So . . . I re- evaluated and here it is. I am posting the first three chapters here as an intentional teaser. Because of later content (which is disallowed by ff.net), I urge adults to finish reading all the chapters at gurabiteshiyon.net. Look for me there as "Aja".