Disclaimer: Don't own anything. So there. :P
A/N: My first Gravitation fic... This is written almost entirely from my memory of Gravitation which I watched two or three years ago, so if there are any inconsistencies, please forgive.
Yuki was yelling at him again. It seemed like all that their relationship consisted of lately.
Shuichi honestly didn't quite know what he did wrong this time. It seemed to have been some combination of the television's bright blinking light and his own hysterical laughter while Yuki was trying to work, as well as the fact that Yuki had run out of cigarettes again. Normally, he would've sent Shuichi to buy some more, but Shuichi had been trying to get him to break the nasty habit, so he'd returned with some nicotine patches and gum instead.
Needless to say, Yuki was not happy.
Shuichi felt almost numb to it by now. The yelling, the sneering, the insults – everything. How many times had Yuki told him that he was an annoyance? That he was useless and couldn't do anything right? That he should just leave him alone?
That was what Yuki was saying right now.
"Just fucking get the hell out of my sight! I don't know why I even keep you around! Just stop bothering me and disappear already!"
Normally, Shuichi would've reacted to this with loud wails and tears. Normally, he would've gone tearing out the door and straight to Hiro's. Normally, Shuichi would stay there until Yuki had calmed down enough for him to come home.
But Shuichi didn't feel so normal anymore. This had happened so many times that he was practically used to it. Somewhere inside, he knew something was crying and breaking, but the rest of him felt so numb.
He'd been wondering for some time now that if Yuki hated him so much, shouldn't he just leave? Yuki was always telling him to, anyway. Why did he stay around? Well, if Shuichi was to be honest, it was for those rare tender moments when Yuki would show his soft side to his lover, but if he really was causing so much trouble for Yuki, why shouldn't he leave? Shuichi loved Yuki more than anything, and he wanted the blonde man to be happy. If he was happier without the pink-haired singer, than Shuichi thought he would be able to leave, no matter how much it really killed him inside.
So when Yuki yelled at him to disappear, Shuichi didn't react like he normally did. Instead, he looked up at Yuki with teary violet eyes that refused to overflow and spoke in a voice that even surprised Shuichi himself with its calmness.
"Is that what you really want?"
Yuki was momentarily thrown off by the show of near-indifference, but the irritation soon fueled him again. He needed his cigarettes, damn it! Not some damn gum or fucking nicotine patch!
"Yes! I wish I'd never met you, you overbearing pink eyesore!"
Still calmly, though there was a portion of him that felt well and truly shattered, Shuichi nodded.
"I understand. I'll leave you alone now, Yuki-san. Sayonara."
The 'Yuki-san' was what really did it. Never had Shuichi been so formal with Yuki before, and he just stood there, stunned and trying to understand what had just happened. Obviously, something had gone very, very wrong somewhere, but he couldn't quite fathom what it was. How was this any different from any of their other fights?
By the time Yuki got his senses back, Shuichi was already gone, having rather calmly walked out of the door as soon as he finished his sentence. Yuki tried to calm himself. Shuichi had to know that he never meant any of those things he said. How many times had he said them by now? Shuichi would be back, just like he always would be when Yuki was calm again, and they would have some rather fantastic make-up sex in which Yuki would tell Shuichi with his actions just how much he really loved the pink-haired idiot.
Shuichi wandered aimlessly around on the streets for what seemed like forever. He had no idea where to go or what to do. He didn't want to go to Hiro, but he didn't truly have anywhere else to go. He hadn't taken anything with him when he'd left the apartment. He'd really just turned on his heel and walked out the door.
So what was he to do now?
Shuichi knew what he wanted. He wanted to stop feeling so damned cold and numb. He wanted to be able to cry and whine and wail, because, childish as it was, it was normal – at least for him. But his eyes felt so dry, as if he had long since cried himself out, and he felt so tired, his emotions spent. And that was a bad sign.
"Ara, what's this? A little lost kitten roaming the streets at this time of night?" a mocking voice came out of the darkness. Shuichi jumped, startled and defensive all at once. You never knew if the person calling you was some kind of crazy stalker-slash-murderer after all.
His worst fears were confirmed when a group of thuggish-looking guys approached him, leering at him.
Crap. Shuichi thought, with a tingle of fear starting to run up his back. Memories of his rape with Aizawa were starting to return.
"Hey, how about you keep us company tonight?" One of the men asked with a highly suggestive look as his eyes raked Shuichi's slender body.
"I don't think so," Shuichi said, trying to imitate Yuki's coldness and brush them off. Of course, with his looks, it didn't quite work.
"Aw, come on, kid, don't be so cold." A thick, meaty hand was laid on his shoulder.
"I said, leave me alone," Shuichi growled, swatting away the hand.
"After all the trouble we went through to nicely invite you? I don't think so." Without warning, he was grabbed by at least three different hands and dragged into a side alley. A gag was pulled around his mouth and no matter how he struggled, he couldn't seem to get free.
Fear raced through his veins. This couldn't be happening again. It couldn't! Not again!
He could feel his clothes getting torn off and he continue to struggle, refusing to submit. But it was no use. There were too many of them, and they were much bigger than he was, and much stronger too. Tears started to leak out of his eyes as he desperately called for help in his head.
Yuki, save me!
But Yuki wasn't coming. Yuki didn't care about him. Why would Yuki come for him? He was just a useless, no-good, immature annoyance…
Splash!
The chilling liquid came out of nowhere, drenching them all quite thoroughly and very effectively tearing their attentions away from Shuichi. He turned his head enough to see a tall and lean silhouette at the entrance of the alleyway, holding an empty bottle of diet soda that was no longer spurting like crazy. On the ground were two more bottles in a bag.
"What the heck are you waiting for? Run!" Shuichi's savior yelled at him.
Blindly, Shuichi obeyed, running towards the figure. The thugs cursed, trying to grab him again, but Shuichi saw the figure grab another bottle of soda, shake it hard and then pry the cap off, and the resulting spray was confused them long enough for the figure to grab Shuichi by the hand and take off running.
Shuichi, who was being dragged along, stared in shock at his savior. As he'd noticed earlier, his savior was tall – well, taller than him, anyway, but that was almost everyone too – and lean. His savior wore a simple white t-shirt and a long pair of jeans and had wild dark hair that was becoming even messier due to the running.
Abruptly, they turned a corner and hid in another small alleyway while the thugs ran past. His savior looked around the corner to make sure they were gone and then turned back to grin at Shuichi.
Shuichi stared at his savior, a plain-looking woman with short dark hair and equally dark eyes. There was really nothing special about her appearance. She wasn't hideous or anything, but she wasn't attractive in any way either. Well, except for her eyes, perhaps. Her large, dark eyes danced with merriment and mischief, and seemed to know more than they were telling.
But other than her eyes, in all honesty, Shuichi wouldn't have known she was a woman but for the small swells that were her breasts. She was so androgynous that she could've dressed as either gender and no one would've been the wiser.
"Well, that was dangerous. You're pretty lucky, kid."
Lucky, the word echoed around in his head. How was his night in any way lucky? Yuki didn't want him anymore – wanted him to disappear – and he'd almost gotten gang-raped. How was that lucky?
As if that word had released something inside of him, Shuichi started crying. It wasn't his usual whining and wailing but true, fearful tears of someone who had just been through something traumatic.
To his surprise, he felt the woman lean down to hug him, and he started crying even harder, leaning into whatever comfort he could get. This was what he wished Yuki would give him – but Yuki hated him now…and that made him cry some more.
It took a while for him to realize that the woman was murmuring comforting words into his ear, trying to soothe him.
"There, there… Shh… Just get it all out…"
Before he realized it, Shuichi was venting and berating everything bad that ever happened in his life, most notably his meeting with Yuki and how he just couldn't seem to stop loving the heartless bastard, no matter what Yuki did to him. He cried and cried until his tears finally started to subside and his voice was hoarse.
Shuichi suddenly felt ridiculous for crying on a random stranger and tried to wipe his tears away. The woman chuckled and gave him a handkerchief to dry his eyes on.
"Are you feeling better now?" she asked.
"Yes. Thank you." Shuichi was still sobbing slightly.
"My name is Kaze. Yumeisha Kaze. Yoroshiku, ne?" She winked at him.
"I'm Shindou Shuichi."
Shuichi waited for the expected response to finding out he was the lead singer of the top band Bad Luck, but there was none. Instead, the woman just nodded at his name and then looked around.
"Would you like to go for a cup of coffee? I've found that's the best way to calm down after an episode like that, and I'm interested in this Yuki person you were screaming at. What did he do to you, exactly?"
Shuichi hesitated. "You're not from the paparazzi or anything like that, are you?"
Kaze scratched her head. "I suppose I'm a freelance reporter of sorts, but I'm not really paparazzi. Why does that matter, though?"
"You don't recognize me? I'm the lead singer for the band, Bad Luck."
Kaze snapped her fingers. "So that's where I've seen you before. I thought you were just some punk kid cosplaying his favorite idol or something."
"What kind of writer doesn't keep in touch with the latest news?" Shuichi asked, bewildered. Granted, Yuki hadn't really kept up with current entertainment news either but… Somehow, Shuichi had always thought he was an exception.
She laughed. "Sorry. Music isn't really my strong point. I listen more than I watch, and that's only because I need noise while I work, so most of the time, my attention isn't on the music either. Besides, I work for a travel magazine, so I don't deal with musical issues much either."
"You sure work differently from someone I know," Shuichi muttered, thinking of how he was yelled at for making noise while Yuki worked.
"So, will you tell me? I promise I won't sell the story or anything like that. I just want to help, and even if I can't, it might make you feel better."
The pink-haired vocalist eyed her. He did feel the need to talk to someone for a bit. He just hadn't gone to Hiro because he knew this time, it was different somehow and he didn't want to talk to his best friend who would undoubtedly listen sympathetically and then condemn Yuki heartlessly, as was a best friend's duty.
Maybe that's why people went to psychiatrists, to get a non-biased outsider's view on the situation, and quite suddenly, Shuichi wanted to know what an outsider would tell him to do. Because people like Hiro who would always be on his side would tell him to leave the heartless bastard, while people like Tohma who cared so much for Yuki would encourage him to give the writer another chance.
But…should he really tell everything to some random stranger he met on the street?
Still, Kaze seemed sincere enough, and she had promised. Shuichi made up his mind. They went to a nearby diner where he spilled everything to her, starting from how he'd fallen in love at first sight with Yuki, up until tonight when he'd left.
Kaze was a fantastic listener. She just sat there, listening intently with no judgment on her face. There was nothing that indicated she was being patronizing or pitying him. Really, the only movement on her face was a small, enigmatic smile that kind of reminded Shuichi of the childlike Ryuichi when he was at that point of his personality that hovered between child and man.
"The thing is, I'm sure Yuki loves me. He's never actually said it, but he has implied it many times, and really, this was no different from any of our normal fights, but I don't know, I just couldn't help feeling he actually meant it this time. He actually wished we'd never met!" Shuichi's eyes were starting to water again.
Kaze tilted her head and finally spoke. "I'm sure he loves you, too. But it seems to me that he's taken you for granted just a little. It might be time for a bit of a wake-up call for him."
"What?" Shuichi stared at her incredulously. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, you should give him a reason not to take you for granted. From what I hear, you've always been there, declaring your love for him and everything. Anyone is bound to take something like that for granted. You have to show him what he has to lose before he'll realize what he's doing to you."
Violet eyes widened like round saucers. "You can't mean – I can't leave Yuki!"
Kaze raised an eyebrow at him. "Weren't you kind of already doing that when you walked out of the house?"
He fidgeted. "Only because he told me to. Yuki wanted me to leave him alone, so that's what I was doing. I couldn't leave Yuki on my own."
Kaze sighed heavily. "The perils of blind, hopeless and ever-foolish love." She smiled slightly, however. "I just can't leave you fools in love for some reason. I'll help you."
"Really?" The singer seemed to light up from the inside again. "How are you going to do that?"
The dark-haired woman sat back in her seat, sipping her hot chocolate, looking very thoughtful. Eventually, a slow smirk crept across her face, and a mischievous, even slightly evil, gleam entered her dark eyes. Shuichi didn't like that expression. She looked like some cross between Tohma's business smile whenever the blonde was plotting something and Ryuichi's mischievous grin.
"Don't worry, Shuichi," she practically purred. "I know exactly what to do. Just trust me. Yuki said he wanted you to disappear, did he? Well, then, let's grant him that wish…" Shuichi really didn't like the expression on her face. She looked to be enjoying herself far too much…
They were back in the apartment a while later at Kaze's insistence. Shuichi wasn't quite sure what they were doing there. Kaze hadn't once stopped smiling that creepy grin since she thought of whatever plan she had to make Yuki stop taking his pink-haired lover for granted.
"Um…Kaze-san…just what are you planning?" he asked tentatively.
"You'll see. Just trust me. Now," she patted him on the head as if he were a little boy, "go on and start packing all your things. Everything. Make it look like you were never here. I'll take care of the rest."
"But I already said I wasn't going to leave Yuki on my own," Shuichi protested.
"Trust me. I know what I'm doing."
Shuichi hesitated. He didn't understand what was going on but he felt as if he could trust Kaze, so he nodded eventually and started gathering up his stack of CDs and records. Kaze watched him for a moment before going into the bedroom where Yuki was sleeping.
She smiled in a most predatory fashion at Yuki's sleeping form and bent over to whisper in his ear. "I'm going to steal Shuichi from you, Yuki Eiri-san. You wanted him to disappear, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. It's going to be as if he never existed. You'll be happy, won't you? That's what you wanted, isn't it? Na, Yu-ki-san~?"
Yuki's eyebrows furrowed and he groaned lightly, but he didn't wake.
Dun dun dun... What's going to happen to Shuichi and Yuki now? Well, that's for me to know and you to find out.
