Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation.
Author's Note: Hello, there, my dear readers. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. The first chapter is slow, I know, but bear with me; it's just the introduction; it'll get fun pretty soon.
On a side note, please be kind enough to point out any kind of mistakes you find in the story.
Warning: This story will deal with dark themes later on. Violence, explicit sex scenes, sadomasochism, pain and blood. It's rated M for a reason, people! It's also slash. Beware!
SUMMERY: AU. Set in 1959, in a boarding school where fate brings together a student who is trying to find a meaning in life and a teacher who is trying to take revenge on a past forgotten. Violence, Drama, war themes and Slash. Yuki X Shuichi
Chapter One
After one week of staying in Tokyo's Prep Boarding School, I was almost certain that I did not belong here, which wasn't a surprise, really, considering I had never planned to come to such a fancy school in the first place.
My life story is a boring one. I grew up back in the South where the air is much warmer and the sun is much brighter; there are endless farms and farmhouses and you wake up with the sunrise and learn how to saddle a horse before you learn how to write; the smell of rice is intoxicating and the trees dance with the music of the wind.
Back there the days are longer and the water is cleaner. Your best friends are your cats and dogs, and best of all, there is no worry; not the way it is here. You don't have to worry about the future the way you worry about it here, as if you can never reach in time; as if you're always one step behind. Back in our Farm, time stands still forever.
The story of my parents is even more boring: Famer boy met city girl; they fell in love; city girl ran away and got married to the guy who didn't have a penny in his pockets, realized she had made a mistake sixteen years later and ran back to her daddy with two kids and shed some theatrical tears; Daddy decided to set everything right, found a gentleman for the girl; the rich guy decided to send the lady's little girl to his own mommy and daddy and the boy to a boarding school to have some time with Mommy to do all sorts of naughty things. Mommy doesn't have anything of her own; doesn't have the power to say no.
And hence I'm here. Everything feels different in this place. The school is really huge. It's a few miles out of the city where you can't here the roars of the cars and the footsteps of people, thank God, but it's close enough to feel like it belongs to Tokyo, and God knows how much I hate this damned city.
It's all about factories and cars; it's all about fancy suits and high heels, cigars, theatres and rock 'n roll and I feel it's sucking my soul dry. These people with their polished shoes and crazy manners are stealing away my humanity, all dignity that is left of me.
I sit at the small lake in the school area. Fall is here already and I miss home. I miss dad and Maiko, my poor little sister. I even miss my Mom; it's not like she could do anything about this. Kano, my dearest stepfather decided that he didn't want me around and that was that. All the better, I guess. I wasn't that fond of him either, to tell you the truth.
Lunch time is almost over; I search for my schedule in my bag and find it crumbled at the bottom of it, shows how much I care.
Latin, Algebra, history.
Awesome.
I lie on the grass, close my eyes and feel the damp earth feeling cold against my white shirt. I ignore the few biting remarks that come my way from a group of classmates passing by.
"Missing your caws, farmer boy?"
I must have an aura of a village boy around me or something; the moment I stepped foot in this forsaken place, they knew I wasn't one of them. These crazy people, they all stick together all the time, as if it's an advantage to be so artificial. Sometimes I wonder if they have ever lived at all.
The bell rings, the sound a cacophony in the afternoon silence, and I walk back to the old building. The man standing at the doorway is the mathematics teacher, one of those old, ugly guys whose sound is like nails scratching on a blackboard, a very unpleasant noise indeed, and he looks at my shirt in a very displeased manner. Yeah, yeah, it's not ironed, I get it. It's not m fault, really. The guy living next my and Fujisaki's room, an asshole in the true definition of the word, hid my iron; thought it was a splendid joke, Stupid asshole.
Oh, don't get me started on the stupid dorms and the other guys. These boys are worse than the devil himself, I swear. They hate each other with such a vengeance that it's almost frightening. You wouldn't believe it if you saw them though. At each others' face, they're like "Oh, Sakuma, how are you in this beautiful morning?" And "I'm fantastic. Fancy seeing you here! You just made my day!" But they backbite and betray and lie to each other and everything; it's insane!
I walk past the classes to reach 203. I know I'm late, but I don't bother to run or anything. I just can't bother to care for the classes, especially Latin; stupid, stupid lesson. You just have to sit on stiff, wooden chairs all days and repeat stupid words in a monotonous tone; can't get any more boring, I swear.
One of the guys in the twelfth grade, a representative or something I guess, catches me wandering in the highway and screams until he becomes blue in the face. I smile at him and he gets angrier, writes my name in a small notebook and orders m to get to the class. These people take life too seriously sometimes. I shrug and walk toward my class.
I don't know how the system works in here, but by the time you get to the last grade, you have turned to a real pain in the ass. I guess they inflict so much pain on you that by then you inevitably want to take it out on anything and everything around you.
I reach the class at last; I can clearly the teacher's voice from behind the door. I take a deep breathe, adjust my disheveled shirt and knock. There is a terrible silence at first, and then the door opens with a painful scratch.
"Shindou! You're late!"
His eyebrows are hidden in his white hair out of shock. Being late here isn't very customary, I suppose. Well, that can't be good.
"Detention! And why are you looking at me like that? Get in the class!"
I give him a sheepish smile and walk in. I try to walk fast, but one guy's long leg suddenly appears and I stumble toward the last row and the room explodes with laugher. Oh please, this is so not funny anymore.
I sit at the last raw, alone as usual, and take out my book, getting ready for another two hours of learning nothing.
I hate the study room, and I try to avoid it as much as possible, but there are not many places to go for the ninth graders and my room is so stifling, especially when Fujisaki is in it. Now don't get me wrong; he's not a bad guy or anything, but he doesn't talk to me at all. Everybody around here behaves like that, to tell you the truth. It's like they have so many secrets, they're afraid to spill them all out once they start talking, and I feel so lonely.
Everybody's studying something, but I can't make myself open the book in front of me. What's the point in memorizing all these things anyway? Nobody ever bothers to explain anything anymore. The room is so silent that every movement echoes in the place, and I feel like pulling my hair out. I start to hum a melody low under my breath, a melody I used to play for Maiko when I was younger and I receive deathly glares from every forsaken direction. All right, people! Loosen up!
I leave the study room as noisily as I can and start to walk back toward my room. Fujisaki might not be the coolest guy for a roommate, but at least he almost doesn't exist.
I keep humming the melody when I hear noises coming from outside the building. Now that's weird, considering you're not supposed to leave the building after eight PM. I carefully walk past the School Parent's room, and ironical name if you ask me, considering the old fool resembles nothing of a parent, and get out of the building.
That's when I see the circle of people next to the lake I earlier told you about, and I hear them cheering somebody on. I walk up a small hill, careful not to be seen, and I try to figure faces out as I wipe the dust of my knees, and there's Aizawa, a twelfth grader and the head of the students and there are two other students in the middle. One of them, I guess the one being cheered on, is holding his hands up in victory and another one is slowly crawling out of the circle with a bloody nose and a torn shirt.
I watch the scene with my jaw dropped. I mean, come on! What's wrong with all these people? They're all polite and civil in the morning and beat each other bloody at night. You have to be especially deranged to reach this level of insanity, and I'm not kidding here.
I know the poor beaten boy. He's my classmate, to tell you the truth. He's spoilt and clean and everything, but he's like the shyest guy I have ever seen; always sits at a corner and blushes every time he's addressed to. It's kind of cute, I admit it, but I cannot imagine a reason why anybody would want to beat him bloody like that.
I watch some bulky guys blocking him and the other guy walks toward him. I walk down the heel, trying to do something about this, when someone grabs me from behind and yanks me back. I'm about to shot when a hand covers my mouth and asks me to shut up. It takes a few moments, but I finally do what I'm told and stop trying to scream.
"You don't wanna go there, dude. They'll beat you, too and enjoy it."
I try to see my attacker's face, but it's hard in the dark of the night and the guy's hair is on his face anyway, covering his eyes.
"Come on. Let's get out of here."
He doesn't wait for me to say anything; grabs the front of my shirt and yanks me forward, like I'm a dog or something, but I don't say a word; I'm afraid the teachers might notice us, and then we'll be in real trouble.
He seems to think the same, 'cause he gestures with his hands for me to bend down, and I do so and we walk toward the back of the building. I stumble a few times in the bushes and I think he glares at me a few times, but it's too dark to be sure, and I stick my tongue out at him, but I'm not sure if he sees it or not.
And then I see the ladder. He walks up and asks me to do the same. I'm not too fond of heights, to be honest, but I don't want to look like a coward so I grab the edge and start to climb slowly, too afraid to look at anything but the guy's black shoes above my head. He reaches the roof after a few scary minutes and then he grabs my elbows and hollers me up, and then we're on the roof, and boy, it's so beautiful.
I don't wanna sound like a girl or anything, but the moon is above us and the stars are above us and all the people are under our feet. The building isn't really high or anything, but it feels so good to be above the others that I can't bring myself to care.
"Ryuichi Sakuma,"
The guy suddenly says and extends his hand, a huge grin lighting up his eyes, and I involuntarily grin back and shake his hand. It sounds crazy, I know, but he smells a little like home, and I feel better already.
"Shuichi Shindou"
I say and finally release his hand, and look at his face under the light of the stars. He feels so fresh that I cheer up immediately, and I suddenly have this urge to start to talk, but I don't do it, 'cause he starts to talk before me.
"I know. You're a Ninth grader. I'm in the eleventh." He says and walks even closer, his eyes getting serious.
"You should fall on your knees and thank me right now. I saved your from a freaking serious trouble."
He says and I just look back at him, not knowing what to say.
"Aizawa is…trouble. It's like a ritual they have every Wednesdays, hitting the newcomers, bribing money, making them their bitches. You don't wanna be involved in this. I promise you."
"What about the headmaster?" I ask. The guy's like a hawk. He notices everything.
"Tohma doesn't care. Aizawa's family is filthy rich; his bloody gang, too. Tohma expels them, lots of money stops coming in; no money means no school, and he doesn't want that to happen."
"So rich guys beat small guys and nobody does anything about it."
"Yup, and you don't wanna be on either side, I promise you."
I feel like I should vomit or something, but I haven't eaten dinner and it doesn't seem like a nice thing to do, so I start to hum a song instead, an old habit of mine, and try to forget about what I just heard. I always do that when I don't like something, you know. Works most of the time; keeps me sane.
"I heard you the other night, you know."
He whispers suddenly and I try to think what he's talking about, 'cause Mom always says I say stupid things all the time, but I can't remember saying anything to anybody in the past bloody week.
"Eh," I say, but no other words come out. Maybe I should apologize or something, I think to myself, but he starts to talk again, and saves me from saying anything stupid now.
"You were playing the piano, and you were singing some nice song. You're lucky the teachers didn't hear you. You'd be in real trouble. You're not to suppose to play after the lights out, but I heard you and I think it was awesome."
I blink a few times and look at his eyes behind those bangs, tying to see if he's kidding or not, but his eyes are large and bright and he seems to be honest. I smile and nod.
"It's one of my favorite songs, you know."
He smiles back then and walks even closer, I can smell his cologne, but I don't step back, 'cause he really smells good.
"I sing, too, sometimes." he whispers, as if he's revealing a big secret, and I nod again, feeling like I should talk.
"That's…that's great." I want to say a lot of other things, but I don't know where to begin. It's almost like I've forgotten how to talk I the past week, and here he is, this Ryuichi guy, and I feel like this place isn't as bad as I thought it would be at first, and maybe I should postpone my escape plan for a while.
Ryuichi sits on the edge and stares at the road leading to the city, his back to the gang of people below us.
"My father doesn't like it much. He thinks I should focus on my studies. You know how parents are, but singing… it's like going to another world. It feels so…liberating. Ha! I don't know what I'm saying anymore!" He scratches the back of his neck and nervously laughs.
I know what he means though, not about parents wanting you to study. I mean the singing part, 'cause I feel the same, and it feels good.
I sit next to him and swing my legs backward and forward, but I don't look down.
"Can you sing right now?" I ask him and surprise us both. It kinda came out of my mouth. It happens a lot, you know. It's like I don't have any control over my brain sometimes, but he seems pleased, so I don't apologize.
"You really wanna hear it?"
"Sure."
And he begins to sing. I'm no music teacher, but his voice is so strong and nice, and I feel warm inside, so I guess he must be really good. I haven't heard the song before, but it's really pleasant and I learn the lyrics after a few moments and start to sing with him. He smiles at me without stopping and I feel warmer inside.
We keep our voices low, so no one will hear us, but it still feels great and I think he feels the same, 'cause he doesn't want to stop and neither do I.
We finally stop though, and this time there's absolute silence. The guys are finally gone, I guess, and we say nothing. It's not uncomfortable though and my impulse of talking is gone too, thank God.
I secretly look at him, and I feel warm again, as if I'm back in the farm once more. He turns his head and looks at me. I guess he remembers something good, too, 'cause his eyes shine and he winks.
"We'll make a good singing team, ha?"
He says and stares at the road far away from the school area. I say nothing as I listen to the roars of the cars passing by every few moments.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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