Title: Bye Bye Baby
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation or anything associated with it, including characters and songs. Nor do I own the lyrics at the beginning of every chapters (or its title, which is also the chapter title). Those belong to the band Ok Go. So, please, don't sue me.
Summary: Hiro had an emotional rollercoaster of a relationship with Ayaka. Suguru had a long line of one-night stands behind him. What happens when they switch tactics…and focus on each other?
Chapter 1: What to Do
"Come on in, sweetie pie! Have an apple, have some lye…"
A guitar string snapped and sliced Hiro's thumb. Hiro cursed lowly underneath his breath as blood dribbled down his thumb. Sticking the injured appendage in his mouth, Hiro realized that Ayaka was still talking. What she was talking about, however, was completely devoid of meaning to Hiro.
She focused on him, smiling brightly. After a moment of silence, Hiro realized that she had probably asked him a question. Her smile faltered, brows furrowing. "Hiro?" she asked, voice a little strained.
Hiro quickly glanced away from her. She was getting that look again, that angry look that meant fighting was in the near future. "Uh, yeah," he tried. "Sure." Hopefully, that would appease her.
Obviously, it didn't, as she frowned at him. "Are you even listening to me? Did I come all the way down from Kyoto so you could ignore me?" She looked ready to spit acid at him. "Again?"
Hiro set his guitar down, taking a deep breath in to pause the bubbling flow of heated words. It really didn't help. "I already told you that I need to have this song figured out by tomorrow."
Before he could get any farther, Ayaka cut him off. "Why? It's not like Shindou is going to be ready to sing whatever it is. He's going to mooning over Eiri, you know that. You could spend some time with your girlfriend instead."
Hiro leaned back in the chair, digging his fingers into the palms of his hands. "It doesn't matter if Shuichi is going to be ready to sing. I need to have it done so I could work with Fujisaki on the background music."
She stood, glaring down at him. "That's always your excuse! You love your band more than your girlfriend!"
"It's my job!" he retorted, quickly standing up so he could glare at her eye-to-eye. "This is how I get paid!"
Usually, Hiro was calmer and more collected. He was the one that was composed and rarely fell to anger during confrontations. However, this was a well-worn argument that had been going back and forth for months. She wanted him to come to Kyoto more often, but he always had work. He wanted her to come to Tokyo more often, but she always had school and homework. This conflict of interests led to nothing but fights.
Hiro took another deep breath in, trying to calm his racing pulse. "I'm not arguing with you about this again," he said quietly and walked away from her into the kitchen.
Ignoring his words, Ayaka followed him. "Don't walk away from me!"
Hiro's calm façade cracked. "Then stop nagging!"
"Maybe if you listened to me for more than three seconds—"
He whirled around to face her. Both of them were flushed. "If I didn't have work to do, I would! And maybe if you talked about something other than clothes, maybe I wouldn't be bored to death and would actually listen!"
Ayaka reared back, the color in her face fading to white. She swallowed and her bottom lip trembled just the slightest bit. Hiro bit back a groan. "I'm sorry then," she said, a waver in her voice. "I'm such a horrible girlfriend, aren't I? I apologize for talking about my day and expecting you to be interested in it all at." She shrugged her narrow shoulders and turned away from him, arms crossing in front of her.
Hiro nearly reached out for her, but his hand paused inches away from her shoulder. This was how it always worked. They fought, she cried, they made up. He knew that he had to stop that cycle so that they could actually move past this. Yet, when he heard her muffled sob, he reached out and pulled her into a hug. She buried her face in his shoulder, arms going around him to grasp at the back of his shirt.
He leaned against the counter, tension flowing out of him as she cried. Were they just going to forget this argument too? Would they just pull away from each other and completely let go of this fight, as they always did? Were they never going to move past this? He shifted a little, cradling her small shoulders in his hands. Distantly, he realized that he was going to have to change his shirt after this.
She sniffled a little and moved her head up to peer at him underneath tear-beaded eyelashes. "I love you, Hiro," she muttered. "I really do." She gave an exhausted sigh and nuzzled at his shoulder. Quietly, she asked, "This isn't working, is it?"
Hiro rested his cheek on her head, feeling the softness of her hair. How many times had he run his fingers through that lovely dark hair? "It was working before," he countered, blatantly avoiding her question.
Ayaka gently pushed away from him and wiped at her red-rimmed eyes with her sleeve. Her slight smile seemed to wobble on her face. "But it's not anymore, is it?" she asked again.
Hiro sighed and crossed his arms, looking over her shining eyes and flushed face. "…No," he finally agreed. He looked down and focused on the tiles under his feet instead of her. He didn't want to see the betrayal and pain on her face.
"Should we just…break-up then?" Ayaka hesitantly asked. Her feet shifted nervously on the tiles. "Since it's not working?"
"We haven't been able to let go of this argument," he pointed out. After another minute, he said, "Maybe we should." He loved Ayaka, but the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her; prolonging this relationship was only hurting the both of them. Their eyes met and understanding passed between them.
Ayaka stepped forward and placed a cool kiss on his cheek. "We could stay friends," she offered as she backed up. When he silently nodded, she smiled sadly and gathered her things. There was one last moment where she paused at the doorway. "Maybe one day, later on, if things are different…," she stopped there, stared at him for a few seconds, and then left.
As he shut the door behind her, he realized he knew where that sentence was headed; he knew why she really wanted to stay friends. However, Hiro simply didn't think he could do something like that. There was only one person he had ever waited and hoped on; what she had presented was only the vaguest of possibilities. He knew what would truly happen. So Hiro breathed around the lump in his throat, ignored the sting in his eyes, and went back to his guitar.
Suguru rolled over and groaned. There was no way his alarm clock was going off this early, was there? Lifting his head, he saw that yes, yes, that was his alarm clock and yes, it was an ungodly early hour of the morning. Faceplanting back into his pillow, Suguru lazily slammed one hand around until he hit something that made the beeping finally stop. Content now, he curled under his blankets, ready for another five minutes of snoozing, when an arm curled around his middle.
His eyes opened wide. Oh. Yeah. There was that now, wasn't there? Biting back another groan, Suguru tried to think back to last night. He had come home, done homework, practiced some, and then…the dance club. Why did he think that was a good idea?
There was a warm puff of breath against the back of his neck. Ah, yes. That was why. The dancing had been relaxing and the man had been gorgeous. The other activities last night had also been wonderfully relaxing. However, this man was a complete stranger.
Suguru sighed a little and pulled himself out of bed. Looking down, he saw that the man was still just as gorgeous as he had been the night before. The illusion was broken when Suguru jabbed the man hard in the side and the stranger flailed awake.
"Wuh?" the stranger mumbled, eyes only half-open.
Suguru started collecting the clothes that were most definitely not his and said, "Time to get out. I have things to do and you're not staying here." He dumped the clothes on the bed and started walking towards the bathroom. Before he entered however, he said, "Be gone by the time I get out." He didn't wait for an answer.
When he came out ten minutes later, the only sign that two people had been in the bed was the extremely rumpled blankets. He walked downstairs only partly dressed, thankful that his parents were gone for the month. (His father had a business meeting in Germany—or was it the U.S.?—and his mother had a conference in France…or Spain, maybe.) His allowed both his science books for school and his new compositions for Bad Luck to take over the kitchen table. His homework was to be faxed in by that afternoon and work started in only a few hours.
He was scribbling down an equation about something—gravity? force?—when he saw the phone number penned on his hand. Was this that man's number? Making a face, he rubbed it away with his thumb. Really, he had to stop this whole one-night stand thing. There was something almost wrong about how many phone numbers and various articles of clothing he had collected within the past few months.
He hadn't been that bad before he had joined Bad Luck. These meetings had only happened once every other month or so. Now they were happening every other week. Suguru bent his head and exhaled slowly. These one-night stands were definitely not helping his whole "crush" thing. It sounded so juvenile, yet it was the best word he could come up with. Two years ago, Shindou Shuichi and Nakano Hiroshi had fallen into his life…and he had been an idiot and fallen for Hiroshi. How dumb could he get?
Giving up on his homework, he instead focused on his compositions. Alright, he had to admit that it wasn't his fault that he had fallen so hard. There was just something so entrancing, so captivating, about Hiro. At least he hadn't been stupid enough to act on it—not just simple flirting, but fully act on it. If Hiro outright rejected him…
No. Hiro wasn't that cruel. He would be unfailingly kind about it. And that would make the rejection all the worse. There was also how Hiro was dating the lovely Ayaka-san. Making any sort of moves would just be a complete and utter failure.
Suguru shook his head and focused on the clarity of his music. Really, he had to stop being so ridiculous. He had work of all sorts to be done today; he shouldn't be concentrating on something that would come to nothing. Suguru sighed and quietly murmured melodies under his breath.