Title: Lost And Found
Author: kajamiku
Fandom: Gravitation
Disclaimer: Gravi doesn't belong to me
Pairing: Shuichi x Ryuichi
Summary/Notes: Shuichi loses one thing and finds another.
Lost
And Found
He was sitting on a bench near N-G when he saw him.
He watched him walk on his own past the end of the line of benches he was sitting on, watched him stop at a cart on the corner, watched him order ice cream – two for one person? – and pay while some old ladies near him laughed and lavished attention on the 'cute young man' from their place on a closer bench.
For his part, Ryuichi simply stood there, an ice cream in each hand and Kumagoro under his arm, and let the compliments rain down upon him until the ladies had had their fill and left him to himself again.
Shuichi watched all this happen from his bench, half-written lyrics forgotten in one hand, while he chewed the end of his pen and looked for whoever was acting as the vocalist's chaperone this time. It was odd to see him on his own in the middle of the city, even if it was close to the studio. Shuichi's attention was gone in a moment. He squeaked and his eyes widened as his lyrics caught the wind and escaped his relaxed grip, darting off and away from him.
Leaping to his feet, arms waving frantically to try and catch the paper, he chased his quarry along the line of benches, almost tripping several times in his desperation. He got to the end of the benches and reached out once more, further than was possible while keeping his balance, and made a wild grab for the paper, falling flat on his face after getting no more than a brush of the lyrics against his fingertips for his trouble. He made a muffled sound against the pavement that sounded suspiciously like 'crap' before he wrenched his head up to see what had become of his hard work.
Standing above him, no more than a couple of feet away, was Ryuichi. In one hand he held a strawberry ice cream and in the other a crumpled piece of paper, Kumagoro hanging precariously between elbow and waist as the singer stared at the ground in front of Shuichi, where the other ice cream now lay ruined on the pavement.
Slowly what had happened seemed to dawn on the green-haired man, his eyes began to tear up at the sight of his precious ice cream dirtied and split on the ground, and Shuichi was on his feet in a moment.
It took a little tugging to get Ryuichi to a bench and away from the ruined treat, where Shuichi left him to run off and buy a replacement. The moment the other singer sat down, Ryuichi sniffed once and said, "the ice cream…" Shuichi bit his lip, spotting the paper that was in the man's right hand and recognising it as his own lyrics, and tried to think of something to calm him down.
"Here look, I bought another, it's alright." He tried to console the other, worried he might just suddenly start crying there in the middle of the city. He had no idea what to do. He was making his hero upset and didn't know how to set it right.
Instantly, Ryuichi's head snapped over to face the pink-haired boy, his large teary eyes reproachful. "I'm not upset about that." He said, bottom lip quivering. "It's because it was your ice cream." Shuichi blinked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, trying to see sense in this, before he finally caught on.
"Oh." His lilac eyes fixed in on the ice cream he'd bought and then he glanced over at an expectant looking Ryu before he took a tentative lick. This seemed to be the right thing to do, the green-haired vocalist beamed at him and reached over with his other arm. Shuichi recovered the almost-lost lyrics, smoothing the page out with his free hand, and noticed a small ice cream stain on the paper. He folded it up again quickly, hoping Ryuichi hadn't seen it.
But the superstar was contentedly sucking and licking at his ice cream now, the incident seemingly forgotten. Shuichi, however, was still wondering about why the man had bought him an ice cream in the first place, from what he had seen he didn't even know he had been sitting here. Would he have taken it back to N-G?
His hero was a bit of a mystery anyway, and somehow he didn't think he'd ever manage to work the man out. He didn't think he really wanted to.
Shuichi watched his companion eat his ice cream for a few minutes, his own treat long forgotten, and had the sudden inexplicable urge to swap them. Before he could analyse this thought, Ryuichi's blue eyes met his.
"You don't want it?" The vocalist eyed the uneaten cone and then, after tossing the last piece of his own cone into his mouth and munching at it furiously, he jumped to his feet. "I'll find something you do want then." With that said, and Shuichi too surprised and confused at his own thoughts to stop him, he pushed Kumagoro into the boy's arms and ran off down the line of benches, disappearing quickly into the bushes.
There was a moment when the other singer was completely calm. But this lasted perhaps five seconds before it gave way to blind panic; Ryuichi couldn't just run off into nowhere like that! What if he got lost or hurt?
He was on his feet in an instant, his ice cream dropped and the pink plushie clutched tighter as another strong gust of wind blasted past him.
For the second time that day, the lyrics went flying like a balloon with its string cut. Shuichi was about to chase them when something, which took precedence over the lost work, stopped him. Ryuichi's voice calling his name came with the fading wind and the pink-haired boy was scaring the other people in a second as he thundered towards the voice. He almost crashed completely into the body that emerged from the brush, his feet screaming against the concrete as he tried to stop himself, but he managed to get enough momentum to fall backwards instead and was surprised to be caught by the arm with a single sticky hand.
A slightly sweet smell was the only warning he got before his saviour thrust a brightly coloured, fully bloomed red rose into his face.
"I found you this! You like these right?" Shuichi's surprise echoed larger and larger, like a ripple in a pond, as he realised just how hard Ryuichi must have searched. His face and arms were scratched all over and he was covered with dirt, leaves and twigs stuck out from in his hair and his clothes were ruined. But he was smiling widely, perfectly satisfied that his current state was the price he paid for getting such a good present.
Feeling a little overwhelmed, Shuichi took the rose, noticing that the thorns had been pulled off the stem so that he didn't hurt his hand. Ryuichi's hands were cut all over. Still, the man was smiling brightly at him.
Shuichi grabbed his hero's wrist and began to drag the still beaming vocalist towards the studio. Cleaning the man up and tending to the wounds he'd gained in his exploration in the bushes came first. Then… then he'd think of something for them to do together, something that had nothing to do with the thoughts currently running rampant in his head.
He'd lost his lyrics, a piece of paper that was probably in Okinawa by now, but somehow, as he dragged Ryuichi along behind him, he thought he'd found something far better.