Thank you so much to all the people that reviewed before ^__^ It was really nice to get all of that encouragement! ^__^ Erm...Someone asked why I seem to reuse the name Ruiji over and over again in my fics... Ruiji was the guy that Sendoh was trying to pick up in my MakiSen, Ruiji was Rukawa's older brother in my RuKo and now he's the crazed Shuichi fan here... Um...Well, I don't have any special reason, really... I just name male OCs Ruiji because first of all, I like the name, second, I am too lazy to go researching for male Japanese names even though I know that that is a ridiculously easy thing to do.

Um...I know that the story is going pretty slowly so please, please forgive me for dragging it on like this... I just wanted to introduce Ruiji's character a bit more, I doubt if I've succeeded, and show his interactions with Shuichi and Hiro while he still seems all normal...

Obsession
Part Two

~**~

" I think we have a little problem here…"

Near tears, Shuichi turned pleading, violet eyes towards the young man seated next to him on the passenger seat. It was obvious to Hiro that his best friend was about to break down from the shock of the sudden collision and the not too pretty images of what Yuki would do to him when he found out what had happened, because Shuichi knew just as well as him that this black Mercedes Benz was Yuki's pride and joy. Sighing, the Bad Luck guitarist held his hand up and gestured for Kobayashi Ruiji to wait for a few moments, before releasing himself from the seatbelt that might have very well saved his life just a few moments before, and leaning across the still frozen form of Shuichi so that he could press the controls to the power windows. He wanted to have a bit of a private talk with Shuichi before they faced the dilemma that they were currently in. "I suppose it wouldn't make you feel any better if I said 'I told you so'…"

Shuichi sniffled and ran the back of his hand across his eyes. "You're right. It won't."

" So I won't say 'I told you so'."

" But you just did!" The pink haired singer cried indignantly, tears now falling freely down his smooth cheeks. " You just did! I never expected you to be mean enough to rub this into my face like this, Hiro! You're my…my best friend and I thought that you would be more sensitive than that!" Wailing and looking utterly pitiful and heart rending, Shuichi brought the edge of his t-shirt up to wipe his eyes.

" I never said 'I told you so'!" Hiro protested, patting his best friend's back awkwardly in a vain attempt to comfort him. He wasn't used to making Shuichi cry like this after all, unlike certain romance novelists.

" You said ' I won't say I told you so' and that's just an indirect way of saying 'I told you so'! So basically, you told me that you wouldn't say 'I told you so' to tell me 'I told you so' in an indirect manner!" Shuichi said in between hiccups, his frail shoulders wracked by sobs.

Hiro hadn't understood a word that had just come out of the guy's mouth, besides the half shrieked 'I told you sos', but he decided to apologize for whatever wrong doing Shuichi had thought he had done just to get the guy to stop it with the tears. He was afraid that he would choke, what with the horrible way he was hiccupping. " I'm sorry, all right, Shu? Please. Just calm down, all right? Well fix this!"

" The car!" Shuichi wailed despairingly as he buried his face into his hands. Yuki's pride and joy reduced to scrap metal. He was going to die! Singed slowly to death by Yuki's cigarette butts, just as Hiro had told him he would be. What a horrible way to go! In his admittedly over active imagination, he began to envision his 'ideal funeral', if there was such a thing as that.

Making comforting sounds at the back of his throat, Hiro took Shuichi's hand between his in a gesture of reassurance.
" The car can be fixed. Yuki won't be back for a couple of more days, and I'm sure that some mechanic out there would be able to do the job so that the guy would never even know what happened! It would only cost a few thousand yen. Nothing you can't manage."

" Hiro! This is a Mercedes! A foreign car that needs to be taken to a body specialist, seeing how the back is all scrunched up like an accordion! I don't know much when it comes to cars or anything, but I know enough to know that it's going to be more like hundreds of thousands of yen! And what about the other guy's car, Hiro? The front looks like it's completely caved in! And it's a BMW!"

" Shu, our bank accounts are far from those of the likes of Ryuichi Sakuma and Seguchi-san, but we're also not exactly penniless nineteen year old High School drop outs. If I do say so myself, Bad Luck has been doing pretty well so far, and a few hundred thousand yen won't render you bankrupt. So relax. It's only money. We can make more of it. Just be thankful that we're still alive, and that you didn't run over that Kobayashi guy…" And Hiro was extremely grateful for the fact God had decided to give him a bit of a break, and had spared his life for the time being. He had been certain that the time if his death had come when he had felt the impact. He decided right then and there that he was going to donate some money to a charity later on, as soon as he got home. Something to do with little kids, since people were always going on and on about how the little kids were the future.

" All right, Hiro…" Shuichi sounded a bit doubtful, but at least his sobbing had ceased.

" You're calm."

" I'm calm." Shuichi agreed, nodding his head adamantly.

" You can handle this. You can handle this guy."

" I can. I can." The rock star's head was nothing but a pink blur by now as he nodded his head furiously in total agreement. Hiro never failed to psyche him up at crucial times like these, and for that, he was eternally grateful. He knew that he would most probably have thrown himself at Kobayashi Ruiji's feet, begging for forgiveness if his best friend hadn't been there, not that he was ruling that out as of yet. He was ready to do that, if the occasion should arise.

" You're going to coolly offer to pay for the damages you made to his car." Hiro instructed the avidly listening singer,
" You're going to invite him into Danny's for a drink with us, you're going to make some small talk, maybe invite him over to watch that concert of ours the day after tomorrow, and then you're going to give him one of those business cards that K had printed for us, so that you look all professional and less of an idiot, and ask him to call you up when he's gotten the estimates on the car. You are not, under any circumstances, to mention that you don't have a learner's permit, let alone, a driver's license."

" But, Hiro! Any fan of Bad Luck knows from all the stuff in the magazines that I can't drive!" Shuichi pointed out sensibly.

" Well, my friend. Luck seems to be at our side when it comes to that. It seems as though you were lucky enough to crash into the car of someone who isn't too keen on Bad Luck. He wasn't even impressed when you pulled that whole 'Hi, I'm Shindou Shuichi, as in, the singer of Bad Luck' crap to try and impress him. Are you ready to do what I just told you to then, Shu?"

Shuichi nodded firmly, his jaw set resolutely. " I'm ready, Hiro-kun." And he proceeded to roll down the window that separated him from Kobayashi Ruiji.

~**~

Ruiji watched the goings on inside the car, his heart racing madly within his chest. He could swear that it was drumming away so loudly that anyone nearby would be able to hear it.

It had taken an unbelievable amount of effort, on his part, to be able to push back the urge to just yank the door to the black Mercedes open, and take the pink haired rock idol into his arms, but he had managed it. He had somehow managed to act all cool, as though he had no idea who the guy even was, when in truth, he had lived and breathed Shindou Shuichi since the very moment he had first heard the boy's earliest single.

His idol was within reach. Separated from him just by thin wall of glass. He couldn't believe it. He felt absolutely elated. But he kept his face a blank mask, knowing that Shuichi must have enough of simpering fans by then. He had a better chance with the guy if he acted differently from all of the others, he thought, if he acted as though Shuichi's fame had no effect on him. Like the singer's lover did.

But Yuki Eiri was an obstacle that he would pass once he got to him. He was perfectly aware of the rumors of the blond haired novelist abusing Shuichi, not physically but verbally and mentally, which Ruiji thought would hurt just as much, if not more so, rumors that the young rock star adamantly denied. And because of those rumors of Shuichi's maltreatment in the hands of that good for nothing novelist, who seemed incapable of appreciating the wonder that was Shindou Shuichi, he hated this Yuki Eiri. Hated him with all of his being. It didn't help things any, that the unappreciative fool had the young singer all to himself, when Ruiji knew perfectly well that Shuichi was supposed to be with him, and not with Yuki. He could give the boy so much more than that other man could. He could love him, take care of him and cherish him. He was confident that it would only take a matter of time before he managed to make Shuichi come around and see the truth: that Yuki Eiri was entirely wrong for him, and that he was meant to be with only Ruiji.

After all of the time that he had spent planning his 'accidental' run-in with his idol, things couldn't possibly have turned out more perfectly than the current situation they were in. He wouldn't have been able to do any better than this himself, and was lucky that fate, as he had known it would, had intervened.

His original plan had been simple. He had just intended to hang around the bar that he knew Shuichi and his best friend, Hiro, frequented and wait for the two of them to show up. And they had, only not exactly in the manner that Ruiji had expected them to.

He had found the small club to be entirely too crowded for his taste, even this early on in the day, and had gone out for a smoke by his car, which had been a present from his father for his twenty-second birthday.

He didn't know how long he had been standing there before the black Mercedes Convertible had come careening down the road, and into the parking space before his car. Time was of little consequence in things concerning Shuichi Shindou, but he had been hanging around there long enough so that there was a steadily growing pile of cigarette butts by his feet.

Seeing the seemingly out of control car coming his way, Ruiji had jumped back up onto the curb, and watched with horror as the black vehicle slammed into the front of his car. He had been just about ready to rip the head off whoever was 'driving' the offending vehicle, when the window had rolled down, and he was treated with the sight of the awkwardly smiling face of the man who haunted his dreams. For a while, he had been speechless, thinking that it was all just a dream, that he had been thinking so much about the guy lately that he was finally having hallucinations. But then, the pink haired man had spoken, and the sweet, familiar voice that millions of people around Japan loved, reassured him that this was real, that he really was face to face with Shuichi Shindou.

He allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction. Things were turning out so wonderfully. He had never expected such a break! After an accident like this, it was only natural that he and Shuichi exchange phone numbers so that they could get in touch with each other, and after that, who knew what else could happen?

He could invite Shuichi out for a bit of dinner later on maybe, pretend that they needed to talk some things about his insurance over or crap like that. That was all the opportunity that he needed…

He knew everything there was to know about Shuichi Shindou. He knew what kind of breakfast cereal he liked to eat, that he preferred boxers over briefs, what kind of hair dye he used, little things like that which people wouldn't think were so important. But Ruiji had stored away those little pieces of information for future reference, he could use them, he knew.

With just a little time, he would be able to make Shuichi come around and see that Yuki Eiri and himself were just too damn incompatible to work out, and once the rock star came to that conclusion himself, with a little push in the right direction from Ruiji, of course, Kobayashi Ruiji was going to be the first one in line to offer him comfort from his heart break.

His train of thoughts were abruptly interrupted when the driver's side window of the car were lowered. A slightly nervous, though obviously more in control Shuichi poked his head out, a hopeful little smile still on his lips. " Kobayashi-san?"

" Yes, Shindou-san?"

" I am so sorry, so sorry about the car…" Shuichi's head bobbed down repeatedly into little bows of penitence, his sincerity obvious. Once more, Ruiji was overtaken by the sudden urge to hug his idol. " The least that I can do, Kobayashi-san, is to pay for the damages that I have caused! I am sincerely, sincerely sorry…" The boy went off into another round of mad bowing.

Clucking his tongue in disgust, Hiro pushed his friend back onto his seat so that he could address the older man.
" Kobayashi-san, I am Nakano Hiroshi."

" I am pleased to meet you, Nakano-san, even under such straining circumstances."

" Same here, Kobayashi-san. Perhaps you would care to join my friend and I for a drink. We would be able to discuss more things inside Danny's, I believe." Hiro suggested. After Ruiji had accepted the offer, the red haired guitarist slipped out of his seat and pulled Shuichi out after him.

He led his two companions into the bar, and made idle chatter as they were seated at a secluded booth by one corner. As usual, he was going to have to be the one to clean up his best friend's mess. He was so used to it by then that he just automatically assumed the role, even if Shuichi hadn't asked him to.

Luckily enough, though, this Kobayashi person seemed to be a decent guy, and wasn't at all difficult to talk to. After a few drinks had loosened their tongues, and Shuichi had wept openly about his worthlessness, to which Ruiji had replied by giving him a tight, lingering hug of reassurance, they were on first name basis with each other and were laughing and talking like old pals.

" You nearly gave me a heart attack there when I saw your car coming at me!" Ruiji informed them, a small smirk on his lips as he brought up his glass of beer for a long draught. He couldn't believe how natural it felt to be hanging out with those two. Shuichi was even lovelier in person than he was on T.V, or in the magazines. He was so down to earth, so incredibly friendly. In short, in his rather biased opinion, the pink haired rock star was absolutely perfect.

Hiro snorted. " At least you weren't actually in the car with him. I nearly peed my pants a couple of times because of his driving!"

" But Hiro! I thought you said that I was doing all right!"

" Of course I said that, Shu! It wouldn't have helped our situation out any if you had burst into tears behind the wheel because you thought I was making fun of your driving skills which, even you have to admit now, is a joke!"

" I'd be more than happy to teach you how to drive, Shuichi-san." Ruiji informed the younger boy, trying to appear as off handed as possible. Inwardly, he was praying for all the gods in the heavens to make Shuichi say yes.

The boy's bright, purple eyes widened in surprise. Was the guy serious. How could he possibly offer to do such a thing after he had just seen him completely demolish his car? This Ruiji Kobayashi guy seemed to be forgiving as well as brave, or was he just stupid? "You serious?"

" Yeah." Ruiji shrugged, his blue eyes glinting evilly. " How much more damage can you do? My car is already a wreck anyways…" Chuckling, he leaned across the table to give Hiro a high five. Shuichi just pouted, watching the two who seemed to be getting along very well with each other. " How about tomorrow?"

" Wow, you sure seem eager to meet an early death." Hiro commented, pursing his lips thoughtfully. " But anyways, tomorrow wouldn't be any good for Shu. We've got practice for that concert that were going to be performing the day after, and Shu can't miss all the sound checks and stuff…"

" But you can drop by, you know." Shuichi put in with a small shrug. " Our friends usually do anyways, so that you can get a behind the scenes look at a Bad Luck concert and stuff. And I'm going to be asking Sakano-san, that's our producer, to take care of the whole car crash thing; he's good with these sort of scenarios. No one knows insurance stuff better than that guy. I guess you should meet him so that we could all talk this over." Shuichi rummaged around in his wallet for the business card that he knew was there. Borrowing a ballpoint pen from Ruiji, he hurriedly scrawled down the number to his mobile phone, and home phone number at the back. " There. You can just call me up if you need to get in touch and stuff."

" Thanks. I'll do that." Ruiji replied with a grin as he pocketed the small card. He was so happy with his accomplishment that he was barely listening to Hiro's stories about their rather eccentric manager named K.

Contact had finally been made, an invitation to tomorrow's practice received, and Shuichi's home phone number obtained. Wow. He was really doing far better than he had ever expected…

~**~ To Be Continued ~**~