I do not own Gravitation, it belongs to its respective owners.
Chapter 2
The following day, the two cousins were reluctant to get out of bed. Shuichi ended up having nightmares through the night and not even sleeping with Ryuichi made the nightmares stop. Both of them barely got any sleep and were not in a hurry to wake up when they finally got a bit of sleep. Unfortunately, they needed to get up to go shopping for Shuichi's things as well as pick up some of the things from his parent's apartment. Ryuichi was going to put the rest of his Aunt and Uncle's things in storage for when Shuichi was older. Today was also the day he had to register himself as Shuichi's guardian at school and transfer him to the school closest to the apartment. Shuichi didn't seem to mind switching schools, apparently he didn't have a lot of friends and he didn't want to talk about the reasons. He decided to drop Shuichi off at Mrs. Nakano's apartment so that the two boys would get to know each other better. Ryuichi hoped that the two would become friends.
Ryuichi quickly put on a cap and sunglasses to help hide is identity as the singer that he was. He grabbed his cousins hand and Mr. Kumagoro was being held tightly by Shuichi's other hand. Shuichi refused to let him go since he knew that Ryuichi had to leave for a bit. In his mind, Mr. Kumagoro was just at good at protecting him as his cousin was.
Ryuichi knocked on the Nakano's apartment and was greeted by Mrs. Nakano. She quickly allowed Shuichi to come into the apartment. Shuichi was greeted by Hiroshi who was standing near his mother. "Why don't you go and show Shuichi around Hiro?" At his mother's command, Hiro introduced himself to Shuichi and showed him to his room where they could play.
"Shuichi take care, I'll see you soon." Ryuichi yelled happily to his cousin. His face turned serious as he faced Mrs. Nakano. "Thank you again for doing this Mam."
"How many times do I have to tell you to just call me Sakura? Really, it's no problem at all dear, I know what it means to have to take care of a child by yourself. Besides, you would always play with Hiro and take care of him when I couldn't . It'll be no problem at all, we'll just have to add one more to the usual routine. Now go on and scat, I know how long the paper work will take."
"Thank you again Sakura. I'll be back as soon as I can." With that, Ryuichi waved and left to take care of everything that needed to be done.
When he came to pick up Shuichi, it was already time to dinner and Sakura had them stay to eat with her and her son. Shuichi and Hiroshi became fast friends during the time they spent together. Ryuichi was glad that his cousin hand a new friend he could count on. Shuichi was animatedly telling his cousin how his day went and all the neat things they did. Sakura didn't look ready to kill Shuichi because of his hyper personality, which Ryuichi took as a sign that she would be a great person to help watch Shuichi while he wasn't there. In fact, she looked quite happy that her son was interacting with someone his age. After dinner, the two cousins left to their own apartment with promises to see each other the following day.
And so the routine began, on Ryuichi's days off, he would take Hiroshi and Shuichi to have fun while Sakura was able to work in peace. Ryuichi would drop the boys off at school in the morning and Sakura would pick them up from school.
When Ryuichi's first day back from the mini-vacation came, Shuichi did not want to let his cousin go. After a couple of hours, Shuichi finally let him go but Ryuichi was already late for practice. Tohma had already called him four times, which Ryuichi did not answer his phone. After dropping Shuichi off at the Nakano's, Ryuichi dashed to the music company.
"Where were you?" His bandmates questioned.
Ryuichi put on his hyper personality and made his face appear a bit guilty. "I slept in a bit late and Mr. Kumagoro wasn't able to wake me up, no matter how much he tried. Don't be mad at him, it was all my fault." Ryuichi was using his teary puppy eyes, which caused his bandmates' ire to melt. Ryuichi smirked inwardly. No one suspected that anything was different, not their manager and most especially not Tohma.
This continued for many years, no suspicions were ever made. Ryuichi was the bubbly singer of Nittle Grasper who only showed his serious side when he was on stage, or so almost everyone thought. However, he was quite serious when he had to take care of his cousin. When in came to disciplining him, Ryuichi learned to harden his face or Shuichi would not pay attention to his orders. Ryuichi even grew immune to his cousin's puppy eyes, a feat which is near impossible. While Shuichi was growing up, Ryuichi could see a lot of himself in his cousin. His cousin had his hyper personality, which only grew more as the years passed by and he grew accustomed to facing his parents' death. His cousin also had a great singing voice, which caused him to smile. He enjoyed the mini-karaoke nights that the two of them had in the apartment.
Shuichi and Hiroshi became best friends and would often do everything together. Hiroshi was the smarter of the two, but he still helped Shuichi with his schooling when Shuichi needed help. Shuichi and Hiroshi grew to become great fans of Nittle Grasper, Shuichi's obsession was borderline unhealthy which included his idolization of his cousin. Ryuichi was completely amused. The boys declared that they would form a band and take over Nittle Grasper's spot as the number one band. The first time this declaration was made, it caused Ryuichi to laugh at their determined faces. "Alright, you're on. That means that you guys better practice if you want to get to my level." Ryuichi's dare spurned the boys to concentrate more on their music, much to Sakura's annoyance. She quickly berated the singer for causing the boys to worry more about their music than their homework. Ryuichi had to remedy the dare and said that it counted only after they finished their schooling and that they graduate from high school. He couldn't give a higher educational degree to attain without sounding like a hypocrite.