Title: Come Back

Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Chapter Summary: How Eiri feels about the whole thing, light Shu-depression/kid-cuteness, Ryuichi finds Shu-chan! Tohma comes and some EiriShu, but not much.

Note: Every one says five years, but it's closer to six, so the babies are five years old.

Warnings: AU, MPREG mentioned in passing and kids that resulted from it. Light Angst. Kid-cuteness. CROSS DRESSING starting in this chapter. Yaoi is still present, though light in this chapter. But, if you read Gravitation and don't like Yaoi, what kind of masochistic freak are you?

EDIT!!!: This is au after volume 5 of the magna! I apologize for not mentioning that in the prologue!!!!! Though, perhaps saying a week after the attack was too soon, as Suguru's in the band, so please ignore that. It's more like a month. Also, this takes place after Shuichi sang with Ryuichi (end of Vol. 5) and before he cut his hair (beginning of Vol. 6). I can't help it; I love long hair. Plus, Shuichi's cross-dressing and he can do it better with long hair (check out the pic at the beginning of track 19). Oh, and this is based on the manga, not the anime, so Shuichi's hair is not pink.


Tohma was in his office, working late, when the phone rang. He blinked, but picked it up. "Moshi, moshi."

"Did you find him?"

Tohma sighed. It had been five years now, but Eiri still called when ever he thought of the ex-singer. "I'm sorry, Eiri, I'm still doing all I can, but if he left Japan and went farther than China, there's not much I can do."

Tohma heard a faint sniff from the other line. Great, he was in one of his moods. "Why did he leave me? Am I that horrible? He always said that he loved me then he just up and disappears…"

Tohma sighed… again. Five years and Eiri was still stuck on that. "Eiri, you can't blame yourself. Ryuichi thinks it was his fault; we all know how depressed Shuichi got right after he sang a duet with him, though I didn't think that it was going to last very long. His band-mates blame themselves, too."

"You don't think that he… killed himself do you?"

"No, I can't believe, no matter how depressed he got, that Shindo-san would want to end his own life."

"I want him to come back…"

"I know that you do and I'm trying very hard to find him. As soon as I do, I'll call you, okay?"

"Alright. Thanks, Tohma."

"Of course. Goodbye." He hung up the phone and put his head on his arms. "I can't believe that Eiri seriously fell in love with him." It's wasn't like Eiri acted like this constantly, he just had bouts of depression were he blamed himself entirely for Shindo's disappearance. If fact, in public, Eiri acted like he didn't care that the boy was gone, which had caused a huge argument between him and Hiroshi. He had known that Eiri had real feelings for the boy before he disappeared; he just never knew they ran so deep. Hell, maybe they didn't five years ago. After all…

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder…" He muttered, returning to his work.


"Yuki…" Shuichi muttered into the dark, crying softly. "Yuki, do you know how much I miss you? I wish I could go back, but I…"

"Mommy?" A little girl's voice filtered through the air. The door opened and light entered the room from the hallway, framing two small figures. The girl had golden blond hair that fell down to her waist and the boy had messy raven hair that looked like a rat's nest on top of his head. "Mommy, I'm right here, you don't have to miss me."

"Yeah, Mommy." The boy said. "You don't have to be lonely; you've got us! So… don't cry, okay?"

Shuichi offered a teary smile as the boy climbed up on the bed and the girl attempted to follow, but needed Shuichi's help to make it all the way up with one hand clutching her purple Kumagoro to her chest. She whipped his tears away with her small hand and cuddled into his chest. "I love you, Mommy, so don't be sad."

Shuichi wrapped one arm around her and hugged the boy to his chest with the other. "I love you, too, my precious little angels." He glanced at the clock. "And what are my precious little angles doing up at three A.M.?"

"We heard you crying and we didn't want you to be sad no more." The boy said, as if it was obvious.

Shuichi giggled. "Okay, but now it's time for precious little angles to get to bed."

"Sleep in here?" The girl asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

Shuichi lied down, taking the twins with him. "Okay. But you have to sleep." He barely stifled a laugh; as soon as the trio hit the pillow, the five-year-olds were asleep.


Ryuichi walked down the street of a quite American town. He usually went to America at least once every month, always to a different town, because he loved it there, mostly because he didn't have to wear a disguise while going out. He'd been pretty big in America, but a large portion of the public forgot about him after he went back to Japan. There was, of course, the occasional fan that recognized him and asked for an autograph, but it was nowhere near as bad as in Japan.

"M-Mr. Sakuma?" He turned around and saw a high-school age girl standing behind him. When she saw his face, she squealed. "Oh my gosh, it is you! I can't believe it; I'm a huge fan of yours!"

"WOW! Teenagers usually don't know me. The last time I was here, I got glomped by a middle-aged woman while her son, who was your age, tried to look like he didn't know her…"

"Yeah, I know, but I absolutely fell in love with Tearless, and then I heard Sleepless Beauty and Angel Dust…"

"Oh, you like my Japanese songs!"

"Oh, yeah, there's a Japanese lady who lives in my neighborhood and has all your CDs; she lets me borrow them and in exchange I watch her kids after day care while she goes to work. She even named one of her kids after you!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah! He's so cute; he's got this rich, thick black hair, just like his mom! Her name's Shuichi Shindo and my parents say I should be nice to her because she's barely twenty-four and she's a single mom with twins, so…"

But Ryuichi had tuned her out after she said Shuichi's name. After her voice stopped her mindless drabble, he gave her a heart-melting smile. "Really? That's soooo fascinating. Could we maybe talk more while we walk towards your house? If this, err, woman is such a big fan of mine, I think I'll pay her a visit."

"Oh, wow! You are such a nice guy!!" The teen gushed, completely ignoring his change for playful to serious.

As they made their way to Shuichi's house, the girl clung to his arm and attempted to talk his ear off.


At last, after seven and a half minutes of pure agony, they stopped. "Her house is across the street and two houses down. I'll stay here and let you surprise her. Anyway, that doctor scares me… It's the weekend, so they should be home."

Ryuichi ran across the street and didn't stop until he reached the house that the girl had told him. He practically sent the doorbell crashing through the wall before waiting anxiously, hoping that Shuichi was really here. The door opened and he was faced with a woman who towered over his height of 5'5 and blinked up at her.

"And who might you be."

His face hardened. "Let me see Shuichi."

"Who. Are. You?" She said firmly.

"I'm Ryuichi, now let me through."

The woman lifted an eyebrow, but before she could say anything there was a loud wail of "MOMMY!! He hurt me!!!"

Ryuichi was taken aback when Shuichi's unmistakable voice bellowed. "RYUICHI HIROSHI SHINDO, WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR SISTER???!!!!!!!!!"

A younger boy's voice shouted out "It was the cat!!" as two little kids ran down the stairs, the boy behind the girl, the girl in tears.

Ryuichi watched as Shuichi, it HAD to be Shuichi, ran from the other room and swept the weeping girl up in his arms. His hair had grown, to the middle of his back, and he wore baggy but kind of feminine clothes, but it was Shuichi.

"Shh… It's okay, sweetie, Mommy's right here…."

The boy gripped Shuichi's pants tight and was staring at the girl.

The woman who answered the door stared at Ryuichi hard and he gulped. She sighed and took the girl from Shuichi's arms and Ryuichi saw scratch marks on her hand. "I'll take care of her; there's someone here to talk to you. Ryu-kun, come with me."

As the woman and the kids walked off, Shuichi turned to him and gasped. "S-Sakuma-san."

Before he could stop himself, Ryuichi had taken two huge steps and wrapped his arms around the other singer. "Shuichi, were have you been? Everyone was so worried… Even Yuki-san."

Shuichi returned the hug. "I'm so sorry. But, I couldn't stay there, and I can't go back."

Ryuichi pulled away and looked the younger boy in the eye. "Why not?"

"Because of the kids."

"The kids…" Ryuichi repeated slowly. "Who are their parents?"

"Me and," After a long pause, Shuichi took a deep breath. "Yuki."

Ryuichi's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "W-What?"

"Yeah, I don't know how, but I got pregnant. That's why I left."

Ryuichi hugged Shuichi tighter than before. "You left because you thought we would reject you?"

"Yes… and no. It wasn't so much you or Hiro, or anyone. I-I couldn't tell Yuki." Ryuichi could tell from the strain in Shuichi's voice that he was crying. "I-I knew that if I told Yuki, h-he'd want me to g-get an a-abortion and I c-couldn't do it, so I l-left and I…"

Ryuichi stroked the younger singer's hair. "Shh… Shuichi, it's alright… It'll be okay, I promise…"

Ryuichi held the boy for a few more minutes before moving away. "Shuichi, I want to talk to you some more, so will you have lunch with me at the China Buffet in the shopping center next week." He nodded and Ryuichi held his breath. He couldn't send Shuichi into the lion's den without any warning… "Would… it be okay if I called Tohma to see if he Yuki want to fly out here and come with me?"

Shuichi froze and thought for a long time. Should he…? He sighed. "Yes, that would be fine." Chances were that they wouldn't bother flying out there and besides, if they didn't like the kids, he could just refuse to leave. Besides… he wanted to see Yuki again.


When Ryuichi got back to his temporary apartment, he literally pounced on the phone and dialed Tohma's number, not caring that it was long distance.

"Moshi, moshi."

"TOHMA!! I FOUND SHUICHI!!"

"You WHAT?!"

"Yeah, I know, but I'm going out to lunch with him in a week and wondered if you and Yuki-san could fly out here and go with me."

"OF COURSE WE CAN! Were are you; can you meet us at the airport?"

"Yeah." Ryuichi gave the name of the city and state he was in and, with the help of a map, the airport nearest to his apartment.

"Okay, we'll be there in three days."

"Great! Bye-bye, Tohma!"

"Goodbye, Ryuichi."


At the airport, Eiri nearly jumped on Ryuichi the second he saw the older man. "WHERE IS HE?!!"

Tohma managed to pull him off before he could kill the singer, but it was a struggle.

"We're having lunch with him on Saturday. You'd better calm down, though; if you show up like this, you'll just scare him away."

"I AM CALM!!!"

Tohma sighed. This wasn't going to be pretty. He just hoped Ryuichi could survive an antsy Eiri.


By Saturday, Yuki had managed to calm himself enough that he didn't start screaming when ever he heard the raven-haired singer's name and Tohma hoped that he would be able to control himself for the hour that Ryuichi estimated they'd be in the restaurant.

They walked in and got a table for seven, much to the blondes' surprise. Before long, a server led over a group of two women and two small children. The first woman was extremely tall; as tall as, if not taller than Eiri. The second woman, however, looked to be Ryuichi's height and had her raven hair pulled up into a ponytail and was wearing a knee length black skirt and a blue sweater. As Eiri stared at her face while she was helping the children take off their jackets, he suspicions were confirmed.

"Shuichi." He said. The woman turned to him and smiled.

"Gashi, Yuki-san. Fancy seeing you here."


TBC…

S.A.: Next: Chapter Two! Yuki meets his baby girl, Shuichi tells about what happened, and the twins get angry! Bonus: We learn the girl's name! Tohma-shocked-ness abounds!

Gashi – Greetings
Moshi, moshi – Hello (on the telephone)

Also, I don't have a beta reader; any mistakes are my fault alone.