Unfortunately I do not own Gravitation

Part One

Track One- Two Years

"You've got to come out sometime." Hiro said knocking on my door. "I'll come out when I feel like it." I replied.

"K's not going to be happy about this."

"Does it sound like I care?"

"Okay, it's your death wish. You can at least let me in." I sighed as I unlocked the door and let him in. He took one quick look at me with my disheveled hair and my wrinkled pajamas and sighed.

"I worry about you sometimes." He said, closing the door. He walked to the couch and sat down. "Sit" he ordered. I reluctantly sat down beside him.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm sick"

"What's really wrong." That would have fooled anybody but Hiro. He knows me better than I know myself. I sighed in defeat.

"It's a long story."

"I have time." So, I told him what happened.

"What!" That was the reaction I wasn't hoping for. I could hint a little bit of concern, which made me a little annoyed. "Wait until I get my hands on him. He'll be sorry he ever abandoned you."

"Maybe, I shouldn't have told you…" The evil glint in Hiro's eyes was enough to make even K shudder in fear.

"Get up and get dressed." He ordered already heading to the door.

"Why?" I asked innocently.

"Because we have some business to handle" Oh great, look what you got yourself into Shuichi.

One perilous motorcycle ride later, we were walking through the entrance of NG in search of one Seguichi Tohma.

"What do you mean he is not in his office." Hiro demanded. I stood behind him laughing nervously. Hiro can be scary sometimes, especially when it comes to protecting me. Not like I need protecting...

"I'm sorry but he had some business to attend to elsewhere." His assistant said. "He should be back around lunch time if you would like to speak with him then."

"Fine, let's go." Hiro said walking away fuming.

"Sorry about my friend, he's just a little aggravated today." I apologized as I followed the fuming Hiro.

"So, I can go home now right?" I asked him. He laughed maniacally.

"Oh no, don't think you can just wallow in your misery at home, we have a job to do." I groaned. I really was not in the mood for singing. Hiro twisted the door knob. Just as the door was fully opened, K our crazy gun wielding manager shot at the door, scaring the hell out of both of us.

"What the hell K!" Hiro yelled as he walked inside the room first.

"You two are late. Care to explain?" K said reloading his gun.

"K, I really wish you would stop threatening them like that." Sakano said sitting nervously in the corner.

"Perhaps," K said pointing his loaded gun at a frightened Sakano, "You are right."

"Never mind, do what you like, as long as you don't kill them." Sakano said curling into a ball. Poor man, always so high strung. K put his gun over his shoulder.

"Let's not waste any more time."

"Yes, besides, I have a new arrangement that you two might like to hear." Suguru added.

"Sounds good to me." Hiro said. I looked at K and gulped.

"Yeah, let's get to work."

"Shindou, a word with you." K said as I headed out of the recording room. I moaned. Didn't he just say we could go on a lunch break?

"No problem." I looked at Hiro who was heading out of the room. "See you later?" I questioned. He nodded in acknowledgment, mouthed a "good luck" and left the room. That left only K and me. Great.

"Why were you late? " K asked. Well I wasn't expecting him to ask me that. I thought he was going to threaten me to sing better or something like that.

"Oh, I kind of… lost track of time this morning." I replied. He looked like he didn't believe me. Honestly with that response, I wouldn't believe me either.

"Very well, but next time Shindou, when you're going to be extremely late, call me or Sakano, otherwise I'll have to hunt you down myself." I gulped.

"Ok." I said as I all but sprinted out of the studio.

I was heading out the main entrance when something dawned on me. Tohma's assistant said he would be back around lunch time. Now would be as good a time as any to have a little chat with my boss.

A lot has happened in the two years since Yuki left me at Odaiba amusement park. At first, everyone was walking on egg shells when they would approach me. After I told them to stop treating me like I'm fragile, they began to loosen up. Then, I reconnected with a friend from my childhood named Harumi while we were on tour. They thought that things would go back to normal once again. But when she had to go to the United States to further her career, they begin to treat me like I was going to have a mental break down at any moment. I guess it didn't help that I decided to dye my trademark pink locks black and stopped wearing my signature bold and bright clothing in exchange for a more neutral look. But I felt like I needed a change.

I guess the biggest change had a lot to do with Seguichi Tohma. In the two years since Yuki has been gone I have formed a bond, though I don't know how safe this bond is, with Tohma. We left all formalities behind and become friends, or something along the lines of friends.

I made it up to the top floor, passed by his assistant, who was on the phone, and I was about to knock on the door when I heard voices. I looked around to make sure no one was coming and pressed my ear to the door.

"You just can't keep doing this to us Eiri. You disappeared for two years! How do you think we reacted when we had no clue where you were? But now suddenly you're back and you're expecting things to return to normal? Nothing has been normal since you left Eiri. This really affected all of us, Mika, me, and especially Shuichi." I was expecting him to show up to Tohma's office, but I wasn't expecting it this soon. It took him a while to reply, but finally he sighed.

"So, what about him?" Yuki asked.

"He isn't the same Eiri. He's not the nineteen year old kid you left behind two years ago.

"So, what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means don't expect him to come running into your arms."

"Since when have you started to care about the brat's welfare?" I scoffed; I wish he would drop that nickname.

"Since when have I cared about Shuichi? I made a mistake Eiri, about Shuichi. When I first met him, I thought he was like a parasite when it came to you. I thought that he was not good for you. But then when you left and I saw him trying to pick up the pieces, I felt that I had to be there for him. I realize now you needed him to help you forget your past and leave it behind forever." I could hear a chair in Tohma's office moving back. Was Yuki leaving?

"You've changed." Yuki finally replied.

"We can't stay stagnant forever Eiri." This time I heard another chair moving back. I looked around for something to hide behind just in case.

"Eiri, if you are going to continue seeing Shuichi, I suggest you decide if you are really serious about it, because if you do anything to upset Shuichi again, he might not recover from it."

"Hn." Was Yuki's reply. I heard the door click.

"Eiri, please take my words to heart." Tohma said. The door slowly opened and I quickly hid behind a huge planted bush. I watched Yuki walk by me and onto the elevator. I made sure the elevator was moving before I walked to Tohma's door and knocked.

"Come in." He said. I slowly opened the door. "Shuichi." He said as he looked up from the documents on the desk. "Please come in." He greeted. I quickly closed the door and took a seat. "So, how have you been?" he asked me.

"I've been…good. Ok, look Tohma I don't know if he told you this already, but, I know he is back." The look on Tohma's face told me that Yuki neglected to tell him about last night.

"Who's back?" Tohma said feigning ignorance.

"Yuki"

"How did you know?" he said. "He barely even just told me." He mumbled under his breath.

"He came to the apartment, last night." I said, neglecting to mention what happened.

"He did? Well this is all news to me." Tohma said. There was a soft knock on the door. "Shuichi, you don't mind if we finish this conversation later do you? I have a very important matter to attend to at this moment."

I shook my head, "No, not at all."

"Good" He replied. I nodded heading to the door.

After hearing the conversation between Yuki and Tohma, I was hardly in the mood to sing. I grimaced as a dull throb began to form in my head. A headache, great. K wasn't going to be so understanding if I told him I couldn't sing because I had headache, so I pulled it together and headed back to the recording studio.

After what seemed like an eternity of singing K let us go for the day. I sighed in relief; at least my headache went away. I grabbed my bag making my quick goodbyes to Sakano, K and Suguru and headed out. Hiro followed me out the door silently. I knew he wanted to say something.

"So, how was lunch with Ayaka?" I questioned stopping near the elevators. He glanced at me as he stopped too.

"Oh it was great, did you talk to Mr. Seguichi?"

"I did." He stared at me, waiting for me to elaborate.

"So, what happened?" he inquired.

"Well apparently Yuki beat me to it. He was in the office talking to Tohma when I arrived."

"Did he know you were there?" Hiro asked suddenly interested.

"No, I was listening from the outside. I hid behind one of those big planted bushes next to Tohma's office when he was leaving."

"Clever. So did you tell Mr. Seguichi what happened between you and Yuki last night?"

"No, we didn't get to talk very long; he said we would finish the conversation later."

"Well, good luck, I would chat with you longer but…"

"You have a date with Ayaka." I finished for him. Over the past two years Hiro and Ayaka have gotten very close. Ayaka even decided to move to Tokyo so she could be closer to Hiro. I am very happy for them, it's just, I don't get to spend as much time with my best friend as I used to.

"How did you know?" Hiro asked perplexed.

"Hiro, all you ever think about nowadays is Ayaka." Hiro was about to protest when I said, "Go have a nice date with Ayaka, we'll talk later."

"Ok, Shuichi, if you're sure?"

"I'm sure. Go, have fun."

"Thanks, see you tomorrow?"

"Of course, K would have my head if I decided not to show up to work."

Hiro laughed. "See ya later." Hiro said walking off.

"See ya." I replied. I sighed. The only thing I had to look forward to after work was going home to an empty apartment and watching primetime TV until I felt like going to bed. I was about to head to that boring life when I heard someone call my name. I turned around to see Tohma coming towards me.

"Oh, hello Tohma." Tohma nodded standing beside me.

"Need a ride?"

"Sure." I said as I followed him out of the main entrance.

"I thought we could finish our conversation now, unless you have something else to do?" So here's a tip when dealing with Tohma, when he wants to talk, accept it unless you don't like your job.

"I don't have any plans tonight, so I'm free."

"Good." He said as we walked out to the parking lot to his car.

Ten minutes later we were parked outside of one of Tohma's favorite places. As soon as we walked in, I knew it was going to be a very private conversation.

"I had Toshihiro close the place early." I nodded my head in acknowledgement. Tohma quickly ordered us some drinks and ushered me to a booth in the corner of the tavern.

"Have you, tried to communicate with Eiri since last night?" He asked. I shook my head. Our drinks came and I thanked the waiter. I took a sip, waiting for Tohma to continue.

"I was just wondering if he mentioned anything to you about where he has been."

"Actually he didn't really say much except that I can keep the apartment." I murmured, taking another sip from my drink. Tohma looked pensive as he took a slow drink from his glass.

"So, how do you feel about Eiri being back?" I sighed.

"To be honest, I don't really know how I feel about it. I guess I wasn't expecting him to come back so soon, if not at all."

"Yes I suppose you're right. It was quite a shock to all of us." I stared at my drink.

"Shuichi, I know you have been trying to move on these past two years, but, do you still think you have feelings for Eiri?" I looked at Tohma. Did I still have feelings for Eiri?

"I don't know."

"Fair enough."

"I suppose."

"Shuichi, you know you can talk to me about anything, don't you?" I nodded my head. "Even when I am busy?" I nodded my head again. What was he getting at?

"I know Tohma, you always tell me this." I replied.

"I know, but I wanted to make sure." He countered. He put his glass down and looked at me.

"Well in that case then, I suppose I should get to the main reason of why I brought you here."

"Main reason?" Now, I was curious.

"Well, I just think it is best if you kept a low profile, if you know what I mean. The media is going to be all over this when they find out that Eiri has returned."

"So you want me to keep a low profile in order to protect both of us?"

"Yes, the media will be in a frenzy if they so happen to catch a glimpse of you together, and frankly I don't think that is a good idea right now."

"So basically, you're saying that I shouldn't communicate with him?"

"To put it bluntly, yes."

"Well, you'll have no troubles there." I said.

"Well good, I guess it's settled then."

"Guess so." I finished off my drink and put the glass on the table.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Mika and I are throwing a first birthday party for Sakura next Saturday and we were wondering if you could attend." That's another big thing I forgot to mention about the last two years. While Yuki was gone, Mika and Tohma had a child. I guess that'll throw Yuki for a loop when he finds out he's an uncle.

"Does Yuki know about his niece?" I asked Tohma.

"No, Mika said she wanted to tell him in person."

"That should be, interesting, but about Sakura's party, of course I am coming, I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"That's good. Oh and could you invite Maiko as well? I know Sakura loves it when she comes over."

"Sure I'll ask her tonight."

"Excellent." Tohma said putting the tip down on the table, "Do you need a ride home?"

"Well, only if it's not too much trouble." I replied.

"No, not at all," Tohma said grabbing his coat.

"Ok then. Thanks."

"No problem." Tohma said as we both waved goodbye to Toshihiro.

"Have a good night Shuichi." Tohma said as I got out of the car.

"Thanks Tohma, for everything."

"No problem Shuichi, see you tomorrow." I waved goodbye and headed up to the apartment. I searched in my backpack for my keys and opened the door. I turned on the lights and headed towards the couch, searching for any light hidden beneath the doors. I could never be too careful. I sat down on the couch and took my cellphone out of my pocket. I scrolled down the contacts list until home was highlighted and I pushed send. I hadn't called home in a while, and to be honest, I was feeling a little apprehensive.

"Hello?" The voice on the other line said. I've told my parents time and time again to get a phone with caller ID so they could see who was calling but they keep refusing.

"Hey, Maiko, it's me." I replied.

"Well if it isn't Shuichi, my dear older brother. Did you forget to call last week?"

"Last week? What happened last week?"

"Man you must be getting old. People always say the mind is the first thing to go. It was mom's birthday." Crap, that's right, it was my mom's birthday last week, and I completely forgot. What type of son am I?

"Man, I can't believe I forgot." I groaned.

"I would say it's ok, but it isn't. So anyway, why are you calling if it's not to wish mom a happy belated birthday?"

"Well, actually I was calling because Tohma and Mika wanted me to invite you to Sakura's first birthday party."

"Of course you know I'll be there. I can't believe she's a year old already."

"Yea, me neither."

"So, how have you been? Anything interesting happen lately?" I couldn't tell her about the Yuki being back issue. Otherwise she would go on a tangent about how I should make him feel like shit. Yuki might be one of her favorite author's but that didn't stop her from criticizing him for abandoning me.

"No, nothing interesting has happened, how about you?"

"Oh nothing much, just going to school, Shuichi, mom wants to talk to you." I gulped. I wonder what she was going to say about me not calling her on her birthday.

"Ok." I said timidly. I could hear Maiko handing over the phone to my mom and her saying something in the background.

"Hello, Shuichi, my charming son." My mom bellowed into the phone.

"Mom, I'm sorry, really I am, I did not mean to forget your birthday I was just…"

"Busy?" she inquired.

"Yeah."

"Well, Honey, I can't say that I completely forgive you for missing my birthday, but if you do just this one little thing for me, I'll forgive you."

"And what is this one little thing?" What was she up to?

" There's this really nice girl who…"

"Mom, are you trying to set me up on a blind date?" For the last six months, my mom has been claiming that I am lonely and I need someone to spend time with. By someone, she means a girlfriend. So far I have been on eight blind dates. The girls were nice, but they just weren't my type.

"Shuichi, honey, you know I care about you and I would do anything for you, so could you please, just once, do this one little thing for me?" There she goes, guilt tripping me into doing something that I don't want to do.

"Ok, fine mom, I'll do it for you."

"Thank you, honey. Your date is this Saturday night. I'll give you her address so you can pick her up. Night, I love you. Maiko, you can have the phone back now."

"Night mom, love you too." Something tells me she knew I was going to cave in.

"So." Maiko prodded. "Another blind date, huh?"

"Yea, looks like it."

"Good Luck. This girl is nice, but she can be a little, eccentric"

"Oh another eccentric one, that's nice to know." Eccentric? What was with my mom and hooking me up with eccentric women?

"What can I say mom does know how to pick all the unique ones."

"Yeah, and I have to put up with them."

"Look at it this way, at least she isn't asking you when are you going to give her a grandchild."

"True, but then again, she's not expecting me to give her a grandchild."

"Touché."

After I finished talking to Maiko, I headed off to bed. Somehow I knew at that very moment that the life I had been building for myself for the past two years was about to come to an end. And honestly, I wasn't sure if I was ready for it yet.

Until next time,

Sage