It was about 12:30 in the morning before Shuichi walked through his bedroom door. He had gotten home at about midnight.
*30 minutes ago:*
The door creaked open as Shuichi walked through and put his bag down to turn around and lock the door back. As he bent down to pick up his bag, a large shadow loomed in the middle of the hallway a few feet ahead of Shuichi, blocking his way up the stairs.
The man crossed his arms, looking down on Shuichi from a good foot above his son's head. "Where the hell were you?" A booming voice echoed sharply, despite Shuichi being a mere few feet away. "My gig lasted until 11:15, Father. It took a while to get a ride over here." This actually was pretty much true. "You're telling me it took you 45 minutes to get home?" "Father…. Yes. We had to pack everything up before heading…." Shuichi was cut off by a large hand raising from the darkness and slapping him across the face.
The force of the blow sent the small boy flying into the wall. Blood oozed slightly from a cut on his cheek from where his father's ring hit his face. Tears lined his eyes, but he restrained them; he'd only get hit again for allowing them to fall. "Don't Lie To Me Boy!" The large man's voice resonated harshly. "I'm sorry, Father. I know it's late. Next time, I'll try harder to make it on time" Another blow knocked the boy back again. The wind was knocked out of him temporarily since the large hand had made contact with his chest the second time. "Pick up your bag and clean up the kitchen, boy. Since that's the only thing you're good for." The man moved out of the way to let Shuichi into the kitchen. Thankfully, it looked as though his mother hadn't made anything too involved, seeing as there weren't many dishes.
"Father?" Shuichi turned to face the man. "I'm going to warm up some of the leftovers. Would you like anything?" His father's head snapped up angrily. "I never told you that you could eat!" His father stood threateningly. "Go to bed, you good for nothing child!" Shuichi bowed, said good night, and walked up the stairs with his father watching his every move.
Shuichi closed his bedroom door, placed his bag on his desk, and crawled into bed, starting to let those held back tears flow free. 'Only two more years.' Shuichi thought. 'Then I'll graduate, and I can leave this place.' He fell asleep after adjusting to the pain in his chest. His last incoherent thoughts had something to do with a cut on his face, but he was asleep before it could truly register.
"Shuichi. Look at me, Shuichi." An angelic male voice rang clear as a bell. "Where are you?" Shuichi questioned to an empty field of flowers. A hand fell on his shoulder. Looking up, Shuichi saw a beautiful man who stood taller than his father. He had a head full of shocking blonde hair. But what really stood out were the clear honey glazed eyes. They seemed to stare straight into Shuichi's soul. They made him feel naked and exposed, but he found that he enjoyed the feeling since it was coming from this man. "I love you, Shuichi." The man whispered onto the boy's pink lips just before kissing them.
Shuichi's lavender eyes fluttered open. Pondering over the strange dream, he pulled the covers over his head to block out the 7:00 sun. In an attempt to get away from the rude sun, Shuichi rolled over and stretched, only to stop mid way realizing how bad he had to pee. He glanced at the clock. He couldn't get up yet. His father leaves for work in twenty minutes, so he would just have to hold it until then.
Before his father had the proper amount of time and coffee to wake up, he completely forgot about Shuichi. Shuichi found that if he didn't move from bed until Father left, then he would be left alone. Except for the fact that he REALLY had to pee and he still had 15 minutes to wait!
The boy figured that if he walked lightly and quietly, he could make it to the bathroom and back to bed unnoticed. Hearing his father in the kitchen, Shuichi opened the door and squeezed through and took long steps over to the bathroom that he shared with his sister, Maiko. 'Sorry, Maiko.' He thought. 'But I can't flush right now.' Believing in his victory, Shuichi crossed the landing to his bedroom when heavy footsteps stopped right before the bottom of the stairs. Closing his door as quietly as possible, Shuichi sat on the bed and pulled out a text book in case his father decided to come upstairs.
Anticipation and fear was eating at Shuichi. He prayed hard that his father would walk past the stairs and continue getting ready for work. He sat on his bed with his breath held, listening to the tiniest of sounds. When the footsteps continued past the stairs, Shuichi lay back, placing his book on the floor, and rolled over out of the sun again and drifted off back to sleep. He was hoping against hope that he'd dream of his angelic man again.
Eiri Yuki grumbled as he poured two cups of coffee. His editor had decided to be stupid again and stopped by at 7:00 in the god forsaken morning. "Just take a look at it and leave. I had planned to sleep in today!" "It's such a beautiful day, Eiri. It's good for you to be awake this early." Replied his editor. "It's not when I pulled an all nighter attempting to finish this rough draft." "Well, if someone weren't such an impossible procrastinator, then maybe he wouldn't have to pull said all nighters." She had a point.
Pulling a face of disgust, Eiri handed her a cup of coffee. "No condiments?" She asked cheerfully. "Get them yourself, Miss 'I Enjoy Waking People up in the Damn Morning.'" She chuckled softly and put two lumps of sugar into her coffee. Quickly reading his manuscript, she sipped her coffee quietly, completely used to the angry writer's stares.
After about 20 minutes, she exclaimed how wonderful it sounded so far, set her empty cup down, and walked out of the door telling the grumpy author to get some rest. Eiri locked the door behind her and proceeded to go back to his room. Next to the door in his room, a calendar hung on the wall. Eiri marked off yesterday's square and looked at the current one. "Hmm…. Bad Luck has another performance tonight in the park." He smiled to himself as he laid back into his king sized bed. "This means I get to see him again…."
