Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story, except the few that I created out of my imagination. Hope you enjoy!

The loud sound of a blaring alarm made Shin stir in his sleep, but he didn't wake up. He groaned annoyed by the noise, then still without waking, he clumsily reached his hand out from under the covers and hit the alarm before rolling back over comfortably.

"DAMN IT SHIN GET UP! You're going to make both of us late!" Kaori barked, annoyed at the sleeping figure in front of him as he shook Shin's shoulders. He had forgotten how excellent Shin was at sleeping. Finally, he managed to wake the groggy sleeping figure. Shin woke to find Kaori throwing him a clean pair of clothes. He moaned and turned back over not wanting to leave the comfort of his bed.

"Oh no you don't! Damn, you're just as bad as waking up a little kid." Kaori said grabbing the covers and throwing them off of Shin.

Giving in, Shin glared at Kaori, not appreciating being compared to a little kid. He yawned and dragged himself to the bathroom. He washed his face and had just finished brushing his teeth when the usual morning nausea hit him. Shin grabbed a glass and his meds out of the small cabinet on the bathroom wall and dumped three pills into his hand, then popped them into his mouth, washing down the bitter taste of medicine with the water. When he walked back into his room, he found Kaori sitting on his bed, slightly fidgety.

"Hurry and get dressed, you don't have time to take a shower, showing up late on your first day of work is a really bad idea Sawada." Kaori said as Shin threw on a clean shirt and pants, grabbed his keys and wallet, rammed them into his jean pockets, and draped his jacket over his shoulder.

He glanced at the clock on his nightstand; it was a quarter till seven. The pair set off down the stairs quickly and hopped on a bus into town.

"So how did you get into my apartment this time? I know I locked the door." Shin said, and looked up at Kaori.

"I was pounding on your door for like five minutes trying to get your attention when your landlord walked by and let me in." Kaori answered as they got off the bus and Kaori led the way to their destination.

Shin sighed. When they entered the working area, Shin got a major flashback of working in Africa, Kaori seemed to notice Shin's stunned look.

"I told you it would be similar to the work you did in Africa." Kaori said, smirking slightly.

"Come on." He said, as he put a hand on Shin's shoulder and led him into a small building on the work site. Kaori knocked lightly on the second door down.

"Enter." A stern voice answered from behind the door, the two boys slid the door open and sat down across the desk of a man who appeared to be in his late forties.

Grey hairs were mixed with a mass of black, and there were a few lines on his forehead. The man studied Shin.

"I take it you are Sawada Shin?" the man asked, looking at Shin.

"Yes sir." Shin replied, bowing his head slightly. The man nodded.

"My name is Chikanatsu Renjiro and I'm in charge of this work site. From now on you will do everything that I instruct you to do. I don't tolerate anyone talking back to me. So if I tell you to do something, that's an order, no questions about it. Do you understand?" Renjiro asked, still studying Shin.

"Hai." the young man in front of him replied, and bowed his head again.

Renjiro nodded in approval. The boy looked like he was determined and able to work hard. He understood what Kaori had meant about this boy being stubborn yet determined. He could see it in the boy's eyes.

"Good, now do you have your worker's contract?" Renjiro asked, Shin dug into his jacket pocket and withdrew the contract and set it in front of his boss.

"Now, I'm assuming you've read what you've agreed to in here?" Renjiro asked holding up the contract.

"Hai." Shin replied again nodding.

"Very well, Yoshikawa, show him around and get him started on the west side." Renjiro instructed to Kaori, who nodded.

After Shin thanked Renjiro for the job, Kaori led him outside, and handed him a blue vest.

"You have to be in uniform any time you're working, you get a half hour break for lunch at 12:30. There are two shifts you can take, 7:00 am to 4:00 pm or the night shift from 4:00 pm to 1:00 am any questions?" Kaori asked as he slipped his blue vest over his shirt, Shin shook his head.

"No, just show me what to do?" Shin replied as he to slipped the vest over his shirt.

By the time 4:00 rolled around, Shin was exhausted. He spent the majority of the day dumping new gravel on deteriorating roads and repaving them. The roads seemed to never end, and he kept having to run back to the truck they were using to get more gravel. The only good part about the day was he stomach hadn't caused him too much trouble. He was grateful that his body had decided to give him a break on his first day of work. Shin was extremely grateful on the days when his stomach didn't bother him. Usually, at least once during the day, his stomach would constrict and cause a shooting pain, resulting in several minutes of discomfort.

Shin was starting to walk back to his apartment when Kaori ran and caught up with him.

"Want to go get a drink? My treat for making it through your first day of work." Kaori said grinning.

"Yea I guess." Shin replied with a shrug.

"Good, because I would have forced you anyways if you had said no." Kaori said smirking.

Shin flashed him a rare grin, probably because he was happy about his stomach.

"Come on." Kaori said, leading Shin into a nearby bar. The bar was filled with activity, Shin and Kaori managed to find to seats.

"What will it be?" a friendly bar tender asked as the two sat down.

"Two orders of sake." Kaori replied, setting his money on the counter, the bar tender smiled, and went to fix the drinks.

A while later, Shin leaned back in his seat completley calm and relaxed, he hadn't drank enough to get drunk, but he defientley felt the effects of the alcohol as every muscle in his body was relaxed.

"You seem happy." Kaori observed as he brought his glass to his lips, Shin shook his head.

"No, just relaxed." Shin corrected, Kaori smiled glad that Shin was having a good time, the guy defintely needed to blow off some steam and just lay back.

By the time the two left the bar, the sky had turned a deep shade of navy and stars were starting to peek out from behind clouds. They reached Kaori's apartment and Shin walked with him to his door.

"Tomorrow, be awake on time. Don't make me have to drag you out of bed again. You don't have to be ready until around 6:45. The only reason you had to go in early today was so you could meet with Renjiro. Shin nodded.

"Alright, good night." Shin muttered and turned to leave.

"Night Sawada." Kaori replied before shutting his door.

Shin walked lazily down the street, a breeze was starting to kick up. Shin swung his jacket off his shoulder and pulled it on. He was a few blocks away from his apartment when he heard a familiar voice that made him stop dead in his footsteps.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then." the voice of Haruhiko Uchiyama said as he exited a shop with who appeared to be a co-worker.

Uchi was only a matter of feet away from him. Fearing that his friend might see him if he didn't act quickly, Shin darted into the nearest shop to hide, which turned out to be a book store. He walked away from the window and grabbed a book from a shelf and kept his face downward, in case Uchi happened to glance in the display window. Cautiously, he chanced a quick glance out the window and saw the back of his friend as Uchi walked past the store. Shin sighed in relief. He was determined to keep his presence a secret for the time being. He was no where near ready to open up to his friends about his disease and see their shocked faces. He absolutely hated people feeling sorry for him and he knew his friends would feel sympathy towards him no matter what he said if he told them about the bacteria inside his stomach.

"Shit." Shin muttered softly. That was what he thought of this whole situation, it was shit.

Once he felt that he had put enough distance between himself and Uchi, Shin left the book store and made his way back to his apartment. He threw his keys and jacket on the clear table near his bed. He started flipping through a magazine on his bed out of boredom, when his phone rang, startled for a second, Shin fumbled in his pocket before he extracted the phone, his mouth went dry when he looked at the caller ID on the phone, it was his sister Natsumi, he took a deep breath then brought the phone to his ear.

"Hello." Shin said calmly into the phone.

"Oniisan! I haven't talked to you in forever. How are are you?" Natsumi's bubbly voice came through the phone.

"Uh, fine. Just relaxing." Shin muttered quickly.

"What have you been up to?" she asked brightly.

"Nothing much, the same stuff really, working." Shin replied, he figured if he gave her short replies he would sound less suspicious if his tone gave away that he was back in town.

"How's the weather over there. It's still kind of warm here, but it will probably start to get cooler soon since autumn is coming up."

"Yea probably, it's hot during the days over here, but it can get cold at night." Shin lied quickly.

"So, what have you been up to?" Shin asked, attempting to steer their conversation away from him, Natsumi didn't seem to mind.

"Alright, mom and dad still drive me crazy sometimes." Natsumi said absentmindly.

"Yea, dad especially still drives me crazy at times." Shin replied to Natsumi's comment. Natsumi laughed.

"Hey, I hate to cut this short, but we're about to eat dinner. Is it alright if I call you back another time?" Shin lied, sounding as sorry as he could. The truth was it was getting harder and harder to think of things to talk about, and it made him too nervous to listen to silence over the phone. Natsumi didn't sound too disappointed when she replied. She knew her brother was busy, but she couldn't help but miss him.

"It's alright, I understand." She said sweetly.

"Thanks, I'll talk to you later." Shin said before ending the call. He sighed as he set the phone down on the table next to his keys, then laied down on his back, his legs dangling over the edge of his bed. After his near encounter with Uchiyama and the conversation with Natsumi, Shin realized just how nerve braking keeping the fact that he was back in Japan was. He knew from the beginning that it wasn't going to be easy keeping his prescense a secret, but he hadn't anticipated how nerve braking it was going to be. Sitting up, he grabbed a towel and headed to the bathroom to take a shower, hoping that the warm water would clear his head a little.

I'm SO sorry it took me so long to update, I've just been kind of busy lately. I'll update ASAP, promise. And as always, I greatly appreciate reviews and comments. I love what you have to say good or bad, I like the input of my readers so I know what to improve or change.

Thanks!

Fantasyforever1989