Thanks to all who reviewed! I'm so sorry that my
updates have been getting less and less frequent. (Cries) It's just that my
homework is REALLY piling up. My finals is coming in a few months and I have absolutely
NO idea what I'm even supposed to be studying…. Am I screwed or what?
Disclaimer: Uh-huh. I'm sooooooo sure everyone here believes I own Gravitation. No, really, I do.
4th Shadow-I just want to sleep and never awaken.
"Hello?"
All that answered him was silence. Frowning, Shuichi glanced at his mobile screen. No luck, it was a private id. He tried again. "Hello?"
This time, three beeps answered him before going silent. He briefly wondered whom the mysterious caller that had just hung up on him was before slipping the mobile back into his pocket, a little girl exiting from a wardroom gaining his attention. He smiled at her. "Rika, are you ready?"
She gave him a somber nod, silent as ever, as he held his hand out to her. He had to refrain from jiggling with pure unadulterated happiness as she cautiously put her hand in his. Shuichi was taking her to the hospital garden, which wasn't much of an outing, but still a big step in reacquainting Rika with the outside world.
It was therefore imperative that all went well; to be sure Rika would be able to lose some of that hostile wariness alien on one so young.
XXX
Shuichi squinted in the bright sunlight. It was a beautiful morning; the warm rays seemed to give everything an extra healthy glow. They walked on towards a mini-fountain. He couldn't help but find it endearing that Rika was clinging close to him. Her hand was gripping Shuichi's tightly as her huge eyes took in their open surroundings.
She paused for a moment, staring at a patch of multi-colored wild flowers growing beside a willow tree just slightly northeast to the fountain. Following her intense gaze, Shuichi crouched down. He smiled at her encouragingly, "You can go look at them if you like. Just take your time."
She stared at him and gripped his hand tighter, the doubt evident in her endless brown eyes. Understanding her question, Shuichi laughed and gave her a little push, "It's okay. I'll be right here."
Unrelenting, she continued staring at him, not budging an inch. Shuichi patted her head reassuringly, keeping eye contact with her. "I promise."
She took a hesitant step away from him, and then another, keeping her eyes on him. When she was about two meters away and Shuichi still hadn't moved from his crouched position, she evidently decided he wasn't going anywhere without her and tottered off towards her target of interest.
"So this was where you were. Took me ages to find you, brat."
Shuichi lost his balance in surprise and fell backwards, landing on his bottom. Recognizing that cool, silky voice, he instantly recovered his composure to glare at Yuki. "I thought I forbade you to come here just yesterday!"
A snort. "I needed to tell you something. And you said I can't enter the your workplace. If you use your eyes – and brains – you'll see that I'm not actually in the building. Therefore, I am technically not in your workplace. And besides, I couldn't get through your mobile. Did you forget to charge your battery again?"
Shuichi blinked, ignoring Yuki's last question, which wasn't really a question anyway. He wondered, what's so important that he can't wait for me to get home to tell?
When he voiced his question, Yuki didn't answer him immediately; instead he ran a hand through his hair distractedly, frowning, as though unsure what to say.
Now that Shuichi took a closer look, he could see Yuki had dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was messy. Even his usually impeccable suit had creases and what looked like a coffee stain on the right sleeve. Yuki's been acting weird all night…ever since father came to visit, in fact. I wonder what's wrong.
Getting worried, Shuichi called out to his zoned-out husband, "Yuki?"
At Shuichi's soft voice, Yuki appeared to shake himself out of his thoughts. He gave Shuichi a strained smile. "About that, I need to fly to France immediately, so I wont be home tonight. There has been some…miscommunication about my exhibit there and my representatives are a bunch of useless, blundering fools - which is why I have to personally smoothen things out."
Shuichi nodded slowly. That explained why Yuki was so stressed out. "Okay. I don't like you gone but I understand. When will you be back?"
"It shouldn't take long. A week at most."
A week?! Shuichi's heart sank at that. While he had outgrown his paranoia of being alone in the big house while Yuki's work took him away, he still didn't relish the idea of sleeping all alone in an empty bed with only darkness to keep him company.
Sometimes, memories of his tortured past came to him in nightmares; he no longer knew how to deal with them without Yuki's presence to give him a sense of reality, without Yuki to gently rub his back in circles and whisper soothingly until he fell back to sleep. It was during periods like that where Yuki's icy façade just seemed to melt away, and Shuichi loved him for that.
He mustered a brave smile, "Remember to buy me presents!"
Yuki rolled his eyes and muttered, "Be careful or I might think you actually like having me away just for the sake of a bunch of useless junk you throw aside and never look at again once the wrapping paper is ripped off and in the trash."
"That's not true!" was Shuichi's instant protest. Just as Yuki predicted.
Yuki gave him an amused grin. "Just teasing, brat. And please, try not to clog the toilets, bust a pipe, set my bonsai on fire, drive my car, break the chair's leg, break your leg, mistake my sleeping pills as candy, and bring home any weird objects including stray cats, dogs, anything related to the animal kingdom including homeless people on the street, and attempt to erase any evidence of doing anything of said above by purposely adding a whole box of soap powder into the washing machine and then attempting to blame it on the pet goldfish named Bubbles which, by the way, we don't even own."
Face red, Shuichi huffily sulked. "Is that all you can say??"
"Nope." Yuki leaned in towards the younger. Shuichi could feel Yuki's warm breath tickling his ear as he murmured softly, "I forgot to say that I might actually miss you."
"Yu-"
A loud thudding sound rudely jerked Shuichi back to their surroundings. Snatching his hand away, which had been reaching for Yuki, Shuichi whipped around. Rika was on the ground, staring at him. Oh no, what happened this time. Why is she looking at me with so much fear in her eyes again?
A bunch of flowers Shuichi assumed had been freshly plucked by Rika lay scattered on the ground, forgotten.
Irritated at the interruption, Yuki snapped, "Who's that kid?"
Shuichi answered softly, eyes never leaving Rika. "She's Rika. The one I told you about."
A look of understanding immediately lit Yuki's eyes, though all he said was "I see."
Shuichi cautiously took a step nearer. She pushed herself backwards, trembling. It felt like someone was squeezing his heart too tight with no intention of releasing. She remained on the ground, and Shuichi didn't think she had enough strength to even stand; she was that frightened.
He edged towards here, aware of Yuki's silent yet watchful gaze. "Rika," he called her name softly, gently, "what's wrong? Why don't you tell oniichan? Come here, it's all right. Nothing is going to hurt you here."
Terrified eyes met his as she slowly got to her feet. For once heart-stopping moment, Shuichi thought she was going to run away from him. To his intense relief, she did just the opposite; she ran towards him, or more precisely, behind him. Shuichi tried to turn around to face her, but Rika had buried her face into his back, and had gripped a fistful of the back of Shuichi's shirt.
Shuichi's eyebrows knitted into a puzzled frown as he tried to figure out her sudden change in behavior. She was trying to make herself as small, as obscure as possible. It was as though she was trying to hide herself.
But from what?
After assessing the situation, Shuichi felt his stomach curl into a tight knot. Realizing with a growing dread that it was not a matter of 'what' but ' who' Rika was afraid of, Shuichi asked, fearing the answer, "Rika, are you afraid of that man," he pointed at Yuki, "over there."
Shuichi only closed his eyes wearily as he felt rather than saw Rika nod.
XXX
Shuichi mechanically chewed his instant noodles as he sorted out his troubled train of thoughts. After that episode with Rika, Yuki had left; all he said was that he had a plane to catch. Shuichi's heart plummeted at the thought Yuki might be mad at him. It was so hard to tell sometimes, since Yuki could be so cold. Still, he had promised to call every night, so maybe he wasn't angry after all.
His eyes fell to the loose flowers accompanying his dinner. They were a sad, lonely sight; withered, bruised and drooping, their once vivid colors seemed faded, giving them a listless look.
Noriko hadn't been able to supply answers to Rika's sudden panic attack so he had gone straight to Kureha. After a lot of arguing over what she insisted was 'classified information', she had finally given up thanks to his unrelenting persistence. She had told him that Rika's father, although ostensibly unidentified, was a foreigner. Apparently, he had managed to get away from the police when they came for Rika.
A foreigner with golden eyes. Just like Yuki's.
Shuichi sighed and fiddled with his chopsticks, twirling them round and round in the bowl, outlining the circular shape. He didn't even notice the soup sloshing over the rim of the bowl and onto the table.
He had his suspicions, and his senior had confirmed it. Why did this have to happen? Of all things, why did Rika have to develop a fear of people with golden eyes? Her trauma ran deeper than even I thought. Now she thinks Yuki is the same as her lousy father. This is that stupid asshole's entire fault!
"Ouch!" Shuichi quickly put his scalded fingers into his mouth, sucking them. He glared darkly at his bowl of noodles and mentally cursed them for supporting Rika's father.
XXX
'The toads are falling from the sky-'
Shuichi blinked sleepily for a moment. Realizing it was the mobile shrilly screaming for attention, he groaned, Shit! Why didn't I turn it on silent?
'The peasants caught them like gold-'
His eyes simply refused to open. His right arm half-heartedly searched his bedside unseeingly in the dark, feeling for the mobile.
'They danced for joy for the gold that was not-'
Groaning even louder when he couldn't locate it, Shuichi cracked an eye open and was immediately sighted by the digital clock. It's only 4am in the morning! The idiot who's calling needs to die!
'The rain fell, only it wasn't the rain-'
Funny how Shuichi didn't realize he almost sounded like Yuki.
'The peasants reached out again, fools them all-'
The persistent ringing didn't seem like it was going to let up anytime soon. Grumbling and cursing, Shuichi made more effort in finding the banshee-like object. He felt it vibrating near his foot and grumpily nudged it up till his hand could grasp it. Eyes still determinedly shut, he yawned before pulling the mobile up to his ear.
'And their screams played eternally, for it was acid rain-'
"Hello?"
There was no answer. "Hello?"
Not another prank call. This is getting on my nerves. Annoyed, Shuichi groggily peered at the screen. His eyes shot open instantly and the haze of sleep was miraculously cleared from his mind as he jolted upright into a sitting position on the bed.
It can't be...It just can't be! Shuichi whispered to himself, not even noticing that he was saying it out loud.
The number on the monitor wasn't a private id, it was a number listed in his phonebook. It was a number he was very familiar with. A thudding sound right outside his room door, thankfully locked, met Shuichi's ears and he huddled into a protective lump, hardly daring to breath.
His panicked gaze was alternatively switched between the door and his mobile. It couldn't be, and it shouldn't be, but it was, and the proof stared at Shuichi in cold block letters.
The call was coming from inside his house.
Please forgive me for this cliffhanger! My inspiration just died and I couldn't get the words to flow even though I already planned what would happen next. I didn't go through, so it may have some grammar/spelling error. Feel free to tell me if you notice any. Well, till the next update! Hope ya'all like and enjoy! (Bows before running off)
