A/N: It's a couple months short of a year since I updated this fic, which is a very short time for an update compared to my other stories. I hope you enjoy this update!

Tourniquet

Chapter 4:

The moon above was nothing but a thin crescent, and only a sparse scattering of stars accompanied it. Shuichi stared at it, a dark knit hat covering his shoulder length pink hair. The rest of his body covered with loose-fitting denim.

He didn't know when it began, but lately he seemed sick of eating. He wasn't suicidal, nor did he want to lose weight, he just felt like it was too much a bother to eat.

"I'm sure Hiro has noticed, Fujisaki too. That's why they're insistent on eating lunch with me..." Shuichi ran his fingers through his hair, the softness of it comforting. Unlike months ago, he managed to maintain good hygiene. "...I shouldn't make them worry, but..."

He thought back to the after-concert interview, all those questions about Yuki and whether the writer showed any warning signs. It hurt. Those questions. The same questions he'd constantly asked himself ever since the funeral.

He couldn't answer them. He hadn't noticed anything unusual before Yuki...

"Idiot." Shuichi mumbled and shook his head. "Just forget about what you saw or didn't see. Just forget."

Shuichi lowered his face, his eyes shut tightly to hold back the tears. There had always been...he'd always felt an undercurrent of sadness in Yuki, since the moment they first met.

When he found out about Kitazawa he sort of realized what that sadness was...but even then, Yuki hadn't been much different. No sign, no sudden change - nothing unusual. Just Yuki.

"...it wasn't my fault...I was there...just a second sooner and I'd..." Shuichi grasped his wrist, reflecting on his thoughts. "...was it my..."

He faltered, his body chilled by the sense that someone watched him. Watching...no, glaring at him with angry eyes. He lifted his head, hoping it was his imagination.

"Shindou."

"Se..." Shuichi's eyes widened at the sight of his boss; the older man drunk and disheveled. The pink haired vocalist barely noted the bar standing homely beside them - his original destination before thoughts about Yuki made him forget. "Seguchi-san, what...?"

"Shindou..." Tohma grabbed the younger man's collar, his brain clouded by alcohol. The only thing he felt was anger - anger directed at the one in front of him. There was nothing to stop him...to get rid of the singer he blamed for losing Eiri.

"Segu..." Shindou gasped as the blond shacho pulled his collar tighter, the denim fabric cut tightly into his neck.

"...I trusted him to you." The older man croaked out haltingly, his grip getting a little looser. Almost as though talking and holding onto Shuichi was too much to do at once. "You didn't help...you were supposed to help..."

"Se..." Shuichi flinched as Tohma grabbed his wrist, nearly breaking it. His heart pounded in his chest, the anger in the shacho's eyes was too intense. He gulped, trembling. So many months had passed without him running into Tohma that he'd forgotten how dangerous it could be. "Seguchi...!"

Shuichi felt his heart jump when Tohma pushed him against a street-lamp, partly relieved that it wasn't into the street. It took only a second for that relief to be washed away - by the lips that roughly smothered his own.

'Seguchi!' Shuichi's eyes widened, his stomach twisting into knots. The stench of alcohol filled his nostrils, and his heart thumped even louder in his chest.

Fear. He realized, blacking out the next second as the older man punched him.

End chapter