Warnings and Disclaimer are in the first chapter.

Chapter 9

Ryou woke up the next morning feeling well-rested but at the same time at a bit of a loss. He stayed in bed for a few moments, going over the events of the previous night. He couldn't remember getting into bed the night before, so he was understandably confused. The last thing he remembered was battling Kai, and then he'd summoned Dranzer…

Ryou clenched his fist in the sheet as the memory of his panic attack came back to him, and he scowled in embarrassment. He felt silly that he'd lost his cool in public, and now the memory of what had set him off was fuzzy. He rolled it over in his head for a few minutes before sighing and getting up. It was morning, and he had to get up and get back home before Mr. Mizuhara got worried about him. It was only after he'd gotten up that he realized that he hadn't brought a change of clothes, and he'd slept in the pants and short-sleeved shirt from the concert. It bothered him a bit, that someone had seen his scars, but without knowing who it was there was nothing he could do. He decided to take a shower and gathered the rest of his clothes from where they'd been stashed, then headed into the bathroom and locked the door.

He emerged from the bathroom feeling a lot better than before, fully dressed except for his gloves, which were tucked into his pocket while he finished towel drying his hair. After he was satisfied with his progress he tossed the towel onto the bed and finger-combed his hair, then went in search of his beyblade. Drasonet was on the nightstand, to his relief, and he silently assured his worried friend that he was all right. With that taken care of he put on his gloves, picked up the key card from on top of the television, and left the room, intent on soothing his rumbling stomach and checking out of the hotel. A glance at the clock told him it was still early enough for the lobby to be serving breakfast.

He made it to the elevator without incident and settled against the back wall after punching the button for the lobby. It was a long and silent ride until he reached the bottom and the doors opened, revealing a familiar blonde bearing a plate of Western breakfast items like toast and waffles. Ryou blinked, a surprised "Yuki!" escaping from his throat before his brain caught up to events and he realized a very important fact.

"Good morning," Yuki said evenly, stepping into the elevator and allowing the doors to close behind him.

"Good morning," Ryou parroted. "I know you," he added as an afterthought, his brain working to try to figure out how.

That statement didn't receive a response. "I brought you breakfast," Yuki said instead. "I already ate."

"Ah. Thanks."

There was an awkward silence after that, Ryou fidgeting in the presence of the other's cool blankness. The doors opened on the right floor and the teen led the way to his room, sliding his key in the door and holding it open for Yuki. After the blonde was inside and Ryou shut the door, he asked, "Why are you here?"

Yuki set the plate down on the desk and extracted a fork and a spoon wrapped in a napkin from his jacket pocket. From the other pocket he revealed butter and syrup, and after he'd set that on the desk he turned to Ryou. "Your father asked me to stay here with you last night." He tilted his head and asked, "Do you remember what happened?"

Ryou nodded. "A little bit. I think I remembered the accident during the match, and I panicked. Then you showed up and I knew you! The next thing I remember is waking up here alone. I didn't even know someone else had been here…"

"My apologies. I was supposed to be here when you awakened." Yuki stepped away from the desk and waved for Ryou to come, and the hungry teen gladly did so. The blonde took a seat on the nearest bed while Ryou turned his chair so he could look at Yuki while he ate. He didn't waste any time in digging into the food, while Yuki pulled out his cell phone and punched in a number from a piece of paper. Not wanting to be rude, Ryou focused his attention on his plate, instead concentrating on what he could remember of Yuki. Aside from the distinct feeling of knowing the blonde, however, there was a notable lack of anything concrete. All he could dredge from his shattered memories was the smell of tobacco and a feeling of comfort and warmth, the same feelings he'd had last night at Yuki's appearance.

"Doctor Frasier is on her way," Yuki said, just as Ryou was finishing his waffles. "Max will be coming around 11 if you haven't left to go home by then."

"Thanks," Ryou said sincerely, leaning back in his chair and stretching. "So, tell me. Do you know me?"

"That depends," Yuki replied. "What do you remember about me?"

Ryou told him what little he knew, and talking about it stirred more memories in him, of times spent in a dimly lit living room that smelled of tobacco smoke, of Yuki admonishing him but making him feel happy despite it. It helped to talk to Yuki, to tell him these things, more than he realized it would, and by the time he finished he was breathless but oddly happy. It felt good, he realized, and the pit that had been inside him was no longer cold and empty, devoid of his memories. Now he could feel there was something warm there, but it was just out of reach.

"It looks like you're well on your way to recovery," Janet's voice spoke up. Both men turned to look at her, neither having heard her arrival. "It's looking like your memory loss was just as we thought it was, post-traumatic stress. With what happened last night, it's looking like your memories are starting to recover." She set her bag on the bed and opened it, revealing a familiar but hated object. "Now look straight ahead for me, okay?"

Ryou rolled his eyes but complied, enduring the Penlight of Doom with a resigned sigh. After that Janet checked his pulse and his breathing, then asked him some basic questions, the same as she had several times during his stay in the hospital. He answered every one correctly, and after Janet seemed satisfied that Ryou was okay.

"Any problems during the night?" the doctor asked, turning to Yuki as she put her instruments away. "Did you even sleep?"

"I stay up all night on a regular basis," Yuki said evenly. "As far as last night, there were no problems. He tossed and turned a bit but as far as I can tell there were no nightmares."

Janet nodded. "So do you know Ryou, then, like we thought?"

Yuki frowned and looked away. "It's hard to say. How much did you hear?"

"Most of it, I think."

"I see. Then I think Ryuichi may have been right all along." He scowled for no reason Ryou could think of.

"You mean," Ryou said, thinking back to his encounter with the singer those many months ago, "you think I'm Shuichi Shindou."

"It's a possibility," Yuki allowed. "But I'm not going to hope until I have proof."

"The proof'll be easy to get!" Janet said brightly. "Shuichi's family is still alive, right?"

Yuki nodded.

"Then get a DNA comparison done. It'll show pretty quickly whether they're related or not."

"And what should I do until then?" Ryou asked, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

"Go back to Mr. Mizuhara and Max. As your doctor I'm ordering bed rest for the next few days. That means no beyblading," Janet warned. "Even if you don't feel it, your body endured a terrible shock last night. I'll stay in town a few more days, I can get the leave time. That should be long enough to get the DNA results, if I order the test right when I get back. Speaking of which…" She pulled out a small tube, which she popped the top off of, revealing a cotton swab. "Open up!"

Ryou obligingly opened his mouth so Janet could swipe the inside of his cheek. "Now go home. Relax. That's an order."

"Yes, ma'am," Ryou replied. He turned to Yuki and gave the older man a small smile. "Thanks for looking after me."

Yuki shrugged. "You can thank Ryuichi. He made me do it."

Ryou's smiled turned into a full grin, and he teased, "He didn't make you bring me breakfast."

Janet chuckled. "Your dad took your bike home with him, so I'll drop you off on my way back to my hotel. Why don't you go check out of the room while you're waiting for me?"

Ryou nodded agreeably and, with a last look at Yuki, he collected his card key.

He spent the ride home in silence, keeping his eyes on the scenery outside of the car, not really feeling like engaging Janet in conversation. As he rode he was thinking about everything and nothing, fragments of memories drifting into awareness the more he tried not to think about them. He didn't try to make sense out of them, preferring to focus instead on the ride. The ride home was uneventful, and he bid Janet farewell, thanked her for the ride, and entered the store, quickly locating Max and Mr. Mizuhara. His adopted brother was manning the register while his dad was down one aisle, talking animatedly to a customer. Max handed back some money and looked up automatically at the door opening, breaking out into a wide grin when he saw Ryou.

"Hey!" the blonde called, bouncing out from behind the counter and glomping his brother. "Yuki called us, said you were okay, but I was still worried. How're you feeling?"

"Fine," Ryou assured him. "Janet looked me over and said I was okay. She said I had to rest for the next few days while she does some tests."

"What kind of tests?" Mr. Mizuhara asked, coming up behind the boys while the customers he'd been helping talked amongst themselves. He ruffled Ryou's hair and grinned at the two boys as he spoke.

Ryou shrugged. "She and Yuki think they figured out who I was. She took a DNA sample to run some tests."

"Do you know who?" Max queried. He looked thoughtful and a bit disappointed, and it made Ryou curious, but instead of asking about it he shook his head.

"I'm not going to get my hopes up," he shrugged. "We'll know in a few days, and until then, she said I'm not allowed to beyblade or anything. Bed rest, she called it, so I suppose I should get in bed?"

"You can watch the register and give Max a break," Mr. Mizuhara said instead. "It's slowing down now, so it shouldn't be too busy. As long as you're sitting that should count as rest!"

Ryou chuckled but couldn't deny the logic. "As long as you don't mind me borrowing the laptop!"

. . . . . . .

Ryou spent the next few days at home, following Janet's instructions dutifully. Bad Luck's music echoed around him as he went through his daily routine, interspersed with replays of his own performance and subsequent breakdown. He watched them every time he came on, studying his own features, then went online and found clips of Shuichi when Max and Mr. Mizuhara weren't around. It was hard to find time to himself, though, with his friends and teammates coming and going to hang out with him. They probably thought he was bored, what with being cooped at home, but the reality was that he was too preoccupied to be bored. After several renditions of the original "Rage Beat" and then his own performance he eventually admitted that they sounded similar, though not exactly the same. It was on the third day, when he'd moved on to "Glaring Dream" and then eventually "In the Moonlight", that he began to think that he could probably be Shuichi after all.

He stared at his computer screen, then the TV. He'd synched up the tape of his performance with a tape of Shuichi's original performance and was watching them dispassionately, trying to think of the two people on the screen as someone besides him. It was easier to see the similarities in the two performances then. The body language, the voice, the hand gestures…

He'd unconsciously mimicked Shuichi with all of it. Even though he'd never seen a performance of Shuichi's during his training. Ryuichi had been adamant about him not seeing anything with Shuichi in it, had said that he didn't want to poison Ryou unnecessarily. Now he could really see why Ryuichi had kept him and Shuichi apart. The singer had wanted to if Ryou had performed like Shuichi, and, seeing the performances side by side, he couldn't deny that it had happened. Not to mention that, with whatever had been blocking his memory suddenly gone, every rendition of the songs brought forward some obscure memory. A phrase in an unknown voice here, an image of Tokyo at night there, all adding up to what Janet, shortly after, might or might not confirm.

He shut off the music after Janet arrived, dreading what news she brought. With her was Yuki and Tohma, the latter blond explaining his presence away as business interest. Ryou had a sneaking suspicion that he was really there as moral support for Yuki. They convened in the kitchen, Yuki and Tohma on one side of the table with Max, Mr. Mizhuara, and Ryou opposite. Janet sat facing everyone else.

"Well, the tests are in," Janet announced when everyone was settled. She toyed with a manila folder on the table in front of her, sliding it back and forth. "I wonder how Maury can do this so often," she muttered to herself in English, Max whispering the translation to the only non-English speaker in the group. Ryou didn't know who Maury was but Yuki and Tohma seemed to, as they nodded with her. "Well, I guess you can just see for yourself," she decided, sliding the folder over to Ryou. He took it and stared at it for a moment, fear and curiosity warring with each other within his mind. After a moment he took a deep breath, then locked eyes with Max and Mr. Mizuhara in turn. They smiled encouragingly at him, and that gave him the courage to open the folder.

Positive.

That was the impression he got immediately upon gazing at the piece of paper before him. Lots of highlights in green, he saw, but he ignored those in favor of reading the summary at the top aloud.

"'The sample presented for testing, identified as that of one Ryou Mizuhara, was compared to that of Mr. and Mrs. Shindou. It has been determined that Ryou is the biological child of the two parents.'" He spoke these words to a silent room, blinking back tears as he said the last two. "I guess I really am Shuichi, then."

"Good for you!" Max said, hugging Ryou tightly. "Now you know who you are!"

Mr. Mizuhara joined the hug, squeezing both boys. "Aren't you glad, Ryou? Now you can go back to your real family!"

Ryou leaned into the dual embrace, shamelessly taking their support. He wasn't glad, not really. Now that he knew who he'd been, he'd have to leave his new family. He knew this without having to ask. Shuichi… He wasn't a teenager like they'd thought. He was a young man, and the government wouldn't pay for him to stay with the Mizuharas anymore, as they had been when he'd been a foster child. He didn't realize he was crying until he felt a hand against his wet cheek and looked up.

"What's wrong?" Yuki asked quietly, locking gazes with him, piercing brown against amethyst. The man's expression wasn't warm, to be sure, but it still comforted Ryou all the same for some unknown reason.

Ryou sniffled. "I'm Shuichi, aren't I? That means I'm an adult. What am I going to do if I can't stay with Max anymore?" he confessed.

"You can stay as long as you'd like," Mr. Mizuhara affirmed. "Even if you're not biologically mine, I still consider you a son. We've been making enough from the shop and the beyblade tournaments even without government help."

Ryou buried his face in his adopted father's chest, silently thanking the man even as his voice was lost to the remnants of his tears. Max extracted himself from the hug and offered to make them all tea, an offer that was gratefully accepted by all. Tohma withdrew to the living room with Janet. That left Ryou, Mr. Mizuhara, and Yuki relatively alone in the kitchen, with Max an abnormally silent presence nearby.

"Sorry about that," the raven-haired male said after a moment, sitting back from his adopted dad and wiping his eyes. "I was just overwhelmed."

"I'll go talk with Janet, see what she wants to do now," Mr. Mizuhara said kindly. "You'll be okay here?"

Ryou nodded.

"All right. Call me if you need me."

With that, Ryou was left alone with Yuki.

Taking a breath, Ryou turned to the blonde. "I read about you and Shuichi," he said, deciding not to beat around the bush. "Er, you and me, I guess."

Yuki said nothing, only moving to take a seat opposite Ryou.

"It said that you and he were together."

"That's correct." Yuki's voice was cold, a chill that Ryou somehow knew meant that the man was waiting for a blow to fall. He resisted the urge to shiver, instead looking down at the tablecloth and collecting his thoughts.

"I'm not Shuichi anymore," he said slowly. "I don't remember him, not yet anyway. But I do remember you. And I know you were important to me, to him, whatever." He scowled. "It's hard to describe. But I can't just pick up where you and he left off."

"But you are remembering him," Yuki prompted. Neither of them noticed as Max set down mugs of tea in front of them and discreetly made his way into the living room, but Yuki did reach out to cup the ceramic.

"Yeah. In bits and pieces, and it's not making much sense. So anyway, what I'm saying is, I'm not ready to resume Shuichi's relationship with you," Ryou declared. He could see the hurt in Yuki's eyes, so small that had he not known what to look for he would have missed it, and continued. "But I am willing to get to know you again.

"I see." Yuki took a sip of tea. "That's more than I was expecting, actually."

"Huh?" At a loss for words, Ryou could only stare at the other man.

"I expected that you'd tell me you found someone else and couldn't possibly have a relationship with me, that you'd moved on. Something like that, melodramatic like a bad romance novel," Yuki said dismissively. "Life has a tendency to imitate art like that."

Ryou couldn't help his giggle. "You write romance novels!"

Yuki said nothing to that. Instead he set the tea aside and looked at Ryou, as if to try and pick his brain with just his eyes. "What will you do, now that you know?"

"That is a good question," Tohma's voice interrupted them. They both looked up to see the blonde music producer had returned. "Now that your former identity is confirmed, there is a matter of your music career. Ryuichi never intended to take over Bad Luck permanently. He was only to be there until we found a new lead singer. Therefore, it would be desirable for you to resume your position," Tohma explained.

"I'm not Shuichi anymore, at least not up here," Ryou said a bit crossly, tapping his temple. "Sure, my memory's coming back, but it's not going to magically fix itself. It's not like I'm going to wake up tomorrow and say, 'Hey! I remember everything!' It's just a bit more complicated than that, you know."

"So what are your plans?" Tohma asked curiously. "You do realize that once the news gets around, no one's going to leave you alone."

"Then we just have to make sure the news doesn't get out," Yuki said firmly. "When Ryou's ready, we can hold a press conference to break the news." He looked at the young man in question and got an affirming nod.

"Until then, I just need some time to process this," Ryou said, taking a sip of his forgotten tea. "It's a big shock, after all. Not everyone finds out they used to be a singer that they'd impersonated on stage!"

"I can arrange for you to get anywhere you need to," Tohma said. "Revisiting places like Shuichi's old school should jog your memory, right?"

Ryou nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But please don't exert yourself for me, Mr. Tohma. I'll figure something out."

"It's no trouble at all. You're free to stop by NG Studios anytime if you need me." He glanced at his watch and stood. "I must be getting back. I wasn't able to cancel all of my meetings today, unfortunately." Tohma smiled at Ryou warmly before leaving the room.

"I must be leaving as well," Yuki said with a scowl. "My editor has been getting on my case about my latest book." He hesitated a moment, then leaned over the table to take Ryou's hand. It caused the raven-haired male to blush a bit, but it felt nice. "I understand what you said before, but if you ever want to stop by, I live in the same apartment. I don't care if you want to come to rant at me, or just say hi, or whatever. You remembered things from talking to me in the hotel, right? Maybe that'll help you again."

"Ah… thanks," Ryou said, too distracted by the warm hand holding his to form much of a reply. "I'll keep that in mind." He took his hand back quickly and stood, saying quickly, "I'm gonna go to Takao's and practice. Thanks for your help."

"It's no problem, really." With that, Yuki gave him a small smile and left.