NOTES::
Shari: It's quite all right. A bunch of old regulars keep zoning in and out of my fics, so I'm not going to go on a killing spree or anything…And annoying female characters do make for more hotness between the vampires, which is always a good thing. And you'll be surprised by Sho's persistency at this job.
Tenouharuka101: xD I'm glad to know that my annoying female characters piss off other people besides me.
Puptastic: I would say something about trying to convert gay guys but…oh man is it complicated. My sort-of-boyfriend was gay and is possibly now back to being bi and we may or may not be going out but he's gone until the middle of August so…and no, I didn't try to convert him. It apparently hit him after seeing the latest Harry Potter movie. O.o
Hoshino Haruka: It's okay, it's okay! Don't apologize! And I really love it when Sho cries, but I try not to write it too much or else it'll just get annoying.
Daggergal: Even if you couldn't remember Kurisutina, just know she's exactly like Meredith.
Camui Alexa: Oooh! Mexico City! And yes, I will write that office scene because a dirty, dominant Kei is always fun to read/write.
Kairi Angel: Don't worry, my brother always comes into my room while I'm reading smut and I'm always like, "WILL YOU GET A LIFE AND PLEASE LEAVE!" And actually, I haven't thought about what's going to happen with Meredith. She's not going to be in the next few chapters, though, so you don't have to put up with her.
Minako Sayaka: …Actually…I had completely forgotten about Anisa. But she'll pop up sometime soon now that you mention it!
RedFireHead41: Yay for getting Moon Child! I actually haven't watched the movie in quite a long time. I want to say…either when I got my wisdom teeth removed or even earlier than that…
Camui Nakare: That it does. You'll see that coming up in a few chapters.
Midori Onigiri: Just to let you know, I blushed when I read your review. It was very sweet, thank you. And I'd be glad to help you if you ever get writer's block, but seeing as how that happens to me so frequently and I'm not always around, it might be hard to catch me.
Don't hate me for this chapter; it was bound to happen sometime anyway.
Chapter Eleven – Quarrels and Conflicts
"I am sick of working!" Sho moaned loudly one evening as he arrived home, slamming the door shut behind him. Kei was startled by his lover's sudden anger; never before had Sho come home this pissed off.
"Sho, what's wrong?" Kei asked cautiously, watching as Sho hung his coat up with irate vigor. "Did something happen at the hospital today?"
"What didn't happen is more like it!" he continued, stalking over to the couch and flopping down on the end opposite Kei.
"…All right then," the blonde said slowly, still unsure of why Sho was this agitated. "Care to explain? Maybe it'll help you calm down."
"I don't need to calm down!" he said crossly.
"I think you do," Kei told him softly, but sternly, earning a cold stare from Sho that gave him a twinge of hurt.
"Why do you think so?" he snapped.
"Because if you don't, I'm locking you in the bathroom until you get a better attitude and start talking decently to me!" Kei growled, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"Kei—"
"I'm completely serious, Sho," he enunciated, crossing his arms over his chest. After several more moments of glaring at each other, Sho dropped his gaze to his hands in his lap.
I've got to ride that lonesome train
My heart is heavy with aches and pains
"I'm sorry—" Sho began.
"Don't—" Kei said, cutting off Sho's sentence. "—try to apologize. Just don't come home and try to take it all out on me! All I want to do is make you feel better, but I can't do that if you're going to piss me off by blaming everything that happened at work on me." The blonde slid across the couch to place a hand beneath Sho's chin and lift his head up to stare into sorrow-filled cerulean eyes.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, looking shameful. He leaned forward and rested his head on Kei's shoulder, burying his face in the vampire's neck as he wrapped his arms around Kei's torso. Kei did likewise, tenderly rubbing at Sho's tense back through the silk shirt.
"What happened?" Kei asked as Sho lifted up his head. He watched anger flare up in Sho's eyes and he stroked at his lover's cheek softly. "Shh…" Kei leaned forward and caressed Sho's lips with his own, feeling the younger vampire begin to melt and relax, kissing back affectionately. "Don't get upset. Just tell me what happened," he purred against Sho's parted lips.
"Well, the day started out fine," Sho began, watching as Kei reached over his shoulder to play with one of the braids of his hair. "Kurisu was going to have me follow one of the nurses around during the day because she didn't have much for me to do."
"It wasn't Meredith, was it?" the blonde asked with an edge in his voice. He still hadn't forgotten the party weeks earlier and how she had tried to break them apart.
"Not at first," the brunette continued. "I followed Izzie around because she just radiates happiness and I needed some perking up. It wasn't bad until Meredith found out and started following us as well. After a while, Izzie got fed up with it and told her off."
"What did she say?"
"Something along the lines of her being an attention-whore and having no chance with me and asking if she could stop following me around for at least two seconds and things like that," he replied, feeling a knot forming in his stomach that was rapidly filling with hatred. Kei felt this and he kissed Sho again, letting his tongue run along the seam of Sho's mouth temptingly. Immediately, the knot loosened and Sho let out a soft whimper.
"What next, love?" he whispered, breath hot against Sho's lips.
"Meredith stormed off and Izzie made a few more snide comments to me before we kept on moving. All we really did was check up on patients and such and it was slightly hard to deal with the ones that had open wounds…" Sho trailed off, unable to continue his story for the moment.
"Sho…you didn't…" Kei started.
But I say someday
Someday baby, after a while
You'll be sorry
"No, I didn't. I restrained myself," he replied, nuzzling his nose into Kei's cheek. "But then Addison showed up. Luckily she likes me and told me that Meredith sent her to keep an eye on me. I was fed up with it all and stalked off to my office where Kurisu was waiting outside with her arms full of papers and things that needed to be sorted."
"So then you had a ton of paperwork to do…" Kei finished thoughtfully and Sho nodded. "Meredith still hasn't given up, has she?"
"No she hasn't and it's really starting to piss me off," Sho said angrily, annoyed with the obstinate woman.
"Mmm…well I know one way you can get over it," the blonde said in a sultry voice, his hands sliding down Sho's chest to stop at his lover's hips.
"Not tonight, Kei-chan," Sho said apologetically, giving the vampire a tender kiss. "I think I'm just a little too over-worked." Kei nodded and let his hands drop from Sho's waist hesitantly. It had been too long already… "I'm going to take a shower and go to bed."
"Okay," Kei replied, his voice slightly hollow, although Sho didn't seem to notice as he flashed his lover a smile before heading to the bathroom.
It was the last conversation about Sho's work they would have for nearly two weeks…
Trouble's trouble on my mind
Trouble, trouble way down the line
Another night a week later when Sho opened the front door, he ignored Kei completely and stormed straight into the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it. Worried about the younger vampire, but knowing that Sho needed time alone to vent his anger, Kei got off of the couch and headed over to the kitchen, sitting down on the edge of the table, facing the bathroom door.
Once twenty minutes had gone by and the brunette hadn't emerged from the bathroom yet, Kei then began to worry. Leaving his "post" at the kitchen table, he headed into the hallway to the bathroom door and knocked gently.
"Do you actually need to use the bathroom or are you just coming to make sure I'm okay?" Sho asked in a harsh tone through the wooden door.
"Is there an answer I can give where you'll open the door?" Kei asked back smartly, crossing his arms over his chest. Sho had had this attitude about him for the past week and it was starting to annoy him greatly. He thought perhaps his wittiness would make his lover open the door for him, but the vampire was greatly mistaken.
"What do you want?"
"I want to know what's wrong so I can help to make you feel better," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"It's none of your business!" Sho snapped, tears in his voice.
But I don't need your sympathy
So baby, baby don't you pity me
"Love—" Kei started.
"Don't 'love' me," he snarled.
"Sho!" the blonde yelled angrily, clearly disgruntled by Sho's behavior. Taking a quick, deep breath, Kei mustered up his strength and kicked at the door. Surprisingly, he ended up breaking the doorknob and the wooden door swung open, revealing Sho sitting on the edge of the sink counter looking utterly surprised. "You dare to talk to me like that?" he hissed, venom etched in his words. Annoyed, Kei stalked forward and stood in front of Sho. "Well?"
"Leave me alone," Sho whispered. Kei gripped at the brunette's shoulders and slammed his torso back against the mirror.
"I've left you alone, dammit! But all you want to do is piss the hell out of me and be a whining asshole and act like a damn teenager again!" Kei said forcefully, nails digging into Sho's shoulders as a string of curse words continued to lace through his speech. "If you don't tell me what the fuck is up, I'm going to get it out of you one way or another!" Sho blushed crimson in embarrassment.
"I…didn't…think—" he stuttered.
"That's right; you didn't!" Kei growled through clenched teeth before he turned and stalked out of the bathroom without an explanation. "And fix the door, too."
I may be blue but I don't mind
I'm gonna leave all my cares behind
"Sho-chan, you need to take a break from work," Kei said one early evening the next week when Sho arrived home in a slightly pissed-off mood.
"What? Why?" Sho asked in a growl, making the vampire flinch at the harshness in his tone, a harshness he was unused to because it was aimed at himself.
"Because for the past few weeks you've been coming home in horrible moods. I barely see you anymore and when I do, you never want to talk, you never want to be touched, you never want to even look at me," Kei blurted out, unable to control his speech. "You're overstressed at work and then you come home and take it out on me and all I want to do is rid you of those feelings, but you won't let me!" Sho turned and looked at the blonde, completely surprised by Kei's sudden anger.
"And all of these feelings are the hospital's fault?" he asked quietly.
"What else could it be? I'm certainly not doing anything to piss you off that much," Kei protested, eyes wide at Sho's tender accusation.
"So what do you suppose I do about all of these…vengeful feelings that I'm feeling?" Sho asked with malice in his tone, malice that hurt Kei's very soul.
"Take a break from work!" Kei exclaimed, unwanted tears surfacing. "Stay home for a few days and let me love you again without you yelling at me! This job is killing you—it's killing us."
"Because that will really help," he said in a sarcastic tone before heading towards their bedroom and slamming the door shut. Kei growled in anger and punched the nearby wall, leaving a superficial dent in it.
"Dammit, Sho!" he yelled as he stalked out into the family room and sat down moodily on the couch.
I said someday, someday baby
After a while
Kurisu marched into Sho's office the next afternoon, looking completely enraged. "What the hell is wrong with you? You've been moping around the whole day!" she asked in a rough voice. Sho looked up at her and smiled sadly, knowing that his work had been diminishing slowly throughout the day.
"Kei and I…had sort of a fight last night," he told her as she closed the door and walked up to his desk.
"Sort of a fight or a fight?" Kurisu asked, looking concerned.
"He was trying to make me feel better because I've been coming home exhausted and angry at all of the work I've had to do and he wanted me to take a break for a few days to calm down," Sho explained as the pink-haired doctor sat down in the vacant chair in front of his desk. "We haven't had a chance to do any sort of serious talking or anything…physical in a while because I'm always too tired or upset." He looked up at Kurisu, who didn't seem fazed by the conversation. "And I was pissed last night because I had a ton of things to do at work yesterday and then I went home and Kei started to yell at me—"
"Was he actually yelling at you?" Kurisu asked suddenly. "Or are you just imagining it that way so you don't feel as bad?" Sho paused and thought for a moment, his mind flashing back to the evening before.
"Take a break from work!" Kei exclaimed, unwanted tears surfacing. "Stay home for a few days and let me love you again without you yelling at me! This job is killing you—it's killing us."
"He wasn't yelling," Sho said slowly, contemplatively, as he looked up at Kurisu with tears in his eyes. "H-he started to cry when he tried to persuade me to stay home from work for a few days."
"And what did you say?"
"I…made a sarcastic comment and went to the bedroom. We haven't talked since then," he finished, a tear falling down his cheek that he wiped away quickly. "He slept on the couch and neither of us said anything when I left…" There was a long silence between the two before Kurisu stood up and leaned over Sho's desk to stare at Sho, their noses almost brushing.
"Here's what you do," she began. "You go and buy Kei's favorite champagne. Get a dozen roses in his favorite color and a box of his favorite chocolates. Take all that home right now and I don't want to see you back in here until this time next week, got that?" Sho blinked in surprise.
"What? Why?" he asked, completely confused.
"I don't want to see you two utterly miserable because of your fucking job, Sho," Kurisu told him bluntly. "So get your ass out of here and go get all of that stuff and wow your husband, okay?" She watched as a smile spread across Sho's face. "I can manage without you, don't worry."
"Okay," he replied with a nod as he stood up and searched his pockets for the car keys…
You'll be sorry…
Lyrics are Someday After A While (You'll Be Sorry) by John Mayall.
Sorry for the pissy Sho and the pissed-off Kei. I haven't been in a good mood lately. I'm hoping Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows cheers me up.
After reading Deathly Hallows: It made me happy, but I cried when I read the final line. No more Harry Potter! I have nothing left to live for! It was a great book and I won't give away anything here for those of you who have yet to read it for any reason. But I called a lot of the things that happened in it, although they varied a little bit. And yay for her publishing an encyclopedia in the years to come! That makes me happy!
I'm in Pennsylvania this weekend for a cousin's wedding, so yay for reviews and I'll update (since the next chapter's nearly done!) sometime soon afterwards!
PS - I'm going to The Simpsons Movie midnight showing tonight!