Shuuichi walked into the studio, and sure enough, there was Fujisaki. And two others. Shuuichi recognized Seguchi Tohma, the very man he had been looking for previously, but now didn't really want to find because he wasn't testing his potion anymore, just having fun with it, and he didn't want Tohma to have any fun because Tohma didn't deserve to have any fun after he looked at Yuki like that. Oh, yeah, and Tohma's wife Mika was there too.
Na, oh well, Shuuichi wasn't about to let Tohma ruin all his fun. So he decided to give them all a sip of his little potion and see what happened. Yup. That would be loads of fun.
"Hey, who wants to try Shuuichi's Special?" Shuuichi cried aloud, jumping into the room with a loud thud to make his presence known. Everyone seemed to don this nervous look when they saw him holding three glasses of yummy pink liquid. Without waiting for an answer, he instantly marched up to Suguru first, and offered him a glass. Fujisaki, so as not to be rude, accepted it gratefully. Mika did, too, following her cousin-in-law's suit. Only Tohma didn't care about manners, and so he blatantly refused it. Shuuichi made his face look as hurt as possible as he slithered out of the room. Tohma always ruined all of his fun.
But that didn't stop Shuuichi from turning back and watching through the crack in the door to see what happened. Their reactions were much quicker, since I really don't feel like typing that out again, and consisted of them merely closing their eyes and opening them again. Mika gazed at Fujisaki lovingly, and Fujisaki gazed at Mika lovingly. Tohma stood to the side, glancing at the two, making occasional comments like, "Are you okay," and the like, but it was obvious that he knew this was somehow connected to Shuuichi's Special (What a great name! Alliteration. Yup). His eyes flashed angrily towards the door, and Shuuichi quickly rolled away.
Rolling down stairs really hurt, but Shuuichi couldn't use the elevator since he couldn't reach the buttons from the floor, so he decided to brave it. He rolled off each step, hitting the one below it with a painful thump each time. He decided to get off on the second floor, because the prospect of have to roll down another flight of steps seemed all too painful. It was really hard to get the door open from the ground, so Shuuichi stood and pushed it open, and then returned to the floor and continued rolling. And he rolled and rolled and rolled and didn't stop rolling until he hit something hard that turned out to be Hiro's feet. Shuuichi didn't understand why his friend always had to wear steel-toed boots, and now he wished more than anything that he didn't.
Hiro dragged Shuuichi to his feet by his collar and proceeded to dust his little pink-haired friend off. Shuuichi moaned and stepped backwards out of his friend's clutches.
"Hiiiiiiro," Shuuichi beamed as he pulled out another glass of Shuuichi's Special. He offered it to Hiro, who looked at it like it was some evil, axe-wielding pigeon that had just flown in to slice his head off.
"Shuuichi, what is that?"
"Shuuichi's Special! It's really good!" Shuuichi exclaimed happily.
"Oh?" Hiro replied with a mocking smile. "How do you know it's good? Have you tried it yourself?"
Shuuichi's body spasmed as he 'irk-ed' and nearly dropped the glass. "No, I guess I haven't, but that one guy, and Suguru, and Seguchi-san all liked it," Shuuichi said, decided not to elaborate that when he said 'Seguchi-san' he was referring to Mika and not Tohma, because whenever Mika came to NG, she was always following Tohma around everywhere and if Shuuichi had given her some and not Tohma, it meant that Tohma must have refused to drink it and Hiro wasn't about to drink anything that Tohma wouldn't; after all, that little blond cutie could occasionally be classified as a genius and had nice judgment at all times.
"I don't see them anywhere," Hiro commented. "Have they all been rushed to the hospital already?"
"Hiro, you're so mean!" Shuuichi pouted. "MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE. MEANIE…" and so on, and so forth.
Hiro was backing away from his overly obnoxious and loud friend slowly and carefully, as if Shuuichi was a rabid dog that had just rested his eyes upon the largest homegrown pancake being eaten by three starving rabbits. "Shuuichi, really, Yuki is sometimes right when he calls you an annoying b—"
"Yu-Yukiiiiiiiii?" Shuuichi repeated, his eyes filling with tears. How Shuuichi had heard him over his ear-piercing screams was beyond Hiro, but he could tell by Shuuichi's reaction that Yuki had kicked him out again. No big surprise there.
"Uh, Shuuichi, I'm sorry, but—"
"YUKI!!!!!!!!!! I MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!" It was with these words that Shuuichi remembered his plan, and he held the drink up to his red-haired friend again.
"Umm…"
"Drink it and make it up to me for being so mean," Shuuichi demanded, shoving the little glass even closer to Hiro's face. Hiro looked very frightened, but took the glass anyway and downed it in one gulp. To his surprise, it actually tasted pretty good. Like candy.
Hiro's eyes closed suddenly, and Shuuichi suddenly panicked. He had forgotten to run away as soon as he handed the glass to Hiro, and due to my laziness causing a shortening of the reaction to the potion, he had no time to escape. Hiro's eyes opened and rested on his little pink-haired friend dreamily.
"Shuuichi…" Hiro said, and immediately blushed. That name, it was so beautiful.
Hiro's eyes skimmed over Shuuichi's nice, chic (that's chic, as in 'sheek,' not 'chick.' It's German), thin body, with nice, soft skin that was begging to be touched, especially since Shuuichi insisted on covering as little of it as possible. Hiro then looked up to study his best friend's face, with those wide, sparkling purple eyes glaring fearfully back at him, and those luscious lips just begging to be kissed. Hiro had always had a little crush on his friend, though he always thought it was due to the fact that they were so close, but he had never really realized how cute Shuuichi really was.
"Uh, Hiro, maybe I should tell you something," Shuuichi said, gracefully moving those soft, warm lips as he spoke, though all Hiro heard was, "Kiss me, please Hiro. I want you. I want you so badly."
Hiro was happy to oblige. He swiftly lunged forward, and their lips met for a brief second until Shuuichi let out a glass-shattering scream and scurried away as fast as he could go. Hiro began running after him, shouting, "Wait, my love," but Shuuichi somehow managed to lock the door to the snack room, leaving Hiro out in the hallway, desperately looking for something to pick it with.
Shuuichi sat down at the table, still gasping for breath, as he pulled out the cartons of the pink potion and some extra cups. He put one of the huge cartons in the fridge, and then proceeded to fill the cups silently from another container, wondering who he should victimize next, though deep in the back of his mind spoke a voice. It was his conscience, and although Shuuichi was usually too hot-headed, or just plain dumb, to listen to his conscience, it spoke really loudly today, and Shuuichi couldn't help but listen to his own beautiful voice inside his head.
'You realize you're ruining people's love lives here, Shuuichi. You should stop, you really should. I mean, think of how sad Hiro will be once he realizes you will always reject his newfound feelings because you're still in love with Yuki and you always will be. And what about Tatsuha, always having to hide from Aizawa; he may even have to leave the country. And even though Tohma deserved fully well to lose his wife, it's still a bad thing to do, Shuuichi.'
Well, first of all, Shuuichi was listening to his voice, and not his words, so nothing really registered. And second of all, he wouldn't have realized who Aizawa was anyway.
'Shuuichi, LISTEN!!!' his conscience screamed, but Shuuichi wasn't listening; he was too busy paying attention to the weird cracking sound that came from above. I mean, from the third floor, not Heaven. Suddenly, the ceiling fell apart, and along with a bunch of dried plaster and dust, none other than Shuuichi's very own idol, Ryuuichi Sakuma fell from above (and I still mean the third story, not Heaven, though in Shuuichi's eyes, God very well may have sent his idol crashing down to rest on the floor beside his feet).
Ryuuichi sat up, rubbing his head with a dazed look on his face, then immediately shot worried looks around the floor beside him, seeming to search for something.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh noooooooo!" Ryuuichi yelled, tears rising in his eyes. He began pushing the pile of plaster away, then sighed audibly when he retrieved a pink stuffed bunny, now stained white from the plaster. "Hufuuuuuu, that was close, hnn, Kumagorou-chan?! I was soooo worried!" he said, blinking his eyes with a relieved smile.
"Uh, Sakuma-san," Shuuichi said, still unable to believe that his idol was sitting there, only inches away from him. He blinked to make sure it was true, and then when he realized it was, he quickly glanced around to see if he had any paper for Ryuuichi to sign.
"Shuuichi?" Ryuuichi said, blinking up at Shuuichi with his big eyes.
"Uhnn, hello, Sakuma-sa—"
"NO NO NO NO! It's Ryuuichi! Ryuuichi!" Ryuuichi yelled, giving Shuuichi a smack with his Kumagorou. And it really hurt. Not only did those button eyes really sting, but Shuuichi began wheezing from the dust expelled from the little toy when it whipped his head. He looked up at Ryuuichi apologetically, who seemed to have already forgotten about Shuuichi's transgression, for he was now happily playing with Kumagorou.
"Uh, Ryuuichi," Shuuichi said, taking a step closer to the gray, plaster-coated man. "Uh, why did you just fall through the ceiling?"
"No, I fell through the floor," Ryuuichi corrected with a matter-of-factly smile.
"Oh, then why did you just fall through the floor?"
"Kumagorou thought that if we started digging, we could dig all the way through the Earth and come out on the other side of the world in New York. Only, we didn't come out in New York, we came out on the second floor."
"Oh." Shuuichi pondered this. Could you come out in New York if you dug through the Earth's core? No, that couldn't be right, or else K would have just had Shuuichi dig to New York to pick up Yuki instead of flying there. Yeah, Kumagorou must just be confused.
"Yaaaa!" Ryuuichi screamed, making Shuuichi jump. "Pink lemonade! I love it!" He jumped to his feet and grabbed a glass of Shuuichi's Special.
"NO! Don't drink that!" Shuuichi's conscience yelled aloud. Ryuuichi paused, and then he looked at Shuuichi, then back at the glass.
"Why?" Ryuuichi asked, still glancing back and forth between Shuuichi and the glass. "Is it poison, or something?"
Shuuichi suddenly realized why his conscience had stopped Ryuuichi from drinking it. Thinking carefully, there really was no way out of the snack room; not only was the door locked, but Hiro was clawing at it on the other side, and Shuuichi would just not have time to get away before Ryuuichi opened his eyes again due the shortened reaction from my laziness.
"Uh, no, not poison, not really, I mean, only, I just don't want, you know, you to drink it," Shuuichi stuttered. He could only imagine his idol, no, his god, being completely in love with him. That would be a little too much and would destroy his tact and boost his ego.
"Is that because, because, because," Ryuuichi stammered, tears welling up in his eyes, "because you hate me, and you don't want to share your lemonade with me? SHUUICHI YOU'RE SO MEAN!!!!!"
"No, uh, Ryuuichi, that's not it at all," Shuuichi said, putting a smile on his face. "It's just that, well, it's a, um, a love potion, you see, and it makes the person who, uh, who drinks it fall in love with the first person they see, and so if you, you know, drank it, you'd fall in love with me, but it wouldn't be real love, it'd just be…not real love."
"Love potion?" Ryuuichi said, studying the glass. "Wow, Shu-chan, did you make this? This is amazing!"
"Uh, well, thanks, Ryuuichi."
"Can I have some?" Ryuuichi asked, pointing to the glasses Shuuichi had laid out on the table.
"No, I just told you, Ryuuichi, it will make you fall in love with me," Shuuichi said.
"But I don't want to drink it. I want someone else to," Ryuuichi said, looking down at the floor with a blush. He moved Kumagorou to the top of his head as if to hide his face.
"Hughk? Ryuuichi, do you have a crush on someone?" Shuuichi asked, much to Ryuuichi's dismay. "Who is it? Who? Who? Who? Who?"
Ryuuichi blushed even more and mumbled something that sounded like, "The big lady's elephant had a few too many tables to eat," but Shuuichi was sure that that wasn't what he had said. Unless he had a crush on the big lady, or the elephant, but he didn't know anyone like that, so that probably wasn't it.
"What did you say, Ryuuichi-san?" Shuuichi asked, bending over so he could look into Ryuuichi's face, which was now turned all the way to the ground in an attempt to let his bangs cover it.
"Umm, heh," Ryuuichi said. His face was beet red. "Well, it's really nobody, you know…"
"Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!" Shuuichi screamed. Screaming always worked with Yuki, so why not Ryuuichi too?
"No, you'll laugh!"
"I won't. I promise," Shuuichi said, suppressing a giggle.
"I'm not telling," Ryuuichi said, turning around and crossing his arms. Wow, he was being really persistent, and Shuuichi knew his short attention span would cause him to waver soon, but he really wanted to know who Ryuuichi liked. So he tried a different approach.
"If I guess, will you tell me if I'm right?" Shuuichi asked. Ryuuichi didn't answer, so Shuuichi went on, trying to think of everyone he knew that Ryuuichi knew. Of course, Shuuichi had no idea of what Ryuuichi's sexual preferences were, so he had to think of everyone, male and female. Shuuichi decided to start with males first, since everyone who worked in this recording studio seemed to be gay. "Is it Hiro?" That would be cool for Hiro, if Ryuuichi liked him. Ryuuichi was Hiro's idol too, after all. Of course, now Hiro was in love with Shuuichi, so it kind of defeated the purpose, and it would have made Shuuichi feel really guilty about giving Hiro that potion if Ryuuichi did like him, because it would mean that he had just ruined a perfectly good couple's chances together.
"Nope." Okay, that was good.
"Oh. Well, then, is it Tatsuha?" The would be a great thing for Tatsuha if Ryuuichi liked him. Tatsuha worshiped Ryuuichi even more than Shuuichi did, and that was saying something.
"Who?"
"Tatsuha. You know, Yuki's little brother."
"Uh, no…"
"K?"
"Nope." Good. Shuuichi couldn't really picture K with Ryuuichi, and besides, K was married.
"Uh, Sakano?'
"Nope." Even better. Oh, that'd be a weird match.
"Umm, it's not that one guy, is it?"
"What one guy?"
"That one guy. Umm, he has black hair, looks kinda like Tatsuha only his eyes are different, I think he…sings…or something…" Shuuichi said. Man, what was his name?
"Oh, you mean Aizawa?"
"Yeah," Shuuichi said, though he wasn't really sure. The name didn't seem to ring a bell.
"Nope."
"Ken-chan?"
"Nope."
"Ma-kun?"
"Nope."
"That New York taxi-driver?"
"…No…"
"The airplane pilot?"
"Uhn, no, not him either…"
"Yuki's dad?"
"No."
"Oh, it's not Fujisaki, is it?"
"Nope."
"T-Tohma…?"
"Uh, no…"
"Ryuuichi, you're not in love with Yuki, are you? That'd be horrible, Yuki's mine! Mine!"
"Not Yuki," Ryuuichi said, turning around with a reassuring smile.
"Oh, good," Shuuichi sighed. Well, that was all he could think of for the guys. Onto the girls. "How about Noriko?"
"No."
"Mika?"
"Uhn, no."
"Ayaka?"
Ryuuichi gave him a blank look. "A-ya-ka?"
"Guess not. That one reporter lady?"
"No."
"Yuki's editor?"
"Nope."
"Eh? You're in love with my SISTER, Ryuuichi?" Shuuichi screamed. Oh, that would be so cool!
"Nope."
"Oh. Well then, the only other 'person' I can think of is Kumagorou," Shuuichi said, glaring at the stuffed pink bunny in Ryuuichi's hands.
"Hmm? No, Kumagorou is Ryuuichi's friend," Ryuuichi said, pulling Kumagorou into a tight embrace.
"You lied to me, Ryuuichi! I listed everyone I know!" Shuuichi said, shifting his glare up at Ryuuichi.
"Nuh-uh! You left one person out!" Ryuuichi said, pointing an accusing finger at Shuuichi.
He left someone out? Shuuichi quickly ran over everyone he knew in his mind again. And then again. And again. He couldn't think of anyone he had left out. Strange.
"Are you sure I know this person?" Shuuichi asked, still going over everyone he knew in his mind.
"Uh-huh, I know you do!"
"Oh," Shuuichi said. He was about to start listing everyone he knew over again for Ryuuichi to deny when the lock clicked open and Tohma darted inside, slamming the door on Hiro's arm. Hiro whimpered and quickly pulled his arm out again, and then Tohma closed and locked the door again as swiftly as he could. He turned around and assumed a dazed expression when he saw Shuuichi with glasses of Shuuichi's Special lined around the table, as well as Ryuuichi, now colored gray with plaster, standing in a pile of dust that matched.
"Uh, Ryuuichi-san, hello," Tohma said awkwardly, eyeing him suspiciously.
"TOHMA!!!!" Ryuuichi screamed, and then proceeded to glomp his band mate; however, he had forgotten he was standing in a pile of dust and broken ceiling, or floor, depending on how you look at it, and as he tried to pick his leg up to run, it caught on a piece of wood and he instead went crashing to the floor. For this, Tohma was thankful because he knew Ryuuichi would have shed some of his dust onto Tohma nice, expensive designer clothes, and he did not want them ruined.
"Shindo-san," Tohma said in his overly feminine, yet menacing voice.
Shuuichi 'irk-ed' and began to slither away to the side. However, Tohma merely had to move his eyes to keep up with Shuuichi's slow escape.
"Shindo-san," Tohma repeated, taking a threatening step towards the pink-haired singer. "I think I need to talk to you about your, 'Shuuichi's Special,' was it called?"
Shuuichi laughed innocently and scratched the back of his head.
"Oh, Tohma! It's a love potion!" Ryuuichi said with a smile. Shuuichi 'irk-ed' again.
Tohma looked at Ryuuichi, realizing that his friend must not be under the influence of the potion yet. Tohma smiled brightly. "Ryuuichi, it's not a potion. It's a drug."
"Nuh-uh!" Ryuuichi argued. "It's a love potion. There aren't any drugs that make you fall in love with someone."
"How do you know so much about drugs, Ryuuichi?" Shuuichi asked.
"Uh, I learned it in health class."
"Oh." It did not occur to Shuuichi that the last time Ryuuichi attended a health class was probably about fifteen years ago, if that, and it was doubtful he would remember anything from it.
"Ryuuichi," Tohma said, butting into the conversation again, "it is not a potion."
"Is too!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Ryuuichi, I have no time to argue with you," Tohma said with an irritated sigh.
"HA! I won!" Ryuuichi yelled, then giggled happily and pulled Kumagorou even closer to him.
Tohma sighed again and turned to Shuuichi, ignoring the overly excited Ryuuichi bouncing around behind him. "Shindo-san," he said again, "I think you need to stop feeding everyone that. You don't know what effects it might have on their bodies and brains, do you? It could be poisonous."
Trust Tohma to make him feel guilty. "It's harmless To—uh, I mean Seguchi-san. I followed the directions exactly."
"Harmless?" Tohma repeated with that tone of voice that was questioning, irritated, threatening, and mocking all at once. "Shuuichi, my 28-year-old wife has eloped with my 16-year-old cousin. Because of your potion, I have already lost two members of my family. So, what exactly are you trying to accomplish by this?"
"I have a reason!"
"And what is that?"
"Uh," Shuuichi said. He did have a reason, you know, the whole Yuki thing, but first of all, he didn't want to tell Tohma how fragile his relationship with Yuki was at that moment because he knew Tohma would be certain to just slide right in between them. Second of all, he had gotten a little side-tracked, and Tohma would be sure to chastise him about that too, so he just kept his mouth shut. Tohma took this to mean, however, that Shuuichi didn't have a reason.
"As I thought," Tohma said haughtily with that arrogant smile of his.
Tohma took another threatening step towards Shuuichi. Shuuichi quickly gathered up his pack full of Shuuichi's Special, and glanced right and left, searching for an escape. The door, however, was still being maliciously clawed at by a love-struck Hiro, whom, if he did not kill Shuuichi right away, would be certain to at least slow him down. That was the only exit, and Shuuichi's eyes began to dart back and forth a little faster. His eyes came to rest on the ceiling, or the floor, depending, where Ryuuichi's hole lay, but he knew he couldn't reach it, even if he did pull over a chair, which, of course, he had no time for.
And so, without thinking, when Tohma took yet another step towards him, Shuuichi just closed his eyes and ran. It was a small room, so Shuuichi hit a wall very soon, but like most things that got in his way, it did not stop him. Instead, it crumbled from the overwhelming force of Shuuichi's skull, and brought him to a successful escape.
Okay, so no more playing around. That had been really close. I mean really close. Not just sort of close. Really close. Tohma had almost caught him. Shuuichi never wanted it to be that close again. So he immediately set off home to feed Yuki the potion.
