Sleeping Beauty
Chapter 11
"Once there was a man lost in a forest, far from any place," Yuki began, stroking Shuichi's fingers, "And the forest held many magical elements, both beautiful and horrifying. So that as he made his way through the darkness, he was given both faint hope of rescue and a constant terror that he would be lost forever."
"Yuki-san," Ryuichi interrupted, "Don't you know any more cheerful stories?"
Golden eyes glared at the child like singer and his kumagoro. "I tell interesting stories, not the kind that come in color books."
Shuichi laughed, even if his laughter was trapped in the sleeping castle of his body. Eiri had really grown and Ryuichi was here. With both of them here with him, he wasn't afraid. His thumb brushed Eiri's thumb very slightly. In his imagination, he was in the forest, walking quietly through tall dark trees, looking for magical elements. Eiri's words built the world for him, giving him a sliver of moonlight through the trees and the faint howl of wolf in the distance.
The man he was searching for in this forest was his lover, his pairbond. Eiri's voice named him Naris. Shuichi could see the man in his mind. Muscular and strong, broad shoulders, but with Eiri's blond hair down to his shoulders. He was supposed to have blue eyes, deep as sapphires, but Shuichi wanted them golden, light and unique, like Eiri's. Every time Eiri mentioned them blue, Shuichi imagined them golden again.
In the story, Naris could not remember how he'd gotten into forest, only that it was damp and cold and he couldn't talk to anyone. If he didn't talk to anyone, then he wouldn't get into any more trouble.
When he realized he could never find his way out of the forest, he built a castle. It was built of petals from a flower that grew at the edge of the dark lake in the center of the forest. First there was a frame built from tall white saplings that arched and intertwined. Then there were layers of the flower petals, stretched out like black silk, drying like the impenetrable scales of the most fearsome dragon. Inside, there were many rooms, as many rooms as Naris could imagine, shifting and rearranging for him. Soon he was no longer able to find the door and he could only stand on the highest tower and rule over a world that he could never walk in again. Distantly he longed for what lay beyond the forest, but the ache could not be healed from within the safety of his castle.
Shuichi didn't like that story very much. He'd gotten stuck seeing this Naris with Eiri's eyes and he could see him crying at the top of his black flower petal castle. He wanted to be a phoenix, to rise up like fire and burn the prison away from his lover. Eiri called him pink fire, so it was easy to imagine.
"Fushicho watched the castle grow day by day from where he lived, high above the forest floor. The flower spirits were angry to have so many of their petals taken, he knew and they would extract a high price in exchange for the security they offered to Naris."
Shuichi tapped his mental fingers waiting to hear what this guy looked like and what he was gonna do about the evil flowers. Eiri's voice painted the image for him, of a sprite, or a phoenix, a male, slender and looking very much like Shuichi, though he figured, cuz it was the hero, he wanted it to look like himself. He wanted to save Eiri, to drive away the depression that surrounded him, even still sometimes. Tears burned his eyes and he couldn't clench his eyes to stop the tears from slipping down his face, couldn't wipe them away, as they tracked over his stage make up. 'I'm sorry for calling you an asshole, Eiri,' he thought, 'I'm sorry I didn't breach the walls sooner or make better lyrics. I'm sorry I'm loud and rude and I'm sorry I can't tell you this!'
"This Fushicho was just like you, Shuichi, full of life and kindness," Eiri said, his thumb wiping away one tear track, then the other.
"Was he pink too," Ryuichi asked, holding Shuichi's other hand so that he held it and Kumagoro close to his heart.
"Yes, he was pink. Pink hair that was so long he wore it like clothing. It was braided into hundreds of tiny braids with a little crystal bell at the end of each so when he moved music flowed around him and he was constantly moving, dancing and leaping from tree to tree. This was safe for him to do, because he also had wings. These were not ordinary wings, like an angel might have, but wings of pink fire. The feathers were streaks of neon pink, blazing with reds and pearly whites, trailing down like flickering ribbons around his ankles when he stood still." Eiri told the story lovingly, as if it were a vision of Shuichi he described, some metaphor for life and love.
Shuichi liked this part. He could imagine himself leaping from tree to tree with wings of pink flame. Ryuichi poofed into his dream though, another one of his own kind, though with blue and golden chestnut colored wings, short wild hair and kumagoro. Shuichi tried to imagine away the stuffed pink bunny, and only managed to change it to a pink butterfly the size of a Frisbee flying him around Ryuichi-sprite's head.
In his daydream he shoved Ryuichi-sprite and he shoved back, leaping off the limb, soaring down towards the castle of black flower petals. Shuichi... er, Fushicho leaped off the branch and soared along. Hovering above black castle, staring down at the beautiful golden eyed man imprisoned there, the Ryuichi-sprite reached out and took hold of Fushicho's hand holding him in the air, even when the pink sprite was too caught up in studying the man to remember to fly.
As time went by though, the blond man in the castle had less and less energy. He came to the top of the castle less and less. Fushicho kept drawing closer and closer though, as if he could perhaps hear the man within his castle if he were closer.
Shuichi thought the bed was getting softer under him, indenting and letting him sink down into it. He told himself it was just his mind playing tricks on him though. He told him the same thing when his thumb didn't really move over Eiri's thumb when he wanted it to. Instead, Eiri's story drew him back in. It felt so real to him. He could feel the sizzle of his fiery wings against the back of his bare ankles. He felt the fingers take hold of his and for a moment he wasn't Shuichi at all, he was completely Fushicho. The hand holding his was Ryuichi-sprite's. He turned, wings flaring out, and looked into his friend's eyes. Concern, more than he would have expected, showed in his blue eyes. "Stay with me, Shuichi. Don't go down into there. Don't go into the darkness."
Shuichi/Fushicho preened for a moment, grinning, his own paralyzed body non- existent to him. "Nothing can hurt me! Ryuichi! I'm a phoenix, just like you. Darkness can't destroy me, but that man," he said, turning to point, to tug a little at Ryuichi's hand. "He'll die in the darkness. I have to get him out!"
"No! You can't breath in the castle! It's not meant for us! You'll suffocate!"
"Don't be silly!" Shuichi/Fushicho jerked his hand back, planting his fists on his hips. "I'd know if it were going to kill me!"
"You can't know that. If you go in there, you wouldn't be able to find your way back!"
"Don't be afraid, Ryuichi! I know you love me, but I have to go after the man!"
Ryuichi, the singer without fire wings, lay down on the bed next to Shuichi, watching his chest. "He's breathing too fast, but not very deep, Yuki-san."
Yuki squeezed Shuichi's hand and when he got no response, he felt for a pulse on his wrist. Rapid, weak, Yuki knew intellectually what it meant, but he wasn't going to deal with it emotionally, so he kept holding Shuichi's limp wrist, counting pulses.
Ryuichi was even less able to deal with it. He was down on his knees talking right into Shuichi's ear, telling him that he couldn't die, couldn't go away into the darkness! That he was loved and needed and he had to hold on..
"Ryuichi!" Yuki snarled. "Do you know CPR?"
The singer, tears blurring his vision nodded. "Why?"
"We have to get him off the bed, onto a hard surface. He's stopped breathing." Yuki said, distant, numb, as he lifted Shuichi into his arms and away from the wrinkled velvet of the bed.
Shuichi's dream shifted. Now he was deep inside the dark flower castle, in a room with no walls, looking at the back of the blond man he'd fallen in love with. His wings of fire spread out around him, lighting the room as if he were a neon flame butterfly. "I've come to save you. Come out into the light. My friend will call for us, and we will find our way out."
The dream shifted again and lips pressed to his, tender and wet, kissing sharing souls. He arched into the kiss, but then his chest exploded in fire, his wings wrapping around him protectively. No matter how he struggled the pain, it pressed down on his chest, contractions, even and deep, almost as if he were giving birth.
Looking up at the man holding him, he gasped, unable to breath without the life-giving kiss. Golden eyes cried sapphire tears, silently, his mouth moving without sound. Then the kiss returned, breathing into him, breathing out the pain. When he looked over his shoulders, it was Ryuichi-sprite hugging him, hands around his chest, and he knew that the pain would come again, but there was no air to force words of protest out.
"Shine, Shuichi, shine!" He didn't know the name; he was Fushicho, the phoenix. Shine... phoenix. die then be reborn. In the dream his body relaxed in their arms, the man with the golden eyes kissed him again, holding his face between both hands, forcing the kiss of life into him, but his body didn't respond as it had.
Yuki and Ryuichi knelt on either side of Shuichi, Yuki giving breaths, counting, Ryuichi, completely adult like, doing chest compressions. Six minutes. They ticked down for Yuki. He didn't know how many minutes they could keep Shuichi alive like this, but he could do this all his life, do nothing else rather than let his singer go.
The crash that came from across the room though was Tohma. Sleeveless, disheveled beyond Tohma possible, he ran through the door, hit his knees and rolled on the carpet. In one hand he held a black box. Yuki ignored him after the first glance though. He was giving breaths.
Tohma though scrambled closer, breath ragged and opened the box. Yuki had expected to see some transparent medicine, a syringe, something, but not a syringe filled with red. With shaking fingers, he pulled it out and uncapped it. The count down on his watch said he had two minutes. "K is immune. In lab, sterilized, cleaned, should work."
Yuki assessed that. It didn't sound probable, but it was all he had. Disgusted, he took the syringe from Tohma's fingers. "Continue, Ryuichi. Tohma, you breath when I tell you."
"Yes, alright." Tohma moved around to the other side of Yuki and bent over to do breath for Shuichi.
Shuichi's wrist in his lap, Yuki tapped the side of the syringe, making sure all the air bubbles rose and exited before tucking his arm between his own arm and chest and tapping a vein in his inner elbow. The needle slipped into Shuichi's flesh and then the red of the kiss disappeared into him. Tohma was giving breaths, and Yuki held the spot with his fingers, drawing the needle out. If it worked half as fast as the poison had, Yuki would owe the blond manager anything he wanted.
Tohma drew back from one breath, took at deep breath to give another, but Shuichi's chest rose on his own, once, again deeper, and he groaned. Yuki breathed again then too. "Owwwwwwww," Shuichi whined. "Owwwww! I hurt! My chest!"
Yuki sat back, holding Shuichi's hand and laughed. Ryuichi took his interlaced fingers from his friend's chest. For a moment, only Yuki's laughter filled the room.
"Now we can get him to the hospital?" Ryuichi laughed. "Kuma says he thinks Shuichi has broken ribs."
How was he supposed to tell Shuichi's story? The story he'd planned was poetic and elegant and held little of the gritty, struggle to live that had been in their lives the last few hours. It felt anti-climactic. He knew it shouldn't, that he'd just been telling Shuichi anything to keep him alive. The beautiful Fushicho would needed a story that was worthy of Shuichi.
"Eiri." Shuichi whispered, eyes glazed over as if he were seeing a different world. Tohma moved out of the way, left over adrenaline making him look like the world was still on fire.
"I'm here. It's good to hear your voice, Shuichi-kun." For that moment, he was completely certain he'd never tell Shuichi to be quiet again. "I love you."
Being very careful how he moved him, he slipped an arm under his neck and kissed his forehead. The story wasn't the most important thing right now. Later he'd write it, write it so it burned the ears of those who liked violence better than love, but right now he'd just hold him. It was hard to explain, this emotional unfurling within his heart. He'd started Shuichi's story, hiding behind wanting to give his lover a gift. To write for Shuichi or to write for his editor had been his initial question. Neither was what he needed now. He needed to tell his own story. It burned in him to write his love, to write how Shuichi's fiery life and love drew him out of his own castle of black flowers. That Shuichi lay breathing in his arms, holding his hand now, this was his Eiri's story now.
For Shuichi, the story unfolded still. One last kiss, Naris' lips and soul to Fushicho's, Ryuichi-sprite's arms wrapped around him, and the impossible happened. He renewed without death. His wings flexed, the fire in them igniting, dancing and flaring, wrapping pink fire around both Naris and Ryuichi-sprite. His long braids danced in it, making the crystal bells sing and the darkness surrounding them all blasted away, sending black flower petals in every direction away from them. The roar of the flying petals, of his tinkling bells, even the breathing of Naris against him, the sizzle of Ryuichi-sprite's fiery blue wings, all these sounds blended and layered with his deepest love, the love of music and he threw his arms over his head, cried out in song and lifted up away from them. He spun in the air, spreading pink light over the whole of their area of the forest.
Flowers and leaves pushed through the saplings that had formed the skeleton of the castle and Fushicho reveled Naris and Ryuichi-sprite watching him, holding him with their eyes because that's the only way one can hold a phoenix. He heard Naris' whispered, 'I love you.'
Even as he spun in the neon pink flame, he knew. He wasn't a phoenix, he was Shindou Shuichi and his lover held him because neither death nor neon flames would ever keep them apart.
Epilogue:
Eiri rode with Shuichi in the ambulance, having the hardest time not smacking the people ever time Shuichi yelped or moaned. It was the lion Yuki with glaring golden eyes that climbed in after him. Tohma thought Shuichi looked frailer than he really was though.
Ryuichi made a dive for the ambulance as well, but Tohma caught him. "Let them go, Ryuichi."
With a sigh, Ryuichi watched them drive away, Tohma still holding tight to the back of his shirt. "But I want to see that Shu-chan is okay!"
"He'll be alright, Ryuichi." Tohma said it with conviction. He'd watched K make a strong recovery. "And we have plans. Would you like to help catch the people who hurt Shuichi?"
"Yes." Ryuichi turned, completely bishonen then, blue eyes cold and angry. "Can we kill them, Tohma?"
"Perhaps, but the plan is to catch them. They might know more things so we should catch them."
Ryuichi watched the ambulance turn the corner, lights blaring. Kumagoru hung from his hand by one ear and he nodded. "They must be sick people, Tohma, to want to hurt Shuichi."
Tohma slipped an arm around Ryuichi's shoulder and drew him towards the car he'd come in. Ying was waiting with K and they knew where to catch these terrorists, Tohma explained on the way.
zzzZZzz
Shuichi made the worst patient. Eiri found it quite amusing actually and reassuring. If there was enough energy for that kind of fight, Shuichi would really be okay. They forced him out of the room though for a bit and he was in the hall with a coffee, wishing for a cigarette. It had been hours since he'd had one and now that the crisis was ending, he wanted one. He also wanted to know where Tohma and Ryuichi had gone to.
A nurse hurried past him on her way to the nurses station. He followed her, on a whim and there on the television was a breaking news story. It seems that a terrorist ring had been arrested in downtown Tokyo. Ten people arrested, a great deal of high tech equipment confiscated. Already it was being hushed up, but there was an unsubstantiated rumor that Seguchi Tohma and Sakuma Ryuichi had been involved in the arrest, as well as Bad Luck's Manager.
In an immediate breaking news, the station went to a press conference where the US Ambassador to Japan assured everyone that no member from Bad Luck or Nittle Grasper had done anything wrong, only that they had cooperated when there had been threats against them and because of that cooperation, much harm was prevented from ever happening. They were heroes.
Shuichi didn't want to be a hero though, he wanted to get out of the hospital and go to the coast. Wearing his pants and just his shirt, still the clothes he'd worn on stage, he'd sneaked up behind Yuki to watch the last of the broad cast. His ribs were taped and he felt happy. "Eiri, I want to go to the coast now."
Eiri's arm went around him, holding him close. "As soon as they say its safe."
Dr. Sanaka found them there and she frowned, hands on her hips. "Shidou- san, until we find out why you stopped breathing, you need to stay here where we can watch you."
"Is that the only reason you'd hold him, Sensei?"
"Isn't that reason enough," She asked, frowning. "We will of course, arrange a private room and Yuki-san may stay."
"We're going to the coast." Eiri said. They both knew why Shuichi had stopped breathing and there wasn't anything the hospital could do about it. He squeezed Shuichi's shoulders gently. "There will be too much media here soon, Dr. Sanaka. We will arrange a nurse, if we need one."
Her mouth fell open, but Eiri just slipped his arm around Shuichi's back and they left. A taxi, then a rented car, and they were off in search of moon and waves. Later he would have Tohma send a computer and clothes. They wouldn't need either for a little while. Stories are best in the flesh sometimes.
Author's note:
This is a shameless plug.. if you'd like to discuss this pairing, or anything Gravi related please come join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YukiandShuichi/
And if you'd rather: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RyuichiandShuichiML
I don't know if it's a bad thing to advert my groups on here, but I've had a very good time writing this story and I'd love to have some groups to chat with people about Gravi. Please feel welcome to come chat too. Nix
"Once there was a man lost in a forest, far from any place," Yuki began, stroking Shuichi's fingers, "And the forest held many magical elements, both beautiful and horrifying. So that as he made his way through the darkness, he was given both faint hope of rescue and a constant terror that he would be lost forever."
"Yuki-san," Ryuichi interrupted, "Don't you know any more cheerful stories?"
Golden eyes glared at the child like singer and his kumagoro. "I tell interesting stories, not the kind that come in color books."
Shuichi laughed, even if his laughter was trapped in the sleeping castle of his body. Eiri had really grown and Ryuichi was here. With both of them here with him, he wasn't afraid. His thumb brushed Eiri's thumb very slightly. In his imagination, he was in the forest, walking quietly through tall dark trees, looking for magical elements. Eiri's words built the world for him, giving him a sliver of moonlight through the trees and the faint howl of wolf in the distance.
The man he was searching for in this forest was his lover, his pairbond. Eiri's voice named him Naris. Shuichi could see the man in his mind. Muscular and strong, broad shoulders, but with Eiri's blond hair down to his shoulders. He was supposed to have blue eyes, deep as sapphires, but Shuichi wanted them golden, light and unique, like Eiri's. Every time Eiri mentioned them blue, Shuichi imagined them golden again.
In the story, Naris could not remember how he'd gotten into forest, only that it was damp and cold and he couldn't talk to anyone. If he didn't talk to anyone, then he wouldn't get into any more trouble.
When he realized he could never find his way out of the forest, he built a castle. It was built of petals from a flower that grew at the edge of the dark lake in the center of the forest. First there was a frame built from tall white saplings that arched and intertwined. Then there were layers of the flower petals, stretched out like black silk, drying like the impenetrable scales of the most fearsome dragon. Inside, there were many rooms, as many rooms as Naris could imagine, shifting and rearranging for him. Soon he was no longer able to find the door and he could only stand on the highest tower and rule over a world that he could never walk in again. Distantly he longed for what lay beyond the forest, but the ache could not be healed from within the safety of his castle.
Shuichi didn't like that story very much. He'd gotten stuck seeing this Naris with Eiri's eyes and he could see him crying at the top of his black flower petal castle. He wanted to be a phoenix, to rise up like fire and burn the prison away from his lover. Eiri called him pink fire, so it was easy to imagine.
"Fushicho watched the castle grow day by day from where he lived, high above the forest floor. The flower spirits were angry to have so many of their petals taken, he knew and they would extract a high price in exchange for the security they offered to Naris."
Shuichi tapped his mental fingers waiting to hear what this guy looked like and what he was gonna do about the evil flowers. Eiri's voice painted the image for him, of a sprite, or a phoenix, a male, slender and looking very much like Shuichi, though he figured, cuz it was the hero, he wanted it to look like himself. He wanted to save Eiri, to drive away the depression that surrounded him, even still sometimes. Tears burned his eyes and he couldn't clench his eyes to stop the tears from slipping down his face, couldn't wipe them away, as they tracked over his stage make up. 'I'm sorry for calling you an asshole, Eiri,' he thought, 'I'm sorry I didn't breach the walls sooner or make better lyrics. I'm sorry I'm loud and rude and I'm sorry I can't tell you this!'
"This Fushicho was just like you, Shuichi, full of life and kindness," Eiri said, his thumb wiping away one tear track, then the other.
"Was he pink too," Ryuichi asked, holding Shuichi's other hand so that he held it and Kumagoro close to his heart.
"Yes, he was pink. Pink hair that was so long he wore it like clothing. It was braided into hundreds of tiny braids with a little crystal bell at the end of each so when he moved music flowed around him and he was constantly moving, dancing and leaping from tree to tree. This was safe for him to do, because he also had wings. These were not ordinary wings, like an angel might have, but wings of pink fire. The feathers were streaks of neon pink, blazing with reds and pearly whites, trailing down like flickering ribbons around his ankles when he stood still." Eiri told the story lovingly, as if it were a vision of Shuichi he described, some metaphor for life and love.
Shuichi liked this part. He could imagine himself leaping from tree to tree with wings of pink flame. Ryuichi poofed into his dream though, another one of his own kind, though with blue and golden chestnut colored wings, short wild hair and kumagoro. Shuichi tried to imagine away the stuffed pink bunny, and only managed to change it to a pink butterfly the size of a Frisbee flying him around Ryuichi-sprite's head.
In his daydream he shoved Ryuichi-sprite and he shoved back, leaping off the limb, soaring down towards the castle of black flower petals. Shuichi... er, Fushicho leaped off the branch and soared along. Hovering above black castle, staring down at the beautiful golden eyed man imprisoned there, the Ryuichi-sprite reached out and took hold of Fushicho's hand holding him in the air, even when the pink sprite was too caught up in studying the man to remember to fly.
As time went by though, the blond man in the castle had less and less energy. He came to the top of the castle less and less. Fushicho kept drawing closer and closer though, as if he could perhaps hear the man within his castle if he were closer.
Shuichi thought the bed was getting softer under him, indenting and letting him sink down into it. He told himself it was just his mind playing tricks on him though. He told him the same thing when his thumb didn't really move over Eiri's thumb when he wanted it to. Instead, Eiri's story drew him back in. It felt so real to him. He could feel the sizzle of his fiery wings against the back of his bare ankles. He felt the fingers take hold of his and for a moment he wasn't Shuichi at all, he was completely Fushicho. The hand holding his was Ryuichi-sprite's. He turned, wings flaring out, and looked into his friend's eyes. Concern, more than he would have expected, showed in his blue eyes. "Stay with me, Shuichi. Don't go down into there. Don't go into the darkness."
Shuichi/Fushicho preened for a moment, grinning, his own paralyzed body non- existent to him. "Nothing can hurt me! Ryuichi! I'm a phoenix, just like you. Darkness can't destroy me, but that man," he said, turning to point, to tug a little at Ryuichi's hand. "He'll die in the darkness. I have to get him out!"
"No! You can't breath in the castle! It's not meant for us! You'll suffocate!"
"Don't be silly!" Shuichi/Fushicho jerked his hand back, planting his fists on his hips. "I'd know if it were going to kill me!"
"You can't know that. If you go in there, you wouldn't be able to find your way back!"
"Don't be afraid, Ryuichi! I know you love me, but I have to go after the man!"
Ryuichi, the singer without fire wings, lay down on the bed next to Shuichi, watching his chest. "He's breathing too fast, but not very deep, Yuki-san."
Yuki squeezed Shuichi's hand and when he got no response, he felt for a pulse on his wrist. Rapid, weak, Yuki knew intellectually what it meant, but he wasn't going to deal with it emotionally, so he kept holding Shuichi's limp wrist, counting pulses.
Ryuichi was even less able to deal with it. He was down on his knees talking right into Shuichi's ear, telling him that he couldn't die, couldn't go away into the darkness! That he was loved and needed and he had to hold on..
"Ryuichi!" Yuki snarled. "Do you know CPR?"
The singer, tears blurring his vision nodded. "Why?"
"We have to get him off the bed, onto a hard surface. He's stopped breathing." Yuki said, distant, numb, as he lifted Shuichi into his arms and away from the wrinkled velvet of the bed.
Shuichi's dream shifted. Now he was deep inside the dark flower castle, in a room with no walls, looking at the back of the blond man he'd fallen in love with. His wings of fire spread out around him, lighting the room as if he were a neon flame butterfly. "I've come to save you. Come out into the light. My friend will call for us, and we will find our way out."
The dream shifted again and lips pressed to his, tender and wet, kissing sharing souls. He arched into the kiss, but then his chest exploded in fire, his wings wrapping around him protectively. No matter how he struggled the pain, it pressed down on his chest, contractions, even and deep, almost as if he were giving birth.
Looking up at the man holding him, he gasped, unable to breath without the life-giving kiss. Golden eyes cried sapphire tears, silently, his mouth moving without sound. Then the kiss returned, breathing into him, breathing out the pain. When he looked over his shoulders, it was Ryuichi-sprite hugging him, hands around his chest, and he knew that the pain would come again, but there was no air to force words of protest out.
"Shine, Shuichi, shine!" He didn't know the name; he was Fushicho, the phoenix. Shine... phoenix. die then be reborn. In the dream his body relaxed in their arms, the man with the golden eyes kissed him again, holding his face between both hands, forcing the kiss of life into him, but his body didn't respond as it had.
Yuki and Ryuichi knelt on either side of Shuichi, Yuki giving breaths, counting, Ryuichi, completely adult like, doing chest compressions. Six minutes. They ticked down for Yuki. He didn't know how many minutes they could keep Shuichi alive like this, but he could do this all his life, do nothing else rather than let his singer go.
The crash that came from across the room though was Tohma. Sleeveless, disheveled beyond Tohma possible, he ran through the door, hit his knees and rolled on the carpet. In one hand he held a black box. Yuki ignored him after the first glance though. He was giving breaths.
Tohma though scrambled closer, breath ragged and opened the box. Yuki had expected to see some transparent medicine, a syringe, something, but not a syringe filled with red. With shaking fingers, he pulled it out and uncapped it. The count down on his watch said he had two minutes. "K is immune. In lab, sterilized, cleaned, should work."
Yuki assessed that. It didn't sound probable, but it was all he had. Disgusted, he took the syringe from Tohma's fingers. "Continue, Ryuichi. Tohma, you breath when I tell you."
"Yes, alright." Tohma moved around to the other side of Yuki and bent over to do breath for Shuichi.
Shuichi's wrist in his lap, Yuki tapped the side of the syringe, making sure all the air bubbles rose and exited before tucking his arm between his own arm and chest and tapping a vein in his inner elbow. The needle slipped into Shuichi's flesh and then the red of the kiss disappeared into him. Tohma was giving breaths, and Yuki held the spot with his fingers, drawing the needle out. If it worked half as fast as the poison had, Yuki would owe the blond manager anything he wanted.
Tohma drew back from one breath, took at deep breath to give another, but Shuichi's chest rose on his own, once, again deeper, and he groaned. Yuki breathed again then too. "Owwwwwwww," Shuichi whined. "Owwwww! I hurt! My chest!"
Yuki sat back, holding Shuichi's hand and laughed. Ryuichi took his interlaced fingers from his friend's chest. For a moment, only Yuki's laughter filled the room.
"Now we can get him to the hospital?" Ryuichi laughed. "Kuma says he thinks Shuichi has broken ribs."
How was he supposed to tell Shuichi's story? The story he'd planned was poetic and elegant and held little of the gritty, struggle to live that had been in their lives the last few hours. It felt anti-climactic. He knew it shouldn't, that he'd just been telling Shuichi anything to keep him alive. The beautiful Fushicho would needed a story that was worthy of Shuichi.
"Eiri." Shuichi whispered, eyes glazed over as if he were seeing a different world. Tohma moved out of the way, left over adrenaline making him look like the world was still on fire.
"I'm here. It's good to hear your voice, Shuichi-kun." For that moment, he was completely certain he'd never tell Shuichi to be quiet again. "I love you."
Being very careful how he moved him, he slipped an arm under his neck and kissed his forehead. The story wasn't the most important thing right now. Later he'd write it, write it so it burned the ears of those who liked violence better than love, but right now he'd just hold him. It was hard to explain, this emotional unfurling within his heart. He'd started Shuichi's story, hiding behind wanting to give his lover a gift. To write for Shuichi or to write for his editor had been his initial question. Neither was what he needed now. He needed to tell his own story. It burned in him to write his love, to write how Shuichi's fiery life and love drew him out of his own castle of black flowers. That Shuichi lay breathing in his arms, holding his hand now, this was his Eiri's story now.
For Shuichi, the story unfolded still. One last kiss, Naris' lips and soul to Fushicho's, Ryuichi-sprite's arms wrapped around him, and the impossible happened. He renewed without death. His wings flexed, the fire in them igniting, dancing and flaring, wrapping pink fire around both Naris and Ryuichi-sprite. His long braids danced in it, making the crystal bells sing and the darkness surrounding them all blasted away, sending black flower petals in every direction away from them. The roar of the flying petals, of his tinkling bells, even the breathing of Naris against him, the sizzle of Ryuichi-sprite's fiery blue wings, all these sounds blended and layered with his deepest love, the love of music and he threw his arms over his head, cried out in song and lifted up away from them. He spun in the air, spreading pink light over the whole of their area of the forest.
Flowers and leaves pushed through the saplings that had formed the skeleton of the castle and Fushicho reveled Naris and Ryuichi-sprite watching him, holding him with their eyes because that's the only way one can hold a phoenix. He heard Naris' whispered, 'I love you.'
Even as he spun in the neon pink flame, he knew. He wasn't a phoenix, he was Shindou Shuichi and his lover held him because neither death nor neon flames would ever keep them apart.
Epilogue:
Eiri rode with Shuichi in the ambulance, having the hardest time not smacking the people ever time Shuichi yelped or moaned. It was the lion Yuki with glaring golden eyes that climbed in after him. Tohma thought Shuichi looked frailer than he really was though.
Ryuichi made a dive for the ambulance as well, but Tohma caught him. "Let them go, Ryuichi."
With a sigh, Ryuichi watched them drive away, Tohma still holding tight to the back of his shirt. "But I want to see that Shu-chan is okay!"
"He'll be alright, Ryuichi." Tohma said it with conviction. He'd watched K make a strong recovery. "And we have plans. Would you like to help catch the people who hurt Shuichi?"
"Yes." Ryuichi turned, completely bishonen then, blue eyes cold and angry. "Can we kill them, Tohma?"
"Perhaps, but the plan is to catch them. They might know more things so we should catch them."
Ryuichi watched the ambulance turn the corner, lights blaring. Kumagoru hung from his hand by one ear and he nodded. "They must be sick people, Tohma, to want to hurt Shuichi."
Tohma slipped an arm around Ryuichi's shoulder and drew him towards the car he'd come in. Ying was waiting with K and they knew where to catch these terrorists, Tohma explained on the way.
zzzZZzz
Shuichi made the worst patient. Eiri found it quite amusing actually and reassuring. If there was enough energy for that kind of fight, Shuichi would really be okay. They forced him out of the room though for a bit and he was in the hall with a coffee, wishing for a cigarette. It had been hours since he'd had one and now that the crisis was ending, he wanted one. He also wanted to know where Tohma and Ryuichi had gone to.
A nurse hurried past him on her way to the nurses station. He followed her, on a whim and there on the television was a breaking news story. It seems that a terrorist ring had been arrested in downtown Tokyo. Ten people arrested, a great deal of high tech equipment confiscated. Already it was being hushed up, but there was an unsubstantiated rumor that Seguchi Tohma and Sakuma Ryuichi had been involved in the arrest, as well as Bad Luck's Manager.
In an immediate breaking news, the station went to a press conference where the US Ambassador to Japan assured everyone that no member from Bad Luck or Nittle Grasper had done anything wrong, only that they had cooperated when there had been threats against them and because of that cooperation, much harm was prevented from ever happening. They were heroes.
Shuichi didn't want to be a hero though, he wanted to get out of the hospital and go to the coast. Wearing his pants and just his shirt, still the clothes he'd worn on stage, he'd sneaked up behind Yuki to watch the last of the broad cast. His ribs were taped and he felt happy. "Eiri, I want to go to the coast now."
Eiri's arm went around him, holding him close. "As soon as they say its safe."
Dr. Sanaka found them there and she frowned, hands on her hips. "Shidou- san, until we find out why you stopped breathing, you need to stay here where we can watch you."
"Is that the only reason you'd hold him, Sensei?"
"Isn't that reason enough," She asked, frowning. "We will of course, arrange a private room and Yuki-san may stay."
"We're going to the coast." Eiri said. They both knew why Shuichi had stopped breathing and there wasn't anything the hospital could do about it. He squeezed Shuichi's shoulders gently. "There will be too much media here soon, Dr. Sanaka. We will arrange a nurse, if we need one."
Her mouth fell open, but Eiri just slipped his arm around Shuichi's back and they left. A taxi, then a rented car, and they were off in search of moon and waves. Later he would have Tohma send a computer and clothes. They wouldn't need either for a little while. Stories are best in the flesh sometimes.
Author's note:
This is a shameless plug.. if you'd like to discuss this pairing, or anything Gravi related please come join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YukiandShuichi/
And if you'd rather: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RyuichiandShuichiML
I don't know if it's a bad thing to advert my groups on here, but I've had a very good time writing this story and I'd love to have some groups to chat with people about Gravi. Please feel welcome to come chat too. Nix