Disclaimers: Gravitation doesn't belong to me. Anyone pick up on this already?
Notes: Whee! We're back to Shuichi's point of view!
~~~~~flashback~~~~~
~*The Bible of Kumagoro—Getting Closer to Your God*~
"Yuki, I'm going out," I announced, peering through the door to Yuki's office. He was working, as always, his fingers moving gracefully over the keys to his laptop.
"And where the hell would you be going?" he asked with disinterest from his computer desk, still typing away. He stopped to take a drag from his cigarette, looking over at me as he breathed out. "Well?" Why would he care where I was going? He never had before. Then again, I normally didn't go anywhere this late at night without trying to drag him along.
"I'm going over to Ryuichi's place," I answered easily and Yuki went back to his typing, crushing the end of his cigarette into the ashtray next to him. Nothing had changed since his confession. He'd never said it again, he hadn't suddenly started showering me with affection or anything. I was still only allowed those few moments of caring. I didn't care, though. I knew that he cared about me no matter how he treated me, and that was the important thing. That was all I'd wanted and had been expecting.
"What did my brother do now?" he asked monotonously as he continued typing, not making the slightest move to show that he even expected an answer. However, whether he wanted an answer or not I was giving him one. It wasn't Tatsuha's fault, and I didn't want him thinking something bad of his little brother when he was perfectly innocent.
"Nothing. They're just having some problems." He sighed again before he stopped typing and stood up, turning to face me. "What? I didn't do it, I swear!" Yuki raised an eyebrow as he walked over to me.
"Didn't do what?" I shook my head and looked as innocent as I could. It hadn't been my fault he left where I could see it…I was hungry. I didn't think he'd notice one more piece missing… "I'll find out later. Come on," he practically ordered and I followed him.
"Are you going to go help, too? Yuki, you're so swe…"
"I'm driving you over there. Someone as stupid as you would probably get himself kidnapped walking alone after dark," Yuki snapped, glaring at me. I laughed and attached myself to his arm, not caring that he was swearing at me to get off while he locked the door.
"Yuki's worried about me!" I cheered happily, beaming up at him. I didn't have to state the fact, it was very clear, but I knew that it agitated Yuki when I did that. "Yuki's such a sweetheart!" Yuki growled and shook me off his arm, locking the door to the apartment quickly.
"Shut up or I'm making you walk," he demanded as I opened my mouth to say something else and I laughed again, latching back onto his arm as we walked towards the elevator. "So why is it they want you over there again?" I sighed and let go of Yuki, leaning against the far wall as the elevator doors shut.
"Tatsuha's friend's in love with him, too." I felt Yuki's hand stroking my hair gently and smiled slightly. He was aware of what I'd gone through over Hiro, and that I still wasn't entirely over the subject. How was I supposed to be? I mean, my best friend confessed his love to me more than once, and most times I just pretended not to hear him. Eventually he cornered me and told me everything, how he felt about me, how he felt about Ayaka, how he felt about my pretend blindness. He said he'd been hurt most that I kept on running away from him like that, that I kept on pretending not to hear him. Instead of trying to help him get through it, I ran away scared. He told me he'd never felt more betrayed and alone. I didn't want Tatsuha running away from his problem and end up doing that to his friend.
"I can see why they asked you over there," he offered softly, pulling away from me as the doors opened, and walking through them quickly. I ran to catch up with him, walking next to him after I caught back up. Neither of us talked on the walk to the car. We didn't talk in the car, either…
I sighed as I watched the streetlights whiz past us in the car. There were more people out than you'd think at this time of night. I wondered for a second why Yuki was so worried about me; there were plenty of other, nice people out at this time. It wasn't like I was going to be walking the streets alone. Besides, it was barely 9. I couldn't help but think back on when Hiro told me how he felt about me as we drove towards Ryuichi's house.
It had been the week I'd ended up staying at the studio. Hiro was the only person who bothered to stay in the studio with me. All the others went home at night to sleep on their own beds. I was fine with that, I would have been fine being alone, but Hiro wouldn't let me. He said he didn't mind staying behind and he didn't want me getting lonely while I was staying there. He always cared about how I felt. It was one of the things I liked the most about him, how he always seemed to care about everyone.
Everyone else had left already and I was working on my 'thanks' for the CD. I had a lot of people to thank, after all. I couldn't forget a single person. Even Kumagoro got his own little sentence of thanks, for always helping me when I ran out of energy. Hiro had already gotten his done, of course, seeing as he'd had the entire week I was sick to write his out. It was sad how far behind I had fallen with my work.
~~~~~'Hey, Shuichi.' I blinked and looked up from where I had been writing. I had a list of people I needed to thank already made out (that had taken me about a half hour by itself) and I was currently working on writing it out in paragraph form. Hiro's voice had startled me and forced me to draw a line over my paper, but I didn't go back and fix it right away.
I hadn't had a clue Hiro was so close to me. How long he had been there I wasn't sure, I'd been too busy writing to notice anything else. It was one of my flaws. I smiled happily, setting my pencil down next to my paper.
"'Sup?" Hiro sighed and sat down on his keens in front of the little desk I was sitting at, crossing his arms over the top and leaning his head against them.
"Lots of things. You're working harder than you should be. You were just sick, you know." I laughed and bounced happily, like a little child.
"I'm fine, really. See?" Hiro sighed and tilted his head to the side a bit so his cheek was pressed against his arms.
"I'm sorry I didn't visit you while you were sick. I was really worried about you, but…I didn't want to get into a fight with Yuki-san. I figured that wouldn't be good for you." I blinked a couple times before deciding it would be best to actually ask him instead of just hoping he got the question by himself
"Why would you and Yuki get into a fight? Yuki's not that mean…"
"I know," Hiro interrupted me quickly, and I could have sworn he looked really sad. "He's really observant, though." I was even more confused by that point, and I leaned over so my elbows were resting on the desktop.
"About what?" Hiro sighed and sat up again, walking over to where I was sitting and taking a seat on the couch next to me (I'd dragged a desk over to the comfiest couch they had. That was where I slept).
"Promise me you'll listen to me this time?" I blushed slightly and nodded. I think I knew what was coming already. "Yuki doesn't like me very much, and I don't like Yuki very much, because both of us love you very much. I don't like him because of the way he treats you, and Yuki doesn't like me because I think he believes I'm trying to steal you from him. Don't get me wrong, I like Ayaka-chan just fine, but I'd still give anything to have you by my side." I opened my mouth to say something but Hiro pressed a finger to my lips gently and I closed it again, waiting to hear Hiro out. "I've told you this before, I know that. I know you've heard me say it at least four times now, and I hope you've realized that I'm not lying when I say it.
"Every time I've told you this you've changed the subject or continue on obliviously. I know you've heard me say it; I'm not clueless, either. Every time you ignored me, I felt worse, Shuichi. Like you were afraid of me. I've tried everything to make you happy, and you ignored me when I told you what was hurting me so much. I felt like you were betraying me, doing that. What kind of friend runs away when they know their friend is hurting?" I could feel the tears running down my face by that point, and Hiro wiped them away gently.
"I'm sorry," I whispered against his finger, and he nodded slowly, pulling his hand away from my face. "Really, I am. I didn't want to hurt either of you, so I tried to pretend I didn't hear it, that way I wouldn't have to hurt you." Hiro nodded again, running fingers through my hair.
"I know. You're stuck in all sorts of messy situations, aren't you?" I nodded slowly, noting that Hiro was slowly getting closer to me. "Sorry I had to be a problem to you."
"Hiro," I managed softly, resting my hand against his chest as I registered what was going on. Hiro was going to kiss me…Hiro stopped and stared at me for a while before he sat back up, running fingers through his hair and laughing nervously.
"Sorry. Guess I got a little caught up there, huh?" I nodded slowly, cheeks growing hot. I'd almost kissed my best friend…that would have been scary. "Well, I guess you'd best finish that and get to sleep. I think I'm going to lie down myself. Later Shuichi," he offered happily, ruffling my hair before standing up and heading over to the couch on the other side of the room. He probably was hoping I wouldn't notice, but I saw the tears that hung in the corner of his eyes as he said goodnight. I couldn't get the image out of my mind the rest of the night, and I ended up writing a paragraph thank you just for Hiro. I'd put him through so much, and he'd always stuck by me.~~~~~
"Hey idiot, are you going or not?" I blinked and turned around quickly to stare at Yuki. He didn't look pleased with me at the moment, and I blushed a little bit.
"Sorry," I offered softly, undoing my seatbelt and hopping out of the car. "You coming in, too. I'm sure it would mean a lot to Tatsuha. You are his big brother, after all." Yuki glared at me and I sighed. "Never mind that."
"I have work to do. I can't be bothered with Tatsuha's problems at the moment. I have enough of my own." I had a feeling he was referring to me but I smiled anyway, waving goodbye as I shut the door behind me. I sighed as he drove away quickly, turning and making my way to Ryuichi's apartment. I'd only been over a couple times, but thankfully my fan-memory allowed me to remember where it was.
"Ryuichi!" I called as I knocked on the door, waiting for him to open it for me. Almost immediately the door was flung open and Ryuichi smiled at me happily.
"Shuichi! Come inside na no da!" he cheered happily, grabbing onto my wrist and pulling me inside. He kicked the door shut behind me, still not letting go of my arm, and dragged me over to where Tatsuha was sitting on the couch. "Shuichi can help, right?" I nodded and Ryuichi let go of me, pushing me so that I sat down next to Tatsuha. "Then help na no da!" he cheered happily, smiling as brightly as he did every other day. I could tell he was worried about Tatsuha, it was in the way that he moved, but he smiled normally so Tatsuha wouldn't feel like he was being a burden to him. Ryuichi and me understood each other like that. I'd probably be doing the same thing in his position. Tatsuha probably felt bad enough as it was.
"Tatsuha, have you talked to your friend since he told you how he felt?" Tatsuha shook his head slowly and I sighed, leaning back against the couch. "Do you know where he lives?"
"Yes, but I can't face him right now. I've hurt him so badly." I ran fingers through my hair and looked over at Tatsuha. He was staring at me like I was his only lifeline now.
"Running away from him will only make him feel worse. He probably thinks you're afraid of him now, and he's sure to feel more than a little betrayed. I've gone through this, too. Face it now, before you hurt him more, all right? I ran away like you are, and it turns out that I ended up hurting my friend a lot more than if I would have just faced it." Tatsuha sighed and leaned back as well, staring at the ceiling.
"You think he'd want to talk to me?"
"If he's your friend he will," I offered, smiling slightly. I had a feeling I was winning this argument. That was good, since I knew what I was doing. Tatsuha sighed and looked over at me, our eyes locking for a moment before he smiled back at me.
"I guess it'll be alright then…so long as you and Ryuichi come with me." I smiled wider and nodded, and I could hear Ryuichi cheering from in front of us.
"Shuichi is the greatest! Did you hear that Kumagoro! We're going to go see Michael again na no da! Shuichi's going to make everything alright again!" I laughed and sat up, digging around in my pocket for my cell phone. Yuki would probably like to know I was leaving Ryuichi's, and might even want to take me there himself. I mean, he hadn't wanted me walking to Ryuichi's house. That was only around a 45-minute walk. Who knew how far away Michael's house was?
"What do you want?" Yuki asked as he picked up the phone, sounding irritated. I laughed and I heard him sigh from the other end of the phone.
"Yuki, we're all going over to Michael's house to talk to him. I just thought you might want to know." There was a long silence over the phone after that. Ryuichi had calmed down a little bit and was talking to Tatsuha happily as I waited for a response from Yuki.
"I'll be over there to pick you up in a bit, okay?" I nodded happily.
"Thanks Yuki, you're the greatest!"
"You owe me for this, you know. You have any idea how much work is Not getting done while I'm running you around the city?" I sighed and brushed a bang back from my eyes. I really needed to get my hair cut sometime soon.
"I'll stay over at Hiro's tomorrow and not come home until late Monday night so you can get lots of work done, alright?" I heard Yuki 'humph' in reply and knew that he was happy with that arrangement. Good, I didn't want to argue with him about that at the moment. "See you when you get here, then. We'll all be waiting outside!" I cheered happily, hanging up the phone. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.
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YAY! I'm finally done with this chapter, and HIRO has finally had a part in this story! All the Hiro fans rejoice! Hehehe. All right, things are starting to wind back down here. Know I built it up a little too much, but oh well. I want to get this done EVENTUALLY.
I'm starting to get a feeling that this story is getting too long.
Oh well. PLEASE review! It really does make me want to write faster! I would have had this chapter up earlier but this is about the only free time I've had all week. 'The more the merrier' as they say, although I know that's now what they're talking about…