I was so unbelievably... not pleased with this chapter that I didn't proof read the second half. So, I'm sorry if there are a bunch of mistakes! Ryuichi, I mean Reece, and K are introduced in this chapter, finally. It's hard not to make him say "Ne" or "Hai" or "Wai" because he does so much. And there aren't really any words that I find I like as much as those in English. Oh well.

There isn't any kissing in this chapter, I'm sorry! I might have some in the next one, but I didn't feel like the characters wanted to go making out this time. ^_^; Plus I had to force a lot of the writing so it's not as good as usual, and I think I only want to do kissing scenes when my writing is best.

Does anyone like KxHiro? I think I might have a couple hints of those at some point. I'm still playing with the idea.

Oh, and thanks to TalonSage (well of course she is! I mean who wouldn't be?), chibiukyou (too lazy to come up with a nice saying but I still appreciate your comments ^_^), panatlantic, Sarasi, ShadeAngel, and Babylon Boytoy for reviewing ^_^ Reviews really do keep me going, they're the main reason I try to get chapters out so frequently.

Cast:

Yuki Eiri - Edward Young - 22 - Accomplished Novelist

Shuichi Shindo - Stuart Shubrook - 19 - Aspiring Poet, Song Composer, and Actor/Musician

Seguchi Tohma - Thomas Savage - 32 - Wealthy Publishing Company Owner

Sakano - Kenneth Saunders - 29 - Stuart's Agent

K - Claude K. Winchester - 36 - American Ex-Mafia gunman, works for Thomas as an Agent

Sakuma Ryuichi - Reece Swift - 31 - Accomplished Poet, Song Composer, and Actor/Musician (I found out those were common back then)

Nakano Hiroshi - Hugh Norris - 19 - Aspiring Violinist

Uesugi Tatsuha - Timothy Ulysses - 16 - Schoolboy

Suguru Fujisaki - Frederick Sullivan - 16 - Schoolboy and Aspiring Conductor/Composer

Noriko Ukai - Natalie Udell - 28 - Accomplished Pianist

Ayaka Usami - Anna Udolf - 17 – Schoolgirl

Seguchi Mika – Marianne Savage – Thomas's wife

Disclaimer: I _do_not_ own Gravitation! Sheesh...

//...// indicates flashback.

Roses

~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Chapter 5

~-~-~-~-~-~-~

"And now he needs a new maid..." The poet leaned back on the park bench, resting his hands behind his head. Just one day before, Stuart had visited Edward. And yelled at him. And then, Edward kissed him. Which probably would have lasted a lot longer than a couple minutes if the man's stupid maid hadn't fainted on them. After that...

"Well, at least he returns the feeling." Hugh glanced at his best friend, a faraway look in his eyes. He was sort of listening to the boy – sort of. Actually... all he could think about was how happy Stuart was and how miserable he felt. Helping a friend wasn't supposed to feel this bad, was it?

"I know, but," Stuart whined, rocking back and forth in the green bench. After the maid had fainted, Edward had woken her up by dumping water all over her. He said there was no reason for them to call a doctor since he didn't want to pay for any expenses. Plus, he claimed the water would work.

It didn't.

"But what? Are you disappointed?" Just a tiny hint, faint glimmer of hope in that statement. Just, perhaps, just maybe Stuart didn't like the man after that. But that was impossible, the way he talked about him all afternoon.

"No!" See? "I'm really happy, honestly! But I feel sorry for the maid, I mean..." he glanced around, then leaned in and whispered in Hugh's ear, "How often do you see two men kissing on a staircase?" Apparently the maid had never seen it before, since Edward had to get smelling salts to wake her up. Poor girl, not only had she seen a huge shock, but she'd fainted, gotten water splashed on her head, probably lost her job, and then she had to have smelling salts shoved up her nose.

Hugh smiled and shook his head; "I don't think many people see that in their entire lifetimes. Still," he glanced at his friend, a devious look crossing his face, "I'm sure she got quite a show."

"Hugh!" Well, he was right. Although, the fact that Edward had literally shoved the salts up her nose probably wasn't a very good after thought. But hey, it woke her up. Of course, she started screaming as soon as she saw Stuart, but at least she was alive.

"I'm just saying." The brunette shrugged and draped his arms across the back of the bench. He was happy. He had to tell himself that. Even if the idiot was going on about the maid and her psychological standpoint, he was happy. And that had to account for something... right?

"Well, anyway. I'm going to see him tomorrow!" Again with the singsong voice. And there was no maid tomorrow! Nope, after she woke up she ran into her room and gathered all of her things, screamed at Edward that she quit, and stormed out of the house. Stuart was worried that she would tell newspapers about Edward, but he said Thomas would take care of it and left it at that.

"I see..."

"And, and, I promised him that I wouldn't throw things at him! He kind of made me promise, though..." rather forcibly, too, with lots of shirt grabbing and... Stuart flushed suddenly, "Ah, and I'm going to write a really good poem, too! Although I don't think that he would like it in any case... Do you think he would, Hugh?" The redhead turned to face the brunette and grabbed hold of the other man's arm.

Hugh sighed, seeing the boy's face burn, and shook his head, "I don't know. I haven't met him, but from what you say..." Hugh turned his gaze to the poet, his eyes searing, "No, he probably won't."

"You're so cruel!" Stuart jumped up and away from the bench, balling up his fists and biting his lower lip. To onlookers he looked much younger than 19 – probably around 6 instead. A few older women looked at him, then at Hugh who they guessed was his father, and glared rather angrily. Hugh coughed and stood up, walking over to Stuart.

"Now, now... What matters is you'll see him and he probably won't be so mean."

Stuart sighed and resumed his regular posture, "I suppose, but..."

"It would mean something if he complimented you?" Stuart nodded. The musician sighed and raked a hand through his long hair, "Well, maybe he will, eventually."

"Really?"

Hugh smiled, wiping Stuart's moist eyes, "Really."

"Alright!" Stuart jumped away from his friend and bounded off down the path, "Bye, Hugh!"

His friend blinked, seeing the smoke cloud trail behind him. Now... why had he left so quickly? The brunette sighed and shook his head, turning around. No one could know what went through that boy's head. Stuart himself probably wasn't exactly sure half the time.

~-~-~

Two years, two long, boring years. That's how long it had been since Thomas last saw his colleague. And now, as the boat docked and people hurried off, he wondered if his friend was the same. Had he changed any in the years he'd been in America? Had those Americans made his normally happy and hyper friend into someone cold and stoic?

Oh he hoped not. But as he stretched his neck, trying to see above the crowd of people, he couldn't help but think it was odd that the man hadn't come running out of the ship and clung to Thomas's arm. Maybe he was tired? The two weren't hard to spot in a crowd, though. That's right, there were two of them. He and Thomas's agent. That agent... he hadn't seen him in at least three years. At some point Thomas had hired him to manage writers that also wanted to write things for musicians. Thomas thought it might be nice to be a pioneer in singing and songwriting as a career.

Immediately the man took over managing Thomas's friend. Thomas didn't really mind, managing Edward was a full time job, but he did miss being around his colleague so much. Where were they anyway? He'd been standing here for five minutes and the bulk of the people had disembarked already. Then, he saw a tall, blonde man dressed in a casual suit. And, Thomas noticed as he looked down, there was a shorter brunette walking in front of him.

He didn't bound forward to greet Thomas, he wasn't bouncing along the path, and he wasn't singing children's rhymes. No, instead, he stood a few feet from Thomas, right behind the blonde man, and watched the publisher with a blank look in his eyes. Then, it happened. Thomas couldn't breath as his friend's arms cut off the air circulation to his lungs.

"Ah, R-Reece, calm down please!"

"It's been so long, Thomas! I'm so happy to be back, hey where's Natalie and Marianne and doesn't it look like it's going to rain and it's a lot colder here and K and I are really really glad to be here although K isn't so glad 'cause I think he misses being home but I sure like it and – "

The aforementioned K walked up to Reece, raised a hand, and brought it down on the hyper man's head. Thomas smiled as the brunette loosened his hold and took a step back, rubbing his head, "Ah, thank you Mr. K."

The blonde smiled and nodded to Thomas, "No problem!"

It was weird, really. K was born and raised in America, lived his whole life in New York City, spent many years involved in the mafia, and yet still he had a British accent. Which really was rather odd since the most time the man had ever spent in Britain were a couple months working with Thomas before picking up Reece and hightailing it back to America.

"It's nice to see you too, Reece. I suspect you're both rather tired from your journey?"

"Not really! I ran around the room for awhile because it's really boring in there and K gave me a piece of paper and some charcoal and I drew all over it and – " Reece rose his hands, showing they were covered in the black residue from charcoal. "I got it all over K's shirt." He pointed to the black fingerprints on the blonde man's blouse, "And your vest!" then he pointed to the black handprint on his friend's vest.

Thomas sighed and brushed the charcoal as best he could, but figured that he'd just have to wait for his maid to get it out later. "Mr. K – "

"I'm not giving him anymore charcoal."

"Thank you."

Reece, oblivious to this sudden exchange of words, ran off past Thomas, "Hey, Thomas, I want to go to your house! Has it changed? I bet mine is still the same – you didn't sell it did you? I love my house, I don't want to sell it!" The two blonde men sighed and followed the hyperactive composer out of the dock and to the carriage Thomas had waiting for them. "And then I want to go to the market and get some candy and, oh they have really good candy in America! Do they have those – ooo a horsie!"

Thomas wasn't too sure whether Reece liked carriages or not. For the first few minutes of the ride he'd gone on about how pretty the horse was. For the remaining twenty minutes he wouldn't shut up about how there were cars in America and how he'd ridden in one a few times and it was really fun to travel in but that they broke a lot but he wished he was riding one instead of being in a slow carriage. K hit Reece a lot during those remaining twenty minutes.

Eventually they reached Thomas's residence and he invited K and Reece to stay for dinner. Reece complied, even though K said that he would have rather gone to a dinner theatre. Reece then sat for thirty minutes telling Thomas and his wife and maids and butler how he'd performed in a dinner theatre once – he'd gotten the lead since it was a musical – and that a lot of critics said it was really good and a lot of people came. Then he said that the food was 'real rank' and didn't want to perform anymore there because of that. K said that he performed in a lot of nightclubs. Thomas then pulled K aside and asked why he wasn't making Reece perform in more venues in musicals. To which K replied that those weren't 'as popular.'

"Reece, it was nice to have you over." Marianne smiled to the brunette; "You should come again some time."

"I will! I'm staying here for awhile 'cause K says I need to work over here but I don't want to work anymore. Can I come tomorrow, can I?"

"I don't think so, Reece." Thomas patted the man's head and ushered him out with K, "Maybe... next week. Goodbye!" he shoved the two men out the door and turned to his wife, "Well, that was... interesting."

"If I hear that song of his one more time I'm – "

"Me too, me too."

"Oh, Thomas? Where was his stuffed rabbit? Doesn't he carry that thing around a lot?" Thomas looked at his wife and shrugged, taking her into their front parlor.

"I told K to pack it in Reece's suitcase. We'll probably see it next time."

"Now, I heard all from Mr. Savage about what happened when you visited this man last time."

Stuart blanched and looked at his mother, "H-how?"

"He rang me."

"Stupid telephone..."

"And Hugh told me a little about it too. He wasn't too happy about it, though."

//"Miss Shubrook, I really don't think that I should be telling you about – "

"I don't care! I demand you tell me what he did, he won't tell me anything! He never does, he neglects his poor mother!"

"Um..."//

"Mother..."

"Now don't you go throwing things about him this time! He's doing you a big favor!"

Stuart sighed and nodded, bowing his head and leaving the kitchen. It was a good thing that his mother had no idea what he did two days before. The redhead snickered and grabbed his book bag by the door and hurried out. She didn't have to know everything that happened in his life, and he wasn't too sure that she'd be happy to learn that her only son liked men.

The poet hurried down the steps and down the street on the way to the writer's house. Mr. Saunders was supposed to meet him there, although he wasn't too sure how the agent was going to make it there in one piece. He supposed that his lethargic angel would decide to help him for once.

And it looked like it was doing its job as he rounded the corner and saw Mr. Saunders running towards him in his little whirlwind, screaming something about him being late. He wasn't late, he was early! Stuart reached into his vest pocket and pulled out his pocket watch and – wait... it said that time ten minutes ago. The boy sweated and looked at his agent, "Mr. Saunders!"

"Mr. Savage and Mr. Young have been sitting for over ten minutes waiting for you to show up and they sent me out! You're going to get me fired! What will Mr. Savage think?" Mr. Saunders answered Stuart before the boy had a chance, "I'll tell you what he'll think!" The poor man bit into his handkerchief and cried, "He'll think that his agent is a failure and can't even keep his clients in line, that's what!"

Stuart coughed and looked around, thankful that no one was on this street at the moment, and led his frantic agent down the sidewalk to the writer's house, "It'll be ok, Mr. Saunders. I'll just explain that my watch broke."

"He'll think that my clients can't even keep watches working! I'm a failure!" Mr. Saunders fell over, collapsed in a little heap. Luckily he collapsed right in front of Edward's house so the redhead didn't have to carry him several blocks. A light blonde man appeared at the top of the stoop, smiling like a snake.

"Ah, there you are Mr. Shubrook. I was beginning to wonder what happened to you. I see Mr. Saunders found you." He nodded to the agent and stood aside as the boy dragged his mentor up the steps and into the house. Thomas would never lift a hand to help him of course; he might break a nail.

"Ah, I suppose you could say that..."

"It's about time you showed up." A cold, edgy voice mumbled, coming from the direction of the front room. That was the study, wasn't it? Stuart nodded to himself and turned to see Edward leaning against the doorframe. "You shouldn't have bothered."

"Young!" A red blur sailed through the air, landing on the blonde writer and clinging to him. This, of course, caused the man to utter loud obscenities and proceed to kick, punch, slap, and do anything that his mind came up with to get the teenager off him. Roused by the commotion, Mr. Saunders pushed himself up from the floor and brushed the imaginary dirt off his clothing. Then, he glanced up and saw his client, and then his client's tutor. And then he noticed his client attached to the man. And at this, his arms went up and he fainted again.

Meanwhile, Thomas was looking at this, an eyebrow raised and a small frown on his face. He glanced at the fainted agent, then casually stepped away from him and continued to watch the spectacle before him. "I see that you get along now..." Then Edward finally managed to get the boy off him by elbowing him in the head and making the hyperactive boy sink to the ground. "Well, Mr. Shubrook at least."

Stuart twitched as Edward walked past him and into the study, followed by Thomas dragging a motionless Mr. Saunders along behind him. The redhead quickly shook his head and jumped up, running into the room. Edward was stationed by the fireplace with Thomas next to him, and Mr. Saunders conveniently draped on the ottoman. In one swift move, Stuart was standing near Edward and Thomas, not feeling comfortable enough to cling to Edward again lest he get a concussion.

"What happened, Edward?" At some point Thomas had found a martini and was holding it provocatively in his slender fingers. Stuart found this extremely odd because there were no alcohol bottles in this room – that he could see. "Marianne told me that he showed up here a couple days ago. And where is your maid?"

The writer leaned against the mantle and looked down at the hearth, studying the bricks. Neither one of the men seemed aware that Stuart was standing near them, or that he or anyone else was in the room with them. "She quit."

"Another one? What did you do to this one?"

Edward pushed himself away from the fireplace and walked past Stuart, "I didn't do anything to her."

"Why did she up and quit like that, then? It's not like you pay her poorly."

"Uh..." Stuart's quiet voice entered the conversation. However, the men still didn't notice him.

"Edward?" The writer remained silent for a few seconds, then turned and looked at his publisher.

"I played with him a bit, she saw, and left."

"H-hey, 'played with me'?!"

"What are you thinking, Edward?" Thomas's eyes flashed and he walked up to the man; "Do you know how much trouble that can get you into?"

"Just pay her off and it'll be fine."

"What if someone else finds out? And you can't go around with your students! I didn't arrange this teaching for you to sleep with people without having to go looking for them on your own."

"H-hey!"

"You don't control me, Thomas. And I'm not going to hurt your company's reputation, so don't get so bratty."

"Hey!" The blondes turned, seeing Stuart standing next to them, face burning and fists clenched, "Stop it already! What do you mean, played with me?!"

At some point during this whole tirade, Mr. Saunders awoke. And then, he saw what everyone was doing, then figured out what they were talking about, then realized that Thomas was angry. At which point he got angry. Of course... then he realized that chances were Thomas would relay this anger to him. Thus, he fainted again.

Edward looked at Stuart wordlessly, then turned to Thomas. "Just go pay her off and I'll kept silent. Pay him off if you want to," he nodded to Stuart. Thomas frowned for a second, then resumed his regular smiling appearance.

"All right then, Edward. I think Mr. Saunders and I can sit this one out, since you two don't seem to want to kill each other. Mr. Shubrook?" he turned and looked at the redhead, "I assume that you have your papers."

"A-ah... yes..."

"Well, I think I'll be leaving then." He walked past the two and over to Mr. Saunders, placing his glass on a table, then grabbed the man's arm and propped him up, slapping his face a bit. The agent halfway woke and leaned against Thomas, not aware of who it was. "Next time I'll send Mr. Saunders to make sure that you two meet." He glanced at the man then sweated as he started mumbling and hugging him. Thomas smiled and coughed, dragging the delirious agent out of the room.

"Mr. Savage... M-MR. SAVAGE!" were the sounds resonating the house as the two men left. Edward sighed and placed a hand to his forehead.

"I suppose I have to deal with your 'poetry' now, don't I?"

Stuart took a step forward and grabbed hold of the blonde's arm, "What was all that about? What did he mean by all that... what, what did you – "

"Shut up." Edward walked past him and to the ottoman in the room. Wordlessly, he sat on the tired leather and looked out of the door of the study. Stuart ran after him, standing in front and blocking his vision.

"What's going to happen, now?"

"Nothing is going to happen. You'll read your garbage, I'll tell you it's garbage, we do this for a month and then I never have to see you again."

"B-but, we, you kissed me."

"It made you shut up, didn't it?" Edward glanced up at him, glaring; "Obviously it didn't work very well since you're talking too much."

"But you can't kiss... like... that... and then say that it didn't mean anything!"

"It didn't mean anything."

Stuart fell over, twitching on the floor. The writer stood, stepping over him, and walked to his desk, "Get your papers and lets get this over with." The redhead pushed himself up and ran after the man, crashing into his back and wrapping his arms around his waist.

"I annoy you! I know you hate me and you probably are sick of seeing me, but I don't care! I'm going to keep coming and bugging you until you admit you like me! And that kiss did mean something, it did to me..." The boy buried his face in the other man's back and tightened his grip on him. The writer picked up a cigarette from his desk, lit it, and placed it in his mouth.

"I don't hate you." So quiet... Stuart wasn't sure if he heard right or if his ears were playing tricks on him. But when Edward stood there silently, head bowed, smoking, he knew that even if he hadn't said that that it was true. He didn't hate him – maybe he didn't feel the same that Stuart did, but at least the writer didn't hate him. And that was something – he could work with that.

~-~

I'm not all that pleased with how I ended this but it was begging to be ended (ok well I was begging for it to end) so I had to stop there. I could have gone further and had them kiss but that would have been too out of character. And I really apologize that I wasn't too good this time T_T I'll try to be better next chapter, I'll actually take a break (expect the next chapter on the weekend or sometime next week) and maybe write an outline.