insert standard disclaimer here. see chapter 1 for full "no of course i don't own gravitation" statement

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            Eiri allowed his hidden gaze to rest on the musician for a moment more, as if searching for something, then nodded once and turned towards the ticket counter. Settling himself at the end of one of the lines, he squinted up at the departure board, trying to figure out which flight would be fastest that wasn't already full.

            Ryuichi followed the novelist closely, seemingly engrossed in speaking with his plushy friend. "Isn't this exciting, K-chan?! London..." For a moment, his eyes drifted to where Eiri's were, but they quickly fastened back upon his bunny's leaden ones as he spoke in a soft, excited voice, almost like a small child to his or her imaginary friend.

            The blonde kept one eye on Sakuma-san to make sure the rock star wasn't calling any more attention to them, but the man seemed to be appropriately occupied with his pink companion. Relieved, Eiri took this time to figure out their flight plan, and had everything worked out by the time the woman at the counter asked, in her repulsively cheerful voice, "How may I help you, sir?" Luckily, he managed to keep a blank expression despite his keen desire to punch her in the face.

            "Two for flight 1176 to London." The woman grinned and began tapping away at her computer. "Passports?" she asked, in that sugary tone. Eiri proffered his wordlessly, then stepped aside for Sakuma-san to come forward, expecting little trouble.

            Ryuichi, who was rather obsessed with his dear friend, did not even register the situation until the woman asked again, "Passports?" rather calmly. But oh ho ho, she did not know the burden she would be dealing with... Ryuichi blinked up at her with surprising innocence, and then shoved Kumagorou in the poor woman's face, looking very cute. "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~~!"

            Eiri resisted the tremendous urge to slap his hand against his forehead. Instead, he hissed in a much more controlled manner: "Sakuma-san... your passport. Give it to the woman. Now." In return he received an emotional display of teary eyes from Ryuichi.

            "But...but...KUMAGOROU DOESN'T HAVE HIS PASSPORT!!!!"

            Count to ten. That's what the shrink said, right..? Count to ten... "Kumagorou does not need a passport. You do."

            "Haa? Weally? So I can take Kumagorou with me?!?! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy!!! Saaankyuu!!" Without warning, he randomly clotheslined Eiri and the sugary sweet woman in a group glomp. A choking gasp was Eiri's first response. The second, of course, was to throw Ryuichi off of him, snapping "Baka..." under his breath. Eyes glinting dangerously, he lowered his sunglasses and peered over them at the hapless singer. "Just give her the passport. If you don't, you're not coming."

            "....Mou..." The vocalist peered up at his intimidating companion for a moment in fear, almost as if he thought the man would beat him. He then shoved his hand in his pocket hurriedly, and gave the woman his passport—more of a passport of Kumagorou than himself—and waited, bouncing on his heels as she began to type up the flight information.

            Eiri clicked his glasses back into place and waits for the tickets, grinding his teeth—and in this man's case, it wasn't just a literary expression. Finally, she looked up again. "That will be 245,000 yen for each ticket." Eiri handed over a credit card and looked expectantly at Sakuma-san.

            Ryuichi mimicked Eiri's stare, looking back at him with questioning eyes. Finally, he held up Kumagorou and asked politely, "Would you like to talk to Kumagorou too?"

            Why me...? Eiri closed his eyes for a moment. Eight... nine... ten. Count completed, he growled to the ticket woman, "Together." The young woman, knowing better than to get in the middle of this, just nodded her head and swiped the card. She even managed to tone down her demeanor, which did Eiri a world of good. With a brief and silent prayer of thanks to whatever gods were protecting her today, she handed the tickets to the blonde man and kept her tight smile. At least they're going away now. "Next!"

            The vocalist seemed puzzled as to why Eiri-san and the woman were acting so odd—he sniffed his Kumagorou. Well, okay, K-chan didn't smell like a bed of roses, but he wasn't that bad...

            Eiri took the tickets and headed towards the security checkpoint, deliberately choosing the furthest metal director to the left. He went directly to the guard, took out his wallet, and handed the man a document. The guard squinted at the paper slightly, then frowned at Eiri's coat. The novelist remained impassive throughout. A brief dialogue ensued, then Eiri slipped something out of his jacket, carefully turned so that no-one could see, and placed the item on the belt. Having done so, he passed through the metal detector without incident, retrieving the item on the other side and slipping it back into its place again.

            Ryuichi, lacking Eiri's aplomb, began to make a big fuss that 'Kumagorou might get cancer' if the toy were x-rayed, and, after a long discussion, mostly filled with 'But sir's and angry 'Na no da's, they allowed him to pass through the metal detector with his bunny. And, lo and behold, the metal detector went off. Ryuichi paused in the doorway of the bleeping machine and stared up at the red blinking light for nearly a minute until he remarked in passing to the security guard, "...I think there's something wrong with it...."

            Six... seven... eight... Eiri leaned against the wall, arms crossed, scowl mostly hidden behind his carefully-placed sunglasses. What does the thing have, metal joints...? He ground his teeth again. It probably wasn't good for them. With considerable restraint, he forced himself to wait for Sakuma-san, while simultaneously hoping that no-one would think they were together.

            First things to go were Ryuichi's rings; then after a second try, his myriads of bracelets; then after the third try...his anklets... fourth try...the belts... Finally, the security guards wanted to take away the singer's bunny, but Ryuichi would not stand for this. If the security guards try so much as to touch the rock star's plush pal, he beans them over the head with it. People started to gather as the security staff struggled to take away the boy's rabbit, rewarded each time with a smack on the head by a fuzzy animal.

            This has gone far enough. Eiri waded into the fray and the people mysteriously parted around him. Maybe it was something in his expression, that cold and far-too-dangerous scowl which frightened men out of their wits without ever having a clear-cut reason to do so. Maybe it was the manner of his walk; quick, strong, and direct. Maybe was just the presence he exuded. In any case, he made it to Sakuma-san's side at last, careful to stay out of the metal detector. "Put it on the conveyor," he growled. "I don't have time for this."

            Again, Ryuichi stared at him for a moment, a little fearfully, then quickly acquiesced to the blonde's demands and placed Kumagorou on the conveyor belt, giving the man operating it a nasty stare until the rabbit came out clean on the other end. He was asked to walk through the metal detector one last time, but surprisingly, nothing happened. With a little bit of effort, he placed his belts, anklets, rings, AND bracelets back on, being sure to collect K-chan at the end of the conveyor belt and shoot another glare at the confused security guards staring after the two. Finally, he retrieved Kumagorou and, huggling it, said to Eiri as they walked towards the gate, "You're skeery, Eiri-saan..."

            Walking quietly beside and a little bit in front of Ryuichi, Eiri sighed very, very softly—almost so that it could escape detection. If not for the dark glasses, one might have noticed a strange expression pass across his eyes... luckily for him, the dark twin masks were still in place. "I know," he answered.

            Moments later, they reached the gate, where their flight was (by some amazing chance) boarding in only ten minutes. Engrossed in thought, Eiri seated himself in the waiting area, staring blankly out the window. How many times had he sat, just like this, waiting for a plane to take him to some other country...? He pushed such thoughts away with a scowl.

            Ryuichi had a hand upon the windowpane of the waiting area, staring over into the blue sky with a content, yet wistful expression upon his face. He looked back towards Eiri, scowling a couple seats away, and frowned slightly. Turning back to the window, Ryuichi continued staring out into the vast cerulean ocean painted with cottonballs and at the faint rainbow glimmering faintly across its expanse from the previous rain they had had. In the midst of all this, his cell gave a cute chirp, and he tore himself away from the pleasant view to answer his phone. "Um...a text message...?" he wondered out loud, then started as he read the name of the author. "Shuu.......ichi....?"

            Eiri's head jerked up immediately. "What does it say?"

            His eyes affixed to the tiny screen, Ryuichi pressed buttons frantically until the desired answer popped into clear view upon the phone. Ryuichi nearly dropped his cell, face paling considerably, and he was overcome by a sick look. He turned the phone towards Eiri, the phone shaking slightly. On the screen were two words, all caps: HELP ME.

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look, chapter 3! hope it was enjoyable. ^^ i know this one was kinda short, but i just couldn't resist cutting it there *smiiiiiiiirk*

next chapter: more text messages, an argument, and the flight to london. sakuma-san might not be telling everything he knows…

oh, and a new policy… as mentioned earlier, this story is pretty much all written, it just needs to be edited. but it's no fun to post if we don't get feedback! so please, read and review, because if we don't get enough feedback on this chapter, it might not be worthwhile to post the next.

-vethia & midori-chan

4.29.03 UPDATE – why didn't you people tell me how many errors were in this?! oi. i may be an editor, but i was doing this chapter quickly and it seems that i missed a lot of stuff. should be fixed now (or at any rate, the more blatant problems should be). still waiting for more feedback before posting the next chapter. let's see some character critiques and speculations about the plot! *grin*

oh, and in response to ayako's latest comment…. yes. yes, we are. ^___________________^

-v & m-chan