Disclaimer: Yep, the usual. Obviously, I don't own Gravitation and these
stories are for fun, not for profit. I'm borrowing characters from Maki
Murakami.
I appreciate all criticism, so please read, enjoy, and review. To those who do review: THANK YOU!! I love feedback.
Commitment
Part 7: Yui-No
Shu had waffled a lot over dinner reservations. He couldn't decide if they should have a private room in case of voluable disagreements (or in his words, yelling and crying), or if they should just get a normal table and hope that a room full of people would prevent a scene. Eiri opted for privacy with the excuse that he just wanted to avoid the press. It was a viable excuse, too, but knowing the personalities involved, it was certain that dinner would not be a quiet affair.
Eiri's fiance had been nervous all day. Arguments over the fact that they were only having dinner with people that they saw all the time did not move him. "But this is different!" Shu had whined, following him into the study. "It's supposed to be special!" Eiri had frowned, sending Shuichi into a defensive frenzy of words. "Eiri, our families have never met! What kind of impression will Tatsuha and Mika make on my parents? What if Tatsuha freaks them out? Or Mika starts yelling at us over something stupid or she talks too much about the divorce? Or for that matter, what will your brother and sister think of my parents?? And Mika and Maiko, will they get along? What if my dad says something terrible like, 'I refuse to let you—' "
"SHUT UP!" Shu looked at him worriedly, opening his mouth to protest. Eiri sighed and said patiently, "would it matter?"
Shu put one knuckle on his chin, frowining in thought. "Not really . . . "
"If your dad 'refused' anything; too bad. Your parents can't stop you from doing anything you want to do."
"I guess not . . . but the traditions . . ."
"Traditions be damned," Eiri countered. It was a very strong tradition to get the permission of both sets of parents when two people wanted to marry. Eiri's parents were both deceased, so he took that as tacit permission. He wouldn't let the Shindous stop him from keeping Shuichi. 'End of subject,' as far as he was concerned. "Now get out of here and let me get some work done. You're so noisy today!"
"Eiri! I just want to make sure that everything goes right," he whined. "I mean, we'll be married in San Francisco and our families won't be there, so— "Eiri had been hearing variations of the same theme for the last two days while Shu agonized over 'what ifs' and set his goals on perfection.
"Shu-han," he said, using his new trick for shutting the kid up. It worked like magic. Peace descended on his study. Shuichi watched him expectantly, with a bright blush across his cheeks. "For now, this," he spread his hands to the empty quiet, "is all I want to hear. Okay?"
Shu huffed once, frowning at him. Eiri could practically see him rolling thoughts around in his mind about whether to keep up the argument and risk pissing him off or to go out and stew over it. Shu stood there, chewing on his lip and still frowning darkly. Eiri turned his back, settled into his desk, and opened his latest chapter on the computer. He heard quiet steps leaving the office and the soft click of the door shutting. He sighed and tried to make the most of his quiet time while it lasted. He was pretty sure that he had only bought himself a delay.
***
Shu had finally had his hair cut yestday by special appointment. The first time he'd gone into the place, customers wouldn't leave him alone. He'd had to arrange to come in after normal business hours. Now the hair was still pink, it just didn't cover his eyes or creep into his collar. He had combed it tonight and threatened to put goop in it to make it stay put. Eiri had growled at the very idea. He hated that shit in his lover's hair.
"These people know you! They're not going to care if your hair's a mess."
"You're just saying that 'cuz you don't want me to put mousse in my hair."
"It's still true."
Shu smiled at him and put the gunk away. Once the hair problems were solved, he fidgeted with his shirt collar and tie, pulling at the neck. "It's so choke-y," he complained. He wore his (only) grey-blue suit with a pale blue shirt and a tie the color of his hair. Where he had found *that*, Eiri didn't want to guess. When he'd purchased the suit, he had chosen a blue tie to wear with it.
"Of course it is. It's a tie. You're such an idiot. I don't understand how can you wear a leather collar for days on end and not complain or pick at it once, but you wear a tie for five minutes and fuss this much about it."
Shu had to grin at that. "I'd rather wear the collar," he complained.
Eiri snorted. "Aren't you ready, yet? You've had the whole day—"
"Let's go!!" Shu took his hands off the uncomfortable tie and bounded out of the bedroom, toward the front door. The unusually warm start to March had disappeared and the temperature had gone back to hovering around forty degrees. [1] Shu grabbed a long coat of shiny black leather from the closet. It looked like a plainer, less-sparkly version of one of his concert coats.
Eiri pulled his own black long coat from the closet and pulled it on over a moss-green suit. He wore a white shirt with it and his tie was a darker shade of green. He had successfully avoided all the black clothes in his closet all weekend. This suit had been at the very back of a row of dark colors. Shu had said he liked the combination of green with his gold eyes and hair. Eiri was used to compliments on his looks, but somehow, they sounded better coming from Shuichi— for all that Shu had the style sense of an uncoordinated pop star.
He pulled the keys from his pocket and they went out.
***
They had chosen to go to Ristorante Luxor, in Shiroganedai. Eiri had always thought it an odd name for an Italian restaurant. It was located on the second floor of the Barbizon 25 Building. [2] It was a a stylish place with terrific food and a private room for parties. They'd been there on a couple of occasions. The owner, Mario Frittoli was the chef and he really knew his food. The prices were high, but worth it, in Eiri's opinion.
The host recognized them or had been warned to watch for them. "Uesugi- sama?" Eiri nodded briefly. "May I take your coats?" They handed over the two black longcoats. The host hung them up behind his little station and said, "This way, please." The man led them through the dimly-lit main restaurant, threading through closely grouped tables with a smattering of patrons. They headed off to the private banquet room at the back. "Two of your guests arrived early, gentlemen," the man informed them.
"Thank you," Eiri said.
"Here we are." The host opened the door. A large white-clothed banquet table took up most of the space. The table had ten chairs; four per side and one at either end, but only seven place settings, leaving the far end of the table blank. The plates alternated green, white, and red; the colors of the Italian flag. Directly in front of the door was a long, narrow table that looked right for buffet-style dinners. At the end of that was a small, round table— probably meant as a place for gifts or a large cake. All around the top of the walls, dim light bulbs were arranged behind a strange silver-metal trellis that stuck out from the wall, causing the lights to cast criss-cross patterns on the ceilling. Three candles were set between the would-be diners down the center of the table. Shuichi's mother and father turned toward them from the left side of the table.
"Enjoy your evening, folks." The host said, closing the door and retreating.
"Hi, Mom, Dad," Shu said nervously. Shu's dad wore a dark grey business suit and conservative brown tie with little yellow squares on it. Shu's mom wore a bright orange dress with big sunny yellow flowers. The style was conservative enough for a middle-aged housewife, but there was no question about where Shu got his taste for bright colors.
Shu's Mom stood, "Come and give your mother a hug. You look so grown-up!" She gushed. "My Shuichi! I was so afraid you'd show up in a dress, trying to make this a proper yui-no!"
"Mom!" Shu protested while his mother hugged him. He hugged her back, patting her shoulder. Shu's mother spoke her mind just like he did.
"Now, dear, our son's a proper man. I told you he wouldn't do something like that." Shu blushed; his whole face turned red from the roots of his hair to the base of his neck. Eiri wondered what consituted a 'proper man' in Shu's dad's mind. It was tempting to ask.
"It's nice to see you, again, Eiri-san," Shu's mother said politely, releasing her son.
"It's nice to see both of you again, too," Eiri replied. Mrs. Shindou pulled him into a stiff hug, as if to welcome him to their family. He didn't even have time to move and return the gesture before she released him and returned to her chair.
"Uesugi-san," Shu's dad said, nodding once. "Shuichi."
Eiri sat at the head of the table and Shu took a seat to his right, across from his mother.
"So, uh, where's Maiko?" Shu asked, tugging on his collar and sliding the tie around on his neck.
"She'll be along. She had to turn in a paper for her English class."
The door opened and Mika and Tatsuha were ushered in. Mika looked as fashionable as ever. She must have decided to forgo black for a while, too. She wore a red evening gown that hugged her figure and flared around her calves. She held a matching clutch purse with gems in the clasp. The ensemble made Eiri wonder if his sister planned to go somewhere else after dinner. A classy singles bar, perhaps? Tatsuha wore black pants and jacket over a bright blue shirt, no tie. Eiri made introductions and Mika settled next to Shu, with Tatsuha on her other side.
They made some small talk about the drive from Kyoto. Then the waitress came in for their drink order and passed out dinner menus.
"Ryuichi was disappointed when I told him he couldn't come," Tatsuha mentioned to Shuichi over his menu.
"Who is Ryuichi?" Shu's mom asked.
"Sakuma Ryuichi, Mom. Lead singer of Nittle Grasper?" Shu's tone implied that his mother shouldn't forget such details.
"Oh, yes," she said. "He came to the house, once, didn't he?" She frowned. "Why would he want to come? Is it because he's a friend of yours?"
"Uh . . . yeah, partly. . ." Shu started.
"We're lovers," Tatsuha said bluntly. Shu's dad shook his head slowly, in negation.
"Oh!" Shu's mother said. She looked at Eiri and back to Tatsuha. Tatsuha gave her a big 'I'm friendly' grin. She focused on the third Uesugi sibling. "And you, Mika-san, are you . . . seeing anyone?"
Mika answered flatly, "I'm in the process of a divorce. With my male husband," she added.
"Oh, excuse me. And the three of you losing your father so recently, too. My condolensces." Mika murmured a thank you as Maiko burst in the door.
"I'm so sorry!" She excaimed, bowing deeply. The trailing host shut the door behind her. "I didn't mean to be so late!" She wore a plain white blouse and long navy-blue skirt. Her long brown hair looked badly wind- blown even though it hadn't been at all windy today. Her hair was the exact same shade as her mother's; lighter than Shu's natural color. Eiri didn't think he'd seen Maiko in the last six months or so. He didn't think he'd ever seen her out of high-school uniform.
"Don't worry about it," Eiri told her. "We've only ordered drinks." He made introductions again and Maiko settled in the seat next to her dad.
"I'm taking classes to become an interpreter," she explained, starting to babble as she picked up her menu. "My English professor is a real b— ah, a real hard-nose. Everything has to be perfect and I had to run this paper through one final spell-check, but the computers in the lab don't all have English installed on them? So I had to wait for one. Then my friend, Hitomi begged me to wait and turn hers in for her when I turned mine in? I owed her, so I had to wait for her to run her spell check, too. And she had some corrections to make." She said the last smugly, as if hers had been perfect.
"Don't most interpreters need to speak several languages?" Mika asked.
"Generally, yes. Right now, I have French and English, in addition to Japanese. [3] That's pretty good. . . I've had some Spanish and I'm scheduled for German next term."
"I don't know how she keeps it all straight," her mother said, looking at her daughter proudly. Eiri wondered if the woman spoke proudly to others about Shuichi's many pop music hits? He glanced at his fiance, but didn't see any special reaction there.
Drinks arrived with soft breadsticks and Maiko gave the waitress her drink request. The waitress recited from memory the details about the two or three dinner choices that were not listed on tonight's menu. She gave Maiko time to decide on the menu while she worked her way around the table, collecting their dinner orders.
When she left, Shu's dad spoke up, "Shuichi tells us you boys are both monks." Eiri didn't remember the last time he'd been called 'boy'. He picked up his beer and had a drink.
Tatsuha picked up the leading remark. "Yes, I run the family temple in Kyoto."
"Aren't you the eldest son, Eiri-san?" Shu's dad said sharply, swinging his head back to look at him.
"Yes," he answered, setting down his drink.
When no explanation followed, Shu's dad said, "Isn't that a little irregular?" Eiri guessed that Shu's dad was torn between making sure his son was being provided for and the implication that *his son* needed to be cared for like a woman. Never mind the fact that Shu was wealthy in his own right from his musical success. Shu's parents seemed to have an interesting blind spot in that direction.
"Dad, Eiri has an important career as a writer." Shu carefully left off any explanations that might be seen 'shirking responsibility'. Eiri didn't think the kid had picked up on the undertone of his dad's questioning.
The elder Shindou frowned, but accepted that. Eiri wondered if the older man let that go because it allowed him to see the writer as a good provider for his feckless son. Fortunately, the topic lead into conversation about Eiri's books, which kept Maiko and Shu's mother yakking with him about romantic fantasies and fictional characters until the food arrived. The two ladies politely ignored Mika's occasional, pessimistacally bitter comments about the nature of love.
Two waitresses brought in the dinners, temporarily setting the large trays of food on the buffet table and then arranging each plate in front of the proper person. The meals looked primped; everything was artfully and colorfully placed on the plate with little scribbles of sauce across the food or decorating the plate's edge. It smelled fantastic. They all dug into the food with appreciative little sounds of pleasure. Eiri's Hokkaido red deer shoulder braised in Pinot-Noir and cumin seed was delicous, although the look of Tatsuha's Hokkaido sea-scallops and fresh scampi fricassee with Cognac-sauteed mushrooms almost made him wish he'd ordered that instead.
They all seemed to be enjoying themselves. They were having small conversations about local news and such when, toward the end of dinner, Shu's mother seemed to fall apart at the seams. She set down her fork and burst into tears, sobs suddenly wracking her body. Eiri was used to that behavior in Shu, but for some reason, it was unnerving to see it reflected in his fiance's mother.
Mr. Shindou and Maiko just sighed. "Mom, you promised you wouldn't do this," Maiko said, pleadingly. Her mom nodded but the crying didn't abate.
"Why are you crying, Mom?" Shu asked. Maiko gave a warning, viciously shaking her head, but the damage was done.
Mrs. Shindou wailed loudly. 'Grandchildren' was about the only distinguishable word in her teary, jumbled answer. Shu sighed and rolled his eyes. Eiri wasn't able to tell whether or not Shu had deciphered more than he had, but it didn't really matter. 'Grandchildren' seemed to be the reason for her despair.
"Mom, Maiko can give you grandchildren!" Maiko squeezed her eyes shut and tipped her head back, slumping in her chair. "What?" Shu asked in puzzlement. "You can, can't you?"
Maiko gave him a disgusted look. Over their mother's howls she said loudly, "I don't want to, yet. If I'm going to be an interpreter, I'll need to travel. And shame on you for assuming that I planned to just settle down and have kids! I will decide what to do with my life!" Evidentally, this was a sore subject with her.
"Oh," Shu said. "I guess that makes sense. Hey! What about your pansy boyfriend?"
Tatsuha smothered his laughter and it came out sounding like "Pppffftt." It certainly was amusing to hear Shu refer to another male as a 'pansy'. He wondered what the guy had done to deserve the moniker from Shuichi.
Maiko frowned. "I'm not seeing him anymore."
"Really?" Shu quizzed her. "What about all that stuff about how after high school the you two were going to go to the same college and when you graduated, and you were gonna get married?"
"You just shut up, little brother! It didn't work out, okay?"
"But, Maiko, why didn't you tell me? When— "
"Just a couple days ago, okay? Happy now? The bastard dumped me! He's dating Arakawa Chikako now." Shu's sister put a lot of heat into that name.
"They're all lying pigs," Mika muttered in dark sympathy.
Shu's mother continued to cry. "Maybe we should take her home, honey," Mr. Shindou said to his daughter, over his wife's wailing. Maiko huffed once and nodded.
Maiko stood up and informed her brother tiredly, "Last time, mom cried for more than an hour and a half . . ." At least Shuichi didn't usually cry that long, Eiri thought. What a drag that would be!
"Over grandchildren??" Shu asked, incredulously. "Wait a minute; she's done this before? Has she been doing it a lot?"
Maiko nodded gravely. "We'll try to get her settled down and I'll call you later, alright? Nice talking with you again, Yuki-san." She picked up her mother's purse while Mr. Shindou supported his drooping, hysterically sobbing wife. "We're pleased to meet both of you, Mika-san, Tatsuha-san," Maiko added. "Good night, everyone." Mr. Shindou echoed her 'good night' and Mrs. Shindou blubbered something incoherently, but it sounded roughly apologetic and ended with 'Shuuuiiicchhiiiiiiii . . .'
The scene put a damper on Shu's apetite. He waved to Maiko as his sister shut the door behind them.
Mika raised her eyebrows and lit a cigarette. "That was entertaining," she commented acidly. Eiri glared at her and so did Shu. She only shrugged. "I can't picture the two of *you* with kids."
"I can," Tatsuha said. Eiri shot him a warning glare. "I know I'd like kids," he said, twisting the topic away from his elder brother and his potential wrath.
This time, Mika shot him a dirty look. "I don't want to talk about this!"
"Mika-san, do you want kids, too?" Shu asked, oblivious to the danger of the question and the consequence of his direct proximity to her. She hit him.
"Ow! That hurt!" he whined, covering his abused head with both arms.
"Mind your own business, you stupid brat!"
Shuichi started to cry and Eiri verbally stepped in. "Just because you aren't happy, doesn't mean you should make life miserable for anyone who comes near you!"
She stared at him disbelievingly. "Look who's talking!" She retorted hotly. Eiri grimaced. I suppose I had that coming, he thought. Mika crushed her cigarette out on her plate. "Never mind. I'm going to leave. Tatsuha, I'll call you later. You'll be at Ryu-kun's, right?" He nodded. She scooched her chair back and stood. "Congratulations," she said pointedly to Eiri and Shu, stretching out the word for the sake of added vehemence. Eiri thought he saw a tear floating in her eye as she left.
"This is a disaster!" Shu said forlornly, dropping his arms dejectedly.
"I wouldn't say that," Tatsuha said. He moved Mika's plate and replaced it with his own so he could sit by Shu. He moved over and patted Shu's leg in an attempt to be comforting. "If your mom's anything like you, she'll get over it and be just fine. Mika . . . she's been an unholy bitch to everybody lately. Don't let it bother you."
Shu snuffled and used his napkin to soak up some of his tears. "Eiri?" He turned his wet face toward his fiance for his opinion.
"No one refused you, Shu. They didn't tell you 'no' or try to convince you not to marry me. That's what you were worried about, right?"
Shu nodded and his eyes cleared. The worried look faded and Shu mopped his face. "Yeah! You're right!" A grin lit his face like a rainbow filling the sky after a storm. The beauty of his smile and his personality lit Eiri's soul with color just as thouroughly. "Let's finish dinner so we can get to the desserts!" Shu sang.
"Yay!" Tatsuha cheered.
Eiri smiled, glad that Shu hadn't taken the 'disaster' too hard. Although they had glossed over the possibility of kids, Eiri had a feeling the topic would come up again. Shu hadn't seemed interested before, but would his mother's influence make him reconsider? Yikes. He dreaded the next get- together with Shu's mother.
***
[1] 40 degrees F = 4 degrees C
[2] Actual place! It's purported to be one of the best Italian restaurants in Tokyo and a place where famous people like to eat. I'm fudging a bit on the layout, but other than that, my description is based on reality. BTW- they use Western silverware there.
[3] In the Tokyopop version, Maiko speaks a little French in track 1: "Q'est-ce que c'est?"
***
I appreciate all criticism, so please read, enjoy, and review. To those who do review: THANK YOU!! I love feedback.
Commitment
Part 7: Yui-No
Shu had waffled a lot over dinner reservations. He couldn't decide if they should have a private room in case of voluable disagreements (or in his words, yelling and crying), or if they should just get a normal table and hope that a room full of people would prevent a scene. Eiri opted for privacy with the excuse that he just wanted to avoid the press. It was a viable excuse, too, but knowing the personalities involved, it was certain that dinner would not be a quiet affair.
Eiri's fiance had been nervous all day. Arguments over the fact that they were only having dinner with people that they saw all the time did not move him. "But this is different!" Shu had whined, following him into the study. "It's supposed to be special!" Eiri had frowned, sending Shuichi into a defensive frenzy of words. "Eiri, our families have never met! What kind of impression will Tatsuha and Mika make on my parents? What if Tatsuha freaks them out? Or Mika starts yelling at us over something stupid or she talks too much about the divorce? Or for that matter, what will your brother and sister think of my parents?? And Mika and Maiko, will they get along? What if my dad says something terrible like, 'I refuse to let you—' "
"SHUT UP!" Shu looked at him worriedly, opening his mouth to protest. Eiri sighed and said patiently, "would it matter?"
Shu put one knuckle on his chin, frowining in thought. "Not really . . . "
"If your dad 'refused' anything; too bad. Your parents can't stop you from doing anything you want to do."
"I guess not . . . but the traditions . . ."
"Traditions be damned," Eiri countered. It was a very strong tradition to get the permission of both sets of parents when two people wanted to marry. Eiri's parents were both deceased, so he took that as tacit permission. He wouldn't let the Shindous stop him from keeping Shuichi. 'End of subject,' as far as he was concerned. "Now get out of here and let me get some work done. You're so noisy today!"
"Eiri! I just want to make sure that everything goes right," he whined. "I mean, we'll be married in San Francisco and our families won't be there, so— "Eiri had been hearing variations of the same theme for the last two days while Shu agonized over 'what ifs' and set his goals on perfection.
"Shu-han," he said, using his new trick for shutting the kid up. It worked like magic. Peace descended on his study. Shuichi watched him expectantly, with a bright blush across his cheeks. "For now, this," he spread his hands to the empty quiet, "is all I want to hear. Okay?"
Shu huffed once, frowning at him. Eiri could practically see him rolling thoughts around in his mind about whether to keep up the argument and risk pissing him off or to go out and stew over it. Shu stood there, chewing on his lip and still frowning darkly. Eiri turned his back, settled into his desk, and opened his latest chapter on the computer. He heard quiet steps leaving the office and the soft click of the door shutting. He sighed and tried to make the most of his quiet time while it lasted. He was pretty sure that he had only bought himself a delay.
***
Shu had finally had his hair cut yestday by special appointment. The first time he'd gone into the place, customers wouldn't leave him alone. He'd had to arrange to come in after normal business hours. Now the hair was still pink, it just didn't cover his eyes or creep into his collar. He had combed it tonight and threatened to put goop in it to make it stay put. Eiri had growled at the very idea. He hated that shit in his lover's hair.
"These people know you! They're not going to care if your hair's a mess."
"You're just saying that 'cuz you don't want me to put mousse in my hair."
"It's still true."
Shu smiled at him and put the gunk away. Once the hair problems were solved, he fidgeted with his shirt collar and tie, pulling at the neck. "It's so choke-y," he complained. He wore his (only) grey-blue suit with a pale blue shirt and a tie the color of his hair. Where he had found *that*, Eiri didn't want to guess. When he'd purchased the suit, he had chosen a blue tie to wear with it.
"Of course it is. It's a tie. You're such an idiot. I don't understand how can you wear a leather collar for days on end and not complain or pick at it once, but you wear a tie for five minutes and fuss this much about it."
Shu had to grin at that. "I'd rather wear the collar," he complained.
Eiri snorted. "Aren't you ready, yet? You've had the whole day—"
"Let's go!!" Shu took his hands off the uncomfortable tie and bounded out of the bedroom, toward the front door. The unusually warm start to March had disappeared and the temperature had gone back to hovering around forty degrees. [1] Shu grabbed a long coat of shiny black leather from the closet. It looked like a plainer, less-sparkly version of one of his concert coats.
Eiri pulled his own black long coat from the closet and pulled it on over a moss-green suit. He wore a white shirt with it and his tie was a darker shade of green. He had successfully avoided all the black clothes in his closet all weekend. This suit had been at the very back of a row of dark colors. Shu had said he liked the combination of green with his gold eyes and hair. Eiri was used to compliments on his looks, but somehow, they sounded better coming from Shuichi— for all that Shu had the style sense of an uncoordinated pop star.
He pulled the keys from his pocket and they went out.
***
They had chosen to go to Ristorante Luxor, in Shiroganedai. Eiri had always thought it an odd name for an Italian restaurant. It was located on the second floor of the Barbizon 25 Building. [2] It was a a stylish place with terrific food and a private room for parties. They'd been there on a couple of occasions. The owner, Mario Frittoli was the chef and he really knew his food. The prices were high, but worth it, in Eiri's opinion.
The host recognized them or had been warned to watch for them. "Uesugi- sama?" Eiri nodded briefly. "May I take your coats?" They handed over the two black longcoats. The host hung them up behind his little station and said, "This way, please." The man led them through the dimly-lit main restaurant, threading through closely grouped tables with a smattering of patrons. They headed off to the private banquet room at the back. "Two of your guests arrived early, gentlemen," the man informed them.
"Thank you," Eiri said.
"Here we are." The host opened the door. A large white-clothed banquet table took up most of the space. The table had ten chairs; four per side and one at either end, but only seven place settings, leaving the far end of the table blank. The plates alternated green, white, and red; the colors of the Italian flag. Directly in front of the door was a long, narrow table that looked right for buffet-style dinners. At the end of that was a small, round table— probably meant as a place for gifts or a large cake. All around the top of the walls, dim light bulbs were arranged behind a strange silver-metal trellis that stuck out from the wall, causing the lights to cast criss-cross patterns on the ceilling. Three candles were set between the would-be diners down the center of the table. Shuichi's mother and father turned toward them from the left side of the table.
"Enjoy your evening, folks." The host said, closing the door and retreating.
"Hi, Mom, Dad," Shu said nervously. Shu's dad wore a dark grey business suit and conservative brown tie with little yellow squares on it. Shu's mom wore a bright orange dress with big sunny yellow flowers. The style was conservative enough for a middle-aged housewife, but there was no question about where Shu got his taste for bright colors.
Shu's Mom stood, "Come and give your mother a hug. You look so grown-up!" She gushed. "My Shuichi! I was so afraid you'd show up in a dress, trying to make this a proper yui-no!"
"Mom!" Shu protested while his mother hugged him. He hugged her back, patting her shoulder. Shu's mother spoke her mind just like he did.
"Now, dear, our son's a proper man. I told you he wouldn't do something like that." Shu blushed; his whole face turned red from the roots of his hair to the base of his neck. Eiri wondered what consituted a 'proper man' in Shu's dad's mind. It was tempting to ask.
"It's nice to see you, again, Eiri-san," Shu's mother said politely, releasing her son.
"It's nice to see both of you again, too," Eiri replied. Mrs. Shindou pulled him into a stiff hug, as if to welcome him to their family. He didn't even have time to move and return the gesture before she released him and returned to her chair.
"Uesugi-san," Shu's dad said, nodding once. "Shuichi."
Eiri sat at the head of the table and Shu took a seat to his right, across from his mother.
"So, uh, where's Maiko?" Shu asked, tugging on his collar and sliding the tie around on his neck.
"She'll be along. She had to turn in a paper for her English class."
The door opened and Mika and Tatsuha were ushered in. Mika looked as fashionable as ever. She must have decided to forgo black for a while, too. She wore a red evening gown that hugged her figure and flared around her calves. She held a matching clutch purse with gems in the clasp. The ensemble made Eiri wonder if his sister planned to go somewhere else after dinner. A classy singles bar, perhaps? Tatsuha wore black pants and jacket over a bright blue shirt, no tie. Eiri made introductions and Mika settled next to Shu, with Tatsuha on her other side.
They made some small talk about the drive from Kyoto. Then the waitress came in for their drink order and passed out dinner menus.
"Ryuichi was disappointed when I told him he couldn't come," Tatsuha mentioned to Shuichi over his menu.
"Who is Ryuichi?" Shu's mom asked.
"Sakuma Ryuichi, Mom. Lead singer of Nittle Grasper?" Shu's tone implied that his mother shouldn't forget such details.
"Oh, yes," she said. "He came to the house, once, didn't he?" She frowned. "Why would he want to come? Is it because he's a friend of yours?"
"Uh . . . yeah, partly. . ." Shu started.
"We're lovers," Tatsuha said bluntly. Shu's dad shook his head slowly, in negation.
"Oh!" Shu's mother said. She looked at Eiri and back to Tatsuha. Tatsuha gave her a big 'I'm friendly' grin. She focused on the third Uesugi sibling. "And you, Mika-san, are you . . . seeing anyone?"
Mika answered flatly, "I'm in the process of a divorce. With my male husband," she added.
"Oh, excuse me. And the three of you losing your father so recently, too. My condolensces." Mika murmured a thank you as Maiko burst in the door.
"I'm so sorry!" She excaimed, bowing deeply. The trailing host shut the door behind her. "I didn't mean to be so late!" She wore a plain white blouse and long navy-blue skirt. Her long brown hair looked badly wind- blown even though it hadn't been at all windy today. Her hair was the exact same shade as her mother's; lighter than Shu's natural color. Eiri didn't think he'd seen Maiko in the last six months or so. He didn't think he'd ever seen her out of high-school uniform.
"Don't worry about it," Eiri told her. "We've only ordered drinks." He made introductions again and Maiko settled in the seat next to her dad.
"I'm taking classes to become an interpreter," she explained, starting to babble as she picked up her menu. "My English professor is a real b— ah, a real hard-nose. Everything has to be perfect and I had to run this paper through one final spell-check, but the computers in the lab don't all have English installed on them? So I had to wait for one. Then my friend, Hitomi begged me to wait and turn hers in for her when I turned mine in? I owed her, so I had to wait for her to run her spell check, too. And she had some corrections to make." She said the last smugly, as if hers had been perfect.
"Don't most interpreters need to speak several languages?" Mika asked.
"Generally, yes. Right now, I have French and English, in addition to Japanese. [3] That's pretty good. . . I've had some Spanish and I'm scheduled for German next term."
"I don't know how she keeps it all straight," her mother said, looking at her daughter proudly. Eiri wondered if the woman spoke proudly to others about Shuichi's many pop music hits? He glanced at his fiance, but didn't see any special reaction there.
Drinks arrived with soft breadsticks and Maiko gave the waitress her drink request. The waitress recited from memory the details about the two or three dinner choices that were not listed on tonight's menu. She gave Maiko time to decide on the menu while she worked her way around the table, collecting their dinner orders.
When she left, Shu's dad spoke up, "Shuichi tells us you boys are both monks." Eiri didn't remember the last time he'd been called 'boy'. He picked up his beer and had a drink.
Tatsuha picked up the leading remark. "Yes, I run the family temple in Kyoto."
"Aren't you the eldest son, Eiri-san?" Shu's dad said sharply, swinging his head back to look at him.
"Yes," he answered, setting down his drink.
When no explanation followed, Shu's dad said, "Isn't that a little irregular?" Eiri guessed that Shu's dad was torn between making sure his son was being provided for and the implication that *his son* needed to be cared for like a woman. Never mind the fact that Shu was wealthy in his own right from his musical success. Shu's parents seemed to have an interesting blind spot in that direction.
"Dad, Eiri has an important career as a writer." Shu carefully left off any explanations that might be seen 'shirking responsibility'. Eiri didn't think the kid had picked up on the undertone of his dad's questioning.
The elder Shindou frowned, but accepted that. Eiri wondered if the older man let that go because it allowed him to see the writer as a good provider for his feckless son. Fortunately, the topic lead into conversation about Eiri's books, which kept Maiko and Shu's mother yakking with him about romantic fantasies and fictional characters until the food arrived. The two ladies politely ignored Mika's occasional, pessimistacally bitter comments about the nature of love.
Two waitresses brought in the dinners, temporarily setting the large trays of food on the buffet table and then arranging each plate in front of the proper person. The meals looked primped; everything was artfully and colorfully placed on the plate with little scribbles of sauce across the food or decorating the plate's edge. It smelled fantastic. They all dug into the food with appreciative little sounds of pleasure. Eiri's Hokkaido red deer shoulder braised in Pinot-Noir and cumin seed was delicous, although the look of Tatsuha's Hokkaido sea-scallops and fresh scampi fricassee with Cognac-sauteed mushrooms almost made him wish he'd ordered that instead.
They all seemed to be enjoying themselves. They were having small conversations about local news and such when, toward the end of dinner, Shu's mother seemed to fall apart at the seams. She set down her fork and burst into tears, sobs suddenly wracking her body. Eiri was used to that behavior in Shu, but for some reason, it was unnerving to see it reflected in his fiance's mother.
Mr. Shindou and Maiko just sighed. "Mom, you promised you wouldn't do this," Maiko said, pleadingly. Her mom nodded but the crying didn't abate.
"Why are you crying, Mom?" Shu asked. Maiko gave a warning, viciously shaking her head, but the damage was done.
Mrs. Shindou wailed loudly. 'Grandchildren' was about the only distinguishable word in her teary, jumbled answer. Shu sighed and rolled his eyes. Eiri wasn't able to tell whether or not Shu had deciphered more than he had, but it didn't really matter. 'Grandchildren' seemed to be the reason for her despair.
"Mom, Maiko can give you grandchildren!" Maiko squeezed her eyes shut and tipped her head back, slumping in her chair. "What?" Shu asked in puzzlement. "You can, can't you?"
Maiko gave him a disgusted look. Over their mother's howls she said loudly, "I don't want to, yet. If I'm going to be an interpreter, I'll need to travel. And shame on you for assuming that I planned to just settle down and have kids! I will decide what to do with my life!" Evidentally, this was a sore subject with her.
"Oh," Shu said. "I guess that makes sense. Hey! What about your pansy boyfriend?"
Tatsuha smothered his laughter and it came out sounding like "Pppffftt." It certainly was amusing to hear Shu refer to another male as a 'pansy'. He wondered what the guy had done to deserve the moniker from Shuichi.
Maiko frowned. "I'm not seeing him anymore."
"Really?" Shu quizzed her. "What about all that stuff about how after high school the you two were going to go to the same college and when you graduated, and you were gonna get married?"
"You just shut up, little brother! It didn't work out, okay?"
"But, Maiko, why didn't you tell me? When— "
"Just a couple days ago, okay? Happy now? The bastard dumped me! He's dating Arakawa Chikako now." Shu's sister put a lot of heat into that name.
"They're all lying pigs," Mika muttered in dark sympathy.
Shu's mother continued to cry. "Maybe we should take her home, honey," Mr. Shindou said to his daughter, over his wife's wailing. Maiko huffed once and nodded.
Maiko stood up and informed her brother tiredly, "Last time, mom cried for more than an hour and a half . . ." At least Shuichi didn't usually cry that long, Eiri thought. What a drag that would be!
"Over grandchildren??" Shu asked, incredulously. "Wait a minute; she's done this before? Has she been doing it a lot?"
Maiko nodded gravely. "We'll try to get her settled down and I'll call you later, alright? Nice talking with you again, Yuki-san." She picked up her mother's purse while Mr. Shindou supported his drooping, hysterically sobbing wife. "We're pleased to meet both of you, Mika-san, Tatsuha-san," Maiko added. "Good night, everyone." Mr. Shindou echoed her 'good night' and Mrs. Shindou blubbered something incoherently, but it sounded roughly apologetic and ended with 'Shuuuiiicchhiiiiiiii . . .'
The scene put a damper on Shu's apetite. He waved to Maiko as his sister shut the door behind them.
Mika raised her eyebrows and lit a cigarette. "That was entertaining," she commented acidly. Eiri glared at her and so did Shu. She only shrugged. "I can't picture the two of *you* with kids."
"I can," Tatsuha said. Eiri shot him a warning glare. "I know I'd like kids," he said, twisting the topic away from his elder brother and his potential wrath.
This time, Mika shot him a dirty look. "I don't want to talk about this!"
"Mika-san, do you want kids, too?" Shu asked, oblivious to the danger of the question and the consequence of his direct proximity to her. She hit him.
"Ow! That hurt!" he whined, covering his abused head with both arms.
"Mind your own business, you stupid brat!"
Shuichi started to cry and Eiri verbally stepped in. "Just because you aren't happy, doesn't mean you should make life miserable for anyone who comes near you!"
She stared at him disbelievingly. "Look who's talking!" She retorted hotly. Eiri grimaced. I suppose I had that coming, he thought. Mika crushed her cigarette out on her plate. "Never mind. I'm going to leave. Tatsuha, I'll call you later. You'll be at Ryu-kun's, right?" He nodded. She scooched her chair back and stood. "Congratulations," she said pointedly to Eiri and Shu, stretching out the word for the sake of added vehemence. Eiri thought he saw a tear floating in her eye as she left.
"This is a disaster!" Shu said forlornly, dropping his arms dejectedly.
"I wouldn't say that," Tatsuha said. He moved Mika's plate and replaced it with his own so he could sit by Shu. He moved over and patted Shu's leg in an attempt to be comforting. "If your mom's anything like you, she'll get over it and be just fine. Mika . . . she's been an unholy bitch to everybody lately. Don't let it bother you."
Shu snuffled and used his napkin to soak up some of his tears. "Eiri?" He turned his wet face toward his fiance for his opinion.
"No one refused you, Shu. They didn't tell you 'no' or try to convince you not to marry me. That's what you were worried about, right?"
Shu nodded and his eyes cleared. The worried look faded and Shu mopped his face. "Yeah! You're right!" A grin lit his face like a rainbow filling the sky after a storm. The beauty of his smile and his personality lit Eiri's soul with color just as thouroughly. "Let's finish dinner so we can get to the desserts!" Shu sang.
"Yay!" Tatsuha cheered.
Eiri smiled, glad that Shu hadn't taken the 'disaster' too hard. Although they had glossed over the possibility of kids, Eiri had a feeling the topic would come up again. Shu hadn't seemed interested before, but would his mother's influence make him reconsider? Yikes. He dreaded the next get- together with Shu's mother.
***
[1] 40 degrees F = 4 degrees C
[2] Actual place! It's purported to be one of the best Italian restaurants in Tokyo and a place where famous people like to eat. I'm fudging a bit on the layout, but other than that, my description is based on reality. BTW- they use Western silverware there.
[3] In the Tokyopop version, Maiko speaks a little French in track 1: "Q'est-ce que c'est?"
***