Title: Learning to Fly
Author: Hawk Clowd
Disclaimer: Maki Murakami would be a god if she weren't already a human; she owns Gravitation. If somehow the rights were transferred over to me, however, I do believe I would have a thousand angry fans banging on my door asking why I couldn't just let the boys have a happy ending every once in awhile. I also didn't invent skydiving.
Blood Type: Chocolate syrup. Simply because I can.
Part: Four
Warnings: There are none, so far. I'm trying to cut back on my cursing, both in my writing and in real life, so there shouldn't be too much of that going on. There are hints of smut.
Archived: The usual places. I do not do free archiving, however, and will be seriously pissed off if I find that someone has been hosting my fic without asking first. Yes, this has happened, and no, I didn't like it then, either.
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The car ride home was tense, to say the least, and rather awkward, not to mention silent. The radio had been on when they got into the car, but it had eventually seemed to so out of place that Shuichi himself had turned it off. They were less than ten minutes away from the apartment before either of them spoke.
Shuichi scowled. "You can't tell me what I can or can't do," he said.
"Bet?"
"But it isn't fair, Yuki! I don't keep you from doing anything you want to do!" Shuichi crossed his arms over his chest and stared out the window, obviously still upset. "I don't see what your problem is, either. Tandem jumping is safer and cheaper and takes less time and everything! What's wrong with it?"
Yuki couldn't even begin to explain all of his objections to Shuichi. He had seen Yazawa's video on tandem and his mind was still running wild with the possibilities... The buff instructor strapped that tightly to Shuichi, their hips grinding against each other's gently, the instructor's hands on Shuichi's waist and shoulders as they jumped out of the plane, then lingering once the parachute had been opened... Shuichi would undoubtedly go spread eagle, just as the student in the video had done, leaving him vulnerable and giving the instructor the opportunity to... Yuki shook his head, willing the images away.
"I don't need to explain anything to you," he said instead, ignoring Shuichi's question. "If I let you jump at all, you'll be jumping alone, got that?"
Shuichi frowned then, puzzling over Yuki. "Wait," he said, "are you jealous? I don't really know why you would be, but you're acting like you do when you get jealous, so I think you are."
"Well, I'm not!" Yuki declared, turning his scowl on Shuichi. Perhaps that was it, though. Maybe he was envious of the man given the opportunity to be so close to Shuichi or perhaps he was bothered by the fact that Shuichi wanted to strap himself to some strange man before he jumped out of a plane. It didn't really matter either way, really.
Coming up to a stop sign, Yuki turned to face Shuichi and then shrank back. The singer was practically imploding with glee; if the boy had access to any of his ridiculous costumes right then, Yuki had no doubt that Shuichi would be dressed as a dog, tail wagging and all. It was almost amazing; Yuki always thought he was used to Shuichi's bizarre behavior but he was always taken aback when the singer started on one of his ludicrous tirades.
"What the hell is your problem?" Yuki asked, choking out the words.
Shuichi giggled. "I made Yuki jealous," he chortled in a singsong voice. "I don't know how I did it, but I did it!" He lunged forward, latching onto Yuki's arm. "You get all adorable and stuff when you're jealous! You should do it more often!"
If there was one adjective in the world that Yuki did not want attached to his name, it was adorable. He shook Shuichi off and stomped on the gas pedal, making the last turn and speeding the rest of the way to the apartment. Once he'd parked the car, he practically bolted out of it, locking the doors and taking long strides towards the door out of the garage and into the apartment complex. Shuichi practically had to sprint in order to keep up with Yuki, yet he was still always a pace or two behind. Yuki pointedly ignored the singer's protests and pleas for him to "wait up" and managed to both get in the elevator and shut the doors just before Shuichi could catch up. Yuki could hear the boy's wail of protest even from two flights up. So the brat would have to take the stairs; big deal.
Despite having the advantage of an interruption-free elevator ride to his apartment, Shuichi still managed to get to the front door first. And, for some reason, he was also soaking wet. Yuki gave him a look before unlocking the door. A very angry Shuichi followed him inside.
"You're so mean!" Shuichi cried once the door had been shut. "What did you go and do that for?"
"You needed the exercise," Yuki told him coldly, pushing past him into the kitchen, where he began to dig through the cabinets in search of something to snack on. He was a little bit hungry.
"I get plenty of exercise!" Shuichi protested. "I think you're just trying to be a jerk again! Why are you so mean, Yuki? I was just kidding about the making you jealous thing and stuff, although I still want to know why you have a problem with the tandem jumping, and you go and pull something like that! I could probably make myself learn to hate you if I tried really hard! And another thing! You--"
"You're being a little bit cute right now," Yuki said, hoping that perhaps Shuichi would forget how angry he was if Yuki appealed to the more... sensual side of their relationship. He ran his hands over Shuichi's bare arms and then pulled the singer closer to him, almost hugging him but not quite. Yuki's touches were feather-light and he smirked when Shuichi shivered.
"I'm still mad at you," Shuichi told the writer distractedly.
But, Yuki noted silently, he was no longer yelling. That was a plus.
"But of course," he said aloud. Moving one hand down to fondle Shuichi's rear, Yuki put his head in the crook of Shuichi's neck, nipping at the soft skin just underneath Shuichi's jawbone. The singer jerked away and Yuki nuzzled the spot in mock affection, apologizing. He knew Shuichi's body inside and out and was well aware that Shuichi had very few sensitive spots: if a bite or nibble made Shuichi jerk away, it was usually because it had hurt the boy, not because he was at all turned on. It really wasn't fair; if Shuichi wanted to grab the attention of the writer, all he had to do was touch Yuki's ear, but it didn't work both ways--if Yuki actually wanted Shuichi's attention, he had to work for it. The fact that Shuichi had no attention span worth speaking of didn't help much.
"I mean, you know how much this thing means to me," Shuichi said, tilting his head in order to give Yuki more flesh to play with. "I told you weeks ago that I've always wanted to know what it's like to fly, and this is probably as close as I'm going to get, you know? I just really want to try it..."
Yuki was only half-listening. "Mmm," he murmured as he sampled and delighted in the taste and feel of Shuichi's neck. The boy was very much an acquired taste, yes, but he was also highly addictive.
"And if you were doing something that you really wanted to do, Yuki, I wouldn't try and stop you," Shuichi continued. "Like if you wanted to walk on the moon or something. I probably wouldn't go and shove you into a rocket ship, but I would physically drag you from the place or punch your instructor in the eye, either. You know, sort of like what you did to me today?"
"He was in my way," Yuki mumbled into Shuichi's shoulder. The singer ignored him, shifting slightly so that he wouldn't have to talk around a mouthful of Yuki's hair.
"You shouldn't have hit him," Shuichi said. "Anyway, do you get what I'm saying? I wouldn't keep you from doing what you wanted to do--I'd support you all the way, not matter what--so why are you doing it to me?"
Yuki squeezed Shuichi's rear gently. "Know what I really want to do?" he asked. "I want to strip you naked, throw you onto my bed, and make you scream. Over and over and over again." He punctuated each 'over' with a bite or a kiss, making his way until he was kissing the corner of Shuichi's mouth. "Support me with that?"
Shuichi flushed a bright red and giggled. "Maybe I will," he said, pulling away from Yuki just slightly. "But you've got to promise that you're going to support me when I go back to the airbase and jump out of that plane and you won't do anything stupid like you did today."
"I make no promises," Yuki said with a slight smirk, "but I don't really care what you decide to do." That, he knew, was a lie, but Shuichi didn't have to know that. Persuasion obviously wasn't working on the boy and neither was force, so perhaps reverse psychology would. Yuki decided to let Shuichi's short attention span take care of things for him; the singer was bound to lose interest in the idea eventually, after all, and he'd give that up just as he'd given up on learning how to cook or on the martial arts classes he'd signed up for three or four months before.
Shuichi's face lit up and he bounced back into Yuki's arms, hugging the writer around the neck. "Thank you, Yuki!"
Yuki rolled his eyes at the boy but said nothing, instead guiding Shuichi to the bedroom.
Saturday soon rolled around again and Shuichi went to his first true skydiving lesson. In an effort to appease Yuki's temper, Shuichi had agreed to find out more about the static-line jumping, the only real type of skydiving that did not involve being attached to another person at any point in time during the training. It did involve taking more lessons than any of the other forms of skydiving and was definitely taking major whacks at the singer's wallet, but Yuki never once heard him complain. That in itself was amazing, really. And so another Saturday passed. And another. And another.
After the fourth lesson or so, Shuichi came home with blue and purple bruises on his shoulders, chest, and on the insides of his calves. He tried to hide them, but Yuki, of course, noticed them. When he'd asked, however, Shuichi had only shrugged and fed him some story about wearing the harness for the first time and falling off of a trampoline. Yuki had decided it would be better if he didn't ask about things like that anymore; it was better for his sanity.
Yuki no longer drove or accompanied Shuichi to the airbase, of course, but Arashi Yazawa somehow managed to bother him even from afar. It often happened that when Shuichi came home he immediately began telling Yuki about his lessons and Yazawa's name almost always came up. Whether Shuichi was telling the writer about the instructor's healing black eye or describing the way Yazawa had helped Shuichi put on his harness, it didn't matter. The very mention of the man's name spurned Yuki into proving his ownership of Shuichi--over and over again. Shuichi almost seemed to idolize the instructor. And when Shuichi began calling Yazawa by his first name, Arashi, things only got worse.
In any case, several weeks passed and Shuichi continued going to the airbase every Saturday afternoon. Soon it began to become almost routine... And then, one Friday morning, Yuki's phone rang. He was in the middle of reading a book at the time and almost decided not to pick up the phone at all, but, for some reason, he did anyway.
"What?" he answered, not bothering to extend even basic courtesies to whoever was on the other end of the line.
"Moshi-moshi. This is Arashi Yazawa from Tanudem International. Is Shindou-san available to come to the phone?"
Yuki scowled. "No. What do you want?"
"I was simply calling to remind Shindou-san that he is supposed to arrive early tomorrow--around ten o'clock--so that we can prepare him for the jump," Yazawa said smoothly, not at all phased by Yuki's gruff attitude.
Yuki paused. "He jumps tomorrow?"
"Yes, around two-thirty. Will you be there?"
Considering that, Yuki frowned. Shuichi would be thrilled if he showed up, but did he really want to go watch the singer plummet to his death? The course had put Shuichi in situations that were barely similar to jumping out of a plane, such as the trampoline jumps Shuichi had told him about, and Yuki didn't quite see how things like that could prepare someone for skydiving. He had also belatedly come to the realization that while static-line jumping did, in fact, mean that Shuichi was gong to jump alone, it also meant that he was on his own. In other words, if something went wrong, the instructor and flight officials could only do so much from their individual positions on the ground and in the plane. The static line would be attacked to the plane, of course, and the parachute would open on its own after Shuichi surpassed a certain distance, but everything else--including landing and guiding the parachute--was up to Shuichi, and Yuki was not entirely certain that Shuichi could handle such a huge responsibility. Images of Shuichi turning into a little pink smear on the ground popped into his head yet again.
"No, I won't be there," he answered finally. "I'll give him your message." Then, without waiting for a reply, he hung up the phone.
Shuichi was in an unusually amorous mood when he arrived back from work, a little something Yuki was more than willing to fix (several times over, in fact). They were lying in Yuki's bed later that evening, Shuichi attempting to clean himself off with tissues and Yuki enjoying a cigarette, when the singer decided it was time to spoil Yuki's day.
"I get to do the jump tomorrow," he said. "All by myself, you'll be glad to hear."
"Nnn," Yuki grunted noncommittally. He had a very good idea of what Shuichi was going to say next.
"Yeah. Um, I'd really like it if you would--"
"Well, I won't," Yuki interrupted. "I have better things to do."
Shuichi frowned. "Like what, watch paint dry? You just don't want to see me accomplish something!" He tossed the used tissues at Yuki, still scowling.
Yuki made a face, brushing the tissues off. "That's disgusting," he said.
Shuichi ignored him. "Maybe I don't even really want you to come see me jump," he said coldly. "What do you think about that?"
"Good. Maybe you're finally learning that I just don't care." Yuki got out of bed, putting out his cigarette as he did so. "I'm going to take a bath. Change the bed-sheets for me."
When Yuki got out of the bath, the sheets were still dirty, the bed was unmade, and Shuichi had locked himself in his own tiny bedroom. Sighing and realizing that this was indeed the first time the boy had slept in his own room, Yuki cleaned up his bedroom, changed the sheets, and crawled into bed.
--to be continued--