Usual w and d

"Seguchi, it's not that funny." Mika frowned at her laughing husband. "I've never seen him like this. He's always been able to hold his liquor."

"Looks like everyone who thought he wasn't human was wrong." Tohma sighed. "I haven't seen him cry in years. Shindo did a number on him."

"This time it really was Eiri's own fault. He's afraid to commit."

"Commit? They were living together. That's a pretty strong commitment."

"I heard he's never once told Shu-chan he loves him. He's never even said he cares." Mika shrugged as she watched her brother snoring on her couch. "Shuichi appears to be serious about moving on. This happened when he told Eiri not to come see him again."

"He saw Shindo? How'd he find him? I can't even get them to tell me where he's at. Who'd you threaten or bribe?"

"No one Ayaka-chan told me the whole story and where to find Shu-chan." Mika blushed at her husband's disbelieving look. "No truly the only thing she asked was that I tell Eiri what a fool he is."

"Hmm, aren't we all fools for love? " Tohma said as he reached for his wife's hand. "If we weren't it wouldn't be as much fun."

"We have to help them. Can we slip him into the finalists? If we force Shuichi to spend time with him he won't be able to hold out. He'll break down and confess he still loves my brother."

"I have an interesting idea on how to work this." Tohma glanced over at the drooling Yuki.

"Shuichi, you idiot. Come home." Yuki muttered in his sleep.

"Things are going to get interesting." Tohma laughed softly.

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"Shindo is it true? Have you really narrowed it down to a hundred?" Sakano asked.

"Yes finally. No thanks to you guys." Shuichi looked accusingly at his fellow band members. "I bet you've all been having fun without me."

"Of course," Hiro smirked, " we didn't have to read thousands of letters."

Everyone headed into the conference room to examine the photos of the lucky girls and boys who had made it this far.

Shuichi held Hiro back for a second. "Tell Ayaka next time someone asks for my address, please don't just give it to them."

"Who'd she give it to? One of her friends?"

"Yuki." Shuichi sighed. ""It was horrible. He just showed up. I cried then kicked him out."

"Kicked him out? When did this happen?"

"Four days ago."

"And you are just telling me now?"

"You've been avoiding me. No one but Yuki came to see me the whole week I was on house arrest."

"You weren't under house arrest. We just didn't want Yuki to follow us. Looks like he was sneakier than we gave him credit for. I never thought he'd pump Ayaka for info."

"Don't worry he didn't Mika admitted she did it. Then she tried to make me believe Yuki drank himself stupid because I asked him not to come back."

"Maybe it's the truth. You never know he might have reacted like that."

"Yuki Eiri has never gotten that drunk. I once tried to get him that drunk. (I wanted to be on top.) After four bottles of sake I gave up."

"Shuichi, I'm jealous. They're all so cute." Hiro said as he looked at the table filled from one end to the other with photos. " I thought you were gay at least half these pictures are girls."

"I'm bisexual. That way I get to keep all my options open." Shuichi rubbed his hands together gleefully. "Look at these one's . I've Sakuma Ryuichi, that actress that always guest judges on Iron Chef. I love her she's so cute. Also Mizuhara you remember her she was the most popular girl in our school senior year. I only threw her in because I wanted to be able to turn her down like she turned me down junior year."

Hiro watched Shuichi ramble on and on. He's trying so hard to pretend he wasn't affected by Yuki's visit. Darn it I really want to go beat that bastard. Why couldn't he just tell Shuichi he loves him? This whole thing never would have happened if he'd just been honest about it.