Chapter 2

Yuki--sprawled on the couch with his bare feet resting on the coffee table in front of him--was lazily flipping through channels. After watching a nature show featuring a zebra mating with a donkey for a few minutes, Yuki turned the TV off and looked to Shuichi for entertainment.

Yuki silently watched the pink haired singer for a moment, trying to puzzle out what he was up to. Shuichi was sitting on the floor between the couch and the coffee table alternately scribbling things on the little bits of paper that were spread across the table then balling up said bits and tossing them on the floor. This was all done with an intense look of concentration on his face. Yuki would almost say Shuichi was trying to write a song, but Bad Luck had just finished their new album and were on break before their tour. Shuichi never worked when he didn't have to, and often didn't work when he should. So, Yuki knew Shuichi couldn't possibly be working on a song.

"You are going to pick those up when you finish whatever it is you're doing," Yuki said, more of an order than a question.

"Uh huh," Shuichi agreed absently, chewing on the end of his pen and squinting at what he'd just written.

Surprised and intrigued that Shuichi didn't latch onto his oblique reference to his activities as an excuse to explain in excruciating detail, Yuki put his feet flat on the floor and leaned forward to see for himself what Shuichi was up to. What he saw were song lyrics. They were scribbled in bits and fragments with places erased, scratched out, and written over but still unmistakably song lyrics. "You're writing a song?" Yuki asked disbelievingly.

"Uh huh," Shuichi agreed, copying a fragment from one sheet to another sheet that had what looked like most of a song on it.

"I thought you already finished the new album," Yuki pointed out.

Shuichi finished scribbling down the last bit of the song, skimmed over it, then nodded to himself. Turning slightly to look up at Yuki, Shuichi, with a huge smile on his face, said, "It's for a movie soundtrack. K called about it last night. It's really short notice, but it's a big opportunity for Bad Luck. We're trying to get it done before we're suppose to go on tour but it's really hard because K couldn't get us a studio till noon the day before we leave. I've got to get the lyrics written now 'cause if we don't finish in time we'll have to cancel some shows and postpone the tour."

"Bad Luck songs have already been used in a couple movies this summer. What's different about this one?" Yuki asked curiously. He knew how much Shuichi loved touring. Shuichi hadn't let him out of his sight for more than a minute at a time in the two weeks since Shuichi's concert and Yuki's return from New York. It was as if Shuichi was afraid Yuki might disappear at any minute if he took his eyes off of him for even one second. Even with Shuichi's advanced case of clinginess, his offer to cancel the tour and stay with Yuki was still only reluctantly made.

"It's for a big budget American action movie and they said they might let Bad Luck do a cameo! It's going to be so cool, international exposure and an all expense paid trip to Hollywood!" Shuichi gushed.

"Very cool," Yuki humored the ecstatic singer, obviously not overly impressed. "Does this mean you'll be busy all day and I'll actually get some peace before I have to get back to work?" Yuki said half hopefully and half in dread. On one hand, Shuichi's constant presence over the past two weeks was exhausting. From the minute he woke in the morning till he fell asleep at night the hyperactive singer was in constant motion. Just watching TV together was a test of Yuki's patience. Shuichi couldn't sit still for two minutes without fidgeting. On the other hand, Yuki was afraid to be left entirely to his own devises with nothing in particular to do to keep his mind off things. A lot had happened in the recent months, and Yuki knew that without a ready distraction to hand he'd end up brooding about it. Yuki didn't want to brood. The past week and a half he'd been happy, not completely and totally 'not a cloud in the sky and all is right with the world' happy, but happier than he had been in a very long time. Thinking too much would surely ruin it.

"It's finished," Shuichi said completely ignoring Yuki's implication that he might want to be alone. Then, thinking it over a little more, he added, "Well nearly finished. It needs to be fixed up a little, but Hiro and Suguru will help with that when we go into the studio next Friday. It's finished for today. So what are we going to do this afternoon?"

"Let's see it then," Yuki said ignoring Shuichi's question about plans for the afternoon and holding his hand out for the lyric sheet.

"Uhmm..." Shuichi said nervously glancing back at his lyrics. "Remember this is just the rough draft. It'll be a lot better after we work on it some more," he reminded Yuki as he handed the lyrics over.

Yuki snorted in derision. "It doesn't matter how much polishing you do, your lyrics always suck," Yuki contradicted. Seeing Shuichi's crestfallen expression, to take some of the sting out of his criticism, Yuki added, "It's a good thing most people are too busy listening to your voice to even notice the lyrics."

"Yuki likes my voice," Shuichi said happily, cuddling against Yuki's leg.

"I take it back," Yuki said, reading Shuichi's lyrics. Before, Shuichi could take offence and start crying, Yuki further explained, "Your lyrics don't always suck."

"You like my song?" Shuichi asked almost disbelievingly. "You really like it?"

"I wouldn't go quite that far," Yuki said repressively. "But, it's not as bad as usual. With a few changes it might be almost passable." Picking up the well-chewed pen Shuichi had left on the coffee table, Yuki started crossing things out and writing in a word here and there. "Here," Yuki said, handing Shuichi back the page.

Shuichi took back the song and read it through. "You crossed out two whole verses, rearranged the chorus, and totally rewrote the English part!" Shuichi protested.

"It's better, isn't it?" Yuki said, lighting up a cigarette.

Reading the lyrics again, Shuichi grumbled, "Well yeah... I guess... But I worked so hard on the lines you crossed out. And what does the English you wrote mean?"

"Does it matter?" Yuki asked curiously.

"Of course it matters! What if it means something different from what I originally wrote does?" Shuichi said. "I'd be singing it with no idea what I was singing."

"And, what, pray tell, was that gibberish you wrote supposed to mean?" Yuki asked tauntingly.

Getting the impression that perhaps his English skills had went awry yet again, Shuichi decided to play it safe and first ask, "What did they say, exactly?"

"Roughly, 'It's furry on the table,'" Yuki told him translating the line into Japanese.

"Oh," Shuichi said, really not wanting to tell Yuki that he'd somehow confused the word for not being able to say no with a furry table. "What did you change it to?" Shuichi asked hesitantly.

"You're so unpredictable," Yuki gave the translation of the line he'd written.

"That works," Shuichi agreed, relieved he wouldn't have to tell Yuki exactly what word he'd screwed up so bad.

Later that night...

Yuki was startled awake by an arm smacking him in the face. Noting that Shuichi had stolen all the covers, again, Yuki grumble in irritation, "This is why I prefer sleeping alone."

Yuki turned over, intending to snatch the blankets back and make Shuichi move to the couch. As soon as he caught sight of Shuichi, he changed his mind.

Tears were streaming down the boy's face in his sleep. Shuichi was twisted in the blankets,lying on one side with an arm pinned beneath him, in what had to be an extremely uncomfortable position. He was also whimpering softly every so often--obviously still in the grips of a nightmare.

Yuki silently debated with himself about what to do. When he was having a nightmare, he didn't like being woken up. Waking up in the middle always made it worse, or so it seemed to Yuki. If his twisted subconsious hadn't finished whatever torment it set out to inflict, the nightmare just ended up praying on his mind for the rest of the day. But, if their positions were reversed, Shuichi wouldn't hesitate to wake Yuki--maybe it was different for him.

Coming up with a compromise, Yuki gently unwound the blankets from Shuichi's body, brushed the tears from his cheeks, and soothingly ran a hand through Shuichi's sweat dampened hair.

Shuichi promptly used his new found freedom to flop onto his back and squirm around a little to get properly situated. Then he sniffled twice, smacked a couple times, and relaxed into a boneless sprawl. A half smile appeared on his face, and he started snoring softly.

Seeing that his lover--now that he was arranged more comfortably--was once again sleeping peacefully, Yuki lay back down beside Shuichi and pulled the blankets over the both of them.

Never once waking from his dream, Shuichi cuddled close to Yuki and murmured Yuki's name in his sleep.

Problem solved and thinking that perhaps sharing a bed wasn't that bad after all, Yuki closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.