Chapter 5
A week later...
Yuki, carrying his laptop, was staring at the tour bus in obvious disgust. "Tell me again, why can't we take the train like we normally do?" he said to the yawning woman beside him.
"There's no sense in purchasing train tickets when there's a perfectly good method of transportation already provided," Mizuki said. Then eyeing the bus a bit askance herself she added, "Mr. K promised that it was a state of the art, luxury, tour bus."
"It's a bus, not an entertainment system," Yuki pointed out.
"'State of the art' made me wonder as well," Mizuki admitted.
"It means we have playstation," Hiro interjected.
"And satellite TV," Suguru added, pointing at the mini-dish mounted on the back of the bus.
"But the reception sucks," Shuichi, who'd just arrived, said from behind the huge mound of grocery bags he was carrying.
"I thought you said you were going to get 'a few last minute things.' What's all that stuff?" Yuki asked.
Suguru, Hiro, and Shuichi, all answered together, "Road snacks," as they loaded the groceries Shuichi brought on to the bus,
"K doesn't allow pit stops," Shuichi explained.
"Unscheduled stops significantly increase the probability of unforeseen delays and security risks," Suguru recited from memory.
"Oh God," Yuki said shuttering in dread. Two months, on a bus, with Shuichi, his nutcase manager, and a playstation... if Mizuki wasn't coming along to share the misery, she'd be so fired, even if she was the best agent in Japan.
Twenty miles outside of Tokyo…
K was cleaning something that probably had fully automatic somewhere in its name--his cleaning supplies and weapon parts spread out on the miniature dinette at the back of the bus. Mizuki and Suguru were sitting on the couch along the left side of the bus, deeply immersed in the travel chess set which was sitting on the seat between them. Hiro and Shuichi were sprawled on the carpeted floor, playing the latest in violent racing games. And, Yuki who was sitting on the right hand couch with his laptop resting on a fold down snack tray, was busily clicking away at his new book, wincing every so often when Hiro or Shuichi caused a particularly loud video explosion.
Eight days later…
K was upfront, discussing defensive and offensive driving in a crisis situation with their ex-military bus driver. Suguru was reading a book on music theory in the digital world. Mizuki was slowly making her way through a stack of manuscripts. Hiro was on his cell phone with Ayaka. Yuki was still writing. And, Shuichi was sleeping peacefully next to Yuki.
Touring still sucked, it always did in Yuki's opinion. He didn't really travel well and dealing with crowds of people, well, the less said the better. But, surprisingly enough, it wasn't the hellish experience Yuki was expecting. Shuichi and the rest of Bad Luck gave one-hundred and ten percent on stage every night, partied till the wee hours of the morning, then slept fitfully on lumpy hotel bed for the few remaining hours before it was time to climb back on the bus. All three spent the vast majority of the travel time napping.
Three weeks into the tour…
K gathered everyone together beside the bus which was parked in front of a hotel. "Our second show in Osaka has been cancelled due to a fire at Club 419," K announced.
The tired group before him just stood there.
"And since Yuki-san has been banned from Osaka bookstores, we're all getting a short break before going on to our next destination," K continued.
"You're not rescheduling us somewhere else?" Shuichi asked surprised.
"Shh, don't give him any ideas," Hiro hissed to Shuichi, clasping a hand over his best friend's mouth.
"Of course he isn't," Suguru put in. "On such short notice it'd be almost impossible to formulate a thorough security plan for an unknown locale."
"Now that we have that cleared up, can we check into the hotel?" Yuki said not really caring one way or the other, he was getting a break no matter what K decided.
K stepped aside so that the exhausted group could trail into the hotel lobby.
"Mizuki-san," Suguru said quietly to his new friend and ally as the only other sane person on the bus--Hiro was once relatively normal but lately he'd developed a tendency to space out with a stupid grin on his face at odd moments, "What did Mr. K mean when he said, 'banned from Osaka bookstores'?"
"Yuki-san somehow managed to mortally offend the president of the Osaka bookseller's association on his second book tour. I'm not sure what he did exactly, but I decided I'd better accompany him in future to prevent it from happening again," Mizuki explained, glancing at Yuki to make sure he was too far away to overhear.
"You didn't always accompany him on tour?" Suguru asked.
"Usually authors travel alone and book store reps just meet them at the train station to pick them up and drive them around. There aren't nearly as many complicated arrangements to be made for a book signing as there are for a concert."
Ten feet ahead, Shuichi, latched onto Yuki's arm, was skipping along merrily saying, "Two days in Osaka with nothing to do, isn't it great? Huh, Yuki?"
"Fantastic," Yuki said in a dry tone. He didn't necessarily object to a break, but he wasn't going to get all excited over a single day, or in his case, two days off the tour bus.
Hiro was calling up Ayaka to let her know the good news. She was already planning to attend one of the concerts. Now it looked like they could actually spend some time together.
Finally the promised day off arrived, and Shuichi had PLANS. Shuichi envisioned an early start followed by a hearty breakfast and a day spent out on the town. He had a long list of all the local tourist attractions and had already worked out romantic scenarios for Yuki and himself, appropriate to each locale.
Yuki's plan, on the other hand, went something like: sleep late, sex, more sleep, late lunch, then pawning Shuichi off on someone else while he got some work done on his new novel.
Things didn't quite happen according to either plan.
Shuichi got his early start, after resorting to ear nibbling. Yuki got wake up sex, which wasn't part of Shuichi's original schedule but he was easily persuaded to work it in. Then the fight began.
Shuichi wanted to go see the sites. Yuki wouldn't be caught dead at a tourist attraction. Two hours and a lot of yelling and tears later the two compromised on shopping. Shopping was in fact on Shuichi's list of activities and Yuki actually needed a few things, he was almost out of cigarettes and shampoo and he forgot to pack a robe.
Late that afternoon the couple trudged back into their hotel room--Yuki carrying a bag with the necessities he'd set out to buy, Shuichi piled down with whimsical souvenirs, also known as useless junk.
Just inside the door, Shuichi dropped all his packages on the floor. "Yuki," he said in a tremulous voice, "I don't feel so good."
Yuki glanced at his usually hyper lover and saw that he was looking rather green. "I told you to stay away from the squid," Yuki said unsympathetically.
"But it smelled so good," Shuichi protested.
"The cart was filthy," Yuki replied, as he cut the tag off the robe he just bought.
"Yuki, I think I'm going to be sick," Shuichi said faintly, then made a slight retching sound.
"Then what are you just standing there for?" Yuki demanded. "Bathroom, now," he ordered as he tossed his new robe on the bed and shoved Shuichi into the bathroom. It wasn't a second too soon either. As soon as he stepped through the doorway, Shuichi collapsed on the tiles in front of the toilet and puked up everything he'd eaten that afternoon.
When Shuichi was done, Yuki turned on the bathroom sink, dampened a wash cloth and ran a glass of water both of which he handed to Shuichi. Shuichi rinsed his mouth out and wiped his chin. "Feeling better?" Yuki asked.
Shuichi nodded and tried to get up. Once Shuichi had stood all the way, he swayed a bit in place, turned green once again, then crashed back to the floor to throw up in the toilet some more. Apparently he'd missed some of his lunch the previous time, because there was still more coming up.
Shuichi, exhausted, rested his head against the cool porcelain of the toilet seat. Yuki knelt beside him and felt Shuichi's forehead. "You haven't got a fever," Yuki observed. "Do you want this back, or are you going to puke some more?" he asked holding up the glass of water.
Shuichi simply moaned in agony and started retching again. Yuki held Shuichi's head over the bowl till he stopped dry heaving then he carried Shuichi's limp form into the bedroom and placed him gently on the bed. Shuichi reached out and grabbed one of Yuki's sleeves before the older man could leave the room. "Stay," he pleaded.
Yuki stared down at his ailing lover for a second. Figuring he might as well, since he'd planned to sleep more that day anyway, he said, "Fine, but try not to breathe on me. Your breath's terrible."
The next morning, five people rested and refreshed for the second leg of the journey plus a still haggard looking Shuichi assembled in front of the bus. Four accusing pairs of eyes landed on Yuki.
"Don't look at me," Yuki said. "It was all his fault." Then he climbed on the bus, leaving Shuichi behind with his sympathizers.
Hiro wrapped a sympathetic arm around Shuichi's shoulder. Shuichi, still exhausted and grateful for the support, leaned into his friend. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but sometimes it helps," Hiro offered.
"Whatever happened, you can tell us," K added solicitously--worried that another Yuki/Shuichi blow-up was about to ruin tonight's gig. "You're among friends here."
Mizuki and Suguru nodded in agreement.
"Squid," Shuichi said in a weak, raspy voice.
"Huh?" Hiro said. That wasn't the answer he was expecting.
"Bad squid," Shuichi elaborated, shuttering slightly.
"Ah, a little food poisoning," K said relieved turning to get on the bus. "You had me worried there for a second. I thought it might have been something serious."
"Take it easy and don't push yourself to eat till you feel up to it, you'll be better before you know it," Hiro added, patting Shuichi on the back before he followed K on to the bus.
"Stay away from fried things," Mizuki advised.
"Nothing spicy," Suguru added.
Then Mizuki and Suguru boarded the bus as well, leaving Shuichi standing on the pavement by himself. "Isn't anyone worried about me at all?" he grumbled to himself. "I spent half the night dry heaving. Don't they want me to see a doctor or something?" Then he boarded the bus himself, still slightly put out at his friend's apparent lack of concern for his delicate health.
Shuichi spent all morning napping in his usual place next to Yuki. Around noon, when the rest of the group started to unpack the hamper of gourmet foods K had the hotel restaurant fix them for lunch, Shuichi awoke feeling rested, refreshed, healthy, and hungry.
"Mmh," Shuichi said, taking a deep breath, "Lunch looks good. Where's mine?"
Hiro, Suguru, Mizuki, K, and Yuki, who'd already divie'd up the delicacies, simply looked at each other. Not one of them was willing to give up a single slice of premium tuna or a single piece of salmon roe sushi.
"Here," Yuki said, handing Shuichi a bowl of plain rice.
Shuichi looked from his bowl of rice to the sushi everyone else was eating and back to his plain rice. Pouting and sniffling, Shuichi whined, "But..."
"You were sick to your stomach all night," Yuki pointed out reasonably, cutting off Shuichi's protest.
"It doesn't pay to rush back into these things," Hiro added before Shuichi could insist he felt fine.
"Eat something too rich for your stomach now and you'll have a relapse," Suguru jumped on the bandwagon.
"Very wise," K agreed, nodding sagely. "Shuichi, I forbid you to eat anything besides plain rice until after tonight's show."
"Everyone's picking on me today," Shuichi mumbled under his breath. "It's not fair." Then he reluctantly dug into the rice. After all, bland was better than nothing.
Yuki fluffed the undersized thing the hotel called a pillow, pulled the too small blanket up to his chin and shifted a little to the right in a vain attempt to move off of what felt like a largish rock. The air conditioner clicked on. Yuki shivered partly as a psychological reaction but mostly due to the near arctic temperature in the room.
Grumbling in frustration, Yuki sat up in bed. "Five star hotel, like hell..." he muttered to himself as he pushed his hair out of his face with one hand. Even exhausted as he was after a long day of book signing and actually being polite to fans, sleeping was starting to look like an impossibility. He had been given the hotel room from hell with no chance of reprisal--tourist season had all the local lodging establishments fully booked. Just as the author was about to get up to get his laptop, figuring that if he couldn't sleep he might as well work, there were sounds of someone fumbling with keys at the door. A few seconds later, the door opened just enough to let a small--immediately recognizable to Yuki and pop music fans all over Japan--figure slip through, quietly closing the door behind himself.
"Shuichi's here," Yuki silently noted to himself, without the unholy glee with which Shuichi would make such an observation if their positions were reversed but pleased none-the-less. Shuichi took one step inside the room, which must have appeared to be in total darkness to his unadjusted eyes, and nearly crashed into the luggage rack placed next to the door.
"Idiot. Turn on a light before you trip and break something," Yuki ordered.
"Yuki! You're awake!" Shuichi exclaimed excitedly, as he fumbled for the light switch on the wall next to the door. The bedside lamp switched on and Shuichi launched himself at Yuki. Yuki, still blinking in the too bright light, managed to catch the petite singer and hold him at arms length before he managed full bodily contact. "Yukiiiii!" Shuichi whined shrilly, still struggling to embrace his bed rumpled and unexpectedly awake lover.
"I just showered and you're sweaty and coated in stage make-up," Yuki calmly pointed out.
Shuichi stopped struggling, his face screwed up in a manner that Yuki refused to describe as cute, no matter how much he was tempted. Abruptly all the tension went out of the singer's body. Seeing that reason had finally penetrated and Shuichi wasn't going to jump him, Yuki loosened his grip, allowing Shuichi to collapse in a heap on the side of the bed. "I'll shower," Shuichi said.
"Good," Yuki replied, wondering why Shuichi was still kneeling in front of him giving him his most winsome look.
"Come with me," Shuichi pleaded, pleating the bedspread with his fingers.
"No," Yuki answered as he reached for the cigarettes and lighter on the bed stand.
"Why not?" Shuichi asked, pouting slightly as he absentmindedly took the cigarettes out of Yuki's hand.
"Because I already showered," Yuki answered in a warning tone as he snatched the pack back.
"A little more water won't kill you and you're not suppose to smoke in here..." Shuichi trailed off before a full-fledged fight could result from his nagging.
"It's freezing in here because the air conditioner won't turn off and there aren't any other rooms. Consideration for hotel policies isn't currently high on my priority list."
"It is cold in here," Shuichi agreed, suddenly starting to shiver now that he'd noticed. Shuichi snuck in a quick kiss to Yuki's ear, hopped off the bed, and headed toward the bathroom shouting over one shoulder, "Be back in a minute, and don't smoke in bed. I hate burned sheets." Then he disappeared into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
Yuki looked down at his pack of cigarettes, then over at the cold floor, back to the cigarettes, then over to the closed bathroom door. A thought suddenly occurring to him, a slightly evil smile spread across the author's face. Yuki set the cigarettes back on the table and settled back against the headboard, hands placed casually behind his head, and waited.
Thirty seconds later there was a loud shriek from the bathroom and two minutes after that a slightly blue and still damp Shuichi, wearing only a pair of pale blue novelty boxers decorated with little yellow duckies pelted out of the bathroom and dived under the covers. "C-cold," he stuttered through chattering teeth as he snuggled against Yuki.
"The hot water heater gave out a couple hours ago," Yuki explained sniffing his bedmate, who still smelled a bit like wet puppy but had managed to reach an acceptable level of cleanliness with his quick, icy scrub.
"You could have warned me," Shuichi grumbled good-naturedly. Normally, he'd complain at length about Yuki's meanness, but from his current position--that being a full body Yuki-glomp--he just couldn't quite work up the proper ire. Yuki'd flinched a little at the first touch of icy skin, but Shuichi had quickly warmed up so he hadn't pushed him away.
Yuki ignored Shuichi's complaint, per usual, as he pried Shuichi loose from his side--kissing the singer to keep him distracted and compliant. Settling Shuichi on his back on the bed next to him, Yuki broke the kiss to slide down in bed a bit. Yawning widely, Shuichi looked up at Yuki with an apologetic expression, "Yuki... I want to... I'm just so tired... I'm sorry..."
"Moron," Yuki commented affectionately as he switched off the lamp. "Go to sleep," he ordered as he settled back into the bed, now turned onto his stomach and with half his body draped across Shuichi's and his head tucked under the singer's chin.
Shuichi wrapped his arms around Yuki's neck and twined the fingers of one hand in his hair. An amazed look on his face, but still taking care to be silent and not irritate his lover into spoiling the moment, Shuichi mentally sing-songed, "He's cuddling. Yuki's cuddling. Yuki's..."
Then reality intruded. First, Yuki's weight was cutting off circulation to Shuichi's shoulder--causing an unpleasant tingly sensation. Then, Yuki wriggled his icy fingers into the warm spaces beneath Shuichi's shoulder blades, making the singer squirm. "Be still," Yuki murmured already half asleep.
Eyes narrowed in suspicion, the mental happy chant abruptly stopped. "Yuki's using me as a pillow!" Shuichi realized, starting to get irate. Then as soon as the irritation came, Shuichi shrugged it aside, deciding that he'd take a snuggly Yuki any way he could get him, even if that meant acting as a Shu-shaped pillow/hot water bottle.
Early the next morning two teenage girls in maid's uniforms were trying their best to suppress nervous giggles as they arrived outside a particular hotel room door pushing a towel cart or, as the hotel liked to call it, a 'courtesy cart.'
"Shh," the first girl whispered to the second, placing one finger over her lips. "If we get caught, we're fired."
"Ami-chan, who cares?" the second girl whispered back, rolling her eyes at her timid friend. "We only got these crappy jobs because our parents made us. Our whole summer completely sucked! Getting to meet Shindo Shuichi--"
"And Yuki Eiri," Ami interrupted to add.
"Meeting Shindo Shuichi and Yuki Eiri, in person, will be the only thing that'll save an ultra-crappy summer holiday. So are we doing this or not?" the girl continued, giving Ami a hard-eyed look.
Ami took a deep, calming breath, nodded, and confirmed, "We're doing it Minako-chan. We'll stick to the plan. We'll meet them. Everything will be fine." Despite it being a crappy job, Ami really didn't want to be fired.
"Go ahead and open the door then," Minako ordered Ami, pushing her toward the door.
"Why me?" Ami asked. "Why don't you do it?"
"Because, when we say they didn't hear us knock, they'll be more likely to believe it if it's you. You're always so quiet," Minako explained impatiently.
Ami, still worried about getting in trouble with the boss, couldn't resist lightly tapping on the door and announcing, "Maid service," in a voice barely above a whisper. Duties theoretically fulfilled, Ami semi-calmly unlocked the door to the room and stepped inside, apology for the interruption already on her lips. Instead of frantically apologizing to a couple celebrities--what Minako was expecting from Ami--Ami froze just inside the doorway.
"What is it?" Minako hissed, as she narrowly avoided running the towel cart into Ami. "They didn't leave already, did they?"
Ami made a shushing motion with one hand, then stepped to one side to give Minako room to enter. Minako stepped around the cart and into the room. As soon as the bed came into view, Minako was struck speechless for the first time in her life.
There they were, two of the hottest men in Japan snuggled in bed together. Sound asleep.
Yuki-sama was cuddling Shindo-san like he was an oversized, pink-haired teddy bear. He was drooling slightly on Shuichi's shoulder and wearing a grin Ami, the Yuki-fiend, had never seen despite being the proud owner of perhaps the most extensive collection of Yuki Eiri memorabilia known to fan-girl-kind.
Shu-chan had kicked most of the blankets off in his sleep. If it weren't for some teeny-tiny whimsically decorated boxers, the pop star would have been naked. Minako was seeing more of her current obsession than she could have ever hoped to, even taking revealing stage costumes into consideration.
Ami and Minako were two very happy fan girls. Minako was the first to recover from her shock. She pulled a digital camera from her apron pocket and started snapping pictures, slowly moving around the bed to make sure not an angle was missed.
"What are you doing?" Ami silently mouthed to her friend.
Minako just gave Ami a 'are you stupid or something?' look and kept taking pictures. After Minako had enough photos to suit her--or perhaps she'd just run out of room in the camera's memory--she waved Ami out of the room and the two tiptoed away, never waking the room's occupants.
Sometime later that day Shuichi twitched, sneezed, and woke up. He brushed the spiky ends of Yuki's hair away from his nose, kissed Yuki's temple, then gently disentangled himself from his lover's grasp. Yuki, with Shuichi's pillow now in Shuichi's place, showed no signs of waking up.
Shuichi, trying to rub some feeling back into the shoulder Yuki'd been laying on, stumbled into the bathroom, eyes still half closed with sleep. After splashing some water on his face and brushing his teeth Shuichi eyed the shower suspiciously. On one hand, he really hated cold showers--really, really hated them. On the other, the air conditioner had finally died earlier that morning, the room was now a little on the warm side and heading toward hot, and the quick scrub the previous night was hardly satisfying--Shuichi still felt kinda grubby from the concert. After some consideration, Shuichi finally decided to take the risk. He turned on the water, took a deep breath, braced himself for the shock, and jumped in. Testing the water before he got in was something that never actually occurred to Shuichi.
Fortunately, it being mid-day and most of the hotel's occupants being morning or evening bathers, there was plenty of hot water.
Half an hour later hair wet, towel wrapped around his waist, and still humming the end of one of Nittle Grasper's greatest hits, Shuichi climbed onto the bed and straddled Yuki's sleeping form. Mischievous grin firmly in place, Shuichi leaned down to wake Yuki by his favorite method.
As soon as Yuki felt soft lips and teeth gently nibbling at his ear, he was up like a shot--back pressed against the headboard and one hand rubbing his violated ear.
"Good morning, Yuki," Shuichi said brightly.
"Morning," Yuki replied, not at all brightly but reasonably civil. Yuki eyed Shuichi speculatively. Having a squeaky clean Shuichi, clad only in a towel, straddling him was giving Yuki ideas--ideas which Shuichi would be more than happy to accommodate. Debating on whether or not to act on said ideas, Yuki glanced over at the clock. "Damn," Yuki swore, pushing Shuichi off his lap and getting out of bed.
Startled at the sudden change in position, Shuichi sat on the bed blinking at Yuki. "Huh?"
"We have a meeting with our managers in ten minutes," Yuki explained as he stepped into the bathroom and turned on the water to brush his teeth.
"They can wait," Shuichi wheedled, still not making any moves to get dressed.
Yuki didn't reply for a moment as he hastily brushed his teeth, after spitting out the toothpaste he contradicted Shuichi, saying, "Mizuki can wait. Your lunatic manager will kick the door down and threaten us with an Uzi."
"Uhmm... That might be kinda embarrassing," Shuichi acknowledged, reluctantly getting off the bed and going over to fish in his over stuffed duffel bag for clean clothes.
Yuki snorted in disagreement as he took neatly folded slacks and a button down shirt out of his suitcase. "Frustrating's more like it," Yuki corrected.