Disclaimer: Do you really think I own Gravitation? Well, I don't. It
belongs to Murakami Maki.
Genre: AU/SF/Romance
Story Type: Serial (hopefully!)
Summary: In our story so far, Yuki Eiri, a private investigator has agreed to be a bodyguard for Shindou Shuichi, an alien creature on the run from an arranged marriage of sorts. Now, Shuichi is living in Yuki's apartment, and Yuki is ever so slowly becoming attracted to him, whether he wants to admit it or not.
Key: word = description; 'word' = thoughts; "word" = speech; WORD = emphasis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rapture
Chapter Two
"Wha?"
Yuki opened his eyes and was surprised to find that the outside was still dark.
He looked at the city lights: bright, neon reds, blues, and pinks dazzled the white walls of the otherwise drab bedroom, lighting it with color it had probably never experienced.
He wondered why he had never noticed this before. He had known that some stores outside had neon lights, but that hadn't really registered.
But, then again, once he dared to glance at the digital clock on his nightstand, he was never awake at three forty-seven in the morning.
That turned his attention to the reason WHY he had woken up at this ungodly hour: a horrible smell had hit him full-force. He started to breathe through his mouth as he went to investigate.
Unlocking his door, he then made his way into the kitchen, where the smell and strange sounds were also coming from. The bright lights made him squint his eyes reflexively, then he kept them squinted at the pink-haired menace trying to fry something on the stove.
"What the HELL--"
Shuichi let out a shriek, effectively cutting off Yuki's question, and then turned around and sighed loudly. "Yuki-san! You scared me! Don't you know not to sneak up on people like that, ESPECIALLY when they are dealing with fire?!"
Yuki ignored him. "WHY are you cooking at three in the morning?"
"It's three fifty," Shuichi corrected, pointing to the clock in the kitchen.
"I don't CARE. WHY are you COOKING AT ALL?" Yuki snapped.
Shuichi got a thoughtful look. "Well, Yuki-san, I realized that I didn't eat breakfast, lunch, OR dinner yesterday, so I was hungry, and I decided to cook bacon." He held up the bacon packaging to prove his point further and smiled.
"Okay. That's a logical reason."
Shuichi nodded.
"I have another question."
"Okay! You can ask me anything," the pink-haired boy grinned and turned back to the bacon.
"WHY does the bacon smell like vomit?"
Shuichi's face fell. "It doesn't smell like VOMIT, Yuki-san. I just added some extra ingredients."
"Like?"
He held up a bowl filled with red goo. "It's my own, special hot sauce."
Yuki slapped his forehead. "You're FRYING hot sauce?"
"Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?"
"NO, moron. If you REALLY wanted SAUCE on your bacon, though I can't imagine why, you would do it AFTER the bacon was done cooking."
"Really?"
"YES, really." The blonde looked at the contents of the frying pan and shuddered. The bacon was either burnt to a crisp or still cold and chewy, and all of it was covered in a thick, congealed, unidentifiable red substance.
At that, Yuki lightly pushed Shuichi aside, turned off the stove, picked up the frying pan, and dumped its contents into the nearest trashcan.
"Hey!" Shuichi shouted indignantly. "That was my breakfast!"
"Just . . . sit down, Shindou, sit down." Yuki sighed loudly and shuffled to the refrigerator.
"I'm a good cook, Yuki-san, really!" the pink-haired boy explained as he sat at the kitchen table, still holding a cardboard box and the bowl of hot sauce. "I'm best at preparing cereal!"
"THAT figures," he mumbled, opened the fridge, and pulled out a pizza box. Yuki dropped the box on the kitchen table and waved his arms outward slightly. "There. Breakfast is served." Sarcasm practically dripped onto the cold tile floor.
Shuichi frowned and set the stuff down on the table. "You eat COLD pizza?"
"YES."
"That's gross, but you know what they say: beggars can't be choosers!" He opened the box, picked a slice of pizza out, and dunked it in his leftover hot sauce.
Yuki grimaced. "Are you actually eating that?"
"Yes! I would've just used Tabasco sauce, but you don't have any so I had to compensate," Shuichi explained and took a bite of pizza.
"With what, dare I ask?" Yuki took a piece for himself and began to eat.
"Well, I started with ketchup as a base, then I added horseradish. I'm surprised you had any of that! Then, I put in some pepper, paprika, and ramen seasoning. And then I put in some relish."
"Whatever. I'm not driving you to the hospital to get your stomach pumped."
The two finished their pizza in silence. Yuki put the pizza box back in the fridge and held up the bowl of hot sauce. "Wash this out immediately. I don't want you stinking up my apartment." He thrust the bowl into Shuichi's hands.
Shuichi rolled his eyes and went to the sink. "Just because YOU don't like it doesn't mean it smells like vomit to ME. . . ."
The blonde walked back into his bedroom and shut the door firmly behind him. He flopped onto his bed, listening to the sound of running water and Shuichi's melodic humming.
Yuki then went back to what he had been doing before: watching the colors on his wall. They moved to an odd and disjointed rhythm, sometimes blinking out of sight, sometimes flickering persistently.
The private light show was strangely mesmerizing. Yuki had to tear his eyes away and he chuckled slightly once he did. 'A man as smart as you gets distracted by pretty colors?'
He pulled his comforter around himself and closed his eyes tightly, trying to ignore the colors. Yuki realized he was fighting a losing battle, so he let his eyes open. 'Just look at the colors like the moron you are. . . . No one has to know.'
So he began to count the shades with interest, but not enough that he didn't hear the knocking at the door. Or the opening of the aforementioned door.
Shuichi marched in and dropped the bowl on Yuki's lap. "I cleaned it! There! Are you happy-- Wow! Look at that!"
His attention turned to the colors on the wall and Yuki rolled his eyes. "They're just colors. Annoyingly bright colors, at that. And didn't you ever learn to knock before entering someone's room?"
"Yeah, but I knew you were awake, anyway, Yuki-san." He walked over to the window and looked outside. "The blue one is for a tax auditing firm, the red one is for a deli, and the pink one is for a store called 'Life's Little Pleasures.' Strange."
"Get out of my room and take your bowl with you." Yuki held the bowl up and pointed to the door.
Shuichi's awed and slightly confused expression became pained. "You don't want to talk?"
"No, I don't. I want to sleep."
"Fine. I know when I'm not wanted! I'll go sleep on my uncomfortable couch now." He started to walk out, but Yuki wiggled the bowl slightly. Shuichi glared, snatched the thing out of Yuki's hand, and stormed the rest of the way out.
Once Shuichi was gone, Yuki turned away from the window and tried to go back to sleep.
***
"How could you let something like this happen? HOW?!" Katsuragi Osamu was chewing the end of his cigar slightly, an odd habit he had picked up from his father. "Explain yourself!"
"I'm sorry, Katsuragi-san. He just overwhelmed me! For someone that skinny, his right hook wasn't half-bad," the black-haired man explained, rubbing his cheek for emphasis.
"Watanabe's a powerful man! He'll fire us BOTH if something happened to Shindou!" Osamu snapped.
"I know, Katsuragi-san, and I SAID I was sorry! It's not like I can do anything about it now!"
Osamu took a sip of beer. "Even if Shindou comes back to us unharmed, you'll be getting a definite decrease in pay, Tatsuha."
"I'm willing to accept the consequences, Katsuragi-san, just PLEASE, let me keep my job! I'll work overtime, I'll take nasty assignments . . . I'll do ANYTHING!" Tatsuha begged.
The older man sighed loudly. "Don't worry about your job. But, now I know better than to send kids on important assignments. I placed a lot of trust in you, Tatsuha, and you REALLY let me down. You won't be getting anything good for a LONG while. Do you understand?"
"Of course, Katsuragi-san. Hey, I'm going to be rude and leave, okay? I'm really drained."
"Sure. Getting chewed out takes a lot out of a person, that's for sure." Osamu waved his hand toward the door, letting the dim, red light catch on his rings. "Have a nice night. Be careful. And if you happen to see Shindou, do anything to get him back."
Uesugi Tatsuha made a point of bowing to his superior, then left the restaurant quickly.
Once he was away from the restaurant, he looked up at the sky and took in a deep breath. "DAMN IT!" he yelled, making some passerby stare.
Tatsuha scowled and jammed his hands in his pockets before starting to walk again. 'Shit! If I had known that this would've happened, I wouldn't have done it in the FIRST PLACE!'
Uesugi Tatsuha was pissed off. VERY pissed off.
'Stupid freak! What the hell was his problem, anyway? That's the LAST time I do anything nice for anyone! And that's the LAST time I let myself get punched!'
***
The next time Yuki woke up, it was definitely morning. Birds were chirping from somewhere far away, sunlight was pouring through the window, and there were no noxious odors coming from the kitchen.
But, NOW there were strange, clacking sounds that originated from the living room, along with more humming.
'That boy is NOT going to survive if he keeps being so damn ANNOYING!' Yuki thought, grabbing his cigarettes and lighter for a morning pick-me-up, one that he SERIOUSLY needed.
Once he had lit up and had a couple drags, he deemed himself awake enough to not smack Shuichi upside the head as soon as he found the little terror.
But, that didn't mean that Yuki wasn't MAD. He had been woken up AGAIN at seven twenty-two, according to his trusty alarm clock, and he was NOT going to let this behavior slide.
Yuki walked into the room and found Shuichi rifling through his small collection of CDs. Shuichi looked up at him and smiled brilliantly. "Good morning, Yuki-san!"
The blonde stared. "What do you think you're doing? Are you a pain in the ass ALL the time?"
"The only time I am is when I'm around you," Shuichi said as he turned back to the CD rack. "You don't have many CDs, you know. And they're all by the same old guys. You need more contemporary music. You need more VARIETY. "
"Those 'old guys' have more musical talent in their fingernails than you have in your whole BODY. You wouldn't know good music if it burned you with its cigarette for waking it up at profane hours of the morning."
"I don't think good music would smoke, though."
Yuki rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch, not even bothering to dignify Shuichi's statement with an answer. "Fine. What do YOU think constitutes as good music? Grunge-metal? Techno? POP?"
Shuichi stood up, grabbed a CD, and sat down next to Yuki. He passed the case to the older man and smirked. "I like techno a lot, but if you're gonna be stubborn about what you like, then I also like opera. You should have more CDs that you can SING to, at least!"
The blonde chuckled at the CD he was now holding and tapped his ashes into his ashtray. "This was a gift. I wouldn't have bought it if I had been left to my own devices. I don't even think I've listened to it."
"Seriously? How can you NOT like it? This one is one of my favorites! Here, I'll sing this part for you. I swear that you'll like it once you hear it!"
And Shuichi began to sing.
And Yuki was, for lack of a better word . . . captivated.
'This idiot can sing?' He hit himself, mentally. 'Of COURSE he can sing, jackass! For God's sake, he's a cantavis! That's what they DO!'
Shuichi's eyes closed as he sang, focusing entirely on the music. It seemed to flow on its own. It melded with itself, creating a beautiful sound and harmonizing at certain points, which made it sound like more than one person was singing along.
Yuki was certain that his jaw dropped slightly during the song. 'This definitely beats out the pretty colors as being more interesting.'
Once he got over the song's initial shock, he began to study its producer in great detail.
'No, no, no! Look away! He'll stop being attractive if you stop looking at him, stupid! It's all part of their charm! Save yourself, and look away!'
Yuki's body wasn't really listening to his brain, no matter how logical it was in such a situation. First, he snuffed his cigarette out. Then, he felt himself leaning closer to Shuichi, shortening the gap between them until he could smell the pink-haired boy's shampoo.
Then, Yuki decided to move in for the kill, thinking, 'Screw it! I don't give a shit anymore. Just DO it, already!'
Shuichi subsequently made the mistake of peeking, and his eyes widened as he stopped singing, bringing both of them out of their trances. "Yuki-san, what are you doing?!"
Yuki glared down at him, making the younger man blush. "I'm not doing anything. You're just overreacting."
"It looks like you were PLANNING on doing SOMETHING!"
"I was looking for change in-between the couch cushions, moron."
"No, you WEREN'T! I'm not STUPID, you know!"
"Could've fooled me."
Shuichi growled and scooted away from Yuki, then picked up a magazine off the coffee table. "I'm ignoring you now!"
Yuki rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
"That's the last time I sing for YOU," he muttered and began to inspect the cover. His eyes went over the bar code, and then his eyebrows knitted. "Yuki-san? Who is Uesugi Eiri?"
"Me."
"Huh? Is that a secret, super-spy alias of yours?" Shuichi asked sarcastically.
"No, that's actually my real name."
Shuichi looked up at Yuki, now interested. "Really? Then why did you list YUKI Eiri as your name at your office?"
"When you have a profession like mine, you need more than one name. Better safe than sorry, eh?" Yuki asked.
"I guess so. So, do you use Uesugi MORE than Yuki?"
"Yes, but it's for legal things, like credit card applications and driver's licenses. Yuki is for my job," he explained.
"Ah. That's interesting." Shuichi started to sing softly as he flipped through the magazine with a bored expression, and even though it wasn't very pronounced, the music started to enchant Yuki all over again.
"Stop it, brat!" he snapped and smacked Shuichi upside the head.
Shuichi rubbed his head and pouted. "Ouch! What was that for?"
"It was for being the stupid, moronic brat that you are! Grab your coat."
"But, you're wearing the same clothes that you wore yesterday. Aren't you going to change, or brush your teeth?" the pink-haired boy asked.
"I don't care," Yuki snarled and stood up quickly.
"Fine. I'll let you drive me somewhere like a maniac, but at least tell me WHERE we are GOING!" Shuichi stood up, too, and set the magazine back on the table.
Yuki's gold eyes were narrowed in irritation. "We are going to buy some EARPLUGS."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Notes:
*Admittedly, I'm not an opera fan, so I don't know any good ones, sorry! I like classical music, among many others, though.
*You could probably compare Shuichi's species to the sirens from Greek mythology. According to my Greek mythology book, the sirens were very beautiful and had gorgeous singing voices, although there are many variations on their appearance. I've heard that the sirens were half-bird and another instance where they were terribly ugly. But, for the sake of this story, ignore all other descriptions of the sirens, please! ^_^;;
*I had accidentally put this under the G-rated category! This story is most definitely NOT G-rated, so I changed the rating to what it was SUPPOSED to be, PG-13. Sorry if this inconveniences anyone!
*Shuichi likes hot sauce with pizza. In Episode 13, I believe, where he lost his voice and was dressed in the sumo-wrestler costume, he puts hot sauce on his entire pizza. ^_^;; Ah, good times.
*They were SO close to kissing, weren't they?
*Hey! Tatsuha was in this chapter!
*And my character, Katsuragi Osamu, was also in this chapter! By the way, Katsuragi comes from Katsuragi Misato of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Osamu is from Koike Osamu, one of the saxophone players for The Seatbelts.
*Thanks for all of your wonderful reviews (I feel so loved! ^_^;;), and thank you for reading!
Genre: AU/SF/Romance
Story Type: Serial (hopefully!)
Summary: In our story so far, Yuki Eiri, a private investigator has agreed to be a bodyguard for Shindou Shuichi, an alien creature on the run from an arranged marriage of sorts. Now, Shuichi is living in Yuki's apartment, and Yuki is ever so slowly becoming attracted to him, whether he wants to admit it or not.
Key: word = description; 'word' = thoughts; "word" = speech; WORD = emphasis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rapture
Chapter Two
"Wha?"
Yuki opened his eyes and was surprised to find that the outside was still dark.
He looked at the city lights: bright, neon reds, blues, and pinks dazzled the white walls of the otherwise drab bedroom, lighting it with color it had probably never experienced.
He wondered why he had never noticed this before. He had known that some stores outside had neon lights, but that hadn't really registered.
But, then again, once he dared to glance at the digital clock on his nightstand, he was never awake at three forty-seven in the morning.
That turned his attention to the reason WHY he had woken up at this ungodly hour: a horrible smell had hit him full-force. He started to breathe through his mouth as he went to investigate.
Unlocking his door, he then made his way into the kitchen, where the smell and strange sounds were also coming from. The bright lights made him squint his eyes reflexively, then he kept them squinted at the pink-haired menace trying to fry something on the stove.
"What the HELL--"
Shuichi let out a shriek, effectively cutting off Yuki's question, and then turned around and sighed loudly. "Yuki-san! You scared me! Don't you know not to sneak up on people like that, ESPECIALLY when they are dealing with fire?!"
Yuki ignored him. "WHY are you cooking at three in the morning?"
"It's three fifty," Shuichi corrected, pointing to the clock in the kitchen.
"I don't CARE. WHY are you COOKING AT ALL?" Yuki snapped.
Shuichi got a thoughtful look. "Well, Yuki-san, I realized that I didn't eat breakfast, lunch, OR dinner yesterday, so I was hungry, and I decided to cook bacon." He held up the bacon packaging to prove his point further and smiled.
"Okay. That's a logical reason."
Shuichi nodded.
"I have another question."
"Okay! You can ask me anything," the pink-haired boy grinned and turned back to the bacon.
"WHY does the bacon smell like vomit?"
Shuichi's face fell. "It doesn't smell like VOMIT, Yuki-san. I just added some extra ingredients."
"Like?"
He held up a bowl filled with red goo. "It's my own, special hot sauce."
Yuki slapped his forehead. "You're FRYING hot sauce?"
"Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?"
"NO, moron. If you REALLY wanted SAUCE on your bacon, though I can't imagine why, you would do it AFTER the bacon was done cooking."
"Really?"
"YES, really." The blonde looked at the contents of the frying pan and shuddered. The bacon was either burnt to a crisp or still cold and chewy, and all of it was covered in a thick, congealed, unidentifiable red substance.
At that, Yuki lightly pushed Shuichi aside, turned off the stove, picked up the frying pan, and dumped its contents into the nearest trashcan.
"Hey!" Shuichi shouted indignantly. "That was my breakfast!"
"Just . . . sit down, Shindou, sit down." Yuki sighed loudly and shuffled to the refrigerator.
"I'm a good cook, Yuki-san, really!" the pink-haired boy explained as he sat at the kitchen table, still holding a cardboard box and the bowl of hot sauce. "I'm best at preparing cereal!"
"THAT figures," he mumbled, opened the fridge, and pulled out a pizza box. Yuki dropped the box on the kitchen table and waved his arms outward slightly. "There. Breakfast is served." Sarcasm practically dripped onto the cold tile floor.
Shuichi frowned and set the stuff down on the table. "You eat COLD pizza?"
"YES."
"That's gross, but you know what they say: beggars can't be choosers!" He opened the box, picked a slice of pizza out, and dunked it in his leftover hot sauce.
Yuki grimaced. "Are you actually eating that?"
"Yes! I would've just used Tabasco sauce, but you don't have any so I had to compensate," Shuichi explained and took a bite of pizza.
"With what, dare I ask?" Yuki took a piece for himself and began to eat.
"Well, I started with ketchup as a base, then I added horseradish. I'm surprised you had any of that! Then, I put in some pepper, paprika, and ramen seasoning. And then I put in some relish."
"Whatever. I'm not driving you to the hospital to get your stomach pumped."
The two finished their pizza in silence. Yuki put the pizza box back in the fridge and held up the bowl of hot sauce. "Wash this out immediately. I don't want you stinking up my apartment." He thrust the bowl into Shuichi's hands.
Shuichi rolled his eyes and went to the sink. "Just because YOU don't like it doesn't mean it smells like vomit to ME. . . ."
The blonde walked back into his bedroom and shut the door firmly behind him. He flopped onto his bed, listening to the sound of running water and Shuichi's melodic humming.
Yuki then went back to what he had been doing before: watching the colors on his wall. They moved to an odd and disjointed rhythm, sometimes blinking out of sight, sometimes flickering persistently.
The private light show was strangely mesmerizing. Yuki had to tear his eyes away and he chuckled slightly once he did. 'A man as smart as you gets distracted by pretty colors?'
He pulled his comforter around himself and closed his eyes tightly, trying to ignore the colors. Yuki realized he was fighting a losing battle, so he let his eyes open. 'Just look at the colors like the moron you are. . . . No one has to know.'
So he began to count the shades with interest, but not enough that he didn't hear the knocking at the door. Or the opening of the aforementioned door.
Shuichi marched in and dropped the bowl on Yuki's lap. "I cleaned it! There! Are you happy-- Wow! Look at that!"
His attention turned to the colors on the wall and Yuki rolled his eyes. "They're just colors. Annoyingly bright colors, at that. And didn't you ever learn to knock before entering someone's room?"
"Yeah, but I knew you were awake, anyway, Yuki-san." He walked over to the window and looked outside. "The blue one is for a tax auditing firm, the red one is for a deli, and the pink one is for a store called 'Life's Little Pleasures.' Strange."
"Get out of my room and take your bowl with you." Yuki held the bowl up and pointed to the door.
Shuichi's awed and slightly confused expression became pained. "You don't want to talk?"
"No, I don't. I want to sleep."
"Fine. I know when I'm not wanted! I'll go sleep on my uncomfortable couch now." He started to walk out, but Yuki wiggled the bowl slightly. Shuichi glared, snatched the thing out of Yuki's hand, and stormed the rest of the way out.
Once Shuichi was gone, Yuki turned away from the window and tried to go back to sleep.
***
"How could you let something like this happen? HOW?!" Katsuragi Osamu was chewing the end of his cigar slightly, an odd habit he had picked up from his father. "Explain yourself!"
"I'm sorry, Katsuragi-san. He just overwhelmed me! For someone that skinny, his right hook wasn't half-bad," the black-haired man explained, rubbing his cheek for emphasis.
"Watanabe's a powerful man! He'll fire us BOTH if something happened to Shindou!" Osamu snapped.
"I know, Katsuragi-san, and I SAID I was sorry! It's not like I can do anything about it now!"
Osamu took a sip of beer. "Even if Shindou comes back to us unharmed, you'll be getting a definite decrease in pay, Tatsuha."
"I'm willing to accept the consequences, Katsuragi-san, just PLEASE, let me keep my job! I'll work overtime, I'll take nasty assignments . . . I'll do ANYTHING!" Tatsuha begged.
The older man sighed loudly. "Don't worry about your job. But, now I know better than to send kids on important assignments. I placed a lot of trust in you, Tatsuha, and you REALLY let me down. You won't be getting anything good for a LONG while. Do you understand?"
"Of course, Katsuragi-san. Hey, I'm going to be rude and leave, okay? I'm really drained."
"Sure. Getting chewed out takes a lot out of a person, that's for sure." Osamu waved his hand toward the door, letting the dim, red light catch on his rings. "Have a nice night. Be careful. And if you happen to see Shindou, do anything to get him back."
Uesugi Tatsuha made a point of bowing to his superior, then left the restaurant quickly.
Once he was away from the restaurant, he looked up at the sky and took in a deep breath. "DAMN IT!" he yelled, making some passerby stare.
Tatsuha scowled and jammed his hands in his pockets before starting to walk again. 'Shit! If I had known that this would've happened, I wouldn't have done it in the FIRST PLACE!'
Uesugi Tatsuha was pissed off. VERY pissed off.
'Stupid freak! What the hell was his problem, anyway? That's the LAST time I do anything nice for anyone! And that's the LAST time I let myself get punched!'
***
The next time Yuki woke up, it was definitely morning. Birds were chirping from somewhere far away, sunlight was pouring through the window, and there were no noxious odors coming from the kitchen.
But, NOW there were strange, clacking sounds that originated from the living room, along with more humming.
'That boy is NOT going to survive if he keeps being so damn ANNOYING!' Yuki thought, grabbing his cigarettes and lighter for a morning pick-me-up, one that he SERIOUSLY needed.
Once he had lit up and had a couple drags, he deemed himself awake enough to not smack Shuichi upside the head as soon as he found the little terror.
But, that didn't mean that Yuki wasn't MAD. He had been woken up AGAIN at seven twenty-two, according to his trusty alarm clock, and he was NOT going to let this behavior slide.
Yuki walked into the room and found Shuichi rifling through his small collection of CDs. Shuichi looked up at him and smiled brilliantly. "Good morning, Yuki-san!"
The blonde stared. "What do you think you're doing? Are you a pain in the ass ALL the time?"
"The only time I am is when I'm around you," Shuichi said as he turned back to the CD rack. "You don't have many CDs, you know. And they're all by the same old guys. You need more contemporary music. You need more VARIETY. "
"Those 'old guys' have more musical talent in their fingernails than you have in your whole BODY. You wouldn't know good music if it burned you with its cigarette for waking it up at profane hours of the morning."
"I don't think good music would smoke, though."
Yuki rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch, not even bothering to dignify Shuichi's statement with an answer. "Fine. What do YOU think constitutes as good music? Grunge-metal? Techno? POP?"
Shuichi stood up, grabbed a CD, and sat down next to Yuki. He passed the case to the older man and smirked. "I like techno a lot, but if you're gonna be stubborn about what you like, then I also like opera. You should have more CDs that you can SING to, at least!"
The blonde chuckled at the CD he was now holding and tapped his ashes into his ashtray. "This was a gift. I wouldn't have bought it if I had been left to my own devices. I don't even think I've listened to it."
"Seriously? How can you NOT like it? This one is one of my favorites! Here, I'll sing this part for you. I swear that you'll like it once you hear it!"
And Shuichi began to sing.
And Yuki was, for lack of a better word . . . captivated.
'This idiot can sing?' He hit himself, mentally. 'Of COURSE he can sing, jackass! For God's sake, he's a cantavis! That's what they DO!'
Shuichi's eyes closed as he sang, focusing entirely on the music. It seemed to flow on its own. It melded with itself, creating a beautiful sound and harmonizing at certain points, which made it sound like more than one person was singing along.
Yuki was certain that his jaw dropped slightly during the song. 'This definitely beats out the pretty colors as being more interesting.'
Once he got over the song's initial shock, he began to study its producer in great detail.
'No, no, no! Look away! He'll stop being attractive if you stop looking at him, stupid! It's all part of their charm! Save yourself, and look away!'
Yuki's body wasn't really listening to his brain, no matter how logical it was in such a situation. First, he snuffed his cigarette out. Then, he felt himself leaning closer to Shuichi, shortening the gap between them until he could smell the pink-haired boy's shampoo.
Then, Yuki decided to move in for the kill, thinking, 'Screw it! I don't give a shit anymore. Just DO it, already!'
Shuichi subsequently made the mistake of peeking, and his eyes widened as he stopped singing, bringing both of them out of their trances. "Yuki-san, what are you doing?!"
Yuki glared down at him, making the younger man blush. "I'm not doing anything. You're just overreacting."
"It looks like you were PLANNING on doing SOMETHING!"
"I was looking for change in-between the couch cushions, moron."
"No, you WEREN'T! I'm not STUPID, you know!"
"Could've fooled me."
Shuichi growled and scooted away from Yuki, then picked up a magazine off the coffee table. "I'm ignoring you now!"
Yuki rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
"That's the last time I sing for YOU," he muttered and began to inspect the cover. His eyes went over the bar code, and then his eyebrows knitted. "Yuki-san? Who is Uesugi Eiri?"
"Me."
"Huh? Is that a secret, super-spy alias of yours?" Shuichi asked sarcastically.
"No, that's actually my real name."
Shuichi looked up at Yuki, now interested. "Really? Then why did you list YUKI Eiri as your name at your office?"
"When you have a profession like mine, you need more than one name. Better safe than sorry, eh?" Yuki asked.
"I guess so. So, do you use Uesugi MORE than Yuki?"
"Yes, but it's for legal things, like credit card applications and driver's licenses. Yuki is for my job," he explained.
"Ah. That's interesting." Shuichi started to sing softly as he flipped through the magazine with a bored expression, and even though it wasn't very pronounced, the music started to enchant Yuki all over again.
"Stop it, brat!" he snapped and smacked Shuichi upside the head.
Shuichi rubbed his head and pouted. "Ouch! What was that for?"
"It was for being the stupid, moronic brat that you are! Grab your coat."
"But, you're wearing the same clothes that you wore yesterday. Aren't you going to change, or brush your teeth?" the pink-haired boy asked.
"I don't care," Yuki snarled and stood up quickly.
"Fine. I'll let you drive me somewhere like a maniac, but at least tell me WHERE we are GOING!" Shuichi stood up, too, and set the magazine back on the table.
Yuki's gold eyes were narrowed in irritation. "We are going to buy some EARPLUGS."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Notes:
*Admittedly, I'm not an opera fan, so I don't know any good ones, sorry! I like classical music, among many others, though.
*You could probably compare Shuichi's species to the sirens from Greek mythology. According to my Greek mythology book, the sirens were very beautiful and had gorgeous singing voices, although there are many variations on their appearance. I've heard that the sirens were half-bird and another instance where they were terribly ugly. But, for the sake of this story, ignore all other descriptions of the sirens, please! ^_^;;
*I had accidentally put this under the G-rated category! This story is most definitely NOT G-rated, so I changed the rating to what it was SUPPOSED to be, PG-13. Sorry if this inconveniences anyone!
*Shuichi likes hot sauce with pizza. In Episode 13, I believe, where he lost his voice and was dressed in the sumo-wrestler costume, he puts hot sauce on his entire pizza. ^_^;; Ah, good times.
*They were SO close to kissing, weren't they?
*Hey! Tatsuha was in this chapter!
*And my character, Katsuragi Osamu, was also in this chapter! By the way, Katsuragi comes from Katsuragi Misato of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Osamu is from Koike Osamu, one of the saxophone players for The Seatbelts.
*Thanks for all of your wonderful reviews (I feel so loved! ^_^;;), and thank you for reading!