AN/Warnings: Sugoi! More reviews. They're so much fun to read, and absolutely make my day. Are the reviews messed up for other people? I think FF.net has a glitch or something, so I'm very sorry if I missed you. Also, Quick Edit has killed my pretty asterisks, so I had to use colons instead. But now I get to go back and edit all of the stories that had their format messed up. Squee!
Inori-Sakura: ::glomps:: Coyote Ugly!Shuichi? Stop it, the mental images are distracting. ::Shuichi shimmies by in a skirt:: Drunken bar sex sounds good to me, but poor Hiro worked so hard on making the bar shiny. XP Thanks for reviewing, great to know you like it. And you faved it! ::glomps again::
Juliannarose: I'm glad you like it! Domo for reviewing.
Rinuah: You think I can resist a plot twist like murder? Never! Don't worry, Yuki Kitazawa will prove to be a nice angst point. I've always thought of Yuki to be good fighter (and strangely enough, a decent singer, but I don't know where that came from), especially since he taught ASK not to mess with his Shu-chan. :3 Thanks for reviewing again!
Briefs Hikaru: Bad things happen to Shu when he tries to break up fights. ;-; Domo for reviewing again!
Driven to insanity: Yeah, it's a slightly weird premise, but I wondered how different Shuichi would be if he wasn't as lucky as he is in the manga. Glad you liked it!
Bishie Lovers 'R' Us: Love the username. X3 Yes, yaoi in the bar is always fun, fun, fun! Maybe not for the whole family, but for the fangirls at least. Thanks for reviewing!
IceraMyst: Wai! Glad you like it, and you faved it! hugs I just noticed in the very early manga, Shuichi does work in a bar, I had totally forgot. I had to go back to check on Shuichi's sister's name, because she sort of disappears. Yuki also has very long fingernails for a guy. O-o; Cat fight! Rawr.
Info: Shuichi/Yuki (because canon can be good), mild language. Gravitation belongs to Maki Murakami. Once again, takes place right after the last chapter.
Anyways, hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Life Doesn't Rhyme
"Go! Get out!" Hiro chased the other man out, even though he was probably still drunk and unstable on his feet. "Son of a bitch." He added as an afterthought, before turning back to the bar, which had already started to slip back into that irreversible rhythm and routine. People were laughing and drinking again, like nothing had happened. Suguru had taken Shuichi's tray and handed out the drinks, before coming back to check on the boy.
Yuki had caught the boy quite easily, simply slipping his arms around him and keeping his head level with the rest of his body. He was looking down at Shuichi, his face expressionless. As Hiro watched the blonde, he thought, even if for only a second, he saw something else. Daring to calling it compassion or care, the mere thought of it was banished when he looked up at Hiro, obviously annoyed.
Shuichi, what have you gotten yourself into?
Hiro smiled uneasily, and spoke up. "You want to take him home? Even if he comes to, he won't be able to work very well." Yuki nodded, standing up and cradling Shuichi.
"Just tell me where he lives."
Hiro gave directions and the address, helping Yuki get out of the bar by opening the door and waving him out. Suguru appeared next to him, watching the blonde walk down the road as if he was carrying groceries instead of a body.
"Some crazy nights we've been having, huh?" Hiro smiled, nodding in agreement.
"What scares me even more is that this is probably the beginning." The two went back inside, Suguru closing the door behind him.
---
Yuki Eiri walked up to the door, adjusting the boy in his arms so he could ring the doorbell. He hoped this was the right house, otherwise it'd be a little strange, having a blonde haired stranger holding what looked like a dead pink haired boy. Though, if this was the right house, the fact that whoever opened the door would actually know the boy was probably more disturbing.
When a blonde girl opened the door, she found herself staring at a tall blonde, trying to find her voice. Whoever he was, he was hot. However, when she saw who was in his arms, she yelped.
"Oh, Shuichi! Please, come in." She opened the door all of the way, and fell silent when the blonde began to explain.
"He got knocked out at work, there was a fight." Yuki assumed this was Shuichi's sister, since there was some resemblance. The girl nodded, leading him up the stairs. "I'm sure he'll be alright, he didn't hit the floor." She opened the door to his room, grimacing at the mess.
There were synthesizers and keyboards in every corner of the room, as well as a computer and a few other electronics that Yuki couldn't name off the top of his head. His bed was off to one side, Yuki had to step over five million things and almost tripped over some wires. Finally reaching his destination, Yuki gently laid Shuichi down on the bed, even though the boy complained and tried to cling to the blonde.
"Sorry about the mess. The name's Maiko, by the way," Yuki nodded, and she realized he wasn't going to leave just yet. "I'll be downstairs if you need me." She smiled and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
He looks familiar…I should have asked for his name.
Maiko shrugged to herself, and walked back downstairs. The blonde stranger was lucky she was home, her boyfriend had cancelled their date and her parents were still out.
---
Yuki was rather torn on the situation. It was just about midnight, and he didn't feel like going back to the bar, but wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with a conscious Shuichi.
Why's that, huh? Because you had to go and start caring about the idiotic pink haired freak. You're going soft in your old age. No good will come of this, Eiri Uesugi!
Scoffing at his ever-persistent inner monologue, Yuki looked around the room, finding Shuichi's desk to be the most organized space. Wandering over and rummaging through the papers and blank music sheets, Yuki was surprised to find three books stacked, each on top of the other. Funny, he recognized these. The dustcovers were missing, and the blank covers of the books gave no clues as to what they contained, but they were familiar. Rather curious, Yuki picked up the book on top of the pile, and began skimming the pages.
Realizing they were his own words, the blonde smirked. No wonder Maiko hadn't recognized him, Shuichi was the fan.
Snapping the book shut and returning it to it's original spot, Yuki's attention shifted back to the unconscious boy on the bed. The bed complained when he sat down on the edge of it, and Shuichi mumbled something and squirmed towards the new presence.
Blue eyes were suddenly staring groggily up at Yuki, as he yawned and tried to sit up. The blonde held his shoulder and forced him back down onto the pillow, annoyed once again.
"You stay down." Shuichi nodded only once, it was slow and his head almost got stuck in it's dipped position. When he looked up again, he smiled.
"Yuki? Izzat you?" The man in question nodded, gingerly placing a thumb just below a hazy blue eye.
"Ow…Yuki, that hurts." The boy winced, and the hand was taken back. He was going to have a black eye for a good while.
"I'm going to leave. You go back to sleep, idiot." Shuichi was too dazed to complain, and let his eyelids flutter, and then close.
When his breathing had become even and light, Yuki escaped. Maiko showed him out, telling him he could come back later if he'd like.
…Maybe. If he felt like it.
---
When Shuichi woke up the next morning, the sun was seeping through the curtains and he could hear the hum of voices downstairs. Sitting up and yawning, he nearly yelped when an intense and sharp pain shot through him. Lightly running his hands over his face, he discovered that just below and around his right eye was swollen, and that it hurt to blink. Yuki was weird, kissing him one night and then punching him the next. Talk about moody.
Without even looking down at the mess of wires, plugs and papers, Shuichi walked through his room to the door, as if on an unseen path. His footsteps were heavy as he went down the stairs, and he was sure whoever was down there had been alerted of his presence.
When he reached the kitchen doorway, he couldn't decide what was more shocking.
The fact that Yuki Eiri was sitting there with his mother, of all people, or the fact that he was laughing. It was a good-natured laugh as well, which was just plain creepy. Shocked, stunned, frozen in place, Shuichi stammered out a 'good morning'. Yuki turned his head and smiled, causing Shuichi's heart to somehow switch to several different rhythms.
"Oh, good morning Shuichi! Yuki here told me what happened last night, don't you worry about it." His mother walked up to him, clucking to herself as she checked his eye. "That's a nice love tap you've got there. Probably take a few weeks to heal." Ruffling his hair, his mother grabbed her coat and waved goodbye. "Yuki's going to stay here and make sure you don't pass out or anything for a while. See you later, sweetie!" Blowing him a kiss, she closed the door.
When Shuichi looked back, Yuki already looked back to normal. He looked pissed off, bored, annoyed, unimpressed. The usual.
"What…was that?" Shuichi blurted out, earning a raised eyebrow from the blonde. "You were, were, laughing. Smiling even." Yuki smirked, standing up and walking over to face the nervous boy.
"Are you trying to say I'm a cold hearted bastard?" The blonde accused, not even pretending to be hurt.
"No, no! It's just not like you."
This snapped something inside of Eiri Uesugi. His perfect composure splintered, his well-played façade missed a step in the dance.
"Not like me?" He barely even whispered, but Shuichi still heard. "You don't know shit, Shuichi Shindou. Who are you to judge me…?" It was a demand, not a question. Shuichi, scared by such a change in demeanor, backed away until he hit the nearest wall. Yuki had chased him back, and was now towering over him, something violent flashing through his eyes.
"Yuki?" Shuichi dared to whisper back, causing whatever immediate anger in Yuki's eyes to dissipate. The blonde raised a hand, and sharply took it back when Shuichi flinched. Almost hissing in resurfacing anger, Yuki retreated and opened the front door.
"Just forget about it."
Just forget about me.
Shuichi's protests of "Yuki, I…" were met with a slammed door. Feeling unexplained tears sting at the corners of his eyes, Shuichi pouted at the door and stomped back upstairs. Finding that hiding under the covers of his bed brought comfort, Shuichi hid there until he heard his mother come back.
"Shuichi, I'm home! Shuichi?" His mother came in, pulling the blankets off of him and sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Are you alright? Your eyes are all red." Testing the skin under his right eye, she clucked at the bruise that had formed. Shuichi rubbed his eyes gingerly, shrugging.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Yuki had to leave though." His mother nodded, standing up and making her way to the door.
"He seemed nice," She paused, tilting her head and grinning at him. "I like him, don't you?"
Rolling his eyes and throwing the blankets back over his head, Shuichi heard his mother's laughter as she closed the door behind her.
Yuki Eiri…or rather, Eiri Uesugi. Which one was the real him? The extra-bitter-less-sweet man, the one who came three nights a week to drink and smoke and sit in silence, or the one who was laughing and smiling with his mother downstairs? Or were they detached parts of the whole Eiri Uesugi, the pieces he had forgotten to pick up? Sure, he had heard murder could scar people, the fact that you had control over someone's life was rather disturbing, but…something about him, it was different, it wasn't normal. Not the bad kind of abnormal, something else. Something hopeless, and Shuichi didn't like it.
Realizing he had started to think too deeply, Shuichi winced and rolled onto his side. He'd psychoanalyze the blonde tomorrow. Right now…he felt tired.
Even though it was well past midday but not quite evening, Shuichi slipped back into sleep.
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::shoots ending again::
Maiko is underused! Um…yes. She would have recognized Yuki from Shuichi's books.
Shuichi's mom was strangely harder to write than I expected. O-o; Whee, sorry for the absence of hot Shuichi/Yuki action, I'll try to slip in some next time, I swear. Until next time. :3