AN/Warnings: Yah! No more school. Now I have no excuse for slacking. Whoohoo.

firedraygon97: Thanks for reviewing! Eh, not much Shuichi/Yuki in this chapter, but I'm working on it. --; You faved it? Thank you so much! ::hugs:: Is anyone else's fave stats not working? My author alerts work, but the other seems to have stopped recording. never has liked me. XP

Kira: Gah, that's me, Ms. Overdramatizer. --; Thanks for also pointing out my typos, I did go back and tweak a few chapters thanks to you. :) I'm glad you're liking the story even with it's faults. Yeah, Japanglish is not exactly something I enjoy reading, but I somehow manage to pick through it in fanfics. Thanks for reviewing, you were really helpful. :3

Liss: Yes, gives me answers that no human can. O-o; You wouldn't want me to try and write a yaoi, I'm no good. XP Yes, Tohma is such fun, that creepy Quatre-clone that he is. :3 Thanks for reviewing again!

Kitty in the Box: Glad you liked it! nn Thank you for reviewing again as well, great to see names I recognize.

Puffin: Great to know you like it, and thanks for reviewing!

dhrachth: …Damn. X-x; Thanks for pointing that out. I suppose Mika and Tatsuha would have had to fly over to the US, then.

Redex: Heh, it's not much of a plot, it's more an explanation of why Bad Luck hasn't gotten a deal yet. Thanks for reviewing and helping me keep some things in mind while I wrote this chapter yet again.

Almost fifty reviews! Thanks so much to everyone again, reviews absolutely make my day. ::hugs all of the reviewers:: I also upped the rating because I say so. :P

Info: Shuichi/Yuki, rabid Tatsuha. Gravitation belongs to Maki Murakami.
Music of the Chapter: Sleepless Beauty, sung by K.ITO and D.K. (Nittle Grasper), one of my favorite Gravitation songs. I don't own it, okiday? The translated lyrics seem rather reliable this time, so I'm going to give it a shot…

The beginning is relatively soon after most of Act Five, so Eiri is living with Tohma and Mika. After the '---' break, it's back to Shuichi and Yuki. That part takes place around two months after the end of Act Four.

Life Doesn't Rhyme

"Tohma! I'm going out!" High heels clicked against the tiled kitchen floor as Mika grabbed her pocketbook. There came a murmur of response from their bedroom, Tohma was probably still curled up in the bed sheets. Smirking, Mika quickly made her way over to her brother's room. "Eiri, when Tohma gets up, tell him I went out."

Her brother looked up, a mild look of annoyance shading his face. She must have interrupted him while he was reading, one of the very few things he held a constant interest in. He nodded, pushing the slipping glasses back up his nose. "You should get contacts, Eiri." He rolled his eyes, and turned back to his book. Eiri always was fond of his glasses for one reason or another.

About five seconds after Mika slammed the door to confirm her exit, Eiri could hear Tohma moving around in the kitchen, obviously looking for something to eat. The man's slamming of cabinets and drawers had shattered any concentration the teenager had left after Mika had disturbed him. Mumbling to himself, the blonde dog-eared the page he was on, and stood up to see why Tohma was making such a fuss.

Eiri had fully expected Tohma to look like he had just gotten out of bed, when what he found was a fully, neatly dressed Tohma Seguchi. It took the older blonde a few minutes to realize he was being watched, and turned around to smile at Eiri.

"Morning Eiri." The smile lessened when he realized the teenager seemed confused. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing." Tohma raised an eyebrow, and Eiri shifted his weight to another foot. "Well, Mika thought you were still in bed."
"Oh, did she?" Tohma's smirk forbade any reply, and the younger blonde quickly decided outside was much safer than in.

"Tohma! I'm going out too." Eiri slipped on his outdoor shoes, but left his jacket. It had been getting warmer these days, he doubted he would need an extra layer.
"Oh, really? What for?" Tohma appeared, leaning against the doorframe that led to the kitchen.
"Contacts." While Eiri never could force a glare onto Tohma, he gave the older blonde a withering look and slammed the door behind him.

By ten o' clock on a Sunday morning, Tohma had been abandoned. Feeling dejected, he was surprised to hear a knock on the door. Considering it hadn't been destroyed in the process, it couldn't be Ryuichi. Noriko was in Europe somewhere, and there hadn't been anything he could think of that would have caused Sakano to get worried. Could Eiri be back so quickly? Perhaps he had forgotten his wallet. He knew Mika, and she wouldn't be back for quite a while.

Shrugging to himself and opening the door, Tohma greeted what looked to be a thirty-something woman, whose eyes widened when she realized who she was standing in front of.

"Oh! Mr. Seguchi! I had no idea!" She bowed quickly, her face a mild shade of pink. "Eiri had only referred to you as Tohma, and it only had his sister's name on the address..." She brushed some stray strands of chocolate colored hair out of her face, hesitating.

"Eiri? Are you a friend of his?" Even though he asked, Tohma doubted it. Even when he was younger, Eiri had never been one for girlfriends. The woman blushed again, shaking her head.

"Oh, I'm sorry! My name is Doctor Naishin, I'm the psychologist he's been seeing. I'm here to speak with you about Eiri Uesugi, Mr. Seguchi."

---

Two months after Act Four

"Shut up, Tatsuha!" Yuki barked, annoyed that he had to leave the latest chapter of his new book chapter half-written. Even with the door closed and earplugs in, he could still hear his little brother ranting about something from the kitchen. Rubbing his temples, Yuki couldn't think of the reason as to why he let his younger brother stay. Ever since that concert, Tatsuha had been staying over whenever he didn't want to stay with daddy dearest, which was about every two weeks or so. Yuki was just happy that he had a couch.

Tatsuha jumped at least a foot in the air when the shout reached his ears, he hadn't noticed the blonde sneak up on him. When he had composed himself, Tatsuha began his retort, his voice breaking halfway through his complaint.

"But Eiri, you don't understand! My Nittle Grasper DVD was supposed to come two days ago! I preordered and everything!" Tears were beginning to well up in the teenager's eyes, and Yuki shook his head, obviously not impressed.
"I don't have time to listen to your whining. Shut. The. Hell. Up."

When the doorbell rang, Tatsuha slunk off to get it, his chin nearly touching his chest. About five seconds after the door was opened, there came a shriek.

"Oh my god, Eiri, it's the singer from Bad Luck! Is he your new boy toy? He's adorable!" Yuki heard a small whine of protest, which was swiftly defeated by Tatsuha's babbling. Shuichi had been able to avoid the blonde's look-a-like, but his luck had just run out.

Sticking a finger into his ear to make sure his eardrum was still working, Yuki walked to the front door to find Shuichi, who had recently become joined at the hip with his younger brother.

Shuichi's left eye was twitching violently, he appeared to be in shock from the sudden attack. Shaking his head again, Yuki walked over and observed the two for a few minutes. He had to force his lips not to curve up into a smile, as both boys stared up at him. Shuichi's were begging for escape, Tatsuha's were merely curious. Finally sighing, Yuki decided to save the little pest.

"Tatsuha, would you mind removing yourself from Shuichi? I think you're suffocating him." Tatsuha unwillingly peeled himself off of the wannabe pop-star, and slunk back off to the kitchen to mope.

"Hiya, Yuki!" Shuichi managed to sound as cheerful as ever. "Uh, I found this under your doormat, it looked like it'd been there for a while." He offered a small, plastic sealed box to the blonde, who didn't take it out of Shuichi's hands, but rolled his eyes.
"That's Tatsu-" Yuki never finished his sentence, as Shuichi emitted a squeal when he read the back of the box.

"It's the limited edition Nittle Grasper visual tour diary from 1999! Almost mint condition! Yuki, why do you have this? Do you know how much this is worth?" The boy's voice became hushed, as if he had divulged a terrible secret. Shuichi's eyes were wide with wonder, and he was about to skip off to put it in the DVD player when a low voice came from the kitchen.

"What. Did. He. Say?" Tatsuha appeared in the kitchen doorway, eyes glinting dangerously.

Shuichi, blissfully oblivious, marched over to Tatsuha and held up the DVD box.

"It's the Nittle Grasper DVD! Want to watch it with me, Tatsu?" It was all Shuichi had caught of the younger brother's name, and Yuki coughed. Glaring at his brother, Tatsuha then grinned at the pink haired boy.

"Yeah! Come on, Shu, I bet it's great!" The two then stampeded towards the direction of the TV, and Nittle Grasper's music was soon pounding through the house and shaking the walls.

Realizing that no amount of yelling, curses or threats would get those two to turn the volume down, Yuki surrendered. He collapsed onto the couch, in-between Tatsuha and Shuichi.

No one had told Yuki the Tour was somewhere around five disks. Trying to form words of disapproval as Tatsuha slid in the third (days 40-60), he could find none in his infuriatingly blank mind. Yuki could barely take anymore constant chatter from the much younger Tohma, Noriko and Ryuichi. It was only day forty two.

Shuichi yawned, stretching his arms above his head and then daring to rest his head on Yuki's shoulder. They had been watching for hours, and night had fallen somewhere around the fifteenth day of the Tour.

Silently overjoyed that Yuki didn't shrug him off of his shoulder, Shuichi shuffled a little closer, his eyes transfixed on the TV, and his cheeks a faint pink.

"Don't push it." Came Yuki's mumble, and Shuichi nodded quickly, but couldn't bring himself to move away. When the blonde's arm 'fell' off the back of the couch to slip behind Shuichi's shoulders, the boy laughed, but neither caught the other's eye. "Shut up." Yuki whispered, and Shuichi said nothing in return.

Once Shuichi had remembered his real last name ("Eiri Uesugi!" He had shouted one day in revelation), which led to him figuring out his address, the boy was around non-stop. Before he had to go to work, after school, whenever he could find the time. While he had rapidly become annoying, Yuki couldn't help but feel slightly flattered. It had been some time since anyone had just wanted to be near him.

"Shu, it's your turn to change disks." Tatsuha moaned from the other side of the couch, his vision hazy from watching the television screen for too long. Shuichi sighed in response, and stumbled off the couch to take out disk three and replaced it with disk four. Pressing play, he heaved himself off of the ground and nearly fell onto Yuki, who wasn't about to let a dead-weight Shuichi use him as a pillow. Shoving the boy back onto the couch, they watched as the sixty-first day of the Tour began.

"Yuki, where's your phone? I'm gonna call home and tell someone I'll be back really late." Shuichi yawned again, swinging his body once or twice to summon enough momentum to hoist himself to his feet once more.

"The kitchen. Didn't you have work tonight?" Shuichi turned around and grinned, meaning he had forced Hiro and Suguru to cover for him. "Slacker." Yuki muttered. "Get me some cigarettes."

Shuichi stuck his tongue out, as he listened to the ringing in the receiver.

"No. They're bad for you. Oh! Maiko? It's your darling brother. I'm gonna be home really late, okay? I'm at Yuki's."

Yuki's had become Shuichi's refuge from whatever war was going on outside of the blonde's apartment walls. Shuichi's family had eventually accepted that the blonde meant something to him, and as long as he didn't get into too much 'trouble', he was allowed to stay. With some deeply rooted determination, Shuichi had insisted that Maiko would have to continue the Shindou line. His sister had laughed, and that had been the end of the subject.

"Okay. No, I won't. Maiko! I can't believe you were thinking about those kinds of things. Mom was right, you do read too many books."

Tatsuha shifted his gaze over to his older brother, a suggestive grin on his face that wouldn't go away. The blonde pretended to ignore him, but couldn't help the smirk that found its way onto his lips.

Shuichi laughed at whatever his sister had said, and then said goodbye. When he collapsed back onto the couch, he had missed day sixty-two, but that didn't seem to be a very important day. Not like day thirteen…that was a great concert.

When the Tour ended, and Ryuichi had stopped waving goodbye to the camera ("What I wouldn't give to meet him." Tatsuha had sighed dreamily), it was somewhere around two in the morning. Tatsuha turned on the cable, and soon flipped to a music channel. Whatever was on was being interrupted by what seemed to be the usual nightly pop culture news. The reporter looked up at the camera, and began to speak.

"It appears that the recently formed band, Featherdust, is breaking up. Surprisingly, the male duet do so after reaching the number two spot on the singles chart, hot on the trail of the infamous ASK."

"That's too bad, I have their album. They were doing really well." Tatsuha hummed in disapproval. Shuichi nodded, yawning before he spoke.
"Yeah, they were good. The singer had a great voice."

"Apparently unrelated to the two's splitting up, the guitarist, Yojin, has broken his arm. Details on the accident remain unknown. In other news…"

Shuichi sighed, feeling his eyelids becoming heavy. Tatsuha had finally become tired too, stretching to his legs out to occupy most of the couch. Yuki swatted at his brother's feet, but his only reward was Tatsuha wiggling his toes near the blonde's face. Tatsuha quickly fell asleep afterwards, snoring occasionally.

"Don't fall asleep, brat. I'll leave you here." Shuichi smiled, and only shifted into a more comfortable position, trying to bury his face in Yuki's shoulder. The blonde smelled like cigarettes, alcohol and cologne, as he always did, and the three mixed together were something like an aromatic lullaby.

"I'm not gonna fall asleep Yuki…" Came his murmur, but his eyelids quickly fluttered, and then closed.

Rolling his eyes, Yuki watched the news end, and early morning music videos take its place. One or two ASK videos, quite a few of Nittle Grasper's, and many more he couldn't name off the top of his head. Even though the band had parted ways years ago, they were still wildly popular. The days he had gone somewhere with Tohma were days fans, new and old, all begged the older blonde for his autograph. Tohma had readily signed them all, a funny little smile on his face. Of course, Ryuichi was infinitely more popular than Noriko and Tohma combined, but both had quickly accepted that Kumagoro had somehow won most of Japan over.

Sleep slowly worked its way into Yuki, causing him to loose what posture he had and sink into the couch. The lost chapter of his novel was all but forgotten, the main character and her boyfriend abandoned to try and write their own story. Willingly, he let his eyes close and his head nod, in the makings of a dream. A sudden nicotine craving hit him, but the kitchen table was too far away. If only that brat had brought those cigarettes before...

Shuichi's blue eyes flickered back into consciousness when he felt pressure top of his head, the breath that tickled his scalp and occasionally ruffled his hair. When he was awake enough to realize Yuki had fallen asleep, he also realized the TV was still blaring music.

The remote was held possessively in the snoring Tatsuha's hand, which seemed miles away, when it was only the other side of the couch. Shuichi could barely move, not daring to even entertain the idea of waking up Yuki. Mumbling at the pop music, Shuichi squirmed in his place on the couch, and then re-rested his head on Yuki's shoulder.

There was some simple happiness he found just by being near the blonde. He couldn't explain it, and didn't think he really wanted to. It wasn't love, not yet. It bordered on adoration, Shuichi knew he was drowning himself in almost unrequited affection. As long as he wasn't pushed away far enough, he would make sure the raw emotion that sometimes made his chest burn turn into something much more tangible. Something made him believe he had to. He had failed at becoming a singer, but he wouldn't fail at this.

I want to stay here forever.

As cliché and as overused as it was, it was true. Shuichi knew it was written in hundreds of romance novels, and said hundreds of more times by people who didn't really mean it. Shuichi meant it, though. He was almost positive that he did.

While Yuki's distinct mix of smells and Ryuichi's voice quickly ushered the teenager back to sleep, Shuichi couldn't help but wonder when it would all start to fall apart.

Ooh, you're such a poet Shuichi. Or maybe you've read one too many sappy books. They're not healthy, you know…

(Embrace me gently, hold me forever, more so you'll even break my soul…)
(Sotto dakishimete, zutto tsukamaete, motto kokoro made kowasu you ni…)

-------

Or something like that. The lyrics and translation of that line (the last from Sleepless Beauty), was found at Dare to Dream, another great Gravitation site. It's easy to find if you Google for it, you'll get it even if you type in just 'dare to dream'.

This chapter's a bit longer than usual, but it screams filler. It's about four pages and a bit without these notes. My goal for each is around three pages of size ten font in Works (Word is strangely not on this computer), just a funny habit of mine. I have two pages of the next Act written, so that should be out relatively soon after this.

My skill at naming minor OC characters makes me sad. Bar next chapter, I've been missing the place. :P

Aren't I great at subtlety? --; I'll get rid of the double timeline thingy very soon. - ; June is a good Gravitation month, both Volume 6 and the first DVD of the anime. ::drools::

Until next time!