Author's Notes: I was told that I should put up a new chapter each day. … Well… I'll try?? Hehe, here goes.
Disclaimer: I think we all know that I don't own Gravitation.
Gravitation Revisited: Magnetism
Uesugi Eiri groaned and lazily stretched in the bed. A slow, dreamy smile spread across his lips as he was gently pulled from sleeping. Warm hands were running through his hair, and soft lips were on his naked shoulders. It was a wonderful way to be woken up.
"G'mornin'," the blonde mumbled drowsily. He rolled over onto his back, eyes still closed.
"Hi there," came a breathy reply. The keeper of the voice leaned over from where he knelt by the side of the bed, and pressed his lips gently to Eiri's.
Eiri knew by the soft kisses and soothing voice that it could be no one other then Seguchi Tohma. The singer's eyelids fluttered open to land on pools of aquamarine – Tohma's eyes.
"How did you get here?" Eiri asked groggily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Tohma smiled. It wasn't the usual smile that he always wore around people. The genius keyboardist had a way of smiling at people to unnerve them and get his way. The boy was always calm and collected. He could be heartless and demanding, but not without the smile – no, never without the smile.
This smile, though, was the smile only Eiri got to see.
"Your father let me in." The platinum-blonde teen leant down and kissed Eiri once more. "Said you were up all night, too." Eiri flushed. "What time did you get to sleep?"
The vocalist shifted uneasily and sat up. Tohma had a way of acting like mother-hen to him.
"Sometime after four, I think. I'm not sure." Eiri ran his fingers through his disheveled hair. "I was working on finishing the lyrics," he added defensively when Tohma sent him a reprimanding glare (and the smile even faltered for a moment, too).
It was already – Eiri looked at the clock on his wall – a little passed noon on Thursday. He didn't have much more time to finish. The words were all written, and the stanzas fit perfectly to the melody, but the feeling wasn't quite getting through yet. It still needed to be tweaked.
Though, according to Shindou Yuu, Eiri thought semi-sourly, I won't get the feeling through, no matter what.
The blonde remembered what the novelist had said to him about how he shouldn't write about love if he wasn't in love.
Eiri's eyes fell to Tohma.
He's wrong, Eiri reminded himself. I love Tohma.
As if to prove his point (though to whom, Eiri wasn't sure) the teen moved forward and wrapped an arm around Tohma's shoulders. Eiri felt the older boy tense, but ignored it and pulled the keyboardist close. Their lips met and Eiri kissed him hard.
Tohma relaxed quickly, reaching a hand out to rest on his beau's waist. He ran his fingers over the hem of Eiri's pajama bottoms as the two kissed. It made Tohma wonder why exactly Eiri was acting so demanding…
Pulling away, slightly short of breath, Eiri flushed. He muttered a small apology, but his lover merely smiled and shook his head, leaning in for a softer kiss.
Eiri complied, but rather light-headedly. Something didn't feel right in that first kiss, and it was become more and more apparent in the kinder one. The blonde had never noticed it before, but there was no feeling in the kiss. It was just lips touching lips, and tongues rubbing against tongues.
Eiri had read about love in books and seen it in movies, but he never actually understood it. He had figured it would be clear if he loved someone when the time came. And when Tohma came into his life a few years back, Eiri was sure. He was frightened, but he was sure.
Seguchi Tohma was in Eiri's class when the two were first years. Eiri was still in the closet with his homosexuality – in fact, he himself didn't even know about it yet. That is, until Tohma approached him one day.
(Since Eiri and his little brother, Tatsuha, were kids they loved music. One day, their father bought Tatsuha a guitar. The two Uesugi's then started their own little band, entertaining friends and relatives when they visited. The band, which was first entitled "I'm with Stupid" [Eiri named it, to Tatsuha's chagrin], soon became a band of three when Tatsuha met Nakano Hiroshi in fifth grade. The younger Uesugi then bought a bass, Eiri continued to sing, and their new addition played guitar. They were quite an amusing group, whose name then changed to "We're with Stupid" [with Tatsuha still as the brunt of the joke]. )
Tohma heard about the three's makeshift rock back from word of mouth. It was then he approached Uesugi Eiri for the first time. Within two hours Seguchi Tohma was a member of "We're with Stupid". The keyboardist's skills were too good of an opportunity for Eiri and company to pass up. It was a mutual agreement.
Eiri began falling for his bandmate fast and hard. It was a sickening, terrifying fall, and the vocalist did everything in his power to stop it. However, nothing worked.
Tohma, seeming to have a knack at knowing everything, began to pick up on Eiri's hidden whirlwind of emotions. Not being one to be shy, Tohma confronted Eiri.
Now, nearly three years later, the two were an item. When questioned, they referred to themselves as "friends with benefits", or other like terms. In actuality, they were more then that.
Eiri had never uttered the words "I love you" to Tohma, but the latter had informed Eiri of his feelings many times. He took no offense to the blonde not saying them back – or maybe his smile was just misleading Eiri. Either way, they were comfortable, and Eiri knew in his heart he loved the older teen.
At least, he thought he knew.
Eiri pulled back from the kiss. Somehow, while all these thoughts and memories were flooding though his head, the kiss had gotten heated. The younger man was now straddled over Tohma. Tohma was smiling warmly, truly.
"We better get up before my father sees us," Eiri managed hoarsely.
The head of the Uesugis knew of his son's sexual preferences, but preferred to not see it flaunted in his face. He was a very traditional man who owned a temple in Kyoto where he spent most of his time (he only came to the apartment in Tokyo on the weekends to see his children. However, Tatsuha got laryngitis on Wednesday and needed someone to take him to the doctor. It would ruin the concert if their back-up singer was useless.). Being a Buddhist priest made father Uesugi uptight about his son's promiscuous ways. He wanted the eldest son to produce an heir to the family and be a true Buddhist monk. Eiri had been called a "disappointment" on more then one occasion.
Eiri crawled off of his boyfriend in a daze, unsure of how to place the swelling of confusion in him. He decided it best to ignore the situation. He had the lyrics to concentrate on.
As if reading his thoughts, as it usually seemed, Tohma queried "how are the lyrics coming, anyway, Eiri-chan?"
When Eiri was younger, he hoped that maybe he would get a nice girlfriend. She would call him Eiri-chan in a sweet, melodic voice, and every time she would say it, he would get a chill. There was no chill with Tohma.
Why did he suddenly feel so empty?
"Fine," the golden-haired teen answered. He stumbled over to the doorway that attached his bedroom to the half-bath. He left the door open as he washed his hands and face.
Tohma trotted to the doorway, leaning against it. His cheeks were still lightly flushed. "Are they done?"
"Almost." Eiri's voice was muffled as he dried his face with the towel. He pulled back and stared into the mirror.
Golden eyes glimmered back at him. It was a trait that his father issued as a "disappointment". Eiri, a full-blooded Japanese, was born with gold hair and equally gold eyes.
When he was younger, the blonde boy was teased by the other kids. He was even snickered at by a few adults. Eiri was issued many times by his father to either shave his head, or die his hair black. The teen refused either. Instead, just to spite the old man, Eiri died his hair every color but black. It was his trademark at school. Every month was a different color. This month he went for the au natural gold.
His eyes, however, he always kept blue.
Eiri reached out a hand for his contact case. Tohma chatted with him, speaking of the concert the following night. As he put in the colored contacts, the vocalist answered in monosyllables; Tohma didn't notice, or pretended not to.
As Eiri placed the second contact in, there was a hard knock at his bedroom door.
"Go get it, will you, Tohma?"
The keyboardist complied, scampering to the door and opening it. Uesugi Mika, the eldest of the three Uesugi siblings, stood with her hands on her hips.
"Father's leaving for Kyoto. He wants me to tell you two to come say goodbye to him." She was scowling. Mika turned sharply, her long brown hair whipping behind her. As she trailed back down the hall she added "And good afternoon to you, Seguchi-san."
Tohma laughed softly and shook his head. Uesugi Mika was a mystery to all. She was quick to the point and brutal, just like he. In fact, the two were similar in most aspects of life – they got along nicely. Mika even told him once "it's a shame you're three years younger than me and gay." Yes, she was blunt. But Tohma was as well. The only difference between them lied in the fact that Mika was sharp with a scowl and Tohma was intimidating with a smile.
It's a shame indeed, Mika-san, Tohma thought humorously as he turned back into the bedroom. But I love your younger brother more then anything, he added, watching as Eiri pulled a wife-beater over his head.
"Mika-san said—"
"I know," the singer began, cutting Tohma off. "I heard her."
The platinum-blonde teen blinked in mild surprise as Eiri brushed past him and into the hall. Tohma turned to see Eiri's retreating back, wondering silently what had gotten his lover in a bad mood. He had been acting a little strange since Tohma woke him up.
"Eiri-chan, did I—"
Tohma was cut off again by the booming voice of the Uesugi children's father.
"I won't be coming home this weekend," the Uesugi head explained. "I already lost two weekdays at the temple. I'm not missing the weekend, too." He shot a glare to Tatsuha, who was sitting on the couch, munching on potato chips and watching TV. The youngest Uesugi rolled his eyes.
"I'll watch them, father," Mika informed, constantly the good daughter. "Just like always."
"You're wonderful, Mika," their father beamed, kissing the twenty-year old on the forehead. "Don't harass your sister," he continued, eyeing his sons. "I know how rowdy you two get on the weekends, especially after a successful concert.
Eiri bristled. If the lyrics still weren't good and Tatsuha's voice didn't come back, then the concert would be far from successful.
"I'll see you kids next weekend. I'll call you."
With that, the Uesugi father picked up his bag and walked out the door, closing it tightly behind him. Eiri's head stung from the sound.
I'm not feeling well, he thought dizzily.
When Tohma had answered the door for Mika, Eiri started to think further on his situation. He couldn't ignore it – it was practically staring him right in the face.
Something's wrong with me, he had thought, glaring at his blue-eyed reflection. Shindou Yuu… you really fucked up my way of thinking, you know that?
Yes, it was all that strange novelist's fault. If he hadn't made Eiri second guess his feelings toward Tohma like this, then the singer wouldn't be feeling this way. His head wouldn't be pounding, and his heart wouldn't be aching.
Something was missing…
"Eiri-chan?"
There was nothing there at the sound of the cute nickname.
Eiri felt Tohma's hand on his shoulder.
There was no jolt down the spine.
"Are you okay?"
There was no warmth in Eiri's stomach from the kind words.
Eiri nodded. Tohma hesitated a moment and leant up to kiss him on the cheek.
There was no fluttering heart.
"If you need to talk…"
Was it all pretend?
"I'm going to go work on the lyrics," Eiri exclaimed suddenly, jerking away from Tohma. He strutted down the hall. "Go home, Tohma," he finished gruffly, closing the door behind him.
Author's Notes: Uh-oh. I think I'm gonna get flames form all the Tohma x Eiri fangirls now. XD Don't hurt me!! I love Tohma, too! But this isn't a Tohma x Eiri fic… ;; I'm sorry!! Please don't hate me and continue reading!
And review.