Title: Earthquake
By: Who else, but me? (Umm...Kibethan)
Disclaimer: I STILL don't own Gravitation, no matter how much I want it. (and trust me, I want it very, very much...)
Summary: When an earthquake occurs in Japan and Yuki is in America, how will Yuki and Shuichi cope with being away from each other during this time, and will Shuichi even survive long enough to be able to be with Yuki again?
Yet another, half warning: There is still some swearing in this story. Try to bear with it. It's why it's rated "PG-13"
Chapter 4
Yuki awoke with a start. He bolted upright in bed, his heart beating wildly and he was in a cold sweat.
'What the hell?' he thought. He had fallen asleep watching CNN (as a matter of fact, the television was still on) and had been in a deep sleep when all of a sudden he had been awoken. He thought that he'd heard Shuichi...but that couldn't be right.
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He looked at the television. They were still reporting about the earthquake.
"The number of dead has increased to 3,000..." Three thousand? Wait a minute! Last he heard it was thirty! The difference was appalling. It had only been a couple hours since he last checked.
And, again, what if Shuichi was among the dead?
"I have to do something!" he screamed in his room. "Maybe if I called Shuichi on his cell phone..." He ran to the phone and dialed the number that he knew by heart.
"The number you dialed is currently unavailable, please hang up and try again. The number you dialed..." Yuki hung up and dialed again. He hung up after getting the same message again.
"Fuck!" He put his head in his hands, looking dejected. He couldn't figure out what to do. 'Tohma...of course! Tohma's phone is a satellite phone,' he thought. There wasn't an earthquake in space! Yuki quickly dialed the number, extremely happy with himself that he'd thought of it.
His heart skipped a beat when it began ringing, and damn near stopped beating altogether when Tohma's voice picked up.
"Hello?" Tohma's currently somewhat raspy voice answered.
"Tohma!"
"Eiri? Is that you? What're you calling for? Were you worried about your brother-in-law?" he asked slyly.
"No, I was just wondering if Shuichi was alright."
"I don't know. We were at lunch when it happened (I'm assuming that you know that an earthquake happened, right). Shuichi was still in the N-G building. We (that's K, Sakano, and me) were just heading over there to see if they (Hiro, Suguru, and Shuichi) were okay. What's the phone number for you the phone you called with? I'll give you a call when I find out." Yuki gave him the phone number and then he hung up.
He turned his attention back to the television. They were showing more pictures of the wreckage still. He found it hard to believe that that much destruction could happen in such a small amount of time. It would take years before they get everything cleaned up.
That worried Yuki, too. Exactly how long would it take for them to fix the runway? He didn't really want to be away from Shuichi any longer than he had to be.
It was taking Tohma a long time to call back. Yuki wondered briefly if he should've asked Tohma if he was all right. Maybe he was hurt, but still making his way to the N-G building for Yuki anyway.
He shook his head at the thought. Tohma wasn't self-sacrificing in any way, shape, or form. Besides, hadn't he said that he was on his way over there anyway? So what the hell was taking so damn long?
Yuki started pacing in the hotel room. It felt like it was getting smaller with every step he took, suffocating him. He wanted so badly to go for a walk outside again, but he was afraid that if he did, he would miss the call when Tohma called back, if he called back.
What if Tohma forgot to call back? If that happened, Yuki thought that he would probably kill him when he got his hands on him. Except, that wouldn't ever happen; just because sometimes Tohma is mean doesn't mean that he's absent-minded. He definitely wouldn't forget.
What if, thought, Tohma was avoiding calling back because it would be with bad news? Yuki ruled that one out right away, too. Tohma's a little sadistic and loves being the bearer of bad news.
What was taking so long?
Yuki's stomach grumbled and he figured that as long as he was up, he might as well order something from room service. He didn't even care if he had to pay for it.
Room service showed up thirty minutes later, slight pissed off that they had to work so early (it was around one in the morning). Tohma still hadn't called back, so Yuki was pissed. Two people who are both pissed off, meeting each other generally isn't a good thing. By the time that the room service guy left, a manager had threatened to fire the room service guy, and to kick Yuki out of his room and onto the street.
Of course, that hadn't made either of the parties very happy. They were still both pissed.
Yuki grumbled and went back to watching CNN again. He was beginning to develop a love/hate relationship with the program. He loved it, because it gave him some information about what was happening in Japan. On the other hand, he hated it because it was giving him depressing information.
"A firestorm is covering the city as some buildings in Tokyo continue on burning brightly. Recently, we got work that this earthquake was an 8.8 on the Richter Magnitude. This was the largest earthquake in Japan in the last 20 years."
'This is too depressing,' Yuki thought. He grabbed the remote and quickly changed the channel, searching for something a little bit happier. He landed on South Park and was so disgusted by it that he ended up back on CNN in two minutes.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of waiting, when it had actually only been, well, hours of waiting, the phone rang. Yuki ran to the phone.
"Hello?" he asked anxiously.
"It's Tohma."
"I figured, what news do you have, good or bad."
"Well, a little bit of both, I guess."
"The bad news first."
"When we got to the N-G building it was collapsed. I'm so sorry, Yuki, but if he was in there, I can't imagine how he could've escaped." Yuki almost dropped the phone
"What...was the good news?" Yuki asked as he choked back a rather painful sob.
"We didn't actually see a body. It could be that he got out of there before it collapsed." Yuki was silent. "Eiri? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I'll talk to you when I get back to Japan." Yuki hung up the phone and gently laid the phone back in its cradle. His eyes were completely dead. If the N-G building had collapsed, and Shuichi had been in it...there was no way that he would've survived. As much as he hated to admit it, and as little as he showed it, he cared for Shuichi quite a lot. If Shuichi died, then, he would probably die too.
'Of course, Shuichi might not be dead,' a little voice in Yuki's head told him. Yuki lifted up his head, his eyes holding a smidgeon of hope. That's right. Shuichi might not be dead.
With a lot of resolve, Yuki decided what he needed to do to find out if Shuichi was alive or not. But...it could wait until later; when the rest of the world was awake. Besides, if he didn't get very much sleep, then he was more prone to arguing with people, and he figured that that wouldn't help him very much on, what he considered now his quest.
He would start it in the morning.
End Chapter 4
Chapter four...done and done! And now, a quick review of reviews:
Crazi 4 Grasper: I know where Puyallup is! Thank you for the experience, and the review!, Rebound: Thank you for the review!, MC-88: Oh, don't worry, it'll keep coming, Dntfckwifme: I live in a place where it rains a lot too, I think a little change of scenary would be nice, and I'd already be used to the weather!, emerald-jade: I know it was a bit short...sorry...also, I realize that it's VERY unlikely that a hospital (much less a hospital in Japan) would collapse. But, I'm using a big of artistic license, and it is a BIG earthquake. Try to keep that in mind..., Youki no ko: Thank you for telling me about your family's experience with earthquakes, also the runways in Japan are destroyed (no plane, public or private...), lemur130: OMG. That. Is. Hilarious!, goku-the-saru: Katie. Um...you need psychiatric help... (j/k), Seven7: Yay! Please, elaborate more on your earthquake experience! Also thanks for the two reviews!, Kolie: thank you for the review!, Tanuki-dono: Another long review! I'm flattered! Also, I'm trying to spit out a chapter a day (doing a good job so far, ne?), Little Fox Kit: Thank you for the review!
Reviews are still like candy! Um...yeah... please review. AND THE RED SOX JUST WON!!!!