Title: Playing House

Author: Hawk Clowd

Disclaimer: Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

Blood Type: vodka. It's good for you, really.

Warnings: very few.

Part: two.

Author's Notes: yes, the Japanese do celebrate Father's Day in June. I did all my research long before I even started writing this story. Also, I really want a cookie right now--a chocolate chip cookie, in fact. But not a warm, just-out-of-the-oven fresh cookie. I definitely want one right out of the package... I don't know if it's my laziness talking or just my strange need for a cookie, but I'm not going to question it at all.

---

Shuichi did come home the next day, at his usual time, and he immediately sat Eiri down and bombarded the writer with questions. Eiri was slow to answer, making sure his responses were well thought out and explanatory. It was obvious that Shuichi had had help thinking up some of the questions--it seemed highly unlikely to Eiri that Shuichi would think up questions such as "didn't you ever use protection during sex?" (sometimes) and "have you ever been tested for any diseases or infections?" (yes, but not recently)--but the majority of the questions were clearly Shuichi's invention alone.

They finally ended, two hours later, with "Why didn't you tell me?"

Eiri answered that question carefully. "I thought I had. Buffy wasn't even born until after you barged into my life, and it isn't as though Miho's parentage, especially, wasn't pasted all over the news. The mothers call regularly and it's more-or-less common knowledge that I have at least one child. Even if I didn't tell you about them, I would think that your mother or sister--or even your friends--would have brought it up."

Shuichi slumped. "Mom and Maiko tend to ignore things they don't like. Y'know, like the fact that I failed school and still turned out successful, or that I'm not interested in getting married to a nice girl and giving Mom grandkids. I'm sure that you having your own children would be one of those things they wouldn't like." He sighed. "And Hiro an all wouldn't bring it up unless they absolutely had to. They don't really like getting involved with our lives if they can help it."

"I don't like getting involved in our lives either," Eiri muttered, but Shuichi didn't catch it. "So no one told you at all?"

Shuichi shook his head. "I guess I should have guessed it, though. You never made your relationships with all those girls a secret or nothing, after all." He tried a smile, but even Eiri could see that his heart simply wasn't in it. "Are your kids nice?"

Eiri shrugged. "They're just kids, and I see them for a grand total of three or four days a year. It's hard to say. You'll meet them for yourself in a few days, however, so you can decide that for yourself."

Shuichi turned his head sharply to look at Eiri. "Wait, do... Do their mom's all know about you and me being...?"

Rolling his eyes, Eiri flicked Shuichi's ear with his finger. "Everyone in Japan knows about you and me, dummy. The only way they wouldn't know about it would be if they had been living in a very remote cave for the past six--"

"Seven."

"--seven months. Yes, Shuichi, the mothers all know that you exist. One of them is a fan of yours and asked me if I could convince you to give her an autograph, actually."

Shuichi perked up. "Really?"

"Yes. She obviously has no taste in music."

"Which one? I mean, whose mom was it?"

Eiri shrugged. "I don't remember. I probably saved the email, however." Eiri, after all, saved everything. Although he outwardly seemed to be neat and orderly, he was truly a packrat at heart. He threw virtually nothing away. He probably would never have taken out the trash if it hadn't been for the smell. Shuichi had once joked that the only things Eiri tossed aside were people and rotting trash, and that was actually closer to the truth than the writer was willing to admit.

"I'll hack into your account later, then." Shuichi moved so that he was sitting next to Eiri and he stealthily wormed his arms around the stoic writer. "I forgive you, by the way."

Eiri looked at the singer with a slight degree of surprise. "You forgive me?" he repeated. "What did I do?"

"And you say I'm dumb," Shuichi noted, giggling. "I forgive you for forgetting to tell me you had a bunch of kids and then for not explaining it all for me good enough." He squeezed the writer gently, in a mock hug. "So what're you gonna do with the kids when they come over for Father's Day? Lock yourself in your office and try to pretend they're not really here?"

Eiri frowned. "For some reason, I expected you to be far more emotional about all of this. I have four children. This doesn't bother you?"

Shuichi shook his head, smiling cheerfully. "I think I got all the emotionality out of my system while I was at Hiro's last night. Poor Hiro!" He laughed. "Besides, I can't control the things you did before I even met you, right? No more than you can control what I did."

"You didn't do anything before me, twit. The only sex you'd ever had was with your own right hand."

Shuichi made a face. "Left hand. You could at least get that right." He giggled. "Anyway, I'm glad you told me about your kids before things got too out of hand, and it's kind of neat. You're a dad and that sorta' indirectly makes me one, too."

Eiri decided it would be better not to comment on that, given that Shuichi's emotional state was rather tentative at the moment and that the singer was Dead Wrong. So, instead, he slid his hand under Shuichi's t-shirt to caress the singer's chest and smirked.

"You'd make a lousy father," Eiri practically purred into Shuichi's neck, kissing it roughly. Shuichi squirmed into the touches, circling his arms around Eiri's neck. He looked like he wanted to respond, but whatever words he'd planned were forgotten when Eiri bit the skin. The singer moaned.

"Yuki..."

"We're going to have three kids in our apartment all this weekend," Eiri pointed out, "and I'm not going to go an entire weekend without having any fun. You might forget everything I've been teaching you these past seven months, and then we'd be back to square one."

Shuichi furrowed his brow. "Square one?"

"Crappy sex. But you're too goddamn loud in bed," Eiri murmured. Shuichi moaned again as Eiri's fingers toyed with the singer's nipples. "See? Like that. So it seems we have two options. One, all my kids go home and tell their mothers just how loud we are when we're supposed to be sleeping and I'll never hear the end of it. Two, I teach you how to shut the hell up. What do you think?"

"Do I..." Shuichi inhaled sharply. "Do I get practical, hands-on lessons?"

Eiri snorted. "You are quite the lecherous one, aren't you?"

"Is that yes?"

"Mmm. I'm sure that Good Old Lefty will be more than happy to--"

Shuichi pulled a pout. "Yuki..."

"All right, then yes." Eiri smirked. "We only have two days to learn, however, so I suppose we should get started."

---to be continued---