CHAPTER THREE
Home

They all just sat there, looking at each other in such an awkward manner.

Finally, Red broke the ice. "So... uhm... How about let's get acquainted with each other? I was introduced by Seguchi-san, but he never really introduced you guys. Who wants to start?" He asked the six people in front of him as he leaned forward to the table.

"Ooooohhhh... Introductions! I love introductions! Don't you, Kumagorou?" Ryuichi asked his stuffed bunny, and shockingly, it nodded. "My name is Sakuma Ryuichi. I am Bad Luck's vocalist." The raven-haired singer said to Red in a very cheerful voice.

"Who's next?" Red asked them.

"I'm Nakano Hiroshi and the band's guitarist."

"My name is Suguru Fujisaki. I'm the keyboardist of the band. I also arrange the music for the songs we make."

"Wow..." Kat said a bit amazed by Fujisaki's descriptions of himself.

"I beg your pardon?" Fujisaki looked up and asked her kindly.

"How old are you? Like 25, right? That's the same age as I am. These guys you're working with are a lot older than you are but, still, you end up placing the finishing touches for your songs. I can't even sing in the shower let alone arrange music concerning numerous complications. That's really impressive." Kat told him with a smile on her face.

"Thank you." Fujisaki smiled at her and they just stayed like that for a few minutes until

"Great, puppy love." Jed broke their gazes. Kat just glared at him clearly saying, "What is that supposed to mean?" Instead of offering Kat an explanation, Jed just looked away from her.

"Let's continue...?" Red said with a smile on his face.

"I'm Sakano and I'm the band's producer."

"You can call me K. I'm their manager."

"Oh, yes. I've heard of you. You like guns, don't you? I could show you mine if you want, though some are back at home, but I still brought some with me. I would really like to hear some suggestions for some new snipers. Jed here doesn't really like guns that much, but he's really good at handling one." Kat said to K. This absolutely sent shivers down Sakano's spine considering that there were now two people who fancied guns.

"Hmmm... that could be a good idea. Sure why not?" K said to her. "Great!" Kat replied.

"I need to get out of here." Jed mumbled in between breaths.

"So, how about you?" Red asked to a certain blonde at the end of the table.

Yuki looked at him and shrugged, "What's there to say? I'm Yuki Eiri. Romance novelist. That's all."

"If you're a novelist then you surely have a pen name. So is 'Yuki Eiri' a pen name?" Red asked Yuki politely. "My real name is Uesugi Eiri. So, yes, that means 'Yuki Eiri' is my pen name." Yuki simply replied.

"Oh." was all Red could say.

"It's getting late. We should get going. Kat would be with you on Monday." He said to the band. He then faced Kat, "We're going to sleep in a hotel for a while. I'll help you move in during the weekend." Kat just nodded to what she was told. "And as for you," Red faced Jed. "You are going to start living with your client tonight. He lives just down the street, if the information given to me was correct." Red received a single nod from Jed. "Good. It's really nice meeting all of you. Good night." Red said to all of them.

All stood up from the table and proceeded to exit the restaurant.

'I really need to get back to this restaurant. The food was great.' Jed thought to himself as he looked up at the building. He noticed that the band and Yuki Eiri were just standing behind him. "Yo, Jed!" Kat called him over.

Jed approached the Jaguar in front of his motorcycle and proceeded to its trunk. "Here's your stuff. Your sling bag, everything's there, I think. Cellphone, i-pod, palmtop, wallet, sunglasses, extra shirt, handkerchief and a pistol." Jed looked at her dangerously at the mention of the last object inside his bag. "In case of emergency." Kat said sheepishly. "Jeez... I don't know why you act so harsh on a small thing. You handle snipers and machine guns, why not a tiny little pistol?"

Then she handed him a sports bag. "Here's your luggage. I don't really know how you can call that thing your luggage. It's too small. I could never think how I can live with that for three months." Jed just looked at her and said, "That's because you're a girl." Kat just looked at him and replied, "Whatever."

Jed rummaged into the bag. "Where's my laptop?" Kat took the bag from him and dug deeper into the bag. She opened a built-in zipper which revealed a flat compartment with cushions all over it. "There." She pointed to the slim silver metallic box laid under Jed's clothes. "I customized the bag so that you can put your laptop in it without anyone recognizing it. Pretty nice, eh?" She said as she turned around and bent down to retrieve one last thing for her brother.

"And here. You're most prized possession." She handed him a katana that had a maroon handle. It was very heavy but Jed took it from her like it was just some piece of plastic.

Yuki Eiri just patiently watched as Kat gave Jed his belongings. He saw Kat tiptoed and leaned closer to Jed to whisper something in his ears. To her convenience, Jed also leaned closer to her. After Kat whispered some things to him, Jed looked into her eyes and smiled.

'I can't believe it! The cold bastard just smiled!' Yuki thought a little wide-eyed of what he just witnessed, though after noting that Jed looked better after the smile.

Then he saw Jed pat Kat's head like what a guy would do after his dog fetched him a Frisbee.

'They must be really close.' Yuki thought after seeing the siblings say their goodbyes. 'I wonder why me and Mika never got along that well.' At the thought of his sister yelling, cursing and practically ready to kill him, he changed his train of thoughts. 'Yeah, right. That's why.'

Jed walked towards Yuki after saying goodbye to Red and the band. He looked him straight in the eye - brown meeting amber, "So, where's your crib?" Jed asked. Yuki looked away and said, "It's just down the street. Just follow"

"You want a ride?" Jed asked him as he was carefully placing his luggage on the motorcycle, carefully estimating its weight balance. Yuki looked at the motorcycle thoroughly.

'Cars I can handle, its these things I can't. Especially if it's his waist that I have to hold onto for the whole time.' "No, thanks." He simply replied and walked towards his flat.

After a few moments, Jed put his helmet on with no cover. He started the engine and followed slowly to the tall figure in front of him, though he was never used to drive his bike slowly.

"Hey, Eiri-san!" a feminine voice called over to the blonde. Yuki merely looked back, the wind gently messing up his hair in the process of doing so. "Do me a favor and look after him. He can be a pain but he's still human. Thanks!" Kat shouted to him as she waved at him.

"And Jed," Jed looked back at his sister, "Take care of yourself and don't you dare mess things up!" Jed smiled at her using his eyes because she can't really see his mouth.

'I thought I was the one who he was supposed to be protecting. Then why is his sister telling me that it's the other way around.' Yuki thought as he resumed to walk to his apartment still with Jed following him.

Blank. It was pure blank. Lifeless and no essence whatsoever. 'Who the hell can live in a place as blunt as this?' Jed thought as he gathered his bags and katana from the floor and walked through the door of his house for the next three months.

"Just feel at" Yuki told him as he closed the door.

"Home." Jed finished the sentence for him. He can't understand it but there was something about Yuki Eiri's apartment. Sure, at first it looks like some apartment with a few furniture and plain boring, but there was just something about the place which made Jed finish Yuki's sentence for him.

Home.

But he already had one back at Kumamoto, with Kat. But why does he feel like this was also his home?

"Yeah... Look, there are three rooms here. One's mine, the other's my study, and the other is the guest room. You may stay there, just don't misplace anything that's already there. The bathroom's down the hallway and the kitchen is right there." Yuki told Jed as he pointed towards the kitchen.

Before Yuki could go down the hallway and into his bedroom, Jed called him. "Hey," Yuki turned around to look at him, "what can I call you?"

Yuki arched an eyebrow at the unusual question.

"I mean I don't really know what to call you because you have different names. Uesugi-san, Eiri-san, Yuki-san, Eiri, Boss?"

"You can call me Yuki." Yuki told him as he turned around and proceeded to his bedroom.

'Yuki... snow... I guess that could do.' Jed proceeded to his own bedroom after having that little conversation with Yuki.

He opened the door and peeked inside, as if making sure there really was nobody staying there. After confirming himself that there was no one else inside the room, he opened the door wide and looked at his new room.

It looked pretty cozy. A single bed with brown sheets. It had 2 pillows and a comforter neatly placed on it as if anticipating that a guest was coming. He sat down at the edge of the bed and looked around. There were a few posters of Nittle Grasper on the wall, at least two of them. At the edge of the room, a stack of CDs were neatly placed to avoid inconvenience. His bed was just beside the window and at the other side of it was a bedside table and a lamp. In front of him was the closet and beside it was a keyboard covered by a black cloth. It was obvious that it hadn't been used for years because the cloth already had a great amount of dust on it.

He slowly approached the keyboard and touched the cover. Though it was very dusty, he removed the cover and put it down the floor. It was a Roland keyboard complete with a MIDI system and accompaniment. He plugged it in and turned it on. He set the tune to grand piano and started pressing keys. Fortunately there was a chair at the bedside table. He took it and seated himself comfortably to face the keys in front of him.

It was as though something came over him and the next thing he knew, he was playing on the keyboard like it was the most natural thing to do. What shocked him the most was exactly how he did that, but something inside him just wanted to continue, so he did.

The melody he was playing was not popular and not really that catchy but it was a bit familiar. He abruptly stopped what he was doing after sensing that somebody was looking at him. He looked at the doorframe and there he was, his client, right in the middle of the doorway staring at him.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to" Jed started to explain but he was cut off by Yuki. "How did you know that song?" Yuki asked, staring right into his eyes.

That was exactly the question Jed was looking for, but he can't let Yuki know that. He just had to play it safe. "Oh, that. A friend of mine taught me how to play the song. He's a really good pianist though kind of stupid." Jed lied to Yuki as he pulled the plug and put the cover back on top.

"Oh... I just came here to tell you that I'm going to have a breakfast meeting. So you have to be early." Yuki turned around to go back to his room when he remembered something, "Oh, yeah. Since your my bodyguard, you have to know my appointments because I don't have the time nor the will to tell you where I want and need to go."

Jed looked at the empty doorway that was once occupied by Yuki Eiri. 'That bastard! What does he think I am? A freakin' secretary? I am so going to get him for this.' Jed went to the door, closed it and walked towards his bed. He changed into his boxers and prepared himself for a good night sleep. Besides, the fatigue he was through is even worse than a jetlag. So in a few minutes, he dozed off peacefully.

Yuki paced back into his room while thinking about what he just saw. 'How could Jed know that song? As far as I know, only he knows the melody of that song...' Yuki still can't take the scene out of his head. It just bothered him why Jed knew the song that Shuichi made. He still remembered it clearly...

flashback

Yuki was laid on the couch with his head resting on Shuichi's lap. Shuichi was combing Yuki's blonde locks with his hands. Then Shuichi started humming a new melody.

Yuki turned to face Shuichi whose head is just above him. "A new one?"

Shuichi smiled sweetly at him while giving him a silent nod. "It's good..." Yuki heard himself say to his lover after turning back, head still resting on the boy's lap with the back of his head facing Shuichi's stomach.

"Isn't it? I just thought of it a few days ago. I've never told anyone about it yet. Nobody heard it before too, well except for you because I'm humming it to you right now, I mean a while ago. Anyways, I don't have the proper lyrics for it yet, but I'll have it very soon. It's really special because I made it for us." Shuichi smiled at the thought of whom the song was for. "Although I don't have the lyrics for it yet, I already have the perfect title: Sweetest Goodbye..."

"Goodbye...?" Yuki wondered why the song's title has the word "goodbye" and yet it talks about their relationship. Does Shuichi want to leave him? What if the song talks about their relationship but also how it ended? Yuki would never know what to do if Shuichi leaves him. But Yuki assured himself, 'He won't leave me. He loves me and he knows I love him too.'

Sensing Yuki's awkwardness at the title of his new song, Shuichi quickly supplied the missing information for his lover. "The song talks about what I thought of you when we first met," Shuichi started calmly, "and how I loved you more everyday. Don't worry about the title. You'll just have to listen to me sing it to understand the full meaning of both the song and its title."

"Who said I was worried?" Yuki said feeling relieved that the song offered to him had nothing to do with his thoughts earlier.

Shuichi looked down at the side of his head which rested on his lap peacefully. He smiled sweetly and bent down to whisper in his ear. "You are such a denial king, Yuki..."

Yuki turned his head and glared at him. Shuichi took the advantage and locked their lips together, a simple yet a strong kiss. Shuichi pulled away and opened his eyes to look straight into Yuki's amber ones. "But I still love you..."

Yuki sat up straight and faced his lover. He put his palm on Shuichi's left cheek and caressed it while looking intently onto his violet eyes. "Love you too."

Shuichi smiled warmly at him and kissed him again, this time full of passion and love.

end of flashback

'Maybe he's right. It's been seven years. Maybe somebody thought of the melody and maybe that somebody was one of Jed's acquaintances.' Yuki thought as he sat on the edge of his bed. 'I shouldn't stress myself on senseless things.' He swung his legs to the bed and laid on his stomach. Minutes after, he was fast asleep.

Author's notes:

Yo, what's up? Would just like to send some shout outs to the three people who reviewed. Seriously, I never really thought that somebody would actually review, but thanks a lot.

Hope you'll all like the story... I mean the whole thing. I have a plot for it but I don't really know how to put it into words. That's one of the reasons why it takes my such a long time to post some new chapters.

Thanks a lot and just keep on reading. peace out!