Thankyou to my wonderful reviewers of Chapters 1, 2, and 3. I'm glad that most of you liked them! To the people who said that they didn't like my OC's or said they were unnecessary, I'm trying to add a little humour to the plot of this particular story. By the way, Kaede is not a friend of Eiri's… at least not directly. It will probably be explained in this chapter or the next. I also thought that Gravitation is in desperate need of some female characters, Reiji and Mika and occasionally Maiko are all it's got at the moment, unless you count Judy Winchester. And how can you say Kaede's a Mary Sue? Her character hasn't been properly defined yet, for a reason. I haven't given her enough depth yet, so bear with me.
Also, please note that I'm going on the Manga alone; I have not yet seen the Anime because I am Australian and we can't get it over here yet. I have the first volume on order but it's taking forever to get here and it's costing me $50.00 Aust. Basically, we pay double for American DVDs.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation, or My Happy Ending. I own Ancient Curse.
Just a little add on, has anybody heard "Smashing Blue", "Sleepless Beauty", "Spicy Marmalade", "Glaring Dream", "In the Moonlight" or "Shuichi's Theme"? They are the best songs EVER!!! I live for In the Moonlight, a kick ass Bad Luck song for those of you who haven't heard it, and Shuichi's theme is the prettiest instrumental I have ever heard!
Smashing Blue and Sleepless Beauty are Nittle Grasper songs, if you've heard any of them, tell me, I need people to rave to! XD although, if you've seen the Anime then no doubt you've heard them, can anyone tell me if there are English versions of any of them?
Missing Amethyst Eyes
Chapter Four
"Shuichi?" Hiro waved his hand in front of his lead singer's face. "Shuichi! Shuichi! SHU!!!" he cracked the boy lightly over the head.
"Huh? Oh, sorry Hiro, did you want something?" Shuichi said blankly.
"Are you all right?" Hiro asked his best friend worriedly.
"Ah, yeah, I'm fine Hiro, honestly." Shuichi said tiredly. "I just didn't get much sleep last night."
Hiro grinned wickedly. "What? Ryuichi kept you up all night?" he asked.
Shuichi turned scarlet. "Yes actually, but don't be disgusting." He replied. "We sat up talking all night. Well actually, he did most of the talking, I was too busy crying." He sniffed.
Hiro put his arm around Shuichi's shoulders. "I can imagine, so what happened anyway?" he asked him.
Shuichi told him about what had happened in the street the day before.
Hiro whistled. "Well, what a fuck up that was! We couldn't have asked for a better situation for our plan!" he grinned widely. Seeing the look on Shuichi's face he sobered up. "Sorry dude, I know it's rough, but once this is over, you'll never have to look back." He told him soothingly.
Shuichi nodded. "Yeah I know, but that doesn't make the present any easier." He whispered.
"Well, cheer up for now anyway, we've got a song to record!" Hiro boomed happily.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me!" Shuichi said, rummaged in his shirt pocket. "Yuki crashed into some girl yesterday and she gave me a backstage pass for us to go to the Ancient Curse concert on Monday!" he passed the tickets around to the rest of the group.
"Cool! That'll be awesome!" Suguru said enthusiastically. It was the most excitement that the others had heard in his voice for quite some time.
"Su-chan's got the hots for the lead singer!" Hiro crowed delightedly.
"Shut up Nakano!" Suguru flushed a red colour. "I do not! I just think… they're really good!" he added, although Hiro had hit the mark fairly accurately.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure." Hiro nodded wisely and winked at Shuichi, who couldn't help but smile. So Suguru wasn't as immune to crushes as they thought he was.
K took a look at the backstage pass, a thoughtful look on his face. "How did she get her hands on backstage passes?" he asked.
Shuichi shrugged. "She said she won some radio competition."
'That's a lie.' K thought. 'I'd know about a radio competition.' But he decided to let it go. He figured that it would make more sense when they got to the concert.
"Here," Eiri threw the backstage pass at his younger brother, who looked at it sullenly. "What?" he demanded rudely.
"Can't you control your bloody friends?" Eiri demanded.
This time, Tatsuha looked down at the pass more closely. He grinned like mad. "Why would I want to control my friends I ask? Particularly one as uncontrollable as Kaede-chan?"
Eiri glared at him. "She was never that bad when you were little! You've corrupted her!"
"Now, now. Corrupted is such a harsh word. I prefer the term taught. And yes, I did teach her well." Tatsuha corrected him. "And don't forget that eight or nine years have passed since you last saw her, she hasn't really changed." He sighed, "She's still a total goofball, and an absolute klutz. She may sing like an angel, but she's far from it. I should know, I'm her best friend."
He grinned up at his big brother, "Besides, I have no control over her, not really, she does what she wants."
Eiri glared at him harder still, if that was at all humanly possible. "Why in God's name did you let her into my apartment?" he demanded.
Tatsuha grimaced. "I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. She looked really pissed when she came to see me. I don't know about you, but I've learnt not to cross her when she's like that. What did you do to piss her off anyway?"
Eiri growled. "I don't want to talk about it. Besides, I thought you would know already."
"What? That Shuichi left, then you dumped him and he's now dating my Ryu-chan?" Tatsuha said gloomily, "Yeah, I heard a rumour."
"Yeah, no doubt from Miss Kurasawa." Eiri commented. He pointed at the pass, "So, you going to come?"
"Yeah, but I've already got one, you should invite Tohma and Mika and perhaps Noriko-san. I've already invited Ryuichi, before all this crap happened." Tatsuha answered.
"Yeah, whatever. Later!" Eiri answered and let himself out.
"So let me get this straight. You've basically given everybody involved in their little spat tickets to our concert. Are you trying to cause trouble?" the blonde haired boy demanded of Kaede.
"I'm not trying to cause trouble Kai, I'm trying to help!" Kaede looked like she was about to cry.
The blonde sighed and walked over to his guitar and, ignoring the brunette, began to pluck at the strings.
"Question, how exactly is this going to help? More to the point, who exactly is this going to help?" brown haired brown eyed Sanosuke asked her, more vocal than usual.
"How… well I don't exactly know. As for who, Eiri hopefully."
"Oh, you obviously found him then." A black haired girl who looked a lot like Akito said softly.
"More to the point, he ran into me head first." Kaede pouted.
"Yeah, then she met his boyfriend." Akito laughed, being his usual laidback self.
His sister looked at him, startled. "Boyfriend?" Akito nodded. She whistled, "Well, who'd have thought?"
"I know who didn't think." Kai said softly from the corner where he was tuning his bass guitar. "I think you've bitten off more than you can chew Kaede."
"Awww, lay off her Kai." Akito said, putting his arm around Kaede's shoulder. He grinned mischievously. "Besides, we went to see Tatsuha, and he nearly had a coronary when we told him Shuichi Shindou was dating Ryuichi Sakuma."
"Dating? Isn't that a little sudden when you just told us you witnessed Eiri and Shindou's break-up?" the only member of the band who hadn't yet spoken, the blue haired Hatsuharu, asked.
Kaede grinned widely, "From what I can gather, it's a bit of a farce. But remember how Tatsuha-kun has always had a crush on Sakuma-san?"
Haru smiled. "As long as I can remember." He replied.
"Exactly. I don't know Eiri as well as I used to, but I can tell, from what I've seen on TV, that he's had a pretty rocky relationship with Shuichi Shindou." Kaede said.
"Yeah, and from what Tatsuha told us, he throws Shindou out of the house a lot." Akito added.
"So it could be a trick or a joke." Saki said softly, "I wouldn't put it past Mika or Tohma to try something like this."
"Well, we don't know them that well, particularly Tohma." Haru pointed out. "We should give them the benefit of the doubt."
"That's just like you Haru!" Kaede said with a giggle.
"Whatever, can we please practice, we have a concert in less than a week!" Kai snapped.
"Yeah, yeah, all right Mr. Boring, we're coming." Kaede sighed and took up a microphone.
"Oh really, some girl gave you backstage passes for the band? Cool!" Ryuichi said excitedly when Shuichi told him about what he had previously forgotten to.
"She said she won a radio competition."
"Wow, what did she look like?" Ryuichi demanded happily.
'Trust him to be interested in something like that!' Shuichi thought wryly. "Um, let's see. She had long black hair and really blue eyes, she was thin, but not excessively so. I suppose lithe would be a better word than skinny. She was fit, but quite attractive I guess, and she was pretty short, but taller than me. The guy who was with her was really tall, with black hair and green eyes. He looked pretty laid back. I think she called him Akito."
That made Ryuichi sit up and pay attention. "Did you get her name as well?" he asked.
Shuichi thought for a moment. "Um… I think he called her Kaede." He said.
'I thought as much' Ryuichi thought to himself, 'I may only have met her once, but she's hard to forget.'
He smiled at the pink haired star. "Actually I'm going too, I got invited by Tatsuha a little while ago. I think he knows the lead singer and she sent him a pass. They're from his neighbourhood I believe."
"Great, I'll see you there then!" Shuichi said.
Ryuichi studied him closely. The boy looked sad, understandably, and he hadn't got much sleep last night either. Not really knowing what to say, he patted Shuichi's shoulder awkwardly and smiled.
"Here's something that'll keep your mind off things." He said as a knock sounded on the door. "She flew in when she heard the news." He went to get the door.
"She flew… who flew?" Shuichi called after him. "She flew… Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no!!! It can't be!"
But it was. The one and only Reiji had come to visit.
Shuichi's first instinct was to run and hide, but he was rooted to the spot… there was nowhere to run.
"Hello Shuichi." Reiji said politely, sounding almost sane, she looked like she was holding back. "How are you?"
"As well as is to be expected Reiji, thankyou for asking." Shuichi answered, equally as polite. "May I inquire as to why you are here?" he shuddered at the sound of his own voice. It sounded fake even to him.
"I'm in town managing a new band, they're doing rather well." Reiji answered.
"Oh, where are you working now?" Shuichi asked her.
"I'm working with Iceberg Records; I'm currently managing Ancient Curse."
Shuichi cringed. "Great, well I guess I'll see you at their concert then, I've got a backstage pass."
"Oh?" Reiji asked her voice dangerously quiet. "And how did you get one of those?" Ryuichi pulled her down to his height and whispered something in her ear. "Oh, I see." She said, frowning.
"Well, I guess you're doing all right for yourself, considering you couldn't get work at N G." Shuichi said.
Ryuichi winced, that was one of Reiji's sore spots. Sure enough she went off the deep end.
"And what makes you think I wanted the job at N G in the first place?" she demanded.
"Oh please! You followed me all the way to Narita, and now you have the audacity to say you never wanted the job! Don't bullshit me!" Shuichi laughed harshly.
Reiji, instead of replying, drew her cannon and fired a few shots at Shuichi's head. Shuichi ducked and Ryuichi grabbed Rage by the shoulders. "Calm down Rage! He didn't mean it! Maybe you'd better go and check on the band, I'm sure they need you!"
Having successfully disposed of Reiji's threat, Ryuichi helped Shuichi off the floor with a sigh. "You shouldn't provoke her like that baka!" he rebuked gently.
Shuichi sighed. "I know, but it's so easy. Half the time I don't mean to anyway, she's a loose cannon!"
"I know, but you should be careful. I've worked with her for a while now, and I've learnt that to survive, obey everything she says without question!"
That got a laugh out of the young teen, albeit a small one. He knew the Nittle Grasper star was probably, no, definitely right.
Eiri was passed out on his bed; the alcohol from last night had finally caught up with him. He'd still been in the process of getting smashed when he'd visited his younger brother, but now it had hit him full on.
And another thing, Kaede's visit had really shaken him up. If he had really hurt Shuichi as much as she said he had, then perhaps he deserved the misery he was unexplainably feeling.
'I thought I'd be better off without him!' he thought to himself. 'But if that's really the case, then why do I feel so empty? So alone? I just can't figure it out! ARGGGHHH! I can't take this! Listen to me, I sound so totally and utterly pathetic!' he continued this mantra for quite some time, the thoughts circulating in his brain.
Unable to stay still, he sat up and went into his study; he sat at his laptop and stared at the blank monitor, not really wanting to turn it on and write. To be quite honest, he had no idea what he would write if he did turn it on.
'Well there's something that hasn't happened in a while…writer's block!' he thought wryly.
'Yes, in fact it hasn't happened since Shuichi came into your life!' another part of him said smugly.
'So?' Eiri said shortly.
'SO, you haven't been able to write anything since you knew for sure he wasn't coming home.'
'So? It's only been about twelve hours since I found out! That's no proof!' Eiri retorted.
'Yes, but you tried to write after Kaede left and got nowhere!' the voice informed him, sounding even more smug than before.
"So what, you're trying to say that the brat's my muse or something?" Eiri said out loud.
'That's exactly what I'm trying to say!' the voice answered.
"I know I wrote something last night!" Eiri argued, booting the laptop rebelliously.
'Yeah, something completely useless!" His better half retorted.
Eiri brought up what he had written last night in a drunken stupor. He stared at it for a minute, and then groaned. The stupid little voice was right!
'Ha, ha! I win!' It crowed.
"Shut up! I'm going back to bed!" Eiri didn't even bother to shut the laptop down; he just left his work flashing on the screen…
No matter what I do, no matter what I say
I just can't shake the feeling of wishing you were here.
No matter what I do, no matter what I say
I know deep down somewhere
That loosing you is what I really fear…
I tell my friends that I'm okay, that I don't need you anyway.
But I'm lying to myself again, 'cause I've got nothing left but pain…
As he thought about what he had written, Eiri began to drift off into sleep. As he did, he thought hazily, 'I might add to that later, if I feel like it…'
"C'mon Shuichi, let's go and get a bite to eat!" Hiro said, slinging his arm around his friend's shoulder, having not yet had the misfortune of meeting Reiji, he couldn't understand why the poor kid was freaking out.
"Okay, good idea!" Shuichi agreed readily. Anything to take his mind of Yuki. Briefly he wondered what the older man was doing. Shuichi missed him like crazy, and wanted to go back and beg forgiveness, this was not good for his health, being separated from the one he loved more than anyone else.
They went down to the local McDonalds, it wasn't great for their voices, but it was quick and easy. They lined up and ordered, and Hiro picked up the tray while Shuichi went and looked for a table.
As they searched, Shuichi crashed headlong into someone. "I'm so sorry!" he gasped, but the other person just giggled.
"Nope, it's my fault again. Sorry Shuichi!" Shuichi looked down and locked eyes once again with Kaede Kurasawa. She smiled. "We're making a habit of this aren't we?"
"So it would seem." Shuichi helped her up. "Oh, Kaede this is Hiro, Hiroshi Nakano. He's our guitarist, but you probably know that already."
"Pleased to meet you Hiro." She said chirpily
"Likewise." Hiro replied with a grin.
"Come and sit with us! There's hardly room to move in here!" Kaede pleaded.
"All right, lead the way!" Hiro answered with good natured grin.
She led them outside to a table where four boys and a girl sat talking amongst themselves. They looked up as their friend came up to them. Akito saw Shuichi and grinned nonchalantly. "Well, we meet again Mr. Shindou." He said languidly.
"It's just Shuichi." Shuichi assured him.
"I don't believe we were properly introduced before. I'm Akito Misumi." The slightly younger boy added.
"Hey there Akito, it's good to see you again." Shuichi said with a smile. "I'm Shuichi Shindou and this is Hiroshi Nakano."
"Hi, call me Hiro." Hiro said. Kaede patted the seat next to her and indicated that he put the tray down.
"This is my sister Saki Misumi." Akito introduced the petite brunette next to him. She smiled shyly and both boys smiled back at her. "Be careful, she may seem shy now, but once you get to know her she's an insufferable know-it-all and incredibly bossy!" Saki hit him over the head and poked her tongue out at her brother.
"This is Kai Menagawa," Akito continued, pointing to the blonde with wine coloured eyes. Kai didn't even bother to say hello. "Don't mind him, he's always like that." Akito dismissed his behaviour as normal.
"The blue haired dude with all the earrings and tattoos is Hatsuharu Herikawa. Don't let his appearance fool ya though; Haru's not as mean as he looks. In fact, he's a real softie."
"Jeez, thanks for blowing my cover Akii." Haru said wryly. "I was planning to beat them up." He joked.
"And last but not least is Sanosuke Nagisa. Unlike Saki, he really is the shy retiring type." Sano also poked his tongue out at his friend. His brown hair fell into his eyes and he pushed it back with the grace of one who had been doing it for a long time.
"Us boys are all eighteen or nineteen and the girls are both sixteen." Akito finished.
"You didn't introduce me!" Kaede pouted.
Akito sighed. "Kaede is the group's resident moron. I guess every village really does have its idiot!"
"Hey! That's so mean!" Kaede sulked.
Akito grinned, "And she's a klutz to boot!" he teased.
Hiro laughed. "I've got one of those too!" he indicated Shuichi, who tried to push him off his chair.
When Kaede stopped bashing Akito's head in, lunch was quite enjoyable.
"You know, those guys were pretty cool." Hiro said later as they walked back towards the studios. "Kaede's the one who gave you those passes?"
"Yeah, but that's the first time I've met her friends." Shuichi replied with a smile as he recalled the craziness that went on back at the McDonalds table where they had left the group. "They're a riot!"
"Totally, dude why can't you have more friends like them?" Hiro teased.
"Awww, c'mon Hiro, you're sooooo mean!" Shuichi sulked, going all teary eyed.
"Yeah and you're way to easy to get to, it's almost sad, and it is pathetic!" Hiro laughed.
"Like I said, sooooo mean!!!" Shuichi wailed.
They arrived back at the studio to continue on their new single, "My Happy Ending", which was going to be released the same day as the Ancient Curse concert.
When they got into the studio, Suguru was already hard at work. "Where have you guys been? We're way behind!" He ranted.
"Relax workaholic! We're not that far behind, we ran into the chick who gave Shu the passes!" Hiro reassured the young synth player.
"Oh, well… we still have work to do so let's get to it." Suguru muttered quietly.
"Shuichi if you can get it right this one time, I'll let everyone go home early!" K cajoled the teen gently.
The prospect of going home early made Shuichi smile. "K, don't you think you should clear that through their producer first!" Sakano yelled. K ignored him for as long as he could, shrugged and then put a bullet hole in the wall behind the frazzled producer's head.
"Then again, I wouldn't worry about it!" Sakano amended.
"If you're finished, may we start?" Suguru asked. 'Actually, going home early would be nice for a change!' he thought wryly,
"YEAH!! Let's do it!" Shuichi yelled, and the music started up…
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending
Let's talk this over, it's not like we're dead,
Was it something I did? Was it something you said?
Don't leave me hanging in a city so dead,
Held up so high on such a breakable thread.
You were all the things I thought I knew
And I thought we could be.
You were everything, everything that I wanted.
We were meant to be, supposed to be but we lost it.
All of our memories so close to me just fade away,
All this time you were pretending,
So much for my happy ending.
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending.
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending.
You've got your dumb friends, and you know what they say?
They tell you I'm difficult, but so are they.
But they don't know me, do they even know you?
All the things you hide from me, all the shit that you do?
You were all the things I thought I knew
And I thought we could be.
You were everything, everything that I wanted.
We were meant to be, supposed to be but we lost it.
All of our memories so close to me just fade away,
All this time you were pretending,
So much for my happy ending.
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending.
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending.
"Hey, he's really nailing it this time!" K said, impressed.
"Yeah, and they've only been doing the same song all week!" Sakano reminded him.
"Good point, but seriously, he's sounding fantastic!" K replied, unfazed by the tone of the producer's voice.
"Just shut up and listen!" Sakano said shortly.
It's nice to know that you were there,
Thanks for acting like you cared,
And making me feel like I was the only one.
It's nice to know we had it all,
Thanks for watching as I fall
And letting me know we were done!
He was everything, everything that I wanted.
We were meant to be, supposed to be but we lost it.
All of our memories so close to me just fade away,
All this time you were pretending,
So much for my happy ending.
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending.
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending.
Oh, oh, so much for my happy ending.
Oh, oh…
K broke into a round of applause. "Well done guys! You nailed it! You can go home like I promised." He said.
Shuichi let out a whoop of joy and bolted for the elevator, stopping only to grab his jacket. He waved as the elevator's doors closed behind him.
"I swear that boy should be living in Neverland." Hiro sighed. When Suguru looked at him quizzically he rolled his eyes and grinned. "He never grows up!" that startled a laugh out of Suguru.
Shuichi's elevator had gone down two floors when it stopped; the cafeteria. When the doors opened, Shuichi's heart stopped beating.
Who should be standing there, but none other than Eiri Yuki himself. The blonde took a step backwards, then determinedly stepped into the elevator beside his 'ex' lover.
The doors closed and they were silent a minute before Shuichi spoke. "What are you doing here?" he asked softly.
"Not that it's any of your business brat, but I was visiting Seguchi." Eiri snapped. Shuichi winced and remained silent.
Actually what Eiri had said wasn't entirely true. He had been to see Tohma, but he'd also been hoping to run into Shuichi as well, hence the reason he had been skulking in the cafeteria.
They had one floor to go before they reached the lobby, when disaster struck…
There was a power failure in the building. The lift ground to a halt between floors.
"Oh great, just great!" Eiri groaned and tried to pull the doors open, but they were stuck fast. Next, he tried the emergency phone, but when do they ever work?
"Looks like we're stuck here for a while." Shuichi said awkwardly. It felt weird being stuck in an elevator with Yuki.
"Yeah, no shit." Eiri said testily.
Shuichi sank to the floor to wait it out, he felt really nervous for some reason.
It didn't take long for the air to become stank and hot, and Shuichi stripped off his jacket to reveal his usual, rather becoming, rather revealing attire.
(A/N: think the front covers of some of the Manga and the pic of Bad Luck on the front of the Box Set, the one with Shuichi in pink and Hiro in that leopard print top, then you'll get what I mean! XD)
Eiri tried hard not to stare, but it was impossible not to, for him anyway. He was beginning to sweat, and not entirely because of the warm stagnant air inside the elevator.
He too took off his jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, trying to look as cool as he could, failing miserably in so many ways. He sat on the floor too, although he did so much more elegantly than Shuichi had.
Eiri felt the need to say something to the other boy. "I'm sorry… about the way I acted the other day." He said awkwardly. "Perhaps I overreacted a little."
Shuichi snorted, "That's the biggest understatement of the century!" he retorted.
Eiri frowned. "Hey, I'm trying to make amends here!" he replied heatedly.
"Well it's a little late for that don't you think?" Shuichi snapped. "You ended our relationship for God's sake!"
"Hey, wasn't already over anyway? I mean, you are dating Ryuichi Sakuma are you not?" Eiri demanded.
Shuichi blushed. "Well I… told you before, that I never wanted to end it, that I just needed to take a breather for a while, but you wouldn't listen! I can't keep taking that treatment Yuki! Why can't you understand that?"
Eiri felt kind of stupid, "Okay, so maybe I was a little hasty, can't we talk about this?"
The idiot was looking so appealing, just sitting there glaring at him with his big amethyst eyes. His sleeveless shirt was slipping off one shoulder and making him look unbelievably adorable and vulnerable to the novelist. He tried to ignore the rising emotions he was feeling by just looking at him, tried to crush them with little success. Plus, he was getting annoyed.
"Why would I want to talk about it? You've made yourself perfectly clear already!" Shuichi was tired of screwing around, he needed to vent.
"Or did you forget that?" he yelled.
Eiri sighed and ran his hand through his already tousled hair, his anger and frustration was building, as well as the feeling of really wanting to kiss the brat senseless.
"Listen, I never wanted this." He began.
"Yeah? Well you should've thought of than earlier then, shouldn't you!" Shuichi yelled, tears falling from his eyes. "You're a little late Eiri!" he shouted.
Hearing Shuichi say his first name for the first time in ages nearly drove Eiri wild, and he still really wanted to kiss him senseless.
Instead he said, as calmly as possible, "When are you coming back?"
Shuichi sighed. "You'll have to do better than that Yuki, a lot better!" he answered quietly.
Eiri swore and smashed his fist forcefully into the wall of the elevator, this was getting nowhere! And he was loosing control… fast!
"Yuki, calm down! I'm sure they'll fix the problem and get it moving again." Shuichi said, completely missing the real reason Eiri was so frustrated.
Eiri rolled his eyes, typical Shuichi to miss the point. "That's not why I'm angry." He said quietly. "Actually, I'm really pissed off at you." It was something Eiri would typically say to Shuichi at random, whenever he felt like it.
Shuichi's eyes stung. "Why? Yuki, I love you! Can't you see that? I just… need time." He was running out of excuses.
Eiri finally lost control. He stood and grabbed Shuichi's shirt, pulling him up with him. He pushed the teen against the wall and crushed his mouth against Shuichi's. Before he could stop himself, Shuichi kissed him back just as hard. Eiri slid his hand inside Shuichi's shirt and the pink-haired boy moaned into the taller man's mouth.
Suddenly, the elevator started again. They sprang apart and straightened their clothes as the doors opened. Shuichi swept out into the lobby and into the street, trying to still the pounding of his heart and leaving a bemused, desperate and confused Eiri behind him.
There was never a power cut.
Up in the security office, Tohma Seguchi smiled his famous smile. "Reconnecting elevator two to the network." He said. Turning to look behind him, he grinned at K, who grinned back and gave him a thumbs up.
"Isn't that a little dirty?" Hiro asked his manager.
"Maybe, but it's certainly made Eiri think about his situation." Tohma said.
"I suppose they thought the whole building was out." Suguru said thoughtfully, "I have to say, it was a pretty clever set up."
Tohma grinned. "Thanks, it was pretty ingenious, if I do say so myself." He said cheerfully.
"Might I ask why you didn't tell us?" Hiro asked.
"Well, actually," K said bashfully. "I knew." Hiro and Suguru stared at him in surprise.
"Well why else would I let you guys go home early? I knew Shindou would practically fly through once he was no longer needed. And Tohma had told me earlier that Yuki was swingin' by, so we concocted this between us. We organised that you three would be released early and Tohma let it slip to Yuki what time Shuichi was getting off. Then when they both ended up in the same elevator we shut it down."
"What would've happened if they hadn't been in the same elevator?" Suguru asked.
"Then we would've done nothing." Tohma said. "But if there was a slim chance that it worked, we were going to take it." He laughed a little, in utter delight.
"You never answered my question, why didn't you tell us?" Hiro repeated.
"Well, I couldn't tell you without alerting Shindou, but I knew you'd be here longer than him, because you two actually take the time to pack up your gear." K answered. "So I explained after he left, and by the time we got here it was all over. In fact, it couldn't have gone better."
"How so?" Suguru asked.
"The plan was to put the power back on when one of them completely lost it, one way or the other… and boy did Eiri loose it!" Tohma laughed louder this time. "Actually, I was expecting a huge argument, not what we got."
Hiro shuddered. "I don't even want to know! I don't wanna think about it!"
Suguru shook his head. "Me neither, I leaving."
Hiro nodded and followed Suguru past a hyperventilating Sakano. Hiro led the producer from the room.
When they left K glanced at Tohma. "So, was it hot?" he asked, grinning.
Tohma giggled. "Totally!" he shot his fellow conspirator a sideways look, "Wanna look?" he asked cheekily.
K's grin widened, "Of course!" he laughed.
I was having major plot bunny problems for ages. I still am, but the one that was chewing at my brain for this fic finally died when I was watching Las Vegas the other night, when Mary and Danny were stuck in the elevator! I love Las Vegas!
Please read and review, I except criticism, but please don't flame me.
