Thanks to everyone for your encouragement.

The Bird

It was finally time for the tour to start and it was up to Ryuichi the person to watch Ryuichi the kitten wile they were away. Shuichi had a hard time leaving the fur ball behind. Yuki just wanted to know why the hell was Ryuichi crying too. The dramatic goodbye rivaled the one between the two lovers at the end of the titanic movie, but nobody was drowning, pity. Still Yuki had admit he had also grown attached to the cat as well and found him self wondering about the small creature's safety, after all the human Ryuichi wasn't exactly what he considered sane.

The tour started off smoothly. Yuki managed to pull Tohma's strings and score an extra tour bus just for Shuichi, Chris, and himself, but most nights they were put up in the penthouse of whatever the destination's best hotel was. It's good to be rich.

Brown would drop by from time to time to check in with Shuichi. Yuki hardly understood what the purpose of these visits served, since they seemed to do was put them through more stress, because Brown never had any real leads to the culprit.

On Concert nights, Yuki didn't go to watch. He preferred to work on his laptop and wait for the vocalist to get back. His lover would always return both thrilled from the high and exhausted from the effort. He never looked happier then he did after one of his concerts. It was as if all the rest of the world melted away for one bright shining moment. This was also the prime moment for Yuki to take advantage of him, which he did so with glee.

It was the night of the 5th stop on the tour. A wonderful early summer night filled with the songs of crickets. You know those first warm inviting nights you wished would never end. The lightning bugs flashed like the memories of all the summer nights that had come before. Chris and the band were heading back to the hotel after another night on stage, when Hiro noticed something, a flash of movement on the telephone pole ahead of them.

"What's that?"

Chris walked over closer and, "Oh no." he muttered under his breath. It was a beautiful little golden canary, cut and bleeding with it's wings spread and nailed to the pole. It's breath shallow. It's eyes wide with fright. There was a note pinned under it:

Shuichi, This bird reminded me of Yuki, but he used to sing just like you. I'm done playing with him, so you can have him now.

Shuichi pushed past his friends to see what they were looking at. He stood there a moment as he tried to wrap his brain around what he was seeing. Shuichi never had a stomach for cruelty, but this kind of sickness was totally beyond his understanding. The shock was still sinking in as Chris started his call to Brown. Hiro tried to push Shuichi away from the pole, but Shuichi pushed back. "No!" he shouted, "can't you see it's still alive! We've gotta help it."

"Shuichi don't touch it. It's dying. Just leave it alone." Hiro tried to push Shuichi back a second time.

"It's not going to die. I can fix it. It'll be alright." His voice hinted at the panic rising within him, as he pushed past Hiro and started fumbling with the nails in the bird's wings. The tiny creature kicked its feet and made a halfhearted attempt to nip at Shuichi as he managed to pluck out the nails. Shuichi held the tiny bird in his hands. Its wings stuck out at odd angles a pitiful mix of feathers, fluff, and blood. Shuichi rushed back to the hotel. Bursting through the door, he ran to the bathroom yelling, "Yuki! I need you to call a vet right away!"

"What the hell do you need a vet for?" Yuki groaned knowing another animal was in their midst.

"Just do it." He yelled wile turning on the sink.

"There aren't any open right now. What's going on? Whatever it is you are not keeping it."

Shuichi had made a make shift nest out of one of the towels the bird sat in it staring blankly, not moving.

Yuki went to the bathroom to see what his lover was all flustered about. He stopped when he saw what he found. "Shuichi, what the hell is going on?"

"I can save it." Shuichi didn't even look up at Yuki. He just kept muttering as he doted on the bird. It was more like he was trying to convince himself instead of Yuki. "It's not going to die. It's going to be ok." He said trying to wipe some of the blood off of it as gently as he could, but his hands were shaking.

Chris came in winded from trying to catch up to Shuichi. Yuki looked at him. "What the fuck is going on here?", then he rounded on Shuichi, "Shuichi where did you get that thing? It could be diseased."

Chris put a hand on Yuki's shoulder to stop him. He met the novelists eyes, "It's another message from the stalker." Yuki turned his gaze back to Shuichi who was still working on the bird.

Shuichi was still whispering frantically, "It's fine. It's going to be fine." But it wasn't fine, even Shuichi noticed that it wasn't fine. Shuichi picked up the bird again and panicked as felt the tiny body shutting down. "No, please No." Its eyes grew dull and its body went limp.

It died.

For a moment Shuichi was frozen in shock. It wasn't supposed to die. Why did it have to die? Why! He wrapped the tiny body in the bloody towel and just stood there for a moment. Yuki wondered why he didn't cry. His lover always cried. He could cry at falling leaves, but Shuichi didn't cry, instead he had his hands clenched in tight fists. He started to shake all over. Yuki was about to make a move to embrace his lover, when Shuichi spoke with a tone of voice that Yuki had never heard before.

"I am sick of this guy." His voice was a low and dangerous growl. Suddenly Shuichi exploded. He grabbed the vase of flowers from the vanity and smashed it against the mirror. Glass shattered everywhere, but his anger wasn't sated. He was still blind with rage. He started screaming obscenities as he stormed from the bathroom into the suite smashing anything he could get his hands on. It was a penthouse of a first class hotel, so there was plenty of stuff to vent his anger on, but no matter what he broke it wasn't enough. The bird was still dead, the killer was still out there, and Shuichi was still furious. "I am so fucking sick of this guy! I am tired of waiting!"

He rushed out onto the balcony and roared into the night. "Do you hear me you fucking bastard! I know you're out there! What the fuck are you waiting for already! Motherfucker! I'm going to kill you! You fucking coward!" Yuki grabbed the storming vocalist and held him. He was surprised when it took all his strength to quell the rampage. Finally, slowly, the rage gave way to tears.

"Yuki, I can't take it anymore. I am so sick of all of this the waiting, the watching, everybody looking at me like I'm going to drop dead any second." His voice cracked, "I want out. I want out so bad."

"Shuichi" Yuki still kept the tight hold on his lover. He felt so helpless he didn't have anything to make this better, "The only way out is straight ahead." Yuki cringed at his own useless words. When Shuichi needed him the most all, he had nothing to offer but a meaningless cliché.

Outside the stars shone and the crickets sang just like on any other beautiful summer night. The night was dark and serene, the only disruption was the disparaging wail that rose from the hotel balcony and floated into the darkness.

>

>

It didn't take long before the exhausted singer passed out, but Yuki was still awake. He noticed the light coming from under the bedroom door meant that Chris was up as well. Giving up on sleep he went to ask the bodyguard a few questions that were still nagging him. Upon entering the sitting area he noticed Chris was playing with his laptop! Gritting his teeth and trying to remember that he didn't want to wake his lover, he snuck up behind Chris.

"I know your there Yuki. You can't sneak up on me."

"Ok, then what the hell are you doing on my laptop? Didn't I tell you that it was off limits? Hey, what's that website you are on there?" Yuki noticed that Chris was had logged on to a porn site.

"I was bored." Chris stated as if nothing was wrong.

"So you used my laptop to look for porn?" Yuki struggled to keep his voice in a low angry whisper.

"It helps me sleep."

"EW", thought Yuki. He so did not need the mental image popped into his head. "You have one minute to close my laptop before I kill you."

"Ok, ok there's no reason for bodily harm. Its just porn."

Yuki slumped into one of the plush hotel chairs and ran his fingers through his hair. He was so tired, but something was nagging him. It was Chris who broke the silence. "Brown is coming to get the bird in the morning."

Yuki scoffed at the mention of the detective's name, "Why, is he going to interrogate it?"

"He wants it for evidence."

"I don't think so. Shu wants to burry it in the morning. Knowing him he's going to want to have a funeral for it." Yuki pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

Chris looked out the window, "The killer left a message like this with my brother, only difference is when we found the puppy, it was already dead. This latest calling card means he's getting ready to make his move soon."

"Chris, just how did the killer manage to get to your brother?" Yuki had been waiting to ask this question for some time.

Chris looked at the ceiling and exhaled noisily, Yuki could see the American was struggling with the answer, "It was all my fault really. Mat didn't have somebody, special, in his life like Shu has you. The psycho.. he.. he threatened to kill me. He tricked Mat into thinking that I was the one in danger. Mat ran right into that evil bastard's hands. " He paused again, "When I think about what he did to my brother.."

Tears had started forming in Chris's eyes, but he gained control of himself. He wasn't going to lose it in front of an audience. "Anyway, I have already gone over what happened with Shindou. He knows not to leave my side or yours for that matter. This time it's going to be that fucking asshole who's in trouble."

Yuki got up and crushed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table, "Get some sleep Chris." was the only thing he said as he disappeared back into the bedroom.

The next morning broke to find the novelist looking over the sleeping form of his lover. Yuki was lost in thought. Shuichi began to stir. He smelled the cigarette smoke and knew something was wrong. Yuki didn't smoke at this hour unless something was bothering him. It was the first sign of danger. He decided to play it cool as he rolled over to greet his lover.

"Morning love."

"I want to talk to you about something. Chris needs to hear this too. Chris! Get your ass out of the mini bar and come here please." Yuki's voice was horse from lack of sleep.

'Uh, oh' thought Shuichi realizing that the second sign of danger was Yuki using complete sentences before 9:30 am.

Chris came in and sat down on the corner of the bed, "I didn't eat it."

Shuichi and Yuki just shot him a look.

Yuki made a useless attempt to clear his throat, when he spoke his voice was still horse, "Listen both of you. I don't care what you do, but I want you to think about what I am going to tell you." He stopped to make sure they were both paying attention, "Killing somebody doesn't make them go away, that is, at least not for the killer. Whatever it is you two have been planning you need to remember that, the dead take up just as much space as the living and sometimes even more so. Even if you kill a monster like that you had better be prepared to carry him around with you, forever. He will become a part of you."

Shuichi wrapped his arms around Yuki and didn't say a word, but Chris looked at him skeptically, "That's what you think? What the hell do you know about killing anybody anyway?"

"That, my friend, is a very long story." Yuki's tone made it clear that, that story wasn't going to be told anytime soon.

It wasn't long after that that K came in to gather up his singer for yet more practice, leaving Yuki with some much needed peace and quiet. He opened his laptop and noticed that 84 e-mails had just come in. He hesitated before checking his inbox. Yep, sure enough, his inbox was full of invitations to pornographic websites.

The stalker is coming, the stalker is coming, but will bother to Shuichi hide or is this tiger ready to sharpen his claws.

I have a tendency to write like a schizophrenic. The problem is I forget that my readers can't read my mind (and trust me, that's a good thing.)

Every time I go over this I feel like it just sucks. Pointer and thoughts welcome weather they be good or bad.