DISCLAIMER: i dont gravitation or any of its characters!
Chapter four: Becoming Friends
Yuki lay on his bed thinking about what K had said. Maybe he should just scrap the happy ending and just write about what he was feeling. Inspiration gripped him suddenly; he padded across the living room, trying not to wake K as he entered Shuichi's room with his laptop. He glanced at K sleeping on the couch with his long golden hair fanned out around him. He looked uncomfortable…better get an extra bed or at least a sofa bed so that the poor guy could be comfortable he thought.
He plugged it in and read through his story once making the necessary changes to turn it into a tragedy. He was a fast reader, so he'd finished making the changes in an hour's time. Then he started the scene where the heroine died in an accident, typing feverishly. The accident scene finished, he went onto the way the hero felt and how the heroine's friend was staying with the hero trying to help him get over the tragedy, scenes formed on the scene one after the other as Yuki wrote about the pain and loss he was feeling. All the confused emotions became clearer as he wrote. He didn't feel time passing and didn't even realize when the first light of dawn hit the window of his ninth floor apartment.
KK
K woke up to the incessant tapping of Yuki's laptop. He woke up, his long hair falling about his shoulder as he stood up. He peeped into the room and saw Yuki typing hard and staring into the screen without giving anything else the slightest notice. K made some coffee and walked into the room again. He placed the coffee on the table a little distance from Yuki's laptop and went for a shower. When he came back in again, Yuki still hadn't touched his coffee.
K smiled ruefully and went back to heat it up again. On second thoughts he made some more fresh coffee and helped himself to another mug, while heating Yuki's. Then he set it on the table once again, this time with a flask full of more, so that there would be some hot coffee as well and settled down comfortably on the only other chair in the room and watched Yuki at work.
It was four hours by the time Yuki pushed his chair away from the table and looked around. K had fallen asleep in the chair, and the coffee had gone cold again. Yuki picked up the flask and filled the half full glass with the steaming liquid. It's really good he thought as he sipped it. He set the mug down after he had finished with a clunk which startled K out of his visit to dreamland.
"Huh? Oh. How is it going? You seemed pretty busy." K looked at him a little sleepily before giving a big yawn.
"You know if I keep this up I might finish it really soon. Long before the deadline for once. You know what K-san? You up for a walk? I want to go visit Shuichi…and then maybe we could get some lunch. I've been thinking…you're right about the 'getting some fresh air would do me good' idea." Yuki looked at the man questioningly.
"Yeah…I guess we could do that if you want to. I need to go for a long walk as well, stretch my legs and flex my magnum a bit." K grinned.
Yuki suddenly realized the men hadn't paid any attention to his magnum since Shuichi's death…since he'd been staying with Yuki.
He gave him a half smile. "So who're you going to flex it on?"
"I dunno. Whoever gets in my way I guess? Uh…Yuki I want to visit…Hiro. I haven't seen him since that day at the hospital what with the funeral and all." He saw the way Yuki's face went pale. "Um…I'll drop you home and then go see him. I'll go after lunch. Oh and he just woke up two days back you know. He'll be leaving the hospital the day after tomorrow."
"I'll come with you." Yuki caught the puzzled expression on K's face. "I want to know exactly how it happened. If Hiro can tell me that is. No…I'm not going to force him K-san, he can tell me if he wants to when he sees me. Anyway, he was my Shuichi's best friend… I have to visit him don't I?"
They visited Shuichi's grave which already had small patches of grass forming on it. Yuki put his big bouquet of white roses on it, Shuichi's favorite flowers. They didn't speak for a while, K retreating into the background so as to give Yuki sometime alone. The pain on the younger man's face made him long to envelope him in a hug and tell him everything would be alright. But he held it in. however much he wanted Yuki and loved him, he would never be his. By keeping quiet he could at least have the man's friendship. So K leaned back against the tree he was standing under and kept silent.
Yuki came up to him after half an hour and they walked up to a restaurant two blocks away. The conversation was minimal but Yuki found himself liking Shuichi's manager a lot. The man kept himself to himself and let Yuki alone, he only offered advice when required and it was good advice at that. He could sense when Yuki liked to be by himself and now Yuki could see that K genuinely cared about him.
When they got the restaurant they decided to have a soup and a sandwich keeping the meal light. K looked at Yuki and saw that he looked much better for getting out of the house. "What kind of food do you like?" he asked asking any stupid question that came into his head.
"Anything usually, but I cant stand celery. I remember once Shui…" he cleared his throat and blinked. "Shuichi and Mika once kept arguing about how I'm misunderstood and Shuichi kept listing all the so called 'cute' thing I do. I got so irritated I kicked him out. The only consolation is that I'd stopped kicking him out when by the time he…" he let his voice trail off.
K smiled a little. "You know I remember the quiz show he took. Just before he answered that question about you he listed out a hundred things about you to keep him running on that treadmill. He always got his strength by thinking of you…but I suspect that you got your strength from him as well."
"Yeah I did." Yuki glanced away. "Right now I don't know how to go on. I'm just wondering why I made that stupid promise! If I hadn't then I could have just died in peace." He stopped a little surprised when K caught hold of his hand tightly.
"Don't you dare say that you baka? How do you expect to go on with your promise if you go on thinking that way? Stop it! Just try thinking positive." K didn't notice how pale he'd gone, but Yuki did. The Americans normal loud and cheery voice which even in bad times had a comforting quality was now sounding strangely strangled. K suddenly came to his senses and pulled his hand away.
Before Yuki could reply the waiter came and served them their food. they ate in silence, Yuki for some reason thinking of the first time he and K had talked alone, when K was threatening him about taking Shuichi to the amusement park and the way K had sniped at him. That K seemed so different and maniacal compared to this calm and understanding person.
"A penny for your thoughts" K's voice cut through.
"I was thinking about the time you sniped at me, forcing me to ask Shuichi out."
"Oh that. I would never really have shot you. But I guess I scared you enough to take Shuichi on that date. You know I'll never forget how he dressed up as a suitcase and tried to get to New York. He told the guy in the airport that he was trampling on the human rights of the suitcase! I had to yank him out of there with my fishing rod!" seeing the look of amazement pass over Yuki's face at the statement he shrugged. "Don't blame me for carrying things like that around when I'm Shuichi's manager. No one knows when something like that will be needed to get Shuichi out of trouble or some other situation. I miss him." K paid for the bill and stood up not looking at Yuki.
They went to the hospital and visited Hiro. He looked a lot better now, the IV tubes were out and the amount of bandages had lessened to a few band aids here and there and a big one on his head. He looked at them and gave a hazy smile as they entered. He looked drained out and his eyes were full of pain for the loss of Shuichi.
They chatted idly for a while the Hiro asked to talk to Yuki alone. When K had left the room, Hiro looked at Yuki, tears coursing down his face. "I killed him Yuki-san. I shouldn't have let him drive, knowing he was drunk. I saw him dozing off on the wheel, but was too drunk to do anything. Please forgive me. I know my apologies can't bring him back…but…"
Yuki turned to face the boy, though he wanted to blame him. it was so much easier having to blame someone instead of the knowledge that Shuichi was responsible for hiss own demise. "Hiro-kun, it wasn't your fault. No one's to blame in this alright? Both of you were drunk and weren't thinking. Stop feeling guilty, it won't bring Shuichi back. He wouldn't have wanted us to go on this way." He attempted a clumsy hug and comforted the boy. "I'll come and see you after you're out ok?" Yuki walked to the door, when Hiro called out his name.
"Yuki-san, you'll want to know…you were the last thing Shuichi remembered. He loved you alone in the whole world."
KK
That night as they sat around the TV, K noticed that Yuki was sliding into depression again. He switched of the TV and went up to him. "What's bothering you right now? I know Shuichi's gone, but you've been like this since you and Hiro had that talk."
Yuki looked right into his eyes and whispered. "I was the last thing he remembered. He loved me so much and I caused him so much pain over the years. Even if things were good at the end what's the use, he's gone now. I don't have anyone who'll be there for me like he used to."
K hugged Yuki Eiri for the third time in his life. "But think about it. He had the best time with you before he died. You said so yourself he loved you so much. The best thing in life is spending time with the person you love, regardless of how long." K pulled away and started walking to the other room where they'd brought and dumped the sofa bed. "Eiri…" he said using the writer's first name. When Yuki looked up he smiled at him. "I'm there for you, if you ever need me. Or else why the hell dyu think I'd be staying here?"
Yuki gazed at the empty door frame for a while and walked up to the room. "Thank you K-san."
KK
Eight months passed, but Yuki still needed K and they had just decided it was better to become roommates. Shuichi's old room had sort of become K's domain, though Yuki still wrote there sometimes. They'd collected all of Shuichi's things and built a smaller room in the apartment where they'd set it up neatly…Yuki's own private Shuichi shrine.
Though all the time had passed and K and Yuki got along fine K knew Yuki was still depressed. He didn't show it much, being his usual cold and composed self, but the complete sadness in his eyes betrayed him continually if you looked carefully. K shook his head as he drove to work, he wondered if Yuki would ever be happy. He reached and walked up to the recording studio where his new band Karasu, were messing around. The music sounded seriously demented as Taka, the lead singer pretended to be the American legend Elvis Presley. As K came in she looked up and smiled.
"K-san! I hope you're not going to give up on us. I was just having some fun. I know we were supposed to practice but Lance here brought some records of the Presley dude, so I was fooling around. But if you promise not to dump us I'll promise to practice…" Taka gave him a mischievous smile.
K grinned back but said in a reproving voice. "You're a very good singer, but you're gonna have to practice if you wanna make it big! And stop dissing Presley. He was an awesome singer!"
"Yes I'll admit he does have a good voice, but why does he sound like he's suffering from a cold all the time?" Taka sniffed and turned her back on K and started humming the tune for her new song.
K sighed and listened to the band belt out song after song. Most of them came out really well, but he wasn't paying much attention to them, until Taka suddenly stopped with a frown.
"K-san! Are you ok? I've made about ten horrible mistakes and you've just sat there nodding you're head in time with the music and staring ahead! Come on I'll take you out to lunch!" she caught hold of his arm and dragged him to a near by café after telling Lance to take care of the rest of the stuff.
There she sat him down in front of her and looked him in the eye. "Ok K-san, who is it and what's the problem?"
"What are you talking about "" K looked at her incredulously. She shot him a look of plain disbelief. That's when he stopped trying to lie. Taka was a good friend and they'd always got along pretty well…she wasn't as demented as Shuichi, but well they were a good band and in time they'd all become friends. "Yuki…Eiri."
"Yuki Eiri?" Taka looked at him a bit surprised. "Wasn't he Shindou Shuichi's lover? You room mate? Since when K-san?"
K nodded to most of her questions before answering. "Since forever. At least it seems like that. It started from the time I met him. But he and Shuichi were really good together, so I helped out and tried my best to keep them together. But now Shuichi's gone and well since Mr. Seguchi asked me to stay with Yuki since then we've gotten closer. I love him…more than anything…but he's not over Shuichi yet and anyway I'm not his type. So I'm trying to live with it and not say much, but it's so hard! In the last few months, it's almost slipped out so many times that I'm wondering what to do."
"Hm…are you sure he doesn't even think of you in that way K-san? After all it had been eight months." Taka saw him nod hopelessly and looked at him with concern. "Would it be so bad if you told him K?"
"He'd hate me! It would seem like I was being this nice just to get him to fall for me! I won't do it!" K almost yelled the place down.
Taka took his hand. "Calm down K-san. You know what? It'll all be fine. And well would it be a good idea for you to move out? I mean does Yuki-san still need you? Because you could always meet up with him a lot and still be friends but you won't be in danger of telling him."
K looked down considering it. It was true that Yuki wasn't dependent on him as before and in a way it would be easier to just meet him often instead of living with him, it would help him control himself better. But then…would it be that much easier? He looked at his watch it was already around three o clock. He had told Yuki he would be home by four. He smiled at Taka. "We'd better get going ok?"
"Yeah… I forgot that the live concert's next week. Oh and K-san can you give me some time off? I have to meet Darren in five minutes! I promise I'll go back by four and start practicing. Why don't you take some time off as well? You look like you need it." She smiled at him warmly before spotting her boyfriend at the entrance. "Oh there he is…" she started walking off when suddenly she paused and turned. "K-san…it'll be fine and the next time it almost slips out give me a call and we'll talk. It'll help you get your mind off it, and well I'm the only one who knows. But you know, I really think you should just find the right time and tell him K-san." she ran out and jumped on Darren's bike and they zoomed off.
Tell him? K shook his head that wasn't happening.
A/N: how was it? I'm thinking of a lot of things for the next chapter and I think they'll do it next chapter! Anyway sorry if Yuki seemed softer than usual…but maybe he would be like that if he lost Shuichi, but I'm going to get him back to character in the next chapter! Chill all!
Arashi.