The Off Track
By Aoi Umi
A/N: Well, here we are. It had to end sometime, whether in this century or the next. (Ha, ha.) Seriously, college keeps me quite busy and I can't promise anything anymore. But this story needed an ending, and so, here it is.
Chapter 16: "A View of the Sky"
"Eeyaah, what are you doing, packing that stuff away!" Shuichi panicked. He flailed his arms at the sight of his boyfriend piling all of their miscellaneous, unused camping junk into the car.
"Ding ding, you are correct. That is what I'm doing," Eiri replied in a monotone.
"But, but but, I mean...whyyy?"
"You want to leave it all here? Fine, I don't really want it anyway..."
"No!" Shuichi ran up and clung desperately to his lover's arm. "It's staying here, and we're staying here!" he declared firmly.
Eiri's mouth twitched. "Heh, heh...no. Twenty-four hours, and that was the deal. Could you move that stuff over so I can shove the stupid lawn chairs in next to it..." he muttered vaguely.
Shuichi somehow worked his way in front of Yuki and occupied the trunk space himself. He simply sat there and stared stubbornly.
Eiri stared back. "Look, after getting lost twelve and a half times on the way back, I don't need this right now." His eyes flashed.
Shuichi showed no intention of budging.
"What? We slept outside, beneath the stars and yadda yadda yadda, all that shit. I even helped make it more 'memorable' for you. What else do you want?" he questioned, exasperated.
Shuichi's eyes lost all their defiantness and instead welled up with tears. "Oh Yuki, I thought it was so romantic...and you were just...just..."
Eiri stared intently at the face he had tasted every inch of only earlier that morning. He didn't know whether to pity Shuichi, pity himself, shut Shuichi in the trunk and drive off...or actually soften up a little toward the guy...
"Okay, fine," he sighed and paused. At long length, he opened his mouth again. "It...was enjoyable." Eiri looked away. He also looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth. Admitting something like that was just too...
"And honestly, Yuki, I—huh?" Shuichi lifted his head. His face appeared ready to melt right off. "Aww, you're just so cute..." He sat up on his knees and gave Yuki a hug.
"Don't talk to me like that..." Eiri mumbled, but gave in to the hug. He seized Shuichi, lifted him out of the trunk, and placed him standing upright on the ground.
"So what do you say? Haaaah?" Shuichi nuzzled against his lover childishly. "I only wanna stay just one more night, so we can have a campfire and stuff, like camping is supposed to be...please?"
Eiri stared at him. "You act like such a spoiled brat," he commented sourly.
"But you said you enjoyed last night...we can do that part again..." Shuichi whined persuasively.
"Nyuu..."
The pair of them turned their heads. The nearly-forgotten kitten was making a dangerous attempt to crawl out the car window.
Eiri darted for the window and reached it just in time. The baby animal fell with a small plop into his hands.
"Ohh, I bet he's hungry," Shuichi cooed.
"And what are we going to do with this thing?" Eiri eyed the squirming kitten.
"...Feed it?" Shuichi ventured bluntly.
"I mean in the long run, stupid." Eiri set it on the ground.
Shuichi beamed as he introduced the kitten to a fresh tin of Spam. "Well duh, we're keeping him." He stroked the kitten's back while it ate. "He sure likes this stuff. I'm naming him SPAMU."
"What an idiotic name..." Eiri muttered as he nicked his lighter from Shuichi's back pocket and flicked it several times. "Sounds like some kind of trained whale..." He was relieved when the lighter finally produced a small flame. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag.
Shuichi, after waiting several tentative seconds, smiled to himself. No further protests clearly indicated that keeping the kitten was okay with Yuki. I bet he wants to keep it, even. Yuki likes cats, he giggled.
"Myuu..."
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A horrid realization fell like a lead weight upon Eiri Yuki. It was true that he had brought his computer along with every intention of completing the next three chapters of his manuscript. It was true that he had attempted, at least a couple of times, to work toward achieving this goal. But he hadn't counted on the fact that so many...insipidly distracting things would occur.
He glanced toward the man whom he automatically blamed. But there was that trouble-maker, that maddeningly idiotic problem magnet...sitting cross-legged on the ground and playing quite innocently with a fluffy kitty cat.
Eiri turned away, in denial of the ever-so-slight blush rising to his cheeks. Frustrated, he jerked open the car door, fished out his laptop, and sat.
It wasn't long before a magenta mop of hair slowly appeared and a curious pair of violet eyes peeked into the window. "Heey, Yuki, what are you doing?"
"Writing. Go away."
"Eh? Writing, now?"
"Yes, now."
Shuichi considered the terseness in Yuki's voice. It probably meant that he was serious about the "go away" bit. He decided nonetheless to chance a squeaky, "Why?"
"Because if I don't finish this shit by..." he glanced at his analog watch purely for effect, "...the time we get back, there might be bloodshed."
Shuichi frowned. He opened his mouth to say something, but Eiri cut him off. "And just whose blood might be shed, I haven't said," he added with a tone of finality.
Shuichi sighed and shuffled sulkily back over to the kitten. "It looks like we're staying, Spamu-chan." He stroked its back idly. "It's not gonna be any fun though..."
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Eiri sighed and leaned against the back of the seat. He stared at the ceiling of the car. One of the most uninteresting ceilings imaginable, actually. Things were not going well. In his opinion, this story was not only stupid, but fundamentally lacking anything that would make it remotely interesting.
"Interesting?" Hmph, you want "interesting"? He thought back to the events of the past several nightmarish days. It's like some kind of tragic comedy. A really bad one that no one would want to have to read. How many stupid things can happen to one person before he goes completely insane...?
An absurd idea tugged at the back of Eiri Yuki's brain. A really stupid, but nonetheless nagging idea. Reading over the crap he had already written, he realized how awful it was and he forcefully closed the document window. After opening another one, he began to type something completely new.
He typed furiously, staring purposefully at the screen and striking the keys with the force of all the ridiculous frustrations he'd felt over the course of his past several days in this absolutely ludicrous nightmare. He stopped for nothing, and even as the sun hung low in the sky and his boyfriend peeked and poked curiously, he paid no mind to his surroundings. Only when his computer beeped a "low battery" warning did he pause. Immediately, with an extra, final force, he typed his finishing sentence and sat back, exhausted.
He saved the document, closed the laptop, and shoved it onto the seat next to him. Slowly he stepped out of the car to a blurry image of an orange dusk. The blood rushing from his head was dizzying. He scarcely had time to rub his eyes before a surprising weight fell from above onto his shoulders and threw him dangerously off balance.
"Yukiiiii! Are you done now? Hey, hey, can we eat and tell scary stories and cuddle by the fire now?"
Eiri stopped. "Have you ever done it in a sleeping bag?" he asked abruptly, looking up.
Shuichi was surprised by this sudden seduction.
"No, of course you haven't..." he answered himself, smirking with the knowledge that he had stolen this boy's virginity, and, subsequently, his complete and utter loyalty.
Shuichi giggled madly and cuddled Yuki's head.
Eiri turned his face upwards and kissed Shuichi gently on the cheek. "Let's try it then, eh?"
Shuichi closed his eyes and felt desire take hold of him. It pushed away his sense of balance in the process, and he began to fall backwards. The shift in weight took Yuki with him, and the pair fell miserably to the hard earth.
By the time they gained their senses, Eiri had worked up a particularly irritated glare, but before he could relay it to the one who had caused his inconvenience, ecstatic laughter filled the air.
"That was funny, Yuki. Lookit the sky! Aren't those clouds awesome? Isn't it cool how you can see the sky so well from down here on the ground?"
Slowly, painfully, Eiri vanished the scowl from his visage and forced himself to laugh a little too.
It really wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would be.
End
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