Disclaimer – I do not own Gravitation, unfortunately Maki Murakami does. This is not for profit, only for entertainment purposes. Even if you sued me you wouldn't get anything. Anyway, on with the story.

Rough Day's Reward

Today had not been a good day for Shuichi Shindou, lead singer of the band, Bad Luck. Tohma Seguchi, president of NG and occasional-antagonist to Shuichi, made a rare personal appearance to tell them their time schedule had been moved up. They now had to finish laying their tracks by the end of the week and not in two days. Before his abrupt announcement, they had had 5 weeks. This of course had everyone concerned. Could they do what was asked of them in that short a time frame? Now Sakano was doing his patented freak-out-let-me-kill-myself-it's-the-end-of-the-world routine and Suguru was getting in the Shuichi's face about all his stress and how they had to finish it NOW. K, of course, was giving the singer motivation in the form of keeping a pistol pointed to his forehead. Hiro was the only sane one. Needless to say, Shuichi was exhausted.

As he trudged home, he brightened at the thought of seeing Eiri Yuki, his writer boyfriend, and immediately darkened again. With his luck either Yuki would be in a pissy mood or the hyper boy would do something to piss of his lover and get kicked out…again. He decided to take the safe route and be quiet since Yuki was probably working. Arriving home, Shuichi quietly entered, taking off his shoes and throwing his bag on the floor. Foregoing his usual loud, "I'm home!" he grabbed the remote, wrapped the throw from the back of the couch around him, and sat down to vegetate.

Yuki, meanwhile, was waiting for the yelling and glomping to begin. He had heard the door catch, the bag land on the floor, and the padding of feet, not to mention the TV, not that it was very loud. After a few apprehensive minutes of no Shuichi, curiosity got the better of him. He saved his work and headed out to the living room. Shuichi noticed him immediately and looked at Yuki. They stared at each other a moment, Shuichi fearful that Yuki was mad at him for goodness-knows-what. The serious author looked at the clock, which read 6:22.

"Have you eaten yet?"

Shuichi was surprised by the question, "Uh, No."

"Then I'll go cook something," and he turned and walked into the kitchen. He sautéed some chicken and vegetables together then called Shuichi to eat who came quickly and meekly. When all the usually loud singer had done was pick at his food the writer was getting slightly worried. Yuki furrowed his eyebrows, "What's wrong? Oh, I put celery in here. Sorry. I'd forgotten you don't like it. Well, you'll just have to pick it out," he said gruffly. Shuichi nodded; he didn't mind. He just didn't want to piss Yuki off and have to crash with Hiro again. After a few minutes of silence and forks clanking on the plate, Yuki tried again, "Why are you so quiet? Did something happen at work or something?" he was starting to get irritated.

Shuichi shrugged his shoulders, "The usual," which was pretty well true. They finished eating and Yuki took their dishes to the sink then grabbed Shuichi's hand, pulling back over to the couch, then into his lap. He wrapped his arms around the vocalist's waist and rested his chin on his shoulder.

"Now, tell me what's wrong. You're never this quiet unless you're upset."

Surprised that his usually cold lover knew that about him, he didn't answer at first. "I had a rough day at work," he finally answered.

"That's it?"

"A really, really rough day." The vocalist proceeded to give a short account of his day while turning to snuggle against Yuki's chest.

When he had finished, his boyfriend said, "That seems pretty wild, but knowing those people you work with, it's probably true. Why don't we just sit like this for awhile, ok?" Shuichi nodded and sighed contentedly. It wasn't often that Yuki allowed him to cuddle, much less initiated it. They sat with their arms around each other, content to be held. Yuki running his hands through Shuichi's hair and soothingly over his back. Sometime later, Yuki loosened his hold and tipped Shuichi's chin up so he could kiss him. It started out gentle and deepened. Yuki wanted to comfort his small lover as much as possible. He almost never used words but tried to use his actions to convey what he meant, like now. They finally broke apart and Shuichi looked up at Yuki in admiration and thanks and of course love. He pulled Yuki down for another long, slow kiss, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's neck showing he wasn't going to let go anytime soon.

After a lengthy make-out session on the couch, they finally retired to bed. They went slowly, lying on the bed with Yuki on top and clothes eventually coming off. They took their time, with loving caresses and kisses. Afterwards they spooned together and fell asleep, Shuichi laying his head on Yuki's arm and Yuki putting his other arm around the pink-haired boy's waist. The last thought Shuichi had before falling asleep as he reveled in the warmth of his boyfriend and the afterglow of their lovemaking, was that if he had to go through every day like he had today, he wouldn't care as long Yuki treated him with this much love at he end of each of them.