Authoress here.

GRR! I hate it when people insult my intelligence! Some stupid girl at work assumed I didn't know what defenestrate meant, and informed me I was using it incorrectly. Feh! I used it just fine, in the proper place for the verb and everything! If I wasn't a normally demure and gentle person, I would have been very angry with her. Stop laughing.

So, to siphon my anger off in some semblance of order, I decided to indulge in a transfer of my idea for this next chapter from the dark recesses of my mind to fanfiction. There. I sound smart.

I have been listening to pure jpop and a little bit of Nightwish to set myself in the proper mood for this chapter. Should be good. I hope.

Breaking the Tie
Chapter Five: First Move

Two Weeks Later

Gravitation

"Ah, hell, Toshi, this bit sucks!"

"Excuse me, Seiya, but I believe that bit was YOUR IDEA!"

"Sounded good to me when I thought of it. Must have been your voice singin' it that made it suck."

"I BEG YOUR PARDON-!"

"If you two are done with your bone-headedness, we have a song to write for an audition in HALF A WEEK."

"Sorry, Keyara."

"Yeah, sorry I'm wasting my time like this-"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, sorry, Princess. You weren't supposed to hear that."

As the bickering between Keyara and Seiya started up again, Shuichi sighed. The group had locked themselves in the upstairs studio at the Shindou/Yuki residence to perfect the lyrics of their song. They only managed to get through a verse in the two hours they had been up there. And (as Shuichi heard from Seiya's dark muttering) that verse wasn't very good.

But, the pink-haired rock star sat in the comfortable chair below the air vent, listening happily to their proceedings. For two weeks, the self-dubbed Protégé group had worked a beautiful, haunting, and base-heavy melody. The sound was not yet at the professional stage, but it was far better than Shuichi had expected from a novice group.

Shuichi had never been happier. His little Toshi, the innocent, adorable kid Shuichi had had the honor of raising, was following in his footsteps. Not Yuki's, but his.

Aoyou had insisted early on that no DNA tests would be taken. At the time, Shuichi had seen her reasoning clearly. To know which one of them had fathered the boy would only lead to problems.

But now, after sixteen years of wondering, that reason didn't seem that concrete. And, he, Yuki, and Aoyou had given Toshi the surname of Shindou, to keep the public from suspecting of the trio's relationship. Although the decision was made based on the situation, Shuichi had been secretly pleased. It made him feel more the father than Yuki.

Shuichi admitted to himself that he hated feeling competitive with Yuki, but he couldn't curb his feelings of possessiveness. He wanted Toshi to belong solely to him, and Yuki was standing in his way.

For years, Shuichi was afraid that Toshi was Yuki's son. The boy had an excellent mind for storytelling, and had a way of talking about sex that was surprisingly advanced. He was fair, calculating, and reserved, just like Yuki. Everything seemed to stem from the author, except Toshi's musical gift.

Now that gift was taking precedence in Toshi's life. He was going the way Shuichi secretly longed for.

As the argument petered out upstairs, Shuichi snapped back to attention. Keyara's synth started up again, and Toshi was singing, Seiya accenting the melody along with his voice. Shuichi couldn't help but feel a surge of pride.

My son.

Four Hours Later

Toshi Shindou

This was pure heck.

At first, everything went smoothly. Suguru and Dad managed to coerce Tohma, head of NG Studios, to give us an audition. We had our song melody down pat. Seiya and Keyara had agreed I had the best voice to sing for Protégé, and my new electric violin felt like an extension of my arm, it was so wonderful.

And then we tried writing lyrics. And what a disaster that turned out to be.

Not only had we scraped everything we wrote (because it was crap) Keyara stormed off home in fury at Seiya, who won't quit calling her Princess. Whenever I tried to defend Keyara, Seiya would mockingly bow and crack some joke on how the Princess had a royal bodyguard.

I moaned into my pillow. I had tried sitting down and letting my mind wander after the girls had left, hoping to land on some sort of inspiration about the lyrics, but after ten minutes of staring at a blank sheet of paper with only "Gee, Keyara's hott," or "I wonder what's for breakfast tomorrow?" I decided that idea was stupid.

Well, a walk helped me last time I was stuck.

I got off of my bed, and got out a T shirt from my closet. Before I could pull the fabric over my head, I heard someone curse loudly from outside and I glanced out the window. It was Father, and the subject of his anger was our ancient push lawn mower. Usually either the neighborhood gardener cut the grass for everyone, but he was currently on vacation. Father must have lost his muse and needed fresh air, or maybe Mom couldn't do the chore, and asked Father for help.

I hoped he hadn't lost his muse, because he'd come to me for help. My mind was as blank as the efforts of the day had left it, and I doubted I'd be of any use.

Well, just in case…

It had only been a few minutes, as I sat at my window, letting my thoughts wander towards my erotic imagination, when I sat straight with a gasp, and made a leap for the still-blank paper on my desk.

I had it!

Gravitation

Toshi held the phone to his ear, listening to the other line ring. Excitement coursed through him; he could hardly sit still long enough to wait for someone to pick up. He looked over the sheet of paper before him; it was filled with his broad handwriting.

"Hello?" It was the butler for the Fujisaki household.

"Oh, hi, this is Toshi Shindou. Can I talk to Keyara-kun?"

"Shindou-san, Keyara-san is asleep. She went to bed directly after supper."

"Shoot. Could you tell her I called, tomorrow morning, and tell her it's urgent?"

"Shall I wake her?"

"No!" Toshi said hastily. "She wouldn't like that. No, just give her the message."

"Of course, Shindou-san. Anything else?"

"No, thanks. 'Night."

"Good evening, Shindou-san."

Toshi hung up, biting his lower lip. It was only nine 'o' clock, Aoyou was out, Yuki was still tackling the lawn, and Shuichi, Suguru, and Hiro were at a meeting at NG.

I have to tell SOMEONE about this!

Toshi jumped up, and thundered down the stairs. The sounds of Yuki mowing the lawn had diminished, meaning the author was working on the back yard. Barely pausing to slip on his shoes, Toshi hurried across the freshly cut lawn to Seiya's house.

"Seiya!"

Before he got to the door, Seiya opened her window on the second level and shoved her head out. "What do you want, Shindou?"

"I wrote something! Come here!" Toshi waved the paper up at her.

Seiya glared at him. "Fine. Damn, couldn't bother putting a shirt on?"

Toshi felt the color drain out of his face, and then heat rose to claim his cheeks. He crossed his arms across his chest, vainly trying to hide. He hadn't even realized-!

Seiya had slammed her window shut, and the thought had passed through Toshi's mind to dash for his house (why, whenever he was over at the neighbor's, did this thought arise?) when the front door opened, and Seiya was there, glaring at him.

"What?"

Toshi quickly handed her the lyrics before returning the hand to cover himself as best as he could. Seiya gave him an exasperated look before glancing at the lyrics. She did a double take, eyes widening.

"Holy SHIT!"

"What?"

"These- these are- Toshi, this is pure smut!"

"It's not THAT bad-"

"What's not bad about 'Open the doors for me to your secret haven?'!"

"It's innuendo, nothing more-"

"Oh and I guess 'You want me, you're wet for me, concede to me, release to me' is INNUENDO?"

"Well, it's the refrain, it needs more punch-"

"'We cease to feel, and we cease to live, somewhere inside you need to give, refuse me now, and you'll end aching somehow…'" Seiya murmured aloud a part of the second verse. "That's not bad, actually."

"Look at the last verse," Toshi instructed. "That's where I started having trouble; I didn't want to go overboard there."

Seiya read the last few lines and nodded. "Yeah, you're getting redundant with the whole 'promise' aspect... What was the inspiration for this?"

Toshi smiled a little, shyly, unwittingly lowering his arms. "Well, I saw this ad on television about dancing classes, and it got me thinking. Like, there's a man who has danced there for awhile, and this pretty new girl just starts. They end up as partners, and he teaches her to dance beautifully. I guess I see sex as just some sort of dance, and that's when I started writing."

Seiya regarded him with an odd look on her face. "This is so Twilight Zone."

"How so?"

Seiya giggled a little. "I have yet to hear you swear, but you're writing erotic lyrics like a professional. Who'da thunk?"

"Well look who my fathers are," Toshi countered. "One's a sex idol, and the other is a romance novelist. Dad tries to protect me from stuff, but Father can't help it. It's his line of work, erotica!"

Seiya shrugged, returning her attention to the lyrics, a tad uncomfortably. "Well…you said sex is a dance, right?"

"Yes, sort of."

"Why not incorporate that into the last verse?"

"Got any ideas?"

Seiya blushed, and scowled. "It's embarrassing!"

Toshi looked nonplussed. "How so?"

"Oh, come on!" Seiya growled. "Not every kid is so comfortable with sex!"

"Why not?" Toshi's voice was genuinely clueless to her discomfort. "It's natural. Sure, wait until marriage, or love, I guess, but it's a natural, beautiful thing."

"You sound like Daddy." Seiya muttered, "Giving some sort of speech on abstinence or something."

"Sorry." Toshi grinned. "But can we stay focused?"

"Fine." Seiya snapped. "But YOU write the lyrics, or have Keyara help you!"

To Seiya's surprise, Toshi flushed deeply, the color spreading from his cheeks down his neck. "What?"

"I draw the line at talking about this with- with Keyara." The way he stressed her name explained his embarrassment to Seiya instantly.

"You like that… girl?" Seiya held out for a polite word, due to the situation.

"Be quiet! And it's none of your business, thanks!"

"You're blushing!"

"Be quiet!" Toshi wailed.

"You like her! No wonder you didn't mind her attitude!"

"Please, shush!" Toshi said desperately. "My father's just out back, and if he finds out, I won't hear the end of it!"

"Fine….But her? You can do so much better…" At Toshi's scowl she stopped, and sighed. "Listen, if y'like the Princess, whatever. Just don't expect me to fight to be bridesmaid at your guys' fucking wedding, kay?"

Toshi blew out a sigh. "Deal. Just try to be nice to her? Protégé was sort of her idea, after all…"

Seiya punched his arm with a grin. "You can like her all you want, Toshi, but you get to take credit for Protégé. Either we sink, or we swim, and you started it."

Toshi grinned back. "What do you think of the lyrics 'Get down on your knees-'"

"OKAY! OKAY! I believe you! Good! Add it in, just don't say that shit t'me, say it to Keyara!"

Yuki pushed the lawn mower back around to the garage, thoroughly disgruntled with the machine and seriously considering paying the gardener more to come back from wherever he was for vacation. He stopped at the sound of shrieking laughter, and looked over to see Toshi manning the hose by the neighbor's house, bare to the waist and drenching the neighbor girl.

This was going to be interesting.

End Chapter

Authoress here.

I'm done! Yay! Happy! Sleep! Review!