Aikyou
Summary: AU Shuichi Shindou, unwanted by his parents, was raised in America. Now nineteen he returns with Bad Luck to Japan where he meets a gorgeous, bad-tempered blonde…
Disclaimer: Not mine. Gravitation belongs to Maki Murakami.
"bold" – English
"normal" – Japanese
"italic" – lyrics
Chapter Four
Yuki leaned against the brick wall in the mouth of the alley next to The Scarlet Lounge and watched the pretty young woman before him watch him in return.
"Your last name," he said suddenly. "Are you by any chance related to –"
"Kitazawa Yuki was my brother." Yuki took a sharp breath and turned from her, his eyes far off and his expression closed. Guilt and self-hatred ran through him stronger than ever before.
"I suppose you want revenge," Yuki said hollowly. His words sounded to him as if they were coming from someone else.
"Not at all," Yoshiki replied, sounding almost cheerful. Yuki turned to stare at her in surprise. Then his eyes narrowed.
"You know, I knew he had a younger brother, but I didn't know he had a sister…" Yoshi beamed at the stony-faced novelist.
"That's because I used to be a boy!" she explained. Yuki stared at her, in complete and total shock. What the hell! "When I was about fourteen or fifteen, I just woke up one day and decided I wanted to be a girl!"
"You're – you're a transvestite!" Yuki said, sounding half-strangled.
"Yup!"
"And Yu – Kitazawa Yuki was your brother," he repeated, rapidly overcoming his shock.
"Yup!"
"And you don't care that I killed him," he said harshly. Yoshi's face suddenly because serious.
"At first I wanted to blame you. But I spent time finding out the whole story, and what you did… well, anyone would've done the same in your situation. Even me. So how can I blame you for that? If I want to blame anybody, I blame Yuki." Eiri stayed quiet for a few moments, memories playing out before his eyes, making his breath come a little quicker and his heart rate speed up. He was jerked out of his reminiscing when he suddenly found himself with an armful of Yoshi.
"I forgive you, Eiri-san. The only person blaming you is yourself," she murmured before letting him go and walking back inside.
I need… I need to go for a walk, Yuki thought to himself, now more confused than ever.
YSY
It had been fourteen years since Shuichi was last in Japan, and so he had a little difficulty figuring out how to take the train to his parents' house. Thankfully Aunt Megumi, who had raised him, had made sure that he didn't forget spoken Japanese and made sure he learned how to write it. He studied the maps and then got on the right train, nervousness and worry clouding his mind.
His parents hadn't wanted him. He understood that much. They had never called, never wrote, nothing. His Aunt Megumi had never explained why, telling him that it was something that his parents would need to tell him themselves, but there was only so much that could force parents to cut themselves off from a small child completely, and he could only believe that it had been his fault.
Before he knew it, he was standing in front of a house that looked well-kept and normal. Shuichi's heart rate sped up, and his palms began to sweat. This is it. He checked the mailbox, and sure enough it was labeled Shindou. Screwing up his courage, he walked up to the front door and knocked. Maybe they're asleep, he thought to himself as there was no answer for several long moments. But suddenly the door opened.
"Hello?" A woman with violet eyes and graying brown hair asked, not recognizing her own son standing before her. Shuichi swallowed, then gave a little smile.
"It's me mom. It's me, Shuichi."
The quicksilver change in expression would have been almost comic if it weren't for the circumstances. Her brows snapped together and her mouth became pressed into a thin hard line.
"Aya-chan? Who's at the door?" A man with pitch black hair and light brown eyes came to the door. I don't look anything like him, Shuichi noted dimly.
"I'm Shuichi. Your son," he repeated quietly. Shindou-san's expression resembled his wife's but with more anger.
"You're no son of mine. What, didn't your mother's sister tell you?" Shindou-san said mockingly. "You're a bastard. The son of my wife and her lover," he spat, and Shuichi's mother flinched. "I took her back, but you will never set foot in my home." He turned around sharply and walked away from the pink-haired boy, who stood there stunned.
"Please, don't come back," Aya-san warned before closing the door softly. Shuichi stood still for a long time, staring at the childhood he never had, at the home of the parents… or parent who never loved him. As he turned around to leave, the door opened a little once more.
"So you're my brother?" a soft voice came out from behind him. He turned in surprise to see the head of a girl of about fifteen through a small opening in the doorway.
"Who are you?" he asked, but he already knew. So my mother could have and love a child, just not me… he thought sadly.
"My name is Maiko. I'm fifteen," she said shyly. "What's your name? Where did you live for so long?"
"Shuichi," he said softly. "I'm nineteen and I lived with Aunt Megumi."
"Really?" she breathed, excitement plain in her voice and sparkling eyes. "In Los Angeles?"
"Yeah," he replied, smiling at her girlish excitement.
"That's so cool!"
"Maiko!" came a call from inside. Her smile faded.
"I've got to go. It was nice meeting you," Maiko told him before closing the door.
"You too," he whispered to the closed door.
Shuichi turned and walked out of the yard, and back to the station. His mind and heart were numb and blank all the way back to the station he had boarded the train to begin with. When he found himself standing in front of the Scarlet Lounge, he shook his head to clear himself from his daze. I can't go find Hiro or Ryu or Yoshi, Shuichi thought to himself. I can't impose on them.
He figured he'd get his aunt to wire him some money in the morning. With a sigh he walked to a nearby park and curled himself around his backpack on a bench. It's not that cold, he tried to convince himself before falling asleep.
SYS
r/r, tell me what you think! I swear I'll have Yuki and Shuichi meet in the next chapter… Again thank you to Ashley for editing Aikyou for cultural errors.