Author's Note: Woot woot! Last chapter! Yippee it's done!...hmm…I'm getting a little sad, but its being over powered by relief…haha…my god, this chapter is like, completely filled with phone calls, which normally I don't like to do at all, but this time it just worked for me...enjoy!

Chapter Twenty

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Shuichi ran down the streets, tears flooding his face, once again, making it hard to breath. It was official: he was alone in the world, and had never felt more lonely.

Why couldn't anyone believe him? Was it so hard to accept that he'd gotten in a plane crash, hit his head, gotten amnesia, and accidentally been mistaken for a sixteen year old, while in reality he was a twenty-year old famous musician from Japan?

…okay, so maybe it was…but it wasn't completely impossible, it had a shred of credibility…sort of…

But that didn't matter, because none of the people were going to believe him. Shuichi walked into the park area where he was meeting Toby, and sat down against the stone wall. These people…they had no reason to believe him; they hadn't known either him, nor 'Tai' before, so all they knew was him being Tai. Their first opinion…that was it! He had to talk to someone he knew from before…besides Eiri. Eiri was obviously in some sort of denial.

But who was the most likely person to listen to reason? Not Tatsuha, that was for sure…and Ryuichi was out of the question (he'd probably think he was talking to a ghost). Maybe Hiro, but…

Suddenly, it became clear. Shuichi whipped out Toby's cell phone (it wouldn't hurt to borrow it for a few minutes) and started dialing the number, smirking slightly at the thought of the cost.

"Moshi moshi." A suspicious voice came over the line.

"Tohma-san?"

"Hai, who is this?"

"Well, this may be hard to believe, but…"

"How did you get this number?" Shuichi felt a pang of nostalgia; some people never change; Tohma was never one to put up with any crap.

"Uh, well, Eiri gave it to me." That was partially true, Eiri had originally given him the number for emergencies, before Tohma himself had finally trusted the singer enough to 'give' it to him officially, which meant he allowed Shuichi to phone him.

"Bullshit. Eiri only ever gve this number to one person, Shuichi."

"I know." Tohma was surprised to here the boy agree with him, he had been expecting some sort of excuse. But then as he thought about it, he understood the implications of the statement.

"You can't possibly be suggesting that you're Shuichi." Said boy was surprised at how quickly the man caught on.

"That's exactly it. I'm Shuichi." There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, during which Shuichi had about a million heart attacks.

"Do you have any proof?" The challenging tone of Tohma's voice caught him off-guard, but the boy quickly collected himself.

"The time that Taki Aizawa threatened Eiri, and you pushed him in front of a car, and he was in the hospital forever? Or the time that you and Mika-san bribed me into getting Eiri to talk to his family. And of course, the time that you tried to convince Eiri that I was the cause of his stress, and that he should go to New York to get away from me. Or—"

"What do you want from me? And where are you getting this information? Are you threatening me?"

"No! I just want you to believe me! I'm Shuichi!"

"I'm not sure if you realize that Shuichi is dead…" The boy wanted to cry at the sound of Tohma's cold voice; this was much harder than he'd expected!

"I realize that everyone thinks that I'm dead, but it's not true. There was this big mix-up, and…" Shuichi quickly outlined the events of the past months to Tohma. "…but when I went to talk to Yuki, he acted like he didn't recognize me and—"

"You talked to Eiri?" Tohma cut in, his voice dangerous and low.

"Y-yes…but—"

"Look, Shindou-san," Shuichi thought his heart would burst at the sound of his name; finally someone believed him! "Your story, while unlikely, seems slightly possible. And I'm very sorry that such a terrible thing had to happen to you. But unfortunately, I can't allow you to ever contact Eiri again."

"…excuse me?"

"Eiri spent too long trying to get over you. Apparently you were even more of an inconvenience in death than you were alive…"

"But…Tohma-san…"

"I'm warning you, Shindou-san, stay far away from Eiri." The dial tone in Shuichi's ear infuriated him, and he almost threw the phone across the park. But he decided to try one more thing. He hadn't wanted it to come to this, but…

Sighing, he dialed the number that was imprinted into his mind from calling so many times, praying that the man hadn't changed cell phones recently.

"Hello?" The deep voice answered his prayers.

"Hello, Yuki?"

"It's you. I'm hanging up." Shuichi didn't know what to do to keep the older man listening, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Wait! Please, just listen. I'm at the park near your apartment, the one near that really tall glass building. I'm sitting against the stone wall."

"And why do I care?"

"Please Yuki…just come and let me explain. And if you don't want, I'll never talk to you again." Was this a good idea? Shuichi found that he didn't really care at the moment; he just had to see Eiri as soon as possible.

"Wh—"

"Aishiteru Yuki."

Eiri was left staring angrily at his cell phone. The only reason he'd answered it was because he'd thought it was Tohma when it showed up as a blocked number.

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Tohma's phone rang again. Expecting it to be Shuichi again, he almost turned it off, but fortunately he got a glimpse of the name.

"Hello, Tohma?"

"Eiri? Thank god, I've been worried."

"Worried, why?"

"Just…a bad feeling…"

"Okay, you know how you said to call you if anything weird happened? Well, this boy just called me, I've seen him before, and he told me that he was…Shuichi, and I told him to leave me alone, but then he called. Something about wanting to see me." Instead of Tohma going into instant shock mode, Eiri was very surprised to hear the man swear quietly.

"That damn brat!"

"...Tohma, did you know about this?"

"That boy just called my cell phone. He told me that he was Shuichi, and I had to believe him, then he went on about the plane accident and something about amnesia and a dead boy, and how there had been a mix-up, and that I had to tell you that it really was him."

There was silence for so long on Eiri's end that his brother-in-law began to think that the man had left. Then he spoke.

"So…what did you tell him?"

"I told him that you didn't need any more hassle, and to leave you alone, and if he ever contacted you again, I'd personally hunt him down."

Tohma heard a strange choking noise on the other end of the phone, but he decided to let Eiri think what he had just told him out. That turned out to be his downfall.

"So," Eiri began, a few seconds later, "How did he get your cell phone number?" Tohma felt the cold wave of dread that comes with getting called out on a lie. He tried to bluff his way out.

"Well…well, I supposed that he got in from an inside source, or a—"

"Bullshit Tohma. You know very well that there are no inside sources when it comes to you, and the boy is in fucking New York. How did he get your number?"

"He could have, if he was per say, a very determined individual, somehow obtained the number…from…someone." Tohma winced; he knew there was no way that Eiri was buying that.

"Don't lie to me you bastard. You've done it enough for one lifetime. I'll ask one more time, and then I'm going to go find the boy."

"No!" Tohma yelled, before he could stop himself, "I mean, he's dangerous. He could hurt you! And he looks so much like…him…it could seriously hurt you mentally."

"Oh god," came a whisper from the other man, "he doesn't just look like Shuichi…"

"Eiri, no!"

"…he is Shuichi. That's it, isn't it? You knew that he was alive, but you lied to me! You bastard, how can you live like that, saying you care for me, but you tried to keep away my boyfriend? Are you even human?"

"Eiri, no, it's not true…" Tohma could hear the writer laughing at his feeble protest, and he knew it was useless to keep up the pretense.

"I'm sorry…Eiri, I'm so sorry, I just…wanted to protect you…"

"'Sorry' isn't going to fix it Tohma. I really don't know if anything will…" For a moment, Tohma thought that Eiri was considering what to say next, but then he heard the dial tone. The man could taste his failure in his mouth. How could he have done this to his Eiri? What was he going to do? Eiri hated him now…and that could ruin his life forever…

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Eiri stared at the phone in blank rage. It occurred to him that this whole thing was partially his fault; he had always let Tohma baby him around, and threaten the 'mean' people who were out to get him. But to go this far? To have intimate knowledge that would make his life a thousand times better, and not to share it with him? Just because it 'might damage' him? Tohma had to be dealt with very soon. It was on his to-do list, right after finding Shuichi, and somehow, explaining the whole mess to him…

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Toby stood outside the doors of the orphanage, debating whether or not to meet Tai. He was pretty sure that he was going to get in trouble, and this meeting almost definitely had something to do with his missing cell phone.

Was it worth going and getting yelled at, if he got the chance to explain himself? Maybe he could get back into Tai's good graces, and Tai would stop pretending to be this other person. Then again, he might just get yelled at…

Deciding anyways to go meet Tai, Toby hitched his collar up around his neck, flung his mop of blond hair out of his eyes, and began the walk to the park.

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Shuichi sat curled up against the wall behind the school. Rain dripped down his neck, and into his eyes from his hair. Furiously, he shook his head, sending a spray of water in every direction.

"Hmm," A voice floated down from up above. Shuichi knew without looking who it was. He stood up and turned to glare at Dan, closely followed by Greg.

"He looks like a dog, smells like dog, and he even shakes like a dog…"

"He must be a dog!" Shuichi rolled his eyes at the ridiculousness of their dialogue.

"What do you want?" The two stopped laughing to grin at each other, and then leer at him.

"We heard that you were going back to the hospital, but now you're back here again…"

"What happened, did your boyfriend there dump you or something? And now, you have to come home and face that fag you dumped to go there. Now...there's a name for that sort of thing, isn't there?"

"Karma, Greg?"

"Well, no. I was thinking something more along the lines of…irony."

Shuichi felt tears spring to his eyes; he tightly clenched his fists, digging his nails into his palm to distract himself. The hopelessness of his situation was threatening to overwhelm him, and he tried to think of something else. His tactic didn't work.

"…And so, we've decided to initiate you right here, right now…"

The boy whipped back to the conversation. What had happened while he was spacing out? It soon became obvious; Dan was advancing towards him with something concealed in his hand. Frantically, Shuichi tried to back away, only to bump into Greg's waiting arms. He struggled violently, but to no avail; he was stuck.

Dan pulled back his fingers and revealed a small pocket knife in his hand. It glinted maliciously in the light. Strangely enough, as it came closer to his face, Shuichi felt more and more distant, until he was watching the whole thing from the distance, a bored observer.

"What'cha gonna do, pretty boy?" Dan sneered into his face, "Do something. I dare you."

"He won't do anything!" Greg yelled, "Look at him, he's too scared."

"Well, I'm not." There was a new voice, but Shuichi didn't really care; he was much too interested in the way the chain links of the fence interlocked with each other…so complex, yet so simple.

Just as the knife was an inch from his face, Shuichi felt Greg's arms give way behind him, and he fell back, making no attempt to break his fall. He was too busy trying to figure out why he was falling. A thump jarred his body as his head sickly smacked against the ground. It was a struggle to pull himself into a sitting position without fainting, but Shuichi had to watch the current events unfolding.

Dan and Greg had now been cornered against the fence, with identical looks of fear on their face. Shuichi struggled to see the person's face that was carrying out his dream, but they were turned away. All he could see was blond hair sweeping the person's neck. In his disoriented state, Shuichi found himself wondering how many people in America had blond hair. It seemed like they all did. This could be anyone who was saving him.

For some reason, the thought struck him as funny, and he started giggling hysterically.

Still though, he watched as Dan attempted to be a brave wise-ass, and was rewarded with a powerful right hook to the jaw. Greg watched frightfully, shaking so much that he could barely stand. But he grabbed Dan by the arm, and ran the two of them out of there as fast as he possibly could.

The world started to spin, and go black around the edges. Maybe he had hit his head harder than he had originally thought. Shuichi tried to unscramble his thoughts as his blond haired rescuer walked over to him, but all he could think about was the hair. Who did he know who had blond hair?

"…Tobias?" His rescuer frowned as he bent down to look the confused boy in the eyes.

"Shuichi? Is it really you?" Just before he blacked out, said boy stared up, tears falling down his cheeks. The sun, having come out from behind the clouds, framed the head of blond hair, giving it a glowing look. Shuichi smiled; his angel was there for him.

"Yuki…"

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Author's Note: So, when I started writing this fic, right around the end of May, beginning on June, I never expected it to take THIS long to finish, and I certainly never ever expected an ending like this. A lot of this stuff was never supposed to happen, but it did, and I'm pretty happy with it…

So that's the end, might be an epilogue, maybe not, I think I've said pretty much all that I've wanted to say…so basically, all that's left to say is that I love you all, all my readers (even if you didn't review, I still love you) and my reviewers, you are my motivation! I never would have finished without you, so I love you so much!

Wow, this is starting to sound like some award speech, so I'm …uh…signing off now, but thanks a million times to all the reviewers again, I LOVE YOU!