Disclaimer: Not ours. We'd like our own personal Hiros any day.

Strawberry Shuichi

Authors' note: Italics, as usual, are thoughts. And 'thank you's in mega tons for the reviews. Warning: the usual dose of weirdness.

Operation 4: (Authors on the Verge of Giving This Up) Code Red!

"La li ho!" Shuichi sang down the street as he walked home from the bakery. He had just finished modeling for his life-size strawberry shortcake statue and was on his merry way to see his precious Yuki.

'Yuki is going to be so surprised! I can't wait! Only two more days till our anniversary.' Shuichi crossed the road in a hurry amongst the cacophonous crowd and decided to take a shortcut through the park. 'The baker dude said I can check on the progress tomorrow. Can't wait... Damn, that stupid session took forever: standing there in front of that guy in my briefs for hours. Damn briefs, so constricting but, he had to see my used-more-than-Hiro's package.' Shuichi's pace quickened as he all but ran to his destination, his thoughts twisting and swirling in his head. 'Can't wait til' I change back to boxers… That dude had a nosebleed, wonder why? Poor guy. Anyway, I wonder what Yuki will give me for our anniversary…'

Reaching the lavish apartment that he shared with his lover, Shuichi dug his hands in his pockets in search of the keys, eager to see his boyfriend. At long last, his quest was complete and he entered his home.

"Yuki! I'm home!"

There was no response, which was expected whether the blond novelist were home or not.

'He's probably in his study.' Shuichi thought to himself, feeling giddy at the prospect of seeing Yuki after such a long day.

"Yuki! What's up? Still with that novel?" Shuichi asked in a rush as he bounded over to the study to find Yuki staring blankly at the blinking cursor on the monitor of his laptop.

Yuki's only response to Shuichi's presence in the room grabbing the peaceful quiet by the throat and thoroughly strangling it was a groan.

"Anyway, today was great. I hung out with Hiro, and I went to the bakery. It was so cool. The guy there was French! He actually had a French accent!" Shuichi continued without missing a beat as he planted himself near the wall in front of Yuki's table.

'He must be talking about "Pierre." That guy's accent is about as real as Seguchi's compassion.' Yuki thought to himself as he shut down the computer, anticipating a long story from his pink haired companion."That's nice..." He relaxed in his chair, propping his sock clad feet up comfortably on the desk.

"Yeah he was so cool, but not as cool as you, of course!"

"Uh yeah... So why were you at the bakery?"

"Umm.. umm... Hiro wanted to get something for Ayaka-chan."

"Really? Hmm…"

"Yeah, I guess. Ayaka-chan is so helpful... she's always there for Hiro. When she comes from Kyoto, she always cooks for him, and makes sure he's safe… she-she kind of reminds me of you…" Shuichi began twiddling his thumbs as two blotches of red took residence on his cheeks and he averted his gaze to the floor.

"Does she really?" Yuki all but chuckled to himself as a picture of his ex-fiancée catering to the guitarist's every whim presented itself in his mind.

"Yeah, it was so cool! She even helped us today at the bakery; she helped us pick out this great cake. It was so good." Shuichi snapped back into hyper mode to continue his story with hundred percent enthusiasm and more.

"Wait a minute…" The novelist's brows furrowed slightly as he returned his attention to the story. "I thought you said that you helped that guitarist pick something for Ayaka…"

"Oh um... yeah but she was also helping Sakano-san pick something for…Seguchi-san." The vocalist's eyes searched for anything but his companion's face to focus on to as he felt heat rise to his face.

"Oh really? So when did your friend get the time to pick something for Ayaka?" Yuki rose from his chair abruptly and walked around the table to face his lover.

Shuichi swallowed and glanced up in apprehension to find Yuki's expressionless face looming over his, inches away.

"When she was helping Sakano-san of course."

Taking the glasses off, Yuki placed them on the table behind him without taking his eyes off Shuichi for a single second. A semi-tense silence hung around them and all Shuichi was aware was of his heart slamming against his ribcage 14 times in the span of a second as golden eyes raked his face. Then he felt a warm hand on his chest and his heart all but stopped beating as his spine met the cool of the wall behind him.

"So…did you get anything?" Yuki whispered in Shuichi's ear breathlessly and closed his eyes.

"Ummm..." Shuichi's entire body stiffened and his face contorted in panic as Yuki's eyelashes caressed his jaw.

"Hmmm... you look cute when you try to lie."

Leaving no room for a reply, Yuki's lips slowly took Shuichi's and the latter felt his body slacken under the heat of the former.

Next Day

Sunlight streamed through the blinds and scattered fragments of gold all over the room. Shuichi awoke with a start and rubbed his eyes to rid himself of the still lingering sleep. Groggily he sat up and searched for the other occupant of the bed, only to find an empty space next to him.

"Uh... Yuki... Yuki where are you?" As he whispered to no one he heard the distinct sound of water against tile. "Oh...shower...perfect, now I can sneak out and speak to Hiro."

Fully awake now and feeling giddy, Shuichi quickly left the bed and dressed himself-- in the same clothes he was wearing the night before their adult-type activities-- and tiptoed out of the apartment. And just as the door closed behind him, Yuki re-entered the room and was puzzled to find it empty.

"What the hell? He never leaves this early... Oh well, who cares, peace and quiet at last."

Shuichi skipped his merry way to his best friend's apartment, humming Bad Luck's latest single as he went along. Upon reaching his destination, he prepared his face with a cheerful grin and rang the bell at the rate of 1280 push per second. A disgruntled Hiro-- complete with bed hair and a state of dishabille-- appeared as the door opened and Shuchi ambled in.

"Oh my Kami, Hiro I think he's suspicious of us." Shuichi exclaimed in one breath.

"What the hell, man, your breath stinks." Hiro scrunched up his nose and turned away from the door.

"Well, yours isn't any better!" Shuichi retaliated. "ANYWAY! Problem! He SUSPECTS something! What do we DO? Code Red! Mayday! Back Up!" He jumped up and down to emphasize his point.

"All right, calm down." Hiro held up his hands in defeat and deigned to pay attention to what was actually going on. "You didn't say anything to him, did you?"

"No I only told him of the baker and his cool French accent."

Hiro rolled his eyes at his friend naivete. 'Accent, his accent is as real as Sakano's sanity,' he thought but settled for"You weren't supposed to tell him we went there!" He opened the door further to let his best friend enter.

"I know but, I did pay a lot of money for the statue, plus I brought home cake yesterday. It was expensive but it was worth it."

"What did you buy?"

"Oh, this really cool French import!" Shuichi proclaimed with alacrity. "I paid 3,000 yen for this really good cake called 'Entennman's'."

"You paid what! For what!" Hiro marvelled momentarily before remembering this was after all, Shuichi. "You can get that same stuff at the convenience store for like 100 yen."

"That French dude ripped me off!"

"Yep... he did. But the point is that Yuki-san is suspicious, so now we have to quell his suspicions." Hiro stated matter-of-factly.

"So, what do you have in mind?" Shuichi asked hopefully as he sat on Hiro's bed and watched his friend tidy up the place a bit.

"I dunno, what do you usually do to calm him down? Drugs? Sex? Wine?" The guitarist suggested helpfully as he headed for the bathroom for his morning ablutions.

"Umm… usually I leave him alone for a while and he calms down." Shuichi followed.

"Well, you can't leave him alone, he'll get suspicious if you're not asking for any." And Hiro closed the door in Shuichi's face.

Once Hiro's morning rituals had been taken care of, the two friends headed to the studio in somber sobriety, both deep in thought about what to do next to appease the novelist's questions. The tension ran thick and no one said anything. They finally arrived at the NG building and Hiro pushed open the heavy glass door of the entrance and Shuichi exploded, not being able to take the stretch of silence any longer.

"Ugh Hiro, what am I going to do! Yuki'll be suspicious if I leave him alone, he'll be suspicious if I don't ask him for any! This sucks." Shuichi's outburst caused many eyes to land on him but since everyone was used to the histrionics of Bad Luck's vocalist, they went back to their own business. All but one.

"Asking for any what?" Asked Seguchi Tohma as he walked briskly towards his proteges.

"Um… hehehe." Shuichi became flustered at the question.

"Asking for a ride to the studio. He he!" Hiro helped his brain dead friend.

"Really? It sounded as if riding Eiri-san-- with Eiri-san would be better than riding anyone-- I mean, with—anyone else."

"Aren't you right about that!" Shuichi shouted.

"Hmm… I thought it was something a little more interesting than a ride to work. So what else is up Shindou-san, Nakano-san?" Seguchi's lips turned up in a saccharine smile.

"Uh nothing at the moment Seguchi-san! Are you looking for Fujisaki? He's not here right now, as you can see." The smile never ceased to unnerve Hiro.

"I can see that pretty well, unless you're implying that I'm blind. ARE you implying that I am blind, Nakano-san?" Seguchi's smile widened as he closed in on his employees like predator on prey.

"Umm… o-of course not Seguchi-san," the said guitarist backed down.

"Well, then I'd better leave. I wouldn't want to interrupt my favorite band's practice now would I?"

"He he" the two laughed nervously at their president as he exited the building.

Just then their keyboardist rushed in with a fuming manager hot on his heels.

"Fujisaki? You're late?" stated the ever slow Shuichi.

"Aren't you the ever smart detective?" spat the keyboardist.

"Why are you late, Fujusaki? You're always blaming Shuichi for being late and now you're late." Hiro quipped.

"Wow, Fujisaki-kun late…" Shuichi was still lost in la-la-land.

"Shut up!" Suguru clenched his fists at his sides and gritted his teeth. "I was stopped by Mika-san on the way here; she kept mumbling on and on about some good cheesecake she had last week at some French patisserie."

"What the hell's a panty-sserie?" Shuichi was yet to return from his trip.

"If you paid attention in French class, Shuichi, you would know that it means bakery!" Hiro smacked his best friend upside the head.

"Oh my god! BAKERY! I forgot I told Pierre I would come in today to check the progress!" The loud mouth scrambled towards the exit in a frenzy.

"Don't tell me that you want to get out of practice!" said K as he cocked his gun at the cotton candy haired singer.

"B-but K! I need to make sure everything is proportioned! And I mean EVERYTHING!"

"Ugh! Too much information!" Fujisaki cursed his vivid information as an image of their vocalist floated in his mind like a fluffy cloud on a summer day in the blue sunny sky clad in nothing but his skin.

The other's stared at the keyboardist as he hit his head repeatedly against the wall in the copyrighted Sakano fashion.

"Uh Fujisaki, you okay, man?" Hiro inquired, "we're leaving to go to the bakery if you want to come with us."

"Hehehe… sorry momentary blood clot! Happens all the time! Uh… let's go," Suguru decided, thinking it would be better to accompany the group instead of confronting his calculating cousin concerning damage charges. Then again he could always blame Sakano…

And of course, K followed.

The foursome jumped into the bandwagon and we literally mean a bandwagon and headed to the bakery, arriving in about two minutes due to K's psycho American driving skillz0rz.

The merry gang of four listened as happily as they could to Shuichi's boasts of his gift as they walked into the bakery.

"Yeah, so this is sooooo uber cool. I can't wait to see Yuki's face; he'll-"

The group suddenly stopped as they faced none other than the queen from NG's hell, Mika Seguchi. She eyed them curiously for a brief moment wondering what they were doing in the shop. The group tried as fast as they could to turn on their heels but none could escape the clutches of the evil that is Mika.

"Not so fast, twerps!" she said as she grabbed onto Shuichi's collar.

"Lemme go! Lemme go! I'm going to tell Yuki on you!" the pink haired dipstick turned into his trademark chibi self, complete with watering eyes and cute dogsuit.

"As if my brother could stop me!"

"Didn't he stop you from dragging him back to the Uesugi residence." Exclaimed the ever genius guitarist with rapier wit.

"Yeah he did! He did!" Shuichi seconded the claim.

"Shut it, you crotch rocket!" Mika was losing her patience.

"Hey don't you diss the guitar! It needs love too!" Hiro was immediately on the defensive.

"Yeah, whatever! What are you dweebs doing in here? This place is much more superior to you!"

Suguru attempting to get Mika's mind off the matter and decided to flatter her a little. "Mika-san what's that lovely eau de toilette you're wearing?"

"It's Poison, and stop trying to change the subject; answer the question."

The ever French Pierre interrupted this time with his fake French wannabe accent. "Why Mika-san you know ces fous- I mean boys?"

"Yes Pierre, they work for my husband! How do you know them?"

"Ma chere madame, of course I know les petits. They came in here hier soir pour un life size strawberry shortcake version of Monsieur Shindou."

"So that's what this is about!" Everything clicked into place in Mika's ebil head. "That's right, your anniversary is around the corner. But can you be any more perverted? Ugh a life size version? Does that mean that everything will be shown!"

"Nothing will be left to the imagination Madame Seguchi." Pierre rubbed his hands like the perv that he is and leered.

Saturn's notes: Once again, I've had to pull out the whip for Rheyne...

Rheyne says:The next update will be whenever (translated: never, possibly). Hope you've enjoyed this.Feedback of praise, criticism, death threats, all are welcome; just let us know what you think!

Saturn (again) : She's kidding! There will be more thanks to my trusty whip.

Rheyne: --runs away--