Warnings: Au, x-over, yaoi, possible violence as the story progresses, random moments of humor and/or fluff, quasi-smut included. Oh and back to the Gravi-ness.

Disclaimer: I own it all!
…Shyeah right.

Weiss Geräusche

'Prod,

Shuichi is a jackass. I'd say more on the matter, but that's really all there is to it. I'll swing by when I'm finished up here. Have we gotten any new info yet?

Saki'

Suguru walked slowly toward his cousin's home.

The positive thing about being given over to a deranged photographer with a not so secret fashion fetish was that it left plenty of time for logic to intrude. That and taking the long way back helped. This is not to say that he wasn't upset with Shuichi; he was. The other boy could have trusted him enough to tell him that he'd had a girlfriend before. Add to that the fact of finding out that Shu loved her enough to take her name as his own, that he loved her still… He wished he could have found out some other way than a nosy reporter dragging it out of Shu.

On the other hand, why had Nakia-san investigated Shuichi so thoroughly? She didn't seem to care about his or Hiro's history, so why was she so fixated with the singer?

Why indeed? Suguru's eyes narrowed dangerously.

So far as he knew, Esset would kill Shuichi if they ever found out who he was. So there'd be no need to expose what he was publicly. There was no one else who would have anything else to gain by having him researched so thoroughly. In fact there was only one person he could think of who was so anal retentive and controlling that he'd feel a need to set someone the task of finding out everything they could about an up and coming singer. And then organize the interview where the reporter would get a chance to try and trick the singer into revealing more information or confirming what she'd already gathered.

"Tohma!" he called, not even bothering to knock on the door. He slammed it shut behind him and stalked to stand in front of Tohma's chair where the blonde quietly sat reading the paper. Ryuichi and Nagi were sitting on the couches in the corner, and they stopped whatever it was they were doing to watch.

"Suguru, what a pleasant surprise," Tohma was smiling, a smile glowing his joy at seeing his darling baby cousin. "We watched your interview tonight. You looked good."

Suguru stared down at him, unmoved by the warmth in the man's face. It wasn't that he doubted his cousin's love, but rather that he'd seen this show too many times to be derailed from his purpose.

"Was there some point to all that?" Suguru demanded icily. He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled down at his cousin, his boss.

"I beg your pardon?" Innocent green eyes blinked. Confusion radiated from every line of the older musician's face.

Suguru felt an ironic smile tug at his lips. Oh Tohma was good. He'd keep playing ignorant until Suguru was thoroughly distracted from his reason for coming to speak with him if Suguru wasn't careful. And the only way he knew to keep that from happening was to lay all of his cards on the table, so to speak.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he apologized facetiously. "I can't imagine what possessed me to think you would ever have hired a reporter to dig up some dirt on Shu and then jab at him on national television."

"Are you implying that I arranged all of that?" Tohma's face lost it's cheerful expression and his face became neutral, hidden.

"Are you telling me you didn't?"

"I don't know where you get such fanciful ideas," Tohma announced mildly turning back to his paper.

"So you're saying that Nakia-san's not going to report to you everything that Shu said to her after the interview?" Suguru demanded. "Assuming she hasn't already."

"Why? Did he say something important?" Tohma asked with interest, no longer even trying to pretend that he had nothing to do with it all.

"Why are you getting all upset that Seguchi-san's having 'Shuichi' investigated? Nagi asked ironically. "You certainly didn't get this upset when he had me investigated. Although he did say he had to take care of his cat when he called me," Nagi observed from where he was sitting. Suguru turned toward him. What looked like the guts of a computer were still clutched in one hand of the beautiful boy who sat across from the childlike vocalist of Nittle Grasper.

"What cat?" Suguru raised a brow in confusion. And when did Tohma have Nagi investigated? He flashed a dangerous look at his cousin, letting him know that he was going to get back to that later.

"His Balinese. Apparently it got into a fight again and he needs to collect it."

'Shuichi's cat?' Suguru wondered silently. 'Shuichi didn't say anything about a'- he noticed the pointed expression on his friend's face. 'Oh… Oh! The assassin team Omi worked for had been named after cats! So he must have had to go to meet a former Weiss member. Shuichi's cat. Of course.' Suguru allowed an expression of concern to slide across his face. "Is it okay?"

"He didn't know if anything was wrong, only that he'd been called to pick it up."

Wait, did that mean that the blond guy, Yohji, was one of Shu's old teammates? His brows furrowed slightly. If that were the case then perhaps he had completely misread the situation when he had walked in on the two of them that night. On the other hand if they had been through life threatening situations together then they might be every bit as close as he had imagined. Neither prospect appealed to him. Now the concern on his face was genuine, no acting necessary.

Nagi cocked his head, as if debating whether to say anything else. He finally settled with, "I'm sure it's fine. There's a reason for the statement of cats having nine lives."

"Right. Surely it can't be too bad. But even so, do you think it's going to make him cancel movie night?"

"Can't say for sure," Nagi focused on carefully placing his newest project away in a side pocket of his bag. He hoped that his friend would move on to another subject soon, the adult units were picking up on their coded-to-mean-more-than-they-were-saying-because-they-didn't-want-the-adults-to-find-out speech patterns.

Suguru was so wrapped up in worrying about what was going on with Shu that didn't notice the considering look being exchanged by the older musicians. He did however notice the tiny headshake that Nagi tossed at him. Suguru realized what he was getting at and nodded in silent acknowledgement.

"Speaking of movie night," Nagi changed the subject, "Who's turn is it to pick the movie?"

Suguru gave a wicked grin. "Yours."

"Mine! Why do I have to choose a movie? You know I don't watch tv or movies, unless it's with you guys." Nagi protested. Nagi had been cautiously accepted as part of the group and as such invited to their movie nights the past couple of weekends. Since by now it was accepted that he was going to be there they had agreed that he needed a turn at picking the next movie they'd watch. While he seemed to enjoy being there, Nagi had avoided having to choose a movie last week too. None of them were having that.

"Well I'll help you pick one out then. Something perfectly awful and without subtitles for a change. It'll be great."

Suguru smiled at the disappointed expression that flickered over his friend's face before he assumed an expressionless mask. Poor thing, he had to pick a movie for them all. Despite the lack of emotion on his face Nagi managed to inject a note of heavy resignation in his answer of, "Whatever makes you happy, Su-kun."

"And don't you forget it," Suguru responded mildly. "C'mon, let's go. Hey we're going to pick up some movies and head to Shu-kun's house. Is that cool Tohma?"

"Oooh! Movies! Can I come Su-kun? Nagi-kun? Pleeease?" Ryuichi begged prettily. Suguru grinned at the excitement in Ryuichi's voice.

"No. No one is allowed to know you're back, yet. No one can know until we're sure it's safe, remember?" Tohma frowned disapprovingly at the older of the two brunettes. "That includes the rest of Su-kun's little friends."

"Aww! But I wanna meet Shindou-san! I want his autograph! And I wanna see the movies too!" Ryu pouted. He flopped back into his seat with his arms crossed over his chest. Tohma ignored his theatrics to turn back to his young cousin.

"Are you sure that you'll be able to stay? It sounded like he might be otherwise occupied tonight. With his cat," Tohma sounded doubtful on the last word, making it clear that he didn't believe it for an instant.

"I'm sure it will be fine. If Shindou-san was going to cancel he'd have called to do so by now. As absent minded, and dimwitted as he can be at times, he has an incredible instinct to look after his friends. It doubtlessly has something to do with his dysfunctional family history, or some such nonsense." Nagi had his bag in hand and was already walking toward the door.

Suguru froze, staring after him. Nagi seemed to realize that the young keyboardist wasn't right behind him because he turned and looked back with an inquiring look.

"You know, sometimes I feel like I've known you and Shu forever. And then other times I remember that you and Shuichi had a long standing relationship before I ever met either of you."

"Does it bother you?" Nagi tilted his head to the side, and his bangs shifted just the slightest bit away from his incredible midnight eyes. Suguru considered it for a second.

"A bit, I suppose. You guys share something that I'll never really understand. It's always a little unnerving to be reminded of that."

"Ah, I can see how you would think that. I'm sorry you feel that way. Is there anything…" Nagi floundered for a second apparently unsure what he wanted to offer to the musician. Something told Suguru that his reluctance to finish that statement didn't stem from the fact that the Nittle Graspers were watching them. They were almost gaping really, it was rather amusing.

"You can tell me all about what Shu was like when you first met him," Suguru made it to Nagi's side as he spoke.

"Very different, and yet surprisingly the same. Unfortunately," Nagi sighed. "Come along. I imagine it'll take us a while to pick out a movie everyone will agree on."

"And I think you guys are really weird. Just for the record." Suguru opened the door for Nagi.

"Yes I suppose I can see how you came to that conclusion as well."

And then they were walking down the driveway to get to the white BMW that was parked on the street outside the Seguchi family grounds. Suguru glanced up at the darkening sky, noticing how high the moon was. It was a bit later than he had realized, he really shouldn't have gotten off the subway so far away so he could have time to think some more and cool off a bit.

"Sooo, how long do you think it'll be before they corner us and start asking questions?" Suguru glanced back at his cousin's house and new home until his mother could be bothered to come back to Japan.

"Not too long. That was kind of fun."

"Wasn't it though? And it'll keep them from wasting time with reporters and detectives and whatnot if they think they can get the information out of us directly," Suguru hopped in on the passenger side.

"Indeed. Thank you for that. I know you're upset with him, but it really wouldn't do to have them find out about anything about Esset if they aren't involved."

"Do you honestly believe Tohma could be part of that?" Suguru turned troubled eyes on his friend.

"If he is would it matter?" Nagi asked curiously.

"I'm not sure. You guys don't talk about Esset too much, but when you do… I'm not sure I can stand thinking of Tohma being part of that. But even if he is, I could never want him to get hurt."

"I don't want to hurt anyone you care about. Unless he tries to kill me or someone I care about first, I promise I won't raise my hand against him."

"Well gee, that's comforting," Suguru frowned at the prodigy.

"It wasn't meant to be comforting. Merely honest."

"At least that's something. Did Tohma really try to have you investigated?" Suguru asked.

"Yes."

"And you're okay with that?" Suguru wondered.

"He invited me into his home. I would have expected nothing less of a man who values his family. In fact I would have lost respect for him if he hadn't. Crawford certainly wouldn't have just allowed some stranger to come live with us for no reason other than he 'didn't have anywhere else to stay'."

"I'm never going to understand you guys, you know that right? I mean, when you explain it makes a twisted sort of sense, but who the hell thinks like that to begin with?"

"Everyone you've surrounded yourself with apparently," Nagi responded dryly. Suguru gave a startled laugh. Then he leaned his back against his seat to contemplate the statement.

It was true. Shuichi, Nagi and Tohma all seemed to think like that, and they were all really important to him. Except Hiro and Ryuichi didn't. Although Hiro was comfortable with it to the point that he easily could if he was put in the right situation. And Ryu… was special. He didn't have any need to think like that.

"Hey, Nagi-kun?" Suguru rolled his head against his seat until he could see the other boy.

"Could-" he pressed his lips together, debating before he finally blurted out the question he had wanted to ask someone all evening, "could you tell me about Shu's girlfriend?"

"His girlfriend?" Nagi cast a glance over at Suguru and shook his head. "He never had a girlfriend."

Suguru's head snapped up and he stared hard at the other boy.

"What do you mean he never had a girl friend!"