whoa! Over 1000 hits from readers! (does the happy dance) that makes me feel so great! Thank you all so much, I didn't know that this story would hit off so well! And also 23 reviews! My other stories combined don't meet up to this number. (bows) thank you all so much! I also saw how everyone wants Shuichi to live... go Shuichi! Well, we'll all find out now won't we? Please enjoy Track 5 of "Those ThreeWords"!
The next day arrived quicker then they thought. Again Yuki woke up first and got washed up, he attempted to work some more on the manuscript but still got nothing done. Noon passed and Shuichi was still sleeping, he had to get to N-G Pro Records before four because of that press conference that Tohma promised the public about what was happening. He sighed and sat back in his office chair when the phone rang. Yuki went to pick it up and found out it was his editor. She was yelling at him for being two days late so far and demanded the manuscript for the new novel now. "You're going to have to wait." Yuki spoke back coldly, again getting her even more upset. He just bit back at her. "I'll get it to you as soon as I finish, I just can't think right now!" He yelled. She was about to rip his head off with her screaming at him. Yuki ignored it the best he could while also trying to listen to see if she would give the extension that he needed.
"Yuki!" Shuichi cried out for his lover. "Yuki, Yuki!" The man turned off the phone and ran into the bedroom, Shuichi was crying again and holding his hand again. "It won't stop, it's been almost ten minutes and it still won't stop Yuki!" He went to the bed and took Shuichi's hand. They were suddle but still tremors none the less. Yuki let the young one take hold of his arm again and hugged him. "It won't stop, it's been going on for so long and it won't stop-"
"Just shut up and calm down." Yuki ordered. He piped down but kept letting the tears fall. Yuki looked back down to his hand again, it was still trembling. "It'll pass. When it does you need to get ready for the conference." He nodded. Both took their gazes down to his hand as it started to calm down and eventually stop. Shuichi chuckled a bit with joy but Yuki just rose to his feet again and started out of the room. He kept his gaze onto Yuki, the poor boy felt like he was being nothing but trouble to him. Even if this operation didn't help him, at least it would let Yuki be himself again.
He drove the boy to the studio and was involuntarily dragged along. When Shuichi got to the floor where his band always stayed he took hold of Yuki's arm. All the man could do was moan with annoyance as he was pulled into the lounge that was used. Upon entering Shuichi gave a big wide hello and made everyone turn to him. Hiro was the first one to jump over the couch and hug his friend. "Come on Hiro! It's just been a day!" He joked. Yuki was able to get out of the kids grasp and snuck into the hallway. Shuichi was then hugged by Suguru and almost lost balance. "Come on guys! If you do this I might fall and hit my head again!" They quickly let go and Shuichi just put his hands behind his head. "Sorry I worried everyone so much. Today I'll tell you all everything, at the same time I tell the world that is."
"Why can't you tell us now?" Sakano begged. He was also happy to see Bad Luck together again without a frown on their faces but he also didn't want to be held up in the suspense of it all.
Mr. K loaded a full magazine into his magnum and held the nozzle up to Shuichi. Even though he was on the opposite side of the room everyone knew he would make the mark. Shuichi raised his hands up high to not get shot while K smirked. "So then, how long before you can perform again?"
Shuichi lowered his arms and didn't want to look either of his partners in the eyes. They both turned to him and waited, they never heard of any news that Bad Luck would have to take a break because of this. "About two years, if I'm lucky." He muttered.
"What!" Suguru yelled out without thinking first.
Hiro put his arm around Shuichi's shoulder and leaned forward a bit to look right into his face. "It's okay, we can take those two years to work up our own skills and write loads of songs! Just think of that, we won't be bothering you anymore to write music last minute!" Shuichi nodded with the remark but still didn't like it. He was ruining everyone's lives with the stupid sickness. Maybe if he went to the doctor sooner he would have been able to stop it from even starting.
Yuki kept outside, taking out a cigarette and putting it into his mouth. "You're not allowed to smoke in here." Tohma informed while coming over. Yuki just gave one stare and then lit the cigarette anyway. Tohma knew that he wouldn't listen so instead he went and kept talking as if the warning was just a joke. "What will he do?"
"He's going to operate." Yuki mumbled with concern.
Tohma nodded and crossed his arms, then looked up at Yuki before entering. "What will you do?" He asked. Yuki never got to answer to the question. He walked inside and got the attention of all of the people. "Are you ready Shuichi?"
Pink hair whipped around and smiled bright, giving a V sign with his fingers and having the same flare in his eyes that he always had when he was going onstage. "You bet! Let's go tell them that Bad Luck will stick together no matter what!" Tohma agreed and started the merry band out of the room and to the press area. Hiro and Suguru took the lead while Sakano and K followed close behind. Shuichi went up to Yuki and just gave him a big hug. The man was about to start yelling at him again and even hit him across the head if it meant he would let go. "Thank you." Shuichi said, heart felt. Yuki was stunned by this and just stared down at him. Shuichi went a bit to his toes and gave Yuki a quick peck. He then waved a quick farewell and ran to catch up with the others. Yuki kept his eyes on Shuichi as he ran off to catch up with the band. His heart felt softer, the cold ice that encased it was melting slowly for some time now but... right now he felt like it was finally free. His only fear, his heart was to break at the end of the week. Yuki followed them a couple of steps behind to check on how the conference was going to go.
The room was a simple set up. One table with three mics was at one end of the room and facing rows and rows of reporters sitting and waiting. In walked the three from the band and they took their seats. First went in Hiro to take the farthest seat, then Shuichi took the middle while Suguru had the last seat. The reporters wasted no time in shouting out their questions, all the band did was smile and look nice for all of the flashing cameras. Shuichi then leaned forward a bit and started to talk into the mic. "Hello everyone!" He started. The reporters quieted down but some of the cameras kept flashing. "You're all here to know what happened last night huh? I know it!" Shuichi laughed a bit. He stole a glance from both of his friends and then went back to the mic to continue. "Well, funny story really. Two nights ago we came into work and were doing our thing and Hiro went out to get us dinner. He came back and gave us the food. First he tried to trick me with a chicken wrap but then he gave me my burger."
"Shuichi..." Suguru muttered his name, the boy was going to stray off of the topic for a while. He just knew that the speaker would never get to the point.
"And I had my dinner, great I might add, and then went to the restroom to make a phone call. When I got back to the room I started to feel all dizzy like and tripped over my own feet!" The crowd laughed at his stressing on tripped over his feet. To them it sounded like another comedy story coming from the funniest band known to Japan. "Well, I hit my head on Suguru's synth board and BAM! I was out like a light. They took me to the hospital to take care of me, that's why everyone saw me there on Monday night." He went very quiet now, time to tell them the cold hard facts that were told to him. Shuichi held his hands together under the table, where no one was looking, and kept going. "They took some tests to see if I had something wrong with me to cause the fall and they found something in my head. It's a brain tumor in the back. Right here." At that cue he pointed to the bottom back of his neck. The entire room was quiet as he spoke. Some cameras went off but not hardly as many as usual and the reporters were writing down every last thing the singer did and said. He put his hands under the table again and kept going. "This Friday I'm going back to the hospital to get it out of my head. It's going to take a long while and all but it'll be gone and then I'll come back to sing for everyone! In the meantime Hiro and Suguru here will write music non stop and we'll make twice as much sound then we do now!" He perked up and smiled to the group.
Hiro leaned forward now and talked into his mic. "Just to let you know, we support him all the way. We're Shuichi's best friends, there's no way that we'd make him go through all of this without us watching over him." Suguru nodded at Hiro's remark. It was only too true. They would stick through thick and thin in order to make sure that Shuichi was alright. "Okay then, let the questions begin!" He stuck out his tongue a bit as the reporters flared up and were shouting out to be picked.
Suguru looked around and picked the first to ask, a female reporter near the middle of the group. She stood up while everyone else sat down to listen to her question. "Will this end the great streak of Bad Luck's music?"
"Well..." Shuichi thought it over. "I don't think so. It's sort of like a really long vacation. It's going to be about two years before I can sing again." He grinned to the entire area again. "But no worries! Before I go there I'll sing to everyone and make it the best performance ever!" Hiro smiled and gave a thumbs up while the keyboardist giggled a bit. Everyone knew that Shuichi wouldn't just vanish from the music industry, he would make sure to leave the biggest mark in history before going out for a bit.
She sat down and again the collection of pecking hens started to make their sound. Suguru chose another, a man in the front row, and again they all sat down to listen to the question being asked. "Shuichi, do you mind telling us how bad this tumor is?"
"That's going a little too far." Suguru started.
He was stopped by Shuichi leaning forward and speaking into the mic. "It's about 2.7 centimeters, my doctor told me that means it's a stage 3 tumor and it's best to be operated on. He told me that it's grown a lot more over the past four months and just this past month doubled it's rate... something like that. Apparently I've had it for years but it didn't start really growing until a while ago so I didn't notice it until now."
Again the reporters started to pluck out their questions but the man still stood. He started to yell above the others to finish his questioning. After a short while the others quieted down and he started with his statement again. "Isn't it true that there is only half of a chance that this will be successful? Brain surgery is very dangerous."
The three at the table were quiet. Hiro and Suguru didn't know about the dangers involved and Shuichi didn't want them to find out. It was too late now. The man asked and everyone knew he wanted answers. "There's a really good chance that in two years I'll be back to my normal self..." Mister loud mouth was now very soft spoke. Yuki was watching from the sides lines, making sure that no one else could see him, and waited to see if the boy would continue. This was the part that scared him the most. "With where it is... there's less then half of a chance for me to even make it to the two years." He took a peek at his hands that were hiding under the table, his right hand was starting to shake a bit on its own again. He held it down as best he could without anyone else noticing, he didn't have Yuki with him now to ease his fears. Shuichi looked up to the entire group of reporters and smiled. "I think that's enough for now. I really want to get ready for the best performance ever!" Shuichi stood up and hid his arms behind himself, still holding onto the slightly shaking right arm. Yuki knew why he wanted to leave, he knew the tremors had started again. Hiro and Suguru took this cue to also stand up and all three gave a bow to the reporters. They kept shouting for more answers that they would never get. The three rushed backstage before anyone followed and K started his 'blockade' methods. Sakano was going to give some nice words of advice while Tohma just watched the moves of the singer. He went right to Yuki and was embraced into a hug, holding his arm and hiding his face. "Why did it have to start now?" He asked.
Hiro came up right behind him and tapped Shuichi on the shoulder. He peeked his head back a bit and stared at his friend. "Are you okay? You never leave a press conference like that." Shuichi nodded and kept hiding his arm from his best friend. Hiro could tell that was the problem and took a step back. "It's alright if you don't want to show me." He nodded and Hiro backed off a bit to chat with Suguru about this performance that they just now found out they were going to do.
Shuichi looked back down to his arm as it started to calm down. "I want this to end, I'm hurting so many people." He muttered to himself. Yuki heard him and just glanced down at him. He rested against his lover again as Yuki embraced him. He usually didn't do this in front of people but it wasn't about him anymore. Yuki was doing it all for Shuichi, he was the one that needed the most attention right now.
The shaking of his hand stopped and Shuichi took a step back. He examined his hand to make sure that it was over. "SHU-CHAN!" Ryuichi squealed from behind. He turned around to find Ryuichi coming over as hyper as usual. "Guess what guess what? Tohma is going to let me sing with you!" Shuichi never heard of this, he was supposed to get the duet at the International Music Tour but that would never happen now. The bunny lover pointed back to Tohma as he spoke with all of the members of Bad Luck and the production team. "He said that tomorrow we can put on a performance for all of Japan to see and he's going to have it show at the International Music Tour too! We can shine together to the entire world!"
"Really!" He asked in total joy and disbelief. Ryuichi just did his little nod and Shuichi started to laugh. They took each others hands and started to jump around in circles. "I get to sing with Ryuichi! I get to sing with Ryuichi!"
The older man was saying almost the exact same thing. "I get to shine with Shuichi! I get to shine with Shuichi!"
Both eventually stopped jumping around in circles and then took some crazy pose of a super hero of some kind. Yuki almost fell over from embarrassment while everyone else just stared at them. "TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE THE ENTIRE WORLD SHINE!" Both gave out the victory cry at the same time.
No one knew what to say, this sure wasn't normal but the again... what was normal around Ryuichi and Shuichi? Tohma laughed a bit and got the attention of the production team again. "I guess we'll be going with it." He spoke now to the entire cast and crew of the hot band. "Tomorrow at seven we will have a live feed of a short concert with Ryuichi and Shuichi. They will each do a song on their own and also do a duet. Sound good for the best performance ever Shuichi?"
He nodded a bit. The excitement was a lot better then the pain from the shake. At least the constant joy was erasing the fear of the growth in his brain. "It's great! I can't wait! Thank you Tohma!" Everyone smiled now, it was good to see he happy and chipper Shuichi once more.
The drive home was just like normal. The sun was setting and Yuki was ignoring the constant flow of words that kept streaming out of his mouth. How did he have the voice to keep talking like that? To sing, talk, shout and whine and still have a good enough voice to perform whenever needed. Shuichi spoke about how he couldn't wait for the live performance tomorrow and the songs that he would sing just for that one show. When they got into the drive way Yuki shut off the car and got out. Shuichi followed while still talking about the excitement of the upcoming concert. He opened the door and Shuichi finally stopped. Whenever he shut up so quickly now Yuki got scared that something else was happening. He whipped around to find the boy gleaming, starting with giant chibi eyes. "Yuuuuukiiiiiiiii." He started. The man knew something bad was going to happen and so he started inside. Shuichi hopped along and kept on his tail. "When will you saaaaaaaay it?"
"Say what?" He questioned while taking off his shoes and tossing the keys onto a table.
Shuichi also slipped off his shoes and kept talking. "Just say it! 'I love you'. Just three simple words! Together they are so powerful!" He attacked Yuki's back and wouldn't let go. "They are three really powerful words when put together! Just say it Yuki. 'I love you Shuichi'. Come on, it's not hard at all!"
He got the leech off quickly and headed for his office. "That was four words, idiot." Shuichi counted it on his fingers and pouted as Yuki started up his computer. There was a little note next to it. He picked it up and read the short message. Now he remembered why he usually didn't give the editors a key to the house. Yuki waltzed right back out of the room while Shuichi followed and pestered him to say 'I love you'. "Okay, three words right?" Yuki went to the door and started to slip on his shoes. Shuichi was ready to glomp him when he head the words. "I must go." He said. Lover boy almost fell from the shock of the answer when Yuki took the keys back again. "I need to have a quick meeting with my editor, I'm behind my deadline by almost a week because of all of this." Shuichi went limp and was ready to be scolded for getting sick and making Yuki fall behind on his book again. He went up to the sulker and pressed his lips into Shuichi's. When he backed off Shuichi started to blush bright. "I'll be back before dinner. I'll go pick something up." He nodded and Yuki left, closing the door behind him. Shuichi got changed into his cream shorts and blue shirt then went to the couch and sat down, hugging his knees, to think of a way to pay back all of Yuki's worry with love.
Just like he said, he got back before ten and was holding a bag of food to quickly pop into the microwave and shut up the whining of a hungry child. He opened the door and slipped off his shoes. "I'm home." He mumbled while closing the door behind him. Yuki swore he heard crying, Shuichi's arm must have been doing one of the tremors again. He went casually into the living room and found nothing. "Shuichi?" He asked out a bit louder. Yuki put the bag onto the table and called out again. "Shuichi!"
Another short silence followed by the screaming. "Yuki!" He yelled out. The man went into the hallway that led to the bathroom to find Shuichi laying on his side while crying. Yuki knelt down to him to check on the problem, his right leg was twitching on it's own while the tears fell down his face. "I just got out of the bathroom and I started to feel dizzy again and then I blacked out." Shuichi might not have known but Yuki did, he must have suffered from a minor seizure. "Then when I woke up my leg started to shake and I tried to get up and I couldn't-" He kept crying out. Yuki placed his hand on Shuichi's bare leg while it shook some more. He cried more and closed his eyes. "It won't stop Yuki!"
"Hold onto my neck." He told him. Shuichi did as told and Yuki picked him up like a child with a broken ankle. He carried the crying boy to the living room and sat down on the couch, Shuichi sitting on his lap and resting to the side onto Yuki while still crying a bit. He still held onto Yuki while the man placed his hand onto the leg again. Shuichi hid his face into Yuki's chest and whimpered some more. "It must be growing faster now." He thought out loud. Shuichi whimpered again and Yuki lifted his hand up. "Shuichi." He spoke softly. The boy shifted his watery eyes to the passionate golden eyes that stared down to him. "Dr. Ito said it would be at noon on Friday right?" He nodded, that was the time that was arranged later by phone after they had returned home the day before. "Good."
He shook his head and kept his eyes onto the novelist. "I don't want to go..." He again whimpered as the leg finally started to calm down. "I don't want to go to the hospital ever again and I don't want to just go away from everyone..." Shuichi closed his eyes and let the final few tears that were building up to finally fall. "I don't want to leave you Yuki!"
"More then once-" Yuki started. Shuichi opened his eyes and watched his graceful mouth form the words he spoke, "I thought I was dreaming." He gazed at Shuichi and gently moved the boy's hair to the side a bit. "I wanted this to be a dream so I could wake up to the whiny, clinging brat that's been chasing me for a year." Shuichi muttered Yuki's name as he fell for the love trance once more. Yuki kept watch while Shuichi closed his eyes and felt himself being pulled in by an invisible force. Yuki never let his lips make contact. "But the truth is it's not a dream." He finished. Shuichi felt the force quickly fade away. He slowly opened his eyes and kept listening to the words. "All we can do it stick up with it the best we can." He put his hand on Shuichi's leg again, it had stopped twitching. Both glanced down at it while he continued speaking. "You just have to wait it out." Yuki started to caress Shuichi, moving his hand slowly up his leg and memorizing every last inch that it touched. Shuichi curled up into a ball in his lap and hugged Yuki as the hand made its way to his waist and eventually to his neck and face. The feeling was all too magical, he gave into the erotic pleasure when Yuki finally took that same hand and use it to take in every texture under Shuichi's shirt. He took the advantage of Yuki's distraction to steal a kiss and to keep it forever.
I thought this chapter was a little slow too, but that's just me.
Anywho, there is only ONE more chapter left! (gasp) could that be true? Yes it is! Only one more Track left in this great story! Reviews are appreciated and enjoyed! I hope that you enjoyed, the grand finale will come as soon as it's done!
Kokoro