Title: Blindsided

By: Kibethan

Disclaimer:checks under her bed: Are you there:checks in her closet: Are you there:checks in her "The Broke Diaries" book: Maybe you're in here? Damnit! The rights to Gravitation don't seem to be anywhere in my possession…guess that means that I still don't own it. Soon though, soon…hahaha…I wish!

Summary: Yuki isn't exactly a favorite in the public's eye; so his editor decides to shape him up to seem like a good guy by volunteering him to volunteer at a hospital. What will happen when he meets a particularly interesting patient by the name of Shindou Shuichi?

Half-warning: Oh no! It's the dreaded half-warning! Of course, it's not as fearsome as the full-warning would be…wait, what am I warning you about again? Oh yes! There is still yaoi in this story. No, I didn't decide to have suddenly have Shuichi hook up with Ayaka, and Yuki hook up with Maiko. Hell, I don't even think I have Ayaka and Maiko in this story yet…oh yes! Beware of mild swearing too…And, one more thing, beware of a little bit of out of character-ness in Yuki.

Chapter 13

The Second Transitory Phase

It had been a total of five hours since Shuichi had entered Yuki's house and already Yuki could see all of the things that he was going to have to do that he hadn't thought of before.

It hadn't exactly occurred to him that Shuichi wouldn't automatically know where everything was. Sure, subconsciously he knew it, but it didn't hit the surface until he was asked about twenty times to lead Shuichi places until Shuichi knew it by the number of paces it took to get from one place to another.

And, of course, there was that other big problem as well. Where was Shuichi going to sleep? Yuki lived in a one-bed home and they couldn't exactly share a bed.

The problems were all whirling around in his mind. That had coupled with the fact of a slightly disturbing phone call that he had received an hour earlier.

Yuki had answered the phone, thinking that it was either Ezaniya telling him that he forgot something from the hospital, or that it was Mizuki calling to remind him of a deadline that he had to meet.

When he had answered the phone, though, and the voice turned out to be Tatsuha he had nearly dropped the phone in shock. He couldn't figure out why Tatsuha had called him. That was, until Tatsuha gave him the news.

Tatsuha told him that he was coming to visit for Christmas. Actually, not just him; his whole family (minus his dad who was going to be staying at the temple) was going to be coming to visit. Yuki wasn't exactly sure why his dad wasn't going to be coming, but was completely okay with it. However, he wasn't exactly okay with the rest of his family coming.

It was supposed to be a quiet Christmas with just him and Shuichi. Quiet, however, was definitely not how he would describe his family.

That wasn't the worst news that Tatsuha had told him either. He told him that he was going to be coming early. This meant that in one day he was going to have to deal with his brother.

Yuki had, of course, tried to resist. Even raising his voice, however, did not convince Tatsuha to not come.

Shuichi had given no indictation at all of hearing the raised voice. He had just stayed sitting on the couch in the living room, staring at nothing.

Yuki had hung the phone up with a slam, grumbling to himself. It was only then that Shuichi spoke.

"What's wrong, Yuki?" he had asked, quietly. Yuki hadn't been sure if he wanted to explain or not, but had decided that it would be better to give Shuichi some warning that a whole bunch of weird, crazy people –in his opinion, anyway- were going to be coming over from Christmas.

"My family is going to be coming over for Christmas," Yuki had explained. "They're a kind of weird bunch…"

"Oh, Yuki, that's wonderful! Christmas is best shared with a bunch of people! The more the merrier!"

It was then that Yuki had had a sneaking suspicion that Shuichi had been listening to him while he was on the phone and had been planning what to say.

Yuki stole a glance at the calendar on his wall. December 20th. There were only five days left until Christmas. Five days to get Christmas presents for everybody, including Shuichi (what did that boy want, anyway?). Shuichi was sitting in the living room again, clutching Mamoru-chan. When they had first gotten home, Yuki had been afraid that Shuichi had forgotten Mamoru-chan in the hospital room and when he had questioned Shuichi, Shuichi had just smiled and pulled the black bear out of his shirt.

That boy hadn't hardly let go of the bear since he took it out. What else would Yuki be able to get Shuichi that would possibly have the same effect?

The word 'nothing' came to Yuki's mind, but then he figured that there had to be something that Shuichi would like. It would just take a lot of time to figure out. And time didn't seem to be something that Yuki would have a lot of.

Especially if Tatsuha was coming tomorrow. He needed to come up with yet another place to stick someone to sleep, most likely, the floor.

Yuki's stomach grumbled, digesting the food that they had eaten earlier. The meal portions had been humongous and he and Shuichi had taken lots of it home; however, Yuki still needed to go out to the store and buy some groceries,

It was getting late, though. Sure, the stores would still be open, but it was dark and the strange characters always hung around the stores at dark. It wasn't that Yuki was scared, just smart. He could hold his own in a fight if he had to, but he preferred not to have to if he could.

Yuki heard a yawn come from the living room. Okay, it wasn't that late yet.

"Shuichi? Are you tired?" Yuki called out from the kitchen. He craned his neck around the corner and watched as Shuichi sleepily nodded his head. Yuki glanced at the clock. It was hardly even 8:00, but, then again, Shuichi had had a busy day and had eaten a lot of food. It was only natural for him to feel sleepy.

This changed the order of Yuki's list of priorities slightly though. He now had to figure out where Shuichi was going to be sleeping the night.

With a deep sigh, Yuki knew what he needed to do -at least for the night, however. He walked into the living room. Shuichi was lying on the couch and Yuki almost left him there, but he knew that as comfortable as his couch was, his bed was much more so.

"Shuichi, sit up," Yuki said quietly. No response from the pink-haired boy lying in front of him. Yuki shook him gently and Shuichi still gave no response. That boy was currently not in the land of the living (not in the land of the dead either, though). No, Shuichi was merely asleep.

Yuki gave a giant sigh. Slipping one hand underneath Shuichi's knees and one hand underneath his back, Yuki carefully lifted Shuichi up and carried him to the bedroom. Yuki wasn't stupid enough to undress Shuichi –who knew what could happen- so he just pulled back the covers and slipped Shuichi between them.

Yuki turned out the lights as he left the room and walked back into the kitchen. He opened the fridge for the hundredth time before he decided that he would have to brave the thugs that were going to be at the grocery store because they really needed food. He just couldn't deny it any longer.

With a quick check back in his bedroom to make sure that Shuichi was still asleep and to grab his jacket, Yuki was ready to go to the store. The store in question was in fact not very far away, but he decided to drive, just in case he needed to make a quick getaway (not from doing any thing illegal, mind you).

He slipped behind the steering wheel of his car and his sat there. How long had it been since he had driven? He couldn't even remember the last time he had. Oh well. He started the car as quietly as he could and backed out of the driveway. He didn't want to wake up Shuichi. If Shuichi woke up and figured out that Yuki wasn't there bad things could happen.

Five minutes later Yuki was in the store's parking lot. Just as he had figured before, there were all sorts of people just standing around, loitering. He parked in the closest parking spot he could find, but it just wasn't close enough and he knew that he was going to be confronted.

I mean, anyone would be able to feel all of the stares that were on the back of his neck.

He was surprised, though, when he was able to get into the grocery store without it happening. He walked around the store slowly for a few minutes, cursing himself for not being better prepared with a list of all the things that they needed. He shut his eyes and tried to picture the refrigerator and what it had in it, but he kept drawing a blank. All that he knew was that he didn't have basically anything.

So he finally grabbed a cart and bought basically everything. He bought meat, cheese, milk, bread, sweets, fruits, and even, yes, vegetables. He didn't buy very many of them though.

He had thought about just going out to eat for Christmas, but then he knew that his family would just not approve of that (not that he cared about their approval; he just didn't want to have to deal with the argument that would probably follow after he told them to pick a restaurant).

The lady at the check register didn't even blink an eye when he kept putting food on the conveyer. It was obvious that she was used to people buying a lot of food. He paid for the food, (17982 yen!) and took the food out to the car.

He had declined the help to bring out the food to the car, but as soon as he got outside he thought that maybe he should have used it. The number of people outside had increased, and it had gotten even darker than it had been. He had been in the store a lot longer that he thought.

He walked quickly to his car, wishing that it wasn't such an expensive car. All eyes followed him and it was making his nervous. He didn't walk with his head down, however, because he knew that that would just encourage people to come to him.

No, holding his head high he put all of his grocery bags in the trunk of his car. It was then that a couple of people walked up to him. He had been watching them out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't want deal with them.

He closed the trunk and moved to open the driver's door when someone put a hand on his shoulder. On instinct he whirled around and the punched the guy right in the face.

The guy who had been punched wheeled back. He was surprised as hell.

"Get him!" he shouted to the other people. Suddenly Yuki had four people coming at him, the guy's friends apparently. Friends.

Of course. Friends. While fighting with these people, Yuki had the perfect idea of what to get Shuichi for Christmas.

One of the guys landed a punched right in his eye and it made Yuki extremely angry. All thoughts of Shuichi raced out of his mind and he started really fighting. He landed punch after punch after kick on the people and soon they fled, realizing that he was not as easy of a mark as they had originally thought.

Yuki wiped his hands and got behind the driver's seat and drove home. He grabbed a couple of bags and walked into the kitchen. He put away the things in the bags and started to go outside to get more of them when he heard soft crying coming from the bedroom.

Confused he walked up to it. The crying got louder as he got closer. He knocked on the door.

"Shuichi?" he asked quietly. The crying stopped and he heard the sound of someone stumbling around the room. Suddenly the door flung open and Shuichi threw himself at Yuki.

Shuichi was crying and hiccupping hysterically, his tears staining the front of Yuki's shirt.

"What's wrong, Shuichi?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy unconsciously. Shuichi took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down.

"I woke up and called for you and you didn't answer," Shuichi said finally. "You didn't answer," Shuichi repeated. "I thought you had left me."

"Shuichi, I was just at the store. I came back. Don't worry; I'll always come back," he comforted. He held him for a little while before he remembered that he still had things in car. He carefully let go of Shuichi and told him that he'd be right back. He explained that he was just going out to the car to get the rest of the groceries out of the car.

When he came back in with the last eight bags hanging from his arms, Shuichi was standing in the exact same place that he had left him.

"I'm back, Shu," he told him as he walked into the kitchen to put the rest of the bags down. He saw as Shuichi slowly nodded his head in understanding. The groceries were put away quickly and Yuki walked back to Shuichi.

Shuichi yawned.

"Come on, Shuichi," Yuki said as he grabbed Shuichi's hand. He led him back to his bedroom and pushed him into his bed again. He tucked in Shuichi and starting walking back towards the door when Shuichi spoke.

"Don't leave," he said very quietly. Yuki turned around. Shuichi was staring in his general direction. "Please don't leave. Stay with me. I'm so scared that you're going to go away."

"I'm just going into the other room."

"Please don't. Please stay with me." Shuichi started begging and pleading for Yuki to stay with him. Yuki walked to his side. Shuichi could hear him approach and he grabbed Yuki's hand. He jerked him and Yuki fell onto the bed.

"Please, please stay," he continued begging. Yuki took a deep breath and pushed Shuichi over, arguing with his mind that it was all right to sleep in the same bed as Shuichi when Shuichi pleaded with him, especially since they weren't going to do anything bad.

"Fine, I'll stay with you," Yuki said, "just move over so I can sleep too." Shuichi gave a huge smile and grabbed hold of Yuki's hand, as to make sure that he wouldn't leave.

"Thank you, Yuki-kun," he said quietly. Yuki started at the change from 'san' to 'kun', but didn't say anything. Quite quickly, Shuichi's breathing evened out and he grip on Yuki's hand relaxed a little. But by then, Yuki was already asleep too.

The next day a bunch of thumping and banging noises awakened Yuki, jolting him from sleep. Not even thinking to check to see if Shuichi was still next to him, Yuki stood up quickly, thinking that there was burglar in the house. He raced towards the sounds and stopped short when he saw Shuichi in front of him, sitting down on the ground, rubbing his head with a silly grin on his face.

"Sorry, Yuki-kun," he said, when he heard Yuki approach, "I didn't want to wake you up but I really needed to find the bathroom."

"Did you?"

"Yes, I was just trying to find my way back into what I think was the bedroom when I think I made a wrong turn."

Yuki lightly cuffed Shuichi upside the head.

"You're near the kitchen. The bedroom is the other way."

"Oh, oops," Shuichi said, sweatdropping. "Hey, Yuki, I have a question," he continued.

"Yes?"

"What do you look like?" Yuki eye's widened when he realized he had never told Shuichi what he looked like.

However, without missing a beat, Yuki answered.

"Tall, dark, and handsome."

Laughter erupted from behind Yuki and he whirled around to see Tatsuha standing in the doorway.

"You, Bro, tall, dark, and handsome?" Tatsuha dissolved into another fit of laughter. Yuki's eyebrow twitched. It certainly wasn't that funny. Sure he wasn't exactly 'dark', but he tall and handsome. Just ask any number of the girls that he had gone on a date with.

They might call him a worthless, uncaring bastard, but they wouldn't be able to deny that he was tall and handsome.

Shuichi looked confused at the sudden sound of somebody else's voice.

"How the hell did you get in?" Yuki asked Tatsuha. He was absolutely positive that he had locked the door when he had walked in last night. Tatsuha magically produced a key. Yuki instantly grabbed it out of his hand.

"Go ahead and keep it, I made copies," Tatsuha explained. "Wow," he exclaimed as an afterthought, "Where'd you get that shiner?"

Shiner? Yuki thought. Oh yes.

"I got into a scuffle yesterday," he explained, "nothing big."

"Who's that?" Tatsuha asked, noticing Shuichi for the first time.

"That's Shuichi," Yuki told him, "He's going to be staying with me for a while." Shuichi's smile brightened when he heard this. "Oh yeah," he added as he pulled Shuichi up. "He's blind."

Tatsuha's eye's widened.

"Cool!" Shuichi looked relieved that Tatsuha wasn't going to make fun of him for not being able to see.

Yuki sighed, Tatsuha was so energetic.

What was it going to be like when more of his family showed up?

Exhausting.

End Chapter 13

I apologize for any errors that there might be.

Wow, I had, like, three quarters of this chapter written the last day I updated but so much stuff has been going on that I havne't actually had the time to write, can you believe that? I visited my University's campus and signed up for classes! Two Japanese classes, Linguistics, Geology and a P.E. class! I'm so excited! As soon as I got home from that (FIVE HOUR DRIVE!), my friend's from Seattle were already here and I hung out with them. And the next day we went to the Bite of Oregon and I got to see The Decemberists live! FRONT AND CENTER! Sorry…I was SO happy. I could die happy. The Decemberists are one of my favorite bands. Okay, so then on Saturday my other friend's from Seattle came down and we hung out so I've been massively busy. But yeah…

Now, onto a review of reviews:

Actually, there won't be one. Maybe some of you have got the e-mail that's being passed around about how answering reviews isn't allowed. I don't want this story to get taken off because of that. Now, that being said, the email is a petition, and if you want me to send it to you, leave me your e-mail address…in the form: blank at blank dot com (ex. Kibethan at msn dot com; written out).

But…I THANK EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU FOR REVIEWING! IT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME!

As one more added thing: Fukuyama Masaharu rocks.

Until next time,

Kib-chan