Title: Blindsided

By: Kibethan

Disclaimer: Sweet, library! Wireless internet is SO nice. Oh, um, yes, I don't own Gravitation. I haven't own Gravitation for any of the other 16 chapters. No, Murakami-sama didn't randomly give it to me…yet…

Summary: Yuki isn't exactly a favorite in the public's eye, so his editor decides to shape him up 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: Woocha! Beware of cursing, slight oocness, typos, bad grammar, horrible cliffhangers, etc.

Chapter 17

Caught

Not for the first time in the past weeks, Yuki stormed out of the hospital. Just like before, he was 100 positive that he would never, ever be going to back in there. No matter how much he enjoyed the kiss, and he knew that he did, there was just no way he was going to ever go back there. Somehow, he was going to force Shuichi from his mind.

Ezaniya had been right. Shuichi was a minor, and as such, it was slightly perverted to be kissing him. So why was it so difficult to convince himself of this? There was a slight part of Yuki's brain that refused to be ignored that kept telling him that he needed to be with Shuichi. That Shuichi was going to be 18 soon anyway, and he could wait until then.

Even though that side of Yuki refused to be ignored, the dominating side of Yuki was just as stubborn and refused to admit that the other side could possibly be right. In his mind, Yuki was blaming Shuichi for telling Ezaniya. Yet, Yuki reasoned, Shuichi couldn't have possibly known that that would happen. Yuki figured that Ezaniya was the closest thing to a father that Shuichi had, so Shuichi probably told him everything. Telling him about the kiss had just been second nature.

But Yuki refused to go back. The door slammed as he entered his apartment, his mood having an influence on everything around him. Much to his disappointment, however, it looked exactly the same as it did when he had left it that morning. He had hoped that maybe with his new view on life, things might have magically changed. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting…maybe, like, his furniture to have changed color, or something.

Turning to his right, he saw the phone that he had been talking to Ezaniya on earlier that day. He glared at it, hoping that it would explode. If he had never answered the phone, then maybe, maybe he wouldn't have had to leave Shuichi. Yuki cast his eyes down. No matter what he did, he couldn't get the thought of Shuichi out of his mind.

Everything in his living room reminded him of Shuichi. There was nothing he could look at that wouldn't bring him painful memories. Actually, it wasn't so much that the memories were bad –quite the contrary, in fact; Yuki hadn't been that happy in ages. It was more so when he remembered the good times he would remember what happened shortly after, and that was almost too much for him to bear.

Feeling the memories stifling him, Yuki walked into the bedroom, hoping to get away from the Shuichi in his head. Yet, as soon as he laid eyes on his bed, all hopes of Shuichi being gone were dashed from his head. Remembering how Shuichi had lain there, Yuki tucking him under the sheets, Yuki couldn't take it anymore.

He was going to do something that he hoped that he wouldn't regret.

If someone were to look on, they would think that Yuki was doing something incredibly stupid, but he knew in his head that it was the only way to get away from Shuichi. Grabbing his keys and wallet, he walked out the door-

-only to get punched in the head.

Yuki fell to the ground, stunned.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

Yuki shook his head, trying to clear his brain. Whoever had punched him had been strong. If they wanted money, well, they could have it. Yuki knew that he didn't have the skill to defeat someone who could down him in one punch.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!"

Yuki furrowed his brow. What had he been thinking? He couldn't remember, the only thing currently in his head was the pounding headache. Yuki struggled to stand, but his legs buckled under his weight and he fell back to the ground.

"Stand UP and FIGHT, you bastard!"

Yuki almost screamed in frustration. Couldn't the person see that he was trying his hardest to stand. And he was. Yet, every time he was almost on two legs his knees would buckle and he would fall to the ground.

"…Yuki-kun?" the person talking seemed to be finally noticing his plight. Yuki frowned. How did the guy know his name?

"Jeez, I didn't hit you that hard, did I? Are you alright?"

Now Yuki was really, really confused. He had been convinced early that he was being mugged, but now he was finding out that the person knew who he was…and it almost sounded like they were worried about him. Yuki blinked a few times, trying to get his eyes into focus…

A person with long reddish hair was peering down onto him.

"Yuki-kun? Are you alright?"

It was Hiro.

Yuki finally got his mouth to work.

"I'm…fine…" he replied. He was about to ask why he was hitting him when Hiro bombarded him with words.

"Good you BASTARD. What were you THINKING? Saying that to SHUICHI! Somehow –we're not sure how- Shuichi has run away! He can't even see! Ezaniya had the entire hospital searched for him, but he somehow got out of it! Something seriously bad could happen to him! If he did manage to get out of the hospital, he could walk into the street and get hit by a car. He could run into a person and they could attack him! Why did you say that to him?"

Yuki's mind finally started to clear a little bit. He couldn't be sure, but it seemed to him like Hiro was yelling at him about abandoning Shuichi, when Shuichi talking to Ezaniya had been what caused him to be in this horrible situation in the first place. He was about to retort when it finally hit his brain what Hiro's entire point had been.

Shuichi was missing.

All of the breath in Yuki's body left him in a quick rush, and the ability to stand that he had recently been able to do again, left him as well and he collapsed to the ground. Even though he really didn't want to, Yuki couldn't deny that he was worried sick about Shuichi.

Especially not with a reaction like that.

After a few moments, Yuki was able to stand again, and when he did, he wheeled around and went back into the house. This was no time to be petty about not wanting to think about somebody; Shuichi was physically missing and needed to be found.

Hiro wordlessly followed him inside.

"Did you guys call the police?" Yuki asked Hiro.

Hiro scoffed, "Who do you think we are? Ezaniya is so incredibly protective of Shuichi, the first thing he did after he tried to find Shuichi himself was to call the cops. Mind you, it hasn't been very long, so the cops aren't too worried about not being able to find him, especially since he wasn't kidnapped."

"Do you know anywhere that he might go?"

Hiro gave Yuki a look of disbelief. "Do you think I wouldn't haven't checked those places even if I had known of any? Besides, Shuichi might have some idea of where he is, but because he's blind, he could never be quite sure. So, no."

Yuki set his wallet on the counter in the kitchen. He wracked his brain for things that Shuichi could have done. Frustratingly, none came to mind. He walked into the living and started pacing. Options of things that he could do were few and far between, and that was what annoyed him the most.

Shuichi was missing and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Furthermore, it had been him that had caused Shuichi to be missing. If he had never said those things to him, Shuichi would never have run away. Guilt wracked his body.

Or maybe he was being too egotistical. Maybe the reason that Shuichi had run away had absolutely nothing to do with him. Yuki laughed under his breath; even though it was been brief and forced, Yuki could tell from the kiss that Shuichi did have some feelings for him. He'd have to be blind to not notice.

Besides, Hiro hadn't punched him for no reason.

With determination, Yuki decided that he was not going to just pace around and wait for something to happen. He was doer(1) darnit!

He was about to confront Hiro with his new change of mind, when the phone rang. Without missing a beat Hiro answered it.

"Hello?"

Yuki started to reprimand him for answering somebody else's phone when the look on Hiro's face grew absolutely solemn.

"Oh."

If it was even possible, Hiro's face darkened even more.

"I see. Well, we'll be right there." Hiro hung up the phone without saying bye and walked towards the door.

"Wait, wait, wait," Yuki started, "What was that about? Who was that?"

"Ezaniya."

"Then there's NO way in hell I'm going. Don't think I didn't notice that 'we'll'."

"Yuki-kun, this is very important. Shuichi has been located."

"That's a happy occasion. Why are you saying it like it's such a bad thing? It's not a bad thing, right? Why don't they just go and get him?"

"I don't want to tell you here; we need to go now. TRUST me."

Now, Yuki was always hard of trusting; in other words, it took a long time for him to trust anybody. But someone was telling him to trust him on the same day when he had knocked Yuki over with a strong punch. His entire intuition was telling him not to trust Hiro.

The look in Hiro's eyes, though, was enough to convince him completely that he was to be trusted. He had the same raw determination that Yuki had had only minutes earlier.

"Okay."

Closing and locking the door behind them, they walked to the hospital in silence.

It was quite a long walk to be silent for, and Yuki found himself wondering if Shuichi would be able to be silent for such a long time. Of course he wouldn't be able to. Once you got to know him, Shuichi was a talker. Yuki knew that Shuichi would talk about all kinds of crazy, crazy, things.

But he also knew that he would listen to every single thing that Shuichi had to say.

Yuki could stand the quiet, however. Being a writer, he had always been accustomed to having quiet all around him. It stimulated the brain, allowing it to wander wherever it wanted. It was how he was able to think of the most amazing situations in his books.

Snow crunched beneath his feet. It was hard to believe that it was still winter. It seemed like so much time had passed since he had meet Shuichi, when in fact, it hadn't been more than a few weeks. It was just that so many things had happened; never in his life before had so much stuff happened to him in such a short amount of time.

"We're here."

The sound of Hiro's voice startled Yuki out of his thought process. Yuki bit his lip and he crossed the threshold into the hospital. He had swore that he was never going to go back in there, and here he was breaking that again.

As he and Hiro got closer to Ezaniya's room, the fact that there were police there become more apparent.

"What's wrong?" Yuki asked Hiro. "Why are so many police still here?"

Hiro looked at him dead on.

"Because, we received a ransom note and a picture from a Polaroid camera taken not too long ago. Shuichi was kidnapped. By Taki."

End Chapter 17

(1) So! Who watched Grey's Anatomy for the last couple of weeks! (SOO GOOD!) Remember the "Meredith is a doer" sort of thing. Yeah, that's why I added that there. Oh man, I can't believe I'm addicted to Grey's Anatomy.

This is the part where I grovel on my knees and beg your forgiveness for taking so long, yadda, yadda, yadda. I realize it's been a long time. Now, this is where YOU have to be forgiving and realize that I am taking two Japanese classes from hell, a chemistry class from hell, a math class that's generally annoying (but not from hell), and that I just found out TODAY that one of my friend's has been quite angry with me. Although, the only way I could figure it out was because he never acknowledged me…but I thought it was just because we had grown apart. Turns out that I had somehow managed to thoroughly piss him off. But, since I inquired about it, I was able to set it straight.

I wish people would TELL me when they're mad at me instead of me having to ask.

Oh well, I'm glad it's better between us two again.

Back to the groveling. Okay, so, in the chemistry class from hell, I had chemistry homework that I missed 12/35 on (and that was the class average x.X). And it took SO long to do, I spent LONG hours at the library.

Long story short. You know that little rumor that going to college/university is hard? Guess what, it's NOT a rumor. This is, seriously, the soonest that I've been able to update because I've been so busy. I'll try to update sooner next time.

NOW!

Onto a review of reviews:

Redroseprincess678: Now, it's not that the christian's are so bad…just the really hardcore scary ones…, DarkMetalAngel of Destruction: Sweet! Your reviews are always short but sweet, tammy-love: Woocha! Glad you enjoyed the chapter, Takki: Wow, a cliffhanger hag, I've never been called that. :laughs: I am a cliffhanger hag. Flame-chan: hehehehe, I'm glad you liked it, Grimy Grunhilda Grunt: I'm glad that you liked your letter! Did you like, um, the penny? And dime, DemonicDragon666: Sorry it wasn't that soon, Ashcat: Ah, yes, a lemon. I would have to plan in major advance to write that. Because I would have to research, etc, Aacire: I'm glad that you liked the chapter, Tiki-chan: If you want overdramatic, go to college…trust me, you are not being overdramatic, PyrokineticFeral: Want to know a secret? I did too…, JadeStarBoo: Wow, a lot of people have it out for the doctor, To-think-of-a-name: Yes, yes I am evil. :giggles evilly, c4ndyp4nts: I PROMISE the next update will come sooner, ddz008: Wow, that was a LOT of smiley faces, Julie C: Gotta love da angst, dark5731: THANK you! I 3ed my 1 yr anniversary, Quack say the duck: HAHHA, I STILL think that your name is hilarious. Thank you for the review, amyrose300: I promise I shall update sooner next time, Shirubaa Kitsune: Serious about what? Can you even remember, Subo-chan: Yeah, yeah, sorry for the long time between updates, FullMetalRitz: Wow, I'm glad that you like this story that much, cutelilpuppieyez: Well, apparently my immediately is…almost 3 months later, shuxyuki: A flame! OH NOES, Kloudy Reignfall: Will he ever get the chance? Will he ever get the chance…, goku-the-saru: Katie! I saw you at Uwajimaya! Totally unexpectedly too, Bram: hecks no, siriusly delusional: Alas, Christmas has already passed…, windchaser90: Oh ye of little faith, Elements: SWEET! I 3 your review…as always…, GravityNeko: Awww…daijobu, WhiteLightning:grrrriiiiiiinnnnnn, Ashley Vulpix: Yep…Shuichi no baka, Lily Evans Potter Black Lup…: hehehehee, Sailor Epyon: I know! Ryuichi is SO awesome, mariella: Sorry it wasn't quite so soon…, Natalia/ricstar: Trust me, I am quite tired as well…, xo-silent-whispers-ox: Now, really, do you think that Yuki would be suicidal, Tenshi wings: Thank you, baka-onna2003: Gomen, gomen…, penguinie: Everyone loves a helpless uke, ne, seiki: I'm glad you like it so much, liz: oh! I get it now, Syaoran is kawaii: Can't really blame you for forgetting since it definitely doesn't happen that often anymore, Saitaina R. Moricia: Yeah…I hate it, but I do have some plot holes that I'm going to have to sew over when I have the time, Burning Sky: Both are awesome one's that I use quite frequently, Essenity:sighs: I'm willing to admit that I will probably never get to 1000 reviews. But I'll try, darnit! I'll try, lazy fat kitsune: Your pen name is SO awesome, Riku Harada Lover: So is Riku. In fact, for a while I was going to cosplay her at Sakuracon, -Cookie- Tohma 911 : Maybe I speak my mind too much. SORRY, xShiroi: Things are not always as they appear…, Prodigy's Child: I know, people overreact to often, Eiri Yuki: Of COURSE I'm going to continue it, Artemis Maxwell –Yuy: Yeah, sorry it's taking so long to update, tati1: I think I replied to you back and explained my giant mess I've made for myself? Sorry again if I have, and sorry for the first time if I haven't, itsasledgehammer: ALMOST legal, but not quite. Not in my AU land, megatoescorpse01: what a…loverly name…, gaiaguy: Wow, for YOU, my update IS pretty soon. (the next day!)

And that's a grand total of…a LOT of reviews!

If it starts to be too many, I might start just replying to the signed reviews using the "reply" button, and then I'll reply to the other ones here!

This is Kib saying…OVER and out! (and saying sorry if there are any mistakes)