a/n: The Mr. Clean commercial song has gotten to my head and has made me perfectly giddy. On an unrelated note, I finally figured out where I want to go with this story (heh) and I changed the summary accordingly, because Suguru is going to play a bigger role now. -grin-

It's been three days, and Hiroshi Nakano now finds himself back at home, eating a 9 o'clock dinner by himself. It's been raining nonstop since the evening he blew up his best friendship, and now he sits against the cold glass of his tall apartment window, watching old tapes of musicians he idolized as a young teen.

Falling back into a state of mind from years ago really helps me empty my head. I've achieved the meditative peace of mind.

...Another lie, of course. Maybe this is becoming an issue.

Even though I'm not the kind of guy who likes to sulk around by himself, the plain and simple fact of the matter is that there's just nothing else to do. Generally, on weeknights like this, everyone else too booked with things to do to keep me company (and, as you know, even Shuichi, who is currently freed up from Yuki's grasp, is not in a position to come bouncing over here to hang out.)

I sigh and put my empty plate on the coffee table, turning my neck to glance sideways out the window and down at the street. I can barely see anything, besides the commotion of umbrellas going in every which direction.

Let me be the first to say that what I'm doing is unacceptable.

What am I doing, anyway? Avoiding, sulking, brooding? Yeah, probably a mix of the three, which is really strange, because I've never done shit like this before. Of course, it's gotten pretty awkward at work in the past few days. Shuichi, at the most, just stares at me when he thinks I'm not paying attention. Sakano has been particularly knotted up about Seguchi (let's say it's not even my business why) and Suguru has just kind of...I don't know. He's a little distant, but hey, who am I to talk?

I haven't seen Ayaka since three days ago. Honestly, she is starting to feel like a burden. I mean, sure, I should be on my damn knees, thanking all forces of the universe for the opportunity to be with such a woman, but you know what...? I'm not. I'm a thankless, whiny bastard who recedes into the darkness because of one little screw-up.

...A little screw-up, huh? Well, now that I think about it...what's all this unease going to do for us, anyway? Maybe I should just try to fix what's broken and forget this ever happened. Well, not "maybe." I should.

Knock, Knock.

I'll encourage him to get Yuki to admit his love,

Knock, Knock.

...Because it would be the right thing for me to do. I'll apologize and watch Shuichi's happiness from afar.

Knock, Knock, Knock.

"Okay." I grunt, slightly annoyed, and swing the door open, only to be met by Shuichi's rueful face.

"Shuichi? What..."

"I'm sorry!" He blurts out and throws his arms around my waist, making me stumble back in surprise. I blink, an extremely delayed reaction, and don't move another muscle after that, just staring at the soaked head of hair pressed against my chest.

"...You're...sorry?" I reach out and close the door behind him as Shuichi turns his face up to nod at me. My whole body is a bit numb, and so I don't react too much to him clutching onto me. I can't help but ask, though... "Why?"

"Because..." and he goes into some bizarre explanation that makes so little sense that I won't even attempt to relay it here. Really, now, I should have known that he was blaming himself for the whole thing this entire time. Maybe Yuki really has stuck him to the idea that he's permanently inadequate. It's detestable for a lover to do such a thing, but...

Well, I'm not even going there.

"Hey, hey." I say softly, carefully removing his arms from around my waist...as much as I don't want to. I'm overcome with relief, though. "Don't talk about it anymore. I'm the one who should apologize, okay?"

"Hiro...?" He's confused. Genuinely confused. I can't believe it sometimes.

"Sorry." I tell him as earnestly as I can. "I was out of it that night. Let's just say it didn't happen, yeah? It didn't mean anything, so don't worry."

At my last sentence, oddly, his eyes darken in an unreadable expression. That look disappears quickly, though (perhaps I imagined it?) and he watches me confusedly for a moment longer. He then smiles brightly, and I just now realize it feels like it's been forever since I've seen that...so my hearts jumps a bit.

"Sure!" He enthuses.

It didn't mean anything...my pretty rock-star ass.

"So I gotta tell you what I saw today!" He makes himself quite at home on the couch, as if the past few days actually never happened. I grin, albeit a bit shakily, and seat myself across the room to listen. "Tohma said something to Sakano, who tried to throw himself out the window...but K stopped him...by shooting him in the head! It was so cute, Hiro!"

I try to imagine K being cute. That, in itself, is enough work to entirely occupy one's brain at any given moment.

Shuichi laughs, prattling on about something else altogether, and I indulge him as I should. It's like he's been dying to talk to someone for far too long, and now it's all flowing out of his mouth at an alarming rate.

I guess I'm happy that this situation is fixed, but this seems a bit...too easy. I don't know, but I've come to understand that things like kissing your best friend don't tend to resolve themselves with a simple apology. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but who knows for sure? Not me.

By the way...that whole thing about supporting Shuichi and watching his happiness from afar...

Absolute crap, all of it. Sulking may be unlike me, but martyrdom...?

No freaking way. I'll leave Shuichi and Yuki to their own devices from now on, but no way am I gonna be happy for them.

Ah. Friendship is such a beautiful thing.

...(tempestad)...

They looked out for me (even if I didn't need it,) so I'm constrained to look out for them. Call me chivalrous if you will, but just remember the word sounds exceptionally absurd in front of a name such as mine.

"You feeling okay?" I ask.

Finally, finally, FINALLY. After feeling inexplicably obligated to chase the man as he tornadoed through the building, I finally caught up to our producer. Something terrible must have happened to distress him this much, but then again...maybe not. Sakano is a bit excitable, after all.

"Ahh, Mr. Nakano." He sniffs and calms down. "How considerate of you..."

Sakano, the ridiculously dramatic man, comes up close and grips my hand, gazing up at me in endearment. Don't make much of it, though; this is typical.

"Sometimes..." he says, voice cracking a bit, "...you seem to be the ONLY ONE who cares! Why must your band mates be so disagreeable!" He tightens his hold on my hand and I remain silent until he lets go and decides to flip out in someone else's general direction.

I scratch my head and glance sidelong at some confused passers-by. Don't look at me...I was in the bathroom when he lost it.

Eventually, I decide that poor Sakano will have to take care of himself. Besides, there isn't much more I can do than to let him know we (meaning I) care. The fool is far less likely to attempt to end his own life if given even a tiny bit of attention.

Ah, Sakano...we love you, anyway.

When I go to return to Bad Luck's room, I sense a very staid aura coming from the door. I'm almost reluctant to go inside, but what could be happening that's so bad?

I carefully push the door open. There, before me, is the back of Taki Aizawa's head.

Well, I supposed that's what I get for ASKing. (Ahhh. Sorry about that.)

"Aizawa." I step into the room, prepping myself for whatever might happen, and watch him sternly as he turns to me. "What are you doing?"

I ignore the clownish look on his face and send my gaze into the room behind him. Shuichi and Suguru are standing there, Shuichi looking tense and Suguru looking puzzled. I sigh noiselessly.

Come on. Didn't this dunce learn anything from dealing with Seguchi?

"Ah...hehehehe!" Taki laughs, trying to act sheepish but looking more idiotic by the second. "Wh...What's with this look? I was just here to, you know, say hi." He puts a hand behind his head now. "I thought maybe we could...start over."

Start over? We're all taken a bit by surprise. I glance over at Shuichi, who is staring not at Taki, but at me, and wonder for a moment what he wants me to do. After all, I can safely say that, despite all of us having misgivings about this Taki, Shuichi is least likely to want him around.

Crud. I really just don't want to let Shuichi down, but I have no idea what he'd want me to do. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

"This is probably a bad time," I tell the man callously. "Sorry, but you're not really wanted here right now." Just kidding, I'm not sorry at all.

Taki blinks and seems to lose faith in his fronts (and they weren't at all convincing to begin with.)

"Well..." he blinks, persisting annoyingly. "You guys must have some free time tomorrow..."

"Beat it!" I glare fiercely but quickly mitigate it, might I look too bad-mannered.

He calls off all airs and frowns, a look of dark amusement crossing his face. "Then I'll see you guys later." And he leaves...just like that.

See us guys later! I wonder when it was he decided it would be well-received to refer to us as "you guys."

As soon as the door clicks shut, I look at Shuichi. He jumps down to his knees with an extremely charming baby face, putting his arms around my knees and shaking me happily, almost knocking me over.

"My hero!" He cries, eyes watering dramatically. I pat his head somewhat approvingly and somewhat dismissively, unable to prevent a bit of a grin from rising up.

What an adorable idiot this one is.

Determined not to tempt myself too much, I look away from Shuichi's face and my eyes meet Suguru's. This takes me by surprise; oddly, he's a bit angry.

Suguru...I always knew you hated bad puns, but...was it really that bad?

"Shuichi..." he grinds out, and I find myself permanently locked onto watching him, fascinated by his strange state of irritation. "Wouldn't...Yuki...be mad, to see you like that?"

...What?

I wonder since when Suguru worries about Shuichi's and Yuki's relationship this much.

"O...Oh." Shuichi, looking downtrodden, releases my legs and crawls away dolefully, though I can tell he's still happy. "Yup, you're right." When he starts circling his finger on the wall, I look up at Suguru questioningly.

He's already looking away, wearing a badly-hidden scowl and glaring softly at something indefinite. He glances back, sees me watching, and turns back again just as quickly...but what really gets me...it's the fact that his cheeks turn pink when our eyes meet.

Well.

That's odd.

a/n: Sorry. This is looking suspiciously like Hiro/Suguru fic, and, unfortunately for you all, it will be for a small time. Just remember that, in the end, this is still a Hiro/Shuichi story. I promise not to forget that if you promise to review.