A/N: Chapter five. I can't believe I've written a story as long as this… I might actually finish this! Thanks for sticking with me this far, I hope your interest will last to the very end!

Italics is flashback

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- Chapter five -

Hiro yawned. It had been a long night, and it still wasn't near ending. Shuichi had been like a wild animal after Hiro and the others had rushed to the yard.

…….

"Shuichi!" Hiro shouted and nearly fell next to his sobbing friend. "What's wrong?" Hiro grabbed the vocalist's shoulders and shook him lightly. "Tell me, Shuichi."

Shuichi looked up at him with blood-shot eyes. His cheeks were wet from tears. "It's… it's –" he stammered and swallowed.

Hiro pulled Shuichi into a tight embrace. Shuichi buried his face into the crook of Hiro's neck and cried helplessly. "I should've known something was wrong, he was gone for so long! If I would've – If I –"

Hiro shushed him and cradled his best friend in his arms. He glanced at Touma with a question in his eyes.

'Eiri is missing,' the president mouthed soundlessly. Hiro nodded and stroked Shuichi's hair.

"Hey, Shuichi… Yuki-san's a grown-up, he can handle himself –"

"No, you don't understand!" Shuichi suddenly pushed himself up to look Hiro straight into the eyes. "He promised me that he'd always tell me, if he'd be going somewhere far! Something's happened to him, I know it, Hiro, we have to help him!"

"Shuichi…" Hiro gasped. He had never seen such a look of determination in his best friend's eyes.

…….

The guitarist kneeled next to the restlessly sleeping form of Shuichi. After Shuichi had yelled and screamed enough, Hiro had taken his friend to his place to sleep, since Eiri's and Shuichi's apartment's keys were in Eiri's jacket's pocket.

Shuichi had a painful expression on his face and Hiro assumed he was having a nightmare. At least Shuichi random mumbling told him so.

"No… Please, don't hurt… him… Eiri…"

It pained Hiro to see Shuichi like this. Though Hiro was beginning to wonder why Eiri had disappeared like that, he wasn't sure did he believe in Shuichi's talk about kidnapping and abduction. Hiro shook his head, gave a gentle kiss on the pink-haired man's forehead and climbed into bed.

His bed felt uncomfortably empty, now that Suguru had decided it would be better if he'd sleep at home for that night. Even though Hiro knew that Shuichi would be nothing but happy for them, he still didn't feel comfortable with the idea of sleeping together with Suguru in the same room with someone else, regardless was this person his best friend or not. He grabbed his pillow and kept it close to his chest. He soon decided that the pillow did a lousy job on imitating his favourite keyboradist and shoved it back underneath his head.

Hiro rolled onto his side and closed his eyes, trying to get some sleep. It had taken a good two to three hours to calm Shuichi down. The singer had the tendency to get hysterical over the smallest of things and a lover's disappearance wasn't exactly very small.

The guitarist's eyes snapped open as Shuichi let out a feeble cry. Hiro's heart wrenched and he turned around to face Shuichi. His friend was clutching his blanket and burying his face in it, wetting it with tears. Hiro stood up and kneeled next to Shuichi's mattress.

"Hey," he whispered. "Are you awake?" Hiro gently nudged at Shuichi's shoulder.

Slowly, Shuichi turned around to meet Hiro's eyes. "Ye- yeah," he murmured with a thick voice. Tears were glistening in his eyes and he bit his lower lip as though restraining them. "I'm sorry… Did I wake you?"

Hiro shook his head. "No, I couldn't sleep anyway." He loosened the grip Shuichi had on the blanket and spread it over the shivering singer. "Did you have a bad dream?"

Shuichi nodded slightly and seemed to remember it, for new tears appeared into his violet eyes. At that moment Hiro wished he could make his friend forget about Yuki Eiri for awhile and not worry. He swore he'd kill that bastard novelist if it turned out the blond man had no good reasons to leave Shuichi like this.

"Hiro…" Shuichi said quietly and looked up at his best friend with a serious look, despite the tears. "I know no one believes me, but I know he's not ok. I just know. I once made him promise me that he'd tell me if he'd go anywhere, even to the store a few blocks away! And he promised. And even though no one believes this either, he loves me and – "

He was cut short by a curt shush from Hiro. "I believe that Yuki-san loves you, Shu. I really do… and I have to admit that you might actually be right. If he doesn't show up tomorrow we'll contact the police, ok?"

Shuichi looked like he wanted to protest, but simply nodded again. Hiro sighed, relieved. He ruffled Shuichi's pink locks and attempted to climb back to his own bed when he felt something yank him down. Shuichi's small arms were wrapped around his leg.

"Could you… sleep next to tonight? I – I haven't slept alone ever since I moved in with him, except during tours…" Shuichi asked, gazing down and silent tears falling onto the blanket, leaving it stained with damp circles. It was as if saying Eiri's name out loud would remind Shuichi more about him, thus making him more scared and more anxious.

Hiro felt his lips curve into a rather sad smile and stooped onto the mattress next to Shuichi. The taller man threw the covers on them and gently cradled Shuichi into his arms. The boy cried mutely into his chest, muttering something incoherent.

Gradually, they both fell into a hazy state of sleep.

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"It wasn't your fault, Touma."

Seguchi Mika couldn't sleep. She shifted on her back and yawned quietly. Her husband laid motionlessly next to her, staring absent-mindedly at the ceiling. He closed his eyes at his wife's remark.

"If Eiri-san was indeed kidnapped, then it is my fault." He didn't want to believe that his brother-in-law was abducted – it would make all the things K-san had told him today true. Not that he didn't trust K-san's judgement… everything was just becoming too serious at a too fast pace. Touma rubbed his temples and sighed heavily.

"Shindou-san was very persistent about calling the police… And as much as I hate to admit this, he must be the one person in the world who actually knows Eiri-san," Touma continued.

Mika nodded. "You must be right. I, too, have a strange feeling about this though. Eiri hasn't just left like this in a long time – maybe we should go to the police station tomorrow, even if they couldn't do anything yet."

Touma considered his wife's words for awhile, then smiled faintly. Taking Mika's hand, and giving it a little squeeze, he wished her good night, and dozed off.

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A/N: Ah. I feel as though this chapter was very disorganised and just a drabble of words here and there. Maybe you'll get the idea though. And it's short again.