Well, after more than two weeks of waiting, we have the epilogue of "Returning Relations"! This is my personal favorite, because it pleases me to see that so many people enjoyed this! I'm really surprised. I kind of have no idea what to say... -sighs- Thanks to all of you who reviewed and brightened my rainy days, who let me know that maybe there's a reason to live. You have my eternal thanks.

Dedicated to everyone who has ever reviewed this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation.


Epilogue

Things had happened so quickly, for everyone, that fateful day. It started out fine, just a regular day with a tint of suspicion. Okay, maybe it was a lot of suspicion, but no one would've thought this could happen. The call… Finding Tatsuha and Ryuichi playing around in an alley… Anoiji breaking into the house… Tohma shooting Anoiji from behind…

Everyone reminded themselves to thank Tohma for that later. He was their hero, especially Shuichi's. It was amazing, how he had come out from nowhere. Everyone except K and Ryuichi had been surprised. After K had gotten the call from Hiro, he immediately called Tohma and told him what was going on. Tohma was in the middle of a business meeting, but he came as soon as he could. Then K simply looked at Ryuichi secretly, and they both understood. That didn't ease the tension and fear in the room, though. (Flashback…)

Tohma rushed out of the business meeting and drove to Eiri's apartment. And then, as he realized the situation from creeping by the door, he ran out and climbed up the apartment stairs, doing several hard maneuvers in the process. He did it somehow, and he had a good view of what was going on from inside the apartment. Tohma was thankful that his business meeting left early. It looked like he had come just in time. He reminded himself to start going to church or something, because he couldn't believe his luck. He almost felt like he'd wake up, and he'd be at a large funeral. But he didn't. It wasn't a dream. (He pinched himself quickly for evidence.)

So Tohma aimed his gun carefully and listened carefully to Anoiji. What he heard surprised him and made him feel a bit guilty. Few things could make Tohma guilty, and being so mean to a person who went through that and said nothing was one of the those things. He carefully and silently opened the window with some tools that he brought. He had came well-prepared, to say the least. Then, he aimed and fired. He could almost hear the relief and shock in the room in front of him. It was surreal. But it had happened anyways. And the blood seeped through Anoiji's shirt.

Afterwards, the police came, after someone reporting a shooting. Tohma cleared out everything, and called for an ambulance for Shuichi. No one knew the extent of the damage, so they agreed to do this just to be sure. They were glad that they did. The damage was pretty bad, but not severe enough for them to be worried.

But they were anyway. It was not possible in their minds that Anoiji had really done those things to the happy-go-lucky singer. And Shuichi keeping his mouth shut, even after realizing that Anoiji was back, shocked them even more. But that wasn't the main problem. Yuki and Hiro were a bit annoyed that Shuichi hadn't told him. But they understood, to a certain degree. It still puzzled them. But they weren't the least bit angry at Shuichi. Once Shuichi was awake, they comforted him softly, trying to stop the crying. They did. Somehow.

Tohma called the police to search for Anoiji's goons and his girlfriend. They found the goons and had them arrested, but they didn't find the girlfriend. They were sure that she wouldn't show her face around anymore, especially since they found a picture of her in Anoiji's apartment. (It was a nude picture…) She probably escaped after hearing the news.

Yes, even Tohma couldn't hide this one. The fans didn't know the details, but the thought of THEIR Shu-chan being hurt by his "bastard dad" made them cry their eyes out. They had signs up everywhere, saying despicable things about Anoiji. Several hat clubs were made, and the number of members was uncountable. Every fan of Bad Luck and Shuichi joined the club without hesitation. In fact, the fan base grew ten-fold because of this. Shuichi wasn't happy though. He could do without the new fans. He'd rather never have had Anoiji attack him, no matter how much fame he gained in the process. (End of Flashback)

Shuichi was recovering. He no longer had any physical injuries, but emotionally, he was still a wreck. For quite some time, he wouldn't talk to anyone and just cry. It was too much for him to handle. The man who ruined his childhood was killed by the man who almost ruined his teenage-hood by taking away Yuki. Oh, the irony…

Shuichi came to the conclusion that the kindness he was receiving from everyone wouldn't disappear any time soon. In fact, he thought that maybe they'd be nicer all the time. But that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted the nightmares to go away, because Ritsuka and Anoiji still haunted him at night, when reality and truth wasn't available to pull him back. When Yuki wasn't able to pull him back.

Hiro, at first, was over-protective. He was constantly asking Shuichi where he was going and why. He'd sometimes follow Shuichi with his motorcycle, followed by Yuki's Mercedes. He was like a bull dog and he attacked anyone who came near to Shuichi, including fans. Oh, some of them were put into the hospital for the trauma. Yes, Hiro had become scary. But it died down after awhile. Now Hiro was just extremely kind and offered to do everything for Shuichi. And of course, he still occasionally followed Shuichi around. But it wasn't so bad, really. Hiro was always overly-kind anyways.

Suguru, after hearing the news, became mute for days. He didn't speak or eat or sleep. He was, what you could say, in shock. When K told him, he fainted, twice. How he fainted "twice", no one except K knows, and he won't tell. Even now. Suguru was overly-tolerant of Shuichi's behavior. For awhile, he handed everything to Shuichi and let him take a ten minute break every half-hour. After a bit, his behavior died down, just like Hiro's. He still yelled at Shuichi, because there were times when he couldn't do anything to help his outbursts. But then he always apologized, and he never spoke of fathers, ever. He was different, but the same.

K became odder. He followed Shuichi around, always prepared with twenty different kinds of guns for every occasion. He sometimes hired bodyguards to surround Shuichi so that no one could even see him. He fired guns at anything that moved that he wasn't familiar with. This made K lose a lot of his money from the people who sued. But he still acted positive all the time, telling everyone that the world was just waiting for him to shoot its targets and enemies. He still cackled insanely, but he stopped shooting Shuichi. Shuichi really didn't mind K's behavior much. It didn't simmer down…

Ryuichi stopped tricking Shuichi and playing tricks on him, unless it was for mere entertainment and caused no pain. Usually, he did the tricks to encourage Shuichi, but in the past they had gotten out of hand sometimes. Now they were completely under control and never caused much damage. He was still hyper-active and still repeatedly congratulated Shuichi on all his singing accomplishments. Not that Shuichi minded of course! Serious Ryuichi came out more often, but it was unnoticeable to any of his fans or people who didn't examine him closely.

Tohma didn't change much to the average person, but if you looked closely, you could see the changes. For instance, Tohma stopped interfering with Shuichi and Yuki's relationship. His excuse was that Mika was getting suspicious. No one confirmed that one, but they didn't want to. They liked to see Tohma clueless as to how pathetic his excuses were. Tohma gave Shuichi more breaks, and he congratulated Bad Luck as much as they deserved. He smiled at Shuichi, not with his I'm-going-to-ruin-your-life smile; it was genuine, and only Shuichi noticed it. But the changes were there.

Tatsuha's perverted-ness died down for months. He stopped watching porn, for exactly one month before he cracked and submitted to its "greatness". He secretly wished that there was Ryuichi-porn available, but to his dismay, it still wasn't on sale anywhere, not even eBay! (1) He visited Yuki's apartment once a month, saying that he came to visit Shuichi. Sure, he'd spend most of the time trying to get Ryuichi's whereabouts from Shuichi, but still, he and Shuichi talked more often. In fact, they went to a Nittle Grasper concert together. And best of all, Tatsuha resisted the urge to molest Shuichi senseless. He realized that RYUICHI was the one he wanted, and a copy wouldn't be enough.

Sakano was not told of any of the details. Everyone kept the newspaper away from him and they kept the TV off around Sakano for weeks, until they stopped talking about it. They knew that Sakano would have a heart attack if he knew. They didn't want that; Sakano didn't deserve such a twisted fate, so they let him be. He was suspicious, but once Tohma told him not to worry, he stopped. After all, Tohma was his secret "crush". (What a love triangle we have here!) So, Sakano stayed the same.

Yuki changed. Oh yes, he changed greatly, but only in front of Shuichi and Shuichi alone. No one else could witness his ultimate changes after the incident. To everyone else, he was still a cold-hearted bastard, but he really wasn't. He stalked Shuichi every once in awhile. He tried to kill anyone besides Tatsuha and Sakano that had black hair. He had the idea that they were all clones of Anoiji, which meant that he had to kill them. Usually, once he had a good look at the person, he walked off. But sometimes Shuichi had to drag him off… It was quite a sight to see, but Yuki used the excuse that he simply dislikes most people with black hair. Shuichi didn't buy that excuse for a minute. He had to wonder how Yuki believed that he didn't know the truth.

Yuki also never made Shuichi sleep on the couch and stopped kicking him out. Well, he did it a few times so that Hiro wouldn't notice the lack of visits from Shuichi at 1am in the morning. But Yuki always secretly followed Shuichi with his car and made sure that Shuichi had the proper clothes. Yuki tolerated Shuichi's hyper attitude. He was actually glad that it still showed up every once and awhile. Yuki had been worried that Shuichi would be broken after this, even though Anoiji was dead. He embraced the times that Shuichi was himself again, which usually occurred after Yuki brought home a box of pocky. The insults were usually easy to see through; they were jokes and sweet sarcasm. That was all.

But still, there was no "I love you" coming from Yuki's mouth, directed towards Shuichi. It was depressing, because that was all Shuichi wanted at the moment. He knew he couldn't change the past, so he no longer wanted something he could only desire and not receive. He didn't want Hiro's stalking, or K's extra security, or Ryuichi's compliments, Tohma's kindness, or even a molestation-free visit from Tatsuha, if it meant that he couldn't hear those three little words. He thought that maybe if Yuki said that, Anoiji wouldn't be as terrifying anymore and he wouldn't fear him as much. He thought that maybe it'd make him feel that everything was alright again. But it wasn't going to happen as far as Shuichi knew.

But a few days later, that changed. One day, everything in the world was right, and would always be that way…

Shuichi sat on the couch and sighed as he flipped through various channels. Ryuichi was on one channel, but he didn't feel like listening to the love song Ryuichi was currently singing. It only made the hurt more painful. It only reminded him of the three words that Yuki couldn't say, no matter what. It only reminded him of what those words reminded him of: Anoiji. It told him that Anoiji would continue to haunt him, because he was still scared and not sure of everything. It was weird logic, but it was true. Shuichi turned the TV off and slumped against the couch.

Meanwhile, Yuki sat in his study, staring at a blank screen. It was mocking him, he swore. Yuki rubbed his temple and groaned. Something was bothering him and it wouldn't let him write in peace. It was something that had been nagging him since the day he meet Shuichi, but he never exactly got around to it. And it made him feel horrible, like he was kicking a puppy every day he decided not to do this. He closed the blank Word document and sat up. He took a deep breath. This was going to be difficult.

Yuki walked out of his study and towards the TV room. He saw Shuichi slumped up against the couch, sighing. A frown appeared on Yuki's face. He didn't like what he saw. He wanted Shuichi to be happy. He came to the realization that he would have to face his fears if he wanted to make the person he cared about the most happy. It had to be done, tonight, right now. No exceptions.

He walked over to Shuichi and opened his mouth. Shuichi looked at him curiously, wondering what the blond could possibly be doing. 'Is he trying to eat flies?' Shuichi wondered. 'Hiro said that anyone who opens their mouth without saying anything wants to catch flies. Has my beloved Yuki gone mad? NO! I will save him from the evil flies!' He smiled proudly.

"Uh…Shuichi?" Yuki finally asked. Shuichi dropped the fly theory immediately. He was about to respond, but Yuki continued. "There's something I have to tell you. Don't interrupt, please…" He seemed desperate. Shuichi nodded hesitantly. "Well, I know that this Anoiji thing has you down in the dumps. And I guess my undercover feelings aren't helping. I have a feeling you notice them." Shuichi was about to say yes, but he quickly shut his mouth. "It can't be enough, because that wouldn't be fair. You tell me this every single day, and I haven't even said it once. Maybe it won't take away the nightmares, and maybe it won't make you stop running away when you hear his name, but I hope it'll help. Because it helps me when everything else piles up, and maybe it'll work for you."

There was a pregnant pause. It seemed endless, but if you were looking at the clock, you would've noticed that it was only a few seconds. "Shuichi… I l-love you…"

"Yuki…" Shuichi whispered. He rubbed his eyes, pinched himself, and repeated the same procedure. He was in disbelief. He thought this moment wouldn't ever come, but here Yuki was, telling him that he loved him! "Yuki! I love you, too!" He jumped towards Yuki and embraced him lovingly. "You're right… Even if the whole world has me down, three words from you, and everything is good again. Even when Anoiji's face will follow me around, all I need is those words, and things don't seem so bad. He can't hurt me anymore, thanks to you Yuki."

"No problem brat" Yuki said with a smirk. He leaned in for a kiss, and Shuichi accepted it graciously. 'Anything for you, anything to make you happy…' And the two lovers enjoyed the first night of their lives. It might still have the insults and occasional fight, but everything was alright in the end, because they each knew that they loved each other. And that was all they reallyneeded.

They say that true love is only a fairy tale, but reality must be an extremely long fairy tale, because Shuichi and Yuki were truly in love. True love. Something that people find, but few are able to keep.

"I'm jealous of anyone who's ever hugged you, because for that moment, they held my entire world." Unknown


(1) I don't own Ebay. :(

Well, was it OK? I don't know... I didn't go over it or anything. I felt that I should just let everything out, so it would be the way it was destined to be, whether good or bad. Please review one last time to let me know that it wasn't THAT bad...

I have two new fics in the making, the sequel to "LDAUP" and a new AU story. Please keep your eyes open for it!