'---------------' flashback

'' change of scene but still in the present.

Italics usually thoughts or important sentences.

Chapter 3:

Eiri woke up feeling tired. He'd been writing throughout the night and had gotten about two hours of sleep. Oddly, he wasn't feeling sleepy anymore. He stretched and went to get himself some coffee. The phone began to ring making him curse. Who would be calling him at this hour?

"Hello?" he growled into the phone. "Good Morning Eiri! I'm coming over right now, be dressed ok?" a dull beep sounded through the phone. Eiri wondered what was going on. Of course it had to be Shuichi. Eiri changed into a button down black shirt and some jeans, he wasn't changing because Shuichi told him too, he was just changing because he felt like it. The doorbell rang and Eiri wondered if he should open it. The doorbell continued to ring until he gave up and opened it. Two arms grabbed him and the keys hanging next to the door before swiveling him around to slam against the hall way. His front door closed locking him out.

Eiri tried to catch his breath again as he felt the strong arms let him go. His eyes twitched before…"SHUICHII WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? YOU JUST LOCKED ME OUT OF MY APARTMENT!" the pink haired man dangled the keys in front of Eiri's face before pocketing them.

"Good morning Eiri! You're looking all nice and wide awake. That's good, because we'll be doing some hard work." He led the blonde out to a nice sleek red car. He pushed him in and fastened his seatbelt before climbing into the driver's seat.

Eiri actually growled. "What the hell do you want brat? Where are we going?" Shuichi smirked. "Oh nothing Eiri…I just wanted help in moving into my dorm and besides I really wanted you to meet Hiro and spend time with me."

"I don't ant to spend time with you! I just want to be left alone…I like my life the way it was." Eiri saw Shuichi grimace slightly, but he didn't say anything. They drove in silence for the rest of the way, Shuichi's hyper active self seemed to have disappeared somewhere. Eiri suddenly found himself wishing that Shuichi's smile would come back.

"So…um…thanks for what you said yesterday. It was nice." Eiri attempted conversation. Shuichi smiled a little and nodded. Eiri wondered how to get the boy to talk, when he realized they'd almost hit a truck. He also noticed for the first time that Shuichi's driving was really wild and half a dozen vehicles and cars were moving out of the way. "Shit you Gaki! Are you trying to get us killed?"

Shuichi smiled all out at that, turning towards Eiri and just missing a fire hydrant. "Don't be worried Eiri! I drive pretty good actually." Eiri gulped as they swerved a little too close to the payment almost knocking someone off their bicycle "Baka! Keep your eyes on the road will you?"

"Oh I forgot about that!" Shuichi scratched his head, before glancing at the clock. "Shit! I'm twenty minutes late, Hiro will kill me." He sped up making the hair on the back of Eiri's neck rise. Thankfully they reached without any mishaps. They walked down the campus to Shuichi's dorm. It was a single storied building, with rooms facing a lake; the doors were on the outside, with attached bathroom, the dorm was actually like a small house. Hiro was waiting out the door impatiently, with a load of boxes behind him.

"Shuichi!" the red head jumped on his friend almost squeezing the life out of him. "How do you want to die?" Shuichi coughed trying to shove the bigger boy off him. "Why re you late, baka! Its been half an hour! For once couldn't you make it on time?"

"Uh…Hiro….I was trying to bring Eiri. God, get off me Hiro, you're heavy!" Shuichi struggled a little more until Hiro got off. Eiri was surprised to see the almost squished man bounce up and smile brightly. "Eiri, this is Hiro! He's my best friend!"

Eiri felt a pang of jealousy…he was the only one who had the right to be called Shuichi's best friend. But you did lose that right when you stopped spending time with him…you pushed him away…he glared at Hiro, before taking his outstretched hand.

"Uh…sorry about that Hiro, Eiri's just grumpy by nature!" Shuichi smiled at his friend.

"Eiri wake up! Eiri the sun is rising look!" a high pitched voice screeched right in his ear. Eiri turned around and buried his face in the pillow. How could anyone be hyper and bouncy at this time in the morning? He went back to chasing his dream of a talking piece of bubblegum and his adventures with it. Small hands gripped him and began to tickle him mercilessly. Eiri gulped and snorted with laughter rolling until he found himself with a face full of dirt and leaves.

He pushed the pink bundle off him and glared at it. Two violet eyes materialized and immediately went into puppy dog mode. Eiri tried valiantly to keep up the glare, but it proved too much. Instead he just pulled the younger boy onto his lap. Shuichi cuddled up and the watched the sunrise together. Eiri sighed; he had gotten up this camping trip to talk Shuichi about something important. It wasn't too far from home so father had agreed to let the two boys go alone.

"Uh…Shuichi?" Eiri looked down at the smaller boy who was smiling at him. "I have something to tell you." Shuichi looked up confused by the seriousness of Eiri's tone.

"What is it Eiri? Is it bad? Don't tell me if it's bad…"

Eiri had to smile. "Um…Shuichi, I'm going away." He didn't expect the way the younger boy's laugh. "Ok, Eiri I'll come with you! We'll always be together ne?" Eiri sighed once more…it was going to be a long day.

"Shuichi, you can't come. Tohma wants me to go away to America. He's got a teacher for me and well, no one will tease me or beat me up. I told him I'd rather be with you, but father and Mika think I should go. I'm almost sixteen, and I really need to be able to go to school and stuff with no one tearing up my notes and books all the time." Eiri bit his lip.

"Oh. Have fun though will you Eiri? You'll write to me wont you? When are you leaving?" Eiri could tell that Shuichi wanted to cry. He hugged he boy closer, but Shuichi was choking back his sobs.

Eiri tried to keep a level voice. "Of course, I'll write you idiot. You're the only one I've gotten this close to in my life. Hey, it's been the best two years of my life. I might stay there long enough to finish university…but when I come back we'll spend lots of time together…I promise."

"I love you Eiri! You're my best friend in the whole world!" Shuichi had then jumped on him and tickled him more to make him laugh. Eiri had caught him and tied him up all the while grumbling about stupid idiot pink haired bunnies that made his life hell. Then Shuichi had smiled and proclaimed. "Eiri's just grumpy by nature" then Eiri had tickled him back until he took it back. They gone home at the end of the day and two days later Eiri had left. He remembered how Shuichi's face was when he had stepped out the door….

"Oi! Baka Eiri…are you awake?" Shuichi waved his hands in front of a spaced out Eiri. Shuichi winked at Hiro before glomping Eiri and crying out "Eiri…have you left us?" dramatically. The blonde cried out softly as he hit the pavement.

"Shuichi you ass what the hell are you doing? Get off me!" Eiri pushed him off and stood up irritated. Shuichi grinned at him before sniveling slightly.

"I thought you'd left us! You looked like a zombie…although it was a very hot zombie…but a zombie nevertheless. Hey I can't have you spacing out on me. Here get these into the room, we'll be right behind you!" Shuichi dumped two boxes into Eiri's arms. Then he and Hiro picked up some boxes as well. The rest of the move was done in silence, except for Hiro and Shuichi bickering now and then…actually Shuichi bickered with himself most of the time while Hiro gave nice calm and sedate answers.

As they finished Shuichi threw himself on the bed, exhausted. Hiro fell on the other one and Eiri gracefully lay down next to Shuichi, considering there was no where else for him to sit. The door opened and Tatsuha walked in. Shuichi sat up excitedly and greeted him with his loudest voice. Shuichi's expression turned into a slight frown, when Tatsuha looked at Eiri with a strange expression on his face. But it was gone in a minute.

"Hey, Aniki and smaller Aniki. Wassup? I thought I'd come and visit. I didn't except the mighty Eiri to b here too." Tatsuha smiled. Shuichi knew it was a false smile. He wondered what the hell was going on.

But nothing else happened during the time Tatsuha was there. They talked about Tatsuha's school work, which Shuichi insisted that he would come and have a look at.

"And what's the good of that? It's not like you'd be able to help? I did see your grades and your spelling is atrocious…I could even read your letters!" Eiri said lazily, not bothering to look at Shuichi.

"Hey, don't be mean. I want to look at Tatsuha's school work…and I also want to spend some time with him. I want to fulfill any brotherly duties I haven't been able to in these five years." Shuichi glared at the blonde.

"Whatever. We all know what I said was the truth, baka. You suck at studying." Eiri smirked. But before Shuichi could reply Tatsuha had stood up. He was glaring at Eiri.

"I don't car about Shuichi-nii's grades. Let him be. At least he's interested in what I do and wants to be a good brother." He picked up his coat and false smiled at Shuichi again. "I'll see you tomorrow then Shuichi…I think you'll like how my grades have been. Nice to meet you Hiro."

Shuichi followed him out. "Tatsuha what the hell is going? He was just teasing…you know that right?" the dark haired boy just shook his head softly. "It's nothing Shuichi-nii. Don't bother your little pink head about it. I like calling you nii-chan, it's fun. You'd better go back and give them company."

Shuichi watched the boy walk down the road and sighed. What the hell was up with his family? Now apart from bringing Eiri back, he had to see what was wrong between Tatsuha and Eiri. This was just getting too complicated. He went back in and after a while drove Eiri home. Fine he would try his best to fix the family…but first he needed to know what went wrong….

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A/N: that's it for now. (Falls asleep on keyboard.) Hope you had fun!

Taka