"Shindou-kun?" purred a woman somewhere over Shuichi's head.
The singer struggled for a moment and then forced his eyes open, which did him no good at all. He still couldn't see a thing. He tried to raise his hands to his eyes to find out what was wrong with them, but discovered he couldn't do that either. Then he remembered. He didn't remember a lot; he guessed he'd been unconscious for quite a while, but he remembered enough.
"Yūko Hozuki," he whispered venomously, but his voice was lost in the gag.
"If you're not completely stupid, you'll know who I am and where you are, but, as you seem to be completely stupid, I'll let you in on the secret. I am Yūko Hozuki and you are in a small, basement room in my family's home," she said, confirming his suspicions.
"I know," he tried to snarl.
"You're not very vocal, are you?" she mused. "Odd for a singer, don't you think?" She thought for a moment, "Can you even hear me?" she asked.
"Yes!" he tried to cry. Shuichi gave a defiant thrash with his arms to punctuate the unheard statement and got his point across.
"Oh of course, you're gagged. How could I have forgotten?" she purred.
Shuichi have a shrug that was as sarcastic as it is possible for a shrug to be.
"I would take it out, but then you'd be very noisy and annoying. I hate noisy people." She seemed to enjoy this statement for a moment before continuing. "And I like having Eiri-kun's so-called lover tied up at my feet, completely helpless to my will, just like he's about to be."
The gag could not totally stifle Shuichi's growl of furry and hurt and self-loathing for letting this happen.
"Oh do be quiet," she snapped. "It's not like I'm going to kill darling Eiri-kun, just break him, make him mine. I hate free-spirited men."
You don't know the first thing about Yuki! thought Shuichi furiously. You can't break him. Nothing can. If anything could, he signed mentally, it would have already.
She gave a slight laugh.
"Penny for you thoughts, Shindou-kun?"
He felt delicate hands at his own and recoiled.
"Hold still or I'm libel to cut you."
He froze.
The bindings on his wrists fell away and he felt something being shoved into his hands. He felt it and discovered it was a pad of paper and a pen.
"You even try to get up and you're dead," she said coolly and Shuichi distinctly heard the click of a gun being cocked.
There's one thing they have in common, a willingness to kill people.
"Now, Shindou-kun," she began with the air of a cop interrogating a prisoner (or maybe more like an evil-genius interrogating a captive cop). "How old are you?"
19, almost 20, Shuichi wrote. His birthday was in a few days in fact.
"So young," she mussed.
Shuichi waited for the next question. Now was not the time for snappy, written comebacks.
"Let's not beat about the bush, do you truly love Eiri-kun?"
Yes, wrote Shuichi at once.
"My, your handwriting is awful, how do you even read your own lyrics?" she scoffed.
You try writing blind, he scrawled.
"Don't get smart with me or I won't have anything to hold over Eiri-kun – at least nothing alive."
Again, Shuichi froze.
"Good boy. And does he love you?"
This is it, thought Shuichi, this is my only chance to protect Yuki. If I say "no" maybe she won't tell him I'm here, maybe she'll let me go, probably not until after the ball, but if Yuki doesn't know she's got me, he'll say "no" to her, but Hiro's probably already told him I'm gone! What if they come looking for me? His thoughts were wild and fearful. Calm down, he told himself. There's nothing I can do about that now. Back to this probable I can do something about. If I say "yes" she'll tell Yuki I'm here, but I'll still be useful to her so she won't kill me and Yuki will know where I am and maybe he can save me or at least send K. No, what am I talking about? This is about saving Yuki, not me.
"Well?" she prompted. "You're hesitating. Are you trying to decide how best to answer me?"
Shuichi pressed the pen to the paper and took a deep breath, praying this was right.
I don't know, he wrote, telling the truth.
"What?" she whispered.
Sometime he acts like he loves me and sometimes he acts like he hates me. He's never said he loves me and he has said he hates me more or less. He was starting to veer slightly from the truth, but not much. How can I tell? I don't think Yuki loves anyone anymore.
"What do you mean?" she snapped.
Whether he tells his bride about his past is his choice.
"Tell me!"
No.
"Do you want to die?" she snarled.
Does it matter? He wasn't sure it did. Even if he could live without Yuki, which he doubted, it wouldn't be a life worth living.
"What did he do?" she screamed. "What happened?"
The only thing I can say is what you should be able to see.
"Stop playing games with me!"
He felt the gun pushing into his side.
He can kill people; it's in his eyes.
"And has he?" she breathed.
If he hadn't, would it be in his eyes?
"Why are you telling me this rubbish?"
You can't break him.
"I have you; I can make him do whatever I want," she spit.
You can't make him love you.
"I don't have to-not yet anyway. All I need is for him to ask me to marry him and I have you to make him do that." She sounded very pleased with herself.
Why are you so sure he'll do anything for me?
He knew he was throwing her off with his display of uncertainty in Yuki's affections. His idea seemed to be working, maybe.
"Why should I believe a thing you're telling me?" she demanded.
Why would I lie? wrote Shuichi with as much melancholy as he could, which wasn't much as he could only use his hands and writing to show it.
"To protect him!" she screeched.
How am I protecting him? I'm just telling you the way it is. I have nothing to gain anymore and you've already taken everything I had, so why would I lie?
He knew she wouldn't pity him, but he might throw he off a bit more.
"Stop distracting me," she said curtly. "It's almost time for Eiri-kun to be here."
She stood up and moved away from him. He heard her set down the gun and pick something else up. There were a few, soft noises and a click.
"Thanks for the photo-op, Shindou-kun," she said sweetly. "Oh, one more thing," she said. She moved back to him and retied his hands.
He heard her footsteps leaving and the door close behind her. He heard a final click as she locked the door.
"I'll see you after the show," she called as her footsteps receded into nothing.
Over the next hour or so the sound in the house grew as the guesses arrived.
If she really does hate noisy people, I can't imagine she's enjoying this much. But then again if she's parading Yuki around on a leash like a new dog, I bet she's having the time of her life. I wonder if she's shown him the picture yet.
He was so sick of waiting, sick of feeling so vulnerable, sick of being the bait, sick of knowing that any moment Yuki might ask that women to marry him, but never knowing if that moment had come yet.
There was a tap on the door.
Shuichi sat as bolt upright as he could with his hands tied.
"Shuichi?" whispered a worried, male voice.
Shuichi knew that voice.
"Hiro?" he tried to reply, but could make no sound.
"Shuichi?" whispered a second voice a little louder.
"K!" he tried to exclaim.
"Maybe she's moved him," suggested Hiro.
"No, she's been at the party whole time. Not letting Eiri-san out of her sight if you ask me," replied K.
"Maybe he can't answer," said Hiro in a frightened voice.
"Shuichi, if you're in there make whatever kind of noise you can," said K.
"But don't be too loud," added Hiro quickly.
Shuichi did the first thing that came to mind to make noise; he knocked his head against the wall behind him. It made his head spin, but he make himself heard.
"Shuichi!" cried Hiro in a whisper.
"Hold on, we're gunna get you out of there," said K.
"K! What are you-?"
"Shh!" K cut Hiro off. "One knock "yes," two knocks "no." Are you in line with the keyhole?" asked K.
Shuichi had no idea where the door was, let alone the keyhole, so he knocked on the floor with his bound hands three times.
"You don't know?" asked K.
Knock.
"Ok. Well then, lie down as flat as you can."
Shuichi did so and knocked once when he was flat on the floor.
"K, you could kill him!" hissed Hiro.
"I'm not going to kill him," said K with what sounded like a laugh.
There was an extremely muffled bang followed by a huge clatter and a thwack.
"That did the trick," said K happily.
The door opened. Apparently K had shot the lock clean off.
"Shuichi!" Hiro exclaimed in a hushed voice.
Shuichi felt Hiro and K untying him and the bag being pulled of his head.
He blinked in the light of the dim room that blinded him after the darkness of the bag.
"Oh my god, you're hurt," said Hiro as he removed the gag.
"Hiro! K! What are you doing here?"
"Rescuing you, of course," said Hiro as he helped Shuichi to his feet.
Shuichi raised an aching hand to his head and felt died blood from where the man had knocked him out.
"How do you feel?" asked Hiro.
"Not too bad. A little sore, but I'll be Okay," he said. "Where's Yuki? What's going on?"
"He's upstairs with that woman," said K. "When Hiro released you'd gone, the three of us figured out she must have gotten you somehow. Hiro and I snuck in here and found out where you were," he fingered a gun lovingly, "and came to get you. Yuki has the hard job. He had to trust us to get you back and play it cool upstairs. He wanted to come get you himself, but he has to stay with that woman so she won't suspect anything."
Shuichi's head was spinning and not just from the light.
"So what now?" he asked slowly.
"We sneak you back upstairs and you stop this engagement," said Hiro.
"That simple, huh?" asked Shuichi.
"Well, you've only got about," K checked his watch, "twenty-five minutes, maybe less."
"What?" Shuichi screeched. "I musta been here a lot longer than I thought. God, how long was I out?" He held a hand to his head.
"Let's get you cleaned up first, Okay?' said Hiro.
He ditched a backpack Shuichi hadn't noticed onto the floor and began pulling things out.
"Here," he said handing Shuichi some wet wipes. "Try to get some of that blood of your face."
While Shuichi cleaned up his face, K attacked his hair, covering the pink and dried blood with a black wig. Hiro produced a suit, shirt, tie, socks, and shoes from the bag and, in under ten minutes, Shuichi not only looked ready to attend the event upstairs, but he also looked nothing like himself.
"Ready?" asked Hiro.
"Yeah, I guess so," said Shuichi.
"Okay! Let's go," cried K.
K and Hiro escorted Shuichi upstairs and pushed him through a side door. Shuichi found himself on the edge of the ball.
The room was beyond huge. It was like something out of a fairy tale, strings of lights spiraled up large white columns and crystal chandelles bathed the ballroom in a warm glow. Men in tuxedos and women in floor-length gowns filled the room. There was a full orchestra on a stage at the front of the room, several bars along the walls, and waiters moving through the guests offering delicacies from around the world on silver trays. An elegant podium stood at the front of the stage. There were many couples dancing at the front of the room. Shuichi craned his neck and caught a glimpse of Yuki and Yūko among them.
What am I supposed to do? thought Shuichi wildly. Just run up there and pull them apart? No, that's not right. I know that's not right, but what is right? Maybe I'll just know. I hope so.
He started to work his way through the crowd. He'd only ever seen this many people in the same room at concerts before. It was crazy! No one looked twice at him as he moved slowly towards the dancers. When he reached the edge of the dance floor, he skulked just out of site of the couples and waited.
He looked up and saw K leaning causally against a column on a balcony that ran around the room. He caught Shuichi's eye and winked, nodded towards the stage. Shuichi looked at the orchestra and saw Hiro and, to his shock, Suguru, slipping carefully into the group, dressed in tuxes just like the rest. At least I'm not alone. The song ended and there was a change in the lights. The dancing stopped and a hush feel over the room as the attention of every person there was drawn to the stage.
Yūko was leading Yuki up onto the stage and into a gently defused spotlight. She tapped the mic on the podium and cleared her throat with a horribly girly little cough.
"I'm sure all of you have your little suspicions about why this wonderful ball is being held by my family for all of you and I think it is time those suspicions were confirmed." She smiled at Yuki and Shuichi felt heat rising in his face.
Yuki looked pale, but very composed. Shuichi saw his eyes sweep the crowd. Is he looking for me?
"Eiri-kun, as the guest of honor, I thought you might to like say something to, uh, all these lovely people." She stepped aside.
Yuki moved up the podium and there was a polite smattering of applause.
"Thank you, Hozuki-san, and thank you to the whole Hozuki family. I think they deserve a round of applause for putting on this spectacular ball for everyone." More clapping followed this little suggestion. "I think Hozuki-san went a little far in calling me the guest of honor for I believe that tonight should be all about her."
Yūko smiled and Shuichi's stomach turned over horribly.
"I know you are all expecting, uh, something and I suppose it's about time I delivered."
Shuichi edged closer to the stage, finding his way to the stairs off to the left.
Yuki stepped away from the podium and reaching inside his jacket, pulling out a small, black velvet box.
Yūko faked a gasp of surprise.
"Oh Eiri-kun!" she cried.
He's really ready to do. He's really going to ask her. To save me?
Yuki Eiri took a deep breath and was interrupted by a young man from the orchestra with long, red-brown hair.
"Sir? Aren't you forgetting something?" asked Hiro pointedly.
Yuki covered his surprise with ease.
"What is it?" he asked coolly.
"A love song for your beloved?" prompted Hiro. "We have quite an accomplished singer here for you to, uh, set the mood."
"Ah of course! I was carried away it slipped my mind. Please, go ahead." He took Yūko's hand and stepped off to one side. She looked extremely put out as he slipped the box back into his jacket. "Humor me, love," he whispered. "I want this to be perfect."
She gave a girly giggle and smiled.
"Of course."
Hiro took the mic.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I would like to present to you a wonderful singer who is here to serenade these two on this very, very special night." He gestured to Shuichi with a sweep of his arm.
Shuichi pointed to himself and mouthed "me?" to Hiro who nodded.
Shuichi climbed the stairs and crossed to Hiro who handed him the mic off of the podium.
"Here's your shot," he whispered as he returned to his guitar. "Don't miss."
Shuichi cleared his throat and tried not to look at Yuki – not just yet.
"Good evening everyone, ladies, gentlemen, and, most importantly tonight, lovers," said Shuichi, mimicking Hiro's air of jovial emcee. "We'd like to perform a new song for you tonight, but one that we think is most, uh, fitting for the, uh, circumstances. It's called "Half a Day" and it's for," he paused and almost lost his fragile composure, "anyone who understands."
There was a polite, if somewhat confused round of applause from the crowd.
Hiro strummed the opening chords of their new song and Suguru began to weave in his part on the piano.
Shuichi knew this was right. He knew this was what he was supposed to do. This felt right. Yes, this is how I'm supposed to tell him.
Shuichi opened his mouth and let the words soar out.
.
"So here I am again, staring at the moon
Dreaming
It's the same moon that shines on you
But not now
Not now
.
As I try to fall asleep
So late, it's early
Half a day away
You've been up for hours
Who are you waiting for tonight?
.
Half a day
That's all it takes
A million miles
And you're a million words away
If I could only reach you now
But you're half a day away
.
I think back on when you
Were close
And I wonder if it were ever so
Was I ever in your arms?
Did I ever touch your soul?
.
Maybe it was all a dream
You were never all that close
Never within my gasp
The distance hasn't really
Changed
.
Half a day
That's all it takes
A million miles
And you're a million words away
If I could only reach you now
But you're half a day away
.
But now, but now
Here I am half a day behind you
Just like I always was
Never able to keep up
And now you're "good morning"
Is my "good night"
Night and day are black and white
Once so close and yet so far
Now the distance is real
.
Half a day
That's all it takes
A million miles
And you're a million words away
If I could only reach you now
But you're half a day away
.
And now I'm standing in the sun
Hearing the crowd shout my name
It's the same sun the lights your eyes
But not now
Not now
.
Half a day
That's all it takes
A million miles
And you're a million words away
If I could only reach you now
.
Half a day
That's all it takes
A million miles
And you're a million words away
If I could only reach you now
But you're half a day away
Half a day away
Half a day
Half a day"
.
Shuichi finished his song and felt drained.
Somehow his audience knew not the clap, not to break the moment.
He looked over at Yuki who was staring at him, lips slightly parted, eyes full of pain.
"Thank you," said Shuichi quietly as he turned to go.
"Shuichi," breathed Yuki.
"What?" gasped Yūko.
Shuichi pulled of the wig and both Yūko and the crowd gasped. There was still dried blood in his pink hair, but he was very clearly himself.
"You! Shuichi Shindou!" Yūko screeched.
"Yuki. Yuki, you can't. You can't," said Shuichi in a voice of pain and sorrow.
"He's mine, you stupid brat!"
Shuichi bristled. How dare she call me that? That's Yuki's name for me!
"He's not anybody's," said Shuichi his voice even, but full of fire. "I told you, you couldn't break him and you can't. No one can."
"You can't take him from me!" Her voice was rising in volume and pitch every time she spoke. She clung to Yuki's arm. It looked painful.
"You never had him to begin with. The only person who could have ever claimed Yuki as their own is dead," said Shuichi, his voice as calm as hers was frantic. "Am I right, Yuki?" he asked.
Yuki nodded.
"No, he's mine! He's mine!"
"Stop making a scene. Shuichi's right," said Yuki in a frosty and business-like voice.
"Yuki," whispered Shuichi.
"I'm sorry, Shuichi, this is all my fault," said Yuki with unmistakable sadness in his eyes. He pushed Yūko off his arm and stepped to Shuichi. He touched the blood clotted in the singer's hair. "All my fault."
"Eiri-kun!" cried Yūko, furious at being ignored.
"Shut up," said Yuki.
She stared open-mouthed at him. Clearly no one had ever dared to tell her to shut up before.
"Come on Shuichi, let's go home," said Yuki.
"Home," whispered Shuichi. He was starting to feel light-headed again. Now that the adrenalin rush from having to save Yuki and then from singing was gone, his body was finally getting around to reacting to have been knocked out and loosing a lot of blood. It was hot in the massive room and the suit didn't help. Shuichi's vision flickered and he felt himself swaying. He saw Yuki take a quick step towards him before his knees gave way at last. Shuichi was unconscious before he hit the floor.
--
Ha! Now we're getting somewhere. I finally got around the climax. Now all I gotta do it wrap this baby up and it's done. I'm sorry about the song. I just wrote as poetry, but, as much as I'd like to be, I'm no poet, so forgive me for that one and imagine that it's what it needs to be for the story. Also sorry about the random periods in the song; they're for spacing.