Thank you to Antimatterannihilation and Self-Proclaimed Everything for reviewing, and for whoever has read up until this point.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation; I make no profit from this story.

Pressure

by R. M. Weiss

Chapter 3:

It was a fact that Sakano was the producer of Bad Luck. It was a fact that Sakano was high-strung most of the time. Was it a fact that Sakano had dated Ryuichi Sakuma? K still had his doubts. Standing under the spray of the showerhead he pressed his forehead against the pale blue tiles before him, one hand on the glass at his side. He closed his eyes against the sting of water droplets, fighting to breath through the thick steam.

Blindly reaching for the shampoo he had seen in the corner, he didn't bother to look and see if it had a scent or what brand it was. Judy had always gotten some sweet fruity kind that he had refused to use, and had often dumped down the sink in small doses in an attempt to get her to give up buying it.

K scraped his nails across his scalp as he worked the soapy liquid into his hair. With slow strokes he untangled knots and snarls, rinsing the golden locks slowly before shutting the water off. Towel drying his body and hair, he paused when he heard the click of the front door and unfamiliar footsteps on the hard-wood of the living room. Grabbing his gun off the sink shelf he wrapped his towel tightly around his waist and slowly edged out of the bathroom.

Pressed flat against the wall, he leaned just enough to get a good look around the wall into the living room. Blue eyes widened slightly as he saw who was standing by the bookcase he had browsed through the night before.

"Seguchi? What the hell?" he said, stepping away from the wall.

Dropping the book in his hands, Tohma whirled around, a hand flying to his chest. "K-san? What are you doing here?" he asked, recovering his composure. 'And where's Sakano?' he thought, green eyes quickly sweeping past the American to check for signs of the producer.

Still holding his finger on the trigger of his magnum, K waved it through the air as if to brush off the question. "I was in the neighborhood last night and Sakano-san let me have a little sleep over party on his couch. That's doesn't explain why you're here though."

Tohma frowned, "Sakano and I have breakfast some weekends. Now, is this interrogation over?" Picking up the book he had dropped, the blonde brushed the cover off and then began to head towards Sakano's room, brushing past K in a hurry. His skin was crawling at the thought of finding Sakano in bed. If the American had done something to back Sakano into a corner to the point the producer had actually gone so far as to take him to bed, Tohma would fire the older blonde on the spot. Manager or not, it was still in Tohma's power to terminate K's job.

Pushing open the door to Sakano's room, the slim man paused when he saw that the rumpled bed was empty. "Where is he?" he asked, turning to look over his shoulder at K who had run back to the bathroom and hastily thrown on his clothes.

Fixing his tie so it felt less like a hangman's noose, K tucked his gun away in its holster, "He's supposed to be in a meeting with you. You called an hour ago, didn't you?"

"An hour ago? No. Today is my day off. The last thing I want to do is talk business."

K was taken aback by the comment. Eyebrows knitting together he began to pull his hair back into its usual pony tail. "He said it was you when he hung up. Ran out the door like he always does when you call him."

Tohma shook his head, "No," he replied, "I left my cell phone at the house. I never made a call here."

"Then he….lied?"

Feeling himself nod, Tohma peeled off his velvet gloves and tucked them into the felt hat he had perched on his head. "It would appear that way." Moving past the American again, the slender man went towards the kitchen, feeling the sudden urge to get something to drink.

K felt the words hit him like ice water. 'Why would you lie?' he asked silently as he glanced in the direction of the hidden photo album. Going over to the phone standing beside the couch, he picked up the receiver and began to scroll through the caller ID, having recognized the model as being the same as his own back in what had once been Judy and his apartment. Looking for the most recent entry he paused and set the phone back into its cradle as the word "UNKNOWN" flashed brightly on the tiny gray screen. It would have been too easy to get a number.

Rubbing at the bridge of his nose, he listened to Tohma rummage around in the kitchen, the other man's soft footsteps loud as thunder in the overly silent house. Moving to the bookcase, he bent down and retrieved the photo album before going into the kitchen and dropping it on the table in front of the other blonde. "When I signed on as Ryuichi Sakuma's manager I expected to know everything about his life before me. Now, Mr. President, would you like to explain why Sakano is getting cozy with a world-famous music star in some of these pictures?"

Tohma was startled by the sudden smack of the album hitting the table, and had half-risen from his seat in response. Looking up at K, he kept a small frown plastered on his face. He did not like that the American had discovered such a well-kept secret, and briefly considered telling him off before he recognized the fact that K would not let the matter rest unless he got answers. Flipping open the green book, Tohma sipped at his hastily made coffee, the dark brown liquid bitter on his tongue and warm down his throat.

Pulling to the side the plastic that covered a glossy photo, he held the picture between two fingers. He remembered when he had snapped the photo. It had been in the middle of summer, school had let out early because of the threat of a storm. He had been walking with Sakano towards the local park when out of no where Ryuichi had pounced on him from behind. Being smaller and lighter than the other boy, Tohma had gone sprawling on the ground, a shocked Sakano easily getting flustered as he asked if Tohma was hurt, if he needed to get to clinic.

At that exact moment, Ryuichi had noticed the black haired teen Tohma had befriended in class years ago. Looking between the two, the blonde had known there was an attraction, and when he had convinced them that he was fine he had shoved them both together and gotten his camera out of his back-pack, ordering them to stand together and pose.

Ryuichi, never one to be shy or to disappoint, had simply leaned over and planted a kiss on a blushing Sakano's cheek just as the shutter on the camera closed.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Tohma tapped the photo against the table for now, coming back to the present long enough to gesture at the chair next to him before reaching for another picture.

"Have you asked Sakano about these?" he said as long last, closing the heavy book. Green eyes fixed on blue ones as the president of N-G shed his jacket.

Folding his hands on the table, K glanced at the album, "No. I was going to….but then he got that phone call and left."

"It really isn't my place to tell you, K-san."

"I want to know."

"You sound like a jilted lover."

This time it was K's turn to be surprised, and it took him a moment to realize that Tohma was simply joking with him, a rare event. Even stranger though, the American got the distinct feeling that the keyboardist wasn't that far off the mark. He had rarely found himself so agitated over something as simple as a secret, and never before had he made it into a big deal when some sort of scandal, real or fake, had popped up in his life or at his work.

'A jilted lover, huh? Maybe that's what you could call it. Producers and Managers should be teams…the analogy isn't that fare fetched.' Crossing his long legs under the table, K tapped his fingers against the album. "I don't know him well enough to ask these kinds of things. You on the other hand…."

"You know me better," Tohma finished. Folding his arms across his skinny chest, the Japanese man idly tapped his foot on the floor. "I can't tell you anything, though, K-san. I don't know much more about it than you do. Sakano was always private, and Ryuichi was never someone to kiss-and-tell."

"But you know something. You took some of these pictures. Didn't you?"

"Of course I did. I was the only other person who knew about them. Ryuichi didn't tell Noriko about it, and Sakano would never have done anything to jeopardize Ryuichi's career."

"Then I-"

Like a bomb doing off, the front door of the apartment swung open, and the haggard looking producer stepped inside, toeing off his shoes. Forgetting that he had a guest, he began to pull off his tie and unbutton the top buttons of his shirt until he caught the scent of coffee in the air. Looking up, Sakano paled slightly as he saw Tohma and K sitting at his kitchen table. "S-Sacho! What are you…? When did you arrive? Can I get you anything?"

Straightening his messy appearance, Sakano all but ran into the kitchen and went for his refrigerator, digging for something in it to put out on the table as a snack.

"K says you went to go meet me?"

The black haired man froze at the words, his eyes widening behind his steamed glasses. "S-sacho?"

"Your business is your own, and I'll respect that….but as your employer, I find that it's a problem if you can't communicate with someone who is supposed to be your partner. K-san is the manager of Bad Luck and you are the producer, Sakano, you need to work as a team if you want Shindou, Nakano, and Fujisaki to succeed."

"Y-Yes sir…."

Looking at Sakano's tense frame, K felt his jaw set. He had not told Tohma what had happened so the younger blonde could verbally thrash the already worn-out producer. He watched Sakano straighten up from the refrigerator and bow to Tohma, apologizing profusely. It was so similar to work, and yet K could tell something was different. There was a tenseness in the producer's shoulders, as if he wasn't truly sorry, as if he could justify his actions and was almost annoyed at being accused of not working with K.

'It's not my business to interfere,' the American thought as he trailed his eyes down to Sakano's loosely clenched hands. He didn't bother to listen to what Tohma said to Sakano, simply reading the reactions of Sakano's body to the president's words. 'Maybe you aren't as whipped as I thought you were.'

Feeling K's eyes on him, Sakano glanced up at the American, brown eyes holding slight confusion as he noticed the book in front of the blonde. Blinking slowly, it took him a moment to realize just what the thick album was, and when he did, any color that had been in his face had drained away. "W-Where did you find that?" he asked, cutting Tohma off.

K was surprised by the sudden question and it took him a moment to process the words. Touching the cover of the photo album he wet his lips, which had suddenly dried. "I found it last night," he said after a minute, eyes meeting with those of the dark haired man.

Feeling the secrets he had kept so carefully under lock and key begin to edge out into the open, Sakano let his eyes slide close as he slumped back against the appliance behind him. 'It would have been too good to be true for him never to find out…..Ryuichi, I'm sorry…' he thought.

Seeing the man's distress, Tohma moved to go and rest a hand on his shoulder. "Sakano, please don't do anything rash. I can add in a clause to K-san's contract. I can-"

"No."

Pausing, the thirty-two year old saw a slightly tremor run through his employee's shoulders.

Sakano took a deep breath as he heard the approaching footsteps of his sacho stop. Turning chocolate eyes on K, he took his time to study the American who had just turned his world upside down. There was no use trying to hide anything now, and Sakano swallowed hard past the lump forming in his throat to fight off the nausea that rolled in his stomach.

Moving away from the stainless steel refrigerator, the black haired producer reached out for the photo album, taking it into his hands and hesitantly opening the front cover. Staring down at an old picture, he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Sacho…if K-san and I are going to work together…then he should know."

Noting the strange calm in Sakano's voice, Tohma nodded only after mulling over ever possible outcome in a few short minutes. "I agree. I'll leave you to it, then." Pulling his coat back on, the lithe blonde made quick work of fixing his appearance before excusing himself, ghosting out of the house almost as quietly as he had come in.

Left alone with the American, Sakano wished he hadn't said anything. He wished he had stayed out longer or gotten hit by a car on his way back to his apartment. Anything would be more pleasant than explaining the part of his past that involved Ryuichi. Loosening his tie with one hand, he slowly took a seat in the chair vacated by the keyboardist for Nittle Grasper.

"Can I have a minute….to myself?" he asked, voice strained.

Without a word, K got up from his chair and left the kitchen, only pausing long enough to rest his hand on the producer's shoulder. As he entered the living room, he glanced at the clock ticking away by the phone. He was about to get his answers.

TBC…

Thank you for reading this chapter.