Hm…too lazy to write an author's note. Ugh…see ya at the end…
Disclaimer: If you don't know yet then you shouldn't even be here…
The Lunacy Phringe…
The two weeks that Bad Luck had had to finish the reentry into music superstardom that was their latest album were full of insanity and over-exaggerated overdramatics. Shuichi had spent, to Eiri at least, too much time at the studio that he could have spent at home with him.
After spending so much time surrounded by Shuichi and Aiko's constant bickering, it was too silent in the house for it to belong to someone sane. Contradictory to what he used to believe, Eiri was starting to believe that silence should be illegal because it gave your mind too much freedom to wander into places that it shouldn't belong. When left in silence, the brain became one those little children who looked cute on the outside but harbored a vicious demon on the inside. The blonde couldn't stop the shiver that tingled down his spine.
Speaking of little children, Mika and Touma were supposed to be coming for dinner and they were going to bring little Amarante and Rue with them. And if any child was harboring a demon within them, it was Amarante. She was adorable…when she wanted to be, but if you bothered her when she wanted some peace and quiet, all hell would break loose. Just like her mother.
Thankfully, Rue was still hardly able to speak coherently and he couldn't walk. He could crawl, though, which was sometimes worse than a walking little kid because he found plenty of places where he could hide his small one-year-old body and Touma's thirty-one-year old arms couldn't reach to get him out.
Although it was rather annoying whenever Eiri had to chase after the kid, it was extremely cute when he had to watch Touma try to fish him out from wherever he was hiding. Oh, how Rue would giggle whenever Touma growled in frustration. Touma tried to blame it on being around Eiri so much when he babysat them, but Eiri always played the innocent uncle and laughed whenever Rue crawled over and used his legs to help him get to his feet, holding his arms up to indicate to the blonde that he wanted to be held and he wanted to be held now.
Eiri sighed and used a hand to push his annoying sweat slicked bangs out of his eyes so he could make sure that he had scrubbed all of the soap scum from the bottom of the bathtub. When he saw that he had, he leaned back on his haunches, wiping the sweat from his brow. When he examined the bathroom around him, he was happy to see that everything was sparkling in its glory and that he was done.
With a sigh and groan that he ignored, he pushed himself up from the ground and began the task of putting everything back into place. All of the shampoo, conditioner, and body washes were replaced in the shower; the toothbrushes, toothpaste, and plastic cup dispenser were placed back on the counter around the sink; and all of the other toiletries he really didn't feel like messing with were haphazardly shoved into the cabinet above the toilet so he could get them out of view. He then put the cleaning supplies he had used back beneath the sink and threw the dirty, sopping wet rag into the dirty clothes basket.
While he washed his hands he couldn't keep his eyes from wandering up to gaze at his reflection. His amber eyes reflected in the mirror shined with a sort of fierce intensity that hadn't left since Shuichi's declaration. The joy that had overrode his emotions had been too great to put into words when Shuichi finally admitted that he loved him and he had felt something beyond describing while they had made love in the closet. While it was true that an abandoned janitor's closet hadn't really been the best place for them to do it, it hadn't been the worst place either.
Just like the groan that had stole its way through his lips when he stood, Eiri ignored the crow's feet that were starting to form at the corners of his eyes and the fine lines that ran across his forehead. He knew how old he was without having to see the constant signs of aging that jumped out at him every time he looked in the mirror, but he still tried to defy them. He did draw the line at one thing, though. He refused to use lotions and all of the other frou-frou stuff that women used to "get rid of" their fine lines and wrinkles. Shuichi had suggested that he use them once and hadn't dared to suggest it again.
Before shutting the water off, Eiri splashed a bit of it on his face and dried himself off with the hand towel on the circle holder that hung on the wall beside him. He left the bathroom without a second glance back at his reflection.
A nice power nap was nagging at the back of his mind by the time he set foot in the living room, but he refused to give into it. He was still too young to need a power nap after only cleaning the bathroom. Although, he had been at it for an hour or more and the fumes of all the cleaners had probably mixed together and fermented in his mind. No! That still didn't give him a reason to give into the oh-so-inviting call of the evil nap. Naps, like watching golf, were for old people and he wasn't quite an old person…yet.
Ignoring the sensuous call of the couch, Eiri shook his head and wandered into the kitchen. One glance at the clock almost made him collapse onto the floor. He only had an hour to get dinner ready before everyone would arrive. He could feel the color draining from his face. And he'd promised Shuichi that he'd make something good to kick off the night of partying he knew would ensue to celebrate the completion of Bad Luck's album.
Growling slightly in anger at himself, Eiri threw open the pantry door and dug around for ingredients for a delectable meal that would preferably take an hour or less to make. When he saw that nothing in the pantry fit that criteria, he left the small closet and ransacked the freezer before remembering the chicken that he'd put in the refrigerator to thaw the night before. Sure, it wasn't the best of delicacies, but it would do, and he seriously doubted that Shuichi would want something fancy anyway. They were celebrating, weren't they? A cookout would do just fine.
Eiri closed the freezer and pulled the chicken out from the fridge and grabbed some barbecue sauce and Italian dressing. He set the three items on the island counter in the center of the kitchen before heading to the cabinets to grab another plate, a bowl, spoon, barbecue sauce brush, and various poultry spices from the spice rack on the counter beside the stove.
He combined the barbecue sauce and Italian dressing in the bowl and mixed it together with the spoon, test tasting it and adding more of either until the mixture was perfect. He covered the bowl with a paper towel and stowed it away in the refrigerator until it was needed.
He left the chicken untouched in the four gallon-size Ziploc bags and searched for hors d'oeuvres and side dishes that would go along with the chicken, cursing at himself for waiting so long to start cleaning the bathroom. He'd known that it would come back to bite him in the ass, too.
He ended up settling on a random mixture of foods. An industrial-sized can of baked beans that he didn't even remember buying, frozen instant garlic mashed potatoes that he would lie and say that he'd made if anyone asked (if they thought they were good, that is), two bags of Pillsbury frozen "bakery fresh" rolls of both regular and cheesy garlic, some random canned vegetables from the Jolly Green Giant, and an ensemble of various other quick and easy side dishes/appetizers.
Before he knew it, he was surrounded by bubbling pots and a beeping timer that wouldn't stop reminding him that the ten minutes he had set it for were up and that he should really check the rolls. When he did check them, they weren't even the golden brown that the package said they should be after the ten minutes.
In a fit of frustration, Eiri sat down on one of the barstools around the island counter and cradled his head in his arms. He thought that he'd been dreaming when he heard the front door open, thought that the voices of Shuichi and Aiko were just figments that his imagination had created to get rid of his nagging loneliness. But that gentle kiss on the back of his neck and the arms that wrapped around his shoulders just felt too real to be imaginary.
He lifted his head and was surprised to see a mass of lightning yellow and lime green highlighted ebony hair resting lightly on his shoulder and a grinning Aiko leaning a shoulder against the archway to the kitchen. A smile brightened his tired features and he wrapped an arm around Shuichi's waist, glancing at the stove's clock at the same time.
"You're home early."
Shuichi nodded and wrapped his arms around Eiri, resting his hands on the blonde's hip. "After getting onto us for two hours, Touma was sick of us fucking around and told us to get home." He chuckled quietly. "It was funny."
Eiri snorted. "So you finished your album?"
Shuichi nodded. "Yup."
"And let the interviews commence," Aiko added as an after statement.
Shuichi rolled his eyes and rested his head on Eiri's shoulder, a gesture that Eiri returned by lying the side of his head against his. As much as he loved sitting in the man's embrace, something didn't smell quite right. It smelled like something was…burning.
Eiri's eyes grew wide and he shot up from the stool.
"Shit!" he yelled and pulled open the oven's door. And there were the rolls, now a muddy brown after ten extra minutes in the oven.
He groaned and slid the two cookie sheets onto the stovetop. Shuichi chuckled and gave one of them an experimental poke with a finger.
"Well, it didn't explode. Think they're still edible?" he asked in a mocking tone of voice.
"Like your cooking is any better," Eiri muttered.
Shuichi laughed and shrugged, tousling Eiri's blonde hair with a hand.
"Don't worry about it, Eiri. It'll be fine."
The blonde shrugged and turned his back on the sad looking excuses for rolls. Shuichi smiled and wrapped his arms around his waist, burying his head in Eiri's chest. Eiri couldn't help but sigh and return the embrace, glancing down at Shuichi when he looked up at him. The expression on his face was one that Eiri wasn't familiar with.
"I hate to say this, Eiri, but you stink," he said, crinkling his nose a bit to emphasize the fact. "What have you done all day?"
"Manly work," Eiri said indignantly.
Shuichi broke out in laughter. "Unless they make a deodorant that smells like a mixture Scrubbing Bubbles, Comet, Febreze, Palmolive, and other cleaning stuff, I'd think that you were cleaning the house."
Eiri scowled at him but gave into the smile that Shuichi donned on his face. "Whatever," he muttered and pulled away from the man.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Shuichi called.
"I was going to take a shower since I seem to smell so bad," Eiri said and started up the stairway. "Can you guys please keep an eye on the rest of the food for me so it doesn't turn out like my rolls?"
"Sure."
Eiri grunted a thanks and trudged his way up the stairs. Just to test a theory, he lifted an arm and smelled. Shuichi was right, he smelled like something that crawled out of a trash heap full of cans of cleaning supplies, and he could hear the nice clean shower singing his name.
He slowly made his way into his…no, he and Shuichi's bedroom and pulled open his closet doors. He really didn't want to dress for the occasion; hell, he didn't even know what he should wear to dress for the occasion, so he grabbed a long-sleeved black polo shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a clean pair of boxers and entered his destination.
He deposited his clean clothes on the edge of the sink and dropped a clean towel to the floor just outside the shower and started the water before shedding his dirty, smelly clothes. The warm water against his skin was a Godsend, hitting all of his muscles just right to relax them and leave him a sighing mass of goo beneath the water's onslaught. But his comfort couldn't last forever and he soon found himself turning the water off and wrapping the towel on the floor around his waist.
He slowly, and begrudgingly, dried his body of water and pulled his clothes on before violently running the towel through his hair in a rough drying attempt. He brushed his teeth and raked his fingers through his hair to make it presentable and then picked his dirty clothes up from the floor and left the bathroom. Thankfully, the shower had erased most of the exhaustion from his body and, after a quick stop by the bedroom to drop off his dirty clothes, he went downstairs to check on Shuichi and Aiko.
They were both where he had left them and were silently playing a game of some sort on a scrap piece of paper. Shuichi looked up with a smile when he walked into the kitchen.
"Everything but the chicken's done. I figured you'd want to do that yourself, Emeril," he said. "I did start the grill for ya, though."
Eiri laughed in a happy/sarcastic way and went to the kitchen to grab the barbecue sauce he had mixed up earlier.
"Have you heard from anyone yet?"
Shuichi shook his head but Aiko nodded. "Touma called about five minutes ago and said that they were just leaving. Hiro, Suguru, and Ben will be here in about an hour. And I dunno if Remi's gonna come or not."
Eiri had to stop and take a second to let the words sink in. Aiko sounded so put out at the mention of Remi, something that definitely wasn't usual for the girl. Even if he couldn't show to some dinner arrangement or another, she never sounded so upset.
"Has something happened between the two of you?" Eiri asked. Even from across the kitchen Eiri could visibly see her shoulders tense. "You don't have to tell me. I'm just worried, is all."
She shook her head, her in dire need of a dying choppy red-orange hair flying about her head, but her mouth was kept shut. Eiri sighed and moved to her side, wrapping her in his arms. Aiko sighed and slowly relaxed in his embrace, burying her head against his shoulder.
When she was calmed enough, Eiri pulled away from her and planted a gentle kiss on top of her head.
"Don't worry about him tonight, Aiko, okay? You just finished an album, not to mention your first, so party it up. Don't let anything bother you."
She nodded but Eiri didn't believe that she would relax. He pulled away from her and returned to the bowl of barbecue sauce and the bags of chicken, giving Shuichi a 'make sure you watch her' look. Shuichi nodded and plopped down onto his stool.
Eiri gave the two one last look over his shoulder before exiting out the French doors that lead to his deck. Just as Shuichi had promised, the grill was already lit and ready for the chicken. He put two of the four bags onto the grill and covered half of them with barbecue sauce, the other half with the random spices he had picked out.
By the time the chicken was done, Touma and Mika were just arriving with Amarante and Rue and Hiro had called and said that they were on their way. There had still been no word from Remi. Aiko didn't seem to care about it, but Eiri couldn't not keep one eye on her.
When Touma set Rue down on the ground he crawled over to Eiri and gave him his irresistible toothless grin. Eiri chuckled and picked the boy up, ruffling his brunette hair when he was perched on his side, the place he would most likely prefer to stay all night. Until he decided that it was time to annoy his father, that is.
Little Amarante ran over to Aiko and hugged her legs. Aiko smiled and got onto her knees so she could take the blonde girl into her arms.
"Aunt Aiko!" she said and broke out into a fit of her infectious giggles.
Eiri couldn't help but smile, especially when Touma walked over to greet him.
"It's amazing that I'm his father and not you," the blonde said and held out his hand.
Eiri chuckled and took the offered hand, shaking it in a firm grip. "Nah. If I was his dad then he'd be all over you. He just doesn't like you because you're the big bad rules man at home."
Touma chuckled and rolled his green eyes with a shake of his head. Mika came next and wrapped her arms around her brother in a gentle embrace.
"I always knew you liked kids," she said.
"I can't help being irresistible," Eiri said and turned up his nose in sarcasm.
Mika laughed and shook her head. "I'm just glad to see you, Eiri. I'm glad that he's gone."
Eiri nodded and smiled at Mika and watched as she went to greet everyone else. It was a minute before he realized that the incessant tugging at his pants leg was coming from Amarante. When he looked down at her she smiled and her grey eyes sparkled with happiness.
"Hi, Uncle Eiri," she said with the biggest smile her lips would allow her to make without tearing.
He smiled back at her. "Hey, Amarante. How are you?"
"I'm really happy 'cause I get to see you, Shu-chan, and Aiko-chan," she said. "I like seeing you because I have fun."
He laughed and tousled her pigtails. "I like seeing you, too, Amarante."
She giggled and ran off to play with Aiko again.
Hiro, Suguru, and Ben arrived about fifteen minutes later with smiles and extra food, and everyone dug into the buffet style layout of dishes across the counter and disappeared outside to enjoy the cool late fall air for one of the last nights before it turned to bitter cold.
The celebration dinner went by in a mess of laughter, talk, and plenty of reminiscing. Eiri couldn't remember a time when Hiro and Suguru had ate with him and Shuichi at their home. When Shuichi met them for a night it was usually to go to a restaurant or bar or something of the like. And he knew that Ben had never eaten with them before. Touma, Mika, and the kids came to eat with them at least twice a month now, a constant reminder to Eiri of how much support he'd gotten from his family in the past; albeit it was sometimes negative support, but it was still support and that was all that mattered.
Much to his disappointment, Remi never showed, but it didn't seem to faze Aiko much. Her hands were too full with Amarante for her to worry about much of anything else.
When the meal was over and the nighttime air grew too cold to stand without jackets, the talk moved to the living room where the adults sipped on coffee, tea, or beer and the kids drank from sippy cups full of juice in an oblivious state of happiness.
By ten o'clock, Amarante and Rue were put to bed in the guest bedroom and the adults began to play the game of vicious competition known as Uno. It was the most fun that Eiri had had in a long time, made even better the more everyone drank. Just one hand took almost an hour and a half and everyone got the chance to have almost every card in the deck in their hand at least once. And after playing Uno with that crew, he swore that the game should be illegal just for the fact of violence. The more alcohol everyone ingested, the more they began to loosen up and yell and shout at each other.
After six hands everyone was too out of it or tired to continue playing any longer so they wrapped it up and, one by one, everyone trekked to wherever they chose to spend the night in the house.
It wasn't until everyone was safely tucked away that Eiri finally made his way up to he and Shuichi's bedroom. He couldn't stop the smile from forming on his face when he opened the door. Shuichi had changed into his pajama pants before falling into bed, not even taking the time to turn the covers down.
Eiri quietly changed into his own pajamas and climbed into bed next to Shuichi. Shuichi shifted onto his side and sighed almost silently. Eiri curled up against Shuichi's back and wrapped an arm around his waist, burying his face in the hair at the base of Shuichi's neck.
Shuichi shivered slightly and moaned quietly. One of his hands took Eiri's and he snuggled closer to the man for warmth.
"'Night, Eiri. Love you."
Eiri kissed the back of his neck softly. "I love you, too, Shu."
He heard the barely audible outtake of breath that was Shuichi's quietly laugh and closed his eyes.
'Please don't let me screw this up,' he prayed. 'I don't know what I'll do if I lose him again.'
With that done, he allowed himself to be carried off in his river of dreams.
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A/N: Short…I know. But I didn't want to add anymore to this chapter to ruin it. I had sooo much fun writing this. Y'all have no idea. I especially loved writing the beginning about Amarante and Rue and Eiri trying to push aside the fact that he was aging. I couldn't help but smile the whole time I wrote this chapter and I hope that the same happened to y'all as you read along…
Well…keep an eye out for the next chapter because I've got lots of ideas set to wrap this baby up. cries I don't want to end it, but I have to. I really need to get my ass in gear on Rayne if I ever want to get it published and that means that I have to stop worrying about this all the time. I am working on a new wild crossover, though. But I can't say anything about it because it's a secret…
Thank you to…
GravityNeko: Neko-chan! glomps Thank you, thank you, thank you! And it wasn't the end…I've still got a couple more in me…Luvs…
rabid butterfly: Were you referencing the "Did you lock the door?" line? He, he. Well…luckily no one caught them. Damn…I would like to be that janitor…
yami Kistune: And fuck like bunnies they will do! LoL. Thank you…
Psychic Alchemist: I'm weird? NO WAY! I'm perfectly sane and normal! laughs Who am I kidding? But why am I suddenly weird? Or have I always been weird and you just didn't tell me? sniffs LoL. Did you kill the freaky lunar woman so you can resurrect Atlantis? prays Can I help? Please?… Damn…I am weird, aren't I? shrugs Oh…and last chapter wasn't the first time that I've posted a lemon on and they didn't say anything. Oh, well. If I get in trouble, I get in trouble. I'm not scared. Anywho…bye, bye…
LadyRave: I'm glad that my last chapter kinda lifted your spirit's a bit. I hope that this one did, too. Or, at least, I hope it brought a smile to your face. Thanks for your support!…
Ashcat: Yeah…I figured that it was about time that Shu came to terms with his feelings for Eiri. I should have done it sooner, but oh well…
DarkMetalAngel of Destruction: I'll try my hardest…
xo-silent-whispers-ox: I know! It was kawaii wasn't it? I'm glad that you liked it! Luvs…
Darkness Dreamer: Thanks. I'm always excited when I get reviews like yours. I'm glad that you liked the lemon, too, and I hope that you liked this chapter as much as the others. Huggles…
ku-chan: I LOVE AND MISS YOU TOO! And I'm doing okay. I hate that you've worried about me so much. sighs…I'll definitely talk to you soon!…Loves…
yuki ayamezuki: It does seem to go on forever, doesn't it? sighs It'll be coming to an end soon, though, unfortunately. cries This was my baby! But I guess that all good things have to come to an end, right? Yup… And yes, I am a westerner. I live in the US…Indiana to be exact. I read your poems and am working on your fan fic. Your English is actually very good. I don't have another msn address so you should be set. If you ever wanna e-mail me, feel free to do so. I'd love to talk to you… Hugs…
animegirl12182: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, again! He, he. I'm sorry to hear that you're sick on your birthday. That sucks. I hope you get better soon! OH! And do you know if Abney Park has any Cds? I loved their songs on the CD you made me but I haven't been able to find them at any stores. Guess it's to the Internet…Huggles…
mr.kusanagi: Mwhahahahahaha! Don't you just hate the evil laugh! He, he. I do have one heck of a mind, don't I? No…it's one hell of a mind and I love it. And, for the hundred millionth time (but not really), I'm sorry if you end up with an uncomfortable confrontation by the "over the shoulder" reader. LoL. Hopefully it was just you being paranoid, but I'm sorry if it's not. Love and hugs…good enough to say
You all are so great and I love you all so much. I can't even think of something that would even begin to describe how grateful I am to have all of your support, especially those of you who have been with me since October 31, 2004… Thank you so much!…
Also, because I forgot to thank you all in the last chapter…thank you to everyone who reviewed "Last Breath". I'm glad that you all liked it more than I did… And sorry for any typos! I've read and reread this thing so many times. I hope there aren't many!…
Once again…adieu… See y'all in the next chapter…