Woooo chapter 2! What an accomplishment hahaha. It took me a while to sort of make everything mesh together how I wanted it. I had a little ouran moment in here, but I'm allowed right? xD The only reason this chapter was finished so quickly was because I was home sick today =( I can't possibly feel bad about how I feel after describing Shuichi, though. And I'm aware Eiri may be OOC at points, it was really hard to keep him in character.
Enjoy.
"What?" EIri was in shock, although his face didn't show it as per usual. It had to be a dream, this was the only explanation for this. He'd fallen asleep on the couch and Shuichi would be poking him to wake up any minuet now and everything would be all right. Shuichi would be bouncing around the apartment and he would pretend to ignore him when in reality he was watching his every move.
"Shuichi. Is in. The hospital. I don't know what's so hard to understand in that sentence. If you were so interested in hearing what I had to say you should have payed attention," Hiro crossed his arms now, too. He was obviously annoyed, but part of that probably had to do with the fact that he was exhausted and just wanted to go home and sleep. He was only there because he had to do the right thing.
"And this is my fault because..?" whether it was his fault or not, he was worried about his little brat. He just wasn't willing to admit it so easily. Plus he was still curious about what was going on.
"If I didn't have to send Shuichi home early because he was so worried about you, he would have missed the storm," he replied, "All day it was always you, like you are his Jesus or something. We had enough so I sent him home. The storm was worse than I thought so it's partially my fault, but you hurt him emotionally if you aren't willing to accept you hurt him physically." Hiro didn't want to admit it was his fault too but it sort of just came out.
Eiri didn't say anything to him as Hiro stared back with angry eyes, like he was ready to attack him at any second. "Come inside," he said, pushing himself off the doorframe and walking into the apartment. Hiro reluctantly followed him in. Eiri sat on one spot on the couch, but was uncomfortable. He sat in another spot and it still didn't seem right. He sat in a third seat and although he was still uncomfortable he stayed there because he didn't want to move again. Hiro did not sit down and stood over him. "Explain," Eiri said simply, getting right to the point.
"What's there to say? He's in intensive care," Hiro shrugged, not really wanting to talk to the blonde.
"And why is he in intensive care?" he asked, rolling his eyes. He was getting impatient with him.
"The taxi he was in was hit. Couldn't even tell it was a car from the scene. The medical staff is baffled at how he's alive. He's in a medically induced coma, mind you, but he wasn't dead when they arrived and that was more of a shock than anything," Hiro replied. Eiri could tell that even though he was trying to be mad, it was hard for him to say that without becoming upset.
"And I assume you know this because you were there?" Hiro was silent, not looking at him. "I see," Eiri got up off the couch.
"There is a problem, though," Hiro said to him as he stood up.
"I don't care, you've told me what I need to know," he went and got his coat and put it on.
"Fine, but don't come crying to me when you need my help. Because I doubt you're going to get anywhere by yourself," Hiro shook his head and left, leaving the door wide open as he did. Eiri shook his head and grabbed his keys, going out and closing the door behind him. All the way down to the parking garage his mind was filled with thoughts. Thoughts scattered everywhere. He probably shouldn't have been driving, but he hoped into his fancy black car and started to drive to the hospital. The rain had subsided to a light trickle by now, which meant it was easier to see. The rain made him think of what happened, however. No amount of thinking would prepare him for what he was going to see when he got there, and he knew it.
***
He walked into the hospital moments later. He hated this place, it was too white and smelled funny. For some reason it creeped him out too. He looked around to find sick people everywhere, which made him cringe a bit. He didn't want to get sick and did not appreciate some kid coughing on him, but what did he expect? It was a hospital. The waiting room was about half full, most of the people he didn't think really needed to be there. They just seemed like cold and flu people. As he scanned he noticed the front desk and walked over to it. The lady there looked up, and then back down. She obviously was the only woman on the planet who did not care who he was, which may not be a good thing. "Can I help you?" she asked in an unamused tone. Eiri now realized how annoying that really was.
"Can you tell me what room Shuichi Shindou is in?" he asked her tiredly. He wasn't in any mood to turn on the Yuki Eiri charm even if she was a fangirl.
"Are you family?" she replied, not looking up from her paperwork which seemed to be much more important than he was.
"Uh, I'm his..." he paused, not quite sure what word to use, "....partner."
"I'm sorry sir, but even if you two were married we don't recognized same sex unions in Japan," she continued writing on the papers she was so fascinated with, "And because you're not family we can't let you in."
"There's no way I can be let in?" he asked her. He was going to ask nicely the first time, but he couldn't guarantee niceness after that.
"Not unless you magically become related, no," she replied, "Now please move so the next people in line can be served."
"I'm sorry, but I can't accept that answer. Either you let me in or desprate measures will be taken," he wasn't nice anymore, but even he could tell he didn't sound very threatening.
"Ooooh I'm shaking in my scrubs. Now if you don't leave yourself I'm going to have to call security to escort you out," she shook her head. Eiri scowled and turned around, walking outside. He sat on a bench and took out a package of cigarettes and lit one, watching the smoke fill the air as he exhaled. It didn't seem to help him, but it kept his mind occupied for a few moments.
"Whatever...I don't need to see him....he'll be fine without me there, and I'll be fine without him," he muttered to himself. The cigarette was failing at keeping him occupied as a scene flashed before him in his head.
EIRI'S INNER MIND THEATER
"What a poor soul, alone and defenseless," a nurse said to a doctor. She looked and sounded like someone off of a soap opera, "Must we do this?"
"We must. The hospital is too overcrowded," the doctor replied dramatically, looking teary eyed as he was doing his duty to the hospital.
"And there is no one here for him. he is alone, so no one will care if we take him off life support," the nurse replied angrily, "How can someone not care about this defenseless human being?!"
"Calm, calm. I agree, . No one will miss him because nobody is here," he shook his head, "What a shame, how young he is and how much potential he had."
"What heartless family he must have that none of them came."
"Oh well, let's kill him."
"Okay, since he's so worthless we'll kill him."
"I'm George the Unicorn of death!" a unicorn was in the window.
END
Eiri shivered. He had come to two conclusions. One, Shuichi was rubbing off on him way too much, and two, he really needed to get some sleep. He got up and walked over to his car slowly. Too tired to drive home, he slept there in the car. It was hard to do, however. Although he was outside it was too quiet to fall asleep. There was no echoing in his head of the familiar voice he usually fell asleep to. He didn't realize how much Shuichi had impacted his life until just then, but he wasn't ready to admit it just yet. He did eventually fall asleep, but he wasn't very comfortable and tossed most of the night.
He woke up to a knock on his car window. He looked over to see Hiro standing there with a smug look on his face. Eiri rolled down his window, "What do you want?" He sat up, still half asleep. He tried to fix himself up so he looked somewhat presentable.
"Couldn't get in?" he asked him, the smug look not leaving his face. He then leaned on the opening where the window was.
Eiri narrowed his eyes, "How did you know?"
"'Cuz I had to get special permission from his family to get in. I told you that you'd need my help to get in, but you didn't listen to me," he said simply.
Shit, he's right, he thought to himself, not liking that fact. "So what, are you going to rub it in my face now?" he muttered, looking away from him.
"No, I'm going to help you get in like I said I could," he replied. Eiri slowly looked over, not sure if he heard him correctly. He was still looking skeptically at Hiro. "What? Didn't expect that? C'mon, I'm not completely heartless," he replied, standing upright once again.
Eiri got out of the car slowly, still stiff from sleeping in his car. "You're not joking about this, are you?" he asked, he didn't want to look like a fool once they got in there.
"I wouldn't joke about his. I know Shuichi would want to see you if he was awake," he replied, "And as his friend, I have to do what he would want." Eiri looked down at him, and Hiro looked up. For some reason he felt that Hiro really was sincere about this.
He shut his car door and then turned back around to face him, "Let's go." Hiro nodded and they walked into the hospital in silence. Eiri was thankful for that, he didn't really feel like holding up a conversation with him. He could tolerate him because he was Shuichi's friend but that was it. Even though he had been there that night, he still felt weird walking into the hospital because he still didn't like being there. Hiro went to the front desk and talked to the nurse, who was not the same nurse he had encountered that night. He assumed they must have had a shift change between when he was there and now. There were a lot more people there than there was before, most of the chairs were full. He wondered how so many people could be up so early in the morning. Hiro walked away from the desk and motioned for him to follow, so he did.
They walked into the elevator and stood in silence, since there was no music. He looked around, it was strange because the walls of the elevator were mirrors and he would see himself staring back at him. He looked worse than he thought he did. Finally about halfway up Hiro spoke. "I know you've probably prepared yourself, but it's not going to be anything like you expect it to be. If the injuries don't bother you, the lifelessness will," he said, looking over to him.
"I'm quite capable of handling it myself, thank you," he replied, not looking over to him.
"Just giving you a heads up..." he shook his head and stared forward as well as the elevator doors opened. Both of them walked through, "His room is the second last on the right. I'll wait out here." He went and sat in the waiting room. As much as he wanted to visit again he'd had his turn. Eiri nodded and slowly made his way down the hall. It wasn't a large hallway, but it seemed like forever making his way over there. As he approached, a nurse walked out. She stared at him for a moment, and then bowed and walked away. She had left the door open and he peered inside. It was dark, so he squinted to try and see through it. He still couldn't see very well. He made his way in, closing the door quietly behind him. It wasn't like he could wake him up, but he didn't want to break anything accidentally. He stood directly on the other side of the door for a long time. He hadn't even seen him yet and Hiro was right, nothing could prepare him. Finally he made his way over, keeping the same unamused expression on his face. He didn't want to let any other emotion seep through. He stopped when he was standing over the bed, and that was when he froze again. His unamused expression turned into one of shock against his will. Damn you, damn you damn you damn you... he cursed Hiro in his head for being more right than he thought he would be.
His lover laid there before him, but it wasn't exactly easy to tell, most of him was covered in bandages or castes. His face was the only part of him not 90% covered, with only a bandage around his head and one over his eye. His heart monitor beeped at a slow, monotonous pace that did not help the atmosphere. He noticed Shuichi had many IV's and an endotracheal tube, a tube that went into his throat. That meant he couldn't breath on his own, which almost made Eiri lose his own breath. He then noticed that even in the darkness his complexion was extremely pale. He cautiously felt his cheek with the back of his hand, afraid he'd break him with the slightest touch. He was cold, which freaked him out. Without moving his hand, he slowly sat down on the edge of the bed. He rubbed his cheek with his thumb, but failed at warming him up. He moved his hand away slowly once he realized his failure. He stared at him for a long time, expecting him to jump up and say he'd been pranked any minuet. The other never moved. While he welcomed the silence, he couldn't enjoy it if Shuichi wasn't being quiet on purpose or giggling every two seconds because he couldn't handle the silence, but there was no giggling. There was no 'YukiYukiYukiYuki', there was no nipping at his ear because he knew that was his weak point, there was no whining at him to stop being so upset. He just laid there, lifeless, doing absolutely nothing. Instead of being cheerful and happy like he always was he had no expression on his face, and that scared him more than anything. "You stupid brat..." he muttered to himself, "Why were you worrying about me?"
Before he could think or say anything else a doctor came in to check some things, "Hello there." Eiri just nodded to acknowledge him, he didn't feel like talking, but when did he ever? "Do you have any questions?" he asked as he wrote some things down. He was so optimistic about this it almost made him want to punch him in the face.
"Yea...how long is he going to be like this?" he asked, not taking his eyes away from Shuichi.
"Well, if he continues on the path he's going I would say a couple more weeks before we can see how he does out of a coma," he replied as he finished writing.
"I don't mean to sound like an idiot but, why did you have to put him into a coma?" Eiri asked. He felt like an idiot asking but he had no idea why you would want to do that to someone.
"Don't worry, most people don't know," he smiled.
Yuck, Eiri thought, Would you stop smiling so much? It's not making me feel any better.
"It keeps brain swelling down and allows it to recuperate," he explained, "The chance of death is much lower this way."
"So does that mean he has brain damage?" he asked, hoping the answer to his question would be 'no'.
"Most likely, but the severity is unknown. We won't know until we take him out of the coma," he replied, holding onto the clip board with Shuichi's information.
"Could he...have memory loss?" he asked, trying not to sound obvious.
"Why? You afraid he'll forget you?" the doctor smirked.
Eiri did not appreciate being found out and frowned, "That's none of your business."
"It's possible, but even if he did forget certain stimuli could help him remember. I doubt he'll have any memory loss, though, so you won't have to worry about that. Is there anything else you need?" the doctor asked. Eiri shook his head, just wanting him to leave now. "Well alright, I'll be around if you need me," he left the room so he and Shuichi were alone again. The room was too quiet, he had to create some noise somehow. He turned on the television at a low volume, just enough to he could hear.
"Bad Luck singer in critical care."
"Young star in car accident."
"Yuki Eiri's lover in hospital."
"Bad luck for 'Bad Luck'?"
All the news stations were talking about Shuichi and the accident. He flipped through most of them, but one did catch his eye. It had video of the scene, and that was what hit him the hardest. He figured when Hiro told him about it he was overreacting, but he wasn't. He put his head in his hands, not taking this very well. He began to shake, still feeling like this was all just one bad dream. Actually, it was more like a nightmare. "Damn it...." he looked back up, he was determined not to let his emotions get the best of him, but he was failing horribly. He sniffed a bit, trying not to cry. He didn't like people seeing him weak like that. Not to mention he didn't like feeling weak.
"We are standing outside of the apartment of his lover, novelist Yuki Eiri. It appears he is not home and sources say he could be at the hospital his partner is staying at. Many have tried to get in to get an interview with him but no one has been successful at even getting on the property of the hospital. Sources say security has been increased in order to keep paparazzi out," the newscaster continued.
"Good..." he muttered at the TV, "It's none of your damn business..."
"Many fans have gathered to show their support for the singer and the novelist and are waiting anxiously to hear of what is going on and his condition. We've even been told one fan was able to get into the hospital but their plan was thwarted soon after. We'll keep you updated as information is given to us and our staff is able to get into the hospital to talk to ," the newscaster finished.
Eiri turned off the TV, not needing to see or hear anymore. He didn't want to see or hear anymore, he'd had enough for today and any more could cause a breakdown that he didn't need.
He had a feeling this was going to be a long, unexpected journey from here on in.
~END CHAPTER 2~
