*pants* I'm back! Ah. I tried to upload and it wouldn't let me! *sniffle* And then I finally got around to it a little bit ago, only to remember that I forgot to put in the author note, so I had to fix that so I could say, I'm sorry for the lateness! I've actually been busy for a change. I'm going to try to start doing weekend updates. Good, yes?

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation or any of the characters mentioned.

Shuichi had started out with his arms crossed, but like a pony tail being knotted tightly into a bun without a gator clip, his arms slipped until he was loosely hugging himself around the belly. He ran his fingers over his sides and wondered what it felt like to have a bullet lodged in them.

He closed his eyes and took a long inhale, tilting his head back and looking up at the orange, evening sky.

They had been evacuated from the building and everybody except Shuichi, Tohma, and K were going to the hospital in stretchers. K was going to be riding in the ambulance to the hospital, but that was merely to keep an eye on everybody else who had been injured (except Sakano, who they were checking out just to be safe).

Tohma and Shuichi were going to be taken to the police station to be questioned and all that lawful jazz. Though it was suggested that they were also taken to the ER for examination. Tohma insisted that they were okay, but he agreed that they should go to the hospital because, "you can never be too sure." However, he really just wanted to get out of having to go with the police.

Shuichi had followed the S.W.A.T. team out of the building and has collapsed on a bench just off to the side of all the commotion.

Surprisingly, there were no reporters or any kind of paparazzi. Shuichi assumed they were told to stay a certain number of blocks away. He thought about if for a minute, but decided it didn't matter either way.

His hands were still shaking, he glared at them and tried to make them stop, but he couldn't do it. His adrenaline was just too high. He felt like he should be running and screaming around the city as mad as a hatter, but at the same time, he had absolutely no energy to get off the bench, which he wasn't enjoying anyways. It was too hard and flat. He wished he could go sink into the couch at Yuki's apartment.

Speaking of Yuki, where was he?

Shuichi looked at the numerous ambulances, he saw Tohma conversing with some officials, Suguru and Hiro being rolled in, and there was Yuki. He was sitting up and arguing with the paramedic. Apparently didn't want to be sedated. Stubborn Yuki, he should know better.

Then something else caught Shuichi's attention. The final ambulance in the row had the doors in the back sitting open, and in it was a stretcher with a figure in a body bag. He turned his head away immediately and wouldn't look up. There was no way he could go over there now. As if he wasn't shamed enough from what he had done, there sat the evidence for everybody to see. He squeezed his eyes shut and rocked back and forth slightly. Nobody was going to prosecute him, right? It was self defense. He didn't want to do it. He didn't. There was no other way. No other choice. He had to do it, he had to do it, he had to...

"Shuichi?" Tohma asked, sitting down next to the singer on the bench.

Shuichi's eyes popped open and he gave Tohma a glance, but his eyes were instantly drawn to the body bag that was just in vision behind a tuft of Tohma's light hair.

Shuichi looked down again.

Tohma watched Shuichi's actions and then looked behind his shoulder. He saw Mao's figure as well and after holding a stare for a few moments, he turned away as well. The thought of Mao's corpse under Shuichi's doing made him nauseous.

"You need to come with us to the hospital, they want to make sure you are not hurt," Tohma said quietly, being as compassionate as he possibly could. This all felt too strange. Not just the abnormality of the crimes that were committed that day, but there was something else too. Something he couldn't put his finger on.

"I'm fine." Shuichi tried to persuade in his small voice. He wouldn't look at Tohma.

"I'm sure you are," Tohma patronized, putting a hand on Shuichi's shoulder, "but you never know. It's for the best that you come with."

"I'm fine." Shuichi repeated, his voice raising a bit, the tone twisting into cockiness.

Tohma wasn't startled at this, "I understand that you are fine, but they just want to double check. You can't always see what is wrong."

"Look," Shuichi started, looking straight ahead, "I'm fine." He was loud now, defiant, not quite yelling, but sharp enough to get a strong point across. "Do you see any blood on me?! I'm not hurt. Why don't you go take care of Suguru or Yuki or somebody, because at least they are really injured." By the time Shuichi got to the last two words, his voice was shaking and he had started to cry a bit, though he refused to notice it. Tohma watched the tears dribble downward then twinkle as they fell from Shuichi's chin in the dying sun's light.

Tohma closed his eyes pulled Shuichi into a hug, holding the singer's head against his shoulder. Shuichi could have been strong if they let him be, but Tohma never just let somebody be, and Shuichi couldn't control himself as he started to sob.

"He's dead, Tohma. Why did he die? He shot all those bullets and didn't kill anybody, but I shoot a few and he dies. Shit. He died." Shuichi squeaked, hugging Tohma around the midsection and sobbing into his shirt.

Tohma felt a bizarre shiver run up the back of his neck as he realized what this situation was so very alike with. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten for even a minute.

New York.

Yuki Kitazawa.

Eiri.

Familiar with this kind of pain.

Shuichi was so frail in his arms just as Eiri had been those years ago. Though both of those events did not happen detail to detail, Tohma could almost mistake Shuichi for Eiri when he let his mind take him back to that dark room with the bodies spread of the floor.

He had sworn to himself that something like this would never happen again. He could always keep a handle on the world.

But he was wrong and there was not a thing he could do when that gun was pointed at himself and the ones he cared for. He had no control. He couldn't even run a building that was secure enough to keep a killer out. What a fool he had been to really believe that he could manipulate anything to work as he saw fit. How dare he think of himself as a god. What an idiot. What a conceited, arrogant, worthless fool.

He put his head on Shuichi's and started to cry too. The reality of it was just too hard to think about.

"I'm sorry I let this happen," Tohma mumbled, his shoulders twitched as he silently heaved out sobs. "I should have done better."

Shuichi pulled back a little bit to get a look at Tohma, who kept his face hidden.

"Seguchi," Shuichi whined and hugged his boss as his boss and just been hugging him.

K looked over to the bench as his ambulance pulled away. Two people who previously despised each other were now crying in each others' arms. How ironic.

After awhile, both of them calmed down, hence they stopped crying. Shuichi pulled away and looked as his thumbs which he was fiddling with.

Tohma sniffled hard and wiped his eyes. He took a deep breath and ran his hands over his face a few times. He ran his fingers though his hair and then brushed his hands on this pants. He stood up and straightened his coat.

"Come on, Mr. Shindo, I will drive us." Tohma said, clearing his throat discretely against his fist.

Feeling absolutely shitty, but a little bit better, Shuichi nodded, "Okay." He stood up as well and didn't even bother to make himself look more presentable.

The two walked through the crowd of cops and paramedics. The ambulances had all gone.

"We will be going to the hospital now and will go elsewhere, as needed, after we've been checked over," Tohma told one of the officers. It wasn't a suggestion, it was a demand.

Shuichi found Tohma's car and crawled into the passenger seat. It was a lovely black car, shiny and high off the ground. It surprised Shuichi that Tohma actually drove himself to work.

Tohma got into the drivers seat and off they went. The windows were tinted, so nobody could see Shuichi staring at them as they rode from stop light to stop light.

"What hospital are we going to?" Shuichi asked as they sped past the turn to get to East Tokyo Emergency Center.

"I have a detour to make first," Tohma explained.

"Do you need to go get your wife?"

"Of coarse not," Tohma said.

Shuichi blushed. That was a weird thing to assume.

"Would you like some coffee?" Tohma asked, he turned the car into a drive-through coffee shop.

"Sure," Shuichi said, a little amused with the thought of Tohma doing something as average as picking up coffee while he drove around in his car and didn't do exactly as he dictated.

"How do you like your's?" Tohma questioned.

"With a shot of vodka," Shuichi mumbled, "White chocolate, caramel, mint espresso," Shuichi spoke up before Tohma could comment on his sarcasm.

Tohma ordered that as well as himself a black coffee.

And then to the hospital they went.

I think I make too many characters cry. xD