Chapter Five

Eiri sat alone with a beer can in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He stared blankly at his beloved laptop, the haunting blue color flashing into his eyes, the cigarette ash starting to drop from the tip of the stick, and fall onto the floor, until it smoldered and went out on the hardwood flooring.

This was him single.

This was him missing Shuichi.

Behind the glasses he only wore to write, read, or look fashionable and sophisticated in, his eyes seemed to water in the fluorescent light of his computer. He was watching the words he had printed over and over. Same sentence, hundreds of times, for exactly one hundred pages.

I miss him.

I miss him.

I miss him.

I miss him.

Yuki slammed the laptop shut. "This is ridiculous."

His feet found the floor, his floor lead him to the bedroom, his bedroom held the shower. He took a long one. A very long one. With three days of soil to wash away… Oh yeah, long shower. He lathered, rinsed, (repeated) almost three times, sat under the steam until his skin felt wrinkled, and let the water slowly hiss away.

In the bathroom, he silently dried off his body and hair, he took a razor to his face and shaved the slowly protruding stubble from his chin and cheeks, and he brushed his teeth four times. Yes, four. He took gel and styled the blond hair from his face, took cologne and peppered his skin with it.

To the closet, a clean suit. Crisp nylon black pants, ironed blue shirt, black smoking jacket, leather shoes (polished), keys, coat, car.

Ring.

Damn it. Phone.

"Hello?" He said gruffly, frowning at Tohma's number showing up on his Caller ID.

"Eiri. Good of you to answer."

Yuki shoved his keys into the ignition of his car. "What the hell do you want?"

"Just a moment of your time. Would you come down to my office?"

Sigh. "Now?"

"Now." The finality in his voice made Yuki dart his eyes around suspiciously.

"What the hell is this about?" He revved the engine to life and pulled back out of the garage. Tohma's silent pause on the other end made a prickly edge of perspiration form on his neck.

"Will you just come down?"

"I'm kinda on my way somewhere." Yuki replied, unwilling to let the desperation show in his voice.

"To see your ex?"

Yuki's eyes widened.

"This concerns him. Get in here." The phone clicked, and the line died.

Yuki flipped his phone shut, set it next to him on the seat, and stared at the red light above him. Tohma Seguchi, making absolute demands, and usually when Yuki said "no, I don't feel like it", the authority was never questioned. This had to be pretty damn serious for that attitude to come through Tohma and into him.

"Better be fucking good Seguchi."

The building was almost entirely empty, save for a few late workers with little to no home to return to. Most of the lights had shut off, most of the halls were deserted, and only silence remained to make up for sound. As much as Yuki hated coming here during the day, when musicians were belting it with all they had and giving him a headache, NG was much worse at night.

The elevator's annoying 'bing' was loud in the echoing marble, and glass building. Yuki stepped inside and pushed the button, taking him to the top floor. Elevator music played with the incandescent hum of the lamp for background noise. He tapped his fingers against the hardwood of his surroundings, watched the little light switch from three, to four, to five, and up.

Bing.

Striding into the president's well decorated private floor, (with the office most musicians feared going into) he stepped forward, made his way up the carpeted hall, and suddenly found that he heard yelling on the other side of the polished oak and brass doors.

"…Last string of tolerance has been breached." Suddenly it stopped, and then there was a murmur of normal conversation. And then a deep pause of silence. Soon after… a sound, something close to the clamor of a smack. The unmistakable din of skin to skin contact. More silence, maybe punctuated by footsteps. A recovering murmur of single sentence speech, and then…

BANG!

The doors opened up and out popped Shuichi Shindo, fully shaken and wide eyed.

At first, Yuki thought about smiling and saying hi, but a second thought stopped him. How out of character would that make him seem? He noticed, too, that the small teen was thoroughly frightened about something. A smile and simple indifferent hello would probably make him cry. That was the last thing either of them really needed at the moment.

"Shuichi." He said quietly.

"Yuki." The boy's voice broke.

"How… are you?"

"Miserable." He replied, and he walked away towards the elevator.

Yuki didn't have the courage to follow.

Instead he turned and glared at the solemn doors, at the man sitting behind them, at the curse that was certainly his life. He glared hard, wanting nothing more than to ignore the demands for submission, the request for his presence in that room. He wanted to leave… just to make him mad.

But he pressed forward, a drive in curiosity moving him ahead.

"You called?"

"Yes, yes. Come in Eiri."

He did as he was told, shutting the doors behind him, immediately feeling emotions of tension and anxiety flood the air around him. Yuki stepped into the light of a lamp and fumbled with a cigarette and the lighter in his pocket.

"He's out of control, you know."

"Who? Shuichi?"

Tohma sighed. "Yes, that damn brat."

Yuki narrowed his eyes. "Don't call him that."

"Oh yes, I did forget, didn't I? Only you, are aloud to call him such, isn't that so?" Tohma stood from his desk and came around it, facing his brother-in-law with a fierce stare. "He's gone to far, that kid. I have half a mind to drop his label and force him out."

"Don't you even dare."

"And YOU!" Tohma suddenly cried, throwing his hands into the air. "You! Always wanting what's best for him. Did you know he came into my office just minutes ago, claiming he wanted nothing from me but honesty, especially when it comes to his job?"

"So? He wants his own success."

"Yes, but I only took personal interest and gave him what he has because of you! Don't you see it Eiri, he's tired of being treated like a baby, and your influence doesn't count on his side anymore."

"Drop him then. Plenty of other music labels will clamor for the chance the take him and his buddies up. Any dumb-ass contractor would sign them up in a heart-beat."

Tohma smiled "But I'm not stupid. Dropping them would lose me money."

"Then what the hell do you want from me?"

"Talk to him."

"What?"

Tohma had turned towards his desk, hunched over it really, but his back went rigid and he turned back. "Talk to him! Make it work out!"

Yuki stumbled backwards a few steps. "You… want me back together with him?" He smirked at the irony. "You? Tohma Seguchi. My brother-in-law who wouldn't let anybody touch me with a ten foot pole. You. Who once claimed to hate my Shuichi? You?"

"Yes. Me."

"Why?"

Tohma reached back over his desk and opened a drawer, drawing from it, a parcel with Yuki's name scribbled on it in bold, messy letters.

"Read it."

Yuki took it from the man uneasily. A faint scent of Shuichi seemed to waft from the papers in his hand. He opened it, to find a letter, a single message, a tiny clue. His eyes clouded, though he'd never dare to cry in the presence of his brother-in-law. A large piece of printer paper, word typed in a huge font across it.

"By god, Tohma…"

"Go talk to him."

Yuki looked up and nodded. "Stop butting in. Stop calling all the time. Stop babying me and him. This is our decision."

"Fine. But I get a little vengeance for the bruise he'll most assuredly have given me."

Yuki stared at him. "What?"

Tohma pointed to his face, were a deep red mark was formed. "My cheek. He hit me, and rather hard too…"

For the first time in six months… Yuki laughed.

End-5