I want to express my utmost gratitude to everyone who reviewed. Thanks everyone! (Especially my regular reviewers, I love you people! -you know who you guys are!) Normally, I would personally reply reviews but I'm rushing and I'm sure you guys would rather have an update today with no personalized thanks than an update with it tomorrow, …right? LOL. Tell me if I'm wrong! Anyways, I'm glad you found the Snow White part hilarious. I was kind of worried about it but it seems like it turned out pretty okay! (Phew) Okay, I'll quit babbling and go on to chapter 10 now! Enjoy!

Oh, before I forget again, there was someone who asked me to e-mail when I update but the e-mail address you gave isn't valid so I couldn't send. Sorry!

Disclaimer: Gravitation... does not…belong…to me… .:dies:.

Scene 10-When I take a look around, everybody seems so strong

Shuichi stared at his burning house in horror. "It can't be real! It can't be! This has to be a dream!" Even as he told himself that, the acrid smell of things burning met his nose and the stinging fumes made his eyes water, convincing him otherwise.

Shuichi desperately hoped against hope that nobody was trapped in the house. Just then, a movement in a window on the first floor caught his eye. Heart sinking with deadweight dread, Shuichi fixed his eyes on it. "Please let it be my imagination…please let me be paranoid…"

The curtains were being drawn apart now. An outline of a figure appeared. A woman. "No!" Shuichi started dashing for the house, into the fire. He was held back immediately by a shouting mob. They struggled to keep him still. "What do you think you're doing? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Shuichi ignored their angry calls; trying his best to break free and run into the rapidly burning house, mind focused only on the person he had seen. "Let me go! My mother's trapped in there! MOTHER!"

His mother seemed to hear his panic-stricken voice. She slowly looked down until her eyes met his; Shuichi felt his horror and despair fill every cell of his body. Why wasn't she trying to escape? Didn't she realize the house was on fire? Still struggling wildly, he shouted, willing her to sense the urgency of the situation, "MOTHER! RUN QUICKLY!"

Never looking away from Shuichi, Nanri lifted her index finger to her lips and shook her head, motioning him to be quiet. As he stared, her eyes softened and a gentle smile appeared. Shuichi felt like bursting into tears, so many emotions filled him. How many times had he cried himself to sleep, hungering for that loving expression? It had been a long time seen he had last seen it; too long. It was like time had winded backwards back to so many years ago, before his nightmare started.

For an instant, Shuichi was reaching for his mother, tears blurring his vision. In the next, burning planks were crashing down to the ground like an avalanche, blocking it completely.

Shuichi hands were still stretched out to where his mother last stood. Numbly, he vaguely recalled feeling his arms drop back to his side. The burly man, who was mainly pinning him to the spot, cautiously let go after he felt his struggles cease. Shuichi didn't move a step, eyes still riveted on the had-been window in sick fascination.

He never saw the fireman reaching, -too late-to extinguish the flames of what used to be Shuichi's home. He never heard the questioning voices, soft yet firm, asking if he lived there. He never noticed a car screeching to a stop, never saw the blonde man hastily kicking the car door open and rushing over, harshly telling everyone to shut up and get lost. Shuichi never felt the warm arm pressed on his back comfortingly. The man didn't utter a single syllable. Just held him tight.

Tears trickled down his face as he finally drifted back to life, clinging on to Yuki like his life support. His mother had given his a strangely serene smile; had mouthed the words Shuichi could clearly make out, "I'm sorry."

It would be the last time he ever saw his mother.

XXX

The next day, Shuichi didn't go to school, and neither did Yuki.

"Shuichi, stop being stubborn. Eat already!"

Silence answered him. Sighing, Yuki sat down on the bed where Shuichi was burrowed under the blankets. The night before, he had immediately buried himself in there after Yuki had forced him to take a bath, muttering that he wasn't hungry and wanted to sleep. Yuki though, knew he hadn't gotten much sleep, after all, he had been kept awake all night long listening to heart-wrenching muffled sobs.

Yuki was about to peel the blankets off Shuichi when the doorbell rang. He would have opted to ignore it but whoever the caller was wasn't going to give up that easily. Yuki marched towards the front door angrily as the irritating bell sounded again and again insistently.

"All right already! I heard you! What time do-" Yuki stopped mid-growl when he saw two policemen waiting outside; one was a stodgy fellow with a thin moustache and the other a stern looking tidy man with a no-nonsense aura. "Yes?"

Mr. Thin-moustache-policeman introduced himself. "Good morning. My name is Fujisaki and my colleague over here is Tashiro.

Mr. No-nonsense-policeman nodded his head in greeting, his grim face showing no hint of a smile. "We presume you are Uesugi Eiri-san?" When Yuki gave a curt nod as confirmation, he continued. "We are here to investigate certain activities a student of yours, by the name of Shindou Shuichi, is alleged to be involved in."

He looked at Yuki with unblinking eyes, never showing a change of expression. "We believe he is in this house now."

XXX

"Let me repeat-you were walking home after a competition at school when you heard screaming. You went over to the commotion and found your house burning. Is that right?"

Slumped on the couch with Yuki beside him, Shuichi nodded wearily. Opposite him, the two officers were scribbling his testimony down. They had been at it for two hours already and Yuki was feeling extremely irritated. "How many times do they need to make him repeat? Did they expect him to confess starting the fire after the fourth time or something?"

Fujisaki then addressed Yuki. "And you were driving back home after the same competition when you saw your student, outside his house."

"Yes", Yuki growled. Why were they even asking when they already know what happened?

Fujisaki had been doing most of the talking while his partner remained silent, eyes never leaving Shuichi's, making the boy fidget about uncomfortably. He suddenly spoke up, "Why are you living in your teacher's house?"

Yuki tensed at that question. Answering in Shuichi's place, he curtly said, "I don't see what this has to do with anything."

Not even bothering to look at Yuki, Tashiro kept his eyes on Shuichi, replying. "I believe my question was directed at Shindou-san here. Well?"

Shuichi was quiet, no sign of what he was thinking showed on his face.

The officer leaned closer. "No answer? Fine, we'll leave that for now. Let's talk about your parents instead. I understand that your father's whereabouts is unknown and you've never met him?"

When Shuichi nodded, he smoothly continued. "I heard that the woman who died in the fire was your mother. If I'm not wrong, she was seeing someone. Am I correct?"

Receiving yet another nod, he plunged ahead. "They abused you, didn't they? Your mother had a lot of debts and she used you to pay for it, didn't she? Didn't you hate them for it? Didn't you resent them or swear revenge on them? After all, you would be free once they were dead and gone."

"So that's why they're here!" Yuki had enough. He stood up and glared at both policemen icily. "That's enough questioning today. If you don't mind, I'm a busy person and I need you two to leave."

Getting the not so-subtle hint, Tashiro stood up and smirked. "Whatever it is you two are hiding, we'll find out."

"GET OUT!"

XXX

After kicking them out and slamming the door rudely in their faces, Yuki headed back to the living room, pausing at the doorway. He silently observed Shuichi, cursing the two imbecile idiots for bringing up that sensitive subject. Shuichi hadn't moved from the couch. He was gazing blankly at the floor, body posture speaking just how worn out he was. As seconds turned to minutes, his expression got more and more forlorn. Not able to take it anymore, Yuki unfolded his arms and crossed over, stopping right in front of Shuichi.

He tried getting his attention. "Shuichi."

No response.

"Shuichi!"

No response.

Yuki sighed. He squatted down so he could look up at Shuichi's face and smiled lightly. "Hey, you stupid brat. Why do you have to be so unfair?"

Shuichi blinked back to reality and found himself gazing into Yuki's eyes. "Unfair?"

Yuki shook his head and sighed mockingly. "You can't just zone out and be all depressed, its unfair. After all, I still haven't thanked you for what happened during the drama. You haven't forgotten, riiight?"

"N-no! Of course not!" Shuichi managed to squeak out as Yuki drew his words out, emphasizing them. "Rats! He remembered!"

Yuki deliberately ignored Shuichi's nervous reply-no way was he getting away so easily. Drawing closer, he commented innocently, "We didn't win though, I'm sorry."

It should be a crime to look that angelic. Distracted from his brooding, Shuichi edged away just a little. "D-don't be sorry!"

Smirking inwardly, Yuki slowly rose and cornered Shuichi. Their positions were reversed now, Yuki on top and Shuichi below. "Still…I must say I was quite upset about the ah-incident that occurred during the play. It was my first kiss, you know."

"Liar!" Completely out of his depression by now, Shuichi sputtered back in indignant disbelief as Yuki slowly leaned even closer, watching his reaction carefully. Shuichi could now feel Yuki's warm breath on his face; he didn't attempt shying away.

Foreheads almost touching now, Yuki whispered slyly. "First kiss, second kiss, what does it matter? The point is, my kiss got stolen. You'll just have to give it back, don't you?" Taking Shuichi's weak incoherent mumble of a protest as an agreement, Yuki tenderly pressed his lips to his, effectively silencing him.

Getting no response, he immediately began pulling away, worried that he was going too fast. As he did so, he felt himself being pulled down again. Looking down, he saw Shuichi's hands tugging at his shirtsleeves. Shuichi gave him a small smile and teased, "Did you want Hiro to kiss you again that badly?"

In answer to that, Yuki just captured his lips, unable to fight back a little grin as he made it crystal clear just who exactly it was he wanted to kiss.

XXX

"You sure this is it?"

At school today, Hiro and Ryuichi had been shocked beyond comparison when rumors of Shuichi's house being burnt down reached their ears. Discovering that both Shuichi and Yuki were absent, they decided to drop by Yuki's house and make sure Shuichi was still breathing.

Hiro scanned his address book. "Yeah, Yuki-sensei's house is this one."

Ryuichi took a deep breath as rang the doorbell. "Okay, here goes nothing."

XXX

Yuki sighed, watching a haggard-looking boy sleep, his hand unconsciously reaching out to ruffle his hair. "Really now. The brat's so much trouble. Just when I thought it was the end of one problem, a dozen more complications just pop out of nowhere like weeds." Yuki massaged his temple and thought ruefully, "As much of a headache he gives me, I keep him near anyway…Still, this a serious problem even by Shuichi's standards." He frowned as a barrage of unpleasant thoughts ate at him, "A fire, huh? Did his mother finally come to her senses and realized the only way she could atone was to kill herself? Was it her boyfriend? Was it 'them'? His mother DID die…maybe it was suicide after all?

Yuki was rudely startled out of his reverie when the doorbell rang for what was probably the seventh time that day. Promising creatively bloody death if it was two certain cops, Yuki marched towards the door and jerked it open. Recognizing them, he allowed his murderous aura to drain away. "Sakuma, Hiroshi."

The duo nervously replied the short greeting, terrified out of their wits at the 'You-WILL-Die" waves practically rolling off Yuki.

Hiro had to resist the urge to hide behind Ryuichi, "Shit! Is he that pissed over the kiss scene?" He couldn't help babbling out, "It wasn't my fault! Honest!"

Yuki just glared at Hiro appraisingly, "Are you on crack?"

Ryuichi asked Yuki just a little fearfully, "I-is Shuichi here?"

Yuki didn't bother to reply, he just opened the door wider and gestured for them to enter. Once inside, Yuki headed straight for the bedroom, "Shuichi's sleeping now. I suppose he'll be waking up soon. Until then you can wait inside."

They expressed their thanks to Yuki and he left the bedroom. Since there wasn't a chair nearby, both settled for gingerly sitting on the edge of the king-sized bed. It was plain to see that there were two people staying in the room. Hiro waggled his eyebrows at Ryuichi suggestively and Ryuichi had to agree with him. He sighed melancholically, trying to keep his voice as low as possible, "You're right, Hiro. Our Shuichi's all grown up now…"

"…ro…ichi…?"

They simultaneously glanced at Shuichi as he mumbled sleepily, yawning.

Shuichi opened his eyes a crack, he was sure he heard people talking. Noticing his friends, he sat upright, rubbing sleep away from his bleary eyes. "What are you guys doing here?"

Said friends exchanged incredulous looks. "Um Shuichi? If a good friend goes missing from school and the teacher he's living with is also absent, and you heard rumors that his house is burnt down and he's being questioned by police, and you decided to pay a visit and discover it really is burnt down, what would you do?"

Blink. Blink."…Oh…yeah…that…"

"…"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY 'OH YEAH, THAT'?", Hiro started shaking Shuichi, "Do you know how worried we are? At least give us a call!", while Ryuichi just stared at Shuichi.

Shuichi sheepishly apologized, "Sorry guys, there were a lot of things going on and I guess I was kind of in a daze for a while…"

Ryuichi, observant as ever, noted the slight flush on Shuichi's face. "Did something happen? Other than the fire, that is?

Shuichi responded with a flippant laugh, though he avoided meeting their eyes. "Other than that, nothing else happened! Really. Nothing else happened! Ahahahaha…", he trailed off guiltily.

"…"

"Hmm…I see…", Ryuichi murmured, completely unconvinced.

"WHAT ELSE HAPPENED?", Hiro resumed shaking more vigorously than before. Obviously, he wasn't fooled either.

Shuichi's face turned even redder as he continued denying vehemently, "No, really! Nothing happened! SERIOUSLY!"

"And I'm seriously going to stuff tranquilizers down your damm throat if you don't SHUT the hell UP!"

It was like instant coffee. You know, the 3-in-1 thing. As in 1-Yuki appears, 2- Yuki glares, 3-Yuki shouts. Ta-dah, instant silence!

"Yu-Yuki…"

Yuki sent the full blast of his glare at Shuichi; the other two had been wise enough not to even breathe. "Honestly! This is why I hate kids. You brats are so loud I could hear you all the way outside the house. Is having a conversation at humanly acceptable levels too much to ask for?"

Pausing in his tirade, Yuki scowled as he took a closer look at Shuichi and then strode over.

"Eek! He's going to kill me!" In reflex, Shuichi squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for his early, violent death that was advancing at the speed of light, "he's going to-…!"

"Huh?" Shuichi decided to risk opening his eyes when he felt cool hands touching without inflicting pain. Yuki inspected him with a frown and muttered, "I knew it." Ignoring Shuichi's confusion, he glanced over at Hiro and Ryuichi, "You two, visiting hours are over. Go home now."

Incensed, Shuichi made to get out of bed, "Yuki! That's mean!"

Yuki just pushed him back onto the bed and made his lie down, glaring at Shuichi darkly, "The sick should just be quiet and go to sleep."

"…The sick?"

Yuki rolled his eyes at the incredulous question. He knew the boy was dense but… "I knew it. You didn't even realize you have a fever, did you?" Not bothering to wait for his sure to come retort, he shifted his attention back to the visitors, "You're still here?"

"We're gone, we're gone!", the two quickly replied. "Bye Shuichi, we'll come again!" With that, Hiro and Ryuichi beat a hasty retreat before they trod on another landmine.

Yuki eyed Shuichi sternly, "You. Go to sleep. Now."

Shuichi meekly slid under the blanket and settled into a comfortable position. "Yuki…stay with me."

Yuki sighed in exasperation. "Give me a break. I'm just going to be in the study, I need to mark some stupid homework that's probably all wrong anyway, you know?"

"Okay…sorry." Shuichi watched miserably as Yuki left the room. He really wanted someone to stay with him. After everything that happened…his mother, the police…everything really, he couldn't stand being alone. It made him feel so small and lost. Sometimes, Shuichi wondered if life was a game worth playing. When Yuki took him in, he dreamed that he finally found peace but now…"mother…" Shuichi felt a tear trickle down and he let out a small sob.

"I told you to go to sleep, didn't I?"

Startled, Shuichi turned his head; Yuki had pulled a chair right next to the bed and was holding a stack of books. Setting the books down on the floor, he readjusted his glasses irritably with one hand and sighed, "I'm right here so…just sleep."

Shuichi simply closed his eyes, smiling lightly in contentment. "Okay."

Just before drifting off, he swore he felt something like lips brushing across his cheek and heard a gruff yet affectionate whisper, "Brat."

XXX

Hiro and Ryuichi were taking a slow, somber walk back from Yuki's house, discussing about Shuichi. Hiro sighed, "We're so powerless…in the end, we couldn't do anything to help. Nothing at all."

Next to him, Ryuichi nodded. As much as it pained him, he had to admit there really was nothing much they could to about it. After all, Shuichi was now involved with even the police. Compared to the fact that they were mere students…they really couldn't be any help. "Still, at least he has Yuki-sensei."

Hiro brightened at that, "I know! I couldn't tell that Shuichi was sick even though we were talking for so long; Yuki-sensei knew right away the moment he stepped in."

Ryuichi was getting infected with Hiro's enthusiasm. "Exactly! And the way he made Shuichi lie down again…I feel like I've just seen something forbidden!"

Once again, their (now a daily ritual) commentary on 'Yuki and Shuichi's Forbidden Passionate Love' commenced, this time drawing (at least) partially right conclusions.

End Scene 10. There's your kiss scene! (With the right person too! LOL) I tried my best, hope its okay! As always, reviews keep me going so…(Hint hint) Heh heh. Until the next chapter!