Nowadays, I'm really short on time so I'll just thank everyone who reviewed here. THANKS! .:grins happily like an idiot:. As a reward for reviewing, here's the next update. Have fun

Disclaimer: I'm sure you guys are bored of this already, right? Still, it cant be helped…I don't own Gravitation. There. Happy now? .:sulks:.

Scene 11-Is there anyone who falls?

It was a clear, sunny day. Yuki watched Shuichi silently, expression concealed by a pair of dark sunglasses. Shuichi closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the cool morning breeze blew gently, mussing up their hair. Confident that he was mentally prepared now, he exhaled slowly and opened his eyes again, gazing at the quiet river flowing beneath the bridge.

Yuki softly asked though he already knew what Shuichi's reply would be. "You sure this is what you want to do?"

"Yes", came the simple and expected answer.

Shuichi removed the cover of the urn he was holding and ever so slowly tipped it's contents out. He watched without really seeing as the white powder flew out almost immediately. Yes. He was absolutely certain this what he wanted. After all, he didn't know any of his mother's relatives or friends, or even if she had any. Holding a funeral would be pointless. Realizing the urn was now completely empty, he set it down and picked up a basket instead.

One by one at first, he slowly dropped the white petals into the water below. Then, he turned the entire basket upside-down, allowing them to simply fall gently. Shuichi put the basket down and watched the dancing petals in the air, swirling downwards gracefully. They were white carnations. His mother's favorite.

As they landed elegantly on the water below, Shuichi watched as they mingled with his mother's ashes. They danced along to the rhythm of the calm water of the steadily flowing river. The white of the flowers seemed so pure, as though they were capable of washing away the sin-stained soul that was his Mother's.

Shuichi didn't shed a tear, though he couldn't deny his lower lip was trembling just a little. Unconsciously whispering, Shuichi bade his mother one last farewell, "May you rest in peace…Mother."

After some time, Yuki picked up the now empty urn and basket as a signal it was now time to go. Shuichi turned his back to the water and followed Yuki to his car. Maybe it was his imagination, maybe it was not, but as he did so, he thought he felt the wind kiss him lightly on the cheek, as though making a promise. Despite tears brimming in his eyes, Shuichi smiled. He couldn't explain how he knew, but he did. Somehow, he had unshakable faith his mother was finally free. She was going to move on, and was telling him to do so as well.

"Shuichi? Is something wrong?"

Shuichi blinked at Yuki. The blonde man was frowning at him, wondering why he had suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Nothing is." Shuichi ran a little to catch up with Yuki, slipping his hand into Yuki's. Yuki didn't pull away, nor did he say anything, he just gave a little squeeze in acknowledgement. A mysterious smile played on Shuichi's lips. "Nothing's wrong at all."

XXX

"Shuichi! Wake up, we're home!"

Yuki sighed and wondered whether the youth currently sleeping comfortably (despite his best efforts) in the passenger seat would wake up if he just kicked him out of the car. Literally. He had to restrain himself from actually testing that idea.

"Oh well…Just a little while more can't hurt, I suppose…Even if we HAVE reached the house already." Yuki watched his sleeping companion, smirking a little when he noted a pool of drool forming. "Perfect, more blackmail material."He was definitely not smiling because he felt relieved that Shuichi was almost completely back to his energetic, bubbly and noisy self or anything of that sentimental nonsense. Nope, not at all.

As an earlier incident occurred him, Yuki's frowned. While Shuichi had been throwing his mothers ashes along with flowers into the sea, he had felt someone watching them. When he had discreetly taken a good look around, he had found that they were alone except for a car with its lone driver. The car screen had been tinted a shade too dark for him to make out the diver's features clearly but Yuki had seen enough to recognize him. He almost one hundred percent sure it had been Shuichi's mother's boyfriend. Yuki didn't know what he was doing there but he had a feeling it was nothing good, and had hinted to Shuichi that they should go home. "Damn…we don't need any more complications. What is that bastard up to now? If he's getting any ideas of doing anything to Shuichi…"

RIIIIIING!

"What the hell?" Yuki swore at the loud sound coming from within his house. "Did a bugler try to break in and set off the alarm?" He shoved his car door open and hurried to the front door fumbling for his keys. Shuichi, wide-awake now, worriedly hurried after him.

"That's strange…the locks are all intact, no sign of anyone forcing it open…" However, as the ringing sound was still blaring on ceaselessly, Yuki ignored that thought for a moment and let himself in. Disabling the house alarm, he frowned when the ringing sound continued giving him a migraine. Belatedly realizing the sound wasn't from his house alarm, Yuki mentally cursed himself. Ignoring Shuichi's questioning look, Yuki ventured into the living room and ran a glance through it. Nothing had been disturbed. As he neared the bedroom, adrenaline surged as he saw a silhouette struggling with an object in his bedroom. Motioning for Shuichi to stay behind him, Yuki rushed into the room, fully intending to knock the daring trespasser out. Just when he was about to deliver a punch, the unknown person, a man, turned around and revealed his face. Yuki froze in shock immediately, outraged disbelief written on face. "Tatsuha! What in the bloody hell are you doing?"

Tatsuha jerked his face up from where he had been so deeply concentrated on the object in his hands that he hadn't even heard his brother entering. "Brother!"

Yuki had finally found out the source of the earsplitting racket. Very obviously, Yuki's alarm clock-with a major attitude problem- had decided to play guard-dog while its surly owner was away. Eyes fixed on the offending clock screaming away madly, Yuki commanded in a deep growl that gave no leeway for protest. "Put the damn thing down and move away slowly. Now."

Not noticing the danger signals, Tatsuha continued fumbling with the clock, trying to switch it off. "Just a minute…why can't I turn it off? Is it this way? No? Hmm…this-…"

Fortunately for said clock, Shuichi could tell Yuki was about to go ballistic. He quickly sidestepped past Yuki and grabbed the clock from Tatsuha's hands, effectively silencing it before it got blown into smithereens as result from suffering Yuki's wrath.

All was quiet for a few moments, as the clock returned to its regular ticking, sounding satisfied and probably convinced it had done Yuki a favor. Tatsuha stared at Shuichi with his mouth hung slack open for a moment before wailing, "Unfair! How come it switched of for you and not me? That's favoritism!"

Shuichi danced out of the way as Tatsuha lunged for him and stared at him with a weird look. "So this is Yuki's brother. It's really obvious they're related, they look so alike… that, and the fact they both have a serious complex about alarm clocks."

Yuki stared in disbelief as Tatsuha started accusing the alarm clock, "You don't love me!", in a stupefied Shuichi's hands while gesturing dramatically and had to use every bit of his willpower not to throw his car keys with full force aimed straight for his head. "Tatsuha. What are you doing here?"

Ignoring Yuki's icy question, Tatsuha finally really noticed Shuichi and squealed excitedly, followed with glomping. "You must be Shindou Shuichi! I can't be wrong! Sis said he had pink hair and yours is definitely pink. Why didn't she mention how cute you were, though? Oh, how did you manage to stay sane living with my asshole brother here? How, Shu-chan? How?"

So, it wasn't bad enough that what Tatsuha did was basically breaking and entering, set off that blasted cocky alarm clock, practically ignored him, but was now even touching Shuichi? Who gave him permission to call him Shu-chan anyway? That was it. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

It only took Yuki a matter of seconds before he had Tatsuha forcibly pulled away from Shuichi. Ignoring his little housemate's feeble protest, Yuki grabbed Tatsuha by the collar and pulled him closer so that were eye to eye. Cold, hard golden eyes narrowed dangerously and he growled. "I asked you a question. What the hell are you doing here?"

At his bother's tone that spoke just how violent he was going to get if he wasn't supplied with answers, and soon, all hint of mischief and light-hearted foolishness faded away. Tatsuha met his bother's eyes calmly, not in the least bit scared. After all, as much of an icy bastard he was, he was still his brother and they had grown up together.

Shuichi looked from Tatsuha to Yuki and back to Tatsuha again worriedly. Things were looking bad. The last time Shuichi had seen Yuki so mad, he had beaten the hell out of a man so bad, he was bleeding and barely conscious. Absentmindedly weighing the alarm clock in his hands, Shuichi semi-seriously considered smashing it over Yuki's head when Tatsuha suddenly broke the tense silence.

"Brother…I came to warn you. Father knows."

XXX

She continued staring even after the blonde teacher had entered the house with a pink-haired male. She simply refused to believe what her eyes were telling her. She couldn't begin to put into words how hard getting Yuki's address had been. All she had wanted to do that morning was to find out why Yuki hadn't been showing up at school for the past few days. It wasn't like she was stalking him or anything. How was she supposed to know she would discover Yuki didn't live alone? This was the last straw. As a man who looked so much like her dear Yuki-sensei exited from the house, she hastily scrambled out from under the bushes where she had been hiding before she was found.

Miaka grinned darkly, her scheming mind already cooking up the next step to solve this new (and unpleasant) revelation.

XXX

After dinner, Shuichi was washing the dishes. Occasionally, he glanced over to where Yuki was sitting on the couch, smoking. He sighed. Over the time since he had moved into Yuki's house, he had noticed that Yuki only smoked when he was feeling stressed. Judging by the filled to the brim ashtray, something was bothering Yuki very much. "He's been like this ever since his brother left…I wonder what that warning meant. His father knows? About what?"

Flashback

"Don't play the mysterious messenger, Tatsuha. What is that supposed to mean?"

Tatsuha's eyes flickered over to where Shuichi was sitting. Getting the hint, Shuichi jumped up and quickly left, muttering he had some forgotten work to do. Left alone now, Tatsuha got straight to the point. "What do you think you're doing, letting a student live here? You know Father's going to find out sooner or later, what with all his connections."

Yuki snorted, "Is that it? So what if the old man knows? I have nothing to fear from him."

Why didn't his brother get it? Tatsuha shook his head slowly, and emphasized his next sentence; "It's true he won't do anything to you, but he can- to someone else."

Realization dawning on Yuki, he let out a string of curses Tatsuha didn't even know existed. "If he dares lay on a finger on Shuichi, I'll make sure he damn well regret it."

Tatsuha got up, considering his task accomplished. "Well, I've done what I came here to do. Brother…you should consider setting up Shuichi his own place. Who knows what Father will do once he's found out his eldest son is gay?"

Yuki rolled his eyes heavenward, asking a question to no one in particular, "What kind of exaggerated bullshit has Mika been feeding you now?" Shifting his glare to Tatsuha, he growled. "Besides, I like women. Shuichi is…special. " Quickly switching topics before Tatsuha had a chance to get on his case, Yuki asked, "How did you get in here, anyway? What a pain…I have to change all my locks again."

Tatsuha grinned at his brother glaringly obvious attempt at diverting him. "Yeah, okay, you like women. Got it." Continuing before Yuki had a chance to throttle him, Tatsuha said "Anyway, there's no use changing your locks."

At Yuki's questioning look, Tatsuha walked over to the front door and pushed it open, setting a foot outside. "Don't you know? Mika always manage to duplicate your keys every single time you change them." Immediately after saying that, Tatsuha hastily stepped out of the house and slammed the door shut before Yuki could find anything sharp to throw at him.

"Safe." Whistling happily now that he managed to get in another round of annoying his brother to the point of tearing his own blonde hair out, Tatsuha shrugged his leather jacket on. He paused mid-way when he heard a rustling sound. Looking around and seeing nothing suspicious, Tatsuha blamed it on his imagination and continued on his way.

End flashback

Exhaling the breath he didn't even realize he had been holding in, Yuki stared at the swirls of smoke. Get Shuichi his own place? Was Tatsuha crzay? How could he even dream for a moment Yuki was going to allow Shuichi to move out? No way. He wasn't going to let Shuuichi live apart from him no matter what happened. Forget the teacher-student crap. As if he cared for things like that. He was already so used to having someone with him, he didn't think he could bear waking up alone in this cold empty house alone anymore. Couldn't bear the thought of going back to his monotonous life which mainly consisted of eating, sleeping, lavishing his family with his sarcastic wit and going to shcool. Which reminded him-

"You're attending class tomorrow, right?"

Wiping the last of the dishes, Shuichi placed it in the drying rack and turned around to face Yuki. "Yeah. The school will probably kill me for skipping a week, though…" As a thought occurred him, he stared at Yuki, berating himself for not thinking about it sooner. "What about you, Yuki? You're in even worse trouble than I am. You're a teacher, yet you skipped school for a week too!"

Snuffing his cigarette out, Yuki merely waved his hand uncaringly, as if that could banish away Shuichi's mounting anxiety. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it, it'll be fine."

"But Yuki!"

"Oh, shut up. My name's probably overused thanks to your seemingly endless need to end every line that comes out from your big mouth with it."

Fuming and completely thrown off track, Shuichi stomped over and kicked Yuki in the shin. "My mouth's not big, you jerk! Anyway, with all your smoking, your lungs are probably what's overused! Why do you even like smoking so much?"

"Ow!" Yuki clutched his shin in pain and stared at Shuichi in outrage, amazement and slight pride that he could kick so hard.

A sadistic smile slowly forming, Yuki reached out and caught a now retreating Shuichi's hand, pulling him towards him. "So…you want to play rough?"

A squeaky "Yuki!" was the only answer he got. It was enough. He tugged Shuichi's hand, causing him to trip and land on his lap. Gently cupping Shuichi's upturned face with one hand, he smirked, "Overused lungs, huh? The last thing he whispered as his lowered his face to Shuichi's was, "Why don't we test that out?"

XXX

Outside, it was getting dark. All was quiet with the exception of the sound of a dog barking some distance away. A black car was lined up by the sidewalk. It had been parked there for a long time, not that anybody noticed. The man inside watched as lights flickered to life in the house, deep in contemplation. He had been watching the two residents for quite some time. It had actually been a coincidence when he had first spotted them by the river.

Obviously, God was on his side- not that he believed in Him anyway.

He had tailed them all the way back to the house. Had seen a schoolgirl emerging from the bushes, doing who knows what there. Had observed as the man who was the spitting image of a person he would dearly wish to beat to pulp left. And now, as night silently approached, he ruminated.

Ryouji gave a cynical smirk as he decided his next step. Switching his car gears, he started driving away, smiling evilly to himself. Thanks to that slippery brat who had slyly managed to escape his iron grasp, Ryuoji's life was now currently less than pleasant. Shuichi had better enjoy his life while he could-because if he didn't cooperate, he would be joining his mother pretty soon.

Done! For this chapter, I have no comments. I think it was kind of slow… Anyway, someone commented on the lack of Tatsuha's existence in this fic so I added him! LOL. Anyone else I missed out?