Chapter 7:
Shuichi's Dinner Fau Pax
A few hours later Yuki reclined in the airplane seat with a bottle of beer in his hand, eyes closed. He felt the eyes of his lover scouring his body, but said nothing. Perhaps it would be better if he just pretended he was asleep. Not that he intended to actually do so. One nightmare was enough; he didn't need another.
Hearing the thought pop into his brain, Yuki inadvertently frowned. Maybe it wasn't so much of a nightmare as it was reliving a part of his past, due to the fact that he was being weaned off his stabilizing medication. His memories were becoming clearer with every new day, this time perhaps the clearest of all, his last few days living in New York.
Yuki felt a gentle poke on his shoulder and sighed. He knew Shuichi had every right to question him due to his emotional performance earlier, but all he wanted right now was to sit back, relax, and drink the beer that the stewardess gave him.
The next poke that Yuki felt was not so gentle, and his amber eyes snapped open. He turned to glare at the pink-haired boy and found his lover, in turn was staring at him with great concern. Yuki turned away.
"Hey Yuki?"
Yuki pressed a finger to his throbbing temple. "Not now. All I want to do is drink my beer, get blitzed and maybe, later, when we get off the plane, get something to eat."
Shuichi nodded and leaned forward. With a soft press of his lips he kissed Yuki's forehead. "Ok, Yuki. You talk to me when you feel up to it." He sat back and turned to stare out the window, so he missed the tender expression that flitted across Yuki's face. He almost reached out to take hold of his lover's hand, but then realized that Shuichi would probably take it into consideration that he would be allowed to bother Yuki, and not give him any of the peace that he had promised.
So with that Yuki settled for taking another sip of his beer, letting it roll around in his mouth before he swallowed.
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Food, booze, or cigarettes? The first thought that crossed Yuki's mind after he and Shuichi landed in New York, gone through customs, and retrieved their luggage was whether he should be looking for a restaurant or a smoking area. In the end, his love for nicotine won out and he soon found himself in an outdoor smoking area, filling his lungs with the comforting warm smoke he had been desperately craving for the past thirteen hours. He sat down on one of the benches and closed his eyes. It had been a long, tiring, day. For the both of them. Thinking that, Yuki opened his eyes and looked at Shuichi, who sat on the bench next to him.
Shuichi was studying his shoes, watching them scrape against the pavement. His nose wrinkled as the white, wispy, tendrils of smoke attacked his senses. He refrained from commenting on the fact that Yuki was smoking, sensing, knowing, that his lover needed any comfort he could get, regardless of how small the comfort was.
Yuki tore his gaze away from Shuichi and stared intently at his cigarette. It glowed like an ember in the sunlight. Without a moment's hesitation, he tossed the cigarette on the ground. He took his foot and ground the cigarette into a meaningless filter of nicotine. He brushed his hands on his pants and stood up. Shuichi scrambled to his feet as well, and came to stand by his lover.
"Let's check into the hotel and get something to eat."
Shuichi nodded and without another word the two men climbed into the car that Yuki had rented, and drove to the ritzy hotel that Yuki had reserved for their trip.
The room was quite large, with a bed that looked mighty inviting for the two lovers, for whom it felt like it was the middle of the night, though in New York, it was only marginally close to what they would consider nighttime.
Yuki managed to convince a whining Shuichi that sleeping now would not help them get over their jet lag. So it was then decided that they would head down to the restaurant on the first floor the hotel.
Soon after being seated, Yuki felt the urge to smoke another cigarette, and got up from the table. He sensed Shuichi was following him, since, to Yuki's chagrin smoking was now banned in restaurants and bars. He spun around. "What are you doing?"
Shuichi stopped and put his hands on his hips. "What does it look like?"
Yuki shook his head. "Oh, no you don't. Look kid, I've been around you all day, which is probably the reason why I've been smoking up a storm-"
"But you do that normally!" Shuichi protested.
"-And I just want a few minutes to myself. Is that too much to ask?" Yuki pulled out a cigarette, and to his dismay, couldn't find his lighter. "Damn it."
Wordlessly Shuichi reached into his pocket and pulled out Yuki's lighter.
Yuki arched an eyebrow and held out his hand. Shuichi dropped the lighter into Yuki's hand as though it were on fire. "You almost left it on the plane." He mumbled.
"Humph." Yuki said, lighting the cigarette and greedily inhaling the first couple of puffs. Shuichi shifted his feet and continued to stare at him.
Yuki sighed. "How about this Shuichi? Why don't you go inside and wait for the waiter to come back, and if he gets there before I do, then you can order for me." He said this mockingly, which caused Shuichi to bite his lip before trudging back inside.
Ooooooooooo
When Yuki returned to the table, he was greeted with the sound of yelling filling the air.
Shuichi was standing nose to nose with the waiter, brandishing a menu and screaming incoherent words, whereas the waiter was screaming just as incoherently, thrusting his arm in the direction of the menu that Shuichi was brandishing.
Yuki winced. "Jesus. Why do I even try to leave the little weirdo by himself? It's a wonder he hasn't broken anything yet…"
Suddenly Shuichi brandished the menu a little too forcefully, causing the glasses of water that on the table to fall off. Both the waiter and Shuichi stared at the mess before resuming their shouting match.
Yuki sighed. "Son of a bitch." He slowly walked up to the pair of men, and stood between them.
"Shuichi. What the fuck did you do this time?"
Shuichi frowned. "I didn't do anything! I wanted to order you a beer, and I pointed to the picture on the menu so he would see what I wanted, but the man kept gesturing to my wallet like he wanted to steal it! Plus! When I wouldn't give him my wallet he started yelling at me! Annnnd! What tops it all off is that I don't even know what he's saying!"
"You Stupid Bitch, he just wants to see your Id to confirm that your old enough to drink, which might I remind you, you're not."
Shuichi crinkled his forehead. "Oh."
Yuki then turned to the waiter. "I'm sorry. He's just never been in the states before. He's also a little retarded." Yuki reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet; pulling out two fifty-dollar bills and a twenty. "Here's some money to compensate for the trouble. And for the meal."
The waiter smirked and held out his hand for the money.
Shuichi crossed his arms. "I was just trying to defend my honor." He pouted.
"Shut up." Yuki growled, handing the money to the waiter, who pocketed it without another word and walked away.
Yuki pulled out the chair and sat down in it, gesturing for Shuichi to do the same. "What'd you order me?"
"This!" Shuichi exclaimed proudly, pointing to another picture in the menu. Yuki leaned over to look at the picture and rolled his eyes. "You got me chicken fingers? What'd you get for yourself?"
Shuichi looked thoughtful. "Uh…chicken fingers?"
"Moron." Yuki grumbled.
Shuichi stuck out his lower lip. "Come on! I thought it looked pretty tasty! I thought it looked pretty exotic too…all brown and crispy…with those little things next to it…"
"You mean the French fries?"
"Yeah! Pretty sweet huh?"
"Shuichi. They're the cheapest damn things on the menu. I gave the waiter a hundred and twenty dollars for the meal and the fact that you made an ass out of yourself as usual; you could've ordered something more expensive!"
"Uh! Well, to make you feel better I was leaning towards this!" Shuichi flipped the page of the menu and pointed to another item. Yuki glanced at it and shook his head.
"A grilled cheese sandwich?"
Shuichi grinned. "Uh huh! You can't go wrong with the basics!"
"The basics here would be a damn steak or some veal or something!"
"Oh. Sorry Yuki. But at least I ordered the beer!"
"No you didn't. You screamed at the waiter and I had to cover for you by saying you were mentally retarded."
"I'm not mentally retarded! Why do you keep telling everybody that?"
"I wouldn't have to tell everyone that if you would just quit acting mentally retarded!"
"It's a very hard habit to break!"
Yuki sighed. "So that's why the little prick just walked off without saying anything. He knew that you ordered cheap things, and he thought he could con me out of my money. Huh. Well he has another thing coming." He cracked his knuckles and stood up.
"Wait! Where are you going Yuki?"
"To get my money back. You stay here in case they come with the food."
"Ooookaaay!"
Shuichi was sitting in silence, studying other pictures on the menu when a waitress came with their food. She set the plates on the table and reached for the menu, saying: "Please enjoy your meal!"
Shuichi, who didn't understand what she was saying, automatically assumed that she was yelling at him and wanted more money. "My boyfriend already gave you guys money!"
The waitress didn't understand what Shuichi was saying and she assumed that the man thought she had gotten the order wrong. She pulled out the order tablet and flipped through the pages, stopping when she came to their order. "Sir! I didn't get the order wrong! You ordered the chicken fingers!" She jabbed at the tablet and frowned.
Well, Shuichi wasn't going to take this sitting down. He was going to show the bitch what was what.
"I told you! My boyfriend already gave you money! Why are you trying to get more? Look!" He reached for the menu, and the waitress, thinking he was reaching out to hit her, took a step back and screamed for the manager.
The manager was a frumpy looking man with tortoise-shell glasses and an even frumpier looking suit. "What seems to be the problem here?"
The waitress crossed her arms. "This jerk started yelling at me and then he tried to hit me!"
The manager shook his head and turned to Shuichi. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." He reached out to help Shuichi up and Shuichi, by pure instinct and stupidity; hauled off and socked the manager in the face. "Try stealing my boyfriend's money now bitch!" He crowed.
Within minutes the security guards had arrived and were trying their best to subdue Shuichi, who still had no idea what was going on and just assumed that everyone wanted a little bit of Yuki's money, not to mention a piece of Yuki's ass, and as Yuki's "wife", Shuichi was not going to have that.
Yuki returned in the midst of all that and found Shuichi struggling with two beefy men, who Yuki could only guess were security guards judging from their blue hats and gold plastic badges. The waitress and the manager were cheering the security guards on and calling Shuichi derogatory names.
A crowd of people looked on.
Yuki ran a hand through his mass of blonde hair and stepped up to the waitress and manager, ignoring the skirmish between his lover and the security guards behind him completely. "Look, my friend here is a little mentally retarded. He can't help it. He already got into it with another one of your employees, and I had to smooth it over by giving him two fifties and a twenty to cover the meal and the damage. That was before I found out that my friend ordered one of the cheapest items on the menu. I tried to find the waiter that took my money, but for some reason he mysteriously disappeared. So, I'll just give you this," he sighed, and pulled out his wallet again, handing the manager another twenty. "Can you get your little guards off my friend so we can eat our dinner in peace and leave?"
The manager, sensing a profitable customer when he saw it, called the security guards off Shuichi, who was looking a little worse for wear. He turned and gave Yuki a bright, false smile. "The meal's on the house sir." With that the manager and the waitress walked away.
Shuichi collapsed into the chair and just stared at the chicken fingers and fries that sat on the plate in front of him. Without waiting for Yuki to sit down, he dug in; mildly disappointed. "Hey Yuki? It tastes kind of cold. Is it supposed to taste this way?"
Yuki sat down and sighed wearily. "No. It's not supposed to taste that w-SHIT. Where the fuck is my beer?!"
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A/N: Gah! It's finally done! (the chapter that is. Boo.) I know I was having technical difficulties and many thanks to the people that pointed it out! Originally this chapter was supposed to be longer, but I cut it off here. Because I…well…I forget why I cut it off here. But, you'll get the rest sometime soon! I worked on this last night, and I finished around three in the morning, and I was raring to go and post it, When it got deleted. All of it gone. So I had to redo it all over again! AHHHH! I'm thinking I need a Beta. Who wants to be mine?! Just let me know. Message me or im me at Chickenshoes89. I like strangers. :
You know what to do.
