I don't own Gravitation or any of the characters, just the plot.
Shuichi spent his first night officially away from home as sleepless as the night before at Hiro's. Tashimi was playing in the bedroom past midnight, frequently coming to ask Shuichi if he was sure the guitar wasn't too loud. Shuichi told him is wasn't the first two times and them pretended to be asleep, though it would have been impossible. If he wasn't afraid of upsetting his host he'd have gone in and given him some tips to improve his sound, like tuning his instrument and learning how to properly finger.
He also considered moving to the floor, which would probably be more comfortable than the lumpy couch that smelled like takeout and beer, but that wasn't appropriate, either. He lay there with his back to the room, unable to think above the music and hoping he's also drift off when Tashimi got tired and went to bed. However, when the music finally ended, Shuichi's brain seemed to wake up from its numb state, and he couldn't shut it off, even as he pressed his eyes shut and tried to take deep, sleep-like breaths.
His mind whirled so quickly between thoughts for a while that he couldn't even tell what he was thinking, but when it settled down Shuichi found himself thinking about the old days, the beginning of their relationship. It was a long time ago. In a lot of ways it was a different Shuichi and even a different Yuki that made the memories of those crazy first months. It seemed like everything that happened had been high drama, life or death, mostly because Shuichi had been going a mile a minute, running on emotion with hardly a thought in his head.
He still didn't know how he'd come through it with Yuki still beside him. A whiny kid begging for his attention and affection, the antics of Shuichi's manager and band mates, the strong resistance from Yuki's family, and the threat of career ruin for both of them if they were discovered. Of course, most of these things ended up working to their advantage. It really did seem like they were enchanted, facing so much opposition. The first real test of their relationship, Aizawa's assault, Yuki came through with flying colors.
Awhile afterwards, after Yuki and Tohma had settled up with the ASK front man and things had settled down, after Shuichi could feel Yuki's touch without flashing back, his lover asked why Shuichi didn't come straight to him. It hadn't occurred to Shuichi until then that Yuki had suffered anything, and might have wanted his support, too, and had wanted to support him. Shuichi knew then that he would never leave Yuki. He might be pushed away or kicked out, but nothing Yuki could do would make Shuichi stop loving him, or convince him that Yuki didn't love him.
Yet here he was on Tashimi's uncomfortable couch. A part of him still thought he could run back and beg forgiveness and sleep in the warmth of Yuki's arms, and that part wanted to. His new thoughtfulness about Yuki wouldn't let him pretend he hadn't hurt the person he cared most about by walking out on him, and he knew he hadn't presented a clear case about the reason for his actions because he still wasn't entirely sure himself.
When he was with Yuki he didn't have to think about the past, didn't have to worry about his own demons. Yuki was there for him, to shelter and protect him. Shuichi knew it was unfair. Yuki had been through more in his life, and his experiences in America happened when he was so young and had left such deep scars. The writer was the type to let them fester, rather than try to bury them or brush them off like Shuichi did. Compared to the mysterious and troubled man he met in the park that fateful windy night, Yuki seemed to be genuinely happy, and sometimes he even tried to show Shuichi with an especially sweet gesture. Shuichi didn't need these hints, though. He was finely tuned to his partner's mood, and could see how much better he was in the way he sipped coffee or turned the page of a book, could feel it in his kiss when they made love.
Thinking about Yuki wasn't exactly soul searching for Shuichi. He already spent a lot of his time thinking about what Yuki was doing, where he was, and if he was thinking about Shuichi, too. From everything he'd heard, this wasn't how people in mature relationships behaved. Shuichi felt more like a schoolgirl than an adult. Sure they had love, and Shuichi trusted Yuki unquestioningly, but there wasn't a support system for the tough times. He'd just proved it yet again by running to Hiro, and Yuki's accusation that this was Hiro's idea wasn't unfounded, because if he didn't depend on Yuki to tell him what to do, he turned to Hiro. No wonder Yuki didn't want to rely on him to hold up under the weight of his troubled past.
Shuichi could never look at their relationship with such perspective when he was close to Yuki. It also did help that both of their careers continued to skyrocket. Whenever they did get time alone together, neither of them wanted to have deep, meaningful conversations about where each felt like they were in the relationship and where they wanted to go. They were simply comfortable, and had been comfortable for so long that Shuichi thought things might never have changed if he hadn't met Andre and Shane.
He tried to rework the thought in his head to make it less bitter. Being comfortable was good. Meeting Andre and Shane was bad. Except that maybe after this he and Yuki could be happier. They were happy. Shuichi was happy. It felt like there could be more, though. He didn't even know what he was thinking anymore. He didn't have a clear goal for this stunt, and the whole night in contemplation only made him wonder at how rash he was. The only thing that held him on the couch was a gnawing at the back of his brain that there were things he needed to deal with and could only get to on his own.
"Hey, Shuichi? Are you awake? Don't you have work today?"
Shuichi rolled over on the couch and looked up at Tashimi, standing in his socks and boxers. "What time is it?"
"A quarter to eight."
"Ah! I have to go." Shuichi jumped up and dove into his bag for a clean shirt. He tossed aside his sneakers, a jacket, and his picture of Yuki, then stripped and speed dressed. Tashimi picked up the picture.
"Is this your ex?"
"No. Yes, that's him. We're together," Shuichi said, pulling his shoes on. "I'm late. Gotta go." He stuffed his things back in the bag, placing the picture in last.
"Hey, the couch-" Tashimi called, but he was gone.
Shuichi was sprinting before he got out of the apartment building. He looked in both directions down the road, about to dash across, but a red convertible almost mowed him down.
"You're going to be late," his manager yelled out the window. The car behind him laid on the horn while Shuichi jumped in.
"What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to be the first to express my condolences at your recent breakup. Hiroshi came in early today, so I figured you didn't have a ride. You have to be careful, some neighborhoods can be very dangerous-"
"We didn't break up."
"That's not what I heard," K hummed.
"Well, you heard wrong. And if you're going to spread nasty rumors like that, you might want to start looking for a new job."
K slammed on his breaks, throwing Shuichi against his seatbelt. The car behind them switched lanes and the driver flipped him off. K waved his gun threateningly and the driver sped off. Shuichi must have temporarily forgotten who he was talking to, but he wasn't backing down.
"So you're not split up?"
"No," he said firmly. K contemplated him as he put his gun away. Danger averted.
"Good." K started driving again. "Because I was going to strongly urge you to reconsider. Eiri is too good for Bad Luck's image for me to stand for such a rash act."
There was silence for the rest of the drive to the office, which was very short given K's disregard for traffic laws. They were climbing out of the car, still a couple of minutes early, when Shuichi swallowed his pride and spoke.
"I'm staying with my friend for the rest of the week. Do you think you could pick me up on your way in?"
"Of course. Hiroshi lives closer, but I presume since you didn't ask him that you would rather he not know."
"Exactly. Thank you."
"And for the record," K said as they walked inside, "you can't fire me, it's in section five, paragraph two of my contract, so threatening my job isn't an effective scare tactic." K would know, he'd written his own contract and forced them to sign it without a lawyer. At least Shuichi was sure he'd gotten his point across wit the threat, and was relieved that he'd incurred no severe bodily injuries in the process. Thank goodness for seat belts.
Shuichi had made up his mind while he was lying away that he wouldn't tell people he'd moved out, because he and Yuki were still together, just not physically, and it was only temporary.
When Shuichi and K walked into the studio the weren't taken notice of. Hiro was in one corner restringing his guitar and Suguru was in the other, facing the wall and listening to his keyboard through headphones. Shuichi thought he could still hear the echoes of the argument that had sent them to opposite sides of the room to pretend to practice, or maybe it was that their silence was so loud it made his ears ring. This didn't bode well for the work they were supposed to start today on their new album.
"Morning, guys," he said, plastering on a cheerful smile. Neither of them looked up. "I can tell that you're both excited to start working."
Suguru laughed derisively, giving away the fact that he wasn't playing, just angrily punching keys with the sound off. Hiro turned and glared at his back, offended that he'd dare to make noise in his presence.
"Alright," K clapped his hands. "Hiroshi, Fujisaki, obviously this morning's early rehearsal session wasn't enough time for you to work out your differences." They both turned to look at K suspiciously, then jerked their heads away. "You will forthwith pretend that you are band mates and friends while you're in this studio or you will spend every second together until you make up." K dangled a set of handcuffs pulled from God knows where to emphasize his point.
"Fine," Suguru said, taking off his headphones and flopping down dramatically at the work table. Hiro put down his guitar and sat on the other side of the table. Neither of them looked at the other. Shuichi and K sighed and sat down, too.
So," K said, "who's got something to bring to the table? Fujisaki, have you come up with any of those sick beats?" Suguru continues to look at the wall, but shook his head. "Hiroshi, where's our monster guitar?" Hiro drew circles on the table with his finger and said nothing. "Okay Shuichi, you're it. Give these guys some of your heart wrenching poetry to start with." Shuichi laughed and scratched his head. If he was using the turmoil with Yuki as an excuse for not having done the work he intended to do that weekend, though he'd had no reason to push it off for so long, he couldn't hold it against Hiro or Suguru either.
K had no such moral dilemma. He slammed his hands on the table and stood up. "I thought by now you guys would have realized that come to the studio to work. You can't work if you have nothing to work on. That's why we write before we get here. That's IT. None of you leaves this room until this album is written. I'll be outside, so don't think about trying anything if you value your lives. Happy composing." He waved and was gone.
None of them moved from the table or looked at each other for almost an hour. Shuichi didn't think up a single lyric, and he was sure that Hiro and Suguru weren't writing music in their heads, either. He felt intensely awkward being forced into the middle of their fight and was waiting for one of them to make the first move.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Suguru said finally, to no one in particular. "I'll be back."
He was back sooner than he anticipated. Less than a minute after he left he came back through the door again, walking backwards in front of K, who held his trusty assault rifle to Suguru's chest. Hiro jumped up but swallowed his words of protest.
"Is there an album you want me to hear?" Suguru shook his head. "Then get to work!" K shut door again. Shuichi looked between the two of them, both breathing heavily and unsure of what to do now.
"Okay, guys. I don't care if you talk to each other or not, just play something. I'm going to try to write." They didn't move. "Come on! Unless you want to pee in your water bottle and starve to death in here."
"I don't see why we have to put up with this crap," Suguru said.
"We don't have a choice," Shuichi laughed. "We can't fire him. It's in his contract."
Hiro finally broke into a rueful smile and picked up his guitar, which hadn't needed to be restrung, but as he finished and started to tune it he would resist the music taking over his fingers. Suguru went to his keyboard and yanked out the cord for the headphones but didn't turn around or move closer to the guitarist. Shuichi picked up a notebook and stared at the lines while Hiro and Suguru played scales, trying against their musician instincts and habit to not play together. This was going to be a long day.
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