Title: Scars

By: Aizawa Sakura

Disclaimer: Gravitation, and all its characters, belongs to Maki Murakami-san. That's not me.

Summary: Shuichi loses his will to live. Tatsuha falls in love with him and is prepared to do anything to save his life. Even send him to Japans no.1 Casanova.

Authors Note: Aizawa Sakura is back. Thanks to everyone who left me a review! Looks like I made it to Chapter 2. That feels great! Terrible writers block finally gone, much thanks to one of my favourite writers, who update her story.

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Chapter 2

"Shuichi? You know I love you, right?"

Shuichi was back at home. Maiko didn't like it. Well, of cause she was happy that he wasn't badly hurt, but she had wanted him to stay at the hospital a little longer. Two days wasn't enough. It felt safe, when he was at the hospital there were people watching over him all the time. Professional people. People who knew how to save lives. She hated herself for feeling that way, for not wanting Shuichi at home. Hated herself for not being able to watch over him.

"Shuichi?" she said again.

He didn't answer. Of cause he didn't. He couldn't, he had lost his voice. But he didn't do anything to show her that he had actually heard her either. He didn't even look at her. He sat in his bed, clothes still looking too big for him, his bright pink hair wasn't as bright anymore. His face didn't have any particular expression, it never had these days. He was looking straight forward, but didn't seam to be seeing anything.

"Shuichi" Maiko tried once more, but without any result. So she gave up.

"I'm gonna read you a story" she said, and picked up a book from the floor.

"It's called Today. It's by Yuki Eiri… It's one of my favourites. I've read it several times."

Then she started to read. And she kept on reading until their mother came, because she did every evening. She brought food for Shuichi and told Maiko to come down and eat. Then she left the room, because she knew Shuichi would not eat if he wasn't alone.

"I talked with Shuichi's psychologist today" Maiko's and Shuichi's father said that evening.

"She said that she can not help him. That it's impossible to help someone that doesn't want help in the way he does."

"She is wrong. It must be something she can do. I think he's getting better" their mother said.

"No, he isn't. She has tried everything and nothing helps."

"Surely, there must be something she can do…"

"It isn't. It's not working."

"But there must be something…"

"Listen, she can't help us anymore. She has already lost fate in him. We're losing him."

"No, that's not true. She can help him, I know that… We can help him."

"We have tried to help him for six months, and the only thing we have got is a suicide attempt."

"That's what she said? The psychologists?"

"Yes, she did."

"She can't help us."

"I know someone who might be able to" Maiko said, rather slow, causing her parents to jump. She wasn't surprised, she was pretty sure they both had forgotten she was actually there.

"Who?" her mother wondered, tears in the corner of her eyes.

"His name is Uesugi Tatsuha" Maiko said, "He's a monk."

Her father looked at her for a long time before he spoke. As if he was trying to figure out if she was speaking the truth or not.

"Its worth trying" he finally said, "but right now, I think everything is."

Tatshua was surprised. Chocked even. The boy he had seen in the picture was so different from the boy he saw now. The young monk was standing in front of the temple, and Shuichi was approaching. His parents had decided, like Maiko had suggested, on take Shuichi to the temple and let him meet Tatsuha. And Tatsuha had been waiting for them. When Maiko had spoken to him about Shuichi, he had felt really sorry for her. Originally, he had started to talk to her just because he found her pretty, and he had planned to seduce her if it turned out that she was a nice person as well as an attractive one. He had found that she indeed was very friendly. But then, when she began to tell him about her brother, whom she loved and worried about, he found that she was more like a little girl than a teenager with a hot body. Normally, he would have dumped a girl who turned out the way Maiko did at once, but the speech about her brother really touched him. He got interested in Shuichi when she first told him that he used to be a singer. Then, when she said he had lost his voice and was so depressed that he had tried to kill himself, Tatsuha didn't know what to think. He had always thought that suicide was something extremely ridiculous, and people that said they were so very unhappy that they just wanted to kill themselves was something he hated. Mostly because they never did, and he thought they were weak. Weak people was something he hated as well. But after what he had heard, Shuichi didn't seam weak at all. He didn't whine and he had almost succeeded in killing himself. The more Maiko told him about Shuichi, the more he thought he could understand him. Shuichi wasn't a weak boy who was to lazy to do anything to change a life he wasn't satisfied with, but a strong person who had done everything to reach his goals his whole life. Then, when things started to get really good, his greatest passion had been taken away from him, and he didn't know how to go on without it.

Maiko introduced Tatsuha to her parents, and Tatshua smiled and introduced the whole Shindou family to his father. Not very unexpected the older monk soon asked the three teens to leave so that he could speak to the Shindou husband and wife without interruption. Tatsuha felt a bit annoyed; Maiko's parents clearly preferred his father before him, but since he got to spend time with Shuichi he figured it was okay.

"We'll take a walk" he said, and before anyone had the time to object, he had grabbed Shiuchi's hand and was dragging the boy away down the road. Maiko quickly followed.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"The park" Tatsuha answered after a moment, realizing that he hadn't thought about where to take them. "The nature there is beautiful. Just like the two of you…" he continued without thinking, which just made him want to bite his tongue of. This clearly wasn't the time for that kind of talk. Not the time for compliments. Not the time for flirting. Besides, the nature wasn't very beautiful at all. It was early spring, and everything was rather grey and sad. Maiko seamed pissed, like she wanted to slap him.

"Just kidding" he said, but she didn't seam to believe him one bit. Cleaver girl. Made him feel kind of stupid so he decided to ignore her for a moment and turned to Shuichi instead. The boy was looking straight forward, the long hair made it hard to see his face but as far as Tatsuha could tell it didn't have any particular expression.

"I loved the park when I was younger…" Tatsuha said, "…well, I still do. It's such a calm place…" his voice died away. He wanted to ask so many questions, and knowing that Shuichi never would be able to speak an answer was painful. The rest of the way, they walked in silence.

"Sometimes, I think he is getting better" Shuichi's father said, "but this far, I've always been wrong."

"I know how you feel" Uesugi-san said, putting down his cup of tea on the low table.

"You do?" Shuichi's mother seamed surprised.

Uesugi nodded.

"But… your son seamed so happy."

"Tatsuha isn't my only child."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Like I said, I know what you are going through and I will do my best to help you."

At this Maiko's and Shuichi's mother smiled a weak smile, thinking that everything would be all right this time. Her husband, however, wasn't as easy convinced.

"That's what the psychologists said too, and as I told you, she wasn't able to help. Will you be?"

Tatsuha's father picked up his cup again.

"I don't know…" he said, "… but I know that the most important thing right now is faith. When Tatsuha first spoke to me about Shuichi he said that he knew we could help. He was very convincing, his eyes were glowing. I'm going to help you find the same thing. Faith in your son. If you believe that he can get better then, finally, he may start to believe too.

They were sitting on a bench. Shuichi to the left, Maiko in the middle, Tatsuha to the right. They had walked around the park two times and were tired of it. Tatsuha was looking at nothing in particular, lost in his own thoughts. Maiko was looking at Shuichi. Shuichi was looking down on his hands. He didn't seam to care about the other two at all, but he did. He was thinking about them. He wanted to embrace his sister, and tell her not to worry. He wanted her to smile. He wanted to answer the questions he knew Tatsuha were struggling not to ask. It was weird. He didn't know why, he just really wanted to answer those questions. But he couldn't.

"Do you see the big cherry tree over there?" Tatsuha suddenly asked, not able to keep quiet anymore. "When I was younger, me and a friend of mine used to climb in it. You are not allowed to really, but we did anyway." If you don't have anything good to say, then talk about something stupid. "Maybe we should go back…"

"Yeah, why not…" Maiko slowly rose to her feet.

Tatsuha did the same and turned to Shuichi.

"I know it's kinda boring right now" he said, eyeing the park quickly. "I'll take you here again in a month or so, when it's warmer and the cherry trees have start to blossom. We can play with the kids, and climb trees and eat ice cream…" Again his voice faded away.

Tatsuha was just about to turn away when something happened. Shuichi slowly reached out and grabbed his hand. Then, he looked straight into his eyes.

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AN: And that's the end of chapter 2. Please tell me what you think. Good? Bad? Did it suck? Was it the best thing you have ever read?

This was sooooo hard. I had the most horrible writer's block ever.

I had a lot of tea, but it just didn't help…

However, I'm happy it's finally done and I'm happy you read it. You are our sunflower.