Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Because of You ❯ chapter 21 ( Chapter 21 )

Because of You

 

Sequel to: This I Promise You

 

Written by: Chocho

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

 

Summary: A new baby. An autobiography. A funeral. A pregnancy. A shocking discovery and a woman with a grudge.

 

Chapter summary: As Tohma rushes Shuichi and Eiri to the hospital, is Rinjin Karin starting to have pangs of conscious? And somewhere in Upstate New York, the police begin to close in on Scott Keene.

 

Warning: Angst, m-preg, language, m/m sexual content

 

Inserts: References from This I Promise You

 

A/N: You guys made your opinion very clear that you did not want to see the kids die. Well all I can say is that you will just have to wait and see. Ha ha! On a more serious note, however, my uncle passed away August 4th. Isn't it ironic that the only time you see your extended family is at things like these? Anyway, thank you guys for your opinions, comments and for your reviews. Here's to the next installment…!

 

 

***

 

 

Chapter 21

 

 

[“It was her,” Eiri reiterated. He lifted eyes glazed over with shock and disbelief. “She's been stalking us for months and now this…” God! Was this all his fault?

 

That got Tohma's immediate attention. “Eiri. What are you talking about? What is going on?”

 

Instead of answering, Eiri turned his attention from his brother-in-law to his husband. “Shu-chan.”

 

Shuichi just stared back at his husband blankly, unable to process any of this.

 

“I am so sorry,” Eiri whispered, his voice breaking with the effort to hold back the flood of tears threatening to spill over.

 

Shuichi felt numb.

 

It may have been gravitation that brought Eiri and him together, but Fate had cursed their relationship from the very beginning. This was just another sad reminder that they were not meant to have any semblance of happiness in their lives.]

 

 

***

 

 

What had at one time used to be a source of pride for her had become the basis of her greatest shame. People used to look at her and her brother and coo at how much alike they looked. Often Yasashii and she were mistaken for twins when in reality they were nearly fifteen years apart.

 

Their parents had just about given up any hope of having any children of their own when her brother came along. They had already been well into their forties by this time. Then their mother had discovered she was pregnant with her second child. To say their parents had been surprised at this sudden and unexpected development would be an understatement. From what she learned from her brother, she had come this close to not being born. Apparently, not only their mother, but their father as well, were worried about becoming parents for the second time at their age. Not only was going through a pregnancy extremely dangerous for their mother at her age, but their parents were afraid that they would not be around to see their baby girl grow up. They were also concerned about just being able to take care of a baby. They were no longer as young as they used to be. But in the end, their parents ended up going through with the pregnancy.

 

…But then when she was five, Yasashii had been twenty, their father passed away after a massive series of heartaches. Then a mere five years later when she was ten, they lost their mother. Their mother had been steadily going down hill ever since their father passed away until her heart finally just gave out. She passed away five years to the day she lost her husband. None of the doctors would admit it, but everyone in the family knew that she had died of a broken heart.

 

Her brother took her in after that. He became her mother and her father. He was the one who, for the next five years, took care of her. He protected her, guided her, and loved her as if she were her own.

 

…And then…

 

It was the end of her first semester in high school. She had opted to try for one of the most prestigious, exclusive private high schools in Japan and had, to her astonishment, actually been accepted. Physical Education was her first class of the day and it was just ending when she was called to the office. At first, she thought she was in trouble. She had not been able to think of anything that would warrant her to be sent to the principal's office, but at the time it had been the only reasonable explanation. But once she entered the head master's office, she was given the shock of her life. Her brother, her only living relative, was gone.

 

There was a struggle.

 

The railing snapped.

 

He fell.

 

He broke his neck…

 

…and died instantly.

 

Then she learned that Shindou Shuichi had been the cause of the fight. He had been the one who pushed her brother to his death. He pushed her brother through the railing. He was the reason why she was suddenly left all alone in the world. Her idol, the guy she had plastered all over her walls in her dorm room and in her locker and all over her notebooks and binders, was her brother's killer.

 

She had been outraged!

 

…But then…

 

The news began spreading all those vicious lies about her brother. They claimed that Shindou had been the victim not her brother. Her brother had kidnapped and assaulted Shindou. He murdered Shindou's bodyguards. Her brother had been stalking Shindou for the past year. He had hired some photographer turned bodyguard who had been fired from his position as Shindou's bodyguard the previous year to get candid shots of the singer to use as blackmail it was suspected. He paid an old school chum to get inside NG Pro to spy on Shindou.

 

Lies! It was all lies!

 

How dare they badmouth her brother?!

 

Growing up, “Kremlin” had been a favorite game frequently played in her home. Yasashii had “come out of the closet” at a very young age. Their parents had not approved of their son's “chosen” lifestyle and when he refused to “act normal” so that he did not “dishonor and bring shame and embarrassment to the family” there was only one thing their parents could do. They could not disinherit Yasashii because he was their only son, so instead they pretended that their son's homosexuality did not exist.

 

When Bad Luck first hit the scene, her brother had been instantly infatuated with Shindou, along with millions of other people scattered across Japan. And then when it came out that not only was the singer gay, he was involved with none other than heartthrob Yuki Eiri, it became obvious that her brother's infatuation was more than a schoolboy crush.

 

Yes, Yasashii had been in love with Shindou.

 

Yes, he had been a little too obsessed.

 

Yes, his fixation with Shindou may have gone a little too far.

 

…But…

 

…the same thing could be said for almost every other Bad Luck fan.

 

Her brother was not responsible for all of those malicious lies people were spreading about him.

 

She knew her brother had a tendency to come off a little too forward and pushy at times so Karin could understand if Shindou had been freaked out when her brother first approached him, but that was not reason enough to blast him every chance he had. And it certainly was not an excuse to push him to his death.

 

Yasashii had been Shindou's biggest fan and this was how the singer repaid her brother?!

 

Bullshit.

 

Bull-fucking-shit!

 

Then there were reports of how Shindou had suffered some spinal injuries in the fall that had killed her brother. Part of her was ecstatic. It was the least that bastard deserved after what he did to her brother, but another part of her did not believe that crap. It was heresy. It was just another ploy set in motion by Shindou to gain favoritism from the public and to vilify her brother's reputation even more.

 

She used to be so proud of how much like her brother she looked, but after that horrific day, her looks had given her nothing but grief. Her so-called friends, the teachers at school that used to dote on her good looks and excellent grades and even people she did not know looked at her scornfully from that day forward. They all treated her as if she had the plaque, as if she were to blame for the coming of the end of the world. She had been forced to drop out of school and change her name. She had been forced to move so many times in the past decade that she lost count. She had even gone in for plastic surgery, but it was useless. No matter where she went, no matter what she did, people always seemed to find out who she was and she was run out of town each and every time. She had turned into the world's number one enemy after Shindou had murdered her brother. The worst was…nobody would listen to her side of the story.

 

…Until she met Scott Keene.

 

She met Scott over the internet and found out they had a lot in common. They struck up a relationship and started to formulate plans.

 

And now those plans were finally in motion. She would get her revenge for her brother's death no matter what it cost her, no matter what she had to do in order to destroy Shindou…even those that he held dear.

 

 

~*~

 

 

Karin limped across the hall from the elevator to her small hotel room. She slid the key card into the slot, pushed down the handle and swung open the door. She stepped into her room and groped the wall besides her for the light switch. When the lights above the vanity on the far side of the room snapped on, she shut and locked the door behind her, but not before placing the “do not disturb” sign on the door.

 

Grimacing with each step she took, she dragged herself the several feet from the door to the nearest bed and dropped down onto it face first with a grateful sigh. Flipping over, she laid an arm across her brow and stared blankly up at the ceiling hidden within the shadows of the small second rate hotel.

 

Scrubbing her hands over her face, Karin sat up and stared down at her feet.

 

She could still hear the squealing tires and see Shindou's six year old twin boys in the back of the car screaming and crying. The crunch and grind of metal against metal echoed in her mind. She could feel the jolts as she slammed her car into the Hyundai. The boy Shindou and Yuki-san had adopted had been in the driver's seat. His face had been twisted into a mask of concentration and horror as he tried to gain control of the car. Then…

 

…And then…

 

Karin shook away the memories violently.

 

Suddenly, her pocket began to vibrate. Digging into the front of her black cargo pants, she pulled out her phone and read the LCD. It may have said “Unknown” but she knew who it was. There was only one person who would be calling her. She had half a mind not to answer the phone.

 

“Hello.”

 

“I heard,” said the familiar masculine voice over the line.

 

News travels fast, she thought. But they were talking about a world renowned family here.

 

“Nice job,” came the mocking comment.

 

“Thanks,” she said blandly.

 

“That wasn't a compliment,” Scott barked.

 

Karin winced.

 

“I thought I told you to get rid of Shindou! Not his kids!”

 

“…Well…”

 

Scott sighed heavily. “You're not beginning to have second thoughts are you?”

 

Karin's heart performed a summersault. “What? N-no! No, of course not,” she insisted over her rapidly beating heart.

 

“…Hm…”

 

Karin gulped.

 

“But now you're going to have to lay low for a while.”

 

“Huh?” Karin blinked stupidly. “But why-?”

 

“Idiot! Because of the stupid stunt you just pulled! That's why!”

 

“…I'm sorry.”

 

“Sorry's not gonna cut it, will it? Goddamnit! You just screwed up everything we've been working towards for months!”

 

Karin did not know what to say to that.

 

Scott sighed over the line again. “Alright. Here's what you do…”

 

 

~*~

 

 

Stupid woman. What the hell was she thinking? Yes, it was a good strategy to get to Shindou through his family, but they did not have Shindou did they? No. What they had was a fucked up plan. And she had been the one to screw it up. The police might not know what she looked like, or that she was even a she, but they did have her generalities and they even had the description of her car. Now with the damage to the front end of her car, it was going to be even more recognizable.

 

“Scott!”

 

The door of the mud room burst open. A youngish looking woman with shoulder length dark brown, almost black, hair scurried into the room with a frantic look on her face.

 

Scott turned from the scenic view of the woods surrounding his sister's cabin. “Matilda? Wha-?”

 

“You gotta get outta here!”

 

“What happened?” he demanded.

 

“I just heard from Sibille! The police…They somehow found out you're here! You gotta get outta here!”

 

Scott did not need to be told a second time. He tore out of the house, nearly ripping the already flabby door off its rusty hinges. Flying down the rickety back wooden staircase, he ripped across the overgrown lawn and within seconds vanished amongst the dense brush.

 

With a worried look on her face, Matilda stood in the doorway and continued to watch the spot where her brother had disappeared just as the sound of sirens approached the house.

 

“Good luck Brother,” she whispered.

 

 

~*~

 

 

He wished he had remained numb. Right now he would not be feeling the tightness in his chest and the ache in his heart. His throat would not be stopped and his mind would not be racing at a million miles a minute.

 

Shuichi slapped a hand over his mouth as a sob managed to wiggle its way through his lips as the hospital came into view. Tears prickle his eyes. A comforting hand was sliding up and down his back gently.

 

“They'll be alright, Shu-chan,” Eiri whispered as he massaged Shuichi's back. “They are our sons after all.”

 

Shuichi laughed through his tears. That they were.

 

He dropped his head onto Eiri's shoulder and sniffled. He was just so worried. Who would want to hurt a bunch of children? His children? His babies?

 

Oh, please let them be alright! Please!

 

Sobbing, Shuichi turned as much as the seatbelt Eiri had secured around him when they left the house would allow and buried his tear hidden face into his husband's shoulder.

 

What was going on? Why was this happening? What had he ever done to deserve having his children ripped out of his arms?

 

“Please, God, not again. Please! Not again!”

 

From the front seat of the van, Tohma took his eyes off the road just long enough to glance at his brothers-in-law in the rearview mirror.

 

He would find out who was behind this and make sure they paid.

 

 

***TBC***

 

 

A/N: I realized after I actually posted the last chapter that Officer Takagishi should have spoken to them personally instead of over the phone, but really, the only time I have seen the police come to speak to relative's after there was an accident was when there were no survivors of said accident so I thought informing Shuichi and Eiri over the phone in this situation was better. This way it leaves you guys with some semblance of hope, ne?

 

Anyway, what did you think? Are they dead? Alive? Who survived? Who didn't? Find out next time!