Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Because of You ❯ 29 ( Chapter 29 )

Because of You Sequel to: This I Promise You Written by: Chocho Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation or the characters from it.  I do not make any money from the writing of this story. Summary: Scott is back in police custody, but Karin is out there biding her time.  Will the police be able to stop her before she carries out her plot to assassinate Shuichi? Chapter summary:  Karin strikes again.  Maiko confesses something she has been keeping from her brother.  And what is that on Shuichi’s back? Warning: Angst, drama, romance, m-preg, language, m/m sexual content Inserts: N/A A/N:  Thanks you guys for continuing to stick by the evolution of this story and for those few of you who take the extra couple of seconds to review.  I always love to hear what you guys have to say.  How long has it been since I started this story?  God.  I don’t even know, but it is coming to an end.  Thank god.  There is only a couple more chapters to go.  Hopefully, I can finish it before I go to Salem, Massachusetts in May with my sister.  Okay, here we go…!     ***     Chapter 29   [“…I was served today.”   Shuichi’s mind went blank.  “Huh?” he asked deadpanned.   “Served.  I was served Shuichi.”   “Served what?”   Michael sighed heavily and fingered his hair with his free hand.  “Anzu wants a divorce.”   As what he said slowly sunk in, Shuichi’s eyes steadily grew wider.  “Oh, my God.  Michael!  Why?  I, I, I thought, I thought the two of you were going for marriage counseling?”   “I don’t know,” Michael said.  His voice was strained.  “I moved into an apartment when we separated and I thought things were going well in counseling, but…today at work…”  His voice cracked and he could not say anymore.   “Oh, Michael, I’m so sorry.”  Tears welled up in Shuichi’s eyes.   “…Me, too.”  Michael cleared his throat.  “But, unfortunately…these things happen.”]     ***     In what could be deemed as the foyer of Officer Oda Hideo’s small apartment, but was nothing more than the entry hall- if it could be called even that, a mirror in desperate need of a cleaning in an antiqued bronze frame hung above a chipped half-moon table that his girlfriend garbage picked last summer.    The twenty-something-year-old police officer was scrambling to get ready for work.  He should have replaced Hiroyuki an hour and a half ago, but had instead overslept.  His uncle was admitted to the hospital several days ago.  He was undergoing treatment for a brain tumor.  The outlook did not look so good.  His aunt and his mother, who was his uncle’s twin sister, were not taking the news too well.  The whole family was worried about them.   Hideo secured his hat on his head before grabbing his car keys from the dark blue ceramic bowl his little brother made for him.   A heavy pounding shattered the eerily silent early morning hours of the apartment.   Hideo glanced at his watch.  It was almost four o’clock in the morning.  Who in their right mind could that be?  He turned towards the front door.  Sliding back the chain, Hideo turned the dead bolt.  The tumblers shifted with unnaturally loud thuds.   “Hideo,” came the panicked sounding male voice from the other side of the door.   “Taisuke?”  Hideo threw open the apartment door and was surprised to find his older cousin Yokoiwabara Taisuke standing on the other side.  Taisuke was the son of the younger sister to Hideo’s father.  “What are you doing here?”  If anybody found out that Taisuke was here and Hideo did not say something, Hideo was going to be in some serious trouble.  He grabbed his cousin’s arm and pulled him into the apartment.  Hideo glanced up and down the hallway.  Empty.  Silent.  He turned back towards his cousin and let the door swing shut behind him.  “You realize that the police have been looking for you?  Where the hell have you been?”   Taisuke skirted his younger cousin to peer out into the hallway.  Nothing.  He thought he heard something.   “Taisuke?”    Something was wrong, Hideo decided as he watched Taisuke pace back and forth wringing his hands in a nervous gesture that was so unlike him.   “Taisuke.  Talk to me,” Hideo pleaded.  “If you’re in trouble…”   Something caught Taisuke’s attention out of the corner of his eye.  Halting his restless pacing, he slowly turned.  He forgot how to breathe.  His heart stilled in his chest.  His feet became blocks of leaded cement.   Seeing terror slide onto his cousin’s suddenly white face as Taisuke stared wide eyed at something behind him put Hideo instantly on alert.   Hideo’s hand crept slowly for his gun secured at his side.  Hideo staggered, but regained his balance before he could even undo the snap that secured his police issued handgun in its holster.  He met Taisuke’s wide shocked filled obsidian eyes.  His cousin’s mouth was moving, but Hideo could not hear anything over the beating of his heart.  He touched his back tentatively.  Bringing his hand around, his face went white when he saw it smeared red.   His last thought was, “Some cop I am.  I didn’t even hear anything.”   ~*~   Clear.  Maybe he was just being paranoid.  It was possible.  They have all been on edge, him especially, for months.  And rightfully so.  Besides, it was not as if they lived in the middle of nowhere.  There was bound to be other people out on the streets.  Even if it was four o’clock in the morning.   Ever since Shuichi received that photograph at the hospital last month with that warning that has since been established to have been written in dried human blood and not paint, everything has been pretty quiet.  There have been no strange vehicles following any of them.  Nor has there been any photographs slipped into their mailbox.   What should be a good thing has just made everybody that more antsy.   An attentive Blade was besides him.  Shuichi’s pint of rocky road ice cream- that he had insisted on having no matter what- along with several other different kinds of ice cream and some other junk food that Shuichi has been craving recently- was locked safely in the trunk of his Ferrari.     Eiri turned onto his street, hoping against hope that he really was just being paranoid.   ~*~   Officer Shibasaki Hiroyuki watched as the red taillights of Uesugi-san’s car disappeared through the wrought iron gates.  A cool breeze tickled in through the open window of his car.   He rolled up his window.   “We were being followed,” said the voice of Uesugi-san’s bodyguard echoing in his head.   That had instantly put Hiroyuki on alert.  “Was it-?”   “It was too dark to tell.”   “If it was,” Uesugi-san had added as he puffed away at a cigarette, “she was driving a different car.  That much I could tell.”   That was a given.  After causing such a serious accident last month in Osaka, Rinjin had ditched her damaged car in a Kyoto parking ramp.  Nobody in his or her right mind would be caught dead driving a damaged car that the police were looking for.  So of course, she had to get a new one.  But with her being a wanted felon, where could she possibly secure one without the police being alerted?  She could have stolen one, but the police were keeping an eye on all auto thefts in the surrounding area.  They knew she had not left the area.  At least not by plane, train or bus.  Her picture was plastered just about everywhere.  There was also a huge reward out for information leading to her capture.  Who would not jump at the chance for a million yen or two?  No, Rinjin had herself a new accomplice.  That was the only explanation.   Hiroyuki checked the time.   First, Hideo never shows up and now someone had followed Uesugi-san through town.  Either Hideo had been taken off watch and Hiroyuki had not been informed and one of his fellow officers had followed Uesugi-san to the store to make sure nothing happened to him, or something more serious was going on.   “213 to Dispatch,” Officer Shibasaki Hiroyuki called over his radio.   “Go ahead 213,” came the static filled reply.   A feeling of dread washed over him.   ~*~   Eiri stepped into the kitchen from the garage and setting the armload of groceries down, reactivated the security system as Blade shut and locked the door behind him before he disappeared within the shadows of the house.  Eiri would prefer is Blade and the other guards took their shoes off in the house as per Japanese custom, but he understood why they kept them on.  He returned his keys to the lockbox where the other keys to both the house and their cars were kept.   He hesitated when he spied the empty hook where the keys to Riku’s Tiburon GS had once hung.  He shut and locked the lock box with a small smile on his face.  That spot will not be vacant for very long.   Shedding his shoes, Eiri carried the bags into the kitchen.  He placed the bags of chips and other goodies he bought in the cupboard above the refrigerator, which was away from everybodies’, but his reach.  Folding the cloth bag, he set it aside and pulled the second bag in front of him.  He really liked these reusable cloth grocery bags.  They were cheap and took up half the space as the paper and plastic ones.  Reaching inside the bag, he pulled out several cartons of ice cream.  Knowing Shuichi, everything he bought will be gone in a day.   Finding the rocky road ice cream that Shuichi wanted, Eiri put it aside and stacked the rest in the freezer.    Eiri glanced over his shoulder when he heard soft mumbling.  He chuckled lightly.  In his sleep, Riku had somehow managed to kick his blanket off.  He wondered if that was where Keitaro got it from.   ~*~   Setting the spoon and the ice cream down on the table besides the armchair that Shuichi commandeered when he was down here, Eiri crept quietly to the hospital bed where Riku was sleeping.  He gently untangled the covers and pulled them up around his adopted son’s shoulders.   He brushed the boys silken dark brown locks.   It was hard to believe that Riku was biologically related to Yuki.  It had taken Eiri such a long time to get over his jealousy of Riku (for taking Shuichi’s attention away from him) and his own self-hatred for taking away Riku’s father to be able to think of Riku as something other than a nuisance and a pest.  But he eventually was able to accept him and Eiri would not change his decision for anything in the world.  If anyone asked, he would deny it though.  More out of principle than anything.   Picking up the ice-covered ice cream container and spoon, Eiri crept like a specter through the dark, silent house.  He acknowledged Maki who stepped out of the shadows as he climbed the staircase to the master bedroom.  If he did not get this ice cream to Shuichi pretty soon, Shuichi would have his head.  What worried him the most, was which head Shuichi’s hormones would choose to lop off.   ~*~   Sergeant Ohsato Yasuhiro and his partner Officer Shinohara Akio carefully approached the small five-hundred plus square foot apartment of Officer Oda Hideo.  A man who was rapidly rising in the ranks.  The boy had a bright future ahead of him.   Yaushiro knew Hideo was having some family issues so he was not too overtly concerned about him not showing up for his shift.   As soon as the apartment door came within sight, Yasuhiro was instantly on alert.  His went for his gun.  He signaled to his wet-behind-the-ears partner who also brought out his gun.   Both approached the open door cautiously with their guns at the ready.  Each stood on either side of the open doorway.  Yasuhiro signaled silently to Akio.   With a nod, Akio went in first.  He pushed open the door and entered the apartment.  “Sergeant,” called Akio from inside.   Yasuhiro stepped forward.  And that was when he saw him.  Laying face down with a hole in the middle of his back several feet from where he stood was Hideo’s still body.  “Shit,” he cursed.  “Officer down.  Officer down,” he called frantically into his radio.  He rattled off his location as he bent down next to his officer’s body.  He could not find a pulse.   “Looks like there’s another one, Sir,” Akio informed his superior as the fresh from the academy police officer crossed the room towards the second victim who was laying face down in a pool of blood with what looked to be several bullet wounds to his back.  He checked for any signs of life.  “No pulse, Sir.”  Akio’s eyes went wide when he caught a good look of the man’s face.  “Sir!”  He turned to face Yasuhiro.  “It’s that guy that the Osaka Police are looking for!  That photographer!”   Yasuhiro’s head snapped up.  “What?!”   ~*~   “Ow!  Son of a bitch!”   Eiri heard his husband’s disgruntled voice over the sound of the flushing toilet as he stepped into the master suite.  “Baby?”   “Yeah, Eiri,” answered Shuichi from the bathroom.   “You alright?”  Eiri closed the door to the bedroom behind him as he crossed the suite to the bathroom.   “Yeah.”   There was the sound of rushing water.   “What happened?”   There was silence as the sound of rushing water vanished.  Seconds later, the bathroom door opened and a very pregnant and very naked Shuichi walked out.   “I banged my hip against the sink,” he said, rubbing his right side.   Thinking what a klutzy idiot he had fallen in love with, Eiri shook his head in disbelief.  “Here.”  He helped his wattling partner with his free hand.   “Oh, hey guess who call…is that mine?” Shuichi asked catching sight of the ice cream in Eiri’s hand.  He was already drooling.   “Not if you don’t get that cute little ass of yours in bed.”   Shuichi halted his shuffle-scoot into the bed and glanced at Eiri with wide sparkling violet eyes.  “You think I have a cute ass, Eiri?”   “No,” Eiri denied, ignoring the hearts in Shuichi’s eyes.   A slow grin spread across Shuichi’s face.  “Yes, you do,” he contradicted as he settled himself in bed.  He made sure to present Eiri with a nice view of his ass as he did.  He threw in a good shake just for good measure.   “I said no such thing.”  The little dance Eiri’s nether regions performed contradicted that statement.  He crawled under the covers next to Shuichi and handed him the ice cream.  He could not feel his hand.   “Uh huh,” Shuichi hummed as he pried off the lid and handed it to Eiri who set it on the nightstand.   “So?” Eiri led, turning back towards Shuichi.   “So what?” Shuichi mumbled around a mouth full of chocolate ice cream.   “Who called?”   For a moment, Shuichi looked confused.  “Oh!  Michael called.”   “Yeah?  What he want?”   Shuichi face fell.  He watched dejectedly as his spoon chopped into the semi-hard ice cream.  The ice cream burned down his throat.  “He and Anzu are getting divorced.”   Eiri frowned.  “Weren’t they in counseling?”   “That’s what I said!”   “Hm.”   “…I feel so bad for him,” Shuichi muttered.   Eiri shrugged.  “These things happen, Shu.  I told you that before.”   “I know,” Shuichi nodded.  But that does not mean he had to like it.  “But hey,” he continued trying to cheer himself up, “he said he wanted to help produce my album.”   “Did he now?”   “Yep!”   “…And did you talk to Nakano and Fujisaki yet?”   “…Well…,” Shuichi drawled.  “Sorta.”   Eiri raised an eyebrow.  “Is that a yes or a no?”   Shuichi shrugged.  He speared his ice cream with his spoon.  He did indeed speak with them at Christmas about deciding not to do that song for Desert Star after all and they understood his reasoning why, but Shuichi had not been able to say anything about his solo album he hopefully planned to start some time this summer.  He talked with Kei and Kai, though, and like Michael, they supported him one-hundred percent.  But Fujisaki and most especially Hiro were different.   Eiri heaved a disgusted sigh.  “You gotta tell them Shindou Shuichi.”   “I know.  And I will…eventually…,” he muttered.   Eiri snorted.  “Baka.”   A peaceful lull surrounded them as Shuichi gobbled down his ice cream like a starving man.  Eiri chuckled in amusement.  He reached out a hand towards Shuichi, but Shuichi denied him by turning on his side with his back to Eiri.   Eiri was not about to give up.   With a devilish gleam in his golden eyes, he slid across the bed and pressed his hardened length against Shuichi’s cute little ass.   Again nothing.   Frowning, he swept aside Shuichi’s jet-black locks and pressed a series of chaste kisses down Shuichi’s throat to his shoulder.   Once again nothing.   Eiri ran his hands lightly down Shuichi’s side.  He knew how ticklish Shuichi was.   A shudder raced up Shuichi’s spine and it had nothing to do with the ice cream.  His cock twitched in reaction.   With a self-satisfied expression on his face, Eiri gripped Shuichi’s waist lightly.  Pressing his thumbs into the small of Shuichi’s back, he slowly began to massage Shuichi’s back.   “Hm.  You always take care of me,” Shuichi whispered breathily.   “Of course.  You are carrying my sons after all.”   Shuichi reached around and swatted Eiri.  “Hey!  What about little Yuki?”   Eiri raised an eyebrow.  “’Little Yuki’?”   “What?”  Shuichi turned slightly to face him.  “You’d prefer we call your daughter ‘Little Eiri’?”   “That would be a start.”   Shuichi laughed and turned back around.   He felt the bed jostle.  His heart was hammering in his chest and his breathing had sped up in anticipation as Eiri disappeared underneath the covers.   His laughter choked to a halt.  Drawing in a sharp breath, Shuichi stilled as he felt Eiri press his lips to the small of his back.  Tears prickled his eyes.   Eiri pulled back slightly.   Shuichi set his ice cream down on the edge of the nightstand by his head.   With his right hand, Eiri lightly traced the lines of the herald of seven multi-colored butterflies tattooed at the small of Shuichi’s back.  These beautiful, majestic creatures encircled a male fairy with long flowing blond hair that was blowing gently about his muscular frame.  White angel wings spread out from his creamy white back.  A gauzy mesh piece of fabric covered his groin.    Eiri had very nearly killed Shuichi when he came home one day several years ago with the tattoo.   “It was either this or ‘Property of Eiri.  No trespassing,” Shuichi had explained.   Truth be told, Eiri had liked he sound of that last one.   “I’ll keep that in mind for next time,” Shuichi had snorted.  “But,” he had turned suddenly serious, “I felt it was appropriate to get this one.”   When he asked about what the tattoo represented, Shuichi told him, “A memorial.  Fairies are said to represent angels.”   “And you know that how?”   “Looked it up.”   “Ah.  And the butterflies?”  At the time, there had been only six butterflies.  Shuichi only recently went in to get the seventh, which represented Baby Kira.   “Our boys and Koji and Jacob.”   Eiri had done the calculations in his head.  “That still leads one butterfly.”   Shuichi had shaken his head.  “No.  It doesn’t.”   What Eiri had failed to realize was that apparently it was the anniversary of that awful day when he very nearly lost everything.  And that sixth butterfly represented the child they lost.   Shuichi had plans of going back sometime this spring to get three more butterflies added to it.   Eiri snapped out of his by a muffled sob.   Spooning his husband from behind, he wrapped his arms tenderly but securely around Shuichi.  “You’re a good mother, Shuichi,” he whispered.   Sniffling, Shuichi turned around in Eiri’s arms.  “Really?”  He searched Eiri’s face with hose wide vivid violet eyes glistening with unshed tears.   Eiri cupped Shuichi’s cheek and smiled.  “Yes.  Really.”   They leaned towards one another.  Just as their lips were about to meet, a loud wail sounded over the baby monitor startling the would-be lovers.   Eiri cursed.   Shuichi tried to still his racing heart.   Tossing back the covers, Eiri stalked out of the bedroom for the nursery.  He very nearly tore the door off its hinges.   Shuichi giggled.  Reaching for the ice cream container, he frowned when his spoon scrapped the bottom.  “Damn,” Shuichi muttered.  Empty.  He wondered if there was any more.   ~*~   When Eiri stepped into his eight month old’s room, the crying came to an automatic stop.  Watery black eyes that had a purple sheen to them, just like his mother’s, peered at him through the twilight hidden room.   There was a squeal and something that sounded vaguely like “dada”.   “What’s all this racquet, huh?” Eiri breathed as he crossed towards the crib.   Kira’s whole body seemed to spasm as he gleefully.    At eight months old, Kira was just beginning to form words.  He could pull himself up, stand up and sit up without any help, though he tended to be a little top heavy and toppled over.  He could also walk, but only with help.   “Woh,” Eiri exclaimed when his son lost his balance and collapsed.   Kira’s face crumbled.    Just as the water works began, Eiri reached into the crib and lifted Kira up into the air above his head.  Kira squealed with laughter.  Eiri did this several more times.  Each time, his son’s excitement grew.   Deciding to check if Kira needed to be changed, Eiri checked his diaper.  “No stinky,” he told his son.  He held Kira out at arms length and then brought him in close.  “No stinky,” he repeated.  Kira laughed, which in turn caused Eiri to chuckle.  “Come on,” he said, “let’s go see Mama.”   ~*~   Shuichi looked up when the door creaked open.  A smile brightened his face when he watched his husband and youngest son walk into the bedroom.  “Look at you,” he exclaimed, “up at four o’clock in the morning.”   Kira smiled with a little squeal from around the bottle in his mouth.   “He did have an extra long nap yesterday,” Eiri reminded Shuichi.   “True.”   “What you doing?” Eiri asked as he slid into the bed.  He maneuvered Kira so that the eight month old was facing Shuichi.  He leaned his head back and gently moved Kira’s free hand away from his face.   “Checking my email,” Shuichi confessed.  Seeing as he was up anyway.   Eiri made an undistinguishable noise.  He had not checked his in a while and for one simple reason.   “Got an email from Mizuki.”   And that would be it.   “She wants me to remind you that your deadline was two weeks ago.”   “...Yeah and…?”   Shuichi tsked.  “Eiri.”   “What?” Eiri replied innocently.   Shuichi sighed and shook his head.   “Hey, what about you?  You haven’t touched your book since Aug…ust.”  Too late, he knew he said too much when he saw Shuichi’s face crumble.  He winced and mentally kicked himself.  “Sorry, Baby.”  He reached out with his free hand and tucked a stray lock of black hair behind Shuichi’s ear.   Shuichi grabbed Eiri’s hand and shook his head with a forced smile.  He opened his mouth, but whatever he would have said never came as a signal came from his laptop sounded.   Eiri glanced over Shuichi’s shoulder.  “Looks like it’s from your sister,” he said as he read the sender name.   “Yeah.”   “figured u would b up,” said the message.   “…She’s saying to turn on the news,” Shuichi said.   Shuichi and Eiri exchanged a look.   “Why?”   Shuichi referred to his younger sister short, but commanding Instant Message and shrugged.  “Doesn’t say.”   Eiri pulled out the remote from the nightstand by his side of the bed.  He aimed it at the flat screen HD television firmly secured to the wall across from the bed.  He turned it from the Pay-Per-View channel that it was on to one of the half a dozen twenty-four hour national news stations.  Shuichi and he ordered Resident Evil before they went to bed.  Though they had not been passed more than the first five minutes when something more important came up.   “And this just in,” said the newscaster who looked refreshed and perky even though the sun was still hours from rising, “we are getting word from Nara this morning that a police officer and his cousin were found shot to death…”   Shuichi’s naturally tan complexion went ashen.  He felt suddenly woozy.   Eiri’s already pale complexion went white.  The nearly empty bottle fell from their son’s mouth.  It bounced down Eiri’s arm that he had clasped around Kira’s waist and rolled across the mattress.  Kira’s head lolled forward.  Heavy lids drooped closed.   “…details are unknown at this time and the identities of the victims are being withheld pending notification…”   “Oh God,” Shuichi whispered.  His voice shook.  “Oh God.”  Was it…her?  Was she responsible for this?   Turning Kira around, Eiri held his sleeping son against his shoulder and patted his back.    His confused mind played back over the events of earlier.  He knew, and he knew that Shuichi did as well, that Rinjin Karin was more then likely the one responsible for this latest turn of events.  There was no question in his mind.  He did wonder why though.  If that “cousin” was the photographer that vanished after witnessing Rinjin at the hospital last month then Eiri could understand why she would want to eliminate him.  But what about that cop?  Was it just a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time?  He also wondered at what time it happened.  If the murder happened at the same time as when he was being followed, then it was possible that both he and Blade had been just paranoid after all.  There was another possibility, though.  She could have found a new partner.  He knew he should say something to Shuichi, but he wanted to wait until he knew for certain one way or another.  But then he remembered his last punishment for keeping quiet.   His decision made, he spoke up.  “We were followed.”   Shuichi slowly turned towards him.   Eiri told his husband about seeing that car pulling behind him as soon as he turned from their street and how the mysterious vehicle then stayed with him as he drove through town to the twenty-four hour convenience store on the edge of town.  The car was gone when Eiri came out, which led him to wonder if he had been paranoid.   A mixture of emotions waged a heated battle inside of Shuichi.  He was not sure whether to be angry that Eiri did not confess as soon as he came home that he suspected someone had been following him or worried that something could have happened to him just as it almost happened to their boys.   Eiri added, “Just remember it might not have been her.  Okay?”   Astonished, Shuichi opened his mouth, but closed it when nothing came out.  And that justified his waiting until now to say something?    Another signal sounded from the computer.  It was Maiko again.  Glad for the distraction, Shuichi read the new message.   “theres something i havent told u.”   “?”   “its bout ‘her’.”    Even without asking, Shuichi knew exactly whom it was his baby sister was referring to.  “She” was the “she-bitch”, as Maiko called her, who ruined her marriage.   “i no who she is.”   Shuichi exchanged an astonished glance with Eiri.     ***TBC***     A/N:  What did you think?  Be honest now.    Sorry it took so long to get out.  I have not been feeling too good.  I am still not better.  Being sick sucks monkey balls.   I am in the process of writing a sequel to “On the Street of Dreams” called “Still Raining”.  The title is actually the title of the first track off Jonny Lang’s album “Wander This World”.  I am not sure if it will be a one-shot or a two-shot, or something.  We will see.  But it will be out after “Because of You” is finished.  Here is the summary for the story (as it stands now):   “There was one woman at the press conference that refused to leave well enough alone.  Two years later, she is back and causing trouble for Shuichi and Eiri.  She is determined to prove that Aizawa is not the biological father of little Takanori.  What if she was right…?”   Duhn.  Duhn.  Duhn.  Duhn.