Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Because of You ❯ chapter 31 ( Chapter 31 )

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 is determined to bring the man who murdered her brother to justice at any cost. Warning:Angst, drama, romance, m-preg, language, m/m sexual content Inserts:  References to This I Promise You and “Parental Revenge” A/N:  Thank you to all of you guys who review.  I really appreciate it!  This one is for you!     ------------+------------+------------+------------     (Last Time)   “Looks like the lock’s been picked,” he commented as he spied the scratches.  Having once been part of a gang when he was a teenager, he could spy a forced entry in his sleep.   “That would certainly explain how someone could come into a house that is supposed to be empty,” Shigeno said.   The tumblers shifted.  The wet behind the ears rookie pushed open the door and stepped back.    Misawa and Shigeno burst inside with their guns at the ready.  The uniformed officers followed in their wake.   Katsuragi and the others entered from the kitchen.   Methodically and being as silent as ghosts, the house was swept.  One by one, each of the rooms were cleared.  There was absolutely no sign that anybody had been here in quite some time.  There was a thick layer of dust covering everything.   “Detectives,” one of the officers called from the back of the house.  “There’s something you should see, Sirs.”   Glancing at one another speculatively, Misawa, Shigeno and Katsuragi stepped into the bedroom and gasped.   “What the fuck?”   +------------+------------+   Chapter 31   (Later That Night)   Newly manicured nails clawed at the tree bark.  Narrowed brown hazel eyes gone black with insuppressible rage peered through a veil of brown hair so dark it was often mistaken for black and around the tree.  They followed the last unmarked patrol car as it preformed a three-point turn and sped off down the street.  A low chuckle floated upon the wind.   Soon.  This hypocrisy of injustice would soon come to and end.   +------------+------------+   (Several Hours Later)   Shuichi was not sure what stirred him awake that night.  Silence enfolded around him.  Darkness surrounded him.  Over the baby monitor that sat on the nightstand, he could hear Baby Kira snoring softly.  It made him smile.  From besides him, he could hear Eiri’s light breathing.  The little ones within him were silent, sound asleep in their cocoons for another month yet.   A creak, like a gunshot in the unnatural silence, was heard.   With a gasp, Shuichi’s head shot in the general direction the sound came from.  His breathing had sped up.  His pulse had quickened.  He could taste it on his tongue.  His mouth had gone dry.   Suddenly scared, Shuichi reached out a hand blindly towards his husband as he searched the shadow-hidden room.  His eyes went wide as his hand felt nothing but air besides him.  Everything went still.  He could hear nothing over the thunderous beating of his heart.  His chest rose and fell sporadically as his breath came out in wheezing pants.   Shuichi went to push himself up off the bed, when suddenly he found he could not move.   “No,” he cried softly as he started to panic.  “No!”  Please, God, this was not happening!  Please, no!  No!   His arms were secured above his head to the headboard.  He could feel something wrapped tightly around his wrists.  The soft fabric bit into his skin.    Wait.  Headboard?  They did not have a headboard.  What was going on?   Like his wrists, something was bound tightly around his ankles.  The silky fabric held his legs splayed open.   “Eiri,” he whispered.  He sobbed.  “Eiri!”  Tears stung his eyes and blurred his vision.   Shuichi jerked against his bonds in desperation, but they merely tightened in reaction.   “I'm sorry, Shu-han,” whispered a voice in his ear.  “But your ‘lover' is not here.  It's just you and me.”   Shuichi’s stomach rolled and rebelled as a wash of terror encompassed him.  Obsidian eyes that had a violet sheen to them went wide and a once olive complexion went white.  Fear froze Shuichi to the bed.  He forgot how to breathe.  His heart stopped beating.  His mind went blank.   “Shu-han,” chuckled the voice.  “I won't hurt you, you know that!  I'm here to help you!  I want to save you!”   Shuichi broke out into a cold sweat.    No!  This was a dream.  This had to be a dream.  Please!  God!  Let this be a dream!   “Believe what you want, Shu-han.  For you are mine.”   Out of the shadows at the foot of the bed stepped a man who had such a pale complexion, it was nearly ghostly white.  Those narrow chocolate brown eyes stared down at him with an all too familiar gleam that made Shuichi feel instantly soiled.  A fairly large bulbous nose and full lips that were titled up into a devilish imitation of those Machiavellian eyes took up most of the guy’s face.    Please, God.  Please.  This could not be happening!   Shuichi’s breath hitched.  “Ya…Ya…sa…shii.”   Rinjin Yasashii beamed down at him.  He took another step towards him.   “Bu…But…you…R 21;   “Brother,” snapped an impatient voice.   Shuichi’s head snapped around.   Out of the shadows on the far side of the room stepped a smallish woman with badly dyed stringy blond hair, unnaturally prominent cheekbones and lips so full they just had to be fake.   “We do not have time to play,” the woman snapped.   Yasashii pouted cutely at his baby sister.  “Oh!  You are no fun, Karin.”   “Brother!”   Yasashii sighed.  “Okay.  Okay.”   Shuichi watched the interaction, growing more terrified by the second.   If this was a dream then why was he not waking up?   Yasashii turned his attention back to Shuichi and grinned.   Shuichi shrank away.  For just a second he thought he had seen Aizawa’s face superimposed over Yasashii’s and that terrified him even more than the dead man standing before him.   “Now, my angel,” Yasashii purred as his wraith-like hands started on his belt.  “Where were we?”   +------------+------------+   His mouth was open in a soundless scream.  Unseeing violet eyes clouded over with terror snapped open.  His body jerked violently in reaction.  Shuichi flew up.  His heart beating erratically, he scrambled backwards as if Death was after him out of the covers and over the mound of pillows until he felt the cold solidness of the wall at his back.  Panting heavily, Shuichi stared into the quiet darkness that surrounded him with wildly frantic eyes.   Shuichi took a deep breath and closed his eyes.  A sense of calm washed over him as little by little, his fog-muddled mind began to clear.  His breathing began to even out.  His pulse slowed.   A dream, he reminded himself.  It was just a dream.  Just a dream.  A dream.  Dream.   But then he suddenly did not feel right.  The beginnings of nausea washed over him.  He felt lightheaded.  Yet at the same time, his head felt heavy.  Bile filled his mouth like a leaky faucet.  He was hot and on the verge of passing out.   Oh, God, he thought.   Slapping a hand over his mouth, he pushed himself out of bed with some difficulty and waddled as fast as his pregnant self could carry him around the bed and across the room to the bathroom.  He tossed open the door to the dressing room and raced to the toilet.  Flinging the lid and the toilet seat up, Shuichi collapsed to his knees and leaned over the bowl just in time.   +------------+------------+   Eiri woke to the sound of retching.  He blinked up at the ceiling and waited for his sleep-muddled mind to catch up.  Draping an arm across his brows, he closed his eyes and sighed.  Dropping his arm, he tossed aside the covers and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, slid his feet into his slippers.    Yawning, he combed his fingers through his sleep-tousled hair.  Eiri reached for the clock sitting on the bedside nightstand and gazed sleepily at it.  The red numbers blurred before him.  It was a little after midnight.   Standing up, he shuffled into the dressing room.  He peered around the door and saw Shuichi spitting into the toilet as he reached out with a trembling hand to flush the toilet.  Closing the toilet lid, Shuichi slumped against the pristine white throne.  His lids fluttered closed.   Eiri crossed the dressing room towards his pregnant baka.   Crouching down besides Shuichi, Eiri rubbed slow, comforting circles on his back.  He did not bother asking for he knew.   Shuichi sniffled.  “I…I’m sorry,” he whispered against his arms.  His voice was thick from crying.  “Did I wake you?”  He lifted his head up and met worried golden hazel eyes.   With a soft smile, Eiri pressed his lips against Shuichi’s sweat drenched head in a brief, chaste kiss.  “It’s fine.”   A stray tear slipped undisturbed down Shuichi’s face.  “Can…can you give me a couple minutes?”   Nodding, Eiri stood and pressed his lips against the top of Shuichi’s damp raven head in another chaste kiss before turning to leave his husband to pull himself together.   He glanced over his shoulder around the dressing room door and watched Shuichi silently for a moment before stepping out into the bedroom.  He shut the door firmly behind him.   A sudden surge of anger boiled through him.  Balling his hand, Eiri slammed his fist into the wall with a sound curse.    +-------------+------------+   (Earlier That Day)   Shuichi gave a strangled cry.  He slapped a hand over his mouth.  Violet eyes swam behind a blur of tears.  The plastic evidence bag that he was holding in his free hand shook.    “Why?” he breathed around his sobs.  He was not sure to whom he was speaking.   There was a great ache in his chest that he could not explain.   Why was this happening to them?  Why?   Eiri kept his face carefully blank as he stood behind his husband rubbing his back soothingly.  The only evidence that he was disturbed was the hardening of his hazel eyes golden like the sun and the grim set of his jaw.   He was not sure what he had expected when he told the police that he suspected someone of being in a supposedly vacant house, but this was not it.   Detectives Misawa and Shigeno claimed that there was evidence of tampering with the front door lock, but other than that, it had looked as if nobody had been inside the house for several months if all the dust and cobwebs were any indication.  That was until they reached the last bedroom at the back of the house that overlooked the Uesugi-Shindou house.   There hanging in the center of the room from a hook tied to a thin piece of string secured to the ceiling was an eight by eleven inch glossy photograph of Eiri taken outside the twenty-four hour convenience store the other night when he bought his pregnant baka his ice cream.    Damn, Eiri thought.  So he had been right after all.  There had been someone following him.  He had been hoping against hope that he had been mistaken somehow.   Like the last two they received, this latest photograph had a warning smeared across the picture in thick red paint that was meant, once again, to look like blood.  Or at least Eiri hoped that it was paint.  This time, there were no words.  No.  This time there was a symbol that they all recognized.  There painted over the captured image of Eiri were three red rings, one inside the other.   “Eiri,” sobbed Shuichi from his position in the recliner.   Hating to see his baka so upset, Eiri rounded the chair and knelt before him.  He carefully wiggled the photograph from Shuichi’s trembling grip and handed it back to the police detectives who were standing back and looking uncomfortable.  Eiri ignored them.  He was glad that Maiko had taken the children to get some ice cream.  The last thing the children needed was to see their mother fall apart like this.   Maiko had not returned after she went to the Nara Police Station to speak with the police earlier.  Instead, she called the house to let Shuichi know that she had decided to stay in town to “do a little sightseeing”.  Shuichi had not pressed the issue.  He may look and act like an imbecile a great percentage of the time, but Shuichi had known his baby sister needed some time.   Shuichi wondered if Maiko still felt guilty.  He told her when she arrived from Hokkaido the other day that she had nothing to feel guilty about.  She had done nothing wrong.  But just telling her something like that and her actually stopping herself from feeling that guilt were two completely different things.  This and that.  He would have to have a talk with her later.    When she arrived at the house to find the police had swarmed the neighborhood en masse, Riku had been the one to suggest to his aunt that they take the boys out for some ice cream.  That had an immediate reaction.  Of course, several of the bodyguards that Tohma had assigned to the family went with them.   Eiri caged Shuichi’s face between his hands and stared into those incredible violet eyes swimming in tears.  “Baby,” he whispered, “I’m right here.  I am not going anywhere.”  He searched Shuichi’s shattered face.  “Understand me?”   With a shuddered sob, Shuichi nodded.   Leaning forward, he pressed his lips against Shuichi’s forehead.  Pulling back, he reached for Shuichi’s left hand.   Shinning on his left ring finger was the ring that Eiri had slipped onto Shuichi’s slim fingers all those years ago.  The wide gold band had nine .03-carat inset gems.  Creating a square, the eight on the outside were black sapphires that reflected a mysterious brown star when held in the light just right.  The ninth gem, in the center, was a dazzling Princess cut deep rich rose pink Sri Lanka spinal.   It was a family heirloom that had been passed from father to son for generations.  When Eiri was given the ring by his father when Eiri finished his studies to become a monk, or so Eiri’s father had hoped, Eiri was sure his father had not thought that Eiri would end up giving it to his male lover.  He was just one disappointment after another for his father.  Oh, well.   “When you accepted my ring,” Eiri continued, “you became stuck with me whether you like it or not.”   A grin cut through Shuichi’s tears.  He giggled lightly.   Chuckling, Eiri brought Shuichi’s hand up to his lips and kissed his ring.  “Suki dayo.  I love you, Shindou Shuichi.  Never forget that.”   With a sniffle, Shuichi shook his head as he rubbed at his tear soaked face.  He smiled back at his husband.  “I love you, too, Uesugi Eiri.”   Eiri cupped Shuichi’s cheek.  Their lips met.  It was just a gentle play of lips, a caress of the tongue.  He pulled back and chuckled at the deep blush that had exploded across Shuichi’s face.   +------------+------------+   (Present)    That bitch had better pray that the police get to her first, otherwise, he swore by all that was holy that the police would be arresting him for murder.  Nobody messed with his family and got away with it!   First, she teams up with that bastard that tried to kill Shuichi at Madison Square Garden after the guy’s daughter commits suicide.  Who knows what could have come out of that had the New York State police not caught him?  Next, she stalks Shuichi and takes candid pictures of their family, which reminded him too much of Isaac.    Isaac was Shuichi’s bodyguard from Bad Luck’s Loveless tour who had been sacked after allowing Scott Keene to lure him away from his post.  This careless act had nearly been the death of Shuichi.  A couple months later, a disgruntled Isaac was hired by Rinjin Yasashii to take a series of photographs that were supposed to be used later as blackmail against the singer.  Fortunately- or unfortunately, depending from your point of view- Isaac was killed in a car accident before that could happen.  Despite that, Eiri and Shuichi still get slack about those photographs from Seguchi.   Then, Karin tries to run their boys off the road.  The resulting accident nearly killed not only Riku, Keitaro and Kane, but Shuichi as well.  Eiri and their children were Shuichi’s life.  If anything were to happen to them, he really would die.  Eiri believed that.  Shuichi never did anything half-cocked.  What he did, he did with all of his heart.  Unfortunately, it was only the accident involving his own boys that made Eiri realized just what they were dealing with.  Karin was out for blood and if she had to go through the people that Shuichi cared about along the way, so be it.   On top of Riku nearly becoming paralyzed when he lost control of his car and slid it into a pillar and Kane and Keitaro being traumatized, possibly for life, that bitch was also responsible for murdering a police officer and his paparazzo cousin.  Not to mention, she was guilty of destroying Maiko’s marriage.  Eiri had no doubts that having an affair with Maiko’s husband had just been another step in her bid for revenge against Shuichi.    And now she was targeting him.   +------------+------------+   (Earlier That Day)   Clearing his throat, Detective Misawa stepped forward.   Eiri scowled as he reluctantly pulled away from Shuichi.   If at all possible, Shuichi’s face burned hotter as his embarrassment increased after remembering that they had an audience.   “We are not sure how long Rinjin has been occupying your neighbor’s house,” Misawa said.   “It could be,” his partner Detective Shigeno continued, “that she just picked the lock and broke in there earlier today in order to leave the photograph.”   Eiri had a hard time believing that and he knew the police did as well.  But it was still a possibility until they knew otherwise.   “There is no way of telling,” Misawa was saying.   “But it is obvious that she has been in the area for some time.”   “Probably after causing that accident in Osaka.”   Shigeno nodded in agreement.   Shuichi’s chest felt tight.  “W-what are you saying?” he asked quietly.   The two detectives exchanged a quick glance.    “The Nara city police are talking about pulling out,” Shigeno admitted.   Shuichi paled.   Eiri jumped to his feet.  “What?!”   Misawa held out his hands to ease the sudden tension.  He has heard some rumors about Uesugi Eiri-san and they were not very alluring.  “They feel that they have been compromised.”   Eiri was livid.  “And that justifies abandoning us while there is some crazed psycho freak out there?” he spit.   Detective Shigeno stepped forward.  “Uesugi-san.  The police have no intention of deserting you now.”   That stopped Eiri.   Confused, Shuichi glanced at the three men in turn.   +------------+------------+   (Present)   Shuichi had not said much since the detectives broke the news.  Eiri could not blame the man.   Pushing away from the door, Eiri crossed the hardwood floor and sat down on the edge of the bed where he hung his head in his hands.   Who knows how long Karin had been staking out their house from next door.  She could have done any number of things from her vantage point and nobody would have been the wiser.  And yet she had not.  Why?  She made sure that someone saw her.  Knowing that the house was vacant would prompt the involvement of the police.  No.  Rinjin Karin had not been planning to do anything more then send them another warning.  And her message had come across loud and clear.   And now the police were pulling the plug on their stack out.  They had watched as the last police vehicle drove out of sight several hours ago.   Eiri lifted his head when he heard the sound of running water.   Several long moments later, silence permeating the bedroom suite.   When the door clicked open, Eiri sat up.  He watched as Shuichi stepped out of the dressing room and pulled the door shut behind him.  Eiri noticed that he left the door open just a crack.  He also had left the light on.   Eiri crooked a finger at his naked, pregnant husband.   Despite the devastated expression on his face, Shuichi blushed hotly as he waddled slowly towards the bed with his arms wrapped securely around his swollen belly.   With a sly smile on his face, Eiri slipped his feet out of his fuzzy pink bunny slippers (do not ask where they came from) and scooted back to make room for Shuichi who crawled into the bed besides him.  As Shuichi settled down in bed with his back to him, Eiri brought up the covers around them.   Eiri slid in behind Shuichi.  Their bodies were perfectly aligned.  He wrapped his arm securely around the waist of his pregnant baka.  It always amazed him just how much a perfect fit Shuichi was in his arms.  Even with him having gained so much weight due to his pregnancy.   He pressed his lips into the crook of Shuichi’s neck, the spot where the neck and shoulder meet.  He knew what it was that Shuichi needed to hear.  “I love you.  I am not going anywhere,” he whispered in Shuichi’s ear.   A small smile graced the distraught singer’s face.   Eiri pulled Shuichi tightly against him.  Laying his head against Shuichi’s, Eiri rubbed Shuichi’s belly as a soft, gentle smile crossed his face.   +------------+------------+   (A Couple Hours Later)   In the shadows, a figure cloaked in darkness stepped out from behind the tree and watched the dark house with a gleam in her dark eyes.   Soon.   The police may have given up, but she would be damned if she had the gull to even think about doing something so cowardly.   “Have fun with your family while you can,” she growled, “because this time next week, your world will come to an end.”   +------------+------------+   A slim figure with a crop of shockingly white blond hair patrolled the Uesugi-Shindou estate grounds with Marcus, who was around back.  The beam from her flashlight scanned the darkness.  A noise from out of the darkness spun Maki around.  Suddenly on the defensive, her body readying itself for an attack, she scanned the yard with her sharp hawk-like eyes.  One hand was sitting on the butt of her gun, which she and the other bodyguards had been given special permission to use thanks to Seguchi Tohma, while the other hand swung about.  Out of the shadows surrounding the ten-foot high stone fence that enclosed the grounds, scurried a small black cat.  Relaxing, Maki continued her patrol.   +------------+------------+   (A Week Later)   The petite, wimpy looking Satoshi opened the front door as Maiko wheeled her brother through the foyer and out onto the front stoop just as Eiri’s black Mercedes-Benz pulled out of the garage.   “Are you sure?” Shuichi asked his baby sister as they watched Eiri pull the car around.  It has been so great having her here.  He was sad to see her go.  Pouting, his violet eyes gazed up at her, shimmering with unshed tears.   In the decade that Bad Luck was at the top of the charts, aside from the occasional email from his sister or phone call from his mother, Shuichi pretty much lost all contact with his family.  It had not been by choice.  It was just something that happened.  He had barely had time to spend with Eiri, who had been nearly as busy as he had been so how was he supposed to make time for his baby sister or his parents who lived on the other side of Tokyo from where Eiri and he had lived in Chiyoda-ku (1)?   Since Bad Luck was disbanded, all that changed.  Shuichi finally had the time to spend with his friends and family.  What Shuichi had not counted on was that by that time, they all lived hundreds of miles away from one another.  He just exchanged one problem for another it seems.    If everything went according to plan and Shuichi did indeed put out his solo album, it was possible that all this free time he currently had would vanish, just as it had when NG Pro first signed Bad Luck.  And having his sister all the way in Hokkaido and his parents in Tokyo would make it that much more impossible for him to see them.   Was it so bad, to want to have his family close?   Meanwhile, having parked his Mercedes-Benz in front of the house, Eiri pressed the button on the underside of the console.  He looked in his rear view mirror as the trunk popped open.  It popped up and down several times before settling.  Opening the car door, he stepped out.  He gazed over to where his husband and his sister-in-law were speaking on the front porch.  A tired scowl crossed Eiri’s face.  “Shuichi,” he warned with a sigh.  Without even asking, he knew.  How many times has Shuichi gotten him with that look?  Damn baka.   “What?” Shuichi whined.   Eiri just gave him a look as he walked over to them.   Shuichi gulped.   Maiko gave her brother-in-law a reassuring smile.  She turned back towards her brother.  “I hate to leave, but I really should be getting back.”  Her stomach twisted at the thought of flying back to her small apartment in Hokkaido.  It was similar to the feeling one had on the first day of school after a long summer break.  Only ten times worse.  Dread.   “I wish you didn’t have to.”   “Me, too, but…”  Maiko heaved a tired sigh.  “I’ve got to get back to work.  I’ve used up all my vacation days and Chiaki should really get back to school.”   “…You know…”   Eiri narrowed his eyes down at his husband.   “You could always move down here,” Shuichi suggested hopefully.   Maiko blinked at the suggestion.   “I mean, the boys really love you-”   Eiri had to force himself not to snort.  The boys loved anyone who gave them gifts.  One of their favorites was that idiot Sakuma.  What Eiri’s, as equally idiotic, brother saw in a man who was twice his age and who (still) carried around a fluffy pink bunny aptly named “Mr. Bear”, he would never know.  But then people could ask him the same thing.  He slid a glance at his idiot and coughed to hide a smirk.   “-and they get along with Chiaki and Subaru.”   That was an understatement, Eiri thought.  Keitaro and Kane were both in love with their older cousin Chiaki.  They were always fighting over the poor girl.   “I know Mom and Dad would really love it if you guys moved back to the area.  They are always complaining about not being able to see Chiaki and Subaru enough and they are always worried about you…”   With a snort, Eiri fought not to roll his eyes at the understatement.   Maiko gave her brother a sad smile.  “I wish I could,” she admitted.   “If it’s the money…,” Eiri spoke up.   Shuichi nodded vigorously.  “You know you can always ask us!”   Maiko bowed kindly at her brother’s husband.  “Thank you, Eiri-san.”  She smiled down at her brother.  “Big Brother.”   Because of Eiri’s success as an author and her brother’s success with Bad Luck, even seven years after the international pop sensation broke up, neither had to worry about money, not even if Yuki Eiri never had another bestseller or if the royalty checks Shuichi received on a daily basis stopped coming in.  Over the years, Shuichi and Eiri have been so generous to not only her but to the rest of the family.  Maiko could never repay their kindness.   She felt bad always having to rely on her famous, rich older brother, but the idea of moving back to Tokyo to be near her parents or even here to Kyoto was just too tempting an offer.   Shuichi reached out and grabbed his sister’s hand.  He laced their fingers together.  “Think about it?”   Giving her brother’s hand a squeeze, Maiko nodded and promised.  Feeling the beginning of tears, Maiko let go of her brother’s hand.  Clearing her throat, she clapped her hands together.  “So!  Where are those nephews of mine?” she asked.   Maiko knew Baby Kira and Riku were both in the house sleeping.  She had said her goodbyes to both of them earlier.   As she glanced around, she could see five of the bodyguards that Seguchi Tohma hired to protect her brother and his family.  All of them for some reason were working today.  When she had asked Shuichi about that, he had not been able to tell her anything about that.  Usually, three of them would be working at a time.  That all of them were here at one time was unusual.   Satoshi was standing behind her brother’s wheelchair while Marcus, Blade, Kaoru and Sanami were wondering the yard.  All were dressed in black suits that looked more expansive then Maiko’s car.  Dark ray ban sunglasses and guns, which she knew were kept hidden under their suit jackets, completed the outfits.  They reminded her of the Secret Service.  She could not see Maki though.   “Oh, they went down the street to the Suwa’s.”   “Ah!”  That would explain where Maki was.  One of the guards went with the boys everywhere, even to school.   Eiri glanced at his watch.  If Maikowasgoing to catch her train to Tokyo, they would have to leave now.  “Where are your bags?  We should get going.”   There was a flash of something across Maiko’s face before she was able to school her expression.  “By the staircase,” she managed to say despite the tightening in her throat.   Eiri bounded up the steps and vanished into the house.   Shuichi gripped the joystick located on the arm of his wheelchair and wheeled himself down the ramp and across the drive to Eiri’s car.    Maiko followed close behind him.   This was the same Mercedes Eiri had when Shuichi first met him when Shuichi was eighteen and a senior in high school.  The car was still in immaculate shape.  There was a time in their relationship where Shuichi had been almost positive that Eiri cared more for his precious Mercedes than for him.  Shuichi would have laughed at that absurd thought if it were not for the fact that part of him still felt that way.    Eiri’s Saab, the other car he had when they first met, sat under a tarp in the garage.  Like the Mercedes, it too was in perfect condition except for a tiny, microscopic ding on the front bumper, but since Eiri hardly ever drove it, what Eiri did not know would not hurt him.   +------------+------------+   The crosshairs in the scope where aligned perfectly over her target.  A sly smile crossed her face.   Finally.  It was here!   The image on the scope blurred behind sudden tears that stung her eyes.   It was so hard to believe that the day had finally arrived.  Everything had led her to this point.   Lowering her rifle, she tossed her head back and blinked her tears aside.  This was no time for this.  She would have time afterwards.  But not now.  Not here.   Nobody was above the law.  Not even the seemingly perfect Shindou Shuichi.  Once everybody knew the truth about what she was doing, discovered what a hero she was in ridding the world of a cold-blooded murderer, they would rejoice.  They would praise her!  She would become a god and be worshipped!   She knew it.   She could see it now!   But more importantly, her dear brother would finally be able to rest in peace, his murder having been avenged.   The sun glinted off the scope as she brought her target back into view.   +------------+------------+   Moving the last of Maiko’s bags onto the front stoop, Eiri vanished back inside the house after shooting Shuichi a quick glance.    He crossed the foyer to the family room off the kitchen, otherwise known as the Great Room.  Leaning over the recliner, he peered at his son and chuckled.  The Asian Studies student’s mouth was slightly ajar and a thin trail of drool was making its way down the young man’s chin.  He sleeps like Shuichi, he thought amusedly.    Eiri hated to wake him, but Riku would be upset to learn that his aunt left without saying goodbye.   He was rounding the chair when he heard it.  A popping sound.  It sounded vaguely like the firecrackers that the neighborhood children were always setting off.  But there was something different this time.  The sound never froze Eiri in fear, never stilled his heart or chilled him to the bone.  He had never forgotten how to breathe.  His already pale complexion never went white.  And he had never heard a scream like the one he was hearing right now.  It was a sound he never thought he would hear in his entire life and he hoped to God he never did again.   Startled awake, Riku’s dark hazel eyes snapped open with a gasp.   From the nursery upstairs, Baby Kira’s purple tinged jet eyes snapped open.  His olive complected face scrunched in misery.  The seven month old’s loud wails filled the house.   The sound of stampeding feet sounded behind him.   Dread filled Eiri.   “Uesugi-san,” yelled Satoshi.  “It’s Shindou-san!  He’s been shot!”   Eiri suddenly felt faint.   ------------TBC------------     (1) In the Gravitation anime, volume 1 there is the scene from the “day after” that shows Shuichi waiting for Hiro at Ichigaya Station, which I found, is located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, so I decided to make this where Shu and Eiri lived in Tokyo (don’t know if its true or not).   A/N:  I apologize on how long it took for this to come out.  Have you guys ever had the problem where you know what you want to happen, but you just cannot seem to get it down on paper?  What a pain the ass.  Besides that, I was working on “Wolfram’s Second Bruise” and its sequel, “Wolfram’s Third Bruise” (both of which are out now), “Somebody’s Watching Me” (a Gravitation one-shot which should be out fairly soon), this chapter as well as the epilogue to Because of You all at the same time.   *sighs*   Why I do this to myself is beyond me.   So, what did you think?  There is one more chapter plus the epilogue after this!