Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Disillusionment ❯ Lies ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: soumanyon 
Shuichi goes home to a waiting Yuki. Uh oh, even more trouble, just look at the chapter title. And beware of an evil cliffhanger at the end of the chapter.
Anime/Manga: Gravitation Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.30.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 709 | Status: Work In Progress
Shuichi goes home to a waiting Yuki. Uh oh, even more trouble, just look at the chapter title. And beware of an evil cliffhanger at the end of the chapter.
Anime/Manga: Gravitation Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.30.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.5K | Visits: 709 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: Gravi isn't mine. It belongs to the great, the wonderful, Maki Murakami. I just borrow her characters for a while to torture. ^_~
A/N: important bit of info, I've set up a notify list. Just go to:
http://soumanyon.notifylist.com/gravi.html
Basically you get e-mailed when I update. So go sign up!
Anyway, here's the next chapter!
Disillusionment
Chapter 3-Lies
Seguchi Tohma straightened in his black leather chair and stretched a little before spinning around his chair to view Tokyo through the wall to ceiling windows. Resting his chin in a propped up hand, he stared outside, hardly moved by the magnificent sight.
Like it was anything he didn’t see everyday.
On his polished wood desk lay endless piles of documents, all color-coded and organized and waiting for his signature. The fates of countless musicians were in black and white on his desk and he controlled their futures, whether there would be fame and fortune, or a lifetime of random coffee house gigs.
Tohma smiled, he liked power and he liked manipulating people with his power. The only exception was Yuki. He tried to stay out of Yuki’s life, but it usually didn’t work. He cared too much for the man that he had known for so long and loved for so long.
Sighing, the blond man shook his head and turned his chair back around, standing up. As soon as he thought of Yuki, he thought about the novelist’s young lover, Shuichi. Tohma had never liked Shuichi. The only purpose the singer served for him was profit-wise. Perhaps it was his overprotective nature, but he didn’t like it when anyone got too close to Yuki. Only those who knew each other the best knew best how to hurt each other. And Yuki didn’t need any more pain.
Dusting off his spotless shirt, the president of NG left his office and headed towards the elevator to the studio of Bad Luck, the corporation’s second most famous band. The first was, of course, his own Nittle Grasper.
~*~
“Stop! No!” the man in the ruffled black suit screamed, fingers twisted in his black hair as if he was going to rip it out of his own head. His wire glasses were barely hanging off the tip of his nose. A few more decibels and they were going to be gone.
Meanwhile, the blond American who was unfortunate enough to be sitting next to the nervous wreck closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, taking a few deep breaths, a major headache developing from the obnoxious squawking he was forced to endure.
Resisting the urge to just pull out his Magnum and shoot the producer, K calmly stood up and, holding the barrel of the gun, whacked the poor man over the head with the polished handle, silencing Sakano for a while instead of permanently.
Still rubbing his head, K looked up at the pink-haired vocalist who was, still coughing, removing his headphones and stepping away from the microphone. Hiro brought his friend a glass of water as Shuichi went to sit down.
“What is it, Shindou? For the past two weeks, we haven’t been able to get through a single song uninterrupted.” K’s voice was calm and flat even though beneath his cool exterior, he, like Sakano, was beginning to get a little worried. Their next album was due out in a month and they still had one song to record and one song that Shuichi still had to write.
Shuichi trained his violet eyes to the ground, ashamed. He knew that he had been slowing their recording. But unlike K assumed, it wasn’t for the past two weeks, but at least two months now. They just never noticed. Before, it had never been as bad as the last two weeks, though. His cough seemed to be getting worse. Maybe he should go see a doctor like Hiro said.
Suddenly, the glass door to the studio swung open and Seguchi Tohma walked in. Crossing his arms, the president of NG leaned against the wall next to the door, his light blue eyes on Shuichi.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Nothing.” K replied, meeting Tohma’s calm gaze, “Shindou-san began coughing in the middle of a song so we’re taking a break.”
Still coughing, Shuichi nodded his agreement.
Now studying his expensive, manicured nails, Tohma murmured in a flat voice,
“I’ve head that this had been happening for a while now.” He paused, “Will the album be on time or will there be a delay?”
At this moment, Hiro had come with the glass of water, which Shuichi chugged down. Wiping his mouth on his arm, the vocalist stood up, fierce amethyst eyes meeting Tohma’s.
“It’ll be on time, even if it kills me. We won’t have to delay.”
The room was silent for a few moments.
Finally, Tohma nodded, then turned on his heel and left. Everyone let out a breath that they had been holding. K simply shook his head. Someday Shindou would learn that you don’t mess with someone like Seguchi Tohma, but once in a while, it was good to see the proud blond back down.
Once Tohma left, Shuichi’s courage seemed to melt away as he began coughing uncontrollably again. This time, even another glass of water didn’t seem to do much.
K eyed the singer, then shook his head and sighed,
“Go home, Shindou. Take the rest of the day off.”
Shuichi gaped for a moment, then nodded wordlessly. Getting up, body still racked with coughs, he left, pulling Ryuichi’s violet shirt around him even more.
Strolling out of NG, the vocalist stood a little straighter. He ignored the strange looks he was getting, probably for his clothes. Who cared? He had stopped coughing at least and it was a nice day and he was skipping work. Maybe he should go out to lunch. But where?
Suddenly he stopped walking and backtracked a few steps. A second later, Shuichi’s nose was pressed up against the glass of a fancy little pastry shop. Funny, he had never noticed it before. Usually he was rushing to get home or to get to work and didn’t stop to smell the roses, so to say.
It was a cute little shop with lacy curtains. The shelves in the window were loaded with delicate, beautiful pastries and cakes and the smell coming from the shop was delicious. After just a moment of hesitation, Shuichi went into the store.
Compared to the cool fall day outside, it was like being toasted in front of a fire. Sweet smells hit him from all angles, enough to make his mouth water. That was when he had realized that he had skipped dinner yesterday and breakfast this morning.
Looking around, he was almost drawn to a small wood table with a tray of samples; strawberry shortcakes on it. Picking up one, he bit into it getting a little whipped cream on the corners of his mouth, which he quickly wiped out. Finishing the small cake in four seconds flat, the first thought that came to his mind was how much Yuki would love it.
An idea light bulb turned on in his brain. Whatever he did wrong yesterday, a box of these strawberry shortcakes would definitely make right.
Five minutes later, Shuichi was running home, a pretty pink box of strawberry shortcake in his hands and illusions of how happy Yuki would be to see them when he got home.
~*~
Yuki was worried.
He was also exhausted and hung-over.
He had sat up until the wee hours of the morning thinking. It pained him to realize that Shuichi had run away from him the previous night and he had turned the idea over in his head while chugging down 6 beers and smoking two packs of cigarettes. On his 7th beer, he had finally passed out.
He had woken up this morning to find himself with a pounding headache and had taken a hot shower to ease away some of the stiffness in his shoulders and neck from sleeping on the couch. He had found himself thinking about how Shuichi could tolerate it when he realized that it was himself who forced the vocalist to sleep there so often. Guilt that he usually never felt for anyone in the living world trickled into his mind.
He did love Shuichi. Maybe he wasn’t very good at showing it or maybe he was good at hiding it, but the truth of the matter was that Shindou Shuichi, a skinny little whiny crybaby, was the most important person in the world to him.
“God, I shoulda just run him over.” Yuki muttered to himself even though he knew he didn’t mean it, “how can one little brat screw up my whole life?”
The depression was hitting again. Seeing that he was alone, Yuki allowed himself a despairing groan. Too tired to get up and walk all the way to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, Yuki fumbled for a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket which had been hastily thrown on. He hadn’t even bothered to button it.
Finally freeing the pack from his pocket, he held it to his mouth and pulled out a stick with his teeth, holding it in between his lips. His other hand went to the couch’s end table where it grasped for his lighter.
“Damn…” he muttered, still fumbling for the lighter. His searching fingers met the phone. Forgetting about his nicotine rush, Yuki picked up the phone and, as he convinced himself, for a lack of anything better to do, decided to call Shuichi.
Picking the number for NG out of speed dial, Yuki waited, taking the cigarette out of his mouth as the phone on the other end of the line rang.
“Hai?” said a voice in heavily accented Japanese. Yuki wondered for a moment how anyone could say ‘hai’ with such a terrible accent. Then he remembered why he was calling.
“Is Shuichi there?”
“No, he just left.” K told him. The novelist was bewildered by this. Instead,
“Hiro?” he asked.
“Hang on.” K said as he left to get Shuichi’s best friend. Yuki smirked at the short conversation. It was so different from the other conversations he had whenever he called NG. It was usually unpleasant talks with his brother-in-law or his hyperactive lover. He never failed to hang up with a headache after talking to either. For some reason, it seemed as if the phone made Shuichi’s voice even higher than it usually was, especially when he squealed, which he tended to do a lot.
Thoughts of good times with Shuichi brought pangs to his heart. For some reason, he was attracted to the boy whom he could find so many faults with.
“God, I should take my pills…” Yuki muttered, rubbing his forehead tiredly. It was chore to keep his eyes open now. He was sleepy…
“Yeah, Hiro.” Came Nakano Hiroshi’s easy-going voice.
“Yuki.” Said novelist replied, searching his brain for a retort to use against the lecture that would surely be coming. It was basically the same as Tohma’s; reasons why he should leave Shuichi. But it was flipped, supposedly for Shuichi’s own good instead of his as with Tohma.
“What happened?” Hiro asked,
These words caught Yuki completely off guard. Shuichi was an open book. His face alone played through his emotions like a show with subtitles, and together with those impossibly large violet eyes, anyone with half a brain could tell what Shuichi was feeling at any time. The only challenge was why. And that was something that Yuki had never been able to figure out. Such as the boy’s blind love for himself.
“What do you mean? He went to your apartment last night.” Yuki said, completely disguising the confusion that he felt.
“No, he didn’t. Why? Did you kick him out again?” Hiro’s voice had gone cold and flat. However, there was concern for Shuichi. Maybe that was why he had been so off today.
“…”
“I’m taking that as a yes. Where did he go last night, then?” Hiro asked,
“I don’t know.” Yuki replied, hanging up the phone without so much as a goodbye. Worry gnawed at him now. He had been sure that Shuichi would have gone to Hiro’s house. Where did the vocalist stay then? Memories of the incident with Aizawa Taki from ASK resurfaced. And Hiro had asked his what happened. That meant that Shuichi must have been acting strange.
Yuki was just about to grab his coat and go look for Shuichi when he heard a key in the door. Throwing away the coat, Yuki sat back down on the couch again, face completely passive.
A few moments later, Shuichi came in quietly. There was no screeching of Yuki’s name today. Tiptoeing, the singer walked to stand next to the couch and held out the box of strawberry shortcakes.
After a long silence, Yuki turned his head to stare at his lover with his piercing amber gaze.
“Where did you go last night?” he asked, voice neutral as his expression.
Biting his lip, Shuichi faltered, then decided that he couldn’t tell Yuki the truth. His lover would be mad at him for acting so ‘irresponsibly and childish’ and he put it.
“I…went to Hiro’s house.”
A/N: Sorry!! I didn't mean to have a cliffhanger this chapter, I really didn't. They were supposed to make up, but the chapter was already getting too long, so I just ended it here. Also, sorry about the late update, wow, already a week since I last updated!
So, tell me what you thought. Damn, Yuki's such a hard character to write...
As always, review!
Reply to my ONE reviewer!
MissyIrene: Thanks for the great ratings and review! Thanks a bunch!
A/N: important bit of info, I've set up a notify list. Just go to:
http://soumanyon.notifylist.com/gravi.html
Basically you get e-mailed when I update. So go sign up!
Anyway, here's the next chapter!
Disillusionment
Chapter 3-Lies
Seguchi Tohma straightened in his black leather chair and stretched a little before spinning around his chair to view Tokyo through the wall to ceiling windows. Resting his chin in a propped up hand, he stared outside, hardly moved by the magnificent sight.
Like it was anything he didn’t see everyday.
On his polished wood desk lay endless piles of documents, all color-coded and organized and waiting for his signature. The fates of countless musicians were in black and white on his desk and he controlled their futures, whether there would be fame and fortune, or a lifetime of random coffee house gigs.
Tohma smiled, he liked power and he liked manipulating people with his power. The only exception was Yuki. He tried to stay out of Yuki’s life, but it usually didn’t work. He cared too much for the man that he had known for so long and loved for so long.
Sighing, the blond man shook his head and turned his chair back around, standing up. As soon as he thought of Yuki, he thought about the novelist’s young lover, Shuichi. Tohma had never liked Shuichi. The only purpose the singer served for him was profit-wise. Perhaps it was his overprotective nature, but he didn’t like it when anyone got too close to Yuki. Only those who knew each other the best knew best how to hurt each other. And Yuki didn’t need any more pain.
Dusting off his spotless shirt, the president of NG left his office and headed towards the elevator to the studio of Bad Luck, the corporation’s second most famous band. The first was, of course, his own Nittle Grasper.
~*~
“Stop! No!” the man in the ruffled black suit screamed, fingers twisted in his black hair as if he was going to rip it out of his own head. His wire glasses were barely hanging off the tip of his nose. A few more decibels and they were going to be gone.
Meanwhile, the blond American who was unfortunate enough to be sitting next to the nervous wreck closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, taking a few deep breaths, a major headache developing from the obnoxious squawking he was forced to endure.
Resisting the urge to just pull out his Magnum and shoot the producer, K calmly stood up and, holding the barrel of the gun, whacked the poor man over the head with the polished handle, silencing Sakano for a while instead of permanently.
Still rubbing his head, K looked up at the pink-haired vocalist who was, still coughing, removing his headphones and stepping away from the microphone. Hiro brought his friend a glass of water as Shuichi went to sit down.
“What is it, Shindou? For the past two weeks, we haven’t been able to get through a single song uninterrupted.” K’s voice was calm and flat even though beneath his cool exterior, he, like Sakano, was beginning to get a little worried. Their next album was due out in a month and they still had one song to record and one song that Shuichi still had to write.
Shuichi trained his violet eyes to the ground, ashamed. He knew that he had been slowing their recording. But unlike K assumed, it wasn’t for the past two weeks, but at least two months now. They just never noticed. Before, it had never been as bad as the last two weeks, though. His cough seemed to be getting worse. Maybe he should go see a doctor like Hiro said.
Suddenly, the glass door to the studio swung open and Seguchi Tohma walked in. Crossing his arms, the president of NG leaned against the wall next to the door, his light blue eyes on Shuichi.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Nothing.” K replied, meeting Tohma’s calm gaze, “Shindou-san began coughing in the middle of a song so we’re taking a break.”
Still coughing, Shuichi nodded his agreement.
Now studying his expensive, manicured nails, Tohma murmured in a flat voice,
“I’ve head that this had been happening for a while now.” He paused, “Will the album be on time or will there be a delay?”
At this moment, Hiro had come with the glass of water, which Shuichi chugged down. Wiping his mouth on his arm, the vocalist stood up, fierce amethyst eyes meeting Tohma’s.
“It’ll be on time, even if it kills me. We won’t have to delay.”
The room was silent for a few moments.
Finally, Tohma nodded, then turned on his heel and left. Everyone let out a breath that they had been holding. K simply shook his head. Someday Shindou would learn that you don’t mess with someone like Seguchi Tohma, but once in a while, it was good to see the proud blond back down.
Once Tohma left, Shuichi’s courage seemed to melt away as he began coughing uncontrollably again. This time, even another glass of water didn’t seem to do much.
K eyed the singer, then shook his head and sighed,
“Go home, Shindou. Take the rest of the day off.”
Shuichi gaped for a moment, then nodded wordlessly. Getting up, body still racked with coughs, he left, pulling Ryuichi’s violet shirt around him even more.
Strolling out of NG, the vocalist stood a little straighter. He ignored the strange looks he was getting, probably for his clothes. Who cared? He had stopped coughing at least and it was a nice day and he was skipping work. Maybe he should go out to lunch. But where?
Suddenly he stopped walking and backtracked a few steps. A second later, Shuichi’s nose was pressed up against the glass of a fancy little pastry shop. Funny, he had never noticed it before. Usually he was rushing to get home or to get to work and didn’t stop to smell the roses, so to say.
It was a cute little shop with lacy curtains. The shelves in the window were loaded with delicate, beautiful pastries and cakes and the smell coming from the shop was delicious. After just a moment of hesitation, Shuichi went into the store.
Compared to the cool fall day outside, it was like being toasted in front of a fire. Sweet smells hit him from all angles, enough to make his mouth water. That was when he had realized that he had skipped dinner yesterday and breakfast this morning.
Looking around, he was almost drawn to a small wood table with a tray of samples; strawberry shortcakes on it. Picking up one, he bit into it getting a little whipped cream on the corners of his mouth, which he quickly wiped out. Finishing the small cake in four seconds flat, the first thought that came to his mind was how much Yuki would love it.
An idea light bulb turned on in his brain. Whatever he did wrong yesterday, a box of these strawberry shortcakes would definitely make right.
Five minutes later, Shuichi was running home, a pretty pink box of strawberry shortcake in his hands and illusions of how happy Yuki would be to see them when he got home.
~*~
Yuki was worried.
He was also exhausted and hung-over.
He had sat up until the wee hours of the morning thinking. It pained him to realize that Shuichi had run away from him the previous night and he had turned the idea over in his head while chugging down 6 beers and smoking two packs of cigarettes. On his 7th beer, he had finally passed out.
He had woken up this morning to find himself with a pounding headache and had taken a hot shower to ease away some of the stiffness in his shoulders and neck from sleeping on the couch. He had found himself thinking about how Shuichi could tolerate it when he realized that it was himself who forced the vocalist to sleep there so often. Guilt that he usually never felt for anyone in the living world trickled into his mind.
He did love Shuichi. Maybe he wasn’t very good at showing it or maybe he was good at hiding it, but the truth of the matter was that Shindou Shuichi, a skinny little whiny crybaby, was the most important person in the world to him.
“God, I shoulda just run him over.” Yuki muttered to himself even though he knew he didn’t mean it, “how can one little brat screw up my whole life?”
The depression was hitting again. Seeing that he was alone, Yuki allowed himself a despairing groan. Too tired to get up and walk all the way to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, Yuki fumbled for a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket which had been hastily thrown on. He hadn’t even bothered to button it.
Finally freeing the pack from his pocket, he held it to his mouth and pulled out a stick with his teeth, holding it in between his lips. His other hand went to the couch’s end table where it grasped for his lighter.
“Damn…” he muttered, still fumbling for the lighter. His searching fingers met the phone. Forgetting about his nicotine rush, Yuki picked up the phone and, as he convinced himself, for a lack of anything better to do, decided to call Shuichi.
Picking the number for NG out of speed dial, Yuki waited, taking the cigarette out of his mouth as the phone on the other end of the line rang.
“Hai?” said a voice in heavily accented Japanese. Yuki wondered for a moment how anyone could say ‘hai’ with such a terrible accent. Then he remembered why he was calling.
“Is Shuichi there?”
“No, he just left.” K told him. The novelist was bewildered by this. Instead,
“Hiro?” he asked.
“Hang on.” K said as he left to get Shuichi’s best friend. Yuki smirked at the short conversation. It was so different from the other conversations he had whenever he called NG. It was usually unpleasant talks with his brother-in-law or his hyperactive lover. He never failed to hang up with a headache after talking to either. For some reason, it seemed as if the phone made Shuichi’s voice even higher than it usually was, especially when he squealed, which he tended to do a lot.
Thoughts of good times with Shuichi brought pangs to his heart. For some reason, he was attracted to the boy whom he could find so many faults with.
“God, I should take my pills…” Yuki muttered, rubbing his forehead tiredly. It was chore to keep his eyes open now. He was sleepy…
“Yeah, Hiro.” Came Nakano Hiroshi’s easy-going voice.
“Yuki.” Said novelist replied, searching his brain for a retort to use against the lecture that would surely be coming. It was basically the same as Tohma’s; reasons why he should leave Shuichi. But it was flipped, supposedly for Shuichi’s own good instead of his as with Tohma.
“What happened?” Hiro asked,
These words caught Yuki completely off guard. Shuichi was an open book. His face alone played through his emotions like a show with subtitles, and together with those impossibly large violet eyes, anyone with half a brain could tell what Shuichi was feeling at any time. The only challenge was why. And that was something that Yuki had never been able to figure out. Such as the boy’s blind love for himself.
“What do you mean? He went to your apartment last night.” Yuki said, completely disguising the confusion that he felt.
“No, he didn’t. Why? Did you kick him out again?” Hiro’s voice had gone cold and flat. However, there was concern for Shuichi. Maybe that was why he had been so off today.
“…”
“I’m taking that as a yes. Where did he go last night, then?” Hiro asked,
“I don’t know.” Yuki replied, hanging up the phone without so much as a goodbye. Worry gnawed at him now. He had been sure that Shuichi would have gone to Hiro’s house. Where did the vocalist stay then? Memories of the incident with Aizawa Taki from ASK resurfaced. And Hiro had asked his what happened. That meant that Shuichi must have been acting strange.
Yuki was just about to grab his coat and go look for Shuichi when he heard a key in the door. Throwing away the coat, Yuki sat back down on the couch again, face completely passive.
A few moments later, Shuichi came in quietly. There was no screeching of Yuki’s name today. Tiptoeing, the singer walked to stand next to the couch and held out the box of strawberry shortcakes.
After a long silence, Yuki turned his head to stare at his lover with his piercing amber gaze.
“Where did you go last night?” he asked, voice neutral as his expression.
Biting his lip, Shuichi faltered, then decided that he couldn’t tell Yuki the truth. His lover would be mad at him for acting so ‘irresponsibly and childish’ and he put it.
“I…went to Hiro’s house.”
A/N: Sorry!! I didn't mean to have a cliffhanger this chapter, I really didn't. They were supposed to make up, but the chapter was already getting too long, so I just ended it here. Also, sorry about the late update, wow, already a week since I last updated!
So, tell me what you thought. Damn, Yuki's such a hard character to write...
As always, review!
Reply to my ONE reviewer!
MissyIrene: Thanks for the great ratings and review! Thanks a bunch!