Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Extrication ❯ Extrication ( One-Shot )

Disclaimer: Gravitation belongs to Maki Murakami-sensei, not me. Nope, not me at all - I'm just borrowing several characters for… fun.

A/N: I just can't stop writing these silly AU 'Let's-butcher-their-character' pieces, can I? Boredom at school spawned this fanfic where I, yes, butcher Eiri's character some more. It's basically a mirror fanfic of sorts to my other fanfic: Trapped -which is a one-shot, by the way, for now maybe. The idea just kept on bugging me today and finally, I ended up writing it down in Physics Class (when boredom is at its peak and hands just itch for something productive to do, even if it means butchering characters…) The title was sort of inspired by this song from Lost Universe and it's just sort of fit. Interestingly, the word extrication is somewhat connected to trapped - at least my dictionary tells me so. So, anyway - OOCness ahead once again, plus some swearing but this one is…. a little bit 'cleaner' than the last one. : D (whew) Once again, comments and criticisms are more than welcome! Drop reviews! Drop reviews! I like 'em! I need them to know what I'm doing wrong (and I know I'm doing a lot wrong). Anyway, on with the fic…! (Once again, it's still unedited and I'm too lazy to do it now... -_-)

15/11/2003 - Edited a bit. I think I need to edit it further, but for now this will do. I added and deducted some stuff and… and… *sighs* I've lotsa improving to do… in terms of writing, that is. : 3 Feel free to point out my errors… *_* Just don't sound mean…XD

Extrication

Narita Airport was packed, filled with people rushing to get to their designated gates, to check in, to get their luggage… the list went on. It was just to be expected, however, with Christmas Eve just a few days away, naturally, a lot of people were flying to and from Japan to be reunited with their families.

One man couldn't care less as he walked pass these people and fitted perfectly in the crowd, seemingly melting into it in his dark sunglasses and coat. The only thing that stood out with him, he knew, was his blonde hair but for all he cared, to many, he knew he was just another 'gaijin'.

//"Flight NXXXX to New York boarding at Gate XX"//

He stopped, regarding the speakers overhead with a look of indifference.

A thought seemed to cross his mind and his eyes narrowed from beneath his dark sunglasses.

With a sneer, he spun on his heels and walked away.

---

The man bit his lip, chestnut brown hair shadowing his eyes as he clutched at the newspaper in his hand. Once in a while people would look to his direction, curious about the man who sat quietly (almost, anyway) beside the window, reading a newspaper that was decidedly not in English. His left hand reached for the cup of hot coffee on his table and, after taking a small sip from it and setting it down on the table, sighed.

"Eiri…" he whispered softly, putting the newspaper down. He let out another sigh as he looked out of the window. The sky was in a deep shade of gray, making him wonder about the probability of snow that night.

"Yuki-sensei.[1]" A voice said in a mocking tone that easily told him who its owner was.

Resisting the urge to sigh once more, he turned his head and greeted the voice's owner, a tall blonde, standing beside the table with a strained, and yet at the same time, warm smile.

"Eiri." Yuki said tiredly and motioned for the younger man to sit down. Eiri complied, sitting himself in the seat across Yuki's nonchalantly.

Yuki wanted to sigh again - anything concerning his former student seemed to warrant a sigh nowadays -but opted for another sip of coffee.

"How was your flight?" Yuki inquired, this time with a smile that came easily. Eiri shrugged, refusing to both remove his sunglasses or to meet his sensei's gaze.

"T'was okay." Came the distracted reply which just had Yuki's body screaming for another sigh.

Yuki sighed.

"You're not going to make this any easier for me, I see."

A shrug and a sneer were the only response he received from the blonde.

"Yoshiki[2] brought newspapers with him when he came back for his Christmas break." Yuki began. "I read about your little thing with BAD LUCK's vocalist Shuichi Shin-"

"What are you getting at?" Golden eyes fixed on him; sharp, accusing eyes - seemingly capable of tearing him into shreds with just that look.

Eiri had removed his sunglasses.

Yuki furrowed his eyebrows and forced a small smile.

"Don't take it out on him." Yuki breathed and hoped he didn't sound like he was pleading or begging.

With a mildly shaking hand, as he struggled to contain the raging emotions within him, he lifted his cup to his lips and drank from it, ignoring the way the liquid burned down his throat. It was still quite hot.

"What makes you think I'm taking it out on him? Sensei?"

The bitterness and sarcasm in Eiri's voice was not lost to Yuki who, for his part, tried his very best to ignore it.

Yuki set his cup down and leaned forward.

"I don't have to be a genius to know, Eiri." He said in a steady whisper.

They stared at each other then: Yuki calmly, Eiri defiantly.

Silence.

Yuki waited for Eiri's response and watched with disapproval when Eiri produced a silver lighter and a cigarette stick from his coat. Yuki wanted to say something about the latest research findings on the negative effects of smoking and how he himself had decided to quit drinking (which was just as bad) for good but held his tongue.

Eiri took a drag from his cigarette and then smirked. "Hah. Of course, you know." A bitter chuckle escaped the younger man's lips. "How could I have forgotten-"

"Eiri." Yuki didn't like being mocked like this. He wanted to reprimand his student, but try as he might, he knew just as well how he did not have any right to stop the younger man from doing so.

Eiri had every right to mock him, to degrade him, to hurt him like so.

"Please, don't take it out on him." Yuki allowed the urgency to sound in his voice.

Eiri blew smoke on his face.

"Just don't." Yuki said firmly. He didn't want to tell Eiri to try and remember how it felt for him. He didn't want to assume this Shindou Shuichi actually loved his former student. He didn't want to say his thoughts about a subject he knew close to nothing about save for the tiny, diluted snippets he'd read from dated newspapers.

All he knew (and needed to know) was that Eiri was, without a doubt, hurting the boy.

The boy, this Shindou Shuichi, afterall, just happened to remind him of a certain naïve and wide-eyed student of his before at one glance of his smiling picture from one of the Bop Peat magazines Yoshiki had.

Without a doubt, then, Eiri was reminded-and disgusted.

A sharp laugh cut through his train of thoughts.

"Daydreaming, sensei?" Eiri said, waving a hand in front of his face.

The smell of smoke went up Yuki's nose and he grimaced, pulling away and leaned back on his seat.

Yuki looked away, not wanting to see those golden eyes on him anymore.

"Seguchi arranged it." Eiri said suddenly, seizing his sensei's attention effectively. "You were wondering, weren't you?"

"It's not love, or anything like that." Eiri continued. "It's not even fucking lust, but yeah, I fuck him once in a while."

The mention of the name Seguchi made Yuki wince, remembering the icy glares the man directed to him last time they met. Two things come to Yuki's mind whenever he thought of the N-G President: obsessive and over-protective.

Seguchi Tohma, in Yuki's mind, had deemed himself the Uesugu's personal guardian long ago.

"It was -is-all for the sales." Eiri continued nonchalantly. "So don't fucking tell me not to hurt him because we're not in a relationship and, believe me, I'm the one who's getting the short end of the stick here." He stopped and smiled. "…Sensei."

"You sleep with him." Yuki pointed out softly.

"I fuck him whenever I feel like it." Eiri countered. "There's a difference between fuck and sleep, Sensei. And rape…"

"God, Eiri!" Yuki cried, slamming his palms on the table as he got up. Seething with anger, he glared venomously at his former student.

"How can you be so insensitive, Eiri? Do you even fucking care anymore?! What happened to that-"

A laugh-Eiri laughed.

"You killed him, Sensei. Remember?" Yuki's eyes widened and his jaw went slack. "Or do I have to remind you?"

Yuki sat down again, the action slow and deliberate as his mind repeated Eiri's words over and over again.

//You killed him.//

//Or do I have to remind you?//

"I'm sorry." Yuki finally said, looking away from Eiri once more. His former student did not say a thing, seemingly preferring to just watch instead of worsening his guilt with some of the more 'creatively-thought-up' (read: obscene) remarks he'd heard.

His former student, Uesugu Eiri, was a world famous novelist under the pen name, Yuki Eiri. He knew Eiri had chosen that pen name to serve as a reminder to him, Kitazawa Yuki, of his sins for as long as he lived.

The silence between the two of them continued, stretching from a few moments to a whole ten minutes and it was only occasionally interrupted by the sound of Eiri taking drags on his cigarette.

It was in times like this, in the precious silence he shared with his student who was drifting further and further away everyday from any form of salvation, that he wondered about how things could have been.

If he hadn't gotten drunk that night, for example, then he wouldn't be sitting in that café with a man, a boy, he hardly recognized anymore and yet felt hopelessly responsible for. If he hadn't selfishly taken Eiri's innocence, dignity and everything he'd lived for just to satisfy his own physical needs then…

If he hadn't sold Eiri's trust for ten measly dollars…

//Then what?//

What if Seguchi had come a moment too late and Eiri had succeeded in shooting him dead? What if he'd died too?

//Would it have made a difference?//

"What if he loves you?" Yuki murmured quietly.

"What?" Eiri stopped, arching an eyebrow at him.

Yuki met his student's gaze with a pair of tired brown eyes.

"What if he loves you?"

Eiri froze and then laughed harshly.

"He can't love me." Eiri said slowly. "No one can."

//What if he loves you?//

Yuki's lips curved into an unusually predatory smile.

"You can't get it off your mind, can you?" Yuki questioned, folding his arms. His eyes narrowed into slits as his smile widened.

Eiri stubbed his cigarette on the ashtray fixed onto the table and got up, intending to leave.

Yuki did not stop.

"I couldn't, I know." Yuki went on, his voice dipping into a soft whisper.

Eiri found his voice. "What the fuck do you mean?"

Yuki leaned onto the glass window beside him, feeling suddenly weak, and chuckled bitterly.

"You're just like me. You've become like me."

//God help you, Eiri.//

Eiri stared at him, a look of disgust evident on his face before turning away and stalking out of the café.

Yuki remained with his eyes closed as he pleaded for forgiveness and his student's salvation.

//Salvation//

"You are trapped in a vicious cycle, Eiri… all because of me…"

//Extrication//

//God, help us. //

//Extrication//

---

[1] And thanks to Shiva Darkwater again for clarifying Yuki Kitazawa's name order..err. ^^;; As for the Yuki-sensei up there - I figured I should leave it at that since Eiri was practically insulting Yuki anyway.. *coughs* Though, it should be Kitazawa-sensei when said politely, no? *_* Must watch that episode again…

[2] There, thanks to Shiva Darkwater for giving Yuki's younger brother's name : 3 Some people were wondering if the sex-change thing (I mentioned about his not doing it in this fic before..) was from another story - the answer is no. Yoshiki appears in the manga volume 9, and yeah…. sex change operation. *_* He first appears as a harmless (? She/He has a thing for axes…), young woman (in nice, hot clothes ^^ -- totally girly) and then he introduces himself... *coughs*