Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Fleeting Inspiration ❯ Hospital Hostility ( Chapter 23 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Fleeting Inspiration
by Anna Sartin

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Chapter Twenty-Three - Hospital Hostility

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"Are you ready to leave?" Eiri asked the next morning as he grabbed his coat and slipped on his shoes.

"My ankle hurts," Shuichi whined, rubbing against his boyfriend. "Carry me to the car, Yuki..."

"I'll throw you out the window," the blond offered coldly. "Be glad I'm taking time away from my writing to drive you to the hospital."

"Well, you are the one who wanted me to see a doctor."

"I'm not the idiot who keeps getting himself hurt," Eiri retorted. "Falling into pools, tripping over buckets... It's not MY fault you need medical attention."

Shuichi sighed. What happened to the loving, caring man who blamed himself for what happened a week ago? Not that the singer wanted Yuki to blame himself for his misfortune, but at times like this he yearned the see the more compassionate side of his lover. He fantasized having the blond sweep him off his feet and carry him to the car, while in reality he limped his way to the vehicle using his boyfriend as a support.

"Do you love me?" he asked after they were both in the car.

"You know damn well I do," Eiri said irritably. "Don't start THAT again."

"Then how come you never SAY it?"

"If you already know it then what's the point?"

"It makes me happy."

Eiri rolled his eyes. "Fine. I love you. Now shut up and let me drive in peace."

The singer smiled brightly. "Hai!"

. . .

It had been nearly three months since Eiri had last been to the local hospital. He used to come every Friday to see his psychiatrist, but he hadn't been to see her in months. "Maybe I should make an appointment," he thought sourly as he helped Shuichi to the nurse's desk. "Maybe she can help me find the sanity that Eto's piece of shit novel has sucked out of me." He could only imagine what she'd say if he told her that a book had driven him to the verge of mental breakdown.

"I'll pick you up later," Eiri told his boyfriend as he turned to leave. "Just call me wh- huh?" One of Shuichi's hands had latched onto his sleeve. "What?"

"Stay. Please?"

"I have work to do, brat."

"Your ulcer's been acting up again. You should let the doctor check you out to make sure you're okay."

"I d-"

"Yuki, please," the younger male pleaded. "I even made an appointment for you yesterday when I scheduled mine."

The writer stared at his companion for a moment. He wanted to be annoyed with him, he really did, for doing such a thing without his knowledge or consent (who did the brat think he was, his mother?) but somehow he just couldn't. He hated to admit the effect those violet eyes had on him, especially now when they were overflowing with love and concern for him. "Fine."

They signed in and took their seats. Eiri grabbed a random magazine to look at, while Shuichi started humming bits and pieces of a tune he was working on for one of his newly-written songs. Pretty soon half the people in the waiting room were staring at him.

"Shuichi, stop it!" Eiri hissed, hiding his face behind the magazine he was reading. The last thing the author needed was for someone to recognize one or both of them and cause another riot. He was wearing his sunglasses this time but Shuichi was never one to remember to do something so sensible.

Shuichi stopped humming and rested his head on the blond's shoulder, staring back at the people giving him dirty looks. Hadn't anyone ever told them that staring was rude??? Besides, quite a few of the people sitting in the waiting area were in no position to talk about HIM being inconsiderate. The young woman sitting behind him, for example, was laughing loudly and obnoxiously at the comic book she was reading. Yet nobody was staring at HER. Another person was picking his nose and reading a porn magazine, ignoring the disapproving looks being thrown his way by the two nuns sitting across from him. He had several similar magazines stacked on the chair next to him and a teenage boy sitting nearby had snuck one from the top of the pile to look at while his oblivious mother filled out paperwork at the nurse's station. The woman's two other sons were running around the waiting area pretending to be ninjas, and it wasn't until they kicked an old man (who knocked a nurse over in the process) that the children were told to sit down. Five minutes later they were up and running around again.

Doesn't that woman pay ANY attention to her children? Shuichi wondered as the teenage boy disappeared into the bathroom, taking the magazine he'd stolen with him. How could ANY of these people have the nerve to give HIM dirty looks???

Most of the elderly people (of which there were a considerable number) had migrated to one corner of the waiting room to avoid the above-mentioned people, but there was one old woman sitting across from Shuichi who was still looking at the pink-haired boy like a dog who had just shit on her lawn.

What the hell is her problem? he wondered, linking his arm with Eiri's. The woman's facial expression hardened and at that moment he understood the reason for her disgust. She knew that the two men were a couple. Well, what did HE care if some old battle axe had a problem with the fact that he was gay? He didn't! He buried his face in his lover's shoulder and closed his eyes.

The laughter coming from the girl with the comic book was getting louder, and damn did she have an annoying laugh! It was grating on his nerves. Finally he opened his eyes and turned around, prepared to offer her money, an autograph or whatever the hell else it took to get her to shut up.

"Look, miss-" he began, stopping suddenly when he recognized her face. She looked up.

"You!"

"YOU!"

"Why are YOU here?!" Lola Eto demanded, putting her comic book down.

"Shouldn't you be at work?" Shuichi returned.

"I came here with Grandpa! Why the hell are you here?!"

"None of your business!"

"Well, get out! I was here first!" the girl demanded childishly, pointing to the door.

"Hell no!" Shuichi yelled. "First you steal my rehearsal room and now you think you're going to steal my hospital???"

"It's not YOUR hospital!"

"Yes, it is!"

"No, it isn't!"

"IS!!!"

"ISN'T!!!"

Eiri stared blankly into space, not hearing the childish argument taking place between his lover and the other singer. Hearing the word "Grandpa" had turned the world black in the author's mind, and he let himself spiral into the abyss. Mamoru Eto was here too. If it wasn't the book stalking him, it was the author or one of his other relatives hounding him instead. He didn't notice when the petty bickering between the two singers turned into a shouting match, or when security came to break it up. He was lost in his own little world, wondering why fate was tormenting him so.

. . .

"Uesugi-san? Uesugi-san!"

He snapped out of his musings some time later to find a nurse standing in front of him.

"What?"

"The doctor will see you now."

He looked to his right where Shuichi had been sitting moments ago and found the chair empty. "Where...?"

"He was just taken back a moment ago," the nurse said kindly, assuming the handsome blond to have either a head injury or some kind of mental problem.

Eiri let himself be guided out of the waiting area into an exam room, where he was soon checked out and given the usual lecture about how he needed to avoid stress, quit smoking and cut back on his alcohol consumption.

"I'm quite serious, Uesugi-san," the doctor told him when he rolled his eyes. "Cigarette smoking is a major cause of ulcer formation and ulcer treatment failure. Excessive alcohol consumption isn't good for you either. Why do you come here for treatment if you never listen to my advice?"

"Because people keep BRINGING me," the annoyed blond answered. "First my sister and brother-in-law, now that pink-haired idiot. They never leave me alone."

"Because they CARE about you, Uesugi-san," she said. "and you should care about yourself. Or least care enough about the people who love you to try to stay healthy for them."

"Are we finished?" Eiri asked.

"No, we aren't," the woman said, ignoring his rudeness. "I'm going to give you your usual prescription and send you to the X-ray department."

"Why?"

"To have your stomach X-rayed," she answered, handing the prescription and a copy of written instructions to him. "You know, Uesugi-san, one of my current patients has lung cancer. Smoked for over 40 years and continues to do so to this day. I sometimes wonder if he wants to die. You're still a young man and you still have time to counteract the bad decisions you're making now. You have a loving family, a great career, everything in the world to live for. Don't disregard your health so easily."

And with that he was shooed out.

Everything in the world to live for, huh? he mused, imagining the smiling face of his pink-haired cherub as he headed to the X-ray department. It wasn't that his health didn't matter to him; but stress seemed to be a difficult thing for the writer to avoid and nicotine helped calm his nerves and take the edge off. And beer was just so... tasty. Which reminded him, he needed to pick some up on the way home. But... maybe it wouldn't hurt to cut back a little...

He would have pondered on this subject for a while, perhaps even give the physician's words some serious consideration, had it not been for the nasty shock waiting for him when he reached his destination.

"Not you!"

There, sitting right outside the X-ray department like he owned the place was none other than Mamoru Eto.

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~End chapter twenty-three~