Jun 22, 2013 06:35
SHURYU: More than Rivals?
A/N 2013: Edited for continuity issues.
"Never mind. It's nothing I can't handle on my own." Shuichi smiled at the blond standing a little off to his left, propped against the wall with his arms crossed. It was almost completely silent if not for the soft far-off ticking of the clock in the kitchen. It was nice.
Sighing, the novelist Eiri Yuki pushed himself off the wall with his foot and slowly walked over to his lover. Once he was close enough, he reached out a and ruffled the younger man's hair a bit before letting his hand fall to his side. "Cheer up, you're no good when you're like this."
And with that said, and his good deed done for the year, Yuki walked off towards the kitchen. He was hungry and in need of more alcohol. Watching the retreating back of his lover, Shuichi stood there silently, left to ponder what had just happened. Had Yuki just comforted him?
"Yuki really loves me. Yuki really loves me…" he said in a sing song voice as he did a strange little victory dance that resembled a thief that had just gotten caught by the police in mid action.
"Keep it down, you damn brat!" Yuki called from the kitchen, annoyed. That's what he got for being nice to the brat. He made a mental note to never do that again as he rummaged the fridge.
Dammit, he was out of beer. He looked up and sighed. He reached into his breast pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes. Nicotine: the next best thing to alcohol. He squeezed the soft packaging only to find it empty. No. No goddamn way. He swore then and there that one day he would get his vengeance on whatever god that loved using his existence as a plaything…
He was batting one hundred today. First, no booze and now no cigarettes, what a wonderful day this would turn out to be. He closed his eyes a moment and thought. If he wasn't mistaken, and according to him he never was, there was a convenience store only a few blocks away…
The fresh morning air felt good to Shuichi as he walked down the less crowded than usual streets, towards what Yuki had said was a holy place containing the staples of his existence.
Shortly after Yuki had left him standing in the hallway, the blonde reemerged with a quest for Shuichi and two one-thousand yen bills. Now exiled from their large apartment until such time that his task was completed, Shuichi made his way to the convenience store, all the time looking in the store windows and wondering about the people who lived in the various rooms in the surrounding buildings.
Things were starting to finally look up for the young singer as the events of the past day flew away with the cool breeze. This was a perfect day to write a song. He felt the music bubbling up inside of him and was about to start humming the first few notes when he caught sight of figure walking down the street, his way. Squinting his eyes against the sun, Shuichi tried to identify the familiar brown blur. When he did, his insides went cold. The figure was still a good distance away, but knowing this person, it wouldn't take long for him to see Shuichi and tackle him with a hug.
Shuichi knew that he had mere seconds to react, to find a place to hide, but his legs were unwilling to cooperate. He had to hide. He had to find somewhere safe. He had to find a place away from him!
The sun was so bright today, too bright for Ryuichi's sensitive blue eyes. Walking down the street, he tried to ignore the fact that he had forgotten his sunglasses in the N-G meeting room on the table where he had left them the morning before. After what had happened with Shuichi, he hadn't felt like going back for them.
Instead, Ryuichi spent the rest of the day wandering the little used parts of the NG building.
Since Nittle Grasper's break up three years ago, the building had changed drastically under Tohma's rule. The building itself had not changed that much, not including the addition of a few dozen new entrances, but the interior was completely different.
During Ryuichi's stay in the States, Tohma had the old underground recording studios covered over and made into a parking lot and had all new "state of the art" studios built on the upper levels. Ryuichi, Kumagoro, Tohma, and Noriko had spent many an hour in those old studios, perfecting their craft, but now all those hours of fun were just memories…
And he hated the thought of it! At first, he thought that reuniting Nittle Grasper would be fun, but it wasn't the same anymore. Not even close. He would do anything to have those old times back and that is why he turned to the members of Bad Luck... and more importantly, to Shuichi.
He was supposed to be rehearsing with Noriko, but that didn't stop Ryuichi Sakuma from slacking off and wandering the halls of the NG building one bit! Walking down the brightly lit hallways, Ryuichi decided that it would be fun if he would stop in and see what his friends from Bad Luck where up too.
Turning the corner, Ryuichi collided with a warm and somewhat soft something, presumably a person that was moving in the other direction, sending Ryuichi and his faithful Kumagoro to the floor with a thump. Looking up, he saw what, or rather who exactly he had collided with.
"Shuichi!" Ryuichi called out happily, throwing his arms around his pink haired fan. Shuichi was just the distraction he needed. The energy the younger vocalist extruded made Ryuichi feel years younger and helped improve his mood. As of late, Ryuichi needed the pick-me-up, especially the more he thought about his life. For a man who had everything life had to offer, he sure felt empty at times.
"Sa-sakuma-san?" Shuichi stammered out, a bit surprised but not completely unused to his former idol and now semi-rival hugging him. "What are you doing here!"
Thinking for a moment, the brunette answered in mock seriousness, "Shuichi, I work here…"
Stifling a laugh, Shuichi pulled away from the older man and picked up the light pink Kumagoro off the floor. He handed it to its owner who hugged him lovingly. it was rather cute, Shuichi thought. Meetings with his idol usually cheered him up after a long day of practice.
'I guess it wouldn't hurt to spend a little while with Sakuma-san...' he though, not really feeling like returning to rehearsals. He glanced over towards the happy brunette who was hugging the non-existent life out of the stuffed toy.
"So, where are you off to, Sakuma-san?"
Ryuichi hummed loudly, as he continued to hug the stuffed bunny- twisting back and forth manically- causing Shuichi to laugh. Peaking with a keen eye from between the rabbit's ears, the older vocalist shifted though his words to find an answer that wouldn't bring an end to their conversation. Somehow he thought, 'coming to see you,' might be a bad answer.
"Well, nowhere right now. How about you, Shuichi?" he asked instead.
With a start, Shuichi straightened to his full height. Reminded of his mission, he replied, "Oh! That's right, I'm supposed to go to the storage closet to get a blank tape for Hiro! I completely forgot! Thanks for reminding me, Sakuma-san!"
Cursing his luck, Ryuichi placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder as he made a motion to leave. Shuichi turned around and looked at his idol. For a moment Shuichi swore Ryuichi's serious expression flickered across his face, before he was grinning widely as usual.
Shuichi looked from Ryuichi's face to his hand.
"Yes, Sakuma-san?"
"Let me." He said simply before he zipped away, towards the storage closet.
"Uh, Sakuma-san?" Shuichi called out, before Ryuichi could turn the corner in the hall, "It's that way."
"Oh." Turning on the non-existent heels of his sneakers, Ryuichi flew down the hall the other way. One day, he needed to ask Tohma for a map but until then, it gave him a valid excuse to wander around.
Watching Ryuichi depart, it dawned on Shuichi the fact that the great Ryuichi Sakuma would probably, no more like most likely, get lost. Sighting the shadow of the hyper brown haired singer cast on the wall, Shuichi took off, intent on catching up to his idol...
'Storage closet, storage closet...' Ryuichi repeated over and over in thought, both vocally and mentally. He was to find a storage closet, although he had absolutely no idea of where it would be. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Shuichi was still following. He had purposely not run at his normal speeds in fear of losing Shuichi who he had hoped would follow him. Luckily, it turned out that way and the two were now walking down yet another hallway in search for an elusive storage closet.
"Hey, here it is!" Ryuichi heard from behind him as well as the sound of an aluminum door being opened. He turned around and followed the younger vocalist into what was not a small closet but a large room! Stepping inside, he noted the large floor to ceiling metal shelves and the long set-in-ceiling halogen lighting above. The door closed behind him.
"Yeah, I know, why is it called a storage 'closet', right?" Shuichi said, continuing towards the back of the room with Ryuichi behind him, eyeing the items around him.
'How things had changed...' he thought, remembering their old excuse for a storage closet. It was more of a storage 'shelf'.
"Now, where are the blank tapes?"
Looking up and down and left and right, Shuichi and Ryuichi spotted everything but blank tapes. On the verge of giving up and returning to the recording studio empty handed, Ryuichi noticed out of the corner of his eye a single tape placed on one of the high shelves to his right. To get it, he would have to climb up the metal shelving unit. Shoving Kumagoro into the front of his tee, he placed his foot up on the third shelf from the bottom and got ready to climb.
"Hey, get down from there! That can be dangerous, Sakuma-san!" Shuichi yelled, but it was too late. Ryuichi was already half way to reaching the desired shelf that held the spoils. Reaching out his hand to grab the next shelf, Ryuichi swayed dangerously back and almost lost his grip, but he managed to steady himself.
"Close one, eh, Kumachan," he said, finding his next handhold. Pulling himself up, it was as he prepared to step up when his sneaker slipped. For a second Ryuichi thought he would be able to catch himself again, but his hands lost their purchase and he found himself suspended in midair for all of two second. In that time he was able to shoot Shuichi a troubled look before he was falling like a rock.
TO BE CONTINUED...
gravitation,
fanfiction,
fic