[fic] No Style [Gravitation] [for silver_magess]
written for a request made by: silver_magess
Fandom: Gravitation
Pairing/characters: Tohma/Shuichi
Warnings/notes: In order to make this pairing work, I slightly adapted the Gravitation-universe. Nothing big or too ooc (I hope), but enough that I can't say that this fic takes place at this-and-this point in the anime/manga.
No Style
*
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation.
**********
Ryuichi, Tohma thinks, would never have allowed himself to be cornered like this.
"Seguchi-san? Are you feeling all right?" Shindou beams at him, oblivious to the universe in general, and, Tohma has no doubt, Tohma's own intentions in particular. "You look a little red."
Tohma smiles. He's good at smiling; he knows this, and makes use of his smiles accordingly. Ryuichi would have recognized this, would have realized that Tohma's at his most dangerous when he's smiling, because it means there's something he really wants.
Shindou though seems to accept his smile for nothing more than that. A smile. A sign of joy and happiness. He is, in other words, a complete idiot in a way that Ryuichi never was.
"I'm fine, Shindou-san." It's true, too. The sun is shining, Eiri is well and happily working on a new novel that no doubt will be another best-seller in the USA, and Mika has sent him a postcard from Paris to let him know she's well and doesn't miss him at all. "I suppose I might be a little flushed after watching your show."
"You watched?" Shindou's eyes widen, before turning big and shiny, like Ryuichi's used to do whenever Nittle Grasper had scored another number-one hit. It makes Tohma feel a little nostalgic, a little older than he is. "You liked it?"
Tohma smiles again. "Surely I don't need to say that? The audience went wild during your last song, Shindou-san; don't tell me you didn't notice."
Ryuichi was always aware of his audience, never doing anything on stage without considering its impact first. Tohma knows this, and he thinks Noriko knows it as well, but to the world at large, he thinks Ryuichi must have looked impulsive and wild; someone to admire from afar and to aspire to be like, but never someone to imitate.
"Well." Shindou grins. "I guess I did notice. Heh. We're getting pretty good, aren't we?"
Tohma has heard from Sakano that Shindou tried to bash in his head with an over-sized, cheap keyboard when he suggested that Shindou might be better at singing and song-writing than at playing the keyboard. He wonders what happened to that Shindou, wonders if maybe it'd have been someone he'd like to have known.
Ryuichi would never have settled for 'getting pretty good'. Tohma has to admit that he, too, would despise getting such half-hearted praise, but Shindou appears to suffer from modesty. It's a rare trait in a musician; rare enough to be called a weakness. Tohma makes a mental note to ensure that nobody exploits this weakness aside from himself.
"Of course, we've been practicing a lot," Shindou babbles on. Tohma tunes out his words, instead watching the way Shindou uses his entire body when he's talking. Ryuichi seemed to do the same, the first time Tohma met him, but later, Tohma discovered that that, too, was simply part of the role Ryuichi wrote for himself. He wonders, briefly, if Shindou might be capable of such deceit.
"Hiro's probably looking for me." Shindou has wound down, and appears to suffer from the delusion that Tohma has only taken him aside in order to hear him talk about Bad Luck's success.
Tohma puts a hand on Shindou's arm. He doesn't excercise any pressure; Shindou could easily shrug out of his grip and continue on his way, looking for his friend who's already received a note from Sakano to inform him that he doesn't need to wait around for Shindou.
Shindou looks a little confused, but still not worried. "Was there something important you wanted to tell me, Seguchi-san?" Tohma wonders what it means that Shindou has taped that 'important' directly after his 'something'. Does he assume that Tohma will only ever want to speak to him about 'important' things, or does he think that Tohma has 'something important' to tell him right now, and is he impatient? With Ryuichi, Tohma'd have betted on the second, even if Ryuichi himself would doubtlessly have claimed the first.
"Do you miss Eiri-san, Shindou-san?" Tohma inquires. Part of him is urging him to get on with it, groaning that he's wasted more than enough time already. He knows what he wants, and he knows it's something Shindou-san probably won't want - which is simply bad luck for him, no pun intended.
Shindou looks more than a little confused now. "I ... yeah ... I mean ... no." Tohma hides his sigh and keeps smiling. It's at least partially his own fault that Shindou's confused, so he supposes that he can't complain now about Shindou's resulting lack of coherency. "It's like there's a part of me missing."
"That sounds like a 'yes'." Tohma wonders why it wasn't, why Shindou chooses to go poetic on him, instead of bursting out crying and whining about how much he misses his Yuki.
"It's ... well, it's been so long that I guess I kind of got used to it." Shindou grins a bit sheepishly. "He never calls me, and I lost his address, so it's hard to stay in touch." Tohma happens to know Shindou called Eiri twenty-three times on the first day he moved to the USA. A week after that, he found Eiri a larger apartment, with a nice view on the park. He never told Shindou that the phone-number on the card he wears around his neck doesn't work anymore, that even if Shindou'd manage to get through to the house it used to be connected to, he wouldn't be able to talk to Eiri.
"You shouldn't give up so easily, Shindou-san." Tohma has never given up on anything in his entire life. He's changed his mind on occasion, upon discovering that what he thought he wanted wasn't what he wanted after all, but he's never given up. It's his weakness, he thinks.
"Do you hate me, Seguchi-san?" Shindou's eyes are growing large again. Tohma blinks, hiding his surprise at this sudden ... statement. It's not an accusation, yet it's not a question either.
"Eiri-san loves you very much." Tohma's smile would have sent Ryuichi running. "How could I hate someone who is so important to him? I suppose you could say that I'm curious though."
"Oh?" Shindou proves he is an incorrigible fool by coming closer, instead of backing away. "What about?"
"I wonder what you're like in bed." This, in Tohma's opinion, is his strength: the ability to say things that other people barely dare to think. Ryuichi is the only person he's ever met whom he couldn't take aback, who'd cheerfully give back as good as he got.
Shindou's eyes are very wide. Tohma refuses to allow his smile to turn into a smirk. He doesn't speak or move, instead simply waiting for Shindou to come up with an answer, or freak out.
The supposed object of his desire does neither. Instead, Shindou's face seems to crumple, together with the rest of his body. It takes Tohma a few seconds to realize that Shindou is trying to hide the fact that he's burst out laughing.
"You're such a kidder, Seguchi-san!" Shindou slaps him on the shoulder, in a gesture that Tohma finds far too familiar. "Really. Like someone like you'd ever be interested in someone like me. What a hoot! I didn't want to believe Sakano-san at first, when he said that you weren't so deadly serious all the time as when you talked to us about the tour, only - "
Shindou rambles on. Tohma doesn't bother listening, although he files away the information that Sakano considers him to possess a sense of humor for future use. He allows Shindou to guide them back to the busier parts of the building, where Tohma can't afford to be seen molesting someone.
"- but anyway, I'm staying in room 13." Shindou is holding out a card. Tohma accepts it without bothering to waste time on the question of how long the card's been dangled in front of his nose. "Drop by any time you want! We can talk about Yuki and ... stuff."
Shindou's smile is just like the rest of him, all cheerful ignorance and innocence.
Tohma wonders if he's still able to smile that way, and if Shindou'd show him how, were Tohma to ask him for it. Pocketing the card -as if he needed one to remind him where Bad Luck is staying- Tohma decides that he fully intends to find out.
~OWARI~
Fandom: Gravitation
Pairing/characters: Tohma/Shuichi
Warnings/notes: In order to make this pairing work, I slightly adapted the Gravitation-universe. Nothing big or too ooc (I hope), but enough that I can't say that this fic takes place at this-and-this point in the anime/manga.
No Style
*
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation.
**********
Ryuichi, Tohma thinks, would never have allowed himself to be cornered like this.
"Seguchi-san? Are you feeling all right?" Shindou beams at him, oblivious to the universe in general, and, Tohma has no doubt, Tohma's own intentions in particular. "You look a little red."
Tohma smiles. He's good at smiling; he knows this, and makes use of his smiles accordingly. Ryuichi would have recognized this, would have realized that Tohma's at his most dangerous when he's smiling, because it means there's something he really wants.
Shindou though seems to accept his smile for nothing more than that. A smile. A sign of joy and happiness. He is, in other words, a complete idiot in a way that Ryuichi never was.
"I'm fine, Shindou-san." It's true, too. The sun is shining, Eiri is well and happily working on a new novel that no doubt will be another best-seller in the USA, and Mika has sent him a postcard from Paris to let him know she's well and doesn't miss him at all. "I suppose I might be a little flushed after watching your show."
"You watched?" Shindou's eyes widen, before turning big and shiny, like Ryuichi's used to do whenever Nittle Grasper had scored another number-one hit. It makes Tohma feel a little nostalgic, a little older than he is. "You liked it?"
Tohma smiles again. "Surely I don't need to say that? The audience went wild during your last song, Shindou-san; don't tell me you didn't notice."
Ryuichi was always aware of his audience, never doing anything on stage without considering its impact first. Tohma knows this, and he thinks Noriko knows it as well, but to the world at large, he thinks Ryuichi must have looked impulsive and wild; someone to admire from afar and to aspire to be like, but never someone to imitate.
"Well." Shindou grins. "I guess I did notice. Heh. We're getting pretty good, aren't we?"
Tohma has heard from Sakano that Shindou tried to bash in his head with an over-sized, cheap keyboard when he suggested that Shindou might be better at singing and song-writing than at playing the keyboard. He wonders what happened to that Shindou, wonders if maybe it'd have been someone he'd like to have known.
Ryuichi would never have settled for 'getting pretty good'. Tohma has to admit that he, too, would despise getting such half-hearted praise, but Shindou appears to suffer from modesty. It's a rare trait in a musician; rare enough to be called a weakness. Tohma makes a mental note to ensure that nobody exploits this weakness aside from himself.
"Of course, we've been practicing a lot," Shindou babbles on. Tohma tunes out his words, instead watching the way Shindou uses his entire body when he's talking. Ryuichi seemed to do the same, the first time Tohma met him, but later, Tohma discovered that that, too, was simply part of the role Ryuichi wrote for himself. He wonders, briefly, if Shindou might be capable of such deceit.
"Hiro's probably looking for me." Shindou has wound down, and appears to suffer from the delusion that Tohma has only taken him aside in order to hear him talk about Bad Luck's success.
Tohma puts a hand on Shindou's arm. He doesn't excercise any pressure; Shindou could easily shrug out of his grip and continue on his way, looking for his friend who's already received a note from Sakano to inform him that he doesn't need to wait around for Shindou.
Shindou looks a little confused, but still not worried. "Was there something important you wanted to tell me, Seguchi-san?" Tohma wonders what it means that Shindou has taped that 'important' directly after his 'something'. Does he assume that Tohma will only ever want to speak to him about 'important' things, or does he think that Tohma has 'something important' to tell him right now, and is he impatient? With Ryuichi, Tohma'd have betted on the second, even if Ryuichi himself would doubtlessly have claimed the first.
"Do you miss Eiri-san, Shindou-san?" Tohma inquires. Part of him is urging him to get on with it, groaning that he's wasted more than enough time already. He knows what he wants, and he knows it's something Shindou-san probably won't want - which is simply bad luck for him, no pun intended.
Shindou looks more than a little confused now. "I ... yeah ... I mean ... no." Tohma hides his sigh and keeps smiling. It's at least partially his own fault that Shindou's confused, so he supposes that he can't complain now about Shindou's resulting lack of coherency. "It's like there's a part of me missing."
"That sounds like a 'yes'." Tohma wonders why it wasn't, why Shindou chooses to go poetic on him, instead of bursting out crying and whining about how much he misses his Yuki.
"It's ... well, it's been so long that I guess I kind of got used to it." Shindou grins a bit sheepishly. "He never calls me, and I lost his address, so it's hard to stay in touch." Tohma happens to know Shindou called Eiri twenty-three times on the first day he moved to the USA. A week after that, he found Eiri a larger apartment, with a nice view on the park. He never told Shindou that the phone-number on the card he wears around his neck doesn't work anymore, that even if Shindou'd manage to get through to the house it used to be connected to, he wouldn't be able to talk to Eiri.
"You shouldn't give up so easily, Shindou-san." Tohma has never given up on anything in his entire life. He's changed his mind on occasion, upon discovering that what he thought he wanted wasn't what he wanted after all, but he's never given up. It's his weakness, he thinks.
"Do you hate me, Seguchi-san?" Shindou's eyes are growing large again. Tohma blinks, hiding his surprise at this sudden ... statement. It's not an accusation, yet it's not a question either.
"Eiri-san loves you very much." Tohma's smile would have sent Ryuichi running. "How could I hate someone who is so important to him? I suppose you could say that I'm curious though."
"Oh?" Shindou proves he is an incorrigible fool by coming closer, instead of backing away. "What about?"
"I wonder what you're like in bed." This, in Tohma's opinion, is his strength: the ability to say things that other people barely dare to think. Ryuichi is the only person he's ever met whom he couldn't take aback, who'd cheerfully give back as good as he got.
Shindou's eyes are very wide. Tohma refuses to allow his smile to turn into a smirk. He doesn't speak or move, instead simply waiting for Shindou to come up with an answer, or freak out.
The supposed object of his desire does neither. Instead, Shindou's face seems to crumple, together with the rest of his body. It takes Tohma a few seconds to realize that Shindou is trying to hide the fact that he's burst out laughing.
"You're such a kidder, Seguchi-san!" Shindou slaps him on the shoulder, in a gesture that Tohma finds far too familiar. "Really. Like someone like you'd ever be interested in someone like me. What a hoot! I didn't want to believe Sakano-san at first, when he said that you weren't so deadly serious all the time as when you talked to us about the tour, only - "
Shindou rambles on. Tohma doesn't bother listening, although he files away the information that Sakano considers him to possess a sense of humor for future use. He allows Shindou to guide them back to the busier parts of the building, where Tohma can't afford to be seen molesting someone.
"- but anyway, I'm staying in room 13." Shindou is holding out a card. Tohma accepts it without bothering to waste time on the question of how long the card's been dangled in front of his nose. "Drop by any time you want! We can talk about Yuki and ... stuff."
Shindou's smile is just like the rest of him, all cheerful ignorance and innocence.
Tohma wonders if he's still able to smile that way, and if Shindou'd show him how, were Tohma to ask him for it. Pocketing the card -as if he needed one to remind him where Bad Luck is staying- Tohma decides that he fully intends to find out.
~OWARI~