Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Cats, Crutches and Babies? Oh My! ❯ Bridges ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

 

“What did you say Shu-,” Yuki started dully as he turned away from the source of his aggravation to the main source of his stress. What he saw was not what he had expected. Shuichi was rigid as a board, looking wide-eyed out the drivers' side window.

 

“Yuki,” The frightened singer began slowly, trying not to move his lips,“There...are...people...outside...your…window.…Don't …make…any…sudden…movements. They...can...smell...fear.”

 

`What stupid ,attention grabbing idea will he come up with next?' Yuki thought as the complete idiocy of what Shuichi had just said danced in front of his face.

 

“What are you talking about?” The writer scoffed sharply, “There's nobody outside my--”

He turned to the window to prove his point, but he too froze as he laid eyes on what Shuichi had been babbling about.

Standing just outside the car where indeed a half dozen shivering people, mostly women from what the novelist could see.

 

“What are they doing outside my car?” Eiri hissed through gritted teeth, both of his hands tight on the wheel, right foot poised above the gas pedal so that when he had the opportunity he could get both himself and his idiot lover out of there.

 

Shuichi sat thinking for a moment, some of his tension ebbing away as they were able to creep forward a bit and force the people a little further back from the car. Suddenly it hit him.

 

“Yuki, when you stuck your head out the window somebody must have seen you!” He deducted skillfully, looking a bit smug as he remembered the earlier conversation they had had about keeping a low profile in public. He opened his mouth to continue on, but the hard look on his lover's face wasn't exactly encouraging it to stay that way and he quickly shut it. He decided not to press the matter because he knew that it would only make Yuki angrier than he was when strangers were invading his personal space and privacy, as they were now.

Suddenly there was a loud rapping on the driver's side window.

 

“Hello!” called an unfamiliar female voice, “Yuki-sensei? Hello! I'm Anasa Takigawa-san from `UDG weekly'. Listen, could I ask you a few questions?”

Shuichi shook his head vigorously back and forth and begged Eiri not to roll down his window and talk to those awful reporters.

 

“Please don't talk to them Yuki! They're just dirty vultures!”

The stressed out novelist turned suddenly and grabbed Shu's chin firmly in his hand, shocking the young man almost to the point of crying out.

 

“Don't you think I know that?” He said stiffly, leaning closer so that they were almost nose to nose, “Do you want them to trail us all the way to the hotel just so they can corner us there?”

Shuichi shook his head `No' as best he could with Yuki holding his chin like he was.

 

“Okay then,” The blonde retorted softly, placing a chaste kiss on the singer's lips that was intended to reassure the brat before letting go of his lover's chin, “I'm going to answer their stupid questions and, hopefully, they'll go away and leave us alone.”

 

Shuichi leaned back in his comfortably warm seat and looked sadly at his lap as Yuki cracked the tinted window just far enough so he could see to whom he was speaking.

 

`What more could they possibly want from us?' The cheerless little vocalist thought, wanting very badly to jump into Yuki's strong arms and bawl his eyes out, despite how much the blonde hated it.

`Why can't they just leave us alone for a change? I mean it's bad enough that some of these crazy people are willing to hang off of apartment buildings and stand in waiting traffic to get pictures and interviews, but actually following us to a hotel hours away from here? That's just crazy! That's…,' Shuichi paused mid thought as Yuki's most recent words came crashing back to him like a third base runner sliding home. His eyes grew wider and more teary than they already were.

 

“He's taking me on a vacation!” He squealed under his breath, hands balling back into those familiar little fists for the second time that day. “We're going on our first vacation together! As a couple!”

 

The excitement of this knowledge was just far to great for him to contain within himself. He needed to do something! Say something! He wanted to tell the whole world that his Yuki had planned a special surprise trip just for him!

 

“…yes, that was Uraki's real motivation for killing his nephew. I knew that the under shaded plot in the story would only be picked out by a small number of my readers. It appears to me, Ms. Takigawa, that you and your talented focus group over there,” Eiri said, motioning to the small cluster of anxious people standing behind the young women, “Are a few of those who are gifted with the ability to read between the lines.” Eiri Yuki, the cool composed novelist finished speaking while underneath, nervous as hell Eiri Uesugi anxiously pulled ahead a few meters, the Mercedes growing steadily closer to the bridge at the edge of the cluttered mess they called a road.

 

“Thank-you very much for your time, Yuki-sensei,” The reporter bowed, “I apologize sincerely for where and how this brief interview was forced to be conducted. You see, we really needed a few comments for Wednesday's edition and when we called your publicist to set up an appointment she said that you were going out of town on Tuesday and wouldn't be reachable all week. The best she could do was next Tuesday because you had to make a television appearance on Monday afternoon.”

Hearing someone he didn't know relay his entire weekly schedule back to him, annoyed Eiri to no end and he desperately wished he was in some sort of hover car or monster truck that could wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted to go there.

 

The reporter bowed very low, as did everyone in the group of people surrounding her, save the cameraman, and once Yuki had nodded they picked their way back through the traffic and onto the sidewalk, much to the Eiri's relief.

 

The tired novelist sighed heavily as the last of the group left the road and he was able to pull up to the traffic officer at the edge of the jam.

 

“Just wait for the next car to come across,” The orange clad officer said in a monotonous voice that basically said “I've been doing this all day and I really don`t give a fuck anymore” as he turned his attention slowly from the bridge to Yuki, “Then you can… Hey! Your Eiri Yuki! Sir, My daughter and wife both love your books! Do...Do you think you could sign this for them?” The man stammered, holding out the closest thing that he could get a hold of, which was incidentally his ticket book.

 

It took all the composure that Eiri possessed to keep from rolling his eyes at the officer. He'd run into this sort of thing a thousand times before, and he silently cursed himself for having ever rolled down his window as he hastily signed the back of the book being held out to him with his large, helical signature.

 

“Thank you so much sir!” The man bowed as he tucked the book back into his orange vest where it would be safe, “Now when the next car comes by you can head out onto the bridge.”

Yuki nodded briefly and rolled the window back up with a sigh of relief.

Shuichi, who was too worked up to even notice what had transpired, couldn't contain himself any longer. He started laughing like a maniac, head thrown back, hands waving around in the air like two great pink snakes.

His sudden out burst startled The already jumpy novelist, making him jerk in his seat, then count his blessings that the stupid kid had at least waited until after the window was closed.

 

“What the hell is your problem? You damn brat!” He demanded fiercely as a bright red Echo passed by Shuichi's side of the car.

 

“Oh Yukiiii!! I'm just…so…haappyyy!” The hyper vocalist screamed loudly in response as his hands flew first to undo his seat belt and then to cling tightly to his lover's middle.

 

“What are you…Get off me you weirdo!” Yuki yelled loudly as his free hand went down to try and pry the quivering bundle of idiot off of him while the other hand rested on the steering wheel.

A car horn blasted from behind them and the struggling novelist was forced to bring his hand and attention back up to the wheel so he could pull forward onto the bridge.

 

“Shuichi,” Eiri said tensely as the talented little vocalist still refused to loosen his half-loving half-crushing grip, “If you don't let go by the time we're off this bridge I'm taking you straight back ho--”

 

Shuichi let go and straightened back out in his seat before Yuki even finished his threat. The pink haired young man replaced his seat belt and sat staring at his lover's surprised face.

 

“Thank you,” Yuki sighed after he had taken a breath.

He turned his head back to face the road, which had now started wandering back and forth through stepped foothills, now that they were out of the main part of the city.

He occasionally turned his eyes to glance at his lover, but each time he just got a variant of that same watery eyed, wide grinned expression of complete endearment that the kid had had plastered on his face from the beginning.

The staring was bearable for the first half an hour but after that it started to get irritating.

 

“Stop staring at me like that,” Yuki sated flatly, the climbing rice paddies that were now on his right looking like great green steps leading up through the low hanging clouds into the heavens, the ocean on the opposite side seeming to stretch on forever in dark, dancing waves of blue and white.

 

“But, Yuki I… Okay,” Shuichi said compliantly as he turned to look out his own window at the small farms they were passing. Neither of the two spoke for quite a while after that. Shu hated these silent spells the most, when he didn't have anything to say and Yuki didn't want to listen.

~~~~

 

Shuichi didn't know how long he had been staring out the window when Yuki surprised him by breaking the silence with a question about his job.

“So, when's your new CD being released?” The blonde asked resolutely, not taking his eyes off the road.

 

“Huh? Oh…uh… near the end of this month, just before Christmas I think,” Shuichi said unevenly, turning away from the window to look at Yuki.

 

“I see,” The writer said plainly, “What's it called?”

 

“Um…I don't know exactly. The guys and I don't really get to pick the whole title,” Shuichi explained quietly, feeling slightly embarrassed that Yuki was taking an interest in his work, “K, Mr. Sakano and their consultants from advertising usually pick one, or alter one we come up with into something that is appropriate and will help the CD to sell.”

 

Yuki hadn't known that his lover didn't pick the titles for his CD's. What surprised him was that it actually worked in a similar way with his novels, except in his case they always ran the title's they picked by him first before giving the printers the go ahead.

 

The novelist didn't know what else to say; asking about his lover's annoying music had been a last ditch resort at disintegrating the silence that was already starting to creep back up on them.

 

“uh…Yuki?” The boy asked several minutes later.

 

“What?” Eiri said monotonously, looking down at his gages to see how he was for gas.

 

“Um… Where are we going?” Shuichi asked meekly, praying that his question wasn't too forward.

Yuki glanced sideways at him and smiled inwardly.

`Of course he wants to know,' The blonde thought dismally, not really wanting to tell the kid, but feeling that he had to. He was the one who had let slip that they were going somewhere in the first place.

 

“Lake Hakone. I booked us a room at the Hakone ski lodge. Happy now?” Yuki finished rhetorically, not really wanting or needing to know the answer.

 

`We're going skiing!? Wahoo!! Skiing with Yuki!' Shuichi thought explosively as a grin spread across his face, `I don't even know how to ski!! But who cares! I'll be with my Yuki for a whole week!! Oh…K's going to kill me!'

 

“Of course I am Yuki!” Shu said happily as he folded his hands in his lap to keep them from flying around his lover's neck.

 

“I hoped you would be,” The novelist confessed as he turned right, onto a different road, “Even if you don't know how to ski.”

 

Shuichi was surprised that his lover knew such a trivial piece of information about him.

`When did I tell him that?' He pondered thoughtfully, `Oh well, It doesn't really matter anyway.'

 

“Yuki?” Shu asked slowly.

 

“Yes?” Came the equally slow and teasing response from the older blonde.

 

“Could you…Can you ski?” The pink haired boy asked nervously, his hands fidgeting with the hem of his winter jacket.

 

“Mhm,” Yuki answered shortly, trying hard not to think about what Shuichi was going to ask next.

 

“Could you, Uh.. C-could you teach… me?” The vocalist asked quietly, wincing slightly as if he had just stepped onto thin ice.

 

Eiri rolled his eyes and cocked an eyebrow as he turned his gaze sideways onto his lover.

“Sure. I'll teach you how to ski,” He said almost nicely, “I mean, it's the least I can do.”

 

Shuichi was confused by his boyfriend's remark, but he decided to just let it go. Yuki would explain in his own good time, someway or another. He always did, even if he wasn't aware of it. The pink haired boy settled for leaning over and giving his boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek. Yuki smiled inwardly as he wondered whether or not his worries about the trip being a total disaster were justified.

 

~~~~

 

Hey Hey Everybody! We're back again! (Holds up Kuma-chan) How was that chapter? Did you guys like it? Kuma and I certainly did! Didn't we Kuma (Kuma nods). Laura-chan wants us to tell you that she is sorry for not posting in such along time…whatever posting is (Kuma whispers to Ryu-kun) Oh!! Okay I know what it is now. Thanks Kumagoro! Now go and review or Kumagoro will unleash his Kumagoro beam on you! (Kuma nods menacingly)

Thnx to everybody who reviewed chapter four and thank you as well to everybody who reads the story and doesn't review! I appreciate that you read it, even if you don't have anything to say!

Shizuo~Chan (love101) : yuki is scary when he's under stress...so glad *I* don't live with him...poor shu...i hate traffic jams...you have to sit for loooong periods of time, and your butt gets sore...i'm feeling sorry for the guys right now^^. well, hurry up and update...yeah, you know...

Thx for the review! Also thank you for reviewing every chapter so far! I know chapter four was a bit choppy and that not a lot happened but I assure you that everything is going to start to pick up! This is one of the chapters that I just wanted to get out of the way so I could get onto other things! I feel bad for my…I mean Maki's poor boys right now as well, but there wasn't really anyway around the jam, at least for me! It seemed like the only plausible thing to have happen at the time.

Sayonara everybody! See you next chapter!