Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Langer Schlaf: The Long Sleep ❯ Two ( Chapter 1 )

Two

Yuki Eiri sat up, the phone still ringing without any regard to his headache or the dream that almost refused to let go of him. In it, some blond bastard had hurt Shuichi, had terrified him. Cold sweat covered Eiri's body, worse than any night mare he'd had in his whole life. He grabbed the phone, the image of Shuichi's tear filled eyes in his mind, "What the fuck do you want? You better be Shindo!"

"Eiri?" It wasn't Shuichi. It was Tohma and he sounded like he'd had the same dream Eiri had. "I need you to come to California. Eiri, I've sent a driver to get you. Don't watch the news."

"Explain." Eiri was up out of bed already, still wearing his pants and one sock. He grabbed a shirt, a Christian Dior tuxedo shirt that just happened to be on the side of the closet closest to where he got out of bed.

"The tour bus had trouble."

"Shuichi?" Eiri started buttoning his shirt already crooked, cordless phone to his ear as his feet looked for his shoes.

"We don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Foot half way into his shoe, voice absolute ice.

"They had gone into a corporate office building. It seems there was a party, for Halloween. Suguru was in the bus. The building exploded. Crews are digging now. Sakano and Hiro have been found, taken to San Francisco Medical. I have not heard about K or Shuichi."

Eiri sat down on the bed, shoe still half on. "I had a dream, a bad dream."

"I will come with the driver. Wait for me. We will fly together."

"No, I'll meet you at the airport. When's the next flight?"

"23:00. Take a taxi then. There is time. Do not drive."

No one was ever going to let him live down that 102 ticket. "I am driving. Email me details."

"Eiri-san, we should go together." Tohma tried again.

Eiri disconnected the call, strode to the bathroom and dropped it into the toilet.

His palm computer with mobile email access in the inside pocket of his thick black trench coat, Eiri left the apartment in a daze.

Tohma meet him at the airport, looking not nearly as rumpled as Eiri, but not himself either. Mika accompanied him and paid for first class tickets for all of them. Tohma bought Eiri a rum and coke and this time he drank it and followed it with a beer, then another.

Once they were on the plane Eiri fell into a restless sleep. Mika and Tohma took the middle seats.

Eiri opened his eyes back in the same dream world as he'd woken from when Tohma called, though this time, the room was gone and Shuichi sat on a broken granite wall, wearing only one of Eiri's good shirts.

"Hi Eiri. Missed you."

"Where the hell are you, Shuichi. I'm coming to America to look for you."

"But we're here together. When you get here, you'll find me."

Eiri moved closer, crossing the dream world without walking. He touched Shuichi's bare knee, the bruise that was turning the skin above it purple. "Who did this?"

"Doesn't matter. He's gone now. Have you seen Hiro? He was in the elevator, he and K. I would have been, but he said he wanted me safe."

"Who, Shuichi? You're alive, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I'm alive. I know I'm alive because I don't hurt anymore."

"Eiri!" This time it was Tohma's voice, Tohma's hand on his shoulder shaking gently, but Eiri didn't realize that until he'd landed a solid punch to Tohma's nose.

The flight attendant's eyes were wide as she stared and Eiri gave her glare back and dropped back into his seat. "Tohma, I'm sorry."

"We're landing, Eiri," Mika said, accusingly, as she pressed a cloth to her husband's nose. "We're landing and they've found K and Hiro."

"In an elevator?"

"How did you know?"

"Shuichi's alive."

"How do you know that?"

"I do." Shivering, Eiri fastened his seatbelt and watched out the window. "Because I do."