Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Yuki ❯ Best Intentions ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: Gravitation does not belong to me. Ne, I doubt Gravitation would be as good if I owned it anyway. I'm not making any money out of this either and am just borrowing its characters….

A/N: No reviews. ;_; Ahh.. but here it is - still unedited at the moment - Chapter Four! Here's when, hopefully, things will start to pick up. (Where's my plot? :-O) Continuation of the conversation between Tohma and Yuki (I mean, Eiri) from the third chapter and… hopefully, from here on, things won't be as confusing…. >.< Drop a review? Comments and constructive criticism is always welcome (in fact, I think I need it..)… Oh, and OOC warning. I can't help it, I'm still confused… anime or manga? Ahh... choices.

Four: Best Intentions

"So, what do you have in mind for your next novel then?"

He looked up, the question taking his full attention, to his brother-in-law. He took the cigarette from his lips before replying with a slight grin, "A tragic ending." Eiri's voice was laced with bitterness and if his brother-in-law caught that, he certainly didn't show. Instead, the older blonde responded to his reply with a slight nod, that gentle, almost-taunting smile ever present on his lips.

"Don't you think your fans would want a happy ending instead?" Tohma asked suddenly before Eiri could put the cigarette back into his mouth. The question was innocent enough, or could have been had it not been asked by a certain manipulative brother-in-law of his. He knew what that question meant, what it said really.

He pretended not to know what his brother-in-law really meant. "It's not like I haven't been writing tragic endings for years," he said nonchalantly and put the cigarette back into his mouth. He watched as that smile on his brother-in-law's face almost fell. Almost. He knew it took a lot more than that to make his brother-in-law lose his cool.

He took a deep drag on his cigarette and lost himself in the feeling it brought him for a while.

"You gave them happy endings before." When Shuichi was around…

Eiri stopped and took the cigarette from his mouth again before ridding his lungs of the smoke he'd inhaled.

"Well, I'm giving them a tragic one this time." Eiri said defensively, not knowing how to counter that statement better.

Tohma's smile widened, seemingly. Eiri didn't know if it was just him being paranoid. He didn't like it when his brother-in-law played mind games with him.

"A cycle, hm?" Tohma asked, watching the younger blonde with amused eyes. "So, Eiri, when are you going to give your adoring fans their happy ending?"

"Next book." The blonde novelist's response came fast, a little too fast maybe. Eiri waited uncomfortably for a comment from his brother-in-law on that one, but nothing came.

"That's good to hear. I hope you keep your word on that."

The conversation ended there and the two of them sat in silence.

"So…" It was Eiri.

Tohma set his cup down and waited for the younger blonde to continue.

"…How are they?" the blonde novelist asked quietly, his voice wavering only slightly. They as in Hiro and Suguru. Eiri didn't know why but ever since Shuichi's death, it became somewhat of a habit to him to ask Tohma about his lover's former band mates once in a while.

"Nittle Grasper has just recently finished recording their latest album and Suguru's still thinking about which course to take…" Tohma trailed away. He gazed at the teacup in front of him before eyeing Eiri, "In other words: They're fine."

A lot better than you are right now.

Eiri nodded. "That's good to know." He said slowly before taking one last drag on his cigarette and stubbing it on the ashtray. "I need a drink." He said quietly and ordered black coffee.

A minute later, his black coffee came and the two of them sat in silence once again. Eiri's attention turned to the street outside then, for the second time that afternoon. Sessions, as he'd liked to call those times when either his older sister or brother-in-law dragged him out for the sole purpose of getting him to talk, with Seguchi Tohma were like this always. No conversation ever really lasted for more than a few minutes with Tohma, and, most of the time, it ended in both of them falling silent.

He half-wished it was Mika seated across him now but later on decided the silence his brother-in-law allowed to go between them was better than Mika's continuous nagging.

A raven-haired high school girl caught his attention suddenly. She wasn't beautiful, just plain, wasn't well endowed and definitely didn't stand out from the crowd in her simple and clean, ironed blue and white uniform. She had one hand running through her hair in what looked like an act of frustration while her other hand held a cell phone to her ear. Anger was visible in her features, even from the distance, and her mouth was moving fast; whether she was arguing or reasoning Eiri couldn't be sure, but it had to be one of the two.

She was on the verge of crying, Eiri could tell having studied people's emotions for so long so he could write about them. The distance between them, the many people passing by, did not prevent the blonde novelist from confirming this.

Yuki…

The girl tilted her head up and the hand holding her cell phone dropped to her side. She was giving up. But she didn't cry and to his amusement she seemed to smile as she wiped the unshed tears from her eyes with a hand.

The action so painfully reminded him of someone and, briefly, he wondered if….

It looked like something out of one of his novels. Female heroine, in the middle of a busy street, alone and neglected, is about to walk away and fade into the crowd when, out of nowhere, her love interest comes running out of nowhere, waving an arm to her, before pulling her into a tight hug.

It was surreal. It looked like something out of a novel, a movie. Eiri did not like that, but he couldn't help but continue watching the scene unfold before him.

So engrossed was he that he failed to notice the fact that his brother-in-law had followed his gaze minutes ago and was now watching both him and the couple across the street.

Eiri watched, a slight frown on his face, as the boy pulled away, breaking the hug. The boy placed a finger on the girl's lips then before producing a cell phone from his school jacket and showing it to her.

Love you so much. Call me later, okay?

He decided he'd seen enough. He tore his gaze from the window, placing hand over his face as memories began to resurface.

Call me later.

The phone, the unanswered call, his lover's voice over the phone, the request, the call he never got to return…..

"Eiri-"

Eiri breathed in sharply, before sitting back on his chair and exhaling slowly. "I should have answered the phone." Those six words escaped his lips almost automatically and once he realized what he'd just done, he did nothing to take it back. It was… inevitable anyway. Those seven words and the message behind them, was something that had been screaming to be made known ever since news of Shuichi's death hit him.

He remembered waking up late and expecting his pink-haired singer to be seated at his bedside, or sleeping beside him in their bed but finding none. He remembered hauling himself out of bed and stumbling into the living room, thinking his little 'baka' had decided to sleep in the sofa instead. He remembered shrugging and mentally noting to call his brother-in-law to ask why his lover was not home yet when he found the sofa empty.

He remembered turning the television on afterwards, hoping to catch something vaguely interesting, something to keep his mind occupied while he waited. He hadn't bothered to look at the clock. He hadn't bothered to check the messages left on his phone, knowing there would only be one call worth hearing.

But he hadn't bothered to check and had been wrong. Five messages were waiting for him, waiting to be heard.

Minutes later, he found himself staring at the television screen in disbelief, not believing a word of what he was hearing. The words 'dead', ' Shindou Shuichi', and 'car accident' did not belong in the one sentence, but he heard them clearly from the television.

"It was my fault, wasn't it?" Eiri whispered softly, eyes lidded.

"It…was… an accident, Eiri." The statement was spoken slowly - carefully - as if the words used didn't quite pin the true meaning down perfectly but were close enough anyway. Eiri ignored this, but knew it was highly unusual for his brother-in-law to speak so hesitantly.

"Let go, for now. For your sister, for Mika," his brother-in-law stopped took that time to fix his hazel eyes on him ", for me."

For now, for me.

Eiri met his brother-in-law's gaze and for a while, simply stared. Then, his eyebrows furrowed even as his eyes narrowed.

"You know something."

Seguchi Tohma winced. The reaction was fleeting, one that Eiri barely caught and even then he wasn't so sure if he'd actually seen it.

Tohma smiled in response.

"Eiri-san, don't I always know something?"

It was a rhetorical question.

Tohma lifted his teacup to his lips and drank from it before casually taking a look at his watch. "Well, my time's run out. I promised dinner with a friend." The N-G President smiled at him, eyes narrowing into slits as he did so, "I have to leaving soon. It was good talking with you this afternoo-"

"You're trying to avoid the topic," Eiri hissed, "Just what are you hiding, Seguchi?"

Tohma laughed, rising from his seat.

"Whatever it is you think I'm hiding, Eiri-san, you can rest assured I have good intentions and nothing more, or less."

His brother-in-law gave him a slight bow before putting on his coat and exiting the café.

'Good Intentions, huh?' Eiri thought, his mental tone dripping with sarcasm.

He finished his coffee in a few minutes, got up and left.

---

Seguchi Tohma leaned against the wall, pocketing his gloved hands as he waited in the dark hall. Hazel eyes never left a small wall lamp right in front of him, and he watched as the electric light seemingly danced and flickered like real fire.

He took a deep breath and sighed.

"You are in time, for a change, Mr. Seguchi."

Tohma smiled. "Yes, yes I am." He said with a slight laugh, regarding the tall red-haired woman, who looked undoubtedly of European descent, at one end of the hall with sideways look.

"She is waiting in the living room, we will have dinner in a few minutes." The redhead told him in her heavily-accented Japanese.

Tohma nodded, "How's she doing, Freesia?"

"Oh, she is just fine-" Freesia paused to open the door that lead to the living room, "You can tell, she has changed a lot and has been getting back much of what she lost…"

*pachi*

"-she has just recently won a match, so she is a bit…. bouncy and excited."

*pachi*

Tohma stared into the parlor and found the one whom he promised dinner with seated on the floor, one hand extended on the goban in front of her, ready to make a move.

"She has been recreating that game since this afternoon," Freesia told him quietly, "Impressive actually. The doctor says it is the best improvement so far, her regaining her former mental prowess when it comes to recreating games."

*pachi*

Eyes bright and filled with childish glee, the young woman seated on the floor in front of them looked nothing like the twenty-three year old she was. A child trapped in an adult's body, he couldn't help but be reminded of their Sakuma Ryuichi. The old Sakuma Ryuichi, to be exact, the one abused and traumatized until all he wanted to do was run away and hide from everything…

"Mizuki Ai." He said softly, walking to the young woman's side. The young woman stopped and looked up at him, her green eyes wide and innocent.

"Seguchi!" she cried before launching herself into his arms. "Sorry, I got carried away!"

She smiled as she pulled away and began straightening her dress. "Freesia, I trust everything's ready?" she asked, and when she did so, she aged, looking a bit more of the adult she was instead of a child.

The European redhead gave her a nod before disappearing behind a door.

"So, where's your fiance?" Tohma asked once they were seated around the dining table. The blonde across the table grinned at him, green eyes twinkling.

"He's going to be a bit late tonight." Ai said, "School."

"Oh." Tohma sounded slightly disappointed.

Just then, the doors to the dining room burst open revealing a panting, gasping brown-haired young man. All three of them, Tohma, Ai and Freesia, stopped to stare at him and he gave them a nervous laugh.

"Heh… Gomen?" he said tentatively before carefully setting his backpack on the floor.

"Fujiwara Yukito," Ai said, laughing, "You should get yourself seated, we have strawberry shortcake for dessert!"

She winked at him and he blushed.

---

A/N: I know, this chapter was rushed. Better than nothing though, ne? (I've been a writer's block of sorts..) I cut a part from this chapter… the one with Hiro, Rage and Maiko. Will stick that next chapter, as well as... some other things. -_-

Oh, and pics?

http://www.deviantart.com/view/3608691/ - for a pic with Ai/Anne and Yukito in it. That is basically how Ai looks…

http://www.deviantart.com/view/3582655/ - and Yukito with blonde hair. ^_^

^__^