Something In-Between

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation nor do I make any money from using the characters.

NC-17

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Note: As always, these chapters are never really complete until I have the AshCat and Kri stamp of approval.


Something In-Between

Chapter 13
How Soon is Now?


I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular

You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way?
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


I drummed my finely manicured nails against the top of the desk I was sitting on the wrong side of, while attempting to sort out where I had gone wrong.

Arrested. Me. Seguchi Tohma.

At the moment, Sakano was attempting to save my royal purple hide from actually going to jail.

The thought crossed my mind that, perhaps this time, I had angered too many people at once. When the police showed up at the dance club and informed me that someone had pointed me out as the instigator of the brawl, no one came to my aid.

Kyosuke stood by, the bruise high on his cheek causing his eye to swell shut, with Tony and Nakamura to either side of him, and said nothing as I was handcuffed and escorted out of the club.

I am relatively certain that Suguru actually snickered.

Noriko had disappeared and Ryuichi was busy howling over his injuries. K was handcuffed himself, so he was of no use to me.

And Eiri and Shuichi had disappeared through the back door when the chaos had broken out.

Although I was sure I had heard one of the police officers mention that it had been a blond man that had singled me out as the ringleader.

I sighed. I suppose this outcome was inevitable. I had finally thought I was in complete control, therefore, I needed to have an experience to remind myself that being in complete control was a quixotic notion.

The fact that I had irritated the best ally I had in England was even more ironic. I had no illusions to blind me from the fact that, if Kyosuke were not currently furious with me, I would never have been arrested in the first place. One quick call to my uncle would have cleared this situation up in moments.

However, now there would be paparazzi and magazine articles and my actions, my very credibility, would be questioned.

I sighed again. I did not mind when it was Eiri, Shuichi, Ryuichi, or even Miki who I was spinning the story for, but this story would now be about me. I found that I was unsure how to handle the situation. Self-doubt was not an emotion I was familiar with for the most part and I found the feeling to be… unclean.

The situation was completely unacceptable.

I heard the door open behind me, “Mr. Seguchi?”

Standing up, I turned to see the detective that had been speaking with me earlier. Behind him stood Sakano, who was accompanied by a gentleman in an Armani three-piece suit and finely-crafted Italian shoes, carrying a Louis Vuitton briefcase.

“Mr. Seguchi,” The man in the suit said, “You are free to go, now.”

I looked at the detective and he nodded. Sakano nodded as well, but he was wringing his hands in obvious distress.

The three of us left the office and, before I could ask the man who he was, Kyosuke showed up.

“Ah, Mr. Sabatini,” my cousin said with a warm smile as he shook the man’s hand. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

“It is always my greatest pleasure to be of service to the Inoue family,” the man answered as he took Kyosuke’s hand in both of his and looked at my cousin with adoration.

Kyosuke’s smile widened, “Is everything settled, then?”

“Of course. Mr. Seguchi is free to go. No report will be filed.”

“You are a marvel, Mr. Sabatini. Now you should go home, it is so late, your wife will probably be worried about you.” Kyosuke patted the man on the back, “I’ll be sure to let my father know of your usual exemplary service.”

Kyosuke’s oozing flattery was almost too effusive for even me. I knew what he was doing. He was rubbing my nose in the fact that he had been the one to save me.

I supposed I had it coming.

Once the man left the room, my cousin turned those piercing green eyes on me and gave me a disdainful look. “We are about to go on tour. A little bad publicity never hurts, but having our leader jailed is a bit much,” he explained with a shrug. “But don’t think for a moment I wasn’t sorely tempted to ignore you completely.”

“Kyosuke,” I began as I laced my fingers together in front of me.

“Save it, Tohma,” he snarled at me. His angry outburst was very unlike him. “I’m going home, now. Most likely to an empty flat and, if so, I’ll have your fiendish interference to thank for that. So help me Tohma, it is taking all the willpower I have to not kick your sorry, manipulative behind at this moment. ”

I watched as he spun on his heel and stomped out of the police station.

“I guess you were right,” I heard K’s lighter spark behind me. “He is sleeping with both of them. Well, what do ya know, Inoue-san is a stud.”

“Yes, he always has had a taste for the more… exotic side of life,” I nodded as I watched his retreating form.

He exhaled, “Well, I suppose Hiro and Suguru sleeping together couldn’t possibly top the disaster that Shuichi and Hiro sleeping together was. Although with Kyosuke… How do you feel about this, Tohma? I mean they are your cousins. And Suguru was so innocent before.”

“I am certain Kyosuke will see to Suguru’s corruption,” I sighed. Suguru was of age, so I really did not have much say in the matter. Not that my cousin would listen to me anyway. What was it about Nakano that drew my cousins like flies to honey? Not only that, if Kyosuke had made up his mind about pursuing Suguru, I was certain there was no way I would be able to dissuade him away from our younger cousin.

Besides, Kyosuke had just made sure that our tour was saved, in spite of the fact that I had done my best to complicate his life. His stepping in and clearing both K and myself of criminal offense was something that I, under normal circumstances, would have taken care of. Well, it appeared that Kyosuke’s unpredictable, albeit honorable intentions could come in handy. Honorable. I nearly burst out with a guffaw. Of all people I could describe as being honorable, I never suspected that I would attach that particular adjective to Inoue Kyosuke.

Of course, in his case, honorable could mean drugging and kidnapping someone, but I could not argue that Kyosuke’s objectives were an adherence to his own clear-cut set of values. Sometimes I envied my cousin’s integrity, even if it had a tendency to be a bit skewed.

But then again, who was I to pass judgment on what was moral?

To top it off, it seemed likely that he was at the beginning of a very intricate relationship. A relationship with not one, but two people. This would not be the first time I had witnessed his simultaneous courting of multiple lovers, but it would be the first time I had seen him actually care about those lovers. Up until he met Shuichi, my cousin had always been capricious when it came to relationships. After the death of his first love, he was skittish about long-term romantic attachments. He had earned a well-deserved reputation for being charming, gregarious, and highly promiscuous, rarely staying with anyone for more than a few weeks.

He was very much like Eiri when it came to attracting sexual partners. They were both very accomplished in the art of seduction. Of course, they were both blessed with beauty and grace, so neither of them had to try very hard to begin with when attracting partners. The difference between them was clear when the relationship reached a… conclusion. Kyosuke had a gentle, disarming way of breaking off relationships that left his ex-lovers without any lingering feelings of malice. Eiri’s break ups were usually accomplished by uttering two words: Get Out. Succinct perhaps, but not very kind.

I found it fascinating that Kyosuke’s alluring, somewhat rakish, behavior changed completely the day he met Shuichi. It seemed that Kyosuke and Eiri shared similarities in more ways than one.

I was not sure if my cousin had actually been in love with Shuichi, but he had definitely fallen in love with Shuichi’s dogged devotion. It had not mattered to Kyosuke that Shuichi’s undying love was for another. In fact, that fervor for Eiri was precisely what drew my cousin to the singer. Kyosuke had been fascinated with Shuichi’s adoration of Eiri and I was sure that Kyosuke wanted someone to feel the same way about him.

I suspected that Kyosuke had finally got what he wanted.

At the club, in spite of all of the confusion, I was certain I had heard Nakano berate my cousin, in what appeared to be a jealous manner, for being with someone else. That ‘someone else’ was Eiri. I found Nakano’s jealousy over Eiri to be highly entertaining. I was surprised to learn that Nakano had a rather nasty possessive streak in him.

It was clear by his unusual emotional eruption that Nakano was in love with my cousin. Kyosuke’s little outburst in the police station led me to believe that the feelings of love were mutual. And perhaps with Suguru as well, although that situation was still very new from what I could glean. Was my cousin actually in love? And not with one person, but two?

How interesting.

If so, the next few months should be very, very exciting. I was sure Kyosuke had… friendly ex-lovers in almost every city we would tour through. If Nakano had been jealous over Kyosuke being with Eiri, what would he do when an actual ex-lover showed up?

I found suddenly, that I was very much looking forward to our tour.

“Come on, Tohma,” K said, pulling me out of my reverie. “Sakano has a limo for us.”


On our way to the hotel, I reviewed what had happened. I had attempted to prove a point to Kyosuke by putting him in a somewhat uncomfortable situation with his band members and his lovers. Eiri had singled me out and set me up with the police. Ryuichi had manipulated me to the point that I had given in and delivered Tatsuha into his hands. And then Kyosuke, the person I had singled out to educate about my leadership, had been the one to save me from public humiliation.

Leaning my head against the limo window, I realized that London had proved to be more a challenge than I had expected it to be. It was very disappointing, to say the least.

It had been a long, unsatisfying night.

“Sakano-san,” I said as I leaned back into the leather seat of the limo. “What is the latest word from Takahashi-san?”

He was wringing his hands. Hmm. Sometimes that could be good, sometimes bad. “Shacho,” he began. “The pictures have… Takahashi Sakura has been fired because her efforts to get those pictures.”

He continued to frantically wring his hands. Well, at least someone was easy to read during these trying days. I smiled, “Are you are worried about Takahashi-san?”

“Yes, Shacho. Her career is damaged now due to our request,” he said in a rush.

I crossed my arms and said slowly, “Tell me, Sakano-san, are you dating Takahashi-san?”

“Wha…? No, Shacho! No, I’m…”

Even through the dimly lit limo I could see he was bright crimson. K grinned at our hapless producer’s embarrassment, but surprisingly held his tongue. So, it was as I suspected. Sakano had a crush on the Takahashi woman. Hmm. I wondered how Eiri would feel about that.

I chuckled lightly, “And here I thought I was your only love.”

“Shacho! I would never…” he complained, turning an even deeper shade of red.

“Ah, well,” I folded my hands in my lap. “I suppose NG had better hire her as our new lead press agent.”

“What?”

I shrugged, “I planned on doing that anyway. I wanted to give her some time to get used to all of us, but I guess she can learn as she goes.”

“You planned on…” he narrowed his eyes at me. “Why didn’t you tell me? We tried so hard to make sure she didn’t get caught so she wouldn’t lose her job! It was terrifying.”

“And you did a top notch job of it,” I nodded in agreement.

He sighed, knowing that it was no good to complain at this point. “Very well, Shacho. Will you be telling her?”

I shook my head and smiled sweetly, “Oh, no. This has been your project. I think you should hire her. Speak to my secretary about all the paperwork and have Takahashi-san report to NG.”

“You don’t want her to come to London?”

I sat up, “Not yet. Let’s try to stabilize the landscape first, shall we?”

He nodded and then bowed his head, “Thank you, Shacho.”

Imagine, thanking me for totally manipulating him. Sending him on a wild goose chase that could have easily landed him in jail. The ending result was Takahashi losing her job and he still thanked me! Ah, Sakano – I wouldn’t trade him for all the managers or producers in the world. Right now, I really wanted more Sakanos around me. Although, to be entirely fair, even Sakano had proven to have a backbone from time to time.

I rested my elbow on the armrest and place my cheek on my upraised hand, “What is the word on Shuichi-san?”

“Shuichi has checked into the hospital, Shacho.” More hand wringing. “It appears that Shuichi will be bedridden for a few days at least.”

I raised my eyebrows, “How long until he can tour?”

Sakano shook his head, “I haven’t been able to get a full report yet.”

“If they are keeping him for a few days…” K began, “I would say I smell a delay coming.”

“I would think that likely,” I said as I nodded. “Hopefully his illness is not something serious. I think that perhaps we should take the preliminary steps to delay the tour. In the morning, contact Kyosuke and the promoter, I believe his name is Soren Johansson, and see if a delay will be manageable.”

“Um, Shacho?” Even more hand wringing. Now what?

“Yes, Sakano-san,” I said wearily as I leaned back again.

“I have some bad news to report about Mr. Johansson…”

He related the story of Shuichi’s pummeling of our promoter the night before in a Bhangra dance club.

“And you are certain it was our promoter?” I asked patiently.

“Yes, Shacho. Soren Johansson, our promoter.”

My head began to ache and I rubbed my temples as I asked, “How bad?”

“Four broken ribs, a broken nose, several contusions, and a bruised kidney.”

Ouch. “Last night, you said?”

“Yes,” Sakano reiterated.

“Not bad for someone who had to be carried out of the club a night later,” K grinned proudly.

“Is there a lawsuit?” I asked quietly.

Shaking his head Sakano said, “Not yet.”

I sighed as I crossed my arms, cupping my right elbow with my left hand, “K, I leave it to you to investigate this matter. Find out how bad the situation is and how much damage control we need to do. I find it odd that this has not hit the papers. I am also disappointed that we did not learn of it sooner.”

“I found that to be curious as well,” Sakano said as he looked out the window. “Ryuichi-san told me about the incident earlier tonight when I was patching him up.”

“Ryuichi-san?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Curiouser and curiosuer. It was about time I had a little conversation with my band-mate.

“Will you wish to go to the hospital soon, Shacho?” Sakano asked.

“Yes,” I nodded. “I will change and then go to the hospital.”

“You don’t wish to leave Shuichi and Yuki-san to themselves for a while?” Sakano was showing that backbone of his again.

“I expect they would have had ample time alone by now,” I smiled. “Besides, what kind of boss would I be if I didn’t check on my employees in the hospital?”

For some reason, K stared at me as if I was speaking gibberish, “Whatever you say, Tohma.”

Could it be that K did not trust my good intentions towards Shuichi? I clucked my tongue in disappointment. After everything that had happened, how could Bad Luck’s manager possibly question my motives?

I did enjoy the game to keep everyone wondering, even if it did backfire on me from time to time.


Once we arrived at the hotel, I showered and changed. I stared out my window over the waking city, my hands clasped together behind my back. When the sun was properly up, I would go to the hospital to check on Shuichi and Eiri.

I hoped Shuichi had come to his senses. Ryuichi had told me he thought the younger singer was a bit overwhelmed by everything and simply needed some away time. It was Ryuichi who had convinced me to let Shuichi go. Ryuichi had been very similar to Shuichi when he was younger. He still was to a certain extent, only now I didn’t worry about him as much.

Shuichi reminded me of Ryuichi in many ways.

“Are you reminiscing, Tohma?” Ryuichi’s voice called to me from the couch.

I turned my body just enough to see his sparkling eyes and Kumagoro on his knee. There were several Hello Kitty Band-Aids on his face. “Yes, Ryuichi-san, I am.”

“About our early days?”

Ryuichi always knew what I was thinking. If it were anyone else, I would be concerned by having my thoughts read so easily. But I trusted Ryuichi. Maybe not with everything, but I trusted him with my thoughts. Ryuichi, like Noriko, loved me above and beyond the norm.

“Yes, Ryuichi-san. About our early days and about you in particular,” I smiled brightly at him.

He lay on his back, clutching Kumagoro close to him, “About how I was a lot like Shuichi?”

I turned completely around and faced him with a smile, “Yes, Ryuichi-san.”

“But I didn’t have anyone like Yuki-san to love me,” he gave me a melancholy smile.

“No. Shuichi-san and Eiri-san are both very lucky. Even Mika-san never loved me the way…”

Sitting up he shook his head, “Maybe you and I are not allowed that kind of love.”

I scrutinized my friend closely as I crossed my arms in front of me.

He nodded now, “Yes, Tohma, I’m taking my meds.”

“Ryuichi-san,” I began, “may I ask you something?”

“Of course, Tohma,” he smiled as he leaned back into the couch. “Anything – anything. Ask and I will tell.”

“About Nakano-san,” I began slowly. “You are so lonely, why did you give him up?”

“Because Hiro-kun was in love with Kyo-kun. Just because he didn’t know he was in love didn’t make it untrue.”

I repeated the words in my head. Ryuichi’s sayings could sometimes carry many meanings. Shaking the looping words out of my befuddled mind I asked, “Did you love him?”

After a moment he sat up again and giving me that penetrating stare he said, “Hiro-kun has the most amazing tolerance to pain, did you know that?”

I grabbed for my hat as I shook my head, “No, Ryuichi-san, I did not know that about Nakano-san. And I am sure that I do not want to know details.”

Grinning at me he said, “Shiny, shiny! But you did ask.”

Nodding, I realized that I had asked a very personal question and I should have known better. Although I was now in possession of possible valuable information concerning Nakano’s personal life, what Ryuichi’s clever, off-the-subject answer had told me was that he had not been in love with Nakano. He may have wanted to be in love, but Ryuichi’s feelings for Nakano had never blossomed. As far as I knew, there was only one person that had ever caught my band-mate’s undying attention.

As if he understood my thoughts exactly he said softly, “You know who I love.”

I sighed. “Ryuichi-san…”

“I know,” was his answer. After a few moments he said, “But we did make a deal, Tohma.”

“Yes, Ryuichi-san,” I nodded. “We did make a deal.”

“When is he coming?” If it was possible, Ryuichi’s eyes sparkled even more.

“I haven’t talked to him yet. Only Mika-san,” I said quietly.

“Tohma, this does not concern Mika-san,” his brow furrowed in agitation. “You’ve always asked me to avoid Tatsuha, and I have, Tohma. For you, I have.” He set Kumagoro down next to him and leaned forward, his eyes boring into mine with his enticing, hypnotic stare that was so hard to resist, “Have you ever seen him look at me, Tohma? I mean, have you ever studied his gaze when he looks at me?”

I crossed my arms again, “Yes, I have.” This was an old argument, but it appeared that Ryuichi was determined to have it again.

“Have you ever seen him look at anyone else the same way?”

Ah, a new tactic. I was cautious as I shook my head.

“How long has he ever stayed with anyone?”

“Not long. A few weeks,” I said as I tipped my head to one side.

“Isn’t he rather… empty inside?”

Tatsuha was empty. Maybe more so than either Eiri or Kyosuke had ever been. At least the two of them had remained unattainable because of the horrible pain they had endured and wished to avoid repeating. But not Tatsuha. Tatsuha did not sleep around because he was afraid of being hurt. Tatsuha slept around because he was desperately looking for something.

Something he only saw in Sakuma Ryuichi.

“You see it, too. It’s me he loves, Tohma.” Ryuichi’s eyes effervesced with emotion, his voice pleading with me. “Please, Tohma. Don’t go back on our deal, please, let me have him. If you feel that you can’t, I could ease your guilt and speak directly to Yuki-san and Mika-san myself.”

“What?” I said with surprise. This was, indeed, new. Apparently, Ryuichi was dead serious about this and my hold over him was now gone. I had been a fool not to see the deep desperation that had been growing in him. I leaned forward, exhaling slowly, trying one last time, “Ryuichi-san, please be reasonable.”

“I have been reasonable, Tohma. Too reasonable. Now let me have him or I will take him from you!” He said lowly and then sighed, “Please.”

Hmm. It was clear that I had lost the immediate battle. If I did not agree to his terms, Ryuichi would go directly to Eiri, cutting me out of the situation completely. I had already explained the circumstances to Eiri and of course, he could not have been less concerned. Eiri had the ridiculous notion that giving my blessing on a Tatsuha and Ryuichi relationship was a good thing for everyone.

Sometimes Eiri can be so naive. Perhaps that was why I found him so endearing.

I had already had the conversation with Mika and it had not been as disastrous as I had originally feared. Of course, she was unhappy with the outcome, however, she was not as furious as I had assumed she would be. When I asked her about her calm acceptance, she informed me that she expected her brother to begin pursuing Ryuichi at anytime. Apparently, the recent problems Tatsuha had caused for Eiri and Shuichi had taken a heavy toll on him emotionally and he was now in a life-altering mode, looking for redemption. He was also looking for something more permanent, something more concrete in his life.

According to Mika, Tatsuha had every intention of making that “something permanent” Sakuma Ryuichi.

It seemed that love, once it obtained a little momentum, was impossible to stop.

Well, I suppose I could use Mika’s gentle, albeit grudging acceptance of the situation to my advantage. I had not yet informed Ryuichi that none of us were in control of Tatsuha’s determination. Mika agreed to warn Tatsuha as much as she could of Ryuichi’s idiosyncrasies, but she seemed to feel that was a moot point. Evidently, my younger brother-in-law had matching bizarre tastes with Ryuichi when it came to carnal satisfaction. I cut Mika off gently when she attempted to explain about finding some of Tatsuha’s sex toys. Apparently, one item in particular was an adult toy that had a tail attached to one end of it and the other end...

Well, there are some things one should not know about his relatives.

Mika thought that perhaps we should let Tatsuha be the one to explain his relationship with Ryuichi to his father. I found myself to be in hearty agreement of her idea. After all, Tatsuha was well beyond the age of consent, was he not? It would alleviate my guilt with Tatsuha’s imminent demise, possibly even enough to lift all suspicion.

I still felt that, perhaps with a little time, I could find another way out of this conundrum.

But when I looked into Ryuichi’s hope-filled eyes, I realized that there was not another way. Tatsuha and Ryuichi had found their way to each other. It was now time for me to bow out of it.

“Ryuichi-san,” I sighed.

“Yes?”

“Promise me one thing,” I hugged myself tighter.

He nodded, “Anything.”

“Don’t tell me anything about your sex life with Tatsuha-san,” I stared at him.

“I promise I won’t!” Ryuichi broke into a wide smile and leapt off of the couch, throwing his arms around me, “I know you like digital recordings anyway! Thanks, Tohma!”

If I had my way, I would stay as far out of it as I could.

Although, when I thought about it, a recording might be interesting…



It was still very early when I arrived at the hospital, but apparently the staff had been told to expect me. I spoke with the nurse in charge and found that Shuichi was already doing better, but the Doctor had mentioned keeping the singer for a few days.

Feeling the need to check on Shuichi and Eiri myself, I wandered off to find the correct room. I could hear voices inside the room so I paused before making an appearance.

“I really don’t think that I should allow this,” a patient woman’s voice said.

“You don’t understand, if he doesn’t get more sleep, he’ll be sick too,” that was Shuichi pleading with the woman, possibly a nurse in his broken English. “Please let him be.”

“But… you are so cramped,” she defended weakly. I suspected Shuichi was using his manipulative charms on the woman. He had turned out to be very good at that, almost as good as…

“I’m not moving,” a deeper voice rumbled.

Eiri.

I heard Shuichi’s sunny, carefree laugh. How long had it been since I had heard that sound? “Really, nurse, I promise, I feel much better when I’ve got him hogging the bed.”

“Hey, you were the one that insisted I sleep here,” Eiri complained.

“Well,” she said, with exasperation in her voice, “If anyone asks me, I didn’t see anything.”

“Thank you,” I heard Shuichi giggle.

The nurse nearly ran me down as she left the room. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “Are you here to see them?” She pointed to the room she recently vacated.

I nodded.

“Well, see if you can get them untangled from each other for me, please,” she huffed as she walked away.

My curiosity was piqued as I stepped into the room. I believe tangled was a good description of the two. They both lay on their sides so that they faced one another in the small, twin-sized hospital bed. Legs, arms, wires, and tubes all knit together in intricate confusion. They were both awake, their foreheads touching as they spoke softly to one another in a surprisingly gentle and intimate fashion.

I cleared my throat.

Shuichi looked up, “Hi, Tohma. We’ve been expecting you.”

I raised my eyebrow, “Have you? I thought you might be thinking I was in jail somewhere.”

“Why would we think that?” Shuichi said with his innocent look.

Eiri sat up abruptly in his rumpled clothes and blinked his eyes at me. “I need a cigarette.”

He was embarrassed by my witnessing his tender moment with Shuichi. I smiled, “Come on, Eiri-san. It’s a beautiful day outside.”

He nodded and stood up, disengaging from Shuichi and various tubes and wires.

Shuichi leaned back, and grabbed Eiri’s arm, “Don’t forget to come back.”

“I won’t,” Eiri grumbled as he leaned over and gave his lover a quick kiss before we left the room.

Once we were outside, Eiri lit up as he turned to me, “He can’t go on the tour yet. He’s sick and he needs to go home to Tokyo to recuperate. He can stay with me until he’s better. But he can’t go on tour.”

I smiled, “Yes, Eiri-san. I am aware of that. K-san is working on that right now with Kyoskue.”

“Inoue’s still speaking to you?” Eiri raised his eyebrow as he asked.

“Of course,” I answered, although to be honest, I wasn’t sure. “Have you resolved your relationship difficulties with Shuichi-san?”

Eiri glared at me as he took a deep drag on his cigarette.

“I see,” I said. “I’ll take that to mean you are working on them.”

“He needs a shrink,” Eiri looked away.

I scratched my nose in order to hide my smile. Imagine, Eiri deciding someone else needed psychiatric care! The people in my life were all exceedingly amusing of late. I cleared my throat, “Are you asking me for my assistance?”

“I’ll want to go with him the first few visits. He has a tendency to manipulate people and the psychologist needs to know that up front,” Eiri explained in a rush.

Oh my goodness, this was rich, indeed. Shuichi had a tendency to manipulate people? Could Eiri even hear the words coming out of his mouth? Although, I suppose Eiri didn’t really manipulate his psychologists, he intimidated them instead. And the two of them together… well this would be a challenge for the psychiatric professionals of Tokyo.

I nodded, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Tohma…” Eiri said with a warning.

“I know, Eiri-san. No one is to know,” this time I let him see my smile. “Have you consulted Shuichi-san about this?”

“Yes,” he hesitated and then said, “sort of.”

“And he was in agreement?” I asked softly.

Eiri looked away again.

“Eiri-san,” I said with a sigh, “I’ll look into some one suitable, but you cannot coerce Shuichi-san into it. You know that, do you not?”

He was glaring at me again as he threw down his cigarette and stomped on it, “I have to get back.”

I followed him back to the room to find K and Shuichi in a heated discussion. Sakano stood off to the side with a folder that he was browsing through.

“What’s going on?” Eiri barked as he stepped into the room and in-between Shuichi and K.

K smirked as he snatched a picture from Sakano’s folder and held it up, “I was just asking your boyfriend if this was the man he put in the hospital the other night.”

Shuichi turned his head away from us and looked out the window.

I took the picture and looked closely at it, and then at K. K nodded in answer to my unspoken question. So this was a picture of Soren Johansson, he looked remarkably like… Eiri. Not exactly identical to Eiri, of course, but still incredibly alluring. It seemed impossible that there could be two such beautiful individuals in the world, and yet here was proof. I looked at Eiri, who’s eyes were narrowing as he gazed at the picture and then at his lover.

“Yes,” K said loudly, “change his eye color from blue to hazel, Yuki-san and you have… well, Yuki-san.”

This was unfortunate. I would have preferred to have this discussion without Eiri’s involvement, “K-san, have you spoken to Kyosuke about this?”

“Yes. He already knew,” K nodded and studied Eiri. “Did you know, also, Yuki-san?”

“Sakuma told me first. But Inoue followed up on it.” Eiri waved at the picture dismissively, “That guy doesn’t look like me.”

Shuichi turned his head to stare at Eiri in disbelief with the rest of us.

Eiri glared at us all, “I’m telling you, he doesn’t look anything like me!”

“Shuichi-san,” I said gently, “why? Our promoter’s resemblance to Eiri-san is not a credible reason to beat the man to a pulp.”

Shuichi shrugged and turned his head away again. Clearly he was not receptive to my question.

“I can tell you why,” K answered. “Soren Johansson grabbed our singer’s ass and tried to kiss him.”

“What?” Eiri hissed lowly.

Shuichi began to cough.

Oh, it was very unfortunate that we were having this discussion with Eiri in the room. Raising my eyebrows I asked quickly, “You have witnesses to that fact?”

Grinning K said, “Of course!”

I felt myself relax a little. “Sakano-san, please call our legal department immediately and give them the details.” He scurried towards the door. “And get Takahashi-san here. We could use all the damage control we can get right now.”

“Looks like we’ll get our tour extension without too much trouble,” K was still grinning.

“Hmm,” I answered.

“Well, Shuichi, it seems that your right cross has finally come in handy,” the American smiled at his singer as he patted him on the shoulder.

“Huh,” he scoffed, sounding very much like Eiri.

K turned to Eiri, “Now Yuki-san, we don’t need you to hunt the guy down and continue the ass-whooping. Believe me, Shuichi already put a world of hurt on him.”

“Precisely,” I looked pointedly at Eiri. “In addition, any interference by you would erase any edge we have over Mr. Johansson’s company. I’m sure the promotion company will keep this quiet, as will we.”

I could tell that Eiri didn’t like the situation, but when Shuichi reached out and took Eiri’s hand I saw my brother-in-law begin to relax. Especially when Eiri looked closely at the bruised and ragged knuckles of Shuichi’s right hand.

“Did he…” Eiri said quietly.

Shuichi shook his head, “He never even got close.” He began to cough again, clutching at his chest.

Eiri sat on the edge of the bed and encircled the singer in his arms protectively. Looking up at K and I he said, “Get out.”

“Eiri-san…” I began to say but he cut me off.

“I said,” he narrowed his eyes again. “Get out.”

I nodded and moved towards the door as Shuichi’s coughing began to lessen.

“And Tohma,” Eiri said quietly.

I turned to look at him.

His eyes were dark, “No more meddling. Leave us be.”

“As you wish, Eiri-san,” I smiled. “For now.”


I left the hospital and returned to my hotel room after speaking with the doctor. Shuichi would be able to leave the hospital in a couple of days. In the limo, K received word that the promotions company had agreed to delay the tour for two months. It would mean that the scheduling would be a little more intense, but we could manage it.

I called Mika and explained the whole story to her, telling her that I would be coming home for a month or so. She informed me that Ryuichi had already been in contact with Tatsuha.

When I hung up, I sat down and looked out over the city. This trip had not turned out at all as I had expected. I was mulling over the many disappointments when there was a knock at my suite door.

I opened the door to see Noriko’s smiling face. She held up a bottle of bourbon and said, “Come on, Tohma! Let’s celebrate going home!”

Crossing my arms, I stepped back for her to enter the room as I said, “Have you been speaking to Ryuichi-san?”

“I have,” her eyes contained understanding.

I nodded, “Yes. He has finally forced me to bend to his will.”

“Ah, so it’s true,” she gave me a look of surprise and then stopped in front of me. “So, how is the family taking it?”

“Well, Mika-san is not happy but tolerant. Her father…” I shrugged.

Slipping her arm through mine she whispered, “You held out longer than I thought you would. How long has Tats been legal?”

Smiling I answered, “Almost two years. He’s almost 22.”

“I can’t believe you managed to keep him at bay this long. Well done, Tohma!”

“Thank you, Noriko-san. I must admit I was feeling quite down about the current situation before speaking with you,” I said seriously. “I felt that I had lost to Ryuichi-san.”

“Lost?” She grinned at me as she made her way to the bar and pulled out two glasses. “Honey, if Ryu-chan had ever really thought about it sooner, he would have figured out that you couldn’t stop him. It was the fear of losing you that kept him in line.”

Smiling again I said, “As if that could ever happen.”

“I know!” Noriko burst into laughter as she handed me a glass full of whiskey.

“It is a little earlier, do you not think?”

Shaking her head she held up her glass, “Not in Japan!”

After few moments Noriko said, “By the way, Tohma, I can’t believe you managed to get a two month extension! I mean, I know Shuichi is sick, but our tour was supposed to start in a week and a half! How the hell did you manage to swing that deal with the promotions people?”

I had to laugh, “Swing the deal is about the gist of it. Suffice to say that all the right pieces fell into place at the right time.”

“Someday I want to hear that story,” she grinned.

“That, my dear Noriko, is someone else’s tale, I’m afraid.”

“So Tohma, what was the deal with dragging Hiro and Suguru down to the club last night?” She said over the rim of her glass.

“Did you not know? Tch, why Noriko, I always expect you to at least know the romantic dirt on the NG crowd,” I raised an eyebrow at her. “I am very disappointed in you.”

“Well, I know that Hiro is sleeping with Kyosuke.” She leaned on the bar.

I nodded.

“But why Suguru…” her eyes widened again. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Both of them?”

“Officially.”

“Huh,” she started laughing. “Too bad Rage isn’t around, she’d be spurting blood out of her nose!!” After a moment she said, “But wait, if Hiro and Suguru are both Kyosuke’s… er, bitches, why did you have them driven to the club?”

“Because Kyosuke never told either one of them that he was helping Eiri-san locate Shuichi.”

“How did you know… Ryuichi?”

I smiled my innocent smile.

“Oh, never mind. You probably wouldn’t confirm or deny, anyway.” She whistled, “So you got his band in a fury and his… boyfriends in a snit all converging on him at once. You dumped a truckload of chaos on Inoue Kyosuke.” She shook her head, “You are evil, Seguchi Tohma. I’m so glad that I’m on your team!”

I squeezed her hand, not bothering to tell her that it had been Kyosuke that had, in the end saved me from a brief stay in jail. I didn’t feel it necessary to destroy my god-like problem-solving talents with everyone. After all, the world could only take so much disappointment at once.

“I love working with you,” Noriko raised her glass. “Here’s to a good tour when it finally starts!”

I thought about the tour. Kyosuke, Suguru, and Nakano together. Ryuichi and Tatsuha. Ito-san and Watanabe-san. Sakano and his crush on Takahashi. Soren Johansson. Shuichi and Eiri. How could a tour with so many dysfunctional people and situations all thrown together be viable?

There was only one way. There had to be one person in charge who could handle any crisis and to oversee the whole tour.

That person would, of course, be me.

Touching my glass against hers, I returned her bright smile, “To an excellent tour!”

I found, much to my surprise, that I truly meant it.

TBC

Lyrics for How Soon is Now by Morrissey
(one of the greatest songs of all time.)



Afterward:

This story was supposed to be done at chapter 12. My poor betas. Right now I have 2 additional chapters (mostly) written which will be the end of Something In-Between. However, I think there is more story to tell… ack! Sigh.

And to all my wonderful reviewers, I bow to you. Thank you so much for taking the time to review, you give me the courage to continue and the hunger to want to write better. To both the reviewers that are new to the story and the ones that have stuck with me since the very painful, awkwardly written beginnings:

I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Des