Still Raining
folder
Gravitation › AU - Alternate Universe
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
28
Views:
3,538
Reviews:
9
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Gravitation › AU - Alternate Universe
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
28
Views:
3,538
Reviews:
9
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Gravitation or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
16: Beware the Shadows for they Have Eyes as Well
Still Raining
Sequel to: On the Street of Dreams
Written by: chochowilliams
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Summary: Ayaka is used to getting what she wants and what she wants now is Eiri. She’ll do whatever it takes to make him hers. Anything.
Chapter Summary: Unwinding after a long day out on the road.
Warning: fantasy, angst, drama, romance, m-preg, language, m/m, hentai, Ryuichi/Tatsuha, Eiri/Shuichi
Inserts: reference to chapter 4
A/N: Thank you to kaname-luvr, Namikaze naruko14, ferler, sarah83654123 and everyone else I may have forgotten for your reviews. Without further ado, here’s the next installment. Enjoy!
+---+---+---+
Last Time
“I have an assignment for you. Interested?”
A sly grin crossed her face. “Always,” Shiho purred in English. There wasn’t a trace of an accent as she spoke.
“Good.” His tone was suddenly serious. “This isn’t going to be like your last assignment. This is just surveillance.”
Shiho pouted. “Well that’s no fun.”
“Well, you never know. Depending on how things go…” The rest was left hanging, but the meaning was clearly conveyed.
The sly grin slow crawled back onto Shiho’s face. “I might get to play bumper cars again?”
There was a low chuckle in her ear. “Maybe.”
Shiho could not wait.
["He just came out of nowhere," she sobbed wide eyed in what Tatsuha could clearly see was shock. She began panting, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Oh God! It was as if he just fell out of the sky! I…I just…I didn't have time to stop…!"]
Oh how she could remember that day so clearly even now. It’d been her first assignment and she’d passed with flying colors. Maybe she should have become an actress. It was too bad she had to ruin a perfectly good car though, but with the money she’d earned, she’d just bought a new one.
“I’ll email you the details when I get them.”
Shiho Daidoji wondered what role she should play this time. Last time she worked with K, she’d been the panicky brunette. Guess she would have to wait and see.
+---+---+
Chapter 16: Beware the Shadows for they Have Eyes as Well
TCN Studios - Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan - That Night
To admit he was dead tired would be a gross understatement.
With one hand on the antique brass doorknob and the other on the light switch, Chishin swept his gaze over his office one final time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. The windows were closed. The shades drawn. His computer was off. Somehow, the mountain high piles of paperwork that had littered the desk that morning had been sorted through and dealt with. What remained had been organized into two smaller piles. He figured he would be caught up by lunchtime on Monday.
Silently, he cursed his childhood friend for causing him to become so negligent this passed week, which had resulted in the backup of work.
Overall, everything appeared to be in order.
Just as he was about to turn away, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the phone sitting silently on the far corner of the desk. As he turned to look at it full on, his hands fell loosely to his sides.
Nami hadn’t returned his phone call. Several more attempts had been just as futile, but he wasn’t worried. She was editor-and-chief of an entire magazine after all. A thought briefly wove its way into his mind. Should he give her one last call? He shook the thought aside. Monday. He’d try again on Monday. Maybe by then his old friend would have come up with a reasonable excuse for her behavior.
As a journalist, he could understand her fascination and obvious obsession. Once a story wormed its way under your skin, it remained there like a parasite. There was no way she would back down until she had seen this story through to the finish. Once upon a time, he’d been the same way. In fact, he still was, but he was able to control the urges. After all, he had a television station to run. No longer was he a freelance twenty-something year old without responsibilities who could afford to go running around Japan in search of the next juicy story. It was clear Nami had not yet grown out of that phase. Quite possibly, this quality could help turn her into a much-respected journalist, if she could kick the habit of allowing her prejudices to cloud her judgment.
No matter what people may believe, nobody can know somebody completely. It was impossible. However, seeing as he has been friends with Nami since they were children, he’d like to believe that he knew her reasonably well.
It was because he has known her for so long that it was not difficult to come to the conclusion that her bias towards neutrals was the catalyst behind her apparent fixation behind outing the truth of little Takanori Uesugi’s parentage. When her fixation turned into obsession, that’s when he‘d been forced to rethink things.
Could there possibly be more to her preoccupation with this story than she was letting on?
[“He was still a minor! The famous Eiri Yuki was fucking a minor who he ended up impregnating.”]
There had to be. Her anger and inability to see reason seemed to go overboard. It was all a bit much.
It wasn’t as if Shuichi Shindou and Eiri Yuki’s story was a rare case. In fact, there were numerously similar cases and yet this couple had her undivided attention and not to mention her ire. They had been singled out. Why? The only difference this time was that both parties involved were well-known- Eiri Yuki for being a well respected, best-selling author and Shuichi Shindou for being the lead singer of Bad Luck as well as Ryuichi Sakuma’s little brother. Of course, sometimes that made all the difference, which was hypocritical, but he’d been sure this time, Shuichi Shindou and Eiri Yuki’s celebrity status was not the driving force behind Nami’s relentless antagonizing and it wasn’t her dislike for neutrals either. No. It was something else.
It wasn’t only when Isoroku’s search turned up evidence that Nami was in frequent contact with one Ayaka Usami, who turned out to be Eiri Yuki’s ex-betrothed, that he felt his assumptions were justified.
Not too long ago, Shuichi Shindou was spotted at a local pharmacy buying a pregnancy test. Paparazzi immediately jumped to the conclusion that Shuichi Shindou was pregnant. The assumption made sense, especially when it was announced soon after that he and Eiri Yuki had split up. It was Nami who started circulating speculations that this may be history repeating itself. Had Shuichi been unfaithful? Had a one-night stand caused Shuichi to become pregnant? Was this why Eiri Yuki had dumped him?
That those claims turned out to have not a shred of truth to them had not stopped Nami. Nothing stopped her. She had even gone so far as to start a rumor that there was more to Shuichi Shindou and Ryuichi Sakuma’s relationship than was known. Could mere siblings look so much alike?
It was clear. Nami Mataguchi was doing the bidding of someone who was out for blood, Shuichi Shindou’s blood. There was no other explanation. Well, none that considered everything.
Blindly, he groped the wall besides him for the light switch. Flicking it, the office seeped into darkness. He stepped out into the quiet hush of the hallway and shut the door behind him. After locking the door, he jiggled the handle to make sure the door was secured. It was. Adjusting the strap of his messenger bag, he turned and started towards the elevator.
He hoped Nami knew what she was doing. If she wanted to get involved with some psychotic witch then that was her choice. If she wanted to throw her career out the window, again, that was her choice, but he would be damned if he sat back and watched as she ruined a bunch of innocent lives just so she could sell more copies of her magazine. Their friendship was not going to help her in any way.
+---+---+
The Trinity Offices - Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
She’d been well aware of what would arise because of the actions she had been forced to undertake when she’d agreed to help Ayaka, but this had not been something she’d foreseen.
When she’d been approached two years ago, almost three now, shortly after the press conference- at which Eiri Yuki and Shuichi Shindou announced one shocking revelation after another- by Ayaka Usami, she’d quickly latched onto the younger woman’s desire to uncover the truth. She herself had been just as disgusted by the whole affair, of course for a completely different reason.
Ayaka was a scorned lover. At least, in her mind she was. Nami, well, to put it simply, she wanted to out scoop her competitors.
Her reporters instincts have been fine tuned by years of investigative journalism that stemmed from her stints on her high school and college newspapers as well as her short time with Asahi Shimbun, a national newspaper with prints in both Japanese and English, after graduation and they were telling her that there was more to this sordid tale than was being let on.
Oh, yes. This whole “the ex-boyfriend who died in a sudden and tragic car accident is the father” routine just did not sit well with her. Really, who were they trying to kid? Their relationship had been purely platonic? What a load of crap. Eiri Yuki did not have a platonic bone in her body. Trying to ignore the holes in their story was like trying to pretend you were not having a severe case of heartburn.
Now there was a second mysterious pregnancy. It was like history repeating itself, the déjà vu was that strong.
All she wanted was the truth. Unfortunately, it seemed as if Ayaka wanted more than that. She wanted Eiri.
Ayaka’s crazy assed scheme was just as insane as she was. That girl just did not know when to admit defeat.
Nami spun her soft, brown leather desk chair around and stared out the window into the night, which seemed to have fallen without her notice.
Finally, after dodging her attacks for nearly three years, Shindou had agreed to have a DNA paternity test done. Tohma Seguchi had called her early this morning with the news. By Monday at the earliest, all of Japan would know the truth surrounding the paternal heritage of one Takanori Uesugi.
It started her wondering.
[“This might not turn out the way you want,” Nami could remember telling Ayaka. In fact, she had a feeling it wouldn’t. Ayaka, though, continues to refuse to see reason.
“Nonsense. Once the truth comes out, Eiri will be completely devastated and I will be there to comfort him in his time of need.”]
Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not bury their heads in sand, but that was exactly what Ayaka was doing. Instead of facing the predator head on, she would rather pretend that she was not in danger. That type of behavior was very dangerous. Contrary to what others believed about her, she did not become so obsessed with a story that she would put herself or others in harm’s way. There was no way she would stretch her neck out on the chopping block.
Ayaka had better learn to be ware of sharp, shiny objects- and fast- because you never knew when you were going to be stabbed in the back, or by whom.
+---+---+
Usami Residence - Ryugan Temple - Kyoto, Japan
Sleep continued to elude her. Thoughts of her pending marriage to her childhood love refused to release her from their sweet grip.
The day she had been dreaming of since she was a little girl was fast approaching. She would be lying if she said that she wasn’t being tormented by her nerves. There was a herald of butterflies dancing the waltz in her stomach, several in fact. It was enough to make her nauseous. As nervous as she was, though, she was also excited. How could she not be? Before long, she would be known as Ayaka Uesugi. The knowledge that she would soon be blessed with her beloved’s name made her giddy.
With a content sigh, Ayaka rolled over.
A silver framed photograph on the bottom shelf of her headboard caught her attention. It twinkled in the beam of moonlight that filtered in through a narrow gap in her tiny bedroom’s only window, now at her back. She smiled at the handsome face grinning back at her. Wiggling a hand out from under the thin sheet, she stretched her arm over her head and grabbed the frame. It was oddly cold. Settling onto her back, she kissing the tips of her index and middle fingers of her free hand and pressed them against the cool glass.
“Good night my love,” she whispered.
Soon, it won’t be a photograph, but the real deal she would be able to kiss good night.
With a smile on her face, Ayaka hugged the photograph to her chest and turned back onto her side, finally falling into a light slumber.
+---+---+
The shadows beneath Ayaka’s bedroom window stirred. A tall brunette, her long hair pulled back into a ponytail, and clad not all in black- for that would draw unnecessary attention- but in dark street clothes- dark enough to be able to melt within the shadows so as not to be seen, but light enough so that if she were noticed, nobody would think her choice of attire too much like those from a spy movie- stepped forward. The shadows reluctantly fell back. Tipping her head back, her dark hazel eyes twinkling in the moonlight, she gazed up at the darkened window where her target lay. A grin slowly curled its way onto her face.
“Let the fun begin,” she whispered.
---TBC---
A/N: Once again, I am apologizing for the long wait between updates. I seem to be doing that a lot, huh? This was only half of what I had outlined for this chapter, but seeing I keep finding myself distracted by Harry Potter fanfic, I decided to cut this chapter short, otherwise, you would never have gotten it. The next chapter will feature Ryuichi and Tatsuha, the Shindous and of course some private one on one time with Shuichi and Eiri.
Until next time, remember to review!!
Sequel to: On the Street of Dreams
Written by: chochowilliams
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Summary: Ayaka is used to getting what she wants and what she wants now is Eiri. She’ll do whatever it takes to make him hers. Anything.
Chapter Summary: Unwinding after a long day out on the road.
Warning: fantasy, angst, drama, romance, m-preg, language, m/m, hentai, Ryuichi/Tatsuha, Eiri/Shuichi
Inserts: reference to chapter 4
A/N: Thank you to kaname-luvr, Namikaze naruko14, ferler, sarah83654123 and everyone else I may have forgotten for your reviews. Without further ado, here’s the next installment. Enjoy!
+---+---+---+
Last Time
“I have an assignment for you. Interested?”
A sly grin crossed her face. “Always,” Shiho purred in English. There wasn’t a trace of an accent as she spoke.
“Good.” His tone was suddenly serious. “This isn’t going to be like your last assignment. This is just surveillance.”
Shiho pouted. “Well that’s no fun.”
“Well, you never know. Depending on how things go…” The rest was left hanging, but the meaning was clearly conveyed.
The sly grin slow crawled back onto Shiho’s face. “I might get to play bumper cars again?”
There was a low chuckle in her ear. “Maybe.”
Shiho could not wait.
["He just came out of nowhere," she sobbed wide eyed in what Tatsuha could clearly see was shock. She began panting, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Oh God! It was as if he just fell out of the sky! I…I just…I didn't have time to stop…!"]
Oh how she could remember that day so clearly even now. It’d been her first assignment and she’d passed with flying colors. Maybe she should have become an actress. It was too bad she had to ruin a perfectly good car though, but with the money she’d earned, she’d just bought a new one.
“I’ll email you the details when I get them.”
Shiho Daidoji wondered what role she should play this time. Last time she worked with K, she’d been the panicky brunette. Guess she would have to wait and see.
+---+---+
Chapter 16: Beware the Shadows for they Have Eyes as Well
TCN Studios - Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan - That Night
To admit he was dead tired would be a gross understatement.
With one hand on the antique brass doorknob and the other on the light switch, Chishin swept his gaze over his office one final time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. The windows were closed. The shades drawn. His computer was off. Somehow, the mountain high piles of paperwork that had littered the desk that morning had been sorted through and dealt with. What remained had been organized into two smaller piles. He figured he would be caught up by lunchtime on Monday.
Silently, he cursed his childhood friend for causing him to become so negligent this passed week, which had resulted in the backup of work.
Overall, everything appeared to be in order.
Just as he was about to turn away, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the phone sitting silently on the far corner of the desk. As he turned to look at it full on, his hands fell loosely to his sides.
Nami hadn’t returned his phone call. Several more attempts had been just as futile, but he wasn’t worried. She was editor-and-chief of an entire magazine after all. A thought briefly wove its way into his mind. Should he give her one last call? He shook the thought aside. Monday. He’d try again on Monday. Maybe by then his old friend would have come up with a reasonable excuse for her behavior.
As a journalist, he could understand her fascination and obvious obsession. Once a story wormed its way under your skin, it remained there like a parasite. There was no way she would back down until she had seen this story through to the finish. Once upon a time, he’d been the same way. In fact, he still was, but he was able to control the urges. After all, he had a television station to run. No longer was he a freelance twenty-something year old without responsibilities who could afford to go running around Japan in search of the next juicy story. It was clear Nami had not yet grown out of that phase. Quite possibly, this quality could help turn her into a much-respected journalist, if she could kick the habit of allowing her prejudices to cloud her judgment.
No matter what people may believe, nobody can know somebody completely. It was impossible. However, seeing as he has been friends with Nami since they were children, he’d like to believe that he knew her reasonably well.
It was because he has known her for so long that it was not difficult to come to the conclusion that her bias towards neutrals was the catalyst behind her apparent fixation behind outing the truth of little Takanori Uesugi’s parentage. When her fixation turned into obsession, that’s when he‘d been forced to rethink things.
Could there possibly be more to her preoccupation with this story than she was letting on?
[“He was still a minor! The famous Eiri Yuki was fucking a minor who he ended up impregnating.”]
There had to be. Her anger and inability to see reason seemed to go overboard. It was all a bit much.
It wasn’t as if Shuichi Shindou and Eiri Yuki’s story was a rare case. In fact, there were numerously similar cases and yet this couple had her undivided attention and not to mention her ire. They had been singled out. Why? The only difference this time was that both parties involved were well-known- Eiri Yuki for being a well respected, best-selling author and Shuichi Shindou for being the lead singer of Bad Luck as well as Ryuichi Sakuma’s little brother. Of course, sometimes that made all the difference, which was hypocritical, but he’d been sure this time, Shuichi Shindou and Eiri Yuki’s celebrity status was not the driving force behind Nami’s relentless antagonizing and it wasn’t her dislike for neutrals either. No. It was something else.
It wasn’t only when Isoroku’s search turned up evidence that Nami was in frequent contact with one Ayaka Usami, who turned out to be Eiri Yuki’s ex-betrothed, that he felt his assumptions were justified.
Not too long ago, Shuichi Shindou was spotted at a local pharmacy buying a pregnancy test. Paparazzi immediately jumped to the conclusion that Shuichi Shindou was pregnant. The assumption made sense, especially when it was announced soon after that he and Eiri Yuki had split up. It was Nami who started circulating speculations that this may be history repeating itself. Had Shuichi been unfaithful? Had a one-night stand caused Shuichi to become pregnant? Was this why Eiri Yuki had dumped him?
That those claims turned out to have not a shred of truth to them had not stopped Nami. Nothing stopped her. She had even gone so far as to start a rumor that there was more to Shuichi Shindou and Ryuichi Sakuma’s relationship than was known. Could mere siblings look so much alike?
It was clear. Nami Mataguchi was doing the bidding of someone who was out for blood, Shuichi Shindou’s blood. There was no other explanation. Well, none that considered everything.
Blindly, he groped the wall besides him for the light switch. Flicking it, the office seeped into darkness. He stepped out into the quiet hush of the hallway and shut the door behind him. After locking the door, he jiggled the handle to make sure the door was secured. It was. Adjusting the strap of his messenger bag, he turned and started towards the elevator.
He hoped Nami knew what she was doing. If she wanted to get involved with some psychotic witch then that was her choice. If she wanted to throw her career out the window, again, that was her choice, but he would be damned if he sat back and watched as she ruined a bunch of innocent lives just so she could sell more copies of her magazine. Their friendship was not going to help her in any way.
+---+---+
The Trinity Offices - Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
She’d been well aware of what would arise because of the actions she had been forced to undertake when she’d agreed to help Ayaka, but this had not been something she’d foreseen.
When she’d been approached two years ago, almost three now, shortly after the press conference- at which Eiri Yuki and Shuichi Shindou announced one shocking revelation after another- by Ayaka Usami, she’d quickly latched onto the younger woman’s desire to uncover the truth. She herself had been just as disgusted by the whole affair, of course for a completely different reason.
Ayaka was a scorned lover. At least, in her mind she was. Nami, well, to put it simply, she wanted to out scoop her competitors.
Her reporters instincts have been fine tuned by years of investigative journalism that stemmed from her stints on her high school and college newspapers as well as her short time with Asahi Shimbun, a national newspaper with prints in both Japanese and English, after graduation and they were telling her that there was more to this sordid tale than was being let on.
Oh, yes. This whole “the ex-boyfriend who died in a sudden and tragic car accident is the father” routine just did not sit well with her. Really, who were they trying to kid? Their relationship had been purely platonic? What a load of crap. Eiri Yuki did not have a platonic bone in her body. Trying to ignore the holes in their story was like trying to pretend you were not having a severe case of heartburn.
Now there was a second mysterious pregnancy. It was like history repeating itself, the déjà vu was that strong.
All she wanted was the truth. Unfortunately, it seemed as if Ayaka wanted more than that. She wanted Eiri.
Ayaka’s crazy assed scheme was just as insane as she was. That girl just did not know when to admit defeat.
Nami spun her soft, brown leather desk chair around and stared out the window into the night, which seemed to have fallen without her notice.
Finally, after dodging her attacks for nearly three years, Shindou had agreed to have a DNA paternity test done. Tohma Seguchi had called her early this morning with the news. By Monday at the earliest, all of Japan would know the truth surrounding the paternal heritage of one Takanori Uesugi.
It started her wondering.
[“This might not turn out the way you want,” Nami could remember telling Ayaka. In fact, she had a feeling it wouldn’t. Ayaka, though, continues to refuse to see reason.
“Nonsense. Once the truth comes out, Eiri will be completely devastated and I will be there to comfort him in his time of need.”]
Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not bury their heads in sand, but that was exactly what Ayaka was doing. Instead of facing the predator head on, she would rather pretend that she was not in danger. That type of behavior was very dangerous. Contrary to what others believed about her, she did not become so obsessed with a story that she would put herself or others in harm’s way. There was no way she would stretch her neck out on the chopping block.
Ayaka had better learn to be ware of sharp, shiny objects- and fast- because you never knew when you were going to be stabbed in the back, or by whom.
+---+---+
Usami Residence - Ryugan Temple - Kyoto, Japan
Sleep continued to elude her. Thoughts of her pending marriage to her childhood love refused to release her from their sweet grip.
The day she had been dreaming of since she was a little girl was fast approaching. She would be lying if she said that she wasn’t being tormented by her nerves. There was a herald of butterflies dancing the waltz in her stomach, several in fact. It was enough to make her nauseous. As nervous as she was, though, she was also excited. How could she not be? Before long, she would be known as Ayaka Uesugi. The knowledge that she would soon be blessed with her beloved’s name made her giddy.
With a content sigh, Ayaka rolled over.
A silver framed photograph on the bottom shelf of her headboard caught her attention. It twinkled in the beam of moonlight that filtered in through a narrow gap in her tiny bedroom’s only window, now at her back. She smiled at the handsome face grinning back at her. Wiggling a hand out from under the thin sheet, she stretched her arm over her head and grabbed the frame. It was oddly cold. Settling onto her back, she kissing the tips of her index and middle fingers of her free hand and pressed them against the cool glass.
“Good night my love,” she whispered.
Soon, it won’t be a photograph, but the real deal she would be able to kiss good night.
With a smile on her face, Ayaka hugged the photograph to her chest and turned back onto her side, finally falling into a light slumber.
+---+---+
The shadows beneath Ayaka’s bedroom window stirred. A tall brunette, her long hair pulled back into a ponytail, and clad not all in black- for that would draw unnecessary attention- but in dark street clothes- dark enough to be able to melt within the shadows so as not to be seen, but light enough so that if she were noticed, nobody would think her choice of attire too much like those from a spy movie- stepped forward. The shadows reluctantly fell back. Tipping her head back, her dark hazel eyes twinkling in the moonlight, she gazed up at the darkened window where her target lay. A grin slowly curled its way onto her face.
“Let the fun begin,” she whispered.
---TBC---
A/N: Once again, I am apologizing for the long wait between updates. I seem to be doing that a lot, huh? This was only half of what I had outlined for this chapter, but seeing I keep finding myself distracted by Harry Potter fanfic, I decided to cut this chapter short, otherwise, you would never have gotten it. The next chapter will feature Ryuichi and Tatsuha, the Shindous and of course some private one on one time with Shuichi and Eiri.
Until next time, remember to review!!