Still Raining
folder
Gravitation › AU - Alternate Universe
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
28
Views:
3,542
Reviews:
9
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Gravitation › AU - Alternate Universe
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
28
Views:
3,542
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.
Monday Is Taking Too Long
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: Maiko has to decide if she wants the father of her child involved in her pregnancy and Shiho is getting bored. Things are too calm.
Warning: fantasy, angst, drama, romance, m-preg, language, M/M, hentai, Ryuichi/Tatsuha, Eiri/Shuichi
Inserts: --
A/N: Firstly, I’d like to thank idontsurf, ferler, Namikaze naruko14, kaname-luvr, xunixn, fan girl 666, sarah83654123, Selina for your reviews. Second, I want to apologize for the shortness of the last chapter. I’m not gonna promise they’ll get any longer or that I’ll add a chapter where Shuichi and Eiri use the “stuff”, though I’m not adverse to someone else doing so. So, okay, anyway, this chapter deals with Maiko and Ayaka’s weekend and is a bit longer. The next chapter is when the results are revealed. Enjoy!
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Last Time
“Ryu?” he called in concern.
He wondered what happened. Was Ryuichi worried about seeing his son? He could not blame him if that was the case. If their positions were reversed, he would be just as nervous. Shuichi could very well tell Ryuichi to fuck off. That would kill Ryuichi.
“What’s up?”
Standing in the doorway of the master bedroom, Ryuichi stared blankly down at his bare feet. Wood flooring was under his heels while carpeting was under his toes. He was not sure how to bring this up. Or even how Tatsuha would take it. Well, there was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, Ryuichi raised his head and plunged ahead. “Before we go, I want to show you something.”
Tatsuha cocked his head. “What? Now?”
Ryuichi nodded. “It’ll take a sec.”
Tatsuha frowned in confusion.
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Chapter 19: Monday Is Taking Too Long To Get Here
Horaido Tea House - Kyoto, Japan
There was nobody who could fully understand what she was going through: head of the class, straight A student, member of the nations top high school debate team, secretary of the Honor’s Society, Vice President of the student body, reporter for the school newspaper, and part time member of the archery club and all on top of being sixteen and pregnant.
Her mother had been a senior in high school, mere weeks from graduation, when she discovered she was pregnant with Ryuichi. After getting over the initial shock, her mother claimed to have been ecstatic at the news.
That her mother would welcome the news of an unplanned pregnancy at such a young age was shocking to Maiko, to say the least. Why hadn’t her mother been terrified? Angry? Confused? Those emotions she would be able to understand, but overjoyed at the news that at seventeen years old her life was over? That she was going to be an unwed single mother responsible for the wellbeing and care of a helpless baby dependent on her for its every need? What about all those sleepless nights? What if when the baby started crying, you could not find a way to make him stop? What if you became one of those parents on the news that forgot their child in the backseat of the car and by the time you returned to the car the child was dead from heat stroke and dehydration? All the possibilities of what could happen terrified Maiko more than anything else.
Of course, her mother was experiencing those same emotions, but apparently, she and her then boyfriend had been discussing getting married and starting a family immediately after graduation anyway, possibly by the end of the summer, so her being pregnant should not have caused any problems.
“Should not have”.
That caught Maiko’s immediate attention.
“We’d decided that he’d continue on to college and then medical school- he wanted to become a doctor- and I’d remain at home to raise our children. I didn’t see anything wrong with being pregnant sooner then we’d expected,” her mother had told her. “Apparently he did.”
“Why? What happened?”
“It seems he was all talk.” When she’d asked what that meant, her mother had replied, “When I told him about the baby, he accused me of cheating on him. He refused to accept the child as his and dumped me.”
As far as Maiko knew, her mother had never spoken to her ex since. However, from what Ryuichi told her, his biological father had tried to get in contact with him once years ago, but Ryuichi told her that he’d told him, “I don’t know what you’re on about. I already have a father.” By that, he was referring to his stepfather, Morihiro Shindou. The man had willingly decided to raise and take responsibility for a child he had no rights to. They may not be related by blood, but Ryuichi considered his stepfather more of a father than the man who got his mother pregnant. “It takes more than just a night in the sack and some agile little swimmers to be a father,” was what Ryuichi told her once. “Passing on your genes isn’t what makes one a parent.”
Against the wishes of her family, her mother opted not to have an abortion or give her child up for adoption, which were options being forcibly pushed onto her when threats towards the young man to “do right” by their daughter- meaning marriage- went nowhere.
“Of course his family backed him,” her mother snorted. “He could do no wrong,” she continued in a mocking voice. “This, of course, made me look like a slut.”
Her grandparents had even gone so far as to suggest they would send their daughter “to visit relatives out in the country” until the baby was born and then they would take the child in and raise the child as their own.
“Basically,” her mother said, “my child would become ‘the orphaned son’ of ‘distant relatives’ who ‘perished in a horrible car accident’ and who my parents were ‘gracious enough to take in’.”
Maiko had never heard such vehemence from her mother before.
“I was told I’d brought shame down upon our entire family and that our ancestors were weeping with sorrow for my idiocy,” Maiko could hear her mother saying, “but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to run away and hide as if I had something to be ashamed of and I sure as hell wasn’t about to give up my child or pretend that my own son was my little brother.” A strange look had appeared on her mother’s face then. When Maiko had asked her what was wrong, her mother had brushed it aside as nothing.
Instead of giving into the demands of her family, her mother moved in with one of the only friends that had not shunned her.
If Maiko had any heroes, it would be her mother. Seventeen years old, fresh out of high school, and already a single parent, but making it work as best as she could.
Then there was Shuichi.
In a way, Shuichi’s and their mother’s stories were similar, but in another they were nothing at all alike. The same could be said for her’s and her mother’s as well as her’s and Shuichi’s. Nobody could truly comprehend what another person goes through, no matter how similar the situation. Not even walking in that person’s shoes could give one a well-defined comprehensive knowledgability.
Even though they were less than two years apart, she and Shuichi were never very close growing up. Neither had she been very close to Ryuichi, but there was a sixteen-year gap between her and Ryuichi, not to mention that Ryuichi Sakuma was the lead singer of the hottest band to ever come out of Japan. That was not to say that her big big brother neglected her because that was not the case. As the only girl in the family, she was spoiled rotten. Ryuichi had been no exception, but despite the age gap, he had always been closer to Shuichi than to her. While it sometimes used to make her feel put out, and still did every now and then, she knew that their closeness was due to the love of music that flowed through their veins. She had always been more into books and studying, something both of which her brothers steered clear. In fact, she wasn’t sure if either Shuichi or Ryuichi knew where the nearest library was. Besides, in hindsight it almost seemed as if their parents deliberately tried to keep them from socializing too much, but that assessment was so ridiculous that she did not give it any more consideration than it deserved.
She and Shuichi had barely been acquaintances let alone the best of friends as children, so it came as no surprise at how little she knew about him. She hadn’t even known he was a neutral- it hadn’t exactly been advertised in the Shindou household- until the scandal surrounding his relationship with Eiri Yuki became known. Seeing an obviously pregnant Shuichi Shindou plastered all over the television and newspapers was what made her first realize just how little she knew about her big brother. It was then that she vowed to make up for that.
Besides his obvious love of music, there was not much she could say about him even now. He’d always been a bit distant, except for when Ryuichi was in town and then he stuck to their big brother‘s side like glue, even when they were fighting. She did know that he was involved for a short time with a rough crowd. It was not until recently that she became aware of just how rough of a crowd it was.
Instead of continuing on to high school after barely managing to graduate from middle school, at the age of fourteen Shuichi started a band with Hiroshi Nakano- his oldest and best friend- as well as Suguru Fujisaki- cousin to their brother’s best friend- and somehow managed to become involved with the Black Dragons, a notorious Yakuza group who dealt in prostitution, narcotics- known illegal street drugs, OTCs as well as a variety of new concoctions- and in the underground weapons trade. Who knows what else they were involved in.
It was not too long after that he dropped a bombshell to their parents: he was going to have a baby. It seems that they’d been none too pleased at the news and he was promptly kicked out and disowned. That was something that had never made any sense. If they were going to kick her brother out because he went and did something as asinine as getting himself pregnant then by those same standards should she not have been out on the street?
She still hadn’t received a satisfactory answer to that. Her mother pretended as if she hadn’t spoken when the subject was brought up. Just kept on speaking randomly. Her father ignored her completely. Walked right out of the room without a word. As for Shuichi…
“Just…don’t. Okay? Just don’t.”
Of course, all this turmoil within the family was something she had been ignorant of up until very recently.
At first, she hadn’t even realized that Shuichi was gone. They may not have hung out, but she wasn’t stupid or blind. She knew all about the tension between him and their folks, even if she hadn’t known- and still didn’t know- what it was all about. She’d known that her brother spent as little time as possible at the house, which was another reason they had never been close. He’d never been around. It was only when she started hearing rumors that Tohma bought the floundering L8r Records and soon after signed their first band- that she’d heard via rumors was a band calling themselves Bad Luck, which she knew happened to be the name of Shuichi’s band- that she even realized that her brother was no longer in the house. She went into his room to ask him if the rumors were true that he’d been signed and what she saw left her confused and upset: his room was completely empty.
Their parents told her when she went crying to them, “Gone.” Well, more like her father and with this indifferent attitude. Her mother just started sobbing. That was all either of them would say on the subject. Shuichi left.
The first time she and Shuichi sat down to have a real conversation was when she suspected she was pregnant, a mere twenty-six weeks ago. He’d volunteered to go to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test for her.
Ironically, it was this selfless act that gave birth to the rumors that Shuichi had been unfaithful to his husband- she hadn’t understood what one had to do with the other until Shuichi’s publicist announced not long after, mere days later, that the two were separating. The paparazzo that seemed to stalk both of her brothers, apparently twenty-four/seven because the buzzards had absolutely no life whatsoever, photographed Shuichi while in the pharmacy holding the pregnancy test and leapt to “an obvious assumption”.
She should have known better than to send Shuichi of all people, knowing how famous he was becoming, but she hadn’t really understood just how famous her brother was. Besides, she had been so scared; terrified that she might actually be pregnant and afraid that someone would see her and jump to conclusions before she knew either way.
Shuichi confessed that he’d thought about having an abortion. He’d even made the appointment and went down to the clinic. To say she was surprised that he’d actually hosted the idea, even for a short time, would be an understatement.
“Dad said I’d be able to come home if I did but…I wasn’t going to do it for him,” Shuichi told her. “I could care less what he thinks about me. I just didn’t want Eiri to hate me.”
This was also when she learned that Shuichi hadn’t just “left” as their parents claimed, but had in fact been kicked out of the house.
“Quite literally,” was what Shuichi said.
Even though it made some semblance of sense, Maiko still had a hard time believing their father was that cold hearted.
If what he told her was in fact true, then she was glad her brother had Eiri.
In that, she counted herself lucky. Yes, her parents had been disappointed in her when she told them she was going to have a baby. She had been disappointed in her, too. However, unlike her mother and brother before her, her parents had not shown her the door. If they would have treated her the same way, she was not sure what she would have done. Many of her friends started to snub her when they learned of her pregnancy, even though it was these same friends that goateed her into the now infamous rendezvous.
All three of them- herself, her mother and her brother- had such similar stories, but it just wasn’t the same. It would never be the same.
The jingle of bells cut through her thoughts.
When she looked up, her heart lifted up into her throat and then slammed back down into her chest. It was like missing a step in the dark or being in alone in a car as it sped over an inclined section of the road. It sent a surge of adrenaline through her that had her pulse racing. Warmth heated her cheeks. She bit her lip to keep a grin from appearing. There standing just inside the front door of the small tea shop not far from her parents’ house stood the now infamous captain of the swimming team, the guy she has had a crush on since middle school, the guy who used her attraction to get her to sleep with him all so that he had the privilege of admitting to having slept with Shuichi Shindou’s baby sister.
Some would think that after everything she had endured because of him, her body would stop acting of its own accord, but it did not work that way. How she wished it did. She could no more help the blush that wormed its way up her neck or how her pulse started racing or how her palms grew slick with perspiration then she could stop the sun from rising at dawn and setting at dusk. She did not like how she lost all coherent thought at the sight of him or how her IQ went from above to below average. She wanted to hate him, to despise him, to spit on the ground he walked on. Her life would be so much easier. Unfortunately, life was not that black and white. What she did feel was a surge of anger at how this man had treated her. Her ire drowned out the lingering feelings she still, unfortunately, harbored for him.
When Shuichi stopped over the day before, she told him about the meeting she had, for some strange reason, agreed to.
“Want me to come?” he’d asked her.
“Why?” She’d honestly had no idea why he’d want to at first.
“As a bodyguard. You know,” he’d continued with a sly glint in his amethyst eyes, “just in case things get violent. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to my little nephew.”
She thanked him for the offer, but turned him down flat- and with a snort.
Bodyguard? Yeah right. More like as an elder brother pissed at the first man who dared take advantage of his baby sister.
Her crush’s dark gaze scanned the nearly empty restaurant. It was not long before he spotted her in a corner booth. He made his way towards her, attempting to smile, but it looked sickly. “Maiko,” he greeted.
Maiko narrowed her gaze. “That’s Shindou,” she corrected, “Mr. Horigami.”
The smile faltered. A look of uncertainty crossed his face.
“So, Mr. Horigami, what can I do for you? And please make it quick,” she added, fighting a smirk at his fallen expression and at the same time wishing she could wipe such an unbecoming expression from his face, “my parents and I are finishing up decorating the nursery this weekend.”
Gazing at the checkered flooring under his feet, Horigami started nodding and could not seem to stop. “That’s actually why I wanted to speak with you.”
That had Maiko’s pulse racing again. She could not determine if it was out of dread, anticipation, or a combination of both.
As he was sliding into the booth opposite her, she was reminded of something else Shuichi said, “By the way, tell the douche bag-”
“My brothers say hello by the way.”
The color drained out of his face.
Maiko could not stop the smirk this time. Oh, this was going to be fun.
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Shindou Residence - Kyoto, Japan
A short time later, Maiko slunk into the house. She tossed her keys into a dish on a table against the wall, dropped her purse onto the floor and started to remove her shoes. The motions were so ingrained that she did them automatically while her mind was occupied by thoughts of Horigami.
“I want to be involved with the baby.”
That had certainly been a surprise. If he’d been looking for a way to wipe the smirk from her face and/or gain the upper hand then he had accomplished his goal. She had been so flabbergasted by his confession that she’d fled the teashop without answering him.
Horigami claimed to want to be a part of his child’s life. It was something she had been wishing for, hoping for, praying for, ever since she discovered she was pregnant. Now that it seemed to be a reality and not just a dream, she wasn’t so sure.
Was she afraid? Partly. She wasn’t sure she wanted anything to do with him after the way he had humiliated her in front of half of the school at that party and then the way she was scorned, ridiculed and mocked by his friends and the rest of the school ever since. Then he’d had the gull to pretend that that night had never happened.
“I’m pregnant.” It had taken her nearly a month to work up the courage to tell him. It hadn’t been easy. Far from it. It was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do and that included having to tell her parents that their precious baby girl was no longer a baby. She’d been trembling so badly the entire time and had felt sick to her stomach. It had taken all her nerve, and then some, to not spin around and forget her duty.
“Good for you,” he’d replied. His laugh was echoed by the gaggle of goons that followed him like a shadow everywhere. “And I should care because…?”
She’d opened her mouth to say, “Because it’s your baby,” but instead, she’d watch as he walked away, still laughing, and what was left of her unshattered heart broke.
If that was the way she was treated, then how would he treat their child? A child he, up until just moments ago, denied existed.
But…
Whether she hated his guts, or just wished she could, he was, after all, the father of her child, so didn’t that mean that he deserved to be involved in his child’s life?
“Hey, honey,” called a soft voice.
Half stooped over with her shoes clasped securely in her hand, Maiko saw her mother walking out of the kitchen carrying a wooden tray. On the tray was a clear glass jug filled with dark amber liquid, ice that clinked against the sides of the jug as she moved, and lemon slices. Three glasses turned upside down were arranged around the jug.
“How’d it go?”
Maiko shrugged as she placed her shoes neatly besides that of her mothers within the shoe closet. Grabbing the strap of her purse, she slung it over her shoulder and followed her mother up the staircase to Shuichi’s old bedroom. “Fine I guess,” she answered vaguely.
When she’d told her brother that his old room was being turned into the nursery, Shuichi had seemed genuinely happy. Despite what people seemed to believe, Shuichi was actually fairly good at hiding his emotions. It was no cop face, but he had enough skill to fool the best of them, so she was not sure if he was truly alright with his old bedroom being converted into a nursery for the only grandchild their parents had bothered to acknowledge.
“What he want?” Mai asked, referring to the meeting with the boy who dared to defile her daughter.
“He wants to be part of his child’s life,” Maiko confessed.
Mai’s face lit up at the news as she stepped into the nursery. “That’s great!”
“Yeah,” Maiko said. The smile she tried to give wavered around the edges.
“Oh, hey, sweetie,” her father greeted as he turned around and saw her entering behind his wife.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Glad you’re back. Gotta question for you. What do you think about…?”
Maiko was relieved that he didn’t ask any questions about her meeting with Horigami and that her mother did not press the issue. She was so confused as it was. All she wanted was time to think and digest everything. Maybe she’d give Shuichi a call later and ask his opinion. For the moment though, she lost herself into placing the finishing touches onto the nursery for her son.
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Somewhere in the United States
All his worrying had been for naught. The target had not been tipped off as he had feared after all. Apparently, she had been out of town taking care of her mother who had fallen ill.
From what he had been able to deduce, her mother was getting on in years and had never really been all that healthy anyway, at least not since her husband was killed in the line of duty during the Korean war. That was something K could understand, as he had taken care of his bedridden mother months prior to her death mere weeks before the birth of his son Michael, but all the sympathy in the world was not going to influence him in any way.
If he hadn’t deserted his post after learning his last target was a single mother with no family who would be able to take care of her child if something were to happen to her, then he sure as hell was not about to walk out on the job this time just because he could identify with the target.
From his room that had shrunk from being the size of a shoebox to that of a rat hole in the weeks he had been cooped up here, K knelt before the lone window hazy with grim and filth. Besides him, propped against the wall yellow with age and brown with years, possibly decades, worth of dirt was the window screen, which had been too easy to take out. Open on the bed behind him was the carrying case for the M-24. Everything else was packed and waiting for his hasty, but clean, retreat.
Squinting through the scope, he followed the target’s movements as she paced back and forth in her apartment across the street with the phone pressed to her ear. He was assuming she was on hold for she hasn’t said a word in the ten minutes she had been on the phone. She walked from the kitchen through the dining room and into the living room before turning and heading back. The barrel of the sniper rifle was steady. His finger hovered over the trigger, just itching to pull it. He had wasted too much time on this job already.
…Wait…
…Wait…
…Wait…
Taking a deep breath, he held it, counted to ten, and then slowly exhaled. Quietness washed over him. There was nothing. No emotion. No thought. No conscience. No guilt. Nothing.
It was time.
Through the scope, K watched as the target jerked to a halt in the middle of the dining room and then crumbled to the floor out of sight.
It would take an hour before someone realized that Mrs. Marianne Hockley was dead, but by then, the assassin for hire known simply as K would be on a flight to Japan.
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Usami Residence - Kyoto, Japan
Again. She was at it again.
From the woods that stretched up behind the Usami residence all the way to the Ryugan Temple that was perched at the top of the hill at the head of a long steep set of stairs that had been cut into the hillside, Shiho lowered the binoculars and heaved a disgusted sigh.
Why had she agreed to this assignment again?
Seriously, what was with this chick? Did she have some undiagnosed OCD or something? Honestly. She’d spend hours pulling weeds, tilling the soil, pruning the flowers, trimming hedges, and planting new flowers and then disappear into the house for a little while before returning to re-till the soil and pull more weeds that apparently only she could see. That was all this girl has been doing since she woke, which had been at the ass crack of dawn.
Actually, the sun hadn’t even been close to being up and Ms Ayaka Usami was out of bed. Weren’t teenagers supposed to sleep in until noon and stay out all night? Talk back to their parents? Be lazy slobs and juvenile delinquents? Hang out with people their parents disapproved of? Participate in underage drinking? Experiment with drugs? Smoke? Have sex with the next able body? Go to parties at their friends’ houses when the parental units decided to take a personal weekend? Take the car without asking? Join devil-worshipping cults? Dance naked under the moonlight? Weren’t teenagers supposed to be teenagers?
Ms Ayaka Usami was definitely an old woman at heart.
Shiho had to stop herself from banging her head against the nearest tree in agitation.
This had to be the most boring assignment she had ever had the privilege of being part of. Ms Ayaka Usami was a boring woman. Very.
Dull.
Mind numbing.
Tiresome.
Unexciting.
Monotonous.
Repetitive.
Whichever verb was used, it all amounted to the same definition. Uninteresting. As in stimulating no interest or enthusiasm.
Yawning, Shiho stretched her arms over her head. Sighing, she flopped onto her back against the warm grass. Setting the binoculars besides her, she folded her arms behind her head and crossing one leg over the other, let her eyes flutter closed.
Well, this chick wasn’t all bad. Boring was actually turning out to be a good thing. She could finally catch up on her sleep.
--TO BE CONTINUED--
A/N: 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: Maiko has to decide if she wants the father of her child involved in her pregnancy and Shiho is getting bored. Things are too calm.
Warning: fantasy, angst, drama, romance, m-preg, language, M/M, hentai, Ryuichi/Tatsuha, Eiri/Shuichi
Inserts: --
A/N: Firstly, I’d like to thank idontsurf, ferler, Namikaze naruko14, kaname-luvr, xunixn, fan girl 666, sarah83654123, Selina for your reviews. Second, I want to apologize for the shortness of the last chapter. I’m not gonna promise they’ll get any longer or that I’ll add a chapter where Shuichi and Eiri use the “stuff”, though I’m not adverse to someone else doing so. So, okay, anyway, this chapter deals with Maiko and Ayaka’s weekend and is a bit longer. The next chapter is when the results are revealed. Enjoy!
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Last Time
“Ryu?” he called in concern.
He wondered what happened. Was Ryuichi worried about seeing his son? He could not blame him if that was the case. If their positions were reversed, he would be just as nervous. Shuichi could very well tell Ryuichi to fuck off. That would kill Ryuichi.
“What’s up?”
Standing in the doorway of the master bedroom, Ryuichi stared blankly down at his bare feet. Wood flooring was under his heels while carpeting was under his toes. He was not sure how to bring this up. Or even how Tatsuha would take it. Well, there was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, Ryuichi raised his head and plunged ahead. “Before we go, I want to show you something.”
Tatsuha cocked his head. “What? Now?”
Ryuichi nodded. “It’ll take a sec.”
Tatsuha frowned in confusion.
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Chapter 19: Monday Is Taking Too Long To Get Here
Horaido Tea House - Kyoto, Japan
There was nobody who could fully understand what she was going through: head of the class, straight A student, member of the nations top high school debate team, secretary of the Honor’s Society, Vice President of the student body, reporter for the school newspaper, and part time member of the archery club and all on top of being sixteen and pregnant.
Her mother had been a senior in high school, mere weeks from graduation, when she discovered she was pregnant with Ryuichi. After getting over the initial shock, her mother claimed to have been ecstatic at the news.
That her mother would welcome the news of an unplanned pregnancy at such a young age was shocking to Maiko, to say the least. Why hadn’t her mother been terrified? Angry? Confused? Those emotions she would be able to understand, but overjoyed at the news that at seventeen years old her life was over? That she was going to be an unwed single mother responsible for the wellbeing and care of a helpless baby dependent on her for its every need? What about all those sleepless nights? What if when the baby started crying, you could not find a way to make him stop? What if you became one of those parents on the news that forgot their child in the backseat of the car and by the time you returned to the car the child was dead from heat stroke and dehydration? All the possibilities of what could happen terrified Maiko more than anything else.
Of course, her mother was experiencing those same emotions, but apparently, she and her then boyfriend had been discussing getting married and starting a family immediately after graduation anyway, possibly by the end of the summer, so her being pregnant should not have caused any problems.
“Should not have”.
That caught Maiko’s immediate attention.
“We’d decided that he’d continue on to college and then medical school- he wanted to become a doctor- and I’d remain at home to raise our children. I didn’t see anything wrong with being pregnant sooner then we’d expected,” her mother had told her. “Apparently he did.”
“Why? What happened?”
“It seems he was all talk.” When she’d asked what that meant, her mother had replied, “When I told him about the baby, he accused me of cheating on him. He refused to accept the child as his and dumped me.”
As far as Maiko knew, her mother had never spoken to her ex since. However, from what Ryuichi told her, his biological father had tried to get in contact with him once years ago, but Ryuichi told her that he’d told him, “I don’t know what you’re on about. I already have a father.” By that, he was referring to his stepfather, Morihiro Shindou. The man had willingly decided to raise and take responsibility for a child he had no rights to. They may not be related by blood, but Ryuichi considered his stepfather more of a father than the man who got his mother pregnant. “It takes more than just a night in the sack and some agile little swimmers to be a father,” was what Ryuichi told her once. “Passing on your genes isn’t what makes one a parent.”
Against the wishes of her family, her mother opted not to have an abortion or give her child up for adoption, which were options being forcibly pushed onto her when threats towards the young man to “do right” by their daughter- meaning marriage- went nowhere.
“Of course his family backed him,” her mother snorted. “He could do no wrong,” she continued in a mocking voice. “This, of course, made me look like a slut.”
Her grandparents had even gone so far as to suggest they would send their daughter “to visit relatives out in the country” until the baby was born and then they would take the child in and raise the child as their own.
“Basically,” her mother said, “my child would become ‘the orphaned son’ of ‘distant relatives’ who ‘perished in a horrible car accident’ and who my parents were ‘gracious enough to take in’.”
Maiko had never heard such vehemence from her mother before.
“I was told I’d brought shame down upon our entire family and that our ancestors were weeping with sorrow for my idiocy,” Maiko could hear her mother saying, “but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to run away and hide as if I had something to be ashamed of and I sure as hell wasn’t about to give up my child or pretend that my own son was my little brother.” A strange look had appeared on her mother’s face then. When Maiko had asked her what was wrong, her mother had brushed it aside as nothing.
Instead of giving into the demands of her family, her mother moved in with one of the only friends that had not shunned her.
If Maiko had any heroes, it would be her mother. Seventeen years old, fresh out of high school, and already a single parent, but making it work as best as she could.
Then there was Shuichi.
In a way, Shuichi’s and their mother’s stories were similar, but in another they were nothing at all alike. The same could be said for her’s and her mother’s as well as her’s and Shuichi’s. Nobody could truly comprehend what another person goes through, no matter how similar the situation. Not even walking in that person’s shoes could give one a well-defined comprehensive knowledgability.
Even though they were less than two years apart, she and Shuichi were never very close growing up. Neither had she been very close to Ryuichi, but there was a sixteen-year gap between her and Ryuichi, not to mention that Ryuichi Sakuma was the lead singer of the hottest band to ever come out of Japan. That was not to say that her big big brother neglected her because that was not the case. As the only girl in the family, she was spoiled rotten. Ryuichi had been no exception, but despite the age gap, he had always been closer to Shuichi than to her. While it sometimes used to make her feel put out, and still did every now and then, she knew that their closeness was due to the love of music that flowed through their veins. She had always been more into books and studying, something both of which her brothers steered clear. In fact, she wasn’t sure if either Shuichi or Ryuichi knew where the nearest library was. Besides, in hindsight it almost seemed as if their parents deliberately tried to keep them from socializing too much, but that assessment was so ridiculous that she did not give it any more consideration than it deserved.
She and Shuichi had barely been acquaintances let alone the best of friends as children, so it came as no surprise at how little she knew about him. She hadn’t even known he was a neutral- it hadn’t exactly been advertised in the Shindou household- until the scandal surrounding his relationship with Eiri Yuki became known. Seeing an obviously pregnant Shuichi Shindou plastered all over the television and newspapers was what made her first realize just how little she knew about her big brother. It was then that she vowed to make up for that.
Besides his obvious love of music, there was not much she could say about him even now. He’d always been a bit distant, except for when Ryuichi was in town and then he stuck to their big brother‘s side like glue, even when they were fighting. She did know that he was involved for a short time with a rough crowd. It was not until recently that she became aware of just how rough of a crowd it was.
Instead of continuing on to high school after barely managing to graduate from middle school, at the age of fourteen Shuichi started a band with Hiroshi Nakano- his oldest and best friend- as well as Suguru Fujisaki- cousin to their brother’s best friend- and somehow managed to become involved with the Black Dragons, a notorious Yakuza group who dealt in prostitution, narcotics- known illegal street drugs, OTCs as well as a variety of new concoctions- and in the underground weapons trade. Who knows what else they were involved in.
It was not too long after that he dropped a bombshell to their parents: he was going to have a baby. It seems that they’d been none too pleased at the news and he was promptly kicked out and disowned. That was something that had never made any sense. If they were going to kick her brother out because he went and did something as asinine as getting himself pregnant then by those same standards should she not have been out on the street?
She still hadn’t received a satisfactory answer to that. Her mother pretended as if she hadn’t spoken when the subject was brought up. Just kept on speaking randomly. Her father ignored her completely. Walked right out of the room without a word. As for Shuichi…
“Just…don’t. Okay? Just don’t.”
Of course, all this turmoil within the family was something she had been ignorant of up until very recently.
At first, she hadn’t even realized that Shuichi was gone. They may not have hung out, but she wasn’t stupid or blind. She knew all about the tension between him and their folks, even if she hadn’t known- and still didn’t know- what it was all about. She’d known that her brother spent as little time as possible at the house, which was another reason they had never been close. He’d never been around. It was only when she started hearing rumors that Tohma bought the floundering L8r Records and soon after signed their first band- that she’d heard via rumors was a band calling themselves Bad Luck, which she knew happened to be the name of Shuichi’s band- that she even realized that her brother was no longer in the house. She went into his room to ask him if the rumors were true that he’d been signed and what she saw left her confused and upset: his room was completely empty.
Their parents told her when she went crying to them, “Gone.” Well, more like her father and with this indifferent attitude. Her mother just started sobbing. That was all either of them would say on the subject. Shuichi left.
The first time she and Shuichi sat down to have a real conversation was when she suspected she was pregnant, a mere twenty-six weeks ago. He’d volunteered to go to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test for her.
Ironically, it was this selfless act that gave birth to the rumors that Shuichi had been unfaithful to his husband- she hadn’t understood what one had to do with the other until Shuichi’s publicist announced not long after, mere days later, that the two were separating. The paparazzo that seemed to stalk both of her brothers, apparently twenty-four/seven because the buzzards had absolutely no life whatsoever, photographed Shuichi while in the pharmacy holding the pregnancy test and leapt to “an obvious assumption”.
She should have known better than to send Shuichi of all people, knowing how famous he was becoming, but she hadn’t really understood just how famous her brother was. Besides, she had been so scared; terrified that she might actually be pregnant and afraid that someone would see her and jump to conclusions before she knew either way.
Shuichi confessed that he’d thought about having an abortion. He’d even made the appointment and went down to the clinic. To say she was surprised that he’d actually hosted the idea, even for a short time, would be an understatement.
“Dad said I’d be able to come home if I did but…I wasn’t going to do it for him,” Shuichi told her. “I could care less what he thinks about me. I just didn’t want Eiri to hate me.”
This was also when she learned that Shuichi hadn’t just “left” as their parents claimed, but had in fact been kicked out of the house.
“Quite literally,” was what Shuichi said.
Even though it made some semblance of sense, Maiko still had a hard time believing their father was that cold hearted.
If what he told her was in fact true, then she was glad her brother had Eiri.
In that, she counted herself lucky. Yes, her parents had been disappointed in her when she told them she was going to have a baby. She had been disappointed in her, too. However, unlike her mother and brother before her, her parents had not shown her the door. If they would have treated her the same way, she was not sure what she would have done. Many of her friends started to snub her when they learned of her pregnancy, even though it was these same friends that goateed her into the now infamous rendezvous.
All three of them- herself, her mother and her brother- had such similar stories, but it just wasn’t the same. It would never be the same.
The jingle of bells cut through her thoughts.
When she looked up, her heart lifted up into her throat and then slammed back down into her chest. It was like missing a step in the dark or being in alone in a car as it sped over an inclined section of the road. It sent a surge of adrenaline through her that had her pulse racing. Warmth heated her cheeks. She bit her lip to keep a grin from appearing. There standing just inside the front door of the small tea shop not far from her parents’ house stood the now infamous captain of the swimming team, the guy she has had a crush on since middle school, the guy who used her attraction to get her to sleep with him all so that he had the privilege of admitting to having slept with Shuichi Shindou’s baby sister.
Some would think that after everything she had endured because of him, her body would stop acting of its own accord, but it did not work that way. How she wished it did. She could no more help the blush that wormed its way up her neck or how her pulse started racing or how her palms grew slick with perspiration then she could stop the sun from rising at dawn and setting at dusk. She did not like how she lost all coherent thought at the sight of him or how her IQ went from above to below average. She wanted to hate him, to despise him, to spit on the ground he walked on. Her life would be so much easier. Unfortunately, life was not that black and white. What she did feel was a surge of anger at how this man had treated her. Her ire drowned out the lingering feelings she still, unfortunately, harbored for him.
When Shuichi stopped over the day before, she told him about the meeting she had, for some strange reason, agreed to.
“Want me to come?” he’d asked her.
“Why?” She’d honestly had no idea why he’d want to at first.
“As a bodyguard. You know,” he’d continued with a sly glint in his amethyst eyes, “just in case things get violent. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to my little nephew.”
She thanked him for the offer, but turned him down flat- and with a snort.
Bodyguard? Yeah right. More like as an elder brother pissed at the first man who dared take advantage of his baby sister.
Her crush’s dark gaze scanned the nearly empty restaurant. It was not long before he spotted her in a corner booth. He made his way towards her, attempting to smile, but it looked sickly. “Maiko,” he greeted.
Maiko narrowed her gaze. “That’s Shindou,” she corrected, “Mr. Horigami.”
The smile faltered. A look of uncertainty crossed his face.
“So, Mr. Horigami, what can I do for you? And please make it quick,” she added, fighting a smirk at his fallen expression and at the same time wishing she could wipe such an unbecoming expression from his face, “my parents and I are finishing up decorating the nursery this weekend.”
Gazing at the checkered flooring under his feet, Horigami started nodding and could not seem to stop. “That’s actually why I wanted to speak with you.”
That had Maiko’s pulse racing again. She could not determine if it was out of dread, anticipation, or a combination of both.
As he was sliding into the booth opposite her, she was reminded of something else Shuichi said, “By the way, tell the douche bag-”
“My brothers say hello by the way.”
The color drained out of his face.
Maiko could not stop the smirk this time. Oh, this was going to be fun.
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Shindou Residence - Kyoto, Japan
A short time later, Maiko slunk into the house. She tossed her keys into a dish on a table against the wall, dropped her purse onto the floor and started to remove her shoes. The motions were so ingrained that she did them automatically while her mind was occupied by thoughts of Horigami.
“I want to be involved with the baby.”
That had certainly been a surprise. If he’d been looking for a way to wipe the smirk from her face and/or gain the upper hand then he had accomplished his goal. She had been so flabbergasted by his confession that she’d fled the teashop without answering him.
Horigami claimed to want to be a part of his child’s life. It was something she had been wishing for, hoping for, praying for, ever since she discovered she was pregnant. Now that it seemed to be a reality and not just a dream, she wasn’t so sure.
Was she afraid? Partly. She wasn’t sure she wanted anything to do with him after the way he had humiliated her in front of half of the school at that party and then the way she was scorned, ridiculed and mocked by his friends and the rest of the school ever since. Then he’d had the gull to pretend that that night had never happened.
“I’m pregnant.” It had taken her nearly a month to work up the courage to tell him. It hadn’t been easy. Far from it. It was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do and that included having to tell her parents that their precious baby girl was no longer a baby. She’d been trembling so badly the entire time and had felt sick to her stomach. It had taken all her nerve, and then some, to not spin around and forget her duty.
“Good for you,” he’d replied. His laugh was echoed by the gaggle of goons that followed him like a shadow everywhere. “And I should care because…?”
She’d opened her mouth to say, “Because it’s your baby,” but instead, she’d watch as he walked away, still laughing, and what was left of her unshattered heart broke.
If that was the way she was treated, then how would he treat their child? A child he, up until just moments ago, denied existed.
But…
Whether she hated his guts, or just wished she could, he was, after all, the father of her child, so didn’t that mean that he deserved to be involved in his child’s life?
“Hey, honey,” called a soft voice.
Half stooped over with her shoes clasped securely in her hand, Maiko saw her mother walking out of the kitchen carrying a wooden tray. On the tray was a clear glass jug filled with dark amber liquid, ice that clinked against the sides of the jug as she moved, and lemon slices. Three glasses turned upside down were arranged around the jug.
“How’d it go?”
Maiko shrugged as she placed her shoes neatly besides that of her mothers within the shoe closet. Grabbing the strap of her purse, she slung it over her shoulder and followed her mother up the staircase to Shuichi’s old bedroom. “Fine I guess,” she answered vaguely.
When she’d told her brother that his old room was being turned into the nursery, Shuichi had seemed genuinely happy. Despite what people seemed to believe, Shuichi was actually fairly good at hiding his emotions. It was no cop face, but he had enough skill to fool the best of them, so she was not sure if he was truly alright with his old bedroom being converted into a nursery for the only grandchild their parents had bothered to acknowledge.
“What he want?” Mai asked, referring to the meeting with the boy who dared to defile her daughter.
“He wants to be part of his child’s life,” Maiko confessed.
Mai’s face lit up at the news as she stepped into the nursery. “That’s great!”
“Yeah,” Maiko said. The smile she tried to give wavered around the edges.
“Oh, hey, sweetie,” her father greeted as he turned around and saw her entering behind his wife.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Glad you’re back. Gotta question for you. What do you think about…?”
Maiko was relieved that he didn’t ask any questions about her meeting with Horigami and that her mother did not press the issue. She was so confused as it was. All she wanted was time to think and digest everything. Maybe she’d give Shuichi a call later and ask his opinion. For the moment though, she lost herself into placing the finishing touches onto the nursery for her son.
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Somewhere in the United States
All his worrying had been for naught. The target had not been tipped off as he had feared after all. Apparently, she had been out of town taking care of her mother who had fallen ill.
From what he had been able to deduce, her mother was getting on in years and had never really been all that healthy anyway, at least not since her husband was killed in the line of duty during the Korean war. That was something K could understand, as he had taken care of his bedridden mother months prior to her death mere weeks before the birth of his son Michael, but all the sympathy in the world was not going to influence him in any way.
If he hadn’t deserted his post after learning his last target was a single mother with no family who would be able to take care of her child if something were to happen to her, then he sure as hell was not about to walk out on the job this time just because he could identify with the target.
From his room that had shrunk from being the size of a shoebox to that of a rat hole in the weeks he had been cooped up here, K knelt before the lone window hazy with grim and filth. Besides him, propped against the wall yellow with age and brown with years, possibly decades, worth of dirt was the window screen, which had been too easy to take out. Open on the bed behind him was the carrying case for the M-24. Everything else was packed and waiting for his hasty, but clean, retreat.
Squinting through the scope, he followed the target’s movements as she paced back and forth in her apartment across the street with the phone pressed to her ear. He was assuming she was on hold for she hasn’t said a word in the ten minutes she had been on the phone. She walked from the kitchen through the dining room and into the living room before turning and heading back. The barrel of the sniper rifle was steady. His finger hovered over the trigger, just itching to pull it. He had wasted too much time on this job already.
…Wait…
…Wait…
…Wait…
Taking a deep breath, he held it, counted to ten, and then slowly exhaled. Quietness washed over him. There was nothing. No emotion. No thought. No conscience. No guilt. Nothing.
It was time.
Through the scope, K watched as the target jerked to a halt in the middle of the dining room and then crumbled to the floor out of sight.
It would take an hour before someone realized that Mrs. Marianne Hockley was dead, but by then, the assassin for hire known simply as K would be on a flight to Japan.
-- 19 --19 -- 19 -- 19 --
Usami Residence - Kyoto, Japan
Again. She was at it again.
From the woods that stretched up behind the Usami residence all the way to the Ryugan Temple that was perched at the top of the hill at the head of a long steep set of stairs that had been cut into the hillside, Shiho lowered the binoculars and heaved a disgusted sigh.
Why had she agreed to this assignment again?
Seriously, what was with this chick? Did she have some undiagnosed OCD or something? Honestly. She’d spend hours pulling weeds, tilling the soil, pruning the flowers, trimming hedges, and planting new flowers and then disappear into the house for a little while before returning to re-till the soil and pull more weeds that apparently only she could see. That was all this girl has been doing since she woke, which had been at the ass crack of dawn.
Actually, the sun hadn’t even been close to being up and Ms Ayaka Usami was out of bed. Weren’t teenagers supposed to sleep in until noon and stay out all night? Talk back to their parents? Be lazy slobs and juvenile delinquents? Hang out with people their parents disapproved of? Participate in underage drinking? Experiment with drugs? Smoke? Have sex with the next able body? Go to parties at their friends’ houses when the parental units decided to take a personal weekend? Take the car without asking? Join devil-worshipping cults? Dance naked under the moonlight? Weren’t teenagers supposed to be teenagers?
Ms Ayaka Usami was definitely an old woman at heart.
Shiho had to stop herself from banging her head against the nearest tree in agitation.
This had to be the most boring assignment she had ever had the privilege of being part of. Ms Ayaka Usami was a boring woman. Very.
Dull.
Mind numbing.
Tiresome.
Unexciting.
Monotonous.
Repetitive.
Whichever verb was used, it all amounted to the same definition. Uninteresting. As in stimulating no interest or enthusiasm.
Yawning, Shiho stretched her arms over her head. Sighing, she flopped onto her back against the warm grass. Setting the binoculars besides her, she folded her arms behind her head and crossing one leg over the other, let her eyes flutter closed.
Well, this chick wasn’t all bad. Boring was actually turning out to be a good thing. She could finally catch up on her sleep.
--TO BE CONTINUED--
A/N: REVIEW!