Still Raining

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: It’s 18 weeks later and the Shindou-Uesugi twins have arrived and so has an unexpected visitor.
Warning: AU, fantasy, angst, drama, romance, M-Preg, language, characters death, M/M
Parings: Ryuichi/Tatsuha, Eiri/Shuichi
Inserts: ---
A/N: This is it. The final installment. I’d like to thank Namikaze naruko14, lena, RRW, Selina, D. Gray Man Sorrow Invoked, Chen-chan, idontsurf, deathangel67, DarkestFlameUchiha, fan girl 666 once again for their much loved and always appreciated reviews. Thank you for all your support and thank you to everyone else. PEACE!

oOo

Last Time

Perched on the edge of the sofa, Ryuichi studied his hands clasped between his knees. His heart was hammering and his pulse was racing. He felt sick to his stomach. “Shu….Shuichi, I-”

“I know,” Shuichi interrupted.

Frowning, Eiri dropped his arms and pushed away from the wall. He…knew?

Ryuichi’s head snapped up and around. “What?”

Shuichi smiled at the older singer. “I know,” he repeated. “And…it’s okay.” He’d made peace with the knowledge that he was not Shuichi Shindou but was in fact Shuichi Sakuma. That his biological parents were not Mai and Morihiro Shindou, but were Ryuichi Sakuma and Yuki Kitazawa. Ironically, it was when he discovered he was pregnant with little Takanori that everything changed. Suddenly, he understood.

“Shu?”

That wasn’t to say that he’d be calling Ryuichi “father” or “dad” or anything like that anytime soon. If ever.

There were still some aspects of this whole Jerry Springer ensemble that needed to be clarified though. “Why don’t you just start from the beginning and we can go from there?”

With tears in his eyes, Ryuichi glanced at his son to his son-in-law who had come to stand behind his husband.

Eiri gave Ryuichi a nod.

Ryuichi took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “It all started in New York City almost twenty years ago…”

oOo

Epilogue: We Now Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Program

Eighteen Weeks Later - Sakuma-Uesugi Residence - Koishikawa Park Tower - Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Sixteen weeks later, only thirty-two weeks into his pregnancy, Shuichi went into labor. He’d finally fallen asleep after tossing and turning and bitching and moaning- and just plain driving Eiri insane- for hours about how uncomfortable he was when he was jolted back into consciousness.

It was time.

As was procedure for male neutrals, instead of having a natural birth, which was rarely done, he underwent a cesarean. At half past eleven at night on November 15, Kita Yoshihara Uesugi came into the world. A minute later, his twin sister Kaya Tsukiko Uesugi followed.

Shuichi and Eiri considered themselves extremely lucky. At eight weeks premature, their twins were a little underweight, weighing four pounds even, but were otherwise healthy. A woman hours before had given birth to a baby girl, her first child, who was so premature that the newborn weighed only a pound. The outlook did not look good for her.

The Uesugi twins spent their first week of life in NICU putting on some weight- Kita gained two pounds and his sister one- under the careful, watchful eye of the staff. When their doctor was satisfied, they were released into the waiting arms of their eager family.

Home for a week and the twins have had visits from Grandpa Ryu and Uncle Tatsuha, Uncle Tohma and Aunt Mika, Aunt Noriko, Uncle Kizou and now from Aunt Maiko.

“Here you go.”

Maiko took the proffered brown lacquered teacup. “Thanks.”

“You just missed Sakuma and the others,” Eiri said as he took a seat in the armchair with his own cup of tea.

“Hm.” Maiko took a sip of her tea. She relished the feel of the warm liquid sliding down her throat. “Figured. I’m staying with him for the next couple of weeks.”

“Does he know?”

“Nope.”

Eiri laughed full out. “Runaway from home or something?” he teased.

“Something like that,” Maiko laughed.

She’d taken the train from Kyoto this morning. Under normal circumstances, I.e. if she wasn’t preggers, she could have easily walked the distance from the train station to Ryuichi’s seeing it was less than a mile away, but since it was wasn’t “normal circumstances”, she called a taxi. Unfortunately, when she arrived at her brother‘s place, he wasn’t home, so instead of waiting around who knows how long, she hoped on a bus and here she was. Maybe she should have called Ryuichi before she left that morning.

Oh, well.

“Actually, my father left this morning on a business trip. I could’ve gone with him, but because it’s so close to my due date, I told him I’d just come stay with Ryu.” She shrugged.

Eiri nodded. “Seems pretty sudden.”

“Yeah,” Maiko agreed. “Actually, someone else was supposed to go but something happened and he couldn’t go so they sent my father who was supposed to be on leave what with my due date coming and everything.” She shrugged again as she took another sip of her tea.

“What about that…” Eiri ransacked his mind for the name of the guy who’d been stupid enough to fuck and dump the baby sister of Ryuichi Sakuma- the dude was lucky Tohma Seguchi hadn’t been sicced on him.

“Horigami?”

Was that his name? “Yeah him.”

Maiko shrugged. “Who knows? Who cares?”

Eiri smirked.

“The guy’s a complete douche bag.”

Eiri could not agree more.

“But,” Maiko sighed. “He is the father of my child. Unfortunately,” she muttered. “So when I go into labor he’ll be contacted.” Eventually, she added.

“So you’re giving him visitation rights?”

“I suppose, but that’s all.”

It was more than he deserved, Eiri though.

Maiko’s face fell. She stared down at the dark liquid in her cup that was sandwiched between her hands. “How are they? Shu and Ryu I mean?”

“Good,” Eiri replied with a gentle smile and without any hesitation.

Maiko lifted her head.

“Surprisingly,” Eiri continued. Or maybe not so much seeing Shuichi had known the truth for eight years. He’d had time to vent his anger and frustration at being lied to and manipulated. In that time, he’d grown up, gotten over his childish hurts, and realized that the world was not black and white. There were worlds of gray. He’d grown to understand why his birth parents had done what they did. “He isn’t going to be calling Sakuma ‘Father’ anytime soon, but…” He heaved a light sigh. “They’re closer then they’ve been in all the time I’ve known them.”

“Think they’ll come out?”

Eiri had to shrug. Because both Shuichi and Ryuichi were constantly in the public eye- if they fart it makes the front page of some tabloid- it would eventually come out. Somehow, someway it would. That was a guarantee. For people like them, nothing stayed secret for very long, especially when you had someone like Perez Hilton who stuck his overtly large ass into other peoples business. “When they’re ready maybe.”

Dipping her head, Maiko shrugged, lost in the almost invisible ripples on the surface of her tea. “It wasn’t much of a surprise actually when I heard. I mean, think about it, about Shu and Ryu’s history. Ryu has always been more of a father to Shu than Father has. When I was little, I remember thinking that Ryu was Shu’s father because he treated him like his son and not as his little brother. My parents said he wasn’t, though when I asked. Guess I was right,” she laughed. “I was happy when I heard that Ryu and Tatsuha had adopted him- hurt and angry and miserable for a time when I learned he’d left without saying goodbye or anything, but happy.” She raised her head and gazed across the coffee table at Eiri. “Then there’s you. He changed after he met you,” she said. “He was happy. He smiled more.” Maiko smiled. “Thank you, Eiri.”

His face burning in embarrassment, Eiri did the only thing he could: he inclined his head.

A look of confusion passed over her face. “I heard something about them going to Yowa Hospital or something?”

“Ah yes. They were talking about it the other day.”

“What’s there?”

“Yuki.”

“You mean-”

“Shu’s birth mother.”

“Are you going to let him go?”

Eiri heaved a sigh. “Not sure. If he wants to go, then nothing I say or do will stop him. He definitely has the right to visit him, get to know him, but…I don’t know. If he wants to I’ll support him.”

“If he doesn’t?”

“I’ll support him.”

Maiko nodded. “Speaking of which, where’re my nephews and my niece?”

“Sleeping.” Thank God.

Maiko raised an eyebrow. “All of them?”

Eiri nodded. “Every single one.”

“Must be nice to finally have some peace and quiet.”

“You have no idea.”

Maiko laughed.

O

Shuichi was not sure what had caused him to wake.

By the silence that greeted him as he stirred, it appeared as if the children were still asleep. Thank Buddha for small favors. If any of his children were awake, it wouldn’t be a secret, at least not for very long. Little Takanori was a little Tasmanian devil who left terror and destruction in his wake. Unfortunately, he was a little too much like his mama: an excitable ball of energy who just could not sit still if his life depended on it. Doing so would undoubtedly put him into a coma. As rambunctious as his hyperactive son was, the twins appeared to be sound sleepers just like Eiri. No matter how loud little Takanori was on his makeshift drums, Kita and Kaya slept on. But once the twins were wake, all hell broke loose.

“They definitely take after their Mother,” Eiri had noted more than once.

Oh, boy did they. He had a feeling that the family business would live on.

Thankfully, though, with all three of his children asleep, he could get some rest as well.

While their children were asleep, Eiri was up though. He could hear his muffled voice coming from the living room. It wasn’t loud enough to have woken him though.

“Wonder who he’s talking to?” Shuichi mumbled around a yawn as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He flipped onto his back and stretched, wincing as doing so pulled at the scar on his belly. “Probably Tohma,” he answered himself. They were supposed to have dinner with the Seguchis later that night. He was hoping to learn the gender of their baby. Mika had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon and was hoping for a girl.

“Men are idiots,” was what she said when she’d come to visit him in the hospital.

“Excluding me, right Dear?” Tohma had hoped.

“Including you,” Mika had snapped right back.

Shuichi snickered at the memory.

Sighing contently, if not a little sleepily, Shuichi pushed the blankets back and sat up. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he sat there, gripping the edge of the mattress and watching his feet swinging inches above the floor. He turned his head and caught sight of the DVD sitting on top of the dresser.

Standing up, he went to the dresser and picked up the CD case. He stared down at the reflective surface of the gold disk within. “Shuichi: One Day Old” was printed in black marker on the disk. Opening the case, he carefully lifted out the DVD and put it into the DVD player that was built into the side of their flat screen television mounted on the wall.

Rounding the bed to Eiri’s side, he grabbed the remote from the nightstand and pushed play, remembering afterwards to actually turn on the television.

With the remote cradled in his lap, Shuichi perched on the bed with a leg tucked underneath him.

The screen flickered and an image of a man with familiar violet eyes and black hair that tickled the collar of his hospital gown sitting on a hospital bed appeared.

Yuki Kitazawa. His mother.

Except for the hair and eyes, they looked nothing alike.

“Thank God,” he’d heard Ryuichi mumble to that.

“Hello my son,” Yuki was saying to the camera.

Shuichi leaned his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands under his chin, watched the screen intently.

“Knowing the history between me and your daddy, I doubt you know who I am.” Yuki took a deep breath. “I am Yuki Kitazawa. Your mother.”

When Shuichi discovered his birth certificate all those years ago buried in the back of Ryuichi‘s closet, it hadn’t entered his mind that his birth mother was anything other than a woman. As a neutral himself, he should have considered the possibility. The name Yuki was a gender-neutral name after all. To say it had been a shock to learn that Yuki Kitazawa was not a woman but was in fact a neutral would be an understatement. He was still trying to wrap his mind around it. What was so shocking about it, he could not say. It just was. At least he and Eiri had something in common now other than their children.

“I named you Shuichi Karishma Sakuma.”

It was still odd to hear his real name. Of course, he planned to keep the name Shuichi Shindou as his stage name, but all his records had already been changed to reflect the name he had been given at birth, the name he had retaken. When he’d told Ryuichi, the older man had burst into tears.

“Shuichi after your daddy.”

Shuichi smiled. Ryuichi’s middle name was Shu.

“Karishma after my mother.”

Shuichi leaned closer.

“Ryu insisted his son have his last name though.” Yuki rolled his eyes, but the smile on his face and the expression he wore when he spoke about Ryuichi contradicted the eye movement. “I agreed. After all, it was the least I could do to…make up for what I did.” The last was spoken in such a soft tone that Shuichi had a hard time hearing what was said.

Shuichi dipped his head and plucked the blanket. He wasn’t sure he would ever be able to forgive Yuki for everything he did.

From what Ryuichi told him, it had seemed as if Yuki had been obsessed with Ryuichi. Obsession was not love. It wasn’t even about lust. It was about possessing- having ownership over a person and you can’t own a person. They weren’t a piece of luggage you could buy at the department store. They were living breathing human beings with thoughts, feelings and emotions of their own.

“If you’re loved, you’re loved. If you’re not, you’re not.” He’d read that line in a yaoi manga years ago. It was something that his birth mother had apparently never been able to grasp.

But watching Yuki’s face as he spoke about Ryuichi- he wasn’t so sure if it was as clear-cut as that. Maybe, just maybe, Yuki really had been in love with Ryuichi. Maybe it hadn’t been purely obsession. It could be that Ryuichi had been Yuki’s first real love or maybe Yuki had never been in love with a man before and hadn’t known how to handle it or the rejection that followed their one night together. It was clear that Yuki had wanted more than that one night and had refused to give up. Ryuichi on the other hand, couldn’t give Yuki more than that even if he’d wanted to because he’d been under the thumb of the record company at the time. Under the old owners, L8r Records had been a dictatorship. The artists signed onto the label had no choice but to do as they were told. Otherwise, they would have been out of a job. It didn’t help that Yuki and Ryuichi had never really talked. That couldn’t have helped any either.

That was definitely one of the topics he planned to bring up when he and Ryuichi went to visit him next month.

“As you can probably tell, my mother wasn’t Japanese, though she was Asian. Indian in fact. And I mean Indian as in from India.”

Shuichi hadn’t understood that significance until Ryuichi told him that Yuki was American and when Americans hear “Indian”, they usually think of Native Americans.

“My father…My father was Japanese-American and a tyrannical man in both the business world as well as in…as well as at home.”

Shuichi watched the expressions on his birth mother’s face change. It was a dramatic transformation. From sweet to bitter.

Yuki had his hands clenched so tightly that it was difficult to distinguish between his arm and the admission bracelet he wore. It was a safe bet that Yuki did not like his father very much.

“He was an- alcoholic.” Yuki was not looking into the camera anymore, but was gazing somewhere off screen. “There’s not much to say about the man. He was as asshole who suffocated in his own vomit several years before I met your daddy,” he explained. His voice was hard.

Shuichi snorted. Good riddance. That was one grandfather he could do without.

“But my mother was a good woman. I loved her so much!”

Shuichi felt tears prickling his own eyes as he watched his birth mother break down.

“But she passed away a couple of months ago,” Yuki sobbed.

Shuichi sniffed.

“That’s why I decided to give you her name…” Yuki cleared his throat and tried to push back his tears. It wasn’t working. He stared into the camera once more. Shuichi saw that his face was wet and his jaw was trembling. “I want you know that I love you so very much Shuichi.” A stray tear trickled down his cheek. “You…you take care of your daddy, alright?” His voice was tight.

With tears spilling down his own face, Shuichi found himself nodding.

Yuki looked at someone behind the camera and nodded. Just before the image blinked off, Yuki turned towards the camera and blew a kiss.

His hands trembling, Shuichi fumbled for the remote and pressed stop just as a knock sounded at the front door.

O

Chuckling, Eiri excused himself and carefully picked his way through the condominium to the foyer.

It was inevitable when one had children. No matter how much of a perfectionist you were, and he was one to the nth degree if there ever was one, there was a fairly good chance that when you married and had a family, your perfectionist ideals were tossed out the window. His domicile, whether it was his room back at his parents’ house or any number of apartments he had before he met Shuichi or even his current office, which was the only space in the entire condominium that he could truly call his, he liked everything to be in order at all times. All his DVDs, CDs, books, which included fiction, non-fiction, as well as reference material such as dictionaries and thesauruses, everything had its place and why not? Made it easier to find something you were looking for. Made the house look neat and ordered and as if you actually cared about your possessions. It also kept him from tripping over everything and making a complete and utter fool of himself in front of his thirty-eight week pregnant sister-in-law (or was that aunt-in-law?) as he was currently doing.

His cousin who worked full time in maintenance at some nursing facility was married to a woman who worked full time as a nurse. They had two children. Every time he stopped over, their house was always a complete disaster area. Should be condemned. Dishes piled a mile high in the sink and spewing along the counters and table. Dirty clothes everywhere. Dirty used diapers hiding underneath. Miscellaneous other junk draped here, there and everywhere.

Eiri had grown up in a house that had always been spotless, and his father had been a single father raising three children, so he knew it could be done. It was just a matter of getting up off your fat lazy ass. Then little Takanori had been born. Suddenly, he understood why some houses looked as if the toy store had vomited all over the floor.

No matter how many times he told his son, and he’d told him enough times God knows, there was always something laying about either gathering dust or laying in wait for the perfect opportunity to strike. Telling him to put it away because if Daddy does it, it gets put in the trash just did not seem to work. It had when he was his son’s age.

Once again, several of the pots and pans had been dragged out of the kitchen, from a childproof cabinet no less- he blamed Shuichi for that. A couple of the wooden spoons that had been used as drumsticks lay discarded halfway across the living room. He had a feeling he would be purchasing his son a set of drums all too soon.

“Damn,” he muttered.

He had a headache already.

Eiri tripped over one of little Takanori’s sneakers that was sitting outside the door of the water closet that was off the foyer- guess his son had been in too much of a hurry to take his shoes off before coming into the house when Kizou brought him home earlier.

Another knock sounded on the door, louder this time.

Taking his own advice, Eiri checked the peephole.

He didn’t recognize the nervous looking man on the other side. It didn’t look like any of their neighbors, not that he could recognize them all on sight. That was one of Shuichi’s talents.

The man had a sprinkling of gray in his short-cropped black hair. There were lines around his dark brown, nearly black, eyes. He was about the same height as Nakano and had the beginnings of a beer belly, but the modest gray suit hid it well.

“Who is it?” Maiko called out.

“Not sure,” he called back. With a frown, Eiri turned the deadbolt, hearing the tumblers shift, and threw open the door. “May I help you?”

Clearing his throat, the man adjusted his red tie. “Yes, uhm, I’m-”

“Dad?”

Morihiro tensed and looked over Eiri’s shoulder.

Shifting aside, Eiri turned around and watched as his husband stepped into the dining room.

The white maternity shirt Shuichi had tossed on over his black stretch pants, which he referred to as his “butter pants” because they were as smooth as butter, did nothing to hide the weight his husband still had to lose after giving birth to twins just two short weeks ago. There was a crease along his left cheek. His short cropped black hair was sticking on end and his violet eyes were red rimmed and puffy as if he’d been crying.

He frowned at that.

“Shu?”

The sound of her brother’s voice- or was that nephew now?- startled Maiko. She hadn’t even realized that Shuichi had woken up. Her gaze went from him to the foyer. From her position on the sofa, she could not see the front door, but Shuichi could and from the shell-shocked expression on his face, it was evident that whoever it was was not someone he had ever expected to see. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

She staggered to her feet with some difficulty and crossed the room to stand besides him. She gasped as she turned and saw the man standing in the doorway. Her hands flew to her mouth. Tears prickled her eyes.

Eiri glanced at Maiko with a cocked eyebrow. Was this really Mr. Shindou? The tears flowing down her flushed cheeks were the only validation he needed.

This was the man that had adopted Shuichi in order to keep his grandson from being lost within the system.

It was only then that this was the first time seeing Mr. Shindou. He hadn’t really paid attention at Mrs. Shindou’s funeral. He’d been too concerned with his pregnant husband at the time to care.

To Shuichi, it didn’t even register that not only had Maiko stopped over a visit, even though her due was rapidly approaching, but that his husband was in the room and had spoken to him. “Dad? What’re…?”

Mr. Morihiro Shindou stepped forward and smiled. “Hello. Son.”

A stray tear rolled down Shuichi’s cheek. He slapped a hand over his mouth to stifle a sob.

Never. He’d never believed he’d ever see this man again. Not after he’d been bodily thrown out of the house, quite literally, and at two months pregnant no less and especially not after being completely ignored at his mother’s funeral.

Before he was even aware of what he was doing, he was crossing towards his father, his steps going faster and faster until he was running. There was a little pain from where he’d been stitched up after the C-section, but he ignored it.

He flung himself into his father’s waiting arms with a sob.

He wasn’t sure if they could ever have the type of relationship that he knew other sons had with their fathers, but to have a relationship of any kind with him was more than he could have ever hoped.

Eiri stepped forward and laid a hand on Shuichi’s shoulder. “Shu.” They were in the middle of the hallway.

Shuichi seemed to realize that for he pulled back with an, “Oh,” sniffing and wiping at his snot and tear drenched face. There was a huge toothy grin on his face. His eyes were bright and shinny. He looked happy, genuinely happy for only the second time in a very long time. “C’mon! I’ll show you the twins! They are soooo cute,” Shuichi gushed as he pulled his father behind him through the house to the nursery, which was currently the extra bedroom besides the master suite. “Kita and Kaya look nothing like Eiri.” Shuichi glanced over his shoulder at Eiri and stuck out his tongue.

Eiri rolled his eyes. He shut and locked the door and chuckled lightly as he heard Shuichi babble nonstop at his father.

It was good to have the Shuichi he’d fallen in love with so many years ago back.

O

It was an hour later when Shuichi, Eiri, Maiko and Morihiro Shindou were lounging in the living room sipping tea and watching little Takanori fawning over his new baby brother and sister, who were spitting images of Shuichi except for the wisps of blond hair, when Maiko sat up with a gasp. Her tanned complexion had paled. Trembling hands flew to her pregnancy-swollen belly. All eyes were on the suddenly scared sixteen year old.

Shuichi knew at once. He set his teacup down on the side table and reached for the phone.

“Maiko honey what’s wrong?” Morihiro asked his daughter.

“I think…I think it’s…time.”

It took a full five seconds before her words sunk in. By then, Eiri and Morihiro were hysterical with uncertainty even though Eiri had just gone through something similar two weeks ago, Shuichi had calmly put in a call to his sister’s doctor and was even then calling Ryuichi, knowing Ryuichi would make sure to call everyone else that needed to be informed, Maiko was breathing around a contraction and little Takanori, Kita and Kaya were watching the adults with what could only be described as a “what the fuck” expression on their faces.

His calls complete, Shuichi shook his head and sighed in disgust at the disordered chaos.

“Men,” he breathed.

Quickly taking charge of the situation, he calmly restored order.

Fifteen minutes later, they were stepping into the elevator when little Takanori announced, “Aunt Maiko peed.”

All eyes once again swept to the sixteen year old. “My water broke,” she said in a calm voice, not sounding the least bit terrified even though she had never been so scared in her entire life.

Seven hours later and with her entire family by her side, including the man that had gotten her pregnant in the first place, Maiko Shindou gave birth to a healthy seven pound five ounce baby boy that she named Susumu Takashi Shindou.

Snuggling against his husband’s side, Ryuichi gazed wistfully down at his little nephew. It was too soon to say who the newborn took after in the looks department, but he was leaning towards Maiko.

He still had not forgiven this Horigami character for what he did to his baby sister even though Maiko seemed to have, or at least, she’d forgiven him enough to allow him access to his son. It had taken Ryuichi nearly twenty years to do that. Guess that saying about women being stronger was true. She may have forgiven Horigami- or whatever his name was- but he sure as hell hadn’t. He was going to be keeping a very close eye on this guy for the foreseeable future, especially since he was going to be around his nephew.

“I feel kinda left out,” Tatsuha said.

“What? How?” Ryuichi asked with a laugh.

“Well.” Tatsuha scratched the back of his head. “Shu and Bro just had twins. Maiko just had a baby. Mika’s pregnant. Noriko just learned she’s pregnant again…”

Ryuichi raised an eyebrow. “What? You want a baby?” he teased with a laugh.

“Yeah.”

Ryuichi’s laughter choked to a halt. “You are not serious.”

But Tatsuha was. He had never been more so in his entire life.

“You want a baby.”

“Yeah.”

Ryuichi gave a resigned sigh. Heaven help them both.

But as he watched his sister with her son, Eiri holding little Takanori as the toddler stood on the edge of the bed gazing down at his cousin, Mika absently rubbing her expanding belly, Tohma holding Kita and cooing to the two week old and Noriko holding Kaya and doing the same, the idea of having another child took hold in his mind. Giving Shuichi a sibling might not be so bad.

He caught his father’s eye and smiled. The older man smiled back.

And he just knew that this time, things were going to be different.

---OWARI---

A/N: …and everybody lived happily ever after. The End.