The Changing Tides

Title: The Changing Tides: Chapter 5
Author: JadeHeart
Archived: Found on gurabiteshiyon.net. If anyone else would like it, please ask me first!
Fandom: Gravitation
Rating: R
Warnings: bad language, sexual situations
Timeline: Not long after the anime/manga finishes.
Characters: Shuichi/Yuki
Feedback: Feedback is always welcome!
Summary: Can Shuichi withstand the ebb and flow of Yuki’s affections?
Author’s Notes : This chapter I got a lot of amusement from – don’t know if anyone else will!
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, they belong to the creators of ‘Gravitation’, nor am I making any profits from this.


Chapter 5

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Do you like toffee and lemonade?
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Something large and soft thumped across Shuichi’s stomach, startling him out of sleep, and accompanied by a voice shouting, “Hey, you!”. He sat bolt upright in shock, eyes blinking owlishly, as his brain scrambled out of sleep and tried to focus on the conscious world.

“Wh….wh…a…t?” he stuttered, his tongue not quite ready yet to form sentences, as his still sleep-dazed mind struggled to think coherent thoughts.

He turned his head to see Yuki awake, and lying on his side next to him, head propped up on one hand supported on his elbow. The pillow that had assaulted him was still clutched in one of Yuki’s hands. So there was the culprit! Shuichi’s mind accused.

Suddenly another thought came to him. Yuki awake, and before he was. Now that was unusual! Shuichi was the early riser out of the two of them. Yuki was far more of a night-owl, and definitely not a morning person. He didn’t get up unless he absolutely had to. So what on earth was Yuki doing awake now?

“Are you actually awake yet, or is it a case of the lights are on but there’s nobody home?” Yuki drawled coldly, his eyes staring hard at Shuichi. “Though most times, I think your brain’s on permanent vacation. Sometimes I wonder what the hell I see in you. It’s certainly not for the stimulating intellectual conversations.”

What?!, Shuichi thought. It’s first thing in the morning and Yuki’s already insulting him! After the bastard woke him up so rudely as well! Why the…

Shuichi grabbed his pillow and thumped it with all the strength he had, straight across Yuki’s head, having a brief moment to savour the completely startled look on the other’s face, before it was hidden behind a wall of soft whiteness.

Yuki grabbed the pillow and pushed it away from his face, glaring ferociously at Shuichi. “Why you, damn..” He didn’t finish the sentence as he sat up, collecting both his and Shuichi’s pillows, and brought both swinging towards Shuichi.

The impact knocked the younger man flat back on the bed. “Oomph!” he grunted loudly, hands coming up to scrabble at the suffocating pillows across him. He managed to get a grip on one and pulled, wresting it away from Yuki’s grip and swung back in retaliation. He felt it connect but had no time to savour the feeling of victory as another pillow in return thumped down on him again.

“He…umph!” he tried to yell, and struggled to sit up. The merciless battering he was receiving didn’t enable him to do so, and so he began to swat back haphazardly in response. He heard the odd grunt from Yuki as his blows connected, and his own as Yuki’s did. He soon found he was grinning. He just couldn’t help it!

He had finally managed to wriggle onto his knees, whilst Yuki was sitting up still next to him, as they continued to pummel each other violently. Yuki had the upper hand, in that he could send his blows with enough force to almost knock Shuichi off-balance each time, but the younger man refused to yield.

Shuichi swung again and over-reached with this last blow. As the pillow connected against Yuki’s chest, Shuichi felt himself toppling forward, to land stomach first over the Yuki’s lap.

“Ugh!” he groaned, winded from the impact.

“Gotcha!” Yuki’s voice above him said, as hands gripped his shoulders hard. Shuichi turned his head to glare at Yuki. “‘So, do you give up?” Yuki asked.

“Never!” Shuichi snarled, trying to push himself up, but Yuki kept his grip and pressed down, holding him in place.

Shuichi struggled. “Let me up!” he cried.

“Why should I? You may as well do some good whilst you’re down there.” Yuki spoke quite calmly.

Shuichi blushed as he realised he could feel Yuki’s firm erection pressing into his body, and realised that he was no less aroused. To cover his flush of desire, he glared back at the other man. “I’ll bite it!”

“Do it, and I’ll kill you.” Yuki glared right back. Damn, but Yuki had really perfected that withering gaze!

Suddenly Yuki’s grip on his shoulders shifted, and Shuichi was abruptly rolled off the other’s legs, and onto the one occupied portion of the bed. As Shuichi tried to catch his breath, Yuki pushed the covers back and swung his long legs out of the bed to stand up.

He glanced own at the spread-eagled youth, lying there in nothing but his skin and a pair of boxers. He looked downright delectable to Yuki. He reached down a hand and threaded it through Shuichi’s soft hair, gripping hard and tipping his head further back, before bending down to capture those luscious lips in a scorching kiss. He felt Shuichi moan into his mouth. At least now, the idiot was definitely awake.

He abruptly released the youth, standing upright. Shuichi let out a little mewl of disappointment. “So.” he said somewhat coldly, still looking down at the boy. “Are you going to lie there all day? Thought you wanted to go out somewhere?”

Shuichi looked at Yuki in complete surprise. Go out? Did Yuki really mean he was going to take him out today? Just like he had said last night?

A blinding smile lit his face and he scrambled over and to his knees, before literally flinging himself at Yuki, forcing the man to hurriedly catch him before he landed face-first on the floor.

Shuichi hugged Yuki happily. “Oh, Yuki!” he cried.

Yuki tried to disengage the clinging body, wrapped limpet-like around him. He finally managed to disentangle Shuichi’s limps, and held the beaming youth at arms length. “Get off me, you idiot.” A gentle push sent Shuichi sprawling back onto the bed, where he bounced a little, the smile never leaving his face. Sometimes it was just so easy to please the boy!

Yuki turned and headed for the bathroom. “Hurry up, and get ready. I want to miss the traffic.” and he walked out of the room.

Shuichi remained laying on the bed. He was going to spend the day with Yuki! He hugged himself, the smile on his face almost starting to hurt it was so broad. Yuki was going to take him out! He bounded off the bed, hurrying to join Yuki in the shower. This was going to be a wonderful day, he just knew it! It was already the best!

************

“Oh, that was just heavenly!” Shuichi said, leaning back in the chair lounging limply, one hand resting satisfyingly over his full stomach.

Yuki just looked at him over the rim of his steaming cup of coffee, raising an eyebrow. “How you can eat so much of that sickly stuff is beyond me.”

Before Shuichi was the empty glass of the Mega Killer Sundae that he had ordered – a sundae to surpass all sundaes, as they promoted it; full of ice-cream, cream, syrup, fruit, nuts, chocolate – both dark and white, and almost everything else you could think of to cram into a sundae and had been.

Shuichi’s eyes had lit up as soon as he had read the board and seen the picture, and he had immediately turned those large violet eyes on Yuki, pleading for him to get him one.

Yuki had attempted to ignore his supplications, but eventually his resolve had crumbled before Shuichi’s pleading puppy-dog eyes, and the youth’s wails that were drawing unwanted attention to them. So, with a deep, long-suffering sigh, he had ordered one for Shuichi and a coffee for himself. He still found it odd that even though Shuichi was earning a substantial amount of money himself through ‘Bad Luck’, he still insisted that Yuki be the one to carry the money when they went out. He always claimed that if he did, he was just as liable to lose it, whereas he knew that Yuki would take good care of it. Yuki thought it was more just a case of Shuichi liking being able to whine at him to get what he wanted.

Yuki had then watched in amazement as his young partner had proceeded to devour the large sundae when it had arrived at their table. Every mouthful of the sickly sweetness made Yuki’s stomach start to churn, enough for him to think his ulcer was flaring up again. He didn’t mind sweet things now and then, but the overload of sugary confectionary that was crammed into the glass before Shuichi was just way, way too much for his mind, or taste buds, to grasp.

Yet Shuichi seemed to relish every mouthful, his tongue flicking out to lick the length of the long spoon, with eyes closed and a shiver of delight. “Hhmm, hmm!” he murmured over and over again, as mouthful after gooey mouthful followed.

Yuki had just looked on in astonishment. Where was it all going?, he wondered as more disappeared into the boy, who rolled his eyes in ecstasy.

Gods, the damn brat almost looked the same as he did when they were having sex! Yuki left almost jealous. Did Shuichi think of him in the same way he did a fucking ice-cream?! That was the ultimate insult! Although, and his mind drifted for a moment from his anger, the thought of Shuichi licking up and down his erection, his lips enclosing over it to slide it deeper into his warm mouth…..

He shuddered at the flush of desire through his body and returned his gaze to his partner across the table. This was not the time or place to be thinking of that!

Yuki had moved onto his second cup of coffee before Shuichi had finally managed to reach the end of the glass and fell backwards with a look of self-satisfied victory on his face.

“So have you had enough?” Yuki asked, putting his cup down.

“For the moment.” Shuichi said with a happy sigh, eyes still closed and a smile on his face. Yuki shook his head. Well, they weren’t going to be going anywhere fast, at least not until Shuichi had managed to digest some of that junk he had just consumed.

“I guess you’re not going to want dinner after that?”

Shuichi’s eyes shot open at that comment. “Hey, I never said that! I want some udon tonight!”

Yuki just stared at him in disbelief. “How can you even fucking think of more food after eating that!”

“That was just an appetiser.”

“I think you need to get wormed.”

“Huh?” Shuichi looked confused.

“You’ve got to be breeding a monster of a tape worm in there,” pointing towards the boy’s extended belly. “That’s the only explanation for how much food you put away and not gain weight.”

“Yeech! What a gross thing to say! You’re really horrible sometimes, you know that.”

“Better than being a breeding ground for grubs!” Yuki shot back. “Maybe I’ll just drop you off at the vet’s on the way home and get them to give you a shot.”

“Stop being a bastard!”

They glared at each other for a moment longer, and then a smile flashed across Shuichi’s face and he let out a laugh. Yuki felt the corners of his mouth twitch in response, but he steadfastly refused to let it develop into a smile, although he was sure that Shuichi had seen the tell-tale signs. The boy really didn’t miss much.

“Anyway, we don’t have to eat till later on, so it’s not like we’re in a rush. By then I’ll probably be hungry again. We didn’t have much for lunch remember.”

That was true enough, Yuki thought. They had spent the day just moving from place to place, where ever either of them felt like going. Yuki had taken Shuichi to the amusement park first, knowing how much the youth liked it. It had been fun, and brought back a lot of good memories from their first date there.

After that they had gone to the planetarium, which was Yuki’s choice because he had wanted to find somewhere cool and quiet for a while after the bustling crowds. He didn’t do crowds well. The breather had calmed his nerves, and even Shuichi had come out of it filled with awe, although that awe immediately translated to copious amounts of energy. Yuki never could understand where the boy found all the energy he had; he seemed to have so much more than any normal person. Yuki sometimes wondered if the kid didn’t have some way of leeching it out of people he was around or passing by. Perhaps that would explain why Yuki always felt so drained around him. The damn brat was sucking his chi away!

Whatever the source of his energy, Shuichi was still a delight to watch when he was like this, enjoying everything that he was doing. Today he had been completely brimming over with happiness and the sheer force of his exuberance blasted at Yuki, forcing him to actually enjoy himself as well.

They had taken a walk in the park, stopping for a time there to lie on the grass and just watch the clouds drift by overhead, sometimes talking but most of the time not, hands just touching.

As they had driven through one of the suburbs, Shuichi had spotted a festival and demanded that Yuki stop. It had been a hell of a time to find some parking nearby, and he was beginning to lose his temper at Shuichi’s insistence, but finally he had managed to slide into a space just vacated. Shuichi had grabbed his arm and dragged him along behind until they reached the activity.

It was only a small affair, nothing extravagant, just a way for a local school to raise some funds, but it was still well put together. There were a number of different areas to the festival, each with a different country as a theme.

“Hey, Yuki!” Shuichi’s voice resounded through the crowd. Yuki rolled his eyes. Because of Shuichi’s singing ability, he had an astounding set of lungs on him and it was no hardship for his voice to carry over the noise of this crowd. If the boy could fill a concert hall, a mere school festival didn’t stand a chance.

However, it was also terribly embarrassing, as every head turned in startled shock to look at Shuichi, who was completely oblivious to the attention, and then swivelled around to see who was going to respond to the summons.

Yuki was tempted to remain standing still, ignoring the call so no-one would realise that he was with Shuichi, but he knew from bitter experience that that wouldn’t work. It would only send Shuichi off into one of his infamous tirades, with him calling out for Yuki in a continuous cry that he could keep up almost indefinitely. Yuki had once tried counting how many times Shuichi could say his name constantly in one breath. He had given up after fifty. So, he sighed and turned to follow the sound of the receding voice, ignoring the looks and whispers that followed him, and thankful for the dark sunglasses he was wearing.

When he finally tracked Shuichi down, he found the youth standing before a stall promoting Western foods. Shuichi saw Yuki coming and his face lit up as he bounded over to his side, grabbing his hand to draw him nearer.

“Look, Yuki, toffee apples! I’ve read about them before but I’ve never had one! Let’s try it!” Shuichi pointed excitedly at the sweets, laid out carefully on some non-stick paper. The whole apples were entirely coated in bright-red, gleaming toffee, glistening the sun, their sticks pointing to the sky.

“I don’t want one. They’re too sweet.” Yuki said flatly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Shuichi’s face fell. “You’ve already had them before? Oh, of course, you lived overseas. I guess you had them then.”

Yuki couldn’t bear to see Shuichi’s enthusiasm so flattened, so he turned to the stand and held up two fingers. “We’ll take ‘em.” and he handed over the money, before passing one of the toffee apples to Shuichi. The youth’s face broke into a smile again and he opened his mouth to take a large bite.

“Don’t…” Yuki tried to warn him, but it was too late. He saw Shuichi’s teeth sink into it, and then the surprised look in the boy’s eyes when he couldn’t close his mouth to complete the motion.

Yuki rolled his eyes, and sighed again. “Come here!” he growled, grabbing Shuichi’s arm and dragging him away from the mass of people streaming around them, eventually finding a quiet spot behind a stall away from possible prying eyes.

He looked down at Shuichi. The boy stared back at him, eyes wide and staring, the toffee apple cemented like a fixture under his nose. Yuki let out a snigger at the sight. It really was funny.

Shuichi’s eyes narrowed. “irr…ogh…..uhhuhh!” he tried to say, which only made Yuki let out another snicker, which was quickly followed by a chuckle, and then a gale of laughter. Shuichi just continued to glare at his lover, hands on hips, toffee apple stuck in his mouth, completely unable to do anything else until Yuki managed to recover his composure. Finally Yuki was able to take a couple of deep breaths and wipe the tears from his face. He shook his head in exasperation at his partner.

“Honestly, you are such an idiot. You are nothing but trouble sometimes.” he said.

“urr….oog…..iii….oolll!”

“That’s what you always say, but I don’t know who else’s fault it is! Come here.” He leant forward to look more closely at how Shuichi had managed to embed himself in his confectionary. Yuki reached in and took out his small pocket knife from his pocket.

Shuichi’s eyes widened a little with nervousness as Yuki pulled out the small blade and began to move it towards his mouth. He threw his hands up, trying to back away.

“eyyyy….aa…uuu….oooo?!”

Yuki glared at him, halting his backward motion. “Hold still, or you’ll get hurt. I’m just going to cut this bit of apple away so you can close your fucking mouth. Though perhaps I should leave you like this, at least it would be bloody quiet for once!”

“eeeyy!!” Shuichi reached out and thumped his fist into Yuki’s arm and glared back at him.

“Oh, alright, I’ll do it. Now hold still!”

Carefully Yuki licked the knife, wetting it with his saliva, hoping that would prevent the blade from being gripped by the toffee, before pushing it slowly into the sticky sweet. It slid in without too much resistance and Yuki began to ease it along. When he felt the blade begin to catch, he leant forward and licked carefully around it, letting his saliva moisten the toffee and enabling him to move the knife a little further.

It was a very slow process, and he had to try and stop himself from being distracted too much as he leant in to lick the apple, as it brought his lips and tongue directly into contact with Shuichi’s. It was a very interesting sensation; the touch of flesh, the flash of desire, coupled with the sweetness of the toffee, not to mention the added spice of danger at the procedure they were attempting to carry out. He could see that Shuichi wasn’t exactly immune to it either, hearing the catch in the boy’s breath every time Yuki’s tongue trailed across his lips.

Finally Yuki had managed to make an incision all the way across the top of the apple where Shuichi’s top teeth were embedded, and down the sides. Removing the knife, Yuki took hold of the stick and pulled gently downwards. At first it didn’t seem to want to move, but then with a crisp ripping sound, the piece of apple encased in toffee parted from the main portion. Shuichi immediately reached up and pushed his fingers into his mouth and wriggled it free from his top teeth, and managed to force his bottom jaw upwards, finally breaking the piece off completely.

The youth dropped to the ground with a look of sheer relief on his face. He looked balefully at the piece of sticky wet toffee stuck to his fingers, and then glared at the rest that hung from Yuki’s hands.

“No wonder,” he said with difficulty, trying to get his strained jaw moving again. “You hate the things!”

“That’s not exactly why. I’ve never been so stupid as to do that.”

“How was I supposed to know?!” Shuichi said grumpily. He tried to shake the piece from his fingers but it remained stuck there, refusing to part company with him. He shook his hand more violently, and will still no results, his movements were becoming even more desperate.

Yuki rolled his eyes, tossing the two toffee apples in his grasp towards the bin nearby, his perfect aim sending them to land neatly where they were intended. He reached down and hauled Shuichi up by the arm, dragging him along behind as he headed for the restrooms he could see nearby. He pushed the youth inside.

“Run your hands under some warm water and clean yourself up, you idiot. Hurry up.”

Shuichi disappeared inside and Yuki could soon hear the sound of running water, followed by a sharp yelp. He sighed again. Oh, yes, the idiot turned the water on too hot just as he thought he would. He lit up a cigarette as he waited and Shuichi joined him when he was only half-way through.

“Are you done?” Yuki drawled, looking down at his partner.

“Yeah,” Shuichi said, rubbing his hands on the side of his pants. “I’m never touching that stuff again.” Suddenly he looked up at Yuki with a bright smile. “Come on, let’s got back and see what else is there!”

“Haven’t you had enough, after what just happened?”

“Aw, come on, Yuki! There’s got to be other interesting things to try. Things that aren’t going to break my jaw.” Yuki allowed himself to be dragged back into the crowd and stalls.

They walked for a little longer when Shuichi disappeared from Yuki’s side, soon returning with two foam cups filled with liquid. “Here,” he said, holding one out to Yuki.

Yuki eyed it with some distrust then looked at Shuichi. “And just what is it?” he wanted to know, not taking it.

“It’s just lemonade.” Shuichi assured him. “I was thirsty and thought you would be to. Won’t hurt to try it, will it?”

“Fine.” Yuki said, taking the cup and raising it to his lips. He watched Shuichi take a large swallow, and seeing no harm befall the youth, Yuki took a sip himself. It was surprisingly good, and certainly refreshing.

“Oh, that is great!” Shuichi gushed, finishing the rest of the drink with a smack of lips. “Just what we needed. Got rid of that horrible toffee taste as well.”

They had stayed there for only long enough to have one further drink before heading down to the waterfront, where they were now seated in companionable silence.

“Ahh,” Yuki heard Shuichi sigh softly. “This has been such a good day!”

Yuki looked over at his young partner. He had to agree. It had been a good day.