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: There was one woman at the press conference that refused to leave well enough alone. Two years later, she’s back and causing trouble. She’s determined to prove that Aizawa isn’t the biological father of little Takanori. What if she’s right?
Chapter Summary: He’d been running from the truth for two years, but now he has to face reality. Taki may not have been the father.
Warning: angst, drama, romance, m-preg, language, m/m, hentai
Inserts: Flash back to chapter 1, 3 and 4
A/N: ¡Important! **I do not want any of you to jump to any conclusion when reading this chapter. Read the footnote at the end before you use your flamethrowers.** Thank you to Kagome365, Poisoned-Inkwell, secret hidden within me, Acherona, RRW, glostarz, UnratedCrimsonBlood, tinlizzie81592, Racoon, Loveless19, CC Devil, faerieshimmer, twilightfanforever1, I love your stories for your reviews and your continued support and love. You guys are the ones that push me into finishing my stories when otherwise I would have given up. Thank you!

+---+---+---+

Last Time

When his gaze rose back up, he met Eiri’s smirking gaze. He blushed hotly in embarrassment at being caught ogling.

Eiri chuckled.

Shuichi peeked at eye through the curtain of hair that veiled his face. His blush deepened.

Eiri reached out and smoothed a lock of the choppy long layered cotton candy pink hair behind Shuichi’s ear. He wondered idly if it was all right for Shuichi to be coloring his hair now that he was pregnant. That was something he would have to look into.

“Eiri?” Shuichi questioned as Eiri began caressing his face.

“Stay,” Eiri found himself saying.

Tensing, Shuichi blinked. “What?” He wanted to make sure he was not reading more into what was there.

“Stay here. With me.”

+---+---+

Chapter 5: The Challenge is Accepted with a Heavy Heart

Uesugi-Shindou Residence - Koishikawa Park Tower – Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

This.

Please!

This was it.

Oh God!

It has been so long.

Nuh!

So very long.

Ah!

Wave after wave of intense pleasure coursed through him. It built up to the point where it was just this side of exploding in a fierce display to rival that of the grandest fireworks show, but then his husband would back off just before he reached that highest pinnacle. Automatically, he would feel the pleasure gradually lessen its hold on him, but then he would be worked right back up to that highest peak. Just like before, his husband would once again withdraw right before they crested. It was a never-ending cycle that lasted long into the night. He savored every agonizingly pleasant second.

+---+---+

TCN Studios - Setagaya, Tokyo

Sitting at his desk in his office at The Christian Network studios, Chishin Yamada rested his chin in the cupped palm of his hand while his other hand tapped a staccato beat against the desktop as he stared blankly out the wall of floor to ceiling windows behind him. Because the sun had set long ago behind the metal and glass landscape, instead of taking in the breathtakingly beautiful view of his city, he was forced to stare at his own gloomy reflection. Turning away from the sight in disgust, he reclined in his leather chair and stretched his feet out before him under the desk. Dropping his head back, he stared across his office at the closed office door. What he would not give to be at his place right now, curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea and a good book. Instead, here he was, stuck at the office for who knows how long, forced to dance to the beat of Nami Mataguchi’s delusional drums. Why? Because for some strange reason, she was convinced that dirty, underhanded lies surrounded Shuichi Shindou and Eiri Yuki’s relationship.

Whatever.

He had to admit that her claims were intriguing, but he frankly could care less either way whether or not she was right. Actually, he was hoping that Shindou would decide to take up the challenge she issued just so he could rub the fact that the past two and half years had been a huge waste of time and money on her part. Then maybe he could finally figure out what the catalyst was that has been pushing his long time friend into this unhealthy obsession of hers.

---

“Then we learn that he’s involved with someone.” A third finger. “And this was after saying in an interview for Book TV that he was convinced love didn’t really exist.”

“People change.”

“Yes, but this someone is not an ordinary someone. But a Neutral,” she sneered the word. She fisted her hand and brought it down onto the arm of the chair.

In his office on the opposite end of the city, Chishin rolled his eyes. “Yes. Yes. They’re disgusting and immoral and wicked and gross and should not be allowed to exist.”

---

Yes, for as long as he has known her, she has not cared for Neutrals. Why she seemed to have this deep-rooted abhorrence for the newly recognized third sex he could not say, but he had a feeling that her hatred for them had nothing to do with this obsession with the author and his singer husband. No, it was…something else.

---

“The pièce de résistance comes when we learn this pregnant Neutral is no more than a boy. A minor.”

“So?”

Nami’s grip tightened around the phone. How could he play this off as nothing? Did he not understand the severity of what she was trying to tell him? “’So’? ‘So’?”

“Yeah. So. What. In Tokyo, you become of age at seventeen and since the two of them started dating a couple months before he became of age, it‘s not something the police would-”

“That’s not the point!”

“And what is?” he shot right back.

“He was still a minor! The famous Eiri Yuki was fucking a minor who he ended up impregnating.”

---

Yes, technically Shindou had been a minor when he and Eiri Yuki started their relationship, but like he tried to tell Nami, if Shuichi Shindou and Eiri Yuki had indeed had more than just a platonic relationship like they claimed they did at the time of the press conference, it was not something the police would go after Eiri Yuki for. They were not going to waste taxpayer money for something as tedious as that. Just because the speed limit was thirty-five, you were not going to get a speeding ticket for going thirty-seven miles per hour.

As certain as he was that the sky was blue and grass was green, he knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that this had less to do with proving that Eiri Yuki had actually fathered Shindou’s son thus proving that the two of them indeed had had more than just a platonic relationship and more to do with…What? That was the question.

Was her obsession because of Eiri Yuki? Could that be it?

Chishin shook his head.

Nami was not into romance stories. At least not the type that Eiri Yuki wrote that were filled with so much violence that it was difficult to even tell they were romance stories. Besides, she has never shown any interest whatsoever in Eiri Yuki before. At least, not in a fan girl type of way. He knew millions of hearts had been broken the day that Mr. Romance Novelist came out, but Nami’s had not been one of them. Then, what was it? Why did she care so much about the biological paternity of a two year old?

No, it was not Takanori Uesugi’s DNA that mattered. It was something else. Not too long ago, she was obsessed with trying to prove that Shindou was guilty of some sort of infidelity.

“It’s the only explanation! Why would two people who claim to be inexplicably in love break up?” he remembered her saying.

That Shindou and Eiri Yuki had not actually broken up had not seemed to faze her.

Then not too long before that, she had made some sort insinuation about Shindou and Ryuichi Sakuma. He could not remember what she claimed exactly, but it had something to do with them looking too much alike to be merely half-brothers.

Whatever.

What it comes down to in the end, is that it seems to him as if she was trying to find someway to bring Shindou down, which leads him to speculate that it had something to do with Eiri Yuki. If she had had a crush on the blond author then he might just buy that, but she didn’t. So…what? What was it? Something was going on here and he was determined to find out one way or another.

+---+---+

Outside TCN Studios

“…Yes,” Nami spoke into her cellphone as she walked briskly down the street towards the studio. “I’m there now…So far…Are you really sure you want to go through with this…? Well, it’s just that…No, no! Of course not! How could you…? Of course I do!” She sighed. “…Alright. If that’s what you want…Yeah. I’ll call you later then to tell you how it went. Bye.” She ended the call with a sharp flip of her phone. Clenching her hand around her phone, she stopped outside the tall modern glass sided building that housed TCN studios. She let her head fall back as she glanced up the massive skyscraper. When she felt her phone buzz silently in her hand, she brought up the message. The screen glowed brightly in the darkness of the night. “Huh. ‘Don’t disappoint me’.” Her grip tightened around the small electronic device, though her face gave nothing away. “Yes, well,” she whispered into the silent night, “if this doesn’t go according to your plan, I’m sure as hell going to take you with me.”

+---+---+

The Next Morning - Uesugi-Shindou Residence - Koishikawa Park Tower – Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

He hurt. A lot. There was not a part of him that did not. Dear God even his hair hurt. How? He was not sure, but it did.

They say it was just like riding a bicycle. It was something you never forgot and knew how to do instinctually. As true as that statement was, it did not take away from the very real fact that his entire body was sore and cried out in pain whenever he moved. Eiri had been more than a little aggressive. The word “excessive” comes to mind. The blond author had been in a very primitive mood last night and apparently had had the desire to re-stake his claim and mark Shuichi as his own. Not like he ever lost his claim to him in the first place, but his Eiri was a very possessive and very domineering man who wanted the whole world to know just to whom Shuichi Shindou belonged.

“Stupid Eiri,” he muttered as he very slowly made his way silently through the twilight-strung condominium.

Though…

He paused behind the sofa and stared across the living room out the sliding glass doors that led out onto the balcony at a Tokyo that was just beginning to wake up. A smile crossed his face.

…It was better to suffer through some minor pain and discomfort and know that when he woke up in the morning, his Eiri would be asleep besides him then to be slapped upside the head by reality when he came to the depressing realization that it all been a dream and once again he was all alone.

Yes. Maybe this was not so bad after all.

He started to turn away from the breathtaking sight of the city landscape spread out before him when something on the television, that neither of them had apparently turned off before they went to bed, caught his attention. Rounding the sofa, he grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned the volume up.

“And finally this morning,” the reporter for the early morning news was saying, “Nami Mataguchi released a statement late last night-”

Shuichi rolled his eyes. Of course she did. She issues a challenge. He ignores said challenge. She in turn releases a statement in order to rile him into accepting the challenge. It was a never-ending cycle that never worked.

“- from TCN studios.”

Shuichi frowned. Again from The Christian Network? What was up with this chick? Was she letting the backwards view of a religion that less than two percent of Japan practiced override her judgment (1)? Seriously. Did she not realize that most of the nation just did not care? She was worse than the tabloids; if that was even possible.

The reporter vanished and the screen split in half. On one side, there was a photograph of Nami Mataguchi, the woman who has been giving him so much trouble for the last two and a half years. On the opposite side of the screen was a written transcript of part of the statement she had apparently released.

He had to admit, though, that he was pretty cute. She had black hair cut into a short bob that angled down from the back to the front framing yellow-flecked dark brown eyes. Even though there did not seem to be a trace of makeup on her face, her skin glowed. Her appearance had changed drastically in the two and a half years since he had first seen her at the news conference where Eiri and he announced their relationship. It was like looking at a different person. Though one aspect about her had not changed. She was as adamant as ever at discovering the truth behind his and Eiri’s relationship.

“’I’m very disappointed with Mr. Shindou’ she says,” the reported continued in a voice over. “‘The fact that he has once again chosen to ignore my challenge tells us a lot…’”

“Only to someone as psychotic as you,” he retorted softly.

“’If he is right about the parentage of his son, then he should have no reason not to get a DNA paternity test done. I find it highly suspicious that he refuses to have one done. Just what is he hiding?’”

He could feel the beginnings of a headache. Pointing the remote at the screen, he pushed the power button. The image of the reporter froze and then faded to black. With a sigh, he stood and placed the remote on the table.

“What a way to harsh a guy’s boner,” he muttered annoyed as he made his way to the swinging door that separated the bedrooms from the rest of the house. “Stupid bitch.”

Though he could not stop himself from thinking that she may just be right.

+---+---+

Uesugi-Sakuma Residence – Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Though he could hear the distance sound of traffic from the balcony of the apartment he shared with his partner, the early morning hours right before dawn was eerily still. Sighing, he leaned against the brick wall behind him that separated their balcony from their neighbors. He stared up into the early dawn sky that was just beginning to lighten.

“Whether you like it or not, Ryuichi Sakuma, Yuki Kitazawa is going to a part of your life till the day you die because he is the mother of your son. You don’t have to like him. Nobody’s saying you have to. You‘re going to have to just grin and bear and grow the fuck up.”

Tatsuha’s harsh statement from the day before echoed in his mind over and over again. Crossing his arms over his chest, he dropped his head back and let his eyes slide shut.

“…Are you going to tell him the truth? It’s not like there’s anything keeping you from telling him. Not anymore. Not like there was.”

Pushing away from the wall, he scrubbed his hands over his face with a light growl from deep within his throat. “Dammit,” he hissed. Walking towards the center of the balcony, he leaned over the railing and watched the traffic far below him. This was insane! He was so confused. What should he do?

+---+---+

Tatsuha watched him from the shadows. He could not even begin to imagine what was going through his lover’s mind.

+---+---+

Uesugi-Shindou Residence - Koishikawa Park Tower – Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Shuichi lightly pushed down the door handle and swung open his son’s bedroom door just enough so that he could stick his head in. He chuckled silently at the sight that greeted him. Little Takanori was fast asleep in the direct center of his bed within a nest made from his bedcovers. The two year old was face down with his legs tucked underneath him and his thumb in his mouth. He gave no indication that he was any closer to waking up than he had been when they put him to bed not long after dinner. How his son could sleep comfortably like that was beyond him.

Shuichi noticed how his son’s naturally tanned complexion seemed to darken in contrast to the white T-shirt and boxer shorts that Eiri had put him in last night. He took in the raven locks that were mused and sticking on end, his round face and tiny nose. They were so much like his own. He could see so much of himself in his son and it was not just the boy’s physical appearance. Eiri claimed their son had his big mouth, his amazing lung capacity as well as his love for music. Shuichi could not be more proud of his little boy. There were even faint traces of Ryuichi within the toddler that he has begun to notice, but what he had never seen was Taki Aizawa.

“Yeah, well, just make sure he looks like you,” he said turning his back on the kid.

Eiri had given him the ultimatum for agreeing to allow Shuichi to name their after his biological father, but Shuichi never would have guessed it would come true, but he had always considered it to be a godsend nonetheless. As much as he loved his son and as much as he was grateful to have his son as part of his life, the less he was reminded of that sourpuss bastard the better. The only aspect of Taki he had ever seen in their son were those beautiful brown eyes, but all that changed when little Takanori’s eyes began to change. Those eyes became the smoking gun.

They were typical Asian eyes with their epicanthic fold, meaning they were narrower and almost almond-like in shape, nothing like his own more rounder shaped eyes. He did not remember Taki’s being as tapered, but he had always just assumed that he had gone in for some sort of cosmetic surgery. It was not as if he would be the first one. But when those dark brown eyes that his son had been born with began to lighten into a golden hazel similar to Eiri‘s, he had taken a really good look at his son for the first time.

The evidence had been there all along, but he had not seen it. Little Takanori had never been lithe or slight. He had always been more on the hefty side. It was not to say that he was overweight. He was just big for his age. While little Takanori was only two years old, most people mistakenly thought he was more like four. That was unlike when Shuichi was growing up. Born a month premature, he had weighed a little over six pounds. Back in grade school, all of his teachers had called him “Peanut” because he had been so small. According to Ryuichi, little Takanori was taller than Shuichi had been at his age. A little on the short side, Shuichi himself stood barely over five feet. The more Shuichi had studied his son, the more the evidence began to pile up around him. It was there in the stubborn set of his son’s chin, along his jaw line and in his cheekbones.

A male face flashed before his eyes. Shuichi shook his head to rid himself of the image. Impossible. He knew it. Taki had known it too, which was why he had claimed the child for his own because there was just no other option. That was why he refused to accept what had always been there right in front of his eyes. Besides, what did it matter? Eiri had accepted responsibility for a child that was not his. Tohma had had his attorney in Japan draw up the papers and had them faxed to his attorney in New York City where Eiri had signed the papers legally adopting little Takanori not even twenty-four hours after his birth. Eiri’s name was even on the birth certificate. Eiri was their son’s father. That was all there was to it. Some stupid piece of paper was not going to change that.

But…

They were trying to relearn how to breath when Shuichi’s soft voice broke into the silence. “Why did you press the issue of getting that paternity test done?”

Blinking, Eiri turned to face him. “Why?”

“Yeah.” Shuichi flipped onto his side. He held up his head with his hand. His other hand rested on his swollen belly. “Why? You’re his father, Eiri. Does it really matter who fathered him?”

Eiri turned his gaze away from Shuichi’s searching one and stared up at the ceiling, hidden within the shadows. “Not really. Not to me.”

Shuichi‘s gaze narrowed in confusion. “Then-?”

“But it will matter…to him…someday. He’s going to want to know the truth.” Eiri turned his head around so that he was facing him. “Will you be able to give it to him?”

…he could no longer deny it. You can only ignore the giant pink elephant in your living room for so long. The older his son became, the more evident it was.

Pushing away from the doorframe, Shuichi stepped back into the hallway and quietly shut the bedroom door behind him. He walked down the hall and out into the living room. He hade his way silently through the house to the kitchen. He picked up the cordless phone extension. His fingers danced over the keys.

“…It’s me,” he spoke into the receiver. “Sorry to wake you, but…I…I need to talk to you.”

---TBC---

1. I do not mean to offend anyone as I am Christian myself, but the only exposure Shuichi has had to Christianity is through Nami Mataguchi who really does give all Christians a bad name (which is the whole point, as she is an extremist)

Racoon: I wouldn’t even have known that English was your third language. I understood you perfectly! And I got the name from issendai (dot) com (slash) rpgs (slash) Japanese-girls-names (dot) shtml. The website has one of the most thorough lists of both girls and boys Japanese names.

A/N: Thank you to the few of you who voted on the first poll. It is now closed. Shuichi will have fraternal twins: a boy and a girl. Now you can pick their names. Go to my profile and choose a male name and a female name.