Kin no Shuichi

Kin no Shuichi
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: Shuichi and Eiri are working things out after a mistake on both of their parts nearly ended their five-year relationship. But what about Bad Luck? What does the future hold for them?
Chapter Summary: Two years later and while some things never change, others have and there are some changes that are so drastic, nothing will ever be the same again.
Warning: M/M, romance, angst, OOC-ness, language, Shuichi/Eiri, implied Eiri/oc, implied Shuichi/oc
Insert: --
A/N: I had an absolute blast writing this story. Too bad it’s over, but you know what they say: All good things must end. Thank you guys for your support. It really means a lot to me. Anyway, here we go. I want to thank fahaar, idontsurf, lilgurlanima, David boreanaz’s wife247, MisakiAkihiko (and yes that silver thing was indeed a wedding ring), ferler, ELENIOFME for their reviews. Thank you to everyone for your support.

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

Chapter 44: The Requiem Mass in D Minor

Two Years Later

Draping the towel around his shoulders, Shuichi Shindou padded barefoot out of the bathroom to stand before the vanity in the dressing room off the master bedroom in the condominium he shared with the man he has been in love with since he was eighteen years old and their two daughters: six year old Sayo Ai Shindou-Uesugi and seven month old Kura Eri Shindou-Uesugi. With a second towel secured around his waist and water droplets glistening on his shoulders from his shower, he studied his reflection in the mirror. Eyes just as violet as ever took in asymmetrical layered hair as black as the embedded obsidian in his wedding ring.

In the years since he met Eiri that faithful day while taking a short cut through the park on the way home from work, so much has happened. It seems as if the turmoil they have gone through should show somehow and yet the person staring back at him did not seem to have changed. How was that possible that he still looked like that geeky eighteen year old whose tongue hadn’t been able to work properly when the blond haired, blond eyed god appeared from out of the shadows (though he had a feeling Eiri would make a perverted comment about how his tongue seemed to be working pretty fine to him) despite the numerous ups and downs that have taken place?

“Baka,” barked Eiri.

Startled, Shuichi jumped at the unexpected sound of his husband‘s voice. With a hand over his racing heart, he cursed softly at his jumpiness.

“You drown or what?”

Shuichi rolled his eyes. He was tempted to say yes. “Be out in a sec.”

From the other side of the closed bathroom door, Eiri scoffed. “You said that ten minutes ago.”

“Did not!”

“Whatever. Just hurry up otherwise Sayo’s going to be late for school.”

And Eiri said that he over exaggerated. They still had plenty of time. “Whatever,” he muttered as he reached for the green tube of hair gel. He squirted a small amount into his palm, rubbed his hands together and then combed the gel through his hair with his fingers. After washing his hands, he grabbed his comb and ran it through his hair.

There came the sound of running footsteps. They grew closer and then stopped. “Papa,” cried their daughter’s voice. “Kura needs a diaper change! She’s all stinky.”

When he heard Eiri grumble, he snickered. He could just picture those golden eyes he loved so much glaring holes into the bathroom door. Eiri absolutely hated changing diapers.

Where had the time gone? Sayo was now six years old and in kindergarten. She even had her very first boyfriend. To say that Eiri was not too pleased with that development would be a gross understatement. It seemed like just yesterday when they were bringing her home from the hospital. Their precious baby girl was growing up right before their eyes.

Shuichi’s eyes grew misty.

The very first day of school, Sayo had insisted that she could walk by herself because she was a big girl now. She argued that her best friend Kioshi who lived several floors below them was going to be walking to school by herself. So why couldn’t she?

Unfortunately, that was true. Kioshi’s parents were attorneys who had their own law firm. They had a tendency to forget they had a daughter, which was why she spent more time at their house than at her own home. Sometimes it’d felt as if they had two daughters (three after Kura was born).

Sayo did not want to be the only one whose parents walked her to school. She wasn’t a baby. That had upset him greatly. His baby didn’t need him anymore? Of course, Eiri called him an idiot for crying over something so asinine, but then he goes and tells Sayo that they were going to be taking her to school and that if Kioshi wanted to walk with them then that was fine. Eiri used the “for her own safety because she did have famous parents and there might be people out there who might try to get to them through her” excuse. Eiri was so full of shit sometimes. If it was “for her own good”, then how come he started weeping when Sayo walked through those gates, claiming she could walk the rest of the way by herself? When Shuichi had pointed out that he was crying, Eiri claimed he just had something in his eye.

Ya right.

As he ran his comb through his long damp locks, their came the sudden sound of crying followed by Eiri’s angry reprimanding voice.

Uh oh.

Sayo was so excited over being a big sister that she tended to forget that Kura was only seven months old.

When he and Eiri reluctantly agreed to be on Ajibana in order to try to dispel the rumors that Chiharu Yokuratoh was alleging, Eiri’d announced the two of them were trying to have a second child. The people of Japan were not the only ones caught off guard by that admission. Yes, they had been discussing it, but no decisions had been made one way or another. At least none that he had known about. He had always wondered if being accused of fathering a bastard child had been the catalyst that pushed Eiri into finally making that decision.

A week after Sayo started school, at five seconds passed midnight, their second daughter Kura was born. As Eiri said, Mai Yushigaki had readily agreed to be their surrogate once again. This surprised Shuichi. Seeing as she was Suguru’s mother’s cousin’s daughter and was still working at NG Productions as a sound engineer, he thought she would have opted out. He would not have blamed her for that decision.

Unlike when Sayo was conceived, it had taken several attempts for Mai to become pregnant the second time around, which was natural according to the experts, but that assurance had not stopped both of them from worrying.

Setting the comb down on the vanity, he walked across the dressing room to the built-in storage cabinets in search of the hairdryer. Finally finding it buried at the bottom beneath the stack of hand towels (how it got there he was not sure), he walked back to the vanity and plugged it into the outlet above the sink. Turning it on, a blast of hot air slammed into his face. As he dried his hair, the smile slipped from his face and his merriment vanished.

As much as either of them despised admitting it, Ajibana had been right in several of her assumptions.

The day the interview was aired, he received quite a bit of flack, mostly from women, about deciding to stay with Eiri instead of dumping his two timing ass after learning that he had cheated on him. They had greatly approved of the strict conditions he’d laid out though. He wondered what these women would say if they were to learn that Eiri was not the only one guilty of being unfaithful.

The fact that Yoshio had decided not to come forward about their little tryst had surprised him. Though he was glad his childhood friend had remained silent on the subject. One scandal at a time was his limit.

Sales of Eiri’s books had dropped slightly. It hadn’t been a very noticeable drop. It was not as if people started boycotting him, but it was enough to start worrying his editor who had thrown a conniption, but then she pulled a one-eighty when sales increased not too long later. She had been all smiles then.

Whatever.

Either way, neither he nor Eiri cared what other people thought. If they did, they would not have stayed together as long as they had.

His parents had been furious: at Eiri for not only his infidelity, but for not even remembering what the woman he’d slept with looked like, for not knowing what her name was and then for claiming that she’d meant nothing to him. Then they had been angry with him for “allowing the infidelity to occur in the first place”. They both had received quite a tongue-lashing. Then a week later, Eiri’s father had shown up unannounced on their doorstep and really let Eiri have it. Mr. Uesugi had then apologized to him for his “sorry excuse of a son” and announced that he was going to spend the whole day spoiling the grandchild that he rarely saw.

Replacing the hairdryer into the closet and then flinging the towel into the hamper, Shuichi padded out of the dressing room and into the master bedroom’s walk-in closet. He pulled on a pair of blue jeans with a black cross etched onto the back pockets and a black hoodie with an etched skull over the left breast and silver studs around the front pockets. Then he strolled out of the closet to the dresser to slip on his contacts.

Unlike their parents, Maiko had kept her opinions to herself, mostly because he’d told her the whole story years ago.

She and Gina were still together. They had even moved in together last year. Maiko had finally gathered the courage to tell their parents about Gina, but only after some paparazzo had somehow managed to sneak into the high-class restaurant where he and Eiri and she and Gina where having dinner together.

Like brother like sister.

Their parents had not been as understanding as they had been when he came out. It had taken a little time, but they eventually did come around.

“Baka, you ready yet?” barked the sudden voice from behind him.

Shuichi glanced over his shoulder and smiled at his sour faced husband. “Yeah,” he said. He grabbed his sunglasses and clipped them onto the collar of his shirt. As he followed Eiri out of the bedroom and down the short hall into the dining room, he grabbed his cellphone that was sitting on the nightstand.

“Let’s go Sayo! Bakugan’s going to have to wait. Time to go,” Eiri announced as he skirted the dining table on his way to the entrance hall.

“Okay!”

Shuichi snickered at his daughter’s enthusiasm. If it were he, he would be bitching and moaning the whole time.

Sayo slid off the sofa and turned off the television by pressing the button on the television set.

Shuichi ruffled her hair as they passed by each other, she towards the foyer (with a scowl and a “hey” as she tried to fixed her messed up hair) and he to grab Kura who was sound asleep in the swing with a binki in her mouth.

“Hurry Daddy,” Sayo told him as she sat down on the step in the entrance hall to put on her shoes. Afterwards, Eiri helped her with her red ramose backpack.

“I’m coming,” he told her.

When he stopped the swing, Kura immediately began to grumble. He made soft shushing noises to calm her. She was just like Eiri. Once asleep, she absolutely forbade anyone from coming within five hundred meters of her. When Mika discovered her niece had inherited this trait, she had grumbled, “Dear God that is all we need: another Eiri.” He actually found it to be kinda cute. He carefully maneuvered the raven-haired seven-month-old out of the swing and carried her through the condominium to meet Eiri and Sayo who were waiting for him by the front door. Eiri had the stroller ready and waiting. He gently settled his daughter in. After securing her within the stroller, he followed his eager little beaver to the elevator.

Sayo pressed the call button. “I pressed it Daddy,” she grinned at him proudly.

“Yes you did,” he replied with a light chuckle.

“She is definitely your daughter,” Eiri grumbled as he stepped up behind him.

Shuichi chuckled at that.

The silence of the hall was broken when the elevator announced its arrival with an unnaturally loud ping. The doors slid open and the four of them packed inside. Sayo pressed the button for the ground floor. The doors slid shut and with a jolt, the elevator started descending.

Shuichi unhooked his sunglasses and right as he was about to slip them on, a marque on his right wrist caught his attention. He pushed back the sleeve of his hoodie. In black scrawling, Vivaldi font across his wrist was tattooed “Bad Luck”.

He wished things could have been different. It pained him to this day that events had played out as they had. He still considered Hiro his best friend and they did speak from time to time, but it was more the politeness of strangers who were at the same bus stop every morning. No, that did not sound right. While their relationship was drastically different from what it used to be, it had not been reduced to strangers meeting in the night, though it felt like that sometimes. There was that awkwardness and uncertainty between them. That bond they forged back when they were children was no longer there except in memories.

While he had yet to speak with Suguru, Hiro assured him he was doing fine.

Apparently, Mr. K had gone back to the States to spend some time with his wife and son. Last Hiro heard, Mr. K had gone to work for Rage at XMR Records.

Mr. Sakano was helping to produce a new pop band that just signed with the NG Productions label. The trio calling themselves “Astray” were second year high school students. The lead singer was so hyperactive they had to scrape him off the ceiling on a daily basis, he had bright bubblegum pink hair and there were rumors that he was gay.

You did not need to be a genius guitarist to read that message.

Calling themselves Night Train, Hiro and Suguru released their sophomore album this past summer to rave reviews. It hit number one a week later and stayed there for five weeks. Tickets for their tour set to begin in a couple of weeks went on sale last month and were sold out two days later.

Their debut album won them best blues album at the World Music Awards last year. They had performed their song “Nights Are Too Long” that featured vocals by Michael Bublé. He had to admit they were good.

That same year, his solo debut album won him several awards at the World Music Awards, one of them being best dance album. He had performed his single “Vida”, which had then gone on to become an international hit. Though he had been in the same venue as his ex-band mates, he hadn’t said a single word to either of them or them to him.

“You alright, baby?”

Pulled out of his thoughts by Eiri’s soft concerned voice, Shuichi yanked his sleeve back over the tattoo. “Yeah,” he smiled over his shoulder.

The elevator came to a halt with a heart-stopping jolt. There was another ping right before the doors slid open. Sayo darted out with Eiri hot on her heels.

“Hi Kioshi,” he heard her cry.

Shuichi stepped out of the elevator pushing the stroller with a sleeping Kura within.

Holding hands, Sayo and her best friend Kioshi were skipping down the sidewalk singing at the top of their lungs. He had to chuckle at the sight. Eiri followed closely behind them in his signature black trench and with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips while he followed at a more sedate pace.

He had received a call not too long ago from Hiro. Apparently Night Train was up for the same award at this year‘s World Music Awards. Unless their flight was delayed, they should have left early this morning.

Torture was up for several awards themselves for their debut album Black Friday. They were scheduled to leave for Monaco tomorrow afternoon along with Eiri, Sayo, Kura and his mother who was coming along as babysitter.

The last thing he’d wanted to do was agree with Ajibana, but there’d been no helping it. He had been worried about how his fans would react to his new band. They had accepted him as a solo artist readily enough, but joining a new band? Especially one whose sound was a complete one-eighty from anything he had ever released as either part of Bad Luck or as a solo artist? He had been a little apprehensive to say the least. But he should have listened to Eiri. Eiri had told him that he would have nothing to worry about. No surprise, it turned out he was right.

Black Friday was released to mixed reviews last winter. Though most critics slammed it (mostly because he, Shuichi Shindou, was involved in something non-pop, non-Eurodance related), it was well received by music fans. There were those who stayed loyal to him when he left Bad Luck to go solo. There were those new fans he acquired when he released his solo album, Atrevido, and now there were the new fans who loved Torture. Since its release, Black Friday has sold nearly five million copies.

Tohma Seguchi was not speaking to him. He had a feeling the CEO and president of NG Productions was feeling a bit miffed about the turn of events.

Oh, well.

Before he knew it, they were at Sayo’s school. She gave them each a quick hug and then she was gone without so much as a backward glance.

As they started back home, a wave of sorrow washed over him. He grew misty eyed. His throat closed around a sob.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

Clearing his throat violently, Shuichi shook off the mysterious feelings of melancholy and turned to regard Eiri. “What?”

Eiri studied his lithe baka quietly for several long seconds before turning on his heel with a, “Nothing. Let’s go,” thrown over his shoulder. “You have a meeting you’re going to be late for.”

Shuichi rolled his eyes at his husband’s back.

“Saw that.”

“Saw what?” Shuichi questioned innocently.

“…Baka,” Eiri muttered.

Shuichi giggled.

+---+---+

It was late evening by the time the meeting finally managed to wrap up. Dog tired and practically asleep on his feet, Shuichi dragged himself from the black, tinted windowed SUV to the enclosed entrance of his building.

“Night,” he said over a yawn.

“Night, Mr. Shindou,” his driver called after him.

The final arrangements for their trip to Monaco for the World Music Awards had been made. Since there were no direct flights to Monaco, they were flying out of Narita International Airport at quarter to one in the afternoon and would arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, France at fifteen minutes passed five. They would then take a connecting flight from there to Nice, France. At eight that night, local time, fifteen hours and fifteen minutes would have passed since they left Tokyo. From Nice, they opted to transfer to the train for the rest of the journey to Monaco.

Now all they had to do was get a good night’s rest and make sure they arrived early tomorrow for their flight.

Between eight o’clock at night and six o’clock in the morning, the building could only be entered by entering a security code in the security panel besides the front entrance. Each code was unique to each condominium within the building. After six o’clock in the morning until eight that evening, you could only enter if you either had a key or were buzzed in by either whomever was at the security desk or by someone residing within the building.

Shuichi’s fingers danced over the keys of the panel. He knew he entered the code right when there was a droning buzz.

“See ya in morning,” he called to his driver who had remained standing at attention between him and the SUV.

The man inclined his head.

With a yawn, Shuichi crossed the silent lobby to the elevator bank. As he pressed the call button, he realized that nobody was at the security desk. Strange. There was always someone at the desk. It did not matter what the time of day, or night, it was. It did not matter if it was a national holiday. Someone was always in attendance. The elevator doors slid open. He stepped inside and pressed the button for his floor, still wondering where everyone was. The doors slid shut. With a jolt, the elevator started to ascend.

He was really getting sick and tired of that.

Torture’s manager had received the tentative schedule from the producers of the award show that broke down and outlined what they should expect at the ceremony. Until they actually arrived at the venue where the ceremony was to take place, there was only so much they could do, only so much they could rehearse, but they did what they could.

Once the elevator arrived at his floor, Shuichi pushed away from the back wall with another yawn. He stepped out of the car and started down the short hall to his door, digging within his messenger bag for his house keys.

“Mr. Shindou.”

Startled, Shuichi’s head snapped up and around. “Mr. Seguchi,” he breathed in shock as his blond haired ex-boss stepped around the far corner. “What are you-?”

Stepping forward, Tohma removed his signature black profelt padre hat. He lowered his gaze to the carpeted floor under his feet as he tried to organize his thoughts. The hall lights reflected on his black dress shoes that had been shined to perfection. It seemed trite now, considering why he had been forced to call a truce with the man he had been at war with for more years then he cared to remember. When he received that call earlier, once he got over the initial shock and the denial that followed, he started going over and over again in his head what he was going to say. He thought he finally had what he was going to say down, but coming face to face with his wife’s little brother’s lover and his ex-employee for the first time in as many years was like deleting a document from the computer. Oh, it was still there somewhere, but it was in jumbled pieces.

Shuichi’s violet gaze narrowed. “Mr. Seguchi?”

Why was the man so quiet? He did not like this. What was the man doing here? They had not spoken in over two years, so what was he doing here now? When they first met, Tohma used to be civil to him, but then everything changed after Eiri was hospitalized for vomiting blood that first time. It did not matter that the incident stemmed from the stomach ulcer that developed after Eiri was gang raped when he was sixteen. All Tohma saw was that being with him meant that Eiri was reliving what had been a hellish experience, an experience best left dormant and forgotten. Forget the fact that something as life changing as being sexually assaulted never went away no matter how much you ignored it. It was always there, lying just under the surface, waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect opportunity to strike. Tohma Seguchi has been trying ever since to vacate him from the premises of one Eiri Yuki Uesugi. The more Tohma failed to separate them, the angrier Tohma became with him, the closer he and Eiri became and the farther apart Tohma and Eiri grew.

Shuichi watched as his brother-in-law fiddled with his hat. This was a first. He had never seen him so nervous.

Something did not feel right.

Finally, Tohma raised his head.

Shuichi did not like what he saw when he gazed into those malachite green eyes. He suddenly felt sick.

+---+---+

For the first time all day, Eiri was able to relax. There was no end to the turmoil the third installment in his fantasy epic was causing him. Part of him regretted ever having decided to try something new. The deadline was looming closer and he was not even close to being finished. If it was not his writing (or lack there of) that was giving him a headache, it was something else. He loved his husband and his daughters to death, but sometimes they could be, well, annoying. But, thankfully, both Sayo and Kura were sound asleep and the brat was at work. For the first time in a long time, the house was blissfully silent. He reveled in the peacefulness.

Throwing himself onto the sofa, he flung his arms out along the back of the sofa and dropped his head back with a grateful sigh. His eyes fluttered closed. Now he knew what heaven was.

But it was too quiet.

His eyes popped open with a curse.

Sitting up, he reached for the remote on the coffee table and turned on the television. He started flipping through the channels. There was absolutely nothing on. It was no wonder he hardly watched TV. As he was passing the million and one twenty-four hour news channels, something on the screen caught his attention.

“-just joining us,” the salt and pepper haired news anchor was saying. “An Air France airbus out of Narita International Airport heading to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France went down in the Sea of Japan mere hours after takeoff this morning-”

The remote slipped from his numb grip. It dropped through the air and smashed into the hardwood floor. The backing popped off. The batteries spilled out and rolled across the living room floor.

+---+---+

He was lying.

“No.”

He shook his head.

It was not true.

“No.”

He took a step backward.

It wasn’t!

“No.”

He sobbed.

It wasn’t.

The first tear slipped down his pale face.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Shindou…Shuichi. This was not…” Tohma struggled with the words. He had never been good at these types of things. He just did not know what to say at a time like this. Yes, he and Shuichi have had their troubles. Neither particularly cared for the other. There separation had not been on the most amicable of terms. But he would not wish something like this on his worst of enemies.

Shuichi felt his knees wobbling.

He did not want to believe it. He could not believe it. He kept shaking his head. Back and forth. Over and over again.

“Stop it,” he whispered.

He did not want to hear anymore.

Tohma was just saying these things to hurt him. He was always saying and doing things to get to him.

“They’re not sure what happened yet. They’re speculating that-”

“Stop it,” Shuichi cried louder. The tears were flowing freely down his cheeks now. His sobs were filling the silence of the hallway. “Just…stop it.” His bag had slipped off his shoulder and was lying abandoned on the floor between them. “Stop it.” His knees gave out and he collapsed to the floor.

A lump in his throat, Tohma gazed sadly down at the younger man. The stoic mask he usually worn had crumbled hours ago, the pieces now dust blown about by the wind. For the life of him, he could not even begin to speculate what Shuichi was going through. He had never been as close to Suguru (even though he was his cousin) or Hiro as Shuichi had been.

This was not how he’d wanted to renew his relationship with the singer.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered to the heart broken man.

+---+---+

“There were no survivors,” the news anchor was saying.

Trembling, Eiri stared in wide-eyed disbelief at the television screen.

Less than five minutes ago, he would have laughed in your face if you had asked him if he believed in Fate or Destiny. If something happened, it happened. If something did not happen then it did not happen. Simple as that. Why did there have to be some guiding force butting its head into things that did not concern it? But now…

If the events of the past five years would have played out just a little differently…

If there would not have been all that infighting within Bad Luck…

If Shuichi had not decided to leave Bad Luck in order to go solo…

If Shuichi had not decided to become the lead singer of Torture…

If Shuichi would have decided to instead work things out with Hiro and Suguru…

If he would not have forced Shuichi to wait until the weekend so that they could fly out to Monaco together so that Sayo did not have to miss any more school than she was going to be…

If…

If…

If…

…His lithe baka…His Shuichi…He would…He would have been on that plane.

Eiri chocked back a sob. Tears stung his eyes.

Just one choice. That was all it would have taken. If Shuichi would have done one thing differently…

---OWARI---

A/N: The part where Shuichi suddenly feels sad for seemingly no reason at all actually happened to me. I was at work when I suddenly felt as if I was going to cry. I shook it off and felt fine the rest of the day. Later that evening when I got home, there was a message on the answering machine. My Papa (grandfather) had passed away.

A/N 2: I’m not sure if the Profelt Padre hat (otherwise known as the Amish hat) is the actual hat Tohma wears, but it’s the closest one I could find that looks like the one he wears.

A/N 3: Why did I choose to end the story like this? Well, there are a lot of stories out there where Shuichi dies. I know of one or two where Eiri dies. I know of one where Shu dies and then Eiri kills himself because he couldn’t live without Shu. But I don’t know of any where Hiro, Suguru, or anybody else dies (who weren’t the bad guy). I decided to do something different. So, what did you think?