Shuichi's Personal Assistant

**********

“Hiro!” Umiko gasped. “This isn’t what it looks like!”
“I don’t care what it looks like! He shouldn’t be anywhere near you!” Hiro quickly crossed the room, reaching for the back of Eiri’s shirt. With a thump, he was on the ground looking up at a very pissed guitarist. What the f**k is his problem, Eiri thought. He was definitely rethinking the beer he’d had earlier. He felt himself being raised up by his collar found himself staring straight into a pair of angry grey eyes. He glanced to his left and saw the fist seconds before it hit him.
“What the hell are you doing!” Umiko leapt from the couch, wincing in pain from her foot. Crap, she thought. There must still be a piece of glass there. She watched as Hiro pulled his arm back, ready to strike again.
“Hiro!” A chorus of voices shouted. Shuichi and Ryuichi had rushed to the room after hearing the thud and Ayaka stood horrified.
Umiko pried his fingers from Eiri and pushed him away. His lip was split, but she’d take care of that later. She turned to face Hiro.
“What are you doing?! How does this help anything?”
“What am I doing? I walk in and he’s on top of you on the couch and I’m supposed to just deal with it! I don’t think so.”
“I don’t belong to you, Hiro.”
“Yes you do! I love you Umiko. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
Umiko paled when she heard the soft gasp behind her.
“What do you mean you love her?” Ayaka said softly. Hiro’s eyes widened as the enormity of what he’d just said dawned on him. Silence filled the apartment. Shuichi’s eyes bounced from Ayaka to Umiko to Hiro and to Ayaka again. Ryuichi had rescued his Kumagoro and was chewing happily on it, holding Shuichi’s hand and absorbing the drama, eyes glittering. Umiko sighed. At least someone was enjoying this spectacle.
“Hiro, what do you mean?” Ayaka asked again. Hiro’s shoulders fell and he turned to her.
“I...I...I...” he stammered and paused to take a breath. “I love her.”
“I see,” Ayaka said. “And when were you going to tell me?”
“I wasn’t.”
Umiko looked down at the floor. This was so much worse than she’d thought it would be. She prayed silently that Hiro would just shut up.
“Oh. Really?” Ayaka said arching a brow. “Did you think you could lie forever and just have two girlfriends? No, wait. One girlfriend and a slut?”
Ouch, Umiko thought. That stings. Please don’t defend me...
“She’s not a slut.” Just great, she thought again. “I love you too, Ayaka.” She narrowed her eyes and walked to Hiro. The sound of flesh on flesh echoed through the room and Hiro held a hand to his cheek. Shuichi flinched. He remembered how hard Ayaka could slap someone.
“You don’t get a harem,” Ayaka growled. “And you!,” she said turning to Umiko, “You are nothing but a whore. And a liar. You pretended to be my friend. Women aren’t supposed to do this to each other.”
They just looked at each other. Umiko knew that anything she said right now would be meaningless. How do you tell someone you’ve been betraying that you care about them? She just watched tears form in the corners of Ayaka’s eyes before she turned and ran out of the apartment. Hiro just stood there, unsure of what he should do.
“Umi..”
“Don’t,” she said. “Don’t be an idiot,” and she turned to get bandages from the bathroom. Hiro dashed from the room hoping to catch up with Ayaka. Umiko paused at someone’s touch as she was passing Shuichi.
“Umi-chan?”
“Please don’t hate me Shuichi,” she whispered, fighting down tears of her own. “I know it was bad to lie to Ayaka and you. I didn’t think...”
“Don’t worry. I understand.”
Ryuichi began tugging on Shuichi’s arm. He knew where the drama was and he didn’t want to miss it.
“Kuma-chan wants to leave now, Shuichi!”
“What?! We can’t leave now!”
“Yes, we can! Doesn’t Shuichi-kun want to help his friend?” Ryuichi knew exactly what he needed to say to get Shuichi out of here and alone. With a small startled gasp, Shuichi took off.
“We’ll be back as soon as we can, Umiko! I’ll leave Yuki to you!”
******

Eiri had pulled himself onto the couch and he sat there quietly, touching his lip and trying to stop the bleeding.
“Stop touching it.”
He looked up and watched Umiko limp slowly toward him, a first aid kit in her hands. She placed the box on the table, opened it and retrieved the supplies she needed. Then, she knelt on the cushion next to him.
“Neither one of us is having a good day today, are we?” she said finishing her work.
“No. But, I think I’m to blame for that.”
“You think?” she said smiling slightly.
“Ok, I know. Give me your foot.”
“What?”
“Your foot. I saw you limp. I’m pretty sure there’s still glass in your heel. Let me clean the cut and get the glass out.”
“I don’t think I want you coming at me with a pair of tweezers right now.”
“I can do it. Having a fist in your face does a great job of sobering you up. Besides, you’re bleeding on my couch.”
She sighed in defeat and backed away from Eiri before stretching her leg toward him. She winced when he put the peroxide on her foot. She winced more when he began hunting for the errant glass shard. After finding the glass, he cleaned the wound again and began bandaging her foot. She watched his hands as they slowly wrapped the bandage around her. He was even graceful when doing something as mundane as this. She felt a small blush creep over her cheeks and she quickly looked away.
“So,” he said as he secured the wrappings, “Nakano, huh?”
She tilted her head slightly. “I really hope you’re not even thinking of criticizing me.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Me? Criticize you? Not today. I’d probably end up with a broken bone at the rate I’m going.”
“Well, good. I don’t need one of Tokyo’s most infamous playboys giving me a hard time about who I’ve been with.”
“I wasn’t planning on giving you a hard time. I’m just surprised. He doesn’t seem your type.”
“Oh, really?”
“I figured you more the K type,” Eiri said as he reached for his cigarettes.
Umiko slowly turned scarlet. He paused before lighting up.
“What? No way!”
“Shut up. I’m human you know.”
He exhaled slowly. He hadn’t really been serious. Eiri had just thought he was making a joke. He’d figured he’d owed it to her to keep the mood light. But, this was turning out to be more entertaining than he’d thought.
“How on earth did that happen.”
“Look,” she said, “I really don’t want to discuss this with you.”
“Come on. You tell me your secrets and I’ll tell you mine. Well, some of them. Plus, I’ll share,” he said holding the cigarette pack toward her. Umiko’s eyes widened in shock.
“How did you...?”
“I know a secret smoker when I see one.”
Sighing for the millionth time that day, Umiko reached for the pack and the lighter and inhaled deeply.
“Fine. I’ll talk. But, it’s nothing all that amazing.” She leaned her back against the arm of the couch. “His wife had left him. He was depressed...”
“And you thought you’d cheer him up.”
Umiko glared daggers toward him. “No. If I’d wanted to cheer him up, I’d have bought him flowers. You seem to forget that you and Shuichi are the only two people that get laid on a regular basis around here. It’s called being lonely. So, it happened. That’s all there is to it.” She took another drag. “Well, that and being drunk. That makes the strangest things happen.”
Eiri chuckled to himself. Yes, being drunk does make you do strange things, he thought. Like trying to carry people and tripping over pink bunnies. He smiled and said, “I wonder how many drinks you’d have to have to sleep with Sakuma.”
“Surprisingly few.”
Eiri choked, sputtered, and began coughing violently.
“What?” she asked innocently.
“Sakuma too?”
“Ryuichi will sleep with anything that moves. And last time I checked, I was mobile.”
He couldn’t help it. He tried to hold it in but the laughter erupted from him. Umiko soon joined in. It was funny, she decided. And it was nice to see this side to him. She hoped against all hope that this Eiri would stay around for a long while.
********

I really hope this chapter doesn't come across as too cheesy. I'm not so good with the conversations I think. And I hope that this quick update makes up for the long wait for the previous one. I'm going to try to get at least one more chapter up before the new year.
Thank you so much DemonLadySesshomaru and VioletEyes for all your wonderful reviews! You guys keep me going with this story.