On the Street of Dreams

On the Street of Dreams
Written by: Chocho
Disclaimer: I don’t own Gravitation
Story summary: AU. A one night stand changes Shuichi’s life forever.
Chapter summary: The discovery of the third sex
Warnings: M-Preg, language, sex, violence, hermaphrodites (neutrals)

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Prologue: Historical Beginnings


Names, dates and locations were unknown when the manuscript was discovered at the bottom of a trunk in an attic of an elderly woman’s house in New York. The story it told was set in a time when the land was nothing but untamed wilderness, when boomtowns sprang up and then dried up to become ghost towns when the mines had no more to give. It was a time when cowboys, Indians, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hicock, the Pony Express, Stage Coaches, trading posts, and the pushing forth of the railroad was the norm. It was a time when Wild West meant just that. The brittle yellow sheets held together with twine also told of something else, something that would change the course of history forever.

When it was first found, the story it told was just too incredible to believe, but after a long and exhausted search, descendants of the couple were found and did something nobody had expected. They verified the story. It was all true, every single word.

Around the time of the American Civil War, there was a very prominent and well respected man living in Pennsylvania. He had already been a well loved mayor of the city he lived in and was now gearing up to run for governor. He planned in the near future to run for senator and eventually President, but when he came home one day after a long and exhausting meeting with some very wealthy backers, he found his son, his only son, playing dress up with his mother and younger sister’s things. That, the father could have forgiven and chalked up as boredom or curiosity, but when he found, the next day, his son in the arms of another male, the father became enraged. He, like finding his son in his wife’s clothing, decided to ignore it and hope it went away, believing it to be nothing but a passing phase. After all, boys will be boys, right? But a week later, he walked in on his son once again in the arms of this same young man. An hour later, his son was disappearing down the road on a horse with only a small bag and the clothes on his back. From that day on, his son was dead.

The boy traveled out west where he landed in a rough boomtown in Texas. In this place, every man, woman and child would kill you just as soon look at you. It was a place where the sheriff was run out of town and guns were the people’s Bible.

He started doing tricks to earn some money. At first, it did not go over too well for him. When clients discovered a “Jimmy” and not a “Jane” under that skirt, petticoats and bloomers he wore, he was paid in full with a fat, swollen, split lip, black eyes, and a few broken bones. But one day, things started to turn around for him.

The owner of the town’s oldest and most respected saloon just happened to also be the owner of the only brothel in the area and had over a dozen girls working for him. Coincidentally, just the week before, he lost a girl to child birth. When rumors spread that, some boy was pretending to be a woman and stepping in on his territory, he got a brilliant idea. Instead of running him out of town or stringing him up like the freak he was, the boy would work his trade for him.

The boy was not sure about the offer when the man first brought it to him. If his first fortnight was any indication, working in a brothel was not going to change anything, but the man reassured him that he had nothing to worry about. Hank, the owner of the brothel, may be a lowdown dirty thief and a scoundrel but in this town, he was a God. Besides, there was a calling for the kind of “trade” the boy offered. You just had to know where to look. Having no other choice, the boy agreed.

A year later, a man rode into town with his posse. This man was known to be one of the cruelest, cold-hearted bastards in the territory. He had been riding for a week and was hot, dirty, hungry and extremely horny. He wandered into the saloon looking to satisfy his many needs. He satisfied the first three, but Hank was unable to help him with the last one. All of his girls were either otherwise pre-occupied or had taken ill.

This hardened outlaw, Eric, at that moment looked up and saw one of the most gorgeous creatures he had ever seen in his entire life.

She was a tiny thing, not much bigger than a child with a lithe frame. She was of narrow waist and shoulder and was flat chested, but that was alright. He was not much for tits, anyway. Her jet black hair was arranged in beautiful French curls with one long curl tossed over her shoulder that had been dyed a bright pink. The curl matched the garter on her very upper and shapely thigh. A black choker graced her slender neck. Black fishnet stockings and heeled ankle boots finished off those lovely legs. An off the shoulder purple and black lace dress was so tight it left nothing to the imagination. It showed off her curves and child-like body to perfection. Her violet eyes scanned the saloon with boredom, fear and exhaustion. She looked like an angel standing up there, beautiful and regal. His heart was beating a rapid tattoo against his breast and he felt a sudden flurry of wings in his stomach.

“Who’s that?” Eric asked distractedly, totally enthralled and drooling over this heart breaking beauty.

Hank looked where his old friend was looking and chuckled knowingly. “Sara,” the long haired blond man said. He glanced at the outlaw and smirked. “She’s for…’special’ customers.”

“What’s that mean?” Eric asked, not caring and not really paying much attention. There was something about this woman, something called him to her. He wanted nothing more than to swept her into his arms and carry her to her room and make sweet love to her. He wanted to protect her from the leering eyes of the other men in the saloon.

“Sara…isn’t what she seems,” Hank said cryptically.

“I want her.”

Hank raised an eyebrow. “You want her? Are you sure? You know there’s no refund-“

“How much?”

Hank felt a little guilty for tricking one of his oldest friends like this, but he had to make a living somehow, right? He named the hefty price and watched in amusement and growing confusion, as the man did not bat so much as an eye.

Eric handed over the gold without incident.

Hank caught the young girl’s eyes and signaled her down while Eric took a seat at an empty table. The saloon owner whispered something in her ear and pointed to her client.

Sara studied the man sitting at a table by the dust and grim covered window. He was larger than she was, in every sense of the word. He was at least a head taller with yellow blond hair that gleamed in what little sunlight could pass through the window. His wide set shoulders and broad, muscled chest was entrenched in a white four button pullover shirt with a high, rounded collar. Over that, he had a black suede vest and matching floor length trail duster. His thick, tree trunk legs were encased in matching black pants and spurred boots that looked as if they needed a good spit and polish. A black hat sat on the table in front of him. Underneath that long jacket, she could see a double tooled black holster with twin peacemakers in a black finish.

She gulped at the sight of those nasty looking guns. Violence had never been her favorite forte.

The man was studying her with the same intensity, those yellow-brown eyes glanced her over. There was something about the way he was looking at her that made her suddenly nervous and sent her pulse racing. She misstepped, nearly losing her balance. She got a weird, funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. She gulped nervously and made her way over to the man. She smiled seductively and sashayed her way over to him, swallowing her sudden nervousness

The man stood up as she approached. She greeted him and led him up the staircase to her small room.

Eric shut the door, locking it behind him. He grabbed the girl’s arm and yanked her towards him roughly. He held her tightly against him and grabbing a handful of her silken black hair, jerked her head back and ravaged her mouth. His tongue forced its way in, exploring and dominating the damp cavern. His teeth nipped and pulled and suckled.

Sara moaned into the mouth and wrapped her arms around the man’s neck. She had never felt this way before with a customer. She was on fire. She had to have him. Here. Now. He was like an addiction, something she had to have.

Eric’s hands cupped Sara’s ass and lifted her up. She immediately wrapped her legs around his waist, pressing herself into the throbbing hardness she could feel. The outlaw walked over to the bed and dumped the woman onto it unceremoniously. Fuck romance. He wanted this woman and he was going to have her. He was not in the mood for lovey-dovey crap, no matter what this crazy broad was doing to him. He was rock hard and felt as it he was going to explode.

Impatient, Eric threw up the skirt, nearly ripping it and pulled down the small bloomers. He decided to leave the stockings, garter and boots on because he loved the friction it caused as they rubbed against him as he was thrusting into a woman.

Turning back, he stopped cold. “What the fucking hell,” he whispered, not really believing what he was seeing. His yellow eyes traveled from the engorged member lying between the shapely thighs to the purple eyes staring back at him with blatant lust. “What the fuck are you?” he yelled in anger. “What the hell is going on?”

Sara’s eyes dropped, the lust fading into disappointment. Her face was burning with shame and embarrassment. Straightening her skirts, she sat up on the creaking bed. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Hank didn’t tell you. He…he saves me for…’special-‘”

Eric waved her explanation aside. “I know. He told me and seeing that,” he pointed to the boy’s now limp penis, “I get what he meant.”

Sara stood up and started walking past the stunned man. “I know there’s no refund policy but he shouldn’t have deceived you like that. I’ll-“ A vice-like grip on her arm stopped her. She turned and stared in confusion at the man. “What’re you-“

The outlaw shook his head. It was weird. Strangely, he was not disgusted or humiliated by the sight that had greeted him as he had lifted up that skirt. What was even more confusing, was that he did not want this strange he-she male to walk out that door. A flash of her standing on the second floor landing looking over the crowded saloon flashed in his mind and all those feelings returned. No, he had been attracted to her from that very second. Learning she was really a he, strangely enough did not dampen those feelings or the strong sexual desire he felt. If anything, it only added to it.

Sara stared at the man open mouthed and confused. “You still…I mean, you paid for a woman, right? And well, I’m not…”

Eric shook his head. “I paid for someone I was instantly attracted to,” he confessed. He cupped her cheek and smiled softly at her.

Her eyes widened in shock. A blush colored her cheeks. “A…a…tract...ed to?”

Eric nodded, chuckling at the girl’s pinkened cheeks. She was cute when she blushed. He had no idea what the hell had come over him and at that moment, he really did not care. His head descended and he captured her soft lips, gently pulling her against him.

From that day on, Sara became known as “Eric’s girl” and anyone caught with their pants down would receive “divine retribution”.

Several months later, Sara’s health changed. It seemed as if she was constantly tired and fatigued; even if all she did was, sit around her room all day. She could wake up from a two hour nap groggy, as if she had not slept all night. Periodically through the day, she would throw up. She could hardly keep anything down when she ate. She complained of headaches that would attack her.

She had no idea what was wrong with her. In-between bouts of nausea and fatigue, she was, strangely enough, perfectly normal. Eric was very concerned about his lover. When the symptoms did not cease after nearly two months, he decided to take Sara to the doctor, who was, ironically enough, located right across the street from the saloon/brothel.

Their fingers linked, Eric led his girl into the doctor’s office. “Hey, Doc,” he called as he flung open the door.

The woman sitting behind the desk jumped, startled. She was wearing a non-chalant blue checkered dress with a white smock over it. Her brown hair was piled up on her head. The desk in front of her was littered with open books and paper. “May I help you?” she asked in an even voice.

Eric started to draw out his pistol, but a slender hand stopped him. He stared at his lover with a raised eyebrow. She shook her head, a determined look on her face. Sighing, Eric dropped her hand and told the lady doctor, without looking at her, “My girl here is sick. Can you take a look at her?”

“Of course.” She stood up and rounded the desk. She led Sara to the examination table in the center of the room. “What seems to be the problem?”

Sara was so nervous she felt like she was going to be sick. She glanced at Eric. As if sensing her distress, he stood besides her and held her hand, squeezing it gently. She took a deep breath. As long as her Eric was here, then things would be okay. “Well, for the past two months, I’ve been very tired all the time. Uhm, I tend to have terrible headaches.”

The doctor nodded. “Have you been suffering from any kind of stress? Mental or physical strain? Have you been drinking enough? Because that could cause your aches.”

Sara opened her mouth to speak, but Eric beat her to it. “That’s not all,” he told the woman. “She’s been throwing up a lot.”

The doctor blinked, absorbing the new facts. A smile lit her face. “If you’d wait outside, sir, I’ll do a physical exam to make sure, but I believe I know what the problem is.”

Sara paled. She was to be left alone with this lady? No, no, no! She clutched desperately at Eric. He could not leave her! She shook her head. She clawed and clung to her man.

“Don’t worry, everything’ll be fine,” the doctor tried to assure her, seeing her fright.

Eric sighed. “Don’t worry, Sara. I’ll be right outside, alright?” Kissing his girl on the forehead, he forced himself to let go of her and wait outside for the diagnosis.

*

To Eric, it seemed as if the exam was taking forever. He had never been so worried in his entire life and he was a wanted outlaw in half the states and several territories. His knees bounced uncontrollably. He worried his nails. He could not stop thinking about the very real fact that his “girlfriend” was no girl. If the doctor was going to do a physical exam, then that meant she would-

He jumped to his feet when the door to the clinic slowly creaked open.

The doctor stared at the wooden planked walkway as she stepped out of the clinic. “Uh, I don’t...Eric? Let me ask you this, first. Did you know...did you realize that...Sara is-“

Eric hissed and glanced around to make sure nobody was around. He dragged her as far away from the street as he could get. “Shh,” he whispered. “And did I know that she was a he? Yes, I did. I found that out the day we met but what the hell does that have to do with anything? What the hell is wrong with her? Is she going to be alright?”

“Well...” The doctor sighed and motioned for him to follow her into the clinic.

Immediately, Eric went to his lover’s side and hugged her tight, kissing the top of her head. “Are you alright?”

Sara nodded, wrapping her arms around his waist and holding onto him as if he were the last solid thing in the world.

“Well, let me say first that Sara is not sick.”

The couple sighed in relief. Sara snuggled closer to her boyfriend as Eric hugged her in relief, but then it hit him. If she was not sick, then what was wrong with her? This stupid doctor could not tell him that the fatigue, nausea, and headaches were from nothing.

“Doctor, what-“

“Uh...I don’t know how to say this but...it seems that...well, when Sara was born, not only was she...he born with all the...facilities of a normal male, but apparently...he was, uh...born with, uh...something else.”

Eric and Sara exchanged confused glances.

The doctor nodded. “You see all the symptoms you told me she...he...has been exhibiting, well, it’s the same symptoms pregnant woman show.”

“What!?”

“That was why I was so sure I knew what was wrong with her, but when I saw that she was...well, I had second thoughts, but when I did the exam I found that...” The woman sighed and turned towards a startled and shocked Sara. “Tell me. Have you been bleeding on a regular basis?”

Sara blinked, taken back by the question.

“Bleeding? What does-“

“Please, Eric, let her answer. Sara?”

Sara nodded, still confused. “Since I was eleven.”

The doctor nodded

“Doctor-“

“Like I said, you were born with ‘something else’, something you shouldn’t have.”

Sara was starting to get scared. She clutched tighter to Eric who was beginning to lose what little patience he had. “Doctor! If you don’t tell me what the fuck is wrong-“

The doctor shook her head vigorously, waving her hands to ward off his threats. “No! You don’t understand! Nothing’s wrong with her! I mean, for a guy, he shouldn’t have been born with this, but-“

Eric growled.

“Tell me, have you been bleeding the last few months? Since the symptoms started, say?”

Sara thought about it and realized she had not. She shook her head.

Knowing that would be the answer, the doctor glanced from one to the other. “Like I said, I’m not sure how or why, but...it seems as if you’re...as if Sara is well...”

Sara and Eric held their breath in anticipation. If she was not sick, then what was wrong with her? What was she born extra with?

“...pregnant.”

The couple sat there dumbfounded, not quite sure they heard the doctor right. After the doctor assured them she was not joking, Eric groaned and his eyes rolling into the back of his head, collapsed into a heap.

Yes, it was true. Sara- who had been born male and was still male- had been born with a little something extra, the ability to bare children. She was not the first, nor was she the last. People like Sara were more common than anybody thought, but because they were afraid of ridicule and the backlash, they stayed hidden.

Slowly over the next century and a half, more and more people stepped forward claiming to be one of these “mutated freaks of nature”. They were hated, feared and ridiculed, just like they always feared. Many were killed or abandoned by their own parents. Those that managed to survive a childhood plagued with hate, scorn and jeering, where gang banged by pitch fork carrying, torch baring mobs who would drag you out of your bed, beat the shit out of you and then string you up, leaving you to strangle to death in the middle of town.

“Neutrals” as they were soon dubbed, were kept segregated from the “normal” people. They had their own shops, restaurant, schools, buses and even their own section of town they had to stick to. It did not seem to matter to people that this so-called mutation was not a disease that could be carried in the wind by a sneeze. They did not care that “neutrals” were not a whole new and different race born only to other “neutrals”. Having a child who was born as a “mixed child” was the same as trying to have either a boy or a girl, but people were stone cold deaf when it came to that. All that mattered was that there were children being born who were both a man and a woman. Not one and not the other. Not a boy and not a girl. Freaks of nature. Immoral, sacrilegious mongrels.

By the end of the twentieth century, things began to change. Nobody was sure how, when or why it started, but the attitudes towards neutrals changed and for the better, though there is always that one or two isolated pocket who refused to change with the times.

A little over a century after the first documented case of the existence of neutrals, on the other side of the world, another neutral was born to a Japanese couple. They named him, Shuichi Shindou.

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A/N: For those of you who have stuck through it this far, thank you! And do not fear. There is a point to this. It is background info for the story. The real story begins next!