So - How is he doing?

Hey ya'll! I didn't think I would be trying my hand at Grav fiction anytime soon, seeing as I am up to my eyeballs in other projects. But suddenly I saw the scene below unfold. Not entirely sure I know where this is going, but I guess they will let me know…
I have always considered the Manga to be cannon and even disagree with a lot of the stuff in the Remixes and Megamixes, Eiri seems just too mean. I am reading the online tracks from Genzo - with the kid and all, not sure what I think about that either though I can't wait until the 28th of every month to get my next dose.
I, of course, own nothing but my laptop. The characters of Gravitation belong to Maki Murakami.

Oh - and sorry - My beta is out of town at a conference. I've tried to self beta but I always miss so much. Would still love to know what you think.

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Prelude - Almost Strangers in the Night

On a planet of 3+ Billion people, most of them spending most if not all of their time in the place they called home, it must happen a million times a day, at the very least. On country roads, in village squares, on train platforms or on line for a movie people catch a glimpse of someone they used to kind of know and instantly began debating whether to acknowledge the person. In this case it was in a twisted side street off of the main drag of Jimbocho *, the traditional booksellers district of Tokyo.

The two men walked past each other for about three steps and then stopped. At the six paces distance they both scowled, swore, then peeked over their shoulders. Seeing that their opposite number had also stopped, the two men sighed and turned to face the inevitable.

"Nakano-san," said the blond man.

"Yuki-san," said the long haired rocker.

Then they were both quiet. Hiro bit the bullet and spoke first, "It's been awhile. What? Three years?"

"Yeah, just over three years," Eiri answered.

Silence again. Then unexpectedly, Eiri returned the compliment and broke the silence this time. "I saw that you married Ayaka-sama."

"Yeah," Hiro's discomfort was momentarily erased by a look of pride in his eyes.

"You probably won't believe me, but I am happy for you," Eiri said. "I'm happy for you both. You're both good people and deserve to have a happy life. She certainly deserved someone better than me."

"Yeah," Hiro said, then his warm glow turned to an embarrassed blush as he realized like it sounded like he had agreed with Eiri's self deprecating statement. He did, but usually he was too polite for something like that to slip out.

Eiri just chuckled and fished out his cigarettes. As he lit one he noticed a longing kind of look in Hiro's eyes as he followed every small movement of Eiri's hands as they extracted and lit the smoke. After taking a deep drag Eiri waited a beat than asked, "Want one?"

Hiro hesitated than said, "No." Ripping his eyes from the cylinder of paper and tobacco, Hiro continued, "we haven't released it yet, but Aya and I are expecting. I found out by coming home to a house without a single ashtray or cigarette left in it."

"Well, congratulations again," said Eiri taking another long drag. "You'll be great parents. I mean, you were always good with Shu."

Hiro chuckled, "yeah".

Silence again. Finally Eiri took an especially deep drag and after letting it out asked, "so how is he?"

"He's good," Hiro smiled easily but shifted a little bit from one foot to the other. "He's really good. He's really enjoying being taken more seriously these days. It was the movie gig that Judy Winchester got for us, scoring her suspense flick. Suddenly we weren't just J-pop stars anymore."

Eiri grunted and nodded. He actually thought the boys had done a good job on it and, luckily for them, it was one of Judy's better movies. "Have you been asked to do more?"

"Hai, Suguru is still in the states working on some small films under a pseudonym, learning the ropes. He has a lot of his cousin in him. He is already talking about elevating the quality of all Asian movie sound tracks. Those silly American's think he is just a cute, attentive, respectful, little Japanese boy. They don't know that he'll eat up everything the are willing to share with him, figure out what they aren't sharing and in a couple of years he will be giving them some major competition."

"Seguchis," Eiri commented.

"Hai," Hiro replied.

"So is the band over?" Eiri asked.

"No, we're just on an unofficial break."

"Unofficial?"

"We're not telling the press, so they don't start running break up stories or anything."

"Humph, the press," Eiri scowled into his smoke.

"It's easier once you accept that they are going to be there all the time, the press. Make some relationships. Get your favorites to hold back on information in return for an exclusive or a photo shoot or something."

"Sounds like you've learned well, Nakano-san."

"It's just a 'if you can't beat them, join them' kind of thing."

"'Strange bedfellows'."

"Exactly," Hiro shifted his feet. He then decided to spare the author and get back off the tangent, "So, anyway, Shu is doing good. You know the conservatory gave him an honorary degree. That blew his mind. He carried that damn piece of paper around with him until the corners started to curl. Then of course he started to panic that they would take it away if he wrecked it."

"Sounds like him," Eiri smiled a little before he caught himself.

"Yeah, it was classic Shu for a little while. Any how I ran interference while K ran out and got the thing framed. It's hanging next to all our gold and platinum records in our studio; it is still the one thing up there that he looks at the most."

"He was always embarrassed that he didn't do that well at school," Eiri said as he ground out his cigarette, checking to make sure that the butt didn't stick to the sole of his Italian shoes.

"I'm surprised that you picked up on that," Hiro was straight forward.

Eiri looked up through his eyebrows, "Of course I did. I lived with the man for almost four years. Just because I am reticent and rude doesn't mean I'm blind."

"Gomen," Hiro bowed his head in apology, "I didn't mean to imply…"

"Yes, you did," Eiri fished out another smoke since this didn't seem to be ending as soon as he had hoped, "but it's okay. I deserved that; and much more."

"So anyway," Hiro was not easy with how Yuki was talking about himself and so drove forward with his story, "what I was going to tell you, was that the diploma got Shu thinking. Got him thinking that there were institutions out there that would appreciate what he did know and not chastise him for what he didn't know. So he talked to the dean at the conservatory about taking some classes, learning more about classical western music, American Jazz and Blues, and traditional Japanese forms."

"He's taking classes? Is he doing well? That has to be making him feel so much better." Eiri actually looked happy at this news.

"Not only that, they asked him to teach some classes, just seminars and workshops about his creative process and techniques."

Eiri snorted at this and even Hiro had to chuckle. "Needless to say," Hiro went on, "Shu was unbearable for awhile; going around insisting that everyone call him sensei. He did a really good job, though, I went to the first couple of sessions as support. He is so good at relating to people and getting them excited. Fortunately, they paired him with a very down to earth graduate student as his TA…" Hiro suddenly ran out of steam and look embarrassed.

After another deep drag on his smoke, Eiri said, "That would be the kid that I have seen with him in the tabloids; the one that is always making adoring eyes at him in all the photos."

"Yeah," Hiro now really wanted this discussion to end, not that he had ever wanted it to start in the first place. "Izu, Haroumata Izumi." Hiro scuffed his boot and then kept looking down at it.

"They look good together," Eiri said easily.

"Yeah, I suppose." Hiro then looked up through his hair, "But sometimes Shu is kind of mean to him, lords it over him and stuff. It's not always pretty."

"So you are saying that he has turned into the same kind of prick as I was to him. I was worried about that, the way we broke up and all." Hiro didn't saying anything, just studied his foot ware some more.

Suddenly Eiri knew exactly why Nakano-san had stopped to talk to him, and it wasn't just that he wanted to brag about how well he, Ayaka, and Shu were doing. "Are you trying to ask me to talk to him? You want me to wake him up so he doesn’t screw up his new relationship the same way I screwed up ours."

"I would never presume…," Hiro started.

"Yes, you would. You think I owe it to Shu after all we went through, after all the shit I put him through." Eiri took a last hard pull on his cigarette. Man, he smoked that one fast, too. "You're right. I owe him at least that much. But it's not like I can just call him up and start telling him to fix his life with someone I haven't even met. We've only spoken three or four times in the last three years. We didn't exactly 'stay friends'. We never were friends: lovers, yes; friends, no." Eiri shook his hand when the now burning filter got close to his fingers. He dropped the butt and stepped on it.

"If you have the time, I was just off to meet him at a little jazz club up here. Jazz is his new obsession. He blasts Miles Davis now as much as Nittle Grasper."

"He always liked it, used to get my CDs all mixed up. He used to ask me questions about it and then would get frustrated when I wouldn't know the answers. Asked me how I could like a type of music without knowing anything about it. I should have suggested a class to him at that time."

"Well even better, if he already knows you like jazz. We could pretend that we met on the way there. Say you heard about this group from Tohma."

"Shu won't believe that. But what the heck, I'll go with you. Might as well see how this turns out. And it will give me an excuse to stand up my editor."

It is very unusual, maybe it happens only four or five times in the million awkward meetings with distant acquaintances that happen each day on this planet of 3+ billion; that those acquaintances then leave together. In this case to go forward together to help the person who introduced them to each other and try to help that mutual friend for whom they both care.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________*Tokyo used book district.

Okay - I have no idea if Tokyo has any music conservatories that would be interested in a J-pop musician. Nor do I know how the academic structure is in that kind of school in Japan. I do not even know if there is a Jazz club near Jimbocho. All I know is that Hiro and Eiri met sometime after a break-up and found themselves talking to each other. The above is what they told me they said.