Sugar Cane

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation.


Sugar Cane
By 11


Chapter 10

“Shindou, this is the last time, I mean it!” the teacher said scowling down at the young student. Shuichi watched the teacher’s scowl with mild disinterest, not caring that his lack of concern only infuriated the teacher further. “I’m not going to be as lenient as I was last week. I know you kids had fun over your spring break, but you’re back to school now, so act like it!”

“Okay…” Shuichi nodded simply. Yeah, like he was even listening to half of that tirade. What was with this one teacher, Hasuma, always picking on him though? A bunch of other kids were late too, so what was the big deal?

“Excuse me Miss Hasuma,” Yuki Eiri said, coming around the corner, “Mr. Dietrich needs Shuichi for something, think his detention sentence or whatever can wait?”

“Mr. Dietrich?” the teacher blinked. Her superior was now interfering with her scolding a student? That was odd. “Very well. You lucked out this time Shindou, now go. And don’t be late again!” she called after him as he dashed off around the corner, Yuki following.

“Mr. Dietrich really wants me for something?” Shuichi asked when Yuki followed him.

“No. Of course not.” Yuki answered simply, “You really shouldn’t go out of your way to irritate that one, she doesn’t like you already.”

“I wasn’t trying, something about me just irritates her all on its own,” Shuichi shrugged as he turned and continued walking.

“It’s the whole part that you don’t care if your in trouble or not,” Yuki said.

“But I do care,” Shuichi explained. “I care a lot if I’m in trouble, because then my mom gives me lectures and such garbage.”

“Well you don’t look like you care,” Yuki rolled his eyes.

“Don’t give me that,” Shuichi said pouting at Yuki, they may not be on ‘I’m-going-to-kill-you’ terms, but that did not mean Yuki was nice. “Whatever, I gotta get to class and so do you. See you.” Shuichi said, heading off for his classroom.

The teacher didn’t stop her lecture when the door opened and Shuichi walked to his seat. Thankfully, his first period class did not have an incredibly attentive teacher, which combined with her impaired hearing, made it pretty easy for coming in late on occasion.

“Miss Hasuma get you?” Hiro asked when his younger friend slid into the seat next to him.

“Yeah, but Yuki got me out of it,” Shuichi shrugged. His eyes looked forward as the teacher turned to the front, talking about how they could see the sentence structure of the English language clearly in this sentence, unlike their sentence structure where the verb comes right after the noun.

“You still aren’t even a bit suspicious of that guy anymore, huh?” Hiro asked.

“No way, I told you before, we’re okay now,” Shuichi told him, but his friend still looked a little skeptical; oh well.
`

“Shindou, you’re up!”

But I usually don’t take part in PE.… Shuichi thought looking up from his spot on the bench. “Shindou! Wake up!” You’re kidding right? Everyone from blocks away can hear you. What’s up with that?

Getting up, the coach only glared as he walked, a bit too slowly in the coach’s opinion, to his place at the track. “Okay, Eiri! Block 2! Juno! Block 3!”

What a pain that he got left out of all other sports, just not track. Exercise was never a good thing… what was the point of getting all yucky and sweaty again?

“You look a little sour.”

“Why, you run a lot?” Shuichi asked, looking back under his feet at the blonde one block over. Eiri shook his head.

“No, but you look really unhappy about running,” he said simply.

“In case you didn’t know, PE is an excuse for teachers to be mean to students. They couldn’t do it any other way.” Shuichi explained.

“Okay, everyone on your mark! Set! GO!” he started his watch and all of the racers leapt from their blocks. The opening was important to pick up speed, Shuichi vaguely remembered, maybe from a book or an Olympic racer on TV, it didn’t matter.

The rest of the group was zooming by him. Hiro was ahead somewhere, he could not really see where and Yuki was up there too. Shuichi had to snort somewhat. Didn’t practice? Yeah right. He was passing everyone and it was not because of the track’s curvature. The closer to the turn, the shorter the distance, so the blocks had to curve to make sure the racers all had the same distance to go. Yuki was just fast.

“See ya girl-face!” Some voices jeered. It was the same group of guys that never let him play b-ball. Like he even wanted to play with them, but still, taunting him for his looks? Come on, what a bunch of dorks.

So why did he still feel so irritated by it?

He usually did not even try when it came to track and he knew he could not beat out the others, but for some reason he sped up. He knew he could at least keep up with them, reaching their speed was easy. It was staying at that speed that got tiring.

Their starting places were not that far off now. However, he was slowly starting to lose speed, his legs were starting to feel like lead and his lungs were burning, like sandpaper had just been rubbed all along the interior.

Then the finishing blow; the trip. He should have remembered that place from the start of the semester, in block 1 on the track. Right around the finish there was an irregular stone where the tar had covered it and blended in with the concrete.

His foot caught on it and everyone who did not know it was there before, they did now. But, that would not stop everyone from calling him an idiot for it.

There was no way to recover from the stumble either. He fell forward, his arms going out to block his body from the fall. The skin along the outer side of the arm was scraped up, forming white flaky abrasions. It hurt, but he had been scraped up worse before. Looking over his arms as he sat up he noticed blood swelling just beneath the surface, great. His side also hurt where he had impacted at the waist. It did not feel like anything broke though, not that it would, but it still hurt.

“Shindou! You alright!”

Gee, what do you think coach? I’ll live.

“Shuichi, what happened there? Are you so much of a klutz that you trip over your own feet?” Shuichi glared in irritation at the blonde’s accusation.

“No, it was that stupid rock that juts out over there. I forgot it was there is all,” Shuichi told him as he looked back at the white flakes of torn up skin covering his arms.

“You need a nurse,” it was a statement, not a question.

“No I don’t,” Shuichi said bringing himself to stand. His legs still felt rubbery underneath him.

“You’re just being stubborn,” Yuki said following after him. Shuichi was in a word, cute. Yuki had not noticed the other boy’s sense of pride before a week ago or the boy’s funny habit of stroking his neck when reading. And, it never ceased to amaze him that he was not getting as irritated as he thought he would be in the boy’s company.

“Idiot,” Yuki muttered as an after thought when the coach said the same thing about going to see the nurse about the abrasion.

Shuichi winced inwardly, the blonde probably thought he did not hear him, but he did. Shuichi Shindou had very acute hearing, and that was really mean. Especially from… well he was technically considered a friend now, right?

Whatever, the other guy was not as mean, still mean, but not as much as before. The golden-eyed boy was not that bad to look at either. Now true, currently Shuichi was with Hiro, but that never meant he could not look.

Glancing over back at Hiro and the group he saw his auburn-haired friend watching him as he took his guillotine walk to the nurse, but the same thing reflected in his eyes, the same thing he seemed to have been emanating since spring break.

For some reason, Hiro had not really been himself since school started again. Shuichi was not sure why, he had asked, but the other had only assured him that he was fine, just perhaps a bit tired. He did not believe him since that was clearly not the case, Shuichi deduced, after several days of the same behavior.

Shuichi had not pressed him for answer though, not yet anyway. He had give Nakano some time first, then if he did not perk up, they would have to talk, because something was obviously troubling his guitarist and he would have to find out what.

`

Shuichi would have to find out later though because, “your teacher called your parents, and they’re going to give you a lecture?” Hiro repeated after his friend got off the phone with his mom.

“Yeah… guess we can’t hang out tonight,” Shuichi groaned as he hefted his backpack back on his shoulders, “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow Hiro. See ya.”

“See ya,” Hiro agreed as his friend started off down the road to go home. He, himself, did not feel like going home just yet. It was good that the doors to the school were still open when Shuichi left, maybe he could get some of his homework done in the library before he headed home.

Shortly after, the remaining students vacated the library and the personnel told him he had to leave so they could lock up. The halls were empty, but that was expected, and now there was nothing to do inside the building. He headed out to the front yard, which was also vacant, no surprise there. There was no wind today and it felt almost uncomfortably silent.

“Hey.”

Hiro staggered back at the sound of the voice disrupting the calm. “Oh… Hey K.” Hiro said, breathing out and seeing the blonde perched in a crouch on the brick wall that separated Soryuu from Fukuro.

“You okay? Everyone’s gone home by now, what about you?” K asked.

“What about you? Why didn’t you go home, didn’t Soryuu get out a little after our bell rang?” Hiro asked, turning the question back on the blonde.

K shrugged, “Nittle Grasper is still practicing in the auditorium, I stuck around,” he waived his previous question, “If you need a library, ours is still open another half hour.”

“Nah, I just finished most of my homework, just have a little left to do,” Hiro told him, “I can do that at home.”

“So, why aren’t you heading home then?” K puzzled.

“I… I was.” Hiro said after a moment. “I was just thinking.”

“About what?” K inquired.

Hiro shook his head and stayed silent. “Don’t know?”

“…wanna come to the auditorium?”

“Hm?” Hiro looked up. Apparently he had not heard everything, just the last few words.

“Want to come to the auditorium, I said Ryuichi and Tohma are practicing, they’re pretty good, I don’t know if you like their stuff or not, but you can come hang out over here,” K offered, “since you don’t seem to want to go home just yet.”

K disappeared back over to the other side of the wall, “Sure.” Hiro followed, climbing up on top of the wall and falling down on the other side. K grinned and led the way with the green-eyed teen following behind him.

“It’s Ryuichi in there!”

“And Tohma! Oh, they sound so good…”

“Excuse me, can I help you?” K asked the group of girls clustered around the closed auditorium door. The faint notes of music were dimly playing somewhere in the background from behind the closed doors.

“Oh you… uh no…” the girls shook their heads. “We were just listening this time… honest.”

“Of course you were.” K said, pulling a revolver out from somewhere in his back pocket.

“Ah! You crazy person!” one of the girls cried as she took off down the hall.

“Leave us alone!” another shot over her shoulder as the rest of them shot down the corridor. Hiro watched with mild interest.

“That was pretty mean you know,” he said as the blonde returned the gun to some inconspicuous place among his arsenal of all things deadly.

His companion only shrugged and pushed the auditorium doors open. The blast of sound was almost deafening next to the relative quiet of the empty hall. It was not an unpleasant song, just a little loud, it seemed to Hiro.

It was odd, in all the time Hiro had been around Ryuichi he had never seen him like this. His voice was a lot better than it was whenever he was just talking and his presence was far less childish, like Shuichi could be. Instead, it was replaced by this calm and feral beast with amber eyes that nearly glowed with a dangerous glint, something uncontrolled.

Ryuichi did not skip a note in the song, even when his eyes fell on the auburn-haired youth. A toothy smirk was offered as the high schooler watched Hiro.

It was as if his lungs had collapsed, no wonder Ryuichi was hailed as one of the best singers of the day, his presence, his voice projection… everything… so powerful and overwhelming… something predatory… who else did that remind him of? ‘Predatory’?

“They’re good, you can tell,” K asked poking Hiro’s arm slightly to bring him back to reality. Ryuichi’s voice was still there, but he could breath now, somewhat… for some reason it was still difficult. He followed the blue-eyed foreigner around back stage, looking over Ryuichi’s changed self and Tohma, someone that also screamed red at Hiro. He was starting to get the feeling that he had entered into a den of lions.

Behind the dark curtains the danger faded to a lighter tone, but was still there. Ryuichi’s voice seemed to beat a warning in tune with the song itself while the pulse of the music provided by Tohma’s synthesizer was pounding like a brick into his head.

“You okay, you’re starting to look a little pale,” K asked as he glanced back at the younger youth. Hiro shook his head.

“I’m fine,” he insisted. The gunman shrugged and took off his jacket. He had a pack of pistols on each side, alongside a couple of short knives completed what may as well have been an army issued jacket. “What’s all that?”

“Typical body guard equipment, nothing unusual,” K told him taking one of the knives out and examining it for dirt, which he rubbed off with the cloth on the table.

“Oh.” Hiro nodded, the song was almost over. He was glad for that because it still seemed he was not getting enough oxygen to his brain and it was becoming difficult to concentrate. “So you ever use any of that on anyone? Or is it just for show, like in the hall?”

“Depends,” K said glancing back at Hiro with an odd half smile, half sneer… a smirk actually. Why was he smirking? “You sure you’re okay,” he asked looking down at the other’s hands which were shaking just slightly.

“I’m fine,” Hiro said, folding his hands over his stomach. His face was starting to burn, and he could hear his heart starting to pound in his head. “A little chilly in here though.” K frowned, it really was not cold, a little warmer than outside actually.

“So why the fascination with guns and knives? Seems like anything lethal interests you.” Hiro continued trying to change the subject, divert attention away from himself. Why was he still seeing K’s blue eyes from just a moment ago? His eyes were concentrated on the floor now, but the image was still there in the back of his mind, nagging him.

“It does,” K admitted walking over to the other boy, standing in front of him. His breaths were becoming a little ragged. The song had ended and Ryuichi and Tohma were discussing something really quick before packing up for the day. “I have my reasons. Death is real, something I’ve seen, unlike a lot of things. The weapon is responsible, if I can control them then they hold no real fear for me.”

“Ah,” Hiro nodded, not really catching all that the blonde had said, he had moved away. The song had ended, and Ryuichi and Tohma were coming back stage. Why was it getting more difficult to breath? Was he sick?

“Hey, Hiroshi Nakano, right?” Tohma asked as he came from behind the curtain, followed by Ryuichi, “I’ve heard a bit about you and your friend. It’s good to meet you.”

“Yeah, you too,” Hiro said, offering a smile to the older youth. It was strange, Tohma Seguchi really did not look like a high school student, a few years younger maybe. Odd… what had seemed so dangerous about him on stage a couple of minutes ago? Why did he still feel like he had to get away from this place?

“I’m sorry, I have some homework to do when I get home,” Hiroshi said excusing himself as he stood, “it was great meeting you Tohma, thanks for letting me see the practice K. See you Ryuichi! See you guys!”

Ryuichi watched with narrowed amber eyes as the green-eyed youth headed out the door. “So that’s the friend of the Shindou kid?” Tohma asked. Ryuichi nodded then glanced at K with a small smirk. K looked back at his charge somewhat puzzled, what was the other youth seeing he was not?

“I’ll be back in a moment,” Ryuichi said, following after Hiroshi.

Being outside felt a lot better than before. The air was cooler and his heart was still racing, but he could breathe now, and the blood pounding in his ears was slowly ebbing away, but that last look K gave him was still burning like a hot coaled image in his memory.

“Hiro,” Ryuichi said, approaching the youth. Hiro whipped around surprised, his face pale with a dark blush across his cheeks. “Do you like Shuichi?”

Hiro hesitated only for a moment to comprehend the question, “Of course I do,” he answered. Ryuichi controlled his automated reaction to arch an eyebrow at that comment when his observations were saying something else entirely.

“But, is there someone else…” Ryuichi started, “that you like more? Someone you love?” he pressed in the most casual tone he could manage.

“Someone else…?” Hiro repeated the question as if confused by the idea itself. Shuichi was his best friend, his first friend here at the new school and they were in a band together. His first serious love… was it love though? If he did love him then why did it seem like he was pushing Shuichi away now?

Today, yesterday and the day before, he knew he had not been as friendly as he was before. What had changed that?

And why could he not get K’s eyes out of his head? Deep blue eyes, boring into his skull.

Why?

---

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Special thanks to Chirella who beta-ed this chapter. Thank you so much!