Sugar Cane

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation.


Sugar Cane
By 11


Chapter 11

Shuichi had been really happy before just now. Hiro had just told him in the last period that they had another gig at another club somewhere downtown. He forgot exactly where, but it did not matter because he would have the chance to sing in front of a large group of people.

Why he was still not happy was because he was seated in the principal’s office having accusations thrown at him by the troublesome Miss Hasuma. Apparently, she had no life she felt she had to ruin Shuichi’s.

"If you’ll take a look at his last few report cards, I’m really very worried as you can see, he’s had a rapid decline in his grades," the woman pointed out on his report card. "If it keeps up, he may not pass the end of the semester tests and have to repeat the grade."

"Shindou, were you aware of your grades slow decline?" the principal asked glancing up at him. Shuichi offered a shrug.

"It’s probably nothing, I just haven’t been studying a whole ton. If I do so before the tests I should be fine," Shuichi said simply. Of course he was not worried about his grades, he had seen the decline, but that was because he was busy doing other things.

If they gave a test every month that they just had to read the book for it would make school a whole lot easier for the students. In AP classes he had noticed the trend that because it was ‘advanced placement’ the teachers felt they had to have their students jumping through as many hoops as possible to get a good grade.

"See that you do," the principal said, straightening Shuichi’s folder and setting it to the side, "that’s why we’re now instituting the sempai-koohai system with you."

"The ‘sempai-koohai’ system?" Shuichi repeated.

"Yes, it’s where some students look out for the younger students as well as each other. You qualify for the koohai." The principal explained.

"I know what it means. May I pick who my koohai is?" Shuichi requested.

"I’m sorry, but knowing how students think, you’d probably pick a friend of yours who would go easier on you than someone else," the principal told him, "which is why we’re pairing you with one of our brighter students."

Gee who could that be? Stupid geezer… Shuichi thought irritated. Hiro would not go easy on him, but the oaf was not going to let him pick his koohai. "Who?"

"Miss Hasuma, please notify Yuki Eiri that he now has a koohai to help study for the test at the end of these last two weeks before summer vacation," the principal said to the teacher. Hasuma nodded and left the room. Yuki Eiri… that couldn’t be too bad? He did not know that guy was one of the brighter students. Shuichi thought the other boy spent all his time typing in class, not paying attention.

"Shindou, did you not hear me?" the principal said for what might have been the second or third time, Shuichi was not sure how long he had zoned out on his own thoughts. "You may go now, Shindou."

"Eiri should receive the notification when he checks his student mailbox, and you should make plans to study for those upcoming tests." Miss Hasuma advised as she held the door to the office open.

Most students had left or were just on their way outside the building and the halls that crowded right after the bell rang started to fully empty. Shuichi was just getting to his locker when he had been pulled aside before he had a chance to tell Hiro not to wait for him, so he was probably already gone. After grabbing his last class’s books and hefting his backpack over his shoulder, he turned to head outside almost running headlong into someone who should have been long gone since the end of school bell rang.

"Yuki! What the heck are you doing still here?" Shuichi asked, backing up a little so they were not standing so close.

"I got the teacher’s note in my student mailbox," he said, showing him the white slip that Miss Hasuma had written just a little earlier. Funny that he checked his student mailbox every day. How would he know which ones were love notes and which ones were actually important? "So you’re failing some classes and they decided I should be your koohai…"

"Yeah, guess so," Shuichi said, waiting for the blonde to continue, but he did not. "So, should we meet up at the library after school tomorrow?"

"Lazy." Yuki accused suddenly.

"What?" Shuichi asked surprised, "I thought that was a reasonable thought, we can study after school tomorrow."

"What time is it?" Yuki asked, cold gold eyes not wavering.

"4:30?" Shuichi asked, checking on the hall clock just a ways away.

"After school." Yuki stated. "You’re lazy, if you want to put it off till tomorrow. Will you be giving the same excuse every day until the day of the tests when you‘ll flunk?"

"No! Geez!" Shuichi said, running a hand through his hair in frustration, "If you want to study now, now’s fine!"

"Good." Eiri replied, turning and starting into a brisk walk towards the library. The violet-eyed boy followed, griping to himself about the pushy blonde.

Entering the library, Shuichi let his backpack fall off to the floor as he took a seat opposite Yuki and pulled out the books, complaining under his breath that he had just put them away into the backpack. The other boy either did not hear Shuichi or was choosing to ignore it. Either way Shuichi did not care much.

Yuki was surprised during the study session. He had originally thought that it would be a challenge just to hold the other boy’s concentration and to get him to understand the concepts, but from the looks of it the boy simply not read the chapters he was supposed to. Yuki did not mind the review and discussing some of the concepts with Shuichi proved to be, dare he think it, enjoyable?

Contrary to what he had first thought, he was not annoyed with the boy so far. However, since Yuki had already read through the chapters several time, he spent most of the reading time watching the other boy read his book instead of keeping his eyes on his own text. It was not essential for him, but a nagging part of his mind did tell him to stop in case the other boy looked up and caught him staring. But, it was a only small part of him and he was not listening to it.

Yuki ignored the voice of reason for favor of thinking about the other boy and the concentration in Shuichi’s eyes. The boy’s hand was at his neck, just a slight bit of movement barely seen except for the strands of hair his fingers disturbed as they shifted rubbing along his skin. Yuki found himself wondering if the boy’s neck would be very smooth under the stroke of fingers.

With the sound of a turning page Yuki pulled himself back to reality, looking back at his text and trying to resume reading. Shuichi would be done with the chapter in a bit and then they would review it, but until that time, Yuki’s eyes just could not seem to stay rooted to the words on the pages.

They had already covered almost half of the chapters he had overlooked during the past few weeks in the hour or so they spent in there before the librarian came over and told them they were closing up for the day.

"Still meeting in the library again tomorrow?" Shuichi asked as they exited the glass doors, the library woman locking the doors behind them.

"Yes. We still have the rest of the books to go through," Yuki nodded, "it shouldn’t take too long if we get as much done tomorrow though."

"That’s good," Shuichi said as he started off down the halls, Yuki walking in step beside him. "See you tomorrow then."

Yuki nodded as they exited the building. The problem with saying goodbye that early was that their roads for home did not diverge until further down, but fortunately Shuichi was saved from that awkward fact by a brunette girl waiting outside the door.

"Ah, Yuki!" the girl greeted as the two boys exited the building. Golden eyes narrowed on her and she backed down, looking over to the other boy instead, "Shindou, right?"

"Yes," Shuichi replied, curious. He had never seen this girl before… oh wait, now he remembered, she was one of the students here, she was on the yacht over spring break and was a fan of Yuki’s.

"I’d like a word with you if that’s all right," she said with a smile.

"Sure," Shuichi said, still curious as to what this was all about.

"Did you need something Ayaka?" Yuki asked suddenly, still eyeing her with dislike.

"I just wanted a word with Shindou, is that all right?" the brunette girl asked innocently. Yuki did not answer verbally, but just glared. Ayaka turned to Shuichi after a moment, "Please come with me, I’d like to speak with you," she said, taking the violet-eyed boy by the hand and leading him out of sight and hearing of the Eiri boy.

Shuichi turned to look back around the building, Yuki had not followed them, but then again he had not expected him to, had he? "What did you want to talk about Miss Ayaka?" Shuichi asked, now that they were alone.

"I have a warning for you actually Shindou," the brunette told him, her sweet voice suddenly cold, "Stay away from Eiri Yuki."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Shuichi questioned, puzzled both by her words and her sudden coldness. "That’d be a bit difficult, cause he’s my assigned koohai. If you want something done about that you can talk to the administration."

A sudden stinging in his cheek was the only indication of an attack. The first slap was followed by her own hand balled into a fist slamming into his face on the other side. Backing a way a little, holding his hand to his reddening cheek, he saw that she was on the verge of tears. "It’s all your fault…" she advanced, Shuichi too shocked to block the blow, was knocked to the ground by the forceful shove. "I cannot believe this kid is the reason Yuki dumped me…"

"The point is, you never had me to begin with." The golden-eyed boy’s harsh voice intruded.

Ayaka looked up suddenly, her brown hair whipping around her head at the movement, blue eyes watering on the verge of pouring over, she swallowed her voice thick, "What…? But you…"

"I said I wouldn’t refute your claims, that was before. I already told you I wasn’t going to put up with that garbage anymore," he told her, his voice level and deadpanned. Shuichi sat up to watch the exchange, feeling rather out of place between the pair, the sting of his cheeks momentarily forgotten.

"I wasn’t wrong about you," Yuki continued, "just like the others. You’re selfish, you’re unkind, you think only of yourself."

"That-That’s not true… it’s not true Yu-yuki… I…" She stammered, trying hard not to cry in front of him, her hands clenched with the effort.

"It isn’t? What do you see when you look at me?" he asked. "Something pretty? Someone like in those novels, someone who’ll hold you close and love you, even if you’re one of the worst people on the planet."

Ayaka winced visibly at the cutting words, but he wasn’t done yet. "You think you’re different. You think to yourself, that you can change me. One person cannot change another person, and they’re stupid to think such a thing." Yuki told her, "And because you don’t get your way, you make it someone else’s fault. You hurt whoever or whatever you decide is to blame for your own faults or your own mistakes. You hurt Fuji last year for winning the talent contest when you entered, saying it was his fault. Isn’t that right?"

Ayaka was crying now, the tears slipping over down her cheeks.

"And then you cry. With nothing else to do you cry, pathetic and weak. You cry because you know it’s true, and there’s nothing you can do about it." Yuki finished.

Ayaka sobbed, her head falling forward, "what would you have me do…?" she asked, in a shaky voice, her body shaking just slightly.

"Just stop." Yuki told her. "You’re pretty and you’re smart, you’ll find someone else. You can accept your faults and learn to improve them."

Ayaka drew a shaky breath, words spoken in so soft a whisper Shuichi barely heard them. Ayaka’s small voice slowly speaking in a voice near inaudible, "How can you be so cruel…?"

With that she turned and fled. Her dark brown hair and dark blue skirt flailing out behind her in the wind she drew from her motion. She kept running and she was still crying. Shuichi’s eyes were currently locked on the dark spot of dirt where some of her tears had fallen.

"Are you all right?" Yuki said suddenly. Shuichi did not answer right away, his eyes still locked on the dark patch of dirt. He was silent long enough that Yuki wondered if the boy had even heard him, but he had.

"That was really cruel of you Eiri," Shuichi said, using Yuki’s first name. His dull and sad voice causing a small tremor of remorse to run briefly through Eiri’s thoughts.

"But, did you want to get hurt by her?" Yuki asked logically. Shuichi did not answer, he stood up and started off down the street. There was no goodbye’s then. Yuki did not move as Shuichi left the back yard area of the school. He assumed that they would still be meeting at the library the next day, but he might have to make sure.

`

Donna fuu ni boku ga suki de
Naze suki ni natta no atta nante
ANATA no mimi moto Kotae shiiiru
WAGAMAMA wo yurushite

konna boku wa ANATA no koto
ANATA isshouni nanimo kamo
Shitteshimau unmei nano sa
Subete wo nugi sute you

Tozasareta sou mune ni
(Just like "first Love")
Tokimeki omoi dasasete ageru
Baby, let's get together
Baby, let's get together
...Welcome to my romance!

Unmei no deaite hito wa
Kawaru to daremo ga iukedo
chigausa hounto no jibun e to
kawatte yuku no sa

tsumasaki kara MISUTERIASU na
Kiss de nanimo kamo tsuzunde
ANATA no sono ai no fun dake
boku ni shoumeishite yo

Singing in the dark club, the only lights were on the stage, that was where he stood now. Shuichi sang clearly and on key, but he could tell that there was a little more melancholy in his song than there was supposed to be.

He could still see Ayaka’s tearful eyes in his memory. Yuki did not have to be so cruel to her, but if he had not, Ayaka might have continued to come after Shuichi. Either way it could have happened, he felt horrible. However, he knew better than to seek Ayaka out and tell her he was sorry, maybe he could have Nanami help him keep up on how she was doing after that incident.

kawasu toiki no naka de
(Can you feel my love?)
Ima Futari wa umare kawaru no sa
Baby, let's get together
Baby, let's get together
...Welcome to my romance!

Welcome to my romance tonight (tonight)
Futari no jikan kagiri atte mo kowaku nanka nai sa
Shunkan no MEMORI...kitto kagayakakeru hazu dakara

You wanna "kiss" Soretomo
You wanna "touch"...Romance ni youkoso
I know what you want you want
I can tell you!

Aishikatamo aisarekatamo oshiezuni WILD na XXX
So tell me what you want me to...
(So tell me what you want me to...)
Let's "make love"

kawasu toiki no naka de
(Can you feel my love?)
Ima Futari wa umare kawaru no sa
Baby, let's get together
Baby, let's get together
...Welcome to my romance!

As the song ended and the lights dimmed a little Shuichi’s eyes scanned the crowd briefly, most were faces he had never seen. There were a few he vaguely recognized from the last performance, but there was only one that stood out in stark contrast and drew his attention so avidly that Hiro had to poke him to make him snap out of it and head off stage.

"Shuichi, what was that up there?" Hiro asked, "You spaced out suddenly after we ended."

"Yeah," Shuichi said hurriedly as he headed to the main door to exit into the club area, "But I saw him Hiro! I told him I’d be here today at the library during the study session, but I had no idea he’d come!"

"Who?" Hiro asked, trying to catch a final piece of information as his friend zoomed away.

"Yuki Eiri!" Shuichi replied back before the door closed, disappearing into the club while Hiro was still backstage.

Hiro moved to prop open the door and look out, why would Yuki Eiri be here? And why was Shuichi at the library studying with him earlier? He would have to inquire about that later. The manager came over with words of gratitude and praise and something about calling them back sometime. Hiro replied in the positive, half listening to the man as he watched Shuichi go over to where Yuki Eiri was indeed sitting. They talked a little, it seemed sort of subdued, before Shuichi smiled and the tense part seemed to be over. Perhaps they were slightly better friends than Hiro had first thought.

Hiro took a step back allowing the door to swing shut. He discussed Bad Luck’s schedule with the man and then gave him the contact number before he packed up their equipment and headed out with it. Chances were that Shuichi would forget the equipment if he left it there, so he took it all home with him. Yuji had not been able to drive them so both were carrying fares for a cab ride to the club and back, Hiro would have to call Shuichi’s place later to make sure he got back okay. But, he trusted his friend; the pink-haired boy was not so simple-minded.

After dragging the band stuff home, he dumped it off in his room before heading out again. He was not sure why, but the empty house and maybe doing some studying before going to bed did not appeal to him too much. Shuichi would probably stay a while at the club to talk with Yuki or else go home after, his parents were home tonight at least. The Nakano’s always seemed to work late.

He walked toward the red district, called it that because of a lot of the gangs hung out there, but it was also the best place for raves that did not require ID or otherwise for drinking and/or whatever. Hiro did not go there often, but when one is aimlessly wandering, you can wind up a lot of odd places. He paused in front of a large steel door with green paint over the top that squiggled along in a random pattern and red over the main part of the door that asked in big fluttering letters, ‘Need a FUCK?’.

Hiro knocked once and the door opened. The warm air from inside smelled of cigarettes and alcohol mixed with other sweeter smells drifting sublimely underneath. The roar of some heavy metal rock band blared all around the metal walls as a mass of people filled up the space along the tables, the skyway and rail of the second floor, lounging. A DJ sat somewhere near the front of the mass’s center. The dance floor, as always, was heavily populated and some people doing a lot more than just dancing.

Bright purple, green and red lights flashed somewhere near the ceiling, maybe? Hiro did not care much for the dancing though. As he moved towards the bar it too was populated with several people, two were drinking themselves into oblivion while one pair looked like they were flirting. Hiro took a seat, "what’ll it be?" one of the girls at the counter asked.

Her dull light brown hair fell over her shoulders pooling slightly at the crevasse between her breasts where her shirt stretched low to hold them. A black skull design over the white tank top, black pants with a silver spiked belt adorned her body along with a tattoo of a snake over her right arm, and a few other silver rings and arm brace on the left arm. She had tan skin and dark green eyes thickly outlines with kohl that were currently studying him with a rather lustful stare.

His original response might have been ‘what do you have’ but based on where he was he doubted he would get a serious answer. "A ‘rain vodka’ please," Hiro said.

"Sure that’ll be all?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah," Hiro nodded, looking back out into the club. He heard the girl snort a little and move away to get his order. Deeming it safe, he turned back to the bar, his eyes focused on the counter top. It was regular wood, cleaned daily, but a little scratched from previous encounters.


"But, is there someone else… that you like more? Someone you love?"


Ryuichi had said those words so casually… it probably was not much to worry over. But, it kept coming back to nag at Hiro’s mind whenever he was not thinking about anything else. Even when he was thinking about another subject it was still there, eating away at the back of his skull, refusing to be left alone and ignored.

Hiro knew he cared about Shuichi, at the very least he cared about the other boy. He thought he loved him… maybe it was a different kind of love though? Something less than romantic love…

Again Ryuichi’s words replayed through Hiro’s mind, so the auburn-haired youth could mull them over and over again. Unfortunately, it was only causing more stress as the only person that ever came to mind whenever he thought on the subject was that psycho blonde guy, K. He willed it a few times to be Shuichi that he thought of; but every time he remembered Ryuichi’s words from before it was that gun happy maniac that came to mind first. Blue eyes, like the last time he had seen him, so close, right in front of him, boring into Hiro to the point where his breathing was becoming shallow once more.

"Here you are, ‘rain vodka’," the girl said, returning and setting his drink down in front of him. He nodded to her taking the drink and handing her a couple dollars to pay for it. "You okay? You look a little down on something."

"I’m fine," he said, a little more snappishly than he had intended.

"You’re obviously not," she said, less playful and more serious now. He looked up at her sourly, she did not have lustful eyes anymore. She just watched him with a mild curiosity, like a child examining a clam that had just snapped shut.

"I’ve had a lot of my mind," Hiro told her truthfully.

"Wanna talk about it?" she asked. Hiro stirred the vodka a bit, not hearing anything malicious in her voice. He never knew about the people here; some could be convincing actors. "It’s a guy isn’t it?" she asked suddenly out of the blue.

"Wha-what?" Hiro asked, looking up at her shocked. When or why did she come to the conclusion that he was gay?

"Come on, the hair? There’s no way you’re straight, and you didn’t so much as look at any of the obscenely clothed girls here." She explained, in response to his shocked face. "All the other guys entering before and after you had to ogle you for nearly twenty minutes before they made it to the bar." Hiro narrowed his eyes at her, being cautious was warranted. "So it’s a guy?

Hiro sighed and took a sip of his drink. It was not like he would be seeing this woman ever again and talking to a person you would never see again, someone who had no way of affecting you later on… seemed like an all right deal.

"Hey, Hiro, what are you doing here?" the green-eyed youth looked up in surprise at his older brother Yuji.

"Yuji? I could ask the same of you." Hiro said as the older Nakano son sat down on the stool next to him. Well there goes my plans for being able to spill my guts to someone I would never see again in my life.

"What can I get you?" she asked suddenly, back to being a bartender girl.

"I’d like a ‘white russian’ if that’s all right," he said with a grin and she headed off. "So imagine finding you here, where’s Shuichi? He with you?"

"No, he went to talk with a friend who came to see us after the show," Hiro told him, omitting the friend’s name.

"Ah," Yuji nodded, the girl had returned with his drink. "Thank you very much. Well Hiro, is there anything much going on in your life?"

"Not really," Hiro said a bit sourly before he downed his drink. The thick bubbling liquid settled the knots in his stomach a bit as he ordered a second.

"Well I’ve just recently managed to get myself a job. It’s at the commercial station something about toothpaste," Yuji said proudly as he held onto his drink more than actually drank it.

"Wow, that’s great," Hiro said, downing the second glass before ordering a third. Yuji kept talking, something about his working career in acting, that his grades were declining, and that their parents had cut him off.

Hiro was not sure how many drinks he had ordered by now. The girl had told him at one point that he should not drink so much, but he could only vaguely hear her. He just wanted to drown out everything around him for the moment. There was some thick cinnamon smell on the air now and the smoke was starting to clog his lungs, and the alcohol helped.

Yuji was still talking while Hiro would nod every once in a while, saying ‘cool’, ‘that’s great’, ‘wow’, ‘sorry to hear that’, and other such phrases that made Yuji think he was still listening. But maybe the girl had been right about drinking too much because now his stomach was starting to feel terrible. The cold in his belly, the fumes of the club… everything…

"It’s late, I’ll see you later Yuji," Hiro said as he got up after his something-eth drink and walked away, though it was more of an awkward perambulation across the room to the door. On his way, he had to brush through a crowd of people and vaguely in his line of awareness he felt someone’s hand slide across his rear through the thin black material of his stage pants. He had not bothered to change when he had gotten home. Someone tried to pull him towards the dance floor, but he had mumbled something along the lines of ‘sorry but no thanks’, before finally making it to the door.

Hiro stumbled away and made it out the heavy metal door which swung shut behind him with a solid clang. Falling down to a sitting position on the cold steps, Hiro wondered if his unbalance was somehow provided by the drug fumes that had been in the air of the club.

He had not actually gotten too much at the bar from what he could tell. It felt better out here; the air was pretty cool for the beginning of summer and it helped clear his head. He felt a lot better even though that alcohol had caused a bit of a headache. Yet, he was not drunk because if he was he would not have been able to concentrate on anything, stand, or have a general idea of where he was going. He did, however, know where he was going; he was going back home and to his bed. He would have to call Shuichi in the morning, even though he was pretty sure the other boy was fine.

Walking over to the mouth of the alley, he was momentarily distracted as a glass door opened and a large silver signature with two pocket knifes crossed over one another with the logo for ‘the knife shop’ could be seen.

"You take care now, and don’t kill anyone!" the keeper from inside the shop called.

"Come on, Joe! It’s me!" the blonde called back with a grin as he exited the shop. Fierce blue eyes never turned to focus on Hiro as he turned the other direction and started walking.

The youth that carried a paper bag of knives was heading away from him. Long golden blonde hair pulled up in a pony-tail that was still very long, blue eyes even if seen only for a moment, Hiro was sure they were the same as…

His voice was what sealed the decision. Hiro knew that youth; it was K. K was out here this late at night at a knife shop and was now heading home. For a moment the green-eyed boy stood there stupefied, watching the youth’s back as he headed down the sidewalk.

Hiro was not sure what to make of it, he remembered he was on his way home but that was not the way he was headed now. He was following K, from a safe distance.


The blonde turned into an apartment complex and Hiro continued to follow. He tried to think about turning around, but somehow it did not compute to the rest of him. Why was he following him? Looking up he saw K go up to the third floor of the complex and open the room on the right farthest to the balcony facing the parking lot.

Why did he follow him?

After hearing the door click shut, Hiro mounted the stairs, following them up to the third floor and walked to K’s door. Why was he here? A moment passed where he pondered that thought and mulled it over, but could not do anything with it, and this did not feel wrong…

Hiro raised his hand and knocked loudly on the door, three times, very clear. There could have been at least a million other things he could or should have been doing and yet he was here. Why?

What was he doing there?

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