Sugar Cane

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation.


Sugar Cane
By 11


Chapter 13

“Shuichi, wake up.”

“Five more minutes mom,” he breathed, turning away from the hand that shook his shoulder.

“I said get up, Shindou!” the hand shook him a little more forcefully.

“Geez, what?” Shuichi said, turning over and glaring up at… oh… well it was not his mom. “uh… sorry I thought you were…”

“Yeah, I’m not your mom, sorry to disappoint you,” the blond said, glaring at him. “The phone’s for you.”

“The phone?” Shuichi questioned groggily as he managed to sit up, rubbing the sleepy-sand out of his eyes.

“Yes, it’s a modern day device that you talk through,” Yuki explained briefly as he tossed the phone at Shuichi. He would have yelled at Yuki about throwing it to him, since it could have hit him, but he did manage to catch it and an argument would have to wait.

“Hello…?” Shuichi asked into the phone, wondering idly who it was that would know he would be at Yuki’s house.

“Hey, Shuichi. I phoned your house, but your mom said you that didn’t come home last night,” a familiar voice came over the phone.

“Oh Hiro!” Shuichi exclaimed, instantly awake. “Hey, I’m sorry it’s just we both kind of went off in different directions last night. I met up with Yuki at the club and stuff, we were talking and it got late.”

“It’s okay Shuichi you don’t have to explain why you’re there,” Hiro told him in a calmer voice than Shuichi liked; it was easier to tell if Hiro was mad if he could actually see the other boy. Drat, he had messed up somehow here.

“Yeah, but spending the night was completely innocent, I dropped off to sleep almost right after we got here,” Shuichi assured him.

“I said it’s okay Shuichi,” Hiro told him, laughing a little. Shuichi breathed, laughing meant he was not mad, but why was he calling? He was pretty sure they did not have early morning practice or something and they would see each other later at school anyway.

“I know this is cowardly,” Hiro started, his tone had gone back to the calm tone he had used before which was way to serious for Shuichi’s tastes, what had happened? “But, I wanted to get this out before we saw each other at school. I think we should break up.” A long silence followed after Hiro’s words.

“Okay…” Shuichi said, wanting to ask why but at the same time not really caring too much. Why would he not care so much? This was his best friend! Well he did care, but Hiro was not calling off everything, was he?

“Well that’s okay,” Shuichi said slowly, “We’re still friends though, right?”

“Yeah, we’re friends,” Hiro said, sounding relieved on the other end.

“Cool, see you later at school and stuff,” Shuichi said with a grin. After thinking about it, he realized the grin should not be there since he and Hiro just broke up from their sorta-more-than-friends relationship, but it was there anyway. “Bye!”

With a soft click of the phone he stood up and started out of the room, setting the phone back on the stand as he made his way to the entry way and kitchen area where Yuki sat with his computer, as he probably did daily. He also seemed rather crabby. Maybe he just was not a morning person.

Yuki heard the other boy approach but still continued to type away at the keys with a bit more viciousness than usual. Darn right nothing happened last night, but that was fine. Fine by Yuki anyway, he had no problems with it. Night was for sleeping anyway.

But then the kid had a call from his ‘boyfriend’ first thing in the morning! Yuki was not that Shindou kid’s message taker! “So what’d he want?” Yuki asked, his usual neutral, yet icy, voice seeming to blow right over Shuichi as he sat down next to the writer trying to read the lines on the bright computer screen.

“Not much,” Shuichi said, scanning the page briefly. He had never read one of Eiri Yuki’s novel’s, much less the rough draft, which seemed to be what this one was.

“Was he upset you spent the night at some other guy’s house?” Yuki asked, his tones wavering on vicious.

“Huh?” was the violet-eyed boy’s intelligent reply.

“Oh please, everyone knows about you two,” Yuki said, there were plenty of rumors flying around for those who did not already know.

“Oh…” Shuichi said, taken aback a bit and causing him to lose his place on the page. “Well, I guess we broke up then.”

What!? There actually was something between them! Darn those rumors for being right! “Broke up? He got sick of you?” Yuki asked, unable to hold back a smirk. So the kid was gay, not like he had expected otherwise.

He could feel the other boy give him an irritated glare, “No, we’re still friends. I dunno, I’d ask him, but it wasn’t all that big a deal anyway.”

Yuki almost quirked an eyebrow at that, after all how can a best friend/boyfriend not be a big deal if you are breaking up the whole boyfriend part? Maybe their relationship was not as serious as the school girl’s rumors had made it out to be…

“Why’s his name Jack Tall if he’s a short little guy?” Shuichi asked suddenly, reading the newly typed line. Yuki turned his head to the side, narrowed golden eyes falling on Shuichi sitting right next to him, reading off the computer screen.

“I’m sorry, do you have a problem with my writing?” he grit out angrily. How dare he have a criticism on his story! How dare he!!

“What?” Shuichi asked, confused as to why the blond was glaring at him now. “It’s just a little odd. I mean a guy called Jack Tall shouldn’t have such a name if he’s going to turn out to be some sort of fat middle aged old guy.”

“A lot of authors seem to do that nowadays,” Shuichi commented, leaning back in his chair, “Giving a name that creates one impression before giving a list of the characteristics. And even so, the name really should match the appearance, at least halfway, don’t you think?”

“You’ll live, this is my story,” Yuki told him sharply as he just continued typing. He saw out of the corner of his eyes Shuichi rolling his eyes, who gave up trying to convince the golden-eyed author of anything concerning the book.

Yuki was able to type in peace, every now and then glancing at Shuichi’s reaction to what was being written. Around the time the female character appeared, he got a little more thoughtful on the subject.

“Hey, out of curiosity,” Shuichi interrupted, only the second time that morning. “Why didn’t you make her breasts seem as glorious as the rest of her?”

“Hey. Are you author of this story?” Yuki asked irritably.

“No.” Shuichi answered simply.

“Then keep quiet, and let me write it how I want.” Yuki told him.

“Fine,” Shuichi shrugged as he continued to read while blond continued to type. Shuichi seemed to dislike certain pieces, though what exactly it was that bothered him he did not voice it. Yuki suddenly sighed and scrolled to the top part with ‘Jack Tall’.

“Fine…” he grumbled with a low growl as he changed the description to fit a tall slightly more lean, 30-ish something young man. Shuichi looked slightly happier about it anyway. He did not go back to the ‘breast’ part though.

Right after saving the changes he closed up the laptop. Shuichi vaguely caught him muttering something about having to get ready to start off for school. Checking the clock, he was almost surprised how much time he had before classes started, this was awesome!! Of course that was probably because he had to get up to take Hiro’s call.

The two of them got ready in a fairly quick amount of time before starting off. The short journey was spent in silence and Yuki must have disappeared sometime when they entered the schoolyard. Shuichi entered the building and started over to his locker where he met up with Hiro as per usual when they did not meet in the yard or otherwise.

“How are you doing?” Hiro asked as he leaned back against the other locker on the side of Shuichi’s.

“Pretty good, surprisingly not too tired either,” Shuichi said, kind of surprised at the realization of that, why had not he noticed before now?

“What time did you get to sleep anyway?” Hiro asked. Shuichi closed the locker, locked it and they started for the classroom.

“Probably around eleven thirty or something…” Shuichi shrugged, “pretty late, dunno why I’m not tired, I am every other day.”

“I wouldn’t worry, that’s a good thing,” Hiro told him, apparently having shrugged off the whole ‘Eiri Yuki is an enemy I must be suspicious of’ thing.

Classes seemed to go by faster for some reason today. Everything seemed almost surreal up until the end of the day when Shuichi went down to meet Yuki at the library to study. Tomorrow was Friday, the day of the test. Yuki told him that when they settled down to their books just as a reminder but for some reason this was the one day he could not force himself to focus on the text for too long. His eyes and thoughts kept straying elsewhere, to be specific, the boy in front of him.

Last night had mainly just been him and the other boy talking, but it had still been…strangely enjoyable. Most of the talking was on miscellaneous topics and occasionally it had drifted to school. He had not really paid attention to the author for a great period of time when it did not concern being attacked or otherwise, but the blond was actually kind of cool.

He looked so serious most of the time, but even right now he seemed almost bored, course he would be as this work was all review for him. His mouth was almost always drawn in a purposeful frown, but that did not change the perception of softness that the violet-eyed boy deduced after giving them a bit more inspection. His eyes were pretty too. A lot of words that he would use to describe Yuki seemed like something the girl’s would say which was probably why they all liked him so much. But also, Yuki would probably slam a fist through his skull if he knew Shuichi thought that he, Yuki, was pretty or anything along the lines of such a description.

But back to the subject of the boy’s lips… Shuichi could not help wondering if they really were as soft as he suspected they truly were. His tongue, usually so good at lashing out insults, made him wonder if that muscle could have any other more pleasing uses.

For a moment he allowed his imagination to go with this idea, that he was kissing Yuki’s soft lips, or maybe it was the other way around. The blond’s lashing tongue was playing across his skin in tortuous patterns until it reached the final place where Shuichi needed it the most.

What would he do then? Would he tease him until he thought he’d lose his mind, or get straight to business? Would it be fast and hard, or slow and tortuous?

He was looking at him now, his eyes fixed on him. It was odd how at times they looked so cold and at others he imagined they were like liquid honey. He was speaking to him now, his lips moving just slightly. Under other circumstances, would that voice grow deep and panting, what whispers would be heard or would he prefer to keep the night silent?

“Shindou!” Yuki’s sharp voice burst in on his thoughts. “Did you hear what I said?” he asked, obviously knowing the answer, but wanting to ask anyway.

“Uh… no not really.” Shuichi answered truthfully. Yuki sighed.

“I asked which group of nucleotides are the pyrimidines and which are the purines.” The boy explained, pausing for a response.

“Adenine and guanine are the purines, cytosine and thymine are the pyrimidines,” Shuichi answered, bored with the subject of biology.

“Good. And the pairings are?” Yuki asked.

“This is boring, I already know it…” Shuichi whined. Yuki sighed, this had been going so well up until a few minutes ago when he caught the pink-haired boy staring off into space… not really at him, more like through him, right?

“Then answering these questions should be effortless,” Yuki told him calmly.

“Augh…” Shuichi put his head down on the table. “Come on, I can’t concentrate like this…” he groaned in a fairly low voice, perhaps not really wanting Yuki to hear, but he did.

“Like what?” Yuki asked. Did Shuichi not realize they were almost done anyway? Then he could go do whatever he wanted to.

“I’m supposed to be looking at the pages of a book I already read, but am staring at the hot blond sitting across from me. Anyway,” Shuichi told him, somewhat irritated as he looked up at him, “I can think of a ton of things I’d rather be doing. And a lot of stuff is coming to mind just staring at you. Trust me, this is a pain. Don’t you agree?”

“Hot blond?” Yuki questioned, blinking slightly as blood threatened to fill his face. He must not have heard right. He was tempted to glance over his shoulder to see if one of a girl had wandered in, but he had said ‘sitting across from’ so the only candidate was…

“What? You’re cool, not like I could tell you that though,” Shuichi said lazily. Okay, the blush was unavoidable, but he did hold the blood back from making him turn the color of a tomato.

“Boy’s, library’s closing soon!” the librarian called from behind the book cases. Shuichi then seemed to notice Yuki was blushing.

“What?” he asked suddenly, before his eyes went wide. “Oh… my…go—did I say that aloud…?” Shuichi asked suddenly, leaning back in his seat a bit to watch Yuki with a strange mixture of uncertainty and… slight hope…?

“Well I’m glad you know the chapter backwards and forwards, you should do pretty well on the tests tomorrow.” Yuki coughed suddenly as he closed up his books and put them away into his bag as quickly and efficiently as he could, though his hands seemed to have picked up an odd tremble… probably just nerves.

“Uh yeah…” Shuichi said, picking up his books too. Both boys headed out of the library as it closed up. Yuki started off right away while Shuichi was hesitant to follow… he sighed to himself as he turned and started for his locker to put his books away.

Well that was a complete BOTCH! Shuichi chided himself as he walked away. It seems I have the useless talent of inserting both feet in my mouth at the same time…

On the opposite side of the hall on a different floor, Yuki allowed his own locker to slam shut loudly, trying his best to be bothered. He wanted to be angry, but somehow what just happened just did not bother him as much as it should have.

Why? Why does this not bother me? Yuki asked himself, frowning at the ground, glaring at it as if it was keeping the answer from him. I’m okay with gays, sure, but not when they come onto me… However, Shuichi was not really coming onto him, he just sort of blurted out, without meaning to, it seemed, that he found Yuki attractive. The other complicating matter was that it was in fact Shuichi Shindou in question.

“Ugh!” Yuki growled as he turned and stalked off down the hall. This was just so freaking confusing!

`

He knew the answer to that.

He knew that one too.

He knew this stuff, everything. It was not as difficult as it might have been though if he had forgone studying until he passed out the night before.

Just as he circled the last letter and sat his pencil down the administrator called time and ordered all tests to be passed to the front. Shuichi did so, sitting back in his seat again and pulling out a book to read for a bit. It would be a while until they were all dismissed, their tests graded and the results posted outside the door.

Nanami was the one who had reminded him to bring a book; he was glad he did since the wait did not seem half as long because of it. He even managed to almost read halfway through before the bell rang and everyone was dismissed out into the hall, finally the end of the day. Now, they checked their test results and started home for the whole summer break.

Finding his number on the lists, he was ranked 12 in his class. That was not half as bad as he had been expecting. A 765 out of a possible 800? That wasn’t bad at all! “Shuichi, hey!” Nanami said, noticing him in the crowd as he pulled away from the group clustered at the boards.

“Nanami, how are you,” he greeted her with a smile. “How was your score?”

“A 698. What about you?” Nanami asked, returning the smile.

“765,” he answered.

“Wow! Really! Shuichi that’s a really great score!” She looked so shocked. Geez, did everyone think he was that much of an idiot? Such an offense…

“I mean, I figured you had so much emotional stress to deal with,” Nanami explained, “You know. Since Hiro and you broke up, the whole boyfriend thing, and then you told Yuki Eiri you thought he was attractive! I mean I’d probably die if I was in your place. Yuki must totally hate you. It’s a good thing we have summer break though, huh?”

Shuichi felt a muscle in his cheek twitch at her explanation. “Nanami… I was so happy up until a minute ago. You really know how to bring a person down…”

“Oh, you mean you were able to momentarily forget about it?” she asked, shocked again. “Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to-uh… well… congratulations in any case. Your scores were really great!”

Shuichi managed to smile as she waved and started off to try and find her group of friends. She really did seem genuinely sorry about bringing him down though. With a sigh Shuichi headed for the doors. Since there was only testing today he had not bothered to bring his backpack or anything. Hiro had been taken to another classroom for the test and he did not particularly feel like meeting up and talking with anyone for the rest of the day. Maybe he would call him tomorrow, the first day of summer break, so they could go out and do something.

The yard was empty as kids were still checking their scores and meeting up with their friends to either cry or brag…well maybe the yard was not completely empty. Shuichi looked up as a familiar boy barred his path, a neutral expression on his face as he regarded the other boy. Idly, Shuichi wondered what his score had been.

“I wanted to invite you over for the summer.” He stated after a minute, causing Shuichi to stare in shock. “I have a summer house I go to sometimes. I want you to come with me. No one else is invited.”

Shuichi blinked, a question ready to be asked, but he never got it out as Yuki mentioned a last detail of his invite. “And you probably shouldn’t tell your friend, Hiro.”

Yuki watched Shuichi’s expression carefully, so far there really had not been a change from his initial surprise. Then he smiled, “Sure.”

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