All Alone

Tohma watched as Yuki walked down the hallway to the bathroom where Shuichi lie. His gaze turned to the cake box. The scrumptious looking cake was in there. He questioned it. Not really caring if anyone heard him, Tohma said, "I thought I got Eiri's favorite flavor. I was sure he'd want to eat it. Maybe he doesn't like it anymore. Well I'll be sure to get him the best there is next time." With a low sigh, he got up from the chair he was sitting on and began to walk towards the front door. As he did, a thought formed in his head, Stupid Shuichi. You had to ruin everything!

In the Bathrom Pt. 5

As the conversation started down the hall and hearing no sign of stopping, Shuichi slid lower onto the floor and brought his knees to his chest. Twin trickles of salt water leaked from his tightly, closed lids and tracked down the soft hills of his cheeks. A trail of mucus inched into the funnel above his lips as he tried to sniff. Salty and grimy. Grabbing the roll of toilet paper, he took one-ply and furiously mopped up the mess on his face only ending up with a pile of mush in his hand. The *advertisement had lied. Shuichi cried louder...he couldn't help himself.

" Stupid Yuki....stupid Shacho..."

* Charmin

The Kitchen Part 3

Tohma laughed. "And I thought my timing was bad but it looks I saved you from starvation." Tohma pushed the cake box to Eiri. "Eat up then. I ordered your favorite flavor. I'd eat it before Shindou-san sees it. Considering he was as hungry as to eat a wax apple, he'll eat the whole cake." As he said this, Tohma's thoughts wandered to Shuichi, lying on the floor weak from hunger and vomiting. He planned "things" to do with Shuichi, to tease him and drive him nuts. The joy of watching Shuichi all frantic believing things untrue, having Shuichi wrapped around his finger. 'It's great to be boss,' Tohma thought. He smiled evily.

The Kitchen

Tohma looked up at Eiri with a sad glance. "Well I know how much you like the French pastry shop and I thought you'd like a cake... but I can see you are busy with.... other matters..." Tohma grinned. "I guess it's all right. Maybe we could meet for drinks this week or I could bring over various pastries if you prefer." Tohma gave a quick glance to the hallway to make sure Shuichi wasn't coming.

In the Bathroom Part 4

As Yuki put his arm around Shuichi, Tohma felt a sting of jealously creep into him. Why is Eiri holding Shuichi like that?! He hadn't noticed the stench coming from the toilet since he was more in the hallway than the bathroom. Yet he observed as Yuki pushed the silver handle and it appeared to Tohma, that Yuki seemed more relieved. To get Shuichi back for that, he pondered countless ways to tease and torture the amateur rock star. Quietly leaving the scene before Tohma lost his temper, he headed for the kitchen, still clutching the cake box.

In the Bathrom Pt. 2

Turning his head, Shuichi took this perfect opportunity to empty his stomach again, but this time more loudly and messily to his embarassement. He wiped the corner of his mouth, and looked past Yuki to Tohma. Tohma....Shuichi had mixed emotions about NG's CEO and Bad Luck's shacho. He felt past resent bubble within his heart when he remembered it was Tohma that had tried so many times to break Yuki and him apart, even going as far as driving Shuichi away to another continent. The only thing that kept him from swinging at Tohma was that he was very important to Yuki.

Afterall, he was Yuki's brother-in-law, confidant, and saviour during Yuki's "Kitazawa Period". Tohma was also the one who encouraged Yuki to start his writing career, and was the one to lead him to big success in the literary world. He "healed" Yuki's wounds and guarded him fiercely throughout those years without Shuichi. The fact that Yuki and he had this close relationship, bugged him and made Shuichi a little bit more than jealous. Shuichi could care less about his authoriative position over him. To hell with that. He would always have music, but it wasn't guaranteed that his relationship with Yuki would be as definite as well. (Plus, he couldn't lose Yuki's amazing "talent".) Just to be polite, Shuichi gathered himself up again, and croaked a greeting:

"Hello Shacho."

Shuichi braced himself against the rim of the toilet, before steadying himself on the sink. He took two, wobbly steps towards Yuki and placed his arms around Yuki's broad shoulders. His eyes became more stern as if mentally saying to Tohma, " This is my territory."

A Friendly Conversation (In the Bathroom?!)

Tohma gave Yuki a friendly smile. "Why I got in through the front door, silly. If you want to know how I opened the door, it was with this key." Tohma held the jingling keys in his hand (the one without the cake) and if you had good enough eyesight, you could see the name, "Mika" engraved on the key. Tohma looked past Eiri to see a sick-looking Shuichi sitting next to the toilet.

The Morning Forever Continues

6:00 A.M.

Tohma was driving through morning Tokyo traffic with the roof of the convertable down. The wind was blowing through his hair and the classical rock flowed out of the speakers. Luckily, the breeze wasn't strong enough to blow of his hat off. He recalled the one time it did fall off. Luckily, Sakano was with him (the only time he was ever allowed in Tohma's jaguar), and Tohma had made Sakano chase after his hat. He laughed out loud. However, if traffic kept up, it would take forever to get to the office. Making a grimace, he stared at the numerous cars in front of him. He made a right and took a side street. There weren't many cars so he sped up. "Five more minutes until I hit NG", he thought.

6:37 A.M.

Parking his car into the underground garage in his own personal, secluded parking space with his name on it, he got out of the car and walked into the building. The building was mostly empty. He rode the elevator to the top floor and walked into his office. Ten minutes later, Sakano burst in the room. Tohma wasn't in the mood to deal with Sakano at the moment. "Sakano, I want you to set up the spending budget for Bad Luck. The previous one was a mess, and it greatly needed organization. But the main problem was that you went over the budget. Do you know what I do to employees that cannot fulfil their duties?" He gave Sakano one of his signature "Do-the-job-or-die " smiles. And Sakano replied with a pretty pathetic response but he sent him off anyway. Actually, Fujisaki had already set up a budget. He just wanted to get rid of Sakano for now. In the meantime, Tohma flipped through a business magazine.

8:16 A.M.

Tohma left his office and drove to a local French pastry shop he knew Eiri loved. He wasn't in the mood for working and there was nothing really to do at the moment anyway. By the time he got there, Eiri would be awake so he'd give him a short visit before returning to the office. He hoped Shuichi wouldn't be there, he'd just spoil the moment. After his order was ready, he continued to Eiri's house. He arrived there at 8:42 and knocked on the door. When no one answered (and by the car, Tohma could see Eiri was home), he took his spare key (Well, the key wasn't really his but Mika's. He just borrowed it.) and let himself in. No one was in the living room and still carrying the cake box he made his way down the hallway. The bathroom door was open and he stood in the doorway looking at what was going on.

Re: Yuki to the Rescue?

He made his way into the bathroom in the nick of time for his date with Mr. T. Bowl. The greeting kiss was not as pleasant when Shuichi emptied the contents of his stomach into the shiny, white U-bend. He softly moaned, coughed to clear his throat, and looked pitfully up at the novelist. Shuichi didn't dare speak, just in case he was tempted to repeat the kiss with Yuki.

When his eyes met the novelist's, Shuichi was afraid of the lecture and harsh words he saw behind them. But instead of voicing his real feelings, Shuichi attempted to look as haughty as he could slumped against the floor and toilet. He stared right back at Yuki, matching a leer for a leer.

" Of course I can read. It's not like you wouldn't have made the same mistake if you were starving."

Shuichi's Morning cont.

A bitter, acrid taste rose from the back of his throat which he tried to swallow back down. A low grumble came from his stomach, not from hunger, but indigestion. What was with that fruit anyway? Had it been rotting in the basket, or perhaps, he had eaten too many? Clutching at his aching abdomen, Shuichi glanced at the piece of paper with his lyrics. He tried to decipher the original writing between the lines of his messy handwriting:

*Wah...koo...sue...koo...dah...moe...no.....!?!

His eyes widened as he tried to surpress the rush of bile filling his mouth. Shuichi quickly covered his mouth, and clumsily made his way to the bathroom near the master bedroom and Yuki's study.

* Wakkusu/rou kudamono = wax fruit