A/N: ok…I’ve had more reviews than usual…that’s so great and unsual….hmm… well on with the show!

15. Suspicions & Suprises

Tohma looked Daisuke Yagamata in the face and the red-haired green eyed vocalist, smiled sardonically at the president.

“So…” He fiddled with the hem of his jacket. “Was there any particular reason you called us here?” Daisuke asked. “We’ve got a song to record after all…and the concert to practice for…You wouldn’t want us shaming NG would you?”

“Of course not. Needless to say, regardless of this trauma concerning Shindou I have the utmost faith in Electric Shock.”

“Thank you, Seguchi-san.” The vocalist said with sincere green eyes.

“Are we still under suspicion?” Izo spoke up from the back of the room.

The other blonde smiled disarmingly. “Why, whyever would you be? Unless you feel you’ve done some that needs to be approached.”

Sho spoke up: “No! Absolutely not.” He flexed his fingers, drumming them on his thigh as if playing a keyboard.

“Very well then... “ Tohma rifled through some papers. “In that case…if you have a need to go near Shindou-san, run it by me first…if you screw with this investigation consider your contract ripped to shreds. I don’t have time for bands that get in the way of progress.”

Daisuke smiled once more and said, “Really? I would have figured Shindou-senpai would be the one in the gutter.”

"Naturally, that would be so...but Bad Luck really is big...it would be in the best interest of the company to keep them….but you however..." He looked them over almost snidely. "You get the picture..."

"Are you threatening us?" Izo got up. "Don’t think we'll be cowed so easily. Don’t try to bulldoze us...I've heard allot about you...I 'm immune to petty threats like that.” His maroon eyes flashed.

“Calm down, Izo…” Daisuke advised.

“I am calm…Seguchi-san is suspicious and I’d like to know why. I don’t see what we’ve done to earn this sort of attention.”

Kaede ran a hand through her hair, "Please ignore him...he usually has his qui under control...Studying all sorts of martial arts, you'd think he'd know how to remain calm when the situation could make you loose your job.”

The guitarist pretended to ignore the woman’s callous remark.

“Sho, are you just going to sit there on your ass….” Izo muttered running a hand through blonde locks.

Sho smirked. “What would you want me to do? Be like you…if we do that we might as well kiss our contract goodbye.”

“It’s better than being harassed.”

“Oh, get your dick out of a knot…” Sho snapped.

“Excuse me?” Izo looked irritated.

“Relax…” Daisuke ordered. “Or you’re both out!”

“Daisuke-kun…” Tohma said softly.

The vocalist turned his eyes to the president.

“Fix this problem or I will resort to drastic measures.”

The guitarist went to speak again when the keyboardist jabbed him softly in the side as he passed. Izo gave an irritated look once more then drew in a breath and a serene look took over his face as he followed the other man out of the office. Kaede got up next, threading her hand through her long hair. “Daisuke?”

“I’ll be there…you go on with Izo and Sho”

“Right.”

When his band mates had left the office and the large door closed behind them he turned back to the president and stood up.

“Now…let’s get down to the real deal, shacho…and cut the bullshit. You keep stepping around the bush and I don’t like it. If you have something wrong with my band tell me….don’t threaten, it doesn’t work that easy.”

“Is that so?” Tohma placed his hands under his chin. “All right…I’ll spell it out. I’m very suspicious of you, it’s that simple. You intentionally provoked Eiri-san, knowing it would cause him to do a rash thing. He fled Japan to America. This caused Shindou-san to fall into a slump of sorts….you compromised the most promising band since Nittle Grasper….I have to question your motives just for that.”

“Is that all?”

“There’s that and your previous history….but the incident is enough to make me question your involvement in this recent incident.”

“Heh…” Daisuke ducked his head, clenching his fist. “Your suspicion…makes me laugh…if I wanted to destroy Shindou…I’d do much worse. All in all I have no reason…”

“You mean like a heart attack…”

The red-head shook his head. “Sorry. You’re asking the wrong person…Now if there’s no more you need from me…I’ll be in the studio.”

“You can go.” Tohma sighed. “We’ll see what they do now…or should I say he…”

0000000000

Taki Aizawa watched the news from his place on the couch. Ma-kun and Ken were playing a game of cards, trying their best not to agitate the vocalist.

Ken looked up over his glasses. “He’s acting strange don’t you think…”

“Define strange.” Ma answered.

“Not his usual self.”

“Tachi has a usual self.”

Ken frowned, not at all amused by Ma-kun’s coy and uncooperative attitude.

“You know what I mean.”

Ma-kun sighed. “Yeah, I here you….He hasn’t taken his eyes off that tube since he got here. I’ve never known Tachi to be interested in news all that much but he’s been flipping through every channel he can find. And every time he seems to get more disgusted.” He laid the cards down: full house.

Ken sighed.

“He needs to get away from that thing. All that violence and bad news is gonna rot his brain, then he’ll go into one of those slumps like Shindou.” He muttered.

“Tachi?” The blonde murmured dubiously.

The brunette seemed to think this over for a moment. “Yeah, you’re right…Tachi just start tearing the shit out of things. Last time he got pissed he chucked his brand new TV set out a fourth floor window.”

“It’s always the objects that suffer in the end.”

“Yea, so what are you going to do….He’s going to act rash and there’s no way we can stop him from being that way.”

“Right,” Ma smiled devilishly. “But we can get him away from the idiot box.”

“How?” The other whispered.

“We’re gonna go out to a club and have a good time.” He got up.

“You just want to pick up some chicks.”

He tilted his chin upward. “So what if I do…what harm is it.” He spoke louder.

“Hey!” Taki irriattedly rumbled. “You’re making noise. Shut up.”

“See, Tachi, it’s an attitude like that, that say’s….I’ll never get laid.” He strode forward and stood by his friend’s side.

“How the fuck would you know?” The vocalist snorted. “I may have not seen as much action as you, Ma-kun, but don’t count on me being a water lilly.”

“Ok, so what do you say to going out to a club tonight and picking up some girls?” He leaned down anxious to hear the answer.

Taki looked up, maroon eyes bruning into his brain. “With you two?”

“Who else?” Ma smirked.

Taki looked past Ma-kun and spotted Ken with his shades over his eyes in the background. He didn’t look too keen on Ma-kun’s idea.

Ken seemed to sense this so he quickly smiled and nodded. “Yeah, it’s been awhile since we’ve hung out together so freely.”

“I see you two every day…”

“Work.” The shaded man spoke. “Not outside…”

“Two days ago?” He reminded them.

“Doesn’t count.” The long-haired blonde insisted.

The raven haired man sighed. “So, I guess you’re giving me no choice in the matter?”

“None whatsoever.”

“Fine…” He shut off the TV. “So where are you taking me?”

“Taking you?” Ma and Ken repeated.

“Yeah. You invited me; therefore you’re taking me somewhere. Didn’t your mother ever teach you any manners?”

“We’re going somewhere to pick up chicks. I’m not taking you anywhere.”

“Fine…Let’s hope you don’t pick the shittiest place in town again. I was bored out of my mind last time….”

“You call being surrounded by groupies boring.” Ma-kun’s eyes widened.

Ken shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m just not as horny as you.” Taki said simply, passing his band mates with hands in his slack pockets.

Ma-kun and Ken exchanged glances.

000000000000

Tohma stared as his brother-in-law twitched in his seat, playing absentmindedly with his lighter, snapping it open and closed. He’d never before seen Eiri in such a jittery state. It was very troublesome.

“You know, Eiri…it’s not like you to be so….anxious.”

“I don’t have any more cigarettes.” He lied smoothly.

“I see. Then why don’t I buy you a new pack, ne? That way you can stop playing with your lighter like its a castanet.” He smiled encouragingly.

Yuki stared at Tohma, not looking very amused by the president’s attempt at a humorous jibe.

Tohma’s fake smiled faltered when he saw the younger man turn his head away.

“It’s Shindou-san isn’t it?”

“And if it is, are you going to pull one of your psychotic plans to remove him from my life as if he were…as you quaintly put it….a tumor.”

“The old me would have interfered…But…”

“But?”

“Yet, I see Shidnou-san’s unhappiness leads to your unhappiness. Thus it’s in the best interest for me to find Shindou-san’s attacker.”

“I still think you know something and you’re not telling me.”

“Now why would I do that? As I said, it’s in the best interest to find out who has done this. For me to keep this a secret from our purposely would defeat the purpose of best interest.”

“So you know.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You DO know.” He leaned in face serious.

“Perhaps….but then again it’s also for your best interest for me not to tell you.”

Yuki’s eyes burned into his; Tohma didn’t flinch.

“After all, if I told you who it was, you’d do something regrettable then Shindou-san would be the unhappy one and the cycle would start all over…”

“And you’d feel guilty?” Yuki inserted.

Tohma opened his mouth then closed it.

“I’m not sure what my guilt has anything to do with this mater.”

“Bullshit.”

Yuki took out a pack of alpha-menthols and lit one up.

“Why, Eiri, I thought you said you didn’t have any cigarettes?”

Yuki ignored him.

“But seriously, Eiri, promise me you won’t do anything.” He folded his hands. “Let the police handle this.”

“Fine…” Yuk tapped ashes into the ashtray then got up to leave, putting away his smokes. “I’m going to go home now; I need to finish the rest of that chapter.”

“Very well…”

The president returned home and picked up a letter from the coffee table, tossing his jacket onto the couch. He opened it carefully and upon inspection he noticed that it was information from his inside man about the private investigation he’d instructed the man to conduct.

The man informed his superior that he’d started digging further into the past of Daisuke Yagamata but besides those incidents of the past, their had been no preemptive lead that connected the man to the incident. Of course, not that he saw yet.

Taki Aizawa had full motive to commit the crime but had been hanging out with a woman in the club Tango Midnight the night that Shindou-san had suffered cardiac arrest. According to his lady friend, Taki had stayed with her all night, although to say the least he wasn’t as great as she would have liked. She explained that her image of him as ASK’s vocalist had been over-rated. He hadn’t even tried anything though she gave him plenty opportunities.

All in all… Tohma thought stuffing the report back in the envelope. Everything checks out. He bit the inside of his cheek in a frustrated manner. “Damn it.”

0000000000

Shuichi woke from his deep sleep yawning to discover his lover was gone. He frowned and got out of bed, still burning with a slight fever. Compared to the near death experience he’d had it was a piece of cake.

He padded out of the room and made his way to the kitchen to get a nice cold glass of orange juice to wet his dry throat. He opened the fridge, took out the jug then got himself a glass. When he had done this he filled the juice to the brim and put the jug away. The vocalist leaned against the counter, letting the cool liquid slide down his throat, washing away the cotton he felt that way in his mouth. He sighed and took another long drink, contemplating the small seeds in the juice.

He put the glass down and stepped away from the counter, still feeling heated.

“Mataku..I’m so hot.” He whimpered walking out of the kitchen into the living room. “And I’m bored…”

He walked to the middle of the floor and lay down on the cool wood floor staring up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes, listening to the silence around him and waited. Waited for his fever to stop, waited for the pounding in his head to cease, waited for Yuki to come home…

Just waited.

Mostly he waited for the tense feeling in his body to diminish.

In addition to dealing with his ceaseless fever, Shuichi thought about his brush with death and shivered. It scared him deeply to think someone out there disliked him so much that they would try to incapacitate him in such a serious way that was beyond all human logic. He breathed a shaky breath turning onto his side away from the front door towards the sliding glass door.

He soon fell into a deep sleep once more, the haze of heat lulling him.

000000000000

Yuki’s next appointment was with his charming publisher that claimed there had been a plot hole in his manuscript. The implication that he would turn out less the exemplary work really steamed the writer to no end.

“Stupid Mizuki…” He muttered, taking a drag on his cigarette.

So now he had to drag his ass half-way downtown so he could meet with her at their regular meeting place.

He trudged on feeling unexplainably heated despite the harsh winter. He unbuttoned his jacket to get some cool air to his skin.

The woman saw him upon approaching and smiled. “How’s Shuichi-san?”

She was wrapped in a red scarf plus black coat the cover her to her knees. She had her hands in her pockets and had obviously been sitting there for awhile. She ushered him inside. “I’ve gotten us a booth in the back.” She announced.

Yuki was not to talkative that day and if he did say something it wouldn’t be nice anyhow.

He slumped down in the offered booth and gave a hard stare to the waitress. He wanted to be left alone.

“A coffee and an oolong tea.” Mizuki said.

She turned back to her client.

“Now that’s a new gimmick to get women to buy your books, Yuki-san….Scowl at them. Then again if you so much as flipped a girl off I’m sure she’d be impressed you even noticed her.”

The novelist slumped down in his seat and dug deep for his lighter that was hidden there, when he found it he extracted the pack of alpha-menthols and lit up, breathing the nicotine heavily into his lungs before expelling it to the ceiling.

He head swam as he tilted it back.

Hot.

“I take it you’re almost done with you’re book?”

“No.”

“NO! Why not?”

“Don’t you read the papers?”

“Of course. Shindou-san’s hospitalization.”

The blond was quick to notice Mizuki’s change from Shuichi-san to Shindou-san…It was strange. Perhaps it was just a slip on her part.

“Shut up.” He flicked some ashes.

“Excuse me?”

“Seguchi’s trying to keep a low profile on that so button your hole.”

Mizuki’s eyes were as big as saucers at this unexpected harshness.

Yuki looked as if he didn’t care. He had a feeling Seguchi was still holding on to a piece of information he had. He probably would rationalize to the novelist that he was trying to protect Eiri but it was just annoying. He didn’t want to be protected; he wanted to pay back whoever had threatened his lover’s life!

“Yuki-san!” an irate publisher snapped.

“What?” HE crushed the cigarette between two fingers nad put it in the ashtray.

“I need to see what you do have.”

He patted his pockets then looked up at her a smirked.

“You don’t have anything do you?”

“Iie..”

“Yuki-san. This is very irresponsible of you.”

What’s irresponsible is your loud mouth.

“Look, Shuichi’s sick….and I’m annoyed. You’ve got what I have…which is nothing at the moment.” He tugged at his collar.

The room suddenly felt very warm.

“Yuki-san? Are you all right?”

“Fine…” He dug into his wallet and slapped down money onto the table.

“That’s not necessary.”

“Keep it.”

He got up and started to stumble, holding onto the edge of the table. His head swam, sweat on his forehead and heat steaming bellow the collar.

“Yuki-san?” Mizuki got up and touched his arm.

His legs buckled beneath him this time and he blacked out all at once.

00000000000000

“Yuki! Yuki…Yuki!” A frantic bratty voiced called out to him. “Yuki…please be all right…please Yuki…”

He phased in and out. The voice sounding distant and yet so near all at once. It spoke frantically in his ear and he could feel hands upon him shaking him. A warm body collapsed on his, tears spilling onto and wetting his shirt. “Yuuki.” The same voice sobbed.

Damn brat. He thought wrly despite the foggy feeling his head created and the constant ringing in his ears.

He wanted to tell his whiny lover to shut up but he was far too tired to do so. He felt hot and cold all at once. He tried to mute out the annoying voice but it was persistent. Shuichi was finally standing over him, prying an eye open with his fingers. “Yuki, are you all right?”

“I would if you’d just get the hell out and quit being so noisy…” He answered tiredly. “…you stupid punk.”

“What’s that… Damn it, Yuki! I go out of my way! Come downtown—I’m sick too—just to visit you because I hear you’ve collapsed and this is how you treat me!”

“Shut up…”

“Meanie..” His lower lip quivered a great deal. “I’m only concerned for you…you meanie.." He lay his head down on his lover’s chest.

“Hot...”

“What?”

“Hot.”

“Huh?”

“Ho-”

“I heard you…” He grinned. “I’ll get you some ice-water right away, Yuki. Be right back...” He smiled cheekily as he exited the room.