::Ebbing::

"Hiro, have you seen Yuki anywhere?" Shuichi had spent the past half hour searching for his novelist lover, and was now drenched in sweat from the noon sun. He had scoured every last section of beach he had come across, but there was still no sign of Yuki.

"Sorry, Shu, haven't seen him."

Shuichi's chin quivered a little, and his eyes began to redden. "So much for our date, huh?"

Hiro put an arm reassuringly around Shuichi. "It'll be okay. He'll turn up. You know Yuki. He's probably hid himself somewhere he thinks no one can find him."

Shuichi smiled a little. "You're probably right. I only looked on the shore, after all."

Hiro smiled down on Shuichi. "Exactly."

"Thanks, Hiro." Shuichi planted a small kiss on Hiro's cheek and sprinted off in the opposite direction, kicking up sand as he went.

Hiro scoffed and shook his head, rubbing the spot where Shuichi's lips had been.

Shuichi had, at long last, managed to scale a portion of the rocky bluffs that rose up around the beach. He flopped into the coarse sea grass swaying gently back and forth at the top of the bluffs, dragging a hand across his dripping forehead. Shuichi gazed out across the beach, which faded into an endless expanse of salty blue. The ocean was fierce, Shuichi thought, and unpredictable, not to mention selfish - always ebbing up to steal some sand or a few rocks, and sometimes even a bad swimmer or two. Shuichi smiled gently at his musings. That could be a song or something.

Shuichi let his eyes take him beyond the beach and out to the horizon, where the ocean would swallow the sun later that day, and suddenly, with only his thoughts and inklings, and with no arms to hold him or voice to comfort him, he felt incredibly lonely. His heart ached and sank in his chest under the weight of the feeling...

Shuichi stood up quickly, shaking his head and trying to remove himself from the lonely horizon all those miles away. He walked away from the edge of the bluff, still searching for Yuki.

Shuichi glanced at his watch. 1:30. Had he really been looking for Yuki an hour and a half. The fact that Yuki was still missing after all this time fell hard on Shuichi. A lump of solid fear caught in his throat, and he went hot, then cold, then hot again with anxiety.

" Saka-maku kodou kara... "

Shuichi cried out as his cell phone rang, "The Rage Beat" tearing through the silence he had experienced until then. He ripped it from his pocket. His shoulders fell. Only Hiro.

"Hello? Hiro? What is it?"

"Just wondering where you were, Shu. You've been gone a while."

"Yeah...I know."

"Have you found him yet?"

"No..."

"Shu, do you want me to see if I can find him?"

Shuichi perked up a little. "I'd really appreciate that, Hiro. Thank you."

"You haven't tried calling him, have you?"

"He never answers his phone."

"It's worth a try."

"You're probably right. I'll try. See ya."

Shuichi clicked the phone shut, letting go a shaky sigh. Crying wasn't going to help him find Yuki.