"They can feel the heat, the heat between me and you. How can you just leave me standing? Alone in a world that's so cold." – When Doves Cry, Prince

In Spite Of It All

When Doves Cry

"Shuichi"

"Hmm…"

"Would you hold my hand?"

"Yes, Ryuichi, give me your hand."

"You know, it really hurt, Shuichi."

"I know. Don't worry, help will be here soon."

"I believe in you Shuichi, because doves always soar above chaos."

"Shh… I know."

You may be wondering about this conversation. It was a complicated thing, but I will tell you what happened. Please consider that all parties involved had their own reasons and judge none too harshly. Now, I shall tell you the story of the doves.

It starts with Shuichi and although this will take a while, it ends with him too. He was on the way to NG studios as usual and was late, as usual. He rushed into the building and up the stairs foregoing the elevator. When he reached the room he slowly opened the door. He peaked his reluctant head through only to find K's gun in his face.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It was Yuki's fault!" Shuichi lied. Everyone knew Yuki had nothing to do with it this time, but no one said anything.

"No excuses!" K said in a harsh tone and splattered Shuichi's brains all over the wall behind him, or so he wished. He couldn't very well shoot the lead singer of Bad Luck in the head.

"Shuichi, get to work!" Suguru screamed at him from behind his keyboards.

"I'm going," replied Shuichi hurrying to his microphone.

Their session went relatively slow because Shuichi was feeling particularly sluggish that day. In fact he had been feeling sluggish all week. Ever since…

"Shuichi, you can leave now," K said to him with an odd look on his face. This was because Shuichi was always the last one there and the first to leave.

Shuichi left the room immediately after K said that. He ran and ran until he accidentally bumped into a man on the elevator.

"Oomph"

"Sorry mister," Shuichi apologised.

"It's okay, I wasn't looking where I was going either," the man said.

This voice sounded vaguely familiar to Shuichi. A sudden realisation hit him.

"Ryuichi," Shuichi gasped, "is that you?"

"Shu-chan? I didn't recognise you," said Ryuichi.

"I didn't change since last time you saw me, Ryu-chan," said Shuichi quizzically. Something was defiantly amiss here. Shuichi couldn't quite place his finger on it yet, but he intended to find out what it was.

"Oh, but you did."

"Right… sorry," Shuichi tried to laugh this new Ryuichi off. Then something in his brain clicked.

"Are you okay?" asked Shuichi.

"Yeah, uh… sure."

"I'm getting off on the next floor," Shuichi said slowly as to gauge his friend's reaction, knowing that Ryuichi usually got off on this floor as well.

"Well, I'll see you around."

And there it was, the proof he was looking for. There was no "Na no da", no smile, no happy waving and most of all, no Kumugoro. This Ryuichi was defiantly an impostor. Shuichi hadn't seen his ever-smiling friend for about a week now and he shows up… like this. Once Shuichi thought about it, Ryu-chan's eyes were a bit different. Shuichi gasped, 'ALIENS!' he thought to himself, or maybe it was out loud. He was outside by now and people were looking at him funny. One group of American tourists in particular, were blatantly staring at him.

He ran to the bus stop about fifty meters down the street. Normally, he would have got one of K's friends to drive him, but he didn't do that for two reasons today; 1) K's friend's were scary and 2) he didn't want to be spotted, not that his bright orange shirt was helping any.

He paid his ￥170 as he got off the bus and walked those back roads that he knew too well for his own comfort. It was now obvious to him that Ryuichi wasn't abducted by aliens so, naturally he made a mental list of people who seemed like aliens and narrowed it down to two people: Seguchi Tohma and Eiri Yuki. Of course the likes of Shuichi would never be welcomed into Seguchi-san's house, which left only Yuki.

Much to his misfortune, Shuichi was not let into Yuki's house anymore. Actually, for the past week he had been staying at Hiro's house, which was awkward in itself because of Ayaka-chan, but it was better than staying with Suguru at any rate.

As Shuichi got off the elevator he prayed to God that his key still worked. Click. As the lock turned he silently congratulated himself. He decided that if Yuki was home he would say that he was picking up his belongings, but he wasn't so the pink-haired boy let himself in. He really hoped Yuki wouldn't show up. He also hoped that if he did he would not be sniffing Yuki's underwear. Not that he would ever do a thing like that, only perverts sniffed their lover's undergarments.

"Who am I kidding," Shuichi thought out loud as he walked into Yuki's bedroom, "Of course I would sni-… Ryuichi?"

Shuichi had seen many strange things in his life this however, this topped all of them. Ryu-chan was hog-tied on Eiri Yuki's bed, wearing nothing aside from boxer shorts for ironic dignity, making strange, muffled noises that would have screams if not for gag around his mouth. And the wet things running down his face that Shuichi swore to be tears would be the cherry on top of a thoroughly disturbing day.

Thanks for reading, please review. We hope you enjoyed it! 3