Title: Blindsided
By: Kibethan
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation. I don't even have the anime or the manga!
Summary: Yuki isn't exactly a favorite in the public's eye, so his editor decides to shape him up to seem like a good guy by volunteering him to volunteer at a hospital. What will happen when he meets a particularly interesting patient by thename of Shindou Shuichi?
Chapter 1
I have to what!?
Yuki was sitting down at his desk, diligently typing the words to his next big hit. Next to him, the phone started to ring loudly. A quick glance to the side revealed that his editor was trying to call him. He looked at his calendar and frowned. He didn't have another due date for at least a month. Why was she calling now? He decided to just let it ring. She would give up eventually, right?
Wrong. After the phone rang for the sixth time, he picked up the phone.
"What the hell do you want?" He was pissed. She was supposed to have stopped calling after the first try! Not keep trying until he picked up. What if he hadn't been home? She could have been calling for hours!
"I knew you were there, Yuki-san. I need to talk to you. How about we meet for breakfast tomorrow at the little café down the road from where you live that you like so much?"
"No."
"Yuki-san. It would be in your best interest if you meet me for breakfast there. If you don't, then you will have to suffer the consequences."
"Such as?"
"Getting dropped from this publishing company," she said. Yuki's mouth dropped open. Getting dropped? That was a little bit harsh right?
"You wouldn't do that."
"I would. And I will, if you don't meet me for lunch tomorrow."
"Fine. But you're paying."
"Yes, Yuki-san. I will pay." With that, his editor hung up the phone. Yuki stared at the phone in his hand for a couple of seconds, and then hung it up. He continued to stare at the phone, even after he had hung it up. He wondered what all that was about. He tried to continue working on his story, but he couldn't concentrate on it, and he ended up just saving what he did have written, and then going to sleep.
Yuki did not sleep well that night. Nightmares of what could happen at breakfast haunted his dreams relentlessly. The entire night, he tossed and turned. If he did end getting dropped, then he would have to find another publishing company. Having to do that would cause him unnecessary stress and take forever. Plus, if he didn't find another publishing company, then he would stop making money. The money that he currently had would be quickly depleted by his lifestyle, and soon he would be penniless. Also, he didn't think that he had any other real talents except writing, and if he couldn't write, then what could he do?
He woke up the next morning, worse for the wear. He had huge bags underneath his eyes, and his hair was sticking up everywhere. His whole body was just dead tired. With one look at his reflection in the bathroom, Yuki decided that it would probably be a good idea to take a shower. At least that would get rid of his funky hair.
He stripped and stepped into the shower. He turned on the water and jumped about a foot in the air. The water was ICE cold. Well, at least that had woken him up. He stood in the shower, shivering, until the water started to warm up. It took a while, but eventually it got to be pleasantly warm. He lathered himself up with soap and shampoo and then rinsed it all off.
He stepped out of the shower, dripping water all over the floor. He cursed when he realized that he had forgotten to put a towel on the floor. Not only was it not there to soak up the water, but it also meant he was standing on cold tile. He grabbed a towel off the rack next to him and quickly dried off.
Once he was satisfied that he was no longer going to drip water everywhere. He walked into his bathroom and picked out what he wanted to wear for the day. His eyes strayed over his alarm clock and they widened. If he wanted to make it to the café in time, he would have to run. He threw on the clothes that he had picked out, slipped on some shoes, and started sprinting out the door.
When his editor saw him, she started cracking up. His eyes were still very baggy and he was very flushed from running.
"Good morning, Yuki-san," she said cheerfully. In all truths, she hadn't actually expected him to show up. She didn't intend to fire him either, but he didn't need to know that.
"Why did you call me out here?" he asked her, rather hostilely.
"We need to talk about this," she held out a newspaper with a headline on it that said, "Yuki Eiri Threatens Paperboy." She pulled out another newspaper that said, "Famed Author Yuki Eiri Pictured Here Yelling At Cashier." She continued to pull out paper after paper and everything basically said the same thing. "We need to talk about your public image," she told him.
"My public image? My public image is just fine!" he started to shout. Nearby he saw a flash and heard the distinct "click" of a picture being taken. Something told him that tomorrow morning a headline would be something like, "Local Author Found Screaming At Editor."
"Your public image is not fine, which is why I've volunteered you to do some volunteer work." She sat patiently sipping her coffee waiting for what she had just said to register in his brain. Three...two...one...
"WHAT!?" he screamed. He stood up really fast, knocking the table over. All the food went flying to the floor, and he got water all over himself. The entire time, his editor just sat there, still drinking her coffee.
"Sit down, Yuki-san. No matter what you say, you are going to do this volunteer work. Or else, I'm going to be forced to take the drastic measures that I discussed on the phone last night with you." Yuki was about to scream something else, but he closed his mouth and held it in. He sat down back in his chair. The waiter's started cleaning up the mess, but Yuki's editor motioned for them to wait for a second while they finished talking.
"Where's the volunteer work at?" Yuki asked begrudgingly. His editor smiled, thankful that she was finally getting through to him that he had to do this.
"At the local hospital." Yuki almost blew up yet again, but he managed to contain himself.
"You mean to tell me," he asked through clenched teeth, "that I have to do volunteer work –where I don't get paid- at a hospital!?"
"Yep. You're scheduled to meet at the hospital managers in about an hour. Oh, and so you don't chicken out on the way out there, I'm going with you." Yuki looked downtrodden.
"Splendid," Yuki said. Yuki's editor walked up to the front counter and paid the bill. Yuki looked behind to where they had been sitting and saw the large mess that the waiter's began to clean up. He took out his wallet and added some extra money to the tip.
Yuki and his editor walked silently out of the café and towards Yuki's house. Yuki was silent the entire time there, deep in thought. His editor looked at him, and she kept seeing him furrow his brow over and over again.
"Is something wrong, Yuki-san?" Yuki shook his head and unlocked the front door to his house when they got to it. Yuki started to close the door after he entered himself in an attempt to block his editor out. She anticipated the move and stuck her foot in the door. "Not going to work." She let herself in and sat down in the living room on the couch. Yuki sat on the chair across from her.
They just sat there, staring at each other, for God knows how long. Yuki had long ago quit trying to control his editor by glaring at her, because he found out fast that she was immune. His editor, however, thought that the entire situation was quite comical. After all, it wasn't often that you got the mighty Yuki Eiri looking like he was about to cry because he had to do something good for the community.
Yuki's editor looked at her watch and saw that it was time for them to leave to go to the hospital. She stood up and gestured for Yuki to do the same. He took his time standing up, stretching as he did so. He started hobbling, and faked that all of a sudden he couldn't walk. Yuki's editor rolled her eyes and pushed him out the door. She made sure that Yuki had a key to his house, and then she locked the door on her way out. Yuki still hadn't seemed to find the use of his legs, so his editor pushed him all the way to the hospital.
She pushed him in the doors and was immediately greeted.
"Do you need help? Is he okay?" an overly worried nurse started to ask her.
"He's fine. We're here for a meeting with the manager."
"Oh. Of course! He told me he was expecting you. Go straight down the hall, and take the elevator the fifth floor. His office number is 516."
"Thank you so much." By then, Yuki could walk by himself again, and was sulkily walking towards the elevator. He got inside and pressed all the buttons so that it would stop at every floor. His editor had had enough of his childlikeness and was scolding him when they walked into the manager's office.
"Hello, welcome to Tokyo General Hospital, what can I do for you?"
"I'm here to check in Yuki Eiri. He's supposed to be volunteering here." The manager shifted his attention to the other male in the room, and studied him.
"Of course. I'm Ezaniya Akinori. We're going to have you working in the pediatrics ward, visiting with the patients and playing with the kids." Yuki snorted. He couldn't think of a person less likely than himself to work with kids. The manager raised an eyebrow. "Since you're starting today..." Yuki interrupted him with a giant cough. He hadn't known that he was starting right away. "Since you're starting today, I'll show you around where you'll be working and who you'll be visiting. You're going to be coming in every other day for a month, correct?"
Yuki started to shake his head "no", but his editor smacked him and told said, "Yes."
"That's wonderful, well, Yuki-san, if you'll follow me, then we'll get started." Yuki followed Akinori as he explained the rules of the hospital and where he would be going. "This is the first place you'll be going. You're just here to visit him, since he doesn't get very many, if any, visitors." The manager started to walk away, but Yuki grabbed his arm.
"Wait! What am I supposed to say to him?"
"Anything. Discuss the weather, ask how he's been, tell him how you've been..." his list kept going and going as he walked away from the room, leaving Yuki there to decide what to do. Yuki glanced at the chart next to the door that showed him who was inside.
"Shindou Shuichi. Male. Seventeen years old. Lacerations all over his body..." Yuki read out loud. He was surprised to find a seventeen year old in the pediatrics ward, but he didn't think too much about it. He stopped reading the chart and opened the door.
He surveyed the room before stepping into it, making sure that it didn't contain anything dangerous. He found that it was just a boring old hospital room with a hospital bed, a whole bunch of machines, and a television.
Yuki looked at the person that was lying down on the bed. He had bright pink hair, and Yuki found himself leaving the room quickly to check to see if he had read the chart correctly. The person on the bed seemed quite feminine. After re-reading male over and over he decided that Shuichi was, indeed, a male.
Yuki sat down on the chair next to the bed and just observed the boy, trying to figure out what he was going to be like when he woke up. Of course, that was all assuming that he was asleep. He couldn't really be sure.
Yuki reached down and shook the boy awake. Shuichi's eyes shot open, as they searched for whatever had woken. Yuki backed away in shock. Shuichi was looking at him, yet, he was looking right through him. Yuki darted back outside to check that chart again, and this time, he read all the way to the bottom. Yuki gasped at the last thing that he saw.
Shuichi was blind.
End Chapter 1
Okay, okay, so I decided to come up with a new story. I couldn't help it! It just popped into my head and wouldn't get out! I promise, I'll update Earthquake as soon as the writer's block on it fades. For this story, I'm not going to kill myself to get out chapters. In other words...I'm not promising a chapter a day. However, I will try to get them out in a timely matter.
Anyway. Like? No like? Please, review me to tell me. Thanks so much.