Disclaimer: I don't own gravitation.

The Wallpaper

Chapter One

Wallpaper Blues

He rested against the wall, letting himself fall into a sitting position on the shag carpeted floor. It was the ugliest wallpaper you ever did see, with a faded turquoise blue background and orange flowers all around, and the shag orange carpet to match- which it didn't- was just as ugly. Everything was ugly in this small, near empty apartment room, and although quite handsome with rich honey gold eyes and sunflower yellow hair, Eiri Uesagi felt just as ugly. And the clothes he wore were just as ugly as anything else too, torn jeans with a white shirt splattered with stains.

The room lacked furniture as well as any other rooms other then a kitchen. All that could be found apart from the ugly wallpaper, ugly human being and ugly carpet, was a small plug-in heater in the corner that didn't work, next to a pillow and a small thin blanket. In the other corner a threshold that opened way to the smallest kitchen with the ugliest color yellow tiles- that were white at first- with a non working stove and oven, and a very empty fridge.

The bathroom could be located out of the apartment entrance door that Eiri was currently sitting next to and straight down the hall. Yet this knowledge was useless to anyone, for the shower water was always freezing cold anyway.

All in all, this apartment sucked out loud, but what could a man such as Eiri do? He was a fuck up and this is the kind of place fuck up's end up. Hell, the only reason he could afford a place at all was because of a contract he made with the owner, one he isn't about to tell you about, prying is rude I hope you know.

He was smart, but most certainly wasn't going places. His current status as a high school dropout, runaway and criminal was proof. He made bad choices, real bad choices and was in so deep it hurt to breathe. Eiri was a tired boy, only nineteen, yet he couldn't sleep. Even with bags under his eyes so dark, even with red-rimmed eyes, sleep wouldn't come. He longed to fall a sleep and never wake up.

But that wasn't an option.

Nightmares and regrets and night terrors plagued him. With every second his eyes closed they were right there to torment him, making it only hurt harder to breathe.

"Well fuck! God damn it!" someone shouted from the hallway. It was a voice Eiri wasn't familiar with in these apartments and in the four months he had been here so far, he was familiar with a lot of voices. Like the voice of his neighbor to the right who tried to jump out his window two times. Failing to succeed both, even though it was the from the fourth floor. He was familiar with the voices from across the hall of the prostitute and her son, the voice of the pot smoking old man, and the list went on.

But he didn't know this one. Even with such obscenities it shouted it was pure and timid sounding, the sound of someone with obvious "hopes and dreams". Eiri was good at judging and summing someone up.

There was a loud banging on his door that was persistent and would most certainly not go away, so sighing, Eiri stood and made his way to the door, pulling it open while the person was in mid knock.
Before him, or should he say below him, stood a small kid with bright pink hair bright violet eyes, all brightly shining with stupidity. Eiri laughed inside himself; this kid was tiny, very slim around his waist and his choice of outfit, a rag like towel wrapped around his dripping wet body, only did to prove it. If it wasn't for his lack of chest, Eiri would have thought him a girl.

"What do you want, punk?" the kid lowered his hand from its knocking position and smiled up at Eiri sweetly, despite Eiri's rather...unwelcoming glare.

"Mister, I'm real sorry for bothering you at this hour, but you see, I um...sort of locked myself out of my apartment while taking a shower and my roommates won't be home for another few hours, so I was just wondering if I could use your phone?" He asked shivering, water dripping from his hair.
"I don't have a phone." Eiri said frankly, expression not changing, nor moving at all to show some sign of interest. The kid was annoying, sooner he was gone the better.

"Oh...I see...well...um..." The kid looked down at his feet, clutching harder at the towel he had wrapped around his body.

Eiri sighed and closed his eyes. God damn it, he thought. He couldn't just leave the kid out there like that, dripping wet, nothing but a towel on; the kid was bound to be raped. In a place like this, it happened often. He moved aside, welcoming the kid in, finally grabbing the kid's wrist when he didn't appear to pay attention. He pulled him in and slammed the door.

Eiri walked over to his blanket/pillow corner, picking up the blanket and with a few short steps threw it over the wet kid's shoulders and proceeded to sit on his spot on the floor.

The kid stood there, quite surprised by the sequence of actions without words or explanations and snuggled into the blanket, throwing a questioning look towards Eiri.

"You can wait here until your roommates get back." Eiri said pulling a squashed cigarette packet along with a lighter from his pocket. He opened the packet to reveal one last cigarette and pulled it out, throwing the empty packet across the room.

"You can sit if you like." The kid looked around as though looking for a seat. Not finding one, he slowly sat on the floor a few inches from Eiri, snuggling in the thin blanket and leaning back against the wall.

"My name's Shuichi Shindou. Just call me Shuichi though. What's your name?" Oh god, Eiri could already feel the headache creeping along his forehead.

"...Yuki." It was his other name. The one he went by, the one he had to go by, or else it would be way to easy for the cops to catch up with him.

"How old are you kid?" Eiri asked, taking a puff of his cigarette.

"Eighteen, I just moved here...how old are you? Where are you from?" This kid was annoying as annoying gets.

"Nineteen and I forgot where I'm from."

"Forgot? How could you forget? That's horrible! I'm from Tokyo!"

"We're in Tokyo dumb ass." The kid's smile faltered but didn't disappear.

"Well I know...but moving here seems like moving to another world sort of...you know? It's kind of hard. But I'm a fuck up, my parents didn't like fuck up's, and so this is where I end up. I'm sure you don't understand though. You seem like a good sort of guy."

His voice was fast and high pitched. His eyes were open, bright and attentive. His smile was wide and gorgeous, he wore his heart on his sleeve and he couldn't be blinder. Eiri wasn't a good guy. Eiri knew what being a fuck up was like, there fore couldn't imagine this kid being one. This...Shuichi looked on the bright side when there was none. Yep, that's how Eiri summed him up to be. And after summing him up and looking into those bright, violet eyes for so long, Eiri thought he might become sick.

So he fished around his pocket for a hair pin and offered his service to Shuichi to just pick open the door, seeing as how the apartment doors here suck anyway and seeing as how Eiri was quite skilled in this, after losing his own key many times. So with a short grunt for a "you're welcome" and "good night", Eiri dragged himself back into his ugly apartment, with ugly carpet and ugly wallpaper. He sat back in his spot, glancing over at his blanket/pillow corner noticing the lack of blanket. He sighed heavily, starting to count the number of orange flowers on the wallpaper to see if it would cure his insomnia.

It didn't work so well.

End Chapter One.

Well what do you think? This will be a looooong one folks. PLEASE please give me feedback!