Untitled dribble no. 5 (Gravitation: Shuichi and Yuki in a Digimon crossover)

[eeveee]

Eiri Yuki had never made any great efforts when it came to figuring out the exact outs and ins of Shuichi Shindou's personality. This was mostly because Shuichi was an unusually loud extrovert who broadcast his feelings and opinions to everybody who was willing to listen. Through sheer volume, he usually inflicted them on any innocent bystandards as well. Eiri's carefully constructed indifference also had its source in a childish insistence that it had been Shuichi who decided to latch onto him, and that he himself had no obligations to conform to the younger man's personal quirks.

But with three years and counting of co-habitation came knowledge whether he wanted it or not. He knew from experience that Shuichi didn't eat tomatoes and that he used whatever shampoo was closest by, be it Eiri's expensive brands or something picked up at a hundred yen sale. He knew that he and Shuichi had radically different definitions of what made a stained shirt, and that Shuichi, for being one who didn’t always brush his hair in the morning, was fanatical when it came to having it cut monthly.

From some glossy teenage magazine in Seguchi's office, he even knew that Shuichi didn't like strawberry ice cream.

But there was one thing that Shuichi never babbled about, and that was his childhood. Eiri had always just assumed that this was because Shuichi's life appeared to have been so harmonious that it bordered to nauseating until he was signed onto NG-records. If Shuichi ever spoke about his childhood and teenage years, it was brief mentions of family antics or amusing episodes.

It had never occurred to him to ask about the Attack, either. Perhaps this was because Eiri was born and raised in Kyoto, and had been in New York when it happened. He only moved to Tokyo at the age of nineteen, and by then, the damaged buildings had long since been re-build and the Attack was distanced enough to be a "back then". But for Shuichi, who (as far as Eiri knew) had lived in the same house until he left school, it was decidedly odd that he never as much as mentioned it. One of the first things Eiri had noticed when he moved to Tokyo had been that the native dwellers often referred to the Attack when estimating time; even his brother-in-law, though it usually went before-or-after New York around Eiri, could sometimes be heard talking about how something had happened around the time Nittle Grasper had released their second record, just before the Attack. But Shuichi, curiously, never did that.

That wasn't something he had thought much about before now, as he was watching Shuichi haul a cardboard box out of the bottom of one of their bedroom closets. Being notably unaffected was one thing, but this was not a natural reaction to live TV broadcasts and governmental urges for civilians in other parts of the city to stay put in order to avoid traffic chaos as the critical area was evacuated. Particularly not since Shuichi obviously must have left the NG building to come back to their apartment, and for some reason picked up a stuffed toy on the way.

"A-ha! I knew I had them around here somewhere!"

Eiri bit his tongue from asking what use he possibly could have for swimming goggles at a time of national emergency. Shuichi was on his feet again and went to the living room, with the stuffed toy under the arm that also clutched the goggles. Casting a glance out the window, and then at the TV, the other man nodded ever so slightly to himself.

"We better get going. It's going to take a while to get down there, even with ExVeemon."

"Going where? It's chaos out there, and the city has been brought to a fucking stand-still because of that!"

Shuichi actually startled a little, as if he hadn't noticed his presence before now. He glanced down at the stuffed toy in his arms, and frowned a little.

"I, uh, have some... business," he stated slowly, carefully observing Eiri's reaction, "that I need to take care off. You just stay here, 'kay? I'll be back soon - well, maybe not very soon, but - "

Eiri glanced over his shoulder to the front door of the apartment, which still was gaping from Shuichi’s hurried entrance a few minutes ago. He considered Shuichi’s hesitant explanation, and carefully stepped back until he was standing in front of it.

"I knew you were stupid, but the last time I checked, you still had at least some common sense. Do tell me what sort of 'business' you could possibly need to work out so badly that you need to put yourself in mortal danger by going through a city that is underway of being wrecked by otherworldly monsters."

"But that's just it!" Shuichi snapped, clearly exasperated, "That's what I have to fix! We have to get down there and help out!"

Eiri wasn't sure what to point out to him first - that Shuichi just had asked him to stay at home, that this wasn't the way celebrities contributed to charity, or that his left shoe had become untied. Regardless of the nature of his (plentiful, inventive and derogative) comments to Shuichi’s intelligence, he knew that the younger one could be quite perceptive if he gave himself the chance to think before he opened his mouth and got into trouble. He had never felt any need to second-guess any of his decisions, even those that affected Eiri himself, but this wasn’t just a matter of chart ratings and burnt dinner. It appeared that Shuichi Shindou either had fallen victim to some sort of insane prima donna syndrome or finally lost his mind, and Eiri certainly made sure the former didn’t happen.

"Are you fucking crazy?" he spat at last, clutching the doorframes, "Going down there now is suicide!"

"For you, maybe, but I'll be fine! I know how to handle things like this!" Shuichi protested, perversely confident in his survival skills for somebody who Eiri didn't trust behind the wheels of his cars. He made a movement as though he was going to shove Eiri out of the way, but froze, blinked, and suddenly smiled like an idiot.

"Yuki! Are you worried about me?"

“Of course I’m not worried about you!” He sneered, lifting a knee so he was ready to kick Shuichi away if he decided to get clingy, “Do you have any idea about what Nakano will do to me if word gets out that I let you run down there and get yourself killed?”

He was painfully aware that Shuichi didn’t believe him. The other man smiled in that sweetly deranged way he always did when he thought that Eiri was being affectionate against his own will. But unfortunately, he was not as distracted as Eiri had dared hope for a desperate second. The smile faded from his face, and a slightly harried expression appeared.

“Yuki, you have to move. We are needed down there; they can’t do it without us.”

“No. NO. I’m not leaving, and neither are you.”

“Yuki! I never asked you to leave, but I have to go! It’s my, it’s our, it’s… it’s a duty! I have to do this! They need us down there!”

“Yeah, pal, so let off already!” a new voice chorused from under Shuichi’s arm. The younger man froze and clamped a hand over the face of the plushie.

Eiri froze as well, torn between confusion, suspicion, and something that felt uncomfortably much like fear.

“What’s up with the toy?” he asked at last.

“Really long story,” Shuichi answered quickly, turning back and forth, “and please move. I really have to go there.”

“Do you have some sort of death wish?”

“It’s complicated, you moron, and I don’t have time for this! I’ll be fine, and I’ll explain everything, just get out of the way and let me go!”

“No!”

“Yuki!”

“What the hell can you do down there that the military can not?!”

“Demiveemon and I can fight them with something that actually works! We can return them do the Digital World without destroying their data! We can battle without involving innocents, but in order to do so, I have to get down there so that Nokoru and I can instigate the golden digivolution!”

Eiri stared. Shuichi slouched.

Then he sighed, and carefully put the toy down on the floor. Eiri flinched when it turned around and looked at Shuichi, clearly worried.

Shuichi pulled the goggles down around his neck, and then he pushed them into his hair. He turned around, gave the TV set in the living room one last look, and then he tied his left sneaker.

“I’m really sorry about this. Demiveemon – “

He looked at the toy, and the toy did an impressive job of nodding back for something whose head was larger than its body, presumably stuffed with cotton wool.

And then it turned around, waddled a couple of meters or so away from Eiri. He could only watch as it ran up to speed, and with a well aimed jump, hit his chest in the exact spot where he overbalanced and toppled over.

“I’m really sorry about this,” Shuichi called over his shoulder as he ran past the open door, “and I don’t think we’ll make it back in timer for dinner. But make enough for three just to be sure.”

---

Tomokazu Seki's only involvement in Digimon was to voice Neon in Savers - who was an idol singer.