Seven Weeks: A Seven Days Fanfiction

WEEK SIX: Wednesday, Part 2 (Yuzuru)

Seryou's black eyes locked with mine, over the stick of Pocky held in my teeth. His chin was still in my fingers, and I released his face slowly. His lips parted a little. Shit, he was so damn beautiful. My heart was about to crack my ribs.

I waited. I don't think I was breathing.

Finally, he took the other end of the Pocky in his mouth. His lips curved sheepishly as the shrieking in front of the stage rose to a deafening pitch. Flashes of light went through my peripheral vision, illuminating his porcelain complexion a dozen different ways. He nibbled forward, pausing to laugh and roll his eyes as the screams from the audience intensified. Blood was rushing loudly in my ears, nearly drowning them out.

I took a bite closer to him. Then another. The nearer our faces got, the more powerfully my greed kicked in. He tried to duck away just before our lips met, but I lurched forward and made sure they connected. I'd be damned if I was going to miss the opportunity, especially with that Motohiro guy lurking somewhere out there in the audience. And Shino, too. And all those shrieking teenagers, girls and guys both. Nope, I was going to make sure they all knew Seryou belonged to me.

For a split second, the satiny, strawberry-sweet softness of his lips skimmed mine. It was every bit as spine-tingling as the very first time Nakamura and her friends had us play this game.

Ito asked us to do it again. I grabbed another Pocky from the box he was holding, before Seryou could find an excuse to back out. The second time we were both laughing so hard that the biscuit snapped long before our mouths came together.

For the third round, the members of the fake-gay boy band joined us on stage and played the game too, in their fake couples. That one was so popular that we had to pause while the screen behind us showed replays, one at a time, of each couple's Pocky kiss. They saved Seryou's and mine for last. It was, of course, the best.

I might also have been feeling a little competitive about it... whatever.

Seryou was waving his hands in protest as I reached for yet another Pocky stick, but this time I flourished it at Grandfather, who was sitting at the back of the stage. "Ito Ichizou-san, don't you think Takeuchi Yuki-sama should play too?"

Seryou's eyes got big, but Grandfather laughed and stood with his cane, coming to join us at the front of the stage. With all the stage lights shining in our faces, I couldn't see Shimizu at the back, but Grandfather accepted the microphone from Ito and shielded his eyes, looking out over the room. "I'll only play with one person," he said, causing the audience to melt into a chorus of oohs. "But I don't know if he'll be willing to come up here with me."

Ito took the microphone back. "Oh, who could it be, I wonder? We should help Takeuchi-sama get his Pocky kiss, don't you think?" The audience roared agreement.

It took a few minutes, Grandfather standing with a serene, playful smile next to Ito, before there was movement on the far side of the stage. Shimizu Eiji appeared out of the shadows, mounting the steps to the stage, fearsome in his sleek black suit and sunglasses that hid his eyes. The set of his jaw was hard and humorless. Then again, he always looked that way. It didn't actually mean he wanted to kill me, right? Just to be safe, I passed the stick of Pocky to Grandfather and backed away several steps.

Seryou took my arm, watching Shimizu just as apprehensively. "Didn't think that one through, huh?" he whispered.

"Crap, I think he's gonna murder me in my sleep," I whispered back.

Shimizu crossed the stage until he was standing in front of Grandfather. Seeing the two of them side by side, Shimizu was taller by a good twenty centimeters. Dressed all in black, he looked like a shadow cast by Grandfather, who in contrast was in a white suit and silver-gray waistcoat, his soft colorless beard groomed into an elegant tail that touched his chest. Shimizu stood there stiffly, facing Grandfather without a word, and I think everyone in the conference hall was holding their breath.