Prompt: What Made Them All Fall Down?

Title: Getting Back Up
Chapters: Oneshot
Rating: PG(?)
Warnings: smoking
Genre: Angst/romance
Pairing(s): Aoi x Uruha (the GazettE)
Summery:
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, however all characters therein are living people and owned by themselves
Author's Note: I have a big grudge against typos and mispellings so let me know if you spot any!! =)
Cross posted: coming soon to LJ

Eventually, everyone falls, Yuu thought; what a desolate thing. He gazed lazily out at the smoky city which he contributed to the daily destruction of with the white stick between his full lips. It's all so sad. This life.

Yuu's tired eyes went in and out of focus, blurry from the smoke, his exhaustion, his despair. His messy raven hair fell foreward, tufted layers spilling over his dramatic cheekbones as he leaned his elbows on the railing in front of him. He was tired of pretending.

What is strength? He thought. True strength. His heart weighed heavily and seemed to occupy his whole body; the ache spread to even his fingertips.

He ached for the lack of life in his bones. He ached for a nameless source that would breathe life back into his fading existance. Well now, that wasn't quite true. The source he thirsted for did have a name.

Kouyou.

Yuu anticipated the swooning sigh even before it swept through his body. Kouyou. Oh God. Just thinking of the other man's beloved name - Yuu's body filled with sweet aching light. His weak heart trembled in his chest from both delight and sadness equally.

What do you do, he thought, when you're out there in this crumbling world, Kouyou? Have you fallen too? Who are you when you're not a rock star?

Yuu's heart felt heavy again. The truth was, his pondering was justified - Kouyou never seemed to allow Yuu into his private world. Only the realm of guitars and fake faces and audience-appeasing answers. Then again, it wasn't as if Yuu himself had been particularly open to his bandmates either. But still...

Cre~eak.

Yuu tensed. Leave me alone. He didn't feel like explaining his long absence from practice to Yutaka's large concerned eyes that knew too much. Oh that's right, no privacy allowed for you, rockstar. He thought bitterly.

But it was not the pitying gaze of his band leader that met Yuu when he turned around. It was--

"Hey. Watcha up to?" The fluffy mass of Kouyou's long honey hair spilled around him per usual as he peeked around the corner of the door at Yuu, "can I join you?"

Yuu forgot how to breath. "Uh... sure, yeah. Of course. I'm smoking though."

"That's okay. Everyone still smokes around me," Kouyou brushed the statement aside cheerfully.

Yuu watched Kouyou's long figure come over to lean beside him on the rail. He considered what it must feel like for Kouyou to have lungs no longer burdened by black tar, how freeing it must be to not be slave to constant cravings, and to not have to depend on a stick of manufactured poison to calm your nerves.

Yuu was practically tingling with the other's closeness, yet he still wished he could move even closer - perhaps deep into the large warm heart beating in Kouyou's chest would finally be close enough for Yuu. He wanted wanted - needed - Kouyou.

Kouyou's mahogany eyes observed Yuu's deep faraway gaze. He rested his chin on his hands, lips curling into a little smile at Yuu's apparent daydreaming. Yuu never saw the way Kouyou's eyes took in nearly his every detail, the way they would squint tenderly at him one second, and seem to smolder with some secret knowledge the next.

"What are you thinking about?" Kouyou asked gently.

Yuu looked up, surprised, as if he hadn't expected to hear the other's voice.

"I was thinking about... falling. How everyone falls at some point." Yuu dropped his gaze and waited for what Kouyou would say to his strange and depressing thoughts. 

"Hmm... falling, huh? You're right. Everyone does fall. Into darkness or ruin or sin. It's humanity."

Yuu looked unbelieving at Kouyou, "Even you?" he near whispered.

The air seemed to still for a moment, then Kouyou chuckled a little. "Of course. I'm human aren't I?"

Yuu's heart fell, and he looked out into the dirty air choking the city. The blackness matched his mood.

"Why?" he said after a little while.

"Hm?" Kouyou turned to him, a look of soft inquiry on his face.

"Why does everyone have to suffer? What makes them all fall down?"

Yuu felt his eyes begin to sting in the corners. He willed the moisture away, but not before a rebel drop escaped and slid down his cheek, dripping onto his hand.

Kouyou did not miss the pearly offender's trail down his bandmates cheek. Before Yuu could make any embaressed excuses, Kouyou's large palm covered the spot of wetness on the back of Yuu's hand. The warmth of Kouyou's hand seeped through his skin into Yuu's bone-chilled fingers, and the tear splotch dried immediatly.

"Yuu... it doesn't matter what made them fall. What counts is that they get back up. People can learn to stand again." Kouyou patted Yuu's hand meaningfully. "I'll see you inside okay?"

"O...kay." Yuu watched Kouyou retreating back numbly. The way Kouyou had said 'people' made Yuu feel like Kouyou wasn't really talking about 'people' at all, but rather, a specific person. He wondered if Kouyou was really as clueless as Akira and the others constantly teased him of being.

But Kouyou had been right, Yuu thought. Even if everyone does fall eventually, people can always get back up again.

Yuu blew a final puff of smoke, silently appologizing to the city's smoggy skies, and followed Kouyou's path back inside to rejoin life.