Current mood:	drained
Current music:	T.M.Revolution - Meteor [instrumental]
Entry tags:	tangled web, the gazette

The GazettE - Reita/Ruki + Aoi/Uruha - Tangled Web - 1/2
Title: Tangled Web
Chapters: 1/2
Author: sadie_k_adder or Shuichi
Genre: Romance/Humor/Smut
Band: The GazettE
Pairings: Reita/Ruki, Aoi/Uruha, Uruha/Ruki
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, sexual situation
Summary: What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive...
Notes: This is my first try at writing the Gaze boys, so please be gentle... I want to write more (read: better) GazettE fics in the future, and I consider this just a warm-up so I can get comfortable with their characters. There's a part two because this would have been a damn long oneshot had I tried to fit the sex into it. XD;

Part 1

The restaurant was buzzing with the conversations of several different people. There was music playing in the background, and occasionally the sound of someone talking alerted Ruki to the fact that it was a radio station instead of a CD. He was drumming his fingernails against the fabric of the tablecloth, not even pretending he wasn’t bored to tears. He’d already finished eating, so all that was left was to wait for his partner to finish, too. Unfortunately, since Uruha preferred to move at his own, sometimes sluggish pace, it looked to be awhile until he would be done.

“Hm,” the guitarist said suddenly; Ruki looked up at him. He finished chewing up the food in his mouth, wiped his face with a napkin, and then said, “What do you want to do after this? See a movie? Grab some coffee? Do something else?”

Ruki stared at him for a moment, wondering exactly what he did want to do afterward. He wasn’t in the mood to see a movie. He certainly wasn’t about to wait around another hour for Uruha to finish a cup of coffee. He shrugged. “I dunno. What do you want to do?”

Uruha smiled. “I asked you out so you should decide.”

Ruki shook his head adamantly. “No, no, that’s not how it works. If you’re the ask-outer you have to make all the decisions. You’re supposed to impress me, Uruha-kun.”

Uruha nodded slowly, and then scooped up some more rice between his chopsticks. He started to bring it to his mouth, but paused and slowly lowered it. “Do you want to come back to my place then?”

Ruki heard something underlying his friend’s tone, but after thinking it through for a moment, found he didn’t care much. “Sure. I haven’t been laid in awhile,” he said with a shrug before taking another swig of his beer.

Truth was, as much as he would love to get laid, he had no desire for it to be with Uruha. He loved the other man, but as a friend and nothing more. He thought for the thousandth time that night that he had no idea why he’d said yes to going out with him in the first place. Perhaps he was just desperate for a good fuck. Perhaps that was all Uruha was about to become to him.

* * * * *

They’d barely crossed the threshold when lips were touching flesh. The apartment was dark, and Uruha didn’t feel a need to turn on any lights. He felt a little guilty that he was about to make love to Ruki without actually loving him, so he’d rather not have to look at his face…

His lips moved leisurely, though a little roughly over the smooth skin of Ruki’s neck. Ruki’s hands were tugging on his hair; his head was tilted back to allow better access. Uruha walked them further into the apartment until he spotted the silhouette of the sofa. He pushed Ruki onto it, and then quickly straddled his hips, letting his lips move over warm flesh again…

It just felt so wrong. He knew he didn’t love Ruki. In fact, other than a few fleeting feelings here and there, he really just felt friendship toward the other man. It was terrible what they were doing. But then…at the same time, Ruki was allowing him, wasn’t he? “Ruki-kun,” he breathed, pulling away, trying to find the other’s eyes in the darkness.

Ruki must have had them closed, for they suddenly glittered, signaling he’d opened them. Uruha offered a smile, whether it was visible or not. “How do you feel about me?”

There was a surprised pause, and then Ruki said reassuringly, “Oh, I like you a lot, Uruha.”

It still didn’t sound right. Still, Uruha said in reply, “Good. I like you, too.”

Then he lowered himself over Ruki once more to finish the act that felt so very wrong to him.

* * * * *

It was two weeks later. The practice room was quieter than usual for some reason, Kai noticed. He was the only one making any noise, really, as he whistled a merry tune from behind his drum set. He was trying to see how coordinated he was by attempting to whistle on key while also twirling his drum sticks. Thus far, he’d only dropped them four times. Even then, he was proving himself more capable of multitasking than he’d thought; he was also psychoanalyzing his band mates.

Uruha and Ruki were both sitting on the couch beside each other. Uruha had an arm slung nonchalantly around Ruki’s shoulders, but though their pose said they were particularly close, neither of them looked very comfortable. Uruha was staring meaningfully at the floor, his brow furrowed in thought. Ruki was wringing his hands out of nervous habit, though he was alternating between watching Aoi and watching Reita.

Aoi was the only one who looked remotely happy, although there was still something off-putting about him. He was tuning his guitar, though every so often he would strike the wrong note. Kai finally realized this usually happened because he would turn his gaze to the two on the couch, glaring at them from behind a fringe of dark hair, probably assuming no one could see the loathsome look on his face because of it.

Reita had long ago abandoned his bass in favor of standing as still as a statue with both hands on his hips. He had his nose strap on, which he only wore outside of the view of fans when he wanted to hide behind it—behind his band persona. His gaze would occasionally flicker over to the two on the couch, but overall he just stood there. He looked somewhat lost, and though he tended to be a restless person, there was a difference between looking lost and restless, Kai reckoned.

“Okay,” the drummer finally piped when he dropped his drumsticks for the fifth time, “is it time to resume practice? How’s your guitar, Aoi?”

“It’s fine,” Aoi said in a sort of strained voice, one that suggested he was pretending to be happy and carefree.

“All righty, back to work then!” Kai announced cheerfully. “Come on, folks, I think it’s time we practiced BEST FRIENDS!”

But no sooner had he gotten the words out of his mouth than a string on Aoi’s guitar snapped as a result of him tightening it too much. “Aw, damnit!” He swore loudly, throwing it down in frustration.

“Calm down, Aoi-kun,” Kai said in a would-be fatherly voice. “You’ll just have to fix it, that’s all. How about a smoking break, everyone?” He smiled cheerily around at his band mates.

“I have to pee,” Ruki muttered, getting up and making for the door.

Uruha got up and left after him. Kai looked at Aoi and Reita, both of whom seemed to have no desire to leave the practice room. “Look,” he said quietly, “I know it’s bothering you guys that Ruki and Uruha have a…a…well, you know…that they’ve announced they’re sort of…seeing each other… But don’t let it get in the way of your talents, okay? We’re a strong band, and we’ll do just fine, even if…well, you know. Obviously.”

Aoi just looked grumpier. Reita was perfectly stoic as he said, “Gotcha.”

Kai wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but he hoped his friends would get over their animosity during the break. “Well, I’m gonna go smoke,” he informed them before leaving the room.

* * * * *

The moment Kai left, Aoi kicked his guitar, instantly regretting it because he loved it and so kicking it was a very stupid thing to do. He picked it up and sat on the couch, fishing a guitar string out of a nearby end table. He lifted his head, spotting Reita sit down on the floor, leaning his back against the wall and shutting his eyes with a sigh. “Oh, what’s your problem?” He huffed, feeling increasingly annoyed because he and Reita couldn’t both be upset at the same time! That ruined his thunder!

Reita opened his eyes and gazed at Aoi thoughtfully for a moment before letting out a huge sigh that sounded like a release of a ton of emotion. “I can’t stand Ruki and Uruha being together like this! It’s tearing me apart!” He shook his head and buried his face in his hands.

Aoi harrumphed. “I agree, it sucks major dick. At least you don’t have questionable feelings for one of them like I do. It’s that much worse, I promise you.”

But Reita’s head shot up at that and he stared at Aoi in numb disbelief. “Y-you like Ruki? What…what is the deal?” He thrust his face back into his hands.

“Stop being retarded,” Aoi waved him off. “I like Uruha. He’s so funny and he has that smile that could light up the whole world… Oh, and the way he chews his food…and then those thighs…” He sighed and shook his head. “But it doesn’t matter. If he likes someone like Ruki he’d never like me. Obviously he likes short, cute people instead of tall, strikingly handsome people.”

Reita rolled his eyes at Aoi’s cleverly feigned arrogance. “Hey, you still have a chance with him, as far as I’m concerned. But Ruki could never go from sexy Uruha to stumbling, bunny-toothed me…”

Aoi raised an eyebrow. “’Bunny-toothed?’” He queried, mouth twitching as he fought off a laugh.

“Don’t make fun of me,” Reita snapped, very obviously not in the mood.

Aoi chuckled. “Relax, I wasn’t going to. I just find it interesting… So you like Ruki. I don’t know why I didn’t notice before. It’s really obvious.”

Although his cheeks were mostly obscured from view, it was still obvious Reita was blushing at the comment. “The problem is that I’ve always been too afraid to tell him that I love him. Now Uruha got to him first. We’re really unlucky, Aoi-kun.” He leaned his head back against the wall again, becoming the picture of defeat.

Aoi had stopped fixing his guitar, though, and was staring at Reita as though he’d just found a lost pyramid. “Reita,” he half-whispered, afraid that speaking any louder would damage his great idea, “I’ve just had a great idea.”

Reita lifted his head, cocking an eyebrow quizzically. “And?”

Aoi grinned and set his guitar aside, standing hurriedly. “And it’s a great idea! I’ll try to seduce Ruki. You bring Uruha into the room right when we’re in a compromising position—preferably one where it looks like Ruki was seducing me. I can manage that, I’m sure… Anyway, we get Uruha to believe that Ruki tried to instigate something with me. He’ll be mad and break it off with Ruki. I’ll be there to apologize and tell him I had no idea what was happening and all that, and you can comfort Ruki when he’s devastated because Uruha dumped him. Oh my god, it’s fool proof!”

There was a slight maniacal glint to his eyes, and Reita wasn’t sure whether to feel aggravated or amused. He shook his head and stood as well. “If anyone can screw up a fool proof plan it’s a fool, though, Aoi. And we’re hardly above acting foolish.”

Aoi waved him off. “No, no, it’ll work, trust me!”

As if the gods were telling them to execute the plan, Ruki suddenly walked in at that very moment. Aoi gave Reita an excited glance. Reita understood the look, and so made for the door. He had very mixed feelings when he left, though.

* * * * *

Ruki turned to watch Reita leave when he brushed past him. There was a sadness in the other man’s eyes he wasn’t accustomed to seeing. Almost without even thinking he turned to go after him, but was stopped when Aoi grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “We’re alone at last, Ruk-kun!” He exclaimed.

Ruki blinked twice before raising both his eyebrows at Aoi. “When did you start doing drugs?” He asked.

Aoi chuckled. “You’re so funny, Ruki-kun. I’m not doing drugs, I just want to be with you. Is that so wrong?”

“Yes,” Ruki said bluntly.

The next moment he let out a surprised and embarrassingly girly squeak when Aoi grabbed his wrist and threw him onto the couch. His guitar fell to the floor with a clatter and he gave it a fleeting glance of remorse before leaning down over Ruki. “You know, Ruki—“

But whatever he was going to say, Ruki didn’t find out. The studio door burst open then, and Reita flew in. “StopAoistopnowyoucan’tseducehim!” He said in a rush of breath.

For a moment Ruki and Aoi were both stunned completely stupid. Then Aoi noticed Uruha had come in behind Reita and said, “Aw, Reita, you were supposed to wait until it looked like Ruki was seducing me!”

“What!?” Ruki exclaimed. “What the hell is going on?”

“I’m here, what’s happening!?” Kai called from down the hall before bursting in and running into Uruha, who then accidentally ran into Reita, who tripped on his own feet and fell over.

The bassist bounced up, his skin flushed a significant shade of red. “I won’t let you seduce him, Aoi,” he said, squaring his shoulders. “In fact, I don’t want you touching him,” he added, a significant severity to his voice. “For one thing, if they’re happy together then it’s wrong for us to tear them apart with fool proof pranks. For another thing…” I love Ruki and for that reason I won’t allow you to touch him like that. But the words wouldn’t come out. Looking at Ruki watching him with such a cute, quizzical expression, his tongue suddenly felt like it’d swelled to twice its size.

“But why would you want to tear us apart?” Uruha asked, stepping a little further into the room.

Reita knew he’d turned even redder, and he ducked his head as he turned away. Aoi got off of Ruki and turned to Uruha with a smile. “Oh, you heard Reita—it was just a silly prank. We sure got you good, didn’t we!” He let out a forced laugh.

The room was awkwardly silent, and his laughter tapered off. Uruha looked between everyone else, obviously still very confused. Kai suddenly burst, “No! No you didn’t! You did a terrible job of pulling a prank! What…what were you hoping to prove, guys? Wow…that was just…that was really awful!”

He looked so surprised that Aoi started to snigger. Then he was laughing. Uruha joined in, looking relieved that there wasn’t some huge, dramatic thing going on without his knowing. Ruki stood up after a moment, though, and said, “Would you two stop laughing? I don’t believe you, Aoi. I don’t believe that was a stupid prank. Not after what Reita said.” He glanced at the bassist, who was cleverly trying to conceal himself behind the microphone stand.

Kai snorted horrendously, and covered his mouth when everyone looked at him. “Sorry. I just think it’s funny that Reita-kun thought we wouldn’t see him if he was standing behind the mic stand.”

But no one responded to him. Ruki walked over to Reita, who ducked his head again. He reached up and grabbed the Bandera, pulling it down sharply, and exposing Reita’s face completely. “Why do you always try to hide behind things?” He asked softly.

Reita shrugged, but didn’t say anything. The other three exchanged glances, and then a gasp emitted from each when Ruki closed the space between himself and Reita, kissing him gently on the lips. Kai slapped a hand to his cheek, looking stunned. “Now wait…if Ruki’s with Uruha, why is he kissing Reita?”

Aoi blinked at him curiously, and then turned to face Uruha. “Uruha, I have something to tell you, and I should have said it a long time ago.”

Uruha’s beautiful smile lit up his face and he said almost breathlessly, “Yes?”

Instead of saying something verbally, Aoi grabbed him and dipped him, kissing him roughly on the lips as he did so. Kai let out an almighty gasp, slapping his other hand to his other cheek. “W-what…wait, I thought Uruha…I am so confused.”

Ruki broke away from Reita and smiled brightly. “Am I right in assuming you’re upset Uruha asked me out?”

Reita shrugged again, looking at a loss for words. “Well…you know…“

“Would you be really angry if I said I only went out with Uruha because I hadn’t been with someone in a long time?” Ruki went on as though Reita hadn’t said anything. “And would you be terribly upset if I said I was waiting for you to ask me out? You slow poke…”

Reita blinked a few times, and then smiled and slipped his arms around Ruki, pulling him into a tight embrace. “Well…you know…”

Kai made his way to the couch and sat down, looking back and forth between Aoi and Uruha, who were still snogging, and Ruki and Reita, who looked like a cuddling married couple. “I get it,” he murmured, realization dawning on his features. He paused to laugh, and shook his head in bemusement. “What a tangled web we weave…”

Part 2

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Notes: 1) I should have the next part up tomorrow if all goes well! ^_~