Title: Dancing with Destiny

Author: Ayakaishi Fei

E-mail: Ken_Dai_

Rating: PG13

Category: Possible Romance. Humour.

Warnings: Implied Slash/One-sided Slash. Language.

Summary: Terra and Shin have been best friends since forever, however, after Shin reveals that he's worried about the future things begin to change between them, and a new addition to their friendship circle changes the dynamics of a previously exclusive friendship. Slash.

Chapter One: You're in love with me, right?

"Okay, I'm here." I smirk triumphantly at my best friend Shin as I drop down onto the soft mossy grass beside him, "What's the emergency?"

Shin looks up nervously, his dark turquoise eyes so vulnerable and afraid that my ever-present lop-sided smile dissolves, and I almost die from the confusion and pain he radiates effortlessly.

"Terra, I..." He starts but then stops again. He chews on his lower lip, plays with his fingers, stares at the ground - anything to avoid my gaze. "Ter, I." I frown wryly, guessing easily which Shin-ism he's going to do next. I'm proved right when he shakes his head, "Never mind, it was nothing Terra."

Shin is one of those delicate, feminine looking boys - the ones you look at and wonder if you're looking a very pretty boy, or a very flat girl. He's been my best friend for years, and until now, we've always told each other everything.

I level my hard glittering dark grey eyes on his soft watery ones, "It isn't nothing, or you wouldn't be this upset. You always do this!"

His pouty lower lip trembles, and he bites down on it, and tugs at a lock of his fluffy white blond hair without saying a word. God he's exasperating.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you Shin? And if you tell me nothing I swear I'll kick your ass from here to kingdom come!" He shrugs, and I can't help but soften my glare, "Don't you trust me Shin?"

"I... You know I do!" He dashes away the vestiges of his confusion and pain, and glares weakly back at me, before looking away, "You... You're my best friend Terra. I know... I know I'm difficult, when I do this... but I..."

"Just talk to me Shin. I want to help you." I scoot closer, my voice dropping it's cold edge as I try to cajole him into telling me his problem.

Shin shakes his head again, as if to clear it, sending his fluffy hair flying for a few seconds, before it settles back into place like a messy halo. "I know, I just... I don't think I can tell you..."

I gaze into his eyes, a sudden thought occurring to me, and before I can stop it my mouth opens and the words come out, "Are you in love with me?"

Shin's already pale face loses what remains of its colour and his eyes widen, "W-what?"

"You are!" I stare at him in shocked fascination, "You're gay and you're in love with me... right?"

He lets out a choked splutter of laughter, his eyes incredulous. "Where the fuck did you get that idea?"

My jaw snaps closed and I mentally curse Arielle, plotting revenge on her even as the blood rushes into my cheeks, "I... Not my fault... Ari's been forcing me to listen to her stupid fanfiction... it just... sorry Shin."

He chuckles, and tugs at his hair again; "Gods - You make me laugh Ter. Damn this is going to sound awfully anti-climatic after that... but... well... my mom's getting remarried."

"Aw shit," I reach out and wrap an arm around Shin's slender shoulders, "You alright?"

He forces a wry grin, and teasingly ruffles my perfectly styled dark chocolate hair; "I'll be fine."

I glare at him, and use my free hand to mess up his already mussed white blond 'fluff', "Don't touch the hair!"

He laughs and stands, "Aw, is wittle Tewwa afwaid dat de big bad Shin will mess up his wuvly girlish hair?"

I pounce, knocking him to the ground, my eyes boring into his, "Don't push me 'Princess'."

He wiggles out, "Race ya back to my place?"

I smirk, my dark, incomparably sexy, uniquely 'Terra' smirk. "You're on, 'Princess'."

~~~

Shin is a little bit of an oddity, compared to the rest of his family. His mother, Ichi, is Japanese - hence the typically Japanese names - and, with the exception of her eyes, which are the same shade of turquoise as Shin's, she looks like a carbon copy of nearly every single Japanese woman I've ever seen.

Shin on the other hand, has blond hair, naturally, and his lips are slightly plumper than hers. He looks Japanese, if you ignore his hair, and his oddly coloured eyes, because he has the slender build and the delicate features. He has two older brothers, both of whom have left home and are living at large. Hiroyasu is the spitting image of Ichi, if she had brown eyes and Jakurou is the spitting image of Shin's father, Darryn, with a bulky torso, rippling with muscles, a honed body, brown eyes, and rougher features, but he has his mothers hair. Shin is the only one who inherited Darryn's blond colouring, which isn't that surprising, given that black hair seems to be a fairly dominant trait.

Darryn was killed in a car accident a few years ago, well actually about 8 years ago - when Shin and I were 8 years old. He was a cop, but some drunk kids, who'd decided to go joy-riding in a stolen car ended up trying to play chicken with him. Darryn slammed on the breaks when he realised what they were doing but the boy driving the stolen car didn't. We got told he died instantly by Ichi, but we later found out that he'd died slowly and painfully. Shin stopped trusting his mother after that.

Shin opens the door for me when we arrive at his house, since he beats me to the doorway, and we both take off our shoes in the entrance-way, a long ingrained habit for both of us, from years of having Ichi as mother and 'adopted-foster-mother' respectively. Shin yells something in Japanese, and I translate it to mean 'We're home', or something to that effect. I'm not what you'd call fluent in Japanese, but having practically lived with Shin for damn near 10 years, since we met in first grade, I've picked up a fair bit.

I don't mind really, Shin started teaching me how to speak it, because his mother doesn't speak English unless she has to, and I kind of wanted to fit in. My sister Arielle, was never really overly interested in the fact that Shin was teaching me Japanese until about 3 years ago, when at 15, she discovered anime. I, of course, had seen it, and I... didn't see the big deal. As far as Shin and I were concerned, we had outgrown cartoons.

Arielle started out tame, but it didn't take long for her to fall in love with shounen-ai and yaoi, a phenomenon she discovered online, and subjected me to in the form of smutty fanfiction and anime's or manga's she wanted translated - FAKE, Gravitation, Yami no Matsuei. While I never complained - Ari has a mean left hook - I wasn't exactly as thrilled to be watching gay romance stories as Arielle. Ari's been trying to convince me *I'm* gay for about 6 months now, hence my reason for reacting the way I did to Shin. I've started seeing it everywhere, and Ari doesn't help. To quote my sister: "Homosexuality is a mindset, once you accept it you're halfway there." Very worrying thought. I push the thoughts to the back of my head.

Ichi meets us when we walk into the kitchen, and instructs us to wash our hands for dinner, in Japanese as usual. She's stopped asking if I want to stay for dinner, since Hiro and Jak left I've been treated as the replacement son. I follow Shin to the bathroom to wash, and I loose my hair from its customary ponytail respectfully before we return to the kitchen to sit down to eat. A somewhat attractive middle-aged man is already sitting at the table, western style, and there's a boy, perhaps a year or so older than Shin and I, sitting to his left. Ichi takes the seat to his right, and Shin sits down next to her, leaving me the seat between him and the unknown boy.

Ichi smiles when we take our seats, and to my surprise, she addresses us in English, "Boys, this is my fiancee Andrew Podgeson, and his son Luke. Andrew, Luke, this is Shin, and Terra."

Andrew grunts something, and nods and Luke smiles at us, but there's something about the smile that I don't like. I tell myself I'm imagining things and I manage to stay polite, talking only to Shin, and only in Japanese when I do. About halfway through the meal I feel something touching my knee, and I assume it's Shin, so I glare at him. He's making me feel stupid because I thought he was in love with me.

Rather than stopping, Shin continues his torture, until his fingers are rubbing teasing circles on my inner thigh, and I can't say anything because Ichi will know and we'll get in trouble. The fingers brush lightly against my groin and then I realise that the fingers aren't coming from the right direction - it's not Shin touching me at all - It's Luke!

I stand up with a strangled yelp, and the whole table turns to look at me, while my face slowly turns red. "I need to be excused," I manage in Japenese, before dashing towards the toilet. When I get there I lock the door, and let the tears stream down my face. I can't believe... Oh God.

There's a knock on the door, and I open it, expecting Shin, but instead Luke is standing there with a smile. "Something wrong, Terra?"

I stare up at him wordlessly through my dark curtain of long silky hair, and he chuckles, using his hand to brush it back behind my ear, "I wasn't expecting you to be so pretty, you know. You and Shin both - two lovely little brothers, to boss around. If I was to fuck you up against the toilet wall, would you call me..." He paused then smirked, "Oniichan...? That is the Japanese word for big brother, isn't it? I could tell all my friends how my pretty little Japanese baby brother moaned 'big brother' like a whore when I took him. You'd like that wouldn't you? I can see it in your eyes that you like to fuck men."

I shove him away, "Get off of me you fucking prick! I'm Terra Harrison, Shin's best friend, and even if your father does marry Ichi, we still won't be related, so your plan is fucked. One more thing - touch Shin and I will cut off your balls and feed them to you, you fucked up piece of shit!"

I see surprise register on his face, but it disappears just as quickly, and he pins my shoulders against the wall, "So your not my new baby brother. Pity, but you're still damned pretty. C'mon, let me take you out Terra, hell, Shin can come too - brotherly bonding. Near as I can see your part of this family - and I'm sure Ichi would be pleased to see us getting along..."

I sigh, "Whatever. After dinner."

"Alright... one question though...?" Luke smiles disarmingly and drapes an arm around my shoulders.

"What?" My tone is wary, but I'm growing tired of all his shit, real fast.

"Have you and that little blond spunk made out yet? And how much do I have to pay to see it?"

I scowl as darkly as I can, "Not only are we both straight, but I've known Shin since we were knee high to a grasshopper - he's like my brother, and unlike some people - that isn't my kind of turn on."

He's silent for a moment, and I think I've gotten through to him, or upset him, but then he speaks, "...Pity."

I groan; I have the feeling that this change is not for the better. Shin's doubts about his mother's remarriage are completely justified - his new step-brother is a complete psycho!

~~~

Luke smiles at Shin as he takes his plate across to the sink, and I try not to shudder, if he touches *one hair* on Shin's head, I *will* kill him.

"Hey Shin, Terra and I were talking, and we were wondering if you wanted to come out with us, you know, brotherly bonding. If our parents are going to get married I want to get to know you guys." His voice is modulated, and polite, but it sends shivers down my spine nevertheless.

Shin grins, "Sure, that'd be cool, it's been ages since I've gone out anywhere."

Ichi smiles, looking very pleased, and I realise I can't disappoint her by trying to stop Shin from going, and I can't let him go god knows where with Luke. Luke smirks at me, and I get the feeling he planned this from the start.

I don't know exactly what he wants from us, but I have a fairly good idea, and while I'm not positive about Shin, I'm pretty sure that I don't swing that way. Or I was... until Ari started... corrupting me.

"I'd better go get changed first, and Ter probably should too. Coming?" He addresses me, and I follow him to his room, trying to avoid Luke's heated gaze on my back.

It only takes us a few minutes to find clothes that Shin deems acceptable, then we join Luke, who is twirling a set of car keys around his fingers.

"I'll have them back home before midnight, okay Mom?" He's saying as we walk in, and Ichi is nodding delightedly, pleased to have made such a wonderful impression on Luke.

Luke leers, and slings an arm around me, and then slings his other around Shins waist and leads us out to his car, "So, which one of you lovely boys wants to sit up front with me?"

I open my mouth to say I will, sacrificing my safety for Shins, when Shin cuts me off, "I will!"

Luke smirks, "Disappointed Terra? Don't worry, you can sit with me on the way home gorgeous..."

His hands dip down to touch my ass and slide between the fabric of my jeans and my boxer shorts.

I squeak as if scalded, pushing him away, "Would you bloody stop that!"

Luke chuckles tugging at my hair, "Oh don't be so stiff Terra, give me a chance, you might find you like it... Hell, I'll even do you and Shin at the same time - you'd like that wouldn't you?"

Shin blinks innocently, "Huh?"

I scowl, "You're worse than my sister!"

Luke opens the passenger side door to his small 3-door car so that Shin and I can climb in, and then climbs in himself while I crawl into the backseat of the tiny car.

"Just relax, and let me show you the time of your life." Luke smiles into the rear-view mirror, and I shudder - He's really, really starting to scare me.

End Chapter One

Authors Notes: Hmm... Well it's a start, I'm not sure how or when I'll continue with it, so if anyone has any ideas? I probably will end up continuing it - along with the many other stories I've got going, just might take me a while, depending. I'm finished school, with the exception of a history exam tomorrow, so I should be churning chapters out at a fairly decent rate, if I have inspiration.