Aiji/Maya (LM.C) - Crossover - Elections of the Heart - Chapter 5
Author: Sabina or Destiny or destiny_1989
Rating: PG-13
Summary: AU - You’d think life was easy in a small quiet town in Washington. But as the former president moves into said town, Mizui Aiji, plumber, finds that life wasn’t as easy as he thought.
Warnings: (overall) it's AU so fear teh OOC + yaoi, cheating at golf, doggie humping, swearing, vicious ex-wives…uh, husbands, politics, violence, high school bullies, lingerie, sap, angst, rape, attempt at rape
Pairings: Aiji/Maya (main)
Disclaimer: I would be bathing in money if I owned them. So no sue from you.
Pre Notes: The lack of feedback is really pulling me into a very emo mood. Is anybody actually reading this story?!
|promotional poster|

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4









Not many people have been supportive or understanding of me in my life. There were my parents who did all in their power to make sure I had everything I needed and who, after getting over the initial shock of hearing I wanted to run my very own hardware store, helped me get it on its feet. They moved to Florida, the state of retired elders, after that but I didn't hold it against them.

Then there were Tora, Shou and Saga, who I'm not ashamed to call my best friends. We had so much fun in high school and a short while after we graduated we were inseparable. Until they got hired at the local newspaper and their schedules weren't as flexible as before. They also helped me and Maya get together and for that I would be forever grateful to them.

Speaking of Maya, he's also one of the few who have supported me body and soul. I met him one day when he came by the store to buy some parts for a few appliances. His hometown was about 100 miles up north from Silvervale and he came here to start an animal hospital and a new life. You see, Maya's parents died in a car accident when he was very young. Not having any other relatives to raise him, he grew up in an orphanage and when it was time for him to leave, he came here.

Of course there were also Irma, Martha, Miku and Hiroto but I sometimes felt they were being nice to me because they had to. Wait, scratch that. Irma's constant name calling, Martha's nosing, Miku's flirting and Hiroto's smartassness made me think otherwise.

"DROP OUT OF THE ELECTIONS, YOU DUMBASS!"

Ah, Inoran's yelling once again had the desired effect of bringing me out of my reminiscing. It's situations like the one I was currently in that made me appreciate the support I got from people, no matter how little it had been.

When the four members of the local counsel walked into my store, I felt smug. There wasn't a more perfect word to describe my feelings. I was certain they had come to congratulate me. However, Inoran's straightforwardness burst my nice little ego bubble.

"Aiji, think for a moment. Having the former president of the United States as our mayor could do wonders for our town." said Tetsu, the ever polite diplomat. He really was spokesperson material; too bad he didn't really have anything to be a spokesperson for in Silvervale.

"Guys, you know he's still going to win. Why get on my case?"

Sugizo advanced quite menacingly toward the ladder I was on in order to rearrange some things on the self. I quickly climbed down before he got any ideas and he stopped mid-stride. So much for having the local counsel on my side.

Without another word but four huffs, they turned around and left. Two days ago we seemed to be the best of friends but just two minutes ago Sugizo wanted to kill me. Things couldn't get any weirder.

I sighed heavily and picked up the ladder, leaning it against another shelf. I heard the bell above the store door ring and my ears were flooded with people chanting my name. I looked to see what the commotion was all about and my jaw dropped. Five people came inside the store wearing big hats with the American flag on them, waving banners, placards with pictures of my face glued to them, flyers, badges and I could see at least ten more people outside the store.

"What is this? Guys, I told you I'm not campaigning..." They gave me a big dose of my ego back but I had to keep my humility.

Miku came up to me and tugged on my sleeve to get my attention. "Hey, Aiji. Do you like it?" I looked at him and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "I'm talking about these, silly." he chuckled and pointed down.

I followed his finger and looked at his jeans. They might have been quite normal, but for the fact that on one leg Mizui was written in big white letters, on the other Aiji was written in the same letters and a picture of my face was printed on the crotch area. Remember when I said things couldn't get any weirder? I take it back: they just did.

I smiled awkwardly at him but I don't think he noticed. "That's nice, Miku." I looked at the others. "Guys, I appreciate this but we discussed it already yesterday. I'm not campaigning."

Going to my office, I heard silence. I hoped they understood and would leave me alone. No such luck from Irma and Martha, though. They followed me in the office, Irma closed the door and Martha sat me down, quite forcefully, on my chair. I looked kind of puzzled at Irma who started pacing the office with her arms behind her back, looking like a disappointed principle talking to the school delinquent.

"Do you care about Maya or not?" I bolted from the chair at that but Martha pushed me, again forcefully, back down. What did she mean by that? I loved Maya more than anything and here was Irma, in front of me, questioning it. "Call it senile intuition but here's what I think: lose this election, lose Maya." Martha hmm-ed approvingly.

"Come on, Irma! Him going out with His Majesty is just a one time thing. It's not going anywhere. Plus, I don't think Maya would want anyone as old as the president." At least I hoped that was true. Come to think of it, the president couldn't have been too much older than me. And he was in better shape than I was. I sure hoped Maya wouldn't look at him that way.

"Power takes ten years off a man, Aiji. With that, he's already younger than you. Add the money he's got and he'd be leaving you in the dust. You still don't wanna campaign?" She threw a badge on my desk and both her and Martha left, giving me one last look that said "Don't be stupid, you dumb fuck!" but in not such vulgar words.

***

Saying Kirito wasn't happy would be an understatement. He was practically fuming as he flitted through his home. Finally finding what, actually who he had been looking for, he let loose.

"The plumber's boyfriend! You couldn't say a word to let me know Maya is the friggin' plumber's boyfriend!" his voice boomed.

"Excuse me, sir, I tried to tell you." Jun defended himself against the accusation.

"You should have tried harder! What am I supposed to do now?! Call off the date?!" he inquired as he threw his arms in the air, exasperated at the turn of events. Just his luck to develop a thing for his counter candidate's boyfriend. "Fucking great!" he cursed in his mind.

"Actually, you should stick to your plans, Kirito." The occupants of the parlor looked to the door and saw a smiling man in a suit, with dirty-blond hair. He took off his sun glasses and stepped more into the room. "Kaoru let me in. Heard you've got some problems that need solving."

"Yoshiki, I'm running against the man who installs my toilets. Is there something I need a campaign manager for?!"

"You haven't been watching the news recently, have you?"

At that, Jun turned on the TV to a news channel. In the upper right corner of the screen the results of the preliminary poll were shown and it didn't quite please Kirito. Aiji had a fairly good number of sympathizers, 38 % to be exact, while Kirito had 45% and 7% were undecided. They all stared, except Yoshiki, at the balance, not hearing what the news hostess was saying.

"Still don't need my help?" Yoshiki grinned at Kirito, reading the reply in his eyes.

***

It seemed to be a nice day. It started off great: not having Jack jump up and down on his bed, begging to be taken for a walk, no early morning call from Miyavi, no emergencies at the hospital, no nothing. It was the perfect morning in Maya's opinion.

It was 8:30 a.m. when he finished his breakfast and giving the cubs their vitamins and it was still cool outside so he hurriedly got Jack and Amy Jane ready for their walk.

The park was almost abandoned at that hour, which Maya found quite odd. Usually it would be filled with kids' screams and giggles. Shrugging and enjoying the silence, he unhooked Jack and Amy Jane from their leashes and let them run around and do their business in a special dog pen.

He jumped out of his skin and screamed when somebody poked his sides rather painfully and yelled in his ear. Turning around to smack his attacker with the two leashes, Maya had to stop himself mid-swing when he saw Miyavi, quite impudently, laughing his arse off.

"'Morning Maya, Miyavi!" said Hide as he passed them on his daily jog. Maya stared at him with a mix of shock and resignation, causing Miyavi to laugh even louder. Actually he didn't know what really made his friend laugh harder: his expression or the fact that Hide happened to be jogging by, in a park that normally would have been filled with children. Maya dreaded to continue his train of thought. Instead he turned back to Miyavi, who seemed to have calmed down.

"Do you take pleasure in making me scream like a little girl?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"Aw, but your screams are just so cute!" he looked like he wanted to pinch Maya's cheeks but refrained. "Man, you should have seen the look on your face when you turned around and wanted to go serial killer on me. Priceless!" he chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Whatever." Maya turned around with a huff, leaning on the fence of the pen and watching his dogs go about their morning business and having some fun chasing each other around.

"So, I hear you're going on a date with the infamous Murata "Eagle" Kirito tomorrow night." said Miyavi, leaning on the fence next to Maya.

"Yeah, I am." Maya replied indifferently.

Miyavi sighed dramatically and turned really serious. "Maya, if this is about the other night at the welcoming party..."

Maya looked at him, sort of miffed. "Why does everybody think I'm trying to get back at Aiji?! Yes, he was late; yes, I was upset; yes, I rubbed it in his face yesterday at the store but I am seeing him about a dog! He wants friggin' advice about a friggin' dog from a friggin' vet, Miyavi!"

"Over friggin' dinner." Miyavi pointed out. Maya let out an exasperated sound. "Maya, he's the former president. He gets what he wants through any means. I thought you would be more weary of trusting people you don't know personally after all that happened to you." He put his hand on Maya's shoulder and squeezed lightly. "You're my friend and I don't want to see you get hurt again."

"I know. I'm sorry I snapped at you, Meev. Give me a hug." Miyavi smiled and gladly complied. "Hey, can you give Ruki this list and tell him to bring those things by the hospital as soon as he can?" he asked Miyavi after breaking away from the hug, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket and handing it to him. "I was going to stop by your house later and give it to him myself but seeing as I ran into you, it'll save me a trip."

"Sure, what is it?" asked Miyavi looking at what was written on the paper and criss-crossed his eyes at the names, not understanding a thing.

Maya laughed at the faces his friend made. "Some antibiotics we've run out of. Also tell him to have a bill ready 'cause I'll pay him on the spot. Those things are quite expensive." he said pointing to the piece of paper Miyavi was now folding.

"Sure, will do." Miyavi gave Maya a salute and waited until Jack and Amy Jane were back in their leashes again and the two left in the direction of their respective homes.

When Maya reached his house he saw a pack of reporters and cameramen waiting on his porch. When they saw he had returned, they bolted toward and bombarded him with questions and suppositions they had made.

"How long have you and the president been dating?" one asked.

Maya sighed and replied. "I'm not dating him. It's one date. I'm not sure you could even call it a date."

They kept throwing questions like fireworks on the 4th of July and he started getting exasperated. Being asked if he had slept with Kirito was the last straw and he turned his back on the reporters and went inside the house. He was secretly thankful that Tora, Shou or Saga weren't in the pack. He would have lost all respect for them.

***

"Top priority is to show the townsfolk what Kirito can bring to them. Anyone with half a brain can see that this Mizui person couldn't bring to them even a small fraction of what Kirito can. Regardless of how he is." Yoshiki explained to the occupants of the parlor, being Takeo, Jun, Kirito and Kirito's two bodyguards, Kaoru and Die.

"And how exactly is he?" Kirito asked raising an eyebrow.

"It seems he's something we've never encountered before, Kirito. An honest man. Though the only thing that fact demonstrates is that he's never run for public office before."

"What did you get on him, Yoshiki?" Kirito asked as he motioned to his campaign manager to sit on one of the couches that flanked the coffee table.

"FBI and CIA have nothing. But think about this: he's running for mayor when he thinks he's unopposed and dates the same person for 6 years but doesn't pop the question. Do you see where I'm getting, Kirito?"

"He doesn't take risks." Kirito said understandingly, a smile appearing on his face.

"Exactly. And someone who doesn't take risks and doesn't make commitments shouldn't be in any leading position." Yoshiki concluded. He and Kirito shared a smile and a nod.

"Sir, I don't think you'd want to hear this but... should we discuss a withdrawal?" Jun tried cautiously. Yoshiki looked at him like he was insane.

"Withdrawal?! Jun, are you crazy?!"

"All the deals and offers would be lost." Takeo joined in. "Sir, if you withdraw or, Heaven forbid, lose to a plumber, you can kiss them all goodbye."

"What about that speaking tour? I still have that."

"I, uh... had to cancel it, sir." Kirito's eyes seemed to pop out of his head. "It seemed obvious that is was right in the middle of the campaign and..."

"That was millions of dollars, Takeo! Get out!" Before he could comply, Jun butted in and said he'd take care of the money and he was certain something would pop up. Kirito told Takeo to stay in the room but go to a dark corner, out of his eyesight.

"You know what? Call the press tomorrow and then get Aiji to fix the toilets." Yoshiki chuckled at Kirito's train of thought. "I'll talk to him in front of the press about this thing involving his boyfriend and don't say anything Yoshiki, because I will not cancel the date."

"Alright, sir. Takeo, let's get to work." Jun said taking Takeo's sleeve and pulling him out of the parlor to begin their assignment.


Post Notes:
1. I would surely like to have a pair of jeans with Aiji's face printed on the crotch area. *dreamy sigh*
2. Kirito's bodyguards finally have names!! *does happy dance*