"YUUU-UUUUKIII!" Shuichi shrieked at his Eiri Yuki. "I wanna go to a
basketball game!"
"Bye."
"No, silly! I want you to go with me!"
After much arguing, Shuichi and Yuki were seated in the bleachers of the local High School's gym. They were watching the Varsity boy's basketball team come out onto the court.
" 'Alright, girls!'" the announcer said loudly into the microphone. "Take a good long look at number 24 on the home team!!!" Shuichi looked immediately, wanting to see what all the commotion was about.
"Omigod! Yuki, look! It's Fujisaki!" Sure enough, it was the young man.
" ' Well, take a good, long look, ladies. Look, but don't touch. This gorgeous rock star-slash-basketball star is taken!'" the crowd began booing, and Fujisaki stumbled while practicing his lay-ups because he was blushing so bad. He looked up in the stands at a girl, and mouthed the word sorry. She shot him a thumbs-up through her shivering; her seat was right beneath the air-conditioner. He noticed her slight shivering, and took his warm-up jacket off immediately. He walked it over to her (she was right above the bench), and handed it to her while whispering something in her ear. She nodded, and whispered something back. He kissed her cheek quickly, and ran back off to practice. Shuichi seemed to be the only person that saw this.
" 'Whom, ladies and gentlemen, is the oh-so lucky girl that has stolen our sweetheart's heart?'" 'oh no' K thought to himself. 'Not Tani- chan.'
" ' Well, word on the street is it's still long time girl-friend and best friend Tani Watatsuki.'" The crowd began booing again, and pelted Tani- chan, his girlfriend with various articles of garbage.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Fujisaki began yelling. He then shot a glare to the announcer's booth, where his so called "best friend" sat doing the announcing.
" ' Sorry, Suguru-kun.'" Came the announcer's voice. K walked over, and sat so Tani was sandwiched between himself and her best friend, Niko- chan. Tani's dark red-wine hair was tied half back, letting some brush her shoulders. Her same colored bangs brushed right above French-blue eyes. Her eyes were that color that you're not quite sure if it's pale blue or pale lavender; it all depends on what you wear. Fujisaki's purple warm-up jacket made them appear more purplish that day. She seemed to be falling asleep in the bleachers. Her friend poked her.
"Wake up, dork, lover-boy's showing off for you again." Tani lazily opened one eye. It was nearly half time.
"I've seen it all before, trust me. Being with someone for as long as we've been together gives a person certain advantages like that."
"But, Tani-chan."
"Don't 'chan' me. Only Suguru-chan, and Tohma-san can 'chan' me."
"Alright, Tani-san, back to what I was saying. but what if Suguru is having an off day? Or what if someone is tripping him. Or. or. what if he gets really hurt?"
"He. he wouldn't. Suguru is so careful. I." she looked suddenly moved to tears. Sakano, the assistant coach, and a good friend of Fujisaki's and Tani's, slipped an arm around Tani's shoulders.
"It's alright, Watatsuki-san. He won't get hurt."
"Of course not," came a familiar voice from behind. "Umm. we are talking about Fujisaki-kun, correct?" Tani turned around, and threw her arms around Tohma and Mika.
"Tohma-san! Mika-san! You guys made it!?"
"Of course." Mika snorted. "Like we'd miss the little twerp's championship game."
The group of people talked for a while (Hiro showed up, and Yuki and Shuichi decided to go sit next to them), watching the game off and on, cheering for the numerous baskets made by the teams MVP (Suguru Fujisaki), and K tried to keep his guns to himself when it became obvious that one of the bigger team members from the opposing team was fouling Fujisaki on purpose.
"Come on!" the crowd would scream at various moments. "Play fair!" but the person kept on harassing Fujisaki in particular. Then, when Fujisaki was running with the ball, this player leaned down, so Fujisaki would trip over his shoulders. Only, that wasn't what happened. Fujisaki hit the man's shoulders at top speed, and was launched into the air. He did a flip and a half, and landed on his head, sending his neck to a weird angle. The crowd gasped, and Tohma had to hold Tani down to keep her from running onto the court. Fujisaki wasn't moving. At all. Paramedics rushed onto the court, while the opposing teams coach screamed at the offensive boy. Fujisaki was awake, but they seemed to be waiting for something. Sakano had also run down, and so had K and Hiro and Shuichi. Tani kept trying to move, but Tohma wouldn't let her.
"Calm down, Tani-chan."
"How can I calm down!" she sank back down. "Omigod-omigod-omigod." Hiro ran up to them.
"Tani-chan!" he exclaimed. "Suguru's asking for you!"
"Come on." Mika said to her, grabbing her arm.
"NO!" Tohma said loudly, grabbing her other arm. "Look at all those reporters down there! Neither she nor he need this kind of publicity right now!" Mika wrenched Tani free of Tohma's grasp.
"Is that all you think about, Tohma?" Mika asked him in disbelief. They then went to Fujisaki.
The doctors sent them all home. It was well past visiting hours, and nothing was changing. He had a concussion. He was paralyzed. He could be in a coma; he could be just sleeping. That was all they knew. Tani, whom was supposed to be staying with Fujisaki for a week while her parents were away, opted to stay at Tohma and Mika's. She didn't want to face an empty house right after everything had happened. She sat on the couch in Tohma's study, where Tohma was watching her intently, as she toyed with the ring on her finger. It had a cursive S looped with a cursive T within a heart with a cubic-zirconium jewel in the middle, and it was a very pretty 24 carat gold. Suguru had a matching ring. Tohma sat next to her, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Hey. Try not to look so glum. He's going to be okay. I'm making sure he's getting the best care in Japan, Tani-chan." She nodded. He noticed that her attention was on her ring.
"Tomorrow was the big day, huh?"
"Please." She said to him. "Don't remind me." She and Suguru had made a promise to each other a very long time before; they would wait to make love to each other until they were both 18. She had been 18 for three weeks, and the next day was Suguru's birthday. Their rings had symbolized that promise, and also the promise that they would never really leave each other. Tohma didn't think they need rings, anyways. They had already gone through so much together, Tohma had not one doubt in his mind that they would live the rest of their lives together.
"10 years, right, Tani?"
"Give or take a few months, yeah." 10 years. He and Mika hadn't even been married 10 years, and they were sick of each other. And these two had stuck together throughout all the roller-coaster years of adolescence. "We were 7 when we first met, and 8 when we really got together, right?"
"Sounds right." He answered. She smiled, to his surprise.
"You know what we did today?" she said. She sounded a little mischievous.
"What did you and Suguru-kun do today, Tani-chan?"
"We went looking for houses." The warmth that shone from her eyes at that simple statement moved him almost to tears. Thinking back on he and Mika searching for their first home was nothing but bad memories. Of course, being a rock star, Suguru had it slightly easier than he and Mika had had it. He and Mika were struggling; Suguru knew anything he wanted that he couldn't pay for would be helped out by his cousin whom adored both Suguru and Tani and hoped that they would have nothing but happiness.
"Did you find any you liked?" he asked with an equal tone. This was the only time she had cracked a smile in a week.
"Well, I found one that I really liked, but I couldn't tell how much Suguru liked it. He tries too hard to agree with me, and to always make sure I'm happy. But it was so pretty. Two stories, with a brick fire place, and a beautiful color scheme.
"Does it have a big backyard?" he asked her.
"Whatever for?"
"For all the kids you two are going to have." She blushed almost as red as her hair, and threw a pillow at him.
"Believe it or not, we haven't even talked about having kids yet, Tohma. Well, we've talked enough to decide that whatever happens, happens. But yeah, the backyard is awesome." She began beaming again. "the streetlight is way down the street, and the trees in front block out all the light from it. There's this awesome little spot that we can set the telescope up at, and it's all perfect for watching the stars." Their favorite pastime was watching the stars together.
"You know, stargazing is a very romantic thing." He told her.
"Oh, trust me, we've felt it's pull before." She clamped a hand over her mouth as though she couldn't believe what she had just said. She also blushed bright red.
"Go on." Tohma told her, both out of curiosity and because he wanted to keep her talking so her mind wasn't crying over Fujisaki. She shook her head. "Oh, please. We both know that you can tell me anything. Come on. Spill!"
"Your inner fag is shining through."
"I do not have an inner fag!!" he said. They fought about this for some time, and then sat in silence for a while. "So. what other plans do you have?"
"Well, Suguru wants to keep playing for Bad Luck, and that's been going great for, like, two years now, so we've got a lot of hope in it. I'm going to go to college."
"What are you going to major in?"
"Automotive." She smiled a little sadly. "Suguru-chan is the gentle one of us; I'm the grease-monkey." Before Tohma could retort, the phone rang. He jumped for it, and hit the speaker-phone. "Moshi moshi!"
"Yes, is this family of Suguru Fujisaki?"
"Yes. What's wrong!"
"Well, we always try to alert the family first in these kind of situations." Tani moaned in torment when she realized what the call must be about. Tohma pulled her in to where she could sob into his chest.
"I see."
"You see. wait, before I release any information, I need to know that this is family."
"I AM TOHMA SEGUCHI AND I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY LITTLE COUSIN AND I WANT TO KNOW THIS INSTANT!"
"Well." came the voice from over the speaker, "I suppose I could tell you. Fujisaki-kun has woken up, and is asking for a young woman by the name of Tani."
"He's awake!? And asking for me?" Tani pounced on the speaker.
"Umm. excuse me, miss." she hit the off button.
"Tohma-san, he needs me! Take me there, please!"
They (Mika, Tohma, and Tani) nearly ran all the way to his room. Tani walked slowly in, afraid that Fujisaki was resting. He was lying in his bed, and staring indifferently at the T.V. which was showing his accident, and showing Hiro and Shuichi talking about it. Shuichi was crying, of course.
"Suguru-chan." Tani said quietly. The doctor had briefed them already. Suguru would probably never walk again. He was paralyzed from the waist down. And completely numb from the waist down. He looked up at her, and immediately switched off the T.V.
"Tani-chan." the change in his face was considerable. "You're here. So, I've been asleep for a week, huh?"
"Yep! You missed graduation. Your birthday is tomorrow." He nodded, and then the enormity of her statement, that his 18th birthday was the next day, sunk in. He put his head in his hands.
"Oh no. we were so close." she dropped to her knees beside his bed. She gently took hold of one of his hands, and smoothed the hair away from his face with another.
"Don't beat yourself up about it. It's not your fault. Besides, we have our whole lifetime ahead of us to be over the age of 18." She smiled, downplaying the situation to something much less frightening. Neither noticed that Tohma and Mika had quietly dismissed themselves from the room; neither had noticed that Tohma and Mika had come in the first place. Tani's face suddenly turned stern. "I thought you were going to die!!! NEVER scare me like that again!" tears started falling on her face. " I really, really thought I'd lost you, Suguru." He wiped the tears off her face.
"But I didn't. So there's no reason to cry." He struggled for a moment, then sighed angrily.
"What? What do you need?"
"I can't even sit up to kiss you or anything." She bent down over him, and kissed him.
"But I can get to you."
"Yup." He smiled
"How can you be so brave, Suguru?" she asked him. His smile turned into a smirk.
"I can still be with you, if you'll have an invalid. And I can still play the piano. There's nothing to fear."
"You're so much braver than me."
"Trust me," he told her, "I'm positively terrified of spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair. But, as long as I can still have you and still play my piano, everything will be okay." Her lower lip trembled when he told her that he was scared. She laid on him, next to him on the bed, and cried softly. So many of their dreams had just gone kersplunkity on a hard gym floor. He smoothed her hair, and silently apologized.
Tohma paid off a nurse not to make Tani leave. They needed to cling to each other for strength for a while. He knew what it was like to see your dreams go swirling down a toilet. He knew that there was no way Suguru could be an active member of Bad Luck now, and his numbness down south meant for no kids. No family. No beautiful house with two stories, because he would only be able to handle one. No more walks in the park, no more basketball games, no more anything that the two of them loved to do together. Well, they'd still be able to do some of it, but it wouldn't be the same. Tohma had to find a way to get Suguru's legs fixed.
"Bye."
"No, silly! I want you to go with me!"
After much arguing, Shuichi and Yuki were seated in the bleachers of the local High School's gym. They were watching the Varsity boy's basketball team come out onto the court.
" 'Alright, girls!'" the announcer said loudly into the microphone. "Take a good long look at number 24 on the home team!!!" Shuichi looked immediately, wanting to see what all the commotion was about.
"Omigod! Yuki, look! It's Fujisaki!" Sure enough, it was the young man.
" ' Well, take a good, long look, ladies. Look, but don't touch. This gorgeous rock star-slash-basketball star is taken!'" the crowd began booing, and Fujisaki stumbled while practicing his lay-ups because he was blushing so bad. He looked up in the stands at a girl, and mouthed the word sorry. She shot him a thumbs-up through her shivering; her seat was right beneath the air-conditioner. He noticed her slight shivering, and took his warm-up jacket off immediately. He walked it over to her (she was right above the bench), and handed it to her while whispering something in her ear. She nodded, and whispered something back. He kissed her cheek quickly, and ran back off to practice. Shuichi seemed to be the only person that saw this.
" 'Whom, ladies and gentlemen, is the oh-so lucky girl that has stolen our sweetheart's heart?'" 'oh no' K thought to himself. 'Not Tani- chan.'
" ' Well, word on the street is it's still long time girl-friend and best friend Tani Watatsuki.'" The crowd began booing again, and pelted Tani- chan, his girlfriend with various articles of garbage.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Fujisaki began yelling. He then shot a glare to the announcer's booth, where his so called "best friend" sat doing the announcing.
" ' Sorry, Suguru-kun.'" Came the announcer's voice. K walked over, and sat so Tani was sandwiched between himself and her best friend, Niko- chan. Tani's dark red-wine hair was tied half back, letting some brush her shoulders. Her same colored bangs brushed right above French-blue eyes. Her eyes were that color that you're not quite sure if it's pale blue or pale lavender; it all depends on what you wear. Fujisaki's purple warm-up jacket made them appear more purplish that day. She seemed to be falling asleep in the bleachers. Her friend poked her.
"Wake up, dork, lover-boy's showing off for you again." Tani lazily opened one eye. It was nearly half time.
"I've seen it all before, trust me. Being with someone for as long as we've been together gives a person certain advantages like that."
"But, Tani-chan."
"Don't 'chan' me. Only Suguru-chan, and Tohma-san can 'chan' me."
"Alright, Tani-san, back to what I was saying. but what if Suguru is having an off day? Or what if someone is tripping him. Or. or. what if he gets really hurt?"
"He. he wouldn't. Suguru is so careful. I." she looked suddenly moved to tears. Sakano, the assistant coach, and a good friend of Fujisaki's and Tani's, slipped an arm around Tani's shoulders.
"It's alright, Watatsuki-san. He won't get hurt."
"Of course not," came a familiar voice from behind. "Umm. we are talking about Fujisaki-kun, correct?" Tani turned around, and threw her arms around Tohma and Mika.
"Tohma-san! Mika-san! You guys made it!?"
"Of course." Mika snorted. "Like we'd miss the little twerp's championship game."
The group of people talked for a while (Hiro showed up, and Yuki and Shuichi decided to go sit next to them), watching the game off and on, cheering for the numerous baskets made by the teams MVP (Suguru Fujisaki), and K tried to keep his guns to himself when it became obvious that one of the bigger team members from the opposing team was fouling Fujisaki on purpose.
"Come on!" the crowd would scream at various moments. "Play fair!" but the person kept on harassing Fujisaki in particular. Then, when Fujisaki was running with the ball, this player leaned down, so Fujisaki would trip over his shoulders. Only, that wasn't what happened. Fujisaki hit the man's shoulders at top speed, and was launched into the air. He did a flip and a half, and landed on his head, sending his neck to a weird angle. The crowd gasped, and Tohma had to hold Tani down to keep her from running onto the court. Fujisaki wasn't moving. At all. Paramedics rushed onto the court, while the opposing teams coach screamed at the offensive boy. Fujisaki was awake, but they seemed to be waiting for something. Sakano had also run down, and so had K and Hiro and Shuichi. Tani kept trying to move, but Tohma wouldn't let her.
"Calm down, Tani-chan."
"How can I calm down!" she sank back down. "Omigod-omigod-omigod." Hiro ran up to them.
"Tani-chan!" he exclaimed. "Suguru's asking for you!"
"Come on." Mika said to her, grabbing her arm.
"NO!" Tohma said loudly, grabbing her other arm. "Look at all those reporters down there! Neither she nor he need this kind of publicity right now!" Mika wrenched Tani free of Tohma's grasp.
"Is that all you think about, Tohma?" Mika asked him in disbelief. They then went to Fujisaki.
The doctors sent them all home. It was well past visiting hours, and nothing was changing. He had a concussion. He was paralyzed. He could be in a coma; he could be just sleeping. That was all they knew. Tani, whom was supposed to be staying with Fujisaki for a week while her parents were away, opted to stay at Tohma and Mika's. She didn't want to face an empty house right after everything had happened. She sat on the couch in Tohma's study, where Tohma was watching her intently, as she toyed with the ring on her finger. It had a cursive S looped with a cursive T within a heart with a cubic-zirconium jewel in the middle, and it was a very pretty 24 carat gold. Suguru had a matching ring. Tohma sat next to her, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Hey. Try not to look so glum. He's going to be okay. I'm making sure he's getting the best care in Japan, Tani-chan." She nodded. He noticed that her attention was on her ring.
"Tomorrow was the big day, huh?"
"Please." She said to him. "Don't remind me." She and Suguru had made a promise to each other a very long time before; they would wait to make love to each other until they were both 18. She had been 18 for three weeks, and the next day was Suguru's birthday. Their rings had symbolized that promise, and also the promise that they would never really leave each other. Tohma didn't think they need rings, anyways. They had already gone through so much together, Tohma had not one doubt in his mind that they would live the rest of their lives together.
"10 years, right, Tani?"
"Give or take a few months, yeah." 10 years. He and Mika hadn't even been married 10 years, and they were sick of each other. And these two had stuck together throughout all the roller-coaster years of adolescence. "We were 7 when we first met, and 8 when we really got together, right?"
"Sounds right." He answered. She smiled, to his surprise.
"You know what we did today?" she said. She sounded a little mischievous.
"What did you and Suguru-kun do today, Tani-chan?"
"We went looking for houses." The warmth that shone from her eyes at that simple statement moved him almost to tears. Thinking back on he and Mika searching for their first home was nothing but bad memories. Of course, being a rock star, Suguru had it slightly easier than he and Mika had had it. He and Mika were struggling; Suguru knew anything he wanted that he couldn't pay for would be helped out by his cousin whom adored both Suguru and Tani and hoped that they would have nothing but happiness.
"Did you find any you liked?" he asked with an equal tone. This was the only time she had cracked a smile in a week.
"Well, I found one that I really liked, but I couldn't tell how much Suguru liked it. He tries too hard to agree with me, and to always make sure I'm happy. But it was so pretty. Two stories, with a brick fire place, and a beautiful color scheme.
"Does it have a big backyard?" he asked her.
"Whatever for?"
"For all the kids you two are going to have." She blushed almost as red as her hair, and threw a pillow at him.
"Believe it or not, we haven't even talked about having kids yet, Tohma. Well, we've talked enough to decide that whatever happens, happens. But yeah, the backyard is awesome." She began beaming again. "the streetlight is way down the street, and the trees in front block out all the light from it. There's this awesome little spot that we can set the telescope up at, and it's all perfect for watching the stars." Their favorite pastime was watching the stars together.
"You know, stargazing is a very romantic thing." He told her.
"Oh, trust me, we've felt it's pull before." She clamped a hand over her mouth as though she couldn't believe what she had just said. She also blushed bright red.
"Go on." Tohma told her, both out of curiosity and because he wanted to keep her talking so her mind wasn't crying over Fujisaki. She shook her head. "Oh, please. We both know that you can tell me anything. Come on. Spill!"
"Your inner fag is shining through."
"I do not have an inner fag!!" he said. They fought about this for some time, and then sat in silence for a while. "So. what other plans do you have?"
"Well, Suguru wants to keep playing for Bad Luck, and that's been going great for, like, two years now, so we've got a lot of hope in it. I'm going to go to college."
"What are you going to major in?"
"Automotive." She smiled a little sadly. "Suguru-chan is the gentle one of us; I'm the grease-monkey." Before Tohma could retort, the phone rang. He jumped for it, and hit the speaker-phone. "Moshi moshi!"
"Yes, is this family of Suguru Fujisaki?"
"Yes. What's wrong!"
"Well, we always try to alert the family first in these kind of situations." Tani moaned in torment when she realized what the call must be about. Tohma pulled her in to where she could sob into his chest.
"I see."
"You see. wait, before I release any information, I need to know that this is family."
"I AM TOHMA SEGUCHI AND I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY LITTLE COUSIN AND I WANT TO KNOW THIS INSTANT!"
"Well." came the voice from over the speaker, "I suppose I could tell you. Fujisaki-kun has woken up, and is asking for a young woman by the name of Tani."
"He's awake!? And asking for me?" Tani pounced on the speaker.
"Umm. excuse me, miss." she hit the off button.
"Tohma-san, he needs me! Take me there, please!"
They (Mika, Tohma, and Tani) nearly ran all the way to his room. Tani walked slowly in, afraid that Fujisaki was resting. He was lying in his bed, and staring indifferently at the T.V. which was showing his accident, and showing Hiro and Shuichi talking about it. Shuichi was crying, of course.
"Suguru-chan." Tani said quietly. The doctor had briefed them already. Suguru would probably never walk again. He was paralyzed from the waist down. And completely numb from the waist down. He looked up at her, and immediately switched off the T.V.
"Tani-chan." the change in his face was considerable. "You're here. So, I've been asleep for a week, huh?"
"Yep! You missed graduation. Your birthday is tomorrow." He nodded, and then the enormity of her statement, that his 18th birthday was the next day, sunk in. He put his head in his hands.
"Oh no. we were so close." she dropped to her knees beside his bed. She gently took hold of one of his hands, and smoothed the hair away from his face with another.
"Don't beat yourself up about it. It's not your fault. Besides, we have our whole lifetime ahead of us to be over the age of 18." She smiled, downplaying the situation to something much less frightening. Neither noticed that Tohma and Mika had quietly dismissed themselves from the room; neither had noticed that Tohma and Mika had come in the first place. Tani's face suddenly turned stern. "I thought you were going to die!!! NEVER scare me like that again!" tears started falling on her face. " I really, really thought I'd lost you, Suguru." He wiped the tears off her face.
"But I didn't. So there's no reason to cry." He struggled for a moment, then sighed angrily.
"What? What do you need?"
"I can't even sit up to kiss you or anything." She bent down over him, and kissed him.
"But I can get to you."
"Yup." He smiled
"How can you be so brave, Suguru?" she asked him. His smile turned into a smirk.
"I can still be with you, if you'll have an invalid. And I can still play the piano. There's nothing to fear."
"You're so much braver than me."
"Trust me," he told her, "I'm positively terrified of spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair. But, as long as I can still have you and still play my piano, everything will be okay." Her lower lip trembled when he told her that he was scared. She laid on him, next to him on the bed, and cried softly. So many of their dreams had just gone kersplunkity on a hard gym floor. He smoothed her hair, and silently apologized.
Tohma paid off a nurse not to make Tani leave. They needed to cling to each other for strength for a while. He knew what it was like to see your dreams go swirling down a toilet. He knew that there was no way Suguru could be an active member of Bad Luck now, and his numbness down south meant for no kids. No family. No beautiful house with two stories, because he would only be able to handle one. No more walks in the park, no more basketball games, no more anything that the two of them loved to do together. Well, they'd still be able to do some of it, but it wouldn't be the same. Tohma had to find a way to get Suguru's legs fixed.