Rating/Warnings: M for sexual references (sexual attraction of adults to a teenage boy and masturbation).
Disclaimer: It's Maki Murakami's sandbox; I'm just playing in it. The rights to Gravitation and its characters belong to her and her publishers, not me. I do not benefit financially from writing stories using her characters and universe. No copyright or other infringement is intended.
Summary: Tohma gets a chance to undo the mistakes he made in New York.
Word Count: 675 words.
Once Again
Tohma Seguchi wakes up and rolls over, his silk pajamas stuck to the sheets.
The clock reads 12:03 a.m. What an awful time of night. It was around this time that he found Eiri-kun at that man's apartment, numb and hurt, tears silently streaming down his face, with three bodies cooling nearby.
He gets up, swallows two tablets of Valium, washes them down with some water, and gets back in bed. Mika is in Kyoto visiting her father and Tatsuha, so the restlessness his memories cause him can't disturb her.
He hopes the pills will enable him to dream pleasanter dreams.
***
"Tohma-san! Tohma-san! I got a 92 on my math test!"
"That's very good, Eiri-kun." He glances at the tutor. "I didn't realize you knew high school math as well as English, Kitazawa-sensei."
Kitazawa-sensei laughs. "I didn't take high school math all that long ago, Seguchi-san. I still remember enough to get by." His eyes flick back to his young charge. He touches him on the shoulder to get his attention. Tohma notices the boy's flinch. It's almost imperceptible but it definitely happened. He wonders what that's all about.
The next time he notices, he speaks to Eiri about it. "Is he touching you where he shouldn't?" he asks the teenager.
"No," Eiri says, defiantly meeting his eyes.
Tohma's truth-meter goes off. Eiri-kun doesn't normally look him in the eye like that. He's too shy and polite to do so. That means—
He's looking him in the eye to convince him of his sincerity. That means he's lying, right?
Bastard. That bastard touched his Eiri-kun!
He has to be subtle and persuasive. Eiri-kun looks up to the man, and Tohma has to admit he's been an effective tutor.
First he makes excuses and cancels lessons, taking Eiri with him on his own field trips to keep him away from that bastard. Then he has a serious talk with Eiri about not letting others touch his private parts. He's had this conversation with him before but it was centered on not letting strangers touch him there. Kitazawa-sensei is not a stranger.
He worries when Eiri asks how that rule applies to romantic partners. He worries because it is a genderless term. He isn't asking about letting a girlfriend touch him intimately. But it also gives him hope, because as sick and depraved as it may be, he's falling in love with his young brother-in-law. Which makes Kitazawa-sensei his rival. His potential rival, anyway. After all, who in their right mind would pick an impoverished graduate student over him?
It is harder to keep them separated when Eiri has to study for finals, but Tohma takes the step of insisting that all studying take place at his and Eiri's apartment and watching them like a hawk. Discreetly, of course. He does so by catering to their every need. Do they need something to drink? He'll provide it. Are they hungry? He'll make them something to eat. Computer access? He's only too happy to oblige.
Finally school is over and Tohma hustles him away to Kyoto, explaining that his family misses him and longs to see him. Who cares if it's true? Once they're in Kyoto, he can explain why they came home and persuade Eiri that it's for the best that they not return to New York.
He breathes a sigh of relief. His beloved Eiri-kun is safe.
***
Tohma wakes up. It is now 4:13 a.m. Once again he saves Eiri in his dreams when he'd been unable to save him in real life.
Once again he wonders what their lives would be like now if he'd been able to predict the future and prevent it from happening. Would Eiri still be the center of his life? Would they be together and not him and Mika or Eiri and Shuichi?
Finding these questions unanswerable, he rolls over and goes back to sleep for a few more hours, but not until after he touches and brings himself to orgasm while thinking about his beloved Eiri-kun.
/fin/
Dedicated to my friends and readers who are Tohma/Eiri shippers. You know who you are!
Thanks to HawkClowd for the awesome beta. I touched it last, so all remaining mistakes are mine.