So. Here's the next installment. I loved writing this chapter and I really hope you guys like it. Feedback is encouraged as well as any suspicions any of you may have for what may happen next. I have a plan in my head already, but I'm curious ^^. By the way, has anyone noticed my chapter naming process?
Enjoy!!
Akihiko
No. No. No.
"Akihiko? What's going on? What was she saying about Takahiro?"
Why now? Why with Misaki?
"Akihiko?"
Just get the car into gear and drive home. Explain… it's only fair to him. He'll leave, though… he won't have anywhere to go. I made a promise to Takahiro! Several…
"Akihiko!"
"Not now, M-"
"The traffic lights are green…"
Akihiko pressed down on the accelerator, suffocating with the stony silence in the car. In the dark of the car-park to the apartments- the one they'd reversed out of but forty-five minutes before- Akihiko took a deep breath.
My first lucky break and this has to happen. Doubtless he'll ask questions. Best to get it over and done with now instead of… but if he's gone… I'll want a memory. I'll kill myself slowly without a memory of truly being with him…
"Let's get inside," was all he said.
Misaki
Standing next to him in this elevator is painful. Actually painful. It was so much easier when he was elusive, a mysterious tutor in the hallways. This is definitely going too fast.
Misaki and Akihiko both moved as the elevator doors pinged open. Quietly, they moved to the front door, which Akihiko unlocked as Misaki began to pick dry skin from around his thumb inside his pocket. He was nervous. Anxious. Part of him was resentful that someone had come along so soon in their relationship to give them a hurdle. He was sure how big this hurdle would be.
The condo-apartment was cold but neither man took the time to do anything but stare at eachother. Akihiko waited for Misaki to start the questions. Misaki waited for Akihiko to explain, admiring the brown coat Akihiko was wearing. It was unbuttoned and showed a white shirt underneath.
Sensing nothing was going to come out of waiting for the other, Akihiko sighed.
"You better sit down." Misaki complied, sitting rigidly on the edge of the sofa in the same place his brother had been sitting hours prior to now. Misaki looked up into Akihiko's eyes, imploringly.
"What's going on?"
Akihiko stared deep into Misaki's eyes, his arms folded across his broad chest.
"I will never find eyes like yours." The sentence was spoken so calmly that it didn't quite sink into Misaki how poignant Akihiko was being. His eyes had the sad look of a dog about to be abandoned on the side of the road.
Sitting on the edge of the table, Akihiko leaned forward carefully and, ever so gently, planted a kiss on Misaki's forehead.
"In the short time I've known you," he whispered, "I've come to care about you. Very much."
Worried, Misaki didn't move. He waited.
"Ousari, that not so lovely woman you just met," he began, "works for a man called Tasaki. Ousari is a photographer, who takes portraits of the people Tasaki interviews. Tasaki wants to interview me about the 'Junjou' novellas I write but, er… he and I have some history, which he takes much more seriously than he should."
"What history?"
How is Takahiro involved?
"Four years ago, Tasaki and I met at a drinks party of Ousari's. I was… in a very depressed state of mind. Head over heels in love with Takahiro." Misaki stiffened slightly. "Ousari was celebrating coming to Japan for the first time since she was very young; she and I knew eachother from a University in England so she invited me to the party. Drunk, I ended up doing one of the most stupid things in my life: I…"
Akihiko
Akihiko held his hands together and hung his head, deflated.
"Aki-ko?" Misaki bent down slightly to see the man's face.
I love it when he says my name like that…
"I can't do this."
The sun was beginning to set and the golden and fulvous rays of its descent began to shimmer around the large, open room.
Misaki
I don't want him to be sad. I want to see that cocky smile of his, anything but this depressed state. Anything.
"Aki-ko?" Misaki repeated. Akihiko looked up and in a split second, he pressed his lips against Misaki's. Before the boy could protest, Akihiko turned his head to the side and deepened the kiss, pushing up every ounce of affection from his body and into the kiss.
He placed a cold hand on Misaki's cheek, revelling in the shiver it elicited from him. Misaki turned limp, hands clenching and unclenching on his lap as he fought with the contradicting thoughts in his mind, unable to resist the overpowering scent of Akihiko. He moaned quietly under his breath as the man began to stroke the tips of his fingers by his left ear. The tingle from his cheek fizzed down the side of his body, shivering over his ribs and making his stomach swoop.
Akihiko pulled back gradually, allowing his hand to fall from Misaki's cheek. Misaki felt his core begin to split in two, like half a magnet inside of him was attracted to something inside Akihiko. He almost felt naked as Akihiko pulled back completely.
It surprised Misaki that he wasn't annoyed at Akihiko's spontaneous move. In fact, he was more annoyed at Akihiko's stopping. He did not move as Akihiko rose from the table, silent as he hung his coat on the coat-hanger and then began to ascend the stairs.
I really hate it when he stops after doing something so meaningful, Misaki thought simply. He waited until he heard Akihiko's office door close and then rose, as though hypnotised, and began to prepare the supper he had had in mind before any of the restaurant events had occurred.
His sight went blurry as he pulled down a frying pan and a pot. In a daze, he poured oil into the frying pan and let it simmer as he chopped up a clove of garlic finely and then added it to the pan. After pouring water into the pot and setting it to boil, he found the Fettuccine he had bought two days before and then got out the octopus and squid, freshly prepared from the supermarket.
As he cooked, a feeling of exhaustion began to plummet through his system. He found it somewhat ironic that all he wanted then was Akihiko- Akihiko the man who was evidently keeping facts about his brother from him- around him, like last night and the night after their near car crash.
Akihiko chases all the nightmares away.
An hour later, Misaki began to climb the white stairs to the second floor, two white bowls in his hands. He hoped Akihiko would like what he had cooked- prayed that it would calm his nerves. It made his chest sore realising that no matter what Akihiko told him, he would only want the man happy… unless, of course, Akihiko had done something bad against Takahiro, which he sincerely hoped not.
But after all the love Akihiko professed for my brother to me, surely he wouldn't have done…
Walking down the narrow landing hallway, Misaki passed his room, unable to stop a small smile at seeing the motionless flashcards hung from his ceiling, passed Akihiko's room and then tapped on Akihiko's office door.
The door opened. Misaki looked in to see Akihiko lying on the blue sofa against the back wall, in the shadows. No lights were turned on, so Misaki left the door open and walked through the streams of butterscotch sunlight to get over to the author.
Damn artists and their depressions.
"I made you some food…" Misaki said, nervously. Akihiko looked up at him, his arms wrapped around his stomach like he had severe cramps. His violet eyes were large as though he was trying to send Misaki and message mentally. From what Misaki understood from this gaze, Misaki did this:
He pulled up the computer chair, laying his own bowl of food on the floor and twiddled some Fettuccine on a fork, stabbing a bit of prawn as well. Then, heart overwhelmingly coated in pure care for the pained man, he put a hand under the fork and put it by Akihiko's mouth.
He could not hide his satisfaction when Akihiko took the fork in his mouth and slid all of its contents into his mouth. He chewed. Misaki watched. Akihiko swallowed.
"Good?"
Akihiko licked his lower lip and nodded, slowly but enthusiastically. Then he spoke, quietly.
"I slept with Tasaki that night, as a fling. Just to get rid of some tension."
Misaki didn't move before he asked,
"Have you slept with him or anything like since?"
Akihiko shook his head, looking adoringly up at Misaki.
"Then shut up and eat your food."
They ate. Misaki smiled.
Akihiko
I'll tell him the rest soon. I will. Soon.
