Disclaimer: No, I don't own Gravitation.
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I need to perfect my plan.
It has to be absolutely perfect. Sitting here on the hood of my car, I'm smoking my... well, I can't remember what number this cigarette is. It's getting harder to decide whether these sticks are calming my nerves or making me more agitated. Staring up at the temple high above the cliff of stairs nonstop while lighting up continuously is exactly why I need to get my objectives straight. Getting Shuichi without seeing father or killing Tatsuha is exactly my goal and that's exactly why I parked all the way at the road far below instead of up the hill in the back where Tatsuha keeps his bike. I'm getting in and out.
Exactly.
This can't be happening! I'm seriously sitting out here like I'm in a bad spy movie. I observe the smoke emitting from my cigarette. "This is ridiculous," I scoff. "This serene temple won't be my prison. I won't let it my cancerous friend. You and me will not be forced to stay in Kyoto any longer than we have to be. How could I ever think you were ruining me? You're the only one who's always there for me."
Flicking the stick away to join its other friends, I make my way toward my former home where Shuichi came to prove himself to me. Tatsuha could be a good kid but Shuichi picked the wrong person to go to because my little brother will see this as an open invitation to pry into our personal lives while sticking it to me and playing pretend with the pink hair punk.
I can imagine what's going on in his twisted sixteen-year-old monk-in- training head. It mostly involves trying to reenact one of Nittle Grasper's fan service performances. I don't think about it too much. Don't want to talk myself out of what I'm doing and abandoning Shuichi to my brother's NG fantasies. The thought of adding Tohma into this mess makes his dream my nightmare. Noriko on the other hand... Just because I'm involved with Shuichi doesn't keep me from appreciating the allure of a woman. I had a "thing" for her when I was Tatsuha's age, but if anyone knew they would never let me live it down. I can't have that!
What I can have is my cigarettes, car and Shuichi all at my place. Shuichi has to see that to come to the one place I don't want to be means how much he means to me.
I'm oddly surprised that there is no scene. I see the wind rustling the tree leaves, smell the incense in the air and hear the water spring from the small fish fountain out back. It's as quiet as a temple should be, at least though I expected an emergency medical unit tending to my father after having a heart attack from seeing Shuichi.
Instead of going through the temple, I decide to go around it. If my father never sees me, I was never here.
"Tatsuha!" I call demandingly, though trying to keep my voice low.
"Aniki!" cheers an elated voice though I don't see him.
The door to his room is wide open. I don't see any exploited actions or Nittle Grasper on the TV. My father didn't know this was the perfect room to sneak out of at night. I should know. It used to be mine. His room is kept like any teenager under a religious father's home: illusion of neat on the outside, a mess in all hidden areas. It is fairly clean minus his favorite jacket on the floor and books scattered in corners. For Tatsuha, however, it is way too quiet and empty of life. "Tatsuha? Shuichi?"
"Up here!" I back away from the room and look up at the tiled roof. Lounging comfortably with a happy grin to match was Tatsuha, but Shuichi isn't with him. Oh sweet Lord! Please don't tell me he's letting him roam free. He'll no doubt want to speak with my father, looking as he does, speaking of his undying love for me and calling him Baldy if my father says anything to ruin his joyous speech.
"Ta-tsu-ha," I start, dragging each syllable of his name out with an accompanied cold stare, "where is he?"
"You mean Shuichi?" he questions.
Immediately I give him my famous scowl. 'You mean Shuichi?' Who the hell does he think I'm talking about? I don' waste my precious time to ignore the outside world just so I could come and play his stupid game of twenty questions.
"The brat, you brat!" I exclaim unable to not group the two together. Whenever Shuichi did something really bad he would act as Tatsuha, playing dumb. There was the time he closed the novel I was working on for six hours straight while I left to relieve my bladder from the beer I drank. Wanting to pull me away from my work by force, he snuck into my office and shut the word program down without saving. Truly I was infuriated, throwing him out until I cooled off, but what he did was an accident and I got over it. This moment was on purpose.
"Brat?" he repeats. "Those words hurt. You shouldn't say such things. Like when you called me a pedophile on the phone. You know I only date people older than me. There's a difference. That could be damaging to my reputation."
"I'm about to come up there and damage something," I say coolly. Making one subtle move toward the tree he used to make it to the roof, he follows my movement.
"He's not here," he confesses. "He went... out."
"Out?" I repeat. "Don't tell me you don't know where he is."
"I do," he answers with a nervous smile. "Don't kill me when I tell you though."
"You're my little brother. I'd never," I reply flatly.
"As much stock as I put in that," he begins, rising and sidestepping his way to the nearest tree limb, "I think you ought to know what happened."
Waiting until he jumps down before me, I decide to give him a little rope. Hopefully I won't have to hang him with it. His ear-to-ear grin returns, dropping the serious façade. "I knew exactly why Shuichi came here the whole time."
The little bastard.
"Okay not exactly," he clarifies, guessing my rising annoyance. He leans against the tree trunk, folding his arms. "Shuichi drove to Kyoto to come see me. I was quite surprised when he called me for directions. I thought he went home because the video shoot was over. I was totally thrilled to know he was here. Getting to hang out on a cool set to see Bad Luck is awesome. You won't believe how hot everything was. You should have seen the three, especially Shuichi. No wonder you keep him around."
Immediately my thoughts go to yesterday and away from my brother's astonish face of being near stardom. That smoky eye makeup and tattered clothing he wore brought up an odd attraction in me to him, leading to a missed opportunity when I fell asleep. Now I'm left with only what could have happened. Those clothes could have been tossed away as I searched for the cute Shuichi to which I was accustomed.
Holy Heaven what's wrong with me? I can feel the blush of embarrassment (that's the word I'm using and I'm sticking to it) on my cheeks. Blinking away the thoughts, my voice uncontrollably rises. "The story Tatsuha!"
He flinches, staring at me for a brief moment. "Sorry. You must be irritated with me getting off topic."
I avert my eyes. Yeah, let's go with that.
"Anyway," he continues, "I snuck him in here, which by the way was the first time I ever had to sneak a guy into my room. You're welcome."
"Thank you," I say nonchalantly. Tatsuha wouldn't want to tarnish his golden reputation with my father. It was a risk to keep Shuichi here all this time.
"After he told me he saw you, I immediately knew you two had some squabble, but I didn't understand why you would send him here."
"I didn't," I respond, relaxing my stance.
"Yeah he told me. All this over a car, huh?" he questions, furrowing his brows. "Don't blame you for getting mad. I should have warned you in advance, but he made me promise."
I don't scold him. He only thought he was doing Shuichi a favor. Neither of us could have imagined a whole issue of trust would be an outcome.
"Don't worry about it," I assure him.
"You're my brother though, and I want to help you now," he kindly adds. "He was just going to stay here for a few hours and then call you up to say he was here, but I didn't want the uninsured guy out there at night. I figured you were thinking the same thing. I made him a bed to rest and then today I called you. I told him you're trying, whether he believes me or not."
"Thanks," I say low but genuinely. "So where did he go? I want to get back on the road before it's too dark."
Suddenly Tatsuha looks down at his feet. "Like I said, I want to help. Shuichi was glad and wanted to pay me back for tutoring him and stuff." His face starts doing funny things, as if he's trying to contain a smile.
"Tatsuha," I begin warily, "where is he?"
"He's taking me to lunch," he states and a giddy laugh briefly escapes him before he bites his lip.
"But it's past lunchtime," I announce, checking my watch to make sure.
"That's why tomorrow is another day," he quips.
"Tomorrow?" I question. "Tell me you mean you're coming to Tokyo."
"Actually Shuichi wants to stay in Kyoto," he answers, his happy grin now out of his control. "He's already made plans."
"Why are you getting so ecstatic over lunch?" I ask, almost wanting to laugh when a memory comes to mind from yesterday. My heart skips a beat and my gut tightens. Tatsuha covers his mouth, trying to hide his smile. "I'm asking this one last time, Tatsuha. Where is Shuichi?"
His dark eyes just stare and seem to smile themselves. No, he wouldn't do that to me. I take my hard gaze off of him and step into his room, looking around. None of Shuichi's things are here. I check Tatsuha's desk and find a note with Shuichi's handwriting (scribble actually). I can hear Tatsuha shuffle outside as I read the words.
12:00. You, me, Sakuma and Yuki. Lunch.
Slowly I turn to face my brother who seems as if he can't decide whether to be scared or break out into song. I'll make the choice for him.
"Sakuma?" I mutter slightly, tearing the paper between my hands.
"If you turn the paper over Shu's hotel and room where he's staying at is on there," he quickly says, lamely trying to change topics.
"You brought me up here and sold me out!" I shout, steaming toward him.
"Sold out?" he laughs, backing up away from me, stepping right into the pond. "No, you see--"
"Wanting to help me you say," I retort.
"I really do," he states, patting his hands in the air, hoping to keep me at bay. "But I think I'm the one who needs help right now."
"You got that right," I remark.
"Honestly I didn't bring this up," he swears. "He offered."
"I'm sure you tried your hardest to turn him down," I sarcastically utter.
"Not really," he laughs. Realizing his stupid mistake, he cowers behind a tree. "Aniki, with the two of you up here you can settle this little spat. I'm sure you wouldn't want to order Shu to leave against his will after he already feels bad. You probably haven't even thought of what to do."
He's right but there is no way I'm letting myself get sucked further into disaster. "I don't care. I'm gone. I'll go pick Shuichi up and I'm going home."
"I can't let you do that," he boldly counters.
"Try and stop me," I challenge, determined to leave the way I came.
As I storm away, footsteps rush after me and Tatsuha suddenly jumps on my back. "What the hell are you doing? Get off me you idiot!"
"This is my big chance and I won't let you stop me this time!" he cries right into my ear, trying to get me in a headlock but very unsuccessfully.
"What happened to that help of yours, you psychotic excuse for a brother?" I say, trying to flip him off me but he is gripping too tightly on my collar.
"I'm doing this for our happiness!" he shouts, trying to wrestle me to the ground but I continue to stagger onward to the steps.
"What are you? Seven?" I scold, knocking him off.
He lands on his backside with a thud. "Okay I didn't want to do this but you've left me no choice."
"Oh yeah, what's that?" I laugh in triumph.
"Dad! Eiri's here!"
"Eiri!" calls an elderly voice as the front door slides open. I'm frozen at the top set of the stairs and turn to see an aging shaved bald man in black robes coming my way.
"You should have listened to me," Tatsuha smirks as he rises.
I take back anything good about him. He's an evil little demon in the disguise of a human. Why must he share my face? "I can revert to childish antics too you little piece of--"
"Eiri," my father begins. "Tatusha said you might come, something about spending time together. Good. Maybe you've also come to your senses about this silly lifestyle of yours. Come inside."
I flash my coldest glare at Tatsuha as he follows our father indoors. What did I do to deserve this? Maybe I should give Shuichi my car during lunch so he can accidentally run Tatsuha over with it. No, that would deprive me of the satisfaction.
I reach into my pocket for a calming cigarette, but discover the box to be empty. "Et tu, my friend?" I mutter, accepting my nightmarish fate for the next few hours.
TO BE CONTINUED