Yay! Chapter 11!
Sorry for the semi-long wait again...still have a lot going on around here.
Hope to have most of my things updated shortly, still trying to get on a decent typing schedule.
Still only have 2 for sure reviews, but I appreciate them both just the same :)
Lots of back story in this chapter!
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Tohma groaned.
After everything that he had done yesterday, he had forgotten to put curtains up, and now he was paying for it in lack of sleep...
He yawned and stretched his arms out, touching some of Ryuichi's hair.
His hand recoiled in shock.
"Oh... that's right..." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
He had almost forgotten...
Tohma smiled and slowly slid out of the bed making sure he didn't wake the sleeping brunette beside him.
Why should he wake him? If Ryuichi was able to sleep through the annoying beam of light, then let him...
He yawned once more and walked himself into the kitchen where he began to make breakfast to pass the time. He didn't exactly know when Ryuichi would wake up, so he figured that he had to do something to entertain himself, and cooking was it, since he'd already bathed the night before...
What an awkward mess that had been...
Ryuichi had treated the tub, and their bubble bath like a hot tub. They'd sat and talked about the most random things Ryuichi could think up. Any time Tohma had tried to ask him about himself, Ryuichi had avoided all questions. Of course, Tohma had told him some about himself, although Tohma could admit that he was relatively boring. He'd wanted to ask Ryuichi about his past home life, his name, and tons more, but he could tell that he wasn't ready to tell him yet, and of course, that was rather frustrating for him.
Tohma sighed as he slipped on his blue and orange gold fish apron and set a buttered pan on the stove.
After such a long day yesterday, the rest, although not too long of one, had done him some good. He hoped that it had been just as healing for Ryuichi as it had been for him, though the teen definitely needed it more than he.
So, Tohma figured breakfast would also help...
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Ryuichi groaned and turned over onto his side.
The sun was already up, and the soft ticking of the alarmclock filled the room. He sighed as he realized Tohma's absence, but he soon dismissed the thought of loneliness as a wonderful aroma filled his nose.
"Hmm...yummy..." He mumbled, ending with a content sigh.
He smiled, and gently slid is legs off the bed. He winced as his scabbed feet touched the cold floor, but shrugged the slight burning out of his mind.
After all, other than his feet, he was actually feeling much better than he had the previous day. The bath had done wonders...
He yawned and followed his nose into the kitchen, where his eyes met the table filled with food that Tohma had already finished cooking.
His eyes widened and he looked up at the blonde who was now grinning sheepishly at him.
"Well... there may be a bit much, but I was waiting for you to wake up, and I THINK I may have gotten a bit carried away..." Tohma laughed nervously as he glanced down at the piles of pancakes, syrup, and bacon.
"You THINK, do you?" Ryuichi smiled and resisted a giggle as he stared at the apron upon Tohma's front.
Tohma blinked and stared at Ryuichi in confusion.
And that was all that he could take...
He could hold it in no longer, and he suddenly burst into a fit of laughter as he pointed at the blonde's chest.
Tohma blushed and quickly tugged the bright apron off, tossing it in an open drawer.
"Please... like you've never seen a guy in an apron before..." Tohma's face became scarlet as Ryuichi's volume of laughter increased.
"Not one with a fish on it! It's too CUTE! I've never seen a thing like it!" Ryuichi grinned as Tohma blanched.
The blonde coughed and sat at the table, motioning for Ryuichi to do the same.
"You know...I wore that yesterday too...you never said a word."
Ryuichi smiled and pretty much attacked the plate of food nearest to him.
"Well..." he said between bites, " I was half delirious most of the day, you can't blame me for not being observative..."
Tohma sighed.
That was right...
Ryuichi had slept through most of the previous day. He wouldn't have been able to eat much... if anything at all...
"Tohma! This is great! I haven't had a homemade breakfast in years!" Ryuichi laughed, and chugged a full glass of milk in one gulp.
Tohma smiled, and quickly refilled the glass.
"I'm glad you're happy... Could you possibly meet me in the living room after you've finished up?" Tohma asked, slipping his own empty plate in the sink.
Ryuichi blinked and nodded happily before returning to his food.
Tohma glanced at him and sighed heavilly before leaving the room.
Ryuichi silently felt dread creeping up his spine, but continued to eat just the same.
Moments later, Tohma grunted as he dropped onto the couch, snuggling into the back of it as he stared at the ceiling.
It was Tuesday, right?
Right... Yesterday had been the Monday from hell...
Tohma groaned and glanced at the wall clock, now reading almost 8am.
Noriko would already be at school, also meaning that Ryu should have been too.
"Oh well..." Tohma sighed.
There would be nothing strange about Ryuichi not showing up after his talk with the principal...it was almost expected...
There was a sudden clatter in kitchen, bringing Tohma out of his thoughts, and seconds later Ryuichi joined him on the couch.
"All done Tohma!" The already hyper brunette smiled as Tohma opened his eyes once more.
Tohma smiled weakly and sat up.
"Not a morning person huh? You still look sleepy... maybe you should go back to bed..." Ryuichi frowned as he clutched a small couch pillow to his chest.
Tohma chuckled lightly and shook his head.
"No, I'd never fall back asleep anyway... This is a usual routine. I won't be fully awake for another hour or so. I'll be fine..." Tohma sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "What about you? How are YOU feeling today? You looked pretty bad yesterday...you really had me worried. By rights I probably shoud have rushed you to the hospital after all of this, but I didn't think you'd like that." Tohma seemed to push himself deeper into the back of the couch.
Ryuichi smiled.
"Much better. Had a lot of sleep." Ryuichi smiled.
"That's good...I'm glad..."
It was then that the room fell silent, and it stayed that way for quite a few long minutes.
"Ryuichi, I-"
"It was my mother's..." Ryuichi interrupted.
Tohma paused and blinked.
"Wait...what?"
Ryuichi smiled sadly, and buried his face in the pillow in his arms.
"It was my mother's...Sakuma...her last name..." He murmured.
Tohma's eyes widened.
So he was finally ready to talk about things?
"I see... that clears up some confusion... I guess.. But, why?" he questioned.
Ryuichi laughed coldly, and Tohma honestly felt the room go cold.
"Can you honestly blame me? Who would want to walk around wearing the name of that man I was living with? Would you?" he snorted.
Tohma immediately softened.
"No...I don't suppose I would..."
Another long silence filled the room, and this time, Tohma waited for Ryuichi to continue.
"Y9ou see...things weren't always like this...not at all. There was a time where my life was just as normal as any average person's is. I had a mother...and a father, and we lived pretty happily. We weren't poor, but we weren't rich or anything like that. Things were just...normal, ya know?" He lifted his head from the pillow and stared at Tohma, now watching for any reactions, but Tohma just sat, and listened.
He pulled his legs up onto the couch and sat cross-legged, pillow still in hand.
"See...this was when we were happy.. My mother happily worked at a coffee shop around the corner during school hours, and returned home just in time to meet me every day. My father worked in an office, at a law firm. Long hours, came home on time for dinner. Had some good days, those days he was off. Some nights he'd go back out after dinner with his co-workers..." he paused, and let loose another rather negative laugh. "See...that's where things began to fall apart... He started going out after dinner more and more. And then he stopped coming home for dinner at all, and would show up late in the night. Mum got depressed...thought the worst of course. By the time Halloween came, about a month after this odd behavior started, she confronted him. He of course denied that anything out of the ordinary was going on, but he agreed to be home more often. And so...everything went back to normal."
"So...what happened then? If things went back to normal, how did you end up alone, with that man?" Tohma questioned.
Ryuichi stretched himself momentarily, then sunk back against the couch.
"See...we never knew exactly what happened... Things went back to normal, everyone was happy again. Everyone acted as though nothing ever happened, and I guess my mother just assumed that maybe he really had just been going out with co-workers, and that he'd just gotten carried away."
"But he hadn't been...had he?"
"No...I suppose not..." Ryuichi sighed. "Still, everything was normal for a while. The holidays approached. The house got decorated, presents gradually appeared under the tree... One day, he got a phone call, we assumed from the office. He seemed really distraught, and he kissed my mother goodbye, before heading out the door. That night, he came back late into the night. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary after that either, and things were rather normal up until Christmas Eve."
Tohma groaned, knowing what came next couldn't be good.
"See...mum was cooking dinner, and you know how big holiday dinners can get, right? Well, mum had been in the kitchen all day, I'd been in there helping her too. She discovered that my father had forgotten to buy a can of cranberry sauce, one of her favorites. She of course asked him if he could quickly run out and get it, as dinner would be done soon. He agreed, and grabbed his coat and keys, kissed her goodbye, ruffled my hair a bit, and then he pulled out of the driveway. We continued cooking while he was gone."
"Was...there an accident?"
Ryuichi chuckled.
"No...I suppose we'd have preferred that though...see, the store was MAYBE a 15 minute drive. After he'd been gone an hour, my mother got worried. We held off on dinner, patiently trying to wait for him to come home. She turned the T.V. on, hoping that something would turn up on the news. Some time later, she'd gone into their room to see if something could have come up before having left...and that's when she noticed...all his things were gone..." Ryuichi glared at the floor, clearly displeased with this part of the memory.
"He just...up and left you two? On Christmas Eve!" Tohma gaped.
Ryuichi nodded his response.
What kind of a person just disappears? Let alone on a holiday!
"I'm so sorry...Ryuichi...please continue though..."
"Well...as you can guess, mum kinda got loopy after that...wondering what she'd done wrong, IF she had done wrong. It drove her nuts not knowing if it was her, or something with work, or if he'd somehow gotten mixed up with the wrong sort of people, or even if he'd run off with another woman. Unfortunately, without his income coming in, we lost our home, and had to move into a tiny apartment. My mum quickly realized that there was no way that she could support the two of us on her income alone, and she began to search for another job, and at the same time, began to search for a new man. At this time, I was 14. She got a decent paying night job as a waitress, but that meant that I saw very little of her, if I saw her at all. As you can probably guess, waitresses meet tons of people each day. One of those days, she met, and fell in love with my stepfather. At first, he was a really nice man, he wasn't always how he is now. They got married fast, and mum was able to drop her night job, giving us more time together as a family. It wasn't long before her depression started to sink back in. She began to really loose it, and I started ditching school to stay home with her. That's why I failed a few grades. I wasn't attending enough, and not doing so meant I didn't learn any of the material needed. My step father caught on to what was up, and forced me back into my classes. Mum only got worse over time, and one day, I came home, and no one was there. I later found hat she'd attempted to off herself in the bathroom, and my step father had just happened to come home for lunch. They committed her after that..." he murmured.
" Things just...fell apart after that huh?"
Ryuichi nodded once more.
"Yes they did. He began to drink, heavily, I began ditching school, more and more, just to visit her. And then, not even a year after they locked her up, she passed away. He blamed me for the loss of her. Said that I looked to much like my old man, and that all my visiting her put her in an early grave. He began to taunt me, scream at me...even started kicking at me...and before long, you got what you've witnessed yourself. An angry, bitter, abusive, man that has nothing else better to do than push me around and drink until his liver gives...It's all my father's fault. If he hadn't up and left, we'd all still be alive and happy. But nothing ever works out just as planned,. I've learned that the hard way. So Tohma? Please forgive me and my lack of trust...it will just take some time to get used to someone caring. If you're treated like dirt, and told how worthless you are for so many years...you kinda start to believe it..."
Tohma could no longer help himself, and he launched himself across the couch at Ryuichi, embracing him tightly.
"You've been through so much...I promise, things won't ever get that bad ever again! You can count on me..alright Ryu?" Tohma smiled weakly.
Ryuichi nodded, and buried his face in Tohma chest, taking in deep breaths.
"Yeah..."
"Good... now, Ryuichi... yesterday, you know how I went to your house and got your things?" Tohma sighed.
Ryuichi paled at the thought of Tohma being in that house alone with his step father again, and nodded.
"Well." Tohma blushed and ran a hand through his hair again, " you... really didn't have much. Just a box worth... I figured that you might want to go out shopping. You could use new clothes, and I'm sure that there are just things that you'd like to have..."
Tohma paused as Ryuichi blushed and frantically shook his head.
"No-no-no-no-noooo! I won't! You've done enough! I don't need anything!" Ryuichi's eyes began to tear up as Tohma groaned in frustration.
"It's not like you're taking advantage of me... I offered. Besides, I demand it... You need clothes. As a member of this band, you cant be wearing jeans and a T-shirt all of the time, it's a requirement that I repair your fashion sense." Ryuichi blushed in embarrassment. " and, since you're living here, I refuse to let everything in this living space be mine. You WILL get your own things, are we clear?" Tohma asked, raising an eyebrow at the panicked brunette.
"Uh, huh..." Ryuichi nodded again, and began to squeeze the life out of the pillow once more.
Tohma blinked and dismissed the action quickly.
The he smiled.
"One more thing," Tohma stood up and walked across the room, " Here... It's not much, but I thought you'd enjoy it all the same..." Tohma grinned and handed Ryuichi his old photo album and the new camera.
Ryuichi's eyes widened, and he looked up at Tohma looking for an explanation.
Tohma chuckled lightly and sat back next to the teen.
"Well, I noticed how empty your book was. I thought that maybe now that you were bound to have a lot of happy times, you'd like to finish filling the book up, and- wait! Are... Are you crying? Ryu, what on earth-" Tohma was cut off as Ryuichi leapt back into his arms and buried his face into Tohma shoulder as he began to loudly sob.
"Ryu... what did I do?" Tohma murmured as he began to rub the brunette's back.
Ryuichi said nothing, but continued to squeeze Tohma's waist.
"Ryu?" Tohma asked again, this time tilting Ryuichi's chin up so he could see him.
" Nothing... nothing... you did nothing at all, Tohma..." Ryuichi smiled, and began to try and wipe his tears away.
"Ryu..."Tohma sighed in confusion.
Ryuichi laughed, still attempting to dry his tears, and wrapped his arms around Tohma's shoulders.
"I'm just... happy. Happy Tohma. You make me happy... Ryuichi murmured and pressed his tear dampened lips against Tohma's.
"That's all, Tohma," Ryuichi sighed, "that's all..."
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That's it for this chapter!
Man...this was another long one eh?
Hope to post the next soon, so keep on checking your inbox!