The Wallpaper
Chapter Ten
Colder then Hell
"I love this time of the year."
"I absolutely hate this time of the year." Shuichi groaned at his partners response and brought his hand to his forehead in frustration.
"You just hate it because I like it, don't you Eiri?" Eiri growled.
The two of them sat on the orange carpeted floor of Eiri's apartment, both under the blankets Shuichi had brought from next door. Leaning back against the wall, neither had any intent of doing a single thing that day.
"No, not only do I hate it because you like it, I hate it because I hate you, and the ass freezing cold flipping weather that seems to be colder indoors then out. And, if you call me Eiri again I'll knock out your two front teeth you annoying waste of space."
"Haha, very funny. Knock my two front teeth out and I would not be able to do that thing with my mouth, that you enjoy oh so very much." Eiri snorted.
"You've been getting cockier and cockier. Are my bad habits rubbing off on you?"
"Well no," Shuichi mumbled, pulling himself up to snuggle against Eiri, wrapping his blankets around himself tighter. "I've just become immune to your asshole-ism."
And then they were greeted once again, by silence. The room got colder and colder, the light darker and darker as what little light gleamed through the window disappeared into cold winter night.
"What would you like for Christmas?" Shuichi mumbled tiredly.
"Silence." Eiri whispered back, his gaze heavy as he watched tiny flakes fall outside the window.
Shuichi sighed.
"You know me well enough now to know that's impossible." said Shuichi as he wrapped his arms around Eiri's waist and rested his head on the older boy's lap.
"I…don't think that's what I meant…" Eiri whispered to no one in particular.
"Suguru, wake up. You need to eat." Hiroshi nudged the sleeping boy, setting a bowl of chicken soup on the nightstand next to the bed.
Suguru groaned, opening his swollen eyes only very slightly. His teeth chattered from the chill of illness, his face pale and sweaty.
Hiroshi looked down on this sight before him in worry, as an ache pulled at his heart with fear and sadness for his lovers state.
"Suguru, I know it's hard baby, but you need to sit up and try to keep this food down. You haven't eaten in two days…" Hiroshi pleaded as he helped Suguru sit up against the head board. Taking the wet cloth from the bowl of water next to him, he gently patted on Suguru face before placing the bowl of soup into his lap.
Hiroshi finally set a half empty bowl on the wooden night stand, sighing in defeat as Suguru pleaded for no more food.
"Alright Suguru, but you must eat more later, okay? You need to get better. If you don't, I'm taking you to the doctors…" which they both knew would never happen. There was no money for medical treatment of any kind.
A soft knock on the door caught Hiroshi's attention. Quickly tucking Suguru back under the blankets, Hiroshi made his way to the door and pulled open, being greeted by the vision of a tall, nervous man with messy black hair and a ruffled work suit. His glasses were thickly rimmed with black, and his eyes kept looking side to side nervously.
"Hi, um, sorry to disturb you so late at night, but the land lord Seguchi is requesting he see Suguru immediately, due to the fact he missed his appointment with him today." Hiroshi frowned, folding his arms.
"Please be so kind as to tell Mr. Seguchi that Suguru is in no state to see him, let alone even get up from bed. Just have him send the bill here and I'll take care of it." The nervous man sighed and shook his head.
"You don't understand the situation at hand here. What Seguchi wants, Seguchi gets."
As Hiroshi opened his mouth to tell the man to bugger off, Suguru sat up slowly in his bed, and with a groan stood up.
"I'll be right back Hiro, just, let me go do this." Hiroshi opened his mouth to protest but stopped when he saw the look in Suguru's eyes.
Those deep, agony filled eyes sent a message of "Don't."
Suguru stumbled and swayed about, each step filled with a throbbing pain as he made his way to the door.
"Give me a hand Sakano?" The nervous man nodded and wrapped an arm around Suguru's waist, letting the smaller teen lean on him.
"I'll be fine Hiro."
A pounding on his door snapped Eiri harshly from sleep. From the lack of light in the room he figured he had been asleep for a while.
"What?" He yelled, pushing the sleeping Shuichi of his lap roughly.
Shuichi sat up, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
Eiri pulled open the door to be greeted by an anxious Hiroshi staring up at him with a glare.
"Shuichi, we need to go."
"Go where?" The teen asked, yawning again and wrapping his blanket tighter around his shoulders. Hiroshi sighed and ran a hand through his hair, shoving past Eiri and into the apartment. He held his hands down and helped pull Shuichi up.
"We need to go see what Suguru is doing."
"Isn't he sleeping in bed right now?" Shuichi mumbled as he picked up his shirt and pulled it on tiredly.
"No. Some guy named Sakano came and said the landlord demanded Suguru's presence." said Hiroshi, handing Shuichi his pants.
"You'll get shot for bothering Seguchi, not to mention spying on him." The blond grumbled, slamming his apartment door shut.
Shuichi just shrugged as he zipped up his pants.
"Oh well. I've been kind of curious myself as to what exactly Suguru has to do. Can't we just get a bill to pay rent or something?" Eiri just shook his head.
"Fine. I'll go too. There's a way to see into his office that doesn't involve one of Seguchi's goons putting a bullet into your heads." Shuichi eyes got big.
"You actually care?"
"Of course. Nothing sucks more than to have a hard on and nothing to fuck." Shuichi started to cry.
The three teens shivered in the cold air of the night, crouching down as they climbed the rusty fire-escape stairs of their apartment building. Drips of water dropped on their heads now and then as they moved quietly up the icy, zigzagging steps. Each window they passed on their way up framed a very interesting portrait.
A meth lab, a mother playing a card game with her son, a group of people having a small party, involving cocaine and booze, a man building something or another out of beer caps, and the list went on.
Finally, they reached the last window at the very top. The stairs stopped to a small, flat platform with a ladder that curved up to the roof. The three of them crouched down below the window, shivering and panting.
"This is Seguchi's window?" Eiri nodded.
"Yeah, this is his office. Looking in, to the left you'll see the door to his office, to the right his desk. It's a pretty plain room. He doesn't like to spend time here." Hiroshi's eyebrows drew together in confusion.
"You sure know a lot about him." Eiri just turned, sitting on his ankles.
"I know enough."
Hiroshi and Shuichi turned and crouched as well, peering ever so carefully into the window.
Eiri seemed unfazed by what he saw before him, yet the other two teens stomachs twisted and Hiroshi felt vomit rising in his mouth.
"Oh…oh dear God…"
Suguru, in his ill state, lay on his back with his face twisted in agony as the blond man on top of him had his way. The land lord's hands trailed slowly up Suguru's body as he moved in a slow, tormenting motion on top of the small teen.
The three watched as Suguru bit his lip, drawing blood as he began to cry. Seguchi's nails dug into the boys back, his lips were sucking on the porcelain skin of his frail shoulder. The land lord picked up his pace, grabbing a naked thigh and pushing it up and over his shoulder.
Hiroshi watched, and watched, and could not't pull his eyes from his Suguru, his friend, his heart, his lover. Could not't force his eyes blind to the scene playing before them. He began to cry too, as Suguru shouted in pain from the damage being done to his body.
In his heart, Hiro felt something bend and then snap, as though he had grabbed a twig and broke it with his knee. He felt his body become overwhelmed by a very primitive feeling, a very dark and angry feeling. The want to kill, and then protect. The want to destroy, and
then comfort. The want to get Suguru away from all this.
This apartment, this lifestyle, this horrible monster.
Hiroshi promptly turned and vomited over the edge of the platform.
Hiroshi sat on the edge of his bed, quietly, waiting in the dim light of the lamp on the nightstand.
His head turned up as the apartment door opened, revealing a very sick, very weak Suguru. Said teens eyes widened when he noticed Hiroshi on the bed.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" He asked, walking and sitting next to Hiroshi, concern written all over his face.
"And, where's Shuichi? Hey, Hiro, are you okay?" Suguru gasped as Hiroshi's hand took hold of his wrist tightly.
"Shuichi's with Yuki right now."
"Hiro-"
"We're leaving."
"Shuichi, get over it. I thought you guys would have known. That's how Seguchi takes rent. Not money, favors. Just be glad it wasn't you." Eiri mumbled as the pink haired brat moped in his lap.
"How could you say such a thing? That monster was raping my best friend!" Shuichi cried angrily, burring his head in Eiri's neck.
Eiri sighed, letting his head fall back and hit the wall.
After a while Shuichi's sobs died down, leaving only the cold night air and silence among them.
"Hey Eiri?"
"Don't call me that, brat."
"What do you do to pay rent?"
"What do you mean Hiroshi?"
Hiroshi stood, handing Suguru a thick jacket and a suitcase. Looking around Suguru saw that his and Hiroshi's stuff were no where to be found in the apartment.
"We are leaving this place, and never coming back." Hiroshi answered, picking up his own jacket and then grabbing two thickly stuffed suitcases.
"I have about 500 dollars on me, and couple of blankets, our clothing and our stuff. I have two train tickets leaving first thing in the morning, in about an hour and a half, and I have written Shuichi a note." Hiroshi muttered quietly, stuffing money and some papers into his pocket.
Suguru looked up in shock.
"Why? Why…"
"You will never, ever be touched by someone like that ever again." Suguru's jaw dropped and his eyes filled with tears.
"So…Shuichi doesn't know that you're doing this?"
"No, no one can know. That man, Seguchi, seems so shady, I can't risk him finding out where we are going." Hiroshi said as he finished the last button on his jacket.
"Hiroshi…stop, please, let's talk-" Suguru pleaded.
"Let's go Suguru."
Dear Shuichi,
I love you dearly, and so does Suguru. But…Suguru has a place in my heart just as much as you do, and I can't bear with the knowledge that he has suffered so greatly all this time we have lived here. We ran away so we could be in love, and now we are running away so he won't have to undergo that mans terror ever again.
You are one of a kind Shuichi, and someday, somewhere, we will all meet again and rock the stage like none other.
I'm so sorry that I'm doing this to you, and when we see each other again, I will allow you to kick my ass.
Please, for mine and Suguru's safety, don't try to find us.
Live on Shuichi, and live like you do. Don't forget to bathe, and eat, and try to dress a little bit warmer, okay? It's supposed to snow tomorrow.
And for the love of -God- try and restrain yourself, you -will- die if you have that much sex every single night. Limit yourself, okay?
We -will- meet again.
Love, Hiroshi Nakano, and Suguru Fujisaki.
The piece of paper fell to the floor, the ink it contained leaking from fat, salty tears.
Oh God, I am SO sorry it has been so long. I've been suffering from some really hard stuff over the last couple of months, and well…well the thing is I don't know any one of you well enough to detail : P
I love you guys for reading, I really do.
Forgive the editing job, I could not't really get a hold of my beta.
-Important-
If you have beta-ing experience and would like to give editing my work a whirl, send me a message through my profile.
Things are just going to get more interesting from here.
Next Chapter: Seguchi is pissed, and decides to find another way to get his payment.