Standard Disclaimer:It has been disclaimed
Notes: The Glass Slipper. I'd be lost without her…
Anyhoo…this chapter is transitional and we now approach the end. Probably about two more chaps after this. That is all.
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Warnings: Shounen-ai/yaoi, non-con encounters, and well…any other warning that would be associated with those first two.
Unseen Eyes
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It took a while, but Tai finally fell asleep once the sun had risen and everyone else had started their day. When he was fairly sure that Tai would not be waking again any time soon, Matt carefully slipped out of the bed. He tucked the covers around the sleeping brunet and waited a moment to make sure that he remained undisturbed. After long minutes of watching Tai's even breathing, Matt sighed and exited the room, grabbing his phone along the way.
That had been...intense. Never in all their years of friendship had Yamato seen Taichi shaken so badly. He had seen the other boy cry before, but not the kind of broken sobs that had escaped him that morning. Matt was not at all ashamed to admit that more than a few tears had escaped his own eyes before it was over, but Tai was who mattered now. Matt could deal with his own feelings later.
As he walked into the living room, he noticed Mrs. Yagami sitting at the dinner table alone. A quick check of the time revealed that it was late morning, meaning that Mr. Yagami and Hikari were likely already at work and school. Sora, Izzy, and the rest of their friends would already be halfway through their first test of the day. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. He just hoped the school would let him make up his missed exams. There had been no time to be excused from testing. Heck, he hadn't even told his dad what was going on or where he was going. Yet another thing he would have to worry about later.
Without a word to the woman sitting at the table, he made his way into the kitchen, pulled a mug out of a cabinet and poured himself a cup of the steaming coffee that had been brewed for the morning. He grabbed cream and sugar, then went to sit with Mrs. Yagami, who was nursing a cup of her own. The two sat in tense silence for a long moment.
"Are you going to tell me what really happened?" she asked at length. Matt wasn't shocked that she had figured out something was up. She would be a poor excuse for a mother if she hadn't noticed that Tai's behaviour was way off. Were it a simple matter of a threat and a beating, Tai would be hot under the collar--angry, frustrated, ready to kick someone's ass. The withdrawn, quiet creature that he had become was nothing like her son.
"I can't," Matt replied in response to her question. "I'm not even really sure what happened. He's not talking about it."
The older woman gave a shuddering sigh, and Matt found himself studying her features as she took a sip from her mug and set it down in front of her. She was still a relatively young woman despite the fact that she had an eighteen-year-old son, but it was clear that the past days were wearing on her. There were dark circles under her eyes, a tired slump to her shoulders. Matt found that the irritation that he had felt towards the woman due to her cool treatment of his and Tai's relationship began to fade as he looked at her. She was just as lost as the rest of them, just trying to figure out what to do.
"You'll take care of him, won't you?" she asked. It wasn't a request, or even a question really. It was more of a statement of resignation, like she was finally admitting to something that she had been trying to deny. "You're the one he goes to now. You're the one who can make things better."
"He needs you too, Mrs. Yagami," Matt said, setting his cup aside. "Yes, he trusts me, and maybe I am the one he'll come to first right now, but it's only because he doesn't want you to worry. You know how important family is to him. He's just trying to protect you guys from this as best he can. Don't make this a me-versus-you thing because that is seriously the last thing that he needs to be dealing with on top of everything else."
She nodded with a small, self-deprecating smile. "You kids really have grown up way too fast," she chuckled lightly. "I forget sometimes." There was another pause as she took a sip of her coffee, then: "I already called the school to let them know that you both would be missing classes today. They've agreed to let you make up exams sometime next week. They'll be setting things up with your homeroom teacher."
Matt was a little shocked to hear this. He hadn't thought she would care enough to make arrangements for him as well. It was amazing how much lighter he felt even having such a relatively minor issue dealt with. There were, of course, more pressing matters at the moment, but school was important in the long-term sense of things. This stalker business wouldn't last forever, and when it was over, it would be nice to not have their lives completely screwed over because of it.
"I also talked to Taichi's coach this morning," Mrs. Yagami continued, "I said that he wouldn't be able to make the meet this weekend."
"Tai's not going to like that," Matt sighed, "but I think you're right. At this point, we have no other way of protecting him other than keeping him where no one else can get to him."
They sat a little longer in silence before Matt stood again. He dumped what was left of his now tepid coffee into the sink, then wandered back over to the entryway to check his phone messages. He suspected that there would be a few.
As predicted, there were twelve missed calls, six different text messages and a good eight voice messages to round things off. Sighing, he checked through his list of missed calls first. Most of them were from his band, probably wondering where the hell he had run off to. There was also a call from Sora the night before, and another from that morning. As neither he nor Tai had shown up for the study session and then had been absent from school, the others were probably getting pretty worried. There were also a couple of calls from his father and Takeru, too.
He moved on to his text messages; one from Kensuke, one from Koyuki, three from Aki, who was prone to worry more than the rest of the group. There was also a message from Hikari that had gone out to all of the Chosen letting them know that things with Tai were under control but the situation had escalated. Matt couldn't help but smile at that. He'd been too busy the night before to worry about damage control with the others, but Hikari had taken care of that much for him. He would have to remember to thank her when she got home from school.
The next part was listening to the voice messages, all of which were completely expected. The guys were freaking out because they were all apparently supposed to be meeting with Brach sometime that weekend to finalize details on their new gig schedule. Sora called wondering where he and Tai were. His dad left a pretty angry sounding message, and Matt cringed knowing that he would be in for it once he got home.
That was the first call he made. If nothing else, he needed to let his father know where he was. He knew that he would probably only get voicemail on his dad's cell at that time of day, but that would be good enough. He wasn't planning on going into the whole story, just giving enough info so that his dad would know that nothing had happened to him.
He was prepping to text a message to Sora's cell when there was a thump and a clatter from Tai's room. Matt was at the door in an instant, as was Mrs. Yagami, her brows creased in worry. Matt shared a look with her as he eased the door open. They peered inside and could just make out the shadowed figure of Taichi crouching on his bed in the darkened room.
"Tai?" Matt called quietly as Tai's mother backed away. Since it was clear no one else was in the room with Tai, she was leaving Matt to handle whatever the issue was.
He slipped into the room, glancing down as he noticed what looked like broken pieces of plastic on the floor next to the door. Once his eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting of the room, he could easily identify the shattered remains of Tai's cell phone.
"Your phone mouthing off at you again?" he asked in an attempt at humor that even to his own ears was lame at best.
"Guess I just wasn't up to listening to some asshole jacking off for my voicemail this morning," Tai replied dully.
Matt froze at that, rage flooding his veins. It wasn't enough that this psycho had attacked Tai the day before. Now apparently he had to continue the harassment from a distance, too. When Matt found out who this guy was…
He took a mental step back and breathed. The last thing Tai needed was him flipping out. Matt took a moment to observe his friend. Tai hadn't moved from his spot on the bed, and Matt didn't like the blankness he could see in the other boy's expression as he moved closer. He sat beside Tai, wincing at the dark bruises that had blossomed across the usually unmarred skin of his neck.
"We should have put ice on this last night," Matt said as he reached a hand out to ghost over the marks.
"Don't," Tai hissed, flinching away from his touch.
Matt retracted his hand, running it through his hair instead. An awkward silence fell between them as Matt searched for words. He really wasn't sure what he was supposed to say in a situation like this. All of the usual questions just seemed so…inappropriate. He didn't want to ask how Tai was doing because it was pretty damn obvious that he wasn't doing very well. He couldn't ask if Tai needed anything because that would just spark the brunet's defensive side and potentially make matters worse.
"Your mom called the school," he offered. Their test day seemed like neutral enough territory. "We're both rescheduled to take our tests next week sometime."
Tai didn't comment, and Matt just sighed, again at a loss for what to say.
"You hungry?" he ventured. "I could go throw something together for you right qui—"
"This is so stupid," Tai said suddenly, breaking into Matt's sentence. "You shouldn't even be here, Yama. You have your own shit to be dealing with. You shouldn't have to be here babysitting me."
"What are you talking about?" Matt asked, going for light as he gently nudged Tai's knee with a knuckle. "Where else would I be right now, silly? I've already made plans to stay here with you all weekend, so don't even stress it."
"You're gonna be hanging out here alone," Tai droned, "or did you forget I have a soccer meet this weekend."
Matt stiffened, remembering too late that he was supposed to approach this subject with a bit more caution. The blond's sudden stiffening didn't go unnoticed.
"What?" Tai asked, head rising, at last, to eye Matt suspiciously. "Don't tell me you made plans to come with me for the meet."
There was a hint of humor beginning to form in the brunet's eyes, humor that died immediately when Tai got a good look at Matt's face.
"What?" he asked again, his voice grating in anticipated irritation this time.
Matt sighed, hand running though his hair again as he faced up to the fact that he would have to tell Tai sooner or later anyway.
"Your coach called this morning, Tai," he said. "Your mom told him that you wouldn't be able to make it to the game this weekend."
There was a beat of frozen silence before Tai's voice hissed out in fury. "She what!?" he snarled, and Matt immediately raised his hands defensively.
"Tai, calm down."
"Don't fucking tell me to calm down! Who the hell gave her permission to make that call without even consulting me?!" Tai was on his feet before Matt could do anything to stop him, and the blond instinctively reached out to grab Tai's wrist before he could leave the room and tear into his mother. He remembered too late about the injuries there.
Tai released a startled hiss of pain before rounding on Matt. "Don't fucking touch me, Yama. I'm serious," he said, breath unsteady.
"Alright," Matt said, raising his hands in a placating manner. He could tell that he was on unsteady ground. Tai was acting like a caged animal. Perhaps that was an accurate description of exactly how he was feeling. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to grab you like that." Matt took a lungful of air before continuing. "You're still not going to that game this weekend."
The air went still again as Tai stared at Matt in disbelief. "This is the last game of the season," he began in too calm tones, "the last game of my high school life. The team needs their captain. Everyone is counting on me to be there and you're telling me that I'm supposed to sit this one out!?"
The rage was there now. Tai was all but vibrating with it, and Matt had to fight very hard with himself to remain between Tai and his door.
"I'm telling you that it's too risky," Matt ground out through clenched teeth. "What if he's there, Tai? What if this is just the opportunity he's been waiting for to get to you? What then, huh? Are you really willing to take the chance just for a stupid soccer game?"
"Oh, so now soccer is stupid?!" Tai exploded, "I'm sorry I've spent the past fifteen years of my life pursuing something so stupid!"
"You know that's not what I meant!" Matt gave in to the urge to shout back. "We're just trying to protect you!"
"Because you've done such a bang up job of that so far!?"
Matt froze at those words. Tai did too. Both seemed equally shocked that the brunet had actually said them. Matt had been feeling the pressure of it since the night before—tearing into himself ruthlessly for his failure to be there when Tai needed him—but to have it thrown in his face like that...
"Get out, Yamato," Tai said into the silence. He seemed to deflate, returning to his bed to resume his previous position. "I don't want to see you right now."
"Tai..." Matt tried, but Tai wouldn't even look at him.
"Just go home," the other boy whispered. "Leave me alone."
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Matt emerged from the darkened room in a state of numb shock. Tai's mother was waiting for him when he did, her eyes red, tear tracks on her cheeks. He was only mildly stunned when she walked over to him and pulled him into a rough embrace.
"He didn't mean that, Yamato," she whispered into his hair. "There was nothing you could do. Do not blame yourself for whatever happened." Matt could only nod stiffly into the woman's warm embrace.
"Go home for a while, sweety," she told him. "I'll stay here with Tai. You need to take some time away from this. Come back a little later. I'm sure he'll want to apologize then."
So that was what he did. He exited the Yagami apartment feeling like a stranger in a strange land. The outside world just felt so foreign to him somehow. It seemed impossible that people were going about their daily lives when Tai's world was falling apart around the both of them. He had a hard time getting his head around all of it even now.
He did, however, follow Mrs. Yagami's advice and tried to distance himself from the situation as best he could for a time. He went home, bathed, made more calls and generally tied up all of the loose ends he'd left hanging the day before. His band was not happy with him when he told them that he wouldn't be able to meet with all of them that weekend, but really, there was no reason he needed to be there. He may have been the lead singer, but Kensuke was just as capable of making major decisions for the group, and it was Koyuki and his brother who had hooked them up with The Cove in the first place. They could figure out details without him, and hopefully by the time they would have to start performances, things with Tai would have sorted themselves out. If not...well, Matt would just deal with that.
It was a little after four o'clock when the knock came at his door, and he went to open it and let his friends in. He had mailed Sora and Koushiro and had told them to meet him at his apartment after school.
"How are you holding up?" Sora asked, stepping in and immediately pulling him into a hug.
"Probably better than Tai," Matt said, tiredly accepting the embrace. "How much have you guys heard?"
"Well," Kousiro offered, "from what we could gather from Miyako today, Kari is worried sick because Tai came home last night covered in bruises. What exactly happened, Yamato?"
"I wish I knew!" Matt ran a hand through his hair, grabbing a handful and pulling in an attempt to vent his frustration. "He won't talk to me. He's moody and angry and I think it's safe to assume the worst here, but I'm not even sure how bad 'the worst' should be in my head. I mean, what if..." Matt could barely even think the word, let alone say it, but he couldn't deny the possibility. What if Tai really had been raped? He couldn't even begin to understand how to help someone cope with something like that. He and Tai hadn't even taken that next step in their relationship yet. He couldn't imagine would it be like to have that taken...that kind of loss of control would completely shatter someone like Tai.
Still, Matt didn't think that that was the case. Tai seemed shaken, and angry, and lost...but he wasn't broken. There was still life in his eyes, and Matt was sure that there would be more obvious signs if something that extreme had happened. No...the violation hadn't gone that far. Matt refused to believe it possible, but it had obviously gone far enough. It was clear that Tai was giving up hope of finding this guy before the bastard got what he wanted. That was all the more reason why Matt knew he and the others had to work harder. If the police weren't going to do anything to help Tai then--
"Yamato?"
Koushiro's voice broke into his thought, and Matt blinked, realizing that he had drifted off mid-sentence.
"Sorry," he ran a hand over his face, hoping to clear his head a little. "What were you saying?"
"Nothing," the smaller boy replied, "it just looked like we'd lost you for a moment." He gave a small understanding smile, and the trio wandered further into the apartment to settle together on the couch.
"What about the police?" Sora asked. "Surely after something like this, they'd be taking the situation more seriously."
"Except Tai's not talking," Matt explained. "They don't know how bad things have gotten, and even if they did, what are they supposed to do? We have nothing to give them!"
"That's not necessarily true," Koushiro cut in calmly. "I've been doing a lot of analysis on the situation, and I'm pretty sure we can at least narrow the list of suspects. I would need to speak with Taichi to get a few more details first, but I believe that with the information I've gathered, we have grounds for a solid investigation."
Matt stared at Koushiro for a long, shocked moment before dropping his head into his hands and breathing a shuddery sigh. This was the reason he had called the others in on this, the reason that he trusted them. They all had their individual strengths, and when pooled, it really did feel like there was little they could not figure out on their own given enough time.
Before Matt could formulate his next words, there came another knock at the door.
"That's probably Jou," Sora said, hopping to her feet to get the door. "He told us to keep him in the loop with everything that's been happening."
"You shouldn't be so quick to assume you know who's behind the door, Sora," the older boy said, apparently having heard Sora's words through the door. "At this point, any of us could also be targets."
"What are you talking about?" Matt asked as he stood to greet his friend.
"Well," Jou began, setting his bag down, "just based on what has happened so far, it seems like the logical next step. There have already been threats and now an attack. Practically everything else in Tai's life has been compromised. Seems only reasonable that tearing down his support system—that being us—would come next."
The thought had never even occurred to Matt that any of the rest of them could be in danger from this stalker, but when Jou put it that way, it did make sense.
"C'mon Jou, stop being so paranoid," Sora said, lightly swatting at his arm. "We're here to talk about Tai. We're not the ones who just got jumped by a psycho."
The tone was meant to be at least somewhat playful, but there was a clear note of tension in her voice as she spoke. The truth was, if what Jou said was true, any one of them could become the next victim at any time. Matt didn't even want to think about how Tai would react if one of his friends was hurt as a way to get to him, but nor could he deny the very real threat.
"Let's talk about this while we walk," Matt said as he grabbed some of the extra things he had packed for his stay with the Yagami's. "It's getting late and I want to get back over to Tai's before it gets dark."
The group of friends headed out together into the late afternoon. They talked some about what they could do to help Tai, but mostly tried to keep to lighter topics of conversation. If they walked a bit closer together than usual, or if the looks they shot to random passers-by were a bit more wary, none of them mentioned it. It only served to put things in perspective. The feeling of being watched, wondering at every face that passed; it gave them a taste of what Tai must've been going through. It gave them all the more reason to see to it that it ended.
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A/N:
Gah…why is it that the closer I get to the end the harder this is to write? Xp