Title: Little Conversations

Author: Hawk Clowd

Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing and I want nothing. I think these boys would cost me too much money in condoms and lubricant, quite frankly, if they didn't run me dry from the beer and cigarette runs, first.

Blood Type: NyQuil

Warnings: Sleep-deprived insanity.

Part: Ten (Whoa!)

Author's Notes: So. Yes. I'm not sure this thing is ever going to end, despite my best inclinations. In any case, my thanks go out to DC for this one, as he stopped me from jumping over a ledge (or... you know. My desk) while I was trying to write this thing. He is le excellent, and you should all worship him. Right now. Go on. Do it. In other news, this little story thing is longer than normal, but really stupid. I'm sorry.

---

Tatsuha's cell phone rang a little after two in the morning and it made Tatsuha startle awake. He groped blindly for the phone and kept a watchful if bleary eye on his bedroom door even as he answered the thing. He kept the phone set to the quietest ring-tone he had been able to find, but that still didn't mean it wouldn't wake up Tatsuha's father. Or, worse, Mika and Tohma, who were sleeping in the room next to his. Tatsuha didn't even want to think about what would happen if Mika caught him with a cell phone!

"Hello?" Tatsuha answered quietly. He didn't even have to check to see who was calling; only one person ever called him at this time of night. "Aniki?"

Eiri was silent for a moment. "Why are you making snake noises?" he asked.

Tatsuha rolled his eyes. "I'm not making snake noises. I'm being quiet so I don't wake anyone up, dumbass. Obviously."

"It sounds like snake noises," Eiri said again. "And bullshit."

What? Tatsuha paused, confused, and then shook his head. "What do you mean 'bullshit'?" he asked. "How would you know?"

"You've never made hissing noises the other times I've called," Eiri pointed out.

"It's different this time," Tatsuha explained. He shot another anxious look at his door. Had that sound been the creak of a floorboard? No. Couldn't be. Wasn't possible. Of course not. No one was out there.

"How?" Eiri asked.

Tatsuha frowned. "Mika and the bastard-in-law are over. They're sleeping in the room right next to mine."

"Why aren't they in Mika's room?"

Tatsuha sighed and scooted over to sit by the far wall, the one opposite the wall he shared with the room in which Mika and Tohma slept. "She said it looked creepy or something."

Eiri made an understanding noise. "I've been telling her that for years."

Yeah, right. Tatsuha bet he had. Just because Mika had a mirror hanging up right across from her door... Tatsuha rolled his eyes. Whatever. "So what's up now?"

"I just got home."

"You left the house?" That was surprising. Eiri was the urban equivalent of a hermit. He never went anywhere. "Where'd you go?"

"Some concert."

Tatsuha snorted. "You went to a concert?" He heard another sound from the hallway and craned head toward it. What was it? A footstep? No.

"The brat made me go. He's friends with the drummer and promised he would attend the damned thing, but his guitar friend had a date and the brat refused to go alone."

"So he took you?"

"So he dragged me."

"Oh." Eiri sounded weird. "Are you drunk?"

"Yes."

"Okay." There was definitely something making noise in the hallway, but what was it? Maybe the house was settling. Houses did that sometimes, right? "What band?"

"Who cares? Something 'mouse'. They wouldn't let me smoke."

"Ah." That didn't sound like a house settling. Tatsuha frowned and scooted over to the door to press his ear against it. "The band wouldn't let you smoke or the concert hall said you couldn't smoke?"

"Does it matter?" Eiri sounded annoyed. Tatsuha guessed there was more to Eiri's story than the elder was letting on, but Tatsuha wasn't about to push it. Eiri would spill when he was ready, and it wasn't like Tatsuha had to be up early in the morning, for a change. What did he care? Eiri could take all night to tell Tatsuha what was going on. Besides, if Tatsuha kept quiet, maybe whatever -- whoever? -- was in the hall would go away. Or at least go back to bed.

There was a long pause. Eiri fumed purposelessly for a while and Tatsuha listened out the door for --

"The drummer was an asshole, too," Eiri said at last.

Tatsuha rolled his eyes. Like Eiri had room to talk. "Yeah?"

"He kept laughing."

That didn't sound particularly bad to Tatsuha. Maybe he was missing something there. "Laughing about what?" he asked.

"How the fuck should I know? Shuichi kept talking and the asshole kept laughing, that's all."

Tatsuha frowned and inspected his fingernails, then scooted back toward his futon. Yup. Nothing in the hallway. "Was he being mean about it? The drummer, I mean."

"No. Shuichi was telling stories or something."

"Funny stories?"

"Hell if I know. Maybe. And he kept hanging off him, too."

Tatsuha tried not to laugh aloud as the pieces fell into place. Ah. So that was it. He held his hand over his mouth, but a few chuckles still escaped. Eiri heard them and went quiet for a moment.

"What the fuck are you laughing about?" he snapped.

"You're jealous," Tatsuha said gleefully. "You're jealous because some other guy was being nice and friendly with Shuichi!"

"I am not," Eiri insisted.

"You are," Tatsuha reveled. He grinned. "You loooove him."

Eiri's scowl was almost audible. "I never said that!"

Like he had to. Why else would he be jealous? "Eiri loves Shuichi," Tatsuha taunted in a singsong voice. "Eiri loves Shuichi, Eiri loves Shuichi..."

"Shut up," Eiri ordered.

Tatsuha persisted. "Eiri loves --"

"Tatsuha-kun?"

Tatsuha's bedroom door creaked open. Fuck. Tatsuha dove for his futon and wedged his phone under his pillow. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! He pretended to have just woken up and tried to look tired as Tohma peered through the doorway. Fuck!

"Is everything all right, Tatsuha-kun?" the blond asked. He looked far too cheerful for this time of night.

"Fine," Tatsuha answered, far too quickly. He coughed and tried again. "I mean, everything's just fine."

"Really?" Tohma asked. He looked almost concerned, but Tatsuha knew better. "I thought I heard you talking to someone."

Of course he had. Tohma had some sort of superhuman ability to hear anything involving Eiri; he had probably picked out the sound of Eiri's voice through Tatsuha's cell phone even from the other room. He had some kind of... of radar.

"I was... uh..." Tatsuha could vaguely hear Eiri asking what was going on. He tried to subtly adjust the pillow over the phone. Fuck. "I was sleep-talking. To myself. I do that sometimes."

"Sleep-talking?" Tohma repeated. He quirked an eyebrow. "It sounded as though you were holding a conversation."

"I was," Tatsuha said through grit teeth. Eiri talked loud -- he could still hear his brother even through the pillow. "With myself."

"A conversation with yourself?" Tohma asked. "In your sleep?"

"Yes."

"I see." Tohma frowned. He was obviously not buying the excuse, but maybe he would just go with it and... "I also thought I heard ringing."

Fuck.

"You didn't," Tatsuha said.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes." Tatsuha frowned at Tohma and watched him for a long, long moment. Then the blond seemed to give in. He shrugged.

"Very well. Goodnight, Tatsuha-kun."

"Night."

Tatsuha waited until the door had shut and he had heard the door to the room next door open and shut before he did anything. That had been easy. Too easy. He waited a few second more and then grabbed for his phone again.

"Aniki?"

"What the hell was that?" Eiri demanded. "Did you die? Because that's about the only reason I'll accept for you --"

"The bastard-in-law walked in," Tatsuha interrupted.

"Oh," Eiri said. He paused. "What were we talking about?"

Tatsuha yawned a little. "That asshole drummer that was flirting with Shuichi."

"Right," Eiri agreed. "In any case, he laughed a lot and he kept touching him. And they wouldn't let me smoke, the bastards."

Eiri launched into another tirade and Tatsuha smiled a little. He pulled a blanket around his shoulders. Tohma probably thought he was crazy or something now, but who cared? It wasn't often that Eiri actually showed genuine emotions, so why not take advantage of it -- and make the elder brother really, really irritated in the process?

Tatsuha leaned back against the wall and enjoyed the show.