Didn't write Gravitation or JJ Romantica. Would love to meet those who did though. So jealous.

Chapter 12

"But who sent the letter? And why?" Akihiko shouted out in despair slamming his fist down on the armrest in frustration.

The door to the sitting room opened unnoticed by the three men. Each of them trapped in their own thoughts of sorrow regarding the disappearance of Misaki. Akihiko lost in thoughts of despair at never seeing his lover again. Haruhiko felt torn between fear for Misaki's safety, feelings of love that he still felt for the boy, and guilt for those same feelings. Akita, who had only met Misaki for a very brief time, felt horrified and angered that his letter of love to Haruhiko had been twisted and used against an innocent young man.

"I did," a soft timid voice answered causing the three men to whip around to face the new arrivals.

The brothers were surprised when they saw their father standing just inside the door with Akihiko's mother standing beside him. Akihiko's mother had always been a cold and distant parent as they had grown up. She had seemed to derive some sort of bizarre pleasure out of the antagonism between them.

Their father led Akihiko's mother to a nearby chair and sat down beside her. Her hand held gently within his own. The two brothers stared at them in shock. It was well known that there was no love lost between them but at the moment they almost appeared to be affectionate towards each other.

"Your mother sent the letter," Akihiko's father said tiredly.

"What the hell…" Akihiko said angrily as he turned to face his mother.

"Careful Akihiko," his father warned him.

"Do you have any idea as to what she's done?" Akihiko said as he contemptuously looked at his mother. "Misaki has disappeared."

"What?" His mother said shocked. Tears running down her beautiful pale face. "What have I done? Oh, God forgive me."

"He may but if anything happens to Misaki I sure as hell won't?" Akihiko snapped at the woman who gave birth to him but who had always denied him her love.

"Akihiko!" his father snapped at him as he gathered his tearful wife in his arms to comfort her.

"No, he's right." His mother said sadly pulling away from her husband and looking up at her angry son. "I was so bitter regarding certain things that I acted like a child and hurt two innocent children who had been placed in my care. And here I am still hurting them."

"Why?" Haruhiko asked of the crying woman before him shocked. "Why did you send that letter to Misaki? Why would you destroy such a beautiful innocent young man? One which, quite clearly, was giving such joy and happiness to your own son."

Haruhiko had always been jealous of Akihiko. Akihiko who lived with both his mother and father. Not like himself who was merely the son of his father and a mistress. A son that was not wanted and was barely tolerated. He had always felt that Akihiko had everything whilst he had had a begrudged existence. Could it be that he had been wrong all these years? Had Akihiko also been merely tolerated by their parents. Why did these people have children if they did not want to love them and care for them? Could it be that he had been mistaken all his life and it wasn't his fault after all that he wasn't loved. The anger he had always felt towards Akihiko began to dissolve.

He looked across at Akihiko, not with eyes filled with jealousy based on childhood experiences, but with the eyes of an adult. He didn't see the man he had always believed had looked down on him as the merely son of his father's mistress. He no longer saw arrogance and disdain. What he had seen as arrogance had really been a protective shield. A shield he had developed to protect his sensitive spirit from the cold and distant treatment of those that were supposed to love him.

"Oh, God," he thought to himself as the he remembered the way he himself had enjoyed emotionally torturing Akihiko as they grew up. "What have I done?"

He raised his hand to his chest as his heart felt as though it was being squeezed in a vice. Tears began to well up in his eyes as he remembered how he had always withheld himself from Akihiko. Just as he felt the first stirrings of self loathing writhe inside him he felt warm arms wrap around him from behind. Turning his head he looked up into the compassionate brown eyes of his lover.

"Haruhiko, it's alright. You were a child. You didn't understand what was going on around you. You were desperate for love yourself and were merely lashing out in anger when it was denied to you."

Overhearing these words Akihiko turned away from his mother and looked at his estranged older brother who was being comforted by Akita. Haruhiko saw his brother come towards him and pressed himself further into Akita's arms. He couldn't look at Akihiko. He felt too ashamed.

He jumped, startled, when he felt a large unfamiliar cold hand rest on his head and gently ruffle his hair.

"Haruhiko." A soft gentle voice spoke to him. He barely recognised it as Akihiko's.

"Akita is right. We were children who followed the example of our parents in what family life is like. We weren't shown affection so how could we show it to each other. Our parents guided our actions as children but we are adults now. We both have partners who have accepted us and with their acceptance have taught us that we can be loved and what love really is. All we have to do is to expand that feeling to include those who are important to us. I am sorry too for how I have treated you in the past. Please forgive me and let's be brothers like Misaki and Takahiro are. The brothers that we should have been. That we can be." Akihiko's voice broke over the last few words.

Haruhiko felt Akita squeeze him tightly in unspoken support before his arms released him. His chest remained pressed up against his back and Haruhiko knew that Akita would still love him and support him no matter what his response to Akihiko's words were.

He took a deep breath to steady himself before looking into Akihiko's eyes. He gasped in shock. His brother's usually cold aloof eyes were filled with fear and hope swimming in a bed of unshed tears. One solitary tear fell and slowly trailed down his pale cheek as Haruhiko stepped away from his lover and into the arms of a brother that he had felt distanced from all his life.

He didn't know how long he stood there in his brother's arms but he still felt it was too soon for Akihiko to release him and he felt a soft whimper leave his mouth.

Akihiko raised his chin gently and looked into his eyes. "It's okay Haruhiko. We will have more time to get reacquainted as brothers once Misaki is found. First I want a word with my mother." Anger could clearly be heard in rising in his voice as he turned to once more to glare at his mother.

"Why would you do this?" He snarled.

Lady Usami straightened in her chair her pale face determined as she prepared to receive whatever punishment was meted out to her.

"Akihiko, I am so sorry."

"I don't want to hear how sorry you are. I want to know why you are trying to destroy me. Why you would hurt someone you don't even know just to get back at me? Why don't you love me?" Akihiko cried out in pain and anger.

"I am ashamed to say that I used you children as a weapon against your father. What makes it even worst is that it wasn't necessary. If it wasn't for a meeting Misaki I would still be living that kind of life."

"Misaki?!" Akihiko asked astounded. "Where?"

The other two male members of the Usami family looked at each other, raised their right eyebrows, before saying simultaneously. "Train station?"

"How did you know that?" Lady Usami asked surprised.

"Let's just say it's a new family tradition that Misaki introduced." Haruhiko said smiling gently to himself. A smile shared by his father.

"As Misaki would say 'damn Usami-pheromones'." Akihiko mumbled to himself lost for a few minutes in his own thoughts.

There was a strained silence as each person thought of how Misaki had touched their lives. They each reflected on how Misaki, in the course of just two years, had turned strangers into a family. Slowly each family looked at Akihiko.

The man in question was still sitting on the lounge lost in thought. His hair ruffled and his chin showing signs of needing a shave – two days ago. His face was pale and gaunt. His cloths were creased and clearly in need of a change. His eyes, which had been lit with joy, over the past two years were now haunted and dulled.

"I can't tell you how sorry it ended up like this. After talking to Misaki I talked to your father, I mean really talked. I completely forget about the letter. I only remembered it when Tanaka informed us of your arrival. I should have remembered to tell Misaki about the letter. How have you been holding up? You haven't been wallowing in your apartment alone have you?"

Akihiko head snapped up and he opened his mouth as if to snap again at his mother. Then he took a closer look at his mother and saw how she had genuinely changed and how she was suffering now under the consequences of her actions. He couldn't blame her anymore.

"Hiroki-san has been with me almost constantly since Misaki disappeared." He answered softly. "He is also Misaki's teacher at the University."

"Hiroki? Do I know him? I think I do. Isn't he the son of the family that lived nearby?" Lady Usami asked softly. Relief and joy at Akihiko's unspoken forgiveness clearly visible on her beautiful pale face.

Akihiko reached for his wallet and pulled out a photo, reluctantly given to him by his friend, and passed it too his mother.

His mother reached out a trembling pale hand and gently took the photo from her son's hand. She looked at the person Akihiko indicated.

"I remember him now. He was such a proud young man. I liked him." Lady Usami looked at the person standing beside Hiroki in the photo then gasped. "Oh dear, please excuse me for a moment."

"What is it ... mother?" Akihiko asked.

Lady Usami gave her son a trembling smile, tears welling in her eyes. "Nothing dear I just need to attend to something. Tanaka please assist me."

"At once, my lady." The tall butler responded opening the door and following her out.

Once outside the room Lady Usami stopped and placed a hand gently on the butlers arm. "Tanaka please come with me into the study."

"My lady?" The butler enquired puzzled at his employers casual attitude towards him.

"Oh Tanaka, for the final time call me Yuri. We have been friends for years. For crying out loud you are the husband of my best friend."

"Sorry Yuri. Professional ethics and all that." He complied with a smile.

"This is regarding a personal matter so it shouldn't be covered by your 'Professional Ethics'." Lady Usami replied with a light carefree laugh.

Tanaka looked at Yuri with puzzled eyes.

They entered the study and Yuri sat in a comfortable chair and indicated that Tanaka was to take the seat next to her. Once he was seated she handed him the photo that she had taken from Akihiko.

After throwing Yuri a quick look he glanced down at the photo. He glanced at the photo then looked up again at Yuri. Suddenly his eyes when wide and he looked back at the photograph again. His face went pale as he continued to gaze down at the photo.

"You can see it can't you, Tanaka?" She asked him excitedly.

Tanaka swallowed then looked up at Yuri. "Yes. Do you think it's possible? After all these years."

It was almost painful to see and hear the hope in Tanaka's voice and on his still handsome face.

"We need more information about him." Yuri stated firmly.

"We need to speak to him in person."

"We could arrange a dinner party through Akihiko and invite him and his lover." Yuri suggested then stopped and threw a quick look at Tanaka. "You don't mind do you?"

"Mind. About what?" Tanaka asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Him having a male lover." She asked tentatively. For some reason his answer was important to her. She needed to know that he didn't look negatively on her own sons. She was surprised with herself at how quick she now genuinely looked upon Haruhiko as her son.

"No. I don't have a problem with his sexual orientation. As long as he is loved, that is all I hope for." He looked Yuri in the eyes and then continued. "Yuri, I love Haruhiko and Akihiko as if they were my own. I have no negative thoughts towards them and who they love. They have been blessed to be loved by people who would do anything for them."

"Thank you Tanaka," Yuri sighed with relief.

"Silly girl." Tanaka smirked at her.

"Watch it," she responded fondly. "Now how are we going to get Akihiko to agree to this without any awkward questions."

Ten minutes later the two returned to the lounge room. As they entered the room they heard Haruhiko talking to Akihiko and laughing about some prank he had played on Hiroki when they were children. Whilst they were talking Akihiko's phone began to ring. Looking at the caller ID he smiled and said as he answered the call, "Speaking of the Devil."


Hope you like this chapter. Wonder what's going on between the Lady Usami and the Butler. Please feed my addiction and review. To all those who have reviewed in the past thank you sooooo much. Thanks also to all those who have added me to their story alerts. Have a great year.