Takaba almost regretted what he had told Takato when he saw the slight flash of anger that appeared in Takato's eyes.
"Come with me for a second." Takato told Takaba as he stood up from the table, obviously expecting the other to follow after him. Takaba stalled for a second, not certain if he should follow after his friend, already having an idea of what it was that the other wanted to do, but knowing that Takato would more then likely not let him he slowly got up and stared to follow behind the other.
"Aki and I are going into my room for a moment, you can come up and let us know when dinner is done." Once Takato got a positive answer from Kou he continued in the direction of his room with Takaba hesitantly following behind him.
Takato entered the room first and then stepped to the side of the door so that Takaba could follow in after him before he shut it.
"Aki please take off your shirt." Takato told his friend, standing a fairly good distance away from the other so that he didn't make Takaba nervous from his request or fear that he was going to do something to him.
Takaba stalled when Takato asked him this question, he was fairly certain that his friend already knew what he was going to see once he did lift his shirt up, but that didn't make him feel anymore uncomfortable showing off the damage he had gotten.
After a few slow seconds though Takaba did as Takato asked and lifted his shirt up over his head, not stopping until he had completely pulled it off so that his friend could see the fading bruises.
Once Takaba saw the look in Takato's eyes he couldn't bring himself to stare at his friends face anymore.
"Did that Asami person give you all of these? "Takato questioned, the anger seeping through into his voice, though he was really trying hard to remain clam despite what was in front of him.
"NO!" Takaba quickly replied, his voice almost a shout, though he quickly lowed it when he continued speaking. "He didn't do anything bad to me, I told you already he's done nothing but help me through all this, though things may have been rough at the start." Takaba could tell that by Takato's voice that his friend didn't quite believe what it was that he was saying. Takaba spoke again just at the same time Takato opened his mouth, "Asami hasn't do anything to purposely hurt me. Anything of this that you see on my body, Feilong did all this." Takato had shut his mouth again when Takaba told him this.
"That bastard." Takato growled lowly under his breath, past the point of being able to hide his anger from this friend. "Why did he hurt you like this?" Takato questioned, turning his attention back to Takaba as he looked over his friend's body once again, hating all of the marks he saw on it, the worst thing for him knew that he wasn't there to protect his friend from the harm that befell him.
"Asami said that he sold me to get drug. The bruises though are from the second time Feilong to a hold of me." Takaba explained, trying his hardest to keep eye contact with Takato even though it was really hard for him to.
"Second time?" Takato questioned, not liking the thought that Feilong hurt Aki not once, but twice. Takaba nodded his head, breaking eye contact this time as he looked around the room.
"A misunderstanding came up between me and Asami, I went into someplace that I shouldn't have and saw something that made me think something that wasn't true. I didn't even take the time to allow Asami to explain what was going on with what I saw. I didn't trust him, and even though he had shown me proof that Feilong was the one, who had sold me to him, I still went back to him and ended up causing more trouble, not just for myself but for Asami too." Takaba explained, feeling guilty over the fact that he had caused Asami to fork over such a large amount of money just because he acted without thinking.
"So you're telling me this Asami came to get you even after you suddenly up and left?" Takato questioned, rather surprised to hear that this person he didn't know anything about was willing to go so far just to get his friend back. Takaba nodded his head.
"He came to get me because it's his job to protect me, or at least it was at the time, now I don't know what it is that he's planning on doing with me." Takaba explained, the hurt look on his face showed that he did indeed really miss Asami as much as he said he did.
"Aki, if this person was really willing to go that far just to get you back even though he didn't really have to, them I'm certain that he wouldn't so suddenly up and leave you here like this. I'm certain that he had a reason for what he did." Takaba wanted to believe what Takato had just told him, but there was a certain side that still doubted that
Asami was just going to leave him here now that he had a safe place for the time being.
"I don't know, I want to think that's true, but I don't know enough about him to be able to really tell what he's thinking by doing something like this." Takaba replied, as he put his shirt back on, not liking the feeling of his injuries being exposed to his friend for so long.
"Don't worry about it too much tonight, for the time bein lets just go and eat, plan on staying here for the night and I'm certain that Asami will come back to pick you up in the morning." Takaba gave a numb nod of his head when his friend told him this. Takaba wondered if Asami knew exactly how much he was hurting him by not letting him know where he was going after he had left?
Kou already had the table set by time the two had come back down, Takaba made sure to push all of his concerns to the side as he smiled over the spread that his friend had made for him to eat. Kou wasn't the keenest of people when it came to seeing that there was somethin going on, but Takato and him had made a way to communicate in a way that Aki didn't understand, but that let Kou know that what they were talking about wasn't something to talk about when their friend was around.
"You know that you didn't have to do all of this for me." Takaba told his friends, feeling rather sheepish when they started putting the food closer to him, letting him know that they expected him to dish up first.
"Come now, Aki, you know it's been well over a week since we last saw you, I think that it's only fair that you allow me to spoil you with my culinary skills." Kou replied grinning as he took Takaba's plate and started putting food on it when it was obvious that the other was too uncomfortable to dish up his own food.
"You know those guys that I always feel spoiled enough just by having you two around as my friends." Takaba told them as he looked at the heaping plate of food, he could deny to his friends all the wanted that he wasn't going to be able to eat all of that, but both of them knew that wasn't true, Takato even more so then Kou since he had noticed how much weight his friend had lost in the week that they had been gone for.
The meal went well, not much talking was down between the friends and that was a good thing for Takaba because he didn't really want to talk much, he really just wanted to eat and be able to get some sleep, that way he would sooner know where exactly it was that he stood with Asami. Takaba had a good idea though that sleeping wasn't going to be easy, as he'd have liked for it to be.
After dinner was finished and Takato took care of washing the dishes, the fight over who was going to be allowed to sleep where started up, Takaba was being rather firm over the fact that he wanted to sleep on the loveseat, insisting that he'd be happier there then sleeping on one of his friends beds. Of course neither Takato nor Kou agreed with what their friend was choosing to do.
Takato felt that he should've been the one sleeping on the loveseat since Kou had spent the first two nights there after they had gotten back because he was usually too tired to make his way up the stairs and into his room.
"Look guys, it'll just be for the night, it's not like I'll be staying here for long enough that I'll need a room set up for me." Takaba argued, though even he wasn't all that certain as for how long he was going to be boarding with his friends. Takato sighed at this point, knowing that there was no way to argue with Aki any further on the point since he seemed to be firm about his decision.
"Fine you can sleep on the love seat, just don't expect me to leave your side until after you fall asleep." Takato replied, Takaba frowned at this though, for he didn't know exactly how long it would be before he'd actually be able to fall asleep nor how well he'd sleep once he actually got there.
"Then I suppose that I'll stay out here with you guys too." Kou chimed in, but was quickly shot down by both of his friends who know that he was really much too tired to be able to stay up for that much longer, and it really didn't take all that much to convince their friend to go up to his room and get some sleep.
Takato did his best to help get Aki set up comfortable on the love seat, getting him two blankets and two of the spare pillows he kept for his friend slept over before placing himself right next to the loveseat where Aki was laying.
"You want a sleeping pill?" Takato questioned as he looked up at his friend who was staring up at the ceiling, not seeming all that tired.
Takaba shook his head at the question.
"I don't really think that it's going to help me sleep that much tonight." Takaba replied, glancing down at Takato when his friend placed a hand over his own.
"The nightmares still bothering you that much?" Takato questioned.
"Not as much as they were before." Takaba replied, "Though now that I'm sleeping here I don't know if they'll start coming back again."
"Are you saying that they want away when you were staying with Asami?" Takato questioned as rubbed gentle circles on his friend's hand, something he knew helped Takaba to relax whenever he felt tense.
"Yeah." Takaba replied as he shut his eyes, allowing Takato to continue to rub the soft circles on his hand as he tried to will himself to relax, "It's the strangest thing, but after coming back to Asami the second time I found that nightmares weren't there anymore, that was as long as he was near by when I was sleeping." Takaba froze for a second when he realized what exactly it was that he had just said to his friend, if he knew Takato, then he knew that his friend wouldn't be pleased over the thought that Aki had been sleeping in bed with someone else, even if the other person happened to be older and didn't do anything to him.
"You slept together?" Takato questioned trying his hardest to continue focusing rubbing his friend's hand rather then getting flustered over the information that his friend had just given him. Takaba wasn't exactly why he felt the strong urge to hide under the covers when Takato asked him this question, but he knew that it probably had something to do with the fact that a. he had a small crush on Asami so he felt rather embarrassed saying such a thing, even if he was telling his friend, and b. because he knew that Takato wasn't going to be all that pleased with the answer he was going to be giving to his friend.
"He insisted that we shared a bed together, and because he didn't touch me or do anything else inappropriate I agreed to go along with it." Takaba replied, his voice muffled as he gave into his strong urge and pulled the blanket over his head even though his one hand was still sticking out. Despite not being all that pleased to hear this news, Takato couldn't stop himself from smiling at his friends behavior.
"Do you really like him that much? "Takato questioned, asking this more as a tease then anything, but was rather surprised when Takaba peeked out from under the blanket, a very light blush noticeable on his face.
"Maybe?" Takaba questioned back, not really certain what else there was to say to his friend, though he knew by the way that Takato's face dropped when he told him this that he probably should've blown it off.
"Fuck Aki, you really did fall in love with him didn't you?" Takato didn't know how exactly to feel about his friend falling in love, he just knew that whatever was going to happen he wanted the chance to talk with Asami face to face sooner rather then later. "Why do you like about him?" Takato questioned, wanting to at least get some information out of his friend.
Takaba stared at his friend for a few seconds as he tried to find the right way to answer that question, because, what did he really like about Asami? The man wasn't the most affectionate person that Takaba had ever met, nor did he come across as particularly considerate most of the time, though Takaba knew that he had to have a good heart because of the type of job that he was in.
"He comes across as kind of cold and distant, he tends to be cocky and is a huge narcissist, but he can be considerate when he wants be, he not that good when it comes to showing affection, but when it really counts he's there for me." Takaba replied, his mind wandering as he tried to think of any other reason he might like Asami for. "He isn't exactly the type of person I feel comfortable being around nor is he the type of person I'd want to go out with, but there is a certain something about him that makes it so that I can't help but be drawn towards him." Takato was very quiet as he listened to his friend explain the situation to him, wanting to make sure that the other had a good chance to explain his feelings without Takato interrupting him.
Takato didn't really like the way that Takaba explained the Asami person to him, because it made Takato feel as though this Asami person wasn't someone good for Takaba to be falling in love with.
"Does he know that you have feelings for him?" Takato questioned, studying his friends face when he asked this question, making sure that there was no way he'd miss any expression that came across it.
"I don't know, but I don't really think that he knows I like him, I mean I haven't do anything that'd make my feelings for him evident, at least I haven't tried to since I'm still not all that certain that I do indeed like him."
"Does he do anything that'd make you think that there is a chance that he might like you even if he doesn't know you have feelings for him?" Takaba took a few seconds to think about the question that Takato had just asked him.
"If teasing counts as a way of showing you like someone then maybe, but I think that he does that because he likes to see me act flustered, he comes across as too stuck up to even think about admitting his feelings for anyone." Takaba replied, sighing softly as he thought about all of this, knowing that there was indeed a high chance that Asami didn't like him whatsoever and was actually rather pleased to find someone to push him off on.
Takato could tell that his friend was starting to feel down again so he knew right away that it was time to stop asking the other questions and helping him to fall asleep before it got much later.
"Lets let this matter be for the night Aki, if he doesn't come to pick you up tomorrow morning, give him a call and if he doesn't pick up then I'll help you to go and see him." Takaba smiled at his friends attempt to cheer him up.
"Thanks Takato, but I think that if he doesn't come tomorrow morning I'll wait until later on before giving him a call, he tends to be really busy in the morning." Takaba replied, giving his friend's hand a squeeze as he snuggled further into the blankets, making it seem as though he was indeed getting ready to get some sleep considering how late it was.
Takaba wasn't all that surprised that after lying there for such a long time he wasn't able to get any sleep and that Takato had ended up falling asleep before him. Takaba was more used to lacking sleep then his friends were so it was nothing for him to spend a full night or two up without any sleep, even if the affects caused him to feel exhausted for many days after.
It wasn't like Takaba didn't want to get any sleep as he lay there with his eyes shut, it was just that every time he shut his eyes and tried to relax so that he could get some sleep, an image of Asami would suddenly pass through his mind and cause his eyes to snap open even when he did try his hardest to keep them shut as he attempted to drive the image away by thinking of anything he could of aside from the older man.
Takaba didn't really like to think of himself as being really attached to Asami, but as he lay there trying his hardest not to think about Asami, he realized that he was more attached to Asami then even he'd have liked to admit.
Takaba wouldn't allow himself to feel down about such a stupid matter, especially if it did turn out that Asami decided to dump him without looking back, because he knew that if such was the case then he'd be doing nothing more then pleasing Asami by acting so down about being left by him. Shaking his head Takaba once again shut his eyes, trying his hardest not to think of Asami as he willed himself to fall asleep quickly, hoping that maybe if he fell asleep, he'd wake up to find himself laying in the comfort of Asami's bed.