Zenny's Restaurant, Saitama, Thursday, 8:00 PM
Iwase Kyouko studied her dinner date as plates were cleared by their waitress and as they sipped their soft drinks. Normally, sharing a meal with her Darling was fun, exciting, and full of relaxed energy, but, tonight, Darling was different.
Ever since challenging him at the fan meet-and-greet in Tokyo where she had been dazzled by him all over again, her life had finally felt complete. He actually called. He actually wanted to see her. He actually wanted to date her, even though she wasn't gorgeous, wasn't rich, and even though she didn't win their battle together those several months ago.
She loved him from the moment he told her where to find her lost cell phone and drove away before she had realized he was gone.
She loved him from the second she discovered that he was to have been her opponent in the battle.
She loved him the instant she told Nobuhiko that she couldn't race according to his carefully constructed plans to beat Project D, choosing to lead rather than chase after that very same opponent helped her to fix her car before the race. Even though she knew that chasing was more advantageous, she didn't care because it was Darling who would be watching her drive; for those moments in the battle, she would be all that Darling was concerned about or thinking about. She would be the only thing he was watching, because, in a battle on the togue, a driver couldn't afford to look away.
She wanted to show Darling exactly who she was, and she did it. She pulled him along until one tap to the rear of her FD caused her to disrupt her rhythm and plunged her into the worst boost-lag she ever experienced.
When he pulled ahead of her, she didn't want to let him go. She didn't want to fade from the back mirror of that yellow FD.
So she kept appearing, even though Darling never spoke to her and had only looked at her with such intensity before abruptly speeding away in the FD that shined like the sun in the darkness of the togue.
But one time, he did speak to her, even after she had embarrassed herself by leaning over that sunny FD, just wanting to touch some part of that untouchable man not realizing he was in the car and had seen her do it; he didn't chide her, he didn't tease her, but he spoke to her and he smiled and invited her out to eat. They talked and ate at a family restaurant, even though all the guys from her team had warned her that he was wealthy and unattainable. That unattainable guy ended up eating a regular hamburger steak and sipping a coke across from her, and it didn't seem like it mattered to him that he was supposed to be a wealthy elite at all. He fell asleep in her car so peacefully afterward that her only desire was to drive as gently and as smoothly as possible so he wouldn't wake. After they parked where he had left his own car by the road, she had dozed a little too, carried away by the soft breaths emanating from the navi-seat until he awoke and, with a start, worried about the time but thanking her because he had never been able to sleep as well on his journeys with Project D as he had in the passenger seat of her car.
She kept following that sunshine, and when Darling needed her, she was overjoyed to help him by loaning her FD to him so he could keep winning.
He won with her car; her one special treasure driving her other special treasure to victory. When he returned her keys, it was all she could do to keep her hands steady as his fingers brushed hers while he thanked her and told her she had a good car.
She had helped Darling to win.
When he rolled up to the train station to take her out in a white FC, she felt her heart flutter; even in the daytime, Darling was as bright as to rival the sun.
He invited her to Tokyo, to wherever she wanted to go, but seemed just as content with staying in Gunma after all, and it was a wonderful date to the fanciest restaurant she'd ever been to. He told her so many private things about himself, about how special his Onii-san and that white FC were to him, and she knew that Darling would be the one man she would love for the rest of her life.
And then, it wasn't wonderful after that.
An eclipse passed over the sun that night as he told her not to come and watch him anymore. As he decided for her that she wouldn't be able to cope with his split attention forever. As he watched her standing in the parking lot while she cried and desperately tried to collect herself to ask him to show her one final drive in that white FC down the Akagi pass.
After that, Darling went further and further away; she couldn't afford to follow Project D anymore on their trips. But she could afford her internet connection, and watched him through the website his Onii-san ran. Week after week, he kept winning against drivers Nobuhiko had told her were some of the best in Japan while reminding her that she had done her best and that she should always be proud to say she raced such a talented driver even once. Nobuhiko didn't understand; she already knew that he was a driver of an entirely different level, that last drive in the FC down Akagi told her that with every tear that fell upon her cheeks as she watched him work the pedals and the gearbox. He focused on the drive and not her tears. Nobuhiko could never understand Darling, but she understood everything from that drive in his precious Aniki's car.
Darling would do everything to keep winning for himself and for his Onii-san, even if he had to break her heart.
So when the website's homepage appeared with something new and different one morning, she read the tagline "Be There to Witness the Dream". It was an open invitation for anyone to watch, and she wondered if she could be there to bask in Darling's sunshine one final time before he would be so far away that even his memory of her would disappear.
He'd hurt her so deeply, but she understood him too. That was why it was so hard; she understood all too well the focus that was needed to do what he was doing, to race and win against elite drivers across many prefectures. She wanted her Darling to never lose a race.
So she took the train to Tokyo with Nobuhiko and his cousin Wataru, just hoping to land a spot in the gallery to see him one more time before telling her Darling goodbye forever, if only in her own thoughts.
When the yellow FD passed them by with such dizzying speed, she fell in love all over again. Maybe she shouldn't have come, but she decided that this was her last chance to be near to him. Even though she hadn't planned to try to see him or to talk to him, it suddenly became the most urgent thing in the world to do just that.
At the fan meet-and-greet, even though Nobuhiko told her she'd never be able to get to the front of the crowd, and even though Wataru was more interested in Darling's teammate, she pushed through the throng and made it to the front just as it looked as though they were about to wrap up that portion of the event.
Before she knew it, she heard words fly out of her mouth to challenge Darling to give her just one more chance to prove to him she understood him; even though she spoke to him amidst all the screams and movement of their many fans, he heard her. She knew Darling heard her and she didn't care that his teammate or his Onii-san did as well, because once it was said, everything else in the world faded away and it was only her and Darling, just as it had been when they had battled on the togue.
She didn't wait for him to respond; the look of shock on his face suddenly became more than she could handle and she dove back into the crowd and right into Nobuhiko's comforting and friendly embrace. "Did you do what you needed to do?" he asked her softly as she cried into his chest.
"Yes…"
"Good for you, Kyouko. Good for you."
She held on to Nobuhiko even as he waved his cousin off so he could go on ahead to catch their train, as he chose to walk slowly with her away from the screams of adoring fans and the pulsing beat of the energetic music, and of the sounds of the FD and the hachi-roku as the superstars of the togue left the event for parts unknown.
"We should hurry," she recalled saying as she finally pulled herself together enough to walk without being dragged along by her team leader. "The train will-"
"There are plenty of trains, Kyouko," Nobuhiko had said, "but there's only one Darling, right?"
It was at that moment she realized that she had been breaking Nobuhiko's heart all that time. "I'm sorry, Nobuhiko...I'm sorry…"
"Don't be. I...only want you to be happy…"
And, over the last couple of months, she was. Oh, how happy she was; Darling always treated her like a queen, but never with pretenses or shows of put-on politeness. He was rough around the edges, but he could be as soft on the inside as the most comforting down blanket on a cold winter day. He showed that to her every time they met; she was the only one he looked at when they were together, no matter how many other women looked at him wherever they went.
But, tonight, something was distracting her Darling. He fiddled with his phone all through dinner and he was looking out the window as he sipped his soda. He'd barely said a word for most of their date, and didn't ask her why she wasn't talking either. It was unlike him; even when they joined his Onii-san and his teammate Takumi-kun sometimes, they all chatted together as a foursome, but Darling always made sure she knew that she was with him. He was so attentive, not even letting her glass get close to empty before ordering her a drink, not missing a beat to help her on with her sweater or coat or to pull out her chair, the perfect gentleman in her eyes despite the colorful language he liked to use.
Was Darling growing tired of her already? No. Her instinct told her it was something else entirely. Maybe she could help him again and show him that she was reliable too.
"Darling…"
His attention immediately came back to her with a worried look on his face which turned into a frown. "I'm sorry, Koko, I didn't mean to space out. Do you want dessert?"
She shook her head in the negative with a smile toward the nickname that only he used for her; and he never objected to being called "Darling" either. If he was embarrassed by it, he never said. "No, but I'm wondering if you are feeling all right. You've been very quiet…"
Darling reached for her hands and clasped them together with his own. "I shouldn't be like this when I'm with you. I've just got a lot of shit rolling around in my brain tonight. Forgive me. Do you want to start our date over? Maybe we can catch a late movie?"
"No, that's okay; I'm just not used to seeing you like this. Is there something wrong? Are you worried about your signing? I'm here for you, and, if there's anything you need from me, I'll help."
Darling squeezed her hands before releasing them and his real smile appeared for the first time since they had sat down to dinner. "You always help, just by being here and putting up with me."
Kyouko felt her cheeks grow warm in front of that sunny smile for a moment until she noticed that there was still worry in his penetrating eyes. "Talk to me, Darling...you're smiling at me, but you're eyes tell me that you are worried about something else, right? Please, confide in me..."
Darling reclined in his seat and looked up toward the ceiling after finishing his last sip of soda. "It's family bullshit. Don't worry about it, Babe."
Before she knew it, a little relieved sigh escaped when she learned that he wasn't having second thoughts about her. Darling snapped his attention to the sound. "Did you think this was about us?" he asked seriously.
"Well...I, uh...wasn't sure…"
"Shit. I'm sorry and it's definitely not. Let's get out of here and go for a drive, okay? I'll make it up to you."
"Okay," she said, a smile returning to her lips. As long as he wanted to stay with her, they could drive around the parking lot in circles for all she cared. Whatever was bothering him, she'd try to make it better, even though it didn't look like he was about to let her in on any of his "family bullshit" just yet. That was fine, wasn't it? They had been seeing each other for only a couple of months, and, from what she had gathered, Darling still did not get along well with his parents. His Onii-san was the only family member she had met so far, and she wasn't really sure if she would ever be introduced to anyone else, especially his parents. Onii-san was a little intimidating at first too, but, once she got to know him a little bit, he was very polite and kind to her, with a sort of dry sense of humor, and he was still a street racer even though she knew from Darling that he was studying to become a doctor. She could tell how much he cared about both of his drivers; he reminded her of Nobuhiko that way.
Darling left money on the table for their meal and came around and helped her with her coat, planting a quick, soft kiss upon her cheek. "I don't deserve you," he whispered into her ear. "Don't let me be a jerk. I expect you to slap me if I act like this again."
She turned to face him, and the disarming smile was back, as bright as the sun. "Can we go to Shomaru pass?"
"You read my mind," Darling replied with a wink. "That must be the shittiest road in all of Saitama. I love it."
She smiled back and nodded as they turned to walk out the door. He opened the passenger door to the yellow FD for her and made sure she was settled with her seatbelt on before he closed it gently. As she watched him walk around the front of the car, however, she saw him check his phone again and smack it roughly with his other hand before checking it another time.
When he got into the car and strapped in, he put the phone on the dashboard while he untangled the charging cord from the rearview mirror. "Is something wrong with your phone? You've been messing with it all night…"
"Nah, I don't think anything's wrong with it. I'm just making sure I charge it."
"Are you waiting for a call?" she ventured to ask.
Darling didn't say anything.
"If you are, why not just call the person yourself if it's important? I don't mind."
"...He told me he would call. He will." Kyouko heard the words, but the voice that spoke them, however, did not sound confident in the truth of them. There was tension in Darling's body as well, similar to when he drove her all out in the FC, yet, not the same. She wondered if "he" was Onii-san, or maybe Takumi-kun. Or, given the seriousness of his mood, perhaps it might be his father. She didn't know.
He put the car in gear and they were on the way to Shomaru pass, the sound of the radio playing some kind of rock-rap song and of the twin turbo under the hood the accompaniment to their companionable but uneasy silence. "There was another wreck up here last weekend," she remarked to encourage Darling to forget his troubles for awhile. "The guys were telling me about it; someone in a GTR under-steered pretty badly and crashed, so there are some guardrails missing now. Not that the guardrails were worth anything here before; they were so rusted out and old."
"Oh yeah? Stupid GTRs," Darling responded with an irritated noise. "If you can't handle a tank, don't friggin' drive a tank."
Kyouko giggled a little. "They are kind of heavy, aren't they?"
"And ugly. Don't forget how ugly they are," the blonde driver returned playfully, squeezing her knee before the next shift-up. "But they are a menace when a good driver gets ahold of one, though," he added seriously.
"I can imagine; I don't think I've ever battled against a seriously good GTR driver…"
"Have you ever battled Nakazato from the Myougi Night Kids? He still drives that black R32."
"No, they have never challenged us."
"He's decent, but he tends to get rattled under pressure. You could take him."
"Do you really think so?" she asked hopefully.
"I know so. You're a driver who drives with a very placid rhythm, and you use your car's power without making rash moves to maintain that rhythm. He'd get pissed off by getting pulled along. He'd push you too soon and you'd recover faster than he would be able to overtake you, especially on a shitty Saitama road. If you ever battle him, you should lead."
Kyouko thought about that for a moment as they neared the base of the Shomaru togue to prepare for the climb. It was still relatively early, so Darling wouldn't be able to go all out, but it would still be great to see him drive the tricky course anyway. "Nobuhiko would usually recommend for me to chase," she offered, "but sometimes I need to do what I want and lead anyway."
Darling navigated the first few corners easily. "Is that what happened that night?"
She knew he was talking about their battle, something they really hadn't talked much about specifically. "Yes. He wanted me to chase you...he said you were having problems with your car's adjustments for the road…"
Darling chuckled. "I guess every team has to have a brainiac," he replied in a sort of snarky tone. "That road was pissing me off. Every time we went for a practice run and the rear of the car scraped the pavement, I was like 'fuck!'"
Kyouko giggled again.
"Ah!" he said with a "Tch" and laughing, "Shit. I mean, shoot, God, I really need to watch my mouth. Sorry I swear a lot, Babe."
"It's all right," Kyouko said lightly. "This is who you are. Don't ever change it, Darling."
Keisuke smiled again, and found a tenth of a second before another shift-up to squeeze her knee again. "Sometimes I think you're not even real."
"W-why?"
"I don't know. I said before that you were, I don't know, pure or something. I'm not good at explaining things. I guess it's because you don't have any of those fake-overreactions to my potty mouth, or you don't care how I look or sound, or that you're not one of those chicks who go out with me on the off chance my brother would pay attention to you. All of that has happened before. I guess that's why I never stopped thinking about you ever since we battled…"
"R-really…?"
"Yeah. If you had followed your leader's advice and chased, I don't think I would have won. He was right; I couldn't get the settings right for shit that whole time. What the hell is up with Saitama? Is this where all the bad roads in Japan come to friggin' die?"
Kyouko laughed lightly again. This was the Darling she loved; he seemed to be putting aside whatever was bothering him as he navigated the uphill at only slightly above what was legal due to the earlyish hour. "Maybe so, but I still think you would have won, and I'd still be happy now all the same. Oh, the missing guardrail is coming up."
"OK. I got it." When they came to the segment of the road where the derelict guardrail had once stood, Keisuke whistled toward the sight of the deep gouges in the road the GTR had made in an attempt to stop its momentum. "Damn. Dude fucked up."
"Yes. He fucked up," Kyouko playfully supplied, expecting maybe one of those fake-astonished looks to appear on Darling's face toward such unladylike words. Instead he just laughed and shook his head. Then, his face grew serious.
"Thanks for being real."
Her face heated with what she knew was a blush as she considered his statement. Over the course of their dates, her love for the younger Rotary Brother only grew. She couldn't believe what Darling had said, that girls would go out with him because they wanted Onii-san to look at them. Awful. Onii-san was nice, and, she supposed he was attractive, but Darling was pretty much drop-dead gorgeous. Pulling herself together a little, she wanted to say something to him so that he would be sure to understand that he was the only one she ever wanted to look at.
"This is me and this is you. There's no need for us to be anything else, Darling."
As they reached the summit, Keisuke pulled over to the side of the road, pulled the e-brake and flipped on the hazard lights. He turned to face her with that intense stare that always excited and intimidated her. "You know I will be traveling a lot soon."
"I know."
"I'll be gone for weeks sometimes, I think."
She nodded. "I'll be here."
"Someday...maybe...you could just come with me on some of those trips…"
The joy that welled up from within her heart overflowed with happy tears in her eyes. "Only...if I'm not a distraction to you…," she whispered.
"No," Darling said softly but seriously, "Having you there...would be a relief for me…"
All she could do is nod and smile as he gently placed a palm to the side of her face, wiping away her tears with his thumb and smiling from ear to ear. "Why do I always make my girlfriend cry? I'm such a dumbass."
Girlfriend.
His girlfriend.
The word played over and over in her ears and mind; this was the first time he had said that, and she looked into those intense eyes to confirm the truth of the statement. It was there. It was.
He leaned over and placed his mouth upon her trembling lips, tightening his grip on the side of her face slightly to encourage her to lean into his kiss. As he gently parted her lips with his tongue, the warmth of his sunshine filled her body and heart.
When they parted, Darling had that serious and worried look on his face again. "Kyouko, are you sure you want to be with me?"
There wasn't a nickname used this time, so she knew she had to pay extra attention to her response. Was he finally going to tell her what had been bothering him all night? God, she hoped so, because all she wanted to do was support her Darling through the worst and the best. She hoped beyond hope that he understood her feelings.
"I only want to be with Takahashi Keisuke, for as long as he is Takahashi Keisuke."
A light rain started to dot the windshield of the car, but the warmth inside of the sunny FD blocked out the early October chill. Keisuke looked at her again with those intensely serious eyes, as if deciding something. "Aniki was supposed to call me tonight," he said evenly, "He hasn't, and I'm worried about it."
So it was about Onii-san after all. "Can you call him?"
"I don't know. I want to, but I don't know if he'll be able to pick up, or if he'll just get mad because I got impatient waiting for him to call me."
"Is Onii-san working at the hospital tonight?"
Darling shook his head in the negative and his expression darkened. "No. He was going out to talk with our Father tonight."
Kyouko didn't understand. She knew that Darling did not get along with his parents, but she hadn't realized that Onii-san didn't either. "Do either of you get along with your parents?" she asked hesitantly.
"Aniki does whatever they ask of him, and mostly without complaint. He does love our Mother, but our Father, well, it's more of a business arrangement with that Asshole now that we're grown. It pisses me off what they make him go through. But, something happened, and he didn't like it, so he was going to try and get our Old Man to change his mind about it."
"Oh. What happened?"
Keisuke looked at her hard. "Are you sure you want to get into this crap? It's family stuff...I didn't really want you to be all that familiar with the way our family operates."
Kyouko put her hands on Keisuke's now-clenched fists. "You don't have to tell me," she began, "but if what happened to Onii-san is bothering you this much, then I want to be able to help you through it. Maybe you can text him?"
Darling considered for a few seconds before he reached for his phone. He tapped a few things on the screen of it and hit "send" before putting it back on the dash.
"Feel better?"
"No."
"What time was he supposed to call? Maybe his conversation with your Father went longer than he expected."
Darling looked directly into her eyes again. "That's exactly what I'm worried about."
"W-why?" Kyouko stammered, seeing something else looming within his stare. It looked like anger.
"My Old Man has a temper. A bad one. He's never let loose with my brother but Ryousuke never gave him reason to I guess. I could always take it, and dish out a little myself, but...Aniki...I just had a bad feeling about him going there, and that was a couple hours ago."
"Call him," she said seriously. "Please, call him."
Seeing a look of relief wash over Darling's face, he grabbed his phone urgently from the dashboard and pressed the screen again before putting the phone up to his ear.
"Fuck. Voicemail," he spat after a few seconds, slamming the phone back down.
"Try again," Kyouko said.
He looked at her again and picked up the phone and repeated the pressing on the screen. Seconds later he dropped the phone in the console between the seats. "Something's wrong. I feel it."
"Then start driving."
"I need to take you home first-"
"No. I'll call and say I'll be late. I see how worried you are. If you want, I can keep trying his number while you drive."
"You'd do that?" he whispered.
"Let me call my mom. Start driving, Darling."
After a quick phone call to her mother to say she might not be home until very late, or maybe not at all, and after a quick reassurance that she was safe, she closed the call.
"Your Mom okay with you staying out?"
"She's happy I want to stay out with something other than just my FD, I think. She knows that I wouldn't do this without a good reason, and she doesn't pry since I pay my own way at home now."
"Oh...really?"
"Now, which number is it?" Kyouko asked, picking up Darling's phone. It was a lot newer and nicer than the one she owned. "I mean, how do I even work this thing?"
Her boyfriend laughed a little. "Hit the button in the middle and tap 4425. That's the unlock code. Then press the screen for recents and start dialing like crazy until that bastard picks up….uh...please."
Once they arrived at the base of the togue, Darling picked up his pace a bit more on the roads heading to the freeway. She dialed Onii-san's number and it went to voicemail again; she recognized the voice of the outgoing message, so she knew she had the right number. She pressed the screen to end the call and immediately redialed.
As she did, Darling entered the freeway and the more she dialed, the more he sped up. "Darling, not too fast…we don't want to get pulled over."
"Yeah," he agreed but he kept the pace anyway. They traveled in silence this way for another half-hour, and Kyouko kept calling every few minutes and Onii-san was not picking up or calling back.
"It's going to voicemail without ringing now," she said after a few more attempts.
"Okay. That means he's just ignoring me. He'd have to actually turn the phone off for it to do that."
Kyouko studied him. "You look almost relieved."
"Yeah. It means he's not hurt that bad, so that's good."
"Hurt?!" she exclaimed with renewed alarm. "Darling, did you think your Father would hurt him physically that badly? What could Onii-san have done?"
Keisuke signaled to change lanes to move to the fast lane, blowing past everyone on the road. He was silent.
"What could Onii-san have done?" she repeated at length.
"Disobey," he said simply.
Kyouko was shocked. "W-what do you mean?"
"That's all it takes."
She sat back into the passenger seat, thoughts reeling. She knew from some of the things Darling had told her that he used to get into what he called "physical fights" with his father over his rebellious behavior, but what she was hearing now sounded more like straight up abuse. "When you said you used to get into fights with your dad...you didn't start them. Did you." It was a declaration more than a question.
"Sometimes I did."
"Keisuke…"
"Not when I was a kid, though."
Kyouko willed herself to stay still and not cry. She had to be strong now. What kind of person was Darling's Father, and did the man not care that his boys were grown? "So you think…"
"I think he may have done something to Aniki this time. If he did…" his voice trailed off.
"Let's find out from Onii-san...don't jump to conclusions…"
"It's not a far jump," he replied flatly, signaling to change lanes again as they approached the city limits of Takasaki. Shortly thereafter, he exited the freeway and Kyouko looked out the window. There weren't too many streetlights in this area, and it was still lightly raining, so she couldn't see her surroundings very well, but it looked as though they were driving through a very nice quiet part of town.
"Will your Father still be there with Onii-san?"
Darling exhaled. "I'm going to our house, but my Old Man actually lives by himself during the week near the hospital downtown Maebashi. Aniki went there to talk with him, but he would probably come back here. If he's not here, he might have gone to the Gundai campus; he has an apartment there he sometimes uses. We'll be checking there too if he's not here."
"Okay," Kyouko replied. She looked out the window again as Darling slowed the car and turned into a neighborhood with a gate in front of it. He reached into the console for a blank looking card and rolled down the window to tap the card against a small black box. When he did, the gate began to open. When it had opened barely enough to accommodate the width of the FD, he drove slowly through down a dark lane with no houses on either side.
"They lock it up after 9," he said by way of explanation. He approached another intersection, then turned left. Now Kyouko started to see some houses. Well, small mansions, more like.
"Wow," she breathed. "Is this...where you live?"
"Yeah."
"These houses...are huge…"
Darling rolled his eyes. "They're all right I guess."
"I suppose it's silly, but I never pictured you living in a place like this, even though I guess I should have known better," she said quietly.
"I'm not going to be living here for much longer," he replied seriously. "Once I sign, I'm bailing out of here as soon as I can whether they like it or not. I decided that much when I learned about their master plan to ship my brother off to the States."
"Onii-san is...moving to America?"
"Not permanently, and not by choice."
Kyouko considered as Keisuke wove the car past a few more turns before he slowed it to a crawl, tapping a remote on his sun visor, ostensibly to open a garage. "Is...that what Onii-san was going to talk to your Father about tonight? Because he doesn't want to leave?"
"Sort of. He definitely doesn't want to go, but he was going to do it. He just wasn't planning on leaving until December. But our Old Man decided he wanted him gone sooner, and the Old Lady decided to arrange for a wife for him before he leaves and he found out both of those nice surprises today. My brother doesn't like surprises."
"That's...a lot to take," she remarked as her attention was drawn to a very large western style house; to her eyes it was a mansion that seemed to have a million windows. "Is this...it?"
"Yup. Home Sweet Hell." Darling turned into a long driveway along the side of the home that seemed to go on forever, and the driveway led up to a massive four-car-plus garage.
"Thank God. He's here, or, at least his car is here, so he's probably here."
"I'll wait here while you check on him," Kyouko offered, thinking to give the brothers their privacy. If it was "family bullshit", she certainly shouldn't intrude.
"No. I'm not leaving you outside in the car in the rain, especially since I dragged you here in the first place."
"Are you sure? I mean, I'm sure you want to have privacy while you talk to Onii-san…"
Darling considered for a second, as if calculating the effect of bringing her inside the house. "No," he repeated, "I'll park inside and we can go through the garage. You can wait in the kitchen while I check on him. Once I see that he's fine, we'll split."
"Okay," she replied uneasily.
The pair got out of the FD and walked through the large garage to a door located at the rear of it. Darling opened the door and took off his shoes in a small genkan and Kyouko followed suit before looking up in awe toward the very large kitchen they stepped into when he turned on the lights. It was clean and white with stainless steel appliances and countertops that looked like polished stone that shone white with little speckles of gray; it was literally sparkling.
"W-wow…," she breathed, "Is someone in your family a chef? This looks like a restaurant kitchen…"
Darling chuckled. "Hardly. No one in my family is really good at cooking."
"Really?"
Darling shrugged. "There's water and other drinks in the refrigerator," he said, indicating a huge stainless steel door. "Please, help yourself to anything you'd like while I look for Aniki."
"Okay."
With that, Darling disappeared out another door and she heard him ascend stairs to the home's second floor. The house was very quiet but for the sounds of Keisuke calling out for his brother.
She thought she heard something, though, like the clinking of a glass or bottle from another room down a hallway in front of a different door leading out from the kitchen. She moved cautiously toward the other side of the kitchen and stepped out into a dark hallway. Looking one way, the corridor widened into a very large foyer at the far end, and at the near end, she could see part of a formal dining room. Turning her head the other way, she saw another wide entrance to a different room, but the sliding doors were closed.
She heard Darling's footsteps coming from the direction of the foyer; how did he get back down from the opposite side of where he left the kitchen before? Just how big was this house?
"Was he up there?" she whispered.
"No. He's not there."
"Darling...I thought I heard something from down that way. Is there another room there?"
Keisuke flipped on another light switch which bathed the hallway in soft light. "That's funny," he remarked. "We almost never close the doors to the TV room…"
"I-I'll go back to the kitchen," she remarked.
"No, Babe, go up the other end. There's a living room near the front door where you can sit in a sort-of comfortable chair. I'll just be a few minutes, okay?"
She nodded and walked down the hallway toward the front of the house, her eyes immediately going upward as she reached the two story-foyer that was aglow with a chandelier that Keisuke had turned on when he came down another set of stairs that were there near to the front entrance. So that's how he did it. 'Amazing...so pretty…,' she thought as she looked upward toward the glittering crystals of the chandelier. It wasn't overly large, but it was definitely more glamorous than anything she had at home. She turned toward a set of French doors with frosted glass window panes and discovered what she guessed was the family's formal living room. It was decorated beautifully with cream colored sofas and chairs and some interesting other pieces of furniture she wasn't quite sure what they might be used for. They could have been works of art for all she knew. 'This...is Darling's home…,' she mused, but then, she caught herself. 'No, this doesn't look like Darling's home at all.' At least it was as far afield as it could get from what she imagined his home to be like; she imagined Darling's home might be full of comfy, well-worn overstuffed chairs and a cozy fireplace with racing stuff displayed everywhere. That was the environment she imagined Darling to be comfortable in and certainly not this magazine spread.
Of course she knew he was wealthy. The guys never got tired of mentioning those rich bastard RedSuns/Project D team members while grumbling about how they were going to afford their next set of tires, or whether or not fixing a broken AC in a car was an entirely essential repair. Looking around at the beautiful living room as she turned on a small, delicate table lamp, she felt that there was a no presence of Darling here; not even any family photos were on display in this room, almost as though there wasn't actually a family living here. It unnerved her a little since her own family's living room was like a photobiography of her own life from infancy to now with pictures of her in the large collage frames her mom liked to use. There was nothing personal here, and certainly nothing that said Darling lived here. It was like...he didn't fit in with all this glamorous decor. Not that it was ridiculously glamorous; maybe glamourous wasn't quite the word. Stylish? Classy? No; to her, Darling had his own style and so was stylish. Maybe he didn't appear to be a classy guy at first, but he certainly treated her with utmost respect and class, not caring that she didn't come from...this.
Maybe it was the sophistication of each room's design, how everything seemed to have its perfect place; maybe that was what was throwing her off. It was as though this home was all for show, just saying, "Yes, we've made it, we won't clobber you over the head with how rich we are even though we could, but, look around at the tiny details and you'll have no choice but to know, we've made it." That's the impression she got from this beautiful home; it was stunning to look at, but one might not want to quite live in it.
She sat down on a cream colored chair, hoping beyond hope that her clothes weren't dirty or anything lest she mar its soft fabric, and listened to Darling open the sliding doors to the family room. It was far enough away that his voice was muffled when he entered the room at the other end of the hallway…
"A-aniki?" Keisuke asked quietly toward the sight before him as his eyes adjusted from the soft light of the hallway to the dark family room. There sat Ryousuke on the floor in front of the sectional with a wild array of martini-making paraphernalia on the coffee table in front of him: an ice bucket, a shaker, an opened jar of olives with the olive brine mostly gone, a bottle of vermouth, and, a shockingly nearly-half empty bottle of vodka that Keisuke was sure had been full when he'd seen it in the freezer not terribly long ago. He couldn't bring himself to enter the room fully; the lights were off and all he could see was his brother's vague outline against the front of the sectional as he sat in the dark with his legs crossed in front of him. He couldn't have been home too long, but it looked as though he walked in and immediately sat down and started drinking.
"Why are you here?" the elder asked, reaching for his cigarettes and a lighter. As Keisuke looked on, and as his eyes adjusted further, he discovered an ashtray with several spent cigarettes in it. So, not only was Aniki drinking, he was smoking, inside, in the family room by himself. Just how many levels of wrong was that?!
It also appeared that, at some point, his brother had abandoned the hassle of actually mixing a drink for himself, because he was now pouring a shot of vodka into a shot glass and throwing it back like some kind of college frat-brat.
"Maybe because you didn't call me when you were done over there like you said you were going to."
"Oh. I turned my phone off because it kept ringing and I didn't want to talk to anyone."
"You asshole!" Keisuke hissed in a hot whisper, trying not to yell so as not to startle his girlfriend who was patiently waiting for him at the front of the house. "And, why the fuck are you in here drinking and smoking?! If you wanted to get drunk, I would have been more than happy to help you the fuck out so you don't have to be a slob here in the family room!"
"Why indeed?" came the slightly slurred reply. He picked up the bottle of vodka with the same hand that held his cigarette and sloppily sloshed another shot into the shot glass, most of it missing the glass and pooling on the table. Keisuke mentally posited that his brother probably hadn't had overly much to drink, but he wasn't exactly a champ at drinking so it wouldn't take much to get him drunk. Add that to the fact that his brother ate like every second day or something, and Keisuke assumed it went straight to his head. Judging by the contents of the stuff on the table, he might have had maybe two or three actual drinks in succession and a couple of half-assed shots. But Aniki was never one to drink himself drunk. Never. "It...didn't go well tonight."
"Obviously. But you knew it wasn't going to. So why...all this?" Keisuke remained behind the sectional, not wanting to turn on a lamp or to look toward his brother's face for fear of blowing up in a rage toward what he might see. If that Old Man laid a hand on his Aniki-
"He knows, Keisuke," his brother finally said as he took a drag of his cigarette and put it out in the ashtray.
The FD driver considered the statement. "Fujiwara didn't react well to your leaving sooner?" he asked tentatively. "I can't believe that alone would drive you to drink. You both knew it was coming…"
"I haven't told Takumi anything," his brother declared.
That got Keisuke's dander up. "What do you mean you haven't told him?" he said quietly, trying to keep his voice down. He didn't think Kyouko would be able to hear the conversation from the other end of the house, but he certainly didn't want to be the one to let anything slip. "I warned you about that," he snapped, "I thought you understood him enough to know that you needed to tell him right away."
"I…," his brother faltered, "I just couldn't bring myself to call him. I'm fucking pathetic," he added, the alcohol making the last word come out like drawl. "Pathetic," he repeated with more certainty, as if correcting himself for slurring his words a little.
Keisuke suddenly felt alarmed. "Then,...what did you mean by 'he knows'?" he whispered.
Ryousuke exhaled audibly as he poured another half-shot of vodka. He tipped it back and almost dropped the empty glass on the table where it clattered a bit before coming to rest still upright. He looked up toward the ceiling, then it appeared as though he immediately thought better of the idea and raised an elbow to the table and put his chin on the heel of his hand.
"Aniki-"
Before Keisuke could form another question, his brother interrupted him. "Our Father knows I'm a 'fucking faggot'. His words."
Keisuke felt his eyes widen. "Oh shit," he said simply.
"Yeah. Everything's pretty much done now."
"How the hell did this happen?" Keisuke asked, barely able to keep his voice low. "I never knew...how the hell did he?"
"I guess I slipped up a few years back," his brother commented, reaching again for the bottle with his right hand and steadying the shot glass with his left hand so that more of the vodka actually made it into the glass.
"What are you going to do now?"
"Everything he asks of me."
"That's bullshit!" Keisuke hissed, finally being able to move from his spot behind the sectional as his brother knocked back the shot. He flipped on a lamp.
"Turn that off."
"No," he replied. He walked around to look at his brother and he felt the color drain from his face and the anger boiling up from within when he saw redness on his brothers jaw and evidence of a split lip. "He fucking hit you, didn't he?!" he spat, forgetting about keeping his voice lowered as he got closer to his brother to look at his face.
His brother looked up. "It's nothing."
Keisuke was about to retort, but stopped short of speaking when he heard her voice.
"D-darling…?"
The glare Keisuke received from his brother stopped him in his tracks. "You brought her here?" Ryousuke asked coolly. "Why is Iwase here?"
"We were out. I was worried about you and she was worried about me worrying about you. And now I see we had a reason to be. She'll find out what a clusterfuck our family is eventually anyway," he snapped, turning on his heel and leaving his brother to be angry about that all by himself with his stupid vodka shots. He went out into the hallway to see that Kyouko had come about halfway down, but she didn't advance further.
"Darling, is Onii-san okay?" she asked nervously. "I heard you…"
He walked toward her meaningfully, the anger toward his Father bubbling up. How dare that man put a hand on his brother, the only fucking person in the entire family who ever gave a shit about him? "Look. I need to go somewhere."
"Now?" Kyouko asked with a worried expression toward her boyfriend's angry look. "Where are we going?"
"No!" Keisuke retorted harshly. Then, seeing the widening of his girlfriend's eyes, he lowered his tone. "No, Babe, you stay here with Aniki. I need to take care of something."
Before she knew it, her boyfriend turned around and was headed back toward the kitchen where they had entered the house. He was furious, and the storm brewing in his eyes frightened her. She started running down the hallway and caught up with him in the doorway of the kitchen, throwing her arms around his waist to stop him from entering the kitchen to leave out the garage. "What are you doing? Where are you going?" she pleaded.
"I'm going to fucking kill that bastard," her boyfriend said in an eerily calm voice as he literally trembled with fury within her grasp. "Let go of me."
"No. I won't let go, Darling. Think! What would that accomplish?! Would that help Onii-san, or make things worse for him?! For you?! Think!"
"I can't fucking think when I know that Asshole touched him. I don't give a shit what he does to me, but I will make him pay for laying so much as finger on him."
"Takahashi Keisuke, don't you dare leave me here in this house," she said firmly, holding Darling as tightly as she could.
The trembling stopped and she felt her boyfriend relax a little. "Tch."
She kept holding on. "You need to remember your goal. You're going to the pros. You and Takumi-kun. Confronting your Father will not help Onii-san, but making his Dream come true will."
"She's right, Keisuke," came the soft voice of Ryousuke from the entrance to the family room before Keisuke could retort. "This is my problem so don't make it yours. Think of your own life," he added as sternly as a half-wasted person could do.
Kyouko abruptly let go of Darling in the presence of Onii-san, feeling the warmth of a blush cross her face. "Onii-san…"
"I'm very sorry to have troubled you, Kyouko-san," he said. Bowing, he added, "Please, continue to take care of Keisuke." She nodded, not really knowing what to say; Onii-san looked tired, and not entirely steady on his feet either when he raised himself. It looked as though he was leaning slightly on the doorjamb, but she was too far down the hallway to see for sure if he had a mark on his face, but she thought he did. If their Father hurt him, no wonder her boyfriend was so angry; she knew he was very protective of his brother, even though he was the younger sibling.
"Aniki, I can't accept this," Darling said seriously to his brother. "You know I can't."
Kyouko looked back and forth from Darling to Onii-san, unsure of what she should be saying or doing. It looked as though they were having a silent conversation between them, and she didn't understand it.
"I'm fine," Onii-san said at length. "The two of you should go; don't let me disturb your evening any further." He turned, somewhat unsteadily, and re-entered the family room and slid the door closed behind him.
"Bastard."
"I-is he okay?" Kyouko whispered.
"No, he's not. He's wasted."
"What?" she whispered again. "He didn't look….drunk…?"
Keisuke chuckled. "Oh, he did his best to appear normal in front of you, but he's kind of a lightweight. He's smashed and he knows it."
"R-really?"
"Yeah. Fuck. I can't leave him like this."
"What do you want to do, Darling?"
Keisuke furrowed his brow and Kyouko could tell he was still sort of thinking about leaving to go see his Father, but it looked as though he was weighing that against staying to ensure his brother didn't drink any more than he already had. "Come on," he said, apparently coming to a decision, grabbing her hand, and walking briskly down the hallway toward the family room, "we're getting him out of this house."
She stopped walking which caused Darling to stop and look at her when the resistance of her lack of motion caused a tug on his hand. "Maybe we should just let him be. It's not a crime to get drunk in your own house…I don't think Onii-san is planning on going anywhere…"
"I know that," he whispered hotly. "But, what if we leave and the Old Man shows up later tonight or tomorrow looking for round two? I couldn't live with myself if I wasn't with him."
"But-"
"Look. Babe. I'm listening to both of you and it's taking all of my willpower not to run out that door and give my Old Man exactly what he deserves. I'm compromising here big time!" he hissed.
"What if he says no? He told us to leave."
Darling turned fully to face her and took her other hand and squeezed both of them. "He's taken care of me my whole life. I have to take care of him for once, and I'm tired of him not letting me. He didn't let me go with him to see the Old Man and now look what happened: he got hit and now he's drunk in the family room and this is a guy who barely even drinks. There is just too much wrong with that and I can't ignore it, even if he says no, I'm not letting him stay here."
Kyouko could see the seriousness, anger, and concern in Darling's eyes. If this is what Darling thought was best, she knew she had to support it. She didn't want Onii-san to get hurt again, but she also didn't want him to be angry with Darling either. Maybe she could help them both. "Okay, let's convince him to come with us."
Keisuke leaned in for a quick kiss on her lips before pulling back and looking at her directly with a piercing gaze that made her breath catch in her throat. "I love you, you know."
Kyouko gasped and she felt her cheeks heat and her eyes go wide. It wasn't the confession of her dreams, but it was certainly her dream come true anyway. She had heard him correctly, right? Maybe she should make sure. "D-darling…?"
"Let's try to get him out of here before he passes out," he said, not repeating the words she wanted to hear, but releasing her hands and continuing to approach the family room door. Kyouko followed behind her Darling and waited as he slid open the door.
When she walked into the room with him, Onii-san was lounging on the sofa with his eyes closed and there was vodka and all kinds of crap on the table. It was a mess, but a very localized one in the otherwise pristine family room. It looked like it was the family room in name only, much like how the living room hadn't looked lived in, and she wondered if she should really be there. Maybe Onii-san was already passed out? If so, she thought they should just leave well enough alone and stay put to just let him sleep it off.
"Aniki. Get up," Keisuke commanded.
"I thought you were leaving," the elder groaned quietly from the couch.
So he wasn't passed out. Kyouko looked at her boyfriend with a silent question as to what she should be doing. When no answer came, she tugged a little on Darling's shirt and mouthed "What now?"
"We are leaving," Keisuke announced to his brother, "You're coming too."
"No, I'm not…," came the slightly slurred reply.
"Fine, have it your way. When you pass out, I'll haul your ass out whether you like it or not." Turning to his girlfriend, "Koko, would you mind helping me with this?" he asked, motioning to the mess on the table.
"Sure," Kyouko replied, coming around to the front of the couch to put the caps on the bottles of liquor as Keisuke removed the glasses and the ice bucket and walked toward a sizeable wet bar on the other side of the room to rinse them out. She followed with the bottles of vodka and vermouth and put them inside the bar which was stocked to the hilt with more wine and liquor than some neighborhood bars she knew.
"What are you two doing?" Onii-san grumbled, sitting up with what appeared to be a significant effort.
"You're done drinking so we're putting this shit away," Keisuke explained quietly.
"I wasn't done," the elder remarked.
"Yeah, you are," his brother affirmed. "Just sit there and shut up."
Kyouko found paper towels and some glass cleaner in a cabinet underneath the bar sink and she went back over toward Onii-san to wipe the spilled vodka and clean the table.
"Kyouko-san, please leave it. I'll clean it up later," the elder said tiredly.
"Don't worry about it, Onii-san, it'll just take a minute. Please rest."
She handed the half-full ashtray to her boyfriend's waiting hands and started to wipe down the table to sop up the spilled vodka. As she cleaned it off, Darling opened a window slightly to air out the room from the cigarette smoke. He ducked out of the room and came back as she was putting away the paper towels and cleaner, spritzing an air freshener spray around. "That should be okay for now," he said, putting the cap on the spray bottle and looking over toward the couch.
"Keisuke, stop this," the elder asserted as best as he could. "I'm not going anywhere."
"No, you stop arguing with me!" the younger retorted hotly. "If you won't let me take care of business with the Old Man, then I'm just going to take care of business with you and you've got nothing to say about it, so just sit there and shut the hell up!"
The elder glared at the two of them before closing his eyes again. Maybe he was giving up after all. Kyouko looked at Darling who had a serious expression on his face which suddenly relaxed.
"Aaaaand….he's out," Darling quipped with a half smile. Kyouko followed his gaze and, sure enough, Onii-san was passed out, still in a seated position, his hands limply in his lap. "Now, we get moving before he sobers up enough to put up a real fight about it. I've actually never seen him drunk, so I have no idea how long he'll be out."
"Darling…do you think he needs to go to a hospital or something? How drunk is he?"
Keisuke laughed a little. "Nah, i sort of calculated how much he had. It's nothing serious, he's just a lightweight," he reaffirmed with a huffing sound.
"Okay, if you're sure he's really all right…"
"Come on, Babe," Keisuke said, taking her hand again and leading her out of the family room and up the back stairs of the house. The stairs ended on a generous landing and there was another hallway. Keisuke started leading her down to the far end of the hallway to a room with an opened door but with no lights on inside.
He stepped through and flipped on the overhead light. "Ok. Now, tell me the name of the fanciest hotel you can think of near your house."
"You're taking him to Saitama?" Kyouko asked, confused. "But there are fancier places here in Takasaki and Maebashi."
"I don't even want him in the same prefecture as the Old Man right now. Think of the most ridiculously expensive place and that will be good enough. He likes that kind of stuff."
"Um...I'm not sure, since I live there, I don't normally think about what would be nice for someone visiting...but, there is one sort of near the train station that's pretty nice...oh, wait, there's an onsen resort a little bit outside of Chichibu that is supposed to be pretty fancy."
"Okay," Darling replied, getting his phone out of his pocket and opening a map program. "Type the name of it in here and see if it comes up and then I'm going to grab some stuff from my room. You can pack some stuff for Aniki; this is his room."
"Eh?! Darling! I can't do that!" she exclaimed, definitely sure that she should not be going anywhere near touching Onii-san's things, never mind his personal things. She barely knew Onii-san! She quickly typed the name of the hotel into the phone and handed it back to Darling.
"Sure you can," Keisuke said with a mischievous look, "Finding his stuff is easy because he's OCD and always puts everything in the same places since forever. Look," he directed, dragging her over to a tall dresser on one side of the large and immaculate bedroom. "Top drawer: socks and shorts," he pointed to the top drawer and then pointed as he ticked off the remaining drawers' contents. "Next drawer, sleeping pants and t shirts. Next one, sweaters." He pointed to a closed door. "Department Store. You'll be fine. Just grab two or three of everything."
"Eh?!" she repeated as Keisuke dashed out of his brother's room. She went out into the hallway. "Darling! I can't go through your brother's things!"
"Trust me, he's not gonna care as long as he's passed out on the couch. I'm going to get my stuff and make a phone call to book him a room. It's fine."
With that, he entered what she supposed was his own room and closed the door behind him. With a nervous sigh, she re-entered Onii-san's room and stared at the dresser. "Please forgive me, Onii-san," she whispered mostly to herself as she gingerly opened the top drawer. As Darling predicted, there were neat rows of socks and, gasp, boxer shorts. Squeezing her eyes shut she quickly removed three pair of each and hurriedly closed the drawer and put them on the bed.
She repeated the same routine, pulling three t shirts and two pair of sleeping pants, and one sweater. Then she turned to the closed door and opened it. It was dark inside, so she felt around the corner of the doorjamb until she felt a light switch and flipped it on.
Her jaw dropped. Now she understood why Darling had called the closet "Department Store". There were more clothes in here than she thought it possible for one person to own. "Wow…," she breathed, unable to help admiring the massive walk-in closet with neatly hung business attire on one side and somewhat casual attire on the other, all arranged perfectly from light-colored to dark-colored along each side of the closet with shirts on the top hang-bar and slacks on the bottom. All of Onii-san's shoes were in clear plastic boxes on shelves under the slacks and he had another built-in dresser toward the back with shallow drawers on top and two open shelves on the bottom where winter boots occupied the bottom shelf and extra blankets were stored in a clear plastic storage bag on the top. Jackets and coats of all lengths and types were hung at the rear of the closet, from shortest length to longest and also by color. She turned back toward the door and there were more built-in shelves behind where there were plastic storage containers labeled with lists of contents on one side of the door and, on the other side of the door, suitcases of varying sizes were stored making up a matched set of... 'Were those real Louis Vuitton?!' she thought wildly as she tentatively selected a small carry-on sized roller bag from one of the shelves and brought it down to the floor. She saw a basket on the floor with a few extra empty hangers, and another basket that she assumed was a laundry hamper. "Wow…," she repeated to herself, thinking of how jealous her girlfriends would be if they had a closet like this; she herself was downright envious. If there was ever a dream closet, this was probably it. Onii-san was really neat and organized too; she understood now why Darling had called him OCD. She chuckled a little in spite of herself. That was certainly something new she learned about Darling's precious brother, although he did always look well put together whenever she had seen him and now she definitely understood where that came from.
She rolled the designer luggage over toward the bed and placed it on the floor on its backside to open it. The smooth zipper and supple leather told her that was definitely not a knock-off, but the real thing. As she packed Onii-san's clothes from the dresser, she noticed everything was super high-end even his...shorts. 'He must spend a fortune on this stuff,' she thought to herself, still in awe over how nice everything was.
She went back into the Department Store and selected a few shirts and slacks from the "casual" side of the closet, noting that every single piece was designer. Amazing; Darling wore designer clothes sometimes, but he mixed it up with regular stuff too. She wondered if even Onii-san's "grubbies" were designer too; she actually didn't see grubbies at all: they were probably in the remaining drawers of the dresser outside in the bedroom if he had any at all which she was beginning to doubt. She knew she had seen him in designer jeans before, but she'd done enough snooping and figured whatever was hanging on the casual side would be fine.
She took the clothes off their hangers and put the empty hangers in the basket with the other ones and returned to the bed to fold the clothes. She put everything carefully in the suitcase, but wondered about other travel necessities like a toothbrush.
She went down the hallway and knocked on the door of the room she saw Darling enter. She could hear him talking on the phone, ostensibly paying for the hotel over the phone with his credit card. He came to the door and opened it, waving her inside as he was reading off his credit card number.
Her jaw dropped again. After coming from the immaculately neat room that belonged to Onii-san, the effect of Darling's room was staggering. She visually scanned the room and it was completely the opposite of his brother's bedroom; in fact, it was a hot mess. There were random things stuck to the walls like license plates and bumper stickers and stuff all over the floor, even food wrappers and empty cups from 7-11. This time she laughed out loud; this was the only place in the house that proved Darling lived here after all. She loved it.
Darling got off the phone. "What?" he said with a frown. "It's not like I was expecting company," he grumbled, kicking some things out of the way, ostensibly to form a sort of pathway on the floor.
"Mm-mm," she said, shaking her head in the negative. "I like it. Is that a bucket seat?" she asked incredulously, pointing toward something that had the vague shape of a bucket seat despite being draped over with laundry.
"Uh, yeah."
"And, is that a fuel pump assembly?!" she asked, laughing outright, as she pointed toward Darling's bedside table.
"Yeah," he said with a smile. "You can start griping now, everyone does when they see this place."
Kyouko shook her head again. "Nope. I like it; it's you." This was exactly the type of place she thought her Darling would have; maybe not in his bedroom, but maybe in a den or man-cave of sorts. "You and Onii-san are so different in some ways...it's kind of crazy."
Keisuke rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm normal and he's a neat freak."
"I don't know if this is normal," Kyouko remarked playfully, "But at least it looks like you live here," she added with a big smile.
"I guess. Did you find all his clothes? We should get going," he said seriously.
"Oh, yes, but, I still need to get, uh, you know like a toothbrush and stuff…"
"Okay, I know where he keeps a travel kit in his bathroom," Darling asserted, grabbing a duffel bag from on top of his messy bed and shooing her out of the chaos and back into the hallway. They returned to Onii-san's room and Keisuke put his bag on the floor and opened another closed door which Kyouko saw was an en suite bathroom.
"Wow, he has his own bathroom too?" she asked.
"Yeah, he got the prime real estate of the house," Darling replied with a snort as he opened a cabinet and pulled out a small men's travel kit. He unzipped it and shook it around, ostensibly to make sure it was fully stocked. Satisfied, he zipped it up again and tossed it on the bed. Naturally, it looked like yet another Louis Vuitton. "Did you get a coat for him?"
"Uh..no..Should I get a raincoat? I think it's still drizzling out…"
"Just grab one of those fleecy things in the back of the closet. That should work."
"Okay," she responded, returning to the massive closet. She went toward the rear and found a mid-weight fleece coat that zipped up in front. Again, she took the empty hanger and placed it in the "hanger basket" before closing the light and bringing it out toward the bed where Keisuke was putting the travel kit inside the suitcase and zipping it closed.
"That'll work," he said with a glance toward the coat in his girlfriend's hand.
"Onii-san has a lot of clothes," she remarked as they left the room. "I guess you weren't kidding when you said Department Store," she added with a giggle.
"Yeah," her boyfriend replied with a smile and a chuckle. "It's a weakness; he loves to clothes shop for whatever reason. I tease him about it a lot."
"You really love him."
"Yeah. That's why we're doing this."
"I hope he won't be angry that I touched his things," she whispered as they neared the family room. "He must be the type to be...particular about that kind of thing…"
Darling just laughed quietly. "Yeah, that's why I had you do it because I would have just thrown shit in a bag and not care if it matched or anything and then he'd really be pissed."
Kyouko dared to giggle again. "You two are really close; that's so nice. I don't have a brother or sister, so it's interesting to me."
"Let me put this stuff in the trunk and we'll get him into the car. That will be fun I'm sure," he groaned. "And, I need to call Fujiwara and let him know what's going on."
"Takumi-kun?"
"Yeah...he needs to know about this," Darling said with a deadly serious tone as he looked straight into her eyes.
"Why?"
Darling remained silent.
"I know you're all very close…"
Her boyfriend exhaled audibly. "I'm sorry, Koko. If it was my place to tell you why, I would, but it's not. Just know that he needs to know, okay?"
"That's okay, Darling, I won't pry. I know Takumi-kun is an important friend. If you think he needs to know, then that is enough for me."
A look of relief passed over his face. "Thanks for that. I hate not being able to tell you everything, but that's sort of up to them."
"Okay," she said, wondering what that was all about as she watched Darling exit the kitchen with his duffel bag and Onii-san's suitcase. She could hear the trunk of the FD open and close in the garage and, a few seconds later, he reappeared. "Let me call Fujiwara."
He took out his phone again and pressed a couple of things on the screen. "Yo, Fujiwara, it's me," he said after a couple of seconds. "...What are you doing right now?...Good. Look, uh, something kinda happened tonight with Aniki. I think you should know about it...No, nothing like that, but, you need to be there...Yeah. So pack some clothes for a couple of days and go to the address I'm gonna text you...Yeah, can you get your dad to make your delivery tomorrow morning?...Oh. That's good then. We'll meet you there, and, uh, bring some stuff for a hangover if you can….You'll find out why, just do it, all right?...Okay...Later." He texted the address and put his phone back in his pocket.
"Is Takumi-kun going to meet us there?"
"I didn't want to worry him too much, but it sounded like was a little worried already. He'll be there. Now, let's get Aniki into the car."
They walked back down the hallway and returned to the family room. Onii-san was laying down again on the couch, fast asleep. "Are you sure this is okay?" she whispered.
"Yeah, just help me get him sitting up and I'll wake him enough to get out to the car."
The two of them leaned over the elder and managed to pull him up to a mostly-seated position. "Aniki. We've gotta go. Wake up."
Onii-san's eyes fluttered open. "What are you doing here, Keisuke…?"
"Come on, time to go for a ride. Get up," Darling said gently, hooking his arm around his brother and pulling him to a standing position with a little effort. "Can you stand up?"
The elder considered for a few seconds. "Please, excuse me a moment…"
He walked out of the other side of the family room. "Where is he going?" Kyouko whispered.
"Bathroom, I'm sure. Even if he didn't drink a whole lot, it's a lot for him."
"Oh," she answered, "I'll wait in the kitchen; maybe he should drink some water…?"
"Yeah, good idea. Grab a few bottles out of the fridge, will you? There should be a small cooler bag in the garage on the shelf right beside the door to put them in."
"Okay." She went to the kitchen and opened the door to the garage. Sure enough, a small soft-sided cooler large enough to hold about half-dozen bottles was sitting there on the shelf. She brought it into the house and opened the massive refrigerator and took out six bottled waters from it. She placed five of them in the insulated bag and zipped it closed just in time to see the two brothers walk into the kitchen. Onii-san had put himself together a little; but his tie was still loosened and his sleeves were rolled up and her boyfriend had a hand on his elbow steadying him. "Onii-san, here's your coat. Please put it on," she said softly, "and, please drink some water."
"Thank you," the addressed replied tiredly, taking a long sip of water before setting the bottle down on the counter. "This isn't necessary, Keisuke," he said to his brother who helped him on with his coat while holding onto him. "I'm fine now…"
"No, you're still drunk as fuck."
"No, I'm not," Onii-san said crossly.
"Oh yeah? Then see if the room spins without me holding you up, bastard," Keisuke contested, removing the hand from his brother's arm and, Kyouko now saw, his other hand from Onii-san's back. He immediately began to look unsteady on his feet, so his brother grabbed him again to steady him once more.
"You win," the elder said quietly. "I'm drunk as fuck."
Keisuke snickered a little and Kyouko wasn't sure if she should be shocked or amused; she'd never heard Onii-san say anything like that in her presence, even if it was routine coming from Darling and she was used to it. She decided to be amused, and just winked to her boyfriend who stifled another little chuckle. However, now that she looked at Onii-san in a room with more light, it did concern her that she could definitely see a small bruise forming on his jaw, and evidence that he had split his lip. It turned her smile into something else that Darling noticed right away. When their eyes met he shook his head silently and she could see that flare of anger in his eyes and that he was desperately trying not to lose it.
"Let's get your shoes, Onii-san," she said quietly as they approached the genkan. Amazingly, he didn't need any help with his shoes after all, nor did he need any real help getting into the FD. It appeared that the acknowledgment of the state of his own sobriety sharpened his focus and put him into some form of acceptance that he was being knowingly kidnapped.
"We should have put him in the back," Keisuke grumbled with an audible "tch" after he shut the door to the passenger side.
"I don't mind, Darling. Besides, it would be harder for us to get him out of the back if he falls asleep again."
"You mean if he passes out," he snarked. "But my girlfriend should always be shotgun. That's just the way it is."
"It's fine." Kyouko felt herself beaming as she climbed into the back seat of the FD. She sat behind Onii-san so she had a better view of Darling, and put on her seat belt. Darling sat down and buckled in before pulling up the GPS on his phone so he could follow the directions to the hotel. He brought the FD to life and they drove through the quiet neighborhood streets.
"Where are we going?" Onii-san asked once they left the neighborhood.
"A place that's not here. Don't worry about it."
"All right," the elder relented. Moments later, he was asleep.
