Standard disclaimers apply.
At about seven thirty in the evening, Katsumi was woken suddenly from a weird dream (about an inflatable coke machine which dispensed inflatable cans of coke) by a clap of thunder. This was irritating-he'd wanted to see how the dream would end. It was raining incredibly heavily-the intolerable heat of the last few days had finally broken, and broken spectacularly in the kind of night which made you feel grateful for being indoors and dry. Gazing vacantly out of the window at the rain in his darkened room, Katsumi sat curled up in one of his chairs in what passed for his pyjamas at this time of year. He'd taken a hint from Izumi in this and wore a shirt and shorts in order to keep cool. The blanket he had dragged off his bed lay disregarded on the floor.
There was something incredibly relaxing about watching the rain. He didn't want to sleep as he'd only just woken up, but it was making him feel dazed. Taka-chan should try it, he thought, and wondered if he ever had sat and looked at the rain fall. He didn't think he'd have done it recently, he'd been far too busy. Adults didn't do things like that, they left it to teenagers with too much time on their hands and too few friends to spend time with. Once you got beyond the age of about twenty-four you weren't meant to waste time like that. Then again, by twenty-six society expected you to be married with children to take care of, and no time to waste on such trivial matters as enjoying yourself.
Katsumi wondered why it was Takasaka wasn't married, or at least engaged. He was far too old to still be single-Koji's brother Akihito was pushing it, and he was only twenty-five. It wasn't right that Takasaka had nobody so consequently was prepared to date an eighteen-year old boy (That was another thing people preferred you to do-stick to your own age group). He must have had a girlfriend once. Katsumi had heard of it happen…people would get engaged and expect to marry, but things would happen to cause them to break it off, and then no-one would marry them, cos they'd got too old.
Katsumi wasn't expecting to marry himself. His little affaire with Takasaka, however brief, would put paid to that idea for good. Madoka, like most girls, had wanted to marry, she'd often spoken of it. She'd been so confident of marrying… Oh, pull yourself together, Katsumi. Stop thinking about Madoka! She's dead, you're not, cope with it. Move on, for heavens' sake! Sometimes he really wanted to slap himself.
He was interrupted in his thoughts by the doorbell and so he got up to open it, not really caring that he was not looking or feeling his best.
***
Takasaka had gone home prior to visiting Katsumi, and whilst he was there he'd got changed. And so he was, much to Katsumi's amazement, dressed casually. He'd never seen Takasaka wear anything other than suits and shirts (and he'd never so much as taken the jackets off as if it was indecorous to do so) so discovering that the man owned and occasionally wore casual clothing came as a shock. Like Koji had been shocked first time he'd seen Katsumi in a suit.
Takasaka took one look at Katsumi, who was pale, tired and near-collapse, and practically ordered the boy back to bed, sheer necessity overriding the panic instinct when Katsumi nearly fell over-he was a lot sicker than he had sounded on the phone. Takasaka caught him and helped him stand again. It was the first time he'd put his arms round Katsumi and neither was in the mood to appreciate the moment-Katsumi was dizzy and nauseous and had begun to shiver and Takasaka was very worried about him. He half-carried Katsumi to his bedroom where he placed the dazed boy on the bed then went to fetch the sheet he'd seen on the living-room floor.
Katsumi looked at Takasaka in a dazed way as the man put the sheet back on top of him. He felt clogged, his head was full of water and when Takasaka looked at him his eyes were exhausted and bright with fever. Takasaka knew he couldn't stay in the flat by himself if he was that ill.
***
The decision to take Katsumi back to his own flat had been one which was fine in theory and didn't work at all in practice. Takasaka hadn't felt comfortable with the idea of spending all his free time in Katsumi's flat-after all, he didn't know where anything was and it would have felt like an intrusion. It had been an experience trying to get there-it had given him one of his tension headaches. The traffic jam hadn't helped. It had been downright embarrassing to be stuck in a car in the middle of a rainstorm with Katsumi only partly dressed and half-asleep with it. It made him look like some kind of pervert and he could hardly have felt more anxious if he had been.
The advantage had been that it gave him time to go shopping and buy medicine. The only kind of medicines he had in the flat were plasters, headache pills and various cures for his many stress-related problems, none of which would have done Katsumi any good at all.
It had taken far longer than it should have to get back, though, and once Takasaka had managed it he almost wished he hadn't. One of his (married) neighbours whom he'd never got on with had met him in the corridors and hadn't been able to resist passing comment on Katsumi, who had at that stage been leaning on Takasaka's shoulder. Something along the lines of "I didn't think you were so desperate." Not a terribly good or original insult but it certainly irritated Takasaka (only trouble was this had shown itself as a blush) and Katsumi had muttered "oh, drop dead," at the man's retreating back. Better than could have been expected considering the circumstances.
Once they actually got inside, Katsumi looked around him critically. He'd never seen Taka-chan's flat before and it seemed unfair that he had to wait until he was practically dead before he managed it. "Nice flat," he said. It was kind of similar to his own. Over-tidy, not enough furniture, didn't really look lived-in. Basically it was a place Takasaka went in order to eat, sleep, and (if Takasaka was anything like he was) to feel depressed and alone in.
Takasaka refrained from commenting. "You need to get to bed," he said, and took him into the bedroom where Katsumi sat down on the edge of the bed. A double. He wondered if Takasaka had one-night stands but he managed to stop himself from asking. A rare victory for discretion.
To be continued.
