The Universe
Chapter Ten - Cinquains for Rocky
By Djinn Hashiba-Maxwell
Djinn: And the plot thickens . . . oh and I apologize in advance for the amount of dialect. There's a lot of drunk-speak coming up.
You want
a word that means
separating two thing
by bringing them closer together. "What for?"
she asks.
"Doesn't
make sense." It does,
you tell her, when one speaks
about relationships--about
you two.
Cinquains for Rocky
Janet Holmes
It was barely nine when Seiji's worry got the best of him. He tried to dial calmly, but his hands shook slightly and it was hard to get the number right. He knew that if Touma had stayed out this long he must be either really upset or really pissed over what he had witnessed. Either that or something was dreadfully wrong. Despite it's implication, he desperately prayed for either of the two former choices.
The phone at Kaiya's apartment rang once . . . twice . . . thrice . . . Seiji felt himself beginning to worry, just at there was clicking noise indicating that the receiver had been picked up. there was no answer, but he could hear the slight sound of someone breathing.
"Kaiya?" Seiji asked nervously.
There was a pause. " . . . who is this?" Definitely not Kaiya's voice, which meant it must be her girlfriend.
"This is Date Seiji. I was wondering if Touma had by chance stopped by there?" He said, sounding hopeful.
Another pause. " . . . you mean Kaiya never showed up there? That's where I'd figured she'd gone . . ."
Seiji suddenly felt a terrible sense of foreboding. "You don't have any idea where he might be?" He demanded.
"Are you kidding?? I don't even know where KAIYA is!" Nai replied rather shrilly. "I thought she'd gone to see Touma! You're saying you think Touma came to see her??"
"Well obviously not if he didn't stop by there . . . maybe they just met up at Acropolis." Seiji said, more to reassure himself than the other girl.
"Nuh-uh, cuz'iz I checked." Nai's usually sweet and refined voice sounded strange, she was either drunk or very upset. Or both. "And I didn't see her 'n I didn't see Touma either, cuz they both got that hair, ya know." A soft sniffle. Nai was crying, or had been recently.
Seiji was a bit worried now. "Do you have any idea if they might have met up somewhere else?"
"Kaiya's obaasan has a house in the hills, but I dunno where it is." Nai responded.
"Thanks anyway." Seiji said, his voice sounding hollow.
"Aw g'wan."
"No, f'real."
Touma unfurled one finger from around his bottle of Bacardi to point at Kaiya. "I refuse -" his slur made it sound more like 'refushe' - "to believe that you got Nai to wear THAT."
Kaiya nodded, contradicting his statement. "Yup. Thong, leather gloves and all."
"Aw man that musta been a RIOT!" Touma giggled, obviously well into the realm of drunkenness.
"Yeah well it was fun but I wuz showering 'lone for a while."
"I know the feeling." Touma said, tilting his bottle back. When no liquid emerged he held it away form his face and squinted at it, as if he thought it was a machine that was broken and might be fixed. Finally he shrugged and lobbed the bottle at the trash can, where it landed accurately, shattering only once it was inside. "I think I'm drunk." Touma said somberly, as if revealing the greatest truth of all mankind.
Kaiya giggled. "Really? Cuz I know you're drunk."
"Yeah? Well it was your idea!"
"What was?"
" . . . I don't remember. Ask me again in a minute."
Kaiya giggled some more. "'Kay."
Touma crawled up onto the couch beside his friend with some difficulty, eventually ending up sprawled across half of the couch with his head in Kaiya's lap. He hiccuped against her fishnet-clad thigh. "You smell nice . . ." He murmured, sounding stupid and very, very young. Kaiya let out a giggle and then sighed, running black-painted nails through Touma's short blue hair.
"I bet Nai is worried." Kaiya observed, sounding a little more level.
"Aw, screw Nai." Touma mumbled incoherently.
"I'd like to." Kaiya replied, before realizing what she'd said and giggling some more. "Okay. Drunk. Real drunk. Bedtime."
"Bedtime?" Touma repeated, turning to cast cloudy blue eyes on Kaiya. "Why bedtime? It's only . . ." He lifted his arm up over his eyes and squinted at his wrist for several seconds before finally realizing that he wasn't wearing a watch. "It's not late."
"It's late." Kaiya heaved herself up off the couch, swaying on her feet slightly as Touma giggled from where he had fallen on the floor. Kaiya sighed, being the more sober by a few swigs of burning liquor, and heaved him back up onto the couch, before swinging one of his arms around his shoulder. "Oof. You're heavy."
"You're skinny." Touma said, finding his sea legs and managing to stumble up the stairs without her help. "Hey Kai-chan? Which was my room?"
"Dunno . . ."
"I guess I'll figger it out . . ."
*~*~*
"Touma still not back?"
Shuu looked up to see Nasutei looking down on him, worry in her green eyes. She had judged, quite rightly, that Ryo was not in the mood to be comforted, Seiji had already left to go check Acropolis for his lover, and Shin had holed up in his room hours ago. So, her vaguely maternal instincts being smothered, she decided that Shuu would have to do.
"No." Shuu answered succinctly. "And it's just not like Touma to disappear like that, you know? He should have at least called by now . . . he must realize how worried we are."
"Touma can be flighty." Nasutei reassured him. "And Kaiya doesn't exactly strike me as the responsible sort, from what I've heard."
"Yeah." Shuu admitted. "She seemed a little . . . iffy. But still . . ."
"Knowing Touma, tonight is going to involve a lot of alcohol, and that is not conducive to checking in. I'm sure he's fine, he can take care of himself." She went on, as much to comfort herself as Shuu.
"Nas . . ." Shuu sighed slightly, shifting his position so he could throw an arm around her shoulders. "Normally Touma can take care of himself. But we both know that when it comes to people he cares about, he's notoriously irrational. And I wouldn't count on that raver chick to put some sense into him."
"Gee, Shuu, you couldn't have just let me delude myself?" She murmured, curling into his side as if it were something she had always done. She had seen a new side of Shuu the night before, something beyond the bravado and strength. He had seen her hurting, and he had taken care of her. She was beginning to hope she might see more of this new side of Shuu.
The warrior of Kengo sighed and pulled away slightly. "Shouldn't you be talking to Ryo?"
She laughed silently, putting an arm around the broad waist and tugging him closer to her as she curled up onto the couch. "No." She replied simply.
*~*~*
Kaiya threw the back of a hand to her forehead as the light streaming through the windows struck her eyes. "Damn. Hangovers suck." She muttered unnecessarily to herself. "Coffeeeee . . ." She rolled over, pushing the blankets off of her as she did so.
She ran into something.
Blinking quickly and cursing the man that invented rum, she slowly recognized what she had run into.
Touma?
More correctly, a very naked, half awake, bleary-eyed and confused Touma who blinked at her, looking as stupefied as she felt. "Kai?" He murmured uncertainly. He pressed the heel of a hand over his eye. "Shit, what a headache."
"Touma." Kaiya said, her voice a squeak. "You aren't wearing any clothes."
"Neither are you." Touma replied irritably, and then suddenly he realized what he had just said. He looked up at Kaiya, eyes wide, and she stared back at him, aghast. "Neither are you." He repeated n shock. "Kaiya, tell me you remember what happened last night."
She shook her head.
"All right, then just tell me that there's an innocent reason for why we're both naked in the same bed."
*TBC . . .*
