Closed Doors
By Leareth
Part Two
Watari was short on sleep and in a very bad mood. That combination was probably the reason why he was storming towards Konoe's office where Tatsumi worked to let off some steam. Most intelligent people stayed away from the secretary, and Watari did like to think of himself as a very intelligent person.
Then again, intelligent people could also be suicidal.
The door was closed and locked, an unsubtle hint that the person inside didn't want to be disturbed. Watari paid it no attention and rapped crisply on the wooden surface. Then he folded his arms and tapped his fingers, waiting for the expected response.
"Who's there?"
Watari took a deep breath. "It's me, Tatsumi. Open the door."
"I'm busy, Watari-san," came the not-surprising reply. "Come back later."
"Not happening." Tatsumi couldn't see, but Watari's face was hard. "Open the door."
There was an exasperated noise from the other side of the door. "Whatever you want to see me about, Watari-san, I'm sure it can wait."
"No, it can't." Watari glared daggers at the unoffending wood. "Open the door or you're going to have to buy a new one."
"Hardly. I'll just deduct the replacement cost from your salary."
Watari silently kicked himself for forgetting that there wasn't any point financially threatening the department accountant. "You'd still have to live with the draft and you won't have any privacy until you get the new door installed," he retorted aloud. "Look, I'm coming in whether you like it or not, so you'd might as well be nice about it."
Silence from the other side of the door. Then there was some angry mutterings that made Watari begin to fear for his health, however he stood resolutely in his place as the door was half-opened to reveal a most annoyed Tatsumi. "It's eight-thirty in the morning. The workday doesn't begin until nine. You, by habit, don't get to the office until at least quarter past. What in Enma's name are you doing here?"
Watari glared. "I've had to stay at the hospital to watch over Tsuzuki from three a.m. onwards every single night for the past week, in case you didn't know. Oh, whoops." He waved a dismissing hand at Tatsumi dramatically. "You wouldn't know, cause you don't care."
He had the pleasure of seeing the secretary twitch. "What do you want," asked Tatsumi coldly.
"I need to talk to you," the scientist replied.
"About?"
"Tsuzuki."
Without warning the door was slammed shut, or as close to shut as it could get with Watari's fingers in the doorjamb. The blond shinigami gave a yell of pain, frantically flapping his injured hand about in the air until it healed, but at least Tatsumi hadn't been able to lock the door. Instead, he opened it again and watched Watari's antics with a satisfied smirk.
"You asked for it."
Watari gritted his teeth. "Sadistic psycho. You like hurting me, don't you."
He had only half-meant it, and so he was rather surprised when Tatsumi froze in the doorway and stared at him almost in shock. For a moment Watari had the wild hope that he could get some sympathy out of the control-freak shinigami, but it was gone quickly as he realised that Tatsumi was about to shut the door on him again.
"H-hey, wait up a sec!" This time Watari managed to get his booted foot in the door, which meant he could also insert a shoulder and really prevent Tatsumi from locking him out. "Just lemme in, will ya?! I need to talk to you!"
"I. Am. Busy," Tatsumi bit out, struggling to shut the door with little success.
Watari managed to pry the door open a little more to look Tatsumi in the eye. "Too busy to talk about Tsuzuki? You've got to be kidding me."
Tatsumi glared at him. Then he let the door go. Caught by surprise, Watari fell through the entrance to painfully greet the office floor with his face. Tatsumi strode back to his desk and paid Watari's current state as much attention as he would a fly. "Whatever you want to say, make it quick," he said curtly, shuffling with various papers.
Watari picked himself up and put his glasses back on properly. The door behind him was still open; Tatsumi had probably left it that way so that he had the option of kicking him out if the conversation got too uncomfortable. Which it most definitely would. Watari was determined that Tatsumi would hear all of it, so he closed the door and locked it. Tatsumi raised an eyebrow at the action, but otherwise said nothing and merely went back to organising papers, ignoring Watari as the scientist stood in front of the desk trying to figure out how to begin. It wasn't easy.
"Tsuzuki's worried about you," he said finally.
Sound of papers rustling. "Is that so?" asked Tatsumi neutrally.
"Yes."
"And why is that?"
"Oh, jeez, could it have something to do with the fact that you've been avoiding him for over a week? Nah, can't be," Watari retorted, dripping sarcasm like a melting icicle.
"What are you talking about? I visited him just yesterday."
The blond shinigami gave the other a glare of barely restrained patience. "And you spent the entire time lurking by the door without saying anything so you'd might as well not be there at all. Same with the day before that, and day before that. And the day before that, and the day before that one too."
"I've been busy."
"Too busy to visit Tsuzuki for just five minutes to show you care? He's starting to think you don't anymore, you know." Tatsumi's hands seemed to freeze for a split second. Watari looked at him carefully. "And you know what? I'm beginning to doubt if you care for him anymore too."
More rustling of papers. Suddenly they seemed very loud. Tatsumi didn't look up from his work. Watari took a deep breath then continued.
"He still has nightmares, you know that? The same ones, over and over again. It's not so bad now, but Hisoka-kun's been driving himself to exhaustion looking after him every night. Same with me. But we don't mind, because the nightmares aren't as bad when someone stays with him. Hisoka-kun's better than me, but it's still not good enough, cause we're both about to fall on our faces and we can't do that cause Tsuzuki might have another fit. If we had a third person to help things would be much easier, but we don't, do we, Tatsumi." The secretary had been shuffling that same sheaf of paper for the last five minutes, and Watari clenched his fists in frustration. "We're not even talking about work or duty; just friends helping each other look after another friend. I know better than to expect anything charitable out of you, but jeez, Tatsumi, don't you even care?!"
Watari was half-shouting now, but didn't give a damn as a week's worth of irritation, no sleep and burning anger came spilling out. Still Tatsumi kept organising documents. "Don't you care that Hisoka-kun and I are probably going to end up in those hospital beds at the rate we're going?! Don't you care that your ex-partner can't get a decent night's rest because none of us – including you – could protect him from a sadistic sexual predator of a doctor?!"
There was the sound of paper being crushed. Watari caught his breath, forcing himself to calm down. Tatsumi's hands were clenched so tight his skin was white. But still he kept his silence. It only made Watari more incensed. Tsuzuki had been through enough already, if Tatsumi was going to hurt him further with this stupid attitude of his . . .
"You were willing to let Tsuzuki die in Kyoto," continued Watari. His voice was cold, contemptuous, perfectly expressing the disgust he still harboured over the issue. "Tsuzuki's probably the only person in Meifu whom you care about past the point of just being useful. I'd hate to think what you'd do if it were me or Terazuma in Tsuzuki's place."
No answer. The scientist had to consciously force himself not to go over to the man and whack him over the head.
"He asked about you last night. Hisoka-kun and I had to wake him up cause he was having another nightmare. After he calmed down he looked at us and asked why Tatsumi wasn't there. Hisoka-kun had to tell him that you had work to do. The same excuse that we've been giving for the past week. He didn't buy it. Even you don't work at four in the morning."
Again, no answer.
"You don't care, do you. You're a cold-hearted bastard who goes and locks himself up in his office cause he doesn't feel like dealing with people. Or is it because you're scared of something? If that's the case, then you're a god-damned coward, and that's one of the last things I'd thought I'd be calling Tatsumi Seiichiro."
Still no answer.
"Aren't you going to say anything?! Or are you just going to hide in here with your accounts and rot?"
Silence. Then, just as Watari was about to open his mouth to speak again, Tatsumi raised his head. Watari couldn't see his face behind the glint of light on glasses, but he felt a cold shiver run down his spine and wished that he were anywhere but here in Tatsumi's targeting range.
"Are you quite finished?"
Tatsumi spoke the words so softly Watari almost missed the dark, dangerous threat beneath them. He gulped, wondering if he had pushed the shadow-master too far. On the other hand, Tatsumi getting worked up over this was also a good sign. Watari was so sure that Tatsumi was merely denying something he knew not what and given a little prodding, could be forced into doing something about it.
He waited patiently for Tatsumi to say something, anything.
Nothing.
Tatsumi stood with his back perfectly straight behind his desk with his papers, as still as a statue and just as cold, looking at Watari as if all of this were nothing but a waste of his time. The scientist's hands clenched into fists as he knew that he had lost. And still Tatsumi just stood there.
Finally, Watari threw his hands into the air in disgust.
"I give up." Exasperated beyond words, he turned and headed for the door. "I don't know why I bothered. It's not my problem you're being an idiot, except for the fact that you're hurting Tsuzuki with this stubborn attitude of yours." Turning the handle, Watari shot one more contemptuous barb over his shoulder before leaving.
"I gave you more credit as a man than this, Tatsumi. Looks like I was wrong."
And he shut the door behind him.
It was a pity the door didn't have a window in it. Even if there had been, Watari was too angry to be bothered looking back. Otherwise, he might have seen that as soon as he was alone, Tatsumi slumped into his chair and hid his face in his hands with a long, shuddering sigh.
Behold, the Void @ http://doki3.net/void/