Sorry this took a while. I did warn you I was a slow writer didn't I? I'm fine once I start writing, It's just the sitting down to it in the first place that's the hard part. Solitaire keeps getting in the way. And when I do start to write, it's usually just before I have to go out some where, or late at night when I have to get up in the morning.
To every one who reviewed. Thank you, I was honestly really touched. I had been expecting maybe five or six people to reply, I opened my e-mail box the next day to find I already had that many! This is dedicated to all of you. I'd list you by name but the computer I use to write isn't connected to the Internet so I can't get online to get every ones' name.
I hope you all like this chapter too.
Hikaru guessed the woman sitting in the corner was a trainee nurse. As soon as they entered she gathered up her text books and left with no more than a slight bow towards the two of them.
The room they had entered was a small private room, dimly lit and nearly silent. Ogata's voice startled him before he had a chance to look around further.
"Well, I'll leave it to you then."
"What?" Hikaru spun round abruptly to face Ogata. The older pro paused in the doorway he'd been leaving through to look back over his shoulder. "What do you mean leave it to me?"
His response was a thumb jerked towards one of the two beds. It was empty, except for a battered but familiar sports bag. One of his T-shirts had half fallen out one split seam, following the pair of socks that was lying on the bed next to it. "You know him better than any one else." Hikaru barely caught the words as the door clicked shut behind him.
He stared at the door in disbelief. Unless I'm very much mistaken, Ogata just dumped this whole mess on me. Sighing, he turned to look at the rest of the room. Cold tile floor, what was now his bed nearest the door. A window on he far side of the room. A bed near it.
Taking a deep breath, he suppressed the desire to simply grab his bag and head back to the ward. His legs felt like jelly as he forced them to carry him across the floor and towards the figure in the bed.
Touya was still sleeping. He let out the breath he'd been holding as the tension drained out of him. I don't have to do any thing yet. I... I have no clue how to deal with this. Taking another step closer to the bed he surveyed the unconscious figure.
Touya's skin was pale, nearly as white as the wad of gauze taped to his forehead. There were dark circles under his eyes making his face seem hollow. Dark hair fell across the pillow like a sheet of dark silk, oddly glossy in comparison to his ashen face. The whole scene was strangely peaceful. Sitting down in the chair next to the bed, Hikaru was close enough to hear the other boy breathing. The slightly parted lips looked dry and cracked.
Above the bed light was reflected in odd shaped patterns on the wall. He stared at it for a few moments before realising that it was being reflected by the clear bag of fluid connected to the drip. His eyes followed the tube down to Touya's arm, and along his arm to the bandages wrapped around his wrist. Some thing caught in his chest and he turned his eyes back to Touya's face. The tightness in his chest only increased.
So pale. Slowly, carefully, he raised a hand and touched one of Touya's cheeks gently. So cold. His hand fell back to his lap and his eyes flew to Touya's, worried suddenly that he might have woken up to find him stroking his cheek. He was still asleep.
Hikaru settled back into the chair as the blush on his face slowly subsided. What am I doing? That could have been... awkward. Still, he woke up alone before and.... Slowly, carefully Hikaru covered the hand nearest him in his own. It was cold under his, but slowly, the knot in his chest eased. Sighing softly, he lent back and waited.
Harsh red light broke around twisted metal, painting the wreckage of the coach in red and black. Only it wasn't light. It was blood flowing from the two figures he was staring at. He turned away, only to find they were still in front of him when he opened his eyes. Red was over taking black, rising up around him. Gasping he struggled to swim to the surface as it closed in over his head. Something wrapped around his chest, then his neck, dragging him back down. The figures were in front of him again, and he couldn't turn away. It was so cold.
Something tugged at his hand and he struggled to turn his head. A warm hand held his, pulling him slowly upwards. The bonds fell away and somewhere above him he could see light.
Bloody hands gripped his ankles, trying to hold him down. He gripped onto the hand tighter, kicking out as he struggled upwards. A hand gripped the side of his face, forcing him to turn. His fathers face, bloody and twisted floated before him. The hands were choking him, pulling at him. He couldn't breathe, blood flowed into his lungs and he was choking.
Then his head broke the surface and the dream fell away. A sharp pain exploded in his already aching head as he sat up suddenly, colliding with Shindou as he did so.
"Ai, ow." The hand let go and he felt suddenly cold as Shindou started to rub the bump on his forehead, where Touya has inadvertently head butted him. Carefully he raised his own hand to his sore head, wincing as it pulled the stitches in his side.
It hurt his wrist, too, but he ignored that.
Shindou was staring at him, or rather, trying to avoid looking like he was staring at him. Akira had the impression he was holding his breath, waiting for him to say something. He remained silent. there really wasn't any thing he felt like saying. He stared at his hands instead. Then switched to staring at the foot of the bed when his eyes drifted to the bandage round his left wrist. He didn't want to think about that.
There was a sigh beside him. So Shindou had been holding his breath. How strange, it had been a long time since Shindou had been nervous around him. They had long since fallen into a comfortable pattern of bickering during their games at the go salon. His father's go salon.
He veered away from that train of thought quickly, forcing himself to breathe slowly around the lump in his throat. The pain in his side was getting worse with the effort of sitting up. It was cold too, far to cold.
"So..." Shindou was still waiting for something from him. He half turned his head towards the other boy, keeping his eyes carefully fixed on the sheets of the bed. He really should say something, ignoring a visitor was pretty rude. He racked his brains for something to say.
"Where is this." Shindou seemed to relax slightly.
"A hospital in Osaka. Not far from the hotel we were headed for actually."
"Oh." Something else to say. "Thank you. I'm sorry to be a bother."
"Huh?"
"For coming to visit me. Thank you, I didn't mean to be a bother."
Shindou shifted slightly beside him, reaching up to scratch his head. "Well actually I'm not really visiting. I'm you're new room mate."
He looked across the room. Shindou's bag was on the other bed. "I see." So they didn't want him left alone again. He looked down at his left wrist. It still hurt.
Shindou's eyes followed his to the bandages. Suddenly he reached across and grabbed Touya's wrist, making him wince. "Don't do that again!"
Touya looked up sharply. Startled by the anger in Shindou's voice.
"It-it was a really stupid thing to do, Touya. Did you really think it was going to fix anything? Did you really think it was any kind of answer? I, I, damn it, I thought you had more sense than that!" Shindou dropped his wrist and turned away. "What about the rest of us, what would we do? What about the hand of god?" His voice softened. "What about your family name? Just, why?"
Touya shifted awkwardly, wincing as his wrist protested at Shindou's rough treatment. He hadn't wanted to think about it, but now it seemed he didn't have a choice. Something inside of him went cold. Whether it was his heart or his stomach he wasn't sure, but it hurt. Oh gods it hurts.
"I-I..." He hesitated unsure of how to put it into words, unsure if he even wanted to. He looked up at Shindou's back. Shindou who's life was still intact, who could go home and continue where he had left off, along with every one else. That world seemed so far away, as if his ties to it had been cut.
It was all so, broken. His whole life in pieces, shattered past all hopes of repair. No going back, and nothing to go forward to. He shivered as the sick, empty feeling in side him grew.
And it was so cold. Tears blurred his vision and he blinked them back hastily, relieved Shindou wasn't watching him. And I was so, alone.
It had seemed so simple.
They hadn't left any thing obviously sharp in the room. but they had left what they needed for changing dressings. A pair of scissors, sharp enough to cut easily through bandages, from the set of draws. His right hand shaking as he held them open, positioning the blade over the vain on his left.
His wrist twinged and he was brought back from the memory. Shindou was still there. He clutched at the memory, it was somehow sacred. A deeply private moment of pain. Not something to be shared, not with someone who would never understand.
"I don't know." He lied to Shindou's back. The memory froze inside him. So cold it burned, leaving nothing but an empty ache behind. Dimly he remembered a warm hand. One that had, for a few moments, touched that pain and eased it. Not by much, but maybe enough. But Shindou had his own life to go on with. The figure by the side of the bed shifted slightly. "I'm sorry, it was stupid." he continued on. The tears were still there, threatening to fall at any moment. "I'm sorry."
Shindou began to turn back to him and he hastened to pull himself together. Closing his eyes against the tears, he took a deep breath to clear the lump from his throat. It was a mistake. Pain shot up his side. A wave of dizziness hit him and he swayed briefly before falling back on to the bed. Even with the pillows, the jolt made him see stars.
Touya's reply came as a shock. Hikaru had expected him to shout back, to tell him that he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. That he wouldn't understand. He realised that he'd rather been counting on it. Arguing with Touya he understood, he had had a lot of practice.
He had not been expecting him to agree. Not like that, voice dead and hollow. Guilt washed over him and her turned back to apologise. Just in time to see Touya collapse back onto the bed.
"Shit. Touya are you OK?"
Touya just groaned in response, keeping his eyes closed. Shindou eased himself on to the bed beside him, careful not to jolt him further.
"Touya?" Green eyes opened cautiously to meet his, flinching closed again when a gust of wind blew the curtains apart and let in the sunlight. Shindou could have sworn he saw tears there. He reached across cautiously, hesitated for a moment, then let the backs of his fingers trail gently over Touya's cheek. "Touya, I'm sorry." The green eyes opened again and stared directly into his own.
There was a silent plea there. Shindou swallowed around the nervous lump in his throat. And here I thought I was used to Touya's stares. Though he we fairly sure that Touya had never stared at him like that. There was something the other boy wanted from him, only he had no clue what it was.
Breaking eye contact he raised his head a little, looking off to one side. He didn't know what to do, so he settled for apologising instead. Well, sort of.
"You're right, it was stupid. Really stupid. But, I think, it was also understandable. Waking up alone and all, especially if you're having dreams like that." He looked back at Touya and smiled slightly. "I guess, I can forgive that. I guess, I can understand that, a little anyway."
The look didn't leave Touya's eyes, but another overshadowed it. A few moments later Touya turned away to face the window. His breathing was a little ragged, as if he was trying very hard not to cry. Shindou bit down on the urge to reach over and hold him.
"I can't remember it." Touya broke the awkward silence. Making Shindou jump.
"Huh? Remember what?"
"The game we played, on the coach. I can't remember it." The figure on the bed shifted slightly, curling tighter in on it's self. Hikaru got the impression it was really bothering the other boy.
"I'm not surprised, you did have a pretty nasty concussion. Come to think of it so did I, I just about remember the first four moves." He scrunched his face in thought. "Make that three."
"...I've never forgotten a game before." Obviously Touya was not appeased by Hikaru's forgetfulness.
"What, not one? What about the first game you ever played?."
Touya replied promptly, listing the handicap and the moves played. "...I lost by 9 moku. It was on a nine by nine board and I was two and a half." Shindou blinked dumbfounded for a minute.
"T-two and a half? I can't remember any thing from when I was that old! Let alone something like Go." He smiled at Touya's back and shook his head. "I can't even remember the first few matches I played and I was in sixth grade. Touya you... you really are something you know."
Touya turned to face him again, a startled look on his face. He was blushing too. It took all of Hikaru's self control not to burst out laughing. He probably would have anyway, if it hadn't been for the look that still lingered in his eyes.
"You should get some rest." Hikaru said, grinning as he pushed the seat back. Touya just nodded and closed his eyes. The grin fell from his face as he turned and walked across to his own bed. The look in Touya's eyes tugged at something inside him, leaving him with an awkward feeling that there was something that he was supposed to do about it.
He was just climbing into the bed when something hit him. In much the same way as realising he'd missed a truly brilliant move several hands down the line. The one thing Touya hadn't said about his first game.
He hadn't mentioned his opponent.
And there was only one person it could possibly have been.
He really wished Sai was there.
I think this is a little longer than the first part, but not by much.
When I first started to write this chapter I was going to have them continue with the game on the coach from where they left off. I was actually going to have them continue to play that one game right through the fic. I got to writing that part and changed my mind. It seemed a little too, I don't know, too perfect perhaps. Not to mention a bit cheesy. So I had Akira forget it instead.
As to whether he can remember every game he's ever played, even at two and a half... Well I wouldn't put it past him and the manga did say his father started teaching him when he was two. But if you think it's unrealistic, well, call it artistic licence. Or Akira worship.
And Ogata running off like that. That bit just wrote it's self in with out me telling it to. Seems to fit him though. I honestly don't think he'd have a clue what to do with Akira in this situation.
I hope this chapter wasn't too boring. I was basically just the two of them talking. Hopefully the next chapter will be more interesting. I'll try and put some sumi/waya in it. Those two are probably going to be the comedy element. And the cute fluffy element. And the shonen ai fix, at least for a while. The hika/aki will probably come along rather slowly considering the situation. I think Akira has enough emotional turmoil to deal with... For now, anyway.
Bye bye for now
Enigma O