Disclaimers: Gravitation still doesn't belong to me. I wish it did, but it doesn't. I'm saving my lunch money, though…
Notes: if you couldn't tell I type this before the fic, so if anything's wrong (in chapters previous or upcoming) please bare with me.
Aiko and Michael belong to me…
Back to Tatsuha's point of view
~*The Bible of Kumagoro—Getting Closer to Your God*~
I sighed as I stared up at my ceiling, where a very large Sakuma Ryuichi poster stared back at me. Sure, it was no substitute for the real thing (which I desperately wanted back with me), but he was still hot as hell. That was my very favorite poster…which would be the reason it was on the ceiling above my bed. Aiko said she would be coming over today, which was a sort of relief. There wasn't anyone to talk to around here. Well, hardly. I'd sort of grown apart from most of my old friends, seeing as I was hardly ever home.
Aiko was in my class in high school, and we were supposed to work together on a project over summer break. We'd gotten some done while I was still in Tokyo, but I completely forgot about it and we never finished it, so now that I was home she was going to come over here and see me. She told me to get things ready and wait for her, so I had. She was a good thirty minutes late already. I could only hope nothing had happened to her.
Her and I had become good friends since high school started. She was nice, and smart, too. We worked well together on projects, and got along great. Not to say I didn't have any other friends, but she was the first friend I'd made in my class. I'd actually met most of my friends through her. Until a little into my sophomore year, I didn't realize just how many people thought I was cute since I was home-schooled. Until then I'd spent day and night working to try and be as good-looking as Sakuma Ryuichi so maybe he'd notice me one day.
Sighing my hand traveled subconsciously to my mouth, eyes still focused on the picture above me. How could it be that only a day ago I had been at Sakuma Ryuichi's apartment, touching him, kissing him? Now that I thought back on it, it really was something amazing. He was so wonderful and…human…that it hardly occurred to me that he really was the same person from the concerts; I so rarely saw that side of him. I couldn't help but wonder what Ryuichi was doing. Was he thinking about me, or was he writing or something?
"Earth to Tatsuha, anyone home? You couldn't have waited for us outside, you know!" Aiko demanded as I sat up, hands planted firmly on her hips as she glared at me. "Do you have any idea how hard it was for us to find this place? I wasn't expecting you to wait for us at the train station, but your font porch would have made it a lot easier to find you!" I blinked and noticed Michael standing in the doorway, peering around it shyly. Aiko obviously noticed I wasn't looking at her and turned to motion Michael inside.
Michael was staying with Aiko's family for a while, as a foreign exchange student. He was from America, I think California or somewhere close to it. He was sort of shy, a nice contrast to Aiko's commanding nature. He was on the shorter side, with light brown hair and green eyes. I liked him, he was nice once he actually got used to you and started talking some.
"I'm sorry, Aiko. It never occurred to me." Aiko returned to glaring at me as I spoke. Something told me I wasn't going to get out of this easily.
"You owe me dinner for that. I wasted money driving all around this place looking for it. Your handwriting was so messy I could barely understand it! Wow, you really do like Nittle Grasper, huh?" She asked suddenly, eyes growing wide as she looked around my room. There was hardly any room to put any more posters up, and most of them were mostly covered, leaving just Ryuichi visible.
"Wow," Michael echoed, glancing up at the small collection of Nittle Grasper posters on my ceiling. When I found I had no more room to put real posters on my wall I'd started putting them on my ceiling. Of course, all but the one over my bed were only mediocre posters. I'd have them on the walls or over my bed if they were really good.
"Sorry about that concert raining out on you. I know how much you wanted to go. I heard they didn't even show up," Aiko offered conversationally, sitting down next to me and motioning for Michael to take a seat as well. Aiko didn't like to start working unless we had a good source of conversation already covered. That way we could stay on focus while we were working and all that junk.
"Yeah, that was disappointing. I got to stay with my brother, though. So that was always a plus." Aiko hit me for that, glaring at me. She knew about my obsession with Nittle Grasper and my brother's 'live-in.' I'd never told her Shuichi was a boy, nor who my brother was, or even that I was obsessed with the main SINGER of Nittle Grasper, and not just the band itself. I felt no need to tell her I was gay, or that I was related to Yuki Eiri or Seguchi Tohma. It was my little secret.
"You have to stop torturing your brother like that! How would you feel if you were in his shoes?" Michael just continued to stare at the posters as we argued, not wanting to get involved. From the slight color of his cheeks, I could tell he wasn't really comfortable being here.
"Blessed to have someone like that." Aiko glared at me, but she was smiling slightly as she did so. She really was a nice person, just a little straightforward sometimes. "Hey, Michael, you ever hear any of Nittle Grasper's music?" I asked after a while. Michael hadn't been with Aiko for all that long, a month or two at best, and I was pretty sure Aiko hadn't felt the need to introduce him to the wonders of Nittle Grasper. She liked them, sure, but they weren't her favorite band or anything. I couldn't understand that, but she was entitled to her own opinion. She preferred Bad Luck, personally. Another reason I didn't feel like telling her who my brother was.
Michael shrugged. "I don't know. She listens, I listen. I never bother to ask who we're listening to." I sighed and scooted off my bed, grabbing the nearest Nittle Grasper CD and showing it to him.
"This is Nittle Grasper. This is the finest band you'll ever come across, with the coolest band members you could ever imagine. They sing the finest music, and have the finest members." Aiko smacked me for that, assuming I was talking about Noriko. Sure, Noriko was pretty, but she wasn't what I was looking at. I was also fully aware that Tohma wasn't all that bad looking himself, but Ryuichi was definitely the best looking of them all by FAR.
"You stop scaring Michael like that! You freak out enough people with this obsession of yours daily!" Aiko scolded, grabbing the CD from me and flipping it open. I normally would have killed anyone who dared to touch my CD, but Aiko was harmless…for the most part. I rubbed the back of my head as she walked over to the stereo, putting it in and turning it on.
"Have you ever met them in person, Tatsuha-san?" Michael asked as Aiko returned, handing me back my CD case. I nodded happily, pointing to the picture of Tohma on the CD case.
"I've talked to him before. He's okay, a little freaky sometimes, though. He's all…businesslike and…I don't know how to explain it. Like, he can make you feel really small if he wants to." Michael nodded.
"He only does that to you because you're a pain in the ass," Mika added as she walked past my room, scaring the shit out of me. When the hell had she gotten here? "I wasn't aware you were home yet. Not to worry, though. I got extra food since I knew you'd be coming home soon. Since you have friends over, I assume you can help me carry some groceries?" She asked as she materialized back in my doorway, arms empty whereas they had been carrying bags earlier.
"I'll help!" Aiko cheered happily. She was active, and always willing to run an errand. I should have known she'd want to help. Mika smiled and nodded, glaring at me until I finally set down my CD and offered to help.
"Michael, you can stay here if you want. We're just helping Mika unpack," I offered as he made a move to stand up, and he looked confused for a moment.
"Can I help?" he asked softly and I nodded, motioning for him to follow. He did so and we all filed out of my room to follow Mika back outside. I didn't bother to turn off my music; we'd be back soon enough.
"I haven't had time to introduce myself yet. I'm Mika, Tatsuha's big sister. You are?" she asked conversationally as she started handing out bags. Aiko smiled happily and passed a bag on to me.
"I'm Aiko, and this is Michael," she indicated as she handed him a bag. "He's staying with my family for a while." Mika nodded, smiling as Aiko took the last bag she offered her, grabbing another of her own free will so Mika, Michael, and I only had to carry one each. "We're over here to finish a project we were supposed to do over summer. Tatsuha left before we could get it finished," Aiko continued as Mika closed the trunk to her car. "At least this gives Michael and I the chance to see his house, though. He was always coming over to work on it when he was in Tokyo."
"Eh, I bet he has his reasons," Mika offered in my defense, motioning us to follow her to the kitchen, seeing as Michael and Aiko didn't know where it was. Aiko followed behind Mika, making conversation the whole way there. Michael and I followed a bit behind them. I swung my bag happily, grinning as we made our way down the halls. I could still hear my Nittle Grasper music as we walked past my room and I heard Mika make some sort of comment about it. I didn't care though. I was enjoying a nice summer day with friends I rarely got to see, even though we were both supposed to be working. She couldn't ruin my mood at the moment.
"Pretty," Michael managed softly as we continued on our way and I looked over at him, waiting for him to elaborate. What was he talking about, exactly? He motioned his head towards the open yard and smiled slightly, blushing a little bit. He really didn't like talking to people sometimes, as I'd noticed earlier. He tended to keep more to himself. "It's pretty," he managed and I smiled.
"Yeah, it is. You and Aiko should drop by in the spring some time and check it out. It's really beautiful then. That there's my sister's little garden," I offered as we walked past the small, stone-encircled area where Mika planted her own flowers. She offered to make Eiri and I little areas, too. They were the gloomiest of them all. Mine was mostly empty, seeing as I had cleared it out when I'd run out of time to keep it healthy. Eiri's, however, was full of weeds and dead plants. He hadn't touched his little garden since he was 15 years old. The rest of his time had been spent getting ready for his trip, and afterwards he stopped caring about it.
"Could we?" he asked softly, still blushing. It was sort of cute, and it reminded me of when I first met Ryuichi. He was always blushing like that when he talked to people he didn't know very well. He and Michael actually seemed to have a lot in common…from what I had seen, anyway. I nodded happily and he smiled, a genuine little smile.
"Thank you so much for your help," Mika offered as she hurried us all into the kitchen, handing her bag to me as I followed Michael inside to drop our things off. It was Mika's job to organize things. However, as the two of us retreated I felt someone grab onto the sleeve of my shirt, and Michael stopped as I did.
"You two have to help out, too, you know. This is a lot of groceries for two girls to put away all by themselves," Aiko whined, letting me go. Mika laughed and blocked the doorway from us.
"Let them be, Aiko. I didn't ask for any of your help. I'll be just fine." Sometimes I had to adore Mika for her understanding. She knew how much I wanted to be outside, or daydreaming about Ryuichi. As Mika moved I grabbed Michael's wrist and pulled him outside after me.
"Come on, let's start working, Aiko," I offered once I was outside the door, watching Mika and Aiko start unpacking.
"Wait until I'm done. You and Michael chat outside while me and Mika work, okay?" I could tell there was heavy sarcasm in her voice, but I took that as our sign to leave, dragging Michael around the yard to the pond and sitting down next to it.
"Come on. You and I don't get to talk much. Leave the girls to organize, plan, and hide the food from us. Aiko's always so busy, we never do get to talk much." Michael blushed and sat down next to me, his hand reaching out slightly to touch the water. He smiled slightly and watched the ripples intently. "So…what's it like? Being so far away from home? Especially where people don't speak the same language?" I asked after a while of silence. He jumped a little bit, head jerking to look over at me. I guess he hadn't really been expecting me to bother him.
"It's…different. Sometimes I really start to miss my family, but it's…fun being here. Aiko and her sister are really nice, as are her mom and dad. And…you're really nice to me, too." I smiled at him and dipped a finger in the water as well, watching the ripples my finger created collide with his and distort them both.
"You seem like a really nice person, too. Maybe one day I'll get to go over where you live for a while. That would be nice." Michael nodded his agreement, smiling brightly.
"That'd be great. I could show you all the fun places around there," he offered happily. I nodded and we both went back to watching the ripples in the water, and the distorted reflections they cast. "Tatsuha-san?" I blinked and looked over at Michael. He rarely started a conversation by himself. "I…I reall…"
"Tatsuha! I think it's about time we started on our project, huh? Michael, you want to stay out here or come inside with me and Tatsuha?" Aiko screamed from the kitchen doorway. I could barely see her face, but I was pretty sure she was glaring at us.
"Always at the wrong times, huh?" I asked, standing up and brushing the dirt off my pants. Michael just continued to stare at the water for a while, and I could see his distorted reflection from where I stood. "You can stay out here if you like, no one's rushing you, okay?" He was the deepest red I'd seen him yet, and he wouldn't take his eyes off the water for a second.
Sighing I dropped back to my knees and hung my head to where I could actually see his face. I waved a hand in front of him and he jumped, looking over at me quickly. "I'm going inside. Feel free to follow. If not, you can stay out here and enjoy yourself," I offered and he nodded, still blushing like mad. "Okay then, I'm going to go talk to Aiko before she kills me." I sighed once again and got up, brushing off dirt as I walked to where Aiko was waiting impatiently. I had a feeling things were going to get more difficult.
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Okay. I have a feeling this is going to be the least-liked of all chapters in this fic, but I couldn't think of any way to get things moving than to have people to poke Tatsuha and make him actually do something. I think I've finally decided on the major conflict in this story, but I might not be able to do anything with it for a little while.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! It makes me so very very very very very very very happy!