Disclaimers: Gravitation still doesn't belong to me, but I'm working on a potion that will make me switch lives with Maki Murakami.
Notes: Um…THE RETURN OF MICHAEL!!!
~*The Bible of Kumagoro—Getting Closer to Your God*~
I sighed as I took a look around my room, which was unsurprisingly bare. Well, not entirely. Posters still decorated every wall, and all the things I couldn't possibly pack were still sitting where they had been yesterday. I had just finished packing a good ten minutes ago, and I was out of things to do, seeing as it was all packed away in little boxes. Mika was off running them to my house today; I didn't see why she couldn't take me there with them. Then again, if she were going to then I'd have packed yesterday and would have wanted to go then, so I would have packed the day before, and I would have wanted to go then, until I ended up going home simply to pack. Therefore, they were strict on keeping me there a full week.
I hated being stuck there for training. I mean, it wasn't even supposed to BE my burden; it was my brother's job. However, seeing as Eiri didn't feel the need to grace us with his presence often, I was stuck doing it for him. Twice the chores, twice the work, twice EVERYTHING. Oh well, I was going back to Tokyo tomorrow. Everything else could be forgotten in favor of that.
Sighing again I fell back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling where Sakuma Ryuichi stared back at me. True, it was no replacement for the real one, but it was the closest I could have until tomorrow. Then I could kiss him and touch him and hold him as much as I wanted. Until then I would just have to wait. I'd called him earlier, right after I'd gotten done packing, but he'd been gone. He was probably at work, or something along that line. He was normally at work when I called him.
Tokyo was where I felt at home, seriously. Not Kyoto, where I'd been born and raised for 15 years of my life, but Tokyo, where I spent my school-time. Where Mika, Eiri, all my friends and family were within reach. Where I could visit my friends without having to hop on the earliest train. Where I could actually talk with my brother and sister without having to deal with father trying to get their attention and keep them away from me. I'm sure he wasn't TRYING to pull them away from me when he did that, but when they went to see what he wanted they normally ended up pissed off enough that they didn't feel like talking to me anymore, and shut themselves in their rooms.
I jumped as my cell phone rang, so lost in my thought that it startled me. Quickly I sat up and dug it out of my pockets, fingers working too fast so that I was clumsy with it. It probably would have taken me less time if I hadn't been rushing. However, I was hoping it would be Ryuichi calling me back. It had been a while since I had last talked to him.
"Hello?" I was sure I sounded as hopeful a I was, and I was a little bit disappointed when Michael answered from the other side, not Ryuichi. Sure, Michael was a close friend and I was glad I could talk to him again, but Ryuichi was Ryuichi. There was a big difference between the two of them.
"Hi, Tatsuha?" he asked softly, and I could almost picture him standing in Aiko's room, clenching the phone tightly and pacing softly, a slight blush over his cheeks. He hardly ever used the phone, Aiko said. He had never called me before, so I was a little surprised he had this time.
"Yeah?" There was a long pause after that, and I could hear Aiko talking in the background. I could sort of hear Michael, too, but I couldn't pick out anything they were saying. Sighing I lied back down, staring at my poster as Michael and Aiko continued to talk. I had a feeling this could take a while.
"Um…you're coming back to Tokyo tomorrow, right?" Michael asked softly after a while, and I almost didn't catch it. As a matter of fact, I had to ask him to repeat himself and he did, even softer this time.
"Yeah. I'll be moving back where I was staying for the school year last time." More talking between Aiko and Michael. I got ready to wait some more, singing a Nittle Grasper song in my head to bide the time, remembering the concert Ryuichi had given me after we'd just met. I pictured him singing it in my head as I waited, the life in those pretty blue eyes of his imprinted forever in my memory.
"Do you want to go do something tomorrow, then? Aiko's got lessons, so I'm going to be here by myself…" I smiled as Michael finally spoke up. It was rare that Michael would want to hang out with ANYONE. Like I said, he was a very quiet, shy individual. However, I was supposed to do something with Ryuichi tomorrow. There was no way I could turn either of them down. They were both too sweet to do that.
"Do you mind if one of my friends tags along?" I asked hopefully. There was always an easy way out of things like this, and I'd hit it. If Michael didn't want to be around someone he didn't know, I could always hang with Ryuichi later that day, after Michael went back home.
"Um…not really," he answered after a short while. There was no conversing with Aiko this time, and I was a little surprised. He normally needed someone backing him up before he made a decision. He thought too much on things, it seemed. Too much on what the other person wanted and not on what he wanted. He was afraid to say what he wanted when you asked him, so he needed someone to tell him it was all right and he wasn't going to be hated for stating his opinion on something.
"Good. I'll ask him when he calls me. So what do you want to do? See a movie?" I asked conversationally, trying to get Michael to throw out some ideas as well. Just asking him what he wanted to do would result in him conversing for a while with Aiko again.
"That's good," he answered quickly, and I could have sworn I heard him breathing over the phone. Was he sick? I decided not to push it as he started to list off a few good movies that were playing at the theater around both of us. We normally went there, since the walk was about the same distance for all of us. I think I had to walk a little bit farther, but that was okay.
"Alright then. Dinner and a movie. My sister always gives me money to spend my first day in Tokyo." I heard Michael make a small noise of agreement before the conversation died off and we both agreed it was time we hang up. So, we exchanged good-byes and did so.
I placed my cell phone on my pillow, wanting it in close reach for when Ryuichi called. There was seriously nothing to do around here, other than listen to Nittle Grasper music and daydream, and all my Nittle Grasper CDs (not to mention my stereo) were in the back of Mika's car. That left me with daydreaming. I should have at least DRIVEN with Mika to Tokyo to drop off my things, but I hadn't thought of it. Then I could have said hi to Ryuichi and I wouldn't be stuck at home waiting for his phone call.
It must have been an hour (or around 6 daydreams) later when the phone rang again, and I reached over to pick it up quickly. I was still waiting for Ryuichi's phone call as diligently as I had been when Michael had called me. "Hello?"
"Hi Tatsuha!" I smiled brightly as I recognized Ryuichi's voice on the other end. All my waiting had finally paid off, Ryuichi had called me back. I remember, about a month or two ago this would have been nothing more than a dream to me. "You're coming home tomorrow, right na no ka!" He asked energetically, waking me up from the semi-dazed state I had entered through my daydreaming.
"Yep. I should get there around 1." Ryuichi cheered happily on the other end as I finished, screaming English cheers to Kumagoro happily, obviously covering the phone. If he hadn't been I would be deaf by this point. He could be loud when he wanted to be. It was a part of being a singer, I'm sure.
"Yay! What does Tatsuha want to do?" I sighed and ran fingers through my hair, twirling a strand absently around my first finger slowly.
"Actually, one of my friends wanted to hang out with me tomorrow. We're going to dinner and a movie. He doesn't mind if you come." Ryuichi's excited squeal was indication enough that he wanted to go with us.
"I get to meet one of Tatsuha's friends na no da!" He cheered happily, and I could picture him twirling happily as he spoke. He tended to do that a lot when he was excited on the phone. I'd watched him do it a couple times while I'd been staying with him. "Ryuichi missed Tatsuha a lot while he was gone," he said in a softer, more serious voice after a while.
"I missed Ryuichi, too." He laughed softly in response and I finally released my hair. "I have to go by the house before I go anywhere else tomorrow, so I'll go over to your house afterwards, okay? I'll have to call Michael from there."
"Okay. Is Tatsuha's friend named Michael na no ka?"
"Yeah, he's an exchange student from America." Ryuichi was immediately bouncing off the walls again. "I wish Aiko was coming too, you might like her. She sort of reminds me of Ukai-san, from what I've heard about her. Ryuichi made a sound of interest from over the phone, and I couldn't help but laugh. He laughed as well, and afterwards the conversation continued on dully.
We spent a good couple hours talking on what we'd been doing that week. My week had, of course, been fairly uneventful, but Ryuichi had a hundred and two things he wanted to tell me about that he'd done. He asked me a little about my trip with Mika, and we spent a good while talking about that, too. Sad. That was my highlight of the week. Ryuichi was telling about all these new songs he'd been able to write (he said most of them stayed in the Nittle Grasper tradition of being both upbeat and sad at once). I personally think that trait is why Nittle Grasper is so popular and wonderful. The blending of energy and sadness carried beautifully by Ryuichi's perfect voice. What more could you ask for?
Other than a guitarist, as Shuichi had felt the need to point out.
After we were done retelling our weeks, Ryuichi wanted to know everything there was to know about Michael and Aiko. It would have been a lot easier, if I had remembered a lot more things about either of them. They were in my class, they were my age, and they lived in the same house. I could tell what they looked like and their personalities, but I was almost clueless when it came to where Michael was from, exactly. I was only taking guesses.
"Well, Tatsuha had better stop talking to Ryuichi or he's going to fall asleep tomorrow na no da!" Ryuichi ordered after what had to have been the fourth or fifth hour of conversation. Glancing at my watch I was surprised we'd been talking until a little past 1 in the morning!
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll see you when I get back tomorrow."
"Yeah, see ya!" and we hung up. I set my cell phone on the dresser next to my bed, closed my eyes, and slept. Tomorrow was going to be eventful, to say the least.
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YES! DONE AGAIN! I started working on this at school, but I didn't get to save any of it, so I rewrote what I had tonight and finished it up. GO ME! Not really, but oh well. This chapter wasn't as much DIALOGUE as some things, but I still dislike it.
. Dialogue just KILLS me in fanfics/stories!
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(self-confidence=faster updates/less procrastinating)