SPG VERSION 3
Suguru awoke to a thumping headache and a twisting gut.
'Ugh,' he greeted the day warmly. It was 6 A.M. He had to go to work.
Work.
'Oh no,' nausea grated at his gut and his head spun. He hadn't eaten anything in a while, yet somehow he knew eating would be a bad idea right about now. Discarding yesterdays now slept-in clothes, he staggered into the shower. He had to be strong.
Be strong, Tatsuha! Do it for Ryuichi!
He stood outside Suguru's apartment, his hand raised to knock.
I just want to know if he got home all right. If he got his keys. That there wasn't a problem. Yeah. That sounds perfectly normal doesn't it?
He hesitated.
This was too weird. Why had K of all people called him out of the blue and asked him to visit Bad Luck's synth player? How had he got his number anyway? Okay, so he got the number from Shuichi but still...why him? Was this revenge for the constant pleas for backstage Nittle Grasper tickets? Was this all to keep him away from Ryuichi? Or maybe...maybe he had scared Ryuichi off with his constant affections! Maybe he had to prove himself by doing strange and unexplained deeds for K?
He swallowed. And knocked.
Suguru felt a little better once he was dressed. Not quite ready to take on the great Seguchi Tohma, but a bit steadier at least. A knock came at the door, so he drowned his glass of water an went to open it. He had to be strong.
'Er.'
Suguru blinked in disbelief.
'I, er, was just passing and I...'
Suguru swallowed.
'Um. Are you all right?' Tatsuha asked, reaching to take the boys shoulder as he swayed unsteadily.
'I think I'm gonna be sick,' he staggered back into the kitchen and promptly vomited into the sink.
Tatsuha kicked his shoes off and made his way inside. This wasn't exactly the plan.
'Is there anything I can do?' he asked hesitantly
Suguru shook his head violently. The nausea returned and he gagged, sweating.
The taller boy scratched his head nervously. This wasn't a familiar situation. So he waited for Suguru to finish.
'I...' Suguru started, still clinging to the sink 'I'm going to be late for work..'
'Well, um, the reason I came was because..er...Shuichi said that you don't have to come in today - he asked me to tell you as I was going this way...' the lie came quickly. Tatsuha prayed the keyboard player would buy it.
Suguru stared at him, mouth open a little.
That's it then...I've been dismissed...
He wobbled unsteadily.
'I think you oughta go back to sleep...' Tatsuha tried helpfully, as the boy fell towards him. He hardly had a choice whether to catch him or not.
Suguru mumbled something as Tatsuha lifted him up with unsurprising ease.
'Do you even eat? How can you be so tiny?' Tatsuha commented, carrying the smaller boy back to his bed.
'I'm not tiny..' the smaller boy managed, attempting to rub his red eyes, stung with inadvertent tears.
'Heh. You need to get some rest. Let me get you some water...' Tatsuha had the decency to be embarrassed as he soaked a clean towel in cold water. This was definitely not part of the plan. He half considered leaving there and then, but he knew better than to just leave the boy there. It wasn't like he'd done anything wrong...and he had lied to him. K had instructed him to make sure he did come to work, but how could he expect Suguru to drag himself to the studio in this state? Tatsuha tried to avoid the sound of gunfire echoing through his skull when he arrived at the studio by himself.
'Here,' he put the cool towel on the boys burning forehead. He decided it would be inappropriate to do anything else. 'I'll just leave this water here, okay?' he put the glass down.
Now what was he supposed to do?
Suguru murmured his thanks.
Tatsuha sat in silence with the older boy for some time, becoming more embarrassed by the minute. He feared any moment that his phone would ring with an impatient K on the end, demanding to know their exact location. "Fujisaki's bedroom" was hardly going to impress him.
Slowly, Tatsuha stood up, confident that Suguru was now sleeping. Picking up his bag he made his way towards the door.
'Are you going?' Suguru asked quietly, but still making his visitor jump.
'Er, yes. Sorry. I have stuff to do today.'
'Ah, like school?' he smiled weakly.
'I'm on a break at the moment but...yeah, stuff.'
'All right. Thank you.'
'No problem.' Tatsuha attempted a smile, slipping his shoes on.
'Oh, Uesugi...?'
'Tatsuha' he corrected
'Tatsuha, could you...could you tell Shuichi I'm sorry? If you see him, that is.'
Tatsuha kicked himself mentally. 'Yeah, sure, see you.'
Suguru listened to the door click shut.
So that was how it was then. They didn't want him in Bad Luck after all. He'd overstepped the mark. Well that was a nice way to tell him, wasn't it? To send some total stranger to his house to announce it for him.
His stomach growled hungrily but his gut told him otherwise. Now he was sick, too. In front of Yuki's obnoxious brother. But the towel was cool and comforting on his head, and it helped his fever. Letting sleep take him once more, he decided that at least, at least it couldn't get any worse.
'Fujisaki says he's sorry,' Tatsuha announced to the room. Hiroshi looked ready to collapse, Shuichi's face was puffy, and Sakano...well, Sakano was Sakano.
'Does K know he's not coming?' Hiro asked, the dread plain in his voice.
'Well...'
There was a crash.
'Good Morning!' K yelled, sending cracks through the already much abused ceiling.
All eyes turned to Tatsuha. He vaguely wondered if any of them were in on K's "Big Plan."
'Er,' Tatsuha started confidently 'Fujisaki says he's sorry.'
'And why's that?' K questioned.
'Well, he didn't actually say why...but I think it's because he's very sick today.'
'You went to see him?' Shuichi asked, fiddling idly with the microphone cord.
Okay, so they weren't in on the plan. Either that or Shuichi was just playing along to make things difficult.
'Yeah...I was near his apartment this morning so I went to check on him...'
'I didn't know you even knew Fujisaki,' Shuichi said, his voice hoarse.
Tatsuha smiled forcefully 'Well I met him properly yesterday; he seemed a bit down...'
'Okay okay' K said finally. We shall practice without him. Thank you Uesugi.' he cast an evil glare at the boy who simply glared back.
Walking out into the morning sun, Tatsuha wondered what he should do with the day. Annoy his brother? He had hardly seen him during his visit to Tokyo, thanks to K's little experiment. How he was supposed to help Suguru, the scrawny little kid that he was, get back into work and back into playing like he was supposed to - he had no clue. But he had to try, for Ryuichi's sake.
The key was still heavy in his pocket. He was tempted to go back and see how the patient was doing, but he resisted. He wasn't going to get any more mixed up with that boy than he already was.
He was doing this for Ryuichi.
For Ryuichi.
Right?
Suguru woke again after a few hours sleep. He felt a great deal better for those precious hours, though he was still a little dizzy. He shuffled into the kitchen for food. He needed something, if only to keep him awake. He sipped at a glass of milk. It was sort of food after all.
He wondered what was happening at the studio now. Were they all relieved to be rid of him? Had they found a new keyboard player already? What would Tohma think? Would he be able to get a job in the music industry again, with the things Tohma might say on his report?
He wasn't strong at all, was he? Here he was, sipping milk to try and keep himself standing. Being nursed by some kid he barely knew, throwing up, fainting, doing everything as ungracefully as possible. It couldn't get worse, could it?
The nausea was coming back. He willed it away, staring into the sink and concentrating on something else. He would get another chance, even if it wasn't with NG Studios. He would still beat his idol, still make himself known as someone other than the cousin of Seguchi Tohma. Even if he had to make that chance himself, he would do it.
There was a soft knock at the door. Suguru put down his glass and went to answer it, but not before a key clicked in the lock and the hinges squeaked as someone slowly pushed the door open.
He felt his head start to throb again.
A figure appeared in the doorway. Suguru didn't let anything surprise him any more.
'Er?' Tatsuha managed weakly, the key still in his hand.
'Come in,' Suguru said, his voice even higher than usual. Then added helpfully 'I don't think I can take much more of this,' as he sank to the floor.