Aoshi walked Tsukioka down the hallway, and thought that there was an extra benefit in that it was he who did so. Anyone else might have been unnerved by the artist's silence. They had made it all the way to the room, and Aoshi was in the process of getting the futon out of the closet (with only a very few symptoms of déjà vu) before Tsukioka said anything.
"Thank you."
They were small words, spoken in a small voice, but Aoshi heard them. He turned his head to look at Tsukioka, who was sitting against the wall, his face turned away from Aoshi and mostly covered by his hair.
"For what?" Aoshi truly was curious. He did not see anything he had done that deserved special thanks.
"I …" Tsukioka's head dropped forward, and Aoshi imagined that if he could see the young artist's face, it would be twisted in a bitter smile. "I'm not that sure, really."
"Ah." Aoshi studied Tsukioka intensely, and was only slightly worried by what he saw. "I see."
They stood (or sat, in Tsukioka's case) like that for a while, in a mildly comfortable silence, before Tsukioka broke it.
"Why are you staring at me?" he didn't sound angry, only curious, but Aoshi gave a tiny half-smile at the suppressed whine he heard in that voice.
"Because …" Aoshi walked over to where Tsukioka sat and settled down a few paces from him. "Because I can almost understand you, but then you do something like you are doing now, and then I have no idea what you are thinking."
"And that's such a problem?" Aoshi caught a hint of dark humor in the artist's voice, but no doubt anyone else would probably have had to dig for it. And even then, there was a good chance that they would've hit the water table first.
"When I can understand enough to feel like I should understand it all, but not to the point where I actually can?" Aoshi shrugged, a motion that did not come naturally to him. "Yes. It is."
"Heh." The laugh was as bitter as it was short, but it was at least a laugh. "There's a lot to understand, and nowhere near enough. Not even Sano does – so why should you be irritated that you can't?"
Aoshi could think of quite a few reasons, but settled for one of the least offensive. "I should think that I am a bit more astute than Sagara – and a bit more able to sit still for extended times. Why do you not tell me what there is to understand, and leave it up to me to decide if I can or not?"
Katsu thought of any number of perfectly good reasons why he would not, and opened his mouth to say at least one of them. The words lodged in his throat, however, sticking to his craw and slipping back down into his gut, and Katsu said nothing. He closed his eyes, and thought about Aoshi's offer, and thought about how many other similar offers he had received. None – or rather, none had seemed sincere, and none had been made by one of Sano's friends.
Then he opened his eyes, looked straight into Aoshi's, and told him. Everything.
****************************
Okay, this is another FYI. I don't care what it says in every single Aoshi fanfiction I've ever read – the man's eyes are green. Not blue. I've checked back on every single episode in the TV show I've ever seen, and his eyes are green. I'm not sure if this is a coloring thing, like with the switching of Kenshin's gi from red to pink, but I don't really care, either. The damage has been done. When I think of Aoshi, I think – the-guy-who-everyone-says-has-"ice-blue"-eyes-but-that-are-actually-a-greenish-looking-color. I'm not kidding here, I really do. So, in this fanfic (and every one I write with Aoshi in it), his eyes are green. I mean no insult, but this is one area in which I don't care about any of your personal opinions, or any official sources you have. His eyes are green.
Deal with it.
Kuryousei: semi-nice conversation – check. (the next one will have a nicer one) relationship building – I'm sorry, the check won't fit on my computer screen. Just take it as a "yes." ^_^
Lychee2: Yay! You're back! And yes, I always call him Katsu too, but we're going to need a little bit of time before Aoshi starts mentally referring to him like that too. And which chapters didn't you understand (I have an idea, but let's make sure, shall we?)? I can see why some of them would be confusing though – this is my "therapy" story, and I tend to write what comes out. Sometimes my subconscious slips loose and lets out some really weird shit – there isn't even a chapter in this story that comes close to some of the freakiest things I've written, and I think that's a good thing. Please tell me what confuses you though and I'll try to explain – the purpose of this story is also to have the readers understand it. And I'm sorry, but we won't get any more than a whiff of citrus until much later on. I might be persuaded into writing a few more stand-alones, though …
Hmmm … *is attacked by screaming hordes of ideas*