=Woo! Delays! Amazingly, I've devised a plot. Sort of. But not really. And... no. Maybe not. Never mind.=
Recompense for Treachery
Chapter 5, "Unsuccessful Passes at the Heroine."
***
"Oh man, I would kill to know where they went so we could spy on them," Akira said with a sigh, leaning on one hand and sipping his drink with a satisfied slurp, earning himself an annoyed look from Soujiro, who sat across the table from him.
"Spy on them? Why would you want to do that?"
Akira laughed, drawing himself up only to lean back into his chair, a light playing across his face as it flashed in the obnoxiously dark club. "Things are slowing down," he told his friend resignedly, "and there's nothing we can do. A year and all the fun will end."
Soujiro could only nod slowly and take his glass, swirling it with one hand, and let his eyes wander to a rather pretty blonde just sitting down at the bar. "Makino is really lucky," he said. Akira could only nod in agreement. His eyes followed the woman as he spoke, but he jerked his head with annoyance when a burly man crossed his vision and sat down beside her. The pair talked animatedly for a while, and upon catching sight of the woman's face, Soujiro let out a hitched sigh and turned back to Akira, who was watching him with some sort of strange fascination. "What?"
"You're still so hung up over that girl," he commented quietly, not really caring to annoy Soujiro, but sad for the man at the same time. "It's been such a long time. What's wrong now?"
Soujiro could only shake his head. "We had dinner the other night. She's seeing some new guy now. She seems really happy, but I don't like the sound of him. I just worry, you know."
"Worry that he'll take advantage of her?" Akira asked sweetly. Soujiro missed it completely and replied, "Yeah."
"The way you did?"
"Ye--hey! I did not take advantage of her," Soujiro snapped, taking Akira by surprise. "I didn't."
Recovering, Akira nodded his head and leaned forward, propping both arms up on the table, and grinned at the irritated look his friend gave him. "You didn't," he said, somewhat sadly, "but you think you did, don't you? That's why you always hate her boyfriends."
Soujiro let out an audible growl and sat back, his eyes dropping to study his hands as he let Akira's words sink in. He always hated the truth, more so after the fiasco with Sara--he found himself relying more and more on Yuuki for the small emotional uplifting that she always unwittingly provided. In some ways, he did feel he had taken advantage of her: her kindness was more than he was ever used to understanding, and her commitment to friendship made the pang of rejecting her far worse.
It was really irritating that she picked such bad boyfriends. And what, he thought, would I be a good one?
"I just want to see her happy. She deserves to be." Akira could only nod in agreement, and the two fell into silence as they continued to nurse their drinks.
As the evening dragged on Akira disappeared more and more into his stupor of drink, still feeling irritated because his last affair had gone bad when the husband walked in at a rather inopportune moment. Soujiro sighed as his friend went into a daze, obviously down and out for the count as far as their "buddy" evening went. As he looked around the club for a female that would be even remotely distracting, he caught a strangely familiar flash of skirt in the crowd. Jumping to his feet Soujiro quickly jabbed Akira in the head with one finger, the still half-asleep drunk shaking his head as Soujiro pointed off into the crowd.
"Akira, I thought I just saw Makino walk in!" At that Akira leaped awake, rapidly clearing his eyes of his daze and staring into the mass of bodies that hogged the dance floor.
"Makino? Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure, what other ugly lower class virgin can walk into a nice club like this with a quite handsome, obviously fairly upper class gentleman?"
"Ah, I see what you mean. Let's go find her."
***
Junpei could hardly control the immense fall he was taking in a swift, heavenly plummet for the girl laughing merrily beside him. He had made some childishly witty comment, one he was sure she would stare at him blankly for, but she had instead burst into a fit of giggles and she hadn't stopped for at least two minutes. He let out a contented sigh; seeing this more normal, cheery side of her was so new and different to him, he felt truly angry that Doumyouji's interest in her had seemed to dull this happier part hiding inside.
Things had gone well, in brief self-evaluation: dinner at a small but modestly expensive restaurant, where they enjoyed leisurely conversation and Junpei felt some of his guilt slowly easing away at her smile and unusually loud laughter.
She could always be heard when she laughed.
After dinner they stopped for ice cream at a small parlor, where Tsukushi knew one of the girls serving behind the counter and was able to have a brief chat while they got their cones. She seemed so much more free and easy, much less uptight and more willing to make spontaneous stops at cute boutiques or funny posters alongside the road. When Junpei suggested the night club, he was pleasantly surprised when, despite her lack of clubbing clothing, she acquiesced and the pair headed to the oddly familiar-sounding Rappongi. Junpei figured he could splurge for one night.
And of course, they had to show up. Tsukushi wasn't perturbed in the least--in fact, she was rather happy to see them--but Junpei saw the entire evening crashing down around them as the taller, long-haired, playboy took her by the hand--like a gentleman, no less!--and led her onto the floor to dance. Just when he thought things might turn around if he could just get them out of the club as quickly as possible, the pair sunk into deep conversation on the dance floor, and he knew everything was over. With a resigned sigh he ignored the somewhat dazed Nishikado and instead took a seat dejectedly at the bar, where a female bartender hit on him mercilessly and he paid absolutely no attention.
"So I heard you're going to the wedding." Tsukushi glanced up, stopping mid-sway to raise one eyebrow at Akira. He was dancing much more calmly than he usually did; if he was uninspired by force of drink or merely keeping pace with the inexperienced girl in front of him, he didn't know. It was much easier to keep eye-contact with her, however, so he had no trouble noting the hastily quenched look of skittishness in her eyes.
"Y-yeah," she replied quietly, standing still for only a brief moment before Akira nudged her elbow with one hand.
"Silly girl, there's no need to be nervous. You'll have an armed escort," he said, chuckling slightly at the image of one short, brown-haired girl going into a fancy millionaire wedding with three of the old F4 as her guard. Of course, Akira had no doubt that Tsukasa would dive for the opportunity to associate himself with her even for just a short period of time. Stupid fool, he thought to himself, he shouldn't have even invited her. He'll lose his head.
Tsukushi laughed exuberantly at his comment and smiled. "Yeah, I suppose I'm attending as Rui's guest." Akira let out a disapproving noise and quickly responded with, "Anything but. You're the best moral support Tsukasa has, Makino. For all of us. We have to watch our best friend be married off, you know."
Her nod of acknowledgment was slow and heavy, her eyes dropping to the floor as she stopped moving in the crowd. Without words Akira lightly patted her head with one hand, putting his other arm around her shoulder and leading her off the floor to a small, vacant table nearby. Once he had her firmly seated, he pulled up his chair beside her and lightly touched her cheek with one finger. "Hey, look up."
Doing as told, Tsukushi glanced at him, her eyes somewhat moist and heavily laden with emotion. Akira let out a sigh and lowered his voice so that only she could hear him. "This time, we can't tell you to try to make it up with him, but even if only for yourself, talk to him. We all know you two were meant to be together; you both need some closure. It was rocky." Tsukushi gave a barely noticeable nod, and Akira let one hand rest on her shoulder. "Come on, virgin girl. Your boyfriend's bored without you."
"Ah, Junpei!" she said with sudden alarm, standing up straight and surveying the club. "I forgot!" Spotting the dirty blonde sitting at the bar, Tsukushi quickly bowed to Akira and smiled. "I'll see you at the wedding. Thank you." After he gave one familiar kiss on the cheek, she patted his arm and turned, disappearing into the crowd.
Damn, Tsukasa, Akira thought, if only you hadn't gotten there first. I would think I still have a chance, but I suppose Rui's next in line. With a cynical laugh he turned and went to find his drunk, vagrant friend.
***
Rui yawned loudly and sunk back against one of his large, white, under-stuffed pillows with a satisfied sigh. He wiggled his toes and laughed quietly when Tsukushi followed the movement of each one with her eyes.
"How was your date?"
A blush immediately jumped to her cheeks and she reeled backwards, half-tripping off his bed and back into her chair. "I-it was f-fine," she managed, and quickly averting her gaze to the floor, she coughed and rubbed her cheek with one hand absently. "Junpei-kun... seems different now."
"I'm sure he thinks the same about you," Rui responded in a dull tone, his fingers squishing his pillow. "Where did you go?"
"Ah!" A light bulb seemed to go off in Tsukushi's head. "We went to eat, then met Mimasaka-san and Nishikado-san at a club." At this, Rui opened both eyes and even took the extreme effort of lifting one eyebrow a few millimeters.
"Akira and Soujiro, eh?" Tsukushi nodded in response, smiling slightly.
"Mimasaka-san spoke to me about the wedding... I just told him that I was going. I do feel bad, though, I sort of left Junpei-kun and he seemed irritated after that," she said with a sigh. "But, he told me... he told me that he wants to see me again."
Rui gave a lethargic smile, eyes still closed, and his hand lightly waved in the air for no apparent reason. "He likes you," he told her in his usual low, quiet voice. He smiled at the blush he knew was surely giving her cheeks a rather bright rosy hue. When she didn't respond, however, Rui was quite aware that he had hit a nerve and he gave himself a mental pat on the back.
Moving suddenly, he shifted himself off to one side--taking his pillow with him--and patted the bed beside him with one hand. "Come here," he said, eyes still closed, using his most passive and welcoming tone of voice. He restrained his smile when he felt the bed shift with her weight. She could never resist the voice.
Tsukushi let out a sigh when she relaxed back against Rui's frighteningly comfortable mattress, letting the clay-soft pillow mold to her head. Every muscle seemed to loosen as she drew her knees up slightly, her hands coming up in front of her face as she turned to look at the seemingly dozing man beside her.
It was so ridiculously unorthodox. Every so often on Sunday and days she had off--usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays--Tsukushi would go over to Rui's house. The maids had long become familiar with her, so she didn't even need to explain herself when she would show up at his doorstep at any time from daybreak to the late hours of the night. She had convinced him to at least put in one or two pieces of furniture in his pathetically bland room, even if it was just so she had a place to sit.
"But that's why the bed's there," he had said, perplexed. It took some time for her to explain that guests couldn't always be expected to either sit on the floor or on his bed, so he reluctantly went with her as they picked out a simple, cost-effective chair that could be put in the corner of his room. With the chair eventually came a small couch and some pillows, but his room was still a vast expanse of bare floor covered only by a large bed and a television lying dejectedly on the floor.
And so it was that she often found herself sitting on the bed, crying her heart out, telling him her troubles, divulging secrets, or just chatting merrily about nothing. Though Rui often fell asleep after half an hour, Tsukushi often found herself content with just sitting beside him staring into space or drifting off as well.
She couldn't count how many times she woke up on his bed, covered in a blanket and completely alone with a note saying something ridiculous like, "Breakfast in the foyer," "Meet me for lunch," or "Call him as soon as you wake up or I'll never speak to you again." And time after time, Tsukushi wondered whether she could ever keep her sanity if she lost whatever it was that she had with him.
"What is it?" she asked at last. Rui finally opened one eye and looked at her with it, his face unreadable, his movements slow and deliberate, and his eyebrow quirking ever so slightly upward on one side. He lightly touched her cheek with one finger, drawing it back just as quickly as it made contact.
"Tsukushi, I..." he paused, his eyes gaining an unusual sadness, "I have to..." Tsukushi raised her eyebrows, lightly touching his arm with one hand to encourage him. At the touch the strange expression disappeared, replaced by a slight smile and a familiar, blank look. "Nevermind. Can you stay over tonight?"
She blinked. "Sure, I suppose I can. What's wrong?"
Rui only shook his head and closed his eyes, replying, "Oh, nothing. I just wanted some company from my favorite girl. So, tell me more about this date of yours."
"Well, it started like this..."