Okay, I know that most of you are rooting for Eiri and Shuichi… In fact, I think some of you are going to be a little angry at this chapter…so beforehand, I am apologizing, and if you want, I don't mind rants about my enormous lack of skill, especially about this chapter, because I don't like the beginning of it.. I was writing really mechanically, with no feeling, because my inspiration ran away, but luckily I abandoned writing for a few days, and my inspiration came home (I think it was hungry) I tried to go back, but I really needed to write as much as possible before it got away again…
Please don't hate me, I'm just trying to write the story, ignore the pairings! They'll be right in the end! Where's the fun in reading it if there isn't some kind of conflict first?
My conscience has also reminded me to tell you that…actually, I'd better tell you after you read the chapter….see you in the bottom author's note.
Chapter Fourteen
"Eiri! Eiri! Look! It's Ryuichi, over there!"
"Wait! Look out for that car—"
Beep
Beep
The sounds of a hospital were everywhere. Machines, people, carts, crying. Wait…the crying was pretty close. Maybe even in this room. Tai cautiously peeled open one eye, to see a familiar blonde boy curled up in one of the chairs, with his face buried on the bed that Tai was currently lying in. The small boy lay there for a few seconds, trying to remember why he was there. Last thing he had remembered, he was in the boy's bathroom…with Dan and Greg! And then, in a basement or something? Where the hell had they taken him.
His body twitched involuntarily as he recalled the flashing lights and the humiliating pain. But something was wrong. Tai knew that Dan and Greg were bullies, but would they really go that far? They were only sixteen after all, it didn't seem likely. And had someone else been there? He remembered that voice…that awful, cruel hateful voice that he hadn't recognized, but was so familiar.
A gasp drew his attention to Toby, who was now in the process of lunging for his chest.
"I thought you were dead! Those assholes said that they didn't do anything, but I know they did! Did they do anything awful? Did they hurt you? Did—"
"What happened?" Toby looked a little peeved at being interrupted, but told him anyways.
"Well, I got off the bus, and you weren't there, so I thought you already went into the school without me, so I went in too." Tai nodded, beginning to remember the strange chase through the hallways. "Then, you weren't in the classroom, so I walked around the school for a while, but I couldn't find you. Then I was walking by the bathroom and I saw the crowd…and you were just…lying there on the floor like…" At this point he had to stop to compose himself. Tai looked away to give him a bit of privacy.
"They told the teachers that you were just playing a game or roughhousing or some bullshit like that, and you collapsed, but I know that's not what happened."
Tai pulled himself up in the bed until he was in an upright position, absentmindedly rubbing his neck with his hand. Something had happened. But not today…sometime from before. When he knew who he was. He was sure of it.
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Eiri was currently sitting on Annie's sofa, waiting for the girl to come back from doing god-knows-what in the kitchen. He heard a crash, and a squeak following it, decided that she might be a while, and so got up to discreetly explore the room.
The mantle above the "fireplace" was the first thing he checked, walking down to see all the pictures of old people (the ones who appeared most often must have been her parents) and her with some other girls at a wedding (as a bridesmaid) a few cute animals, and a lot more random things. People's mantles were like a window into their soul. Seriously, he had written that sometime, in one of his novels. Just one of those things to see if people were paying attention to the plot, or just the…content.
Next, he checked her movie collection: only a lot of boring American movies, one's that he'd seen dubbed over in Japan. Not much of interest here.
What he really found….significant, was her book shelf. Casually, he picked up a pile to leaf through. One could tell anything about a girl from the books he read. The first one was a well-known American book, the second (he grinned) Harry Potter, some romance novel (or so he assumed from the picture on the front) and then, to his immense surprise, a translated version of one of his more well known books. Needless to say, he was very pleased. Setting the other books back down, he wandered back over to the couch, and lay back, propping his feet up by the coffee table. Eiri wondered if she had recognized him.
"Get your friggin' feet off my couch! What do you think this is, your house or some—" She stopped midsentence when she saw what he was reading. Her face turned red.
"Oh, that…that's just some book my…uh…friend gave me for a present…it's just…uhh…" Finally giving up, she reached over to grab it from him and put it in her lap.
"Here. Have some coffee." She handed him the steaming mug, and he took it, smirking in amusement at her embarrassment.
"I really don't know…uh…how I left this out…sorry…" But she caught sight of the other books lying on the bookshelf. "Hey! You were going through my stuff! You have no right—"
"Sorry." She stared at him for a second; he tried not to laugh. Then, her anger seemed to fade away as she looked closer at his face. The look in her eyes was hypnotic, and it, in a little way, frightened Eiri.
"You know, you look really familiar…where did you live before?"
"Japan?"
"Really? Are you…Japanese?"
"Yeah…"
"Wow, I didn't notice…I wonder how I know…"
Eiri grinned at her for a moment, then decided to let her in on the secret. He leaned over, plucked the book from her lap, and flipped to the page dedicated to the author. The description had been rewritten into English, and honestly didn't make a lot of sense, but the picture was still there. He put the picture up beside his face.
"Do you recognize me now?" He laughed out loud at the shocked expression on her face.
"Oh. My. God! You are the great Eiri Yuki? Somehow I thought you'd be a little more…Japanese? I don't know! Oh my god, this is such an honor! Can I have your autograph or something…no, bad Annie, uh…can I um…okay, can I have your autograph! Wow, I've read all your books, they're so great! I love them! They're just so—"
Abruptly the ramble stopped. Eiri looked over to see her staring into her lap, clenching her fingers between her knees. A blush was spread across her face.
"Sorry," she mumbled, barely audible, "I'm acting like a crazy fan-girl…"
"It's okay." Eiri surprised himself by laughing heartily. "I get this a lot…I was just surprised that you read my books. I didn't think many people read them here." And he really was surprised. When his editor had told him that his books were going to be translated, he had practically ignored the information, only becoming involved enough to give his assent in the matter, and forget about it. One thought that he did remember having was that nobody was ever going to read a foreign romance novel. He wouldn't have read one from America…well, maybe he would have, he didn't know.
"They don't." Eiri drew back for a second, and Annie immediately coloured again. "No offense! Just, I found it in a used book store…I didn't realize that you were still um…young. I actually thought you were…um…really old by now…yeah…"
The words took a moment to sink in, and when they did, Eiri wasn't sure whether to be offended, or to laugh again. Eventually, he chose the latter. Of course, this was the wrong choice, and he knew it. He regretted the laugh the moment it left his mouth, and still, he couldn't stop it. It almost felt like adolescence again, well, earlier adolescence at least.
"Don't laugh at me!" Annie snapped at him. "It's not my fault you dirty old man!" This only made him laugh harder. "Shut up! It's not funny! Shut up you pervert!" Her face got redder and redder, and Eiri felt terrible, but he was starting to feel strangely. Almost, hysterical, which would explain this strange uncontrollable laughter that he almost never experienced.
He kept laughing until he got punched in the stomach. Then he stopped.
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It took a long time before Tai was allowed to go home. He was once again under the observations of Dr. James, the kind doctor who had been helping him during his first few weeks in America, and the doctor was even more reluctant to let him go, especially after he had extracted some horror stories of Tai's torturers from the boy. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could really do to stop it, if he called social services, he may ruin the reputation of the orphanage, and Tai had adamantly begged him not to do anything about it. The small boy seemed to already have a plan to deal with it, the details of which the doctor was not familiar with, but Tai had told him that the tall blond boy, who was always visiting, protected him from the brunt of the bullying. And it gave the kind doctor a good feeling, knowing that there was someone else looking out for the fragile boy. At least better than knowing that he was alone in this terrible (in the doctor's opinion) city.
The two had also had a long chat about the effects of Tai's memory loss, and after Dr. James found out about his violent flashbacks, he was very curious to learn more. Digging deeper produced a list that Tai had secretly written down of everything he could remember of each episode. This information greatly intrigued the doctor, that the boy was able to have small gaps in the mental barrier of the amnesia was, although common enough, strange with such little mental stimulation and recognition of familiar objects.
The bond they shared really was beneficial to them both. Tai would tell the doctor about the different things that seemed to triggr flashbacks, and how these things were incorporated into the memories. Dr. James would eagerly write these down in his little green notebook. Then, he would explain many of the scientific aspects of amnesia to the curious boy. He would tell Tai about how amnesia, in some cases, could lead to personality suppression, after all, personality was largely built on experience. Another thing that Tai was incredibly interested in was the repetition of some elements (and people) in his flashbacks. The doctor explained to him that some people and events left such a strong emotional impression, that they became more than just memories, and more like a part of the person they affected. Which might explain the repeated appearances of "Eiri".
After Tai described to him the multiple encounters with this stranger in his flashbacks, Dr. James warned him that he had probably been romantically involved (the doctor's term), with this "Eiri", unless it was just an unusually strong bond between friends. But most likely they had been intimate.
The boy chose not to reveal this new development to Tobias. Not just because of the blood pact (from which his hand still bored a scar that Dr. James told him may never go away) but also, he didn't want to believe it himself. The thought that there was someone out there that still loved him and missed him was a terrible, terrible thing, and had already caused him many sleepless nights. (It never occurred to him that they might have broken up.)
But also, the influence of blood pact couldn't be cast aside so easily. Tai had seen the look in Toby's eyes, felt the intensity of his fear, and his passion. He knew that Toby counted on him for so much, and, judging from the blond boy's behavior, would not survive being "betrayed again". What the boy also knew, was that he may have been increasing the eventual impact that this would have on his friend, but he was willing to risk it in the event that there was really nothing to worry about. It was possible (God forbid) that he would never regain his memory, and someday he would forget about this man he might have loved sometime in the undefined past. And even if he did remember, it wasn't as though he could go back to Japan; he was only 16, and could not legally live on his own.
Sometimes, he even lay in his uncomfortable hospital bed at night, and imagined a tearful parting with such a beautiful stranger. In his imagination, they were both crying uncontrollably in each other's arms. Then, the last, tearful goodbye kiss, that sometimes ended with him running out the door, trying desperately to stop crying, and some ending with them taking the kiss further. But whatever the version, Tai felt there was something…missing, somehow. Something just wasn't right about how his stranger would carry on in his mind, sobbing and trying to prevent Tai from leaving.
One night, as he was desperately to remember a real incident, Tai drifted slowly off to sleep, and his dream took a strange turn.
He was staring deep into the usually familiar but still unsettling pair of lightly coloured eyes, inches away from the face of the stranger. Their noses were almost touching, and the stranger's silky blond hair caressed his face, tickling his cheek. Emotions were rushing through his brain at warped speed. He was happy, excited, bursting with love, depressed to leave, mad to not get more of a reaction, then happy again to be where he was.
He heaved a contented sigh, and lay his head down on his beautiful stranger's chest. This is was so nice, being close like this…
"Get off me brat, I can't breathe!" A strong force pressed against his stomach, and he found himself flat on the floor. As he opened his mouth to protest, the door flew open with a bang, and a man, a new man that he hadn't seen before, but had seen before, stormed into the room. His blond hair swirled behind him in the breeze from the window, and for a second, he looked like a super hero. A very scary super hero.
He felt himself shrink away as the American's gaze turned to him, but it was useless.
"You're late for work! We've been waiting for you for at least an hour! Come on!" The man strode over meaningfully and grabbed him by the collar.
"Ah! No! Help! Yuki! Save me!" He desperately grabbed at his stranger's shirt, but he didn't get a response, save a mild glare.
"Come on! Your boyfriend obviously doesn't care for you! Let's go!" But still the American stood there for a second, looking challengingly at his "boyfriend". Said man stood up abruptly, tore his struggling body from the American's grasp, and delicately kissed him. Then he smirked up at the American.
"Goodbye," he said mockingly, "I'll miss you, Shuichi."
Author's note: Sorry, short chapter…but it couldn't be helped…I wanted it to end like that (he…)
Okay, did you see my little mess up? Were you paying attention? If you review, tell me what it is! (If you're right, you get...um...a hug! Yes, that's right, a whole hug!)
Oh yes, and I wanted to tell you that I need to emphasize greatly that there will be no Eiri x Annie! They are just going to be friends…for now…(JOKES I swear just friends for the whole frigging story!) So don't hurt me! (for that reason)