Chapter 28: Ice Blue Truth

"Come on lover-boy," Touya slung his arm over Tatusha's shoulder, holding him back as Narumi slunked up the stairs in defeat. "You're sleeping down here tonight."

'Worse and worse' was probably the best way to describe it. Why was it that these kinds of things just kept on happening to him? Tatsuha wondered.

And what was the worst of it all was the fact that almost all of this mess could be boiled down to that moronic brother of hers, Touya.

What a stupid family!

Tatsuha shrugged off the arm impatiently.

"Aw now that really hurt my feelings." Touya joked.

"Good. Now get this through you're thick skull you're annoying, a regular pain in my side, and right now what I wouldn't give for this 'Aoi' to come and get you and you're sister out of our lives. So why don't you just leave me alone!"

"Do you really think that would make things better?"

"Absolutely! Then it would be just Ryuichi and me, and then... and then..."

"That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life." Touya sat down on the couch. His eyes bore right into Tatsuha. To Tatsuha it seemed as though his eyes were able to peer into the deepest darkest corners of his soul.

"You really think you would be happy? Do you really think Ryu-chan would be happy, or are you just trying to delude yourself? Ryu-chan was alone, and so were you. You may have idolized Ryuichi but you never got close to him. If you weren't able to get close to him in all that time that you were trying to than you didn't even have a chance in the first place. You were living a lie to yourself, deluding yourself. You were blinded by your own obsession. You 'loved' Ryuichi? Do you honestly think that, or were you obsessed by what he was?"

Tatsuha was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice Touya getting up from the couch and bridging the distance between the two of them.

"Do you honestly think that's even healthy for you, Tatsuha? Ryuichi is the type of guy who both needs to be taken care of and needs to take care of someone, both emotionally and physically. To you he's more of an object of obsession... the great Sakuma-san, the lead singer of your favorite band... that's not who he is, that's what he does. Do you think Ryu-chan would be happy living like that? You might be but he would become miserable."

Touya stood directly across from Tatsuha his hand lightly holding up Tatusha's chin, forcing Tatsuha to look him in the eye, daring for him to tell him that his assessment was wrong, but it wasn't and they both knew it.

Tatsuha could barely bring himself to look into Touya's eyes. Bitter and resentful at having been read so easily, and of having things he knew but tried to pretend didn't matter shoved in his face, he lashed out at the one at fault. It was all Touya's fault.

"What do you know about anything! You think you know me? You think you know Sakuma-sama well you don't!"

"If you knew Ryu-chan so well then you wouldn't be calling him Sakuma-sama when you're yelling. That is the biggest tip off there is."

Tatsuha was so angry that his fist flew without even thinking about it. Touya was just a little too fast for his punch to connect, but the point had been main, and even though Tatsuha resented it, he knew it for what it was. The harshest of truths.

Chapter 29: to be continued ( I gotta go to work!)