Shooting Stars
Chapter Three: The Bunny Doctor
Author's notes: I write too damn fast. I don't give people enough chance to review. And then I whine. I have such double standards…
In this chapter, you have these things to look forward to: Thirteen-year-old Eiri's interest in people with pink hair, Tohma's imminent insanity, and, as the title suggests, the deathly illness of our favorite pink bunny. Oh, and Ryuichi sings for us for the very first time. And how…
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone you recognize. I own one of those toy keyboards though. They're annoyingly small.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't give in right away. "Let's wait until both of us graduate," I told her. "You'll finish high school this year, and I'll finish my degree, and then we'll look into it. I promise to think about it."
So I thought about it. I thought about it as we floated through the last few months of school, still playing together Friday nights, except now I was called upon to bring in new pieces of music more and more often, and even though I knew Noriko-san was making plans inside that multi-colored head of hers, I couldn't bring myself to turn down her requests for new tunes. So I wrote, and we played, and the café owner blessed us as his custom went steadily up until he had to expand with a bigger room (he bought out the cosmetics shop next door) and a new, better-tuned piano.
We invited Ryuichi-san to come a few times, but his response was always the same. "But if I leave Kumagoro alone at night, he'll get lonely!"
"You mean if you leave your sisters… right Ryuichi-san?"
He would give me a weird look and reply slowly, as though speaking to a dim child, "No, Tohma! If I meant my sisters, I would say my sisters!" Then he would hug the bunny tightly as though someone had maligned it.
Eventually, I learned not to ask.
I moved that summer into a penthouse apartment nearer the center of town. In some ways, getting out of my parents' house was a relief. It wasn't as though I had done anything in particular to displease them, but I got strange looks from my mother after I had become more accustomed to Noriko-san's manner of dressing me—and tired of the times I wore my old clothes and she made me buy new ones before we could go anywhere—and hooked headphones into my synthesizer, allowing me to play silently for hours. My apartment was a perfect refuge. I put my newly purchased baby grand on one side of the living room and my synthesizer on the other, then set the other furniture wherever it fit. It should have sent up red flags then that I cared more about my pianos than my bed, but I wasn't thinking too clearly then.
"I'm going to need a nice, large, established place," I had told my father. "I'll be marrying Mika-san in a few years, and it would be more comfortable for her if there was someplace to move to right away, don't you agree?"
So I got my penthouse with no complaint, even if Mika-san hadn't been the reason foremost in my mind.
Two days after I had moved in, there was a knock on my door at around six. When I opened it, I beheld Noriko-san with two bulging shopping bags. She breezed in, kissing me on the cheek, and walked into the kitchen as though she lived there (as I was to discover in the near future, she frequently did). "I brought you a housewarming gift, Tohma-kun!" she called. "So come in here and make your charming guest some tea."
So we drank tea with French éclairs, and she chattered about music. "I was thinking, we should pound out a few songs, and then look for a vocalist. I still don't think my voice is good enough," she said matter-of-factly, "and anyway, it should be a guy. That's more popular lately…" She took a sip of her tea. "What do you think?"
"I think I still haven't made up my mind about this," I said slowly.
She laughed and shook her head. Her hair was cotton-candy pink. "Oh, yes you have, Tohma-kun, you're just not ready to say it aloud yet."
I wasn't at all sure this was the case, but experience had taught me that one did not argue with Noriko-san.
"But if you like, we'll play it your way. Did you have any plans for tonight?" she asked.
"No," I said. "I had thought I would read and get to bed early, but I'm not particularly attached to the idea."
"Good," she said. "Then you can have no objection if I stay around for a while and play your piano, do you?"
"No, I suppose not…" I said carefully.
She hopped up. "Good," she said.
She didn't leave that night. By six in the morning, we had a song.
That was the way Noriko-san got around me. Whenever I had a free night, I found her at my door or, if I was coming home late, sitting in the stairwell, headphones in her ears and a notebook on her lap. Eventually I gave up and gave her a key, and after that I found her there so often I stopped fighting her shampoo's appearance in my bathroom and her pajamas folded in my linen closet.
"You're just out of high school," I told her one night when she was lying on the floor, one of my throw pillows under her chin, staring intently at some concert on the television. "I'm sure your family thinks you're living with me."
She turned over and blew a bubble. It matched her hair. "So?" she said.
"It can't possibly be appropriate," I argued. "I'm getting married soon and you're only eighteen!"
"Nineteen in a week," she said calmly. "Besides, I'm not compromising my chastity. I'm sleeping on the couch, aren't I?"
I sighed. "Noriko-san, that is not the point."
"No, you're right," she said. "The point is music, and we have enough now that it's time to take the next step and find a singer to record a demo with us."
"Noriko-san-" I pleaded.
"No, Tohma-kun, let's stop fooling ourselves. You know you're going to do this." She looked into my eyes with the most piercing expression I had ever seen on her face. "This is your future. Our future. Don't you feel it yet?" She clasped my hands in hers. "You will never be complete without this," she said slowly. "And if you hadn't already agreed, I would not be here, wasting my time with you. All right?"
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes before letting myself give a true answer. "All right."
I opened my eyes to see her grinning brightly. "Good boy," she said.
"I feel like I've been manipulated," I complained.
She tried to suppress her giggle. "You have. Now then-" There was a knock on the door. "I'll get it," she said immediately, hopping up. "No, you shouldn't bother. Watch the TV, will you? These guys are really rocking." She disappeared into the hall.
I tried to concentrate on the "rocking" guys when I heard a very familiar voice, rough with a recent adolescent voice change, saying, "Oh, I'm sorry, I must have the wrong apartment. Do you happen to know where Seguchi Tohma lives?"
"Eiri-kun!" I shouted, jumping up from the couch and running into the foyer.
The boy looked terrible. His eyes were shadowed as though he hadn't slept, and a duffel bag was slung over his shoulder. Those tired eyes widened when he saw me, barefoot, with my shirt (fuchsia today) unbuttoned due to the heat. "I… oh… Tohma-san," he said slowly. He looked askance at Noriko-san in her barely-present sundress. "I'll just… I'll come back some other-"
"Don't be silly, Eiri-kun," I said, realizing just how wrong all of this must look. "Come inside. This is Sakakura Noriko-san, my co-worker," I said, thinking fast. "Noriko-san, this is Eiri-kun, Mika-san's little brother." I shot her a warning look.
"Pleased to meet you, Eiri-kun!" Noriko-san said cheerfully. She turned to me as he muttered a greeting at her. "I'll make some lemonade," she said, and vanished into the kitchen.
Eiri-kun looked down at the floor as I wondered whether I should button my shirt, or if that would just make me look guiltier. "I'm sorry I came at a bad time…"
"No, no, no such thing as a bad time," I reassured him. "I'm glad to see you! Your family didn't call me to tell me you'd be coming."
He plopped down on the couch, gave a cursory look at the television, then turned his large golden eyes up at me. It shocked me to realize that at thirteen years old he was nearly my height. "They don't know." At my surprised look, he continued quickly, "Can't I just stay one night? Just a night and a day and we'll call them. Please?"
I smoothed his hair, a little uneasy at the hopeful look he gave me. "I suppose, Eiri-kun, if you need to." I had a fair idea it was school trouble again, but it must have been something else as well if he didn't want to call his father.
Noriko-san came in with two glasses of lemonade and wisely withdrew again after giving it to us. "Sorry… I'm such a bother."
"No, Eiri-kun, I told you not to worry about it," I said again. "I'm glad to have you. Want to tell me what's wrong?"
"Just…school, and everyone being so mean… and…" he paused, then sighed, "Tohma-san, I don't want to be a monk." He leaned back into the couch cushions, looking malcontent. "How come everyone else is just fine with doing what their father does? You like business."
"Well, yes…"
"But he's going into music," Noriko-san said, reappearing in the doorway and plopping down cross-legged on the floor.
"Music?" Eiri-kun said incredulously.
"Noriko-san!" I hissed.
"What?" she said innocently. "You've made up your mind, haven't you?" She looked at Eiri-kun. "He's made up his mind, and his father isn't going to be pleased. Isn't that right, Tohma-kun?"
"Really?" Eiri-kun asked. For some reason I couldn't understand, his eyes were brighter. I gave up, deciding Noriko-san, Ryuichi-san, and just about anyone else… were better at dealing with children than I would ever be.
"Something like that," I finally said. "I still fully intend to go on working for my father until you get us signed, you know."
"But then you'll quit and be a musician?" Eiri-kun wanted to know.
"I suppose I will," I said.
"And your father? Will he be furious?"
"Probably," I said with a sigh. "Eiri-kun, I don't know that I want you to follow my bad example."
"But even Mikarin says you're the perfect eldest son!" Eiri-kun said with a hint of teasing. "Wouldn't it follow I should be just like you?"
"Don't be just like Tohma-kun," Noriko-san interrupted. "Tohma-kun is far too straight-laced."
I glared at her mildly. "I'll thank you not to ruin the child," I said. "In any case, I'll call you a cab, since tonight the couch is clearly taken."
"I could sleep on the floor-" Eiri-kun began to offer.
"No, don't bother," Noriko-san said. "We need to work on this vocalist problem before we move on, anyway. Don't bother about the cab, either." She blew Eiri-kun a kiss. "I'll see myself out. Have a nice night." She vanished into the hall, and a moment later I heard the door slam.
"So she really does work with you," Eiri-kun said.
"In a manner of speaking," I replied. "It's all… it's very complicated."
"Is she the one you told me about before? With the blue hair?"
"Yes," I laughed. "Well, it's pink now, as you can clearly see."
"Yeah," he agreed, then grinned. "It's a pretty color for hair. I didn't think it would be."
My smile was easy now. "Yes, well, Noriko-san is Noriko-san. She's made odder things work."
Somehow, Eiri-kun's stay stretched to nearly a week. By the time he could no longer talk me out of calling his father I had taken pity on him, and talked Uesugi-san into letting him have a week off from school. "He's very tired, Uesugi-san," I said into the phone. "He could use just a little rest. No… no, I'm sure he's no trouble at all. And I'll talk to him about catching up in his classes. I'm sure he'll be all right." So Eiri-kun stayed.
I found I enjoyed his company quite a bit more than I expected. Something about his slight sarcasm and his golden eyes appealed to me. He seemed to be just as comfortable with me, probably because two blonds walking together, one dressed with the typical Noriko flare, somehow drew attention away from him.
When I had to leave for work in the mornings, I left him with the run of the house, and he proved worthy of the responsibility by not destroying it. On the fourth day, I found him on the phone, clearly trying to calm someone down. "Yes, yes, I'll tell him to call. I'm sure he'll call right away. All right. Yes." He looked up then. "Oh, here he is no—oh, never mind, I guess he hung up." He put the phone back in its cradle.
I looked at him curiously. "Who were you arguing with?"
"A madman, I think," he said candidly. "Someone named… Ryu-chan wanted me to tell you that someone named…" his lips twitched in a smile, "Kumagoro was very sick, and he wants you to come over and do something about it." Seeing my half-embarrassed, half-bewildered look, he added, "You have some interesting friends, Tohma-san. This one sounded like he was five. And what kind of a name is Kumagoro?"
"A name for someone with pink hair," I muttered. "You'd approve, Eiri-kun." I stared at the phone, wondering where Ryuichi-san had gotten my phone number. I finally concluded that Noriko-san had given it to him, and spent a few minutes wrestling my conscience before I decided it really would be rude not to call back. I sighed and picked up the phone, hitting the call return button.
Before one whole beep had gone by, Ryuichi-san snatched up the phone. "Ryu-chan here!" he cried out so loudly that I had to hold the phone a bit away from my ear. "Tohma, Tohma! Is that you, Tohma? Tohma!"
Eiri-kun was looking very amused in the corner, so I took the phone and retreated into the kitchen. "Yes, Ryuichi-san, this is Tohma," I finally said. "My… friend says you called me." I couldn't even begin to explain something as complicated as Eiri-kun and Mika-san to Ryuichi-san.
"Yes, and he was super nice!" Ryuichi-san said cheerfully. "But Tohma, you have to come right away! Kumagoro is sick!"
"What is wrong with him?" I said, trying to be rational. I heard feminine giggles in the background, quickly suppressed.
Ryuichi-san was quiet for a moment, then spoke once again in that voice that called me a great big idiot for not seeing his logic right away. "Well, of course I don't know! I'm not a bunny doctor!" he announced.
"But neither am I," I said, still trying to be rational. I would learn, eventually, that logic and rationality did not fit well with Ryuichi-san, but one couldn't really blame me for trying.
"But Tohma finished that… biiiiiiiiig school!" Ryuichi-san said earnestly. "So Tohma is a genius and Tohma can do anything!"
"I'm not sure I'm qualified-"
"Tohma! Kumagoro might die!" I heard definite tears in his voice, sighed, and gave in to the inevitable.
"All right, all right. I'll be right over."
"Bring your friend too!" Ryuichi-san said, all sign of tears gone.
I thought about the insanity spreading. I shuddered. "No, Ryuichi-san, my friend has a very weak immune system, and I'm afraid he might get what Kumagoro has, and I'm not a very good people doctor," I said very seriously.
"But I didn't think people could get bunny diseases!" Ryuichi protested.
"This one can," I assured him. "It's all right. He'll be glad to stay at home."
"If you say so, Tohma," Ryuichi-san said. "But hurry!"
"I'm hurrying," I said. "Really. I've already got my car keys in my pocket."
"Okay! See you soon na no da!" Ryuichi-san hung up.
With a sigh, I headed out of the kitchen and towards the door. "Eiri-kun," I called. Immediately he stuck his head out of the living room. "I'm going to have to go for a little while… I'll take you out to dinner later to make it up to you, all right?"
"Kumagoro just can't get better without you?" the boy asked with a smirk.
"Apparently not," I said dryly.
The drive to Ryuichi-san's was nearly an hour, made worse by afternoon traffic. By the time I had arrived at the tall concrete building and climbed seven flights of stairs (the elevator was out) I was feeling more than a little annoyed. Which didn't last long when the door was flung open by Akane-chan, who proceeded to fling her arms around my neck and sob into my coat. "Kumagoro is siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!"
By the time I had managed to stagger into the miniscule entrance hall, Midori-chan was hanging off my leg, also wailing. I began to doubt my own sanity.
"All right, all right, where is he? Where is your oniisan?" And they dragged me after them into the tiny living room.
There I discovered Noriko-san, sitting on the floor and plying a needle with the concentration of a brain surgeon, while Ryuichi-san, Rie-san and Kiriko-chan crowded around her and made comforting noises. "Kumagoro, hang on!" Ryuichi-san was wailing. "It will only hurt for a moment, and then you will be all better!"
When I got near enough (with two little girls hanging off of me, this was still rather difficult), I saw that Noriko-san was tying and then biting off the thread she had used to sew the bunny's ear back on. "There," she said soothingly. "Doesn't that feel better, Kumagoro? Good as new!"
"Tohma!" Ryuichi shouted, noticing my presence for the first time. "Noriko-chan got here before you, and she turned out to be a really good bunny doctor! Look!" He thrust the newly-patched rabbit at me. "See, congratulate him! He got through surgery!"
"Congratulations, Kumagoro," I said, feeling the urge to laugh hysterically and suppressing it viciously. "I'm glad you feel better." Why had I made the drive through rush hour traffic?
"Rie-chan, you should make some tea for our friends since they're here!" Ryuichi-san said cheerfully. "And make some for Okaasan!"
When Rie-san bustled away into the kitchen and everything got a tiny bit quieter, I finally looked around. I had been to the building before, but I had never come up into the apartment. As I suspected it was small and rather shabby, but scrupulously clean. "I'm so glad you came, Tohma!" Ryuichi-san chirped, plopping on the tiny couch next to me. "You must really have been worried about Kumagoro! I'm glad you're such good friends!"
Actually, I had been far more worried about Ryuichi-san, but I chose to keep that to myself. Akane-chan, who had wandered out of the room, came back in and said, "Mama is sleeping again."
For a moment, I saw a look of worry and pain on Ryuichi-san's face before he quickly masked it. "Well, tiptoe and don't wake her," he told Akane-chan. "Okaasan needs sleep."
"All right, Oniichan," Akane-chan said, clearly unaware that anything was wrong. She left the room again on her tiptoes, and she and Rie-san returned a few minutes later with two trays laden with cups of green tea and misshapen lumps that may have been cupcakes.
"These muffins look a lot better, Akane-chan!" Noriko-san praised. Well, cupcakes, muffins. I was close. "Did you take my advice?" Clearly she, at least, had been here quite often. Midori-chan crawled into her lap.
"Yeah, uh-huh, I'll never make muffins in the microwave in a plastic container again," Akane-chan said vehemently. "Because then they explode and the plastic melts and it smells like burning things in the house for two days."
"Three," Kiriko-chan disagreed. "It only stopped smelling yesterday." She sniffed experimentally at the air which, come to think of it, did smell a little singed. "Sort of."
Once the tea ritual was over (the muffins had been surprisingly edible despite their appearance) and the three older girls had run off to the kitchen to clean up, the little one pulled a battered pink tape player with a plastic microphone attached to it. "Wanna play karaoke, Tohma-oniichan?"
"Play karaoke?" I said, not quite understanding.
"Sure! Don't you like to sing?"
"No, I don't really sing," I told her. Seeing she was upset, I quickly added, "Oh, but I play the piano, though!"
"Oh, we have one of those!" she said. She ran out and came back moments later lugging an old toy keyboard behind her. Even if it was small, with keys more narrow than a piano's, it was still almost the same size as her. Noriko-san jumped up to help her with it, and plopped it down in my lap. I turned it on, and played the first few tinny notes of Sakura.
"No, Oniichan," Midori-chan said, all exasperation. "Even Kumagoro can sing that song!"
"What do you want me to play?" I asked her patiently.
"How about… White Rain!" she said. It seemed her expectations were a bit high; that song was fast paced and the range jumped all over the place, but she looked good and determined, and I decided it didn't really matter and began to play. She picked up the little toy microphone and lisped along for a while, but, sure enough, got tangled up in the words halfway through the first verse.
While I vamped the same chord progression over and over, waiting for her to pick it up, Ryuichi-san shook his head and took the microphone. "No, Midori-chan," he said, "I told you when I taught you this song. The words go like this."
And I got the biggest surprise of my life.
His voice was loud, clear, and so beautiful my hands froze over the keys for a moment before I realized I had to keep playing, or he would stop singing. The quick tempo didn't seem to stop him. He jumped into it with a verve so great I found myself almost struggling to keep up on the uncomfortably small keyboard. The range didn't seem to be a problem, either. He took the leaps so effortlessly, it really did begin to seem an easy song for a five-year-old to learn, as Midori-chan nodded cheerfully along, clearly not witnessing the miracle we were. Noriko-san's mouth had dropped open with shock. Clearly unaware of all of this, Ryuichi-san sang, the slightly dark lyrics taking on a sheen of desperation. His eyes were closed, and he looked nothing like himself.
I played the last chords of the song and he let the last note fade away. He opened his eyes, and for a minute he looked perfectly serious, and I could believe he was twenty-two for the first time since I had met him. Then his eyes cleared, and he looked just like himself again. "Like that Midori-chan," he told his little sister, and handed her the microphone. "All right?"
The two of us were still staring at him like he had grown an extra head. Noticing our silence, he finally looked back towards us. Noriko-san gave me a meaningful look, but it was lost on me, as I was still staring at Ryuichi-san, disbelieving that that had just come out of him.
He stared at me, then at Noriko-san for a few moments. Finally he said, "What? Why do you look like that? Do you have a stomach ache?"
And I couldn't help myself. All the laughter I had been holding inside, edged with hysteria, burst out.
I had lost my mind, after all.
