Chapter 5:
Tatsuha woke up to find him self cuddled up comfortably to Ryuichi. He stared at the singer for a moment. Ryuichi's sleeping face looked so nice and serene. He bent his face a little closer, their lips almost in contact. Ryuichi suddenly woke up letting out a startled yell. They jumped apart falling onto both sides of the bed.
"What did you do that for?" Tatsuha rubbed his back where he'd landed. Ryuichi still looked a little disoriented. He looked at Tatsuha and burst into tears, the boy looked at him in surprise wondering what he was supposed to do. Ryuichi stopped abruptly and smiled a watery smile.
"I'm sorry no da, you just surprised me and I hurt my bum." Tatsuha stared at the older man for a moment before he burst out laughing. Ryuichi looked at him; he looked so young sitting on the floor and guffawing.
He smiled and stood up. "Ok, Tatsuha, come on we have to go or your family will get really frantic. I told them I'd found you yesterday and they almost came here." As if on cue, the phone rang. Ryuichi picked up.
"Um…yes Mika, I'm bringing him. No, we'll leave in a few minutes. Yes, he's safe…I told you that already. Eiri, I told Mika we'll be on our way soon. No you don't have to ask Tohma to get us. I can get a cab. IF YOU GUYS DON'T HANG UP, I'LL TAKE HIM SOMEWHERE AND WE'LL HIDE FOREVER!" Ryuichi ended the call and smiled at Tatsuha. "You see what I mean, let's go."
Tatsuha was already dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans. He collected his small pile of belongings. He headed into the living room and hugged Hiko. "So I guess I'll be going. Thanks for everything…" Hiko nodded and Tatsuha felt a mixture of happiness and sadness. "I'll still come visit."
"If you don't I'll kill you." Hiko smiled. "Ok go on then. It's not a farewell you know, we're still in the same city!" Tatsuha waved and followed Ryuichi out. Ryuichi came back in to thank the man and tell Hiko that he'd be in touch.
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Tatsuha looked at the big houses on either side of the streets. He seemed awed to have relatives who lived in places like this. They stopped at one of the houses in the row. Then Ryuichi picked up Tatsuha's bag and gestured for the boy to follow him. He noticed Tatsuha's nervous look and grabbed his hand and led him in.
He opened the door himself, not making a sound. They entered the drawing room and everyone fell silent. Tatsuha looked at everyone, his eyes rest on Eiri…a blonde clone of himself. That convinced him he belonged to this family. Eiri was the first to get to him, surprising everyone else, by hugging him. He didn't say anything, but his hug was tight enough. Mika joined him and gave her youngest brother a hug before cry softly. "Oh thank god you're safe…I thought you might be…"
Tatsuha slowly hugged them back. Eiri let go and sank onto the couch, his usual expression of coolness fast appearing. "You aren't going to suffocate him are you Mika? Though in a way it would serve him right for being careless."
"What do you mean I was careless?" Tatsuha broke away from Mika glaring at the blonde man. Eiri smirked. "You ran out on to a road when the "don't walk" sign was flashing. You really should be more careful!"
"Well, I would be if I could remember what exactly happened. But, since that's not possible, because I don't remember much of anything before the accident now…maybe you'd like to fill me in? Nicely?" Tatsuha shot back feeling bugged. He noticed the slight wince Eiri had given when he talked about his memory loss. But the man shrugged. "I doubt you'd want to remember what a brat you were. Now if you'd excuse me I'd like to go to the bathroom."
Ryuichi patted the young man's shoulder. "I told you he was a cold bastard." "He's not! Ryuichi don't be mean, you know he's been losing his mind over Tatsuha and he hasn't eaten anything!" Shuichi suddenly whined and took off after Yuki. "Eiri, don't mind that they're being mean to you! I won't let them."
Ryuichi looked at Tatsuha's questioning gaze and smiled once more. "That's Shindou Shuichi Eiri's lover." The rest of the time passed a little quickly with the family questioning Tatsuha on what he had been doing. They all fussed over him, with exception of Eiri. At last it was late at night when Tatsuha got some time to himself. He sat in his room when Eiri walked in.
"Hey brat, here these might help you remember something, I raided our house at Kyoto for them." He was about to leave when Tatsuha called out to him. "Aniki…?"
Eiri turned around and looked at him, eyebrow raised. "Aniki, can we look at it together?" Eiri looked a little surprised but he sat down anyway. Tatsuha smiled at him a little shyly. "So where do we start? I hope I'm not bothering you, if you want to be with Shuichi…"
"Shuichi's asleep. We'll start with the pictures, then you can read your journals." Eiri picked up an old album and flipped it open. There were pictures of their mother holding baby Tatsu-chan. "This was when you were born brat, god made you so you could annoy the hell out of me. I don't think you'll remember our mother; she died a few years after this was taken. This is one of the only pictures we have of her."
He flipped the page and there was a picture of Eiri and Tatsuha sitting in a tree and Tatsuha was crying, while Eiri had a smug look on his face. "This was when we climbed up on a tree and you couldn't get down. That was so funny! Tohma had to come get you down. You cried for two hours. And we had to give you Ryuichi postcards to keep you quiet. You were about six then, still the cry baby." It went on for a while with Eiri explaining lots of the pictures for him. he suddenly realized what a big influence Ryuichi had on him.
Eiri left after about three hours. By the time he left, Tatsuha could see the change in him from gentle back to cold. He wondered what was wrong with the man. He picked up his journal and flipped to the last entry.
Today is the day I will leave for Tokyo. I will meet Sakuma-sama this time and no one can stop me! I also need to convince my siblings to let me stay. Eiri as usual will throw me out, but I'll play on his weak point Shuichi…school is over and all I have to do is hand over my homework and study for the exams next month. Who cares? When have I ever paid attention to school? Oh shit I'll stop now I can hear the old man sneaking around and I'm screwed if he gets this!
Tatsuha realized that his journal entries were erratic when he reached the entry before the last but one entry which had been made a year back. He gasped loudly when he read, shock in his eyes.
Eiri told me what had happened to him back in New York after a fight we had. I called him a cold, uncaring bastard and a lot of stuff I don't want to write down, but I guess I pushed him too far. He told me about Kitazawa Yuki and how he had been raped. He told me about how he'd killed those men also very calmly, if I wasn't his brother I could never have realized the pain he was actually in. in a way I'm really glad he's got Shuichi in his life, if anyone has stopped Eiri being as hard as ice, It's Shuichi. I wish I could do something to help but I guess I can't. I'm feeling ashamed now; I wish I wasn't always annoying him like that. I vow never to bug him again for the rest of my life…actually I'll try not to.
Tatsuha stopped there and moved on to the rest of the chapters he didn't want to read more of that one. At least he knew why his older brother was the way he was now. He slipped out of his room, for a drink of water and saw Ryuichi sitting on the couch with his bunny. The green haired man smiled at him. "Didn't get any sleep?"
"No, I'm just trying my best to remember stuff, but it's so hard!" Tatsuha gulped the water down. He wanted Ryuichi in his room, so he could cuddle up to someone who he was familiar with. "Uh…Ryuichi-san, would you like to um…you know come to my room and talk or something? I need the company right now."
"Sure. But I have to bring my Kumagoroo too you know. Kumagoroo beam!" Ryuichi threw the bunny at Tatsuha whispering the attack. Tatsuha felt the bunny hit him when…
"Teddy beam! My teddy bears just as good as Ryuichi's bunny! I hit you Aniki and you Aneki you're all supposed to be dead!" Eiri then caught hold of him tickling him till he almost suffocated.
"Tatsuha?" Ryuichi shook the boy a little. "Are you all right?" Tatsuha nodded. "I just remembered a little…about my teddy beam I was playing with Eiri and Mika." Ryuichi's eyes widened, but he didn't press the boy. They sat down on Tatsuha's bed and he hugged the boy once more. "Damn he was going to get used to this…"
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A/N: Yay I almost got this done with. Yaoi in the next chapter I think. Neways thanks all reviewers and esp. Major Louis Armstrong, your suggestion has been used!
Taka
