He perhaps had the worst headache of his life as he came to consciousness. The place, time and position were unknown. Carefully he opened his eyes to come across a room he had never seen before. Bookshelf lined both of the long walls of this bedroom. There weren't any windows just a door on the other end of the parallelogram shaped room. The bed was jammed and askew on its left a small bedside table under a digital clock.
Rikimaru stared at the green figures narrowing his eyes.
"It's eleven." Other man came to the room carrying a book in his hand. He had changed his clothing to a more comfortable home wear and had his long hair loose as he liked to keep it. He put the book away in to already clog shelf. "…How are you feeling?"
Rikimaru had rose up and sat now on the edge of the bed, keeping his head in his hands.
"…How would you think I'm feeling?" He mumbled out in his angry voice. He would have rather not to say a word and just get out. His balance was lost for moments as he sat. He had left, but only to come back in a minute, carrying a class of water and pills. He lowered them to his eye level standing in front of him.
"…Hey…" He said trying to make him open his eyes and so Rikimaru did.
Slowly he took what the other had to offer. Even thought he would have fairly told him where to get off and more, this was the mother of all headaches. "…Why… am I here?"
The air sifted on his face and he knew he had moved away as he swallowed the pills and water. He took a few soundless breaths holding his elbows to his knees and slings the class in his hands.
Other leaned to a table next to the door folding his arms. "…Would you rather be on the street, raped and…? You don't remember, do you?"
Rikimaru sat quietly and the other thought he didn't shake his head because it probably would have hurt too much. "…What do you remember then?"
"…dancing… looking for, Jin and… waiting Dan…"
"Should have done your waiting a little more carefully… While you weren't watching, the guy next to you spiked your drink…!"
"That doesn't explain why I am here, whatever this place is and why I am here with you…"
"Close to the harbour, in my home, as my guests… I thought you'd need a bit help…"
"Thought wrong! Don't make your self a saint…! I'd rather wake up in anywhere else, but in your house…" The anger of his own voice hurt his head and he winced.
Oni saw that and gave him mercy as he didn't shout back. The other one was too messed up still to understand reason or his own head. If there had been reason to begin with.
The one on the bed side looked a bit up, opening his eyes. "…You mean the guy… who asked me the clock or something…?"
"…Or something…" Oni's eyes gave out too much of unspoken anger towards Rikimaru and his attitude.
"…how do I get out of here…?" He prepared to rise up to stand.
He looked at his attentions with suspicion. "…You sure you want…"
"Fine, I can find the door by myself…" Rikimaru hopped up from the bed. He stood there awhile until he flopped back to the bed.
Oni looked at him lying crosswise on the bed and he wondered was he awake or unconscious. He shouldn't lie on his back like that. Maybe he should have called to Tesshu just to be sure. Carefully he went closer to check that he was breathing. Rikimaru moved and Oni pulled his hand away quickly. Rikimaru opened his eyes just the same way he had before, but noticed he was still in his nightmare.
"…What did you give to me…?"
Did the other imply now that he had drugged him? Unbelievable. "…Something for the headache and something for the bad feeling… Why?"
"…Plain curiosity…"
Rikimaru looked at the other direction giving him space to get his point. The other was surprisingly calm and even friendly. Despite it all, Rikimaru didn't believe his act of kindness. Oni had his vested interests in mind for sure, what ever those would be this time.
"…I'll let you get some sleep…" He turned to walk away.
"…Don't think I'll be staying here…" He rose up to sit again. "As soon as I can stand and walk, I'm out."
The black haired man looked at him in disbelief. "…Come on…?"
"…Don't try to tell me what to do…"
"Well listen to your sense then? You can barely sit…"
"And I barely know that you are there and it's still making me nauseous…!"
There were no way he was going to change his mind like this. Not when he continued to be such a big baby. "…Fine…! …I'll help you to downstairs and you can order your self a taxi, if you still…"
"I don't need your –fucking- help!"
Somehow Rikimaru got up and didn't fell right back to the bed. Steadily he walked to the bedroom door.
"No…"
Rikimaru was nearly out of the room but an arm across the doorway stopped his way. "I won't let you go… Its cold outside and a long way to centre. You can not possible walk and it's the rush hour so you won't get a taxi."
"…Please, remove your arm or I'll do it for you…"
"Are you even listening…?! …You wouldn't move a fly if it got to your way right now, you think you can take me?"
"…Come on this is pointless… I could just crawl under it…? You have better things to do when I'm not in the way."
"…Stay… I'll make… coffee or tea or what ever you think you can eat… Just for a while… we could talk… Please…?"
"Talk…? Talk about what? There is nothing I wanna hear from you and trust me, you don't wanna hear it either what I got to say… So…?"
"…But you have something to say, don't you…? Stay, please…?"
Rikimaru sighted helplessly. He probably just could have managed to get outside a moment ago, but now this standing around was getting little too tiring. Also the look Oni had could have made a man eating tiger feel like a purring kitty cat. He wasn't going to get out of there alive, was he? "…Fine…"
Oni let his arm slip of the door frame. "…Breakfast?"
"…Bathroom?"
"…Downstairs… Straight across the living room and right… You can manage the stairs?"
"…Here's a handrail, isn't it…"
---
Rikimaru got to the bathroom and closed the door so no evil could witness his sickness and pure panic. He leaned to the sink because standing at two feet felt like carrying a thousand pricks on your shoulders.
Fuck... Fuck... Fuck. Fuck.Fuck!!
What had he done to the world to hate him so much?
---
When Rikimaru came out, Oni was already cooking something in the kitchen. He was a marvellous cook to say at least. Rikimaru stayed at the corner and watched him.
"…You're feeling any better?" The cook said suddenly noticing him.
Rikimaru sat on a bar bench next to the kitchen table as the other fiddled around the stove. "…Yeah…" He didn't want to think what Oni had given to him.
"…Think you can eat toasted bread and fixings of choice?"
Rikimaru looked at the apartment. "…Yeah… sure…" The place was huge, touched the size of the club nearly. The bedroom he had been sleeping in was a one small box and stairs that came right down from the door. There seemed to be another room further and separate, near the ceiling. There weren't much furniture or at least he couldn't see them under the cardboard boxes. Boxes in behalf were full of different kind of stuff but the rallying point was that those were all full and exuding to the braking point.
Rikimaru tried to remember the promise he'd made in the toilet; to act more like an adult, not as a jealous housewife who has caught his cheating husband red-handed. After all, he had help him last night, hadn't he? "…Like what you'd done with the place… brown boxes and all… you moved in recently?"
"Kind of… haven't got the time… to short them at their right places…"
"Oh? Why not?"
"…Had to quit lot of paintings…"
"Really? I haven't heard of anything?"
Oni took the pan of the stove and put the bread on a plate on the table that he had already served.
"…Private order, portraits and stuff… And you? What have you been doing?"
"…Working… partying…being useless…"
"…Hmmm… You still in that law firm?" Oni arranged the table one more time.
"No…"
"…No?"
"It was taking too much of my time, anyways… didn't have the time for my friends anymore…"
"So, what do you do now?"
"…All kinds of stuff, experimenting, maybe I just don't know what is that I wanna do the rest of my life… So, I'm trying to find it out."
"…But…?" He hesitated like if he wasn't sure should he say it or not.
"What?"
"I thought you liked being a lawyer, you worked your ass off to that company?"
"…Maybe that was the problem at the first place…"
Toasters tasted absolutely so good when those weren't burned to black. So Oni still remembered what he ate for breakfast. This small talk was doomed to end. Either one just snooped or tried to taunt other. Both were hoping that he wouldn't have to be the one to take the first steps to the mine zone. Rikimaru got irritated. What were they trying to do here, paths up their deformed and shallow relationship that they had tried to deepen or at least Rikimaru had?
"…Did you want to talk about something?"
Oni looked at him wondering if he was going to throw it at his face no matter what he said.
"…Did you?"
Strange answer. "…No, I didn't…" He consecrated to his meal again.
"I know that… you saw me with her… and I'm so sorry about…"
"What? That you were cheating me or that I caught you two at it? Who was she, now that we're talking of it? Good fuck? Or what should I call her, had you been together long?"
"…That was the first and only time…! And I'm sorry, okay… I dunno what else to say…"
"Good, cause I don't wanna hear it…"
"…Can you… forgive me?"
Rikimaru was surprised that he actually could laugh to it. "…Forgive you…? Seriously? What, you want us back together…?"
Oni didn't deny it by words.
"…You think…" He didn't want to show how much he truly had been hurting. "Didn't I just tell you how sick you make me feel or weren't you -listening at all-..? …What could we have now? It didn't work then it sure as hell won't work now. Before, I at least thought, I could force myself to feel something, stronger towards you, but… In a way we are too much the same… We're both too… aggressive to fit…"
"…Not together, it wouldn't work… But could you consider us to be friends…?"
"Hmmm… No."
"Why not? Didn't we have fun together?"
"…I don't wanna be friends with you…"
"…Fine…" Oni smiled amused.
Rikimaru had finished his meal a few lines ago. The chilling silence wasn't going to go away by it self that they both knew from experience. They weren't friends so what was Rikimaru waiting for?
"I'm gona go now. Think I can manage by myself for now on…"
Oni bit his slip as if not to snap right then. "Sure…That would make me more than happy…Oh, and no need to thank me, no! Don't think I'll be saving your ass next time…!" He shouted after him.
Rikimaru had walked to the elevator and stopped. He hated to ask but…
"Did I have anything with me…?!"
"…No…?" Oni came to the room.
"Yes… right…" Rikimaru found a check stand ticket from his pocket. Just his luck. He thought to throw it away in his anger but then again the jacket wasn't that cheap. Oni leaned dangerously close for his own good as he took something from the rack.
"Here…" He tried handing it to Rikimaru. "Go on, take it, you wouldn't believe how cold there is… Yeah, yeah you said you don't want anything from me, but I'm not giving it to you… just borrowing… It's kinda like stealing…?"
Rikimaru grabbed the long, black leather jacket and put it on almost as someone would have forced him to do so.
"…But I would still like to have it back…"
"You gona be here tomorrow?"
Oni nod slightly.
"…I'll bring it to you at afternoon… four or something…?"
"Sure, whatever suits, I'm here all day…"
And now it was Rikimaru's turn to nod as he stepped in to the huge freight elevator. And little after that Oni watched him walk away with his twenty thousand jacket.
---
God it was so cold, he thought while he walked on. Or actually it wasn't, when you put your hands to the jacket pockets and rose up the collar. The jacket was wool-lined, water-proof, comfortable, good looking, smelled familiar and just so too frigging nice.
The headache and nausea was but a mere hazy memory. Why didn't he feel worse about seeing him and talking to him? It wasn't at all what he had expected. At least he could have been decent enough and really shout back or did he look that sick. On the other hand Oni never shouted when he was angry to someone, he was more about the deeds not talk. Or what would Rikimaru know; they had never fight before when they were together and the only -fight- they had had split them up like a lightning.
When he saw him cooking their breakfast, the moment seemed to be out of place, like back then. He could almost see him self walking to him, hugging him and murmuring something sappy to his ear so sleepy that the other could barely tell what he was saying-Embarrassing in a sad way.
And for Hyne's sake this morning would be even harder to remember as he had the time to think it over. Did he really have to take the jacket back? Maybe he could give it to Ayame and she could return it in her police uniform.
He had walked an hour and a half when he finally came to his home door.
"…Ayame…?! You home?!" No-one answered but there was noise coming from somewhere. It was coming from the bathroom which door was open and a man in a blue coveralls and t-shirt was kneeling at the floor.
"Um, hello?"
The man on the floor turned around, he had been looking in to his toolbox. "Oh, Afternoon, Warner from the plum services…" He offered his hand after taking of his glove.
"Rikimaru Azuma…"
"Oh, your wife called me, you have a tricky problem here… Something has blocked the water from coming to shower, I think it's probably small rocks or something as they're re-connecting the water pipes a quarter away… No need to worry…"
"…Will it take long?"
"No, as I got this open and put it all back together… Half an hour or so…But I'll better get back to work…"
"You want to take a break? I could make some coffee?"
"No thanks, I'll better get this done… I should still get to another place until my days full…"
"Okay… I'll be here if you change your mind…Um… Did she say where she went?"
"…She told she left a note on the kitchen table…?"
There it was; a yellow post it stamp. Shower didn't work, went to Kiku's to take one. Plummer came when I left, hope he didn't rob us off or stole your dildo… love, Ayame
Rikimaru had nearly gotten chanced when the doorbell rang. Who could it be? Ayame had keys. Maybe Oni had missed his jacket, but then again, he didn't know where Rikimaru lived. Or did he? He opened the door and behind it revealed Tatsumaru. He looked tired, like really tired.
He didn't say much just walked in like a zombie the door following him like a magnet even thought Rikimaru didn't see him pulling it close. "…Sorry…" He had his head resting Rikimaru's shoulder and hands tied to his waist. Rikimaru nearly fell back as Tatsumaru suddenly seemed to think he was some short of a big pillow. "…You can sleep with her or anyone you like… it's not my business…" He mumbled.
"…Where have you been?" It wasn't hard to tell that his friend was a little tipsy. "…Tatsu? You alright? …Hey?" Rikimaru tapped his back, but Tatsumaru didn't respond. On top of that he had clued him self to Rikimaru.
The plumper stared at the two as Rikimaru tried to slip past the open bathroom door unnoticed while Tatsumaru made it very difficult by hanging on him. Rikimaru took him to the couch and fell there himself as Tatsumaru's death grip wasn't so easy to get out of. After some struggling he got away and Tatsumaru curled up in his sleep. Rikimaru sighted and the plumper came out writing something to a piece of paper in his hands.
"Oh, you done…?"
"Yep… just writing the bill…"
Rikimaru saw the man to the door after he had given him the bill. Rikimaru didn't really want to look at the over all costs. The Plummer was nearly out of the door when he suddenly stopped to say something.
"I know it's not my business and tell me if I'm wrong…but…" He eyes the couch.
"…Huh? Ou... She is not my wife and we're not together um, we are more like siblings if anything else…"
The plumper didn't buy his explanation.
"Listen boy, you got a fine woman in her, if I were you I wouldn't play around and break her heart…You should have heard the things she said about you…"
"Honestly…" Rikimaru tried for nothing.
"Don't give me that… Think about your kid…!"