Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Air Gear; I'm just using the characters
Time of Sun and Rain
By saffir
Chapter 6: Shattered
Kaito woke up and headed to the kitchen, as he passed Sano's room he felt himself standing in a warm puddle. He looked down and his mind reeled "Ah fuck, AKIRA!"
Akira jumped up to see what the problem was and saw Kaito running from the bathroom with several packs of gauze. "Shit" he muttered as he ran to Sano's door and twisted the hand opening it slowly, incase Sano was right behind the door.
The two entered and saw Sano on the floor next to his bed. Upon further investigation, Kaito saw that Sano had been cutting. "He must have woken up in the middle of the night and started cutting until he passed out."
The sound of moving woke Ikki up; he opened his eye and saw messing with something and then giggle.
"What are doing?" Ikki asked groggily
"Oh morning Ikki, I'm just going through photos from last night."
Ikki crawled over to Kazu and looked at the digital screen, "who was taking photos?"
"Ringo and Rika were."
There was a picture of the girls including Ringo rehearsing, another of the twins and Lind working on a lift, and Ikki with his brothers teaching Kazu, Kanon and Falco a section of the dance.
"Wow these are cool, you should become a photographer"
"I've thought about it. I even started my own portfolio of some of the stuff I've done." Kazu's phone vibrated grabbing his attention. As he read the text the blood drained from his face; with the expression he now had Ikki could tell it wasn't good news.
"You okay, Kazu?" he asked putting his hand on his shoulder
Kazu in a daze looked up at Ikki "Could you take me somewhere?"
Ikki nodded, got up and got dressed.
Nike and Sora were in the dining room when Kazu raced down the stairs and out the front door with Ikki in step behind him.
Nike texted Ikki's phone to find out what happened, only to get a reply back of 'I don't know; I'll fill you in later.'
The car ride was quiet and as Ikki drove he randomly took glances at Kazu to try and read him but Kazu stayed rather stoic aside from giving Ikki direction.
When they arrived at their destination, Ikki saw that a girl close to his age was sitting on the steps of the house with a sucker in her mouth and four more in her hand.
"Damn it" Kazu sighed
"Kazu what's going on?" Ikki asked still in the dark about what made is love so bothered
"Ikki, I think it's best if you stay in the car."
Ikki raised an eyebrow "You didn't answer my question, what's going on?"
Kazu sighed knowing Ikki wasn't going to give in so easily, and there would be the possibility he would need Ikki near him in case all hell broke loose.
"Come on I'll introduce you"
Ikki knew Kazu avoided his question again, but he also knew that Kazu would give answers.
He parked his car and followed Kazu to the girl on the porch, "Om, this is Ikki, Ikki Om." The two nodded and shook hands. Kazu looked down and saw the four suckers in her hand and looked at Om. "That bad?" She only replied with a nod.
She looked at Ikki "You might want to stay out here."
Ikki gave her a puzzled look.
"He's should still be in his room, but just in case."
Kazu nodded in understanding and went in the house.
"It's a long story and you should probably hear it from Kazu, but I'll give you the cliff notes version. You see Kazu…."
Kazu saw Kaito on the couch with arm over his forehead.
"Akira is in the room with him."
Kazu knocked on the door and Akira opened it.
The instant Kazu set foot in the room "What the fuck do you want, shouldn't you be out with your slut of a whore rich boyfriend?"
Kazu expected as much "Sano"
"GET THE FUCK OUT." He interrupted
Ignoring Sano's outburst Kazu continued "I know you hate me for going to another school, I know you hate me for not being interested in you, but you have no right to call him that."
Sano got up from sitting on his bed and walked over to Kazu and socked him square in the jaw. "I'VE GOT NO RIGHT TO CALL HIM THAT; YOU'VE GOT NO RIGHT TO BE HERE!"
Akira jumped up to restrain Sano after the hit but Kazu held him back. "You should check on Om and Kaito" he suggested
Akira looked at him silently asking 'will you be okay?'
Kazu nodded
By the brief story Om told, Ikki didn't like the idea of Kazu walking in without him. "Shit, that sucks."
"Yeah, Kazu's a good friend to him still."
"That too, but Sano can't let him go because he loves him but Kazu doesn't feel the same way."
Om gave Ikki an odd look then understood what he was getting at.
She smiled at Ikki "I see why the two of you were drawn to each other."
"Huh?" he blinked
"The two of you have quite a few similarities. You're both kind hearted and friendly to people even if they don't like you, you both understand people's emotions and logic. It's uncanny."
The front door opened and Akira walked out; he immediately looked at Ikki and blinked.
"Akira meet Ikki, Ikki this is Akira." Om introduced
"What's up? I'd invite you in but Sano would flip out…even more." He stated
"I understand, what caused him to cut, if you don't mind me asking." Ikki inquired
Akira wasn't sure exactly how to say it "Kazu and you, he went to the mall yesterday and I guess he saw you guys."
The sound of something hitting the wall caught everyone's attention causing them to run into the house.
Kaito was already at the door to Sano's room. Akira blocked Ikki's path to the room, "Wait here, you'd only make it worse."
Ikki understood and went back outside to wait for Kazu
Kazu had Sano up against the wall with his arm behind his back. "GOD DAMN IT SANO, I came to check on you because Akira texted me saying you were cutting and passed out."
"You're the reason why I'm the way I am now, you played with my feelings. You said you loved me, you said you care about me, you did nothing but LIE. I FUCKING HATE YOU."
"Sano I said I love you as a friend, I care about you as a friend and nothing more, I'm sorry you feel that way about me, but I have someone in my life that I love and care about as a boyfriend."
"You mean that fucking shit bag faggot you were all over in the mall."
That was the straw that broke Kazu; he tightened his grip on Sano's arm, slung him around and tossed him on the bed.
"Sano, I came here as a friend but you're too stuck in your delusion to see common sense. I had hoped you'd get over me in the time I was away but I see you didn't." Kazu turned around and started walking out the door.
Sano picked up a nearby plate and threw it at Kazu. The plate hit the doorway causing Kazu to stop; he didn't turn around "Good bye Sano." He shut the door behind him.
The sound of shouting, swearing, and things breaking erupted from behind the door.
Kazu looked at his friends "I'll stay in contact with you guys."
Kazu opened the front door and saw Ikki standing there with a worried look on his face.
The group walked outside, Kazu introduced Kaito to Ikki.
Kazu rolled down the window "We'll hang out at some point but Sano needs to chill out."
Kaito nodded "You've been missed Kazu."
Kazu smiled weakly and waved to his friends.
Kazu looked tired and worn out and a tad pissed off Ikki noticed.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." Kazu stated
"Don't worry about it love, you were just being a good friend, it just seems like he doesn't get it." Ikki said putting his hand on Kazu's knee.
"I guess Om told you the story?"
"Some of it, she said it'd be really your story to tell."
Kazu's eyes were closed but he smiled "That's my old high group. We had a lot of fun times together."
Ikki's cell went off, he looked at it and saw it was a message from Sora this time asking what happened, he ignored replying.
Ikki sighed, "You know Sora and Nike will want to know what's going on?"
"Yeah, I know I've got to talk to Spitfire about it too; I don't want the others to worry about it though."
This time the ride home was again silent but it was a comfortable silence, until Kazu broke the silence.
"I'll tell the story tonight after rehearsal, that way it's just the four of us."
Ikki nodded in approval as they pulled into the driveway. He had a strange feeling that, that encounter wouldn't be their last with Sano.