A/n: I'm currently editing the previous chapters of BtS, so they're gonna be replaced one of these days.
So far, enjoy chapter eight^^
VIII. Next Failure
The genius brain gave birth to this idea just when his eyebrow raised upwards in a partial disgust, shouts from afar made him wince as they mixed with cries from the right side and added to the noise in front of him, adding to his migraine. It's been a while since he started feeling a rather intense pulsing in his temples, and now never-ceasing outcries of loud-mouthed guys were rasping his ears. Something was about to happen, no doubt about it, but the shrieking galleries didn't let him get what was going on, so he pricked up his ears, deepening into what the guys with radio sets were discussing, and luckily for him, the situation soon cleared up as he heard that the Speedstars 'trump card' decided to appear at the last moment. High time!
Ryousuke's eyes darted to where his brother was glowing and shining and who perked up after hearing a freshly arrived piece of information. Keisuke smiled to his elder, relieved at last, feeling twice as bold.
'I'll get even with you, hachi-roku. I'll show you!' the guy thought. 'Both for beating me and making me wait. You'll see who's the boss here. Aniki will be proud of me. Such a pushover.'
The only thing he needed now was see this black-and-white piece of trash and its owner, and then he would set his plan in motion, and after this...
He didn't have time to continue since the expected vehicle arrived and the driver was about to exit the car. Keisuke, jittering, started sweating again, while Ryousuke stepped forward to stand closer to the otouto and have a better chance to study the newcomer; and not that he relished much - he was simply pry to take a look at the lucky one who had managed to outrun his brother, that "monster car", as Keisuke put it. Simply out of curiosity... or not so simply since there were no simple things for Ryousuke, as he tended to complicate everything.
Spectators, racers, Speedstars and of course RedSuns too, all shivering with excitement, awaiting the muffling of a small engine, and numerous pairs of impatient eyes stared unblinkingly lest they should miss the instant the guest opened the door. Who was there? Who was inside the Trueno? Who sat behind the wheel of the so-expected car? People barely moved, frozen in anticipation, eager to see the Takahashi's opponent.
'So you've come,' the leader of the RedSuns noted, drawing his breath as the door opened and a sneakered foot landed on a cool dark asphalt. 'Here you are. Let's have a look at you, Akina no yuurei.'
Never in his life has Takahashi Keisuke felt this crappy and his brother so lousily. A whirlwind of horrid recollections transforming into the feeling of self-abasement and resentment, as one sibling tried to find peace and rest, and the other refused to believe in what had happened that night. Ryousuke shook his head, giving a random nervous giggle while a severe headache reminded of itself by the pounding temples. He'd better be more attentive to his health and leave computer work for a time being, but if he kept acting as suspiciously as he has been recently, his father would definitely notice an odd change, and fuss him with unwanted questions, lots of them, and such a scenario didn't please Ryousuke at all, so he had to think of a good tactics to stay away from tou-san, who had a habit of behaving in a shamus-like fashion, sneaking here and there until discovering somebody's secret in the end. Tou-san is too ready to suspect everyone in their family.
But this racking headache... Ryousuke doubted he would be good at hiding his bad state. Damned stresses - the main reason for his migraines! While considering preventive measures, he closed the laptop and leant back in the chair, and once shutting his eyes, he tried to subside a huge bell ringing within his head, which bothered the man so that he was on the verge of whining. 'If it goes on I'll go mad,' he thought, seeking a treatment. Relying on a pill not always healthy, trusting a cigarette not wise either, and thus he favored for some natural medicine. He grabbed a thick textbook from the shelf and went to the kitchen where fridge was a container for a secret remedy for his splitting ache.
When downstairs, he flopped down into the chair, one hand busy with the bookmarked page, the other reaching for the handle, opening the door and retrieving a bowl of kiwi fruit. Although worn out and frazzled, he needed a useful occupation, one distracting him from the memories of the near past revolving on his mind, so he judged Biology would be helpful. All Ryousuke had to do was absorb in reading while the sweet green fruit would be a pleasant addition to the process. As a heap of peelings grew, the number of studied lessons increased as well, six kiwis to six lessons. Not even counting, the future doctor kept digesting food and knowledge, neither time nor people walking around of importance to him. Ryousuke, being consumed in something, ignored this or these who happened to pass by, as a rule. Today, however, one member of the prominent family made him deflect his attention, as she was utterly stunned by contemplating what the table has turned into.
"Ryousuke, dear, what's the matter with you?"
Half-heartedly the addressed raised his head from the book and found kaa-san turn quite pale, voice filled with worried intonations.
"Reading," he licked his lips, savoring a scrumptious aftertaste of the rich fruit. "On eucaryotic cell, to be precise."
He dropped his eyes as soon as he dropped the last bit of the sweetness into his mouth, triggering another gasp from the appalled woman,
"What? What are you saying?"
He guessed, she didn't understand him, and clarified,
"Ahh... homologous chromosomes, carrying allelic genes, form - "
"What?"
" - linkage group. The number of linkage groups is equal to the haploid number of chromosomes," he finished
"Ryousuke, are you alright?"
He looked up again at her face, while the woman was desperately trying to figure out what was wrong with her son, and followed the trajectory of a horrified gaze of hers. Suddenly, he realized what she saw so uncommon about his behavior. At the same instant he regarded the situation uneasy, knowing he had lost control - something really untypical of him - and wrote it off on his headache. Damn. Aware that kaa-san was demanding at times, he foresaw he would have to explain himself and he'd better be wise and think two steps ahead lest he should make a mistake, which would cost him dearly. Luckily, mother was not as nosy as the head Takahashi.
With a vague smile, having recovered from a sort of oblivion, the son said, choosing most delicate words,
"I'm sorry. I must have lost myself in studying and - "
"And lost count to the number of eaten kiwi fruit? Look! You've put away near 2 kilos!" her petrified look never slipped off. "I'm not blaming you but... watch your stomach, honey. Are you feeling OK? You've been acting really strange - "
"I'm fine," he interrupted with a yet-visible smile as a sign of shame, so he hurried to clean the table from a huge mount of brown and green peelings remaining from his abundant repast.
How foolish of a rational person to give himself away like this! From this point onward, he'll have to be more attentive to his actions and words. First his father, now his mother started to notice queerness about him. 'Secrets are hard to keep, even in a locked chest. It's just the same with my brother,' he sighed and headed for his room, leaving kaa-san still stunned. 'What's going on with him, after all? Can it be that incident between us or rebounds of the past or perhaps it's because of that boy... No-no.'
He preferred to stop at that, quitting brooding in favor of reading, "Laws of heredity" next on the list.
Grousing upstairs seemed to grow louder, and by now it has turned into half-growling - such sounds, coming from Keisuke's room, signaling about said guy's mental torture. Feeling one hundred per cent guilty, plus owing to in-born impulsivity resulted in his beast-like conduct, causing the family to stay away from the younger's abode. None of them knew how long the period of aggression was going to last, no one eager to enter the place and solace the sufferer, not even the main Takahashi. Although a professional doctor, a wise and experienced man, he had given up hope for this of his sons, paying attention to Ryousuke and leaving Keisuke to be the apple of her eye. Ryousuke has been chosen as his favorite son, while Keisuke was labeled as "not mine", as father called him. The blond, however, had long ago reconciled with the lot, he was at least supported by kaa-san, such a score quite understandable. Who would like a son like him? No good man sane and sober would want to have such a bastard of a child. Sometimes the guy himself would resent at his character. How much better Ryousuke was...
Lying flat in an untidy bed, hitting an innocent pillow with angry fists (if brother was there he would most likely wonder why Keisuke decided to dust it in such a weird way, and chuckle), his head was buried in another pillow, pride releasing through his mouth in the form of ugly cuss words and name-calling. Halcyon days were obviously over for him. For the last days he's had enough. Damned Saturday, it ruined his plans and now, barely on speaking terms with his brother, he felt sick, almost pinned down. No one kept him there by force, all doors open and keys in his pocket, he was free to take off anywhere anytime, but he found no special need to go out to have a bite or drop in a club to while away the night there, clinging to 'Heineken' after 'Heineken' and to be frank, recently he has abandoned his barophilia, as Ryousuke called it. Such a 180 degree turn in Keisuke's habits proved a rattler both for his acquaintances and the family. Maybe he's grown out of it all of a sudden, this he will have to check out. Not surprising, that the guy wasn't going to let his hair down after all shocks of the past week, and now that Monday morning sun rose, he was determined to start a new life, only there was a big problem - what for? Why start afresh, why turn a page and begin from scratch? His restive mind contrived billion questions and ideas - why should he change anything if all had been spoiled until there was no way back, a total collapse of brilliant plans. On the other hand, the proverbs said 'There is always an exit' and 'The one who seeks will always find'. He had let his dear one down, failed to answer Ryousuke's hopes, hereby cutting the way to aniki's love. What else was left? The same noose above waited, measurably swinging from side to side. Keisuke felt like wreck, like anyone who has made a mess of a business.
Grouching from the younger's room vivified parents who have become overly worried about their two sons, both locked up upstairs since Saturday night, one seeming suspicious after having gulped the whole bowl of fruit, the other one even more suspicious as he sulked without rhyme or reason.
"Sometimes it occurs to me that he was adopted," the eldest Takahashi noted in an unemotional manner.
His wife, sitting across from him at the dining table, responded,
"Sometimes I, too, think he was adopted."
They spoke about their children, either of them meaning the other's favorite, the man implied Keisuke and the woman - Ryousuke. The hint was not lost upon them, years of living together couldn't but lead to understanding on a subconscious level.
Ten minutes later the house lapsed into silence, not a tick-tock, not a creak, not an odd sound, not a guest to ring, all deadly still inside the great mansion. By five, when 27 lessons were crammed in one room and the poor pillow turned into a miserably-looking item in the other, the two guys found nothing to do, Ryousuke's migraine thankfully over, Keisuke's agony faded because of lack of physical strength. Yet, recollections about the last few days lingered within their heads and, being brothers, each of them decided to have a talk with the other, even though the perspective was unpleasant. The simultaneous conclusion, however, was not that quickly made because, just like the morbid memories, the two hesitated. Ryousuke had to create smart phrases, as ever, Keisuke learning to retain his cool, which he's got used to losing somehow. How he wanted to be accepted by him, but the more attempts the further he got from the goal, as if they were placed in two squares glued together, and while the blond stayed in one, his elder rested in the second, so they were close and unreachable at the same time.
The FD keys dangled joyously as soon as the driver fought back uncertainty. Feeling like going for a ride, feeling like smoking, feeling like drinking... not among his current wishes. 'Not until we talk,' he took out the keys only to put them back at once, since they badly reminded him of a recent misfortune. One day aniki warned, "We don't discuss anything apart from driving", but now Keisuke doubted aniki would want to discuss even this topic as he seemed extremely displeased with him. Besides this, crazy fans were problem number two as he presumed the orderly rows would grow considerably smaller after the news about his defeat leaked into the masses. He did care about his reputation, about what public thought about him (and his brother), so when it came to thinking about mad chicks' reaction, he felt a chill run along his spine. He didn't give a damn for the strangers' opinion since they were unaware of the reasons for his loss, but losing favor among friends meant saying goodbye to most of them, and that he didn't want to happen. Keisuke was apparently on a pessimistic side today, and although he needn't have worried, the sad guy barely believed in a bright future. What he shouldn't have done was act that arrogant, smug and toplofty in front of Ryousuke. Why can't he be like him?
Said guy meanwhile gave himself a once-over in the mirror, gently brushing his pale fingers across the chest - ointment has helped, marks almost healed, yet there remained some reminiscences of the naughty night which stretched in a colorful Northern-lights-like line before his half-lidded eyes as he rubbed a little more creamy substance over the scratches, cool salve had him shudder, goosebumps covering ever-so sensitive skin at once. The process of healing would go a lot faster if his skin was not so thin, Ryousuke meditated. He didn't really like some parts of his body, just like an average person, and although many people found him as immaculate as a person can only be, he had his own point of view. His skin seemed completely normal and well-functioning, but the Takahashi wished these natural clothes were a tad thicker, a bit more tanned, like Keisuke's, which looked way different, so smooth, even silky...
A sound at the door quickly broke the elder's musing as one spiky-haired head peeked through it after two traditional "I'm-coming-in" knocks.
Ryousuke straightened, watching the sibling come up with an apologetic look and stand mere centimeters from him, Ryousuke's back turned to Keisuke as he made no move, his gaze intent, following the other's actions through the mirror. The reflection caught Keisuke lean close to the FC driver's neck and then tickle soft hairs there with quiet yet incredibly salacious breathing while Ryousuke got glued to the floor, hands somewhat numb.
"Aniki," even a hotter whisper caressed his ear. "Forgive me."
The mirror wasn't telling lies but the man refused to believe - was Keisuke doing it to him again or was he dreaming? In a low and becalmed tone he forced out, not taking his eyes of the amalgamated object before him,
"Keisuke..." a swallow. "You've been outrun. You have officially lost, and to whom! Something I can't simply put up with. No one forced you to talk. Why brag in my presence? Furthermore," he paused meaningfully. "I've taken an eye to that boy, he must have more potential than somebody who's standing right behind me now. You are pitiful."