I want to thank KageNekoReborn, TheMonsterThatLivesUnderUrBed and Fletty for the reveiws. :)
Battlefronts: 4
I glared up at the ceiling of my bedroom. After 3 hours in the emergency room I had been poked, prodded, and scanned. Each nurse and doctor had made Tai repeat the story and quizzed him about the details of the accident until I was ready to scream. What was I invisible?
After all the scans had come back they had come in and told me that I would have to be kept for overnight observation. The thought of staying overnight had made my skin crawl and I had begged my dad to let me go back to the summer house. The doctor had overruled my pleas and I had been ordered to stay in. The only consolation was that they agreed to let Tai stay with me. For some reason that made me feel better even though I still didn't like the guy or anything. The worst thing about the hospital stay is that they had woken me up every hour to ask stupid questions about my name, my age and my home address.
After my little spat about the stupidity of it all the next morning, Tai had contacted his doctor friend and found out that they had to ask these questions even during the night to make sure I wasn't getting worse. Did that made me feel like an idiot or what? Tai did his best to draw me out asking me questions about myself. At first I gave him short answers but I began to realise if I gave him the information he wanted he would eventually leave me alone. After a short silence I began to ask him questions about himself and eventually about his friendship with my brother.
Later that afternoon the doctor declared that I was able to go home but my father, Tai and I were given strict instructions. I was confined to bed rest for the next three days. I was allowed a limited amount of TV and reading time to prevent any further damage to my brain. My father was given a list of symptoms to watch out for in case there was more damage than previously thought. I was also informed that I was unable to do any contact sport including surfing for the new couple of weeks much to my disgust. Man this sucked.
So here I was lying in my bed bored out of my skull. Taka, Kari and Tai spent turns trying to entertain me. For all the good that did. I must admit I'm not the easiest person to be around at the best of times let alone when I am sick or injured. Taka can attest to that. Matt and his girlfriend even attempted to cheer me up but her prissy attitude resulted in two major fights between us and Tai banning the pair of them from coming near me except at dinner time.
"Hey Teeks." A cheery voice interrupted me trying to bore holes into the ceiling. Irritably I turned to glare at the interloper.
"Teeks?" I snapped at my brother's friend.
"Teeks." He confirmed teasingly. "What did the ceiling ever do to you?"
Giving him a final glare I returned to scowling at the ceiling ignoring his stupid comment. I jumped when the mattress dipped and my head snapped around to see what was happening. I gaped in shock to see the brunette climbing onto the bed next to me. He nudged for me to move over and when I didn't he shrugged and lay shoulder to shoulder with me. Uncomfortable I moved over.
"What are you doing?" I snapped angrily.
"Keeping you company." He said stifling a yawn. "Kari and Taka are continuing the surfing lessons under your brother's insistence and he has taken Sora out for a long walk. Your dad has been called into work again so it is up to me to keep you company whether you like it or not."
"Why the hell do you care?" I asked rudely scowling at him.
"I don't know. For some weird reason I like you." He replied winking at me. I just stared at him with disbelief.
"What?" I yelped sitting upright suddenly. Bad idea because I began to get dizzy from the sudden movement. With a patient sigh he sat up and handed me a glass of water rubbing my back as I fought down nausea again.
"Dude. You are reading way too much into this." Tai said rolling his eyes. "Seriously. You're not my type anyway."
I looked at him with wide eyes. "Type?" I squeaked.
"I know you red between the lines the other night so don't play dumb." He said with an amused smile.
"What? I don't know what you are talking about!" I said confused. I thought about it for a bit and promptly choked on the water I was swallowing as I realised just exactly what he meant. I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head as I stared at him.
"Yeah you do." He said rolling his eyes at me. He thumped me on the back to help stop my violent coughing fit. When my body had calmed down from accidentally swallowing water down the wrong pipe I just stared at Tai as if I had never seen him before.
He waved a hand in front of my face. "Earth to Teeks. Geez man, snap out of it."
"What do you mean I am not your type?" I suddenly asked a little offended for some unknown reason. I glared at the hyperactive brunette.
He snorted with laughter. "For fucks sake man. One minute you are acting homophobic because I got too close to you now you're offended because you're not my type. Make up your mind."
I felt myself flush with embarrassment. Angry with him as well as myself I lay back down and rolled on my side deliberately facing away from him.
"I prefer older guys. They know what they want and how to get it." He replied ignoring my display of temper.
"Never thought you'd be the bitch." I said nastily trying to regain a little ground. Immediately I felt ashamed of myself. I glanced back at him to see him looking at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Never said I was." He replied coolly eyeballing me.
"I think you need some alone time." He said abruptly. I felt the bed rise again as he got off. I looked back to see him stalk out the door shutting it behind him. I immediately felt bad. He'd been really nice to me over the past couple of days and all I had done was act like a sulky brat.
"Damnit." I snapped. Now I would have to apologise, one of the things I hated doing more than anything else in the world. I rolled back onto my side facing the wall and tried counting sheep to fall asleep.
*ts*
I looked at the bedroom door with a shot of whiskey in my hand. Normally I wouldn't touch this stuff this early but spending this amount of time with TK was trying even my monumental amount of patience. His comments puzzled me a little. For someone who was so intent on distancing himself from everyone he asked the oddest questions. I had my suspicions that he might have been gay but the comments only confirmed it. That boy was so naïve.
"Drinking already? That's not good." Matt's voice drifted over my shoulder. I looked back at him tiredly.
"Spending any amount of time with your brother is enough to drive anyone to drink." Sora snapped at him. I pinched the bridge of my nose – great another massive fight that I would end up having to clean up.
"Leave T.K. alone Sora. You don't like him and vice versa I get it. Don't expect me to choose between the two of you." Matt snapped.
'Ooohhh shit.' I winced. A snarl of anger met the statement and the angry brunette stomped out the door slamming behind her. "Trouble in paradise?" I asked lightly trying to eliminate the lingering bad temper.
"I spent the whole walk listening to her rant about T.K. and how rude he is and blah blah blah." Matt said running hands through his blonde hair. "She didn't give a shit that she was the one that started the fights just that he was not 'respecting' her. I tried to change the subject countless times but it always returned to T.K."
"Women." I snorted with contempt. "Can't live with them, definitely can live without them."
It had the desired effect. Matt laughed for the first time in a couple of days. "Maybe you can but I can't." he said with warm amusement. "Now. Why are you drinking whiskey this early?"
"T.K. is in a feral mood. I've left him to sleep while I try and ponder the questions he's raised. Do your parents know why he freaks out if anyone gets too close to him physically?" I asked swirling the liquid around in the glass contemplatively.
"He does?" Matt asked with a frown.
"Yeah. Try it out and see if you get the same reaction that I do." I replied.
"As long as someone can distract Sora for a period of time. Sure thing." Matt said with a shrug.
"I do think that you should have some time apart." I said to him quietly. I sculled the remainder of the drink before walking into the kitchen with Matt behind me.
"You sure you're okay?" Matt asked me, blue eyes radiating concern. I gave him a reassuring smile.
"Just tired Matt. It was a hard night last night. Those hospital beds are not the most comfortable." I said with a short laugh. "Look I will talk to Kari and see if she would be able to entertain Sora for you tomorrow while you spend some time with T.K. We had a good talk and despite his best efforts to conceal it he seemed pretty interested in learning about you. Positive signs my friend." I said cheerfully.
Matt gave me a thoughtful look and a small smile. "Good. I will definitely take you up on that offer then. I better go out and find Sora." He said with a sigh. He clapped me on the back before leaving me to my own devices.
I heard the door bang as Matt left. Rinsing out the glass I sighed and placed it on the counter. The house was relatively all mine for the next couple of hours. Only thing to do was to keep checking up on T.K. I wandered into my bedroom and layback on my bed thinking about the conundrum that was Matt's younger brother.
*ts*
I walked into the bedroom I shared with Taka and got the surprise of my life. There was Matt's friend in all his naked glory lying on my bed. I looked at him with a strange feeling flooding through me. Heat flooded my face and I looked down but kept sneaking glances at him.
"Hey T.K." Tai said with a seductive smile. Embarrassed I studied my shoes. "Come here."
For some reason my feet obeyed that simple command. My body felt hot all over and peculiarly energised. I stopped just before the bed unsure. A strong tanned hand reached out and grabbed the top of my jeans tugging at them, trying to pull me onto the bed. Shyly I climbed on sitting next to him careful not to look anywhere but his face. A hand gently ran up and down my leg. I shivered at the content.
I looked down at the hand trailing up and down my leg. I jerked my head in surprise. The hand was bigger and rougher. With a hint of fear and looked up and saw him lying there with an evil smirk. I did the only thing I could think of screaming and throwing myself away from him. I landed on the floor with a thump still screaming…
*ts*
I heard T.K. scream from his room and then a weird thump. With alarm I raced to the bedroom, I hesitated at the door until I heard him scream again. I slammed the door open and found him curled in the foetal position screaming.
"Please. No. Stop!" he whimpered. Alarm bells rang in my head. I reached the younger boy and shook his shoulder.
"Teeks! T.K.! Wake up." I shouted at him shaking him hard. His eyes snapped open, his face shadowed by fear. He looked at the bed, then at me before bursting into tears. He shivered violent. My heart went out to the younger man, I pulled him into my arms. He clung to me, burying his face into my shoulders sobbing. I rubbed his back and tried to soothe him.
There was only one thing that I could think of that could make T.K. react. All the signs had been there! I cursed myself for my stupidity. How could I not recognise them? Poor guy. The worst thing was if I wanted to keep his trust I would never be able to say anything to Matt without his permission.
'There is one person you can talk to though.´ A voice in my head reminded. Of course! Taka. I thought mentally slapping myself. There was only one thing to do. While Matt was trying to sort things out with his brother I would have to broach the subject with Taka.
Eventually he hiccupped and went silent. I continued to rub his back trying to tell him without words that everything would be ok. He pulled away and I let him go my face a study of concern.
He refused to look at me, face red. "Teeks?" I asked gently. When he refused to look at him I used my hand to turn his chin towards me.
"S-s-sorry. Won't happen again." He said with that stubborn set to his jaw.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked gently trying to radiate reassurance.
"No!" he snapped back on the defensive, eyes glaring at me. He was obviously ashamed at his little breakdown.
Mentally I sighed. All that hard work and he was building his defences back up. "If you need to talk I'm here." I said quietly looking him dead in the eye. "Everything you said would remain in my confidence."
His face went blank and he studied me with an unreadable expression. He grunted an acknowledgement. I got up to leave him in peace.
"Tai." He said as I moved towards the door. I stopped and looked back at him. "Sorry."
"It's okay Teeks. You needed someone and I am glad I was here to help." I said with a shrug.
"It's not just for that!" he said with a hint of desperation. I raised my eyebrow at him confused. "For earlier! I shouldn't have made that comment. It was unfair and very mean. I'm sorry."
My other eyebrow joined its twin. "Don't worry about it." I replied calmly. "The others will be back in less than half an hour if you want to have a shower or something."
He looked at me paling. He nodded his understanding waiting patiently for me to leave. I shut the door behind me and went in search of another glass of whiskey.
*ts*
Less than three hours later Matt and I were back at our favourite haunt watching the sunset over the ocean. I lazily watched the waves crash down mentally trying to work out how to approach Taka the next day.
Matt said something to me. I shook my head and looked over at him. "What?" I asked with curiosity.
Matt just laughed at me. "Why is whenever we come here and I talk to you, you are away with the faeries?"
"Just lucky I guess." I said with a smile and a wink. He smiled.
"How'd it go with Sora?" I asked. Dinner had been interesting. T.K. had refused to talk during dinner much to her annoyance. Kari, Matt and his dad had taken it as a given while Taka had been overly exuberant to make up for it. Despite his cheerful chatter I could tell he was really worried about his friend.
Matt rolled his eyes. "Sorted." He replied. "She had cooled off by the time I got there. We agreed to call it even and left it at that. What did Kari say?"
"She was more than happy to spend some 'girly time' with Sora. Your dad offered to take them into town when he goes into the office tomorrow morning when she said something about wishing she could go shopping. They were both quite pleased. You two will have some time to yourselves before lunch. Why don't you include him in making lunch? He might enjoy doing something other than lying on his bed staring at the ceiling." I said with a shrug.
"Good idea!" he replied with a little enthusiasm.
'Girls out of my hair, check. T.K. and Matt spending some time together, check. Now to corner Taka and work out the best way to break through to Teeks.' I thought to myself as Matt and I watched the rise and fall of the waves.
*ts*
Sorry for the wait. Hope you liked the next chapter. I love reviews as well as suggestions so feel free to tell me what you think. :)
Merry Christmas guys!
Love
Storm.
