This was an interesting chapter to write. Anyway, since it's longer than usual, you only get one update! ;)
Enjoy!
Verse 5 - Accepting
Tezuka wondered, once again, why he'd allowed Atobe to bring drag him to America. Atobe had finally told his three companions exactly what he planned to do with all of them during those two weeks.
"I have a…ah, friend who stays here, not too far away. Though his company is never going to as magnificent as ore-sama's, I have decided to have you all meet him. And, there is a surprise!"
Atobe's smile was just a tiny bit annoying, but once more, Yukimura, Sanada, and a woeful feeling Tezuka got in his limousine and drove away.
The black tinted windows prevented Tezuka from actually staring out at their surroundings. Instead, he had to turn his head back to his present, headache inducing company and stared at them instead.
Atobe and Yukimura were chatting (neither of them were really sure about what, but the two kept smiling anyway) when Sanada decided to finally talk.
"I heard you left yesterday evening," he simply commented.
"Yes. I wanted to see what I could of Chicago before Atobe drowned us all in pointless socialization."
Tezuka's poor attempt at socialization drew a slight smile out of Sanada – after all, they both hated it.
"And did you see anything interesting?"
"I ran into Fuji."
Sanada raised an eyebrow. "Fuji…Seigaku's resident tensai, right?"
Tezuka simply nodded.
"He stopped communicating with us after he left. I thought he was going to California?" Yukimura's sudden interruption was unexpected, but it posed a good question for Tezuka's mind to ponder.
"Oh, Fuji Shusuke? I forgot to tell you guys. Apparently, he wanted to do his MBA at the University of Chicago. He's been here for the past two years."
"…" Tezuka didn't say anything, but his internal curiosity was peaked. How did Atobe know this?
"How do you know? Like I said before, he stopped communicating with all of us." Yukimura sounded just a tiny bit angry, but you could never tell with him.
"He's my friend's boyfriend," Atobe replied simply. "Though you're right. I don't know why, but he hasn't replied to a single email ore-sama has sent him."
All the people in the limousine rolled their eyes. They would have escaped from Atobe's clutches too, if they could.
Tezuka wondered if the person he was supposed to meet was Aiden. The other boy was friendly enough, but Tezuka was just a bit wary of him. He didn't know why, but he had some issues with the boy being around Fuji and being so comfortable. Who cared if they'd been going out for three years? It still didn't give Aiden the right to be so familiar with the other. Frankly, it was a bit annoying to see Aiden always clinging to Fuji. And why was Fuji allowing himself to be touched like that anyway? It wasn't like –
"Ah, we're here!" Atobe's voice broke through Tezuka's thoughts and he cursed internally when he realized he'd started rambling. Why did he care what Fuji did with the other boy?
Fuji looked up when there was a knock on the door, not at all looking forward to the party that his boyfriend was throwing in honor of…well, Fuji wasn't really sure why Aiden was throwing a party. Aiden sometimes randomly liked to throw parties without prior notice to Fuji. He himself had only accidentally found out about it today.
Sakuno got to the door before him, followed closely by Aiden. He let them, since he barely had the energy to do anything. A voice in the back of his head pointed out that this was because he had no motivation, but he didn't really listen. He never listened.
The voices Fuji heard sounded familiar, but Fuji didn't wonder why. He'd (unwillingly) met Aiden's associates a thousand times and all their voices sounded the same to him. It was just another pointless party where the only type of dancing was the most boring – ballroom dancing. He preferred bars and dance clubs, not only because of the less strict dress code, but also because of the freedom of movement and action that was socially acceptable.
"Ahaha! Well then, please, come in this way. If you keep walking down the hall, you'll end up directly in the ballroom. Others have already started to arrive, so please feel free to make yourselves comfortable and socialize." Aiden's voice sounded just like it ever did, warm and eager to please. Tyler may have been the one with the brains in the family, but their business would die without Aiden's social skills.
Sakuno came back in the room. She wore a pretty, light red, designer strapless that ended flaring around her knees – a cocktail dress. It hugged her well, and the look was accented by the dark pink corsage on her left hand and her red stilettos (also designer). Her hair was pulled back in a messy, yet sexy ponytail, the layers around her face left to hang. Her bare neck was clothed by a silver chain holding an unusual pendant: a red sphere with random silver dropping off.
Yes, Sakuno looked magnificent, and if Fuji was straight, he would have immediately been knocked off his feet.
"Come on, Shusuke-sempai," she said, as Tyler had already gotten up to follow after Aiden. "Everyone's here and you can't hide from them."
Fuji smirked, taking that as a challenge. "Oh, really? Why don't you try me?"
Sakuno shook her head. "Sorry, sempai, I'm under strict orders not to let you out of my sight. You won't escape this time."
Fuji smiled once more. They would see about that…
Tezuka was not at all surprised to see Aiden at the door behind Sakuno (who looked exquisite, he realized). The older man was dressed in a simple tuxedo – black, with a red tie and boutonniere. His hair looked really neat – with a start, Tezuka realized just how messy it had looked yesterday – and was combed back. Tezuka couldn't even see the electric blue highlights, though he wasn't sure how the other hid them.
"Ah! Keigo! You're finally here!" The excitement in Aiden's voice was genuine.
Atobe and Aiden exchanged formalities as Tezuka finally realized why they were all dressed semi-formally. Atobe had even managed to get him in a lavender tuxedo with a royal purple tie and boutonniere, Yukimura in black with a dark blue tie and light blue boutonniere, and Sanada in gold (the non-shiny kind) with a burnt sienna tie and a white boutonniere.
Tezuka had realized fairly quickly that Atobe liked dressing people up and seemed to have an obsession with boutonnieres. He had, however, already figured out that this was going to be a black tie event.
Then, Aiden noticed him.
"Kunimitsu!" he almost screamed. "I didn't – oh, of course! You said Keigo brought you here!"
Tezuka nodded while Atobe said with a smile, "Yes, but Tezuka is definitely not grateful. I'm pretty sure this is the last place he wants to be."
"Ahaha! Well then, please, come in this way. If you keep walking down the hall, you'll end up directly in the ballroom. Others have already started to arrive, so please feel free to make yourselves comfortable and socialize."
Tezuka and Sanada both cringed at the word socialize and decided to simply linger in the back.
One thing that Tezuka hadn't realized: their household was huge. He had only seen the outside, the dining room, and the living room yesterday. However, from the front, you couldn't tell that the back held a ballroom and several other rooms that Tezuka didn't know the name of.
It reminded Tezuka of Atobe's mansion.
At the party itself, Tezuka was met with many people with champagne glasses full of the gold drink. The females were giggling in their high pitched voices in a way that sounded incredibly fake while the men just smiled on and chuckled every now and then. The women wore either conservative cocktail dresses or evening gowns, and they all had corsages. The men were all in tuxedos.
About ten or fifteen minutes passed as Atobe led them around and introduced them to his colleagues and associates, and then made small talk with the older men.
To Tezuka, it seemed as if with the slightest push everything would fall out of order.
A light tinkling filled the room, and Tezuka turned to see tapping a light, silver spoon against a champagne glass. He would have snorted if it wasn't completely out of character for him. How pompous, he thought, instead.
However, that had gotten everyone's attention.
All the noise stopped and Tezuka could hear the random shuffles of people's feet.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to welcome you to my home." Aiden went on to discuss something about progress and introduced Tyler.
"As you all know, Clanes has been spreading worldwide fairly quickly, due to the continuous efforts of our father, and of our dedicated workers. However, we have a vision. This vision shall be presented tomorrow, when someone you should all know will join us. Please, let me introduce my colleague and dear friend, Keigo Atobe."
Tyler stepped aside and Atobe took his place. Tezuka hadn't even noticed Atobe leave (which must have been a while ago, seeing the distance between the stage and where they were).
Atobe smirked. Tezuka could tell he was in his element.
"Progress is well and all, but that is something we must save for meetings. Tonight, we must have fun. So, now, without further ado–"
Atobe cut himself off and the lights also turned off. Tezuka heard the all too familiar snap of Atobe's fingers and the room was immediately filled with a silver glow.
Everyone went back to socializing and some people even danced and a slow jazz melody played from the stage.
Tezuka really wished he had stayed back at the mansion.
Fuji looked around, trying to make sure that no one he knew spotted him. Especially the women – they were honestly, the worst. He had missed the speeches that he knew were usually given, but they never had anything to do with him anyway, so it didn't really matter.
Due to the lack of ostentatious décor in the ballroom, there wasn't anywhere he could hide, not even behind the dining tables. And Sakuno, true to her word, was keeping a sharp eye on him.
That's when he felt a hawk like gaze fall upon him. Crap, his mind immediately supplied.
"Shusuke? Is that you?" The deep rumble belonged to a man in his thirties. "My God, it's been ages since I last saw you at one of these parties!"
Fuji knew the man – though always conveniently forgot his name – and despised him. He had met the man during an (extremely unfortunate) incident at a party about two years ago. Since then, the man had hit on him like there was no tomorrow, while still somehow abiding by the social etiquette that the Clanes' presence demanded. It wasn't subtle, not at all, but it was definitely enough to not make gullible Aiden suspect a thing. Fuji often felt like he was being stalked and it was during those times when he wanted to revert back to his old self and seriously damage the other man's mind. HE hated that he always had to hold himself back – else, his boyfriend's business would suffer. A lot.
"It has been a while," Fuji commented, trying to find an excuse to leave the man's presence.
"Yes, it really has. What are you doing here then?"
"Um…Aiden made me."
The man erupted in jolly sounding laughter, though Fuji had yet to see what was so funny. "That boy always drags you around everywhere, doesn't he?"
Fuji resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Couldn't what's-his-name come up with anything better than the "you don't need a boy, you need a man" thing?
"I don't mind." That, Fuji knew, was an almost complete and total lie. But, he never minded for long.
"Yes, well, would you like a drink? Come with me, we must catch up!" What's-his-name reached out his arm in a protective shield around Fuji, blocking his way of escape, and Fuji cursed.
He then looked around for Sakuno, who was supposedly not going to allow him to leave her sight. She was nowhere to be seen.
Fuji had no choice but to go along.
Tezuka was bored out of his mind. Atobe had pretty much abandoned them after the speech, instead choosing to dance with some girl. A part of Tezuka knew that Atobe was required to attend to her as per his raising, but Tezuka was still pissed off at Atobe for dragging him here in the first place.
Right now, he and Sanada were following Yukimura around, trying to see if there was anything they could do.
Yukimura was headed towards one of the waiters carrying around glasses of champagne, with style, at about shoulder level. However, before Yukimura could grab three glasses for the three of them, an arm reached out and grabbed two of the three.
Sanada and Tezuka looked at each other and really hoped that Yukimura wouldn't do anything rash.
The three turned to look at the man who had intercepted them, and Tezuka had the strange feeling that Yukimura was about to demand their glasses back.
"Ah, there we are. Here you go Shusuke. I know this is your favorite." What's-his-name smiled at Fuji, offering him the champagne.
Fuji smiled and accepted, though champagne was far from his favorite.
"Fuji?" asked a dead familiar voice.
Both he and his unwelcome companion turned to see who it was. Fuji's eyes widened in surprise.
"Yukimura…"
Fuji was honestly surprised to see the blue haired boy there. There was a short moment of silence before both Tezuka and Sanada stepped out behind Yukimura.
It didn't take him long to figure out what was going on. Tezuka had said something about being dragged to America by Atobe. It was almost impossible that Atobe wasn't at the party, and knowing Atobe, he had probably dragged the other three with him.
The three were dressed for black tie affairs, which was probably going to be accredited to Atobe, but they all looked good. Especially Tezuka.
There was light coughing beside him and Fuji remembered his manners.
"Yukimura, Sanada, Tezuka, this is…" Fuji trailed off, partly because he didn't know the man's name, and partly because he knew the man liked to introduce himself.
"Albert Jeane, at your service," the man nodded his head lightly and held out his hand.
So that's what his name was? Fuji would make sure to forget it once more.
"Seiichi Yukimura," Yukimura replied curtly, while shaking Albert's hand. "These are my colleagues, Genichirou Sanada and Kunimitsu Tezuka. My colleague, Keigo – ah, Mr. Atobe, and we were called here for an important meeting."
Fuji tried not to chuckle. He could immediately tell that Yukimura was testing what's-his-name, while still letting him know of his close connections. It had the desired effect.
"Mr. Atobe? Well, well, Fuji, I didn't know that you had colleagues like these people. You must do me the honor of your company."
Fuji turned to Yukimura and he knew the other wanted to roll his eyes too. Fuji wanted to tell what's-his-name that this was the 21st century. No one really talked like that anymore.
"As riveting as that sounds, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to borrow these four from you, Albert."
Sakuno to the rescue! Fuji let out a relieved sigh and immediately turned away from what's-his-name.
"Excuse us, please," Yukimura nodded to the man and the four left with Sakuno.
Fuji had never felt so grateful to her. Unlike Aiden, she could actually see what the man always tried to pull on Fuji and why Fuji couldn't do anything. She had even tried to talk to Aiden about it, but that boy was eternally blind and refused to see the bad in anyone.
"Where did you go? I've been searching everywhere for you!" Sakuno asked in plain Japanese. She had lived in America for three years now, and though she was great with English, she much preferred Japanese.
"I thought you were supposed to keep a sharp eye on me, huh?" Fuji teased back. He had no idea how the two had lost each other. It must've been when he was busy looking for escape routes.
"Shusuke-sempai, you know better than to go near Albert."
"Yeah, because I go looking for him every chance I get." Fuji loved sarcasm. "So that's his name, eh?"
"You forgot it again?" Sakuno chuckled. "Well, whatever. Since you've found some friends, I'm hoping you won't be as quick to leave. But I'm watching you."
Sakuno did the whole thing where she pointed to her eyes and then Fuji's as Fuji chuckled. She then turned to the other three men who had just been trailing behind them and asked them to make sure that Fuji didn't leave the room (or their sight).
Tezuka watched, slightly amusedly, the silly banter between Fuji and Ryuuzaki's granddaughter. It seemed they had become close without him noticing (though how he was supposed to notice that from across the world didn't cross his mind).
He nodded lightly to Ryuuzaki's request and watched her as she walked away.
"Fuji, where do you think you're going?" Yukimura's amused voice brought Tezuka out of his reverie and he noticed that Fuji, once again, was trying to sneak away.
"Damn!" Fuji shook his head as he walked back. Tezuka took that chance to actually see what the boy looked like that night.
Fuji was decked up in a light blue, almost white, tuxedo, with a red tie and boutonniere. His hair was laid about his face as usual, and his eyes were closed in his eternal smile, but he looked very smart. And sexy – Tezuka stopped his thoughts right there and tried not to wonder about why he'd suddenly thought that. Being around Fuji had always given him a headache, always made him confused, and apparently six years apart had yet to change that.
The night continued with various attempts from Fuji to try and leave. They'd gotten close to the door at least twenty five times, and had almost lost Fuji over a hundred. That boy hadn't lost his tricky ways, and Tezuka was sure that if it were not for Yukimura, Fuji would've gotten back to his own room.
At around midnight, Aiden once again got his guests' attention. "I have an announcement that I would like to make tonight. Well, it's more of a question, but anyway! Shusuke Fuji, would you please come up here?"
Fuji was surprised. Why was Aiden calling him up on stage? There was an unsettling feeling in his stomach that just told him that something was about to take place, and he wasn't exactly sure whether it was going to be good or bad. After moving from Japan, he'd learned to avoid most bad things and had gotten rid of his sadism (well, at least the sadistic actions). So why was the urge to decapitate someone crawling up his spine so strongly?
Everyone turned to look at him, so he made his way (slowly) up to the stage. The hall was silent.
Fuji had, by now, figured out exactly what Aiden was going to do. He wondered if there was a way to stop him, but he was well acquainted with Aiden's one track mind and knew he couldn't.
Tezuka watched Fuji like everyone else, and wondered if anyone else felt that something bad was going to happen. He wanted to stop Fuji from going up on stage, wanted to quickly rush the boy out of that room and leave the house.
But, he watched with a stoic face as Fuji climbed the steps, and as Aiden prepared.
Aiden got down on one knee. Tezuka realized that was supposed to be a romantic gesture alluding to something Tezuka really hoped Fuji wouldn't say yes to.
Fuji was silent as he let Aiden do what he wanted to.
"Shusuke Fuji, I have dated you for three years and have known you for twice that time. I believe that is enough time for me to confirm that you are my soul mate, the one I'm meant to be with."
As Aiden paused to take a breath, there were a few gasps of surprise and adoration from the audience.
"I have loved you as I have yet to love anyone else. I doubt I ever will."
Aiden cleared his throat and continued.
"'Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!'"
Fuji immediately knew that Aiden was attempting to quote Shakespeare.
"'It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear,
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.'"
Fuji would have laughed at his boyfriend's futile attempts to sound romantic, had he not felt like crying.
"'The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand.'"
Aiden reached for Fuji's hand, so Fuji held it out.
"'Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.'"
The audience leaned forward, and Fuji did too.
"My dear, lovely, Shusuke, there is no one else I'd rather spend my time with. I think about you all the time, even when I'm supposed to be working…"
Some chuckled and Aiden quickly pulled out a box with a ring.
"Would you do me the honor of becoming my husband?"
Silence. The audience waited with baited breath.
Fuji cast a peripheral eye out to see if there was anyone against this. Tezuka was the only one to catch his eye. He saw something reflected in the boy's face and made a decision right then.
Fuji turned back to Aiden and nodded lightly. Then, he whispered, "Yes!"
TBC
Hm...so now, Fuji and Aiden are going to get married...poor Tezuka...
Review please?