Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ The Long Weekend ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 4


The bushes behind the Seguchi house twitched.

\\I hate doing this,\\ Ryuichi thought. Breaking into Tohma's house was always difficult.

He studied the back windows, unsure if Mika were home or not. He could see the cook, Kumiko, in the kitchen. But
the important thing was Mika. Ryuichi couldn't stand her. He was also scared of her.

The singer could have asked Tohma to get the CD, but Tohma was needed at work. He was (ahem) overseeing the
replacement of the mixing board. And Noriko could have fetched it during her lunch with Mika, but she was off in
Studio One laying down more keyboard tracks, and Ryuichi wanted that CD NOW. He felt guilty about destroying the
mixing board, and wanted to start on the new vocals as soon as possible. He could finish them this morning, if he could
retrieve that CD for the lyrics.

The cook was stepping away from the windows. Now was his chance. Ryuichi eased over, and slid one of the windows
up. Tohma always left this particular window unlocked in case of fire. In front of him was a row of houseplants. The
singer was glad he was slight of frame, for he hated destroying helpless plants. "Gomen, gomen," he whispered to them
as he shoved tender leaves aside. Then he was through. A little potting soil on the hems of his pants, but not bad. Now
for the next stage.

He was standing in the dining room, and he listened. No loud-voiced Mika. Good. But as important as his mission
was, he couldn't help making a detour. To the kitchen, of course.

When he opened the door, he nearly scared the hell out of Kumiko. The old lady's mouth opened wide to scream, but
she stopped when she saw the finger across his lips, and recognized him. Then she exhaled hard, and looked
exasperated.

Ryuichi turned chibi on her, smiling.

"Sakuma-san," she asked. "What are you doing?"

But the singer waved at her frantically. She shook her head, for she knew about his aversion to Mika. Then she opened
a jar, removed a piece of rice candy from it, and placed it directly into the singer's waiting mouth.

Chewing, Ryuichi smiled at her again. The cook shook her head at him, bemused, as he left the kitchen.

Now for that CD. Where was it? He got down on hands and knees, the better to keep out of Mika's sight if she walked
in, and began to prowl the house. First, he started with the living room, searching tabletops. Then he passed the sofa,
and was badly startled.

A dreaded Uesugi!

Wait, did he know this Uesugi? It wasn't the one he was familiar with. Yet he recognized the face. Yes, the family
resemblance was there.

Ryuichi paused and studied the sleeper more closely. A memory came to him.

Three years ago, at Mika's wedding. The huge and noisy reception in the lobby downstairs. Tohma had rented the
entire building for the party. Stepping off the low stage to take a break from his singing as everyone danced, and going
over to one of the refreshment tables as a pair of bridesmaids talked.

\\You didn't leave him alone in Mika's room, did you?\\ said one of the girls.

\\He'll do okay. He was awake and complaining earlier.\\

\\Too bad he has to miss the reception. I'd hate it if I were too sick to attend the greatest social event of the decade.
Tohma Seguchi's wedding!\\

\\He's just a little kid. I'm sure weddings bore him anyway. Oh, look! It's Sakuma-san!\\

A few polite words to them, then sneaking away. Very hard to do, if you were Ryuichi Sakuma. With a slice of cake
balanced on a plate with a fork. And the elevator, to Mika's room. There he found the boy.

"I've brought you a slice of the cake."

Eyes opening, uncomprehending. Seeing nothing.

A hand on the burning forehead. "Whoa! You're REALLY sick. I'd better get your family fast."

And the boy carried off in a stretcher by the ambulance men, and Tohma saying, \\No, Mikarin, I think he'll be okay. We
brought the fever down when we ran the cold water over him in the bathtub and threw the ice in. Eiri's going to the
hospital with him. He can give us progress reports, then we can go visit him later tonight. Don't worry.\\

Ryuichi opened his eyes. He was kneeling in Tohma's house, and his hand was on Tatsuha's forehead, trying to detect
the fever that had disappeared three years ago.

\\He'll wake up! Ryuichi, you idiot!\\

Carefully, he removed his fingertips. Tatsuha didn't stir. Relieved, he prepared to crawl on. Wait, Tohma said it was in
Tatsuha's Walkman.

This Walkman? The one tucked under the teenager's arm?

Oh, brother.

How was he going to remove it without waking Tatsuha?

Ryuichi studied the problem. Teenager lying on his back, Walkman between his right elbow and body, on the side
opposite the singer. Carefully, Ryuichi took the player between two fingers. Tatsuha was in long sleeves, so it might be
possible to slide it out without waking the boy. He just needed a better grip—.

Then Tatsuha turned over, right on the Walkman, and on top of Ryuichi's hand.

The singer stared in disbelief. Great, now his arm was trapped. How the hell had he gotten into this?

The teenager was still asleep. All right, he's on top of the Walkman, the hand, and pressing the arm against the back of
the sofa. Ryuichi thought for a while. He could wait until Tatsuha just happened to turn over again, but that might be
an hour from now. His fingers would be numb by then, and his hand was already sore. What on earth was he going to
do?

What he did was give a startled cry, when Kumiko leaned over and jerked his hand out, Walkman and all.

"Uesugis sleep like stones," Kumiko said in a normal tone of voice. "Were you looking for this, Sakuma-san?" She
opened the CD player and removed the disk.

Ryuichi glanced downwards. Tatsuha was still sleeping, undisturbed. The teenager looked scary. Uesugi-pretty, but
scary. Maybe it was his dark coloring, different from his siblings, but he looked . . . sultry? Was that the right word?

"Oh, yes, thank you. I didn't want to wake him because—." He hesitated, not wanting to say he was afraid of the
Uesugi temper.

Kumiko was eyeing him. "He's a nice boy," the cook said. Her tone had something odd in it, as if she were chiding him.
"Much more so than his brother."

Nice? ‘Uesugi' and ‘nice' had always been mutually exclusive categories. But Kumiko had said it in such a serious way.
Nice?

"He wore himself out looking after his sick father this week, and running his family's temple. And he was playing this
CD all night."

A fan? Now that he studied Tatsuha again, the teenager no longer looked quite so threatening. Tatsuha was burrowed
into the couch as deeply as he could get, his face resting sideways on the pillow. And the way he'd been hugging that
Walkman—yes, there was something almost Kumagoro-fluffy about it.

"So he's difficult to wake?" the singer asked.

"Well." Kumiko's face was sly. "I think if you KISSED him, he'd wake up."

Ryuichi only blinked at her in polite bewilderment.


((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))


Tatsuha was dreaming of Ryuichi. Of blue eyes, like concentrated sky. Blazing azure suns too bright to look at. Of
Ryuichi's face coming closer, of warm breath. Of lips. Soft lips pressing against Tatsuha's. So damp, so wet, so soggy-
--.

"Blaaaaugh!"

He woke, thrashing. He was lying on the couch, where he'd fallen asleep after breakfast. And someone HAD been
kissing him. A little girl was sitting on his chest, leaning over his face with a large amount of spit on her mouth. She
giggled.

Tatsuha stared. Who the hell was this? Had Mika given birth to a daughter and never bothered to tell him?

The girl only giggled some more, pleased with herself. "I think you're cute," she said, blushing.

"I think I'm cute, too," Tatsuha replied, wiping his mouth. What a horrible thing to have happen to you just when you
were dreaming about soft, beautiful, Ryuichi lips. \\ I'm never having kids,\\ Tatsuha thought.

A mocking laugh came from the hallway. "Modest as ever, Tatsuha-kun. Aren't monks supposed to learn humility from
somewhere?"

Tatsuha sat up a little. Noriko Ukai stood there. "This is Saki, isn't it?" said the boy.

"I suppose I have to claim her. How'd you like to babysit her for the rest of the afternoon while your sister and I go
shopping?"

"AAAUUUGH!"

Noriko nodded at her daughter. "I outscored you, Saki. He screamed louder for me." The musician laughed at the
horrified look on the monk's face. "Do you think I can't afford to hire someone more responsible than you to look after
my daughter? And stop gaping at her like she's the shark from ‘Jaws.'"

"Sorry," Tatsuha apologized. "It was just the excessive drool factor. Why are you here so early, anyway?"

"Early? It's one o'clock in the afternoon," Noriko said, taking Saki's hand.

Frantically, Tatsuha looked around for a clock. It was indeed early afternoon. But it had been 7 a.m. when he'd lain
down on the couch. Damn! Six hours gone. He hadn't intended to sleep the day away.

"I'll be back around five." Mika called. "Don't forget your key, because Kumiko has to buy groceries this afternoon.
And I expect you to be here for dinner. I don't want to have to launch a massive manhunt for you like we've done
before."

Tatsuha muttered something about his innocence as he watched them leave. He started to rise from the couch, then
noticed something odd.

His Ryuichi-Sense was tingling. It always activated on those rare occasions when he got close to his God, such as Nittle
Grasper concerts. That reminded him of the new album, and he looked around for his CD player. It was empty.

"Kumiko?" he asked. "Do you know if Tohma took that demo disk he lent me?"

"Oh, no. That was Sakuma-san."

"Wh–what?"

"He came by the house to get it."

"Ryuichi? Here? He took it—FROM MY PLAYER? While I was lying asleep on the couch with it?"

"Why, yes. He must have been crouching beside you ten minutes, very quiet, trying not to wake you."

"And he's not here anymore?" asked Tatsuha, his voice cracking.

"No, he's not. He left hours ago."

Slowly, Tatsuha toppled forward, landing face down on the tatami flooring with a noisy SPLAT. "Life SUCKS!" the prone
body moaned.

He couldn't believe it. He'd just missed Sakuma-san. Ryuichi had been right next to him, and he'd been oblivious.

How could this monstrous thing have happened to him?


(((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))


A little later Tatsuha was walking quickly along a Tokyo street, chewing his lunch. He had begged Kumiko for
something he could eat while he went shopping, so the cook had given him ika-meshi, a rice-stuffed squid that had been
cooked in soup stock.

As he bit off another piece of squid, he reflected about his own sexuality. He really wasn't certain how to classify it,
whether ‘bisexual' actually fit or not. He liked women, liked the way they looked, and he liked having sex with them.
But he didn't fall in love with them. As for men----now, wait a minute. Now that he thought about it, he felt the same
way about them, too. He liked having sex with men, but he didn't fall in love with them, either.

Except for Ryuichi. Whom, of course, he hadn't had sex with, but whom he loved maniacally.

\\None of this makes any damn sense.\\

He masticated a little more squid, and all of a sudden its texture reminded him of something else. Graphically reminded
him. A stiff, elongated reminder.

A second later the squid hit the side of a building with a force that would have done credit to a major league baseball
pitcher, disintegrating completely under the impact. Passers-by flinched aside, and gave Tatsuha bewildered looks,
wondering why he had flung a squid at them.

Tatsuha reddened, and stepped up his already fast pace. He wondered if Sanjiro had finally done what no woman had
ever managed, and turned him into a complete heterosexual.

No, there was still Ryuichi, whom he hadn't slept with, and couldn't even begin to imagine sleeping with, because he'd
blown the only chance he'd ever had by not waking up. He'd been trying to get Ryuichi's phone number for years. \\And
the only number I've been able to get is that goddamn driver's.\\

Eiri and Mika had laughed at him many times for his obsession with Ryuichi. \\Damn them, too. They actually get to fuck
their little rock stars. I have to stare at mine on a wall.\\

Slowly, he began to realize how angry he was with his father, Eiri, and Mika. He was angry with his father for being
sick yet again, and expecting his son to handle all the temple duties as well as regular schoolwork, yet spend the rest of
his time with his sick father at the hospital.

And he was furious with Eiri for being such a bastard, again. Eiri had been a bastard about everything for the last six
years. Tatsuha had been enduring, and excusing it, for a very long time, because of what had happened to his brother in
New York. But today, Tatsuha was in no mood to pity his brother. \\I don't believe that just because something awful
happened to you, it gives you an excuse to be a jerk for the rest of your life.\\

He was even furious with Mika, for she had left Dad and his pneumonia to Tatsuha's care this time, not even bothering
to come to Kyoto. Dad had called her home once too often, probably.

\\Maybe that's why I said ‘yes' to Sanjiro. Because I secretly wanted them to find out what I'd done. To really, really
piss them off.\\

Then the monk in him spoke up. \\And just because something awful happened to you, it doesn't give you the right to be
a jerk, either.\\

This sobered him for a moment. All right, this last week had almost wrecked him. But he could get over it.

\\Fuck Sanjiro. I won't let him ruin my life.\\


To Be Continued.