[FIC] Love You Like I Do: Part Six - kyoudai_koibito
Title: Love You Like I Do
Part: 6 of ?
Author: kyoudai_koibito (Joci) {the former tenshinoreyire}
Rating: PG
Warnings: None for now.
Disclaimer: This is fiction, purely fiction and I own nothing.
Summary: Sometimes the rain brings us closer together ... and sometimes it pushes us further apart.
Previous Chapters: One Two Three Four Five
Love You Like I Do
Chapter Six
It was a hard feeling to describe. Unless a person had felt it personally, it was very difficult to put into any sort of words. Inui lie in his bed staring up at the ceiling. He had been living his life for the past few days in a sort of haze. He was doing things without any real thought behind them; almost robotic in his actions. Instead of nightmares, he was getting almost no sleep at all now. Kaidoh avoided him whenever possible; and they never spoke anymore. And it was all his fault. He had promised to be there for his team, and he attempted to focus on that at all the training sessions -- he couldn't keep letting them down.
But it was so hard with Kaidoh there. Even if his kouhai glanced in his general direction, it was like he was unseen, like nothing was there. Like Kaidoh was seeing right through him. His stomach twisted in knots and he felt like it was hard to breathe for a moment. At the same time, Inui felt like he deserved it. It was his fault all this had happened. He had been treating his nightmares -- and Kaidoh -- like objects. Like an experiment in human emotions. He was focusing so hard on his little experiment that he was forgetting to live, and not noticing that everything he had worked so hard to build was slowly crumbling around him. Inui attempted to simply endure the pain, telling himself repeatedly that it was all his fault. And yet, he still hadn't figured out anyway to correct things. He knew he needed to drop the scientific thinking and go down a new path; at least for this.
Before he knew it, the sky outside was shifting to a lighter blue. He could hear soft raindrops splattering against his windows already. His only comfort, he thought as he slid out of bed, was that at least the rain had stopped being a constant heavy downpour.
--
By the afternoon, the courts were dry enough to play on, as the rain had let up early on in the morning. Inui was looking over a few sheets of paper in his hand. He no longer drug his data book around everywhere, keeping notes on everyone and everything; every second of the day. It was in his bag in the locker room. He couldn't stop himself from keeping the tennis data at least; but he had stopped using people as his guinea pigs. He was hazy enough to not notice Kaidoh approaching him until his kouhai coughed loudly.
"Ah -- K.. Kaidoh?" he questioned in response, almost meekly.
"Senpai." Kaidoh paused momentarily, seeming to be looking at the papers Inui was holding, which was actually just a roster list of the players. "Your, uhm, book .. you don't have it?"
Inui looked surprised. "No .. no. It's in the locker room. I write data down on the team after practice."
"Just the team?" Kaidoh mumbled this, his gaze focused on the ground.
"Just the team." Inui responded, pushing his glasses up.
His kouhai nodded understandingly and still with an unreadable look on his face, finally lifted his eyes. "Want to play a set when Echizen and Momoshiro are done, senpai?"
Inui's eyes widened and then his expression softened. "I'd like that very much."
"Okay." There was a twitch of a smile at the corner of Kaidoh's mouth as he trotted off to await his turn to play against his senpai.
Inui wasn't sure Kaidoh had totally forgiven him yet; but he thought perhaps things would start getting somewhat back to normal.
Notes:
+ For the hundreth bajillion time, thank you InuKai cosplayers. xD
+ It's been a year since I updated. And this isn't a very good update. I'm a bad author.
+ I don't believe this is over yet. Oh boy. xD
Enjoy! :D (If anyone remembers this, lol.)