[Fanfic] Fight 'til you drop ..... Chapter 9
Title: Fight 'til you drop. Chapter 9
Pairing: Ryoda
Rating: AU, NC-17
Genre: Drama
Disclaimer: I wish I could say I owned them *wipes tears*
Summary: Ueda has started as a dancer with the group NEWS and when she thought life couldn't get any better she meets Nishikido Ryo. They get of to a bad start but Ryo soon finds her weakness and he plans to take advantage of it. Whatever the cost.
A/N: In this fic Ueda appears as a girl, just for your information ;)
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The big clock on the wall had just turned 8 pm and Tatsuya was sitting in the bar with her friends around her, all with saddened looks on their faces. She was only drinking water even though she was longing for a bottle of scotch to drown her sorrows in but she had to keep the baby in mind and maybe it was best for her to deal with her feelings instead of running away from them, she heard her self think the words and it gave her chills down her spine when she thought how much she sounded like a psychologist.
“Uebo...” Taguchi asked her carefully as if being afraid of disturbing her. “....I'm sorry.”
Tatsuya looked at him with tired eyes and slowly shook her head.
“No, Junno, don't be. If anyone should be sorry it's Ryo.” She didn't really want to admit it to herself but realized that Ryo had been cheating on her for a little less than half the time they had been together. After about a month together he had started acting strange, he had been grumpy and his bullying had started again: it hadn't been sex-related like last time but it was more of calling her names and pointing out every mistake she did. It had hurt whenever he called her names but she had convinced herself that he did it for loving her, just like when they first met, so she had not told anyone about it.
But lately he hadn't allowed her to get close to him and the fact that he didn't let her be a part of his life had inflicted more pain than the name-calling ever could.
A tear fell down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away but the guys had already seen it.
“Tatsuya.” Sousuke took her hand that was resting on the counter next to the half-filled glass of water and placed it on her stomach. “Remember this little guy? Even if he doesn't have a father right now he will still have a lot of uncles, right?” He smiled at her and she felt really grateful for having such great friends.
“Yeah.” She wiped away another tear that had escaped her eye. “I guess Jin was right after all.” She then said with a I'm-feeling-better-now smile and looked at the man she had just mentioned.
“Actually...” He said hesitantly as if he wasn't sure of what to say to his fragile friend. “It was your grandmother who told me about Ryo.” Tatsuya's eyes went wide.
“What?” She couldn't believe what he had just said.
“Yeah, she was worried about you and when I said that you didn't want to see her she looked like she would start to cry. Anyway, she said she didn't wish for you to be heartbroken over a jerk like him.”
Tatsuya didn't know how to react, had the crow of a grandmother defended her from being hurt?
“But that doesn't make any sense, why would she do that?” She looked at Jin with a confused look but the man just shrugged at her question.
“I think you'll have to ask her to find out.” He simply said with the hint of a smile on his pretty face.
“Well... I suppose one visit wouldn't kill me.” She said hesitantly and turned to Kame. “Could I borrow you car?” She bashed her eyelashes at her friend who, after an amused sigh, started searching his pockets for the keys to his Mercedes.
It took Tatsuya about 20 minutes to reach the mansion that used to be her home, the big iron gates opened themselves welcomely but she still felt an uncomfortable feeling being back after three long years.
She took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell in order to calm her heart down that was beating faster than usual, she had been through a lot today and was hoping not to start anything by coming by this late.
The door squeaked a little when one of the maids, Mari-chan, opened it and her eyes went wide when she saw who had been ringing the doorbell.
“Ueda-sama... I will tell the mistress that you have arrived.” Mari rushed up the stairs and disappeared into one of the long corridors.
Tatsuya looked around and smiled a sad smile when she saw that nothing had changed since the last time she had been there: the walls still had the same paintings, the beautiful chandelier in the ceiling still gave the big hall a warm, pleasant feeling. But the thing that really caught her eye was the big portrait of her parents above the staircase: they sat next to each other, holding hands with the biggest smiles ever. Her mother's hair was long and jet-black while her father's was short and blond. One pair of sincere, blue eyes matching perfectly with the pair of dark, mysterious ones. Her mother and father matched each other perfectly and it almost brought tears to her eyes when Tatsuya saw them smiling at her, but she blinked them away as soon as she heard someone coming down the stairs. She stood up straight and found herself looking straight into her grandmother's eyes.
“Tatsuya.... What brings you here?” Kumiko asked her granddaughter, not caring if her voice gave away how surprised she was.
“I.... Jin told me you came to see me today....” Why was it so hard to find the right words? “...And I just want to say... Thank you.” Kumiko looked at her in surprise before she smiled at her with a real, genuine smile. One that Tatsuya hadn't seen for so long.
“You're welcome, dear. So... did you go to see him?” She asked when Tatsuya smiled an innocent smile towards her.
Tatsuya took a deep breath. Telling her was the right thing to do, right?
“Yes... and you were right. He was seeing someone else so I broke up with him.”
“I see. I'm sorry you were hurt but maybe it was for the best, you deserve so much better.” Tatsuya could for once hear her grandmother's feelings in her voice and they told her that she really meant what she was saying. But she had to be really tired to let her emotions shine through her voice, maybe she had been working too much lately. “I was just about to have a cup of tea, would you like to join me?” “It's now or never.” Kumiko thought to herself, she would never get an opportunity like this again.
“Well, I suppose I could stay for a little while.” Her answer made her grandmother's face shine and she felt a small, pleasant feeling spreading in her chest when she saw it.
They walked in to the big livingroom on the first floor where a teapot, two cups and a little bowl with crackers were on a tray on the small table between the two beige armchairs in front of the open fireplace.
“Please, darling. Sit down.” Kumiko gestured to her granddaughter to sit down in the chair next to her and poured up a cup of hot tea which she placed in front of Tatsuya who took the cup in her hands and took a sip. With a low whimper she realized that the tea was way too hot to drink yet and she looked up when she heard a small chuckle next to her. There was Ueda Kumiko, her coldhearted grandmother, with a hand over her mouth to stop her smile from offending Tatsuya.
“What?” Tatsuya couldn't help but feeling a little hurt seeing Kumiko laugh at her.
“I'm sorry, Tatsuya, but it's been so long since I saw that unguarded face of yours.” Tatsuya shivered when being called by her firstname, she was still not used to having her grandmother calling her that but unlike last time she spoke to her in a soft, warm voice that reminded her an awful lot of how things used to be before her parents death.
They sat that way for about ten minutes without really talking about anything but the pleasant feeling in Tatsuya's heart had not disappeared like she had expected it to, it had instead grown and it was now warming her more than the hot tea did.
“Tatsuya, I have to ask you something...” Kumiko draw a deep breath. “I need to know... Do you hate me?”
The unexpected question caught Tatsuya off guard and she didn't really know what she should answer. Did she really hate her grandmother or was she just projecting her anger and sadness on her? “Oh my God! I'm starting to think like a psychologist and that's never good!”
“I... I'm not sure I do. Maybe I've just been afraid of my feelings after mom and dad died and I chose to take it out on you.”
“Oh, I see.” Kumiko relaxed at her granddaughter's answer and she felt herself smile a big smile, the kind of smile she hadn't allowed herself to show in so long. “Because no matter how I have treated you I love you of all my heart and I would hate for us not to be able to talk to each other.”
Tatsuya felt a flutter-like feeling in her chest from those words but suddenly turned serious.
“Grandma, I'm sorry.” Kumiko almost lost her grip around the cup in her hands, what had she just said? “I'm sorry for releasing my anger on to you when you suffered as much as I did and probably still do, and I'm sorry for being rude to you and treating you disrespectful. You did not deserve it and I feel really bad about it now.” The words just kept flowing out of her mouth and when she had finally finished she couldn't believe what she had just said but the thing that surprised her even more was the fact that she really meant it all.
She had sometimes thought about her and her grandmother's relationship, regretting all the times they had fought but she had always been too proud to tell anyone but now she had finally said it and it felt really good.
They stayed up and talked about pretty much everything and the conversation flowed much easier than before and before they knew it it was already midnight.
“Well, maybe I should get back home. To my place I mean.” She felt a little stupid for talking about going home when technically she already was home.
“Well, how did you get here?” Kumiko asked.
“I borrowed one of Kame's cars. So I'll be driving.” She smiled at her grandmother and stood up from the armchair but for some reason her legs buckled when she tried to walk.
Kumiko managed to catch Tatsuya before she hit the floor and helped her sit down again.
“Tatsuya, you are in no condition to drive tonight, I will just get Rui to drive you home.” Kumiko squeezed her grandchild's shoulder and stood up to get the young driver.
“Grandma, wait.” Tatsuya tried to stand up in order to follow, and stop, her grandmother but it was of no use since her legs were not responding to her at all.
“Sweetheart, I already told you: you are in no condition to drive right now. And besides, Rui won't mind driving...”
“Grandma, I was thinking that maybe I could stay here tonight. I mean, I left work early today so Yamapi would probably kill me if I showed up tomorrow. Unless you don't want me to....”
Kumiko just looked at the young girl in front of her, to say that she was in shock would be a huge understatement. She looked like she had been struck by lightning.
“I-would-love-for-you-to-stay-the-night.-You-can-have-your-old-room-if-you-want-or-the-guest-room-if-it-feels-awkward-being-back-in-the-old-room.” Kumiko spoke so fast Tatsuya could hardly tell what the older woman was talking about, she hadn't seen her this excited in years and the happy look on her grandmother's face brought a fluttering feeling in Tatsuya's chest.
When they had decided that Tatsuya really was going to stay the night Kumiko called for the Mari-chan and five minutes later Tatsuya's old room had been prepared.
Kumiko helped Tatsuya to get up the wide double-stairs with the large portrait of her parents, through the long corridor on the right and in to her room where nothing had changed in the three years that she had been gone.
The room, or more like the suite, was still as impressive as the day that she had left, the walls still had the same warm red color, the large windows still showed her how the moonlight was reflected in the big pond outside. All of her little things were still there: the picture of her and her adoptive brother hugging each other at his graduation was still placed on the left side of the big desk next to the emerald-green and golden music-box that her dad had brought her back from Paris. The picture of her and her mom on one of their picnics in the park still hung on the wall above the queen-size bed and the fairly large painting that her mom had made of Tatsuya and Jin was still framed in the old silver frame and hung above the head of the bed.
Tatsuya could have never imagined that coming back would feel so strange, she only realized now that the only thing that she had brought with her was the clothes on her body and the Ueda family framed photo, the Ueda-family, that at the time, consisted of herself, her adoptive brother Shun, her mom Miki and her father Jean.
Everything else she had left untouched when her brother decided to move to Paris to become a model after their parents deaths and her last supportive pillar disappeared from her life. She hadn't heard from Shun in 18 months but she had seen pictures of him on the net since he had grown pretty famous overseas but she still missed him, her relationship with Shun had been similar to her and Jin's relationship (apart from the sex- and love-stuff) so losing him had been hard to deal with.
“I hope you won't be too uncomfortable in here being back after all this time.” Kumiko said and forced herself to look away from the painting of her grandchild and her old boyfriend that her daughter had painted.
“You don't have to worry about that, grandma. I had to come back sooner or later, right?” The warm smile that Tatsuya sent her made Kumiko happier than she had been for three years and with a smile and a: “Good night, Sweetheart. I'm glad you're back.” She closed the door behind her and let a tear escape her eye.
Tatsuya had finally come home.