Strive For Something Better Ch9
Finally! I know, know I said I would pot this last week, I'm really sorry! I've been feeling totally lousy recently and this weekend I went to my gnadmother's for a coupe days, why can't all my relatives live in the same town!? Anway, here's te next update, and btw if you find any typos I apologise but due to the aforementioned feeling-totally-lousy I can't bring myself to comb through the chapterlooking for mistakes, so I apologise in advance, here's chapter 9:
STRIVE FOR SOMETHING BETTER - CHAPTER NINE
“Shige! Hurry up! We’re going to leave you behind!”
“Alright, alright! I’m done, I’m done!” Shige moaned, giving his hair one last poke before turning and all but sprinting to Koyama’s side.
“Kei-chan, you’re so mean sometimes, remind me why we call you Koyamama again?” Koyama just smiled sweetly at him. Yamapi grinned and shook his head, leaning one elbow on Ryo’s shoulder, provoking a world-weary eye roll from his best friend, but Ryo had long ago learned not to bother trying to shrug off his friend’s arm, Pi would just put it back and pull a stupid face at him.
Pi shot a glance at Tegoshi, who was smiling as he chatted aimlessly with Massu, but still, Pi caught the occasional sharp glance he sent in Ryo’s direction. This couldn’t just be paranoia on Pi’s part. Something had to be going on.
“Okay! Let’s set off, we don’t want to be the last ones there!” Koyama’s enthusiasm was boundless as he linked an arm with both Shige and Tegoshi and strode from the room.
As he and Subaru had been saying the previous day, all three bands were indeed pretty damn busy, so instead of going home to change and going out from there, it had been decided via text, thanks to Jin, Yamapi and Ryo being best friends and Ryo being in two bands, therefore forming a link between all three groups and their cell phones, that everyone should bring a change of clothes to work and get ready there.
As NEWS reached the lobby they caught sight of Kanjani8 up ahead of them and Ryo called out to them, waving and grinning.
Pi bit his lip as he looked for Murakami’s reaction, but there actually wasn’t much of one, he turned and smiled and waved back at Ryo, just like the rest of the band.
Watching Ryo fall into step beside Ohkura and Yassu Pi hesitated before calling out discreetly to Kanjani8’s Red Ranger.
“Ne, Subaru-kun,” Subaru turned lazily, a somewhat vacant expression on his face, until he saw who it was that had been calling to him. They fell into step beside each other and let the others pull ahead a little.
“Yamapi, what’s wrong?” Subaru asked, his voice tight.
“I’m worried,” Pi said bluntly, staring ahead at the small crowd of idols as they strolled up the street, less conspicuous than they might have been during the day as fewer people were there to see them all. Subaru glanced from Pi to Shingo to Tegoshi and sighed.
“I spoke to Hina, the day before yesterday, he said nothing was going on but…” Pi glanced down at him, he was chewing his lip and frowning at the pavement.
“I want to trust what he said but…I just…don’t feel like I can,” Yamapi sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“I don’t want to think Tego-chan is up to anything but, with the way he was talking and the looks he keeps throwing at Ryo, and the fact that Ryo seems totally oblivious, it all worries me,” he sighed. Despite feeling worried for his best friend he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty too. Tegoshi was his friend and band-mate, he didn’t want to doubt him, but Tegoshi didn’t seem to be presenting him with any other choice.
And here Koyama and Subaru had arranged this night so all of them could relax and have a good time together before the really heavy workloads hit them.
“Hey! Leader! Hurry up, what are you guys doing back there!?” Koyama called suddenly, like magic and Pi couldn’t help but smile at him. He waved and stuck his tongue out, striving to lighten his own mood and let Koyama’s plan do its job. As long as he kept half an eye on Tegoshi tonight everything should be fine, right?
“Speed up Red!” Yoko called, throwing Subaru a stupid grin which Subaru couldn’t help but return. Glancing at Yamapi he took a deep breath before smiling brightly and quickening his pace to catch up with his band. He hadn’t made this plan with Koyama so he could worry himself to death, for now he would enjoy the night out; he could give himself headaches over Hina later.
~~~
“Damnit Kame you’re not helping the view everyone has of you being girly!” Koki moaned, leaning dramatically, leaning against the door and hanging off the handle.
Watching the exchange with a smirk and a raised eyebrow from his position leaning against the doorframe, Ueda turned and looked over his shoulder at Nakamaru who was leaning against the wall with Junno, stifling his laughter with a hand.
“Koki, imply that I’m a girl again and I’ll castrate you with one of Jin’s guitar strings,”
“Hey!” Jin and Koki both threw him wounded expressions. Giving his hair a final artistic flick and straightening his jacket Kame turned to Jin who was sitting in the chair beside his while he waited patiently for him to finish (having learned the hard way that impatience got him nowhere that wasn’t somehow painful) and smiled at him.
“Don’t worry I’ll buy you new ones,” Jin rolled his eyes and grinned.
“I repeat, hey!” Koki yelled indignantly. Taguchi and Nakamaru snickered into their hands. Ueda shook his head and grinned.
“C’mon Kame-chan, the others are probably already there,” he said. Kame gave him a pointed look.
“I don’t know why you all get so much enjoyment out of pretending I’m girly and take a long time to get ready when I was the last to finish work today, hell Taguchi was already ready before I even got here,”
Taguchi stuck his head through the door, leaning around Ueda so he could see his younger band-mate.
“I’m the only one not currently working on a drama or something,”
“He has a point,” Nakamaru called. Kame rolled his eyes, shot another look at the mirror and stood up, grabbing Jin’s hand.
“Ok, ok, let’s roll,” he said, throwing them all a smile.
~~~
Ueda raised his glass to his lips, running his eyes over the club, the spinning bodies on the dance floor, the half-drunk people sprinkled over the tables and chairs around the edges, the rest of the people propped up against the bar, either chattering amongst themselves, becoming completely entranced by the bottom of their glasses or watching the way people’s bodies twisted around beside each other in front of them.
“Uebo!” he swivelled his eyes back to Kame, who was standing beside him.
“What’s up!?” he yelled back.
“You’re daydreaming again, what’s wrong!?”
“For a start we’re about to pulverize our vocal chords trying to talk to each other over this god-awful rave music that’s currently playing and lose our jobs because we can’t sing anymore!” Kame grinned at him and rolled his eyes, he was about to say - or rather yell - something else when the song suddenly changed to something smoother and slightly quieter, though still loud and Ueda smirked as Kame rolled his eyes, glancing at Ohkura and Yassu as they danced.
“Uebo is something wrong?” Ueda bit his lip.
“I’m ok Kame, just thinking about something,” Kame smiled and wrapped a hand around his arm.
“Well for tonight don’t think, we’re here to have fun, come dance with me!”
Ueda grinned, somehow there didn’t seem to be a human being alive able to resist in any way when Kamenashi Kazuya asked them to dance.
He shot a glance back at Nakamaru and Koki who were deep in conversation with Massu and Maruyama, then at the bar where he saw Yamapi step away from Ryo, Murakami and Tegoshi and towards Jin. Ueda bit his lip as he saw Murakami signal the bartender, wondering how many times he’d already done so, before feeling his arm being tugged on.
He smiled and rolled his eyes at Kame and decided he was right. Now was not the time to over-think anything. Never mind Tegoshi and Murakami’s strange behaviour, and never mind the fact that he hadn’t been able to talk with Ryo so far, now was the time to relax a little, right?
~~~
Tegoshi barely suppressed a calculated grin as Shingo waved the bartender over for what must have been the fifth time. He was pretty sure everyone else they had come here with could only have been on their third drink at most. Not even Akanishi Jin, or Shibutani Subaru would have reached their fourth yet, but they were managing to tip a combination of shots and beer down Ryo’s throat and he wasn’t questioning it.
Watching Ryo take a swig of his beer Tegoshi recalled his and Shingo’s earlier conversation. Having sent Shingo a text he said something to Massu about using the bathroom and met up with Shingo in a deserted hallway to discuss the plan for the evening.
“Subaru is suspicious so at least until we’re in the club we can’t hover around Ryo-chan too much,”
“I think Yamapi is suspicious of me too,”
“So what do we do?” Tegoshi grinned.
“Simple. Here’s the plan: once we’re in the club we wait for everyone else to be totally occupied with each other, their drinks, dancing, whatever, then…we just get Ryo-tan drunk!”
“Will that work?”
“Sure! He’s a guy right? Once he gets just drunk enough he’ll probably get horny, then he’ll go for one of us because everyone else will be somewhere else,”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
“Well, I can always keep trying, I can think of any number of ways I could do this,”
“You’re a difficult person to team up with you know, I feel a sudden newfound respect for Masuda-kun,”
Tegoshi wasn’t sure whether or not to be offended by that so he just brushed it aside and told Shingo to make sure that when they were in the club Ryo was with them at the counter for as long as possible so they could get him as drunk as possible.
Now he was beginning to wonder very dimly and in disjointed bursts of lethargic electrical impulses whether his plan may have had one small detail that could become a huge flaw:
He and Shingo weren’t holding their alcohol as well as Ryo.
He’d been fully aware that Ryo was better at holding his alcohol than him but he knew for sure that he had eaten more than Ryo today, so why was it the lights and the sound were turning into glimmering waves in front of his eyes. Looking across at Shingo he could tell he too was getting more drunk than Ryo.
How is he doing it? Is he pouring the drink into a plant or something? Wait, there are no plants in here…wouldn’t it be cool if there were trees…and then they could put monkeys in the trees…but the monkeys might drop banana’s on people…what if one of the monkeys got stolen…Yuya! Focus!
Ryo took a deep swig of his beer and shot a glance over his shoulder at the dance floor where Ueda was dancing with Kame. That was until Jin appeared from nowhere and tapped Kame on the shoulder grinning at him and giving Ueda a mock questioning glance. Ueda laughed and bowed, backing away. As he straightened up he turned, almost colliding with Yassu who grinned at him and dragged him into a circle with Ohkura, Koki and Maruyama to dance with them.
While Ryo was watching, or rather gazing at Ueda as he smiled brightly at the three Osakans and danced with them Yoko appeared at Shingo’s side and tugged on his arm, giving him a pointed look.
Shooting Ryo a parting glance and fixing Tegoshi with a look that said ‘keep an eye on him while I talk to Yuu’, to which Tegoshi answered with an eye roll that said ‘Duh!’, Shingo practically stumbled a few feet down the bar where they couldn’t be heard.
Yoko gave him a look as he struggled to hold himself upright.
“Drunk much?” Yoko said accusingly.
“Not much, I only had a few beers and…how many shots was that…two…three…four…six?” Shingo raised his hands in front of his face, trying to count on his fingers and losing count three times before Yoko rolled his eyes impatiently and yanked Shingo’s hands away from his face, glaring into his eyes.
“Hina, you have to stop!” Shingo blinked.
“I was gonna get it, I just forgot how many drinks-”
“Not the fucking drinks you idiot! Ryo-chan! Leave him alone! I can tell what you’re doing and I can tell Tegoshi-kun is doing the same thing! Baru mentioned you were acting funny, and if he’s noticed then other people have noticed!”
“I told Baru nothing was going on!” Shingo looked like an indignant child. Yoko tried to recall when he had seen him this drunk.
“Well it sure doesn’t look that way!”
“I’ll stop either when I’ve won or my time is up, I promise, after tonight its game over right?”
“No, this is wrong, messing with Ryo-chan like this, I thought at first the idea was sort of funny but I’ve changed my mind, let’s just cancel the bet okay?”
“I don’t wanna! Lemme try for tonight, just to see if I can!” Yoko stared at him. Shingo didn’t normally act this way, he was being petulant and unreasonable, he could barely see what he was doing and Yoko had the horrible feeling someone was going to get hurt, probably Ryo and there would be hell to pay, not least because Subaru would skin Shingo alive if he found out just what he was trying to do.
“Hina, think about this, this isn’t reasonable, and it’s not fair to Ryo-chan, it was stupid to make the bet in the first place,” but Shingo only waved him off, moving to return to his seat.
“You worry too much, and anyway, after tonight I’ll stop, I think Tegoshi is way creepier than me you know,” he missed the pale look that came over Yoko’ face as he turned away.
Yoko rubbed his face and sighed, praying neither of those two would be successful in getting Ryo drunk, praying that someone would somehow come to Ryo’s rescue, because if he tried Shingo would only shove him away again.
“Hey, Yuu, what’s up?” Yoko jumped and glanced down. Subaru was standing beside him, holding two drinks and looking concerned. Yoko made an effort to smile.
“Oh, nothing, I’m fine,” Subaru smiled uncertainly and handed him his drink. Moving with him towards the rest of the peoples on the dance floor Yoko glanced back over his shoulder at the three at the bar and bit his lip.
~~~
Ueda swept a hand across his forehead and accepted the drink Yamapi offered him with a smile, taking a swig as Kame and Koki came to stand beside him. Yamapi moved away to talk to Shige and Ueda glanced after him, recalling their conversation for the millionth time.
So far they night had been nothing but fun, he had enjoyed being here with his band-mates, and spending time with the members of the other bands had been fun too. Much as he didn’t normally associate with them very much he found he liked being around them and their positive energy.
So why was it his thoughts kept returning to Tegoshi and Shingo and their less than ordinary behaviour? He wasn’t one to ignore his own intuition but on such an occasion as this when his intuition was presenting him with something he just didn’t want to think might be true he simply couldn’t accept it. He didn’t want them to be up to anything, they were Ryo’s friends and band-mates, and the thought of Ryo getting hurt made his chest hurt.
“Oi, Uebon! Snap out of it!” Ueda jumped as Koki’s fingers snapped in front of his face.
“Huh? Oh…sorry, daydreaming again,” he gave an awkward sheepish smile but neither Kame nor Koki returned it. At that moment Jin appeared.
“Ah, you snapped him out of it,” Ueda blinked at them. How far away had he been?
“Uebo, seriously you’ve been spacing out for a couple of days now, I mean, more than usual, something’s bothering you, what’s wrong?”
Ueda sighed. Of course, after almost a decade it stood to reason his band-mates might just be able to figure out when he was unhappy or worried or something similar. Hell, Nakamaru had known he was in love before he’d realised it himself.
“It’s…” he hesitated, he didn’t want to falsely accuse anyone, didn’t want to accuse anyone at all…but…
“Tat-chan,” Kame pressed. Ueda sipped his drink, roving his eyes over the room, landing again on Ryo, Tegoshi and Shingo before lowering his glass.
“Does this have something to do with Ryo-chan?” Jin asked. Ueda stiffened, so far he had only confirmed his feeling for Ryo to Kame, Nakamaru and Taguchi, he wasn’t sure how much Koki and Jin knew, but keeping it from them wouldn’t help anyway.
“Yeah, it does,” he said quietly. Kame suddenly looked worried.
“Did something happen today? You seemed fine yesterday,” Ueda blinked.
“No, nothing happened,”
“Pi said Ryo was having lunch with you recently, I thought that was good, that you were getting along, but did he say something bad again?” Ueda shook his head.
“No, nothing like that. Kame, have you told Jin anything?” he asked tentatively. Jin smiled.
“You mean, has he told me you like Ryo-chan? He didn’t need to,” Koki blinked.
“Wait…what am I missing?” Kame rolled his eyes.
“Tat-chan’s in love with Nishikido-kun,”
“Kame!” Ueda snapped and covered his eyes with one hand in exasperation.
“What? It’s true,”
“That is so not the point right now!” Ueda muttered through gritted teeth. Koki raised one eyebrow.
“You just said it had something to do with Nishikido, if he didn’t something to upset you, you know we’ll kill him for you right?” Ueda rolled his eyes.
“Yeah it has something to do with Nishikido, but it doesn’t technically have anything to do with me,” all three of them blinked at him. Kame shook his head.
“Ok, you lost me,” Ueda sighed and nodded in the direction of the bar.
“What’s the problem? He’s not doing anything,” Ueda shook his head.
“Not him, who he’s with,” Jin turned to the bar and squinted through the dimness and strobe lights.
“Tegoshi-kun and Murakami-kun…right?” Ueda nodded. Koki turned back to him, still looking confused.
“I still don’t get it, what about them?” Ueda stared at the three people sitting at the bar and bit his lip. Just mentioning the problem made it feel more real and thus he felt more worried about it.
“I think they’re up to something, something involving Nishikido, except I don’t think he knows anything about it…whatever ‘it’ is,” Kame no longer looked puzzled but was now wearing a similar look of concern and unease.
“Actually, I thought they seemed a little strange at lunch yesterday, me and Junno figured they were suffocating you with loopy cheeriness so we came over to cheer you up, but until then I didn’t think much more of it,”
“Then you realised they seemed really clingy right?” Kame nodded, staring thoughtfully at the ground.
“They reminded me of those pushy obnoxious high school girls who always want their crush’s attention,”
“Exactly,” Jin looked from Ueda to Kame and back.
“Wait, what does that mean? Why would they act like that?” Ueda sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. Koki shot a look back at the bar.
“You know, you’re right, they seem like they’re trying to keep all his attention on them, but why would they do that…they don’t like him do they?” Ueda blinked. Somehow he’d never come to that conclusion before, and the suggestion was disconcerting. Jin made a face, apparently he shared the same opinion.
“I don’t think that’s it, why would they both be going after him?” Kame said. Koki nodded thoughtfully.
“They do seem like whatever they’re doing they’re doing it together, people don’t usually go after their crushes as a team right?” Ueda opened his mouth to respond but before he could someone, they couldn’t tell who, stumbled as they passed and ended up crashing into Koki and Kame who stumbled forwards ad let go of their drinks which ended up splashing like an alcoholic green tidal wave over Jin’s front.
Ueda stared for a moment before lifting a hand to his mouth to hide his grin and stifle his laughter. A second later, Koki and Kame were giggling too. Jin glared at them, swatting at his dripping shirt but he was obviously a lot less angry than he was pretending to be. Kame reached up, plucking at the spreading green stain on the front of Jin’s white t-shirt.
“Oh, Jin, I’m so sorry,” he said in between giggles.
“Sorry about that Akanishi,” Koki said breathlessly. Jin swiped comically at the brim of his hat as it dripped. Kame giggled again and kissed his nose, sucking some of the drink off it.
“Mmmm, you taste good,” Ueda and Koki rolled their eyes and grinned. Ueda laid his hand on Jin’s shoulder, but pulled it back immediately, making a face at the green stickiness on his hand.
“I’ll go find you something to dry that off with,” Koki cleared his throat.
“I’ll get some water from the bar, or you’ll get sticky,” he sniggered again and wandered off. Ueda grinned after him and headed off in the direction of the corridor that led to the bathrooms.
~~~
At the bar Ryo glanced from Shingo to Tegoshi and wondered why they kept suggesting drink after drink if they were getting so drunk.
Shingo was leaning heavily on one hand which was propped on his elbow on the bar and gazing either at Ryo or the middle distance - Ryo wasn’t entirely sure which - with a hazy expression and Tegoshi was practically lying on his arm, clinging to it with one hand and giggling at just about anything that was said.
“Guys, don’t you think that’s enough? We should go dance or something,” Tegoshi suddenly pouted at him and he sighed inwardly. Tegoshi drunk was unbelievably more annoying than Tegoshi sober.
“Ryo-tan’s not drunk yet! Why isn’t Ryo-tan drunk yet? Ryo-tan should be drunk too!”
“I think I’m on my way there, why did you two get drunk so fast anyway?” Shingo shrugged, almost dislodging his head from its rest but catching himself at the last moment.
“Sods Law,” he said and giggled stupidly. “Really though, Ryo-chan you’re so hard to get drunk, you should be drunk by now, this isn’t going to work if you don’t get drunk!” Alarm bells went off fuzzily in Ryo’s head.
“Hina, what are you talking about?” Tegoshi sighed dramatically and lurched off Ryo’s arm, slumping forwards on the counter looking sulky.
“If Ryo-tan would get drunk then at least one of us could win their bet!” Ryo stiffened in apprehension.
“What the hell are you two talking about?” but Shingo seemed to have realised what they had said somewhat and made a face, letting his head rest on its side on the counter.
“Tegoshi, he wasn’t supposed to find out! It won’t work now!”
“It’s work if I’m right! And I have to be right because I hate being wrong!”
“That’s not a reason!”
“Is!” Ryo looked from one to the other in frustration, though the sudden movement of his head made him dizzy and he realised the alcohol might have affected him a little more than he had realised. Though he was still sober enough to know that something very wrong was happening here.
“Guys! What are you talking about!?” he said sharply.
“We had bets on you,”
“What!?”
“I made a bet with Kei-chan and Shige-kun, actually they didn’t want to make the bet because they’re boring but I made it anyway!” Tegoshi gave a lopsided triumphant grin.
“I made a bet with Yoko, and he gave me five days, today was the last day, he wanted to stop the bet but I said no, but now I might lose because you weren’t supposed to find out,” Shingo’s words were slurred and came out half formed and only just making sense, but Ryo could just about make out what he was saying. What he didn’t understand was what they both meant by ‘bets’.
“I don’t get it, what do your bets have to do with me?” he asked, his head was staring to hurt.
“We bet we could get you to sleep with us!”
Ryo’s stomach convulsed in his body and for a moment he thought he might throw the whole thing up. They had made that kind of a bet on him? Why? Why him? How could they think that was okay?
“But that Ueda-kun, how’d he get so close to you so quick anyway?” Ryo was certain his heart had just stopped. But it must have started again because he was still alive.
“Wait…Ueda?”
“Eating with you, always smiling and laughing with you, so unfair that he should get closer than us,” Tegoshi looked sulky again. Disturbingly Shingo’s expression was similar.
“Having competition like that, making it more difficult for us, what did he do that we didn’t Ryo-chan?” Ryo didn’t answer, his brain was tearing itself to pieces and he couldn’t keep up with himself and his heart was beating too fast and…
Ueda was in on it too? He’d been right, Ueda had been up to something when he started being nice to him, was it true?
“Ueda…Ueda was doing…the same thing…as you guys…?” Ryo’s voice came out cracked and strained and sounding nothing like himself.
“Only better,” Tegoshi grumbled.
All three of them. Ryo…hated them. He turned slowly from one to the other a looked of loathing rage boiling in his eyes.
“How could you guys do that to me? How could he…?” Ryo stood suddenly from his stool. Tegoshi and Shingo turned to look at him, their eyes glazed.
“I hate you…all of you,” with that he turned and half stormed, half stumbled across the rooms to the corridor that led to the bathrooms.
~~~
After washing the sticky green alcohol off his hand Ueda had taken a wad of paper towels from the dispenser and now left the bathroom to find Jin again. He passed the pile from hand to hand as he walked up the corridor, not noticing his steps becoming slower as his thoughts moved faster, until he was suddenly aware of someone else in the corridor.
Looking up he saw Ryo striding towards him looking grim and determined. I hope nothing happened… he thought, thinking back to the three of them sitting at the bar earlier.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Ryo spoke suddenly, not pausing in his advance. Ueda frowned, and then looked down at his hands, thinking that must be what Ryo was referring to.
“Oh, Kame and Koki accidentally spilt their drinks on Jin,” he said, feeling a little unnerved by the expression on Ryo’s face.
“Uh, Nishikido, is something wrong?” he asked, stopping completely. Ryo however, didn’t stop until he reached him. He grasped his shoulders in a painful grip and shoved him hard against the wall of the corridor, jostling the paper towels from his hands where they fluttered like dead leaves around their feet.
Ueda stared into Ryo’s eyes in utter shock.
“Nishikido, what the hell?”
“How could you do that to me? After I decided to trust you!” Ueda stared at him, baffled and a little afraid. Ryo’s eyes were glowing with rage, but by their slightly glazed appearance Ueda could tell Ryo wasn’t completely sober.
“Nishikido what are you talking about? Get off me!”
“All of you, you’re unbelievable! I trusted you! Then it turns out you were lying to me!” Ueda struggled against the painful grip on his shoulders but Ryo’s hands only clawed tighter into him, biting into his skin through his thin shirt.
“Nishikido you’re not making any sense, let go of me, what’s wrong with you?” he was scared now, he’d never seen Ryo act like this, unless he was actually acting, he’d never seen anyone act like this, and he was confused, and Ryo was hurting him.
“Nishikido, please let go, you’re scaring me,” he voice shook a little as a predatory gleam appeared along with the rage in Ryo’s eyes.
“Oh? But this is what you were after from the start right? Me? Like this? Doesn’t this mean you win?” as he spoke he leant closer and closer until his breath ghosted over Ueda’s cheeks and he shuddered. He’d never expected being held close to Ryo would make him feel so scared, but now he was close to terrified and for all the training he did somehow he wasn’t strong enough to get Ryo’s hands off him.
Suddenly Ryo leant forward, attaching his mouth to Ueda’s neck and sucking harshly and Ueda yelped in pain, trying to shove Ryo away. Ryo instead moved his hands from Ueda’s shoulder to his chest, pressing him further against the wall and digging his nails through the shirt.
Ueda gasped at the sudden sharp pain and struggled harder. Ryo bit down on his neck suddenly and he made a strangled sound in his throat as he tried to scream and found tears choking back his voice.
“Nishikido, you’re hurting me, stop! What’s wrong with you!?” he sobbed, shoving uselessly at Ryo’s shoulders. His eyes widened in fear as he felt Ryo’s hand sliding lower on his chest towards his waistband, and he tried to simultaneously push Ryo away and push himself closer to the wall, both of which proved impossible.
“Nishikido, please, why are you doing this? You’re scaring me, please stop!” he choked, screwing up his eyes as Ryo’s hand met his jeans.
“You wanted this remember, this was your plan from the beginning, so why not just take your prize?” Ryo growled, there was hardly a coherent thought in his head anymore, only his anger and the body under his hands.
“Nishikido I don’t understand what you’re talking about, please stop it, you’re hurting me!”
“Well you hurt me too, all of you did!”
“All of who!?”
Ryo didn’t answer but suddenly clawed his hand into Ueda’s crotch. Ueda’s eyes widened in shock and pain and he shoved harder at Ryo’s shoulder, gasping in pain. He brought up one leg, pressing his knee between them like a barrier. Ryo gripped his thigh and squeezed hard, shoving it to one side and ramming his own leg between Ueda’s.
“Nishikido stop! This isn’t like you, why would you do this, please stop!” Ueda begged, tears streaming down his face as Ryo grabbed his wrists to stop him struggling and latched his mouth to his neck again.
“Tat-chan? That you?”
Ueda’s eyes snapped open. Kame?
Ryo’s movements stilled and he leant back, glaring into Ueda’s pain, fear and tear-streaked face, loathing and disgust twisting his features. Ueda shivered under his gaze, holding his breath.
Ryo suddenly backed off and Ueda slumped to the ground, curling onto one side, his hair falling over his face as Ryo stalked away down the corridor towards the fire exit.
Ueda drew his legs up to his body, hearing Kame’s footsteps come closer. Had he been able to see anything in the dimly lit hallway?
“Tat-chan? Tat-chan! What happened!?” Ueda didn’t answer.
“Kame?”
“Yamapi! What are you doing back here?”
“Looking for Ryo, Tegoshi said he came back here because he got angry,” Kame froze and looked back down at his older band-mate.
“Kame, what happened to Ueda-kun!?” as he came closer Yamapi could see Ueda lying on the floor.
“I don’t know. Tat-chan?” Kame leaned closer, rubbing Ueda’s shoulder with one hand, while he smoothed the hair back from Ueda’s face with the other, but Ueda turned his face further into the ground.
His heart was shattering, his mind was burning as it tried and failed to comprehend what had just happened. The images played and replayed like a horror movie in his head and he felt sick, his body burning where Ryo’s hands had touched it. His neck ached and glowed with pain where Ryo had bitten him.
“Tat-chan?” Kame glanced up at Pi who bit his lip and looked down the corridor at the fire exit, wondering where Ryo was.
The lively music back in the main room faded from Ueda’s ears, his heartbeat and helpless, anguished sobs echoing in the night.
つづく
A/N: Yes, I’m an evil, horrible person and I should be punished. You can all commence hating me now, but at least I updated. I’ve been feeling like hell recently so I can’t make any promises about the next update, but I’m working on it, I promise, only a few more chapters for this one now.