Whisper in the Darkness Ch14 part2
“Here we are, boss calls this our home away from home but I have to say I’d really rather not have to spend a night here, what do you think?” Yamazaki called back over his shoulder. Ueda simply glared at him and didn’t answer. His shoulders were beginning to ache but as he shifted them he felt Lars’ massive paw of a hand tighten around both of his. He flinched and growled low in his throat as he was ushered forward into the building. Sitting in folding chairs on either side of an old stained wooden table playing a game of what looked like Gin Rummy were two more members of this exclusive crazy club.
“Finally Yamazaki! The boss just called, he said he’ll be here within the hour, but he wasn’t happy when we told him you weren’t here yet,” Yamazaki gave them his creepy pliant smile.
“Well I’m here now and I brought a friend, our other guest of honour should be here in around half an hour, so, Ueda Tatsuya!” he said, turning to Ueda who glared back at him.
“How about I show you to your suite?” Ueda, once again, didn’t bother to reply. Yamazaki glanced at Lars.
“Go wait with Shu in the truck will you?” Ueda glanced at Yamazaki as he took over leading him by the shoulders.
“Right, I guess you’ll need him to help you bury us, seeing as he’s probably the only one here who’s strong enough to carry a pair of bodies,” Yamazaki gave him his chilling smile again.
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves here Ueda Tatsuya, you still haven’t met our boss yet,”
~~~
“Hey, uh, are you okay back there, you look a little pale,”
“I…I’m fine,” Ryo had to reach into his throat and drag his words out. His hands were trembling, all the blood had drained from his face and beads of cold sweat were swelling on his forehead.
He was terrified, there was nothing he wanted more than to wake up and find that he hadn’t even gotten on the train to Tokyo yet, to board it and arrive with no unexpected phone-calls and to run all the way from the station to Ueda’s door, and for that door to be opened, revealing the deep dark black-brown eyes he’d been missing for the past month.
“You sure, because you look like you’re about to pass out or something,” The cab driver was shooting concerned glances at his rear view mirror every ten seconds or so and was beginning to unsettle him.
“Maybe I should turn around, take you to the hospital, why are you heading out to the warehouses anyway, ain’t nothing down there,”
“I’m…meeting a friend,” Ryo struggled for a believable excuse. “Business venture,”
The driver shrugged and carried on driving, though he was still glancing at him now and then. Maybe he was afraid Ryo would throw up all over his upholstery. To be honest, Ryo was starting to get a little worried about that too.
Fuck this, what am I, a girl? Belt up Nishikido!
Ryo took a deep breath and sat up. Breathing slowly he pushed the cogs in his head into work, he had to think of something before he got to the warehouses. Yamazaki, if that was actually his name, had told him not to call the police…but how the hell would they know if he did so before he…his phone, they’d take it from him and check the recent dialled calls…
Wait…
What if he didn’t have his phone…
As the taxi pulled up at the barbed wire fence of the warehouse district Ryo pulled his phone out of his pocket and leaned toward the driver who still looked a little apprehensive, maybe he still thought Ryo might throw up.
“Hey, do me a favour, wait here while I make a quick call, I’ll be right there-” he pointed to the air beside the fence “-then I’ll be right back to pay the fare, I promise, I just have to call my friend, make sure he’s here, if not I don’t want to stay here waiting for him,” he gave the driver as close to his patented idol-smile as he could in his present state of mind and the driver nodded and shrugged again.
“Okay, but I’m leaving the meter running,” Ryo smiled again.
“Not a problem,”
Ryo slid from the car and went and leant against the fence, dialling for emergency services with shaking fingers.
“119, What’s your emergency?” the calm voice on the other end of the line somehow made him even more agitated.
“Look, I don’t have a lot of time, my friend is being held by some crazy people who want to kill both of us and I have to go help him,”
“Wait, what? Sir, where are you, what do you mean?”
“Tokyo Harbour Warehouse District, look I don’t have time to go into detail, if I don’t get in there soon they’re going to hurt my friend, look for the building with red sign that reads metal, in kanji please hurry,”
Ryo didn’t give the woman any more time to argue or ask questions, flipping his phone shut he turned, smiled brightly and returned to the taxi, sliding back onto the backseat
“He’s hear, he’s waiting in one of the buildings, thanks so much for waiting, what do I owe you?”
As the driver look at his meter Ryo frantically tapped at a few keys before flipping his phone shut and sliding his phone onto the floor behind the driver’s seat.
“That’ll be ￥9875,”
Ryo shoved a ￥10,000 note into the guys hand and told him to keep the change before jumping back out of the taxi and taking off between the buildings.
~~~
Ueda mused that he was suddenly spending a lot of his time sitting on the floor, leaning up against walls. His hands had, mercifully, been untapped, but now he was sitting and staring at the knees of the unidentified nutcase currently pointing a gun straight at his head.
Yamazaki had poked his head around the door a few minutes ago to inform said nutcase they were expecting their ‘second guest’ in the next few minutes.
Ueda wished more than anything, if there was no way to avoid this, that Ryo wouldn’t come, that he would stay away where he was safe, that Yamazaki had never called him, that he hadn’t picked up his phone that morning…so many things, as long as they meant Ryo would be safe.
If he could get out of here before Ryo got there he could stop him and they would both be safe…but that all depended on getting past the crazy with the firearm trained on his forehead.
Sliding into a standing position Ueda glared at the guy as he narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his gun.
“Relax, my legs were cramping up,” Ueda spat, leaning back against the wall and folding his arms. He looked from the guy to the door, judging the rough distance between himself and the door.
Oh screw it…
As the tall dark and mental guy in front of him took a glance at his watch Ueda pushed off the wall, swung his left fist in a hard hook into the guys jaw and darted past him before his head had even jerked back all the way.
As he reached for the door handle however it opened inwards and Ueda jumped back, straight into the claw-like hands of the nut-job with gun. Twisting his head up to look back at him Ueda could already see the angry red area he had hit that was already beginning to bruise and the split at the corner of his mouth which glared down at him below narrowed eyes.
“Oh-ho, little idol has more balls than I’d have thought,” a new, more chilling voice than Yamazaki’s emanated from the doorway. Turning Ueda had the feeling, if the suddenly slightly tighter grip the gunman had on his arms was anything to go by, this guy was a lot more dangerous than Yamazaki. He smiled eerily down at Ueda who couldn’t help but wonder why the hell everyone here was so much taller than him, hell they were probably even taller than Jin or Taguchi. The guy in front of him glanced at his cohort, still gripping Ueda by his upper arms, and smirked.
“Got a decent arm on you pretty boy,"
The guy leant right down into Ueda’s face. Ueda glared right back before he was dragged back to the wall and shoved against it again.
“I’m a tolerant kind of guy, so I’ll be so generous as to leave your hands free of duct tape for now, but any more clever ideas like that one and I’ll cut your damn hands off, clear?” Ueda pressed his lips together by way of answer as the guys straightened up.
“Other than that, it’s lovely to meet you Ueda-san, you know, Yamazaki was right, you really are just as pretty in person, and on a free day like today I’d wager you’re not even wearing make-up right?” He pressed his index fingertip against Ueda’s cheek, ignoring Ueda’s flinch back, and the gritting of his teeth.
“Must be such a pain to have to wear all that stuff every time you’re on TV, huh,”
Ueda continued to say nothing, internally screaming at himself for his failure, though he couldn’t have possible known another madman was about to come and check on him.
“So anyway, your little friend should be right with us, and our boss is only a matter of minutes away as well, so this should be all wrapped up soon,” he leant down towards Ueda’s face again and Ueda found himself frozen under the man’s brittle, muddy gaze.
“So, Ueda-san, sit tight, don’t move and fucking well behave your little diva self, ‘cos I don’t give a damn how pretty your face is, I won’t hesitate to make it very ugly,” Ueda blinked as the guy, who still hadn’t introduced himself, not that Ueda particularly cared what his name was right now, stalked from the room, slamming the metal door behind him.
Ueda tipped his head back against the wall and sighed.
Hearing a sudden click he opened his eyes and froze, his left eye staring straight down the barrel of the crazy guy’s pistol. He swivelled his gaze as best he could up to the gunman’s face and winced. He told himself that, at the very least, he had got in a very good shot at one of these assholes.
~~~
Ryo took a deep breath as he approached the building the guy on the phone had described.
Approaching the door which was slightly ajar he was slightly surprised when two guys, one of fairly average height in black trousers, a shiny purple shirt, his black jacket slung over one should, the other at least a head taller in black jeans a tight white t-shirt and a greying leather jacket, his shoulder black hair spiked up with an abundance of gel, emerged and strode towards him. The purple-shirted guy grinned widely at him and all at once Ryo was struck with the urge to whack him with something heavy and run very fast in the opposite direction.
But he couldn’t, Ueda was still in that building somewhere.
“Nishikido Ryo! So good to see you, how was Osaka, how? It would be at this time of year wouldn’t it, I’m Yamazaki, we spoke on the phone. Ryo blinked at him incredulously.
This guy is a total fucking head-case!
So, we have already shown Ueda Tatsuya to your suite, it’s not much but it will do for today right? So, why don’t you follow us inside?”
Ryo was left with no choice but to nod, his expression grim and determined, and follow them inside. Once he had blinked the darkness from his eyes and adjusted to the light, or lack thereof, he glanced around and saw around five or so different guys, but no Ueda.
“So,” Yamazaki said lightly, turning to face him “I know I made it clear on the phone but some people are just that dumb,” he stepped forward, close enough to Ryo that the Osakan could count his eyelashes.
“Did you call the police?”
“You calling me dumb?”
“Answer the question Nishikido Ryo,”
“I figured you’d think I was that dumb, so I dumped my phone,” Yamazaki narrowed his eyes.
“Really?”
“I figured that way I couldn’t call anyone, and no-one could call me, after all Tatsuya asked me to make sure our friends don’t get involved,” as he’d anticipated Yamazaki then pulled Ueda’s phone from his hip pocket, flipped it open and, with a last glance at Ryo, scrolled down to his number and hit ‘call’.
No ring, or even the sound of a vibrate echoed through the room but suddenly Yamazaki’s eyes flickered to Ryo.
“Hello? Who is this?”
“Uh, sorry, um, this isn’t my phone, I think my last customer must have dropped it in my taxi,” Ryo could just hear the guy’s voice from the phone pressed to Yamazaki’s ear. Yamazaki flipped the phone shut.
“Okay, I believe you’re not that dumb,”
Yamazaki’s hand suddenly clamped on his shoulder like the claw of an eagle owl stalking rabbits and Ryo had to struggle extremely hard not to flinch and jump away.
“Come, let’s go see your friend,”
Ryo said nothing but followed the obviously crazy man down a concrete corridor to one side towards a rusty grey-green metal door. Shoving with his entire right hand side Yamazaki forced the door open ignoring its ear wrenching metallic shriek. He shoved Ryo hard between his shoulder blades sending him stumbling into the room. When he looked up he felt instantly nauseous.
Ueda stood against the wall under a small square window set high in the concrete, his palms pressed flat backwards against the cold wall, his right eye trained on Ryo with a look that seemed like it might be defeat. His left eyes was covered by the barrel of a pistl pressed cruelly against the skin around his eyes, grinding on the edges of his eye socket.
At the other end of the pistol was a tall, thin guy with messy jaw-length hair and a crazy gleam in his eyes.
Yamazaki pushed Ryo again, towards the opposite wall. Ryo shrugged away from him, sending a glare over his shoulder before turning to Ueda again, his expression softening.
“Hime, you okay?” Ueda swivelled his right eye back to him again and nodded as best he could, wincing at the end of the barrel ground into his skull again. The man holding the gun suddenly smirked and laughed low in his throat, and said the first words Ueda had heard him say since he had entered the room directly behind him and Yamazaki when he’d first been brought in here.
“Hime? So you’re his Princess? How cute,” he looked straight into Ueda’s visible eye, narrowed his own in a sinister sneer and leant closer.
“Does that mean you’re used to having foreign objects shoved into you?” his voice was low and Ueda found he’d been right, to match those wild, insane eyes his voice, while low and steady and calm carried a shaky lilt that belied a kind of craziness he harboured in his mind.
As he leant forward, closer still to Ueda’s face, which stared back at him, all guards dropped as he looked in shock into those dark pools of madness, he pressed a little harder with his gun and twisted.
Ueda winced, screwed up his right eyes and bit his lip, groaning almost inaudibly as the metal bit into his skin and worried his eye socket.
Seeing his pain Ryo grit his teeth, a growl forming into his throat as fists were formed of his hands and he stepped forward off the wall, eyes trained on the madman with the gun.
“Hey, freak show, back off him-!” he was cut off as Yamazaki pulled a gun from the holster under his left arm, concealed by the jacket still draped innocently over his shoulder and pressed the barrel hard against his sternum, forcing him back against the wall with an almost feral growl.
The man holding his gun to Ueda’s eyes grinned and tipped his head over his shoulder to smirk at Ryo’s furious expression.
“Oh-oh, territorial aren’t we pretty boy?”
Ryo clenched his fists harder, his nails pressing into his palms as his eyes narrowed. Where the fuck were the people he’d called?
Even as the thought occurred to him there were yells and gunfire and the walls seemed to shake. Crazy-guy turned to Yamazaki, slightly panicked, his gun slipping from Ueda’s face long enough for Ueda to stumble away from him.
“Why-?” Yamazaki started, but Ryo cut him off smirking weakly.
“Because I’m just that dumb,”
When Yamazaki turned to look at the door Ryo shoved him away and darted towards Ueda but was held back by an arm around his throat.
Ueda gaped from his crouched position at the base of the wall, and leapt up in alarm.
“Ryo!”
Yamazaki tightened his hold and glared at his cohort.
“Don’t just stand there gaping you idiot, grab him!”
Instantly the crazy gunman turned and reached for Ueda, blocking his punch and closing his hand around his neck, lifting him off the ground. This seemed to be happening to him a lot today.
Ryo fought at Yamazaki’s hold, pulling his arm away just long enough to yell hoarsely at the door which still stood ajar.
“In here! We’re in here!” Yamazaki cursed and doubled his hold.
Ueda clawed at the hand on his neck to no avail. Screwing up his eyes he kicked out, landing a hit on the madman’s kneecap that had him buckling enough for Ueda’s feet to reach the ground, and once the did he drove his knee upward into the guy’s groin and shoved him away, grabbing his gun and aiming it over Ryo’s shoulder at Yamazaki’s head.
“You might not want to do that Ueda Tatsuya, I could kill him,”
“And I could shoot you whether you kill him or not,” Ueda spat, his voice hoarse and trembling.
At that moment the door swung open and two SWAT members rushed in, pointing their guns at both Yamazaki and Ueda. Ryo used Yamazaki’s moment of distraction to wrench free and run to Ueda’s side.
“Tatsuya, it’s okay now, let go of it!”
Ueda’s eyes flickered to Ryo’s face and Ryo took in the bloodshot white, the enflamed cuts circling his left eye, the bruises forming in ugly purple half-moons on his neck and the red raw patched on his wrists. Ryo stared into his eyes, the beautiful deep pools of dark brown that were almost black and so full of imagination, life and compassion, the eyes he’d missed for a month and had wanted so much to look into again, and to be looked at by, and rested his hand over the hand that held the gun.
From the door the SWAT members watched both Ueda and Yamazaki, even as Yamazaki backed up toward the wall, eyes scouring the ground for the gun he had dropped.
“Ryo…” Ueda murmured.
“Let it go,”
Ueda’s fingers loosened and the gun dropped to the floor. Ueda slumped back against the wall, breathing hard, his eyes closed.
Neither of them paid any attention as both the other men in the room were grabbed, cuffed and led away. Ryo held onto Ueda’s hand as Ueda stared at the ground, slowly bringing his breathing back under control, but neither said a word.
Two medic hurried in and lead them both out gently by their shoulders. They each sat perched on the backseats of Paramedics vehicles as the medics stood in front of them inspecting their wounds.
A salve was rubbed around Ueda’s eyes into the slices caused by the gun barrel, and he received a quick check on his eyes after Ryo explained that he had just hours ago had them un-bandaged after serious injury. They deemed them fine, considering but insisted Ueda receive a more thorough check up soon. After Wrapping ointment dampened bandages around Ueda’s wrists and checking Ryo’s eyes for petichiae the two were sent on their way.
In the taxi on their way to Ueda’s apartment Ueda leant his head against the window, staring out at the passing scenery without seeing any of it, his eyes vacant. Ryo watched him and bit his lip. So soon after getting his sight back he’d had his life threatened by the murderous gang that had caused the injury in the first place. The police had offered an explanation for the incident but Ryo had waved them off, no longer caring as long as it was now over.
At the building Ryo led the way up the stairs and opened the door. Once inside he slipped off his shoes and began to head toward the kitchen, thinking to make some tea or something when he heard a dull thud behind him.
Turning he saw Ueda had dropped to his knees, hands clawed against the tile of the genkan, head lowered. Ryo knelt in front of him and held his shoulders in his hands.
“Tatsuya?”
“I’m sorry,” Ryo blinked.
“Eh?”
“I’m sorry,”
“What? Tatsuya, what are you…?”
“I’m so sorry Ryo, I’m sorry you were put into danger, sorry you got hurt, I’m sorry you had to go through something so scary, I’m sorry I put our lives in danger by wandering around on my own, I’m sorry I kept things from you, I’m sorry I was too scared to talk to you, I’m sorry I was too scared to do anything for so long, I’m sorry I caused so many problems for so many people who matter so much to me, I’m sorry I was too much of a coward to tell you the truth, about how I felt, about what I was thinking, about how I felt all along, before everything went wrong and during everything going wrong and after and even when it meant you were in danger, I’m sorry I’m so weak…” Ueda trailed off, biting his lip as tears stung his eyes. Ryo stared at him, what was Ueda trying to say here?
“Tatsuya, you’re not making much sense, and those aren’t things you need to be sorry for, they weren’t your fault, you couldn’t have known what was going to happen, and I…I understand that you were scared,” Ueda looked up at Ryo through his hair.
“I should have been more understanding at the time, tried to understand that you were scared, and that there was a lot going on in your head, but I just wanted so much for you to trust me, to talk to me, all I wanted was to be there for you, I’m sorry,” Ueda stared at him.
“I did trust you, but…Ryo I’m sorry, if it weren’t for me I don’t think any of this would have happened, neither of us would have been on the street that day if I hadn’t gone after you, you’d have been in the station, and I’d have been in the Jimusho, it really is my fault, all I’ve done for a month is mess up your life, all because of how I feel,”
Ryo blinked at him.
“Wait, Tatsuya…that day…” He tipped Ueda’s chin up and met his eyes.
“That day, you came after me because you wanted to tell me something, and until now I forgot but…what was it?” Ryo held his breath as Ueda licked his lips, shaking a little as he considered his answer.
“I wanted…I wanted to tell you the truth,” he bit his lip and pulled his head away, staring at the ground again.
“But I’m always too weak to do it, I couldn’t tell you then, I couldn’t tell you for the whole month, I couldn’t tell you anything, and now I still don’t know if I can,” Ryo surprised him then by wrapping his arms around his shoulders and holding him close.
“You’re not a weak person Tatsuya, it’s okay to be scared, to have trouble doing some things because they scare you, it’s okay to be a little weak sometimes,”
He backed up and cupped Ueda’s face in his hands and smiled at him.
“Besides, I was scared of telling you the truth too,” Ueda stared at him, not wanting to hope what he was seeing and hearing wasn’t a dream. Ryo leant his forehead against Ueda’s and stroked his hair. Ueda closed his eyes, leaning into his touch.
“I love you, Tatsuya,” he whispered. Ueda lifted his shaking hands from the floor and held Ryo’s face the same way, his fingers threading into his hair.
“I love you too, Ryo,” he whispered back, as Ryo pulled him even closer and kissed him gently. Pulling back he grinned.
“And it only took us a month to say it,” Ueda laughed hoarsely.
“Life threatening situations must be some kind of trigger,” Ryo grinned and pulled them both to their feet.
“You know, that’s a little cliché Princess,” Ueda raised one eyebrow, linking their fingers together and leading Ryo into the kitchen.
“But it’s the only cliché thing about us,”
Instead of replying Ryo pulled Ueda closer and wrapped his arms around him.
“I’m so glad you’re okay Hime,” Ueda blinked in surprise, then hugged him back.
“I’m happy you’re okay too,” he said softly. Ryo stroked his hair, not letting him go.
“Do you think you’ll be okay now, now that you can see, and you’re safe?” Ueda pulled back and looked up at him, and after a moment he smiled.
“As long as I can hear your voice whenever it’s too dark I think I’ll be fine,” he said and pulled Ryo closer again.
終わり
*金
**I have no idea if such a place actually exists but, you know, artistic licence and whatnot :P
P.S. No I didn’t make up the emergency number, in Japan it’s the American emergency number backwards, weird huh XD
A/N If you see any typos or other mistakes please let me know, I was so intent on getting this chapter done and done right, I hope you enjoyed this fic, and wait for the little epilogue which will be posted very soon.