[Multi-Chap] From Me To You (Chapter 14)
Title: From Me To You
Pairings: MaruDa, and hints of various friendships
Rating: PG
Genre: AU, angst, romance, fluff
Warnings: Un-beta’d, and slow developing plot
Disclaimer: Most characters in this story are real life idols of JE, and I only write fictional stuff about them. But the plot and OCs are mine.
Summary: True love - nothing needs to be said, nothing needs to be heard. Just by being together, I hope my overflowing feelings will reach you. Nakamaru Yuichi is experiencing new things in life, and as he faces love and all the trinkets that come along with it, he learns more about living and communicating, whether it's about finding one's self or learning about the people around him.
Previous chapters: chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5 | chapter 6 | chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | chapter 10 | chapter 11 | chapter 12 | chapter 13
Chapter 14
Yuichi eyed him up and down, before narrowing his eyes, looking at him suspiciously. “You’re… his father?”
The old man looked somewhat taken aback by the question. “Why do you ask?”
Solitary confinement, ultimate excommunication and expulsion, trapped and chained inside a small room, lighted by a small railed window. Yuichi scrutinized the man standing formidably in front of him.
“He can still talk. He still has a chance of retrieving his voice, or better said; resurfacing it.” The cause of losing his voice in the first place was standing there, in front of Yuichi, gazing at him questioningly.
‘I don’t think I deserve any of this. Please, just give up.’ Didn’t deserve what everybody else did? What had he ever done to not deserve it?
The voices and images flitted across Yuichi’s mind during that moment as he frowned, his heavy black eyebrows drawn together at the bridge of his nose. His eyes dropped onto the floor as he muttered, “You’re a monster,” his voice was barely above a whisper.
“Pardon me?”
“Take good care of the things you care about before it’s too late, boy,” another voice chimed in and Yuichi’s frown started to disperse as a feeling of realization dawned over him. It was what Tatsuya’s father had told him when they met. Exactly what did he mean when he said that?
“Tatsuya, who is this? A friend of yours?”
Yuichi’s eyes darted from the old man to Tatsuya who looked obviously uncomfortable. “Hey what’s wrong?” he took a step closer, his face full of concern.
Tatsuya walked up to him and grabbed his hand, unexpectedly tugging him along the hallway, their pace quickening with each step. “Wait what about your dad?” He looked over his shoulder and Tatsuya’s father was left behind, becoming smaller and further away from them.
Yuichi didn’t know whether to be happy that his hand was being held or extremely confused or worried for the fact that they were running in the rain, with claps of thunder accompanying the downpour.
“You can’t just run away like this, it’s raining!” The anxious twinge in his voice reached a higher octave as he shouted, his voice sparring with the vociferous sound of the rain, and in the peripheral of his vision there was only a curtain of drizzling water, the evening impenetrable as the rain folded the city in its shroud.
Suddenly he was being pulled down to the ground and being unable to balance himself, he fell on top of Tatsuya who had slipped and fallen into a mud bath.
He slowly sat up with a groan, untangling himself from the other. “This is why I told you not to run,” he said in a clipped tone after spitting out some dirt.
He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand in an attempt to clear them, but it only resulted in his eyes having more mud and his vision murkier and dimmer. “Argh this thing stings like hell.”
Yuichi suddenly couldn’t feel the rain beating down his head and back anymore, and when he looked up, his eyes were met with another pair of dark brown eyes, staring curiously down at him. Kamenashi raised a delicate eyebrow and opened his mouth, “Are you two having mud facials?”
“Tat-chan, you’re next. Yucchi’s done.”
Tatsuya gave a simple nod and slipped past Yuichi who just got out of the bathroom.
“Thanks for letting us use the place, and for the clothes too,” Yuichi sat down on the floor and looked at Kamenashi who was standing by the stove.
“Don’t sweat it, I’m crashing here for the night too anyways. This storm won’t let us out anytime soon. Looks like we’re having a sleep-over tonight,” Kamenashi flashed a smile.
“What on earth are you even doing here? I thought it’s a day-off?” Yuichi fiddled with one of the crayons that were left on the table.
Kamenashi’s hands worked on preparing some drinks to warm up their bodies. “I left something here and dropped by to pick it up. Who knew I was gonna be trapped here on one of those rare occasions where I get a day-off?” He laughed drily, then shrugged. “I guess it’s okay, if not, you two would still be drenched and soaked in mud, possibly getting pneumonia and dying.”
He laughed, while Yuichi just rolled his eyes.
“And one more thing, how come you have spare changes of clothes which are adult-sized in a kindergarten? It’s kinda… suspicious.”
Kame swung around with a spoon in hand. “That-” he turned around again to finish his task, “-is an excellent question.”
“I just wish it has an excellent answer to complement it,” Yuichi said on a sarcastic note, his eyebrows wagging inquiringly.
Kame gave him an amused look as he set three mugs of hot chocolate on the table. “You’re in no position to interrogate me. You still haven’t told me why you two were cuddling in the mud. As much as I’d like to find it cute, I just can’t.” He licked his spoon before continuing, “Rain scenes just don’t give off a cuddly feeling.”
Yuichi chuckled. “I wouldn’t call it cuddling, more like wrestling. Or something. Anyway, it was nothing worth mentioning.”
Kamenashi’s lips twisted into a smile. “Come on, be a sport and tell me,” he nudged Yuichi’s elbow.
“There’s nothing to tell about,” Yuichi replied flatly and took a sip of his drink. He put his mug back down and looked at the person sitting across the table. Kame was staring intently at him as if he was the most fascinating thing ever and wouldn’t tear the creepy gaze away.
In the end, Yuichi gave in to the peer pressure. “Okay okay, fine. Just stop staring at me, it’s giving me goosebumps.”
Kame had a little triumphant smirk but it disappeared when he heard what came out of Yuichi’s mouth. “It was his father. We ran into him.”
The younger’s eyebrows scrunched downwards while Yuichi exhaled audibly in a frustrated manner. “It… really gave me a shock.” He looked up at Kamenashi. “Being in front of a person who I think I’ve heard quite a lot about, and most of the things aren’t what you’d call fatherly.”
Kamenashi seemed wistful for a while. “I’ve never come face to face with the infamous Ueda Yashiro, and from what Akanishi has told me from what Nishikido has told him, I don’t think meeting him would be… healthy. I’d probably throw a fit at him.” Yuichi simply nodded.
“You know, he… ran away.” Yuichi’s eyes were set downwards, his voice dull. “He just… ran.”
There was a dramatic silence waving itself around them before he continued. “What do you think of that, Kame?”
The asked person was perplexed for a while, and thought deeply about it. “I think…” he placed his words carefully, “…you know the answer to that question better than I do.”
He scanned Yuichi’s face in search for a respond, and slowly smiled when he noticed that the other was, too. “Mind showing off your theory?”
“Well, if you insist.” Yuichi’s eyes were like shadow, filled with an ambiguous and unspoken will, and his smile was enough to cover his latent sadness. “Rather than focusing on what I want and need, there’s something much, much more important that needs to be overcame.”
The earlier storm had been swept away and was then replaced with a calm requiem of rain that fell down steadily onto earth, calming, soothing, making it seem as if the storm had never happened.
“I think, to gain something meaningful for our future, we shouldn’t hold on too tightly to our past, right? Because it’ll only end up becoming a restraint.” Yuichi smiled faintly at Kamenashi, his gaze as if he had just woken up from a trance, looking but not really seeing. “I thought I could get I want if I push for it, but after what had happened, I realized that if I want to be happy, the other person’s happiness must come first.” His head shifted downwards and he was out of his stance. “At least, that’s what I think anyway,” and he brought his mug to his lips.
Kamenashi blinked a few times, then smiled painfully at Yuichi. “You know what? You’re sometimes too kind for your own good, Nakamaru.”
“Hmm, yeah well… I think so too,” Yuichi grinned playfully, before blowing out a sneeze.
Kame laughed a little. “That totally blew off the moment,” he leaned over to grab a box of tissue, “And yeah, this is the guy who turned you gay we’re talking about so…” he added as he handed it over to Yuichi who gave a grateful look. He blew into a piece of tissue, then looked up thoughtfully before saying, “I feel like I’ve forgotten something really important… but I can’t put a finger on what it is.”
Kame shrugged, “Just don’t let it get to you. I’m more worried that you might be catching a cold here,” he said jokingly.
Tatsuya leaned against the side wall that partitioned the room from the kitchen and just stood there for a little longer.
*~*~*~*
The heavy rain continued falling without hesitation, the droplets landing onto earth and obliterating in a millisecond, its existence only for a short while. And nobody seemed to notice.
“It’s already so late. Why’re you still here? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a little water?”
The boy in the uniform gave Nishikido a slanted glance, then turned away and continued looking at the drizzling water that seemed to fall endlessly.
Nishikido grunted, “I’m trying to be nice here, okay?” A pause. “But seriously, aren’t your parents going to be worried if you come home late?” He seemed to notice something and took a quick glance at his watch. “Crap I’m late! My mom’s so gonna kill me. Then, I’ll see you tomorrow. Make sure you don’t slip and fall into the ditch or something, I know how much of a klutz you can be.”
Tatsuya smiled after him, and continued to look up at the dark sky. He took a deep breath, and slowly he exhaled, his eyes gradually closing. His legs brought him forward under the rain and the droplets fell onto his face as he looked up again. They ran down his porcelain cheek and to his throat, yet in the end, they’d perish and be forgotten when the sun came out.
No one’s going to wait for him at the door when he came home later, so he didn’t need to rush.
Nishikido cleaned his things as the day was starting to end, and for a while he paused to look out to the lashing rain against the window panes, and he heaved a sigh.
*~*~*~*
Heavy, loud sounds, the banging noises; scalding and tearing his eardrums. The reeling throb in his head; unbearable, his brain felt like it was splitting into two million pieces. His eyes couldn’t even be lifted, and his mouth kept mumbling yet his mind was numb.
At one point he was talking, then suddenly collapsing when the headache started to seep in and make itself comfortable inside his skull, and then his muscles were poisoned and dead, and he couldn’t move.
He registered muffled voices, but he couldn’t really make out whose. Heck, he couldn’t even really remember where he was.
The delicate freshness of the rain had disappeared; he could feel it. But his mind was a fogged and pain-ridden stupor; he couldn’t even lift a finger up, and so he wasn’t sure if what he felt was true or not. Then a hand, cool and soothing, was felt on his forehead, and he almost begged for it to stay there a little longer when it was gone.
More noises, and after a while, he sensed that he was being touched, and that he was lifted almost clumsily. Something was placed on his lips and his mouth was forcefully opened. He could feel a type of liquid oozing down his throat and he almost choked. He was almost certain that he was being poisoned, or something equivalent to it.
Again, he felt that he was clumsily handled, that someone was lifting him and then he felt that his arms were dangling, from where he didn’t know, and soon he could feel fresh, crisp, cold air slicing his cheeks. His eyebrows were drawn together and he started to shift a little, but an unknown force disallowed him to do so, and so he complied and stopped squirming. It wasn’t comfortable at first, but soon enough, he was drawn into the warmth that shielded him from the piercing air. He felt like he was swaying through wisps of clouds, and gravity had no effect on him. His body was light, and his feet weren’t touching the ground, but he wasn’t afraid because he sensed that if he were to fall, a hand would reach out and save him. It was as if he was in a magical, intoxicating dream, where he was defying gravity, floating.
There were also distinct clicking sounds underneath him, the type produced when your shoes were scraped against the pavement. But the interruptions desist from distracting him and he was succumbed even further into the visages inside his head. His lips stretched into a happy, silly smile as he let out a soft giggle.
Oh my god.
The next morning didn’t really come until about one thirty in the afternoon, when the sun was slanting nearly horizontally through the thin curtains and the blinding light was starting to scorch Yuichi’s eyeballs.
The inimical throbbing behind his eyelids disrupted his sleep and he jolted awake, before feeling that his eyes were stinging and that his body was not very complied to wake up. He felt a heavy lassitude weighing down his limbs and it dulled his reactions while his mind was working every cell in figuring out how he got home yesterday, and how he got sick in the first place. His throat tingled and he coughed, the tremor adding to the pain. And going back to the topic at hand, he… couldn’t really assess his whole situation at all at the moment. But at least he was on his own bed. That was a good sign.
He coiled to his side, sighing and closing his eyes again. His hand reached out to the bedside table, randomly tracing the surface in search for his phone. What his palm landed on though, wasn’t a device but a piece of stick-it note. He cracked an eye open and brought the small paper closer.
Just woke up? Do you know what time it is right now? Get up! :P
He scrutinized the writing even further as his brows creased together. Wait… isn’t this-? All of a sudden he was lurching up straight, his mind and pulse racing. He threw off the covers and stood up in haste, before a wave of dizziness overtook him and he almost stumbled backwards.
He steadied a hand against the wall and slowly walked towards the door. On the doorknob, again, he found a note.
You’re not seriously climbing out of bed are you? If you are, make sure you’re well enough to do so. If you fall over, I won’t be around to laugh at you.
Yuichi frowned at that one.
His attention then went to his clothes. He could feel his cheeks burning when he thought of the possibility that someone else had changed his garments for him. He didn’t like the thought of other people seeing his ‘thing’. But maybe, if it’s Tatsuya… argh, what am I even thinking?!
He shook his head then went out to the living room. On the coffee table was a note that read: If you feel like falling over or if your head is splitting into two… blame Kame. He chugged down something weird down your throat last night. That didn’t really help with anything.
His apartment was empty with no other human being inside, and Yuichi felt like he was punched in the face. He released a sigh, then decided to eat something before crawling back into the warm comfort of his bed as his head was starting to spin again.
“I got sick because of you,” he muttered as he sifted through the fridge, “The least you could do to repay me is to stick around until I wake up.”
What he found in the fridge though, did give him a pleasant surprise. He pulled out a plate of food covered with plastic and as expected, another note.
Microwave. 5 minutes. Not more. Not less. But you don’t have to defrost this paper. Sorry I ran through the stuff in your kitchen, by the way.
A quick grin lit Yuichi’s face and he set the plate in the microwave as instructed on the paper. While waiting, he opened a can of dog food for
Choco and called for his pet. “Choco, come eat, boy.”
The air in his apartment was still, and there was only silence.
“Don’t you want to eat?” he came out to the living room and looked under the couch, then out to the veranda, but the animal was nowhere in sight. “Come on out, little guy. Where are you hiding?”
He stood still for a while, worry starting to work its way to his face. “Choco?”
*~*~*~*
Ueda looked at the retreating figures, leaving him behind. He just swung his gaze away when it became almost unbearable, and was walking away when he noticed that he wasn’t the only one that was left behind.
His habitual solid expression that had always caused a wall to be built around himself softened, and he bent down on one knee. “I guess you’ve been forgotten too?” He held out a hand and Choco, at first suspicious, prodded closer and nuzzled in the old man’s palm.
“We’re both in a similar situation; you and I.”
His dim, tired eyes made him look almost lifeless, and his mild voice sounded like he was fading out of existence.
“We’re left behind, alone, forgotten.”
Chapter 15
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Ugh Idek with this chapter. I’ve edited it for so many times but still not satisfied. Meh.
/runs away