Snippits and Time-jumps, and Don't Mess With Taiki
((OOC: This first part was actually written up a while ago and was supposed to be posted before all of this stuff. Somehow it got lost and forgotten...uhm, oops? Things might have made a little more sense. ...Maybe. Aarrrg, sorry.
There are a series of timejumps below...I was so behind that it was ridiculous. But we're caught up to present day now! \o/ Hooray!))
Blue eyes cracked open and Aya groaned, rolling over and throwing the blanket corner over her head. Her body ached and a glance up at the clock informed her that she should have taken her pain medicine over an hour ago.
But that damn doorbell...Where the hell was Kayashima?
With a growl Aya pushed herself up, rubbing her face and snatching the bottle of water from her bed stand. The little container of glorious pills was swept up and popped open as she drug herself out of the bedroom and down the hall. Adjusting her robe so it covered her properly she paused to peek out the window, one finger pushing aside the curtain. Frowning a little, she unlatched the door and pulled it open and greeted a man holding a medium sized box.
“Fujimori-san?” One eyebrow rose and she nodded, a grin growing on the unfamiliar man’s face. “Ah, Kayashima-san told me you would be here. I am returning a couple things I borrowed...May I?” He gestured inside and she slowly relented, backing away.
The guy was tall, probably close to Shu-kun’s height...But he had dark eyes like Kayashima and was impossibly thin. Long, sleek dark hair hit mid-back on the man as he carefully stepped out of his shoes at the entryway, shuffling into the kitchen to drop his box off at the island. “I’m just going to put them away and I’ll be gone.”
He hummed to himself as he popped the top off the box, a pleasant sort of smile on his lips. But he was definitely one of Kayashima’s types...An odd tattoo peeked out from under the long shirt sleeve and some kind of matching character was stamped on his neck. While this man was pleasant and Kayashima was...less than...It was still obvious by the way they carried themselves that they were both just a touch different than everyone else.
Pulling two small sculptures out of the box he fairly skipped down the steps into the living room, immediately going to the bookshelf on the far wall. “Don’t tell him I dropped them by. We’ll see how long it takes him to notice that I finally dropped his crap off.” He stuck out his tongue, winking at her teasingly. “I bet it takes him at least two weeks...”
********************
Shuichi glanced to his left and out of the corner of his eyes watched Taiki. His partner was bent over the island, leaning on his elbows while reading the paper and nursing a steaming cup of coffee. The blond shifted his attention back down to his breakfast, pushing the scrambled egg roll around on his plate...He’d made all this food but really he wasn’t very hungry. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Nakao had said to him at the hotel. Efforts to put the horrible thoughts out of his mind were unsuccessful, it was just...Well, it was horrible. The thought of Nakao and Taiki together, ung...
“Just ask.” He started, nearly choking and dropping his chopsticks. Taiki didn’t even look up; the brunet merely sipped at the scalding hot coffee and turned the newspaper page. Shuichi straightened, embarrassed at having been caught. Swallowing, he tried to quell his nerves while he traced the outline of his plate with his chopsticks. How were you supposed to bring something like this up?
“O-okay...uh,” He scratched at the back of his head, stumbling over his words. “So, er...While you were in the h-hospital, uhm, I said some things to Nakao and...Uh later we went back to the hotel and had to share a room and I asked him about those things I said and, uh...” He could feel his cheeks grow red; this wasn’t going well. Taiki was going to get offended, not that Shuichi could blame him. But he wanted to know, it was just...there really wasn’t a good way to talk about this.
“Just ask.” The phrase was repeated and now he could feel black eyes peeling him apart. He shifted under that stare, wishing he could just crawl away. “Shuichi, just.ask. Your aura is suffocating...” A shaky breath was drawn in and before he knew it words burst forth, all jumbled together.
“DidyouandNakaoeveryouknowgettogetheroranythinglikethat?” Black eyes blinked and he could almost see Taiki breaking the rushed phrase down into individual words. The blond squirmed under the psychic’s gaze, silence stretching on...Suddenly Nakao’s words haunted him; he should not have asked. Nothing good could come of this; ignorance was bliss and all.
“Would it matter if we had?” Taiki’s voice was quiet and careful and Shuichi swallowed...He knew his aura was being picked apart and it wasn’t the first time he prayed that he passed whatever silent test his partner performed. It was cheating when he didn’t even get to see what the psychic did...He had no idea what kind of answers he was giving off without even knowing it.
“Well, no...Not really. I mean, you don’t...uh...you don’t have ta tell me if ya don’t want. It’s fine. I was just, ya know...curious.” He played with his chopsticks, head bent. “Uhm, so...Whatcha wanna do today? I mean, we’ve got no plans or anything...I don’t think, anyways.” Shuichi cleared his throat when his voice squeaked a little. He was desperate to change the subject, to move on to something more pleasant. Stupid, stupid, so stupid...“But if yer tired or anything we can just stay in, that’s completely fine too.” Words were blurring together again and he had to remember to take a breath. “Just let me know and, um...we’ll do it.”
“Shuichi, I didn’t.” The blond paused. “I have slept with a lot of people, but none of them were any of our friends.” Shuichi fumbled as his brain raced to catch up.
“T-that’s not what I meant! I didn’t mean ta imply...I just...!” He was panicking...Oh God, what had he done? But a small smile found its way onto Taiki’s lips and the brunet moved around the side of the island.
“I know. Thank you.” He was so confused...Taiki kissed his cheek, watching in amusement as the blond struggled to process everything.
He wasn’t sure what had just happened...
********************
He wasn’t getting anywhere. The book was slammed shut, frustration coursing through every inch of his body. Shuichi would be on a plane two hours after his game finished and he needed to have this wrapped up before the blond returned to Japan.
It had been easy enough to identify Nobura. Aya had provided a perfect description and everything fell into place after that. Ichijo had been upset after he was passed over for the New York job...It hadn’t been the first time and it certainly wouldn’t be the last, Taiki was sure. But this had gone too far. To summon something like that, to be so vindictive and malicious...Nobura had to be insane.
********************
Mou, this was bad...Shuichi was sprawled out on his bed, staring up at the ceiling with his limbs flung out every which way. He’d been lying there for nearly two hours, trying to figure out how to make everything work. Earlier he had gone to his manager and the team owner, begging them for another game off after he played against Holland for them...While he wasn’t exactly sure what all had been said by the red-faced South Americans, he got the hint from their tone.
Why did they even bring him over here if they were so unhappy with having a foreigner on their team? Surely they had someone in the lower leagues that could play up; they didn’t need a player from Japan. He was always getting yelled at in a language he didn’t understand, cold looks from his teammates...It had gotten so bad that he now had to bring all of his equipment home with him after each practice because his locker was being vandalized.
Shuichi normally prided himself on his ability to befriend anyone, but this time...This time he was soundly defeated. He hated it here. He wanted to go back to his home and to Taiki.
And he missed his cat.
********************
Taiki stared up at the house from the street, his hands in his pockets. It was getting cold quickly, wind coming off the water dropping temperatures faster than normal for this time of year. He didn’t really know what he planned to do, just a vague certainty that something needed to be done before Shuichi came back. This petty feud had gone on too long.
Black eyes narrowed as he examined every inch of the home, searching for silly black magic traps that he knew Nobura was fond of. The want-to-be occultist had to of known that Taiki would come after him; surely he didn’t think that the spirit he’d sent would be enough to kill... In the end he found two traps (he had no idea what they even did, but they went into his bag for Murasawa to play with) and one hex. When he was at the door he paused, taking in a breath before he knocked. Three steps back so he was just out of range of the peep-hole and he waited.
Seconds later the door opened. And then immediately slammed shut with a surprised curse.
“Do you seriously call yourself a psychic?” Taiki wondered quietly to himself, sighing. “Open the door, please. We need to talk.” He reached forward to knock once more, hoping this wasn’t going to regress into some childish shouting match. When there was no answer he set his lips, annoyance and determination growing. Glancing around the steps, he just shook his head...The welcome mat was flipped over and the spare key hidden underneath carefully retrieved. “Open the door or I am coming inside.” He called out once more, vaguely wondering what would be waiting for him on the other side.
“You don’t have that kind of power, you Northerner idiot. Even I know that.” Sighing once more Taiki pushed the key into the lock and turned the handle, letting the door fall open on its own. Inside the waifish pseudo-psychic gaped, scrambling backwards while sputtering incoherencies. This was absurd; this was the person that had cursed him? “Where did you learn that? How could you do that?!”
“Calm down, I found your spare.” He tossed the key to Nobura, staring flatly at the bumbling man. When it didn’t appear that Nobura would outright attack him he spared a glance around, taking in his surroundings. It was shockingly normal for such an odd person, he had been expecting black candles and the odd animal skeleton alter sitting around...But there was a Hello Kitty mirror in the entryway positioned about chest high, a cat puppet sitting on the low table in the living room, a handmade blanket in a half-hazard pile near the seat cushions, a family butsudan with two mortuary tablets and a picture of a man and woman...Not quite what he had been expecting. “We need to talk.” Taiki turned his attention back to Nobura, his expressionless face a stark opposition to the near panic that consumed the tall thin man in front of him.
He was exhausted. It had been nearly a week since he had last left the house and he was still unable to stay awake for more than a couple of hours at a time. Drawing in a breath, he rubbed his eyes and started again. “I need you to remove the hex you put on me, please. I have work to do.” The aura before him seemed to ripple with indignant righteousness and Nobura drew himself up straighter.
“You’re stealing my jobs.” The man’s fingers flexed into a fist and Taiki watched him warily...Nobura was an idiot, but he still had some talent. “I was supposed to go to New York, I was supposed to become Murasawa’s assistant. You brought this on yourself! You should have just stayed at the shrine!” Taiki inwardly grimaced at the mention of his previous employer; the Tomiya Shrine had been a less than pleasant experience.
“I do not choose my jobs; I receive requests and merely act upon them. Remove the curse, now.” He did not want to be here longer than necessary; things needed to be wrapped up and returned to normal as quickly as possible. But Nobura crossed his arms, glowering darkly. “Do you even realize what you did?” Impatience and anger seemed to blossom from nowhere and Taiki stepped forward, gripping the strap of his bag tightly. “There were too many people in the room with me; you could have hurt someone! You could have killedsomeone!”
“It wouldn’t have hurt anyone else, I knew exactly what I was doing! You think you’re the only one around here with special abilities, but you’re wrong! I am not some silly high school kid anymore who can only conjure up tricks…”
One hand slipped inside his bag and he pulled out two identical halves of a hollowed out and burned statue. Nobura stiffened and flinched when they were tossed at his feet. “There were three blond strands of hair in your doll. And the omamori you stole and clothed it with had a name stitched onto it. It is by sheer coincidence that he was wearing a pendant that night. You have no idea what you are doing. Remove the spell or I promise you will regret it.” The man before him was silent a moment before anger once more flared up in his aura.
“Don’t you think it is a little ridiculous for you to threaten me? All you had to do was back off, but no…You had to keep pushing and pushing!” Nobura was screaming now, face turning as red as his aura. Once more Taiki pulled something from his bag, setting it on the table beside them. There was an audible click as the fake-occultist snapped his mouth shut.
“There is a difference between you and me. You perused the books, learned a few tricks, stumbled upon some talismans and stones,” He held one finger on the top of the sleek wooden statue, rocking it back and forth on the surface of the table as his voice dropped dangerously, “but the problem is…I know how use them.” Black eyes stared straight into brown, unblinking. “For example, would you like to see what this,” he let his hand rest atop the figure, “can actually do?”
There are a series of timejumps below...I was so behind that it was ridiculous. But we're caught up to present day now! \o/ Hooray!))
Blue eyes cracked open and Aya groaned, rolling over and throwing the blanket corner over her head. Her body ached and a glance up at the clock informed her that she should have taken her pain medicine over an hour ago.
But that damn doorbell...Where the hell was Kayashima?
With a growl Aya pushed herself up, rubbing her face and snatching the bottle of water from her bed stand. The little container of glorious pills was swept up and popped open as she drug herself out of the bedroom and down the hall. Adjusting her robe so it covered her properly she paused to peek out the window, one finger pushing aside the curtain. Frowning a little, she unlatched the door and pulled it open and greeted a man holding a medium sized box.
“Fujimori-san?” One eyebrow rose and she nodded, a grin growing on the unfamiliar man’s face. “Ah, Kayashima-san told me you would be here. I am returning a couple things I borrowed...May I?” He gestured inside and she slowly relented, backing away.
The guy was tall, probably close to Shu-kun’s height...But he had dark eyes like Kayashima and was impossibly thin. Long, sleek dark hair hit mid-back on the man as he carefully stepped out of his shoes at the entryway, shuffling into the kitchen to drop his box off at the island. “I’m just going to put them away and I’ll be gone.”
He hummed to himself as he popped the top off the box, a pleasant sort of smile on his lips. But he was definitely one of Kayashima’s types...An odd tattoo peeked out from under the long shirt sleeve and some kind of matching character was stamped on his neck. While this man was pleasant and Kayashima was...less than...It was still obvious by the way they carried themselves that they were both just a touch different than everyone else.
Pulling two small sculptures out of the box he fairly skipped down the steps into the living room, immediately going to the bookshelf on the far wall. “Don’t tell him I dropped them by. We’ll see how long it takes him to notice that I finally dropped his crap off.” He stuck out his tongue, winking at her teasingly. “I bet it takes him at least two weeks...”
********************
Shuichi glanced to his left and out of the corner of his eyes watched Taiki. His partner was bent over the island, leaning on his elbows while reading the paper and nursing a steaming cup of coffee. The blond shifted his attention back down to his breakfast, pushing the scrambled egg roll around on his plate...He’d made all this food but really he wasn’t very hungry. He couldn’t stop thinking about what Nakao had said to him at the hotel. Efforts to put the horrible thoughts out of his mind were unsuccessful, it was just...Well, it was horrible. The thought of Nakao and Taiki together, ung...
“Just ask.” He started, nearly choking and dropping his chopsticks. Taiki didn’t even look up; the brunet merely sipped at the scalding hot coffee and turned the newspaper page. Shuichi straightened, embarrassed at having been caught. Swallowing, he tried to quell his nerves while he traced the outline of his plate with his chopsticks. How were you supposed to bring something like this up?
“O-okay...uh,” He scratched at the back of his head, stumbling over his words. “So, er...While you were in the h-hospital, uhm, I said some things to Nakao and...Uh later we went back to the hotel and had to share a room and I asked him about those things I said and, uh...” He could feel his cheeks grow red; this wasn’t going well. Taiki was going to get offended, not that Shuichi could blame him. But he wanted to know, it was just...there really wasn’t a good way to talk about this.
“Just ask.” The phrase was repeated and now he could feel black eyes peeling him apart. He shifted under that stare, wishing he could just crawl away. “Shuichi, just.ask. Your aura is suffocating...” A shaky breath was drawn in and before he knew it words burst forth, all jumbled together.
“DidyouandNakaoeveryouknowgettogetheroranythinglikethat?” Black eyes blinked and he could almost see Taiki breaking the rushed phrase down into individual words. The blond squirmed under the psychic’s gaze, silence stretching on...Suddenly Nakao’s words haunted him; he should not have asked. Nothing good could come of this; ignorance was bliss and all.
“Would it matter if we had?” Taiki’s voice was quiet and careful and Shuichi swallowed...He knew his aura was being picked apart and it wasn’t the first time he prayed that he passed whatever silent test his partner performed. It was cheating when he didn’t even get to see what the psychic did...He had no idea what kind of answers he was giving off without even knowing it.
“Well, no...Not really. I mean, you don’t...uh...you don’t have ta tell me if ya don’t want. It’s fine. I was just, ya know...curious.” He played with his chopsticks, head bent. “Uhm, so...Whatcha wanna do today? I mean, we’ve got no plans or anything...I don’t think, anyways.” Shuichi cleared his throat when his voice squeaked a little. He was desperate to change the subject, to move on to something more pleasant. Stupid, stupid, so stupid...“But if yer tired or anything we can just stay in, that’s completely fine too.” Words were blurring together again and he had to remember to take a breath. “Just let me know and, um...we’ll do it.”
“Shuichi, I didn’t.” The blond paused. “I have slept with a lot of people, but none of them were any of our friends.” Shuichi fumbled as his brain raced to catch up.
“T-that’s not what I meant! I didn’t mean ta imply...I just...!” He was panicking...Oh God, what had he done? But a small smile found its way onto Taiki’s lips and the brunet moved around the side of the island.
“I know. Thank you.” He was so confused...Taiki kissed his cheek, watching in amusement as the blond struggled to process everything.
He wasn’t sure what had just happened...
********************
He wasn’t getting anywhere. The book was slammed shut, frustration coursing through every inch of his body. Shuichi would be on a plane two hours after his game finished and he needed to have this wrapped up before the blond returned to Japan.
It had been easy enough to identify Nobura. Aya had provided a perfect description and everything fell into place after that. Ichijo had been upset after he was passed over for the New York job...It hadn’t been the first time and it certainly wouldn’t be the last, Taiki was sure. But this had gone too far. To summon something like that, to be so vindictive and malicious...Nobura had to be insane.
********************
Mou, this was bad...Shuichi was sprawled out on his bed, staring up at the ceiling with his limbs flung out every which way. He’d been lying there for nearly two hours, trying to figure out how to make everything work. Earlier he had gone to his manager and the team owner, begging them for another game off after he played against Holland for them...While he wasn’t exactly sure what all had been said by the red-faced South Americans, he got the hint from their tone.
Why did they even bring him over here if they were so unhappy with having a foreigner on their team? Surely they had someone in the lower leagues that could play up; they didn’t need a player from Japan. He was always getting yelled at in a language he didn’t understand, cold looks from his teammates...It had gotten so bad that he now had to bring all of his equipment home with him after each practice because his locker was being vandalized.
Shuichi normally prided himself on his ability to befriend anyone, but this time...This time he was soundly defeated. He hated it here. He wanted to go back to his home and to Taiki.
And he missed his cat.
********************
Taiki stared up at the house from the street, his hands in his pockets. It was getting cold quickly, wind coming off the water dropping temperatures faster than normal for this time of year. He didn’t really know what he planned to do, just a vague certainty that something needed to be done before Shuichi came back. This petty feud had gone on too long.
Black eyes narrowed as he examined every inch of the home, searching for silly black magic traps that he knew Nobura was fond of. The want-to-be occultist had to of known that Taiki would come after him; surely he didn’t think that the spirit he’d sent would be enough to kill... In the end he found two traps (he had no idea what they even did, but they went into his bag for Murasawa to play with) and one hex. When he was at the door he paused, taking in a breath before he knocked. Three steps back so he was just out of range of the peep-hole and he waited.
Seconds later the door opened. And then immediately slammed shut with a surprised curse.
“Do you seriously call yourself a psychic?” Taiki wondered quietly to himself, sighing. “Open the door, please. We need to talk.” He reached forward to knock once more, hoping this wasn’t going to regress into some childish shouting match. When there was no answer he set his lips, annoyance and determination growing. Glancing around the steps, he just shook his head...The welcome mat was flipped over and the spare key hidden underneath carefully retrieved. “Open the door or I am coming inside.” He called out once more, vaguely wondering what would be waiting for him on the other side.
“You don’t have that kind of power, you Northerner idiot. Even I know that.” Sighing once more Taiki pushed the key into the lock and turned the handle, letting the door fall open on its own. Inside the waifish pseudo-psychic gaped, scrambling backwards while sputtering incoherencies. This was absurd; this was the person that had cursed him? “Where did you learn that? How could you do that?!”
“Calm down, I found your spare.” He tossed the key to Nobura, staring flatly at the bumbling man. When it didn’t appear that Nobura would outright attack him he spared a glance around, taking in his surroundings. It was shockingly normal for such an odd person, he had been expecting black candles and the odd animal skeleton alter sitting around...But there was a Hello Kitty mirror in the entryway positioned about chest high, a cat puppet sitting on the low table in the living room, a handmade blanket in a half-hazard pile near the seat cushions, a family butsudan with two mortuary tablets and a picture of a man and woman...Not quite what he had been expecting. “We need to talk.” Taiki turned his attention back to Nobura, his expressionless face a stark opposition to the near panic that consumed the tall thin man in front of him.
He was exhausted. It had been nearly a week since he had last left the house and he was still unable to stay awake for more than a couple of hours at a time. Drawing in a breath, he rubbed his eyes and started again. “I need you to remove the hex you put on me, please. I have work to do.” The aura before him seemed to ripple with indignant righteousness and Nobura drew himself up straighter.
“You’re stealing my jobs.” The man’s fingers flexed into a fist and Taiki watched him warily...Nobura was an idiot, but he still had some talent. “I was supposed to go to New York, I was supposed to become Murasawa’s assistant. You brought this on yourself! You should have just stayed at the shrine!” Taiki inwardly grimaced at the mention of his previous employer; the Tomiya Shrine had been a less than pleasant experience.
“I do not choose my jobs; I receive requests and merely act upon them. Remove the curse, now.” He did not want to be here longer than necessary; things needed to be wrapped up and returned to normal as quickly as possible. But Nobura crossed his arms, glowering darkly. “Do you even realize what you did?” Impatience and anger seemed to blossom from nowhere and Taiki stepped forward, gripping the strap of his bag tightly. “There were too many people in the room with me; you could have hurt someone! You could have killedsomeone!”
“It wouldn’t have hurt anyone else, I knew exactly what I was doing! You think you’re the only one around here with special abilities, but you’re wrong! I am not some silly high school kid anymore who can only conjure up tricks…”
One hand slipped inside his bag and he pulled out two identical halves of a hollowed out and burned statue. Nobura stiffened and flinched when they were tossed at his feet. “There were three blond strands of hair in your doll. And the omamori you stole and clothed it with had a name stitched onto it. It is by sheer coincidence that he was wearing a pendant that night. You have no idea what you are doing. Remove the spell or I promise you will regret it.” The man before him was silent a moment before anger once more flared up in his aura.
“Don’t you think it is a little ridiculous for you to threaten me? All you had to do was back off, but no…You had to keep pushing and pushing!” Nobura was screaming now, face turning as red as his aura. Once more Taiki pulled something from his bag, setting it on the table beside them. There was an audible click as the fake-occultist snapped his mouth shut.
“There is a difference between you and me. You perused the books, learned a few tricks, stumbled upon some talismans and stones,” He held one finger on the top of the sleek wooden statue, rocking it back and forth on the surface of the table as his voice dropped dangerously, “but the problem is…I know how use them.” Black eyes stared straight into brown, unblinking. “For example, would you like to see what this,” he let his hand rest atop the figure, “can actually do?”