Hanabi 31/?? - ReitaXRuki
Title: Hanabi
Chapter: 31/??
Author: chuu ( akichuu)
Fandom: JRock, Gazette
Pairings: ReitaXRuki. Some other pairings in the background that you might find later on...
Overall Rating: PG
Genre: Drop dead fluffy.
Warnings: n/a. Un-beta-ed mistakes.
Summary: Ruki and Nee-chan's argument was always interesting to watch, but this time it was even more interesting, because they were arguing about him...
Comments: New chapter... New new... Chapter... Okay I'm being an idiot singing around like this. Go on and just read. XDD
Hanabi : 31
It was very, very entertaining to watch how a fifteen year old teenager could eat his lunch with the manners of a five year old boy, from the way he bit his food and smeared his face with its grease in the same time, to the way he re-arranged the once artistic-looking bento into a complete mess with only a pair of chopsticks. It would make anybody wonder just how old this boy really was if they had a chance to look at how he started picking on the peppers and setting them aside. He had some sort of a concentrated look on his face when he was carefully picking those small pepper chops one by one with his chopsticks, a pout curved on his lips, looking as if he had been handed a very difficult task and he was trying to finish it.
If this had been a class about table manners, Ruki would've already been expelled even before he had the chance to grip his chopsticks. He could repeat it a dozen times and he would flunk it just as much. In a way he was better than Reita, though, because (other than those pepper chops) Ruki had eaten his vegetables. If it had been Reita, there would be more to add to that pile of pepper chops, like those carrot sticks and some greenies which Reita would never eat.
Okay so both of them would flunk table manners class, but who really needs it anyways?
Ruki was just an attractive sight on the dining table -- or the bed side chair, or wherever it was Ruki chose as a place to eat his meal.
But there seemed to be a progress! Reita smiled when he saw Ruki cleaning up his mess and tidying up the box and the chopsticks, placing them carefully on top of the nightstand. Normally he would usually just run off right after meal, leaving it to Reita to do the cleaning, but witnessing what was happening, Reita suddenly thought the blonde could be a little considerate sometimes. Ruki, despite his obvious tendency of negligence, might just have a room in his brain to think about other people's benefit once in a while.
Oh wait. The blonde being here was already a benefit for Reita, while there seemed to be no good for Ruki himself. Why had he come anyways? It was already his second day of skipping school just to visit Reita. Ruki was just a happy little brat knowing he has found reasons to skip school, but even though Reita thought it was sweet of him to stay around, Ruki had better choices of place he could go to. Like the game center, or... the game center... Okay. The... game center...
Well, the point was, Ruki could've done anything more interesting than to stay in a hospital room sitting around doing nothing, trying to respond to any awkward comments Reita had had to say (awkward because of more reasons other than Reita's injured jaw).
Other than some stupid topics about the latest anime episodes or the newest tankoubon release, or about what was going on in school while Reita wasn't there, they barely talked about anything else. It was starting to get to Reita's nerves how Ruki was so keen on keeping the prior issue (which happened to be Reita's second attempt on confessing his feelings for Ruki) out of the atmosphere between them. Yesterday he thought it was just normal that Ruki hadn't said anything right after Reita had uttered those three sacred words, he thought that the blonde had been nervous, and who wouldn't? Reita knew he would be nervous after someone had just said those words in front of him.
But since then Ruki had performed some kind of act like he was shutting whatever had happened away from them, it was almost too much how he acted like nothing had ever happened, like they had never had a fight, like Ruki hadn't just ignored Reita for more than a week, like Reita hadn't just told Ruki something extremely important. Oh yes, saying 'I love you' had been one of the most important things Reita had had to do in front of others, it might just be the most death-daring stunt he had ever had to perform too, risking his dignity on the line, which was, in a way, worse than risking his life. Well, at first Reita had tried to be positive by thinking that this was better. At least Ruki hadn't left him to run away from Reita's sight, like what had happened the first time Reita told him he loved him. At least Ruki had stayed here, by his side. At least Reita could talk to him again.
But positive thinking aside, the situation had become rather excruciating for Reita... Uncomfortable, to say the least.
Reita wished Ruki would just respond. If only he would just say something. Anything. If the blonde had just answered, "Sorry, but I'm not into guys," or "No, you're not my type," or some other form of rejection, Reita would've been content. Well... it definitely would hurt a lot if one of those happened to be Ruki's answer, but at least Reita would know what to do afterwards. He could just prepare himself to endure the first and probably the worst broken-heart in his life, take a good part of the remaining years he had got to live to heal the wound, and die with the memory... But even as painful as it was, Reita knew he was bound to deal with it. He had had the taste of it already. He had been rejected once, this might just be his second. Why should there be extra surprises to it?
But Reita supposed it didn't really matter anymore, if Ruki was to stay quiet about it, acting like it had been nothing or pretending that Reita hadn't just told him anything, there was nothing Reita could do about it. He couldn't push the blonde to answer, he couldn't even bring up the question. He knew that doing that would be inappropriate. Inappropriate and useless, of course, because when he was dealing with a person like Ruki, there was really no good in pushing him. One lesson well learnt during Reita's friendship with Ruki was that you don't tell Ruki what to do. The more people pushed him, the more stubborn he got.
Right about now, he was happy enough to have Ruki here, he was amused enough to be able to watch Ruki doing the stupidest things that in Reita's mind were always cute and priceless, and just as long as Ruki was not ignoring him, Reita could never bring himself to complain. Having no certainties was a torture or course, but in the moment, Reita was not exactly focusing his attention to anything else but Ruki and the random stuffs that he said or did.
Even the way Ruki was drawing on many pages of his history text book was attractive enough to make Reita forget about a whole lof of things... Although Reita was pretty sure that the writer hadn't meant the book to be used that way when he wrote it.
"I'm gonna skip school for the next couple of days," said Ruki all of a sudden. Reita and his sister whipped their heads to the blonde's direction. Neither of them had been expecting Ruki to say something like this.
"What?! What for?" and even for a start, Nee-chan's voice was high-pitched. Definitely a bad sign.
"To stay here and accompany Reita, of course," Ruki answered as-a-matter-of-fact-ly, shrugging his shoulders as if stating how unnecessary Nee-chan's question had been.
This answer almost made Reita jump off his bed, which he couldn't without breaking at least another bone. So he stayed there as motionless as possible, eyes opened wide and heart beating quick in excitement.
"Oh no, you're not!" Nee-chan rejected, and for this she suffered Reita's glare (which Nee-chan completely ignored), "You are still going to school, you hear me?"
"But who's gonna stay here and watch him from morning till noon? You and Okaa-san have to go to work," Ruki insisted, and if Reita hadn't had his body crippled momentarily, he would've already danced and cheered for Ruki.
Ruki wasn't just trying to make himself sound reasonable in front of Nee-chan. It was true, Reita was already afraid he'd be left all alone in this dead-boring room, being unable to go anywhere at all before the doctor allowed him to step off his bed. He knew his mother couldn't afford leaving her job just to stay all day long with Reita here in the hospital, and even now she had already returned to her office, it was the risk of being a single parent and if she didn't go to work, who else was going to pay for the hospital fees? And his sister, she had her part time job from eight to twelve, which meant she couldn't come to the hospital before her shift was over. Reita couldn't exactly expect anyone else like Baa-chan, Jii-chan or Uruha to come and stay with him until any of his family showed up, they all had their own businesses to do.
But no matter how logical Ruki's argument was, Nee-chan wouldn't just go along with it, apparently.
"And you think that makes it okay for you to skip school?!" she spat, hands on her waist and if one hadn't had the chance to know her well, they wouldn't know that a storm was coming. Looking at this sight, Reita was starting to have the shivers. He would choose to stay away when her sister was showing off this look, but for Ruki, her rising rage didn't seem like a threat at all.
Ruki, instead of backing down, only got to his feet, glaring back at Reita's sister. "Yes! What's school for anyways? It's a waste of time!" he snarled. Reita agreed completely to this, but for his own safety he kept his opinion to himself...
"Reita is in need for help, and none of you are going to be available to stay here from morning till noon. I seriously think that I'll make a better use if I stay here than in school!" Ruki continued.
"The nurses and doctors here are available to help him, Ruki, and I think that their help is far more trustable than yours," Nee-chan said, "You're just going to wreck the whole place if you're allowed to stay here alone, unsupervised."
"I'm NOT going to wreck the whole place!"
Sadly, this time Reita had to approve his sister. Ruki's hyperness was not something you could disagree about. Well, maybe Nee-chan had just exaggerated a bit, the part where Ruki was going to wreck the place... Or hadn't she?
"Oh yeah? Well incase you've forgotten, you broke that vase just a minute ago!! Some way you've got of 'not wrecking the whole place'..."
Nee-chan surely had kept this fact as a weapon, and she already had that victorious look in her face, knowing that there was no way Ruki could argue to this.
Nee-chan was talking about the vase with the carnation plant in it, it had a pretty white bloom, but it hadn't lasted more than an hour after it had been handed to Reita. Reita would be happy to stand for Ruki in this matter if only he hadn't seen what really happened, if only he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes how Ruki had elbowed that vase off the table. Yes, he elbowed it. If he had meant to make it look like an accident, well... he was one lousy actor, to start with. Anyone who had seen it would simply think he did it on purpose. And so it happened, the vase cracked against the floor and the dirt and plant and the pretty white bloom turned into nothing but a pile of mess...
"I meant to!" said Ruki, unexpectedly.
Reita gasped at this. What? Why would Ruki want to break that vase?
"WHAT?!" Nee-chan frowned, eyeing Ruki dangerously. She was obviously more than just annoyed now.
"Didn't you hear me?? I MEANT TO!!" Ruki repeated, almost squealing it out loud, "I meant to break that damn vase!"
"But why would you... Ruki, it's a gift from Matsu--"
"That's why I broke it!!" Ruki stomped his foot against the floor, looking just like a spoiled kindergarten kid asking his mom for a candybar, "Because it's a gift from her, that's why! I don't want that girl to come and bring Reita any presents! She's the one who had caused Reita to get hurt, she brings bad luck for Reita. That girl and her gifts and whatever it is that has anything to do with her, they all bring bad luck! She should just stay as far away as possible from Reita!"
Well, at least this time Ruki had succeeded in silencing Nee-chan. Odd that a person like her could shut up in a moment like this... But she was probably just as shocked as Reita was, hearing what Ruki had just said.
"She's lucky I didn't throw that damn vase to her face. Oh no... She's lucky that I didn't throw her and that damn vase out the window..." Ruki mumbled grudgefully, dropping himself on the chair right beside Reita's bed, arms folded on his chest. Dear, oh dear... At the moment, Ruki had that extremely cute pout on his face that if only Reita hadn't remembered that the boy was seriously offensed, he would've already laughed at it.
"That's gonna be murder, Ruki-chan... We're on the third floor," Nee-chan was grinning when Reita looked at her. She obviously wasn't trying to hide just how amused she was, looking at this attitude Ruki was showing. It was quite drastic just how quick Nee-chan could change from one raging bull to a happy little fan girl, Reita couldn't even begin to understand just how complicated she really was as a person. But then again... It's not like Reita payed much attention to her. He was already finding difficulties calming these butterflies that were maddening in his stomach.
"All the better," Ruki replied, huffing audibly.
It was at this very moment when Ruki's and Reita's eyes met and Reita swore his heart just stopped in that brief second, before Ruki turned his face quickly, focusing his sight on whatever there were lying on top of the nightstand.
Well... A man can hope, right? And Reita's hope was flourishing in his chest, blooming as he watched the radiant blush forming on Ruki's cheeks.
"If that's the case, I'm just relieved that you hadn't decided to break that vase when she was still here, Ruki. But still..." Nee-chan said. Oh yes she still had that smile, Reita could even hear it in her voice. "It's pretty cruel, what you've done..." she shook her head.
"Oh yeah? See if I care," Ruki responded shortly, death-glaring the poor bento box there. Or was it Reita's medicine cup? It was just one of those things on top of the nightstand.
"You know... We do have to thank her," Nee-chan walked closer to Ruki, placing a hand on the sunny-haired head. Ruki didn't shrug her away, but he had a look on his face that was as if someone had just forced him to eat those pepper chops he had left behind in the bento box. "I bet it took a whole lot of courage to do what she did," Nee-chan continued, "And now those bad guys will get what they deserve. The authorities and the school board know who's guilty and Akira's safe from any form of detention... Isn't that what's important at the moment?"
"Reita's hurt and it's her fault, it's only fair if she told the police the truth," Ruki argued.
It was obvious enough that whatever Nee-chan had to say, nothing was going to change Ruki's mind.
"It's NOT her fault and I bet if you ask Akira, he would just do it again should there be a second time," Nee-chan shuffled his hand through Ruki's hair, "Ne? Aki-chan?"
"Huh?" Reita stared at her, was pretty lost in this captivating little scene in front of him that he didn't just realize what was asked of him. But then, registering the question, he nodded. "Yeah," he answered, being completely honest. It was his belief, it was what he had been told ever since he was a child. No innocent person deserved to be treated wrong, be it someone that Reita knew or not.
Ruki was pouting when he looked at Reita, an irritated glare in his pair of eyes.
"Yeah, I'd do it all over again," Reita continued quickly, mumbling the words through his teeth, "But not just for her, I'd do it for anyone in the same situation..."
Ruki huffed at this.
"Just like when I fought for you in elementary school, if you could just remember that," Reita continued, watching the frown in Ruki's face falter bit by bit, "It sucks, of course, being injured like this and the pain on my shoulder is like nothing I've ever endured before in my life. But deep inside I feel good... I know I've done the right thing, and I can't say I regret it."
"Well said, Brother... Eh?" Nee-chan tilted her head aside, knitting her brows together, "You fought in elementary school? When was that? What for?"
"Oh it's when..."
Reita knew he was never going to finish this story because suddenly Ruki launched from where he sat to Reita's bed, it was hardly conceiveable how he managed to bring himself on top of Reita in a split of a second with a hand plastered over Reita's mouth, shutting him from saying anything any further. "Don't tell her!!" Ruki squealed, a panic glow in his eyes, "If you tell her I'll choke you!!!"
Even without the warning Ruki was already choking Reita, but to prevent further injuries, Reita nodded his agreement in a hurry.
Too bad, Reita would love to see how his sister would react or what comment she would say if he had been able to tell her this story. Now and then, whenever Reita needed a weapon to humiliate Ruki, he would just bring this topic up to the surface. Who would've known that a boy as shameless as Ruki still had a weak spot?
It was one of those days in elementary school, and as odd as it was to picturize, Ruki was NOT blonde back then (some people had mistakenly thought that Ruki had been blonde since he was born...). He was a stubborn, spoiled little brat. Well... He was a stubborn and spoiled little brat now, but he was just so much worse when he was younger. That day, Ruki and Reita were just playing around in the school's playground throwing sand-bombs at each other. And all of a sudden, a girl passed by, she was carrying a candybar in her hand. Seeing this, Ruki, being the little devil that he was, stood straight up, walked up to her and... Guess what he did... He kissed that girl's cheek, took the candybar from her hand, and smiled his little devilish smile.
Even better, this was what he said: "That kiss is to pay for the candy. Now it's mine."
Reita could only sit and stare, back then, hardly believing what Ruki had just done. That girl wasn't less shocked, all she could do was standing there, eyes wide open, mouth wide open, a hand on her cheek touching the spot where Ruki had just kissed.
Well it was just very, very unfortunate that Ruki had picked that exact girl to kiss and steal a candybar from, because that girl apparently was a their senior and she was popular. Some boys in the same playground spotted what had happened and they, being the girl's fans, went furious. A junior brat had insolently kissed their idol, who wouldn't be upset about it? So... Before Reita understood what was going on, there were at least ten boys came surrounding Ruki, most of them were HUGE, but funny how they didn't scare Ruki one bit. Instead of expressing some repentant (which should've been wiser to do, in a situation like that), he stood there, arms folded on his chest, glaring up to those boys as if they were nothing but annoying little bugs.
The first strike that hit Ruki made Reita jump to his feet and... Yeah. The rest was history. The fight was barely recorded in his memory because it happened so fast and pretty chaotic to be detailed, the next thing Reita remembered were two male teachers carrying him to the medical room and Ruki's voice screaming along the way, begging for Reita not to die. Reita was lucky enough that he had nothing more but a large bruise on his left eye when he walked home that day. He had to lie to his mother saying that he had gotten the bruise when he fell and bumped his face on the swing pole, even in his young age he knew that telling his mother about how he had just gotten into a fight wasn't such a clever thing to do.
And afterwards... Little Ruki became Reita's very devoted little servant for some weeks, Reita supposed it was because Ruki knew he owed a LOT to Reita.
Anyways, this was the story Ruki had deemed to keep secret, the story he would NEVER want Nee-chan to find out. It was the story that Ruki hated to remember and it was probably the humiliation from the memory that made him very eager to silence Reita by blocking his way of breathing, tightly plastering Reita's mouth with his hand.
"Okay, Ruki! Stop that!!" Nee-chan squealed, giggling when she tried to pull Ruki's hand off of Reita's mouth, "Don't kill Akira!! I swear I won't force him to talk. Come on, let him go!"
Before Reita ran out of breath for sure, the door clicked open. The three in the room silenced altogether, almost in unison, turning their heads to check on who had come. Two men walked in to the room.
"Uh... Are we... Interrupting anything?" Baa-chan grinned, looking around the room at the three before he looked over his shoulder at his company...
Aoi-jii-chan.
=====
previous chapters and other titles
Chapter: 31/??
Author: chuu ( akichuu)
Fandom: JRock, Gazette
Pairings: ReitaXRuki. Some other pairings in the background that you might find later on...
Overall Rating: PG
Genre: Drop dead fluffy.
Warnings: n/a. Un-beta-ed mistakes.
Summary: Ruki and Nee-chan's argument was always interesting to watch, but this time it was even more interesting, because they were arguing about him...
Comments: New chapter... New new... Chapter... Okay I'm being an idiot singing around like this. Go on and just read. XDD
Hanabi : 31
It was very, very entertaining to watch how a fifteen year old teenager could eat his lunch with the manners of a five year old boy, from the way he bit his food and smeared his face with its grease in the same time, to the way he re-arranged the once artistic-looking bento into a complete mess with only a pair of chopsticks. It would make anybody wonder just how old this boy really was if they had a chance to look at how he started picking on the peppers and setting them aside. He had some sort of a concentrated look on his face when he was carefully picking those small pepper chops one by one with his chopsticks, a pout curved on his lips, looking as if he had been handed a very difficult task and he was trying to finish it.
If this had been a class about table manners, Ruki would've already been expelled even before he had the chance to grip his chopsticks. He could repeat it a dozen times and he would flunk it just as much. In a way he was better than Reita, though, because (other than those pepper chops) Ruki had eaten his vegetables. If it had been Reita, there would be more to add to that pile of pepper chops, like those carrot sticks and some greenies which Reita would never eat.
Okay so both of them would flunk table manners class, but who really needs it anyways?
Ruki was just an attractive sight on the dining table -- or the bed side chair, or wherever it was Ruki chose as a place to eat his meal.
But there seemed to be a progress! Reita smiled when he saw Ruki cleaning up his mess and tidying up the box and the chopsticks, placing them carefully on top of the nightstand. Normally he would usually just run off right after meal, leaving it to Reita to do the cleaning, but witnessing what was happening, Reita suddenly thought the blonde could be a little considerate sometimes. Ruki, despite his obvious tendency of negligence, might just have a room in his brain to think about other people's benefit once in a while.
Oh wait. The blonde being here was already a benefit for Reita, while there seemed to be no good for Ruki himself. Why had he come anyways? It was already his second day of skipping school just to visit Reita. Ruki was just a happy little brat knowing he has found reasons to skip school, but even though Reita thought it was sweet of him to stay around, Ruki had better choices of place he could go to. Like the game center, or... the game center... Okay. The... game center...
Well, the point was, Ruki could've done anything more interesting than to stay in a hospital room sitting around doing nothing, trying to respond to any awkward comments Reita had had to say (awkward because of more reasons other than Reita's injured jaw).
Other than some stupid topics about the latest anime episodes or the newest tankoubon release, or about what was going on in school while Reita wasn't there, they barely talked about anything else. It was starting to get to Reita's nerves how Ruki was so keen on keeping the prior issue (which happened to be Reita's second attempt on confessing his feelings for Ruki) out of the atmosphere between them. Yesterday he thought it was just normal that Ruki hadn't said anything right after Reita had uttered those three sacred words, he thought that the blonde had been nervous, and who wouldn't? Reita knew he would be nervous after someone had just said those words in front of him.
But since then Ruki had performed some kind of act like he was shutting whatever had happened away from them, it was almost too much how he acted like nothing had ever happened, like they had never had a fight, like Ruki hadn't just ignored Reita for more than a week, like Reita hadn't just told Ruki something extremely important. Oh yes, saying 'I love you' had been one of the most important things Reita had had to do in front of others, it might just be the most death-daring stunt he had ever had to perform too, risking his dignity on the line, which was, in a way, worse than risking his life. Well, at first Reita had tried to be positive by thinking that this was better. At least Ruki hadn't left him to run away from Reita's sight, like what had happened the first time Reita told him he loved him. At least Ruki had stayed here, by his side. At least Reita could talk to him again.
But positive thinking aside, the situation had become rather excruciating for Reita... Uncomfortable, to say the least.
Reita wished Ruki would just respond. If only he would just say something. Anything. If the blonde had just answered, "Sorry, but I'm not into guys," or "No, you're not my type," or some other form of rejection, Reita would've been content. Well... it definitely would hurt a lot if one of those happened to be Ruki's answer, but at least Reita would know what to do afterwards. He could just prepare himself to endure the first and probably the worst broken-heart in his life, take a good part of the remaining years he had got to live to heal the wound, and die with the memory... But even as painful as it was, Reita knew he was bound to deal with it. He had had the taste of it already. He had been rejected once, this might just be his second. Why should there be extra surprises to it?
But Reita supposed it didn't really matter anymore, if Ruki was to stay quiet about it, acting like it had been nothing or pretending that Reita hadn't just told him anything, there was nothing Reita could do about it. He couldn't push the blonde to answer, he couldn't even bring up the question. He knew that doing that would be inappropriate. Inappropriate and useless, of course, because when he was dealing with a person like Ruki, there was really no good in pushing him. One lesson well learnt during Reita's friendship with Ruki was that you don't tell Ruki what to do. The more people pushed him, the more stubborn he got.
Right about now, he was happy enough to have Ruki here, he was amused enough to be able to watch Ruki doing the stupidest things that in Reita's mind were always cute and priceless, and just as long as Ruki was not ignoring him, Reita could never bring himself to complain. Having no certainties was a torture or course, but in the moment, Reita was not exactly focusing his attention to anything else but Ruki and the random stuffs that he said or did.
Even the way Ruki was drawing on many pages of his history text book was attractive enough to make Reita forget about a whole lof of things... Although Reita was pretty sure that the writer hadn't meant the book to be used that way when he wrote it.
"I'm gonna skip school for the next couple of days," said Ruki all of a sudden. Reita and his sister whipped their heads to the blonde's direction. Neither of them had been expecting Ruki to say something like this.
"What?! What for?" and even for a start, Nee-chan's voice was high-pitched. Definitely a bad sign.
"To stay here and accompany Reita, of course," Ruki answered as-a-matter-of-fact-ly, shrugging his shoulders as if stating how unnecessary Nee-chan's question had been.
This answer almost made Reita jump off his bed, which he couldn't without breaking at least another bone. So he stayed there as motionless as possible, eyes opened wide and heart beating quick in excitement.
"Oh no, you're not!" Nee-chan rejected, and for this she suffered Reita's glare (which Nee-chan completely ignored), "You are still going to school, you hear me?"
"But who's gonna stay here and watch him from morning till noon? You and Okaa-san have to go to work," Ruki insisted, and if Reita hadn't had his body crippled momentarily, he would've already danced and cheered for Ruki.
Ruki wasn't just trying to make himself sound reasonable in front of Nee-chan. It was true, Reita was already afraid he'd be left all alone in this dead-boring room, being unable to go anywhere at all before the doctor allowed him to step off his bed. He knew his mother couldn't afford leaving her job just to stay all day long with Reita here in the hospital, and even now she had already returned to her office, it was the risk of being a single parent and if she didn't go to work, who else was going to pay for the hospital fees? And his sister, she had her part time job from eight to twelve, which meant she couldn't come to the hospital before her shift was over. Reita couldn't exactly expect anyone else like Baa-chan, Jii-chan or Uruha to come and stay with him until any of his family showed up, they all had their own businesses to do.
But no matter how logical Ruki's argument was, Nee-chan wouldn't just go along with it, apparently.
"And you think that makes it okay for you to skip school?!" she spat, hands on her waist and if one hadn't had the chance to know her well, they wouldn't know that a storm was coming. Looking at this sight, Reita was starting to have the shivers. He would choose to stay away when her sister was showing off this look, but for Ruki, her rising rage didn't seem like a threat at all.
Ruki, instead of backing down, only got to his feet, glaring back at Reita's sister. "Yes! What's school for anyways? It's a waste of time!" he snarled. Reita agreed completely to this, but for his own safety he kept his opinion to himself...
"Reita is in need for help, and none of you are going to be available to stay here from morning till noon. I seriously think that I'll make a better use if I stay here than in school!" Ruki continued.
"The nurses and doctors here are available to help him, Ruki, and I think that their help is far more trustable than yours," Nee-chan said, "You're just going to wreck the whole place if you're allowed to stay here alone, unsupervised."
"I'm NOT going to wreck the whole place!"
Sadly, this time Reita had to approve his sister. Ruki's hyperness was not something you could disagree about. Well, maybe Nee-chan had just exaggerated a bit, the part where Ruki was going to wreck the place... Or hadn't she?
"Oh yeah? Well incase you've forgotten, you broke that vase just a minute ago!! Some way you've got of 'not wrecking the whole place'..."
Nee-chan surely had kept this fact as a weapon, and she already had that victorious look in her face, knowing that there was no way Ruki could argue to this.
Nee-chan was talking about the vase with the carnation plant in it, it had a pretty white bloom, but it hadn't lasted more than an hour after it had been handed to Reita. Reita would be happy to stand for Ruki in this matter if only he hadn't seen what really happened, if only he hadn't witnessed it with his own eyes how Ruki had elbowed that vase off the table. Yes, he elbowed it. If he had meant to make it look like an accident, well... he was one lousy actor, to start with. Anyone who had seen it would simply think he did it on purpose. And so it happened, the vase cracked against the floor and the dirt and plant and the pretty white bloom turned into nothing but a pile of mess...
"I meant to!" said Ruki, unexpectedly.
Reita gasped at this. What? Why would Ruki want to break that vase?
"WHAT?!" Nee-chan frowned, eyeing Ruki dangerously. She was obviously more than just annoyed now.
"Didn't you hear me?? I MEANT TO!!" Ruki repeated, almost squealing it out loud, "I meant to break that damn vase!"
"But why would you... Ruki, it's a gift from Matsu--"
"That's why I broke it!!" Ruki stomped his foot against the floor, looking just like a spoiled kindergarten kid asking his mom for a candybar, "Because it's a gift from her, that's why! I don't want that girl to come and bring Reita any presents! She's the one who had caused Reita to get hurt, she brings bad luck for Reita. That girl and her gifts and whatever it is that has anything to do with her, they all bring bad luck! She should just stay as far away as possible from Reita!"
Well, at least this time Ruki had succeeded in silencing Nee-chan. Odd that a person like her could shut up in a moment like this... But she was probably just as shocked as Reita was, hearing what Ruki had just said.
"She's lucky I didn't throw that damn vase to her face. Oh no... She's lucky that I didn't throw her and that damn vase out the window..." Ruki mumbled grudgefully, dropping himself on the chair right beside Reita's bed, arms folded on his chest. Dear, oh dear... At the moment, Ruki had that extremely cute pout on his face that if only Reita hadn't remembered that the boy was seriously offensed, he would've already laughed at it.
"That's gonna be murder, Ruki-chan... We're on the third floor," Nee-chan was grinning when Reita looked at her. She obviously wasn't trying to hide just how amused she was, looking at this attitude Ruki was showing. It was quite drastic just how quick Nee-chan could change from one raging bull to a happy little fan girl, Reita couldn't even begin to understand just how complicated she really was as a person. But then again... It's not like Reita payed much attention to her. He was already finding difficulties calming these butterflies that were maddening in his stomach.
"All the better," Ruki replied, huffing audibly.
It was at this very moment when Ruki's and Reita's eyes met and Reita swore his heart just stopped in that brief second, before Ruki turned his face quickly, focusing his sight on whatever there were lying on top of the nightstand.
Well... A man can hope, right? And Reita's hope was flourishing in his chest, blooming as he watched the radiant blush forming on Ruki's cheeks.
"If that's the case, I'm just relieved that you hadn't decided to break that vase when she was still here, Ruki. But still..." Nee-chan said. Oh yes she still had that smile, Reita could even hear it in her voice. "It's pretty cruel, what you've done..." she shook her head.
"Oh yeah? See if I care," Ruki responded shortly, death-glaring the poor bento box there. Or was it Reita's medicine cup? It was just one of those things on top of the nightstand.
"You know... We do have to thank her," Nee-chan walked closer to Ruki, placing a hand on the sunny-haired head. Ruki didn't shrug her away, but he had a look on his face that was as if someone had just forced him to eat those pepper chops he had left behind in the bento box. "I bet it took a whole lot of courage to do what she did," Nee-chan continued, "And now those bad guys will get what they deserve. The authorities and the school board know who's guilty and Akira's safe from any form of detention... Isn't that what's important at the moment?"
"Reita's hurt and it's her fault, it's only fair if she told the police the truth," Ruki argued.
It was obvious enough that whatever Nee-chan had to say, nothing was going to change Ruki's mind.
"It's NOT her fault and I bet if you ask Akira, he would just do it again should there be a second time," Nee-chan shuffled his hand through Ruki's hair, "Ne? Aki-chan?"
"Huh?" Reita stared at her, was pretty lost in this captivating little scene in front of him that he didn't just realize what was asked of him. But then, registering the question, he nodded. "Yeah," he answered, being completely honest. It was his belief, it was what he had been told ever since he was a child. No innocent person deserved to be treated wrong, be it someone that Reita knew or not.
Ruki was pouting when he looked at Reita, an irritated glare in his pair of eyes.
"Yeah, I'd do it all over again," Reita continued quickly, mumbling the words through his teeth, "But not just for her, I'd do it for anyone in the same situation..."
Ruki huffed at this.
"Just like when I fought for you in elementary school, if you could just remember that," Reita continued, watching the frown in Ruki's face falter bit by bit, "It sucks, of course, being injured like this and the pain on my shoulder is like nothing I've ever endured before in my life. But deep inside I feel good... I know I've done the right thing, and I can't say I regret it."
"Well said, Brother... Eh?" Nee-chan tilted her head aside, knitting her brows together, "You fought in elementary school? When was that? What for?"
"Oh it's when..."
Reita knew he was never going to finish this story because suddenly Ruki launched from where he sat to Reita's bed, it was hardly conceiveable how he managed to bring himself on top of Reita in a split of a second with a hand plastered over Reita's mouth, shutting him from saying anything any further. "Don't tell her!!" Ruki squealed, a panic glow in his eyes, "If you tell her I'll choke you!!!"
Even without the warning Ruki was already choking Reita, but to prevent further injuries, Reita nodded his agreement in a hurry.
Too bad, Reita would love to see how his sister would react or what comment she would say if he had been able to tell her this story. Now and then, whenever Reita needed a weapon to humiliate Ruki, he would just bring this topic up to the surface. Who would've known that a boy as shameless as Ruki still had a weak spot?
It was one of those days in elementary school, and as odd as it was to picturize, Ruki was NOT blonde back then (some people had mistakenly thought that Ruki had been blonde since he was born...). He was a stubborn, spoiled little brat. Well... He was a stubborn and spoiled little brat now, but he was just so much worse when he was younger. That day, Ruki and Reita were just playing around in the school's playground throwing sand-bombs at each other. And all of a sudden, a girl passed by, she was carrying a candybar in her hand. Seeing this, Ruki, being the little devil that he was, stood straight up, walked up to her and... Guess what he did... He kissed that girl's cheek, took the candybar from her hand, and smiled his little devilish smile.
Even better, this was what he said: "That kiss is to pay for the candy. Now it's mine."
Reita could only sit and stare, back then, hardly believing what Ruki had just done. That girl wasn't less shocked, all she could do was standing there, eyes wide open, mouth wide open, a hand on her cheek touching the spot where Ruki had just kissed.
Well it was just very, very unfortunate that Ruki had picked that exact girl to kiss and steal a candybar from, because that girl apparently was a their senior and she was popular. Some boys in the same playground spotted what had happened and they, being the girl's fans, went furious. A junior brat had insolently kissed their idol, who wouldn't be upset about it? So... Before Reita understood what was going on, there were at least ten boys came surrounding Ruki, most of them were HUGE, but funny how they didn't scare Ruki one bit. Instead of expressing some repentant (which should've been wiser to do, in a situation like that), he stood there, arms folded on his chest, glaring up to those boys as if they were nothing but annoying little bugs.
The first strike that hit Ruki made Reita jump to his feet and... Yeah. The rest was history. The fight was barely recorded in his memory because it happened so fast and pretty chaotic to be detailed, the next thing Reita remembered were two male teachers carrying him to the medical room and Ruki's voice screaming along the way, begging for Reita not to die. Reita was lucky enough that he had nothing more but a large bruise on his left eye when he walked home that day. He had to lie to his mother saying that he had gotten the bruise when he fell and bumped his face on the swing pole, even in his young age he knew that telling his mother about how he had just gotten into a fight wasn't such a clever thing to do.
And afterwards... Little Ruki became Reita's very devoted little servant for some weeks, Reita supposed it was because Ruki knew he owed a LOT to Reita.
Anyways, this was the story Ruki had deemed to keep secret, the story he would NEVER want Nee-chan to find out. It was the story that Ruki hated to remember and it was probably the humiliation from the memory that made him very eager to silence Reita by blocking his way of breathing, tightly plastering Reita's mouth with his hand.
"Okay, Ruki! Stop that!!" Nee-chan squealed, giggling when she tried to pull Ruki's hand off of Reita's mouth, "Don't kill Akira!! I swear I won't force him to talk. Come on, let him go!"
Before Reita ran out of breath for sure, the door clicked open. The three in the room silenced altogether, almost in unison, turning their heads to check on who had come. Two men walked in to the room.
"Uh... Are we... Interrupting anything?" Baa-chan grinned, looking around the room at the three before he looked over his shoulder at his company...
Aoi-jii-chan.
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