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[FIC] Gakuen Heaven: Surfacing: Interludes [Part II]
Continued on from [Part I]
Keita, wet-eyed and tragic, flew into Tetsuya's arms.
"W-wh- Keita!" Tetsuya exclaimed, automatically hugging his ex-boyfriend closer, concerned. The boy often put on a sunny disposition after all. "What's wrong?"
Keita sniffed, burying his face into Tetsuya's chest, clutching his fingers around his first lover's blazer. He didn't answer the older boy immediately, trying to calm himself down so he could speak.
"Ou-sama..." his voice was muffled against the cloth of Tetsuya's blazer and so thickened by his tears that it was nearly incomprehensible. "I don't know what to do..."
Somehow, though he hadn't actually been able to figure out what Keita said, Tetsuya got the 'I need you' message. He stroked the younger boy's head, rubbed his shoulders consolingly, and lowered his voice as he spoke slowly, trying to calm his ex down.
"Shhh, it's ok. Everything's gonna be all right, Keita. You just tell Ou-sama what's wrong, na?"
Keita just clung to him tighter, body trembling as he let his tears soak into Tetsuya's blazer. He knew it was a good idea to come to Tetsuya: the King would help him with this. And he needed the help; he didn't know what to do!
"Ou-sama..." his voice shook, and he wiped his tears away with a hand. "Kazuki and Naruse-san are fighting with each other again... I want them to stop, but I don't know how to... I tried and tried but they have never listened to me!"
His voice had risen at the last sentence, broadcasting his frustration at those two and his own helplessness.
Hide watched the scene for only a moment more before sighing inaudibly. He knew how this would end, and he definitely did not want to stay in the Council room to watch them fuck. Standing, he walked out of the room without any word of warning or acknowledgement, closing the door behind himself.
Tetsuya watched him leave from the corner of his eyes and felt a spike of irritation. Okay, so Keita had just rushed in and actually ignored Hide's presence; whatever was going on between Keita and the other two must really be bad. It wasn't Hide's fault at any rate, but Tetsuya didn't know what to do. It's been barely a quarter of his first school year, and the freshman's gone through so many boyfriends. Tetsuya himself, Hide, Endo, Shichijo - until the idiot woke up and went back to Kaoru's side... And now?
"Keita..." He brushed the redhead's hair back from his sweet face and cupped his cheeks. "Calm down first." He snagged some tissues up and pressed the wad into the boy's hands. "Let's go through what you've tried and how Naruse and Endo responded... I'm sure we'll find something."
"I tried to talk to both of them," Keita replied, sniffling still. He didn't even realize that Nakajima-san had gone - he was concentrating fully on Ou-sama. "I told them to not fight any more... I once stood in between them and yet they would not stop arguing!" He bit his lip. "I don't know what to do now..."
"Okay," Tetsuya led Keita over to the couch and then sat down beside him, subconsciously wrapping an arm around the needy boy's shoulders. "What did they do, or say? What started... err... starts them off to begin with? Usually."
Naruse and Endo used to get along fairly well, he silently recalled. Both of them are bright, positive people. But that was... sometime before Keita came into Bell Liberty.
Keita sat down hard on the couch, hugging himself tightly. "Naruse-san will start it, usually. He..." he blushed here, "he's a very sweet man to me. Everyday he'll give me little things; treats, things he had made, desserts... things like that. He always gives them to me in front of Kazuki, and Kazuki will get all upset. He's been miserable lately..." He sniffed hard, trying to prevent himself from crying. "He'll make a comment on what Naruse-san gave me, and Naruse-san always takes the bait and then they just start to fight each other." He tugged at the ends of his hair. "I think they fight about... me."
"... It definitely sounds like that's the case." Tetsuya didn't feel too surprised. He fought with Hide over Keita too, and it still seemed like they were fighting. A cold war or something. "Don't cry, Keita." He ruffled his hair, pasting an encouraging smile upon his own face. "They're probably just fighting over you because you're so lovable."
Keita rubbed his eyes, wiping away his tears. He tried to give the King a bright, cheerful smile, but it just came out shaky and false. "I don't know! I just want them to stop fighting… I want them to be friends again..."
Tetsuya's smile wavered. He glanced towards the empty chair in front of the computer and then the door. He wanted to be best friends with Hide again too. Forcibly, he reminded himself to refocus on Keita, who came to him, who needed him somehow. For a listening ear, for advice, whatever.
"Yeah, they made... pretty good friends when they first met. Hung out with each other a lot..." He trailed off at an odd sinking feeling and went back over what Keita told him. Suddenly, he grimaced.
"Keita, did you mean to say that Naruse gives you presents every day, but actually waits to give them to you only when Endo's around to see him do it?"
Keita blinked almost owlishly at Tetsuya, surprised by his tone and the lack of a smile on the good-natured older boy's face. He bit his lip, drawing it inside his mouth for a moment before he replied. "He... well, he meets me outside my dorm room every morning, and we go to breakfast together... Usually we meet Kazuki in the canteen, and that's when Naruse-san likes to give me his gifts..." His eyes widened, and he nodded frantically. "Now that you mentioned it, yes he does! Does that mean anything to you, Ou-sama?"
"Why couldn't he give it to you when he sees you outside your dorm?"
Tetsuya blurted it out. It seemed ridiculous. Almost malicious, like Naruse was deliberately taunting Keita's best friend and ex - and just the one ex. Not the others either. Tetsuya saw nothing of it. Hide wouldn't stand for it. Shichijo would... probably freak Naruse out in return.
But it wasn't so much that they were fighting over Keita. It seemed to him that they were simply fighting with each other using Keita as an excuse!
Keita's voice was quiet when he replied, "He usually makes me a bento for breakfast and gives it to me when we're at the cafeteria. We always go there for breakfast, even though we both have bento... And sometimes he gives me other things too, but he always gives them to me in the cafeteria." His voice trembled a little, "He said that he likes to show me that he loves me in public, so everyone will see and won't try to steal 'his Honey' away from him."
Tears were spilling down his cheeks again by the time he finished. He turned around and dove into Tetsuya's arms, burying his face in the King's shoulders as he sobbed. He hated it when people fight around him, much less when they were fighting over him. He hated it, but he couldn't stop it and, to make it worse, it was his boyfriend and his best friend - the two people he cared most about. So why...
Why wouldn't they just stop already!
"Aah," Tetsuya hesitated when the boy flung himself at him again. Then, his hands moved of their own accord and he tucked Keita's head under his chin, hugging him tightly. He couldn't help still feeling attached to Keita. Squeezing his eyes shut, Tetsuya reminded himself that Keita's moved on, and will probably move on again and again...
The voice in is head surprisingly sounded like Hide though, which brought him back to the present situation quite well.
He sighed quietly, "Keita... Hush... Listen. Why don't you try eating breakfast with Naruse somewhere else? Somewhere you won't see Endo. You can... have lunch with your best friend or dinner or something. This way, Naruse won't have an excuse to keep his gift from you until Endo around... if that's what he's doing that is. He might not be, you know. It could just be what he said - wanting to show the world that you're ...his honey."
Keita pulled away from Tetsuya slowly, reluctantly, his sobs subsiding. He nodded, blinking as he wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. After a few last sniffles, he stopped crying, sitting with his head dropped to his chest, shoulders slumped. He took a deep breath before lifting his head, looking Tetsuya in the eyes as he gave the King a shaky, almost cheerful smile.
"Mm, I'll try that," he nodded again. His voice was tremulous, so he took another breath, trying to calm himself. He was a man! He should be strong!
Impulsively, he reached forward and hugged Tetsuya tightly again. He knew coming to the King was a good decision: the older boy always knew what to do in a crisis. He was so glad to have him as a friend.
"Thank you so much, Ou-sama..." He was smiling again, though his smile was dimmer than usual.
Similarly, Tetsuya smiled back. He lifted a hand to Keita's cheek, thumbing a tear away. "It's no problem, Keita. You're the one who has to deal with them after all."
Endo was... complicated, but Naruse was more than a handful on his own. He didn't envy his ex. In fact, a small part of him thought something uncharacteristically bitter. He squished it, placing his hands on Keita's shoulders.
"So be strong, na? Boys shouldn't cry. Too much."
Keita laughed a little, his naturally cheerful and optimistic temperament returning. "Hai!" He furiously wiped his tears away, exhaling explosively just once. "I'll do my best to stop them from fighting, Ou-sama!"
Before his mind and embarrassment could catch up with him, he leaned forward and offered the King a small peck on the check before scrambling to stand up. He gave the older boy a hurried but still polite bow before rushing out of the door to find Kazuki and Naruse-san.
More than just to stop them from fighting, he was determined to have them befriend each other again. It was a monumental task; he had to start now!
Tetsuya just stared at the spot Keita occupied earlier, and slowly rubbed his cheek. Finally, he sank back into the couch, and stared at the ceiling. He fished his cell phone out of a pocket, and hit speed dial.
"Keita just left, Hide." He sighed, "You comin' back here or what?"
***
A distraction. Tetsuya needed a good distraction. And his father called. So there he was, at the police station. Not exactly the kind of distraction he was looking for. Oh no, it was something more serious and larger than his life.
"And the kid saw everything?"
His father nodded, lips pulled in a tight line. Niwa Ryuya sighed, sitting down heavily on his office chair and looking levelly at his son. "Yeah. His mother shoved him into a closet, and he saw everything through the crack."
He stood up again, starting to pace agitatedly around his desk. "The kid's in shock right now. He might not believe that his parents are dead; he might think that it's just a bad dream. Or he might have an emotional breakdown. It can go either way, or even in ways that you have never dealt with before." He whirled around, slamming his hands on the table. With narrowed eyes, he gave Tetsuya an intense look. "In any case, he can't stay here in the station. I'm going to ask you to take care of him. Are you up to the task?"
"I... yeah, but-" Tetsuya thought quickly about councillors or relatives. He wasn't the right person for this. He was just a trainee. But his old man was asking, so that must mean he had some confidence in him. He took a deep breath, and nodded. "I'll take the boy to my school for a while..." It was the safest place he could think of. "Has he seen the sketch artist already?"
Ryuya nodded, "He wasn't coherent enough to really identify the robber, but we got a few basic descriptions. It's more than enough, because the piece of shit left his weapon behind."
He gave his son a critical look. The boy was less obnoxiously cheerful than usual, and he could see dark circles under his eyes - well, that was unusual. Tetsuya was generally more happy-go-lucky and less... inclined to think or reflect, so for him to be so affected to show physically, he must be really worried about something.
Ryuya shook the thoughts out of his head, refocusing on the matters at hand. It was none of his business He reached over to one of his drawers and drew out a stack of papers, pushing them over to Tetsuya. "These are the details of the case. Look them over. I'm placing the kid in your responsibility now, Tetsuya. Consider it a test of a sort; one that you cannot fail."
He sat back down on his chair. "He's in room 278. Go get him."
"278," Tetsuya repeated. He nodded, "Gotcha," and picked up the papers, giving them a quick scan through.
The photos immediately caught his eyes, most of them being about the scene of the crime and the last one... a black haired, brown eyed little runt of a boy in his mother's arms, blowing a raspberry at his laughing father...
Sato Eiji, he scowled, had just turned seven years old about a week ago. He came from what seemed like a normal, happy family. And just watched it all dashed to pieces because of a robbery gone from wrong to worse.
When Tetsuya was done with the papers, he handed them back to Ryuya without a comment, and left for the kid.
Ryuya watched him go, his head resting on a fist. He knew that if there was anyone who could help the child recover, it would be Tetsuya - his son had the sort of charm and charisma that would make even the coldest iceberg warm up to him. He was a lot like his mother in that way. No, that was not what he was concerned about.
Tetsuya was obviously brooding about something and had been for quite some time. What exactly was he bothered about? It couldn't be romance: he was in an all-boys' school isolated from the rest of civilization... or could it?
Ryuya smirked. Well, well, this bore investigation. His own little project, if you will...
***
Clueless with the way his father's thought processes went, Tetsuya silently promised that he wouldn't fail this test of his. He'd be careful, but he'd look after Eiji and keep him safe for as long as the police needed to find the murderer and keep him off the streets. With that purpose in mind, he walked into room 278 with a calm, collected expression and smiled warmly when he saw the boy.
"Hey there. Eiji-kun, right?" He crouched down by the boy so as not to intimidate the kid with his larger size. "I'm Tetsuya. The police asked me to look after you for a while," he explained. He didn't think it'd be a good idea to mention his father after all, and well, he wasn't lying.
Eiji looked upwards. His hands stopped fidgeting with the small cuts on his hands and wrists. He wasn't surprised by Tetsuya's entrance - he had heard some of the police officers talking about someone coming to get him, and he had heard Tetsuya's footsteps.
Looking back down, he scratched at one of the small scabs. After a long moment, he finally spoke. "I don't want to go. If I go, Mommy and Daddy won't be able to find me..." he choked back a sob. "Why aren't they here already?"
Something ached in Tetsuya's broken, loosely patched-up heart. He reached out, placed a hand on the little boy's shoulder and tried to keep his voice steady as he explained.
"Do you remember that guy who came to your house? And you were in the closet?" He waited for the boy to nod, and continued, "He took your Mommy and Daddy away, and we can't bring them back. But with your help, with what you told the police, they're gonna catch him so he can't take anyone else's Mommy and Daddy away..."
Eiji's eyes got bigger and bigger. He shook his head, growing more and more frantic as he backed away from the older boy. "No..." his voice was barely above a whisper. "No! You're wrong! You're wrong!" He raised his arms, covering his face with his hands as he felt tears pouring down his cheeks.
"It was just a bad dream. Mommy and Daddy aren't gone. They're coming back, they're coming back to get Eiji and we're going to the zoo to visit the penguins the tomorrow. They promised!" He dropped his hands, staring, wild-eyed and unseeing, at Tetsuya. "They promised! They won't lie to me! You are lying!"
He ran into the corner and sat down on the floor, drawing his legs upwards and curling into a fetal position as he sobbed into his knees. "You're lying..."
Tetsuya winced as the boy tore away from him, and bit his lip, silently berating himself. Idiot! It was too soon. He didn't want to lie to the kid, because that would just hurt him more later, and yet...
"I wish I was lying," he answered quietly. He made no move to get closer to the boy. Just kept his voice calm and his words honest. "I wish they could take you to the zoo tomorrow..."
Eiji didn't reply for a long while, rocking back and forth while still hugging his knees. Despite how much he wanted to believe that it was all just a bad dream, despite how much he didn't want to admit it... he knew the truth. He knew that Tetsuya wasn't lying, but he just didn't want to believe it.
Slowly, he turned around to face the older boy. The sincerity shown in Tetsuya's voice, face and eyes squashed any hopes in him not believing the awful truth.
"What am I going to do now?" He choked the words out of a closing throat. "I miss them..."
"You'll grow strong and live a good life, Eiji. Just like your parents wanted you to." Tetsuya thought about that happy family photo he saw, and walked over, a soft, confident smile on his face.
"They loved you very much, your Mommy and Daddy. I didn't know them but I don't have to know them to see that their love will stay with you, and protect you. And make you strong whenever you feel week."
Kneeling down before the boy again, he asked, "Would you rather stay in this dusty corner all day, or go see the penguins Mommy and Daddy wanted to show you?"
Eiji rubbed his eyes with his fists, straightening himself and squaring his shoulders. He had to be strong, because that was what Mommy and Daddy would want him to be. He had to be... his lip started to tremble, and he crumbled into himself, hiding his face with his hands.
"Can I be stronger tomorrow?" His voice was muffled and tremulous. "Please?"
"Of course," Tetsuya nodded, earnest as he went on. "Let's go somewhere nice and safe, where you can be whatever you want to be, na?"
What was Bell Liberty after all, but an all-boys academy for gifted students? A free haven on a man-made island just off the coast of the Suzubishi Corporation's main headquarters in Japan. The large corporation funded the school, sponsored particularly talented students, and the only way to get into the place was by invitation.
Eiji took a deep breath and nodded, slowly. He mustn't cry; he had to be stronger. Daddy had always said that boys were strong, and Mummy taught him that he had to put in effort every minute off the day if he wanted to do something.
He let his hands dropped from his face, wiping away the tear tracks. Looking up, he stood straight and stiff, looking into Tetsuya's eyes with his own determined red ones. "Okay."
Tetsuya grinned, relieved, and happy for Eiji. "All right then!" He held his hand out so the kid could reach out if he felt comfortable enough. "Come on, the floor can't be that comfortable. Up you get!
"I got a motorbike parked outside, with a passenger's helmet, but we can leave it parked here and get on a bus too. Whichever you like!"
Tetsuya was really cheerful, almost annoyingly so. But Eiji smiled shyly back anyway, reaching out a hand to grip onto one of Tetsuya's fingers, letting himself be pulled up gently.
He looked at Tetsuya, his smile widening as the words got through his head. He had never ridden on a motorbike before, and from what he had seen, it looked fun! "Um..." Staring at the floor, he fidgeted slightly before he continued. "The motorbike, please?"
"Sure!" The older boy nodded. His father would probably kill him if he saw it, but what the hell. Anyone who rode a motorbike would know to hang on tight, and even if they didn't, he'd tell them so before they started off anywhere; Tetsuya was responsible like that.
***
Okay, so he wasn't as responsible as he thought. Losing the kid when he wasn't looking, finding him again because of Omi and Kaoru's quick thinking, and because Hide somehow kept the kid interested enough to stick around somehow instead of wandering off somewhere else. The school was safe of crime and other street shit, and he was King, but... like Hide said, he wasn't a real King. He was elected, sure. The students loved him, thought the best of him - generally, but those who really knew him and worked closely with him?
Kaoru thought he was a brute, an idiot. Omi found him amusing. Hide... all but hated him at the moment.
Tetsuya looked down at the kid curled up against his chest, fast asleep - cried himself to sleep that is.
Well, even if he felt like a failure to his friends, he wasn't going to stop trying... somehow.
Eiji was gently bounced back to wakefulness. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking in confusion when he realized that the world was moving. It took a moment to realize that Tetsuya was carrying him, and they were walking towards... somewhere.
He yawned hugely, burying his face against Tetsuya's broad chest to hide the yawn. "Your friends are nice," he said, voice slurred with sleepiness.
"Yeah?" Tetsuya's smile was self-depreciative. "Yeah, they're awesome."
After Eiji had fallen asleep on the roof, he told the Treasury that he'd take the kid back to the Student Council room. But on second thought, wasn't Hide gonna be working in there? He walked out of the building instead, taking a path through the park that led back towards the dorms.
Eiji blinked, his attention peaked by Tetsuya's tone of voice. "Huh? You sound weird..." He tilted his head to the side, eyes widening as he stared at the older boy's face as if he could find the answers of the universe written in the skin. "You don't like them?"
"Wh-? No- I mean, yeah, I love them! They're great!" Tetsuya flushed at the sudden inquiry. "But I'm the one who's not so great. You know what I mean?" He found it easy talking to the kid. Or kids in general. Okay, so standard protocol pretty much said it wasn't the brightest idea to talk too much about your life with the people you work with, but the kid wasn't dangerous. Eiji already knew who he was and where he went to school, that sort of thing.
And Tetsuya wanted a friend to talk to.
"See, with Kaoru - the one you thought was a girl - well, I thought he was a girl when we first met, too. So we started off on the wrong track. But we have to work together, so...that's what we try to do..."
Eiji didn't get it. He shook his head, replying with childish honesty. "I don't know what you mean. If you did something bad or something wrong and he got angry, then all you have to do is to say sorry and shake hands. Then we can be friends again! Everyone knows that!"
He just couldn't understand why Tetsuya, who was so smart about some things and could ride a motorbike, couldn't understand something so simple.
"Well, Kaoru's not everyone," Tetsuya laughed. "And I get stupid around him, 'cause I... like him a lot," he added as he walked through the front entrance of the building, heading for the stairs. "And the thing with saying sorry is that if you say it too many times - and I have - the words eventually lose their meaning, so that sorry’s not enough anymore."
Eiji still didn't get it. In fact, he was getting more and more confused about the whole thing. He shook his head vigorously, crossing his arms around his chest as much as he could while being carried by Tetsuya.
"Adults are dumb and make simple things hard," he declared loudly, almost pouting. "If you say sorry, then he should just accept it. Or you should show him you are sorry. Mommy has always said that candy always works. Or help with him something."
His frown deepened and he buried himself into Tetsuya's chest again, "Adults are so dumb!" And that was his final opinion on the matter.
"Yeah, we get dumber as we get older," Tetsuya gave a dry chuckle. "Hey, can you walk? I need my hands to get my keys." Carefully, he set the boy down at the top of the stairs, and fished out his keys.
"And I tried candies, and flowers," he sighed. "Even a stuffed animal. He got so angry at me, 'cause well... I was treating him like a girl. Something like that."
Eiji frowned, watching Tetsuya as he opened the keys to his room. "Well, I like candies and toys, and I'm a boy! I don't why he doesn't. And flowers are pretty and they smell..." a great yawn suddenly interrupted his rant. Well, he was tired... and his nap was interrupted.
Stumbling forward a little, he clung onto Tetsuya's waist, wrapping his arms around it for balance. "Sleepy..." He rubbed his eyes, yawning again.
"Saa..." Tetsuya put his keys away and slipped his hands under Eiji's armpits, picking him up swiftly. "Then take the bed, sleepyhead," he carried the kid into his room and kicked the door shut behind them, tucking the kid in with an odd sense of déjà vu. Like when his dad used to tuck little Tet-chan in until he hit the two digits.
He pulled a blanket over Eiji's shoulders and ruffled his hair. "I'll be right here, na. G'night."
*
"Omi! Kaoru!"
Hide's voice pierced through the silence and Tetsuya stared unseeingly at the calculus textbook in front of him, the numbers blurring suddenly as his hearing sharpened.
No, his ears were playing tricks on him. It couldn't...
Could it?
Slowly, he tilted his head towards the wall that he shared with Hide. The room was quiet. It really could have been the result of utter boredom -
Oh, who the hell was he kidding? His brain was not wired to go from math to, to...
Nothing much passed through the wall, so much that Niwa thought that he had hallucinated it all. Until he could hear the distinct sound of a bed creaking and rocking, soft murmurs of voices confirming his suspicion.
He glanced towards Eiji, and wondered if the boy was gonna need headphones. It was so... loud; how could the kid be asleep while he was freaking out? What was he supposed to do, wake the kid up and take him out of the room? Go next door and yell at them to stop or take it somewhere else?
And all the while as he tried to focus on taking care of Eiji, the noise, the moans... the cries just... got worse.
Well! He thought to himself, at least he now knew why Kaoru told him to stay out of it. Those three with their intertwined love lives... He certainly had nothing to do with that. So then why the hell did his ears seem to ring, and his cheeks burn so harshly like everything else inside was being hollowed out and frozen?
Tetsuya wanted to get out of the room, but he couldn't seem to move. It was like being blanketed in paralyzing fear - or morbid curiosity.
Love... when he first met Saionji Kaoru, he thought it was love at first sight. Ever since then, he'd been slapped, teased, insulted, and betrayed... and never once did he cry about it. Never.
But everyone had a breaking point, and sometimes, even a king had to cry.
Niwa Tetsuya wasn't a real king anyway.
End
Continued in Surfacing: Metamorphosis
Keita, wet-eyed and tragic, flew into Tetsuya's arms.
"W-wh- Keita!" Tetsuya exclaimed, automatically hugging his ex-boyfriend closer, concerned. The boy often put on a sunny disposition after all. "What's wrong?"
Keita sniffed, burying his face into Tetsuya's chest, clutching his fingers around his first lover's blazer. He didn't answer the older boy immediately, trying to calm himself down so he could speak.
"Ou-sama..." his voice was muffled against the cloth of Tetsuya's blazer and so thickened by his tears that it was nearly incomprehensible. "I don't know what to do..."
Somehow, though he hadn't actually been able to figure out what Keita said, Tetsuya got the 'I need you' message. He stroked the younger boy's head, rubbed his shoulders consolingly, and lowered his voice as he spoke slowly, trying to calm his ex down.
"Shhh, it's ok. Everything's gonna be all right, Keita. You just tell Ou-sama what's wrong, na?"
Keita just clung to him tighter, body trembling as he let his tears soak into Tetsuya's blazer. He knew it was a good idea to come to Tetsuya: the King would help him with this. And he needed the help; he didn't know what to do!
"Ou-sama..." his voice shook, and he wiped his tears away with a hand. "Kazuki and Naruse-san are fighting with each other again... I want them to stop, but I don't know how to... I tried and tried but they have never listened to me!"
His voice had risen at the last sentence, broadcasting his frustration at those two and his own helplessness.
Hide watched the scene for only a moment more before sighing inaudibly. He knew how this would end, and he definitely did not want to stay in the Council room to watch them fuck. Standing, he walked out of the room without any word of warning or acknowledgement, closing the door behind himself.
Tetsuya watched him leave from the corner of his eyes and felt a spike of irritation. Okay, so Keita had just rushed in and actually ignored Hide's presence; whatever was going on between Keita and the other two must really be bad. It wasn't Hide's fault at any rate, but Tetsuya didn't know what to do. It's been barely a quarter of his first school year, and the freshman's gone through so many boyfriends. Tetsuya himself, Hide, Endo, Shichijo - until the idiot woke up and went back to Kaoru's side... And now?
"Keita..." He brushed the redhead's hair back from his sweet face and cupped his cheeks. "Calm down first." He snagged some tissues up and pressed the wad into the boy's hands. "Let's go through what you've tried and how Naruse and Endo responded... I'm sure we'll find something."
"I tried to talk to both of them," Keita replied, sniffling still. He didn't even realize that Nakajima-san had gone - he was concentrating fully on Ou-sama. "I told them to not fight any more... I once stood in between them and yet they would not stop arguing!" He bit his lip. "I don't know what to do now..."
"Okay," Tetsuya led Keita over to the couch and then sat down beside him, subconsciously wrapping an arm around the needy boy's shoulders. "What did they do, or say? What started... err... starts them off to begin with? Usually."
Naruse and Endo used to get along fairly well, he silently recalled. Both of them are bright, positive people. But that was... sometime before Keita came into Bell Liberty.
Keita sat down hard on the couch, hugging himself tightly. "Naruse-san will start it, usually. He..." he blushed here, "he's a very sweet man to me. Everyday he'll give me little things; treats, things he had made, desserts... things like that. He always gives them to me in front of Kazuki, and Kazuki will get all upset. He's been miserable lately..." He sniffed hard, trying to prevent himself from crying. "He'll make a comment on what Naruse-san gave me, and Naruse-san always takes the bait and then they just start to fight each other." He tugged at the ends of his hair. "I think they fight about... me."
"... It definitely sounds like that's the case." Tetsuya didn't feel too surprised. He fought with Hide over Keita too, and it still seemed like they were fighting. A cold war or something. "Don't cry, Keita." He ruffled his hair, pasting an encouraging smile upon his own face. "They're probably just fighting over you because you're so lovable."
Keita rubbed his eyes, wiping away his tears. He tried to give the King a bright, cheerful smile, but it just came out shaky and false. "I don't know! I just want them to stop fighting… I want them to be friends again..."
Tetsuya's smile wavered. He glanced towards the empty chair in front of the computer and then the door. He wanted to be best friends with Hide again too. Forcibly, he reminded himself to refocus on Keita, who came to him, who needed him somehow. For a listening ear, for advice, whatever.
"Yeah, they made... pretty good friends when they first met. Hung out with each other a lot..." He trailed off at an odd sinking feeling and went back over what Keita told him. Suddenly, he grimaced.
"Keita, did you mean to say that Naruse gives you presents every day, but actually waits to give them to you only when Endo's around to see him do it?"
Keita blinked almost owlishly at Tetsuya, surprised by his tone and the lack of a smile on the good-natured older boy's face. He bit his lip, drawing it inside his mouth for a moment before he replied. "He... well, he meets me outside my dorm room every morning, and we go to breakfast together... Usually we meet Kazuki in the canteen, and that's when Naruse-san likes to give me his gifts..." His eyes widened, and he nodded frantically. "Now that you mentioned it, yes he does! Does that mean anything to you, Ou-sama?"
"Why couldn't he give it to you when he sees you outside your dorm?"
Tetsuya blurted it out. It seemed ridiculous. Almost malicious, like Naruse was deliberately taunting Keita's best friend and ex - and just the one ex. Not the others either. Tetsuya saw nothing of it. Hide wouldn't stand for it. Shichijo would... probably freak Naruse out in return.
But it wasn't so much that they were fighting over Keita. It seemed to him that they were simply fighting with each other using Keita as an excuse!
Keita's voice was quiet when he replied, "He usually makes me a bento for breakfast and gives it to me when we're at the cafeteria. We always go there for breakfast, even though we both have bento... And sometimes he gives me other things too, but he always gives them to me in the cafeteria." His voice trembled a little, "He said that he likes to show me that he loves me in public, so everyone will see and won't try to steal 'his Honey' away from him."
Tears were spilling down his cheeks again by the time he finished. He turned around and dove into Tetsuya's arms, burying his face in the King's shoulders as he sobbed. He hated it when people fight around him, much less when they were fighting over him. He hated it, but he couldn't stop it and, to make it worse, it was his boyfriend and his best friend - the two people he cared most about. So why...
Why wouldn't they just stop already!
"Aah," Tetsuya hesitated when the boy flung himself at him again. Then, his hands moved of their own accord and he tucked Keita's head under his chin, hugging him tightly. He couldn't help still feeling attached to Keita. Squeezing his eyes shut, Tetsuya reminded himself that Keita's moved on, and will probably move on again and again...
The voice in is head surprisingly sounded like Hide though, which brought him back to the present situation quite well.
He sighed quietly, "Keita... Hush... Listen. Why don't you try eating breakfast with Naruse somewhere else? Somewhere you won't see Endo. You can... have lunch with your best friend or dinner or something. This way, Naruse won't have an excuse to keep his gift from you until Endo around... if that's what he's doing that is. He might not be, you know. It could just be what he said - wanting to show the world that you're ...his honey."
Keita pulled away from Tetsuya slowly, reluctantly, his sobs subsiding. He nodded, blinking as he wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. After a few last sniffles, he stopped crying, sitting with his head dropped to his chest, shoulders slumped. He took a deep breath before lifting his head, looking Tetsuya in the eyes as he gave the King a shaky, almost cheerful smile.
"Mm, I'll try that," he nodded again. His voice was tremulous, so he took another breath, trying to calm himself. He was a man! He should be strong!
Impulsively, he reached forward and hugged Tetsuya tightly again. He knew coming to the King was a good decision: the older boy always knew what to do in a crisis. He was so glad to have him as a friend.
"Thank you so much, Ou-sama..." He was smiling again, though his smile was dimmer than usual.
Similarly, Tetsuya smiled back. He lifted a hand to Keita's cheek, thumbing a tear away. "It's no problem, Keita. You're the one who has to deal with them after all."
Endo was... complicated, but Naruse was more than a handful on his own. He didn't envy his ex. In fact, a small part of him thought something uncharacteristically bitter. He squished it, placing his hands on Keita's shoulders.
"So be strong, na? Boys shouldn't cry. Too much."
Keita laughed a little, his naturally cheerful and optimistic temperament returning. "Hai!" He furiously wiped his tears away, exhaling explosively just once. "I'll do my best to stop them from fighting, Ou-sama!"
Before his mind and embarrassment could catch up with him, he leaned forward and offered the King a small peck on the check before scrambling to stand up. He gave the older boy a hurried but still polite bow before rushing out of the door to find Kazuki and Naruse-san.
More than just to stop them from fighting, he was determined to have them befriend each other again. It was a monumental task; he had to start now!
Tetsuya just stared at the spot Keita occupied earlier, and slowly rubbed his cheek. Finally, he sank back into the couch, and stared at the ceiling. He fished his cell phone out of a pocket, and hit speed dial.
"Keita just left, Hide." He sighed, "You comin' back here or what?"
***
A distraction. Tetsuya needed a good distraction. And his father called. So there he was, at the police station. Not exactly the kind of distraction he was looking for. Oh no, it was something more serious and larger than his life.
"And the kid saw everything?"
His father nodded, lips pulled in a tight line. Niwa Ryuya sighed, sitting down heavily on his office chair and looking levelly at his son. "Yeah. His mother shoved him into a closet, and he saw everything through the crack."
He stood up again, starting to pace agitatedly around his desk. "The kid's in shock right now. He might not believe that his parents are dead; he might think that it's just a bad dream. Or he might have an emotional breakdown. It can go either way, or even in ways that you have never dealt with before." He whirled around, slamming his hands on the table. With narrowed eyes, he gave Tetsuya an intense look. "In any case, he can't stay here in the station. I'm going to ask you to take care of him. Are you up to the task?"
"I... yeah, but-" Tetsuya thought quickly about councillors or relatives. He wasn't the right person for this. He was just a trainee. But his old man was asking, so that must mean he had some confidence in him. He took a deep breath, and nodded. "I'll take the boy to my school for a while..." It was the safest place he could think of. "Has he seen the sketch artist already?"
Ryuya nodded, "He wasn't coherent enough to really identify the robber, but we got a few basic descriptions. It's more than enough, because the piece of shit left his weapon behind."
He gave his son a critical look. The boy was less obnoxiously cheerful than usual, and he could see dark circles under his eyes - well, that was unusual. Tetsuya was generally more happy-go-lucky and less... inclined to think or reflect, so for him to be so affected to show physically, he must be really worried about something.
Ryuya shook the thoughts out of his head, refocusing on the matters at hand. It was none of his business He reached over to one of his drawers and drew out a stack of papers, pushing them over to Tetsuya. "These are the details of the case. Look them over. I'm placing the kid in your responsibility now, Tetsuya. Consider it a test of a sort; one that you cannot fail."
He sat back down on his chair. "He's in room 278. Go get him."
"278," Tetsuya repeated. He nodded, "Gotcha," and picked up the papers, giving them a quick scan through.
The photos immediately caught his eyes, most of them being about the scene of the crime and the last one... a black haired, brown eyed little runt of a boy in his mother's arms, blowing a raspberry at his laughing father...
Sato Eiji, he scowled, had just turned seven years old about a week ago. He came from what seemed like a normal, happy family. And just watched it all dashed to pieces because of a robbery gone from wrong to worse.
When Tetsuya was done with the papers, he handed them back to Ryuya without a comment, and left for the kid.
Ryuya watched him go, his head resting on a fist. He knew that if there was anyone who could help the child recover, it would be Tetsuya - his son had the sort of charm and charisma that would make even the coldest iceberg warm up to him. He was a lot like his mother in that way. No, that was not what he was concerned about.
Tetsuya was obviously brooding about something and had been for quite some time. What exactly was he bothered about? It couldn't be romance: he was in an all-boys' school isolated from the rest of civilization... or could it?
Ryuya smirked. Well, well, this bore investigation. His own little project, if you will...
***
Clueless with the way his father's thought processes went, Tetsuya silently promised that he wouldn't fail this test of his. He'd be careful, but he'd look after Eiji and keep him safe for as long as the police needed to find the murderer and keep him off the streets. With that purpose in mind, he walked into room 278 with a calm, collected expression and smiled warmly when he saw the boy.
"Hey there. Eiji-kun, right?" He crouched down by the boy so as not to intimidate the kid with his larger size. "I'm Tetsuya. The police asked me to look after you for a while," he explained. He didn't think it'd be a good idea to mention his father after all, and well, he wasn't lying.
Eiji looked upwards. His hands stopped fidgeting with the small cuts on his hands and wrists. He wasn't surprised by Tetsuya's entrance - he had heard some of the police officers talking about someone coming to get him, and he had heard Tetsuya's footsteps.
Looking back down, he scratched at one of the small scabs. After a long moment, he finally spoke. "I don't want to go. If I go, Mommy and Daddy won't be able to find me..." he choked back a sob. "Why aren't they here already?"
Something ached in Tetsuya's broken, loosely patched-up heart. He reached out, placed a hand on the little boy's shoulder and tried to keep his voice steady as he explained.
"Do you remember that guy who came to your house? And you were in the closet?" He waited for the boy to nod, and continued, "He took your Mommy and Daddy away, and we can't bring them back. But with your help, with what you told the police, they're gonna catch him so he can't take anyone else's Mommy and Daddy away..."
Eiji's eyes got bigger and bigger. He shook his head, growing more and more frantic as he backed away from the older boy. "No..." his voice was barely above a whisper. "No! You're wrong! You're wrong!" He raised his arms, covering his face with his hands as he felt tears pouring down his cheeks.
"It was just a bad dream. Mommy and Daddy aren't gone. They're coming back, they're coming back to get Eiji and we're going to the zoo to visit the penguins the tomorrow. They promised!" He dropped his hands, staring, wild-eyed and unseeing, at Tetsuya. "They promised! They won't lie to me! You are lying!"
He ran into the corner and sat down on the floor, drawing his legs upwards and curling into a fetal position as he sobbed into his knees. "You're lying..."
Tetsuya winced as the boy tore away from him, and bit his lip, silently berating himself. Idiot! It was too soon. He didn't want to lie to the kid, because that would just hurt him more later, and yet...
"I wish I was lying," he answered quietly. He made no move to get closer to the boy. Just kept his voice calm and his words honest. "I wish they could take you to the zoo tomorrow..."
Eiji didn't reply for a long while, rocking back and forth while still hugging his knees. Despite how much he wanted to believe that it was all just a bad dream, despite how much he didn't want to admit it... he knew the truth. He knew that Tetsuya wasn't lying, but he just didn't want to believe it.
Slowly, he turned around to face the older boy. The sincerity shown in Tetsuya's voice, face and eyes squashed any hopes in him not believing the awful truth.
"What am I going to do now?" He choked the words out of a closing throat. "I miss them..."
"You'll grow strong and live a good life, Eiji. Just like your parents wanted you to." Tetsuya thought about that happy family photo he saw, and walked over, a soft, confident smile on his face.
"They loved you very much, your Mommy and Daddy. I didn't know them but I don't have to know them to see that their love will stay with you, and protect you. And make you strong whenever you feel week."
Kneeling down before the boy again, he asked, "Would you rather stay in this dusty corner all day, or go see the penguins Mommy and Daddy wanted to show you?"
Eiji rubbed his eyes with his fists, straightening himself and squaring his shoulders. He had to be strong, because that was what Mommy and Daddy would want him to be. He had to be... his lip started to tremble, and he crumbled into himself, hiding his face with his hands.
"Can I be stronger tomorrow?" His voice was muffled and tremulous. "Please?"
"Of course," Tetsuya nodded, earnest as he went on. "Let's go somewhere nice and safe, where you can be whatever you want to be, na?"
What was Bell Liberty after all, but an all-boys academy for gifted students? A free haven on a man-made island just off the coast of the Suzubishi Corporation's main headquarters in Japan. The large corporation funded the school, sponsored particularly talented students, and the only way to get into the place was by invitation.
Eiji took a deep breath and nodded, slowly. He mustn't cry; he had to be stronger. Daddy had always said that boys were strong, and Mummy taught him that he had to put in effort every minute off the day if he wanted to do something.
He let his hands dropped from his face, wiping away the tear tracks. Looking up, he stood straight and stiff, looking into Tetsuya's eyes with his own determined red ones. "Okay."
Tetsuya grinned, relieved, and happy for Eiji. "All right then!" He held his hand out so the kid could reach out if he felt comfortable enough. "Come on, the floor can't be that comfortable. Up you get!
"I got a motorbike parked outside, with a passenger's helmet, but we can leave it parked here and get on a bus too. Whichever you like!"
Tetsuya was really cheerful, almost annoyingly so. But Eiji smiled shyly back anyway, reaching out a hand to grip onto one of Tetsuya's fingers, letting himself be pulled up gently.
He looked at Tetsuya, his smile widening as the words got through his head. He had never ridden on a motorbike before, and from what he had seen, it looked fun! "Um..." Staring at the floor, he fidgeted slightly before he continued. "The motorbike, please?"
"Sure!" The older boy nodded. His father would probably kill him if he saw it, but what the hell. Anyone who rode a motorbike would know to hang on tight, and even if they didn't, he'd tell them so before they started off anywhere; Tetsuya was responsible like that.
***
Okay, so he wasn't as responsible as he thought. Losing the kid when he wasn't looking, finding him again because of Omi and Kaoru's quick thinking, and because Hide somehow kept the kid interested enough to stick around somehow instead of wandering off somewhere else. The school was safe of crime and other street shit, and he was King, but... like Hide said, he wasn't a real King. He was elected, sure. The students loved him, thought the best of him - generally, but those who really knew him and worked closely with him?
Kaoru thought he was a brute, an idiot. Omi found him amusing. Hide... all but hated him at the moment.
Tetsuya looked down at the kid curled up against his chest, fast asleep - cried himself to sleep that is.
Well, even if he felt like a failure to his friends, he wasn't going to stop trying... somehow.
Eiji was gently bounced back to wakefulness. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking in confusion when he realized that the world was moving. It took a moment to realize that Tetsuya was carrying him, and they were walking towards... somewhere.
He yawned hugely, burying his face against Tetsuya's broad chest to hide the yawn. "Your friends are nice," he said, voice slurred with sleepiness.
"Yeah?" Tetsuya's smile was self-depreciative. "Yeah, they're awesome."
After Eiji had fallen asleep on the roof, he told the Treasury that he'd take the kid back to the Student Council room. But on second thought, wasn't Hide gonna be working in there? He walked out of the building instead, taking a path through the park that led back towards the dorms.
Eiji blinked, his attention peaked by Tetsuya's tone of voice. "Huh? You sound weird..." He tilted his head to the side, eyes widening as he stared at the older boy's face as if he could find the answers of the universe written in the skin. "You don't like them?"
"Wh-? No- I mean, yeah, I love them! They're great!" Tetsuya flushed at the sudden inquiry. "But I'm the one who's not so great. You know what I mean?" He found it easy talking to the kid. Or kids in general. Okay, so standard protocol pretty much said it wasn't the brightest idea to talk too much about your life with the people you work with, but the kid wasn't dangerous. Eiji already knew who he was and where he went to school, that sort of thing.
And Tetsuya wanted a friend to talk to.
"See, with Kaoru - the one you thought was a girl - well, I thought he was a girl when we first met, too. So we started off on the wrong track. But we have to work together, so...that's what we try to do..."
Eiji didn't get it. He shook his head, replying with childish honesty. "I don't know what you mean. If you did something bad or something wrong and he got angry, then all you have to do is to say sorry and shake hands. Then we can be friends again! Everyone knows that!"
He just couldn't understand why Tetsuya, who was so smart about some things and could ride a motorbike, couldn't understand something so simple.
"Well, Kaoru's not everyone," Tetsuya laughed. "And I get stupid around him, 'cause I... like him a lot," he added as he walked through the front entrance of the building, heading for the stairs. "And the thing with saying sorry is that if you say it too many times - and I have - the words eventually lose their meaning, so that sorry’s not enough anymore."
Eiji still didn't get it. In fact, he was getting more and more confused about the whole thing. He shook his head vigorously, crossing his arms around his chest as much as he could while being carried by Tetsuya.
"Adults are dumb and make simple things hard," he declared loudly, almost pouting. "If you say sorry, then he should just accept it. Or you should show him you are sorry. Mommy has always said that candy always works. Or help with him something."
His frown deepened and he buried himself into Tetsuya's chest again, "Adults are so dumb!" And that was his final opinion on the matter.
"Yeah, we get dumber as we get older," Tetsuya gave a dry chuckle. "Hey, can you walk? I need my hands to get my keys." Carefully, he set the boy down at the top of the stairs, and fished out his keys.
"And I tried candies, and flowers," he sighed. "Even a stuffed animal. He got so angry at me, 'cause well... I was treating him like a girl. Something like that."
Eiji frowned, watching Tetsuya as he opened the keys to his room. "Well, I like candies and toys, and I'm a boy! I don't why he doesn't. And flowers are pretty and they smell..." a great yawn suddenly interrupted his rant. Well, he was tired... and his nap was interrupted.
Stumbling forward a little, he clung onto Tetsuya's waist, wrapping his arms around it for balance. "Sleepy..." He rubbed his eyes, yawning again.
"Saa..." Tetsuya put his keys away and slipped his hands under Eiji's armpits, picking him up swiftly. "Then take the bed, sleepyhead," he carried the kid into his room and kicked the door shut behind them, tucking the kid in with an odd sense of déjà vu. Like when his dad used to tuck little Tet-chan in until he hit the two digits.
He pulled a blanket over Eiji's shoulders and ruffled his hair. "I'll be right here, na. G'night."
*
"Omi! Kaoru!"
Hide's voice pierced through the silence and Tetsuya stared unseeingly at the calculus textbook in front of him, the numbers blurring suddenly as his hearing sharpened.
No, his ears were playing tricks on him. It couldn't...
Could it?
Slowly, he tilted his head towards the wall that he shared with Hide. The room was quiet. It really could have been the result of utter boredom -
Oh, who the hell was he kidding? His brain was not wired to go from math to, to...
Nothing much passed through the wall, so much that Niwa thought that he had hallucinated it all. Until he could hear the distinct sound of a bed creaking and rocking, soft murmurs of voices confirming his suspicion.
He glanced towards Eiji, and wondered if the boy was gonna need headphones. It was so... loud; how could the kid be asleep while he was freaking out? What was he supposed to do, wake the kid up and take him out of the room? Go next door and yell at them to stop or take it somewhere else?
And all the while as he tried to focus on taking care of Eiji, the noise, the moans... the cries just... got worse.
Well! He thought to himself, at least he now knew why Kaoru told him to stay out of it. Those three with their intertwined love lives... He certainly had nothing to do with that. So then why the hell did his ears seem to ring, and his cheeks burn so harshly like everything else inside was being hollowed out and frozen?
Tetsuya wanted to get out of the room, but he couldn't seem to move. It was like being blanketed in paralyzing fear - or morbid curiosity.
Love... when he first met Saionji Kaoru, he thought it was love at first sight. Ever since then, he'd been slapped, teased, insulted, and betrayed... and never once did he cry about it. Never.
But everyone had a breaking point, and sometimes, even a king had to cry.
Niwa Tetsuya wasn't a real king anyway.
End
Continued in Surfacing: Metamorphosis