Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Inspired ❯ Ryuichi's Charm ( Chapter 6 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Silverone 
The end of the susposed date...
Anime/Manga: Gravitation Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.11.2004 | Updated On: 08.07.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 416 | Status: Completed
The end of the susposed date...
Anime/Manga: Gravitation Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 03.11.2004 | Updated On: 08.07.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 416 | Status: Completed
Pairings: Ryu/Taki.
[]a character's thoughts.
________________________________________________________________________
Inspired
Chapter 6
Everyone always told him how uptight he was. They also said he took everything a little too personally. Taki always replied with the choice phrase, "Screw you," when possible. Throwing in a harsher explicative was sometimes optional. When he couldn't afford to express anger, he would just put on his best smile and ride it through.
But, it seemed that Ryuichi Sakuma was sapping away his reserves of anger, sarcasm and lying. Every nasty quip he got off either resulted in crying or a fiasco similar to the soda one. And for some reason, he just couldn't fake being happy. But, it wasn't like he was unhappy either. It was as if Ryuichi was... What effect was Ryuichi having on him?
He had been stuck watching anime and J-pop music videos with him for five hours, and he was enjoying it! He kept telling himself that he shouldn't be enjoying himself but he was. He didn't even mind that Ryuichi had been creeping closer to him the whole night and was now leaning against him.
Of course by this time, he had become acculturated to Ryuichi's presence and they were watching something a little different from the previous fare. It was a horror anime with blood splattering everywhere and women losing their clothes. Ryuichi kept jumping on him at the scary parts. Taki had given up yelling at him after the tenth time.
[It doesn't mean anything. He's just that kind of guy. I'm not enjoying it.] Some where in his mind echoed the saying, "The Nile isn't just a river in Egypt." Something like that. He really wanted to tell his brain to screw off.
Ryuichi whimpered as he sat there. He didn't like scary movies. At least not ones like this. Those monsters were being so mean to that poor girl. Why did they keep ripping off her clothes and touching her? [Icky, gross, nasty! How can he like this stuff?] Ryuichi glared at Taki pitifully.
Still, it seemed that Taki was being a little less squeamish around him. He was still going off somewhere in his head, but he no longer seemed uncomfortable in Ryuichi's presence. It wasn't his ideal situation, but for now it would do.
Suddenly, on screen a guy began to get ripped to shreds. The display was one of those rather graphic ones that made even the most stalwart of souls flinch. Taki crinkled an eyebrow, really hoping that he hadn‘t made a mistake in borrowing it from Ma-kun. He felt Ryuichi bury his face in his shoulder. [It should be a chick doing that, not a guy.] He chose to ignore his feelings, whatever they were.
"Tell me when it's over." Ryuichi whimpered, obviously scared out of his mind. Taki looked down at him for a moment, knowing that the blood letting scene was far from over.
"You can look now." Ryuichi looked up at the screen, shrieked and went back to hiding his face in Taki's rather tear soaked shoulder.
"Meanie!" Ryuichi cried, gripping the younger man even harder.
Taki chuckled to himself, enjoying his wickedness. He didn't know why, but he really liked seeing Ryuichi react to his little games. It was... Well, he'd admit that he found the whole thing cute. It was Ryuichi Sakuma, so it was okay. [Yeah that's right. There's nothing wrong with thinking that way. We're all adults here. Well I am. Besides, lots of guys think this way. It doesn't make me… The g-word.]
The phone started ringing, shaking Taki out of his reverie. Reaching over, he grabbed it.
“Aizawa?" Came a soft voice and very terrifying voice.
"Seguchi! Uh..." [Shit! That's right, I skipped work!] Ryuichi looked at Taki.
"Is it Tohma!?" He sounded perky.
"So Ryuichi is with you." The voice on the other end sounded relieved. There didn't seem to be any malice, which was a good sign. "I'll be sending someone over to pick him up." Taki felt himself crumple in relief. "Oh, and Aizawa," came Tohma's voice as an after thought, "don't go off again when you should be working. I won't tolerate fooling around on the job."
There was a harsh, clicking noise as the phone hung up, causing Taki to cringe. Ryuichi was looking at him expectantly. "Seguchi's sending someone for you." He muttered to himself, feeling like he was saying something bad.
Ryuichi went very quiet for a moment, looking as if Taki had told him to go jump in a lake. Ryuichi wanted to protest, scream, cry, confess, anything. But, it boiled inside, hidden by a smile that suddenly willed itself to form.
"Just let me use your bathroom a second!" Ryuichi said, running off before Taki could say anything. He slammed the door behind him and closed his eyes. [Think Ryuichi! This could be your only chance. He's going to slip through your fingers otherwise.]
Of all the times for Tohma to look for him. Of all the times for Tohma to think about something other then Eiri Yuki.
________________________________________________________________________
Ryuichi walked to the black car, feeling defeated. The moment the driver had knocked on the door, Taki had become incredibly eager to get rid of him, his whole demeanor changed. It wasn't so much as if he had treated Ryuichi like a problem, it was the fact that he had been smiling about it the whole time. A fake smile.
To see all that frustration, annoyance and nervousness covered by a fake smile... It was insulting. As if he was dropping a bad habit. All he had to show for the day was even more pent up emotion, and a plastic bag containing his drenched clothes. Well, he still had Taki's clothes on, but right now he felt too agitated to even revel in that small victory.
He got into the car and slammed the door. As the driver sped off, he began to grumble to himself. "What's the point? Stupid Taki."
"Penny for your thoughts?" Said a voice.
"More like a 1,000,000 yen worth. I screwed up. I just don't know what I'm going to do." Ryuichi started to ramble. "I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't. He made me so mad too. I didn't think love was supposed to be like this. It's supposed to be romantic, beautiful and wonderful! Not like, like..." He was having trouble finding the right words.
"Go on." Ryuichi was suddenly aware that the voice wasn't imagined. In fact, the voice sounded awfully familiar and Ryuichi couldn't immediately place it. It wasn't coming from the driver, who had that little black window thingy up. He looked next to him and nearly jumped out of the car.
"Hello, Ryu." Said Tohma, smiling.
________________________________________________________________________
Taki didn't want to go into work that morning. Even though he had received that warning from Tohma, he just didn't want to. It was bad enough that he couldn't beat out Bad Luck, but now he had this weird event to explain to everyone.
He didn't know what had happened. He'd been so happy to have Ryuichi leave, yet he was also depressed and he didn't know why. As he ushered the pop star out, he had been all smiles, but when he was gone... It felt so empty.
Having Ryuichi over had been different. Not like having a girl over. Not quite like when he hung out with Ma-kun and Ken either. Closer, but still different. He kept thinking about what had happened, not completely understanding it.
Hell, how did that day even happen? It was as if, as if he had been caught up in a force greater then himself. Was this what had made Ryuichi famous? Was this what people thought Shuichi Shindou had? He shook his head in disgust at the thought of Shindou. [Maybe I'm just... I don't know.] He thought as he walked into work. He walked right into Ma-kun, the last person he wanted to see.
"Yo, Tachi. How did the date go?" Ma-kun was grinning mischievously, which was always a bad sign. [It’s way too early in the morning for this... Way too early.]
"Date!? That was an abduction! A kidnapping! You and Ken just stood there like idiots!"
"Well, we figured that since you have a few inches on him, that you were just playing hard to get." Ken said, in that damnably causal tone of his. They had been friends since grade school, but there were still times when Taki wanted to strangle the two and now was one of those times.
"I didn't even know you swung that way Tachi." Ma-kun grinned, patting Taki on the shoulder. Taki frowned, removing the offending hand and resisting the urge to just rip it apart. "Though, I'd have thought you were the type to be more discreet."
"What the hell are you on?" Taki was starring at them confused. They were taking this joke a little too far.
Ken looked at him meaningfully, as if the vocalist was being an idiot. "Taki, people on the street saw you and said it looked like a date."
"It wasn't!" Shouted Taki, glaring at full force. He wasn’t aware that he was coming on a little too strong.
"Well, where were you the rest of the day, eh? Ukai and Seguchi couldn't reach Ryuichi either." Ma-kun said, looking mock serious. "Who knows what evil things you two were doing?"
Taki stood there mouth open, ready to say something. To deny... He didn't know what to deny. [What is it I'm denying? I didn't do anything wrong. It's Ryuichi's fault, and he didn't do anything wrong either. At least I think he didn't. But why do I feel like he did do something?]
"Screw off..." He muttered slamming the door behind him as he entered the recording studio.
________________________________________________________________________
"You have a crush. On Aizawa?" Noriko looked at Ryuichi, incredulously. Then she fell over and started laughing.
"What's so funny? Kumagoro isn't laughing, and neither am I." Ryuichi pouted, holding his newly cleaned rabbit in his arms protectively. Tohma, who was sitting across from Ryuichi, smiled his usual, seemingly oblivious smile.
"Now, now Noriko, let's be nice." The thirty year old stopped rolling around and sat up, wiping away her tears and catching her breath. She put an arm around Ryuichi's shoulder. "I-I’m sorry. I just can't believe our little Ryu is finally coming into bloom." With that she fell down laughing again. Ryuichi was about to cry again when Tohma looked at him, eyes saying "Don't Start." Ryuichi shut up. [That's right, I should just be glad that Noriko isn't killing me for not showing up for practice.]
"Though, I must admit I'm still surprised. If you two were going on a date, you could have just told me. After all, I'm not an ogre.” The president of N-G said it with such an angelic smile that you had to wonder if he was serious or not.
"Tohma! I told you, it wasn't a date!" [As much as I wanted it to be...] By now, Noriko had regained her composure and was now looking at Ryuichi like he was as an idiot.
"What!? You mean you had the chance and you blew it!" Ryuichi closed his eyes and banged his head on the table. Leave it to Noriko to state the obvious.
"I know. I know." He said pathetically, wishing he could crawl into a hole and die. [Dammit. Why did I tell Tohma? And why did he have to tell Noriko?]
"Gosh Ryuichi, you're worse then Shuichi." Noriko said, looking at him with pity. Tohma chuckled, about to revel another embarrassing tidbit.
"Apparently, he was getting dating advice from Shindou."
"What!!!? Shuichi's about as smart as a chicken with it's head cut off." She looked concerned suddenly, no longer joking. "Besides, it's not like you to keep something this important from us." Ryuichi looked down, feeling ashamed.
"I, I'm sorry. I just felt so embarrassed. I‘m acting like some stupid fan boy and all. I must look pretty pathetic to you guys." He hugged Kumagoro tighter. Both Noriko and Tohma glanced at each other then back at Ryuichi.
"Ryu, I know that sometimes it seems like we're growing apart. We're all leading very different lives then when we first met. But Ryu, we're still you friends. We want to help you." As Tohma said this, Ryuichi felt tears begin to form, he could feel Noriko wrap an arm around his shoulder.
"Listen... I know how you feel about being the only one not married." Seeing Ryuichi's reaction, she smiled. "You are really bad at hiding things. But, what I mean to say is, we don't look down on you because of it. It isn't everything Ryu. And trust me, no matter what we say, we don‘t think you‘re pathetic."
"Guys..." Ryuichi choked out before he began crying.
________________________________________________________________________
To Be Continued...
Next time, Taki has to come to terms with some things.
Please Read and Review. Pretty Please.
Something to say...
This almost seems to be turning kind of AUish. I know I'm probably mixing up the timelines for things. I still plan on having certain events happen, but I only have a rough outline of this fic in my head.
[]a character's thoughts.
________________________________________________________________________
Inspired
Chapter 6
Everyone always told him how uptight he was. They also said he took everything a little too personally. Taki always replied with the choice phrase, "Screw you," when possible. Throwing in a harsher explicative was sometimes optional. When he couldn't afford to express anger, he would just put on his best smile and ride it through.
But, it seemed that Ryuichi Sakuma was sapping away his reserves of anger, sarcasm and lying. Every nasty quip he got off either resulted in crying or a fiasco similar to the soda one. And for some reason, he just couldn't fake being happy. But, it wasn't like he was unhappy either. It was as if Ryuichi was... What effect was Ryuichi having on him?
He had been stuck watching anime and J-pop music videos with him for five hours, and he was enjoying it! He kept telling himself that he shouldn't be enjoying himself but he was. He didn't even mind that Ryuichi had been creeping closer to him the whole night and was now leaning against him.
Of course by this time, he had become acculturated to Ryuichi's presence and they were watching something a little different from the previous fare. It was a horror anime with blood splattering everywhere and women losing their clothes. Ryuichi kept jumping on him at the scary parts. Taki had given up yelling at him after the tenth time.
[It doesn't mean anything. He's just that kind of guy. I'm not enjoying it.] Some where in his mind echoed the saying, "The Nile isn't just a river in Egypt." Something like that. He really wanted to tell his brain to screw off.
Ryuichi whimpered as he sat there. He didn't like scary movies. At least not ones like this. Those monsters were being so mean to that poor girl. Why did they keep ripping off her clothes and touching her? [Icky, gross, nasty! How can he like this stuff?] Ryuichi glared at Taki pitifully.
Still, it seemed that Taki was being a little less squeamish around him. He was still going off somewhere in his head, but he no longer seemed uncomfortable in Ryuichi's presence. It wasn't his ideal situation, but for now it would do.
Suddenly, on screen a guy began to get ripped to shreds. The display was one of those rather graphic ones that made even the most stalwart of souls flinch. Taki crinkled an eyebrow, really hoping that he hadn‘t made a mistake in borrowing it from Ma-kun. He felt Ryuichi bury his face in his shoulder. [It should be a chick doing that, not a guy.] He chose to ignore his feelings, whatever they were.
"Tell me when it's over." Ryuichi whimpered, obviously scared out of his mind. Taki looked down at him for a moment, knowing that the blood letting scene was far from over.
"You can look now." Ryuichi looked up at the screen, shrieked and went back to hiding his face in Taki's rather tear soaked shoulder.
"Meanie!" Ryuichi cried, gripping the younger man even harder.
Taki chuckled to himself, enjoying his wickedness. He didn't know why, but he really liked seeing Ryuichi react to his little games. It was... Well, he'd admit that he found the whole thing cute. It was Ryuichi Sakuma, so it was okay. [Yeah that's right. There's nothing wrong with thinking that way. We're all adults here. Well I am. Besides, lots of guys think this way. It doesn't make me… The g-word.]
The phone started ringing, shaking Taki out of his reverie. Reaching over, he grabbed it.
“Aizawa?" Came a soft voice and very terrifying voice.
"Seguchi! Uh..." [Shit! That's right, I skipped work!] Ryuichi looked at Taki.
"Is it Tohma!?" He sounded perky.
"So Ryuichi is with you." The voice on the other end sounded relieved. There didn't seem to be any malice, which was a good sign. "I'll be sending someone over to pick him up." Taki felt himself crumple in relief. "Oh, and Aizawa," came Tohma's voice as an after thought, "don't go off again when you should be working. I won't tolerate fooling around on the job."
There was a harsh, clicking noise as the phone hung up, causing Taki to cringe. Ryuichi was looking at him expectantly. "Seguchi's sending someone for you." He muttered to himself, feeling like he was saying something bad.
Ryuichi went very quiet for a moment, looking as if Taki had told him to go jump in a lake. Ryuichi wanted to protest, scream, cry, confess, anything. But, it boiled inside, hidden by a smile that suddenly willed itself to form.
"Just let me use your bathroom a second!" Ryuichi said, running off before Taki could say anything. He slammed the door behind him and closed his eyes. [Think Ryuichi! This could be your only chance. He's going to slip through your fingers otherwise.]
Of all the times for Tohma to look for him. Of all the times for Tohma to think about something other then Eiri Yuki.
________________________________________________________________________
Ryuichi walked to the black car, feeling defeated. The moment the driver had knocked on the door, Taki had become incredibly eager to get rid of him, his whole demeanor changed. It wasn't so much as if he had treated Ryuichi like a problem, it was the fact that he had been smiling about it the whole time. A fake smile.
To see all that frustration, annoyance and nervousness covered by a fake smile... It was insulting. As if he was dropping a bad habit. All he had to show for the day was even more pent up emotion, and a plastic bag containing his drenched clothes. Well, he still had Taki's clothes on, but right now he felt too agitated to even revel in that small victory.
He got into the car and slammed the door. As the driver sped off, he began to grumble to himself. "What's the point? Stupid Taki."
"Penny for your thoughts?" Said a voice.
"More like a 1,000,000 yen worth. I screwed up. I just don't know what I'm going to do." Ryuichi started to ramble. "I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't. He made me so mad too. I didn't think love was supposed to be like this. It's supposed to be romantic, beautiful and wonderful! Not like, like..." He was having trouble finding the right words.
"Go on." Ryuichi was suddenly aware that the voice wasn't imagined. In fact, the voice sounded awfully familiar and Ryuichi couldn't immediately place it. It wasn't coming from the driver, who had that little black window thingy up. He looked next to him and nearly jumped out of the car.
"Hello, Ryu." Said Tohma, smiling.
________________________________________________________________________
Taki didn't want to go into work that morning. Even though he had received that warning from Tohma, he just didn't want to. It was bad enough that he couldn't beat out Bad Luck, but now he had this weird event to explain to everyone.
He didn't know what had happened. He'd been so happy to have Ryuichi leave, yet he was also depressed and he didn't know why. As he ushered the pop star out, he had been all smiles, but when he was gone... It felt so empty.
Having Ryuichi over had been different. Not like having a girl over. Not quite like when he hung out with Ma-kun and Ken either. Closer, but still different. He kept thinking about what had happened, not completely understanding it.
Hell, how did that day even happen? It was as if, as if he had been caught up in a force greater then himself. Was this what had made Ryuichi famous? Was this what people thought Shuichi Shindou had? He shook his head in disgust at the thought of Shindou. [Maybe I'm just... I don't know.] He thought as he walked into work. He walked right into Ma-kun, the last person he wanted to see.
"Yo, Tachi. How did the date go?" Ma-kun was grinning mischievously, which was always a bad sign. [It’s way too early in the morning for this... Way too early.]
"Date!? That was an abduction! A kidnapping! You and Ken just stood there like idiots!"
"Well, we figured that since you have a few inches on him, that you were just playing hard to get." Ken said, in that damnably causal tone of his. They had been friends since grade school, but there were still times when Taki wanted to strangle the two and now was one of those times.
"I didn't even know you swung that way Tachi." Ma-kun grinned, patting Taki on the shoulder. Taki frowned, removing the offending hand and resisting the urge to just rip it apart. "Though, I'd have thought you were the type to be more discreet."
"What the hell are you on?" Taki was starring at them confused. They were taking this joke a little too far.
Ken looked at him meaningfully, as if the vocalist was being an idiot. "Taki, people on the street saw you and said it looked like a date."
"It wasn't!" Shouted Taki, glaring at full force. He wasn’t aware that he was coming on a little too strong.
"Well, where were you the rest of the day, eh? Ukai and Seguchi couldn't reach Ryuichi either." Ma-kun said, looking mock serious. "Who knows what evil things you two were doing?"
Taki stood there mouth open, ready to say something. To deny... He didn't know what to deny. [What is it I'm denying? I didn't do anything wrong. It's Ryuichi's fault, and he didn't do anything wrong either. At least I think he didn't. But why do I feel like he did do something?]
"Screw off..." He muttered slamming the door behind him as he entered the recording studio.
________________________________________________________________________
"You have a crush. On Aizawa?" Noriko looked at Ryuichi, incredulously. Then she fell over and started laughing.
"What's so funny? Kumagoro isn't laughing, and neither am I." Ryuichi pouted, holding his newly cleaned rabbit in his arms protectively. Tohma, who was sitting across from Ryuichi, smiled his usual, seemingly oblivious smile.
"Now, now Noriko, let's be nice." The thirty year old stopped rolling around and sat up, wiping away her tears and catching her breath. She put an arm around Ryuichi's shoulder. "I-I’m sorry. I just can't believe our little Ryu is finally coming into bloom." With that she fell down laughing again. Ryuichi was about to cry again when Tohma looked at him, eyes saying "Don't Start." Ryuichi shut up. [That's right, I should just be glad that Noriko isn't killing me for not showing up for practice.]
"Though, I must admit I'm still surprised. If you two were going on a date, you could have just told me. After all, I'm not an ogre.” The president of N-G said it with such an angelic smile that you had to wonder if he was serious or not.
"Tohma! I told you, it wasn't a date!" [As much as I wanted it to be...] By now, Noriko had regained her composure and was now looking at Ryuichi like he was as an idiot.
"What!? You mean you had the chance and you blew it!" Ryuichi closed his eyes and banged his head on the table. Leave it to Noriko to state the obvious.
"I know. I know." He said pathetically, wishing he could crawl into a hole and die. [Dammit. Why did I tell Tohma? And why did he have to tell Noriko?]
"Gosh Ryuichi, you're worse then Shuichi." Noriko said, looking at him with pity. Tohma chuckled, about to revel another embarrassing tidbit.
"Apparently, he was getting dating advice from Shindou."
"What!!!? Shuichi's about as smart as a chicken with it's head cut off." She looked concerned suddenly, no longer joking. "Besides, it's not like you to keep something this important from us." Ryuichi looked down, feeling ashamed.
"I, I'm sorry. I just felt so embarrassed. I‘m acting like some stupid fan boy and all. I must look pretty pathetic to you guys." He hugged Kumagoro tighter. Both Noriko and Tohma glanced at each other then back at Ryuichi.
"Ryu, I know that sometimes it seems like we're growing apart. We're all leading very different lives then when we first met. But Ryu, we're still you friends. We want to help you." As Tohma said this, Ryuichi felt tears begin to form, he could feel Noriko wrap an arm around his shoulder.
"Listen... I know how you feel about being the only one not married." Seeing Ryuichi's reaction, she smiled. "You are really bad at hiding things. But, what I mean to say is, we don't look down on you because of it. It isn't everything Ryu. And trust me, no matter what we say, we don‘t think you‘re pathetic."
"Guys..." Ryuichi choked out before he began crying.
________________________________________________________________________
To Be Continued...
Next time, Taki has to come to terms with some things.
Please Read and Review. Pretty Please.
Something to say...
This almost seems to be turning kind of AUish. I know I'm probably mixing up the timelines for things. I still plan on having certain events happen, but I only have a rough outline of this fic in my head.