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A Rivalry Revealed Novel #1	By : kurahieiritrJIO Category: +G to L > Initial D Views: 2435 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Initial D, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-A Rivalry Revealed Novel #1
- 2-Riv 2
- 3-Riv 3
- 4-Riv 4
- 5-Riv 5
- 6-Riv 6
- 7-Riv 7
- 8-Riv 8
- 9-Riv 9
- 10-Riv 10
- 11-Riv 11
- 12-Riv 12
- 13-Riv 13
- 14-Riv 14
- 15-Riv 15
- 16-Riv 16
- 17-Riv 17
- 18-Riv 18
- 19-Riv 19
- 20-Riv 20
- 21-Riv 21
- 22-Riv 22
- 17
- 18
- 19
CHAPTER 18

Keisuke Takahashi leaned on his yellow FD's fender as he waited for any sign of the panda Trueno that Takumi Fujiwara drove. Kenta had alerted him to the fact that Takumi had figured out his feelings on the night he met Akimoto, Narise and Tohji. Keisuke knew he had to act before Takumi got past the numbness Kenta had reported that the shy racer said he felt.

To risk a phone call in order to sort things out with the younger man might get him hung up on the blond had reasoned. Takumi knew about his attachment, and had every right to be upset with him. Keisuke realized it would also be an act of cowardice to avoid a face to face confrontation. Even though he expected to see scorn, or even outright hatred in Takumi's eyes, Keisuke had to explain his feelings because his teammate deserved the truth. If there was even a slim chance to convince Takumi that his feelings posed no threat to him personally, Keisuke had to take it. However, that meant he had to look the younger man in the eyes, and face the consequences of having brought Akimoto, Narise, and Tohji in to get answers he should have had the courage to ask for directly.

Monday morning he had waited in this same spot, but Takumi had been a no show. A blue Impreza had flashed by at a high rate of speed which Keisuke had been unable to overtake when he tried to follow. The skill Fujiwara's father demonstrated was more than Keisuke wanted to contend with he discovered during the few corners he had followed. He knew that Bunta Fujiwara did the morning delivery in Takumi's place if he judged that his son was too tired since the exhaustion-induced accident.

Takumi's father was an ace in a class to himself, as his son was destined to become. Within the few corners he had followed, Keisuke had recognized the style was even more recklessly aggressive, and daring than Takumi's. He had slowed and let the other driver go. The blond had driven home the previous morning worried that he would arrive only to learn that Fujiwara had called to quit the team because of him.

It worried Keisuke that Takumi hadn't driven. It was his fault that his crush was probably not sleeping enough to be safe behind the wheel. The blond was uncertain of where else he could confront the nineteen-year-old. Knowing he had a duty to settle things between them so the younger man's mind would be eased enough that he could sleep at night, Keisuke was returning every morning, hoping to cross paths with Takumi.

Takumi still might leave Project D because of the previous Saturday night, and that frightened Keisuke. He had pushed the downhill ace into being part of the team, and it would be his fault if Fujiwara quit racing just so he could avoid him. Keisuke was aware that he had to talk to the younger ace before things got completely out of hand. He was to blame for the unnerved state Takumi had to be in. He even admitted with a grimace that there was no possibility for him to hide how he felt about the other man any longer.

Keisuke pulled another cigarette and lit it. He needed to buy another pack because he was chain smoking. Scratching his head, the blond debated a run to a convenience store. An excess of anxiety pushed him into motion so he began pacing along the length of his FD while listening for the familiar sound of Akina's hachi roku. Keisuke frowned as he considered all the potential factors with which he had to work.

Going along with his brother's plan to get answers about Takumi's orientation without being obvious had backfired. Ryosuke had altered the plan without any mention of the added drama he chose to orchestrate. That was where the night began to fall apart. Now, Keisuke had to do damage control wherever possible to keep Fujiwara on the team, even if he was uncomfortable with his co-racer's orientation.

Kenta had mentioned that Takumi had liked Tohji because the older man had made a good impression. Perhaps he could convince Takumi that he had no reason to be afraid of his being a bisexual. Tohji's bisexuality had not offended Takumi, so it was possible that Keisuke could prevent a disastrous ending for Project D, if not for his heart.

Takumi had shown genuine anger at Akimoto's behavior when Keisuke had checked on him before Takumi's battle started. That was a potential sign that Keisuke could turn things around with time, and extra effort. The younger man would not have been so upset with Akimoto if he were truly against same gender relationships Keisuke reasoned. However, the way Takumi might view all same sex relationships, compliments of Akimoto's actions, could make Takumi think that getting involved with him would lead to the same kind of heartache. Fearing Takumi's possible negative conclusion was another major consideration that drove Keisuke to see the younger racer face to face. If his darling was bisexual, but too shy to act on attractions, Keisuke had to create a solid foundational bridge to win younger man's heart.

Keisuke had to admit that Kenta had done an admirable job of damage control, even if he had also given Takumi the hints needed to fill in the gaps. Kenta had told Fujiwara that he was in a stable relationship with a commitment. Still, Keisuke feared that Akimoto, and Tohji's bizarre relationship would cause his sleepy eyed, downhill specialist to reject him outright, no matter what the teen's orientation might actually be.

Making the younger man understand he was not the type to change lovers, or cheat on his partners was necessary if Takumi was bisexual too. His crush mentioned that his ex girlfriend had cheated on him with a rich, older man. He refused to allow Takumi to assume the same thing would happen if he agreed to dating him. Wealth aside, there were no reasons for Takumi to compare him with his ex girlfriend's other beau.

The sound of high-pitched exhaust snapped Keisuke out of his musings as he jerked around. The panda Trueno came into view as it zipped toward the summit. Much to Keisuke's relief, Takumi slowed, and pulled over to the side with his hazzard lights on. He got out of his compact and stepped closer to the curb.

The younger man called out, "Keisuke san, naze are you here?"

"We need to talk, Fujiwara. Kenta told me nani you thought at the summit before your battle, and I still owe you another huge apology for that night."

Fujiwara sounded hesitant as he spoke. "Uhm, can this wait until I finish with Oyaji's delivery? The resort gets mad if it arrives late."

"Sure. I'll be here." Keisuke nodded.

"Uhm, I promised I'd show you how to drift with a water cup. So, you can tag along with me, . . . if you want to?" Takumi watched him with an unreadable expression.

"I'd certainly like to learn that." Keisuke ground his cigarette out under his heel. He gave the smaller man a tight smile. "Arigato for realizing I won't bite you, Takumi."

The teen fidgeted as he spoke. "You and Ryosuke san have done a lot for me. I'm not happy that things have changed, . . . but this isn't really a blame type situation. It's just . . . really weird for me."

The pair got into the hachi roku and took off for the resort. Keisuke watched as the water spiraled inside the foam cup that sat in the cup holder. The way Takumi maneuvered the car was different from how he raced in earnest. Yet, the speed he achieved with the cup in his dashboard holder startled Keisuke as he tried to feel what the car did as Takumi drove. In an attempt to ease the teen's mind and learn more about how he did the trick, Keisuke began to ask questions.

"Hey, Takumi, can I ask nani you feel when you make the water spin in the cup?"

"I feel where everything is." The smaller man replied in a vague tone.

"Is the feel specifically coming through the seat, pedals, and steering wheel, or more than that?" Keisuke was glad the youth had answered, so continued to keep the conversation going.

"It's my whole car, Keisuke san. I guess that's a bad way to describe it. But, I can't think of another way to explain the things I feel."

"Takumi, to say you feel the whole car says it all." Keisuke shook his head.

"Is that bad?" The younger man sounded uneasy.

Keisuke chuckled as he continued to absorb the nuances of how the younger ace did the water trick. "Not at all. It means you've achieved a level of body awareness way out of my league. You may slaughter me whenever you get into a professional race car."

"How do you figure that, Keisuke san?"

"All I know how to feel with any real attention is the seat, pedals, and steering wheel vibrations, but you feel more than that, Takumi. You have better body awareness than I do because you pick up things that I can't whenever you drive."

"I just do the best I can. I love my hachi roku, so I can't really imagine doing anything else. Oyaji makes me drive his Impreza a lot, so I know I can handle his car too, but, it isn't my hachi roku."

"Can you do the water trick in other cars, Takumi?"

"I do it in the Impreza every other delivery I do."

Keisuke asked, "Hey, could you do this trick in my FD?"

"I don't really know. I'd have to try driving it to see if I could figure out the FD's feel. Every car's got a very different feel to me."

"If you could drive FD, I bet I could get a better idea of nani your doing since I'm familiar with my car's reactions."

"We're here. Hold that thought." Takumi pulled to a stop, and jumped out of the vehicle.

He opened the trunk and pulled out the boxes of tofu. He took them to the side door of the resort's kitchen. A few minutes later he returned with empty containers to place in the back of the car and shut the hatch.

"Where do you want to talk, Keisuke san?" Takumi folded himself into his seat and buckled in.

"Anywhere you want to go is fine with me." Keisuke answered.

Takumi headed away from the lakeshore resort. He used a side road that Keisuke was unfamiliar with to drive along the lake's perimeter. He turned off onto a narrow side lane, and passed through a grove of trees. On the other side was a pristine view of the mountain and town below.

Keisuke got out of the hachi roku and walked along the edge of the look out and took in the scenery with appreciation. "I didn't know this was here."

"Itsuke and I found it when we hiked away from the lake on one of his family outings. It's not well known, so it's a nice spot to think about things."

"I believe it."

Takumi leaned on his car fender and started the discussion. "Keisuke san, I don't know nani to say, or do about any of this, . . . to make things right."

The spiky haired blond nodded his understanding. "My thoughts exactly, Takumi. I don't know how to make this right either. Nani can I say that you won't hate me for having this damned glitch in my personality that I can't get rid of despite how often I've tried?"

"I don't hate you, Keisuke san. Just explain nani's going on so I can understand you. I'll try my best to deal with it."

"Fujiwara, how do you propose to deal with having someone fall in love with you that's the same gender as you? Unless you're a bisexual too, it's a hopeless mess for you to get dumped in your lap."

"I don't really know nani to do about this situation. I have a huge debt, and obligations to you, and Ryosuke san for all the time and money you've invested in my car and me already. It makes things really awkward to be honest. If I let Ryosuke san continue doing modifications, things will keep getting even more murky."

Keisuke frowned. "The hachi roku's repairs and upgrades are up to Aniki. He has to decide anything you need to repay. His money was used to do the work on your hachi roku, not mine, Fujiwara. In our situation, money has nothing to do with our scenario. So, you need to forget about that because it isn't a factor." He stepped closer to the shorter man.

The teen watched the sky as hints of morning colored a neighboring peak in pale tones. As he stared at the ever brighter sky over head, Takumi began to speak. "Maybe so, but, . . . Mogi told me that she got involved with the man in the Benz because he saved her okāsan's life. Her family was on the brink of complete ruin because they couldn't afford the medical bills, and get the help her okāsan needed to survive her illness. Mogi felt obligated to him, so was sleeping with him to repay her family's debts. Once she had repaid the majority of the debt, her Papa started giving her even more money, and gifts, which kept her bound to him. But, I'm not like Mogi, Keisuke san. I will repay you for the damage to the FD because you saved me that night. Even if my other debts belong to Ryosuke san, I won't let them become leverage for you to get whatever you want from me either. They will always stay separate from this!"

Takumi turned to watch him with solemn eyes that studied him with an intense focus. Keisuke's breath hissed in the pregnant silence that had descended. "Gomen nasai that the other man compelled your ex girlfriend like that. Some wealthy men choose to be scum bags. It was my choice to box the hachi roku in with my FD that night. That's not your obligation to pay back. I chose to protect you, and I don't intend to ever use that as leverage to force you to accept me. I won't walk away from you either, because I can't. Like it or not, I honestly love you, Takumi."

Keisuke's legs felt like they were going to fail as he stood next to the person who could crush him with a phrase. "I believe you, Keisuke san." The younger man exhaled hard. "Nani can we do about this without making things hellish for either one of us?"

"Nani do you want, Takumi? The last thing I want is for you to feel coerced, or trapped because of me." The tall blond lowered himself to the hood of the hachi roku as he waited for his execution.

"I don't even know nani to think right now, even though I've been thinking a lot about this situation since Saturday night. Maybe I'm too naive about how things happen, so I can't figure out how to fix this. I can't begin to understand nani this, . . . this kind of thing's even about." He waved a hand in an obscure circle as if to encompass the area around them. Keisuke realized he meant a relationship between two men.

"Same gender relationships are almost identical to regular relationships. A few things are a little bit different, but not by much, Takumi."

"It's nani I don't know that worries me most, Keisuke san." Takumi's tone was dry.

Keisuke suppressed the urge to offer Takumi a lesson. Now was not the time to be bold. "Everything I know is more or less second hand knowledge from people in same gender relationships. I've never wanted to fall for another man. Some have great looks that turn me on when I see them, but before you came into the picture, I always walked away without saying a word. Society says it's wrong to lust after another man, and I have lots of experience with society's methods of retaliation without ever having crossed the line. I tried to fix this problem, but I guess my personality glitch can't be fixed after all."

Takumi cocked his head and looked at him with confused eyes. "You truly like looking at men that way?"

"I used to notice a few really gorgeous ones when I was younger. Now, my eyes don't see anyone but you, Takumi."

The smaller street racer flushed bright red. "I have no idea naze you would want to look at me like that."

Keisuke laid back on the hachi roku's hood and looked at the sky above him with arms behind his head. "You're good looking, Takumi. Your sleepy eyed good looks always catch female attention at our battles. Akimoto almost got his ass kicked for hitting on you Saturday night. When he pointed out your bedroom eyes being so sexy, I got so mad I was considering trying to kill him."

"Don't remind me! That bastard pissed me off when he hit on me in front of Tohji san! How can anyone do that to their lovers, even if it is just some kind of trick to force someone else to confess?" The youth snapped.

"Takumi, I don't understand how they live their life. I wouldn't want to lose you to anyone else if you did give me a chance. The risks of a break up are too high in open ended relationships, . . . especially if one person loves their partner more than their partner loves them. To be honest, I can't look at anyone else since I've gotten to know you. I'd never be able to deal with an open relationship romance because I'd always be terrified that someone would take you from me. I'm not saying that you're even interested in giving me a chance, so don't take it that way. Gomen nasai that I even mentioned Akimoto."

"Never mind him, Keisuke san. Anyway, I mean, we're both men, and I never thought of any of my friends as being hot, so I just don't get how you could ever see me that way, Keisuke san."

"The person you are on the inside is naze you're so attractive to me, Fujiwara. With you, it's not your physical looks that caught my attention and has kept it. It was easy to walk away from other men I thought were hot without saying anything about the momentary lust I felt because I didn't know them. Everything's different with you because I noticed things about who you are. That's how I fell in love with you, Takumi. The better I get to know you, the more attractive you get." Keisuke turned his head to watch the man he was trying to sway.

"I liked Mogi's personality, so I can understand you liking me for myself. As far as the other stuff though, I've only noticed onnas at the battles we were involved with pining after you, and Ryosuke san. They didn't really notice me that I could tell. People know my hachi roku, not me personally, Keisuke san. Onnas know who you are, with or without your FD."

"I always notice whenever you get watched, Takumi. I don't know naze you are such a baka if it involves Aniki, or me. Believe me, there have been a number of females who wanted to catch your eye. It always pissed me off because I want to keep that great butt of yours to myself."

Takumi's wide eyed expression made Keisuke want to hug him. Fujiwara sounded bewildered. "Great butt? . . . Huh?"

"I think you have a great butt. I know, you don't know nani to think of that either, right?" Keisuke smirked while Takumi shook his head as his face flamed again. "Look, I don't want to scare you away by making you uncomfortable. I also don't want to share your attention with some irritating onna from the battles we go to, Takumi. I want to be with you more than I can ever hope to express. I know it sounds crazy to you since you probably aren't even bisexual like me."

Takumi ran a hand through his hair, and looked over at the closest mountain as he groped for words. "It doesn't sound crazy to fall in love with someone, Keisuke san. It's just, . . . different from everything I know about since we're both men. I never expected another man to look . . . at me . . . like you are. It's hard to wrap my head around this kind of situation . . . because I've never thought about this kind of, . . . stuff. I'm trying to understand, . . . but, I don't know if I can compare . . . things I've been through, . . . with how you're feeling. I'm just not saying any of this right, am I?"

"You're fine, Takumi. I understand nani you're trying to say to me. I can tell you don't want to cause any more problems than already exist because of my attachment to you." Keisuke sat up and turned to the struggling man he desperately wanted to hold. A tentative hand reached out to the sleepy-eyed youth, and caught his wrist.

"Look at me, Takumi kun." The amber haired teen turned his head and met his eyes. "I wish I could find the words to help you understand how much I truly love you. You're the most important person in the world to me. I'm not perfect, but I'll do whatever I can for you, even if you say iie to us getting together. I won't turn my back on you, so don't run from me just because things are uncomfortable right now. If you can't return my feelings for you, that's fine, Takumi. I want you to be happy with whatever choice you make more than anything."

"Keisuke san, I'm not saying that I'm against . . . this . . ." The teen's stammered words sped up. "I just don't feel comfortable with the idea of dating another man, because . . . everything I've ever known says love's not supposed to be like that." He, gulped, winced and rubbed his head. "Damn, I'm really not saying things . . . right."

Keisuke felt the other man's internal struggle to protect his feelings while making his apprehension with their predicament understood. He pulled the younger man against his chest without realizing he had done so. Before Keisuke realized his own intentions, or Takumi grasped what was happening, his lips covered the smaller man's in a soul-searching kiss. Keisuke didn't force the gesture, but he put his heart into the lingering light touch. He felt the smaller man stiffen, shocked at the unexpected contact. He slowly broke the chaste kiss and rested his forehead against Takumi's.

Keisuke noted that the youth's eyes had closed when he kissed him. He hoped that was a good sign, even though his heart pounded with dread that he had just made a huge mistake. The way Takumi shivered in reaction told him that Takumi had most likely felt his emotions, even though it may have revolted him once he comprehended what had happened. Dark eyes opened and focused on his face. Keisuke feared the younger man would jerk away from him, and his rash behavior would cost him everything.

His voice was harsher than he intended as emotions painful, bitter edged, and raw tried to convey everything in his heart with a final whispered plea. "Give me a chance, Takumi. I'll find a way to make your gamble on seeing me worthwhile."

The nineteen-year-old swallowed hard, and relaxed as their eyes remained locked, searching each other's gazes for hints of what would happen next. Keisuke wondered if the smaller man could hear how hard his heart hammered as he waited for an answer he had pushed for without meaning to. He knew Takumi was trying to decide his next action.
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A Rivalry Revealed Novel #1