Unchained Memories *complete*

Author: JadeHeart
Fandom: Gravitation
Warnings: none
Author’s Note: I know that it seems that Ryuichi is out of character here, but I’m following through a question that has always been in my mind which is, ‘Has Ryuichi always been the way he was in ‘Gravitation’, or did something happen to make him like that?’ So I’m just exploring this thought.
Summary: Side story to ‘The Key to My Heart’. The bonds that tie Tohma and Jim Harris together.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this, apart from Jim Harris, they belong to the creators of ‘Gravitation’.


Unchained Memories: Chapter 3


“Are you all right?!” The cry reverberated through his aching head, bouncing off the inside of his overly-sensitized skull and making him wince as the decibel level assaulted his sleep-deprived sensitive ears.

The door he had barely opened was pushed inwards violently as a body seemed to literally fly in and struck his hard making his stumble backwards as two arms wrapped tightly around his neck as though preparing to strangle what little life he still carried within him out of all existence.

Getting over his initial shock he responded. His own arms wrapped around the lithe body, reaching up to rest on the shoulders and squeezing gently as he smiled into the long hair that was tickling his nose.

“Yes, I’m fine,” he said gently, soothingly stroking the back, feeling it shaking under his touch and the slightest dampness against the skin of his neck.

“Tohma!” Another pair of arms engulfed him, this time from behind, crushing a second body against his.

Sandwiched between these two warm bodies he felt himself beginning to relax for the first time since his desperate flight in search of Eiri. A small smile touched his face as he closed his eyes and let himself savour the warmth emanating from these two people, not just in terms of body heat but also a warmth that touched his heart and soul. His arms tightened gratefully around Noriko before he snaked one upwards to grip Ryuichi’s arm hard, trying to express all that he felt for his two friends and the support that they always gave him.

Finally the three way hug slowly released, although none of them fully lost contact with each other; Noriko’s hand slipping down to hold one of Tohma’s whilst Ryuichi kept one arm draped around his shoulders.

Noriko looked him up and down, scrutinizing him critically. “You look like hell,” she stated bluntly.

He smiled weakly at her precise comment, “I feel like it,” he replied honestly. He really did, more than he ever had in his life.

“Sit down,” she ordered, tugging him over to the lounge and with a hand on his shoulder forcing him to seat himself. Ryuichi was still glued to his side. “I don’t suppose you’ve eaten anything for ages?”

“Ah,” He thought about it and realized that it had been nearly twenty-four hours since he had. “Not for a while,” he admitted, “but I’m not really hungry.” He felt too tired to eat.

Noriko placed her hands on her hips and glared at him in the way that only she could. “All the more reason you need to,” she said firmly. “You need to give your body some food and then it’s straight to bed.” She turned and made her way to the kitchen, calling back over her shoulder, “Ryu, make certain he stays put.” she commanded.

“Sure, Nori,” Ryuichi replied, sidling closer to Tohma. It felt like if Ryuichi could have got away with sitting on his lap he would have done so, but he saved Tohma that humiliation.

“How did you know?” Tohma asked. For, of course, they must have known about his night’s misadventure. There was no other reason for them to be here at this time of the morning, or to greet him in this way otherwise. He could hear the clattering of pans, the sound of the fridge opening accompanied by rustling paper as Noriko moved around easily in his small kitchen.

“We were phoned,” she said, pulling a chopping board from a top cupboard and placing it on the bench. She picked up a large knife and looked over to where he sat. Although she was smiling, it didn’t reach her eyes. “They wanted to know if you had been with us at the studio and when did you leave, other stuff like that. They also had some questions about Kitazawa,” She paused for a moment. “We guessed something was up then.”

She began chopping quickly as Tohma turned his head to look at Ryuichi by his side. “They called you both?”

Ryu nodded his head quickly, his eyes fixed on Tohma’s. “They called so early. How can I be sparking when I’m all worn out?”

“Yes, sorry about that, Ryu. I had hoped that they wouldn’t see any need to bother either of you, or at least not till a more civilized hour.”

“Humph!” Noriko snorted from her place in the kitchen, “Like they cared! They were so rude; prodding and prying, they even started making digs at just what sort of relationship I had with you, or Ryu!” Tohma could see she was still quite angry over that. “I put them straight on that point!” The knife flashed down hard and Tohma winced a little imagining the deep gouge that no doubt now resided in the surface of his best chopping board.

“Anyway,” and Noriko looked up once more with a small sly smile on her face and an evil glint in her eyes. “I hope you don’t mind but we said that you had stayed on a little later than you had. Not enough to contradict your story, because you would have been telling the truth, but we’ve changed the clock in the studio to be just a tad slow, so you can just tell them that the time you were going on was from that. It should be enough to just keep them off balance a little to try and see if they can account for that time in their little plans.”

“‘We’?” he questioned, looking from her to Ryuichi. “Were you together when they called?”

“Oh, no,” Noriko answered, turning to drop the food into the simmering pot on the stove. She looked over her shoulder with that well known grin, “You should know by now that we all manage to think alike when it comes to the crunch! Ryu came up with the same thought on his own, so our stories matched perfectly!”

Tohma looked again at Ryuichi who had released his almost strangle hold on him now but still held him pinned with his intense gaze. He was too damn tired to try and escape him anyway. “Ryu?” he queried.

His friend looked back at him with completely serious eyes. “It wasn’t too hard to realize that if they were calling me they would also be calling Noriko, if they hadn’t already done so. Since they were asking about you it was only logical to assume that you were in some sort of trouble, and if they were trying verify your movements that meant that they were trying to work out a time frame.” He shrugged a little, “So it just made sense to try and throw a small spanner in the works. A difference of twenty minutes or so can be the difference between life and death, can’t it?”

Tohma didn’t reply to that. How right that was. If he had just been perhaps those twenty minutes earlier home he may have been here in time to stop Eiri ever leaving for that fateful meeting. He cursed his own poor timing.

“Anyway,” Ryuichi continued, “I knew that Noriko would be thinking the same thing, and as you’ve always made fun of her for having her watch set twenty minutes fast I thought that would be the first figure that she would pick, so I just said the same thing.”

Tohma caught Noriko nodding out of the corner of his eye. “And that’s just what did happen,” she confirmed. “Since they woke me from a perfectly sound sleep and I was dead tired anyway I really wasn’t firing on all cylinders just at that time, so the only figure I could come up with was my twenty minutes. And I was pretty sure Ryu would follow through on it as well. So you see,” and she smiled brightly at him, “We weren’t going to leave you hanging! I hope that gave those arrogant smarmy bastards something to think about!”

She snorted again, in a very unladylike manner as she leant down out of sight before straightening with plates in her hands. “Okay, come and get it!” she sang out as she filled the dishes.

Ryuichi gave Tohma a helping hand up, one that he really did need for without that assistance he wasn’t certain he would have had the strength to stand on his own. He perched on one of the stools and looked at the food before him. He really didn’t feel like eating, in fact the mere thought made him feel nauseous.

“Just start, Tohma,” He looked up and directly into Noriko’s gentle eyes. She smiled softly at him. “Give it a try.”

To please her he picked up his chopsticks and placed a portion in his mouth, chewing carefully. He had been right; his stomach lurched alarmingly as that first mouthful reached it. He hesitated for a moment, about to place his implements back on their rest, when his shoulder was tapped.

He turned his head towards Ryu and felt something push against his lips. Automatically he opened them, and felt the chopsticks slide inside and deposit their cargo on his tongue before withdrawing. He had no choice now but to chew and swallow, he wasn’t so undignified as to spit it directly out. This time he was surprised. Instead of churning over as the new food arrived his stomach actually grumbled, wanting more.

He looked down a little startled at his own growling abdomen as Ryuichi burst out laughing and Noriko chuckled.

“See, I told you your body probably needed it!” she said, holding out his chopsticks to him.

He took them and returned to his plate as Ryu still sniggered at his side. He stole a quick look at his friend who stuck his tongue out in return. Tohma just rolled his eyes and returned to eating.

It didn’t take long to finish and they didn’t try and talk to him during this time either, leaving him in peace. Noriko hadn’t made a large meal and everything was easily digestible, nothing heavy, yet it was still quite enough to be filling when he reached the end. During that time, Ryuichi was busy devouring his meal also; he had always been a big eater for breakfast and was probably even hungrier since he had been awoken much earlier than normal with the phone calls. Noriko used the time to clean up the mess she had made in his kitchen. As she lifted the cutting board Tohma noticed her frowning at the large knife still embedded in it and stifled a sigh. He knew it.

As soon as his bowl was empty, it and Ryuichi’s were whisked out of sight and Noriko shooed him away. “Go and have a shower right now,” she instructed in a tone that brooked no argument. “You’ll feel a little more human after that.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “You’re still in the clothes you had on yesterday and they stink of smoke!”

Tohma walked towards the bathroom, sniffing slightly. Ah, yes, he hadn’t even noticed it anymore. Back at the station, that man, he had smoked so, of course, his clothes would smell of it. He dropped the dirty clothes in the laundry basket there and stepped in under the hot stream of water, lifting his head to let it sluice over his face, feeling the water run through his hair and then down his back. It really did feel good as he relaxed even more, tense muscles gradually unraveling.

A loud shout went up on the other side of the door, somewhat muffled so he couldn’t make out any words but obviously it came from Noriko - which meant that Ryu had done something to annoy her. A smile touched his lips at the thought of those two. He couldn’t ask for better friends in all the world. They were always there for him, just like now.

He almost hadn’t opened the door when he first heard the knock. He had only just arrived home himself. The walk from the cab to the lift had been tiring, and it had been all he could do to stay awake on the way up. It had taken him three goes to unlock his door, before he could make the key slide into the hole. Thank goodness the door had a self locking mechanism so when he had rushed out earlier it had sealed behind him, otherwise it would have been left open all this time. That would have really topped the day off – to come home to find his place burgled.

Not that that really stopped the police though. As he stood in the middle of his small lounge room he could tell that someone else had been here. It wouldn’t have taken them much to get in – a good locksmith could bypass the simple lock on the door without any difficulty, even if it was against procedure for them to do so. They probably thought that he wouldn’t have noticed. They could deny it all they liked, but Tohma knew they had been here.

Tiny little changes screamed loudly at him, pointing out every place they had been, everything they had touched. He was so glad now that he had taken the time to get rid of everything immediately after the incident, including the tiny note that Eiri had left on the fridge. Fortunately, there had been no blood on Eiri that wasn’t his own. Tohma had cleaned down the places Eiri had been after returning but he hadn’t had time to do much more. He still felt more than satisfied that they wouldn’t have found anything here.

Still, as he had stood there in the living room, he had felt violated. This place had been his home; it had been Eiri’s home. These past three years that they had spent together in this place had been wonderful, full of laughter and fun. He had really enjoyed the company of the young boy. Now, he looked around him seeing a place that felt like a stranger’s, now this place no longer felt like his home. The events of the past twenty-four hours had forever changed that.

His eyes were drawn to the sofa, the one that Eiri had slept on - only he never would again. At that thought Tohma had felt his tired eyes burning, this time from unshed tears. Be safe, Eiri, he pleaded in his mind, oh, please be safe!

The sharp knock behind startled him, making him jump a little. He took a deep breath to try and calm his racing heart. His nerves really were frayed, he had no self control at all. Another knock, louder than the first. Perhaps they would go away if he ignored them – or perhaps not. He sighed wearily and turned. It was probably the police; they would most likely continue to badger him, even if that Jim Harris indicated that he was no longer considered a suspect he didn’t know if he truly believed him. If he didn’t answer they might just break in, or worse, think he had something to hide and so start digging all over again. No, he had better answer it, as much as he didn’t want to.

He soaped himself down, even that act taking a tremendous effort of will; his arms felt leaden and even standing was beginning to tire him further. Thank goodness it had only been Noriko and Ryuichi on the other side of the door when he had opened it. He really couldn’t have handled any body else in his current state. But with those two he didn’t need to pretend, he could just be himself.

He stepped out of the shower and grabbed a clean towel from the cupboard under the vanity, rubbing himself down. He snagged his yukata from the back of the door, more grateful for the habits that he had now than at any other time. As he walked silently back to the living area he could see Ryu and Noriko talking quietly on the sofa. Ryu was rubbing Norikos’s feet as she nestled back against the other arm, hugging a cushion to her chest. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Noriko just loved her feet massaged and she claimed that Ryu gave the best there was. Tohma was tempted to give him a try one day himself, just to find out.

Noriko looked up as he approached, Ryu dropping his head back to view Tohma upside down. Tohma blinked at him, wondering why didn’t the rush of blood to his head hurt him in that position.

“You look much better,” Noriko declared, removing her feet from Ryuichi’s lap and standing, a smile on her face.

She grabbed his chin and turned it this way and that as though inspecting if he had cleaned behind his ears, just as his mother once had. He refrained from saying anything. He wasn’t going to be able to change Noriko, she always wanted to mother everyone, although it could be a kind of ‘tough love’ sometimes. She would make a great mother for real one day, he thought.

“Good,” she continued, taking his shoulders, turning him and steering him towards his bedroom. “Now go to bed.”

“What about…” he began but was cut short, “Forget about it,” she said firmly. “It’s not like there isn’t anything that can’t wait.”

“We were supposed to be working today,” he reminded her though his feet still obeyed the direction she was pushing.

“So we’ll start late,” she replied.

They had reached the bedroom door now and she released his shoulders. He turned to face her, seeing her looking at him seriously. “Rest, Tohma, we’ll talk later. And don’t worry; one of us at least will be here the whole time. We’re not leaving you alone.”

“There’s no need for that,” he stated, not wishing to be a burden.

She sniffed at his response, “Of course there is! Look at the trouble you manage to get yourself into when neither of us are around to watch out for you!”

He felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth.

“Besides,” a new voice said from down the hall and looking over Noriko’s shoulder he could see Ryuichi leaning nonchalantly against the far wall, a smile on his face, his dark eyes bright, “They’re not likely to try and get in here and give you grief with both of us here as witnesses also. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. So sleep easy, Tohma.”

Toham felt a wave a pure relief. Ah, how he loved these two people. “Okay,” he gave in to their sensible demands. “Don’t let me sleep all day though. We really do have work that needs doing.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Noriko replied as she shut the door behind her with a cheery salute. “’Night!”

He pulled the curtains closed, blocking out the early morning sunlight, darkening the room. He wasn’t one to usually be able to sleep in the daytime but right now he thought he could sleep through an earthquake and be none the wiser. He saw the light flashing on the answer phone by his bed, indicating that there were waiting messages. He hesitated a moment before pressing it and listening to the whirr as it rewound to the start of the tape. It went on for a long, long time; there must be quite a few messages on it.

The first couple were short, from various marketing bodies trying to drum up business. The third was a hang-up, those always irritated him. The fourth and fifth were from promotional and production personnel working on the next tour of Nittle Grasper. He quickly wrote the details down on the notepad by the phone just for this purpose. Few people had his home number but sometimes it was necessary.

The sixth call gave the time as being much later in the night. It was from Mika and his heart leapt at the sound of her voice. “Tohma,” the message began. “I wanted to let you know that Eiri has arrived safely. We’re taking care of it, so don’t worry. Thank you for helping him and sending him back to us. Please call me soon so we can talk.” There was a short pause, “I need to hear your voice. I miss you.” The message ceased and Tohma had to wipe the tears that were blurring his vision away.

A seventh message began - Mika again, only this time far more agitated. “Tohma, I hope you’re all right. They’ve been calling here asking about Eiri so I know that you’re having to deal with them too. Please call me when you can. Don’t do it straight away. I know you and you’ll probably need your sleep. I expect a call tonight though – not a minute earlier!” A pause, then quietly. “Please call me. I…need to know you are okay.” There were no new messages.

He reached out to pick up the phone to dial but then hesitated. Mika said to call her tonight, and she would be angry with him if he did call sooner. He smiled, even though she was this worried about him she was still trying to think of his well-being. She really was a wonderful woman. His eyes fell on his cell phone resting there also. With a small smile he picked it up and sent off a quick text message to her. He hadn’t phoned her, just like she had told him not to, but she hadn’t said anything about texting! The text message just said, ‘All ok. Miss you.’ He would say everything else that he wanted to say to her when he called later.

Laying down on the bed he looked at the ceiling, his mind thinking back over everything that had happened. Guilt gnawed at him, eating away at him inside. Why hadn’t he kept a closer eye on Eiri, especially after he found out Kitazawa had been mixed up in all this sort of thing? He should have been more careful. Perhaps he should have told Eiri? The boy was sixteen, he wasn’t a child anymore, but in some ways he still was. The admiration and idolization he had had for his tutor was still that of a young adolescent and Tohma had been loathe to be the one to shatter that child-like quality.

We all grow up too fast sometimes, he thought wearily, rolling onto his side. At least Eiri was back home now. Hopefully they would be able to help him, to try and fix the damage that he had been so careless in allowing to occur. He had been such a fool, so wrapped up in his own affairs. He should have been paying more attention.

He could hear the soft murmur of voices beyond his door; Noriko and Ryuichi talking, watching over him, protecting him. Thank you, my friends, was his last thought as his mind drifted towards slumber.