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The Rose Line	By : Rhonda Category: Gravitation > General Views: 2888 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Gravitation, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter 6: The Box

From somewhere offstage came an odd clicking sound. It underscored the music being played by the orchestra down in the pit and echoed throughout the hall.

The Red Rose, the Black Rose and the Brown Rose all orbited the Sun and the Pink Rose in time with the music. Inside the rose orbit, the Sun and the Pink Rose revolved around each other. The Sun was glowing brighter than it ever had and the Pink Rose’s bloom was fuller and deeper in color than it had ever been.

The background scenery was one of a storm. Dark clouds with painted faces blew a fierce wind with puffed cheeks that whipped sea waves brutally to a shore that was situated below a large house on a cliff. The sky, an angry, stormy gray, was slashed with lightening and rain.

Suddenly a huge Red Lion entered from the stage left. The audience booed and hissed as the Red Lion walked toward the rose dance. From stage right the Blindfolded Sword raced forward from where it had been watching the dance beside a stool that held a Plain Gold Engagement Ring nestled on a white linen handkerchief. It flew, point first toward the Red Lion. Mid-stage, the Sword broke in two. The hilted end and the blindfold hit the floor while the pointed blade flew onward.

The Red Lion leaped to intercept the blade but missed. The blade dodged the attack, flew straight through the outer rose orbit and came to a mid air halt beside the Pink Rose.

Slowly it rotated and faced blade away from the rose. A new hilt magically materialized and it offered itself to the Pink Rose. The Pink Rose however ignored it and continued to revolve around the Sun.

The Red Lion, seeing its chance, charged through the outer rose orbit. The Red Rose fell, its petals scattering and its stem was ripped apart by the Red Lion’s charge. Seeing the Red Lion coming, the Black Rose pushed the Brown Rose out of the way, saving the Brown Rose, but itself getting ripped apart in the process. Black petals floated through the air as the rose fell, its stem also in tattered ruins. The Brown Rose, still intact and a safe distance away from the carnage, fell. Its large brown bloom head wilted and it toppled over. With no will or strength to stand, it lay there inside a deep coma-like sleep.

With no outer ring to protect them, the Red Lion charged the Sun and the Pink Rose, intending to rip the Pink Rose to shreds. The faceless audience booed and hissed. The Pink Rose dodged the attack and hid behind the Sun. The Sun faced the Red Lion and flashed brightly, blinding the Red Lion. The Red Lion reared up on its hind legs and roared, its harsh, angry voice rang deafeningly throughout the hall, causing the audience to cover their ears. The roar drowned out the music still coming from the orchestra pit and caused the Sun to wobble on its suspension cable.

With the Sun off balance, the Pink Rose was suddenly vulnerable. The Red Lion seized its chance. It opened its massive jaws and clamped down on the Pink Rose. It tossed it to and fro, shaking petal after petal from its blossomed head. Its stem was chewed, slashed and ripped apart in the terrible jaws of the Red Lion.

It fell where the Red Lion dropped it, not moving, barely recognizable as the beautiful flower it had once been.

The Red Lion laughed. Its powerful maw opened and closed in deep, chuckles and its long red mane shook with the movement. As it laughed it began to notice something. A sound. The strange soft clicking sound that it had heard when it had first come out on stage was now louder. The sound echoed across the stage and throughout the hall. It became louder still. Click, click, click, click. The Red Lion looked around for the source of the sound, confused. What was that noise? It looked down.

On its chest where its heart should have been was the face of a large clock. The clicking sound wasn’t a clicking at all, but a ticking. The clock ticked, ticked, ticked, ticked loud and hard, each movement of the second hand shaking the sword that had pierced it.

The Red Lion gasped. The small sword that had been floating next to the Pink Rose, the sword that the Red Lion had thought the Pink Rose had ignored was now piercing the Red Lion’s clock heart.

Around the hilt, a severed hand like leaf was still attached to the hilt.

The audience cheered and whistled. The Red Lion looked up to find that all the people had been replaced by identical Pink Roses and in the front row, in direct line of sight of the Red Lion, sat a Gold Pocket Watch, a Pink Rose that bloomed much fuller and deeper than the other roses that surrounded it and beside that rose sat the Sun.

Suddenly a new, rumbling laughter filled the hall. It was so loud and so deep, everything trembled and echoed with the sound.

A huge, booming voice rolled and cracked across the air. “WHO DARES CALL THE—”

Tohma woke abruptly, startled. He still lay on top of Eiri who had fallen asleep beneath him, still naked. Quietly and carefully, Tohma covered him with the bed’s silk coverlet. Then he went and sat before the dying fire, still hearing the terrible voice echo through his mind. Sitting in the deep chair, he stared into the glowing embers and watched the last of the flames stutter and die.

“All good things must come to an end, Mr. Shindou…”

*** ***

“Your orders, My Lord?”

Tohma Seguchi sat in his high back leather chair behind his massive, elaborate desk. He stared off into space, slowly stroking the small, rectangular red box he held in his hands.

“My Lord?” Sakano asked again after a few minutes of no answer.

Tohma looked at him. “Have you ever needed something so desperately, something that wouldn’t come to you on its own, that you’d move heaven and hell to get it?”

“My Lord?”

“Have you ever wanted something so badly, you’d do anything in this world or the next for it?”

“Well…”

“Never mind, Mr. Sakano. There’s no way I can describe to you what I mean. Words trivialize it. No one on Earth can understand.”

“Well…”

“Look around you Mr. Sakano. Look at the walls.”

Sakano did. The walls were filled with paintings of cities and places from around the world. He remembered some of them as ones he’d been commissioned to bring to Tohma. Others he didn’t recognize.

“This is what I know of the world. I have to live through paintings and images to know of places that I have the money and the means to see a million times over and yet never can, because I can never leave this place. Yet I do it and do it gladly because it affords me the one thing I can’t buy. The one thing that wouldn’t come to me.”

Tohma stroked the box and continued.

“I’ve lived a life of gilded cage luxury. I have the best of everything here. I have everything that I ever wanted. And outside, the House of Seguchi reigns supreme. The very name strikes fear and envy and even admiration into the hearts of an entire country. WE—I am the true ruler of this country and I do it from right here. This very chair. This very desk.”

Sakano said nothing.

“Yet for everything that I have, for everyone that I know, for every power that I possess, I cannot rid myself of the one thing that vexes me the most. I’ve tried and tried and tried again, time after countless time and it keeps coming back no matter what I do. And for all of my power, I am helpless to know why.”

“For centuries my gift of sight has guided me. Allowing me to pre-empt danger, precede fortune and profit from privileged knowledge. Today my sight fails me in the one area that I need it most.”

Tohma looked down at the box.

“Today, Mr. Sakano, I feel a shadow coming. I have seen it and I do not understand it.”

Tohma drifted off into thought again.

Silence.

Sakano checked his watch. “My Lord?”

Tohma looked up.

“Your orders?”

Tohma sighed and set himself with resolve. When he spoke, the sad wistfulness that had permeated his speech before was gone. “We have much to do today, Mr. Sakano. Keep yourself close, for I shall need you very soon.”

Tohma stroked the box.

“Today will be very interesting.” He smiled. “Come what may.”

*** ***

“Shuichi…Shuichi…I love you Shuichi…” Eiri Uesugi reached for him in the moonlit night.

Shuichi awoke with a start and bolted up straight. Immediately the thumping in his head pushed him back down again. He looked around. Bright morning sunlight was streaming through the window and slanting across the bed.

The bed! He looked around. He was in his bedroom. His eyes flew to the mantle clock. 10 am!

Shu laid on the bed and held his head hoping to still the awful pounding that was going on there. His hands felt cool against his skin.

What happened? He sifted through the pain and found tattered images of the night before.

Singing before the fireplace…

Singing for Eiri…

Dancing with Hiro… He blushed. And Tatsuha…

He went scarlet. Hiro…and Tatsuha…and Eiri…

“Oh My God, they’ve turned me into a wanton Jezebel!” Shuichi reached the term from his trashy romance novel vocabulary. “I’m a male hussy! No! I’m a MUSSY!!!”

He didn’t know what hurt more, his head or the flash after flash of naked flesh, loud moans and four-way seduction that were burning their way through his mind.

Even now through the pain and the indecency of it all he was trying to get hard again.

“Stop that!” he yelled down at himself. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem and THAT is DEFINITELY a problem!”

He collapsed against the pillows again. The problem. If it wasn’t before, the situation was a SERIOUS problem NOW. There was no doubt in his mind that Tohma was on to him. He didn’t know if Eiri had been forced to tell on him or Tohma’s prescience had kicked in or what the hell had happened. The one thing he was sure of was that whatever hammer was about to fall, it was going to do it that day—right soon in fact.

Shuichi sat up slowly. Like a man ready for execution, he went to the armoire and carefully selected and withdrew his clothes for the day. Setting them on the bed, he went into the water closet to wash, which he did slowly, letting the cool water flow over him. He savored each and every drop as if it were the last time he’d ever go about such a mundane task again.

He dressed even more slowly. He felt the material on his skin. He buttoned each button with the utmost care. He shined his boots just a little bit extra and tugged them on, making sure his breeches were smooth and his vest was straight and that the cuffs of his day shirt hung just so.

Finishing, he looked at himself in the cheval mirror and carefully styled his hair. He still looked like a milkmaid in drag—a milkmaid in drag with a serious hangover. He smiled. It was a smile full of sadness.

He had no idea what the day was going to bring.

He had no idea what to do about last night or the situation at hand.

He had no idea what Tohma was going to do to him.

He did know that he could not leave the house without everyone safely in tow behind him.

He also knew that he would do everything he could to make that happen…TODAY. Or die trying…

He took a breath and opened the door ready to face the perils he was sure lay on the other side. Come what may…

He could hear the voices immediately.

He crouched back inside and closed the door to a crack, listening.

Tohma’s voice was raised in anger just down the hall and around the bend to his right.

“Sleeping draught! I found this sleeping draught in your room! What have you to say for yourself?”

There was no answer.

“Tatsuha, answer me, Tatsuha!”

“I gave it to Ryu.”

“I’ve already figured that out! Why is what I want to know!”

“To keep him safe.”

“Safe? Safe from what?”

“Safe from you.”

There was a loud smack.

“I’d never hurt Ryu! I love him like a brother! YOU on the other hand…”

Down the hall to the left, Shuichi could hear Hiro and Ryu coming toward him.

They’re probably here to collect me for the torture, Shu thought to himself. He remembered the previous morning. Or breakfast…

Down the hall to the right, he could hear Tohma still yelling at Tatsuha.

Determined not to let them figure out what was going on, Shu opened the door and beckoned them quickly.

“Good—” Shu clamped a hand down on Ryu’s mouth and snatched him and Hiro inside.

“What’s the matter, Shu?”

Shuichi listened at the door, trying to determine if they’d been heard. Tohma was still yelling. He closed the door quietly behind him.

“Sit down, we need to talk.”

Hiro and Ryu sat on the bed. Shuichi dove under it and pulled out his music case. Throwing it on the bed beside them, he opened it and took out the dagger.

He held it up to Hiro. “Recognize it?”

Hiro smiled and looked at Shuichi. “It’s a dagger. A big one.”

Shu thrust it in front his face. “Do you know who it belongs to???”

Still smiling, Hiro shook his head. “No, should I?”

“Damn it!’ Shu jerked Hiro’s hand from where it sat in his lap and opened it palm up. Then he stabbed it with the knife.

“OWW!” Shu clamped a hand over Hiro’s mouth and looked into his eyes. They cleared. He held up the dagger again.

“Recognize it?”

“Shu, what are you doing?” Ryu sat next to Hiro. A worried look melted his good morning smile.

Hiro blinked and breathed heavily. He looked at the dagger. “How did you get my dagger?”

He looked at Shuichi. “That’s my dagger! My Master, K, gave that to me!”

“Right! K lent it to me. He told me to show it to you so you’d recognize that we’d spoken.”

“Good morning, Shu, how are you?” Ryu was back to smiling.

Hiro started to cloud. Shuichi stabbed him in the hand again.

“OWW!”

“Stay with me, Hiro.” Shu whispered urgently. “How can we get out of here?”

“We can’t. The spell prevents us from leaving. When did you see my Master? Is he alright? His eye…” Hiro trailed off.

“He’s fine. He and Mika Uesugi sent me to get you and everyone out of here.”

“The spell won’t let us leave.” Hiro’s eyes started to go. Shu stabbed him again.

“OW—” This time Shu was ready with a hand already in place over his mouth to muffle his cry.

“That’s my sword hand, Shuichi! Could you at least stab me in the other one?”

“Here, Shu,” Ryu said beside him.

Shuichi ignored him. “Does pain work on the others for remembering?” he asked.

“I don’t know about Eiri, but yes for Ryu and Tatsuha. I think you saw that yesterday afternoon with Ryu and the rose. We don’t remember anything when we go under, but when we come out at night, we can remember everything while we’re doing it.”

Shu frowned. “It?”

Hiro blushed. “Sex. Pain and for some reason during sex we come to ourselves. That’s why we do it so much. We can’t remember that the spell breaks during sex until it happens, so we leave ourselves notes to remind us to have as much sex as possible.”

“So Tohma’s not forcing you to have sex?”

Hiro blushed again. “Uh, no. He likes to watch us, but so far only has actual sex with Eiri. I--I mean WE, uh, kind of like it. Plus we use it to write notes to ourselves.”

“Notes?”

“Here, Shu,” Ryu said again.

“Yes. The spell doesn’t break long enough to let us do…” Hiro went again. Shu brought him back.

“Do anything like leave, but the notes remind us not to give up hope and to do things like give Ryu sleeping potion so he doesn’t have to participate.

Tohma’s been looking at him funny lately and we think it’s because he’s next.”

So that’s what that commotion was, Shu thought. He remembered the past two nights Ryu falling heavily asleep before the concerts were over.

“How do you leave yourself a note during sex?”

“We write it on our bodies with rose thorns. That’s why there are so many of them in the drawing room. That’s why we use them during sex. Just short notes scratched on an arm or a back.” He pulled back the cuff of his day shirt and revealed several small red welts and scratches that were in various stages of healing. There was also a narrow gold cuff hugging his wrist.

Shu remembered after the first night’s concert, the tryst he’d seen. He’d seen Tatsuha rub a rose over Hiro’s back. And last night, while dancing, Tatsuha had put a rose in his hair. He’d thought it was just a part of their sex play, but now he knew. It made his heart hurt that they had to go through such measures. His resolve to save them firmed up hard.

“I have this for you, Shu.” Ryu tapped him on the arm.

“Eiri can…” He saw Hiro go again. He stabbed him. The clouding didn’t leave. He stabbed him again harder. A thin stream of blood was flowing freely down his arm. He couldn’t keep this up much longer.

Hiro came back.

“Eiri can do this too. He came to me and told me about a box in Tohma’s study. It holds something that will release Eiri from his spell if I open it. Do you know what box that is?”

Hiro thought about it. “No. I’ve only been in the study once or twice and I don’t remember seeing a box. Of course, I’m not sure I would remember.”

He started to go under and shook his head to fight it.

“I’m leaving soon, Shu and I don’t think stabbing me is going to bring me back this time. It wears off quickly if you do it too much at one time and it’ll take awhile before I can do it again, no matter how much pain you cause me.”

“Quick, then! How do I get into the study? Does Tohma ever leave the house for any amount of time?”

“Yes. Most mornings he and Mr. Sakano meet in there before breakfast and then go for a ride around the property. They should be doing that now. The study should be empty, but I’m sure it’s locked…and…don’t know…key…”

Hiro’s head started to droop.

“I’m…not…sure… you should. He’s dangerous…and don’t…know… what he’d do…” Hiro trailed off again.

Suddenly he raised his head.

“Sorry about last night Shu. Stay away from the wine, it’s drugged. Save yourself if you can.” He wilted one last time.

“Don’t…tell…Master…about this…the sex…tell him…I…I…lo”

Hiro blinked. “Good morning, Shu. Did you have a pleasant night’s sleep?”

Shuichi blinked back against the tears that were coming. His was a situation that was lost. He didn’t know what to do.

“Umm, why is my hand bleeding?”

An insistent tap on his arm brought his attention back. He turned to face Ryu.

“What is it Ryu?” he asked, the tears falling anyway.

“Here.” Shuichi looked down. Ryu held a large, shiny key in his hand.

“My hand is really bleeding!” Hiro said puzzled.

“Eiri told me to give this to you last night, but I fell asleep.” He hung his head. “Sorry, Shu. Are you mad?”

“And it hurts!” Hiro went to Shuichi’s water closet to take care of it.

Shuichi took the key and held it up. It shone brightly in the morning light.

“Ryu!” He kissed Ryu full on the mouth. “I love you to death!”

Ryu laughed brightly. “I love you too!”

Shu put the key in his vest pocket. He looked at the clock—10:35. He didn’t have much time before Tohma and Sakano came back from their morning ride. With luck, lots and lots of it, he’d be in and out of the study with the box and they’d all be gone, hightailing it out of there, heads down and asses high, long before the terrible twosome ever got wind of what was going on.

Or so he hoped.

“Ryu, I want you and Hiro to find Tatsuha and bring him back here, ok? Then I want you to stay here. Lock the door behind you and don’t open it for anyone but me, got it?”

Ryu nodded, smiling. “Is it a game?”

“Yes, it’s a game. But we need Tatsuha to play. Find him and bring him here and we can play ok?”

Ryu nodded.

“Meet you back here in a few minutes.” Shuichi left him on the bed.

In the hall, all was quiet. Maybe the commotion with Tatsuha had delayed their morning ride and they were just getting underway. Shuichi hoped to God that was the case. He had a feeling he’d need all the time he could get as he was certain Tohma wouldn’t leave the key to his heart’s desire just laying around where any old Shuichi could get at it.

*** ***

He’d seen no one in the dining room. He’d seen no one in the drawing room. The first floor seemed totally empty when he’d casually perused it for bodies. Finally he’d made his way to the study.

It was quiet. Shu pressed his ear to the door. As thick as it was, he thought he should be able to hear at least muffled voices if there were people inside, much like he’d heard in the drawing room his on first night.

Pausing to listen for footsteps behind him, he withdrew the key.

It was now or never and he didn’t think Tohma would allow him another day to get his plan together.

He inserted the key. It scraped loudly against the lock.

“Shh..” he told the key.

He turned it quietly.

He opened the door.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

It was empty.

Closing the door quickly and quietly behind him, Shu raced to the desk and began opening drawers.

They were all surprisingly unlocked. Too bad he didn’t find anything resembling a box.

He found papers, and quills and a few books—a ledger. No box.

He found seals, and wax and ink stamps and ink bottles. No box.

He found maps, and a spying glass and a paperweight. No box.

Having gone through the last of the drawers, Shuichi looked at the floor to ceiling bookcase behind the desk.

He saw knickknacks, and a globe and, well, books. No box.

Shuichi peered through the shelves he could reach, hoping to find a lever or a button or something that would lead to a hidden niche, or drawer or wall pocket. Nothing…and no box.

Shit! I don’t even know what kind of box I’m looking for. He stared at the bookcase.

Then it hit him. Tohma had had a box on the desk the afternoon he’d arrived. It was a small box. Red. Rectangular. He’d been petting it like a kitten. He’d put it in a drawer when he’d taken out paper to write his makeshift contract.

“It’s red!” he said out loud. “That’s what I’m looking for!”

“Indeed, Mr. Shindou. It is red.”

Shuichi spun around, knocking books off the shelf in the process.

Tohma and Sakano stood on the other side of the desk watching him.

Tohma was smiling and in his hands he held a small, rectangular red box. He was petting it like a kitten.

To his side Sakano was holding a large sword. It was unsheathed. It was sharp. And it was pointing at Shuichi.

Tohma held out the box. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

End Chapter 6: The Box
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The Rose Line