Twisting Fate

I am so sorry. I totally forgot to update this story here. I have this chapter and one more up at fanfiction. If you guys want to see when I have updated over there the link is http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3108337/1/Twisting_Fate

If I forget again feel free to give me a digital kick in that pants. The chapter eight that I have up on fanfiction is not complete. It needs a lot of work so I wont be posting it here until it is done, but feel free to go over there and read it. As always please let me know what you think.

Fair warning to you guys, if you react like I did when I was writing this chapter you may need a tissue.

Chapter Seven

Eiri pulled the blanket a little tighter around his shoulders to try and ward off the chill. Anyone with good sense would have long ago gone in from the rain, but something about it calmed him. He could imagine that the water was somehow cleansing his soul. Right then even the continuously ring phone could not pull him inside.

“Why can't they just leave me alone?” He felt small and pitiful. Images of Shuichi kissing the American kept floating around in his mind. He never thought that his little lover could be so cruel.

“It hurts to see what you can’t have, doesn’t it?”

“Things can never go back to how they were. You need to move on. I’m not your plaything anymore.”

“Maybe he’s right. Perhaps this has gone on too long. I know that he is safe now. I just want him to be happy. He deserves to be happy.” Eiri sighed and curled his arms around his knees.

So consumed was he by his thoughts that he hadn’t heard the front door being opened or the person coming up behind him. “You deserve to be happy too, Eiri.”

Eiri rolled his head around slowly. Tohma sighed at his brother-in-law’s blank expression.

“What do you want Tohma? I’m not really in the mood for company.” He turned back in his chair and rested his chin on his knees.

“Will you please come inside before you catch your death out here?”

“Go away.”

Tohma shook his head as he walked back into the apartment. Eiri would have hoped that he would just leave, that is if he didn’t know better. Sure enough a few moments later Tohma returned with a towel and umbrella in hand. He draped the towel over Eiri’s shoulders and held the umbrella over both of their heads.

“Will you please come inside? What were you doing out here?”

“You’re never going to listen to me, are you?”

Tohma gave an ironic chuckle. “Not when I believe it is in your best interest to do otherwise.”

Eiri sat in silence for several long moments. He didn’t know how to respond to Tohma’s question. He wasn’t really sure about anything anymore. The last six years, no make that eight years, had left him off balance. Shuichi had changed everything when he had charged into Eiri’s life. When Eiri had tried to run away Shuichi had followed, never one to give up. He had thought that upon his return from New York that perhaps he could finally start to make some sense of things, but then Shuichi got into the accident and everything was flipped back upside down again. Since he had started to recover he had been like a totally different person and it left Eiri not knowing which way to turn.

“I was just enjoying the rain.”

Tohma shook his head again and hooked a hand under Eiri’s arm. “Come on and don’t argue with me.”

Knowing that it would do no good to refuse at this point, Eiri got up and followed the other blond inside. “Go get a shower and warm up. I’ll cook you something.”

Eiri snorted. “Good luck, I haven’t been shopping.”

Tohma just smirked at him. “Oh, but I have.”

-

Eiri had to admit that the hot shower and warm meal had left him feeling a little less disoriented. He was sitting on his couch drinking a cup of hot tea and trying to ignore Tohma’s unfaltering stare. After so many years in the man’s company he was good at ignoring his older sister’s husband.

Eiri wasn’t stupid after all and though Tohma drove him crazy with his constant butting in to Eiri’s life the author knew it was because Tohma cared so much about him. Eiri would never admit that what the older man felt was love, but he knew it all the same.

He didn’t know how long they sat there in the silence, Eiri watching the rain and Tohma watching Eiri, but the staring was beginning to grate on his nerves. Eiri was just almost ready to tell Tohma to get the hell out when he spoke. “You know it’s not your fault, don’t you?”

Eiri just looked at him for several moments. He wasn’t sure what to say. He was almost certain what Tohma meant, but then again this was Tohma and the man could have mean a thousand different things with the statement.

“Eiri…” It was strange to see Tohma groping for words. “What is wrong with Shuichi is not your fault. I should have done something earlier, I should have said something at least.”

Eiri’s eyes narrowed. “What did you do now?”

Tohma shook his head sadly. “Nothing and that is the point.” Tohma rubbed his face and took a deep breath. He knew that this would not be an easy conversation, but he didn’t think it would be quite this hard either. “The night that Shuichi-kun left he came to me. He told me that he wanted to move out for a while to get his head straight. I was, of course, concerned and asked him if something had happened. What he told me was nothing short of… incredible.”

Tohma leaned back in his chair. He wasn’t sure just how much of what Shuichi had said to tell to the younger man. Eiri was unpredictable in the best of times and he was uncertain as to how he would react. After a moment he decided to keep it a vague as possible. “He told me that while in the coma he dreamed. The dream he had was some kind of manufactured alternate reality in which the events that occurred leading up to his accident were a little different. Because he did things just a little differently he was never in the accident and lived a very different life during the six years he was in the coma.”

Tohma took a moment to pause and try and gauge Eiri’s reaction thus far. The thirty year old had been watching his hands since Tohma had started his explanation and had not moved since. “I agreed to help him, obviously. You know I care a lot about the both of you and because what he told me was so unusual I did a little research and a little asking. I have been watching him very closely.”

Tohma stood and crossed to Eiri. He knelt in front of his brother-in-law and took hold of his hands. “Eiri, look at me.” Troubled golden eyes slowly rose to meet gray. “I described what has been happening to a friend of mine. Now keep in mind that he is an expert in his field. He said that it is hard to tell without meeting Shuichi in person, but it sounded as if Shuichi-kun was suffering from what he called a ‘severe disassociation or psychotic break’.”

Eiri’s eyes narrowed in thought. He was racking his brain trying to remember where he had heard that before.

“Eiri, look at me.” Eiri’s head snapped back up. “This is something that could have been building for awhile and we didn’t see it. It means that Shuichi may be suffering from a mental illness called Schizophrenia.”

“Schizophrenia?” Eiri’s eyes had taken on a hollow look. Tohma was becoming more and more worried. He would have been more comfortable if Eiri had lashed out and become angry. This quite and introverted Eiri was setting off alarm bells in Tohma’s head.

“Yes. He says that there are numerous signs that point to the possibility. The dramatic change in personality, the severe and sometimes violent mood swings, and the so-called dream are all documented symptoms.”

Eiri pulled his hands away slowly and curled in on himself until he was sitting much the same way that Tohma had found him a few hours before. He began chewing on his lip as Tohma moved to sit next to him on the couch, but didn’t attempt to touch Eiri again as his body language for the moment screamed for him not to.

“How… I mean what… why?”

Tohma took a deep breath. He had known for a week that he needed to have this conversation with Eiri, but he had put it off for as long as he could. When the author had called him that morning to ask about ‘this American guy’ who he had seen with Shuichi he had known he couldn’t put it off any longer. The last six years had been hard on Eiri and now that all this was happening… for a brief moment Tohma allowed himself to think that perhaps it might have been better if the little singer had died.

“They don’t know what causes it. It has been attributed to everything from genetic disorders to childhood trauma. After I told him some of the things that had occurred over the course of my association with Shuichi he told me that it may have started at the time of his rape and come to light after the trauma of the accident, but that is just one possibility of many. Again, he said it was hard to know, especially never having talked to Shuichi himself.”

They sat in silence for long uncounted moments. Eiri chewed his lip until it was raw and a small trickle of blood slid slowly down his chin. Tohma felt his heart trying to break as he saw the pain in those golden eyes. He pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and gently wiped the blood from the younger man’s face.

Eiri looked up at him and for a moment Tohma saw the lost little boy of so many years ago. A moment later he knew that that was just how Eiri was feeling.

“At the risk of sounding like a weak little kid, could you do me a favor?”

“Anything you need.”

Eiri uncurled, scooted across the couch, and leaned his head against Tohma’s chest. “Hold me for awhile.”

Tohma didn’t have to verbalize his answer. He wrapped his arms around Eiri and pulled him closer. A few moments later Eiri turned his face into Tohma’s chest and the older man could feel a small patch of damp soak through his shirt.

God but there were days when Tohma hated that everyone looked to him to be the strong one. He leaned his cheek against the top of Eiri’s head and suppressed his own bubbling emotions. Not only did he fear for one friend’s sanity, but he also hated the pain he knew this was causing to the person he loved more than any other in this. Still he knew that when he got home later Mika would hold him and he would have his turn at release.

-

-The speech in this section is in English.-

A few miles away from where Tohma was comforting Eiri a very different confrontation was about to take place. Bad Luck was winding down for the night and Rick was waiting outside the studio ready to pick up where he and Neo had left off the night before.

Several meters down the hall he was being observed. Ryuichi was not the least bit happy about what Tohma had told him earlier that day. Tohma and Ryuichi had been each other’s confessors for years and while the blond was used to Ryuichi’s quarks he was also aware of the singer’s true nature. So it had been with perfect knowledge of how Ryuichi really felt about Shuichi and how he was likely to react that he confided in the brunette about the phone call he had received from Eiri and the possibility that Shuichi might seriously be mentally ill.

Neither of the men had any doubt about who the American that Eiri had seen was. Ryuichi was not about to let some horny American take advantage of his friend. He had been watching the man for several moments and soon enough he couldn’t hold himself back.

He paced down the hall and before the other man had time to react, pinned Rick to the wall with no explanation.

The pressure against Rick's neck was painful. He tried to yell, tried to pull away, but all the effort he made was useless.

“I don’t care how special you think you are. I don’t care how hot you think Shuichi is. I don’t care how much money you could make this company. You are going to pretend that you never heard the name Shindou Shuichi.” Ryuichi let up just enough pressure that Rick could speak.

Rick sucked in a deep breath. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I am someone you shouldn’t mess with so it would behoove you to do as I say and stay away from Shuichi-kun. Regardless of how he acts, he is very venerable right now and I wont have some opportunistic little shit messing with him.” Ryuichi voice was a low growl and he could feel the tremors running through Rick's body.

Regardless of the fear he felt Rick pride wouldn't let him back down. “So who are you, his keeper?”

Ryuichi pressed a little harder against the younger man's neck and Rick choked for a moment before sucking in a harsh breath. “No. It is much worse than that Rick-san.” Ryuichi chuckled darkly. “I love Shuichi a great deal. Had circumstances been different then I would have gladly claimed him as my own. However circumstances are not different so we will just settle on calling me an overprotective friend. An overprotective friend with very powerful connections.”

Rick didn’t know how this man knew his name and wasn't really sure what to think. He was scared out of his mind. “What, do you plan to try and stop NG from signing Seven Sins?”

Ryuichi chuckled almost sinisterly again. “I want you to stay away from Shuichi. If you do anything to stand in the way of his happiness with Eiri-kun then you wont have to worry about the label and you wont live long enough to regret it.” He finished the statement in a dangerously sweet voice. He pushed off from Rick in such a way that the other man gagged again before walking off.

Rick watched his retreating back and wondered. Could this man really have someone killed? Did Neo mean that much to him?

One thing Rick did know was that he didn't have enough courage to tempt fate.

-

Oh I love Ryuichi. Anyway I don’t want any complaints about the OOC-ness of characters in this chapter. I think the reasons behind them behaving that way are apparent.

Thanks for reading. Please guys let me know what you think.

Too much? Not enough? There is more to come.