Beautiful
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Rurouni Kenshin › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
3
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Category:
Rurouni Kenshin › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
3
Views:
2,377
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Beautiful
Notes:
God, I am reaaaally, really hoping that I can keep this one at three parts...
everyone, cross their fingers for me, all right? Please, please pray
with me! >_o I like my idea this time, hell, I like it a lot!
And I hope that you do too!! ^_^
Warnings: For this chapter, Saitou+Sano, Aoshi/Sano, AU, abuse, drugs
![\"Beautiful\"](\"http://hardboiledwonderland.org/my-conviction/beautiful.gif\")
By: Kako
Part One
I peered up from my desk as I heard a familiar pair of boots approaching at
a rapid pace. I didn\'t even bother to look him straight in the eyes.
I just spoke up quickly, \"So, did you get any quotes on the Bueyr\'s case?\"
\"Yeah, actually I got some killer quotes that can make this a great head-line
story, Saitou!\" He announced and I looked back up at him slowly.
He had a smile slapped to his face and sunglasses covering his eyes.
I cocked my head as I looked at him and then blandly asked, \"Why are you
wearing those inside? Did that boyfriend of yours do some damage that
you think you can cover up with a smile and a pair of shades?\"
His smile faded at the drop of a hat, and he self-consciously dug his hands
into his pocket. I suppose I hit it right on the marker. I had
known Sanosuke Sagara for more than a year now. I had worked as his
manager for about three months, that\'s when we became a little more than work
associates. We became friends. I hesitate to say the word, because
I\'m not sure normal people would consider our interaction friendly, but I\'ve
always been there for him, and he\'s surprisingly able to make me smile on
the worst of days.
But a little under two weeks ago, I found out about someone. I found
out that Sanosuke had a lover. More specifically, a male lover.
That didn\'t bother me in the least, however, the way that I found out about
him did.
Sanosuke was supposed to meet me after lunch to discuss a new column that
he wanted to write, and I waited and waited for him to show up. After
about a half hour, I was ready to leave, and he walked it with a sheepish
grin on his face, telling me that he had an accident and that he had to run
to the hospital to get stitched. When I asked what happened, he tired
to brush it off, but in the end I had corned him, and he admitted to me that
he and his boyfriend got into a fight.
A fight in which Sanosuke had to get five stitches in the forehead, due
to his boyfriend\'s nasty temper. He was lucky that he usually wore
a headband, which covered it up nicely. He was also lucky that I was
the only one that found out, and had promised to keep my mouth shut about
it.
But I was worried about him. It was then that I noticed all the wounds
that the young man had come in with. He told me that he had gotten into
fights at bars and ran into doors. And it was then that I realized just
how long this had been going on. Ever since I met him, he had been
getting into bar fights and running into doors. When I pressed about
his boyfriend, the most that he told me is that they had been together for
coming on three years and that was it.
<>
I was worried. And that black eye Sanosuke was sporting beneath his
sunglasses was just another mark of the man. I could feel myself getting
tired of it. I watched him as he shook his head. \"Saitou... I
really don\'t want you getting involved in this... I really do ask for it,
and I know it. I\'m gonna lear kee keep my mouth shut one of these days
and --\"
\"How do you know that a little anger on Aoshi\'s part won\'t put you in your
deathbed? That could happen before you learn, and what will you do then?\"
I asked, glaring at him. He shook his head and set at the edge of my
desk, pulling the sunglasses off, knowing that there was no one in here but
us. It was then that I realized just how terrible this black eye was.
I shook my head, looking at him with a sigh and stood up.
I walked over to the window and spoke slowly, \"Sanosunbspnbsp; You did that
article last year on domestic violence. I knew that there was something
you weren\'t telling us. Your descriptions were so vivid, and even if
you were a great creative writer, those stories didn\'t just come from your
interviewees. They came from experience. In that article, you
listed so many ways for people in those situations to get help. Why
the hell aren\'t you taking your own advice?\"
\"I told you, it\'s me. He\'s not doing anything wrong he\'s just--\"
\"You know that\'s bullshit. Sanosuke,\" I turned around and placed my
hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look me straight in the eyes.
\"You\'re better than this. Just tell him that it\'s over and--\"
\"Saitou, please. You exist in my work life. Not my personal
life. You don\'t know anything about Aoshi and I... and you can tell
me only so much... but if you knew what it was like, you\'d be in the same
position as me!\" He hissed opushpushing my arms away.
I narrowed my eyes as my arms fell to my sides.
\"Do you love h"&nb" I asked dryly.
He spun around, \"What...?\"
\"Do you love him? It\'s a simple question.\" I stated. I
knew what the hesitation meant. And that meant as well that I wasn\'t
crazy.
\"Of... of course I do!\"
\"If you love him, you should know, that if he loved you, he wouldn\'t do
this kind of a thing to you.\" My voice was cold. I was trying
to drive it into his head, but for some reasit wit wasn\'t working.
I kept my fingers crossed for any such luck.
Those chocolate eyes looked at me, eyebrows knitted up in an unspoken pain.
\"Saitou... please... just drop the subject! I came here to talk about
the Bueyr\'s case! Not to hear you lecture me again! You shouldn\'t
care, anyway! Please, drop it!\"
\"I probably shouldn\'t care but I do. Just listen to me, Sanosuke,
you need to--\"
He cut me off by slamming a stack of papers on top of my desk. I could
see the unshed tears in the corners of his eyes as he did so. His voice
came out strained, \"All the information on the Bueyr\'s case is in these files.
I\'ll talk to you later. Call me if you have any questions about the
case. But I\'m not talking about this again! It\'s not your business!\"
He spat out, bitterly and stormed out of the office quickly.
I watched his back as he slammed the door. I looked to the pair of
sunglasses that he had left on my desk wan ean equally bitter smirk on my
face.
Not my business?
It is my business, rooster head.
ll>
I\'m the one that foolishly fell in love with you...
-----------------------
\"Sano... Sano! You can\'t keep doing this! How many times
do I have to tell you? This isn\'t the way! You never come by here
anymore...\" Katsu tried, as he followed his former roommate around the apartment
desperately. \"The only times that you do come by is after you two get
into a fight, when you\'re bleeding and need me to bandage you up! You
won\'t believe how many Band-Aids, splints and tubes of disinfectant I\'ve
had to buy since you started dating that man!\"
Sano shook his head as he reached the kitchen cupboards, reaching around
inside for a small child-proof container. He tapped out about three
small pills into his palm and poured them down his throat with a glass of
water. \"Katsu... you know what happened to him two years ago... you
know the reason he\'s this way. I\'m all that he has left...\"
\"You can\'t keep going like this! Of course those four died, and ever
since, it\'s turned him into a monster! You can\'t keep hurting yourself
like this, Sano! You can\'t!\" Katsu tried, ripping the pill jar
away from him. He grimaced down to it, \"And you can\'t keep taking these
drugs!\"
Sano stumbled through the room, and collapsed onto the couch.
\"When I was walking down the street... do you know how many people I caught
gawking at my left eye? Before I caught people gawking at my ass...
I would much rather them see that I\'m hurting, than sexually harassing me...
I haven\'t had to deal with that for three years, and I\'m grateful. Now
I feel like I have some place to belong...\" Sanosuke managed to get
out, staring at the ceiling blankly as his body slowly went numb from the
drugs effects.
\"Marrying yourself to that man is marrying your grave! If you just
give yourself to him totally, then you can\'t expect anything more out of life
than a bunch of pain and misery! Aoshi is goi--\"
\"Shut up!! I don\'t want to hear this from you!!\" Sanosuke shouted,
pulling his armsr hir his face.
The room was silent for close to ten minutes, and Katsu took in a deep breath.
\"If you don\'t want to hear this from me, then don\'t come crying to me when
you get fucked over again.\" Katsu stated, throwing the pills in the
trashcan. \"I\'m not going to help next time.\"
Sanosuke stood up abruptly, and, although as he stood up, he staggered to
stay standing.
\"That\'s fine, Katsu! I don\'t need your help!\" Sanosuke shouted.
He turned to the door once again, and disappeared.
Katsu took a deep breath, and made his way back to the counter, wondering
just how long it would be before he saw his friend\'s obituary in the paper
where his column had previously been...
---------------------
\"Congratulations, boss! That Bueyr\'s case was a great addition!\"
A random staff member greeted me as I walked through the company halls, on
my way to my desk. It had been more than a week since I had seen Sanosuke,
and I was slowly beginning to worry about him. I had heard of him stopping
in before going off on interviews, or background research, but he hadn\'t stopped
in to talk to me. And I still had his pair of sunglasses sitting on
my desk at home. I figured that if he wanted them back, he was going
to have to talk to me first.
I paused around the coffee area before I headed back into the depths of
my office, and, as I grabbed the decaf pot, glanced to one of the new faces
I\'d seen in the building. Standing next to me, pouring herself a cup
of coffee, was a new freelance photographer, working under Kodui. She
specialized in crimes. She always got amazing angles that made anyone
look either guilty or innocent, depending on how she wished to press the shutter
on her camera. I was going to have to ask about her assistance in a
feature article I was working on now...
I shook my head and walked back to my office quickly. I set down a
few notebooks I had been brainstorming in on the way over on my shelf, after
picking out the phone book and an Encyclopedia. I took a sip of my coffee,
and looked over my planner as I sat down in my office chair. After
noting that I had an appointment in two hours, my eyes looked over to red
flashing numbers on my answering machine. I clicked \'play\', and leaned
back in my chair, flipping through yesterday\'s paper from our biggest competition.
\"You have four new messages.\" the voice stated mechanically.
I waited for them to play.
\"Hallo Mr. Saitou, I was wondering if you could possibly make a three o\'clock
appointment today with Mr. Kasey. He said that he has a few things to
go over with you on the new wages plan. Call me back as soon as you
can. The number\'s 760-493-3221. Thanks, bye.\"
Click.
\"Mr. Saitou, this is Grayling\'s Books, and we thought that we would tell
you that your pre-order arrived yesterday. You can come and pick it
up whenever you\'re ready.\"
Click.
\"Saitou, Seki had a... little problem with the copy machine yesterday and...
well... we have a few questions about how to... uh... fix it... so if you
could give me a call by I would reeeeeeally appreciate it.\"
Click.
\"Hey, Saitou, it\'s me.\" My ears perked up at the sound of that voice.
It was Sanosuke. To all the other messages, I had been half-heartedly
listening, but as soon as I heard his voice, my complete attention was caught.
\"I\'m really sorry about that other day... you were only trying to help, and
I guess I went off the deep end... I\'m not feeling too good today, so I think
I\'m going to be taking today... and maybe tomorrow, off. I had to get
it offa my chest. I was feeling really bad about it, and I hope that
you aren\'t too pissed at me... all right... talk to ya later... and congrats
on the final Bueyr article... glad I could be of some help. The final product
really sounded nice. Bye.\"
And I couldn\'t have done it without him. I could feel my heart constrict
in my chest as I heard him speak. There was something wrong, and I don\'t
think it was a mere flu or cold... there was something wrong with him this
time. And I could assume that Aoshi was the main cause of it.
It put a damper on things to think that he was doing this to the boy...
a boy with such a bright future. Whenever I was talking to Sanosuke,
making him forget about life with that man, he paused and then, after looking
at the clock, stated in an apologetic tone, \"Shit... I have to get home now.
Aoshi\'s expecting me... Sorry, Saitou, I\'ll see ya tomorrow. Have a
good night!\" and with that, he would leave.
And the next ti saw saw him, he was, more than likely, in more pain than
the night before. I couldn\'t stand it... But there wasn\'t very
much that I could do about it... but if Sanosuke let me help, I would be there
in an instant.
I shook my head and picked up my phone. I needed to see what, exactly,
was going on with that copy machine...
------------------
I leaned back in my chair that night, casting a glance over at the clock.
Eleven thirty-two.
I should be getting to bed soon. Tomorrow I had an early meeting with
Kasey, since I couldn\'t make it this afternoon, and that required my utmost
and devoted attention. It was all trivial, really. We were going
to discuss whether or not the current pay system was adequate, which would
be undoubtedly decided yes, and then go about our daily jobs. But I
suppose for three seconds it was a big deal...
I was reading over a few articles some of my writers were shaky about, red
correcting pen in hand, marking them up like a bloody slasher movie.
I guess their spell checks were on holidays, because, last time I checked,
you didn\'t spell \'violence\' \'volience.\'
My head jerked to the door, as a sudden knocking woke me from my daze.
I looked to the clock to make sure that I hadn\'t misread.
Eleven thirty-six.
I suppose I hadn\'t.
But who could be at the door this late?
I made my way over to the door as the steady rapping grew more urgent, and
tried to calm the sound down with a steady, \"I\'m coming!\"
I unlocked the door quickly, and a figure nearly fell on top of me when
I opened it. The weight of the figure startled me, but what startled
me more was the familiar mop of brown, spiky hair that I was looking down
on. I shut the door, and pushed the quivering mass away from me, looking
at his face. His cradled arm did not go unnoticed as I looked him in
the eyes.
\"What is it, Sanosuke?\"
He was shaking as he spoke, and shook his head, \"I am... so sorry... I just
didn\'t have anywhere to go... Katsu told me that... that he didn\'t want me
to come back... I\'m sorry... I know that you\'re probably mad at me... and
I shouldn\'t even be here but...\"
\"Sanosuke? What happened tonight?\" I asked calmly, leading him
over to the coach I had previously been sitting on, setting the papers on
the floor.
I sat him down, and he looked up at me, opening and closing his mouth.
\"S-some guys came by tonight... they used to be from our old gang and said
some shit to Aoshi... I tried to stop him from killing them, because
I knew that...\" He took in a deep breath. \"I knew that if I didn\'t,
Aoshi... h-he would get into some shit that he wouldn\'t be able to get out
of and...\" he trailed off, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood.
\"And you took the heat while the other guys took off, right?\" I filled
in, and he nodded.
I exhaled and placed my hand on the edge of his jacket. There was
so much pain in his eyes, and I needed to help him. \"Let me see.\"
\"Wait... before you do... just know that it wasn\'t his fault and that--!\"
\"Sanosuke. You don\'t need to cover for him. You need help.
If you didn\'t why else would you come to me?\"
He nodded hesitantly and dropped the trench coat.
The first thing that hit me was the smell of blood. I assumed that
if there was blood, it would have soaked through the jacket and I would have
known about it now if it was serious.
I was dead wrong.
He wasn\'t wearing a shirt under it, I assumed that he didn\'t have time to
get a shirt before he left the house. There were bruises upon bruises,
cuts, scrapes, bites, everything that you could name. His body was a
portrait of war. I tried to pull the coat off his arms to check his
back, but he yelped suddenly and that\'s when I remembered the arm he had been
cradling.
I slowly moved over to the arm, and gently slipped off the coat. My
eyes widened as I looked over his arm. The bone was nearly poking out
of the skin! I could see the mess under his flesh. I took to my
feet abruptly, after pulling the jacket off, and headed into the bathroom,
pulling out all the disinfectants, gauze, bandages and splints I could find.
He was going to need them...
I walked back out into the living room, and took a moment to look over the
boy as the broken angel he was now, face contorted by pain and sorrow, not
anger. He bore no anger whatsoever to the person who did this... and
that made -me- angry.
He looked up to me, eyes forming a question. \"Saitou... why are you
doing all this for me? Why do you care so much?\"
\"You came to me. I couldn\'t turn you away. And besides that...
you don\'t deserve this.\" I stated calmly, gathering my tools together.
I pulled out two Motrin and a glass of milk, handing them to the boy.
\"Here, take these. They may help.\"
He nodded and quickly swallowed. He looked up to me and said quietly,
\"I\'m sorry that I came here... this is asking too much... I didn\'t know where
else to go.\"
I shook my head and leaned forward, placing a light kiss on his forehead.
\"Don\'t worry. But I can\'t guarantee that this isn\'t going to hurt...
I think I\'m going to need to set your arm. What did he do?\"
\"Got mad...\" Sanosuke answered, being as helpful to me as a shoe.
I shook my head.
\"I know that much. What did he do to cause this?\" I said as
I examined his arm.
\"He... punched me...\"
\"His punch could do this much?\"
\"We... can I tell you about this later... I think I better get going...
now that I think about it... you\'re probably splitting at the seams with
work you have to do tomorrow, aren\'t you?\" he said, and began to get
up.
I grabbed his good arm, and pushed him back down on the sofa.
\"You\'re not leaving here, all right? Promise me that. You\'re
going to stay here tonight, and you\'re going to rest here tomorrow.
I will talk with you about it tomorrow when I get home.\" I stated and
he looked at the floor.
I cupped his cheek and forced him to look at me.
\"Promise?\"
He nodded slowly, \"Promise...\"
\"Good, now make yourself comfortable, because I\'m not sure how easy this
is going to be...\" I admitted. This boy should have been at a hospital,
even though I\'m sure that he wasn\'t going to even think about going there.
I was all that he had now, and I was going to do everything that I could to
help him...
He nodded and sank back onto the couch.
\"And Saitou...?\"
I looked at him.
\"Thanks...\"
------------------------
End of part one