Painful Days and Stormy Nights Chapter 14

[lilly0]

Title: Painful Days and Stormy Nights Chapter 14: Surprised
Pairing: RyoJin, Ohno/Aiba, KimuShingo, Takki/Sakamoto, Sakumiya, Nagase/Koichi and one-sided Miyake/Sakamoto (As for the others I don't know yet... (PiKame or TegoPi? KameUchi? What's with Jun?)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, family, friendship, romance, angst, drama
Multi-chapter
Disclaimer: I don't own them or anything else JE-related. But the story is mine of course^^
Summary: While Jin is still being chased by his nightmares, some unexpected visitors tell the older brothers the unbelievable truth. Yamapi faces his worried family. And Jin tries to stay angry at Ryo...for getting into such a dangerous situation.

“The boy is worth nothing...” the voice of the woman said coldly. “I told you to give him away.”

“I will... don't worry. I just want a good prize.”

“You were the one making me pregnant. So get him away from me, now!” the woman yelled.

The man's phone rang. “Ah...” he said, sounding relieved. “You are interested in the boy?”

The woman watched him piercingly and when he finally hung up, she rubbed her hands curiously. “So?”

“There is a guy who wants to buy him. He pays a good prize.” the man sounded proud.

“Finally! Get his things together, the sooner he is away the better. His sad face always bothers me.” She looked at the boy that was hovering in a corner in disgust. “I hate kids.” she glared, ignoring the kid's tears.

 

Damn. Jin cursed, jumping out of his bed. It was still in the middle of the night... He hated it when his dreams showed him memories of the past... It was still laying heavily on his mind, but the love he received here had definitely helped him to get over it. Just sometimes... when he felt alone... these things got on the surface again.

He looked around a bit, his eyes catching a photo of Ryo and him. Jin smiled softly, his heart made a little jump. He should definitely talk to Ryo... it would make him feel more at ease then.

 

******

„Oh honey…“ Jun breathed out, not able to take his gaze away from Yamapi’s face.

Right in front of him there was Kame, his eyes widened in shock, fingers wandering over sore skin.

“Get out of my way, guys!” Tsubasa yelled, running into the living room, panic in his voice. Koichi had just called him half an hour ago, telling him to come home soon, since Yamapi had been beaten up. No further explanation.

“I’m okay.” Yamapi reassured him. „Just some bruises.“

„Some?“ Tsubasa pressed out, watching how Koichi pressed some ice on Yamapi’s forehead.

“Get me some more ice, Uchi.” Koichi demanded, friendly though. His fingers were now trailing over Yamapi’s cheek.

Tsubasa stroked through Yamapi’s hair. “What’s with the rest of your body?”

“Some bruises here and there.” Yamapi answered diplomatically, glad that he was wearing long trousers.

Tsubasa bent forward a bit, taking the ice out of Koichi’s hands and checking on the wounds on Yamapi’s face. He was a doctor after all though he was working as a therapist. “Seems to be okay…” he mumbled, relief in his voice.

“Yeah…” Yamapi nodded his head. „One of Nagase-kun’s friends is some sort of a first-aid genius. He helped us.”

“And what did actually happen?” Tsubasa wanted to know.

“One of my class-mates was being bullied and we wanted to help him…” Yamapi explained.

Uchi rolled his eyes. “And you thought it’s the best idea to go on your own?”

“He is right…” Kame nodded his head, stroking over Yamapi’s arm. “Glad your teacher came to help you… You should have been more careful.”

“Sorry…” Yamapi mumbled sheepishly.

“Well…” Koichi spoke into the silence. “Gladly you weren’t hurt more, right? Let’s be glad about that.”

 

 

******

 

“Good evening.” Takuya had opened the door, looking at the persons in front of him. His eyes first scanning a large guy: muscular, quite handsome… quite young. Then there was a woman standing next to him, her face looking apologetically and tired, but also soft and friendly. Seemed to be a bit older. And then… next to her a boy. Ryo’s age. And…Takuya blinked for a moment…. Bruises all over his body. “Well…” he forced a smile to his lips. „Please come in.“

“Who are they?” Nino whispered towards Subaru when they helped Takki to prepare some tea for the guests.

“How should I know?” the latter mumbled.

Nino looked at the boy sitting next to the woman. “Did you see the boy’s face?”

“Yeah…” Subaru sighed deeply. „Remembers me of another boy’s face…“

“We’ll get to know what’s going on soon…” Takki reassured them, though his own thoughts were far away too, mostly cursing around Ryo of course.

“So?” Takuya started when all of them had sat down.

Nagase smiled friendly towards them, bowing a bit. “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Nagase Tomoya, Ryo-kun’s home room teacher.” His gaze shifted to the boy. “This here is Maru-kun, one of Ryo-kun’s classmates.” He paused for a moment, not sure how to continue, since he actually didn’t want to have Maru around when they were discussing this difficult topic.

Takki smiled a bit, guessing what the man was thinking. He pointed at the staircase. “Ryo is upstairs. His room is the last one at the corridor, left side. You can go to him, if you like to.”

Maru smiled in relief, bowing thankfully towards Takki. As he got up he turned around again, scanning the brothers. No surprise this Takki-san was a host… he fit the role perfectly. Such a beautiful guy. And this Takuya-san… holy cow… why was he that pretty too? In his age! And the other two… Nino-san and Subaru-san if he remembered correctly…great aura. But despite his curiosity for the brothers, Maru was actually happy to escape the situation. He paused a moment when he reached Ryo’s room, knocking there.

“Yes?” he heard Ryo’s familiar voice.

“Hi.” Maru smiled sheepishly when he slipped into the room, his eyes immediately catching another guy, who was sitting on the carpet right now, looking both surprised and a bit upset.

Ryo blinked at him. “Maru-kun?” He blinked for a moment in surprise, before he turned around to the guy on the carpet, pointing at Maru. “That’s Maru-kun, my class-mate and friend.” Maru’s heart jumped in delight when Ryo announced him as friend. Ryo smiled a bit, cheeks flushing lightly when he pointed at Jin. “And this…is Jin, my oldest and ultimate best friend.”

„Yeah…“ Jin grumbled. “Your best friend whom you promised to be careful…” He eyed Maru curiously, immediately liking the other’s friendly and gentle expression. “Hi.” He smiled a bit, though he actually wasn’t too happy about this interruption. He had planned to scold Ryo for his carelessness, but now… he had to wait with that.

 

“So, Sensei…“ Takuya started again.

„Oh no.“ Nagase laughed. „Please, call me Nagase-kun.”

Takuya blinked at that, slowly realising why Ryo had told him that his teacher was strange, but beside that he didn’t seem so bad. “Well then, Nagase-kun, what’s going on?”

The woman next to Nagase bowed deeply. “I’m sorry for all the troubles I brought to you and your brother. I didn’t know what was going on.”

Takki blinked at that. “No…” he mumbled. And: “What?”

Nagase smiled softly. „Well, I guess you already know what happened.”

The brothers stayed quiet for a moment before Nino coughed a bit. “Just in case we don’t know… could you explain it again?”

“Eh?” Nagase blinked.

Subaru sighed deeply. “Sorry to interrupt you Nagase-kun, but maybe you have forgotten whom you are talking about… Does Ryo seem like a talkative person?”

Nagase laughed heartedly. “Ah, Ryo-kun… He is a pretty good kind. Bright and fun. He gets along well with the others.”

Takki blinked at that. “Are we talking about the same Ryo?”

“Yes, he is doing quite well. The others like him. And his jokes are hilarious.” Nagase grinned a bit. “Quite funny, though I would appreciate the truth of course.”

“What jokes?” Nino wanted to know, wondering a bit, since Ryo was neither the joking nor the lying type.

“He lies? About what?” Subaru wanted to know.

“Ah, nothing important.” Nagase smiled a bit. “He told us that one of his brothers owns a Host club and that his other brothers write, one of them even advising articles for a newspaper, helping lonely women and stuff. And the oldest is teaching at a university.”

Takki snorted a bit at that. This guy was really strange. “Well, that’s the truth.”

“EH?” Nagase blinked for a moment before padding Takki’s shoulder. “What a family!”

Nino grinned a bit. He couldn’t help but like this guy with his cheerfulness and his friendly manners and his straight-forwardness. And despite his clumsy appearance Nino could sense something serious and bright beneath the surface. “So…” he smiled a bit. “Would you tell us what happened?”

Nagase sighed slightly. “Actually it’s also my failure.” He smiled at Maru’s mother who wanted to interrupt him. “No, Maruyama-san, it’s my responsibility as a teacher to watch out for my students. But Maru-kun became a victim of bullying.”

Takki’s eyes grew wide. “No way! In the school?”

“No…” the woman’s eyes grew sad. “On his way home…”

“There was a bunch of really bad guys, who were robbing and punching him regularly. Even within cases of bullying these guys were especially bad…” Nagase explained. “Apparently Ryo-kun and the others found out about it and… well…”

“They intervened?” Takuya’s eyes grew wide, his mind driving rolling coasters right now as he thought of Ryo’s face and the bruises on his body… and his silence. Why didn’t he say something? His actions weren’t bad at all? Why hide it? He glanced towards Takki who was trying desperately to keep his emotions behind his stoic surface.

“Yes.” Nagase rubbed over his forehead. “I’m so glad that Tegoshi-kun called me before he and Yamashita-kun joined the fight. I called the police and rushed to the place the boys were fighting at… It was pretty bad… You know…” he paused. “I don’t want them to get into troubles, because they did something really noble here. Stupid though, because it was really dangerous. I’ll spare you the details about those guys, but a human life doesn’t mean much to them.”

Takki’s eyes grew wide in shock at that, he coughed to get the dry feeling out of his chest. So Ryo had really been in danger here!? Nagase caught his troubled expression and smiled. “Don’t worry please. I called one of my friends to take a look at their bruises. Everything is okay. I won’t tell the school, because I don’t want them to go through any troubles. And I would like to spare Maru-kun the feeling that everyone knows that he was bullied…”

Nino smiled at the other man, though he was feeling pretty shocked himself right now. “Thanks a lot, Nagase-kun. For telling us…”

 

******

“Well…” Subaru mused the moment Takki came back. He had just guided Nagase, Maru and Maru’s mother to the door. “Fun, right?”

“Totally…” Takuya mumbled.

“And what now?” Nino asked carefully.

“You know that we do have a problem here?” Takuya looked at them. “I mean… honestly… none of us yelled at Ryo-chan. We didn’t intimidate him… So why didn’t he tell us?”

Subaru coughed a bit. “There are two possibilities.”

“What?” Takki wanted to know.

“Maybe, he was still in shock, overstrained…” Subaru suggested. “Or…” He shrugged a bit. “Or he wanted us to think something bad of him, to punish him…”

“But why would he like us to think bad of him and scold him?” Nino blinked at his brother. “That makes no sense at all.”

“It does make sense.” Takuya mumbled. “Because it means that he can build the wall around him even higher…”

“That’s no good…” Subaru grumbled, his eyes finally catching Takki, who was sitting on his chair all gloomy and miserable. “But maybe it’s the other possibility, right Nino?”

“He is right.” Nino reassured them in his reasonable way of handling such things. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”

Takuya showed him a thankful smile, nodding his head.

 

******

“So…” Ryo walked towards Jin after Maru had left them.

Jin was lying on his back on Ryo’s carpet. The window in front of him was open, his eyes caught by the sight of the stars.

Ryo knelt down next to Jin. “Am I in troubles?” he asked carefully.

“Huge troubles.” Jin mumbled, but couldn’t help a sympathetic smile.

Ryo sighed in relief, lying down next to Jin. “Sorry for worrying you. I didn’t know it was that dangerous…”

Jin rolled his eyes a bit, turning his head to see Ryo, his fingers moving over the other’s bruised face. “I hate it that I can’t be angry at you for more than five minutes.” he grumbled.

Ryo smiled at him, then he sighed. “I guess I have to explain the whole thing to Takki…”

“You are really something…” Jin sighed. “Why didn’t you tell them in the first place? You even let them ground you!”

“I know… Takki was pretty upset. He grounded me for the rest of my life.”

Jin laughed at that. “At least I don’t have to worry then…”

“Hey!” Ryo complained.

“No really…” Jin grinned. “Maybe I can talk Takki into grounding you for…at least… on year. Then I can seep well for a few months…”

Ryo glared at his friend, kicking into his direction. A content smile appeared on his face when he saw how Jin winced.

“Alright…I won’t” Jin grinned brightly. “And don’t worry. Takki won’t ground you for nothing. Which means you will be free with tomorrow…”

Ryo smiled a bit. “I guess so…”

“Now tell me…” Jin started again. “Why didn’t you tell them?”

Ryo shrugged a bit. “I’m not sure about that myself. I…it was a strange feeling… I couldn’t even talk. I still felt that guy’s hands on my throat and…” he paused when he saw Jin’s expression and decided to stop here. Better not to tell the other about the other feelings and pictures that were going through his head while he was talking to his brothers.

“Honestly…” Jin sighed. “One can’t leave you alone.”

Ryo glared at that, before he turned his head a bit to look into the same direction as Jin. He winced a bit when he felt the other’s fingers on his face again. “You are really full of troubles.” Jin grinned.

Ryo knitted his eyebrows. “Don’t complain, you are my friend.”

“Sorry.” Jin smiled.

“Hey Jin…” Ryo started again after they had stayed quiet for a moment. “You have the Host club right? And the guys working there… Though your parents left you…”

Jin smiled a bit. “Yes, they are all really nice at the Club. Like a family.”

“And you have me.”

“That’s the best.” Jin admitted.

Ryo looked at him carefully. “Still…do you feel lonely sometimes?”

Jin turned his eyes away from the stars, looking at Ryo sadly, remembering the dreams he had at night, sometimes, like poisoned arrows searching their way to his heart. “Though your parents are not here anymore, you have four brothers right? And you have me. Do you feel lonely sometimes?

“Yes.”

 

Sakamoto turned around to look at Takki and the detective. “Did I do the phone call alright?”

“Perfect.” the detective answered. “We will definitely get the kid... and its parents.” the guy frowned deeply. “Some people shouldn't be allowed to even have kids.”

“Yes...” Takki mumbled silently.

“What will you do with the boy when you got his parents?” Sakamoto asked.

The detective shrugged helplessly. “Bring him to an orphanage. The boy is so pitiable, but better an orphanage than what might have awaitened him...”

“You can let him stay with us.” Takki interrupted the two men out of a sudden. “We'll look after him.”

 

It was new for Jin to be under people who actually cared for him. New, but also scaring… There was a slight feeling of doubt that was always piercing his chest like a poisoned arrow. And it didn’t help much that Sakamoto and Takki did everything to make him feel comfortable.

Jin turned around a bit when he felt a strong glance piercing his back. He blinked a bit, looking directly into big dark eyes. “Eh…” Jin blinked at the boy in front of him. „You are…“

“None of your business…“ Ryo mumbled stubbornly.

Jin couldn’t hide a grin. “Are you looking for something?”

“No.”

“For someone?”

“No.”

“Did you loose your way?”

“No.”

“Great…” Jin frowned deeply. “Come.” He took Ryo’s hand, pulling him along to his room. “Stubborn little brat…” he grumbled though he himself was also still a boy. “Here.” He placed Ryo on the sofa in his room, angling a bit in his cupboard and finally found some sweets. “Want some chocolate?”

Ryo tilted his head a bit, scanning the things in Jin’s hand. Then a cheerful smile popped up in his face as he grabbed one of the chocolates. “STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE!” he chirped. “Thanks!”

Jin smiled a bit. Cute…he thought.

 

 

******

“Yes?” Sakamoto opened the door to his apartment. He was actually living at the Host Club, but had his own apartment in the house next to the Club. He blinked in surprise. “Takki? What…” He looked at the drained figure in front of him, all wet since it was raining outside. “Come inside.” he told him, stepping a bit to the side.

“Thanks.” Takki mumbled.

Sakamoto looked at the other thoroughly, his hand stroking over Takki’s wet hair. “What happened?”

Takki smiled sadly, leaning against Sakamoto’s chest, just wanted to feel protected right now. “I hate it....” he mumbled. “I hate it that you are right.”