TITLE: Tanabata
PART: Epilogue - Grasp
AUTHOR: Simply Kim
PAIRING: Atobe Keigo x Tezuka Kunimitsu
FANDOM: Tennis no Oujisama
GENRE: Yaoi/Continuation/Angst/Humour
WORDS: 1,894DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except this... fic. ;
NOTE #1: Blah or Blah is for emphasis. /Blah/is for conversations over the phone or flashbacks (if any). /Blah/ is for the conscience or whatever inner voice there is talking. Blah is for thoughts or random Japanese words.
EPILOGUE: GRASP
Trapped in your hands,
I slowly burn… body
And senses both; hands
Grasping thirstily at
Yours, mouth aching
For a taste of the
fiery depths of your
ephemeral soul.
Charcoal: 181205
There was something truly addictive about this routine they both were immersed in.
Every single day, for one whole week, they would rise early, he would be ushered to his doctor's office, and he would be given sets of exercises to complete by the end of the afternoon. It was something to look forward to, he knew, since doing all this was meant to strengthen himself more quickly.
However, there was the issue of –
"Germany isn't as cold as I remembered it to be."
Tezuka didn't have to turn to know who it was that uttered such relaxed words.
"Me neither." He answered back, continuing to walk by the roadside.
"Maybe because of the global warming thing, huh?"
A small smile lit the bespectacled man's face as he remembered their conversation yesterday. This had been the topic for the whole week, it seemed. Or at least, in the beginning. Soon, there would be other issues to talk about, topics ranging from his new school and where he wanted to live all his life.
It was quite refreshing to say the least, and he didn't have to feign interest in anything, because he was interested in whatever it was they were talking about.
However, he couldn't discount the fact that the real issue was still lurking underneath their good-natured conversations. There was a lot more hiding behind every word and every rise and fall of their voices. There was still something trying to emerge from that confined place superimposed by their laughter. It caused him some degree of anxiety, and he knew the other was feeling it too, but when things got too easy, it didn't matter anymore, did it?
They were both suffused with much pride, but here they were being total cowards.
He took a deep breath, relishing the cold wind rushing through his skin. He felt the miniature hairs on his arms rise in response. It was a complete change from Japan, but it was indeed welcome.
"Yes, global warming." He nodded after a few moments, heralding another bout of companionable silence.
It was constricting, this silence. Although it was not filled with anything untoward, there was a small degree of awkwardness. He wasn't stupid to know what it was about and why it was there. He gathered, if he didn't say anything, this conversation would be just like yesterday – informative, but emotionally lacking.
And he couldn't afford to be emotionally lacking anymore.
Spotting a quiet area nearby, he made a beeline for it, conscious all the while of the seemingly enlightened steps of his companion. Once they got there, the silence now sported something relatively close to tension.
But it wasn't suffocating.
It was, in fact, exhilarating.
It's now or never. Tezuka thought, his hands turning cold and clammy. "Ne," he started quietly as he sat down on a flat, protruding rock, looking up at the other looming over him in invitation. "I need to ask you something."
The other man nodded quietly and sat down beside him, eyes fixed on the toes of his tennis shoes. Tezuka gazed at him for a moment before he turned away, focusing instead on the rows of tennis courts. "You seem to always go out of your way just to surprise me." He murmured softly.
"Well, it's fun surprising you."
"Fun?"
The other nodded almost imperceptively. "Your face lights up and your eyes widen enough that I can almost see the soul inside." Came the equally soft response. "I thought that maybe, if I surprise you more than enough, things would be different between us.
It wasn't usual, this person's quiet disposition. It wasn't as if he was loud and brash, it was just…
For a few moments, Tezuka seemed to have lost the ability to breathe. "Is that why you came here and did all that without my knowledge?"
"Partly."
Tezuka felt like he was going to have a minor nervous breakdown.
"Partly?"
"Aa."
Silence.
"You said you wouldn't wait for me."
"That's why I'm here."
"Why?"
A soft chuckle reverberated in that small area, but for him, it seemed as if the sound was magnified ten times louder, singing along with the pounding of his heart in his ears. He turned to his companion with question in his eyes. He was close to falling off from the rock he was perched on – literally and figuratively.
"Remember Tanabata?"
"…" Tezuka nodded slowly, wondering where this conversation was heading. If the rapid beating in his ear kept up, he swore he was going to hurl. The tension inside his body was making him nauseous.
"I'm not stupid enough to accept something like that."
"Atobe –"
Atobe Keigo grinned at him almost like his usual self, but with much warmth in his eyes. "You see, Ore-sama is impatient… and Ore-sama does not tolerate being ordered around." Then, as soon as it appeared, the grin faded, his features twisting into an expression Tezuka could only describe as 'tender'.
"Unlike her and her lover, I will always find a way to meet more than once every year. I would make it everyday if possible, or in our case, to be more realistic, once every two months and all of summer and winter vacation."
For the life of him, Tezuka didn't know exactly what to say. He didn't even know how to react to something as profound as the words this otherwise selfish person just uttered. After a few moments of confusion, all he could do was sit still and try his best not to faint. All the excitement roiling inside him was making him feel all clingy – something he didn't understand – nor particularly liked.
"But then again," Atobe added cautiously. "That depends if you're okay with it… are you?"
Tezuka removed his spectacles and breathed a huge sigh of relief. The urge to be clingy was still there, but maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he thought about it hard enough. After all, this person was the one who started everything in the first place. A small smile turned the corners of his mouth upwards.
Without words, he leant against Atobe and touched his hand hesitantly.
As their fingers linked together, Tezuka thought it was more than enough.
OxxxOxxxO
"Now Mitsu-chan, remember to take your vitamins, and have plenty of rest while undergoing treatment…"
"Yes mother."
Atobe swatted him on the head with his flashy-but-oh-so-manly purple clutch bag.
"Ouch."
"Ore-sama isn't joking."
"Neither am I. That hurt."
The Hyoutei student sighed in his usual overly-dramatic way. "I pity your therapists." He moaned almost playfully. "You're such an old man sometimes."
Tezuka's dignity was chafed after that response, so he cocked an eyebrow in a gesture of sarcasm and crossed his arms across his chest in defiance. "You're an old man too."
Atobe stared at him in disbelief. "What? I'm not!"
"You're with me." Tezuka replied, as if that mere sentence was proof enough.
A deeply amused snicker sounded from the waiting car, followed by the doctors and the other people walking past who happened to overhear.
"Then you're a paedophile."
Tezuka frowned. "You have an old man complex then."
"Ha!" Atobe crowed triumphantly. "So, you admit to being an old man!"
He didn't have any idea why they were talking as ridiculously as this. Two weeks had passed, and Atobe had to leave so he could finally start his own school in Japan. He said he would be visiting again for a week during the summer vacation – before tennis tournament started. So he wouldn't be bitter when Seigaku lost to Hyoutei, the confident narcissist said. "Respect your elders."
Atobe laughed, and with a sweeping motion, enveloped him in a huge hug. It lasted a long while, both of them not wanting to let go. But they had to part ways this time. There was a nagging pinprick of pain in Tezuka's gut. He was about to open his mouth and say something lasting when he felt something wet lodged on his neck – and the pinprick of pain transferred to that same place.
A soft chuckle. "There, so you won't miss me much."
The realisation of what it was when the other man drew away put roses on his cheeks, and his hand involuntarily reached up to touch it. The area was still wet, and the wind blowing on it made the cold crawl up his spine in answer. Atobe still wasn't letting go, and his mouth instead, was by Tezuka's ear.
"I'm not a fire hydrant." He hissed in mortification. "You don't just go ahead and mark me… you pervert."
"You made me one." Atobe whispered softly, breath hot on his ear. "It's a promise."
"A promise?"
"Next time we meet, you'll be getting more of that."
If it was possible, his face reddened even more. As he sputtered, his face looking more like an overripe tomato, Atobe loosened his hold and smirked in his usual supercilious way. "Well, Ore-sama has to go, see you soon, na, Mitsu-chan?"
With a final jaunty wave, he moved away and slipped into the car.
Tezuka calmed down a bit as the chauffeur revved up the engine and he nodded with a wry smile.
Atobe smiled back.
A few minutes later, Tezuka was still standing there, eyes following the direction the car took; eyes wistful and smile hopeful.
It's a promise.
OxxxOxxxO
I've grown tired of always waiting.
Now that the treatment is complete after two long years, I'm free to go home whenever I please. So I arranged my papers and contacted Seishun Gakuen's senior high department and had my subjects here in Germany credited. I received an email last night saying I could start school there again whenever I'm ready.
But like I said, I'm through waiting, so here I am, waiting for the plane to finish boarding.
I'm going home.
It would be a welcome change to see Keigo's jaw drop (As if that would ever happen, but I can wish, can't I?) when I drop by his school for a little visit.
This time, I'm the one going out of my way just to see him.
Tezuka smiled down at the last page of the green notebook Inui gave him before he went to therapy. It wasn't bad at all, just as he thought it would be. The notebook was a great help in sorting his life out. It now contained all memories of everything that happened for the past two years. He had to thank him again for it when he starts school in Seigaku again.
Upon hearing the stewardess announce the start on the airline safety guide program, he hastily scribbled away.
And I'll blackmail him to making a thousand paper cranes so when the Tanabata festival comes, I'll drag him with me…
We will hang them bundled up in the plaza, and we will watch them burn, hoping the gods would hear the wishes in each piece of origami.
And hope that they would come true.
Taking a deep cleansing breath, Tezuka closed the notebook and slipped the pen through its springs before stuffing it in his carryall.
Sasa no ha sara sara, nokiba ni yureru... ohoshi-sama kira kira, kin gin sunago…
ENDE
A/N: It's finally finished! Feedbacks are greatly appreciated!