"What did you say to me?", Souichi Tatsumi was jarred abruptly from his thoughts by his little brother's elbow and the cabbie's cigarette-muffled call.

"Please get out of the car, guys – this is the place."

"What? What place? What are you talking about?"

"Sou-kun, this the courthouse; don't you remember, brother?'

"Uh.. Of course... I remember... Tomoe, pay the man." Souichi brusquely waved out the window he was glaring, trying to gird his mental loins for the oncoming battle... trying not to allow the waves of dread to drown him, here in broad, downtown daylight.

"You got a problem, gentlemen?"

"No, sir – it's just, well... his friend is on trial today...Lotophagoi killings...", Tomoe Kurokawa whispered to the concerned cab driver, trying to keep the man from thinking they were going to try to stiff him on their fare.

"What? That guy's friend is the sick maniac on trial?", grunted the man at the wheel around a half-smoked fag with no little disgust.

"Tomoe! Shut your goddamn mouth...!"

"Sorry, Nii-san! I didn't mean to say too much again..."

"He is NOT my friend...!", Souichi Tatsumi hissed back, unfolding from the cab and tried to prepare for the worst before him, leaving his brother to deal with their transportation.

Souichi hated suits; he really, really did. Any thing that got him out of a lab coat and jeans was just a waste of his precious time. Now, waiting impatiently for Tomoe to hurry up with the banalities of this damn inconvenience, Souichi tugged uncomfortably on the black suit Tomoe insisted he'd buy AND wear today. The damn thing looked like something Kurokawa would wear, dammit! Fucking queers were ruining his goddamn life, Souichi swore to himself as he lit a nervous cigarette.

Somehow the wisp of brimstone from his match made him smile... then remembering where he was, what he was about to have to do and oh my god, what the fuck.. the smile disappeared from Souichi's lips like a fart in the wind. Tomoe's nervously nice voice drifted up to him on the fortress's mammoth steps, the granite surrounding them, dulling the chirping cadences from his brother's omnipresent sweetness, neutering all but the nervous energy from his words. The people with the cameras were starting to circle them...

"... I was saying, perhaps they won't call you, Nii-san..."

Souichi blew out his smoke and stubbing the fag out on the megalithic stone behind him, prepared himself for the worst.

"Tomoe – enough bullshit, already. Let's just go in and get this over with.", he said with leaden finality.

They weathered the media frenzy at the front of the court room. Souichi nearly got himself arrested for taking one man's camera strap and choking him with it when the vulture had the audacity to suggest that his role in the Lotophagoi killings might be far less than that of simple witness... perhaps he was himself an accomplice. Who hadn't heard Souichi Tatsumi's raging hatred of all thing homosexual in their circle of daily life? When Souichi, his jaws clenched in silent fury, had attempted to step around the man and dismiss him from his bespectacled sight, the asshole had suggested that maybe the accused and he had used the murders of those unsuspecting bar patrons as some kind of sick sexual fetish before they indulged in darker, more wicked sexual exploits?

It had taken three armed guards to get Souichi's hands from around the man's windpipe. The camera would never be the same and neither would the man's face. Tomoe had chosen wisely when he garbed his brother in black. The blood spatters didn't show up as well on black.

After the fiasco at the front doors, the police firmly escorted the Tatsumi brothers into the courtroom and once seated and diffused of violent tendencies with quiet threats of assault charges, Souichi was introduced once again to Morinaga's defense attorney... Kanako and Matsuda were there and after a quick nervous hug from his sister, Morinaga's sempai asked his sister for the use of her cellular... Morinaga's friend Hiroto... who had hired the wet-behind-the-ears lawyer when Tetsuhiro's family had again turned their backs on their own son..

… they all looked far too nervous, Tomoe thought to himself with a dry swallow. Would Morinaga even say a word in his defense. He and Kanako feared the worst for the steadfast Morinaga!

After a tense conversation, and a lot of bad noise, they finally saw the armed guards bring him in. Morinaga had looked worse, but not by much. Souichi was surprised at how small the tall man was trying to appear; his hands looked liked they were trying to shrink into his wrists, or was it just that the shackles rode his large frame like they weighed a thousand pounds each? Swimming in the bright garish orange of his correctional jumpsuit, Souichi couldn't believe that Morinaga had once had the strength to hold him down...

"Fuck fuck fuck!", Souichi clenched his jaw and swore to himself at his train of thought.

Morinaga's dark eyes rode over the crowd gathered for his judgment with little sign of life, until he caught sight of his sempai. Sums and figures twirled suddenly to life within the ebony depths of his reddened eyes. Words attempted to fall past his twitching, disbelieving lips and on the third time, Tetsuhiro Morinaga managed to finally say something. It'd been the first words he'd uttered since his arrest. His lawyer got the early sense that the less emotionally volatile Morinaga behaved, the easier it would have been to defend him... and the black depression of facing serial murder charges had sealed Morinaga's lips better than any legal advice ever could. Until now...

"Sempai, you came... oh my god, am I happy to see you...", the tall neon clad prisoner gasped in a voice thick from disuse.

"You look like shit, Morinaga." My god, you look awful – your sad face is killing me, Morinaga.

Morinaga blinked and then gave his lover a watery smile. "I bet I do, Sempai – thank you for coming to see me off."

The despair was there, underneath the gratitude and the love. Anyone with ears could hear it. Souichi swallowed hard and glanced over at his brother nervously, thanking any god who was listening that the kid was talking to a woman next to him about what, he didn't care – so long as Tomoe had missed what Morinaga was really saying.

Wait – what he really was doing was saying goodbye! Oh my god...I... I really am going to have to do this...!

"Oi! You better just shut that shit up right now. You're not going anywhere but back to the lab – I'm tired of doing all your work!", Souichi snapped back, trying to hide his fear in his usual anger, slumping down in his seat and trying to look anywhere but at the chained man before him, everything about him pleading for release and some miracle of justice. Even Morinaga's clasped, shackled hands appeared be silently begging for help. Seeing him like this, Souichi could only petulantly turn his head away, but not his eyes – his sepia eyes refused to let Morinaga go.

The guard next to Morinaga put his hand on the teller man's shoulder and with that, things began to move very, very quickly. Before he knew it, Souichi was listening to a lawyer call his name to to the take the stand.

Gritting his teeth, Souichi knew what he had to do, he just didn't know if he could. He'd rather kiss Isogai's fucking filthy, sneaky ass in fact, then take the witness stand in a murder trial and then tell the entire court that his lover couldn't be guilty because on the night of the murders Morinaga was... oh my god, why now! This cannot be happening!

Souichi watched himself walk calmly to the stand, bow and be seated. He heard himself swear in. But he wasn't prepared to have the prosecutor be the one who was questioning him.

"Tatsumi Souichi, where were you on the evening of May 25th?", the prosecutor asked quietly.

"I worked at the university lab until 9 o'clock or so and then walked home.", Souichi stated as calmly as he could, his teeth clacking shut on the end of "home" - his voice was trying to die in his throat, dammit! Not yet, not until he could exonerate Morinaga! He must do this!

Finding his fists balled up tight, Souichi concentrated on trying to calm down and he did a pretty good job until Morinaga smiled that watery, sad smile at him again. Souichi fought the sudden urge to strangle both the attorney and Morinaga, before kicking one and kissing the other!

This was turning out to be the worst day of Tatsumi Souichi's life...

"Was Tetsuhiro Morinaga there when you got home? After all, you both are living together, correct?"

"No." Souichi bit out.

"No? Where was he then?", the prosecutor leaned against the jury box, looking conspiratorial.

"He'd left a note to say he was visiting the bar his friend Hiroto tended. I knew he'd go there occasionally to bitch and moan... I mean... blow off steam...", Souichi replied, forgetting at the last minute that his every word was being recorded for posterity and possible incrimination of the person in his life he held most dear...

… that person he'd most cheerfully murder once they got out of this and came up for air...

Souichi blushed at the thought of fighting a freedom-starved Morinaga for air as he was kissed, hard against the front door...

"Did you have a fight with the accused, sir? Maybe something else occurred – you appear to be blushing about your room-mate's bar-hopping on that night.", the inquisitor arched a sly eyebrow at the discomfited witness who tried not to fidget with his glasses and to regain his suddenly tenuous composure.

"Objection – leading the witness, Your Honor.", Morinaga's attorney piped up in Souichi's rescue – not a moment too soon. Souichi thought he was going to slap the man before him upside the head for what he was implying... and knowing it was very near the truth made the urge even madder! I'm just going to blurt it all out myself in moment, so I don't need your fucking help to get there, asshole!

"Sustained. Prosecutor – Mr. Tatsumi is not the one on trial here. Please continue in a more appropriate manner.", the judge cautioned through narrowed eyes.

"Withdrawn, Your Honor. What happened after you read Tetsuhiro Morinaga's note?", the curious lawyer resumed questioning, his arms folded carefully together in a casual manner, his body language encouraging Souichi to tell him all about that particular night.

"I needed his reports on our latest experiments and the asshole had conveniently not taken them out of his courier bag before going out– so I had to go and get them in order to finish my work.", Souichi ground out, emphasizing how inconvenient a trip to Hiroto's bar had been, forgetting that he was supposed to be here in Morinaga's defense...

"I mean, seriously, he knows how much I hate those people and then he forces me to come and hunt his stupid ass down in one of their creepy bars!", Souichi vented his choler, his voice a few more decibels than considered polite. The judge admonished him to lower his voice and the use of profanity in his subsequent testimony, thank you very much or would he care to pay a contempt of court fine?

The prosecutor smiled like a shark and Morinaga's lawyer turned just a few more shades of green. Tatsumi Souichi was a weapon that burned enemy and friend alike.

"So, you hate gay people I take it, Mr. .Tatsumi, how ironic. So does your friend, Morinaga...", the prosecutor grinned slyly.

"Objection!"

"Agreed. Prosecutor, I will not warn you again. Quit badgering the witness before he commits a crime."

"He doesn't hate anyone! Morinaga is the most foolishly optimistic, caring person I know. If he wasn't such a homo, he'd make some woman an ideal husband." Souichi snapped out before he could think about what he was saying and then blushed once again at his candor, however backhanded.

"Mr. Tatsumi, enough. Prosecutor, continue your questions please."

"Thank you, Your Honor. So tell me where you next saw Mr. Morinaga."

"He was at the Adamsite bar, exactly as he said he would be. Drinking it up with that fag Hiroto just like I knew he would be. They had some kind of new drink he and this guy were working on...