Title: You're Not Alone (remix)
By: EsTeLweNadia
Summary: Two-shot. Greatly inspired and influenced by You're Not Alone, by LadyTsuru27. You will never know what you've got till it's gone. Or in this case, nearly gone. A near-death experience shows Tetsuhiro that he isn't as alone as he thinks he is. Hurt!Tetsuhiro.
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Friendship/Romance/Angst
Warnings: Senpai and his mouth… But I'll try to tone it down.
Disclaimer: Characters afflicted are not mine, and will never be. Except in my dreams, maybe. ^^
Author's Note: I love her story very much! Coz it contained Hurt!Tetsuhiro! Haha! I'm so mean! While I was reading her fic, my mind automatically conjured up ideas to tweak the story a bit, so here is the result, written with her permission! Thank you very much, LadyTsuru27! This story is dedicated to you and written for you for being so awesome! ^^
Author's Note 2: Any mistakes seen are mine, and mine alone. I am not perfect, and I did the best I could. Reviews are immensely appreciated, so please have them coming! Now what are you waiting for? Get on reading! ^^
I wonder… will I be missed… if I'm dead…?
Will any of them cry?
Will they care... or will they be happy that they have finally gotten rid of me?
I am nothing but a disappointment to them, afterall...
Startled by a sudden train of morbid thoughts, Tetsuhiro nearly tripped and dropped the stack of papers he was precariously balancing.
His heart thundered violently within the confines of his chest, overcame with the unwelcome onset of fear.
But why? The day had been excellent. The weather was beautiful, the experiments were showing promising results, Fukushima-sensei was very pleased with their progress and Senpai was in a good mood.
So why was he having some sort of a foreboding feeling?
It'll be okay, Tetsuhiro tried to reassure himself. I'm just being silly. Nothing's going to happen. Everything is going to be fine.
So Tetsuhiro whistled happily as he made his way to his assigned workstation. Senpai had gone back to their apartment for awhile to retrieve some documents, and he would be returning shortly. In the meantime, he had tasked Tetsuhiro to oversee their experiments in the lower laboratory area. They would be wrapping everything up by five, because Senpai had to be home for his family dinner. Tetsuhiro was invited, of course, and he tried to decline. No matter how close he was to Senpai, he was still considered an outsider, afterall, and he hated to intrude in the happy occasion, but Senpai had insisted him to come along.
"Right now we're living together, and for now you're not completely unrelated…"
Hmm, what exactly did Senpai mean by that?
I'll ask him when I have the chance, Tetsuhiro decided as he entered his workstation.
He caught the scent of freshly-mowed grass and dismissed it without another thought. There was nobody around, but this sort of thing had happened before. Someone had probably left a vent open, and now he could smell the fresh clippings from the outside.
He set the stack of papers on one of the tables with a relieved sigh. Time to get to work.
As he began to set up his work for the day, his thoughts began to wander. Family, huh? Senpai's family had already known him, but his family didn't know of Senpai. He wondered what would happen if he brought Senpai over to see his family. Would Senpai come with him? What would his family think?
They will probably chase us out, Tetsuhiro thought in dismay, his usually deft hands stalling for a few seconds. I don't think they even want to see me again, much less want to meet Senpai. Afterall, I am nothing but a burden to them…
It hurt. He missed his family so dearly. It had been years since he had last saw them, contacted them… he really missed them so desperately. He missed that stern but affectionate look on his Father's face, he missed his Mother's warm smiles, and he missed everything about them. Even though he had met up with Nii-san a few times, that alone simply wasn't enough to fill the void of missing his family.
Tetsuhiro fought back his tears.
He was all alone now. Even with Senpai… and even more so with Senpai's family. Watching Senpai interacting with his little sister, bickering with his little brother, grumbling at his father… he felt the pain more keenly.
It wasn't like Tetsuhiro didn't have a family.
He had.
But…
Tetushiro took a few deep, shuddering breaths.
And began to cough.
What the…
He broke into a vicious coughing fit, his body almost doubling over with the effort.
Wheezing as he tried to straighten himself up, the room spun crazily for a moment, and his sudden vertigo caused him to stumble and knock into something. Whatever it was, it collapsed to the floor with a deafening crash.
His light-headedness refused to abate, and his vision refused to clear.
It was only then Tetsuhiro started to realize something.
The smell of freshly-mowed grass…
But the grass had been trimmed nearly a month ago, and he was in the basement!
So it wasn't possible!
Unless…
Phosgene. It must be a phosgene gas leak!
Tetsuhiro tried to panic, but he then discovered that he lacked the breath to. Breathing became even more difficult; made worse by a burning sensation in his throat and eyes and he couldn't seem to stop coughing.
Senpai…
For a brief moment he was glad it was him in there, and not Senpai.
Thank goodness… it was me, and not Senpai…
He stumbled his way out of the lab, using pure instinct and memory to guide him out to safety. He tripped a few times, but he always managed to climb back up to his feet and forced himself forward. The air became fresher with every step he took, but the heaviness in his lungs refused to abate.
"Morinaga?"
Senpai.
Senpai sounded worried. Tetsuhiro hated himself for making Senpai worried.
"Oi, Morinaga!"
He had to warn Senpai.
"Senpai…" he croaked, erupting into another bout of relentless coughing for the attempt. "Don't... go to basement. Phosgene gas… leak…"
The next thing he knew, he was falling…
… right into Senpai's arms.
"Morinaga!"
The last thing he heard was Senpai's frantic voice calling his name…
… then he knew nothing more.
"Morinaga! Oi, Morinaga! Wake up!"
It was no use. Morinaga didn't even twitch. No matter how hard Souichi had shaken him, how many times Souichi had slapped him, how loud his voice was calling his name, Morinaga just wouldn't open his eyes.
"Argh, dammit!"
Souichi had gone back to their shared apartment to find some documents, but his search was stopped short because of his worsening sense of uneasiness. Like he knew something really bad was going to happen, and it wouldn't go away until something bad did happen, or that he managed to prevent it from happening. Souichi knew from past experience that it didn't do him any good if he was to ignore that feeling. So he abandoned his search immediately and rushed back to the university where he knew Morinaga was completing a task he was assigned to do.
Souichi made a mental note to thank all available deities for bringing him back to Morinaga's side in the nick of time.
Because if not…
Souichi refused to think about it.
"Yamaguchi!" He barked, already scooping Morinaga into his arms and rising to his feet. "Inform Fukushima-sensei about the phosgene gas leak in the basement. After that, bring Morinaga's bag and my bag over to the shower room nearby. Make haste! The rest of you, keep clear from the basement! Someone, please help to call the ambulance!"
Souichi left the scene as quickly as he could.
Morinaga's dead weight should have slowed him down, but worry and urgency propelled him effortlessly to the facility. Thank goodness the shower room wasn't very far.
Once inside a shower stall, Souichi gently laid Morinaga on the floor. Turning on the shower full blast, Souichi stripped Morinaga of his clothes as quickly as he could, down to his undergarments. He cut the tee shirt off instead, not wanting to risk the toxic on the clothes to touch any Morinaga's face. The stream of water rained relentlessly on them, yet Souichi ignored the icy blast as he concentrated on lathering soap all over the prone body, using as much soap as he could and not missing any inch of the exposed skin. He wasn't sure how long he spent in the shower trying to wash off the toxin from Morinaga, but when the chill set in and his teeth started to clatter, only then he shut off the water and hauled Morinaga out of the stall.
As soon as both of them were changed into dry clothes, Souichi wrapped Morinaga with a dry towel and held him close to his chest.
"Please, Morinaga," he whispered. The younger man was still unresponsive; limp and cold in his arms. "Don't do this to me…"
I love you…
I need you…
So please… come back…
- To be Continued -
Can't think of a better title… *gloomy*
Seriously, I hate coming up with titles, because I'm that badat coming up with titles! So if any of you have a better title, let me know. ^^
I know I have yet to conclude You Are Not Alone, and continue with my Save Me (not necessarily in that order) but some things just can't be helped, you see… so I'm really sorry! I'll get back to it as soon as I find the inspiration to. Promise!
I did a little research on phosgene, so I hope I didn't mess anything up…
Thank you for reading!
It's almost 3.00 A.M now, so I guess I'll stop here.
As usual, reviews are immensely welcome and appreciated! ^^
See you in the next chapter! ^^