:: love me ::
chapter 4 - Mata Koko de Aimashou
He only heard the sound of his feet pushing off the plush carpet, other than the pounding of his heart. It had to be Muraki, Tsuzuki concluded. Hisoka wouldn't have left without his jacket - or his shoes for that matter. Immediately Tsuzuki pictured Muraki, a bloody, limp Hisoka in his arms, and laughing with an unmistakable air of vindictive pleasure. The shinigami turned the corner to the elevator landing, nearly knocking a bellboy's cart over. White-faced and tight-lipped, Tsuzuki hammered the button frantically, half having a good mind to complain to the management about the incredulously sloth-like speed of the elevators. He focused on the row of indicators, preparing to dash into the first that would arrive. The small bell chimed, and he charged in, colliding with a kid no taller than his shoulder.
"What the - ?" the boy shook his head clear, "Tsuzuki?!"
"Huh? Hisoka?" the brunette's eyes strayed to his partner's feet - hotel slippers.
"You idiot!" Hisoka shouted, pushing his senior out of the cramped lift. "Can't I even have a normal, quiet morning without you monkeying around?"
Tsuzuki only mouthed soundlessly.
"And as if your snoring wasn't enough." Hisoka grumbled and flung a paper roll into Tsuzuki's abdomen; a small brown paper bag followed its course of motion.
"Breakfast and the paper," Hisoka answered Tsuzuki's quizzical look.
An enormous wave of relief swept over Tsuzuki and his lips twitched to form a weak smile.
"What are you smirking for?" Hisoka glared as they walked back to their room. As much as he tried to stay serious, he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile.
Tsuzuki looked embarrassed for a moment. Rubbing at the back of his neck, he gave his usual good-natured smile. "Aaaah, you left without saying anything - "
"No I didn't," Hisoka huffed, "you were too loud to even hear me."
The brunette pouted. "And your shoes were still there so I thought Muraki had come by again or something."
Hisoka flinched slightly at that name, but brushed it off with quite a bit of difficulty. "Don't be stupid, Tsuzuki. How on earth would Muraki be able to find out we're staying here? He's got better things to worry about. Like choosing his next highschool girl, for example."
"Guess you got a point there," Tsuzuki was growing more and more embarrassed at his own recklessness. The last time he felt this stupid was when Watari practically stripped him down to his skin in front of everyone after the Hijiri incident. He blushed a little at the memory, and made a mental note as they turned the corned, not to let his imagination run as wild as it just had.
Doors opened and closed as the housekeeping staff tended to rooms before theirs, and there was the smell of fresh towels in the corridor. Boy, was Tsuzuki looking forward to a nice, morning shower. He began to plan the day's itinerary as they passed another hotel guest exiting his room.
"Tsuzuki-san?"
It took a while for them to register the familiarity of the voice. Tsuzuki spun around.
"So it is Tsuzuki-san," the doctor smiled, "Ohayo." He began taking moderate steps toward the shinigami.
"What are you doing here..." Hisoka muttered, glaring at Muraki with what looked like utmost revulsion.
The man's sliver eyes merely flickered in Hisoka's direction before they averted back to Tsuzuki. "And I almost couldn't recognise you, what with you wearing..." his gaze traced Tsuzuki's form, his bare arms, his nape. "My, my... aren't we looking good this morning."
A corner of Tsuzuki's mouth twitched involuntarily and a huge sweatdrop formed on his temple. "Don't you have a dead brother to revive or something?" he tried to draw the doctor's attention to civil conversation, when he just realised that the main target, after all, was his body.
"I grew out of that some time ago, Tsuzuki-san," Muraki smiled deviously as he stepped forward, snaking an arm around Tsuzuki's waist. "I've got... other interests at heart..." he whispered into the shinigami's ear, and traced the length of his arm with gloved fingers.
It took a while for the absurdity of this statement to sink in, but coupled with Muraki breathing down his nape, Tsuzuki brought his arms up and pushed the man away. "You're mental," he said flatly.
Muraki smirked, "I doubt, my dear Tsuzuki-san, I doubt. But I'll be looking forward to our date," he turned and paced to the elevator landing. "Jaa, mata ne."
"I should hope not," Tsuzuki cringed as he pushed Hisoka along.
He's ignoring me, the empath thought. But why? It's not like him to... is he planning something again? Well duh, he's planning something. But aside from attacking another girl two days later... what is he thinking?
"Something wrong?" Tsuzuki asked.
"Doesn't he seem weird?"
Tsuzuki looked at Hisoka like he just went crazy. "Hisoka," he sighed, "Muraki IS weird. The only way for him to get any weirder is to become normal. Now that's scary. Just think, a NORMAL Muraki."
"No, you prat. I mean, he's acting strange. Under normal - well, Muraki-normal standards he'd be bugging me too, don't you think?"
Tsuzuki's face cracked into a grin as he slid Hisoka's card key into the slot and pushed the door open. "Why, Hisoka, I didn't think you cared!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, I suppose I understand," Tsuzuki set about emptying the paper bag of its contents and sat on a chair, poking at the apple pie Hisoka bought for him. "I mean, I'd feel neglected too if Muraki just stopped bugging me all of a sudden. I guess his attention does grow on you."
"Baka, it isn't like that," Hisoka frowned as he stared out the glass door which lead to the balcony. He only stopped thinking as both of Tsuzuki's palms pressed on the door from behind. He turned and met Tsuzuki eye-to-eye. The senior had his usual default smile as he leaned closer, until their noses touched.
"Hisoka-chaaaan," Tsuzuki dragged, "are you jealous?"
Hisoka flushed a deep red and tried in vain to push away the body that pressed to his, pinning him to the glass panel. "B-baka! Why the hell would I be? And get off me!"
But Tsuzuki only leaned on him with more weight and bent down.
"Tsuzuki, if this is your idea of a dumb joke it's not funny so - mmph!"
He was silenced as their lips made contact and he felt Tsuzuki's tongue push against his own. Following Tsuzuki's lead, he relaxed against the door and let his eyes close.
"Okay, what was that for?" he whispered and stared up at the smiling bishonen, who shrugged and returned to his breakfast.
"I think you're a little too paranoid, Hisoka. It's good that he's leaving you along already, isn't it? I told you, it's my problem that he's hinging on me, so ease up already."
Hisoka bit his lip. "Sure..." but he couldn't push it out of his mind completely. Twice already, Muraki had showed up in front of them and twice, he never really wanted to pay Hisoka any attention. And he'd always try to be intimate with Tsuzuki. The worst part of it all was that Tsuzuki wouldn't resist. And the only answer to that was 'it's my problem'. If Tsuzuki truly loved him then wouldn't he be trusting with such matters already? But perhaps... perhaps Tsuzuki was just saying everything. Maybe Tsuzuki wasn't serious about the both of them. Hisoka shook his head in disbelief. Tsuzuki wasn't the sort. He really needed to trust people more.
"Hey Hisoka..." Tsuzuki was channel surfing, and obviously very amused. He thought the television was the best thing mankind ever came up with - next to desserts, of course. "since we've got the day free... do you have anywhere in mind you want to go? It's going to be really boring hanging around here all day..."
The sky outside was a soft, periwinkle blue. It would definitely be a shame to spend the day indoors. Hisoka sighed.
"No." Came the flat reply.
"Okay, 'cause I was thinking of dropping by Hijiri's place. He's having a concert tonight, you see and -"
"No." Hisoka said again. It was the kind of 'no' Tsuzuki would say to a plate of chocolates. The brunette stopped channel surfing and stared at his partner, who'd returned to staring out the glass again.
"Uh, okay... well I'm just gonna take a shower and go... are you staying here?"
Hisoka nodded. He waited for Tsuzuki to shut the bathroom door before he heaved a heavy sigh and fell back onto the bed. Goodness, to think he could still bring up Hijiri at a time like this! And you'd expect him to stay and keep him company instead of running off to some... some devil's- contract-in-the-left-eye violinist. Not that he had anything against Hijiri or anything... just that it was so obvious the guy loved Tsuzuki to pieces, and Tsuzuki was already... oh, forget it. Hisoka decided to see what his senior found so interesting about television. But it only served as a major disappointment. Frustrated, he switched it off. What to do, what to do, what to do... Hisoka finally made up his mind and tore off a piece from the complimentary letter pad and scribbled a note to Tsuzuki. He left it on the table and warped out of the room.
"Hisoka?" Tsuzuki stepped out of the bathroom, hoping his partner would have second thoughts about not visiting Hijiri. He spied the note on the table and read the untidy scrawl.
'Gone to Enma-cho. See you later in the evening. Have fun.'
"Che," Tsuzuki smiled, "Jealous, all right."
***
Hisoka didn't find Watari in the lab; retracing his steps, he made his way to Tatsumi's office which was, thank goodness, open. Tatsumi was at his desk, poring over what looked like Tsuzuki's account book, where words would fill up empty lines at short, irregular intervals.
"Eats a lot, doesn't he?" Hisoka commented.
Tatsumi looked up. "Aren't you with him?"
Hisoka shrugged, "He went to visit Hijiri. I'll bet he's buying desserts to share or something."
The secretary closed the book and pushed it back into the shelf, among all the other shinigami's account books. Since the books were all of uniform width, Tsuzuki's took up the most shelf space.
"So, how may I help you today?" Tatsumi removed his glasses, peered through the lens and put them back again.
"I was looking for Watari..." Hisoka looked around, "thought he might be here."
"Ah, yes, Watari. You just missed him. You might want to try the library though."
"Thanks," Hisoka stepped out of the office, mentally chiding Watari for running around so much. Tatsumi was true to his word; Hisoka found Watari in the research section, his head bent so forward his chin touched his chest. The blonde had in his embrace an open astronomy book a couple of inches thick. Hisoka pulled up a chair across the table upon which Watari rested his legs. With a finger, Hisoka pushed slowly at the rubber sole of Watari's boot until the latter's feet were off the table. The sudden movement caused Watari to wake with a start, sputtering unintelligible things, of sorts. He stopped upon seeing the youth across him, who donned a stoic expression that was betrayed by startling eyes. It was easy if you knew how - and Watari knew how. A glimpse was enough.
"Watari," Hisoka addressed.
"Bon," Watari replied. "You're confused, worried, upset, annoyed and major pissed." He grinned as the empath's eyes widened. "Yes, I know. I was trying my luck, anyway." Watari shrugged. He closed the book with a dull thud and left it on the pile of books at his feet.
"So what's bugging you?" He weave his fingers together and rested his chin upon them.
"I thought you knew," came the blatant answer.
"I know everything," Watari positioned his glasses, "Yet I don't know everything. I tell you what you have to hear, not what you want to hear. Have I lost you?"
"Yes."
"Which is why you don't fully understand your partner." He stared into Hisoka's eyes.
Hisoka sighed heavily.
"Has he tried to sleep with you yet?" Watari smiled cheekily.
The empathy flushed scarlet. "I don't get you."
"Oh you know... like me and Tatsumi." The scientist's grin broadened.
"Nonsense. Tsuzuki would never - "
"Because he understands."
"Understands?"
Watari nodded. He leaned in and held the side of Hisoka's face. The empathy pulled, but Watari didn't let go. He projected his angriest emotion through their contact. Hisoka felt the heat - the heat that spread all over his face, gripped his chest and grew unbearable. He struggled and shoved Watari's hand away.
"You idiot! You stupid, crazy crackpot! Why the hell'd you do that?"
Watari leaned back into his chair and smiled. "I'm not telling you."
Hisoka struggled to stabilize his emotions, cursing Watari under his breath. "So I'm supposed to figure out your eccentricities."
- author's rambling -
pardon the quality~ this was done mostly during the examination period though I wasn't supposed to. *mild grin* getting cheesy, ain't it? Comments?
chapter 4 - Mata Koko de Aimashou
He only heard the sound of his feet pushing off the plush carpet, other than the pounding of his heart. It had to be Muraki, Tsuzuki concluded. Hisoka wouldn't have left without his jacket - or his shoes for that matter. Immediately Tsuzuki pictured Muraki, a bloody, limp Hisoka in his arms, and laughing with an unmistakable air of vindictive pleasure. The shinigami turned the corner to the elevator landing, nearly knocking a bellboy's cart over. White-faced and tight-lipped, Tsuzuki hammered the button frantically, half having a good mind to complain to the management about the incredulously sloth-like speed of the elevators. He focused on the row of indicators, preparing to dash into the first that would arrive. The small bell chimed, and he charged in, colliding with a kid no taller than his shoulder.
"What the - ?" the boy shook his head clear, "Tsuzuki?!"
"Huh? Hisoka?" the brunette's eyes strayed to his partner's feet - hotel slippers.
"You idiot!" Hisoka shouted, pushing his senior out of the cramped lift. "Can't I even have a normal, quiet morning without you monkeying around?"
Tsuzuki only mouthed soundlessly.
"And as if your snoring wasn't enough." Hisoka grumbled and flung a paper roll into Tsuzuki's abdomen; a small brown paper bag followed its course of motion.
"Breakfast and the paper," Hisoka answered Tsuzuki's quizzical look.
An enormous wave of relief swept over Tsuzuki and his lips twitched to form a weak smile.
"What are you smirking for?" Hisoka glared as they walked back to their room. As much as he tried to stay serious, he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile.
Tsuzuki looked embarrassed for a moment. Rubbing at the back of his neck, he gave his usual good-natured smile. "Aaaah, you left without saying anything - "
"No I didn't," Hisoka huffed, "you were too loud to even hear me."
The brunette pouted. "And your shoes were still there so I thought Muraki had come by again or something."
Hisoka flinched slightly at that name, but brushed it off with quite a bit of difficulty. "Don't be stupid, Tsuzuki. How on earth would Muraki be able to find out we're staying here? He's got better things to worry about. Like choosing his next highschool girl, for example."
"Guess you got a point there," Tsuzuki was growing more and more embarrassed at his own recklessness. The last time he felt this stupid was when Watari practically stripped him down to his skin in front of everyone after the Hijiri incident. He blushed a little at the memory, and made a mental note as they turned the corned, not to let his imagination run as wild as it just had.
Doors opened and closed as the housekeeping staff tended to rooms before theirs, and there was the smell of fresh towels in the corridor. Boy, was Tsuzuki looking forward to a nice, morning shower. He began to plan the day's itinerary as they passed another hotel guest exiting his room.
"Tsuzuki-san?"
It took a while for them to register the familiarity of the voice. Tsuzuki spun around.
"So it is Tsuzuki-san," the doctor smiled, "Ohayo." He began taking moderate steps toward the shinigami.
"What are you doing here..." Hisoka muttered, glaring at Muraki with what looked like utmost revulsion.
The man's sliver eyes merely flickered in Hisoka's direction before they averted back to Tsuzuki. "And I almost couldn't recognise you, what with you wearing..." his gaze traced Tsuzuki's form, his bare arms, his nape. "My, my... aren't we looking good this morning."
A corner of Tsuzuki's mouth twitched involuntarily and a huge sweatdrop formed on his temple. "Don't you have a dead brother to revive or something?" he tried to draw the doctor's attention to civil conversation, when he just realised that the main target, after all, was his body.
"I grew out of that some time ago, Tsuzuki-san," Muraki smiled deviously as he stepped forward, snaking an arm around Tsuzuki's waist. "I've got... other interests at heart..." he whispered into the shinigami's ear, and traced the length of his arm with gloved fingers.
It took a while for the absurdity of this statement to sink in, but coupled with Muraki breathing down his nape, Tsuzuki brought his arms up and pushed the man away. "You're mental," he said flatly.
Muraki smirked, "I doubt, my dear Tsuzuki-san, I doubt. But I'll be looking forward to our date," he turned and paced to the elevator landing. "Jaa, mata ne."
"I should hope not," Tsuzuki cringed as he pushed Hisoka along.
He's ignoring me, the empath thought. But why? It's not like him to... is he planning something again? Well duh, he's planning something. But aside from attacking another girl two days later... what is he thinking?
"Something wrong?" Tsuzuki asked.
"Doesn't he seem weird?"
Tsuzuki looked at Hisoka like he just went crazy. "Hisoka," he sighed, "Muraki IS weird. The only way for him to get any weirder is to become normal. Now that's scary. Just think, a NORMAL Muraki."
"No, you prat. I mean, he's acting strange. Under normal - well, Muraki-normal standards he'd be bugging me too, don't you think?"
Tsuzuki's face cracked into a grin as he slid Hisoka's card key into the slot and pushed the door open. "Why, Hisoka, I didn't think you cared!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, I suppose I understand," Tsuzuki set about emptying the paper bag of its contents and sat on a chair, poking at the apple pie Hisoka bought for him. "I mean, I'd feel neglected too if Muraki just stopped bugging me all of a sudden. I guess his attention does grow on you."
"Baka, it isn't like that," Hisoka frowned as he stared out the glass door which lead to the balcony. He only stopped thinking as both of Tsuzuki's palms pressed on the door from behind. He turned and met Tsuzuki eye-to-eye. The senior had his usual default smile as he leaned closer, until their noses touched.
"Hisoka-chaaaan," Tsuzuki dragged, "are you jealous?"
Hisoka flushed a deep red and tried in vain to push away the body that pressed to his, pinning him to the glass panel. "B-baka! Why the hell would I be? And get off me!"
But Tsuzuki only leaned on him with more weight and bent down.
"Tsuzuki, if this is your idea of a dumb joke it's not funny so - mmph!"
He was silenced as their lips made contact and he felt Tsuzuki's tongue push against his own. Following Tsuzuki's lead, he relaxed against the door and let his eyes close.
"Okay, what was that for?" he whispered and stared up at the smiling bishonen, who shrugged and returned to his breakfast.
"I think you're a little too paranoid, Hisoka. It's good that he's leaving you along already, isn't it? I told you, it's my problem that he's hinging on me, so ease up already."
Hisoka bit his lip. "Sure..." but he couldn't push it out of his mind completely. Twice already, Muraki had showed up in front of them and twice, he never really wanted to pay Hisoka any attention. And he'd always try to be intimate with Tsuzuki. The worst part of it all was that Tsuzuki wouldn't resist. And the only answer to that was 'it's my problem'. If Tsuzuki truly loved him then wouldn't he be trusting with such matters already? But perhaps... perhaps Tsuzuki was just saying everything. Maybe Tsuzuki wasn't serious about the both of them. Hisoka shook his head in disbelief. Tsuzuki wasn't the sort. He really needed to trust people more.
"Hey Hisoka..." Tsuzuki was channel surfing, and obviously very amused. He thought the television was the best thing mankind ever came up with - next to desserts, of course. "since we've got the day free... do you have anywhere in mind you want to go? It's going to be really boring hanging around here all day..."
The sky outside was a soft, periwinkle blue. It would definitely be a shame to spend the day indoors. Hisoka sighed.
"No." Came the flat reply.
"Okay, 'cause I was thinking of dropping by Hijiri's place. He's having a concert tonight, you see and -"
"No." Hisoka said again. It was the kind of 'no' Tsuzuki would say to a plate of chocolates. The brunette stopped channel surfing and stared at his partner, who'd returned to staring out the glass again.
"Uh, okay... well I'm just gonna take a shower and go... are you staying here?"
Hisoka nodded. He waited for Tsuzuki to shut the bathroom door before he heaved a heavy sigh and fell back onto the bed. Goodness, to think he could still bring up Hijiri at a time like this! And you'd expect him to stay and keep him company instead of running off to some... some devil's- contract-in-the-left-eye violinist. Not that he had anything against Hijiri or anything... just that it was so obvious the guy loved Tsuzuki to pieces, and Tsuzuki was already... oh, forget it. Hisoka decided to see what his senior found so interesting about television. But it only served as a major disappointment. Frustrated, he switched it off. What to do, what to do, what to do... Hisoka finally made up his mind and tore off a piece from the complimentary letter pad and scribbled a note to Tsuzuki. He left it on the table and warped out of the room.
"Hisoka?" Tsuzuki stepped out of the bathroom, hoping his partner would have second thoughts about not visiting Hijiri. He spied the note on the table and read the untidy scrawl.
'Gone to Enma-cho. See you later in the evening. Have fun.'
"Che," Tsuzuki smiled, "Jealous, all right."
***
Hisoka didn't find Watari in the lab; retracing his steps, he made his way to Tatsumi's office which was, thank goodness, open. Tatsumi was at his desk, poring over what looked like Tsuzuki's account book, where words would fill up empty lines at short, irregular intervals.
"Eats a lot, doesn't he?" Hisoka commented.
Tatsumi looked up. "Aren't you with him?"
Hisoka shrugged, "He went to visit Hijiri. I'll bet he's buying desserts to share or something."
The secretary closed the book and pushed it back into the shelf, among all the other shinigami's account books. Since the books were all of uniform width, Tsuzuki's took up the most shelf space.
"So, how may I help you today?" Tatsumi removed his glasses, peered through the lens and put them back again.
"I was looking for Watari..." Hisoka looked around, "thought he might be here."
"Ah, yes, Watari. You just missed him. You might want to try the library though."
"Thanks," Hisoka stepped out of the office, mentally chiding Watari for running around so much. Tatsumi was true to his word; Hisoka found Watari in the research section, his head bent so forward his chin touched his chest. The blonde had in his embrace an open astronomy book a couple of inches thick. Hisoka pulled up a chair across the table upon which Watari rested his legs. With a finger, Hisoka pushed slowly at the rubber sole of Watari's boot until the latter's feet were off the table. The sudden movement caused Watari to wake with a start, sputtering unintelligible things, of sorts. He stopped upon seeing the youth across him, who donned a stoic expression that was betrayed by startling eyes. It was easy if you knew how - and Watari knew how. A glimpse was enough.
"Watari," Hisoka addressed.
"Bon," Watari replied. "You're confused, worried, upset, annoyed and major pissed." He grinned as the empath's eyes widened. "Yes, I know. I was trying my luck, anyway." Watari shrugged. He closed the book with a dull thud and left it on the pile of books at his feet.
"So what's bugging you?" He weave his fingers together and rested his chin upon them.
"I thought you knew," came the blatant answer.
"I know everything," Watari positioned his glasses, "Yet I don't know everything. I tell you what you have to hear, not what you want to hear. Have I lost you?"
"Yes."
"Which is why you don't fully understand your partner." He stared into Hisoka's eyes.
Hisoka sighed heavily.
"Has he tried to sleep with you yet?" Watari smiled cheekily.
The empathy flushed scarlet. "I don't get you."
"Oh you know... like me and Tatsumi." The scientist's grin broadened.
"Nonsense. Tsuzuki would never - "
"Because he understands."
"Understands?"
Watari nodded. He leaned in and held the side of Hisoka's face. The empathy pulled, but Watari didn't let go. He projected his angriest emotion through their contact. Hisoka felt the heat - the heat that spread all over his face, gripped his chest and grew unbearable. He struggled and shoved Watari's hand away.
"You idiot! You stupid, crazy crackpot! Why the hell'd you do that?"
Watari leaned back into his chair and smiled. "I'm not telling you."
Hisoka struggled to stabilize his emotions, cursing Watari under his breath. "So I'm supposed to figure out your eccentricities."
- author's rambling -
pardon the quality~ this was done mostly during the examination period though I wasn't supposed to. *mild grin* getting cheesy, ain't it? Comments?