ext_9800 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
issen4.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
31_days2008-10-14 11:50 pm
issen4.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2008-10-14 11:50 pm
[14 Oct] [Initial D/Prince of Tennis/Hikago] Slip Roads 14/31
Title: Slip Roads 14/31
Day/Theme: 14 Oct/the girl in question
Series: Initial D/Prince of Tennis/Hikago
Character/Pairing: previous Takahashi Ryousuke/Fuji Yuuta
Rating: PG-13, references to incest between brothers
----------------------
Two months after Keisuke had left Japan the first time, Ryousuke had come across Fujiwara on a date. It was not something that had ever occurred to him, and the sense of unexpectedness was nearly like a shock to him. The girl in question was pretty and slim, and she was laughing as Fujiwara, losing his balance for a moment, stumbled while pulling a bag full of golf clubs from the trunk of his car--his father's car, not the eight-six, Ryousuke identified. Together, Fujiwara and the girl had entered the hotel. A small banner at the side of the gate stated that there was a golf tournament starting the next day at the nearby 18-hole course.
Ryousuke had thought at that time that he should have expected it. He had, after all, overheard more than his share of conversation between members of Project D about members of the opposite sex. Fujiwara was unusual in that he never gossiped about girls, though he was popular among them--such as with the girls from Usui, for example--but most of them put it down to his diffident nature. And now, rather than just guessing about Fujiwara and his dating habits, he had finally seen it.
It was as though the gods were laughing at him, Ryousuke thought. He had waited too long to act--and to let himself move on from Keisuke--and now it was too late. Medical school gave him an excuse to distance himself from serious racing, and when the opportunity came up for him to go to Tokyo, he took it.
Not so bad after all; it was where he met Yuuta. And Yuuta had taught him a lot.
Ryousuke entered the hospital room, noting a massive bouquet of purple flowers squeezed into a small vase at the bedside table that was nearly on the verge of toppling onto the floor. "Yuuta," he said.
There was a magazine on Yuuta's lap, but it was obvious from the way he was turning it that he had read it several times already. "Ryousuke," he said, looking up.
"Bored yet?" Ryousuke teased, hearing the welcome in his voice.
Yuuta scowled so hard that Ryousuke feared the magazine was going to shrivel away. "If I have to endure Aniki's fussing one moment longer, I swear, I'll tear off this-" he indicated the cast on on his arm, "-with my bare teeth and beat him over the head with it."
Ryousuke was surprised into a chuckle, though he wasn't really surprised. Yuuta was a person of action, and his determination to get things done had been one of the things that first impressed Ryousuke. He was not really the kind of person who liked to be taken care of. "I hope not," he said, trying to be conciliatory. "You need that for the arm to heal properly." It was, luckily, a simple fracture that would be fine in three weeks' time.
"At least it's not my left arm," Yuuta muttered. "Have a seat. I made Aniki go and buy me pie, so it'll take a while before he gets back."
"I'm on my lunch break," Ryousuke said, sitting down. "I heard my colleague say that you're recovering well."
"Yeah," Yuuta said. "That's good news. Oishi-san--that's my senpai at the hospital--has reported that they need me back as soon as I recover. It's going to be winter by the time I do; they'll be swamped."
"It's the same here," Ryousuke said with heartfelt sympathy; while autumn always meant an increase in patients, and in Gunma, in winter--it also meant injuries from deliberate and accidental racers. "How about Fuji-san? He has his work to do, right?"
Yuuta rolled his eyes. "Remember when I said Aniki was a genius? He can choose his clients--he's a lawyer--and when he got to know of my accident, he threw everything to his partner and came down here the same day."
"Oh."
"Our parents..." Yuuta shrugged. He had told Ryousuke once about how his parents had broken up the moment Yuuta graduated from medical school--they had been holding things together only for their children--and his father had gone overseas while his mother was travelling around the world. "Aniki's the only family I have in Japan, now that Yumiko-aneesan is in Paris." He paused. "How about you? You're doing well here. I hear the nurses talking about you."
Ryousuke refrained from shrugging in turn, or from making a remark such as "I have to, it's my father's hospital." Compared to Yuuta, he had had a comfortable life--there were high expectations from his parents, true, but he had been allowed to indulge in expensive hobbies, such as car racing--and he had a fulfilling career ahead of him in the hospital. "Keisuke's back," he said quietly.
Yuuta's eyebrows rose in surprise. "When was that?"
"Last week." It was the same day as Yuuta's accident, actually.
"Oh." Yuuta frowned for a second, thinking. "It's not over between the two of you?" he asked.
Ryousuke thought that Yuuta might proclaim that his elder brother was a genius, but Yuuta was definitely not slow on the uptake himself. Especially not about a matter in which he had personal experience. "A couple of days ago," he found himself confessing, "he tried-" and stopped from an utter inability to continue. But who else could he speak of this to? He mumbled out the rest, in an uncertain tone that would probably have amazed anyone else who knew the unflappable Takahashi Ryousuke.
Yuuta's eyes widened. Then he chuckled.
Ryousuke glared at him.
"I'm sorry, Ryousuke," Yuuta said, "but he really threw himself naked at you? It's like something out of a bad drama series." His eyes turned retrospective for a moment, and for a moment, his face turned mischievous. "Aniki and I have done some rather foolish things in the past, but we never did anything like that..."
"Yuuta-"
"Maybe I should do that: it might scare Aniki straight once and for all. 'Aniki, you know you want me!' " he tried in a falsetto.
"And you said your brother was the one with a weird sense of humour." Ryousuke chided.
Yuuta snorted again. "It's a miracle I'm not weirder, after a childhood with Aniki. Are you angry?"
"No." He felt lighter after telling Yuuta everything, even though it did nothing for his ego.
"What do you intend to do next?"
Shindou's advice appeared in his mind. "Stand by what I've said, for one," he said.
"And?"
"Find a real boyfriend?" Something that would make it clear to Keisuke, once and for all, that things were over between them.
Yuuta's voice was soft and encouraging. "You have someone in mind?"
Ryousuke raised his eyebrows once at Yuuta. "I'm not a patient, you know. Lay off the bedside manner."
Yuuta laughed. Then he looked over Ryousuke's shoulder. "Aniki, you shouldn't listen at doors. It's very rude," he said fiercely.
Feeling his face turn pale, Ryousuke turned around to see Fuji Syusuke standing at the entrance with a confectionery box in his hand. He started to stand up, but Yuuta pulled him back with his uninjured hand.
"It's all right," Yuuta said. "Aniki won't say anything."
He meant about Keisuke, Ryousuke thought as he sat down again, still uncertain, and unwilling to look away from Fuji Ryusuke.
The other man was wearing a leather jacket against the autumn chill, with his hair falling into his face, so that the merest one could see of his eyes was two thin lines of blue. In a way, it was hard to imagine that he and Yuuta were brothers--they looked so different.
"Aniki?" Yuuta said when there was no answer from that quarter.
"Who sent that?" Aniki's eyes had focused on the bouquet on the bedside table, ignoring Ryousuke.
Yuuta shook his head, as though resigned. "It's purple, Aniki. Who else do you think?"
"I thought I told him not to contact you-"
"It's just flowers, Aniki."
"If it weren't for him-"
"If there's anyone you should blame, it's not Mizuki-san, it's that crazy drunk driver who caused the accident."
"I do. I'm suing him." Fuji Syusuke came round to the bed and put down the box of pie on the bedside table, pointedly moving the vase of flowers to the floor before he pulled out a paper plate and put a slice of pie onto it. A sly look came into his eyes as he glanced at Ryousuke. "So Takahashi-sensei has a problem with his brother-"
"Aniki!" Yuuta yelled. "If you make anything out of that, I'm never talking to you again!"
"Why, Yuuta," Fuji Syusuke said, looking almost aggrieved. "Do I look like that kind of mean person?" There was a sensuousness in his teasing that made him sound as though he and Yuuta were an old married couple, and it was enough to make Ryousuke shiver.
Yuuta said, "Yes."
"You didn't think about how glad I am-"
"Glad?"
"-that he's too busy worrying about his brother to disturb mine?"
Yuuta glared. "Ew. Get your mind out of the gutter."
Fuji Syusuke chuckled, and pulled the meal table round so that he could put the plate of pie--strawberry, Ryousuke identified--before Yuuta. "You know I only act against those that hurt you, Yuuta. And Takahashi-sensei here," those blue eyes measured Ryousuke from head to toe, "is safe from anything I'm about to do."
For a moment even Ryousuke's famous composure felt shaken by the cold look in his eyes. "You said you were suing the driver," he said, managing to keep his calm. "She's already dead."
"Not her."
Ryousuke frowned. He had heard that there were some irregularities with the pile-up, but he had assumed that was due to the number of injured and the cars involved, and not from any deliberate foul play. "Someone else was driving," he finally said.
Fuji Syusuke's eyes narrowed in his direction and there was none of the malice he had shown upon seeing him with Yuuta a moment ago. Behind those intent eyes, there was a razor-sharp mind, Ryousuke saw. "How did you know that?"
"I've seen my share of accidents in Gunma," Ryousuke said, thinking that was certainly true, both from the perspective of a doctor and a racer. "It's been done before. The driver puts the dead passenger in the driver's seat after the crash, and takes off. Have the police found him?"
"Not yet. Bastard," Fuji Syusuke added.
Ryousuke understood the vicious tone in his voice; he would be eager for blood too, if it turned out that the person who caused his brother to be hurt was also a despicable coward.
"That's terrible," Yuuta said.
Fuji Ryousuke's attention turned to him instantly, pushing the pie towards him as though in supplication. "Yes. Poor girl."
----tbc-----
Day/Theme: 14 Oct/the girl in question
Series: Initial D/Prince of Tennis/Hikago
Character/Pairing: previous Takahashi Ryousuke/Fuji Yuuta
Rating: PG-13, references to incest between brothers
----------------------
Two months after Keisuke had left Japan the first time, Ryousuke had come across Fujiwara on a date. It was not something that had ever occurred to him, and the sense of unexpectedness was nearly like a shock to him. The girl in question was pretty and slim, and she was laughing as Fujiwara, losing his balance for a moment, stumbled while pulling a bag full of golf clubs from the trunk of his car--his father's car, not the eight-six, Ryousuke identified. Together, Fujiwara and the girl had entered the hotel. A small banner at the side of the gate stated that there was a golf tournament starting the next day at the nearby 18-hole course.
Ryousuke had thought at that time that he should have expected it. He had, after all, overheard more than his share of conversation between members of Project D about members of the opposite sex. Fujiwara was unusual in that he never gossiped about girls, though he was popular among them--such as with the girls from Usui, for example--but most of them put it down to his diffident nature. And now, rather than just guessing about Fujiwara and his dating habits, he had finally seen it.
It was as though the gods were laughing at him, Ryousuke thought. He had waited too long to act--and to let himself move on from Keisuke--and now it was too late. Medical school gave him an excuse to distance himself from serious racing, and when the opportunity came up for him to go to Tokyo, he took it.
Not so bad after all; it was where he met Yuuta. And Yuuta had taught him a lot.
Ryousuke entered the hospital room, noting a massive bouquet of purple flowers squeezed into a small vase at the bedside table that was nearly on the verge of toppling onto the floor. "Yuuta," he said.
There was a magazine on Yuuta's lap, but it was obvious from the way he was turning it that he had read it several times already. "Ryousuke," he said, looking up.
"Bored yet?" Ryousuke teased, hearing the welcome in his voice.
Yuuta scowled so hard that Ryousuke feared the magazine was going to shrivel away. "If I have to endure Aniki's fussing one moment longer, I swear, I'll tear off this-" he indicated the cast on on his arm, "-with my bare teeth and beat him over the head with it."
Ryousuke was surprised into a chuckle, though he wasn't really surprised. Yuuta was a person of action, and his determination to get things done had been one of the things that first impressed Ryousuke. He was not really the kind of person who liked to be taken care of. "I hope not," he said, trying to be conciliatory. "You need that for the arm to heal properly." It was, luckily, a simple fracture that would be fine in three weeks' time.
"At least it's not my left arm," Yuuta muttered. "Have a seat. I made Aniki go and buy me pie, so it'll take a while before he gets back."
"I'm on my lunch break," Ryousuke said, sitting down. "I heard my colleague say that you're recovering well."
"Yeah," Yuuta said. "That's good news. Oishi-san--that's my senpai at the hospital--has reported that they need me back as soon as I recover. It's going to be winter by the time I do; they'll be swamped."
"It's the same here," Ryousuke said with heartfelt sympathy; while autumn always meant an increase in patients, and in Gunma, in winter--it also meant injuries from deliberate and accidental racers. "How about Fuji-san? He has his work to do, right?"
Yuuta rolled his eyes. "Remember when I said Aniki was a genius? He can choose his clients--he's a lawyer--and when he got to know of my accident, he threw everything to his partner and came down here the same day."
"Oh."
"Our parents..." Yuuta shrugged. He had told Ryousuke once about how his parents had broken up the moment Yuuta graduated from medical school--they had been holding things together only for their children--and his father had gone overseas while his mother was travelling around the world. "Aniki's the only family I have in Japan, now that Yumiko-aneesan is in Paris." He paused. "How about you? You're doing well here. I hear the nurses talking about you."
Ryousuke refrained from shrugging in turn, or from making a remark such as "I have to, it's my father's hospital." Compared to Yuuta, he had had a comfortable life--there were high expectations from his parents, true, but he had been allowed to indulge in expensive hobbies, such as car racing--and he had a fulfilling career ahead of him in the hospital. "Keisuke's back," he said quietly.
Yuuta's eyebrows rose in surprise. "When was that?"
"Last week." It was the same day as Yuuta's accident, actually.
"Oh." Yuuta frowned for a second, thinking. "It's not over between the two of you?" he asked.
Ryousuke thought that Yuuta might proclaim that his elder brother was a genius, but Yuuta was definitely not slow on the uptake himself. Especially not about a matter in which he had personal experience. "A couple of days ago," he found himself confessing, "he tried-" and stopped from an utter inability to continue. But who else could he speak of this to? He mumbled out the rest, in an uncertain tone that would probably have amazed anyone else who knew the unflappable Takahashi Ryousuke.
Yuuta's eyes widened. Then he chuckled.
Ryousuke glared at him.
"I'm sorry, Ryousuke," Yuuta said, "but he really threw himself naked at you? It's like something out of a bad drama series." His eyes turned retrospective for a moment, and for a moment, his face turned mischievous. "Aniki and I have done some rather foolish things in the past, but we never did anything like that..."
"Yuuta-"
"Maybe I should do that: it might scare Aniki straight once and for all. 'Aniki, you know you want me!' " he tried in a falsetto.
"And you said your brother was the one with a weird sense of humour." Ryousuke chided.
Yuuta snorted again. "It's a miracle I'm not weirder, after a childhood with Aniki. Are you angry?"
"No." He felt lighter after telling Yuuta everything, even though it did nothing for his ego.
"What do you intend to do next?"
Shindou's advice appeared in his mind. "Stand by what I've said, for one," he said.
"And?"
"Find a real boyfriend?" Something that would make it clear to Keisuke, once and for all, that things were over between them.
Yuuta's voice was soft and encouraging. "You have someone in mind?"
Ryousuke raised his eyebrows once at Yuuta. "I'm not a patient, you know. Lay off the bedside manner."
Yuuta laughed. Then he looked over Ryousuke's shoulder. "Aniki, you shouldn't listen at doors. It's very rude," he said fiercely.
Feeling his face turn pale, Ryousuke turned around to see Fuji Syusuke standing at the entrance with a confectionery box in his hand. He started to stand up, but Yuuta pulled him back with his uninjured hand.
"It's all right," Yuuta said. "Aniki won't say anything."
He meant about Keisuke, Ryousuke thought as he sat down again, still uncertain, and unwilling to look away from Fuji Ryusuke.
The other man was wearing a leather jacket against the autumn chill, with his hair falling into his face, so that the merest one could see of his eyes was two thin lines of blue. In a way, it was hard to imagine that he and Yuuta were brothers--they looked so different.
"Aniki?" Yuuta said when there was no answer from that quarter.
"Who sent that?" Aniki's eyes had focused on the bouquet on the bedside table, ignoring Ryousuke.
Yuuta shook his head, as though resigned. "It's purple, Aniki. Who else do you think?"
"I thought I told him not to contact you-"
"It's just flowers, Aniki."
"If it weren't for him-"
"If there's anyone you should blame, it's not Mizuki-san, it's that crazy drunk driver who caused the accident."
"I do. I'm suing him." Fuji Syusuke came round to the bed and put down the box of pie on the bedside table, pointedly moving the vase of flowers to the floor before he pulled out a paper plate and put a slice of pie onto it. A sly look came into his eyes as he glanced at Ryousuke. "So Takahashi-sensei has a problem with his brother-"
"Aniki!" Yuuta yelled. "If you make anything out of that, I'm never talking to you again!"
"Why, Yuuta," Fuji Syusuke said, looking almost aggrieved. "Do I look like that kind of mean person?" There was a sensuousness in his teasing that made him sound as though he and Yuuta were an old married couple, and it was enough to make Ryousuke shiver.
Yuuta said, "Yes."
"You didn't think about how glad I am-"
"Glad?"
"-that he's too busy worrying about his brother to disturb mine?"
Yuuta glared. "Ew. Get your mind out of the gutter."
Fuji Syusuke chuckled, and pulled the meal table round so that he could put the plate of pie--strawberry, Ryousuke identified--before Yuuta. "You know I only act against those that hurt you, Yuuta. And Takahashi-sensei here," those blue eyes measured Ryousuke from head to toe, "is safe from anything I'm about to do."
For a moment even Ryousuke's famous composure felt shaken by the cold look in his eyes. "You said you were suing the driver," he said, managing to keep his calm. "She's already dead."
"Not her."
Ryousuke frowned. He had heard that there were some irregularities with the pile-up, but he had assumed that was due to the number of injured and the cars involved, and not from any deliberate foul play. "Someone else was driving," he finally said.
Fuji Syusuke's eyes narrowed in his direction and there was none of the malice he had shown upon seeing him with Yuuta a moment ago. Behind those intent eyes, there was a razor-sharp mind, Ryousuke saw. "How did you know that?"
"I've seen my share of accidents in Gunma," Ryousuke said, thinking that was certainly true, both from the perspective of a doctor and a racer. "It's been done before. The driver puts the dead passenger in the driver's seat after the crash, and takes off. Have the police found him?"
"Not yet. Bastard," Fuji Syusuke added.
Ryousuke understood the vicious tone in his voice; he would be eager for blood too, if it turned out that the person who caused his brother to be hurt was also a despicable coward.
"That's terrible," Yuuta said.
Fuji Ryousuke's attention turned to him instantly, pushing the pie towards him as though in supplication. "Yes. Poor girl."
----tbc-----