Birthday Surprise

Tatsuha, who had been so busy being kissed by Ryuichi that they were seen by a cleaning lady when the elevator doors opened, broke away when she gasped in surprise.

“Oh…uh, sorry, Ma’am. Please don’t tell anyone what you saw here tonight, okay?” he asked. Ryuichi turned around and giggled, taking the raven-haired man’s hand and leading him off the car. She got onto it with her cleaning cart, her eyes still on the two men while the doors closed.

“Ryuichi, we shouldn’t be seen kissing. It could be bad publicity for you!” Tatsuha exclaimed quietly as he walked hand in hand with the rock god back down the dark hallway to his room, mindful of the fact that it was late at night. They walked past the nurses’ station, now manned by three nurses, who put their heads together and chattered amongst themselves as the pair passed them.

“Oh, if she says anything, Tohma will sue the entire hospital. Besides, knowing Tohma, he made sure that the staff has been told to say nothing anyway. N-G is its largest contributor, so if she says anything, they’ll fire her and deny everything,” Ryuichi said blithely while Tatsuha quietly opened the door to his hospital room to let the smaller man go inside first. The monk stopped just inside the door, his hand still on the knob as he stared at Ryuichi, not believing how thoughtless his statement had been.

“How could you be so coldhearted and insensitive, Ryuichi-san!” Tatsuha blurted out. “For all we know, that woman’s job is her sole way of supporting her family! It’s obvious that you’ve never been poor and had to depend on a shitty job to eat and pay your bills, otherwise you wouldn’t have said that!

The vocalist turned and stared up at Tatsuha, his face unreadable as he was lectured by the younger man.

Tatsuha looked down at the silent rock star and felt his stomach drop as realization set in. ‘Oh fuck, what did I do? I just yelled at Ryuichi and insulted him! He’s gonna hate me forever!’

Ryuichi pushed his way into the hospital room, Tatsuha following sheepishly, positive that he was about to hear the singer use his voice, and NOT yelling out his name with pleasure like he had hoped.

The mossy-haired man strode into the room and stopped in the center, then turned to look at Tatsuha, his face serious. The monk felt all the blood drain away from his face.

“Look, Sakuma-san…uh…that was a bit harsh. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it…” Tatsuha began.

“But you did mean it, otherwise you wouldn’t have said it, Tatsuha,” Ryuichi said, interrupting the younger man. “You mean every word and every emotion. And you were right. I was being coldhearted and insensitive. And that was wrong. I should have realized that not everyone has a lot of savings to fall back on. Not everyone’s rich. Most people are just barely making it. And not everyone gets the chance to live out their dreams like I did.”

Ryuichi turned, walked over to the window and stared out of it, not saying anything for quite some time before he said in a reserved voice,

“Everyone thinks Grasper had it so easy, but Tohma and I had to start from rock-bottom to get this far. We don’t like to talk about it, but it’s what made us so determined to make it. And when we did, it was the best. I don’t like to talk much about those days because I’ve chosen to try and forget about them.”

Not sure what else to do, Tatsuha came up behind Ryuichi and stood, afraid to touch him as he gently asked, “Then why did you say such things before, Ryuichi? It made you seem…unsympathetic.”

“I…I don’t know,” was the answer after a long pause. “I guess…I guess I hate to be reminded of having to work at those kind of jobs. It was…not shiny. At all,” Ryuichi admitted before once again falling silent.

Feeling privileged that the diminutive man would tell him such a personal part of his history, Tatsuha walked up closer behind him and tentatively placed his arms around the singer, hugging him from behind. Ryuichi stiffened, then relaxed as he was hugged. The pair stayed that way for a while, just enjoying each other’s presence.

‘This is nice, but I’d rather be kissing him some more,’ Tatsuha thought while he inhaled the scent of Ryuichi’s flower-scented shampoo along with the singer’s unique smell.

As if he had read the raven-haired man’s mind, Ryuichi turned around to face him. The vocalist reached up to tangle the fingers of one hand in Tatsuha’s ebony locks and reached the other arm around to pull him closer, a sensual smile on his face as he gazed up into Tatsuha’s eyes. As Ryuichi leaned up for another kiss, the monk put out a hand and stopped him.

“Uh…Ryuichi…Ryu? We…we probably shouldn’t be doing this in a hospital room. I mean, kissing. I don’t know about you, but I’d want to do…more…” Tatsuha explained as the smaller man stared him in the face.

Ryuichi brought his arm back in front of them and patted the side of the raven-haired man’s face as he gazed down at the little singer. “Why do you think I paid for you to have a private room, Tatsuha-kun?” he replied casually.

As Tatsuha took a few moments to absorb this new information, the singer continued where he left off. His fingers still tangled in Tatsuha’s hair, he drew the much taller man down for another kiss, which was, after a split second, was eagerly returned.

Tatsuha let the older man take charge of the passionate kiss, willingly opening his mouth as Ryuichi’s tongue tapped against his lips. As their tongues tangled and explored each other for the first time, he thought to himself, ‘I can’t believe I’m kissing Ryuichi again! Is this a dream? Has this whole day been a dream?’

As they broke away to catch their breaths, panting slightly, Tatsuha looked into Ryuichi’s sparkling sapphire eyes. “Ryuichi…Ryu? I have to ask. Why…exactly did you send me that plane ticket?”

Puzzlement at the question briefly crossed Ryuichi’s face before he answered. “Isn’t it obvious? I want to make love to you,” he replied as he leaned up for another kiss.

‘I can’t fucking believe I’m saying this!’ the younger man thought to himself as he leaned away from Ryuichi. “But…but that’s not what I meant. Why are you…even interested in me? Is it because I’m such a die-hard fanboy and you want me to add to your list of conquests? Because if that’s the case, I’m not interested.”

‘Buddha help me, I’ve fucking lost it! I just turned down sex from Sakuma Ryuichi-sama!’ he thought, mentally hitting himself in the head as Ryuichi’s previously shiny eyes suddenly turned dark at the statement.

Ryuichi leaned back slightly and gazed into Tatsuha’s worried and slightly scared ebony eyes. Taking a deep breath, the vocalist sighed, untangled his fingers from Tatsuha’s hair and stepped back.

“Look Tatsuha. I’ve slept with a lot of people. Men, women, groups, it didn’t matter to me at the time. I suppose they were in it for the thrill of being with someone famous. Or someone rich. Or of being with a rock star. I don’t know and I don’t really care.

But you…you’ve always treated me like a regular person. Like a friend. Like one of the guys…even if you didn’t want to go to the places I wanted to go. When you saw me whenever I went with Tohma to Kyoto on family business, you spoke to me like a regular person. You didn’t treat me like a celebrity then, and you don’t now. You treated me…more like a really good friend. I liked that. So I thought I’d wait until you were older and we’d hang out more…and see where things take us. I’m really tired of one night stands, I want a relationship.”

Tatsuha gazed thoughtfully into Ryuichi’s eyes as he absorbed what he had just heard. ‘Did…did I hear him right? That he wants…that Sakuma Ryuichi wants a relationship…with ME?’

Tatsuha’s legs suddenly gave out from underneath him, and he sat unexpectedly on the floor as the realization hit. ‘HE WANTS A RELATIONSHIP WITH ME! UESUGI TATSUHA! ME!’

As Tatsuha sat down abruptly on the floor, Ryuichi hurried over to squat in front of him. “Are you all right, Tatsuha-kun? Should I call the doctor? I’ll go get a nurse! I’ll be right back!” the singer gushed as he rapidly stood back up. Tatsuha’s hand quickly reached out and grabbed Ryuichi’s pant leg, which caused him to stop his flight out of the room.

“I’m fine, Ryuichi. It’s just…just that this was so unexpected, that’s all. I never in a million…no billion years would have guessed that you’d want…want a relationship…with me. I’m…I’m just shocked…and flattered…and shocked…that out of all the people you’ve met, that you’d want to be with a monk….especially me, that’s all.” The younger man looked up and beamed into Ryuichi’s concerned face as the vocalist hovered over him.

“I’ll be glad to…hang out more and see where things take us, Ryu.”



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Tsuzuku
(To Be Continued)

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