[Multi-chapter] What am I to you? ... Chapter 4

[ramadiii]

Title: What am I to you? …. Chapter 4
Pairing: RyoDa, JinDa, TegoPi
Rating: PG for bad language
Genre: Romance, drama, smut, fluff
Length: 3786 words
Disclaimer: I love JE-boys but unless I can get one of them for Christmas this year, I don't own any of them.
Summary: For a long time Tatsuya had a pretty decent life. She was from a fairly rich family, had high expectations from her parents and high grades. But never a good enough reason to smile.... Until she met Ryo, a fierce delinquent and the ringleader of a high-school. Unlikely as it seemed they found each other and although Ryo always comes late for their dates, all beaten up, Tatsuya usually doesn't mind since she loves him so much.
But being the ringleader's girlfriend can sometimes be very dangerous, especially when challenging ringleaders find their opponent's lover very attractive.
Warnings: In this fic Tatsuya equals GIRL. So if you don't like it, don't read. I also made Tatsuya a few years younger just to make the whole story more believable. *hihi*
A/N: This is a request-fic for Jindaluver <3 I hope you like it sweetheart!
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When Tatsuya woke up that late morning her head felt like it had been run over by several big trucks. Her vision was blurry and she was actually feeling a little sick to her stomach as she sat up in her big bed but although she didn't remember exactly what had happened the night before she got dressed like usual and went downstairs to grab some breakfast before heading to school.

As she opened the cupboard to get a big glass for her orange juice a memory flashed in front of her eyes.

Someone with his back to her was reaching for glasses in the cupboard, but she couldn't seem to remember who it was, why he was there or where he had gone.

Rubbing her temples Tatsuya sighed and put the glass into the cupboard again, all of a sudden she didn't feel like eating anything so she just went upstairs to get her things and headed out the frontdoor.

“This just might be a bad day.” Tatsuya thought to herself as she entered the school and noticed that people were staring at her, girls were whispering while pointing at her and the guys threw disgusted glances at her before turning their backs to her.

“Sakura. Do you know what's going on? Everyone's staring at me in the corridor.” Tatsuya placed her schoolbag on her desk and looked ta her friend but the girl didn't look at her. “Sakura?”

“Why did you do it?” Sakura's cold voice caught Tatsuya by surprise.

“What?”

“Why would you go after Jin when you know I like him?” Tatsuya couldn't believe she just said that.

“Sakura, you know that I would never...”

“Then what do you call this?” A phone was shoved in her face and when Tatsuya placed her eyes on the displayed picture her jaw dropped.
There she was, laying on a bed with her arms around Jin's neck, kissing him with her eyes closed.

She didn't understand, how was this possible? She had never done anything like that with anyone other than Ryo and for all she could remember she would never do it with Akanishi Jin.

“I... I don't know why there is such a picture but I swear to you that I didn't do that.” Tatsuya felt like crying, why was this happening to her now? Now that everything was starting to go well again.

“One picture says more than a thousand words and just for your information this picture has been sent to everyone in school!” Sakura yelled with tears in her eyes and Tatsuya felt her chest shrink 'til she could hardly breath normally.

“... I'm... I'm so sorry about this.” The older of the girl's mumbled as she grabbed her schoolbag and ran out of the classroom, letting her tears fall as she reached the school entrance.

“Tatsuya.” A familiar voice called her, although it was not the one that she wanted to hear.

“What is going on?! What did you do to me?!” Tatsuya ran up to him and started hitting her closed fists into his wide chest with tears running down her face. But Jin just pulled her close until she was crying into his chest, he didn't really care if she wanted to be in his arms or not. She was sad and she needed comforting even if it was from him.

Suddenly her entire body stiffened as she felt a furious gaze place itself on her.
”You obviously don't regret what you did.” Ryo's cold voice was heard and fearing the worst Tatsuya turned around to look into his mad eyes.

“Ryo. It's not what you think...” Tatsuya tried but her lover would not listen to her.

“I have seen enough to convince me of otherwise. If you want her, Akanishi, you can take her. I'm not interested in used goods.” Ryo said, both hurt and anger shining in his eyes.

“Please, Ryo. You promised you would trust me, so please trust me now.” Tatsuya fought her way out of Jin's embrace and ran to Ryo's side, grabbing a shaking hold of his hand. “I don't know what happened and I have no idea how that picture came to exist but I would never betray you.”

Ryo said nothing at first but he did not look at her, he just stared at the man who stood in front of him with an unreadable expression on his face.
“You already have, Tatsuya.” He whispered and tore his hand away from the crying girl's grip. “Good bye.”

“Ryo...” Tatsuya whispered in between her sobs as she watched the love of her life walk away from her with no intention of turning around to answer her call.
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“What the hell is going on with my life right now?” Tatsuya mumbled as she brought the cellphone away from her ear after trying to call her brother for the fourth time that evening but without any success.

She was sitting on her bed, eyes tired and puffy from crying all day and her voice hoarse from the sobbing. She hadn't gone back to school after the incident with Ryo and at the moment she wasn't planning on going back at all, she could just quit school and stay at home until her parents came back and then she could just find a job.

Tatsuya leaned back against the cold wall, she was so tired but she was afraid to go to sleep, if she closed her eyes the nightmares would come to her, the nightmares that had been haunting her since she was a child. Nightmares that Ryo had chased away and was now just waiting to grab her again and throw her into the most terrifying place on earth, her own imagination.

Sighing she picked up her phone and sent away one last message to her brother before grabbing her keys and headed down the stairs with the intention of going shopping but as she opened the frontdoor she was stopped by the person standing there.

There he was, the man who was the cause of her suffering, Akanishi Jin and the tears came back to Tatsuya's eyes as soon as she saw him.
She stepped out of the house, locking the door behind her and started walking away, holding back the tears stinging in her eyes.
“Tatsuya. I need to talk to you.” Jin ran up alongside of her but Tatsuya just increased her speed. “Look, I'm sorry about what happened but I just want you to know that nothing happened between us last night, the pictures were all fake. I only kissed you, nothing else.” Jin hurriedly explained, he wanted to get this weight of his chest that had been there since he saw how badly his actions had actually hurt her.

Tatsuya turned around to face him and he had never seen eyes that hurt, that angry and that sad before.

“Do you really think that an apology is just going to make everything alright again? You ruined my life and you think that a simple 'I'm sorry' will suffice? Then think again. I will never love you, I love Ryo and someone like you are not even worthy of being in his shadow. So just go away and stop following me.” The angry yet calm eyes meeting his told Jin that this was the best time to leave.

So with a sad smile he bowed his head in goodbye and walked away.

Tatsuya's shoulders shook, not from crying this time but from anger, she was so angry and for the first time she was angry at Ryo.

She knew that it wasn't fair to blame him for it all since she was the one who had let Jin in the other night but she finally realized what a push-over she had been.

She had never questioned Ryo's decision, she had never gotten mad at him for leaving her hanging without telling her he wasn't coming, she had never once blamed him for striking her.

Not once had she angry at him but now she was, she was so mad she didn't know what to do and in an attempt to release her anger she curled up her fist and punched straight into the empty air, even though she probably looked ridiculous she felt better and she actually smiled a little as she continued walking..

“Hello, cutey. Can I ask you something?” A hand landed on her shoulder and Tatsuya felt herself flinch at the touch.

“No, leave me alone.” She was about to shake of the hand when someone did it for her. Another man had arrived and he was holding his friend's hand in a firm grip.

“That's not very nice, Sou. At least introduce yourself first.” The new guy said, his voice was kind but Tatsuya knew better than to trust someone simply because of their voice.

“Sorry, Ryuuta. Just didn't want to let her get away.” The guy answered with what to Tatsuya looked like a pout but she must have been mistaken. Since when do thugs pout?

“Well, you're scaring her. So apologies.”

Tatsuya couldn't believe her ears, apologies? To her?

“Gomen ne, ojou-san. Looks like I scared you, wasn't my intention.” The first guy grinned at her and first now Tatsuya realized that she could have run away the moment the first guy, apparently named Sou, let her go.

“U.. Um. It's fine, I was just a little surprised.” She nodded as a greeting to the young man.

“That's good.” The older of the two smiled at her and reached her his hand. “I'm Akiyama Ryuuta. The baka over there is my little brother, Akiyama Sousuke. But everyone calls him Sou.”

“I'm not a baka, fat-head.” The younger brother mumbled which caught the older brother's attention.

“Who are you calling a fat-head, virgin?” Ryuuta smirked as his little brother turned bright red.

“Ano... Why did you stop me?” Tatsuya asked confused. Were these brothers for real?

“Oh, right. I totally forgot.” Sou smacked himself on the forehead and Tatsuya could see in the corner of her eye how Ryuuta shook his head with a smile.

Sou got down on his knees in front of the stunned girl and bowed his head so low it hit the cold pavement.

“Please join our gym.”

“Hah?” Tatsuya raised an eyebrow.

“Please join our boxing-gym.”

“We saw your punch just now and it was perfect. We think you have a real talent for boxing.” Ryuuta explained when Tatsuya just stood there, looking like a fool.

“So please, could you come with us to the gym so we can find out?” Sou got his head off the ground only to get it smacked by his older brother.

“Baka, do you realize what time it is? She should be busy sleeping and so should you.”

“But.... But...” Sou looked up at his brother with watery eyes, apparently the smack had been harder than expected.

“Well, if you give me the address I'll go by tomorrow.” Tatsuya took out her cellphone so that she could write down the address. “What are you doing?” Tatsuya's mind was screaming at her. “You don't know anything about these guys. For all you know they could be assholes like every other man.” Tatsuya shook those thoughts away, she was going to take a chance with these guys and if it came back to bite her in the end then so be it.

“Really?” The two brothers looked at her with surprised eyes and Tatsuya nodded with a small smile.

Ryuuta accepted her phone and while he was busy typing the address in Sou decided to talk to her,

“If you come by after 1 o'clock tomorrow both me and Ryuuta will be there.” Looking at the young man in front of her, she realized that he couldn't be older than 15, if he was even that old. He was cute but in a more “manly” way than the other cute guys she knew, and Tatsuya silently wondered what his face would look like if he wasn't smiling.

“Okay, I will remember that.” She smiled at the younger boy and he cutely blushed at the sight.

Not even moments later Ryuuta gave her back her cellphone and they bid each other goodbye.
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Tatsuya looked up at the sign just above her head: Akiyama's Gym, and took a deep breath. She must be insane to do this, she told herself as she entered the slightly run-down building.

Once she had entered the building she realized that the gym had a few members training there although it was still early, two were up in the ring sparring, one was hitting the big sacks hanging from the roof and another one was doing push-ups on the floor.

“Can I help you, miss?”

Tatsuya turned around and saw a young girl, maybe 10 years old, smiling at her with a mouth that missed a tooth.

“Yes, I'm looking for Ryuuta and Sou. They said to ask for them.” The girl looked at her with a smile before taking Tatsuya's hand and pulled her softly into a room that looked like a cafeteria.

“Dad took them for a run, they should be back soon. I'm Rumi by the way.” The girl sat down on a couch and showed Tatsuya to sit next to her.

“I'm Tatsuya.” Tatsuya smiled at the girl's carefree attitude. “So your dad is the coach here, is he?”

“Yep, he owns this gym.” Rumi grinned.

“Ehh? So... That means that Ryuuta and Sou are your brothers?” Tatsuya asked shocked and the younger girl just nodded at her.

“Rumi, I thought I told you not to drag people in here anymore. It gives the gym a reputation for abducting people.” A guy entered the room with a serious look on his face.

“Shut up, Dai-nii, she came on her own free will. She's looking for Ryuu-nii and Sou-chan.”

“Oh great, what did those two idiots do now?” The man asked himself but walked up to Tatsuya and reached out his hand. “Akiyama Daiki desu.”

“Nice to meet you, Daiki-kun. Ueda Tatsuya desu.” Tatsuya smiled although she felt like meeting anymore people would be too much for her in one day.

“Why aren't you out training, Dai-nii?” Rumi asked while sucking on a lollipop that she had probably had hidden away somewhere before, giving her brother's look on his face as he saw it.

“I went for a run yesterday.” Daiki said hurriedly. “And get that thing out of your mouth, you know it's not good for you, Rumi.” The older brother walked up to her with the intention of taking the candy away from her but quick as a weasel she slipped off the couch and ran away from the older man.

Then a fierce battle between the two siblings began, the man was running after the little girl who sometimes stopped just in time to kick the man in the shins before running away again.

“So, which one of my two idiot brothers is the father?” Daiki asked as he sat down next to Tatsuya again after his mission to take the lollipop away from his little sister had failed miserably.

Tatsuya chocked and stared at him with big eyes.

“Excuse me?”

“Why else would a pretty girl like you come here on her own free will?” He asked matter-of-factly but Tatsuya just shook her head.

“That's not why I...”

“You came!”

Sou's voice was heard from the door-opening which caught their attention.

He was dripping in sweat but that smile on his face was as big as it had been yesterday, and as he pulled the towel from around his neck to wipe his face, Ryuuta showed up behind him with a tired face.

“Domo.” Tatsuya bowed her head a little and when she realized that the four pair of eyes were looking at her she actually started to wonder what she was really doing there.

She could have been home doing nothing instead of meeting this many people that she didn't even know and yet there she was.

“Come on, Tat-chan. Let's see how good you are.” Sou grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the cafeteria and into the gym where all the guys had gathered around a man, probably about 50 years old, as he was speaking to them.

“Alright, great job today guys. The gym will be closed earlier than usual since we have a newbie -try-out. I'll see you tomorrow again.” He said and Tatsuya could only guess that she was the newbie that he had spoken about. The guys around him scattered but one of them stayed next to the old man. He was a little taller than the older and he seemed very familiar with him as he took the notepad from the man without asking and looked through what was written in it.

“You must be the newbie my sons dragged here. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.” The older man grabbed her hand in a firm grip and shook it.

His face was sort of wrinkled and his hair was gray but his eyes were those of a young man and his smile was as wide as Sou's.

“It's no problem, sir. I'm just worried that they might have been mistaken about what they saw last night.” Tatsuya couldn't help but to smile as the older man's smile was very contagious.

“Well, you can say a lot of things about my two youngest sons but their eyesight is as good as a falcon's. The name is Hiroshi by the way. Akiyama Hiroshi.”

“Ueda Tatsuya.”

“Well, should we get started? Sou looks like he's about to explode soon so if you come this way.” Ryuuta showed Tatsuya up to the ring with a smile and although she was still a little uncomfortable being surrounded by so many guys, the genuine aura that the family emitted calmed her down a bit and she was surprised that she didn't flinch when Ryuuta taped her hands.

“This is to protect your hands inside the gloves.” He explained when he was done putting the tape away and saw that Tatsuya was trying to move her hands. “Let me just help you with the gloves as well and then you are ready to go.” He smiled at her, a wide smile that was so warm it heated Tatsuya's cheeks.

“Okay, so here's how this works. This pad is what you'll be hitting, so just as a start: Hit it any way you'd like as hard as you can and we'll check your strength.” The older man told her and he held the pad one arms length away from her, just in level to her nose.

She took a deep breath and hit the pad with all she had, trying not to care how she looked while doing it.

After the hit had landed on the black pad she stood back and placed her eyes on the old man in front of her, looking for a sign of approval but all she found was a smile. Not the kind of smile that was mocking but one that shone with kindness, pure kindness.

“You really told the truth this time, didn't you? Ryuuta, Sou.” The older man looked down on his sons with a smile causing the younger to grin and the older to straighten his back in pride.

“So what do you think dad?” Rumi asked from where she was sitting on Daiki's shoulders in order for her to see better. “Does she have the makings of a boxer?”

“Well, she has the strength. I'll tell you that.” He smiled and stood next to her. “Now I'll show you how to hit it properly.”

And he did. For almost two hours he showed her how to stand, how to guard while she was hitting, how to use jabs and hooks and somewhere along the way Tatsuya realized that she was smiling. She hadn't had that much fun since she was a kid and she was actually starting to wonder if she had ever had this much fun before.

“Well, Ueda Tatsuya. You really are a natural at this and it would be my pleasure to keep on coaching you, provided that you're up for the challenge of training here three times a week.” The head of the Akiyama-family said as he reached for a bottle of water for the tired, yet smiling, girl.

“To tell you the truth, sir, I have never had this much fun before and I seriously think that I will live to regret it if I walk out of here without the intention of coming back. So I would be honored if you would allow me to train here.” Tatsuya said as she stood up and bowed to the older man, not even so much as looking at the bottle that had been placed in front of her. This was something that she really wanted to do, and as rare as that might be, she was going to fight for it.

Hiroshi laughed and looked at the bowing girl in front of him with an amused look on his face.

“Haha, stand up straight, Ueda. There is no need to bow for me, you are more than welcome to stay and train with us if you'd like.”

Tatsuya looked up at the man, the man with the wide smile that was looking at her like a father looks at his daughter and she felt warm. No longer cold, no longer trapped in a world where she couldn't trust anyone, but warm and comfortable, surrounded by people who's smiles made her relax.

“Thank you so much, sir. Thank you...” Tears started to fall from her eyes and yet she didn't stop thanking him until she felt someone hug her waist. Rumi was smiling widely at her when she looked down and the little girl hugged her even more causing Tatsuya to actually start wailing.

The remaining five members of the Akiyama family were laughing while looking at the two girls, all of them happy to have received another member to the gym and to the family.

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A/N: The fourth chapter is officially up xD Thank you so much for reading my fics! Makes me really happy <3 Comments are really appreciated ;)