[Multi-chapter] What am I to you? ... Chapter 7
Title: What am I to you? …. Chapter 7
Pairing: RyoDa, JinDa, TegoPi, Ueda Tatsuya/OC
Rating: PG for minor violence and some bad language
Genre: Romance, drama, smut, fluff
Length: 4078 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 it. 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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“What do I do, Koki? He asked me to step back for now but what if she completely forgets about me? What then?” Ryo rolled over so that he was facing Koki who was laying on the mattress on the floor, he had been fast asleep when Ryo had finally come back home and decided to wake him up.
“Well, he obviously has a good point. I mean, if the two of you are really meant for each other then she won't forget you. But what did he mean by 'there's no telling how long it will take'? Is he planning to break up with her already?” Koki yawned but continued to look at Ryo who had been more than confused after having met with Akiyama Ryuuta.
“Argh! I don't know what to do anymore, Koki! Everything has gone wrong since Jin came back to town, Tatsuya has been taken from me and I don't know what to do to get her back, I can't even trust my own brother anymore. He actually made a deal with Jin to make me break up with Tatsuya. All that's left is for you to leave me as well and I will have to spend the rest of my life without anyone to trust.” Ryo's voice cracked and as he brought a hand up to his black hair, messy from being pulled in different directions by the man it was on, Koki noticed the shiny pearls making their way down his friend's face. “I seriously don't know what to do, Koki. Every time I think about how badly I've treated her I feel like dying, how could she have put up with me all that time? I was...”
“An ass.” Koki yawned again. He was so tired but he still wanted to cheer his best friend up, sadly it failed as the tears kept falling down his cheeks.
Ryo didn't say anything else. He just pulled his knees up under his chin and leaned his forehead against them, he sighed but the sigh turned into a sob. Why hadn't he understood? Why hadn't he understood how much Tatsuya really meant to him, how much she had really loved him. How big of an impact that she had actually made on his life.
Koki got up from his mattress and sat down next to his crying friend. No matter how much of a bad-ass he might have looked Koki had never been able to watch another person cry. Man or woman, friend or foe.
He placed a strong arm around Ryo's shoulders and pulled him closer until the latter's head was resting on his shoulder. He placed his hand on the other man's head and patted his hair, slowly fixing the mess that Ryo had made of it before.
Soft mumbles started coming from Koki's lips, an old lullaby that his grandmother had always sung for him after his parents had passed away, he knew the words by heart and the soft mumbles soon turned into lyrics, the raspy voice that sung them comforted Ryo even if he didn't like the fact that he was truly this weak.
To anyone else this close ritual between the two young men might have seemed strange, maybe even awkward, but for the two involved this was nothing strange. Nothing to be ashamed of.
They were two good friends, almost closer than brothers, that told each other everything, they always had and when one of them was feeling down it was the other's job to help.
It had always been that way and for all they knew they would continue the “tradition” for a long time.
“Just let it take some time, Ryo. You'll figure out what to do eventually. You always do.” Koki said and squeezed the still shaking shoulder belonging to his sobbing friend.
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A week later
“I really don't understand what's going on in that head of yours, Ryuuta.” Tatsuya hit the punching-bag with all her power, causing some of the newbies to jerk at the loud sound it made. “I can forgive you for completely ignoring me on our date to be with my ex-boyfriend. I can do that, but I draw the line at you inviting him over to the gym.” She hit the bag again, this time even harder and for a second she felt a sharp pain in her pinky but she was too upset to pay it any attention. “I mean, did you ever consider my feelings about this? This is the only place where I can vent my anger and frustration and now I'll have to do it with him looking over my shoulder all the time? That's something I will not tolerate! Another furious strike to the bag, making her finger hurt like hell.
“Tatsuya, I know that you two have had a difficult time together but don't you think that this will fix it? You need to clear things up in order to move on, right? So this is the perfect place to do it.” Ryuuta handed her the waterbottle with a crocked smile but Tatsuya was not affected by that smile.
“Careful, Ryuuta. She has a hell of a mean jab.” Daiki laughed as he passed by, clearly amused by their almost-fight.
“Shut up!” The couple yelled in unison and the laughing Daiki walked away with his hands raised in surrender.
“You don't understand, Ryuuta. This is the only place where I don't think about him, don't take that away from me. Please.”
Ryuuta smiled and kissed her warm forehead, causing his girlfriend to sigh as she knew that she was clearly not getting through to him. And true enough Ryuuta walked over to his father's office, leaving her alone with her hurting finger and a confused heart.
Why he acted like this she didn't know. Since she had gotten to know him he had never acted like this and she was about to call him back when she in the corner of her eye realized that several pairs of dark, curious eyes were staring at her.
“What the hell are you looking at?!” She yelled, not even trying to hide her frustration anymore. “Get back to work!”
The guys started working out again, very hurriedly as they realized that Tatsuya was not in the mood to be looked at. The girl in question sighed and walked outside, hoping that the fresh air might clear up her thoughts.
What was going on with her? Why did she object to Ryo being around her, she was already over him... Or was she?
The truth was that he had been on her mind constantly since he had showed up at her house last week, the only time when she wasn't haunted by his image was when she was training and now he would ruin that as well.
“This day just keeps getting better and better.” Tatsuya said to herself when she leaned against the brickwall, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to remember what inner calm was.
“Rough day?”
The slightly hoarse voice was like a ice-cold shower, and within a millisecond Tatsuya had opened her eyes and focused them on the man that the voice belonged to.
“Leave me alone, Ryo. I have nothing left to say to you.” She turned around and walked inside, irritated as she noticed that the other was following her.
“Well, you don't really have to talk to me. All you have to do is fight me and I won't mind.” Ryo smiled at her but Tatsuya just raised an eyebrow.
“Says who?”
“Says I.” Tatsuya turned around and saw her coach walking up to them with what looked like a very painful limp.
“Coach?” Tatsuya silently prayed that this wasn't happening but the old man upstairs didn't seem to understand the seriousness of her situation as he didn't answer her prayers.
“Nishikido-kun needs someone to practice with and from what I understand of my son he is a very talented fighter, I would have liked to do it myself but my legs are starting to give up on me so Tatsuya, you will have to do it.” The old man looked at her with a serious expression and as much as Tatsuya would have liked to call it a bluff she could tell that her coach was in pain.
“But why me? Ichirou is much better at this than I am. Or what about Ryuuta? He's the one who suggested that he should come here.” She tried but was silenced by the look the old man gave her.
“Because I say so. Even if you are like a daughter to me, I am your coach and what I say goes. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.” Tatsuya mumbled, feeling somewhat ashamed from being told off in front of her friends.
Hiroshi had never done that before and it kind of hurt her to have behaved like that in front of her respected coach.
“So how about we get started? I can't wait to see if you're any good.” Ryo smiled as Tatsuya picked up the tape and walked up him.
“Not yet, sit down.” She said and pushed him to sit down on the bench behind them. “Reach out your hand.” Ryo did as she said, even if he did it with a smile that pissed Tatsuya off.
She took his hand in hers and started to tape it. First his fingers up to his knuckles, then his hand down to the wrist. “Is it too tight?” She asked, no real concern showing in her voice.
“No, I'm just trying to get used to you holding my hands in yours again.” Tatsuya shuddered at the soft voice that rang in her ears. His hand was warm and soft, just like it always had been and for a second she felt how her heart turned warmer when Ryo's fingers slightly brushed up against her own.
“Don't, I'm only doing this because I have to. So don't get any ideas.” She quickly tapes the other hand as well and threw a pair of gloves at Ryo when standing up.
A minute later they were standing in the ring, both of them wearing gloves although they were open ones so that their fingers were peaking out. It was too warm to wear regular ones and Tatsuya prefered these ones over the closed up.
“Are you ready?” Ryo asked with a smile and Tatsuya just nodded, she got her guard up and Ryo did the same.
The first strike went just next to her ear but he was obviously not using his full strength. But right now she didn't think about returning the favor.
The next strike that came hit Ryo straight in the abs and he wobbled back against the ropes holding his side, obviously shocked by the power that had laid in the punch.
“Is that all you've got?” Tatsuya asked. She might have sounded overconfident but right now she didn't care. She finally realized why Ryo liked fighting so much, it felt so good to vent your anger at the person that you were actually angry at.
Ryo approached her again, this time without the smile but with a strange look on his face. He circled around her like a predator circles his prey.
Fast as lightning he showed up next to her, delivering a punch to her face. Tatsuya felt the sharp pain of her lip cracking open and then the right side of her face went completely numb.
She stumbled backwards, almost loosing her balance but she caught the glimpse of pain that went through Ryo's eyes. Quick as a weasel Tatsuya attacked again, forgetting all about guarding, her mind just told her to hurt the man in front of her. Hurt him as much as she could.
The next punch landed just under her former boyfriend's ribs, but when she heard a loud crack she pulled back, her mind clear from the bloodthirst that had taken over her just moments ago.
Ryo held his side and Tatsuya shook her right hand that had gone numb as well. The guys that had gathered around them rushed into the ring, ready to check up on the two panting fighters.
“Tat-chan! Are you okay?” Sou rushed to her side, and hurriedly looked at her as if the loud crack had left any evidence on her skin.
“Yeah, my lip hurts but other than that I'm fine.” Tatsuya shrugged off the hands that had placed themselves on her shoulders. Her heart was pounding hard and right now she was just pissed at everyone. Even at Sou.
“And what about you? Are you alright?” Sou turned to Ryo who held his hand over his side with a smile.
“Of course, I just a little shocked at how strong my baby has grown since I last saw her.” His words caught everyone's attention and curious eyes were turned to her.
“I'm not your baby, Ryo. You got what you came for, now go home and leave me to my business!” Her voice cracked and she rushed to the dressingroom, the tears falling from her eyes as she opened the door and sat down on one of the many benches. This was the girls dressingroom so no one would come in there except for Rumi, who was currently at a friend's house for the weekend.
She laid down on the bench, still with the tears falling from her eyes and sobbed loudly. Suddenly the pain started spreading through her pinky again, it hurt so much she didn't know what to do.
She sat up again and started to walk around, trying to think about anything but Ryo and the pain but somehow she failed to do both.
Tatsuya sat down next to her things and pulled off one of the gloves, the one that wasn't on her hurt hand but that simply left the one that did hurt. She slowly loosened the part around her wrist and although the pain that was to come was more than she thought she could bear, she slowly pulled the glove off her hand.
The pain shooting through her finger was frighteningly similar to when she had broken her leg during a schooltrip in third grade but she gritted her teeth and in one last, quick move the glove was pulled completely removed off her hand.
She couldn't hold in the groan of pain that escaped her lips when her pinky was forcefully straightened out as the glove left her hand. Biting her bottom lip to control the urge to scream, she looked down at her hurt finger.
It was already red and swollen and she couldn't move it, if she was lucky it was just a sprain but it just made Tatsuya even angrier because now she had to go to the hospital to see to it.
“God damn it.” She muttered as she turned around, eyes still on her hurt hand, to pack up her things when she realized that she wasn't alone.
“Are you really that angry I beat you?” Ryo was standing by the door, arms crossed over his chest and his eyes pointed at her.
“Go to hell, Ryo.” Tatsuya stuffed her towel into the bag, unfortunately her hurt finger was caught in the fabric.
The pain was too much for her and without being able to control her body she dropped to the floor, crying from the pain once again.
The sudden change of situation made Ryo rush to her side, kneeling down beside her with a hand on her back.
“Tatsuya! Are you okay?” The worry in his voice totally gave him away even though his face was calm. “Are you hurt?”
No matter how much her finger hurt the hand on her shoulder calmed her down and helped take the pain away. She hated it! She hated how he with only a touch of his hand could affect her so much, even if she didn't want it too.
“No, I'm fine.” Tatsuya tried to shrug the hand away but hissed when her finger was moved again.
“Really?” Ryo caught her hand in his, but not rough like she was used to when it came to Ryo, his touch was soft and caring, warm and familiar. And even if she hated it her skin tingled when his thumb brushed over her palm.
“Yeah...” She breathed when the hand on her back moved lower and placed itself on her lower back.
“God, look at your finger! Tatsuya, this is broken, you have to go to the hospital.” Ryo held her hand so that she could see the finger that had turned into a gray-blue shade.
“Look, Ryo. I'm fine. I don't need to go to the hospital, I'll just take some painkillers and try not to move it around too much...”
“No! I'll take you to the hospital now and this is one of those times when I will not accept you saying no. Do you hear me?” Ryo looked into her eyes and for the first time in almost two months she was afraid of what might happen if she answered back.
“Yes, I... I hear you.” Tatsuya broke the eye contact when she felt her cheeks growing warmer, and she looked down on her healthy hand that had clenched the fabric of her pants.
Why was she getting so nervous being around Ryo again? He had always managed to made her blush without really doing anything but this was starting to get ridiculous.
“Where are you two going?” Sou asked when they came out of the dressingroom, Ryo with both of their bags thrown over his shoulder and Tatsuya with a red face, partially from crying and partially from Ryo's other hand that was once again placed on her back as if he wanted to either show that she was his, even though she wasn't, or because he wanted to support her.
She didn't know which was more likely and truthfully she didn't want to know.
“The hospital. Tatsuya hurt her hand so I'm just going to make sure she actually goes, cause as far as I remember she's not a big fan of hospitals.”
“What?! Then I will come with you.” Sou was about to grab his jacket when he heard his older brother's voice coming from the doorway of his father's office.
“No, you still have work left to do. And after that you have a whole pile of homework to get done until Monday morning. Ryo and Tatsuya can go by themselves.” He flipped through some folders in his hands.
“But what about you? Aren't you going to go with her? She's your girlfriend.” Sou desperately tried. He obviously didn't like the way Ryo and Tatsuya were going to be alone without any of them present.
“Nope, I still have work to do and I'm perfectly sure that they are old enough to behave themselves around each other.”
“I'm not too sure about that.” Tatsuya thought but said nothing when Ryuuta turned his back to them and walked in to the office again with a wave and a “Take care of her for me, will you?”.
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“Your finger is broken and there are some sprains around it, there is quite a lot of damage just from a sandbag.” The nurse looked at them sceptically, from Ryo to Tatsuya's burst lip and back to Ryo again. “Domestic violence is getting more and more common among young people today.” She mumbled as she put Tatsuya's chart away on the table.
“I didn't do this.” Ryo said in a somewhat worried nervous voice, technically he hadn't been the one to cause the injury itself but he had been the reason it had gotten so bad.
“And we are not together.” Tatsuya filled in, maybe a little too eagerly because the nurse looked at them with a look that practically screamed “LIARS!” but just mumbled something in an annoyed tone of voice, although it was too low for them to hear the exact words.
“The doctor will be with you in a moment to put a cast on it so just stay here.” The “nice” nurse exited the room, still mumbling about how young people nowadays were too carefree.
Tatsuya stayed in the chair that she had been told to sit in and looked around the room with somewhat nervous eyes. She really didn't like hospitals, in fact she hated them!
Everything was so clean it hurt to just breath normally, despite their job most personal didn't seem to like people at all and whenever she was there it hurt and very rarely the doctors couldn't do anything about it anyways. So, no. Tatsuya really didn't like hospitals.
“It's going to be okay, Tatsuya. Just breath normally and it will be over in a little while.” Ryo placed himself in the chair next to the chair that she was sitting on and looked at her with calm eyes.
“What the hell do you mean breath normally? I'm breathing like I always do.” She glared at him but he just chuckled and reached out to grab her healthy hand in his.
Tatsuya looked at their hands and then at Ryo, trying to figure out what his game was but the only thing she found in his eyes were genuine concern.
“No, sweety. You're breathing like you've just ran a marathon. Come on, breath with me.” Ryo took a deep breath and let it out, squeezing the hand in his when Tatsuya just rolled her eyes at him.
She started breathing with him and after a little while she actually felt herself relax a little. She closed her eyes and continued to breath, totally forgetting that Ryo was still holding her hand.
Ryo looked at her. Even with the cracked lip and the slightly puffy eyes she looked more alive than he had ever seen her before. Was Ryuuta really that good for her? And had Ryo really been that bad for her?
He just couldn't stop blaming himself for what he had done to her, Tegoshi had been behind the whole thing and yet he hadn't seen what was happening right under his nose.
Tegoshi had moved out not too many days ago, said he felt guilty about what he had done but Ryo knew that he just didn't want to get beaten up. Although Ryo had given him a bloody nose and pair of broken ribs before he had seen him off but that nothing compared to what he would have done had it been Akanishi instead of his own brother.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.” The doctor, an older good-looking man with short black hair that was shifting in gray at the temples had entered the room with a smile on his face.
Tatsuya immediately opened her eyes and pulled her hand away from Ryo's, leaving a hole in Ryo's chest.
The doctor sat down on another chair, took out what he needed for the cast from a low cabinet and started working on his patient's finger.
Tatsuya however wasn't comfortable with a complete stranger touching her and Ryo immediately noticed how her entire body tensed up when the doctor touched her injured hand.
“Tatsuya, calm down already. I know you're scared of hospitals but this is taking it a little too far.” Ryo said to her but Tatsuya turned her head to glare at him although the glare was more frightened than angry.
“I can't calm down and it's all your fault! You tagged along just to laugh at me anyways, didn't you?”
Ryo locked eyes with her and spoke in a serious and almost hurt voice.
“I would never do that, you know me well enough to understand that.” The tone of voice that he used surprised Tatsuya.
“Y... Yeah. I know that.” She bowed her head a little, partially as an apology and partially because she didn't want him to see her embarrassed face that had, conveniently enough, turned bright red.
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A/N: Yay!!! The next chapter is out! And on a Friday too xD I made it my new thing to post every Friday, just hope I can keep it up ;) Thank you all so much for reading and don't be afraid to drop a comment before you leave, makes me really happy<3