Kyo awoke the next morning in an unfamiliar room. He looked around to see that Toshiya’s clothes were in the closet and on the floor, making it known whose room it was.
"Mm, nice to wake up in your koi’s room," Kyo yawned, muffling his voice. He sat up and stretched, making sure that he didn’t move his leg in a way that hurt. "Man, this place is a mess…" he observed, attempting to get out of bed by himself.
He had slept in Toshiya’s room the night before because Toshiya hadn’t had time to clean out the spare bedroom before Kyo arrived. Kyo had told Toshiya that he would be fine on the couch, but Toshiya insisted that Kyo take the bed, as hosts are apt to do. All of Kyo’s things that he would need for the time that he was spending with Toshiya had been dropped off, and was sitting in the living room waiting to be put in what would now be Kyo’s room. They had arrived back at Toshiya’s place around midafternoon, but neither of them had felt like straightening anything up, so they had wiled away the hours by playing video games. Kyo kicked Toshiya’s butt, but that was to be expected.
"Oh, so you’re awake I see," a voice from the door spoke, startling the small vocalist. He looked up and beheld Toshiya in a robe with hair in disarray. Kyo smiled to himself at Toshiya’s appearance and nodded.
"Yeah, I couldn’t sleep any more, even though it felt good to be away from the hospital," he admitted. Toshiya nodded.
"Wanna get up and walk around?" Toshiya asked Kyo, who was still struggling to get out of bed. Kyo nodded furiously.
"Yeah! My muscles feel like jello… I don’t think that I’ve gone this long without exercise of some sort." Toshiya laughed, and Kyo crossed his arms over his chest. "It’s true, I do exercise! How do you think I keep this body sexy?" This made Toshiya laugh harder and Kyo glare slightly.
"I’m sorry, Kyo-Kyo, but you’re so funny! I can’t help but laugh!" Toshiya’s giggles subsided and Kyo’s hate-rays melted into nothingness. "Saa, you wanted to get up and walk…" Toshiya left the room for a moment and returned carrying a pair of crutches. Kyo groaned loudly.
"Totchi, I refuse to use those," he stated flatly. Toshiya shook his head, his mouth forming the words ‘Not again’.
"Kyo, if you want to walk, you have to use these. Otherwise you’ll hurt your leg even more." A mischievous twinkle shone in Toshiya’s eyes. "Besides, at least I didn’t get the child-sized ones…" Kyo’s death-glare returned.
"Just give me the damn crutches," he muttered darkly. Toshiya walked over to the side of the bed and knelt next to Kyo, helping him up. He snickered to himself when he saw that Kyo was only wearing a pair of boxers.
"Yeah, yeah; laugh it up Totchi. I’ll get you back for this someday…"
"Of course you will, Kyo-chan," Toshiya replied sweetly. Grumbling the entire way, Kyo stood with the aid of the crutches.
"When I get this stupid cast off, I’m definitely going to kill the guy who did this to me…" Toshiya’s ears perked up at the subject change.
"Ne, Kyo, you never did tell me who did this to you and why they did it," Toshiya said, curious. Kyo looked up from finding his footing.
"Yeah, we never did talk about much other than me lovin’ you and you lovin’ me when I was in the hospital…" Kyo said slowly.
"So tell me, what happened?" Toshiya followed Kyo out of the door as the vocalist slowly made his way down the hall. Kyo opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, he started to wobble, nearly falling onto his face.
"Totchi, this place is a disaster area!!" Kyo complained. "I could kill myself here!" Toshiya sighed.
"Fine… I’ll clean up. But you’re gonna tell me later what happened. Ok?" Kyo nodded as he regained his balance and resumed his journey towards the living room and his clothes.
* * *
Kaoru also woke to find himself in an unfamiliar bedroom. However, upon further inspection he did not recognize anything at all, nothing told him to whom the room belonged. He tried to sit up quickly, but went back down again due to a splitting headache and wave of dizziness that plagued him when he sat upright. Groaning, he rolled over and tried to get out of bed, only to have nausea settle over him.
"Note to self: don’t drink too much…" he muttered.
"That’s a good rule to live by, but sometimes hard to follow through on," a deep, calm voice from the other side of the bed spoke, startling Kaoru. He rolled over to his other side and looked up. Now that he was out of the hazy, smoke-filled bar he could recognize the person standing over him, offering him aspirin and coffee.
"Gackt… what are you doing here? What am I doing here?" Gackt met Kaoru’s confused eyes with his own amused ones. Kaoru reached up and took the coffee and aspirin from him, downing them both greedily.
"Good, you recognize me today. I live here… and since I don’t know where you live I had to bring you here when you passed out at the bar last night." Kaoru groaned.
"I passed out?" Gackt nodded.
"Before that you were saying some interesting things, though… I think I’d very much like to meet this Toshiya you kept speaking about."
"I was talking about Toshiya?" Gackt nodded again. Kaoru threw his arm over his head, hiding his eyes. "Geez, I’m so screwed up…"
"No more than the rest of us in the world. Just because you got drunk and started talking about your lover doesn’t make you a bad person," Gackt pointed out. Kaoru peeked at Gackt over his arm.
"Toshiya and I aren’t lovers," he said matter-of-factly. Gackt looked startled for a moment, but hid it well.
"I’m sorry, but the way you were speaking of him last night… It just seemed that you were." Kaoru shook his head sadly.
"No, though I really wish he was mine. He is in love with Kyo. He chose Kyo over me… And now I’m alone…" A fresh wave of depression that accompanied the hangover made Kaoru want to forget his little memo to himself and go out and get drunk all over again.
"I see…" Gackt let out a low whistle. He hadn’t experienced this kind of heartbreak, not since Mana had chosen Yu~ki… he pushed the sadness that came with the memory away, and focused on Kaoru. "I’m very sorry. You are welcome to stay here for as long as you need to recover…" Gackt thought over what he had just said. ‘Why am I telling him he can stay?’ Kaoru looked gratefully up at Gackt, who smiled reluctantly back, confused as to why he had made the offer in the first place.
"Really? I can really stay?" Kaoru cringed inwardly at how eager he sounded, but he really didn’t want to go home and face his empty apartment just yet. Gackt nodded.
"Yeah, sure. I’m not going to be here most of the time though, I have practice and interviews and we’re getting ready to go on tour… but hey, I trust you."
"Thank you, Gackt…"
* * *
"I’ll be right back, Shin-chan" Die called as he left the apartment. Shinya yelled something incoherent back and Die shut the door. He pulled his trench coat tightly around him and walked down the hall and out of the apartment building, trying not to look suspicious. "Can’t believe that I’m doing this…" he said to himself as he walked to the street where he said he’d meet them.
Leaning against a building, Die tried to act casually as he checked out everyone who passed. Not long after he arrived, two men clad in dark suits with a pin shaped like a rhombus on each one’s lapel walked up. The older of the two removed his sunglasses and looked at Die. Die bowed respectfully.
"Watanabe-san, it’s an honor…" he said. The one Die had addressed didn’t make a move to bow back.
"I don’t usually do this in person you know…" he said. Die nodded. "This is going to cost you, no matter how trivial it may be." Die made a sound of assent.
"I know, sir, and I’m prepared to pay ten-thousand right now." Watanabe looked satisfied for the moment.
"What is it that you need done?" he asked. Die took a deep breath.
"I need someone killed."
* * *
"Toshiya, you have to come and see this!" Kyo called from his spot at the computer. He had spent the last couple of hours on the internet for lack of something better to do with his time. He would be helping Toshiya clean, but he couldn’t walk around with his broken leg.
"Are you looking at porn, Kyo?" Toshiya demanded from the spare bedroom he had started to straighten up so that Kyo could have his own room.
"No! Just reading! Some of the stuff on here about us is crazy! The fans have very… vivid imaginations!" Toshiya walked out of the room and came up behind Kyo, resting a hand on his shoulder.
"What kind of stuff are you reading?" he asked the shorter man.
"Fanfiction." Toshiya ‘ooh’ ed. "This stuff is amazing! I mean, the stories, they’re so… insane!! Usually they have you and Kaoru paired up, along with Shinya and Die. Poor me…" Toshiya rubbed Kyo’s shoulder comfortingly.
"At least they got Shin-chan and Die right…"
"Yeah… but there’re some interesting ones about us on here too!" Kyo pulled up a window and scrolled down until he reached the point that he wanted. He grinned back at Toshiya and pointed to the screen. "I wanna do that!!"
"Hm?" Toshiya looked over Kyo’s shoulder and read the part that Kyo was pointing at. When he reached a certain point, he blushed to the roots of his hair. "Kyo!" he scolded, trying to keep the embarrassment from his voice. "You ARE looking up porn!"
"But can we do that? Huh? Can we?" Kyo was getting overly excited about something a fan had written about them in a lemon. Toshiya turned away.
"Maybe… later. MUCH later…" Toshiya still wasn’t comfortable with the whole physical closeness thing yet. It was still to early. Kyo nodded knowingly.
"Take as much time as you need, Totchi. Just know that I love you."
To Be Continued