Chapter Twenty Six ~Mukahi~

Warnings: Yaoi, Love, Angst, Fluff, and Lots of Sex. Some kink. You've been warned ;)

Disclaimer: Nope not mine. Still in my dreams. ;)

Mukahi Gakuto decided long ago that the problem with Oshitari Yuushi was that he was... strange. Gakuto had no problem with a person who was strange in a funny way that made you laugh, or even with someone who was a little strange some of the time, but Yuushi was that other kind of strange. The kind where you didn't laugh at what he said when he said it. Hell no, you laughed when he walked away. As soon as he was gone you laughed long and hard with your friends wondering what the in the hell the strange guy meant by that? And Yuushi wasn't just once in a while strange. He was strange all the time. Sometimes you got the feeling the genius was having a party in his head, but no one else was invited. And then you got the idea that because he thought he was so smart, Yuushi liked it that everyone thought he was strange. He thought it was cool to be weird. Stupid Yuushi actually liked everyone to think he had a few loose screws.

So people did think Yuushi was strange and they thought that maybe his head was just totally filled with so much tensai garbage about the mating habits of ibex and quadratic equations and that sort of stuff that Yuushi couldn't be bothered with acting normal. But it was more than that. Because if he couldn't be bothered to be normal then why in the hell did he go out of his way to act so weird? It was strange that someone would be called a genius by the teachers but then a minute later he wasn't at least smart enough to not make a stupid pun every time someone just casually asked how he was. You started to think he had an IQ that was only as high as the room temperature in centigrade after you asked him how was dinner and he made the same stupid joke every single day.

But then after you thought Yuushi was stupid, he would go out of his way to prove you wrong. He would say or do something brilliant. One of those genius tensai things that no one else in the world could ever come up with. An entirely new way of looking at everything and you would realize that Yuushi wasn't stupid at all. Nope. His brain was the one on when everyone else's wasn't. He was on and smarter than you. He was on, smarter than you, and smarter than you and everyone you ever knew put together. Yuushi would show everyone time and time again how stupid everyone was for thinking he was stupid. It was like Yuushi's little game. He'd act like an idiot and then go out of his way to prove that it was everyone else who was stupid. Which made everyone think Oshitari Yuushi was even more stupid and more strange because anyone who did that over and over was just...stupid!

The guy was a book genius sure but if there was a social skills IQ test and they added two points to his score, he'd be about a rock. It was damn annoying. Freshman year when he first arrived at Hyoutei like all the tennis club members early before classes started for practice, Yuushi was a geeky mess. Your appearance mattered at Hyoutei nearly as much as your family and their status. Goofy Yuushi's braces were so massive and glaring Gakuto asked Yuushi if he could use a cell phone or if the calls just came through his mouth. He wondered how the guy held his head up with all that metal and if he could get through security at an airport like that. It was like Yuushi had a Swiss army knife deluxe version rigged into his mouth. All right, so Yuushi did by the end of the second week lose the braces (though only strange Yuushi knows why he didn't get them off before anyone from school ever saw him). He was a little better after he stopped being a metal mouth and soon after that Yuushi got his hair cut into some kind of style. Then he was almost attractive but in a bookish hot nerdy teacher kind of way.

Oh yeah, almost attractive. Because even more annoying on top of the guy being so smart and so stupid, was the guy was almost attractive. Yuushi opened his mouth and that slow southern drawl spilled all over you like a snail on valium and still, even with that he was almost nearly attractive...until you listened to what he actually said and realized that most of the time his words didn't make any damn sense to anyone but himself. He looked better but he still acted the same geeky misfit way. Even with his almost good looks, being so smart and so socially inept all at the same time was about as useful as a chocolate frying pan. Gakuto felt sorry for Yuushi when he met him and decided to be nice to him. He was thinking that maybe someone ought to just tell him because maybe no one ever had before. This in itself, feeling sorry for someone and being nice to them, was a rare thing for Gakuto. About three weeks after arriving at Hyoutei, just before classes started, Gakuto took Yuushi aside.

He tried to hint to Yuushi to cut out both the jokes and the lame puns and everyone might like him but that didn't work. Stupid Yuushi looked back at Gakuto and made a stupid pun. So Gakuto figured the guy was not the sharpest knife in the drawer and he nicely told him how annoying and strange everyone thought he was because of how he acted. Stupid Yuushi made another joke. The guy didn't get it. He just didn't get it. And what was even worse, Yuushi still thought his stupid jokes and puns were funny. He really did. Gakuto finally told him as subtle as a well thrown brick that they weren't, that no one found them funny but Yuushi, and that he was almost attractive until he opened his mouth so he should do everyone a favor and keep it shut. But nothing worked. Yuushi kept doing the jokes and he continued with the puns! No one laughed but Yuushi who kept right on doing it. It didn't even seem to bother him that no one liked him and people avoided him. It was as if Yuushi also suffered from clue deficit disorder.

Gakuto gave up on him too. He tried to avoid him whenever possible because you can only hear the same bad pun three times before you wanted to knock the teeth out of the pun-telling-person. Gakuto had unfortunately found this out the hard way because while he avoided Yuushi, the tensai never avoided him. He actually looked for Gakuto and always walked up to him and started talking to him like they were friends. Gakuto vowed to never try to help anyone again. The first time Yuushi said a stupid pun you wondered what the hell he was saying. The second time you rethought it just to make sure it wasn't funny (still wasn't) and you didn't miss anything (you didn't). And the third time you heard the same one you considered which tooth of his to knock out first as he stood there grinning like an idiot as if waiting for you to get the joke. Stupid Yuushi. Easier to just avoid him completely.

Yeah, Gakuto did continue to gather information on him because Yuushi was a book smart guy and an all right tennis player even if socially his engine was running but no one was behind the wheel. Gakuto thought the goofy guy and his puns had the sex appeal of a wet paper bag but he was amazed freshman year to watch girls and guys throw themselves at Oshitari Yuushi.Gakuto figured they probably had to throw themselves at him in order to get his head out of a book or a hypothesis, and to make him shut up before he said some stupid joke they probably had to shove a tongue or some other body part in his mouth, but it somehow worked for him. He was no Atobe but Yuushi was never short of an enthusiastic bed warmer with ample choices to fill the vacant space when Yuushi was done with his latest one.

And Yuushi was done with each one very fast. Speed dating, your fifteen minutes are up fast. Even his dating was in a very strange Yuushi way. Gakuto would insinuate himself into comforting and befriending the rejected former lover for information like he always did with everyone. Yuushi's exes would always be completely perplexed wondering what happened. They would cry to Gakuto that things were fine and Yuushi one day just dumped them. He would toss them away like a used teabag and they would be devastated.

Odder still, Gakuto discovered that Yuushi would pose questions all the time to his lovers as if he was making a study out of them. It was the one thing each and every one of them had in common. Looks, gender, smarts, personality, everything else varied; Yuushi had no type but the tensai had a pattern. He would question every one of them with the same types of strange questions over and over again. They would tell him they loved him and he would ask them to describe what exactly that felt like. How love felt to them. He would inquire when exactly it was they first thought they felt love for him. The date and the time if they could remember. They would tell him that they missed him and he would question them intensely asking them why, when did these feelings start, and how exactly they felt. They said Yuushi even took notes! It wasn't really a love affair. More like they would throw themselves at him and he would agree and then question them for days and days. When his questioning was all done, he would then just coldly...dismiss them and move on to the next. See? Strange! The guy had all these flings but it was like he wasn't even involved in them. Really, sometimes Gakuto wondered if Yuushi was eating with only one chopstick.

Gakuto thought it was hilarious when Yuushi the beginning of the year went after Atobe. Gakuto thought at first Yuushi was just doing it for a stupid joke but then it appeared he was serious! Now that was funny, though only Yuushi didn't seem to think so. Calling Yuushi stupid for how he handled that would be an insult to stupid people. Atobe would never go for someone so...strange. Atobe had an ego like a black hole. He only wanted the best of everything and most of all he wanted what he couldn't have. Atobe loved a challenge. Oshitari in a move two socks short of a pair in front of nearly everyone told Atobe in that slow ambling way he had, "Atobe I'd like to make my intentions clear. I am interested in a romantic relationship with you." If Yuushi wanting him didn't kill Atobe's interest and appetite,then finding out up front there was no chase or challenge to getting Yuushi surely did. All right, true for some strange reason Atobe seemed to hang out with Yuushi for a short time and maybe something happened their freshman year, but maybe he just felt sorry for Yuushi too. Anyway, it didn't matter because once Atobe got a long look at Shishido, the tensai was yesterdays news and Oshitari was thrown out like the garbage.

He seemed to recover though supernaturally quick. It was over and he was all fine. Too fast and Gakuto scrambled to find out who Yuushi's rebound was because he must have had someone comforting him after his humiliating loss of Atobe to Shishido. Shishido was no genius and sure the guy was hot and all but who the hell could take his perpetual angry attitude and constant bad mood? It was only Atobe's own monstrous ego, so bloated and swollen it had stretch marks, that probably made Atobe not even notice Shishido's constant foul temper thing that he had going on. But no matter how hard Gakuto dug, he found nothing on who Yuushi's new sex kitten was. He dug harder, searched for months trying to find out and still no news came. The year ended, the summer passed, the new school year started and still, no info. No names. No new person. It was as if Yuushi went celibate suddenly. Gakuto finally offered double the money or double the information for any details on who it was because a student who liked Yuushi was willing to pay very handsomely.

That same day the beginning of their Junior year Gakuto put out the double offer, that was the day Oshitari Yuushi showed up at his door. He knocked and Gakuto figured at first Yuushi had found out and was furious. But he showed up smiling as if he wanted to chat. Gakuto thought Yuushi must be looking to buy some information on his latest minx.He was thrilled and believed he could tease the information out of Yuushi for free and get paid. He was excited by this and invited Yuushi inside. They sat down and he got Yuushi some tea. Oddly, the tensai did not make any lame jokes or comments. Not even about the bad smell in their room. Gakuto sat facing him and said, "So, Yuushi, what can I do you for?" Yuushi seemed to seriously consider the question. Seriously and painfully slowly consider it. Gakuto started squirming. He hated having to sit still and watch while someone thought. Someone apparently thinking so slow that if he went any slower his mind would be going in reverse. In fact Yuushi was just sitting there starting stupidly at Gakuto. Gakuto squirmed again and thought he could carry on a better conversation with a houseplant. Finally he said, "What, are you doing aerobics in your head? What do you want Yuushi?"

"I'm in love Gakuto." He drawled so slow Gakuto thought he would have to put stakes in the ground to measure the progress as his words crept out. Then he realized what Yuushi said. Oh? Well that was a start. Hell yeah. The tensai sipped his tea finally and immediately put it down. He must not like oolong. "Believe I should go back to the beginning. Although before I tell you anything I need to know if your offer still stands?"

"Offer? What offer?" Gakuto was suspicious but ready to deal. He had that one student as well as several Yuushi hopefuls willing to pay and if it was really good info he could first auction off the info for the highest price to one person and then sell it a day or two later to everyone else. This was wonderful.

"I'm more than willing to tell you everything, anything you want to know about me in fact, but I want to take you up on your offer. Twice the normal info. I believe? To find out who it is that I'm now in love with? My rebound? Correct?" Yuushi adjusted his glasses which gleamed for a moment. Glasses Gakuto knew from his info stupid Yuushi didn't even need. Everyone else on earth who needed glasses got contacts, only stupid Yuushi who didn't need them thought glasses were cool and wore them. Yuushi was like the anti-cool. Whatever he thought was swanky and in, the opposite was. If cool were a country Yuushi would be trying to travel without a passport, held up in customs, and deported right back to Yuushi-land. Alone. "But I have to tell you Gakuto, its not a rebound. This time its the real thing. I am in love."

"Err...right, sure Yuushi." Gakuto waited for the inevitable joke or pun. Yuushi just kept sitting there. He finally crossed his legs like he had all year to sit there. Gakuto started to feel more suspicious and his cash crop hopes died. He sighed. "Fine Yuushi. Just go ahead and say whatever it is you want to say. Get it out of your system." Yuushi obviously had heard of Gakuto's offer and it amused him. So he came over here to share his latest witticism or pun with Gakuto who probably wouldn't get it and certainly wouldn't find it funny.

"Do we have a deal on the information? Twice the usual amount?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever Yuushi. You tell me the truth and not some stupid joke and you'll get paid." Gakuto rolled his eyes. This was a waste of time and tea.

"I need to make completely certain. The person I need information about is extremely hard to get anything on. I know the basics, actually I know a good deal more than the basics, but not even I can find the rest. I want to know everything about this person. There are holes and data with holes is skewed." Gakuto looked at him waiting for the inevitable pun. It dawned on Gakuto that Yuushi might be serious but he knew better than to completely get his hopes up. Why Yuushi would want to trade information giving stuff up on himself instead of paying for what he wanted Gakuto had no idea. The guy's family was loaded but then again, this was Yuushi. Strange.

Gakuto said, "I'm the best. I can get you everything on anyone. You have info, you'll get what you want."

"All right then. I'm in love with...no. I need to go back to the beginning. I'm getting ahead of myself. If I tell you the entire story it might make it easier for you to give me specifically what I need in return."

"Right. I can only get you what you want when you tell me what that is. All the information you can give me will only help me to help you." Gakuto gave a practiced smile at the end of his line. It was one of Gakuto's more often repeated sales pitches. He never added that extra info people sometimes unwittingly told him was still free.Info was a lucrative business. Especially at Hyoutei. Yuushi only nodded. The tensai seemed not too tightly wrapped today. He was being stranger than normal and for Yuushi that was damn strange.

"Remember last year?" Yuushi paused as if waiting for a response. Gakuto nodded but was annoyed. Of course he remembered last year! He wondered if Yuushi was the result of a first cousin marriage. "I decided that last year I wanted to fall in love. However, seeing how most of our classmates' love lives are so, temporary and dysfunctional, and how the resulting breakups are so detrimental to their lives and happiness, I decided that I would fall in love properly. I studied love. I read everything I could find from dissertations to romance novels to self-help guides and I've watched countless hours of romantic movies from around the world. I've also dated and experimented extensively as you know and I've discovered some universal truths about love." Gakuto had to keep from rolling his eyes as Yuushi went off on this latest tangent. He nodded as if he was listening fully. He wasn't. He was waiting for the damn name.

Yuushi took a sip of tea and made a small face of distaste. Gakuto had to keep from smiling. Yuushi said, "Love, when it works, when its right, at its most romantic, usually begins with one person falling first with the other person. I'll call the one who first falls the faller and the other the fallee. The fallee is always reluctant to fall in love. Sometimes in the beginning the fallee even despises the faller. Those are the best stories." Yuushi smiled and his eyes behind his stupid glasses went all goofy too like a puppy dog. Stupid Yuushi. "The faller first saves the fallee who redeems the faller in some way. After they are saved, the fallee falls completely in love with the faller and its a real, true, lasting love. The kind that very few ever are fortunate enough to experience. The kind that lasts forever." Yuushi shifted and switched crossed legs. "I set out to find my fallee, my perfect reluctant love. At first I assumed it would be a woman because it would certainly be simpler and more socially acceptable. However, because it would be so easy and due of the nature of women, it would be difficult if not impossible to find a reluctant woman who could resist my many charms." Gakuto had to keep from sticking his finger down his throat and gagging himself. Instead he smiled as if what Yuushi was saying was the most fascinating thing he had ever heard. It worked on everyone, students, parents, teachers, and even tensais.

"Am I boring you Gakuto? You have that look on your face you make when Atobe starts talking about how spectacular he is." Oh. Maybe not Yuushi. Stupid Yuushi. It was a good look too! Everyone else was fooled.

"No, please, continue." Gakuto said and wished he could reach the scab on his shin to pick at it. It itched and would be nice and distracting. He had on long pants though. He tried to find something interesting on Yuushi to look at and couldn't find anything.

"So I decided it would not be woman because that would be too simple. Next I tried to find my perfect reluctant partner among the men here. Here there are some of the most elite members of society as you know. There are many beautiful people to choose from..." Yadda yadda yadda, Gakuto thought as he droned on and on, Yakkity Yakkity Yakkity Yuushi...

"As you know, at first I believed I had found my answer in Atobe. At the time he had never been in love. Oh, that was also important for my equation. I wanted and required a fallee who has never been in love. Not real love anyway. It has to be both our first times being in love. So that we get it precisely right the first time. Perhaps even better was if it was someone who thought they had been in love. Atobe though would even have been too easy. He desperately wants someone who is his equal and who can surprise and dominate him on occasion. Plus there is the disadvantage of dealing with a narcissist for the rest of my life which is a definitive drawback to seriously choosing him. Atobe though beautiful would also be too easy. You top him and he's yours. So I went through the rest of the tennis team and there he was, the person I was meant to fall in love with sitting right under my nose the entire time. The moment I figured it out, it was so clear it was stunningly simple, elegant, and brilliant. I realized I had feelings for him all along. This person is perfect for me and I am perfect for him. Its real true love. I have no idea how I ever missed it before."

Gakuto thought that wasn't all stupid Yuushi missed, the tensai was a couple of togas short of an orgy. He cut to the point so he wouldn't have to pretend to listen to him anymore, "All right, you're really in love Yuushi. I get it. Who is the lucky guy?" Poor bastard. Having to listen to Yakkity Yuushi all the time.Yuushi was probably the kind of guy who liked to talk about his feelings too. Gakuto tried not to give a little shudder at that thought. He was less than pleased. The highest bidder for Yuushi's info was this girl in his English class. Perhaps he could still tell her though to be more of a challenge. Sometimes women liked the challenge of trying to 'turn' a gay guy straight. He could sell it like that. Maybe. He'd have to present it juuuust right. Gakuto was so caught up in his latest scheme that he didn't hear Yuushi for a moment. "I'm sorry, who?"

"I said its you, Gakuto. I'm in love with you."

Gakuto nearly exploded. "You IDIOT! You wasted all that time for some stupid joke! What'd you do Yuushi, forget to pay your brain bill this month!" He stood up and seriously thought of punching the stupid tensai in the face just to break his stupid useless glasses.

Yuushi just sat there calmly and said, "I'm not joking, Gakuto. I love you."

This stupid joke had gone too far! Stupid Yuushi never knew when to quit. "Yuushi, what the hell are you talking about? As usual you've got your head so far up your ass you could chew your food twice!"

"Now that you know, I'd like my information." Yuushi adjusted his glasses as if Gakuto wasn't standing in front of him screaming at him. "Please."

"You gave me nothing so you get nothing. Stop wasting my time Yuushi! Are you always so stupid or is today a special occasion?"

"Do you really hate me so much Gakuto?" Yuushi looked odd. Like he was upset. This was a lie. This was such crap. Yuushi was just taking one of his stupid tensai jokes that no one else got too far. Like always.

"This isn't funny Yuushi. I already told you a million times, you are not funny!"

"I'm not trying to be funny and I am not making fun of you. I'm also not wasting your time." Yuushi was standing now and held Gakuto's shoulders probably to keep all the noise from Gakuto's yelling from making the tensai's ears ring. Good, Gakuto thought, he hoped his ears rang for the next week. Stupid Yuushi and his stupid jokes. "Please sit down Gakuto."

Just then Gakuto's phone rang. "I have to answer that." Gakuto said and walked away.

Or he started to until Yuushi said in a strange angry way, "Tell Sato I said hello."

Then Gakuto stopped and turned on him. "I don't know what you know or think you know but you're wrong Yuushi,we're just friends..."

"No you're not. You've been seeing him the entire time he's been dating and living with Taki. Actually, that isn't true. You've been having sex with him the entire time he's been dating and living with Taki. He only dated you a few weeks before he walked up to your then best friend Taki and confessed. He told Taki he loved him and had been in love with him in front of everyone. Including you. And somehow after all this time, you're still having sex with him and letting him use you."

Gakuto was in shock. Someone knew. Someone who lived with both Taki and Sato. Oh no. Someone knew everything including the time line which only Sato and Gakuto knew. Sato had threatened Gakuto that he would be very angry about if Gakuto ever told anyone. Sato would never tell. He was never going to leave Taki. At first Gakuto had stayed with him because he believed the things Sato said about love and him leaving Taki, but he didn't any more. Sato didn't even make excuses or promises to Gakuto like he used to. He never even said he would leave Taki. Not anymore. Now he didn't even bother.

Now he only called Gakuto for two reasons. One was when things between him and Taki were good and he wanted to have rough sex with Gakuto until Gakuto screamed in pain. Or two, much rarer, when things with them were bad and he was sweet and loving with Gakuto--after having rougher sex and usually making Gakuto scream more. Sato was so sweet and nice to Taki all the time because he would then call Gakuto and be his true ugly twisted bastard self. He could hurt Gakuto and pretend to be nice with Taki. Taki got the best of him and Gakuto got everything else.

Gakuto had known that Sato didn't love him like he used to tell him for a long time. Sato hurt him far too many times for him to think different, but Gakuto couldn't stop seeing him. Not just because he loved him or any crap like that, but because Sato had threatened him if he ever did try to stop. Sato was enough of a bastard to really hurt Gakuto. He hurt him bad enough now. If Gakuto tried to leave Sato would hurt him probably worse than anyone else ever had. Already Sato wanted to do rougher and rougher things. He liked to hurt during sex. If he ever found out things about Gakuto's past he would never stop. Sato always threatened he would tell Taki who would hate Gakuto and Sato would never let him go. But the biggest threat, even worse than leaving, was if Gakuto ever told. If Taki ever found out, Gakuto would be dead, of course after being slowly sexually tortured. Sato wouldn't let Gakuto go without a little fun for himself first. He realized he had been standing there stunned for a few seconds, "That's...that's not true Yuushi!"

Gakuto was in a little bit of a panic. If he didn't answer the phone now Sato would be angry and very hurtful when they met later for their weekly torture sex session. Gakuto had been busy and was forced by Atobe who ordered extra practices for him to miss their last few together. It was a welcome relief but Gakuto was already dreading the evening. He hadn't been able to sleep well for the last week knowing it was coming up. Gakuto's cell phone started ringing and Yuushi had taken Gakuto's shoulders again and wouldn't let him go. Yuushi looked at him, "Isn't it?" He held him fast and would not let him go. Yuushi wasn't hurting him but Sato would later. Gakuto was really afraid now as his cell phone stopped and played the tune it had when he had a message. A moment later his other phone rang again. "So how does it work Gakuto? I know Sato beat up your last guy. Do I have to beat him up to win you? That is how it works, correct?"

That was what usually happened. Gakuto had always been the smallest guy, smaller than many girls, and tended to get picked on. Having one guy who jealously guarded you was better than five or ten of them who didn't care at all how bad you were hurt. Gakuto knew that first hand. He wasn't in love with whoever he was with but they usually liked him back. Enough not to really hurt him. If they treated him bad then Gakuto settled on a new person and made eyes at them. They would beat his current up and take his place. Sato though had told him he loved him the night he beat up his then guy. Gakuto hadn't even flirted with him or really noticed him. Then a few weeks later, the day after they had full sex because Sato said he wanted to wait, Sato said in front of everyone he was in love with Taki. He said to Gakuto it was just because they were roommates and Taki had mental problems. Sato said a lot of things. Eventually he got Gakuto back and things went from unhappy to miserable to worse which was how they were now. By the third ring of the third call, Gakuto was struggling as if his life depended on it. His health certainly did. "Let me go! I have to answer it! You don't understand! You don't know anything! Let me go!"

"No." Yuushi said looking thoughtfully stupid, "I don't think so. You haven't answered my questions yet Gakuto. Our deal. Remember?"

"Fine...let me get the phone. Let me get the phone and I'll tell you whatever you want to know." he begged. Now again his cell phone was ringing. He was dead. Sato was going to hurt him so bad...

"I already told you no. You answer my questions and then I'll let you get the phone."

"What? WHAT!" Hurry stupid! Gakuto thought desperately.

"First question," Gakuto thought insanely that Yuushi was just questioning him like he did with everyone else he dated and then he would leave and let Gakuto go. The guy had no heart or morals. Damn it! "Why do you let him hurt you?"

Gakuto looked at him shocked again. No one knew he and Sato were having sex let alone that it hurt. He had to stop being shocked and answer stupid Yuushi who was going to get him killed. "Maybe I like it." Gakuto couldn't believe a stupid question like that. How stupid. "Maybe I don't have any choice. He is bigger than me! You don't know what he's like! You have no idea! Now let me get the phone!"

"Second question, why did you delete so much of your records and leave holes for people to stumble across deleted data. You're more intelligent than that. Did you want someone to find out?"

Gakuto was so shocked he forgot to be afraid of Sato. He stopped struggling and didn't even notice that Yuushi stopped holding him so tightly and then dropped his hands to let him go. This was Gakuto's worst nightmare come to haunt him and it came in the stupid form of Oshitari Yuushi. Wait. No. There was no way Yuushi meant what he was implying. "What? I never leave holes. I'm the best. You're lying..."

"You left a back door to your hospital records open. Why? Did you really want someone to know? Because...I know Gakuto." And stupid Yuushi gave him a look of pure pity.

He knew. Gakuto felt his spine turn to ice. He felt sick. He was going to be sick. He kept the records he couldn't erase very safe and locked up. This could not be happening! No. Not again. Not here. No one could know. Gakuto had worked really hard so that it never happened again and never followed him anywhere. No one could know. He hung his head down and realized only then that Yuushi had let him go. Sato and the ringing phone would have to wait. One horrible thing at a time. No one could know.

"Get out." Gakuto said softly and waited for the earth to swallow him up. Yuushi could easily blackmail him into anything. And Gakuto would do anything so that no one else ever knew. He would give him any information, money, give him his body to do with as he liked, anything just so it never...

Gakuto felt the ice down his spine crack into a furious rage. How dare stupid Yuushi threaten him? "GET OUT!" He pushed the surprised tensai back. "Get the hell out! Stay the hell away from me! Don't you ever talk to me again do you understand me!" In his fury and fear of what Yuushi would do now that he knew, Gakuto picked up the ringing phone. "Hold on!" He yelled into it and turned back to Yuushi, "Don't you ever come near me again. If you even try to use that against me I swear I'll...!"

"No Gakuto I..." Yuushi still looked stunned and he interrupted before Gakuto could say kill him. At that moment Gakuto seriously could have. Yuushi was probably going to stupidly say he loved him but Gakuto held the phone out so Sato would hear whatever he said. "All right Gakuto, for now I'll leave you alone. I'm sorry if I upset you and I want you to know..."

"NO! Not for now! For ever! GET OUT and leave me ALONE!" Yuushi walked away slowly. His door closed quietly and he picked up the phone terribly upset. "Sato I..."

"Sorry slut, its not Sato, its your former best friend. You know the former best friend whose boyfriend you've been having sex with behind his back this entire time? I'm just calling to tell you that I know and Sato knows I know and he's on his way over to see you right now. He's not in a good mood. I'm sure you know that can't be good news for you. Oh, and I may have mentioned that it was you who told me about him and you. Have a good night, slut." Taki hung up.

Gakuto stood there stupidly for a few seconds when he should have been running away as far and as fast as his legs could carry him. He had no idea how everything started crashing in on him all at once but it had. He had no idea how long his phone had been ringing or how close Sato was. He just knew he was going to be tortured and then probably killed or worse, he would soon wish he was dead. Help. Please? Gakuto thought.

He thought frantically of where he could go and who he could go to but there was no one. Even though he knew that once again, no one would be coming, he begged, "Somebody please help me..." He whispered in a whine. He was alone but wouldn't be for long. He had to remember not to panic. If he panicked like last time he would never get away. He had to get away. Or hide. He could try to hide again. They found him last time but maybe they wouldn't this time. He first locked the door and then started looking for options.

A chair or dresser in front of the door even if he could manage would only show that he was home. He was on the third floor so jumping out the window was out too. It was too far to jump and run and not far enough to be sure he'd be killed. He looked for a place to hide. Somewhere safe. Somewhere no one would find him. Anywhere. Under the bed was out. Then he knew. Just like when he was little. The stench from opening the closet where Kabaji had his things was horrible. The guy never did his laundry. Not once since the summer. Their room stank and Gakuto was constantly blasting air freshener spray though it did no good. He kept his things out of the closet and kept that door shut. Kabaji just wore things until they were rank and bought new ones. The smell from his dirty sweaty tennis clothes alone was noxious and disgusting. It made front row with Imoo-sensei during summer session look like a day at the beach. He now crawled way back deep into the closet. Crying, trembling, and gagging Gakuto crawled into the farthest back corner of the closet and made himself into as small a ball as he possibly could which for someone flexible like him was very, very tiny. He burrowed down deeper under the disgusting clothes. Some on the bottom had by the stench started to mold and mildew. He gagged and nearly threw up but kept burrowing and covering himself as if his life depended on it because it just might. He rocked himself without realizing he was doing it and only froze when about two minutes later he heard banging noises on the front door. He let out one tiny terrified whimper and then knew he had to be quiet or they would find him again. He tried to breathe normally but he was hyperventilating when the door was broken open. Gakuto couldn't get enough air and was buried alive.

He heard crashing sounds. Then he heard more noises as they were looking for him but couldn't find him. He thought for a moment, for just a second he might be safe but then the closet door opened and he whimpered in terror as he was found again. Rough hands grabbed him and yanked him out. He was yelled at and struck across the face and he tasted his own blood as his cheek hit his teeth. He was thrown onto Kabaji's bed and Gakuto realized that it was Sato. Just Sato. He used to once say he loved Gakuto so maybe it wouldn't be that bad this time. Maybe...

But then Sato snarled, "And what did I say we were going to do if Taki ever finds out?" Gakuto's mouth opened in a silent scream of no but nothing came out. All those times screaming with Sato and just yelling at Yuushi had made his voice raw and hoarse and he was so terrified that he peed on himself because Gakuto knew Sato was going to do it. Sato was really going to do it. He pulled Gakuto's hair roughly and said, "What did I say I was going to use in you if Taki ever finds out? What? I didn't hear you Gakuto. Say it." Gakuto shook his head no and was hit in the stomach this time. "Say it..." Sato sang it as if it was a nice thing he wanted Gakuto to say. He had knocked the wind out of him so all Gakuto could do was mouth it while Sato said the words for him. "Fist. My fist. That's right." Sato smiled and then his smile turned even uglier. "Now you're going to pay because I know it was you who told him..."

Gakuto couldn't see and still could barely breathe between being hit and crying so hard. Sato was roughly ripping his clothes off him. Trying to hurt him even doing that. He didn't even remove his own as if showing Gakuto that he had the part of himself he intended to hurt him with already naked. Gakuto realized he couldn't go through this again. He just couldn't. He wasn't going to be able to get through this. He should have done a thousand things a thousand ways differently and now it was again too late. No matter what he did or how he fought he was going to be hurt again. Gakuto just helplessly lay there and waited for the terrible pain to come again. Maybe Sato would kill him and then he wouldn't have to try to recover from this again because there was no way he could. Sato's weight was off him and Gakuto in terror instinctively curled up little into a ball waiting for Sato to punish him for even more for that little bit of moving. Sato probably was taking his pants off or looking for something to hit him with again that would hurt and leave marks. Gakuto whimpered at the pain that was going to come, this waiting was a new kind of horror. He sobbed and waited and rocked himself without really knowing he was doing it.

On to Chapter 27!!