Ghost Hunt 
by No. 13

It was with an exhausted sigh that Tezuka Kunimitsu bade his parents goodbye on Sunday evening. Convincing them to go home that early had taken a lot out of him – or what had been left of his energy after the myriad of tests, examinations and other sessions the doctors had seen it fit to put him through.

Thankfully, the test marathon hadn’t been for naught. He’d been declared fit, with the notable exception of his stab wound of course, but since that was uninfected and healing rather nicely, chances were good that he could be discharged tomorrow or the day after.

His parents’ nerves too, had been soothed – at least regarding his condition. There were still shadows on everyone’s faces the moment Fuji’s name was mentioned. All day there had been no update on his condition and after the shocking visit in the morning, Tezuka hadn’t wanted to expose his parents to such a scene again.

Even though if he hadn’t been able to banish the images from his mind for the entire day. Fuji had been so terribly pale and; well, looked so small on that hospital bed with all those machines surrounding him.

Hopefully, he too, was getting better.

At least he was alive. And had been conscious, if only for a short time. Compared to his poor, poor sister …

Gathering his last energy reserves Tezuka pushed himself up and reached for the crutches. He wouldn’t be sleeping tonight with this morning’s and last night’s pictures haunting him. Maybe he could exchange a few words with Fuji – or just watch him sleep peacefully for once.

Hold that small hand for some minutes …

Curious, Tezuka thought with a grim smirk as he carefully pushed his room’s door open and searched the corridor for potential obstacles, it was his stomach that had been stabbed. But it was his heart that was constantly been torn apart by whirling emotions.

There were no nurses in sight, so Tezuka hurried to make his way to the lift. The moment he was off his station and within the artificially lightened hospital corridors the probability to encounter a person who’d send him back to his bed was small.

Still, the way up took quite some time and the smell of antiseptics seemed to grow stronger with every step he took. And the nurse that admitted him to the station was eyeing him somewhat suspiciously, but grew quite warm when he told her he was there to see a friend.

With sweat beading his forehead, Tezuka finally arrived at the door to Fuji’s room, which wasn’t quite closed. And the voice floating through made Tezuka stop from reaching for the door handle.

He’d heard that voice already earlier today; it had been rather calm and stoic then – which was why he almost didn’t recognize it in the beginning.

Fuji Yuuta was in there. And quite upset.

“… what the hell have you been thinking? Have you been thinking at all?”

While Fuji Yuuta was audibly displeased, he couldn’t stop his voice from trembling. He sounded far more shocked than he had appeared all day long, what made Tezuka wonder, if Yuuta had really been that calm previously.

Or whether he, too, according to what seemed to be an odd sort of a family tradition, had simply worn his own version of the Fuji mask.

Tezuka couldn’t hear if there was a response, but there seemed to have been one.

“Yes, I know! I know! But, honestly, aniki! Did one of you actually stop and think about the consequences? I mean, I’m already used to both of you sort of ignoring the situation at hand, but at least…”

The short silence implied that Yuuta must have been cut off by his older brother. Tezuka felt uncomfortable, standing before the door and listening in, and should somebody come by, he’d be hard-pressed for a good explanation, but …

“It’s not that bad?!”

Yuuta sounded as disbelieving as Tezuka felt.

“It’s not that bad?! Aniki, look at yourself before saying ridiculous things like that! You’re can’t even get up without help and let’s not mention Nee-san! Do you… do you even…”

Trailing of, the rest of the sentence disappeared into a choked silence. This time, Tezuka was sure, there were tears in Yuuta’s eyes.

And the next sentence sounded badly pressed; and was punctured by irregular gasps.

“Not as bad as back then. Really, aniki, do you even remember how bad that was? You weren’t even conscious for most of the procedure, but … you didn’t see mom’s face then. And anyways, this is bad enough.”

Another silence.

“Yes, I know you’ll get better and Nee-san also will wake up, but still… what if things hadn’t worked out? No, and even though I don’t know what happened in detail, you wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been a close call.”

Biting his lip, Tezuka wondered whether he should just knock and walk in – ear-dropping on this increasingly private conversation felt, curiosity aside, rather wrong.

“And you promised. Aniki, both you and Nee-san promised you wouldn’t do this again. Or at least not on this scale – but both of you keep ignoring what the doctors said back then, you pretend everything is alright and … and…”

Yuuta’s voice was cracking. Now was definitely not a good time to interrupt, Tezuka decided, swallowing the lump of fear stuck in his own throat. He ought to step back and wait somewhere else, at least until Yuuta had calmed down –

But he found himself unable to take even a step away. Because, even though he technically wasn’t supposed to know, Yuuta’s words had send a cold shiver down his spine. He would not find any rest tonight without knowing what the younger Fuji was implying, if there was some grave condition concerning his beloved friend that he wasn’t aware of, if …

“… and someday it’s all going to take its toll and where will you be then? If not for yourself then at least think of Mom and Dad, your friends, me! How did you think I felt when the hospital called?!”

A soft cough resounded and Tezuka automatically stiffened. He wanted to go in there and finally look at Fuji, and calm his mounting fears-

“Please, aniki, promise me, you won’t ever do this again! Promise me! Because I don’t want to see the day where somebody calls to inform me that you and Nee-san didn’t make it…”

For a moment, Tezuka’s breath caught. Once more memories flashed in front of his eyes, once again he saw a stranger’s expression on Fuji’s face, felt that motionless body resting in his arms and it had felt so small, so insubstantial – to think that somebody who played such a large part in his life, his heart, was bound to such a frail body…

“… you should better rest now, aniki. I need to go back anyways. I’ll come and see you tomorrow…”

Fuji Yuuta’s voice had evened out. Drawing a deep breath and praying to avoid any red-rimmed eyes Tezuka gathered his courage and knocked before opening the door.

“Tezuka-san.” Yuuta’s cheeks were red-flecked, but otherwise he looked as composed as he had earlier that day. Obviously, he was more apt at acting than Tezuka ever had expected him to be. Who’d ever have thought that easily excitable Fuji Yuuta could pull a stoic face that put Tezuka’s own to shame?

He didn’t dare to look at his friend yet.

“Good evening.” Tezuka politely said, “Am I intruding?”

Yuuta’s facial didn’t change, but the fact that he didn’t reply immediately spoke volumes. But before Yuuta could think of any polite excuse to send Tezuka away and let his brother finally get some rest, said brother cheerfully interrupted.

“No, not at all! Yuuta, let him come in!”

The pleased tone did not at all agree with the colour of Fuji’s face. Only one surprised glance at his friend’s face made Tezuka anxious to convince Fuji to lie at least down, and not to exhaust himself any further.

But Fuji ignored both Tezuka’s and Yuuta’s disbelieving expressions. Waving Tezuka over, he gestured to the chair beside his bed.

“Come on, come on, Tezuka! Sit down here, those crutches can’t be all that comfortable!”

But looking at that smiling face, the scrunched up eyes, Tezuka found that he was looking at a skilfully crafted mask. Still, he automatically obeyed and stepped forward, past a disgruntled looking Yuuta.

“Take care on your way back, Yuuta!” Fuji said, still smiling as if he had not a care in the world.

Rolling his eyes slightly, Fuji Yuuta only nodded, bit his lip and left the room with one worried glance backwards. He had not said all the things he wanted to, no, but somehow with his brother he rarely managed to get his point across. Neither was he too happy with the fact, that Syusuke wouldn’t be getting any rest immediately – because no matter what he might have been saying, Yuuta could tell his brother was beyond exhausted.

Still, Tezuka was a sensible person - even if he had somehow gotten mixed up in one of his siblings’ stranger adventures. Yuuta was going to trust him. For now.

Anyways, he still wanted to pay Nee-san a visit.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have suggestions or comments, please share them with me.

On to Chapter 20~