Puzzle
Author
: himu
Pairing
: hyde x tetsu - for this part -
Author's
notes :
- A
big Thank You to those of you who'd commented on part
2 of this fic!! I do love you so much and am sorry for
the procrastination...><x I hope people still remember
such fic existed...|||
- hyde-sama's
getting married, yeah. Congratulations! But it's not gonna
stop me from slashing him...*kekeke*
- Grammar
mistakes are mine, Laruku aren't. *sigh*
Part
3
My
lover isn't exactly known for his mellow or patient temper.
He is
strong, intelligent, willful, and sometimes just a bit whiny.
But he
rarely gets angry with me. Of course we have our conflicts,
"lovers'
spats" as others may have called; but these little
fights usually do
nothing but made him pout and me frown. He'd walk around
the house
slamming things, while I glue my eyes to the TV and watch
things like
EVA again and again, forcing myself to not pay any attention
to him,
until he can't stand it any longer and comes to apologize.
And then
we'd kiss and try to sort things out, and everything would
be fine.
Never anything serious, really.
And that's why I stood rigid, startled, as he busted through
the
door, slamming it shut behind him with a loud bang, and
glared at me,
his beautiful face scowling darkly. Was it hurt I saw in
his eyes?
"Hyde, you're back!" I moved closer to him, hiding
my worry and
smiling. "What's the matter?"
He was silent for a moment, and I could tell he was fuming.
Then
finally he growled, "Come!" My eyes widened as
he stomped up to me
and grabbed my wrist, and before I could say anything, dragged
me to
our living room.
"Hyde, let-let go!" Once there I jerked my hand
away roughly, for he
didn't seem he was going to release it any time soon. The
faint pain
on my wrist and his sudden strange behavior made me a little
irritated as well. "What's wrong with you?!"
"What's wrong with /me/?" Hyde snarled. He looked
positively furious,
but I refused to be intimidated. He then threw something
on the
coffee table so hard I wouldn't be surprised if the table
split apart
right then and there. "What's the meaning of /this/!!"
I watched him as he took in a deep breath, trying to calm
down. Then
he went into the kitchen and snatched a glass, filled it
with ice
water, and started sipping. I could hear his heavy breathing
even in
the living room.
Then I looked over to the poor coffee table. The thing that
my lover
obviously hated lay silently on the glass surface. A magazine.
It
looked sleazy as all the tabloid magazines do, its cover
crowded with
huge printed words and colliding colors. I walked over and
picked it
up. What was printed right on the center, taking up more
than one
half of the paper, was an enlarged photo of... /me/, dining
with
Kaori-chan. She was smiling and one of her slender hand
was at the
corner of my mouth, apparently wiping at it with a napkin.
I was
smiling as well. Beside the photo, big words in red screamed
'SHOCK!!
tetsu <L'Arc~en~Ciel> and Mochida Kaori <Every
Little Thing> SECRET
DATE!!'.
The first thought that flashed through my mind was "What's
so 'shocking' about this?" Then my startled hands dropped
the
magazine, and I stood dumbfounded for a moment. I didn't
even bother
to read what was written inside the article; I could guess.
Of course, I remember the 'dinner date'. It was only yesterday.
Hyde
had been away to Wakayama to visit his parents-I had declined
his
invitation to go with him-and so I was alone at home, fiddling
with a
guitar while watching some old video, generally doing nothing
constructive. It didn't take me long to become bored. And
so when
Kaori-chan, ex-lover and now a good friend, called me and
asked me
out for dinner, sounding distressed and almost in tears,
I agreed at
once.
Turned out she was having too much pressure from work, and
the
problem she was having with her current boyfriend didn't
help much
either. And she asked me, nine years her senior, for advises.
We
talked and talked, until at last she broke into a smile.
Then we said
good-bye.
All during this time I never discovered there were reporters
following us. How could I have been so stupid? I felt my
head began
aching as I imagined hordes of reporters crowding into the
office
building, and my managers yelling at me for an answer they
would not
believe. Just 'good friends'? Yeah, sure.
But there was no time to worry about that at this moment.
My major
concern had come out to the living room again, and was now
leaning
against the wall facing me. He was wearing an expression
that I've
come to know well: absolute fury skillfully kept in check.
I began, "Look, Hyde, this is not what you think."
He looked down, then lifted his eyes to meet mine again.
He has the
most extraordinary eyes. "I can't believe you, Tet-chan."
"I..."
"I can't believe you could be so /naive/ as to actually
believe /her/."
I blinked. "What?"
"It's a game for her," He continued calmly, looking
at me squarely in
the eyes. "Don't you see? She's used you."
It took me a few seconds to recognize his meaning, and I
stood still,
shocked. "What...What on earth are you talking about?"
"It's so obvious," he spitted out every word as
if he hated every one
of them. "Why else would she all of a sudden come to
you again? ELT's
just released a new album, and this," he gestured to
the magazine
with a wave of his hand, "is her means of promotion!"
I tried to speak but no sounds came out.
He was still looking at me, unyielding.
"No..." Finally I said, trying to make my mind
think clearly. "No, it
can't be. Kaori-chan is not that kind of person. I know
she isn't."
"Hmph...Kaori-chan."
"She had troubles and asked me for help, that's all.
It can't be what
you think. It /can't/."
Slowly, he gave me an unexpected smile, in which I could
detect no
mirth. "You'll always side with her, won't you, Tet-chan?"
And it suddenly dawned on me that Hyde wasn't angry for
his 'my-
lover's-been-used-for-promotion' theory, not at all.
I felt my hands shaking, and I gripped them hard. "You
are jealous,
Hyde. You are just jealous."
He ran a hand through his long dark hair irritably and moved
his
burning gazes away from me. "...Yes I am. How can I
not be?" He
glared at me again. "I leave for one day and comes
back to find my
lover reunited with his ex-girlfriend. Do you expect me
to just smile
and shrug? Well I can't! What else did you do yesterday
night that
was /not/ reported by this magazine?!"
I was wordless as I listened to his accusing words. My knees
weren't
holding me up, and I needed to sit down. I didn't. Helplessness
I
suddenly felt, and I heard myself saying, "Oh God...Oh
God..."
He jammed his hands into the pockets of his leather pants,
his whole
body tense.
Anger filled me. Anger that I couldn't control. But when
I spoke, I
lowered my voice into a whisper, "My God, Hyde... Not
this again, not
this. We've been through this before. Kaori-chan and me
are... God,
have we not been through with this?!"
"..."
"Don't you believe /me/? Don't you have any faith in
/me/?" I watched
as he bit on his lower lip, silent.
...He didn't.
My whole body was shaking as I embraced myself. I wanted
to laugh
even as I wanted to cry. But at last I did neither. When
I spoke the
evenness of my voice surprised myself. "I can't afford
to have this
conversation again and again, not now. Not ever."
"Tet-chan, I want to believe... But it's always you
and Kaori!"
"Who are you to talk?" I all but shouted. "How
about you and Megumi,
huh? Damn you!" I threw the magazine at his feet and
stormed past
him, into our bedroom. Shutting the door loudly, I leaned
on it and
sagged down to the floor.
Beyond, I heard him curse and a crash of glass being slammed,
exploding on the wall.
---------------
to be continue ---------------
Liked
it? Hated it? C&Cs'd be greatly appreciated. *bow*
I was
listening to "Natsu no Yuuutsu" (album version,
'cos I don't have the single. T_Tx) when I wrote this.
And it sorta affected me... Anyway, it really is a great
song. I'm in love with ken-chan. ^^x
