13.

Tobirama

I couldn't sit still in the black Uber car. I was constantly drumming with my fingers on the leather seat, jiggling my leg or twisting my hair.

Today... I will see him again today. And it will all be different. It would all be different after everything we said and did yesterday.

That night, I'd woken up several times, checking my messages to make sure what I had experience hadn't just been a dream. It hadn't. It has all been very, very real. How could I not have seen how beautiful he was? His milky skin, his black hair, his smile... God, his smile. And he seemed to be such a genuinely kind soul.

But it seemed as if my brother had also taken a liking to the little man. And that the little man had taken a liking to my brother. My jealousy knew no bounds; I gritted my teeth thinking about that they had slept together. Just thinking about leaving this place to go back to New York and leave the two of them here to take care of things made me nauseous. I had ordered Hashirama here so that I could leave the work to him and Izuna to enable myself to go back to New York. But now, I didn't want to leave. Could I stay here and keep working from a distance? It wasn't optimal. 

I still wondered how it would be, meeting him only in a few minutes. He was awfully shy, but so was I. At least when it mattered, which it rarely did. Would we both stand there opposite one another, awkwardly scratching our heads? Or would his positive personality make him wave at me cheerfully and come to hug me?

I looked at the time; almost nine am. I would be just on time. Izuna would have been there since eight am. The car drove past a beautiful landscape before we came to Hakka-sans hotel, an oasis in an oasis. I could see the cherry blossom trees in the huge, leafy garden already starting to bud. 

As soon as I stepped out in the rising sun, I saw someone running towards me. At first, I thought it was Izuna, and my heart leapt. But then, I saw it was the unmistakeable silhouette of my brother.

"Tobirama!" he shouted.

I became angry at the mere sight of him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked curtly.

"You asked me here to work", he said before he had even stopped. I noticed his voice was completely void of humour.

And suddenly, I saw the look of distraught on his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked, worried.

"It's Izuna", he said, and my heart froze to ice. "He's been hurt. The people of the community have hurt him."

I felt a rage within me so primitive then, I knew that if the ones who had hurt him happened to stand in front of me then, I would have hurt them, not giving a fuck about the consequences. 

"Where is he?" I asked darkly.

"Hospital", Hashirama said. "It's-" His voice cracked. "It's bad, brother."





We sat in the back seat of the same Uber I'd used to get to the hotel. We looked out of our respective window, quiet. I realised that Hashirama wasn't angry with me at all; in my rage regarding him and Izuna, I found it hard to grasp that the contempt was one-wayed.

"Hashirama..." I said.

"What?" he asked warmly, and I realised how much he loved me.

"Do we have any information on what happened?" 

"We came here together, Izuna and I." I felt a pang of jealousy in my heart, but forced it away. "I went in to speak to Hakka-san. Meanwhile, Izuna said he wanted to check something. So he went out. Then I heard his screams and-"

He stopped and collected himself.

"And what?" I asked, frustrated.

"He was so far away already. I ran, but they damaged him so much. He was all bloody and-"

"Had they..?" I couldn't finish the question. 

To my great relief, Hashirama shook his head. 

"No."

"But why did they abuse him?" The rage was exchanged for something else; shame. Shame for not having been able to protect him better. How could I not have foreseen this? There was no way I could fly back to New York now. 

"They hate him. For helping Hakka-san. This was their warning to us to stay out."

I sighed, hid my face in my hands. I hadn't even thought about this possibility, and I felt terribly guilty for having put him in this position. 





The hospital was like everything else in Japan; clean, modern, perfect. We were given the directions to Izuna's ward, and walked through a pleasant and pastel-coloured corridor to his room. But then, Hashirama grabbed my arm.

"Brother..." I turned to him. "You go." I was taken aback. "I... I..." He swallowed, and what came next was clearly very difficult for him to say. "I know he means a great deal to you. And you mean a great deal to him. Go in. I'll go in after you."

I just started at him. I couldn't. I just couldn't. Hashirama saw that. 

"Tobirama, you have given me everything. You have listened to every story I have ever told you about my shenanigans. Always covered me up. Hell, you were even happy for me when I got adopted and you didn't! Let me do this one thing for you. Please."

I did something then that I had never done before. I hugged my brother. After a few seconds of surprise, he hugged me back, and his hair gave off a pleasant almond scent as I buried my face in it.

"Thank you", I said. 

"I love you", he said.

I had never told anyone I loved them and I didn't now, either, but he knew that I did. 





I had imagined Izuna would be in a coma and tubed up or something, but he was awake. His beautiful face was badly bruised, but not any less beautiful. A bag of blood was hanging next to him, connected to his blood stream. The red contrasted the white of the room and his hospital gown in a way I found sickening.

He looked up at me as I came in, and I closed the door behind me.

And we didn't move. For a long time.

"Well, this is awkward", Izuna said chirpily and broke into a smile.

And I smiled as well. God, it was rare. It felt strange, like training a muscle you weren't used to using. But it felt so good.

I walked to him tentatively, my coat still on, sat down on my knees next to his bed. I hesitated a little, then took his hand and kissed his knuckles.

We just sat there, holding hands. We didn't say anything. In that moment, that was enough while at the same time, it wasn't even close to enough. 

When I looked up at him, he was looking down at our entwined hands.  

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top