Tobirama

I offered Izuna to take the same Uber as me home. He thanked me, but he didn't say anything for the entire trip, just looked out the car window at the views outside. I didn't say anything, either. I had been to Tokyo before, so I wasn't as interested in my surroundings. Or, who was I kidding; I wouldn't be interested in my surroundings even if it was my first time here. I had no real appetite for life. Izuna, however...

We stepped out of the Uber outside our hotel without a word, and took company into the elevator.

"Which floor?" he asked sweetly, still not looking at me.

"Thirty-two", I said.

"Same as me then", he said, pressing the button.

And as the doors closed, encapsulating us in a dim light, all alone, the tension became incredible. 

It was as if the air in that elevator was turned to liquid, and I could hardly breathe. I put a hand to my heart, almost suffocating, but this was an entirely different feeling than the attacks of chest pain I'd had before; this was pleasant. I looked over at Izuna, and saw he was squirming in place. Was he feeling what I was feeling, too?

I tried to understand what was happening, but I didn't. All I knew was that my coat was way too heavy for me, and it felt as if I was drowning, but that drowning was the best feeling in the world. I never wanted it to end, I wanted it to go on forever, to drown me, to kill me, to-

The doors to the elevator opened, and the moment was gone.

"Which room?" Asked Izuna.

"3247."

"Oh. I'm in the other direction." I couldn't tell whether he was relieved or disappointed. "See you, then."

"Yeah, see you."

I walked down the corridor to my room. But before turning the corner, I looked back.

And I saw Izuna did the same.

Hashirama was coming in after lunch the next day, and I would meet him and Izuna in the lobby to go to the working area of the hotel. I had believed I could kill off a few documents from New York after my morning in the gym, but it had taken much more time than I had anticipated. I hissed through gritted teeth; at this pace, I wouldn't even have come half-way through my documents.

I felt it again then; the pain in my chest. It was the first time I had felt it during daytime. The first two times had woken me up in the middle of the night. I noticed it became worse and worse every time, the pain. Was it really only  a panic attack? How could it be, when the pain radiated all through my body? When I couldn't breathe? My breathing became wheezing then, tears streaming down my face of the exertion, and I knew, without a doubt, that this was it, that this would be how I died.

I reached my hand out, grabbed my phone. It was hard as I was trembling so much, but I managed to open Instagram, and I found Izuna. I pressed on that video I loved so much, the one with the piano and the singing. I closed my eyes and listened to him.

The lightning bolts of pain started to draw back from their epicentre, and the pain collected itself in my heart where it slowly died down alongside Izuna's song. Slowly but steadily, my breathing normalised. My fingertips were buzzing from hyperventilating, and I let Izuna soothe me as that died down as well.

And finally, it was just him and me in the room; no pain, no panic.

I hid my face in my hands.  It was time to get lunch (or should be if I had had an appetite, which I didn't) and then meet my brother and my employee.

It suddenly felt incredibly intimate to meet my employee after he had, unknowingly, helped me.

Izuna

I was sitting in the lobby, waiting. I was fifteen minutes early, but rather that than being late. I was feeling uplifted after a video call to Imogen and Mae, and was dangling my legs happily. They had wanted to know every detail of the dinner. They had helped me pick my clothes for today as well; baggy creme jeans with a black sweater, underneath which I wore a long, black shirt. My hair was loose, but I had done two small braids on either side to frame my face.

I had already looked around the lobby curiously, trying to find someone who could pass as Tobirama's brother, but seen none. I was excited to meet him. What if he was Tobirama's identical twin, only he was incredibly social and in love with me? That could actually work! At the same time...

I don't know, I had somehow come to love Tobirama's personality. Imagining peeling off his layers to see what was underneath was very, very exciting to me. Even more so than peeling off his clothes... Or was it?

"Izuna!" I jerked. Shit. Tobirama was standing in front of me, wearing a black polo and grey trousers. Put his glasses on top of that, and one could only dream of how hot he looked. "This is my brother, Hashirama."

"What are you blushing about?" the man Tobirama had presented as Hashirama asked me. 

Oh, nothing, just undressing your brother in my mind, I didn't say.

"Nothing", I said instead, which was the second worst thing I could have said. "Nice to meet you."

Hashirama was very surprising to say the least. He wasn't similar to Tobirama in the slightest. Well, he was quite tall, but he was much slimmer, and had olive skin and long, dark hair. He was neatly dressed in dark brown suit pants, a blue shirt and caramel coat, and had an expensive-looking suitcase next to him. What was wrong with these people, traveling wearing anything but sweatpants and hoodies? He also had a spark of mischievousness in his eyes. He raised an eyebrow.

"You're gorgeous."

He just said it, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I didn't know how to react. I noticed Tobirama turned to look at his brother with one eyebrow raised.

"Thank you", I said stupidly.

"Let's get to work", Tobirama said curtly.

Tobirama lead the way to the working area, and we followed.

"How do you like Tokyo?" his brother asked.

"It's great!" I said. "I'm just starting to make myself at home. I've never been out of the US."

"What a fantastic opportunity!" Hashirama said enthusiastically. "I have been here only once before. There's this great bakery with traditional Japanese cakes and great matcha. Make sure to go!"

I smiled at him, liking his easy way.

"I would love to. What's it called?"

We chatted happily. I noticed Tobirama did not engage. We came to the working station, an open space with MacBooks you could borrow and multiple desks, available for hotel guests only. We were alone there. The CEO seemed to want to get to work immediately.

"Right", he began. "Hashirama. I would like you to research similar cases as ours that have been successful. Begin in Japan, then go out to other eastern Asian countries, then the world. See what they had to do, what the tipping point was. You knew how to use Google." He turned to me, pushed his glasses up on the bridge if his nose. "Izuna. I would desire you to read through the documents the government has provided allowing them to demolish Hakka-san's hotel and dig a mine out. They're in Japanese. If you need anything in order to read them, tell me. I plan on leaving soon, but I'll stay until I'm certain both of you are well into the case. I will be right behind you, working on New York stuff."

I felt a pang in my heart. Tobirama would leave? Just when we had begun to work together? I felt I was close to tears, but forced them down. No. No, we do not cry here. We cry later, after work, alone in our room. But not here. 

Turned out, it was wonderful working with Hashirama. He asked some questions in the beginning, seeing he was a doctor and didn't know some of the terms used, but once he got into it, he was clearly exceptionally good. It was clear he had had a thorough education in how to do research. Socially, he had a perfect sense of timing, letting just enough time of work pass before making a joke, or asking a question about my life. I realised I really liked him...

And that I had sort of forgotten about my boss, sitting at a desk behind us.