Hi all!
Thank you to allll the people that wrote. I love you all!
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Please note, this copyright notice is retroactive to all stories I have previously posted on Nifty. They are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License, Copyright (C) 2008.
DISCLAIMER
This story involves relationships between males aged 17-19. If you do not approve of this, why the hell are you even reading it now? If you are a parent reading through the Internet logs of your young child, do not punish your child for reading these stories. He/she clearly has some questions about his development, and it is YOUR responsibility to answer those questions truthfully and honestly. If this material is illegal in your area, leave now. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. You know the drill. If you aren't supposed to be reading this, Don't (although some flames would be lovely to publicly dissect :)).
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Doumo arigatou gozaimasu.
And now, without further adieu.....
========================================================================= FINDING YOU: CHAPTER TWELVE - I would like that light to dim, a little =========================================================================
Chris strolled over into the main room, noticing the autumn chill that was entering the air as the draughty Japanese house felt colder than usual.
He found Tarou using the kotatsu to keep warm, wearing traditional kimono while drinking tea (or was it sake?). Chris also took a seat and began pouring some tea for himself - a taste he had only recently acquired.
"Ohayou, where's William?"
"A, Ohayou. He's gone to catch Leo before he leaves at the airport."
Chris nearly dropped his tea. "What?"
"Hmm, if you leave now you might catch him. Here's some money for the taxi." said Tarou, handing over a wad of bills.
Chris widened his eyes, "This is alot of money!"
"Is it? I don't know taxis these days, but this might let you get on board the same flight if needed. Get going."
Chris stood up after bowing his thanks. "Well, sayonara*."
"Indeed, 'sayonara*' if it comes to that. I hope we meet again."
Chris bowed again and left.
"Sa, no use wasting time." Tarou sighed, as he stood up and took his suit from the wardrobe, "Every man has to work."
Chris impatiently fidgeted as the taxi driver took him slowly through the heavy traffic in Narita, growing increasingly impatient.
"Anoo sa, okyakusama," said the driver, "forgive my impertinence, but it may be faster if you walk from here. Just cut down that alleyway and the terminal is right in front of you."
Chris nodded, "Thank you" he said, pulling out a wad of bills and handing a sizable chunk of them to the driver, before immediately getting out.
Just as Chris was crossing the road, he heard a loud shout of "Doumo Arigatou gozaimasu, okyakusama!" from the taxi driver who had just realized the size of his tip.
Chris hurried through the alleyway and sure enough the terminal was plainly visible as the driver had said.
He ran in through the large automatic doors that were almost perpetually open due to people flowing in and out, and immediately bumped into a very familiar face. Leo.
"Ah, sorry" Chris muttered, looking down.
"Not at all. Say, do I know you from somewhere?" Leo asked, peering at Chris inquisitively, "I can't see very well without my glasses."
Chris tried to put on his best American accent, "Er, no, I don't think you would know me."
Leo dismissed the idea, to Chris' relief. "Hmm, okay. My name is Leo, what's yours?"
"Er.. Bertrand." thinking of the first name that came to his head. Chris was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the situation.
"I see. This woman over here," he said, turning to look over at a Japanese girl who was a few meters away, "come over here, Chihiro!" he shouted.
Chihiro turned around and walked up to Leo, who put an arm around her.
"This is Chihiro, we got married last week, and we're going on a honeymoon all around my home country, Australia!"
Chris began to shake as he realised that Leo was not only straight, but married.
"Uh, you're married?"
Leo cocked his head to one side. "Yes, is that a problem?"
"Uh.. no.. I am very happy for you, anyway, I am looking for a friend of mine, so, if you don't mind, I'll be going now."
Leo nodded, "Not at all", he smiled, "Nice to meet you, Chris."
Chris nodded back, "You too" he said, before he realised that Leo had said 'Chris' instead of 'Bertrand'. He froze.
Leo leaned in to Chris' ear, "I know it's you. Now look, I don't know what Will has been telling you, but we were never involved. I don't know where he got that fucked up idea. If he asks you, tell him that. I don't want him risking his skin to go find me."
"Gotcha" Chris choked out.
"Sa, Chihiro-chan, ikimashoune?" said Leo, as he lead Chihiro away.
Once Chris had recovered from that ordeal, he began looking for me, and he actually spotted me rather easily - I was standing over at the other side of the terminal holding up a large sign that read "LEO" in big red letters.
Chris ran most of the way across the terminal, but dirty looks from the security guards caused him to slow to a walk, and he approached me rather casually.
"Hey, Will."
I looked over. "Oh, hey Chris. I guess Tarou told you why I'm here?"
Chris smiled, "Yeah, I thought I'd pop over to keep you company."
I looked at my watch, "Hmm, you made good time too. Have you seen him yet?"
Chris shook his head. "Nope, nothing yet, but you must be tired from carrying that sign, and we'll get a better view of the terminal from over there" he said, pointing to an empty bench sat against the wall.
I nodded and sat down with him, resting the sign against my knees.
After a while, Chris piped up again. "How serious was your relationship with Leo anyway?"
I shrugged my shoulders, "Well, not very, I guess. We were very close friends, and it just sort of continued from there."
Chris nudged me playfully, "Well, what base did you get to?"
I smiled, "I don't know baseball, but we did kiss once or twice."
Chris looked at me with a flat expression, "..anything else?"
I thought for a moment, "Well, there was one time he bought me Ice cream." I smiled, "That was nice. Both the favour and the Ice cream."
Chris didn't say anything for a moment, but then, almost forcibly asked me, "Did you ever think that, perhaps, just maybe, Leo didn't think of you the same way you thought about him?"
"What? No! I know he did.." I thought for a moment, "Or at least.. I think he did.."
Chris was looking worried now. "Did he ever say 'i love you'?"
I shook my head, "No, although, I said it to him some times. He would always grunt or say 'I know, you told me already', but I thought he was just being playful."
Chris looked at me as if disappointed in my inability to read signals.
I became concerned, and I looked over at Chris. "What caused all these questions anyway?"
Chris began to answer, but he didn't have to, as my eyes focused behind him on a couple, one of whom was Leo, and the other was a Japanese girl that I didn't know, embracing each other as they waited in line for luggage checkin.
Immediately I got up and tried to run towards them, but Chris grabbed my arm with amazing speed and prevented me from leaving.
"Let.. them.. go.." Chris said between clenched teeth as I tried to free myself from his grasp.
Tears were flowing down my face now, "But I love him!" I cried.
Chris let go of my hand and placed both his hands on my shoulders.
"William!" he shouted, "That girl is his wife!"
I felt crushed inside. I looked dazedly at the floor and slowly began to lose my ability to stand as Chris guided me back to the seat.
"His.. wife.." I said, in a mixture of shock and despair.
When we had sat down, Chris placed an arm around me and kissed below my eyes to remove my tears.
I smiled a bit then. "You've made a habit of that."
Chris cocked his head to one side, "Of what?"
"Of kissing me. Ever since the plane trip."
Chris chuckled his agreement. Chris still had his arm around me, and I grabbed hold of his hand and rested my head against him. He was truly the best friend I ever had.
Chris got up then, and held up a huge wad of bills, "Come on, let's go and get drunk. I'm developing a taste for that rice wine, sake."
I was still crying my eyes out, but something made me want to go with him, so I grabbed onto his hand and we left the terminal together.
Callum woke up feeling dazed in a hospital bed.
Immediately a man walked up to him and held up two fingers.
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Er, two?"
"Good. Can you tell me a bit about yourself?"
"My name is Callum. I live in Sydney with my dad at an address I don't know yet. I go to school and my best friend's name is Jacob. I love computers."
The man nodded, taking all of it down on a little notepad.
"Oh, and I'm gay."
The man raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and added a sentence to his notebook.
"Alright, I'll have to check all that with your dad, but I think it'll be fine for us to discharge you today. Your dad will be in to see you from work in a few minutes."
"Thank you, doctor."
The doctor nodded, "All part of the service." He said as he walked out of the ward.
"..You're gay?" an unfamiliar voice said.
Callum looked over at a face he didn't recognize, a boy about his age.
"Who are you?" he asked quickly, beginning to feel a panic attack coming on.
"I'm Ricky" he shrugged, "The guy that pushed you over..."
Callum remembered now as he gained more awareness. "Right... um.. you don't have a problem with me being.. uh.. gay.. do you?"
Ricky smiled, "Not at all. So am I."
Callum did a double take. "Youwha?"
He shrugged again, "Yeah, but the guy I like, he wasn't interested."
Callum sighed. "Same with me, I guess."
Ricky leaned over and grabbed one of Callums hands, the contact once again forming a panic-attack ball in the back of Callum's mind.
"You know," said Ricky, "maybe we should go out, just to see how it goes?"
That was enough to send Callum from mild discomfort into full blown panic-attack, and he began to whimper and curl up into a ball underneath his blankets.
"Oh my God, what did I do" Ricky exclaimed in confusion, just as Callum's father walked in, and saw Callum in a ball on the ward bed.
"Oh my God, what did you do..." Callum's dad groaned angrily.
"My sentiments exactly." Ricky bit back.
Callum's dad walked over to the bed and pressed the "Nurse" button, who arrived in a few moments, saw Callum in a ball, and immediately went to a nearby cabinet and produced a syringe of a sedative, walked over to Callum and jabbed it into his arm.
Over time Callum became more and more dazed, and he slowly uncurled himself and then fell asleep.
"Sheesh." Callum's dad blew his breath out, "What did you do, ask him out?"
Ricky shrugged again. "Yes, actually."
Callum's dad paused for a moment, then said, "Well, good luck. But, as you can see, Callum doesn't respond well to the direct approach."
Ricky said nothing and continued his vigil watch on Callum's sleeping face.
"Well, Cheers to the happy couple!" said a heavily inebriated Chris to a lightly inebriated me.
"What happy couple?" I asked, "Chihiro and Leo?"
"No, not them." He waved his arm, "Me and you of course!"
I looked confused, "Uh.. who says we're a couple?"
Chris downed his sake, "I do! Barkeep! one more!"
"Excuse me, okyakusama," said the bartender, "I think you have had too much to drink today, I won't serve you any more... besides, are you over 20? I might have to see your identification.."
"Ah, that won't be necessary." I said quickly in humble Japanese, "We'll be leaving now. Come on, Chris."
I pulled one of Chris arms around me and half-led, half-dragged him out of the traditional drinking establishment.
"You know what I wanna do?" Chris asked, slurring his words.
"What do you want to do?" I asked, irritated that I had to talk to a drunk Chris.
"I wanna go back to the house, so we can have sex."
"Not happening" I said immediately.
"Come on, we're a couple aren't we?"
"You're the only one who says that."
"So? You were the only one who said that you and Leo were a couple, too."
I faltered, "I.. I guess so."
We had arrived at the train station, so I gave Chris a push inside. "Go to the bathroom and get yourself cleaned up. The train leaves in 5 minutes."
"I know that!" shouted Chris, "I am a concieeeeeeerge, you know, they do concieeergey kind of things like that."
"Yes, I know you're a concierge." I was getting angry and depressed at the same time now, and my eyes began to water, "Could you just get lost for a minute? I don't want to have to deal with this now."
Chris immediately took his arm off me. "Sa, I guess you're right. Ikimashoune?"
"Huh?" I looked in awe at the seemingly suddenly sober Chris.
Chris shrugged and walked confidently towards the ticket barriers, and attempted to walk through them without first putting his ticket in, colliding knee-first with the thick barriers.
Hmm.. guess he wasn't as sober as I thought.
- Sayonara means "farewell" not "goodbye" as is commonly thought. It applies more for a situation where you don't know if you'll see the person again.
And that's all for this chapter. Only one strand furthered in this chapter. More on the other strands soon.
JAPANESE PHRASES USED IN THIS CHAPTER (which did not have inline english)
- Sayonara - Farewell * Domo Arigatou Gozaimasu! - thank you very much * Okyakusama - Honorable Lord Customer * Ikimashoune - Let's go, eh? * Anoo sa - Excuse me (to get attention) * Sa - Well then
I absolutely love feedback. Please submit your feedback, good or bad, lengthy or brief, in Japanese or in English, (although preferably English) to:
sakurakangen@gmail.com
You may also add me on Google Talk at the same address. I love talking to you.
Doumo arigatou gozaimashita.
-SK (written in vi improved 7.2.. beats emacs any day)