The Baseball part twenty-one (edited)

[krystalkatz.livejournal.com]

Nino stared at the hospital floor in silence his mind buzzing as it desperately tried to piece together the events of what had happened. Everything felt like he was in a dream and submerged in a thick layer of water. Never in his life had he seen somebody so aggressive.

“Ninomiya-kun…Your eye needs treating…” A nurse whispered gently and Nino looked up wincing a little as the movement caused his eye and head to throb. His illness had almost been forgotten in the pain but now it was back with vengeance causing his legs to feel like they were made of jelly. “Come on let’s get you onto a bed…You’re going to need stitches over your eye and some butterfly stitches around your lip…”

“When I get my hands on that bastard…Um…I’m sorry nurse…” Otani said fuming while still managing to blush as the pretty nurse sent him a look over her shoulder. “But when I get my hands on him I’m going to make sure that he’s never able to hurt anybody again…”

“If you’re going to be all violent I suggest you leave…The boy is in shock…”The nurse said her voice cracking like a whip causing the man to fall silent again shuffling his feet. “This might hurt a little bit Ninomiya-kun…”

Nino gave a shrug but didn’t say anything, his mind trapped in that changing room watching the way Kame was repeatedly slammed against the lockers. No matter how he tried to think about it he couldn’t imagine someone treating their own son that way. How many years must he have gone through that alone? He had always thought of the younger guy as an arrogant arsehole but how else was he meant to act when he must have been being systematically beaten by a man that looked like he could twin as Godzilla. Nobody should go through that alone. Nino looked up and saw the white faced expression of the sleepy artist staring out down the hallway. Well at least Kame wasn’t alone now. That thought gave him some comfort at least. A low, excited murmur broke out in the hallway and Nino frowned a little ignoring the stabbing of pain he felt around his eye and was surprised to see Jun and Takashi striding towards him both looking like the had stepped off a runway.

“Kazu…” The model cried as he reached him his arms reaching out to pull him into a hug seemingly not caring about the looks they were getting.

“See I told you! It is him from the paper! It’s true…But…Takashi Kei? Why’s he here?” Voices whispered frantically and Nino tried to pull out of his grip his cheeks flushing brightly.

“How lovely to meet you all!” Takashi said brightly going out to the whispering women “What a fantastic job you do! I’ve never been to hospital before but now I know there’s beautiful nurses like you to take care of me I might injure myself more often!”

“Oh…Um…My!” The women said going into their own kind of shock before all asking at once if they could get his autograph and picture.

“It would be a pleasure, but isn’t there somewhere else? We’re blocking the hallway here…” Takashi said and then herded them away with his arms around their waists leaving them alone with Otani and the nurse again. The coach whistled loudly rolling his eyes and saying with a smile;

“Remind me never to get famous! That was scary…”

“Takashi handled it well though…” Nino mumbled speaking for the first time since he had arrived at the hospital and Jun nodded a few times looking both impressed and moved by his father’s self-sacrifice.

“He’s been at it for a long time…” Jun hummed letting him go and letting the nurse carry on with fixing him up “What happened? You were attacked?”

“I…Kame…The one that made me hit your car that day… His dad…” Nino told him, the word coming out in a jumble barely making sense to him as he realised to both his surprise and horror that he was crying. Jun sat down on the bed his arm wrapping around his back as he kissed the top of his head.

“Everything’s going to be okay…I promise, I’m here”

“I’ll just go get a bandage…” The nurse told them getting to her feet and looking at the coach who was hanging by the door looking a little embarrassed and awkward “And you can come too…”

“Yes ma’am” Otani agreed allowing himself to be ushered out of the room and the door closed with a soft click allowing them some privacy. Nino blinked breathing ragged breaths as the door closed his tears becoming thicker and more uncontrollable and he pressed his face into Jun’s body admitting slowly

“I thought… I thought he was going to kill us…He recognised me from the paper and Kame was hugging me because I…I was so depressed…Everything…And…But I was happy too…I got a scholarship…Your dad…” The jumble of words continued incoherently as he sobbed onto Jun’s chest aware that he stiffened at the mention of dad and Nino cursed silently knowing that this wasn’t the way he wanted to tell him about that.

“My dad…What did he do?”

“He donated a lot of money to St Michael’s to start a scholarship programme…” Nino answered his tears drying up a little as he pulled out of the hug and looked up at him only realising now that he was looking out of only one eye as the other was partially closed and swollen “…I know he hurt you…But…He’s a nice guy…”

“I know…I would have helped too you know…” Jun said in a whisper his hand cupping his obviously bruised cheek gently his eyes running all over his face “Did that bastard do anything else?”

“Just a few bruises… Kame’s worse…” Nino sighed feeling drained now he was safe with Jun. He sank back down onto bed holding the models hand tightly as both his eyes closed fully. A cool hand brushed over his forehead and Nino knew that he must have drifted into a peaceful sleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jun watched his lover fall to sleep and then untangled himself from his tight grip leaving the room to go and find the artist who he had seen hovering around in the hallway with his parents. The Ohno’s were easy enough to spot on little chairs with the parents clutching Styrofoam cups of hospital coffee and Ohno sat tucked into a tight ball staring at a door that obviously held his boyfriend.

“Ohno-kun…” He called softly resting his hand on the teenager’s shoulder and slowly Ohno blinked looking up at him with a blanker expression than ever his eyes red but dry as if he was holding all of his tears inside refusing to let them fall. “I…How is he?”

“…” Ohno stayed silent his lips trembling a little while Mrs Ohno cleared her throat whispering gently;

“They’re not sure if he’s going to pull through…”

“He will…He’s a fighter…” Ohno grumbled shortly his eyes going to the door again as if he was trying to push his belief through the wood and wake him up himself. “How’s…Um…”

“Nino…He’s okay…A few cuts and bruises…” Jun answered sighing heavily, used to Ohno’s inability to remember anything that didn’t help him with his work, and glad that his lover’s injuries hadn’t been as bad as could have been. “Hopefully I can take him home soon…He’ll pull through…Kame I mean…”

“I know…We made a promise to each other…” Ohno smiled sleepily and Jun nodded again squeezing the shoulder of the boy before becoming aware of the nurse trying to catch his eye.

“I have to go…Take care of yourself…” He mumbled not knowing what else to say as he headed over to the nurse who gave him a small smile and a plastic envelope saying;

“This is his care instructions…He’s going to have to keep the bandage over his eye for a few days to keep the swelling down and he’s going to need some pain medication and rest…Lots of it even if he protests…”

“I understand…I promise that he’ll be staying in bed…” Jun said adding privately ‘even if I have to tie him to it and wrap him in cotton wool’. His nerves were almost stretched to breaking point and he was glad when he was allowed to go back into the privacy of the room to wait for Nino to wake up. He had no idea what lie his father’s people would be telling the staff of the drama but he knew that no matter what it was he was going to get a stern dressing down from his management.

“Jun-kun?” Takashi whispered popping his head around the door and smiling at him with so much warmth in his eyes Jun felt his heart contract almost painfully against his ribs. The man’s normally perfect hair was mussed and his clothes were wrinkled and almost torn places.

“Come in…Nino’s asleep…”

“He looks like he’s been through the wars, ne?” Takashi sighed coming to stand over the bed and gripping the sides a little his eyes glittering with tears as he swallowed deep. “The first time I ever saw you, you were in a hospital bed…”

“What?”

“You were so small and broken too…” Takashi mumbled acting as if he hadn’t heard Jun’s disbelieving hiss as he used his fingertips to brush Nino’s hair away from his bandaged face and bruised nose “You needed a blood transfusion but…Because your blood group is so rare it was almost impossible…So your mum called me…I was in Okinawa filming some stupid movie…”

“I guess you wanted to say no…” Jun said stiffly surprised that he had never once heard this story before. He remembered being in hospital, that much was true but he hadn’t ever thought that his dad had been there.

“Nope, it never even crossed my mind…I wanted to see you, I was interested and even my company could refuse that…It all had to be done secretly but…I walked into that room and I saw you on the bed…Looking like a little broken doll…” Takashi breathed softly through his nose staring at Nino’s face as if he wasn’t seeing him but into the past and seeing Jun there on the bed “I think I fell in love with you…I gave the blood and I could have just left but I stayed…I stayed until you woke up…I wish I had stayed longer…I wish I had known how to be a dad…I was just a kid…I’ll always be just a kid…I’m not making excuses cause I know you won’t accept them…But…I joined the agency when I was only thirteen years old and ever since then I’ve had to live the lie…Look like I followed all the rules and…I admit that the success went to my head…But to be honest…I wasn’t allowed a regular childhood I didn’t do all of the things that people did…I couldn’t join after school clubs and even school trips were a no-no for me in case they conflicted with my schedule…So…I never grew up…I still haven’t…Not really…”

“You sounded grown up earlier…” Jun admitted with a flush remembering the hug that he had received and how nice it had felt and Takashi gave him a brilliant smile rubbing the back of his neck.

“I want to hold a press conference…I want to tell everybody that you’re my son and that if they don’t like the fact that you’re gay they can get stuffed…”

“What? You can’t…You’d be ruined…” Jun spluttered his mouth opening and closing rapidly and Takashi giggled shaking his head a few times.

“Well if this is the last ever project that I’m working on I’m glad that I got to work with you…” he told him a raw honesty in his voice as he reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “I’ve let you down so many times in the past Jun but not this time…This time I can show the whole of Japan that I’m your dad and I’m proud of you…”

“Thank-you…” Jun muttered horrified to feel more tears stinging at the back of his eyelids “…Dad…”

TBC
A/N: Whew…I hope that this was okay ^_^

Comments

[krystalkatz.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you did :D I'm been a little funky lately so it cheered me up :D I'm really happy that you liked it :D
Thanks for reading ^_^