Title: A Sigh Is Just A Sigh
Pairing: Keita/Ryuichi
Author: venenatus.venustas
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, unfortunately. But do own story. I do not presume to know anything of their private and/or business lives. This is all FICTION, meaning I MADE IT UP. I do not claim truth in anything you may read from this story. Except for their hairstyles.
Warnings: Hm. Light angst, heavy on the fluff. Or is it the other way around?
Inspired by: Ryuichi’s ringlets.
Summary: But a kiss is never just a kiss.

Continued from:
Prologue = Regret/Refusal


Part 1 = Keita refuses to admit anything is wrong, and Ryuichi isn’t going to wait around.




O.o o.O

“Hey, Ryuichi, aren’t you eating with us? At the curry place I told you about earlier, it’s really good.”

“Sorry, Ryohei. I have…plans.” Ryuichi zipped up his backpack and hefted it onto his shoulder. He paused in the doorway, eyes darting to Keita before meeting Ryohei’s.

Keita faced away from them, still packing his bag.

Ryohei looked visibly disappointed. “But you love eating,” he said. “I thought you’d like the curry place.”

“I know, Ryohei. I’m sorry. I’ll eat with you another time.” Ryuichi’s eyes glanced over at Keita again before he turned. “I need to go. See you at home.”

“Don’t come back too late, we’re recording early tomorrow morning,” Ryohei called after him. “Be careful!” He sighed, watching Ryuichi’s figure disappear around a corner. “Hey, Keita,” he said. “Don’t you think Ryuichi’s been acting strange lately?”

Keita wouldn’t meet Ryohei’s eyes. “Not really.”

“Really?” Ryohei picked up his own bag and slung it over his shoulder. “He’s been avoiding us, don’t you think?”

Keita hesitated before answering. “Not really.”

Ryohei gave him a sharp look that said, ‘he’s avoiding you,’ but didn’t comment, and Keita pretended he didn’t understand. “Maybe he has a new lover,” he said casually.

“Maybe,” Keita said.

“It’s about time he got himself someone,” Ryohei said. “So far he’s the only one of us that hasn’t – you know.”

“Yeah,” Keita said dully.

“Everyone’s asking why he’s acting so strange, you know,” Ryohei continued. “I mean, do you really believe him when he says he’s stressing over writing a song?”

“Should I?”

Ryohei shook his head. “Ryuichi doesn’t get stressed over music. And besides, all the tunes I’ve heard him play are old songs. Doesn’t sound to me like he’s writing a song at all.”

“Really.”

“I’m worried. Are you worried?”

Keita looked away completely. “Should I be?”

Ryohei gave him a stern look, but Keita didn’t see.

O.o o.O

Keita was home on one of their evenings off when the front door opened to the sounds of two people laughing in the quiet, intimate way when a private joke is shared.

“Sorry,” Keita heard Ryuichi say in English. “Very messy.”

And it was perhaps this that caught Keita’s interest enough to make him turn away from his PS2. “Ryuichi?”

“I’m home,” Ryuichi said, turning to smile at Keita. “This is William. He’s from England.”

William stepped forward, smiling widely at Keita. “Pleased to meet you,” he said in slow, choppy Japanese. “You…are Keita?”

Keita nodded. “Yeah.”

“Awesome,” said William, and Keita gave Ryuichi a confused look.

“William’s mother is Japanese,” Ryuichi said. “He’s here as an exchange student, living at his relatives’ house.”

Keita looked William up and down as William grinned at Ryuichi, who was putting his shoes away. He was as tall as Keita, with shaggy light brown hair shot with strands of gold and large round grey eyes.

“Let’s go, my room,” Ryuichi said, taking William’s hand and leading him further into their flat.

William turned back to wave at Keita. “Nice meeting you!” he called out, and then mere moments later there was the sound of Ryuichi’s door closing.

And locking.

O.o o.O

When Ryohei came home an hour later, Keita was still on the couch, holding his game controller but facing the corridor that lead to their bedrooms. The videogame was still on pause.

“Uh…I’m home?” he said, giving Keita curious look as he set down his shopping bags.

“Oh,” Keita said, twisting back to sit properly. “Welcome home. I was just, uh. Ryuichi brought someone home, and. Um.”

“Really?” Ryohei sat down on the couch next to Keita, stretching his legs out with a sigh.

“A boy,” Keita said, hushing his voice.

“Really,” Ryohei said, as if Ryuichi brought boys home every single day.

Keita leaned in, dropping his voice to a mere whisper. “They’ve been in his room for an hour. His door is locked.”

Ryohei laughed. “Keita, you can’t possibly expect them to leave the door unlocked for anyone to barge in, can you? How are they supposed to, you know, if they do?”

“You think they’re doing it?” Keita’s eyes widened almost comically and Ryohei laughed again.

“Well of course they’re doing it,” Ryohei said easily, leaning over to pick up the remote control and flip the channel from Keita’s videogame to a music show that was playing. “They’re in his room, aren’t they? And the door is locked, isn’t it?” Ryohei shrugged. “If they aren’t doing it, then I’d really like to know what they’re doing instead.”

“Oh.” Keita said, and slouched over in his seat.

Ryohei gave him a sideways look. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Keita said, and thrust his game controller at Ryohei. “I’m gonna go to my room for a nap.”

Ryohei gave him a strange look, but said nothing.

O.o o.O

Keita’s room was right next to Ryuichi’s.

But he couldn’t hear anything, dammit, not even when he pressed his ear right up against the wall they shared, probably because Ryuichi had on his hip-hop music that was making the walls shake and vibrate with each thump of the bass.

Keita gave up trying to listen in on them, eventually, settling for lying on his bed, one arm thrown over his head. His head throbbed with the dull beat of Ryuichi’s music, but he didn’t want to put his headphones on, either.

The music shut off two hours later (not like Keita had been staring at his clock for the entire time, no) and Keita slammed his wrist against his nightstand in his rush outside, skidding to a stop right as he reached the front of their flat.

Ryuichi and William were standing by the front door, kissing. Ryuichi was on his tiptoes, head tilted up, arms draped around William’s shoulders, and William had to lean down before his lips could reach Ryuichi’s. They broke apart, finally, after one last swipe of Ryuichi’s tongue – visible from where Keita stood – and Ryuichi grinned up at William coyly, rocking back on his heels.

They were both breathless.

“Going now,” William said, and cupped Ryuichi’s cheek in one hand. “I’ll call you.”

Ryuichi bounced up for another quick kiss. “Have fun at dinner,” he said. “Tell Auntie I say hi.”

“I will,” William said, and then looked up, eyes meeting Keita’s. He flashed a quick smile, and then he was out the door.

Ryuichi had turned when William looked up, and his gaze stayed on Keita as he closed the door and locked it.

“New boyfriend?” Keita asked, and tried not to stare at Ryuichi’s lips, obscenely red and well used.

Ryuichi nodded. “Yeah.”

“You’ve met his family?”

“The family in Japan, yes.”

“So it’s serious then.” Keita walked slowly to the couch and sat down. Ryuichi followed, sitting down in an armchair a little ways from it, curling his legs up under him.

He shrugged. “I guess.”

“How long?”

Ryuichi looked down at the floor. “Since that day.”

“Which…oh. You met him that day?”

“Night. I met him at a bar.”

“A bar.”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t meet proper people at a bar.”

Ryuichi said nothing.

“You’ve been seeing each other since.”

“Yeah.”

“C-Congratulations, then.”

Ryuichi glanced up before looking down again. “Thanks.”

There was a moment of awkward silence.

“You said you…” Keita began, and then cleared his throat. “You found someone else so soon?”

Ryuichi shrugged. “You made your feelings very clear. It wasn’t as if I expected much, anyway, seeing you with…anyway. It was just…closure that I needed. And I got it. You gave it. So I moved on.”

“Right.” Keita laced his fingers together tightly in his lap.

Ryuichi stood up, running a hand through his hair. “I’m gonna shower. Ask Ryohei if he plans to eat in or out tonight. I don’t care.”

“Okay,” Keita said quietly, and then there was the sound of Ryuichi shutting the bathroom door.

O.o o.O

Onto Part 2 = Confessions/Admissions