#scenario2

I knew today would be a bad day. I knew I should not have left bed today after that nightmare, no that memory, but I am working for Sakaki and I cannot miss a day. They need to win the nationals so I can end this. They need to win so I can…

“You! You think you can ignore me?” The voice of the obnoxious girl kept going into my mind trying to open that curtain I always kept closed with all my thoughts from back then. With all the memories.

“Hey! Devil! Stop ignoring me I had the trouble to come up to you to tell you you need to change your attitude toward our Atobe-sama, so you cannot simply ignore me! What? Atobe? This is not one of the voices from my past. Is just a stupid 15 year old. It is not someone important.

“Why shouldn’t I ignore you?” I started feeling the little girl and her friends take a step back.

“Why should I give any attention to a stupid 15 year old and her retarded group of little followers?” She tried to come up with an answer but I just kept talking and stepping on their direction.

“I don’t care if you think I should change my attitude with Atobe or with anyone else, I honestly don’t give a flying shit to your opinion. So don’t think the bully tactics that you use on school girls will work on me. Understood?” One of the girls was on the verge of tears. Seems no one had put these girls on their place before. The leader was the only one that managed to come up with an answer.

“How can you call our Atobe-sama like that?” This girl… Her voice keeps increasing my headache, keeps making my brain try to open the locked memories curtain. The lack of sleep is finally making my self control slip a bit. I need to finish this useless confrontation fast and find a lone place to… “I am not scared of you, Devil” That made my mouth twitch and my devil smirk to appear. “Oh, you are not scared?” I leaned myself on the wall and put my best Devil face on, what made all of them step back again.

“I Don’t have time to your bullshit right now. So get out before I decide that it is worth to go there and make you get out myself!” I said while smashed the wall with my uncontrollable strength.

The one that was on the verge of tears before started pulling their leader and turning around to run. “Just run, Yuki-san, I heard she is really a Devil, even her parents death is her fault, just run. We need to go before she decides to destroy us, also.”

“Her fault” The words keeps resonating on my head and opening that last protection, that last curtain to my old memories and fears. “I Need.. to find a place to be alone”

The strength in my legs was failing but I managed to run back to the tennis courts and to my office, I felt to the floor as soon as I entered and used to last power I had on my arms to close the door and lean on it. And let all the memories wash away all my will.

It started as it always does, a hospital room, my body could not move, I could hear the beeps of the machines that were needled into my veins in my arms and legs, even opening my eyes made me feel an excruciating pain. I try to press the button on my hand to call the nurses to give me more morphine but the only person that enters is, the first one, always the first one.

That executive with his impeccable suit, I remember him, he was in the parties from before. My parents’  parties. No, I cannot go back to that. To them. I can’t remember. I don’t wanna remember. Just let my conscience fade. Don’t make me remember.

The pain in my head keeps increasing, I can hear the beeping of the machines increasing. The executive is talking, I don’t know what he is saying. I don’t want to know what he is saying. I cannot admit they are gone, I cannot. Someone else enters the room. A boy. No, please, not him. I know what he is gonna say. I know.

The pain keeps going. The boy, my brother, opens his mouth to talk. I cannot hear what he is going to say, I know it is going to break me forever. Please just don’t talk. I try to move my mouth but the pain is too much. My button, the morphine, is not near me. That executive. The voice. Brother, please, don’t talk. I do not want to hear you. But he speaks.

“Oya, Tatsu, are you there?” This is not his, my brother’s voice, it is… “oya, Tatsu, Taki said he saw you running into here after making those girls go away, are you there? If you don’t answer I am going to enter.

That guy, ye, it is him. I cannot let him see me like this. He is a pure guy. He does not deserve to see the bad parts. He should keep living on his castle and not seeing the destroyed mind that inhabits my broken body. I try to ignore the pain from my memories to answer him.

“I am here. Don’t enter.” My voice still sounds shaky. There is a pause on the other side of the door. And then a huge push on my body. It is, the door he is trying to open it. I lean all my weight on it, trying to keep it closed. But with all the pain. I won’t be able to keep this up.

“Please, Don’t enter.” The force pushing the door open stops. “Let me in, Tatsu.” Atobe’s voice sound commanding, it is the first time he uses such a voice with me. Even when we played doubles, and I let him captain me, he did not use such a voice. The force on the door started again out of nowhere and pushed my body forward to fall in the middle of the room. Atobe stood by the door, staring at my silhouette laying on the floor, still suffering some of the pain from the memories, still hugging my arms like that would make the pain stop.

He stopped for a brief moment at the door. “Tatsu.” He whispered on a broken voice, walked in my direction and knelt by my side. “What happened? Did those girls do something? Why are you like this?”

He was standing close, but did not touch my body. He was too close. The pain was subsiding. But even with the pain, how close his body was, was bothering me more than the pain, yes, bothering. “No, I am...” He cut me off. “Don’t you dare say that you are ok, because you clearly are not.”

He moved his arm to touch me, his hands held my arms and helped me sit down. I was still shaking slightly. The places he touched me, over the bandages on my lower arms where the focus of my attentions now. I did not feel the pain anymore. This boy just made the pain stop. I felt like leaning on him. I wish I could lean on him and just let my body feel why did he managed to make the memory pain go away. But I couldn’t.

“I am better.” I managed to say. “Let me finish. I am better. It was just myself. It happens. I am like this. I am broken, so sometimes this happens. There is nothing to be concerned about. I am used to the pain.” I tried my best to produce understandable sentences. But I could see it was not enough.

“To not be concerned? You close yourself in a room and stay alone feeling pain and it just happens?” He was going to continue with his speech but we heard something from outside. “Atobe, are you there? Did you find Tatsu? The training should start soon. I found your fans but they were too scared to tell me anything. Our dear Devil coach probably just scared them a bit. Let’s go back to court and wait for Tatsu. It was Yuushi outside. Atobe touched me again. My back, right arm. And helped me stand. He whispered on a low voice. “This is not done. You will tell me why you were like that. I am waiting for you at the court, coach” He left the room and closed the door, leaving me feeling his touch, with no bad memory or pain. Just his touch.

J: I can't believe it.

A: The what?

J: You got him under your hook.