[Rescue Fire/Gaia fusion] For Tatsuya

[hotshotlightning]

He wasn't going to pace. He was going to wait patiently for Tatsuya to arrive, not give in to nerves before he'd even got there. So what if they had a lot to talk about, that was no reason to be nervous.

Yeah, right. They had over ten years worth of stuff to catch up on and it wasn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows.

He glanced down at his watch and sighed. Come on, Tatsuya.

Comments

[fire1]

"I d'no. What if I lost the bag? Or we had to evacuate the building and then I had to leave it behind?"

Tatsuya stole a fry from Katsumi's box, despite having plenty of his own left, and dipped it into the mountain of ketchup before popping it into his mouth.

[hotshotlightning]

"How likely is it that we'd even have to evacuate?" He wasn't going to comment on the possibilty of the bag getting lost: that one was higher.

"Hey!" He lifted a couple of fries out of Tatsuya's box in retaliation. "Hands off. Eat your own fries."

[fire1]

"Hey! Don't take my-" Tatsuya flailed his arms and knocked the precious limited edition milkshake straight onto the floor. "Now I'll have to order another one." He stepped around the milky puddle and went back to the counter. Within a few moments he'd returned with a plain chocolate milkshake, "I told you! They ran out."

[hotshotlightning]

"Not their fault you knocked yours over," Katsumi pointed out, popping one of his fries into his mouth. "Be more careful next time."

[fire1]

"It's your fault." Tatsuya pouted and sulked for a while but before too long appeared to have gorged himself into a pleasantly pliable sugar and ketchup-soaked state.

[hotshotlightning]

"How is it my fault?" he demanded, tempted to flick a fry right at Tatsuya's forehead before reminding himself he wasn't a child anymore.

Still, it didn't seem to make much difference as Tatsuya seemed happy enough, over all. Was now a good time to bring it up?

[fire1]

"Cos you made me knock it over." Tatsuya swiped his hand across his mouth to wipe some ketchup away, and then continued "why'd you ask me here? Just to catch up?"

[hotshotlightning]

"I did not," he retorted indignantly. "You started it when you started stealing my food."

He leant back in his seat, suddenly finding the far wall fascinating. "Something like that, yeah."

[fire1]

"You're my brother and you won't even give me a fry? I would've given you mine." Tatsuya looked like he would have liked to continue in this vein for longer; but, on seeing Katsumi distracted, waved a hand in front of Katsumi's face.

[hotshotlightning]

"You didn't even ask," Katsumi pointed out. Oh, now he was channeling his aunt. Not a good sign.

He blinked as Tatsuya's hand waved in front of his face. "Hm?"

[fire1]

"You're away with the fairies." Tatsuya flashed him a ketchup-smeared grin then took advantage of Katsumi's absent-mindedness to commandeer Katsumi's milkshake.

[hotshotlightning]

"Am not... Hey!"

Katsumi eyed him in resignation, not bothering to try and get it back. That would only result in it hitting the floor as well and then the servers would have another mess to clean up.

[fire1]

Tatsuya's face fell at the sight of Katsumi's expression and without taking a sip he passed the milkshake back, "... sorry." He chewed up the last of his fries in silence.

[hotshotlightning]

"No, it's fine," he said hurriedly, pushing it back. "Yours ended up the floor, we might as well share it."

Well. This was awkward.

[fire1]

Tatsuya took the lid off the milkshake so they could each stick a straw in and slurp. For once in his life he actually took a moment to give Katsumi a head start.

[hotshotlightning]

Katsumi's eyebrows rose slightly. Was Tatsuya actually waiting for him to do something instead of running on ahead?

"What happened?" he blurted, unsure if he meant what happened that day or just in general. He knew the basics of what had happened to his parents, his aunt and uncle had never hidden it from him, but he didn't know anything concrete. And even now he still didn't know why they'd been separated in the first place.

[fire1]

"What happened to who?" Tatsuya blinked and took a smaller than usual sip of the milkshake, trying for Katsumi's sake not to slurp.

[hotshotlightning]

...Was he really that dense? He didn't remember Tatsuya being quite this clueless.

"Mom and Dad," he said eventually, picking up one of the serviettes and methodically shredding it. Well, it was as good a place to start as any.

[fire1]

"Right ..." The question threw Tatsuya a little as his mind had still been on milkshakes, and he wasn't expecting Katsumi to just ask about something like that. He wasn't sure where to start, "you know about most of it, right? When you were in the hospital."

[hotshotlightning]

"Yeah, I know the basics. You guys were out, there was a fire, the building exploded and," he waved a hand. "You know."

He sighed and propped his chin in his hands. "I only got it in bits and pieces, though." Logically he knew that was probably down to either not having information at the time or concern about his health, but he'd had to piece a lot of it together himself, after they'd finally told him. "And no-one ever told me why I never saw you again. I just assumed..."

Assumed that Tatsuya had died as well. Which had turned out not to be the case.

[fire1]

"No one ever told me, either. I lived with -" Tatsuya named a distant aunt, "for a couple of years, but it didn't work out, so I went to a children's home. Himawari School! You've heard of it, right?" Without waiting for a response he went on "I never understood why she couldn't take both of us. Maybe she couldn't afford it."

[hotshotlightning]

Katsumi stared at him blankly. That... did not make sense. A children's home? When he'd spent the rest of his childhood with different relatives? "But... why?" How in hell had that happened?

"Himawari... was that the one that burnt down?" He vaguely remembered hearing about that. "Arson or something?"

[fire1]

"Yeah ..." Tatsuya wasn't minded to go into everything about Ukaen now, "She never told me why no one else in the family would let me live with them. But it's OK! I was happy there!" He flashed Katsumi another of his too-bright smiles. By the time he'd been sent to Himawari he was so miserable that almost anywhere would have seemed like an improvement.

[hotshotlightning]

"You shouldn't have had to," Katsumi said fiercely. "I don't understand why they only took me and not both of us."

If anything, it should really have been the other way around, considering Tatsuya was the healthy one at the time. Why didn't anyone else do something?

[fire1]

"But I was happy," Tatsuya repeated, and took another gulp at Katsumi's milkshake. "Maybe they could only afford you, just like she could only afford me." He had been told so many times what an expensive nuisance he was and how much he was costing his aunt to keep that he was certain there was no way she could have coped with Katsumi as well.