tenipuri_xp | RP Log: Fuji Shuusuke & Fuji Yuuta

When: Backdated to last Sunday night (02/19)
Rating: G
Summary: The reunion of the Fuji-kyoudai. The air is cleared between the two brothers after almost a year of silence.

The halls were somewhat silent as Yuuta walked down them, trying to remember the way to the front doors, or the side door, actually any way out of the complex would be nice at this point. He turned left at an intersecting hallway and then backtracked as he realized he didn’t recognize anything down that hall. Taking the right hallway, he managed to find his way to the staircase that would lead, hopefully, to the bottom floor and the exit. This place was not that big, but it was still confusing for a newcomer.

Not to mention he wasn’t really focusing all of his attention on where he was going. He had only been here for a day and already his brother had managed to find him. Not that it was surprising, Fuji always had been able to keep tabs on Yuuta when they were much younger.

Except for when his parents had sent him to another school and forbade Yuuta from talking to him and that other incident hadn’t improved their relationship either.

He blushed slightly and shook his head, he still couldn’t believe his brother had done that. He paused at the bottom of the stairs and looked around, it was empty. He wondered if maybe they weren’t supposed to go out at this time of night, but couldn’t remember anyone telling him about a curfew. ‘Whatever,’ he thought as he made his way to the front.

Yuuta zipped his jacket up and then opened the door, feeling the night air brush against his cheek. He quickly left the warmth of the complex and wandered down the path that would lead to the gate. His heart was thudding a little faster and his stomach was twisting in an odd way. He decided it was nerves; he was going to see his brother whom he hadn’t spoken to or seen in a long time, after all.

His pace slowed a little as he neared the gate and he squinted, trying to see in the dark with only the moonlight and the lights at the few lights from the school as an aid. He stood up straighter when he realized that there was indeed a silhouette at the gate and approached it as calmly as he could, his stomach still knotting.

“Aniki…” he started only to stop when the words of greeting disappeared at the sight of his brother actually physically standing in front of him. He was really talking to him, face to face.

Shuusuke scarcely believed that Yuuta had actually accepted the invitation to see him. It had been over a year since Shuusuke had been sent to Ryuhana, and in the time since beginning his studies, he'd lost contact with his younger brother gradually. The lack of response hadn't prevented him from calling or writing -- after so many months spent sending messages into the ether, he just didn't think that Yuuta would ever actually resurface.

But he had, and he was here, and Shuusuke couldn't help but smile. He needed to know what his younger brother had been up to, and what circumstances had brought him to the Brotherhood. Even that, Shuusuke thought, couldn't really establish them as enemies, not when he hardly agreed with all of Ryuhana's ideas himself. "It's nice to see you again," he said, as though the space between meetings had been a matter of days rather than months. "How have you been?"

Yuuta paused, how has he been? He didn’t even know where to start. He didn’t even know if he wanted to start. Online was a completely different arena compared to real life. His thoughts wandered as the wind tickled distractingly at his neck and he vaguely wished he’d brought a scarf.

“I’ve been…alright,” Yuuta finally answered, the last part coming out a little harsh which Yuuta hadn’t intended, but hadn‘t been able to prevent. His brother had left over a year ago and Yuuta had never heard from him. He’d had only been able to come to the conclusion that Fuji didn’t want anything to do with him and he was too busy to be bothered to even try. Though, that didn’t explain why Fuji had wanted to meet with him right now. And here they were with Fuji looking calm and smiling like nothing had happened between them. It was a little frustrating and Yuuta wished, not for the first time, that he could tell what his aniki was thinking.

Alright was better than the alternative, Shuusuke supposed. It would be better for both of them, though, not to linger for too long outside the Brotherhood gates. "Come on," he suggested, "let's walk." He refrained from taking Yuuta's hand, wary that it might be too much contact, and too soon, but fell into an easy step beside him.

Shuusuke didn't have any particular place in mind. He knew he wanted to avoid the destroyed landmarks of this town: the mall, the park, the late-night cafes with signs in their windows banning mutant entrance. It was strange how peaceful just walking could be, how comforting his younger brother's presence was -- even guarded and brusque, Yuuta was familiar. Shuusuke hadn't realized just how much he'd longed for that familiarity until he'd been without it for too long. "You've gotten taller," he commented casually.

"By the way ... what do you do?"

“I haven’t gotten that much taller,” he started, but his protest died into a murmur as he decided he should at least make an effort to try and answer Fuji’s real questions, putting them off was only going to cause more distance between them. He’d never had a problem talking to his brother when he was younger…

But that was so long ago…before any mutant powers…he stopped walking and looked at his brother, “I--.” This was harder than he thought. He hadn’t spoken to anyone about his powers: how exactly was he going to explain it? The only other people who knew about them were the people at the Brotherhood who were running the tests and even they hadn’t asked him to describe his abilities. They'd made him show them and he’d only gotten through the initial power gathering when they'd made him stop and then left to analyze his data.

“I can…I don’t know really. I can use something like energy, only it’s the opposite. It has no light, no feeling: it is nothing. I can make it into a field around me and it’s cold and empty and you know when you are inside that there are things and people outside, but you can‘t see them or hear them and…am I making any sense?,” he stopped, ending his ramble with a slight blush across his cheeks. He hated it when he rambled.

"The opposite of energy," Shuusuke mused. It sounded like it operated similarly to his own power (when it was functioning, anyway), but with a reverse effect: obliterating light instead of creating it. He wondered how the fields might interact, but knew that he couldn't find out until the astral plane repaired itself, and he didn't know how long that might take. "Is it working right now? Are you alright?"

“I’m alright. I’ve learned to control it for the most part. Why wouldn’t it be working right now?” Yuuta asked, curious as to why his brother would ask such a strange question.

“Are your powers…similar? Are they not working?,” Yuuta honestly had no idea, but he figured since they were talking about abilities, he may as well find out as much as he could about his brother's. He could never get anything from their parents. They refused to talk about Fuji in Yuuta’s presence and always ignored his questions about his brother, saying that he shouldn’t worry about Fuji because he was fine.

Yuuta blinked, his brother looked fine on the outside, but now that Yuuta thought about it...there was something different about him. Something...he couldn't put his finger on. Maybe Yuuta was imagining it…

Shuusuke didn't shake his head, and when he looked at Yuuta it was with an earnest expression. "I manifest energy, too," he said simply. "It glows." Another beat, another breath, as he considered how to explain the incident, and decided that straightforward was still the best option. "There's a rip in the astral plane right now," Shuusuke explained, quoting his teachers almost verbatim, "and it's causing psionically-based powers to malfunction. Including mine."

Yuuta tried to keep his face neutral, ‘astral plane?’ He’d have to figure out what that was later because right now the expression on Fuji’s face was worrying Yuuta. He’d never seen his brother look so serious, “Are…you alright?” And then in a quieter voice, “It isn’t hurting you is it?”

It reminded him of when he was much younger and would run up to aniki and ask the same question while tugging on his sleeve as his brother replanted one of his cacti: ’It isn’t hurting you is it, aniki?’

"No, not anymore," Shuusuke explained. It had hurt, when it first hit: the shock wave had left him with a bad headache for the better part of two days, and his response to the incident had been tame in comparison to the fate that had befallen some of the stronger telepaths, like Hanamura-sensei. "But I want to hear about you, Yuuta. Why are you with the -- with them?" He honestly didn't see how the Brotherhood could have been a better choice, even with all of Ryuhana's failings.

Wants to hear about me? Why am I with them? Yuuta’s hands fisted at his side, “Do you have any idea what happened to me a year ago?” This was not what he wanted. He didn’t want to get angry…he‘d held it in for so long, but now he couldn’t stop. A year’s worth of anger and rejection had built up inside and Fuji’s persistent questions had caused it to finally burst: he said nothing about the year he never spoke to Yuuta, no apologies or reasons, and now he wanted to know about him?

Yuuta continued, his chest tight as his anger and pain were released, “Of course not. You didn‘t even bother to find out! When you left, I never heard from you again! Why do you care now? What‘s so important about now? Did you not want to be bothered with your younger brother? Am I ‘good enough‘ for you now? I went through hell last year and you were never there for me! You said you‘d be there for me!”

He breathed heavily as he finished his outburst. His cheeks were burning and his hands were cramped from being clenched so tightly. He had tried to keep it in all this time, but he couldn’t and a voice in the back of his head was telling him to calm down now and stop; he calmed down, but he didn‘t stop. He needed to know what was going on with their relationship. No loving brother would just stop speaking to their sibling for no reason.

“I’m with the Brotherhood because I want to be. I agree with their ideas, not all of them, but more than I do Ryuhana‘s,” he finished, his voice quieter, though shaky and still sharp. He let out a deep sigh and his shoulders slumped slightly: that outburst had taken a lot out of him.

“Aniki, what’s happened to us?” he asked quietly, looking at anything but his brother’s face.

"Yuuta?" Shuusuke asked, but the younger boy wouldn't turn to look at him. They needed to stop walking, he thought, needed somewhere to be, where they could look at each other properly and Shuusuke could explain himself and they could both take a moment to rest and see exactly what was going on.

Something wasn't right, he knew, especially if Yuuta hadn't gotten his letters. There was a misunderstanding that needed to be cleared up, and soon. Shuusuke laid a calming hand on Yuuta's shoulder, as though he could transfer some of his own inner peace via touch alone. “Yuuta, I've been writing you," he explained. "Come on." He guided him down the street, taking turns that would lead them closer to Ryuhana.

Yuuta blinked slowly, his mind numb at his brother’s words.

Yuuta, I've been writing you

He was vaguely aware of aniki’s hand on his shoulder as he was guided down a street; to where, he didn’t know and frankly didn’t care. He was confused. His mind was reeling, what does this mean? Questions raced through his head at full speed trying to find some type of answer only to be met with nothing. If Fuji had been writing him, then why hadn’t Yuuta received any letters? He had checked the mail everyday when he’d come home only to find the box empty at which point he’d run and asked his parents if--

“Why would…” came the choked whisper as realization struck him. Why would his parents…they wouldn’t really get rid of aniki’s letters would they? They wouldn’t really lie to him about something as important as his brother would they?

Would their prejudice really make them do something like that to their own children?

He was brought back to his thoughts as he realized they were no longer on the street. And he blinked again as he realized he was now in a completely foreign territory. He hadn’t even noticed how far or long they’d walked; he‘d been too lost in his own thoughts and memories of all the times his parents had smiled while saying that Fuji was busy with his new school and not worry about it. Fuji had finally stopped and when he looked around he noticed they were now standing at the entrance to the Ryuhana dormitory. He looked at the building and lowered his voice, “…Why are we here?”

"It's safe here," Shuusuke said. There was a possibility that it wasn't, actually, considering recent anti-mutant activity, but it was the closest thing that he had to a home, and it would feel all the more right if Yuuta was right there with him.

Was that what had been missing? Shuusuke wondered. Could it possibly have been that, when Bunta had made himself so readily available? Perhaps a combination of several things....

He only spoke again after he'd taken Yuuta up to the third-floor dormitory that he shared with Bunta. "I don't know why my letters never reached you," Shuusuke said. "I'd thought that it was you that wanted nothing more to do with me, after ... well, after they'd sent me here." He didn't mention the incident that had ruffled Yuuta even then, in case the memory had stuck too fast.

“You thought that I didn’t…” Yuuta couldn’t even finish the sentence as all the small pieces began to fit together. “You didn’t get any of my letters either,” it was a statement, not a question. Yuuta knew what had happened now, “ Aniki, I’ve never felt that way. I didn’t care that you were a mutant.”

He finally looked at his brother, “I think our parents…I think ’Kaa-san threw away your letters and mine as well. They never let me say or ask anything about you. I didn’t know aniki. I should have. I knew how they felt about mutants, but I didn’t think they’d turn on their own child. I guess that explains why no one came to find me…I wonder if they even told Nee-san about my disappearance?” The last part was more a question for himself than for Fuji. Would his parents have made up some elaborate lie and given it to Nee-san with smiles on their faces? Judging from what they'd done to their own sons: probably.

He let out a breath, "I'm sorry, aniki. I didn't know."

Shuusuke blinked, clear blue showing for a moment in his confusion. Yuuta had written to him, too? He didn't know what his younger brother could possibly have to say, but if it truly had been their parents keeping them apart ... If he'd never really lost Yuuta, as he'd once believed ...

"We'll tell her," he resolved. "Nee-san. She's ... she'd be glad to hear from you, I think." He took a breath, a moment, turning this over again. "You don't have to stay there, you know." At the Brotherhood.

“…aniki, I'm not leaving,” Yuuta replied. Where else was he going to go? Ryuhana didn't appeal to him and he didn't know of any other schools for mutants. The Brotherhood seemed like the only place. Yuuta had spent months escaping from bigotry and hatred, he didn’t want to be put in a place that, in his opinion, sugar coated reality with phrases like: ‘they just don‘t understand us yet‘ or ‘they need time’. He wasn't exactly a fan of violence, but at the same time he didn't think it was right that mutants should do nothing. The Brotherhood really seemed like the best place for him.

"Besides," he stifled a yawn, "there's no where else to go."

Maybe not, Shuusuke thought, with a glance around his dorm room. Ryuhana didn't feel as safe as it used to, though he admitted to not having much choice, himself, lately. It was perhaps asking too much, too soon, to ask that Yuuta stay so immediately after communication had been re-established. A year of silence was still a year of silence, and the emotions that went along with that lack of contact would be hard to eradicate so easily. "Stay here tonight?" Shuusuke asked, bringing a hand to rest lightly at Yuuta's elbow. It was a small hope that accompanied his request, and maybe a little desperate, but it was hope nonetheless.

Yuuta tensed slightly and looked at his brother, ‘Stay the night?’ It was late and he knew he’d get lost trying to find his way back to the Brotherhood…but staying the night with his brother? Yuuta was a little apprehensive, but he realized he was also very tired. The night’s events had worn him out. He forced himself to relax, “…all right.”

As an afterthought he looked at Fuji, eyebrow raised, his voice light yet skeptical, “And you won’t try anything, right?”

It was still too soon to tell whether he could get away with joking, but Yuuta was here, and even that was hard enough to believe. "Not unless you want me to," he said, smile turning genuine to show he didn't really mean it ... unless Yuuta wanted him to.

“I--you--,” Yuuta sighed and then mumbled in embarrassment at his lack of coherency, “which bed?” He didn’t think he’d be able to handle trying to figure out any other issues with his brother tonight. He was already exhausted and his mind was still trying to process everything from earlier. Not to mention he had tried not to think about what the older Fuji had done. He wasn’t really sure how he felt about that yet.

"Whichever one you like," Shuusuke said. He'd leave enough of this up to Yuuta, because he didn't want to make him uncomfortable -- if he did that, then chances were high that he would leave again, and he really wanted him to stay this time. "My roommate will take whichever one you don't, if he decides to come back tonight." Shuusuke thought it best if he left out the fact that his roommate was also his lover; that would come in time.

He let his hand move over Yuuta's arm, though, to settle on his hand for just a moment, lingering, as though the touch might influence Yuuta's choice in his favor.

Yuuta frowned, “I don‘t want to be a burden. The beds look large enough to fit two people.” He didn‘t want to cause any problems for his brother‘s roommate, besides Fuji was his brother, they‘d slept in the same bed before. Of course, that was before Fuji had er…Yuuta felt his cheeks color for reasons he didn’t even want to think about and he cleared his throat. “We can share, if that’s ok? I mean, we’ve done it before, right?,” Yuuta said quickly, trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head saying he should just sleep on the floor. Fuji was his brother, he wouldn’t try that again…well, Yuuta wasn’t so sure about that. He was talking about Aniki. He’d just have to make the sacrifice. It wouldn’t be fair if he stole someone’s bed without their permission.

Of course it was okay, Shuusuke thought, although Yuuta had been less-than-receptive to contact before, and Shuusuke doubted that his mind would have changed all that much in the time that they'd been apart. He really hadn't thought Yuuta would agree to this now, but maybe ... maybe he'd missed his brother, too. Shuusuke would just have to take it slow, this time, and match Yuuta's pace. He couldn't stand to lose him again.

Best to leave his clothes on, then, too. They'd be rumpled in the morning, but that hardly mattered now. Shuusuke left his thanks unspoken, reflected in his eyes, and crossed the room to turn off the light before returning to his bed. In the darkness, Yuuta's warmth was stronger, his scent sharper. Leaning against him, resting on his chest, was closer to being home than Shuusuke had been in a long time.

Yuuta had not been prepared for his brother to get so close, but he didn’t have it in him to push him away. They’d gone through too much over the past year and Yuuta realized that he didn’t mind the feeling of his brother‘s calm presence. It was comforting and…safe and it had been a long time since he’d felt safe. Under normal circumstances he was quite certain he would have freaked out and thrown a fit over how close aniki was, but for now, he’d allow himself to enjoy this feeling.

He’d missed his ‘baka aniki’ and he hoped that after everything they'd gone through, they’d be able to get back what had been taken from them by their own parents. Maybe once they did, Yuuta could finally figure out why his brother had…well done that before he’d left for Ryuhana. And after that thought, Yuuta’s eyes began to grow heavy as his body rebelled against anymore thinking and before he realized it, he was asleep.