Orange Moon

by Barbara Sheridan

  “Oh fuck --” Toru gasped, his eyes widening in horror.

  Kutani glanced up, a look of shock and rage on his sweaty face.

  “Keep walking, Nakai,” the man snarled.

  Toru snarled. “Get your fucking hands off of him, you son of a bitch!”

  Charging forward, he grabbed Kutani by the front of his shirt and wrenched him over the sofa. Kutani swung a punch that connected with Toru’s right side, but Toru felt nothing except the fury gripping his heart.

  He smashed his fist into Kutani’s jaw and grabbed at the man’s throat with his free hand. They crashed to the floor, and Toru grabbed Kutani’s throat with one hand as he pinned the man to the carpet.

  “Fucking bastard!” Toru roared. He drove his fist into Kutani’s face two more times, stopping only when the man finally quit struggling and groaned in a daze.

  Toru ran to Hideki. His face was bloody, his nose probably broken. He was bruised all over. Sirens wailed outside. “You’re going to prison, you perverted fucker!” Toru shouted at Kutani, who was pulling himself up.

  Toru gently stopped Hideki when he tried to reach down and pull up his briefs. “No, leave it; let the cops see what he did. All of it.”

  “They won’t arrest me.”

  “He’s right,” Hideki groaned. “Help me; don’t let them see me like this.”

  Toru nodded and helped Hideki. He was bringing over his jeans when the police came into the room. He quickly told them what had happened over Kutani’s shouted vows of innocence and accusations that they had broken in to harass him.

  “Then why the fuck has Hideki been beaten, and why is your dick half out! Fucking lying bastard!” He lunged at Kutani, but Hideki stopped him, falling to his knees from the exertion. Toru scooped him up and shouted for the police to call an ambulance. One was already en route.

  Hideki buried his face in Toru’s chest. “I’m so glad you’re here,” he said weakly. “I -- I --”

  “It’s all right.” Toru held him tighter.

  “I made such a fucking mistake,” Hideki whispered. “Back in Honolulu, I never should’ve walked away.”

  “Hide-chan.” Toru’s voice cracked. “Don’t think about that now.”

  The ambulance pulled up to the front of the house and the EMS technicians came inside. “Can you try to stand?” one of them asked, setting his bag of equipment on the floor.

  “He’s disoriented.” Toru swallowed, reluctantly letting them take Hideki from his arms and place him on a gurney.

  “That bastard drugged me,” Hideki said groggily.

  One of the technicians wiped some of the blood away from his face. “We’re taking you to the hospital, okay?”

  “Come with me, Toru.” Hideki reached for his hand. “Don’t leave me alone.”

  Toru leaned down to kiss Hideki’s bruised forehead. “Never again.”

  * * * * *

  Hideki had no serious injuries beyond a broken nose, which the plastic surgeon, who Toru had insisted be called, assured him would heal fine.

  “So you only came to see if my looks would be the same?” Hideki teased.

  Toru gave his hair a tiny tug. “Baka. I don’t want you to disappoint your fangirls who adore that pretty face.” He regretted the flip comment when pain crept into Hideki’s eyes.

  “I thought if I went crawling back to Nippon, Kutani would help me. But all he wanted was to control me and take what he wanted.”

  Toru stroked the back of his fingers across Hideki’s cheek. “He’ll pay for this. You have him by the balls now and not the way he was hoping for.”

  Toru pulled his hand back and looked away. “This was all my damn fault. From the moment I walked into your life --” He stopped when Hideki placed two fingers over his lips.

  “From the moment you walked into my life, I’ve never loved anyone more,” Hideki whispered.

  Toru took Hideki’s hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I was a fool to hurt you with those lies. I thought I was helping. I wanted you to hate me and get back all that you’d lost.”

  “The most important thing I lost was you. I love you, Toru.”

  Toru eased himself onto the edge of the narrow hospital bed and cradled Hideki in his arms. “I love you more than I can ever say, but it seems like everything I do brings you pain.” Tears brimmed in his eyes as he smoothed his fingers over the bandages and bruises covering Hideki.

  “I don’t blame you. I could never hate you.”

  Toru blinked back the tears and bent to give Hideki a gentle kiss.

  Epilogue

  Two years later

  As they filed out of the wedding chapel, Jun took his son, Kaoru, from Rumiko and gave their unborn daughter a pat via her mother’s large belly. “This one’s going to be a drummer. Definitely,” Jun joked.

  “Good,” Toru said with a laugh as he and Hideki joined them outside the chapel. He ruffled little Kaoru’s thick black hair when the toddler held his arms out for Hideki to hold him. “I think Sasao plans to keep Kyoru busy,” he said lightly, looking over his newly married friends as they paused in the door of the chapel to give one another a lingering, deep kiss.

  Imai and Koji joined the little group after they took part in the wedding party photos. “I’m still in shock,” Imai announced with his customary dramatic flair. “Kyoru, our official band tramp, settling down and marrying.”

  Koji smiled and nodded. “Sasao will keep him on a short leash.”

  Imai snorted and folded his arms across his chest. “I think he’ll like that a little too much.”

  The couple finished greeting a few more of the handful of guests who were invited to the small, private wedding. The arrangements had been made quickly and secretly to avoid any media frenzy, with the ceremony even being held overseas at an exclusive beachfront hotel on the North Shore of Oahu. If not, the two-day affair would’ve been all over the entertainment news. ChildsPrey’s fame continued to rise worldwide, and both Hideki and Sasao were the stars of two of Fuji TV’s leading dramas that year.

  Sasao and Kyoru made their way to the group as well, and Koji was the first to punch the drummer on the arm. “You’re such a lucky bastard, Kyoru -- how did you blackmail Sasao into marrying you?” Kyoru laughed and pushed him away. “We have a lot in common, like wanting to kick your ass, Koji. Yours too, Imai,” he added when the vocalist started laughing.

  Sasao broke away from her new husband and kissed Hideki on the cheek. “Thank you for coming, Hide-kun.” She smiled up at him from underneath her haku, the sweet perfume from the crown of jasmine flowers carrying on the late afternoon breeze.

  “Congratulations, Sasao-chan.” He grinned at her.

  Behind them, Kyoru and Koji started swearing at each other in between bursts of laughter. They fell into a heap on the sand outside of the stone pebble path leading from the chapel to the hotel’s reception area.

  “Maybe it should be condolences, Sasao.” Jun’s eyebrows twitched as he moved past Hideki and Sasao to put a stop to the roughhousing.

  Toru laughed, and Sasao came up to him. He took her hands and squeezed them gently. “You look beautiful.”

  “You look so happy.” Sasao stood on tiptoe to leave a soft kiss on his cheek. “If Kyoru and I can have just half of that kind of happiness, the rest of our lives are going to be wonderful.”

  Toru smiled and wrapped her in an embrace. “I wish you all the best, Sasao-chan. I love you.”

  Little Kaoru squealed in Hideki’s arms and reached for Sasao. “Auntie, auntie!”

  “Yeah, I feel left out too.” Hideki chuckled. He passed the boy to Sasao, who took the baby and turned to Rumiko, chattering away.

  Toru wrapped his arms around Hideki’s waist. “You were saying?”

  “Go on ...” Hideki grinned at him.

  “Aren’t you tired of hearing it yet?” Toru teased, brushing away some of the soft hairs the ocean breeze blew into Hideki’s eyes.

  “Never.” Hideki leaned in, gently taking pos
session of Toru’s lips for a long, slow kiss that might’ve gone on forever if they let it.

  “I love you,” Toru murmured softly, happily.

  They kissed again, their love going on long after they followed the others up to the hotel, long after they returned home several days later ... never ending.

  Barbara Sheridan & Anne Cain

  Barb and Anne started writing yaoi (m/m) fiction together in fall of 2005, and have been having a blast ever since. Both authors have a soft spot for history, vampire lore, and Japanese rock groups. Barb and Anne are also fascinated with Asian culture and mythology, from Chinese legends about chiang shih to Japanese samurai movies, anime and pop culture. They love their stories and characters and are always thrilled to know others enjoy them as well.

  You can learn more at their website http://www.dragonsdisciple.com and look into their individual endeavors at Anne's DeviantArt Portfolio http://annecain.deviantart.com/ and Barb's website. http://www.barbarasheridan.net

  For updates on new writing projects join them at their newsgroup http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dragonsdisciple/