Naegami - Responsible

Four: Memories

Makoto opened his eyes slowly. What had happened to him? He had been in a basement somewhere, and Genocide Jack was there, and... it was easy to piece together what had happened from there. That explained why every part of his body was faintly screaming from behind a buzz of painkillers.

"Hm. About time you woke up," a smug voice Makoto recognized instantly said. "What kind of an idiot would get kidnapped so easily like that?"

He blinked, then smiled. "Hi, Byakuya. Thanks for checking on me. I guess Genocide Jack hurt me pretty bad, huh?"

"Yes. It seems as though she wanted to kill you but would rather you suffered first, so she tortured you with her scissors for a bit but reverted back to Toko before she could finish you off." He shook his head. "If I had been in your position, I would've been able to escape instantly. I can't imagine what you were doing."

"Um..." Makoto's smile turned sheepish. "A lot of kicking and screaming, I think. Just your standard kidnapped-guy stuff." He looked around, and the smile dropped off his face. "Wait. Is this..."

Byakuya finished his thought. "This is the hospital currently holding Sayaka Maizono, yes. Don't look so surprised; you live in the same area and Sayaka didn't require any kind of specialized treatment, so there's no reason you wouldn't end up in the same hospital."

Oh... yeah. That makes sense. Makoto relaxed a bit, but tensed up immediately as Byakuya propped his elbows on his bedside table, looking him directly in the eye. "I must admit I'm curious... why did you do it? Why would you drive that girl to suicide?"

"I..." Makoto didn't know how to respond to that. "I didn't mean to. She just seemed lonely, and I thought I'd show her all the stuff she could do if she weren't an idol. I never thought..."

"But you did," Byakuya said. "When she realized how much of her life she'd completely missed out on and how hollow her current life was in comparison, she decided that she would be better off ending it all than continuing to live an empty existence. Isn't that right?"

Don't cry, damn it, don't cry. You've already cried too much. Makoto swallowed hard. "I... I never thought she'd see it that way. I just wanted to show her something new and let her experience something she hadn't gotten to before. I didn't mean to..."

His attempts to stop himself from crying failed, and tears started streaming down his face, one after the other. Soon enough he was all-out bawling. "She told me how hard her own life was," he ranted, "and I just thought she'd like it if I let her experience a few days of normal life."

Byakuya snorted. "Is that really it? What a simple thing to drive someone so far. Still, I suppose you can't be blamed for it, even if it is technically your fault."

That comment hit Makoto out of nowhere. "Wait... what? You're saying... you don't blame me?"

"That's literally what I just said."

The tears running down Makoto's cheeks didn't cease, but now they were tears of relief. "Thank you," he choked out. "I needed to hear that." He reached out for Byakuya's hand, which Byakuya pulled back in surprise.

"What the hell are you doing?" the taller boy demanded. "Get away from me."

Makoto smiled. "I thought you wanted us to be seen as a couple, silly. I'm trying to hold your hand."

This was part of the plan. Byakuya had known they would need to do things like this. So why was he so flustered? "There's no one here," he pointed out in a desperate attempt to escape the situation."

"Still..." Byakuya's hand had come to a rest on the beside table he'd been leaning against, and Makoto reached out and grabbed it. "You have no idea how much that means to me."
Byakuya blushed furiously. "What? I was simply stating a fact." He tilted his head to the side, suddenly thinking of a way to change the subject. "What exactly did you do with Sayaka?"

"I took her on vacation," Makoto said, wiping his eyes. "We spent three days out on Cape Cod, hanging out by the beach. She was having such a good time. She said this was the first time she'd felt that kind of happiness in a while." A distant look came into his eyes. "I guess that's why she started questioning her life, huh?"

"Obviously."

"Yeah..."

Realizing that Makoto still hadn't let go of his hand, Byakuya pulled it away. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some things of actual consequence to attend to." He walked out of the room briskly before Makoto could respond, wondering why holding hands with Makoto had been so nerve-wracking, not realizing why Makoto was so special, not realizing that he had already started to fall for him.