Rainbow Connection, AFTG ✔️

2.18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
JAMES

James was in the library with Hayden when Porter, Neil, and Kevin all cornered him. The two taller men both looked visibly sick, but James doubted food poisoning or mono was the cause of their expressions.

"Well," Hayden drew out the word, "This looks serious." He gestured over his shoulder, "I should get going to that meeting I told you about." Hayden's meeting wasn't for an hour, but James understood the urge to run away when those three were staring at you. If James didn't know them, they might have been scary.

Neil did all of the speaking. That was probably for the best; James didn't want Porter or Kevin to puke on him. "We're going to Abby's." He said shortly, "I'll explain there."

They walked back to the Fox Tower, and Andrew was waiting for them there. He had a small package in one hand and a cigarette in the other. The latter he tossed aside at their approach, and he got the locks undone as he slid to his feet. It was a short drive from the dorm to Abby's place.

"Ichirou just came to see us," Neil explained in the safety of their car. He still looked out of the windows as if someone could have heard them.

Porter made a quiet noise, face pressed against the window, eyes closed. At the other window, Kevin wasn't any better, starring down at his hands with wide eyes. Neil had both told them already; James knew they would have had more extreme reactions than that.

The ride was quiet after that. James was forced to remember each time Riko took a break from rage and tumbled into agony; if only Riko knew that James met his brother before he did. James would shove the fact down his throat and laugh.

At Abby's, Neil knocked on the door. Pointless, since she never locked her door. Abby answered a few seconds later. She frowned at the sight of them on her doorstep but moved aside to let them in.

"Don't you have class right now?"

"No," Neil said. "Where's Jean?"

"He was asleep the last time I checked in on him."

"It's important," Neil said. "I'll wake him up."

Abby studied Kevin's bleak expression and Porter's heavy one. James looked up at her through his eyelashes, face blank. After a moment, she stepped aside. Neil took all of the men down the hall, leaving Abby staring after them, and gave the bedroom door a cursory knock on his way in.

Jean startled awake at the noise and started to sit up. Moving was a mistake, judging by the sound he made as he sank back to the mattress. Underneath the numbness and anger that the name Ichirou invoked, James melted, worried and weary.

When he had first seen Riko's handiwork, James could only sigh. Now, he surveyed each mark. He had warned Riko not to touch his friends anymore. If Riko thought they didn't extend to Jean...well, perhaps Jean didn't think it extended to Jean. That thought made James frown, and he followed Neil deeper into the room.

Jean's face was pretty much a swollen bruise. Both eyes were blackened courtesy of a broken nose and stitches had patched his chin and cheek back together. Chunks of hair had been ripped from his skull, leaving bald and scabbing patches throughout.

"Hello, Jean," Neil said. He sat on the edge of the mattress.

"Go away," Jean said, voice raw with loathing. "I have nothing to say to you."

"But you'll listen," Neil said, "because I just told Ichirou where you are."

It was enough to get Jean's undivided attention. Kevin sat down on Jean's other side, white-faced all over again at the sound of Ichirou's name. Neil looked back to make sure Andrew was listening. James wrapped a gentle arm around Porter; he wasn't sure Porter would keep standing if he didn't, and James was the one with the weak leg.