Days Without Sun

Darkness

Misaki swam back up into consciousness. Returning to the surface of sensibility, he gasped and tried to draw a deep breath, but the movement of his chest was constricted. Drowning in panic, he fought to compose himself, mind reeling as he frantically sought to get a grasp on his situation.

Calm down! he ordered himself, not that this helped much: his heart was pounding so hard he thought it might crack his ribs.

Misaki continued struggling to breathe; it took him a few moments to realize that the reason he was having difficulty expanding his chest was because it was bound, and that he could only draw breath through his nose as his mouth was duct-taped.

The next thing he realized was that he could not see, even though his eyes were wide open. Complete darkness enveloped him, and this, as much as anything else, terrified him.

Hot tears filled Misaki's eyes, only making him panic all the more. If he started crying his nose would become further obstructed and then he really might find himself completely unable to breathe. Still, his head ached so fiercely this alone would have been enough to elicit tears, even without the added terror.

What happened... Where am I?

Misaki grappled with this question, though the movement of every thought through his mind pained him. He tried vainly to still his thoughts by focusing in on the physical sensations available .

Running through what he could ascertain he understood that his head was killing him and he was tied up and lying on a hard concrete floor.

As the implications of the situation hit him, his guts clenched at the possibility that he might have been assaulted when he was passed out. After a moment of this new terror, Misaki realized he still had his clothes on and outside the agony of his head and the burn of his stiff muscles; he couldn't feel any other injuries. This offered him some small reassurance.

Not a lot, but enough he was able to still himself suitably to start remembering.

He and Usagi-san were in South America on the coast of Brazil. They had supposedly come initially for a writing conference Aikawa-san had wanted Usagi-san to attend. Usagi-san hadn't wished to leave Tokyo and probably wouldn't have, except that there had been that terrible incident with Takahiro.

Nii-chan, Misaki thought miserably. Tears threatened to overtake his eyes once again.

This feeling of sorrow for his beloved sibling was not new: he had known it ever since the day Takahiro had found out about him and Usagi-san.

Misaki's heart still ached when he recalled his brother's face when he and Usagi-san revealed the truth of their love and Takahiro finally understood. No less painful was Usagi-san's expression when his nii-chan responded to it, calling Usagi-san such awful things.

Then Takahiro grabbed his arm and tried to physically remove him from Usagi-san's apartment. It was the only time in his life Misaki could ever remember not obeying his older brother.

"I won't go, Nii-chan!" When he'd said this, Misaki's heart had been pounding almost as furiously as it was now. "You have your life with Manami-nee-san now and mine is with Usagi-san. I… I love him."

Misaki still recalled the sting of the slap that had followed his declaration, but even more so, the pain in his older brother's eyes when his nii-chan realized what he'd just done. In their whole life together, Takahiro had never once laid his hand on him in any way that was not kind or comforting. Usagi-san had moved in immediately to take up his defense, just as shocked by Takahior's reaction. But Takahiro had dropped Misaki's arm after striking and with a look of horror in his eyes fled the apartment.