A Song For Another Time - A Hikaru Hitachiin Story

Chapter Thirty Four - I Will Not Break

"Once more, from the beginning," a stern voice echoed in the otherwise quiet apartment currently occupied by far more people than it was intended to house.

"Kyoya, honestly," growled one of the occupants. "Stop making her repeat it."

It was the third time they were having this fight. The same fight they've had over the last several times they sat in these same chairs, in this same living room, as the bespectacled teenager loomed over his laptop, legs crossed, and typed while he listened.

"I'm not doing this for my pleasure, Hikaru," his typically level-headed voice straining just slightly. No one in the room, not even himself, could tell if it was because of annoyance or some emotional response to the weight of the task at hand. "We need to make sure that every detail matches in this written testimony if it is going to hold any validity."

The meetings in Kyoya's apartments had started just two days after the incident — which is all they referred to it as: the incident. Not that condensing it down to two words and brushing over it did much in the way of lessening the impact of it, since Kyoya had Rose repeat the details of the occurrence at least twice to him during the first meeting.

Despite hesitations from both Hikaru and Rose, cluing Kyoya into the situation, after incessant insisting from Mori, was probably the best route they could have gone. Caleb, in all his honorable rage, would not let the incident go, insisting that Rose ask the nurses at the hospital to file the assault report with the local authorities (preferably both campus and city police). The very next day Rose found herself in the odd company of both Hikaru and Caleb as the two walked her into the local court house, as if they were her very own secret service warding off wandering eyes with the combined powers of their hard eyes and sharp scowls, to file a protection order.

The process had been simple enough, and not so unbearable that Rose couldn't handle it. A brief meeting with a judge to determine if the temporary order was warranted and then the promise of an in-depth hearing within the next 10 days with "the other party" present. That was when things would get complicated because that meant seeing him again. That meant having a solid, convincing case against him having the freedom to step within her world and if the terror she felt in her heart was those things — solid and convincing and not merely weakness and overreactions — then the university would have to get involved and that would lead to other hearings and deliberations.

She'd gotten this far and, despite not even wanting to take this step, she had two boys holding on to her hands as she left the courtroom reminding her that, yes she was strong, yes she had made it through this on her own up to this point, but she didn't have to go it alone. They weren't going to let her feel alone.

So, if she had set the wheels in motion for this whole big something that she had never asked for in any way, other than trusting someone she shouldn't have, then maybe it was time to trust someone she should.

Thus, convincing Rose to talk to Kyoya had been much easier than either Hitachiin or Mori had assumed. In fact it was easier to push Rose on board with their plans than it had been to persuade her friend. Caleb was adamant that he and his family could take care of the issue without "foreign interference." (A phrase Hikaru scoffed at without reservations.) Though it had only taken one pleading glance and a few mumbled phrases from Rose to sway him in the end.

"If Hikaru says we can trust him, then I do," she had said to him as he drove them back to campus after filing the order.

There were plenty of unspoken arguments in the air around them — about the necessity to involve actual adults into the equation, about whether to use actual licensed law professionals, about the cost of such a feat and the overwhelming feeling Caleb got that Rose just wanted all of this to go away quietly while he wanted Lance's face plastered on a billboard off I-93 with the caption: "I am a monster." He wanted headlines and justice while Rose regretted not signing the documents as Jane Doe.

Caleb's mind was in a tailspin trying to accept that Rose would rather turn to a teenage mastermind than ensure a favorable outcome through professionals and power and money, but if that's what she wanted then who was he — a man who had remained ignorant of her struggle despite calling himself a friend — to make her fight harder. If nothing else, he knew she needed some semblance of control.

He wasn't happy about it though. That much was clear in their first meeting inside Kyoya's apartment as he sat on the ground, to the right of Rose's knees, and clenched his fists each time the megane spoke. His knuckles turned white as she struggled through her first retelling and he was mildly surprised nothing in his hand snapped from the pressure as she battled through the second.

Caleb's reservations about the entire endeavor lasted through the end of their second meeting. Pettiness wasn't one of his character traits and it was hard to deny that Hikaru and Mori's friend was intelligent, scheming and (shockingly) compassionate, but that didn't make him an experienced litigator. Sure, Kyoya was tackling the entire process with a handle on both American laws and courtroom logistics that someone of his age and background shouldn't be able to. And, okay, he was a little impressed at how professional everyone was being about this, but those ticks in the "this might be okay in the end" column didn't exactly put his heart at ease.

Did they not understand that Lance would have the best lawyer(s) his daddy could buy? Did they not understand that if things didn't go the way they planned then Rose could be publicly dragged through the mud and scared in more ways than she always was. He knew they knew how important this was, but did they really know how important this was?

As he got up to leave, after that second meeting in that tidy apartment, Kyoya grabbed Caleb's attention with a steely intonation of his name and motioned for the college student to join him in the kitchen as Hikaru and Kaoru took to riling Rose up with comments about her split ends, effectively taking her attention away from the oncoming conversation.

"Your friend's legal team won't take us seriously," Kyoya said flatly, voicing Caleb's inner monologue without prompting. The statement caught him off guard in the kind of way that made his mind abandon all thoughts except 'he's not my friend anymore,' but the muscles in his throat had more self control than his mind did and he remained silent as Kyoya continued. "We can use that to our advantage."

"I don't think you can win," Caleb responded, straight-faced.

"You and I both know that this isn't just about a protection order, but the moment we step in front of that judge, that is all it is. We will be talking about the necessity to keep Lance away from Rose and of that, our combined evidence and testimony is absolute," Kyoya said coolly. "We can focus on all the other difficult stuff after, but even then — your family has strong ties and history with the university, no?"

Caleb nodded stiffly.

"It will no doubt get more complicated as we go along. It would be futile to think otherwise, but if we get the restraining order, I think no one would be opposed to you finally throwing your family name around when it comes to that man's future at Harvard."

It was as if the Japanese teenager had known exactly what Caleb needed to hear to finally uncurl his fists and loosen his diaphragm. His testimony would be enough. His contributions would be useful. He could do more when the time came.

He was finally onboard.

And on a Wednesday, in a small courtroom when they all should have been in class, their combined efforts and testimony and pain accumulated in a signed and approved order for Lance to not contact Rose under any circumstances other than being ordered to do so by the court. Kyoya had been right all along — Lance hadn't taken it seriously, not even bothering to inform his parents nor their lawyer, and had nothing for his defense other than hollow statements of "she never said no" and "it was consensual." He even went far enough to say he was considering pressing charges against Caleb for assault — the bruise around his nose now in that yellowish-green stage.

"Would it be too morbid to thank the douche bag for forgetting there are cameras all across campus," Hikaru thought aloud as they exited the courthouse and began walking down the stone steps together, collectively feeling as they could breathe for the first time in nearly two weeks.

Each of the boys breathed out a tepid "yes" as Rose frowned and trained her eyes forward. It was no use pretending this was a satisfying ending. If the universe had decided to grant her this reprieve, then that only meant the worst was yet to come.