Lullaby Chapter 5

[eiahmon]

Title: Lullaby
Pairing: none
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Pure crack, fluff, and weirdness in spades.
Summary: Atsushi wakes up one morning to find that he has somehow undergone a drastic change, and he is NOT happy about it. For that matter, neither are his bandmates.
A/N: I just noticed a mistake I've been making on the dates at the top of the chapters. May??? Why in the world was I putting in May when I KNOW that Atsushi's birthday is in March? *feels stupid* So umm yeah, just ignore anything you read on here about it being in May. It takes place in March. XD *runs off to edit the other chapters*

5.
March 4th
Day 4

I just want to be a kid again.

I don't want to deal with all of this anymore.

I've had enough.

Atsushi screamed as pain suddenly filled his entire body as bones cracked, skin shrank, and muscles contracted.

Stop! he tried to wail, but he was too busy screaming as a whirlwind filled the room, throwing pictures and other small objects everywhere. He could hear glass shattering, and the roar of the wind as he screamed, and screamed, and screamed...

Atsushi sat up in bed, swallowing the scream in his throat before he could give it voice. His eyes darted fearfully around the room, expecting to see someone there hiding in the corner, looking at him with glowing eyes and an evil smile, but the room was empty except for him. At least he hoped it was.

"It was just a dream." he told himself quietly as he tried to catch his breath "No one's here. You're at Ani's house, and no one is here but you and him." But no matter how much his adult side tried to rationalize things, the child in him was still very much afraid, and that fear was growing as he looked about the dark room and made note of all the places where a monster could hide. In the closet, behind the dresser, under the bed...

He shivered and wrapped his blanket around himself. "Get a grip, Sakurai. There is no one else in here."

But maybe...

No, he told his imagination sternly. Knock it off; you are the only one in the room. But wait, had that shadow by the dresser moved?

Just the wind rustling the tree in the front yard, that's all. Atsushi hid his face in the blanket as the wind howled around the eaves of the house, and he couldn't help the shiver that ran up his spine.

"I'm all alone. I'm the only one in here." he chanted under his breath as he tried to force his racing heart to slow down. "Ani's right across the hall. Nothing can get me here. I'm the only one in the room." The wind howled again, and he thought he saw something move over by the closet.

"It's just me in here." he chanted quietly "It's just me in here." A sudden banging made his heart leap up into his throat, and he looked up to see the shadows of the tree branches outside swaying wildly across the wall as the wind picked up outside. He laid down on his side and curled up in a tight ball, pulling the blanket over his body to cover himself completely.

"Just me, just me, just me, just..."

Atsushi...

Atsushi sucked in a breath. Had he just heard that? He squeezed his eyes shut and curled into an ever tighter ball.

"Just me, just me, just me, just me, just me!"

Atsushi...

"Go away; you're not real!"

Atsushi!

"You're not real!" Atsushi screamed as he threw the blanket back and jumped out of bed. Unmindful of what might have been lurking under the bed, he ran from the room and across the hall into Ani's room. The drummer was sitting up, looking as though he was about to get out of bed himself, when Atsushi flew through the door and jumped up onto the bed.

"Achan, what's the matter?" Atsushi didn't answer; instead he only threw himself into the older man's arms, crying and shaking. "I heard you scream. What happened?" Atsushi just shook his head and cried as he felt Ani's arms wrap around him.

"Did you have a nightmare, Atsushi?"

That and so much more. Atsushi thought, but he only nodded in response to Ani's question. The drummer said nothing, he just pulled Atsushi's shaking form up onto his lap and gently rocked him. Atsushi grasped a hold of his shirt and held on, not wanting to lose contact, needing the comfort of another living person.

After several minutes, Ani went to stand up. "Come on, Atsushi. Let's get you back to bed."

"No!" Atsushi wailed as he clutched the drummer's shirt even tighter. "I don't want to go back in there." He started to shake again, and Ani sighed.

"Alright," he said "you can stay in here with me, just for tonight." He pushed the blankets back and laid Atsushi down, before he laid down beside him and pulled the blankets over them. Atsushi nestled close and tucked his head under the drummer's chin. He felt one of Ani's arms slide around him, and he allowed himself to relax, soothed by the sound of Ani's heartbeat. He fell asleep there, safe in the crook of Ani's arm.

*****

When Atsushi woke up in the morning, he was alone in the bed. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before he remembered why he was there.

"Oh god..." he groaned as he blushed to the roots of his hair. What in the hell had possessed him to do that? What Ani must think of him now. He looked up and looked through the open door, across the hall, and into his own room. He shivered with a sudden chill as he remembered the voice that he had heard, calling his name. He let out a nervous titter; he must really be losing it if he was imaging voices in the night.

Atsushi...

Okay, so maybe he wasn't imagining it.

Atsushi!

With a frightened yelp, Atsushi leapt out of bed and ran full speed out of the room. Just outside the door, he collided hard with a pair of legs and fell to the floor.

"Excuse you." came a voice from above, and he looked up to see Yuta looking down at him with amusement. That amusement quickly vanished from his face as Atsushi proceeded to practically climb him like a tree up into his arms.

"I was just coming to get you, Atsushi; what's the matter?" Atsushi only hid his face in Yuta's neck and didn't answer.

"Ani said that you had a nightmare; are you still scared?"

Atsushi nodded, too frightened to feel embarrassed. Yuta nodded in understanding before he turned and carried Atsushi down the stairs to the kitchen.

Ani, Hisashi, and Hide were gathered around the table again, and their conversation stopped when Yuta carried him into the room and sat him down in his chair. He couldn't help the frightened whimper that escaped him at the loss of contact as Yuta released his grip on him and walked over to the counter.

"Are you alright, Atsushi?" Ani asked, concerned.

Atsushi swallowed heavily and nodded, not the slightest bit interested in the plate that Yuta set down in front of him.

"You don't look alright?" Hide pointed out evenly.

"I'm still a little creeped out, that's all." He looked up from his perusal of the tabletop to see them all looking at him. “What?”

“It’s March 4th, Achan.” Hisashi said as he absently drew on the tabletop with the tip of his finger “It’s three days until your birthday, three days until that photoshoot we have to do. We need to figure out how you ended up shrank down, and how to get you back to normal.”

Atsushi looked back down at the table. “I don’t know how, so don’t look at me.” Besides, can’t we just reschedule it and tell them I’m sick or something?”

“That’s what we’ve been doing.” Hide replied “but it’s not going to hold up much longer. Our manager is getting quite insistent that you either come in, or go to the doctor and get something to get you over whatever you’ve got. He’s even mentioned going to your house to look for you. We talked him out of it, but sooner or later...” The guitarist trailed off and shrugged.

“Sakura’s also coming home on your birthday.” Yuta added “and I really don’t want to explain to her how her husband is now in miniature, so we need to get this solved.”

“But I don’t know how I ended up like this, so how can we fix it?”

“Oh, I think you do.” Ani said quietly, and Atsushi looked up to see the drummer regarding him sternly over his cup of coffee. “You know something; I’m sure of it.”

"I agree." Hide said "You wouldn't look me in the eye that day when you said you didn't know how this had happened if I remember correctly."

Atsushi gulped and looked back down at the table. Oh he knew, alright, but he wasn't too keen on telling them.

“I’m going to go get dressed.” he announced as he went to stand up.

“No, you’re not.” The authority in Ani’s voice made him pause and he looked up and was pinned to his seat by the drummer’s look. “You are going to tell us how you ended up like this, Atsushi, and you are going to tell us right now, so we can get it reversed.”

“But I don’t know how this happened!” he tried to protest.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying! I don’t know what happened! You have to believe me, Ani!” He angrily scrubbed at the tears that were cresting in his eyes and tried to stand up from his chair, but a hand on his shoulder held him down, and he looked up to see Yuta standing beside him. Without thinking about it, he reached out to the bassist, who lifted him out of the chair and into his arms.

"Why don't you believe me, Yuta?" he asked as he laid his head down.

"Because we know you're hiding something, and we need to know what."

Atsushi hid his face in Yuta's hair for a moment. "I was tired: I was stressed out, and I just wanted a break for a bit. But we couldn't get one; we had so much to do. Sakura was always able to ease things for me, but she was leaving for a week. I didn't want her to go, but what could I say? She needed time to herself once in a while, and I couldn't take that away from her. I just wanted a break from everything, but we were going to be so busy. I woke up as Sakura was leaving, and I thought to myself that how I wouldn't mind being a kid again for a little while, just so I wouldn't have to worry about all the work we had to do. I was tired, and I just didn't want to deal with it all anymore." He stopped, not sure if he should continue or even if they would believe him. Yuta sat down with him and stroked his hair for a minute.

"Then what happened?" Hide asked gently.

"I... think I went back to sleep, and I thought I was dreaming, because I heard a voice ask me if I was sure that was what I wanted."

"And you said yes." Ani said quietly.

Atsushi hid his face again and nodded. "I heard it say something like 'Very well.' and if felt like... felt like... like my skin was on fire, like I was being beaten with baseball bats. It hurt so much, and I screamed as I felt my bones cracking and breaking. There was a really strong wind in the room, and it was throwing everything about, and I think I passed out. When I woke up, the room was destroyed."

"And I came and found you later." Yuta finished for him.

Atsushi nodded again as he wrapped his arms around Yuta's neck.

No one spoke for several minutes, and then:

"You heard that voice again last night." Ani said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes,"

"And that's why you came running to me and refused to go back into your room."

"Yes."

"And that's why you ran out of Ani's room like the devil was on your ass earlier." Yuta added.

“Yes.”

Hide spoke up then. "Wait, maybe instead of running from this thing or whatever it is, Achan should speak to it. If turned him into a child; it should be able to turn him back."

Atsushi turned around in Yuta's arms. "No! I'm not speaking to that thing ever again!"

"Even if it means being trapped in a child's body for the rest of your life?" Hisashi asked.

"I don't care; I don't ever want to speak to it again. Look what it did to me!"

"Only because you told it to."

"I thought I was dreaming!"

Ani held up his hand. "Atsushi, Hisashi, that's enough. Hide is right, Achan, speaking to it may solve everything for us." Atsushi paled at the though of willingly speaking to that thing. "But, I can't deny how scared you are of it, so I won't make you, but we have to figure out how we can get you back to normal by your birthday. I doubt we will be able to hold the higher ups at BMG back after that. They will come looking for you, and they will find out what happened. And I'm sure none of us want that to happen."

Atsushi let his gaze drop to the floor and shuddered. No, being found out would be disastrous. Who knew what would happen to him. Would he be taken away from his friends? Would he be poked and prodded in a lab? Proving that he was indeed Sakurai Atsushi would be simple; all it would take was a DNA sample. What would happen once that was discovered? He leaned back against Yuta’s chest and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about it.

Yuta’s arms tightened around him in a comforting squeeze for a moment before the bassist stood up and deposited him back in his chair.

“Eat your breakfast, Achan.” he said “We’ll worry about this more later.”

*****

The rhythm section was done, so the brothers stayed home while the guitarist went into the studio. Atsushi wandered back and forth between Ani and Yuta, never staying alone for long, frightened that that thing would catch him alone. The two didn't pay much attention to him, wrapped up in their own individual pursuits, and Atsushi wondered if they were upset with him.

"Are you angry with me, Ani?" he asked in the late afternoon as he sat huddled in a corner of the office as the drummer worked on some paperwork at his desk. Ani paused and sighed.

"Come here, Atsushi." he said as he took off the glasses that he used for extended periods of reading and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Atsushi hesitantly stood up and walked up to the desk, and he squeaked in surprise when Ani simply lifted him up onto his lap and put his arms around him.

"No, Achan, we're not angry with you. We just can't see a solution to the problem of your current age and size, and it bothers us. I'm sure you don't want to be like this the rest of your life, and we would like to have you back the way you were, but we can't see how that will happen."

"Do you want me to talk to it?"

"Not if it scares you so much."

"But what if it gets me turned back to normal?"

Ani gently grasped Atsushi's chin and looked him in the eye. "Atsushi, when Itsuki was three would you have forced him to confront something that terrified him?"

Atsushi wanted to shake his head, but the drummer's grip on his chin prevented that. "No, of course not."

"Then why should we make you do such a thing?"

"But I'm not really three!"

Ani let go of his chin and instead gently caressed his hair. "Most of the time, no, you're not, but if I were to tell you to go into your room right now and speak to that thing, I'm sure it would terrify you."

Atsushi swallowed; Ani had him there. Just the mention of doing such a thing had made his heart skip a beat.

"As much as we would like to have you back to normal, Achan, we don't want you upset and afraid."

"But what will I do then? How will I get back to normal?"

Ani used his thumb to gently wipe away a tear off of Atsushi's face. "We'll figure something out."

Atsushi snuggled close and laid his head on the drummer's chest. "You must be getting tired of taking care of me."

Ani smirked. "No, not really. This is much easier than that time our parents made me mind Yuta for a day when he was nine and I was fourteen."

Atsushi laughed out loud. "Was it that bad?"

Ani shuddered. "You have no idea. I told our parents that I was never doing that again, and the whole time, Yuta was standing over there looking cute and innocent and in no way guilty of all the trouble he had given me."

"Are you telling embarrassing stories about me, Ani?" Yuta asked as he walked into the room through the connecting door.

"Of course, I am." Ani replied "It's my job as your older brother to do whatever possible to embarrass you."

Yuta rolled his eyes. "Right, remind me to call Haha and ask for those baby pictures of you naked on the bed."

Ani's eyes narrowed. "How did you know about those?"

The bassist started laughing. "I didn't, but it's nice to know that they do exist, which means I can-" He didn't get to finish his sentence; Ani calmly lifted Atsushi off his lap, sat him down on his feet, and then leaped out of his chair and went after his brother. Yuta laughed and ran through the connecting door to his own half of the house, Ani right behind him.

Atsushi giggled and went downstairs to see what he could find to watch on the television.

Chapter 4 -- Chapter 6
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