[fic] Fairy [1/3]
Title: Fairy
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Genre: Romance, Angst, Fantasy
Word Count: 21061
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Kame spends too much of his time staring out of windows, wishing for something he doesn't know.
A/N: Started ages ago and worked on sporadically when I was in the right mood for it. I think it's one of my best fics by far.
Kame spends too much time staring out of his window.
He's in the prime of his life, he knows. He has a single that's been at the top of the charts for three months, more money than he knows what to do with, a guaranteed future, something to do every Friday night, and great friends that double as his bandmates. But despite it all, Kame just can't seem to feel satisfied. It's like he's missing something, like he's forgotten something and left it behind on his rise to the top, and it keeps niggling at the back of his mind. Normally, he's able to push it down and ignore it, but late at night it haunts him, rising to the top, and Kame finds himself looking out his apartment window at the stars, a lit candle burning steadily beside him on the windowsill.
The stars are amazing, Kame thinks, but he almost feels bad for them: glowing and sparkling and beaming for everyone, but in the end, completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Then he just feels stupid for personifying the stars, blows out his candle, and goes to bed.
Koki and Nakamaru think that Kame needs a romance in his life.
“I promise you, it'll make you look at your life in an entirely different way,” Nakamaru vows, and Kame tries to pretend that Maru's not sitting on Koki's lap in public, no less, despite the restaurant's assurances that no one would be permitted into the back room without proper identification. “It'll make you happy and give you something to care about.”
“I don't have time for someone like that,” Kame points out. “We're constantly going on tour and filming. When would I have time for a relationship?”
Nakamaru looks down at Koki and then shrugs as Koki presses a possessive kiss to the small boy's neck. Kame looks away.
“Congratulations on your latest single!”
Kame thanks the reporter, who's entirely too enthusiastic this early in the morning. He manages to talk with her for a while more, chatting idly about the group's upcoming plans and concerts. His smile is enthusiastic, bright, and completely false as he plugs the group on TV, encouraging the fans to all come and see them, wondering if anyone's actually persuaded by these dull interviews.
It's a commercial break and Kame relaxes, sighing, and takes a drink of water while the reporter fixes her makeup. He wonders if she realizes that many make-ups eat away at the skin over the years, resulting in premature aging, and then the countdown's on, and they're back.
Kame does well during the next segment when asked about his bandmates. It's simple to give specific reasons about why he likes them all individually, and it's easy enough to talk about what he enjoys in his spare time, explaining his love for baseball and books. The reporter beams and asks the questions from the list, and Kame answers, focusing on keeping his smile seeming genuine and his eyes sparkling.
“Wow, Kamenashi-san,” she says, flashing her white teeth at him again. “A guy like you must have nothing missing in life, ne?”
Kame falters.
“I-”
There is a long silence, and abruptly Kame realizes his mistake.
“Ah- of course not!...”
Afterwards, one of his managers exchanges angry words with the interviewer about asking questions not on the list and about making the necessary edits to the footage. The interviewer is annoyed, defending herself that it was an easy question, and Kame just sits there in his chair at the side, holding his cup of water and looking down into it. He can see his reflection in the cup, distorted in the water, and he roughly shoves it away.
The next night, Kame finds himself looking up at the stars again, and is almost ready to beat himself over his stupidity. The stars are insignificant, just big balls of flaming gas thousands of miles away, and the night sky is nothing, just a great stretch of blackness. There's no symbolism in it, no meaning, no nothing, and there's no reason for him to look at if for hours on end every night without fail.
A falling star catches his eye, though, and Kame can't help but watch it fall to the earth, a rhyme from his childhood bubbling up in his mind, unbidden.
“Star light, star bright... first star I see tonight...”
Kame struggles to remember the rest of the poem, muttering lines from past songs as he tries to figure it out. When he finally gets it, he realizes he's completely forgotten what he was going to wish for.
“I wish I got more wishes,” he growls, and stalks off to bed, blowing the candle out as he slams the window shut.
The next morning, Kame is awoken by an abrupt knock at the door.
It's odd, really - no one ever knocks at his door without calling first to say they're coming over, and Johnny's owns this entire complex, so it's not like it could be some paparazzi stalker. Bleary-eyed, he gets up and goes to the door, surprised to see a mailman with dark shades on, holding a small package in his hand.
“You Kamenashi Kazuya?” he drawls. Kame blinks, wondering if the man is completely retarded or socially inept, before dismissing it, opting just to nod instead.
“Sign here.” A clipboard is shoved at him, and Kame scrawls a signature, nearly forgetting to sign his name normally instead of the fancy, embellished autograph he usually does, and accepts the small package that's thrust into his hands.
“What on earth...?”
Sparing a moment to wash his face and clean himself up a bit, Kame's much more awake when he returns to his room and opens the package slowly, curious, careful to note there's no return address anywhere on it.
It's a jewelry box.
Kame's more than a little skeptical as he slowly eases it open, remembering horror stories about popstars and celebrities being sent bombs in packages by crazy deranged fans. It's not like anyone could fit a bomb in a ring box, though, so he gently eases it open, the hinge slow, as if it's not used to being used, before peering inside.
Kame blinks, nearly dropping the box, and does a double take, some part of his mind quietly chiming that at least it's not a bomb.
There's a tiny person inside the box.
A person.
Kame peers closer, trying to get a better look. The person's sleeping, curled up on some sort of felt with part of a tissue as a blanket, dusty curls covering their face. Almost as if sensing Kame's gaze, the figure stirs, stretches, and gets up, turning to look at Kame.
“Hi!”
Kame drops the box in shock, clearly not expecting the little person to speak, only to realize a second later that in his astonishment he's probably killed the little person, dropping him from so high.
“Hey! That wasn't nice!! You ruined my room!”
The little person buzzes around his face, yelling angrily at him, and Kame blinks.
It's a little man.
Only the man has wings.
Kame stares.
He looks to be about three inches tall, clad in a white tank top and miniature jeans, wings seemingly attaching to his back through his clothes. His hair is longish, almost feminine, but it frames his face in an attractive way that instinctively makes Kame want to brush it back. His wings are translucent, like that of a fairy, and Kame suddenly remembers he's never actually read about guy fairies, only girls.
“Ahh, mou... my bed...”
Kame watches as the little man flies down to the floor, mourning the loss of his little ring-box house, murmuring things about the blanket and the bed. Kame crouches down, incredulous, some part of him wondering if he's still dreaming.
“...I can fix it, if you want,” he offers.
The little man stops and looks at him, his tiny eyes wide.
“...would you really?”
Carefully, Kame reconstructs the tiny bed, putting in the felt mattress and the tiny tissue, his large fingers clumsy, struggling to fold the tissue back and make the tiny bed. When he's done, he carefully sets it on his vanity, before looking up at the tiny fairy man.
The little one beams. “You did it!” he exclaims, overjoyed. “You fixed my bed! Thank you!”
The next thing Kame knows, the small man's hugging his thumb tightly in gratitude, and at this point, Kame realizes that this is way too weird to be anything he could dream.
“I'm Jin.” The fairy sits on top of his lamp shade, enjoying half of a grape Kame cut for him. “Jin Akanishi. Pleased to meet you.”
Kame's entranced by the way the small boy's taking handfuls of the grape and eating them, before realizing he doesn't really have a choice - there's no way he'd be able to use chopsticks or silverware. He clears his throat.
“I'm Kazuya Kamenashi,” he tells him. “Kame, for short.”
“Kame,” the boy says, smiling. “That's a fun name.”
He takes another bite of the grape, and Kame wonders how long it's been since he last ate.
“...why are you here?” Kame can't help but ask it, and when Jin looks up at him, he almost looks hurt.
“You don't remember?” he says, forlorn, and Kame shakes his head. Jin brightens up.
“I get to tell you, then!”
The grape abruptly vanishes, and Jin buzzes into the air, wings beating rapidly, now holding a small stick of a sort.
“I'm here to grant you wishes!” he says happily. “Three of them, to be precise!”
Kame stares. “What?”
Jin pouts. “Last night, you wished for more wishes,” he says, chiding. “In order to provide that, I was sent.”
He pauses. “Though, if you really think about it, you kind of broke the rules. You're only supposed to use that rhyme for the first star you see, not a falling star, and you mixed up the grant rate, so all the machines went wacky, and Ryo was yelling and...”
“I'm sorry.” Kame shakes his head slightly, disbelieving. “Did you just say you're here to give me wishes?”
Jin laughs. “Are you one of those doubter people?” he asks, amused. “Three wishes. No more, no less.”
Kame opens his mouth to ask another question, only to be cut off by a loud banging on his door.
“Kame! You in there?!” The banging continues, and Kame recognizes the voice as his bandmate, Ueda. “We have to be at the studio in five minutes! We've been waiting for you downstairs forever!”
“Damnit,” Kame swears. He grabs his bag and a bagel, slinging the first over his shoulder, cramming the other into his mouth. He's three steps to the door before he pauses, looking back at Jin, who's still hanging in the air, confused.
“...just stay here, okay?” he says finally, watching the little fairy. “I'll be back this evening to talk.”
“Okay.” Jin shrugs, before descending to the vanity, taking things out from under his tiny bed and arranging them next to the ring box.
Kame stares for a moment longer before rushing out the door.
The day is one of the worst Kame has had in a long time.
There's a fairy in his room, Kame thinks to himself. A fairy.
It's increasingly hard to concentrate all day.
Kame's distracted during the photo shoot, trying to remember everything he's ever read about fairies, and all of his photos show him zoning out like he's drugged. Kame keeps misstepping during dance practice, his mind on the tiny box back in his room. When singing, Kame stumbles when he gets to “You give my heart wings,” and finally the manager sighs and dismisses them all. Kame sighs in quiet relief as he changes back into his street clothes.
“Kamenashi? A moment, if you will.”
Kame glances up to see the manager gesturing for him, and obediently, he gets up and goes.
“Is something wrong?” he asks, and Kame bites his lip.
“You've seemed somewhat distracted for the last few weeks,” he continues, and Kame's jolted, only to realize he must be referring to his recent mood funk, not just what distracted him today. “While the public hasn't realized it yet, please be careful, Kamenashi. It only takes one slip to clue in them all.”
He leaves, and Kame makes his way home, wondering what his manager would look like with wings.
It's a long walk home, and it seems longer than normal. Kame drags his feet as he goes along, his sneakers soaked from the roads and rain. He's almost managed to convince himself that he was hallucinating this morning as he returns to his apartment, but it's also easy enough to just go in and see what's going on now, isn't it, instead of making up his mind now.
Unlocking his door, Kame pushes his way in. He glances around for Jin, or any other small, flying creature. Seeing none, his sanity confirmed, he removes his scarf, tossing it onto a chair. It's followed by his coat, and he collapses on his bed briefly, tired.
“Okaeri~!!”
Kame's eyes snap open to see the small man directly in front of him. He jerks backwards, his knee crashing into the fairy, and there's a yell as he hits the headboard.
“Yaaa! Itai!!!”
Kame's amazed and he's sure it shows, but Jin just yells at him more, picking himself back up and glaring.
“That was mean!! You could have killed me! You're lucky I'm so athletic that I knew how to protect myself! That's twice you've put my life in danger just today!!”
Kame's stunned as Jin rambles on, before tentatively breaking in.
“I'm sorry-” he says, wondering if the fairy will take offense at this, too. “It's just I've had a miserable day, and I wasn't thinking clearly-”
“Oh!” Jin brightens up and flies up again, landing on Kame's palm, beaming. “Can I help?” he says eagerly, and Kame blinks.
“...help?”
“Help improve your day,” Jin explains, his face happy. “I'm here to help you, remember? You get three wishes for anything you want.”
Kame does remember this bit, he thinks, but it's better to make sure.
“Anything I want?” he asks, and Jin bites his lip.
“Um... mostly,” he says, sweatdropping. “There are a few things I'm not allowed to do.”
Kame raises an eyebrow, and Jin hurries on.
“I can't change previous wishes that someone's made. That's against the rules. And I can't make people do something like fall in love, 'cause that goes against the whole 'free will' thing. And I can't kill anyone or bring anyone back from the dead, 'cause that's just gross.”
Kame blinks. “That's it?” he asks. “That's simple enough.”
Jin nods, relieved.
“So... if I wished for a burger right now, you could make me one?”
Jin falters. “Ah... maybe. I'm not that good with materialization yet, but I think I could do it! It was only the one time that the cow was still alive, and it's been several times since I left it raw...”
Kame shakes his head. “Forget that. It was a hypothetical question.” He fixes his eyes on the little fairy again, his curiosity bubbling up in his mind.
“You're not good at it?” he asks, curious. “What do you mean?”
Jin flushes. “That's totally not my fault,” he mutters, defensive, his face flaming. “Not my fault I got put into school too early...”
He keeps muttering, his face red, and Kame feels his heart soften.
“How about you just tell me about yourself for now?” he suggests, cutting in. “We can do the whole wishes thing later.”
Jin looks relieved at that. “Okay!” he agrees, and he floats up, settling himself upon the air in front of Kame's face, lounging out, before looking up.
“What do you want to know?”
Jin is seven, which equates to roughly twenty-two in human years, he tells him. He attends the local institute of magic with two of his best friends, Ryo and Yamapi, where they practice their abilities in granting wishes.
It's not that easy, Jin explains, drawing diagrams in the air with his wand. There's different kinds of wishes and different techniques to grant them, and they all require something different for you to do, and you have to really know yourself and your abilities before casting a spell.
That's the reason he's so bad at magic, he says huffily. His mother put him into the institute a year early when he wasn't developed enough, and when he tried to pull on his magic reserves, they weren't fully mature, resulting in him stunting himself permanently.
But he's still doing well, though! He's working on his internship now, where fairies are assigned to various people to grant wishes, usually at random.
“You're a special case, though, Kame,” Jin says, smiling. “Because you mixed up two different wishing means and wished for more wishes, the Granter spazzed out, and Ryo panicked and just sent me to you so the Head Fairy wouldn't get mad.”
Kame tries to process all this. “Where do you live?” he asks finally. “Surely people would've noticed this entire little world going on right under their noses.”
Jin laughs. “People are stupid,” he says. “If you told your friends right now that you'd seen a fairy, do you think they'd believe you?”
Kame imagines Ueda's reaction and shudders. Jin laughs again, his eyes dancing.
“We mostly live in forests,” he says. “Ones that aren't too far north. The cold messes up our wings.”
Jin goes on to tell him about fairy history and the War with the Pixies, Kame listening, and somewhere along the way, Kame realizes that this is the first time he's enjoyed himself in a long time.
Jin's mildly upset by not being able to grant Kame's wishes, but Kame's read enough fairy tales to know that wishes usually mess up your life more than improve it, so he figures he might as well keep them for when something really bad happens he needs to get out of. Jin's annoyed that he's been rendered pretty much useless until he realizes that this means he has to stay with Kame until he does make the wishes, which makes him smile much more than Kame understands.
So Kame comes home to Jin, now, his three-inch housemate that enjoys practicing his magic by doing the housework while Kame's gone. Kame gives him food and parts of candies to keep him fed, and at night, Jin sleeps in his little jewelry-box bed underneath a scrap of felt.
It's unusual, living with a fairy. Kame's never quite sure what he'll come home to, if today the bed will be rightside up and not floating in air or if the mirror will show his reflection and not the other side of the wall.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, though. Jin has a way of talking to him and laughing that makes Kame relax and makes all the stress of his day ebb away. They talk long into the night until Kame reluctantly goes to bed, Jin fluttering off to his own as well.
It settles into an odd routine.
Kame finds it's one he likes.
“I'll quit!” Kame yells, slamming his bag down as he storms inside. “I swear I'll quit! I'll screw them all!”
Jin buzzes over to him, eyes wide with concern. “Kame-chan? What's wrong?”
“It's these damned producers!” Kame swears, slamming his fist into the wall. “They want an artistically-nude photo shoot!”
Jin blinks. “...that's without clothes, right?”
“They want me to pose and have things obstructing the key bits like the edge of a sheet or a tree branch,” Kame fumes. “I'm a musical artist, not a pornographer! What are they thinking?!” He puts his head into his hand, mentally anguishing over the coming loss of dignity.
Jin pats the back of his hand, looking up at him, worried.
“Do you want me to kill them for you?” he asks, eyes wide. “Would that help make it better?”
Kame pauses, glancing up.
“...kill them?”
“That'd make the problem go away, wouldn't it?” Jin says, shrugging. “Then Kame would feel better too.”
He blinks.
“I thought you weren't allowed to kill anyone,” he says slowly.
Jin bites his lip, flushing slightly, and shrugs.
“I'm willing to break the rules for you,” he admits, offering him a shy grin. Kame blinks and then laughs, throwing his head back, amused beyond reason at the thought of this little fairy actually killing someone as he laughs long and hard.
When he finally calms down, he's gasping for breath, still amused. Jin hovers in front of him, a small smile on his own lips.
“Kame is prettier when he smiles,” Jin says, his tone happy. “And Kame is beautiful when he laughs.”
Kame stops laughing and stares at Jin, who flushes slightly.
“I was just saying,” he defends himself, folding his arms defiantly. “So, am I going to kill them or what?”
Kame's putting away his clean clothes one day when he hears a sharp shriek, making him jump about a foot in alarm.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Jin demands shrilly, grabbing the clothes from Kame and whizzing across the room. Kame stares, amazed that a three-inch fairy can hold a pile that big, before collecting himself.
“I was putting away my laundry,” Kame remarks, watching as Jin zips around his dresser, floating things into drawers and waving his wand around. “You seem to have put a stop to that...”
Jin finishes quickly, snapping the last drawer shut with a flick of his wand, before buzzing over to Kame, glaring defiantly in his face.
“Your chores are my job,” Jin informs Kame. “Don't ever do them again.”
Kame blinks, then laughs. “I'm sorry?”
There's a long pause, Jin's ears flaming.
“I will do your chores,” Jin says, ears twitching slightly. “All of them. All the time. Please don't do them yourself.”
Kame stares. “Why?” he asks, incredulous. “Why would you actually want to do chores?”
Jin's face pinkens even more.
“Kame's chores are the least I can do,” Jin murmurs, determinedly not looking at him. “Kame's given me a place to stay that's warm and dry, without the threat of aphids or lady-bugs, Kame gives me food to eat and things to do, and Kame gives me his friendship every day. I want to give anything back to Kame that I can.”
Kame's unexpectedly touched, and when Jin flutters off to go iron his shirts, he finds himself unable to say a word, just watching the tiny fairy work instead.
It's morning, and Kame's reading the newspaper while munching on a bagel, Jin playing with a quarter section of a grapefruit. There's an article on his band in it that he scans, wincing at a painful, absent-minded quote he'd made the day before.
“Mmm?” Ever alert, Jin floats over, looking over his shoulder. Kame points out the quote.
“She asked me what I like to do when I get home,” Kame tells him. “And I said 'see how my apartment's changed in the time I was gone'.”
Jin blinks. “But that's the truth, isn't it?” he asks, confused. “You always try to find out what I did while you were gone.”
“Yes, but they don't know that part, Jin,” Kame explains. “So how I said it, it makes it sound like I think my apartment's changing on it's own.”
“Ohh,” Jin says. “I completely understand.” His tone says that he doesn't, but Kame's not paying attention, his eyes fixed on the article once more.
“They made me out to be almost insane in this,” he says, making a face. “All because of one stupid slip? Ugh. I wish I hadn't said that.”
Jin flies up off of his shoulder into the air, and all of the sudden, the air twists, turning brighter for a moment, and the outline of the kitchen blurs. Something's screaming in his ears and Kame quickly claps his hands to his ears, only to find the noise has stopped.
“Haa...”
Kame blinks, glancing down at the table where Jin's laying, panting, his entire body soaked with sweat. His eyes are tired, though his face is proud, and he manages to move enough to look at Kame.
“Look again...” he gets out, still trying to catch his breath. “I did it...”
Stunned, Kame glances down at the paper.
“I like to just relax and take a hot shower first thing when I get home,” Kamenashi said. “It really helps me to relieve my stress.”
Kame's incredulous and he rapidly scans the rest of the article, all subtle references to his mental state gone. He looks up at Jin, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Jin... you changed time?”
Jin nods, looking proud of himself.
“One down, two to go,” he wheezes, then promptly collapses once more.
Kame's furious with himself at his thoughtlessness, wasting a wish on something so superficial. He's even more annoyed that because he did, Jin's currently exhausted, still trying to get his magic and energy up, flying around like a sick locust in the summer heat.
Kame sends Jin to bed after giving him a few crumbs of bread, telling him to rest and not get out of bed until he feels better. Jin doesn't respond other than a murmured acquiesce to his request, collapsing on his bed the moment he gets there.
Jin doesn't recover for several days, his energy returning at an unbelievably slow rate. Kame's worried for Jin, though he tries not to let it show, until one day, he comes home a bit early and catches Jin floating in the air, in the middle of making his bed.
“Jin!”
The fairy turns, looking up at him, surprised, and Kame angrily snatches him out of the air.
“Jin, what're you doing?! I told you not to get out of bed until you felt better!”
Jin rolls over on his hand and looks up at him, dusty locks in his eyes.
“I can't feel better unless I know I've done my part to make Kame feel better after work, too,” he says, his voice quiet. His eyes are dark, fathomless, and Kame's heart catches in his throat.
“...well - that's okay, I guess, but... you really need to focus on you, you know...”
“I'm here for Kame,” Jin says simply, his sleepy eyes looking up at him. “I'll be here for me after that.”
Kame finds it hard to argue with that and even harder to disagree, so he doesn't say anything as Jin flies back to his bed and falls asleep once more.
He makes his bed the next morning, though. He also picks up his dirty clothes and cleans the dishes, leaving no chores to be done.
Jin recovers soon after Kame forces him to stop doing the housework, and soon things are back to normal. As Jin flits around cleaning the kitchen, practicing doing magic without using his wand, Kame ventures a question.
“Jin,” he asks. “Why did you rewrite time?”
Jin blinks. “Because you wished it,” he says, obviously.
“But Jin,” Kame says. “I didn't really want to wish for that. It's just something I said.”
Jin shrugs. “Rules are rules,” Jin says, looking up at him. “The first three wishes you make to me, I grant.”
“Can I give you my next two in writing?” Kame tries. “I'd like to avoid silly mistakes.”
Jin laughs.
“No.”
Kame sighs.
“I'm BORED.”
Kame glanced up at his friend as he dries his hair. “Why's that?”
“There's only so many times you can make the bedspread change colors,” Jin scowls. “I'm running out of things to do.”
Kame blinks. “Can't you go visit your friends or something during the day?”
“No.” Jin gets up and paces back and forth on the dresser, agitated. “I'm not allowed to leave your vicinity until all your wishes are made.”
Kame looks at Jin, and flash of fear streaks through him, fear that Jin wants to leave, fear that he wants him to hurry up and make his stupid wishes already, fear that he wants to go home. Kame watches Jin, trying his best not to move too quickly or give himself away, struggling not to let any emotion through.
Jin moodily kicks at the head of a pin, then looks up at Kame.
“Will you get me a toy or something?” he asks. “I have nothing to do while you're gone.”
A breath Kame didn't realize he was holding escapes, and he laughs with the sheer relief of it all. His worry lines ease and he smiles at Jin, unguarded for a brief moment. He clears his throat.
“How about you come with me?”
Jin's eyes grow huge, and he lets out a happy yell as he hurls himself at Kame.
“Ohmigod! Thank you!!” he squeals, hugging Kame's thumb as best he can. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou-”
Kame laughs, looking down at the happy fairy, and idly strokes his hair with the tip of a finger. Jin looks up at him, joy shining in his smile and his eyes, and there's a lump suddenly in Kame's throat as Kame silently wishes he could hug Jin for real.
“What's this?!”
“It's an elevator,” Kame explains, pushing a button as he enters. “It transports you from floor to floor, just like the escalator did.”
“Aah, why's it closing?! The moving stairs didn't close!”
Kame laughs, watching the little fairy buzz around in an excited sort of panic. Jin's never been outside in the human world, the extent of his knowledge being the contents of Kame's room. Kame's amused at his naiveté, watching as Jin looks at his reflection in the elevator doors, openly astonished, and he smiles.
“We're moving!!” Jin says, flitting up to Kame's face again, his eyes wide. “I can feel it! We're moving!! Is this magic?!”
“It's electricity and mechanics,” Kame explains. “Electricity's what made the escalator run, remember? And mechanics is what made the bicycle go.”
“Wow...” Jin says, looking around, awed, and Kame watches as the elevator dings. Immediately, Jin bolts back into Kame's shirt pocket crouching and peering tentatively out through the button hole to peep.
“Okay,” he whispers. “I'm ready now.”
Kame stifles a laugh at Jin's excitement as he leaves the elevator, greeting people as he enters the studio. It's a distraction to have Jin running back and forth and bouncing around on his chest like that, but Kame manages to greet everyone properly that he should, and Jin somehow manages not to squeal.
“Kamenashi! Over here!”
Kame moves over to the manager, who hurriedly shoves a bundle of clothes into his hands.
“Change of plans,” he says quickly, distracted. “We're shooting the new PV today instead of concert practice. Hurry up and change.”
“Wait-” Kame objects. “Why are we-”
“The reporter for Thursday broke her ankle and now the whole schedule's been changed!” he says, his eyes darting around for other band members. “Please Kamenashi, don't be hard about this and just go change!”
He shoves him towards a changing room and Kame stumbles forward blindly, entering and closing the door behind him. Jin's out of his pocket in a second, huffing angrily and glaring at the door.
“He was so mean to you!” Jin says, indignant. “He didn't even ask if you wanted to shoot that person or not! He just made you-”
Jin rambles on and brainstorms creative ideas to get fire ants into the choreographer's clothing, while Kame looks down at his new outfit, biting his lip.
“Jin-”
Jin pauses and turns, and Kame tries to look him in the eye.
“Look, I thought- I didn't know we'd be dancing and filming today and moving around a lot, and this shirt hasn't got a front pocket in it-”
“Oh, that's okay!” Jin says brightly. He waves his wand, materializing it from nowhere, and there's a brief flash of blue light.
“There!” he proclaims proudly. “Now I'm invisible to everyone but you! No one else can hear me either, so I can still watch!”
Kame blinks and Jin smiles, proud of himself, before flitting over to the mirror, shrieking in delight when he discovers he can't see his reflection. Kame watches as Jin touches himself and the mirror over and over again, laughing and doing flips in the air.
“Jin,” Kame says, looking at the fairy. “Jin, why didn't you just do that from the beginning?”
Jin turns to look at Kame and bites his lip.
“It was more fun in your pocket,” he says honestly. “It's not often I get to be so close to you.”
He goes back to waving at himself in the mirror, screaming as Q-tips are lifted up seemingly by nothing, and Kame finds he's glad he's so distracted or Jin just might notice his blush.
Kame dances.
Kame sings.
PV's are always invigorating, Kame knows. Dancing and singing with such effects swirling around always seems to make it better, make it other worldly, make it more than just a song. Rationally, Kame knows that the combination of the synthetic environment, strong beats, music, and endorphins from dancing combine to form the effect and that it's really nothing all that special. The others all get it too, Kame knows, and he can see it in the tinting of their cheeks and the sparkle in their eyes. It's completely normal, a safe, natural high, but that doesn't damper the effect.
Kame feels like the center of the world.
Music pulses through him as he sings, bending and dancing, throwing sexy looks at the camera, his voice perfectly on key. He's got a lead in this song and he's performing better than he ever has, better even than when they debuted, and his voice fills the studio, the others echoing in with the harmony.
Ueda's got a solo part now, so Kame's dancing off to the side, his movements perfectly in time with the others, and then it's his turn again for the refrain as he sings again. Visual effects flash with false lightning, highlighting his face, and Kame tosses his hair, giving one last look to the camera as they end on a chord.
“Marvelous!!”
Kame blinks as the lights come back on, the filming staff clapping enthusiastically. His head swims for a moment, dragging him sharply back to reality and away from the false world they'd created, and Kame's relieved to see the others seem to be gathering themselves too.
“That was amazing!” the choreographer gushes, clutching her clipboard to his chest, her face flushed and pupils dilated. “That was simply amazing! The way you moved, Kamenashi-san! I thought I would just-”
“Well done everyone!” proclaims the filmer, immensely pleased. “And you got it all in one take! We've already done the quick shots, so that's it! Really, well done! Well done!”
Kame stares and quickly exchanges glances with his band mates, darting looks of astonishment and incredulity, before they slowly start to relax and laugh, relieved and happy and proud.
“Excellent work!” the manager proclaims. “Go take a break, boys! Come back in an hour or two!”
Everyone goes to get their things and Kame lags behind, slowly getting his things together, his eyes darting around for a familiar figure. The manager grins and congratulates him, expressing how glad he is that he's finally found some inspiration and gotten out of the odd funk he's been in, and Kame thanks him, his words registering on deaf ears. Kame catches a slight sparkle behind a curtain as he waits, impatient, until the last person is finally gone.
“...Jin?”
“Kame!!!”
Jin tackles him, a feat Kame hadn't thought possible, though he supposes with the right speed and angle it would have to be. But Jin's shrieking and flailing on his chest, gesticulating wildly, his eyes alight, alive, and Kame can't direct his thoughts to anything else right now.
“You never told me it was that that you were doing when you went to 'work'! I thought you actually had to work and that's why you were miserable you never told me that you were dancing and singing and ohmigod, Kame, you were amazing and incredible and stunning and stupefying and spectacular-”
Kame laughs, relaxing as Jin yells about the performance, criticizing the director for not giving him enough front time and waving his arms about as he talks animatedly about all the crazy lights, and Kame can't contain his smile.
“It was because you were with me, you know,” he tells Jin on the ride home. “Really. I'm normally not so good.”
Jin laughs and smiles. “Good,” he says impishly. “I like the idea that you were doing it all for me.”
Kame swallows hard at that, his heart lurching into his throat, and Jin yells out a yell as the subway screeches to a halt, flying backwards and hitting a window at the abrupt stop.
“Are you working?”
Kame glances up, glasses perched precariously on the edge of his nose, and Jin flies over to sit on his shoulder, looking down at his notebook curiously.
“Working while lying down in bed is bad,” Jin points out. “The loud person would get mad at you.”
“I'm writing lyrics,” Kame explains, pointing. “I have an idea of how I want the song to go, but I'm getting stuck at the next part.”
Jin leans over, peering slightly. “Sen no koto, dore tei ni,” he reads. “Ko- kangaete itemo...”
Kame's lips twitch. “What are you, Chinese?” he says, amused. “The kanji aren't read like that.”
Jin huffs and folds his arms. “Fairies don't need to read,” he says, scowling, his face flushing slightly. “Why don't you just read it to me, then?”
“It's nothing to be ashamed of, really,” Kame says, smiling. “Lots of people have trouble with kanji.”
Jin flushes darker. “Yeah, yeah,” he dismisses, waving it off. “But really. I want to hear what you have so far. Please, Kame?”
Jin looks up at him, and something in Jin's voice guides Kame into opening his mouth, humming slightly before starting to sing quietly. Jin's eyes widen at first, surprised, before his eyes slip shut as he listens, sways slightly as Kame's own eyes close as he sings.
Kame stops abruptly, reaching the end of what he has so far, and Jin leaps up immediately.
“No no no, you can't stop there!” he objects, impassioned. “You have to keep singing, Kame!”
“But that's all I have written,” Kame points out. “I didn't finish the rest yet-”
“That's no excuse!” Jin says. “You can't just- Kame, it's too pretty to leave unfinished-”
“Well, then,” Kame says sensibly. “Why don't you help me with the rest?”
Jin blinks and pauses, considering for a long moment. Kame briefly worries that maybe he's offended him, before Jin settles himself down onto his stomach.
“Sing it again,” he directs.
Kame blinks but obligingly sings again, softer, this time, more intimate. Jin joins in after the second line, a melodious, rich voice joining his own as they sing, and Kame's amazed at the harmony. Singing, he reaches the end of the lyrics, but Jin doesn't stop, his eyes closed, an expression on his face that Kame's never seen before.
“Ippo zutsu de ii sa.” Jin's singing quietly, but Kame can hear the emotion in his voice, as if he instinctively knows what Kame'd been feeling when he wrote the song. The lyrics resonate in the air, and Kame scrambles for his pen, quickly writing down the words. “Kono te wo hanasazuni...”
Jin's voice fills the air, clear and sweet and beautiful, and somehow, Kame finds himself singing along, their lyrics matching perfectly like their voices, as if they'd both known the next words to write all along.
Kame's never had more fun in his life. Every day, he sings and dances, inspired and cheered on by Jin watching from the sidelines, and every night, he gets to sing and talk with Jin. He finds it somewhat amazing that he could get so much more out of life with just the help of one small person, and it almost seems surreal.
Jin's voice is incredible. Kame's been around singers long enough to recognize talent when he hears it, and with Jin's looks, his impish smiles and seductive smirks, Kame knows that he could be an idol too. Kame encourages Jin to sing and dance with him, their harmony echoing in the room as they dance, Kame on the ground, Jin through the air.
It's almost like a different world, when he's with Jin, Kame realizes. But when he looks at Jin, he remembers that he's not just in another world; he's in an entirely different universe, with this fairy at his side.
( part two )
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Akame
Genre: Romance, Angst, Fantasy
Word Count: 21061
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Kame spends too much of his time staring out of windows, wishing for something he doesn't know.
A/N: Started ages ago and worked on sporadically when I was in the right mood for it. I think it's one of my best fics by far.
Kame spends too much time staring out of his window.
He's in the prime of his life, he knows. He has a single that's been at the top of the charts for three months, more money than he knows what to do with, a guaranteed future, something to do every Friday night, and great friends that double as his bandmates. But despite it all, Kame just can't seem to feel satisfied. It's like he's missing something, like he's forgotten something and left it behind on his rise to the top, and it keeps niggling at the back of his mind. Normally, he's able to push it down and ignore it, but late at night it haunts him, rising to the top, and Kame finds himself looking out his apartment window at the stars, a lit candle burning steadily beside him on the windowsill.
The stars are amazing, Kame thinks, but he almost feels bad for them: glowing and sparkling and beaming for everyone, but in the end, completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Then he just feels stupid for personifying the stars, blows out his candle, and goes to bed.
Koki and Nakamaru think that Kame needs a romance in his life.
“I promise you, it'll make you look at your life in an entirely different way,” Nakamaru vows, and Kame tries to pretend that Maru's not sitting on Koki's lap in public, no less, despite the restaurant's assurances that no one would be permitted into the back room without proper identification. “It'll make you happy and give you something to care about.”
“I don't have time for someone like that,” Kame points out. “We're constantly going on tour and filming. When would I have time for a relationship?”
Nakamaru looks down at Koki and then shrugs as Koki presses a possessive kiss to the small boy's neck. Kame looks away.
“Congratulations on your latest single!”
Kame thanks the reporter, who's entirely too enthusiastic this early in the morning. He manages to talk with her for a while more, chatting idly about the group's upcoming plans and concerts. His smile is enthusiastic, bright, and completely false as he plugs the group on TV, encouraging the fans to all come and see them, wondering if anyone's actually persuaded by these dull interviews.
It's a commercial break and Kame relaxes, sighing, and takes a drink of water while the reporter fixes her makeup. He wonders if she realizes that many make-ups eat away at the skin over the years, resulting in premature aging, and then the countdown's on, and they're back.
Kame does well during the next segment when asked about his bandmates. It's simple to give specific reasons about why he likes them all individually, and it's easy enough to talk about what he enjoys in his spare time, explaining his love for baseball and books. The reporter beams and asks the questions from the list, and Kame answers, focusing on keeping his smile seeming genuine and his eyes sparkling.
“Wow, Kamenashi-san,” she says, flashing her white teeth at him again. “A guy like you must have nothing missing in life, ne?”
Kame falters.
“I-”
There is a long silence, and abruptly Kame realizes his mistake.
“Ah- of course not!...”
Afterwards, one of his managers exchanges angry words with the interviewer about asking questions not on the list and about making the necessary edits to the footage. The interviewer is annoyed, defending herself that it was an easy question, and Kame just sits there in his chair at the side, holding his cup of water and looking down into it. He can see his reflection in the cup, distorted in the water, and he roughly shoves it away.
The next night, Kame finds himself looking up at the stars again, and is almost ready to beat himself over his stupidity. The stars are insignificant, just big balls of flaming gas thousands of miles away, and the night sky is nothing, just a great stretch of blackness. There's no symbolism in it, no meaning, no nothing, and there's no reason for him to look at if for hours on end every night without fail.
A falling star catches his eye, though, and Kame can't help but watch it fall to the earth, a rhyme from his childhood bubbling up in his mind, unbidden.
“Star light, star bright... first star I see tonight...”
Kame struggles to remember the rest of the poem, muttering lines from past songs as he tries to figure it out. When he finally gets it, he realizes he's completely forgotten what he was going to wish for.
“I wish I got more wishes,” he growls, and stalks off to bed, blowing the candle out as he slams the window shut.
The next morning, Kame is awoken by an abrupt knock at the door.
It's odd, really - no one ever knocks at his door without calling first to say they're coming over, and Johnny's owns this entire complex, so it's not like it could be some paparazzi stalker. Bleary-eyed, he gets up and goes to the door, surprised to see a mailman with dark shades on, holding a small package in his hand.
“You Kamenashi Kazuya?” he drawls. Kame blinks, wondering if the man is completely retarded or socially inept, before dismissing it, opting just to nod instead.
“Sign here.” A clipboard is shoved at him, and Kame scrawls a signature, nearly forgetting to sign his name normally instead of the fancy, embellished autograph he usually does, and accepts the small package that's thrust into his hands.
“What on earth...?”
Sparing a moment to wash his face and clean himself up a bit, Kame's much more awake when he returns to his room and opens the package slowly, curious, careful to note there's no return address anywhere on it.
It's a jewelry box.
Kame's more than a little skeptical as he slowly eases it open, remembering horror stories about popstars and celebrities being sent bombs in packages by crazy deranged fans. It's not like anyone could fit a bomb in a ring box, though, so he gently eases it open, the hinge slow, as if it's not used to being used, before peering inside.
Kame blinks, nearly dropping the box, and does a double take, some part of his mind quietly chiming that at least it's not a bomb.
There's a tiny person inside the box.
A person.
Kame peers closer, trying to get a better look. The person's sleeping, curled up on some sort of felt with part of a tissue as a blanket, dusty curls covering their face. Almost as if sensing Kame's gaze, the figure stirs, stretches, and gets up, turning to look at Kame.
“Hi!”
Kame drops the box in shock, clearly not expecting the little person to speak, only to realize a second later that in his astonishment he's probably killed the little person, dropping him from so high.
“Hey! That wasn't nice!! You ruined my room!”
The little person buzzes around his face, yelling angrily at him, and Kame blinks.
It's a little man.
Only the man has wings.
Kame stares.
He looks to be about three inches tall, clad in a white tank top and miniature jeans, wings seemingly attaching to his back through his clothes. His hair is longish, almost feminine, but it frames his face in an attractive way that instinctively makes Kame want to brush it back. His wings are translucent, like that of a fairy, and Kame suddenly remembers he's never actually read about guy fairies, only girls.
“Ahh, mou... my bed...”
Kame watches as the little man flies down to the floor, mourning the loss of his little ring-box house, murmuring things about the blanket and the bed. Kame crouches down, incredulous, some part of him wondering if he's still dreaming.
“...I can fix it, if you want,” he offers.
The little man stops and looks at him, his tiny eyes wide.
“...would you really?”
Carefully, Kame reconstructs the tiny bed, putting in the felt mattress and the tiny tissue, his large fingers clumsy, struggling to fold the tissue back and make the tiny bed. When he's done, he carefully sets it on his vanity, before looking up at the tiny fairy man.
The little one beams. “You did it!” he exclaims, overjoyed. “You fixed my bed! Thank you!”
The next thing Kame knows, the small man's hugging his thumb tightly in gratitude, and at this point, Kame realizes that this is way too weird to be anything he could dream.
“I'm Jin.” The fairy sits on top of his lamp shade, enjoying half of a grape Kame cut for him. “Jin Akanishi. Pleased to meet you.”
Kame's entranced by the way the small boy's taking handfuls of the grape and eating them, before realizing he doesn't really have a choice - there's no way he'd be able to use chopsticks or silverware. He clears his throat.
“I'm Kazuya Kamenashi,” he tells him. “Kame, for short.”
“Kame,” the boy says, smiling. “That's a fun name.”
He takes another bite of the grape, and Kame wonders how long it's been since he last ate.
“...why are you here?” Kame can't help but ask it, and when Jin looks up at him, he almost looks hurt.
“You don't remember?” he says, forlorn, and Kame shakes his head. Jin brightens up.
“I get to tell you, then!”
The grape abruptly vanishes, and Jin buzzes into the air, wings beating rapidly, now holding a small stick of a sort.
“I'm here to grant you wishes!” he says happily. “Three of them, to be precise!”
Kame stares. “What?”
Jin pouts. “Last night, you wished for more wishes,” he says, chiding. “In order to provide that, I was sent.”
He pauses. “Though, if you really think about it, you kind of broke the rules. You're only supposed to use that rhyme for the first star you see, not a falling star, and you mixed up the grant rate, so all the machines went wacky, and Ryo was yelling and...”
“I'm sorry.” Kame shakes his head slightly, disbelieving. “Did you just say you're here to give me wishes?”
Jin laughs. “Are you one of those doubter people?” he asks, amused. “Three wishes. No more, no less.”
Kame opens his mouth to ask another question, only to be cut off by a loud banging on his door.
“Kame! You in there?!” The banging continues, and Kame recognizes the voice as his bandmate, Ueda. “We have to be at the studio in five minutes! We've been waiting for you downstairs forever!”
“Damnit,” Kame swears. He grabs his bag and a bagel, slinging the first over his shoulder, cramming the other into his mouth. He's three steps to the door before he pauses, looking back at Jin, who's still hanging in the air, confused.
“...just stay here, okay?” he says finally, watching the little fairy. “I'll be back this evening to talk.”
“Okay.” Jin shrugs, before descending to the vanity, taking things out from under his tiny bed and arranging them next to the ring box.
Kame stares for a moment longer before rushing out the door.
The day is one of the worst Kame has had in a long time.
There's a fairy in his room, Kame thinks to himself. A fairy.
It's increasingly hard to concentrate all day.
Kame's distracted during the photo shoot, trying to remember everything he's ever read about fairies, and all of his photos show him zoning out like he's drugged. Kame keeps misstepping during dance practice, his mind on the tiny box back in his room. When singing, Kame stumbles when he gets to “You give my heart wings,” and finally the manager sighs and dismisses them all. Kame sighs in quiet relief as he changes back into his street clothes.
“Kamenashi? A moment, if you will.”
Kame glances up to see the manager gesturing for him, and obediently, he gets up and goes.
“Is something wrong?” he asks, and Kame bites his lip.
“You've seemed somewhat distracted for the last few weeks,” he continues, and Kame's jolted, only to realize he must be referring to his recent mood funk, not just what distracted him today. “While the public hasn't realized it yet, please be careful, Kamenashi. It only takes one slip to clue in them all.”
He leaves, and Kame makes his way home, wondering what his manager would look like with wings.
It's a long walk home, and it seems longer than normal. Kame drags his feet as he goes along, his sneakers soaked from the roads and rain. He's almost managed to convince himself that he was hallucinating this morning as he returns to his apartment, but it's also easy enough to just go in and see what's going on now, isn't it, instead of making up his mind now.
Unlocking his door, Kame pushes his way in. He glances around for Jin, or any other small, flying creature. Seeing none, his sanity confirmed, he removes his scarf, tossing it onto a chair. It's followed by his coat, and he collapses on his bed briefly, tired.
“Okaeri~!!”
Kame's eyes snap open to see the small man directly in front of him. He jerks backwards, his knee crashing into the fairy, and there's a yell as he hits the headboard.
“Yaaa! Itai!!!”
Kame's amazed and he's sure it shows, but Jin just yells at him more, picking himself back up and glaring.
“That was mean!! You could have killed me! You're lucky I'm so athletic that I knew how to protect myself! That's twice you've put my life in danger just today!!”
Kame's stunned as Jin rambles on, before tentatively breaking in.
“I'm sorry-” he says, wondering if the fairy will take offense at this, too. “It's just I've had a miserable day, and I wasn't thinking clearly-”
“Oh!” Jin brightens up and flies up again, landing on Kame's palm, beaming. “Can I help?” he says eagerly, and Kame blinks.
“...help?”
“Help improve your day,” Jin explains, his face happy. “I'm here to help you, remember? You get three wishes for anything you want.”
Kame does remember this bit, he thinks, but it's better to make sure.
“Anything I want?” he asks, and Jin bites his lip.
“Um... mostly,” he says, sweatdropping. “There are a few things I'm not allowed to do.”
Kame raises an eyebrow, and Jin hurries on.
“I can't change previous wishes that someone's made. That's against the rules. And I can't make people do something like fall in love, 'cause that goes against the whole 'free will' thing. And I can't kill anyone or bring anyone back from the dead, 'cause that's just gross.”
Kame blinks. “That's it?” he asks. “That's simple enough.”
Jin nods, relieved.
“So... if I wished for a burger right now, you could make me one?”
Jin falters. “Ah... maybe. I'm not that good with materialization yet, but I think I could do it! It was only the one time that the cow was still alive, and it's been several times since I left it raw...”
Kame shakes his head. “Forget that. It was a hypothetical question.” He fixes his eyes on the little fairy again, his curiosity bubbling up in his mind.
“You're not good at it?” he asks, curious. “What do you mean?”
Jin flushes. “That's totally not my fault,” he mutters, defensive, his face flaming. “Not my fault I got put into school too early...”
He keeps muttering, his face red, and Kame feels his heart soften.
“How about you just tell me about yourself for now?” he suggests, cutting in. “We can do the whole wishes thing later.”
Jin looks relieved at that. “Okay!” he agrees, and he floats up, settling himself upon the air in front of Kame's face, lounging out, before looking up.
“What do you want to know?”
Jin is seven, which equates to roughly twenty-two in human years, he tells him. He attends the local institute of magic with two of his best friends, Ryo and Yamapi, where they practice their abilities in granting wishes.
It's not that easy, Jin explains, drawing diagrams in the air with his wand. There's different kinds of wishes and different techniques to grant them, and they all require something different for you to do, and you have to really know yourself and your abilities before casting a spell.
That's the reason he's so bad at magic, he says huffily. His mother put him into the institute a year early when he wasn't developed enough, and when he tried to pull on his magic reserves, they weren't fully mature, resulting in him stunting himself permanently.
But he's still doing well, though! He's working on his internship now, where fairies are assigned to various people to grant wishes, usually at random.
“You're a special case, though, Kame,” Jin says, smiling. “Because you mixed up two different wishing means and wished for more wishes, the Granter spazzed out, and Ryo panicked and just sent me to you so the Head Fairy wouldn't get mad.”
Kame tries to process all this. “Where do you live?” he asks finally. “Surely people would've noticed this entire little world going on right under their noses.”
Jin laughs. “People are stupid,” he says. “If you told your friends right now that you'd seen a fairy, do you think they'd believe you?”
Kame imagines Ueda's reaction and shudders. Jin laughs again, his eyes dancing.
“We mostly live in forests,” he says. “Ones that aren't too far north. The cold messes up our wings.”
Jin goes on to tell him about fairy history and the War with the Pixies, Kame listening, and somewhere along the way, Kame realizes that this is the first time he's enjoyed himself in a long time.
Jin's mildly upset by not being able to grant Kame's wishes, but Kame's read enough fairy tales to know that wishes usually mess up your life more than improve it, so he figures he might as well keep them for when something really bad happens he needs to get out of. Jin's annoyed that he's been rendered pretty much useless until he realizes that this means he has to stay with Kame until he does make the wishes, which makes him smile much more than Kame understands.
So Kame comes home to Jin, now, his three-inch housemate that enjoys practicing his magic by doing the housework while Kame's gone. Kame gives him food and parts of candies to keep him fed, and at night, Jin sleeps in his little jewelry-box bed underneath a scrap of felt.
It's unusual, living with a fairy. Kame's never quite sure what he'll come home to, if today the bed will be rightside up and not floating in air or if the mirror will show his reflection and not the other side of the wall.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, though. Jin has a way of talking to him and laughing that makes Kame relax and makes all the stress of his day ebb away. They talk long into the night until Kame reluctantly goes to bed, Jin fluttering off to his own as well.
It settles into an odd routine.
Kame finds it's one he likes.
“I'll quit!” Kame yells, slamming his bag down as he storms inside. “I swear I'll quit! I'll screw them all!”
Jin buzzes over to him, eyes wide with concern. “Kame-chan? What's wrong?”
“It's these damned producers!” Kame swears, slamming his fist into the wall. “They want an artistically-nude photo shoot!”
Jin blinks. “...that's without clothes, right?”
“They want me to pose and have things obstructing the key bits like the edge of a sheet or a tree branch,” Kame fumes. “I'm a musical artist, not a pornographer! What are they thinking?!” He puts his head into his hand, mentally anguishing over the coming loss of dignity.
Jin pats the back of his hand, looking up at him, worried.
“Do you want me to kill them for you?” he asks, eyes wide. “Would that help make it better?”
Kame pauses, glancing up.
“...kill them?”
“That'd make the problem go away, wouldn't it?” Jin says, shrugging. “Then Kame would feel better too.”
He blinks.
“I thought you weren't allowed to kill anyone,” he says slowly.
Jin bites his lip, flushing slightly, and shrugs.
“I'm willing to break the rules for you,” he admits, offering him a shy grin. Kame blinks and then laughs, throwing his head back, amused beyond reason at the thought of this little fairy actually killing someone as he laughs long and hard.
When he finally calms down, he's gasping for breath, still amused. Jin hovers in front of him, a small smile on his own lips.
“Kame is prettier when he smiles,” Jin says, his tone happy. “And Kame is beautiful when he laughs.”
Kame stops laughing and stares at Jin, who flushes slightly.
“I was just saying,” he defends himself, folding his arms defiantly. “So, am I going to kill them or what?”
Kame's putting away his clean clothes one day when he hears a sharp shriek, making him jump about a foot in alarm.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Jin demands shrilly, grabbing the clothes from Kame and whizzing across the room. Kame stares, amazed that a three-inch fairy can hold a pile that big, before collecting himself.
“I was putting away my laundry,” Kame remarks, watching as Jin zips around his dresser, floating things into drawers and waving his wand around. “You seem to have put a stop to that...”
Jin finishes quickly, snapping the last drawer shut with a flick of his wand, before buzzing over to Kame, glaring defiantly in his face.
“Your chores are my job,” Jin informs Kame. “Don't ever do them again.”
Kame blinks, then laughs. “I'm sorry?”
There's a long pause, Jin's ears flaming.
“I will do your chores,” Jin says, ears twitching slightly. “All of them. All the time. Please don't do them yourself.”
Kame stares. “Why?” he asks, incredulous. “Why would you actually want to do chores?”
Jin's face pinkens even more.
“Kame's chores are the least I can do,” Jin murmurs, determinedly not looking at him. “Kame's given me a place to stay that's warm and dry, without the threat of aphids or lady-bugs, Kame gives me food to eat and things to do, and Kame gives me his friendship every day. I want to give anything back to Kame that I can.”
Kame's unexpectedly touched, and when Jin flutters off to go iron his shirts, he finds himself unable to say a word, just watching the tiny fairy work instead.
It's morning, and Kame's reading the newspaper while munching on a bagel, Jin playing with a quarter section of a grapefruit. There's an article on his band in it that he scans, wincing at a painful, absent-minded quote he'd made the day before.
“Mmm?” Ever alert, Jin floats over, looking over his shoulder. Kame points out the quote.
“She asked me what I like to do when I get home,” Kame tells him. “And I said 'see how my apartment's changed in the time I was gone'.”
Jin blinks. “But that's the truth, isn't it?” he asks, confused. “You always try to find out what I did while you were gone.”
“Yes, but they don't know that part, Jin,” Kame explains. “So how I said it, it makes it sound like I think my apartment's changing on it's own.”
“Ohh,” Jin says. “I completely understand.” His tone says that he doesn't, but Kame's not paying attention, his eyes fixed on the article once more.
“They made me out to be almost insane in this,” he says, making a face. “All because of one stupid slip? Ugh. I wish I hadn't said that.”
Jin flies up off of his shoulder into the air, and all of the sudden, the air twists, turning brighter for a moment, and the outline of the kitchen blurs. Something's screaming in his ears and Kame quickly claps his hands to his ears, only to find the noise has stopped.
“Haa...”
Kame blinks, glancing down at the table where Jin's laying, panting, his entire body soaked with sweat. His eyes are tired, though his face is proud, and he manages to move enough to look at Kame.
“Look again...” he gets out, still trying to catch his breath. “I did it...”
Stunned, Kame glances down at the paper.
“I like to just relax and take a hot shower first thing when I get home,” Kamenashi said. “It really helps me to relieve my stress.”
Kame's incredulous and he rapidly scans the rest of the article, all subtle references to his mental state gone. He looks up at Jin, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Jin... you changed time?”
Jin nods, looking proud of himself.
“One down, two to go,” he wheezes, then promptly collapses once more.
Kame's furious with himself at his thoughtlessness, wasting a wish on something so superficial. He's even more annoyed that because he did, Jin's currently exhausted, still trying to get his magic and energy up, flying around like a sick locust in the summer heat.
Kame sends Jin to bed after giving him a few crumbs of bread, telling him to rest and not get out of bed until he feels better. Jin doesn't respond other than a murmured acquiesce to his request, collapsing on his bed the moment he gets there.
Jin doesn't recover for several days, his energy returning at an unbelievably slow rate. Kame's worried for Jin, though he tries not to let it show, until one day, he comes home a bit early and catches Jin floating in the air, in the middle of making his bed.
“Jin!”
The fairy turns, looking up at him, surprised, and Kame angrily snatches him out of the air.
“Jin, what're you doing?! I told you not to get out of bed until you felt better!”
Jin rolls over on his hand and looks up at him, dusty locks in his eyes.
“I can't feel better unless I know I've done my part to make Kame feel better after work, too,” he says, his voice quiet. His eyes are dark, fathomless, and Kame's heart catches in his throat.
“...well - that's okay, I guess, but... you really need to focus on you, you know...”
“I'm here for Kame,” Jin says simply, his sleepy eyes looking up at him. “I'll be here for me after that.”
Kame finds it hard to argue with that and even harder to disagree, so he doesn't say anything as Jin flies back to his bed and falls asleep once more.
He makes his bed the next morning, though. He also picks up his dirty clothes and cleans the dishes, leaving no chores to be done.
Jin recovers soon after Kame forces him to stop doing the housework, and soon things are back to normal. As Jin flits around cleaning the kitchen, practicing doing magic without using his wand, Kame ventures a question.
“Jin,” he asks. “Why did you rewrite time?”
Jin blinks. “Because you wished it,” he says, obviously.
“But Jin,” Kame says. “I didn't really want to wish for that. It's just something I said.”
Jin shrugs. “Rules are rules,” Jin says, looking up at him. “The first three wishes you make to me, I grant.”
“Can I give you my next two in writing?” Kame tries. “I'd like to avoid silly mistakes.”
Jin laughs.
“No.”
Kame sighs.
“I'm BORED.”
Kame glanced up at his friend as he dries his hair. “Why's that?”
“There's only so many times you can make the bedspread change colors,” Jin scowls. “I'm running out of things to do.”
Kame blinks. “Can't you go visit your friends or something during the day?”
“No.” Jin gets up and paces back and forth on the dresser, agitated. “I'm not allowed to leave your vicinity until all your wishes are made.”
Kame looks at Jin, and flash of fear streaks through him, fear that Jin wants to leave, fear that he wants him to hurry up and make his stupid wishes already, fear that he wants to go home. Kame watches Jin, trying his best not to move too quickly or give himself away, struggling not to let any emotion through.
Jin moodily kicks at the head of a pin, then looks up at Kame.
“Will you get me a toy or something?” he asks. “I have nothing to do while you're gone.”
A breath Kame didn't realize he was holding escapes, and he laughs with the sheer relief of it all. His worry lines ease and he smiles at Jin, unguarded for a brief moment. He clears his throat.
“How about you come with me?”
Jin's eyes grow huge, and he lets out a happy yell as he hurls himself at Kame.
“Ohmigod! Thank you!!” he squeals, hugging Kame's thumb as best he can. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou-”
Kame laughs, looking down at the happy fairy, and idly strokes his hair with the tip of a finger. Jin looks up at him, joy shining in his smile and his eyes, and there's a lump suddenly in Kame's throat as Kame silently wishes he could hug Jin for real.
“What's this?!”
“It's an elevator,” Kame explains, pushing a button as he enters. “It transports you from floor to floor, just like the escalator did.”
“Aah, why's it closing?! The moving stairs didn't close!”
Kame laughs, watching the little fairy buzz around in an excited sort of panic. Jin's never been outside in the human world, the extent of his knowledge being the contents of Kame's room. Kame's amused at his naiveté, watching as Jin looks at his reflection in the elevator doors, openly astonished, and he smiles.
“We're moving!!” Jin says, flitting up to Kame's face again, his eyes wide. “I can feel it! We're moving!! Is this magic?!”
“It's electricity and mechanics,” Kame explains. “Electricity's what made the escalator run, remember? And mechanics is what made the bicycle go.”
“Wow...” Jin says, looking around, awed, and Kame watches as the elevator dings. Immediately, Jin bolts back into Kame's shirt pocket crouching and peering tentatively out through the button hole to peep.
“Okay,” he whispers. “I'm ready now.”
Kame stifles a laugh at Jin's excitement as he leaves the elevator, greeting people as he enters the studio. It's a distraction to have Jin running back and forth and bouncing around on his chest like that, but Kame manages to greet everyone properly that he should, and Jin somehow manages not to squeal.
“Kamenashi! Over here!”
Kame moves over to the manager, who hurriedly shoves a bundle of clothes into his hands.
“Change of plans,” he says quickly, distracted. “We're shooting the new PV today instead of concert practice. Hurry up and change.”
“Wait-” Kame objects. “Why are we-”
“The reporter for Thursday broke her ankle and now the whole schedule's been changed!” he says, his eyes darting around for other band members. “Please Kamenashi, don't be hard about this and just go change!”
He shoves him towards a changing room and Kame stumbles forward blindly, entering and closing the door behind him. Jin's out of his pocket in a second, huffing angrily and glaring at the door.
“He was so mean to you!” Jin says, indignant. “He didn't even ask if you wanted to shoot that person or not! He just made you-”
Jin rambles on and brainstorms creative ideas to get fire ants into the choreographer's clothing, while Kame looks down at his new outfit, biting his lip.
“Jin-”
Jin pauses and turns, and Kame tries to look him in the eye.
“Look, I thought- I didn't know we'd be dancing and filming today and moving around a lot, and this shirt hasn't got a front pocket in it-”
“Oh, that's okay!” Jin says brightly. He waves his wand, materializing it from nowhere, and there's a brief flash of blue light.
“There!” he proclaims proudly. “Now I'm invisible to everyone but you! No one else can hear me either, so I can still watch!”
Kame blinks and Jin smiles, proud of himself, before flitting over to the mirror, shrieking in delight when he discovers he can't see his reflection. Kame watches as Jin touches himself and the mirror over and over again, laughing and doing flips in the air.
“Jin,” Kame says, looking at the fairy. “Jin, why didn't you just do that from the beginning?”
Jin turns to look at Kame and bites his lip.
“It was more fun in your pocket,” he says honestly. “It's not often I get to be so close to you.”
He goes back to waving at himself in the mirror, screaming as Q-tips are lifted up seemingly by nothing, and Kame finds he's glad he's so distracted or Jin just might notice his blush.
Kame dances.
Kame sings.
PV's are always invigorating, Kame knows. Dancing and singing with such effects swirling around always seems to make it better, make it other worldly, make it more than just a song. Rationally, Kame knows that the combination of the synthetic environment, strong beats, music, and endorphins from dancing combine to form the effect and that it's really nothing all that special. The others all get it too, Kame knows, and he can see it in the tinting of their cheeks and the sparkle in their eyes. It's completely normal, a safe, natural high, but that doesn't damper the effect.
Kame feels like the center of the world.
Music pulses through him as he sings, bending and dancing, throwing sexy looks at the camera, his voice perfectly on key. He's got a lead in this song and he's performing better than he ever has, better even than when they debuted, and his voice fills the studio, the others echoing in with the harmony.
Ueda's got a solo part now, so Kame's dancing off to the side, his movements perfectly in time with the others, and then it's his turn again for the refrain as he sings again. Visual effects flash with false lightning, highlighting his face, and Kame tosses his hair, giving one last look to the camera as they end on a chord.
“Marvelous!!”
Kame blinks as the lights come back on, the filming staff clapping enthusiastically. His head swims for a moment, dragging him sharply back to reality and away from the false world they'd created, and Kame's relieved to see the others seem to be gathering themselves too.
“That was amazing!” the choreographer gushes, clutching her clipboard to his chest, her face flushed and pupils dilated. “That was simply amazing! The way you moved, Kamenashi-san! I thought I would just-”
“Well done everyone!” proclaims the filmer, immensely pleased. “And you got it all in one take! We've already done the quick shots, so that's it! Really, well done! Well done!”
Kame stares and quickly exchanges glances with his band mates, darting looks of astonishment and incredulity, before they slowly start to relax and laugh, relieved and happy and proud.
“Excellent work!” the manager proclaims. “Go take a break, boys! Come back in an hour or two!”
Everyone goes to get their things and Kame lags behind, slowly getting his things together, his eyes darting around for a familiar figure. The manager grins and congratulates him, expressing how glad he is that he's finally found some inspiration and gotten out of the odd funk he's been in, and Kame thanks him, his words registering on deaf ears. Kame catches a slight sparkle behind a curtain as he waits, impatient, until the last person is finally gone.
“...Jin?”
“Kame!!!”
Jin tackles him, a feat Kame hadn't thought possible, though he supposes with the right speed and angle it would have to be. But Jin's shrieking and flailing on his chest, gesticulating wildly, his eyes alight, alive, and Kame can't direct his thoughts to anything else right now.
“You never told me it was that that you were doing when you went to 'work'! I thought you actually had to work and that's why you were miserable you never told me that you were dancing and singing and ohmigod, Kame, you were amazing and incredible and stunning and stupefying and spectacular-”
Kame laughs, relaxing as Jin yells about the performance, criticizing the director for not giving him enough front time and waving his arms about as he talks animatedly about all the crazy lights, and Kame can't contain his smile.
“It was because you were with me, you know,” he tells Jin on the ride home. “Really. I'm normally not so good.”
Jin laughs and smiles. “Good,” he says impishly. “I like the idea that you were doing it all for me.”
Kame swallows hard at that, his heart lurching into his throat, and Jin yells out a yell as the subway screeches to a halt, flying backwards and hitting a window at the abrupt stop.
“Are you working?”
Kame glances up, glasses perched precariously on the edge of his nose, and Jin flies over to sit on his shoulder, looking down at his notebook curiously.
“Working while lying down in bed is bad,” Jin points out. “The loud person would get mad at you.”
“I'm writing lyrics,” Kame explains, pointing. “I have an idea of how I want the song to go, but I'm getting stuck at the next part.”
Jin leans over, peering slightly. “Sen no koto, dore tei ni,” he reads. “Ko- kangaete itemo...”
Kame's lips twitch. “What are you, Chinese?” he says, amused. “The kanji aren't read like that.”
Jin huffs and folds his arms. “Fairies don't need to read,” he says, scowling, his face flushing slightly. “Why don't you just read it to me, then?”
“It's nothing to be ashamed of, really,” Kame says, smiling. “Lots of people have trouble with kanji.”
Jin flushes darker. “Yeah, yeah,” he dismisses, waving it off. “But really. I want to hear what you have so far. Please, Kame?”
Jin looks up at him, and something in Jin's voice guides Kame into opening his mouth, humming slightly before starting to sing quietly. Jin's eyes widen at first, surprised, before his eyes slip shut as he listens, sways slightly as Kame's own eyes close as he sings.
Kame stops abruptly, reaching the end of what he has so far, and Jin leaps up immediately.
“No no no, you can't stop there!” he objects, impassioned. “You have to keep singing, Kame!”
“But that's all I have written,” Kame points out. “I didn't finish the rest yet-”
“That's no excuse!” Jin says. “You can't just- Kame, it's too pretty to leave unfinished-”
“Well, then,” Kame says sensibly. “Why don't you help me with the rest?”
Jin blinks and pauses, considering for a long moment. Kame briefly worries that maybe he's offended him, before Jin settles himself down onto his stomach.
“Sing it again,” he directs.
Kame blinks but obligingly sings again, softer, this time, more intimate. Jin joins in after the second line, a melodious, rich voice joining his own as they sing, and Kame's amazed at the harmony. Singing, he reaches the end of the lyrics, but Jin doesn't stop, his eyes closed, an expression on his face that Kame's never seen before.
“Ippo zutsu de ii sa.” Jin's singing quietly, but Kame can hear the emotion in his voice, as if he instinctively knows what Kame'd been feeling when he wrote the song. The lyrics resonate in the air, and Kame scrambles for his pen, quickly writing down the words. “Kono te wo hanasazuni...”
Jin's voice fills the air, clear and sweet and beautiful, and somehow, Kame finds himself singing along, their lyrics matching perfectly like their voices, as if they'd both known the next words to write all along.
Kame's never had more fun in his life. Every day, he sings and dances, inspired and cheered on by Jin watching from the sidelines, and every night, he gets to sing and talk with Jin. He finds it somewhat amazing that he could get so much more out of life with just the help of one small person, and it almost seems surreal.
Jin's voice is incredible. Kame's been around singers long enough to recognize talent when he hears it, and with Jin's looks, his impish smiles and seductive smirks, Kame knows that he could be an idol too. Kame encourages Jin to sing and dance with him, their harmony echoing in the room as they dance, Kame on the ground, Jin through the air.
It's almost like a different world, when he's with Jin, Kame realizes. But when he looks at Jin, he remembers that he's not just in another world; he's in an entirely different universe, with this fairy at his side.
( part two )