One-shot - Claustrophobic
Title: Claustrophobic
Pairing: Koyama/Shige
Rating: PG-13
Word count: ~7,000
Prompt: #010 - Space
A/N: Written for je_prompts.
Summary: NEWS all get stuck in a dark storage room. Chaos and groping ensues.
The light bulb in the vaguely musty smelling storage room flickers slightly when it’s turned on, and continues to do so over and over again in 10-second intervals. It’s probably on its last legs and will need changing soon, but it’s not like the three of them are going to do anything about it.
Shige is leaning indifferently against the door, while Koyama and Tegoshi paw through a multitude of costumes hanging on line after line of clothing racks. When they’re all collected into one place and hung up together like this, anyone who happens to enter the room can no longer deny the reason why Johnny’s aren’t known for their great fashion sense.
Feathers, sequins, sparkles, clashing rainbow colours… sometimes all on the same costume. It looks like the place where bad taste comes to die.
“Oh wow, Shige. See this?”
Koyama beckons him over, and he goes to look, still not that interested but slightly curious to know what his best friend thinks warrants his attention.
“Do you recognise these? The budget for NEWS was so tight back then.” Koyama says, and Shige cringes. He doesn’t think he could forget if he tried.
“I felt like I was wearing something made out of my grandmother’s bedspread.” He says, gingerly poking at the floral suits they’d been made to wear for Kibou ~Yell~.
Tegoshi laughs and shakes his head.
“I’m so glad our outfits have improved now.” He says, utterly oblivious to the fact that he’s standing right next to a hideous, shiny, pink and white thing with ruffles and bows that they’d been forced into just last week. “But it sure brings back memories.”
“Bad ones.” Shige says dryly, and Tegoshi frowns.
“Don’t be so negative.” He chides him. “I had fun filming that PV.”
Shige snorts. “Right, because when you had fun I must’ve automatically had fun too.”
Koyama is amused by their bickering, but doesn’t say anything. Instead, he keeps looking through the costumes for appropriate ones for them to wear.
They need to do a quick costume change in the middle of a performance, and have to get their timing right, but the outfits for it haven’t been made yet. And so, Koyama and Shige were appointed to go to the storage room - also known as The Costume Cave - to find something appropriate to make do with.
There wasn’t any real reason for Tegoshi to come along too but he did anyway, just because he wanted to. It annoys Shige a little, because he would’ve liked to spend the time with Koyama. Not that he’d thought anything was going to happen between them while they were alone in there, but a guy could dream.
As it is, he’s now a little grumpy and perfectly happy to sit back while Tegoshi rifles through the costumes and does the work for him.
“What about these?” Tegoshi says, pointing to a set of baggy gold and blue sequined clothes that look like they’d been made out of scrap fabric.
“Stylish.” Says Shige in the most sarcastic voice he can muster.
“Well, they are made to wear over the top of other costumes.” Tegoshi explains patiently, even though Shige already knows that. “They hide whatever’s underneath and they’re easy to take off, which is perfect for what we’re doing, isn’t it?”
“Tegoshi’s right.” Koyama agrees. “And it’s not like we’ll be wearing them for the real performance anyway. There’s not any harm in using them for today.”
Shige’s lip curls. He doesn’t like the outfits and he doesn’t like that Koyama’s taking Tegoshi’s side instead of his. “Sequins make me itchy.” He mutters, going back to leaning against the door again. He misses, putting his weight on the wrong part, and accidentally causes it to slam shut behind him.
Tegoshi jumps at the sudden sound.
“Shigeee.” He whines, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “You scared me.”
“Sorry.” Shige says, though he’s not really. He goes to open the door again, only the knob doesn’t turn. “Uh oh.”
“What’s wrong?” Koyama asks, arms full of ugly gold clothes.
“Um… I think we’re locked in.”
“Let me see.” Tegoshi pushes him out of the way, as though it makes a difference as to who’s turning the door handle. He tries twisting it both left and right, but nothing happens. “Oh. Guess we really are.”
Koyama swallows. “Well, don’t worry. The others will wonder where we are and come and get us eventually, I’m sure. Until then, let’s just wait.”
The minutes pass, five turning into ten, and then ten to fifteen, and just as Koyama is starting to panic a little, they hear footsteps and the door opens.
“What are you guys doing?” It’s Massu, and Shige doesn’t think he’s been happier to see anyone in his entire life. He lets out a breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding.
“We got locked in.” Tegoshi explains. “But you saved us. Thanks Massu!”
“Locked in?” Massu asks, stepping inside the storage room with them. “I think there’s a sort of latch thing on the doors to these rooms that you can press to let you out.” And so saying, he shuts the door again before any of them can protest.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Shige asks, incredulously. “Now we’re all locked in again!”
“No, no, no.” Massu laughs. “You press this latch under the hand… oh.”
There is no latch under the handle. Massu’s laugh turns uncomfortable.
“Oops. Guess I was wrong.” He says, sounding awkward. “Sorry about that.”
“Never… never mind.” Koyama hurries to reassure them, although it seems as though he himself is in the most need of reassurance. “I’m sure Yamapi or Ryo-chan will come and save us eventually.”
Massu nods. “They asked me to come and see where you were since you’d been go so long, so when I’m not back in a few minutes, they’ll probably come and get us.”
The flickering light and the smell in the small space are starting to give Shige a headache, so when Ryo and Yamapi take much less time to come looking for them than Massu had, he’s very glad.
“I told you they were alright.” Is the first thing Yamapi says when they open the door to find four pairs of very relieved eyes staring at them.
“I knew they would be.” Ryo responds rather irritably. “I was just saying that it was kind of creepy how we sent Massu off to check, and then he didn’t come back either.”
“You watch too many thriller movies.” Yamapi tells him, and Ryo scowls. As usual, it’s Tegoshi who puts him in a better mood.
“Ryo-kun saved us.” He says, and Ryo’s scowl immediately turns into a sappy smile.
“Saved you from what?” Yamapi asks, because now they’re behind schedule, and he figures they need a good reason for it.
“We, er… got locked in.” Koyama says, a little embarrassed. “And then we couldn’t get out. Massu came to help us, but then he got trapped here too.”
Ryo raises an eyebrow. “So you got locked in twice. Are you idiots?”
“I shut the door behind me when I came in.” Massu tries to explain, but only ends up reinforcing Ryo’s statement.
“You know there’s this latch thing on the inside of the door that unlocks it for you, right?” Yamapi tells them.
“No there isn’t!” Three voices quickly say in unison.
“That’s what I thought too.” Massu adds. “But then when I shut the door, I couldn’t find it.”
“You’re probably just blind. It’s under the door handle” Ryo says, and steps into the room too. He examines the door, thankfully without closing it, but can’t find anything. “Huh.”
Yamapi comes in too, takes a look, then sighs.
“It’s not under the door handle; it’s near the top there.”
They all look up, and simultaneously break out into embarrassed laughter.
“No one ever thinks to look up.” Tegoshi says sagely. “I’ve heard it’s the best way place to hide things if you don’t want anyone to find them.”
“I was imagining something more latch-like.” Shige admits. “I guess that’s why I didn’t see it.”
Yamapi nods. “Yeah. Well, if you ever get stuck in here again, this is what you do.”
He shuts the door, then stands on his tiptoes and pulls the latch while turning the doorknob.
It doesn’t work.
“Hm.” Yamapi says, staying calm. He pulls it a few more times and turns the handle every which way, but nothing happens. “I guess this isn’t what you should do after all. Looks like we’re stuck.”
“You’re not serious.” Ryo says in a monotone voice, and tries out the latch himself. He’s met with the same results. “I can’t believe you just made the same fucking mistake as this bunch of retards.” He seethes.
The other four are a little shocked. Ryo doesn’t usually talk to Yamapi like that, but Yamapi seems rather unfazed by it.
“He’s a bit claustrophobic.” He explains simply, to which Ryo screams back, “No I’m fucking not!”
The light bulb above them continues to flicker like something out of a B-rated horror film, but at least by now Shige has gotten used to the musty smell and doesn’t notice it anymore.
“We should take turns knocking on the door until someone hears us.” He suggests, always the logical one. “Someone is bound to hear us eventually and let us out.”
They all agree that Ryo should take the first turn knocking - he says it’s because he’s the toughest out of them, and so people are more likely to hear him. The rest of them pretend to have the same opinion, but they actually all silently agree that if he uses up some of his nervous energy, he’s more likely to calm down.
They get through about three rotations - Massu’s turns last the longest because he likes it better than just sitting around doing nothing, while Tegoshi’s turns are the shortest because he claims that his knuckles end up hurting after a minute - before they give up.
“No one’s coming…” Koyama says, his tone a mixture of sadness and anxiety.
“I can’t be bothered anymore.” Tegoshi sighs, and goes to find a spot on the floor to sit down in until they’re rescued.
“That light is pissing me off.” Ryo adds testily. “I feel like I’m going to have a seizure.” He hits the switch, flooding the small room with darkness. Chaos erupts.
“I can’t see!”
“Turn it back on! I don’t like the dark. This is scary!”
“Ouch! Don’t step on me!”
“Ryo, turn it back on, for goodness’ sake.”
“Someone just groped my ass!”
“Sorry, that was me. I didn’t mean to.”
“Where the fuck did the light switch go?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it.”
Shige recognizes Yamapi as the last one to speak, voice cutting through the disorder, and he senses it as he cautiously moves around, trying not to step on anyone, searching for the switch.
They hear him flick it. The bulb flashes brightly for a second, and then with a popping sound it goes out again.
“That’s funny.” He hears Yamapi say, followed by a couple more flicks of the switch. Then, “Bad news, guys. The bulb is dead.”
Silence follows this comment. Then everyone resumes panicking.
“I’m going to sit in the corner so no one can step on me again! No one move until I’m done.”
“Everyone calm down! It’s going to be alright!”
“You’re the one freaking out, Koyama. Just shut up for once, okay?”
Someone suddenly crashes into Shige, and they both fall to the ground, Shige pinned underneath whoever it is.
“Ouch! Who the fuck did I just trip over?” He recognizes the speaker as Ryo, and then realizes that he’s the one lying on top of him. It makes the situation about ten times more awkward.
“I warned you not to move until I was done.” Comes Tegoshi’s mournful voice.
Shige tries to scramble out from underneath Ryo, when someone steps on his face. He yells in pain.
“I’m sorry!” Massu apologizes profusely, “I didn’t realize there was anyone there.”
“Everybody!” Yamapi raises his voice above the shrieking and yelling. They fall silent accordingly. Yamapi doesn’t usually shout, but when he does, it gets everyone’s attention.
“Everybody.” He repeats. “I think we should sit down to avoid any further accidents.”
Ryo accidentally elbows Shige in the stomach as he climbs off of him, leading Shige to think that Yamapi has a very good point.
“I want to be next to Ryo-kun!” Tegoshi says immediately, and then there’s shuffling sounds all over again as everyone tries to find a place to sit. Someone’s hair brushes against Shige’s cheek, and he feels a bit weird and fluttery inside when he’s able to identify it as Koyama by the smell of his shampoo.
“Hey.” Shige says softly, “You okay now?”
He can’t be sure, but it sounds like Koyama is probably smiling when he replies.
“Yeah. It’s actually kind of less scary in the dark, now that we’re all sitting down.” He replies. “I think it’s because I feel like I’m dreaming.”
Shige rolls his eyes, thinking it’s probably a good thing that Koyama can’t see him and get offended by it. However, it’s like karma decides to pay him back anyway, and pain explodes in his crotch as someone lands on him.
“Ouch, what the fucking fuck!”
It’s not common for Shige to swear so violently. But then again, it’s also not common for approximately 55 kilograms to suddenly ram him in the place where it hurts most.
“Oh, Shige?” Tegoshi’s voice comes from on top of him, and he sounds like he’s completely oblivious to how much he just hurt him. “I’m sorry. I was trying to find Ryo-kun.”
“To do what? Neuter him?!” Shige spits back, attempting to cup himself between the legs to try and relieve some of the pain, but only succeeding in groping Tegoshi’s ass. He doesn’t seem to notice, which Shige is grateful for.
“I’m over here.” Ryo’s voice comes from their right-hand side, and Shige feels Tegoshi’s weight disappear. Predictably, there’s no yell of pain from Ryo when he finally finds him, which means he probably managed to sit in his lap a damn sight more successfully than he did in Shige’s.
“This kind of feels like a sleep over.” Massu comments from the left of Shige and Koyama. “Except without the beds or sleeping or midnight snacks.”
“Ah, we’re probably going to miss lunch.” Yamapi realizes, and it’s the most upset he’s sounded by anything that’s happened so far. “What a shame. It looked good today.”
Massu’s stomach rumbles as if in response, and he laughs, embarrassed. “I wish you hadn’t brought that up.”
Shige is still far too sore to even think about food, and keeps swearing under his breath every so often as the pain flares up.
“Are you okay?” Koyama whispers, as though he doesn’t want the others to hear their private conversation. They probably aren’t listening anyway; Yamapi and Ryo are talking to each other, and Massu is more than likely off in his own little world.
“It just hurts where Tegoshi landed on me.” Shige replies. “But I’ll be fine soon.”
“Do you want me to rub it for you?” Koyama asks, and Shige chokes at the implications. It’s true that when he’s gotten hit on the arms or the head before that Koyama has rubbed the injuries until they started to feel better, but considering the location of his current injury, it takes on a whole different meaning.
“No, that’s okay.” Shige tells him quickly. “He, uh… got me in a kind of private place.”
Koyama is silent for a second, and then says, “Oh,” in a rather knowing voice. Shige can almost see the look of realization dawning on his face.
“I could still rub it better for you if you really wanted.” Koyama says, and while his voice is teasing, Shige is extremely glad that it’s dark, so he can’t see how hard he’s blushing.
“Don’t be gross.” Shige replies, a bit more forcefully than he means to. Koyama chuckles softly and leans against him.
“How long do you think we’ll be in here?” He asks. His head is pressed gently to Shige’s, and their shoulders are firmly wedged together.
“Who knows?” Shige replies. He’s trying to be calm and rational, but he’s finding it difficult with the object of his affections so close to him. It’s strange, because he doesn’t usually react this strongly to Koyama when they’re in public; he figures must be because of the pitch black around them. He’s always found that his inhibitions are lowered late at night, and it’s so completely dark in here, save for a little crack of light under the door, that it’s almost like it’s night time.
Koyama sighs and Shige feels his warm breath just under his ear. It makes the back of his neck is prickle and his hairs stand on end. That could be what makes him feel a little bolder; bold enough to let his arm slide down behind Koyama, around his waist. He’s not too worried about the reaction he’ll get, because he can just claim it’s the most comfortable place for him to put it - much more comfortable than having it squashed between them - but he still feels a little tense, waiting for the response.
But Koyama actually just seems to wriggle a bit closer, leans a little more firmly against Shige. It almost makes him forget about the damage that had been done to him before. Almost.
“I’m kind of bored.” Tegoshi complains, to which he gets a sympathetic sounding noise from Ryo. “Can anyone think of some fun games to pass the time?”
“There’s not much to do in the dark.” Yamapi replies. “Does anyone know of any good talking games? Shiritori? Word association?”
“We do those enough on variety shows.” Ryo says. “Do we really want to spend our free time playing them as well?”
Shige has to agree with Ryo for once. He’s not really in the mood for that, and besides; he’s pretty happy sitting in silence, with Koyama’s nose buried in his hair and his arm around Koyama’s waist like they’re on some sort of date to the movies. But alas, it’s not to stay that way.
“I’ve thought of something good to play!” Tegoshi says, and he sounds very excited. “It’s the perfect game for a dark room, because it’s the kind that’s only good for playing when you can’t see.”
Shige thinks that this sounds very suspicious. He doesn’t like the way that Tegoshi is getting so excited about it either; thinks it spells trouble.
Koyama, however, seems interested.
“Tegoshi is pretty clever.” He says seriously. “Playing a game right now that you can only play in the dark is kind of like eating vegetables when they’re in season.”
There’s a little bit of logic behind what he just said, but statement is so idiotic and ridiculous that everyone does themselves a favour and ignores it.
“What game are you thinking of?” Massu asks, either not worried about the same things as Shige is, or too bored to care.
“I made it up.” Tegoshi says, proudly. “Just now. It’s a touching game.”
Shige coughs. Yamapi clears his throat, but Tegoshi doesn’t get the hint and goes on to explain the rules.
“Okay, so what happens is that we all stand up, and then we’ll get Yamapi to tap one of us on the shoulder. That person goes to stand over by the door, and then we all take turns feeling them. When five people have touched them, then the person will clap to let us know everyone’s done. And then we’ll guess who it was. It’ll be fun!” Even without being able to see his face, they all know that Tegoshi is beaming. Shige, however, can see a few gaping flaws in his plan.
“When it gets down to the last person, we’ll already know who it is.” He says, but Tegoshi just sighs, as though Shige is dumb and doesn’t get the simplest things.
“We won’t say who was who until the very end of the game. The person getting touched will just remember who got it right. That way it’s equal all the time.”
“But what if I pick the same person twice?” Yamapi asks. “Since I won’t be able to see who it is.”
For some reason, Tegoshi doesn’t do the ‘you’re so stupid’ sigh when he responds to this question. The fact that it doesn’t surprise Shige - that he doesn’t really mind - frightens him.
“If they’ve already been chosen, they can tap you back on the shoulder, and then you can go and choose someone else.” He responds brightly. “And when you want to have your go by the door, you can just pretend you tapped someone and go and stand by it yourself. Then we’ll never know.”
It’s kind of scary how he’s gotten the whole thing figured out so quickly. Not for the first time, Shige wonders if Tegoshi might actually be a little smarter than he is. The idea makes him feel a bit grouchy.
“Won’t it give away who it was when there’s one person who doesn’t answer with who they think it was, though?” Koyama asks, bringing up a point none of them had actually thought of. It makes Shige smile. Koyama does have his smart moments.
“That’s true.” Tegoshi admits. He’s silent for a second. “Oh, I know! After the person claps, we can all shuffle around a bit so no one guesses who was who from where their voice is coming from. And then Yamapi can call out our names and we have to give our answer. And if you were the person who was getting touched, you can just make up an answer so no one figures it out.”
The rules seem pretty foolproof, but Shige still thinks it sounds like a pretty dumb game. Dumb and possibly physically dangerous. But then again, since Tegoshi won’t be crawling around on the ground and tripping people up this time, it’ll probably be a lot less dangerous than he’s anticipating.
It’s at that moment that Shige realizes he’s been in Johnny’s for far too long, because the thought of playing a game that involves groping his fellow bandmates in the dark to figure out who they are doesn’t seem weird to him at all.
“I like it.” Koyama says, almost as enthusiastic as the actual creator of the game. “It’ll be interesting to see if we can recognize each other by touch, don’t you think?”
He’s probably hoping it’ll bring them closer. No one says it, but they can see Koyama getting a little teary-eyed if everyone can recognize each other from touch alone.
“Well, okay.” Yamapi says, and if he’s agreeing, Shige thinks that any hope he had of not having to go along with this stupid idea is out the window. “As long as everyone is very careful so no one gets injured, I think we should try it.”
Koyama stands up, and Shige feels him bend over and touch his arm, as though he’s offering him a hand up, so Shige takes it. He hears the others getting up as well.
“When you’ve been chosen, knock on the door twice to let us know you’re ready. And then the rest of us will try to line up so we can start.” Tegoshi says, and then he falls silent, expecting Yamapi to do the honours.
There’s a bit of shuffling, a pause, and then a bit more shuffling, followed by the two knocks.
Feeling a bit ridiculous, Shige reaches out to feel the people around him, trying to figure out where the line of members starts and ends, and eventually finds a place. Someone else ends up behind him and then they start playing.
When Shige gets to the person by the door, he immediately knows it’s not Koyama from the way they smell, so he strikes that off his list. His next thought is to check their height. Shige puts his hand on top of their head, and finds that they’re shorter than him, which narrows it down to Ryo, Tegoshi or Massu. After patting their hair for a while, he manages to conclude that it’s not Tegoshi, because their hair isn’t frizzy.
It’s then that he feels the murderous aura coming from them.
He quickly stops and moves away. It’s definitely Ryo. There’s no way Massu could get angry to the point that Shige could feel it coming off him in waves without seeing him.
He goes and stands off to the side, waiting for the last poor soul to figure out who the mystery member is. Then the clap comes, and they all shuffle around to make sure nothing is given away.
“Okay.” Yamapi says. “Time to guess. Who do you think it was, Koyama?”
“Ryo-chan.” Is the reply.
“Ryo-chan, what about you?”
“Massu.” Says Ryo, without missing a beat. If Shige wasn’t already so convinced it couldn’t have been anyone other than him, he’d think he wasn’t making his answer up.
“Shige?”
“I thought it was Nishikido-kun.” Shige replies.
“Massu?”
“I agree with Shige.”
“Tegoshi?”
“It’s hard to choose between Ryo-kun and Massu, but I think Massu.” Tegoshi replies. Shige isn’t surprised. The chances that Tegoshi would’ve been able to pick up on the homicidal atmosphere surrounding the mystery person were pretty slim.
“Okay.” Yamapi says. “And I think it was Ryo-chan too. Do I choose the next person now, Tegoshi?”
Tegoshi gives a sound of approval, and they start the process again.
When it gets to his turn, Shige immediately knows that it’s Massu because they don’t have Tegoshi or Yamapi’s frizzy hair, and he just knows it isn’t Koyama. He gives his arms a squeeze just to make sure he wasn’t wrong last time and that it’s definitely not Ryo. He feels the person shaking with silent laughter and concludes that it has to be Massu, because Ryo would never find someone else squeezing his arms like this that funny. The arms in question are also much too muscular for it to be Ryo anyway. Satisfied, Shige moves away and waits for the clap.
This time Massu and Yamapi vote Shige, Tegoshi votes Ryo, Shige and Koyama vote Massu and Ryo also votes for Massu again.
The next person, Shige decides, has to be Yamapi. They aren’t short enough to be Tegoshi, but they have a perm, so there’s no way it could be anyone else.
It seems that everyone else agrees, because the decision is unanimously that it was Yamapi, except for Yamapi who votes for Tegoshi. Tegoshi starts to giggle. It sounds kind of evil.
They line up again, and when Shige gets to the person by the door he instantly knows that it’s Koyama; he can tell from the smell of his cologne and shampoo before he even touches him. When he does - even if he doesn’t need to, Shige isn’t going to refuse to do it - he has to fight not to laugh. Koyama is obviously crouching down a little bit to take a few centimetres off his height, which Shige can’t blame him for. After all, he’s the tallest in the group, and that kind of clue would immediately give him away.
Still, Shige can’t help but place his hands on his shoulders and lean against him, pressing their chests together in a way he knows is much too intimate to be safe. He puts his lips right up against Koyama’s ear and breathes, rather than whispers into it, “Cheater.”
He feels a shiver go through Koyama, and it makes him feel a little proud of himself, that he could cause that kind of reaction in him. He lingers just a tiny bit, not wanting to leave the position, but knowing that he can’t stay for too long. To his surprise, just as he pulls away, he feels one of Koyama’s hands come up and touch his back, almost in a pseudo embrace. It leaves Shige tingling as he goes to wait for him to clap.
For someone who’s such an air-head, Koyama’s scheme works pretty well. Shige, Massu and Tegoshi all vote Koyama, but Ryo votes Shige and Yamapi votes Massu. Koyama follows Ryo’s example and votes for Shige, which makes Shige smile dumbly for some reason he can’t fathom.
Now there’s only one person left besides Shige to go. He knows that if he’s not picked this time, it’ll have to be Tegoshi, and so when he hears the knock on the door, Shige stands in line feeling pretty sure that he’s won the game.
However when he gets to them and touches their head, he finds they’re the same height as he is. Remembering Koyama’s trick from before, Shige nudges their shoe with his foot to check that it’s not Tegoshi being a brat and standing on his tiptoes to confuse them. It turns out he isn’t; his feet are flat on the ground and Shige’s confused for a second before he realizes what must have happened. Tegoshi had done the same thing as Koyama before Koyama had done it and tricked them all. Shige grits his teeth, pissed off that he’d managed to outsmart them, but also kind of impressed.
When it comes to voting, everyone but Tegoshi and Shige - who say it must be Yamapi - vote that it’s Tegoshi that round. Shige’s guess is met with surprise.
“Didn’t you already vote Yamapi before?” Koyama asks.
Shige shrugs, and then remembers that they can’t see him doing it. “Tegoshi already voted Yamapi too. And Nishikido-kun voted for Massu twice.”
“Yeah, but that’s because for one of those turns it was Tegoshi up there, and voting for yourself kind of gives the game away.” Ryo replied. “And the first person was too tall to be Tegoshi, so it had to be him this time.”
“Right.” Shige replied. “But if you didn’t notice, it was too tall to be him this time too.”
There’s a pause before Tegoshi starts to giggle again.
“Tegoshi, did you trick us?” Massu asks, sounding somewhat impressed.
“I’m not giving anything away until the game is over.” He replies, but his smug, mischievous tone tells them everything they need to know.
“At any rate.” Yamapi says, “There’s only one person left, so let’s finish this. I don’t need to tap them this time, I don’t think.”
Shige takes that as his cue, and goes to stand in front of the door. He knocks on it, and waits for the inevitable groping to begin.
The first person who touches him is rather abrupt and harsh, and Shige thinks that it’s probably Ryo. It’s quite bizarre, he realizes, to have some unknown person patting and running their fingers through your hair like this, and he makes a mental note to apologize to all the others for doing it to them. Then the person grabs his bicep, and Shige tries hard not to squeak. He can’t believe he’s being molested by Ryo in a dark room and has no choice but to let him get away with it.
Then he moves away. The next person is gentler with their touching, and Shige figures it’s either Yamapi or Massu. He has to do his best not to giggle when they run their hands up his sides. He kind of feels like he’s being frisked, but instead of being weird, it’s just sort of funny. His hands move to Shige’s arms, and he thinks he hears him mutter under his breath.
There’s no doubt in Shige’s mind that the next person is Tegoshi. It couldn’t be anyone else, because he’s extremely clingy and one of his ways of differentiating them from one another is apparently by giving them hugs.
He pats Shige all over, prodding and squeezing, and for one terrifying moment when Tegoshi squishes up against him, Shige is convinced that he’s started sniffing him like a cat.
It’s sort of relieving when he stops and the next person replaces him. It’s Koyama again, and Shige’s pretty sure that Koyama knows who he is too, but he still puts his hands on Shige’s waist, touching him a little just so Shige knows he’s taken his turn. Then he leans in close and, much like Shige did to him, murmurs into his ear quietly enough so that the other members won’t hear, “I know who you are…”
His tone is melodious and playful, and Shige can’t stop himself from holding Koyama where he is and whispering back in a sing-song voice, “Do you really now?”
He just manages to hear Koyama’s suppressed laughter and the movement of his head against Shige’s lets him know he’s nodding.
Just like before, Shige doesn’t want to let him go, but knows he has to. If he holds him too long, Koyama will get suspicious, and Shige doesn’t want to put any strain on their relationship. Unrequited love is difficult.
The last person to touch him is also gentle, but a little shyer than the second had been. It makes Shige think that it’s probably Massu rather than Yamapi, because he’s very polite about how and where he touches him. Shige is quite appreciative of this, and so he even lets it slide when probably-Massu accidentally manages to roughly brush his nipple through his shirt and makes him gasp in an embarrassing way. A few moments later and it’s finally over. Yamapi has them vote for the last time.
“Koyama?” He asks, to which he naturally gets the reply, “Shige”.
“Tegoshi?”
“Shige.”
Shige’s surprised that he actually got it right, but then again, he was the only person Tegoshi hadn’t voted for yet. It was probably just sheer luck.
“Ryo-chan?”
“Koyama.”
“Okay. Massu?”
“I think Shige.”
“Shige?”
“Massu.” Shige says the first name that comes into his head. There’s no need to think of tactics at the end of the game, after all.
“Okay.” Yamapi says. “And I know I’ve already said his name, but I think it was Shige too. He wasn’t buff enough to be Koyama.”
Shige splutters, but there’s nothing he can do about it; partly because it was Yamapi who said it, and partly because he knows that it’s actually true.
“So, it’s time to reveal ourselves now!” Tegoshi seems just as excited now as when they’d started. Shige has to admit that he’s a little more interested now too, if only because he wants to know how well he did.
“It was me first.” Ryo volunteers. “And everyone but Tegoshi got it right.”
Tegoshi pouts audibly, but whoever is closest to him probably gives him a pat on the shoulder which distracts him and cheers him up.
“I was second.” Massu says. “And Shige, Koyama and Nishikido-kun all got it right.”
“I was third!” Tegoshi says chirpily over the sound of Ryo being smug. “And no one got it right at all.”
“Except for me.” Yamapi reminds him gently.
“Yeah.” Tegoshi says, and he’s clearly extremely pleased with himself for fooling everyone else. “I stood on my tiptoes to confuse you, and it worked!”
Massu laughs, probably shaking his head. “Tegoshi’s brain works in an interesting way.”
“I was fourth.” Koyama tells them. “Shige, Tegoshi and Massu got it right, even though I was slouching to try and trick you.”
“Ah, so that’s why I thought you were Massu.” Yamapi says, obviously enlightened. “You have the same sort of arms, but I didn’t think you were tall enough to be you so I got it wrong.”
“I definitely couldn’t ever mistake Kei-chan for anyone else, so it’s natural I was right.” Tegoshi says, but still seems proud of himself anyway.
Shige is pleased to find that he’s winning, although he knows he was probably just lucky. Being able to tell Koyama apart from the others so easily makes it feel a bit like he cheated, but he figures that they don’t need to know that.
“I was next.” Yamapi tells them, eliciting a chorus of sighs from everyone but Tegoshi, who cackles again. “Everyone was wrong but Tegoshi and Shige.”
Koyama elbows Shige softly to get his attention, and whispers to him, “How did you manage to figure out that Yamapi was Yamapi when you’d voted that Tegoshi was him before?”
“It was actually because of you.” He admits, grinning to himself when Koyama squeaks in surprise.
“Seriously?” He asks.
“Yeah.” Shige replies. “Because Yamapi and I are the same height, so I thought to check his feet to make sure it wasn’t Tegoshi standing on his toes. And then I realized it had probably been Tegoshi doing it before in the last turn.”
Koyama laughs and pats him on the shoulder.
“No wonder you’re our resident genius.” He says, and Shige feels warm inside.
“So Shige was the last one.” Massu says. He sounds happy, probably because it means that at least he got that answer right.
“Yeah.” Shige replies. “And you, Koyama, Tegoshi and Yamapi all got it right.”
“I knew it was you!” Tegoshi says triumphantly. “Because you felt all stiff and embarrassed when I grabbed you, and no one else does that with me.”
Shige snorts. “Yeah, and I knew that it was you because no one else has such a lacking concept of personal space.”
“So, who won?” Koyama asks, trying to tally up the points in his head. “I got three.”
“Um, I got three as well. Ryo-chan only got one.” Yamapi says, probably because Ryo wouldn’t want to say his abysmal results out loud himself, but anyone else who did would probably get their head bitten off.
“I got three.” Massu says.
“Me too.” Tegoshi chimes in.
“I guess that means I won then.” Shige says, hoping the rest of them can’t hear the smirk in his voice. “I got four.”
It’s not often that he wins things, so he’s a little smug that he managed to beat everyone this time. It also pleases him that he beat Tegoshi after he tricked them all before.
He receives a range of responses, from congratulations, to exclamations of how much he’s overflowing with group love, to muttered comments about how it’s creepy that he’s so tuned into who’s who. Shige feels good about himself until he realizes that they’re still stuck in here. The others seem to realize at about the same time, because he can practically feel the mood in the room drop.
Everyone ends up sitting down again, wondering how long they’ve been in here now, and how much longer they’ll have to wait before they’re rescued.
Shige can’t say it out loud, but he’s actually starting to find he doesn’t mind being stuck in the storage room anymore. It’s because they’re in here in the dark that he’s been able to get that little bit closer to Koyama so many times today; been able to cuddle up against him without worrying if it looks weird.
Right now, they’re back to leaning against each other, and while Shige hasn’t gathered the courage to put his arm around him again yet, he’s still happy with this.
“It’s getting quite hot, isn’t it?” Massu says suddenly. He’s sitting on their right-hand side now, along with everyone else.
“It is a little.” Yamapi replies. Then, “No one will complain if you take your shirt off. I might take mine off too before I start to sweat.”
“It’s because we’ve got six people in such a tiny room.” Shige says, imagining that five pairs of eyes are probably rolling at him for having to explain the science behind what’s happening.
No one replies to him, though. The only thing Tegoshi says is, “Ryo-kun, help me take my shirt off for me?”
He seems to be sitting in his lap again, which makes the request kind of weird, but Shige doesn’t think it’s any more strange than the game they just played to kill time. Besides, with Koyama pressed up against him like this, he can’t really be bothered focusing on anything else.
He’s very gladdened by this fact when Tegoshi laughs and says, “Ryo-kun’s nipples are hard,” signifying that Ryo must have taken his shirt off too. Though why Tegoshi is touching him there is a matter of mystery.
“Are Shige and I the only people with all our clothes still on?” Koyama asks the same question he’d just been thinking. No response follows, so they assume it’s true. Koyama chuckles into Shige’s hair.
“I think we might just have the most interesting job in the world.” He says, and his voice makes Shige smile.
“Yeah.” He replies, moving his hand so it brushes over Koyama’s. Koyama doesn’t pull his away, so Shige leaves it there, fingertips resting on the very edge of his palm.
Koyama makes another noise of amusement.
“So… when are you going to ask me, Shige?” He says. Shige is confused.
“Wait, ask you what?”
Koyama seems like he’s going to reply, but before he can, the door opens.
A junior they don’t recognize is standing there, looking very stunned, staring at the sight made up of half naked Tegoshi sitting in half naked Ryo’s lap, facing towards him with his hands on his chest, next to shirtless Yamapi sprawled out on the ground with a shirtless Massu by his side. The boy’s eyes flick to Koyama and Shige, who are fully clothed, but snuggled up close together in a way that looks a bit more than friendly.
After a few seconds of standing still, he mutters something that sounds a little bit like, “I guess what they say about Johnny’s is true after all…” and turns on his heel to leave.
NEWS watch as he retreats, before Tegoshi cheers.
“We’re free!” He says, leaping up from Ryo’s lap. The rest of them follow after him, while Koyama picks up the costumes they’d chosen before this whole mess happened. Shige watches him curiously in the light flooding the room, and when Koyama notices, he flashes him a quick smile. His cheeks are a little flushed, more so than they should be from the heat.
“Shige, ask me soon, okay?” He says, then disappears out the door.
Shige watches him go, and as his heart gives a particularly powerful throb, he wonders if Koyama might mean what he thinks he does.
As last one to leave, Shige shuts the door to The Costume Cave behind him, and even though it makes him feel a little silly, he quietly says, “Thank you” to it before walking away.
----
And my weekend of finishing up half-written fics is over. So I can stop spamming everyone now. Lucky for you guys ♥
Pairing: Koyama/Shige
Rating: PG-13
Word count: ~7,000
Prompt: #010 - Space
A/N: Written for je_prompts.
Summary: NEWS all get stuck in a dark storage room. Chaos and groping ensues.
The light bulb in the vaguely musty smelling storage room flickers slightly when it’s turned on, and continues to do so over and over again in 10-second intervals. It’s probably on its last legs and will need changing soon, but it’s not like the three of them are going to do anything about it.
Shige is leaning indifferently against the door, while Koyama and Tegoshi paw through a multitude of costumes hanging on line after line of clothing racks. When they’re all collected into one place and hung up together like this, anyone who happens to enter the room can no longer deny the reason why Johnny’s aren’t known for their great fashion sense.
Feathers, sequins, sparkles, clashing rainbow colours… sometimes all on the same costume. It looks like the place where bad taste comes to die.
“Oh wow, Shige. See this?”
Koyama beckons him over, and he goes to look, still not that interested but slightly curious to know what his best friend thinks warrants his attention.
“Do you recognise these? The budget for NEWS was so tight back then.” Koyama says, and Shige cringes. He doesn’t think he could forget if he tried.
“I felt like I was wearing something made out of my grandmother’s bedspread.” He says, gingerly poking at the floral suits they’d been made to wear for Kibou ~Yell~.
Tegoshi laughs and shakes his head.
“I’m so glad our outfits have improved now.” He says, utterly oblivious to the fact that he’s standing right next to a hideous, shiny, pink and white thing with ruffles and bows that they’d been forced into just last week. “But it sure brings back memories.”
“Bad ones.” Shige says dryly, and Tegoshi frowns.
“Don’t be so negative.” He chides him. “I had fun filming that PV.”
Shige snorts. “Right, because when you had fun I must’ve automatically had fun too.”
Koyama is amused by their bickering, but doesn’t say anything. Instead, he keeps looking through the costumes for appropriate ones for them to wear.
They need to do a quick costume change in the middle of a performance, and have to get their timing right, but the outfits for it haven’t been made yet. And so, Koyama and Shige were appointed to go to the storage room - also known as The Costume Cave - to find something appropriate to make do with.
There wasn’t any real reason for Tegoshi to come along too but he did anyway, just because he wanted to. It annoys Shige a little, because he would’ve liked to spend the time with Koyama. Not that he’d thought anything was going to happen between them while they were alone in there, but a guy could dream.
As it is, he’s now a little grumpy and perfectly happy to sit back while Tegoshi rifles through the costumes and does the work for him.
“What about these?” Tegoshi says, pointing to a set of baggy gold and blue sequined clothes that look like they’d been made out of scrap fabric.
“Stylish.” Says Shige in the most sarcastic voice he can muster.
“Well, they are made to wear over the top of other costumes.” Tegoshi explains patiently, even though Shige already knows that. “They hide whatever’s underneath and they’re easy to take off, which is perfect for what we’re doing, isn’t it?”
“Tegoshi’s right.” Koyama agrees. “And it’s not like we’ll be wearing them for the real performance anyway. There’s not any harm in using them for today.”
Shige’s lip curls. He doesn’t like the outfits and he doesn’t like that Koyama’s taking Tegoshi’s side instead of his. “Sequins make me itchy.” He mutters, going back to leaning against the door again. He misses, putting his weight on the wrong part, and accidentally causes it to slam shut behind him.
Tegoshi jumps at the sudden sound.
“Shigeee.” He whines, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “You scared me.”
“Sorry.” Shige says, though he’s not really. He goes to open the door again, only the knob doesn’t turn. “Uh oh.”
“What’s wrong?” Koyama asks, arms full of ugly gold clothes.
“Um… I think we’re locked in.”
“Let me see.” Tegoshi pushes him out of the way, as though it makes a difference as to who’s turning the door handle. He tries twisting it both left and right, but nothing happens. “Oh. Guess we really are.”
Koyama swallows. “Well, don’t worry. The others will wonder where we are and come and get us eventually, I’m sure. Until then, let’s just wait.”
The minutes pass, five turning into ten, and then ten to fifteen, and just as Koyama is starting to panic a little, they hear footsteps and the door opens.
“What are you guys doing?” It’s Massu, and Shige doesn’t think he’s been happier to see anyone in his entire life. He lets out a breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding.
“We got locked in.” Tegoshi explains. “But you saved us. Thanks Massu!”
“Locked in?” Massu asks, stepping inside the storage room with them. “I think there’s a sort of latch thing on the doors to these rooms that you can press to let you out.” And so saying, he shuts the door again before any of them can protest.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Shige asks, incredulously. “Now we’re all locked in again!”
“No, no, no.” Massu laughs. “You press this latch under the hand… oh.”
There is no latch under the handle. Massu’s laugh turns uncomfortable.
“Oops. Guess I was wrong.” He says, sounding awkward. “Sorry about that.”
“Never… never mind.” Koyama hurries to reassure them, although it seems as though he himself is in the most need of reassurance. “I’m sure Yamapi or Ryo-chan will come and save us eventually.”
Massu nods. “They asked me to come and see where you were since you’d been go so long, so when I’m not back in a few minutes, they’ll probably come and get us.”
The flickering light and the smell in the small space are starting to give Shige a headache, so when Ryo and Yamapi take much less time to come looking for them than Massu had, he’s very glad.
“I told you they were alright.” Is the first thing Yamapi says when they open the door to find four pairs of very relieved eyes staring at them.
“I knew they would be.” Ryo responds rather irritably. “I was just saying that it was kind of creepy how we sent Massu off to check, and then he didn’t come back either.”
“You watch too many thriller movies.” Yamapi tells him, and Ryo scowls. As usual, it’s Tegoshi who puts him in a better mood.
“Ryo-kun saved us.” He says, and Ryo’s scowl immediately turns into a sappy smile.
“Saved you from what?” Yamapi asks, because now they’re behind schedule, and he figures they need a good reason for it.
“We, er… got locked in.” Koyama says, a little embarrassed. “And then we couldn’t get out. Massu came to help us, but then he got trapped here too.”
Ryo raises an eyebrow. “So you got locked in twice. Are you idiots?”
“I shut the door behind me when I came in.” Massu tries to explain, but only ends up reinforcing Ryo’s statement.
“You know there’s this latch thing on the inside of the door that unlocks it for you, right?” Yamapi tells them.
“No there isn’t!” Three voices quickly say in unison.
“That’s what I thought too.” Massu adds. “But then when I shut the door, I couldn’t find it.”
“You’re probably just blind. It’s under the door handle” Ryo says, and steps into the room too. He examines the door, thankfully without closing it, but can’t find anything. “Huh.”
Yamapi comes in too, takes a look, then sighs.
“It’s not under the door handle; it’s near the top there.”
They all look up, and simultaneously break out into embarrassed laughter.
“No one ever thinks to look up.” Tegoshi says sagely. “I’ve heard it’s the best way place to hide things if you don’t want anyone to find them.”
“I was imagining something more latch-like.” Shige admits. “I guess that’s why I didn’t see it.”
Yamapi nods. “Yeah. Well, if you ever get stuck in here again, this is what you do.”
He shuts the door, then stands on his tiptoes and pulls the latch while turning the doorknob.
It doesn’t work.
“Hm.” Yamapi says, staying calm. He pulls it a few more times and turns the handle every which way, but nothing happens. “I guess this isn’t what you should do after all. Looks like we’re stuck.”
“You’re not serious.” Ryo says in a monotone voice, and tries out the latch himself. He’s met with the same results. “I can’t believe you just made the same fucking mistake as this bunch of retards.” He seethes.
The other four are a little shocked. Ryo doesn’t usually talk to Yamapi like that, but Yamapi seems rather unfazed by it.
“He’s a bit claustrophobic.” He explains simply, to which Ryo screams back, “No I’m fucking not!”
The light bulb above them continues to flicker like something out of a B-rated horror film, but at least by now Shige has gotten used to the musty smell and doesn’t notice it anymore.
“We should take turns knocking on the door until someone hears us.” He suggests, always the logical one. “Someone is bound to hear us eventually and let us out.”
They all agree that Ryo should take the first turn knocking - he says it’s because he’s the toughest out of them, and so people are more likely to hear him. The rest of them pretend to have the same opinion, but they actually all silently agree that if he uses up some of his nervous energy, he’s more likely to calm down.
They get through about three rotations - Massu’s turns last the longest because he likes it better than just sitting around doing nothing, while Tegoshi’s turns are the shortest because he claims that his knuckles end up hurting after a minute - before they give up.
“No one’s coming…” Koyama says, his tone a mixture of sadness and anxiety.
“I can’t be bothered anymore.” Tegoshi sighs, and goes to find a spot on the floor to sit down in until they’re rescued.
“That light is pissing me off.” Ryo adds testily. “I feel like I’m going to have a seizure.” He hits the switch, flooding the small room with darkness. Chaos erupts.
“I can’t see!”
“Turn it back on! I don’t like the dark. This is scary!”
“Ouch! Don’t step on me!”
“Ryo, turn it back on, for goodness’ sake.”
“Someone just groped my ass!”
“Sorry, that was me. I didn’t mean to.”
“Where the fuck did the light switch go?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it.”
Shige recognizes Yamapi as the last one to speak, voice cutting through the disorder, and he senses it as he cautiously moves around, trying not to step on anyone, searching for the switch.
They hear him flick it. The bulb flashes brightly for a second, and then with a popping sound it goes out again.
“That’s funny.” He hears Yamapi say, followed by a couple more flicks of the switch. Then, “Bad news, guys. The bulb is dead.”
Silence follows this comment. Then everyone resumes panicking.
“I’m going to sit in the corner so no one can step on me again! No one move until I’m done.”
“Everyone calm down! It’s going to be alright!”
“You’re the one freaking out, Koyama. Just shut up for once, okay?”
Someone suddenly crashes into Shige, and they both fall to the ground, Shige pinned underneath whoever it is.
“Ouch! Who the fuck did I just trip over?” He recognizes the speaker as Ryo, and then realizes that he’s the one lying on top of him. It makes the situation about ten times more awkward.
“I warned you not to move until I was done.” Comes Tegoshi’s mournful voice.
Shige tries to scramble out from underneath Ryo, when someone steps on his face. He yells in pain.
“I’m sorry!” Massu apologizes profusely, “I didn’t realize there was anyone there.”
“Everybody!” Yamapi raises his voice above the shrieking and yelling. They fall silent accordingly. Yamapi doesn’t usually shout, but when he does, it gets everyone’s attention.
“Everybody.” He repeats. “I think we should sit down to avoid any further accidents.”
Ryo accidentally elbows Shige in the stomach as he climbs off of him, leading Shige to think that Yamapi has a very good point.
“I want to be next to Ryo-kun!” Tegoshi says immediately, and then there’s shuffling sounds all over again as everyone tries to find a place to sit. Someone’s hair brushes against Shige’s cheek, and he feels a bit weird and fluttery inside when he’s able to identify it as Koyama by the smell of his shampoo.
“Hey.” Shige says softly, “You okay now?”
He can’t be sure, but it sounds like Koyama is probably smiling when he replies.
“Yeah. It’s actually kind of less scary in the dark, now that we’re all sitting down.” He replies. “I think it’s because I feel like I’m dreaming.”
Shige rolls his eyes, thinking it’s probably a good thing that Koyama can’t see him and get offended by it. However, it’s like karma decides to pay him back anyway, and pain explodes in his crotch as someone lands on him.
“Ouch, what the fucking fuck!”
It’s not common for Shige to swear so violently. But then again, it’s also not common for approximately 55 kilograms to suddenly ram him in the place where it hurts most.
“Oh, Shige?” Tegoshi’s voice comes from on top of him, and he sounds like he’s completely oblivious to how much he just hurt him. “I’m sorry. I was trying to find Ryo-kun.”
“To do what? Neuter him?!” Shige spits back, attempting to cup himself between the legs to try and relieve some of the pain, but only succeeding in groping Tegoshi’s ass. He doesn’t seem to notice, which Shige is grateful for.
“I’m over here.” Ryo’s voice comes from their right-hand side, and Shige feels Tegoshi’s weight disappear. Predictably, there’s no yell of pain from Ryo when he finally finds him, which means he probably managed to sit in his lap a damn sight more successfully than he did in Shige’s.
“This kind of feels like a sleep over.” Massu comments from the left of Shige and Koyama. “Except without the beds or sleeping or midnight snacks.”
“Ah, we’re probably going to miss lunch.” Yamapi realizes, and it’s the most upset he’s sounded by anything that’s happened so far. “What a shame. It looked good today.”
Massu’s stomach rumbles as if in response, and he laughs, embarrassed. “I wish you hadn’t brought that up.”
Shige is still far too sore to even think about food, and keeps swearing under his breath every so often as the pain flares up.
“Are you okay?” Koyama whispers, as though he doesn’t want the others to hear their private conversation. They probably aren’t listening anyway; Yamapi and Ryo are talking to each other, and Massu is more than likely off in his own little world.
“It just hurts where Tegoshi landed on me.” Shige replies. “But I’ll be fine soon.”
“Do you want me to rub it for you?” Koyama asks, and Shige chokes at the implications. It’s true that when he’s gotten hit on the arms or the head before that Koyama has rubbed the injuries until they started to feel better, but considering the location of his current injury, it takes on a whole different meaning.
“No, that’s okay.” Shige tells him quickly. “He, uh… got me in a kind of private place.”
Koyama is silent for a second, and then says, “Oh,” in a rather knowing voice. Shige can almost see the look of realization dawning on his face.
“I could still rub it better for you if you really wanted.” Koyama says, and while his voice is teasing, Shige is extremely glad that it’s dark, so he can’t see how hard he’s blushing.
“Don’t be gross.” Shige replies, a bit more forcefully than he means to. Koyama chuckles softly and leans against him.
“How long do you think we’ll be in here?” He asks. His head is pressed gently to Shige’s, and their shoulders are firmly wedged together.
“Who knows?” Shige replies. He’s trying to be calm and rational, but he’s finding it difficult with the object of his affections so close to him. It’s strange, because he doesn’t usually react this strongly to Koyama when they’re in public; he figures must be because of the pitch black around them. He’s always found that his inhibitions are lowered late at night, and it’s so completely dark in here, save for a little crack of light under the door, that it’s almost like it’s night time.
Koyama sighs and Shige feels his warm breath just under his ear. It makes the back of his neck is prickle and his hairs stand on end. That could be what makes him feel a little bolder; bold enough to let his arm slide down behind Koyama, around his waist. He’s not too worried about the reaction he’ll get, because he can just claim it’s the most comfortable place for him to put it - much more comfortable than having it squashed between them - but he still feels a little tense, waiting for the response.
But Koyama actually just seems to wriggle a bit closer, leans a little more firmly against Shige. It almost makes him forget about the damage that had been done to him before. Almost.
“I’m kind of bored.” Tegoshi complains, to which he gets a sympathetic sounding noise from Ryo. “Can anyone think of some fun games to pass the time?”
“There’s not much to do in the dark.” Yamapi replies. “Does anyone know of any good talking games? Shiritori? Word association?”
“We do those enough on variety shows.” Ryo says. “Do we really want to spend our free time playing them as well?”
Shige has to agree with Ryo for once. He’s not really in the mood for that, and besides; he’s pretty happy sitting in silence, with Koyama’s nose buried in his hair and his arm around Koyama’s waist like they’re on some sort of date to the movies. But alas, it’s not to stay that way.
“I’ve thought of something good to play!” Tegoshi says, and he sounds very excited. “It’s the perfect game for a dark room, because it’s the kind that’s only good for playing when you can’t see.”
Shige thinks that this sounds very suspicious. He doesn’t like the way that Tegoshi is getting so excited about it either; thinks it spells trouble.
Koyama, however, seems interested.
“Tegoshi is pretty clever.” He says seriously. “Playing a game right now that you can only play in the dark is kind of like eating vegetables when they’re in season.”
There’s a little bit of logic behind what he just said, but statement is so idiotic and ridiculous that everyone does themselves a favour and ignores it.
“What game are you thinking of?” Massu asks, either not worried about the same things as Shige is, or too bored to care.
“I made it up.” Tegoshi says, proudly. “Just now. It’s a touching game.”
Shige coughs. Yamapi clears his throat, but Tegoshi doesn’t get the hint and goes on to explain the rules.
“Okay, so what happens is that we all stand up, and then we’ll get Yamapi to tap one of us on the shoulder. That person goes to stand over by the door, and then we all take turns feeling them. When five people have touched them, then the person will clap to let us know everyone’s done. And then we’ll guess who it was. It’ll be fun!” Even without being able to see his face, they all know that Tegoshi is beaming. Shige, however, can see a few gaping flaws in his plan.
“When it gets down to the last person, we’ll already know who it is.” He says, but Tegoshi just sighs, as though Shige is dumb and doesn’t get the simplest things.
“We won’t say who was who until the very end of the game. The person getting touched will just remember who got it right. That way it’s equal all the time.”
“But what if I pick the same person twice?” Yamapi asks. “Since I won’t be able to see who it is.”
For some reason, Tegoshi doesn’t do the ‘you’re so stupid’ sigh when he responds to this question. The fact that it doesn’t surprise Shige - that he doesn’t really mind - frightens him.
“If they’ve already been chosen, they can tap you back on the shoulder, and then you can go and choose someone else.” He responds brightly. “And when you want to have your go by the door, you can just pretend you tapped someone and go and stand by it yourself. Then we’ll never know.”
It’s kind of scary how he’s gotten the whole thing figured out so quickly. Not for the first time, Shige wonders if Tegoshi might actually be a little smarter than he is. The idea makes him feel a bit grouchy.
“Won’t it give away who it was when there’s one person who doesn’t answer with who they think it was, though?” Koyama asks, bringing up a point none of them had actually thought of. It makes Shige smile. Koyama does have his smart moments.
“That’s true.” Tegoshi admits. He’s silent for a second. “Oh, I know! After the person claps, we can all shuffle around a bit so no one guesses who was who from where their voice is coming from. And then Yamapi can call out our names and we have to give our answer. And if you were the person who was getting touched, you can just make up an answer so no one figures it out.”
The rules seem pretty foolproof, but Shige still thinks it sounds like a pretty dumb game. Dumb and possibly physically dangerous. But then again, since Tegoshi won’t be crawling around on the ground and tripping people up this time, it’ll probably be a lot less dangerous than he’s anticipating.
It’s at that moment that Shige realizes he’s been in Johnny’s for far too long, because the thought of playing a game that involves groping his fellow bandmates in the dark to figure out who they are doesn’t seem weird to him at all.
“I like it.” Koyama says, almost as enthusiastic as the actual creator of the game. “It’ll be interesting to see if we can recognize each other by touch, don’t you think?”
He’s probably hoping it’ll bring them closer. No one says it, but they can see Koyama getting a little teary-eyed if everyone can recognize each other from touch alone.
“Well, okay.” Yamapi says, and if he’s agreeing, Shige thinks that any hope he had of not having to go along with this stupid idea is out the window. “As long as everyone is very careful so no one gets injured, I think we should try it.”
Koyama stands up, and Shige feels him bend over and touch his arm, as though he’s offering him a hand up, so Shige takes it. He hears the others getting up as well.
“When you’ve been chosen, knock on the door twice to let us know you’re ready. And then the rest of us will try to line up so we can start.” Tegoshi says, and then he falls silent, expecting Yamapi to do the honours.
There’s a bit of shuffling, a pause, and then a bit more shuffling, followed by the two knocks.
Feeling a bit ridiculous, Shige reaches out to feel the people around him, trying to figure out where the line of members starts and ends, and eventually finds a place. Someone else ends up behind him and then they start playing.
When Shige gets to the person by the door, he immediately knows it’s not Koyama from the way they smell, so he strikes that off his list. His next thought is to check their height. Shige puts his hand on top of their head, and finds that they’re shorter than him, which narrows it down to Ryo, Tegoshi or Massu. After patting their hair for a while, he manages to conclude that it’s not Tegoshi, because their hair isn’t frizzy.
It’s then that he feels the murderous aura coming from them.
He quickly stops and moves away. It’s definitely Ryo. There’s no way Massu could get angry to the point that Shige could feel it coming off him in waves without seeing him.
He goes and stands off to the side, waiting for the last poor soul to figure out who the mystery member is. Then the clap comes, and they all shuffle around to make sure nothing is given away.
“Okay.” Yamapi says. “Time to guess. Who do you think it was, Koyama?”
“Ryo-chan.” Is the reply.
“Ryo-chan, what about you?”
“Massu.” Says Ryo, without missing a beat. If Shige wasn’t already so convinced it couldn’t have been anyone other than him, he’d think he wasn’t making his answer up.
“Shige?”
“I thought it was Nishikido-kun.” Shige replies.
“Massu?”
“I agree with Shige.”
“Tegoshi?”
“It’s hard to choose between Ryo-kun and Massu, but I think Massu.” Tegoshi replies. Shige isn’t surprised. The chances that Tegoshi would’ve been able to pick up on the homicidal atmosphere surrounding the mystery person were pretty slim.
“Okay.” Yamapi says. “And I think it was Ryo-chan too. Do I choose the next person now, Tegoshi?”
Tegoshi gives a sound of approval, and they start the process again.
When it gets to his turn, Shige immediately knows that it’s Massu because they don’t have Tegoshi or Yamapi’s frizzy hair, and he just knows it isn’t Koyama. He gives his arms a squeeze just to make sure he wasn’t wrong last time and that it’s definitely not Ryo. He feels the person shaking with silent laughter and concludes that it has to be Massu, because Ryo would never find someone else squeezing his arms like this that funny. The arms in question are also much too muscular for it to be Ryo anyway. Satisfied, Shige moves away and waits for the clap.
This time Massu and Yamapi vote Shige, Tegoshi votes Ryo, Shige and Koyama vote Massu and Ryo also votes for Massu again.
The next person, Shige decides, has to be Yamapi. They aren’t short enough to be Tegoshi, but they have a perm, so there’s no way it could be anyone else.
It seems that everyone else agrees, because the decision is unanimously that it was Yamapi, except for Yamapi who votes for Tegoshi. Tegoshi starts to giggle. It sounds kind of evil.
They line up again, and when Shige gets to the person by the door he instantly knows that it’s Koyama; he can tell from the smell of his cologne and shampoo before he even touches him. When he does - even if he doesn’t need to, Shige isn’t going to refuse to do it - he has to fight not to laugh. Koyama is obviously crouching down a little bit to take a few centimetres off his height, which Shige can’t blame him for. After all, he’s the tallest in the group, and that kind of clue would immediately give him away.
Still, Shige can’t help but place his hands on his shoulders and lean against him, pressing their chests together in a way he knows is much too intimate to be safe. He puts his lips right up against Koyama’s ear and breathes, rather than whispers into it, “Cheater.”
He feels a shiver go through Koyama, and it makes him feel a little proud of himself, that he could cause that kind of reaction in him. He lingers just a tiny bit, not wanting to leave the position, but knowing that he can’t stay for too long. To his surprise, just as he pulls away, he feels one of Koyama’s hands come up and touch his back, almost in a pseudo embrace. It leaves Shige tingling as he goes to wait for him to clap.
For someone who’s such an air-head, Koyama’s scheme works pretty well. Shige, Massu and Tegoshi all vote Koyama, but Ryo votes Shige and Yamapi votes Massu. Koyama follows Ryo’s example and votes for Shige, which makes Shige smile dumbly for some reason he can’t fathom.
Now there’s only one person left besides Shige to go. He knows that if he’s not picked this time, it’ll have to be Tegoshi, and so when he hears the knock on the door, Shige stands in line feeling pretty sure that he’s won the game.
However when he gets to them and touches their head, he finds they’re the same height as he is. Remembering Koyama’s trick from before, Shige nudges their shoe with his foot to check that it’s not Tegoshi being a brat and standing on his tiptoes to confuse them. It turns out he isn’t; his feet are flat on the ground and Shige’s confused for a second before he realizes what must have happened. Tegoshi had done the same thing as Koyama before Koyama had done it and tricked them all. Shige grits his teeth, pissed off that he’d managed to outsmart them, but also kind of impressed.
When it comes to voting, everyone but Tegoshi and Shige - who say it must be Yamapi - vote that it’s Tegoshi that round. Shige’s guess is met with surprise.
“Didn’t you already vote Yamapi before?” Koyama asks.
Shige shrugs, and then remembers that they can’t see him doing it. “Tegoshi already voted Yamapi too. And Nishikido-kun voted for Massu twice.”
“Yeah, but that’s because for one of those turns it was Tegoshi up there, and voting for yourself kind of gives the game away.” Ryo replied. “And the first person was too tall to be Tegoshi, so it had to be him this time.”
“Right.” Shige replied. “But if you didn’t notice, it was too tall to be him this time too.”
There’s a pause before Tegoshi starts to giggle again.
“Tegoshi, did you trick us?” Massu asks, sounding somewhat impressed.
“I’m not giving anything away until the game is over.” He replies, but his smug, mischievous tone tells them everything they need to know.
“At any rate.” Yamapi says, “There’s only one person left, so let’s finish this. I don’t need to tap them this time, I don’t think.”
Shige takes that as his cue, and goes to stand in front of the door. He knocks on it, and waits for the inevitable groping to begin.
The first person who touches him is rather abrupt and harsh, and Shige thinks that it’s probably Ryo. It’s quite bizarre, he realizes, to have some unknown person patting and running their fingers through your hair like this, and he makes a mental note to apologize to all the others for doing it to them. Then the person grabs his bicep, and Shige tries hard not to squeak. He can’t believe he’s being molested by Ryo in a dark room and has no choice but to let him get away with it.
Then he moves away. The next person is gentler with their touching, and Shige figures it’s either Yamapi or Massu. He has to do his best not to giggle when they run their hands up his sides. He kind of feels like he’s being frisked, but instead of being weird, it’s just sort of funny. His hands move to Shige’s arms, and he thinks he hears him mutter under his breath.
There’s no doubt in Shige’s mind that the next person is Tegoshi. It couldn’t be anyone else, because he’s extremely clingy and one of his ways of differentiating them from one another is apparently by giving them hugs.
He pats Shige all over, prodding and squeezing, and for one terrifying moment when Tegoshi squishes up against him, Shige is convinced that he’s started sniffing him like a cat.
It’s sort of relieving when he stops and the next person replaces him. It’s Koyama again, and Shige’s pretty sure that Koyama knows who he is too, but he still puts his hands on Shige’s waist, touching him a little just so Shige knows he’s taken his turn. Then he leans in close and, much like Shige did to him, murmurs into his ear quietly enough so that the other members won’t hear, “I know who you are…”
His tone is melodious and playful, and Shige can’t stop himself from holding Koyama where he is and whispering back in a sing-song voice, “Do you really now?”
He just manages to hear Koyama’s suppressed laughter and the movement of his head against Shige’s lets him know he’s nodding.
Just like before, Shige doesn’t want to let him go, but knows he has to. If he holds him too long, Koyama will get suspicious, and Shige doesn’t want to put any strain on their relationship. Unrequited love is difficult.
The last person to touch him is also gentle, but a little shyer than the second had been. It makes Shige think that it’s probably Massu rather than Yamapi, because he’s very polite about how and where he touches him. Shige is quite appreciative of this, and so he even lets it slide when probably-Massu accidentally manages to roughly brush his nipple through his shirt and makes him gasp in an embarrassing way. A few moments later and it’s finally over. Yamapi has them vote for the last time.
“Koyama?” He asks, to which he naturally gets the reply, “Shige”.
“Tegoshi?”
“Shige.”
Shige’s surprised that he actually got it right, but then again, he was the only person Tegoshi hadn’t voted for yet. It was probably just sheer luck.
“Ryo-chan?”
“Koyama.”
“Okay. Massu?”
“I think Shige.”
“Shige?”
“Massu.” Shige says the first name that comes into his head. There’s no need to think of tactics at the end of the game, after all.
“Okay.” Yamapi says. “And I know I’ve already said his name, but I think it was Shige too. He wasn’t buff enough to be Koyama.”
Shige splutters, but there’s nothing he can do about it; partly because it was Yamapi who said it, and partly because he knows that it’s actually true.
“So, it’s time to reveal ourselves now!” Tegoshi seems just as excited now as when they’d started. Shige has to admit that he’s a little more interested now too, if only because he wants to know how well he did.
“It was me first.” Ryo volunteers. “And everyone but Tegoshi got it right.”
Tegoshi pouts audibly, but whoever is closest to him probably gives him a pat on the shoulder which distracts him and cheers him up.
“I was second.” Massu says. “And Shige, Koyama and Nishikido-kun all got it right.”
“I was third!” Tegoshi says chirpily over the sound of Ryo being smug. “And no one got it right at all.”
“Except for me.” Yamapi reminds him gently.
“Yeah.” Tegoshi says, and he’s clearly extremely pleased with himself for fooling everyone else. “I stood on my tiptoes to confuse you, and it worked!”
Massu laughs, probably shaking his head. “Tegoshi’s brain works in an interesting way.”
“I was fourth.” Koyama tells them. “Shige, Tegoshi and Massu got it right, even though I was slouching to try and trick you.”
“Ah, so that’s why I thought you were Massu.” Yamapi says, obviously enlightened. “You have the same sort of arms, but I didn’t think you were tall enough to be you so I got it wrong.”
“I definitely couldn’t ever mistake Kei-chan for anyone else, so it’s natural I was right.” Tegoshi says, but still seems proud of himself anyway.
Shige is pleased to find that he’s winning, although he knows he was probably just lucky. Being able to tell Koyama apart from the others so easily makes it feel a bit like he cheated, but he figures that they don’t need to know that.
“I was next.” Yamapi tells them, eliciting a chorus of sighs from everyone but Tegoshi, who cackles again. “Everyone was wrong but Tegoshi and Shige.”
Koyama elbows Shige softly to get his attention, and whispers to him, “How did you manage to figure out that Yamapi was Yamapi when you’d voted that Tegoshi was him before?”
“It was actually because of you.” He admits, grinning to himself when Koyama squeaks in surprise.
“Seriously?” He asks.
“Yeah.” Shige replies. “Because Yamapi and I are the same height, so I thought to check his feet to make sure it wasn’t Tegoshi standing on his toes. And then I realized it had probably been Tegoshi doing it before in the last turn.”
Koyama laughs and pats him on the shoulder.
“No wonder you’re our resident genius.” He says, and Shige feels warm inside.
“So Shige was the last one.” Massu says. He sounds happy, probably because it means that at least he got that answer right.
“Yeah.” Shige replies. “And you, Koyama, Tegoshi and Yamapi all got it right.”
“I knew it was you!” Tegoshi says triumphantly. “Because you felt all stiff and embarrassed when I grabbed you, and no one else does that with me.”
Shige snorts. “Yeah, and I knew that it was you because no one else has such a lacking concept of personal space.”
“So, who won?” Koyama asks, trying to tally up the points in his head. “I got three.”
“Um, I got three as well. Ryo-chan only got one.” Yamapi says, probably because Ryo wouldn’t want to say his abysmal results out loud himself, but anyone else who did would probably get their head bitten off.
“I got three.” Massu says.
“Me too.” Tegoshi chimes in.
“I guess that means I won then.” Shige says, hoping the rest of them can’t hear the smirk in his voice. “I got four.”
It’s not often that he wins things, so he’s a little smug that he managed to beat everyone this time. It also pleases him that he beat Tegoshi after he tricked them all before.
He receives a range of responses, from congratulations, to exclamations of how much he’s overflowing with group love, to muttered comments about how it’s creepy that he’s so tuned into who’s who. Shige feels good about himself until he realizes that they’re still stuck in here. The others seem to realize at about the same time, because he can practically feel the mood in the room drop.
Everyone ends up sitting down again, wondering how long they’ve been in here now, and how much longer they’ll have to wait before they’re rescued.
Shige can’t say it out loud, but he’s actually starting to find he doesn’t mind being stuck in the storage room anymore. It’s because they’re in here in the dark that he’s been able to get that little bit closer to Koyama so many times today; been able to cuddle up against him without worrying if it looks weird.
Right now, they’re back to leaning against each other, and while Shige hasn’t gathered the courage to put his arm around him again yet, he’s still happy with this.
“It’s getting quite hot, isn’t it?” Massu says suddenly. He’s sitting on their right-hand side now, along with everyone else.
“It is a little.” Yamapi replies. Then, “No one will complain if you take your shirt off. I might take mine off too before I start to sweat.”
“It’s because we’ve got six people in such a tiny room.” Shige says, imagining that five pairs of eyes are probably rolling at him for having to explain the science behind what’s happening.
No one replies to him, though. The only thing Tegoshi says is, “Ryo-kun, help me take my shirt off for me?”
He seems to be sitting in his lap again, which makes the request kind of weird, but Shige doesn’t think it’s any more strange than the game they just played to kill time. Besides, with Koyama pressed up against him like this, he can’t really be bothered focusing on anything else.
He’s very gladdened by this fact when Tegoshi laughs and says, “Ryo-kun’s nipples are hard,” signifying that Ryo must have taken his shirt off too. Though why Tegoshi is touching him there is a matter of mystery.
“Are Shige and I the only people with all our clothes still on?” Koyama asks the same question he’d just been thinking. No response follows, so they assume it’s true. Koyama chuckles into Shige’s hair.
“I think we might just have the most interesting job in the world.” He says, and his voice makes Shige smile.
“Yeah.” He replies, moving his hand so it brushes over Koyama’s. Koyama doesn’t pull his away, so Shige leaves it there, fingertips resting on the very edge of his palm.
Koyama makes another noise of amusement.
“So… when are you going to ask me, Shige?” He says. Shige is confused.
“Wait, ask you what?”
Koyama seems like he’s going to reply, but before he can, the door opens.
A junior they don’t recognize is standing there, looking very stunned, staring at the sight made up of half naked Tegoshi sitting in half naked Ryo’s lap, facing towards him with his hands on his chest, next to shirtless Yamapi sprawled out on the ground with a shirtless Massu by his side. The boy’s eyes flick to Koyama and Shige, who are fully clothed, but snuggled up close together in a way that looks a bit more than friendly.
After a few seconds of standing still, he mutters something that sounds a little bit like, “I guess what they say about Johnny’s is true after all…” and turns on his heel to leave.
NEWS watch as he retreats, before Tegoshi cheers.
“We’re free!” He says, leaping up from Ryo’s lap. The rest of them follow after him, while Koyama picks up the costumes they’d chosen before this whole mess happened. Shige watches him curiously in the light flooding the room, and when Koyama notices, he flashes him a quick smile. His cheeks are a little flushed, more so than they should be from the heat.
“Shige, ask me soon, okay?” He says, then disappears out the door.
Shige watches him go, and as his heart gives a particularly powerful throb, he wonders if Koyama might mean what he thinks he does.
As last one to leave, Shige shuts the door to The Costume Cave behind him, and even though it makes him feel a little silly, he quietly says, “Thank you” to it before walking away.
----
And my weekend of finishing up half-written fics is over. So I can stop spamming everyone now. Lucky for you guys ♥