[FIC] You - Ch. 6
With her, it seemed like everything was a first time for him.
It wasn't the first time Akanishi went with a woman back to her place, but it was definitely the first time that the act was not followed by sex. It wasn't that he picked her up per se; he did coincidentally run into her at the supermarket, which he had stopped by to grab some food after his photoshoot earlier. He wasn't stupid; he could tell that she was trying to avoid him like a plague; but somehow, he just couldn't stay away. Perhaps it was him being a manchild; the farther away something was, the more he stretched his arm for it, like a stubborn kid trying to get that last cookie laying at the deep bottom of the jar and not caring to have his hand stuck in it. Something about her roused in him an incomprehensible curiosity--maybe it was that unexplained, undisguised sorrow in her eyes that he had found--that nudged him to dig deeper and look for more, or rather, for a reason for what were buried beneath those eyes.
----
"Wow~ this place is so nice and homey ne~" Akanishi carelessly dropped the groceries on the floor, inviting a glare from Sophie as she closed the door behind her. He strolled around the apartment as if checking out a place he was about to purchase, poking his head into each room and childishly turning on and off every switch he could find.
"Could you stop that? You're a guest, remember?" Sophie said with her arms crossed, scowling.
"Hai~" Akanishi replied half-heartedly. "Nani kole??" He exclaimed upon turning on the light in one of the rooms and discovering a crib in the middle of it.
"YOU HAVE A BABY???" He whipped around and poked his face in Sophie's.
She winced to the scream emitting an inch away from her face, wondering if he was being serious or just plain stupid, and decided to repress her instinctual honesty.
"Yeah."
He blinked, not believing what he just heard.
"MAJIDE??"
"..." Sophie sighed and thought to herself, I'm not gonna even bother, as she took out the snacks and set them on the table in front of the plasma TV. When she straightened up she almost let out a yelp as she saw his sudden appearance right beside her.
"What the... you scared the shit out of me," she patted her chest and hissed at him.
"You don't look like you have a baby..." he said, looking her up and down.
Suppressing a rising exasperation, she finally caved.
"Fine, I don't have a baby. Yuki's sister does. This is their place, her and her husband and their baby."
"Ah~ sou ga... yokatta... I would be so sad if you really did have a baby..." he muttered to himself in Japanese.
"Huh?"
"Oh, nothing. Where are they then?"
"They went on a vacation and left the baby with Yuki's parents."
"Sou ga... so they won't be back for a while ne... " again, he mumbled in Japanese, drawing a suspicious glance from her.
"... Why? What?" This guy better not get any ideas like what I'm thinking of...
He just shrugged, taking out his cell phone and began typing on it furiously. Sophie was momentarily curious but soon gave up the idea of inquiring what he was up to, thinking it best to keep the distance between them while it was still there. She then proceeded to dig out the stash of DVDs placed in the cabinet under the TV and picked through them.
"Oooo Dark Knight! I wanna see that!" Akanishi suddenly poked his head next to hers, giving her a start.
"Jesus Christ! Could you stop popping up next to me like that?" She turned to him shooting a death glare.
"Gomen ne~ I--" A ring at the doorbell cut him off.
"Eh?" Who could it be? I don't know anyone that-- Sophie pondered as she got up to open the door, which revealed three tall men, whose handsome features couldn't be hidden behind sunglasses and caps.
"What..." Sophie stared at them blankly.
The first man looked around as he took off his shades, and out of nowhere, greeted Akanishi as spotted and walked in, passing right by Sophie and followed by the two other men, leaving her still standing at the door, fixed in place and utterly confused as to what was happening.
"Cho-chotto matte kudasai!" She snapped out of it and pulled Akanishi to the side, interrupting him in his special handshake with one of his friends.
"Can you explain what the hell is going on? Who are these people??" She said through gritted teeth.
"Oh let me introduce you. That's Yamashita Tomohisa, etto, Yamapi; Kamenashi Kazuya, and Nishikido Ryo," he said, pointing to the three men respectively, who greeted politely in English and slightly bowed to her accordingly.
"HUH??" She couldn't help but burst out as she finally recalled these familiar faces, drawing stares from the four men. I can't believe I have four of the most popular male idols in Japan in my apartment...
"S-sumimasen. Uh... doumo, hajimemashite," she quickly gathered herself but with a blush and bowed to the three men, who watched her with amusement.
"We met before," Yamapi said to her in accented English with a smile and gesturing to the man next to him that was strikingly beautiful, "Kamenashi-kun, too."
"Ah... sou desu ne..." Sophie quietly agreed, blushing even more as fragmented memories of that night rushed back to her like a flood; Yamapi and Kame were the two men accompanying the drunk Akanishi. Man... I never thought I'd see them ever again...
After a moment of chaos and confusion, mostly on Sophie's part, she found herself in the kitchen making popcorn while the guys bickering loudly, being guys, over which movie to watch--Kame voted for the well-acclaimed Japanese movie about youth (too serious), Ryo wanted to check out the semi-recent Korean horror movie (we don't want to hear Bakanishi scream like a girl), Yamapi preferred the Chinese martial-arts film (we've all seen that, where have you been?), and Akanishi insisted on the American romantic comedy starring Will Smith (make sure there are subtitles).
Watching from the side, Sophie felt like a mother babysitting a bunch of kids on a playdate. How did it end up like this? It's like they completely took over this place... Lips pursed and brows knitted, she thought bitterly upon the sight of the instantly cluttered living room which she had just cleaned up a few hours prior to the intrusion.
"Oi, do you like Will Smith?" A voice rang in her ears, pulling her out of her thoughts. It was Akanishi.
"Huh? Yeah, I guess..."
"Yoshi! It's been decided," he waved the DVD in the air triumphantly, the others muttering "fine" and climbing onto the sofa and couches, each claiming a comfortable spot as Akanishi worked the DVD player.
Sophie didn't really care which movie they watched, as long as she could get some peace and quiet for a couple hours from these guys. But she winced internally in regret as the movie started up--Hitch, an all-too-familiar romantic comedy--not because she had already seen it, but that she was never fond of romance movies, humorous or not, particularly this one. She sighed lightly as she pulled up her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees, oblivious to the questioning glance cast by Akanishi from beside her.
----
"What should we toast to?"
"Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away."
Hitch's simple yet profound toasting speech gathered ahh's of this-is-so-cheesy-but-so-good from each occupied corner in the dark living room, excep one, from which a figure abruptly stood up and headed to the door.
"I'll be right back," Sophie said over her shoulder and shut the door before anyone realized what just happened.
"Eh?" They were confused, but shrugged it off and returned their gaze to the screen; it was an important scene, after all. But one person had a hard time tearing his stare away from closed door, his thoughts entangled in a web of questions.
"Ano... I'll go check up on her," and he left before anyone could object, not that they cared all that much.
It was dusk already, Sophie noticed as she stepped out of the apartment, though it didn't seem like that much time had gone by. She inhaled deeply a breath of cold air, shivering, wishing she had remembered to grab a sweater before she practically ran out the door on an impulse. That was unusual for her, acting without thinking. But when it came to things that dug up memories she thought she had buried deep enough, her emotions were always one step ahead of her reasoning. Bracing herself in the cold, she shut her eyes tight in a futile attempt to swat away the thoughts buzzing like unwanted flies. Hopelessly, she felt tears start to pool around behind her closed eyelids; she snapped them open as she felt something being placed over her shoulder. Something big and warm. She wheeled around and met Akanishi's concerned gaze.
"Wh-what are you doing out here?" She frowned, quickly blinking away the emerging tears, and reached to take off the jacket he had put on her. He promptly stopped her, holding it down on her shoulder as he inched close to her face, his eyes settling on her in an unblinking way.
"You're crying."
She wanted to blink so badly to suppress the uprising surge of tears, but it was as if her lids were frozen in place, just like the air surrounding them. She wanted to push away and run off to someplace where no one would find her as she could let it all out and then rebuild her facade, but she couldn't get herself to move, not even a centimeter. Why, she heard a small voice ask from within, and the held-back tears finally found their way down her cheek.
"Don't." She abruptly turned away, as if awoken by the warmth of her tears, and hurriedly wipe them away.
"Don't what?"
She opened her mouth to answer but suddenly realized that she didn't even know herself.
"You should go back in," she said, exhaling heavily with her back still turned to him.
He waited, as if calculating for the exact second to speak.
"What's wrong with the movie?"
His voice sounded faraway, coming from behind her as she watched the setting sun in the distance. She surprised herself when she heard words escaping her lips.
"It's all bullshit. When you lie in the arms of the one you love, they lie to you. When you steal away from bad company, the one that you thought was good steals even more from you. When you cheat death, well, we'll see about that. And when you drink," she scoffed with contempt, "it's just so that you'll be able to forget it all and pretend that it never happened."
He wasn't completely sure that he had understood all of it, linguistically, but he understood enough to hear the sound of tears in her voice that wasn't shaking but firm as though she was just reading it off of a piece of paper. And he heard much more behind those words; the unmistakable ache that, though rusted with the passage of time, still remained stubbornly, having planted seeds of cynicism in the depth of her heart. And so he knew the reason to what was beneath those troubled eyes that could no longer conceal the naked truth of her past.
As if on an instinct, he swiveled her around and held her, tight, such that her cheek could feel the warmth emanating from his broad chest that contained a heart that now was throbbing for the one beside it. Neither of them made a sound as her silent tears stained his shirt, the dimming glow from the horizon setting upon them, creating a shade elongated by two eclipsed shadows.
--to be continued--
It wasn't the first time Akanishi went with a woman back to her place, but it was definitely the first time that the act was not followed by sex. It wasn't that he picked her up per se; he did coincidentally run into her at the supermarket, which he had stopped by to grab some food after his photoshoot earlier. He wasn't stupid; he could tell that she was trying to avoid him like a plague; but somehow, he just couldn't stay away. Perhaps it was him being a manchild; the farther away something was, the more he stretched his arm for it, like a stubborn kid trying to get that last cookie laying at the deep bottom of the jar and not caring to have his hand stuck in it. Something about her roused in him an incomprehensible curiosity--maybe it was that unexplained, undisguised sorrow in her eyes that he had found--that nudged him to dig deeper and look for more, or rather, for a reason for what were buried beneath those eyes.
----
"Wow~ this place is so nice and homey ne~" Akanishi carelessly dropped the groceries on the floor, inviting a glare from Sophie as she closed the door behind her. He strolled around the apartment as if checking out a place he was about to purchase, poking his head into each room and childishly turning on and off every switch he could find.
"Could you stop that? You're a guest, remember?" Sophie said with her arms crossed, scowling.
"Hai~" Akanishi replied half-heartedly. "Nani kole??" He exclaimed upon turning on the light in one of the rooms and discovering a crib in the middle of it.
"YOU HAVE A BABY???" He whipped around and poked his face in Sophie's.
She winced to the scream emitting an inch away from her face, wondering if he was being serious or just plain stupid, and decided to repress her instinctual honesty.
"Yeah."
He blinked, not believing what he just heard.
"MAJIDE??"
"..." Sophie sighed and thought to herself, I'm not gonna even bother, as she took out the snacks and set them on the table in front of the plasma TV. When she straightened up she almost let out a yelp as she saw his sudden appearance right beside her.
"What the... you scared the shit out of me," she patted her chest and hissed at him.
"You don't look like you have a baby..." he said, looking her up and down.
Suppressing a rising exasperation, she finally caved.
"Fine, I don't have a baby. Yuki's sister does. This is their place, her and her husband and their baby."
"Ah~ sou ga... yokatta... I would be so sad if you really did have a baby..." he muttered to himself in Japanese.
"Huh?"
"Oh, nothing. Where are they then?"
"They went on a vacation and left the baby with Yuki's parents."
"Sou ga... so they won't be back for a while ne... " again, he mumbled in Japanese, drawing a suspicious glance from her.
"... Why? What?" This guy better not get any ideas like what I'm thinking of...
He just shrugged, taking out his cell phone and began typing on it furiously. Sophie was momentarily curious but soon gave up the idea of inquiring what he was up to, thinking it best to keep the distance between them while it was still there. She then proceeded to dig out the stash of DVDs placed in the cabinet under the TV and picked through them.
"Oooo Dark Knight! I wanna see that!" Akanishi suddenly poked his head next to hers, giving her a start.
"Jesus Christ! Could you stop popping up next to me like that?" She turned to him shooting a death glare.
"Gomen ne~ I--" A ring at the doorbell cut him off.
"Eh?" Who could it be? I don't know anyone that-- Sophie pondered as she got up to open the door, which revealed three tall men, whose handsome features couldn't be hidden behind sunglasses and caps.
"What..." Sophie stared at them blankly.
The first man looked around as he took off his shades, and out of nowhere, greeted Akanishi as spotted and walked in, passing right by Sophie and followed by the two other men, leaving her still standing at the door, fixed in place and utterly confused as to what was happening.
"Cho-chotto matte kudasai!" She snapped out of it and pulled Akanishi to the side, interrupting him in his special handshake with one of his friends.
"Can you explain what the hell is going on? Who are these people??" She said through gritted teeth.
"Oh let me introduce you. That's Yamashita Tomohisa, etto, Yamapi; Kamenashi Kazuya, and Nishikido Ryo," he said, pointing to the three men respectively, who greeted politely in English and slightly bowed to her accordingly.
"HUH??" She couldn't help but burst out as she finally recalled these familiar faces, drawing stares from the four men. I can't believe I have four of the most popular male idols in Japan in my apartment...
"S-sumimasen. Uh... doumo, hajimemashite," she quickly gathered herself but with a blush and bowed to the three men, who watched her with amusement.
"We met before," Yamapi said to her in accented English with a smile and gesturing to the man next to him that was strikingly beautiful, "Kamenashi-kun, too."
"Ah... sou desu ne..." Sophie quietly agreed, blushing even more as fragmented memories of that night rushed back to her like a flood; Yamapi and Kame were the two men accompanying the drunk Akanishi. Man... I never thought I'd see them ever again...
After a moment of chaos and confusion, mostly on Sophie's part, she found herself in the kitchen making popcorn while the guys bickering loudly, being guys, over which movie to watch--Kame voted for the well-acclaimed Japanese movie about youth (too serious), Ryo wanted to check out the semi-recent Korean horror movie (we don't want to hear Bakanishi scream like a girl), Yamapi preferred the Chinese martial-arts film (we've all seen that, where have you been?), and Akanishi insisted on the American romantic comedy starring Will Smith (make sure there are subtitles).
Watching from the side, Sophie felt like a mother babysitting a bunch of kids on a playdate. How did it end up like this? It's like they completely took over this place... Lips pursed and brows knitted, she thought bitterly upon the sight of the instantly cluttered living room which she had just cleaned up a few hours prior to the intrusion.
"Oi, do you like Will Smith?" A voice rang in her ears, pulling her out of her thoughts. It was Akanishi.
"Huh? Yeah, I guess..."
"Yoshi! It's been decided," he waved the DVD in the air triumphantly, the others muttering "fine" and climbing onto the sofa and couches, each claiming a comfortable spot as Akanishi worked the DVD player.
Sophie didn't really care which movie they watched, as long as she could get some peace and quiet for a couple hours from these guys. But she winced internally in regret as the movie started up--Hitch, an all-too-familiar romantic comedy--not because she had already seen it, but that she was never fond of romance movies, humorous or not, particularly this one. She sighed lightly as she pulled up her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees, oblivious to the questioning glance cast by Akanishi from beside her.
----
"What should we toast to?"
"Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away."
Hitch's simple yet profound toasting speech gathered ahh's of this-is-so-cheesy-but-so-good from each occupied corner in the dark living room, excep one, from which a figure abruptly stood up and headed to the door.
"I'll be right back," Sophie said over her shoulder and shut the door before anyone realized what just happened.
"Eh?" They were confused, but shrugged it off and returned their gaze to the screen; it was an important scene, after all. But one person had a hard time tearing his stare away from closed door, his thoughts entangled in a web of questions.
"Ano... I'll go check up on her," and he left before anyone could object, not that they cared all that much.
It was dusk already, Sophie noticed as she stepped out of the apartment, though it didn't seem like that much time had gone by. She inhaled deeply a breath of cold air, shivering, wishing she had remembered to grab a sweater before she practically ran out the door on an impulse. That was unusual for her, acting without thinking. But when it came to things that dug up memories she thought she had buried deep enough, her emotions were always one step ahead of her reasoning. Bracing herself in the cold, she shut her eyes tight in a futile attempt to swat away the thoughts buzzing like unwanted flies. Hopelessly, she felt tears start to pool around behind her closed eyelids; she snapped them open as she felt something being placed over her shoulder. Something big and warm. She wheeled around and met Akanishi's concerned gaze.
"Wh-what are you doing out here?" She frowned, quickly blinking away the emerging tears, and reached to take off the jacket he had put on her. He promptly stopped her, holding it down on her shoulder as he inched close to her face, his eyes settling on her in an unblinking way.
"You're crying."
She wanted to blink so badly to suppress the uprising surge of tears, but it was as if her lids were frozen in place, just like the air surrounding them. She wanted to push away and run off to someplace where no one would find her as she could let it all out and then rebuild her facade, but she couldn't get herself to move, not even a centimeter. Why, she heard a small voice ask from within, and the held-back tears finally found their way down her cheek.
"Don't." She abruptly turned away, as if awoken by the warmth of her tears, and hurriedly wipe them away.
"Don't what?"
She opened her mouth to answer but suddenly realized that she didn't even know herself.
"You should go back in," she said, exhaling heavily with her back still turned to him.
He waited, as if calculating for the exact second to speak.
"What's wrong with the movie?"
His voice sounded faraway, coming from behind her as she watched the setting sun in the distance. She surprised herself when she heard words escaping her lips.
"It's all bullshit. When you lie in the arms of the one you love, they lie to you. When you steal away from bad company, the one that you thought was good steals even more from you. When you cheat death, well, we'll see about that. And when you drink," she scoffed with contempt, "it's just so that you'll be able to forget it all and pretend that it never happened."
He wasn't completely sure that he had understood all of it, linguistically, but he understood enough to hear the sound of tears in her voice that wasn't shaking but firm as though she was just reading it off of a piece of paper. And he heard much more behind those words; the unmistakable ache that, though rusted with the passage of time, still remained stubbornly, having planted seeds of cynicism in the depth of her heart. And so he knew the reason to what was beneath those troubled eyes that could no longer conceal the naked truth of her past.
As if on an instinct, he swiveled her around and held her, tight, such that her cheek could feel the warmth emanating from his broad chest that contained a heart that now was throbbing for the one beside it. Neither of them made a sound as her silent tears stained his shirt, the dimming glow from the horizon setting upon them, creating a shade elongated by two eclipsed shadows.
--to be continued--