Prompt 3: Just one thing sparkled in the endless, wide world - Team Future
Title: Just one thing sparkled in the endless, wide world
Rating: R
Pairing: Junno/Jin (Junno/Kame, Pi/Kame)
Summary: With KAT-TUN disbanded, and Junno working as a choreographer with Kame ever since, maybe it's long overdue for the world to fall apart.
Prompt: Arashi - We Can Make It
Warnings: Sexual themes
Notes: The title and a few of the lines in the fic are from a translation of We Can Make It.
-
Junno slips smoothly between the rows of dancing boys with practiced ease and enough knowledge of the choreography not to be punched in the face or elbowed in the stomach. Well. On purpose anyway. A short junior who might be called Michimoto (Junno isn't certain about most of the younger ones' names, though Kame usually knows all of them and looks at him funny every time Junno tries to talk about them using their hairstyles for identification) accidentally flings back the wrong elbow, narrowly missing smacking Takaki in the face, which earns him a glare through sweaty bangs from his senpai. Junno glides up next to Michimoto who looks flushed and apologetic and has stopped to bow and apologise.
“Again,” he says softly, placing a hand on Michimoto's shoulder and urging him to start dancing again, leading him through the next few dance steps before starting to circle the dance floor once more.
Shoes squeak, one junior falls on his face, the music stops. Kame frowns from the front of the room where he was leading the choreography, perspiration making his nose shiny in the chemical lighting. “Are you hurt, Asato-kun?”
Asato whimpers, slowly easing off the floor where some blood is splattered. Junno winces, stepping up to the boy carefully and crouching down to support him into a sitting position. Asato's nose is bleeding and tears are rolling down his cheeks, mixing with the smeared sweat and blood on his face. “He tripped me,” he says weakly, gesturing at the boy next to them, who takes a step backward.
“You tripped over your own feet,” the boy refutes, a soft flush dusting his cheeks, though it might just as well be due to exertion. Junno sighs, turning to inspect Asato's nose.
“Does it hurt a lot?” Kame says suddenly from above them, a twinge of sympathy in his voice.
Asato nods slowly. His body is shaking, hands clutched together tightly in his lap as he tries not to cry.
“I don't think it's broken,” Junno pops in, smiling reassuringly and helping Asato to his feet. “Let's go get tea and someone to take a look at it.” As he leads Asato away, his shaking frame and hopeful, teary eyes, Junno can hear Kame reprimanding the other boy, giving him the chore of wiping the blood off the floor.
Two claps of Kame's hands. “AGAIN.”
The music starts playing, the squeak of shoes. Junno closes the door on the first we can make it.
-
Kame leans around Junno's open locker door, peeking at him as he puts his shoes on the lower shelf. “Was Asato alright?”
“He'll be fine,” Junno smiles, pulling up and stretching his back. “I'm so stiff,” he mutters, closing the locker with a metallic clang.
Kame rolls his eyes, leaning against the locker beside him. “You can't stay on the couch at my place forever.” His voice is dry, surgically precise. Professional. Like always.
“I know, I know. I just haven't found the right place yet.” Junno counts the minuscule flashes of emotion over Kame's face. Four.
“You're not really looking either,” Kame settles for eventually, pursing his lips.
“I. Yeah,” Junno admits. “Yeah, that's pretty much it.”
Kame smiles crookedly. “I know you're not feeling on top of the world right now, but at least stay with someone who has an extra room.”
Junno blinks at him slowly. “I don't know anyone with an extra room.”
“Jin has a guest room.” Kame buffs his nails nonchalantly on the front of his shirt.
“Kame, how on earth do I ask Jin to let me stay at his place?”
There is a moment of meaningful looks sent, and then Kame bursts impatiently, “Oh, just. Do what you did to me. Knock on his door at three in the morning and tell him you've been dumped. Or give him the puppy eyes. Or tell him you're gay and feeling like experimenting.”
“I don't have breasts. And I'm not Yamashita-san,” Junno objects.
Kame leans in, his elbow on Junno's shoulder. “Just ask.”
-
It’s not three am, it's eight pm, but when Jin opens the door, his eyes are soft and slanted, and he smiles drunkenly upon seeing Junno. “Ta-GU-chi-KUN,” he says happily, bottle of raspberry vodka swaying slightly in his hand.
Junno smiles awkwardly. “I, um. I got dumped.”
“Oh,” Jin deadpans, scratching his stomach over the waistband of his jeans. “Drink?” he asks, offering Junno the vodka.
Junno grins, fingering the bottle, not quite taking it. “Kame would kill me in the morning.”
Jin leans in, looking at Junno with his eyes wide and sparkling. “Kame needs to get laid. And maybe a sandwich. And Yamapi needs to get support meetings for not being able to provide it.”
“The lay or the sandwich?”
Jin's laughter rumbles through the hallway. The rim of the bottle is wet against Junno's lips even before he tips it up and takes a long swig.
-
“So you're living with me now?”
It takes a moment for Junno to get his mouth open. His tongue feels thick and sticks to the roof of his mouth. “Yup.” Sun twinkles on his closed eyelids. Maybe he's dying. He's not sure.
“Fantastic,” Jin groans, “Hello roomie.”
Junno almost smiles. It's nice that Jin isn't throwing a tantrum. “Good Morning.”
“Great.” A headache hangs over the words. “Now shove over, or I'll throw up on you,” Jin informs him, pushing Junno towards the edge of the couch, further into the merciless sunlight.
“Charmed,” Junno mumbles, eyes blinking open painfully.
Jin is glowing with morning sun, dark hair falling into red-rimmed eyes. “Shut up.”
-
Kame scowls darkly when Junno stumbles into the dance halls three quarters of an hour late, blinking against the fluorescent lights behind large sunglasses, hair dishevelled and movements weighed down by his hangover. Kame gives the already dancing boys a ten minute break and drags Junno off to the changing rooms. Junno is happy that they turned off the music for about three seconds before the door slams harshly behind him and the grim line of Kame's mouth parts for a surprisingly shrill telling-off. Wincing, Junno clutches his hands to his ears, pouting at Kame until he stops talking, looking decidedly put off.
“This was your idea,” Junno says, voice still scratchy with vodka and sleep.
Kame doesn't look more pleased after his comment, but he swirls around, and leaves the room. The door bangs again. Junno's head throbs.
-
Ueda gives Junno a long look over the microphone. “So you're living with a promiscuous drunkard. I'll care after you help me with these harmonies.”
Junno sighs, clamps the headphones over his ears. Ueda twiddles with the volume control and presses play. A guitar riff starts in Junno's ears and he looks down at the score.
“He kept touching my bum,” he says measuredly into the recording microphone.
Ueda blinks. “Good. Now sing.”
A tired voice, three cups of tea and a couple minutes of undivided attention later, Junno slumps against the back of Ueda's couch. “I bet you liked it,” Ueda teases with a grin.
Sometimes Junno wishes he could raise one eyebrow questioningly the way Kame does. As it is he is both too wrung out and lacking in talent to do it. He gazes blankly at Ueda. “Liked what?”
“The bum touching.”
Junno groans, flings a pillow at Ueda's face. “Oh come off it.”
Ueda ducks the pillow, laughs. “You're so gay.”
“You shouldn't have kissed me that time.” Junno mutters, pouts, shrinking back in embarrassment.
“What, and let you live in ignorant misery forever with that hag?” Ueda deadpans, picking up the pillow and placing it behind his back.
“She's not a hag,” Junno refutes grumpily.
“She is too.” Ueda maintains, and Junno shakes his head, changes the subject.
“I had nightmares for a week after the kiss.”
“You're so sweet. Besides, she turned you gay.”
“She says you did that.”
“Nonsense. You had nightmares.”
“Well.” Junno blushes, looking at Ueda's bare feet on the low table. “They were kind of nice nightmares.”
Ueda freezes, stares at him for a moment before slowly saying, “...I did not need to know that. Please go perv on Jin instead.”
Junno huffs. “He doesn't know I'm gay.”
“Yes he does.” A stifled grin.
“How would he know?”
Ueda shifts his legs, looking smug. “Because I called him to laugh about it. We had a bet going. He lost. It was a very satisfying conversation.”
“You're the worst friend ever,” Junno groans, letting his head fall back in defeat.
“I try.”
-
Junno has always known that Jin drinks. Just not that Jin drinks as much as he does. He's seen him on television, suave and dusty with make-up, eyes glittering in the studio lights. It only takes him a week to realise that half of the glitter is probably due to an unknown amount of vodka, and the sway in his step isn't really practised. Jin goes out to drink just as often as he stays home to do it, but he never brings anyone home, not even when he stumbles through the door in the early hours of morning, shuffling steps as he crashes on the couch. The first time Junno finds him like that he doesn't do anything, feels insecure in his position and doesn't know if he's allowed to, even. The insecurity is soon replaced by concern however, as he keeps being confronted with a passed-out Jin, in alcohol-sated sleep, shoes rubbing grit against the couch cushions.
It quickly becomes habit, then, to untie Jin's shoes, to carefully carry him to his bed, tuck him in. They don't speak of it, and Jin's eyes are still red when he tumbles out of bed, but sometime during the third week when Junno hands him a cup of strong coffee at seven in the morning, Jin flexes his fingers around the cup, peeks at him over the rim, and when Junno looks at him quizzically, Jin mumbles, “You could start paying rent too, you know.”
“You want me to move in?” Junno asks, to clarify.
Jin pouts, looks away. “You're already living here,” he says, then gives in a little with a slow roll of his shoulders. “I like having you around. You don't look at me like I'm ruining your life.”
The morning sunshine shifts in pale blues over the kitchen. “Okay,” Junno agrees, smiling.
-
“Junno, stop the music.”
Junno turns around from where he's been looking out into the lamp-lit Tokyo evening. The dancehall lights are bright in his eyes, and he rubs them as he fumbles to press the pause button.
“You should know this,” Kame grumbles under his breath at Yamapi, but Pi just smiles, a slow curl of the corner of his mouth, and Kame sighs. “Okay, your hands on my hips, and when I roll them to the left, you roll the other way.”
“Right,” Yamapi agrees, amusement in his voice. Kame purses his lips, but motions for Junno to put the music on again.
Play.
Yamapi's hands crinkle the fabric of Kame's sweatpants, but he moves in the right direction this time.
Junno settles on the windowsill again. He just wants to go home.
-
Maru shows up one Sunday afternoon, marches into the apartment right when Junno opens the door, and puts the kettle on. “So I heard you're living here now,” he says, shuffling around in cupboards and drawers.
“Um, yes.” Junno leans against the counter, feeling awkward in his own kitchen.
Maru peeks at him from behind a cup. “Is he home?”
“No,” Junno shakes his head, “No, I don't know where he is.”
Hearing that Maru visibly relaxes, his shoulders falling a little, and he holds out two cups for Junno. “Lay the table?”
The porcelain is thin and fragile in Junno's hands. It's the nice cups, the ones with elegant lines and tiny saucers. “How's work?”
Maru offers a tired smile. “Horrible. We've had to do extra takes because things haven't been going according to plan. I haven't slept a full night in a week.”
“And you're here for a social visit,” Junno sits down at the breakfast table, pushing out the other stool with his foot for Maru. “To what do I owe the honour?”
Maru looks away for a moment, his fingers tapping noiselessly against the counter before he turns to look Junno right in the eye. “I know you've had a thing for him ever since we were old enough to have hormones,” he says quickly, “but don't think that you have to do this. It's not your responsibility.”
Junno is a little stunned. “A thing for who?”
Maru gives him a Kame look, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. “Jin.”
Junno doesn't really know what to say, so he just gapes at Maru until the kettle snaps off and Maru finishes preparing the tea.
“He is a grown man,” Maru says, pouring them both tea delicately, “And you have to live your own life. I know Kame meant well making you come here, but I think you need to-” He sighs, “See, I'm not even sure. I just don't want you to wake up one day and realise that you've spent your life waiting for something that never happened.”
There is a pause, a silence of steaming tea. “I think you've got the wrong idea,” Junno says finally.
Maru smiles fondly. “So maybe we're wrong. On the other hand, maybe we're right.”
“Who are 'we'? Is Kame in on this?” The words feel stiff, like they're scraping his innards getting out, clawing their way from his throat.
“All of us.” The scrape of porcelain. “Well, Jin probably doesn't know.” Clank. “I told Kame I thought it was a bad idea. You shouldn't have been put in this position.”
“I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
“Junno.” Maru's hand on his shoulder is warm and bony.
“Can we talk about something else?” He asks his tea, squeezing his fingers.
“I-.” Hesitation in Maru's voice, and the hand slips away. “Sure. So have you talked to Koki?”
“No,” Junno says pensively, “Last time I called he laughed at me for five minutes.”
“That's just his way of showing that he cares.”
Junno looks away, spinning his cup. “Yeah.”
-
Jin's voice is smooth and warm as he sings in the shower. It's nothing like when he is performing, tense and trying to do his best, but relaxed and free, sometimes broken high notes. He flumps down in the couch next to Junno afterward, accidentally flinging the towel he's drying his hair with in Junno's face.
Junno doesn't even react to his loss of vision, just starts talking into the towel. “Do you ever feel like your life stopped at puberty, and the only reason you move forward is because people keep tugging you back and forth, making all the major decisions of your life for you?”
Jin pulls the towel away, grins at Junno. “Have I ever in my life made a decision on my own that didn't come back to bite me in the face?”
Junno grins back, almost automatically, like Jin's smiles are magnetic. “See, other people would have said another body part.”
“Other people need more personality,” Jin shrugs.
Junno sinks back into the cushions. “Does everyone else know more about me than I do?” He looks up at Jin, who stares back with dark eyes.
“I think you need what some people refer to as an 'Arashi moment'.”
“Please. Not more We Can Make It,” Junno groans, burying his face in his hands.
“Fine. Wine, then.”
-
Koki calls a few days later to laugh in Junno's ear.
Daddy's looking scary, Junno can hear Koki's little daughter in the background.
“Priceless,” Koki wheezes eventually.
Click.
“It's lonely,” Junno whispers into the silence.
-
Kame walks up to Junno in the back room at lunch with a curious little frown on his face. “Maru told me he talked to you the other day. Why didn't you say anything?”
“I didn't know there was anything to say.” Junno shoves in a mouthful of rice, chewing slowly.
“But he said that you-”
“I'm fine. It's fine. Everything is fine.” Junno interrupts, and Kame's hands jitter oddly when he pulls out the chair next to Junno's to sit down. “Isn't it?” Junno adds, a weak twinge of uncertainly to his voice.
Kame smiles sadly, knocks their foreheads together gently. “Are you happy?”
Junno swallows, watches Kame close his eyes. It takes a moment before he can gather himself to reply. “I don't know.”
“It will be fine,” Kame whispers and turns away, wiping at his face where Junno can't see, then continues in a choked voice. “We'll make it fine.”
-
“Maybe you could be my choreographer.” Jin stuffs his hand in the popcorn bowl, and tilts his head as he watches the behind the scenes video of dance practice with the juniors. Junno hadn't even been aware of being filmed at the time.
“Jin, you of all people don't need a choreographer to teach you.” He throws some popcorn at Jin's head. “You're a better dancer than me.”
“But what if I want you as my personal choreographer?” Jin teases, nudging Junno's side.
“I'm not really available. Kame and I work together, see.” Junno grins. There are popcorn crumbs stuck in Jin's hair.
“I'd pay you.” Jin says seriously.
“I can't teach you anything, we'd just end up doing this,” Junno gestures at the room in general, “all the time. And maybe some hiprolls.”
There is a calculating expression on Jin's face, and then he moves to sit with his knees on either side of Junno's thighs, overturning the popcorn bowl next to them on the couch. “And if I thought it would be worth it?”
On the television, Kame claps. AGAIN. In reality, Jin's hands splay over Junno's abdomen as he gazes at Junno with his lips slightly parted, eyes dark, dark, dark. “This might be a bad idea,” he says, suddenly so close that Junno's stomach aches.
“I have a feeling it might be one of your very worst,” Junno's breath hitches.
“I don't really care,” Jin whispers.
Jin tastes like smoke and vanilla, sweet and addictive.
-
Jin kisses deep and hard, as though it will get him closer, bruised and sore and real. Like the reality of it is not enough, but needs to be harsh, raw and brutal. Junno lets him though, because that's what Jin does, takes and takes until there is nothing left but the dark emptiness that comes over Junno in the silence afterward, when Jin's fingers have loosened their grip to lie lax and warm on Junno's hip, the only part of them still connected. Jin's snores ghost into Junno's hair, and Junno stares at the dark figures of their shadows on the wall. He doesn't turn to look at Jin then, knows the emptiness will devour him whole if he does, take him away from everything that was once light and happy and full of hope.
Dreams shatter when they come true.
-
“So have you slept with him yet?”
Junno almost squirts coffee out of his nose in surprise. “What?”
Ueda just pulls down his aviators to peek at Junno over the rim. “So, have you?”
Junno coughs. “I'm not going to answer that.” His gaze sweeps over the half-empty café. Sunlight filters through the thick ivy curling around the frames of the windows. Nobody seems to pay the two of them any mind.
Ueda's mouth shapes an 'o', and he leans over the little table, knocking the salt shaker to the side.
“Let me rephrase that. Have you told Kame yet?”
Junno puts his coffee down with a clack. There is an overwhelming tiredness which seems to seep deeper into his bones with each one of these conversations. “I'll call and ask you first next time I realise something about my life shall I?”
Ueda pushes his sunglasses back up. “What can I say. Life isn't as eventful out of the spotlight.”
“I quite like it that way.” Junno closes his eyes, leans toward the window to let the sun play on his closed eyelids, like the almost tangible remnants of a summer dream.
Ueda's foot brushes against Junno's under the table. “I know you do.”
-
“It wasn't a mistake,” Jin says to Junno, pushing him against the fridge.
“It was a bad idea,” Junno reasons feebly, closing his eyes and trying to stop his body from giving in.
Jin's breath is sated with alcohol. “That doesn't make it a mistake.”
Junno bites his lip. “A bad decision, then.”
Jin laughs, and something deep within Junno trembles. “You've already bit me in the face.”
Music blurs in Junno's ears. Again.
-
There are finger-shaped bruises on Junno's hips, and Kame's hands on his waist make him pause as he changes his shirt in the back room. Kame's fingers trace the darkened skin, so lightly it tickles.
“Kame?” Junno feels awkward, his sweaty t-shirt still hanging from his fingers.
“So you've really.” Kame swallows, turns his face down. He doesn't finish the sentence.
“I don't know what you were going to say, but the reply is probably yes.”
Kame tilts his face back up, searches Junno's gaze. He swallows again, and then, hands curling softly around Junno's hips, he stands on tip-toe to kiss Junno gently, open-mouthed and warm. Junno doesn't resist, hands still holding his t-shirt in a loose grip, but Kame pulls back after just a moment, turning his face into Junno's neck, nose just pressing against his jaw, and breathes slowly once before backing away.
“Thank you.” It's almost inaudible, and Kame turns away after saying it, running his hands through his hair as he speeds out of the room.
Sadness wells up in Junno like a wave, catching on the rough edges, clinging like spider web.
-
“Things have changed, haven't they,” Jin says softly.
They lie with their backs to each other, curled up for sleep.
“How do you mean?” Junno asks, too used to Jin's unruly reasoning to come to an immediate conclusion. His eyes are closed, halfway into dreams of sundaze and his grandmother's magnolia garden.
“I think. I might be ruining your life now.” Jin's voice is dull, monotonous.
“Hmm?” Junno's limbs feel heavy as he turns around slowly, reaching out across the rumpled sheets to touch Jin. “What are you talking about?”
“But you still don't look at me like that,” Jin continues, lying perfectly still. “You look at me like I'm ruining my life.”
“Jin, you... come here,” Junno mumbles, slinging an arm around Jin's waist, urging him to turn around.
Jin flips over quickly, burying his face in Junno's neck. “Am I really that pitiful?” He says then, and adds under his breath, “Will you leave?”
Hesitation lingers in Junno's actions as he reaches out to wrap his arms around Jin, but there is none in his words as he says, “I'll still be here in the morning.”
-
Kame slumps down on the floor of the dance hall as soon as the door closes on the last boy, flings his arms out dramatically, and comes to lie spread-eagled with a dull thump. Junno walks into his range of vision, peering down at Kame with a curious smile on his face.
“I need to get laid,” Kame says blankly.
“What, you realised that just now?” Junno asks teasingly.
Kame sticks out his tongue and raises his leg athletically to kick Junno in the shin. “Hey, I'm heartbroken. I hear it's quite good therapy.”
Junno rubs his leg, pouting as he sits down next to Kame, poking him in the tummy as retribution. “I think Yamapi would probably not mind helping you out. Especially if it's for your mental health.”
Kame grins, catches Junno's fingers and twists them. Junno pulls away with a yelp. “I know that. It was just that I didn't know for sure before. And now I do.”
It's like Junno has been swept adrift, far from everything that was once safe and familiar, constantly fighting to keep above the surface. “I'm sorry,” he whispers, in a way wishing it all back to the way it once was, even though in hindsight that might have been its own kind of misery.
“Don't be,” Kame says softly, sitting up. “Things are good now, right?”
Junno sighs. “I'm not so sure about that.” He gazes up at the ceiling for a moment, into the bright electric lighting, letting it sting his eyes and blur his vision. “Anyway, I'd better be off.”
“Home?” Kame stretches his arms above his head, a little green-tinted when Junno turns back to look at him. Junno blinks away the fuzziness, pastes a smile on his face.
“Yeah, but I need to go shopping first. Beer and toilet tissue. You know, essentials.” They get to their feet. “Maybe leek as well. They always seem to have that in dramas whenever they've been to the shops.”
Kame nudges Junno with his elbow. “That's because leeks are long enough to be visible over the edge of the bag. So that people know it's groceries.”
“And a cucumber couldn't cut it?” Their steps sound dully against the dance floor.
“Cucumber is not as wholesome as leek.” Kame grins.
Junno opens the door to the other room, propping it open with his shoulder to let Kame through. “I hope you do realise that I won't be able to look at a cucumber again without thinking about naughty vegetables?”
Kame winks. “I'm sure it'll be very hard for you.”
“That was worse than my jokes,” Junno protests. Kame just laughs as the door clicks shut behind them.
-
Junno can hear their voices even before he walks through the door, but it is when he slides it open that he realises that the muffled sounds are in fact coming from the kitchen, not the television, and that Kame is standing there in person, the curled fists and flushed anger his own.
“If it continues like this I will take him from you,” he snarls, staring intently at Jin who looks awkward and slightly panicked where he's backed up against the table.
“It's really none of your business though, is it,” Jin says, an odd blend of defiance and timidity.
Junno closes the door noisily, forces himself to grin at the two of them as their heads snap toward him. “Kame,” he says brightly, “are you staying for dinner? I bought cucumber; I thought we could have that Greek thing with the yoghurt and garlic.”
Kame's anger uncurls and fades quickly, and he backs away from Jin, smiles at Junno. “I think that sounds like an excellent idea. In fact, why don't we let Jin do the cooking?”
“But I-” Jin tries.
“Great,” Kame interrupts. There is a little malicious glint in his eyes, but he seems mostly amused as he takes the bags out of Junno's hands and puts them on the counter before dragging Junno over to the couch.
“-will end up burning everything,” Jin finishes weakly, and peers into the bags.
“Will he really be okay?” Junno asks quietly as he sits down next to Kame.
“Don't worry. He's a big boy. Sleeps with strangers and everything,” Kame deadpans, flicking the TV on from stand-by.
The meat is half-burned and the potatoes undercooked, but the Tzatsiki is delicious, and it turns out to be a quite nice dinner anyway, Kame's shoulder pressed gently against Junno's, Jin glancing up at them grumpily from the floor.
-
It's early, long before Junno has to get up, but he can't sleep, not as dawn slowly creeps upon Tokyo, not when Jin is lying pressed against him in bed, warm and still, long stretches of soft skin and low snores against Junno's collarbone.
Light spreads through the window and over Jin's face, and when he smiles sleepily at Junno, he smiles sunshine.
Maybe this is happiness.
-
“I think this could be a good thing,” Junno says the moment Koki picks up the phone. “I mean, I might actually have it figured out this time.”
Koki laughs at him anyway.
-
“Again,” Kame almost whimpers, and looks almost as though he wants to bash his head against the wall. Yamapi smiles innocently.
Junno presses the rewind button and touches Kame's shoulder as he passes him on his way to go buy him a coffee in the cafeteria. Kame sends him a pained look, and Junno can only send a sympathetic one back.
When he pushes the door open a while later, three hot cups in his hands, he almost drops them at the view that greets him. Yamapi has Kame pinned against one of the mirrored walls, his tongue in Kame's mouth, and his hands, well, somewhere Junno can't see.
We can make it is still playing in the background, and it's not until Kame moans and moves to grope Yamapi's bum that Junno shakes himself out of his stunned state and lets the door fall shut with a slam. He grins as they jerk toward the sound, and Kame blushes darkly while Yamapi just looks smug. “What was that, five minutes?” Junno comments, walking over to put down two of the cups on a bench.
“He had it coming,” Yamapi replies, doing something out of sight which makes Kame's eyes first go wide, and then narrow.
“I hope you're going to stop wasting our time by dancing wrong. Management were getting worried about you,” he says sweetly, deliberately stepping on Yamapi's foot.
Yamapi winces, sucks in a breath through his teeth, and presses Kame harder against the glass. “Oh, you love it.”
“I'll just go pick on some juniors for a while, then,” Junno says, winking, heading for the door again, “Actually, I might call it a day.”
“Don't come back!” Yamapi calls after him.
Kame just says “Nnnnnnng.”
-
“Pi called me,” Jin says, his words muffled as he is seemingly trying to mush a whole donut into his mouth at once. “He says he got some.” He waggles his eyebrows.
Junno nods. “He did. I walked in on him and Kame.”
Jin pauses in his chewing, his cheeks puffing out. Junno sniggers at him.
“Well. At least I get to tell Ueda.”
“Oh. I already...” Junno says guiltily.
Jin pouts.
-
“Can we go for a walk?” Jin says on a lazy Sunday morning, peering up at Junno through his bangs, nose pressed flat against Junno's torso. The palms of his hands rub lazy circles on Junno's naked thighs as he lies between them, effectively keeping Junno on the couch.
“If I say yes, will you let me get some pants on?” Junno asks Jin's bed hair, fingers curling around Jin's shoulders, dangerously close to his collarbones.
“A vague maybe.” Jin scrunches up his shoulders, mouths one of Junno's nipples through his shirt.
Junno closes his eyes for a moment. “I won't let myself be so easily distracted,” he says resolutely.
Jin pauses his actions then, lifts his head to look Junno in the eyes. He grins. “If I were you I wouldn't bet on it,” he comments easily, and the moment after he grinds down, moving his fingers up underneath the fabric of Junno's boxers to smooth over his hips.
Junno's breath stutters a little, and he blinks lazily at Jin. “Well. At least I didn't put any money on it.”
-
It's chilly out, autumn has settled in with its cold winds and warm colours, the cool breezes making the last tinkling summer moments float away in reds and gold. Their shoulders bump together as they walk next to each other, afternoon sun in their eyes as they make their leisurely way through the park's gravelled paths. It's a nice day, slow and relaxed, and there are only a few scattered people in the vicinity. Jin reaches out, his fingers curling around Junno's, and pulls him to a stop.
“So maybe you're the one,” Jin mumbles into his scarf, looking at Junno's collar.
Junno blinks. “Maybe I'm the one?”
“Yeah.” There is a soft dust of pink on Jin's cheeks.
“...That's kind of lame.”
“What?” Jin looks put off, his nose crinkled in displeasure.
Junno twirls their fingers together, “I thought you'd say something like 'Let's have hot pervy sex until an indefinite point in time'.”
Jin shrugs loftily, but his mouth quirks up. “Well, we can do that too.” He pulls Junno closer, tangles his free hand into the soft hair at the nape of his neck. “I'm going to kiss you now,” he says informatively.
“That's probably a bad idea,” Junno points out, smiling beneath his thin veneer of nonchalance.
“Probably,” Jin agrees.
“People will be angry. Girls will cry.”
“It will be a complete outrage.”
“You will get gay stalkers.”
“Really?” Jin blinks.
“Oh yes. Gay dwarves.” Junno says emphatically.
Jin nods slowly and takes a step closer, muttering “Stop talking,” against Junno's lips before kissing him, pulling their entwined hands behind his back. Jin kisses him carefully, plump lower lip smoothing softly over the skin just below Junno's mouth before Jin presses closer, nose cold against Junno's cheek.
When Junno pulls back, Jin gazes at him, eyes a little hazy.
Junno smiles giddily. “Let's burst through into tomorrow!”
“What?” Jin frowns, but Junno only grins, slips out of Jin's arms, and starts running. “You're kidding!” Jin calls out and adds, “I'm not running after you!”
Junno doesn't stop, just turns to look over his shoulder at Jin and call back, “Feel the rhythm!”
Jin shakes his head, smiles. “Idiot,” he mutters fondly, and starts running.
-
fin.
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Poll Team Future - Just one thing sparkled in the endless, wide world
Rating: R
Pairing: Junno/Jin (Junno/Kame, Pi/Kame)
Summary: With KAT-TUN disbanded, and Junno working as a choreographer with Kame ever since, maybe it's long overdue for the world to fall apart.
Prompt: Arashi - We Can Make It
Warnings: Sexual themes
Notes: The title and a few of the lines in the fic are from a translation of We Can Make It.
-
Junno slips smoothly between the rows of dancing boys with practiced ease and enough knowledge of the choreography not to be punched in the face or elbowed in the stomach. Well. On purpose anyway. A short junior who might be called Michimoto (Junno isn't certain about most of the younger ones' names, though Kame usually knows all of them and looks at him funny every time Junno tries to talk about them using their hairstyles for identification) accidentally flings back the wrong elbow, narrowly missing smacking Takaki in the face, which earns him a glare through sweaty bangs from his senpai. Junno glides up next to Michimoto who looks flushed and apologetic and has stopped to bow and apologise.
“Again,” he says softly, placing a hand on Michimoto's shoulder and urging him to start dancing again, leading him through the next few dance steps before starting to circle the dance floor once more.
Shoes squeak, one junior falls on his face, the music stops. Kame frowns from the front of the room where he was leading the choreography, perspiration making his nose shiny in the chemical lighting. “Are you hurt, Asato-kun?”
Asato whimpers, slowly easing off the floor where some blood is splattered. Junno winces, stepping up to the boy carefully and crouching down to support him into a sitting position. Asato's nose is bleeding and tears are rolling down his cheeks, mixing with the smeared sweat and blood on his face. “He tripped me,” he says weakly, gesturing at the boy next to them, who takes a step backward.
“You tripped over your own feet,” the boy refutes, a soft flush dusting his cheeks, though it might just as well be due to exertion. Junno sighs, turning to inspect Asato's nose.
“Does it hurt a lot?” Kame says suddenly from above them, a twinge of sympathy in his voice.
Asato nods slowly. His body is shaking, hands clutched together tightly in his lap as he tries not to cry.
“I don't think it's broken,” Junno pops in, smiling reassuringly and helping Asato to his feet. “Let's go get tea and someone to take a look at it.” As he leads Asato away, his shaking frame and hopeful, teary eyes, Junno can hear Kame reprimanding the other boy, giving him the chore of wiping the blood off the floor.
Two claps of Kame's hands. “AGAIN.”
The music starts playing, the squeak of shoes. Junno closes the door on the first we can make it.
-
Kame leans around Junno's open locker door, peeking at him as he puts his shoes on the lower shelf. “Was Asato alright?”
“He'll be fine,” Junno smiles, pulling up and stretching his back. “I'm so stiff,” he mutters, closing the locker with a metallic clang.
Kame rolls his eyes, leaning against the locker beside him. “You can't stay on the couch at my place forever.” His voice is dry, surgically precise. Professional. Like always.
“I know, I know. I just haven't found the right place yet.” Junno counts the minuscule flashes of emotion over Kame's face. Four.
“You're not really looking either,” Kame settles for eventually, pursing his lips.
“I. Yeah,” Junno admits. “Yeah, that's pretty much it.”
Kame smiles crookedly. “I know you're not feeling on top of the world right now, but at least stay with someone who has an extra room.”
Junno blinks at him slowly. “I don't know anyone with an extra room.”
“Jin has a guest room.” Kame buffs his nails nonchalantly on the front of his shirt.
“Kame, how on earth do I ask Jin to let me stay at his place?”
There is a moment of meaningful looks sent, and then Kame bursts impatiently, “Oh, just. Do what you did to me. Knock on his door at three in the morning and tell him you've been dumped. Or give him the puppy eyes. Or tell him you're gay and feeling like experimenting.”
“I don't have breasts. And I'm not Yamashita-san,” Junno objects.
Kame leans in, his elbow on Junno's shoulder. “Just ask.”
-
It’s not three am, it's eight pm, but when Jin opens the door, his eyes are soft and slanted, and he smiles drunkenly upon seeing Junno. “Ta-GU-chi-KUN,” he says happily, bottle of raspberry vodka swaying slightly in his hand.
Junno smiles awkwardly. “I, um. I got dumped.”
“Oh,” Jin deadpans, scratching his stomach over the waistband of his jeans. “Drink?” he asks, offering Junno the vodka.
Junno grins, fingering the bottle, not quite taking it. “Kame would kill me in the morning.”
Jin leans in, looking at Junno with his eyes wide and sparkling. “Kame needs to get laid. And maybe a sandwich. And Yamapi needs to get support meetings for not being able to provide it.”
“The lay or the sandwich?”
Jin's laughter rumbles through the hallway. The rim of the bottle is wet against Junno's lips even before he tips it up and takes a long swig.
-
“So you're living with me now?”
It takes a moment for Junno to get his mouth open. His tongue feels thick and sticks to the roof of his mouth. “Yup.” Sun twinkles on his closed eyelids. Maybe he's dying. He's not sure.
“Fantastic,” Jin groans, “Hello roomie.”
Junno almost smiles. It's nice that Jin isn't throwing a tantrum. “Good Morning.”
“Great.” A headache hangs over the words. “Now shove over, or I'll throw up on you,” Jin informs him, pushing Junno towards the edge of the couch, further into the merciless sunlight.
“Charmed,” Junno mumbles, eyes blinking open painfully.
Jin is glowing with morning sun, dark hair falling into red-rimmed eyes. “Shut up.”
-
Kame scowls darkly when Junno stumbles into the dance halls three quarters of an hour late, blinking against the fluorescent lights behind large sunglasses, hair dishevelled and movements weighed down by his hangover. Kame gives the already dancing boys a ten minute break and drags Junno off to the changing rooms. Junno is happy that they turned off the music for about three seconds before the door slams harshly behind him and the grim line of Kame's mouth parts for a surprisingly shrill telling-off. Wincing, Junno clutches his hands to his ears, pouting at Kame until he stops talking, looking decidedly put off.
“This was your idea,” Junno says, voice still scratchy with vodka and sleep.
Kame doesn't look more pleased after his comment, but he swirls around, and leaves the room. The door bangs again. Junno's head throbs.
-
Ueda gives Junno a long look over the microphone. “So you're living with a promiscuous drunkard. I'll care after you help me with these harmonies.”
Junno sighs, clamps the headphones over his ears. Ueda twiddles with the volume control and presses play. A guitar riff starts in Junno's ears and he looks down at the score.
“He kept touching my bum,” he says measuredly into the recording microphone.
Ueda blinks. “Good. Now sing.”
A tired voice, three cups of tea and a couple minutes of undivided attention later, Junno slumps against the back of Ueda's couch. “I bet you liked it,” Ueda teases with a grin.
Sometimes Junno wishes he could raise one eyebrow questioningly the way Kame does. As it is he is both too wrung out and lacking in talent to do it. He gazes blankly at Ueda. “Liked what?”
“The bum touching.”
Junno groans, flings a pillow at Ueda's face. “Oh come off it.”
Ueda ducks the pillow, laughs. “You're so gay.”
“You shouldn't have kissed me that time.” Junno mutters, pouts, shrinking back in embarrassment.
“What, and let you live in ignorant misery forever with that hag?” Ueda deadpans, picking up the pillow and placing it behind his back.
“She's not a hag,” Junno refutes grumpily.
“She is too.” Ueda maintains, and Junno shakes his head, changes the subject.
“I had nightmares for a week after the kiss.”
“You're so sweet. Besides, she turned you gay.”
“She says you did that.”
“Nonsense. You had nightmares.”
“Well.” Junno blushes, looking at Ueda's bare feet on the low table. “They were kind of nice nightmares.”
Ueda freezes, stares at him for a moment before slowly saying, “...I did not need to know that. Please go perv on Jin instead.”
Junno huffs. “He doesn't know I'm gay.”
“Yes he does.” A stifled grin.
“How would he know?”
Ueda shifts his legs, looking smug. “Because I called him to laugh about it. We had a bet going. He lost. It was a very satisfying conversation.”
“You're the worst friend ever,” Junno groans, letting his head fall back in defeat.
“I try.”
-
Junno has always known that Jin drinks. Just not that Jin drinks as much as he does. He's seen him on television, suave and dusty with make-up, eyes glittering in the studio lights. It only takes him a week to realise that half of the glitter is probably due to an unknown amount of vodka, and the sway in his step isn't really practised. Jin goes out to drink just as often as he stays home to do it, but he never brings anyone home, not even when he stumbles through the door in the early hours of morning, shuffling steps as he crashes on the couch. The first time Junno finds him like that he doesn't do anything, feels insecure in his position and doesn't know if he's allowed to, even. The insecurity is soon replaced by concern however, as he keeps being confronted with a passed-out Jin, in alcohol-sated sleep, shoes rubbing grit against the couch cushions.
It quickly becomes habit, then, to untie Jin's shoes, to carefully carry him to his bed, tuck him in. They don't speak of it, and Jin's eyes are still red when he tumbles out of bed, but sometime during the third week when Junno hands him a cup of strong coffee at seven in the morning, Jin flexes his fingers around the cup, peeks at him over the rim, and when Junno looks at him quizzically, Jin mumbles, “You could start paying rent too, you know.”
“You want me to move in?” Junno asks, to clarify.
Jin pouts, looks away. “You're already living here,” he says, then gives in a little with a slow roll of his shoulders. “I like having you around. You don't look at me like I'm ruining your life.”
The morning sunshine shifts in pale blues over the kitchen. “Okay,” Junno agrees, smiling.
-
“Junno, stop the music.”
Junno turns around from where he's been looking out into the lamp-lit Tokyo evening. The dancehall lights are bright in his eyes, and he rubs them as he fumbles to press the pause button.
“You should know this,” Kame grumbles under his breath at Yamapi, but Pi just smiles, a slow curl of the corner of his mouth, and Kame sighs. “Okay, your hands on my hips, and when I roll them to the left, you roll the other way.”
“Right,” Yamapi agrees, amusement in his voice. Kame purses his lips, but motions for Junno to put the music on again.
Play.
Yamapi's hands crinkle the fabric of Kame's sweatpants, but he moves in the right direction this time.
Junno settles on the windowsill again. He just wants to go home.
-
Maru shows up one Sunday afternoon, marches into the apartment right when Junno opens the door, and puts the kettle on. “So I heard you're living here now,” he says, shuffling around in cupboards and drawers.
“Um, yes.” Junno leans against the counter, feeling awkward in his own kitchen.
Maru peeks at him from behind a cup. “Is he home?”
“No,” Junno shakes his head, “No, I don't know where he is.”
Hearing that Maru visibly relaxes, his shoulders falling a little, and he holds out two cups for Junno. “Lay the table?”
The porcelain is thin and fragile in Junno's hands. It's the nice cups, the ones with elegant lines and tiny saucers. “How's work?”
Maru offers a tired smile. “Horrible. We've had to do extra takes because things haven't been going according to plan. I haven't slept a full night in a week.”
“And you're here for a social visit,” Junno sits down at the breakfast table, pushing out the other stool with his foot for Maru. “To what do I owe the honour?”
Maru looks away for a moment, his fingers tapping noiselessly against the counter before he turns to look Junno right in the eye. “I know you've had a thing for him ever since we were old enough to have hormones,” he says quickly, “but don't think that you have to do this. It's not your responsibility.”
Junno is a little stunned. “A thing for who?”
Maru gives him a Kame look, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. “Jin.”
Junno doesn't really know what to say, so he just gapes at Maru until the kettle snaps off and Maru finishes preparing the tea.
“He is a grown man,” Maru says, pouring them both tea delicately, “And you have to live your own life. I know Kame meant well making you come here, but I think you need to-” He sighs, “See, I'm not even sure. I just don't want you to wake up one day and realise that you've spent your life waiting for something that never happened.”
There is a pause, a silence of steaming tea. “I think you've got the wrong idea,” Junno says finally.
Maru smiles fondly. “So maybe we're wrong. On the other hand, maybe we're right.”
“Who are 'we'? Is Kame in on this?” The words feel stiff, like they're scraping his innards getting out, clawing their way from his throat.
“All of us.” The scrape of porcelain. “Well, Jin probably doesn't know.” Clank. “I told Kame I thought it was a bad idea. You shouldn't have been put in this position.”
“I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
“Junno.” Maru's hand on his shoulder is warm and bony.
“Can we talk about something else?” He asks his tea, squeezing his fingers.
“I-.” Hesitation in Maru's voice, and the hand slips away. “Sure. So have you talked to Koki?”
“No,” Junno says pensively, “Last time I called he laughed at me for five minutes.”
“That's just his way of showing that he cares.”
Junno looks away, spinning his cup. “Yeah.”
-
Jin's voice is smooth and warm as he sings in the shower. It's nothing like when he is performing, tense and trying to do his best, but relaxed and free, sometimes broken high notes. He flumps down in the couch next to Junno afterward, accidentally flinging the towel he's drying his hair with in Junno's face.
Junno doesn't even react to his loss of vision, just starts talking into the towel. “Do you ever feel like your life stopped at puberty, and the only reason you move forward is because people keep tugging you back and forth, making all the major decisions of your life for you?”
Jin pulls the towel away, grins at Junno. “Have I ever in my life made a decision on my own that didn't come back to bite me in the face?”
Junno grins back, almost automatically, like Jin's smiles are magnetic. “See, other people would have said another body part.”
“Other people need more personality,” Jin shrugs.
Junno sinks back into the cushions. “Does everyone else know more about me than I do?” He looks up at Jin, who stares back with dark eyes.
“I think you need what some people refer to as an 'Arashi moment'.”
“Please. Not more We Can Make It,” Junno groans, burying his face in his hands.
“Fine. Wine, then.”
-
Koki calls a few days later to laugh in Junno's ear.
Daddy's looking scary, Junno can hear Koki's little daughter in the background.
“Priceless,” Koki wheezes eventually.
Click.
“It's lonely,” Junno whispers into the silence.
-
Kame walks up to Junno in the back room at lunch with a curious little frown on his face. “Maru told me he talked to you the other day. Why didn't you say anything?”
“I didn't know there was anything to say.” Junno shoves in a mouthful of rice, chewing slowly.
“But he said that you-”
“I'm fine. It's fine. Everything is fine.” Junno interrupts, and Kame's hands jitter oddly when he pulls out the chair next to Junno's to sit down. “Isn't it?” Junno adds, a weak twinge of uncertainly to his voice.
Kame smiles sadly, knocks their foreheads together gently. “Are you happy?”
Junno swallows, watches Kame close his eyes. It takes a moment before he can gather himself to reply. “I don't know.”
“It will be fine,” Kame whispers and turns away, wiping at his face where Junno can't see, then continues in a choked voice. “We'll make it fine.”
-
“Maybe you could be my choreographer.” Jin stuffs his hand in the popcorn bowl, and tilts his head as he watches the behind the scenes video of dance practice with the juniors. Junno hadn't even been aware of being filmed at the time.
“Jin, you of all people don't need a choreographer to teach you.” He throws some popcorn at Jin's head. “You're a better dancer than me.”
“But what if I want you as my personal choreographer?” Jin teases, nudging Junno's side.
“I'm not really available. Kame and I work together, see.” Junno grins. There are popcorn crumbs stuck in Jin's hair.
“I'd pay you.” Jin says seriously.
“I can't teach you anything, we'd just end up doing this,” Junno gestures at the room in general, “all the time. And maybe some hiprolls.”
There is a calculating expression on Jin's face, and then he moves to sit with his knees on either side of Junno's thighs, overturning the popcorn bowl next to them on the couch. “And if I thought it would be worth it?”
On the television, Kame claps. AGAIN. In reality, Jin's hands splay over Junno's abdomen as he gazes at Junno with his lips slightly parted, eyes dark, dark, dark. “This might be a bad idea,” he says, suddenly so close that Junno's stomach aches.
“I have a feeling it might be one of your very worst,” Junno's breath hitches.
“I don't really care,” Jin whispers.
Jin tastes like smoke and vanilla, sweet and addictive.
-
Jin kisses deep and hard, as though it will get him closer, bruised and sore and real. Like the reality of it is not enough, but needs to be harsh, raw and brutal. Junno lets him though, because that's what Jin does, takes and takes until there is nothing left but the dark emptiness that comes over Junno in the silence afterward, when Jin's fingers have loosened their grip to lie lax and warm on Junno's hip, the only part of them still connected. Jin's snores ghost into Junno's hair, and Junno stares at the dark figures of their shadows on the wall. He doesn't turn to look at Jin then, knows the emptiness will devour him whole if he does, take him away from everything that was once light and happy and full of hope.
Dreams shatter when they come true.
-
“So have you slept with him yet?”
Junno almost squirts coffee out of his nose in surprise. “What?”
Ueda just pulls down his aviators to peek at Junno over the rim. “So, have you?”
Junno coughs. “I'm not going to answer that.” His gaze sweeps over the half-empty café. Sunlight filters through the thick ivy curling around the frames of the windows. Nobody seems to pay the two of them any mind.
Ueda's mouth shapes an 'o', and he leans over the little table, knocking the salt shaker to the side.
“Let me rephrase that. Have you told Kame yet?”
Junno puts his coffee down with a clack. There is an overwhelming tiredness which seems to seep deeper into his bones with each one of these conversations. “I'll call and ask you first next time I realise something about my life shall I?”
Ueda pushes his sunglasses back up. “What can I say. Life isn't as eventful out of the spotlight.”
“I quite like it that way.” Junno closes his eyes, leans toward the window to let the sun play on his closed eyelids, like the almost tangible remnants of a summer dream.
Ueda's foot brushes against Junno's under the table. “I know you do.”
-
“It wasn't a mistake,” Jin says to Junno, pushing him against the fridge.
“It was a bad idea,” Junno reasons feebly, closing his eyes and trying to stop his body from giving in.
Jin's breath is sated with alcohol. “That doesn't make it a mistake.”
Junno bites his lip. “A bad decision, then.”
Jin laughs, and something deep within Junno trembles. “You've already bit me in the face.”
Music blurs in Junno's ears. Again.
-
There are finger-shaped bruises on Junno's hips, and Kame's hands on his waist make him pause as he changes his shirt in the back room. Kame's fingers trace the darkened skin, so lightly it tickles.
“Kame?” Junno feels awkward, his sweaty t-shirt still hanging from his fingers.
“So you've really.” Kame swallows, turns his face down. He doesn't finish the sentence.
“I don't know what you were going to say, but the reply is probably yes.”
Kame tilts his face back up, searches Junno's gaze. He swallows again, and then, hands curling softly around Junno's hips, he stands on tip-toe to kiss Junno gently, open-mouthed and warm. Junno doesn't resist, hands still holding his t-shirt in a loose grip, but Kame pulls back after just a moment, turning his face into Junno's neck, nose just pressing against his jaw, and breathes slowly once before backing away.
“Thank you.” It's almost inaudible, and Kame turns away after saying it, running his hands through his hair as he speeds out of the room.
Sadness wells up in Junno like a wave, catching on the rough edges, clinging like spider web.
-
“Things have changed, haven't they,” Jin says softly.
They lie with their backs to each other, curled up for sleep.
“How do you mean?” Junno asks, too used to Jin's unruly reasoning to come to an immediate conclusion. His eyes are closed, halfway into dreams of sundaze and his grandmother's magnolia garden.
“I think. I might be ruining your life now.” Jin's voice is dull, monotonous.
“Hmm?” Junno's limbs feel heavy as he turns around slowly, reaching out across the rumpled sheets to touch Jin. “What are you talking about?”
“But you still don't look at me like that,” Jin continues, lying perfectly still. “You look at me like I'm ruining my life.”
“Jin, you... come here,” Junno mumbles, slinging an arm around Jin's waist, urging him to turn around.
Jin flips over quickly, burying his face in Junno's neck. “Am I really that pitiful?” He says then, and adds under his breath, “Will you leave?”
Hesitation lingers in Junno's actions as he reaches out to wrap his arms around Jin, but there is none in his words as he says, “I'll still be here in the morning.”
-
Kame slumps down on the floor of the dance hall as soon as the door closes on the last boy, flings his arms out dramatically, and comes to lie spread-eagled with a dull thump. Junno walks into his range of vision, peering down at Kame with a curious smile on his face.
“I need to get laid,” Kame says blankly.
“What, you realised that just now?” Junno asks teasingly.
Kame sticks out his tongue and raises his leg athletically to kick Junno in the shin. “Hey, I'm heartbroken. I hear it's quite good therapy.”
Junno rubs his leg, pouting as he sits down next to Kame, poking him in the tummy as retribution. “I think Yamapi would probably not mind helping you out. Especially if it's for your mental health.”
Kame grins, catches Junno's fingers and twists them. Junno pulls away with a yelp. “I know that. It was just that I didn't know for sure before. And now I do.”
It's like Junno has been swept adrift, far from everything that was once safe and familiar, constantly fighting to keep above the surface. “I'm sorry,” he whispers, in a way wishing it all back to the way it once was, even though in hindsight that might have been its own kind of misery.
“Don't be,” Kame says softly, sitting up. “Things are good now, right?”
Junno sighs. “I'm not so sure about that.” He gazes up at the ceiling for a moment, into the bright electric lighting, letting it sting his eyes and blur his vision. “Anyway, I'd better be off.”
“Home?” Kame stretches his arms above his head, a little green-tinted when Junno turns back to look at him. Junno blinks away the fuzziness, pastes a smile on his face.
“Yeah, but I need to go shopping first. Beer and toilet tissue. You know, essentials.” They get to their feet. “Maybe leek as well. They always seem to have that in dramas whenever they've been to the shops.”
Kame nudges Junno with his elbow. “That's because leeks are long enough to be visible over the edge of the bag. So that people know it's groceries.”
“And a cucumber couldn't cut it?” Their steps sound dully against the dance floor.
“Cucumber is not as wholesome as leek.” Kame grins.
Junno opens the door to the other room, propping it open with his shoulder to let Kame through. “I hope you do realise that I won't be able to look at a cucumber again without thinking about naughty vegetables?”
Kame winks. “I'm sure it'll be very hard for you.”
“That was worse than my jokes,” Junno protests. Kame just laughs as the door clicks shut behind them.
-
Junno can hear their voices even before he walks through the door, but it is when he slides it open that he realises that the muffled sounds are in fact coming from the kitchen, not the television, and that Kame is standing there in person, the curled fists and flushed anger his own.
“If it continues like this I will take him from you,” he snarls, staring intently at Jin who looks awkward and slightly panicked where he's backed up against the table.
“It's really none of your business though, is it,” Jin says, an odd blend of defiance and timidity.
Junno closes the door noisily, forces himself to grin at the two of them as their heads snap toward him. “Kame,” he says brightly, “are you staying for dinner? I bought cucumber; I thought we could have that Greek thing with the yoghurt and garlic.”
Kame's anger uncurls and fades quickly, and he backs away from Jin, smiles at Junno. “I think that sounds like an excellent idea. In fact, why don't we let Jin do the cooking?”
“But I-” Jin tries.
“Great,” Kame interrupts. There is a little malicious glint in his eyes, but he seems mostly amused as he takes the bags out of Junno's hands and puts them on the counter before dragging Junno over to the couch.
“-will end up burning everything,” Jin finishes weakly, and peers into the bags.
“Will he really be okay?” Junno asks quietly as he sits down next to Kame.
“Don't worry. He's a big boy. Sleeps with strangers and everything,” Kame deadpans, flicking the TV on from stand-by.
The meat is half-burned and the potatoes undercooked, but the Tzatsiki is delicious, and it turns out to be a quite nice dinner anyway, Kame's shoulder pressed gently against Junno's, Jin glancing up at them grumpily from the floor.
-
It's early, long before Junno has to get up, but he can't sleep, not as dawn slowly creeps upon Tokyo, not when Jin is lying pressed against him in bed, warm and still, long stretches of soft skin and low snores against Junno's collarbone.
Light spreads through the window and over Jin's face, and when he smiles sleepily at Junno, he smiles sunshine.
Maybe this is happiness.
-
“I think this could be a good thing,” Junno says the moment Koki picks up the phone. “I mean, I might actually have it figured out this time.”
Koki laughs at him anyway.
-
“Again,” Kame almost whimpers, and looks almost as though he wants to bash his head against the wall. Yamapi smiles innocently.
Junno presses the rewind button and touches Kame's shoulder as he passes him on his way to go buy him a coffee in the cafeteria. Kame sends him a pained look, and Junno can only send a sympathetic one back.
When he pushes the door open a while later, three hot cups in his hands, he almost drops them at the view that greets him. Yamapi has Kame pinned against one of the mirrored walls, his tongue in Kame's mouth, and his hands, well, somewhere Junno can't see.
We can make it is still playing in the background, and it's not until Kame moans and moves to grope Yamapi's bum that Junno shakes himself out of his stunned state and lets the door fall shut with a slam. He grins as they jerk toward the sound, and Kame blushes darkly while Yamapi just looks smug. “What was that, five minutes?” Junno comments, walking over to put down two of the cups on a bench.
“He had it coming,” Yamapi replies, doing something out of sight which makes Kame's eyes first go wide, and then narrow.
“I hope you're going to stop wasting our time by dancing wrong. Management were getting worried about you,” he says sweetly, deliberately stepping on Yamapi's foot.
Yamapi winces, sucks in a breath through his teeth, and presses Kame harder against the glass. “Oh, you love it.”
“I'll just go pick on some juniors for a while, then,” Junno says, winking, heading for the door again, “Actually, I might call it a day.”
“Don't come back!” Yamapi calls after him.
Kame just says “Nnnnnnng.”
-
“Pi called me,” Jin says, his words muffled as he is seemingly trying to mush a whole donut into his mouth at once. “He says he got some.” He waggles his eyebrows.
Junno nods. “He did. I walked in on him and Kame.”
Jin pauses in his chewing, his cheeks puffing out. Junno sniggers at him.
“Well. At least I get to tell Ueda.”
“Oh. I already...” Junno says guiltily.
Jin pouts.
-
“Can we go for a walk?” Jin says on a lazy Sunday morning, peering up at Junno through his bangs, nose pressed flat against Junno's torso. The palms of his hands rub lazy circles on Junno's naked thighs as he lies between them, effectively keeping Junno on the couch.
“If I say yes, will you let me get some pants on?” Junno asks Jin's bed hair, fingers curling around Jin's shoulders, dangerously close to his collarbones.
“A vague maybe.” Jin scrunches up his shoulders, mouths one of Junno's nipples through his shirt.
Junno closes his eyes for a moment. “I won't let myself be so easily distracted,” he says resolutely.
Jin pauses his actions then, lifts his head to look Junno in the eyes. He grins. “If I were you I wouldn't bet on it,” he comments easily, and the moment after he grinds down, moving his fingers up underneath the fabric of Junno's boxers to smooth over his hips.
Junno's breath stutters a little, and he blinks lazily at Jin. “Well. At least I didn't put any money on it.”
-
It's chilly out, autumn has settled in with its cold winds and warm colours, the cool breezes making the last tinkling summer moments float away in reds and gold. Their shoulders bump together as they walk next to each other, afternoon sun in their eyes as they make their leisurely way through the park's gravelled paths. It's a nice day, slow and relaxed, and there are only a few scattered people in the vicinity. Jin reaches out, his fingers curling around Junno's, and pulls him to a stop.
“So maybe you're the one,” Jin mumbles into his scarf, looking at Junno's collar.
Junno blinks. “Maybe I'm the one?”
“Yeah.” There is a soft dust of pink on Jin's cheeks.
“...That's kind of lame.”
“What?” Jin looks put off, his nose crinkled in displeasure.
Junno twirls their fingers together, “I thought you'd say something like 'Let's have hot pervy sex until an indefinite point in time'.”
Jin shrugs loftily, but his mouth quirks up. “Well, we can do that too.” He pulls Junno closer, tangles his free hand into the soft hair at the nape of his neck. “I'm going to kiss you now,” he says informatively.
“That's probably a bad idea,” Junno points out, smiling beneath his thin veneer of nonchalance.
“Probably,” Jin agrees.
“People will be angry. Girls will cry.”
“It will be a complete outrage.”
“You will get gay stalkers.”
“Really?” Jin blinks.
“Oh yes. Gay dwarves.” Junno says emphatically.
Jin nods slowly and takes a step closer, muttering “Stop talking,” against Junno's lips before kissing him, pulling their entwined hands behind his back. Jin kisses him carefully, plump lower lip smoothing softly over the skin just below Junno's mouth before Jin presses closer, nose cold against Junno's cheek.
When Junno pulls back, Jin gazes at him, eyes a little hazy.
Junno smiles giddily. “Let's burst through into tomorrow!”
“What?” Jin frowns, but Junno only grins, slips out of Jin's arms, and starts running. “You're kidding!” Jin calls out and adds, “I'm not running after you!”
Junno doesn't stop, just turns to look over his shoulder at Jin and call back, “Feel the rhythm!”
Jin shakes his head, smiles. “Idiot,” he mutters fondly, and starts running.
-
fin.
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Poll Team Future - Just one thing sparkled in the endless, wide world