Fic for gothicauthor (Part 2 of 2)
Part 1
Winter 2007
“Oi, oi Kame,” is the first thing Kame hears the morning of his end of winter term recital. He’d spent the night before running through his performance piece, nausea and exhaustion battling for control until he’d finally slipped away into sleep just before dawn. So when he turns around and sees Koki hurrying towards him with his violin tucked under his arm, he has to struggle not to groan. Koki’s managed to rope him in to playing the accompaniment for his violin recital, and he’s picked some ridiculous, Rumanian folk music piece, with a complex right hand pattern and an even more complex left hand chord progression. Unfortunately Kame has come to learn over the years that to outright reject Koki’s pleas is to lead to weeks of wheedling, pleading and puppy dog eyes.
Even so, Kame is allowed at least some off days, and so he allows himself to spin around and glare, irritation and exhaustion making his frown that much more threatening.
“Ah Kame-Chan, dude you walk way too fast,” Koki says, skidding to a stop by Kame, pink and green high-tops squeaking obnoxiously, completely ignoring the way Kame’s eyebrows furrow into a deeper frown at the noise. “I spoke to Jin today, you know Akanishi Jin, the percussion guy? Joined the orchestra at the beginning of the year, best friends with that idiot Yamashita and your roommate Yuu who set the theatre set on fire at last year’s end of year party?”
“Yes Koki, I am well aware of who Akanishi Jin is,” Kame snaps, his irritation growing tenfold, because if there is anything more frustrating than a night’s lack of sleep and dealing with unfairly chipper friends, it’s being reminded of Akanishi Jin. They’d not exactly gotten off to the greatest start and Kame will tell anyone who will listen that Akanishi is a smug, self-centred bastard who will shag anything with legs. It also doesn’t help that he is one of the most unfairly talented students in Tokyo’s National University of Fine Arts & Music.
“Ah yeah, I forgot you guys have ‘history’,” Koki says, smirking slightly, and Kame throws him a glare and wonders if it’s fitting for the number one pianist in his division to kick the number one violinist.
“Anyway, he said to tell you that Subaru had to cancel your early morning jam cos Mizushima-sensei’s on his case about missing too many singing lessons, so that means you’re free until 12 right?” Koki said, jumping in front of Kame and doing a half bow, eyes crinkling into his patented large puppy dog look. “Because if you are, and you’ll go through this Bartok piece with me I swear to God, I will pay for all of your drinks on New Year’s Eve, and I’ll cook you dinner for two months next term.”
Kame’s mouth is already open to deliver a short, sharp no, when Koki throws in the last bit. The thing is Kame’s broke as anything right now, now that they’re in exam period and there are no classes for Kame to TA for, and that means a limited amount of alcohol for New Years. Furthermore despite the fact that he’s already spent one year away from home living on his own, Kame’s cooking repertoire is still limited to instant ramen, omelettes, miso soup and rice, and Yuu’s isn’t much better. And Koki is almost as famous for his cooking as he is for his house parties. It therefore takes Kame all of five seconds of consideration to say yes, wincing when Koki cheers gleefully hooks an arm through Kame’s elbow and drags him down to the first practice room on the right.
~ ~ ~
Six hours later Kame finally leaves the practice room with Koki, both of them grumpy and starved. They make a silent unanimous agreement to head to the cafeteria for something to eat, and Kame feels slightly more human after he’s inhaled the café’s chicken curry and rice. They both glance up when Nakamaru slides into a chair opposite them, his own tray landing on the table.
“Hey guys. How’d the practice go?” Nakamaru asks, diligently pouring soy sauce all over his rice before separating his vegetables into piles. Kame had once asked Koki what that was all about and Koki had shrugged and explained that as long as he’d known Nakamaru, he’d been weird. Which is amusing considering Nakamaru spends most of his life dressed in preppy jumpers and perfectly pressed Oxford shirts.
“Long,” Koki grunts and Kame shrugs. They’ve only just finished getting to a stage where they don’t want to kill each other, and Kame really isn’t up to another fight about whether Bartok was a true pioneer of experimental music simply because he’d made his harpists play with pencils in his Concerto for Orchestra.
Which by the way, he totally was, no matter what Koki says. After all Koki has no foot to stand on; he likes John Cage.
“Ah,” Nakamaru says, nodding sagely. “Then I’m guessing you guys haven’t heard about the fundraiser the uni’s doing? To raise money for kids in Africa to buy instruments?”
“Yeah?” Koki asks, looking up from where he’s been demolishing his bowl of ramen like it’s going to get up and walk off of his plate. “That’s pretty cool. What are we doing for it?”
“Takizawa-sensei was talking about busking? Like in the centre of town, sort of a competition to see who can raise the most amount of money. I don’t know about doing that, but there were a couple of awesome ideas flying around.” Nakamaru explains and Kame meets Koki’s eyes across the table, unsurprised to see a bright gleam in his eyes.
“Busking, definitely,” Kame says, and Koki grins and nods his head.
“Definitely. Me on my violin, you on a keyboard. It’d be wicked. We should see if Kusano is interested. I figure we can do some sort of odd classicial/jazz fusion? Maybe get Akanishi and Ohkura from percussion on board. Yamapi, Yuu and Ryo will definitely be up for it as well.” Koki says, brain already plotting how to get everyone involved. Kame is so caught up in Koki’s enthusiasm that he doesn’t even flinch at the mention of Akanishi’s name.
“Mm, Yuu will definitely be up for it. I can have a word with Kusano, but I’ll leave Yamapi, the percussion guys and Yuu to you,” Kame agrees, spooning up the rest of his curry and taking a drink of his water.
“Ok. When does the fundraiser end?” Koki asks Nakamaru, who looks mildly amused at their enthusiasm.
“December 5th Nakamaru says. “Gives you guys just over three weeks to organise everything.”
“Ok. So if we can get hold of the others, we should meet at my dorm in an hour?” Koki says to Kame and Kame nods his agreement. “Good. See you both then.”
“What do you mean both?” Nakamaru yelps as Kame and Koki stand up to clean their trays. “Oi, I didn’t agree to join your busking group.”
Kame pats Nakamaru’s shoulder sympathetically and follows Koki out of the door. He bumps fists with Koki before heading over to the jazz department. He’d only done busking once or twice in the past with friends from high school and even then it was part of the school music festival. Although seriously-how hard can busking really be?
~ ~ ~
Unbelievably hard is what Kame and the ten other guys realise as they run through an arrangement of Benny Goodman’s I Got A Heartful Of Music that Yuu had managed to find buried in the stacks of the wind department, and they’ve yet to receive more than a handful of ¥500 coins.
But then Ryo turns to them all in disgust and says flatly, “seriously man, if we don’t bring out the Pink Floyd we’re gonna lose this damn competition, and I don’t know about anyone else, but fuck if I’m going back a loser.”
Kame cracks his fingers nervously as Ryo and Koki start an intense debate and throws a sideways a look at where Akanishi, Subaru and Ohkura are slouching against the wall. Akanishi is wearing a pair of ray-bans and dressed in low-slung black jeans and a black rolling stones t-shirt tucked under a battered black leather jacket and he looks far too chilled out to be busking for money in the middle of winter. In fact he’s the only one not wrapped up in layers and looks far too unbothered about it. He’d sent Kame an arched look when he’d arrived with Koki before reaching for one of the coffees that Yamapi had provided before focusing back onto his glockenspiel, fingers deftly twirling a drum stick in the air.
Kame comes back to himself when Koki suddenly declares, “Alright you lot. Let’s start with Money. After three; one, two and three.”
Kame deftly begins, Ohkura pounding out a steady 7/4 beat, and Subaru plucking out the bass line on his double bass. Akanishi clashew the cymbals every second beat before Subaru leans back and lets the music pour forth, Dick Parry’s famous saxophone solo ringing out across the streets of Nerima. Kame grins as he pounds out the bass part on his keyboard, working it so it sounds as much like a guitar as he can make it and suddenly it gels.
As they come to the end of the piece and Ryo finishes off his clarinet solo deftly, taking David Gilmour’s guitar solo and melding it to his jazz clarinet, Kame grins as the crowd around them claps and cheers, casually tossing money into Kusano’s empty saxophone case in front of them. Kame catches Koki’s grin across the way and doesn’t even protest when Yuu declares that it’s pub time.
They end up in their local bar, a tiny place tucked in between a karaoke parlour and an all night ramen restaurant and Kame is happy to order a pint of beer and sit tucked between Koki and Nakamaru. He’s unsurprised when Yuu and Akanishi declare that its mystery shot time and resigns himself to drinking a number of unrecognisable alcoholic shots.
He blinks when Akanishi clinks his shot against Kame’s and smiles secretively, and says, “To learning to keep our mouths shut about things we don’t understand,” before following Subaru to the bathroom leaving Kame puzzled and pointedly ignoring Yuu’s raised eyebrow. He shrugs when Koki nudges his shoulder and sends him a ‘what the hell is that about’ look and goes back to his drink. Akanishi is weird and every time they meet Kame leaves feeling so frustrated he almost wishes he’d never had the misfortune of meeting Akanishi.
“Who wants to do karaoke?!” Kusano suddenly asks, and grins when everyone but Kame cheers and says yes. Kame shakes his head at Kusano’s look and settles back to watch his friends make fools of themselves.
“The others are doing karaoke,” Kame says when Akanishi returns and looks around with an arched eyebrow.
“Not your thing, huh,” Akanishi smiles and Kame is instantly on his guard. Akanishi is never this friendly and Kame is beginning to wonder if he’s already drunk.
“You know when you’re not frowning at everyone and everything you’re kind of good looking,” he says, thoughtfully turning to watch Kame.
“Thanks Akanishi. I’ve waited my whole life for you to tell me that I’m passably good looking,” Kame sighs, rolling his eyes and ignoring the way Akanishi is watching him.
“You know, if you don’t stop with the Akanishi this and Akanishi that and call me Jin, I’m going to start thinking you don’t like me,” Jin says and Kame is suddenly aware that he’s moved slightly closer, eyes glittering in the dim lighting.
“Then I guess you’ve hit the point right on the nail Jin; I don’t like you. You’re rude and arrogant and you expect everyone to fall at your feet in admiration, when nine times out of ten you’ve got nothing polite to say to anyone. And then if someone doesn’t show you any interest you take to putting them down or stalking them,” Kame snaps, sending Jin a pointed look and taking a sip of his beer.
Jin suddenly shoots a hand out and grabs onto Kame’s wrist, pulling Kame towards him.
“Ah, but I like you,” he breathes before cupping his hand around Kame’s chin and placing his mouth over Kame’s. The kiss is sloppy and Kame can taste the rum on Jin’s tongue and breath. Kame’s is almost frozen because Jesus Christ, this is Akanishi Jin, and damn it, he doesn’t even like Jin, let alone want to kiss him. But Jin’s eyes are slipping shut slightly and Kame feels himself relax, let’s Jin kiss him softly and sweetly until Kame’s heart is pounding in his chest.
Jin pulls back and arches an eyebrow at Kame’s slightly dazed expression, before smirking.
“I guess you do like me, huh,” he practically purrs and Kame realises with a flush that he is staring at Jin with a ridiculously sappy expression on his face. He shoves Jin away and moves to his feet, grabbing onto his coat and turning to pin Jin with a furious expression.
“Fuck you,” he snarls and before Jin can open his mouth and make a stupidly lewd joke he turns and stalks out the door, ignoring Koki’s calls. Christ he needs a drink he thinks. But first, he needs a shower. He can feel frustration and rage and something that feels like betrayal rise up. It almost feels like Akanishi had taken advantage of him, seen into Kame’s head and realised the silly little crush Kame can feel developing and painstakingly used it to his advantage. He shouldn’t be surprised though. Akanishi had proven he thrived on competition. Kame shouldn’t expect Akanishi to act any differently with him.
Even still there’s a tiny bit of Kame that feels let down. Which is why he spends the next day hiding in the library, hoping he’ll never have to see Akanishi Jin again when Yuu suddenly appears opposite him with the devil in tow. He feels a stab of panic so intense he almost wants to melt into the floor with embarrassment, but Jin simply nods at him when Yuu says hello, no taunting smirk or raised eye brow, and Kame begins to hope that perhaps Jin was simply too drunk to remember last night. It doesn’t stop him from spending the entire hour on the edge of his seat just waiting for Jin to drop the bomb casually.
But then Yuu stands up and stretches, asks Kame if he wants to join him and Jin for dinner before shrugging and loping out with Jin in tow when Kame says no. And Kame practically melts in relief into his seat. He can feel a headache beginning in his ears and knows he’s not going to get any more work done, so settles for heading back to the apartment thirty minutes later.
He’s surprised to see Yuu sprawled out across his bed flipping through a copy of Naruto. Yuu meets his eyes and arches an eyebrow at the carton of cup ramen in Kame’s hands. He shrugs and sits with a sigh at his desk spinning the chair round to face his roommate.
“You saw him kiss me last night,” Kame says bluntly, frowning when Yuu nods and sits up.
“Only me and Kusano saw,” Yuu explains. “Everyone else was looking through the karaoke book to sing. He says he doesn’t remember anything. I think its bullshit, but I’ve learnt the hard way that there’s no point in pushing Jin.”
“You make it sound like I want a relationship with him or something,” Kame mutters, picking at his nails.
Yuu smiles and says “Sure you don’t,” so softly Kame almost doesn’t hear it as he goes to read through his lecture notes. He frowns, wondering if he should demand that Yuu repeat himself. After all, it's not as if he likes Akanishi.
~ ~ ~
Spring 2008
Winter rolls into spring with ease and suddenly Kame is trying to sort out a summer internship with Hochschule für Musik und Theater München before the end of term. He’s spent the last week desperately trying to remember all of the English he’d learnt in school, basically forcing Koki and Kusano to proofread every email he’d sent off. Kusano, meanwhile, is organising a party to welcome all of the exchange students over from Switzerland. Kame thinks he’s just trying to score some points with Kuroki Meisa, the exceptionally pretty pianist who’d eaten up and spat out most of the students in his year who’d tried to ask her out.
Kame had watched Jin attempt it on Saturday night at the student bar, and had been both surprised and vaguely uncomfortable to watch her smile up at Jin, gesturing for him to sit down opposite her. Kame’s not quite sure how to explain his feelings for Jin. Following the kiss Jin had all but ignored him, going back to the icy silence he’d presented Kame back at the beginning of their first year and Kame feels stupid for feeling slightly offended.
They’d met only once over Christmas when Koki and Kusano had made an extravagant roast dinner after Kusano had spent the weeks leading up to Christmas fantasising about all the amazing food he’d had in New York; once he’d gotten some recipes from his mum, Koki had all but corralled the entire orchestra not going home immediately into attending his Christmas dinner at their apartment.
He’d managed not to drop the cheese cake he’d bought from the store in surprise when he’d seen Akanishi sprawled out on the sofa talking to Yuu and had simply hesitantly returned the nod Akanishi had sent him. They’d ended up opposite one another on the table and Kame hadn’t even been able to work up much more of a reaction than to simply roll his eyes as Yuu’s eyebrow waggle.
Yamapi had started the conversation by talking about his girlfriend, a pretty girl called Erika, who’d taken up the flute as an extra credit class, and halfway between a joke Koki had been telling about his violin teacher and a cat, he’d met Akanishi’s eyes across the table and smiled before he’d even thought about it. Akanishi had looked surprised before he’d smiled back, and Kame had felt that treacherous pound of his heart, the same one that had snuck up on him back at the end of last year when Akanishi had kissed him.
The same thing had happened later on, when Kusano had forced everyone to pull Christmas crackers his sister had sent him from America, laughing every time someone jumped in surprise, and forcing people to read out the awful jokes, translating everything quickly into Japanese. Kame had been focused on scraping up the last of his mash potatoes when Akanishi had calmly offered him the end of his cracker, eyebrows raised in something like challenge. Kame had considered ignoring him, or saying no, but then he’d caught sight of Yuu watching them out of the corner of his eyes, face relaxed into a genuinely pleased smile and suddenly he didn’t want to ruin his roommate’s Christmas. So he’d reached across the table and pulled, rolling his eyes when Akanishi had won and grinned with something akin to smug amusement, simply shaking his head when he translated his own joke, the English sounding odd.
And later on when Kame had helped a drunken Yuu stumble back to their dorm, he’d realised that he’d had an entire evening with Akanishi without either of them starting a fight.
It was, he mused, nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
~~~
It is probably why he’d been somewhat less surprised when he’d walked into Jin at the student bar. Jin had nodded and Kame had been so surprised that Jin was acknowledging his presence for the second time in two months that it had taken him a few seconds to return the nod.
“You were pretty good. During the Prokovief piano concerto for last year’s end of year concert, I mean.” Jin said after he’d made his order and Kame was trying to catch the bartender’s eyes. Kame had blinked before turning to face Jin in surprise.
“Um. Thank you, I guess. For the praise I mean. I enjoyed playing the piece as well,” Kame had said politely, bowing his head slightly.
“You’re welcome.” Jin had said, bobbing his head slightly. The silence had returned and Kame almost breathed a sigh of relief when the bartender returned with Jin’s drinks. He’d watched Jin pay before making his own order.
“Kame-kun,” he’d heard before Jin left and he blinked when he’d realised Jin was watching him closely, something unreadable in his eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow right? At Kusano’s party? Because if not, I just wanted to, you know. Apologise, I guess, for being a dick.”
Kame could practically feel how hard it must have been for Jin to apologise. He’d figured out fairly quickly that Jin didn’t back down from a lot of things, and the fact that he’d admitted he acted like an idiot had made Kame feel that Jin at least meant his apology.
“I’m going to Kusano’s,” Kame had called as Jin had suddenly turned to walk away. Jin had spun around when he’d heard Kame and something on his face had seemed oddly hopeful. “Tomorrow night, I’m going. I guess I’ll see you around. At the party.”
“Yeah,” Jin had said, smiling slightly before he’d walked off to where Meisa was waiting.
It’s as he’s reminiscing on that that he realises that he’s been at university for a year and a half now and he’s not even considered dating anyone. It’s even worse when he realises that the only person he’s even kissed is Akanishi, and that he’d spent most of the kiss behaving like a stupid girl with a crush. But tonight that’s going to change; he’d spent some time with a pretty flute player called Horikita Maki, one of Kuroki-Kun’s friends, and she’d proved to be both lovely looking and to have a fantastic sense of humour. He knows she’s going to be at Kusano’s place tonight and he’s planning on forgetting about Akanishi and awkward, confusing kisses with stupid guys who don’t know what they want and focusing on spending an evening with a pretty, intelligent girl.
Of course the reality is that he spends the evening stuck watching Kusano and Maki talk about New York, as he sighs and counts down the minutes until he can leave without being rude. He takes a look around the room and smiles as he watches Yamapi and Ryo jam with Ryo’s battered old fender in the corner, Yamapi warbling out an old TOKIO love song to the group of girls opposite him, who are laughing and clapping. He continues looking around and blinks when he realises Jin and Meisa are watching him. Jin turns away and reaches for his drink but Meisa smiles slightly and nods her head at him. Kame feels like he is being tested for something and haltingly nods back, awkwardly returning her smile.
He suddenly feels like he is missing something, a feeling that grows when Yuu grins at him across the room and salutes him with his beer bottle before turning and walking over to Ryo and Yamapi. Kame sighs, suddenly feeling like everyone’s laughing at some private joke, and heads back out to the grassy area outside of Kusano and Koki’s apartment and settles on the bench chained to the sad-looking tree in the middle of the garden area. It’s quiet out here, the steady thump of the bass becoming a back track against the soft hush of cars. It’s warm for March, and Kame feels comfortable enough to roll the sleeves up of his jumper. He’s so focused on his task he almost doesn’t hear the front door slide open until Jin is halfway across the lawn and settling down next to him.
Jin looks pensive and is twirling a daisy around one finger, the white spinning into a wheel that Kame finds himself watching. The silence is starting to become awkward and Kame is almost tempted to start a conversation. But fuck it, Jin’s been ignoring him for nearly three months now. Damned if he makes the effort to talk first.
“I don’t fancy Meisa,” Jin suddenly says and Kame blinks, because what the hell. He didn’t even ask if Jin liked Meisa.
“Ok,” Kame says slowly. “But what has that got to do with me?”
Jin hisses in frustration and spins to face Kame on the bench. “It’s got everything to do with you, you idiot. I’m telling you this so you don’t get the wrong idea, ok? So that when I do this you won’t run off accusing me of being a serial cheater.”
Kame is about to ask ‘do what’ when Jin suddenly pulls Kame’s face forwards gently and kisses him, and it’s like history repeating itself. The only difference is that this time Kame pulls back and glares at Jin.
“What the fuck are you doing Akanishi?” he demands, watching Jin flinch slightly and close his eyes. “You don’t get to kiss me then ignore me and then try it again. For Christ’s sake, what the hell is your problem?”
“I’ve got this bloody giant crush on you, ok?” Jin suddenly says, exploding and rising to his feet. “Despite the fact that you’re stubborn and irritating and too fucking hard-working for your own good. Despite the fact that you spend most of you time off in the library, that you make me hard in a second but won’t give me the time of day unless you’re a little bit tipsy. You drive me fucking insane.”
“Insane? Jesus, Akanishi, do you have any idea how damn confusing you are? You kiss me one day and then spend three months ignoring me. Sometimes you’re friendly with me, you joke with me, other days you’ve barely got more than two words to say to me, and what you do have to say is sarcastic and sharp.”
Kame’s breathing hard by the time he’s finished, and he’s starting to realise just how much Jin’s actions have affected him. Jin looks surprised before he runs a hand through his hair in agitation.
“Look. I didn’t mean to ignore you ok?” Jin says, almost looking apologetic. “I just didn’t know how to act around you. You didn’t flirt with me, or even pay me any attention, and it confused me? Just, I don’t even know. I’m not asking that we start some sort of epic love affair. But look, I know Takizawa-sensei has arranged a trip to see Carmen in Tokyo next weekend, and well. I got two tickets, and if you wanted to come with me that would be pretty cool. Or you know. You can take the ticket, go with Koki and the others and I guess we could get a drink afterwards? It’s totally up to you, of course.”
Kame is so surprised he feels his mouth fall open. If someone had told him that tonight would end with Akanishi Jin asking him on a date he would have laughed himself senseless. But there’s something so serious, so oddly vulnerable about the way Jin is looking at him that Kame finds himself nodding before he’s really thought about it. But as he watches Jin’s face break into the most genuine smile he’s even seen on his face, one that lights up his eyes and shows a flash of straight white teeth, it is almost worth the embarrassment of his quick answer.
“Fine, but for the record, I don’t put out until at least the sixth date,” Kame says, the words practically falling out of his mouth, as if he’d been friends with Jin for years and hadn’t spent the majority of his university career hating him. He feels himself flush and quickly tips his head to face the sky. He feels more than sees Jin settle down on the bench next to him, relaxation slipping into him like syrup.
“Mm, that’s what you think,” Jin says in a lazy murmur, sliding the daisy into Kame’s hand and calmly slipping an arm around Kame’s shoulders.
And Kame smiles and for once doesn’t think about anything else.
Winter 2007
“Oi, oi Kame,” is the first thing Kame hears the morning of his end of winter term recital. He’d spent the night before running through his performance piece, nausea and exhaustion battling for control until he’d finally slipped away into sleep just before dawn. So when he turns around and sees Koki hurrying towards him with his violin tucked under his arm, he has to struggle not to groan. Koki’s managed to rope him in to playing the accompaniment for his violin recital, and he’s picked some ridiculous, Rumanian folk music piece, with a complex right hand pattern and an even more complex left hand chord progression. Unfortunately Kame has come to learn over the years that to outright reject Koki’s pleas is to lead to weeks of wheedling, pleading and puppy dog eyes.
Even so, Kame is allowed at least some off days, and so he allows himself to spin around and glare, irritation and exhaustion making his frown that much more threatening.
“Ah Kame-Chan, dude you walk way too fast,” Koki says, skidding to a stop by Kame, pink and green high-tops squeaking obnoxiously, completely ignoring the way Kame’s eyebrows furrow into a deeper frown at the noise. “I spoke to Jin today, you know Akanishi Jin, the percussion guy? Joined the orchestra at the beginning of the year, best friends with that idiot Yamashita and your roommate Yuu who set the theatre set on fire at last year’s end of year party?”
“Yes Koki, I am well aware of who Akanishi Jin is,” Kame snaps, his irritation growing tenfold, because if there is anything more frustrating than a night’s lack of sleep and dealing with unfairly chipper friends, it’s being reminded of Akanishi Jin. They’d not exactly gotten off to the greatest start and Kame will tell anyone who will listen that Akanishi is a smug, self-centred bastard who will shag anything with legs. It also doesn’t help that he is one of the most unfairly talented students in Tokyo’s National University of Fine Arts & Music.
“Ah yeah, I forgot you guys have ‘history’,” Koki says, smirking slightly, and Kame throws him a glare and wonders if it’s fitting for the number one pianist in his division to kick the number one violinist.
“Anyway, he said to tell you that Subaru had to cancel your early morning jam cos Mizushima-sensei’s on his case about missing too many singing lessons, so that means you’re free until 12 right?” Koki said, jumping in front of Kame and doing a half bow, eyes crinkling into his patented large puppy dog look. “Because if you are, and you’ll go through this Bartok piece with me I swear to God, I will pay for all of your drinks on New Year’s Eve, and I’ll cook you dinner for two months next term.”
Kame’s mouth is already open to deliver a short, sharp no, when Koki throws in the last bit. The thing is Kame’s broke as anything right now, now that they’re in exam period and there are no classes for Kame to TA for, and that means a limited amount of alcohol for New Years. Furthermore despite the fact that he’s already spent one year away from home living on his own, Kame’s cooking repertoire is still limited to instant ramen, omelettes, miso soup and rice, and Yuu’s isn’t much better. And Koki is almost as famous for his cooking as he is for his house parties. It therefore takes Kame all of five seconds of consideration to say yes, wincing when Koki cheers gleefully hooks an arm through Kame’s elbow and drags him down to the first practice room on the right.
~ ~ ~
Six hours later Kame finally leaves the practice room with Koki, both of them grumpy and starved. They make a silent unanimous agreement to head to the cafeteria for something to eat, and Kame feels slightly more human after he’s inhaled the café’s chicken curry and rice. They both glance up when Nakamaru slides into a chair opposite them, his own tray landing on the table.
“Hey guys. How’d the practice go?” Nakamaru asks, diligently pouring soy sauce all over his rice before separating his vegetables into piles. Kame had once asked Koki what that was all about and Koki had shrugged and explained that as long as he’d known Nakamaru, he’d been weird. Which is amusing considering Nakamaru spends most of his life dressed in preppy jumpers and perfectly pressed Oxford shirts.
“Long,” Koki grunts and Kame shrugs. They’ve only just finished getting to a stage where they don’t want to kill each other, and Kame really isn’t up to another fight about whether Bartok was a true pioneer of experimental music simply because he’d made his harpists play with pencils in his Concerto for Orchestra.
Which by the way, he totally was, no matter what Koki says. After all Koki has no foot to stand on; he likes John Cage.
“Ah,” Nakamaru says, nodding sagely. “Then I’m guessing you guys haven’t heard about the fundraiser the uni’s doing? To raise money for kids in Africa to buy instruments?”
“Yeah?” Koki asks, looking up from where he’s been demolishing his bowl of ramen like it’s going to get up and walk off of his plate. “That’s pretty cool. What are we doing for it?”
“Takizawa-sensei was talking about busking? Like in the centre of town, sort of a competition to see who can raise the most amount of money. I don’t know about doing that, but there were a couple of awesome ideas flying around.” Nakamaru explains and Kame meets Koki’s eyes across the table, unsurprised to see a bright gleam in his eyes.
“Busking, definitely,” Kame says, and Koki grins and nods his head.
“Definitely. Me on my violin, you on a keyboard. It’d be wicked. We should see if Kusano is interested. I figure we can do some sort of odd classicial/jazz fusion? Maybe get Akanishi and Ohkura from percussion on board. Yamapi, Yuu and Ryo will definitely be up for it as well.” Koki says, brain already plotting how to get everyone involved. Kame is so caught up in Koki’s enthusiasm that he doesn’t even flinch at the mention of Akanishi’s name.
“Mm, Yuu will definitely be up for it. I can have a word with Kusano, but I’ll leave Yamapi, the percussion guys and Yuu to you,” Kame agrees, spooning up the rest of his curry and taking a drink of his water.
“Ok. When does the fundraiser end?” Koki asks Nakamaru, who looks mildly amused at their enthusiasm.
“December 5th Nakamaru says. “Gives you guys just over three weeks to organise everything.”
“Ok. So if we can get hold of the others, we should meet at my dorm in an hour?” Koki says to Kame and Kame nods his agreement. “Good. See you both then.”
“What do you mean both?” Nakamaru yelps as Kame and Koki stand up to clean their trays. “Oi, I didn’t agree to join your busking group.”
Kame pats Nakamaru’s shoulder sympathetically and follows Koki out of the door. He bumps fists with Koki before heading over to the jazz department. He’d only done busking once or twice in the past with friends from high school and even then it was part of the school music festival. Although seriously-how hard can busking really be?
~ ~ ~
Unbelievably hard is what Kame and the ten other guys realise as they run through an arrangement of Benny Goodman’s I Got A Heartful Of Music that Yuu had managed to find buried in the stacks of the wind department, and they’ve yet to receive more than a handful of ¥500 coins.
But then Ryo turns to them all in disgust and says flatly, “seriously man, if we don’t bring out the Pink Floyd we’re gonna lose this damn competition, and I don’t know about anyone else, but fuck if I’m going back a loser.”
Kame cracks his fingers nervously as Ryo and Koki start an intense debate and throws a sideways a look at where Akanishi, Subaru and Ohkura are slouching against the wall. Akanishi is wearing a pair of ray-bans and dressed in low-slung black jeans and a black rolling stones t-shirt tucked under a battered black leather jacket and he looks far too chilled out to be busking for money in the middle of winter. In fact he’s the only one not wrapped up in layers and looks far too unbothered about it. He’d sent Kame an arched look when he’d arrived with Koki before reaching for one of the coffees that Yamapi had provided before focusing back onto his glockenspiel, fingers deftly twirling a drum stick in the air.
Kame comes back to himself when Koki suddenly declares, “Alright you lot. Let’s start with Money. After three; one, two and three.”
Kame deftly begins, Ohkura pounding out a steady 7/4 beat, and Subaru plucking out the bass line on his double bass. Akanishi clashew the cymbals every second beat before Subaru leans back and lets the music pour forth, Dick Parry’s famous saxophone solo ringing out across the streets of Nerima. Kame grins as he pounds out the bass part on his keyboard, working it so it sounds as much like a guitar as he can make it and suddenly it gels.
As they come to the end of the piece and Ryo finishes off his clarinet solo deftly, taking David Gilmour’s guitar solo and melding it to his jazz clarinet, Kame grins as the crowd around them claps and cheers, casually tossing money into Kusano’s empty saxophone case in front of them. Kame catches Koki’s grin across the way and doesn’t even protest when Yuu declares that it’s pub time.
They end up in their local bar, a tiny place tucked in between a karaoke parlour and an all night ramen restaurant and Kame is happy to order a pint of beer and sit tucked between Koki and Nakamaru. He’s unsurprised when Yuu and Akanishi declare that its mystery shot time and resigns himself to drinking a number of unrecognisable alcoholic shots.
He blinks when Akanishi clinks his shot against Kame’s and smiles secretively, and says, “To learning to keep our mouths shut about things we don’t understand,” before following Subaru to the bathroom leaving Kame puzzled and pointedly ignoring Yuu’s raised eyebrow. He shrugs when Koki nudges his shoulder and sends him a ‘what the hell is that about’ look and goes back to his drink. Akanishi is weird and every time they meet Kame leaves feeling so frustrated he almost wishes he’d never had the misfortune of meeting Akanishi.
“Who wants to do karaoke?!” Kusano suddenly asks, and grins when everyone but Kame cheers and says yes. Kame shakes his head at Kusano’s look and settles back to watch his friends make fools of themselves.
“The others are doing karaoke,” Kame says when Akanishi returns and looks around with an arched eyebrow.
“Not your thing, huh,” Akanishi smiles and Kame is instantly on his guard. Akanishi is never this friendly and Kame is beginning to wonder if he’s already drunk.
“You know when you’re not frowning at everyone and everything you’re kind of good looking,” he says, thoughtfully turning to watch Kame.
“Thanks Akanishi. I’ve waited my whole life for you to tell me that I’m passably good looking,” Kame sighs, rolling his eyes and ignoring the way Akanishi is watching him.
“You know, if you don’t stop with the Akanishi this and Akanishi that and call me Jin, I’m going to start thinking you don’t like me,” Jin says and Kame is suddenly aware that he’s moved slightly closer, eyes glittering in the dim lighting.
“Then I guess you’ve hit the point right on the nail Jin; I don’t like you. You’re rude and arrogant and you expect everyone to fall at your feet in admiration, when nine times out of ten you’ve got nothing polite to say to anyone. And then if someone doesn’t show you any interest you take to putting them down or stalking them,” Kame snaps, sending Jin a pointed look and taking a sip of his beer.
Jin suddenly shoots a hand out and grabs onto Kame’s wrist, pulling Kame towards him.
“Ah, but I like you,” he breathes before cupping his hand around Kame’s chin and placing his mouth over Kame’s. The kiss is sloppy and Kame can taste the rum on Jin’s tongue and breath. Kame’s is almost frozen because Jesus Christ, this is Akanishi Jin, and damn it, he doesn’t even like Jin, let alone want to kiss him. But Jin’s eyes are slipping shut slightly and Kame feels himself relax, let’s Jin kiss him softly and sweetly until Kame’s heart is pounding in his chest.
Jin pulls back and arches an eyebrow at Kame’s slightly dazed expression, before smirking.
“I guess you do like me, huh,” he practically purrs and Kame realises with a flush that he is staring at Jin with a ridiculously sappy expression on his face. He shoves Jin away and moves to his feet, grabbing onto his coat and turning to pin Jin with a furious expression.
“Fuck you,” he snarls and before Jin can open his mouth and make a stupidly lewd joke he turns and stalks out the door, ignoring Koki’s calls. Christ he needs a drink he thinks. But first, he needs a shower. He can feel frustration and rage and something that feels like betrayal rise up. It almost feels like Akanishi had taken advantage of him, seen into Kame’s head and realised the silly little crush Kame can feel developing and painstakingly used it to his advantage. He shouldn’t be surprised though. Akanishi had proven he thrived on competition. Kame shouldn’t expect Akanishi to act any differently with him.
Even still there’s a tiny bit of Kame that feels let down. Which is why he spends the next day hiding in the library, hoping he’ll never have to see Akanishi Jin again when Yuu suddenly appears opposite him with the devil in tow. He feels a stab of panic so intense he almost wants to melt into the floor with embarrassment, but Jin simply nods at him when Yuu says hello, no taunting smirk or raised eye brow, and Kame begins to hope that perhaps Jin was simply too drunk to remember last night. It doesn’t stop him from spending the entire hour on the edge of his seat just waiting for Jin to drop the bomb casually.
But then Yuu stands up and stretches, asks Kame if he wants to join him and Jin for dinner before shrugging and loping out with Jin in tow when Kame says no. And Kame practically melts in relief into his seat. He can feel a headache beginning in his ears and knows he’s not going to get any more work done, so settles for heading back to the apartment thirty minutes later.
He’s surprised to see Yuu sprawled out across his bed flipping through a copy of Naruto. Yuu meets his eyes and arches an eyebrow at the carton of cup ramen in Kame’s hands. He shrugs and sits with a sigh at his desk spinning the chair round to face his roommate.
“You saw him kiss me last night,” Kame says bluntly, frowning when Yuu nods and sits up.
“Only me and Kusano saw,” Yuu explains. “Everyone else was looking through the karaoke book to sing. He says he doesn’t remember anything. I think its bullshit, but I’ve learnt the hard way that there’s no point in pushing Jin.”
“You make it sound like I want a relationship with him or something,” Kame mutters, picking at his nails.
Yuu smiles and says “Sure you don’t,” so softly Kame almost doesn’t hear it as he goes to read through his lecture notes. He frowns, wondering if he should demand that Yuu repeat himself. After all, it's not as if he likes Akanishi.
~ ~ ~
Spring 2008
Winter rolls into spring with ease and suddenly Kame is trying to sort out a summer internship with Hochschule für Musik und Theater München before the end of term. He’s spent the last week desperately trying to remember all of the English he’d learnt in school, basically forcing Koki and Kusano to proofread every email he’d sent off. Kusano, meanwhile, is organising a party to welcome all of the exchange students over from Switzerland. Kame thinks he’s just trying to score some points with Kuroki Meisa, the exceptionally pretty pianist who’d eaten up and spat out most of the students in his year who’d tried to ask her out.
Kame had watched Jin attempt it on Saturday night at the student bar, and had been both surprised and vaguely uncomfortable to watch her smile up at Jin, gesturing for him to sit down opposite her. Kame’s not quite sure how to explain his feelings for Jin. Following the kiss Jin had all but ignored him, going back to the icy silence he’d presented Kame back at the beginning of their first year and Kame feels stupid for feeling slightly offended.
They’d met only once over Christmas when Koki and Kusano had made an extravagant roast dinner after Kusano had spent the weeks leading up to Christmas fantasising about all the amazing food he’d had in New York; once he’d gotten some recipes from his mum, Koki had all but corralled the entire orchestra not going home immediately into attending his Christmas dinner at their apartment.
He’d managed not to drop the cheese cake he’d bought from the store in surprise when he’d seen Akanishi sprawled out on the sofa talking to Yuu and had simply hesitantly returned the nod Akanishi had sent him. They’d ended up opposite one another on the table and Kame hadn’t even been able to work up much more of a reaction than to simply roll his eyes as Yuu’s eyebrow waggle.
Yamapi had started the conversation by talking about his girlfriend, a pretty girl called Erika, who’d taken up the flute as an extra credit class, and halfway between a joke Koki had been telling about his violin teacher and a cat, he’d met Akanishi’s eyes across the table and smiled before he’d even thought about it. Akanishi had looked surprised before he’d smiled back, and Kame had felt that treacherous pound of his heart, the same one that had snuck up on him back at the end of last year when Akanishi had kissed him.
The same thing had happened later on, when Kusano had forced everyone to pull Christmas crackers his sister had sent him from America, laughing every time someone jumped in surprise, and forcing people to read out the awful jokes, translating everything quickly into Japanese. Kame had been focused on scraping up the last of his mash potatoes when Akanishi had calmly offered him the end of his cracker, eyebrows raised in something like challenge. Kame had considered ignoring him, or saying no, but then he’d caught sight of Yuu watching them out of the corner of his eyes, face relaxed into a genuinely pleased smile and suddenly he didn’t want to ruin his roommate’s Christmas. So he’d reached across the table and pulled, rolling his eyes when Akanishi had won and grinned with something akin to smug amusement, simply shaking his head when he translated his own joke, the English sounding odd.
And later on when Kame had helped a drunken Yuu stumble back to their dorm, he’d realised that he’d had an entire evening with Akanishi without either of them starting a fight.
It was, he mused, nothing short of a Christmas miracle.
~~~
It is probably why he’d been somewhat less surprised when he’d walked into Jin at the student bar. Jin had nodded and Kame had been so surprised that Jin was acknowledging his presence for the second time in two months that it had taken him a few seconds to return the nod.
“You were pretty good. During the Prokovief piano concerto for last year’s end of year concert, I mean.” Jin said after he’d made his order and Kame was trying to catch the bartender’s eyes. Kame had blinked before turning to face Jin in surprise.
“Um. Thank you, I guess. For the praise I mean. I enjoyed playing the piece as well,” Kame had said politely, bowing his head slightly.
“You’re welcome.” Jin had said, bobbing his head slightly. The silence had returned and Kame almost breathed a sigh of relief when the bartender returned with Jin’s drinks. He’d watched Jin pay before making his own order.
“Kame-kun,” he’d heard before Jin left and he blinked when he’d realised Jin was watching him closely, something unreadable in his eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow right? At Kusano’s party? Because if not, I just wanted to, you know. Apologise, I guess, for being a dick.”
Kame could practically feel how hard it must have been for Jin to apologise. He’d figured out fairly quickly that Jin didn’t back down from a lot of things, and the fact that he’d admitted he acted like an idiot had made Kame feel that Jin at least meant his apology.
“I’m going to Kusano’s,” Kame had called as Jin had suddenly turned to walk away. Jin had spun around when he’d heard Kame and something on his face had seemed oddly hopeful. “Tomorrow night, I’m going. I guess I’ll see you around. At the party.”
“Yeah,” Jin had said, smiling slightly before he’d walked off to where Meisa was waiting.
It’s as he’s reminiscing on that that he realises that he’s been at university for a year and a half now and he’s not even considered dating anyone. It’s even worse when he realises that the only person he’s even kissed is Akanishi, and that he’d spent most of the kiss behaving like a stupid girl with a crush. But tonight that’s going to change; he’d spent some time with a pretty flute player called Horikita Maki, one of Kuroki-Kun’s friends, and she’d proved to be both lovely looking and to have a fantastic sense of humour. He knows she’s going to be at Kusano’s place tonight and he’s planning on forgetting about Akanishi and awkward, confusing kisses with stupid guys who don’t know what they want and focusing on spending an evening with a pretty, intelligent girl.
Of course the reality is that he spends the evening stuck watching Kusano and Maki talk about New York, as he sighs and counts down the minutes until he can leave without being rude. He takes a look around the room and smiles as he watches Yamapi and Ryo jam with Ryo’s battered old fender in the corner, Yamapi warbling out an old TOKIO love song to the group of girls opposite him, who are laughing and clapping. He continues looking around and blinks when he realises Jin and Meisa are watching him. Jin turns away and reaches for his drink but Meisa smiles slightly and nods her head at him. Kame feels like he is being tested for something and haltingly nods back, awkwardly returning her smile.
He suddenly feels like he is missing something, a feeling that grows when Yuu grins at him across the room and salutes him with his beer bottle before turning and walking over to Ryo and Yamapi. Kame sighs, suddenly feeling like everyone’s laughing at some private joke, and heads back out to the grassy area outside of Kusano and Koki’s apartment and settles on the bench chained to the sad-looking tree in the middle of the garden area. It’s quiet out here, the steady thump of the bass becoming a back track against the soft hush of cars. It’s warm for March, and Kame feels comfortable enough to roll the sleeves up of his jumper. He’s so focused on his task he almost doesn’t hear the front door slide open until Jin is halfway across the lawn and settling down next to him.
Jin looks pensive and is twirling a daisy around one finger, the white spinning into a wheel that Kame finds himself watching. The silence is starting to become awkward and Kame is almost tempted to start a conversation. But fuck it, Jin’s been ignoring him for nearly three months now. Damned if he makes the effort to talk first.
“I don’t fancy Meisa,” Jin suddenly says and Kame blinks, because what the hell. He didn’t even ask if Jin liked Meisa.
“Ok,” Kame says slowly. “But what has that got to do with me?”
Jin hisses in frustration and spins to face Kame on the bench. “It’s got everything to do with you, you idiot. I’m telling you this so you don’t get the wrong idea, ok? So that when I do this you won’t run off accusing me of being a serial cheater.”
Kame is about to ask ‘do what’ when Jin suddenly pulls Kame’s face forwards gently and kisses him, and it’s like history repeating itself. The only difference is that this time Kame pulls back and glares at Jin.
“What the fuck are you doing Akanishi?” he demands, watching Jin flinch slightly and close his eyes. “You don’t get to kiss me then ignore me and then try it again. For Christ’s sake, what the hell is your problem?”
“I’ve got this bloody giant crush on you, ok?” Jin suddenly says, exploding and rising to his feet. “Despite the fact that you’re stubborn and irritating and too fucking hard-working for your own good. Despite the fact that you spend most of you time off in the library, that you make me hard in a second but won’t give me the time of day unless you’re a little bit tipsy. You drive me fucking insane.”
“Insane? Jesus, Akanishi, do you have any idea how damn confusing you are? You kiss me one day and then spend three months ignoring me. Sometimes you’re friendly with me, you joke with me, other days you’ve barely got more than two words to say to me, and what you do have to say is sarcastic and sharp.”
Kame’s breathing hard by the time he’s finished, and he’s starting to realise just how much Jin’s actions have affected him. Jin looks surprised before he runs a hand through his hair in agitation.
“Look. I didn’t mean to ignore you ok?” Jin says, almost looking apologetic. “I just didn’t know how to act around you. You didn’t flirt with me, or even pay me any attention, and it confused me? Just, I don’t even know. I’m not asking that we start some sort of epic love affair. But look, I know Takizawa-sensei has arranged a trip to see Carmen in Tokyo next weekend, and well. I got two tickets, and if you wanted to come with me that would be pretty cool. Or you know. You can take the ticket, go with Koki and the others and I guess we could get a drink afterwards? It’s totally up to you, of course.”
Kame is so surprised he feels his mouth fall open. If someone had told him that tonight would end with Akanishi Jin asking him on a date he would have laughed himself senseless. But there’s something so serious, so oddly vulnerable about the way Jin is looking at him that Kame finds himself nodding before he’s really thought about it. But as he watches Jin’s face break into the most genuine smile he’s even seen on his face, one that lights up his eyes and shows a flash of straight white teeth, it is almost worth the embarrassment of his quick answer.
“Fine, but for the record, I don’t put out until at least the sixth date,” Kame says, the words practically falling out of his mouth, as if he’d been friends with Jin for years and hadn’t spent the majority of his university career hating him. He feels himself flush and quickly tips his head to face the sky. He feels more than sees Jin settle down on the bench next to him, relaxation slipping into him like syrup.
“Mm, that’s what you think,” Jin says in a lazy murmur, sliding the daisy into Kame’s hand and calmly slipping an arm around Kame’s shoulders.
And Kame smiles and for once doesn’t think about anything else.