Phosphorescent Lights: Chapter 6
Every secret has a price…
Title: Phosphorescent Lights
Summary: A photographer with no memories whose goal in life is to seek out what he has lost; a businessman who swore revenge for the death of his lover while desperately trying to escape his fixated reality. Two entirely different men with entirely different lives bound together by the threads of destiny. But little do the two know that they are bounded together by more than just simple destiny…
Genre: Romance/Drama
Pairings: Akame (primary), Ryoda (secondary) mentions of Jinda, Pin, Ryopi, Kokame, Kamaki
Other Characters: Jin, Kame, Ueda, Yamashita, Ryo, Koki, slight appearances from Taguchi, Nakamaru, Shige, Ayase, Tegoshi
Content: Romance, drama, AU [Alternate Universe]
Author: Nerd-san
Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Johnny Entertainment
…are they willing to pay it?
Phosphorescent Lights: Chapter 6
Kame slowly tore his eyes apart from themselves and unhurriedly took in the blinding white scenery around him. Lights, he groaned in thought. And too many of them. Shining down on him, no less. Did I die, he asked himself, blinking wearily at the colorless beams.
Kame turned his neck forcibly to his left only to have a myriad of an angry headache follow. He attempted to groan in anguish of his livid hangover, but he noted his lips were unable to pull themselves apart to emit any noise.
Unconsciously, he raised a hand to put against his forehead, mercilessly pressing down on the front of his head. “It…hurts…” he moaned to himself. Completely blinking away his blurry vision, Kame turned to look at the hand he had just used.
Wasn’t that the one that was tangled with…?
“Damn it I told you I didn’t do anything to him!”
Turning painfully to his right, he saw Akanishi with both of his hands freed, flailing about to prove his point. Blinking again in shock, Kame had thought that he had seen three uniformed policemen squarely arguing with the man.
He rubbed his eyes to flicker away the peculiar images. The last thing he remembered was drinking away in his anger to forget about Akanishi. Kame looked down; he was still wearing the same clothes. That must have been a good sign.
“Then why was it that we found these,” he watched as one of the policeman held up the handcuffs, “on you?”
“…I didn’t do anything! I wasn’t even planning on doing anything!” Despite feeling relived, Kame bit his tongue.
“I don’t know him! I don’t even like him!” He didn’t care if Akanishi didn’t like him. He didn’t like Akanishi. And yet, after spending almost five hours tied together, why was it that the words sort of…hurt?
Because you were stupid and started to get used to him, Kame chastised himself of his fault.
“He’s the one who handcuffed me. Why doesn’t anyone believe me?!” Akanishi’s face was pained and exhausted, he clearly had enough of a time trying to convince the police. “If any one of us is a criminal - it’s him!”
“Where are you living now, sir?”
“I just got here!” Jin snapped back, “how the hell do you expect me to find a hotel if you kicked me out?! Will you just let me go now?”
The third cop seated himself against his chair, fiddling readily with his clipboard. “Sir we’ll have to call your legal guardians-” Jin’s eyes widened. Calling his father…wouldn’t that mean he would have to go back? Go back to what he had so exhaustedly tried to get away from? Go back to what he had finally run away from?
“You can’t live like this. You’re Akanishi Jin of A. Jewelry - how long do you think the president will let you run around like this? Let you tarnish the name of the company like this…”
Jin didn’t care. He couldn’t return. He wouldn’t. “No!” Jin screamed at full volume, “I’m not going back!” His voice dimmed down a little as he received tongue-tied glances from the other men. “I’m not going back…” From his spot lying down on one of the chairs, clutching a pained hand across his forehead, Kame silently pried as the scene unfolded. Akanishi was a thief, right? And seeing from what was going on, he was finally going be arrested. Kame should have been happy.
But, he thought, Akanishi didn’t do anything. Kame didn’t know Akanishi in the past - he didn’t want to. But no matter what the man might have done in the past, they were all irrelevant.
“Unless you have a liable witness, we can’t let you go-”
The second cop laughed. “Stop being cruel, no one else was in the hotel. He has no witness.”
“He does.” Kame stood and hesitantly made his way over.
It was as if his body had had a mind of its own. His head was searing with pain, his legs numb and yet, Kame made his way towards Akanishi. “I’m perfectly suitable as a witness, right?”
The first cop stood and hurried over to Kame. “Sir, are you alright?” He asked.
“I’m fine.” Except for this godforsaken hangover. “What Akanishi’s saying is right. He didn’t do anything. And I was the one who handcuffed him.” Jin’s eyes widened in astonishment at the statement. He didn’t think Kame to admit it so gamely.
“You handcuffed him?” The cops voices droned over one another, but surely the words made it through to Jin. He stood his ground, ready for anything that Kame was to dish at him.
The ball was in Kame’s court now. He didn’t like Jin - Jin knew that - and as much as a simple lie could have Jin back in Tokyo before dawn. Dementedly, Jin gritted his teeth at his bitter luck.
“Yeah…he, err,” Kame laughed falsely as he hooked an arm through the now-stunned Jin’s hand, “he…likes it better that way.” Jin’s eyes widened to points unimaginable but felt Kame’s grip constrict as if telling him to keep his mouth shut. Grudgingly, Jin obeyed.
The cops looked at the man questioningly.
Kame cleared his throat and shoved Jin’s shaky body next to his. “Being tied up to the bed, handcuffed to me, getting whipped - he’s a true masochist.”
The cops coughed aloud, one nearly spilling the coffee he was holding. “He…he was…then that means…”
“I was what?!” Disgusted, Jin tried to pry himself from Kame’s hold but the younger man’s grip only tightened. Kame shot Jin an enraged look.
“Your relation…?”
Kame intertwined convincing fingers around Jin’s, “boyfriends.” He grinned deceivingly. “Is there a problem?”
“N-No…”
Bowing, Kame began to head towards the door with the mute Jin by his side. “Now if you’d excuse me and my boyfriend’s unique tastes,” he opened the door, “have a good night.”
Looking at the slightly-peeved, slightly-stunned Akanishi, Kame wasn’t sure why he had done that. Probably because at the mention of calling his guardians, Akanishi looked unbearably pitiable. And probably because the thief was, even if it was a little, beginning to grow on him.
And once they were outside, Jin quickly repented his hold. “Boyfriend?!” He laughed hoarsely. “Not in a million years!”
“Oh will you shut up?!” Kame held a pained hand to his head. “I have no damned clue how I got this headache but I’m sure it’s from being around you all day.”
They continued walking, and although not bound together physically, the two continued to stray near each other without knowing. Kame tried to pick up his pace but failed to do so, still feeling a need to scream some sense into the latter.
“And I only said that because it was the only way they’d let us go. Even if you are a stupid thief, I’m sure you could have figured that much out.” Kame defended himself in a huff, folding two irritated arms across his chest.
“We wouldn’t have been put in that situation if someone could hold their liquor.” Jin shot back, smug and sure he had won the argument with the way Kame’s face began to redden.
Kame grunted. “And who was it that dragged me into a bar?!”
“I didn’t think your tolerance was that low!”
“I wouldn’t have drunk so much if you weren’t so damn annoying!” The two continued on their route, the pitter patter of the late rain fading into the background.
“I thought I could wake up from this dream, but all I’ve done is thrust myself further into this nightmare. You’re a walking nightmare, Akanishi!” Kame cut the rest of his sentence off slowly, bringing another hand to his aching head.
Jin noted Kame’s reluctance and abnormally kinder attitude. Neither of the two were too kind to begin with but somehow the latter’s bitter tongue began to soften. “You’re pretty cute too, Kame.” Jin laughed.
Kame’s heart rate dropped unexpectedly. “How do you know my name?” He graveled, halting his movements to turn back to Akanishi.
Jin pressed a secretive finger across his lips. “None of your business.” Kame gritted his teeth at the irony.
“So your name…” Jin began unsystematically as the two continued on foot, “it’s really Kame? As in turtle?”
“Kamenashi Kazuya.” Kame corrected.
Jin nodded, “Akanishi Jin.”
Kame didn’t bother to turn back to face the annoying man as he introduced himself. His footsteps were short but fast-paced, covering far more ground at once than most people thought possible for someone his size. “I didn’t ask for your name.” He informed Akanishi - or rather, Jin.
“You really have a way with words, Kame.” Jin rolled his eyes. He didn’t understand what was with the smaller man. When he had helped him at the police station…didn’t that mean they had begun to, little by little, understand each other? Jin had begun to think so. Even if the sober Kame couldn’t remember, Jin had shared with him what he had held closest to his heart. They had even, as Jin liked to think of it, bonded.
“Stop calling me that!” Kame shouted back, covering a hand over his ears in annoyance.
“But it’s your name isn’t it, Kame?” Jin cooed, running up to Kame and taking the pale arms into his hands and away from the man’s ears. Kame attempted to struggle, but unlike when they had first met in the bathroom, he didn’t put up much resistance.
“I didn’t give you permission to call me Kame,” he reminded Jin as they continued to walk, Jin’s hands covering both of Kame’s hands, the older man’s head looming dangerously close to Kame’s sensitive ears. “It’s Kamenashi to you.”
Jin shook his head, and leaned in even closer, if possible. “I like Kame better,” he whispered seductively, blowing on the concave ear rim.
Kame fidgeted his way out. “S-Stupid…”
Because it really was. How was Kame supposed to hide himself? He snuck a passing glance at Jin and felt his breathing become a little faster. Really, this was all stupid…Kame stopped mid-step and evidently, Jin crashed into him.
Jin rubbed his bruising nose. “Geez, could you at least tell me when you’re going to stop so suddenly-”
“Where’re you going?!”
“Huh?” He looked up at Kame’s genuinely concerned face trying to figure out what the latter was talking about. “Oh,” Jin laughed when he realized. “I’m staying with you. I was kicked out of the hotel, remember?” He pointed down at his attire. “Lost my luggage too.”
Kame looked at where Jin was pointing at and surely, there was nothing in his hands. Even the shackles had been confiscated by the police. “W-What?!”
Jin raised a teasing eyebrow and grabbed onto one of Kame’s unsteady hands. “Is there a problem, boyfriend?” He ridiculed mockingly.
“Listen Akanishi - I only said those things because-”
“Glad you understand!” Jin interrupted as he ran ahead only to remember he hadn’t a clue where he was going without Kame. Merrily, he strung a hand in Kame’s and began to run ahead with the younger in tow. “Now let’s make haste! I’m hungry!”
His pace is really hard to keep up with; Kame thought grumpily and disengaged his hand from Jin’s, “we just ate!” He complained against the man’s lack of logic and abyss of a stomach.
“Your personality…your personality is like a river, Kazuya.”
“I can’t keep up,”
“I’m hungry again!” Jin called back and continued on ahead, leaving Kame’s numb body behind.
Maybe that was why being with someone as face-paced as he was for a change was rather…comforting.
If he was like a river, then Kame had decided that Jin was like the wind. There too was no center in this man’s life - only direction.
And somehow, he couldn’t help himself from being blown against the rash gust that had whirled its way into his life.
“W-Wait up…” Defeated, Kame ran after him.
◦●○◦
Grudgingly, Jin opened his eyes. He stood up and stretched viciously, sketchily flicking away the blanket he couldn’t remember sleeping with. Yawning and scratching the roots of his hair, he clumsily made his way into his bathroom.
For a minute, Jin wondered why his apartment was as congested as it presented itself to be. Groggily, he rubbed his eyes and glanced about from the supposed living room.
There were photos hung up almost everywhere of people he had never seen. He felt his breath hitch as he suddenly remembered. He wasn’t home. He wasn’t in Tokyo. In fact…
“Hey look you,”
Kame aggregately made his way out of the kitchen looking over Jin’s limp figure with a bowl of what Jin had assumed to be cereal in his hands. “You’re only staying here until you pay me back, got it? Don’t think I forgot about my camera and-”
Jin droned out the rest of the words that followed.
His eyes were still hazy and rather diluted from yet another nearly-sleepless night. He could only watch helplessly as Kame’s mouth continued to move, disciplining him in one way or another.
Dreaming about Ueda hadn’t helped his condition. In fact, Jin was sure that this was reason he had hardly managed to keep his eyes together the previous night. What’s he doing now? I wonder…is he with Nishikido?
“Akanishi!” Jin snapped his head upwards to meet with Kame’s. Why was it that this man was always angry with him? Kame watched as Jin zoned out before blankly staring at him. “Listen to me when I’m yelling at you!”
Jin groaned. “Ne, if you want my attention so much you don’t have to scream at me,” he whined, rubbing his temples softly and making his way to where he presumed the washroom to be. “My head hurts…”
“Join the club!” Kame snarled in annoyance and turned his heels back to the kitchen.
He sat himself down against one of the chairs and angrily set down the bowl, appetite lost. Why had he even bothered to shed an ounce of worry for Akanishi? He had even gone as far as bringing the man the blanket he had carelessly thrown aside.
“Worrying about that idiot is taking years off my life…” Unhurriedly, Kame put the bowl in the sink and began to rinse.
He couldn’t remember how much time had passed before his thoughts began to desolately drift back to work. He’d have to report in, with or without his camera.
“Hey Kame~” Kame kept the eye-roll to himself and turned around to meet face-to-face with an expired picture of himself with Maki. “Is this your girlfriend?”
Embarrassed, Kame snatched the photo away from the eager hands. “Where’d you get that?!”
“They’re everywhere in the basement.” Jin pointed out as if it had been the most obvious thing in the world. “Geez, why’s it so dark in there anyway? I couldn’t see where I was going so I turned on the lights and-”
Kame could feel his heartbeat unhealthily picking up its pace. “YOU WHAT?!”
Clutching his head, Jin plopped himself down on the chair Kame had been sitting on a few minutes ago. “Stop yelling at me.” He gently massaged his creasing forehead, “I just said I turned on the lights because-”
“It’s called a darkroom you Neanderthal!” His tempter was flaring again, Kame could feel it. But he couldn’t help it - there was just something about Jin that naturally irritated him. “In other words, it’s supposed to remain dark!”
Jin scratched his head, “…okay?”
Sighing, Kame put the over-cleaned bowl away in its cabinet and ran a wet finger through his murky hair. “If not the pictures will…” Kame felt his heart launching in itself.
He threw the dishes down in the sink and made a beeline for the basement. Too distraught in his tangled web of thoughts, he hadn’t even noticed Jin timidly trailing behind him. He thrashed opened the door, and surely the lights were still on.
“You asshole,” Kame had a hard time keeping back the tears, “they’re all gone.”
Kame looked around the room of pre-developed photos he had hung around with Maki. The two would come every day to check the state of the developing photographs.
It was the rather organic chemical Kame used that Maki had despised so much. If only he had used the normally generic ones, the pictures would develop faster. But Kame had been instant on his way. Slow, barely paced and leisure. And now everything was gone.
He took a blank picture in his hands and threw his harshly against Jin’s chest where it had lazily hit before falling to the ground. “Just when I started thinking that you might be a little okay you go and do this! You really are a nightmare Akanishi.”
He took more photos and recklessly threw them against the man at the doorway, his tears in the open now. “I hate you!” He blurted without much consideration.
A bounteous amount of guilt welled itself in the pit of Jin’s stomach. “Kame…” he began.
“I won’t…I won’t be able to remember this someday.” Desolately, Kame began to search for the defective pictures off the ground and nestle them in his hands. He looked down at the blank pictures as if they too had been staring back at him. Slowly, he watched as the light took away Maki’s silhouette in the photo.
“I thought that if I at least took pictures that maybe I’d be able to remember something. If I became a photographer I could always remember…but…” He gritted his perfectly white teeth, piling the now-blank pictures in a near little pile near his feet. “If my camera wasn’t enough did you have to come after my pictures too?!”
“Won’t remember? Photographer? Kame, they’re just pictures. We can take other ones.” Jin assured him carefully.
“What part of I won’t remember anything don’t you get?!”
Jin bit his lips at the sudden shout. To say he wasn’t used to this Kame character yelling at him would have been a lie, but it was rare that either of the two had actually meant what he said. This time, however, there was no hint of insecure mockery in Kame’s eyes.
“…g-geez if you wanted me to leave that much you just had to say so.” Jin muttered to himself as he turned his back to Kame who was now on the floor, continuing to gather the pictures as if his life had depended on it.
“What the point in remembering the past?” Jin asked softly as he thought of Ueda. “It’s meaningless. You don’t need memories to live.” He thought of all the countless times he had been hurt in his life because of A. Jewelry.
If Jin had the chance to forget everything in his life, he would. He would forget it all and then leave his Tokyo-life. He spoke his next words with precision, with caution, with utmost certainty. “I think it’d be much better living without remembering anything.”
It was coarse and rather painful. Jin turned his sore head back in shock and brought a hand to his stinging cheek. He looked back at Kame in disbelief. Had he just slapped him? Jin didn’t believe it, but as soon as he felt the healthy sting across his cheek again, he felt himself reddening.
“They’re important!” Kame yelled, enraged at Jin’s carelessness. “Memories are very important! You would never understand because you don’t know how it feels to wake up again and again not knowing who you are or what the hell you’re here for!”
He took a deep breath and steadied his abnormal breathing. “I want my memories back,” Kame whimpered helplessly. He glared at Jin as the latter did nothing; only holding his bruising cheek in a numb shock. “But if the day comes that I can’t remember you, Akanishi, I’ll be the happiest person in the world!”
Perhaps that’s how Ueda felt. “Is being with me…that bad?” Jin had to know. Kame said nothing.
Jin began to laughed nervously, “I-I guess it is.” He took the ailing hand away from his face and rubbed it anxiously across the back of his head. “Sorry.”
Kame let the photos he had been so carefully guarding drop to the ground. What was the point anymore? Trying to hold onto Maki…it was pointless, right? “For the three years I’ve known of anything…she was always there. Always with me. What did I do wrong?” He asked helplessly, looking at Jin for some sort of answer.
Jin hugged Kame. It was comforting and weak but it was far more than words at that moment.
“You probably thought that there was no difference. Today, tomorrow, yesterday…to you it made no difference. She was always there with you, so what was there to worry about?” Jin muttered; he knew he was making little sense, but he didn’t care. It was how he had felt with Ueda.
“Akanishi…”
“Sorry…I said too much again, didn’t I?”
Kame shook his head. “Thank you.”
“I’ll buy you a new camera.” Jin murmured as he enclosed his grip on the restless Kame. “I promise.”
◦●○◦
They found themselves walking around town without much destination late in the afternoon. Somehow Jin and Kame had come to some sort of understanding and even Kame had to admit that Jin wasn’t as bad a person as he had first thought.
Sure he was a bit blunt at times and rather oblivious to many other things, but deep down - deep, deep down Kame made sure to add - he wasn’t that bad a person. And although Jin was seemingly keeping his distance, they walked side-by-side without any restraints keeping them together. Wind and water. An implausible yet perfect combination.
“So…not remembering anything…you were serious?” Jin asked after the longest time. Kame had been silently touring the man around but to his surprise, Jin hadn’t asked him of anything. Not to show him somewhere in particular, not to eat - nothing.
The question was an unlikely surprise, but Kame didn’t mind. He simply bobbed his head up and down. “It’s not like it’s contagious. No need to stand so far from me…” Kame laughed sullenly. “I’m such a freak aren’t I?”
“Kame!” Jin interrupted him with his sudden, jerking shout. “You’re not a freak!” He pressed himself against Kame’s side as they walked to prove his point. Secretively thankful that Jin wasn’t repulsed, Kame smiled to himself even though he had teasingly pushed the man away.
“I didn’t say you had to squish yourself against me.” Unbeknownst to Kame, Jin had caught the hidden smile. “And do you really have to say my name so many times?”
“I already told you. I like Kame better.”
“Stupid.”
Words to hide their awkwardness, moments they feigned annoyance, the time they laughed at each other’s haughty faults. They kept it to themselves but neither of the two wanted the day to end.
Sitting on the bench of a casual park now, Kame gruffly shoved a piece of the takoyaki he bought with Jin in latter’s face. “So…aren’t you scared of getting caught by the police again? Walking around so freely…”
Jin gratefully took the octopus dumpling. “Eh?” He muttered between bites.
“You’re stole something right? That’s why you were running from those men at the airport.” Kame recalled the event as it had been years ago, crumpling his eyes together in remembrance. Jin laughed out loud and embarrassed at whatever he had said, Kame lightly shoved the man off the bench to no avail.
“I don’t know what kind of impression I’ve given you but,” he calmed down after a while, “I’m certainly no thief.”
“You said they locked your account; obviously you’re running from something.” Kame blurted out his point.
Jin shook his head and drowned down the food with the water in his hand. “Psssht, like you’re any better.” He sighed after his gulp, wondering what time it was and how much had passed since he and Kame had left his apartment. “You just wanted to go to Tokyo because Maki rejected-”
Kame nearly chocked on his own water. “H-How did you know that?!” He shot Jin an accusing stare.
“You told me.” Jin licked his lips, whisking away the crumbs. He saw Kame’s genuinely confused and mortified stare. Feeling rather kind, Jin decided to further his indistinct explanation. “When you proved to me you can’t hold liquor?”
The color drained from Kame’s face. “O-Oh my god…” He brought a hand to his mouth as if he were ready to gag. “Did I say anything else?!”
Jin nodded in all seriousness. “Only that you like to bottom.”
Kame choked for real this time, spewing all of the clear liquid from his mouth at the unexpected and now-wet Jin. Jin groaned as he began to dry himself off, leaving Kame’s stuttering to the thin air. “E-E-E-Excuse me?!”
“Never thought you’d be the type, Kame~” Jin continued to tease, getting up and running playfully from the enraged and humiliated Kame. “But then again you’re rather small so I guess it fits your image-”
“Take that back, asshole!” Kame got up, running after the latter. “Take that back!”
Jin laughed and continued to run. “Never~”
The rate of a heartbeat is so real, so real that sometimes you forget the main purpose in your life isn’t as nice as you would want it to be. Hard to calm down around that certain person, hard to tell them the truth - you wonder if they’re even aware of it. Do they know that the intense vibe they give of fascinates you?
Jin shook his head. There was no time to consider the truth about love. He let Kame catch him as the two, breathless, fell onto the grass laughing until their tears finally spilt over.
◦●○◦
I don’t think I’ve ever written something with so many exclamation marks…everyone’s always yelling XD