[Fanfic] Between lines

Jul 12, 2009 08:52

Title: Between lines
Pairings: Ryopi
Genre: friendship, angst, romance (if you have good eye)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own those guys only in my imagination.
Summary: All I have it’s my guitar, these cords and the truth



We met down in the valley, where the wine of love and destruction flows
There in that curve of darkness where flowers of temptation grow
I left the rest for the others it was you and nothing else
You felt so good to me baby, as good as life itself

---------------

The places without sun, places where everyone was in hurry, places without the time for rest… it never were the best places to strike up a friendship. Maybe not, but for them everything was new and shiny, full of excitement and with that thrill of joy. Stage, concerts and that backstage… that all defined them, it already was engraved in their personalities even if that life just started.

They were a strangers, their paths never crossed until that day, but a simple handshake changed something and they weren’t the same as before.

- You are?

- Nishikido Ryo.

- Yamashita Tomohisa.

Ryo heard about him. A boy younger that him but everyone already talked about him, that he got a future, that world was open before him.

- Oh… You’re that Tackey’s boy.

Yamapi could be offended, he could say a word, he could turn and walk away but somehow he felt that this boy in front of him was different. He just squinted at Ryo and maybe laughter was there too.

- I’m sorry, but I don’t want to hear something like that from shrimp like you.

- Do you know that actually I’m older?

- Well, you definitely don’t act like one.

They smiled at each other because even if they didn’t knew it then, at that backstage they found something what was only for them and after all those years Ryo thought that it’s funny that those places without light and without calmness brought something without he couldn’t live now… his own light

---------------

Time slowly passed but things between them remain as before. Something normal, without a rush but with loneliness. It wasn’t ease, to kept that friendship alive. Osaka and Tokyo, two different towns and only phones saved them.

When finally he got a job in Tokyo he was happy. He liked Tokyo. Full of lights, full of energy and of possibilities. He liked Tokyo. It was Yamapi’s city.

He missed him and calls weren’t enough. Words couldn’t substitute for person, coldness against warmth, and he needed that warmth, it reminded him that even that kind of environment could be full of life.

But it wasn’t like before. Yamapi always was in the center of attention, surrounded by others. There was Toma, Hasejun and even Takki but Ryo always found his own spot near him although when he stood in the room full of juniors, he felt like he wasn’t on the picture anymore because there was someone else and it felt a bit empty.

Yamapi saw him and he smiled at Ryo and Ryo couldn’t smile back. In the end they still were the same, they wanted to act all grown up but somehow they simply couldn’t. Ryo was relief because with Yamapi’s nod he knew that all nights in Tokyo he will spend at Yamapi’s house, that they will talk about everything and nothing, that they will not pretend.

It surprised him that when he was waiting for the younger one, someone came to him. It surprised Ryo that it was the same guy who was with Yamapi, that one on his spot.

- You’re that Pi’s friend, Nishikido.

- Pi’s?

- Yamapi’s. I call him that.

- And you are?

- Akanishi Jin, Pi’s best friend.

Ryo thought that he could kill that guy with too big smile and probably he would do that but he saw Yamapi who was running towards them.

- Bakanishi! Leave Ryo-chan alone. He can pick up your stupidity.

- So why he’s with you?

Ryo was observing how Yamapi… no, how Pi smacked Jin, he observed their banter and he was smitten because it looked like they were in their own world, in a place that was made up only for them and nobody else.

Ryo didn’t like it, he didn’t like being nobody.

Later he understood that he wasn’t nobody, he was an outcast. Maybe even that wasn’t the truth because when he laughed with Pi, when they lay on the floor, exhausted from their antics, Ryo wasn’t left alone.

When Pi told him all gossip about the Jimusho, about his school, about a girl that he liked, about everything else, Ryo thought that he was stupid. He never was behind, he just couldn’t keep the pace and even if he knew that things changed without him, he could do nothing about it.

But that was ok. It was ok for moments like that.

---------------

NEWS was formed and Ryo was torn. On one side was Osaka - his hometown, his friends, his family, Kanjani, the fun and the feeling of freedom. On the other side was Tokyo - NEWS, bunch of kids who he didn’t know, new challenges and Pi.

But something was a bit off.

Sleepovers ended, there was Uchi and Ryo couldn’t left him and even if he would, that Pi, his old friend disappeared somewhere between sorrow and pushiness of their boss. It was sad, a little heartbreaking but Ryo couldn’t grab a gun and shot them all, it wasn’t that simple. At least he was happy that he was there, ready to help, to chase away reproaches even if every attempt seemed pointless.

It was like tilted at windmills but he wasn’t alone in that fight. Even if all that situation was a bit cruel he was amazed. Really, people say that a friend in need is a friend indeed but it always was just a slogan and then hello, maybe not exactly, maybe those bastards really treasured themselves. Like Gummi Bears or Smurfs… well, maybe not exactly but they got their own Gargamel.

And it was worth because the sight of smiling Pi was priceless and Ryo forgot about those days when a single word brought tears, about that hard time. It didn’t matter at all and Ryo only wondered if it was because of him or because of others.

He just wanted his own reward, even if it was out of his reach.

---------------

Ryo thought that music is irreplaceable. It always was and always will be important part of his life. When he thought about a music, he never meant his own, it was not like that. There were better than him, a superstars.

Jimi Hendrix… he was someone. Ryo liked his music because in some way it was the closest thing to himself. His version of “All Along the Watchtower” always woke something what was deep inside, it overwhelmed him and Ryo thought that it exactly described his live. Maybe he was like that joker, lost somewhere in frenzied world. Maybe he was like that thief who in some way gave up. He wasn’t sure, but like them all, he waited for those riders, for someone who will bring changes because sometimes reality suffocated him and he couldn’t breath.

… or Bruce Springsteen. He had so much on his account, he achieved so much. His voice always seemed a bit nostalgic to Ryo and every time when he listened to his “Walking in Memphis” he wanted to see that ghost too, but no one ever appeared.

He really loved Springsteen, that music always calmed Ryo. He loved everything except one song. "Life Itself". That was too personal, too painful and Ryo wondered how the hell a 60 year guy who lived across the ocean, could in one song present his lie. Because he met him too, like that guy in song and there was revolution. Without bloodshed but with pain. Sometimes he thought how it would be if their paths never crossed but that scenario scared him a bit, because living without Pi in the background? Come on…

Even Avril Lavigne wrote something what brought too may thoughts. “Keep Holding On”, a song with hope, with some power and strength because he wanted to keep holding on too, to had someone by his side who will support him, who will never give up. For Ryo it was a happy song, a song about friendship, a song about him and Pi. So yeah, even if by the time she started to act I-am-so-great-and-all-pink, Ryo could forgive her that. As long as she got her songs. As long as she got that one specific song.

Ryo loved music. He never was a men of words, he preferred taunting, he preferred watching instead of doing something, but when he held a guitar, when he felt strings under his fingers, all those words he never spoke, came back to him. He got his own outlet for his frustration. But wasn’t it the best way to create something memorable? When all those factors from real life putted down roots in his lyrics? In the end he got his own Code even if rest wasn’t Ordinary.

---------------

I knew you were in trouble, anyone could tell
You carried your little black book from which all your secrets fell
You squandered all your riches, your love, your beauty and your wealth
Like you had no further use for, for life itself

----------------

NEWS was suspended and Jin left. Too much happened in such a short time to deal. Everyone were confused, rattled from their cages but again, they couldn’t bite off, they didn’t know how.

For Ryo it wasn’t that bad. He still got Eito, he still got concerts and for the first time he was grateful for that struggle. He wasn’t left out, he still was one of the players.

But then again there was Pi. For Ryo it was amusing that he couldn’t remember those good memories, when there everything was ok. Only those times when one of them wanted hide underneath blanket were embedded in his memory. Not fair but maybe because of that they were who they were.

But what he could do? Conversations were meaningless, they were in that age when words weren’t enough and sometimes they just couldn’t express what they felt and even if sometimes Ryo wanted scream thought the silence, maybe even ripped it, silence was much stronger than he, so Ryo gave up.

He didn’t like it. He didn’t like that he was powerless. He stood and watched those furtive tears, moments when Pi stared into space and that monster inside of Ryo asked him how it would be if it was because of him. There always was that circle with Pi and with Jin and Ryo wasn’t considered as a element of it. Maybe that all was just to justify him, his thoughts, because there was a part of him so dark and decadent, that saw that circle as a idyll, but he was on the sidewalk and maybe all trains already left…

What if Jin never left, what if Ryo was the reason why Pi couldn’t sleep… But no, they were friends and even if sometimes Ryo wondered what was between Pi and Jin, if there was something what happened behind the doors, he wasn’t jealous.

He shouldn’t so he wasn’t.

One day he went to Pi house. Ryo was bored and in that nostalgic mood when even eating is a big effort. He missed his friend. He felt like when they were kids, when only phones were their lines of stabilization. He wanted be with NEWS again…

Ryo waited until he heard footsteps and something clenched his body when he saw Pi, his messy hair, his reddened eyes, his everything. Something clenched and monster woke up again because he saw something terrifying and yet he never seen anything more amazing.

They sat in silence because Ryo didn’t trust his voice. He was afraid that it might crack and all words were already tossed around few times too much. But he hated stillness, it never was his strong point, patience…

- Pi… You cried…

- I did not. I laughed on the wrong side of my face.

- You can talk to me.

- Ryo-chan…

- What?

Yamapi looked at him like he was weighing each word carefully, like he wondered what Ryo should hear and what should be left in guesses.

- Tell me… What I did that everything what I got is took away from me? Toma, NEWS, Jin… What the fuck have I done?

If Ryo could, he would do everything for him. Pi was the only one person he ever… But he just hugged the latter, slowly caressing trembling figure, hoping that maybe all Pi’s worries would pass on him. He didn’t listen to himself, monster was on out and Ryo drowned in that moment, in the sound of passing cars, in the rustle of leaves, in sobs of his friend. In the tune of normal life that echoed throughout the room.

So little of anything….

---------------

Why the things that we treasure most slip away in time
'Til to the music we grow deaf and to god's beauty blind
Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart
'Til we fall away in our own darkness, stranger to our own hearts

---------------

Theoretically everything was all right. Again with band, again with Jin and his stupidity, again with happy Pi. Theoretically everything was all right and it was, but only on the paper.

Ryo wondered if by living in that kind of environment, if by working in that sick company, they all were still kind or they grew too fast. Maybe by some chance they were exactly like they should be, but Ryo doubted in that. At least he knew himself.

When he was sitting in the dark hotel room that he shared with Pi, who was sleeping after concert, Ryo thought that if he still was a child he could somehow understood himself, he could understood his feeling but if he was too matured, then he rather would be small, because then everything was much easier, without that grind and world still was smiling at him.

Being adult scared Ryo because he couldn’t handle with things that he wanted, but he couldn’t have them. With that thing he cannot live without and what he needed like air…

He noticed that Pi was looking at him. He woke up and because Ryo was too lose in his thought it somehow slipped his attention. Pi was staring at him and in some way Ryo didn’t like it because it was like those eyes pierced through him, they were merciless and a bit scary. None of them said a thing, they just looked at each other trying not to blink because maybe they would miss something important.

Pi slowly sat on the edge of the bed and without breaking the connection, he said what he had to, his own weight.

- Ryo-chan, I know what you’re thinking, but you have to stop it.

It was like passing a sentence but Ryo hoped that Pi was wrong, that he didn’t know his secrets and that it was another Pi’s way to get under his skin.

- You really have to stop it. You’re just hurting yourself and I can’t take it.

- What?

- Come on… I’m not that stupid. You think that I’m blind?

Ryo took a deep breath but there wasn’t enough air. He got that lump in his throat and one phrase was all what he could say.

- Tomohisa… It’s up to you. It always was…

- I know… that’s why I’m saying you that. You have to stop.

- Why? Is it that bad? Is it wrong?

- I can’t. Not with you. Ryo-chan… only not with you…

Ryo looked in those dark eyes and all what he saw was the truth. It was sincere, full of worry and something what he never saw or maybe he just didn’t look attentively before.

- Go sleep. Tomorrow we have another concert, you have to rest.

- Pi…

- Hmmm…?

- Good night.

That sight of smiling Pi was the last thing that he saw before he drifted into sleep. He shouldn’t sleep so peaceful but tomorrow was the brand new day, with new tunes but with the same chord.

He dreamed about that dark backstage and about the beginning. He dreamed about those unspoken feelings and about a future. He dreamed about that promise that was up in the air.

It was a bittersweet dream but when he woke up, he never felt so much strength.

A/N: This fic is for someone who probably knows me too well. Because I am soooooooooo predictable ;) Anyway as I said before - I need this fic too xD. The summary is taken from Bon Jovi’s lyrics (sorry for that but I for me it’s the best description) and italic text is from another song (song that was mentioned in this fic).
Hope you like it xD

ryopi, one-shot

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