fic: Remains (2/7)
Title: Remains
Author: prologuesized
Pairing: Akame (Short side-pairings: Jin/OC, Pi/OC - hopefully it won't scare you away, though, I tried to keep them readable)
Rating: R
Genre: AU, Sci-fi, Romance, Adventure, Action
Disclaimer: Actually, I own a couple of side-characters. That's about it.
Summary: Akanishi Jin lives the life of a writer stuck in a world he feels he has no control over or pressing interest on. However, everything changes when he drives over a stranger by the name of Kamenashi Kazuya - a man who proves to be from an another world and universe entirely, whisking him away to an adventure through universes and time in order to fulfil his vendetta and stop his enemy from succeeding in his plan to maintain reign over as many universes as possible and starting out a universe-wide war.
Author Note: We’re slooowly getting there. Things are starting to hit off slightly but… still mainly relationship building. You will be looking forward for the chapters after the next one plot-wise. I’ll try my best to keep my promise for that.
Anyway, enjoy your days and drop a comment so that when I get back from school in the evening all cranky I’ll have something to cheer me up :< School can be so tough sometimes.
Total wordcount: 53,900
Chapter wordcount: 7,800
Chapter 2
Jin woke up to the sound of soft footsteps somewhere behind his bedroom door. A thin trail of pale yellow light was cast on the floor and the walls from the crack in his drawn curtains. He sat up on his bed and ran his fingers through his mussed hair and let himself slowly wake up.
He really wasn’t one for mornings, he decided as he let himself fall back to the mattress again, closing his eyes. Definitely wasn’t.
The quiet thumps trailed back to the direction of the living room and Jin heaved heavily. He didn’t have a clock in his bedroom anymore and he didn’t really care for one but according to the amount of light coming to the room from such a small crack he maybe should’ve already been up and walking. Or preparing some breakfast for his guest. He couldn’t be rude forever.
He grumbled to himself as he dragged himself up from the bed, slipped his feet in his slippers and pulled his robe on. He’d bother with dressing up later. Once he had tried to do it straight after waking up. An hour later he had noticed he had pulled on differently coloured socks and his t-shirt had been the wrong way around. And this had only been done after Pi had already gotten a great and wheezy laugh. Straight in the morning. Not one of his favourite memories.
“’Morning,” he mumbled as he trailed out of the bedroom, raising his voice tiredly. He rubbed his eyes and headed to the direction of the living room where he had left the unlucky young man previously.
“’Morning,” the man answered and slipped his pendant under his shirt’s protection. He zipped his rucksack hurriedly and peered at him as he leaned against the doorframe, hair standing up messily and eyes barely open. He yawned and nudged towards the kitchen.
“You may eat breakfast,” he offered. Kamenashi merely grimaced apologetically.
“It’s twelve o’clock. Thanks but I kind of already took the opportunity,” he explained himself. “You slept for a really long time.”
“Mnnhnh,” Jin agreed and slouched over, sitting on the couch beside Kamenashi and pulled the man’s blanket over them sleepily. He ruffled his hair and leaned his head against the backrest. The light was hurting his eyes.
“…Could I stay here for some time?” Kamenashi asked him warily, not a glimpse of tiredness detectable from him. “Only if it’s alright with you?”
Jin bit his lip. He had driven over him with a car. Maybe he did owe it to the man. And it wasn’t like he would’ve been robbing him or anything - if it would’ve been so he would’ve already had more than enough time to empty the entire apartment.
“Yeah, whatever,” he muttered and snuggled better under the blanket. It was still slightly warm. “It’s not like I’m busy nor have any private company coming over. How long is this ‘while’ you’re speaking of?”
Kamenashi merely shrugged and fiddled with a golden ring in his pinky. Jin groaned and rubbed his eyes again, slowly awakening better.
“I don’t know,” he finally said, his smile a bit strained. “At least till my wrist is better but I’d appreciate it if I could stay maybe for a bit longer. I can do some chores here if that’s okay with you.”
“Well, just stay for now then,” he muttered. “I guess I won’t be getting lonely then. And this place could actually be a bit tidier.”
“When do you go to work?” Kamenashi changed the topic, seeming genuinely curious. Or no, it wasn’t exactly curiosity as in curiosity. It was more like he was asking it to profit himself.
“I don’t work,” Jin stated shortly. “I’m a writer and I just finished my book so I’m taking some time off at least until it gets released. That takes some months. Of course they’ll be forcing me to come over to discuss this and that and whatever promoting stuff but still. Mostly I just slack off.”
“Ah,” Kamenashi nodded slowly and hesitantly. “So you’re practically here all day?”
“Unless I go out,” Jin yawned again and sat back up, pursing his lips. “So are you like a tourist or something? Where do you come from? You sound like a native so… north? South? West? Where?”
“North,” the man answered but it struck him suspiciously much like a merely random throw.
It became quiet. Maybe a bit awkwardly so.
He wasn’t particularly good at talking to people who were lying straight at his face.
“So what’s up with being in Tokyo?” he mumbled and glared at his visitor suspiciously. “Anything in particular?”
“I just needed to get away for some time,” Kamenashi grimaced at him. “…If you understand.”
“I don’t,” Jin stated and shrugged. “It’s not like you’ve told me why. But I’m not forcing you to share, it’s none of my business. Unless, of course, you’re a murderer or a thief on the run. You aren’t, are you?” he checked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes simultaneously. Kamenashi laughed. It didn’t sound exactly guiltless but it didn’t scream a murderer either. Jin burrowed his brow. “…How about you just don’t tell me? I’d really rather not know. Just don’t get me in trouble. My manager will kill me. And you better not kill me either or I’m going to kill you.”
“That’s illogical,” Kamenashi noted with a short nod. “You cannot kill a person after dying yourself. It goes against every law our world consists of.”
“Oh shut up,” Jin snorted, not really out of amusement but rather out of relief. The murderer aura was gone. He allowed himself to relax and hid himself under the blanket. “So what are you then?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Kamenashi answered with a knowing and distracting smirk.
He had the weight of a million galaxies in his eyes.
“What’s with the necklace?” Jin asked after removing the blanket from over him and nudging at the thin silver chain around Kamenashi’s neck. Fingers immediately shot up to softly caress its cool surface.
“It’s a gift,” the man answered secretively. “From an old… friend.”
Jin nodded in understanding. Not that he understood of course - Kamenashi had a habit of leaving way too many holes in his stories to make anything sensible out of them. He figured it was just the way he worked.
It wasn’t like he would’ve been even close to perfection himself either.
Kamenashi glanced out of the window and twiddled his toes as he drew his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. It struck Jin that maybe the man was lonely and all alone. Just a child somewhere inside.
A child who had run on the road. He should’ve been brought up better. He hadn’t even been drunk or anything, just sweating like mad.
“If you’re helping out in here you could go and try to figure out the laundry machine,” Jin suggested as he got up on his feet and stretched upwards with a harsh grunt. “I’ll get some juice for myself or something.”
Kamenashi smiled a bit more genuinely at him and warmly offered his hand, noticeably shorter fingers wrapping around his.
“Just say Kame,” he offered kindly, bowing his head slightly. “Everyone does.”
“Jin then,” he answered as he awkwardly shook the hand. He should’ve been good at handshaking but maybe that only worked in professional situations. It could very well be so. “Since we’re going to be roommates now for a while and I’ll be calling you with a nickname I think it’s only fair for you to use my given name.”
“Jin,” Kame repeated with a smile. “Alright. Jin it will be then.”
And actually Kame did seem kind of like a nice and decent guy.
--
“JIN-CHAN,” Pi declared his presence loudly from the hallway as he barged in as if he would’ve been the owner of the house, kicking his sneakers off in the process of entering. “You’re going to have to put up with some multi-tasking now, you simple-minded idiot of a man!”
Jin rushed towards the direction of the front door as soon as he heard the loud and slightly obnoxious ruckus storming in. Pi’s hair was in disarray as he headed towards him and Jin gulped, expecting the worst. He always should, he knew. Just out of experience.
“Let’s start with my keys or I’ll forget them,” Pi continued as he threw his arms around him and tried to climb on his back while he struggled to get loose from his friend’s strong grip. “Keys, Jin-chan, my car keys, I want my car back, it’s mine, you have your own so stop keeping mine a hostage!”
“For god’s sake, if you’d just let me -”
Pi froze awkwardly as Kame peeked out of the living room, a confused look on his face. Jin threw his friend off him, brushed his shoulders and fixed his clothes before deciding to escape from his friend’s affection by approaching Kame.
“This is Kamenashi Kazuya, I… sort of ran into him.” More literally than not, but he preferred not letting that little piece of information slip. “Kame, this is Pi. Ah, no,” he grimaced and shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Yamashita Tomohisa. I just say Pi. Or Yamapi. Just pick a name for your liking, you’ll probably be running into him if you stay here.”
Pi’s eyebrows rose and he looked dumbfounded as he stared at Jin.
“Jin, did you go clubbing yesterday? Did you already score a boyfriend? Isn’t this too fast for you?” he asked concernedly as he nervously staggered closer. “Oh, but hi Kame, nice to meet you.”
“Ah, no, I’m not his boyfriend, Yamashita-san,” Kame bowed politely, ignoring the allowance of the usage of a more informal name. “I’m nothing of that nature. He’s merely kind enough to let me stay over for some time.”
“Ah, now I get it,” Pi nodded knowingly, eyeing Jin’s currently blank face curiously. “Since Jin is so kind and generous.” Sarcasm. His sentence reeked of it.
“I drove over him with your car,” Jin admitted blankly, crossing his arms. “I’m just making up for the sprained wrist and a scare.”
“You what?!” Pi screamed, making Jin flinch fearfully and cover his eyes. Kame’s eyes merely widened and he stood at place awkwardly, almost as if wondering if there would be any way to slip away unnoticed. “You drove over someone? And with my car too?!”
“I’m sorry, Pi, I’m so sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose!” Jin pleaded his friend. “You know I didn’t, stop screaming!”
Pi pursed his lips and extended his arm, palm open under Jin’s nose.
“My car keys. Now,” he ordered and Jin quickly ran to his room to fetch them. His hands felt a bit shaky and made him struggle with opening the zipper of his briefcase. When he returned to the two others they had taken seats in the living room, side by side on the couch, Kame seemingly uncomfortable and Pi introducing himself maybe a bit too openly by listing all of his preferences and dislikes from food to TV series to music to random body parts and colours. Well, it was Pi.
He threw the keys at his friend with a jingle and Pi managed to catch them in his fist in the middle of their flight through the air. They smirked at each other and Pi patted the space on his other side on the couch invitingly.
“Jin, since you’re better than me in this long-term relationship thing, can I ask how in the hell do you make a woman stop being angry at you?” he whined, turning his back against Kame who took the opportunity to squish himself to the very corner of the couch stiffly, stroking his hair absentmindedly and turning his head to look out of the window. He probably felt like an intruder. Jin kind of had to pity him. Or anyone who wasn’t used to his friend and ran into him, really.
Jin turned his gaze back from Kame to his dear friend in distress. As usually.
“Treat them really well and show affection,” Jin tried and shrugged. “I don’t know how women work. They just tend to forgive me and put things behind. I’m not an expert, you know how it was with Kai lately…”
“But when she has this furious aura how am I supposed to go and show affection?!” Pi complained. “Women. I really don’t get them. They want something but they do everything they can to make getting what they want as impossible as possible and then they put the blame on the men. I’m not a mind-reader and I do value my healthy physical condition. I’d rather not see a change in that just because I tried to be affectionate.”
Jin ruffled his friend’s hair absent-mindedly. It wasn’t that he wasn’t listening or interested in his friend’s matters - it was just that this wasn’t the first and it wouldn’t be the last time he’d have to listen to the same kind of issues between Pi’s and Yuuka’s (or whoever’s) relationship. It did grow tiring after a while.
No matter how much Pi would try, Jin knew what was coming. If it wasn’t working then it wasn’t. Maybe they’d soon both be single men, ready to go partying and clubbing until the bitter feelings and frustration were properly washed away.
Getting lost among the lights and per mils was more tempting than being stuck at home without even a book to write.
“Turn bi-sexual or gay and get a man if women are too difficult for you,” Jin eventually sighed. “Or switch to a more fitting girl who can take you for who you are.”
“But I like her,” Pi insisted. “She’s absolutely amazing and when we have fun, well, boy we do have fun.”
Only time could break Pi’s imaginary bubble of bliss after all the hard work. Jin had learned the hard way it was never so and neither was it ever going to be. As simple as that.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” Pi turned to ask Kame on his right side. Kame’s eyes widened a bit before he shook his head in refusal, making Pi moan to himself in his misery.
“Did she throw you out again, Pi?” Jin tried asking his friend, trying to withdraw his attention from his guest since he seemed to be uncomfortable and unwilling to properly interact with the man in need. Pi nodded as an answer to his question. “From whose house did she throw you out of? You can’t let her throw you out from your own house, Pi, that’s just wrong.” The man grimaced and Jin knew exactly the location from where his friend had hurried over.
“Alright, man,” Jin sighed as he got on his feet and pulled his friend along. Kame’s eyes trailed at the two of them briefly before he turned his gaze away, rubbing his lip with his thumb uneasily. He softly and nervously wetted them with his pinkish tongue. Jin positioned his palms on his friend’s shoulders and tried to shake him straight again. Pi sometimes needed a little push. Or maybe more than sometimes, and not only a bit.
“You’re going back home,” he instructed carefully with a calm voice. “You’re going to grab some dinner along the way, something she likes. Don’t act too humble but be apologetic. Now, go.”
Pi nodded and trailed out of the room. They left Kame behind as they walked towards the front door. When Pi pulled his white sneakers on Jin picked his jacket up from the floor and held it towards him helpfully. Pi smiled at him a bit uneasily as he pulled it on and let out a deep exhale in order to gather some strength.
“Make it go fine,” Jin smiled at his friend and patted his shoulder. “Don’t be out too long. I’m sure the faster you go and try to make up the better you’re off.”
“Alright. Thanks, Jin,” Pi mumbled and hugged him. “I’m going. I’ll tell you how it went.”
“A text is fine,” Jin grimaced as he opened the door. “Bye bye, Pi.”
He watched as his friend’s back disappeared further and further away in the already gloomy evening. A cold breeze felt like it reached his bones and made a thick layer of ice somewhere under his skin.
Only when Pi’s car door slammed shut and the engine kicked off with a bright blare of light Jin withdrew from the door and drew it shut, locking it before returning to the living room. He rubbed his bare goose-pimpled arm with his lips shut tight and sucked in his lips.
“That was Pi,” he told Kame as the man raised his gaze, nodding slowly. “He’ll most likely be around quite often. Relationship issues.”
“I see,” Kame nodded nervously and tried to crack a smile. “Okay.”
There was something deep and dark in the lithe man’s eyes as he rose on his feet, crossed his arms and trailed maybe a tad bit weakly to the window, watching the frosted edges of the window. It was almost as if he would’ve been staring into something deep inside of himself.
He looked shaken up, weak and out of place. His posture was stolen away.
Jin walked closer worryingly and took a hold of his hand, making him snap his eyes in his. So sharp and distant like a faraway galaxy.
Kame made him think about galaxies and infinity a lot. He just somehow had that mysterious aura of something that did exist but was still mostly hidden in thousands of veils of secrets.
“It’s alright to miss someone if you do,” he stated strongly. “It’s also alright to screw up. You just have to rise steadily back on your feet again.”
“Why would you conclude I have issues like that?” Kame asked, his warm but sad eyes turning to meet his. No matter all the flaming emotions he seemed to have he still appeared to stand strong and independent with no intention or need for stumbling.
Jin shrugged and wiped his nose. Hopefully he wasn’t interjecting too much. He had grown a habit out of it with his friends. “You have that aura.”
“Can you see auras?” Kame asked curiously, his eyes narrowing. Jin laughed and shook his head. It felt a bit lighter now.
“No, but sometimes it’s just easy to sense a bit,” he smirked. “Come on, no one can see auras.”
“I guess so,” Kame agreed and yanked his hand a bit, looking at Jin slightly awkwardly. “…Could you let go?”
“What, are you afraid I’ll flood you with hormones or something?” Jin laughed as he did, his cheeks rising in amusement. “I’m not planning on messing with you. I’m merely being nice.”
“Don’t get too nice,” Kame advised with a more serious face. “Just live your own life and I should be gone in some time.”
“I’ll be nice,” Jin shrugged. “I don’t mind, honestly I don’t. It still doesn’t mean I can’t make a friend. Plus I’d really hate it if you left and kept giving out nasty rumours about me for the rest of the world just because you didn’t like me,” he nodded. …Wait a second. His eyes narrowed as he stared at his guest suspiciously. “If you’re a reporter and everything will leak on the magazines I’m going to sue you. And then kill you. I swear.”
“I guess I should survive then,” Kame smiled and patted his shoulder. “What are you, a paranoid idiot?”
“I’m a writer,” Jin explained. “Novelist.”
“A big name?” Kame asked and walked over to the bookcase. “And you still take strangers to live in your house? That just makes you a great idiot then without the paranoid part. Maybe you’re just stupid. Do you have any of your books in here?”
“No,” Jin shook his head. “I don’t go and get my own copies.”
Kame nodded and rose back on his feet, examining Jin with his own eyes. He seemed a bit regretful, but then again that was often included in his outlook.
“You don’t have to get to know me,” Jin told Kame regrettably and walked past him. “If it makes you feel so bad.”
Kame didn’t follow him, only stayed silent and put where he was.
--
“Jin!” A wave of a hand.
“Mum,” Jin smiled as an answer and approached and hugged the shorter woman. “Good to see you.”
“How are you?” he asked after withdrawing. She handed him a paper napkin from her handbag and put it in his hand.
“Sneeze your nose, you look cold. We’re doing fine at home,” she told enthusiastically as they walked inside the café, his mum’s favourite. He took her there every Saturday. There was nothing bad in close family relations. “Reio might’ve found a new apartment for himself. Not too big but it should be spacious enough and affordable.”
His brother. Jin smiled.
“That fat ass should move out already,” he shook his head. “You’re spoiling him and he’s taking advantage of every single minute and penny.”
“He’s not as independent as you are, Jin,” his mother scolded. “He needs some extra time and a little push but he’s getting there. Just give him some time. I’m sure he’ll enjoy his new apartment.”
“I’m sure he’ll spend the first week running home at night because he’s too afraid to sleep in the dark alone,” Jin smirked as they sat down. “Alright, maybe that’s a little exaggeration, he could survive. But he still could.”
“Support your brother, Jin,” his mother demanded. “He’s more independent than you think, even if he is your little brother. How are you and Kai doing?”
Ah. Back to relationships. One of everyone’s favourite topics. He asked the approaching waiter for two cups of coffee, a latte for his mum and an espresso for himself, before he turned back to his mother with a heavy exhale.
“We broke up,” he admitted. “It just wasn’t working out anymore. The decision was mutual.”
“I’m so sorry,” his mother apologized with a worried look and Jin could tell that she really was. She was a good mother, worried for her sons but not forcing them together with anyone just out of the courtesy but merely there to support them with their quest of love. It was good that way. Perhaps a bit western but Jin had always felt a bit out of place in Japan, having a fair share of his friends from international schools around the area. “Maybe next time.”
“It’s alright, mum,” Jin nodded and did smile. He was being honest. It was feeling better with every passing minute. “I’m sure I’ll find the right person. I just need some more time. We’ll surely keep coming home for dinner when I just find that person and it is going to be long before you die, so don’t worry about it.”
“You’re twenty-six years old, Jin,” his mother nagged. “You’re getting old for this. Just make sure you manage to settle down within reasonable time.”
“I will,” Jin nodded determinately. “But I really just want to feel it. That bang when you realise that it really is the right person. I don’t date unless I think we might be together for the rest of our lives but I still haven’t gotten that bang. I wonder if it even exists.”
The coffees were set before them and they bowed to the waiter and politely thanked her. His mother took a short sip of her own drink.
“Just keep looking then,” she finally encouraged him. “I’d hate to see you miss it just because you felt pressured.”
Jin smiled at her widely.
Sometimes he just knew he had the best mother in the entire world.
--
Jin sneaked in his apartment well after midnight, having lost the track of time when hanging around with some friends he hadn’t had the time to meet in a while. He hung his coat on one of the hangers, removed his shoes and tiptoed in, glancing in the living room curiously.
Kame was sleeping curled up on the floor, obviously passed out in the middle of something he had been doing. Jin started wondering if he actually had had any sleep the previous night. He wouldn’t know.
He approached the young man’s form and started piling the papers and equipment around him in a neater pile, feeling responsible of doing so. Had he been fixing something?
His eyes set on the onyx necklace on the floor but it took him a while to recognize it. The gemstone had been opened in the middle and it was filled with tiny silver rings and wheels with jagged edges, as thin as metal string.
He hesitantly reached for the necklace when a strong hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist, pulling his hand as far away as possible. He yelped in pain, a rush of panic flooding over him.
“What are you doing?” Kame’s voice snapped at him, all niceties gone. He was fast awake and on his feet, forcing Jin to back away on the floor. His mouth felt dry all of sudden.
“I was j-just cleaning up after you!” he insisted. “What are you doing, I’m not stealing anything!”
“Sure you were, because you’re a neat freak and everything,” Kame spat, kneeling down over him. Jin had difficulty seeing the previous him in the eyes of the current one at all. Maybe this was just a nightmare. Maybe it was. It was so disturbingly odd and wrong that it had to be.
“I’m serious! I’m fucking serious! I’m not lying!” Jin defended himself, trying to push the younger man off him. If he was so much frailer than he was then why was it that he had so much difficulty with it?!
Kame took a strong grip of both of his wrists and forced them on the floor, climbing on top of him to keep him still with his body. Jin was honestly getting scared, his breathing fast and irregular.
“Is this a new tactic you’re using? Have you finally figured out the composition of the tier? Have you!?” Kame growled at his face. Jin felt his body weakening as submission flooded over him. He was scared. Really, really scared. It had to be a very odd nightmare.
Don’t let strangers in your house, Jin. Didn’t everyone always say so? You never knew what they were up to. Especially if they were as shady as Kame.
Maybe Kame was a murderer.
“Don’t kill me,” he managed to mumble, stumbling with his words. He couldn’t tear his eyes away. Breathing hurt. “Oh please don’t kill me, I r-really haven’t done anything w-wrong in here, I can stop touching your stuff, we can just f-forget about this, just please don’t kill me! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
Kame stayed silent over him, not weakening his hold or dropping his guard as he pondered about the matter. Jin felt his body tremble violently.
Finally Kame groaned and let go, still sitting on him as he rubbed his eyes, seemingly exhausted.
“I’m sorry. I overreacted,” he apologized more softly. Jin just stared, his brains still not really catching up with the situation. “It’s just that you never know. I shouldn’t fall asleep like this…”
The younger man dragged himself back to his things and started gathering his tools back in their little box and piling his papers up before putting them in his back bag. He snapped the onyx shut and slid it back around his neck, enclosing it under his shirt. Jin let his head hit the floor, relief drowning him in weakness.
“Oh god you scared me,” he muttered, voice and body still shaky. “Overreacting is a pretty goddamn mild word for that.”
“I apologize,” Kame repeated with true honesty lacing his voice. “I suggest you stay from approaching my personal belongings.”
“…What’s up with the necklace?” Jin asked straight-forwardly, standing up on his feet and looking down at the young man who was zipping his back bag. “It isn’t just a normal necklace, is it?”
“No,” Kame admitted and stood up on his own feet, daring eyes meeting his. He had the posture of a warrior, Jin noted. Someone well prepared and ready for a battle about to break loose. “But not much I carry around with me is.”
Absurd. Maybe things were turning interesting.
Jin smirked at his friend and nodded, crossing his arms.
“I’d love to know but I doubt you’d tell me.”
“You’re damn right about that,” Kame affirmed his guess. “You better not talk to anyone about anything concerning me and any of my belongings.”
Layers. He could see them. Thin layers one after another on Kame, every one of them carrying different properties, thoughts and characteristics.
“You’re interesting,” Jin smiled at the man. “Full of surprises.”
“Unlike someone,” Kame snorted with a roll of his eyes, walking temptingly closer, eyes not exactly warm but not anything like murderous either. “I’ve seen more than you ever will, I’m afraid.”
And Jin really truly did believe his words.
Even if he had no idea about what Kame himself held as their meaning.
--
He didn’t dare touching Kame’s belongings after that one fiasco, fearing the man’s paranoia and what kind of consequences the seconds could take on him. Still, he didn’t start fearing the man. Rather than that, he felt intrigued. The little turtle seemed to have quite a store of fascinating secrets up his sleeve… or maybe, rather, in his pitch black and carefully covered shell.
It didn’t take him long to notice that Kame never stepped out of the house but was keen on occasionally walking around and checking the windows to peer down, maybe as if guarding a fortress Jin had borrowed to him. Sometimes he wondered if letting the man stay was good for him - whether the whole thing was just because of Kame’s paranoia or if he should really start worrying for his own safety with the man around. In the end he couldn’t bring himself to be too bothered about it and just decided to let things be as they were. At least he didn’t have to laze around in his apartment all alone through the too-long afternoons.
“I’m curious of what it is you’re constructing within that pendant of yours,” he wondered aloud as he lied on the floor, arms serving as regrettably badly working cushions. He followed Kame’s carefully steady hands as the man placed a little rock glowing in a beautiful and almost clear shade of aquamarine in the shape of a droplet inside the complex structure of the pendant. He had no idea of its origins or type but he swore he had never seen one alike it, shining so beautifully. “It seems urgent.”
“It is,” Kame admitted, not sparing him a glance as he continued working. “It’s crucial. I’ve been designing and building it for so long and I’m sure I can make it work now just as long as I finish it. Ah!” he exclaimed with a stressed voice as his hand trembled and some of the wheels inside the pendant were pushed to wrong positions. “Oh fucking hell..!”
“Just relax,” Jin chuckled, rolling on his stomach and peering on what Kame was doing as the man used miniature tweezers to pick the now wrongly adjusted parts out of the pendant. “Do they have to be so small? I’m surprised you aren’t breaking them, they look so frail. Wouldn’t it be easier with bigger ones?”
Kame shook his head, grimacing disgustedly at the mere idea. “I’ve counted and produced everything after crucial calculations. No, the size cannot be reduced. This is the only possibility where the sizes add to each other perfectly.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jin sighed, drumming his fingers on the wood-panelled floorings. “Maybe you’re a technician. How nerdy.”
“I’m not, this is way out of my area,” Kame declined, working carefully with his fixings. Jin wasn’t sure if he had lost hours of work. Could’ve been. No matter what he was doing, it certainly wasn’t an easy every-day task of the Ordinary Joe.
“Hmm, so you aren’t a technician,” Jin chattered on, nodding to demonstrate his understanding. “But you are a pro at something.”
Kame didn’t answer but merely kept himself quietly engrossed in his work. Jin studied him curiously with a smile. His guest was an odd case. Who would have thought?
It felt nicer now between the two of them. He still wasn’t quite so certain to the level to which Kame actually wanted his company - on some sense he could’ve sworn that the man wanted nothing to do with anyone, seemingly due to some form of guilt, but often when Jin simply stayed around Kame did appear a bit more energized. Appreciative.
He had the loner’s aura around him. Jin had always been sensitive to such auras, being exposed to all sorts of complexes around him during his lifetime. Never mind his asshole’s aura, he was a caretaker. A lover.
Kame didn’t push him away anymore but simply let him stay around and it felt well good enough for him. He didn’t know when the man was leaving, no - he couldn’t really bring himself to care for the moment. He was enjoying the weird glimpse to an odd and hardly understandable world too much.
“What are you doing to the necklace? Making it glow seems pretty goddamn insignificant for the effort you’re putting into it,” Jin wondered aloud, rolling back on his back and studying the ceiling with his gaze. Kame looked at him briefly when picking another jagged-edged ring from the floor, a ghost of a smile trying to tug his lips upwards.
“I’m not making it glow,” he admitted. “The purpose of my technical hitch will remain a secret to anyone but me. For the good of everyone.”
“It isn’t a bomb either, is it?” Jin insisted, watching Kame lick his lips nervously as he adjusted the ring in its right place. “…Please tell me it isn’t. You are not constructing a fucking bomb in my apartment. I’ll kick you out.”
“It’s not a bomb,” Kame grinned at him. “It’s not a mass murder device. Its use is a secret. Secret,” he repeated before Jin got the time to get anything out of his persistently opened mouth. “I’m sure you know what a secret means.”
“Having the secret right in front of me doesn’t feel fair, though,” Jin complained, crossing his arms and scratching his left calf with his toenails absentmindedly. “But I guess I’ll just have to conclude that when it comes to your personal issues you’re going to be everything but fair, open and nice.”
“You’d be right about that,” Kame agreed, smiling at him, eyes glimmering a bit. “Glad to hear you have some brains after all. Sometimes I do come to doubt it.”
Jin decided to bite back on the threatening snap dancing on his tongue and thankfully succeeded. He hated being considered a child even if it had some truthful basis.
Soft rain consisting of little droplets insisted on pounding on his blurred window. He followed it, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.
Kame was nice and felt safe to be around. It was a bit like being underwater in a good way.
“Your wrist is almost healed,” Jin conversed a bit less jokingly, sighing at the end of his declaration. “You can use your hand.”
“…Yes, I can use it,” Kame nodded hesitantly. “I’m still in pain and it’s swollen, though. I’ll be sticking around for a while.”
Jin felt a smile forming on his lips and he twiddled his toes in delight. He was becoming fond of the other one’s company.
“Where are you heading when you’re leaving? Do you know? Or will you even tell me?” he laughed, smiling widely for the other one, even if it didn’t reach his eyes entirely. He couldn’t deny he hated losing his friends and anything that proved to be at least a bit distracting. Kame wasn’t smiling as much; he had only his constant keep-it-up twist on his lips. Jin had come to recognize it. He was quick with catching up with lies and hidden truths. At least that was what he liked to believe but he had gotten conned a fair number of times.
It was about whom he was wary of. With his friends he was annoyingly gullible. It pissed him off.
Kame finished placing the glowing droplet of a rock back inside the shell of the pendant before daring to look at him again, all silent. Jin got the feeling nothing was constant in his life and that he was just another piece to disappear into thin air.
He wondered what it was like to cease existing but couldn’t imagine. No matter what, for him life would go on just the same as it did before the younger man ever stepped into his life. And maybe it was better so.
“You wouldn’t believe if I told you.”
One of Kame’s favourite sentences, but knowing himself Jin was pretty certain that Kame was right and he wouldn’t. Kame seemed to withhold a lot of absurdities, none of which Jin was sure really existed elsewhere than in his paranoia ridden brains.
“Just make sure you get decent company every now and then,” he shrugged as he sat up again, yawning and stretching. It wasn’t really any of his business to grill Kame about everything. “So that you won’t get too lonely or withdrawn. You don’t want to struggle to come back from that road.”
Kame couldn’t help but smile and throw a miniature screwdriver at him. Jin yelped and covered himself, pissed at the sudden almost aggressive outtake.
“Hey! That thing is dangerous, it’s thin enough to cut glass, never mind my skin!” he snarled furiously, eyes flaring up. Bad bad bad. Kame rolled his eyes and extended his hand until Jin grumpily slammed the tool back on his palm. The man was smiling.
“Stop being such a pussy yourself,” Kame instructed him as he returned to his work. “You might not survive what life has to throw at your way.”
Jin glared away and scoffed. No matter how much he wished for it Kame just lacked that threatening aura around him. He couldn’t exactly be angry at him or treat him badly.
It was and had always been all about people’s auras. When it came to them, Jin felt like an expert.
Kame’s felt warmly golden, but simultaneously like a puff of lilac mist. Whatever it happened to mean.
He sat down again to observe, calmed and back to the naïvely curious state. Square one.
He was Akanishi Jin after all and couldn’t resist observing every interesting little thing that came his way. He was growing quite fond of the new momentary addition in his boring nothing-at-all life.
--
“What would you do if someone liked you?”
Jin almost snorted on his drink, a bubbly laughter tickling his burning throat. He had had too much tequila and too many flaring, moving and colourful lights, too little thinking capacity left. He turned to Pi and grinned, clanging their glasses together. Such pretty sounds the glasses made, yes.
“What would you?” he insisted asking from his friend, still laughing madly from under his breath. Pi shook his hand and voiced out his refusal, slamming his drink on the table.
“No no, Jin honey. You don’t get to ask that since I do have a girlfriend that I like and love very dearly and if anyone else confessed I’d reject them in the blink of an eye. You, in another hand, are a very fresh, young and ass-y of a single man. Shoot me.”
Pi gulped down his drink, grinning at him. Jin smirked back flirtingly, enjoying to his fullest the fooling around with his number one friend. Pi had always had the ability to keep things lively.
“I’d show them who’s the boss,” he declared daringly and Pi wailed, clapping his hands in amusement and rocking on his seat. Jin downed his tequila shot and threw his head back, not minding with the lemon or salt. God he must’ve been drunk. The burning didn’t feel that bad either but he just knew his voice was going to be raspy the next morning.
“You’re more interesting now that Kai isn’t around anymore,” Pi nodded enthusiastically, leaning his elbows on the table. “Or, well, now that you don’t get cranky by fighting with her all the time. Not that you’ve ceased to be boring. You haven’t. Boring Jin. Stupid Jin. How the hell do you expect to keep anyone in your boring and isolated life?”
Jin pursed his lips and kicked his friend from under the table. Pi often had maybe a bit too big of a mouth, he knew. All for the best, of course - it just often failed to feel like it. One had to get used to the judging to improve. Still, he couldn’t ignore the fact that Pi often had a point and he did improve his life.
It was thanks to Pi he had met Kai too, after all.
“I still can’t get around your huge ego, though,” Pi wondered, rubbing his fishy lips in a drunken wonder. “Maybe you should drop it off, I don’t think it’s quite the magnet you need plus I’m sure you already know that you aren’t that brilliant of a man.”
“Thank you,” Jin pursed his lips, crossing his arms and glaring at his friend over the small bar table. “I’ll make sure to consider that. But I don’t really feel like it unless I feel like it. Whatever the logic is.” Well, it was a bit difficult to think clearly when drunk.
“You seriously need to go home,” Pi noted. “I know you can take a lot of that shit after all the practice and liver-abuse we go through but you’re really stopping making sense to me right now.”
Jin smiled smugly, standing up on his feet.
“No way. I just downed a tequila shot and I’m planning on putting it in use,” he grinned and offered his friend for his hand. “Are you capable of still standing on your precious feet and taking over the dance floor with me, oh Almighty Taken Pink Prince?”
“I so fucking hate you for that right now,” Pi grumbled but took Jin’s hand, rising steadily on his feet and letting his friend drag him to the dance floor amidst the loud pumping of the music. Jin knew he could always trust on his friend being there, taken or not. Not that he would’ve been unfaithful - there was a decent way of handling a disco when taken.
“You didn’t answer me properly though!” Pi yelled at him through the ground as he moved to the music with his upper body, enjoying the feeling of drowning he started to experience with the waving chaos around him, somehow oddly moving in slow motion. “Say someone comes over and they end up liking you - what would you do?”
“If I’d like them I’d ask them out or something!” Jin tried to answer through the crowd, yelling in his friend’s ear. “It’s not something I know beforehand; whatever happens happens!”
“You’re so adorable when freshly in looove,” Pi teased him, poking his sides. Jin squeamishly yelped and tried to slip through the cracks in the crowd to get away from his abusive friend. Oh how he hated him sometimes. Pi only giggled as he chased him, well-practiced in his quest. “Aw, stop being such a cutie or I’m going to be afraid you already found someone!”
“No!” Jin yelled and shoved his friend off. “It’s because you’re harassing me! If you want to support my relationships let me eye this bar around and stop making me look gay!”
“You’re bi-sexual, does it matter so much?” Pi complained loudly. Jin stepped on his foot and the younger man bended over in pain.
“You’re making me look taken,” he argued loudly after his physical attack. He really was a sore loser and a child, sure. “Swim away, you lowlife of a fish!”
When Jin came back home well after four o’clock in the morning, he returned without company. He wobbled to the kitchen in order to fill a sports bottle with water, sipping it crankily to himself in his decreasing drunkenness, always the worst possible state, and headed towards the living room to check up on his workaholic and socially deprived (such a poor man) friend.
He smiled a bit as he found Kame this time soundly asleep on the couch, his tools and projects neatly packed away and out of sight in his back bag. Kame sure seemed like the type to learn from his mistakes. Good for him - at least Jin didn’t really want to encounter such a scary situation again. Kame’s paranoia was unbelievable. He really should’ve tried contacting some professionals to improve his state.
Jin sighed and sat on the couch table, sipping his water to clear his head and fight the nausea. He wasn’t planning on being hangover the following day and as he was getting older he had to admit alcohol had developed a nastier way of getting back at him. Perhaps it tried to speak some sense to him. Settle down and live responsibly.
Fuck responsibility. He was well restrained enough as it was.
He scoffed quietly to himself and got on his feet, crankily fixing Kame’s blanket before strolling back on his own bedroom. Should he consider settling down? Getting into another serious relationship? He did love them, he just hated the let-downs they brought to him. Plus it wasn’t so easy finding someone whom he could imagine really being with for more than a short while.
He put the water bottle beside his bed and slipped out of his jeans, looking out of the window. Such beautiful city lights of the metropolis somewhere far ahead, more towards the centre. Not that it wasn’t blaring in his part of the city as well. It seemed like the opposite neighbours were still well awake and having maybe a bit too much liking of each other.
Jin closed the blinds and sighed, reminding himself to never think at any time that everyone was asleep. Immediately afterwards he wondered if Kame’s paranoia was growing onto him.
It better not. But even if it did, it was probably going to get better after the man was gone. It couldn’t be too long anymore. Kame appeared eager to go.
The unsocial fucker.
Jin sighed and crushed his bed, not bothering with the duvet. The alcohol was still burning up in his veins, he didn’t feel the need. He could of course regret his decision in the morning but it wasn’t like it mattered.
In his life responsibility was overrated after all.
Author: prologuesized
Pairing: Akame (Short side-pairings: Jin/OC, Pi/OC - hopefully it won't scare you away, though, I tried to keep them readable)
Rating: R
Genre: AU, Sci-fi, Romance, Adventure, Action
Disclaimer: Actually, I own a couple of side-characters. That's about it.
Summary: Akanishi Jin lives the life of a writer stuck in a world he feels he has no control over or pressing interest on. However, everything changes when he drives over a stranger by the name of Kamenashi Kazuya - a man who proves to be from an another world and universe entirely, whisking him away to an adventure through universes and time in order to fulfil his vendetta and stop his enemy from succeeding in his plan to maintain reign over as many universes as possible and starting out a universe-wide war.
Author Note: We’re slooowly getting there. Things are starting to hit off slightly but… still mainly relationship building. You will be looking forward for the chapters after the next one plot-wise. I’ll try my best to keep my promise for that.
Anyway, enjoy your days and drop a comment so that when I get back from school in the evening all cranky I’ll have something to cheer me up :< School can be so tough sometimes.
Total wordcount: 53,900
Chapter wordcount: 7,800
Chapter 2
Jin woke up to the sound of soft footsteps somewhere behind his bedroom door. A thin trail of pale yellow light was cast on the floor and the walls from the crack in his drawn curtains. He sat up on his bed and ran his fingers through his mussed hair and let himself slowly wake up.
He really wasn’t one for mornings, he decided as he let himself fall back to the mattress again, closing his eyes. Definitely wasn’t.
The quiet thumps trailed back to the direction of the living room and Jin heaved heavily. He didn’t have a clock in his bedroom anymore and he didn’t really care for one but according to the amount of light coming to the room from such a small crack he maybe should’ve already been up and walking. Or preparing some breakfast for his guest. He couldn’t be rude forever.
He grumbled to himself as he dragged himself up from the bed, slipped his feet in his slippers and pulled his robe on. He’d bother with dressing up later. Once he had tried to do it straight after waking up. An hour later he had noticed he had pulled on differently coloured socks and his t-shirt had been the wrong way around. And this had only been done after Pi had already gotten a great and wheezy laugh. Straight in the morning. Not one of his favourite memories.
“’Morning,” he mumbled as he trailed out of the bedroom, raising his voice tiredly. He rubbed his eyes and headed to the direction of the living room where he had left the unlucky young man previously.
“’Morning,” the man answered and slipped his pendant under his shirt’s protection. He zipped his rucksack hurriedly and peered at him as he leaned against the doorframe, hair standing up messily and eyes barely open. He yawned and nudged towards the kitchen.
“You may eat breakfast,” he offered. Kamenashi merely grimaced apologetically.
“It’s twelve o’clock. Thanks but I kind of already took the opportunity,” he explained himself. “You slept for a really long time.”
“Mnnhnh,” Jin agreed and slouched over, sitting on the couch beside Kamenashi and pulled the man’s blanket over them sleepily. He ruffled his hair and leaned his head against the backrest. The light was hurting his eyes.
“…Could I stay here for some time?” Kamenashi asked him warily, not a glimpse of tiredness detectable from him. “Only if it’s alright with you?”
Jin bit his lip. He had driven over him with a car. Maybe he did owe it to the man. And it wasn’t like he would’ve been robbing him or anything - if it would’ve been so he would’ve already had more than enough time to empty the entire apartment.
“Yeah, whatever,” he muttered and snuggled better under the blanket. It was still slightly warm. “It’s not like I’m busy nor have any private company coming over. How long is this ‘while’ you’re speaking of?”
Kamenashi merely shrugged and fiddled with a golden ring in his pinky. Jin groaned and rubbed his eyes again, slowly awakening better.
“I don’t know,” he finally said, his smile a bit strained. “At least till my wrist is better but I’d appreciate it if I could stay maybe for a bit longer. I can do some chores here if that’s okay with you.”
“Well, just stay for now then,” he muttered. “I guess I won’t be getting lonely then. And this place could actually be a bit tidier.”
“When do you go to work?” Kamenashi changed the topic, seeming genuinely curious. Or no, it wasn’t exactly curiosity as in curiosity. It was more like he was asking it to profit himself.
“I don’t work,” Jin stated shortly. “I’m a writer and I just finished my book so I’m taking some time off at least until it gets released. That takes some months. Of course they’ll be forcing me to come over to discuss this and that and whatever promoting stuff but still. Mostly I just slack off.”
“Ah,” Kamenashi nodded slowly and hesitantly. “So you’re practically here all day?”
“Unless I go out,” Jin yawned again and sat back up, pursing his lips. “So are you like a tourist or something? Where do you come from? You sound like a native so… north? South? West? Where?”
“North,” the man answered but it struck him suspiciously much like a merely random throw.
It became quiet. Maybe a bit awkwardly so.
He wasn’t particularly good at talking to people who were lying straight at his face.
“So what’s up with being in Tokyo?” he mumbled and glared at his visitor suspiciously. “Anything in particular?”
“I just needed to get away for some time,” Kamenashi grimaced at him. “…If you understand.”
“I don’t,” Jin stated and shrugged. “It’s not like you’ve told me why. But I’m not forcing you to share, it’s none of my business. Unless, of course, you’re a murderer or a thief on the run. You aren’t, are you?” he checked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes simultaneously. Kamenashi laughed. It didn’t sound exactly guiltless but it didn’t scream a murderer either. Jin burrowed his brow. “…How about you just don’t tell me? I’d really rather not know. Just don’t get me in trouble. My manager will kill me. And you better not kill me either or I’m going to kill you.”
“That’s illogical,” Kamenashi noted with a short nod. “You cannot kill a person after dying yourself. It goes against every law our world consists of.”
“Oh shut up,” Jin snorted, not really out of amusement but rather out of relief. The murderer aura was gone. He allowed himself to relax and hid himself under the blanket. “So what are you then?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Kamenashi answered with a knowing and distracting smirk.
He had the weight of a million galaxies in his eyes.
“What’s with the necklace?” Jin asked after removing the blanket from over him and nudging at the thin silver chain around Kamenashi’s neck. Fingers immediately shot up to softly caress its cool surface.
“It’s a gift,” the man answered secretively. “From an old… friend.”
Jin nodded in understanding. Not that he understood of course - Kamenashi had a habit of leaving way too many holes in his stories to make anything sensible out of them. He figured it was just the way he worked.
It wasn’t like he would’ve been even close to perfection himself either.
Kamenashi glanced out of the window and twiddled his toes as he drew his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. It struck Jin that maybe the man was lonely and all alone. Just a child somewhere inside.
A child who had run on the road. He should’ve been brought up better. He hadn’t even been drunk or anything, just sweating like mad.
“If you’re helping out in here you could go and try to figure out the laundry machine,” Jin suggested as he got up on his feet and stretched upwards with a harsh grunt. “I’ll get some juice for myself or something.”
Kamenashi smiled a bit more genuinely at him and warmly offered his hand, noticeably shorter fingers wrapping around his.
“Just say Kame,” he offered kindly, bowing his head slightly. “Everyone does.”
“Jin then,” he answered as he awkwardly shook the hand. He should’ve been good at handshaking but maybe that only worked in professional situations. It could very well be so. “Since we’re going to be roommates now for a while and I’ll be calling you with a nickname I think it’s only fair for you to use my given name.”
“Jin,” Kame repeated with a smile. “Alright. Jin it will be then.”
And actually Kame did seem kind of like a nice and decent guy.
--
“JIN-CHAN,” Pi declared his presence loudly from the hallway as he barged in as if he would’ve been the owner of the house, kicking his sneakers off in the process of entering. “You’re going to have to put up with some multi-tasking now, you simple-minded idiot of a man!”
Jin rushed towards the direction of the front door as soon as he heard the loud and slightly obnoxious ruckus storming in. Pi’s hair was in disarray as he headed towards him and Jin gulped, expecting the worst. He always should, he knew. Just out of experience.
“Let’s start with my keys or I’ll forget them,” Pi continued as he threw his arms around him and tried to climb on his back while he struggled to get loose from his friend’s strong grip. “Keys, Jin-chan, my car keys, I want my car back, it’s mine, you have your own so stop keeping mine a hostage!”
“For god’s sake, if you’d just let me -”
Pi froze awkwardly as Kame peeked out of the living room, a confused look on his face. Jin threw his friend off him, brushed his shoulders and fixed his clothes before deciding to escape from his friend’s affection by approaching Kame.
“This is Kamenashi Kazuya, I… sort of ran into him.” More literally than not, but he preferred not letting that little piece of information slip. “Kame, this is Pi. Ah, no,” he grimaced and shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. “Yamashita Tomohisa. I just say Pi. Or Yamapi. Just pick a name for your liking, you’ll probably be running into him if you stay here.”
Pi’s eyebrows rose and he looked dumbfounded as he stared at Jin.
“Jin, did you go clubbing yesterday? Did you already score a boyfriend? Isn’t this too fast for you?” he asked concernedly as he nervously staggered closer. “Oh, but hi Kame, nice to meet you.”
“Ah, no, I’m not his boyfriend, Yamashita-san,” Kame bowed politely, ignoring the allowance of the usage of a more informal name. “I’m nothing of that nature. He’s merely kind enough to let me stay over for some time.”
“Ah, now I get it,” Pi nodded knowingly, eyeing Jin’s currently blank face curiously. “Since Jin is so kind and generous.” Sarcasm. His sentence reeked of it.
“I drove over him with your car,” Jin admitted blankly, crossing his arms. “I’m just making up for the sprained wrist and a scare.”
“You what?!” Pi screamed, making Jin flinch fearfully and cover his eyes. Kame’s eyes merely widened and he stood at place awkwardly, almost as if wondering if there would be any way to slip away unnoticed. “You drove over someone? And with my car too?!”
“I’m sorry, Pi, I’m so sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose!” Jin pleaded his friend. “You know I didn’t, stop screaming!”
Pi pursed his lips and extended his arm, palm open under Jin’s nose.
“My car keys. Now,” he ordered and Jin quickly ran to his room to fetch them. His hands felt a bit shaky and made him struggle with opening the zipper of his briefcase. When he returned to the two others they had taken seats in the living room, side by side on the couch, Kame seemingly uncomfortable and Pi introducing himself maybe a bit too openly by listing all of his preferences and dislikes from food to TV series to music to random body parts and colours. Well, it was Pi.
He threw the keys at his friend with a jingle and Pi managed to catch them in his fist in the middle of their flight through the air. They smirked at each other and Pi patted the space on his other side on the couch invitingly.
“Jin, since you’re better than me in this long-term relationship thing, can I ask how in the hell do you make a woman stop being angry at you?” he whined, turning his back against Kame who took the opportunity to squish himself to the very corner of the couch stiffly, stroking his hair absentmindedly and turning his head to look out of the window. He probably felt like an intruder. Jin kind of had to pity him. Or anyone who wasn’t used to his friend and ran into him, really.
Jin turned his gaze back from Kame to his dear friend in distress. As usually.
“Treat them really well and show affection,” Jin tried and shrugged. “I don’t know how women work. They just tend to forgive me and put things behind. I’m not an expert, you know how it was with Kai lately…”
“But when she has this furious aura how am I supposed to go and show affection?!” Pi complained. “Women. I really don’t get them. They want something but they do everything they can to make getting what they want as impossible as possible and then they put the blame on the men. I’m not a mind-reader and I do value my healthy physical condition. I’d rather not see a change in that just because I tried to be affectionate.”
Jin ruffled his friend’s hair absent-mindedly. It wasn’t that he wasn’t listening or interested in his friend’s matters - it was just that this wasn’t the first and it wouldn’t be the last time he’d have to listen to the same kind of issues between Pi’s and Yuuka’s (or whoever’s) relationship. It did grow tiring after a while.
No matter how much Pi would try, Jin knew what was coming. If it wasn’t working then it wasn’t. Maybe they’d soon both be single men, ready to go partying and clubbing until the bitter feelings and frustration were properly washed away.
Getting lost among the lights and per mils was more tempting than being stuck at home without even a book to write.
“Turn bi-sexual or gay and get a man if women are too difficult for you,” Jin eventually sighed. “Or switch to a more fitting girl who can take you for who you are.”
“But I like her,” Pi insisted. “She’s absolutely amazing and when we have fun, well, boy we do have fun.”
Only time could break Pi’s imaginary bubble of bliss after all the hard work. Jin had learned the hard way it was never so and neither was it ever going to be. As simple as that.
“Do you have a girlfriend?” Pi turned to ask Kame on his right side. Kame’s eyes widened a bit before he shook his head in refusal, making Pi moan to himself in his misery.
“Did she throw you out again, Pi?” Jin tried asking his friend, trying to withdraw his attention from his guest since he seemed to be uncomfortable and unwilling to properly interact with the man in need. Pi nodded as an answer to his question. “From whose house did she throw you out of? You can’t let her throw you out from your own house, Pi, that’s just wrong.” The man grimaced and Jin knew exactly the location from where his friend had hurried over.
“Alright, man,” Jin sighed as he got on his feet and pulled his friend along. Kame’s eyes trailed at the two of them briefly before he turned his gaze away, rubbing his lip with his thumb uneasily. He softly and nervously wetted them with his pinkish tongue. Jin positioned his palms on his friend’s shoulders and tried to shake him straight again. Pi sometimes needed a little push. Or maybe more than sometimes, and not only a bit.
“You’re going back home,” he instructed carefully with a calm voice. “You’re going to grab some dinner along the way, something she likes. Don’t act too humble but be apologetic. Now, go.”
Pi nodded and trailed out of the room. They left Kame behind as they walked towards the front door. When Pi pulled his white sneakers on Jin picked his jacket up from the floor and held it towards him helpfully. Pi smiled at him a bit uneasily as he pulled it on and let out a deep exhale in order to gather some strength.
“Make it go fine,” Jin smiled at his friend and patted his shoulder. “Don’t be out too long. I’m sure the faster you go and try to make up the better you’re off.”
“Alright. Thanks, Jin,” Pi mumbled and hugged him. “I’m going. I’ll tell you how it went.”
“A text is fine,” Jin grimaced as he opened the door. “Bye bye, Pi.”
He watched as his friend’s back disappeared further and further away in the already gloomy evening. A cold breeze felt like it reached his bones and made a thick layer of ice somewhere under his skin.
Only when Pi’s car door slammed shut and the engine kicked off with a bright blare of light Jin withdrew from the door and drew it shut, locking it before returning to the living room. He rubbed his bare goose-pimpled arm with his lips shut tight and sucked in his lips.
“That was Pi,” he told Kame as the man raised his gaze, nodding slowly. “He’ll most likely be around quite often. Relationship issues.”
“I see,” Kame nodded nervously and tried to crack a smile. “Okay.”
There was something deep and dark in the lithe man’s eyes as he rose on his feet, crossed his arms and trailed maybe a tad bit weakly to the window, watching the frosted edges of the window. It was almost as if he would’ve been staring into something deep inside of himself.
He looked shaken up, weak and out of place. His posture was stolen away.
Jin walked closer worryingly and took a hold of his hand, making him snap his eyes in his. So sharp and distant like a faraway galaxy.
Kame made him think about galaxies and infinity a lot. He just somehow had that mysterious aura of something that did exist but was still mostly hidden in thousands of veils of secrets.
“It’s alright to miss someone if you do,” he stated strongly. “It’s also alright to screw up. You just have to rise steadily back on your feet again.”
“Why would you conclude I have issues like that?” Kame asked, his warm but sad eyes turning to meet his. No matter all the flaming emotions he seemed to have he still appeared to stand strong and independent with no intention or need for stumbling.
Jin shrugged and wiped his nose. Hopefully he wasn’t interjecting too much. He had grown a habit out of it with his friends. “You have that aura.”
“Can you see auras?” Kame asked curiously, his eyes narrowing. Jin laughed and shook his head. It felt a bit lighter now.
“No, but sometimes it’s just easy to sense a bit,” he smirked. “Come on, no one can see auras.”
“I guess so,” Kame agreed and yanked his hand a bit, looking at Jin slightly awkwardly. “…Could you let go?”
“What, are you afraid I’ll flood you with hormones or something?” Jin laughed as he did, his cheeks rising in amusement. “I’m not planning on messing with you. I’m merely being nice.”
“Don’t get too nice,” Kame advised with a more serious face. “Just live your own life and I should be gone in some time.”
“I’ll be nice,” Jin shrugged. “I don’t mind, honestly I don’t. It still doesn’t mean I can’t make a friend. Plus I’d really hate it if you left and kept giving out nasty rumours about me for the rest of the world just because you didn’t like me,” he nodded. …Wait a second. His eyes narrowed as he stared at his guest suspiciously. “If you’re a reporter and everything will leak on the magazines I’m going to sue you. And then kill you. I swear.”
“I guess I should survive then,” Kame smiled and patted his shoulder. “What are you, a paranoid idiot?”
“I’m a writer,” Jin explained. “Novelist.”
“A big name?” Kame asked and walked over to the bookcase. “And you still take strangers to live in your house? That just makes you a great idiot then without the paranoid part. Maybe you’re just stupid. Do you have any of your books in here?”
“No,” Jin shook his head. “I don’t go and get my own copies.”
Kame nodded and rose back on his feet, examining Jin with his own eyes. He seemed a bit regretful, but then again that was often included in his outlook.
“You don’t have to get to know me,” Jin told Kame regrettably and walked past him. “If it makes you feel so bad.”
Kame didn’t follow him, only stayed silent and put where he was.
--
“Jin!” A wave of a hand.
“Mum,” Jin smiled as an answer and approached and hugged the shorter woman. “Good to see you.”
“How are you?” he asked after withdrawing. She handed him a paper napkin from her handbag and put it in his hand.
“Sneeze your nose, you look cold. We’re doing fine at home,” she told enthusiastically as they walked inside the café, his mum’s favourite. He took her there every Saturday. There was nothing bad in close family relations. “Reio might’ve found a new apartment for himself. Not too big but it should be spacious enough and affordable.”
His brother. Jin smiled.
“That fat ass should move out already,” he shook his head. “You’re spoiling him and he’s taking advantage of every single minute and penny.”
“He’s not as independent as you are, Jin,” his mother scolded. “He needs some extra time and a little push but he’s getting there. Just give him some time. I’m sure he’ll enjoy his new apartment.”
“I’m sure he’ll spend the first week running home at night because he’s too afraid to sleep in the dark alone,” Jin smirked as they sat down. “Alright, maybe that’s a little exaggeration, he could survive. But he still could.”
“Support your brother, Jin,” his mother demanded. “He’s more independent than you think, even if he is your little brother. How are you and Kai doing?”
Ah. Back to relationships. One of everyone’s favourite topics. He asked the approaching waiter for two cups of coffee, a latte for his mum and an espresso for himself, before he turned back to his mother with a heavy exhale.
“We broke up,” he admitted. “It just wasn’t working out anymore. The decision was mutual.”
“I’m so sorry,” his mother apologized with a worried look and Jin could tell that she really was. She was a good mother, worried for her sons but not forcing them together with anyone just out of the courtesy but merely there to support them with their quest of love. It was good that way. Perhaps a bit western but Jin had always felt a bit out of place in Japan, having a fair share of his friends from international schools around the area. “Maybe next time.”
“It’s alright, mum,” Jin nodded and did smile. He was being honest. It was feeling better with every passing minute. “I’m sure I’ll find the right person. I just need some more time. We’ll surely keep coming home for dinner when I just find that person and it is going to be long before you die, so don’t worry about it.”
“You’re twenty-six years old, Jin,” his mother nagged. “You’re getting old for this. Just make sure you manage to settle down within reasonable time.”
“I will,” Jin nodded determinately. “But I really just want to feel it. That bang when you realise that it really is the right person. I don’t date unless I think we might be together for the rest of our lives but I still haven’t gotten that bang. I wonder if it even exists.”
The coffees were set before them and they bowed to the waiter and politely thanked her. His mother took a short sip of her own drink.
“Just keep looking then,” she finally encouraged him. “I’d hate to see you miss it just because you felt pressured.”
Jin smiled at her widely.
Sometimes he just knew he had the best mother in the entire world.
--
Jin sneaked in his apartment well after midnight, having lost the track of time when hanging around with some friends he hadn’t had the time to meet in a while. He hung his coat on one of the hangers, removed his shoes and tiptoed in, glancing in the living room curiously.
Kame was sleeping curled up on the floor, obviously passed out in the middle of something he had been doing. Jin started wondering if he actually had had any sleep the previous night. He wouldn’t know.
He approached the young man’s form and started piling the papers and equipment around him in a neater pile, feeling responsible of doing so. Had he been fixing something?
His eyes set on the onyx necklace on the floor but it took him a while to recognize it. The gemstone had been opened in the middle and it was filled with tiny silver rings and wheels with jagged edges, as thin as metal string.
He hesitantly reached for the necklace when a strong hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist, pulling his hand as far away as possible. He yelped in pain, a rush of panic flooding over him.
“What are you doing?” Kame’s voice snapped at him, all niceties gone. He was fast awake and on his feet, forcing Jin to back away on the floor. His mouth felt dry all of sudden.
“I was j-just cleaning up after you!” he insisted. “What are you doing, I’m not stealing anything!”
“Sure you were, because you’re a neat freak and everything,” Kame spat, kneeling down over him. Jin had difficulty seeing the previous him in the eyes of the current one at all. Maybe this was just a nightmare. Maybe it was. It was so disturbingly odd and wrong that it had to be.
“I’m serious! I’m fucking serious! I’m not lying!” Jin defended himself, trying to push the younger man off him. If he was so much frailer than he was then why was it that he had so much difficulty with it?!
Kame took a strong grip of both of his wrists and forced them on the floor, climbing on top of him to keep him still with his body. Jin was honestly getting scared, his breathing fast and irregular.
“Is this a new tactic you’re using? Have you finally figured out the composition of the tier? Have you!?” Kame growled at his face. Jin felt his body weakening as submission flooded over him. He was scared. Really, really scared. It had to be a very odd nightmare.
Don’t let strangers in your house, Jin. Didn’t everyone always say so? You never knew what they were up to. Especially if they were as shady as Kame.
Maybe Kame was a murderer.
“Don’t kill me,” he managed to mumble, stumbling with his words. He couldn’t tear his eyes away. Breathing hurt. “Oh please don’t kill me, I r-really haven’t done anything w-wrong in here, I can stop touching your stuff, we can just f-forget about this, just please don’t kill me! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
Kame stayed silent over him, not weakening his hold or dropping his guard as he pondered about the matter. Jin felt his body tremble violently.
Finally Kame groaned and let go, still sitting on him as he rubbed his eyes, seemingly exhausted.
“I’m sorry. I overreacted,” he apologized more softly. Jin just stared, his brains still not really catching up with the situation. “It’s just that you never know. I shouldn’t fall asleep like this…”
The younger man dragged himself back to his things and started gathering his tools back in their little box and piling his papers up before putting them in his back bag. He snapped the onyx shut and slid it back around his neck, enclosing it under his shirt. Jin let his head hit the floor, relief drowning him in weakness.
“Oh god you scared me,” he muttered, voice and body still shaky. “Overreacting is a pretty goddamn mild word for that.”
“I apologize,” Kame repeated with true honesty lacing his voice. “I suggest you stay from approaching my personal belongings.”
“…What’s up with the necklace?” Jin asked straight-forwardly, standing up on his feet and looking down at the young man who was zipping his back bag. “It isn’t just a normal necklace, is it?”
“No,” Kame admitted and stood up on his own feet, daring eyes meeting his. He had the posture of a warrior, Jin noted. Someone well prepared and ready for a battle about to break loose. “But not much I carry around with me is.”
Absurd. Maybe things were turning interesting.
Jin smirked at his friend and nodded, crossing his arms.
“I’d love to know but I doubt you’d tell me.”
“You’re damn right about that,” Kame affirmed his guess. “You better not talk to anyone about anything concerning me and any of my belongings.”
Layers. He could see them. Thin layers one after another on Kame, every one of them carrying different properties, thoughts and characteristics.
“You’re interesting,” Jin smiled at the man. “Full of surprises.”
“Unlike someone,” Kame snorted with a roll of his eyes, walking temptingly closer, eyes not exactly warm but not anything like murderous either. “I’ve seen more than you ever will, I’m afraid.”
And Jin really truly did believe his words.
Even if he had no idea about what Kame himself held as their meaning.
--
He didn’t dare touching Kame’s belongings after that one fiasco, fearing the man’s paranoia and what kind of consequences the seconds could take on him. Still, he didn’t start fearing the man. Rather than that, he felt intrigued. The little turtle seemed to have quite a store of fascinating secrets up his sleeve… or maybe, rather, in his pitch black and carefully covered shell.
It didn’t take him long to notice that Kame never stepped out of the house but was keen on occasionally walking around and checking the windows to peer down, maybe as if guarding a fortress Jin had borrowed to him. Sometimes he wondered if letting the man stay was good for him - whether the whole thing was just because of Kame’s paranoia or if he should really start worrying for his own safety with the man around. In the end he couldn’t bring himself to be too bothered about it and just decided to let things be as they were. At least he didn’t have to laze around in his apartment all alone through the too-long afternoons.
“I’m curious of what it is you’re constructing within that pendant of yours,” he wondered aloud as he lied on the floor, arms serving as regrettably badly working cushions. He followed Kame’s carefully steady hands as the man placed a little rock glowing in a beautiful and almost clear shade of aquamarine in the shape of a droplet inside the complex structure of the pendant. He had no idea of its origins or type but he swore he had never seen one alike it, shining so beautifully. “It seems urgent.”
“It is,” Kame admitted, not sparing him a glance as he continued working. “It’s crucial. I’ve been designing and building it for so long and I’m sure I can make it work now just as long as I finish it. Ah!” he exclaimed with a stressed voice as his hand trembled and some of the wheels inside the pendant were pushed to wrong positions. “Oh fucking hell..!”
“Just relax,” Jin chuckled, rolling on his stomach and peering on what Kame was doing as the man used miniature tweezers to pick the now wrongly adjusted parts out of the pendant. “Do they have to be so small? I’m surprised you aren’t breaking them, they look so frail. Wouldn’t it be easier with bigger ones?”
Kame shook his head, grimacing disgustedly at the mere idea. “I’ve counted and produced everything after crucial calculations. No, the size cannot be reduced. This is the only possibility where the sizes add to each other perfectly.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jin sighed, drumming his fingers on the wood-panelled floorings. “Maybe you’re a technician. How nerdy.”
“I’m not, this is way out of my area,” Kame declined, working carefully with his fixings. Jin wasn’t sure if he had lost hours of work. Could’ve been. No matter what he was doing, it certainly wasn’t an easy every-day task of the Ordinary Joe.
“Hmm, so you aren’t a technician,” Jin chattered on, nodding to demonstrate his understanding. “But you are a pro at something.”
Kame didn’t answer but merely kept himself quietly engrossed in his work. Jin studied him curiously with a smile. His guest was an odd case. Who would have thought?
It felt nicer now between the two of them. He still wasn’t quite so certain to the level to which Kame actually wanted his company - on some sense he could’ve sworn that the man wanted nothing to do with anyone, seemingly due to some form of guilt, but often when Jin simply stayed around Kame did appear a bit more energized. Appreciative.
He had the loner’s aura around him. Jin had always been sensitive to such auras, being exposed to all sorts of complexes around him during his lifetime. Never mind his asshole’s aura, he was a caretaker. A lover.
Kame didn’t push him away anymore but simply let him stay around and it felt well good enough for him. He didn’t know when the man was leaving, no - he couldn’t really bring himself to care for the moment. He was enjoying the weird glimpse to an odd and hardly understandable world too much.
“What are you doing to the necklace? Making it glow seems pretty goddamn insignificant for the effort you’re putting into it,” Jin wondered aloud, rolling back on his back and studying the ceiling with his gaze. Kame looked at him briefly when picking another jagged-edged ring from the floor, a ghost of a smile trying to tug his lips upwards.
“I’m not making it glow,” he admitted. “The purpose of my technical hitch will remain a secret to anyone but me. For the good of everyone.”
“It isn’t a bomb either, is it?” Jin insisted, watching Kame lick his lips nervously as he adjusted the ring in its right place. “…Please tell me it isn’t. You are not constructing a fucking bomb in my apartment. I’ll kick you out.”
“It’s not a bomb,” Kame grinned at him. “It’s not a mass murder device. Its use is a secret. Secret,” he repeated before Jin got the time to get anything out of his persistently opened mouth. “I’m sure you know what a secret means.”
“Having the secret right in front of me doesn’t feel fair, though,” Jin complained, crossing his arms and scratching his left calf with his toenails absentmindedly. “But I guess I’ll just have to conclude that when it comes to your personal issues you’re going to be everything but fair, open and nice.”
“You’d be right about that,” Kame agreed, smiling at him, eyes glimmering a bit. “Glad to hear you have some brains after all. Sometimes I do come to doubt it.”
Jin decided to bite back on the threatening snap dancing on his tongue and thankfully succeeded. He hated being considered a child even if it had some truthful basis.
Soft rain consisting of little droplets insisted on pounding on his blurred window. He followed it, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.
Kame was nice and felt safe to be around. It was a bit like being underwater in a good way.
“Your wrist is almost healed,” Jin conversed a bit less jokingly, sighing at the end of his declaration. “You can use your hand.”
“…Yes, I can use it,” Kame nodded hesitantly. “I’m still in pain and it’s swollen, though. I’ll be sticking around for a while.”
Jin felt a smile forming on his lips and he twiddled his toes in delight. He was becoming fond of the other one’s company.
“Where are you heading when you’re leaving? Do you know? Or will you even tell me?” he laughed, smiling widely for the other one, even if it didn’t reach his eyes entirely. He couldn’t deny he hated losing his friends and anything that proved to be at least a bit distracting. Kame wasn’t smiling as much; he had only his constant keep-it-up twist on his lips. Jin had come to recognize it. He was quick with catching up with lies and hidden truths. At least that was what he liked to believe but he had gotten conned a fair number of times.
It was about whom he was wary of. With his friends he was annoyingly gullible. It pissed him off.
Kame finished placing the glowing droplet of a rock back inside the shell of the pendant before daring to look at him again, all silent. Jin got the feeling nothing was constant in his life and that he was just another piece to disappear into thin air.
He wondered what it was like to cease existing but couldn’t imagine. No matter what, for him life would go on just the same as it did before the younger man ever stepped into his life. And maybe it was better so.
“You wouldn’t believe if I told you.”
One of Kame’s favourite sentences, but knowing himself Jin was pretty certain that Kame was right and he wouldn’t. Kame seemed to withhold a lot of absurdities, none of which Jin was sure really existed elsewhere than in his paranoia ridden brains.
“Just make sure you get decent company every now and then,” he shrugged as he sat up again, yawning and stretching. It wasn’t really any of his business to grill Kame about everything. “So that you won’t get too lonely or withdrawn. You don’t want to struggle to come back from that road.”
Kame couldn’t help but smile and throw a miniature screwdriver at him. Jin yelped and covered himself, pissed at the sudden almost aggressive outtake.
“Hey! That thing is dangerous, it’s thin enough to cut glass, never mind my skin!” he snarled furiously, eyes flaring up. Bad bad bad. Kame rolled his eyes and extended his hand until Jin grumpily slammed the tool back on his palm. The man was smiling.
“Stop being such a pussy yourself,” Kame instructed him as he returned to his work. “You might not survive what life has to throw at your way.”
Jin glared away and scoffed. No matter how much he wished for it Kame just lacked that threatening aura around him. He couldn’t exactly be angry at him or treat him badly.
It was and had always been all about people’s auras. When it came to them, Jin felt like an expert.
Kame’s felt warmly golden, but simultaneously like a puff of lilac mist. Whatever it happened to mean.
He sat down again to observe, calmed and back to the naïvely curious state. Square one.
He was Akanishi Jin after all and couldn’t resist observing every interesting little thing that came his way. He was growing quite fond of the new momentary addition in his boring nothing-at-all life.
--
“What would you do if someone liked you?”
Jin almost snorted on his drink, a bubbly laughter tickling his burning throat. He had had too much tequila and too many flaring, moving and colourful lights, too little thinking capacity left. He turned to Pi and grinned, clanging their glasses together. Such pretty sounds the glasses made, yes.
“What would you?” he insisted asking from his friend, still laughing madly from under his breath. Pi shook his hand and voiced out his refusal, slamming his drink on the table.
“No no, Jin honey. You don’t get to ask that since I do have a girlfriend that I like and love very dearly and if anyone else confessed I’d reject them in the blink of an eye. You, in another hand, are a very fresh, young and ass-y of a single man. Shoot me.”
Pi gulped down his drink, grinning at him. Jin smirked back flirtingly, enjoying to his fullest the fooling around with his number one friend. Pi had always had the ability to keep things lively.
“I’d show them who’s the boss,” he declared daringly and Pi wailed, clapping his hands in amusement and rocking on his seat. Jin downed his tequila shot and threw his head back, not minding with the lemon or salt. God he must’ve been drunk. The burning didn’t feel that bad either but he just knew his voice was going to be raspy the next morning.
“You’re more interesting now that Kai isn’t around anymore,” Pi nodded enthusiastically, leaning his elbows on the table. “Or, well, now that you don’t get cranky by fighting with her all the time. Not that you’ve ceased to be boring. You haven’t. Boring Jin. Stupid Jin. How the hell do you expect to keep anyone in your boring and isolated life?”
Jin pursed his lips and kicked his friend from under the table. Pi often had maybe a bit too big of a mouth, he knew. All for the best, of course - it just often failed to feel like it. One had to get used to the judging to improve. Still, he couldn’t ignore the fact that Pi often had a point and he did improve his life.
It was thanks to Pi he had met Kai too, after all.
“I still can’t get around your huge ego, though,” Pi wondered, rubbing his fishy lips in a drunken wonder. “Maybe you should drop it off, I don’t think it’s quite the magnet you need plus I’m sure you already know that you aren’t that brilliant of a man.”
“Thank you,” Jin pursed his lips, crossing his arms and glaring at his friend over the small bar table. “I’ll make sure to consider that. But I don’t really feel like it unless I feel like it. Whatever the logic is.” Well, it was a bit difficult to think clearly when drunk.
“You seriously need to go home,” Pi noted. “I know you can take a lot of that shit after all the practice and liver-abuse we go through but you’re really stopping making sense to me right now.”
Jin smiled smugly, standing up on his feet.
“No way. I just downed a tequila shot and I’m planning on putting it in use,” he grinned and offered his friend for his hand. “Are you capable of still standing on your precious feet and taking over the dance floor with me, oh Almighty Taken Pink Prince?”
“I so fucking hate you for that right now,” Pi grumbled but took Jin’s hand, rising steadily on his feet and letting his friend drag him to the dance floor amidst the loud pumping of the music. Jin knew he could always trust on his friend being there, taken or not. Not that he would’ve been unfaithful - there was a decent way of handling a disco when taken.
“You didn’t answer me properly though!” Pi yelled at him through the ground as he moved to the music with his upper body, enjoying the feeling of drowning he started to experience with the waving chaos around him, somehow oddly moving in slow motion. “Say someone comes over and they end up liking you - what would you do?”
“If I’d like them I’d ask them out or something!” Jin tried to answer through the crowd, yelling in his friend’s ear. “It’s not something I know beforehand; whatever happens happens!”
“You’re so adorable when freshly in looove,” Pi teased him, poking his sides. Jin squeamishly yelped and tried to slip through the cracks in the crowd to get away from his abusive friend. Oh how he hated him sometimes. Pi only giggled as he chased him, well-practiced in his quest. “Aw, stop being such a cutie or I’m going to be afraid you already found someone!”
“No!” Jin yelled and shoved his friend off. “It’s because you’re harassing me! If you want to support my relationships let me eye this bar around and stop making me look gay!”
“You’re bi-sexual, does it matter so much?” Pi complained loudly. Jin stepped on his foot and the younger man bended over in pain.
“You’re making me look taken,” he argued loudly after his physical attack. He really was a sore loser and a child, sure. “Swim away, you lowlife of a fish!”
When Jin came back home well after four o’clock in the morning, he returned without company. He wobbled to the kitchen in order to fill a sports bottle with water, sipping it crankily to himself in his decreasing drunkenness, always the worst possible state, and headed towards the living room to check up on his workaholic and socially deprived (such a poor man) friend.
He smiled a bit as he found Kame this time soundly asleep on the couch, his tools and projects neatly packed away and out of sight in his back bag. Kame sure seemed like the type to learn from his mistakes. Good for him - at least Jin didn’t really want to encounter such a scary situation again. Kame’s paranoia was unbelievable. He really should’ve tried contacting some professionals to improve his state.
Jin sighed and sat on the couch table, sipping his water to clear his head and fight the nausea. He wasn’t planning on being hangover the following day and as he was getting older he had to admit alcohol had developed a nastier way of getting back at him. Perhaps it tried to speak some sense to him. Settle down and live responsibly.
Fuck responsibility. He was well restrained enough as it was.
He scoffed quietly to himself and got on his feet, crankily fixing Kame’s blanket before strolling back on his own bedroom. Should he consider settling down? Getting into another serious relationship? He did love them, he just hated the let-downs they brought to him. Plus it wasn’t so easy finding someone whom he could imagine really being with for more than a short while.
He put the water bottle beside his bed and slipped out of his jeans, looking out of the window. Such beautiful city lights of the metropolis somewhere far ahead, more towards the centre. Not that it wasn’t blaring in his part of the city as well. It seemed like the opposite neighbours were still well awake and having maybe a bit too much liking of each other.
Jin closed the blinds and sighed, reminding himself to never think at any time that everyone was asleep. Immediately afterwards he wondered if Kame’s paranoia was growing onto him.
It better not. But even if it did, it was probably going to get better after the man was gone. It couldn’t be too long anymore. Kame appeared eager to go.
The unsocial fucker.
Jin sighed and crushed his bed, not bothering with the duvet. The alcohol was still burning up in his veins, he didn’t feel the need. He could of course regret his decision in the morning but it wasn’t like it mattered.
In his life responsibility was overrated after all.