Discovery.
Pairings: Ryo/Shige, NEWS and half of Kanjani8 appear.
Warnings: Kanjani ridiculousness. Nothing really.
Rating: PG13
Summary: Ryo and Shige don’t so much come out of the closet, as are pulled out.
The knocking on the door has been getting progressively louder for the last few minutes. Shige thinks that he might as well answer it, since ignoring it clearly wasn't working. He didn't want the neighbours to call the police or anything.
He clambered over the unconscious lump next to him - why he got stuck with the wall side of the bed when he was the lighter sleeper he never knew - and stumbled towards his front door. He pulled it open a crack and peeped out, glaring at the disturber of his sleep. Or at least he meant to. What actually happened was the second the door was off the latch, it was pushed open from outside and Shige was all but flattened against his wall as a loud and drunken blur stumbled past and fell into his living room.
By now annoyance was being outweighed by panic, which was only mitigated slightly upon the discovery that the drunken blur was in fact Koyama and Uchi.
"Shige, we're drunk!" Koyama informed him with a smile on his face.
"Really? Because I never would have guessed had you not told me" Shige retorted drily, looking at Koyama and Uchi with their arms around each other and swaying out of sync.
"You're being mean. Don't be mean!" Uchi said attempting to glare, but the fact that he was making eye contact with Shige's pot plant in the corner kind of diminished the effect.
"S'ok if we stay here tonight right?" Koyama hiccupped.
"What? No! There's no room!" Shige exclaimed.
"It's alright, Uchi can sleep on the couch and we've shared beds before" Koyama continued, as he started to separate himself from the octopus that Uchi always turned into when drunk and stepped towards Shige's bedroom.
Shige's panic ramped itself back up to 100 as he all but threw himself in front of Koyama's path, almost earning himself a head-butt in the process.
Uchi laughed and without the dubious stabling influence of Koyama to lean on, fell backwards. Luckily landing on Shige's couch, he sprawled across it and quickly made himself comfortable.
"No! You can't!" Shige was burbling, panicked. "You have to leave, you can't stay" he screeched as he starting to shove Koyama towards the door.
Unfortunately, for as drunk as he was, Koyama was immovable as a concrete wall and was not going anywhere.
"What? Why?" he asked he asked confusedly, somehow managing to peer up at Shige through his eyelashes, despite the fact that he was taller.
Shige desperately tried to think of a way out of this, but his brain obviously hadn't woken up with the rest of him. In fairness he rarely needed it at two in the morning.
"Yeah Shige, why?" Uchi echoed, and Shige opened his mouth to respond - with what he had no idea - when all of a sudden a sound came from Shige's bedroom. The unmistakeable sound of someone turning over in Shige's death-trap of a bed.
Shige cursed the god of bad timing. He had a new bed coming in two days time and this wouldn't be happening if it had arrived sooner. Oh god, why me? he thought to himself.
A look at his unwanted house guests confirmed the expected. Koyama had a massive grin on his face while Uchi was leering at him.
"Oh right, I get it. We can't stay, there's ‘no room’. We'll just get a taxi back to mine. Help me up!" Uchi said, flinging his arms out at Koyama, who was still grinning creepily at Shige.
Relief washed through Shige, even though he knew it was only momentary. He couldn't care less right now though. He was just happy that he was getting rid of them. In the morning he'd be pestered with calls and messages wanting to know 'everything'. But then he'd be fully awake and able to think straight. Hopefully he could think of something then.
He watched Koyama attempt to pull Uchi from the sofa, and failing miserably. Sighing to himself, he walked over and pulled Uchi to a standing position and righted Koyama, who was leaning at a precarious angle.
"I'll call you tomorrow and you can tell me aaaaaaaaaaaalll about it" Koyama drunkenly whispered in his ear, making more noise than a post-con Tegoshi, and confirming Shige's thoughts. All the while making that creepy grin.
He just gets everyone on their feet and starts herding towards the door - thinking that maybe the god of timing is on his side for a change - when the bedroom door is flung open and out shuffles a zombie. Dressed in a ratty old blue bathrobe.
Shige can only watch in horror as the car crash unfolds around him. He wonders for a second if he can blag his way out of this - Ryo is dead to the world until he's had coffee and Uchi and Koyama are three sheets to the wind, therefore he is the most mentally capable person in the room at the moment - maybe pretend that Ryo was just crashing at his? But a look at their faces tell him that that won't work. Koyama is like a bloodhound when it comes to anything even remotely resembling a relationship, and Uchi is the biggest gossip whore in Japan.
Uchi is unwittingly earning his title as his head swings pointedly between Shige dressed in just his boxer shorts, and Ryo in his bathrobe with clearly nothing on underneath it. Uchi and Koyama's face are both wearing similar expressions of shock and Shige wants to say something, but then Ryo reaches him and grabs him by the wrist.
"Come back to bed, Shige" he says, and any minute chance of pretending that there was an innocent explanation for this flies out of the window. Shige's mind is still on vacation and he can't figure out the appropriate course of action here, but Ryo has already turned around and is shuffling back to bed, with Shige's wrist still gripped firmly in his hand.
Half dead or not, Ryo has an iron grip when he wants something and so Shige has no choice but to follow. It's that or be dragged along the floor behind Ryo, and doesn't think that will improve matters any. Shige manages to twist himself around behind Ryo and slam the bedroom door shut though. While he doesn't think things can get any worse, he doesn't want to rely on that school of thought.
Ryo reaches the bed and in an unprecedented show of energy, throws himself on it, the bed making an unholy noise. Shige naturally having no choice but to follow, falls onto the bed in an ungainly fashion and Ryo immediately cuddles up to him in his typical limpet like fashion. The tiny part of Shige's consciousness that is still working, and not currently taken up with blind panic wonders if this is an Osakan thing.
His mind returns to the matter of Ryo snuggling up to him in his noisy devil bed, while their best friends were on the other side of the wall. The walls, he knows from experience, are very, very thin. He lays there for a few moments but he can't hear what's going in the living room. The silence creeps him out. At least if they were yelling he'd know what they were thinking.
"Ryo" he whispers, in a desperate attempt to wake him up.
"Go 'sleep" Ryo slurs, and nuzzles into Shige's neck.
"Ryo!" he whispers again, with more urgency but this time there's no response at all.
Shige lays there for a few seconds thinking. He just comes to accept the fact that all he can do is lie under the dead weight of his comatose boyfriend for the rest of the night (sleep is not an option) and deal with it in the morning, when all of a sudden Ryo's eyes fly open and he sits bolt upright.
The wild look in his eyes confirms that Ryo's mind has just caught up with current events.
"Shige" he whispered, and the panic in his voice was evident. "Shige; Koyama and Uchi are here."
For some reason, Ryo's panic made Shige's abate somewhat. Maybe he was just calmer now that he had someone to share this with.
"Yes, they are" he confirmed.
"And they saw me drag you to bed" Ryo continued.
"Yes"
"Half naked"
"Yes"
"Fuck"
"Yes"
Ryo is looking rather panicked and his breathing is getting faster. Shige hopes to hell that he doesn't have a panic attack as the paper bags are in the kitchen and fetching one would involves walking past Koyama and Uchi again.
All of a sudden Ryo's eyes narrow and he glares at Shige. "Why are they here?" he demands.
Shige would ordinarily be offended by Ryo's tone implying that any of this was his fault, but he's currently just too grateful that Ryo isn't hyperventilating to care.
"They just turned up. They've been drinking and wanted to crash here" he explains.
"Why the fuck did you let them in?" Ryo hisses angrily.
"I didn't let them in! They just barged in without permission!" Shige whispers back, just as angry.
"Why didn't you get rid of them then?"
"I was. They were just leaving when you came out and dragged me back to bed. Everything would be fine if you hadn't gotten up. Why did you get up? Normally you sleep like a corpse. You have three alarm clocks! The one time you actually need to stay in bed and you wake up? What is that?" Shige rants, still whispering.
Ryo looks pissed off. "It's not my fault. I can't sleep when you're not next to me. You got out of bed, of course I'm going to wake up!"
Despite his angry glare and even angrier tone, this is one of the sweetest things that Ryo has ever said to Shige, and he thinks it would be remiss of him to not acknowledge it.
"God Ryo, you're such a sap. When did you turn into a fucking girl? Cos I've got to tell you, I don't swing that way" he sniggers.
"Fuck off!" Ryo punches him in the arm and looks half embarrassed, and half like he wants to kill someone. Preferably Shige. This is par for the course in their relationship so Shige doesn't worry.
"As fun as this is, this isn't solving the problem. What do we do?" Shige asks.
"Don't ask me, you're the genius"
"Should we go out there and talk to them?"
"I guess so. I mean, we'll have to at some point won't we?" Ryo sounds as unenthusiastic about it as Shige feels.
Slowly they get out of bed and both get dressed. Reluctantly they open the door and step into the living room. Which is empty. As is the rest of their flat. Somehow during their conversation the drunken duo had coordinated themselves enough to sneak out of the flat unheard. Shige is half amazed at their skills, and half relieved that he doesn't have to deal with this now. The relief lasts until he realises he has work in the morning, and so will have to have what is likely to be one of the most awkward conversations of his life at work.
"Fuck my life" he groans to himself.
***********
The next day Shige gets into work a whole hour earlier than usual. He expects Koyama will be in early too, and will probably be planning to snag Shige and talk to him before practise. He'd prefer to get this conversation out of the way before the others got there.
He pushes the door open, yawning heavily despite the double espresso in his hand being the fourth of his day. Unsurprisingly he and Ryo hadn't been able to get much sleep after the events of last night. The little he had managed to get made him feel worse rather than better.
The practise room is empty which surprises him somewhat. He would have put money on Koyama being in by now. He's probably on his way Shige thinks to himself as he settles down in the comfortable chair by the window to wait.
One hour later and Shige has been joined by Tegoshi, a choreographer and the NEWS manager. Massu isn’t due in for another hour as he’s doing promo shoots for his stage play. Koyama is nowhere to be seen. Shige is really worried.
Seconds before the clock ticks to the hour, and thus only just making it in without being late, Koyama walks through the door and apologies. Their manager says that it’s alright and orders them to business. He gives a run down of the weeks engagements before handing them over to the choreographer for the day. Koyama seems very intent on what he has to say and Shige can’t seem to catch his eye.
Three hours later and Koyama still won’t look at Shige. It must be obvious to everyone as the choreographer looks slightly perturbed whenever he he’s talking to either of them, and Massu - who has now joined them - is running interference on Tegoshi, keeping him occupied so that he won’t notice and therefore say anything about the big elephant in the room.
By the time Sato-san calls for a break, Shige has convinced himself that his best friend hates him and will never speak to him ever again. When Koyama accidently looks up into Shige’s eyes as he’s leaving the room and then immediately looks away again, Shige is sure of it. But he needs to know for certain. So, with extreme reluctance he drags himself over to where Koyama is rooting for his bag and asks “Can I speak to you for a moment?”
Koyama looks torn, but nods his assent and leads his way out of the room. Shige follows him and they walk in silence to a spare room down the corridor.
Shige double checks behind him to make sure the door is shut and then steels himself as he turns around. “Do you hate me?” he blurts out without any preamble.
Koyama looks up in shock. “No”, he replies. “Why would I hate you? You’re my best friend.”
“You’ve been avoiding me all day.”
Koyama scratches his nose in embarrassment. “I just didn’t know what to say.”
He takes a deep breath and asks Shige “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Now it’s Shige’s turn to be embarrassed. “I didn’t know how.”
They stand in silence for a bit before Koyama sighs and sits down on the nearest surface, which happens to be a coffee table. Shige sits opposite him on the sofa and just waits.
“Shige, I am a bit mad at you. Why did you feel like you couldn’t tell me? Don’t you trust me?” Koyama looks upset.
“What? No!” Shige exclaims. “I just, well. We didn’t want to say anything to anyone until we knew what was going on ourselves. There’s no point in creating a fuss if there’s nothing to come of it, right?”
Koyama nods as he seems to accept to wisdom of these words. “Ok, so tell me now. Is this thing serious?”
Shige looks at Koyama and nods as he says “I love him”.
Koyama grins and all of a sudden Shige feels relieved. Then Koyama starts with his infamous bombardment of questions. “So how did you two get together? How long have you been together? What’s Ryo like as a boyfriend?”
This is a Koyama that Shige can handle and he just laughs off the questions and tells him he’ll have to wait until later for answers as break time is almost over. They turn to leave and go back to the practise room. Just as they’re about to enter the door though, Koyama catches Shige’s sleeve and asks him in a low voice “Why didn’t you tell me you were gay?”
Shige sighs to himself as he explains. “Because I’m not. I like both men and women, it’s just that I’ve never had a boyfriend before and I honestly thought I never would. I mean, relationships are difficult enough in our line of work and if the press got hold of a gay relationship then it would be the end. I figured that I’d only date women and it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“And now? What’s changed?” Koyama asks, almost under his breath.
“Ryo has just as much to lose as I do. More so probably. If we end badly he’s not going to run to the press. And if they discover we’re living together they’ll just assume it’s an idol friendship.”
“Are you living together?” Koyama asks, wide-eyed.
“We’ve talked about it. We’ve been together for a year now so it’s on the cards.”
Koyama is about to say something when Tegoshi pulls open the door to the practise room from the inside and grins at them. They roll their eyes at each other and go inside, just in time as Sato-san comes back and they continue on with the practice.
Things are much less strained now that Koyama and Shige have talked and everyone seems more comfortable then they did that morning. Apart from Tegoshi who was oblivious and is still in his own world.
***********
During their second break of the day, they’re sitting down in a circle and chatting while eating lunch when the door bursts open (giving Shige momentary flashbacks to the night before) and Subaru and Maruyama run in. Wearing their ranger costumes. Shige knows that this can’t lead to anything good and is about to try and make a run for it when Subaru strides up to him and points dramatically while yelling “There is the spy!” in his best melodramatic voice.
“We must interrogate him!” Maru shrieks and starts pulling Shige to his feet. Shige tries to reason with him. After all, Maru-kun is his friend.
“Erm, Maruyama-kun...”
“Silence!” Subaru screeches at the top of his lungs. “Orenji, he is resisting!”
Shige is trying to prise Maru’s hands off of him, and Maru just grins and then picks Shige up, slinging him across his shoulders like he’s made of air. Subaru executes an about-turn and marches back towards the door and Maru follows at a leisurely pace, like he hasn’t just kidnapped an idol in the middle of his lunch. Shige is slightly worried when the choreographer just sighs and walks off, like this happens every day. When it comes to Kanjani8 anything is possible.
Just as they’re about to leave the room Shige hears Tegoshi say “Ahhh, Shige’s new boyfriend must be Nishikido-kun then!”. Koyama goes bug-eyed and Massu snorts water from his nose and then Shige can’t see what happens as they’ve left and are in the hallway.
Unsurprisingly they’re marched to the Kanjani8 dressing room where Shige is dumped down into a chair. When he looks up he sees Yoko has joined them. Also in his ranger costume. The other four are nowhere to be seen.
“A little birdie told us that you have infiltrated this organisation!” Subaru barks at him while glaring. Yoko is sniggering at the word infiltrate and Maru is just grinning. Shige is starting to feel like he’s on drugs. Or wish he was.
“Errr...” he responds. He doesn’t quite know what to say. These are Ryo’s friends - well, Maru aside - and he should be the one talking to them about this. He’s saved from answering though when the door opens and Ryo walks in, mercifully not wearing a ranger costume. He’s followed by Yasu who is also in street clothes - although what street is still up for debate - who catches sight of Shige and his captors and looks intrigued. Ryo is eating an onigiri when he looks up and see’s what is happening. He inhales in surprise and Yasu has to thump him on the back to dislodge the rice from his windpipe.
“What the hell?” he yells and for a second Shige thinks he’s angry with him, but then Ryo is storming over and glaring at the three in front of him.
“We were informed by someone that you might be involved with a spy. We were just making sure everything is ok?” Yoko says.
Ryo groans. “You talked to Uchi.”
“Pinku was our informant, yes.”
Ryo looks embarrassed and like he wants to strangle someone. Shige thinks this whole thing feels familiar somehow.
Ryo grabs hold of Shige’s wrist and pulls him out of the chair and leads him out of the room. Shige is surprised that the rest of them let them both leave.
Ryo lets go of his wrist when they’re in the hallway, but carries on walking so Shige follows. They go to a room - the same one he talked to Koyama in earlier - and Ryo sighs as he apologies for his bandmates.
“I’m sorry about the idiots. They just have the most ridiculous way of showing their affection.”
“Gee, I’ve never dealt with anyone like that before” Shige retorts drily before grinning when Ryo glares at him and punches him in the shoulder.
“I’ll talk to them later. I was going to do it tonight, but obviously Uchi got there first.”
“Do you think they’ll be ok with it?”
“Yeah, they wouldn’t kidnap you while dressed as the Eito Rangers if they weren’t. It’s their way of welcoming you.”
Shige grins. As long as their friends are ok with it then everything is fine. Something occurs to Ryo.
“Did you talk to Koyama?” He looks really worried.
“Yeah. He was upset that we didn’t tell him but that’s it.”
“Oh, good.” Ryo visibly breathes a sigh of relief. “Look, I’ve probably got to go out for dinner with the guys tonight and explain all this, but come over after?”
Shige grins. “Sure thing.” He leans in and quickly kisses Ryo and they both leave to return to their respective rooms.
Shige is glad that he only has NEWS to talk to about all this, while Ryo has to explain to Kanjani8. Shige doesn’t envy him one little bit. He knows that they still have to talk to their management, and both of their families. But the first hurdle has gone and it ended well.
He heads back to the practise room to face the music.
Warnings: Kanjani ridiculousness. Nothing really.
Rating: PG13
Summary: Ryo and Shige don’t so much come out of the closet, as are pulled out.
The knocking on the door has been getting progressively louder for the last few minutes. Shige thinks that he might as well answer it, since ignoring it clearly wasn't working. He didn't want the neighbours to call the police or anything.
He clambered over the unconscious lump next to him - why he got stuck with the wall side of the bed when he was the lighter sleeper he never knew - and stumbled towards his front door. He pulled it open a crack and peeped out, glaring at the disturber of his sleep. Or at least he meant to. What actually happened was the second the door was off the latch, it was pushed open from outside and Shige was all but flattened against his wall as a loud and drunken blur stumbled past and fell into his living room.
By now annoyance was being outweighed by panic, which was only mitigated slightly upon the discovery that the drunken blur was in fact Koyama and Uchi.
"Shige, we're drunk!" Koyama informed him with a smile on his face.
"Really? Because I never would have guessed had you not told me" Shige retorted drily, looking at Koyama and Uchi with their arms around each other and swaying out of sync.
"You're being mean. Don't be mean!" Uchi said attempting to glare, but the fact that he was making eye contact with Shige's pot plant in the corner kind of diminished the effect.
"S'ok if we stay here tonight right?" Koyama hiccupped.
"What? No! There's no room!" Shige exclaimed.
"It's alright, Uchi can sleep on the couch and we've shared beds before" Koyama continued, as he started to separate himself from the octopus that Uchi always turned into when drunk and stepped towards Shige's bedroom.
Shige's panic ramped itself back up to 100 as he all but threw himself in front of Koyama's path, almost earning himself a head-butt in the process.
Uchi laughed and without the dubious stabling influence of Koyama to lean on, fell backwards. Luckily landing on Shige's couch, he sprawled across it and quickly made himself comfortable.
"No! You can't!" Shige was burbling, panicked. "You have to leave, you can't stay" he screeched as he starting to shove Koyama towards the door.
Unfortunately, for as drunk as he was, Koyama was immovable as a concrete wall and was not going anywhere.
"What? Why?" he asked he asked confusedly, somehow managing to peer up at Shige through his eyelashes, despite the fact that he was taller.
Shige desperately tried to think of a way out of this, but his brain obviously hadn't woken up with the rest of him. In fairness he rarely needed it at two in the morning.
"Yeah Shige, why?" Uchi echoed, and Shige opened his mouth to respond - with what he had no idea - when all of a sudden a sound came from Shige's bedroom. The unmistakeable sound of someone turning over in Shige's death-trap of a bed.
Shige cursed the god of bad timing. He had a new bed coming in two days time and this wouldn't be happening if it had arrived sooner. Oh god, why me? he thought to himself.
A look at his unwanted house guests confirmed the expected. Koyama had a massive grin on his face while Uchi was leering at him.
"Oh right, I get it. We can't stay, there's ‘no room’. We'll just get a taxi back to mine. Help me up!" Uchi said, flinging his arms out at Koyama, who was still grinning creepily at Shige.
Relief washed through Shige, even though he knew it was only momentary. He couldn't care less right now though. He was just happy that he was getting rid of them. In the morning he'd be pestered with calls and messages wanting to know 'everything'. But then he'd be fully awake and able to think straight. Hopefully he could think of something then.
He watched Koyama attempt to pull Uchi from the sofa, and failing miserably. Sighing to himself, he walked over and pulled Uchi to a standing position and righted Koyama, who was leaning at a precarious angle.
"I'll call you tomorrow and you can tell me aaaaaaaaaaaalll about it" Koyama drunkenly whispered in his ear, making more noise than a post-con Tegoshi, and confirming Shige's thoughts. All the while making that creepy grin.
He just gets everyone on their feet and starts herding towards the door - thinking that maybe the god of timing is on his side for a change - when the bedroom door is flung open and out shuffles a zombie. Dressed in a ratty old blue bathrobe.
Shige can only watch in horror as the car crash unfolds around him. He wonders for a second if he can blag his way out of this - Ryo is dead to the world until he's had coffee and Uchi and Koyama are three sheets to the wind, therefore he is the most mentally capable person in the room at the moment - maybe pretend that Ryo was just crashing at his? But a look at their faces tell him that that won't work. Koyama is like a bloodhound when it comes to anything even remotely resembling a relationship, and Uchi is the biggest gossip whore in Japan.
Uchi is unwittingly earning his title as his head swings pointedly between Shige dressed in just his boxer shorts, and Ryo in his bathrobe with clearly nothing on underneath it. Uchi and Koyama's face are both wearing similar expressions of shock and Shige wants to say something, but then Ryo reaches him and grabs him by the wrist.
"Come back to bed, Shige" he says, and any minute chance of pretending that there was an innocent explanation for this flies out of the window. Shige's mind is still on vacation and he can't figure out the appropriate course of action here, but Ryo has already turned around and is shuffling back to bed, with Shige's wrist still gripped firmly in his hand.
Half dead or not, Ryo has an iron grip when he wants something and so Shige has no choice but to follow. It's that or be dragged along the floor behind Ryo, and doesn't think that will improve matters any. Shige manages to twist himself around behind Ryo and slam the bedroom door shut though. While he doesn't think things can get any worse, he doesn't want to rely on that school of thought.
Ryo reaches the bed and in an unprecedented show of energy, throws himself on it, the bed making an unholy noise. Shige naturally having no choice but to follow, falls onto the bed in an ungainly fashion and Ryo immediately cuddles up to him in his typical limpet like fashion. The tiny part of Shige's consciousness that is still working, and not currently taken up with blind panic wonders if this is an Osakan thing.
His mind returns to the matter of Ryo snuggling up to him in his noisy devil bed, while their best friends were on the other side of the wall. The walls, he knows from experience, are very, very thin. He lays there for a few moments but he can't hear what's going in the living room. The silence creeps him out. At least if they were yelling he'd know what they were thinking.
"Ryo" he whispers, in a desperate attempt to wake him up.
"Go 'sleep" Ryo slurs, and nuzzles into Shige's neck.
"Ryo!" he whispers again, with more urgency but this time there's no response at all.
Shige lays there for a few seconds thinking. He just comes to accept the fact that all he can do is lie under the dead weight of his comatose boyfriend for the rest of the night (sleep is not an option) and deal with it in the morning, when all of a sudden Ryo's eyes fly open and he sits bolt upright.
The wild look in his eyes confirms that Ryo's mind has just caught up with current events.
"Shige" he whispered, and the panic in his voice was evident. "Shige; Koyama and Uchi are here."
For some reason, Ryo's panic made Shige's abate somewhat. Maybe he was just calmer now that he had someone to share this with.
"Yes, they are" he confirmed.
"And they saw me drag you to bed" Ryo continued.
"Yes"
"Half naked"
"Yes"
"Fuck"
"Yes"
Ryo is looking rather panicked and his breathing is getting faster. Shige hopes to hell that he doesn't have a panic attack as the paper bags are in the kitchen and fetching one would involves walking past Koyama and Uchi again.
All of a sudden Ryo's eyes narrow and he glares at Shige. "Why are they here?" he demands.
Shige would ordinarily be offended by Ryo's tone implying that any of this was his fault, but he's currently just too grateful that Ryo isn't hyperventilating to care.
"They just turned up. They've been drinking and wanted to crash here" he explains.
"Why the fuck did you let them in?" Ryo hisses angrily.
"I didn't let them in! They just barged in without permission!" Shige whispers back, just as angry.
"Why didn't you get rid of them then?"
"I was. They were just leaving when you came out and dragged me back to bed. Everything would be fine if you hadn't gotten up. Why did you get up? Normally you sleep like a corpse. You have three alarm clocks! The one time you actually need to stay in bed and you wake up? What is that?" Shige rants, still whispering.
Ryo looks pissed off. "It's not my fault. I can't sleep when you're not next to me. You got out of bed, of course I'm going to wake up!"
Despite his angry glare and even angrier tone, this is one of the sweetest things that Ryo has ever said to Shige, and he thinks it would be remiss of him to not acknowledge it.
"God Ryo, you're such a sap. When did you turn into a fucking girl? Cos I've got to tell you, I don't swing that way" he sniggers.
"Fuck off!" Ryo punches him in the arm and looks half embarrassed, and half like he wants to kill someone. Preferably Shige. This is par for the course in their relationship so Shige doesn't worry.
"As fun as this is, this isn't solving the problem. What do we do?" Shige asks.
"Don't ask me, you're the genius"
"Should we go out there and talk to them?"
"I guess so. I mean, we'll have to at some point won't we?" Ryo sounds as unenthusiastic about it as Shige feels.
Slowly they get out of bed and both get dressed. Reluctantly they open the door and step into the living room. Which is empty. As is the rest of their flat. Somehow during their conversation the drunken duo had coordinated themselves enough to sneak out of the flat unheard. Shige is half amazed at their skills, and half relieved that he doesn't have to deal with this now. The relief lasts until he realises he has work in the morning, and so will have to have what is likely to be one of the most awkward conversations of his life at work.
"Fuck my life" he groans to himself.
***********
The next day Shige gets into work a whole hour earlier than usual. He expects Koyama will be in early too, and will probably be planning to snag Shige and talk to him before practise. He'd prefer to get this conversation out of the way before the others got there.
He pushes the door open, yawning heavily despite the double espresso in his hand being the fourth of his day. Unsurprisingly he and Ryo hadn't been able to get much sleep after the events of last night. The little he had managed to get made him feel worse rather than better.
The practise room is empty which surprises him somewhat. He would have put money on Koyama being in by now. He's probably on his way Shige thinks to himself as he settles down in the comfortable chair by the window to wait.
One hour later and Shige has been joined by Tegoshi, a choreographer and the NEWS manager. Massu isn’t due in for another hour as he’s doing promo shoots for his stage play. Koyama is nowhere to be seen. Shige is really worried.
Seconds before the clock ticks to the hour, and thus only just making it in without being late, Koyama walks through the door and apologies. Their manager says that it’s alright and orders them to business. He gives a run down of the weeks engagements before handing them over to the choreographer for the day. Koyama seems very intent on what he has to say and Shige can’t seem to catch his eye.
Three hours later and Koyama still won’t look at Shige. It must be obvious to everyone as the choreographer looks slightly perturbed whenever he he’s talking to either of them, and Massu - who has now joined them - is running interference on Tegoshi, keeping him occupied so that he won’t notice and therefore say anything about the big elephant in the room.
By the time Sato-san calls for a break, Shige has convinced himself that his best friend hates him and will never speak to him ever again. When Koyama accidently looks up into Shige’s eyes as he’s leaving the room and then immediately looks away again, Shige is sure of it. But he needs to know for certain. So, with extreme reluctance he drags himself over to where Koyama is rooting for his bag and asks “Can I speak to you for a moment?”
Koyama looks torn, but nods his assent and leads his way out of the room. Shige follows him and they walk in silence to a spare room down the corridor.
Shige double checks behind him to make sure the door is shut and then steels himself as he turns around. “Do you hate me?” he blurts out without any preamble.
Koyama looks up in shock. “No”, he replies. “Why would I hate you? You’re my best friend.”
“You’ve been avoiding me all day.”
Koyama scratches his nose in embarrassment. “I just didn’t know what to say.”
He takes a deep breath and asks Shige “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Now it’s Shige’s turn to be embarrassed. “I didn’t know how.”
They stand in silence for a bit before Koyama sighs and sits down on the nearest surface, which happens to be a coffee table. Shige sits opposite him on the sofa and just waits.
“Shige, I am a bit mad at you. Why did you feel like you couldn’t tell me? Don’t you trust me?” Koyama looks upset.
“What? No!” Shige exclaims. “I just, well. We didn’t want to say anything to anyone until we knew what was going on ourselves. There’s no point in creating a fuss if there’s nothing to come of it, right?”
Koyama nods as he seems to accept to wisdom of these words. “Ok, so tell me now. Is this thing serious?”
Shige looks at Koyama and nods as he says “I love him”.
Koyama grins and all of a sudden Shige feels relieved. Then Koyama starts with his infamous bombardment of questions. “So how did you two get together? How long have you been together? What’s Ryo like as a boyfriend?”
This is a Koyama that Shige can handle and he just laughs off the questions and tells him he’ll have to wait until later for answers as break time is almost over. They turn to leave and go back to the practise room. Just as they’re about to enter the door though, Koyama catches Shige’s sleeve and asks him in a low voice “Why didn’t you tell me you were gay?”
Shige sighs to himself as he explains. “Because I’m not. I like both men and women, it’s just that I’ve never had a boyfriend before and I honestly thought I never would. I mean, relationships are difficult enough in our line of work and if the press got hold of a gay relationship then it would be the end. I figured that I’d only date women and it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“And now? What’s changed?” Koyama asks, almost under his breath.
“Ryo has just as much to lose as I do. More so probably. If we end badly he’s not going to run to the press. And if they discover we’re living together they’ll just assume it’s an idol friendship.”
“Are you living together?” Koyama asks, wide-eyed.
“We’ve talked about it. We’ve been together for a year now so it’s on the cards.”
Koyama is about to say something when Tegoshi pulls open the door to the practise room from the inside and grins at them. They roll their eyes at each other and go inside, just in time as Sato-san comes back and they continue on with the practice.
Things are much less strained now that Koyama and Shige have talked and everyone seems more comfortable then they did that morning. Apart from Tegoshi who was oblivious and is still in his own world.
***********
During their second break of the day, they’re sitting down in a circle and chatting while eating lunch when the door bursts open (giving Shige momentary flashbacks to the night before) and Subaru and Maruyama run in. Wearing their ranger costumes. Shige knows that this can’t lead to anything good and is about to try and make a run for it when Subaru strides up to him and points dramatically while yelling “There is the spy!” in his best melodramatic voice.
“We must interrogate him!” Maru shrieks and starts pulling Shige to his feet. Shige tries to reason with him. After all, Maru-kun is his friend.
“Erm, Maruyama-kun...”
“Silence!” Subaru screeches at the top of his lungs. “Orenji, he is resisting!”
Shige is trying to prise Maru’s hands off of him, and Maru just grins and then picks Shige up, slinging him across his shoulders like he’s made of air. Subaru executes an about-turn and marches back towards the door and Maru follows at a leisurely pace, like he hasn’t just kidnapped an idol in the middle of his lunch. Shige is slightly worried when the choreographer just sighs and walks off, like this happens every day. When it comes to Kanjani8 anything is possible.
Just as they’re about to leave the room Shige hears Tegoshi say “Ahhh, Shige’s new boyfriend must be Nishikido-kun then!”. Koyama goes bug-eyed and Massu snorts water from his nose and then Shige can’t see what happens as they’ve left and are in the hallway.
Unsurprisingly they’re marched to the Kanjani8 dressing room where Shige is dumped down into a chair. When he looks up he sees Yoko has joined them. Also in his ranger costume. The other four are nowhere to be seen.
“A little birdie told us that you have infiltrated this organisation!” Subaru barks at him while glaring. Yoko is sniggering at the word infiltrate and Maru is just grinning. Shige is starting to feel like he’s on drugs. Or wish he was.
“Errr...” he responds. He doesn’t quite know what to say. These are Ryo’s friends - well, Maru aside - and he should be the one talking to them about this. He’s saved from answering though when the door opens and Ryo walks in, mercifully not wearing a ranger costume. He’s followed by Yasu who is also in street clothes - although what street is still up for debate - who catches sight of Shige and his captors and looks intrigued. Ryo is eating an onigiri when he looks up and see’s what is happening. He inhales in surprise and Yasu has to thump him on the back to dislodge the rice from his windpipe.
“What the hell?” he yells and for a second Shige thinks he’s angry with him, but then Ryo is storming over and glaring at the three in front of him.
“We were informed by someone that you might be involved with a spy. We were just making sure everything is ok?” Yoko says.
Ryo groans. “You talked to Uchi.”
“Pinku was our informant, yes.”
Ryo looks embarrassed and like he wants to strangle someone. Shige thinks this whole thing feels familiar somehow.
Ryo grabs hold of Shige’s wrist and pulls him out of the chair and leads him out of the room. Shige is surprised that the rest of them let them both leave.
Ryo lets go of his wrist when they’re in the hallway, but carries on walking so Shige follows. They go to a room - the same one he talked to Koyama in earlier - and Ryo sighs as he apologies for his bandmates.
“I’m sorry about the idiots. They just have the most ridiculous way of showing their affection.”
“Gee, I’ve never dealt with anyone like that before” Shige retorts drily before grinning when Ryo glares at him and punches him in the shoulder.
“I’ll talk to them later. I was going to do it tonight, but obviously Uchi got there first.”
“Do you think they’ll be ok with it?”
“Yeah, they wouldn’t kidnap you while dressed as the Eito Rangers if they weren’t. It’s their way of welcoming you.”
Shige grins. As long as their friends are ok with it then everything is fine. Something occurs to Ryo.
“Did you talk to Koyama?” He looks really worried.
“Yeah. He was upset that we didn’t tell him but that’s it.”
“Oh, good.” Ryo visibly breathes a sigh of relief. “Look, I’ve probably got to go out for dinner with the guys tonight and explain all this, but come over after?”
Shige grins. “Sure thing.” He leans in and quickly kisses Ryo and they both leave to return to their respective rooms.
Shige is glad that he only has NEWS to talk to about all this, while Ryo has to explain to Kanjani8. Shige doesn’t envy him one little bit. He knows that they still have to talk to their management, and both of their families. But the first hurdle has gone and it ended well.
He heads back to the practise room to face the music.