Who Are We? - Chapter 1
Title: Who Are We?
Pairing: Akame
Genre: AU, Romance
Rating: NC-17
Beta: infynitehexes (Here we go!)
Disclaimer: Own nothing but the plot, sadly.
Warnings: I don’t know how to warn you without spoiling the story so just read at your own risk. LOL
Summary: He wakes up naked to find himself in bed with a beautiful young man and without any of his memories. What’s his name again?
A/N: Started writing this last year but finding the time and energy to get it going only now. Updates will be weekly (hopefully). Outlined for ten (10) chapters. Hope you guys enjoy!
Chapter 1
Morning… It was morning. That, he knew for sure. There was warm sunlight coming in from somewhere, and he perceived it even with his eyes closed. He had to wake up soon, he knew that, too. But just a few more minutes, he thought to himself as he rolled over to his side under the sheets, in the process realizing that he was wearing nothing -
Someone was in bed beside him. That much, he could tell from the warmth. That someone was still asleep, he guessed, from the way the person’s breathing was steady. He could feel it. But… why was there someone beside him again?
He lay on his back again as he opened his eyes for the first time that day. Somehow, things felt unclear, like a lot was missing from his thoughts. He actually didn’t know where he was, to begin with. Neither could he remember what he had been doing before falling asleep. And…
What was his name again? He blinked up at the teal-painted interior of the room and searched for clues, clues as to who he was. Nothing came to mind. Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck.
Just then, the person beside him stirred - no, rolled over in their spot on the bed - who was he sharing the bed with? Where were they? Fuck that. Who was he, even?
“You’re awake,” the person beside him mumbled in a low, sleepy voice.
Wait.
Just wait a fucking minute. Was that a man’s voice?
“Good morning.”
He almost fell off the bed as the person beside him, a slender, beautiful, and very naked young man, leaned over him, smiling with the morning greeting.
“Uhh… good morning,” he answered back unsurely, pulling the covers up to his neck.
“Are you alright?”
“Um… no,” he tried, wishing there was an easy way out of this awkward situation.
He couldn’t remember his goddamn name for god’s sake. The man beside him climbed on top of him, and he unconsciously held his breath until the man climbed off on the other side and stood beside the bed in all his butt naked glory.
“Did we, uhh, you know…”
The man raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at the unfinished question.
“Have sex?”
The man chuckled before replying, “You must be having a hangover if you can’t even remember what we did last night. Just skip school today,” the man said, picking up in one hand his clothes strewn all over the floor. The man gathered another set of clothes from the floor and laid them out on the foot of the bed.
“Let the hangover wear off.”
He sat up and remained silent, slowly recognizing the dull throbbing in the back of his head. He purposefully looked away and tried not to watch the man dress up, but he decided that he had to ask at least something else that wasn’t about sex and so he spoke again, “I, uhh, I had a lot to drink last night, huh?”
Done buttoning his shirt and pants up, the man leaned over him and spoke rather affectionately.
“Rest up, alright? I’ll see you later, Jin.”
Jin. So that was his name. He nodded towards the handsome young man who sent him a last glance before exiting the bedroom.
Jin buried his face in his hands, elbows resting on his thighs. At least he had a name now. He didn’t understand what was happening, but somehow he knew that running around telling people he couldn’t remember anything about himself and his life was not a good idea. This can’t be a simple hangover. Hangovers gave you headaches and weird feelings throughout the day, but he had been awake for some minutes now and still nothing came to him. And the damn thumping of his head in the background didn’t help.
“Jin-kun!” he heard someone call from somewhere outside of the room.
It was a female voice. Jin decided he should probably get dressed and find who was calling him now that the man he had shared a bed with had supposedly left for school. Slowly, he got up and studied the clothes laid on the bed for a bit before putting them on nervously. They should be his clothes, but it felt like it was the first time he was wearing anything. Just like a baby.
“Jin-kun!” he heard the call again. “Are you up already?”
Jin pulled open the door of the room, careful not to make a sound, and gazed at the corridor before him. He was, of course, in a house. If it was his own, he had no idea. All he knew at this point was still just his name.
“I’m making breakfast now so if you want to eat, come down here, okay?” the female voice yelled out again, and now that Jin was outside the bedroom, he could tell that the voice came from downstairs.
The short corridor, walls painted teal like the bedroom, had a wooden door opposite the one Jin just came out of, and a few steps down, the hall ended with another wooden door. All three doors had no decoration on them and looked rather old. The opposite end of the corridor continued to a wooden staircase that led downstairs. Jin took a peak over the banisters and, not seeing much, began to climb down the stairs.
Well, it was a neat, average-sized, cozy home, Jin thought as he came into the living room, the first place he came to after coming down the stairs. The living room had a long sofa on a beige carpeted floor with a few shelves for books and DVDs to the side, but Jin had to make a double take at the huge flat screen television against the wall.
“Jin?”
He snapped his head, and felt dizzy for a moment, as he turned in the direction of the voice which had been calling him earlier. In the doorway stood a woman perhaps in her late 40s or early 50s, smiling brightly at him. Short brown hair framed her kind, slightly wrinkled visage, and a green floral apron hung from her neck over a long-sleeved turtleneck and pants.
“Let’s go and have breakfast,” she said, beckoning Jin to follow her as she turned and walked down the hallway. Jin followed her into what turned out to be the kitchen, and seated himself along the counter as she busied herself with preparing their food. “I hope it’s okay eating here,” she said, her head bowed as she scooped rice into a bowl. “There’s just the two of us, anyway. I don’t want to clutter the dining room anymore before I leave.”
Jin nodded, having no clue who this woman was or where she was going. Although now that he smelled the food which gave off quite appetizing scents, he realized he was actually starving.
“How’s your head feeling?” the woman asked again, turning to him with their rice bowls and several dishes laid out on the kitchen counter.
“S - sorry?” Jin asked. Did the woman know that he couldn’t remember anything?
“Kazuya said you had a hangover,” she replied, still smiling thoughtfully. “After breakfast, you should go back to your room and rest.”
Jin nodded again. Kazuya? Did that name belong to the man he had woken up next to earlier? And what was his relationship with these people? Jin ate and silently wondered, confused that still nothing was coming to him after some time of consciousness. This woman, who was she? She called Jin, “Jin-kun.”
He gathered the last of his rice and vegetables and put them in his mouth, chewing still deep in thought, and had almost gotten up from his seat before remembering to show gratitude for the meal. The slight headache seemed to have faded a bit, too.
“Thanks for the food,” he bowed. “Mom,” he added, trying to sound perfectly normal. To his further confusion, the woman chuckled softly, and at that Jin had to stay in his seat, staring at the woman puzzled.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, setting down her own chopsticks and turning to Jin. She was positively grinning now. “It’s just…” she seemed to struggle finding the words over her amusement at the adorable little thing in front of her that was Jin. “That’s just… cute,” she ended, and Jin continued to stare.
“What is…?” he asked, making an effort to sound polite despite his growing annoyance at the woman’s treatment of him.
“You calling me ‘Mom,’” she explained.
So this was not his mother. Then who the hell was she?! Thankfully, she gave a clue or two, even if unintentionally.
“I’ve never been happier that someone Kazuya’s in a relationship with called me ‘Mom,’” she said, and now Jin tried his best not to gape at her.
Someone Kazuya’s in a relationship with? Was he supposed to be dating that man he woke up next to? Well, you were in bed together goddamn naked, what do you expect? Jin couldn’t tell his sexual orientation, either, but he didn’t exactly feel revolted if he was indeed in a relationship with another man. Just that he didn’t know that man, at the moment.
Jin forced himself to smile as he replied, “I see…” He bowed again, deeper this time, and added, “I - I’ll be going back upstairs now,” praying that nothing else would come up and the woman, who he now believed to be Kazuya’s mother, would let him.
When there was no further protest, he calmly exited the kitchen only to dash down the hallway and sprint up into the bedroom he came from again. His situation wasn’t improving, as he still couldn’t remember anything. Coming into the bedroom, he closed the door behind him and frantically searched the room for any clue as to who he was.
There was a desk by the window to the right of the bed he woke up in, and said desk contained tons of paper and volumes of thick books. Somehow, Jin couldn’t imagine himself working on any of those. There was a laptop under some layers of paper, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to use it right now even if it were his. Pulled under the desk was a grey swivel chair and on it was a backpack.
Jin swept the room another look and found nothing that could possibly help him identify himself aside from this bag, except of course if the bag turned out to belong to Kazuya. He approached the desk and pulled out the chair (rather forcefully, too), picking up the bag and settling himself on the furniture. Inside the bag was more paper, an mp3 player, more paper, an old and worn-out book on musical theory, more paper still, and at the very bottom of the mess was a brown leather wallet.
Jin unceremoniously threw the bag on the floor as he opened the wallet and - bingo. Hello there, Akanishi Jin. Jin thought his name sounded awesome, reading it off the ID card inserted in the wallet. But then, he reminded himself that he should know his name.
According to the identification card, he was a senior student at Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku majoring in vocal music… Again, Jin was awed. He must be one hell of a singer, then. Aside from the ID, he found a few bills, a credit card (Ha! I must be rich!), and a piece of paper that had a phone number written on it. There was no name and he, of course, could not remember whose number it was, so he just slipped it back into his wallet.
Jin spun in the swivel chair so that he was facing the rest of the room again. Staring at the wall, he recapped all that he’d found out about himself. His name was Akanishi Jin. He was a senior student at an arts university, so he must be around… 22 years old? He had a credit card so he must have some money in the bank.
That’s about it.
Oh, one more thing. He was untidy as fuck. Jin spent the rest of the morning arranging the papers inside his backpack in the hopes that he would pick something up from those, perhaps something written on all those academic materials would trigger his memory. When he was done with the bag, he proceeded to organize the mess on the desk, too. Soon, the kind lady from downstairs - Kazuya’s mother, he believed - called him to have lunch.
“The cab is here. I’ll be going now, alright?” the woman said, standing in the kitchen doorway, her house clothes replaced with a rather smart blouse and skirt. The way she carried herself now reminded Jin more of Kazuya. Beside her was a big grey travel suitcase. So she was leaving as in leaving? “You and Kazuya take care of each other while I’m gone.”
Jin nodded, his mouth full of rice and beef. The woman walked up to him and kissed him in the forehead before saying, “I doubt it would, but if your hangover worsens, just call Kazuya, okay?” she said kindly.
Jin nodded again without a word and with that the woman left. He heard the front door open and close, and just as he was wondering if he should see her off, he heard the engine of the cab speed away. And then there was silence. He was all alone now. Somehow, the thought of being alone and not remembering anything made Jin’s heart skip a beat. It was even more terrifying. He was now sort of glad he woke up next to that man - Kazuya. That beautiful face was definitely a distraction from the panic Jin would have suffered worse from if he had woken up alone.
Upon finishing his meal, he explored the rest of the house, still in search of clues as to who he was. The dining room which Kazuya’s mom spoke of earlier was a rather grandiose part of the house, with a long table and expensive porcelain displayed on the shelves along the wall. Right outside the dining room was a small garden which housed a few potted flowering plants and a tiny pond, just wide enough for a man to stand in.
Jin almost panicked, his heart racing and his head beginning to buzz again, when he thought he was trapped in the laundry room. It was adjacent to the kitchen, and the door was old and unstable that it seemed to have a great tendency to get stuck. Thankfully, somehow, Jin found clothes that were waiting to be washed.
It seemed the kind lady had that turtleneck in at least four colors, counting the one she was wearing this morning. She also had knee-length skirts, thick wool sweaters, all the motherly stuff. Jin was able to tell which were Kazuya’s judging from the size. Despite the aura of coolness the man seemed to have, Jin thought he looked fairly thin. He gets all the smallest sizes available, though he also seems to like his jeans ripped - he deduced from the four out of five in the laundry, anyway.
Finally examining the clothes he assumed were his, he found that the sizes were right, but it turns out he had a particular preference for baggy hoodies and pants that hid most of his limbs. He tugged at one really creased jacket and it gave almost instantly, flinging a hot pink, lacy something in Jin’s face in the process. Sputtering - more out of embarrassment than surprise - he tore the undergarment off his face and fell back onto the door as he recognized a thong. The door shut with a rickety noise that didn’t sound good.
After a good ten minutes of doorknob-wobbling and pointless pounding, the door finally swung open and Jin was back to inspecting the pink thong. On the kitchen floor, now, just to be safe. For a moment, too, he was rather aghast. It seemed that he was in a relationship with Kazuya, a man. So… was Jin into cross-dressing? Was this some kind of kink they found exciting? Looking closely, he saw a small embroidery at the edge, almost on the garter. A capital letter ‘L.’
His terror after being almost trapped in the laundry room caused the dull throbbing above his nape to start again, and he decided to return the lace undies where he found them - balled up within a jacket - and just deal with them later. He went upstairs, but was not able to enter the other rooms. He decided to take a peek out the front door and, well, he wasn’t in some weird parallel universe. The house he was in was situated in a quiet neighborhood, it seemed. Everything appeared normal, except that he couldn’t remember his life!
Eerily, though, he couldn’t find anything else in the house that made sense to his investigation. There were a few picture frames perched on top of the shelves in the living room. One was that of the lady when she was younger; one looked like a family picture with the woman, a small boy that looked like Kazuya, and a stern-looking man; and another one that had a pre-pubescent Kazuya in junior baseball league outfit, complete with bat and headgear, sweaty and looking tired but also grinning ear to ear as he looked at the camera for the shot.
The last one of the row of pictures was that of two scrawny boys on bikes, also beaming. The one on the right looked very much like the baseball player in the previous picture, about three years younger, and the one on the left… Jin checked himself in his reflection on the glass door of a shelf. The boy in the picture looked like him, only way younger. And with blonde hair.
So… did that mean he and Kazuya were childhood friends? Then what’s up with dating? Was that woman messing with his head when she said that Jin was in a relationship with this Kazuya? Jin clutched his head, now feeling a major headache coming along. He picked up the photo of the two boys and sat down on the couch, staring blankly at the photo.
Who was he? Who was this family, and why was he in their house? Why can’t he remember?
“Tadaima.”
Jin’s head snapped up (sending his head into a dizzy fit in the process). That voice…
“Jin.”
Kazuya appeared in the doorway, looking exactly as he did when he left that morning, except that he was wearing glasses now. Jin nodded, carefully, finding no sense in speaking when he couldn’t remember anything. Kazuya’s eyes dropped to the picture frame in Jin’s hand, and his lips curled into a tiny smile.
“What’s up?” he asked, motioning to the photo as he walked over to the couch.
Jin raised his eyebrows to indicate that he didn’t understand what Kazuya was asking. Hell, he didn’t understand anything. Kazuya, on the other hand, settled beside him.
“Why are you holding that?”
“What? Oh. This?” Jin repeated stupidly. “I - I was just looking at it.”
He made to put the frame back on the shelf but Kazuya grabbed it from him, took off his eyeglasses, and looked at the photo as well. These little motions weren’t really helping his worsening headache.
“It’s been so long, ne…” the man said, raising his gaze from the photo to Jin, and Jin could only gawk back blankly.
It would have turned into a staring contest, if not for the fact that after some moments Kazuya edged closer, and closer, and closer still, until Jin realized that their lips had met. He blinked, still staring straight ahead, the throbbing in his head momentarily forgotten. All the while, Kazuya’s eyes were closed. His lips were soft and warm, and the kiss actually felt nice. Jin would have enjoyed it if not for the fact that he still had no idea who this man was!
“What’s wrong, Jin?” Kazuya asked after finally pulling back, receiving no reaction from the taller man.
“I - I - ” Jin stuttered, unsure if he was feeling queasy because of his sore head or because of the kiss. “I don’t - know you.”
“Eh?”
As expected, Kazuya looked at him like he had gone mad. Well, maybe he had gone mad. If he can’t remember anything, there was definitely something wrong with his brain, right?
“I can’t remember anything.”
To be continued…
oOo
I hope and plan to update this fic weekly, so comments are much appreciated. :D
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