Dead Simple - Chapter 1
Title: Dead Simple
Pairing: Akame
Genre: non-AU but sort of Fantasy, see summary ugh. Also, Romance/Fluff and Angst. Okay IDEK.
Rating: PG-15
Beta: carboncastel
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
Warnings: I should say character death, but that’s where the story starts. Again, see summary.
Summary: What would you do if life teaches you a lesson… when you’re already dead?
A/N: Came up with the plot the morning after I posted the final chapter of Who Are We? and I don’t even know anymore what I’m doing with my life. Can’t promise evenly spaced updates because fuck my life, but for sure we’ll get to the end of this. Got some help from gaea_chan for this first part. Here we go.
Prologue
Kamenashi Kazuya flicks his signal light on as he shifts to a faster lane, wanting more than anything to just get to his destination quickly. He’s already tired after finishing two photo shoots and a meeting on the preliminary conceptualization of the new KAT-TUN PV, but here he is, speeding down the highway to another photo shoot. It’s a solo one this time, and then after that he’ll go back to the studio for the briefing for a new Going! project.
The rain isn’t letting on and the road is already wet. Kame glances to his side at the blur of colors that speed past him in the opposite direction, momentarily wondering where all those other cars are headed to. He thinks it’s kind of amusing how, on the highway, all sorts of lives come together and race to their journey's end. Maybe life is one big highway.
Kame shakes his head, realizing how theatrical that last thought was. It’s the sort of thing he’d say in one of his Maquia write-ups, maybe. And he doesn’t know if it shows from his interviews, but Kame is tired… maybe not just from work.
Kame shifts into fifth gear, not really paying attention to the road anymore as it’s clear, with only a few cars riding the same speed. It’s one of those days when Kame feels that he is getting tired of this lifestyle. It’s fabulous, enjoyable, interesting - but it’s also extremely exhausting.
He gets three hours of sleep a day, devoting the rest of the twenty-one hours to recording, acting, to posing for the camera and, very rarely, to catching up with family and friends. Kame has the image of a laidback man who makes it a point to get quiet time for himself perhaps for even just an hour or two a day. But in truth, Kame is in chaos. He’s running from one place to another, getting things done and making people happy, but inside him feelings get thrown here and there, unable to discern what to do with them.
Kame has postponed feeling his emotions for so long, maybe these days no one truly knows Kame anymore. Maybe even Kame doesn’t know himself anymore. He’s hidden his own feelings, even he doesn’t know how to find them back.
In his sleep, in dreams, that’s when he feels he’s most at peace. Nothing can hurt him there, and everything works to his liking. Kame doesn’t like to indulge, however, because real life will always, always catch up with him eventually.
But still, when Kame closes his eyes and ignores the world, it’s the best feeling ever.
The things that happen next take place too quickly for Kame to understand.
His head is thrown back against the headrest, and then his whole body snaps forward and his face comes crashing against the steering wheel, the noise of pounding metal loud in his ears and the smell of smoke everything that he could inhale. It should hurt, and yet Kame doesn’t feel any pain, but he sees red everywhere, and broken glass, and the rain is starting to come into the car, too, which had come to a halt for some reason.
Kame isn’t driving anymore, and he’s just sitting there, staring at the carpeted floor of his car through the red in his eyes and the lightheadedness starting to settle.
As sudden as it began, all those sensations abruptly halt and the next thing Kame knows, he’s standing to the side of the road, some meters away from a heavily damaged black Porsche.
The car… what happened to it? It looks like it went through a compactor, the metals twisted and bent everywhere, the tires busted - one’s even missing, probably rolled off after the crash - and the hood… there’s no hood anymore, the entire front of the car has been rammed in, the engine entirely broken and displaced, and it’s not difficult to imagine what happened to the driver.
People are beginning to rush to the scene, cars stopping by, people surrounding the vehicle, some dialing the emergency hotline as others try to assess the damage and figure out how to help the man inside. Kame looks on but doesn’t come closer; he doesn’t need to see to know how bad it is.
Kame looks up at the sky. It’s still raining, and he can feel the tiny raindrops on his face.
“Excuse me - ” Kame calls out to a woman who rushes by, but she doesn’t spare him a glance.
“Excuse me - ” Kame tries again, approaching an elderly man who is standing nearby, holding an umbrella over his head. Kame taps his shoulder to call his attention.
Except that Kame’s hand goes right through the man’s figure. Kame pulls his hand away in shock as he realizes that no one could see, hear, or feel him. He isn’t here anymore. But he is.
And Kame grasps reality: he is the driver of the destroyed car a few meters away.
Kame looks around him again. Everyone is panicking, looking terrified or otherwise unnerved. He hears people talking about how the driver isn’t conscious, apparently not breathing, and has lost a lot of blood. Soon enough, he hears the distant sound of an ambulance siren growing louder and louder.
Kame looks up at the sky again. The clouds have parted and the rain has stopped. He has no business here anymore. There is somewhere he would really like to go.
Chapter 1
“Kamenashi?”
Akanishi Jin sits up in bed, rubbing his eyes. It’s a lazy day and he had been taking an afternoon nap. He thinks he was dreaming about going back to his younger days and shooting an old drama all over again when he felt a weird, prickly feeling in the back of his neck. True enough to his instinct, he sees Kamenashi Kazuya standing in a dark corner of the bedroom away from the window, in between the full-length mirror and the dresser. The younger man is staring at him intently, his eyes quite sickly and his face sallow with a somewhat haunted look.
“You scared me, you fucker,” Jin snaps, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed, further messing the already crumpled sheets. It’s not the friendliest of greetings, but he is rather annoyed that his sleep - one that he’d taken due to the cool, lethargic weather outside - was disturbed.
When he faces in Kame’s direction, the younger man’s eyes widen with apparent surprise. He’s surprised? Isn’t that Jin’s role right now?
“What are you doing here?” Jin asks as he realizes how off beam this situation is at the moment. He and Kame have not exactly been the best of friends these past years, and certainly not close enough for one to turn up in the other’s bedroom unannounced at three in the afternoon.
“You… can see me?” Kame speaks for the first time, inquiring about the stupidest thing in the world. Why on earth shouldn’t Jin be able to see him? Nevertheless, Kame asks with seemingly genuine curiosity, eyes wide like a child.
“Of course I can. I’m not blind - ”
“But - ”
“How did you get into my house anyway? In my bedroom, no less - ”
“How can you see me?” Kame presses, taking a solitary tentative step away from the dim corner.
“What the fuck is your problem?” Jin barks at him now, getting annoyed.
Kame is dressed in a shirt and jeans and looks like he just got off work, and Jin knows enough about the other man to identify that as something unusual, because Kame never finishes work in the afternoon. He always works late into the night, sometimes even sleeping in the Jimusho to make it to a dawn call time. So what’s he doing here?
“Did Meisa let you in?” Jin then solicits, the strangeness of it all finally permeating his sleepy consciousness. Kame is a bit fidgety, looking unsure of himself. He looks bothered, and Jin thinks he should be bothered if he was found in someone else’s bedroom randomly.
“Jin?”
Just then, Jin’s wife comes into the room, apparently having heard their conversation.
“Were you talking on your phone?”
Or not.
“What?” Jin sputters back, looking from Meisa to Kame and back again. Seeing this, Meisa looks at the corner where Jin’s eyes keep darting to.
“Is something wrong… with the wall?” Meisa says, so that Jin raises his eyebrows at her.
She can’t see Kame? The man is clearly, visibly, intrudingly standing in the corner of their bedroom! Jin is getting more confused by the minute.
“Can’t you - don’t you see - ” Jin tries, pointing right at Kame, who looks on nervously but quietly. Meisa looks straight at him but for some reason ignores how a top Johnny’s idol is standing in the corner of their bedroom on a rainy afternoon.
“See what?” Meisa asks back quizzically, her hand coming to rest on her already obvious baby bump, and Jin absently watches her touch her tummy a few times. There’s nothing in Meisa’s face that tells Jin she’s anything but innocent. Should he believe that Meisa really can’t see Kame? What the fuck is going on?
“I - nothing,” Jin decides, shutting his trap and smiling at her. She looks at him curiously for a moment before smiling herself. She’s probably choosing to assume that Jin’s trying to be cute as usual.
“I prepared a snack,” she says, turning to exit the room, “Come out and eat with me, okay?”
His wife leaves and closes the door behind her, and Jin is alone with Kame and the silence again.
“What the hell?” Jin asks indistinctly, struggling to keep his voice low. He’s not sure anymore what the hell is going on here.
Finally, he gets up from the bed and takes a few steps toward Kame, just to see if anything’s wrong. Anything different. Anything to explain why Meisa didn’t notice him earlier. Jin doesn’t bother with slippers as he doesn’t look anywhere near presentable anyway, and it’s Kame’s fault for intruding that he’s seeing such a disheveled Jin right now.
“Is this a practical joke?” Jin tries, feeling good about himself because he’s spotted it so early on, “How did you get Meisa in on this?”
Jin takes another step until he’s right in front of the mirrors they have in the room - they are a vain couple, they’re celebrities after all - and puts his hands on his waist in triumph.
“I gotta hand it to you - Meisa doesn’t like participating in shit like this, even Pi hasn’t managed to convince her - ”
Akanishi keeps talking - but still keeping his voice down so Meisa can’t hear - Kame can’t even get a word edgewise.
“But of course, she’d be compelled to join in a prank if it’s the great Kamenashi-sama playing it - ”
“I haven’t spoken with Kuroki-san for years - ” Kame manages to interject, but without much effect.
“Is this for your new show? KAT-TUN’s worst night or something like that - ”
“Okay look - ”
It only takes Kame two steps more before he’s standing in front of Jin and the mirrors, and Jin stares. He just stares and stares, rather aghast, because there, in the mirror, where Kame’s reflection should be, stands nothing. If the mirrors are to be trusted, Jin is standing alone in front of them. But he isn’t. And yet, there’s no faking the absence of a reflection in the mirror.
“Oh shit. Did someone feed me crack last night?” Jin freaks out, taking a step away from Kame.
“Will you shut up?” Kame says, firm and commanding.
It has literally been years since Jin heard that, had the business of being commanded like that, but it nevertheless alarms him. He clams up and turns really pale because no matter how much he hates Kame’s guts for being so bossy, no one wants an angry Kamenashi.
Looking Jin in the eye and without a trace of humor in his voice, Kame says,
“I’m dead, Akanishi.”
oOo
It turns out, Meisa had prepared salad for their afternoon snack. Again. It’s been like this for the past couple of weeks, because she’s trying to eat healthy for the baby. Jin doesn’t like it, but he can live with it. Just a couple of months to go before the baby comes, anyway.
He sits across Meisa in the living room, watching TV as they ate. In the corner of his eye, he could see Kame standing to the side, and Akanishi can’t offer him some salad because one, Meisa might freak out and two, he’s not sure Kame can eat anyway.
Just then, the afternoon variety show they’re watching abruptly goes on break to be replaced by a newsflash, and somehow, Jin can already guess what the report will be about.
‘Breaking news - Johnny & Associates talent Kamenashi Kazuya, age 26, was reported to have been involved in a vehicular accident before exiting the Tokyo Freeway’
A video of a totally wrecked black Porsche is then flashed on screen, the cameraman making a full perimeter examination of the vehicle. The driver’s seat is already empty, but the excessive blood spattered over the seats and the crushed dashboard makes Jin want to cringe at just how much damage Kame had suffered from the crash.
‘An official statement from Kamenashi-san’s talent agency is yet to be released. The celebrated actor and singer was rushed to Tokyo General Hospital and while there is no report on how he is doing, numerous witnesses say that he is seriously hurt. Field correspondent Yamada Hiromi is stationed at the hospital for updates, please stay tuned.’
The couple had stopped eating, and now they’re just staring at the television screen. Jin glances at his wife and sees Meisa looking worried and a bit disturbed and truthfully, Jin doesn’t know how to react either. He already knows Kame has died - because the younger man told him - but somehow, seeing that wrecked car and hearing the news made things official… and serious.
After a couple of commercials, the newsflash is back, this time showing a female reporter speaking to the camera. Jin and Meisa listen quietly, and Kame is still standing to the side, also watching the report. The woman is right outside the hospital where Kame was allegedly brought, and she wears a somber expression as she delivers her report.
‘In a statement signed by both Johnny & Associates and a resident doctor of Tokyo General Hospital, it is now confirmed that Kamenashi Kazuya-san, age 26, was brought to the hospital an hour ago. Kamenashi-san suffered extensive injury resulting from a vehicular accident along the Tokyo Freeway and, in the same statement - ”
The woman pauses, as if preparing herself and the viewers for what she’s about to say.
‘ - it is verified that Kamenashi-san was declared dead-on-arrival by attending physicians… Meanwhile, investigation of the vehicular accident is still underway. Media coverage is on standby for conclusive statement from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. However, the angle of foul play has not been ruled out as of the moment - ’
In the corner of his eye, Jin sees Kame walk off, and Jin thinks he’s heard enough, too, so he thoughtlessly gets out of his seat and follows the younger man.
“Jin, are you - ” Meisa unexpectedly calls out to him, “Are you alright?”
Jin stops and smiles back at her, realizing that his sudden walking off must have looked like he’s too troubled over the news or something, when he really was just following Kame - whom Meisa can’t see, Jin reminds himself.
“Yeah,” Jin nods, “I’m fine,” he assures her, not sure what else to say anyway.
Walking down the hallway, Jin catches a glimpse of Kame entering the nursery. A spontaneous small smile pulls at the corners of Jin’s lips, because whenever they had a visitor in the house, he would show them the nursery before anything else. Jin is proud of having painstakingly worked on it, designing and painting the room by himself and going on countless shopping occasions with his wife to buy stuff for the baby’s room.
“Do you know yet if it’s going to be a boy or a girl?” Kame asks when Jin enters the room.
Kame is amusedly looking at the fluffy toys and colorful pictures around them, smiling as well.
“Not yet,” Jin replies, closing the door behind him, “Maybe when Meisa goes for a checkup next week, the doctor will already be able to tell…”
Kame nods absently, still looking around. He picks up a toy animal from the shelf beside the window and holds it up, showing Jin. The older man stares back, trying to keep himself from laughing. It’s a green toy turtle. Jin can’t remember if he or Meisa picked that up from the toy store.
“It’s refreshing to hear this kind of thing from you,” Kame says, grinning behind the plushie, “And not read it off some tabloid.”
“I - well - yeah,” Jin stumbles, ending up agreeing with a sheepish smile on his face.
It’s then that he realizes just how much distance he’s put between himself and Kamenashi all these years. They were practically best friends back then, when they were still Juniors and going on stage was just a big game for Jin. Kame had already been serious about performing in the past, but at that time, Jin was just happy to sing and dance with his friend. And now, they’re merely artists who belong - once belonged - to the same agency.
Now, they barely know each other.
Trying to derail his uncomfortable train of thought, Jin starts, “I don’t mean to be rude but - ”
“But you always have been,” Kame cuts in, smirking, so that Jin ‘tsks’ at him before he continues.
“ - but if you’re dead, why is your spirit still in the world of the living?”
When Jin finishes his question, he ends up feeling all the more awkward, because Kamenashi is looking at him funny. The smaller man walks up to him and in his spot Jin feels like he’s being cornered, only barely resisting the urge to back up against the wall.
“I was hoping you could help me find out, Akanishi,” Kame says when he stops in front of Jin, sounding genuinely puzzled, “I don’t know why I’m still here.”
To be continued…
oOo
Aaaand we’re back to the Kame-is-dead plot. But this is different from my past fics because, well, it’s where the story starts, yeah? Anyways, comment and do let me know what you think. This is just the beginning after all.
Go to CHAPTER 2
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