[multichapter] baby blue part 3 chapter 22
Title: Baby Blue: Part 3: Chapter 22
Pairing: JunDa
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2224
Disclaimer: All people mentioned belong only to themselves...aside from JunDa who clearly belong to each other.
Summary: In the fairy tales they fall in love and live happily ever after...but this isn't a fairy tale. How are two people, madly in love, supposed to stay away from each other?
22nd June 2013
Taguchi retreated back to his corner of the dance studio, and the others didn't protest, he was too shocked by what had happened to have responded if they had anyway. He didn't mean it, or rather he did, but he really was trying and he didn't mean for it to come out that way.
He took a swig of his water, his eyes returning immediately to the door, wishing Ueda would just walk back through it. From the corner of his eye he could see Kame talking to the choreographer, but soon they broke away and everyone turned to find somewhere to sit and wait.
The minutes passed and still Ueda didn't return. Eventually Maru stood and announced that he was going to go and search for the other man, he hadn't taken even his keys so there was little chance he was going home.
If Taguchi knew Ueda, and at some point he had, better than anyone else knew him, he'd be off finding something to punch until his anger left him, and then he would curl up in a sad little ball and wait for someone to find him.
His stomach gave a slight turn at the thought of Ueda hitting things, he hadn't missed the smears of red across the wall in the parking lot of his building that morning. Part of him had known, but it still hurt him just a little to see the confirmation wrapped around Ueda's knuckles in the form of bandages.
But his anger was just too much. He felt like crying, only tears wouldn't come, only insults and accusations, and bitter feelings, regrets. He felt like everything was building up inside just waiting to explode, like he was on course to self-destruct.
There was silence as they waited, but as the clock kept ticking, there was no sign of Ueda. Maru returned some fifteen minutes later, but he was alone, and the sad shake of his head was all the explanation they needed.
Still nobody spoke, though the choreographer sighed a few times, and then finally, the door creaked open. All heads turned to the door expectantly, but it was just a young boy, one of the juniors, that appeared.
“KAT-TUN-san” he almost squeaked. “Johnny-san asked me to come down and tell you that he would like to see you all in his office right away. ” and he ducked quickly back out of the room.
There was a collective gasp as they all turned to each other, fear in their eyes at the thought of what the head could possibly need to see them so desperately about, and so soon after Ueda had stormed out.
They barely spoke as they waited in the elevator, arriving in the administration offices too quickly, still dressed in their dance clothes.
“I'm sorry” Taguchi quickly blurted out as they headed towards Johnny's secretary. “What ever happens now is because of me...I'm really sorry guys.”
He almost wanted to cry again as a gentle hand rubbed soothingly at his shoulder “Let's not freak out until we know what is happening.” and Koki offered him a small smile.
“Ah, thank you for coming” Johnny's secretary said, her voice entirely too cheery to fit the situation. “Taguchi-kun, he'd like to see you first, if the rest of you could please take a seat for a moment.” And with a quick smile she turned back to her computer screen.
He gave the other members a hopeful smile that didn't give him any courage at all, and then he took a deep breath before knocking on the office door.
When he entered, Ueda was sat facing an exhausted looking Johnny, only his head was down, staring intently at the floor as he sniffled and dabbed intermittently at his cheeks.
“Please take a seat” Johnny almost sighed, and he waited until Taguchi had sat down in the empty chair beside Ueda before continuing. “There seems to be problem...I assume you've figured out already why you're here?”
Taguchi swallowed hard, and slowly he shook his head. Of course he knew that Ueda must have come to Johnny and told him of their argument, but he didn't know if that was the extent of their conversation.
“Ueda-kun has come to me requesting to quit the agency.”
Even despite Ueda's words, Taguchi didn't believe that Ueda would possibly sink to this level, that he would actually try and stop their work together, to break the group apart. “Uepi...why?” he gasped.
“He has explained to me that, through fault of your own, the relationship between you two has become...complicated, uncomfortable to the point that Ueda-kun feels he can no longer work with you under the current conditions.”
“What...Uepi...no, don't....” he whispered turning his attention to Ueda. “Uepi, please...I didn't meant it, we can work something out...don't leave...” but when Ueda showed no signs of responding he turned back to Johnny “Please...you're not going to let him quit?”
“Ultimately, the decision isn't mine to make. I can't force Ueda-kun to work here against his will. Though obviously, it would work in my favour to find some other agreement.”
“I'll do anything...” Taguchi responded quickly, clinging to the hope that there is some other answer to their situation.
“Hhhmm” Johnny began, regarding the two of them carefully. “Taguchi-kun, can I please have your account of things...” and when Taguchi turned to Ueda he quickly added “You don't need to confer, Ueda-kun has already made his feelings clear, I would like to hear your side of the story.”
“Last year...” he began uncertainly. “In March...we were away on tour and there was a mix up with rooms, and we ended up sharing a room...” he glanced at Ueda, looking for any sign that he was giving away too much, but Ueda was as unresponsive as ever. He turned instead to Johnny, but his expression was just as unreadable. “We were drinking...and things got...we ended up sleeping together...”
“Having sexual intercourse?” Johnny clarfied.
“Yes” Taguchi confirmed, the words making him feel a little uneasy. “After that we kind of...just, kept...letting it happen...but then, without us even noticing we started to develop feelings for each other...I guess we must have known for some time, deep down, but by the time we finally admitted our feelings, we'd already fallen in love.”
He could feel a lump rising in his throat, the memories of it all coming back, not just the bitter ones of feeling their love but not being able to be together, but the simpler times, nights curled up together on the sofa, laughing at random TV shows, feeling like he had everything he could ever need.
“But you decided to break up?” Johnny pushed, urging him on.
His voice was heavier when he spoke again “Kame had warned us...he explained about what happened with him and Akanishi, and we were worried that if anyone found out we'd be forced to stop seeing each other, and we thought that it would be easier on us to just end things ourselves than to stay together and be forced apart later, when our feelings were stronger.”
“And that didn't work...” Johnny urged again.
“No...at first we were both really depressed and we kept going back to each other...but it was only making things harder, and I thought...I thought that if we tried not to be so close, it might...” he started, his voice cracking. “I thought we could stay away from each other...but it's worse.”
“Do you agree that the current situation is impossible to work in?”
He looked back to Ueda, thinking of the things that had happened between them, the fights, the cold words, the blood on the wall of the parking lot. The anger and hurt that he saw reflected back at him whenever he dared to look in Ueda's eyes. It was impossible. He broke down, tears flooding from his eyes as desperate sobs replaced his words.
He took a tissue from the box that Johnny offered to him, and he dabbed furiously at his eyes as he tried to calm himself enough to speak, and Johnny waited patiently until he could. “Don't let Uepi leave...let me go instead...I'm the one that's been causing so much trouble...it's my fault things are as they are...Uepi shouldn't be punished for this, please, let me quit instead...”
Ueda turned to him finally, surprise in his eyes, but clouded with something else, gratitude. “Junno, don't...it's ok...”
“It's not ok” he insisted “I've hurt you so much...the group too...”
“But Junno...” Ueda countered reaching out his hand for Taguchi's, but his words were interrupted by Johnny.
“Boys...” they both turned to him, and were surprised to find a small smile on Johnny's face. “I can see that you both still care about each other very much...” and they both nodded profusely. “That's good.” And with a long sigh he looked from their hands, still holding each other, back to their faces. “There is something I should explain to you, and then maybe again to Kame-chan since he clearly hasn't understood my intentions. I didn't stop him and Akanishi-kun from being together because I wouldn't allow a relationship between employees. I kept them apart for their own sakes.”
“What do you mean?” It was Ueda that asked first, but Taguchi had been thinking it too.
“Akanishi-kun has always been a loose canon. I don't hold anything against him, and I like him as a person. But when you've worked so closely with young men for as long as I have, you can usually tell how they are going to turn out from their personality. Akanishi-kun has always been loud and untame and a little selfish, I know very well what can happen when that kind of person is given the kind of attention and adoration that he seemed set to attain. Of course it was my intention to try and coach him through that...but you can see for yourselves what has become of him. He doesn't think about the consequences of his actions, or how it will affect those around him when there is something he wants badly enough...or even half-heartedly enough. And the relationship I saw between them was certainly not serious and whole-hearted...not from Akanishi-kun's side at least. Maybe it was selfish of me...but I didn't want to ruin the potential Kame-chan had by letting him be lead be Akanishi-kun and exposed to whatever Akanishi-kun's whims took hold of...I didn't want Kame-chan to get hurt, and to ruin his career over it, so I set a test for them. If their relationship really was strong enough to endure it...then I would have certainly given them my blessing, but you know yourselves how things turned out.”
“But Kame did get hurt...Akanishi lost interest in him...” Ueda protested.
“And how much worse do you think he would have been hurt if I'd allowed them to be together? Do you think Akanishi-kun would have been able to keep it secret? And what when the media caught hold of it? What when however many weeks, or months or years down the line...he moved onto the next thing that caught his eye...and lost interest then...how would Kame-chan feel then?”
It was a good point, Taguchi thought, but not the point of the conversation they were here to have. “But then...if you only kept them apart for reasons specific to them...”
The smile was coming back a little on Johnny's face “Really, Taguchi-kun, in the 50 years that I've been running a company based around handsome, talented boys...you think this is only the second time this kind of thing has happened?”
He couldn't help his mouth from gaping, but it seemed so obvious now, how could there not be others like them? “And in those cases...what happened?”
“That depends entirely on their role within the company...for those not in the spotlight, as it were, naturally it is a lot easier...for those, like yourselves, with a lot of media attention on them...it can be a little more difficult to handle.” Johnny replied.
“But there's a chance” Ueda chipped in anxiously “there's a chance that we could both stay in the group...and we could be together?”
“A chance” Johnny admitted “but there would be conditions...and naturally as the head of the company, my first priority is the welfare and image of the group...if your relationship would do nothing to jeopardise those, then maybe...”
He turned to Ueda at the same time Ueda turned to him, and the hope he was greeted with matched his own, for a moment, it was as though the last nine months hadn't happened.
“The most important things to ascertain first...are that the two of you want to be together badly enough to care about keeping to the conditions, and that the other members of your unit are ok with it.”
“We do...please...” it was Ueda's voice, small and desperate, and close to tears again.
“Please...” Taguchi chorused.
Johnny heaved a sigh. “Then I'd like the two of you to wait outside for a little while, so I can speak to the other members alone. As far as my office staff are aware, this meeting concerns a fight between the two of you...and one of the conditions to you staying in the group is that only a select few people know about you...so please act appropriately.”
Chapter 21 | Chapter 23
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly sorry for the late post...I started doing this a few hours ago but got totally distracted >_<
Secondly...I hope this lived up to everyones expectations of Johnny...at first when I wrote it, it kind of felt like I was trying to take the easy way out or something :( But it seemed like the solution that would work out best for everyone.
And thirdly...a little apology to Akame/Akanishi fans...this could be seen as bashing on them a little...but I don't mean it in that way...that's just the way the story fit together...
Pairing: JunDa
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2224
Disclaimer: All people mentioned belong only to themselves...aside from JunDa who clearly belong to each other.
Summary: In the fairy tales they fall in love and live happily ever after...but this isn't a fairy tale. How are two people, madly in love, supposed to stay away from each other?
22nd June 2013
Taguchi retreated back to his corner of the dance studio, and the others didn't protest, he was too shocked by what had happened to have responded if they had anyway. He didn't mean it, or rather he did, but he really was trying and he didn't mean for it to come out that way.
He took a swig of his water, his eyes returning immediately to the door, wishing Ueda would just walk back through it. From the corner of his eye he could see Kame talking to the choreographer, but soon they broke away and everyone turned to find somewhere to sit and wait.
The minutes passed and still Ueda didn't return. Eventually Maru stood and announced that he was going to go and search for the other man, he hadn't taken even his keys so there was little chance he was going home.
If Taguchi knew Ueda, and at some point he had, better than anyone else knew him, he'd be off finding something to punch until his anger left him, and then he would curl up in a sad little ball and wait for someone to find him.
His stomach gave a slight turn at the thought of Ueda hitting things, he hadn't missed the smears of red across the wall in the parking lot of his building that morning. Part of him had known, but it still hurt him just a little to see the confirmation wrapped around Ueda's knuckles in the form of bandages.
But his anger was just too much. He felt like crying, only tears wouldn't come, only insults and accusations, and bitter feelings, regrets. He felt like everything was building up inside just waiting to explode, like he was on course to self-destruct.
There was silence as they waited, but as the clock kept ticking, there was no sign of Ueda. Maru returned some fifteen minutes later, but he was alone, and the sad shake of his head was all the explanation they needed.
Still nobody spoke, though the choreographer sighed a few times, and then finally, the door creaked open. All heads turned to the door expectantly, but it was just a young boy, one of the juniors, that appeared.
“KAT-TUN-san” he almost squeaked. “Johnny-san asked me to come down and tell you that he would like to see you all in his office right away. ” and he ducked quickly back out of the room.
There was a collective gasp as they all turned to each other, fear in their eyes at the thought of what the head could possibly need to see them so desperately about, and so soon after Ueda had stormed out.
They barely spoke as they waited in the elevator, arriving in the administration offices too quickly, still dressed in their dance clothes.
“I'm sorry” Taguchi quickly blurted out as they headed towards Johnny's secretary. “What ever happens now is because of me...I'm really sorry guys.”
He almost wanted to cry again as a gentle hand rubbed soothingly at his shoulder “Let's not freak out until we know what is happening.” and Koki offered him a small smile.
“Ah, thank you for coming” Johnny's secretary said, her voice entirely too cheery to fit the situation. “Taguchi-kun, he'd like to see you first, if the rest of you could please take a seat for a moment.” And with a quick smile she turned back to her computer screen.
He gave the other members a hopeful smile that didn't give him any courage at all, and then he took a deep breath before knocking on the office door.
When he entered, Ueda was sat facing an exhausted looking Johnny, only his head was down, staring intently at the floor as he sniffled and dabbed intermittently at his cheeks.
“Please take a seat” Johnny almost sighed, and he waited until Taguchi had sat down in the empty chair beside Ueda before continuing. “There seems to be problem...I assume you've figured out already why you're here?”
Taguchi swallowed hard, and slowly he shook his head. Of course he knew that Ueda must have come to Johnny and told him of their argument, but he didn't know if that was the extent of their conversation.
“Ueda-kun has come to me requesting to quit the agency.”
Even despite Ueda's words, Taguchi didn't believe that Ueda would possibly sink to this level, that he would actually try and stop their work together, to break the group apart. “Uepi...why?” he gasped.
“He has explained to me that, through fault of your own, the relationship between you two has become...complicated, uncomfortable to the point that Ueda-kun feels he can no longer work with you under the current conditions.”
“What...Uepi...no, don't....” he whispered turning his attention to Ueda. “Uepi, please...I didn't meant it, we can work something out...don't leave...” but when Ueda showed no signs of responding he turned back to Johnny “Please...you're not going to let him quit?”
“Ultimately, the decision isn't mine to make. I can't force Ueda-kun to work here against his will. Though obviously, it would work in my favour to find some other agreement.”
“I'll do anything...” Taguchi responded quickly, clinging to the hope that there is some other answer to their situation.
“Hhhmm” Johnny began, regarding the two of them carefully. “Taguchi-kun, can I please have your account of things...” and when Taguchi turned to Ueda he quickly added “You don't need to confer, Ueda-kun has already made his feelings clear, I would like to hear your side of the story.”
“Last year...” he began uncertainly. “In March...we were away on tour and there was a mix up with rooms, and we ended up sharing a room...” he glanced at Ueda, looking for any sign that he was giving away too much, but Ueda was as unresponsive as ever. He turned instead to Johnny, but his expression was just as unreadable. “We were drinking...and things got...we ended up sleeping together...”
“Having sexual intercourse?” Johnny clarfied.
“Yes” Taguchi confirmed, the words making him feel a little uneasy. “After that we kind of...just, kept...letting it happen...but then, without us even noticing we started to develop feelings for each other...I guess we must have known for some time, deep down, but by the time we finally admitted our feelings, we'd already fallen in love.”
He could feel a lump rising in his throat, the memories of it all coming back, not just the bitter ones of feeling their love but not being able to be together, but the simpler times, nights curled up together on the sofa, laughing at random TV shows, feeling like he had everything he could ever need.
“But you decided to break up?” Johnny pushed, urging him on.
His voice was heavier when he spoke again “Kame had warned us...he explained about what happened with him and Akanishi, and we were worried that if anyone found out we'd be forced to stop seeing each other, and we thought that it would be easier on us to just end things ourselves than to stay together and be forced apart later, when our feelings were stronger.”
“And that didn't work...” Johnny urged again.
“No...at first we were both really depressed and we kept going back to each other...but it was only making things harder, and I thought...I thought that if we tried not to be so close, it might...” he started, his voice cracking. “I thought we could stay away from each other...but it's worse.”
“Do you agree that the current situation is impossible to work in?”
He looked back to Ueda, thinking of the things that had happened between them, the fights, the cold words, the blood on the wall of the parking lot. The anger and hurt that he saw reflected back at him whenever he dared to look in Ueda's eyes. It was impossible. He broke down, tears flooding from his eyes as desperate sobs replaced his words.
He took a tissue from the box that Johnny offered to him, and he dabbed furiously at his eyes as he tried to calm himself enough to speak, and Johnny waited patiently until he could. “Don't let Uepi leave...let me go instead...I'm the one that's been causing so much trouble...it's my fault things are as they are...Uepi shouldn't be punished for this, please, let me quit instead...”
Ueda turned to him finally, surprise in his eyes, but clouded with something else, gratitude. “Junno, don't...it's ok...”
“It's not ok” he insisted “I've hurt you so much...the group too...”
“But Junno...” Ueda countered reaching out his hand for Taguchi's, but his words were interrupted by Johnny.
“Boys...” they both turned to him, and were surprised to find a small smile on Johnny's face. “I can see that you both still care about each other very much...” and they both nodded profusely. “That's good.” And with a long sigh he looked from their hands, still holding each other, back to their faces. “There is something I should explain to you, and then maybe again to Kame-chan since he clearly hasn't understood my intentions. I didn't stop him and Akanishi-kun from being together because I wouldn't allow a relationship between employees. I kept them apart for their own sakes.”
“What do you mean?” It was Ueda that asked first, but Taguchi had been thinking it too.
“Akanishi-kun has always been a loose canon. I don't hold anything against him, and I like him as a person. But when you've worked so closely with young men for as long as I have, you can usually tell how they are going to turn out from their personality. Akanishi-kun has always been loud and untame and a little selfish, I know very well what can happen when that kind of person is given the kind of attention and adoration that he seemed set to attain. Of course it was my intention to try and coach him through that...but you can see for yourselves what has become of him. He doesn't think about the consequences of his actions, or how it will affect those around him when there is something he wants badly enough...or even half-heartedly enough. And the relationship I saw between them was certainly not serious and whole-hearted...not from Akanishi-kun's side at least. Maybe it was selfish of me...but I didn't want to ruin the potential Kame-chan had by letting him be lead be Akanishi-kun and exposed to whatever Akanishi-kun's whims took hold of...I didn't want Kame-chan to get hurt, and to ruin his career over it, so I set a test for them. If their relationship really was strong enough to endure it...then I would have certainly given them my blessing, but you know yourselves how things turned out.”
“But Kame did get hurt...Akanishi lost interest in him...” Ueda protested.
“And how much worse do you think he would have been hurt if I'd allowed them to be together? Do you think Akanishi-kun would have been able to keep it secret? And what when the media caught hold of it? What when however many weeks, or months or years down the line...he moved onto the next thing that caught his eye...and lost interest then...how would Kame-chan feel then?”
It was a good point, Taguchi thought, but not the point of the conversation they were here to have. “But then...if you only kept them apart for reasons specific to them...”
The smile was coming back a little on Johnny's face “Really, Taguchi-kun, in the 50 years that I've been running a company based around handsome, talented boys...you think this is only the second time this kind of thing has happened?”
He couldn't help his mouth from gaping, but it seemed so obvious now, how could there not be others like them? “And in those cases...what happened?”
“That depends entirely on their role within the company...for those not in the spotlight, as it were, naturally it is a lot easier...for those, like yourselves, with a lot of media attention on them...it can be a little more difficult to handle.” Johnny replied.
“But there's a chance” Ueda chipped in anxiously “there's a chance that we could both stay in the group...and we could be together?”
“A chance” Johnny admitted “but there would be conditions...and naturally as the head of the company, my first priority is the welfare and image of the group...if your relationship would do nothing to jeopardise those, then maybe...”
He turned to Ueda at the same time Ueda turned to him, and the hope he was greeted with matched his own, for a moment, it was as though the last nine months hadn't happened.
“The most important things to ascertain first...are that the two of you want to be together badly enough to care about keeping to the conditions, and that the other members of your unit are ok with it.”
“We do...please...” it was Ueda's voice, small and desperate, and close to tears again.
“Please...” Taguchi chorused.
Johnny heaved a sigh. “Then I'd like the two of you to wait outside for a little while, so I can speak to the other members alone. As far as my office staff are aware, this meeting concerns a fight between the two of you...and one of the conditions to you staying in the group is that only a select few people know about you...so please act appropriately.”
Chapter 21 | Chapter 23
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly sorry for the late post...I started doing this a few hours ago but got totally distracted >_<
Secondly...I hope this lived up to everyones expectations of Johnny...at first when I wrote it, it kind of felt like I was trying to take the easy way out or something :( But it seemed like the solution that would work out best for everyone.
And thirdly...a little apology to Akame/Akanishi fans...this could be seen as bashing on them a little...but I don't mean it in that way...that's just the way the story fit together...