And Another Door Opens
The Family?!:
tinyangl, 2148 words
Note: In which I fail. I mean, in which I have to make names for Maki's sister because this is Tegomass meets Maki's family. (Except I sidestep the actual meeting cleverly plus an omake of Maki talking to Yamapi about him meeting her family. Fun.) Also known as in which I really break borders by writing an over 2000 fic for this universe.
Maki thinks it's a sad day when her phone rings and she knows it's from her mother and her first reaction is to run and ignore it. She contemplates just letting it ring, but after the third ring, she reluctantly picks it up. She greets out of habit and she almost flinches when she hears her mother's bubbly voice back, "Maki!" In the background, she can hear the tittering of her two younger sisters and instantly she knows this is going to be trouble.
"Mom! How's the family? Is everyone healthy?" Maki asks, as though she hadn't talked to her mother three days ago before the news had broken. "I hope you're feeling better. You were sniffling a little last time."
Before her mom can answer Maki's questions, she shhs the girls then quickly replying. "Good. Fine. I'm better, dear, thank you." There's about a second of silence before, "What's Tegomassuki?"
Maki's first thought is that she's not sure she can sum up all of Tegomassuki in the timespan of a day. But she figures that what she wants to say isn't quite what her mom wants from her. "An entertainment group," Maki says instead, twirling the cord connecting her phone to its stand. "I'm a part of it."
"Dear. It's a Johnny's group, right?" her mom asks pointedly and Maki knows where this is going.
She slumps into a nearby chair, sighing lightly as she says, "Yes it is."
"And Johnny's has had a history of having boybands." She can hear the giggling of her sisters grow louder in the background and she's glad that she's not in the same room as them right now, because Maki's not sure she could have dealt with them right now.
"That is true," Maki states, now twirling a strand of her still short hair in front of her lazily.
"So what's this news about you being part of a Johnny's group?" her mom asks, straight to the point like Maki is used to.
"Well," Maki starts; she's sure her mom doesn't want her to say something as simple as "because I can" or "I was dared to" so she opts for a simple, "they wanted to make a change." She can just see her mom nodding at the phone, as though Maki can see her nodding. "It was a surprise to me too," Maki says, hoping it'll calm her mom's nerves down.
"I don't like the idea of you working around all those..." There's a pause here before her mom continues, "boys. It's not decent for a girl your age." The giggles erupt into laughter and Maki rubs at her forehead to ease the pounding. She thought she'd be used to the sound of their giggles, but being away has obviously lessened her immunity.
"Mom," Maki starts to argue, but her mom cuts her off.
"I want to meet these boys you work with. Have them over for dinner tomorrow," her mom says sternly.
"Wha-wait a minute!" Maki exclaims, jumping up in her chair. "We have rehearsals!" She's not actually sure if they do, but the words had spilled out of her mouth out of reflex before she could help it.
"Well, come by when you're done. Just call to let us know the time and I'll have dinner prepared by then and we can meet your bandmates," her mom commands and Maki finds herself nodding, albeit reluctantly. She hears the phone getting switched over and one of her sister grabs the phone.
"Maki-neechan!" It's the youngest (13 years old to be specific) and the sound of her little sister suddenly makes her want to go home then and there. "Ne, Maki-neechan, I'm really excited to see you!"
Maki chuckles lightly, "I'm excited to see you too, Mimi. You're doing well in school, right?"
"Unn!" her sister says enthusiastically and then Maki hears another shuffle and she assumes her other sister has grabbed the phone. "Maki-neechan," the 17-year-old says, and Maki's grin only gets wider. "If you could get Yamapi to come too, that'd be great."
Maki sputters into the phone, "Naru! What are you talking about?!" She half wonders if there's been any rumors about her dating Yamapi, but she pushes that away. If there had been, she would have definitely been the first to know.
She can just see the pout on her sister's face. "Well, you know him well from all your acting projects. And he is in a band with your group members. ...I don't think it's far-fetched of an idea to invite him over to dinner too." Naru yelps and for a second there, Maki wonder what happens before the phone is passed along.
"One thing at a time, Maki." Her mom comes back, and sighs, "We'll deal with these bandmates of yours first." Maki nods and surprisingly her mom seems to know. "I'll see you tomorrow then." Maki hangs up the phone and then plops back onto her chair, a hand in her hair as she wonders just how she's going to convince her bandmates to come over for dinner.
~
In truth, it takes no time to convince the two. Tegoshi's more than happy to meet Maki's family and then ponders how he'll introduce her to his family which leads her to get another headache and plead with him that that'll come sometime in the far future. Massu perks up at the idea of free food and when Maki assures Massu that her mother's a much better cook that she is (although she takes offense at how fast Massu's reaction speed was), he tells her that he very much approves.
And that's how Maki finds herself with Tegomass in tow in front of her house - the same house she had been brought up in for years before she moved out a year ago (despite her parents' protests). Her hand is positioned right above the doorbell and her heart is beating so fast that she wonders why nobody seems to be coming to door, thinking that it's a knock. She suddenly thinks that this is a bad idea. Her parents won't like Tegoshi or Massu (which would probably be the world's biggest miracle) and her sisters will make her look bad and Tegoshi and Massu will think she's crazy or something along those lines.
Then the bell rings and she looks over to see Massu's smiling face. "I thought you'd need a little push," he says in a voice that lets her know that he understands and that she isn't doing this alone. She hears Tegoshi fretting a second later, wondering if he'll make a good impression and reminding himself to be polite and does his hair look good? She gives a little chuckle before the door opens and her mom's standing there, looking like home and Maki doesn't give a second thought to if this night'll go good.
She's positive it will.
~
"Make sure you try that heat that up when you get home! I'm sure your parents will like it a lot, Tegoshi-kun," Maki's mom reminds before waving at the departing boys. Maki had opted to stay home for the evening, instead of trudging to her own home. She waves bye to the boys and stays standing at the doorstep, watching as they chat animatedly to each other. She smiles woefully at her best friends before stepping back into her home.
When she turns to find her entire family standing right behind her (minus Naru who was sitting by the couches, looking at them all with a look of exasperation), Maki can't help but jump. "Wha?"
"Tegoshi-kun's quite the cutie, isn't he?" Maki's mom says, beaming at Maki. There's a twinkle in her eye that Maki can't quite understand, but she suspects enough.
Maki coughs. "Well, I never thought of him that way, mom. He's my best friend."
Her dad pipes up, "I think Masuda-kun's a stand-up boy. He seems dependable."
Maki raises an eyebrow. She suddenly feels trapped against the door. "Massu's very dependable, dad. It's one of his best traits."
"Tegoshi-niichan was lots of fun, Maki-neechan!" Mimi says next and Maki realizes where this is going.
"Guys... They're my friends. I am not going to date them!" she exclaims, slightly horrified at the thought (ignoring the fact that she was dating Yamapi at the moment).
Naru snorts from the couch. "I told you guys that she's not interested in them." She looks at Maki pointedly, "I think you should invite Yamashita-kun next." Maki flushes without intending to, and they all catch it.
"Maki, who's Yamashita-kun?" her mom asks, almost dangerously and Maki has to gulp to breathe through all the tension.
It's Naru who answers as Maki finds herself shrinking under her mom's gaze, "He's one of her co-stars. Repeatedly too. Rumor has it that they're dating."
Maki chuckles awkwardly. "Well, tonight was a success," she says, changing topics. "I think I'll turn in. Lots of work tomorrow!" Her voice is high pitched and awkward and she knows it, but she still hopes foolishly that they don't notice. She pushes past her family members and runs towards her room, relieved when she enters and nobody has followed her. She's still leaning against her door when someone knocks. "Who is it?" Maki calls.
"Invite Yamashita-kun next time, okay? And bring Tegoshi-kun and Masuda-kun along with him. It'd be great to see them again," her mom says almost commandingly and Maki has to resist from groaning loudly since it'd call her mom's attention.
Convincing Tegomass was easy, but how could she ever convince Yamapi?
Omake:
Tegoshi's suggestion was to "Tell him it's a date and then surprise him when you arrive at the door!"
Maki rolls her eyes, "He'll never talk to me after that."
He pouts, "Yamashita-kun wouldn't react that strongly."
Massu shakes his head, "He wouldn't, but he definitely wouldn't appreciate it."
Maki groans, "You guys are supposed to help me!" She leans over, laying her head against the table and her head is reeling.
"You could always just tell him like you did us," Massu suggests. Maki gives him a look and he quickly retracts, "No, you're right. It probably wouldn't be as easy."
"Yamashita-kun! Ano, any chance you're free next Friday?" Maki and Massu's heads quickly turn to Tegoshi who's on his cell phone.
"Tegoshi, no!" Maki hisses, jumping forward to grab the cell phone. Tegoshi pulls back, grinning cheekily at Maki.
"Maki-chan would like to ask you something," Tegoshi says and once he does, he pushes the phone into Maki's hands. "He's waiting, Maki-chan~"
Maki vows that she'll do something extremely evil to Tegoshi as soon as she hangs up, but first, she puts the phone to her ear and breathes.
"Maki-chan?" Yamapi's voice filters and Maki has to stop herself from hanging up and running. "What's up?"
"My parents want to meet you," Maki blurts out unintentionally, but the words are said and left in the air. She can hear Yamapi breathing and then there's this gap of silence that makes Maki believe that while she couldn't hang up, maybe he could.
"I'd like that," he says instead and Maki lets out a breath.
"You would?" She's half cradling the phone against her face and she can hear Tegoshi's amused giggle behind him and Massu's attempts to silence him, but nothing matters.
"Yeah, that'd be nice," he breathes, "Next Friday, ne?"
She nods before realizing that Yamapi can't actually see her, "Yeah. Next Friday."
"I'll see you then, Maki-chan," he says in a low tone and Maki can't help but shiver.
Maki nods again, before murmuring, "I'll see you then." She hangs up the phone and stares at it for a few seconds before she looks up at Massu and Tegoshi. Her face goes from happy and woeful to murderous and glaring.
Tegoshi discreetly elbows Massu, "Does she look like she wants to kill us, or is it just me?"
Massu looks at Tegoshi sideways before pushing him slightly, "Not us. You."
Tegoshi squeaks as Maki immediately takes a random piece of paper from the table, crumples it up and throws it at him.
"I can't believe you called him!" she cries, throwing another ball of paper.
He protests, hiding his face with his hands, "It worked, didn't it?!"
"Never mind that! You shouldn't have called him in the first place!"
It's left silent for a few seconds before Massu stops Maki. "Maa, maa. What's done is done, ne, Maki-chan?"
She huffs before sitting back in her chair, pouting a little as she crosses her arms.
Tegoshi slowly comes out of hiding, pouting at Maki as well. "I'm-"
"It's fine," she interrupts and Massu shakes his head as he wonders how he deals with these two day in and day out.
"But-"
"It's fine," she insists and when Massu clears his throat, she adds on, "I appreciate it."
Tegoshi grins at her brightly and Maki can't help but feel her irritation be wiped away. Maki sighs; she had to admit that it did work, and Tegoshi had the best intentions. She feels a paper ball hit her and when she turns to glare at Tegoshi, he only gives her a look of innocence. At least this idea had worked is all she's thankful of.
tinyangl, 2148 words
Note: In which I fail. I mean, in which I have to make names for Maki's sister because this is Tegomass meets Maki's family. (Except I sidestep the actual meeting cleverly plus an omake of Maki talking to Yamapi about him meeting her family. Fun.) Also known as in which I really break borders by writing an over 2000 fic for this universe.
Maki thinks it's a sad day when her phone rings and she knows it's from her mother and her first reaction is to run and ignore it. She contemplates just letting it ring, but after the third ring, she reluctantly picks it up. She greets out of habit and she almost flinches when she hears her mother's bubbly voice back, "Maki!" In the background, she can hear the tittering of her two younger sisters and instantly she knows this is going to be trouble.
"Mom! How's the family? Is everyone healthy?" Maki asks, as though she hadn't talked to her mother three days ago before the news had broken. "I hope you're feeling better. You were sniffling a little last time."
Before her mom can answer Maki's questions, she shhs the girls then quickly replying. "Good. Fine. I'm better, dear, thank you." There's about a second of silence before, "What's Tegomassuki?"
Maki's first thought is that she's not sure she can sum up all of Tegomassuki in the timespan of a day. But she figures that what she wants to say isn't quite what her mom wants from her. "An entertainment group," Maki says instead, twirling the cord connecting her phone to its stand. "I'm a part of it."
"Dear. It's a Johnny's group, right?" her mom asks pointedly and Maki knows where this is going.
She slumps into a nearby chair, sighing lightly as she says, "Yes it is."
"And Johnny's has had a history of having boybands." She can hear the giggling of her sisters grow louder in the background and she's glad that she's not in the same room as them right now, because Maki's not sure she could have dealt with them right now.
"That is true," Maki states, now twirling a strand of her still short hair in front of her lazily.
"So what's this news about you being part of a Johnny's group?" her mom asks, straight to the point like Maki is used to.
"Well," Maki starts; she's sure her mom doesn't want her to say something as simple as "because I can" or "I was dared to" so she opts for a simple, "they wanted to make a change." She can just see her mom nodding at the phone, as though Maki can see her nodding. "It was a surprise to me too," Maki says, hoping it'll calm her mom's nerves down.
"I don't like the idea of you working around all those..." There's a pause here before her mom continues, "boys. It's not decent for a girl your age." The giggles erupt into laughter and Maki rubs at her forehead to ease the pounding. She thought she'd be used to the sound of their giggles, but being away has obviously lessened her immunity.
"Mom," Maki starts to argue, but her mom cuts her off.
"I want to meet these boys you work with. Have them over for dinner tomorrow," her mom says sternly.
"Wha-wait a minute!" Maki exclaims, jumping up in her chair. "We have rehearsals!" She's not actually sure if they do, but the words had spilled out of her mouth out of reflex before she could help it.
"Well, come by when you're done. Just call to let us know the time and I'll have dinner prepared by then and we can meet your bandmates," her mom commands and Maki finds herself nodding, albeit reluctantly. She hears the phone getting switched over and one of her sister grabs the phone.
"Maki-neechan!" It's the youngest (13 years old to be specific) and the sound of her little sister suddenly makes her want to go home then and there. "Ne, Maki-neechan, I'm really excited to see you!"
Maki chuckles lightly, "I'm excited to see you too, Mimi. You're doing well in school, right?"
"Unn!" her sister says enthusiastically and then Maki hears another shuffle and she assumes her other sister has grabbed the phone. "Maki-neechan," the 17-year-old says, and Maki's grin only gets wider. "If you could get Yamapi to come too, that'd be great."
Maki sputters into the phone, "Naru! What are you talking about?!" She half wonders if there's been any rumors about her dating Yamapi, but she pushes that away. If there had been, she would have definitely been the first to know.
She can just see the pout on her sister's face. "Well, you know him well from all your acting projects. And he is in a band with your group members. ...I don't think it's far-fetched of an idea to invite him over to dinner too." Naru yelps and for a second there, Maki wonder what happens before the phone is passed along.
"One thing at a time, Maki." Her mom comes back, and sighs, "We'll deal with these bandmates of yours first." Maki nods and surprisingly her mom seems to know. "I'll see you tomorrow then." Maki hangs up the phone and then plops back onto her chair, a hand in her hair as she wonders just how she's going to convince her bandmates to come over for dinner.
~
In truth, it takes no time to convince the two. Tegoshi's more than happy to meet Maki's family and then ponders how he'll introduce her to his family which leads her to get another headache and plead with him that that'll come sometime in the far future. Massu perks up at the idea of free food and when Maki assures Massu that her mother's a much better cook that she is (although she takes offense at how fast Massu's reaction speed was), he tells her that he very much approves.
And that's how Maki finds herself with Tegomass in tow in front of her house - the same house she had been brought up in for years before she moved out a year ago (despite her parents' protests). Her hand is positioned right above the doorbell and her heart is beating so fast that she wonders why nobody seems to be coming to door, thinking that it's a knock. She suddenly thinks that this is a bad idea. Her parents won't like Tegoshi or Massu (which would probably be the world's biggest miracle) and her sisters will make her look bad and Tegoshi and Massu will think she's crazy or something along those lines.
Then the bell rings and she looks over to see Massu's smiling face. "I thought you'd need a little push," he says in a voice that lets her know that he understands and that she isn't doing this alone. She hears Tegoshi fretting a second later, wondering if he'll make a good impression and reminding himself to be polite and does his hair look good? She gives a little chuckle before the door opens and her mom's standing there, looking like home and Maki doesn't give a second thought to if this night'll go good.
She's positive it will.
~
"Make sure you try that heat that up when you get home! I'm sure your parents will like it a lot, Tegoshi-kun," Maki's mom reminds before waving at the departing boys. Maki had opted to stay home for the evening, instead of trudging to her own home. She waves bye to the boys and stays standing at the doorstep, watching as they chat animatedly to each other. She smiles woefully at her best friends before stepping back into her home.
When she turns to find her entire family standing right behind her (minus Naru who was sitting by the couches, looking at them all with a look of exasperation), Maki can't help but jump. "Wha?"
"Tegoshi-kun's quite the cutie, isn't he?" Maki's mom says, beaming at Maki. There's a twinkle in her eye that Maki can't quite understand, but she suspects enough.
Maki coughs. "Well, I never thought of him that way, mom. He's my best friend."
Her dad pipes up, "I think Masuda-kun's a stand-up boy. He seems dependable."
Maki raises an eyebrow. She suddenly feels trapped against the door. "Massu's very dependable, dad. It's one of his best traits."
"Tegoshi-niichan was lots of fun, Maki-neechan!" Mimi says next and Maki realizes where this is going.
"Guys... They're my friends. I am not going to date them!" she exclaims, slightly horrified at the thought (ignoring the fact that she was dating Yamapi at the moment).
Naru snorts from the couch. "I told you guys that she's not interested in them." She looks at Maki pointedly, "I think you should invite Yamashita-kun next." Maki flushes without intending to, and they all catch it.
"Maki, who's Yamashita-kun?" her mom asks, almost dangerously and Maki has to gulp to breathe through all the tension.
It's Naru who answers as Maki finds herself shrinking under her mom's gaze, "He's one of her co-stars. Repeatedly too. Rumor has it that they're dating."
Maki chuckles awkwardly. "Well, tonight was a success," she says, changing topics. "I think I'll turn in. Lots of work tomorrow!" Her voice is high pitched and awkward and she knows it, but she still hopes foolishly that they don't notice. She pushes past her family members and runs towards her room, relieved when she enters and nobody has followed her. She's still leaning against her door when someone knocks. "Who is it?" Maki calls.
"Invite Yamashita-kun next time, okay? And bring Tegoshi-kun and Masuda-kun along with him. It'd be great to see them again," her mom says almost commandingly and Maki has to resist from groaning loudly since it'd call her mom's attention.
Convincing Tegomass was easy, but how could she ever convince Yamapi?
Omake:
Tegoshi's suggestion was to "Tell him it's a date and then surprise him when you arrive at the door!"
Maki rolls her eyes, "He'll never talk to me after that."
He pouts, "Yamashita-kun wouldn't react that strongly."
Massu shakes his head, "He wouldn't, but he definitely wouldn't appreciate it."
Maki groans, "You guys are supposed to help me!" She leans over, laying her head against the table and her head is reeling.
"You could always just tell him like you did us," Massu suggests. Maki gives him a look and he quickly retracts, "No, you're right. It probably wouldn't be as easy."
"Yamashita-kun! Ano, any chance you're free next Friday?" Maki and Massu's heads quickly turn to Tegoshi who's on his cell phone.
"Tegoshi, no!" Maki hisses, jumping forward to grab the cell phone. Tegoshi pulls back, grinning cheekily at Maki.
"Maki-chan would like to ask you something," Tegoshi says and once he does, he pushes the phone into Maki's hands. "He's waiting, Maki-chan~"
Maki vows that she'll do something extremely evil to Tegoshi as soon as she hangs up, but first, she puts the phone to her ear and breathes.
"Maki-chan?" Yamapi's voice filters and Maki has to stop herself from hanging up and running. "What's up?"
"My parents want to meet you," Maki blurts out unintentionally, but the words are said and left in the air. She can hear Yamapi breathing and then there's this gap of silence that makes Maki believe that while she couldn't hang up, maybe he could.
"I'd like that," he says instead and Maki lets out a breath.
"You would?" She's half cradling the phone against her face and she can hear Tegoshi's amused giggle behind him and Massu's attempts to silence him, but nothing matters.
"Yeah, that'd be nice," he breathes, "Next Friday, ne?"
She nods before realizing that Yamapi can't actually see her, "Yeah. Next Friday."
"I'll see you then, Maki-chan," he says in a low tone and Maki can't help but shiver.
Maki nods again, before murmuring, "I'll see you then." She hangs up the phone and stares at it for a few seconds before she looks up at Massu and Tegoshi. Her face goes from happy and woeful to murderous and glaring.
Tegoshi discreetly elbows Massu, "Does she look like she wants to kill us, or is it just me?"
Massu looks at Tegoshi sideways before pushing him slightly, "Not us. You."
Tegoshi squeaks as Maki immediately takes a random piece of paper from the table, crumples it up and throws it at him.
"I can't believe you called him!" she cries, throwing another ball of paper.
He protests, hiding his face with his hands, "It worked, didn't it?!"
"Never mind that! You shouldn't have called him in the first place!"
It's left silent for a few seconds before Massu stops Maki. "Maa, maa. What's done is done, ne, Maki-chan?"
She huffs before sitting back in her chair, pouting a little as she crosses her arms.
Tegoshi slowly comes out of hiding, pouting at Maki as well. "I'm-"
"It's fine," she interrupts and Massu shakes his head as he wonders how he deals with these two day in and day out.
"But-"
"It's fine," she insists and when Massu clears his throat, she adds on, "I appreciate it."
Tegoshi grins at her brightly and Maki can't help but feel her irritation be wiped away. Maki sighs; she had to admit that it did work, and Tegoshi had the best intentions. She feels a paper ball hit her and when she turns to glare at Tegoshi, he only gives her a look of innocence. At least this idea had worked is all she's thankful of.