Lips of the Tiger
Title: Lips of the Tiger
Pairing/Characters: Massu/various; see prompt
Rating/Warnings: PG for lip-locking
Prompt: # 90. Massu is dared to kiss everyone in J&A born the same year as him.
A/N: This was too easy to write. Thank you to this post for existing.
Normally Truth or Dare is reserved for teenage girls at a slumber party, but with the amount of eyeliner Tegoshi is wearing and the curlers Koyama has in his hair, this may as well be the same thing.
“Dare,” Massu answers, because he knows better than to answer Truth with these guys. He’d rather do something embarrassing than confess any of his secrets.
“I dare you to kiss everyone in the agency born the same year as you,” Shige declares.
“That’s no fun!” Tegoshi exclaims, pouting to enhance his raccoon eyes. “None of us are born the same year as him.”
“Real kisses,” Shige reiterates. “On the mouth.”
Massu wrinkles his nose, trying to recall who all is on this all-exclusive list. All he remembers is Kamenashi and Uchi, just because they’d worn hakama on Countdown together three years ago. “Whatever.”
“That’s not a very Shige-like dare,” Koyama comments from where he’s lounged on the couch, overly tanned and just as drunk.
“Thought I’d try something new," Shige says with a shrug. "Weren't you the one getting on my case about being predictable?"
“You know,” Tegoshi says, scooting closer to Shige. “If anyone were to dare you to do that, you’d have to kiss me.”
“You say that like it would be the first time,” Shige says dryly, and Koyama giggle-snorts into his fist. “Fujigaya-kun would be worth it, I’d think.”
“Oh, he is,” Tegoshi assures him.
Massu freezes as he remembers which Kisumai member is an ‘86er. “Crap. I’m going to have to kiss Yokoo-kun.”
“Ooh,” Koyama says, cringing a little. “Good luck with that one. That guy’s mouth is like Fort Knox.”
“I heard he’s straight,” Tegoshi hisses, like it’s something scandalous.
Massu sets his jaw and pumps his fist into the air. “I’ll do my best!”
“If you lose, you have to buy us all dinner,” Shige speaks up. “An expensive one.”
“I won’t lose,” Massu says, determined to succeed. “These lips will rise to the challenge.”
*
As far as kissing boys goes, Massu’s no more of a stranger to it than anyone else, but it’s still awkward to approach his colleagues about it. Shige had decided it would be too easy if Massu could tell them about the dare, so he wasn’t allowed to mention it. He’s free to say that he wants a kiss, but that’s not really his style.
It’s not his style to just grab someone by the collar and plant one on them either, but it works out well enough for his first conquest. Then again, it doesn’t take much to get Uchi to kiss anyone. Massu puts more effort into stopping him than starting it, though he doesn’t mind the softness of Uchi’s lips one bit.
“Hello to you too,” Uchi says, a little breathless as he blinks at Massu in his doorway. “Did you lose a bet?”
“A dare,” Massu answers. “I have to kiss everyone in the agency born the same year as us.”
“Was I first?” Uchi asks, then grins when Massu nods. “Yes!”
Massu laughs and shoves his hands into his pockets. “You wouldn’t happen to hang out with Kamenashi-kun anymore, would you?”
“Hang out with?” Uchi repeats with a scoff. “Honey, I have a key to his apartment. Let’s go.”
Kame’s not home when they get there, but Uchi doesn’t seem bothered with letting them both in and waiting for him. Likewise, Kame isn’t surprised to see Uchi draped all over his couch when he gets back, though Massu’s presence earns a raised eyebrow.
“You look exhausted, Kame-chan,” Uchi says a little too loudly, and Massu rolls his eyes at how obvious the other man is being. “Massu, you should help him relax.”
“Rehearsing for an AV movie audition?” Kame asks sarcastically, eyeing Massu as the latter makes his way over to him. “Yes?”
“Kamenashi-kun,” Massu starts, channeling all of his acting skills and resenting his reel of mainly dumb character roles. “I really want to kiss you.”
Kame blinks. “Really?”
Nodding, Massu bites his lip and tries to look nervous. It ends up not being very difficult under Kame’s careful scrutiny, like he was sizing Massu up and determining whether he was worthy of a kiss.
“Okay, but let me brush my teeth first,” Kame finally says, patting Massu on the shoulder before disappearing into a back room. Massu freshens up with his own breath spray while water runs in the distance, then Kame returns all smiles. “Okay.”
Now Massu gets to see what it’s like on the other side, when he’s the one grabbed by the face and kissed, rather passionately even. It’s like Kame’s trying to win him over with his kiss; to his knowledge, Massu doesn’t have any feelings for him, yet he’s already falling victim to Kame’s mouth, hot and minty fresh.
“Damn,” he whispers when they finally break apart, Uchi’s catcalls in the near distance.
Kame just grins and gives him another pat on the shoulder. “You’re welcome.”
*
Collectively, ABC-Z’s grins are a bit scary, but Massu’s walked into worse lion’s dens in his time with this agency. He supposes he should be grateful that everyone in Arashi is older than him.
“To what do we owe this honor, senpai?” Hasshi asks, everything about his voice and appearance dripping with sexual innuendo, and Massu-like just about everyone else in the world-curses Hasshi’s parents for waiting so long to have him.
“I’m going to kiss two of you,” Massu announces, and four pairs of eyes light up (Goseki looks skeptical). “My two favorite.”
“Well,” Hasshi says haughtily, then puckers up expectantly.
“Sorry, Hashimoto-kun,” Massu tells him gently, though he considers amending his total to three when he sees the pout form on Hasshi’s mouth. “Totsuka-kun?”
Tottsu’s face brightens even more and he closes his eyes, lifting his chin invitingly, and Massu shrugs before leaning down to kiss him. It’s slow and sweet, nothing like kissing Uchi or Kame, and Massu tilts his head a little to feel more of Tottsu’s lips against his.
“Mmm~” Tottsu hums when they pull apart. “Please come by and do that anytime, senpai.”
Massu should probably take a break between kisses, or at least open his eyes, but Tsukada is sitting right next to Tottsu and it’s easier just to swing his head around and capture his lips. Tsukada gives a little squeak of surprise, but then his arms are wrapped around Massu’s neck and Massu’s the one who jerks when he feels a tongue flick into his mouth.
“Tsuka-chan is a Frencher,” Kawai says needlessly, his voice seeming to swim in the very back of Massu’s mushy brain. “I would have warned you if I had known.”
Very, very reluctantly, Massu untangles his tongue from Tsukada’s and leans back, clearing his throat in an attempt to clear his mind. “Shige dared me to kiss everyone in the agency who was born in the same year as me.”
“Oh,” Hasshi says, looking much happier now that he knows this information. “Of course I’m not Massu-senpai’s third favorite!”
Tottsu frowns in thought. “There’s us, Kamenashi-kun…um…”
“Uchi,” Goseki supplies, “but he’s easy.”
“Yeah, I got him first.” Massu licks his lips. “There’s only one left.”
Kawai gasps first, meeting Massu’s eyes. “Yokoo.”
“Oh man,” Tottsu says. “Good luck.”
“I haven’t even kissed him,” Hasshi says with big eyes.
“Any suggestions?” Massu asks the room as a whole.
“Not unless you want to make a lot of effort,” Kawai tells him. “He won’t fall for any tricks, either. Maybe if you told him it was a dare, he’d humor you?”
“I’m not allowed to say it,” Massu says sadly. “What kind of effort are we talking?”
“A lot,” Kawai emphasizes. “Like to the point of courting him into wanting to kiss you.”
“Like Ariel from ‘The Little Mermaid’?” Hasshi inquires. “Can we swim alongside you and sing ‘Kiss the Boy’?”
Goseki swats him in the back of the head while Massu frowns at that mental image. “You mean I have to pretend to like him?”
“No, of course not, that would be mean,” Kawai says pointedly, like that hadn't been his original intention. “Maybe you can stage a drama-like scene where you trip and land on his mouth or something.”
“That doesn’t actually happen in real life, you know,” Tottsu informs him.
“I’ll think of something,” Massu says. “Thanks, guys.”
“Senpaaaaaaai,” Hasshi whines, and somehow Massu already knows what’s going to come out of his mouth before he speaks. “You can’t just kiss Tottsu and Tsuka-chan and not me.”
“I want a kiss like Tsuka-chan’s, too,” Tottsu says with a pout.
Massu considers the amount of thought and planning he’s going to need to court Yokoo and decides that he can use all the energy he can get.
*
An hour into his quasi-date with Yokoo, Massu wonders if it wouldn’t just be better to buy all of NEWS an expensive dinner. There’s only four of them now; it wouldn’t be that much of a strain on his wallet.
It’s not that it’s awkward to spend time with the other man-quite the opposite, actually. The two of them have a substantial amount in common, mainly sports and being clean freaks, but even the other things have common ground. Yokoo cites Fujigaya as a reference for Massu’s love for fashion, and Massu mentions Tegoshi and Nakamaru when Yokoo gets stars in his eyes over his precious dogs.
“It’s really nice to see you again,” Yokoo says as Massu picks up the check (senpai’s treat, of course). “We should hang out more often.”
“Definitely,” Massu agrees, flashing a smile that’s reflected on Yokoo’s face. It reminds him of when they were young, skating together with those kids whom neither one thought would ever get it right, and look at them now.
“Actually…” Yokoo trails off, and Massu finds himself feeling hopeful. “Feel like having a drink? I’ll host, since you paid for dinner.”
“That’s not necessary-” Massu starts, but Yokoo’s giving him a stern look and Massu understands how those kids shaped up right away. “Okay, thank you.”
Yokoo’s place isn’t far and decorated in mostly black and white, which both soothes and unnerves Massu. He keeps that opinion to himself, though, as Yokoo disappears behind his home bar and mixes them a few drinks. It turns out that they have the same taste in movies, which their own respective bandmates often chastise them for, and Massu thinks he can be good friends with Yokoo for that reason alone.
It gets late, but they’re still on their first drink and Massu notices how Yokoo slouches on his couch, barely watching the TV. “I should go,” Massu says quietly, moving to get up, but Yokoo grabs his wrist.
“Koyama told me about the dare,” he says, voice low and calm. “Apparently Shige said that you couldn’t tell me, not that someone else couldn’t.”
Leave it to Koyama to find a loophole in lawyer-Shige’s ruling, Massu thinks. “Oh,” is all he says.
“I don’t kiss just anyone, you know,” Yokoo goes on. “Especially someone who’s already kissed everyone else born the same year as us.”
Being in a group with Tegoshi doesn’t leave Massu very many opportunities to feel like the slut, but this is definitely one of them. He lowers his head in shame, already resigning himself to shelling out a couple thousand yen for dinner, but then a long finger is pushing up his chin.
“A little one would be okay, I think.”
Massu lifts his eyes to find Yokoo looking at him fondly, his expression a lot softer with his mouth closed, and Massu just nods as he leans in. He expects Yokoo to just press their lips together quickly and then pull back, maybe push Massu away for lingering too long, but he doesn’t move and neither does Massu.
Seconds pass and Massu understands why everyone kisses like this in dramas. Their lips are barely touching, yet all of Massu’s nerves are buzzing unlike any of his previous kisses, even before this week. He doesn’t want to move, because moving will make it end and even if he doesn’t know why he feels this way right now, he doesn’t want it to stop.
Inevitably it’s Massu who pulls back, because the need to breathe is more than his nose can handle, but this just means he gets to see Yokoo’s eyes flutter open and focus on him. He watches the other man lick his lips contemplatively, his own heartbeat racing until Yokoo nods and sits back on the couch.
“That should be satisfactory,” he says, sighing a little. “You’re welcome to sleep over if you don’t want to go home. I hear my couch is comfortable.”
“I’ll be fine going home,” Massu tells him, standing up again. He’s only a little disappointed when there’s no grab for his wrist this time. “Um, thank you for the…you know.”
“It was nothing,” Yokoo says with a dismissive wave. “Losing every now and then is good for Shige.”
Massu just nods and takes his leave, the warm night air stinging his lips that don’t stop tingling for a long, long time.
*
“I still don’t understand why I had to pay for this,” Shige grumbles as he reaches for his wallet and hands over his bank card without looking at the total. The endless plates that had originally contained sushi were indication enough.
“Because I kissed six people in one week,” Massu tells him, lowering his voice a little.
“Weren’t there only five on the list?” Tegoshi asks.
“Hasshi,” Massu says, and the other three nod.
“How did you get Yokoo to do it?” Shige asks, looking amazed. “He was always so weird about bodily contact.”
“Well, so am I,” Massu replies, trying his best to get around this without lying outright. “We spent the evening together and it just kind of happened. It counts, anyway.”
“Whatever,” Shige says. “I’m sorry I doubted you, Massu.”
“Apology accepted.” Massu grins, the expression remaining even as his phone vibrates in his pocket and he reaches for it.
It’s from an unknown number. It’s Yokoo Wataru. I had a good time the other night. We should do it again. All of it.
“Massu, your face,” Koyama says, flashing his own dirty smile. “Who texted you?”
“Someone wanting seconds,” Massu answers cryptically, then grabs his bag. “Thanks for dinner, Shige! See you guys later.”
While Tegoshi and Shige argue over which ABC-Z member it is, Koyama just preens at his awesome matchmaking skills. And his sneakiness, because Shige probably still thinks that dare was all his own idea.
At least Yokoo will stop writing it off as a childhood crush now.
Pairing/Characters: Massu/various; see prompt
Rating/Warnings: PG for lip-locking
Prompt: # 90. Massu is dared to kiss everyone in J&A born the same year as him.
A/N: This was too easy to write. Thank you to this post for existing.
Normally Truth or Dare is reserved for teenage girls at a slumber party, but with the amount of eyeliner Tegoshi is wearing and the curlers Koyama has in his hair, this may as well be the same thing.
“Dare,” Massu answers, because he knows better than to answer Truth with these guys. He’d rather do something embarrassing than confess any of his secrets.
“I dare you to kiss everyone in the agency born the same year as you,” Shige declares.
“That’s no fun!” Tegoshi exclaims, pouting to enhance his raccoon eyes. “None of us are born the same year as him.”
“Real kisses,” Shige reiterates. “On the mouth.”
Massu wrinkles his nose, trying to recall who all is on this all-exclusive list. All he remembers is Kamenashi and Uchi, just because they’d worn hakama on Countdown together three years ago. “Whatever.”
“That’s not a very Shige-like dare,” Koyama comments from where he’s lounged on the couch, overly tanned and just as drunk.
“Thought I’d try something new," Shige says with a shrug. "Weren't you the one getting on my case about being predictable?"
“You know,” Tegoshi says, scooting closer to Shige. “If anyone were to dare you to do that, you’d have to kiss me.”
“You say that like it would be the first time,” Shige says dryly, and Koyama giggle-snorts into his fist. “Fujigaya-kun would be worth it, I’d think.”
“Oh, he is,” Tegoshi assures him.
Massu freezes as he remembers which Kisumai member is an ‘86er. “Crap. I’m going to have to kiss Yokoo-kun.”
“Ooh,” Koyama says, cringing a little. “Good luck with that one. That guy’s mouth is like Fort Knox.”
“I heard he’s straight,” Tegoshi hisses, like it’s something scandalous.
Massu sets his jaw and pumps his fist into the air. “I’ll do my best!”
“If you lose, you have to buy us all dinner,” Shige speaks up. “An expensive one.”
“I won’t lose,” Massu says, determined to succeed. “These lips will rise to the challenge.”
*
As far as kissing boys goes, Massu’s no more of a stranger to it than anyone else, but it’s still awkward to approach his colleagues about it. Shige had decided it would be too easy if Massu could tell them about the dare, so he wasn’t allowed to mention it. He’s free to say that he wants a kiss, but that’s not really his style.
It’s not his style to just grab someone by the collar and plant one on them either, but it works out well enough for his first conquest. Then again, it doesn’t take much to get Uchi to kiss anyone. Massu puts more effort into stopping him than starting it, though he doesn’t mind the softness of Uchi’s lips one bit.
“Hello to you too,” Uchi says, a little breathless as he blinks at Massu in his doorway. “Did you lose a bet?”
“A dare,” Massu answers. “I have to kiss everyone in the agency born the same year as us.”
“Was I first?” Uchi asks, then grins when Massu nods. “Yes!”
Massu laughs and shoves his hands into his pockets. “You wouldn’t happen to hang out with Kamenashi-kun anymore, would you?”
“Hang out with?” Uchi repeats with a scoff. “Honey, I have a key to his apartment. Let’s go.”
Kame’s not home when they get there, but Uchi doesn’t seem bothered with letting them both in and waiting for him. Likewise, Kame isn’t surprised to see Uchi draped all over his couch when he gets back, though Massu’s presence earns a raised eyebrow.
“You look exhausted, Kame-chan,” Uchi says a little too loudly, and Massu rolls his eyes at how obvious the other man is being. “Massu, you should help him relax.”
“Rehearsing for an AV movie audition?” Kame asks sarcastically, eyeing Massu as the latter makes his way over to him. “Yes?”
“Kamenashi-kun,” Massu starts, channeling all of his acting skills and resenting his reel of mainly dumb character roles. “I really want to kiss you.”
Kame blinks. “Really?”
Nodding, Massu bites his lip and tries to look nervous. It ends up not being very difficult under Kame’s careful scrutiny, like he was sizing Massu up and determining whether he was worthy of a kiss.
“Okay, but let me brush my teeth first,” Kame finally says, patting Massu on the shoulder before disappearing into a back room. Massu freshens up with his own breath spray while water runs in the distance, then Kame returns all smiles. “Okay.”
Now Massu gets to see what it’s like on the other side, when he’s the one grabbed by the face and kissed, rather passionately even. It’s like Kame’s trying to win him over with his kiss; to his knowledge, Massu doesn’t have any feelings for him, yet he’s already falling victim to Kame’s mouth, hot and minty fresh.
“Damn,” he whispers when they finally break apart, Uchi’s catcalls in the near distance.
Kame just grins and gives him another pat on the shoulder. “You’re welcome.”
*
Collectively, ABC-Z’s grins are a bit scary, but Massu’s walked into worse lion’s dens in his time with this agency. He supposes he should be grateful that everyone in Arashi is older than him.
“To what do we owe this honor, senpai?” Hasshi asks, everything about his voice and appearance dripping with sexual innuendo, and Massu-like just about everyone else in the world-curses Hasshi’s parents for waiting so long to have him.
“I’m going to kiss two of you,” Massu announces, and four pairs of eyes light up (Goseki looks skeptical). “My two favorite.”
“Well,” Hasshi says haughtily, then puckers up expectantly.
“Sorry, Hashimoto-kun,” Massu tells him gently, though he considers amending his total to three when he sees the pout form on Hasshi’s mouth. “Totsuka-kun?”
Tottsu’s face brightens even more and he closes his eyes, lifting his chin invitingly, and Massu shrugs before leaning down to kiss him. It’s slow and sweet, nothing like kissing Uchi or Kame, and Massu tilts his head a little to feel more of Tottsu’s lips against his.
“Mmm~” Tottsu hums when they pull apart. “Please come by and do that anytime, senpai.”
Massu should probably take a break between kisses, or at least open his eyes, but Tsukada is sitting right next to Tottsu and it’s easier just to swing his head around and capture his lips. Tsukada gives a little squeak of surprise, but then his arms are wrapped around Massu’s neck and Massu’s the one who jerks when he feels a tongue flick into his mouth.
“Tsuka-chan is a Frencher,” Kawai says needlessly, his voice seeming to swim in the very back of Massu’s mushy brain. “I would have warned you if I had known.”
Very, very reluctantly, Massu untangles his tongue from Tsukada’s and leans back, clearing his throat in an attempt to clear his mind. “Shige dared me to kiss everyone in the agency who was born in the same year as me.”
“Oh,” Hasshi says, looking much happier now that he knows this information. “Of course I’m not Massu-senpai’s third favorite!”
Tottsu frowns in thought. “There’s us, Kamenashi-kun…um…”
“Uchi,” Goseki supplies, “but he’s easy.”
“Yeah, I got him first.” Massu licks his lips. “There’s only one left.”
Kawai gasps first, meeting Massu’s eyes. “Yokoo.”
“Oh man,” Tottsu says. “Good luck.”
“I haven’t even kissed him,” Hasshi says with big eyes.
“Any suggestions?” Massu asks the room as a whole.
“Not unless you want to make a lot of effort,” Kawai tells him. “He won’t fall for any tricks, either. Maybe if you told him it was a dare, he’d humor you?”
“I’m not allowed to say it,” Massu says sadly. “What kind of effort are we talking?”
“A lot,” Kawai emphasizes. “Like to the point of courting him into wanting to kiss you.”
“Like Ariel from ‘The Little Mermaid’?” Hasshi inquires. “Can we swim alongside you and sing ‘Kiss the Boy’?”
Goseki swats him in the back of the head while Massu frowns at that mental image. “You mean I have to pretend to like him?”
“No, of course not, that would be mean,” Kawai says pointedly, like that hadn't been his original intention. “Maybe you can stage a drama-like scene where you trip and land on his mouth or something.”
“That doesn’t actually happen in real life, you know,” Tottsu informs him.
“I’ll think of something,” Massu says. “Thanks, guys.”
“Senpaaaaaaai,” Hasshi whines, and somehow Massu already knows what’s going to come out of his mouth before he speaks. “You can’t just kiss Tottsu and Tsuka-chan and not me.”
“I want a kiss like Tsuka-chan’s, too,” Tottsu says with a pout.
Massu considers the amount of thought and planning he’s going to need to court Yokoo and decides that he can use all the energy he can get.
*
An hour into his quasi-date with Yokoo, Massu wonders if it wouldn’t just be better to buy all of NEWS an expensive dinner. There’s only four of them now; it wouldn’t be that much of a strain on his wallet.
It’s not that it’s awkward to spend time with the other man-quite the opposite, actually. The two of them have a substantial amount in common, mainly sports and being clean freaks, but even the other things have common ground. Yokoo cites Fujigaya as a reference for Massu’s love for fashion, and Massu mentions Tegoshi and Nakamaru when Yokoo gets stars in his eyes over his precious dogs.
“It’s really nice to see you again,” Yokoo says as Massu picks up the check (senpai’s treat, of course). “We should hang out more often.”
“Definitely,” Massu agrees, flashing a smile that’s reflected on Yokoo’s face. It reminds him of when they were young, skating together with those kids whom neither one thought would ever get it right, and look at them now.
“Actually…” Yokoo trails off, and Massu finds himself feeling hopeful. “Feel like having a drink? I’ll host, since you paid for dinner.”
“That’s not necessary-” Massu starts, but Yokoo’s giving him a stern look and Massu understands how those kids shaped up right away. “Okay, thank you.”
Yokoo’s place isn’t far and decorated in mostly black and white, which both soothes and unnerves Massu. He keeps that opinion to himself, though, as Yokoo disappears behind his home bar and mixes them a few drinks. It turns out that they have the same taste in movies, which their own respective bandmates often chastise them for, and Massu thinks he can be good friends with Yokoo for that reason alone.
It gets late, but they’re still on their first drink and Massu notices how Yokoo slouches on his couch, barely watching the TV. “I should go,” Massu says quietly, moving to get up, but Yokoo grabs his wrist.
“Koyama told me about the dare,” he says, voice low and calm. “Apparently Shige said that you couldn’t tell me, not that someone else couldn’t.”
Leave it to Koyama to find a loophole in lawyer-Shige’s ruling, Massu thinks. “Oh,” is all he says.
“I don’t kiss just anyone, you know,” Yokoo goes on. “Especially someone who’s already kissed everyone else born the same year as us.”
Being in a group with Tegoshi doesn’t leave Massu very many opportunities to feel like the slut, but this is definitely one of them. He lowers his head in shame, already resigning himself to shelling out a couple thousand yen for dinner, but then a long finger is pushing up his chin.
“A little one would be okay, I think.”
Massu lifts his eyes to find Yokoo looking at him fondly, his expression a lot softer with his mouth closed, and Massu just nods as he leans in. He expects Yokoo to just press their lips together quickly and then pull back, maybe push Massu away for lingering too long, but he doesn’t move and neither does Massu.
Seconds pass and Massu understands why everyone kisses like this in dramas. Their lips are barely touching, yet all of Massu’s nerves are buzzing unlike any of his previous kisses, even before this week. He doesn’t want to move, because moving will make it end and even if he doesn’t know why he feels this way right now, he doesn’t want it to stop.
Inevitably it’s Massu who pulls back, because the need to breathe is more than his nose can handle, but this just means he gets to see Yokoo’s eyes flutter open and focus on him. He watches the other man lick his lips contemplatively, his own heartbeat racing until Yokoo nods and sits back on the couch.
“That should be satisfactory,” he says, sighing a little. “You’re welcome to sleep over if you don’t want to go home. I hear my couch is comfortable.”
“I’ll be fine going home,” Massu tells him, standing up again. He’s only a little disappointed when there’s no grab for his wrist this time. “Um, thank you for the…you know.”
“It was nothing,” Yokoo says with a dismissive wave. “Losing every now and then is good for Shige.”
Massu just nods and takes his leave, the warm night air stinging his lips that don’t stop tingling for a long, long time.
*
“I still don’t understand why I had to pay for this,” Shige grumbles as he reaches for his wallet and hands over his bank card without looking at the total. The endless plates that had originally contained sushi were indication enough.
“Because I kissed six people in one week,” Massu tells him, lowering his voice a little.
“Weren’t there only five on the list?” Tegoshi asks.
“Hasshi,” Massu says, and the other three nod.
“How did you get Yokoo to do it?” Shige asks, looking amazed. “He was always so weird about bodily contact.”
“Well, so am I,” Massu replies, trying his best to get around this without lying outright. “We spent the evening together and it just kind of happened. It counts, anyway.”
“Whatever,” Shige says. “I’m sorry I doubted you, Massu.”
“Apology accepted.” Massu grins, the expression remaining even as his phone vibrates in his pocket and he reaches for it.
It’s from an unknown number. It’s Yokoo Wataru. I had a good time the other night. We should do it again. All of it.
“Massu, your face,” Koyama says, flashing his own dirty smile. “Who texted you?”
“Someone wanting seconds,” Massu answers cryptically, then grabs his bag. “Thanks for dinner, Shige! See you guys later.”
While Tegoshi and Shige argue over which ABC-Z member it is, Koyama just preens at his awesome matchmaking skills. And his sneakiness, because Shige probably still thinks that dare was all his own idea.
At least Yokoo will stop writing it off as a childhood crush now.