[Fic] RyoShige One-shots
Title : Love in Spiked Forms / Baked from Scratch
Fandom : NEWS
Pairing : RyoShige
Genre : Mild Fluff
Rating : PG
Summary : Ryo buys Shige flowers / Ryo bakes for Shige
Notes : First one-shot is written in response to praghufanfic who prompted me with "Ryo buys Shige daisies because roses aren't manly enough". I hope this somehow satisfies that because both daises and roses aren't mentioned that much, but Ryo does buy Shige something :] The second is written for my boo, misticloud who is so unbelievably awesome for looking these over for me and who told me to "Go write Ryo baking Shige cookies". Gem's totally my muse because I've discovered I write at inhuman hours of the morning only when I'm talking with her :D I'm sort of not too good with fluff but this is me being fluffly, so I warned you :] Also, the first is weird, or at least I think so. The second one is nicer and more of my comfort zone x]
Disclaimiar : I wouldn't do do any of them, they are Johnny's.
Love In Spiked Forms
Ryo has never been good at orally expressing his emotions. The words form in his head and he practices, repeating them until he can say it in his sleep and he times himself until he knows how many seconds each word will take. They become a script that he dutifully memorizes and performs in front of the mirror or to Pi, artfully pausing and adding unnecessary flourishes. But when the time comes, the sentences he had been so confident of end up as mumbled messes and awkward gestures instead.
Because despite all his talents as an actor, Ryo has not mastered the art of confessing. He's shy by nature and often the amount of time it takes for him to muster enough courage to confess outlasts the duration of his crushes. Quite frankly he's not sure how he's managed to avoid public declarations of his love but somehow he has and he was lucky he thinks, but now he's 24 and struggling to tell his boyfriend how he really feels without having to punch him or ridicule his hair.
He's very aware of how childish he comes across, resorting to pinches and verbal sarcasm as means of his affection. But he's also painfully aware of how inexperienced he is with dating someone like Shige. It bothers him even more when Valentine's Day rolls around and he feels obligated to buy a card complete with chocolates and red roses. Shige is his boyfriend and Ryo is not a girl.
It takes him a full week and lots of late night phone calls from the bathroom to his friends before he finally decides on a box of Shige's favorite Belgian chocolates and a beige scarf. He skips the flowers because the thought of walking down the populated streets of Tokyo with a bouquet of bright colored flora terrifies him.
It's only on the way back to Tokyo when he passes by a quaint little flower shop that he decides on the spot to head in and check it out. He's surprised at the lack of heart shaped balloons and pink banners that are the usual adornments and finds himself relaxing because this seems normal, and he can handle normal.
He involuntarily twitches when someone taps him gently on the shoulder. He turns, pulling his cap lower and finds a smiling florist. He gives her a smile in return when he realizes the worker is a female and is much more like a grandmother like than a fangirl.
"Is there something I can help you with?" She asks with familiarity, her voice smooth and reassuring.
"I was just browsing really, thank you though." Ryo responds respectfully and turns to walk out of the shop.
"It's hard deciding which kind of flowers to get these days isn't it? You don't want to come across as too romantic but an occasion like this seems to call for flowers somehow." She continues with a knowing smile and a twinkle in her eye.
Ryo nodes mutely and stands with his hands embedded deeply into his jeans pockets, avoiding her sharp gaze. She gives him a brief but thorough once-over and smiles again, "I'll leave you alone and let you browse for a bit privately. If you have any questions, I'll be over there."
He waits until she's behind the blue curtains before walking around again quickly, mindful of the time and that he only has another ten minutes before he needs to get on the Shinkansen. He skips past the roses, immediately dismissing them as too cliche, carnations are the cheaper cousins of roses and Ryo hates the way they remind him of death and graves. Lilies are a popular choice too but it's impossible, they're almost twice his arm length. The tulips look like something he could grow in his backyard, not that he has one, and there's one other flower that he can barely pronounce and frankly he can't tell the difference between them anymore.
Ryo's back is slightly hunched as he makes his way to the front of the shop towards the door. As he pulls the handle, a young boy comes running in and tumbles into him, the force sending him stumbling backwards and he braces with his hands out to soften his fall. Instead of the hard ground, he's meet with sharp spikes and many tiny pricks. He opens his mouth ready to curse at his luck and at the boy when he realizes what it is he's landed into and breaks out in a wide grin. Five minutes later he's safely on the train holding a tiny pot in his hand and smiling smugly.
Two days later he wakes up early and prepares the customary blueberry pancakes that have become a staple of their Sunday mornings together. Shige shuffles in just as Ryo is sliding the hotcakes onto plates and blindy reaches for the mug of coffee that always sits by his side of the table.
His hand automatically wraps around the object and he's surprised at the sudden pain he's met with instead of his cup. Focusing his eyes he finds a lumpy brown bag in place of his usual caffeine source and gives Ryo a curious look. Ryo beckons for him to open it and mouths, "Happy Valentine's Day".
Shige rips open the package, extremely mindful of the pricks and is doubtful of his present. It takes two seconds for the object in front of him to sink in and he's suddenly doubled over in laughter.
Sitting on the table in a clay pot no bigger than the size of a rice bowl are three short stalks of cacti complete with sharp needles that are now tipped red with Shige's blood.
Ryo reaches into the inside of his jacket pocket and tugs out a bunch of semi-crumbled daisies. "Here, free gift for purchases over 1500 yen."
Shige reaches for it and holds them gingerly in his newly imprinted hand before dumping them into the nearby garbage can. "I like the cactus much better."
Shige knows that there are many types of love and their type of love might not be the most romantic or the kind that he had dreamt of as a kid, but it's a stronger love than he imagined possible. The outcome of two long years of struggles and compromises. Shige's heard that cacti can live up to three hundred years. He can only hope that their love will last for a fraction of that time.
Baked from Scratch
Ryo likes baking and cooking. He likes the preciseness of it; ounces, teaspoons and cups. It's a language that he understands, the kind of control he seeks. It is the one part of his chaotic life that is easy and predictable.
He's a popular idol in the only talent agency that matters in Japan- Johnny's Jimusho. It is filled to the brim with bright eyed talented and strikingly handsome boys. Each one is bred to sing and dance and if they can't, they are taught how to fake it. How to pretend and how to act as if they're the best.
At age twelve, Ryo exchanged his life for fame. Fame that will hopefully last until his forties and possibly even longer if he's really lucky. From that point on, he ate when he was allowed to, danced when he was asked to and touched, kissed, and groped when he was ordered to. Part of being a Johnny's is following the rules. Rules that dictated what you do and when you do it. The kind of rules that are unbreakable, the kind you have to follow.
He can't pinpoint when it started but Ryo started to have rules of his own. First dates take place in ramen shops, second dates at the local bar and the fourth one is in one of the spare apartments he keeps, where he'll woo and almost always bed his partner. He never lets it go too far, stopping it before it's time to meet the parents and before it can reach any level of real intimacy.
But with Shige, everything is different, twisted and out of order. Shige's already met his parents numerous times, he was a guest at Ryo's brother's wedding and even babysat twice for Ryo's niece. Six months they've been together and they share an apartment now but they have yet to share a kiss or physically touch, beyond the occasional casual brushing of hands.
Everything is wrong and it gives him a headache, not the dull aching kind but a sharp acute sort of pain that he finds himself craving.
On his first full day off in two months, he decides to bake. Shige's been under the weather lately, worn from concert rehearsals and multiple finals, and no longer has the benefit of home-cooked meals from his mother to soothe or comfort him. So Ryo bakes. He finds his recipe book and settles on cookies, chocolate chip at first but then oatmeal raisin and finally cranberry oatmeal.
He finds himself disregarding the directions, using less sugar because Shige dislikes it, adding some cinnamon and throwing in fresh ground vanilla sticks because he wanted to. Ryo nibbles on the first batch and spits it out, the middle still lumpy and too raw. The second batch is overly burnt and makes a loud crackling sound when he tries to take a bite. By the fifth batch he's run out of both flour and eggs.
Ryo discovers he doesn't mind this guessing game too much. It's interesting mixing around and fooling with the ingredients, and even more amusing to see how they turn out . The mess in his kitchen also affects him far less then he thought it would. He munches on a not so hard cookie and tries to guess what Shige's reaction will be to the clutter and disarray. He smiles and rearranges all the cookies onto the large pan to cool. If he's wrong, then he'll just wind up with a stomach ache the next day and bag the rest of his treats to Massu or Ohkura. But if he's right then he'll probably just have spent the last five hours earning his first kiss.
When Shige does come home, Ryo finds that he's right for the first and possibly the last time in their relationship. He winds up with a stomach ache the next day anyway, but so does Shige.