Dress Blues (Chapter 7/?)
Title: Dress Blues (Chapter 7/?)
Author: keeconk
Pairing: TaDaiki
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,165
Disclaimer: Arisa is mine~.
Summary: A life of a model is often seen as extravagant and glamour. But not many people know that a life of a model can be this epic and bizarre. What would happen if Arisa, an eighteen-years old fashion and make-up model, meet Takaki Yuya, the popular singer? The thing is, Arisa is just a stage name of a normal boy, named Arioka Daiki, who dresses up as a girl during photo shoots.
A.N.: AU setting. Cross dressing.
Beta reader: rinhriveiel
( Chapter 1: An Epic start )
( Chapter 2: The Holiday )
( Chapter 3: Oops! )
( Chapter 4: Unguarded )
( Chapter 5: Nature of Facts )
( Chapter 6: The Truth )
--------------------
When he thought of home, he thought of a particular apartment that wasn’t even his. It was a pretty extravagant apartment but nothing was particularly interesting about it. In fact, it was rather dull. The big LCD TV was rarely turned on (mostly only when he decided he should bring his X-box along), the kitchen was almost untouched, and there wasn’t even a single plant to lighten up the apartment.
But the couch was comfy. He could spend hours there, just lying down on it with his head on his boyfriend’s lap. Or the closet, where about one third of the clothes were actually his. And of course, the bed was his favourite. It was where they did all their talking, all their cuddles, and it was where they made love. No one was hiding anything there. It was all about them opening up to each other, mentally and physically.
When he thought of home, he thought of Takaki’s apartment.
He hadn’t been there for a while now. Not since the other told him the most unbelievable story ever. It wasn’t his plan to actually avoid Takaki completely. He just… needed some time to process the whole thing, to accept the whole thing. It was just too much for his brain to take, especially when it was the very last thing he expected.
“I miss you…” said the voice on the other line.
It actually hurt to hear those words simply for the fact that he felt the same exact thing too. Uni was being an ass, and his work was piling up, one another every day. He needed time to be alone, to be able to think of what to feel or how to react.
“I miss you too… I really do…” he replied.
“Then come over?” the other quickly added.
“I… can’t. Not yet. I need some time alone, Takaki.”
“That’s what you said last week… and the last last week… and last, last, last week…”
Daiki gulped, not knowing what to say. He didn’t realise that it had been that long. Maybe this was the reason why he found it hard to sleep at night. Maybe this was the reason why it felt empty each time he woke up alone on his very own bed that he had been sleeping on for the past 19 years of his life. Maybe, just maybe, this was the reason that he often burst into tears for no apparent reason when he was staring into spaces.
Hikaru said he was being weird, while Inoo swore that he would kill Takaki if this sudden lack of energy in Daiki was because of him. He wasn’t sure why Inoo kept on asking him on why, just why on earth Daiki stopped being… himself. What was there to make him so different for the past three weeks?
He always wanted to believe that there was nothing wrong with him. He just had to accept some cruel reality, because really, it was not every day that you got to date someone that had… well, killed someone before. It wasn’t that which upset him. He knew the story, every single bit of it, because that night when Takaki told him, he demanded every detail. He wanted to know everything, literally everything about it because he couldn’t believe that Takaki was capable of doing something like that without a reason.
It was when Takaki told him that he was afraid he would hurt him. It was when the older guy told him this bullshit about how unstable his emotions were that he was so afraid if he didn’t tell Daiki about it, he would lost control out of nowhere and hurt Daiki anyway. That… wasn’t something that Daiki could accept. No, he couldn’t accept the fact that Takaki sounded as if there was nothing he could do about it. And he couldn’t accept the fact that Takaki didn’t even do more than just call for the past three weeks.
So he killed a man, and now what? Being all emo and pretending that this might ruin their relationship? Fuck it, Daiki wouldn’t even care if he were a serial killer because that Takaki wasn’t the one that he fell in love with. Oh yeah, that was right, he was in love with him… for the way Takaki was, for every single annoyingly sweet thing that the older boy had done. What was done, was done, and there was no reason to hold on to the past.
“It’s lonely without you…” Takaki said finally.
“I’m sorry…”
“Don’t do this to me…”
“If you really want me there… if you really miss me… show it to me… get me…” was all he said before he closed his phone.
------
The day passed just as it always did. Daiki, Inoo and Hikaru had work to do; some photo shoots, then lunch break, then meetings, and of course, lazing around in the common room before they went for more photo shoots. It had been three days since Takaki’s last call, and Daiki wasn’t expecting him to be standing in the agency lobby when they got back there, soaking wet because it just decided to rain although it was summer.
“What are you doing here?” he said, eyes casting over the soaked figure as he walked over to Takaki.
“To get you…”
“You could have called,” he answered, turning his head away to Inoo as he let his long wig cover half of his face. He wasn’t sure what to say. Despite the fact that he really wanted to run to his boyfriend and give the guy a big warm hug because he really missed him, Daiki just pretended that it wasn’t such a big deal that his boyfriend was there.
“My phone died,” Takaki replied. He was still half panting, looking as if he was running a mile or two just to get there.
It was a sight that looked like something out of a drama scene: the two of them standing apart, the boyfriend waiting for his girlfriend to respond, while she just turned away. Someone could take photo of it and claim it as a drama screencap. And that… was exactly what Hikaru did.
“Hua~ perfect! Just perfect! I can sell this to magazines and sell it for ridiculous prices!” he grinned, running to Inoo as he showed him his masterpiece.
“Can you please, for once, be a little bit considerate of the situation?” Inoo hissed at him and gave his arm a hard whack.
“But this is too dramatic!” he defended himself.
Daiki just rolled his eyes. He knew Hikaru well, and this was Hikaru’s way of telling him to quit the drama queen act and just talk to Takaki already. Daiki didn’t have to tell two of his best friends that he wasn’t on speaking terms with Takaki; they knew him long enough to know when there was something wrong with him. Besides, it had been a while since the four of them went out for meals or something. Daiki would just give them excuses like Takaki was busy, or he couldn’t wait for him and he was so hungry. But yeah, he knew they got the hints.
So instead of dragging things out even longer, Daiki sighed and walked over to Takaki. There was worry in his face, and the wet hair made him look like a kicked puppy. Daiki would be lying if he said it didn’t break his heart the slightest bit, because it definitely did. “Come on. Let’s get you some dry clothes,” he said.
All eyes were set on Takaki, not only because he was a famous singer, but because he looked ridiculously dead-looking - especially when he started to sneeze as if there were no tomorrow. So Daiki decided to take Takaki to his dressing room, where there were towels and hopefully extra male clothes in his bag. He knew they weren’t the same clothing size, but he knew a t-shirt that would fit Takaki.
“What were you thinking?!” he asked once they got to his dressing room. He undressed himself right after he threw a dry towel at Takaki, not sure what expression he should show to his older boyfriend.
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“What do you mean, ‘you weren’t thinking?’”
“Well, I don’t know! It’s been too long and for God’s sake I would be such a loser if I kept quiet all the time about this. I mean, I was trying to just give you some time to think about it, but I have my limits, too!” he explained. “I just want to see you…”
It might’ve been weird to admit it, but Daiki actually felt a slight happy tingling in his stomach. Putting his t-shirt on, he went through everything on his bag and tried to find that one extra t-shirt for Takaki. “Here… get changed first,” he walked over to him.
They got dressed in silence. It wasn’t the usual comfortable silence; in fact it was a rather intense atmosphere. Daiki wanted to say something, but his tongue was locked in his mouth, unable to even say a word. He felt stupid because nothing was different from Takaki. He was still the same crazy singer that decided Arisa should be his girlfriend and it didn’t matter if Daiki agreed about it or not.
“I’m sorry…” Daiki said, at last.
As if the huge burden had been lifted up from his shoulders, Daiki found it easy to keep eye contact with Takaki. There was another silence, but this time it didn’t feel as uncomfortable as before. Apparently, it was important to just leave some past behind and let it be. Not that it was going to ruin anything, really. Takaki was Takaki, and he shouldn’t be questioning it just because of what the man had done before.
“I shouldn’t have done this,” Daiki added again.
There was smile on Takaki’s face, and damn, how much Daiki loved that smile. It was the kind of smile that, no matter how many times he stared at it, would still leave an impression on him.
So Daiki decided that there was nothing to talk about and drew himself closer to plant a kiss on Takaki’s lips. “Let’s go home~.”
------
Of course, it wouldn’t be Daiki if he didn’t go behind Takaki’s back and try to find the truth. Fair enough; Takaki and he had come to an understanding that nothing was going to change and that they would just carrying on with their relationship, but being Daiki, he still needed to at least get down to business and pawn the truth out.
So there he was with Inoo, in the library, conquering one of the computers at the corner as if it was his life mission. Inoo refused to tell much about what happened, so Daiki decided to do what had to be done. His very own investigation. Of course, he would still drag Inoo around so that when he had knocked some sense back to himself, he would tell Daiki what exactly happened.
“Hm… I started to think that this library is not sufficient enough for awesome mission,” he groaned, scrolling down on every newspaper archives that the library had.
“You have only twenty more minutes before you need to go back to class, Dai-chan.”
“Well, who’s to blame really? If only someone is willing to just tell me the whole story, I wouldn’t have to be wasting my break time here in the library, searching for old newspaper to find out what happened. I don’t even know where to start,” he rolled his eyes.
“I told you that I’m not gonna say a thing about Takaki’s stuff. You can always ask him directly, you know,” Inoo retorted.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Inoo-chan. I can’t just ask someone their dark, dark pasts. It might encourage some sort of psychological disorder just from remembering their pasts.”
“…… you’re insane.”
“What?!?!?! I’m just doing doing precaution action here!”
“More like a very stupid action, Dai-chan. Come on. Let’s just go. I want to grab something first from my friend before my next class,” and it was when Inoo started to whine. Oh gosh, how much Daiki hated it when Inoo whined. He actually sounded like a broke radio broadcasting Donald Duck’s live performance.
“Then just go. I’ll stay here and try to find out about what happened.”
Inoo paused for a while. The older one among the two stood up as he straightened up his shirt. He stared at Daiki for a whole minute before then sighing, somehow looked like he should just give up and help him with it.
“Oh gosh. Fine, Dai-chan. You’re a hopeless case. Try to find something on 2004, around Autumn,” he said as he gave Daiki a meaningful look.
“2004? Autumn?”
“Yeah. There. I helped you. So yeah. I should go.”
Daiki looked up as he stared at Inoo’s back that was walking away from him. Sometimes he just couldn’t understand why Inoo couldn’t just tell him the whole story. It would be a lot easier for all of them. Well, maybe. Anyhow, Daiki was glad that at least he now know where to start.
------
All this time since he got to know Takaki, and not even once had Daiki seen this kind of expression on the older guy’s face. He had always thought that Takaki was all about being cool in front of the camera, rather stubborn off camera, and slightly a dork in between.
“So? Say something?”
Fidgeting with his shirt hem, Takaki stared at him. He looked confused, disappointed, and surprised. The beer before him was half empty and Daiki could sense how much he really wanted to just finish it all in one go. He wasn’t sure how to react to this. This definitely was not what he had in mind when he decided to come over and tell Takaki what he had found.
“What do you want me to say, Dai-chan?” Takaki sighed, sipping through his beer.
“Well, that whatever I was saying was right?”
Takaki went quiet. Daiki noticed how much he was gripping his beer can, and it wasn’t something pleasant to see, especially when there was a funny uneasy feeling running up his spine. That couldn’t be a good sign, could it?
“Okay. Let me repeat it again. So the year was 2004, and it was autumn. You were in your final year of junior high school when it all happened. Basically there was this music teacher. According to some sources, you were his favourite. He was so nice and all, and you didn’t see it coming. Some time during this time of the year, he was trying to… well, let’s say, force his way into your pants. But of course, you refused to, and it happened. You hit him on the head with your guitar. It was all self defence.”
And the silence kicked back in. Daiki didn’t know whether it was Takaki’s new habit to keep quiet like that, or if it was just him not knowing what to say. “Oh come on Takaki. Say something! I worked so hard to find all this information.”
But instead of replying, Takaki stood up from the couch, making his way to his veranda as he stared out the sliding door. Oh gosh, how much Daiki hated all this silence. Could everyone just say right away what they were thinking?! It really did get to his nerves when these dramatic scenes happened. It wasn’t a drama series or whatever!
“You could have just asked me…” he mumbled.
“Why did you sound like Inoo-chan? Please, let me have only one naggy Inoo Kei in my life. Save the job for him,” Daiki rolled his eyes, putting his legs on top of the coffee table in front of him.
“Maybe because he was right? I could just tell you about it if you want to,” he turned his head to Daiki, leaning on the glass sliding door.
“Well… it must be a very hard thing to do. So I was just trying not to make you remember those things again,” he replied honestly.
“And how will telling me about what you found make me not remember what happened?”
Daiki opened his mouth, but no words came out of his lips. Damn it, why didn’t he think of this before? Of course he definitely made Takaki remember what happened by telling of his little discovery!! Daiki had never felt so stupid.
“…right… I’m sorry…”
The smile that Takaki gave him as a reply was the only reason why he thought this mistake wasn’t so bad at all. When Takaki walked back to the couch, sitting next to him, one hand around his shoulder as the other pulled him closer, Daiki could feel his heart jump. It had been a while. Oh yes, it had been a while.
Daiki could smell him and damn, it was nerve breaking when Takaki kissed him. It wasn’t something new, but who actually would kiss you after you made him remember his past?
“I love you…” was what Daiki heard slip from Takaki’s lips.
------
It might take them a while, but they’d lived through it. It had become easier to talk about everything. Takaki didn’t hesitate to send Daiki out of his bedroom when the younger guy moved too much in his sleep, kicking and punching randomly. Literally. Daiki himself would actually say “No, I’m not going there just because you said so” when Takaki randomly sent Yabu to pick him up.
They also got to go out without hiding a thing. Takaki was less paranoid of being in public without the younger guy being undercover as Arisa. Of course, Takaki would shriek if Daiki accidentally got slightly too close to him, or when Daiki took his hand to drag him away from any mirror because Takaki would be staring at it to fix his hair.
But there was one place that he really loved to go to lately. It was somehow in public, but yet it was private enough for them to hold hands, or for Daiki to playfully blow in Takaki’s ear randomly. Takaki himself didn’t mind, as long as they got the right seat. Yeah, that was the very first time in his life that Daiki was so obsessed with… watching movies.
“That was awesome! Like totally fucking awesome!” Daiki skipped alongside Takaki.
“It was… if only there wasn’t so much blood!” Takaki protested. “And you know that I don’t like seeing blood!”
“Oh come on! It wasn’t so bad! Ninja Assassin was a lot worse that this~.”
“That’s exactly why I refused to watch it when you brought the DVD home!” he retorted.
Daiki was about to punch Takaki playfully on the arm when suddenly a flash blinded his eyes. He stepped back at the brightness, and it was even harder to see when he realised that it didn’t end there. There was more. They were suddenly being surrounded by many people, so many people of a very familiar kind. More cameras flashed at them and without realising it, Daiki gripped the edge of Takaki’s jacket, holding onto to it because it was scaring the shit out of him somehow.
He could hear Takaki asking them what it was all about. Blurrily, he heard one of them answer the taller guy that there was rumour about him and Arisa breaking up because it was very rare to see the two of them together. “No…” Daiki mumbled, head casted over every single one of them in confusion. “That’s just ridiculous!” he exclaimed at the end, totally forgetting that he wasn’t dressed as Arisa.
It was the worst thing he ever did and he could feel more of them taking pictures of him and Takaki. What was this? He wasn’t used to all this stuff, not even after months of dating Takaki! A lot of questions were asked and he couldn’t digest a single one of them. He was too confused to even hear them correctly. He wanted them to stop taking photos!
They could barely move, no matter how much Takaki was trying to shove some of them away. Daiki’s grip on the other’s jacket grew tighter, heart beating hard, so hard that he could hear them clearly. He tried to step forward, all he wanted to leave all this sudden mess. This was the very last thing that he had in mind when he insisted to watch a movie that night.
And that was it. The moment Daiki lost his balance and fell backwards, bum landing nicely on the hard road, Takaki snapped. “Goddamn it. Stop being so persistent! Get the fuck away!” he yelled at them, causing a great deal of silence.
“Takaki…?” Daiki blinked. He was surprised; the paparazzi were surprised. Not even once had Takaki shown any bad attitude in front of the camera. He never even rose his voice to a persistent reporter. This was something new and none of them expected it - heck, none of them even knew that Takaki was capable of being mad like that. Takaki had always been friendly with the media and he would still smile even when they brought up touchy subjects.
“Just leave us alone. I respect the fact that you are just trying to do your job, but please. Leave my boyfr- I mean, just leave Daiki-kun alone from this. A-Arisa w-wouldn’t like it if you mistreat her br-brother,” Takaki added. Ah~, maybe it wasn’t obvious to them, but Daiki could tell Takaki was uncomfortable with the lie by the way he avoided their eyes. Daiki tried to ignore the fact that his boyfriend was helping him stand up as he took his phone out of his pocket, calling Yabu to pick them up because he was still surprised of how much his… safety, if that was even the right term, meant to Takaki.
The attention was then diverted to him. It scared him even more now that all eyes were on him. “H-hi?” Daiki smiled awkwardly. “Arisa never mentioned me? What a shame. Inoo-chan and I got her together with Takaki~ Ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.”
“Dai-chan…” Takaki muttered.
“Yes?” he replied, just as softly.
“I saw Yabu’s car…”
“So…?”
“RUN TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
And with that Takaki grabbed Daiki’s hand, not caring if there were massive amounts of reporters around them. For now, Daiki could sense that what mattered the most to him was to get the two of them out of this mess.
------
He could smell coffee. That was something new to him. His parents weren’t coffee people, and Takaki wasn’t either, so it was something new to wake up to the smell of coffee. He slowly opened up his eyes as he let the sunshine help him register where he was. It was nowhere familiar, but he could remember that he had a good night’s sleep there.
The futon underneath him felt so fluffy and comfortable that he found it hard to even sit up. His hand trailed softly on the empty side of his futon. Takaki was still there a minute ago, he noted from the warmth. He rolled to his side, snuggling to where Takaki had been sleeping. “Bad, bad, bad Yuya woke up before I did~,” he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else… since there wasn’t anyone else around, anyway.
He paused for a while, literally hugging the edge of the futon, eyes blinking as they stared at a random spot on the window. “Should I call him Yuya from now on? Huaaaa~, what if he thinks I’m weird?” he mumbled, once again rolling on the futon.
“Coffee, Arioka-kun?”
Crap, was what Daiki thought of when he heard that. He pushed his body up right away, sitting on bended legs and hands right away placed on top of his knees politely. “H-hi, Yabu-kun,” he replied. “How long have you been there?
“Long enough~,” Yabu grinned, sipping to the coffee that he had on his hand.
“Are you gonna tell Takaki about it?!”
“I won’t. I can promise you that,” he smiled. “Anyway, breakfast is ready. And you might want to check the newspaper.”
“The newspaper?”
“Yeah, a very amusing headline,” Yabu laughed, waving his coffee as he made his way out from his guest room.
“Eh?”
So Daiki ran out of the guest room, following Yabu as he tripped over the futon that he was sleeping on the night before. He found Takaki at the dining table with a newspaper by the side of his breakfast, eyes riveted on it. Not caring if Takaki was reading it, Daiki grabbed the newspaper from the table once he got there. “Hey! I was reading it!”
There was his face, as well as Takaki’s, on the front page and the newspaper said, ‘Brothers in law bonding; Possibility of marriage ahead from Takaki Yuya and Arisa?’
“What the fuck?!?!?!” Daiki exclaimed as he threw the newspaper to the floor.
---------
I deserve a slap on the face for taking so long! Dx I know! I'm sorrryyyyyy!!! Anyway, I can feel that this story is going to end soon, but I'm not sure how much longer. Probably two more chapters, or just one more chapter. So yeah, I hope you enjoy this chapter!! &hearts &hearts
Author: keeconk
Pairing: TaDaiki
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,165
Disclaimer: Arisa is mine~.
Summary: A life of a model is often seen as extravagant and glamour. But not many people know that a life of a model can be this epic and bizarre. What would happen if Arisa, an eighteen-years old fashion and make-up model, meet Takaki Yuya, the popular singer? The thing is, Arisa is just a stage name of a normal boy, named Arioka Daiki, who dresses up as a girl during photo shoots.
A.N.: AU setting. Cross dressing.
Beta reader: rinhriveiel
( Chapter 1: An Epic start )
( Chapter 2: The Holiday )
( Chapter 3: Oops! )
( Chapter 4: Unguarded )
( Chapter 5: Nature of Facts )
( Chapter 6: The Truth )
--------------------
When he thought of home, he thought of a particular apartment that wasn’t even his. It was a pretty extravagant apartment but nothing was particularly interesting about it. In fact, it was rather dull. The big LCD TV was rarely turned on (mostly only when he decided he should bring his X-box along), the kitchen was almost untouched, and there wasn’t even a single plant to lighten up the apartment.
But the couch was comfy. He could spend hours there, just lying down on it with his head on his boyfriend’s lap. Or the closet, where about one third of the clothes were actually his. And of course, the bed was his favourite. It was where they did all their talking, all their cuddles, and it was where they made love. No one was hiding anything there. It was all about them opening up to each other, mentally and physically.
When he thought of home, he thought of Takaki’s apartment.
He hadn’t been there for a while now. Not since the other told him the most unbelievable story ever. It wasn’t his plan to actually avoid Takaki completely. He just… needed some time to process the whole thing, to accept the whole thing. It was just too much for his brain to take, especially when it was the very last thing he expected.
“I miss you…” said the voice on the other line.
It actually hurt to hear those words simply for the fact that he felt the same exact thing too. Uni was being an ass, and his work was piling up, one another every day. He needed time to be alone, to be able to think of what to feel or how to react.
“I miss you too… I really do…” he replied.
“Then come over?” the other quickly added.
“I… can’t. Not yet. I need some time alone, Takaki.”
“That’s what you said last week… and the last last week… and last, last, last week…”
Daiki gulped, not knowing what to say. He didn’t realise that it had been that long. Maybe this was the reason why he found it hard to sleep at night. Maybe this was the reason why it felt empty each time he woke up alone on his very own bed that he had been sleeping on for the past 19 years of his life. Maybe, just maybe, this was the reason that he often burst into tears for no apparent reason when he was staring into spaces.
Hikaru said he was being weird, while Inoo swore that he would kill Takaki if this sudden lack of energy in Daiki was because of him. He wasn’t sure why Inoo kept on asking him on why, just why on earth Daiki stopped being… himself. What was there to make him so different for the past three weeks?
He always wanted to believe that there was nothing wrong with him. He just had to accept some cruel reality, because really, it was not every day that you got to date someone that had… well, killed someone before. It wasn’t that which upset him. He knew the story, every single bit of it, because that night when Takaki told him, he demanded every detail. He wanted to know everything, literally everything about it because he couldn’t believe that Takaki was capable of doing something like that without a reason.
It was when Takaki told him that he was afraid he would hurt him. It was when the older guy told him this bullshit about how unstable his emotions were that he was so afraid if he didn’t tell Daiki about it, he would lost control out of nowhere and hurt Daiki anyway. That… wasn’t something that Daiki could accept. No, he couldn’t accept the fact that Takaki sounded as if there was nothing he could do about it. And he couldn’t accept the fact that Takaki didn’t even do more than just call for the past three weeks.
So he killed a man, and now what? Being all emo and pretending that this might ruin their relationship? Fuck it, Daiki wouldn’t even care if he were a serial killer because that Takaki wasn’t the one that he fell in love with. Oh yeah, that was right, he was in love with him… for the way Takaki was, for every single annoyingly sweet thing that the older boy had done. What was done, was done, and there was no reason to hold on to the past.
“It’s lonely without you…” Takaki said finally.
“I’m sorry…”
“Don’t do this to me…”
“If you really want me there… if you really miss me… show it to me… get me…” was all he said before he closed his phone.
------
The day passed just as it always did. Daiki, Inoo and Hikaru had work to do; some photo shoots, then lunch break, then meetings, and of course, lazing around in the common room before they went for more photo shoots. It had been three days since Takaki’s last call, and Daiki wasn’t expecting him to be standing in the agency lobby when they got back there, soaking wet because it just decided to rain although it was summer.
“What are you doing here?” he said, eyes casting over the soaked figure as he walked over to Takaki.
“To get you…”
“You could have called,” he answered, turning his head away to Inoo as he let his long wig cover half of his face. He wasn’t sure what to say. Despite the fact that he really wanted to run to his boyfriend and give the guy a big warm hug because he really missed him, Daiki just pretended that it wasn’t such a big deal that his boyfriend was there.
“My phone died,” Takaki replied. He was still half panting, looking as if he was running a mile or two just to get there.
It was a sight that looked like something out of a drama scene: the two of them standing apart, the boyfriend waiting for his girlfriend to respond, while she just turned away. Someone could take photo of it and claim it as a drama screencap. And that… was exactly what Hikaru did.
“Hua~ perfect! Just perfect! I can sell this to magazines and sell it for ridiculous prices!” he grinned, running to Inoo as he showed him his masterpiece.
“Can you please, for once, be a little bit considerate of the situation?” Inoo hissed at him and gave his arm a hard whack.
“But this is too dramatic!” he defended himself.
Daiki just rolled his eyes. He knew Hikaru well, and this was Hikaru’s way of telling him to quit the drama queen act and just talk to Takaki already. Daiki didn’t have to tell two of his best friends that he wasn’t on speaking terms with Takaki; they knew him long enough to know when there was something wrong with him. Besides, it had been a while since the four of them went out for meals or something. Daiki would just give them excuses like Takaki was busy, or he couldn’t wait for him and he was so hungry. But yeah, he knew they got the hints.
So instead of dragging things out even longer, Daiki sighed and walked over to Takaki. There was worry in his face, and the wet hair made him look like a kicked puppy. Daiki would be lying if he said it didn’t break his heart the slightest bit, because it definitely did. “Come on. Let’s get you some dry clothes,” he said.
All eyes were set on Takaki, not only because he was a famous singer, but because he looked ridiculously dead-looking - especially when he started to sneeze as if there were no tomorrow. So Daiki decided to take Takaki to his dressing room, where there were towels and hopefully extra male clothes in his bag. He knew they weren’t the same clothing size, but he knew a t-shirt that would fit Takaki.
“What were you thinking?!” he asked once they got to his dressing room. He undressed himself right after he threw a dry towel at Takaki, not sure what expression he should show to his older boyfriend.
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“What do you mean, ‘you weren’t thinking?’”
“Well, I don’t know! It’s been too long and for God’s sake I would be such a loser if I kept quiet all the time about this. I mean, I was trying to just give you some time to think about it, but I have my limits, too!” he explained. “I just want to see you…”
It might’ve been weird to admit it, but Daiki actually felt a slight happy tingling in his stomach. Putting his t-shirt on, he went through everything on his bag and tried to find that one extra t-shirt for Takaki. “Here… get changed first,” he walked over to him.
They got dressed in silence. It wasn’t the usual comfortable silence; in fact it was a rather intense atmosphere. Daiki wanted to say something, but his tongue was locked in his mouth, unable to even say a word. He felt stupid because nothing was different from Takaki. He was still the same crazy singer that decided Arisa should be his girlfriend and it didn’t matter if Daiki agreed about it or not.
“I’m sorry…” Daiki said, at last.
As if the huge burden had been lifted up from his shoulders, Daiki found it easy to keep eye contact with Takaki. There was another silence, but this time it didn’t feel as uncomfortable as before. Apparently, it was important to just leave some past behind and let it be. Not that it was going to ruin anything, really. Takaki was Takaki, and he shouldn’t be questioning it just because of what the man had done before.
“I shouldn’t have done this,” Daiki added again.
There was smile on Takaki’s face, and damn, how much Daiki loved that smile. It was the kind of smile that, no matter how many times he stared at it, would still leave an impression on him.
So Daiki decided that there was nothing to talk about and drew himself closer to plant a kiss on Takaki’s lips. “Let’s go home~.”
------
Of course, it wouldn’t be Daiki if he didn’t go behind Takaki’s back and try to find the truth. Fair enough; Takaki and he had come to an understanding that nothing was going to change and that they would just carrying on with their relationship, but being Daiki, he still needed to at least get down to business and pawn the truth out.
So there he was with Inoo, in the library, conquering one of the computers at the corner as if it was his life mission. Inoo refused to tell much about what happened, so Daiki decided to do what had to be done. His very own investigation. Of course, he would still drag Inoo around so that when he had knocked some sense back to himself, he would tell Daiki what exactly happened.
“Hm… I started to think that this library is not sufficient enough for awesome mission,” he groaned, scrolling down on every newspaper archives that the library had.
“You have only twenty more minutes before you need to go back to class, Dai-chan.”
“Well, who’s to blame really? If only someone is willing to just tell me the whole story, I wouldn’t have to be wasting my break time here in the library, searching for old newspaper to find out what happened. I don’t even know where to start,” he rolled his eyes.
“I told you that I’m not gonna say a thing about Takaki’s stuff. You can always ask him directly, you know,” Inoo retorted.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Inoo-chan. I can’t just ask someone their dark, dark pasts. It might encourage some sort of psychological disorder just from remembering their pasts.”
“…… you’re insane.”
“What?!?!?! I’m just doing doing precaution action here!”
“More like a very stupid action, Dai-chan. Come on. Let’s just go. I want to grab something first from my friend before my next class,” and it was when Inoo started to whine. Oh gosh, how much Daiki hated it when Inoo whined. He actually sounded like a broke radio broadcasting Donald Duck’s live performance.
“Then just go. I’ll stay here and try to find out about what happened.”
Inoo paused for a while. The older one among the two stood up as he straightened up his shirt. He stared at Daiki for a whole minute before then sighing, somehow looked like he should just give up and help him with it.
“Oh gosh. Fine, Dai-chan. You’re a hopeless case. Try to find something on 2004, around Autumn,” he said as he gave Daiki a meaningful look.
“2004? Autumn?”
“Yeah. There. I helped you. So yeah. I should go.”
Daiki looked up as he stared at Inoo’s back that was walking away from him. Sometimes he just couldn’t understand why Inoo couldn’t just tell him the whole story. It would be a lot easier for all of them. Well, maybe. Anyhow, Daiki was glad that at least he now know where to start.
------
All this time since he got to know Takaki, and not even once had Daiki seen this kind of expression on the older guy’s face. He had always thought that Takaki was all about being cool in front of the camera, rather stubborn off camera, and slightly a dork in between.
“So? Say something?”
Fidgeting with his shirt hem, Takaki stared at him. He looked confused, disappointed, and surprised. The beer before him was half empty and Daiki could sense how much he really wanted to just finish it all in one go. He wasn’t sure how to react to this. This definitely was not what he had in mind when he decided to come over and tell Takaki what he had found.
“What do you want me to say, Dai-chan?” Takaki sighed, sipping through his beer.
“Well, that whatever I was saying was right?”
Takaki went quiet. Daiki noticed how much he was gripping his beer can, and it wasn’t something pleasant to see, especially when there was a funny uneasy feeling running up his spine. That couldn’t be a good sign, could it?
“Okay. Let me repeat it again. So the year was 2004, and it was autumn. You were in your final year of junior high school when it all happened. Basically there was this music teacher. According to some sources, you were his favourite. He was so nice and all, and you didn’t see it coming. Some time during this time of the year, he was trying to… well, let’s say, force his way into your pants. But of course, you refused to, and it happened. You hit him on the head with your guitar. It was all self defence.”
And the silence kicked back in. Daiki didn’t know whether it was Takaki’s new habit to keep quiet like that, or if it was just him not knowing what to say. “Oh come on Takaki. Say something! I worked so hard to find all this information.”
But instead of replying, Takaki stood up from the couch, making his way to his veranda as he stared out the sliding door. Oh gosh, how much Daiki hated all this silence. Could everyone just say right away what they were thinking?! It really did get to his nerves when these dramatic scenes happened. It wasn’t a drama series or whatever!
“You could have just asked me…” he mumbled.
“Why did you sound like Inoo-chan? Please, let me have only one naggy Inoo Kei in my life. Save the job for him,” Daiki rolled his eyes, putting his legs on top of the coffee table in front of him.
“Maybe because he was right? I could just tell you about it if you want to,” he turned his head to Daiki, leaning on the glass sliding door.
“Well… it must be a very hard thing to do. So I was just trying not to make you remember those things again,” he replied honestly.
“And how will telling me about what you found make me not remember what happened?”
Daiki opened his mouth, but no words came out of his lips. Damn it, why didn’t he think of this before? Of course he definitely made Takaki remember what happened by telling of his little discovery!! Daiki had never felt so stupid.
“…right… I’m sorry…”
The smile that Takaki gave him as a reply was the only reason why he thought this mistake wasn’t so bad at all. When Takaki walked back to the couch, sitting next to him, one hand around his shoulder as the other pulled him closer, Daiki could feel his heart jump. It had been a while. Oh yes, it had been a while.
Daiki could smell him and damn, it was nerve breaking when Takaki kissed him. It wasn’t something new, but who actually would kiss you after you made him remember his past?
“I love you…” was what Daiki heard slip from Takaki’s lips.
------
It might take them a while, but they’d lived through it. It had become easier to talk about everything. Takaki didn’t hesitate to send Daiki out of his bedroom when the younger guy moved too much in his sleep, kicking and punching randomly. Literally. Daiki himself would actually say “No, I’m not going there just because you said so” when Takaki randomly sent Yabu to pick him up.
They also got to go out without hiding a thing. Takaki was less paranoid of being in public without the younger guy being undercover as Arisa. Of course, Takaki would shriek if Daiki accidentally got slightly too close to him, or when Daiki took his hand to drag him away from any mirror because Takaki would be staring at it to fix his hair.
But there was one place that he really loved to go to lately. It was somehow in public, but yet it was private enough for them to hold hands, or for Daiki to playfully blow in Takaki’s ear randomly. Takaki himself didn’t mind, as long as they got the right seat. Yeah, that was the very first time in his life that Daiki was so obsessed with… watching movies.
“That was awesome! Like totally fucking awesome!” Daiki skipped alongside Takaki.
“It was… if only there wasn’t so much blood!” Takaki protested. “And you know that I don’t like seeing blood!”
“Oh come on! It wasn’t so bad! Ninja Assassin was a lot worse that this~.”
“That’s exactly why I refused to watch it when you brought the DVD home!” he retorted.
Daiki was about to punch Takaki playfully on the arm when suddenly a flash blinded his eyes. He stepped back at the brightness, and it was even harder to see when he realised that it didn’t end there. There was more. They were suddenly being surrounded by many people, so many people of a very familiar kind. More cameras flashed at them and without realising it, Daiki gripped the edge of Takaki’s jacket, holding onto to it because it was scaring the shit out of him somehow.
He could hear Takaki asking them what it was all about. Blurrily, he heard one of them answer the taller guy that there was rumour about him and Arisa breaking up because it was very rare to see the two of them together. “No…” Daiki mumbled, head casted over every single one of them in confusion. “That’s just ridiculous!” he exclaimed at the end, totally forgetting that he wasn’t dressed as Arisa.
It was the worst thing he ever did and he could feel more of them taking pictures of him and Takaki. What was this? He wasn’t used to all this stuff, not even after months of dating Takaki! A lot of questions were asked and he couldn’t digest a single one of them. He was too confused to even hear them correctly. He wanted them to stop taking photos!
They could barely move, no matter how much Takaki was trying to shove some of them away. Daiki’s grip on the other’s jacket grew tighter, heart beating hard, so hard that he could hear them clearly. He tried to step forward, all he wanted to leave all this sudden mess. This was the very last thing that he had in mind when he insisted to watch a movie that night.
And that was it. The moment Daiki lost his balance and fell backwards, bum landing nicely on the hard road, Takaki snapped. “Goddamn it. Stop being so persistent! Get the fuck away!” he yelled at them, causing a great deal of silence.
“Takaki…?” Daiki blinked. He was surprised; the paparazzi were surprised. Not even once had Takaki shown any bad attitude in front of the camera. He never even rose his voice to a persistent reporter. This was something new and none of them expected it - heck, none of them even knew that Takaki was capable of being mad like that. Takaki had always been friendly with the media and he would still smile even when they brought up touchy subjects.
“Just leave us alone. I respect the fact that you are just trying to do your job, but please. Leave my boyfr- I mean, just leave Daiki-kun alone from this. A-Arisa w-wouldn’t like it if you mistreat her br-brother,” Takaki added. Ah~, maybe it wasn’t obvious to them, but Daiki could tell Takaki was uncomfortable with the lie by the way he avoided their eyes. Daiki tried to ignore the fact that his boyfriend was helping him stand up as he took his phone out of his pocket, calling Yabu to pick them up because he was still surprised of how much his… safety, if that was even the right term, meant to Takaki.
The attention was then diverted to him. It scared him even more now that all eyes were on him. “H-hi?” Daiki smiled awkwardly. “Arisa never mentioned me? What a shame. Inoo-chan and I got her together with Takaki~ Ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.”
“Dai-chan…” Takaki muttered.
“Yes?” he replied, just as softly.
“I saw Yabu’s car…”
“So…?”
“RUN TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
And with that Takaki grabbed Daiki’s hand, not caring if there were massive amounts of reporters around them. For now, Daiki could sense that what mattered the most to him was to get the two of them out of this mess.
------
He could smell coffee. That was something new to him. His parents weren’t coffee people, and Takaki wasn’t either, so it was something new to wake up to the smell of coffee. He slowly opened up his eyes as he let the sunshine help him register where he was. It was nowhere familiar, but he could remember that he had a good night’s sleep there.
The futon underneath him felt so fluffy and comfortable that he found it hard to even sit up. His hand trailed softly on the empty side of his futon. Takaki was still there a minute ago, he noted from the warmth. He rolled to his side, snuggling to where Takaki had been sleeping. “Bad, bad, bad Yuya woke up before I did~,” he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else… since there wasn’t anyone else around, anyway.
He paused for a while, literally hugging the edge of the futon, eyes blinking as they stared at a random spot on the window. “Should I call him Yuya from now on? Huaaaa~, what if he thinks I’m weird?” he mumbled, once again rolling on the futon.
“Coffee, Arioka-kun?”
Crap, was what Daiki thought of when he heard that. He pushed his body up right away, sitting on bended legs and hands right away placed on top of his knees politely. “H-hi, Yabu-kun,” he replied. “How long have you been there?
“Long enough~,” Yabu grinned, sipping to the coffee that he had on his hand.
“Are you gonna tell Takaki about it?!”
“I won’t. I can promise you that,” he smiled. “Anyway, breakfast is ready. And you might want to check the newspaper.”
“The newspaper?”
“Yeah, a very amusing headline,” Yabu laughed, waving his coffee as he made his way out from his guest room.
“Eh?”
So Daiki ran out of the guest room, following Yabu as he tripped over the futon that he was sleeping on the night before. He found Takaki at the dining table with a newspaper by the side of his breakfast, eyes riveted on it. Not caring if Takaki was reading it, Daiki grabbed the newspaper from the table once he got there. “Hey! I was reading it!”
There was his face, as well as Takaki’s, on the front page and the newspaper said, ‘Brothers in law bonding; Possibility of marriage ahead from Takaki Yuya and Arisa?’
“What the fuck?!?!?!” Daiki exclaimed as he threw the newspaper to the floor.
---------
I deserve a slap on the face for taking so long! Dx I know! I'm sorrryyyyyy!!! Anyway, I can feel that this story is going to end soon, but I'm not sure how much longer. Probably two more chapters, or just one more chapter. So yeah, I hope you enjoy this chapter!! &hearts &hearts