Strength
Title: Strength
Summary: KoyaShige finally debut!
Rating: G
Word count: 4741
Warnings: Crack, weird humor, NEWS being NEWS
Notes: Originally written for roughededged , as a birthday fic, and consequently eons late. Sorry Jess!
It was meant to be written for the prompt of ‘KoyaShige crack’, my crack skills are kind detiorating, so it became more of NEWS-gen fic with random moments of awkward and failed crack on my part. Either way, I hope you enjoy it, and I promise to make up for this awkward failyness sometime later -__-
Also sorry for the weird title, I suck at titles >.>
Disclaimer: Yeah, Yeah, we know I don't own anyone already.
“Wait, what?!” Shige asked, feeling as though the very ground beneath him had slipped away.
Manager-san looked as though he were about to get a migraine, gently rubbing the crease on his forehead, he again repeated the news, “you’ll be debuting as the newest NEWS sub-unit.”
“But, why?” Koyama piped up, finally finding his voice.
“Because Johnny-san feels you’re ready for it,” Manager-san replied, tiredly. He really needed a good night’s sleep, having just rolled in on a flight from Taiwan with Yamapi, he wasn’t in the best of moods.
“But, we can’t,” Shige spluttered. It wasn’t as though he were averse to getting more work, but it simply didn’t make any sense to him that he, the least popular member of the group would be debuting, again.
“You can, and you will, it’s already been arranged,” Manager-san said.
“But Shige’s already got a lot of work to do,” Koyama said. “You just got him a few shows last week, and he signed the contract for his butai yesterday!”
“All happening because you two will have to start promoting the debut,” Manager-san said.
“But we can’t,” Shige said again.
“Shige-kun, would you please say something more intelligible than just ‘we can’t’?” Manager-san asked irritably.
Shige pursed his lips, in what everyone would call a sulk, although he would never, in a million years, admit to it.
Koyama gave Shige a comforting pat on the back, “Manager-san must have had a long night, coming back, ne? You must be tired, maybe we can just talk again later?” Koyama suggested, giving Manager-san a soft smile, that was already sending the middle-aged man into a pool of guilt.
It really wasn’t Koyama’s fault that all the members of NEWS were scattered about.
“Schedules,” he managed to say, brusquely, handing the two a leaflet each, detailing their every move for the next two weeks.
“Thank you,” Koyama said, with a bow, dragging Shige out of the room.
* * *
“Wait, you’re debuting?” Ryo asked, looking utterly incredulous.
“Seems so,” Shige said with a sigh.
“But, why you?” Ryo asked, giving Shige an appraising look. And although Shige had been asking himself the exact same question for the last two weeks he really didn’t appreciate Ryo doing it too.
“What do you mean, ‘why me’?” Shige asked, annoyed.
“Do I have to spell it out?” Ryo asked, with an eye roll.
Shige bit back an angry retort when he saw Yamapi throw him a warning look.
“Stop being so mean,” Yamapi said, giving Ryo a hard poke.
“I’m not being mean!” Ryo replied, gently massaging his side.
“You kind of were,” Tegoshi said.
“Yup,” Massu added in agreement.
Ryo stared at the two as though he they had betrayed him. Tegoshi looked unaffected while Massu gave a simple shrug and said, “well you were.”
Shige looked a little too happy in Ryo’s most humble opinion.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter, ‘why?’ at this point,” Yamapi continued. “The point is it’s happening, and the rest of us just have to support them.”
Tegoshi and Massu nodded solemnly.
Ryo didn’t reply.
An awkward silence fell over the group.
“It’s going to be a little weird,” Massu finally said.
“What d’you mean?” Ryo asked.
“Well, we’ll all be debuted again,” Massu said.
“And?”
“We’re not exactly NEWS right now,” Shige said. Massu threw him a grateful smile, that’s exactly what he wanted to say.
“Of course we are,” Tegoshi piped up, looking offended by the very thought, “we just won’t always be together, ne leader?”
Yamapi nodded firmly, “we’ll always be NEWS, even if they send us in opposite directions, we’ll always be NEWS, no matter what.”
Yamapi hardly ever said anything so serious out loud, but this was something he’d believed, from the time the group had been in hiatus to now, he was positive that NEWS wasn’t something that anyone would give up.
Ryo nodded in agreement. “Pi’s right, you two are just expanding, you know spreading your wings.”
Koyama and Shige shared a worried look, “just make sure not to make us all look as silly as you two,” Ryo added with half a grin.
“Not like I would ever let Shige do that,” Koyama said, returning the grin.
“What?” Shige squawked, “I’m not the one that cross-dresses on stage!” he said, turning his gaze to Tegoshi.
Tegoshi gave a shrug, leading the rest of the group to happily crow in laughter.
It’d been a while since they’d been able to get together.
* * *
Shige read over his paperwork again, management had to be kidding. Both he and Koyama had been scheduled to meet and go over a few details for the single, namely choosing a demo to use, yet it turned out that the meeting had really just fell to the two alone.
“We’ve got to write the single ourselves,” Shige said, staring at the leaflet rather resignedly.
“Well it’ll be fun, right?” Koyama piqued.
Shige let out a sigh, “let’s listen to the demo tapes, first. Management dropped them off, right?”
Koyama nodded, and pulled a rather heavy crate filled with discs onto the table.
Shige’s eyes widened, Koyama took it as excitement, “seems management is excited to get us working.”
“Yeah, or torture out ears with cheesy music,” Shige muttered darkly, as he pulled a disk out and stuffed it into the player.
What pumped out was a heavy guitar driven number, that oddly enough Shige found himself rather liking. Head bobbing to the beat, unconsciously, that is until Koyama leaned in to hit the ‘pause’ button.
Shige glanced up somewhat surprised, “Hey, that was pretty good.”
Koyama shook his head, “I don’t think we can write a song with that, it’ll give the girls dirty thoughts!”
Shige couldn’t think of any response, and instead give Koyama a withering look, before ejecting the disk, and replacing it with another.
This one was a bit on the odd side, opening with the sound of canon shots, and with sheathing swords. Koyama seemed to like it, claiming they could be pirates.
Shige simply shook his head, “NEWS aren’t pirates.”
“But we could be,” Koyama replied, looking hopeful. Shige didn’t have the heart to explain that KAT-TUN may declare war on them if they tried, and instead put it into a pile filed under ‘maybe’.
After a grueling four hours, Shige’s head was pounding, and they were no closer to choosing a few demo’s. The ‘maybe’ pile had spiraled to almost 75 different disks, all varying between what Shige deemed, okay, horrible, god-awful, to the ‘if I hear this, my ears will bleed and we’ll all die!’
As the two exited the building, Shige wondered if he’d be able to sneak a few out of the pile, and who the hell Johnny entrusted to mix his music.
* * *
It took weeks, but the two had finally narrowed their choices down to three, two of which would be used for a B-side for the single, and the other for the actual single.
“Now what do you want to write about?” Shige asked, pen poised and ready to write.
Koyama pondered the question.
“Well,” Koyama began, “the demo kind of reminds me of…”
“of?” Shige prompted.
“Cats.”
Cats. He really wanted a song about cats?
“You’re not serious are you?” Shige asked, incredulously.
Koyama looked sheepish, “Well it kind of does sound like it’d make a good cat song.”
Shige stuffed the disc into the player again, and listened carefully.
His eyes narrowed towards the end, before turning to look at a grinning Koyama.
“Great, now I can say I’m allergic to a song too!”
“Don’t be silly, Shige, you can’t be allergic to a song,” Koyama said, gingerly taking the pen and paper away from Shige and setting to work to writing the first verse of their new single.
After an entire day of working, Shige glared down at the set of lyrics.
It was completely unbelievable, somehow Koyama had managed to write an entire song about cats.
Shige was struck dumb the next day when he gave it in to Johnny, and ended up with an exclaiming 70 year old man nearly jumping onto his lap from excitement and love.
Things couldn’t really be any worse, could they?
* * *
The problem with Shige even thinking things couldn’t get worse, was that it usually did.
After hitting the recording studio with Koyama, both were surprised to see Ryo and Tegoshi waiting for them.
Shige blinked, he must be seeing things, that late night drinking with Yoko-san having horrible repercussions.
“Ryo-chan! Tegoshi!” Koyama chirped, happily.
Tegoshi beamed, and Ryo deigned them with a small smirk.
“What’re you guys doing here?” Shige asked blithely.
“Making this place a lot hotter than it originally was,” Ryo said, with his annoyingly handsome all knowing smirk.
“Way to be modest,” Koyama replied.
“It’s a specialty,” Ryo said, before turning back to the glass.
“So, seriously, what’re you guys doing here?” Shige asked again.
“Oh, didn’t they tell you?” Tegoshi asked, innocently.
“Tell us what?”
“We’ll be mixing the tracks,” Tegoshi said simply.
Shige felt his jaw drop, and he was certain Koyama’s had as well. Turning slightly, his thought was confirmed as Koyama’s eyes widened and his mouth had formed a pretty ‘o’.
However moments later, Koyama seemed to reawaken, and his eyes had turned misty, and looked as though the occurence were a gift from above.
Shige knew he’d be outnumbered, and conceded to stepping into the recording booth and belting out his part of the somewhat idiotic song, and pretending to ignore Ryo’s snide remarks and Tegoshi’s unintentional, yet still annoying grin of superiority.
It was rather grueling, singing his verses in the song over and over, while Ryo and Tegoshi fiddled with effects.
Shige didn’t remember recording ever being this long.
“Don’t worry,” Ryo called through the glass window, “we’ve got the studio for the next two days too!”
Shige shuddered, his voice was likely to die if he had to sing the silly song another few hundred times.
After another three hours, Ryo let out a huff and decided it was time for Shige and Koyama to switch, because although Koyama had been rather helpful in bringing him water and snacks, he was also a little to distracting as he playfully nipped and prodded at Tegoshi.
Exhausted, Shige fell into the empty seat beside Ryo, ready to lightly chide Ryo on torturing him, until he noted Ryo’s rather serious expression.
Ryo hit the play button and Koyama started recording, the first recording was just Koyama singing, the second one however had Ryo quickly adjusting the levels of the bass while Tegoshi feverishly fumbled with the volume.
As Koyama continued his recording, Shige was somewhat impressed to notice just how dedicated Ryo seemed to be. It was a little odd, but thinking clearly, Shige realized it really wasn’t.
If anyone could make a proper song out what he and Koyama had thrown together it would be Ryo, and the fact that Tegoshi was editing the track wasn’t a drawback either.
Both were pretty apt in mixing and recording.
It took a few days, but once Ryo was finally satisfied, he gave them the biggest grin imaginable.
Although Massu may be the one in the group known for the best of smiles, Shige was more than willing to admit that Ryo’s came as a close second, as his smiles were likely enough to make anyone’s knees turn to jelly.
At least that’s what he told himself in an attempt to make himself feel better, when his own knee’s started feeling a little weak.
Koyama likely agreed though as he was all but dancing in place after seeing the grin.
“Can we hear it now?” Tegoshi asked, looking a bit impatient. He’d been more than satisfied with the sound after the first three tries, or at least he had been with his own part.
“I guess,” Ryo said, gingerly hitting the ‘play’ button.
The soft pounding of the drums seemed to lull Shige, before he was shaken by swift rifts of bass, and heard Koyama’s voice seamlessly fall in step with the beat.
Yes the lyrics were still a bit cringe worthy, but overall the song sounded pretty good, and not just by the standards of a Johnny, but for Shige’s own taste.
It just wasn’t what Shige was expecting, Ryo seemed to have fixed the messy beat, melded it to a simple background, with both Shige’s and Koyama’s voices taking center stage, few real alterations to their voices.
The raw emotion hidden in Koyama’s voice was finally showing through on the track.
Shige was quite surprised that even his own voice was altered very little, his husky tone slightly overpowering the gentle rhythm of the keyboard, and flowing seamlessly with Koyama’s as the song came to it’s end.
Astonished the duo turned their gaze to Ryo and Tegoshi.
“Am I good, or am I good?” Ryo asked, his winning grin still plastered to his face.
“Amazing is more like it,” Koyama croaked, his voice still not yet recovered from the last three days of singing.
“How did you even manage this?” Shige asked, still rather flabbergasted.
Ryo shrugged, “it wasn’t too hard, it was mostly just finding a way to make your voice sound good.”
Tegoshi nodded, “your pitch was really weird in the choruses.”
Shige didn’t answer.
“But we managed to make you sound decently,” Ryo added.
“Gee thanks,” Shige muttered.
“No problem!” Tegoshi answered brightly. “Now, I’m hungry, ne Kei-chan let’s get some dinner!”
“Me too, Shige you should buy me dinner for all the hard work I did today!” Ryo declared.
And before Shige could properly argue, he was being pulled up and out.
He dearly hoped he’d brought his ATM card with him.
* * *
With the recording done, next on the schedule was choreography for the song.
Shige really didn’t think it’d be that bad, since it seemed it would be up to him and Koyama to choreograph the thing themselves, it probably wouldn’t be that hard.
He and Koyama could always easily agree to make things simple enough for the fans to try themselves.
Still walking into the jumisho, candidly talking general ideas with Koyama, they came to an utter halt when they saw a small group assembled outside their rehearsal room.
However moments later the crowd dispersed, leaving a lone figure to enter the rehearsal room on his own.
Shige was sure he was seeing things, this time blaming Ryo for having him try a new brand of Tequila the night before.
He really aught to stop drinking with his colleagues when he had work the next day.
“Is it me, or was that…” Koyama began but stopped short when his suspicions were confirmed.
Yamapi stood before the long row of mirrors, idly playing with his hair.
“Yamashita-kun!” Koyama cried, enthusiastically.
Yamapi perked up, “Kei-chan! Shige!”
Koyama all but launched himself on Yamapi, engulfing the leader in a warm hug.
A few seconds ticked by, and then another few, and then another few.
Shige didn’t think hugs were supposed to last that long, at least not between guys.
But the way Yamapi and Koyama were groping each other seemed to say otherwise, Yamapi idly playing with the ends of Koyama’s dark hair, while Koyama liberally squeezed his leader.
Shige cleared his throat, this was getting a little out of hand.
Once the two had disentangled themselves, and Yamapi had fulfilled his manly leader duty of giving Shige a stiff hug, did Shige find his voice to ask the question of the hour.
“Not to be rude or anything, but uhm, what’re you doing here?”
Yamapi looked perplexed and for a second Shige was sure that the leader himself wasn’t even sure why he was present.
He was surprised when he was answered with, “Didn’t they tell you?”
“Tell us what?” Koyama asked, cocking his head to one side.
“I’m doing your choreography for the single,” Yamapi said simply.
The surprises just got better and better didn’t they?
He didn’t bother asking why, but somehow Yamapi decided it would be best if he explained in detail why he’d been chosen to be the choreographer.
“We’re all about expanding, so what better way for you guys to expand than to do some cool new dancing?”
It didn’t make much sense to Shige, but Koyama seemed all for it.
“So where do you want to start?” Koyama asked, expectantly.
Yamapi stared at the two puzzled.
“Did you remember to listen to the song earlier?” Shige asked.
Yamapi simply blinked.
With a sigh, Shige pulled his copy of the song out of his bag and shuffled over to the stereo and stuffed it in.
The three sat down together and simply listened, it took about half an hour before Yamapi felt he’d gotten the song down.
Shige wasn’t exactly sure about what to expect. Of course he knew Yamapi was fairly good dancer, after all he’d done his own music videos and shows. However, their leader’s style was quite different from what the song actually called for.
“Do me a favor and play the first eight beats of the song,” Yamapi called over to Shige.
Shige complied, and watched, awed as Yamapi set to a series of rather complicated dance moves, pausing every eight beats, before continuing with his routine.
Once Yamapi had completed the choreography for the song three times, he turned to the duo.
“Okay, time to learn!”
“Yessir, Yamapi-sensei!” Koyama chirped, after just watching he seemed a rather huge ball of energy.
Shige wanted to shoot himself.
As it turned out Yamapi was a rather patient teacher, slowly going over every movement, and thoroughly making sure they got it.
Shige knew Yamapi wasn’t exactly a perfectionist, and would usually have the laid-back demeanor, but he seemed absolutely serious in teaching the two.
A single toe pointing in the wrong direction and Yamapi gently chided them, fixing their stances, and even going to so far as to steadily move Shige’s hips himself when he thought the former’s hip thrusts weren’t fluid enough.
Shige was feeling a little weird about that, but didn’t think much on it when he noticed Yamapi tightly wind around Koyama, standing hip to hip and swaying in a somewhat provocative manner.
Yeah, this totally didn’t look gay, then again not many things did if you were a Johnny.
It took a few days, and a few tweaks of the choreography, before Koyama and Shige could happily do the routine in their sleep.
Sore and slightly weary, Shige was still rather satisfied, and could tell Koyama was as well.
The clock ticked forward, as the three sat down to relax a few minutes before departing.
“This was fun,” Koyama said, “right Shige?”
Shige nodded, “exhausting, but yeah, fun.”
“Leader’s always a blast,” Koyama said.
Yamapi gave the two a shy smile, that Shige was positive would have had fangirls reeling.
“I haven’t had this much fun, dancing in a while,” Yamapi said, “it’s nice dancing with you guys again.”
“Even though Shige fell three times and kept messing up his hip thrusts?” Koyama asked, giving Shige a sly grin.
“Hey, I didn’t fall, I just slipped,” Shige replied indignantly.
“There’s a difference?” Yamapi asked, astonished.
“Of course there is!”
“Don’t lie to leader, Shige!” Koyama warned, lightheartedly.
“I am not!” Shige cried, sending the other two into peels of laughter.
He really just couldn’t win, could he?
Yet, he smiled in spite of himself.
* * *
They were scheduled to perform on ‘Music station’, and as such were also scheduled for a costume fitting.
Entering the building, alone this time, Shige was somehow unsurprised to find that Koyama was already inside, animatedly talking to Massu.
“Shige!” Koyama cried happily, “look whose here to help us with costumes!”
Massu gave Shige a friendly wave, “are you surprised?” he asked, excitedly.
Shige didn’t have the heart to answer ‘no’, and instead with a warm smile, nodded, “yeah.”
Rather than idly chatting, Massu quickly pulled Shige into the conversation, by gingerly passing his sketch to him.
It wasn’t bad, at least not that bad.
Shige was sure he’d been forced to wear worse things as a junior.
“the fabric pattern is like Nyanta’s” Koyama explained excitedly.
Shige nodded, “You guys did this in the last ten minutes?”
Massu shook his head, “oh no, I started drawing it up two weeks ago.”
“I really like it,” Koyama said, eyes alight with excitement.
Massu looked pleased, and turned his smile to Shige, waiting for a response.
Already thinking that he’d be better equipped to fight a grizzly bear with a fork than to tell Massu that the outfits were gaudy as hell, he gave Massu a tight smile and nodded in agreement.
“They’re great, Massu.”
Surprisingly the costuming took the least amount of time.
Massu’s indecisiveness seemed to have melted away as he happily presented Shige with his costume days later.
Gingerly turning it over in his hands, he decided it really wasn’t that bad. Sure there were a few too many sequins layered to the hips, and sure the alternated print made him a little dizzy, and yeah maybe he would be stiflingly hot in the thing, but altogether it wasn’t that bad.
At least it didn’t have his name tapered in huge letters to the back. He had ‘KOYA’ written on the back instead.
Koyama’s had ‘SHIGE’ embroidered to the back.
“It’s for when you end your dance, your right next to each other, so it’ll spell out ‘KOYASHIGE’” Massu explained.
“It’s so cute!” Koyama squealed, hugging the garment, “and it’s even specialer since Massu made them for us, himself, ne Shige?”
Shige could only nod.
Massu shouldn’t be allowed to grin at him like that.
* * *
It had officially been a month since either Koyama or Shige had seen hide or hair of their manager, communication usually falling to e-mails, and text reminders.
However there was now less than three days left until their official single release, and their manager had called the two in to go over a few last points.
“Alright, it looks as though you managed to get everything done,” Manager-san said, casting a furtive gaze at the long ‘to-do’ list he’d printed out.
“We’ll be having a press conference on the actual day of the release, I’ve already cleared your schedules for that day, so you should have ample time to prepare,” he continued.
“Music station performance will be tomorrow, and I feel it’s needless, but let me remind you that you do have a rehearsal tonight.”
“Yes, Manager-san, we know,” Koyama replied with a nod.
“Well, that’s about it,” Manager-san said, “now, if you don’t have any questions- “
“I do,” Shige cut in.
Manager-san turned a weary gaze on Shige, “yes?”
“Is there any particular reason, aside from ‘fan-letters’ that you all decided it was a good idea to do this?” Shige asked.
Manager-san let out a tired sigh, “I’ve told you exactly what Johnny-san told me, there’s nothing else.”
Shige seemed to have lost his voice.
* * *
It felt odd, sitting in the spotlight, camera’s flashing, with only Koyama to keep him company.
Sure he’d done his own solo works before, but it was never anything like this, he’d always stood before the press as ‘Kato Shigeaki of NEWS’, while now he sat in an itchy gray, striped and polka-doted costume as ‘Kato Shigeaki of KoyaShige,’ Johnny’s newest group.
Koyama seemed to sense his apprehension and reached out to give his hand a squeeze.
The hall was filled with buzzing, clicks and shouts, as the camera’s focused in on the duo sitting slightly to the right, waiting for their manager to finish his long and thoroughly rehearsed speech about the wonderful merits the two young men had, the amazing effort they’d put into their work, and how exciting it was for the jumisho to have a new group.
There wasn’t a single mention of Yamapi, Ryo, Tegoshi or Massu.
Once Manager-san had finished his speech, he gave leave for Koyama and Shige to step forward and address the press’ questions.
The first question came from a reporter of NHK news, “Kato-san, Koyama-san, how do you feel, with this new conquest under your belt?”
Koyama answered, “we’re very proud, and excited, we hope to be able to please all our fans, whom without this wouldn’t have been possible.”
The next question came from a young man, who looked as though the only strenuous activity he did was making a cup of coffee. “What does your debut mean for NEWS? With your entire group scattered, will it be disbanding?”
Before Shige or Koyama could indignantly answer that ‘hell no was NEWS disbanding!’ Manager-san had taken the microphone and was addressing the reporter.
“NEWS is not disbanding; the new unit has absolutely nothing to do with NEWS, and shall not conflict with any impending group activities.”
‘What group activities?’ Shige thought to himself somewhat sourly.
The reporter seemed to have no further questions. And was instead replaced with a rather energetic looking young woman, “it was said that both Koyama-san and Kato-san planned their debut, from the single to costumes, is this true? If possible, please elaborate.”
It was an interesting question, and one that would take a long explanation, not that Koyama minded explaining.
“Well, Kato-kun and I did make the single, ourselves, we picked the demo track and wrote the lyrics ourselves,” Koyama said, before pausing with a smile and continuing, “but the song was mixed and edited by Nishkido-kun and Tegoshi-kun.”
“As for the choreography for our music, that was done by Yamashita-san,” Shige said, “and our lovely costumes were designed and tailored, by Masuda-kun,” Shige added.
“Yes, aren’t they lovely?” Koyama asked, giving a small twirl, showing off the costume.
The reporters didn’t really have an answer, probably disoriented by the print and shine, but Koyama took the silence to be an agreement and gave them a winning smile, quite proud of his band-mate’s work.
“So, you mean to say that the entire preparation for your debut was orchestrated by NEWS?” the reporter asked, looking as though she had stars in her eyes.
Koyama and Shige stopped, and turned to one another in unison, the same look of confusion and sudden dawning mirrored in each other’s faces.
“Yes, I guess you could say that,” Shige said.
“Absolutely right, member-ai made KoyaShige,” Koyama said, looking so utterly happy, that Shige was kind of surprised he wasn’t crying.
There was a quite murmur throughout the room, nothing of this sort had ever happened in the talent agency.
Manager-san seemed to think they’d been asked enough questions, and soon enough Koyama and Shige were bowing in thanks.
“Our debut single is titled ‘Cat’s Meow’ and we’d really appreciate your support,” Shige said, giving a bow.
“Hai, this is a work produced by all of NEWS, so please support us,” Koyama said, with glistening eyes as he gave a low bow, his hand searching and closing around Shige’s.
There was general applause, before the two were herded off the stage.
Koyama looked ecstatic, with tears looking about ready to spill.
Shige thought he looked quite comical, a grown man wearing an imitation cat suit with sparkles, feathers and rhinestones lining the seams, and eyes aglow with happiness.
“Why are you crying?” Shige asked in mock exasperation, he never could really be annoyed with Koyama, especially when the latter was crying.
“Our member-ai is really strong, isn’t it?”
Shige wasn’t sure how to answer, but silently contemplated, flashing back to the start of their sudden debut.
Ryo and Tegoshi spending a solid few days, playing, mixing and editing the tracks, Tegoshi happily pointing out Shige’s vocal flaws, Ryo gruffly giving Koyama direction in pitch.
Yamapi taking a few days out of his busy tour schedule to give Koyama and Shige help with the choreography, sleep-deprived but with a wanton smile permanently etched on his face as he patiently helped Shige move his hips properly, and happily took all of Koyama’s hugs and gentle chiding about keeping his health up.
And of course Massu, who diligently worked on their costumes, thoughtfully having decided on a design, before Shige could exasperatedly weedle ideas out of him.
“Yeah,” Shige found himself saying, “we’re really strong.”
And he actually believed it
Fin ~
Summary: KoyaShige finally debut!
Rating: G
Word count: 4741
Warnings: Crack, weird humor, NEWS being NEWS
Notes: Originally written for roughededged , as a birthday fic, and consequently eons late. Sorry Jess!
It was meant to be written for the prompt of ‘KoyaShige crack’, my crack skills are kind detiorating, so it became more of NEWS-gen fic with random moments of awkward and failed crack on my part. Either way, I hope you enjoy it, and I promise to make up for this awkward failyness sometime later -__-
Also sorry for the weird title, I suck at titles >.>
Disclaimer: Yeah, Yeah, we know I don't own anyone already.
“Wait, what?!” Shige asked, feeling as though the very ground beneath him had slipped away.
Manager-san looked as though he were about to get a migraine, gently rubbing the crease on his forehead, he again repeated the news, “you’ll be debuting as the newest NEWS sub-unit.”
“But, why?” Koyama piped up, finally finding his voice.
“Because Johnny-san feels you’re ready for it,” Manager-san replied, tiredly. He really needed a good night’s sleep, having just rolled in on a flight from Taiwan with Yamapi, he wasn’t in the best of moods.
“But, we can’t,” Shige spluttered. It wasn’t as though he were averse to getting more work, but it simply didn’t make any sense to him that he, the least popular member of the group would be debuting, again.
“You can, and you will, it’s already been arranged,” Manager-san said.
“But Shige’s already got a lot of work to do,” Koyama said. “You just got him a few shows last week, and he signed the contract for his butai yesterday!”
“All happening because you two will have to start promoting the debut,” Manager-san said.
“But we can’t,” Shige said again.
“Shige-kun, would you please say something more intelligible than just ‘we can’t’?” Manager-san asked irritably.
Shige pursed his lips, in what everyone would call a sulk, although he would never, in a million years, admit to it.
Koyama gave Shige a comforting pat on the back, “Manager-san must have had a long night, coming back, ne? You must be tired, maybe we can just talk again later?” Koyama suggested, giving Manager-san a soft smile, that was already sending the middle-aged man into a pool of guilt.
It really wasn’t Koyama’s fault that all the members of NEWS were scattered about.
“Schedules,” he managed to say, brusquely, handing the two a leaflet each, detailing their every move for the next two weeks.
“Thank you,” Koyama said, with a bow, dragging Shige out of the room.
* * *
“Wait, you’re debuting?” Ryo asked, looking utterly incredulous.
“Seems so,” Shige said with a sigh.
“But, why you?” Ryo asked, giving Shige an appraising look. And although Shige had been asking himself the exact same question for the last two weeks he really didn’t appreciate Ryo doing it too.
“What do you mean, ‘why me’?” Shige asked, annoyed.
“Do I have to spell it out?” Ryo asked, with an eye roll.
Shige bit back an angry retort when he saw Yamapi throw him a warning look.
“Stop being so mean,” Yamapi said, giving Ryo a hard poke.
“I’m not being mean!” Ryo replied, gently massaging his side.
“You kind of were,” Tegoshi said.
“Yup,” Massu added in agreement.
Ryo stared at the two as though he they had betrayed him. Tegoshi looked unaffected while Massu gave a simple shrug and said, “well you were.”
Shige looked a little too happy in Ryo’s most humble opinion.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter, ‘why?’ at this point,” Yamapi continued. “The point is it’s happening, and the rest of us just have to support them.”
Tegoshi and Massu nodded solemnly.
Ryo didn’t reply.
An awkward silence fell over the group.
“It’s going to be a little weird,” Massu finally said.
“What d’you mean?” Ryo asked.
“Well, we’ll all be debuted again,” Massu said.
“And?”
“We’re not exactly NEWS right now,” Shige said. Massu threw him a grateful smile, that’s exactly what he wanted to say.
“Of course we are,” Tegoshi piped up, looking offended by the very thought, “we just won’t always be together, ne leader?”
Yamapi nodded firmly, “we’ll always be NEWS, even if they send us in opposite directions, we’ll always be NEWS, no matter what.”
Yamapi hardly ever said anything so serious out loud, but this was something he’d believed, from the time the group had been in hiatus to now, he was positive that NEWS wasn’t something that anyone would give up.
Ryo nodded in agreement. “Pi’s right, you two are just expanding, you know spreading your wings.”
Koyama and Shige shared a worried look, “just make sure not to make us all look as silly as you two,” Ryo added with half a grin.
“Not like I would ever let Shige do that,” Koyama said, returning the grin.
“What?” Shige squawked, “I’m not the one that cross-dresses on stage!” he said, turning his gaze to Tegoshi.
Tegoshi gave a shrug, leading the rest of the group to happily crow in laughter.
It’d been a while since they’d been able to get together.
* * *
Shige read over his paperwork again, management had to be kidding. Both he and Koyama had been scheduled to meet and go over a few details for the single, namely choosing a demo to use, yet it turned out that the meeting had really just fell to the two alone.
“We’ve got to write the single ourselves,” Shige said, staring at the leaflet rather resignedly.
“Well it’ll be fun, right?” Koyama piqued.
Shige let out a sigh, “let’s listen to the demo tapes, first. Management dropped them off, right?”
Koyama nodded, and pulled a rather heavy crate filled with discs onto the table.
Shige’s eyes widened, Koyama took it as excitement, “seems management is excited to get us working.”
“Yeah, or torture out ears with cheesy music,” Shige muttered darkly, as he pulled a disk out and stuffed it into the player.
What pumped out was a heavy guitar driven number, that oddly enough Shige found himself rather liking. Head bobbing to the beat, unconsciously, that is until Koyama leaned in to hit the ‘pause’ button.
Shige glanced up somewhat surprised, “Hey, that was pretty good.”
Koyama shook his head, “I don’t think we can write a song with that, it’ll give the girls dirty thoughts!”
Shige couldn’t think of any response, and instead give Koyama a withering look, before ejecting the disk, and replacing it with another.
This one was a bit on the odd side, opening with the sound of canon shots, and with sheathing swords. Koyama seemed to like it, claiming they could be pirates.
Shige simply shook his head, “NEWS aren’t pirates.”
“But we could be,” Koyama replied, looking hopeful. Shige didn’t have the heart to explain that KAT-TUN may declare war on them if they tried, and instead put it into a pile filed under ‘maybe’.
After a grueling four hours, Shige’s head was pounding, and they were no closer to choosing a few demo’s. The ‘maybe’ pile had spiraled to almost 75 different disks, all varying between what Shige deemed, okay, horrible, god-awful, to the ‘if I hear this, my ears will bleed and we’ll all die!’
As the two exited the building, Shige wondered if he’d be able to sneak a few out of the pile, and who the hell Johnny entrusted to mix his music.
* * *
It took weeks, but the two had finally narrowed their choices down to three, two of which would be used for a B-side for the single, and the other for the actual single.
“Now what do you want to write about?” Shige asked, pen poised and ready to write.
Koyama pondered the question.
“Well,” Koyama began, “the demo kind of reminds me of…”
“of?” Shige prompted.
“Cats.”
Cats. He really wanted a song about cats?
“You’re not serious are you?” Shige asked, incredulously.
Koyama looked sheepish, “Well it kind of does sound like it’d make a good cat song.”
Shige stuffed the disc into the player again, and listened carefully.
His eyes narrowed towards the end, before turning to look at a grinning Koyama.
“Great, now I can say I’m allergic to a song too!”
“Don’t be silly, Shige, you can’t be allergic to a song,” Koyama said, gingerly taking the pen and paper away from Shige and setting to work to writing the first verse of their new single.
After an entire day of working, Shige glared down at the set of lyrics.
It was completely unbelievable, somehow Koyama had managed to write an entire song about cats.
Shige was struck dumb the next day when he gave it in to Johnny, and ended up with an exclaiming 70 year old man nearly jumping onto his lap from excitement and love.
Things couldn’t really be any worse, could they?
* * *
The problem with Shige even thinking things couldn’t get worse, was that it usually did.
After hitting the recording studio with Koyama, both were surprised to see Ryo and Tegoshi waiting for them.
Shige blinked, he must be seeing things, that late night drinking with Yoko-san having horrible repercussions.
“Ryo-chan! Tegoshi!” Koyama chirped, happily.
Tegoshi beamed, and Ryo deigned them with a small smirk.
“What’re you guys doing here?” Shige asked blithely.
“Making this place a lot hotter than it originally was,” Ryo said, with his annoyingly handsome all knowing smirk.
“Way to be modest,” Koyama replied.
“It’s a specialty,” Ryo said, before turning back to the glass.
“So, seriously, what’re you guys doing here?” Shige asked again.
“Oh, didn’t they tell you?” Tegoshi asked, innocently.
“Tell us what?”
“We’ll be mixing the tracks,” Tegoshi said simply.
Shige felt his jaw drop, and he was certain Koyama’s had as well. Turning slightly, his thought was confirmed as Koyama’s eyes widened and his mouth had formed a pretty ‘o’.
However moments later, Koyama seemed to reawaken, and his eyes had turned misty, and looked as though the occurence were a gift from above.
Shige knew he’d be outnumbered, and conceded to stepping into the recording booth and belting out his part of the somewhat idiotic song, and pretending to ignore Ryo’s snide remarks and Tegoshi’s unintentional, yet still annoying grin of superiority.
It was rather grueling, singing his verses in the song over and over, while Ryo and Tegoshi fiddled with effects.
Shige didn’t remember recording ever being this long.
“Don’t worry,” Ryo called through the glass window, “we’ve got the studio for the next two days too!”
Shige shuddered, his voice was likely to die if he had to sing the silly song another few hundred times.
After another three hours, Ryo let out a huff and decided it was time for Shige and Koyama to switch, because although Koyama had been rather helpful in bringing him water and snacks, he was also a little to distracting as he playfully nipped and prodded at Tegoshi.
Exhausted, Shige fell into the empty seat beside Ryo, ready to lightly chide Ryo on torturing him, until he noted Ryo’s rather serious expression.
Ryo hit the play button and Koyama started recording, the first recording was just Koyama singing, the second one however had Ryo quickly adjusting the levels of the bass while Tegoshi feverishly fumbled with the volume.
As Koyama continued his recording, Shige was somewhat impressed to notice just how dedicated Ryo seemed to be. It was a little odd, but thinking clearly, Shige realized it really wasn’t.
If anyone could make a proper song out what he and Koyama had thrown together it would be Ryo, and the fact that Tegoshi was editing the track wasn’t a drawback either.
Both were pretty apt in mixing and recording.
It took a few days, but once Ryo was finally satisfied, he gave them the biggest grin imaginable.
Although Massu may be the one in the group known for the best of smiles, Shige was more than willing to admit that Ryo’s came as a close second, as his smiles were likely enough to make anyone’s knees turn to jelly.
At least that’s what he told himself in an attempt to make himself feel better, when his own knee’s started feeling a little weak.
Koyama likely agreed though as he was all but dancing in place after seeing the grin.
“Can we hear it now?” Tegoshi asked, looking a bit impatient. He’d been more than satisfied with the sound after the first three tries, or at least he had been with his own part.
“I guess,” Ryo said, gingerly hitting the ‘play’ button.
The soft pounding of the drums seemed to lull Shige, before he was shaken by swift rifts of bass, and heard Koyama’s voice seamlessly fall in step with the beat.
Yes the lyrics were still a bit cringe worthy, but overall the song sounded pretty good, and not just by the standards of a Johnny, but for Shige’s own taste.
It just wasn’t what Shige was expecting, Ryo seemed to have fixed the messy beat, melded it to a simple background, with both Shige’s and Koyama’s voices taking center stage, few real alterations to their voices.
The raw emotion hidden in Koyama’s voice was finally showing through on the track.
Shige was quite surprised that even his own voice was altered very little, his husky tone slightly overpowering the gentle rhythm of the keyboard, and flowing seamlessly with Koyama’s as the song came to it’s end.
Astonished the duo turned their gaze to Ryo and Tegoshi.
“Am I good, or am I good?” Ryo asked, his winning grin still plastered to his face.
“Amazing is more like it,” Koyama croaked, his voice still not yet recovered from the last three days of singing.
“How did you even manage this?” Shige asked, still rather flabbergasted.
Ryo shrugged, “it wasn’t too hard, it was mostly just finding a way to make your voice sound good.”
Tegoshi nodded, “your pitch was really weird in the choruses.”
Shige didn’t answer.
“But we managed to make you sound decently,” Ryo added.
“Gee thanks,” Shige muttered.
“No problem!” Tegoshi answered brightly. “Now, I’m hungry, ne Kei-chan let’s get some dinner!”
“Me too, Shige you should buy me dinner for all the hard work I did today!” Ryo declared.
And before Shige could properly argue, he was being pulled up and out.
He dearly hoped he’d brought his ATM card with him.
* * *
With the recording done, next on the schedule was choreography for the song.
Shige really didn’t think it’d be that bad, since it seemed it would be up to him and Koyama to choreograph the thing themselves, it probably wouldn’t be that hard.
He and Koyama could always easily agree to make things simple enough for the fans to try themselves.
Still walking into the jumisho, candidly talking general ideas with Koyama, they came to an utter halt when they saw a small group assembled outside their rehearsal room.
However moments later the crowd dispersed, leaving a lone figure to enter the rehearsal room on his own.
Shige was sure he was seeing things, this time blaming Ryo for having him try a new brand of Tequila the night before.
He really aught to stop drinking with his colleagues when he had work the next day.
“Is it me, or was that…” Koyama began but stopped short when his suspicions were confirmed.
Yamapi stood before the long row of mirrors, idly playing with his hair.
“Yamashita-kun!” Koyama cried, enthusiastically.
Yamapi perked up, “Kei-chan! Shige!”
Koyama all but launched himself on Yamapi, engulfing the leader in a warm hug.
A few seconds ticked by, and then another few, and then another few.
Shige didn’t think hugs were supposed to last that long, at least not between guys.
But the way Yamapi and Koyama were groping each other seemed to say otherwise, Yamapi idly playing with the ends of Koyama’s dark hair, while Koyama liberally squeezed his leader.
Shige cleared his throat, this was getting a little out of hand.
Once the two had disentangled themselves, and Yamapi had fulfilled his manly leader duty of giving Shige a stiff hug, did Shige find his voice to ask the question of the hour.
“Not to be rude or anything, but uhm, what’re you doing here?”
Yamapi looked perplexed and for a second Shige was sure that the leader himself wasn’t even sure why he was present.
He was surprised when he was answered with, “Didn’t they tell you?”
“Tell us what?” Koyama asked, cocking his head to one side.
“I’m doing your choreography for the single,” Yamapi said simply.
The surprises just got better and better didn’t they?
He didn’t bother asking why, but somehow Yamapi decided it would be best if he explained in detail why he’d been chosen to be the choreographer.
“We’re all about expanding, so what better way for you guys to expand than to do some cool new dancing?”
It didn’t make much sense to Shige, but Koyama seemed all for it.
“So where do you want to start?” Koyama asked, expectantly.
Yamapi stared at the two puzzled.
“Did you remember to listen to the song earlier?” Shige asked.
Yamapi simply blinked.
With a sigh, Shige pulled his copy of the song out of his bag and shuffled over to the stereo and stuffed it in.
The three sat down together and simply listened, it took about half an hour before Yamapi felt he’d gotten the song down.
Shige wasn’t exactly sure about what to expect. Of course he knew Yamapi was fairly good dancer, after all he’d done his own music videos and shows. However, their leader’s style was quite different from what the song actually called for.
“Do me a favor and play the first eight beats of the song,” Yamapi called over to Shige.
Shige complied, and watched, awed as Yamapi set to a series of rather complicated dance moves, pausing every eight beats, before continuing with his routine.
Once Yamapi had completed the choreography for the song three times, he turned to the duo.
“Okay, time to learn!”
“Yessir, Yamapi-sensei!” Koyama chirped, after just watching he seemed a rather huge ball of energy.
Shige wanted to shoot himself.
As it turned out Yamapi was a rather patient teacher, slowly going over every movement, and thoroughly making sure they got it.
Shige knew Yamapi wasn’t exactly a perfectionist, and would usually have the laid-back demeanor, but he seemed absolutely serious in teaching the two.
A single toe pointing in the wrong direction and Yamapi gently chided them, fixing their stances, and even going to so far as to steadily move Shige’s hips himself when he thought the former’s hip thrusts weren’t fluid enough.
Shige was feeling a little weird about that, but didn’t think much on it when he noticed Yamapi tightly wind around Koyama, standing hip to hip and swaying in a somewhat provocative manner.
Yeah, this totally didn’t look gay, then again not many things did if you were a Johnny.
It took a few days, and a few tweaks of the choreography, before Koyama and Shige could happily do the routine in their sleep.
Sore and slightly weary, Shige was still rather satisfied, and could tell Koyama was as well.
The clock ticked forward, as the three sat down to relax a few minutes before departing.
“This was fun,” Koyama said, “right Shige?”
Shige nodded, “exhausting, but yeah, fun.”
“Leader’s always a blast,” Koyama said.
Yamapi gave the two a shy smile, that Shige was positive would have had fangirls reeling.
“I haven’t had this much fun, dancing in a while,” Yamapi said, “it’s nice dancing with you guys again.”
“Even though Shige fell three times and kept messing up his hip thrusts?” Koyama asked, giving Shige a sly grin.
“Hey, I didn’t fall, I just slipped,” Shige replied indignantly.
“There’s a difference?” Yamapi asked, astonished.
“Of course there is!”
“Don’t lie to leader, Shige!” Koyama warned, lightheartedly.
“I am not!” Shige cried, sending the other two into peels of laughter.
He really just couldn’t win, could he?
Yet, he smiled in spite of himself.
* * *
They were scheduled to perform on ‘Music station’, and as such were also scheduled for a costume fitting.
Entering the building, alone this time, Shige was somehow unsurprised to find that Koyama was already inside, animatedly talking to Massu.
“Shige!” Koyama cried happily, “look whose here to help us with costumes!”
Massu gave Shige a friendly wave, “are you surprised?” he asked, excitedly.
Shige didn’t have the heart to answer ‘no’, and instead with a warm smile, nodded, “yeah.”
Rather than idly chatting, Massu quickly pulled Shige into the conversation, by gingerly passing his sketch to him.
It wasn’t bad, at least not that bad.
Shige was sure he’d been forced to wear worse things as a junior.
“the fabric pattern is like Nyanta’s” Koyama explained excitedly.
Shige nodded, “You guys did this in the last ten minutes?”
Massu shook his head, “oh no, I started drawing it up two weeks ago.”
“I really like it,” Koyama said, eyes alight with excitement.
Massu looked pleased, and turned his smile to Shige, waiting for a response.
Already thinking that he’d be better equipped to fight a grizzly bear with a fork than to tell Massu that the outfits were gaudy as hell, he gave Massu a tight smile and nodded in agreement.
“They’re great, Massu.”
Surprisingly the costuming took the least amount of time.
Massu’s indecisiveness seemed to have melted away as he happily presented Shige with his costume days later.
Gingerly turning it over in his hands, he decided it really wasn’t that bad. Sure there were a few too many sequins layered to the hips, and sure the alternated print made him a little dizzy, and yeah maybe he would be stiflingly hot in the thing, but altogether it wasn’t that bad.
At least it didn’t have his name tapered in huge letters to the back. He had ‘KOYA’ written on the back instead.
Koyama’s had ‘SHIGE’ embroidered to the back.
“It’s for when you end your dance, your right next to each other, so it’ll spell out ‘KOYASHIGE’” Massu explained.
“It’s so cute!” Koyama squealed, hugging the garment, “and it’s even specialer since Massu made them for us, himself, ne Shige?”
Shige could only nod.
Massu shouldn’t be allowed to grin at him like that.
* * *
It had officially been a month since either Koyama or Shige had seen hide or hair of their manager, communication usually falling to e-mails, and text reminders.
However there was now less than three days left until their official single release, and their manager had called the two in to go over a few last points.
“Alright, it looks as though you managed to get everything done,” Manager-san said, casting a furtive gaze at the long ‘to-do’ list he’d printed out.
“We’ll be having a press conference on the actual day of the release, I’ve already cleared your schedules for that day, so you should have ample time to prepare,” he continued.
“Music station performance will be tomorrow, and I feel it’s needless, but let me remind you that you do have a rehearsal tonight.”
“Yes, Manager-san, we know,” Koyama replied with a nod.
“Well, that’s about it,” Manager-san said, “now, if you don’t have any questions- “
“I do,” Shige cut in.
Manager-san turned a weary gaze on Shige, “yes?”
“Is there any particular reason, aside from ‘fan-letters’ that you all decided it was a good idea to do this?” Shige asked.
Manager-san let out a tired sigh, “I’ve told you exactly what Johnny-san told me, there’s nothing else.”
Shige seemed to have lost his voice.
* * *
It felt odd, sitting in the spotlight, camera’s flashing, with only Koyama to keep him company.
Sure he’d done his own solo works before, but it was never anything like this, he’d always stood before the press as ‘Kato Shigeaki of NEWS’, while now he sat in an itchy gray, striped and polka-doted costume as ‘Kato Shigeaki of KoyaShige,’ Johnny’s newest group.
Koyama seemed to sense his apprehension and reached out to give his hand a squeeze.
The hall was filled with buzzing, clicks and shouts, as the camera’s focused in on the duo sitting slightly to the right, waiting for their manager to finish his long and thoroughly rehearsed speech about the wonderful merits the two young men had, the amazing effort they’d put into their work, and how exciting it was for the jumisho to have a new group.
There wasn’t a single mention of Yamapi, Ryo, Tegoshi or Massu.
Once Manager-san had finished his speech, he gave leave for Koyama and Shige to step forward and address the press’ questions.
The first question came from a reporter of NHK news, “Kato-san, Koyama-san, how do you feel, with this new conquest under your belt?”
Koyama answered, “we’re very proud, and excited, we hope to be able to please all our fans, whom without this wouldn’t have been possible.”
The next question came from a young man, who looked as though the only strenuous activity he did was making a cup of coffee. “What does your debut mean for NEWS? With your entire group scattered, will it be disbanding?”
Before Shige or Koyama could indignantly answer that ‘hell no was NEWS disbanding!’ Manager-san had taken the microphone and was addressing the reporter.
“NEWS is not disbanding; the new unit has absolutely nothing to do with NEWS, and shall not conflict with any impending group activities.”
‘What group activities?’ Shige thought to himself somewhat sourly.
The reporter seemed to have no further questions. And was instead replaced with a rather energetic looking young woman, “it was said that both Koyama-san and Kato-san planned their debut, from the single to costumes, is this true? If possible, please elaborate.”
It was an interesting question, and one that would take a long explanation, not that Koyama minded explaining.
“Well, Kato-kun and I did make the single, ourselves, we picked the demo track and wrote the lyrics ourselves,” Koyama said, before pausing with a smile and continuing, “but the song was mixed and edited by Nishkido-kun and Tegoshi-kun.”
“As for the choreography for our music, that was done by Yamashita-san,” Shige said, “and our lovely costumes were designed and tailored, by Masuda-kun,” Shige added.
“Yes, aren’t they lovely?” Koyama asked, giving a small twirl, showing off the costume.
The reporters didn’t really have an answer, probably disoriented by the print and shine, but Koyama took the silence to be an agreement and gave them a winning smile, quite proud of his band-mate’s work.
“So, you mean to say that the entire preparation for your debut was orchestrated by NEWS?” the reporter asked, looking as though she had stars in her eyes.
Koyama and Shige stopped, and turned to one another in unison, the same look of confusion and sudden dawning mirrored in each other’s faces.
“Yes, I guess you could say that,” Shige said.
“Absolutely right, member-ai made KoyaShige,” Koyama said, looking so utterly happy, that Shige was kind of surprised he wasn’t crying.
There was a quite murmur throughout the room, nothing of this sort had ever happened in the talent agency.
Manager-san seemed to think they’d been asked enough questions, and soon enough Koyama and Shige were bowing in thanks.
“Our debut single is titled ‘Cat’s Meow’ and we’d really appreciate your support,” Shige said, giving a bow.
“Hai, this is a work produced by all of NEWS, so please support us,” Koyama said, with glistening eyes as he gave a low bow, his hand searching and closing around Shige’s.
There was general applause, before the two were herded off the stage.
Koyama looked ecstatic, with tears looking about ready to spill.
Shige thought he looked quite comical, a grown man wearing an imitation cat suit with sparkles, feathers and rhinestones lining the seams, and eyes aglow with happiness.
“Why are you crying?” Shige asked in mock exasperation, he never could really be annoyed with Koyama, especially when the latter was crying.
“Our member-ai is really strong, isn’t it?”
Shige wasn’t sure how to answer, but silently contemplated, flashing back to the start of their sudden debut.
Ryo and Tegoshi spending a solid few days, playing, mixing and editing the tracks, Tegoshi happily pointing out Shige’s vocal flaws, Ryo gruffly giving Koyama direction in pitch.
Yamapi taking a few days out of his busy tour schedule to give Koyama and Shige help with the choreography, sleep-deprived but with a wanton smile permanently etched on his face as he patiently helped Shige move his hips properly, and happily took all of Koyama’s hugs and gentle chiding about keeping his health up.
And of course Massu, who diligently worked on their costumes, thoughtfully having decided on a design, before Shige could exasperatedly weedle ideas out of him.
“Yeah,” Shige found himself saying, “we’re really strong.”
And he actually believed it
Fin ~