The boy behind the door [always half of a whole] (3)
Title: The boy behind the door [always half of a whole]
Fandom: Kinki Kids
Pairing: Tsuyoshi/Koichi
Rating: up to NC-17 eventually
Summary: It is Koichi's job to make Tsuyoshi's life go according to plan, but what if he is the very reason that changes everything?
He wrenches open door after door, sometimes picking the wrong one in a hurry.
Umejima, Suidobashi, Edogawa, it is all a blur of subway stations and random buildings, up above, below the ground, close to the sea and farther away again, but he finally finds the right door and sees Okada get out of a car and turn a corner.
Koichi checks his watch.
Time has no meaning for him, but within the human realm, operations need to be timed by the minute, and seeing as it is now five minutes to eleven in the morning, he assumes the recalibration is supposed to begin at eleven, and not a minute later.
Koichi doesn't even have to distract Okada for a long time, and yet he knows him well enough, knows that he really has to capture his interest, otherwise...
"Okada-san."
The other man turns.
"I need to speak to you."
Okada frowns.
"Have we met?"
Koichi bites his lip, hoping his assumption will prove to be correct.
"No, but we have a mutual acquaintance. Tsuyoshi-san, he met me..."
He doesn't know how much time has passed on earth since,
"...some time ago in a café, and..."
Okada's eyes widen.
"Why do you come to me with this? Good god, it's been three weeks! How did you even find me?"
Koichi raises his hands defensively.
"I don't know what this looks like to you, but I mean Tsuyoshi-san no harm. He is the reason I am here. I can't call him, and I can't find him, and I think you are the person that could help me."
Okada turns his shoulders away from him, and Koichi knows he is going to decline.
He has to admit it sounds crazy, maybe even intimidating, and his obvious desperation might have worked with Tomoya, but Okada meets many people every day and isn't so easily swayed any more.
The only way Koichi can think of now to make him change his mind is to tell him a secret, to make the whole situation more complicated for everyone involved.
Tomoya is right. It is too dangerous if Tsuyoshi isn't worth it.
How can you even be so certain, just from watching a person, that he might be worth giving up your life for?
That he might return all that you sacrifice for him in equal kindness?
There is no guarantee. That's what humans are.
Okada raises his hand, no doubt to wish him a nice day and ask him to bother someone else, but that is the moment Koichi decides to intervene.
"You can see ghosts, right?"
Okada frowns at him now, displeased by his unwillingness to just let it go.
"You could have read that in any magazine, what of it?"
Koichi takes a breath.
"Well, I also know something I'm sure you have never told any magazine. You kept talking about them, all the way through your childhood, but when you entered the agency and kept telling people about it, your mother told you to stop scaring the other children with fairy tales. She had been was supportive until then, and you even suspected it was a gift you inherited from her, but she suddenly forbid you from talking about them, and she never really forbid you anything before, did she?
Not in a stern tone of voice, not with that much distaste. You always wondered why she would change her mind so suddenly, and these days you just keep telling people, out of a small spark of defiance."
By now Okada is staring at him, not scared, but definitely intrigued.
"It's true... I never told anyone. You couldn't even have heard it from Tsuyoshi. What... What is your point?"
"My point is that her sudden change of mind wasn't her voluntary decision."
Koichi steps closer in order to whisper.
"It is called recalibration, Okada-san."
It is evident now that Okada wants to know more, and it is almost amusing to watch the internal battle between declaring everything he has just heard utter nonsense and asking for details.
In the end he does ask, but something else than Koichi has been expecting.
"What has that got to do with Tsuyoshi? You're here for Tsuyoshi, right?"
Koichi falters, far too aware that he might be on the way to giving away all of his secrets, and much more importantly, that he might be wasting time - he has surely distracted the others for long enough, and there might be no need to tell Okada more than he already knows, but suddenly he recognises this as the chance it could be, and ally, another friend.
"If you change your mind now, on a very small thing, something that on a grand scale won't make a difference to your life or his, it might still have an impact on how your relationship develops or... what advice you give him."
Koichi glances at Okada.
"One small impact," Okada says thoughtfully, half to himself.
"Someone, and I can't tell you who, wants to recalibrate you to... separate me from Tsuyoshi."
The doubt is back on Okada's face.
"Such things don't happen," he says slowly, "People don't get 'recalibrated', and separated from each other. They meet under normal circumstances, and they don't act like secret agents after the first kiss. It's weird."
He pauses, breaks eye contact.
"Nothing around Tsuyoshi was ever normal. Not even me. Is that your fault?"
"No," Koichi says, and there is an obvious bitterness to his next words, because he would love to matter enough to be the problem, just once.
"I'm just a tool."
"Say I believe you, wouldn't it be dangerous for me?"
Koichi has never exactly been bursting with confidence, but he wants to keep Okada safe, and show him so many things he doesn't know about yet.
How the ghosts he sees are real, and how there is a girl out there like him, for him.
"Let me try," he says, and Okada must have seen something in him, because this prompts him to give Koichi the address of an apartment in Daikanyama, and Koichi lets him watch how he draws a door into the Fuji TV building and vanishes through it.
Fandom: Kinki Kids
Pairing: Tsuyoshi/Koichi
Rating: up to NC-17 eventually
Summary: It is Koichi's job to make Tsuyoshi's life go according to plan, but what if he is the very reason that changes everything?
He wrenches open door after door, sometimes picking the wrong one in a hurry.
Umejima, Suidobashi, Edogawa, it is all a blur of subway stations and random buildings, up above, below the ground, close to the sea and farther away again, but he finally finds the right door and sees Okada get out of a car and turn a corner.
Koichi checks his watch.
Time has no meaning for him, but within the human realm, operations need to be timed by the minute, and seeing as it is now five minutes to eleven in the morning, he assumes the recalibration is supposed to begin at eleven, and not a minute later.
Koichi doesn't even have to distract Okada for a long time, and yet he knows him well enough, knows that he really has to capture his interest, otherwise...
"Okada-san."
The other man turns.
"I need to speak to you."
Okada frowns.
"Have we met?"
Koichi bites his lip, hoping his assumption will prove to be correct.
"No, but we have a mutual acquaintance. Tsuyoshi-san, he met me..."
He doesn't know how much time has passed on earth since,
"...some time ago in a café, and..."
Okada's eyes widen.
"Why do you come to me with this? Good god, it's been three weeks! How did you even find me?"
Koichi raises his hands defensively.
"I don't know what this looks like to you, but I mean Tsuyoshi-san no harm. He is the reason I am here. I can't call him, and I can't find him, and I think you are the person that could help me."
Okada turns his shoulders away from him, and Koichi knows he is going to decline.
He has to admit it sounds crazy, maybe even intimidating, and his obvious desperation might have worked with Tomoya, but Okada meets many people every day and isn't so easily swayed any more.
The only way Koichi can think of now to make him change his mind is to tell him a secret, to make the whole situation more complicated for everyone involved.
Tomoya is right. It is too dangerous if Tsuyoshi isn't worth it.
How can you even be so certain, just from watching a person, that he might be worth giving up your life for?
That he might return all that you sacrifice for him in equal kindness?
There is no guarantee. That's what humans are.
Okada raises his hand, no doubt to wish him a nice day and ask him to bother someone else, but that is the moment Koichi decides to intervene.
"You can see ghosts, right?"
Okada frowns at him now, displeased by his unwillingness to just let it go.
"You could have read that in any magazine, what of it?"
Koichi takes a breath.
"Well, I also know something I'm sure you have never told any magazine. You kept talking about them, all the way through your childhood, but when you entered the agency and kept telling people about it, your mother told you to stop scaring the other children with fairy tales. She had been was supportive until then, and you even suspected it was a gift you inherited from her, but she suddenly forbid you from talking about them, and she never really forbid you anything before, did she?
Not in a stern tone of voice, not with that much distaste. You always wondered why she would change her mind so suddenly, and these days you just keep telling people, out of a small spark of defiance."
By now Okada is staring at him, not scared, but definitely intrigued.
"It's true... I never told anyone. You couldn't even have heard it from Tsuyoshi. What... What is your point?"
"My point is that her sudden change of mind wasn't her voluntary decision."
Koichi steps closer in order to whisper.
"It is called recalibration, Okada-san."
It is evident now that Okada wants to know more, and it is almost amusing to watch the internal battle between declaring everything he has just heard utter nonsense and asking for details.
In the end he does ask, but something else than Koichi has been expecting.
"What has that got to do with Tsuyoshi? You're here for Tsuyoshi, right?"
Koichi falters, far too aware that he might be on the way to giving away all of his secrets, and much more importantly, that he might be wasting time - he has surely distracted the others for long enough, and there might be no need to tell Okada more than he already knows, but suddenly he recognises this as the chance it could be, and ally, another friend.
"If you change your mind now, on a very small thing, something that on a grand scale won't make a difference to your life or his, it might still have an impact on how your relationship develops or... what advice you give him."
Koichi glances at Okada.
"One small impact," Okada says thoughtfully, half to himself.
"Someone, and I can't tell you who, wants to recalibrate you to... separate me from Tsuyoshi."
The doubt is back on Okada's face.
"Such things don't happen," he says slowly, "People don't get 'recalibrated', and separated from each other. They meet under normal circumstances, and they don't act like secret agents after the first kiss. It's weird."
He pauses, breaks eye contact.
"Nothing around Tsuyoshi was ever normal. Not even me. Is that your fault?"
"No," Koichi says, and there is an obvious bitterness to his next words, because he would love to matter enough to be the problem, just once.
"I'm just a tool."
"Say I believe you, wouldn't it be dangerous for me?"
Koichi has never exactly been bursting with confidence, but he wants to keep Okada safe, and show him so many things he doesn't know about yet.
How the ghosts he sees are real, and how there is a girl out there like him, for him.
"Let me try," he says, and Okada must have seen something in him, because this prompts him to give Koichi the address of an apartment in Daikanyama, and Koichi lets him watch how he draws a door into the Fuji TV building and vanishes through it.