[fic] 4.0.9.08
Title: 4.09.08.
Summary: Yamapi is another year older.
Notes: The only reason that I'm posting this now and not waiting until it's 100% finished (I know. Again.) is just for the timestamp.
In honor of Yamashita Tomohisa's 23rd birthday. It's been a crazy week, dude.
1.party
"I don't know if I want a party anymore," Yamapi says to Jin. "I'm not sure I want to be in a room full of people, where they would be singing at me."
"But we're your friends," Jin protests. "Mabudachis forever! Don't you know how long I spent planning this?"
Yamapi shoots him a look, and Jin says without missing a beat, "Or how long I bothered Yuu-kun into planning it?"
"I don't know, Jin. I'm tired and really, the only place I want to be is at home. Behind a locked door, preferably. Where all my stuff is." Yamapi sighs and touches his head gingerly. "And no screaming girls. Possibly ever."
"We could have it at your house - and I promise I'll only invite the guys. Come on, we have to celebrate your birthday."
"But..." Yamapi says, and before he can launch into all the hows and Why this is a Very Bad Idea, and also, Jin, I am Traumatized Forever speech, Jin's cellphone rings. Jin glances at the screen, and then answers it with a cheery, "Ryo-chan! We were just talking about you!"
"No we weren't," Yamapi says, but Jin flaps a dismissive hand at him. "What's that, you have to talk louder, you're kind of mumbling. What? So where are your clothes? WHAT? Seriously?" Jin listens attentively, and then bursts out laughing. "No, no I'm not laughing, no, you're wrong. I just had a drink of water, and I'm," Jin fake-coughs, "it went down the wrong way. I'm not laughing at you. I swear on Pin's good name - listen, do you want us to come get you or not?"
"What has Ryo done now?" Yamapi is curious, despite himself.
Jin hangs up and then slaps Yamapi on the shoulder. "We have to go rescue Ryo. Also, he needs some extra clothes."
"...Do I want to know?"
Jin grins. "Did you know that Sawajiri-san's birthday party was yesterday night?"
"Oh no."
"Oh hell yes. This is what he gets for calling me fat that one time." Jin rubs his hands together gleefully. "Nishikido, today is my lucky day!"
"Jin - I don't think it's safe --"
"Where's your polaroid camera, Pi? I need to document this. For my old age, you know?"
As Jin goes looking for the camera, Yamapi mutters, "At this rate, I don't think you're going to live to an old age."
2. frames and pretty maids in a row
"That was my favorite camera," Yamapi says forlornly. "I've had it since I was twenty. It was a gift from my grandma." He turns accusing eyes to the unrepentant figure on his right side. "And your girlfriend BROKE it."
He looks down at the plastic bag containing the sad mangled parts of his camera and sighs. "Why must everything I love be taken away from me?"
Ryo says gruffly, "I said I'd pay for it to be fixed. Or I'll get you a new one. Don't be such a drama queen, Pi-chan." After a beat, he adds, "And she's not my girlfriend."
Jin, on his left, holding an ice pack to his temple, says sulkily, "She came after me with a broom."
"You deserved it," Ryo and Yamapi say in unison.
"Whatever. Totally worth it," Jin says, and winces as Ryo half-heartedly kicks at him. "Ow! Quit it."
"Quit being an ass, then."
"You're no fun, Ryotan."
"You're still an idiot, Bakanishi."
Ryo tugs at the collar of his shirt and frowns. "I still don't see why you couldn't have gotten me normal clothes," he complains. "Like it wasn't bad enough that Sawajiri trashed my nice clothes. This is just..." he flops back into the seat and folds his arms, trying in vain to cover the I HAVE GREAT CHARACTER legend emblazoned on his chest.
"Did you really want to streak across the apartment lobby? Jin wanted me to fling you over my shoulder while he created a diversion - I don't know, it's JIN," he says loudly over Jin's protest. "Look, I'm not in the mood for this, okay?"
Ryo opens his mouth, thinks better of it, and shuts up. Jin pats his shoulder awkwardly, and says softly, "I can always call the party off. You're right, maybe it's too much. I just wanted you to have a nice memory to make up for....the not fun. We can always celebrate later."
"No - it's fine. I know you guys mean well. So let's just have it - I'm sure Yuu's spent a lot of time on the food and decorations, and it'd be rude to cancel now."
"You don't always have to be the brave leader-san," Ryo murmurs. "Sometimes you're allowed to be selfish."
Yamapi looks straight ahead and doesn't answer.
3. careless whispers
They drop off Jin first - he has to make some more phone calls, meet up with Yuu-kun and the family Shirota, and Ryo's been enlisted to keep Yamapi company. Instead of heading back home, they find themselves in a convenience store - Ryo heads over to the magazines, while Yamapi peers through refrigerated glass cases at drinks. He picks up a case of beer and some vegetable juice, and wanders the aisles. Ryo finds him reading the back of a cereal box and taps him on the shoulder. "Yo."
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah, just have to pay for these. Aren't you getting anything?"
Ryo shrugs. "No, I was just browsing - see what crap's been written about us. Did you know that Jin and Yuichi-kun are gay lovers?"
Yamapi considers this revelation carefully. "So that's what Hokkaido stands for."
Rin cracks a small, evil grin. "Yep."
As they pass through the checkout, the bored cashier giving them the briefest of glances before the obligatory double-take, Yamapi looks at the latest it girl on the cover of the glossy fashion magazine. "That's a pretty face," he says.
Ryo looks over and says, "Nah. That's not the nose she was born with." He looks at Yamapi's amused expression and says defensively, "What? Girls talk."
4. The game of life
"Sometimes I wonder if they think I'm a real person, or if I'm a robot," Yamapi confesses. "Like I only exist for them to scream over and I'll always say the right thing and be this perfect person." He breathed out, and scratched P-chan behind his droopy ears. "And I'm not that person." P-chan whined and licked his hand.
"But you don't care about that - do you P-chan? I'm not so bad, right?" His dog looked up at him with his cheerful coffee brown eyes, and panted.
Ryo walks into the living room.
"Hey, Yuu just called. He's bringing over the food, and Jin's getting more drinks. So, come on birthday boy. Go get pretty or something - oh, better yet, go outside and come back and then pretend it's a surprise party." Ryo tosses the green shirt in Yamapi's lap, having exchanged it for something "that actually fits me - have you been taking female hormones, Pi-chan?" and leans down and scoops up P-chan.
"I should have left you there for her to use as target practice," Yamapi mutters, but there is no heat behind the words. "I'll just leave my own house, then, shall I?"
Ryo wags P-chan's paw as Yamapi strides past them. "Say goodbye, P-chan." Yamapi flips him off as he leaves. He needs a smoke, anyway.
5. He hears them before he sees them - Toma's laugh and the quiet giggle of a girl. He knows Toma's laugh because he's grown up with it, eleven - going into twelve years now, it was just one of those things, but the giggle - it sounded eerily familiar too.
He sees the reason why when Toma comes around the corner, hand in hand with the girl. It's Maki.
6. Girl why do you make my brown eyes blue?
He drops his cigarette on the ground, crushes it out with the heel of his boot and nods at them. "Hey!" Toma says first, and Yamapi is oddly pleased that he lets go of Maki's hand hurriedly. "What are you doing outside? Are we having the party out here?"
"Nope, Ryo told me to wait outside and pretend it was a surprise party - hey, Maki-chan." She waves back at him. "Heya, Yamapi. I'm sorry for just inviting myself along, but Toma-kun and I just finished filming," Toma interrupts. "She wanted me to say hi for her and I said, why don't you come along, I'm sure Pi-chan wouldn't mind. You don't, do you?" Toma raises an eyebrow at him, as if daring him to disagree. "Because it's Maki-chan."
The girl in question hesitantly offers him a smile. "I can just call a taxi, it's no problem really."
"Don't be ridiculous," Toma says, just as Yamapi says, "You know, knowing Yuu-kun, I'm going to have a huge cake. You like cake, right?"
Maki laughs. "I do." She fishes in her pocket and then pulls out a small silver bag. "Happy Birthday."
His hand closes over her smaller one, and for a second, he thinks she tightens her fist before letting go.
Toma leads the way back to Yamapi's apartment, and Yamapi lets Maki walk in front of him. She catches up with Toma and pokes him in the shoulder, which makes him bump her back playfully. She swats at him and they laugh.
7. a boy like you
She sits next to him, a little unsteadily, perched on the arm of his sofa. Jin is at her feet, arguing with Toma over the dynamics of Sano and Mizuki versus Mizuki and Nakatsu - Toma's defense being, "She's best friends with Nakatsu. Who's better to fall in love with than your best friend?" while Jin swigged another bottle of beer and said earnestly, "Yes, and maybe if Nakatsu met her first, you would have a point, but she felt so bad about Sano that she left her home to go to Japan. She totally gave up being a girl, her entire way of life to just say sorry to a guy she barely knows? I don't THINK SO."
Maki exchanges glances with him and shrugs helplessly. "He's like this on set with Shun too - Shun just stands there and laughs."
"And what do you think?" He's had a few drinks of his own. and the night seems pleasantly blurry edged and full of promise. Maki sips her lemonade - even after Jin had wheedled, "No one will know, Maki-chan," she retorted, "Well, I would", and thinks it over. "I just follow the script," she says finally. "Bzzzt, wrong answer," Yamapi declares. "What do you feel?"
She rolls her eyes at him. "You're as bad as Meisa. Hmmm - well, I guess it's like this. To Mizuki, both Sano and Nakatsu are very important to her. She believes that she's responsible for why Sano turned out the way he did, and she wanted to make it up to him - to be a friend. I think she believed that was all - but would you cross the world for someone you just wanted to be your friend? I don't know that many people who are that selfless. And I think, if she didn't reason that she was in love with this boy, it would have been too scary to think well what was this all for? She could have stayed home. But then there would have been no story."
"You're all reason," Yamapi says. "Doesn't it get a little lonely there?"
Maki raises her hand, and instead of answering, lightly traces the still pink scratch around his hairline. "Did you at least get to eat black bean sauce noodles?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Does this hurt?" Her voice is a whisper now, he has to lean in closer to hear her properly.
"It didn't hurt then - it was really...just scary, I guess."
"It looked scary."
"Yeah, well, I never thought it would get that bad - guess I'm just used to Japan."
"There's no place like home," she agrees.
8. i talk out loud like you're still around
"I can't believe they took my fucking bag!" Yuu jumps a little at Yamapi's outburst, and then hands him a wet and soapy dish. "I was wondering when that was going to come up." Yamapi furiously wipes at the dish, as if he could pour out all of his delayed anger into the ceramic. "I mean, come on - what do I have to do to go on a vacation?"
"Travel with sumo wrestlers?"
"I'd get crushed to death faster."
"That would be a bad side effect, yes."
"I'm just so fucking tired, Yuu."
"Well, you know where to crash when you need it."
"Yeah."
They stack and wipe dishes in companionable silence - Yamapi finds the repetitive motion oddly soothing. The lull is broken when Jin steps inside the kitchen, his face softly lit from below, twenty three candles glowing on the birthday cake. Toma turns off the lights, and all attention drifts to Jin and the cake. "Happy birthday to you, dear Yamapi-pi-chan-tomo-chan-hissaaaa, Happy birthday to you!"
9. burning bright
Jin elbows Toma in the side when he thinks no one's watching. "Ow! What'd you do that for?" Toma glares. "Not that I'm complaining, but what's with the bring your own girl tonight? I thought I told you it was just going to be the guys. Unless..." Jin raises an eyebrow suggestively, and smirks. "You got her in full blossom, hmmm?"
"Don't be disgusting - do you even know what you say, half the time?"
"Well, come on then, are you guys dating?"
"No, we're not - like I told Pi-chan. She wanted me to pass on birthday greetings, I thought it'd be better if she gave them in person, that's all. We're just friends."
"Just...friends."
"It is possible, Jin."
"I have female friends," Jin protests.
"You've slept with all of them."
"I think that just shows how much more meaningful our friendship is, that we still can be friends."
"They have to be really forgiving, at least." Toma says. "Anyway, Maki-chan's just like one of the guys, really."
They look over to where Maki is standing, plate in hand, talking to Yuu and Yamapi. Maki says something, tilts her head. Yamapi laughs.
Jin smiles. "I guess she can stay."
Summary: Yamapi is another year older.
Notes: The only reason that I'm posting this now and not waiting until it's 100% finished (I know. Again.) is just for the timestamp.
In honor of Yamashita Tomohisa's 23rd birthday. It's been a crazy week, dude.
1.party
"I don't know if I want a party anymore," Yamapi says to Jin. "I'm not sure I want to be in a room full of people, where they would be singing at me."
"But we're your friends," Jin protests. "Mabudachis forever! Don't you know how long I spent planning this?"
Yamapi shoots him a look, and Jin says without missing a beat, "Or how long I bothered Yuu-kun into planning it?"
"I don't know, Jin. I'm tired and really, the only place I want to be is at home. Behind a locked door, preferably. Where all my stuff is." Yamapi sighs and touches his head gingerly. "And no screaming girls. Possibly ever."
"We could have it at your house - and I promise I'll only invite the guys. Come on, we have to celebrate your birthday."
"But..." Yamapi says, and before he can launch into all the hows and Why this is a Very Bad Idea, and also, Jin, I am Traumatized Forever speech, Jin's cellphone rings. Jin glances at the screen, and then answers it with a cheery, "Ryo-chan! We were just talking about you!"
"No we weren't," Yamapi says, but Jin flaps a dismissive hand at him. "What's that, you have to talk louder, you're kind of mumbling. What? So where are your clothes? WHAT? Seriously?" Jin listens attentively, and then bursts out laughing. "No, no I'm not laughing, no, you're wrong. I just had a drink of water, and I'm," Jin fake-coughs, "it went down the wrong way. I'm not laughing at you. I swear on Pin's good name - listen, do you want us to come get you or not?"
"What has Ryo done now?" Yamapi is curious, despite himself.
Jin hangs up and then slaps Yamapi on the shoulder. "We have to go rescue Ryo. Also, he needs some extra clothes."
"...Do I want to know?"
Jin grins. "Did you know that Sawajiri-san's birthday party was yesterday night?"
"Oh no."
"Oh hell yes. This is what he gets for calling me fat that one time." Jin rubs his hands together gleefully. "Nishikido, today is my lucky day!"
"Jin - I don't think it's safe --"
"Where's your polaroid camera, Pi? I need to document this. For my old age, you know?"
As Jin goes looking for the camera, Yamapi mutters, "At this rate, I don't think you're going to live to an old age."
2. frames and pretty maids in a row
"That was my favorite camera," Yamapi says forlornly. "I've had it since I was twenty. It was a gift from my grandma." He turns accusing eyes to the unrepentant figure on his right side. "And your girlfriend BROKE it."
He looks down at the plastic bag containing the sad mangled parts of his camera and sighs. "Why must everything I love be taken away from me?"
Ryo says gruffly, "I said I'd pay for it to be fixed. Or I'll get you a new one. Don't be such a drama queen, Pi-chan." After a beat, he adds, "And she's not my girlfriend."
Jin, on his left, holding an ice pack to his temple, says sulkily, "She came after me with a broom."
"You deserved it," Ryo and Yamapi say in unison.
"Whatever. Totally worth it," Jin says, and winces as Ryo half-heartedly kicks at him. "Ow! Quit it."
"Quit being an ass, then."
"You're no fun, Ryotan."
"You're still an idiot, Bakanishi."
Ryo tugs at the collar of his shirt and frowns. "I still don't see why you couldn't have gotten me normal clothes," he complains. "Like it wasn't bad enough that Sawajiri trashed my nice clothes. This is just..." he flops back into the seat and folds his arms, trying in vain to cover the I HAVE GREAT CHARACTER legend emblazoned on his chest.
"Did you really want to streak across the apartment lobby? Jin wanted me to fling you over my shoulder while he created a diversion - I don't know, it's JIN," he says loudly over Jin's protest. "Look, I'm not in the mood for this, okay?"
Ryo opens his mouth, thinks better of it, and shuts up. Jin pats his shoulder awkwardly, and says softly, "I can always call the party off. You're right, maybe it's too much. I just wanted you to have a nice memory to make up for....the not fun. We can always celebrate later."
"No - it's fine. I know you guys mean well. So let's just have it - I'm sure Yuu's spent a lot of time on the food and decorations, and it'd be rude to cancel now."
"You don't always have to be the brave leader-san," Ryo murmurs. "Sometimes you're allowed to be selfish."
Yamapi looks straight ahead and doesn't answer.
3. careless whispers
They drop off Jin first - he has to make some more phone calls, meet up with Yuu-kun and the family Shirota, and Ryo's been enlisted to keep Yamapi company. Instead of heading back home, they find themselves in a convenience store - Ryo heads over to the magazines, while Yamapi peers through refrigerated glass cases at drinks. He picks up a case of beer and some vegetable juice, and wanders the aisles. Ryo finds him reading the back of a cereal box and taps him on the shoulder. "Yo."
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah, just have to pay for these. Aren't you getting anything?"
Ryo shrugs. "No, I was just browsing - see what crap's been written about us. Did you know that Jin and Yuichi-kun are gay lovers?"
Yamapi considers this revelation carefully. "So that's what Hokkaido stands for."
Rin cracks a small, evil grin. "Yep."
As they pass through the checkout, the bored cashier giving them the briefest of glances before the obligatory double-take, Yamapi looks at the latest it girl on the cover of the glossy fashion magazine. "That's a pretty face," he says.
Ryo looks over and says, "Nah. That's not the nose she was born with." He looks at Yamapi's amused expression and says defensively, "What? Girls talk."
4. The game of life
"Sometimes I wonder if they think I'm a real person, or if I'm a robot," Yamapi confesses. "Like I only exist for them to scream over and I'll always say the right thing and be this perfect person." He breathed out, and scratched P-chan behind his droopy ears. "And I'm not that person." P-chan whined and licked his hand.
"But you don't care about that - do you P-chan? I'm not so bad, right?" His dog looked up at him with his cheerful coffee brown eyes, and panted.
Ryo walks into the living room.
"Hey, Yuu just called. He's bringing over the food, and Jin's getting more drinks. So, come on birthday boy. Go get pretty or something - oh, better yet, go outside and come back and then pretend it's a surprise party." Ryo tosses the green shirt in Yamapi's lap, having exchanged it for something "that actually fits me - have you been taking female hormones, Pi-chan?" and leans down and scoops up P-chan.
"I should have left you there for her to use as target practice," Yamapi mutters, but there is no heat behind the words. "I'll just leave my own house, then, shall I?"
Ryo wags P-chan's paw as Yamapi strides past them. "Say goodbye, P-chan." Yamapi flips him off as he leaves. He needs a smoke, anyway.
5. He hears them before he sees them - Toma's laugh and the quiet giggle of a girl. He knows Toma's laugh because he's grown up with it, eleven - going into twelve years now, it was just one of those things, but the giggle - it sounded eerily familiar too.
He sees the reason why when Toma comes around the corner, hand in hand with the girl. It's Maki.
6. Girl why do you make my brown eyes blue?
He drops his cigarette on the ground, crushes it out with the heel of his boot and nods at them. "Hey!" Toma says first, and Yamapi is oddly pleased that he lets go of Maki's hand hurriedly. "What are you doing outside? Are we having the party out here?"
"Nope, Ryo told me to wait outside and pretend it was a surprise party - hey, Maki-chan." She waves back at him. "Heya, Yamapi. I'm sorry for just inviting myself along, but Toma-kun and I just finished filming," Toma interrupts. "She wanted me to say hi for her and I said, why don't you come along, I'm sure Pi-chan wouldn't mind. You don't, do you?" Toma raises an eyebrow at him, as if daring him to disagree. "Because it's Maki-chan."
The girl in question hesitantly offers him a smile. "I can just call a taxi, it's no problem really."
"Don't be ridiculous," Toma says, just as Yamapi says, "You know, knowing Yuu-kun, I'm going to have a huge cake. You like cake, right?"
Maki laughs. "I do." She fishes in her pocket and then pulls out a small silver bag. "Happy Birthday."
His hand closes over her smaller one, and for a second, he thinks she tightens her fist before letting go.
Toma leads the way back to Yamapi's apartment, and Yamapi lets Maki walk in front of him. She catches up with Toma and pokes him in the shoulder, which makes him bump her back playfully. She swats at him and they laugh.
7. a boy like you
She sits next to him, a little unsteadily, perched on the arm of his sofa. Jin is at her feet, arguing with Toma over the dynamics of Sano and Mizuki versus Mizuki and Nakatsu - Toma's defense being, "She's best friends with Nakatsu. Who's better to fall in love with than your best friend?" while Jin swigged another bottle of beer and said earnestly, "Yes, and maybe if Nakatsu met her first, you would have a point, but she felt so bad about Sano that she left her home to go to Japan. She totally gave up being a girl, her entire way of life to just say sorry to a guy she barely knows? I don't THINK SO."
Maki exchanges glances with him and shrugs helplessly. "He's like this on set with Shun too - Shun just stands there and laughs."
"And what do you think?" He's had a few drinks of his own. and the night seems pleasantly blurry edged and full of promise. Maki sips her lemonade - even after Jin had wheedled, "No one will know, Maki-chan," she retorted, "Well, I would", and thinks it over. "I just follow the script," she says finally. "Bzzzt, wrong answer," Yamapi declares. "What do you feel?"
She rolls her eyes at him. "You're as bad as Meisa. Hmmm - well, I guess it's like this. To Mizuki, both Sano and Nakatsu are very important to her. She believes that she's responsible for why Sano turned out the way he did, and she wanted to make it up to him - to be a friend. I think she believed that was all - but would you cross the world for someone you just wanted to be your friend? I don't know that many people who are that selfless. And I think, if she didn't reason that she was in love with this boy, it would have been too scary to think well what was this all for? She could have stayed home. But then there would have been no story."
"You're all reason," Yamapi says. "Doesn't it get a little lonely there?"
Maki raises her hand, and instead of answering, lightly traces the still pink scratch around his hairline. "Did you at least get to eat black bean sauce noodles?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Does this hurt?" Her voice is a whisper now, he has to lean in closer to hear her properly.
"It didn't hurt then - it was really...just scary, I guess."
"It looked scary."
"Yeah, well, I never thought it would get that bad - guess I'm just used to Japan."
"There's no place like home," she agrees.
8. i talk out loud like you're still around
"I can't believe they took my fucking bag!" Yuu jumps a little at Yamapi's outburst, and then hands him a wet and soapy dish. "I was wondering when that was going to come up." Yamapi furiously wipes at the dish, as if he could pour out all of his delayed anger into the ceramic. "I mean, come on - what do I have to do to go on a vacation?"
"Travel with sumo wrestlers?"
"I'd get crushed to death faster."
"That would be a bad side effect, yes."
"I'm just so fucking tired, Yuu."
"Well, you know where to crash when you need it."
"Yeah."
They stack and wipe dishes in companionable silence - Yamapi finds the repetitive motion oddly soothing. The lull is broken when Jin steps inside the kitchen, his face softly lit from below, twenty three candles glowing on the birthday cake. Toma turns off the lights, and all attention drifts to Jin and the cake. "Happy birthday to you, dear Yamapi-pi-chan-tomo-chan-hissaaaa, Happy birthday to you!"
9. burning bright
Jin elbows Toma in the side when he thinks no one's watching. "Ow! What'd you do that for?" Toma glares. "Not that I'm complaining, but what's with the bring your own girl tonight? I thought I told you it was just going to be the guys. Unless..." Jin raises an eyebrow suggestively, and smirks. "You got her in full blossom, hmmm?"
"Don't be disgusting - do you even know what you say, half the time?"
"Well, come on then, are you guys dating?"
"No, we're not - like I told Pi-chan. She wanted me to pass on birthday greetings, I thought it'd be better if she gave them in person, that's all. We're just friends."
"Just...friends."
"It is possible, Jin."
"I have female friends," Jin protests.
"You've slept with all of them."
"I think that just shows how much more meaningful our friendship is, that we still can be friends."
"They have to be really forgiving, at least." Toma says. "Anyway, Maki-chan's just like one of the guys, really."
They look over to where Maki is standing, plate in hand, talking to Yuu and Yamapi. Maki says something, tilts her head. Yamapi laughs.
Jin smiles. "I guess she can stay."