Team Future, prompt 3: I’m not ordinary
Title: Puppy Love and Puppy Eyes
Pairing/Group: Nakamaru/Kame/Jin friendship, established Nakame
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None, except maybe that your IQ will drop reading this.
Summary: Nakamaru and Kame finally have a night to themselves, until Jin calls them, desperate for help.
Notes: 3k-ish. A big thanks to the Pink and the Gray <3 you ladies rock. Also I know we don’t know tiny Akanishi’s name yet, but I heard rumors that they named her Luna.
“You have to help me!” Jin squeaks at Nakamaru when he picks up his phone, even though his every instinct had been telling him to let it go to voicemail.
At this point Nakamaru really didn’t think his life could get any more difficult, but the person on the other end of the line is about to tell him otherwise, he’s sure. Jin has that ‘I know I am the worst friend ever but I really need you to help me anyway’ tone in his voice, and if he was here in person, Nakamaru is sure there would have been puppy eyes to accompany it. Some things never change.
“Jin,” Nakamaru sighs, “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t tell you right now, but can we meet?” Jin whispers
Nakamaru eyes the carefully arranged dinner table. He and Kame have been planning this evening for weeks. It’s the end of term, so Nakamaru has a lot of papers to grade. He’s glad he’s only teaching the grad students this year, but it’s still a lot of work. Kame has been busy with arranging the new CM contracts for the youngest group in the agency. Kame started working behind the scenes part-time last year, only doing one variety show and one movie. Nakamaru secretly hopes Kame will get a little more used to the luxury of regular hours, but no such luck so far.
“Yeah okay Jin, come over,” Nakamaru tells Jin. He hangs up the phone and blows out the candles he lit not five minutes ago
“Yuichi?” Kame calls from the kitchen, “are we still having dinner together?”
Nakamaru frowns at the phone and walks into the kitchen. “Maybe, if Jin doesn’t eat everything.”
“Jin?” Kame asks, “Did Satsuki win the remote control for a week again or something? Honestly I cannot for the life of me understand how he lets her use the same trick on him again and again. It’s so obvious. Besides, Jin should just tell her he likes watching America’s Next Top Model for the fashion.”
Nakamaru laughs. “It sounded like he might have an actual situation on his hands this time.”
“Oh really?” Kame asks, one eyebrow raised.
Nakamaru watches Kame turn off the stove and the timer on the rice cooker. He feels a bit disappointed that their special evening is coming to an end only an hour after they both got home.
Kame turns to face Nakamaru then, and there is a spark in his eyes as he saunters over to where Nakamaru is standing. A pang of anticipation tugs on something low in Nakamaru's stomach. His first instinct is still to back away, even now, but Kame stopped letting him get away a couple of years ago. It's not long after Nakamaru's back hits the kitchen cabinet that Kame's mouth is on his, hungrily demanding access.
"Kazuya - " Nakamaru wants to tell him to stop, but it comes out as a whine. Kame turns his attention to his neck then, and Nakamaru has never been happier he tends to back into things when Kame gets like this, because he doesn't think he would have managed to stand up all by himself just now.
Kame starts unbuttoning Nakamaru’s shirt then, pressing soft kisses onto his clavicles.
“We should make the most of what’s left of our night, don’t you think?” Kame whispers into his ear.
Nakamaru really does mean to tell Kame no. He wants to tell him that they can’t do this right now because Jin will be at their apartment soon and they aren’t horny teenagers anymore. He wants to say all that and more. “Kazuya, please.”
Kame’s strong hands are on his belt then, and Nakamaru’s pants are down before he can catch his next breath.
And then the doorbell rings.
Kame sighs. “I’ll go make us some coffee.”
Nakamaru thinks he should get credit for trying anyway. He would have stopped Kame, even if the doorbell hadn’t rung just now. Really.
***
"So," Kame says, putting down the coffee pot and three large mugs, "what did you and Satsuki fight over this time."
Jin is sitting on their couch, Kame and Nakamaru on either side of him. With slumped shoulders and the corners of his mouth turning down (despite his best efforts to keep a smile on his face), Jin really does look miserable. He’s wearing sweatpants, and with his hair cropped short and his glasses on, he looks a far cry from the bad boy idol image he sported before he started writing songs for other people.
"I didn't fight with Satsuki," he says, "Luna yelled at me."
“You’re here because you’re running away from your 14-year old?” Kame asks, “That’s a little sad, Jin, even for you.”
“Well,” Jin starts, “Satsuki did kind of tell me to go be somewhere else for a while, too.”
Nakamaru pokes Jin's side, making Jin squeak. "Out with it, Akanishi."
Jin looks at Nakamaru with the puppy eyes Nakamaru was anticipating before, but he's prepared for them now, so they have little effect. "Jin, just tell us what you did," he amends a little more gently.
Okay, so maybe not entirely immune to the puppy eyes. But Nakamaru dares anyone who has ever been on the receiving side of Jin's puppy eyes to tell him they would have acted differently.
"Luna said," Jin starts, and he seems to be on the verge of tears, so Nakamaru starts to feel a little sorry for Jin, whatever's going on. "Luna said she was going on a date!"
Sorry feeling gone.
"She's too young to be going on dates!" Jin exclaims, and he looks from Kame to Nakamaru and back, looking for support, and finding none.
“She has half my genes okay!”
"Jin," Kame asks carefully, "what kind of date do you think she was planning to go on exactly? Luna is a nice girl, they're probably just going to get ice cream or something."
"Yeah," Nakamaru adds, "I really don't think you have anything to worry about with Luna. So tell us, did you tell her she couldn't go, is that what she yelled at you?"
Jin shifts on the couch and leans back against the grey pillows, crossing his arms defiantly. "No," he says proudly, raising his chin, "I asked her who the guy was."
Kame laughs. "Well that was better than I was expecting. What did she say?"
"She said," Jin frowns, "she said she never knows what to say to him. That he's too cool to talk to. He's already in high school!" Jin stands up and paces around the living room. "I don't like it guys, I don't like that she's going out with an older guy."
Nakamaru stands up and guides Jin back to the couch. "So is this the part where she got mad at you?"
Jin looks sheepishly.
"You guys have to promise you won't laugh or yell at me. Okay? Promise?"
"Yeah Jin," Kame says, "we promise." Nakamaru sees him cross his fingers behind his back and has trouble not bursting out laughing. The lines that have gathered around Kame's eyes over the years do nothing for Kame's non-existent pokerface, and apparently didn’t make him any more of an adult than he was at 26. Jin is clueless as always and starts talking anyway.
"Yeah okay, so, uhm."
"Akanishi," Nakamaru warns, using his most impressive lecturer voice. It scares his students, and it seems to work even better on Jin, who immediately starts blushing. It would be nice if they could hear what Jin’s problem is before the night is over. Nakamaru is sure he’s not the only one who was looking forward to what might follow after dinner.
"Don't rush me! I'm trying to think of how to explain this!" Jin says and then, "Okay so here it goes. I told her I understood exactly how she felt. That I've had trouble talking to girls as well. And then Luna said that it was different for me because I was famous and a guy and I had no idea how difficult it was to understand guys. Especially guys you like. And then she gave me this dark look, you know the one? To one she gets from her mother?"
"Jin, before we're old and wrinkly please," Kame nudges him. “Even older and wrinkier, I mean.”
"Anyway," Jin continues, "That's when I said I did understand. That liking someone and having trouble talking to them is the same for everyone. And then I told her about my first crush."
"On a girl?" Nakamaru asks.
Nakamaru thinks he knows where this is going. Especially if the horror-struck face Kame is making is any indication. "You didn't."
Jin nods, hiding his face in his hands. "I did, I told her about Pi. I thought, it might... put things in perspective?"
"So what happened?" Nakamaru asks.
At this point Kame is making sounds like he wants to disappear into the couch and never come out again, and Nakamaru's not entirely sure he doesn't want to join him. There's really no way this story isn't going to be as awkward as humanly possible.
"At first she didn't believe me," Jin says, seeming to weigh his words, "and then the yelling started. She... she said I’m the crappiest dad. She said she wished I was more like other dads. She kind of threw a tantrum? She even punched me when I said Pi and I never… Anyway, if you ask me she's taking after Satsuki way too much," Jin concludes.
"No one is asking you," Kame groans into the pillow he's now pressing up against his face. Nakamaru really wants to do the same but they can't both act like drama queens. Not for the first time, Nakamaru really wishes there were someone else around to play the part of responsible adult.
"But she knows I used to be an idol, and I'm much more normal now than I was then! I'm even more normal now than Yuichi was back then!"
Kame chuckles. "I don't know if you were paying attention, but Yuichi has always been a lot further from normal than you guys gave him credit for. So I wouldn't really count that as an achievement."
"Kazuya please," Jin says, "no one paid attention to Yuichi the way you did. But what does this have to do with anything. I need solutions. Come on guys, please tell me what to do? Please?"
"Jin," Nakamaru says, trying to make his voice as gentle as he can, "we are not going to tell you how to raise your daughter. You got yourself into this mess, you have to get through it. If you need help, you talk to Satsuki. That's why you guys got married, so you could raise Luna together. Am I right?"
Kame and Jin both stare at him. Apparently solid logic doesn’t apply here.
"Right," Jin says, turning to Kame, "so what do I do?"
***
Nakamaru doesn't know why, but an hour later he finds himself pressing the doorbell of Jin and Satsuki's house. Kame and Jin had somehow agreed that no matter how special Nakamaru was as an idol ("He's pretty special even now though, all that beatboxing still comes in pretty handy now and then" "Ew Kazuya, too much information.") he's obviously the one with the most sense what is normal. And somehow (Nakamaru is still a little vague on the details) that reasoning concluded with Nakamaru being the best option for this task. Which is... seeing if there are traces of Jin’s alleged weirdness in their house?
Satsuki opens the door and welcomes Nakamaru with a smile. "Long time no see, how have you been?"
"Uhm," Nakamaru starts, "good, and how are you?"
"Good, good," she looks back to glance at the large clock hanging in the hallway, "listen, Jin is out for a bit, but you're welcome to wait inside if you want?"
"Yes that would be nice," Nakamaru says.
Nakamaru steps inside and looks around. So far so good, no weird idol-memorabilia anywhere.
"Can I get you anything to drink?" Satsuki asks him. Nakamaru shakes his head. "No thank you, I'm fine."
"Okay," she says, "make yourself comfortable. I was just finishing the laundry. I’ll be downstairs in a minute."
Nakamaru sits down on Jin's extremely normal couch and looks around his normal living room. (Okay so maybe the pink/orange/purple cushions on the couch aren't that normal, but Nakamaru knows for a fact Satsuki picked those out. Jin whined about them endlessly, but Satsuki had gotten them because they reminded her of home, and so Jin could only whine at his friends.
The goldfish on the table swims around the tiny castle in his bowl and the only thing Nakamaru hears is the loud rock music coming from Luna’s room.
"Satsuki," Nakamaru calls.
"Yeah?"
"I think I'll try again later."
“Okay, I’ll tell Jin you stopped by!”
“Thank you!”
Nakamaru goes outside, where Jin and Kame are waiting for him in Jin's car.
"And," Jin asks, "Is our house really that weird?"
Nakamaru slides into the backseat and puts his seatbelt on. "Jin, I think the only weird thing in that house is you."
"I agree, actually," Kame tells Jin.
Jin huffs and pulls away, mumbling something about having to look for new friends who aren’t married.
***
They're in Roppongi. The bar Jin took them to looks strangely familiar, but Nakamaru's sure he's never been here before. At least not with Jin. It looks too... classy. And Nakamaru never went out in Roppongi with anybody else.
"So what are we going to do now that plan A has failed?" Jin wails.
"Jin," Nakamaru says, "telling me to go to your house to see if it looks weird isn't exactly what I’d call a plan."
"What would be the logical solution," Kame says, "is if you just go talk to her."
Jin pours himself another glass of wine. "You make that sound so easy."
Nakamaru looks around the bar again. There's something so familiar about it, he can't shrug the feeling that he's been here before. Kame and Jin are bickering about whether or not talking to Luna will make things worse or not ("It never works on Satsuki either! I always have to buy her expensive roses and shit" “So buy something nice for Luna!”) when something on the wall catches Nakamaru's eye. It's a poster of an old movie, a classic, and Nakamaru distinctly remembers looking at that poster and thinking it looked out of place. He grins.
"So," Nakamaru says, turning to Jin, "where do you go for your dosis of America away from America now that the Lex is... well, this?"
Jin looks at him scathingly. "Yuichi, please," he says, throwing his last bit of wine back, "you can take a man out of Roppongi, but you can't take Roppongi out of the man."
Nakamaru sees his own judgment reflected on Kame's face.
Kame puts his hand on Jin’s shoulder, mock-pity on this face. "And this is why you can’t even have a normal conversation with a 14 year old.”
***
At the end of the night though, Jin really has to go home. Kame calls him a cab, and promises to drive his car back home the next day as he hauls Jin’s ass out of the bar.
“But guys,” Jin whines, “what if she starts throwing things again?”
“She won’t,” Nakamaru promises him. And Jin reluctantly gets into the cab and drives off.
Nakamaru is still thinking about the whole situation when he notices that Kame is typing something on his phone.
“What are you doing?” Nakamaru asks.
Kame shows him.
Bakanishi,
By the time you read this I hope you have the hangover you deserve.
No love,
Your friends who were really looking forward to their dinner together.
P.S. I got Luna tickets to Disney Sea, I think she’ll like that. I’ll bring them over tomorrow.
Nakamaru smiles and then Kame is sending the message.
“Let’s go home?” Nakamaru asks, holding out his hand for Kame. Despite not having the night they planned on, Nakamaru is glad that at least they’ll get to fall asleep together tonight.
***
The next morning Nakamaru wakes up from the sound of Kame’s laughter. It would be a nice thing to wake up to if it wasn’t so early. And if Nakamaru’s head wasn’t resting on Kame’s shoulder. Not to mention the headache.
“What’s so funny?” he mumbles, opening his eyes. Kame is holding out his cellphone to him and Nakamaru takes it, rolling onto his back to read the message displayed on the screen.
Turtle-chan,
Thank you for your concern, I feel great actually. When I came home last night Luna was really happy. Something about the boy she likes sending her a message on one of those new websites. Kind of like twitter but with apps? All was forgiven. |3 She said she’s actually glad to have a dad she can talk about boys with. Because ‘normal dads are overrated and boring anyway.’ We stayed up all night talking. Heeee.
Love,
The guy who expects his childless friends to please share some of his pain.
“Done reading?” Kame asks, and chuckles when Nakamaru nods sleepily.
“There’s more.”
P.S. NOT GIVING HER TICKETS TO DISNEY SEA. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT COULD HAPPEN AT DISNEY SEA? LUNA HAPPENED AT DISNEY SEA! YOU HAVE THE WORST IDEAS!
Nakamaru laughs, and when Kame gets out of bed to make them coffee, he thinks how glad he is that this is the extent of Jin’s parenting problems.
It could have been so much worse.
He smiles to himself and stretches, basking in the rays of sunlight peeking through the navy blue blinds. At least today they’ll have the whole morning to themselves. Nakamaru mentally goes over the endless list of possible ways to fill their time together and files away a couple of ideas for when Kame gets back.
Suddenly his phone rings, the display lighting up with Jin’s name.
Nakamaru lets it go to voicemail, and turns his phone off. He’s sure Jin can manage on his own for just one morning.
Probably.
Poll Team Future Prompt 3
Pairing/Group: Nakamaru/Kame/Jin friendship, established Nakame
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None, except maybe that your IQ will drop reading this.
Summary: Nakamaru and Kame finally have a night to themselves, until Jin calls them, desperate for help.
Notes: 3k-ish. A big thanks to the Pink and the Gray <3 you ladies rock. Also I know we don’t know tiny Akanishi’s name yet, but I heard rumors that they named her Luna.
“You have to help me!” Jin squeaks at Nakamaru when he picks up his phone, even though his every instinct had been telling him to let it go to voicemail.
At this point Nakamaru really didn’t think his life could get any more difficult, but the person on the other end of the line is about to tell him otherwise, he’s sure. Jin has that ‘I know I am the worst friend ever but I really need you to help me anyway’ tone in his voice, and if he was here in person, Nakamaru is sure there would have been puppy eyes to accompany it. Some things never change.
“Jin,” Nakamaru sighs, “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t tell you right now, but can we meet?” Jin whispers
Nakamaru eyes the carefully arranged dinner table. He and Kame have been planning this evening for weeks. It’s the end of term, so Nakamaru has a lot of papers to grade. He’s glad he’s only teaching the grad students this year, but it’s still a lot of work. Kame has been busy with arranging the new CM contracts for the youngest group in the agency. Kame started working behind the scenes part-time last year, only doing one variety show and one movie. Nakamaru secretly hopes Kame will get a little more used to the luxury of regular hours, but no such luck so far.
“Yeah okay Jin, come over,” Nakamaru tells Jin. He hangs up the phone and blows out the candles he lit not five minutes ago
“Yuichi?” Kame calls from the kitchen, “are we still having dinner together?”
Nakamaru frowns at the phone and walks into the kitchen. “Maybe, if Jin doesn’t eat everything.”
“Jin?” Kame asks, “Did Satsuki win the remote control for a week again or something? Honestly I cannot for the life of me understand how he lets her use the same trick on him again and again. It’s so obvious. Besides, Jin should just tell her he likes watching America’s Next Top Model for the fashion.”
Nakamaru laughs. “It sounded like he might have an actual situation on his hands this time.”
“Oh really?” Kame asks, one eyebrow raised.
Nakamaru watches Kame turn off the stove and the timer on the rice cooker. He feels a bit disappointed that their special evening is coming to an end only an hour after they both got home.
Kame turns to face Nakamaru then, and there is a spark in his eyes as he saunters over to where Nakamaru is standing. A pang of anticipation tugs on something low in Nakamaru's stomach. His first instinct is still to back away, even now, but Kame stopped letting him get away a couple of years ago. It's not long after Nakamaru's back hits the kitchen cabinet that Kame's mouth is on his, hungrily demanding access.
"Kazuya - " Nakamaru wants to tell him to stop, but it comes out as a whine. Kame turns his attention to his neck then, and Nakamaru has never been happier he tends to back into things when Kame gets like this, because he doesn't think he would have managed to stand up all by himself just now.
Kame starts unbuttoning Nakamaru’s shirt then, pressing soft kisses onto his clavicles.
“We should make the most of what’s left of our night, don’t you think?” Kame whispers into his ear.
Nakamaru really does mean to tell Kame no. He wants to tell him that they can’t do this right now because Jin will be at their apartment soon and they aren’t horny teenagers anymore. He wants to say all that and more. “Kazuya, please.”
Kame’s strong hands are on his belt then, and Nakamaru’s pants are down before he can catch his next breath.
And then the doorbell rings.
Kame sighs. “I’ll go make us some coffee.”
Nakamaru thinks he should get credit for trying anyway. He would have stopped Kame, even if the doorbell hadn’t rung just now. Really.
***
"So," Kame says, putting down the coffee pot and three large mugs, "what did you and Satsuki fight over this time."
Jin is sitting on their couch, Kame and Nakamaru on either side of him. With slumped shoulders and the corners of his mouth turning down (despite his best efforts to keep a smile on his face), Jin really does look miserable. He’s wearing sweatpants, and with his hair cropped short and his glasses on, he looks a far cry from the bad boy idol image he sported before he started writing songs for other people.
"I didn't fight with Satsuki," he says, "Luna yelled at me."
“You’re here because you’re running away from your 14-year old?” Kame asks, “That’s a little sad, Jin, even for you.”
“Well,” Jin starts, “Satsuki did kind of tell me to go be somewhere else for a while, too.”
Nakamaru pokes Jin's side, making Jin squeak. "Out with it, Akanishi."
Jin looks at Nakamaru with the puppy eyes Nakamaru was anticipating before, but he's prepared for them now, so they have little effect. "Jin, just tell us what you did," he amends a little more gently.
Okay, so maybe not entirely immune to the puppy eyes. But Nakamaru dares anyone who has ever been on the receiving side of Jin's puppy eyes to tell him they would have acted differently.
"Luna said," Jin starts, and he seems to be on the verge of tears, so Nakamaru starts to feel a little sorry for Jin, whatever's going on. "Luna said she was going on a date!"
Sorry feeling gone.
"She's too young to be going on dates!" Jin exclaims, and he looks from Kame to Nakamaru and back, looking for support, and finding none.
“She has half my genes okay!”
"Jin," Kame asks carefully, "what kind of date do you think she was planning to go on exactly? Luna is a nice girl, they're probably just going to get ice cream or something."
"Yeah," Nakamaru adds, "I really don't think you have anything to worry about with Luna. So tell us, did you tell her she couldn't go, is that what she yelled at you?"
Jin shifts on the couch and leans back against the grey pillows, crossing his arms defiantly. "No," he says proudly, raising his chin, "I asked her who the guy was."
Kame laughs. "Well that was better than I was expecting. What did she say?"
"She said," Jin frowns, "she said she never knows what to say to him. That he's too cool to talk to. He's already in high school!" Jin stands up and paces around the living room. "I don't like it guys, I don't like that she's going out with an older guy."
Nakamaru stands up and guides Jin back to the couch. "So is this the part where she got mad at you?"
Jin looks sheepishly.
"You guys have to promise you won't laugh or yell at me. Okay? Promise?"
"Yeah Jin," Kame says, "we promise." Nakamaru sees him cross his fingers behind his back and has trouble not bursting out laughing. The lines that have gathered around Kame's eyes over the years do nothing for Kame's non-existent pokerface, and apparently didn’t make him any more of an adult than he was at 26. Jin is clueless as always and starts talking anyway.
"Yeah okay, so, uhm."
"Akanishi," Nakamaru warns, using his most impressive lecturer voice. It scares his students, and it seems to work even better on Jin, who immediately starts blushing. It would be nice if they could hear what Jin’s problem is before the night is over. Nakamaru is sure he’s not the only one who was looking forward to what might follow after dinner.
"Don't rush me! I'm trying to think of how to explain this!" Jin says and then, "Okay so here it goes. I told her I understood exactly how she felt. That I've had trouble talking to girls as well. And then Luna said that it was different for me because I was famous and a guy and I had no idea how difficult it was to understand guys. Especially guys you like. And then she gave me this dark look, you know the one? To one she gets from her mother?"
"Jin, before we're old and wrinkly please," Kame nudges him. “Even older and wrinkier, I mean.”
"Anyway," Jin continues, "That's when I said I did understand. That liking someone and having trouble talking to them is the same for everyone. And then I told her about my first crush."
"On a girl?" Nakamaru asks.
Nakamaru thinks he knows where this is going. Especially if the horror-struck face Kame is making is any indication. "You didn't."
Jin nods, hiding his face in his hands. "I did, I told her about Pi. I thought, it might... put things in perspective?"
"So what happened?" Nakamaru asks.
At this point Kame is making sounds like he wants to disappear into the couch and never come out again, and Nakamaru's not entirely sure he doesn't want to join him. There's really no way this story isn't going to be as awkward as humanly possible.
"At first she didn't believe me," Jin says, seeming to weigh his words, "and then the yelling started. She... she said I’m the crappiest dad. She said she wished I was more like other dads. She kind of threw a tantrum? She even punched me when I said Pi and I never… Anyway, if you ask me she's taking after Satsuki way too much," Jin concludes.
"No one is asking you," Kame groans into the pillow he's now pressing up against his face. Nakamaru really wants to do the same but they can't both act like drama queens. Not for the first time, Nakamaru really wishes there were someone else around to play the part of responsible adult.
"But she knows I used to be an idol, and I'm much more normal now than I was then! I'm even more normal now than Yuichi was back then!"
Kame chuckles. "I don't know if you were paying attention, but Yuichi has always been a lot further from normal than you guys gave him credit for. So I wouldn't really count that as an achievement."
"Kazuya please," Jin says, "no one paid attention to Yuichi the way you did. But what does this have to do with anything. I need solutions. Come on guys, please tell me what to do? Please?"
"Jin," Nakamaru says, trying to make his voice as gentle as he can, "we are not going to tell you how to raise your daughter. You got yourself into this mess, you have to get through it. If you need help, you talk to Satsuki. That's why you guys got married, so you could raise Luna together. Am I right?"
Kame and Jin both stare at him. Apparently solid logic doesn’t apply here.
"Right," Jin says, turning to Kame, "so what do I do?"
***
Nakamaru doesn't know why, but an hour later he finds himself pressing the doorbell of Jin and Satsuki's house. Kame and Jin had somehow agreed that no matter how special Nakamaru was as an idol ("He's pretty special even now though, all that beatboxing still comes in pretty handy now and then" "Ew Kazuya, too much information.") he's obviously the one with the most sense what is normal. And somehow (Nakamaru is still a little vague on the details) that reasoning concluded with Nakamaru being the best option for this task. Which is... seeing if there are traces of Jin’s alleged weirdness in their house?
Satsuki opens the door and welcomes Nakamaru with a smile. "Long time no see, how have you been?"
"Uhm," Nakamaru starts, "good, and how are you?"
"Good, good," she looks back to glance at the large clock hanging in the hallway, "listen, Jin is out for a bit, but you're welcome to wait inside if you want?"
"Yes that would be nice," Nakamaru says.
Nakamaru steps inside and looks around. So far so good, no weird idol-memorabilia anywhere.
"Can I get you anything to drink?" Satsuki asks him. Nakamaru shakes his head. "No thank you, I'm fine."
"Okay," she says, "make yourself comfortable. I was just finishing the laundry. I’ll be downstairs in a minute."
Nakamaru sits down on Jin's extremely normal couch and looks around his normal living room. (Okay so maybe the pink/orange/purple cushions on the couch aren't that normal, but Nakamaru knows for a fact Satsuki picked those out. Jin whined about them endlessly, but Satsuki had gotten them because they reminded her of home, and so Jin could only whine at his friends.
The goldfish on the table swims around the tiny castle in his bowl and the only thing Nakamaru hears is the loud rock music coming from Luna’s room.
"Satsuki," Nakamaru calls.
"Yeah?"
"I think I'll try again later."
“Okay, I’ll tell Jin you stopped by!”
“Thank you!”
Nakamaru goes outside, where Jin and Kame are waiting for him in Jin's car.
"And," Jin asks, "Is our house really that weird?"
Nakamaru slides into the backseat and puts his seatbelt on. "Jin, I think the only weird thing in that house is you."
"I agree, actually," Kame tells Jin.
Jin huffs and pulls away, mumbling something about having to look for new friends who aren’t married.
***
They're in Roppongi. The bar Jin took them to looks strangely familiar, but Nakamaru's sure he's never been here before. At least not with Jin. It looks too... classy. And Nakamaru never went out in Roppongi with anybody else.
"So what are we going to do now that plan A has failed?" Jin wails.
"Jin," Nakamaru says, "telling me to go to your house to see if it looks weird isn't exactly what I’d call a plan."
"What would be the logical solution," Kame says, "is if you just go talk to her."
Jin pours himself another glass of wine. "You make that sound so easy."
Nakamaru looks around the bar again. There's something so familiar about it, he can't shrug the feeling that he's been here before. Kame and Jin are bickering about whether or not talking to Luna will make things worse or not ("It never works on Satsuki either! I always have to buy her expensive roses and shit" “So buy something nice for Luna!”) when something on the wall catches Nakamaru's eye. It's a poster of an old movie, a classic, and Nakamaru distinctly remembers looking at that poster and thinking it looked out of place. He grins.
"So," Nakamaru says, turning to Jin, "where do you go for your dosis of America away from America now that the Lex is... well, this?"
Jin looks at him scathingly. "Yuichi, please," he says, throwing his last bit of wine back, "you can take a man out of Roppongi, but you can't take Roppongi out of the man."
Nakamaru sees his own judgment reflected on Kame's face.
Kame puts his hand on Jin’s shoulder, mock-pity on this face. "And this is why you can’t even have a normal conversation with a 14 year old.”
***
At the end of the night though, Jin really has to go home. Kame calls him a cab, and promises to drive his car back home the next day as he hauls Jin’s ass out of the bar.
“But guys,” Jin whines, “what if she starts throwing things again?”
“She won’t,” Nakamaru promises him. And Jin reluctantly gets into the cab and drives off.
Nakamaru is still thinking about the whole situation when he notices that Kame is typing something on his phone.
“What are you doing?” Nakamaru asks.
Kame shows him.
Bakanishi,
By the time you read this I hope you have the hangover you deserve.
No love,
Your friends who were really looking forward to their dinner together.
P.S. I got Luna tickets to Disney Sea, I think she’ll like that. I’ll bring them over tomorrow.
Nakamaru smiles and then Kame is sending the message.
“Let’s go home?” Nakamaru asks, holding out his hand for Kame. Despite not having the night they planned on, Nakamaru is glad that at least they’ll get to fall asleep together tonight.
***
The next morning Nakamaru wakes up from the sound of Kame’s laughter. It would be a nice thing to wake up to if it wasn’t so early. And if Nakamaru’s head wasn’t resting on Kame’s shoulder. Not to mention the headache.
“What’s so funny?” he mumbles, opening his eyes. Kame is holding out his cellphone to him and Nakamaru takes it, rolling onto his back to read the message displayed on the screen.
Turtle-chan,
Thank you for your concern, I feel great actually. When I came home last night Luna was really happy. Something about the boy she likes sending her a message on one of those new websites. Kind of like twitter but with apps? All was forgiven. |3 She said she’s actually glad to have a dad she can talk about boys with. Because ‘normal dads are overrated and boring anyway.’ We stayed up all night talking. Heeee.
Love,
The guy who expects his childless friends to please share some of his pain.
“Done reading?” Kame asks, and chuckles when Nakamaru nods sleepily.
“There’s more.”
P.S. NOT GIVING HER TICKETS TO DISNEY SEA. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT COULD HAPPEN AT DISNEY SEA? LUNA HAPPENED AT DISNEY SEA! YOU HAVE THE WORST IDEAS!
Nakamaru laughs, and when Kame gets out of bed to make them coffee, he thinks how glad he is that this is the extent of Jin’s parenting problems.
It could have been so much worse.
He smiles to himself and stretches, basking in the rays of sunlight peeking through the navy blue blinds. At least today they’ll have the whole morning to themselves. Nakamaru mentally goes over the endless list of possible ways to fill their time together and files away a couple of ideas for when Kame gets back.
Suddenly his phone rings, the display lighting up with Jin’s name.
Nakamaru lets it go to voicemail, and turns his phone off. He’s sure Jin can manage on his own for just one morning.
Probably.
Poll Team Future Prompt 3