Chocolate Fic for je_whiteday
To: je_whiteday
From: myxstorie
Title: 乱れてく BUTTERFLY
Pairing: Akanishi Jin/Yamashita Rina
Rating: PG13 for cursing
Summary: Jin begins to realise that for all he submerses himself in foreign culture, maybe the girl for him isn't so far from home after all...
A/N: Thank you so much for all your hard work, mods! Another year well done~ Here's to many more years ahead ♥
-It's not often that Jin gets nervous about asking girls on dates. It's just that normally, strange though it may sound, he's asking the girl on a date.
Not their brother.
"Hey, Pi?" He's trying to sound nonchalant, but really, he thinks he just sounds a little bit like his voice hasn't finished breaking yet.
Yamapi makes a noncommital grunting noise, which usually translates to 'what', 'yes', 'no', and occasionally, 'fuck off and let me sleep'. Whatever it means today, Jin takes a deep breath and ploughs ahead.
"What would you say if I asked Rina out?"
"No." Yamapi's reaction is instant, sudden and no-nonsense.
Jin blinks, "What?"
"No."
"But what if-"
"No."
"How about-"
"No."
"Mayb-"
"No!"
Jin pouts, sulking for all of three seconds before he flops down on the couch next to his friend, stealing the can of coffee-milk out of Yamapi's hands and it's testament to how tired the other man is that he just lets it go.
"Why not?"
Yamapi looks at him for a long, long time, while Jin stares unflinchingly back, until he gives in with a huff. Yamapi always gives in when it's Jin.
"Are you seriously asking me this?"
Jin blinks, expression unchanged, but when Yamapi doesn't offer any more, he crumbles.
"But I'm your best friend! Who better than me to go out with her?!"
"It's exactly because you're my best friend that I don't want you to go out with her. I don't want someone like you anywhere near her."
Jin has the grace to look hurt, and Yamapi's expression softens, "You're not exactly the most stable guy, Jin. How many relationships have you had that have lasted more than a month? I... I want my sister to have something better than that."
"But..." Jin swallows, "I am better than that. You know I am."
Yamapi sighs, but he can't deny it. As much as Jin talks about bitches and hos, about getting drunk and sleeping around, his heart is in the right place. He loves more than anyone Yamapi's ever known, loves with everything he has, and there is nothing he won't do for the girl in his life, regardless of the trouble it will get him in. Even when for most of them, everything still isn't enough.
All the same, the life of an idol isn't exactly stable. The hours are plentiful and the money is good, but the family days are few and far between, and the job security is in all actuality, pretty shit, even for them. Yamapi has hopes, dreams for his little sister, wants her to have the life he never got to live. He knows it's bad to put all his wishes on her shoulders, and truthfully, so long as she's happy, that's all that really matters, but secretly, he wants more for her than the dysfunctional lifestyle that comes with this job. He wants her to marry someone who will take care of her - much as she'd hurt him if she ever heard something so sappy - someone who will be there at six in the evening, in time for dinner with stories about their day, someone with the time to take her and their children on holiday and to the beach at the weekend. Someone with the time to live a real family life. Not stolen hours in the middle of the night and rushed phone calls during lunch, words muffled by onigiri and bread. Not alarms going off at 4 in the morning and hurried kisses before the sun has fully risen, still hovering in that long moment that comes before dawn. Not being able to see more of her loved one on billboards and the television screen than she ever sees at home.
It's the start of a rocky relationship at best, with all that Jin has to offer.
But, it's just a date. Jin isn't asking for Rina's hand in marriage, just a date. One small, quick meeting where they can exchange words and eat food and drink until he takes her home - because he will take her home, her home - and it'll all be over.
Against all better judgement, Yamapi takes one look at Jin's pleading eyes, and closes his own.
"Okay."
-
Rina laughs at him.
And even that, full-throated and real, head tipped back with her eyes scrunched closed as she laughs and laughs and laughs, is one of the most gorgeous things he's ever seen.
By the time Jin finds it in him to be hurt that she's laughing at him, Rina is drawing in long, calming breaths and looking at him, eyes still dancing with amusement, and it's times like these that Jin wishes she didn't look so much like her brother, because it makes things really uncomfortable.
When she sees he isn't laughing with her, she has the grace to look guilty, her humour wilting a little in the face of his big, sad eyes.
"Oh," she says softly, "You weren't kidding."
Jin just leaves. It's easier than a full-out rejection.
-
As is usually the case when he's feeling sorry for himself, Jin ends up at his mother's, only to find Yamapi already there and slurping noodles with Reio in the kitchen.
"Ah!" His mother exclaims, face breaking into a wide, slightly squared-off smile, "All three of my boys in one day, someone is smiling down on me!"
"So noisy~" Jin whines, yelping when she whacks him with the kitchen towel, but he's smiling all the same.
When he's done eating - because food always comes first - Yamapi looks up, "You asked her?"
"Asked who?" Reio inquires, but Jin ignores him, turning to glare at Yamapi instead.
"You could have warned her or something, you ass! Maybe then I wouldn't feel so fucking humiliated."
"No swearing in my kitchen~" Akanishi-mama sings, but Jin thinks she probably knows more curse words in more languages than the three of them combined.
"It didn't go well then, huh?"
"No, it didn't! She laughed at me, Pi! Right in my face and everything."
"She must just have better taste than Pisuke," Jin's mother offers.
Reio's laughter is uninhibited by the glares the other two fix on him, and only gets worse when Jin gets him in a choke hold and Yamapi goes for his kneecaps.
"So nice to see you all getting along," Jin's mother sighs, and continues washing the dishes.
Mid-squabble, someones phone starts ringing, and all three of them abandon the fight to delve into their pockets. It's Jin's, but when he sees the name flashing up on the screen, his eyes go unnaturally wide and he makes no move to open it.
"It's Rina."
Any protests he makes are futile as Yamapi lunges for the handset, flipping it open and putting it on speakerphone before Jin has the sense to snatch it back.
"Rina-chan!"
"He- Tomo? Did you two switch phones again, cause that really isn't funny anymo-"
"No. Why did you laugh at Jin like that? So mean~"
"I didn't think he was serious! And... Is he there?"
Yamapi's eyes flicker between Jin and his phone, "No."
"Wha..." Rina sounds confused, but sighs, "Whatever. Even if I'd known he was serious... He's a Johnny, Tomo."
"Oi! It's not a disease."
"Really? Because the papers seem to think-"
"You should be so lucky to have someone like Jin interested in you, little sister," Yamapi says firmly, bumping his fist with Jin.
"What? You're the one who said I'd be better off with seven cats and a canary than touching him with a t-"
"Do you think she'd date me?" Reio grins, clearly delighting in the way Yamapi seems to be trying to crawl underneath the counter to escape his mother's glare.
"No," Four voices harmonise from all directions, before the scratchier of them all carries on, "I thought you said Akanishi wasn't- You little liar! I'm on fucking speakerphone, aren't I?! Just you wait-"
"No swearing in my kitchen~"
"-I'm going to have your tongue on a fucking plate when you get back! I can't believe you lied to me, wait until I tell mu-"
Jin scoops up the phone and mutes the speaker, putting it up to his ear and very pointedly leaving the room, slamming the door behind him so that neither of them get any more bright ideas.
"-she's gonna be so pissed, then who'll do your-"
"Rina-chan?"
"-washing every weeke... Jin? Does this mean my idiot brother has made himself scarce?"
"Something like that." He sucks in a deep lungful of air and holds it for a moment before letting it out slowly. He doesn't feel any calmer, but at least Rina's not yelling any more. "Why did you call me?"
"What? Oh. I uh, I wanted to apologise. For laughing like that. I'm sorry."
"Sorry enough to go on a date with me?" Jin asks hopefully, and she snorts.
"You're persistant."
"Some would say it's my charm point."
"Are these the same people who fall at your feet and beg you to take them home?"
Jin doesn't need to be a genius to hear the derision in her voice, and he sniffs softly, mouth twisting up and in on itself.
"You know I'm not like that." His voice is soft, small, and if he knows Rina at all, she's already feeling guilty.
"I know." She's no louder than him, voice laced with unspoken regret, and it's already enough for him to forgive her.
"Please, just give me a chance?" It's not often that he has to break out the please's to get a date, but Rina's different to the rest of the girls he's taken out (and been taken out by. Junior pay isn't great), "I promise I won't need as much attention as seven cats, and you won't have to change my newspaper every time I use the bathroom."
She laughs, and this time, it's a good sign.
"... Okay."
-
He orders Italian while she has the steak, and the moment it arrives Jin knows he should have asked for the same. There is a bonus to dating someone you've known since you were a gawky, thick-lipped, poofy-haired teen and she was a tiny, squealing schoolgirl though, because she sees him staring at her plate and grins.
"You want this instead, don't you?"
"I..." He looks down at his pasta, and damn, it looks good, "I..."
She shakes her head with a tiny smile that she tries to hide behind her hair as she cuts off a piece of steak, "Always so annoying, that's Akanishi all right."
"Ah~n," he smirks, and she swats at him with the hand that isn't holding out her fork.
"Shut up and eat, before I change my mind."
Before, she was always Rina, Yamapi's little sister. But now, now she's Rina, in a sleek black dress that fits just right and shows off just the right amount of skin to keep him wondering - nothing like him or her brother, then - classy and together and beautiful while her hand curls elegantly around the stem of her wine glass and her mouth curves in a soft smile that makes him want to just lean forward and-
"At least you're not staring at my chest, I suppose," she , and his eyes flicker up to hers, guilty even if he wasn't.
"I go to the baths with your brother; he's definitely a bigger cup than you."
She's drinking as he says it, and her hand flies to her mouth as she laughs, nearly spraying him with her wine.
-
"Why me?" Rina asks him later, much later, when the food and the wine is gone and they've left the restaurant behind to walk along the brightly-lit streets of Tokyo instead.
Jin shrugs, making sure his hands are shoved deep in his pockets so that he doesn't accidentally brush his fingers across her shoulder, pale and gleaming like porcelain.
The look she gives him is distinctly unimpressed, but with an edge of the constant amusement he knows runs in the Yamashita family, "You're not pleading your case very well, here."
He chuckles and is glad when she smiles back. He can't meet her eyes, and has never been very good about talking about his feelings - always the kind of boy to yank on pigtails and steal lunch from the girl he liked - but she knows exactly what he's like, and she's still here with him.
"You're not like other girls," he says eventually, skilfully ignoring the mocked disbelief on her face as he tries to be a little more in depth, "You... You don't want a Johnny. I like that."
Rina scoffs, but it's quiet and soft and totally without malice, and as they walk, he feels her hand sneak into the crook of his elbow.
There's more to her than her hair, her clothes, her make-up, and she knows there's more to him than his face, his voice, his money. She's one of the few people he can really trust to not care about his job - to dislike it, even - and she already knows him better than any other girl ever could.
She's always had a big place in his heart, but he's only just beginning to realise just how special she really is.
From: myxstorie
Title: 乱れてく BUTTERFLY
Pairing: Akanishi Jin/Yamashita Rina
Rating: PG13 for cursing
Summary: Jin begins to realise that for all he submerses himself in foreign culture, maybe the girl for him isn't so far from home after all...
A/N: Thank you so much for all your hard work, mods! Another year well done~ Here's to many more years ahead ♥
-It's not often that Jin gets nervous about asking girls on dates. It's just that normally, strange though it may sound, he's asking the girl on a date.
Not their brother.
"Hey, Pi?" He's trying to sound nonchalant, but really, he thinks he just sounds a little bit like his voice hasn't finished breaking yet.
Yamapi makes a noncommital grunting noise, which usually translates to 'what', 'yes', 'no', and occasionally, 'fuck off and let me sleep'. Whatever it means today, Jin takes a deep breath and ploughs ahead.
"What would you say if I asked Rina out?"
"No." Yamapi's reaction is instant, sudden and no-nonsense.
Jin blinks, "What?"
"No."
"But what if-"
"No."
"How about-"
"No."
"Mayb-"
"No!"
Jin pouts, sulking for all of three seconds before he flops down on the couch next to his friend, stealing the can of coffee-milk out of Yamapi's hands and it's testament to how tired the other man is that he just lets it go.
"Why not?"
Yamapi looks at him for a long, long time, while Jin stares unflinchingly back, until he gives in with a huff. Yamapi always gives in when it's Jin.
"Are you seriously asking me this?"
Jin blinks, expression unchanged, but when Yamapi doesn't offer any more, he crumbles.
"But I'm your best friend! Who better than me to go out with her?!"
"It's exactly because you're my best friend that I don't want you to go out with her. I don't want someone like you anywhere near her."
Jin has the grace to look hurt, and Yamapi's expression softens, "You're not exactly the most stable guy, Jin. How many relationships have you had that have lasted more than a month? I... I want my sister to have something better than that."
"But..." Jin swallows, "I am better than that. You know I am."
Yamapi sighs, but he can't deny it. As much as Jin talks about bitches and hos, about getting drunk and sleeping around, his heart is in the right place. He loves more than anyone Yamapi's ever known, loves with everything he has, and there is nothing he won't do for the girl in his life, regardless of the trouble it will get him in. Even when for most of them, everything still isn't enough.
All the same, the life of an idol isn't exactly stable. The hours are plentiful and the money is good, but the family days are few and far between, and the job security is in all actuality, pretty shit, even for them. Yamapi has hopes, dreams for his little sister, wants her to have the life he never got to live. He knows it's bad to put all his wishes on her shoulders, and truthfully, so long as she's happy, that's all that really matters, but secretly, he wants more for her than the dysfunctional lifestyle that comes with this job. He wants her to marry someone who will take care of her - much as she'd hurt him if she ever heard something so sappy - someone who will be there at six in the evening, in time for dinner with stories about their day, someone with the time to take her and their children on holiday and to the beach at the weekend. Someone with the time to live a real family life. Not stolen hours in the middle of the night and rushed phone calls during lunch, words muffled by onigiri and bread. Not alarms going off at 4 in the morning and hurried kisses before the sun has fully risen, still hovering in that long moment that comes before dawn. Not being able to see more of her loved one on billboards and the television screen than she ever sees at home.
It's the start of a rocky relationship at best, with all that Jin has to offer.
But, it's just a date. Jin isn't asking for Rina's hand in marriage, just a date. One small, quick meeting where they can exchange words and eat food and drink until he takes her home - because he will take her home, her home - and it'll all be over.
Against all better judgement, Yamapi takes one look at Jin's pleading eyes, and closes his own.
"Okay."
-
Rina laughs at him.
And even that, full-throated and real, head tipped back with her eyes scrunched closed as she laughs and laughs and laughs, is one of the most gorgeous things he's ever seen.
By the time Jin finds it in him to be hurt that she's laughing at him, Rina is drawing in long, calming breaths and looking at him, eyes still dancing with amusement, and it's times like these that Jin wishes she didn't look so much like her brother, because it makes things really uncomfortable.
When she sees he isn't laughing with her, she has the grace to look guilty, her humour wilting a little in the face of his big, sad eyes.
"Oh," she says softly, "You weren't kidding."
Jin just leaves. It's easier than a full-out rejection.
-
As is usually the case when he's feeling sorry for himself, Jin ends up at his mother's, only to find Yamapi already there and slurping noodles with Reio in the kitchen.
"Ah!" His mother exclaims, face breaking into a wide, slightly squared-off smile, "All three of my boys in one day, someone is smiling down on me!"
"So noisy~" Jin whines, yelping when she whacks him with the kitchen towel, but he's smiling all the same.
When he's done eating - because food always comes first - Yamapi looks up, "You asked her?"
"Asked who?" Reio inquires, but Jin ignores him, turning to glare at Yamapi instead.
"You could have warned her or something, you ass! Maybe then I wouldn't feel so fucking humiliated."
"No swearing in my kitchen~" Akanishi-mama sings, but Jin thinks she probably knows more curse words in more languages than the three of them combined.
"It didn't go well then, huh?"
"No, it didn't! She laughed at me, Pi! Right in my face and everything."
"She must just have better taste than Pisuke," Jin's mother offers.
Reio's laughter is uninhibited by the glares the other two fix on him, and only gets worse when Jin gets him in a choke hold and Yamapi goes for his kneecaps.
"So nice to see you all getting along," Jin's mother sighs, and continues washing the dishes.
Mid-squabble, someones phone starts ringing, and all three of them abandon the fight to delve into their pockets. It's Jin's, but when he sees the name flashing up on the screen, his eyes go unnaturally wide and he makes no move to open it.
"It's Rina."
Any protests he makes are futile as Yamapi lunges for the handset, flipping it open and putting it on speakerphone before Jin has the sense to snatch it back.
"Rina-chan!"
"He- Tomo? Did you two switch phones again, cause that really isn't funny anymo-"
"No. Why did you laugh at Jin like that? So mean~"
"I didn't think he was serious! And... Is he there?"
Yamapi's eyes flicker between Jin and his phone, "No."
"Wha..." Rina sounds confused, but sighs, "Whatever. Even if I'd known he was serious... He's a Johnny, Tomo."
"Oi! It's not a disease."
"Really? Because the papers seem to think-"
"You should be so lucky to have someone like Jin interested in you, little sister," Yamapi says firmly, bumping his fist with Jin.
"What? You're the one who said I'd be better off with seven cats and a canary than touching him with a t-"
"Do you think she'd date me?" Reio grins, clearly delighting in the way Yamapi seems to be trying to crawl underneath the counter to escape his mother's glare.
"No," Four voices harmonise from all directions, before the scratchier of them all carries on, "I thought you said Akanishi wasn't- You little liar! I'm on fucking speakerphone, aren't I?! Just you wait-"
"No swearing in my kitchen~"
"-I'm going to have your tongue on a fucking plate when you get back! I can't believe you lied to me, wait until I tell mu-"
Jin scoops up the phone and mutes the speaker, putting it up to his ear and very pointedly leaving the room, slamming the door behind him so that neither of them get any more bright ideas.
"-she's gonna be so pissed, then who'll do your-"
"Rina-chan?"
"-washing every weeke... Jin? Does this mean my idiot brother has made himself scarce?"
"Something like that." He sucks in a deep lungful of air and holds it for a moment before letting it out slowly. He doesn't feel any calmer, but at least Rina's not yelling any more. "Why did you call me?"
"What? Oh. I uh, I wanted to apologise. For laughing like that. I'm sorry."
"Sorry enough to go on a date with me?" Jin asks hopefully, and she snorts.
"You're persistant."
"Some would say it's my charm point."
"Are these the same people who fall at your feet and beg you to take them home?"
Jin doesn't need to be a genius to hear the derision in her voice, and he sniffs softly, mouth twisting up and in on itself.
"You know I'm not like that." His voice is soft, small, and if he knows Rina at all, she's already feeling guilty.
"I know." She's no louder than him, voice laced with unspoken regret, and it's already enough for him to forgive her.
"Please, just give me a chance?" It's not often that he has to break out the please's to get a date, but Rina's different to the rest of the girls he's taken out (and been taken out by. Junior pay isn't great), "I promise I won't need as much attention as seven cats, and you won't have to change my newspaper every time I use the bathroom."
She laughs, and this time, it's a good sign.
"... Okay."
-
He orders Italian while she has the steak, and the moment it arrives Jin knows he should have asked for the same. There is a bonus to dating someone you've known since you were a gawky, thick-lipped, poofy-haired teen and she was a tiny, squealing schoolgirl though, because she sees him staring at her plate and grins.
"You want this instead, don't you?"
"I..." He looks down at his pasta, and damn, it looks good, "I..."
She shakes her head with a tiny smile that she tries to hide behind her hair as she cuts off a piece of steak, "Always so annoying, that's Akanishi all right."
"Ah~n," he smirks, and she swats at him with the hand that isn't holding out her fork.
"Shut up and eat, before I change my mind."
Before, she was always Rina, Yamapi's little sister. But now, now she's Rina, in a sleek black dress that fits just right and shows off just the right amount of skin to keep him wondering - nothing like him or her brother, then - classy and together and beautiful while her hand curls elegantly around the stem of her wine glass and her mouth curves in a soft smile that makes him want to just lean forward and-
"At least you're not staring at my chest, I suppose," she , and his eyes flicker up to hers, guilty even if he wasn't.
"I go to the baths with your brother; he's definitely a bigger cup than you."
She's drinking as he says it, and her hand flies to her mouth as she laughs, nearly spraying him with her wine.
-
"Why me?" Rina asks him later, much later, when the food and the wine is gone and they've left the restaurant behind to walk along the brightly-lit streets of Tokyo instead.
Jin shrugs, making sure his hands are shoved deep in his pockets so that he doesn't accidentally brush his fingers across her shoulder, pale and gleaming like porcelain.
The look she gives him is distinctly unimpressed, but with an edge of the constant amusement he knows runs in the Yamashita family, "You're not pleading your case very well, here."
He chuckles and is glad when she smiles back. He can't meet her eyes, and has never been very good about talking about his feelings - always the kind of boy to yank on pigtails and steal lunch from the girl he liked - but she knows exactly what he's like, and she's still here with him.
"You're not like other girls," he says eventually, skilfully ignoring the mocked disbelief on her face as he tries to be a little more in depth, "You... You don't want a Johnny. I like that."
Rina scoffs, but it's quiet and soft and totally without malice, and as they walk, he feels her hand sneak into the crook of his elbow.
There's more to her than her hair, her clothes, her make-up, and she knows there's more to him than his face, his voice, his money. She's one of the few people he can really trust to not care about his job - to dislike it, even - and she already knows him better than any other girl ever could.
She's always had a big place in his heart, but he's only just beginning to realise just how special she really is.