Gift fic for space_sick

Oct 02, 2010 12:53


Intergroup Gold for space_sick

from mugiwara_shojo

Title: The First Day is Always a Little Awkward
Pairings/Groups: Massu/Nakamaru, Massu-centric, random boys from KAT-TUN, NEWS, KJ8 and Arashi
Rating: G
Warnings: Awkwardness? Nothing to be wary of besides that
Summary: Masuda’s first day of college is filled with new people and a lot of awkwardness. His floor’s RA Nakamaru is especially awkward. But there’s something about he can’t quite ignore…
Notes: For Tally-chwan! I hope you’ll like this. I think you will. I incorporated as much as I could. Please enjoy! /Beta’d by the lovely J. Thanks BB <3



Boxes, duct tape, window fans, a surplus of instant ramen, and an arsenal of shower supplies translate to the first day of college. Most kids are “nervous” when starting college, a new life away from home. If you asked anyone, Masuda was not one of these nervous types. He flew through everything in style, or in his slightly awkward silent style. Or so it seemed.

Honestly, Masuda was just as nervous, if not more, than anyone else. He too was concerned over college homework, dorm food, exams and the whole package. He just happened to maintain a cool, if slightly awkward, composure.

The first matter of business was Masuda’s new roommate. Of course they had received roommate assignments a few weeks before, but he had been busy working as a lifeguard at the pool. This new roommate of his had also been busy, though what it was he couldn’t remember. It seemed this new roommate of his wasn’t very good at responding to emails. How would he be able to communicate with him in real life?

Masuda stared at the boxes, in various states of unpacking, contemplating all of this. Suddenly laughter was heard from down the hallway. Masuda poked his head out of the doorway to see who was coming down the hallway; maybe it was his roommate. The boy had curly chestnut hair, and Masuda was straining to remember if his face matched the Facebook picture of his roommate. The boy turned away from his friend and parents behind him and his eyes met Masuda’s. This was definitely his new roommate. Well, at least he seemed fun.

“Are you Masuda?” He asked, his voice energetic but not immature. Masuda nodded in response. “Great! I’m Tegoshi Yuuya, nice to meet you!” They nodded in greeting, exchanging formalities.

And the rest of the morning was spent unpacking boxes and getting to know the other. They discussed briefly who would take which bed, and which closet. Tegoshi had to have the bottom bunk he said, because if he was tired he didn’t want to deal with climbing up the ladder to the top bunk. Masuda, not really wanting to argue, complied with this. Tegoshi did seem to be the lazy type, and Masuda didn’t really mind climbing up to the bed.

When Masuda was packing for college, he felt he was taking an excess of things. But now, watching Tegoshi unpack, he had changed his mind. Tegoshi had a myriad of jeans, soccer jerseys, design t-shirts and it seemed a whole shelf’s worth of accessories. He had various hair-care supplies, and quite a few soccer posters. He had several mystery novels and American DVDs. The only thing Masuda felt he rivaled Tegoshi in was his wardrobe, although quite different in style.

At one point in the morning, probably when Masuda was setting up his bed, there was a knock on the open door. Masuda turned to find a man who could only be his RA. He was slightly taller than Masuda , and wearing something that could almost be a school uniform. Khaki slacks and loafers, with a green argyle sweater vest on a white button-up shirt. His hair was cut short, but not too short. His face was charming, even if his nose was a little big. He seemed to Masuda a very cheery person, a different cheery than that of his roommate. A good different, a different he liked.

The new guy was looking back and forth between his clipboard and the boys in the room. He seemed nervous, maybe even more nervous than Masuda was. No, definitely more nervous than Masuda was. He looked up at Masuda, only to find that Masuda had already been staring at him, looking increasingly more nervous. Masuda’s strange position from making a top bunk bed seemed to confuse him for a moment, but he shook it off. “Are you Tegoshi?” He asked, directed towards Masuda. Masuda shook his head, tilting it toward the blondie below him. He nodded slowly, looking for a moment at the shorter blonde man, who at the moment currently was dancing. He pointed to Masuda. “So you are Masuda then?” Masuda nodded in response, moving into a more comfortable position on the bed, hanging over on the side ever so slightly.

“Yes, nice to meet you.” They each nodded for a moment, and it seemed that the other boy realized he hadn’t introduced himself.

“Oh, I’m Nakamaru Yuichi, you’re RA.” Masuda inwardly chuckled to himself, satisfied that he had been right in guessing the boy’s identity. They exchanged formalities, and Nakamaru still seemed a bit nervous. This made Masuda feel more comfortable and not so intimidated by the college environment. He liked it.

After formalities, a silence settled in, well, except for Tegoshi’s L’arc~en~ciel playing softly. When Tegoshi noticed that Nakamaru was in the doorway, a surprised look found its way to his face. “Oh, hi! I’m Tegoshi.” He said immediately in a completely different fashion than the other two. But unlike before, Nakamaru responded in turn, introducing himself calmly. He then proceeded to everything else he had to say.

“Here’s the roommate contract.” He handed Tegoshi a sheet of paper. “If you guys could fill this out sometime, it’s not due for a week but the sooner you get it done the better. Don’t forget to fill in the room condition log. And we have some orientation activities starts at 2, so if you could find yourselves in the lounge at that time it’d be great. You don’t have to be there, but it makes it all the more fun, you know. Meeting new people, that’s what college is for right? Well, besides studying of course and…” Nakamaru rambled for another moment or so, filling in the empty space with words. Tegoshi nodded along, and Masuda watched, nodding here and there. But Masuda found himself paying more attention to Nakamaru’s face than what he was actually saying; the way his lips formed sounds, the slight movement of his eyebrows, where his eyes wandered. Masuda didn’t really understand why he was doing this, he was just falling into this trance.

Nakamaru’s lips stopped, sound ended. Masuda snapped back to reality, and waved off Nakamaru as he walked off to check out the other new tenants. Masuda sighed, and turned back to his bed that he was in the middle of making when the RA had stopped by. That job was quickly finished, and Masuda decided to take a break. After all, there was nothing to do until 2, and it was only 10. He flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Thoughts of Nakamaru still lingered in his head…it was probably just the argyle sweater. Yeah, that’s it.

Tegoshi also liked the idea of a break, slumping into the swindle chair. “Massu, what are you studying?” He asked out of thin air.

“Massu?” Masuda responded, confused by this new nickname. Tegoshi chuckled, as though pleased with himself.

“Yes Massu, is it okay if I call you that?” Although Tegoshi couldn’t see, Masuda shrugged.

“I guess it’s okay.” He said noncommittally.

“Well then, Massu, what are you here to study?” Tegoshi prodded.

“Business.” Masuda said, not really excited about the syllables falling from his lips.

“Psychology.” Tegoshi said, answering the question Masuda hadn’t asked yet. Masuda nodded, an awkward silence settling in.

They were saved from the silence by a clatter down the hallway. Tegoshi jumped from his chair to look out the door. Masuda craned his head from the bunk, but he couldn’t see much more. As they strained to figure out the happenings in the hall, they heard a yell.

“My nail polish!” Intrigued, Masuda jumped down from the bed, landing clumsily on the floor. Poking his head out of the doorway, they did indeed see a large pile of nail polish bottles scattered on the carpet. The owner of the nail polish had a boyish face, currently squished into a look of dismay. His hand was gripping his light brown hair. Tegoshi and Masuda immediately ran over to help him pick up the polish, aided by another resident of the dorm. It wasn’t as easy as just putting the colors back into the box, but the boy had to organize the colors in rainbow order, and in order by shades. The other boy started complaining about the tediousness of it all, but then he started arguing with him over certain shades. It was turning into a bigger ordeal than either Tegoshi or Masuda had expected.

Finally, the organizing of colors were all done, and they introduced themselves. The owner of the nail polish was Yasuda Shota, who lived three doors down. And when his nail polish was not scattered across the floor he was a very cheery sort. Masuda noticed his sense of fashion, somewhat resembling his own, and approved. The other boy was Ninomiya Kazunari, but that was too long so he told them to call him Nino. He lived across the hall, and both Masuda and Tegoshi were glad the two were not rooming together.

Tegoshi and Masuda returned to their room, now mentally exhausted instead of physically exhausted. Neither of them wanted to do any more unpacking. But before they could pick anything to do besides be lazy, another person showed up at the door. This boy was taller than Nakamaru, and clearly much less nervous and much more excitable and cheery.

“Hi there! I’m Koyama Keiichiro, I’m the RA of the floor above you. Our floors will be doing activities and such together.” Koyama emanated energy and happiness with every word he said. He made the roommates excited for college, or at least the rest of the day.

“I’m Tegoshi and this is Massu.” Tegoshi said, introducing the both of them. Masuda, still not used to his nickname, was slightly confused, but Koyama just laughed.

“Massu…I like that.” Koyama’s laughter was bright, and maybe even brighter than his already enormous energy. Masuda just nodded along nervously. “I need to check on the other guys, so I’ll see you around. Remember, orientation activities at 2!” He smiled and waved, walking off down the hallway.

The orientation activities didn’t turn out as Nakamaru had planned, but as well as Koyama expected. There was mixed participation from the residents. About half of them didn’t even see the point of this because they’d be in their rooms studying like any other good student. Another part of them were only scoping out good people to party and drink with. The last group, this included Masuda, was eager at the idea of making new friends, even if he’d spend much of his own time studying. And he did end up meeting a few interesting people.

There was a bouncy guy who seemed to like puns, and a pre-law student glued to his camera. Another student confused Masuda, because he seemed to belong better on the streets than at university. But he turned out to be really nice after all. This one guy was always texting, but when he stopped texting he was really sociable. Said he had a friend studying in America, who he was texting. A friend of Nino’s seemed to keep falling asleep and Nino almost falling sleep as well. Masuda found Yasuda hanging out with the tall boy who enjoyed food. Masuda knew right away he could get along with this kid.

All the while, Masuda’s eyes kept tracking back to Nakamaru for some reason. Part of the time he caught Nakamaru looking at him too. Luckily, with so many new faces around, nobody noticed. He hoped that he would have some time to hang out later.

“Alright then,” Nakamaru started, “Now that we all know each other, it’s time to go meet the rest of the dorm. There are various things to do around the dorm. In the gym we have dodgeball, in the rec room we have video games,” there was a slight buzz of excitement after he said that, “in the cafeteria we have food,” This particularly intrigued Masuda, “In the other dorm lounge we have karaoke, and in here we have card games. Have at it!” And now having been dismissed, the number of guys in the room fell rapidly.

“We should stick together, so we don’t get lost or anything.” Tegoshi said to Masuda. Masuda nodded along, it sounded like a good idea. “What do you want to do Massu?” He asked.

“Well, I want to-“Masuda started to say.

“Let’s play dodgeball!” Tegoshi interrupted, immediately standing up and walking off, waving at Masuda to follow him. Masuda got himself up and started to follow Tegoshi, even though he really wanted to eat, not play dodgeball. As he left the room he looked around one more time, somehow finding Nakamaru yet again, and Nakamaru had found him as well. Promptly embarrassed, he turned his head around and headed towards dodgeball with Tegoshi.

Masuda really couldn’t explain why he kept looking for Nakamaru. There was just something about Nakamaru that when he saw him he felt at ease, but at the same time really happy. It could only be described as something a little bubbly, but too uneasy to really be bubbly. Well, it can’t really be put into words. Even if you could put it into words, Masuda didn’t think he could do it very well.

These feelings lingered as he followed Tegoshi through the halls, making their way to dodgeball. When they got to the lobby, they were starkly interrupted by a guy complimenting Tegoshi’s soccer jersey.

“Oh thanks! My friend’s on the team, so I got it for free.” Tegoshi replied. Masuda could see the pride beaming from his face.

“Oh really?” The other asked. And then the conversation rambled off into soccer players and teams and Masuda couldn’t really follow. He did learn that the other guy’s name was Sakurai though, and he did seem to be a nice guy. But eventually they started to walk off in some other direction, forgetting about Masuda. He just kind of watched them, sighing to himself. Well, at least he could go eat now.

But that thought was side-tracked when the number of guys going into the other lounge started increasing rapidly. It looked as though something was going on. So Masuda made his way over to the room to get a peek of the action. It turned out that Nino and Taguchi, the tall punster, were competing on every game in the room. The current game was Mario Kart, and Nino had already beaten him in a Halo match. Masuda tried watching, but he couldn’t really get into it.

Masuda walked over to the Halo couch. Luckily they had just finished a rotation, and Masuda was able to squeeze into a spot. Halo was fun while it lasted. But when the game ended there was no one around to share his excitement with. He pulled himself up from the couch and decided it was now time to eat.

On his way to the cafeteria, Masuda passed the gym. He peeked inside at the dodgeball game currently happening. It was intense! Tegoshi and his new friend Sakurai were hurling balls across the room like they were hand grenades, and they weren’t the only ones so actively participating. Maru, a guy from the floor above them, was running around throwing balls like a maniac, nothing stopping him. Ryo, another guy from upstairs, seemed to be his chief aid, almost like a tag team. Koyama was also playing, but he and another guy, whose name was Aiba, seemed to be avoiding the balls more than throwing them.

Because it looked like fun, Masuda decided to join in. He jumped into Tegoshi’s team, which promptly earned him a “Hi Massu! Where have you been?” from Tegoshi. Before Masuda could respond, Tegoshi was hit squarely on the side of the head with a ball. The cheery look on Tegoshi’s face dropped and turned into an unattractive pout as he shuffled off the court.

Masuda watched Tegoshi walk for a moment, but remembering that this was dodgeball, he sharply turned back to face the other side. In that moment a ball was headed right for him, and in a flash he caught the ball. He looked around to see whose ball he had caught. A long haired guy, who he later learned was called Subaru, laughed at himself as he walked off the court. And although Masuda was excited to have caught the ball, he was too excited and wasn’t paying attention to the rest of the game. A dodgeball hit him right in the shoulder. He dropped the ball he was already holding and found the pitcher of the ball: Nakamaru. The look on his face was a bit hard to judge, a weird mix of apology and excitement. Masuda returned it with a challenging smile, and Nakamaru accepted the challenge.

Masuda made his way to the sideline, watching the action. At this point Aiba was practically hiding behind Toma, a friend of his from their floor. Two of the guys, Ueda and Kame, seemed to be in a world of their own as they furiously threw balls at each other. Masuda thought he could hear some insults about hair being thrown around, but he wasn’t sure. Tegoshi was cheering rather obnoxiously when he got Koki out with a kicked ball. Finally Sakurai caught a ball and Masuda ran in.

Grabbing the first ball he saw, Masuda quickly found Nakamaru’s position on the other side. He threw the ball, hitting Nakamaru squarely on the back. Nakamaru turned around to see his attacker, and seeing Masuda, smiled and gave him a thumbs up. There were two feelings running through Masuda at that moment, one of excitement at hitting someone, the other elation, just from seeing Nakamaru smile. It was a strange feeling, but he had to ignore it if he wanted to stay in the game.

A ball rolled to his foot, and he quickly picked it up and searched for a target. Finding Ryo, a guy from next door, he threw the ball. But Ryo turned around just in time to catch the ball, which would allow Nakamaru to come back into the game. Their eyes met as Masuda walked off and the other walked on. They laughed to themselves, completely separate from the rest of the gym.

This continued for a little bit, until Masuda realized he was really hungry. Masuda told Tegoshi so.

“Oh come on, stay a little longer. You play like a beast!” Tegoshi begged. Masuda didn’t really want to disappoint Tegoshi, but after all his appetite was calling and that took precedence over a dodgeball game. As Masuda left the gym he found Nakamaru, gave him a wave and walked out.

Finding the cafeteria was pretty easy. All he had to do was follow his nose; Okay, so there were signs. But even without the signs Masuda probably could have found it anyway. And when he got to the cafeteria he was the happiest he had been all day.

There was a noodle bar, with various types of noodles to choose from and personalize. There was an American food bar with pizza and burgers, and many other things to choose from. What really grabbed his eye was the stand with gyoza. Of course they wouldn’t be as good as his mother’s, but at that moment that was all he wanted and he nearly ran for it. Masuda was so excited to eat that the cashier smiled at him.

“Hungry are you?” She asked. Masuda nodded excitedly, he could hardly keep from eating the gyoza at that moment. He thanked the girl profusely and ran to find somewhere to sit. He looked around the cafeteria for the nearest empty seat, quickly finding an open booth.

Masuda plopped into the booth, and discovering its bounciness, proceeded to bounce slightly. But his hunger distracted him from his bouncing, and he turned back to his gyoza.

The gyoza turned out to be not as amazing as he thought. But he was hungry, and all that mattered was that he had food.

Masuda stared down at the empty plate where the gyoza had once sat, all aligned so perfectly straight and mouthwatering. He could picture the golden color, the steam rising up. He wanted more, that was alright, wasn’t it?

Suddenly someone grabbed Masuda’s hand from under the table. It was warm, kind, and a little nervous. He looked to see the owner of the hand was Nakamaru. At once he was a little confused, the older boy sitting next to him smiling. But then he was nervous, really nervous, and with the stomach pain he was wondering if he really was still hungry. (Of course he was, but at that moment he doubted himself.)

“It’s not so scary.” Nakamaru said. “I know it all looks so intimidating right now, so many people to meet and try to impress. But just be yourself. You seem to be a really awesome person. Don’t forget that.” Masuda could sense the same kind of energy from that morning, but a little stronger. It made him feel like he could do anything. He really liked this kid.

Maybe college wouldn’t be so bad after all.

- - Omake - -

“Um….Nakamaru?” Masuda asked.

“Yeah?” Nakamaru responded simply.

“Why are you holding my hand?” Masuda asked in a completely straight tone. Nakamaru’s face changed color, and his breathing stuttered a little bit.

“Oh, um well…You looked like you needed some reassurance and…Um…I wanted to?” Nakamaru answered with a little difficulty as he let go of Masuda’s hand. Masuda smiled, and grabbed the older boy’s hand back.

“That’s okay. I like it.” Now it was Masuda’s turn to reassure Nakamaru. But he still thought this was a bit silly.

He had only wanted more gyoza.

rated: g, !gift fic, posted in: 2010, feat: masuda/nakamaru, group: news, group: kat-tun

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