Kaeru
Title : Kaeru
Author : kazuyanokokoro
Pairing : Akame, implied KoKame, implied Ryoda
Rating : PG
Genre : Angst, Fluff!!!, Romance, BL, Yaoi
Disclaimer : I have Johnny boys tied up in my basement who act out my crazy romantic story ideas. Or maybe I'm lying...
Summary : Kame has been sick and tired since Jin left. Can T-TUN console him or can only his oji-sama heal his wounds?
Notes: Super fluffiness...
<
Kamenashi Kazuya was in bed again, deep purple comforter pulled tightly around himself. The late afternoon Japanese sunshine gleamed invitingly through his bedroom window, but the boy shivered. His best friend, Tanaka Koki, was sitting at the base of Kame’s bed, rubbing the small feet that poked out of the duvet. Koki was tanned and fit this time of year, his taught muscles visible even through his baggy sweater. His rough brown hands were working miracles on Kazuya’s tired feet, massaging out the aches and cramps. In the mirror facing the bed, Kamenashi was shocked by how different he looked from his band mate. While Koki was buff and healthy looking, even after a night of partying, Kazuya himself looked like he was wasting away. Dark circles were carved under his large eyes, his skin was pale and listless and his muscles earned through baseball practice were softening from several days of lying in bed. Even with the resting, the younger boy felt exhausted, mentally and physically. As a sportscaster and an idol, he had been very busy the past year, although not really more so than usual. The consequences, however had been much more severe. While he had plunged single-mindedly into his work and tried his very best at everything he was asked, his body wasn’t into it. Neither, Kame knew secretly, was his heart. He had wondered too many times in the last 12 months how to cover up the puffy eyes and tear-streaked cheeks that inevitably follow crying yourself to sleep. The foot massage felt good, however. It was nice to be touched physically, intimately and feel that someone cares about you. He was so glad to have such good friends in his band. He smiled weakly at his friend: “Thank you so much,” he said earnestly. Princess though he was, Kazuya didn’t want to overburden his friends. He wasn’t entirely sure what had gone so wrong this time, why he had collapsed during a routine practice. It was the second time this month that he had been bedridden and he was convinced that Johnny-san would intervene; Kame didn’t really want to know what the old man’s prescription for physical vitality would be. As he pondered anxiously on his imminent meeting with Johnny-san, Kazuya wished, as he often did, that he was not one of the boss’s favorites. He and Ueda had talked about it before, what it meant to be one of his chosen ones. It was yet another thing that made him so tired. Kamenashi was brought back to his sunlit room as he felt Koki’s eyes on him. The serious expression on his face made Kame nervous; when the ever-joking rapper looked that somber, a lecture was surely forthcoming. To escape Koki’s probing gaze, the younger boy closed his eyes. “I am sorry for being so much trouble,” he apologized softly. At this, his foot rub stopped abruptly. Koki rose from the bed and knelt next to Kazuya’s thin form.
“Goddamn it, Kame!” he swore. “This is not about you being a bother. We’re worried about you.” He received no response. He tried again, more gently. “Kame-kun, you are so pale and tiny. You’re working too fucking hard.” It was true, Kazuya had to admit. Sometimes, when he woke up in the morning, he didn’t recognize himself in the mirror. He had bulked up from when he was younger, but for a 25-year-old supposedly athletic man, his body was almost painfully small. He wasn’t going to tell the guys that his baseball team had started preventing him from practicing with them before games because the push-ups and sit-ups exhausted him before he even reached the diamond. That would only make them fuss more and complain to Johnny-san. If they went to him even before Kame’s meeting with him, Kamenashi was worried that he might take drastic measures, like asking him to take a break from KAT-TUN. The last thing Kame needed was a break from the only thing that kept him going, his friends. “Do you hear me?” Koki’s dark eyes were clouded with concern. “You need to slow down.”
“I’m fine,” Kazuya protested unconvincingly, “This is just a temporary setback.” Koki snorted, unimpressed. “I’ll be back on my feet in no time, especially thanks to you.” Kame threw in his characteristic cuteness and batted his long eyelashes. Even when bedridden he knew that his flirtatious charms worked wonders on his guy friends. This time, however, Tanaka was too upset to be distracted by a beautiful boy with wide eyes and mile-long lashes.
“I know what this is about,” he shot bitterly. “You’ve been like this ever since Jin left.” Kamenashi sat up suddenly, his eyes flashing and terrified and his posture stiff,
“This has nothing to down with Akanishi-san.” He let the words slip out calmly, emotionlessly. His dark pools of eyes, however, alerted Koki,
“Akanishi, Kame? You call him Akanishi-san as if he means nothing to you?” The older man grabbed Kazuya’s frail hand, “If you think feigning disinterest makes you seem more over him, you’re mistaken, cutie. He was never only a colleague to you.” Kame yanked his hand away angrily,
“Akanishi-san had every right to leave the band and is enjoying his solo career. It really has nothing to do with me.” As the sentence left his lips, Jin’s face seemed to float in front of Kamenashi and disappear. The last day with his ex-band mate was still fresh in his mind. The smell of the cigarettes and beer on Jin’s soft V-neck sweater wafted near Kame as if Akanishi were still in the room with him, holding Kazuya again as he sobbed. Jin’s hands in Kame’s hair, his fingers caressing his cheek, his lips pressed against his, tasting salty as Kazuya’s tears melded into their last kiss. Yet, Jin had left; turned around, walked out of the room and out of Kame’s life as if his lover meant nothing, as if it had nothing to do with Kazuya at all. The memory of that day washed over Kamenashi and he steadied his right hand with his left, to hide its unseemly shaking from Koki’s eyes. He set his plump pink lips into a straight line. “Honestly, Koki,” he continued, “Akanishi and I have spoken.” This was true. They had talked on the phone when Jin was in America, when he was back in Japan, after the earthquake… But had it been his Jin, the man of his dreams since before he understood what being in love even felt like? Had it been the boy who would sneak into his room just to hold his hand while he slept? The troublemaker who would steal Kame away from his drama sets to kiss him playfully behind the makeup trailer before sending him back to work by tapping the smaller boy’s tight, round ass? As he thought of the terse, impersonal conversations he had shared with Jin over the past year, the tears he had held back as Akanishi ranted about American girl after American girl, he knew he was justified in calling him ‘Akanishi-san’. “I’m just feeling a little under the weather.” Seeing Kame’s angular face so proud and stoic when Tanaka knew that he was ready to crumble brought out Koki’s rebellious side. In a quick motion, he disconnected Kamenashi’s telephone next to the bed and turned off both of their cell phones. Kazuya looked at him, confused. Koki walked briskly to the window and shut it tightly, drawing the white curtains shut.
“Stop.” He ordered. Kame shook his head,
“I don’t understand, Koki. What are you saying?”
“You’re still in love with him, Kame-chan. You always have been. Don’t pretend to me that his leaving meant nothing. If you think that being all cuddles and smiles at practice and in concert will make up for those sad eyes, you obviously don’t understand how much Junno, Ueda, Maru and I care about you.” At this, Ueda, who had been patiently waiting in the living room, walked in.
“Kazuya,” he started, “You don’t have to be over him. Some people take a lifetime to actually give up on. Especially since he was your best friend and your first lover.” The support of his friends and his tiredness made Kame break though his mask.
“Who ever said I was over him?” he replied quietly. Ueda lay himself down beside Kame and put an arm around him,
“Can I tell him now, Tanaka?” he asked, fingering a long, blue-feathered earring.
“I wanted to from the beginning,” Koki mumbled. Kazuya felt his heart start to beat frantically in his chest. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to hear anything so intense at the moment, as he hovered between sleep and consciousness, futile dreams and seemingly meaningless existence. He licked his soft lips nervously.
“Ryo told me,” Tatsuya began, “That Jin isn’t doing very well.”
“Is he partying too much?” Kame asked immediately, “Because he’s really bad when there’s no one there to stop him from trying everything and drinking until he passes out and…” he stopped and toyed with a strand of hair nervously.
“Well, yes,” Ueda answered. “But the reason why he’s doing that is that,” he paused and checked the phone to make sure that there wasn’t a dial tone. When none came, he continued cautiously, “Jin misses you.” Kazuya felt as if all the air in his chest had been sucked out painfully. His mouth was suddenly dry and all he could feel was the pounding heartbeat hammering against his thin chest.
“Why?” he felt himself questioning. Before the rest came out, he finished, “Are you both obsessively turning off electronics?” Koki and Ueda shared an anxious glance.
“Kame-kun,” Koki bit his lip, “We don’t want to freak you out, but NEWS think that they figured out something sketchy about Johnny’s Entertainment.” Kazuya nodded his head sharply, waiting for him to continue.
“And,” Ueda said, “It seems that the Jimusho has been keeping tabs on us.” Kame’s eyes widened,
“What?”
“Basically, they’re spying on us through the cell phones, home phones and Internet that they pay for. Since finding out, none of us talk freely expect in private with each other,” Koki explained. Kazuya shook his head and ran his hands through his long hair.
“Don’t you see Kame-chan?” Ueda grabbed his hand, “He knew about you and Jin. That old bastard wanted to separate you!”
“He was probably jealous,” Koki growled. He had been overly protective of Kazuya since Ueda explained Johnny’s favoring of delicate beauty.
“So,” Kame said tentatively, “He convinced Jin to go to America to get him away from me?”
“Convinced?” Ueda fixed his eyes on Kamenashi, somberly, “Ryo and Yamapi say he was threatened. Jin could never have left you otherwise.” Even though the information was terrifying, Kame couldn’t help but feel a ball of sunshine growing in his chest and enveloping him, second by second. A few tears trickled down his cheek and his eyes started to sparkle for the first time in a year,
“Where is he?” he asked. All of a sudden, he saw Tomohisa Yamashita standing in the doorway of his room. Akanishi’s best friend, the inimitable Pi-chan, must have entered the apartment while the KAT-TUN members had been speaking. He smiled his goofy smile brightly at Kame and, curiously, turned to look into the living room. Then, each boy seemed to fade into the background of the bedroom to Kamenashi. Despite his foot pain, despite his headache, despite his exhaustion, despite his heart beating so hollowly and furiously that he thought it would leap out of his chest, Kazuya found himself leaping out of bed. In a moment, he was wrapped up in strong arms, Jin’s arms, his Jin’s arms. Those big soft hands stroked his hair, his face, his lips, and the warmest, sweetest lips met his in a kiss he had been waiting a year for. Akanishi Jin was finally in his room again.
“Kazu-chan,” Jin murmured, as his hand rested on Kame’s back. “I couldn’t talk to you on the phone because he was listening.” Kazuya cried gently into Akanishi’s shoulder. “He was going to take you out of the Jimusho to keep you for himself if I didn’t go solo and leave you alone.” He smoothed Kame’s hair. “I couldn’t have that bastard touch you again, Kazu, not after last time. I thought I could protect you this way…” He stared into Kame’s beautiful eyes, “But,” he continued, as if his sweetheart was the only one in the room, “when they told me you were so sick, I just…I just couldn’t stay away. And you look so ill, my Kazu, you’re too small, too pale.” Kame nodded into Jin’s soft shirt. “I thought maybe it would be better for you this way, but I couldn’t be without you and I can see now that you can’t be without me.”
“I love you,” Kame whispered.
“I love you too,” Jin replied, “I should never have let him push me around. Fine, he can keep us out of the same band. But he can’t keep us from each other. He can’t keep you out of my heart.” Kazuya’s legs started shaking from standing so long so Akanishi picked him up bridal-style and lay him down on his bed. Ueda, Koki and Yamapi smiled and let themselves out of the apartment quietly. Jin spooned Kame and kissed his milky white neck.
“What happens now?” Kazu’s soft voice bearing the inevitable question broke the sweet silence of their caress. Akanishi held the small hand in his,
“You’ll be my Kazuya and I’ll be your Jin. I might never be able to hold your hand like this on the street, or bring you out to dinner, but I’ll appear at this door every night you’re here and rock you to sleep in my arms. And if we ever tire of being idols, if this fucked up Johnny’s world breaks down my Kame-chan any more, we’ll quit it all and just be poor and together, lying out under the stars in Okinawa, singing songs only each other can hear… that doesn’t sound so bad does it, honey?” Jin rambled earnestly, voice trailing away as he fell asleep, finally freed from the loneliness of the past year.
The sound of Jin’s voice and the simplicity of their plan, to love each other secretly, silently, and against all odds, breathed the life back into Kazuya’s tired body. For hours, Kame lay awake staring at the ceiling quietly, hearing the peaceful sound of Jin sleeping and snuggling in the comforting smell of Jin’s body. And then, as his eyelids fluttered closed for his first restful sleep in months, Kamenashi Kazuya became sure of something that had eluded him these long, empty days. The security of knowing that, no matter what would happen when his eyes sleepily opened the next morning, everything would somehow be all right.
Author : kazuyanokokoro
Pairing : Akame, implied KoKame, implied Ryoda
Rating : PG
Genre : Angst, Fluff!!!, Romance, BL, Yaoi
Disclaimer : I have Johnny boys tied up in my basement who act out my crazy romantic story ideas. Or maybe I'm lying...
Summary : Kame has been sick and tired since Jin left. Can T-TUN console him or can only his oji-sama heal his wounds?
Notes: Super fluffiness...
<
Kamenashi Kazuya was in bed again, deep purple comforter pulled tightly around himself. The late afternoon Japanese sunshine gleamed invitingly through his bedroom window, but the boy shivered. His best friend, Tanaka Koki, was sitting at the base of Kame’s bed, rubbing the small feet that poked out of the duvet. Koki was tanned and fit this time of year, his taught muscles visible even through his baggy sweater. His rough brown hands were working miracles on Kazuya’s tired feet, massaging out the aches and cramps. In the mirror facing the bed, Kamenashi was shocked by how different he looked from his band mate. While Koki was buff and healthy looking, even after a night of partying, Kazuya himself looked like he was wasting away. Dark circles were carved under his large eyes, his skin was pale and listless and his muscles earned through baseball practice were softening from several days of lying in bed. Even with the resting, the younger boy felt exhausted, mentally and physically. As a sportscaster and an idol, he had been very busy the past year, although not really more so than usual. The consequences, however had been much more severe. While he had plunged single-mindedly into his work and tried his very best at everything he was asked, his body wasn’t into it. Neither, Kame knew secretly, was his heart. He had wondered too many times in the last 12 months how to cover up the puffy eyes and tear-streaked cheeks that inevitably follow crying yourself to sleep. The foot massage felt good, however. It was nice to be touched physically, intimately and feel that someone cares about you. He was so glad to have such good friends in his band. He smiled weakly at his friend: “Thank you so much,” he said earnestly. Princess though he was, Kazuya didn’t want to overburden his friends. He wasn’t entirely sure what had gone so wrong this time, why he had collapsed during a routine practice. It was the second time this month that he had been bedridden and he was convinced that Johnny-san would intervene; Kame didn’t really want to know what the old man’s prescription for physical vitality would be. As he pondered anxiously on his imminent meeting with Johnny-san, Kazuya wished, as he often did, that he was not one of the boss’s favorites. He and Ueda had talked about it before, what it meant to be one of his chosen ones. It was yet another thing that made him so tired. Kamenashi was brought back to his sunlit room as he felt Koki’s eyes on him. The serious expression on his face made Kame nervous; when the ever-joking rapper looked that somber, a lecture was surely forthcoming. To escape Koki’s probing gaze, the younger boy closed his eyes. “I am sorry for being so much trouble,” he apologized softly. At this, his foot rub stopped abruptly. Koki rose from the bed and knelt next to Kazuya’s thin form.
“Goddamn it, Kame!” he swore. “This is not about you being a bother. We’re worried about you.” He received no response. He tried again, more gently. “Kame-kun, you are so pale and tiny. You’re working too fucking hard.” It was true, Kazuya had to admit. Sometimes, when he woke up in the morning, he didn’t recognize himself in the mirror. He had bulked up from when he was younger, but for a 25-year-old supposedly athletic man, his body was almost painfully small. He wasn’t going to tell the guys that his baseball team had started preventing him from practicing with them before games because the push-ups and sit-ups exhausted him before he even reached the diamond. That would only make them fuss more and complain to Johnny-san. If they went to him even before Kame’s meeting with him, Kamenashi was worried that he might take drastic measures, like asking him to take a break from KAT-TUN. The last thing Kame needed was a break from the only thing that kept him going, his friends. “Do you hear me?” Koki’s dark eyes were clouded with concern. “You need to slow down.”
“I’m fine,” Kazuya protested unconvincingly, “This is just a temporary setback.” Koki snorted, unimpressed. “I’ll be back on my feet in no time, especially thanks to you.” Kame threw in his characteristic cuteness and batted his long eyelashes. Even when bedridden he knew that his flirtatious charms worked wonders on his guy friends. This time, however, Tanaka was too upset to be distracted by a beautiful boy with wide eyes and mile-long lashes.
“I know what this is about,” he shot bitterly. “You’ve been like this ever since Jin left.” Kamenashi sat up suddenly, his eyes flashing and terrified and his posture stiff,
“This has nothing to down with Akanishi-san.” He let the words slip out calmly, emotionlessly. His dark pools of eyes, however, alerted Koki,
“Akanishi, Kame? You call him Akanishi-san as if he means nothing to you?” The older man grabbed Kazuya’s frail hand, “If you think feigning disinterest makes you seem more over him, you’re mistaken, cutie. He was never only a colleague to you.” Kame yanked his hand away angrily,
“Akanishi-san had every right to leave the band and is enjoying his solo career. It really has nothing to do with me.” As the sentence left his lips, Jin’s face seemed to float in front of Kamenashi and disappear. The last day with his ex-band mate was still fresh in his mind. The smell of the cigarettes and beer on Jin’s soft V-neck sweater wafted near Kame as if Akanishi were still in the room with him, holding Kazuya again as he sobbed. Jin’s hands in Kame’s hair, his fingers caressing his cheek, his lips pressed against his, tasting salty as Kazuya’s tears melded into their last kiss. Yet, Jin had left; turned around, walked out of the room and out of Kame’s life as if his lover meant nothing, as if it had nothing to do with Kazuya at all. The memory of that day washed over Kamenashi and he steadied his right hand with his left, to hide its unseemly shaking from Koki’s eyes. He set his plump pink lips into a straight line. “Honestly, Koki,” he continued, “Akanishi and I have spoken.” This was true. They had talked on the phone when Jin was in America, when he was back in Japan, after the earthquake… But had it been his Jin, the man of his dreams since before he understood what being in love even felt like? Had it been the boy who would sneak into his room just to hold his hand while he slept? The troublemaker who would steal Kame away from his drama sets to kiss him playfully behind the makeup trailer before sending him back to work by tapping the smaller boy’s tight, round ass? As he thought of the terse, impersonal conversations he had shared with Jin over the past year, the tears he had held back as Akanishi ranted about American girl after American girl, he knew he was justified in calling him ‘Akanishi-san’. “I’m just feeling a little under the weather.” Seeing Kame’s angular face so proud and stoic when Tanaka knew that he was ready to crumble brought out Koki’s rebellious side. In a quick motion, he disconnected Kamenashi’s telephone next to the bed and turned off both of their cell phones. Kazuya looked at him, confused. Koki walked briskly to the window and shut it tightly, drawing the white curtains shut.
“Stop.” He ordered. Kame shook his head,
“I don’t understand, Koki. What are you saying?”
“You’re still in love with him, Kame-chan. You always have been. Don’t pretend to me that his leaving meant nothing. If you think that being all cuddles and smiles at practice and in concert will make up for those sad eyes, you obviously don’t understand how much Junno, Ueda, Maru and I care about you.” At this, Ueda, who had been patiently waiting in the living room, walked in.
“Kazuya,” he started, “You don’t have to be over him. Some people take a lifetime to actually give up on. Especially since he was your best friend and your first lover.” The support of his friends and his tiredness made Kame break though his mask.
“Who ever said I was over him?” he replied quietly. Ueda lay himself down beside Kame and put an arm around him,
“Can I tell him now, Tanaka?” he asked, fingering a long, blue-feathered earring.
“I wanted to from the beginning,” Koki mumbled. Kazuya felt his heart start to beat frantically in his chest. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to hear anything so intense at the moment, as he hovered between sleep and consciousness, futile dreams and seemingly meaningless existence. He licked his soft lips nervously.
“Ryo told me,” Tatsuya began, “That Jin isn’t doing very well.”
“Is he partying too much?” Kame asked immediately, “Because he’s really bad when there’s no one there to stop him from trying everything and drinking until he passes out and…” he stopped and toyed with a strand of hair nervously.
“Well, yes,” Ueda answered. “But the reason why he’s doing that is that,” he paused and checked the phone to make sure that there wasn’t a dial tone. When none came, he continued cautiously, “Jin misses you.” Kazuya felt as if all the air in his chest had been sucked out painfully. His mouth was suddenly dry and all he could feel was the pounding heartbeat hammering against his thin chest.
“Why?” he felt himself questioning. Before the rest came out, he finished, “Are you both obsessively turning off electronics?” Koki and Ueda shared an anxious glance.
“Kame-kun,” Koki bit his lip, “We don’t want to freak you out, but NEWS think that they figured out something sketchy about Johnny’s Entertainment.” Kazuya nodded his head sharply, waiting for him to continue.
“And,” Ueda said, “It seems that the Jimusho has been keeping tabs on us.” Kame’s eyes widened,
“What?”
“Basically, they’re spying on us through the cell phones, home phones and Internet that they pay for. Since finding out, none of us talk freely expect in private with each other,” Koki explained. Kazuya shook his head and ran his hands through his long hair.
“Don’t you see Kame-chan?” Ueda grabbed his hand, “He knew about you and Jin. That old bastard wanted to separate you!”
“He was probably jealous,” Koki growled. He had been overly protective of Kazuya since Ueda explained Johnny’s favoring of delicate beauty.
“So,” Kame said tentatively, “He convinced Jin to go to America to get him away from me?”
“Convinced?” Ueda fixed his eyes on Kamenashi, somberly, “Ryo and Yamapi say he was threatened. Jin could never have left you otherwise.” Even though the information was terrifying, Kame couldn’t help but feel a ball of sunshine growing in his chest and enveloping him, second by second. A few tears trickled down his cheek and his eyes started to sparkle for the first time in a year,
“Where is he?” he asked. All of a sudden, he saw Tomohisa Yamashita standing in the doorway of his room. Akanishi’s best friend, the inimitable Pi-chan, must have entered the apartment while the KAT-TUN members had been speaking. He smiled his goofy smile brightly at Kame and, curiously, turned to look into the living room. Then, each boy seemed to fade into the background of the bedroom to Kamenashi. Despite his foot pain, despite his headache, despite his exhaustion, despite his heart beating so hollowly and furiously that he thought it would leap out of his chest, Kazuya found himself leaping out of bed. In a moment, he was wrapped up in strong arms, Jin’s arms, his Jin’s arms. Those big soft hands stroked his hair, his face, his lips, and the warmest, sweetest lips met his in a kiss he had been waiting a year for. Akanishi Jin was finally in his room again.
“Kazu-chan,” Jin murmured, as his hand rested on Kame’s back. “I couldn’t talk to you on the phone because he was listening.” Kazuya cried gently into Akanishi’s shoulder. “He was going to take you out of the Jimusho to keep you for himself if I didn’t go solo and leave you alone.” He smoothed Kame’s hair. “I couldn’t have that bastard touch you again, Kazu, not after last time. I thought I could protect you this way…” He stared into Kame’s beautiful eyes, “But,” he continued, as if his sweetheart was the only one in the room, “when they told me you were so sick, I just…I just couldn’t stay away. And you look so ill, my Kazu, you’re too small, too pale.” Kame nodded into Jin’s soft shirt. “I thought maybe it would be better for you this way, but I couldn’t be without you and I can see now that you can’t be without me.”
“I love you,” Kame whispered.
“I love you too,” Jin replied, “I should never have let him push me around. Fine, he can keep us out of the same band. But he can’t keep us from each other. He can’t keep you out of my heart.” Kazuya’s legs started shaking from standing so long so Akanishi picked him up bridal-style and lay him down on his bed. Ueda, Koki and Yamapi smiled and let themselves out of the apartment quietly. Jin spooned Kame and kissed his milky white neck.
“What happens now?” Kazu’s soft voice bearing the inevitable question broke the sweet silence of their caress. Akanishi held the small hand in his,
“You’ll be my Kazuya and I’ll be your Jin. I might never be able to hold your hand like this on the street, or bring you out to dinner, but I’ll appear at this door every night you’re here and rock you to sleep in my arms. And if we ever tire of being idols, if this fucked up Johnny’s world breaks down my Kame-chan any more, we’ll quit it all and just be poor and together, lying out under the stars in Okinawa, singing songs only each other can hear… that doesn’t sound so bad does it, honey?” Jin rambled earnestly, voice trailing away as he fell asleep, finally freed from the loneliness of the past year.
The sound of Jin’s voice and the simplicity of their plan, to love each other secretly, silently, and against all odds, breathed the life back into Kazuya’s tired body. For hours, Kame lay awake staring at the ceiling quietly, hearing the peaceful sound of Jin sleeping and snuggling in the comforting smell of Jin’s body. And then, as his eyelids fluttered closed for his first restful sleep in months, Kamenashi Kazuya became sure of something that had eluded him these long, empty days. The security of knowing that, no matter what would happen when his eyes sleepily opened the next morning, everything would somehow be all right.