Gift fic for yeska_noka!
Gift fic for yeska_noka
From kis_my_fic2
Title: All for One
Pairings/Characters: Senga/Nikaido, Kis-My-Ft2 gen
Rating: PG for less than wholesome words
Warnings: There are brief mentions of OCs, and this probably has more gen/friendship than anything else.
Summary: Yokoo's going through a tough time, and the rest of Kisumai have varying levels of success putting their own troubles aside for a friend in need.
Notes: I really hope there's enough of your prompts in here, yeska_noka! Hope you enjoy it. :)
Nikaido isn't late to the shoot, he just isn't exactly on time. They aren't always required to be on set altogether, it's just that they frequently are, regardless. So even though he knows it isn't his turn to be the subject of the photoshoots during the first time slot, he can't shake the nagging feeling that he's playing hooky if he's depriving them of his unproductive presence. He balances a medium-sized box, the culprit for his almost-tardiness, as he jogs into the waiting room, quashing the unwarranted guilt of showing up an hour and a half earlier than he actually needs to.
It turns out his transgressions are the least of the other members' worries. Nikaido isn't greeted by judgmental scowls he'd been imagining on his way over to the studio, but rather a tearful Miyata being soothed by Tamamori and Yokoo.
"I know it happens," Miyata is saying as he tightens his grip on Yokoo's arm, wearing the face of a man that was forced to sit through a puppy-slaughtering marathon.
"What's going on?" Nikaido asks cautiously.
Miyata turns bloodshot eyes at Nikaido, and the latter is awash in a previously undiscovered combination of emotions that include sympathetic heartbreak and the desire to laugh at the unfairly ridiculous expression on Miyata's face. "I can't accept it. It's too hard."
Yokoo sighs audibly, gingerly patting Miyata's shaky hand. "It's fine. I promise you, it'll be fine."
Wisely, Nikaido bites his lip before an ill-timed, graceless peal of laughter escapes him. He goes to crowd Miyata and gives him what he hopes is a supportive full-body bump, all while averting his eyes from unfailingly Miyata's comedic face. "Seriously, though, what happened?" he asks Yokoo and Tamamori.
What follows is a rather awkward silence, the type that was only reserved for live interviews involving questions like the confirmation of one's virginity. Tamamori briefly glances at Yokoo and winces, then sort of looks up to the ceiling as if to relinquish any responsibility. Like someone's expecting him to apologize for whatever it is that's happening.
"Mayumi and I..." Yokoo pauses, his face purposefully blank. "Aren't." He adds after a few seconds - probably unnecessarily, judging by Nikaido's stunned silence, "Anymore."
"Oh, Watta--" Nikaido stops abruptly, if only because he's still trying to piece together how Yokoo ended up being the one to reassure Miyata.
"What is love?" bawls Miyata. Beside him, Tamamori hangs his head and closes his eyes resignedly. "Can you tell me? I thought they'd last forever. But if even Watta and Mayumi can't stay together, how can you say love exists?" Tamamori looks mortified enough for everyone in the room, but throws an arm around Miyata anyway.
"Maybe you can get him out of here?" Nikaido looks pointedly at Tamamori. Tamamori is just thankful that nobody calls Miyata his girlfriend this time around as he easily frees Yokoo's captive limb from Miyata's death grip.
Senga and Kitayama arrive just in time to intercept them. Kitayama does a double take after seeing Miyata's face, and he grabs the taller boy by both arms. “Whoa! Hey! You okay?"
"Miyacchi?" Senga says softly, looking almost terrified, for some reason.
"I'm taking him for a walk," Tamamori tells them. Now that there are three people configured around Miyata like a veritable fort of unconditional camaraderie, Tamamori deems it allowable to bully him.
Kitayama picks up on Tamamori's lack of concern and relaxes a little. He knows that if they had a real tragedy on their hands, Tamamori would be joining in on the water works. "You have his leash?" Kitayama says with a particularly gentle teasing smile.
"You guys," Miyata sniffs with only a hint of a whine, as his friends escort him out.
"Hey, I'm still dropping by later," Nikaido yells at the retreating figures. Nobody needs him to clarify who he's talking to or what he's talking about as Senga acknowledges him with a bright "okay!", right before skipping off to keep up with the others.
Nikaido stares off into the direction that the other members headed off to for a few moments before he clears his throat and tries to soften his facial expression for Yokoo's sake. "So. I mean." He doesn't want to ask how Yokoo is, because the answer should go without saying, but he's pretty sure that he needs to give Yokoo the cue to start sharing whatever he feels like sharing. But he finds it difficult to even approach the subject. "Will you be alright?" is rather condescending, and "do you feel like killing yourself?" seems a little insensitive.
Eventually, Nikaido settles with, "How wasted do you need to get right now?"
Yokoo replies with a wan half-smile, or rather a spastic upward twitch on one side of his mouth, and does not verbally lie to his friend. "No, hey, don't worry about it. It's obviously not... It's not something I" -- expected, Yokoo was going to say -- "necessarily want. But. I don't want you feeling bad for me. You know, not if your concern looks even a little bit like Miyata's."
Nikaido actually snorts at that, not expecting Yokoo to be in the state of mind to even be capable of making sarcastic jokes. He doesn't doubt for one second that Yokoo is, in fact, the strongest person he knows, as far as the kind of strength that really matters at the end of the day. But he also knows how much of their eldest member has practically become an extension of his girlfriend's life, and vice versa, over the past few years. They'd been together for so long that Nikaido believes he was still in puberty when Yokoo realized he was in love with Mayumi. The two of them rarely fought, and if they did, they'd be at each other's doorsteps with a bouquet of flowers in less a week's time.
He doesn't know how anything could make Yokoo feel any kind of good right now, which makes it even harder to come up with something that Nikaido could actually offer. Nikaido was thrust into the situation empty-handed in every aspect, completely unprepared for the situation. Well, empty-handed in all aspects except for the literal one, since he went into it lugging the cake he had gotten for Senga.
He looks at the box he's holding thoughtfully. It's sitting pretty, just ready to be delivered into Senga's hands, not telling of the lengths Nikaido had gone to in order to get it.
Nikaido had been planning on buying the cake for his best friend once he'd heard of the bakery and its peculiar flavors - this one, the one that made it irresistible for Nikaido via the Senga appeal, is strawberry shortcake with star anise sauce. Senga recently developed a strange and (in Nikaido's opinion) unearned fascination with star anise after they'd encountered in a meal they shared. So he left his house early that morning before the shoot, rushing off to the unexpectedly remote bakery just to pick up this cake that would earn him, at most, a minute or two of Senga's overwhelmingly stupid, stupidly overwhelming adoration.
Still, Nikaido has to sigh at the lost opportunity of being a hero for his close friend's sweet tooth. He holds up the box in his hand, looking to trade a crooked smile with a fanged one.
"Well," he says, setting the box down the table and pushing it in front of Yokoo, "in TV and movies, they start the healing process with desserts, right?"
***
After getting the whole story, Kitayama and Senga feel free to laugh right into Miyata's face. Miyata feels affronted for a whole five seconds, before he succumbs to a blubbery sort of laughter as well. "I'm sorry. It's just so sad for Watta. I thought they were a sure thing. There are maybe only two things in the world that I doubt less than that. They could've been a religion."
"Okay, seriously, you need to be less invested in other people's relationships," Kitayama says, guffawing at this point.
"I kind of get where he's coming from though, like it's an end of an era," Tamamori offers. "Like, because this happened, I feel like I've lost my youth."
Miyata shoots him a grateful look. It's so sappy that Kitayama is thankful that Yokoo isn't around to see it.
And Kitayama would've been the first to call Tamamori on his bullshit, but he doesn't, this time.
They've never seriously talked about relationships - nothing beyond what their perfect girls would want to sing at karaoke, or the legendary hot otakus that Miyata swears exists, or the occasional sentence-long summaries about how a date went. And aside from teasing Yokoo about being a family man without the family, nobody ever asks about any significant problems Yokoo might be having with Mayumi, and Yokoo never volunteers that information.
Too many of Kitayama's friends ask him how his girlfriend could endure dating him, and as much as he doesn't want to admit it, it's a valid question. When they aren't just poking fun at his stature and miscellaneous (minor and redeemable!) character flaws, they make sense. He gets how hard it is, and now they're being forced to accept that they no longer have this inspiring story to cling to, no more real world example of a rising JE talent sustaining a stable long-term relationship.
"We're all looking at this the wrong way," Kitayama says after a beat, wanting to convince himself with his own words as well. "We have to look at the bright side. Yokoo can be the silent, brooding guy now. We still don't have one in our group."
Tamamori raises an eyebrow at that. "Neither does ABC. Or anybody, really. Nobody has a brooding guy."
"Oh right, how mid-90's of me. But he could be our version of the brooding guy. I'm just saying, Twilight was a thing. He's our brooding guy, version 2012."
"No, he should stick to the big brother role." Senga grins a little as he explains, "Since there's no way any of you guys could fill that."
"I'm sorry, but someone whose role is his hobby does not get to comment on other members' places in society. The point of roles in a group is covering different fanbases, and fact, there isn't a huge fanbase made up of girls who like guys whose sole purpose in life is to dance." Kitayama's saying all of with an air of authority that belongs only to someone who earned a PhD on the scientific makings of Japanese pop idol group. He doesn't, but he makes up a curriculum of what such a program would entail, when he's bored out of his mind and not sleeping.
Senga frowns, taking the joke much more seriously than Kitayama intended it to be. "Miyata has the group boke persona covered," he says defensively. "And it's not like I can be the ultra-cool one like Tama-chan. I'm not even pretty, like Nika is."
Tamamori objects to Senga's matter-of-fact praise. "I am not the 'cool one.' I have feelings and opinions and... you know. Thoughts." It's Miyata's turn to take Tamamori's hand comfortingly.
"Dude, Senga, shut up already. You know you're not ugly," Kitayama says, rolling his eyes at Senga.
"You keep saying I look like a chimp."
"A gorilla," Kitayama corrects him exasperatedly. "Which I only say because it's eerily accurate. It doesn't mean you're visually offensive."
"We're evolved from apes," Tamamori interjects. Even Miyata joins in collectively ignoring him.
And so they manage to avoid talking about Yokoo, each one getting involved in mindless chatter as each one also privately wonders how he could be of any use to their hurting friend.
***
Nikaido makes himself comfortable even before Senga closes the door behind him, sliding down Senga's couch in one smooth movement. "Man, I'm exhausted."
"Did the shoot take long?" Senga asks as he ambles over to take a seat beside Nikaido.
"Not really," Nikaido replies with a deep sigh. "It didn't go over by much. But I was hanging out with Yokoo and - he's just. It was like talking to a schizophrenic robot that kept saying he was fine, you know, and then he'd get these glitches from time to time and really say what he was feeling, until his programming would kick right back in and..." Nikaido trails off with another audible exhalation then cocks his head towards Senga. "I felt like I couldn't even leave, but then Miyata and Tama dropped by and offered to take him to dinner. I wanted to go and call you to meet up with us, but I was so tired. From listening. How does that happen?"
"Don't feel bad about it," Senga says, earnestness bordering on naivete. "You just don't like seeing him that way. Nobody does." He scoots over closer to Nikaido so that the older of the two could lean against Senga's shoulder.
"I think what was so tiring was feeling so helpless. I'm pretty sure I was wracking my brain for two hours, and I couldn't come up with a single thing I could do for him. I ended up giving him the entire cake." Nikaido hesitates, and then just feels uncomfortable with the onus of the abrupt silence, so he stares at Senga expectantly.
As if on cue, Senga follows up with, "What cake?"
"Strawberry shortcake. Nikaido pauses again, and this time infuses it with some dramatic flair. "With star anise sauce."
Senga's eyes seem to go perfectly round as soon as Nikaido wraps up his sentence. "That sounds good. Do you think he'll even eat it? Yokoo doesn't like to eat when he's depressed," Senga says, guilelessly tactless. "We should go back and help him eat it."
To which Nikaido responds with a simple, "No."
"I didn't think so," Senga says with a small shrug and a chuckle. "I really like star anise, though!"
Nikaido wants to say that he knows, and how could he forget something as aggressively weird as that, but he doesn't. It's not like they're playing the friendship edition of Trivial Pursuit.
Later in the afternoon, Senga convinces Nikaido that they should write a song together and dedicate it to Yokoo. Nikaido wouldn't have let Senga win so easily, but after spending the day with Yokoo, he is open to throwing everything they have at a wall and seeing which one sticks. They fool around with the software Senga downloaded on his computer and experiment with some melodies, and Nikaido sings mostly nonsense words with that voice that makes Senga want to start a petition to give him all the solos in the world, ever.
"This is good," Senga declares when they have over a minute of the melody finalized. "We can end it here, yeah?"
Nikaido looks over Senga's shoulder, peering at the screen. He knocks them both forward to get a better view, as if the notes mean a whole lot to him. "It's good, yeah."
"What should we do about the lyrics?" Senga asks, much more quietly now that he's got Nikaido's ear inches from his mouth. "I really don't think it should be too sad. The song sounds very hopeful to me. What do you think?"
"Yeah, you're right," Nikaido agrees, eyes still fixed on the screen. "We can even make it a bit funny."
Senga wrinkles his nose at Nikaido's suggestion. "Uh, I don't know about funny. I want it to still be heartfelt, just nothing too heavy. But I don't want him to laugh at it."
"He needs the laugh," points out Nikaido. "Look, I just don't know if treating the break-up like someone just died is what Yokoo's looking for."
"I don't know if he wants to be made fun of, either."
"I'm not making fun of him, idiot. This isn't a joke to me."
Senga feels Nikaido's chin turn towards him, and he instinctively turns towards Nikaido as well. Their noses actually bump on the way, but they're both slightly annoyed and extremely stubborn, and neither of them move from the tense position they're in. He has a vision of basketball players or other professional athletes getting in one another's faces in the heat of the moment, and he knows that the adrenalin he's feeling must be similar to those fiery stand-offs. But he also knows that there's something much more different with what's happening between him and Nikaido.
Senga parts his lips just a fraction to say something, but all he releases is a half-frustrated, half-whimsical sound, and Nikaido immediately tilts his head just a bit to the side as if in response. Senga sees Nikaido's eyes narrow, and then nothing more as his eyelids flutter closed.
He thinks he must be shaking in anticipation, nervous energy coursing through him, making him want to jump or run the perimeter of Tokyo Dome, but at the same time rendering him utterly paralyzed in the moment. He can already feel Nikaido's lips moving before they're even touching, they're so close, and it's like a physical expression of how they've lingered unsurely in each other's orbit for longer than he ever thought either of them had the patience for. His eyes have traced Nikaido's lips enough times, as did his fingers that one night when they were pretending to joke around, testing the boundaries of what platonic meant. Nikaido's lips are so familiar to him now, in a way, and yet so foreign and new with all sorts of meaning they held if they'd just press against his, and every second they're not kissing hurts like another year of waiting and hoping desperately that they want the same thing.
At what has to be the very last possible second, Nikaido turns his head away, pulling back completely.
Senga is horrified when he feels the burning flush on his cheeks crawl up to the back of his eyes, all the way up until everything he sees is covered under a film of blurry heat. He tries to gather the breath he'd somehow lost, filling his lungs as quietly as possible, and it's extremely hard when the whole world has gone on mute except for his furious heartbeat.
On the opposite side of him, Nikaido rearranges himself restlessly on the bed, coughing and leaning on one arm to fiddle with Senga's laptop.
And you know what? He's fine. He's just like Yokoo. Senga is fine. Maybe Nikaido just wants to be friends, and he's fine with that. He has to be, after all, because he's been able to live with it for so long. And if Nikaido's just being a jerk - it's still out there, it's not like he said no - well, then, it's all on him now. If he wants to focus on other things instead of making sense out of this whole frustrating mess they're in, that's all in Nikaido's hands. He has to know what Senga wants now.
That night, Senga allows himself to fantasize about what his best friend what he would do if it were Senga going through a bad break-up, and not Yokoo. He wants to ask, just to get that violent reaction. He knows Nikaido would get inexplicably jealous, first of all, and he'd say something along the lines of Senga probably deserving it for going out with a douchebag in the first place when he could've been spending more time devising world-shattering pranks with his best friend. But he doesn't want Nikaido to ever have to feel jealous. And, more importantly, he doesn't want to be let down by what actually happens. If Nikaido actually says something nice to him, like it's okay, he's sure that someday, Senga will meet someone who'll love him back.
***
Tamamori and Miyata report back to the group after their dinner with Yokoo and confirm that he is in the "Guilt" stage of grief. Senga insists that Yokoo is already done with "Anger", but the others keep shooting him down: Yokoo reprimanding him for an unkempt dressing area doesn't count.
To Senga's point, Yokoo is being noticeably testier. He has become very vocal about his disdain for what he refers to as the Yokoo Watch, i.e. how the rest of Kisumai obviously has at least one man covering Yokoo-comforting duties at all times. Yokoo is insistent in informing them that he needs time alone to cope. Each one of them believes him, but it's hard not to want to be near Yokoo, just so it's convenient for him when the desire for alone time inevitably expires.
Fujigaya believes himself to be the most attuned to Yokoo's moods, and so he's confident that he knows when his presence is more refreshing than grating. The others defer to his self-proclaimed expertise for no real reason, only approaching Yokoo when either Fujigaya or Yokoo himself grants approval.
Nikaido visits Yokoo's place when he hears that Fujigaya is there, and the three of them settle in Yokoo's living room for a quiet afternoon. They watch the first 20 minutes of a movie before having to turn it off after Nikaido claims he is being personally insulted by the director of the film.
They don't do much of anything, mostly talking about work or Fujigaya's latest drama, since it was made evident that neither Nikaido nor Yokoo watched the first episode. He tells them that he's working with somebody who has the serious hots for Tamamori even though she's almost ten years older than him, and that you can tell because who uses the term "serious hots" anymore?
Yokoo makes a maudlin comment about how nobody's going to say that about him now that Mayumi broke up with him, which is patently ridiculous, but then again possibly true because, really, nobody says "serious hots" in this day and age other than Fujigaya's co-star. Both Fujigaya and Nikaido get too engrossed in lifting Yokoo's self-esteem to notice that Yokoo managed to snatch Fujigaya's cellphone and is now going through its contents with rapid intensity.
It takes a few minutes, but Fujigaya finally catches on. "Oi! Stop looking through my phone, you nosy bastard. No wonder Mayumi--" Fujigaya catches himself quickly, although he fears it's not quick enough. He immediately launches into a full on rant about the government and wire-tapping, and Nikaido wouldn't be surprised if he'd gotten all his "facts" from the back of a DVD cover or whatever.
But that's a major slip right there, Nikaido thinks. Anyone could tell what Fujigaya had been about to say. He'd ding Fujigaya for that, even if Fujigaya at least had enough presence of mind not to vocalize the entire joke. If he were a referee, he'd be blowing his whistle and crying for flagrant foul because Taipi is somehow even less useful at comforting Yokoo than he is!
"It's not my fault your password is so predictable. Nikaido, can I see yours?" Yokoo holds out his hand expectantly.
That prick knows they can't deny him in his supposedly fragile state, so Nikaido is reduced to grumbling as he hands Yokoo his phone. He manages to keeps the annoyance at a minimum since he'd changed his own password just a few days ago, following a Senga-led hacking incident that resulted in mass emails to juniors inviting them to a no-holds-barred, impromptu paintball party at Nikaido's houses.
Nikaido blushes for more than one reason when, in less than ten seconds of Yokoo having possession of his phone, he hears his own voice croon into the mostly empty room.
"Watta--!" he dives for Yokoo who evades him easily, using his long arms to keep the phone out of reach. Fujigaya helps out by keeping Nikaido still in a tight, barnacle hug that used both hands and both legs. "You're assholes. You two are just dickheads," Nikaido more or less chants into the Fujigaya's palm after the latter decided to cover his mouth and stifle his complaints.
When the short digital recording ends, Yokoo and Fujigaya share a thoughtful glance.
"It's not bad, Nika. You guys could sing this at a concert," suggests Yokoo. "Really."
"It's unfinished!" Nika tries to shriek. Fujigaya removes his hand so they can hear what Nikaido's trying to say, and Nikaido repeats himself. "It's not yet done! Senga and I still have to work on it."
"Work on it then," Fujigaya pipes up. "I'm not kidding, it'd great if we could add it to our concert."
"And hey, Nika. I get what you two were trying to do." Yokoo smiles in acknowledgement, and there's not a touch of irony or self-deprecation in it - it's just that genuine smile he hasn't been sporting for weeks now, and seeing it resurface is one of the most gratifying experiences Nikaido has ever had. "I really appreciate it."
Despite his embarrassment, Nikaido can't help but giggle a little, elated at having done something right for his friend. "Thanks. I'm glad to know I'm at least better than Taipi when it comes to this sort of thing."
With an exquisitely huffy look on his face, Fujigaya lets his jaw drop. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Nikaido tries not to preen right then and there. "Really, what have you done?"
"Oh come on! I mean, don't get me wrong. It's a good song - it really is - and you and Senga would kill it on tour. But clicking a few buttons on your little BFF's computer isn't the same as being by Wataru's side, being his rock even when he's being cruel and saying he doesn't want you to be there!"
With a loud sigh, Yokoo pinches the bridge of his nose and focuses on not striking his two friends over their heads. "Both of you just knock it off," he groans. "I don't need you two fighting over me. And I know I've said a lot of bullshit since Mayumi and I broke up, things like 'I'm fine' and 'I don't need anyone' and all that. But this - this one I really mean. I do not want you arguing over who's a better friend than who, because I don't want you to be here for that. I want you to be here for me... because this just feels like shit. And it--" Yokoo chokes at a gasp and swiftly bows his head low, hiding from his friends' concerned eyes.
Nikaido and Fujigaya quietly position themselves on either side of Yokoo, holding him between them. They let Yokoo muffle what sounds like soft sobs, although his eyes are only watery, at most. They rub his back and his arms, both gentler than Yokoo ever remembers them being. Fujigaya's hand hovers over Yokoo's hair, and later on lands on the other man's shoulder.
Yokoo shakes his head and straightens up slightly as he stuffs his hand in his pocket. "I don't know what to do with this. God, just tell me what to do with it. I can't even bring myself to return it." He pulls out a small box, and hears his friends inhale sharply in perfect unison.
Nobody says anything for a while as Yokoo runs his thumb over the velvet box, turning it over in his fingers.
After a few minutes, Fujigaya says, "You better not use that to propose to me."
It works, miraculously, and Fujigaya and Yokoo laugh sincerely at the dumb joke, and Nikaido is nothing short of awed. He almost feels like he's been allowed to witness something that nobody else sees.
But when the amazement wears off, he starts to feel the lingering bitterness from just a few moments ago. Just moments after he's able to extract a smile from Yokoo, Fujigaya gets him to laugh?? It makes Nikaido want to lash out, makes him want to blame Yokoo's god-awful timing, and blame Fujigaya for undermining all his efforts and sacrifices. Because, really? Yokoo gets cheered up by somebody who almost made fun of him getting dumped by someone he wanted to marry? And meanwhile, there's Nikaido, sitting all staunch and loyal, choosing Yokoo over the one person in the world he never wanted to blow off. To say the least.
He must have been lost in his vengeful thoughts longer than it felt to him, because when he snaps out of his head space and re-enters reality, Yokoo's attention is back on Nikaido's phone.
"Give that back!" Nikaido cries, making a second try for his phone. He's successful this time around, but as he can see from what's on the screen, it didn't do much good if his primary purpose of retrieving his phone was to protect his privacy. Yokoo had clearly already gone through a number of his emails.
Yokoo nonchalantly makes a curious, low sound. "That's weird, I thought Senga would be looking for you. I mean, he's been mailing Fujigaya non-stop." Nikaido's eyes dart from Yokoo to Fujigaya, then back to his phone.
"He's fretting over a haircut, but he won't send me a picture," Fujigaya says while Nikaido quickly skims his messages. "Poor kid just needs some attention."
"Why is he bugging you about his hair?" Nikaido asks with a tone in his voice that was unmistakably accusatory. "Does he need to know what not to do with it?"
"So are you guys going to fight over Senga now? Because that's not much better for me," Yokoo advises them.
"Aww, Nika needs my attention, too. Don't you, Nika?" Fujigaya reaches around Yokoo to put a hand on Nikaido's shoulder. Fujigaya doesn't get a reaction from him, and he sees Yokoo hiding a snicker. They both know that whatever funk Nikaido's in has something to do with the fact that, whether it's for hair advice or whatever, Senga isn't bugging Nikaido.
***
Senga is sitting off to the side by himself, uncharacteristically watching the action instead of jumping into it. He's content to watch the others play billiards from a distance, dividing his attention between his friends and the TV at the other side of the bar. From where's sitting, it looks like Yokoo and, surprisingly, Miyata who are dominating the game. Fujigaya doesn't seem to actually be playing, and is taking more of an active role coaching Tamamori. ("Please stop helping," begs Tamamori.)
While the others impatiently wait for Miyata to carefully position the bridge before taking his shot, Kitayama casually sidles up to Senga and nudges him with his elbow. "Sure you don't want to join?"
"Yup, I'm fine."
"But you're going to help us get Yokoo drunk, right?"
Senga laughs and shrugs one shoulder. "I'll do my best."
"The group that drinks together stays together," Kitayama repeats his motto for the night for somewhere around the tenth time. He whips out his phone and morosely stares at it for a while, before typing something and hitting the send button. His smile is properly put on when he looks up and regards Senga. "It's not that you hate pool, is it?"
"No, it's not that." Senga worries his lip before deciding to just give in. "It's just-- if I take that stick, I'm not that confident that I'll be able to resist driving it straight through Nika's skull."
That makes Kitayama's eyebrows rise nearly all the way to his hairline. "Are you two fighting? 'Cause when you guys are fighting, it's pretty hard for us not to notice."
"I'm not mad at him," Senga lies blatantly. "It's just... I don't know. It'd be nice if I weren't always his last priority," he says, delicately.
"What do you mean? How much of those have you had?" Kitayama gestures to the drink in Senga's hand. Senga starts to protest, but Kitayama cuts him off. "Because I seriously hope you're not sitting here feeling sorry for yourself, all because your favorite playmate is spending a few more minutes of his time with another friend - our friend - who needs a little bit of companionship right now."
Kitayama leaves him with that, regrouping with the other members at the pool table. For the most part, Senga is stunned because he doesn't think he's ever seen Kitayama as pissed off as he just was. Angry enough to leave his cellphone behind at the bar.
Senga's guess that Kitayama has been too lazy to change his password proves to be accurate, and as soon as the phone is unlocked, a message pops up from Kitayama's girlfriend. "So you said. No choice, next week it is." He goes through their message history and it's clear that Kitayama's been cancelling dates with his girlfriend. The reason is almost always the same - his friend is going through something right now, and he hopes she understands. Senga's heart constricts a little at that, as he replays Kitayama's parting words to him in his head.
The feeling of guilt eventually gets the better him, but he also still feels somewhat spiteful, so when he reaches the pool table, he goes straight for Fujigaya and avoids everybody else. "Did you know Tama and Mitsu sometimes text each other about you when you're overacting at a promo shoot?" he sing-songs, brandishing Kitayama's phone and waving it merrily in front of Fujigaya's face.
"What?!"
"Just kidding." Senga sticks his tongue out, as he hands Fujigaya Kitayama's phone. "You go through it, there's nothing interesting in there."
"Some of the interesting stuff totally go over your head sometimes," Fujigaya points out, not be mean, but to state facts. His grin grows gradually as he scrolls through. "By the way, that song you and Nika recorded was actually pretty nice. I heard it from Nika's phone."
That makes Senga brighten up. "You liked it?"
"Sure. I even told Nikaido that you guys should perform it at our next concert. He shot me and Yokoo down cold though, flat out refused. All he kept saying was it's not finished, and we couldn't even get him to really consider the idea." Fujigaya gives him a mischievous wink. "Maybe if he doesn't want to do the song, I could step in for him. You and I could do the duet. How's that sound?"
Senga and Fujigaya share a look and promptly laugh at the idea. "Yeah, he's gonna be totally cool with that," Senga says, shaking his head in amusement.
Miyata ends up taking the first game, much to all the players' protests that he'd been cheating for using the bridge. He righteously tells them it's not his fault if he doesn't care what looks cool or not, it's the end results that matter. He proceeds to initiate a toast to Kis-My-Ft2, and Yokoo is the loudest to respond with an upbeat "kampai!"
They go around and make their toasts, hitting others' glasses with theirs with as much force as they could without breaking anything. Nikaido is beyond relieved that his knees actually buckle with the force of it when Senga tilts his glass towards Nikaido's. Their glasses clink, and Nikaido breathes easier than he has been in the past few days. When everyone settles down and ensures that everyone else's glasses are empty (and then refilled), they disperse into smaller conversations as if by routine. The routine, of course, pairs Nikaido off with Senga, and the two of them feel like they've just gone to an awkward reunion of some sort.
"What drink is that?" Nikaido asks before he does something truly unforgivable like twiddle his thumbs or ask how the weather's been treating Senga.
"I'm not completely sure, Taipi just thought it would be funny to order a drink for me and to tell the waitress that it came from a tall, dark and handsome thug," Senga replies with an eye roll. Nikaido throws his head back and laughs, feeling in higher and higher spirits as each second next to Senga without being slapped in the face serves to reassure him that things between them aren't exactly irreparable. "I know it's got the works - vodka, rum, tequila, and, um, gin? And then there's some, like, melon in it."
Nikaido presses himself next to Senga so that their sides were touching. Senga could be leaning on Nikaido's arm, if Nikaido just extended it a little bit. "Can I try some?" he asks smoothly.
Just as smoothly, Senga sidesteps and separates himself from Nikaido. "Yeah, let me go ask the bartender for another whatever this is. Wait here, okay? I'll get you a glass."
...That didn't pan out very well. Nikaido barely manages not to pout like a child or bury his face in his palms like a cartoon character, feeling slightly embarrassed and thoroughly defeated.
Having seen most of the interaction, Yokoo reaches out to ruffle Nikaido's hair. "Don't give up, little one."
"I really don't want to hear that from you right now," Nikaido attempts to say lightly, although it's very possible that he may not have been able to pull it off. He has, after all, spent the last couple of weeks holding Yokoo's hand as the latter resigned himself to a loveless existence.
Yokoo takes Nikaido's comment the wrong way, and fights back with, "Sorry, you're right, I'm just some loser here who got dumped. What could anyone possibly want to hear from me? Maybe Senga wants to hear what your cellphone's password is?"
"What?" a few eavesdropping bystanders say in unison, at the same time Nikaido shoots back a derisive "Fuck off."
"Hey, hey, we just had a toast!" Fujigaya reproaches them. "I think it was about friendship?"
Senga returns to a tense staring much, an extra drink in his hand. "What's happening?" he asks out of the corner of his mouth.
"Something about Wataru telling you Nikaido's password," Miyata summarizes for him.
"What password? Why does Watta know--?" Senga stops before he gets ahead of himself and just shakes his head. "Okay, um. Yeah. Nika can do what he wants to, and I don't have to be a part of it. Is that what this is? Because Mitsu - I don't even know, but I don't need Nika to push anyone away for my sake. I don't want that." Nikaido turns to him, his face schooled into something unreadable. Senga musters the best smile he has. "It's fine, okay?"
"It's--" Nikaido glares at the people surround them, like they don't have the right to be sharing public spaces with him. "It's really not cool to have so many voyeurs in this group." He grabs Senga's shoulders and leads him to exit, but stops and turns midstride to yell, "Not to mention cellphone voyeurs! Really, the audacity of some people!"
Guiltily, Senga mumbles, "Sorry."
"Not you!" Nikaido sighs as he turns again, leading the way outside the bar. They stand to the side of the exit, and a full minute of staring off into space passes by them, eyes never straying a millimeter towards the other. "Kenpi."
"Mmm?"
"You were saying you didn't want me to put other people aside for you, a while ago," Nikaido says. He looks at the profile of Senga's face, sees the other boy's eyes start to focus on whatever he's staring at. Nikaido grabs Senga's wrist and pulls at it a bit, getting his attention. "But it's alright if you want to."
"I'm not as much of a brat as you are," Senga teases half-heartedly.
Nikaido makes an annoyed sound at that, and then leans in to say, "It's not because I'm a brat." He artlessly shoves his fingers between Senga's, and almost defiantly, he curls them so that his fingertips press into Senga's knuckles.
They'd never really held hands before, other than at final bows or photoshoots. Senga should know better than to take it as anything more than his hand being held, but. He lets out a shaky, inexplicably solemn breath as he reciprocates the tight grasp. In that instant, Nikaido's hold loosens and becomes gentle, and Senga immediately adjusts to match it.
"Yokoo needs us," Senga says, never bothered by stating the obvious. "He looks better, for sure, but he still needs all of us right now."
"Yeah, I think so, too. But sometimes... I mean, without anyone else around..." Nikaido bites his lip and glares mutinously at the ground.
And that's when Senga decides that maybe, he doesn't need to hear Nikaido say it. "It's alright, Nika." He doesn't try to contain a blinding grin. "I get it. I think," he adds, laughing self-consciously.
Even with the reassurance, Nikaido still doesn't look at peace with himself. "No, but see, you're kind of a huge moron sometimes. I should probably make sure." Senga's still trying to contain his open-toothed smile when Nikaido goes straight for him, and so the latter probably got to lay one on Senga's teeth rather than his lips. It makes Senga laugh uproariously, and he manages to tame it into a demure smile when he sees how hard Nikaido is struggling not to look bothered by bungling his first real romantic overture with such an absolute lack of finesse. Senga is obnoxiously happy when he says he likes Nikaido so much, chattering on about how he'd pretty much blow off people for him 9 times out of 10, and they manage to get the mechanics right on their second kiss.
It doesn't last too long, but it's long enough to give them a real reason to be breathless at the end of it. Senga bows his head and smiles giddily into Nikaido's neck, and Nikaido responds unthinkingly by brushing his lips over Senga's hair and forehead. Senga's so happy to be holding Nikaido and to be held by Nikaido that he doesn't ever want to move. "I almost feel bad that other people won't hear that song we did."
"What song?" Nikaido is barely coherent, let alone capable of retrieving such specific pieces of information from his memory.
"The one we wrote for Yokoo," Senga elaborates. "Taipi says you don't want to sing it at a concert. It's fine if you don't want to, but it'd be awesome to do something like that. You know, in the future."
"It's no big deal," Nikaido says before he can stop himself, sounding so unconcerned even as he feels like throwing up just trying to imagine the two of them onstage, stripped of pyrotechnics and grandiose costumes and throwaway gags, just him and Senga and the memories of everything that fueled that song into existence. It scares him to know what he can do because of the sole reason he'd be able to do it.
"But Fujigaya said you--"
"He's just being an idiot. He's just an idiot," Nikaido mutters blandly, completely ignoring the fact that he isn't feeling too smart himself.
And then Nikaido gets it: he gets that look that he'd been longing for when he braved the remote areas of Tokyo to get to some obscure bakery with a specialty cake. Senga squeezes the life out of him and bodily nudges them towards the direction of the entrance. Senga's already joyfully announcing that "Nika said he'd do the song!" before they reach their friends.
"...And he didn't follow it up with 'when Kitayama grows 5 more inches so he can buy pants from the men's department?'" Yokoo confirms.
"No, we're going to sing it, and we'll kick ass, and it's going to be so good that fans will petition for me and Nika to release it as a single!"
Nikaido is trying to prevent a drippy smile that's threatening to take over his face and can he be any more transparent right now? Because Fujigaya and Yokoo are looking at each other like they'd just discovered a secret weapon, Kitayama's has a similar knowing smirk, Tamamori's nodding wisely like he approves of what the world has placed in front of him, and Miyata looks dangerously close to cooing like grandma at her grandkid's graduation ceremony.
Yokoo clears his throat when it becomes apparent that Senga and Nikaido had gotten stuck staring stupidly into each other's eyes. Composing himself, Nikaido starts to say something, but is unable to get in a word edgewise. "Don't you dare be sorry you got a boyfriend just 'cause in coincides with my scheduled misery."
Both Nikaido and Senga's faces fall at that.
"No, guys, I'm serious," Yokoo asserts. He turns to Nikaido, whose company he's been sharing the most. "Nikaido, you not getting laid is not the sort of distraction I want, even in my best days. You and Senga sorting yourselves out is best thing you can do for me."
"Really?" Nikaido has to ask, disbelieving. He almost doesn't want to believe Yokoo's reassurance, not after weeks of shaming himself as the lowest incarnation of humanity whenever that traitorous voice would bring up how he'd rather hang out with Senga than dissect Yokoo's doomed future with his ex-girlfriend. Still, his company couldn't have been that bad. "Are you saying that because of the cake? That was Senga's fault, he's the one who's into star anise."
Yokoo tilts his head thoughtfully. "Actually, the cake was really good. I finished the entire thing in one sitting."
Nikaido shudders as Senga gives Yokoo a high five for good taste. "Anyway, just to be clear, Senga and I aren't-- and we haven't done that-- Uh. Obviously."
"Thanks for clearing that up," Miyata chortles.
"I mean, we only just... admitted things to each other literally two minutes ago," Nikaido tries again, but is perhaps even less successful in controlling the direction of his babbling. "So it's not as if I've asked, or he's asked--" He looks to Senga for guidance and falters, mostly unsure what to do with all the unfiltered fondness coming off Senga's glance.
"We are," Senga supplies for him with a quiet authority.
"We are?" Nikaido repeats slowly, his voice newly bashful as he fights a losing battle to suppress a wild grin. Nikaido's the one who needs to say it out loud this time, not caring about their audience or about his meticulously crafted plans to take Senga out on a few casual dates for three and a half months before asking for the covetous relationship label. "You mean you'll be my boyfriend? I'll be yours? Or, I am. I am," Nikaido corrects himself firmly, following Senga's lead. "I'm your boyfriend."
Senga beams at him and takes his hand. "And that thing that we haven't done?" Senga continues. "We will." He still has that look of near-innocent devotion, even when his words would have meshed better with a lascivious wink. Nikaido huffs out a laugh, and nobody can that tell he's still trying very hard not to make it indecently obvious how happy he's feeling.
"Another round of drinks," Fujigaya says as he hands Senga and Nikaido one glass each filled with outrageously-coloured liquid, "generously paid for by our leader on his new cellphone app!"
Kitayama pats his pockets down as he demands, "What new app??"
***
"It's two and then three zeroes."
Senga is - this particular time, understandably - confused. "Is that the real answer to meaning of life?"
"It's my password!" Nikaido thrusts his cellphone into Senga's stomach. "Here."
"That's it?!" Senga exclaims. "Why, what happened in the year 2000? You were, like, 12."
Nikaido stares at Senga, then heaves a long-suffering sigh. "Never mind."
From kis_my_fic2
Title: All for One
Pairings/Characters: Senga/Nikaido, Kis-My-Ft2 gen
Rating: PG for less than wholesome words
Warnings: There are brief mentions of OCs, and this probably has more gen/friendship than anything else.
Summary: Yokoo's going through a tough time, and the rest of Kisumai have varying levels of success putting their own troubles aside for a friend in need.
Notes: I really hope there's enough of your prompts in here, yeska_noka! Hope you enjoy it. :)
Nikaido isn't late to the shoot, he just isn't exactly on time. They aren't always required to be on set altogether, it's just that they frequently are, regardless. So even though he knows it isn't his turn to be the subject of the photoshoots during the first time slot, he can't shake the nagging feeling that he's playing hooky if he's depriving them of his unproductive presence. He balances a medium-sized box, the culprit for his almost-tardiness, as he jogs into the waiting room, quashing the unwarranted guilt of showing up an hour and a half earlier than he actually needs to.
It turns out his transgressions are the least of the other members' worries. Nikaido isn't greeted by judgmental scowls he'd been imagining on his way over to the studio, but rather a tearful Miyata being soothed by Tamamori and Yokoo.
"I know it happens," Miyata is saying as he tightens his grip on Yokoo's arm, wearing the face of a man that was forced to sit through a puppy-slaughtering marathon.
"What's going on?" Nikaido asks cautiously.
Miyata turns bloodshot eyes at Nikaido, and the latter is awash in a previously undiscovered combination of emotions that include sympathetic heartbreak and the desire to laugh at the unfairly ridiculous expression on Miyata's face. "I can't accept it. It's too hard."
Yokoo sighs audibly, gingerly patting Miyata's shaky hand. "It's fine. I promise you, it'll be fine."
Wisely, Nikaido bites his lip before an ill-timed, graceless peal of laughter escapes him. He goes to crowd Miyata and gives him what he hopes is a supportive full-body bump, all while averting his eyes from unfailingly Miyata's comedic face. "Seriously, though, what happened?" he asks Yokoo and Tamamori.
What follows is a rather awkward silence, the type that was only reserved for live interviews involving questions like the confirmation of one's virginity. Tamamori briefly glances at Yokoo and winces, then sort of looks up to the ceiling as if to relinquish any responsibility. Like someone's expecting him to apologize for whatever it is that's happening.
"Mayumi and I..." Yokoo pauses, his face purposefully blank. "Aren't." He adds after a few seconds - probably unnecessarily, judging by Nikaido's stunned silence, "Anymore."
"Oh, Watta--" Nikaido stops abruptly, if only because he's still trying to piece together how Yokoo ended up being the one to reassure Miyata.
"What is love?" bawls Miyata. Beside him, Tamamori hangs his head and closes his eyes resignedly. "Can you tell me? I thought they'd last forever. But if even Watta and Mayumi can't stay together, how can you say love exists?" Tamamori looks mortified enough for everyone in the room, but throws an arm around Miyata anyway.
"Maybe you can get him out of here?" Nikaido looks pointedly at Tamamori. Tamamori is just thankful that nobody calls Miyata his girlfriend this time around as he easily frees Yokoo's captive limb from Miyata's death grip.
Senga and Kitayama arrive just in time to intercept them. Kitayama does a double take after seeing Miyata's face, and he grabs the taller boy by both arms. “Whoa! Hey! You okay?"
"Miyacchi?" Senga says softly, looking almost terrified, for some reason.
"I'm taking him for a walk," Tamamori tells them. Now that there are three people configured around Miyata like a veritable fort of unconditional camaraderie, Tamamori deems it allowable to bully him.
Kitayama picks up on Tamamori's lack of concern and relaxes a little. He knows that if they had a real tragedy on their hands, Tamamori would be joining in on the water works. "You have his leash?" Kitayama says with a particularly gentle teasing smile.
"You guys," Miyata sniffs with only a hint of a whine, as his friends escort him out.
"Hey, I'm still dropping by later," Nikaido yells at the retreating figures. Nobody needs him to clarify who he's talking to or what he's talking about as Senga acknowledges him with a bright "okay!", right before skipping off to keep up with the others.
Nikaido stares off into the direction that the other members headed off to for a few moments before he clears his throat and tries to soften his facial expression for Yokoo's sake. "So. I mean." He doesn't want to ask how Yokoo is, because the answer should go without saying, but he's pretty sure that he needs to give Yokoo the cue to start sharing whatever he feels like sharing. But he finds it difficult to even approach the subject. "Will you be alright?" is rather condescending, and "do you feel like killing yourself?" seems a little insensitive.
Eventually, Nikaido settles with, "How wasted do you need to get right now?"
Yokoo replies with a wan half-smile, or rather a spastic upward twitch on one side of his mouth, and does not verbally lie to his friend. "No, hey, don't worry about it. It's obviously not... It's not something I" -- expected, Yokoo was going to say -- "necessarily want. But. I don't want you feeling bad for me. You know, not if your concern looks even a little bit like Miyata's."
Nikaido actually snorts at that, not expecting Yokoo to be in the state of mind to even be capable of making sarcastic jokes. He doesn't doubt for one second that Yokoo is, in fact, the strongest person he knows, as far as the kind of strength that really matters at the end of the day. But he also knows how much of their eldest member has practically become an extension of his girlfriend's life, and vice versa, over the past few years. They'd been together for so long that Nikaido believes he was still in puberty when Yokoo realized he was in love with Mayumi. The two of them rarely fought, and if they did, they'd be at each other's doorsteps with a bouquet of flowers in less a week's time.
He doesn't know how anything could make Yokoo feel any kind of good right now, which makes it even harder to come up with something that Nikaido could actually offer. Nikaido was thrust into the situation empty-handed in every aspect, completely unprepared for the situation. Well, empty-handed in all aspects except for the literal one, since he went into it lugging the cake he had gotten for Senga.
He looks at the box he's holding thoughtfully. It's sitting pretty, just ready to be delivered into Senga's hands, not telling of the lengths Nikaido had gone to in order to get it.
Nikaido had been planning on buying the cake for his best friend once he'd heard of the bakery and its peculiar flavors - this one, the one that made it irresistible for Nikaido via the Senga appeal, is strawberry shortcake with star anise sauce. Senga recently developed a strange and (in Nikaido's opinion) unearned fascination with star anise after they'd encountered in a meal they shared. So he left his house early that morning before the shoot, rushing off to the unexpectedly remote bakery just to pick up this cake that would earn him, at most, a minute or two of Senga's overwhelmingly stupid, stupidly overwhelming adoration.
Still, Nikaido has to sigh at the lost opportunity of being a hero for his close friend's sweet tooth. He holds up the box in his hand, looking to trade a crooked smile with a fanged one.
"Well," he says, setting the box down the table and pushing it in front of Yokoo, "in TV and movies, they start the healing process with desserts, right?"
***
After getting the whole story, Kitayama and Senga feel free to laugh right into Miyata's face. Miyata feels affronted for a whole five seconds, before he succumbs to a blubbery sort of laughter as well. "I'm sorry. It's just so sad for Watta. I thought they were a sure thing. There are maybe only two things in the world that I doubt less than that. They could've been a religion."
"Okay, seriously, you need to be less invested in other people's relationships," Kitayama says, guffawing at this point.
"I kind of get where he's coming from though, like it's an end of an era," Tamamori offers. "Like, because this happened, I feel like I've lost my youth."
Miyata shoots him a grateful look. It's so sappy that Kitayama is thankful that Yokoo isn't around to see it.
And Kitayama would've been the first to call Tamamori on his bullshit, but he doesn't, this time.
They've never seriously talked about relationships - nothing beyond what their perfect girls would want to sing at karaoke, or the legendary hot otakus that Miyata swears exists, or the occasional sentence-long summaries about how a date went. And aside from teasing Yokoo about being a family man without the family, nobody ever asks about any significant problems Yokoo might be having with Mayumi, and Yokoo never volunteers that information.
Too many of Kitayama's friends ask him how his girlfriend could endure dating him, and as much as he doesn't want to admit it, it's a valid question. When they aren't just poking fun at his stature and miscellaneous (minor and redeemable!) character flaws, they make sense. He gets how hard it is, and now they're being forced to accept that they no longer have this inspiring story to cling to, no more real world example of a rising JE talent sustaining a stable long-term relationship.
"We're all looking at this the wrong way," Kitayama says after a beat, wanting to convince himself with his own words as well. "We have to look at the bright side. Yokoo can be the silent, brooding guy now. We still don't have one in our group."
Tamamori raises an eyebrow at that. "Neither does ABC. Or anybody, really. Nobody has a brooding guy."
"Oh right, how mid-90's of me. But he could be our version of the brooding guy. I'm just saying, Twilight was a thing. He's our brooding guy, version 2012."
"No, he should stick to the big brother role." Senga grins a little as he explains, "Since there's no way any of you guys could fill that."
"I'm sorry, but someone whose role is his hobby does not get to comment on other members' places in society. The point of roles in a group is covering different fanbases, and fact, there isn't a huge fanbase made up of girls who like guys whose sole purpose in life is to dance." Kitayama's saying all of with an air of authority that belongs only to someone who earned a PhD on the scientific makings of Japanese pop idol group. He doesn't, but he makes up a curriculum of what such a program would entail, when he's bored out of his mind and not sleeping.
Senga frowns, taking the joke much more seriously than Kitayama intended it to be. "Miyata has the group boke persona covered," he says defensively. "And it's not like I can be the ultra-cool one like Tama-chan. I'm not even pretty, like Nika is."
Tamamori objects to Senga's matter-of-fact praise. "I am not the 'cool one.' I have feelings and opinions and... you know. Thoughts." It's Miyata's turn to take Tamamori's hand comfortingly.
"Dude, Senga, shut up already. You know you're not ugly," Kitayama says, rolling his eyes at Senga.
"You keep saying I look like a chimp."
"A gorilla," Kitayama corrects him exasperatedly. "Which I only say because it's eerily accurate. It doesn't mean you're visually offensive."
"We're evolved from apes," Tamamori interjects. Even Miyata joins in collectively ignoring him.
And so they manage to avoid talking about Yokoo, each one getting involved in mindless chatter as each one also privately wonders how he could be of any use to their hurting friend.
***
Nikaido makes himself comfortable even before Senga closes the door behind him, sliding down Senga's couch in one smooth movement. "Man, I'm exhausted."
"Did the shoot take long?" Senga asks as he ambles over to take a seat beside Nikaido.
"Not really," Nikaido replies with a deep sigh. "It didn't go over by much. But I was hanging out with Yokoo and - he's just. It was like talking to a schizophrenic robot that kept saying he was fine, you know, and then he'd get these glitches from time to time and really say what he was feeling, until his programming would kick right back in and..." Nikaido trails off with another audible exhalation then cocks his head towards Senga. "I felt like I couldn't even leave, but then Miyata and Tama dropped by and offered to take him to dinner. I wanted to go and call you to meet up with us, but I was so tired. From listening. How does that happen?"
"Don't feel bad about it," Senga says, earnestness bordering on naivete. "You just don't like seeing him that way. Nobody does." He scoots over closer to Nikaido so that the older of the two could lean against Senga's shoulder.
"I think what was so tiring was feeling so helpless. I'm pretty sure I was wracking my brain for two hours, and I couldn't come up with a single thing I could do for him. I ended up giving him the entire cake." Nikaido hesitates, and then just feels uncomfortable with the onus of the abrupt silence, so he stares at Senga expectantly.
As if on cue, Senga follows up with, "What cake?"
"Strawberry shortcake. Nikaido pauses again, and this time infuses it with some dramatic flair. "With star anise sauce."
Senga's eyes seem to go perfectly round as soon as Nikaido wraps up his sentence. "That sounds good. Do you think he'll even eat it? Yokoo doesn't like to eat when he's depressed," Senga says, guilelessly tactless. "We should go back and help him eat it."
To which Nikaido responds with a simple, "No."
"I didn't think so," Senga says with a small shrug and a chuckle. "I really like star anise, though!"
Nikaido wants to say that he knows, and how could he forget something as aggressively weird as that, but he doesn't. It's not like they're playing the friendship edition of Trivial Pursuit.
Later in the afternoon, Senga convinces Nikaido that they should write a song together and dedicate it to Yokoo. Nikaido wouldn't have let Senga win so easily, but after spending the day with Yokoo, he is open to throwing everything they have at a wall and seeing which one sticks. They fool around with the software Senga downloaded on his computer and experiment with some melodies, and Nikaido sings mostly nonsense words with that voice that makes Senga want to start a petition to give him all the solos in the world, ever.
"This is good," Senga declares when they have over a minute of the melody finalized. "We can end it here, yeah?"
Nikaido looks over Senga's shoulder, peering at the screen. He knocks them both forward to get a better view, as if the notes mean a whole lot to him. "It's good, yeah."
"What should we do about the lyrics?" Senga asks, much more quietly now that he's got Nikaido's ear inches from his mouth. "I really don't think it should be too sad. The song sounds very hopeful to me. What do you think?"
"Yeah, you're right," Nikaido agrees, eyes still fixed on the screen. "We can even make it a bit funny."
Senga wrinkles his nose at Nikaido's suggestion. "Uh, I don't know about funny. I want it to still be heartfelt, just nothing too heavy. But I don't want him to laugh at it."
"He needs the laugh," points out Nikaido. "Look, I just don't know if treating the break-up like someone just died is what Yokoo's looking for."
"I don't know if he wants to be made fun of, either."
"I'm not making fun of him, idiot. This isn't a joke to me."
Senga feels Nikaido's chin turn towards him, and he instinctively turns towards Nikaido as well. Their noses actually bump on the way, but they're both slightly annoyed and extremely stubborn, and neither of them move from the tense position they're in. He has a vision of basketball players or other professional athletes getting in one another's faces in the heat of the moment, and he knows that the adrenalin he's feeling must be similar to those fiery stand-offs. But he also knows that there's something much more different with what's happening between him and Nikaido.
Senga parts his lips just a fraction to say something, but all he releases is a half-frustrated, half-whimsical sound, and Nikaido immediately tilts his head just a bit to the side as if in response. Senga sees Nikaido's eyes narrow, and then nothing more as his eyelids flutter closed.
He thinks he must be shaking in anticipation, nervous energy coursing through him, making him want to jump or run the perimeter of Tokyo Dome, but at the same time rendering him utterly paralyzed in the moment. He can already feel Nikaido's lips moving before they're even touching, they're so close, and it's like a physical expression of how they've lingered unsurely in each other's orbit for longer than he ever thought either of them had the patience for. His eyes have traced Nikaido's lips enough times, as did his fingers that one night when they were pretending to joke around, testing the boundaries of what platonic meant. Nikaido's lips are so familiar to him now, in a way, and yet so foreign and new with all sorts of meaning they held if they'd just press against his, and every second they're not kissing hurts like another year of waiting and hoping desperately that they want the same thing.
At what has to be the very last possible second, Nikaido turns his head away, pulling back completely.
Senga is horrified when he feels the burning flush on his cheeks crawl up to the back of his eyes, all the way up until everything he sees is covered under a film of blurry heat. He tries to gather the breath he'd somehow lost, filling his lungs as quietly as possible, and it's extremely hard when the whole world has gone on mute except for his furious heartbeat.
On the opposite side of him, Nikaido rearranges himself restlessly on the bed, coughing and leaning on one arm to fiddle with Senga's laptop.
And you know what? He's fine. He's just like Yokoo. Senga is fine. Maybe Nikaido just wants to be friends, and he's fine with that. He has to be, after all, because he's been able to live with it for so long. And if Nikaido's just being a jerk - it's still out there, it's not like he said no - well, then, it's all on him now. If he wants to focus on other things instead of making sense out of this whole frustrating mess they're in, that's all in Nikaido's hands. He has to know what Senga wants now.
That night, Senga allows himself to fantasize about what his best friend what he would do if it were Senga going through a bad break-up, and not Yokoo. He wants to ask, just to get that violent reaction. He knows Nikaido would get inexplicably jealous, first of all, and he'd say something along the lines of Senga probably deserving it for going out with a douchebag in the first place when he could've been spending more time devising world-shattering pranks with his best friend. But he doesn't want Nikaido to ever have to feel jealous. And, more importantly, he doesn't want to be let down by what actually happens. If Nikaido actually says something nice to him, like it's okay, he's sure that someday, Senga will meet someone who'll love him back.
***
Tamamori and Miyata report back to the group after their dinner with Yokoo and confirm that he is in the "Guilt" stage of grief. Senga insists that Yokoo is already done with "Anger", but the others keep shooting him down: Yokoo reprimanding him for an unkempt dressing area doesn't count.
To Senga's point, Yokoo is being noticeably testier. He has become very vocal about his disdain for what he refers to as the Yokoo Watch, i.e. how the rest of Kisumai obviously has at least one man covering Yokoo-comforting duties at all times. Yokoo is insistent in informing them that he needs time alone to cope. Each one of them believes him, but it's hard not to want to be near Yokoo, just so it's convenient for him when the desire for alone time inevitably expires.
Fujigaya believes himself to be the most attuned to Yokoo's moods, and so he's confident that he knows when his presence is more refreshing than grating. The others defer to his self-proclaimed expertise for no real reason, only approaching Yokoo when either Fujigaya or Yokoo himself grants approval.
Nikaido visits Yokoo's place when he hears that Fujigaya is there, and the three of them settle in Yokoo's living room for a quiet afternoon. They watch the first 20 minutes of a movie before having to turn it off after Nikaido claims he is being personally insulted by the director of the film.
They don't do much of anything, mostly talking about work or Fujigaya's latest drama, since it was made evident that neither Nikaido nor Yokoo watched the first episode. He tells them that he's working with somebody who has the serious hots for Tamamori even though she's almost ten years older than him, and that you can tell because who uses the term "serious hots" anymore?
Yokoo makes a maudlin comment about how nobody's going to say that about him now that Mayumi broke up with him, which is patently ridiculous, but then again possibly true because, really, nobody says "serious hots" in this day and age other than Fujigaya's co-star. Both Fujigaya and Nikaido get too engrossed in lifting Yokoo's self-esteem to notice that Yokoo managed to snatch Fujigaya's cellphone and is now going through its contents with rapid intensity.
It takes a few minutes, but Fujigaya finally catches on. "Oi! Stop looking through my phone, you nosy bastard. No wonder Mayumi--" Fujigaya catches himself quickly, although he fears it's not quick enough. He immediately launches into a full on rant about the government and wire-tapping, and Nikaido wouldn't be surprised if he'd gotten all his "facts" from the back of a DVD cover or whatever.
But that's a major slip right there, Nikaido thinks. Anyone could tell what Fujigaya had been about to say. He'd ding Fujigaya for that, even if Fujigaya at least had enough presence of mind not to vocalize the entire joke. If he were a referee, he'd be blowing his whistle and crying for flagrant foul because Taipi is somehow even less useful at comforting Yokoo than he is!
"It's not my fault your password is so predictable. Nikaido, can I see yours?" Yokoo holds out his hand expectantly.
That prick knows they can't deny him in his supposedly fragile state, so Nikaido is reduced to grumbling as he hands Yokoo his phone. He manages to keeps the annoyance at a minimum since he'd changed his own password just a few days ago, following a Senga-led hacking incident that resulted in mass emails to juniors inviting them to a no-holds-barred, impromptu paintball party at Nikaido's houses.
Nikaido blushes for more than one reason when, in less than ten seconds of Yokoo having possession of his phone, he hears his own voice croon into the mostly empty room.
"Watta--!" he dives for Yokoo who evades him easily, using his long arms to keep the phone out of reach. Fujigaya helps out by keeping Nikaido still in a tight, barnacle hug that used both hands and both legs. "You're assholes. You two are just dickheads," Nikaido more or less chants into the Fujigaya's palm after the latter decided to cover his mouth and stifle his complaints.
When the short digital recording ends, Yokoo and Fujigaya share a thoughtful glance.
"It's not bad, Nika. You guys could sing this at a concert," suggests Yokoo. "Really."
"It's unfinished!" Nika tries to shriek. Fujigaya removes his hand so they can hear what Nikaido's trying to say, and Nikaido repeats himself. "It's not yet done! Senga and I still have to work on it."
"Work on it then," Fujigaya pipes up. "I'm not kidding, it'd great if we could add it to our concert."
"And hey, Nika. I get what you two were trying to do." Yokoo smiles in acknowledgement, and there's not a touch of irony or self-deprecation in it - it's just that genuine smile he hasn't been sporting for weeks now, and seeing it resurface is one of the most gratifying experiences Nikaido has ever had. "I really appreciate it."
Despite his embarrassment, Nikaido can't help but giggle a little, elated at having done something right for his friend. "Thanks. I'm glad to know I'm at least better than Taipi when it comes to this sort of thing."
With an exquisitely huffy look on his face, Fujigaya lets his jaw drop. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Nikaido tries not to preen right then and there. "Really, what have you done?"
"Oh come on! I mean, don't get me wrong. It's a good song - it really is - and you and Senga would kill it on tour. But clicking a few buttons on your little BFF's computer isn't the same as being by Wataru's side, being his rock even when he's being cruel and saying he doesn't want you to be there!"
With a loud sigh, Yokoo pinches the bridge of his nose and focuses on not striking his two friends over their heads. "Both of you just knock it off," he groans. "I don't need you two fighting over me. And I know I've said a lot of bullshit since Mayumi and I broke up, things like 'I'm fine' and 'I don't need anyone' and all that. But this - this one I really mean. I do not want you arguing over who's a better friend than who, because I don't want you to be here for that. I want you to be here for me... because this just feels like shit. And it--" Yokoo chokes at a gasp and swiftly bows his head low, hiding from his friends' concerned eyes.
Nikaido and Fujigaya quietly position themselves on either side of Yokoo, holding him between them. They let Yokoo muffle what sounds like soft sobs, although his eyes are only watery, at most. They rub his back and his arms, both gentler than Yokoo ever remembers them being. Fujigaya's hand hovers over Yokoo's hair, and later on lands on the other man's shoulder.
Yokoo shakes his head and straightens up slightly as he stuffs his hand in his pocket. "I don't know what to do with this. God, just tell me what to do with it. I can't even bring myself to return it." He pulls out a small box, and hears his friends inhale sharply in perfect unison.
Nobody says anything for a while as Yokoo runs his thumb over the velvet box, turning it over in his fingers.
After a few minutes, Fujigaya says, "You better not use that to propose to me."
It works, miraculously, and Fujigaya and Yokoo laugh sincerely at the dumb joke, and Nikaido is nothing short of awed. He almost feels like he's been allowed to witness something that nobody else sees.
But when the amazement wears off, he starts to feel the lingering bitterness from just a few moments ago. Just moments after he's able to extract a smile from Yokoo, Fujigaya gets him to laugh?? It makes Nikaido want to lash out, makes him want to blame Yokoo's god-awful timing, and blame Fujigaya for undermining all his efforts and sacrifices. Because, really? Yokoo gets cheered up by somebody who almost made fun of him getting dumped by someone he wanted to marry? And meanwhile, there's Nikaido, sitting all staunch and loyal, choosing Yokoo over the one person in the world he never wanted to blow off. To say the least.
He must have been lost in his vengeful thoughts longer than it felt to him, because when he snaps out of his head space and re-enters reality, Yokoo's attention is back on Nikaido's phone.
"Give that back!" Nikaido cries, making a second try for his phone. He's successful this time around, but as he can see from what's on the screen, it didn't do much good if his primary purpose of retrieving his phone was to protect his privacy. Yokoo had clearly already gone through a number of his emails.
Yokoo nonchalantly makes a curious, low sound. "That's weird, I thought Senga would be looking for you. I mean, he's been mailing Fujigaya non-stop." Nikaido's eyes dart from Yokoo to Fujigaya, then back to his phone.
"He's fretting over a haircut, but he won't send me a picture," Fujigaya says while Nikaido quickly skims his messages. "Poor kid just needs some attention."
"Why is he bugging you about his hair?" Nikaido asks with a tone in his voice that was unmistakably accusatory. "Does he need to know what not to do with it?"
"So are you guys going to fight over Senga now? Because that's not much better for me," Yokoo advises them.
"Aww, Nika needs my attention, too. Don't you, Nika?" Fujigaya reaches around Yokoo to put a hand on Nikaido's shoulder. Fujigaya doesn't get a reaction from him, and he sees Yokoo hiding a snicker. They both know that whatever funk Nikaido's in has something to do with the fact that, whether it's for hair advice or whatever, Senga isn't bugging Nikaido.
***
Senga is sitting off to the side by himself, uncharacteristically watching the action instead of jumping into it. He's content to watch the others play billiards from a distance, dividing his attention between his friends and the TV at the other side of the bar. From where's sitting, it looks like Yokoo and, surprisingly, Miyata who are dominating the game. Fujigaya doesn't seem to actually be playing, and is taking more of an active role coaching Tamamori. ("Please stop helping," begs Tamamori.)
While the others impatiently wait for Miyata to carefully position the bridge before taking his shot, Kitayama casually sidles up to Senga and nudges him with his elbow. "Sure you don't want to join?"
"Yup, I'm fine."
"But you're going to help us get Yokoo drunk, right?"
Senga laughs and shrugs one shoulder. "I'll do my best."
"The group that drinks together stays together," Kitayama repeats his motto for the night for somewhere around the tenth time. He whips out his phone and morosely stares at it for a while, before typing something and hitting the send button. His smile is properly put on when he looks up and regards Senga. "It's not that you hate pool, is it?"
"No, it's not that." Senga worries his lip before deciding to just give in. "It's just-- if I take that stick, I'm not that confident that I'll be able to resist driving it straight through Nika's skull."
That makes Kitayama's eyebrows rise nearly all the way to his hairline. "Are you two fighting? 'Cause when you guys are fighting, it's pretty hard for us not to notice."
"I'm not mad at him," Senga lies blatantly. "It's just... I don't know. It'd be nice if I weren't always his last priority," he says, delicately.
"What do you mean? How much of those have you had?" Kitayama gestures to the drink in Senga's hand. Senga starts to protest, but Kitayama cuts him off. "Because I seriously hope you're not sitting here feeling sorry for yourself, all because your favorite playmate is spending a few more minutes of his time with another friend - our friend - who needs a little bit of companionship right now."
Kitayama leaves him with that, regrouping with the other members at the pool table. For the most part, Senga is stunned because he doesn't think he's ever seen Kitayama as pissed off as he just was. Angry enough to leave his cellphone behind at the bar.
Senga's guess that Kitayama has been too lazy to change his password proves to be accurate, and as soon as the phone is unlocked, a message pops up from Kitayama's girlfriend. "So you said. No choice, next week it is." He goes through their message history and it's clear that Kitayama's been cancelling dates with his girlfriend. The reason is almost always the same - his friend is going through something right now, and he hopes she understands. Senga's heart constricts a little at that, as he replays Kitayama's parting words to him in his head.
The feeling of guilt eventually gets the better him, but he also still feels somewhat spiteful, so when he reaches the pool table, he goes straight for Fujigaya and avoids everybody else. "Did you know Tama and Mitsu sometimes text each other about you when you're overacting at a promo shoot?" he sing-songs, brandishing Kitayama's phone and waving it merrily in front of Fujigaya's face.
"What?!"
"Just kidding." Senga sticks his tongue out, as he hands Fujigaya Kitayama's phone. "You go through it, there's nothing interesting in there."
"Some of the interesting stuff totally go over your head sometimes," Fujigaya points out, not be mean, but to state facts. His grin grows gradually as he scrolls through. "By the way, that song you and Nika recorded was actually pretty nice. I heard it from Nika's phone."
That makes Senga brighten up. "You liked it?"
"Sure. I even told Nikaido that you guys should perform it at our next concert. He shot me and Yokoo down cold though, flat out refused. All he kept saying was it's not finished, and we couldn't even get him to really consider the idea." Fujigaya gives him a mischievous wink. "Maybe if he doesn't want to do the song, I could step in for him. You and I could do the duet. How's that sound?"
Senga and Fujigaya share a look and promptly laugh at the idea. "Yeah, he's gonna be totally cool with that," Senga says, shaking his head in amusement.
Miyata ends up taking the first game, much to all the players' protests that he'd been cheating for using the bridge. He righteously tells them it's not his fault if he doesn't care what looks cool or not, it's the end results that matter. He proceeds to initiate a toast to Kis-My-Ft2, and Yokoo is the loudest to respond with an upbeat "kampai!"
They go around and make their toasts, hitting others' glasses with theirs with as much force as they could without breaking anything. Nikaido is beyond relieved that his knees actually buckle with the force of it when Senga tilts his glass towards Nikaido's. Their glasses clink, and Nikaido breathes easier than he has been in the past few days. When everyone settles down and ensures that everyone else's glasses are empty (and then refilled), they disperse into smaller conversations as if by routine. The routine, of course, pairs Nikaido off with Senga, and the two of them feel like they've just gone to an awkward reunion of some sort.
"What drink is that?" Nikaido asks before he does something truly unforgivable like twiddle his thumbs or ask how the weather's been treating Senga.
"I'm not completely sure, Taipi just thought it would be funny to order a drink for me and to tell the waitress that it came from a tall, dark and handsome thug," Senga replies with an eye roll. Nikaido throws his head back and laughs, feeling in higher and higher spirits as each second next to Senga without being slapped in the face serves to reassure him that things between them aren't exactly irreparable. "I know it's got the works - vodka, rum, tequila, and, um, gin? And then there's some, like, melon in it."
Nikaido presses himself next to Senga so that their sides were touching. Senga could be leaning on Nikaido's arm, if Nikaido just extended it a little bit. "Can I try some?" he asks smoothly.
Just as smoothly, Senga sidesteps and separates himself from Nikaido. "Yeah, let me go ask the bartender for another whatever this is. Wait here, okay? I'll get you a glass."
...That didn't pan out very well. Nikaido barely manages not to pout like a child or bury his face in his palms like a cartoon character, feeling slightly embarrassed and thoroughly defeated.
Having seen most of the interaction, Yokoo reaches out to ruffle Nikaido's hair. "Don't give up, little one."
"I really don't want to hear that from you right now," Nikaido attempts to say lightly, although it's very possible that he may not have been able to pull it off. He has, after all, spent the last couple of weeks holding Yokoo's hand as the latter resigned himself to a loveless existence.
Yokoo takes Nikaido's comment the wrong way, and fights back with, "Sorry, you're right, I'm just some loser here who got dumped. What could anyone possibly want to hear from me? Maybe Senga wants to hear what your cellphone's password is?"
"What?" a few eavesdropping bystanders say in unison, at the same time Nikaido shoots back a derisive "Fuck off."
"Hey, hey, we just had a toast!" Fujigaya reproaches them. "I think it was about friendship?"
Senga returns to a tense staring much, an extra drink in his hand. "What's happening?" he asks out of the corner of his mouth.
"Something about Wataru telling you Nikaido's password," Miyata summarizes for him.
"What password? Why does Watta know--?" Senga stops before he gets ahead of himself and just shakes his head. "Okay, um. Yeah. Nika can do what he wants to, and I don't have to be a part of it. Is that what this is? Because Mitsu - I don't even know, but I don't need Nika to push anyone away for my sake. I don't want that." Nikaido turns to him, his face schooled into something unreadable. Senga musters the best smile he has. "It's fine, okay?"
"It's--" Nikaido glares at the people surround them, like they don't have the right to be sharing public spaces with him. "It's really not cool to have so many voyeurs in this group." He grabs Senga's shoulders and leads him to exit, but stops and turns midstride to yell, "Not to mention cellphone voyeurs! Really, the audacity of some people!"
Guiltily, Senga mumbles, "Sorry."
"Not you!" Nikaido sighs as he turns again, leading the way outside the bar. They stand to the side of the exit, and a full minute of staring off into space passes by them, eyes never straying a millimeter towards the other. "Kenpi."
"Mmm?"
"You were saying you didn't want me to put other people aside for you, a while ago," Nikaido says. He looks at the profile of Senga's face, sees the other boy's eyes start to focus on whatever he's staring at. Nikaido grabs Senga's wrist and pulls at it a bit, getting his attention. "But it's alright if you want to."
"I'm not as much of a brat as you are," Senga teases half-heartedly.
Nikaido makes an annoyed sound at that, and then leans in to say, "It's not because I'm a brat." He artlessly shoves his fingers between Senga's, and almost defiantly, he curls them so that his fingertips press into Senga's knuckles.
They'd never really held hands before, other than at final bows or photoshoots. Senga should know better than to take it as anything more than his hand being held, but. He lets out a shaky, inexplicably solemn breath as he reciprocates the tight grasp. In that instant, Nikaido's hold loosens and becomes gentle, and Senga immediately adjusts to match it.
"Yokoo needs us," Senga says, never bothered by stating the obvious. "He looks better, for sure, but he still needs all of us right now."
"Yeah, I think so, too. But sometimes... I mean, without anyone else around..." Nikaido bites his lip and glares mutinously at the ground.
And that's when Senga decides that maybe, he doesn't need to hear Nikaido say it. "It's alright, Nika." He doesn't try to contain a blinding grin. "I get it. I think," he adds, laughing self-consciously.
Even with the reassurance, Nikaido still doesn't look at peace with himself. "No, but see, you're kind of a huge moron sometimes. I should probably make sure." Senga's still trying to contain his open-toothed smile when Nikaido goes straight for him, and so the latter probably got to lay one on Senga's teeth rather than his lips. It makes Senga laugh uproariously, and he manages to tame it into a demure smile when he sees how hard Nikaido is struggling not to look bothered by bungling his first real romantic overture with such an absolute lack of finesse. Senga is obnoxiously happy when he says he likes Nikaido so much, chattering on about how he'd pretty much blow off people for him 9 times out of 10, and they manage to get the mechanics right on their second kiss.
It doesn't last too long, but it's long enough to give them a real reason to be breathless at the end of it. Senga bows his head and smiles giddily into Nikaido's neck, and Nikaido responds unthinkingly by brushing his lips over Senga's hair and forehead. Senga's so happy to be holding Nikaido and to be held by Nikaido that he doesn't ever want to move. "I almost feel bad that other people won't hear that song we did."
"What song?" Nikaido is barely coherent, let alone capable of retrieving such specific pieces of information from his memory.
"The one we wrote for Yokoo," Senga elaborates. "Taipi says you don't want to sing it at a concert. It's fine if you don't want to, but it'd be awesome to do something like that. You know, in the future."
"It's no big deal," Nikaido says before he can stop himself, sounding so unconcerned even as he feels like throwing up just trying to imagine the two of them onstage, stripped of pyrotechnics and grandiose costumes and throwaway gags, just him and Senga and the memories of everything that fueled that song into existence. It scares him to know what he can do because of the sole reason he'd be able to do it.
"But Fujigaya said you--"
"He's just being an idiot. He's just an idiot," Nikaido mutters blandly, completely ignoring the fact that he isn't feeling too smart himself.
And then Nikaido gets it: he gets that look that he'd been longing for when he braved the remote areas of Tokyo to get to some obscure bakery with a specialty cake. Senga squeezes the life out of him and bodily nudges them towards the direction of the entrance. Senga's already joyfully announcing that "Nika said he'd do the song!" before they reach their friends.
"...And he didn't follow it up with 'when Kitayama grows 5 more inches so he can buy pants from the men's department?'" Yokoo confirms.
"No, we're going to sing it, and we'll kick ass, and it's going to be so good that fans will petition for me and Nika to release it as a single!"
Nikaido is trying to prevent a drippy smile that's threatening to take over his face and can he be any more transparent right now? Because Fujigaya and Yokoo are looking at each other like they'd just discovered a secret weapon, Kitayama's has a similar knowing smirk, Tamamori's nodding wisely like he approves of what the world has placed in front of him, and Miyata looks dangerously close to cooing like grandma at her grandkid's graduation ceremony.
Yokoo clears his throat when it becomes apparent that Senga and Nikaido had gotten stuck staring stupidly into each other's eyes. Composing himself, Nikaido starts to say something, but is unable to get in a word edgewise. "Don't you dare be sorry you got a boyfriend just 'cause in coincides with my scheduled misery."
Both Nikaido and Senga's faces fall at that.
"No, guys, I'm serious," Yokoo asserts. He turns to Nikaido, whose company he's been sharing the most. "Nikaido, you not getting laid is not the sort of distraction I want, even in my best days. You and Senga sorting yourselves out is best thing you can do for me."
"Really?" Nikaido has to ask, disbelieving. He almost doesn't want to believe Yokoo's reassurance, not after weeks of shaming himself as the lowest incarnation of humanity whenever that traitorous voice would bring up how he'd rather hang out with Senga than dissect Yokoo's doomed future with his ex-girlfriend. Still, his company couldn't have been that bad. "Are you saying that because of the cake? That was Senga's fault, he's the one who's into star anise."
Yokoo tilts his head thoughtfully. "Actually, the cake was really good. I finished the entire thing in one sitting."
Nikaido shudders as Senga gives Yokoo a high five for good taste. "Anyway, just to be clear, Senga and I aren't-- and we haven't done that-- Uh. Obviously."
"Thanks for clearing that up," Miyata chortles.
"I mean, we only just... admitted things to each other literally two minutes ago," Nikaido tries again, but is perhaps even less successful in controlling the direction of his babbling. "So it's not as if I've asked, or he's asked--" He looks to Senga for guidance and falters, mostly unsure what to do with all the unfiltered fondness coming off Senga's glance.
"We are," Senga supplies for him with a quiet authority.
"We are?" Nikaido repeats slowly, his voice newly bashful as he fights a losing battle to suppress a wild grin. Nikaido's the one who needs to say it out loud this time, not caring about their audience or about his meticulously crafted plans to take Senga out on a few casual dates for three and a half months before asking for the covetous relationship label. "You mean you'll be my boyfriend? I'll be yours? Or, I am. I am," Nikaido corrects himself firmly, following Senga's lead. "I'm your boyfriend."
Senga beams at him and takes his hand. "And that thing that we haven't done?" Senga continues. "We will." He still has that look of near-innocent devotion, even when his words would have meshed better with a lascivious wink. Nikaido huffs out a laugh, and nobody can that tell he's still trying very hard not to make it indecently obvious how happy he's feeling.
"Another round of drinks," Fujigaya says as he hands Senga and Nikaido one glass each filled with outrageously-coloured liquid, "generously paid for by our leader on his new cellphone app!"
Kitayama pats his pockets down as he demands, "What new app??"
***
"It's two and then three zeroes."
Senga is - this particular time, understandably - confused. "Is that the real answer to meaning of life?"
"It's my password!" Nikaido thrusts his cellphone into Senga's stomach. "Here."
"That's it?!" Senga exclaims. "Why, what happened in the year 2000? You were, like, 12."
Nikaido stares at Senga, then heaves a long-suffering sigh. "Never mind."