fic for shontos_garden
Title: Adopting Nakamaru
By: littlealex
Pairing: Akame
Word count: ~2460
Rating: G
Genre/Warnings: So much fluff. Just... so much. ♥
Notes: I wasn't sure what to write, but after a well-needed coffee with friends one day, I worked it out. Thanks to L for all her hard work on this; without her, as with most of my fic, this would not exist.
Summary: Jin & Kame adopt a puppy. They name it Nakamaru.
Kame's sitting on the couch when Jin turns his world upside-down. Again. For the third- fou- well, Jin's always been too spontaneous; Kame really shouldn't be surprised. But that doesn't take the shock out of having a little black Yorkie plonked in his lap. Ran-chan's at Kame's feet, yapping at the newcomer, while Jelly is sitting on the couch beside him, peering carefully at the tiny black puppy cowering in Kame's lap. Jin is sitting on the floor next to Ran-chan, finger hooked in her collar as he looks up with the biggest puppy-dog eyes of all of them.
"Do you like him?" Jin asks, beaming, and Kame wonders if all the growing up he's done over the last few years was just for show.
Kame looks down at the puppy. Of course he likes him; what's not to like about an adorable little puppy? Big, black eyes, soft black fur with brown patches at the side of his belly that sticks up in random directions (it reminds him of rooming with Nakamaru on tour)... puppies like this were built for maximum irresistibility.
"That's not the issue, Jin." He's trying for stern, but it's hard when those big black eyes are peering up at him. Then, Kame looks at Jin, which doesn't make it much easier. "How are you meant to take care of him? You're not even here most of the time anymore, why did you adopt him if you can't look after him?"
"We adopted him," Jin corrects him, waving the adoption papers with both of their names on it. Kame closes his eyes and prays that the staff at the shelter don't get any ideas about making copies of the form. The whole of Japan won't know that Kame didn't write his own name on the document. "Besides, it's not like I'm gone that long. If you really think you can't take care of him while I'm gone, I'll take him with me. We're sharing custody. Like having a kid, only less intense."
Kame blinks. "We are not having this conversation aga-"
"I know, I know," Jin says, rolling his eyes. "Just... please?"
Kame can't exactly say no. The puppy is sitting right there, nuzzling his little wet nose into Kame's hand, and Kame doesn't have anything morally against sharing something important like this with Jin. It's more the principle of the thing. He huffs and lifts the puppy to look directly into his eyes. "What's your name, then, little one?"
"Nakamaru," Jin answers quickly. Kame almost drops the puppy in surprise and looks over at Jin as though (and this is a possibility he will never rule out) he has gone insane.
"You named him Nakamaru?"
Jin lets go of Ran-chan and sits on the couch next to Kame. "He doesn't really look like a Yuichi, does he?" He asks, taking the puppy from Kame and settling him on his shoulder.
Kame blinks, again, and opens his mouth to say something. But he knows there's no way to argue with Jin and his special brand of logic. So he just sighs instead, reaching to tickle behind Nakamaru's ears.
The corners of his mouth slowly quirk upwards into a smirk. "Sometimes, I do love the way your mind works, Akanishi."
---
The life of a solo artist was busy, hectic and lonely. At least, that's what Toma had said. Jin, however, is never too busy to stay out of his former bandmates' lives. Jin tags along to KAT-TUN's dance rehearsals for their new single because, for a few hours, he has nothing better to do. It helps that Kame promised him chocolate croissants from Starbucks, which Jin was all but addicted to in America (well, it might have been the double-shot macchiato he'd been addicted to, but he doesn't feel the need to discriminate).
"Why does he have a dog with him?" is the only thing anyone says about Jin being in the rehearsal room. Ueda likes dogs, of course, but not puppies, especially not ones that won't grow to match him in size, and the distaste is obvious in his voice.
"Because, Tat-chan, Kame and I adopted him yesterday. I thought I'd bring him to see what his daddies do for a living."
Koki raises an eyebrow, but nobody says anything. Kame doesn't have it in him to fight the cutesy statement; if he's going to have a puppy with Jin, there will be many more embarrassingly sappy moments to endure.
"He's cute," Taguchi says, as though that answers Ueda's question just as effectively. "What's his name?"
"Nakamaru," Kame and Jin reply in unison. Human Nakamaru chokes on his bottled water and the others can't help but laugh.
"Bu- I-" Nakamaru stutters, forehead creased in deep confusion. "Wh- I- but... but why?"
"Why not?" Jin counters, taking the puppy over to meet his namesake. "He's got boring brown hair and a big nose for such a little puppy, plus he makes these funny little noises in his sleep that sound just like your beatboxing...."
Nakamaru rolls his eyes and smacks Jin over the head as the others snicker. "Come on, for real, why?"
"Because Jin likes to run around yelling 'Nakamaru is chewing my shoes!', and 'Nakamaru, don't pee on the carpet!' He said it reminds him of you." Kame says, grinning. The unamused blank stare Nakamaru gives him is cancelled out by Jin's look of absolute adoration, and Koki elbows him in the ribs.
"Are you for real?" Koki asks, laughing, and Kame nods. "Man I would pay to see that, no joke."
"Party at Kame's!" Jin calls in response.
"What?" Kame yelps, caught off-guard by the response.
"I mean, like a nice, sophisticated party where you get to cook for everyone, I get to taste everything, and we drink wine instead of hard liquor. We all get to catch up and I get to yell at Nakamaru without anyone knowing if I'm talking about the puppy or the stick-in-the-mud."
"Sounds good to me," Koki replies before Kame can say anything. He opens his mouth, but Ueda cuts him off with a smirk, saying, "I haven't had a good home-cooked meal in ages, Kamenashi-kun. Please?" Taguchi claps him on the back and says he'll bring the wine. Nakamaru, understandably, is the only one who doesn't feel like spending an evening being teased.
Kame smiles. "It'll be just like old times," he says, already beginning to plan his menu.
---
Kame has a free afternoon, during which he could be doing any number of things other than preparing to cook for six people, but fate (with a little help from Jin) handed him a dinner party. It won't be difficult; KAT-TUN's palates aren't the most refined, and he's cooked for bigger crowds before, but in the end his imagination runs away with him and instead of making a large pot of curry, he goes for a three-course Italian meal. (He should have known watching Top Chef was bad for him.) For the antipasto, he plans on little squares of bread with a slice of mozzarella, a leaf of basil, and a cherry tomato on top. The pasta course includes a sauce of his own design: tuna with capers, olives and tomatoes. Then, tiramisu for dessert.
He takes Nakamaru the puppy with him when he goes shopping, along with Jelly and Ran on leashes. Nakamaru straggles along behind the other two, and every time Jelly slows a little to nudge him along, Ran barks, startling the puppy and bringing Jelly's attention back to her. Kame finds it cute until Ran barks so loudly Nakamaru whimpers and runs around behind Kame's heels.
"Ran!" Kame scolds, reaching down to pick up poor Nakamaru. The little pup is shivering in his hands and he frowns at Ran. "That was a very mean thing to do. Just because poor Nakamaru is easily frightened" - a smirk creeps onto his face, but the schools his features - "well, don't do it again." Jelly nudges Ran in the side as though to punctuate Kame's point.
Kame carries Nakamaru the rest of the way, and puts him in the child seat of the shopping cart as he leaves the other two tied outside. Ran is much better behaved on the return walk, sniffing and nudging Nakamaru curiously as Jelly watches protectively. Kame smiles as he watches them; two dogs always seemed like enough, but he has to admit that the new addition makes them feel much more like a family.
Back at home, as Kame begins his preparations for the meal - washing, chopping, measuring - everything goes fairly smoothly, even with the dogs underfoot. Until people start arriving.
It's not too bad with just Jin around. He's disruptive, but at least he's a known entity. He spends most of the time demanding attention, shoving Nakamaru the puppy in Kame's face when he's trying to chop olives without hacking off his fingers, or eating the finished bread squares instead of making more. Eventually, Kame exiles him from the kitchen, so he stands in the doorway talking about the meeting he'd had with his manager and what sort of bentos he'd had during his tour.
"There was this one that was, like, full of karaage, I just about had a fit. I called Pi and he told me to fuck off because his manager told him he shouldn't put back all his weight after the movie so quickly, and he’s banned from yakiniku and anything fried. Can you imagine? Nothing fried? Not even tempura! I would die...."
Eventually, the others show up, and for a moment Kame breathes a sigh of relief. He assumes that everyone will take Jin's attention, but instead gravity pulls everyone to Kame's not-so-big kitchen, drinking excessively large glasses of wine.
It happens slowly, with Taguchi showing up first. "Kame," he says, entering the kitchen with two large bags, holding them up. "As promised. Where should I put them?"
"If it's red, just leave it by the door. If it's white, find some space in the fridge." One bag goes on the floor, and Taguchi opens the door of the refrigerator while lifting up the other. "Just don't put it on-" but the squelching sound stops Kame and he cringes. Jin is giggling from the doorway, and Taguchi peeks sheepishly around the door. "You put it on the tray wrapped in aluminium, didn't you?"
"I'm sorry! Can it be fixed?"
Kame presses his fingers to his temples and nods. "You are so lucky I bought enough bread and cheese to feed an army. Pour me a glass of wine, I'll fix it." And that's where it starts. Kame gives the squashed antipasto pieces to Jin and the dogs and shoves a recipe book in Taguchi's direction. Taguchi makes some more as he finishes mixing the ingredients for the tiramisu, leaving Jin to continue his stream-of-consciousness as he keeps the dogs from getting underfoot. They all have some wine.
And then the others turn up.
Kame knows they're trying to be helpful, really he does, but that saying about there being too many chefs in the kitchen? It resonates between his ears as he takes a step back and realises he's not actually doing any of the cooking anymore. Koki and Taguchi are building the layers of the tiramisu (badly; it's going to be the ugliest tiramisu ever), Jin is lazily stirring the boiling spaghetti for no particular reason, and Ueda and Nakamaru (the human) are alternating between eating and making more bread pieces. Kame opens his mouth to tell everyone to leave, get out and go watch television while he finishes everything, but then he takes a step back and surveys his kitchen (chaotic though it may be). It's kind of nice, he thinks, as he swirls the red wine in his glass; having everyone together is a luxury, and even if the premise of the evening was to torture Nakamaru by comparing him to a puppy....
"Where's Nakamaru?" Kame asks, silencing the kitchen. Everyone looks at him as though he's gone insane, even Jin, who looks at him and then slowly over at Nakamaru.
"Um, I'm right here," Nakamaru says, raising his hand.
Kame rolls his eyes. "No, the puppy, you idiot."
"Oh," Jin says, "I'm sure he's around here somewhere. He was on the counter earlier...."
"On the counter?" Kame echoes, rushing forward. "He could get burned or get dog hair in the food or something, what were you thinking?" The puppy, it turns out, is behind Jin, eating out of the frypan with the pasta sauce in it. "Or he could be eating our main dish!" He scoops up the puppy and glares at Jin. "Tuna is not meant for puppies."
"Hear that?" Jin says, looking over at the human Nakamaru. "No tuna for Nakamaru."
"Ha ha," Nakamaru says dryly, eating another of the bread pieces. Kame smacks him over the back of the head, rolling his eyes.
"Stop eating, you two. You won't want anything else."
"After we put all this effort into dessert, too!" Koki laments, and Kame looks over at the monstrosity Koki and Taguchi have created and groans. At least it won't taste too bad.
"Put it in the fridge, guys, and everyone set the table. I'll try to salvage the pasta sauce."
"Yes, mother!" Jin calls, corralling everyone out of the kitchen.
When the dust of disaster settles, Kame can see the damage left in his friends' wake. He looks down at the puppy cupped in his hand. "And I thought you were going to be the one getting in the way tonight."
---
Much, much later, when they've eaten and drunk so much that the sight of the tiramisu is a little too much to bear, everyone is sitting around the table watching Nakamaru the puppy run after a brightly-coloured bouncy ball that they flick lazily to one another across the table (Kame didn't have the energy to stop them). The puppy is still small, not used to his own speed, and occasionally comes close to knocking over someone's glass of wine or falling off the table into someone's lap, but he manages to stay upright.
"Nakamaru reminds me of us," Jin says lazily, flicking the ball to Ueda. By now, everyone's more or less used to being confused about which Nakamaru Jin is referring to, so they just wait for elaboration. "Running around so fast he almost falls over."
Kame and Jin have talked about the group, and Kame's fairly sure Jin has had similar conversations with everyone, but it's the most introspective he's been in front of everyone before. It's not an angry silence that follows, but it's not the most comfortable one, either. Ueda keeps the bouncy ball to himself and curls his fingers around the puppy's ears as he chews on it. Jin looks up at Kame as though to ask if he's right, and Kame shrugs.
"We won't let him fall. And he hasn't spilled any wine yet." The metaphor's getting away from him, so he just smiles gently. "We're all still standing, and that's what matters."
Jin smiles back first, and Kame looks around at the others. Nobody's looking at him, but he can see hints of smiles in their features. He waits just a second before, as if on cue, someone throws a crumpled napkin at him. Koki boos him, Taguchi insists not even he could be that cheesy, and Ueda puts Nakamaru the puppy on Kame's head. Jin and Nakamaru don't say anything, but they share a smile, and Kame doesn't really mind being labelled the cheese-ball of the group, as long as everyone is smiling.
"Kame, get Nakamaru off your head already!"
By: littlealex
Pairing: Akame
Word count: ~2460
Rating: G
Genre/Warnings: So much fluff. Just... so much. ♥
Notes: I wasn't sure what to write, but after a well-needed coffee with friends one day, I worked it out. Thanks to L for all her hard work on this; without her, as with most of my fic, this would not exist.
Summary: Jin & Kame adopt a puppy. They name it Nakamaru.
Kame's sitting on the couch when Jin turns his world upside-down. Again. For the third- fou- well, Jin's always been too spontaneous; Kame really shouldn't be surprised. But that doesn't take the shock out of having a little black Yorkie plonked in his lap. Ran-chan's at Kame's feet, yapping at the newcomer, while Jelly is sitting on the couch beside him, peering carefully at the tiny black puppy cowering in Kame's lap. Jin is sitting on the floor next to Ran-chan, finger hooked in her collar as he looks up with the biggest puppy-dog eyes of all of them.
"Do you like him?" Jin asks, beaming, and Kame wonders if all the growing up he's done over the last few years was just for show.
Kame looks down at the puppy. Of course he likes him; what's not to like about an adorable little puppy? Big, black eyes, soft black fur with brown patches at the side of his belly that sticks up in random directions (it reminds him of rooming with Nakamaru on tour)... puppies like this were built for maximum irresistibility.
"That's not the issue, Jin." He's trying for stern, but it's hard when those big black eyes are peering up at him. Then, Kame looks at Jin, which doesn't make it much easier. "How are you meant to take care of him? You're not even here most of the time anymore, why did you adopt him if you can't look after him?"
"We adopted him," Jin corrects him, waving the adoption papers with both of their names on it. Kame closes his eyes and prays that the staff at the shelter don't get any ideas about making copies of the form. The whole of Japan won't know that Kame didn't write his own name on the document. "Besides, it's not like I'm gone that long. If you really think you can't take care of him while I'm gone, I'll take him with me. We're sharing custody. Like having a kid, only less intense."
Kame blinks. "We are not having this conversation aga-"
"I know, I know," Jin says, rolling his eyes. "Just... please?"
Kame can't exactly say no. The puppy is sitting right there, nuzzling his little wet nose into Kame's hand, and Kame doesn't have anything morally against sharing something important like this with Jin. It's more the principle of the thing. He huffs and lifts the puppy to look directly into his eyes. "What's your name, then, little one?"
"Nakamaru," Jin answers quickly. Kame almost drops the puppy in surprise and looks over at Jin as though (and this is a possibility he will never rule out) he has gone insane.
"You named him Nakamaru?"
Jin lets go of Ran-chan and sits on the couch next to Kame. "He doesn't really look like a Yuichi, does he?" He asks, taking the puppy from Kame and settling him on his shoulder.
Kame blinks, again, and opens his mouth to say something. But he knows there's no way to argue with Jin and his special brand of logic. So he just sighs instead, reaching to tickle behind Nakamaru's ears.
The corners of his mouth slowly quirk upwards into a smirk. "Sometimes, I do love the way your mind works, Akanishi."
---
The life of a solo artist was busy, hectic and lonely. At least, that's what Toma had said. Jin, however, is never too busy to stay out of his former bandmates' lives. Jin tags along to KAT-TUN's dance rehearsals for their new single because, for a few hours, he has nothing better to do. It helps that Kame promised him chocolate croissants from Starbucks, which Jin was all but addicted to in America (well, it might have been the double-shot macchiato he'd been addicted to, but he doesn't feel the need to discriminate).
"Why does he have a dog with him?" is the only thing anyone says about Jin being in the rehearsal room. Ueda likes dogs, of course, but not puppies, especially not ones that won't grow to match him in size, and the distaste is obvious in his voice.
"Because, Tat-chan, Kame and I adopted him yesterday. I thought I'd bring him to see what his daddies do for a living."
Koki raises an eyebrow, but nobody says anything. Kame doesn't have it in him to fight the cutesy statement; if he's going to have a puppy with Jin, there will be many more embarrassingly sappy moments to endure.
"He's cute," Taguchi says, as though that answers Ueda's question just as effectively. "What's his name?"
"Nakamaru," Kame and Jin reply in unison. Human Nakamaru chokes on his bottled water and the others can't help but laugh.
"Bu- I-" Nakamaru stutters, forehead creased in deep confusion. "Wh- I- but... but why?"
"Why not?" Jin counters, taking the puppy over to meet his namesake. "He's got boring brown hair and a big nose for such a little puppy, plus he makes these funny little noises in his sleep that sound just like your beatboxing...."
Nakamaru rolls his eyes and smacks Jin over the head as the others snicker. "Come on, for real, why?"
"Because Jin likes to run around yelling 'Nakamaru is chewing my shoes!', and 'Nakamaru, don't pee on the carpet!' He said it reminds him of you." Kame says, grinning. The unamused blank stare Nakamaru gives him is cancelled out by Jin's look of absolute adoration, and Koki elbows him in the ribs.
"Are you for real?" Koki asks, laughing, and Kame nods. "Man I would pay to see that, no joke."
"Party at Kame's!" Jin calls in response.
"What?" Kame yelps, caught off-guard by the response.
"I mean, like a nice, sophisticated party where you get to cook for everyone, I get to taste everything, and we drink wine instead of hard liquor. We all get to catch up and I get to yell at Nakamaru without anyone knowing if I'm talking about the puppy or the stick-in-the-mud."
"Sounds good to me," Koki replies before Kame can say anything. He opens his mouth, but Ueda cuts him off with a smirk, saying, "I haven't had a good home-cooked meal in ages, Kamenashi-kun. Please?" Taguchi claps him on the back and says he'll bring the wine. Nakamaru, understandably, is the only one who doesn't feel like spending an evening being teased.
Kame smiles. "It'll be just like old times," he says, already beginning to plan his menu.
---
Kame has a free afternoon, during which he could be doing any number of things other than preparing to cook for six people, but fate (with a little help from Jin) handed him a dinner party. It won't be difficult; KAT-TUN's palates aren't the most refined, and he's cooked for bigger crowds before, but in the end his imagination runs away with him and instead of making a large pot of curry, he goes for a three-course Italian meal. (He should have known watching Top Chef was bad for him.) For the antipasto, he plans on little squares of bread with a slice of mozzarella, a leaf of basil, and a cherry tomato on top. The pasta course includes a sauce of his own design: tuna with capers, olives and tomatoes. Then, tiramisu for dessert.
He takes Nakamaru the puppy with him when he goes shopping, along with Jelly and Ran on leashes. Nakamaru straggles along behind the other two, and every time Jelly slows a little to nudge him along, Ran barks, startling the puppy and bringing Jelly's attention back to her. Kame finds it cute until Ran barks so loudly Nakamaru whimpers and runs around behind Kame's heels.
"Ran!" Kame scolds, reaching down to pick up poor Nakamaru. The little pup is shivering in his hands and he frowns at Ran. "That was a very mean thing to do. Just because poor Nakamaru is easily frightened" - a smirk creeps onto his face, but the schools his features - "well, don't do it again." Jelly nudges Ran in the side as though to punctuate Kame's point.
Kame carries Nakamaru the rest of the way, and puts him in the child seat of the shopping cart as he leaves the other two tied outside. Ran is much better behaved on the return walk, sniffing and nudging Nakamaru curiously as Jelly watches protectively. Kame smiles as he watches them; two dogs always seemed like enough, but he has to admit that the new addition makes them feel much more like a family.
Back at home, as Kame begins his preparations for the meal - washing, chopping, measuring - everything goes fairly smoothly, even with the dogs underfoot. Until people start arriving.
It's not too bad with just Jin around. He's disruptive, but at least he's a known entity. He spends most of the time demanding attention, shoving Nakamaru the puppy in Kame's face when he's trying to chop olives without hacking off his fingers, or eating the finished bread squares instead of making more. Eventually, Kame exiles him from the kitchen, so he stands in the doorway talking about the meeting he'd had with his manager and what sort of bentos he'd had during his tour.
"There was this one that was, like, full of karaage, I just about had a fit. I called Pi and he told me to fuck off because his manager told him he shouldn't put back all his weight after the movie so quickly, and he’s banned from yakiniku and anything fried. Can you imagine? Nothing fried? Not even tempura! I would die...."
Eventually, the others show up, and for a moment Kame breathes a sigh of relief. He assumes that everyone will take Jin's attention, but instead gravity pulls everyone to Kame's not-so-big kitchen, drinking excessively large glasses of wine.
It happens slowly, with Taguchi showing up first. "Kame," he says, entering the kitchen with two large bags, holding them up. "As promised. Where should I put them?"
"If it's red, just leave it by the door. If it's white, find some space in the fridge." One bag goes on the floor, and Taguchi opens the door of the refrigerator while lifting up the other. "Just don't put it on-" but the squelching sound stops Kame and he cringes. Jin is giggling from the doorway, and Taguchi peeks sheepishly around the door. "You put it on the tray wrapped in aluminium, didn't you?"
"I'm sorry! Can it be fixed?"
Kame presses his fingers to his temples and nods. "You are so lucky I bought enough bread and cheese to feed an army. Pour me a glass of wine, I'll fix it." And that's where it starts. Kame gives the squashed antipasto pieces to Jin and the dogs and shoves a recipe book in Taguchi's direction. Taguchi makes some more as he finishes mixing the ingredients for the tiramisu, leaving Jin to continue his stream-of-consciousness as he keeps the dogs from getting underfoot. They all have some wine.
And then the others turn up.
Kame knows they're trying to be helpful, really he does, but that saying about there being too many chefs in the kitchen? It resonates between his ears as he takes a step back and realises he's not actually doing any of the cooking anymore. Koki and Taguchi are building the layers of the tiramisu (badly; it's going to be the ugliest tiramisu ever), Jin is lazily stirring the boiling spaghetti for no particular reason, and Ueda and Nakamaru (the human) are alternating between eating and making more bread pieces. Kame opens his mouth to tell everyone to leave, get out and go watch television while he finishes everything, but then he takes a step back and surveys his kitchen (chaotic though it may be). It's kind of nice, he thinks, as he swirls the red wine in his glass; having everyone together is a luxury, and even if the premise of the evening was to torture Nakamaru by comparing him to a puppy....
"Where's Nakamaru?" Kame asks, silencing the kitchen. Everyone looks at him as though he's gone insane, even Jin, who looks at him and then slowly over at Nakamaru.
"Um, I'm right here," Nakamaru says, raising his hand.
Kame rolls his eyes. "No, the puppy, you idiot."
"Oh," Jin says, "I'm sure he's around here somewhere. He was on the counter earlier...."
"On the counter?" Kame echoes, rushing forward. "He could get burned or get dog hair in the food or something, what were you thinking?" The puppy, it turns out, is behind Jin, eating out of the frypan with the pasta sauce in it. "Or he could be eating our main dish!" He scoops up the puppy and glares at Jin. "Tuna is not meant for puppies."
"Hear that?" Jin says, looking over at the human Nakamaru. "No tuna for Nakamaru."
"Ha ha," Nakamaru says dryly, eating another of the bread pieces. Kame smacks him over the back of the head, rolling his eyes.
"Stop eating, you two. You won't want anything else."
"After we put all this effort into dessert, too!" Koki laments, and Kame looks over at the monstrosity Koki and Taguchi have created and groans. At least it won't taste too bad.
"Put it in the fridge, guys, and everyone set the table. I'll try to salvage the pasta sauce."
"Yes, mother!" Jin calls, corralling everyone out of the kitchen.
When the dust of disaster settles, Kame can see the damage left in his friends' wake. He looks down at the puppy cupped in his hand. "And I thought you were going to be the one getting in the way tonight."
---
Much, much later, when they've eaten and drunk so much that the sight of the tiramisu is a little too much to bear, everyone is sitting around the table watching Nakamaru the puppy run after a brightly-coloured bouncy ball that they flick lazily to one another across the table (Kame didn't have the energy to stop them). The puppy is still small, not used to his own speed, and occasionally comes close to knocking over someone's glass of wine or falling off the table into someone's lap, but he manages to stay upright.
"Nakamaru reminds me of us," Jin says lazily, flicking the ball to Ueda. By now, everyone's more or less used to being confused about which Nakamaru Jin is referring to, so they just wait for elaboration. "Running around so fast he almost falls over."
Kame and Jin have talked about the group, and Kame's fairly sure Jin has had similar conversations with everyone, but it's the most introspective he's been in front of everyone before. It's not an angry silence that follows, but it's not the most comfortable one, either. Ueda keeps the bouncy ball to himself and curls his fingers around the puppy's ears as he chews on it. Jin looks up at Kame as though to ask if he's right, and Kame shrugs.
"We won't let him fall. And he hasn't spilled any wine yet." The metaphor's getting away from him, so he just smiles gently. "We're all still standing, and that's what matters."
Jin smiles back first, and Kame looks around at the others. Nobody's looking at him, but he can see hints of smiles in their features. He waits just a second before, as if on cue, someone throws a crumpled napkin at him. Koki boos him, Taguchi insists not even he could be that cheesy, and Ueda puts Nakamaru the puppy on Kame's head. Jin and Nakamaru don't say anything, but they share a smile, and Kame doesn't really mind being labelled the cheese-ball of the group, as long as everyone is smiling.
"Kame, get Nakamaru off your head already!"