fic for singlehappiness
Title: What Star are You from?
By: marlenem
Pairing: Jin/Kame
Word count: cca. 6,800 words
Rating: NC-17
Genre/Warnings: angst, fluff, sci-fi, general weirdness
Notes: Dear singlehappiness, I did some serious stalking on you while I wrote this fic, to get an idea what kind of stories you actually like... but the stalking ended with little success xD Anyway, I hope you're okay with sci-fi stuff, weird plotlines and Kame not exactly being a human. I got the basic idea from The Host, which is, by the way, a seriously genius novel and doesn't deserve to be judged by the author (not that stalking you gave me any yay's or nay's on this subject.. x'D). Enjoy! :Dv
I owe a huge thanks to my beta who kept up with me failing every deadline I set up for myself and being available till the last moment, and several friends for bearing with my brainstorming, rambling, whining and panic attacks. Thank you!
Summary: "What would you do if I said I was an alien?" - "I'd finally understand why you're acting like you are from a different universe." It's just a collection of random scenes of two random guys meeting on a random day for a not so random purpose they don't know about yet.
=====
The first time they meet it's in Bastilles, the art gallery where Jin's paintings are displayed on a regular basis. Jin's having a friendly business meeting with the owner of the place because two of his art pieces have been sold in a month's time and Kashira-san thinks they could try raising the prices just a little bit.
Jin notices the guy entering the place because he stands out too much; Bastilles is an elite art center and people whose outfits aren't from the neighbor Armani store probably don't have the money to spend on paintings that cost hundreds thousand yen as well. Judged from the fashionably torn jeans and tight V neck tee the guy is wearing, he definitely doesn't get his fashion tips from Ginza.
The assistant of the gallery's manager soon approaches him and politely inquires what business he has here, and Jin hears the guy answer "The ad outside says there's an exhibition here. If it's not public then you shouldn't advertise it."
Suguru, the assistant glances at Kashira-san from over the guy's shoulder and the owner nods slightly: let him be. Jin rolls his eyes inwardly; personally, he thinks elitism is ridiculous and unnecessary, but obviously, people living on high standards usually think otherwise. Kashira-san's clever though, and sees that having this kid bad-mouthing Bastilles all over the city is the worst negative campaign the place can get.
Jin takes a good look at him while Suguru fakes embarrassment and bows in front of him in apology before he retreats back behind the reception counter. Jin likes the guy; he has pretty features and manages to turn Suguru's face red like a tomato - anybody who is able to do that is an ally of Jin by standard. Suguru's the kind of artist who wants to belong to the most popular ones no matter what. He doesn't have the talent to make it inside their circles the appropriate way though, so he uses other talents to get on the top of the hierarchy. At daytime, he works as an assistant in the gallery, and at night time, well, he works as a host in a nearby host club and picks up second rate artists to learn the secrets of success. He doesn't seem to be doing very well, considering that he's been the receptionist of Bastilles for three years now and has never been offered a higher position - let alone getting his paintings exhibited here.
Jin agrees pretty easily to Kashira-san's suggestions about the new prices so they finish soon enough; the more expensive your picture is, the more interested people are in it after all, and it took Jin years to have the visitors find a liking in his work. Now that his name is spreading around in the circles finally, chances that more people will come to check his work out are high.
The guy who embarrassed Suguru is still inside, examining each and every painting hanging in the main hall. He's looking at one of Jin's pictures right now; Jin takes the chance to approach him partly because the guy tickles his fantasy and partly because it's not often he can hear honest, non-professional opinions and reviews these days.
"What do you think of it?" he asks, stopping next to him. "I'm Akanishi, by the way."
The guy quickly makes the connection; Jin has his name engraved in a golden plate under the picture frame, but most people don't even bother to read it. "Kamenashi. It's an unusual choice of model, I think," he answers.
Oh right; the most important information about Bastilles is that it's an art gallery for nude portraits. The model Jin has in this particular painting is a girl slightly over her twenties; she doesn't have the tiny, delicate shape every Japanese woman desires-and what the rest of the paintings exhibited in the gallery has-but she looks wonderful in her curvy, padded way anyway. Most of the time Jin consciously chooses imperfect people to portray - imperfect, as in the way most of the elitist artists call them. Jin doesn't think perfection exists-he wants to portray what's hidden under their skin; he wants to put the model's emotions and thoughts on canvas, using their bodies as objects to give them a form.
"It makes sense," Kamenashi says when Jin summarizes his concept in a few sentences. "I didn't think of it that way."
Unfortunately, Jin has to leave soon after that, but he makes Kamenashi promise to drop by another time. He doesn't only want to annoy Suguru; he finds the man entering elite galleries without any basic knowledge in arts interesting.
=
They meet two days later. Jin's carrying his latest work inside the gallery and literally bumps into Kamenashi on his way to the reception counter. Jin leaves the painting in Suguru's care, and feeling the assistant glaring holes into his back, he returns to Kamenashi who seems to have already realized why exactly Jin wanted to meet him in the gallery and not anywhere else.
"He hates my guts," Kamenashi snickers when Jin makes his way back to him.
"He totally detests people who just come in and act like the place was a museum or something."
"Well, he seems to detest you as well," Kamenashi says matter-of-factly as he watches Suguru angrily scrubbing the counter with some scented sanitizer.
"That's jealousy~" Jin sing-songs. Kamenashi snorts. He seems to be getting Jin's usually misunderstood sarcasm.
Jin asks Kamenashi out for an afternoon drink, and then asks him whether he wants to be the model for his next job between two shot of vodkas.
=
Broad shoulders. Nice curves of the waist. Faint outlines of muscles on a flat stomach. Tiny nipples settled on the chest barely noticeably, like God's put them there when he was running out of pink paint, having enough to place only two small dots on the sides of his chest. Kame's thin but prettily shaped lips part ever-so-slightly; Jin puts more shadow there, covering his mouth almost completely with black graphite. He moves onto the long, delicate neck and does the same to it, from his chin down to his sternum.
Jin sits on the floor with his legs apart and a middle sized drawing board propped against a knee he keeps pulled up. He's so close to Kame that Kame's foot touches his other knee which lies extended on the marble floor. It's an uncomfortable position but an artist shouldn't complains; Jin came up with this odd angle after all.
Kame's standing, leaning against the shower cubicle's frame with a shoulder while his other arm keeps a towel in place on the top of his head and over freshly washed hair. Kame's pulling on the hem of his sweatpants with his free hand to reveal a sharp hipbone, and watches Jin with slightly foggy eyes, his thoughts sitting shamelessly on his face. He would most definitely do something way more productive - productive as in not just being the unmoving statue-like model of some artist with weird posing ideas.
His face and hands are privileges available only for Jin to see, though; neither of them is going to be included in the painting Jin sketches. Jin likes suggestive portraits way more than those which show every small detail and leaves nothing to the imagination. Plus, Kame set up one single rule before he accepted Jin's offer beforehand: anything but his face.
"What do you think of me?" Kame asks after a while, breaking the persistent silence that grew more and more unbearable for him. Jin's not silent usually; he just likes to concentrate on learning the body when he draws a model for the first time.
"I think whoever's gonna buy this one, she or he's gonna jack off to it every night."
"Would you jack off to it too?" Kame goes on. He's bored and he presses a bare foot against Jin's crotch to rub it under the rough material of his baggy jeans.
"Any time," Jin half-moans in answer, but his hand never shakes or falters on the paper, nor does he look up from his work.
They fall back into silence after that. Kame's hot but he doesn't seem like the flirty kind of person - not with the slightly awkward way he's trying to make seductive conversations. As for Jin, he's able to take anybody to bed with his words alone; this person however, just keeps his foot in place, skillfully caresses and presses onto Jin's groin every now and then with his toes and the edge of his sole. It drives Jin slowly crazy nevertheless.
He admires the half-nude form practically folding out in front of him. Nudity is not about the perfection of the body, the composition, the ultra artistic lights, objects and whatnots elite painters and photographers preach about. No. It's about conveying the unique, personal eroticism every one of his models have, and for that Jin prefers to desire his models sexually to add that extra layer of unsatisfied hunger to the picture. Kame's not the most beautiful man Jin's ever seen. He isn't the sexiest as well. He has this special aura surrounding him though, that radiates raw sensuality and lusciousness which just screams to be immortalized.
As for the thing about being sexually involved with his models... When Jin sees the chance to get any of his models in bed, he takes it. Because really, who's naïve enough to pose nude and not think of the possibility of sex straight away? And it's not like Jin brings home people on a daily basis.
"How famous are you?" Kame asks when Jin looks for a pencil with softer lead, which leaves thicker and darker lines on the paper to heighten the outlines of the body. It usually takes his models a while to realize drawing isn't (only) a kinky foreplay leading up to sex, but it doesn't apply this time because Kame knew who Jin was right from the start. Kame peeks at the half-finished sketch over Jin's shoulder, careful to move only his head in the process. The pressure his toes offer strengthens at the action as Kame puts more of his weight on that leg; they're also traveling down on the inner side of Jin's thigh when he retreats into his original position, and then back up to his crotch, playing with the leather belt and the buttons of his jeans.
"I'm getting known," Jin says finally, letting out the breath that got caught in his throat. He sinks just a little but further onto the floor, in attempt to press his awakening manhood to the soft padding of Kame's sole.
"So you have regular buyers?"
Jin smears some graphite on Kame's chest to mark shades and shadows on the skin where there are bones and muscles underneath.
"Nope. But my works are displayed in a few places and people are interested enough to come see them."
"So am I gonna be exhibited as well?" Kame asks next, teasing Jin further by curling his toes over Jin's obvious hardness.
"As soon as I finish it," Jin breathes. He does the last touches on the drawing and puts it carefully aside, propping it against the wall, and gives green light to the hungry wolf restrained inside of him.
The sweatpants Jin let Kame borrow beforehand are loose on Kame's waist and comes down easily when Jin tugs on them, revealing more of the tight, velvety skin he has studied and learned inch by inch in the past hour. He feels his way up on muscular thighs and round buttocks which fit his palms perfectly like they were made specially to his size.
When Jin straightens completely up, he has Kame circling his arms around his waist and hands up under his tee on his back, roaming every bit of skin he reaches there. As Jin leads him back inside the shower cubicle, he tosses the tee in the sink, and kicks the sweatpants and his jeans out onto the marble floor.
=
Kame pants gloriously: he leans his head back against the damp tiles, his mouth hanging slightly open and wet strands of hair sticking to his forehead and temple. Jin sucks on the soft skin on his neck where there's a thick vein pulsing in a brutal speed and he keeps the trembling body in place by grabbing Kame's hip and pressing it into his own.
A lubed finger traces its way from Kame butt cheek to his entrance and Jin slowly pushes it inside while Kame's pulling one of his legs up and draws it around Jin's thighs to give him better access. "This is incredible," he breathes in a shaky voice, tossing his head to the side as a second finger enters him.
No matter how incredible it is though, it's not very comfy fucking in the shower cubicle. Jin moves his hand from Kame's hip to his arm, urging him towards the exit without losing as much physical contact as possible. They settle on the first hard surface Kame's able to sit on, and that's the fancy granite countertop next to the sink. He spreads Kame's legs and stands between them, fingers back in place and preparing him for further penetration. Jin hangs his head low so his mouth brushes Kame's ear as he speaks.
"Is this, by chance, your first time with a man?" Jin's had this suspicion since the very beginning; even though Kame's acting like a total slut in front of him, the tension in his body speaks a different language.
"It's the first time I'm having sex in this world," Kame looks pretty out of it and people tend to say weird things in such a state. Jin would have never taken Kame for a virgin and he's skeptical about the confession, because it's freaking impossible that his desirable little body has never gotten such treatment before, given the expert way Kame seduced him only a few minutes ago.
Jin smears some more lube on his hardened shaft after he feels Kame loose enough around his fingers to take Jin in fully. He presses his length against the silky skin and teases the area around Kame's entrance while Kame tries to find a posture he's comfortable in. Jin helps him probe his heels against the edge of the counter and the wall, and then pushes inside slowly, making sure Kame doesn't freak out if it's honestly his first time.
It doesn't take Kame long to reach his peak when Jin settles on a quick, steady pace and pleases his achingly hard manhood with a free hand. Afterwards, he watches Jin finishing himself off with hazy yet curious eyes, his gaze never leaving Jin's cock, especially when he pulls out a moment before he comes and covers Kame's pelvis and stomach with his semen like Kame did a moment before.
=
'Kamenashi speaking. I'm a busy person, please bother me later.'
A loud snort. "Hey, it's Akanishi. You're worth 200,000 yen, that's pretty damn much. If you want the other half of your payment, you better let me bother you, though," another snort. "Also. What do you think of posing one more time? The buyer's interested in more of you~"
=
Ashes are falling gently over balcony rails, the cigarette hanging between Kame's fingers long forgotten; he's leaning on the cold bars, staring at the never-quiet Tokyo spreading under his feet twenty levels below but not really seeing it. He should be cold, Jin muses, with only a black vest thrown over his bare upper-body, but Kame doesn't look bothered by it as he leans his chin on an arm probed against the metal and turns his gaze to the night sky. It's mid-January and the temperature is well below zero, and Jin sees snowflakes glittering in the air where the light from the living-room reaches.
"You alright?" Jin asks as he positions an easel opposite of the wall where he's going to have Kame stand. "I need you here now."
"Sure," Kame absentmindedly raises the stub to his lips, consciously ignoring the question. He takes one last drag before he tosses the stub in the portable ashtray Jin keeps by the window, because he's just as big of a chain smoker as any other Japanese at the age of twenty-six.
"What do you want me to do?" Kame asks, leaving his hand just a moment longer on Jin's shoulder than what's considered appropriate as he passes him.
"Stand facing the wall," Jin instructs him and he reciprocates Kame's touchy gesture by positioning him by his waist. "Like that," he murmurs into Kame's ear as he pushes his hips out to the side. "Slide the shirt off your back," Jin continues as he returns to the easel and grabs a pencil.
Kame obeys, though he doesn't get completely rid of the thick, black fabric: he leaves a shoulder hidden under it and sinks his index finger suggestively under the hem of his tight jeans, pulling it down a bit and revealing his black underwear. He lowers his head to hide his face in his shoulder, even though he doesn't have to worry about that - Jin remembers the rule.
"You're a natural poser," Jin says, half amused and half serious at the same time. While most of his models feel awkward when it comes to the job, Kame's completely at ease. Jin can't find a bit of shame in him as soon as they start working. "You ever considered becoming a professional model?"
"I did," Kame answers casually, as if it was the most natural thing to answer.
"And you're not such a beginner as I thought you were, is that right," Jin replies, more of a statement than a question.
"Nope," Kame says. He keeps his tone light and suggestive, even though he tells practically nothing useful.
"What jobs did you do?" Jin asks curiously. Maybe he's seen Kame around and he just doesn't recognize him.
Sketching goes quite fast. This picture isn't going to be as detailed as the previous one so it takes less time to draw it. He's going to play around a little with the shadows, though, to portray Kame's smooth back as lifelike as possible with brushes. He wants to draw the attention there, so he doesn't go into details on Kame's tight jeans, the vest, or his chestnut hair that much.
Kame chuckles but he doesn't give Jin any other response.
"Secretive, eh," Jin says, just a tiny bit accusing. "It's no fun if you don't talk about yourself, really."
It's the third time they meet but most of their conversations are still about either Jin or his art. Whenever Jin asks about Kame, the younger man comes up with questions totally unrelated to the topic or doesn't answer at all. The random and very much odd statements he says from time to time make things even worse, because Jin doesn't have the smallest idea what he's talking about most of the time.
"Do you enquire about every model's private life?" Kame asks, his tone not getting serious at all so Jin wouldn't take it as an accusation.
"I do," Jin answers and he's glad he gets the chance to tell it to Kame. "It gives me a better perspective on them so I can create a mood that fits them better. It's essential. It's like..." he stops for a moment to think of the best way to explain. "Painting pink bubbles and sparkles around the model when he's obviously depressed. You probably wouldn't like the bubbles very much either, I can figure that much out. But I don't know what to paint instead of them."
"I'm not depressed," Kame responds in an edgier tone than what Jin expected to hear. "And it's not like the other painters wouldn't put them behind me if they wanted bubbles."
"You mean those sophomoric idiots who paint based on what looks good rather than concentrating on the atmosphere their works give off?" Jin goes on rambling.
"Those sophomoric idiots sell better than you," Kame states matter-of-factly, but his voice is tinted with amusement again.
"Those sophomoric idiots paint what's trendy and change styles as often as I change my socks. If I wanted to paint you trendily, you'd probably be blue and consist of triangles."
"Abstract is a style," Kame insists. "And it's based on emotions as well."
"Ugh, you don't get it at all," Jin sighs in frustration. Kame really doesn't seem to get art at all, but at least he looks livelier than the time he was gazing sky."
"Seriously," Jin goes back to the original topic. "Help me a little here. What do you work when you're not my model?"
Kame shrugs. "Whatever I'm offered," he answers finally, most likely-hopefully-getting that Jin needs him to speak.
"Okay, that's pretty vague," Jin rolls his eyes.
"Right now, I'm a model. Last week I worked at a construction site. Before that, I replaced a sick barista in a café for a few days," Kame goes on. "I'm nothing special, really."
Jin snorts. Nothing special, eh... "Why aren't you applying for a long-term job?"
"I'm kind of... in transit. I don't think I'll stay here for a long time."
"Really? Where do you want to go?" sketching the body is a piece of cake and time runs faster while they finally have a real conversation. Even though Kame claims otherwise, he's anything but ordinary Jin realizes as the man finally opens up to him and starts to talk.
"Just looking around," Kame answers. "Studying the world, I guess."
"Sounds like something only rich kids would do," Jin muses.
"Does it?" Somehow, Kame is wondering as if this was the first time he thought of that option.
Jin finishes sketching him soon; it's going to be a wonderful picture once he paints it. Most of the time he doesn't need the models to pose for that part so he lets Kame move around as well.
=
"Jin..."
"Hm...?"
They're lying in bed, Jin on one side and Kame on the other. It's way past midnight but neither of them are sleepy. They spent the night together but this time, there was no work involved. There was an exhibition held in Bastilles and Jin invited Kame to come along; the guy was curious about how elite stuff like that went so Jin brought him inside. He even let Kame borrow one of his designer suits he kept specially for these kind of events, and even though Jin's a size bigger than him, the fancy clothes hugged his body in all the right places, bringing attention to all the nice curves Kame's blessed with. Not like anybody could have recognize him anyway. Even the buyer of both portraits walked past Kame like he was a nobody, even though the old geezer was practically nosebleeding when he saw the pictures for the first time.
"How do you feel about sci-fi stuff?"
Jin turns his head on the side, glancing at Kame curiously. He's learnt by now that even though Kame's the most random person he's ever met, everything he did or said made sense in one way or another - most of the time, the difficult thing was to figure out what Kame wanted and needed.
"Like... UFO's, spaceships and laser blades?"
"Yeah, that stuff. And aliens. Do you believe in aliens?"
"Kame, it's the middle of the night..." Jin mumbles. "Why is it so important?"
"I'm just curious," Kame replies but he doesn't return Jin's gaze.
"Do you believe in them?" Jin asks then. Obviously, it's an important topic to Kame, even if he acts like it isn't. He probably has nightmares where aliens kidnap him or something... If that's the case, he should talk it out and Jin wants to make sure Kame knows he's listening.
"What would you do if I said I was one?"
"I'd finally understand why you're acting like you are from a different universe then," Jin says. It's supposed to be a joke but Kame's not smiling. Jin props up on an elbow and hovers over Kame. "Hey, is something wrong?"
"No," Kame answers. He takes Jin's face between soft palms and plants a light kiss on his lips.
It's not true. Kame had something important to tell, but whatever it was Jin's answer made him retreat. Jin responds to the kiss nevertheless, moving forward and above the other one, straddling his hips and leaning closer to Kame to catch his lips in a deeper kiss.
It's kinda weird, having Kame sleep over like this, without working on anything... But he and Kame, they developed a strange friendship-like relationship in the past few weeks, spiced up with sex every now and then. Honestly, it's the first time in years Jin's slept with the same person more than once, but he still doesn't fancy the idea of jumping into a long-term relationship with anybody. That would cause too much trouble because of the nature of his job. He isn't yet ready to give up painting nudity just yet. He still has his goals to reach, a social and financial existence to create, and hundreds of emotions to portray.
"What do you mean I'm from a different universe?" Kame murmurs when Jin rolls back onto his side of the bed.
It's not that easy to explain. Kame, he... sometimes he sounds too wise for his age, but sometimes he doesn't understand basic things. A lot of times he glances at the night sky without any particular reason, but not in the cheesy romantic way most of the guys do, but with such a longing sitting on his face like he fell from a star and now isn't able to climb back up. Most of the time he's too eager to try anything he hasn't heard of before (And there's a too long list of those things, really, like he's been risen up isolated from the world or something).
"I don't know... You just seem too different most of the time," Jin answers slowly.
Kame lets out a soft sigh but remains silent. Jin turns his face back towards him and finds him staring out of the window, not so surprisingly at the clear night sky. Jin tries to make a connection between that and the aliens, but the only logical idea coming to mind is still way too extreme to even consider it's actuality. It's not possible because aliens don't exist, and even if they did, they wouldn't come in the body of gorgeous Japanese men.
"I think I'll go away sooner than I first thought I would," Kame says after a while. "Maybe I'm finally getting homesick."
=
When Jin wakes up the next morning, Kame's still sleeping soundly. His smooth, peaceful face is the most beautiful thing Jin has seen in a long while, and it's the first time he seriously considers labeling something perfect. He scoots out of bed as carefully as he can, and quickly picks up a drawing board, paper and pencil before he returns and settles on the floor next to the bed.
"Are you breaking the only rule I set up..." Kame mumbles into the silence which is broken only by the sound of pencil scratching the paper.
He keeps his eyes closed though, probably not fully realizing that it's not a dream he's having. Jin stops in his work and reaches out to bury his fingers into the soft, brown hair on Kame's temple.
"It'd be a waste to not do it," he explains softly, playing with the silky strands for a few moments.
When Jin retreats his hand and returns to his job, Kame finally glances at Jin with foggy eyes not entirely free of the dream he must have had.
"It's for me," Jin assures Kame. "I won't exhibit it anywhere."
"It's okay then," Kame murmurs. "I'm going to be the first model whose picture you keep for yourself."
"Aren't you a bit overconfident," Jin chuckles, even though Kame has him figured out. "Why the rule, anyway?" Jin asks then.
"It would be awkward if people recognized me," Kame explains. "I don't want them coming after me."
"At Bastilles, we make sure that our customers aren't stalkers on their days off, you know," Jin jokes; he knows better than to really believe Kame's afraid of stalkers. He can't see why anybody would go after him, though.
Kame smiles as well, but his smile is not as genuine as it's supposed to be. Seems like his weird mood from the night before accompanied him to the morning.
"When are you going away?" Jin asks. "What's your next destination?"
"I don't know yet. But I want to go as far away as possible."
"So it's not your home then?" Jin goes on, because Kame mentioned he was homesick. "Los Angeles is a cool place," Jin advises. "I've been there a few times, absolutely loved it."
"I'm thinking in a greater distance," Kame smiles gently.
"So it's Europe then."
"Or a different galaxy."
Kame says it with a completely straight face, like suddenly they were in Star Wars, and traveling between galaxies was like a taxi ride to Chiba. It's the first time Jin seriously considers, contemplating all the weirdness he's witnessed around the other one, that Kame's probably is not simply different, but has some kind of a mental illness.
=
That is the last time Jin sees Kame. A few days later, when he tries to call him, an automated voice greets him, telling him that his number is no longer in use.
At the end of the week, a parcel is delivered to his apartment complex. The package is plain, and there's no dispatch note attached to it. When Jin opens it, he finds a very high-tech night sky projector inside with a post-it plastered on its box. It says 'ALDEBARAN'. He fights it for a few days, but then sets it up in his bedroom and never removes it from there. It takes him a month to locate Aldebaran in the sea of stars on his walls and ceiling, but from that day on he makes sure it's still in place every time he falls asleep with the projector switched on.
=
The busier the person is, the faster time seems to rush past. The stubbornness Jin stuck to, his beliefs and style paid off in the end; he built up a steady reputation among the young generation of painters in a few years, and by the time he celebrated his thirty-first birthday, people recognized his portraits even without his name carved into golden plates.
With a bigger fame and more responsibilities, his work ethics needed to be changed as well. It wasn't a hard decision to make at that time, and it was surprisingly easy to stick to it when he finally made his mind up: he had to put a stop to the never ending cycle of one night stands. He couldn't expect appreciation from the buyers' and critics' side if he wasn't able to appreciate his models the way they should have been appreciated from the very beginning.
Jin doesn't have the time to muse on the changes too much, though, especially not on the party he's attending right now. The owner of the hotel the party's being held in approaches Jin with a smile that shines a million yen, even though he just bought a painting worth another five hundred thousand. Jin's far from complaining though; this person is the reason he's so widely known among the upperclassmen this day. He's the person who brought Kame's portraits back in the days and proudly hung them in the V.I.P. section of his hotel. Unfortunately, he never gave up on getting a third portrait of Kame, no matter how many times Jin told him that Kame moved out of Japan.
"Such a waste, that kid," he still says sometimes. "I could have gotten him into a model agency."
Jin bets he does, considering that anywhere he sees the old man, he's accompanied by a different model boy. But even if he got the chance to offer Kame the job, Jin would have most likely done his best to keep Kame away from that pervert.
About Kame... He finished that portrait of his face and hung it on the wall of his living room - it's the only painting displayed in his home and every time somebody asks who the boy is in the picture, Jin tells them it's the person who made him believe in the most insane thing they ever heard of.
=
"Suguru-san, what's up?" Jin yawns into his phone. He squeezes his eyes nearly shut to be able to read the numbers on his digital alarm clock. It's barely past eight, way too early to be disturbed by anybody, let alone Suguru.
"There's a guy here and he says he knows you."
"So?" Jin rolls to his side and presses the button to switch off his alarm clock.
"He says he's not going away until you meet him in Bastilles," Suguru keeps on complaining. "He's not exactly a sight that attracts buyers inside, you know."
It must be one of Jin's extremely clingy models. Luckily, there's not many of them, but that few are a real pain in the ass.
"Give him the phone. I'll tell him to fuck off," even though he still doesn't like Suguru too much, Jin's learnt to appreciate the loyalty he has for the gallery - still working as a receptionist but never demanding more anymore.
"Hey," comes the soft, nervous greeting from the other end of the line suddenly. That scratchy, characteristic voice is impossible to forget.
"Kame?" Jin asks in disbelief.
"It's been a while, isn't it."
=
Jin desperately hopes that Suguru doesn't throw Kame out of the gallery in the forty minutes it takes Jin to reach it. When he storms inside and is greeted by dead silence and an empty hall, his stomach sinks in disappointment.
"Where's he?" He hurries to Suguru, who's reading some encyclopedia of art behind the reception counter.
"In the office area," Suguru rolls his eyes at Jin's lack of manners. "I couldn't just leave him here where everybody looking through the windows would see him."
Kame looks fairly decent in the jeans (not ripped this time) and white shirt though. Also, while Jin grown his hair longer, had his stubble a bit more visible and got tiny creases in the corner of his eyes, Kame still looks like he hasn't aged a day in the past five years. Literally. In the actual meaning of not aging.
"Hi," he smiles at Jin and it's that bright, honest smile that Jin's always wished to see when they hung out together before.
"I'm glad you came back," Jin says honestly.
"I wasn't sure whether you thought I was simply an idiot or a psycho on the run," Kame confesses.
"Probably I thought both," Jin admits. "But I know better now."
"So you figured it out?"
"I guess I did," Jin answers. He steps closer finally, offering a hand to shake first, but then reaching out more and hugging him in the end. "But I still have a hard time believing it all."
"I know," Kame mumbles. He burrows his face in Jin's neck. "The human mind is too limited."
Jin snorts but secures his arms around the lighter form nevertheless.
"Why didn't your body age?"
=
It's weird, even thinking about it. Jin would rather not, but he has little control over his thoughts today. He used to call the old men who bought his paintings perverts, and here he is falling in love with an... alien. He should feel awkward, or fear that an unidentified flying object comes into his apartment and kidnaps him, or query every insane story Kame keeps telling him, but he doesn't feel either of them. Jin's not sure he'd feel the same way if he wasn't in love with Kame, or if Kame returned in some crazy-looking purple body, though...
"So how do you look like in reality?" Jin asks him as soon as they're out of the gallery and back in Jin's apartment. "When you're not in a human body."
"No idea," Kame shrugs. "I'm a soul, just like you. I can't see myself if I don't have an eye to see with."
"Okay, but how did you originally look like?" Jin keeps asking, even though probably he's better off not knowing it.
"Uh..." Kame thinks. "It's been long ago... I don't remember very much. I don't think it'd do you any good if I told you, anyway," Kame must have figured Jin probably wouldn't appreciate the description very much.
"So what technology do you have on your planet that allows you to travel galaxies?" once a Star Wars fan, always a Star Wars fan, Jin figures.
"It's not us. I mean, not only my planet. There's a group of scientists from all over the universe who formed this union. They used all of their knowledge to create spaceships fast enough to transport souls from one place to another in a relatively little time. They also came up with a way to get souls in and out of most kind of organisms. This is how I was able to swap places with many creatures, a human called Kamenashi Kazuya for example. His soul is now somewhere near Sirius."
"So... When you left, did you go to Aldebaran? You said you were feeling homesick."
"I did go there, but it's not my home," Kame answers thoughtfully. The whole story sounds... unbelievable. Jin does his best to believe everything, though. He wants to.
"So... How come you know about this stuff and we on Earth have no idea about it?" Jin tries to not be too shocked by the information he gets. Jin tries to not be too shocked by the information he gets. Jin tries to not be-
"When the whole experiment of swapping souls started, they looked for volunteers and I applied."
"I didn't see anybody posting application forms around here," Jin says, almost in an accusing tone. When he's not too busy being shocked by all the crazy stuff Kame feeds him with, he's envious because Kame's seen stars and planets Jin was only able to goggle with a sorry, amateur sounding, cheap, stupid night sky projector.
"Yeah, that might be because it was four hundred years ago," Jin almost spurts his soda in Kame's face and gets a coughing fit.
"Are you that old?!"
"Hey!"
"Are you able to die?" Jin can't help asking, cutting into Kame's retort.
"Of course I am. If the body I'm staying in is too old or too ill, or if it's destroyed and I'm inside of it at the moment, I die. The same way you do. Souls don't differ much, no matter where they come from."
"So if I were to change bodies, I'd live for hundreds of years as well?"
"Uhum," Kame grins at him.
It's difficult for Jin to keep his hands away from Kame. Now that he finally got the younger man back did he realize how much he actually missed him while he was away. He pulls Kame into his lap in the kitchen and mumbles between butterfly kisses planted on his lips, "Why did you come back?"
"I missed you," Kame confesses. "I realized I found what I've been looking for on a dozen of planets only when I already left Earth."
"And what was that?"
"Most souls travel in pairs... I didn't care about that at first, but then I got lonely. So I started to look for a mate but nobody seemed good enough. The ones I liked thought I was mental when I started talking about my life."
"So you came back because you think I'm your soulmate?" The idea is pretty appealing, and Jin would give his recent life up to go with Kame without a second thought. He has already reached every goal he set up for himself anyway. He isn't doing much these days, and he started to get bored with painting day and night.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Kame suddenly rambles. "I can settle down here if you'd like to stay. But if you want to go but don't want your body given to anybody else, we can have it hibernated. Otherwise it'd die without a soul and-"
Jin silences him with another kiss. He welcomes the familiar taste on his tongue and invites Kame further inside from where he's licking Jin's lips unsurely.
"-and that's how I was able to get back this body when I returned," Kame finishes the sentence when they finally part.
"When should I start packing?" is all Jin has to ask to have Kame show the brightest smile he's ever seen on his face.
=====
Notes 2: The night sky projector I wrote about. It's a Japanese product, so I guess Kame has an identical one in his home.
singlehappiness, the graphics are all yours, feel free to use them wherever you want. Once my identity is revealed, I can even put some text on it for you, just letme know if there's anything you'd like ^^
By: marlenem
Pairing: Jin/Kame
Word count: cca. 6,800 words
Rating: NC-17
Genre/Warnings: angst, fluff, sci-fi, general weirdness
Notes: Dear singlehappiness, I did some serious stalking on you while I wrote this fic, to get an idea what kind of stories you actually like... but the stalking ended with little success xD Anyway, I hope you're okay with sci-fi stuff, weird plotlines and Kame not exactly being a human. I got the basic idea from The Host, which is, by the way, a seriously genius novel and doesn't deserve to be judged by the author (not that stalking you gave me any yay's or nay's on this subject.. x'D). Enjoy! :Dv
I owe a huge thanks to my beta who kept up with me failing every deadline I set up for myself and being available till the last moment, and several friends for bearing with my brainstorming, rambling, whining and panic attacks. Thank you!
Summary: "What would you do if I said I was an alien?" - "I'd finally understand why you're acting like you are from a different universe." It's just a collection of random scenes of two random guys meeting on a random day for a not so random purpose they don't know about yet.
=====
The first time they meet it's in Bastilles, the art gallery where Jin's paintings are displayed on a regular basis. Jin's having a friendly business meeting with the owner of the place because two of his art pieces have been sold in a month's time and Kashira-san thinks they could try raising the prices just a little bit.
Jin notices the guy entering the place because he stands out too much; Bastilles is an elite art center and people whose outfits aren't from the neighbor Armani store probably don't have the money to spend on paintings that cost hundreds thousand yen as well. Judged from the fashionably torn jeans and tight V neck tee the guy is wearing, he definitely doesn't get his fashion tips from Ginza.
The assistant of the gallery's manager soon approaches him and politely inquires what business he has here, and Jin hears the guy answer "The ad outside says there's an exhibition here. If it's not public then you shouldn't advertise it."
Suguru, the assistant glances at Kashira-san from over the guy's shoulder and the owner nods slightly: let him be. Jin rolls his eyes inwardly; personally, he thinks elitism is ridiculous and unnecessary, but obviously, people living on high standards usually think otherwise. Kashira-san's clever though, and sees that having this kid bad-mouthing Bastilles all over the city is the worst negative campaign the place can get.
Jin takes a good look at him while Suguru fakes embarrassment and bows in front of him in apology before he retreats back behind the reception counter. Jin likes the guy; he has pretty features and manages to turn Suguru's face red like a tomato - anybody who is able to do that is an ally of Jin by standard. Suguru's the kind of artist who wants to belong to the most popular ones no matter what. He doesn't have the talent to make it inside their circles the appropriate way though, so he uses other talents to get on the top of the hierarchy. At daytime, he works as an assistant in the gallery, and at night time, well, he works as a host in a nearby host club and picks up second rate artists to learn the secrets of success. He doesn't seem to be doing very well, considering that he's been the receptionist of Bastilles for three years now and has never been offered a higher position - let alone getting his paintings exhibited here.
Jin agrees pretty easily to Kashira-san's suggestions about the new prices so they finish soon enough; the more expensive your picture is, the more interested people are in it after all, and it took Jin years to have the visitors find a liking in his work. Now that his name is spreading around in the circles finally, chances that more people will come to check his work out are high.
The guy who embarrassed Suguru is still inside, examining each and every painting hanging in the main hall. He's looking at one of Jin's pictures right now; Jin takes the chance to approach him partly because the guy tickles his fantasy and partly because it's not often he can hear honest, non-professional opinions and reviews these days.
"What do you think of it?" he asks, stopping next to him. "I'm Akanishi, by the way."
The guy quickly makes the connection; Jin has his name engraved in a golden plate under the picture frame, but most people don't even bother to read it. "Kamenashi. It's an unusual choice of model, I think," he answers.
Oh right; the most important information about Bastilles is that it's an art gallery for nude portraits. The model Jin has in this particular painting is a girl slightly over her twenties; she doesn't have the tiny, delicate shape every Japanese woman desires-and what the rest of the paintings exhibited in the gallery has-but she looks wonderful in her curvy, padded way anyway. Most of the time Jin consciously chooses imperfect people to portray - imperfect, as in the way most of the elitist artists call them. Jin doesn't think perfection exists-he wants to portray what's hidden under their skin; he wants to put the model's emotions and thoughts on canvas, using their bodies as objects to give them a form.
"It makes sense," Kamenashi says when Jin summarizes his concept in a few sentences. "I didn't think of it that way."
Unfortunately, Jin has to leave soon after that, but he makes Kamenashi promise to drop by another time. He doesn't only want to annoy Suguru; he finds the man entering elite galleries without any basic knowledge in arts interesting.
=
They meet two days later. Jin's carrying his latest work inside the gallery and literally bumps into Kamenashi on his way to the reception counter. Jin leaves the painting in Suguru's care, and feeling the assistant glaring holes into his back, he returns to Kamenashi who seems to have already realized why exactly Jin wanted to meet him in the gallery and not anywhere else.
"He hates my guts," Kamenashi snickers when Jin makes his way back to him.
"He totally detests people who just come in and act like the place was a museum or something."
"Well, he seems to detest you as well," Kamenashi says matter-of-factly as he watches Suguru angrily scrubbing the counter with some scented sanitizer.
"That's jealousy~" Jin sing-songs. Kamenashi snorts. He seems to be getting Jin's usually misunderstood sarcasm.
Jin asks Kamenashi out for an afternoon drink, and then asks him whether he wants to be the model for his next job between two shot of vodkas.
=
Broad shoulders. Nice curves of the waist. Faint outlines of muscles on a flat stomach. Tiny nipples settled on the chest barely noticeably, like God's put them there when he was running out of pink paint, having enough to place only two small dots on the sides of his chest. Kame's thin but prettily shaped lips part ever-so-slightly; Jin puts more shadow there, covering his mouth almost completely with black graphite. He moves onto the long, delicate neck and does the same to it, from his chin down to his sternum.
Jin sits on the floor with his legs apart and a middle sized drawing board propped against a knee he keeps pulled up. He's so close to Kame that Kame's foot touches his other knee which lies extended on the marble floor. It's an uncomfortable position but an artist shouldn't complains; Jin came up with this odd angle after all.
Kame's standing, leaning against the shower cubicle's frame with a shoulder while his other arm keeps a towel in place on the top of his head and over freshly washed hair. Kame's pulling on the hem of his sweatpants with his free hand to reveal a sharp hipbone, and watches Jin with slightly foggy eyes, his thoughts sitting shamelessly on his face. He would most definitely do something way more productive - productive as in not just being the unmoving statue-like model of some artist with weird posing ideas.
His face and hands are privileges available only for Jin to see, though; neither of them is going to be included in the painting Jin sketches. Jin likes suggestive portraits way more than those which show every small detail and leaves nothing to the imagination. Plus, Kame set up one single rule before he accepted Jin's offer beforehand: anything but his face.
"What do you think of me?" Kame asks after a while, breaking the persistent silence that grew more and more unbearable for him. Jin's not silent usually; he just likes to concentrate on learning the body when he draws a model for the first time.
"I think whoever's gonna buy this one, she or he's gonna jack off to it every night."
"Would you jack off to it too?" Kame goes on. He's bored and he presses a bare foot against Jin's crotch to rub it under the rough material of his baggy jeans.
"Any time," Jin half-moans in answer, but his hand never shakes or falters on the paper, nor does he look up from his work.
They fall back into silence after that. Kame's hot but he doesn't seem like the flirty kind of person - not with the slightly awkward way he's trying to make seductive conversations. As for Jin, he's able to take anybody to bed with his words alone; this person however, just keeps his foot in place, skillfully caresses and presses onto Jin's groin every now and then with his toes and the edge of his sole. It drives Jin slowly crazy nevertheless.
He admires the half-nude form practically folding out in front of him. Nudity is not about the perfection of the body, the composition, the ultra artistic lights, objects and whatnots elite painters and photographers preach about. No. It's about conveying the unique, personal eroticism every one of his models have, and for that Jin prefers to desire his models sexually to add that extra layer of unsatisfied hunger to the picture. Kame's not the most beautiful man Jin's ever seen. He isn't the sexiest as well. He has this special aura surrounding him though, that radiates raw sensuality and lusciousness which just screams to be immortalized.
As for the thing about being sexually involved with his models... When Jin sees the chance to get any of his models in bed, he takes it. Because really, who's naïve enough to pose nude and not think of the possibility of sex straight away? And it's not like Jin brings home people on a daily basis.
"How famous are you?" Kame asks when Jin looks for a pencil with softer lead, which leaves thicker and darker lines on the paper to heighten the outlines of the body. It usually takes his models a while to realize drawing isn't (only) a kinky foreplay leading up to sex, but it doesn't apply this time because Kame knew who Jin was right from the start. Kame peeks at the half-finished sketch over Jin's shoulder, careful to move only his head in the process. The pressure his toes offer strengthens at the action as Kame puts more of his weight on that leg; they're also traveling down on the inner side of Jin's thigh when he retreats into his original position, and then back up to his crotch, playing with the leather belt and the buttons of his jeans.
"I'm getting known," Jin says finally, letting out the breath that got caught in his throat. He sinks just a little but further onto the floor, in attempt to press his awakening manhood to the soft padding of Kame's sole.
"So you have regular buyers?"
Jin smears some graphite on Kame's chest to mark shades and shadows on the skin where there are bones and muscles underneath.
"Nope. But my works are displayed in a few places and people are interested enough to come see them."
"So am I gonna be exhibited as well?" Kame asks next, teasing Jin further by curling his toes over Jin's obvious hardness.
"As soon as I finish it," Jin breathes. He does the last touches on the drawing and puts it carefully aside, propping it against the wall, and gives green light to the hungry wolf restrained inside of him.
The sweatpants Jin let Kame borrow beforehand are loose on Kame's waist and comes down easily when Jin tugs on them, revealing more of the tight, velvety skin he has studied and learned inch by inch in the past hour. He feels his way up on muscular thighs and round buttocks which fit his palms perfectly like they were made specially to his size.
When Jin straightens completely up, he has Kame circling his arms around his waist and hands up under his tee on his back, roaming every bit of skin he reaches there. As Jin leads him back inside the shower cubicle, he tosses the tee in the sink, and kicks the sweatpants and his jeans out onto the marble floor.
=
Kame pants gloriously: he leans his head back against the damp tiles, his mouth hanging slightly open and wet strands of hair sticking to his forehead and temple. Jin sucks on the soft skin on his neck where there's a thick vein pulsing in a brutal speed and he keeps the trembling body in place by grabbing Kame's hip and pressing it into his own.
A lubed finger traces its way from Kame butt cheek to his entrance and Jin slowly pushes it inside while Kame's pulling one of his legs up and draws it around Jin's thighs to give him better access. "This is incredible," he breathes in a shaky voice, tossing his head to the side as a second finger enters him.
No matter how incredible it is though, it's not very comfy fucking in the shower cubicle. Jin moves his hand from Kame's hip to his arm, urging him towards the exit without losing as much physical contact as possible. They settle on the first hard surface Kame's able to sit on, and that's the fancy granite countertop next to the sink. He spreads Kame's legs and stands between them, fingers back in place and preparing him for further penetration. Jin hangs his head low so his mouth brushes Kame's ear as he speaks.
"Is this, by chance, your first time with a man?" Jin's had this suspicion since the very beginning; even though Kame's acting like a total slut in front of him, the tension in his body speaks a different language.
"It's the first time I'm having sex in this world," Kame looks pretty out of it and people tend to say weird things in such a state. Jin would have never taken Kame for a virgin and he's skeptical about the confession, because it's freaking impossible that his desirable little body has never gotten such treatment before, given the expert way Kame seduced him only a few minutes ago.
Jin smears some more lube on his hardened shaft after he feels Kame loose enough around his fingers to take Jin in fully. He presses his length against the silky skin and teases the area around Kame's entrance while Kame tries to find a posture he's comfortable in. Jin helps him probe his heels against the edge of the counter and the wall, and then pushes inside slowly, making sure Kame doesn't freak out if it's honestly his first time.
It doesn't take Kame long to reach his peak when Jin settles on a quick, steady pace and pleases his achingly hard manhood with a free hand. Afterwards, he watches Jin finishing himself off with hazy yet curious eyes, his gaze never leaving Jin's cock, especially when he pulls out a moment before he comes and covers Kame's pelvis and stomach with his semen like Kame did a moment before.
=
'Kamenashi speaking. I'm a busy person, please bother me later.'
A loud snort. "Hey, it's Akanishi. You're worth 200,000 yen, that's pretty damn much. If you want the other half of your payment, you better let me bother you, though," another snort. "Also. What do you think of posing one more time? The buyer's interested in more of you~"
=
Ashes are falling gently over balcony rails, the cigarette hanging between Kame's fingers long forgotten; he's leaning on the cold bars, staring at the never-quiet Tokyo spreading under his feet twenty levels below but not really seeing it. He should be cold, Jin muses, with only a black vest thrown over his bare upper-body, but Kame doesn't look bothered by it as he leans his chin on an arm probed against the metal and turns his gaze to the night sky. It's mid-January and the temperature is well below zero, and Jin sees snowflakes glittering in the air where the light from the living-room reaches.
"You alright?" Jin asks as he positions an easel opposite of the wall where he's going to have Kame stand. "I need you here now."
"Sure," Kame absentmindedly raises the stub to his lips, consciously ignoring the question. He takes one last drag before he tosses the stub in the portable ashtray Jin keeps by the window, because he's just as big of a chain smoker as any other Japanese at the age of twenty-six.
"What do you want me to do?" Kame asks, leaving his hand just a moment longer on Jin's shoulder than what's considered appropriate as he passes him.
"Stand facing the wall," Jin instructs him and he reciprocates Kame's touchy gesture by positioning him by his waist. "Like that," he murmurs into Kame's ear as he pushes his hips out to the side. "Slide the shirt off your back," Jin continues as he returns to the easel and grabs a pencil.
Kame obeys, though he doesn't get completely rid of the thick, black fabric: he leaves a shoulder hidden under it and sinks his index finger suggestively under the hem of his tight jeans, pulling it down a bit and revealing his black underwear. He lowers his head to hide his face in his shoulder, even though he doesn't have to worry about that - Jin remembers the rule.
"You're a natural poser," Jin says, half amused and half serious at the same time. While most of his models feel awkward when it comes to the job, Kame's completely at ease. Jin can't find a bit of shame in him as soon as they start working. "You ever considered becoming a professional model?"
"I did," Kame answers casually, as if it was the most natural thing to answer.
"And you're not such a beginner as I thought you were, is that right," Jin replies, more of a statement than a question.
"Nope," Kame says. He keeps his tone light and suggestive, even though he tells practically nothing useful.
"What jobs did you do?" Jin asks curiously. Maybe he's seen Kame around and he just doesn't recognize him.
Sketching goes quite fast. This picture isn't going to be as detailed as the previous one so it takes less time to draw it. He's going to play around a little with the shadows, though, to portray Kame's smooth back as lifelike as possible with brushes. He wants to draw the attention there, so he doesn't go into details on Kame's tight jeans, the vest, or his chestnut hair that much.
Kame chuckles but he doesn't give Jin any other response.
"Secretive, eh," Jin says, just a tiny bit accusing. "It's no fun if you don't talk about yourself, really."
It's the third time they meet but most of their conversations are still about either Jin or his art. Whenever Jin asks about Kame, the younger man comes up with questions totally unrelated to the topic or doesn't answer at all. The random and very much odd statements he says from time to time make things even worse, because Jin doesn't have the smallest idea what he's talking about most of the time.
"Do you enquire about every model's private life?" Kame asks, his tone not getting serious at all so Jin wouldn't take it as an accusation.
"I do," Jin answers and he's glad he gets the chance to tell it to Kame. "It gives me a better perspective on them so I can create a mood that fits them better. It's essential. It's like..." he stops for a moment to think of the best way to explain. "Painting pink bubbles and sparkles around the model when he's obviously depressed. You probably wouldn't like the bubbles very much either, I can figure that much out. But I don't know what to paint instead of them."
"I'm not depressed," Kame responds in an edgier tone than what Jin expected to hear. "And it's not like the other painters wouldn't put them behind me if they wanted bubbles."
"You mean those sophomoric idiots who paint based on what looks good rather than concentrating on the atmosphere their works give off?" Jin goes on rambling.
"Those sophomoric idiots sell better than you," Kame states matter-of-factly, but his voice is tinted with amusement again.
"Those sophomoric idiots paint what's trendy and change styles as often as I change my socks. If I wanted to paint you trendily, you'd probably be blue and consist of triangles."
"Abstract is a style," Kame insists. "And it's based on emotions as well."
"Ugh, you don't get it at all," Jin sighs in frustration. Kame really doesn't seem to get art at all, but at least he looks livelier than the time he was gazing sky."
"Seriously," Jin goes back to the original topic. "Help me a little here. What do you work when you're not my model?"
Kame shrugs. "Whatever I'm offered," he answers finally, most likely-hopefully-getting that Jin needs him to speak.
"Okay, that's pretty vague," Jin rolls his eyes.
"Right now, I'm a model. Last week I worked at a construction site. Before that, I replaced a sick barista in a café for a few days," Kame goes on. "I'm nothing special, really."
Jin snorts. Nothing special, eh... "Why aren't you applying for a long-term job?"
"I'm kind of... in transit. I don't think I'll stay here for a long time."
"Really? Where do you want to go?" sketching the body is a piece of cake and time runs faster while they finally have a real conversation. Even though Kame claims otherwise, he's anything but ordinary Jin realizes as the man finally opens up to him and starts to talk.
"Just looking around," Kame answers. "Studying the world, I guess."
"Sounds like something only rich kids would do," Jin muses.
"Does it?" Somehow, Kame is wondering as if this was the first time he thought of that option.
Jin finishes sketching him soon; it's going to be a wonderful picture once he paints it. Most of the time he doesn't need the models to pose for that part so he lets Kame move around as well.
=
"Jin..."
"Hm...?"
They're lying in bed, Jin on one side and Kame on the other. It's way past midnight but neither of them are sleepy. They spent the night together but this time, there was no work involved. There was an exhibition held in Bastilles and Jin invited Kame to come along; the guy was curious about how elite stuff like that went so Jin brought him inside. He even let Kame borrow one of his designer suits he kept specially for these kind of events, and even though Jin's a size bigger than him, the fancy clothes hugged his body in all the right places, bringing attention to all the nice curves Kame's blessed with. Not like anybody could have recognize him anyway. Even the buyer of both portraits walked past Kame like he was a nobody, even though the old geezer was practically nosebleeding when he saw the pictures for the first time.
"How do you feel about sci-fi stuff?"
Jin turns his head on the side, glancing at Kame curiously. He's learnt by now that even though Kame's the most random person he's ever met, everything he did or said made sense in one way or another - most of the time, the difficult thing was to figure out what Kame wanted and needed.
"Like... UFO's, spaceships and laser blades?"
"Yeah, that stuff. And aliens. Do you believe in aliens?"
"Kame, it's the middle of the night..." Jin mumbles. "Why is it so important?"
"I'm just curious," Kame replies but he doesn't return Jin's gaze.
"Do you believe in them?" Jin asks then. Obviously, it's an important topic to Kame, even if he acts like it isn't. He probably has nightmares where aliens kidnap him or something... If that's the case, he should talk it out and Jin wants to make sure Kame knows he's listening.
"What would you do if I said I was one?"
"I'd finally understand why you're acting like you are from a different universe then," Jin says. It's supposed to be a joke but Kame's not smiling. Jin props up on an elbow and hovers over Kame. "Hey, is something wrong?"
"No," Kame answers. He takes Jin's face between soft palms and plants a light kiss on his lips.
It's not true. Kame had something important to tell, but whatever it was Jin's answer made him retreat. Jin responds to the kiss nevertheless, moving forward and above the other one, straddling his hips and leaning closer to Kame to catch his lips in a deeper kiss.
It's kinda weird, having Kame sleep over like this, without working on anything... But he and Kame, they developed a strange friendship-like relationship in the past few weeks, spiced up with sex every now and then. Honestly, it's the first time in years Jin's slept with the same person more than once, but he still doesn't fancy the idea of jumping into a long-term relationship with anybody. That would cause too much trouble because of the nature of his job. He isn't yet ready to give up painting nudity just yet. He still has his goals to reach, a social and financial existence to create, and hundreds of emotions to portray.
"What do you mean I'm from a different universe?" Kame murmurs when Jin rolls back onto his side of the bed.
It's not that easy to explain. Kame, he... sometimes he sounds too wise for his age, but sometimes he doesn't understand basic things. A lot of times he glances at the night sky without any particular reason, but not in the cheesy romantic way most of the guys do, but with such a longing sitting on his face like he fell from a star and now isn't able to climb back up. Most of the time he's too eager to try anything he hasn't heard of before (And there's a too long list of those things, really, like he's been risen up isolated from the world or something).
"I don't know... You just seem too different most of the time," Jin answers slowly.
Kame lets out a soft sigh but remains silent. Jin turns his face back towards him and finds him staring out of the window, not so surprisingly at the clear night sky. Jin tries to make a connection between that and the aliens, but the only logical idea coming to mind is still way too extreme to even consider it's actuality. It's not possible because aliens don't exist, and even if they did, they wouldn't come in the body of gorgeous Japanese men.
"I think I'll go away sooner than I first thought I would," Kame says after a while. "Maybe I'm finally getting homesick."
=
When Jin wakes up the next morning, Kame's still sleeping soundly. His smooth, peaceful face is the most beautiful thing Jin has seen in a long while, and it's the first time he seriously considers labeling something perfect. He scoots out of bed as carefully as he can, and quickly picks up a drawing board, paper and pencil before he returns and settles on the floor next to the bed.
"Are you breaking the only rule I set up..." Kame mumbles into the silence which is broken only by the sound of pencil scratching the paper.
He keeps his eyes closed though, probably not fully realizing that it's not a dream he's having. Jin stops in his work and reaches out to bury his fingers into the soft, brown hair on Kame's temple.
"It'd be a waste to not do it," he explains softly, playing with the silky strands for a few moments.
When Jin retreats his hand and returns to his job, Kame finally glances at Jin with foggy eyes not entirely free of the dream he must have had.
"It's for me," Jin assures Kame. "I won't exhibit it anywhere."
"It's okay then," Kame murmurs. "I'm going to be the first model whose picture you keep for yourself."
"Aren't you a bit overconfident," Jin chuckles, even though Kame has him figured out. "Why the rule, anyway?" Jin asks then.
"It would be awkward if people recognized me," Kame explains. "I don't want them coming after me."
"At Bastilles, we make sure that our customers aren't stalkers on their days off, you know," Jin jokes; he knows better than to really believe Kame's afraid of stalkers. He can't see why anybody would go after him, though.
Kame smiles as well, but his smile is not as genuine as it's supposed to be. Seems like his weird mood from the night before accompanied him to the morning.
"When are you going away?" Jin asks. "What's your next destination?"
"I don't know yet. But I want to go as far away as possible."
"So it's not your home then?" Jin goes on, because Kame mentioned he was homesick. "Los Angeles is a cool place," Jin advises. "I've been there a few times, absolutely loved it."
"I'm thinking in a greater distance," Kame smiles gently.
"So it's Europe then."
"Or a different galaxy."
Kame says it with a completely straight face, like suddenly they were in Star Wars, and traveling between galaxies was like a taxi ride to Chiba. It's the first time Jin seriously considers, contemplating all the weirdness he's witnessed around the other one, that Kame's probably is not simply different, but has some kind of a mental illness.
=
That is the last time Jin sees Kame. A few days later, when he tries to call him, an automated voice greets him, telling him that his number is no longer in use.
At the end of the week, a parcel is delivered to his apartment complex. The package is plain, and there's no dispatch note attached to it. When Jin opens it, he finds a very high-tech night sky projector inside with a post-it plastered on its box. It says 'ALDEBARAN'. He fights it for a few days, but then sets it up in his bedroom and never removes it from there. It takes him a month to locate Aldebaran in the sea of stars on his walls and ceiling, but from that day on he makes sure it's still in place every time he falls asleep with the projector switched on.
=
The busier the person is, the faster time seems to rush past. The stubbornness Jin stuck to, his beliefs and style paid off in the end; he built up a steady reputation among the young generation of painters in a few years, and by the time he celebrated his thirty-first birthday, people recognized his portraits even without his name carved into golden plates.
With a bigger fame and more responsibilities, his work ethics needed to be changed as well. It wasn't a hard decision to make at that time, and it was surprisingly easy to stick to it when he finally made his mind up: he had to put a stop to the never ending cycle of one night stands. He couldn't expect appreciation from the buyers' and critics' side if he wasn't able to appreciate his models the way they should have been appreciated from the very beginning.
Jin doesn't have the time to muse on the changes too much, though, especially not on the party he's attending right now. The owner of the hotel the party's being held in approaches Jin with a smile that shines a million yen, even though he just bought a painting worth another five hundred thousand. Jin's far from complaining though; this person is the reason he's so widely known among the upperclassmen this day. He's the person who brought Kame's portraits back in the days and proudly hung them in the V.I.P. section of his hotel. Unfortunately, he never gave up on getting a third portrait of Kame, no matter how many times Jin told him that Kame moved out of Japan.
"Such a waste, that kid," he still says sometimes. "I could have gotten him into a model agency."
Jin bets he does, considering that anywhere he sees the old man, he's accompanied by a different model boy. But even if he got the chance to offer Kame the job, Jin would have most likely done his best to keep Kame away from that pervert.
About Kame... He finished that portrait of his face and hung it on the wall of his living room - it's the only painting displayed in his home and every time somebody asks who the boy is in the picture, Jin tells them it's the person who made him believe in the most insane thing they ever heard of.
=
"Suguru-san, what's up?" Jin yawns into his phone. He squeezes his eyes nearly shut to be able to read the numbers on his digital alarm clock. It's barely past eight, way too early to be disturbed by anybody, let alone Suguru.
"There's a guy here and he says he knows you."
"So?" Jin rolls to his side and presses the button to switch off his alarm clock.
"He says he's not going away until you meet him in Bastilles," Suguru keeps on complaining. "He's not exactly a sight that attracts buyers inside, you know."
It must be one of Jin's extremely clingy models. Luckily, there's not many of them, but that few are a real pain in the ass.
"Give him the phone. I'll tell him to fuck off," even though he still doesn't like Suguru too much, Jin's learnt to appreciate the loyalty he has for the gallery - still working as a receptionist but never demanding more anymore.
"Hey," comes the soft, nervous greeting from the other end of the line suddenly. That scratchy, characteristic voice is impossible to forget.
"Kame?" Jin asks in disbelief.
"It's been a while, isn't it."
=
Jin desperately hopes that Suguru doesn't throw Kame out of the gallery in the forty minutes it takes Jin to reach it. When he storms inside and is greeted by dead silence and an empty hall, his stomach sinks in disappointment.
"Where's he?" He hurries to Suguru, who's reading some encyclopedia of art behind the reception counter.
"In the office area," Suguru rolls his eyes at Jin's lack of manners. "I couldn't just leave him here where everybody looking through the windows would see him."
Kame looks fairly decent in the jeans (not ripped this time) and white shirt though. Also, while Jin grown his hair longer, had his stubble a bit more visible and got tiny creases in the corner of his eyes, Kame still looks like he hasn't aged a day in the past five years. Literally. In the actual meaning of not aging.
"Hi," he smiles at Jin and it's that bright, honest smile that Jin's always wished to see when they hung out together before.
"I'm glad you came back," Jin says honestly.
"I wasn't sure whether you thought I was simply an idiot or a psycho on the run," Kame confesses.
"Probably I thought both," Jin admits. "But I know better now."
"So you figured it out?"
"I guess I did," Jin answers. He steps closer finally, offering a hand to shake first, but then reaching out more and hugging him in the end. "But I still have a hard time believing it all."
"I know," Kame mumbles. He burrows his face in Jin's neck. "The human mind is too limited."
Jin snorts but secures his arms around the lighter form nevertheless.
"Why didn't your body age?"
=
It's weird, even thinking about it. Jin would rather not, but he has little control over his thoughts today. He used to call the old men who bought his paintings perverts, and here he is falling in love with an... alien. He should feel awkward, or fear that an unidentified flying object comes into his apartment and kidnaps him, or query every insane story Kame keeps telling him, but he doesn't feel either of them. Jin's not sure he'd feel the same way if he wasn't in love with Kame, or if Kame returned in some crazy-looking purple body, though...
"So how do you look like in reality?" Jin asks him as soon as they're out of the gallery and back in Jin's apartment. "When you're not in a human body."
"No idea," Kame shrugs. "I'm a soul, just like you. I can't see myself if I don't have an eye to see with."
"Okay, but how did you originally look like?" Jin keeps asking, even though probably he's better off not knowing it.
"Uh..." Kame thinks. "It's been long ago... I don't remember very much. I don't think it'd do you any good if I told you, anyway," Kame must have figured Jin probably wouldn't appreciate the description very much.
"So what technology do you have on your planet that allows you to travel galaxies?" once a Star Wars fan, always a Star Wars fan, Jin figures.
"It's not us. I mean, not only my planet. There's a group of scientists from all over the universe who formed this union. They used all of their knowledge to create spaceships fast enough to transport souls from one place to another in a relatively little time. They also came up with a way to get souls in and out of most kind of organisms. This is how I was able to swap places with many creatures, a human called Kamenashi Kazuya for example. His soul is now somewhere near Sirius."
"So... When you left, did you go to Aldebaran? You said you were feeling homesick."
"I did go there, but it's not my home," Kame answers thoughtfully. The whole story sounds... unbelievable. Jin does his best to believe everything, though. He wants to.
"So... How come you know about this stuff and we on Earth have no idea about it?" Jin tries to not be too shocked by the information he gets. Jin tries to not be too shocked by the information he gets. Jin tries to not be-
"When the whole experiment of swapping souls started, they looked for volunteers and I applied."
"I didn't see anybody posting application forms around here," Jin says, almost in an accusing tone. When he's not too busy being shocked by all the crazy stuff Kame feeds him with, he's envious because Kame's seen stars and planets Jin was only able to goggle with a sorry, amateur sounding, cheap, stupid night sky projector.
"Yeah, that might be because it was four hundred years ago," Jin almost spurts his soda in Kame's face and gets a coughing fit.
"Are you that old?!"
"Hey!"
"Are you able to die?" Jin can't help asking, cutting into Kame's retort.
"Of course I am. If the body I'm staying in is too old or too ill, or if it's destroyed and I'm inside of it at the moment, I die. The same way you do. Souls don't differ much, no matter where they come from."
"So if I were to change bodies, I'd live for hundreds of years as well?"
"Uhum," Kame grins at him.
It's difficult for Jin to keep his hands away from Kame. Now that he finally got the younger man back did he realize how much he actually missed him while he was away. He pulls Kame into his lap in the kitchen and mumbles between butterfly kisses planted on his lips, "Why did you come back?"
"I missed you," Kame confesses. "I realized I found what I've been looking for on a dozen of planets only when I already left Earth."
"And what was that?"
"Most souls travel in pairs... I didn't care about that at first, but then I got lonely. So I started to look for a mate but nobody seemed good enough. The ones I liked thought I was mental when I started talking about my life."
"So you came back because you think I'm your soulmate?" The idea is pretty appealing, and Jin would give his recent life up to go with Kame without a second thought. He has already reached every goal he set up for himself anyway. He isn't doing much these days, and he started to get bored with painting day and night.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Kame suddenly rambles. "I can settle down here if you'd like to stay. But if you want to go but don't want your body given to anybody else, we can have it hibernated. Otherwise it'd die without a soul and-"
Jin silences him with another kiss. He welcomes the familiar taste on his tongue and invites Kame further inside from where he's licking Jin's lips unsurely.
"-and that's how I was able to get back this body when I returned," Kame finishes the sentence when they finally part.
"When should I start packing?" is all Jin has to ask to have Kame show the brightest smile he's ever seen on his face.
=====
Notes 2: The night sky projector I wrote about. It's a Japanese product, so I guess Kame has an identical one in his home.
singlehappiness, the graphics are all yours, feel free to use them wherever you want. Once my identity is revealed, I can even put some text on it for you, just letme know if there's anything you'd like ^^