[Oneshot] Food for Thought
It had started on a Tuesday just like any other. All of NEWS were in their dressing room, taking some well-deserved time off for lunch after a morning spent being primped and prodded, made up, and pushed into position as they did shot after shot of promo photos for their upcoming single.
Ryo sighed, sinking onto his favorite couch, resisting the urge to try to wipe some of the makeup off his face and give his skin a chance to breathe. Things always got a little crazy before they promoted a new single, but knowing that he was going to have to do it all again in Osaka next week just made it seem all the more tedious. Granted, Yoko and Subaru would be sure to keep them all entertained, but that didn’t make him any less tired thinking about it now.
Five minutes later and Ryo was already half-asleep, curled up against the arm of the sofa as his bandmates made a half-hearted attempt to tip toe around him. Years of catching cat naps on dressing room sofas and trains had made Ryo a heavy sleeper, but none of the others wanted to chance waking him and incurring his wrath. Shige had made the mistake once right after they’d formed-the results hadn’t been pretty.
Ryo was severely annoyed, then, to find himself waking up what felt like mere seconds after he’d shut his eyes. He forced his heavy eyelids open with a groan, his mind already searching for the person who had dared to disturb his rest.
And then he heard it.
It was, he guessed, the sound that had woken him up. However, it wasn’t Shige talking too loudly on the phone or Tego squealing over the latest issue of An-An or even Koyama fretting over the bentos that the staff had brought them that clearly did not cover the five food groups properly.
No, it was something altogether different and impossibly quiet.
And disturbing, because Ryo was pretty certain he hadn’t heard a sound like that outside of a bedroom or a porno in, well, never.
Ryo blinked, starting to doubt if he was even awake as the sound continued. He glared at Tegoshi, wondering if the other had taken it upon himself to start clicking on random websites again.
But no, Tegoshi wasn’t anywhere near a laptop. Instead he was on a couch cuddled up to Pi, laughing over something the older man was saying.
It had to be Shige, then, doing some sort of stupid experiment for his Sociology class like the one he’d pulled in the elevator last week.
But no, not Shige either, as he had his glasses on and his nose shoved in a book, a very intent look on his face.
Koyama then, maybe, doing the new yoga poses or meditation or whatever it was that he’d insisted they should all learn to help relax themselves and build the spiritual connection among the group.
And yet, it wasn’t him, either. Instead of being stretched out on his yoga mat, twisting his body in ludicrous ways as he chanted under his breath about member ai, Koyama was buzzing around the other members of the group, passing out disposable chopsticks and packets of soy sauce and making sure that they were all eating the proper amount.
And Massu… actually, it couldn’t be Massu. Ryo wrote the idea off as ridiculous instantly, knowing intuitively that no sound like that could come from anyone like Massu. Ever.
Ryo’s eyes, however, were telling him something very different.
He blinked, staring dumbly at Massu as his brain tried to process what he was seeing and hearing and make sense of the situation. The younger man opened his mouth and let out a sound that clearly labeled him the culprit here.
Massu didn’t seem to be doing anything out of the usual, which made it even harder to understand. He was just sitting there, eating Gyoza, something that Ryo had seen him do hundreds of times before and had never found in the least erotic. Not, of course, that he found it at all erotic now, even if he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the other’s full lips as they closed around a bite, drawing out another moan…
Ryo blinked, his mouth hanging open a little as he stared. That sound and that face could not belong to Massu.
And yet, the proof that it, in fact, did was right there before his eyes as he watched Massu chew slowly, a look of sublime ecstasy on his face.
Ryo shook his head and crossed the room to get his bento, glad, for once, for Koyama’s constant mothering as the other swooped down with chopsticks and soy sauce in hand, effectively distracting him from the unseemly display going on across the room.
--
Ryo made a point not to think about the incident with Massu and his Gyoza for several weeks afterwards. His busy schedule flitting back and forth between Tokyo and Osaka made it easier to write the whole situation off as a product of a sleep deprived mind and, for the most part, this approach (or non-approach, as he was blatantly ignoring that anything had ever happened) worked.
...for the first few weeks.
It all worked perfectly until Ryo walked into their dressing room early one morning to the sound of soft groans and the sight of Massu’s lips wrapped around a donut, that same look of contentment on his face.
Ryo froze in his tracks, his heart beating abnormally fast as he watched Massu finish the donut off bite by bite, the younger man’s happy moans echoing in Ryo’s ears. Each bite and the soft, accompanying sound of pleasure that escaped with it made something in Ryo’s stomach flip flop, a feeling that he very much did not like to associate with co-workers and most especially not Massu, who was probably the least sexual person that he’d ever known.
… including Johnny-san.
And yet, still he stood there, his knees locked and mouth hanging open slightly as Massu popped his glaze-covered fingers into his mouth to clean them one by one. Ryo was just about ready to let out a groan of his own at the younger man’s commitment to cleanliness, when suddenly Massu looked over and noticed him.
“Oh, good morning, Nishikido-kun. Koyama brought donuts!” Massu grinned, altogether clueless to the inner struggle raging within his bandmate.
Ryo snapped his mouth shut, his brows drawing together into an instant scowl as he cursed both Koyama for having to be so damn thoughtful and himself for not having the presence of mind to stare at Massu from somewhere a little less obvious. He thrust his hands into his pockets and gave a grunt of assent, mumbling something only slightly coherent about hating donuts as he brushed past the other, careful to avoid looking at him.
--
It wasn’t until he walked in on Massu eating a popsicle that Ryo suspected he might have a problem.
This time, at least, he actually managed to make himself turn around and leave before Massu finished (he was licking the last drops from the popsicle stick, but he’d hadn’t gotten to cleaning his sticky fingers yet so it counted, dammit).
He spent the rest of his break hiding in the bathroom and got a scolding from their dance coach for being five minutes late getting back.
After practice that there was a mysterious sign (scrawled in vaguely familiar handwriting, as Shige had been quick to point out) hanging in their break room that explicitly banned all donuts, gyoza and popsicles from the premises.
--
Two weeks later Ryo had stopped even bother to go back to their break room for lunch, instead making a direct b-line for the bathroom as soon as their break was called.
The list of banned food items on the sign had grown to include bananas, lollipops, melon bread, dango, anpan, nikuman and pudding.
Massu and Pi both looked more and more forlorn each day.
--
Ryo woke up the next night in a cold sweat, memories of a very vivid dream involving Massu and an oversized cheesecake still playing through his mind.
Cheesecake was added to the sign the next day.
Massu started to look visibly upset.
--
Two more weeks and that many sleepless nights later, and Ryo found himself at work an hour and a half early, cursing under his breath as he shoved the ripped sign into the dumpster.
As he shut the lid and walked inside, he made a conscious effort not to think about his dreams or the fact that Massu’s sad face yesterday at practice at the mention of lunch had anything to do with this.
The rest of his bandmates were overjoyed to see the sign gone that day, if a little confused by Ryo stompimg out of the room after Koyama suggested they go out for banana splits to celebrate.
--
Massu started to look like his old, happy self again.
Ryo started skipping meal times in favor of going to the roof to smoke, insisting to his bandmates that he needed the time to clear his head.
A two pack a day habit and a pant size later he was starting to wonder if Massu wasn’t bad for his health.
--
Hina made a point of dragging Ryo to the Ramen Shop in Umeda that they’d discovered together as Juniors. It had been a month since he’d been in Osaka and he hadn’t missed the slightly worried looks his fellow rangers had given the hollowness in his cheeks and the dark circles under his eyes.
He’d made a point of ignoring them, though, and forcing himself to be more playful than usual to make up for their worry. It seemed to be working, he’d thought. They still looked a little worried, but at least he hadn’t gotten any lectures.
Not yet, anyway.
Hina gave Ryo a very pointed look, his face serious as he rested his arms on their table and gave Ryo the speech that he’d been dreading. “You look awful.”
Ryo sighed and looked put out as he hurriedly looked down at the menu to avoid eye contact. “I’ve been busy.”
“You haven’t been sleeping… or eating.” Hina stated it as a fact, not bothering to ask a question when he’d clearly already made up his own mind about the answer. Ryo hated his smugness but had to admit part of him was kind of touched that the other could read him so well.
“I have.”
“But not enough.” Hina sighed, his hand reaching out to pull the menu down, forcing Ryo to look at him finally.
Ryo shrugged and let go of the menu entirely, his fingers twitching as he reached automatically for the pack of cigarettes tucked away in his pocket. “Food doesn’t appeal to me anymore.”
“If you say that around Yoko or Ohkura they’ll kick you out of the band.”
“Whatever.” Ryo knew the other was only joking but it annoyed him anyway. Who cared if he ate or slept enough? Most of the members of JE did one or the other less than they should and you didn’t hear people nagging at them like this.
He’d almost managed to dig a cigarette out of his pack, despite the tremor in his fingers, when a hand reached out and stopped him. Annoyed, he glanced across the table at Hina, giving the other his best glare. Unfortunately for him, glares weren’t too intimidating to someone who had clear memories of you when you were only 5 feet tall and sang like a girl.
“Whatever it is, you’d better figure it out. You’re worrying Yasu and Maru.”
Ryo nodded and finished pulling out a cigarette anyway, wincing a little as Hina waved the waitress over and proceeded to order miso ramen with a side of gyoza.
--
Ryo gained back half a kilo over the next week, thanks in part to his bandmates’ insistence that he eat out with one or the other (or sometimes all) of them everynight. He’d also managed to have several nights of blissfully dreamless sleep thanks to the endless supply of alcohol that seemed to come with every meal.
It was in one of his post-dinner drunken stupors that Ryo finally managed to gather his courage and lay out his current predicament to an equally drunk table full of Kanjani members. This, of course, involved a lot of moaning and flailing and efforts to mime Massu’s hideous eating habits.
“I always thought if you had a fetish it would be school girls or something normal.”
“Really? I had him pegged as a voyeur.”
“Or someone with a foot fetish!”
“Yeah, I could see that, too.”
“Or maybe one of those people who like to be tied up and spanked…”
“No, that one’s a little too weird…”
Ryo wasn’t quite sure who had said what, as he’d been too busy reenacting the popsicle incident for Yasu to follow the conversation. He was just sober enough somewhere in the recesses of his mind, however, to wonder how exactly a food fetish was worse than any of the things that they’d mentioned.
It was Subaru who, at some point in the night, slapped Ryo on the shoulder and leaned over to console him in a drunken whisper. “You can’t change your fetish, Ryo-chan. Just make sure when you finally give in to it you’re wearing clothes that don’t stain easily.”
Ryo was sure that these were, without a doubt, the most brilliant words he had ever heard.
--
"Hello?"
"Massu," Ryo slurred into the phone, waving his hand at the rest of Kanjani, signalling for them to be quiet as he focused his (considerably limited, given how drunk he was) attention on what Yoko had taken to calling his "mission" for the evening. "You're going to have dinner with me."
The slight pause in conversation was filled with soft laughter and kissy noises from across the table which Ryo did his best to ignore.
"... Nishikido-kun?" Massu's voice was soft and sleepy and, Ryo had to admit, completely unsexy. It was, however, cute, and Ryo kind of liked cute from time to time as well.
"I'll pick you up at 7."
"Aren't you in Osaka this week?"
Ryo blinked, the question throwing him for a loop. He looked up, giving his bandmates a helpless look. "Uh... yeah."
"Isn't the trip to Tokyo a little far just for dinner?"
"... yeah. Uh, I meant I'll pick you up when I get you back. On Tuesday. In my car," Ryo finished, managing to be embarrassed despite all the liquid courage currently coursing through his veins. He swatted at Yoko's hand as the other poked him in the cheek and sang some lame kid's song involving him, Massu, love, and a tree. "We can have gyoza. And popsicles."
"Sure," Massu answered in a voice that Ryo was sure was a bit brighter, if still just as sleepy. "I'll see you on Tuesday, Nishikido-kun."
Ryo blushed as he hung up the phone and gave his bandmates a thumbs-up, winning himself another round of lame elementary school rhymes and, more importantly, another glass of beer.
--
5 days of post drunk-dialing regret later, Ryo had decided to swear off alcohol and the rest of his Osaka bandmates for good.
Subaru’s drunken advice, which had seemed so sage at the time, was ringing in Ryo’s ears as he walked into the NEWS dressing room, his sunglasses planted firmly on his face and a ball cap pulled low over his eyes. It was normally the outfit he used to avoid any would-be rabid fans or paparazzi in public, but it served just as well when he wanted to avoid looking his bandmates in the eye, too. Even if there was only one bandmate in particular he wanted to avoid at the moment.
By some stroke of luck their schedule was just busy enough that he managed to do just that for most of the day. Between practices and going over choreography for their new single and a few photoshoots-- where he was blessedly paired with Yamapi and Massu was off with Tegoshi, no doubt-- he had plenty of time to mull over excuses for his late night drunken phone call and reasons to beg off going out to dinner with Massu.
He'd just decided on a story he'd concocted about burst pipes and having to wait at home for a plumber when Massu was suddenly, inexplicably, standing in front of him, a bright smile on his face and something that almost looked like shyness in his eyes.
Ryo blinked, dazzled by the first and a little too confused by the last to think quickly enough to break out his story before any damage was done.
"I hate to ask this but about dinner... could it wait until tomorrow?"
Ryo blinked again, not quite sure what to say. He hadn't expected Massu to go and change the plans on him like this, and he definitely hadn't expected to feel disappointed over it. "Uh... yeah, whatever. I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to."
"No! I want to," Masuda answered, quickly, and with a surprising amount of vehemence in his voice. "I just have to go to a birthday dinner for my Aunt tonight. Unless you want to come...?"
Ryo opened his mouth to say 'no' and somehow, inexplicably, a 'yes' came out instead.
"Really?" Massu blinked, his expression clearly surprised. Ryo smacked himself mentally and was just about to open his mouth to say the 'no' he'd meant to say in the first place when the younger man's face lit up in another dazzling smile. "Great! Meet me at my place at 8, then?"
Ryo just nodded, still at a loss for words. Whatever the hell was going on with his ability to speak today he did not like it. Not one bit.
--
Hell, Ryo decided, was being stuck at a table, incredibly turned on by a bandmate's eating habits while his family chatted and ate around you. Throw in a few well-timed slightly embarrassing questions and it only made things that much worse.
Ryo was never going to forgive his stupid, traitorous mouth for forcing him into this. He was also never going to forgive Massu for inviting him in the first place.
He held in a sigh and picked another dumpling off on his plate as he silently willed the night to end. At least he could tell Yoko once and for all that Masuda's mom did actually have big boobs.
--
Two grueling hours later and Ryo was completely, blessedly free of the Masuda family and their awkward, prying questions and attempts at small talk.
Well, mostly, at least.
Ryo sighed as he flopped down onto his couch, watching Massu closely as the younger man looked around his apartment without any attempt at disguising his curiosity. He hadn't expected Massu to be quite this interested in his apartment. He would have thought it was cute if he was the type to think things were cute (or if calling things "cute" was somehow more manly).
"You have a lot of music, ne?"
"Huh?" Ryo started, the sudden words seeming almost out of place in the quiet apartment. He sat up straighter and shrugged, playing off his slight embarrassment at almost being caught staring as boredom. "Yeah. It's my hobby, I guess."
Massu nodded, his cheeks dimpling as he reached out to thumb through the assorted CDs, records and pages of sheet music neatly tucked away into a pair of bookshelves in the corner. Another silence fell over them and Ryo was mentally berating himself for inviting Massu back to his apartment with him (which, despite what Subaru's stupid text had said was a decidedly bad idea) when Massu gave up his inspection of Ryo's things and flopped onto the couch beside him.
"I like it when Nishikido-kun plays the guitar, ne."
"Really?" Ryo asked, a little too startled to make an attempt at sounding cool. Sure, he played a lot in his free time and he usually did at least one accoustic song at their concerts, but somehow he'd never really imagined that any of his bandmates, let alone Massu had really paid attention.
Massu nodded and laughed nervously, "You're really good at it. The first time I heard you play I thought ,'Wow, he's so cool!'. I'd like to play a song with Nishikido-kun sometime. Maybe for our next album."
"Yeah?" Ryo felt his cheeks heat a little as he smiled back at Massu, the smile the other was giving him making his stomach twist. He cleared his throat and stood suddenly, his head ducked as he tried to hide his embarrassment. It wasn't like people hadn't complimented his guitar playing or asked to do duets with him before. Just because it was Massu this time didn't make it any different.
"Nishikido-kun?"
"... I need a beer. Do you want one?" Ryo lifted his head, his voice a little gruff. He waited for the other to nod in agreement before he turned and stalked off towards his kitchen, his hand wandering into the pocket of his jeans to absentmindedly fish out his phone.
--
The first beer relaxed Ryo to the point where the conversation flowed a bit more easily (if a bit less logically-Massu didn’t seem to notice).
The second beer had Ryo rethinking Yoko and Subaru’s role in all this. Maybe they weren’t such bad guys afterall.
The third beer had him texting them both, pleading for more advice. Yoko’s suggestion was long and involved a variety of aphrodisiacs, a bottle of wine, what Ryo was pretty sure qualified as a porno and a roll of duct tape. Subaru told him to change his shirt and just kiss Massu already.
He vetoed both plans and had a few more beers instead.
The fifth beer and a few more encouraging texts from Subaru (he was ignoring Yoko’s texts, which kept referencing dating sims and the playboy advice column and would have at the very least required a run to the store to gather supplies) Ryo got up to change his shirt, mumbling an excuse about having spilled on the last one.
Massu nodded and didn’t mention the fact that Ryo’s shirt seemed perfectly clean to him.
And that would explain why he was sitting on his couch at nearly 2a.m. with Massu, drinking beer and eating leftover convenience store yakisoba while they giggled together over some late night variety show that he didn't even know the name of.
He took a sip from his sixth... no, seventh-- ah fuck it, what did numbers matter anyway?-- beer of the night and gave Massu a lopsided smile. Somewhere along the way he'd started discussing the merits of toothpaste and the color blue, but now that he stopped to think about it he couldn't remember exactly what had lead to this particular conversation. Well, whatever it was he was, fairly certain that he was very passionate about this topic and that is was very important that Massu understand just how right he was about this.
“You know what I’m saying, right?” Ryo grabbed Massu’s arm and leaned in, an intent look on his face.
“I promise I’ll never wear red sneakers with a pink shirt again, Nishikido-kun,” Massu said solemnly, and it was at that point that Ryo realized that Massu was nowhere near as drunk as he was, which was kind of disappointing. In fact, Ryo didn’t seem to remember Massu drinking at all.
“Here!” Massu smiled at Ryo and the older man couldn’t help but sigh. It took a moment for him to even realize that Massu was waving a stick of dango in front of his face.
Blinking, he stared at it a bit dumbly, trying to remember whether or not he'd actually had dango somewhere in the house. He seemed to remember there being some in his fridge earlier and he highly doubted that Massu had pulled it out of thin air, so that seemed the most likely explanation. Unless, of course, Massu had brought it with him (which was not entirely implausible), but Ryo didn't remember the younger man bringing a bag with him to dinner and Dango would be an awkward thing to stick in your pocket, even in the package.
He looked past the dango and at Massu's face, trying to figure out exactly what the other wanted. He was just about to pick up his phone and call Subaru to ask when Massu explained for him.
“Try it.”
Ryo wasn't really a fan of sweets and didn't even remember why he'd bought the dango e first placein th(if it was, in fact, his), but he couldn’t really bring himself to tell Massu 'no' when the other was smiling so brightly at him. So he did what any self-respecting and terribly drunk Osakan would do in the same situtation and took a bite. The dango tasted better than he remembered and he was just about to remark on this when Massu leaned forward and wrapped his lips around the stick and took a bite of his own.
“Ah… indirect kiss,” Ryo whispered as he watched Massu’s lips touch the place where his own had been just moments before.
Massu froze in mid-chew and flushed with embarrassment as he stumbled out a quick apology. “Oh… oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t think you’d mind sharing, Nishikido-kun. Tegoshi always makes me share with him so I just thought-“
"No... it's okay," Ryo stammered, his cheeks flushed as he stared a bit too openly at the other's lips.
"Really?" Massu asked, and Ryo could only nod, his eyes still fixed on Massu's lips. "Ah, good. I just didn't think... you're really not angry?"
"Huh? No, why would I be angry?" Ryo asked, his words slightly slurred as he finally pulled his gaze away from his bandmate's mouth and met his eyes with a slight frown.
"I just thought maybe I was being too friendly."
Ryo shook his head, his frown softening a little as he gave Massu a thoughtful look. "But we're friends, right?"
Massu nodded once, twice, as if he was confirming the words in his own head before he answered. "Yes. We're friends."
"Good," Ryo answered, ignoring the slight flutter he felt as Massu smiled at him. "And stop calling me Nishikido-kun. It's Ryo."
"Ryo-kun," Massu grinned as he offered the dango to the older man again.
"Close enough," Ryo grumbled before taking another bite.
--
The next day Ryo was in a decidedly bad mood, nursing a decent sized hangover and fully intending to crash on the couch in their dressing room and not move until he was forced. He had no idea how the other could be so chipper. He might not have drank the night before, but they'd both gone to bed at the same ungodly hour and by the time Ryo had dragged himself out of bed to get ready for work that morning all that had been left of the other's presence were the neatly placed blanket and pillow at end of the couch. Even the empty beer cans and dango sticks had been missing, leaving Ryo to wonder somewhat grumpily what kind of person got up early enough to clean someone else's apartment after staying up half the night.
Said grumpiness had nothing to do, of course, with his slight embarrassment over anything he might have said the night before or his disappointment at Massu being gone.
"Thanks for last night, Ryo-kun!"
Ryo huffed slightly at the overly chipper voice, a little pissed off that Massu could manage to look that good when he'd barely pulled himself together enough to come to work. Not that he was looking or anything, though. "Hn."
"I thought you might be hungry, so I brought you some donuts, ne." Massu's smile was almost blinding as he sat down next to Ryo, a box of donuts in one hand a cup of some steaming substance that Ryo was going to assume was coffee in the other.
Ryo took the offered coffee with a mumbled thanks, watching Massu out of the corner of his eye as he sipped it slowly.
"I had fun last night. We should do it again sometime." Massu opened the box and took out a donut, a small speck of chocolate glaze sticking to his upper lip in a rather distracting fashion. "Maybe tomorrow?"
Ryo uttered a string of long curses as he inhaled sharply at the other's words, hot coffee flooding his mouth and burning his tongue with the action. He was still coughing and sputtering softly as he turned to meet Massu's eyes and answered him as indifferently as possible. "Yeah... whatever. I don't have anything better to do."
Massu just beamed at him and offered him the box of donuts, while Ryo silently prayed that the other didn't feel like Gyoza.
Omake:
"So... are you guys official or not? It sounds like all you do is go out to eat," Subaru commented, his voice loud enough to echo off the walls of the tiny bar as he gave Ryo a pointedly disgusted look.
"We're friends," Ryo answered, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting at Subaru.
"Man, we wasted all that time helping you and gave you all that advice and you haven't even kissed him yet?"
"Well, I think it's sweet." Yasu smiled at Ryo as he laid a hand on Subaru's arm, effectively subduing the older man.
"Thanks... and besides, I never asked for your guys' help anyway."
"No, no you didn't," Yoko agreed a bit too quickly and draped an arm over Ryo's shoulders. "Leave the kid alone. There are more important questions here, afterall. Now, Ryo, tell me about his mom... how tight was her sweater, again?"
A chorus of groans rang from around the table as Hina leaned over and smacked Yoko soundly upside the head.