(Series) How To Measure A Year (2/11)
Title: How To Measure A Year (2/11)
Pairings: (this chapter only) YabuHika (friendship)
Genre: Friendship/slight angst
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Does it look like I own them, T_T?
Series Summary: Yabu teaches JUMP how to measure the most important year of their lives.
Chapter Summary:Yabu shows Hikaru the connection between coffee and one’s heart.
Note: Whipped this up quick for knowmonsta's birthday since we're both ALWAYS going on and on about this pairing. Love you kid, I hope today will be awesome because you deserve an incredible birthday.
2. Hikaru - In Cups of Coffee
He was drowning.
“Hey!Say!JUMP,” Johnny declares, his eyes gleaming with a barely concealed triumphant sparkle. “Jumping high into the Heisei era, that’s what this group is about. No one else has realized that Showa is already useless and you ten are going to prove it to all of Japan.”
We shouldn’t have to prove anything, Hikaru wants to say. We’ve already proven ourselves. Ya-ya-yah has already proven itself!
“Hikaru…” Inoo whispers, shaking his shoulder. “Hikaru, we’ve got to go…”
“Hika…” Dai-chan places his hand on Hikaru’s other shoulder. “Hika, come on, talk to us…”
A familiar hand wraps around his bigger one and squeezes it reassuringly. “Go on ahead, guys, I’ll take care of him.”
“Kota…” He can’t stop shaking. “Kota, make it stop.”
His best friend smiles sadly and pulls him away.
[~/-/~]
He wasn’t drowning anymore. Not here.
“Our usual, please,” Yabu said politely, nodding and smiling at the waitress. “I’m sorry but can you make it quick? We promised some of our friends that we’d be at the movies in twenty minutes…and that was forty minutes ago.”
Hikaru freezes. Shoon…Taiyo…
The waitress laughs. “Of course, Yabu-kun, I’ll have it out right away.”
“Kota…” He whispered, glancing at his best friend hesitantly.
“Thanks again, Mari-san. You’re amazing!” Kota replied, grinning.
“Kota…”
“I texted Shoon just before the meeting, Hika,” Kota turned back to him. “He’s at the arcade with Taiyo as we speak. We’re supposed to meet up again around six, if that’s cool with you?”
Hikaru could see it in his mind’s eye already.
“Hey!Say!JUMP?”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Why didn’t you protect Ya-ya-yah?”
“What about us? What about Ya-ya-yah?”“You don’t even care that you’re leaving us.”
“Why don’t you believe in what we have?”
“Why don’t you believe in Ya-ya-yah?”
Shoon wouldn’t be laughing. And Taiyo wouldn’t be smiling.
He shook his head furtively. “I’m…we’re…what do we say?”
“Hika…”
“How can he do this to us? Doesn’t he know what we’ve been through? What the hell is Hey!Say!JUMP going to accomplish that Ya-ya-yah can’t?”
“Hikaru…”
“Kota, we’re abandoning them! We’re deserting Ya-ya-yah! The juniors, the Jimusho, Shoon, Taiyo, everything that mattered to us is gone!”
Suddenly, his best friend’s arms were around him and Hikaru was sobbing into his chest, his fists pounding weakly against his best friend and his ears filled with all the little nothings Kota could whisper to sooth him.
“Why doesn’t he believe in us, Ko-chan,” He whispered softly. “Why doesn’t he believe in Ya-ya-yah?”
[~/-/~]
Time slipped by.
Wads of tissues littered the seats like white dots on a pure red landscape. Half-empty cups of coffee were exchanged for new mugs filled with chai, mocha, vanilla, anything and everything Kota could think of ordering. Laughter mingled freely with tears, the air filled with half-hearted pleas and soothing reassurances.
“How do we go on,” Hikaru whispered, his head leaning on the older boy’s, Kota’s arm wrapped around his shoulder securely. “Where do we go from here?”
Kota sighed and leisurely took another sip of his coffee.
“Kota?”
“Coffee’s a strange thing, Hikaru.” Kota began, tracing his finger around his cup thoughtfully.
He turned his head and peered at Kota inquisitively. “Kota, are you on something right now?”
“Yeah.”
“Adrenaline?”
“Caffeine.” Kota grinned. “Let me finish.”
He leaned forward and grabbed another cup. Vanilla…very nice. “I’m all ears.”
“It can burn you, it can singe your tongue, and if you’re not ready, the pain will shoot from the tips of your toes right up to that place just above your eyebrows and then hit you right in the roof of your mouth.” Kota whispered softly, taking a slow sip of his mocha cappuccino. “Pretty much like any girl a guy will ever come across.”
“I thought we were talking about coffee.”
“We are.”
“When did girls come up?”
“When you wouldn’t shut your trap.
Hikaru grinned and stuck his tongue out at him. “Continue.”
“But it’s strong, it’s creamy, it’s soulful, it’s the warmest and most aromatic drink known to mankind, and it’s like the sun melting away the cold after a long, harsh winter,” Kota whispered. “It warms the heart.”
“Kota…”
“Just focus on the coffee for right now, Hikaru,” Kota squeezed his shoulder gently. “Don’t let your heart grow cold, not because of this. Not when a heart, especially your heart, still has such a capability to love so unconditionally.”
“What about Shoon and Taiyo?”
“They won’t stop loving us. They won’t stop loving Ya-ya-yah. And neither should we.”
He swallowed, his throat suddenly bone dry, his eyes still filled to the brim. “Kota?”
“Yeah?”
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to fight off the urge for a little while more. “Is it still okay to cry?”
“Hachibee,” Kota wrapped his arms around him firmly as the tears started to fall. “It’s always okay to cry.”
The coffee simmered quietly in the background, still warm despite the cold.
[~/-/~]
A/N : Can you tell that I have a slight addiction?
XD, so ends another chapter of How To Measure A Year. It’s really surprising for me to update it this fast but I really didn’t feel as satisfied at the end of the first chapter as I do normally after I finish a one-shot. Probably because it was so short. So I wrote another one.
Several people have guessed correctly about the musical. In case you’ve never heard of RENT, the titles and story are based off that musical and centered around the lyrics from its most well-known song, “Seasons of Love”. Really, that musical might be a little faded now that some of its themes are more commonplace.
But no matter how long it’s been since I’ve seen the musical, heard the musical, or really just remembered my life, Jonathan Larson’s work will always resonate in my heart. The idea of living life as though there’s “no day but today” or to measure your life in love…there’s something so beautiful about that. And it makes me so grateful that I’m alive. And strangely enough, my life right now is revolving around the line “I die without you” because it’s never been so true to me as it is right now.
Hikaru and coffee was a strange thing. I took an hour this morning and plotted out the storyline, something I NEVER do (it’s so hard!) but can do because the lines of the song are my prompts. I felt like Hikaru would be an obvious first stop because of how where and how the last chapter ended. Because in my mind, he's one of the people who show the most heart in HSJ and so, he's one of the ones who was in the most danger of losing his heart. And really, by the end, I just loved how it all turned out. I hope you guys do too.
As always, comments are appreciated because I LOVE hearing from you guys. Tell me what you think!