A handful of old drabbles
The song meme. Except that I fail at writing quickly while the song is actually playing, so it kind of ended up being song-inspired drabbles. There is disproportionate angst (I blame shuffle) and one really long one.
These were basically the first JE fics I ever wrote. So when I come back to these, there's some super!fail characterization (particularly in the Ryo/Yamapi one) from before I knew them better, but uh, too late now. Just be warned.
Various pairings
Rating for all: PG-13
Unedited, so there might be some interesting grammar
Song: Cry for You
Artist: Arashi
Pairing: Ryo/Yamapi
Yamapi's the band leader. Maybe it doesn't mean anything to him, but to Ryo--to Ryo NEWS is his in a way that Kanjani8 has never been. Eito are like his brothers, the way they fight and play and Ryo's one of the younger ones who gets picked on, but he doesn't have to make decisions if he doesn't want to, can leave that to Yoko or Subaru, can enjoy himself and just *be*. But NEWS is where he's been able to grow, been able to play to the music that swells within him. Yamapi's indifferent to it, unwilling to lead in any capacity other than the most minute, taking NEWS for granted--because everyone knows that, NEWS or not, Yamapi would still be the first among the so-called equals, always assured a TV appearance, a new single, another year of screaming fans. It's not that Ryo wants to be leader himself, to have that name and the prestige and the responsibility of speaking on the endless rounds of TV appearances. Ryo just wants Yamapi to care more, about NEWS, about him, and in his secret heart, about "them."
Song: Miserere
Artist: Russell Watson
Pairing: Ueda/Junno
Even when Ueda sings their ballads, the heartbreaking ones, the ones about love lost and given up and sacrificed--even then, his eyes have that serenity, that untouchability, the one that says "I have known love, I have lost it, I have lived on despite it, for it." Even in those climactic moments, when his voice soars and climbs, and the screaming girls who look close enough can maybe see liquid glittering on the dark fringe of those lashes--afterwards, his eyes always open clear and calm and so aware, so very aware of who they are. And then he smiles for the crowd, and they love him without really knowing why.
Junno, though, Junno can only do happy songs, bouncy and uplifting and fluffy--he knows it instictively, that he couldn't ever sing one of those achingly beautiful melodies that tears open a hole in the heart of every fan in the arena, slashes through the roof of the dome itself into the sky beyond. Junno knows, because he's never been in love, not the way Ueda has. He's had girlfriends, ones that he's flattered and cared for and loved, but he's never been *in* love, not really, and though he knows his bandmate has gone through more pain than it should be possible for a man to bear, he can't help envying Ueda for it.
Song: Easy as Life
Artist: Aida Soundtrack
Pairing: Genfic...but it turned into Akame
One by one, they're called into Johnny's office. All but Kame, because Kame's already there. Kame's the reason why. One by one, they leave the office, Ueda steely-faced, his eyes shuttered, Koki clinging to a pale Nakamaru who for once has impeccable posture. Junno walks with his shoulders hunched and smiles automatically when he meets a staff member halfway down the hallway before slamming his fist into the industrial whitewashed walls. Jin, though, is the last one. He emerges from the office with a soldier's face, one that no longer believes in tomorrow, no longer believes in hope. No longer believes in even the peace of death. Jin takes the first few steps with agonizing precision before staggering into the wall. He leans against it a moment before sliding down its warm wood-paneled surface to the floor, where he sits while the bustle of the jimusho office continues to race about. He doesn't care that he's embarrassing himself along with the mangers who eventually notice and come lean over him, all concerned eyes and useless words. Nothing matters anymore. Nothing's true, or real, or worth his attention. Because Kame's still in there, and when he comes out, he'll never be himself again.
(sheesh, three angsty ones in row. genre fail. please, magic shuffle-pod, happy songs, happy!)
Song: Rain
Artist: Ohno Satoshi
Pairing: Ryo/Nino
They kiss in the shadows on the side of the little ramen house, rushing towards each other, umbrellas forgotten and hanging by their sides like giant bulbous flowers as the rain pours down. Their lips meet in a reckless, desperate mashing, tougues tangling over each other, over all the words that they've said only in their imaginations these long months. It's messy and wet and cold and public, but they're here and it's all still true, and that's all that really matters in this moment as he pants into Nino's warm mouth and drops his umbrella to their feet. It rolls lopsidedly towards the street before getting stuck on a trash can, a giant red star in the corner of their vision.
(I am just full of clichés today...)
Song: Candle in the Window
Artist: Linda Eder
Pairing: Nino/Ohno--okay, I fail but Ohno had this adorable interview where he talked about how his mom stays up waiting for him to get back from work, late into the night and it was so perfect for this song...
It had been seven hours since sunset had blazed over a lazy summer Tokyo. Five since twilight had finally blended into true night. Now, the few stars that could withstand the city's neon glare peeked down at the few stragglers out on the streets as the faint sliver of moon in the sky frowned disapprovingly at Ohno. He exited the TV station into the loud night and sighed when he saw the taxi that awaited him. Not really a sigh of pleasure, but neither was it one of disappointment. Just an acknowledgment of something that was as it should be, in a night where too many things hadn't been.
The driver was discreet and blessedly silent as he wound his way through the slowly quieting streets. The engine's soft puttering and the exhaustion of the day lulled Ohno into sleep, his bag falling from slack fingers to the floor with a thump he'd never hear.
He woke to the driver's rumble of a voice informing him they'd arrived. Blinking, he stumbled out the door the other held open for him and shoved his hand into his bag to find his wallet. The man got back into the car and drove off several 1000 yen bills richer, and Ohno climbed up the steps to his smartly painted red door.
By now he knew just the right way to jiggle the key in the fickle lock, and entered silently. Expecting darkness, he was momentarily surpised by the glow of the living room lamp. But then his mother rose from the couch, dropping the novel in her hand on the table.
"Tadaima."
"Okaeri, Satoshi."
He sighed softly. She smiled. As it should be.
Song: Ordinary
Artist: Nishikido Ryo (that worked out well)
Pairing: Ryo/Kame
The brake lights stretch endlessly in front of him. Kame hits his palm on the steering wheel in frustration. It doesn't help the traffic, but it feels good to let out some of what he's been bottling up all day. He's chosen--well, Johnny has chosen for him--the role of the responsible one in KAT-TUN, which means he can't throw things like Junno and Koki do, or yell like Ueda, or sit in the corner and sulk like Maru does when he's angry. He especially can't do all of that and accompany it with a slew of English curses like Jin does. Sometimes he thinks that's all Jin learned over in America. Kame whacks the steering wheel again, then once more, harder, as the driver before him slides forward half a meter before stopping at the frantic signalling of the construction worker.
A shadow on his passenger side makes him frown. He peers suspiciously at the window, praying it's not a fan who's recognized him and been crazy enough to cross three lanes of heavy--albeit unmoving--traffic to take a picture and get run over when those bastards with the sign finally decide that they've tortured Kame enough and then sue the Jimusho for millions...
But it's not, it's a face he knows, and Kame unlocks the door and growls at the man who opens it. "Hurry up and get in, Nishikido, before you're crushed by a car."
Ryo smirks at him as he drops onto Kame's nice leather seats. "Put your seatbelt on," Kame says automatically, but Ryo's already buckling the strap.
"I'm not an idiot, Kamenashi, unlike certain bandmates of yours. Also, I'm far to sexy to die in a car crash."
Kame feels obligated to defend his group, despite having similar thoughts regarding their intelligence earlier that day. "Hey--Jin wears, well, usually wears his--"
"I never mentioned Akanishi." Ryo leans back in his seat and smirks at him again, and Kame's slightly panicked because now he's wondering which of the other members of his band are regularly courting death-by-traffic-accident.
"Who then?" he asks, his mind running through the possibilities. Ueda's got enough arrogance to think he wouldn't have to wear one. Koki might, too. Probably not Nakamaru, he's cautious and generally the most responsible after Kame himself. Junno though...
"Taguchi, of course," Ryo snorts. Kame's whipped out his phone and started calling before he knows it--Junno's speed dial number 2, after Jin and before -TUN because Kame's organized like that, so he's easy to reach.
He's on the third ring when Junno picks up and has just opened his mouth when Ryo reaches over and swipes the phone out of his hand, closing it on Taguchi's squawked hello. "Hey!" Kame says and reaches over to take it back.
Ryo holds it out the window (when had he rolled down the window?!) "The seatbelt police shouldn't talk on cell phones while driving."
"What? No, wait, but--I mean, we're not even moving, Ryo!"
"Really, Kamenashi, you're supposed to setting a good example for your bandmates--"
"Hey, don't drop that! And why are you of all people lecturing me? I wasn't the one who crashed his car into a sixty-year-old grandmother, sempai!"
Ryo pulls his arm back inside the car. Kame makes sure to check the road in front of him (no change) before snatching his phone back. He puts it back in his pocket and resolves to call Taguchi as soon as he get home. And Jin. And Ueda and Koki and Maru, for that matter. Just because.
"Wait, Ryo, what are you doing in my car, anyways?"
Ryo shrugs. "I'd just finished a meeting at the cafe over there when I saw you sitting here beating your steering wheel to death."
"And you thought it'd be a good idea to walk out into the middle of the street and hope I'd let you into the car?"
"Well," and that smug Nishikido grin, "You did let me in, didn't you?"
Kame can't argue with that, damn it, and so he just taps his fingers on the wheel grumpily.
Ryo's content with the silence for a little while, but then when Kame finally, finally gets to move a whole car-length forward, he pokes Kame. "Hey, ask me how I'm doing."
"What?" Kame looks at him, a little confused but mostly kind of annoyed.
"I'm your guest," Ryo says, "Entertain me."
"Fine. How are you, oh Nishikido-sempai?"
"Fabulous, thanks for asking. Except today Koyama got it into his head that we should all write in a diary together. To help "build member ai." I wouldn't care except Massu has already written in it six times and Yamapi three, and all either of them is doing is recording what they've eaten!"
Kame laughs at that, at the image of Yamapi buying something from a vending machine then going and carefully recording the snack in a small pink book with fluffy trim. It's probably more manly a diary than that--Kame himself has a sleek leather-bound one that he keeps for recording exceptional events--but then, it's Koyama so he shouldn't discount it. Ryo goes on to tell him about Massu's enormous lunch and Shige's new hairstyle and the mail he got from Yoko-on-behalf-of-the-rest-of-Kanjani which consisted of over thirty different near-pornographic animated icons. That reminds Kame of something Koki did, and they swap stories in earnest.
Before long, Kame is laughing, laughing hard. They clear the construction site twenty minutes later and Kame asks if he can give Ryo a lift anywhere. Ryo asks him to drop him off a couple block down. "What, are you sure?" Kame asks.
"My work here is done," Ryo replies, surprising Kame with his seriousness for a moment before he grins and gets out of the car. He waves cheekily at Kame as he drives off.
As he drives home, Kame starts singing Sukiyanen Osaka. He feels a lot lighter than when he did when Ryo first got into the car.
When he gets home, he thinks that maybe he doesn't need to call his bandmates to lecture them about car safety at all. But then he thinks about Junno bouncing around inside a car unrestrained and breaking his neck. He slides his phone out of his pocket and hits number two again, but this time he's smiling as he does so.
(Um, yeah, so this was an example of extreme "staying-within-the-time-limit-of-the-song fail. 1066 words, which pretty much makes it a short one-shot)
Song: Be Prepared (SUCH AN AWESOME SONG)
Artist: The Lion King Soundtrack
Pairing: Ueda/Kame
Kame had been the Prime Minister of the Sparkle Empire for four years now and the main power in the kingdom for three of those years. King Johnny had been glad to turn over the daily running of the Empire to Kame so he could occupy himself with his favorite pastime: shuffling all the junior ministers around from unit to unit.
As Prime Minister, Kame oversaw the Grand Cabinet, which was comprised of five members besides himself. That meant, unfortunately, that he couldn't ever skip any of the meetings.
He cringed when he saw Akanishi Jin, the previous Prime Minister's son, lounging with his feet on the priceless Sparkly Cabinet Table. Akanishi was Minister of State, and Kame supposed he was probably the most-well traveled of all of them, but he was pretty sure that Akanishi had spent a large portion of his time abroad partying. But he had a gift for foreign languages and a keen grasp of international politics, if a particular lack of tact.
Ministers of Finance and Labor Tanaka and Nakamaru were having a heated argument over tax laws in the corner. They'd both been appointed around the same time last year and each of them had a very strong agenda that they wanted to achieve. Unfortunately, while they got along fabulously outside of the office, their ideas of how the Empire should be run were frequently at odds.
Taguchi Junnosuke, the Minister of Justice, was busy fiendishly pressing buttons on his Blackberry. It was impressive. The man was the fastest emailer Kame'd ever met, processing hundreds, if not thousands of messages a day.
Kame settled himself at the head of the table. Minister of Defense Ueda Tatsuya was absent. No matter. Fewer things to talk about, and he'd be able to leave sooner. From the sound of the argument in the corner, he'd have plenty to handle without him.
Minister Akanishi had just finished his report when suddenly the doors to the Cabinet Chamber opened with such force they slammed into the wall. A troop of the Elite Sparkle Force in full battle armor (floor-length shimmery robes made of bulletproof mesh) brandishing sonic guns entered and spread out to cover...Kame?
From behind them stepped a slim, strangely barefoot man with a vaguely feminine haircut and the most terrifying smile Kame had ever seen. Ueda Tatsuya snapped his fingers and the ESF troops seized him and the other shocked Ministers.
Kame had a very bad feeling about this.
(Apparently I suck at actually writing pairings)
These were basically the first JE fics I ever wrote. So when I come back to these, there's some super!fail characterization (particularly in the Ryo/Yamapi one) from before I knew them better, but uh, too late now. Just be warned.
Various pairings
Rating for all: PG-13
Unedited, so there might be some interesting grammar
Song: Cry for You
Artist: Arashi
Pairing: Ryo/Yamapi
Yamapi's the band leader. Maybe it doesn't mean anything to him, but to Ryo--to Ryo NEWS is his in a way that Kanjani8 has never been. Eito are like his brothers, the way they fight and play and Ryo's one of the younger ones who gets picked on, but he doesn't have to make decisions if he doesn't want to, can leave that to Yoko or Subaru, can enjoy himself and just *be*. But NEWS is where he's been able to grow, been able to play to the music that swells within him. Yamapi's indifferent to it, unwilling to lead in any capacity other than the most minute, taking NEWS for granted--because everyone knows that, NEWS or not, Yamapi would still be the first among the so-called equals, always assured a TV appearance, a new single, another year of screaming fans. It's not that Ryo wants to be leader himself, to have that name and the prestige and the responsibility of speaking on the endless rounds of TV appearances. Ryo just wants Yamapi to care more, about NEWS, about him, and in his secret heart, about "them."
Song: Miserere
Artist: Russell Watson
Pairing: Ueda/Junno
Even when Ueda sings their ballads, the heartbreaking ones, the ones about love lost and given up and sacrificed--even then, his eyes have that serenity, that untouchability, the one that says "I have known love, I have lost it, I have lived on despite it, for it." Even in those climactic moments, when his voice soars and climbs, and the screaming girls who look close enough can maybe see liquid glittering on the dark fringe of those lashes--afterwards, his eyes always open clear and calm and so aware, so very aware of who they are. And then he smiles for the crowd, and they love him without really knowing why.
Junno, though, Junno can only do happy songs, bouncy and uplifting and fluffy--he knows it instictively, that he couldn't ever sing one of those achingly beautiful melodies that tears open a hole in the heart of every fan in the arena, slashes through the roof of the dome itself into the sky beyond. Junno knows, because he's never been in love, not the way Ueda has. He's had girlfriends, ones that he's flattered and cared for and loved, but he's never been *in* love, not really, and though he knows his bandmate has gone through more pain than it should be possible for a man to bear, he can't help envying Ueda for it.
Song: Easy as Life
Artist: Aida Soundtrack
Pairing: Genfic...but it turned into Akame
One by one, they're called into Johnny's office. All but Kame, because Kame's already there. Kame's the reason why. One by one, they leave the office, Ueda steely-faced, his eyes shuttered, Koki clinging to a pale Nakamaru who for once has impeccable posture. Junno walks with his shoulders hunched and smiles automatically when he meets a staff member halfway down the hallway before slamming his fist into the industrial whitewashed walls. Jin, though, is the last one. He emerges from the office with a soldier's face, one that no longer believes in tomorrow, no longer believes in hope. No longer believes in even the peace of death. Jin takes the first few steps with agonizing precision before staggering into the wall. He leans against it a moment before sliding down its warm wood-paneled surface to the floor, where he sits while the bustle of the jimusho office continues to race about. He doesn't care that he's embarrassing himself along with the mangers who eventually notice and come lean over him, all concerned eyes and useless words. Nothing matters anymore. Nothing's true, or real, or worth his attention. Because Kame's still in there, and when he comes out, he'll never be himself again.
(sheesh, three angsty ones in row. genre fail. please, magic shuffle-pod, happy songs, happy!)
Song: Rain
Artist: Ohno Satoshi
Pairing: Ryo/Nino
They kiss in the shadows on the side of the little ramen house, rushing towards each other, umbrellas forgotten and hanging by their sides like giant bulbous flowers as the rain pours down. Their lips meet in a reckless, desperate mashing, tougues tangling over each other, over all the words that they've said only in their imaginations these long months. It's messy and wet and cold and public, but they're here and it's all still true, and that's all that really matters in this moment as he pants into Nino's warm mouth and drops his umbrella to their feet. It rolls lopsidedly towards the street before getting stuck on a trash can, a giant red star in the corner of their vision.
(I am just full of clichés today...)
Song: Candle in the Window
Artist: Linda Eder
Pairing: Nino/Ohno--okay, I fail but Ohno had this adorable interview where he talked about how his mom stays up waiting for him to get back from work, late into the night and it was so perfect for this song...
It had been seven hours since sunset had blazed over a lazy summer Tokyo. Five since twilight had finally blended into true night. Now, the few stars that could withstand the city's neon glare peeked down at the few stragglers out on the streets as the faint sliver of moon in the sky frowned disapprovingly at Ohno. He exited the TV station into the loud night and sighed when he saw the taxi that awaited him. Not really a sigh of pleasure, but neither was it one of disappointment. Just an acknowledgment of something that was as it should be, in a night where too many things hadn't been.
The driver was discreet and blessedly silent as he wound his way through the slowly quieting streets. The engine's soft puttering and the exhaustion of the day lulled Ohno into sleep, his bag falling from slack fingers to the floor with a thump he'd never hear.
He woke to the driver's rumble of a voice informing him they'd arrived. Blinking, he stumbled out the door the other held open for him and shoved his hand into his bag to find his wallet. The man got back into the car and drove off several 1000 yen bills richer, and Ohno climbed up the steps to his smartly painted red door.
By now he knew just the right way to jiggle the key in the fickle lock, and entered silently. Expecting darkness, he was momentarily surpised by the glow of the living room lamp. But then his mother rose from the couch, dropping the novel in her hand on the table.
"Tadaima."
"Okaeri, Satoshi."
He sighed softly. She smiled. As it should be.
Song: Ordinary
Artist: Nishikido Ryo (that worked out well)
Pairing: Ryo/Kame
The brake lights stretch endlessly in front of him. Kame hits his palm on the steering wheel in frustration. It doesn't help the traffic, but it feels good to let out some of what he's been bottling up all day. He's chosen--well, Johnny has chosen for him--the role of the responsible one in KAT-TUN, which means he can't throw things like Junno and Koki do, or yell like Ueda, or sit in the corner and sulk like Maru does when he's angry. He especially can't do all of that and accompany it with a slew of English curses like Jin does. Sometimes he thinks that's all Jin learned over in America. Kame whacks the steering wheel again, then once more, harder, as the driver before him slides forward half a meter before stopping at the frantic signalling of the construction worker.
A shadow on his passenger side makes him frown. He peers suspiciously at the window, praying it's not a fan who's recognized him and been crazy enough to cross three lanes of heavy--albeit unmoving--traffic to take a picture and get run over when those bastards with the sign finally decide that they've tortured Kame enough and then sue the Jimusho for millions...
But it's not, it's a face he knows, and Kame unlocks the door and growls at the man who opens it. "Hurry up and get in, Nishikido, before you're crushed by a car."
Ryo smirks at him as he drops onto Kame's nice leather seats. "Put your seatbelt on," Kame says automatically, but Ryo's already buckling the strap.
"I'm not an idiot, Kamenashi, unlike certain bandmates of yours. Also, I'm far to sexy to die in a car crash."
Kame feels obligated to defend his group, despite having similar thoughts regarding their intelligence earlier that day. "Hey--Jin wears, well, usually wears his--"
"I never mentioned Akanishi." Ryo leans back in his seat and smirks at him again, and Kame's slightly panicked because now he's wondering which of the other members of his band are regularly courting death-by-traffic-accident.
"Who then?" he asks, his mind running through the possibilities. Ueda's got enough arrogance to think he wouldn't have to wear one. Koki might, too. Probably not Nakamaru, he's cautious and generally the most responsible after Kame himself. Junno though...
"Taguchi, of course," Ryo snorts. Kame's whipped out his phone and started calling before he knows it--Junno's speed dial number 2, after Jin and before -TUN because Kame's organized like that, so he's easy to reach.
He's on the third ring when Junno picks up and has just opened his mouth when Ryo reaches over and swipes the phone out of his hand, closing it on Taguchi's squawked hello. "Hey!" Kame says and reaches over to take it back.
Ryo holds it out the window (when had he rolled down the window?!) "The seatbelt police shouldn't talk on cell phones while driving."
"What? No, wait, but--I mean, we're not even moving, Ryo!"
"Really, Kamenashi, you're supposed to setting a good example for your bandmates--"
"Hey, don't drop that! And why are you of all people lecturing me? I wasn't the one who crashed his car into a sixty-year-old grandmother, sempai!"
Ryo pulls his arm back inside the car. Kame makes sure to check the road in front of him (no change) before snatching his phone back. He puts it back in his pocket and resolves to call Taguchi as soon as he get home. And Jin. And Ueda and Koki and Maru, for that matter. Just because.
"Wait, Ryo, what are you doing in my car, anyways?"
Ryo shrugs. "I'd just finished a meeting at the cafe over there when I saw you sitting here beating your steering wheel to death."
"And you thought it'd be a good idea to walk out into the middle of the street and hope I'd let you into the car?"
"Well," and that smug Nishikido grin, "You did let me in, didn't you?"
Kame can't argue with that, damn it, and so he just taps his fingers on the wheel grumpily.
Ryo's content with the silence for a little while, but then when Kame finally, finally gets to move a whole car-length forward, he pokes Kame. "Hey, ask me how I'm doing."
"What?" Kame looks at him, a little confused but mostly kind of annoyed.
"I'm your guest," Ryo says, "Entertain me."
"Fine. How are you, oh Nishikido-sempai?"
"Fabulous, thanks for asking. Except today Koyama got it into his head that we should all write in a diary together. To help "build member ai." I wouldn't care except Massu has already written in it six times and Yamapi three, and all either of them is doing is recording what they've eaten!"
Kame laughs at that, at the image of Yamapi buying something from a vending machine then going and carefully recording the snack in a small pink book with fluffy trim. It's probably more manly a diary than that--Kame himself has a sleek leather-bound one that he keeps for recording exceptional events--but then, it's Koyama so he shouldn't discount it. Ryo goes on to tell him about Massu's enormous lunch and Shige's new hairstyle and the mail he got from Yoko-on-behalf-of-the-rest-of-Kanjani which consisted of over thirty different near-pornographic animated icons. That reminds Kame of something Koki did, and they swap stories in earnest.
Before long, Kame is laughing, laughing hard. They clear the construction site twenty minutes later and Kame asks if he can give Ryo a lift anywhere. Ryo asks him to drop him off a couple block down. "What, are you sure?" Kame asks.
"My work here is done," Ryo replies, surprising Kame with his seriousness for a moment before he grins and gets out of the car. He waves cheekily at Kame as he drives off.
As he drives home, Kame starts singing Sukiyanen Osaka. He feels a lot lighter than when he did when Ryo first got into the car.
When he gets home, he thinks that maybe he doesn't need to call his bandmates to lecture them about car safety at all. But then he thinks about Junno bouncing around inside a car unrestrained and breaking his neck. He slides his phone out of his pocket and hits number two again, but this time he's smiling as he does so.
(Um, yeah, so this was an example of extreme "staying-within-the-time-limit-of-the-song fail. 1066 words, which pretty much makes it a short one-shot)
Song: Be Prepared (SUCH AN AWESOME SONG)
Artist: The Lion King Soundtrack
Pairing: Ueda/Kame
Kame had been the Prime Minister of the Sparkle Empire for four years now and the main power in the kingdom for three of those years. King Johnny had been glad to turn over the daily running of the Empire to Kame so he could occupy himself with his favorite pastime: shuffling all the junior ministers around from unit to unit.
As Prime Minister, Kame oversaw the Grand Cabinet, which was comprised of five members besides himself. That meant, unfortunately, that he couldn't ever skip any of the meetings.
He cringed when he saw Akanishi Jin, the previous Prime Minister's son, lounging with his feet on the priceless Sparkly Cabinet Table. Akanishi was Minister of State, and Kame supposed he was probably the most-well traveled of all of them, but he was pretty sure that Akanishi had spent a large portion of his time abroad partying. But he had a gift for foreign languages and a keen grasp of international politics, if a particular lack of tact.
Ministers of Finance and Labor Tanaka and Nakamaru were having a heated argument over tax laws in the corner. They'd both been appointed around the same time last year and each of them had a very strong agenda that they wanted to achieve. Unfortunately, while they got along fabulously outside of the office, their ideas of how the Empire should be run were frequently at odds.
Taguchi Junnosuke, the Minister of Justice, was busy fiendishly pressing buttons on his Blackberry. It was impressive. The man was the fastest emailer Kame'd ever met, processing hundreds, if not thousands of messages a day.
Kame settled himself at the head of the table. Minister of Defense Ueda Tatsuya was absent. No matter. Fewer things to talk about, and he'd be able to leave sooner. From the sound of the argument in the corner, he'd have plenty to handle without him.
Minister Akanishi had just finished his report when suddenly the doors to the Cabinet Chamber opened with such force they slammed into the wall. A troop of the Elite Sparkle Force in full battle armor (floor-length shimmery robes made of bulletproof mesh) brandishing sonic guns entered and spread out to cover...Kame?
From behind them stepped a slim, strangely barefoot man with a vaguely feminine haircut and the most terrifying smile Kame had ever seen. Ueda Tatsuya snapped his fingers and the ESF troops seized him and the other shocked Ministers.
Kame had a very bad feeling about this.
(Apparently I suck at actually writing pairings)