(no subject)
Title: No one’s fault {Chapter 2}
Author: Mistress_astute
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Johnny ‘s...
“So what did you get from him?” Nakamaru asked anxiously as Ueda took a seat beside him.
Kame had gone to chat with Koki while Junno was still stuck in his game world. Jin was fast asleep on the couch which Nakamaru previously occupied. Ueda silently waged that even a fire would not wake him up.
“Nothing,” Ueda replied apologetically. “Maybe you should have gone instead.”
“Nah, it wouldn’t have made a difference. How many times have we tried to get him to tell us what’s troubling him already? Every single time he either starts talking about something else or he distracts us so much that we won’t even remember we had something to ask him,” Nakamaru said, shaking his head.
“I know there’s something wrong. I know something happened but I don’t know what,” Ueda said in frustration, raking his hand through his hair.
“I know what happened,” Nakamaru said, causing Ueda to look at him in shock.
“Kame won’t tell us anything but Jin will,” Nakamaru explained, nodding his head in Jin’s direction as Ueda nodded in understanding.
“When you went after Kame just now, I asked him what happened,” Nakamaru said before going into details of what Jin had told him.
Ueda nodded every once in a while as Nakamaru’s words sank into him. After Nakamaru concluded, Ueda had the same expression as Nakamaru had a few moments ago. The expression of confusion was evident in his face.
“Why would Kame be angry at Jin apologising? But before that why did he even talk to Jin?” Ueda deliberated.
“Yes, I understand what you’re saying. After all, Kame had been ignoring Jin ever since he came back. That was probably the first conversation they had in years,” Nakamaru said before adding, “even if it was not much.”
“It makes absolutely no sense,” Ueda said, convinced. “Kame has taken a leave of his senses.”
With that statement, Nakamaru whacked Ueda on the head softly, causing them both to spill into laughter.
“Kame must have a reason,” Nakamaru said in the end.
“Yes, I know,” Ueda replied. “I just wished that he would tell us already.”
Nakamaru looked over to Jin with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“If this is how we’re feeling, imagine how he’s feeling.”
Ueda nodded in agreement.
“True, I just don’t understand why Kame doesn’t forgive him already,” Ueda muttered.
They both fell into a comfortable silence as they pondered over the weird situation they were in. Clearly, Kame must have forgiven Jin at least a little if he talked to Jin as nicely as Jin had said. However, the truth still remained a mystery. They could only wait and watch to see what happens.
At the other corner of the room, another conversation was going on.
“Kame-chan,” Koki said, slinging an arm around Kame’s shoulder. “I thought you and Uepi went to get a drink?”
“We did but nothing looked nice,” Kame answered with a smile, knowing that Nakamaru had covered up for him. He sent Nakamaru a silent word of thanks.
“Oh,” Koki said and pointed towards Jin’s direction.
“The one time he comes earlier than us he ends up sleeping on the couch,” Koki said and burst into laughter. Kame followed suit.
“True but he must be tired. He isn’t exactly a morning riser is he?”
Maybe it was the tone of Kame’s voice or maybe it was because Koki assumed that Kame never stopped loving Jin as much as he did, but Koki turned to Kame.
There was a soft and loving expression on Kame’s face. It was a tender one, a one that showed all kinds of positive emotions. It was one that no one has seen for a long time. The expression that was reserved only for Jin. But it was gone as soon as it came and Koki could not be certain that he saw it.
“Ma ~ a ~, we have to wake him up soon though,” Kame said sternly. “Our work’s starting soon and I’ll be damned if I wait even one second for him.”
Koki laughed again, this time slightly louder. He lowered the volume when he saw Jin shifting in his sleep, not wanting to wake the man up. He certainly needed all the sleep he could get before work start.
“That’s just like you, Kame-chan,” he said after the laughter had subsidised.
“Work is important!” Kame insisted.
Koki just smiled as an unexpected thought drifted into his mind. It felt as if it were just yesterday even though in reality five years have already passed.
--
“Kazuya,” Jin lazily slurred out from his position on the couch. “There is no need to take this work so seriously. We’re not even a debuted group.”
“Oh shut up, Jin,” Kame retorted as he practised the dance steps. “Debuted or not, work is work.”
“But you’ve already mastered that dance!” Jin complained. “Now, why not take a break and lie here with me?”
“Yes, I’ve mastered it. I want to perfect it,” Kame replied, not once stopping whatever he was doing.
“Perfectionist,” Jin scoffed.
“Thank you.”
“Stop bickering,” Ueda said in annoyance. “Jin, if you’re so tired just sleep already! Stop pestering Kame.”
“Well said, Tat-chan,” Kame agreed happily while Jin scowled.
“But - ”
“Save your excuses!” Koki commanded in an arrogant tone.
“You guys are always nicer to Kame!” Jin exclaimed in irritation but everyone could see the sparkle in his eyes.
“Kame-chan, you should be nicer to Jin sometimes too,” Junno said though he was laughing.
“After all, isn’t he your husband?” Nakamaru asked, earning amused looks from everyone in the room.
Kame paused midway through the dance and looked at Jin thoughtfully.
“I agree with Maru,” Jin told him smugly. “After all, I am your husband.”
“Why dear, if you’re my husband then work is my wife,” Kame announced as haughtily as Jin did if not more.
The room burst out into a new string of laughter as Jin’s face turned sour. Seeing the expression on Jin’s face caused the others, including Kame, to snigger more.
“All of you are just plain cruel!”
--
A hand waving vigorously in front of him caused Koki to snap out of his reverie. Kame’s worried face invaded his sight and he smiled at the younger boy in assurance.
“What happened to you?” Kame asked, flopping back onto the couch. “You just spaced out halfway while I was talking.”
“I was thinking about some stuff,” Koki answered, not mentioning what ‘some stuff’ was.
Kame, never being one to pry into other’s personal business, left it at that and continued talking to Koki about baseball, which was apparently what he was talking about before he realised that Koki was in some place away.
A knock on the door stopped everyone doing whatever they were doing. Well, with the exception of Jin who was still sleeping like a log. Ueda asked whoever it was to enter and the door opened to reveal their manager.
“Alright, work starts now,” he said, eyeing Jin. “I’ll see you in the car in ten minutes.”
With that, he turned to leave. Just before he closed the door behind him, he looked back.
“Someone, wake Akanishi-san up,” he said at last before leaving to the car.
“Well, you heard the guy,” Koki said, standing up as he stretched. “Someone wake that pig up.”
“Who should do that?” Nakamaru asked. “We all know that he’s extremely hard to rouse from sleep.”
“We have ourselves a volunteer!” Koki declared as he strutted out of the room, leaving Nakamaru gaping behind him.
“Good luck, Maru!” Kame said encouraging before escaping the room.
Ueda walked over to Junno, plucked the game consol out of his and promptly switched it off, obviously not caring whether the game was saved or not.
“What the hell did you...” Junno shouted but trailed off as he saw the icy gaze that Ueda sent him.
“Oh my, look at the time! And where’s Koki and Kame-chan? Let’s go find them!!” Junno exclaimed and literally fled the room with Ueda casually following him.
“Good luck Maru.”
Ueda’s distant voice echoed down the hallway and Nakamaru sighed in resignation. It was up to him to wake that dead pig up.
“Jin,” he nudged him. “Wake up.”
As expected, there was no response from the other man. Nakamaru looked at the clock ticking away. He knew that he had not much time left and he honestly did not want to get a scolding from their manager or even worse, Kame. With a sigh, he bent down and touched Jin’s most sensitive spot, his collar bone.
A high pitch screech filled the room and Nakamaru had to cover his ears least his eardrums burst. After what felt like an awfully long time, the scream subsidised and Jin looked around the room.
“Where did everyone go?” he asked.
“They went to the car already,” Nakamaru said, watching Jin get up and arrange himself. “We’d best hurry before Kame yells at us for being late.”
They slowly turned to the clock and both shuddered at the mental image of their youngest member and immediately scrambled out of the room. They dashed down the stairs, not bothering to take the lift. It would have taken too long. In record time, they reached the car and practically jumped inside.
“Wow,” Ueda commented, skimming over their appearance.
They were both flushed red and panting heavily as they tried to catch their breath back. The first few buttons of Jin’s shirt were undone, leaving his tanned chest exposed with beads of perspiration trailing down.
The other two members looked at them in amazement. Kame merely looked at them in disdain and annoyance.
“You were almost late. In fact, you were one second from being late. And button up Akanishi,” he snapped and Jin immediately did as he was told.
The car ride was spent with the members of KAT-TUN chatting and joking and laughing. Jin felt a bit disappointed when Kame did not even glance at him, much less talk to him. For the better half of the car journey, he had kept silent, looking out of the window, wondering about the occurrence that morning.
Why did Kame talk to him?
That was pretty much all he thought about all day. What was worse was that Kame snapped and glared at him every time he spaced out, which was quite often. The day passed by in a flash, with him not even remembering what he did that day.
--
“Otsukare-sama,” Junno sing-sang as he bounced out of the room with Jin trailing tiredly behind him.
Everyone wondered where he got all his energy from. Better yet, they wondered why he was so energetic even after a whole day of work.
“Otsukare-sama,” Koki said as he and Nakamaru left the dressing room afterwards, both exhausted and in dire need of sleep.
“Kame-chan, need a ride home?” Ueda asked as he placed the last of his things in his bag and slinging it over his shoulder.
“No, it’s fine,” Kame said as he walked towards the door. “I drove today. Didn’t you see my car?”
“Now that you mentioned it, I think I did,” Ueda said and laughed.
“Let’s go,” Kame said as they left the dressing room, chatting with each other animatedly.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Ueda told Kame and Kame nodded.
Kame walked over to his car and drove off.
--
Kame got out of his car and headed towards an apartment. He smiled at the security guard who beamed back in acknowledgement. Kame made his way to the lift and pressed the number 20, which was incidentally the highest level.
He walked to a familiar door and rang the doorbell, waiting for it to be opened. He waited no more than five seconds as the door swung open, revealing a beautiful young woman around his age. Her average height of 167 made her slightly shorter than Kame but she was neither plump nor thin, and somewhere between those two.
She instantly grinned when she saw him and he smiled back equally as happy as she was.
“Hi,” Kame said as he went inside the house and into the living room.
He settled down on the couch and made himself comfortable as she sat down beside him.
“I thought you weren’t able to come today?” she mused.
“I had time,” he replied, glancing at the clock. “Though I must say that this is a rather inappropriate timing.”
“Yes,” she chuckled. “Yes, it is.”
“Is Ryu asleep?” he questioned.
“Yes, he is,” she replied. “He wouldn’t be up this late. It’s way past midnight.”
“Riko-mama, is Kazu-papa here?” a childish voice asked.
Just then, a door creaked open and a small boy emerged, carrying a teddy bear which was almost as big as him. Seeing Kame sitting in the living room, he grinned and dashed over, plopping himself onto the elder’s lap.
“You were saying, Riko?” Kame asked, laughing.
“Well, he must really like you then,” she said, giggling as she ruffled the boy’s head.
“Of course I like Kazu-papa,” Ryu said childishly as he wrapped his tiny arms around Kame’s neck. “Kazu-papa’s nice...”
Soon afterwards, the little boy fell asleep on Kame. With a small smile, Kame passed the child back to Riko. Riko carried Ryu to his room and tucked him in gently before coming out from the room.
“Well, I should be leaving now,” Kame said, stretching.
“Yes, you should. In fact, you shouldn’t have bothered to come, with your work and all,” Riko said, shaking her head.
“You sound like my mother,” Kame retorted as he headed towards the door.
Riko laughed as she walked him to the door.
“Well, then I need to take care of two children then,” she said.
Kame gave her a pointed look and she started giggling again.
“I am the same age as you my dear and please don’t make it sound like I have never raised Ryu at all,” he told her.
She gave him a warm smiled and pecked him lightly on the cheek.
“I know, Kazuya, I know,” she muttered. “Now leave. I don’t want to have to go wake you up tomorrow morning.”
With that being said, she ushered him out of her flat and shut the door tightly behind him. Kame smiled at the closed door before striding to the door opposite Riko’s.
“What’s the rush?” he murmured, pouting slightly as he unlocked the door in front of him. “I only live next door.”