In Between - Chapter 2
Title: In Between
Pairings: Akame, more later
Rating: PG-13
Summary: After watching his friends split up in a rather violent and sudden manner, Akanishi Jin sets out to glue and mend the four of them back together.
Prologue// Chapter 1
Chapter 2:
With every best friend he hung out with, he loved and felt happy in a different way. When he was with Kame, there was an inwardly serene atmosphere, with Pi, he was relaxed, and with Ryo…it was quite the opposite.
His stomach hurt from laughing too hard.
And he couldn’t cease the laughter as he watched Maru pull another stunt. Being around the eight meant never having a dull moment. “Eight rangers, assemble!”
The eight of them gathered and struck a pose before running into the restaurant and taking their seats. Still laughing, he followed them in and sat down beside his best friend and Yu. Watching them sputter and choke on their food when a good joke was told or when Subaru attempted to tsukkomi someone.
He often wondered how they managed to stay funny without ever recycling their jokes. A person couldn’t help but smile when they were around such a bunch idiots.
Jin looked over at Ryo laughing with Uchi at Subaru. Uchi was Ryo’s favorite in the group, it wasn’t hard to see. He was the same age as Kame and his ranger color was pink which was Pi’s color…his mind often made strange connections like that.
Anything to fool him into thinking there was still a chance of them getting back together.
-------------------------
After they finished eating and fooling around for awhile, the seven had rolled off, leaving him and the shorter boy alone. Ryo looked over with a grin, “so, what do you feel like doing?”
Even without the seven, the atmosphere he had around Ryo was always fun and lighthearted. He shrugged, “what’s there to do?”
The younger boy scanned the streets for a moment before randomly pointing, “Let’s go to that store.”
“Sure.”
-------------------------
Inside the store, there were tons of random things on sale. Ryo grabbed an enormous elastic band and showed him with a laugh, “doesn’t this give you memories? Remember when we got one of these and played tug-o-war with it?”
He winced and nodded, “it’s not my best memory…”
-------------------------
The three were waiting for Ryo as he dug through his room for something. He’d been boasting about it, getting them hyped up for it all day, promising it to be fun and absolutely exciting. When he came back out, they were shown a gigantic rubber band. Pi had a large grin on his face, “where’d you get that?”
“Nii-san gave it to me,” the boy stated proudly.
Kame looked in awe, “you’re so lucky…mine never give me anything…”
Ryo ruffled his hair, “that’s because yours didn’t break your arm when you were younger. But that’s okay, let’s go play!”
So they set out and did just that. They used it as a sling shot, and tried stretching it as far as it would go. It amused them to no end. Then he came up with a brilliant idea, “let’s play tug-o-war with it!”
The three looked at him excitedly, “Yea! That’ll be fun!”
“Okay, me and Kame will be on one side, Ryo-chan and Pi, you guys can be on the other team, okay? It balances out ‘cause Ryo-chan and Kame are tiny.”
The shorter two shot him halfhearted glares and took their position.
“Ready, set, go!”
The four began tugging as hard as they could when Ryo noticed something amiss, “Pi…if we win…won’t it come snapping back at us…?”
Yamapi’s eyes widened and the two stopped tugging, “what should we do?”
“…should we let go?”
“But what about those two?”
“We can tell them to jump?”
On the other side, Kame blinked, “Jin, why did they stop tugging?”
“I don’t know,” he gave the band a sharp tug, pulling it out of the other pair’s grasp.
The next thing he knew, his teammate and jumped away with a terrified scream and he was in a lot of pain.
-------------------------
He rubbed his arm and muttered, “I hate big elastic bands…”
Ryo laughed, “You should’ve seen your face! My team was wondering about what we were going to do too.”
Out of the three, Ryo was the only one who was willing to talk about the past in such an open manner. Though, he made another mental note, he refused to use Yamapi’s name in any context. And while Kame didn’t mind cutting the corners and touching on it lightly, he found that Pi avoided it altogether.
The younger boy shot him a boyish grin, “Man, imagine if those two were here, they’d probably be laughing as hard as me right now.”
He was pretty sure that the three of them had the desire to become friends again, but no one ever spoke of it. If anyone could really supply him with hope, it’d be Ryo, the boy who could switch from being verbally abusive to shy within seconds.
Ryo had a policy where he liked honesty and being direct, no matter how bad it looked. But the younger boy knew what was acceptable and what wasn’t, and voicing his desire to become friends once more with the other two wasn’t acceptable. On the other hand, while he wouldn’t mention his wants, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell someone off when his ex-friends were being talked about.
So when a new comer was talking bad about the other two group leaders, the yellow ranger stepped in with a frown, “What were you saying?”
“That Yamashita and Kamenashi are pansies?”
“Don’t talk about people you don’t know, kid. And if you were going to anyways, I suggest you do it to their face and see what they think of it.”
“Why are you defending them!?”
“Because I knew them, and I still have respect for them. Not to mention they weren’t pansies, so don’t you dare talk about them like that or else I’ll come beat you up, got it?”
He could’ve sung for joy that day.
-------------------------
When they were back out on the streets, he looked over, “Hey Ryo-chan…”
The shorter boy turned his attention to him for about two seconds before eyes a store down the street, “Yea? Do you want ice cream? I want ice cream…”
“But we just ate!”
“So? I want ice cream.”
He laughed, “Why are you so tiny, I swear, you eat more than me!”
Ryo grinned, “It’s magic. So what were you asking?”
“I was wondering…do you miss it?”
“Miss what?”
Jin pursed his lips, “hanging out with Kame and Pi.”
The other paused hesitantly, “…yea, sometimes I guess. But things have changed and you can’t really control it so there’s no point in lingering too long on the past.”
“What if it was the future? What if we could all become friends again?”
Ryo shrugged, “I wouldn’t mind, it’d be kind of nice, I guess. I don’t really care. Why? Are you going to try something stupid again?”
“Not that I know of…I was just wondering…”
The younger boy dipped his head understandingly, “I see…let’s go get ice cream.”
-------------------------
After ordering their ice cream, he continued on the topic, “Ryo-chan, do you actually want to be friends with Pi and Kame again?”
There, he’d wandered off into the forbidden topic, the one that even the shorter boy skimmed around. The other gave a shrug.
He frowned, “It’s a yes or no question.”
Ryo shrugged again, “I do, I don’t, I have no clue. Does it still bother you that much?”
“Yes.”
“Ah…your stubbornness hasn’t changed at all, it’s kind of relieving actually.”
Jin gave a soft smile, “Ryo-chan…”
“So this is all you’ve been thinking about?”
“Pretty much.”
The younger boy nodded, “alright, just for that, you’re paying for my ice cream.”
“What? Why!?”
“Because clearly, I’m not at the center of the universe as I should be right now.”
He furled his brows, “…isn’t the sun at the center of the universe?”
Ryo let out a laugh, “Your stupidity hasn’t changed either.”
“Hey!”
“That’s almost as good as that time we were playing hide and seek,” the other rubbed the back of his neck, “Ah, how nostalgic…”
-------------------------
“Okay! Ryo-chan’s it!”
The younger boy let out a protest on his own behalf, “What!? Why!?”
He grinned, “Because you won janken!”
“But…”
“It’s quicker this way, so close your eyes! We’ll stay in the house, I promise!”
Pi grinned, “No peeking, Ryo-chan!”
The shorter boy shrugged it off, it wasn’t as though it was difficult, playing hide and seek with those three, “whatever, hurry up and hide, I’m going to start counting.”
As Ryo counted, he could hear the eldest snickering, “okay, here’s what we do, Pi, you go hide in the closet, Kame-chan, you hide in Ryo-chan’s room and I’ll be in the laundry room. Got it? Let’s go! He’ll never find us!”
It took all his willpower to suppress his snickering.
After Ryo finished counting, he walked around for a bit and grabbed a snack before actually ‘looking’ for the three. He knew for a fact that Jin would be in the laundry room, sometimes Pi wanted his hiding spot so they’d both be found in the same place, other times, Pi would listen and hide where he was told. Kame on the other hand, was usually more of a critical thinker; he’d end up finding his own hiding spot.
He wandered into the laundry room where he could hear rustling and giggles beneath the blanket which conveniently hid two lumps of something underneath, “found you Jin, Pi.”
The two pulled the blanket off with identical pouts, “how’d you find us so quickly, Ryo-chan?”
The shorter boy hid a grin and shrugged, “I guess I’m just good at this game.”
Pi blinked, “did you find Kame-chan yet?”
“Nope.”
“How come you always find him last?”
“I guess he’s just lucky.”
Jin smiled, not at all affected by being found, “Let’s go look for him together then!”
Ryo grinned, “first one to find Kame gets to pick who’s it the next round! Pi’s on my team!”
He protested loudly, “What!? That’s two against one!”
The shorter boy blinked, “Yea? So?”
“But…”
Suddenly, a voice interrupted them, “It’s okay, I’ve won already.”
The three looked over to see Kame standing in front of a mirror, a triumphant grin on his face, “See? I found myself,” he pointed at the mirror, “does that mean I get to pick who’s it next?”
The elder two furled their brows at the idea while Pi gave a shrug, “that sounds fair, so who’s it?”
Kame gave a smile, “Jin.”
Jin stared at the youngest boy, “What!? Me!? Why are you guys always against me!?”
Yamapi laughed, “Who cares? It’s a game, and after this round we can go eat something! Let’s start already! Ryo-chan’s going to be hiding with me!”
“Huh?”
“Come on, I know a really good hiding place! It’s-” The younger boy paused and looked over at him, “whoa, almost gave it all away there. Jin, close your eyes and start counting! And no cheating!”
He let out a laugh and covered his eyes, “One…two…”
Pi gave a happy grin and tugged the other two’s arms, pulling them towards his secret hiding place. The shorter pair could only exchange grins at his enthusiasm and allow themselves to be dragged away.
-------------------------
“Those were the days…” the shorter boy’s words died off as they stopped walking. He blinked and followed the other’s gaze over to a figure standing down the street.
It was Kame.
The other stood equally stiff, watching the two of them; Jin looked at the two, “Ryo-chan…? Should we say hi? Can we say hi to Kame?”
Ryo hesitated for a moment before turning around, “you can say hi if you want, I’m going.”
He wished he knew what his friend was thinking, but he didn’t push for an answer. Slowly, he followed the other, looking back as he did so.
The younger boy made a telephone gesture.
Jin nodded in return and held his pinky out to the other as he disappeared into the crowd.
Kame merely stood there, holding his pinky up, even after the two had vanished from his sight.
-------------------------
“Is it really impossible after all?”
His friend raised a brow and looked over, “Huh?”
Jin frowned, “You basically ran away from Kame just now.”
The other took a bite of his ice cream and defended himself, “I didn’t want to start anything, that’s all.”
He tried not to have an accusing tone, but he found it difficult to keep it out of his voice, “You know, this would be fixed so much faster if one of you guys would just apologize and get it over with. You said so yourself, you said you wouldn’t mind if everyone became friends again.”
Ryo gave an annoyed huff and looked away, “Don’t use my words against me. This is different. Anyways, you only said if we could be friends again in the future, you didn’t say anything about anyone apologizing.”
“I thought it’d be obvious that apologies would be involved. Why can’t you just take the initiative and apologize?”
“Stupid Jin, it’s not that easy,” the shorter boy watched as throngs of faceless people moved to and thro, he frowned and repeated himself, “it’s not that easy. Anyways, I can’t apologize to just one person…and I can’t really apologize to Kamenashi before…before I…”
Jin blinked, watching as his friend stared at his feet. He was radiating so many things at once, sadness, anger, longing, hesitation…and hurt. The hurt was obviously still there, even after all those years…
The elder sighed and wrapped an arm around the other’s shoulders, “I’m not going to push this, but things will work out, just watch. You, me, Pi and Kame are all going to be friends again.”
Ryo fidgeted slightly, the depressing atmosphere slowly lifted away, “Fat Jin…you should lose some weight, even your arm weighs a ton.”
He laughed, “Skinny monkey, you’ve just got weak shoulders, that’s all.”
----------------
Updated! Whoo! And here's my shameless advertising for myself: If you like DN Angel fanfics, here's my FF profile thinger since I've recently began updating them again =] Anyways, enough of that, after the next chapter I'm going to (try to) pick up the pace (hopefully) :P Wow it's weird, I'm in a really good mood but I'm tired as hell. Anyways, thanks commenters and enjoy!
Pairings: Akame, more later
Rating: PG-13
Summary: After watching his friends split up in a rather violent and sudden manner, Akanishi Jin sets out to glue and mend the four of them back together.
Prologue// Chapter 1
Chapter 2:
With every best friend he hung out with, he loved and felt happy in a different way. When he was with Kame, there was an inwardly serene atmosphere, with Pi, he was relaxed, and with Ryo…it was quite the opposite.
His stomach hurt from laughing too hard.
And he couldn’t cease the laughter as he watched Maru pull another stunt. Being around the eight meant never having a dull moment. “Eight rangers, assemble!”
The eight of them gathered and struck a pose before running into the restaurant and taking their seats. Still laughing, he followed them in and sat down beside his best friend and Yu. Watching them sputter and choke on their food when a good joke was told or when Subaru attempted to tsukkomi someone.
He often wondered how they managed to stay funny without ever recycling their jokes. A person couldn’t help but smile when they were around such a bunch idiots.
Jin looked over at Ryo laughing with Uchi at Subaru. Uchi was Ryo’s favorite in the group, it wasn’t hard to see. He was the same age as Kame and his ranger color was pink which was Pi’s color…his mind often made strange connections like that.
Anything to fool him into thinking there was still a chance of them getting back together.
-------------------------
After they finished eating and fooling around for awhile, the seven had rolled off, leaving him and the shorter boy alone. Ryo looked over with a grin, “so, what do you feel like doing?”
Even without the seven, the atmosphere he had around Ryo was always fun and lighthearted. He shrugged, “what’s there to do?”
The younger boy scanned the streets for a moment before randomly pointing, “Let’s go to that store.”
“Sure.”
-------------------------
Inside the store, there were tons of random things on sale. Ryo grabbed an enormous elastic band and showed him with a laugh, “doesn’t this give you memories? Remember when we got one of these and played tug-o-war with it?”
He winced and nodded, “it’s not my best memory…”
-------------------------
The three were waiting for Ryo as he dug through his room for something. He’d been boasting about it, getting them hyped up for it all day, promising it to be fun and absolutely exciting. When he came back out, they were shown a gigantic rubber band. Pi had a large grin on his face, “where’d you get that?”
“Nii-san gave it to me,” the boy stated proudly.
Kame looked in awe, “you’re so lucky…mine never give me anything…”
Ryo ruffled his hair, “that’s because yours didn’t break your arm when you were younger. But that’s okay, let’s go play!”
So they set out and did just that. They used it as a sling shot, and tried stretching it as far as it would go. It amused them to no end. Then he came up with a brilliant idea, “let’s play tug-o-war with it!”
The three looked at him excitedly, “Yea! That’ll be fun!”
“Okay, me and Kame will be on one side, Ryo-chan and Pi, you guys can be on the other team, okay? It balances out ‘cause Ryo-chan and Kame are tiny.”
The shorter two shot him halfhearted glares and took their position.
“Ready, set, go!”
The four began tugging as hard as they could when Ryo noticed something amiss, “Pi…if we win…won’t it come snapping back at us…?”
Yamapi’s eyes widened and the two stopped tugging, “what should we do?”
“…should we let go?”
“But what about those two?”
“We can tell them to jump?”
On the other side, Kame blinked, “Jin, why did they stop tugging?”
“I don’t know,” he gave the band a sharp tug, pulling it out of the other pair’s grasp.
The next thing he knew, his teammate and jumped away with a terrified scream and he was in a lot of pain.
-------------------------
He rubbed his arm and muttered, “I hate big elastic bands…”
Ryo laughed, “You should’ve seen your face! My team was wondering about what we were going to do too.”
Out of the three, Ryo was the only one who was willing to talk about the past in such an open manner. Though, he made another mental note, he refused to use Yamapi’s name in any context. And while Kame didn’t mind cutting the corners and touching on it lightly, he found that Pi avoided it altogether.
The younger boy shot him a boyish grin, “Man, imagine if those two were here, they’d probably be laughing as hard as me right now.”
He was pretty sure that the three of them had the desire to become friends again, but no one ever spoke of it. If anyone could really supply him with hope, it’d be Ryo, the boy who could switch from being verbally abusive to shy within seconds.
Ryo had a policy where he liked honesty and being direct, no matter how bad it looked. But the younger boy knew what was acceptable and what wasn’t, and voicing his desire to become friends once more with the other two wasn’t acceptable. On the other hand, while he wouldn’t mention his wants, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell someone off when his ex-friends were being talked about.
So when a new comer was talking bad about the other two group leaders, the yellow ranger stepped in with a frown, “What were you saying?”
“That Yamashita and Kamenashi are pansies?”
“Don’t talk about people you don’t know, kid. And if you were going to anyways, I suggest you do it to their face and see what they think of it.”
“Why are you defending them!?”
“Because I knew them, and I still have respect for them. Not to mention they weren’t pansies, so don’t you dare talk about them like that or else I’ll come beat you up, got it?”
He could’ve sung for joy that day.
-------------------------
When they were back out on the streets, he looked over, “Hey Ryo-chan…”
The shorter boy turned his attention to him for about two seconds before eyes a store down the street, “Yea? Do you want ice cream? I want ice cream…”
“But we just ate!”
“So? I want ice cream.”
He laughed, “Why are you so tiny, I swear, you eat more than me!”
Ryo grinned, “It’s magic. So what were you asking?”
“I was wondering…do you miss it?”
“Miss what?”
Jin pursed his lips, “hanging out with Kame and Pi.”
The other paused hesitantly, “…yea, sometimes I guess. But things have changed and you can’t really control it so there’s no point in lingering too long on the past.”
“What if it was the future? What if we could all become friends again?”
Ryo shrugged, “I wouldn’t mind, it’d be kind of nice, I guess. I don’t really care. Why? Are you going to try something stupid again?”
“Not that I know of…I was just wondering…”
The younger boy dipped his head understandingly, “I see…let’s go get ice cream.”
-------------------------
After ordering their ice cream, he continued on the topic, “Ryo-chan, do you actually want to be friends with Pi and Kame again?”
There, he’d wandered off into the forbidden topic, the one that even the shorter boy skimmed around. The other gave a shrug.
He frowned, “It’s a yes or no question.”
Ryo shrugged again, “I do, I don’t, I have no clue. Does it still bother you that much?”
“Yes.”
“Ah…your stubbornness hasn’t changed at all, it’s kind of relieving actually.”
Jin gave a soft smile, “Ryo-chan…”
“So this is all you’ve been thinking about?”
“Pretty much.”
The younger boy nodded, “alright, just for that, you’re paying for my ice cream.”
“What? Why!?”
“Because clearly, I’m not at the center of the universe as I should be right now.”
He furled his brows, “…isn’t the sun at the center of the universe?”
Ryo let out a laugh, “Your stupidity hasn’t changed either.”
“Hey!”
“That’s almost as good as that time we were playing hide and seek,” the other rubbed the back of his neck, “Ah, how nostalgic…”
-------------------------
“Okay! Ryo-chan’s it!”
The younger boy let out a protest on his own behalf, “What!? Why!?”
He grinned, “Because you won janken!”
“But…”
“It’s quicker this way, so close your eyes! We’ll stay in the house, I promise!”
Pi grinned, “No peeking, Ryo-chan!”
The shorter boy shrugged it off, it wasn’t as though it was difficult, playing hide and seek with those three, “whatever, hurry up and hide, I’m going to start counting.”
As Ryo counted, he could hear the eldest snickering, “okay, here’s what we do, Pi, you go hide in the closet, Kame-chan, you hide in Ryo-chan’s room and I’ll be in the laundry room. Got it? Let’s go! He’ll never find us!”
It took all his willpower to suppress his snickering.
After Ryo finished counting, he walked around for a bit and grabbed a snack before actually ‘looking’ for the three. He knew for a fact that Jin would be in the laundry room, sometimes Pi wanted his hiding spot so they’d both be found in the same place, other times, Pi would listen and hide where he was told. Kame on the other hand, was usually more of a critical thinker; he’d end up finding his own hiding spot.
He wandered into the laundry room where he could hear rustling and giggles beneath the blanket which conveniently hid two lumps of something underneath, “found you Jin, Pi.”
The two pulled the blanket off with identical pouts, “how’d you find us so quickly, Ryo-chan?”
The shorter boy hid a grin and shrugged, “I guess I’m just good at this game.”
Pi blinked, “did you find Kame-chan yet?”
“Nope.”
“How come you always find him last?”
“I guess he’s just lucky.”
Jin smiled, not at all affected by being found, “Let’s go look for him together then!”
Ryo grinned, “first one to find Kame gets to pick who’s it the next round! Pi’s on my team!”
He protested loudly, “What!? That’s two against one!”
The shorter boy blinked, “Yea? So?”
“But…”
Suddenly, a voice interrupted them, “It’s okay, I’ve won already.”
The three looked over to see Kame standing in front of a mirror, a triumphant grin on his face, “See? I found myself,” he pointed at the mirror, “does that mean I get to pick who’s it next?”
The elder two furled their brows at the idea while Pi gave a shrug, “that sounds fair, so who’s it?”
Kame gave a smile, “Jin.”
Jin stared at the youngest boy, “What!? Me!? Why are you guys always against me!?”
Yamapi laughed, “Who cares? It’s a game, and after this round we can go eat something! Let’s start already! Ryo-chan’s going to be hiding with me!”
“Huh?”
“Come on, I know a really good hiding place! It’s-” The younger boy paused and looked over at him, “whoa, almost gave it all away there. Jin, close your eyes and start counting! And no cheating!”
He let out a laugh and covered his eyes, “One…two…”
Pi gave a happy grin and tugged the other two’s arms, pulling them towards his secret hiding place. The shorter pair could only exchange grins at his enthusiasm and allow themselves to be dragged away.
-------------------------
“Those were the days…” the shorter boy’s words died off as they stopped walking. He blinked and followed the other’s gaze over to a figure standing down the street.
It was Kame.
The other stood equally stiff, watching the two of them; Jin looked at the two, “Ryo-chan…? Should we say hi? Can we say hi to Kame?”
Ryo hesitated for a moment before turning around, “you can say hi if you want, I’m going.”
He wished he knew what his friend was thinking, but he didn’t push for an answer. Slowly, he followed the other, looking back as he did so.
The younger boy made a telephone gesture.
Jin nodded in return and held his pinky out to the other as he disappeared into the crowd.
Kame merely stood there, holding his pinky up, even after the two had vanished from his sight.
-------------------------
“Is it really impossible after all?”
His friend raised a brow and looked over, “Huh?”
Jin frowned, “You basically ran away from Kame just now.”
The other took a bite of his ice cream and defended himself, “I didn’t want to start anything, that’s all.”
He tried not to have an accusing tone, but he found it difficult to keep it out of his voice, “You know, this would be fixed so much faster if one of you guys would just apologize and get it over with. You said so yourself, you said you wouldn’t mind if everyone became friends again.”
Ryo gave an annoyed huff and looked away, “Don’t use my words against me. This is different. Anyways, you only said if we could be friends again in the future, you didn’t say anything about anyone apologizing.”
“I thought it’d be obvious that apologies would be involved. Why can’t you just take the initiative and apologize?”
“Stupid Jin, it’s not that easy,” the shorter boy watched as throngs of faceless people moved to and thro, he frowned and repeated himself, “it’s not that easy. Anyways, I can’t apologize to just one person…and I can’t really apologize to Kamenashi before…before I…”
Jin blinked, watching as his friend stared at his feet. He was radiating so many things at once, sadness, anger, longing, hesitation…and hurt. The hurt was obviously still there, even after all those years…
The elder sighed and wrapped an arm around the other’s shoulders, “I’m not going to push this, but things will work out, just watch. You, me, Pi and Kame are all going to be friends again.”
Ryo fidgeted slightly, the depressing atmosphere slowly lifted away, “Fat Jin…you should lose some weight, even your arm weighs a ton.”
He laughed, “Skinny monkey, you’ve just got weak shoulders, that’s all.”
----------------
Updated! Whoo! And here's my shameless advertising for myself: If you like DN Angel fanfics, here's my FF profile thinger since I've recently began updating them again =] Anyways, enough of that, after the next chapter I'm going to (try to) pick up the pace (hopefully) :P Wow it's weird, I'm in a really good mood but I'm tired as hell. Anyways, thanks commenters and enjoy!