Thumbenashi.
Title: Thumbenashi.
Pairing: Akame.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Jin and Kame struggle with the changes Kame is going through.
Kame shrinks to the size of a small action figure in front of the rest of KAT-TUN, twirling around in a circle as he falls and letting out a scream of complete terror. When the smoke clears and Kame climbs out of the crumpled pile of his clothing, everyone just stares at him in shocked silence.
"Kame..." Jin says at last, crouching down to meet his eyes. "Kame, I don't want to scare you, but you just shrank. Shrunk? Shrinked?"
He glances as Ueda, who offers a quiet, "shrank, Jin," then turns back around, reaching out and clapping Kame on the back.
Kame falls over with an outraged squeak.
"Don't worry, chibi Kame!" Jin announces grandly. "I'll look after you!"
A horrified murmur goes through the group, and when they look down at Kame he's bright red and waving his arms wildly.
"Look! He's happy!"
--
Jin looks after Kame like a boy would look after a doll. Kame has visions of Jin leaving him out in the rain and dragging him around by his hair, but the truth is that Jin isn't cruel to him, just incredibly careless. He sets Kame down on top of the nightstand in his room, and points to the little pink bed that is sitting there. "I borrowed it from U-kun's sister!" he says, grinning crookedly, and Kame is absurdly touched until Jin asks him when he wants to change into the accompanying dresses.
--
Miniature Kame turns out to be just as anal about timing each dance move perfectly as regular Kame is, and even though he can’t stomp around the room and complain about people being lazy and sloppy, he makes do with a megaphone which Jin regrets buying the minute Kame shouts into it.
"Are you even paying attention?" he bellows in Jin's direction. "I might be small, but that just means your ten million mistakes are even more obvious than they were before!"
Jin is tempted to wrap his hands around Kame's skinny little throat.
--
Everyone reacts differently to Kame's new height challenged body. Koki tries to convince him to sneak into NewS' dressing room, hide himself away and shout things at one of them whenever they're alone.
"You could make them wonder if they're insane," he wheedles. Ueda brightens and mutters something about Ryo.
Kame resists all bribes and coaxing and even the occasional threat. The last straw is when the concept for their next music video comes up and involves a Ueda solo and Kame dressing as a fairy.
"The girls love this stuff!" someone protests.
Ueda just casts a speculative eye over Kame and crosses his arms. "He's too skinny to be one of the fairies I used to see."
"Fairies are hardly fat," Kame says stiffly. Ueda smiles apologetically.
"No, I know, but you just don't have that quality, sorry."
Kame argues for ten minutes before he remembers what he's even angry about.
--
The boys at Johnny's have never been especially manly, and when Jin loses Kame for the fifth time he comes back (courtesy of a group of giggling juniors) dressed in a shiny pink tutu, with ribbons in his hair and tiny ballet shoes on his feet. Someone has taped a plastic handbag to one of his frail little arms.
Jin grins. "Wow, Kame, I-"
"Don't even say it," Kame growls as he pries at the stickytape wound tight around one wrist. He glares up at Jin with his most intimidating expression, but it's hard to be scary when you're smaller than a midget. Or a baby. Or Ryo.
"Kame-"
"If you'd been doing your job, this wouldn't have happened! Why did you even offer to look after me? Have you ever actually taken care of something and managed to keep it alive?"
The silence stretches out for a moment, awkward as Kame's words ring in his own ears. When he looks up at Jin he doesn't know what he expects, but Jin suddenly reaches out, scoops him up, and crushes him tightly against one cheek. Kame squirms and lets out a howl of terror.
"Kame-chan," Jin says with a sob, tears hot and leaving Kame soaked to the skin, "I'm going to be the best owner ever, I'll show you."
--
Jin's idea of being 'the best owner ever' consists of hovering over Kame and asking him over and over again how he feels. "I'm sympathetic to your cause," he says when Kame finally snaps and asks him what he's doing, and Kame can only grind his teeth.
"Who told you to say that? Was it Ueda?"
Jin has the decency to look slightly embarrassed, but then he just shrugs off Kame's question and rests his chin on one hand, his elbow dangerously close to where Kame is sitting on top of the table.
From this angle Kame can see Jin in high resolution, each perfectly sculptured feature just five times bigger. It's unfair, because Jin should be all pores and wrinkles and ugly from Kame's point of view, but all he sees is Jin. Sometimes he thinks all he can ever see is Jin.
"What?" Jin asks, his mouth hanging open as he picks at his food. "Admiring me? I'm kawaii, ne? Ne~?"
Kame flushes, and for once he's glad to be so small, because his embarrassment is much less noticeable this way.
"Idiot," Kame mutters, but when Jin stretches out one finger, Kame takes the single grain of rice offered to him.
--
Jin glances across the room to see Kame sitting on Yamapi's shoulder like he belongs there, Yamapi laughing and Kame grinning up at him, his tiny fingers holding on tight to the ends of Yamapi's hair, and he sees red. He jumps up, debates acting like he doesn't care for about five seconds, then gives in to his base instincts.
"THIEF!"
"Bakanishi?" Pi says, a confused expression passing over his face. "What are you-"
Whatever Yamapi is saying is cut off as Jin lets loose a fierce battle cry and throws himself in his direction. They go down in a tangle of limbs and howls and squeaks of rage from Kame, and when Jin has finished biting down hard on Yamapi's arm he sits up and stares around in unconcealed horror.
"WHERE'S KAME?"
Pi jumps up and looks nervous. "I don't know! He was right here!"
"MURDERER!" Jin screams, punching Yamapi hard in the arm. He doesn't do any damage, because Pi is really buff lately and Jin is still the skinny kid he's always been, but Pi tries to look like it hurts at least a little.
"He's Kame, he's smart, he'll be okay," Yamapi says comfortingly, but he lifts up his foot and inspects the bottom of his shoe anyway, just to make sure.
"You killed him," Jin moans, and stares at Yamapi with wide, tear-filled eyes. "You killed my best friend. You're so fat, you probably rolled right over him!"
"Jin," Yamapi breathes. His face goes very serious suddenly. "I'm your best friend!"
Jin just pouts. "Kame is special too! And I never even told him how much I value his friendship!"
They enlist Maru's help and he eventually finds Kame hiding in a trashcan. He's sitting on a banana peel, and when they all peer in at him he just glares right back.
"Kame!" Jin says, then he frowns. "Why did you run off?"
"I'm tiny! I didn't run off, I was hiding in here because you're insane!" Kame yells, losing his temper, and Pi and Jin burst into hysterical giggles.
"Tiny!" Kame hears Pi repeat. When Kame glares at him he smoothes his features out into a serious expression. Maru clears his throat awkwardly.
"Jin..." he starts, and casts a helpless glance at Kame. "You know, one of us can look after you-"
"KAME'S MINE!" Jin almost shrieks, scoops Kame out and combs his perfect hair back into place with possessive fingers. And that's that.
--
"I have a surprise for you!" Jin announces one day. "Uh, actually, it's not just my surprise, Pi helped too. A little."
Kame can feel his lips thin out into an unimpressed line, because he knows that whatever the surprise is, it's most likely dangerous and insane. A number of possibilities run through his mind; Jin and Pi filling up a bathtub and making him attempt to sail a boat made of paper across it, Jin and Pi trying to coerce him into riding some kind of small animal, Jin and Pi-
"Hey," Jin says, and he nudges Kame gently with one finger. "Don’t worry, okay? It's something good."
The 'something good' turns out to be a house built out of matchsticks. It's shaky and there's glue everywhere, but when Kame glances up at Jin and Yamapi, their faces are shining with pride.
"It took us hours," Pi says, teeth flashing in a sudden grin. There's a matchstick stuck to his cheek and when he wriggles his fingers in Kame's direction they're covered in glue.
They look so happy and pleased with themselves that Kame just can't bear to break their spirits. He shuffles wearily inside and looks around, Jin's voice high-pitched with excitement in the background ("HE LIKES IT! ARE YOU EVEN WATCHING HIM? LOOK PI, HE LIKES THE PART I BUILT THE MOST!"), right before the little house shivers and falls down around him.
Jin's carelessness is a quality that tends to leave Kame equal parts annoyed and exasperated, and if Jin were anyone else Kame would scream at him way more frequently than he already does. He climbs out of the matchstick wreckage, Jin sounding like he’s on the verge of tears and blaming Yamapi over and over, and just holds up a hand for silence.
"Akanishi," he starts tersely-sees Jin visibly deflate-"Jin. I'm okay."
And even though Jin forces him into unstable model houses and toy cars, Kame forgives him for those things, and this, and whatever elaborate plan is next on the list, too. He forgives Jin because these are the things he does, and he wouldn't be himself if he stopped.
--
Kame curls up on Jin's pillow that night. It's softer than the plastic Licca-chan doll bed and feels much safer, too, because it smells like the shampoo that Jin uses. When Kame wakes up in the middle of the night he just watches Jin for a long time, because it's quiet and still and he's not sure when he'll get a chance to do this again. Jin is wearing an ugly One Piece shirt and he looks more peaceful than Kame has seen him look in months. He feels a sudden, intense burst of longing and guilt, because when they were younger he'd thought that he would be by Jin's side forever, and now he can't even remember the last time he'd had a proper conversation with Jin. They've both grown up, Kame realises, and even though he knows how to play the role of the adult and hide his emotions, he'll always feel twelve years old around Jin. Kame wants to look after him and scold him and hide in his shadow, and he doesn't know what to do first. Or how to do it. He's never felt this confused about a person in his life, but Jin has always been a special case. Jin is barely visible through the darkness, but Kame can make out the soft curve of one cheek, the long, slender line of his neck. He touches Jin's cheek, then, and even though his fingers are gentle and light, Jin makes a grumpy sound and blinks sleepy eyes at him.
"Kazu-chan?" Jin mumbles. Kame's stomach feels all funny and tight inside, kind of like he wants to throw up, and then he wants to laugh or cry or do something, because suddenly nothing seems more important than this; than the way Jin is squinting at him. The next few minutes become a blur, because the feeling in Kame's stomach just gets worse, his head starts to spin, and suddenly he's himself again. Jin seems too tired and disoriented to realise what's happened and Kame is kind of glad, because magical shrinking and growing doesn't appear to involve clothing. He grabs an old shirt of Jin's from the messy pile on the floor and pulls it over his head. It hangs down around his knees, and when Jin blinks at him again, one cheek all creased from his pillow, Kame thinks he should feel awkward. It's weird, because he actually feels more comfortable with Jin at this moment than he has in a long time.
"Jin," he says, touching his fingers to Jin's cheek again, "you're my favourite." It seems a poor summation of what he feels for Jin, but it's out there just like that, and Jin only makes another sleepy snuffling sound and curls his fingers around Kame's wrist. Kame rests his head on the pillow, presses his forehead against Jin's and closes his eyes. He sleeps and dreams of Jin running out in front of him and pulling him along by the hand. When he turns back to grin at Kame it's like he stretches on forever, like he's big enough to reach up and touch the sky.
Pairing: Akame.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Jin and Kame struggle with the changes Kame is going through.
Kame shrinks to the size of a small action figure in front of the rest of KAT-TUN, twirling around in a circle as he falls and letting out a scream of complete terror. When the smoke clears and Kame climbs out of the crumpled pile of his clothing, everyone just stares at him in shocked silence.
"Kame..." Jin says at last, crouching down to meet his eyes. "Kame, I don't want to scare you, but you just shrank. Shrunk? Shrinked?"
He glances as Ueda, who offers a quiet, "shrank, Jin," then turns back around, reaching out and clapping Kame on the back.
Kame falls over with an outraged squeak.
"Don't worry, chibi Kame!" Jin announces grandly. "I'll look after you!"
A horrified murmur goes through the group, and when they look down at Kame he's bright red and waving his arms wildly.
"Look! He's happy!"
--
Jin looks after Kame like a boy would look after a doll. Kame has visions of Jin leaving him out in the rain and dragging him around by his hair, but the truth is that Jin isn't cruel to him, just incredibly careless. He sets Kame down on top of the nightstand in his room, and points to the little pink bed that is sitting there. "I borrowed it from U-kun's sister!" he says, grinning crookedly, and Kame is absurdly touched until Jin asks him when he wants to change into the accompanying dresses.
--
Miniature Kame turns out to be just as anal about timing each dance move perfectly as regular Kame is, and even though he can’t stomp around the room and complain about people being lazy and sloppy, he makes do with a megaphone which Jin regrets buying the minute Kame shouts into it.
"Are you even paying attention?" he bellows in Jin's direction. "I might be small, but that just means your ten million mistakes are even more obvious than they were before!"
Jin is tempted to wrap his hands around Kame's skinny little throat.
--
Everyone reacts differently to Kame's new height challenged body. Koki tries to convince him to sneak into NewS' dressing room, hide himself away and shout things at one of them whenever they're alone.
"You could make them wonder if they're insane," he wheedles. Ueda brightens and mutters something about Ryo.
Kame resists all bribes and coaxing and even the occasional threat. The last straw is when the concept for their next music video comes up and involves a Ueda solo and Kame dressing as a fairy.
"The girls love this stuff!" someone protests.
Ueda just casts a speculative eye over Kame and crosses his arms. "He's too skinny to be one of the fairies I used to see."
"Fairies are hardly fat," Kame says stiffly. Ueda smiles apologetically.
"No, I know, but you just don't have that quality, sorry."
Kame argues for ten minutes before he remembers what he's even angry about.
--
The boys at Johnny's have never been especially manly, and when Jin loses Kame for the fifth time he comes back (courtesy of a group of giggling juniors) dressed in a shiny pink tutu, with ribbons in his hair and tiny ballet shoes on his feet. Someone has taped a plastic handbag to one of his frail little arms.
Jin grins. "Wow, Kame, I-"
"Don't even say it," Kame growls as he pries at the stickytape wound tight around one wrist. He glares up at Jin with his most intimidating expression, but it's hard to be scary when you're smaller than a midget. Or a baby. Or Ryo.
"Kame-"
"If you'd been doing your job, this wouldn't have happened! Why did you even offer to look after me? Have you ever actually taken care of something and managed to keep it alive?"
The silence stretches out for a moment, awkward as Kame's words ring in his own ears. When he looks up at Jin he doesn't know what he expects, but Jin suddenly reaches out, scoops him up, and crushes him tightly against one cheek. Kame squirms and lets out a howl of terror.
"Kame-chan," Jin says with a sob, tears hot and leaving Kame soaked to the skin, "I'm going to be the best owner ever, I'll show you."
--
Jin's idea of being 'the best owner ever' consists of hovering over Kame and asking him over and over again how he feels. "I'm sympathetic to your cause," he says when Kame finally snaps and asks him what he's doing, and Kame can only grind his teeth.
"Who told you to say that? Was it Ueda?"
Jin has the decency to look slightly embarrassed, but then he just shrugs off Kame's question and rests his chin on one hand, his elbow dangerously close to where Kame is sitting on top of the table.
From this angle Kame can see Jin in high resolution, each perfectly sculptured feature just five times bigger. It's unfair, because Jin should be all pores and wrinkles and ugly from Kame's point of view, but all he sees is Jin. Sometimes he thinks all he can ever see is Jin.
"What?" Jin asks, his mouth hanging open as he picks at his food. "Admiring me? I'm kawaii, ne? Ne~?"
Kame flushes, and for once he's glad to be so small, because his embarrassment is much less noticeable this way.
"Idiot," Kame mutters, but when Jin stretches out one finger, Kame takes the single grain of rice offered to him.
--
Jin glances across the room to see Kame sitting on Yamapi's shoulder like he belongs there, Yamapi laughing and Kame grinning up at him, his tiny fingers holding on tight to the ends of Yamapi's hair, and he sees red. He jumps up, debates acting like he doesn't care for about five seconds, then gives in to his base instincts.
"THIEF!"
"Bakanishi?" Pi says, a confused expression passing over his face. "What are you-"
Whatever Yamapi is saying is cut off as Jin lets loose a fierce battle cry and throws himself in his direction. They go down in a tangle of limbs and howls and squeaks of rage from Kame, and when Jin has finished biting down hard on Yamapi's arm he sits up and stares around in unconcealed horror.
"WHERE'S KAME?"
Pi jumps up and looks nervous. "I don't know! He was right here!"
"MURDERER!" Jin screams, punching Yamapi hard in the arm. He doesn't do any damage, because Pi is really buff lately and Jin is still the skinny kid he's always been, but Pi tries to look like it hurts at least a little.
"He's Kame, he's smart, he'll be okay," Yamapi says comfortingly, but he lifts up his foot and inspects the bottom of his shoe anyway, just to make sure.
"You killed him," Jin moans, and stares at Yamapi with wide, tear-filled eyes. "You killed my best friend. You're so fat, you probably rolled right over him!"
"Jin," Yamapi breathes. His face goes very serious suddenly. "I'm your best friend!"
Jin just pouts. "Kame is special too! And I never even told him how much I value his friendship!"
They enlist Maru's help and he eventually finds Kame hiding in a trashcan. He's sitting on a banana peel, and when they all peer in at him he just glares right back.
"Kame!" Jin says, then he frowns. "Why did you run off?"
"I'm tiny! I didn't run off, I was hiding in here because you're insane!" Kame yells, losing his temper, and Pi and Jin burst into hysterical giggles.
"Tiny!" Kame hears Pi repeat. When Kame glares at him he smoothes his features out into a serious expression. Maru clears his throat awkwardly.
"Jin..." he starts, and casts a helpless glance at Kame. "You know, one of us can look after you-"
"KAME'S MINE!" Jin almost shrieks, scoops Kame out and combs his perfect hair back into place with possessive fingers. And that's that.
--
"I have a surprise for you!" Jin announces one day. "Uh, actually, it's not just my surprise, Pi helped too. A little."
Kame can feel his lips thin out into an unimpressed line, because he knows that whatever the surprise is, it's most likely dangerous and insane. A number of possibilities run through his mind; Jin and Pi filling up a bathtub and making him attempt to sail a boat made of paper across it, Jin and Pi trying to coerce him into riding some kind of small animal, Jin and Pi-
"Hey," Jin says, and he nudges Kame gently with one finger. "Don’t worry, okay? It's something good."
The 'something good' turns out to be a house built out of matchsticks. It's shaky and there's glue everywhere, but when Kame glances up at Jin and Yamapi, their faces are shining with pride.
"It took us hours," Pi says, teeth flashing in a sudden grin. There's a matchstick stuck to his cheek and when he wriggles his fingers in Kame's direction they're covered in glue.
They look so happy and pleased with themselves that Kame just can't bear to break their spirits. He shuffles wearily inside and looks around, Jin's voice high-pitched with excitement in the background ("HE LIKES IT! ARE YOU EVEN WATCHING HIM? LOOK PI, HE LIKES THE PART I BUILT THE MOST!"), right before the little house shivers and falls down around him.
Jin's carelessness is a quality that tends to leave Kame equal parts annoyed and exasperated, and if Jin were anyone else Kame would scream at him way more frequently than he already does. He climbs out of the matchstick wreckage, Jin sounding like he’s on the verge of tears and blaming Yamapi over and over, and just holds up a hand for silence.
"Akanishi," he starts tersely-sees Jin visibly deflate-"Jin. I'm okay."
And even though Jin forces him into unstable model houses and toy cars, Kame forgives him for those things, and this, and whatever elaborate plan is next on the list, too. He forgives Jin because these are the things he does, and he wouldn't be himself if he stopped.
--
Kame curls up on Jin's pillow that night. It's softer than the plastic Licca-chan doll bed and feels much safer, too, because it smells like the shampoo that Jin uses. When Kame wakes up in the middle of the night he just watches Jin for a long time, because it's quiet and still and he's not sure when he'll get a chance to do this again. Jin is wearing an ugly One Piece shirt and he looks more peaceful than Kame has seen him look in months. He feels a sudden, intense burst of longing and guilt, because when they were younger he'd thought that he would be by Jin's side forever, and now he can't even remember the last time he'd had a proper conversation with Jin. They've both grown up, Kame realises, and even though he knows how to play the role of the adult and hide his emotions, he'll always feel twelve years old around Jin. Kame wants to look after him and scold him and hide in his shadow, and he doesn't know what to do first. Or how to do it. He's never felt this confused about a person in his life, but Jin has always been a special case. Jin is barely visible through the darkness, but Kame can make out the soft curve of one cheek, the long, slender line of his neck. He touches Jin's cheek, then, and even though his fingers are gentle and light, Jin makes a grumpy sound and blinks sleepy eyes at him.
"Kazu-chan?" Jin mumbles. Kame's stomach feels all funny and tight inside, kind of like he wants to throw up, and then he wants to laugh or cry or do something, because suddenly nothing seems more important than this; than the way Jin is squinting at him. The next few minutes become a blur, because the feeling in Kame's stomach just gets worse, his head starts to spin, and suddenly he's himself again. Jin seems too tired and disoriented to realise what's happened and Kame is kind of glad, because magical shrinking and growing doesn't appear to involve clothing. He grabs an old shirt of Jin's from the messy pile on the floor and pulls it over his head. It hangs down around his knees, and when Jin blinks at him again, one cheek all creased from his pillow, Kame thinks he should feel awkward. It's weird, because he actually feels more comfortable with Jin at this moment than he has in a long time.
"Jin," he says, touching his fingers to Jin's cheek again, "you're my favourite." It seems a poor summation of what he feels for Jin, but it's out there just like that, and Jin only makes another sleepy snuffling sound and curls his fingers around Kame's wrist. Kame rests his head on the pillow, presses his forehead against Jin's and closes his eyes. He sleeps and dreams of Jin running out in front of him and pulling him along by the hand. When he turns back to grin at Kame it's like he stretches on forever, like he's big enough to reach up and touch the sky.