Gift fic for shigefan1992
Gift fic for: shigefan1992
From: newsficcon
Title: Stranger Things
Rating: PG
Pairing: Massu/Shige
Warnings: body swap and general strange-ity. OOC-ness due to body swap, if that makes any sense at all.
Summary: Shige and Massu take some time walking in each other’s shoes.
Notes: It came out a little crazy and weird, but I hope you can enjoy it, shigefan1992 :) Thank you to my beta and the mods for being so great.
There's almost no preamble to the whole thing, the most he can remember is a conversation he'd had over lunch with Massu and Koyama a few weeks back about how it would be interesting to walk in another person's shoes for a while. There were no other words than that, simply an agreeing nod from the others at the table and then Koyama had started going on about how Nyanta never liked to play with the toys he bought for him, preferring a crushed ball of paper over 1000's of yen worth of catnip toys and he really hadn't been paying much attention from then on. No wishes, no genies, no shooting star or anything else he could possibly think of that might cause the world to up and decide he needed to experience just that in a way that was beyond the literal sense of it.
He had woken up near 7 a.m. That morning, loitering around as he usually did until deciding he'd waited around long enough, though his eyes didn't seem to want to open fully yet, or his legs to move the way he wanted them to. Routine was routine, though and he spent the better half of the morning jogging through back streets with both more and less energy than normal, which he chalked up to the larger-than-usual breakfast he'd managed to wolf down that morning.
He could have sworn he was actually gathering a few miffed and starstruck looks from the girls he usually saw on their way to school on his route. This new drama really was doing something for him, he thought. He didn't notice his phone ringing through all the attention he was enjoying. He didn’t notice his change in stature or the newly acquired muscles he was now sporting, how his hair no longer felt like a spiderweb, but as he approached his apartment door, sweating and feeling like he could collapse at any moment, a person that looked remarkably like himself- if he would ever decide that bright orange and green went well together- was waiting for him. It’s honestly sort of creepy, at least until the person with his face introduces himself, and then it’s just plain weird.
At the table, he sits with himself, who is apparently Massu, and tries to keep himself from thinking too hard about this, because there is clearly no logic to support body transfers.
Looking at him from across the table, he realizes Massu has left his hair in its bed-head state and hopes no one had seen him like that on his way over- then he remembers who he is and that isn’t much of a problem, anymore.
“So, how did this happen?” Massu asks in his voice and it’s one of the oddest things he’s ever experienced. He just shakes his head because there’s nothing he can think of that might even pass for the reason why. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
It’s shockingly awkward when Massu just sinks into his seat, wearing ‘pitiful’ too well in his skin. He and Massu have known each other for too long for things to get stiff just when they don’t need them to be. He’d expect this sort of strange and helpless silence from himself, but not from his optimistic and useless trivia-filled friend. Which makes it all the more strange for him to be the one still with hope in him, wanting to wipe that look off of his- er, Massu’s- face.
The most they actually get done is deciding to stay in Shige’s apartment for as long as they can and maybe figure this thing out. The first thing out of Massu’s mouth is “Don’t tell Koyama”, and he agrees after realizing he hadn’t even thought of messaging his best friend. In retrospect, it probably wouldn’t have helped to have Koyama banging on his door with care packages and wibbly faces. With no activities, the rest of NEWS doesn’t need to know, but he still has some strange urge to contact Tegoshi, of all people.
After an exceedingly awkward shower, because he is who is he is and has always felt a little differently about his dimple-faced friend and it’s just too much to have Massu’s penis between his legs in this context, he and Massu warm up some leftovers and spend the better part of the evening searching the internet for cures or clues that could help them, they even go so far as streaming the movie Freaky Friday and taking notes. It doesn’t help, since neither of them are that good with English, but it does help him to forget about being completely panicked.
It’s not until the morning that something clicks in his head, because he’s never in his life woken up at 6 a.m. and had to wait until 11 for Massu to get up and around.
“We’ve switched bodies,” he starts and Massu looks at him like he’s trying not to pull his hair out. “Which means we must have each other’s brains, too,” and now Massu looks like he’s starting to get it, which is exactly what he needs.
“That doesn’t really make total sense, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try and wrack your brain for some answers,” Massu shrugs and manages to look smug and put-upon at the same time as hopeful. Shige wonders if this is what he looks like every time some one asks his help on something, because it actually is a little annoying- a distant part of him also thinks it’s a little cute and he has a moment where he’s horrified with himself because he really just called himself cute- he secretly hopes that was part of Massu talking, but he doesn’t have much faith in that. He’s also very close to having a panic attack, because there are things he knows would put a dent in their friendship if Massu discovers in his mind. Shige’d been having a bit of a struggle with finding a way to let Massu know of his feelings, but just letting him stumble upon the raw thoughts himself wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind when he started to plot out the perfect way to get it out and avoid the total and utter embarrassment that would probably follow- so far he had nothing.
“So, we can clearly rule out any logical reason why this would happen, which leaves only illogical reasons. According to the websites we found, there’s probably something we need to accomplish before we can switch back,” it’s completely vague and less helpful than he would have hoped to hear from himself, but it’s something and he supposes that’s better than nothing.
It’s strange, now that he’s gotten a little more used to being in a different person’s body. They’d both come to the conclusion that their souls must have switched, which was why they weren’t completely conforming to the way their brains were naturally wired to operate. Some personality and general knowledge and feelings came with them and were sort of existing with whatever was still inside the other. It was a little confusing when Massu had explained it to him, but Shige trusted his judgement and went along with it, just the same. It would probably make perfect sense when they were back to normal.
It gives them something a little less vague to research, anyway, looking up myths about soul-switching and the like. There’s surprisingly a lot of myths pertaining to it, and at last he starts to see a little hope light up Massu’s eyes. He’s also glad to find Massu’s sticking to researching than picking his brain.
They take breaks from brainstorming to eat, the entire time Shige finds himself exploring parts of Massu he’s never experienced, before, learns that Massu has a lot more pent-up emotions than he would have known. Some of those feelings are puzzling and some feel familiar, but only vaguely so, like he’d subconsciously felt the same at some point. He feels a little guilty for doing it, like he’s invading Massu’s privacy, but he reasons that there might be something hidden that could help them within the other’s mind. He might also be looking for something that could give him an answer as to why Massu keeps avoiding his gaze from across the dinner table.
“Have you come up with anything else?” He asks when they’re cleaning up their dishes. Massu shakes his head.
“Everything I’ve come up with involves some one else making the switch happen, but I have no idea who could have done it, if that’s the case.”
It’s obvious everything is just taking a large toll on them, more so on Massu, he can practically see the stress emanating from him. A few more hours of even more failed searches and incomplete theories and eventually they dissolve into a pile on the floor, each nursing a much-needed can of beer and matching headaches. The computers are off and discarded to the side, the only sound in the room being their defeated sighs and slurping. He’s suddenly glad he stocked up on beer instead of vegetable juice.
“You remember when we were talking a few days ago, about how it might be to switch places with some one for a while?” Massu speaks up after a long while and breaks through the heavy air. The tops of their heads are touching as they lay on the floor, so he knows Massu can feel it when he nods, mouth occupied by a nearly empty can. “It’s not that great, after all, is it,” the way he says it makes it sound like a joke, despite how true it is, so he laughs.
“I guess it’s not all bad. Your optimism is starting to infect me,” he chimes in, already a little used to hearing Massu’s smooth low voice instead of his own coming from him.
Massu laughs, this time, but it lacks his normal cheer. “I thought it would be interesting, being in some one else’s head, being able to read their thoughts, but like... All of their thoughts that they’ve ever had.” For a moment Shige wonders if Massu knows what he’d been doing- or been trying to do, he hadn’t actually gotten past the potential guilt to actually invade more of Massu’s innermost thoughts and feelings. Then he notices that Massu sounds more wistful and maybe a little remorseful than accusing. He sits up on his elbow and turns to look at him then, and the expression on his face is very familiar. He feels a little scared, then.
“What are you trying to say?” The other licks his lips and the silence falls thick over them again until the sound of fabric dragging over carpet fills it as Massu shrugs.
“I think I might have made this happen. Because I wished I could get inside your head, I didn’t remember until now, but I did,” He’s starting to sound a little overly dramatic and Shige knows that must be a bit of himself shining through.
“No one can know that for sure... But if that’s it, why don’t you just do it? Maybe that’ll get us to turn back,” and now he knows that must be a bit of the beer shining through, because he wouldn’t normally offer up himself like this, especially considering what he’s been worrying about since day one.
Massu is reluctant to take up that offer, though, “I don’t know if I want to, now. No offense, Shige, but I think I’d rather not know what kind of things you think about.”
He makes an affronted sound in the back of his throat, “Yeah, none taken. Look, if you wanted to know before, part of you must still want to. I don’t mind if you snoop, just don’t tell me what you find.”
At that point he gets up to replace his now empty can with a new one, suddenly anxious because he’s not sure what Massu is looking for inside him, but also feeling like he really wouldn’t mind sharing whatever he had with him. Once again, he is met with that familiar feeling again, unable to tell if it’s Massu or himself, this time.
He looks into the main room to see Massu with his eyes closed and it doesn’t take him three guesses to figure out what he’s doing. A faint smile graces his lips and the thought that it wouldn’t hurt for him to do the same flutters at the forefront of his mind. If anything, it would occupy the part of him that was panicked over having some one else be able to get to know him so intimately so quickly and under these circumstances with so many possible outcomes, some devastating and some decidedly less so.
He takes a seat at the kitchen table in order to give Massu some semblance of privacy and closes his eyes and just lets himself feel.
The next thing he knows, he’s waking up because of a sharp pain in his back, sitting up to find it’s because he had apparently spent the night at the table with an unopened beer can inches from his face and a small puddle of drool sticking to his cheek. Eyes bleary, the first thing he does is wobble his way to the living room, finding a face he feels like he hasn’t seen in ages.
Massu lies, somehow still asleep, on his floor, proper body and looking almost too peaceful for some one who spent the night on a hard surface. He wants to wake Massu immediately, shake him and smile because his headache is gone and they’re back to normal after a pain-staking 48 hours, but he doesn’t. Instead he is drawn to that angelic face and finds himself leaning against the couch as he sits cross-legged on the carpet and watches him sleep. He’s never really let himself watch Massu like this, and for some reason he feels the security to be able to do it, now, of all times.
He knows something is different, despite how everything should actually be back to normal, now. Part of him wonders if it was all some strange dream, it had all seemed to pass by so quickly, now that he thought about it, but something else lingers just barely out of reach in the crevices of his mind and tells him it wasn’t. He must have found something, last night, but as he sits there, his mind remains blank.
Half an hour later, when Massu’s eyes flutter open and blink wearily before finding his face, something clicks, again, but this time he’s in his own skin with his own memories and thoughts and he remembers finding exactly what he needed.
He can see a flash of that familiar emotion in Massu’s sleep-veiled eyes when he looks back at him and he knows that Massu must have found what he was looking for, too, but he feels the need to ask, anyway.
“So you found it?”
Massu nods.
“And what was it you found?”
That silence is back again, but the weight is significantly less. “I thought you said you didn’t want me to tell you that,” Massu’s smile takes up nearly half of his face and before he knows it, he’s covering those lips with his own in a slow kiss that seems to last forever.
“This was one of the weirdest ways to confess,” he mumbles when they finally break apart, “I mean, technically, neither of us actually did.”
Massu shrugs, “I didn’t think either of us would without being sure...” That’s why I made the wish the rest of his sentence rings clear, though unspoken.
That comfortable feeling that had been missing through this entire ordeal wraps around them like a warm blanket and he finally feels like everything will be okay- Massu’s optimism really must have rubbed off on him- and he's looking forward to what else will, next.
Neither of them have a clue as to how they’re going to explain to the rest of NEWS how their relationship suddenly changed, but when Koyama calls Shige sounding distraught and suspiciously like their leader, he thinks he may have found a way.
From: newsficcon
Title: Stranger Things
Rating: PG
Pairing: Massu/Shige
Warnings: body swap and general strange-ity. OOC-ness due to body swap, if that makes any sense at all.
Summary: Shige and Massu take some time walking in each other’s shoes.
Notes: It came out a little crazy and weird, but I hope you can enjoy it, shigefan1992 :) Thank you to my beta and the mods for being so great.
There's almost no preamble to the whole thing, the most he can remember is a conversation he'd had over lunch with Massu and Koyama a few weeks back about how it would be interesting to walk in another person's shoes for a while. There were no other words than that, simply an agreeing nod from the others at the table and then Koyama had started going on about how Nyanta never liked to play with the toys he bought for him, preferring a crushed ball of paper over 1000's of yen worth of catnip toys and he really hadn't been paying much attention from then on. No wishes, no genies, no shooting star or anything else he could possibly think of that might cause the world to up and decide he needed to experience just that in a way that was beyond the literal sense of it.
He had woken up near 7 a.m. That morning, loitering around as he usually did until deciding he'd waited around long enough, though his eyes didn't seem to want to open fully yet, or his legs to move the way he wanted them to. Routine was routine, though and he spent the better half of the morning jogging through back streets with both more and less energy than normal, which he chalked up to the larger-than-usual breakfast he'd managed to wolf down that morning.
He could have sworn he was actually gathering a few miffed and starstruck looks from the girls he usually saw on their way to school on his route. This new drama really was doing something for him, he thought. He didn't notice his phone ringing through all the attention he was enjoying. He didn’t notice his change in stature or the newly acquired muscles he was now sporting, how his hair no longer felt like a spiderweb, but as he approached his apartment door, sweating and feeling like he could collapse at any moment, a person that looked remarkably like himself- if he would ever decide that bright orange and green went well together- was waiting for him. It’s honestly sort of creepy, at least until the person with his face introduces himself, and then it’s just plain weird.
At the table, he sits with himself, who is apparently Massu, and tries to keep himself from thinking too hard about this, because there is clearly no logic to support body transfers.
Looking at him from across the table, he realizes Massu has left his hair in its bed-head state and hopes no one had seen him like that on his way over- then he remembers who he is and that isn’t much of a problem, anymore.
“So, how did this happen?” Massu asks in his voice and it’s one of the oddest things he’s ever experienced. He just shakes his head because there’s nothing he can think of that might even pass for the reason why. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
It’s shockingly awkward when Massu just sinks into his seat, wearing ‘pitiful’ too well in his skin. He and Massu have known each other for too long for things to get stiff just when they don’t need them to be. He’d expect this sort of strange and helpless silence from himself, but not from his optimistic and useless trivia-filled friend. Which makes it all the more strange for him to be the one still with hope in him, wanting to wipe that look off of his- er, Massu’s- face.
The most they actually get done is deciding to stay in Shige’s apartment for as long as they can and maybe figure this thing out. The first thing out of Massu’s mouth is “Don’t tell Koyama”, and he agrees after realizing he hadn’t even thought of messaging his best friend. In retrospect, it probably wouldn’t have helped to have Koyama banging on his door with care packages and wibbly faces. With no activities, the rest of NEWS doesn’t need to know, but he still has some strange urge to contact Tegoshi, of all people.
After an exceedingly awkward shower, because he is who is he is and has always felt a little differently about his dimple-faced friend and it’s just too much to have Massu’s penis between his legs in this context, he and Massu warm up some leftovers and spend the better part of the evening searching the internet for cures or clues that could help them, they even go so far as streaming the movie Freaky Friday and taking notes. It doesn’t help, since neither of them are that good with English, but it does help him to forget about being completely panicked.
It’s not until the morning that something clicks in his head, because he’s never in his life woken up at 6 a.m. and had to wait until 11 for Massu to get up and around.
“We’ve switched bodies,” he starts and Massu looks at him like he’s trying not to pull his hair out. “Which means we must have each other’s brains, too,” and now Massu looks like he’s starting to get it, which is exactly what he needs.
“That doesn’t really make total sense, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try and wrack your brain for some answers,” Massu shrugs and manages to look smug and put-upon at the same time as hopeful. Shige wonders if this is what he looks like every time some one asks his help on something, because it actually is a little annoying- a distant part of him also thinks it’s a little cute and he has a moment where he’s horrified with himself because he really just called himself cute- he secretly hopes that was part of Massu talking, but he doesn’t have much faith in that. He’s also very close to having a panic attack, because there are things he knows would put a dent in their friendship if Massu discovers in his mind. Shige’d been having a bit of a struggle with finding a way to let Massu know of his feelings, but just letting him stumble upon the raw thoughts himself wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind when he started to plot out the perfect way to get it out and avoid the total and utter embarrassment that would probably follow- so far he had nothing.
“So, we can clearly rule out any logical reason why this would happen, which leaves only illogical reasons. According to the websites we found, there’s probably something we need to accomplish before we can switch back,” it’s completely vague and less helpful than he would have hoped to hear from himself, but it’s something and he supposes that’s better than nothing.
It’s strange, now that he’s gotten a little more used to being in a different person’s body. They’d both come to the conclusion that their souls must have switched, which was why they weren’t completely conforming to the way their brains were naturally wired to operate. Some personality and general knowledge and feelings came with them and were sort of existing with whatever was still inside the other. It was a little confusing when Massu had explained it to him, but Shige trusted his judgement and went along with it, just the same. It would probably make perfect sense when they were back to normal.
It gives them something a little less vague to research, anyway, looking up myths about soul-switching and the like. There’s surprisingly a lot of myths pertaining to it, and at last he starts to see a little hope light up Massu’s eyes. He’s also glad to find Massu’s sticking to researching than picking his brain.
They take breaks from brainstorming to eat, the entire time Shige finds himself exploring parts of Massu he’s never experienced, before, learns that Massu has a lot more pent-up emotions than he would have known. Some of those feelings are puzzling and some feel familiar, but only vaguely so, like he’d subconsciously felt the same at some point. He feels a little guilty for doing it, like he’s invading Massu’s privacy, but he reasons that there might be something hidden that could help them within the other’s mind. He might also be looking for something that could give him an answer as to why Massu keeps avoiding his gaze from across the dinner table.
“Have you come up with anything else?” He asks when they’re cleaning up their dishes. Massu shakes his head.
“Everything I’ve come up with involves some one else making the switch happen, but I have no idea who could have done it, if that’s the case.”
It’s obvious everything is just taking a large toll on them, more so on Massu, he can practically see the stress emanating from him. A few more hours of even more failed searches and incomplete theories and eventually they dissolve into a pile on the floor, each nursing a much-needed can of beer and matching headaches. The computers are off and discarded to the side, the only sound in the room being their defeated sighs and slurping. He’s suddenly glad he stocked up on beer instead of vegetable juice.
“You remember when we were talking a few days ago, about how it might be to switch places with some one for a while?” Massu speaks up after a long while and breaks through the heavy air. The tops of their heads are touching as they lay on the floor, so he knows Massu can feel it when he nods, mouth occupied by a nearly empty can. “It’s not that great, after all, is it,” the way he says it makes it sound like a joke, despite how true it is, so he laughs.
“I guess it’s not all bad. Your optimism is starting to infect me,” he chimes in, already a little used to hearing Massu’s smooth low voice instead of his own coming from him.
Massu laughs, this time, but it lacks his normal cheer. “I thought it would be interesting, being in some one else’s head, being able to read their thoughts, but like... All of their thoughts that they’ve ever had.” For a moment Shige wonders if Massu knows what he’d been doing- or been trying to do, he hadn’t actually gotten past the potential guilt to actually invade more of Massu’s innermost thoughts and feelings. Then he notices that Massu sounds more wistful and maybe a little remorseful than accusing. He sits up on his elbow and turns to look at him then, and the expression on his face is very familiar. He feels a little scared, then.
“What are you trying to say?” The other licks his lips and the silence falls thick over them again until the sound of fabric dragging over carpet fills it as Massu shrugs.
“I think I might have made this happen. Because I wished I could get inside your head, I didn’t remember until now, but I did,” He’s starting to sound a little overly dramatic and Shige knows that must be a bit of himself shining through.
“No one can know that for sure... But if that’s it, why don’t you just do it? Maybe that’ll get us to turn back,” and now he knows that must be a bit of the beer shining through, because he wouldn’t normally offer up himself like this, especially considering what he’s been worrying about since day one.
Massu is reluctant to take up that offer, though, “I don’t know if I want to, now. No offense, Shige, but I think I’d rather not know what kind of things you think about.”
He makes an affronted sound in the back of his throat, “Yeah, none taken. Look, if you wanted to know before, part of you must still want to. I don’t mind if you snoop, just don’t tell me what you find.”
At that point he gets up to replace his now empty can with a new one, suddenly anxious because he’s not sure what Massu is looking for inside him, but also feeling like he really wouldn’t mind sharing whatever he had with him. Once again, he is met with that familiar feeling again, unable to tell if it’s Massu or himself, this time.
He looks into the main room to see Massu with his eyes closed and it doesn’t take him three guesses to figure out what he’s doing. A faint smile graces his lips and the thought that it wouldn’t hurt for him to do the same flutters at the forefront of his mind. If anything, it would occupy the part of him that was panicked over having some one else be able to get to know him so intimately so quickly and under these circumstances with so many possible outcomes, some devastating and some decidedly less so.
He takes a seat at the kitchen table in order to give Massu some semblance of privacy and closes his eyes and just lets himself feel.
The next thing he knows, he’s waking up because of a sharp pain in his back, sitting up to find it’s because he had apparently spent the night at the table with an unopened beer can inches from his face and a small puddle of drool sticking to his cheek. Eyes bleary, the first thing he does is wobble his way to the living room, finding a face he feels like he hasn’t seen in ages.
Massu lies, somehow still asleep, on his floor, proper body and looking almost too peaceful for some one who spent the night on a hard surface. He wants to wake Massu immediately, shake him and smile because his headache is gone and they’re back to normal after a pain-staking 48 hours, but he doesn’t. Instead he is drawn to that angelic face and finds himself leaning against the couch as he sits cross-legged on the carpet and watches him sleep. He’s never really let himself watch Massu like this, and for some reason he feels the security to be able to do it, now, of all times.
He knows something is different, despite how everything should actually be back to normal, now. Part of him wonders if it was all some strange dream, it had all seemed to pass by so quickly, now that he thought about it, but something else lingers just barely out of reach in the crevices of his mind and tells him it wasn’t. He must have found something, last night, but as he sits there, his mind remains blank.
Half an hour later, when Massu’s eyes flutter open and blink wearily before finding his face, something clicks, again, but this time he’s in his own skin with his own memories and thoughts and he remembers finding exactly what he needed.
He can see a flash of that familiar emotion in Massu’s sleep-veiled eyes when he looks back at him and he knows that Massu must have found what he was looking for, too, but he feels the need to ask, anyway.
“So you found it?”
Massu nods.
“And what was it you found?”
That silence is back again, but the weight is significantly less. “I thought you said you didn’t want me to tell you that,” Massu’s smile takes up nearly half of his face and before he knows it, he’s covering those lips with his own in a slow kiss that seems to last forever.
“This was one of the weirdest ways to confess,” he mumbles when they finally break apart, “I mean, technically, neither of us actually did.”
Massu shrugs, “I didn’t think either of us would without being sure...” That’s why I made the wish the rest of his sentence rings clear, though unspoken.
That comfortable feeling that had been missing through this entire ordeal wraps around them like a warm blanket and he finally feels like everything will be okay- Massu’s optimism really must have rubbed off on him- and he's looking forward to what else will, next.
Neither of them have a clue as to how they’re going to explain to the rest of NEWS how their relationship suddenly changed, but when Koyama calls Shige sounding distraught and suspiciously like their leader, he thinks he may have found a way.