{drama drabbles} // Ikemen desu ne, Misaki No.1
heartbreak club
Ren/Shu (Tamamori/Fujigaya)
PG, 260 words, Ikemen Desu Ne
Falling in love with the same girl somehow, inexplicably, brings Ren and Shu closer. Of course there is anger and resentment and jealousy between them, but also a strange understanding that comes from sharing the same goal and the same heartbreak. After Mio - the real Mio - comes and takes his proper place in A.N.JELL, Ren and Shu get even closer in their mutual discomfort in the company of this person who is so much like their Mio but isn't actually her.
"Shu," says Ren one day, months or maybe years later, Shu's lost track, speaking across a table full of empty beer mugs and the pounding of music at their usual club. He doesn't continue, doesn't voice whatever thought is in his mind, but rather lets it hang in the loud, thumping silence between them, an invisible elephant balancing on all those empty cylinders of glass.
But Shu understands, anyway. He sees the unspoken question in Ren's eyes, and feels the answer building on his lips, his tongue. The answer, the feeling, presses and presses, prying his lips apart, until he has to lean forward and kiss Ren, the crowd around them be damned.
No one notices. Shu's always heard that the best place to be private is in public, but still, it's strange. It feels like the whole world should have taken notice, should have stopped spinning, should have - oh, something. Because he knows, feels the tremor pass through him down to his very toes, that his own life has been shifted on its axis today.
a sense of self (or HE! HIM! HIM!)
Ren/Ren (Tamamori/Kitayama)
G, 497 words, Ikemen Desu Ne
Earthquakes are common enough in Tokyo that Ren barely even notices when the glasses rattle on their shelves in his kitchen one morning before work. He puts out a hand absentmindedly to make sure his orange juice doesn't spill, finishes buttoning his jacket with imperturbable calm, and is out the door practically before the ground stops shaking. Yuuki is already out and about, doing god knows what out on the lawn; Ren quirks a corner of his lips up at the man's antics but pretends to roll his eyes in exasperation when Yuuki calls out a perky greeting to him.
He grits his teeth in real exasperation when he finds a small scuff on his car door, when he gets stuck in traffic, when he has to wade through the crowd of fans outside the jimusho building. Mundane, mundane, mundane, he thinks. Mio had made things interesting for a while, but then she'd been that person's daughter and - Ren shakes his head to clear the thoughts out. Routine and normalcy, right, those things are better than the chaos Mio had caused.
It isn't until he gets to the president's office that he realizes his life might have been turned upside down yet again, this time in a much more astonishing way than some chit of a girl playing dress-up in her brother's clothing. Because when he enters the president's office, he finds Ando shachou, and Mabuchi, and the stylist, and... himself.
Only it's not quite himself. In the brief moment before Ren is noticed by the others, he observes this person in a rather stunned silence. This other man - other self - has a fuller, rounder face and is built upon stockier lines than himself. He has dark, serious eyes; a pert nose; full, pouty lips; and a face that's mobile and expressive when he talks. Ren isn't sure why, but even if the others hadn't been in the room and calling this man by his name, he would've known, somehow, that he was another, alternate version of himself.
"Ren!" Mabuchi's voice breaks into his thoughts and Ren tries to tear his eyes away from the other man to look at the manager. Only the other Ren looks up quickly and their eyes meet and Ren finds he can't look away if his life depended on it.
"Cat got your tongue?" the other Ren smirks, lazily unfolding his legs and getting up to shake hands. "Happy to meet... me."
This Ren's hands are warm, Ren notes, while his own are always cold. He can smell him, too, the shorter man's scent the same but different, more earthy. And his voice - Ren has always had a private complex about his own voice, secretly feels that his own voice is his biggest weakness, but this other self has a voice to be self-confident about, both strong and soft at the same time. This, Ren thinks, is the person he's been writing songs for his entire life.
you are the no.1 friend
Kazuma/Ryosuke (Fujigaya/Kitayama)
G, 688 words, Misaki No. 1
Kazuma is so used to Ryosuke's reticence that when he sees Ryosuke chattering away loudly with his university friends, it feels like being punched in the guts.
He'd been waiting for Ryosuke outside the main gate of the university, planning to steal his best friend away for a long-anticipated evening of beer and yakiniku, but seeing Ryosuke smile so brightly with his new friends makes Kazuma suddenly unsure of himself. He hates that, hates feeling inferior, but as he looks down at his ratty t-shirt and work boots and contrasts them with the polo shirts and expensive loafers he sees all over the university campus, he recognizes it as the truth.
Turning on his heels before Ryosuke looks up and recognizes him, Kazuma jerks his chin up in the old and familiar manner. He saunters away, doing his best to blend in but feeling rebellious at heart.
"Oi! Kazuma!"
Kazuma keeps walking. He pretends not to hear, pretends he's someone else, pretends he doesn't know Ryosuke is calling his name. There could well be some other Kazuma, after all, considering how many people there are at a university, so-
"Kujo Kazuma!"
There's a hand on his shoulder now, familiar in its shape and weight, and Kazuma has no choice but to stop. "Can I help you?" he asks coolly.
"You ass!" Ryosuke laughs. "What are you doing here?"
Kazuma shrugs. "Just passing by."
"On your way to what? Having tea with the prime minister in your work clothes?"
It's a joke and Kazuma should find it funny, should laugh, but Ryosuke's words hit him right where it hurts.
"Fuck you!" he explodes, "Fuck you, and your fancy university, and your preppy clothes and shit! Ooh, Mr. University Student has an ugly sweater vest. Big fucking deal! It's not like I came here to see you, so leave me alone!"
Ryosuke reels back like he's been struck ('Good,' thinks Kazuma savagely, 'I hope it hurts.') and for a moment looks like he's winding up to actually punch Kazuma. But then he narrows his eyes and looks at Kazuma sharply - he's always been too perceptive for Kazuma's comfort - and instead invites Kazuma out to yakiniku.
Kazuma is so surprised he blurts out, before thinking, "Hey that's my line!"
"Oh so you were here to hang out with me then?" Ryosuke laughs at Kazuma with his eyes, though he manages to keep his mouth serious.
"Ugh, I hate you," Kazuma grumbles.
Then Ryosuke does laugh out loud, warm and happy, like he'd been doing earlier with his other friends. Kazuma doesn't have time to be sour about it, though, because Ryosuke slings an arm around his neck (in front of the whole school!) and leads Kazuma down the hill to their favorite yakiniku restaurant.
The later it gets, though, the less Ryosuke talks, until soon it's just like old times again, with Kazuma grumbling away about this and that and Ryosuke just listening with a lazy, amused smile. Abruptly, Kazuma realizes this and just as abruptly, he stops in the middle of his sentence and changes topics.
"Why don't you ever talk to me?" he asks, tongue numbed and loosened with alcohol.
"What do you mean?"
"Just," Kazuma waves a hand around vaguely, "Earlier when you were at school. And now you're with me, you're not talking at all!" That feeling of inferiority hits him again, and this time there's no anger to hide behind, so Kazuma just looks away, hoping to god his feelings aren't stamped all over his face.
Of course Ryosuke laughs at him, and calls him an idiot in about twenty different ways, damn university students and their vocabularies, but then Ryosuke reaches out with one hand and gently forces Kazuma to look at him. Kazuma doesn't see the condescension he's scared he'll see, or even teasing, in Ryosuke's eyes. Instead he sees quiet understanding and unwavering loyalty, the same as it's always been.
"I don't need to talk when I'm with you because I know you'll understand without my having to tell you," Ryosuke says fondly, "But you really are an idiot, aren't you?"
Ren/Shu (Tamamori/Fujigaya)
PG, 260 words, Ikemen Desu Ne
Falling in love with the same girl somehow, inexplicably, brings Ren and Shu closer. Of course there is anger and resentment and jealousy between them, but also a strange understanding that comes from sharing the same goal and the same heartbreak. After Mio - the real Mio - comes and takes his proper place in A.N.JELL, Ren and Shu get even closer in their mutual discomfort in the company of this person who is so much like their Mio but isn't actually her.
"Shu," says Ren one day, months or maybe years later, Shu's lost track, speaking across a table full of empty beer mugs and the pounding of music at their usual club. He doesn't continue, doesn't voice whatever thought is in his mind, but rather lets it hang in the loud, thumping silence between them, an invisible elephant balancing on all those empty cylinders of glass.
But Shu understands, anyway. He sees the unspoken question in Ren's eyes, and feels the answer building on his lips, his tongue. The answer, the feeling, presses and presses, prying his lips apart, until he has to lean forward and kiss Ren, the crowd around them be damned.
No one notices. Shu's always heard that the best place to be private is in public, but still, it's strange. It feels like the whole world should have taken notice, should have stopped spinning, should have - oh, something. Because he knows, feels the tremor pass through him down to his very toes, that his own life has been shifted on its axis today.
a sense of self (or HE! HIM! HIM!)
Ren/Ren (Tamamori/Kitayama)
G, 497 words, Ikemen Desu Ne
Earthquakes are common enough in Tokyo that Ren barely even notices when the glasses rattle on their shelves in his kitchen one morning before work. He puts out a hand absentmindedly to make sure his orange juice doesn't spill, finishes buttoning his jacket with imperturbable calm, and is out the door practically before the ground stops shaking. Yuuki is already out and about, doing god knows what out on the lawn; Ren quirks a corner of his lips up at the man's antics but pretends to roll his eyes in exasperation when Yuuki calls out a perky greeting to him.
He grits his teeth in real exasperation when he finds a small scuff on his car door, when he gets stuck in traffic, when he has to wade through the crowd of fans outside the jimusho building. Mundane, mundane, mundane, he thinks. Mio had made things interesting for a while, but then she'd been that person's daughter and - Ren shakes his head to clear the thoughts out. Routine and normalcy, right, those things are better than the chaos Mio had caused.
It isn't until he gets to the president's office that he realizes his life might have been turned upside down yet again, this time in a much more astonishing way than some chit of a girl playing dress-up in her brother's clothing. Because when he enters the president's office, he finds Ando shachou, and Mabuchi, and the stylist, and... himself.
Only it's not quite himself. In the brief moment before Ren is noticed by the others, he observes this person in a rather stunned silence. This other man - other self - has a fuller, rounder face and is built upon stockier lines than himself. He has dark, serious eyes; a pert nose; full, pouty lips; and a face that's mobile and expressive when he talks. Ren isn't sure why, but even if the others hadn't been in the room and calling this man by his name, he would've known, somehow, that he was another, alternate version of himself.
"Ren!" Mabuchi's voice breaks into his thoughts and Ren tries to tear his eyes away from the other man to look at the manager. Only the other Ren looks up quickly and their eyes meet and Ren finds he can't look away if his life depended on it.
"Cat got your tongue?" the other Ren smirks, lazily unfolding his legs and getting up to shake hands. "Happy to meet... me."
This Ren's hands are warm, Ren notes, while his own are always cold. He can smell him, too, the shorter man's scent the same but different, more earthy. And his voice - Ren has always had a private complex about his own voice, secretly feels that his own voice is his biggest weakness, but this other self has a voice to be self-confident about, both strong and soft at the same time. This, Ren thinks, is the person he's been writing songs for his entire life.
you are the no.1 friend
Kazuma/Ryosuke (Fujigaya/Kitayama)
G, 688 words, Misaki No. 1
Kazuma is so used to Ryosuke's reticence that when he sees Ryosuke chattering away loudly with his university friends, it feels like being punched in the guts.
He'd been waiting for Ryosuke outside the main gate of the university, planning to steal his best friend away for a long-anticipated evening of beer and yakiniku, but seeing Ryosuke smile so brightly with his new friends makes Kazuma suddenly unsure of himself. He hates that, hates feeling inferior, but as he looks down at his ratty t-shirt and work boots and contrasts them with the polo shirts and expensive loafers he sees all over the university campus, he recognizes it as the truth.
Turning on his heels before Ryosuke looks up and recognizes him, Kazuma jerks his chin up in the old and familiar manner. He saunters away, doing his best to blend in but feeling rebellious at heart.
"Oi! Kazuma!"
Kazuma keeps walking. He pretends not to hear, pretends he's someone else, pretends he doesn't know Ryosuke is calling his name. There could well be some other Kazuma, after all, considering how many people there are at a university, so-
"Kujo Kazuma!"
There's a hand on his shoulder now, familiar in its shape and weight, and Kazuma has no choice but to stop. "Can I help you?" he asks coolly.
"You ass!" Ryosuke laughs. "What are you doing here?"
Kazuma shrugs. "Just passing by."
"On your way to what? Having tea with the prime minister in your work clothes?"
It's a joke and Kazuma should find it funny, should laugh, but Ryosuke's words hit him right where it hurts.
"Fuck you!" he explodes, "Fuck you, and your fancy university, and your preppy clothes and shit! Ooh, Mr. University Student has an ugly sweater vest. Big fucking deal! It's not like I came here to see you, so leave me alone!"
Ryosuke reels back like he's been struck ('Good,' thinks Kazuma savagely, 'I hope it hurts.') and for a moment looks like he's winding up to actually punch Kazuma. But then he narrows his eyes and looks at Kazuma sharply - he's always been too perceptive for Kazuma's comfort - and instead invites Kazuma out to yakiniku.
Kazuma is so surprised he blurts out, before thinking, "Hey that's my line!"
"Oh so you were here to hang out with me then?" Ryosuke laughs at Kazuma with his eyes, though he manages to keep his mouth serious.
"Ugh, I hate you," Kazuma grumbles.
Then Ryosuke does laugh out loud, warm and happy, like he'd been doing earlier with his other friends. Kazuma doesn't have time to be sour about it, though, because Ryosuke slings an arm around his neck (in front of the whole school!) and leads Kazuma down the hill to their favorite yakiniku restaurant.
The later it gets, though, the less Ryosuke talks, until soon it's just like old times again, with Kazuma grumbling away about this and that and Ryosuke just listening with a lazy, amused smile. Abruptly, Kazuma realizes this and just as abruptly, he stops in the middle of his sentence and changes topics.
"Why don't you ever talk to me?" he asks, tongue numbed and loosened with alcohol.
"What do you mean?"
"Just," Kazuma waves a hand around vaguely, "Earlier when you were at school. And now you're with me, you're not talking at all!" That feeling of inferiority hits him again, and this time there's no anger to hide behind, so Kazuma just looks away, hoping to god his feelings aren't stamped all over his face.
Of course Ryosuke laughs at him, and calls him an idiot in about twenty different ways, damn university students and their vocabularies, but then Ryosuke reaches out with one hand and gently forces Kazuma to look at him. Kazuma doesn't see the condescension he's scared he'll see, or even teasing, in Ryosuke's eyes. Instead he sees quiet understanding and unwavering loyalty, the same as it's always been.
"I don't need to talk when I'm with you because I know you'll understand without my having to tell you," Ryosuke says fondly, "But you really are an idiot, aren't you?"