JE/NewS/KAT-TUN- "It’s a Wonderful YOU-tachi"

[peroxide_fic]

Title: It’s a Wonderful YOU-tachi
Universe: JE/News/KAT-TUN
Theme/Topic: Maru-centric fic for je_holiday
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/Group: KAT-TUN (Nakamaru and Jin focus), cameos by all of NewS, and Toma
Warnings/Spoilers: OOC? Crack? MAGIC.
Word Count: 10,618
Summary: Jin and Nakamaru wish they weren’t who they are and Tegoshi is an angel.
Dedication: written as a gift for encoded_panties. Also special thanks to Ann for betaing 10,000 words and not throttling me.
A/N: Written for this year’s je_holiday but hopefully, completely corrected since then. Original post here.
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this!



After Nakamaru is told that next week’s YOU-tachi segment will involve him beatboxing blindfolded while sliding down one of Japan’s longest waterslides and holding a cardboard sign that has “extraordinary” written on it on it in English, he only sighs quietly to himself and says, “That’s fine,” to the producers. He has to wait all the way until the next weekend when he’s out shopping with Massu before he can complain about the whole ridiculous thing to anyone, because he knows that even if Massu isn’t really helpful in terms of giving suggestions or advice, the younger boy has always been a patient, supportive listener and most importantly, has never cackled gleefully at Nakamaru’s pain like Koki has.

When Massu hears Nakamaru’s announcement about the waterslide he blinks back at his friend and even pauses in his meticulous perusal of the discount rack to think carefully about what Nakamaru is telling him. “Why,” the younger boy asks after a moment, and with complete sincerity, “Do you need to prove that sort of thing to anyone in the first place?”

Nakamaru’s heart swells with love for Masuda when he hears this. Why indeed? He almost offers to buy Massu lunch, even though he knows how expensive that can be sometimes.

But before he can, Massu beams and says (with no pretense whatsoever, mind), “Besides, being ordinary is the best, isn’t it? This way we can take our time shopping like this and no one will bother us.”

Nakamaru sighs.

The following Monday, he screams until his voice is hoarse down the entire length of the waterslide.

In the studio afterwards, when Koki makes himself sick laughing at him, Nakamaru decides that this year cannot end quickly enough.

He’s sick of being ordinary.

~~~~~

Jin frowns and hunches his shoulders a little bit more as he walks down the busy street; he pulls his baseball cap lower on his head and lengthens his strides.

None of this is because he’s cold, though it is starting to get cold out. Sometimes he wishes that everything could be as simple as that.

Instead, he can hear excited whispers and running footsteps rushing to catch up a few feet behind him, followed by a series of giggles and the shuffling of possessions as hands quickly shift belongings from one to the other so that they can start digging around in purses and pockets.

The light of a cell phone camera flashes in his periphery a few seconds later and he growls in annoyance, shoves his hands into the pockets of his ripped jeans and walks faster still.

The rustling and the whispers don’t let up though; it seems like the more annoyed he gets, the louder, closer, more excited they become in turn. He imagines that this is what it is like to be hunted.

It makes him feel oddly helpless, makes him longingly remember a time some months ago where he could walk down any street he wanted to just like he is right now and no one would look at him twice.

He remembers a place where no one knew him as anything other than “Jin” at the closest and “that Japanese exchange student” in a more general sense; where KAT-TUN just sounded like a strange foreign word and where cute blond girls laughed at his broken pick up lines but still let him buy them drinks without falling all over themselves trying to impress him back.

He remembers a place where he could wake up every day and ask himself, “What am I going to do today?” and really have a choice in the matter.

He misses that freedom the most, he thinks, misses doing what he wants and learning what he wants and not having to worry about whether the paparazzi is around or if the fangirls will catch him in the middle of something unseemly and un-idol-like. He misses the time when his biggest worry had been remembering how to spell “December” for that vocabulary test he had on Thursday morning.

Now it seems like he has a hundred thousand things to worry about all over again and the giggles just. Won’t. Let. Up.

After few more flashes of light click behind him and the clatter of heeled shoes gets ever so slightly louder, he purses his lips gives up, breaks out into a jog. He forgets about any attempts to flee with some of his dignity intact; the last thing he wants right now is to be stopped and made to play the responsible Johnny’s Idol. He’s probably already late to work as it is; Kame will yell at him.

After about a block of running he can see the jimusho up ahead; he would sigh in relief if he wasn’t starting to hate the fact that the Johnny’s building is one of the few places left in this world that he can walk around freely in.

When he gets to the front entrance of the building the intimidating security guards just behind the glass doors finally scare off whoever had been following him; he slips inside with a sigh and wishes-for the umpteenth time since his return-that he could be someone more ordinary than himself.

He remembers-nostalgically-a brief, bright moment back when his life, his future, his choices, had all been his own to make and no one else’s.

Sometimes, Jin feels like he is tired of being special.

~~~~~

When Jin gets to the rehearsal room Kame is in a bad mood; Jin checks his watch and discovers that he’s not just late, he’s forty minutes late. Everyone is sitting around looking bored except for Junno, who is happily punching away at his DS Lite.

“Yo,” Jin says, “Sorry. I decided to walk from one stop back and then these girls started following me…”

“Poor you,” Nakamaru drawls melodramatically from the couch. Jin frowns at him, but he doesn’t notice, keeps going. “I hate when that happens, you know. It totally sucks and…”

Koki pitches a sequined t-shirt hard at Nakamaru’s head. “How would you even know in the first place? The last time someone followed you around it was because they thought you were Maruyama.”

“It’s understandable, ne. Their names are roundly similar!” Junno chimes in randomly, and laughs at his own stupid joke.

He is pointedly ignored.

“So,” Koki says, and waggles his eyebrows at Jin. “Were they cute?”

“I didn’t look. Um. I’m gonna go change,” Jin replies, and pulls his baseball cap off.

“Ah, it must be so tiresome to be so famous,” Nakamaru chortles dryly after him, and tosses Koki’s sparkly shirt back at him.

Koki snorts.

~~~~~

“I’m not buying you a present this year,” Yamapi announces cheerfully to Jin some weeks later, when the studio is starting to make Jin feel like Christmas trees have gotten sick and vomited on everything in sight. He feels bad for the juniors particularly, because it looks like no one bothered to wash it off of them before sending them back on stage again.

“If you’re not buying me a present then I’m buying you two,” Jin tells Yamapi, and sticks his tongue out at his friend. “That way you can feel doubly guilty for being a jerk. Ha.”

Yamapi rolls his eyes. “Bakanishi,” he says, “I told you I wasn’t buying you a present. That doesn’t mean I’m not giving you one. I’ve thought very carefully about this. I’m giving you something special this year. Something that no one else is going to be able to get from me ever! That kind of special.”

“Oh. Special,” Jin says, and tries to look enthusiastic. He hasn’t told Yamapi yet-and he’s not sure he ever will-but that word just leaves a bad taste in his mouth lately.

Yamapi grins at him and pats his back, “Majide, I can’t wait!” he crows, “You’re guaranteed to love it.”

“Yeah,” Jin agrees, quietly.

Down the hall, a line of juniors dressed as fluorescent-colored elves march bleakly onto stage.

~~~~~

“We decided as a group,” Massu tells Nakamaru on their next shopping trip together, “that we aren’t going to buy each other presents this year.”

Nakamaru nods knowingly at the younger boy when he hears this. “That’s a good idea. For us, half of us will remember and half of us always forget, and for the month after Christmas work is awkward because the people who were forgotten have hurt feelings.” He pauses to think, “Maybe I should tell everyone now that we should follow NewS’s example and not exchange gifts anymore, for the sake of January.”

Massu blinks; his eyes look vaguely glazed over. “We decided not to buy each other presents this year,” he repeats after a minute, and then finds his bearings again when he hears himself say that…again. He smiles. “So we’re making gifts instead, ne. Isn’t that fun?”

Nakamaru wants to reach out and pat Massu’s head almost as much as he wants to laugh at him and the rest of his group outright for coming up with such a strangely grade-school level gift exchange. Really, are they all five years old?

Instead he just purses his lips and waits for the initial reaction to mock pass, since he knows that Massu is sensitive to that kind of teasing. “So,” he asks instead, “who came up with that brilliant idea?”

Massu’s grin broadens. “Tegoshi.”

Nakamaru isn’t sure why, but when he hears that, a cold chill runs down his spine.

He wonders if maybe he needs to buy a new sweater.

~~~~~

Yamapi looks down at the slip of paper in his hand; it sparkles back up at him (because he’d decorated it with gold glitter glue and stickers and some tinsel he’d pulled off of some of the passing juniors’ stage costumes); from the shininess alone, he feels confident that this will be the best present anyone has ever gotten their best friend ever. “This will work, right?” he asks Tegoshi.

Tegoshi laughs and nods. “Believe, ne.” He pushes Yamapi towards the door.

Yamapi grins back because Tegoshi’s confidence is infectious. “Yosh, believe!”

He pumps his fist and goes off in search of Jin.

~~~~~

“One of Tegoshi’s wishes,” Jin reads aloud, slowly. He blinks. “Huh?”

Yamapi grins. “Merry Christmas, ne.”

A beat. “I don’t get it.”

Yamapi sighs. “You get to make a wish.” Pause. “Well, you get to decide on a wish, and then Tegoshi will wish for it for you ne. I think that’s how he explained it.”

Jin still doesn’t get it. “How is that a present?”

Yamapi crosses his arms. “Because,” he says, very patiently, “when Tegoshi wishes for something, he always gets it. We think there is some force in the universe that is always looking out for him, ne.”

Jin stares. “Is he magic?”

Yamapi nods; his face is very serious. “All you have to do is believe.”

“Believe?”

“Believe.”

Jin almost laughs; in truth he is kind of touched by how ridiculous Yamapi’s idea of a special gift is. He tucks the glittery paper into his jeans pocket and thrusts out a box to Yamapi in return. “Merry Christmas.”

He got Yamapi a scarf.

Because lately, he’s been in the mood for the simple things.

~~~~~

Nakamaru looks down at the present he has just received from Massu. “So it wasn’t just for your group, but you made everyone their presents this year?” he asks, after a beat.

Massu beams. “It’s much more personal that way, ne?”

Nakamaru is holding a picture collage of himself and his bandmates (and sometimes NewS just thrown in where Nakamaru suspects Massu ran out of group pictures of KAT-TUN); there is text written with gold glitter glue on the collage that says, “I hope you will always be happy! From your friend, Massu.”

Nakamaru smiles helplessly. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome! Tegoshi helped me with it; he said that since we worked so hard to make it nice he is sure that it will bring you good things in the future, ne.”

Nakamaru nods, “I’ll bet.” Then he gives Massu the brightly wrapped box he’s holding in return, and the younger boy’s face immediately lights up the whole room when he takes it.

There’s a new sweater waiting inside for Massu; it’s got stripes and polka dots on it all at once and Nakamaru is pretty sure that it is the only one in the world of its kind (hopefully, for the sake of everyone’s eyes).

He thinks Massu will like it because it’s interesting; Massu is also the only one Nakamaru knows who would actually wear it too, which is why he bought it for him (despite the concerned looks the girl behind the counter was throwing him as he’d paid for it).

Because even if it means being kind of weird, Nakamaru thinks that everyone should to be so unique it hurts every once in a while too.

~~~~~

Later that night Jin lies in bed staring at the ceiling in boredom; after a moment he pulls the slip of paper Yamapi had given him out of his pocket and blinks up at it for a few minutes. “Oi Tegoshi,” he tells it, like the younger boy is there somewhere, hidden in the sparkles and listening to him, “Pay attention, okay? This is what I want.”

And then he closes his eyes and makes his wish, just because it’s nice to wish sometimes.

When he opens his eyes again nothing has changed, he’s still in his bed staring at the ceiling in boredom. The decorated slip of paper winks down at him; he smiles ruefully at it and sets it on top of his nightstand beside his alarm clock.

He decides to go to sleep early; for some reason, he feels like he will sleep well tonight.

~~~~~

As Nakamaru gets ready for bed, he glances at his picture collage from Massu and wonders what, exactly, has to change in his life to make him happy always.

Maybe it’s impossible; but he thinks that even still, he is glad that Massu can think so positively for him.

He goes to sleep and dreams about extraordinary things.

~~~~~

In the morning, Nakamaru wakes up and promptly screams.

The person next to him blinks blearily at the sudden noise; groans at him. “What’s wrong?” nameless-naked woman asks.

He keeps screaming, and she just gets impatient.

“For fuck’s sake, I’m hungover, so shut it, will you?”

Nakamaru snaps his jaw shut immediately and just stares instead; he thinks he has seen this person’s face before, somewhere. For some reason, the underwear catalogues Koki keeps in his bathroom comes to mind. But just to be sure, “Wh-who are you?” he asks.

Nameless-naked woman cocks an unimpressed eyebrow before rolling over and muttering, “God, how typical. I’m only taking producers home with me from now on.” Then she stretches a long, elegant arm and points towards the door. “Out.”

As Nakamaru puts on his pants, he thinks that something strange is going on.

~~~~~

“Oi, wake up, moron!” Reio yells, and pounds on Jin’s door.

Jin blinks and cracks an eye open to look at the clock; 7:32 am.

He groans and promptly pulls his blankets over his head. “Too early for this!” he shouts.

His brother only knocks harder. “If you’re late to work again your manager is going to fire you, asshole.”

Late? Jin blinks blearily and sits up; is there some shooting he forgot about today or something? And why the hell would Reio know about it?

He rolls onto his side and fumbles around on the nightstand for his cell; he accidentally knocks the glittery piece of paper that Yamapi had given him yesterday onto the floor before grabbing his phone and flipping it open to the daily planner.

Nothing.

He scowls and nearly tosses the phone at the door in an attempt to get Reio to leave him the hell alone, but that’s when he notices that there really is nothing in the planner. Anywhere. That’s odd; he’s pretty sure that yesterday he’d inputted all the stuff they are doing for the Christmas special and the countdown show into it.

“If you don’t get up I’m telling mom!”

“Fine!” Jin roars, and sits up with a snarl. For the time being, he forgets about the faulty planner in favor of throttling his sibling. “I’m up! I’m… up.”

His annoyance, however, is abruptly cut off by the fact that there is what looks to be a brightly colored 7-11 uniform hanging neatly on his door.

Where the heck did that come from?

He is pretty certain that he has never had the inclination ever, to take home any of the jimusho’s costumes. He’s not Taguchi, after all.

Boggled, he stumbles out from under the bedcovers, rubs his eyes, and squints at the uniform. Maybe it’s his brother’s? Some costume left over from Halloween?

When he gets a close enough to make out the details though, the nametag pinned to the breast pocket very clearly reads “Akanishi Jin.”

Jin wonders if he’d gotten drunk last night and forgotten about it.

~~~~~

As Nakamaru walks down the street with his hair mussed and clothes rumpled, people point and whisper at him and snap cell phone pictures without even bothering to try and be subtle about it; he squints back in confusion and wonders if there is something on his face.

His cell phone rings a few minutes later; it’s their manager and he sounds like he’s pissed, but doing his very best to hide it.

“Where are you?”

“Lost,” Nakamaru responds, honestly. “Um, am I…”

“The press conference is in fifteen minutes, Nakamaru-kun! Please, please, please, please tell me you’re lost within a fifteen minute distance from the studio.”

“Um…” Nakamaru says. “I’m…lost within a fifteen minute distance from the studio?”

“Are you lying?”

“I…don’t know.” Pause. “I’ll get a taxi?”

A frustrated snarl. “Don’t be late.”

Nakamaru is about to answer in the affirmative and apologize for whatever it is he’s about to be late for, but before he can he turns around to try and find a street name and ends up dropping his phone instead.

Because there is suddenly a giant billboard with his face on it is looming over him; it’s prominently displayed on the very top levels of the Docomo Corporate Headquarters.

Which isn’t too strange an occurrence, all things considered. Hell, even the weird and seemingly random inclusion of Ikuta Toma’s face on the ad instead of Jin’s seems normal in it’s own fucked up Johnny’s Entertainment way.

But the really odd thing about the ad is the fact that Nakamaru can see his face in the very front and center of the poster. He is standing in front of Kame.

Not to mention the picture says “KUTTIN” on it in big capital English letters instead of “KAT-TUN” like it’s supposed to. It doesn’t look like a typo, either.

He blinks.

Then, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!”

On the plus side, he isn’t lost anymore.

~~~~~

“There is something weird in my room,” Jin announces as he stumbles downstairs for breakfast. The TV is blaring in the background as Reio sits at the table shoveling food into his mouth; his dad has his face buried behind today’s paper.

“Something weird? You didn’t leave a half eaten bento under your bed again, did you? I didn’t smell anything when I went in there yesterday,” his mother inquires from behind the stove, worriedly.

“No I didn’t…”

Jin trails off when he catches sight of the TV.

Kame and Junno’s faces smile back at him from some sort of weird press conference; he checks his watch. 7:56 am…why didn’t anyone call him if he was really this late?

“Crap!” he mutters, and grabs a piece of toast before turning towards the door.

But then the camera pans out.

Kame and Junno’s faces are still there, except Toma’s is there now too, smiling next to them.

Jin stops; the toast is hanging out of his mouth.

“The hell…”

The scrolling text at the bottom reads, “Popular Group KUTTIN Announces Next Album Release Date and International Concert Tour.”

Jin’s initial reaction is to stare.

His second is to shout.

“Oh my god, are they recording without me again?!”

~~~~~

“Where is your leader right now?” a reporter asks Toma, “shouldn’t he be here for such an important announcement?”

Toma just smiles calmly, “Well, you know how Nakamaru-kun is. He’s just running a little bit late this morning, but our manager says that the moment he gets here you’ll be able to ask him all the questions you want. In the meantime, do you have anything specific you want to ask the rest of us?”

Silence.

The rest of KUTTIN laughs awkwardly.

~~~~~

“Pi!!” Jin screeches into his phone, “Pi, I think something is wrong!!”

A long silence from the other end.

Then Yamapi’s voice finally responds; it is colder than Jin has ever remembered hearing it in his whole entire life. “Who is this and how did you get this number?”

“What do you mean who is this? It’s me! Jin! Your best friend ever! What is wrong with you?!”

A sigh. “Whoever this is, please don’t call this number again, ne.”

Yamapi hangs up.

~~~~~

Nakamaru does end up finding a taxi as soon as he’s pinched himself multiple times to make sure he is not dreaming; the taxi driver lights up when he sees him and asks for an autograph for his daughter.

Nakamaru gets driven to the studio free of charge after that; there are several bodyguards waiting for him on the sidewalk when he arrives and they escort him silently to the door. Someone hands him a hot towel and a cup of coffee as he goes in, exactly like he likes it, too.

He isn’t sure what’s going on exactly, but he thinks that maybe he could get used to it.

~~~~~

After Ryo-chan, Pi (again), Ryo-chan (again), his manager, and Ueda all hang up on Jin too, Jin gets desperate.

He calls Kame.

Kame doesn’t even pick up; he rejects the call after the second ring.

And before Jin can even be properly indignant about that-because who the hell does Kame think he is, anyway- more pounding comes from his bedroom door.

“Niisan, you’re late for work!”

“WORK IS NOT PICKING UP,” Jin shoots back frantically, and ends up dropping his phone on the floor by his bed.

It hits something sparkly; Jin blinks down at the glittery slip of paper that Yamapi had given him for Christmas.

He stares at it.

And then his eyes get very, very big.

“No way.”

~~~~~

“You were late,” Kame sighs at Nakamaru, “I specifically requested that you wouldn’t be late for this and…” he trails off with a frown and looks down at his cell phone, which is buzzing in his pocket. He calmly rejects the call before turning back to Nakamaru. “And,” he continues, “You embarrassed us on national television.”

“Maa, maa,” Toma interjects calmly, “He made it in the end, right? We can’t worry about what’s already in the past at this point, Kame-chan.”

“Except he’s completely hungover,” Kame feels the need to snipe. “None of his answers sounded like him at all.”

Nakamaru would take offense to that-he is pretty sure they sounded exactly like him since, you know, he said them- except he’s too busy staring at Toma right now to bitch back at Kame. He reaches out and pokes the newcomer instead. “Why are you here?” he asks.

Toma looks vaguely hurt. “Hey,” he says, but plays it off calmly enough, “I’m going to let that slide because knowing you like I do, you probably are hungover.”

“I’m sober,” Nakamaru feels the need to point out. “I think. Um…where is Jin?”

Silence.

Then, “Who?”

~~~~~

Twenty minutes later and Jin is wearing his 7-11 uniform; it itches and covers him up in all the wrong places. He never thought that it could happen, but it seems that there are clothes in this world that can make him look like he is naturally gangly and awkward.

“So,” he asks Reio casually as they walk, “where is ‘work’ again?”

His brother rolls his eyes. “Oh my god. How can you forget where you work when it is four blocks down the street? I’m going to go ahead now, so no one sees us walking together.”

Jin laughs awkwardly. “Right! Four blocks! I was just testing you, of course. Because every responsible little brother should know where his beloved niisan works. In case of emergencies.”

“Whatever.”

“So.” Sheepish laugh. “Four blocks down the street in what direction?”

Reio sighs and points left.

~~~~~

“Holy cow, I’m in the center of the picture on this album cover too!” Nakamaru exclaims loudly to himself when he sees it.

The rest of KUTTIN looks at each other.

Eventually, Koki snorts. “Yes, we love how you keep rubbing that in all the time, too.”

Nakamaru isn’t sure, but he thinks his group is glaring at him.

~~~~~

“You’re late.”

Jin blinks at what he assumes is his boss and tries to give his most charming smile, on account of it always being the thing to get him out of trouble before. “My alarm didn’t go off. Haha…sorry… boss.”

His boss is pushing forty and fat and balding and looks like none of the beautiful people Jin is used to spending his time around. He doesn’t know if he is excited or horrified at the prospect; he decides on neither and ends up staring at the Giant Mole in the middle of the guy’s forehead instead.

“This is strike two, Akanishi. If you’re late again you’re fired.”

It seems that this charming smile has not worked. Fascinating. Jin wonders if this is what life is like as a normal Japanese twenty-something in Japan. He wonders if he went to college, or if he’d been allowed to stay in America to study abroad even longer; what is living like this really like? He’s excited just thinking about all the possibilities of being really, really normal.

Then Mole-man grunts and holds out a plunger. “The men’s toilet is stuck again,” he says.

Jin stares at the plunger in terror.

~~~~~

When Nakamaru is stopped for his autograph for the fifteenth time in so many minutes on his way out to lunch; he thinks to himself that, “This must be how my life would be like if I was special, ne.”

So he smiles through his hand cramps and the really bad string of “KUTTIN Edge, ne!” jokes for the rest of the hour.

~~~~~

“This must be what my life would be like if I was ordinary,” Jin thinks glumly to himself some time later; he sighs in relief when the toilet finally-finally- starts working again.

~~~~~

“Yo, Massu,” Nakamaru greets cheerfully when he sees his friend in the hallway that afternoon. He reaches out and pats the younger boy’s shoulder happily, because he feels like he’s on top of the world right now. “Let’s go get dinner together later tonight, okay? I’ve got a lot, a lot, a lot to talk to you about. I mean, you won’t believe the day I’ve had.”

Massu blinks at him nervously; he eyes Nakamaru’s hand on his shoulder like it could lash out at him at any moment and send him flying to the floor. “Um…really?”

“M-Massu!” Koyama’s worried voice barks abruptly, and the oldest NewS member is suddenly running down the hall towards them. He eyes Nakamaru with something very close to fear, and when he laughs, it’s high-pitched and horrible. “Massu um, can you help me with something real quick? It’s an emergency, ne.” Koyama says quickly. He wrings his hands.

Nakamaru stares when Koyama doesn’t even wait for Massu answer; the older boy just grabs his bandmate by the arm and leads him down the hallway, slides himself between Nakamaru and Massu like a human shield until the two of them are safely ensconced back in the NewS dressing room.

Nakamaru isn’t sure what, exactly, had just happened at first, but he gets it when Toma approaches him after a minute, looking disapproving.

“Oi, Nakamaru, I thought you said you were bored with bullying Masuda-kun, ne? You should really leave the kid alone.”

Nakamaru stares.

And apparently Toma takes his slack-jawed silence as Nakamaru brushing his advice off again, because the younger boy just sighs helplessly and rubs his forehead. “Just… try to be a little nicer to your kouhai, huh?” he says, before heading down the hall to the NewS dressing room, probably to apologize on Nakamaru’s behalf.

Nakamaru watches him go and thinks that out of everything weird and fantastical that has happened to him today, this has probably been the most genuinely distressing thing out of all of them.

~~~~~

Later, when Jin is working the register (sort of, he keeps messing up), some cute girls come in to get snacks and magazines; they flip through the week’s women’s tabloids as they approach the counter and start squealing while Jin is in the middle of ringing up their Calbee and peach tea. It is weird that they don’t even spare him a second glance.

“Nakamaru-kun is so amazing, isn’t he?” they twitter amongst themselves as they read the articles. “He can get any girl he wants.”

Jin can’t help it; he snorts.

Before that moment, Jin had thought that Kame’s Icy Stare of Doom was the most horrific glare on the face of the planet.

As it turns out, the real world has some genuinely terrifying things in it. Terrifying things that eat the terrifying things at Johnny’s for breakfast.

~~~~~

“Why does everyone hate me?!” Nakamaru demands as he storms back into KUTTIN’s dressing room some time later, once he has gauged that everyone does in fact, hate him.

This has been verified via various observations he has made throughout the day; first by that incident with Massu in the hallway, then again when Taiyou had reflex vomited when Nakamaru said his name, and then again when Koyama had yelped and bowed to him in the corridor before retreating like he’d been expecting Nakamaru to stab him in the neck with a pen at any second. And this is Koyama; he likes everyone.

Nakamaru’s groupmates look up at him in confusion at his question; is he really asking this?

“Oi,” he says, and gets a little more frantic when there isn’t an answer right away. He waves his arms at them. “C’mon, answer me.”

“It’s because you’re a dick,” Koki says, and puts on his bravest face as he does it.

Everyone else just murmurs in agreement; that about sums it up.

Nakamaru is aghast. “But you’re a way bigger dick than me!” he says to Koki, on instinct.

Koki sighs.

Kame just looks annoyed. “Can we not talk about this right now? Our taping begins in an hour and we don’t have time for another big fight before another national TV appearance.”

“Oh god,” Nakamaru murmurs, and stumbles backwards a step when he hears this. “I’m more of a drama queen than you are now?!”

He sinks to the floor and buries his head in his hands.

Maybe he’s not cut out to be extraordinary after all.

~~~~~

When Jin’s shift from hell finally ends he wearily heads home with some tarako onigiri and a can of grape soda; it’s six at night and somehow he feels more tired from standing around all day sucking up to customers than he ever has even after a day-long series of tapings or dance rehearsals.

He just wants to go home and pass out; he’s had enough of this whole real world experience thing, thanks very much.

On the long and seemingly endless walk back to his house he runs into his brother again.

“Oh great,” Reio sighs when Jin waves half-heartedly at him. “I knew I should have stayed at the arcade longer.”

Jin thwaps him upside the head for being a dick before handing him the rest of his soda. “How was your day?”

“It was whatever.”

At the corner they get stopped by a boggled pair of blond tourists and get asked directions in horrible, horrible Japanese.

Jin is confused by their bad pronunciation and mixed-up tenses, so he just asks them, “Can I help this?” in English, which is close enough for them; they look unbelievably relieved just to hear any English at all.

“The train station,” they begin, slowly.

“Ah,” Jin says, and nods. “Train station…” he points behind him, “Go over that side.”

“How far?”

He furrows his brow. “Um… ten minutes?”

They beam at him. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.”

He smiles and waves them off before turning back to Reio, who is looking at him like he has grown a second head.

“Where the hell did you learn to speak functional English?!” his brother demands.

Jin blinks. “Um, when I went to study in America? Duh.”

Reio shoves him. “You’ve never been to America in your whole life asshole. Now explain what just happened without being a dick about it.”

Jin however, is too busy being horrified. “I never what?”

“You’ve never been to America ever. Not even Hawaii. I am so confused. Is this an alternate universe?”

“I NEVER WENT TO AMERICA?!”

Jin’s shriek echoes throughout the entire neighborhood; it sets two car alarms off.

And out of everything crappy that he has been through today, Jin is 100% certain that hearing that has been the worst of all.

~~~~~

As Nakamaru glumly makes his way down the halls towards the set, juniors and staff alike all scramble out of the way to let him through.

NewS waits patiently on the sidelines too, and when Nakamaru tries to look at Masuda, the younger boy just stares nervously at his shoes. It’s disturbing not to see him smile.

“Um…” Nakamaru starts, like he is going to say something to Massu, but before he can, Tegoshi pops out in front of him.

“Yo, Nakamaru!” he says, “Good luck on stage today, ne!”

Nakamaru blinks at him-the kid is all big eyes and bright smiles just like he is normally.

Well, like he is normally except that everyone else is looking at him like they’re scared he is going to be mauled to death any second now by an egotistical drama-queen frontman on account of forgetting to use an honorific with said egotistical drama-queen frontman’s name.

Koyama makes a strangled, pain-filled sound in the back of his throat and throws himself between Nakamaru and Tegoshi like a good, protective older brother ought to. Or rather, he is kicked out between Nakamaru and Tegoshi by Ryo, because Ryo has good, protective older brother instincts as well, only they also include the concept of self-preservation.

Tegoshi doesn’t get that it’s a sign to run away as fast as he can; he stands there and blinks at Ryo as Koyama flails on the floor like a landed fish. “Ryo-tan, is something wrong?” he asks.

Ryo sighs when his whole save-Tego-nyan-and-don’t-get-killed-yourself-in-the-process plan fails miserably. “I guess you can hide behind me too, Tego-nyan,” he starts, in a resigned sort of way, “And I’ll do my best to protect you from the giant egotistical asshole you just forgot to use an honorific with.”

Tegoshi laughs when he gets it. “But it’s just Nakamaru, ne. He’s always nice to me!”

Then the youngest NewS member blinks up at a boggled Nakamaru sweetly, and when Nakamaru meets his eyes, a strangely familiar chill runs down his spine at that moment. “Ne, Nakamaru? We’re friends, right?”

“Um…yeah,” he manages, and then turns and continues down the hall, except faster this time.

Tegoshi’s laughter follows him out.

~~~~~

In his panic about not having gotten to go to America ever, Jin frantically tries calling everyone he’d contacted earlier one to eight more times, or at least until he gets blocked from Ryo-chan, Pi, Tackey, and Ueda’s numbers. Kame just keeps rejecting his calls and doesn’t even bother to pick up at all.

He can’t believe this, he wants to go home to reality now, he needs a hug.

Nobody picks up.

“Why do I even have your stupid phone numbers if you won’t even talk to me, you bastards?!” he shouts into his phone, even though he knows no one is listening on the other end.

He stops.

Blinks.

“Why do I have your stupid phone numbers?” he mutters, and feels like maybe there is the ghost of a thought trying to push it’s way into his consciousness when he realizes this. Yamapi’s Christmas gift is still sitting on his nightstand too, a little crumpled from the fiasco this morning but definitely still real, definitely still in Yamapi’s handwriting.

Everything is different but for some reason Jin still has Yamapi’s gift and Yamapi’s phone number. Everyone’s phone number. If they don’t know him, why? How did he get them in the first place?

“That’s weird,” he says, and thinks harder, wonders if he is missing something important here.

“Believe,” he remembers Yamapi telling him yesterday. He hadn’t really believed then… but now…

“Tegoshi is magic,” Jin suddenly recalls. Pi had said so, and there’s proof that the life he remembers had indeed existed sitting right there on the nightstand next to his bed. It has gold glitter glue and tinsel and Tegoshi’s name on it. It all has to mean that Tegoshi’s wishes really do come true, doesn’t it?

All he has to do is believe.

He flips through his phonebook until he finds Tegoshi’s number; he still remembers when the kid had shyly asked him if they could exchange contact information during 2004 Summary, and how he hadn’t really thought that they’d ever call each other after the show was over at the time. He had mysteriously acquiesced and put Tegoshi’s number into his phone anyway, he thinks it was because there had been something strange in Tegoshi’s eyes that he just hadn’t been able to say no to. Like, well, magic.

He takes a deep breath when he finds Tegoshi’s name in the contact list and closes his eyes again. He makes another wish, more desperate than the last one. Then he hits “call” and hopes for the best.

“Believe,” Yamapi’s voice tells him, as he hears the dial tone on the other end.

“Believe,” he echoes, and holds his breath.

Then, like a miracle, someone picks up.

~~~~~

Nakamaru walks out into NHK hall as this week’s special guest instead of every week’s co-host and sees his face on 90% of the uchiwa in the audience; five hours ago that would have been the greatest thing to ever happen to him.

But right now he feels vaguely ill seeing it all on display like that; he mechanically goes through the familiar dance moves to Keep the Faith and just sings the entire way through the song even though it annoys the others. He doesn’t know which parts are his and which parts are everyone else’s in this strange, upside-down world, so it’s the best he can do. It ends up being kind of a disaster but he doesn’t really care, he’s too busy thinking about how he doesn’t like the way no one will look him in the eye-not even Kawai or Kitayama. He doesn’t like that almost as much as he doesn’t like how no one else in his group bothers to try and talk during the interview; they make him fill in all of the silences with words all by himself the entire time and halfway through it he feels like he’s already run out of interesting things to say. There’s no one to bicker with like there is in KAT-TUN, no one to challenge and defeat or gang up on or get ganged up on by to pass the time; nothing familiar is here to help him get over the hot lights and the stupid questions and the screaming girls.

Nakamaru thinks to himself that maybe he just isn’t is cut out for this kind of pressure.

It’s painfully lonely.

~~~~~

“Hello!” a cheerful voice greets Jin suddenly, and he sighs in relief when he isn’t instantly asked who he is and how he got this number.

“Tegoshi? This is really Tegoshi right?”

“Un. And this is Akanishi-kun, ne.”

“Yes! Yes it is! You know me!”

“Of course I know you! We’ve worked together lots, ne.”

“Um right. Yes. So… do you um, do you know what’s happening? Maybe a little?”

“Ano…I’m not really sure.”

Silence.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE NOT SURE? AREN’T YOU MAGIC?!”

Tegoshi laughs, bright and sweet and like he doesn’t even know how unbelievably freaked out Jin is right now. He probably doesn’t-Yamapi is always telling Jin about how the kid is lovably self-centered.

“Saa… I woke up this morning and everything seemed like a dream still, ne,” Tegoshi chirps. “I guess you made your wish!”

Jin swallows. “I did! I did!”

“So, how do you like it? For me, it’s weird to have to say KUTTIN when I want to say KAT-TUN. Both don’t really mean anything, ne, but I’m much more used to saying KAT-TUN all the same.”

“Right. Um… can you change it back?”

There’s a short pause after that, and Jin can imagine Tegoshi cocking his head to the side thoughtfully.

Then, “I dunno.”

“Well. Could you um, try?”

“You aren’t liking your present from Yamashita-kun?” Jin can practically hear the kid’s pout through the line.

“It’s not that, I just…” he swallows and sighs. “I think I learned something important. I don’t really know what it is yet, but I learned something. So that’s when things always change back, right? Like in the movies? I’ve learned my lesson and now it’s time to go home!”

“Jaa, learning is good! Nakamaru-kun seems like he’s learning new things lately too, ne.”

“What? What about Nakamaru?!”

Tegoshi sounds like he is about to answer, but is interrupted when an angry voice on the other side tells him to hurry up, it’s two minutes before they’re supposed to be on stage and why is he so selfish, talking on the phone like nothing is going on at all at an important working time like this?

“Um, I’ll have to call you back later,” Tegoshi says, and giggles secretively even as he’s being yelled at. “I think Shige is annoyed, ne. I better go hug him so he isn’t grumpy the entire time we perform.”

Before Jin can protest, Tegoshi hangs up with a quick, “I’ll call you back later!”

Then nothing.

Jin looks down at his phone helplessly.

This, he thinks, must be how it is to deal with someone who is selfish with no ill-intentions.

~~~~~

Nakamaru spends the rest of the evening researching himself on the internet.

“I am a dick,” he wails to himself after thirty minutes, and buries his face in his hands.

Then his cell phone rings.

~~~~~

“Nakamaru, Nakamaru it’s Jin! Do you know who I am?! ARE YOU STILL YOU?”

“Jin?!” Nakamaru says, and can’t believe it. He feels a warm rush of relief wash through him when he hears his bandmate’s familiar, scratchy voice. “You’re alive! You exist! What is going on?! Why aren’t you here? How the hell did Toma debut with us? Do you know what’s happening?”

“Well…” Jin says, and sounds guilty. “Can I come over?”

~~~~~

When Jin finds his way to Nakamaru’s apartment, they hug for the first time in over a year.

When Jin explains what is going on and why, Nakamaru breaks up the hugging moment and beats Jin repeatedly over the head with a pillow until he feels better about the whole thing.

After that, they raid Nakamaru’s fridge for booze (of which there is a lot of), and it’s like old times all over again.

~~~~~

“I never knew that I only got to do a lot of the fun things I wanted to do because of work,” Jin murmurs drunkenly against Nakamaru’s shoulder. He drools a little.

“I didn’t know I was the kind of guy who would turn into a dick if you assholes didn’t keep me humble,” Nakamaru whines back, and tries (without success) to shove Jin off of him.

“Tegoshi might be magic,” Jin sighs.

“He hasn’t called you back at all, has he?”

Jin snorts. “What if we’re stuck like this forever?” he whimpers. “I’ll never go to America and learn English and flirt with pretty blond girls with big boobs ever again.”

“I won’t have any friends.”

Jin pats him drunkenly. “I’ll be your friend.”

Nakamaru snorts, but looks touched at the same time. “You’re definitely not as cute as the friends I used to have.”

Jin pouts and hits Nakamaru over the head with a pillow until he feels better about the whole thing.

~~~~~

The next day Jin wakes up because something sparkly is winking up at him.

He blinks blearily from where he is lying face down with his head in Nakamaru’s lap; he has very successfully drooled all over his groupmate’s knee during the course of the night.

KAT-TUN’s faces (and some of NewS’s) smile back up at him from the floor; it seems that half of a picture collage is peeking out from under the coffee table at him. He can make out the words “I hope you will always be happy!” written on it in gold glitter glue. More importantly, he can make out his own face on it as well.

He stares.

Jumps up.

“OW!” Nakamaru complains when Jin’s hand lands on his stomach. He grabs the couch cushion again, thwacks Jin in the face with it. “Get off of me.”

“Nakamaru!” Jin shrieks, and scrambles for the collage, “Where did you get this?!”

Nakamaru’s only response is to tiredly smack him again and then turn on his side to go back to sleep.

Jin supposes that the polite thing to do would be to wait until Nakamaru was awake to discuss the issue properly.

He waits five more minutes and then grabs the older boy’s head with both hands.

He shakes it.

“WAKE UP.”

~~~~~

“Massu gave it to me for Christmas,” Nakamaru explains sourly, ten minutes and one punch to Jin’s stomach later.

Jin sulks at him. “I was just saying it’s important! Look!” He pulls Yamapi’s slip of glittery paper out of his pocket and waves it in Nakamaru’s face. “It’s the same!”

“Except yours is from Yamapi and mine is from Massu,” Nakamaru points out. “It’s funny, I thought Massu’s handwriting wouldn’t be as nice as Yamapi’s,” he also notes absently. “It almost seems nicer.”

Then he pauses. “Wait, why is this still here?” he asks, when he realizes.

Jin rolls his eyes; and they say he’s the dumb one.

~~~~~

“They are both glittery,” Jin starts.

Nakamaru does not react.

“They are both handmade.”

Nakamaru reacts this time; he gives Jin the usual “are you stupid?” look and doesn’t say anything.

Jin ignores him.

“They are both sparkly.”

“You said that already.”

“I said glittery.”

Nakamaru sighs.

“They were both given to us by friends.”

Nakamaru looks at his watch.

“They were given to us by friends in NewS.”

Nakamaru raises his hand. “Why are you saying everything we know?” he asks.

Jin ignores him. “They were both supposed to make us happy.” He stops dramatically, strokes his chin. “And…”

“They both followed us into this weird parallel dimension,” Nakamaru finishes quickly for his groupmate. “Right, right, right. So?”

Jin takes a deep breath.

Then, “I don’t know.”

Nakamaru throws the pillow at him again. “I’m not listening to you anymore. I’m calling Tegoshi.”

~~~~~

“Good morning,” an adorably cute, just-woken-up voice answers. Nakamaru can hear Tegoshi work around his yawn and imagines that it looks just as cute as it sounds.

“Um, good morning. Jin said you’re magic.”

A giggle. “Akanishi-kun is funny.”

“Right. So! Since it was one of your wishes that brought on this whole crazy nightmare, could you please unwish it so I can return to relative idol obscurity sometime this week?”

Another adorably cute yawn from the other end. “I already tried, ne.”

Pause. “What?”

“Un. Yesterday, Akanishi-kun asked me the same thing, so I tried thinking, “I wish KAT-TUN would go back to normal, ne.”

“And nothing happened?”

“Nope!”

“WHY NOT?”

Tegoshi shifts in his bed. “Mmm, dunno.”

“But…”

“Nakamaru-kun, I’m going to go back to sleep for another half hour, ‘kay? ‘Cuz I don’t have to get up ‘til then, really. I’ll call you back later, ne.”

“But…”

A click.

Then nothing.

Nakamaru stares at his phone for a moment before turning to Jin, who just looks back at him from the couch.

“Told you he was selfish,” Jin says.

~~~~~

“If this started because of one his stupid wishes, then why isn’t his unwishing it working?!” Nakamaru demands logically. “It’s his fault, isn’t it?” Pause. “Well. It’s your fault. It’s YOUR fault.”

Jin pouts. “I didn’t think it would work!”

Nakamaru blinks. “Then why did you do it?”

Jin scrunches down more in his seat, which looks ridiculous because he’s actually very large as far as JE boys go. “Because,” he murmurs, “I kinda hoped it would still work anyway.”

Nakamaru almost swats Jin for being a moron like that, because who wouldn’t want Jin’s fantastic life?

But then Nakamaru remembers that after yesterday, he doesn’t really want Jin’s fantastic life either.

So he doesn’t hit Jin after all, instead he sighs and pats his younger groupmate’s head. “Okay,” he says, and tries to be the grown up about this since he’s older. “I have to go to work. Maybe I can figure something out there. Or grab Tegoshi and shake him until wishes pop out.”

Jin looks horrified at the prospect.

“Hahaha…just kidding,” Nakamaru says, and means it.

Mostly.

~~~~~

At work Nakamaru doesn’t bother checking in with his own groupmates first, he heads straight to the NewS dressing room.

Koyama and Shige are the only ones there and it’s both a blessing and a curse, because while Nakamaru desperately needs to talk to Tegoshi, he also isn’t sure whether or not he is ready to see Massu again just yet.

“N-nakamaru-san!” Koyama meeps when he looks up and sees the older boy standing in their doorway. “I-is there something I can help you with?”

Shige looks instantly wary, “Massu isn’t here,” he says, and looks like he hopes that will get Nakamaru to leave.

Nakamaru sighs. “Is Tegoshi around?”

“Oh god, please forgive him for what he said yesterday, sometimes he just doesn’t know things,” Koyama entreats, and looks about ready to get on his knees to avoid another potential scandal.

Nakamau blinks. Then, “Right. Um, I’m going to ask you a quick question.”

Koyama sobs.

Shige still looks wary, but seems relatively calm compared to his groupmate, so Nakamaru decides to address him directly. “Shige, is Tegoshi really magic?”

Shige stares.

And it is unwavering enough that Nakamaru starts to get embarrassed for asking such a weird thing; he’s almost ready to turn tail and run away and pretend it had never happened.

But then Shige just blinks in a vaguely bored way and says, “What about it?”

~~~~~

“So what you’re saying is, Yamapi gave this Jin person one of Tegoshi’s wishes and Tegoshi granted it, the results of which were you turning into a dick?”

Nakamaru coughs. “In so many words.”

Koyama and Shige look at each other; they seem to have entire conversation with just their eyes. Nakamaru begins to wonder if all of NewS has weird super powers like that.

“I believe him,” Koyama says after a moment, out loud. Probably just to let Nakamaru know, since Shige seems to have gotten that message from Koyama’s eyes already.

“I guess it makes sense,” Shige acquiesces reluctantly, and then looks Nakamaru over once, a bit derisively. “I never did understand how he got to be such a big star.”

“Hey!” Nakamaru protests, by rote.

Shige ignores him. “So it figures that it would have to be some weird Hand-of-God type thing helping him along after all. And the only one we know who can do that is…”

“Tegoshi,” Koyama agrees.

Nakamaru thinks they are very admirably blasé about the whole God-given-powers in their groupmate thing.

“So logically,” Shige continues, “all we have to really do is get Tegoshi to reverse his own wish.”

Nakamaru raises his hand. “We tried that, ne. He said it didn’t work.”

A pause, and Shige and Koyama look thoughtful again.

“Well,” Koyama begins, and figures it out first, “Tegoshi is selfish, ne.”

Shige snaps his fingers and latches on to that thought, runs with it. “So if it wasn’t something that concerned him terribly, he probably wouldn’t wish for it hard enough for it to work.”

Nakamaru isn’t sure he understands. “If Tegoshi is magic, why can’t he control it?”

Koyama worries his lip a little. “Well…Tegoshi’s magic is special, ne.”

Shige agrees. “It’s not something he directly invokes, I guess. He can’t really command it. It’s more like…a mother, protecting her baby.”

Nakamaru stares; he is fairly certain that his face is blank and his eyes have clouded over, like Massu sometimes does when he is confused.

“You see,” Koyama starts, and tries to simplify it on the older boy’s behalf, “If a mommy cat saw her babies in trouble she would start hissing and arching and trying to chase that bad thing that was troubling her babies away, right?”

Nakamaru nods.

“Tegoshi’s power is like the mommy cat, and Tegoshi is like the baby, ne. Whenever something involves Tegoshi directly like that-like if he needs protection, or if he needs good luck, or if he really, really wants something-then his magic will arch up and start hissing and do whatever it needs to do to take care of him.”

“Oh,” Nakamaru says. “Tegoshi is powerful, ne.”

Shige and Koyama both look kind of tired when they hear that. “Yeah,” they say, and sigh a little wistfully.

A moment of silence.

Then, “So if I grab Tegoshi and threaten to beat him up if he doesn’t wish us back, do you think that will work?”

Shige quickly moves to stop that train of thought.

“In all honesty, if you try that, it is more likely that you’ll die before anything is fixed,” he explains, calmly.

Another moment.

Then, a slightly shakier, “Tegoshi is really powerful, ne.”

~~~~~

Ten minutes later, Nakamaru has another question.

“If the thing he wants has to directly involve him, then how did Jin’s wish work?”

Shige looks at Nakamaru like he is very, very stupid. “Because Yamapi asked Tegoshi for a favor to get it, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. And?”

Koyama chuckles gently. “Tegoshi, ne… he really loves Yamapi.”

And that is all that needs to be said about it.

~~~~~

During the many hours that all of these revelations are being made to Nakamaru, Jin stands behind a 7-11 counter thinking about mysterious well-wishes written in gold glitter glue as he scans microwavable bentos for delinquent boys.

For some reason, they feel very, very important (the wishes in gold glitter glue, not the bentos).

But he doesn’t know why.

~~~~~

Shige and Koyama are enlisted to help come up with a plan to make Tegoshi care later that night; they all meet at Nakamaru’s apartment and get introduced to Jin, who is still in his 7-11 uniform.

“He’s supposed to be your group’s actual superstar?” Shige asks, and looks Jin over skeptically.

Jin pouts. “I am not cut out for real work!” he tells Shige matter-of-factly.

“Well, I guess he has the right attitude,” Shige amends.

Jin is pleased that Shige believes him right up until the moment an hour later, when he realizes what Shige had actually meant by that.

~~~~~

“Oh wow, it really is him,” Koyama laughs, when he sees the collage Massu put together for Nakamaru’s Christmas gift. He turns to Jin, “Being an idol suits you, ne.”

Jin squirms a bit. “I know that now.”

Shige crosses his arms and looks at the collage more critically. “If Massu gave this to you,” he asks Nakamaru, “Then why is the message in Tegoshi’s handwriting?”

No one can answer right away.

~~~~~

Nakamaru finally answers fifteen minutes later; his eyes get really big and he points. “Tegoshi is the one who really wrote it!” he exclaims.

Shige rolls his eyes. “And you must really be the smart one in your group, huh?”

Jin watches Shige at work and is a bit relieved to know that even if an entire universe can change overnight, not everything about it will.

~~~~~

“Massu said that it was Tegoshi’s idea for everyone in NewS to make presents for each other this year,” Nakamaru explains.

Koyama coos, “That’s such a cute idea!”

Shige ignores him. “And so he helped Massu make this for you?”

Nakamaru nods.

“I KNEW THE GLITTER WAS IMPORTANT,” Jin exclaims.

Shige ignores him too. “Well,” he sighs, and sits back looking a bit disappointed that it had all been that simple, “Your problem is solved.”

Jin and Nakamaru both stare. “We don’t get it,” they say, in tandem.

Shige is surrounded by idiots. “Because,” he explains, very, very, very slowly, “Tegoshi loves Massu a lot too.”

“Oh,” Nakamaru says.

Jin frowns. “I still don’t get it,” he pouts.

~~~~~

“I wish,” Nakamaru begins, and stares at the lovingly pasted together collage of him and his bandmates, “That Jin and I could have our old lives back.”

“Because,” Shige prompts, and gestures cyclically with one hand.

“Because… that is what would make me happy.”

Shige nods in satisfaction. “That ought to satisfy the conditions on Massu’s present.”

Jin pouts in the corner and stomps his foot. “I don’t get it.”

Koyama mollifies him with tea and cookies.

~~~~~

“Oi, wake up, moron!” Reio yells, and pounds on Jin’s door early the next morning.

Jin blinks and cracks an eye open to look at the clock; 7:32 am.

He groans and pulls his blankets over his head sleepily. “Too early for this!” he shouts, by rote.

His brother only knocks harder, “If you’re late to work again I heard that your manager is going to fire you, asshole.”

Jin shoots up in bed when he realizes that everything that is happening right now is strangely familiar, and not in a good way. “No…” he murmurs, and puts his hands on his face in distress. “It’s still all the same! IT DIDN’T WORK!” he shrieks, loud enough that he almost drowns out the chiming of his own cell phone.

Frantic, he picks it up expecting to hear Nakamaru in a similar state of horror; instead, he hears Kame’s annoyed voice on the other end.

“You better already be dressed and halfway to the studio,” Kame says, “because if you’re late again…”

Jin’s eyes fill with relieved tears. “I’m home!!!” he sobs, and hangs up on Kame.

~~~~~

When Jin walks into the jimusho a little while later and sees Yamapi arriving as well, he runs up and hugs his best friend as fiercely as he can.

“Urk,” Yamapi says, and blinks at Jin in confusion. “Bakanishi! I can’t breathe!”

“Pi, Pi I’m glad we’re best friends!” Jin wails. “I’m glad for everything!”

Yamapi sighs helplessly and pats Jin’s head. “I’m glad we’re friends too, ne.”

Jin smiles like he hasn’t smiled in a long time. “Pi, I’m really glad I’m special.”

“Yeah you are,” Ryo snorts derisively as he passes the two of them on his way to the dressing room. “You both are.”

Jin laughs; he’s in too good a mood to pout at Ryo-chan for being mean. Instead, he pulls Ryo-chan into a hug too, and doesn’t let go of either he or Pi for a whole five minutes, even though Ryo-chan is punching him in the head and shouting.

It is such a picture-perfect moment that some of the passing staff manage to snap six to eight rolls worth of shop photos from it.

~~~~~

The first thing Nakamaru does upon his return to being ordinary is offer to buy Massu lunch.

“Eh, really?” Massu asks, wide-eyed. “Really?”

Nakamaru nods. “Anything you want! Any place you want! Any time you want! Just tell me, okay? No matter what I’m doing or how far away I am, I’ll definitely come.”

Massu looks completely mystified at the prospect. “Really? And…and it’s for anything I want? E-even gyoza?”

Nakamaru nearly laughs; he reaches out and hugs Massu tightly for his simple happiness. “Yeah, even gyoza.”

And then he gets exactly what he wants; Massu’s smile lights up the entire room.

It’s good to be home.

~~~~~

Later that day Jin and Nakamaru decide to go to NewS’s dressing room because they both think it would be best to thank Tegoshi for his help; Nakamaru feels this way because he does not want to incur the younger man’s wrath ever, ever, ever again, while Jin just wants to ask Tegoshi to explain his weird powers more, like where he got them and if he can make pie appear out of thin air too (because that would be truly awesome).

But when they slip inside NewS’s dressing room they can’t do any of those things, because Tegoshi is curled up asleep on the couch, nestled adorably under a pile of fuzzy blankets. Shige and Koyama are the only other ones in the room with him; the two of them are sitting at the table quietly playing cards like a pair of guard dogs.

“Akanishi, Nakamaru! Hi! Is something the matter?” Koyama asks in an excited whisper when he sees their visitors. “Do you want to play cards with us?” He smiles in welcome, and the two KAT-TUN members realize that neither Koyama nor Shige seem to remember anything from yesterday at all.

It’s probably for the best, they decide, and are both still looking at Tegoshi when they think this. “Um…no, no cards, thanks. And nothing’s the matter anymore,” Nakamaru says after a moment, with a small laugh. “I think.”

Shige sighs when he hears this and he follows Nakamaru’s eye line to the figure on the couch. “Nothing’s the matter anymore? What did Tegoshi do this time?”

“Do? Well… um…” Nakamaru tries to find a way to explain this (or lie about it) that will not make him sound insane.

Jin doesn’t try for anything. He just blurts, “I think Tegoshi changed the universe yesterday.”

When the crazy comes out, Nakamaru prepares to vehemently deny any of it (as well as any acquaintance with Jin), but before he can, Shige and Koyama share a knowing look. “Oh,” they say, in tandem.

Then they both stand and quietly join Jin and Nakamaru by the couch.

The four of them watch Tegoshi sleep for a moment.

“Sometimes I think Tegoshi could be a real live angel ne,” Koyama whispers, and looks down at their youngest member adoringly. He tucks the blankets more securely around Tegoshi’s shoulders and pets his hair a little because he can’t help himself.

“Or a devil,” Shige feels the need to add, in all practicality.

In his sleep, Tegoshi just smiles contentedly and snuggles deeper into the blankets.

A few minutes later, Koyama finds five thousand yen in his jeans pocket randomly, while Shige trips over a chair leg.

Nakamaru and Jin look at each other before slowly backing out of the room, because in light of everything that has happened to them lately, they definitely don’t want to be the ones who accidentally wake Tegoshi up from his afternoon nap.

And as they flee back to the relative safety of their own dressing room, they both think to themselves that there is no greater gift in this world than to be yourself.

END

EDITS PLZ.