JE/NEWS- "Tegoshi Yuuko’s Date with the Members Column"
Title: Tegoshi Yuuko’s Date with the Members Column
Universe: JE/NewS
Theme/Topic: Valentine’s Day, I guess?
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: Tegopi (appearances by NewS members and randomly, Sakamoto)
Warnings/Spoilers: randomness and weird schmoopyness. And crossdressing. That too.
Word Count: 2,630
Summary: Tegoshi gets a magazine column.
Dedication: I dunno, tinyangl? LOL If I remember you liked this pairing.
A/N: So apparently the March 2009 issue of Wink Up is filled with Tegopi goodness. I finished my goal pages for my script today and had a little time leftover to write before bed, so this…this is what came out after thinking about that article some. Unedited and etc.; does that mean I can count it for the 24hr V-day challenge? LOL
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this!
For the most part it’s just more of the usual (strange) kind of work an idol may get from time to time simply for being an idol; at the very least Tegoshi can count it as just another location shooting with Yamapi as a member of NEWS. There’s a small catch though-it seems like there always is nowadays- because the Wink Up editors approached him with the idea after the 2009 March issue had been printed, after they’d heard about the other members checking Tegoshi out while he’d been backstage wearing the schoolgirl skirt and wig.
“Tegoshi Yuuko’s Date with the Members Column is what we’re thinking of calling it,” he gets told, “It will be a five series report on what dating each of the other members is like, from a girl’s perspective.”
Tegoshi mentions that he doesn’t really have a girl’s perspective because he is still a boy, but eventually realizes it’s a futile argument in the face of all the public interest. “You’re the closest that we can get to dating a girl openly without pissing our fans off,” Shige tells him logically. “It makes sense because the girls can’t be jealous of you.”
Tegoshi thinks Shige hasn’t seen the forums or the comments on Tegoshi’s legs yet. The girls can in fact, be jealous of him.
“Eh, does this just mean that you don’t want to go on a date with me, Tegoshi?” Yamapi asks when he hears what sounds like reluctance in the youngest member’s tone. “I’ll plan a super romantic one, ne. To set the standard for these other guys.” He waggles his eyebrows in a slightly perverted way after that, and Ryo ends up smacking him upside the head purely on instinct.
In the face of that Tegoshi laughs, because if it’s like that, then it’s the same as going out with one of the other members during their off time, and he can do that, wearing whatever he needs to wear and doing whatever he needs to do. Working in this industry for all these years has at least taught him how to take care of that much with a smile.
“Take pictures!” the excited Wink Up editors tell him when he eventually agrees to it, and even give him a girlie cellphone to take the shots with. “Your first deadline is next Monday. Wouldn’t it be nice if you went on a Valentine’s date this Saturday?”
The hint is loud and clear.
So he and Yamapi plan the date for Saturday afternoon; they know from all their years working in the industry that the first article in any new column’s series should be as interesting and gimmicky as possible, after all.
“I’ll make it romantic,” Yamapi promises again, smiling. “Will you bring me chocolates?”
~~~~~
In the morning before they’re scheduled to meet for their Valentine’s Day date Tegoshi shows up at the TV studio first, holding a bag of homemade chocolates and making puppy eyes at Sakamoto-kun while asking if the V6 leader can hook Tegoshi up with some of those Jousou Paradise makeup artists and stylists, because no matter what he does, he can’t quite get his wig to sit right. “I have a date with Leader for Wink Up today,” Tegoshi informs Sakamoto around a pout, “and I have to look cute, ne.”
Sakamoto swallows and seems kind of nervous for some reason, like he’s feeling the pangs of giving away a daughter he’d suddenly just met. “Yeah,” he says eventually. “Okay.”
Tegoshi lights up. “Thank you, Sakamoto-kun!”
A few hours later Tegoshi is indeed made up to perfection, cute and bouncy with his hair in long wavy curls and his make up soft and glamorous like a real girl’s.
“You uh, you have to come on the show next week like this,” Sakamoto tells him in a dumbfounded sort of way, and Tegoshi nods, promises that he will because another thing he’s learned in this line of work is that favors always have to be returned. He smiles sweetly at Sakamoto and thanks him with all his heart before leaving the studio, homemade chocolates clutched firmly in hand.
He hurries off to catch the next train after that, because he’s already a little bit late for his date with Yamapi (though he’s not worried that Yamapi will be mad, since this is the freedom of being the girl, isn’t it?).
He gets to the place they agreed to meet at approximately thirty minutes behind schedule and sees Yamapi leaning against the wall outside the stairs to the subway, looking casual and cool with his big sunglasses and beanie on while clearly hoping that no one will look too hard at his casual cool and end up recognizing him for it.
As idols they are often faced with odd dilemmas such as these.
Tegoshi laughs when oblivious young women do indeed pass Yamapi by, pass them both by without knowing who they are. A moment later, Tegoshi sees it when one of the men behind him does a double take as he walks by and for a second, he thinks that maybe he’s been caught.
But then he hears the guy turn to his buddy and murmur, “kawaii,” while nodding back in Tegoshi’s direction and Tegoshi remembers that he’s in a skirt, that his hair and makeup are perfect and that he looks good from behind because Yamapi said so, and Leader is always right.
He smiles to himself and hurries up the steps to greet his date.
“Sorry I’m late,” he breathes, and uses the feminine pronoun while looking shyly through his lashes at his groupmate.
He sees it then, when Yamapi sucks in his breath, when he looks Tegoshi up and down slowly and blinks a few times, because he doesn’t know what to say right off. That casual bent of his shoulders is suddenly gone too, and that ever-kakkoi demeanor Tegoshi has always associated with his group leader isn’t there for a moment.
Yamapi is gaping.
So this, Tegoshi thinks to himself, feeling just a little bit delighted, is the fearsome nature of a woman’s true power, ne.
It’s more than just a bit of a rush to have this kind of effect on a man like Yamapi.
“Were you waiting long?” Tegoshi asks next, voice still soft.
Yamapi makes a weird noise in the back of his throat. “No,” he says eventually, “no I wasn’t waiting long at all.”
“I brought you chocolates,” Tegoshi says next. He proudly holds out the bag.
Yamapi looks happy at the offering and takes it. “Thanks. You…” He pauses to peer in. “Homemade?” He looks surprised.
Tegoshi preens a little, before admitting, “My mom helped me.”
“I see, I see,” Yamapi replies very seriously, then grins, obviously feeling silly about this as he offers Tegoshi his arm. “Let’s go,” he says, and then swallows one more time before saying, “Yuuko-chan.”
Tegoshi can’t help it when he bursts out laughing at that, immediately losing the cute, coy demeanor of a girl on a date in light of the ridiculousness that is their lives.
“Ah, you ruined it,” Yamapi complains a beat later, and starts laughing in earnest too. “Idiot, I was doing so well.”
“Sorry,” Tegoshi breathes, between giggles, “sorry, but it’s too much, isn’t it?”
Yamapi clears his throat. “We just have to do our best!” he declares, and pulls Tegoshi along, resting his hand on the curve of Tegoshi’s hip protectively and steering him out of the way of the other people walking down the street. “Let’s make this a good date, okay?”
“Okay,” Tegoshi breathes, and has to admit to himself that he’s a little flattered when the people they walk by take second looks at them, when he hears murmured whispers of, "what a good looking couple," in his periphery. In moments like those a part of Tegoshi thinks it wouldn’t be so bad if he’d been a girl instead, if it meant getting to feel like this while standing next to Yamapi.
Yamapi seems pleased about it too in his own way, and as they walk, bends down to murmur into Tegoshi’s ear. “You look good,” he says honestly, and something warm and pleased works its way up and down Tegoshi’s back when he hears.
He already knows the first thing he’s going to write about now; Yamapi is the type of boyfriend who isn’t shy about giving compliments.
~~~~~
Yamapi ends up leading him to a nice restaurant a few blocks away; it’s quiet and there are mostly middle-aged and older people there, sitting obliviously by as the hostess leads the two idols to their seats.
“Eh, Italian food, huh?” Tegoshi says, when he looks at the menu full of elegant script in Romanized letters.
“You need to do something luxurious for Valentine’s Day,” Yamapi insists, and still has the bag of chocolates hanging off of his arm, like he isn’t quite ready to put them down yet.
“I don’t know what’s good,” Tegoshi admits, because when he gets treated to food it’s usually Kei-chan or Shige who takes him, and it’s never quite this elegant or refined.
“I’ll pick something good,” Yamapi promises. “I come here a lot, ne.” Then he grins again, and continues to look pleased with himself.
Tegoshi takes out his cell phone and snaps a picture of that moment to put into the magazine, because he thinks it’s a face Yamapi should show more often. Yamapi is the kind of boyfriend who likes to take charge, he thinks around a smile.
Yamapi orders them ravioli stuffed with veal and mushrooms and when Tegoshi takes the first bite he smiles and says “Umai!” on instinct, which earns him an odd look from the waitress.
Yamapi laughs and echoes with a girlish “Oishi!” and from there the waitress figures it’s just the two of them being all cutesy, the girl talking like a boy and the boy talking like the girl while eating their Valentine’s lunch together.
Tegoshi amends his second note for this part of the date, because he feels like he’s found something even better.
Yamapi is a boyfriend who creates a peaceful atmosphere.
~~~~~
Yamapi has paid for lunch and is guiding Tegoshi out of the door when his cell phone rings. “Ah, it’s Koyama,” he announces, before picking up. “Koyama.”
A beat.
“What? I’m on a date,” he says, feigning annoyance. “Why would you ask that? My girlfriend is absolutely cute, okay. Absolutely.”
Tegoshi laughs.
“Ah, he wants a picture,” Yamapi tells Tegoshi eventually, and Tegoshi obliges, posing next to Yamapi as he frames them in the viewfinder of his phone’s camera before snapping the picture.
He sends it to Koyama after deciding that it does indeed look good, and then puts the receiver back up to his ear. “There, but you can’t have her, ne. She’s mine.”
When Koyama squawks on the other end loud enough for Tegoshi to hear it from where he’s standing next to Yamapi, he thinks it means that the picture finished loading.
“He’s asking you out for next week,” Yamapi sighs.
Tegoshi smiles. “Tell him yes.”
Yamapi frowns. “I’m jealous now,” he admits, and hangs up on Koyama without another word. He puts his cell phone in his pocket and looks thoughtful. “Now I feel oddly jealous.”
“Sorry,” Tegoshi apologizes. It’s just work after all. He feels guilty for some reason anyway, though.
But then Yamapi shakes his head and slaps his cheeks a few times. “That’s fine! It means I just have to try harder to win you back, right? It’s my fault if I let you think about some other guy on our date,” he says around a crooked smile, before grabbing Tegoshi’s hand and pulling him back towards the subway. “C’mon, there’s still stuff to do.”
Tegoshi stumbles along after him in his strappy sandals and feels that warm pleasant feeling slide down his spine again at Yamapi’s words.
Yamapi is a boyfriend who is very manly.
~~~~~
By the time they they get to the aquarium Ryo calls them next, because Koyama is sending the picture to everyone so that they can all share his incredulity at the fact that somehow, Tegoshi can make an even cuter girl than before with only some slight changes to hair and makeup. “Tego-nyan, dump that idiot and go out with me,” Ryo says on the phone, and Yamapi has to take Tegoshi’s cell from him and hang up before Ryo starts listing all of Yamapi’s bad points one by one.
Yamapi buys Tegoshi ice cream while they walk around looking at the fish after that, and isn’t embarrassed at all to grab Tegoshi’s hand and thread their fingers when it seems like one guy or another is looking at Yuuko-chan for a moment too long.
The bag of chocolates Tegoshi made is always clutched firmly in Yamapi’s other hand the whole way through, even when he’s stopping to laugh out loud at the bored faces the manatees are looking back at him with through the glass.
“Doesn’t Massu make that face sometimes?” Yamapi marvels, as the manatee closest to the window grazes calmly beside him.
“He does, he does!” Tegoshi agrees, and Yamapi pauses to get his picture taken next to the big animal while the two of them make the same facial expression. “Massu’s monomane,” Yamapi declares.
Tegoshi thinks he’ll definitely put that picture in the column too, because yappari, Leader looks the best when he’s having fun.
They go to watch the dolphins after that, and when Yamapi starts having an imaginary conversation with them through the tank, Tegoshi joins in, and they spend a few minutes looking very strange to the people who pass them by, because they’re busy rapidly nodding their heads in time with the dolphins.
Yamapi is a boyfriend who isn’t afraid to be silly.
~~~~~
They get to the park just as it’s starting to turn dark outside, walking around with their arms linked together and not saying much. Tegoshi thinks this must be what it feels like in those awkward stages when a date is coming to an end but no one wants to go home just yet.
There’s rustling in the bushes behind them and they both immediately know; gossip column paparazzi are here now, following Yamapi on his big date with this mysterious woman.
Yamapi takes his coat off and plops it across Tegoshi’s shoulders on instinct, and when he does, he whispers, “It would be funny to give them something to write about, wouldn’t it?”
“Would it, Leader?”
“I have a whirlwind Valentine’s Day romance with a beautiful girl who disappears afterwards, breaking my heart. It’s a great story, right?”
“It is, but I don’t want to break Leader’s heart,” Tegoshi replies, warm and content from where he is wrapped up in Yamapi’s old leather jacket. “I don’t want to disappear either, ne.”
Yamapi looks pleased when he hears that and leans forward suddenly, brushing his lips against the corner of Tegoshi’s mouth while cameras no doubt hasten to capture the moment for tomorrow’s gossip columns everywhere.
Tegoshi blinks, a little bit surprised. “Yamashita-kun?”
“If that’s the case,” Yamapi begins, looking intent, “do you want to go out with me again next week?”
Tegoshi wants to say yes, but next time is another member, part two of five in his new Wink Up column. “Eh, but I can’t,” he says instead, sounding disappointed. “Kei-chan is next, isn’t he?”
Yamapi grins, takes a step back. “Who said I was asking Yuuko?”
Tegoshi stares. “E-eh?”
Yamapi takes a deep breath and holds out his hand. “So?” he asks, sounding more nervous than he looks.
Eventually, Tegoshi smiles and shyly reaches out to lace their fingers together. “Okay.”
Yamapi is a person who loves unconditionally.
END
EDITS?
LOL CLEARLY I AM ROMANCE FAIL.
Universe: JE/NewS
Theme/Topic: Valentine’s Day, I guess?
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing/s: Tegopi (appearances by NewS members and randomly, Sakamoto)
Warnings/Spoilers: randomness and weird schmoopyness. And crossdressing. That too.
Word Count: 2,630
Summary: Tegoshi gets a magazine column.
Dedication: I dunno, tinyangl? LOL If I remember you liked this pairing.
A/N: So apparently the March 2009 issue of Wink Up is filled with Tegopi goodness. I finished my goal pages for my script today and had a little time leftover to write before bed, so this…this is what came out after thinking about that article some. Unedited and etc.; does that mean I can count it for the 24hr V-day challenge? LOL
Disclaimer: No harm is meant by this!
For the most part it’s just more of the usual (strange) kind of work an idol may get from time to time simply for being an idol; at the very least Tegoshi can count it as just another location shooting with Yamapi as a member of NEWS. There’s a small catch though-it seems like there always is nowadays- because the Wink Up editors approached him with the idea after the 2009 March issue had been printed, after they’d heard about the other members checking Tegoshi out while he’d been backstage wearing the schoolgirl skirt and wig.
“Tegoshi Yuuko’s Date with the Members Column is what we’re thinking of calling it,” he gets told, “It will be a five series report on what dating each of the other members is like, from a girl’s perspective.”
Tegoshi mentions that he doesn’t really have a girl’s perspective because he is still a boy, but eventually realizes it’s a futile argument in the face of all the public interest. “You’re the closest that we can get to dating a girl openly without pissing our fans off,” Shige tells him logically. “It makes sense because the girls can’t be jealous of you.”
Tegoshi thinks Shige hasn’t seen the forums or the comments on Tegoshi’s legs yet. The girls can in fact, be jealous of him.
“Eh, does this just mean that you don’t want to go on a date with me, Tegoshi?” Yamapi asks when he hears what sounds like reluctance in the youngest member’s tone. “I’ll plan a super romantic one, ne. To set the standard for these other guys.” He waggles his eyebrows in a slightly perverted way after that, and Ryo ends up smacking him upside the head purely on instinct.
In the face of that Tegoshi laughs, because if it’s like that, then it’s the same as going out with one of the other members during their off time, and he can do that, wearing whatever he needs to wear and doing whatever he needs to do. Working in this industry for all these years has at least taught him how to take care of that much with a smile.
“Take pictures!” the excited Wink Up editors tell him when he eventually agrees to it, and even give him a girlie cellphone to take the shots with. “Your first deadline is next Monday. Wouldn’t it be nice if you went on a Valentine’s date this Saturday?”
The hint is loud and clear.
So he and Yamapi plan the date for Saturday afternoon; they know from all their years working in the industry that the first article in any new column’s series should be as interesting and gimmicky as possible, after all.
“I’ll make it romantic,” Yamapi promises again, smiling. “Will you bring me chocolates?”
~~~~~
In the morning before they’re scheduled to meet for their Valentine’s Day date Tegoshi shows up at the TV studio first, holding a bag of homemade chocolates and making puppy eyes at Sakamoto-kun while asking if the V6 leader can hook Tegoshi up with some of those Jousou Paradise makeup artists and stylists, because no matter what he does, he can’t quite get his wig to sit right. “I have a date with Leader for Wink Up today,” Tegoshi informs Sakamoto around a pout, “and I have to look cute, ne.”
Sakamoto swallows and seems kind of nervous for some reason, like he’s feeling the pangs of giving away a daughter he’d suddenly just met. “Yeah,” he says eventually. “Okay.”
Tegoshi lights up. “Thank you, Sakamoto-kun!”
A few hours later Tegoshi is indeed made up to perfection, cute and bouncy with his hair in long wavy curls and his make up soft and glamorous like a real girl’s.
“You uh, you have to come on the show next week like this,” Sakamoto tells him in a dumbfounded sort of way, and Tegoshi nods, promises that he will because another thing he’s learned in this line of work is that favors always have to be returned. He smiles sweetly at Sakamoto and thanks him with all his heart before leaving the studio, homemade chocolates clutched firmly in hand.
He hurries off to catch the next train after that, because he’s already a little bit late for his date with Yamapi (though he’s not worried that Yamapi will be mad, since this is the freedom of being the girl, isn’t it?).
He gets to the place they agreed to meet at approximately thirty minutes behind schedule and sees Yamapi leaning against the wall outside the stairs to the subway, looking casual and cool with his big sunglasses and beanie on while clearly hoping that no one will look too hard at his casual cool and end up recognizing him for it.
As idols they are often faced with odd dilemmas such as these.
Tegoshi laughs when oblivious young women do indeed pass Yamapi by, pass them both by without knowing who they are. A moment later, Tegoshi sees it when one of the men behind him does a double take as he walks by and for a second, he thinks that maybe he’s been caught.
But then he hears the guy turn to his buddy and murmur, “kawaii,” while nodding back in Tegoshi’s direction and Tegoshi remembers that he’s in a skirt, that his hair and makeup are perfect and that he looks good from behind because Yamapi said so, and Leader is always right.
He smiles to himself and hurries up the steps to greet his date.
“Sorry I’m late,” he breathes, and uses the feminine pronoun while looking shyly through his lashes at his groupmate.
He sees it then, when Yamapi sucks in his breath, when he looks Tegoshi up and down slowly and blinks a few times, because he doesn’t know what to say right off. That casual bent of his shoulders is suddenly gone too, and that ever-kakkoi demeanor Tegoshi has always associated with his group leader isn’t there for a moment.
Yamapi is gaping.
So this, Tegoshi thinks to himself, feeling just a little bit delighted, is the fearsome nature of a woman’s true power, ne.
It’s more than just a bit of a rush to have this kind of effect on a man like Yamapi.
“Were you waiting long?” Tegoshi asks next, voice still soft.
Yamapi makes a weird noise in the back of his throat. “No,” he says eventually, “no I wasn’t waiting long at all.”
“I brought you chocolates,” Tegoshi says next. He proudly holds out the bag.
Yamapi looks happy at the offering and takes it. “Thanks. You…” He pauses to peer in. “Homemade?” He looks surprised.
Tegoshi preens a little, before admitting, “My mom helped me.”
“I see, I see,” Yamapi replies very seriously, then grins, obviously feeling silly about this as he offers Tegoshi his arm. “Let’s go,” he says, and then swallows one more time before saying, “Yuuko-chan.”
Tegoshi can’t help it when he bursts out laughing at that, immediately losing the cute, coy demeanor of a girl on a date in light of the ridiculousness that is their lives.
“Ah, you ruined it,” Yamapi complains a beat later, and starts laughing in earnest too. “Idiot, I was doing so well.”
“Sorry,” Tegoshi breathes, between giggles, “sorry, but it’s too much, isn’t it?”
Yamapi clears his throat. “We just have to do our best!” he declares, and pulls Tegoshi along, resting his hand on the curve of Tegoshi’s hip protectively and steering him out of the way of the other people walking down the street. “Let’s make this a good date, okay?”
“Okay,” Tegoshi breathes, and has to admit to himself that he’s a little flattered when the people they walk by take second looks at them, when he hears murmured whispers of, "what a good looking couple," in his periphery. In moments like those a part of Tegoshi thinks it wouldn’t be so bad if he’d been a girl instead, if it meant getting to feel like this while standing next to Yamapi.
Yamapi seems pleased about it too in his own way, and as they walk, bends down to murmur into Tegoshi’s ear. “You look good,” he says honestly, and something warm and pleased works its way up and down Tegoshi’s back when he hears.
He already knows the first thing he’s going to write about now; Yamapi is the type of boyfriend who isn’t shy about giving compliments.
~~~~~
Yamapi ends up leading him to a nice restaurant a few blocks away; it’s quiet and there are mostly middle-aged and older people there, sitting obliviously by as the hostess leads the two idols to their seats.
“Eh, Italian food, huh?” Tegoshi says, when he looks at the menu full of elegant script in Romanized letters.
“You need to do something luxurious for Valentine’s Day,” Yamapi insists, and still has the bag of chocolates hanging off of his arm, like he isn’t quite ready to put them down yet.
“I don’t know what’s good,” Tegoshi admits, because when he gets treated to food it’s usually Kei-chan or Shige who takes him, and it’s never quite this elegant or refined.
“I’ll pick something good,” Yamapi promises. “I come here a lot, ne.” Then he grins again, and continues to look pleased with himself.
Tegoshi takes out his cell phone and snaps a picture of that moment to put into the magazine, because he thinks it’s a face Yamapi should show more often. Yamapi is the kind of boyfriend who likes to take charge, he thinks around a smile.
Yamapi orders them ravioli stuffed with veal and mushrooms and when Tegoshi takes the first bite he smiles and says “Umai!” on instinct, which earns him an odd look from the waitress.
Yamapi laughs and echoes with a girlish “Oishi!” and from there the waitress figures it’s just the two of them being all cutesy, the girl talking like a boy and the boy talking like the girl while eating their Valentine’s lunch together.
Tegoshi amends his second note for this part of the date, because he feels like he’s found something even better.
Yamapi is a boyfriend who creates a peaceful atmosphere.
~~~~~
Yamapi has paid for lunch and is guiding Tegoshi out of the door when his cell phone rings. “Ah, it’s Koyama,” he announces, before picking up. “Koyama.”
A beat.
“What? I’m on a date,” he says, feigning annoyance. “Why would you ask that? My girlfriend is absolutely cute, okay. Absolutely.”
Tegoshi laughs.
“Ah, he wants a picture,” Yamapi tells Tegoshi eventually, and Tegoshi obliges, posing next to Yamapi as he frames them in the viewfinder of his phone’s camera before snapping the picture.
He sends it to Koyama after deciding that it does indeed look good, and then puts the receiver back up to his ear. “There, but you can’t have her, ne. She’s mine.”
When Koyama squawks on the other end loud enough for Tegoshi to hear it from where he’s standing next to Yamapi, he thinks it means that the picture finished loading.
“He’s asking you out for next week,” Yamapi sighs.
Tegoshi smiles. “Tell him yes.”
Yamapi frowns. “I’m jealous now,” he admits, and hangs up on Koyama without another word. He puts his cell phone in his pocket and looks thoughtful. “Now I feel oddly jealous.”
“Sorry,” Tegoshi apologizes. It’s just work after all. He feels guilty for some reason anyway, though.
But then Yamapi shakes his head and slaps his cheeks a few times. “That’s fine! It means I just have to try harder to win you back, right? It’s my fault if I let you think about some other guy on our date,” he says around a crooked smile, before grabbing Tegoshi’s hand and pulling him back towards the subway. “C’mon, there’s still stuff to do.”
Tegoshi stumbles along after him in his strappy sandals and feels that warm pleasant feeling slide down his spine again at Yamapi’s words.
Yamapi is a boyfriend who is very manly.
~~~~~
By the time they they get to the aquarium Ryo calls them next, because Koyama is sending the picture to everyone so that they can all share his incredulity at the fact that somehow, Tegoshi can make an even cuter girl than before with only some slight changes to hair and makeup. “Tego-nyan, dump that idiot and go out with me,” Ryo says on the phone, and Yamapi has to take Tegoshi’s cell from him and hang up before Ryo starts listing all of Yamapi’s bad points one by one.
Yamapi buys Tegoshi ice cream while they walk around looking at the fish after that, and isn’t embarrassed at all to grab Tegoshi’s hand and thread their fingers when it seems like one guy or another is looking at Yuuko-chan for a moment too long.
The bag of chocolates Tegoshi made is always clutched firmly in Yamapi’s other hand the whole way through, even when he’s stopping to laugh out loud at the bored faces the manatees are looking back at him with through the glass.
“Doesn’t Massu make that face sometimes?” Yamapi marvels, as the manatee closest to the window grazes calmly beside him.
“He does, he does!” Tegoshi agrees, and Yamapi pauses to get his picture taken next to the big animal while the two of them make the same facial expression. “Massu’s monomane,” Yamapi declares.
Tegoshi thinks he’ll definitely put that picture in the column too, because yappari, Leader looks the best when he’s having fun.
They go to watch the dolphins after that, and when Yamapi starts having an imaginary conversation with them through the tank, Tegoshi joins in, and they spend a few minutes looking very strange to the people who pass them by, because they’re busy rapidly nodding their heads in time with the dolphins.
Yamapi is a boyfriend who isn’t afraid to be silly.
~~~~~
They get to the park just as it’s starting to turn dark outside, walking around with their arms linked together and not saying much. Tegoshi thinks this must be what it feels like in those awkward stages when a date is coming to an end but no one wants to go home just yet.
There’s rustling in the bushes behind them and they both immediately know; gossip column paparazzi are here now, following Yamapi on his big date with this mysterious woman.
Yamapi takes his coat off and plops it across Tegoshi’s shoulders on instinct, and when he does, he whispers, “It would be funny to give them something to write about, wouldn’t it?”
“Would it, Leader?”
“I have a whirlwind Valentine’s Day romance with a beautiful girl who disappears afterwards, breaking my heart. It’s a great story, right?”
“It is, but I don’t want to break Leader’s heart,” Tegoshi replies, warm and content from where he is wrapped up in Yamapi’s old leather jacket. “I don’t want to disappear either, ne.”
Yamapi looks pleased when he hears that and leans forward suddenly, brushing his lips against the corner of Tegoshi’s mouth while cameras no doubt hasten to capture the moment for tomorrow’s gossip columns everywhere.
Tegoshi blinks, a little bit surprised. “Yamashita-kun?”
“If that’s the case,” Yamapi begins, looking intent, “do you want to go out with me again next week?”
Tegoshi wants to say yes, but next time is another member, part two of five in his new Wink Up column. “Eh, but I can’t,” he says instead, sounding disappointed. “Kei-chan is next, isn’t he?”
Yamapi grins, takes a step back. “Who said I was asking Yuuko?”
Tegoshi stares. “E-eh?”
Yamapi takes a deep breath and holds out his hand. “So?” he asks, sounding more nervous than he looks.
Eventually, Tegoshi smiles and shyly reaches out to lace their fingers together. “Okay.”
Yamapi is a person who loves unconditionally.
END
EDITS?
LOL CLEARLY I AM ROMANCE FAIL.