JE/NEWS- "It’s Like Chicken Pox for Johnnies"
Title: It’s Like Chicken Pox for Johnnies
Universe: JE/NEWS
Theme/Topic: Kink meme fic!
Rating: PG-15 for innuendo?
Character/Pairing/s: NEWSxNEWS
Warnings/Spoilers: Crack and random and gay. Lots of gay.
Word Count: 2,310
Summary: Massu wakes up sick one morning.
Dedication: crystallekil’s thank you fic! Using kink #67 from her list. Sort of.
A/N: Ahaha this was supposed to be short and then got stupid. And long, wtf.
Disclaimer: No harm or infringement intended.
Massu wakes up one morning feeling very strange.
He isn’t sure why exactly, but he thinks it might have something to do with something he ate yesterday that is disagreeing with him now; when he sits down and makes a mental list of all the things he’d consumed in the past twenty-four hours, the giant bowl of shaved ice he’d shared with his groupmates while they were working at a photoshoot immediately comes to mind as the only possible culprit.
He theorizes that maybe the red bean had gone bad in the heat during the course of the shoot without the staffers noticing or something like that; in retrospect, he remembers how their cool creamy dessert had tasted a little bit strange in his mouth while he’d tried to enjoy it alongside everyone else, particularly the bite he’d taken while Tegoshi had been happily slurping up thick white rivulets of condensed milk from the tip of his finger across the table. Even worse, Massu can’t even remember how the following bite had tasted; all he can really recall about it is that he took it at exactly the same time that Koyama was busy dipping the tip of his strawberry slice in the extra chocolate sauce on Yamapi’s spoon.
When he tells his mother about it she just tsks at him and says he shouldn’t share those kinds of things with everyone like that; maybe one or even all of the others had come down with something without knowing it and ended up passing it on to Massu while they’d been eating together.
He realizes that she’s probably right and apologizes; she smiles at him and tells him to go lie down while she makes him some soup.
He hopes whatever it is passes soon.
Vaguely, he wonders if the others are sick as well.
He hopes not.
~~~~~
Two days later he’s still feeling slightly off-kilter despite his best efforts to rest up and heal. He’s starting to wonder about that a little bit, and worries that maybe his tastebuds are going numb or that he’s losing his love of food because right now, he can’t even recognize the flavor of sesame oil in his galbi or the hot sweetness of the grilled onions on his stone plate.
Across the table, he watches Ryo as he happily shoves long, thick pieces of Korean rice-cake one after another into Shige’s accommodating mouth, while the others cheer him on.
“Wow Shige’s mouth is amazing, ne,” Tegoshi breathes nonchalantly around the end of his metal chopsticks, while Shige successfully manages to wrap his lips around a fifth piece of duk without any real problem.
“Bet I can fit more than that!” Yamapi challenges hotly from beside Massu, as he turns to his younger groupmate and opens his mouth expectantly. “Massu, put some in me too, ne. I won’t lose to Shige in this!”
Massu starts to really worry about his health when he actually chokes on his rice.
~~~~~
The next day, when Massu guests on Kei-chan radio, he thinks that whatever he’s come down with recently is getting worse.
Because this time he doesn’t even need to be eating before something strange happens; he’s in the middle of talking with Koyama just like always when Koyama puts his hand on Massu’s shoulder-just like always-and Massu feels the pit of his stomach tighten all of a sudden, without warning.
Koyama senses it immediately, and his brow furrows in worry while the hand on Massu’s shoulder squeezes unconsciously. “Massu, are you alright?”
Massu swallows and nods, manages a shaky smile. “Fine ne.”
He goes home that night and tells his mom that he thinks he needs to see the doctor.
~~~~~
“Massu, Massu is something wrong? Are you feeling alright?” Tegoshi pesters him two days later, the youngest member poking Massu in the arm insistently as he does. “My mom talked to your mom and your mom said you weren’t feeling well lately, ne. She said you even went to the doctor yesterday, and that my mom should check and make sure I’m okay too in case we gave each other whatever you have.”
Massu blinks. “The doctor said I was fine,” he reassures Tegoshi, because he doesn’t want Tegoshi to worry even though Massu is pretty sure he’s not fine and that the doctor missed something during the tests.
Tegoshi just breathes a sigh of relief when he hears that and manages a smile. “I’m glad Massu is alright!” he says brightly, and as he does, Massu feels that strange pang in his gut again, all of a sudden.
Five minutes later, Yamapi bursts into the room asking, “Massu, are you sick? My mom heard from Shige’s mom who heard from Tegoshi’s mom that you went to the doctor yesterday, ne. Should you be at work? Maybe you should lie down.”
This time, when Massu is faced with Yamapi blinking at him in concern he inexplicably feels his chest tighten all of a sudden; his first horrified thought is that whatever he has must be spreading.
When Ryo comes into the room a few seconds after Yamapi while holding a thermos full of homemade chicken soup and with a deeply worried furrow in his brow that might be mistaken for a glare at first glance, Massu panics and thinks it feels like his heart might actually explode at any second now.
~~~~~
“The doctor said I was fine,” Massu assures everyone tiredly twenty minutes later, after Koyama and Shige arrive too, each asking the same thing everyone else did. “The tests he ran said nothing was wrong with me at all.”
He slumps into a chair and looks dejected. “But I still don’t feel the same as before, ne. When I eat with you guys I don’t even remember how the food tastes afterwards, and two days ago, when Koyama was talking to me during the taping, my chest suddenly started to ache. It’s even worse today, right now.”
His groupmates start to murmur amongst themselves in concern.
Shige is the first one to stop and blink a few seconds later; he backtracks over Massu’s words more carefully. “What do you mean when you eat with us?” he asks, eyebrow arched. “Does it only happen when we’re around?”
Massu nods sadly. “The Korean barbeque we had for lunch earlier this week tasted like air, ne.”
Shige looks thoughtful. “What about any other food? For example, can you remember the taste of what your mom made you for dinner the other night?”
Massu nods. “Nikujaga. It was delicious, ne.”
Shige “hmmms,” in the back of his throat for a moment, as he takes that bit of information in. Then he grabs Ryo’s thermos of homemade soup and thrusts it Massu. “Drink,” he instructs, matter-of-factly.
Ryo scowls. “You can’t just make a sick person drink whenever you want, jerk. Didn’t he just say he feels even worse today than before?”
“Shut up for a second,” Shige responds flatly, and urges Massu on. “Just a little.”
Massu looks at his groupmates nervously, as they all stand in a semi-circle around him, watching his every move intently. His heart starts to hammer in his chest and he thinks he feels a little nauseous as he uncaps the thermos and moves to drink the soup, his eyes plastered to the way Tegoshi worries his bottom lip as he watches, or how Yamapi crosses his well-muscled arms over his chest in anxious anticipation of Massu’s next actions.
“Well?” Shige asks suddenly, and Massu blinks. He tears his eyes away from Yamapi’s arms.
“Huh?” Massu replies.
“How was it?” Shige urges.
Massu stares down at the thermos. “Did I drink it?”
“Oh god he’s dying,” Koyama sobs when he hears, and buries his face into Yamapi’s shoulder. Yamapi pets his hair.
Shige scowls and reaches out to smack his best friend in the arm before clearing his throat. “Okay,” he says next. “We are all going to leave the room now. Drink it again and tell us how it is when we come back.”
He herds everyone out of the room.
Massu is confused, but dutifully drinks the soup once everyone has left.
It is really good, he thinks, as he finishes off the thermos’s contents a few seconds later. Exactly as expected from Ryo’s home cooking.
The thought inexplicably makes his chest clench up again.
He whimpers.
Three seconds later, his bandmates are all in the room again.
“Massu, Massu are you okay? Was it bad?” Koyama frets, while Ryo scowls in embarrassment.
“I taste-tested it before I brought it over!” Ryo insists, trying not to sound guilty but failing.
“It was good,” Massu assures him, automatically. “I drank it all.”
Ryo looks relieved. Scowls at Koyama. “See?” Pause. Grin. “So it was really good?”
When Massu sees Ryo smiling at him like that all of a sudden, he starts to break out in an odd sweat. He hastily looks away from his bandmate’s eyes, turning towards the ground instead. His face feels flushed.
A moment, as everyone takes that in.
Then, “I have a theory,” Shige says first, as he raises his hand.
“I think I have the same theory, ne,” Koyama says second, and raises his hand too.
Massu can only hope that neither of them is going to tell him that he’s dying again.
~~~~~
For some reason Shige herds everyone else out of the room one more time before he or Koyama can tell Massu what their theory is, and for a terrifying moment, Massu is left all alone in the dressing room again, wondering what is to become of him.
The thought of the others all gathered in the hallway outside of the door talking about him sends more of those strange pangs straight to Massu’s heart.
He prays to whatever god is listening that whatever is going on isn’t something that will make him have to give up being a member of NEWS.
Or eating. That too.
~~~~~
A little while later, whatever god is listening graces him with an answer, as the rest of his group returns to the room, looking a lot less concerned than they’d been just a while ago.
In fact, Ryo looks kind of annoyed now, which Massu has long ago learned to mean that he’s also really relieved if he has the energy to be angry.
Massu’s heart gives a tiny little flutter at the sight of them again.
“You,” Shige announces after a rather dramatic pause, “love us.”
Massu blinks. “Well…yeah,” he agrees eventually. Then stops himself quickly, to clarify. “But you know, not in that way. In a friendly…”
“No,” Koyama interrupts, and puts his hand on Massu’s arm gently. “You really, really love us, ne. In that way.”
Massu’s breath hitches at the touch. “E-eh? But…no… I mean, I’m not like…”
“That thing you’ve been feeling is the same thing Koyama’s had for years,” Shige informs him matter-of-factly. “He’s probably the one who gave it to all of us in the first place.”
Koyama, Massu thinks, doesn’t look particularly contrite about being the one to spread this weird disease all over the place to everyone.
“Am I going to die?” Massu asks after a moment, and thinks it’s the most logical next step in terms of where this is all going.
This time Tegoshi laughs a little. “It’s like chicken pox for Johnnies,” the youngest member assures Massu gently, as he runs his fingers through Massu’s hair in a soothing gesture. “Everyone gets it at least once. Because Massu’s immune system managed to hold out for this long, it just means you have the adult version ne, which is a little bit worse than the regular version.”
Massu swallows and feels his scalp tingle in the places where Tegoshi’s nails scrape teasingly against his skin.
“Is there a cure?” is his next question, said in a very small voice.
Shige looks back at him awkwardly, and for some reason is kneeling in front of Massu’s chair all of a sudden. “Not really,” the smartest member says. “I mean, if there is, no one’s found one yet. It’s something you just kind of have to ride out.”
Massu’s bottom lip starts to wibble.
“But there is a treatment!” Koyama rushes to assure him, and takes one of Massu’s hands in both of his. “You just have to remember to make sure you get treated whenever you feel strange, ne.”
Massu is kind of scared when he hears that; he isn’t very good with remembering when to take his medicine, after all. “Do I have to take pills?”
“Nope!” Yamapi promises, hand patting Massu’s knee firmly, before stopping and lingering there. “No pills or anything like that.”
Massu feels a little bit horrified when he thinks that this treatment might be more complicated than just taking medication. “What do I have to do?” he asks, with big eyes. For some reason, his heart is starting to pound really fast the closer everyone else gets to him. “Electric shock? Chemo?”
Ryo snorts when he hears that, and for some reason, is in the middle of taking off his shirt. “If you’re going to put it like that, it’s probably more like an injection than anything else,” he explains calmly, and starts to undo his belt.
“Injection?” Massu murmurs dumbly to himself as Shige nuzzles his thigh, and as much as he doesn’t like shots, suddenly feels his breath hitch again at the way Ryo says it, feels his heart speed up and his stomach clench and his head spin in ways that are similar to all the times before, except somehow completely different at the same time.
He thinks if it’s this bad already, he’s probably going to need more treatments than anybody.
Luckily, he also knows that NEWS is full of members willing to do their best to help.
END
Universe: JE/NEWS
Theme/Topic: Kink meme fic!
Rating: PG-15 for innuendo?
Character/Pairing/s: NEWSxNEWS
Warnings/Spoilers: Crack and random and gay. Lots of gay.
Word Count: 2,310
Summary: Massu wakes up sick one morning.
Dedication: crystallekil’s thank you fic! Using kink #67 from her list. Sort of.
A/N: Ahaha this was supposed to be short and then got stupid. And long, wtf.
Disclaimer: No harm or infringement intended.
Massu wakes up one morning feeling very strange.
He isn’t sure why exactly, but he thinks it might have something to do with something he ate yesterday that is disagreeing with him now; when he sits down and makes a mental list of all the things he’d consumed in the past twenty-four hours, the giant bowl of shaved ice he’d shared with his groupmates while they were working at a photoshoot immediately comes to mind as the only possible culprit.
He theorizes that maybe the red bean had gone bad in the heat during the course of the shoot without the staffers noticing or something like that; in retrospect, he remembers how their cool creamy dessert had tasted a little bit strange in his mouth while he’d tried to enjoy it alongside everyone else, particularly the bite he’d taken while Tegoshi had been happily slurping up thick white rivulets of condensed milk from the tip of his finger across the table. Even worse, Massu can’t even remember how the following bite had tasted; all he can really recall about it is that he took it at exactly the same time that Koyama was busy dipping the tip of his strawberry slice in the extra chocolate sauce on Yamapi’s spoon.
When he tells his mother about it she just tsks at him and says he shouldn’t share those kinds of things with everyone like that; maybe one or even all of the others had come down with something without knowing it and ended up passing it on to Massu while they’d been eating together.
He realizes that she’s probably right and apologizes; she smiles at him and tells him to go lie down while she makes him some soup.
He hopes whatever it is passes soon.
Vaguely, he wonders if the others are sick as well.
He hopes not.
~~~~~
Two days later he’s still feeling slightly off-kilter despite his best efforts to rest up and heal. He’s starting to wonder about that a little bit, and worries that maybe his tastebuds are going numb or that he’s losing his love of food because right now, he can’t even recognize the flavor of sesame oil in his galbi or the hot sweetness of the grilled onions on his stone plate.
Across the table, he watches Ryo as he happily shoves long, thick pieces of Korean rice-cake one after another into Shige’s accommodating mouth, while the others cheer him on.
“Wow Shige’s mouth is amazing, ne,” Tegoshi breathes nonchalantly around the end of his metal chopsticks, while Shige successfully manages to wrap his lips around a fifth piece of duk without any real problem.
“Bet I can fit more than that!” Yamapi challenges hotly from beside Massu, as he turns to his younger groupmate and opens his mouth expectantly. “Massu, put some in me too, ne. I won’t lose to Shige in this!”
Massu starts to really worry about his health when he actually chokes on his rice.
~~~~~
The next day, when Massu guests on Kei-chan radio, he thinks that whatever he’s come down with recently is getting worse.
Because this time he doesn’t even need to be eating before something strange happens; he’s in the middle of talking with Koyama just like always when Koyama puts his hand on Massu’s shoulder-just like always-and Massu feels the pit of his stomach tighten all of a sudden, without warning.
Koyama senses it immediately, and his brow furrows in worry while the hand on Massu’s shoulder squeezes unconsciously. “Massu, are you alright?”
Massu swallows and nods, manages a shaky smile. “Fine ne.”
He goes home that night and tells his mom that he thinks he needs to see the doctor.
~~~~~
“Massu, Massu is something wrong? Are you feeling alright?” Tegoshi pesters him two days later, the youngest member poking Massu in the arm insistently as he does. “My mom talked to your mom and your mom said you weren’t feeling well lately, ne. She said you even went to the doctor yesterday, and that my mom should check and make sure I’m okay too in case we gave each other whatever you have.”
Massu blinks. “The doctor said I was fine,” he reassures Tegoshi, because he doesn’t want Tegoshi to worry even though Massu is pretty sure he’s not fine and that the doctor missed something during the tests.
Tegoshi just breathes a sigh of relief when he hears that and manages a smile. “I’m glad Massu is alright!” he says brightly, and as he does, Massu feels that strange pang in his gut again, all of a sudden.
Five minutes later, Yamapi bursts into the room asking, “Massu, are you sick? My mom heard from Shige’s mom who heard from Tegoshi’s mom that you went to the doctor yesterday, ne. Should you be at work? Maybe you should lie down.”
This time, when Massu is faced with Yamapi blinking at him in concern he inexplicably feels his chest tighten all of a sudden; his first horrified thought is that whatever he has must be spreading.
When Ryo comes into the room a few seconds after Yamapi while holding a thermos full of homemade chicken soup and with a deeply worried furrow in his brow that might be mistaken for a glare at first glance, Massu panics and thinks it feels like his heart might actually explode at any second now.
~~~~~
“The doctor said I was fine,” Massu assures everyone tiredly twenty minutes later, after Koyama and Shige arrive too, each asking the same thing everyone else did. “The tests he ran said nothing was wrong with me at all.”
He slumps into a chair and looks dejected. “But I still don’t feel the same as before, ne. When I eat with you guys I don’t even remember how the food tastes afterwards, and two days ago, when Koyama was talking to me during the taping, my chest suddenly started to ache. It’s even worse today, right now.”
His groupmates start to murmur amongst themselves in concern.
Shige is the first one to stop and blink a few seconds later; he backtracks over Massu’s words more carefully. “What do you mean when you eat with us?” he asks, eyebrow arched. “Does it only happen when we’re around?”
Massu nods sadly. “The Korean barbeque we had for lunch earlier this week tasted like air, ne.”
Shige looks thoughtful. “What about any other food? For example, can you remember the taste of what your mom made you for dinner the other night?”
Massu nods. “Nikujaga. It was delicious, ne.”
Shige “hmmms,” in the back of his throat for a moment, as he takes that bit of information in. Then he grabs Ryo’s thermos of homemade soup and thrusts it Massu. “Drink,” he instructs, matter-of-factly.
Ryo scowls. “You can’t just make a sick person drink whenever you want, jerk. Didn’t he just say he feels even worse today than before?”
“Shut up for a second,” Shige responds flatly, and urges Massu on. “Just a little.”
Massu looks at his groupmates nervously, as they all stand in a semi-circle around him, watching his every move intently. His heart starts to hammer in his chest and he thinks he feels a little nauseous as he uncaps the thermos and moves to drink the soup, his eyes plastered to the way Tegoshi worries his bottom lip as he watches, or how Yamapi crosses his well-muscled arms over his chest in anxious anticipation of Massu’s next actions.
“Well?” Shige asks suddenly, and Massu blinks. He tears his eyes away from Yamapi’s arms.
“Huh?” Massu replies.
“How was it?” Shige urges.
Massu stares down at the thermos. “Did I drink it?”
“Oh god he’s dying,” Koyama sobs when he hears, and buries his face into Yamapi’s shoulder. Yamapi pets his hair.
Shige scowls and reaches out to smack his best friend in the arm before clearing his throat. “Okay,” he says next. “We are all going to leave the room now. Drink it again and tell us how it is when we come back.”
He herds everyone out of the room.
Massu is confused, but dutifully drinks the soup once everyone has left.
It is really good, he thinks, as he finishes off the thermos’s contents a few seconds later. Exactly as expected from Ryo’s home cooking.
The thought inexplicably makes his chest clench up again.
He whimpers.
Three seconds later, his bandmates are all in the room again.
“Massu, Massu are you okay? Was it bad?” Koyama frets, while Ryo scowls in embarrassment.
“I taste-tested it before I brought it over!” Ryo insists, trying not to sound guilty but failing.
“It was good,” Massu assures him, automatically. “I drank it all.”
Ryo looks relieved. Scowls at Koyama. “See?” Pause. Grin. “So it was really good?”
When Massu sees Ryo smiling at him like that all of a sudden, he starts to break out in an odd sweat. He hastily looks away from his bandmate’s eyes, turning towards the ground instead. His face feels flushed.
A moment, as everyone takes that in.
Then, “I have a theory,” Shige says first, as he raises his hand.
“I think I have the same theory, ne,” Koyama says second, and raises his hand too.
Massu can only hope that neither of them is going to tell him that he’s dying again.
~~~~~
For some reason Shige herds everyone else out of the room one more time before he or Koyama can tell Massu what their theory is, and for a terrifying moment, Massu is left all alone in the dressing room again, wondering what is to become of him.
The thought of the others all gathered in the hallway outside of the door talking about him sends more of those strange pangs straight to Massu’s heart.
He prays to whatever god is listening that whatever is going on isn’t something that will make him have to give up being a member of NEWS.
Or eating. That too.
~~~~~
A little while later, whatever god is listening graces him with an answer, as the rest of his group returns to the room, looking a lot less concerned than they’d been just a while ago.
In fact, Ryo looks kind of annoyed now, which Massu has long ago learned to mean that he’s also really relieved if he has the energy to be angry.
Massu’s heart gives a tiny little flutter at the sight of them again.
“You,” Shige announces after a rather dramatic pause, “love us.”
Massu blinks. “Well…yeah,” he agrees eventually. Then stops himself quickly, to clarify. “But you know, not in that way. In a friendly…”
“No,” Koyama interrupts, and puts his hand on Massu’s arm gently. “You really, really love us, ne. In that way.”
Massu’s breath hitches at the touch. “E-eh? But…no… I mean, I’m not like…”
“That thing you’ve been feeling is the same thing Koyama’s had for years,” Shige informs him matter-of-factly. “He’s probably the one who gave it to all of us in the first place.”
Koyama, Massu thinks, doesn’t look particularly contrite about being the one to spread this weird disease all over the place to everyone.
“Am I going to die?” Massu asks after a moment, and thinks it’s the most logical next step in terms of where this is all going.
This time Tegoshi laughs a little. “It’s like chicken pox for Johnnies,” the youngest member assures Massu gently, as he runs his fingers through Massu’s hair in a soothing gesture. “Everyone gets it at least once. Because Massu’s immune system managed to hold out for this long, it just means you have the adult version ne, which is a little bit worse than the regular version.”
Massu swallows and feels his scalp tingle in the places where Tegoshi’s nails scrape teasingly against his skin.
“Is there a cure?” is his next question, said in a very small voice.
Shige looks back at him awkwardly, and for some reason is kneeling in front of Massu’s chair all of a sudden. “Not really,” the smartest member says. “I mean, if there is, no one’s found one yet. It’s something you just kind of have to ride out.”
Massu’s bottom lip starts to wibble.
“But there is a treatment!” Koyama rushes to assure him, and takes one of Massu’s hands in both of his. “You just have to remember to make sure you get treated whenever you feel strange, ne.”
Massu is kind of scared when he hears that; he isn’t very good with remembering when to take his medicine, after all. “Do I have to take pills?”
“Nope!” Yamapi promises, hand patting Massu’s knee firmly, before stopping and lingering there. “No pills or anything like that.”
Massu feels a little bit horrified when he thinks that this treatment might be more complicated than just taking medication. “What do I have to do?” he asks, with big eyes. For some reason, his heart is starting to pound really fast the closer everyone else gets to him. “Electric shock? Chemo?”
Ryo snorts when he hears that, and for some reason, is in the middle of taking off his shirt. “If you’re going to put it like that, it’s probably more like an injection than anything else,” he explains calmly, and starts to undo his belt.
“Injection?” Massu murmurs dumbly to himself as Shige nuzzles his thigh, and as much as he doesn’t like shots, suddenly feels his breath hitch again at the way Ryo says it, feels his heart speed up and his stomach clench and his head spin in ways that are similar to all the times before, except somehow completely different at the same time.
He thinks if it’s this bad already, he’s probably going to need more treatments than anybody.
Luckily, he also knows that NEWS is full of members willing to do their best to help.
END