One-shot: The cunning ways
Title: The cunning ways
Pairing/Group: Ryo/Ueda, cameos of the rest of KAT-TUN
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: silly boys
Summary: In his apartment building, Ueda is much more famous for the pretty girls leaving his flat every odd morning than for his songwriting.
Notes: Written for je_ficgames 2012, team AU, prompt: "She’s just a friend." [every Johnny’s idol having a girl scandal], originally posted here. 7794 words. Thank you to my beta and to all the helpers for pushing me towards the finish line ♥
“Ah, Ueda-kun, was it?” The girl rubs at her eyes then heads towards Ueda’s kitchen counter. “I used the spare towel you put out,” she says as she grabs a glass of water, moving around as if she were at home. When she turns around, Ueda is still staring at her. He doesn’t even know her name. That shouldn´t surprise him anymore.
“I’ll go,” she says, then flips her hair back and walks out into the hall. Ueda watches her pick up her things and leave. He hears her saying hello to someone, and soon enough Nakamaru is standing in front of him, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t …” Ueda starts, then sighs. “She’s just a friend,” he says halfheartedly, and goes into the bathroom to put out another towel. He ignores the unimpressed look on Nakamaru’s face. At least this one doesn’t rub it in.
“I’m borrowing some eggs,” Nakamaru announces.
When Ueda comes back, he is waiting in the doorway. “This one was really pretty,” he says and runs before Ueda can throw the closest inanimate object at him. It’s super annoying to have neighbors who use him as a mini convenience store all the time and have no manners, walking in and out of his place. When did he forget how to say no?
“Coffee,” someone says from behind him, and this time Ueda really throws something. It’s just a guitar pick though, and it hits Ryo’s bare chest. He doesn’t seem to even notice. He only grins sloppily, just like he does in his newest after shave commercial, and heads for the kitchen. Ryo also moves around as if he were at home, only this time Ueda can’t bring himself to be as annoyed by it.
“You have to stop bringing girls to my apartment. You’re ruining my reputation,” he says, grabbing two mugs and letting Ryo pour them some coffee.
“You don’t need your reputation. You spend your days in dark studios recording music that makes other people famous. Besides, you owe me, so you should just keep making sure my reputation is untainted. Since, you know, I’m the rock star here.”
Since when was bubblegum pop called rock? Ueda sneers. “How about you just stop sleeping around?”
“But I’m not,” Ryo says, heading for the rice cooker. Ueda’s made rice this morning even if he prefers bread.
“No, you are not. You are always sleeping here. Only it’s with a different girl every single time.”
It’s not like it would bug Ueda less if Ryo kept bringing the same girl over, but that’s not the point now. “Your new apartment has a back exit now. And I don’t owe you anything. I have repaid you and deposited an advance for all favors I could possibly need in the next decade by now.”
“You’re cute when you are angry, princess,” Ryo says, and ruffles Ueda’s hair. “The rice is good,” he adds and sits down to eat it.
“I’m leaving. You can let yourself out,” Ueda huffs, ignoring the nickname because he knows better than to argue about it by now. He puts the half empty cup back on the counter and starts to leave.
“No, come back, you have guests, eat breakfast with me.” Ryo grabs his sleeve. Ueda rolls his eyes.
“By now, you’re not a guest, you’re a leech,” he mutters, but he returns to his coffee and leans on the counter, watching Ryo until the other finishes his food.
“I really have to go now,” he says and leaves, ignoring Ryo shouting that he could have driven him if he had just waited. “The towel is on the sink,” Ueda shouts instead of a goodbye.
~
“No, use the back exit,” Ryo grabs the girl by her hand, and she looks at him, rather unimpressed. At least that’s two of them, Ueda thinks as he watches from his armchair, guitar in hand. “The van outside seems suspicious,” Ryo continues talking, grabbing his stupid baseball cap and sunglasses and pushing the girl towards the back door in Ueda’s kitchen that leads to the apartment’s narrow fire exit instead of into his cupboard. He would rather have the cupboard than the luxury of a well accessible fire exit, really.
Ryo comes back, blowing his fringe out of his forehead. “I’m going back to sleep,” he announces and disappears into the second bedroom. Ueda huffs, fingers closing tightly around his guitar.
“Ueda, does a gentleman let a girl leave all of her own?” Junno shouts from the kitchen.
“I knew you’d be practicing juggling down there, so I decided to leave the formalities to you,” Ueda retorts. Junno puts down the basket with his laundry and flops on his couch.
“What do you want, Taguchi? And stop picking the lock on my back door.”
“Which bar do you go to pick them up?” Junno doesn’t even blink.
“I never left the house last night,” Ueda says truthfully.
“And she’s just a friend, right?” Junno laughs, all smug. “I get it Ueda. You’re keeping your options open.” Junno winks. Ueda kicks him out of the apartment. On his way back, he strolls past his unfinished song, more like a song he has never started writing, and into the bedroom where Ryo is splayed across the sheets.
“I hate you,” Ryo huffs into his pillow when Ueda opens the curtains with no mercy.
“Just to be clear. I don’t owe you anything. All you did was drunkenly tell me my song sucks and that you don’t get it. That is not an advice, that is being rude under the influence of alcohol.”
“But you listened anyway,” Ryo says smugly, rolling over onto his back so he can squint at Ueda with sleepy eyes. “You rewrote that song, and it was the first one you sold. Look where it got you,” Ryo nuzzles the sheets. “You have two bedrooms and silky sheets.”
“Not for you to turn it into a love hotel free of charge.” Ueda opens the window and lets the cold air in. “I hate how you think it’s okay to sleep here with all these girls that you pick up to tell you you are a big boy.” Ueda’s frowning at the image in his own head.
“It’s not like that.” Ryo finally sits up, looking for his t-shirt, probably only because it’s cold with the window open. “I just like to crash here.”
“Stop using this bed as if it is yours,” Ueda says resolutely and storms out.
“I’ll cook you lunch,” Ryo says when he emerges from the room twenty minutes later. Ueda’s had just enough time to cool off by then.
“You just don’t want to go out there in case they are really reporters,” Ueda says, inspecting his nails.
“Nah, I can spend the night at my good old friend’s house any time, “ Ryo grins at him. “It’s perfectly normal.”
“Liar.”
“Fine. I want to spend my Saturday sitting on your couch, looking at your angry face. Happy now?” Ryo sighs and disappears into the kitchen. Ueda doesn’t really get that sequence. Ryo does spend his Saturday napping on Ueda’s couch, lips slightly parted, eyes covered with black hair and mumbling in his sleep from time to time while Ueda writes a song and attempts lyrics for it too. They are coming out too cheesy so he gives up.
“The song sounds nice. Soothing,” Ryo murmurs as he’s putting his shoes on that evening. He still wears the sunglasses when leaving. It’s pitch dark outside already. Idiot.
~
“I hope he decides to come tonight and the girl leaves him to rot in front of my locked door,” Ueda sighs into his whisky. The bartender ignores him.
It’s a good thing Ueda never gave Ryo a key. Ueda giggles drunkenly. He did contemplate it, but the idea of waking up to strange girls moving around his apartment or to catching Ryo and one of those girls in his shower is much worse than the pain of getting up in the middle of the night to let Ryo, in various states of half drunken happy mood, and his girl of the night in.
“We’re not even friends, really,” Ueda huffs and spins on his bar chair because it seems like it would be fun. It’s not, and he almost ends up under the bar.
“He was so annoying, always had a problem with me. We could have never made a band together,” Ueda tells the bartender who gently pats him on his back.
“Time to go home, Ueda-kun. Let me call you a taxi.”
“Don’t want to. Let him freeze,” Ueda giggles again. “I bet he has sunglasses on. He’s a big star now... three consecu--” The word is too difficult for Ueda. The bartender slowly pushes him up the three steps out of the bar. “Three number one singles.”
“I’ll write him a number one hit. A million seller. Will my debt be paid off then?” Ueda asks the taxi driver. The man scrunches his nose and ignores him.
Where are you? Ueda reads an e-mail when he gets back to his apartment and finds the phone he’d left at home. Maybe on purpose, so that Ryo couldn’t bug him. So that Ueda doesn’t end up calling him.
Out getting some. He writes back.
Oh.
I went to your place tonight…
Ueda snorts and falls onto his bed. He knew it. He imagines the girl had a very short skirt. And no tights. Tights aren’t classy anyway.
Another message.
I heard you got the contract for an entire album. I wanted to celebrate.
Liar! Ueda hopes he hit the correct buttons.
Congratulations, says Ryo’s message.
He doesn’t even deny it. Ueda falls asleep feeling nauseous. He definitely had too much to drink.
~
Ueda wakes up and finds out his bathroom door is locked. He strolls into his living room, contemplating if it´s Ryo and he should just break the door and kick him right out of the shower or if it´s the girl and he needs to stay put.
He finds Ryo splayed across his living room couch only in his underwear and covered by a spare blanket Ueda keeps there. The idiot must have fallen asleep on his way to the bathroom. Ueda pushes him off the couch. Ryo looks up at him, confused and hazy eyes, a pout on his lips.
“You know, when this happened the first time, you looked like you were too drunk to even take your shoes off and the girl just seemed happy that she has somewhere to drop your dead body, so I let it go.”
“Okay,” Ryo says uncertainly, still half asleep and rubbing his elbow. “So…”
“So I did it because I was sorry for the girl. I didn’t have the heart to kick her out.” Ueda pokes his toes into Ryo’s thigh.
“Did you like the girl?” Ryo asks, now sliding up and back onto the couch.
“No!” Ueda is positively shouting. “I thought it was a one-time thing!”
“It’s not like I’m interrupting anything. You never have anyone over.” Ryo shrugs. Ueda is livid.
The girl comes out into the living room, and they both turn to her. She must have heard them shouting because she only throws a crumpled shirt in Ryo’s direction and leaves.
Ueda turns back to Ryo and sighs. “Why are you on the couch anyway?” he asks.
That’s when Koki pokes his head into Ueda’s living room. “Ueda, the girl just now…” he starts.
“… was just a friend,” Ueda finishes automatically. Koki leers, wants to say something but notices Ryo when the man snorts at Ueda’s remark.
“You have more company?” Koki looks between them with interest. “Oh,” he gasps then, eyes suddenly shining. “Ueda, I didn’t know you were into that. Next time, can you share with me? I can give this a chance. Do you have her number?”
Ueda marches up to Koki, but when he opens his mouth, he can’t decide what to even say first.
“Ueda’s too boring for threesomes,” Ryo says instead and stretches. “For the record, I wouldn’t mind,” he adds offhandedly, but he is looking straight at Ueda, like it’s some kind of challenge. When Ueda says nothing, he gets up and heads for the shower.
“What did you want?” Ueda heaves out, turning to Koki, well aware of how his ears are getting hot. And fuck this, he would mind. He can’t believe Ryo, or Koki for that matter. But mostly Ryo.
“Toilet paper. I’m out,” Koki says cheerfully, and passes Ueda, walking into his supply closet. Soon he’s out the door, muttering about having seen the guy from Ueda’s apartment somewhere before.
Ueda is left alone. His bathroom is still occupied. Knocking the door down and barging in is not an option anymore.
~
“I may have mentioned you,” Ryo says nervously, looking out the window and at three unmistakable TV vans.
Ueda sighs and hands Ryo a glass of water. “Drink something and relax. You look like shit. The girl left while it was still dark, and I made her use the back exit.”
Ryo closes the curtain and almost rips it in the progress.
“Why would you even do that? Mention me, I mean.” Ueda trots around, collecting the blanket and the pillow lying around his living room. He found Ryo sleeping on the couch again, but he wasn’t going to exactly ask if he sucked so much the girl actually kicked him out of the bed. But maybe he should. It might make him feel a little better.
“I don’t know; they just asked who I hang out with and you felt like a safe choice. I said we sometimes drink over at your place until morning. It sounded like a good idea.” Ryo runs his fingers through his hair. They get stuck, and he flinches.
“We never do that,” Ueda says dryly, face hidden behind the pile in his arms.
Again, Ryo flinches. “We should do that tonight.”
Ueda sends Junno to buy the beer. He owes him like three six packs of it anyway.
Ryo walks around Ueda’s apartment, a little soulless, trying to not even look in the window’s direction. Ueda makes him play guitar with him and then lets him win a few rounds of the video game Junno gave him and that he never plays. Well he doesn’t have to try much with that. Eventually, Ryo calms down enough to make lunch while bullying Ueda about the way he cuts onions.
They pop the first beer in the early afternoon.
By the time the last press car leaves the small square in front of Ueda’s apartment building, they are three sheets to the wind.
“Why are you always such a bitch in the morning?” Ryo asks, his head lolling from side to side until it somehow lands on Ueda’s shoulder and doesn’t move anymore. “You would be pretty cool if you weren’t such a drama queen about it.”
“I hate it,” Ueda says bluntly, not caring about what comes out of his mouth anymore. “Really, really hate it.”
“Me too,” Ryo sulks. They’re clearly not talking about the same thing.
“Then why do you keep coming?”
Ryo giggles. “Not telling.”
“Jerk,” Ueda pushes him away. Ryo falls sideways onto the couch but somehow manages to take Ueda with him.
“You smell good,” Ryo mumbles into Ueda’s hair.
“Bed,” Ueda mutters, scrambling to stand up.
“Okay,” Ryo stands up too, all too quickly, creepy smile on his face. He wavers and with the help of Ueda’s finger in the middle of his chest, ends up falling back down.
He just sits there, pouting up at Ueda. “I want to come with you,” he says, and Ueda thinks he must be the more sober one of them after all.
“You’re missing the girl,” he says absentmindedly.
“She was just a friend,” Ryo sighs, already half asleep and trying to hug the back rest.
Ueda falls into a helpless giggle fit. “No one will ever believe that, Ryo-chan.”
~
“So, I hear you are getting popular. Should I expect an offer from Nishikido’s management soon?” Ueda’s manager asks into the phone. Ueda can hear him leafing through papers.
They’re probably the same ones that Nakamaru so generously offered to Ueda after he was done with his morning read. And all this time Ueda thought Nakamaru read serious papers not tabloids.
But there it was, black on dirty white:
NISHIKIDO’S BACHELOR WAYS; BEERS AND LONG NIGHTS WITH UP AND COMING SONGWRITER. IS THIS FRIENDSHIP OR BUSINESS?
Ueda feels a little sick.
~
“Tatsuya, wake up! There’s a girl in your spare bedroom and a man looking like an exact copy of the Nishikido Ryo on your couch.”
Kame’s voice filters through Ueda’s dreams, and he thinks his life is twisted enough without that one coming back. But then someone is shaking him awake, and he squints at the face pouting at him from way too close.
“I have nowhere to sleep,” the voice says. Ueda grabs up and into the person’s hair, but the image doesn’t disappear. He bolts up and knocks heads with a very real Kamenashi Kazuya.
“What the hell?”
“Long time no see,” Kame says like it is okay to wake someone up at three thirty in the morning.
“What are you doing here?” Ueda asks, rubbing his forehead and wondering what he did in his previous life to be woken up by his definitely-not-crush and his latest girl and by his ex-boyfriend in one night.
“Just flew in, but my assistant forgot to book a hotel. You never took the key back, so I figured,” Kame says and starts to take his coat off.
“So what’s with the girl?” Kame asks.
Ueda gets out of the bed and trots into his living room. He stares at Ryo, huddled under a blanket and awkwardly hugging the backrest again.
“She’s just a friend,” Ueda parrots.
“Well obviously, otherwise she would be in your bed, and I would be asleep already.” Kame rolls his eyes.
“What’s with this lookalike then?”
Ueda pokes Ryo’s back, but the other only murmurs something and doesn’t even move.
“Long story,” Ueda sighs.
“Okay,” Kame yawns. “I’m going to sleep,” he announces and backtracks into Ueda’s bedroom, dropping his shirt and pants on the way. Ueda gapes.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asks when he finds Kame pulling on loose sweatpants and climbing into Ueda’s bed.
“Oh Ueda, don’t be a prude. It’s not like we don’t know how to sleep next to each other. We’ve done it like a zillion of times.”
“We didn’t date that long,” Ueda says. Then, “Get out!”
“No, you get in, Tat-chan. Since when were you such a prude?”
Suddenly, Ueda is really, really tired. He eyes the bed wearily but figures it’s better than sleeping on the floor of his very own apartment.
~
Ueda wakes up to an unpleasant feeling of someone staring at him. As it turns out, it’s Ryo. And Kame.
And it looks like just before Ueda stirred awake they may have had a staring contest between each other.
“I really hate you both right now,” Ueda mumbles and rolls away from Kame onto the bedroom floor. Ryo makes a step forward, like he wanted to catch him, but then stays there, still watching them.
“It’s the real thing,” Kame says in the end.
“Like you wouldn’t believe it,” Ryo huffs back.
Ueda growls.
“What is he doing in your bed?” Ryo asks, like he has a right to ask such question. Like he is actually bothered by this. Then he bites his tongue. Ueda’s really glad he doesn’t have to show him his place.
“The couch was occupied,” Kame answers for him.
“Why were you sleeping there again?” Ueda asks this time, getting out of bed, scratching his stomach then looking down. All the staring around him makes him really uncomfortable. In his own bedroom, damn it!
Ryo wets his lips and finally stops looking between Kame and Ueda like he wants to murder at least one of them.
“You said to stop using your bed like it’s mine, so…”
Ueda feels the headache coming. And he wasn’t the one drinking or crossing oceans last night.
“I’m going for a run,” he says and bolts for his bathroom, grabbing his running clothes and shutting the door.
He hears Kamenashi causally introducing himself and immediately hitting on Ryo. Ueda almost breaks his toothbrush in half.
When he comes home, his apartment is finally empty.
~
“So, is Ryo-kun dating anyone?” Kame asks the moment Ueda picks up. Ueda hangs up. Kame calls again.
“If you want him, then why is he sleeping on your couch?” he asks this time.
Ueda hangs up again.
~
“Let’s have lunch,” Ryo says when he bumps into Ueda at the recording studio. He doesn’t really have any recording jobs but refuses to elaborate on what he’s doing there beyond “it’s such a coincidence you’d be here too.”
It’s strange. The food is good, and Ryo is strangely docile, almost pleasing, and he doesn’t talk about girls or Ueda’s strange taste in clothes and past hair dye choices, but about the book he’s read and the kind of music he wants to put on his next album, then makes Ueda tell him what he listens to most these days.
If this wasn’t Ryo, and Ueda wasn’t so wonderfully in denial on purpose, he might think it was almost a date, and a very pleasant one at that.
~
Three nights later, Ryo climbs into Ueda’s bed, toes cold and smelling of sake.
“You got the wrong door,” Ueda rasps out, hoping he sounds nonchalant and just sleepy and not completely bewildered like he feels.
“No I didn’t,” Ryo mumbles and steals a bit more blanket for his cold feet.
“The girl is in the other room,” Ueda says again, this time much louder.
“I know. I don’t want to sleep on the couch. I always get a stiff neck from it.”
Ueda splutters, trying to push Ryo out of his bed, but the other doesn’t let him, clinging to his waist and threatening that he will take Ueda with him if he is to fall off.
“You let Kamenashi sleep here. The bed’s big anyway,” Ryo mumbles between puffs of breaths as they struggle. Ueda deflates, completely flabbergasted.
“I’m sleeping on the couch,” he announces.
~
There’s an article on them again a week later. And then there is another one claiming that Ueda Tatsuya is a player, a different girl having been seen leaving his apartment several times a month, sometimes twice or even three times a week. A certain neighbor, K-kun, claims they are all pretty, but Ueda never seems interested in the same girl twice.
“You better start being more careful, or all our efforts will be wasted,” Ueda’s manager tells him.
Ueda still doesn’t know how he has come to have one, but this guy insisted plus he started doing the paperwork for Ueda, so Ueda let it go.
“I was trying to get you more out there, maybe try to get your own album recorded with some small independent label, but this is not helping,” the manager adds, and Ueda closes his fists.
~
When Ryo falls through his door two days later, very drunk albeit without a girl, Ueda punches him.
“You are ruining my reputation,” he says again. Ryo rubs his chin and sits in the genkan, mumbling something inarticulate. Ueda leaves him to his own devices -- the guy knows the apartment as well as his own -- and goes to sleep.
In the morning, Ueda wakes up to a hand wrapped around his middle and a wet spot on his back where Ryo is drooling. Ryo also has a black eye.
So Ueda makes tea and rice and lets Ryo sober up while he plays the guitar before he sits up straight in his chair and takes a deep breath.
“I’m not a girl,” he says slowly. He wants to tell Ryo not to come anymore.
“I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. Last night…” Ryo pulls at the loose strand in his jeans. “I’m sorry.”
Ueda wasn’t really uncomfortable. Once he got over the initial freak out, he felt pretty great just because Ryo was spooning him like he probably did with every girl there was.
“I’m not a love hotel either. I don’t want to be just some kind of…” Ueda stops, not really knowing how to continue, and Ryo’s lack of protest baffles him.
“Okay,” Ryo says at last.
“I hit you,” Ueda states, like Ryo doesn’t have the proof of it on his face.
“I know that was out of love,” Ryo suddenly grins and tries to wink, flinching as he does so.
Ueda’s mouth hangs open. That only cheers Ryo on further, all signs of previous lethargy gone.
“You look like a fish right now,” Ryo says and gets up. “Let me feed you,” he adds, stretching the length of his body and moving to Ueda’s kitchen.
“You’re unbelievable.” Ueda mutters and follows him. Ryo is a really good cook. “Do you actually like being hit?”
~
Ueda meets Ryo and his girl of the evening in the hallway, on his way from the recording studio. The album deal has been keeping him busy, but he does notice it’s been a week since he had seen Ryo the morning after he’d punched him.
But now Ryo is grinning, and he seems undeterred. The girl seems a little surprised when she realizes they’re not going to Ryo’s place, but eventually comes in, since Ueda just leaves the door open. He might feel slightly guilty for giving Ryo a black eye that set off a little rumours nightmare for him, the tabloids coming up with the craziest theories about it.
When the girl all but pulls Ryo into the spare bedroom, Ueda’s mood goes very sour very fast though. He grabs a beer and sits in the living room, facing the freshly closed door. He doesn’t know what he’s waiting for, what he’s trying to listen to.
Ryo’s never been loud when he comes here. Not that Ueda is paying attention. But it is a legitimate expectation... to hear things. The walls are paper thin.
Ueda can hear hushed talking, but then there’s silence. His beer isn’t even cold anymore. He’s about to leave when the door quietly opens and Ryo almost crashes into Ueda in his effort to silently tiptoe away from it.
“Where are you going?” Ueda asks him. Ryo seems wide eyed even in the almost complete darkness.
“Just... you know,” Ryo curses under his breath then grabs Ueda’s hand. “Let’s just sleep,” he says rather sternly.
“What? Wait,” Ueda tries to pull the hand away, but Ryo doesn’t let him, crossing the room and closing the door of Ueda’s bedroom from the inside.
Ueda feels something is very wrong here.
“You have company. In the other room,” Ueda says, and he can’t believe he is saying that, almost lecturing Ryo and sending him to the girl.
“I just couldn’t make her leave. Let her sleep,” Ryo says, looking at his socks.
“What is going on here?” Ueda asks, not so little panic in his voice.
“Can’t you tell?” Ryo huffs, pouting like this is all somehow Ueda’s fault, like he’s the one doing nonsensical things.
Ueda only closes his hands into tight fist as he watches Ryo drop his jeans and climb into bed. He doesn’t know why he does it. Why he follows and lies in the bed with him, against his better judgement. They stay like that, backs turned to each other, for a long time, until Ueda is almost asleep, his brain finally getting tired of coming up with endless absurd scenarios, until he only barely registers Ryo’s breathing.
It’s then Ryo turns around, sighs deeply and wraps his hand around Ueda--definitely a conscious effort to fit closer to him. Ueda freezes, and then Ryo does too, realizing Ueda isn’t asleep. But he doesn’t let go. Instead he inches closer, and Ueda can feel Ryo’s frantic heartbeat against his back.
An hour later, Ueda is still awake. He isn’t sure Ryo is anymore, just that he won’t get any sleep if he stays here. He gets up and moves to the couch again.
In the morning, both Ryo and the girl are gone, and Ueda is left with dirty sheets and unfocused mind that gets him annoyed looks in the studio.
~
Someone digs out more rumours of Ueda being a playboy; a witness, T-san, claiming he’s often seen girls climbing down the back stairs from his apartment. Ryo’s name is mentioned as a famous affiliation of the rising songwriter.
Ueda’s manager can’t think of a better comment to make than, “She is just a friend. And she likes to change hairstyles. She even owns a few wigs.”
Really clever. Ueda himself couldn’t have said any better.
~
“I haven’t seen any girls around here lately,” Nakamaru notes one evening, as they eat take out on Ueda’s balcony. It’s still pretty chilly outside, but Ueda likes to sit here. Last summer and autumn, he and Ryo would spend evenings here, a guitar trading hands and Ryo’s cigarettes always getting in the way.
“Hmmm...” Ueda stuffs his mouth full.
“You stopped being friends with Nishikido-kun?” Nakamaru asks, and the strange tangent makes Ueda lurch.
“We’ve never really been friends in the first place,” Ueda says. He thought they may have been, but Ryo stopped coming, with girls or without them, and they had never hung around each other much before those episodes started to occur.
“So you just let him and his girlfriends stay overnight out of charity?” Nakamaru asks way too many questions tonight.
“Aren’t I a great man?” Ueda asks. He never promised Ryo to keep his secrets, and he can’t see Nakamaru going around telling people either, so he doesn’t deny it. It’s over anyway.
Nakamaru eats the rest of his dinner in silence then opens two new beers and hands one to Ueda.
“I know this might come as a surprise,” Nakamaru starts, smirking a little to himself like he is so funny, “but I’m quite fond of the rumor blogs.”
Ueda looks at him, a bit terrified.
“No, I don’t mean it like that,” Nakamaru backpedals quickly. “I don’t contribute. I just find it fun to read. You know, like conspiracy theories. But isn’t that surprising too?”
Ueda doubts anything can still surprise him after what he’s been through in the past few weeks. In those, he’s found himself on the receiving end of an invitation to a threesome with another man -- twice, he had his long-in-the-past flame climb into his bed right after his return from a theatrical gig on Broadway, and then he had Nishikido Ryo--the famous heart throb-- do the same, three times at that, without incurring any bodily harm as a result.
“Ueda, are you listening?” Nakamaru waves his beer in front of Ueda’s face, the bottle dangerously close to his nose.
“Sorry, I was being surprised?” Ueda says, and tries to pay attention.
“Anyway, I was saying I found this funny rumor lately about how Nishikido-kun isn’t really good in bed. Apparently he always drops dead before anything can really happen and doesn’t care about what the girl does after that. And he never takes them home, but to some strange flat often on the other side of the Tokyo from where he’s met the girl.”
Ueda doesn’t say anything.
“So I have this theory,” Nakamaru continues, more excited. “The strange flat is yours, obviously, and he’s been coming on purpose. But maybe it wasn’t to, you know, be with the girl but...”
“Have you been smoking weed with Koki and Junno?” Ueda asks him.
“No,” Nakamaru doesn’t even pause. “But I really think there’s something to it, Ueda. Why would he always bring girls here? It can’t be too convenient, especially with taxi fares and bringing all of them to the same location. And if he wasn’t really sleeping with them... You said you found him on a couch a few times.”
Ueda starts to laugh rather loudly. Ryo would probably say he sounds like a maniac again.
“I think those rumor blogs are making your brain melt,” Ueda finally rasps out.
“If Akanishi still lived here, I would make a bet with him right now,” Nakamaru only says, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “And I’m cold so I’m leaving.”
~
Ueda gets a minor writing block. Perfect timing really. He doesn’t know why he picks up his phone and calls Kame, but he regrets it.
“I’m on my way to the airport right now,” Kame tells him. “I‘m heading for L.A., and I plan to stay for a while. You should come see me. Bring your new boyfriend, just promise me you won’t get hitched while you’re visiting. I don’t want to be involved in that scandal.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” Ueda says, annoyed.
“Then call Nishikido already and tell him you want to fuck him in that spare bedroom of yours and then get on with it. I think he wouldn’t mind a bit,” Kame says like he’s discussing what’s for dinner.
“Why do I even still talk to you?” Ueda asks him.
“Because I know you too well,” Kame chirps. “Got to go now. Make Nakamaru install Skype for you, and we can chat about your love life all night long,” he says all too happily, then hangs up.
~
At night, Ueda falls asleep better when he imagines Ryo, his chest pressed against Ueda’s back, his heartbeat strong and loud in Ueda’s ears.
So one night, after a recording and a not so successful arrangement session, Ueda drives to Ryo’s apartment. He might have pulled some of his newly acquired strings to get the address since he only knew the old one where Ryo lived when they were fresh out of high school and still trying to somehow make a band together. But that didn’t last long and Ryo went solo, and Ueda focused on writing. Only Ryo still somehow kept on appearing out of thin air around Ueda, until one day he brought that first girl, claiming they were in the area.
Ueda really doesn’t want to read much into it.
~
The door is opened by a girl with big eyes, long hair and even longer legs. Ueda knows she is taller than Ryo. She also looks so chic, like cut out of some hipster magazine. Not that Ueda cares about fashion beyond his long sweaters and flip-flops.
It takes a while for Ueda to find his voice. “Is Ryo. I mean is Nishikido-san home? I’m... Ueda Tatsuya. I...”
“Ah, I heard a lot about you,” she says and lets him in.
Ryo comes out of the shower, sweatpants and just a towel around his shoulders, and Ueda presses his lips together, backpedalling towards the door.
“This was a silly idea,” he says, wanting to grab his coat.
“I’ll go now.” The girl says quickly, bowing her head a little to both and leaving faster than Ueda could in his stupor.
“I didn’t want to interrupt,” Ueda starts again.
“Are you an idiot?” Ryo asks, grabbing Ueda by the hand, and pulling him back into the apartment.
“I’m not. But you had a girl over, and I guess this is what I wanted -- for you to stop bringing them to my place, so I shouldn’t get in the way.”
Ryo whacks Ueda over head.
“She’s just a friend,” he says, suppressing his laughter.
Ueda’s said that phrase so many times, but it never felt this insincere.
“Right,” he says and turns to leave. Ryo grabs him by his sleeve.
“No, but she really is,” it sounds more urgent this time. Like maybe Ryo wants it to be true.
“And you walk around your friends shirtless all the time.” Ueda feels like a jealous lover, and he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like the part of him that feels like making a scene. So he only tries to worm his hand out of Ryo’s grip.
“She sees me naked all the time,” Ryo says, and there is laughter in his voice again.
“Are you laughing at me?” Ueda spins.
“No, I’m not. I just...” Ryo tries to school his features. “She really is just a friend. She’s my manager too, but she’s the one who discovered me and we’ve been working together forever. She just brought me a script. She’s trying to make me start acting so she brings me food and tries to sweet talk me into it.”
Ueda eyes Ryo. There’s still this bubbly laughter in his eyes, even if what he’s saying sounds genuine. It doesn’t sound like when Ueda’s talked about Ryo’s girls when they got caught leaving his place.
“Why are you still laughing?” he asks at last.
“Because I was trying to make you jealous, bringing girls to your apartment, right in front of your nose, for ages, trying to figure out if I had a chance, and you just let it go. I climbed into your bed willingly and you wouldn’t even stay in it, and then you come here and act like, like...”
Ueda’s face clouds over. He doesn’t know why he is getting this angry, only that Ryo is saying all these things that are absurd.
“Ueda, for god’s sake, stop acting like the princess already and--”
Ueda kisses Ryo, he doesn’t know if that’s what Ryo wanted him to do, but he does it, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him in. Their teeth clash, and Ryo’s bottom lip gets split , but Ueda keeps pressing their mouths together. He licks over Ryo’s lips, finding the split and sucking on it, because he wants it to hurt for Ryo too. Because it hurts for him, all of that tension and need rushing onto the surface and breaking Ueda. He kisses Ryo deeper, swallowing his moan and pressing them closer, one of his hands coming up into Ryo’s hair and the other moving lower and grabbing his ass, so he can hold him there, right there, flush against Ueda.
Kame was right, Ryo doesn’t seem to mind. If anything, he gives back as good as he gets and he’s pulling Ueda somewhere, trying to move them, only then Ueda pushes him away.
“Explain this to me. All those girls, …”
“I’ve only slept with one of them. The one time you picked up and left the place, like you wanted to give us some privacy.” Ryo’s breathing is ragged. “In your own fucking apartment!” Ryo shakes Ueda a little, like he’s the one mad at him. Like he has a reason to be.
Ueda remembers that day. It was the girl number three. And he will never tell anyone he kept a count of them. It was such a long time ago.
“I never really planned to do anything. I pretended to be more drunk than I was and to fall asleep. I really hate your couch, by the way,” Ryo says.
“You are a freak,” Ueda retorts.
“But who doesn’t get it when someone willingly goes to bed with them?” Ryo asks back, irked. But this time, instead of a whack, Ueda’s hair just gets pulled at, and Ryo’s kissing him again, soon sucking and biting down Ueda’s neck.
“I just have one bed,” he murmurs against the hollow of Ueda’s ear, “and it’s right through here.”
Ueda hisses because there are fingers on his belt buckle, and Ryo’s skin is hot against his palm, and right now, Ueda’s really glad Ryo never put the shirt on. He scratches his nails down Ryo’s back, still a little viscous as he lets Ryo slip his hand into his pants just as they hit the bed and he finds himself crawling on top of Ryo.
Ryo hums happily, pulling Ueda’s shirt over his head and returning one of his hands into his underwear, stroking him quickly.
It’s too fast, and Ueda can’t catch up, trying to taste all of Ryo, the hollow of his neck, the spot behind his ear and then his left nipple, lips pressed against it as Ryo’s hand grips him tighter.
“More,” Ueda whines, and Ryo pulls him back into his mouth. His hand disappears, and he’s undressing them both the rest of the way. When Ryo reaches towards the night stand, Ueda swats at his hand, and it’s him who finds the lube.
“I want you to fuck me like you imagined me fucking those girls all the time,” Ryo says, and Ueda scrunches his nose.
“I never did that,” he says, a little put off, sitting back on his heels and playing with the tube in his hands.
Ryo sits up a little and takes Ueda’s chin between his fingers.
“Then what did you imagine?” he asks, and Ueda’s ears burn.
“I was fucking you, picking you up in a club, dancing with you, pressed close to you until you asked me to take you home,” Ueda stammers. Why is he even saying all that?
Ryo moans. Ueda realizes he is looking straight at him, his cock in his hand, stroking lightly.
“And then, what then?” he asks.
Ueda can’t look away.
“I... drove you crazy, groping you in the taxi while you pretended not to care and... we would come in and I would have you right there, in the genkan.”
Ryo throws his head back. “Do it now,” he says, and Ueda takes a shaky breath. That fantasy, he rarely ever let it slip from his dreams, and now Ryo knows it all, and he is right there, wanting him, not turning him down for a girl.
Ueda licks a wet strip up Ryo’s stomach, over his shoulders, and kisses up his hairline, taking his mouth again, swiping his tongue along Ryo’s and tasting him. One of his hands strokes Ryo a little then moves lower. Ryo spreads out for him all on his own, pushing against the first finger, and they both gasp.
“Hurry,” Ryo whispers, hands coming up over Ueda’s shoulders and into his hair as he holds onto him while Ueda’s fingers push in and out of him. Ueda lets his nail catch because he still wants Ryo to feel so much more. He scissors and pushes deeper still until he feels Ryo shiver, swallowing a much lower moan next, and then Ryo’s shuddering underneath him, pressing even closer and gasping for air against Ueda’s mouth. Ueda can feel his pulse when he sucks on the thick vein on his neck, and he can’t wait anymore.
“Come like this,” he whispers, and Ryo groans when Ueda pulls his fingers away, turns him around and pulls him up. Ryo just looks behind him, eyes dark, fringe sticking to his sweaty forehead, lips wet and shining, and Ueda presses in, one slow movement until he is flush against Ryo’s ass and Ryo’s trembling underneath him.
“Breathe,” Ueda mutters, but Ryo shakes his head, tries to push back.
“Move,” he says, and it would sound mean if he wasn’t so turned on. Ueda isn’t planning on staying still though, pulling back and pushing forward, shallow thrusts at first.
“Harder,” Ryo throws him a dirty look, and Ueda thrusts up hard, knocking Ryo into sheets.
“Fuck,” Ueda swears.
“Yeah,” Ryo gasps, and Ueda leans forward, looping one of his arms under Ryo’s thigh and bringing it further up, moving against him like this, fast and hard. Ryo tightens around Ueda, his mumbling a mess of curses and inarticulate moans, as Ueda finds the place to pound against.
It’s Ueda’s chest against Ryo’s back this time, the frantic beating of his own heart and Ryo’s deep voice the only things Ueda hears as he comes closer and closer still.
“Tatsuya,” Ryo moans out, and it makes breathing almost impossible.
Ueda manages to get a hand underneath them, wrapping fingers around Ryo’s cock as he pulls his body up a little so he can fuck Ryo and pull him off, and soon Ryo is coming, sticky and hot and completely stunning. It takes Ueda only a few more thrust to come too, and for a moment he knows nothing, only the length of his body against Ryo and the want for it to never end.
Ueda doesn’t want to move, trapping Ryo in an awkward embrace, his own hand twisted underneath them both. But then Ryo is reaching backwards and poking at him until he rolls over. He doesn’t get a chance to say anything, Ryo pressing a palm against his cheek and kissing him again, still breathless and full of passion. The kiss fades away a little later, and they catch their breaths, foreheads pressed together.
“So which club did you pick me up in?” Ryo asks at last, completely breaking the moment.
Ueda pushes at his shoulders and sits up. “Must you talk about that?”
“But it’s hot. I need to know where to take you next time.”
Ueda eyes him. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does, if it gets me another round of this,” Ryo says, playing with Ueda’s hair.
“We... we don’t need to go clubbing for that at all,” Ueda says and scrunches his nose. “Your sheets are a mess, and we’re sticky.”
“Well, I admit the genkan would have been more practical, but for a moment there I was afraid you were going to run away.”
Ueda looks Ryo into the eyes. Ryo’s eyes are still laughing, but they are shining with joy and care and something that looks like like or even love maybe. Somehow, Ueda figures he isn’t going to get a confession from someone whose way of courting includes bringing strange girls over to his flat for a year.
“You’re not allowed to even have a girl rumour from now on,” Ueda says.
Ryo grins, and he has so many crow lines in that moment that no one in the music industry would bet on him as the young and rising star.
“And here I was hoping you’d wear a wig on our dates. You’d make a great girl. And it would make the explaining easy,” Ryo laughs, and lets himself be dumped into the crumbled sheets when Ueda attacks him.
“But she’s just a friend,” Ryo shrieks, a fake panic in his voice, and Ueda decides he needs to be smothered by a pillow. Right now.
end
A/N: This was a pinch hit and sounded better in my head. Also it probably didn't need the sex part of it but I suddenly felt like it and figured since it's not an exchange but rather challenge, I can be "self indulgent".
Pairing/Group: Ryo/Ueda, cameos of the rest of KAT-TUN
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: silly boys
Summary: In his apartment building, Ueda is much more famous for the pretty girls leaving his flat every odd morning than for his songwriting.
Notes: Written for je_ficgames 2012, team AU, prompt: "She’s just a friend." [every Johnny’s idol having a girl scandal], originally posted here. 7794 words. Thank you to my beta and to all the helpers for pushing me towards the finish line ♥
“Ah, Ueda-kun, was it?” The girl rubs at her eyes then heads towards Ueda’s kitchen counter. “I used the spare towel you put out,” she says as she grabs a glass of water, moving around as if she were at home. When she turns around, Ueda is still staring at her. He doesn’t even know her name. That shouldn´t surprise him anymore.
“I’ll go,” she says, then flips her hair back and walks out into the hall. Ueda watches her pick up her things and leave. He hears her saying hello to someone, and soon enough Nakamaru is standing in front of him, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t …” Ueda starts, then sighs. “She’s just a friend,” he says halfheartedly, and goes into the bathroom to put out another towel. He ignores the unimpressed look on Nakamaru’s face. At least this one doesn’t rub it in.
“I’m borrowing some eggs,” Nakamaru announces.
When Ueda comes back, he is waiting in the doorway. “This one was really pretty,” he says and runs before Ueda can throw the closest inanimate object at him. It’s super annoying to have neighbors who use him as a mini convenience store all the time and have no manners, walking in and out of his place. When did he forget how to say no?
“Coffee,” someone says from behind him, and this time Ueda really throws something. It’s just a guitar pick though, and it hits Ryo’s bare chest. He doesn’t seem to even notice. He only grins sloppily, just like he does in his newest after shave commercial, and heads for the kitchen. Ryo also moves around as if he were at home, only this time Ueda can’t bring himself to be as annoyed by it.
“You have to stop bringing girls to my apartment. You’re ruining my reputation,” he says, grabbing two mugs and letting Ryo pour them some coffee.
“You don’t need your reputation. You spend your days in dark studios recording music that makes other people famous. Besides, you owe me, so you should just keep making sure my reputation is untainted. Since, you know, I’m the rock star here.”
Since when was bubblegum pop called rock? Ueda sneers. “How about you just stop sleeping around?”
“But I’m not,” Ryo says, heading for the rice cooker. Ueda’s made rice this morning even if he prefers bread.
“No, you are not. You are always sleeping here. Only it’s with a different girl every single time.”
It’s not like it would bug Ueda less if Ryo kept bringing the same girl over, but that’s not the point now. “Your new apartment has a back exit now. And I don’t owe you anything. I have repaid you and deposited an advance for all favors I could possibly need in the next decade by now.”
“You’re cute when you are angry, princess,” Ryo says, and ruffles Ueda’s hair. “The rice is good,” he adds and sits down to eat it.
“I’m leaving. You can let yourself out,” Ueda huffs, ignoring the nickname because he knows better than to argue about it by now. He puts the half empty cup back on the counter and starts to leave.
“No, come back, you have guests, eat breakfast with me.” Ryo grabs his sleeve. Ueda rolls his eyes.
“By now, you’re not a guest, you’re a leech,” he mutters, but he returns to his coffee and leans on the counter, watching Ryo until the other finishes his food.
“I really have to go now,” he says and leaves, ignoring Ryo shouting that he could have driven him if he had just waited. “The towel is on the sink,” Ueda shouts instead of a goodbye.
~
“No, use the back exit,” Ryo grabs the girl by her hand, and she looks at him, rather unimpressed. At least that’s two of them, Ueda thinks as he watches from his armchair, guitar in hand. “The van outside seems suspicious,” Ryo continues talking, grabbing his stupid baseball cap and sunglasses and pushing the girl towards the back door in Ueda’s kitchen that leads to the apartment’s narrow fire exit instead of into his cupboard. He would rather have the cupboard than the luxury of a well accessible fire exit, really.
Ryo comes back, blowing his fringe out of his forehead. “I’m going back to sleep,” he announces and disappears into the second bedroom. Ueda huffs, fingers closing tightly around his guitar.
“Ueda, does a gentleman let a girl leave all of her own?” Junno shouts from the kitchen.
“I knew you’d be practicing juggling down there, so I decided to leave the formalities to you,” Ueda retorts. Junno puts down the basket with his laundry and flops on his couch.
“What do you want, Taguchi? And stop picking the lock on my back door.”
“Which bar do you go to pick them up?” Junno doesn’t even blink.
“I never left the house last night,” Ueda says truthfully.
“And she’s just a friend, right?” Junno laughs, all smug. “I get it Ueda. You’re keeping your options open.” Junno winks. Ueda kicks him out of the apartment. On his way back, he strolls past his unfinished song, more like a song he has never started writing, and into the bedroom where Ryo is splayed across the sheets.
“I hate you,” Ryo huffs into his pillow when Ueda opens the curtains with no mercy.
“Just to be clear. I don’t owe you anything. All you did was drunkenly tell me my song sucks and that you don’t get it. That is not an advice, that is being rude under the influence of alcohol.”
“But you listened anyway,” Ryo says smugly, rolling over onto his back so he can squint at Ueda with sleepy eyes. “You rewrote that song, and it was the first one you sold. Look where it got you,” Ryo nuzzles the sheets. “You have two bedrooms and silky sheets.”
“Not for you to turn it into a love hotel free of charge.” Ueda opens the window and lets the cold air in. “I hate how you think it’s okay to sleep here with all these girls that you pick up to tell you you are a big boy.” Ueda’s frowning at the image in his own head.
“It’s not like that.” Ryo finally sits up, looking for his t-shirt, probably only because it’s cold with the window open. “I just like to crash here.”
“Stop using this bed as if it is yours,” Ueda says resolutely and storms out.
“I’ll cook you lunch,” Ryo says when he emerges from the room twenty minutes later. Ueda’s had just enough time to cool off by then.
“You just don’t want to go out there in case they are really reporters,” Ueda says, inspecting his nails.
“Nah, I can spend the night at my good old friend’s house any time, “ Ryo grins at him. “It’s perfectly normal.”
“Liar.”
“Fine. I want to spend my Saturday sitting on your couch, looking at your angry face. Happy now?” Ryo sighs and disappears into the kitchen. Ueda doesn’t really get that sequence. Ryo does spend his Saturday napping on Ueda’s couch, lips slightly parted, eyes covered with black hair and mumbling in his sleep from time to time while Ueda writes a song and attempts lyrics for it too. They are coming out too cheesy so he gives up.
“The song sounds nice. Soothing,” Ryo murmurs as he’s putting his shoes on that evening. He still wears the sunglasses when leaving. It’s pitch dark outside already. Idiot.
~
“I hope he decides to come tonight and the girl leaves him to rot in front of my locked door,” Ueda sighs into his whisky. The bartender ignores him.
It’s a good thing Ueda never gave Ryo a key. Ueda giggles drunkenly. He did contemplate it, but the idea of waking up to strange girls moving around his apartment or to catching Ryo and one of those girls in his shower is much worse than the pain of getting up in the middle of the night to let Ryo, in various states of half drunken happy mood, and his girl of the night in.
“We’re not even friends, really,” Ueda huffs and spins on his bar chair because it seems like it would be fun. It’s not, and he almost ends up under the bar.
“He was so annoying, always had a problem with me. We could have never made a band together,” Ueda tells the bartender who gently pats him on his back.
“Time to go home, Ueda-kun. Let me call you a taxi.”
“Don’t want to. Let him freeze,” Ueda giggles again. “I bet he has sunglasses on. He’s a big star now... three consecu--” The word is too difficult for Ueda. The bartender slowly pushes him up the three steps out of the bar. “Three number one singles.”
“I’ll write him a number one hit. A million seller. Will my debt be paid off then?” Ueda asks the taxi driver. The man scrunches his nose and ignores him.
Where are you? Ueda reads an e-mail when he gets back to his apartment and finds the phone he’d left at home. Maybe on purpose, so that Ryo couldn’t bug him. So that Ueda doesn’t end up calling him.
Out getting some. He writes back.
Oh.
I went to your place tonight…
Ueda snorts and falls onto his bed. He knew it. He imagines the girl had a very short skirt. And no tights. Tights aren’t classy anyway.
Another message.
I heard you got the contract for an entire album. I wanted to celebrate.
Liar! Ueda hopes he hit the correct buttons.
Congratulations, says Ryo’s message.
He doesn’t even deny it. Ueda falls asleep feeling nauseous. He definitely had too much to drink.
~
Ueda wakes up and finds out his bathroom door is locked. He strolls into his living room, contemplating if it´s Ryo and he should just break the door and kick him right out of the shower or if it´s the girl and he needs to stay put.
He finds Ryo splayed across his living room couch only in his underwear and covered by a spare blanket Ueda keeps there. The idiot must have fallen asleep on his way to the bathroom. Ueda pushes him off the couch. Ryo looks up at him, confused and hazy eyes, a pout on his lips.
“You know, when this happened the first time, you looked like you were too drunk to even take your shoes off and the girl just seemed happy that she has somewhere to drop your dead body, so I let it go.”
“Okay,” Ryo says uncertainly, still half asleep and rubbing his elbow. “So…”
“So I did it because I was sorry for the girl. I didn’t have the heart to kick her out.” Ueda pokes his toes into Ryo’s thigh.
“Did you like the girl?” Ryo asks, now sliding up and back onto the couch.
“No!” Ueda is positively shouting. “I thought it was a one-time thing!”
“It’s not like I’m interrupting anything. You never have anyone over.” Ryo shrugs. Ueda is livid.
The girl comes out into the living room, and they both turn to her. She must have heard them shouting because she only throws a crumpled shirt in Ryo’s direction and leaves.
Ueda turns back to Ryo and sighs. “Why are you on the couch anyway?” he asks.
That’s when Koki pokes his head into Ueda’s living room. “Ueda, the girl just now…” he starts.
“… was just a friend,” Ueda finishes automatically. Koki leers, wants to say something but notices Ryo when the man snorts at Ueda’s remark.
“You have more company?” Koki looks between them with interest. “Oh,” he gasps then, eyes suddenly shining. “Ueda, I didn’t know you were into that. Next time, can you share with me? I can give this a chance. Do you have her number?”
Ueda marches up to Koki, but when he opens his mouth, he can’t decide what to even say first.
“Ueda’s too boring for threesomes,” Ryo says instead and stretches. “For the record, I wouldn’t mind,” he adds offhandedly, but he is looking straight at Ueda, like it’s some kind of challenge. When Ueda says nothing, he gets up and heads for the shower.
“What did you want?” Ueda heaves out, turning to Koki, well aware of how his ears are getting hot. And fuck this, he would mind. He can’t believe Ryo, or Koki for that matter. But mostly Ryo.
“Toilet paper. I’m out,” Koki says cheerfully, and passes Ueda, walking into his supply closet. Soon he’s out the door, muttering about having seen the guy from Ueda’s apartment somewhere before.
Ueda is left alone. His bathroom is still occupied. Knocking the door down and barging in is not an option anymore.
~
“I may have mentioned you,” Ryo says nervously, looking out the window and at three unmistakable TV vans.
Ueda sighs and hands Ryo a glass of water. “Drink something and relax. You look like shit. The girl left while it was still dark, and I made her use the back exit.”
Ryo closes the curtain and almost rips it in the progress.
“Why would you even do that? Mention me, I mean.” Ueda trots around, collecting the blanket and the pillow lying around his living room. He found Ryo sleeping on the couch again, but he wasn’t going to exactly ask if he sucked so much the girl actually kicked him out of the bed. But maybe he should. It might make him feel a little better.
“I don’t know; they just asked who I hang out with and you felt like a safe choice. I said we sometimes drink over at your place until morning. It sounded like a good idea.” Ryo runs his fingers through his hair. They get stuck, and he flinches.
“We never do that,” Ueda says dryly, face hidden behind the pile in his arms.
Again, Ryo flinches. “We should do that tonight.”
Ueda sends Junno to buy the beer. He owes him like three six packs of it anyway.
Ryo walks around Ueda’s apartment, a little soulless, trying to not even look in the window’s direction. Ueda makes him play guitar with him and then lets him win a few rounds of the video game Junno gave him and that he never plays. Well he doesn’t have to try much with that. Eventually, Ryo calms down enough to make lunch while bullying Ueda about the way he cuts onions.
They pop the first beer in the early afternoon.
By the time the last press car leaves the small square in front of Ueda’s apartment building, they are three sheets to the wind.
“Why are you always such a bitch in the morning?” Ryo asks, his head lolling from side to side until it somehow lands on Ueda’s shoulder and doesn’t move anymore. “You would be pretty cool if you weren’t such a drama queen about it.”
“I hate it,” Ueda says bluntly, not caring about what comes out of his mouth anymore. “Really, really hate it.”
“Me too,” Ryo sulks. They’re clearly not talking about the same thing.
“Then why do you keep coming?”
Ryo giggles. “Not telling.”
“Jerk,” Ueda pushes him away. Ryo falls sideways onto the couch but somehow manages to take Ueda with him.
“You smell good,” Ryo mumbles into Ueda’s hair.
“Bed,” Ueda mutters, scrambling to stand up.
“Okay,” Ryo stands up too, all too quickly, creepy smile on his face. He wavers and with the help of Ueda’s finger in the middle of his chest, ends up falling back down.
He just sits there, pouting up at Ueda. “I want to come with you,” he says, and Ueda thinks he must be the more sober one of them after all.
“You’re missing the girl,” he says absentmindedly.
“She was just a friend,” Ryo sighs, already half asleep and trying to hug the back rest.
Ueda falls into a helpless giggle fit. “No one will ever believe that, Ryo-chan.”
~
“So, I hear you are getting popular. Should I expect an offer from Nishikido’s management soon?” Ueda’s manager asks into the phone. Ueda can hear him leafing through papers.
They’re probably the same ones that Nakamaru so generously offered to Ueda after he was done with his morning read. And all this time Ueda thought Nakamaru read serious papers not tabloids.
But there it was, black on dirty white:
NISHIKIDO’S BACHELOR WAYS; BEERS AND LONG NIGHTS WITH UP AND COMING SONGWRITER. IS THIS FRIENDSHIP OR BUSINESS?
Ueda feels a little sick.
~
“Tatsuya, wake up! There’s a girl in your spare bedroom and a man looking like an exact copy of the Nishikido Ryo on your couch.”
Kame’s voice filters through Ueda’s dreams, and he thinks his life is twisted enough without that one coming back. But then someone is shaking him awake, and he squints at the face pouting at him from way too close.
“I have nowhere to sleep,” the voice says. Ueda grabs up and into the person’s hair, but the image doesn’t disappear. He bolts up and knocks heads with a very real Kamenashi Kazuya.
“What the hell?”
“Long time no see,” Kame says like it is okay to wake someone up at three thirty in the morning.
“What are you doing here?” Ueda asks, rubbing his forehead and wondering what he did in his previous life to be woken up by his definitely-not-crush and his latest girl and by his ex-boyfriend in one night.
“Just flew in, but my assistant forgot to book a hotel. You never took the key back, so I figured,” Kame says and starts to take his coat off.
“So what’s with the girl?” Kame asks.
Ueda gets out of the bed and trots into his living room. He stares at Ryo, huddled under a blanket and awkwardly hugging the backrest again.
“She’s just a friend,” Ueda parrots.
“Well obviously, otherwise she would be in your bed, and I would be asleep already.” Kame rolls his eyes.
“What’s with this lookalike then?”
Ueda pokes Ryo’s back, but the other only murmurs something and doesn’t even move.
“Long story,” Ueda sighs.
“Okay,” Kame yawns. “I’m going to sleep,” he announces and backtracks into Ueda’s bedroom, dropping his shirt and pants on the way. Ueda gapes.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asks when he finds Kame pulling on loose sweatpants and climbing into Ueda’s bed.
“Oh Ueda, don’t be a prude. It’s not like we don’t know how to sleep next to each other. We’ve done it like a zillion of times.”
“We didn’t date that long,” Ueda says. Then, “Get out!”
“No, you get in, Tat-chan. Since when were you such a prude?”
Suddenly, Ueda is really, really tired. He eyes the bed wearily but figures it’s better than sleeping on the floor of his very own apartment.
~
Ueda wakes up to an unpleasant feeling of someone staring at him. As it turns out, it’s Ryo. And Kame.
And it looks like just before Ueda stirred awake they may have had a staring contest between each other.
“I really hate you both right now,” Ueda mumbles and rolls away from Kame onto the bedroom floor. Ryo makes a step forward, like he wanted to catch him, but then stays there, still watching them.
“It’s the real thing,” Kame says in the end.
“Like you wouldn’t believe it,” Ryo huffs back.
Ueda growls.
“What is he doing in your bed?” Ryo asks, like he has a right to ask such question. Like he is actually bothered by this. Then he bites his tongue. Ueda’s really glad he doesn’t have to show him his place.
“The couch was occupied,” Kame answers for him.
“Why were you sleeping there again?” Ueda asks this time, getting out of bed, scratching his stomach then looking down. All the staring around him makes him really uncomfortable. In his own bedroom, damn it!
Ryo wets his lips and finally stops looking between Kame and Ueda like he wants to murder at least one of them.
“You said to stop using your bed like it’s mine, so…”
Ueda feels the headache coming. And he wasn’t the one drinking or crossing oceans last night.
“I’m going for a run,” he says and bolts for his bathroom, grabbing his running clothes and shutting the door.
He hears Kamenashi causally introducing himself and immediately hitting on Ryo. Ueda almost breaks his toothbrush in half.
When he comes home, his apartment is finally empty.
~
“So, is Ryo-kun dating anyone?” Kame asks the moment Ueda picks up. Ueda hangs up. Kame calls again.
“If you want him, then why is he sleeping on your couch?” he asks this time.
Ueda hangs up again.
~
“Let’s have lunch,” Ryo says when he bumps into Ueda at the recording studio. He doesn’t really have any recording jobs but refuses to elaborate on what he’s doing there beyond “it’s such a coincidence you’d be here too.”
It’s strange. The food is good, and Ryo is strangely docile, almost pleasing, and he doesn’t talk about girls or Ueda’s strange taste in clothes and past hair dye choices, but about the book he’s read and the kind of music he wants to put on his next album, then makes Ueda tell him what he listens to most these days.
If this wasn’t Ryo, and Ueda wasn’t so wonderfully in denial on purpose, he might think it was almost a date, and a very pleasant one at that.
~
Three nights later, Ryo climbs into Ueda’s bed, toes cold and smelling of sake.
“You got the wrong door,” Ueda rasps out, hoping he sounds nonchalant and just sleepy and not completely bewildered like he feels.
“No I didn’t,” Ryo mumbles and steals a bit more blanket for his cold feet.
“The girl is in the other room,” Ueda says again, this time much louder.
“I know. I don’t want to sleep on the couch. I always get a stiff neck from it.”
Ueda splutters, trying to push Ryo out of his bed, but the other doesn’t let him, clinging to his waist and threatening that he will take Ueda with him if he is to fall off.
“You let Kamenashi sleep here. The bed’s big anyway,” Ryo mumbles between puffs of breaths as they struggle. Ueda deflates, completely flabbergasted.
“I’m sleeping on the couch,” he announces.
~
There’s an article on them again a week later. And then there is another one claiming that Ueda Tatsuya is a player, a different girl having been seen leaving his apartment several times a month, sometimes twice or even three times a week. A certain neighbor, K-kun, claims they are all pretty, but Ueda never seems interested in the same girl twice.
“You better start being more careful, or all our efforts will be wasted,” Ueda’s manager tells him.
Ueda still doesn’t know how he has come to have one, but this guy insisted plus he started doing the paperwork for Ueda, so Ueda let it go.
“I was trying to get you more out there, maybe try to get your own album recorded with some small independent label, but this is not helping,” the manager adds, and Ueda closes his fists.
~
When Ryo falls through his door two days later, very drunk albeit without a girl, Ueda punches him.
“You are ruining my reputation,” he says again. Ryo rubs his chin and sits in the genkan, mumbling something inarticulate. Ueda leaves him to his own devices -- the guy knows the apartment as well as his own -- and goes to sleep.
In the morning, Ueda wakes up to a hand wrapped around his middle and a wet spot on his back where Ryo is drooling. Ryo also has a black eye.
So Ueda makes tea and rice and lets Ryo sober up while he plays the guitar before he sits up straight in his chair and takes a deep breath.
“I’m not a girl,” he says slowly. He wants to tell Ryo not to come anymore.
“I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. Last night…” Ryo pulls at the loose strand in his jeans. “I’m sorry.”
Ueda wasn’t really uncomfortable. Once he got over the initial freak out, he felt pretty great just because Ryo was spooning him like he probably did with every girl there was.
“I’m not a love hotel either. I don’t want to be just some kind of…” Ueda stops, not really knowing how to continue, and Ryo’s lack of protest baffles him.
“Okay,” Ryo says at last.
“I hit you,” Ueda states, like Ryo doesn’t have the proof of it on his face.
“I know that was out of love,” Ryo suddenly grins and tries to wink, flinching as he does so.
Ueda’s mouth hangs open. That only cheers Ryo on further, all signs of previous lethargy gone.
“You look like a fish right now,” Ryo says and gets up. “Let me feed you,” he adds, stretching the length of his body and moving to Ueda’s kitchen.
“You’re unbelievable.” Ueda mutters and follows him. Ryo is a really good cook. “Do you actually like being hit?”
~
Ueda meets Ryo and his girl of the evening in the hallway, on his way from the recording studio. The album deal has been keeping him busy, but he does notice it’s been a week since he had seen Ryo the morning after he’d punched him.
But now Ryo is grinning, and he seems undeterred. The girl seems a little surprised when she realizes they’re not going to Ryo’s place, but eventually comes in, since Ueda just leaves the door open. He might feel slightly guilty for giving Ryo a black eye that set off a little rumours nightmare for him, the tabloids coming up with the craziest theories about it.
When the girl all but pulls Ryo into the spare bedroom, Ueda’s mood goes very sour very fast though. He grabs a beer and sits in the living room, facing the freshly closed door. He doesn’t know what he’s waiting for, what he’s trying to listen to.
Ryo’s never been loud when he comes here. Not that Ueda is paying attention. But it is a legitimate expectation... to hear things. The walls are paper thin.
Ueda can hear hushed talking, but then there’s silence. His beer isn’t even cold anymore. He’s about to leave when the door quietly opens and Ryo almost crashes into Ueda in his effort to silently tiptoe away from it.
“Where are you going?” Ueda asks him. Ryo seems wide eyed even in the almost complete darkness.
“Just... you know,” Ryo curses under his breath then grabs Ueda’s hand. “Let’s just sleep,” he says rather sternly.
“What? Wait,” Ueda tries to pull the hand away, but Ryo doesn’t let him, crossing the room and closing the door of Ueda’s bedroom from the inside.
Ueda feels something is very wrong here.
“You have company. In the other room,” Ueda says, and he can’t believe he is saying that, almost lecturing Ryo and sending him to the girl.
“I just couldn’t make her leave. Let her sleep,” Ryo says, looking at his socks.
“What is going on here?” Ueda asks, not so little panic in his voice.
“Can’t you tell?” Ryo huffs, pouting like this is all somehow Ueda’s fault, like he’s the one doing nonsensical things.
Ueda only closes his hands into tight fist as he watches Ryo drop his jeans and climb into bed. He doesn’t know why he does it. Why he follows and lies in the bed with him, against his better judgement. They stay like that, backs turned to each other, for a long time, until Ueda is almost asleep, his brain finally getting tired of coming up with endless absurd scenarios, until he only barely registers Ryo’s breathing.
It’s then Ryo turns around, sighs deeply and wraps his hand around Ueda--definitely a conscious effort to fit closer to him. Ueda freezes, and then Ryo does too, realizing Ueda isn’t asleep. But he doesn’t let go. Instead he inches closer, and Ueda can feel Ryo’s frantic heartbeat against his back.
An hour later, Ueda is still awake. He isn’t sure Ryo is anymore, just that he won’t get any sleep if he stays here. He gets up and moves to the couch again.
In the morning, both Ryo and the girl are gone, and Ueda is left with dirty sheets and unfocused mind that gets him annoyed looks in the studio.
~
Someone digs out more rumours of Ueda being a playboy; a witness, T-san, claiming he’s often seen girls climbing down the back stairs from his apartment. Ryo’s name is mentioned as a famous affiliation of the rising songwriter.
Ueda’s manager can’t think of a better comment to make than, “She is just a friend. And she likes to change hairstyles. She even owns a few wigs.”
Really clever. Ueda himself couldn’t have said any better.
~
“I haven’t seen any girls around here lately,” Nakamaru notes one evening, as they eat take out on Ueda’s balcony. It’s still pretty chilly outside, but Ueda likes to sit here. Last summer and autumn, he and Ryo would spend evenings here, a guitar trading hands and Ryo’s cigarettes always getting in the way.
“Hmmm...” Ueda stuffs his mouth full.
“You stopped being friends with Nishikido-kun?” Nakamaru asks, and the strange tangent makes Ueda lurch.
“We’ve never really been friends in the first place,” Ueda says. He thought they may have been, but Ryo stopped coming, with girls or without them, and they had never hung around each other much before those episodes started to occur.
“So you just let him and his girlfriends stay overnight out of charity?” Nakamaru asks way too many questions tonight.
“Aren’t I a great man?” Ueda asks. He never promised Ryo to keep his secrets, and he can’t see Nakamaru going around telling people either, so he doesn’t deny it. It’s over anyway.
Nakamaru eats the rest of his dinner in silence then opens two new beers and hands one to Ueda.
“I know this might come as a surprise,” Nakamaru starts, smirking a little to himself like he is so funny, “but I’m quite fond of the rumor blogs.”
Ueda looks at him, a bit terrified.
“No, I don’t mean it like that,” Nakamaru backpedals quickly. “I don’t contribute. I just find it fun to read. You know, like conspiracy theories. But isn’t that surprising too?”
Ueda doubts anything can still surprise him after what he’s been through in the past few weeks. In those, he’s found himself on the receiving end of an invitation to a threesome with another man -- twice, he had his long-in-the-past flame climb into his bed right after his return from a theatrical gig on Broadway, and then he had Nishikido Ryo--the famous heart throb-- do the same, three times at that, without incurring any bodily harm as a result.
“Ueda, are you listening?” Nakamaru waves his beer in front of Ueda’s face, the bottle dangerously close to his nose.
“Sorry, I was being surprised?” Ueda says, and tries to pay attention.
“Anyway, I was saying I found this funny rumor lately about how Nishikido-kun isn’t really good in bed. Apparently he always drops dead before anything can really happen and doesn’t care about what the girl does after that. And he never takes them home, but to some strange flat often on the other side of the Tokyo from where he’s met the girl.”
Ueda doesn’t say anything.
“So I have this theory,” Nakamaru continues, more excited. “The strange flat is yours, obviously, and he’s been coming on purpose. But maybe it wasn’t to, you know, be with the girl but...”
“Have you been smoking weed with Koki and Junno?” Ueda asks him.
“No,” Nakamaru doesn’t even pause. “But I really think there’s something to it, Ueda. Why would he always bring girls here? It can’t be too convenient, especially with taxi fares and bringing all of them to the same location. And if he wasn’t really sleeping with them... You said you found him on a couch a few times.”
Ueda starts to laugh rather loudly. Ryo would probably say he sounds like a maniac again.
“I think those rumor blogs are making your brain melt,” Ueda finally rasps out.
“If Akanishi still lived here, I would make a bet with him right now,” Nakamaru only says, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “And I’m cold so I’m leaving.”
~
Ueda gets a minor writing block. Perfect timing really. He doesn’t know why he picks up his phone and calls Kame, but he regrets it.
“I’m on my way to the airport right now,” Kame tells him. “I‘m heading for L.A., and I plan to stay for a while. You should come see me. Bring your new boyfriend, just promise me you won’t get hitched while you’re visiting. I don’t want to be involved in that scandal.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” Ueda says, annoyed.
“Then call Nishikido already and tell him you want to fuck him in that spare bedroom of yours and then get on with it. I think he wouldn’t mind a bit,” Kame says like he’s discussing what’s for dinner.
“Why do I even still talk to you?” Ueda asks him.
“Because I know you too well,” Kame chirps. “Got to go now. Make Nakamaru install Skype for you, and we can chat about your love life all night long,” he says all too happily, then hangs up.
~
At night, Ueda falls asleep better when he imagines Ryo, his chest pressed against Ueda’s back, his heartbeat strong and loud in Ueda’s ears.
So one night, after a recording and a not so successful arrangement session, Ueda drives to Ryo’s apartment. He might have pulled some of his newly acquired strings to get the address since he only knew the old one where Ryo lived when they were fresh out of high school and still trying to somehow make a band together. But that didn’t last long and Ryo went solo, and Ueda focused on writing. Only Ryo still somehow kept on appearing out of thin air around Ueda, until one day he brought that first girl, claiming they were in the area.
Ueda really doesn’t want to read much into it.
~
The door is opened by a girl with big eyes, long hair and even longer legs. Ueda knows she is taller than Ryo. She also looks so chic, like cut out of some hipster magazine. Not that Ueda cares about fashion beyond his long sweaters and flip-flops.
It takes a while for Ueda to find his voice. “Is Ryo. I mean is Nishikido-san home? I’m... Ueda Tatsuya. I...”
“Ah, I heard a lot about you,” she says and lets him in.
Ryo comes out of the shower, sweatpants and just a towel around his shoulders, and Ueda presses his lips together, backpedalling towards the door.
“This was a silly idea,” he says, wanting to grab his coat.
“I’ll go now.” The girl says quickly, bowing her head a little to both and leaving faster than Ueda could in his stupor.
“I didn’t want to interrupt,” Ueda starts again.
“Are you an idiot?” Ryo asks, grabbing Ueda by the hand, and pulling him back into the apartment.
“I’m not. But you had a girl over, and I guess this is what I wanted -- for you to stop bringing them to my place, so I shouldn’t get in the way.”
Ryo whacks Ueda over head.
“She’s just a friend,” he says, suppressing his laughter.
Ueda’s said that phrase so many times, but it never felt this insincere.
“Right,” he says and turns to leave. Ryo grabs him by his sleeve.
“No, but she really is,” it sounds more urgent this time. Like maybe Ryo wants it to be true.
“And you walk around your friends shirtless all the time.” Ueda feels like a jealous lover, and he doesn’t like it. He doesn’t like the part of him that feels like making a scene. So he only tries to worm his hand out of Ryo’s grip.
“She sees me naked all the time,” Ryo says, and there is laughter in his voice again.
“Are you laughing at me?” Ueda spins.
“No, I’m not. I just...” Ryo tries to school his features. “She really is just a friend. She’s my manager too, but she’s the one who discovered me and we’ve been working together forever. She just brought me a script. She’s trying to make me start acting so she brings me food and tries to sweet talk me into it.”
Ueda eyes Ryo. There’s still this bubbly laughter in his eyes, even if what he’s saying sounds genuine. It doesn’t sound like when Ueda’s talked about Ryo’s girls when they got caught leaving his place.
“Why are you still laughing?” he asks at last.
“Because I was trying to make you jealous, bringing girls to your apartment, right in front of your nose, for ages, trying to figure out if I had a chance, and you just let it go. I climbed into your bed willingly and you wouldn’t even stay in it, and then you come here and act like, like...”
Ueda’s face clouds over. He doesn’t know why he is getting this angry, only that Ryo is saying all these things that are absurd.
“Ueda, for god’s sake, stop acting like the princess already and--”
Ueda kisses Ryo, he doesn’t know if that’s what Ryo wanted him to do, but he does it, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him in. Their teeth clash, and Ryo’s bottom lip gets split , but Ueda keeps pressing their mouths together. He licks over Ryo’s lips, finding the split and sucking on it, because he wants it to hurt for Ryo too. Because it hurts for him, all of that tension and need rushing onto the surface and breaking Ueda. He kisses Ryo deeper, swallowing his moan and pressing them closer, one of his hands coming up into Ryo’s hair and the other moving lower and grabbing his ass, so he can hold him there, right there, flush against Ueda.
Kame was right, Ryo doesn’t seem to mind. If anything, he gives back as good as he gets and he’s pulling Ueda somewhere, trying to move them, only then Ueda pushes him away.
“Explain this to me. All those girls, …”
“I’ve only slept with one of them. The one time you picked up and left the place, like you wanted to give us some privacy.” Ryo’s breathing is ragged. “In your own fucking apartment!” Ryo shakes Ueda a little, like he’s the one mad at him. Like he has a reason to be.
Ueda remembers that day. It was the girl number three. And he will never tell anyone he kept a count of them. It was such a long time ago.
“I never really planned to do anything. I pretended to be more drunk than I was and to fall asleep. I really hate your couch, by the way,” Ryo says.
“You are a freak,” Ueda retorts.
“But who doesn’t get it when someone willingly goes to bed with them?” Ryo asks back, irked. But this time, instead of a whack, Ueda’s hair just gets pulled at, and Ryo’s kissing him again, soon sucking and biting down Ueda’s neck.
“I just have one bed,” he murmurs against the hollow of Ueda’s ear, “and it’s right through here.”
Ueda hisses because there are fingers on his belt buckle, and Ryo’s skin is hot against his palm, and right now, Ueda’s really glad Ryo never put the shirt on. He scratches his nails down Ryo’s back, still a little viscous as he lets Ryo slip his hand into his pants just as they hit the bed and he finds himself crawling on top of Ryo.
Ryo hums happily, pulling Ueda’s shirt over his head and returning one of his hands into his underwear, stroking him quickly.
It’s too fast, and Ueda can’t catch up, trying to taste all of Ryo, the hollow of his neck, the spot behind his ear and then his left nipple, lips pressed against it as Ryo’s hand grips him tighter.
“More,” Ueda whines, and Ryo pulls him back into his mouth. His hand disappears, and he’s undressing them both the rest of the way. When Ryo reaches towards the night stand, Ueda swats at his hand, and it’s him who finds the lube.
“I want you to fuck me like you imagined me fucking those girls all the time,” Ryo says, and Ueda scrunches his nose.
“I never did that,” he says, a little put off, sitting back on his heels and playing with the tube in his hands.
Ryo sits up a little and takes Ueda’s chin between his fingers.
“Then what did you imagine?” he asks, and Ueda’s ears burn.
“I was fucking you, picking you up in a club, dancing with you, pressed close to you until you asked me to take you home,” Ueda stammers. Why is he even saying all that?
Ryo moans. Ueda realizes he is looking straight at him, his cock in his hand, stroking lightly.
“And then, what then?” he asks.
Ueda can’t look away.
“I... drove you crazy, groping you in the taxi while you pretended not to care and... we would come in and I would have you right there, in the genkan.”
Ryo throws his head back. “Do it now,” he says, and Ueda takes a shaky breath. That fantasy, he rarely ever let it slip from his dreams, and now Ryo knows it all, and he is right there, wanting him, not turning him down for a girl.
Ueda licks a wet strip up Ryo’s stomach, over his shoulders, and kisses up his hairline, taking his mouth again, swiping his tongue along Ryo’s and tasting him. One of his hands strokes Ryo a little then moves lower. Ryo spreads out for him all on his own, pushing against the first finger, and they both gasp.
“Hurry,” Ryo whispers, hands coming up over Ueda’s shoulders and into his hair as he holds onto him while Ueda’s fingers push in and out of him. Ueda lets his nail catch because he still wants Ryo to feel so much more. He scissors and pushes deeper still until he feels Ryo shiver, swallowing a much lower moan next, and then Ryo’s shuddering underneath him, pressing even closer and gasping for air against Ueda’s mouth. Ueda can feel his pulse when he sucks on the thick vein on his neck, and he can’t wait anymore.
“Come like this,” he whispers, and Ryo groans when Ueda pulls his fingers away, turns him around and pulls him up. Ryo just looks behind him, eyes dark, fringe sticking to his sweaty forehead, lips wet and shining, and Ueda presses in, one slow movement until he is flush against Ryo’s ass and Ryo’s trembling underneath him.
“Breathe,” Ueda mutters, but Ryo shakes his head, tries to push back.
“Move,” he says, and it would sound mean if he wasn’t so turned on. Ueda isn’t planning on staying still though, pulling back and pushing forward, shallow thrusts at first.
“Harder,” Ryo throws him a dirty look, and Ueda thrusts up hard, knocking Ryo into sheets.
“Fuck,” Ueda swears.
“Yeah,” Ryo gasps, and Ueda leans forward, looping one of his arms under Ryo’s thigh and bringing it further up, moving against him like this, fast and hard. Ryo tightens around Ueda, his mumbling a mess of curses and inarticulate moans, as Ueda finds the place to pound against.
It’s Ueda’s chest against Ryo’s back this time, the frantic beating of his own heart and Ryo’s deep voice the only things Ueda hears as he comes closer and closer still.
“Tatsuya,” Ryo moans out, and it makes breathing almost impossible.
Ueda manages to get a hand underneath them, wrapping fingers around Ryo’s cock as he pulls his body up a little so he can fuck Ryo and pull him off, and soon Ryo is coming, sticky and hot and completely stunning. It takes Ueda only a few more thrust to come too, and for a moment he knows nothing, only the length of his body against Ryo and the want for it to never end.
Ueda doesn’t want to move, trapping Ryo in an awkward embrace, his own hand twisted underneath them both. But then Ryo is reaching backwards and poking at him until he rolls over. He doesn’t get a chance to say anything, Ryo pressing a palm against his cheek and kissing him again, still breathless and full of passion. The kiss fades away a little later, and they catch their breaths, foreheads pressed together.
“So which club did you pick me up in?” Ryo asks at last, completely breaking the moment.
Ueda pushes at his shoulders and sits up. “Must you talk about that?”
“But it’s hot. I need to know where to take you next time.”
Ueda eyes him. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does, if it gets me another round of this,” Ryo says, playing with Ueda’s hair.
“We... we don’t need to go clubbing for that at all,” Ueda says and scrunches his nose. “Your sheets are a mess, and we’re sticky.”
“Well, I admit the genkan would have been more practical, but for a moment there I was afraid you were going to run away.”
Ueda looks Ryo into the eyes. Ryo’s eyes are still laughing, but they are shining with joy and care and something that looks like like or even love maybe. Somehow, Ueda figures he isn’t going to get a confession from someone whose way of courting includes bringing strange girls over to his flat for a year.
“You’re not allowed to even have a girl rumour from now on,” Ueda says.
Ryo grins, and he has so many crow lines in that moment that no one in the music industry would bet on him as the young and rising star.
“And here I was hoping you’d wear a wig on our dates. You’d make a great girl. And it would make the explaining easy,” Ryo laughs, and lets himself be dumped into the crumbled sheets when Ueda attacks him.
“But she’s just a friend,” Ryo shrieks, a fake panic in his voice, and Ueda decides he needs to be smothered by a pillow. Right now.
end
A/N: This was a pinch hit and sounded better in my head. Also it probably didn't need the sex part of it but I suddenly felt like it and figured since it's not an exchange but rather challenge, I can be "self indulgent".