RP FanFic: Chasing Away Your Nightmares
Title: Chasing Away Your Nightmares
Rating: G
Warning: N/A
Status: Complete
Characters: Katori Shingo, Kimura Takuya, Nakai Masahiro
Pairings/Friendship: Katori Shingo + Kimura Takuya Friendship, Katori Shingo + Nakai Masahiro Friendship, Kimura Takuya + Nakai Masahiro Friendship
Timeline: During the 6-member SMAP days.
Summary: Nightmares can attack anyone, sinking their claws into their very psyches, and it takes someone special to chase them away.
A/N: None of the characters/actors belong to me. This work is purely fiction and does not reflect the real opinions/lifestyles of the person(s) involved. Comments and criticisms are welcomed. ENJOY! XD
CHASING AWAY YOUR NIGHTMARES
Katori Shingo cringed as the door slid free of the catch with a loud ‘CREAK’. A streak of dim yellow light streamed into the room as Shingo peered through the narrow crack, no fatter than his middle finger. Even with that tiny field of vision, he could identify the difference between the two slumbering bodies, particularly the slender legs and limbs of his Leader tangled amongst blankets and bed sheets.
He hesitated.
Just turn around and leave, his mind insisted, Nakai-kun is fast asleep. You really wouldn’t want to bother him for something as trivial as this.
Maybe his mind was right. When Shingo had woken up, chest heaving and breathing fast, sweat beading his forehead, adrenaline and fear racing in his veins, remnants of the shadows that haunted him lingering behind closed eyes, his body had moved before he had even fully awakened. By the time he came to his senses, he was already standing outside the wooden door that led to Nakai-kun’s room.
A trembling chuckle escaped him. Maybe he should just leave.
He didn’t exactly want Nakai-kun to find out that he could be so childish, that he could be such a coward.
‘Shingo?’
Spinning around on one heel, Shingo choked on a surprised yelp as he came face to face with Kimura Takuya. The older boy looked at him questioningly, a steaming mug in his hands, long lashes fluttering as he blinked sleepily. Attempting to seem nonchalant, Shingo shrugged, silently closed the door behind him, hoping that his fellow Member had not noticed his actions, had not witnessed his sudden slip in self-control.
‘I-’
Shingo wanted to lie, but his voice failed him, any and all excuses vanishing like smoke even before they could fully form.
Realization dawned on Kimura-kun, sleepiness driven away, senses sharpened by comprehension. Part of Shingo wanted to run and hide, wanted to cringe and shrink into the shadows in shame as the older boy scrutinized him with a piercing look.
‘I-’
A grin blossomed on his face as Kimura-kun strode up to the stuttering Shingo, shoving his mug into the younger boy’s hands. ‘My mother’s secret recipe,’ he said with a wink, ‘Wait for me at the lounge. I’ll grab another cup and join you.’
The lounge was a small, cozy sitting area located at the end of the hallway on the floor where their rooms were situated. Shingo sipped at the drink, which turned out to be very delicious hot chocolate.
‘Good isn’t it?’
Shingo jumped as Kimura-kun’s voice reached him. He nodded in answer as Kimura-kun grinned proudly, taking a long sip from his own newly brewed mug of hot chocolate before sitting on the couch opposite Shingo, unloading on to the table, what Shingo finally noticed to be, a bundle of papers with scribbled lyrics and notes. Kimura-kun also had his guitar with him, settling the precious instrument on his lap as he made himself comfortable.
By now, most of Shingo’s terror had faded, driven away by the warmth of the drink and the comforting familiarity of Kimura-kun’s presence. The tension that strung his nerves tight also began to dissolve when he realized that Kimura-kun had had no intention of asking Shingo about his existence in the corridor outside Nakai-kun’s room smack in the middle of the night.
Instead, his curiosity was piqued.
‘Do you practice like this every night?
The more sensible part of Shingo knew that Kimura-kun had to find time to practice when he missed rehearsals and training sessions because of other responsibilities. After all, Shingo too had been in his position, giving up the extra break times to rehearse when he was away for film shooting or magazine interviews. But for some reason, it never occurred to him that it might be at a time when everyone else was fast asleep or dreaming away the physical aches and emotional exhaustion.
Kimura-kun looked up, cocking his head as his mouth pursing cutely around the pen that he held between his lips, leaving his hands free to strum the strings of his guitar. He removed the pen and started chuckling, a flush spreading up his neck to his ears, a little embarrassed by the admiration and wonder that shone clearly in Shingo’s eyes.
‘Baka. [1] Of course not.’ He smirked mischievously. ‘Do I look like the type hardworking enough to give up precious sleep for work when I don’t have to?’
Shingo opened his mouth, about to reply, but the words he wanted to say halted on his tongue when Kimura-kun motioned him to lean in closer, so close that Shingo could feel his fellow Member’s hot breath against his cheek.
‘Couldn’t sleep; nightmares and all. Working on something, anything, helps me forget about it so…’ He shrugged nonchalantly, leaning back and resisting the urge to laugh at Shingo’s stunned look. Then, he winked conspiringly, ‘And don’t you dare tell Nakai. He’d never let me live it down.’
Shingo grinned back, mood considerably lightened. He knew Kimura-kun was lying, if only to make Shingo feel better and the younger boy could literally feel his heart explode with adoration for the older boy.
‘Only if you agree to let me have a whole bottle of mayonnaise the next time we go out to lunch,’ Shingo answered, his own eyes glowing with mischief, ‘All of it. Every single drop.’
Kimura-kun’s entire face twisted with disgust and Shingo choked, immensely tickled at the imaginative thoughts that were clearly running through his fellow Member’s mind. After all, Kimura-kun was more than intimately familiar with the younger boy’s method of squeezing globs of the gooey liquid straight into his mouth and down his throat.
Playing along with the younger Member, Kimura-kun shook his head in exaggerated helplessness. ‘I will never understand your obsession with mayo.’
The both of them shared a look, two identical cheeky grins, as they simultaneously dissolved into wheezing fits of giggles, gasping as they tried to stifle their sudden burst of amusement.
Conversation lapsed into near silence. Shingo poured his attention into enjoying his hot chocolate while Kimura-kun returned to his task of practicing his guitar. The peace that blanketed them was comfortable and fluffy; the tinkling of Kimura-kun’s strumming, his soothing, melodious baritone only adding to the overall atmosphere of tranquility that embraced Shingo in tender arms.
Kimura-kun is too humble about his singing, Shingo thought fuzzily, his consciousness drifting, darkening, only vaguely aware of the older boy moving, gently easing the mug out of his nearly listless fingers, Tomorrow I’ll tell him that he’s really good. And, if he protests, I’ll just tell him that I love it.
A spike of smug triumph and a final thought registered in Shingo’s mind.
After all, there’s no way he can possibly argue with that.
*
‘Is he asleep?’
Kimura looked up as Masahiro walked emerged from the shadows of the corridor. The younger boy nodded, gingerly shifting himself and the sleeping body, so that Shingo’s head was comfortably pillowed on his lap. Masahiro lifted Shingo’s legs, propping them on the couch even as he took Shingo’s near empty mug from Kimura’s hand and placed it on the table.
Then, he settled himself down on the floor, his eyes never leaving Shingo’s slumbering form.
Masahiro had been awakened from his own sleep when Shingo had opened his room door. He had laid there, waiting for the youngest Member’s next move, and when he realized that Shingo was clearly not going to enter the room, he had decided to meet the other boy at the doorway.
However, just as he was about to throw the blankets off his legs, the door slid shut, and Masahiro’s ears pricked at the sound of Kimura’s voice, muffled by the door and the carpets, but still easily recognizable. Knowing that Shingo was in good hands, he had allowed his eyes to close, preparing himself to fall back into his world of dreams.
Only to discover, after a few very long minutes of restless tossing and turning, that he couldn’t go back to sleep.
So here he was, sitting cross-legged by the sofa, his head resting on his arm, wide awake and alert, as he joined Kimura in watching over the boy affectionately dubbed the “baby” of their group.
Masahiro’s train of thought was interrupted as Shingo wiggled his nose, his breath escaping in a loud puff, trying to blow away and rid himself of the stray strands of hair that threatened to bring him back to consciousness.
The oldest Member of the group leaned over, his fingers softly brushing back the messily falling bangs that tickled Shingo’s quivering eyelids.
‘It’s so easy to forget that he’s so much younger than the rest of us,’ Masahiro breathed, his voice a bare whisper, ‘A new night; a strange place. No wonder he had a nightmare.’
Kimura’s own eyes were fixed on SMAP’s youngest Member.
‘Can’t be helped. We can’t control it.’
His voice was distant, filled to the brim with an emotion that Masahiro couldn’t place, a sensation that resonated within Masahiro’s body despite the its indecipherable meaning.
‘We just have to protect him, you know, protect them, and chase away their nightmares.’
Kimura’s words were obvious, entirely matter-of-the-fact, but Masahiro knew.
His fellow Member wasn’t just talking about the phantoms that haunted the night.
Masahiro’s eyes softened, tracing over Shingo’s peaceful features, boyish and innocent, painfully young, in the wake of slumber.
‘Chase away their nightmares huh?’
Then, he smirked, his hand falling away as he stole a mischievous glance at Kimura.
‘Does widdle Taku-chan want me to protect him from his nightmares too?’
Kimura blinked at his Leader, bewildered.
A split second later, realization dawned. Childishly sticking out his tongue at his friend, Kimura lightly, playfully punched the smirking Masahiro in the arm.
‘Speak for yourself.’ Kimura’s eyes twinkled, teasing. ‘After all, isn’t widdle Hiro-chan here because he doesn’t want to go back to his dark and scary room?’
Masahiro pouted, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender, attempting to defend himself.
‘Mori snores louder than the roar of a tractor at a construction site. You try sleeping through that.’
Kimura snorted.
‘Goro talks in his sleep.’
Masahiro raised a questioning eyebrow.
‘That is worse how?’
Kimura looked his friend in the eye, his tone deadpanned.
‘He sits up when he talks.’
‘Oh.’
‘And, on his good nights, if you’re lucky, he will even try to hold a conversation with you.’
Silence.
‘Fine. You win.’ Masahiro shuddered. ‘That is way worse.’
And Shingo slept on, completely oblivious, blissfully unaware.
His dreams delightfully free from nightmares.
~OWARI~
[1] "Baka". Loosely translated to "Idiot".
Rating: G
Warning: N/A
Status: Complete
Characters: Katori Shingo, Kimura Takuya, Nakai Masahiro
Pairings/Friendship: Katori Shingo + Kimura Takuya Friendship, Katori Shingo + Nakai Masahiro Friendship, Kimura Takuya + Nakai Masahiro Friendship
Timeline: During the 6-member SMAP days.
Summary: Nightmares can attack anyone, sinking their claws into their very psyches, and it takes someone special to chase them away.
A/N: None of the characters/actors belong to me. This work is purely fiction and does not reflect the real opinions/lifestyles of the person(s) involved. Comments and criticisms are welcomed. ENJOY! XD
CHASING AWAY YOUR NIGHTMARES
Katori Shingo cringed as the door slid free of the catch with a loud ‘CREAK’. A streak of dim yellow light streamed into the room as Shingo peered through the narrow crack, no fatter than his middle finger. Even with that tiny field of vision, he could identify the difference between the two slumbering bodies, particularly the slender legs and limbs of his Leader tangled amongst blankets and bed sheets.
He hesitated.
Just turn around and leave, his mind insisted, Nakai-kun is fast asleep. You really wouldn’t want to bother him for something as trivial as this.
Maybe his mind was right. When Shingo had woken up, chest heaving and breathing fast, sweat beading his forehead, adrenaline and fear racing in his veins, remnants of the shadows that haunted him lingering behind closed eyes, his body had moved before he had even fully awakened. By the time he came to his senses, he was already standing outside the wooden door that led to Nakai-kun’s room.
A trembling chuckle escaped him. Maybe he should just leave.
He didn’t exactly want Nakai-kun to find out that he could be so childish, that he could be such a coward.
‘Shingo?’
Spinning around on one heel, Shingo choked on a surprised yelp as he came face to face with Kimura Takuya. The older boy looked at him questioningly, a steaming mug in his hands, long lashes fluttering as he blinked sleepily. Attempting to seem nonchalant, Shingo shrugged, silently closed the door behind him, hoping that his fellow Member had not noticed his actions, had not witnessed his sudden slip in self-control.
‘I-’
Shingo wanted to lie, but his voice failed him, any and all excuses vanishing like smoke even before they could fully form.
Realization dawned on Kimura-kun, sleepiness driven away, senses sharpened by comprehension. Part of Shingo wanted to run and hide, wanted to cringe and shrink into the shadows in shame as the older boy scrutinized him with a piercing look.
‘I-’
A grin blossomed on his face as Kimura-kun strode up to the stuttering Shingo, shoving his mug into the younger boy’s hands. ‘My mother’s secret recipe,’ he said with a wink, ‘Wait for me at the lounge. I’ll grab another cup and join you.’
The lounge was a small, cozy sitting area located at the end of the hallway on the floor where their rooms were situated. Shingo sipped at the drink, which turned out to be very delicious hot chocolate.
‘Good isn’t it?’
Shingo jumped as Kimura-kun’s voice reached him. He nodded in answer as Kimura-kun grinned proudly, taking a long sip from his own newly brewed mug of hot chocolate before sitting on the couch opposite Shingo, unloading on to the table, what Shingo finally noticed to be, a bundle of papers with scribbled lyrics and notes. Kimura-kun also had his guitar with him, settling the precious instrument on his lap as he made himself comfortable.
By now, most of Shingo’s terror had faded, driven away by the warmth of the drink and the comforting familiarity of Kimura-kun’s presence. The tension that strung his nerves tight also began to dissolve when he realized that Kimura-kun had had no intention of asking Shingo about his existence in the corridor outside Nakai-kun’s room smack in the middle of the night.
Instead, his curiosity was piqued.
‘Do you practice like this every night?
The more sensible part of Shingo knew that Kimura-kun had to find time to practice when he missed rehearsals and training sessions because of other responsibilities. After all, Shingo too had been in his position, giving up the extra break times to rehearse when he was away for film shooting or magazine interviews. But for some reason, it never occurred to him that it might be at a time when everyone else was fast asleep or dreaming away the physical aches and emotional exhaustion.
Kimura-kun looked up, cocking his head as his mouth pursing cutely around the pen that he held between his lips, leaving his hands free to strum the strings of his guitar. He removed the pen and started chuckling, a flush spreading up his neck to his ears, a little embarrassed by the admiration and wonder that shone clearly in Shingo’s eyes.
‘Baka. [1] Of course not.’ He smirked mischievously. ‘Do I look like the type hardworking enough to give up precious sleep for work when I don’t have to?’
Shingo opened his mouth, about to reply, but the words he wanted to say halted on his tongue when Kimura-kun motioned him to lean in closer, so close that Shingo could feel his fellow Member’s hot breath against his cheek.
‘Couldn’t sleep; nightmares and all. Working on something, anything, helps me forget about it so…’ He shrugged nonchalantly, leaning back and resisting the urge to laugh at Shingo’s stunned look. Then, he winked conspiringly, ‘And don’t you dare tell Nakai. He’d never let me live it down.’
Shingo grinned back, mood considerably lightened. He knew Kimura-kun was lying, if only to make Shingo feel better and the younger boy could literally feel his heart explode with adoration for the older boy.
‘Only if you agree to let me have a whole bottle of mayonnaise the next time we go out to lunch,’ Shingo answered, his own eyes glowing with mischief, ‘All of it. Every single drop.’
Kimura-kun’s entire face twisted with disgust and Shingo choked, immensely tickled at the imaginative thoughts that were clearly running through his fellow Member’s mind. After all, Kimura-kun was more than intimately familiar with the younger boy’s method of squeezing globs of the gooey liquid straight into his mouth and down his throat.
Playing along with the younger Member, Kimura-kun shook his head in exaggerated helplessness. ‘I will never understand your obsession with mayo.’
The both of them shared a look, two identical cheeky grins, as they simultaneously dissolved into wheezing fits of giggles, gasping as they tried to stifle their sudden burst of amusement.
Conversation lapsed into near silence. Shingo poured his attention into enjoying his hot chocolate while Kimura-kun returned to his task of practicing his guitar. The peace that blanketed them was comfortable and fluffy; the tinkling of Kimura-kun’s strumming, his soothing, melodious baritone only adding to the overall atmosphere of tranquility that embraced Shingo in tender arms.
Kimura-kun is too humble about his singing, Shingo thought fuzzily, his consciousness drifting, darkening, only vaguely aware of the older boy moving, gently easing the mug out of his nearly listless fingers, Tomorrow I’ll tell him that he’s really good. And, if he protests, I’ll just tell him that I love it.
A spike of smug triumph and a final thought registered in Shingo’s mind.
After all, there’s no way he can possibly argue with that.
*
‘Is he asleep?’
Kimura looked up as Masahiro walked emerged from the shadows of the corridor. The younger boy nodded, gingerly shifting himself and the sleeping body, so that Shingo’s head was comfortably pillowed on his lap. Masahiro lifted Shingo’s legs, propping them on the couch even as he took Shingo’s near empty mug from Kimura’s hand and placed it on the table.
Then, he settled himself down on the floor, his eyes never leaving Shingo’s slumbering form.
Masahiro had been awakened from his own sleep when Shingo had opened his room door. He had laid there, waiting for the youngest Member’s next move, and when he realized that Shingo was clearly not going to enter the room, he had decided to meet the other boy at the doorway.
However, just as he was about to throw the blankets off his legs, the door slid shut, and Masahiro’s ears pricked at the sound of Kimura’s voice, muffled by the door and the carpets, but still easily recognizable. Knowing that Shingo was in good hands, he had allowed his eyes to close, preparing himself to fall back into his world of dreams.
Only to discover, after a few very long minutes of restless tossing and turning, that he couldn’t go back to sleep.
So here he was, sitting cross-legged by the sofa, his head resting on his arm, wide awake and alert, as he joined Kimura in watching over the boy affectionately dubbed the “baby” of their group.
Masahiro’s train of thought was interrupted as Shingo wiggled his nose, his breath escaping in a loud puff, trying to blow away and rid himself of the stray strands of hair that threatened to bring him back to consciousness.
The oldest Member of the group leaned over, his fingers softly brushing back the messily falling bangs that tickled Shingo’s quivering eyelids.
‘It’s so easy to forget that he’s so much younger than the rest of us,’ Masahiro breathed, his voice a bare whisper, ‘A new night; a strange place. No wonder he had a nightmare.’
Kimura’s own eyes were fixed on SMAP’s youngest Member.
‘Can’t be helped. We can’t control it.’
His voice was distant, filled to the brim with an emotion that Masahiro couldn’t place, a sensation that resonated within Masahiro’s body despite the its indecipherable meaning.
‘We just have to protect him, you know, protect them, and chase away their nightmares.’
Kimura’s words were obvious, entirely matter-of-the-fact, but Masahiro knew.
His fellow Member wasn’t just talking about the phantoms that haunted the night.
Masahiro’s eyes softened, tracing over Shingo’s peaceful features, boyish and innocent, painfully young, in the wake of slumber.
‘Chase away their nightmares huh?’
Then, he smirked, his hand falling away as he stole a mischievous glance at Kimura.
‘Does widdle Taku-chan want me to protect him from his nightmares too?’
Kimura blinked at his Leader, bewildered.
A split second later, realization dawned. Childishly sticking out his tongue at his friend, Kimura lightly, playfully punched the smirking Masahiro in the arm.
‘Speak for yourself.’ Kimura’s eyes twinkled, teasing. ‘After all, isn’t widdle Hiro-chan here because he doesn’t want to go back to his dark and scary room?’
Masahiro pouted, his hands raised in a gesture of surrender, attempting to defend himself.
‘Mori snores louder than the roar of a tractor at a construction site. You try sleeping through that.’
Kimura snorted.
‘Goro talks in his sleep.’
Masahiro raised a questioning eyebrow.
‘That is worse how?’
Kimura looked his friend in the eye, his tone deadpanned.
‘He sits up when he talks.’
‘Oh.’
‘And, on his good nights, if you’re lucky, he will even try to hold a conversation with you.’
Silence.
‘Fine. You win.’ Masahiro shuddered. ‘That is way worse.’
And Shingo slept on, completely oblivious, blissfully unaware.
His dreams delightfully free from nightmares.
~OWARI~
[1] "Baka". Loosely translated to "Idiot".