(no subject)
Title: The storm
Pairing: young!Akame
Rating: PG-13
Genre: fluff, romance
Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody regarding the real boys >: these versions belong to myself and bluebirdsongs ♥
A/N: Birthday present for super lovely bluebirdsongs (●´∀｀●) And.. Ok, this is.. an AU within an AU, and also a re-work of something super old of mine. We RP an Akame that live in their own 'verse, and this is a totally not-true AU of what their teenage years could have been together. Kame's 15, Jin's 17 and embarrassing and in a VKei band.
Asexual relationship (currently unbeknown to them).
Kame can't remember who's suggestion it was to retreat to his place when the downpour had started. They'd been on a date (of sorts) - just the two of them in the park, initially, hands skimming and brushing and nervously squeezing. Jin hadn't begrudged the rain washing over them, really, though. Not when it meant an excuse for escaping the company of Kame's baseball team, who had unfortunately been practicing in the same park and even less fortunately captured Kame's interest more than Jin's stuttered mumbling about his band.
"Your legs are too short," Jin yells over the sound of the rain, hand clasped around Kame's wrist. Kame sputters angrily and large drops of water fill his mouth. It tastes dirty, so instead of protesting further he accelerates.
Jin yelps as suddenly he's not the one leading; Kame's years of baseball and the muscle under his lean form easily outweigh the advantage of Jin's longer strides. Kame tugs at Jin's hold on his wrist, dragging him along through the sheets of water. Jin would scowl if he could still feel his face.
"You're cheating!"
Kame can't roll his eyes and shoot Jin a look over his shoulder right now, so he compensates by yanking harder at his wrist. The most exercise he's ever seen Jin get is when he runs to catch a train with his guitar slung over his shoulder.
"Ka--" Jin starts again, but a peal of thunder overhead cuts him short. If the small, sudden burst of adrenaline doesn't gives him a boost, the urge to catch Kame up when his laughter whips back to Jin after a crack of lightning summons a particularly high pitched shriek from him does. "Kazu, shut u~p!"
There isn't much space between the heavy spatters of rain to feel indignant, but a sharp tug at Kame's wrist sort of gets the point across, Jin thinks. It's hard to tell as more thunder rolls overhead and prompts them to pick up speed, shrieks and laughter drowned out by the rain.
The Kamenashi household is empty for the first time in Jin's memory when they arrive. Jin counts the shoes - or more, the gaps between them - and peers in from the doorway looking almost unnerved by the still silence.
"Where is everyone?" Jin's voice is barely louder than the quiet of the empty house, not wishing to be the first sound that intrudes (Kame covers that, one wet shoe after another).
"Out," Kame says simply as he watches Jin, stifling his excitement at the prospect as he sees the disappointment in Jin's wide eyes grow. Of course it had been Jin's suggestion to come here, with the park closer to his own home and no doubt his family all there. "Two of my brothers are away with the school," he elaborates, "For three days. It's kinda quiet here recently."
"Oh." Jin slips out of his shoes, glancing up to see Kame wrinkling his nose in distaste as he peels off a wet sock. He counts the volume of empty space again as he pushes his shoes into line. "But your parents are home, right?"
Kame shrugs, already tugging at the hem of his wet t-shirt. It sticks to his skin, so Jin straightens to reach and pull at the sleeves. "'tou-san's working late, 'ka-chan's visiting relatives out of town. She might be home."
"Oh," Jin says again, gazing down at his damp bare feet. Kame is used to being engulfed in the atmosphere of a full house; Jin would find having that taken away suddenly a daunting prospect. Sometimes he thinks on Kame's behalf, and more often than not he thinks wrong.
Kame's clammy-skinned(, still too lean, despite his strict training regime) and waits, five seconds of self-conscious anticipation. Jin's attention doesn't waver from his own wet clothing.
"I'm fifteen, Jin, I can stay home alone for one night if need be.
But I mean, you could stay over, if you wanted."
Jin blinks up at Kame, looking straight over what is and isn't clothed and wetly clung to.
"So I'm not alone." Kame says carefully, giving Jin a measured look as he backs a step down the hallway. Jin follows him, smiling, and Kame's chilled skin pulls into a smile too.
"So if there's no one home shall I get dinner?" Jin calls after Kame as he stumbles along behind him, head stuck in and to his soaked shirt.
Kame's eyes roll skyward as he gives Jin a gentle push in the right direction. If he offered to remove the shirt for him it'd mean Jin seeing how thoroughly exasperated and depleted he and his supply of unsubtle hints are. He does, however, love Jin's cooking, so at the prospect of that at least he makes no further protest.
Three hours later the storm has worsened.
Kame's mother has called twice already - the first time to tell Kame she can't make it back, everything he already knew about what to do around the house, and how to cater to his father (who would undoubtedly be less apt to fending for himself than any of her sons). The second, Jin climbed over Kame to call his greetings to her down the phone, and whatever her following conversation with Kame had been made the younger boy flush crimson to the tips of his ears.
Half an hour of screeching, arguing, and a haphazard joint attempt at cooking later, Jin has just set their plates of pasta just-so on the kitchen counter when Kame suggests they eat in the company of a movie. Though tomato sauce and the families couch, still five more month's instalments away from being their own, is a risky combination, Kame has had more than enough today of not taking advantage of Jin's company.
Once they're settled in front of the tv with plates in their laps and accompanied by Jin's further complaints of an empty home, Kame curls against his side. Jin is the only person he knows that hopes for their boyfriend's parents to be home.
"I don't know what 'tou-san will make of this," Kame laughs after losing the carefully spiralled forkful he'd been about to bite back onto his plate. "He prefers food he doesn't have to chase."
"Don't," Jin sounds around a mouthful of spaghetti, "He's scary enough when I see him relaxed at weekends. What's he like after doing overtime? Will he be ok that I'm here?"
Kame laughs again and playfully digs his elbow into Jin's side. "He's really not that scary. I imagine when it came to his kids dating he'd just never expected to have to warn us about what boys can be like.."
Jin makes an affronted sound from behind his fork.
"So I think he's just trying to look out for me. He's still kind of.. about this." Kame shrugs. The gentle teasing from his brothers and wealth of affection and reassurance for both he and Jin from his mother when they'd announced their relationship the previous year hadn't been quite enough to soothe the sting of his father's reaction.
"Well, I guess.. Maybe we could go to bed before he's home. Leave his food and a note.."
"Mm. This is good, by the way."
Jin covers his mouth as he chews through a smile. "Thanks. Though you helped a lot."
"Mm, I meant the bits I did. Yours are ok."
Jin's expression momentarily drops, and then he jabs at Kame's side with his fork. "That's the last time I teach you how to cook."
Kame bites back a laugh and squirms away from Jin, lifting his plate high when it almost slips out of his lap. "Ordering me to chop onions so you don't cry is classed as teaching, huh?"
"Shut u~p," Jin whines, flushed for the truth in his designation of tasks. It frustrates him no end that Kame is younger, less grown into his features, gangly, and his voice sometimes still can't decide which octave it belongs in, and yet his smile is wicked enough to make Jin's stomach drop and heart soar. He considers another well-aimed stab with his fork, but then Kame shifts at his side, leaning in with his plate still held out of harms way.
The edges of Kame's lips are stained orange. Jin would figure his are, too, if he could think about anything beyond Kame's proximity. "Shut me up."
Jin isn't entirely sure what kind of tension it is that's suddenly between them, but it all too soon gets the better of him and escapes in a muted squeak. Kame throws his head back in a long, loud laugh. Jin is adorable, and when they both have their hands full with messy plates probably isn't the best time for a raucous make out session.
"You wash and I'll dry?" Kame suggests as he attempts to placate Jin's flustering with an oily kiss to his cheek. Jin grumbles under his breath, but still is quick to follow Kame up at risk of being left alone.
"Feel like helping any time soon?"
As it turns out Jin has ended up washing and drying. And cleaning the counter, while Kame busies himself with staring glumly out of the window.
"Practice will be cancelled tomorrow," Kame huffs as though it's an answer. He barely hears Jin's muttered complaining for the sound of rain lashing the window. He'd wanted Jin to come and watch him play - Jin may not appreciate baseball, but he appreciates any opportunity to gawp at Kame. His two favourite things in the same proximity would have made for a perfect day.
"You know, the sooner we finish tidying the sooner we can get away from the storm.." Jin's voice is just a hint tight, no doubt in fear of them not retreating soon enough to avoid a run-in with Kame's father. If the vigour with which he's cleaning the counter with is anything to go by, it's at least on his mind.
Kame doesn't blame Jin for being afraid. Jin calls his father 'sir' on the rare occassions he does speak to him, always stoops to not tower over him so awkwardly. Jin's never had much affirmation as to whether he's been accepted and approved of; Kame's fingers had remained crushed in Jin's sweaty palm for his entire visit to the household after acquiring his first piercing.
"Mm, you look like you've about covered that.." After he's paid his contribution to helping out by means of scribbling the note that will prevent conversation with his father, Kame's arms slip tight around Jin's waist. Jin changed from his rain soaked clothes into a sweatshirt Kame had scooped up from his bedroom floor; when he nuzzles the nape of Jin's neck the scent is overwhelmingly of his younger brother. "So maybe we should get moving."
Jin playfully bumps his hip back against Kame. "Is 'ka-chan ok with me staying the night?"
"Bit late to ask now. Have you called home?"
The moderate sense of calm and gentle anticipation building in Jin crumbles at the reminder of home. He so easily forgets that this isn't his life - that his real life is back under the roof of a home filled with twice the noise and none of the love, bottles tucked under the tired frame of his bed for the nights that are too endless for him to see out unaided. "They won't miss me." Jin's body's turned stiff as a board in the circle of Kame's arms. Kame's afraid to squeeze any tighter in case Jin is as brittle and breakable as he feels.
"Sleep in my bed tonight." Kame mumbles between Jin's shoulder blades, and Jin shudders so lucidly against his bony chest. "Ok? No blankets on the floor."
Had Jin wanted to disagree, a particularly loud rumble of thunder rolling in from the distance convinces him otherwise. As Jin slowly nods his consent Kame notices the spread of pink down the neck of the sweat shirt, emanating from Jin's damp hair.
"7am, right?"
"7:30"
"Jin.." Kame frowns, hand poised over his alarm. After an extensive search for a shirt dark enough to cover Kame's pillow to protect it from any further trails left by Jin's hair, both boys are narrowly fitted into Kame's small bed. Jin's back is up against the wall, knees bent and toes wedged between Kame's calves. "If we get up at 7:30 we'll never make it to school in time."
Even in the near pitch black Jin's doleful expression wears on Kame. "7:20? And I'll make your lunch."
Jin has spent more nights at the Kamenashi household than he can put a figure to, but the luxury of a private conversation is a rare addition to the experience. Normally sandwiched between the brother's beds and futons, Jin bundles up in blankets and happily spends a night of sleep frequently disrupted by bickering that lasts long after light's out and the misaimed footsteps of bathroom visits or snack runs.
"With how long it takes you to do your eyeliner? We're getting up at 7."
Jin huffs against Kame's shoulder, hot through the fabric of his shirt. And then Kame starts to feel hot everywhere else, quickly burying under the stuffy comfort of the covers once the alarm is set. Jin welcomes the development of what he presumes is cuddling down to sleep and only worsens Kame's predicament when easing himself into a more comfortable position results in a long leg slipping over Kame, Jin's heel pressing into his calves.
Kame tries to get settled like this, with Jin trapped between his body and the wall and progressively finding more space for himself by spilling over into Kame's. Jin could never be accused of lacking affection, but at 17, often to the bemusement and amusement of both their respective groups of friends, so far seems to like little else. It's not an easy subject to breach, though, how Jin can kiss him senseless yet pull away with no hint in his eyes of a spark ignited. Kame's tried in earnest to somehow inflame Jin in his own enthusiasm. Normally Kame comforts himself with the thought that Jin is simply waiting - his next birthday will pass, and then they'll just have to find somewhere to be alone. A hotel, most likely, with their lack of privacy at home.
"I hope the storm is moving away from us rather than towards us," Jin says against Kame's hair. Kame's face burns, any thoughts of saving notes toward their first hotel visit quickly pushed aside.
"It'll be ok." Kame breathes deeply against Jin's neck, wrinkles his nose against that scent so familiar to his brother combined with dampened hair dye. "You're safe here with me."
Lightening strikes a few miles from their window, closer to Jin's own home, an hour after they've fallen asleep. The preceding rumble of thunder is what wakes Jin, and it's not so much that he's afraid of the storm, he's just tired and bleary, shocked awake in a house empty spare for a man that may sooner throw him out into the night if he were to find Jin's body swamping his son like a blanket.
Jin looks down at Kame in his arms, sound asleep. Then he knees him in the hip, and Kame isn't fooled for a moment that it was an accident.
"Whas'it..?" Kame grumbles against Jin's shoulder. The weight of Jin's knees, elbows, fingers, and chin digging into him registers after moments awake, and even he tenses at the next crack of lightning. "Ah. 's ok.."
Jin already seems to be calming for having Kame (somewhat) awake. "I know. As we were both awake, though.. I mean, it's.." Jin isn't going to pretend he's brave.
"It'll pass soon~ Go back to sleep."
"You too." Jin's teasing sounds taut when he's still got flutters of anxiety in his chest. When he's 18, maybe then he'll be old enough to stop finding so many aspects of life unsettling. "Sleep well, Kazu. Sorry."
"Mm." Kame's lips find Jin's jaw as he tugs Jin's arm more securely around himself, snuggling into the warmth he provides. "You too."
The storm overhead doesn't sound as though it moves much further away long after they've settled again. Jin does eventually fall asleep, back firm to the wall and Kame's small hand under the hem of his shirt, thumb rocking the ball of his piercing.
The sticky heat of two bodies pressed tightly together is what wakes Kame. The skin is faintly pink where Jin's hair is plastered to his neck, and beneath the covers Kame can feel that Jin's shirt has rolled up. Jin's skin feels chilled despite the heat, and Kame frowns as he sleepily attempts to tug it back down for him. "Jin, c'mon.." he grumbles under his breath, shrugging off the arm heavily draped around his neck only to recapture it and pull it more comfortably around his waist.
Kame stifles a yawn against Jin's shoulder, eyes following the soft rise and fall of Jin's chest beneath the covers and threatening to fall shut again. He likes Jin with blonde hair, be it streaked with pink or green or whatever else his band's minimal fanbase at their school express an interest in. He likes Jin sleeping, too, seeing the moments of peace between the battles they brave together but are always Jin's own. He's even come to like that terrible piercing that Jin so wanted in his lip, now the infection has cleared up and their kisses are no longer interrupted by pained whimpers.
Really, he just likes Jin.
Ten minutes later the alarm sounds. Jin doesn't stir, spare for an unnoticed thud of his knee against the wall as Kame sets about the task of escaping from underneath him. Nowhere near as easy as it sounds. Kame blearily scrapes his mussed hair back as he reaches to shut the alarm off, sitting up against the headboard and stretching. His shoulders feel cold while everything still below the blankets is clammy and stifled.
"Jin.. Morning~
..Jin, c'mon~ Time to get up."
If Jin does wake at all, it's only enough to prompt him to faceplant back into Kame's pillow. Kame sighs in affectionate exasperation, reaches to ruffle Jin's hair. Jin responds to the touch, shifting and sighing and bundling up tighter, closer. He nuzzles his nose against Kame's leg before an arm throws out, heavy over Kame's waist, and Jin's situated his head comfortably in Kame's lap. Kame looks on, unimpressed. Then Jin presses his lips to Kame's sweatpants, over the developing muscle on Kame's inner thigh.
Kame only moves to set the alarm for a further twenty minutes.
Pairing: young!Akame
Rating: PG-13
Genre: fluff, romance
Disclaimer: I own nothing and nobody regarding the real boys >: these versions belong to myself and bluebirdsongs ♥
A/N: Birthday present for super lovely bluebirdsongs (●´∀｀●) And.. Ok, this is.. an AU within an AU, and also a re-work of something super old of mine. We RP an Akame that live in their own 'verse, and this is a totally not-true AU of what their teenage years could have been together. Kame's 15, Jin's 17 and embarrassing and in a VKei band.
Asexual relationship (currently unbeknown to them).
Kame can't remember who's suggestion it was to retreat to his place when the downpour had started. They'd been on a date (of sorts) - just the two of them in the park, initially, hands skimming and brushing and nervously squeezing. Jin hadn't begrudged the rain washing over them, really, though. Not when it meant an excuse for escaping the company of Kame's baseball team, who had unfortunately been practicing in the same park and even less fortunately captured Kame's interest more than Jin's stuttered mumbling about his band.
"Your legs are too short," Jin yells over the sound of the rain, hand clasped around Kame's wrist. Kame sputters angrily and large drops of water fill his mouth. It tastes dirty, so instead of protesting further he accelerates.
Jin yelps as suddenly he's not the one leading; Kame's years of baseball and the muscle under his lean form easily outweigh the advantage of Jin's longer strides. Kame tugs at Jin's hold on his wrist, dragging him along through the sheets of water. Jin would scowl if he could still feel his face.
"You're cheating!"
Kame can't roll his eyes and shoot Jin a look over his shoulder right now, so he compensates by yanking harder at his wrist. The most exercise he's ever seen Jin get is when he runs to catch a train with his guitar slung over his shoulder.
"Ka--" Jin starts again, but a peal of thunder overhead cuts him short. If the small, sudden burst of adrenaline doesn't gives him a boost, the urge to catch Kame up when his laughter whips back to Jin after a crack of lightning summons a particularly high pitched shriek from him does. "Kazu, shut u~p!"
There isn't much space between the heavy spatters of rain to feel indignant, but a sharp tug at Kame's wrist sort of gets the point across, Jin thinks. It's hard to tell as more thunder rolls overhead and prompts them to pick up speed, shrieks and laughter drowned out by the rain.
The Kamenashi household is empty for the first time in Jin's memory when they arrive. Jin counts the shoes - or more, the gaps between them - and peers in from the doorway looking almost unnerved by the still silence.
"Where is everyone?" Jin's voice is barely louder than the quiet of the empty house, not wishing to be the first sound that intrudes (Kame covers that, one wet shoe after another).
"Out," Kame says simply as he watches Jin, stifling his excitement at the prospect as he sees the disappointment in Jin's wide eyes grow. Of course it had been Jin's suggestion to come here, with the park closer to his own home and no doubt his family all there. "Two of my brothers are away with the school," he elaborates, "For three days. It's kinda quiet here recently."
"Oh." Jin slips out of his shoes, glancing up to see Kame wrinkling his nose in distaste as he peels off a wet sock. He counts the volume of empty space again as he pushes his shoes into line. "But your parents are home, right?"
Kame shrugs, already tugging at the hem of his wet t-shirt. It sticks to his skin, so Jin straightens to reach and pull at the sleeves. "'tou-san's working late, 'ka-chan's visiting relatives out of town. She might be home."
"Oh," Jin says again, gazing down at his damp bare feet. Kame is used to being engulfed in the atmosphere of a full house; Jin would find having that taken away suddenly a daunting prospect. Sometimes he thinks on Kame's behalf, and more often than not he thinks wrong.
Kame's clammy-skinned(, still too lean, despite his strict training regime) and waits, five seconds of self-conscious anticipation. Jin's attention doesn't waver from his own wet clothing.
"I'm fifteen, Jin, I can stay home alone for one night if need be.
But I mean, you could stay over, if you wanted."
Jin blinks up at Kame, looking straight over what is and isn't clothed and wetly clung to.
"So I'm not alone." Kame says carefully, giving Jin a measured look as he backs a step down the hallway. Jin follows him, smiling, and Kame's chilled skin pulls into a smile too.
"So if there's no one home shall I get dinner?" Jin calls after Kame as he stumbles along behind him, head stuck in and to his soaked shirt.
Kame's eyes roll skyward as he gives Jin a gentle push in the right direction. If he offered to remove the shirt for him it'd mean Jin seeing how thoroughly exasperated and depleted he and his supply of unsubtle hints are. He does, however, love Jin's cooking, so at the prospect of that at least he makes no further protest.
Three hours later the storm has worsened.
Kame's mother has called twice already - the first time to tell Kame she can't make it back, everything he already knew about what to do around the house, and how to cater to his father (who would undoubtedly be less apt to fending for himself than any of her sons). The second, Jin climbed over Kame to call his greetings to her down the phone, and whatever her following conversation with Kame had been made the younger boy flush crimson to the tips of his ears.
Half an hour of screeching, arguing, and a haphazard joint attempt at cooking later, Jin has just set their plates of pasta just-so on the kitchen counter when Kame suggests they eat in the company of a movie. Though tomato sauce and the families couch, still five more month's instalments away from being their own, is a risky combination, Kame has had more than enough today of not taking advantage of Jin's company.
Once they're settled in front of the tv with plates in their laps and accompanied by Jin's further complaints of an empty home, Kame curls against his side. Jin is the only person he knows that hopes for their boyfriend's parents to be home.
"I don't know what 'tou-san will make of this," Kame laughs after losing the carefully spiralled forkful he'd been about to bite back onto his plate. "He prefers food he doesn't have to chase."
"Don't," Jin sounds around a mouthful of spaghetti, "He's scary enough when I see him relaxed at weekends. What's he like after doing overtime? Will he be ok that I'm here?"
Kame laughs again and playfully digs his elbow into Jin's side. "He's really not that scary. I imagine when it came to his kids dating he'd just never expected to have to warn us about what boys can be like.."
Jin makes an affronted sound from behind his fork.
"So I think he's just trying to look out for me. He's still kind of.. about this." Kame shrugs. The gentle teasing from his brothers and wealth of affection and reassurance for both he and Jin from his mother when they'd announced their relationship the previous year hadn't been quite enough to soothe the sting of his father's reaction.
"Well, I guess.. Maybe we could go to bed before he's home. Leave his food and a note.."
"Mm. This is good, by the way."
Jin covers his mouth as he chews through a smile. "Thanks. Though you helped a lot."
"Mm, I meant the bits I did. Yours are ok."
Jin's expression momentarily drops, and then he jabs at Kame's side with his fork. "That's the last time I teach you how to cook."
Kame bites back a laugh and squirms away from Jin, lifting his plate high when it almost slips out of his lap. "Ordering me to chop onions so you don't cry is classed as teaching, huh?"
"Shut u~p," Jin whines, flushed for the truth in his designation of tasks. It frustrates him no end that Kame is younger, less grown into his features, gangly, and his voice sometimes still can't decide which octave it belongs in, and yet his smile is wicked enough to make Jin's stomach drop and heart soar. He considers another well-aimed stab with his fork, but then Kame shifts at his side, leaning in with his plate still held out of harms way.
The edges of Kame's lips are stained orange. Jin would figure his are, too, if he could think about anything beyond Kame's proximity. "Shut me up."
Jin isn't entirely sure what kind of tension it is that's suddenly between them, but it all too soon gets the better of him and escapes in a muted squeak. Kame throws his head back in a long, loud laugh. Jin is adorable, and when they both have their hands full with messy plates probably isn't the best time for a raucous make out session.
"You wash and I'll dry?" Kame suggests as he attempts to placate Jin's flustering with an oily kiss to his cheek. Jin grumbles under his breath, but still is quick to follow Kame up at risk of being left alone.
"Feel like helping any time soon?"
As it turns out Jin has ended up washing and drying. And cleaning the counter, while Kame busies himself with staring glumly out of the window.
"Practice will be cancelled tomorrow," Kame huffs as though it's an answer. He barely hears Jin's muttered complaining for the sound of rain lashing the window. He'd wanted Jin to come and watch him play - Jin may not appreciate baseball, but he appreciates any opportunity to gawp at Kame. His two favourite things in the same proximity would have made for a perfect day.
"You know, the sooner we finish tidying the sooner we can get away from the storm.." Jin's voice is just a hint tight, no doubt in fear of them not retreating soon enough to avoid a run-in with Kame's father. If the vigour with which he's cleaning the counter with is anything to go by, it's at least on his mind.
Kame doesn't blame Jin for being afraid. Jin calls his father 'sir' on the rare occassions he does speak to him, always stoops to not tower over him so awkwardly. Jin's never had much affirmation as to whether he's been accepted and approved of; Kame's fingers had remained crushed in Jin's sweaty palm for his entire visit to the household after acquiring his first piercing.
"Mm, you look like you've about covered that.." After he's paid his contribution to helping out by means of scribbling the note that will prevent conversation with his father, Kame's arms slip tight around Jin's waist. Jin changed from his rain soaked clothes into a sweatshirt Kame had scooped up from his bedroom floor; when he nuzzles the nape of Jin's neck the scent is overwhelmingly of his younger brother. "So maybe we should get moving."
Jin playfully bumps his hip back against Kame. "Is 'ka-chan ok with me staying the night?"
"Bit late to ask now. Have you called home?"
The moderate sense of calm and gentle anticipation building in Jin crumbles at the reminder of home. He so easily forgets that this isn't his life - that his real life is back under the roof of a home filled with twice the noise and none of the love, bottles tucked under the tired frame of his bed for the nights that are too endless for him to see out unaided. "They won't miss me." Jin's body's turned stiff as a board in the circle of Kame's arms. Kame's afraid to squeeze any tighter in case Jin is as brittle and breakable as he feels.
"Sleep in my bed tonight." Kame mumbles between Jin's shoulder blades, and Jin shudders so lucidly against his bony chest. "Ok? No blankets on the floor."
Had Jin wanted to disagree, a particularly loud rumble of thunder rolling in from the distance convinces him otherwise. As Jin slowly nods his consent Kame notices the spread of pink down the neck of the sweat shirt, emanating from Jin's damp hair.
"7am, right?"
"7:30"
"Jin.." Kame frowns, hand poised over his alarm. After an extensive search for a shirt dark enough to cover Kame's pillow to protect it from any further trails left by Jin's hair, both boys are narrowly fitted into Kame's small bed. Jin's back is up against the wall, knees bent and toes wedged between Kame's calves. "If we get up at 7:30 we'll never make it to school in time."
Even in the near pitch black Jin's doleful expression wears on Kame. "7:20? And I'll make your lunch."
Jin has spent more nights at the Kamenashi household than he can put a figure to, but the luxury of a private conversation is a rare addition to the experience. Normally sandwiched between the brother's beds and futons, Jin bundles up in blankets and happily spends a night of sleep frequently disrupted by bickering that lasts long after light's out and the misaimed footsteps of bathroom visits or snack runs.
"With how long it takes you to do your eyeliner? We're getting up at 7."
Jin huffs against Kame's shoulder, hot through the fabric of his shirt. And then Kame starts to feel hot everywhere else, quickly burying under the stuffy comfort of the covers once the alarm is set. Jin welcomes the development of what he presumes is cuddling down to sleep and only worsens Kame's predicament when easing himself into a more comfortable position results in a long leg slipping over Kame, Jin's heel pressing into his calves.
Kame tries to get settled like this, with Jin trapped between his body and the wall and progressively finding more space for himself by spilling over into Kame's. Jin could never be accused of lacking affection, but at 17, often to the bemusement and amusement of both their respective groups of friends, so far seems to like little else. It's not an easy subject to breach, though, how Jin can kiss him senseless yet pull away with no hint in his eyes of a spark ignited. Kame's tried in earnest to somehow inflame Jin in his own enthusiasm. Normally Kame comforts himself with the thought that Jin is simply waiting - his next birthday will pass, and then they'll just have to find somewhere to be alone. A hotel, most likely, with their lack of privacy at home.
"I hope the storm is moving away from us rather than towards us," Jin says against Kame's hair. Kame's face burns, any thoughts of saving notes toward their first hotel visit quickly pushed aside.
"It'll be ok." Kame breathes deeply against Jin's neck, wrinkles his nose against that scent so familiar to his brother combined with dampened hair dye. "You're safe here with me."
Lightening strikes a few miles from their window, closer to Jin's own home, an hour after they've fallen asleep. The preceding rumble of thunder is what wakes Jin, and it's not so much that he's afraid of the storm, he's just tired and bleary, shocked awake in a house empty spare for a man that may sooner throw him out into the night if he were to find Jin's body swamping his son like a blanket.
Jin looks down at Kame in his arms, sound asleep. Then he knees him in the hip, and Kame isn't fooled for a moment that it was an accident.
"Whas'it..?" Kame grumbles against Jin's shoulder. The weight of Jin's knees, elbows, fingers, and chin digging into him registers after moments awake, and even he tenses at the next crack of lightning. "Ah. 's ok.."
Jin already seems to be calming for having Kame (somewhat) awake. "I know. As we were both awake, though.. I mean, it's.." Jin isn't going to pretend he's brave.
"It'll pass soon~ Go back to sleep."
"You too." Jin's teasing sounds taut when he's still got flutters of anxiety in his chest. When he's 18, maybe then he'll be old enough to stop finding so many aspects of life unsettling. "Sleep well, Kazu. Sorry."
"Mm." Kame's lips find Jin's jaw as he tugs Jin's arm more securely around himself, snuggling into the warmth he provides. "You too."
The storm overhead doesn't sound as though it moves much further away long after they've settled again. Jin does eventually fall asleep, back firm to the wall and Kame's small hand under the hem of his shirt, thumb rocking the ball of his piercing.
The sticky heat of two bodies pressed tightly together is what wakes Kame. The skin is faintly pink where Jin's hair is plastered to his neck, and beneath the covers Kame can feel that Jin's shirt has rolled up. Jin's skin feels chilled despite the heat, and Kame frowns as he sleepily attempts to tug it back down for him. "Jin, c'mon.." he grumbles under his breath, shrugging off the arm heavily draped around his neck only to recapture it and pull it more comfortably around his waist.
Kame stifles a yawn against Jin's shoulder, eyes following the soft rise and fall of Jin's chest beneath the covers and threatening to fall shut again. He likes Jin with blonde hair, be it streaked with pink or green or whatever else his band's minimal fanbase at their school express an interest in. He likes Jin sleeping, too, seeing the moments of peace between the battles they brave together but are always Jin's own. He's even come to like that terrible piercing that Jin so wanted in his lip, now the infection has cleared up and their kisses are no longer interrupted by pained whimpers.
Really, he just likes Jin.
Ten minutes later the alarm sounds. Jin doesn't stir, spare for an unnoticed thud of his knee against the wall as Kame sets about the task of escaping from underneath him. Nowhere near as easy as it sounds. Kame blearily scrapes his mussed hair back as he reaches to shut the alarm off, sitting up against the headboard and stretching. His shoulders feel cold while everything still below the blankets is clammy and stifled.
"Jin.. Morning~
..Jin, c'mon~ Time to get up."
If Jin does wake at all, it's only enough to prompt him to faceplant back into Kame's pillow. Kame sighs in affectionate exasperation, reaches to ruffle Jin's hair. Jin responds to the touch, shifting and sighing and bundling up tighter, closer. He nuzzles his nose against Kame's leg before an arm throws out, heavy over Kame's waist, and Jin's situated his head comfortably in Kame's lap. Kame looks on, unimpressed. Then Jin presses his lips to Kame's sweatpants, over the developing muscle on Kame's inner thigh.
Kame only moves to set the alarm for a further twenty minutes.