[fic] Betting Against the House
Title: Betting Against the House
Author: fencer_x
Rating: PG-13 for potty language~
Pairings: Tsuchiya Yuuichi/Nagayama Takashi, Tsujimoto Yuuki/Takasaki Shouta
Summary: Shouta and Nagayan chat, and Tsujimoto wins a bet.
Notes: I have a couple fics here I've been putting off until DL7th was over, but I'm finally finishing them. It's really insane how close Shouta and Nagayan got during this show (when I would've expected Tsujimoto and Tuti to be closer, since they've worked together in a *pnish* performance before), but very very adorable :)
*knock knock knock*
"Shit--someone's at the door--"
"Ah, leave 'em. We're in the middle of a conversation."
Takashi grinned into the receiver, rolling his eyes at the predictable response. "I'm not going to 'leave them'. I'll call you back later if it doesn't take too long--"
"Wha--no! Come on, it's probably Moriyama-san wanting a bootie call or something."
"Eiji-san doesn't do bootie calls. Especially not to his friends." He paused to check himself in the mirror out of habit, then padded down the short hallway of his Kobe hotel room to answer the door.
A pause. "...Who else are you supposed to have bootie calls with, then, if not your friends?"
Instead of dignifying this with a response, he simply reminded Tuti, "Besides, he was still out drinking with Naoya last I heard. If he even gets back at a decent hour he certainly isn't going to be in the mood for that."
"You very obviously do not know Moriyama-san, then."
Takashi snorted. "Obviously." He gave the door a yank without checking the peephole first. "Oh--"
Across the threshold stood a very nervous-looking Shouta, an embarrassed smile pasted across his features. "I'm--really sorry, it's late and all, I just wondered if you had some time to talk..." He then realized Takashi was holding his cellphone to his ear and immediately paled. "Oh--geez, you were on the phone? I'm sorry--it's really not important, I can come back--" He moved to head on down the hall.
"No no no--wait--" He held out a hand to physically restrain Shouta and keep him from making a dash for freedom away from what he'd very obviously had to work himself up for. "Hey--" he called for Tuti's attention, "--I'll call you back later."
"What? Is that Takasaki-kun? What's he doing there?"
"Bootie call," he answered shortly, punching the "end call" button before Tuti could respond with anything beyond an offended, "EH?" Shouta opened his mouth to question Takashi's seemingly random phrase, but was cut off. "Come on in." He stepped back and pulled the door open wider.
Shouta hesitated, hovering over the threshold. "I don't--is this a bad time? I know it's late and all, but if you were in the middle of a conversation I could always--"
"I was getting bored anyways," he brushed off, shrugging. "I just let him talk because no one else will listen to him go on and on about his blossoming booze collection and other stupid crap no one cares about. His ego bruises easily."
Shouta crossed his arms to keep from nervously swinging them around, smiling thinly as he wandered awkwardly into the room proper. "Tsuchiya-san?"
"Mmhmm~" He pulled open the mini-fridge, ostensibly looking for something to snack on. "You want something to eat or drink? I pilfered an orange from the fruit basket downstairs, and there's some Calpis in here I bought this morning and never had time to open." He glanced up when he didn't get a verbal response and found Shouta staring absently at his muted television, which was airing some late-night infomercial for cheap Kobe beef (wasn't that an oxymoron?). "Shouta." The boy's attention snapped back over, brows raised innocently, and Takashi leaned over the low counter, cocking his head in concerned amusement. "...You okay?"
Shouta licked his lips and looked back at the advertisement. "I just...wanted to talk, was all."
"Okay...about anything in particular?" He shut the mini-fridge without taking out anything, sauntering back over towards the bed where Shouta was standing. He held out a hand to indicate that Shouta should sit if they were going to have a talk about something. Offhandedly, he wondered how long this would take, and whether or not Tuti would come barging in at some decidedly inopportune moment to make sure Takashi hadn't actually been serious about the "bootie call" comment.
Shouta slumped down on the edge of the bed, jostling the carefully folded outfit Takashi had set out to wear to the hall the next morning, and twiddled his thumbs, shrugging. "I was just...wondering, is all. I don't really have anyone else I could talk to about this..."
Takashi raised a brow, pulling up a chair from the desk by the television. "What--one of your better halves couldn't come through?" Shouta smiled, biting his lips, and shook his head fervently. "Okay then--" He held his hands out. "Spill. I'm the sempai; it's my job to help out with important problems like this!" He beat his chest in a manner he hoped instilled confidence, but really just hurt.
Shouta smiled at the gesture, then placed his hands palm-flat on his thighs, taking a breath. "Did it...did anything...change after you left TeniMyu? Between--" He waved between the two of them. "You know--you and...Tsuchiya-san."
Takashi cocked his head. "'Change'? Like..." He trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence.
"Like--was it different? Just--" His arms dropped to his sides in frustration at not being able to express himself properly.
Takashi watched him struggle in silence, parsing his words in his mind. He tried to place himself in Shouta's well-worn sneakers--which was not so difficult, as he had been in this same position only a matter of years before. But with time came distance, and it took some doing to approach this moment mentally as Shouta was now doing physically.
Facing down a graduation creeping ever closer. Going out for drinks after a hard performance with your closest friends and clinking your glasses together before downing the contents and feeling in the pit of your stomach that there's only so many more times we'll get to do this. Falling asleep on the bus ride to the theater leaning against your seatmate's shoulder and waking up to find your face decorated with whatever their free arm could manage to draw and thinking I'm definitely not going to miss this and knowing deep down you definitely are.
And sitting there alone in the hotel room on the edge of your bed wondering, wildly, if it's all going to change when morning comes after that final curtain. Will you go to your next audition and move on and never look back? Will they? Does what feel like the closest relationship you've ever formed with anyone really mean anything when this is all done?
He could feel Shouta watching him, wary and waiting and a little hopeful but a lot nervous.
"You think you're only friends because of this musical?"
Shouta blinked, confused that Takashi hadn't answered his question, instead opting for a more Socratic form of discourse. "I--no, I mean. We all get along fine during our off days, and me and Baba-kun and Tsuji-kun, we really--" He cut himself off, shaking his head with a smile. "No, we're definitely more than that."
"Then why would you think just because you won't have to go and dye your hair some unnatural color every four to six months that it's going to make any difference in how you act around each other?"
Shouta flushed, embarrassed and feeling their sempai-kouhai gap strongly. "I only meant...we all met here, and we get to be around each other so much because of the show, and when it's over and gone..."
He trailed off, and Takashi picked up for him quickly. "And when it's over and gone, you'll move on to your next show, and if you're lucky you'll be in another show together again soon. And if you're not lucky, then you'll work your ass off to make another show happen where you get to perform with them again. Or you'll suck it up accept that you're all professionals who can't be around your best friends all the time and make plans after rehearsals and before rehearsals and between rehearsals and on your off days on their off days. It's--" He paused, sighing at his outburst. "I know it's hard. It's one thing to do other shows during your time here and know that you can always come back to this one group of people and be home, and another to just be out there jumping from one show to another and never getting to really bond with a cast like you do here. Because I've done it. Twice now!" Shouta smiled at this, nodding. "But it doesn't have to be all bad. Sometimes it's the best thing that could happen to you even--because...then you're together, hanging out just because you want to hang out. Not because you need to strengthen your bond as a team--" He paused, locking eyes with Shouta to impress his meaning. "--or as a pair."
Shouta twisted on the bed, pulling one leg up beneath him. "So--you and Tsuchiya-san, it was better even, after the shows? You stayed really close?"
Takashi dodged the question, letting it roll off of him. "Sure. But not just Tuti though--Eiji-san also. And Naoya and Eiki, too, after a couple of years. And Kime and I kept in touch pretty well. We all have parties every now and then, just so we won't lose that sense of being a part of a team. It's nice."
"Mmm," Shouta agreed, "It is."
He cocked his head. "So? Does that answer your question?"
Shouta bit his lip, but seemed to have resolved something inside of himself, and nodded once, firmly. "It did, I think." Then he turned a wide, white smile on Takashi. "Thanks, Nagayama-san!"
Takashi waved him off superiorly. "That's what I'm here for, right?" Shouta's grin widened into one of his now-familiar giggles--but their moment was then interrupted by the buzzing of a cellphone. Takashi clapped a hand over his pants pocket, realizing it was his own, and cursed under his breath. He fished it out, realizing it was a call and not just a text, and rolled his eyes at the familiar name on the display. Shouta just pursed his lips knowingly and raised his eyebrows, hopping up from the bed. "Oi, where're you going? Don't you want any more of my advice?"
By the door, Shouta stepped back into the slippers he'd been wandering the halls in. "I should probably save some for another time--aren't you going to answer that?" Takashi glanced back down at his buzzing phone, frowning, and when he looked up again, the door was already shutting behind Shouta.
He flipped open the display in a huff. "I said I'd call you back, didn't I?"
"That was before you said it was a bootie call."
"You know it wasn't, ass."
"Just watching out for what's mine."
He flopped back onto the bed, spread eagle. "It's not yours--it's mine. I just lend it to you now and then."
"So what did your devoted follower want?"
"Mmm, you know how they are--it's finally hitting them that this is it, I guess." Tuti released a bark of laughter, and Takashi frowned, confused. "What, that's funny?"
"No, just--I dunno. I thought maybe he wanted dating advice or something."
"Why the hell would he come to me for dating advice?"
"Because you have a good few years' experience dating a co-star and he has, what, a few months'?"
There was a long pause, during which Takashi pushed himself up, letting his legs dangle off the bed. "...Excuse me?"
"...Oh."
"Excuse me?"
"Shit, you're telling me you didn't know--?"
"Who?"
A snort. "Who the hell else would it be? It's probably done wonders for their combination, you know--"
"They wouldn't start dating just to make their roles more believable," he argued, disappointed that somehow Tuti had come across this tidbit of gossip before he himself had managed to unearth it. "...You're making shit up."
"Hey--we started dating to give Ichimaru and Shiro-chan more sexual tension."
"We did not," he protested sharply, then paused, checking himself. "...Okay that was a reason. Not the reason."
Soft laughter floated across the connection. "Well anyways. I'm not lying."
"Hmm. Because you're so well informed."
"Tsujimoto-kun gets really mouthy with a few drinks in him."
There was a pause, and Takashi worried at his bottom lip. "...You're serious?"
"You're telling me you hadn't at least wondered? God, I mean--it's embarrassing watching them out there sometimes."
"They're actors. That's just what the roles call for." He smiled into the receiver. "Just because it embarrasses you to have to be all infatuated with me on stage doesn't mean everyone has to be that way. Maybe you should take a lesson from them."
"Okay fine, whatever--they're better at their fanservice than we were--"
"Than you were, Tsuchiya-san. I had no qualms."
"Why did I call you anyways? You're no fun tonight."
"I dunno, but you ran Shouta out of the room." He glanced over at the bedside table, groaning. "It's past midnight, I'm going to bed."
"Need me to come tuck you in, Nagayama-san?"
"Mmm, I have a feeling I'd be in for more than a turning down of the sheets if I let you over the threshold."
"Well we are in Kobe..."
"You're making me use up my minutes--good night."
"I'm serious though--ask Tsujimoto-kun in the morning, he'll back me up--" But his final protests went unheeded as Takashi soundly disconnected the call, turning in for the evening.
"...You cheated."
Tsujimoto held out a hand expectantly, not bothering to hide his satisfaction. "I did not. Thousand yen, come on."
"You worked with Tsuchiya-san before, you cheated," Shouta whined, nevertheless fishing his wallet out of his back pocket. From further inside the hotel room, Baba sauntered over to the door where his friends were congregating, draping himself over Tsujimoto while choking down their last slice of pizza they'd ordered earlier in the evening. Shouta shoved a wadded up bill into his friend's waiting hand. "You were supposed to use intuition, you said."
"I did," he returned confidently, snatching the note and smoothing it out to be sure he hadn't been slipped a fake. "...I intuitively deduced that Tsuchiya-san was telling the truth when he blabbed that they were dating."
"Mou~" Shouta shoved him back into his hotel room, pulling the door shut behind the trio. "See? Cheating."
Tsujimoto just shrugged, obviously not all that put off by the accusation. "Not my fault he gets mouthy with a few drinks in him. Besides--" He pulled open the pizza box, then glared over at Baba when he realized the last piece had been snatched from under his nose. "--it's not like I asked him. He just blurted it out..." He trailed off when he felt Shouta's gaze on him, prying for more information, "...after I possibly mentioned, you know. Maybe something about you and me--"
"Tsuji-kun!"
Baba let out a loud bark of laughter from the seat he'd grabbed on the edge of the bed, watching the exchange with mild interest and swallowing the last bit of pizza crust. "Way to make a great impression on the sempai."
Shouta glared at him for the comment, momentarily forgetting his exasperation with Tsujimoto's brash confession. "And anyways how come you didn't have to pay up or anything? What made you think he was so smart and well informed?"
Baba shrugged ambivalently. "I didn't really care. But I wasn't about to get dragged into a bet, so here I am, a thousand yen richer than you."
"And a thousand poorer than me~" Tsujimoto crowed, tossing the empty pizza box over by the rest of the trash set out by the door.
Baba waved him off, wiping his greasy hands on the duvet and resolutely ignoring his friends' frowns at the action. "All right, I'm headed back to my room. Meet you downstairs in the morning?"
Shouta raised a hand. "9:30 sharp, Captain~" The three then tossed each other a chorus of "Good night~"s, and Baba quietly and discreetly slipped out into the hallway, leaving his friends to their own devices. Shouta wondered in the back of his mind if Baba had chosen to leave at that moment out of actual concern for getting to bed early before their next full day of shows or just to give the two their first moment of privacy since they'd arrived in Kobe.
"So what gave it away?"
Shouta jerked his head back around, turning his attention from the doorway. "Gave what away?"
Tsujimoto slumped onto the edge of the bed, picking at the peeling label on his bottle of green tea. "Nagayama-san and Tsuchiya-san. Did he just come out and say it or something?"
"Oh--yeah, something like that." He shrugged. "I just got the feeling."
Tsujimoto hmmed knowingly. "What'd you talk about?"
He shrugged again, being deliberately vague, and wandered back towards the interior of the room. "Just--Kikumaru stuff. The usual. He wants me to help him do a back-handspring again by senshuuraku."
Tsujimoto laughed, knowing Shouta must have felt impressed to be able to teach their sempai something. He reached out when Shouta came within grabbing distance, holding one hand in both his own and squeezing the fingers. "And you were nervous about being on stage with them."
Shouta shuffled in closer, standing between Tsujimoto's spread knees so that he had to tip his head back to look up at his friend. "Yeah. Not now, though."
Tsujimoto's brows lifted, impressed. "Oh?"
Shouta nodded, leaning down and pulling his hand free to cradle Tsujimoto's jaw, cocking his head just to the side to gently press their lips together. He held his position for a moment, breath short and ragged against Tsujimoto's cheek, and then slid his arms to wrap around the boy's neck, burying his face in the crook and breathing in deep. "Let's eat breakfast together after senshuuraku next week," he mumbled almost unintelligibly.
Confused at the sudden shift in mood, Tsujimoto could only babble, "Eh?" filling the silence that had settled on the room following Baba's departure with a nervous laugh. "Wha--breakfast?" Shouta just nodded against him. "Okay...I guess?"
Shouta moved his hands from wrapping him in a hug to grab his shoulders, shoving him away at arm's length and frowning. "Promise."
"I...promise?" Shouta held his frown for a momently longer before breaking, rolling his eyes and slumping down beside his friend, leaning bodily against him and resting his head on the proffered shoulder. Tsujimoto pulled his arm free and settled it across Shouta's back, rubbing slowly at the thin material of his shirt with his thumb. "You're acting weird; you're sure that's all you and Nagayama-san talked about?"
Shouta just closed his eyes, feigning going to sleep. "Ask me again after senshuuraku."
Author: fencer_x
Rating: PG-13 for potty language~
Pairings: Tsuchiya Yuuichi/Nagayama Takashi, Tsujimoto Yuuki/Takasaki Shouta
Summary: Shouta and Nagayan chat, and Tsujimoto wins a bet.
Notes: I have a couple fics here I've been putting off until DL7th was over, but I'm finally finishing them. It's really insane how close Shouta and Nagayan got during this show (when I would've expected Tsujimoto and Tuti to be closer, since they've worked together in a *pnish* performance before), but very very adorable :)
*knock knock knock*
"Shit--someone's at the door--"
"Ah, leave 'em. We're in the middle of a conversation."
Takashi grinned into the receiver, rolling his eyes at the predictable response. "I'm not going to 'leave them'. I'll call you back later if it doesn't take too long--"
"Wha--no! Come on, it's probably Moriyama-san wanting a bootie call or something."
"Eiji-san doesn't do bootie calls. Especially not to his friends." He paused to check himself in the mirror out of habit, then padded down the short hallway of his Kobe hotel room to answer the door.
A pause. "...Who else are you supposed to have bootie calls with, then, if not your friends?"
Instead of dignifying this with a response, he simply reminded Tuti, "Besides, he was still out drinking with Naoya last I heard. If he even gets back at a decent hour he certainly isn't going to be in the mood for that."
"You very obviously do not know Moriyama-san, then."
Takashi snorted. "Obviously." He gave the door a yank without checking the peephole first. "Oh--"
Across the threshold stood a very nervous-looking Shouta, an embarrassed smile pasted across his features. "I'm--really sorry, it's late and all, I just wondered if you had some time to talk..." He then realized Takashi was holding his cellphone to his ear and immediately paled. "Oh--geez, you were on the phone? I'm sorry--it's really not important, I can come back--" He moved to head on down the hall.
"No no no--wait--" He held out a hand to physically restrain Shouta and keep him from making a dash for freedom away from what he'd very obviously had to work himself up for. "Hey--" he called for Tuti's attention, "--I'll call you back later."
"What? Is that Takasaki-kun? What's he doing there?"
"Bootie call," he answered shortly, punching the "end call" button before Tuti could respond with anything beyond an offended, "EH?" Shouta opened his mouth to question Takashi's seemingly random phrase, but was cut off. "Come on in." He stepped back and pulled the door open wider.
Shouta hesitated, hovering over the threshold. "I don't--is this a bad time? I know it's late and all, but if you were in the middle of a conversation I could always--"
"I was getting bored anyways," he brushed off, shrugging. "I just let him talk because no one else will listen to him go on and on about his blossoming booze collection and other stupid crap no one cares about. His ego bruises easily."
Shouta crossed his arms to keep from nervously swinging them around, smiling thinly as he wandered awkwardly into the room proper. "Tsuchiya-san?"
"Mmhmm~" He pulled open the mini-fridge, ostensibly looking for something to snack on. "You want something to eat or drink? I pilfered an orange from the fruit basket downstairs, and there's some Calpis in here I bought this morning and never had time to open." He glanced up when he didn't get a verbal response and found Shouta staring absently at his muted television, which was airing some late-night infomercial for cheap Kobe beef (wasn't that an oxymoron?). "Shouta." The boy's attention snapped back over, brows raised innocently, and Takashi leaned over the low counter, cocking his head in concerned amusement. "...You okay?"
Shouta licked his lips and looked back at the advertisement. "I just...wanted to talk, was all."
"Okay...about anything in particular?" He shut the mini-fridge without taking out anything, sauntering back over towards the bed where Shouta was standing. He held out a hand to indicate that Shouta should sit if they were going to have a talk about something. Offhandedly, he wondered how long this would take, and whether or not Tuti would come barging in at some decidedly inopportune moment to make sure Takashi hadn't actually been serious about the "bootie call" comment.
Shouta slumped down on the edge of the bed, jostling the carefully folded outfit Takashi had set out to wear to the hall the next morning, and twiddled his thumbs, shrugging. "I was just...wondering, is all. I don't really have anyone else I could talk to about this..."
Takashi raised a brow, pulling up a chair from the desk by the television. "What--one of your better halves couldn't come through?" Shouta smiled, biting his lips, and shook his head fervently. "Okay then--" He held his hands out. "Spill. I'm the sempai; it's my job to help out with important problems like this!" He beat his chest in a manner he hoped instilled confidence, but really just hurt.
Shouta smiled at the gesture, then placed his hands palm-flat on his thighs, taking a breath. "Did it...did anything...change after you left TeniMyu? Between--" He waved between the two of them. "You know--you and...Tsuchiya-san."
Takashi cocked his head. "'Change'? Like..." He trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence.
"Like--was it different? Just--" His arms dropped to his sides in frustration at not being able to express himself properly.
Takashi watched him struggle in silence, parsing his words in his mind. He tried to place himself in Shouta's well-worn sneakers--which was not so difficult, as he had been in this same position only a matter of years before. But with time came distance, and it took some doing to approach this moment mentally as Shouta was now doing physically.
Facing down a graduation creeping ever closer. Going out for drinks after a hard performance with your closest friends and clinking your glasses together before downing the contents and feeling in the pit of your stomach that there's only so many more times we'll get to do this. Falling asleep on the bus ride to the theater leaning against your seatmate's shoulder and waking up to find your face decorated with whatever their free arm could manage to draw and thinking I'm definitely not going to miss this and knowing deep down you definitely are.
And sitting there alone in the hotel room on the edge of your bed wondering, wildly, if it's all going to change when morning comes after that final curtain. Will you go to your next audition and move on and never look back? Will they? Does what feel like the closest relationship you've ever formed with anyone really mean anything when this is all done?
He could feel Shouta watching him, wary and waiting and a little hopeful but a lot nervous.
"You think you're only friends because of this musical?"
Shouta blinked, confused that Takashi hadn't answered his question, instead opting for a more Socratic form of discourse. "I--no, I mean. We all get along fine during our off days, and me and Baba-kun and Tsuji-kun, we really--" He cut himself off, shaking his head with a smile. "No, we're definitely more than that."
"Then why would you think just because you won't have to go and dye your hair some unnatural color every four to six months that it's going to make any difference in how you act around each other?"
Shouta flushed, embarrassed and feeling their sempai-kouhai gap strongly. "I only meant...we all met here, and we get to be around each other so much because of the show, and when it's over and gone..."
He trailed off, and Takashi picked up for him quickly. "And when it's over and gone, you'll move on to your next show, and if you're lucky you'll be in another show together again soon. And if you're not lucky, then you'll work your ass off to make another show happen where you get to perform with them again. Or you'll suck it up accept that you're all professionals who can't be around your best friends all the time and make plans after rehearsals and before rehearsals and between rehearsals and on your off days on their off days. It's--" He paused, sighing at his outburst. "I know it's hard. It's one thing to do other shows during your time here and know that you can always come back to this one group of people and be home, and another to just be out there jumping from one show to another and never getting to really bond with a cast like you do here. Because I've done it. Twice now!" Shouta smiled at this, nodding. "But it doesn't have to be all bad. Sometimes it's the best thing that could happen to you even--because...then you're together, hanging out just because you want to hang out. Not because you need to strengthen your bond as a team--" He paused, locking eyes with Shouta to impress his meaning. "--or as a pair."
Shouta twisted on the bed, pulling one leg up beneath him. "So--you and Tsuchiya-san, it was better even, after the shows? You stayed really close?"
Takashi dodged the question, letting it roll off of him. "Sure. But not just Tuti though--Eiji-san also. And Naoya and Eiki, too, after a couple of years. And Kime and I kept in touch pretty well. We all have parties every now and then, just so we won't lose that sense of being a part of a team. It's nice."
"Mmm," Shouta agreed, "It is."
He cocked his head. "So? Does that answer your question?"
Shouta bit his lip, but seemed to have resolved something inside of himself, and nodded once, firmly. "It did, I think." Then he turned a wide, white smile on Takashi. "Thanks, Nagayama-san!"
Takashi waved him off superiorly. "That's what I'm here for, right?" Shouta's grin widened into one of his now-familiar giggles--but their moment was then interrupted by the buzzing of a cellphone. Takashi clapped a hand over his pants pocket, realizing it was his own, and cursed under his breath. He fished it out, realizing it was a call and not just a text, and rolled his eyes at the familiar name on the display. Shouta just pursed his lips knowingly and raised his eyebrows, hopping up from the bed. "Oi, where're you going? Don't you want any more of my advice?"
By the door, Shouta stepped back into the slippers he'd been wandering the halls in. "I should probably save some for another time--aren't you going to answer that?" Takashi glanced back down at his buzzing phone, frowning, and when he looked up again, the door was already shutting behind Shouta.
He flipped open the display in a huff. "I said I'd call you back, didn't I?"
"That was before you said it was a bootie call."
"You know it wasn't, ass."
"Just watching out for what's mine."
He flopped back onto the bed, spread eagle. "It's not yours--it's mine. I just lend it to you now and then."
"So what did your devoted follower want?"
"Mmm, you know how they are--it's finally hitting them that this is it, I guess." Tuti released a bark of laughter, and Takashi frowned, confused. "What, that's funny?"
"No, just--I dunno. I thought maybe he wanted dating advice or something."
"Why the hell would he come to me for dating advice?"
"Because you have a good few years' experience dating a co-star and he has, what, a few months'?"
There was a long pause, during which Takashi pushed himself up, letting his legs dangle off the bed. "...Excuse me?"
"...Oh."
"Excuse me?"
"Shit, you're telling me you didn't know--?"
"Who?"
A snort. "Who the hell else would it be? It's probably done wonders for their combination, you know--"
"They wouldn't start dating just to make their roles more believable," he argued, disappointed that somehow Tuti had come across this tidbit of gossip before he himself had managed to unearth it. "...You're making shit up."
"Hey--we started dating to give Ichimaru and Shiro-chan more sexual tension."
"We did not," he protested sharply, then paused, checking himself. "...Okay that was a reason. Not the reason."
Soft laughter floated across the connection. "Well anyways. I'm not lying."
"Hmm. Because you're so well informed."
"Tsujimoto-kun gets really mouthy with a few drinks in him."
There was a pause, and Takashi worried at his bottom lip. "...You're serious?"
"You're telling me you hadn't at least wondered? God, I mean--it's embarrassing watching them out there sometimes."
"They're actors. That's just what the roles call for." He smiled into the receiver. "Just because it embarrasses you to have to be all infatuated with me on stage doesn't mean everyone has to be that way. Maybe you should take a lesson from them."
"Okay fine, whatever--they're better at their fanservice than we were--"
"Than you were, Tsuchiya-san. I had no qualms."
"Why did I call you anyways? You're no fun tonight."
"I dunno, but you ran Shouta out of the room." He glanced over at the bedside table, groaning. "It's past midnight, I'm going to bed."
"Need me to come tuck you in, Nagayama-san?"
"Mmm, I have a feeling I'd be in for more than a turning down of the sheets if I let you over the threshold."
"Well we are in Kobe..."
"You're making me use up my minutes--good night."
"I'm serious though--ask Tsujimoto-kun in the morning, he'll back me up--" But his final protests went unheeded as Takashi soundly disconnected the call, turning in for the evening.
"...You cheated."
Tsujimoto held out a hand expectantly, not bothering to hide his satisfaction. "I did not. Thousand yen, come on."
"You worked with Tsuchiya-san before, you cheated," Shouta whined, nevertheless fishing his wallet out of his back pocket. From further inside the hotel room, Baba sauntered over to the door where his friends were congregating, draping himself over Tsujimoto while choking down their last slice of pizza they'd ordered earlier in the evening. Shouta shoved a wadded up bill into his friend's waiting hand. "You were supposed to use intuition, you said."
"I did," he returned confidently, snatching the note and smoothing it out to be sure he hadn't been slipped a fake. "...I intuitively deduced that Tsuchiya-san was telling the truth when he blabbed that they were dating."
"Mou~" Shouta shoved him back into his hotel room, pulling the door shut behind the trio. "See? Cheating."
Tsujimoto just shrugged, obviously not all that put off by the accusation. "Not my fault he gets mouthy with a few drinks in him. Besides--" He pulled open the pizza box, then glared over at Baba when he realized the last piece had been snatched from under his nose. "--it's not like I asked him. He just blurted it out..." He trailed off when he felt Shouta's gaze on him, prying for more information, "...after I possibly mentioned, you know. Maybe something about you and me--"
"Tsuji-kun!"
Baba let out a loud bark of laughter from the seat he'd grabbed on the edge of the bed, watching the exchange with mild interest and swallowing the last bit of pizza crust. "Way to make a great impression on the sempai."
Shouta glared at him for the comment, momentarily forgetting his exasperation with Tsujimoto's brash confession. "And anyways how come you didn't have to pay up or anything? What made you think he was so smart and well informed?"
Baba shrugged ambivalently. "I didn't really care. But I wasn't about to get dragged into a bet, so here I am, a thousand yen richer than you."
"And a thousand poorer than me~" Tsujimoto crowed, tossing the empty pizza box over by the rest of the trash set out by the door.
Baba waved him off, wiping his greasy hands on the duvet and resolutely ignoring his friends' frowns at the action. "All right, I'm headed back to my room. Meet you downstairs in the morning?"
Shouta raised a hand. "9:30 sharp, Captain~" The three then tossed each other a chorus of "Good night~"s, and Baba quietly and discreetly slipped out into the hallway, leaving his friends to their own devices. Shouta wondered in the back of his mind if Baba had chosen to leave at that moment out of actual concern for getting to bed early before their next full day of shows or just to give the two their first moment of privacy since they'd arrived in Kobe.
"So what gave it away?"
Shouta jerked his head back around, turning his attention from the doorway. "Gave what away?"
Tsujimoto slumped onto the edge of the bed, picking at the peeling label on his bottle of green tea. "Nagayama-san and Tsuchiya-san. Did he just come out and say it or something?"
"Oh--yeah, something like that." He shrugged. "I just got the feeling."
Tsujimoto hmmed knowingly. "What'd you talk about?"
He shrugged again, being deliberately vague, and wandered back towards the interior of the room. "Just--Kikumaru stuff. The usual. He wants me to help him do a back-handspring again by senshuuraku."
Tsujimoto laughed, knowing Shouta must have felt impressed to be able to teach their sempai something. He reached out when Shouta came within grabbing distance, holding one hand in both his own and squeezing the fingers. "And you were nervous about being on stage with them."
Shouta shuffled in closer, standing between Tsujimoto's spread knees so that he had to tip his head back to look up at his friend. "Yeah. Not now, though."
Tsujimoto's brows lifted, impressed. "Oh?"
Shouta nodded, leaning down and pulling his hand free to cradle Tsujimoto's jaw, cocking his head just to the side to gently press their lips together. He held his position for a moment, breath short and ragged against Tsujimoto's cheek, and then slid his arms to wrap around the boy's neck, burying his face in the crook and breathing in deep. "Let's eat breakfast together after senshuuraku next week," he mumbled almost unintelligibly.
Confused at the sudden shift in mood, Tsujimoto could only babble, "Eh?" filling the silence that had settled on the room following Baba's departure with a nervous laugh. "Wha--breakfast?" Shouta just nodded against him. "Okay...I guess?"
Shouta moved his hands from wrapping him in a hug to grab his shoulders, shoving him away at arm's length and frowning. "Promise."
"I...promise?" Shouta held his frown for a momently longer before breaking, rolling his eyes and slumping down beside his friend, leaning bodily against him and resting his head on the proffered shoulder. Tsujimoto pulled his arm free and settled it across Shouta's back, rubbing slowly at the thin material of his shirt with his thumb. "You're acting weird; you're sure that's all you and Nagayama-san talked about?"
Shouta just closed his eyes, feigning going to sleep. "Ask me again after senshuuraku."