Spilled Coffee and Arrogant Hotshots Part II for the Community!
Title: Spilled Coffee and Arrogant Hotshots Part II
Author: arysthaeniru
Recipient: The Community!
Pairing/Characters: Tachibana An/Kirihara Akaya, (minor characters) Osakada Tomoka, Tachibana Kippei, Marui Bunta
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: grumpy characters, mentions of fighting
Disclaimer: Konomi owns all, including the 112,823 chocolates he received for Valentines Day.
Summary: An really doesn’t understand the fuss around Kirihara Akaya, cello prodigy and popular artist. Sure, he’s sort of pretty, but isn’t everybody in this industry? Besides, it can’t be worth an attitude like that, right?
“You know.” An murmured, as she adjusted her fingerless gloves properly, “I think that someone has to be organizing the fact that we always meet each other when we do things that aren’t music related. I didn’t even go to your variety show, but we ended up starring on the same episode of another show.”
Kirihara, who was next to her, adjusting the rock-climbing helmet over his curly hair with difficulty and a slight scowl on his face, shrugged. “Whatever, it’s nice to see a familiar face, so I ain’t complaining, even if you really should give me your number so next time, we can actually coordinate this. But sounds like something my manager would find amusing, he’s the sort of person who likes to see me embarrassed or in pain.”
An turned to Kirihara, raising her eyebrow with slight amusement. Was seeing her embarrassing, since she was no longer causing him pain? Hmm, wasn’t that interesting information? “Isn’t he supposed to help you out?”
Kirihara looked down the cliff, upon which they were currently balanced, the production team a safe distance behind, as the abseiling experts tested the ropes and the tethers. In the distance, the sea roared, and the sky was slightly grey, predicting rain in the near future. Hopefully not when they were filming and trying to abseil down the cliff, but that might be too much to ask for. “I dunno, what part of being enrolled on this particular Golden Week Special makes you think that he wants me particularly alive?” asked Kirihara, looking nervous for the first time since An had first seen him, over three months ago. It was an unfamiliar expression on his sharp, usually smug features and it made him just a little more endearing and cute.
An snorted, hiding her giggles in her sleeve. Admittedly, this wasn’t exactly where she had wanted to spend her Golden Week, but sometimes you had to take risks in order to make people like you. And this was one of the newest and coolest variety shows, which liked to test the nerves of various celebrities, by forcing them to complete activities on a time-limit. It was a variety show popular with the youth, which of course, meant that one of the Kaleidoscope Girls had to be on it. And An had drawn the short straw among the group, much to Tomo’s amusement and Sakuno’s abject relief.
Still, with Kirihara as her partner and the MCs liking her sass, An thought that she was pretty set for having popularity and screen-time on the show already. But of course, they hadn’t exactly started the main challenge yet. The producer gave them a thumbs up and they all quickly gathered in the centre.
“How is everyone feeling?” asked the tallest MC, smiling widely, with cheerful grace as they were all handed jackets, with cameras strapped to the front, to get a nice view of the underside of their faces.
“I’m counting on Kirihara-san to catch me if I like slip and die.” An said, nose wrinkling as she shrugged on the vest. “Someone has to tell my brother that he doesn’t get any of my stuff because he laughed at me when I was auditioning to get a job at my agency!”
There was a light peal of laughter among the MCs and the other contestants and Kirihara grinned, self-deprecating instantly, zipping up the jacket with smooth grace. “Ha, much more likely that she’ll have to catch me, I’m super clumsy when it comes down to it. Chaos-God and all!”
“Oh, it could be worse,” joked the pretty actress beside them, whose name An had already forgotten, without the name-tags from the studio, “You could be scared of heights like Marui-kun.”
Marui, whom An supposed was the pink-haired man who was currently trying to not look backwards towards the rather large fall they had to go, grinned painfully. “I’m going to beat all of you, just watch.” he said, but his voice was shakier than his hands, and An had to reach out to press a hand to his shoulder, reassuringly.
“Relax, I’ll fall first, so I can break your fall.” she said, cheerily and the entire group laughed, except for Kirihara, whose face looked suspiciously blank. With a slightly quizzical look, An fell back, as the MCs explained the rules. There were five coloured flags distributed down their drop for each team, and they had to get their coloured flags and reach the bottom before the other team could. Simple enough, but other than ‘no endangering the safety of the other contestants’, there weren’t any real rules, which meant that sabotage was an open option on the table. An considered suggesting it teasingly to the whole group, but fell silent at Marui’s slightly green-looking face, and quiet whimpers, too faint to be heard by the cameramen. Her hand slid down from his shoulder to the small of his back, where she patted him comfortingly, and Marui gave her a tight-lipped, but grateful smile in response.
Kirihara said nothing, but his lips were pursed together as the MCs allowed them to go and get started, and there was something distinctly bad-tempered to the way that his hair stuck out of the back of his helmet.
Shaking her head with confusion, An headed towards the edge of the equipment, waddling slightly to the edge, with the discomfort of a large tether pulling at the edges around her crotch. The experts tugged at the straps near her waist, before patting her back. “You’ll do fine.” said the man, looking at An’s skeptical expression.
Well, she had to do well in any case, so it didn’t matter. Taking a deep breath inwards, and letting the nervousness stream out of her pores on the exhale, An dropped off the edge of the cliff, hands gripping tightly to the guide-rope, as she scaled downwards. Overestimating how much force her gravity gave her, she slid down quickly, further down than she’d wanted, missing the first flag that she and Kirihara had to collect. Thankfully, Kirihara hadn’t yet dropped down, which meant they had a chance. “Kirihara-san!” An yelled, “Be sure to stop yourself quickly when you fall, the flag’s closer to the edge than we thought. I’m going to try and get the next one.”
There was a vague sound of agreement from above, and An paused for a moment, with a slight frown, before slowly bouncing downwards cautiously, fingers barely leaving the guide-rope as she dropped down. It took a little bit of aiming, to drop himself down to the exact area where the flag would be, and An realized with horror, than no, she couldn’t just pick up the flag and keep jumping. It had been tied down to the small crannies in the rock. Which meant that she had to let go of her grip on the guide-rope to untie the flag and hope that her feet could keep her upright, if she squatted down properly.
“Oh my god.” An said, to the camera, “I knew I should have worked on thigh strength in the dance studio. My dance teacher said that you can never do too many squats, but I didn’t believe her. I’m sorry sensei, next time I’ll listen to whatever you say, perfectly, otherwise I’m going to regret it on variety TV.” she said, hoping that the audience would be able to laugh at her struggles, at least, when the footage was edited.
Trying to get her feet properly balanced on the edge of the cranny, An leant back in her harness, shakily, and her fingers cautiously crept away from the guide-rope. After a couple of seconds where she didn’t instantly topple to her death, An grinned, and started to untangle the knot. It was an awkward angle from which to untangle a rope, but An wasn’t risking anything. She could look like a fool on National TV, if it meant that she won.
From above, she could see Kirihara hanging on his rope, untangling the flag, with much more ease. Unfair! “Yah, Kirihara-san, how are you doing it so well?” demanded An, as she fumbled with the string.
“It’s a skill you have to be born with. Like beauty.” Kirihara yelled back, and she didn’t have to be able to see his face, to be able to see the smug expression etched over his features. “What can I say; it’s just my natural talent.”
“Then hurry up and win the game for us then, fool!” An snapped, finally managing to untangle the flag, just as Kirihara started to drop down, with a finesse that An couldn’t even think about. In what world was it fair that he was able to instantly master how to use an abseil rope?
“Hey, have you done this before? You’re way better at this than me.” asked An tucking the flag into her pouch, as they both zipped down, looking backwards and throwing glances over to the other team, on their left.
“Nah, but Yukimura-san threw me out of a helicopter once, so he could test some shit for his painting. I think he just wanted me to scream and flounder in the middle of the air, but you know. Art. You can’t argue with artists. There’s always an explanation for how it interlinks with the annals of society or something.” Kirihara said, with a shrug and a mischievous grin towards the other side. “Hey, since I’m a master and all, want me to go over there and steal their flag? They’re like nowhere near it.”
An laughed, grinning evilly, glancing back upwards towards where Marui and the actress were still struggling to untie their first flag, bickering something fierce. “Sabotage wasn’t banned in the rules~” she said, steadying herself against the cliff, as they rounded upon the third flag. “Glad we think alike. But wouldn’t it be too much for poor Marui-senpai? He looked like he was going to die. We can just win this normally anyway.”
Kirihara pulled a face, and this time, she definitely wasn’t imagining his bad temper. Did he not like Marui or something? But they’d been joking around when they’d filmed the studio segment, about how they were both linked by their crazy friends? Honestly, An couldn’t understand half of what was going through Kirihara’s mind. Every time she thought that she could empathize with him on a spiritual level about their mutual struggles, some other curveball managed to ruin it. “I guess...” he muttered. “If you want to be a killjoy, I suppose.”
An shrugged. “Eh, we’re both mean, but we’re not assholes. Let’s just get the next flags and get down on steady ground. I think this tether is going to cut through my thighs, and that would suck.” As she finished speaking, a rather large droplet of water hit the front of her nose, and she instantly pulled a face. “Plus it’s raining, so the less time we’re on these stupid ropes, the better.”
“It’s not like you wouldn’t have more flesh to spare, Ms. Thunderthighs.” Kirihara said, raising an eyebrow, as An leant forward to fumble with the ropes for the third yellow flag, ignoring the slick slide of the water across her slender fingers. The flagpole of the first flag was digging into the soft flesh of her thigh, and ached, but An, too afraid to lose her balance and drop the flag, didn’t move it aside.
“I think that even with my ample thighs, I’m going to run out of unmarred skin, by the time this challenge is over. You have to carry me if I lose my legs, okay?” she called down to Kirihara, who’d already scaled across to the side with easy grace, to untie the fourth one, not even seeming phased by the steadily increasing rain against their sides. No way that this was his first time abseiling.
Tucking the third flag into her pouch again, An quickly scaled down, giving a quick thumbs up to the camera, as she grabbed the guide-rope again. Feeling a little more confident, An let herself drop for a bit longer, bouncing a little more against the edge of the cliff, letting the slip of the rain help her descent. Surprisingly, as she zipped past Kirihara, she could sort of start to feel the adrenaline in her bones, which could make something like this seem fun. Still not what An would have chosen to do during her Golden Week, but sacrifices had to be made.
Slowing down as she spotted the shock of yellow near the bottom of the cliff, An cautiously edged along the cliff side, abandoning the guide rope to clamber across the cold, wet rocks. “My fingers are basically holding onto a mini pool for algae. This is really gross.” An narrated, as she got closer to the flag.
Kirihara also started to drop down, quickly, coming down from the other side, so they could both approach the fifth and final flag. “My hair is going to be a mess after this rain.” Kirihara yelled down and An made a vague noise of agreement, focusing on keeping her grip against the rock with her thighs, solid. Her breath was starting to get a little laboured now, and she frowned, feeling rather annoyed by this change in events.
Turning angles carefully, they both awkwardly balanced together, to try and reach for the fifth flag. Kirihara reached forward at the same time as An, and their fingers brushed over each other, soft and just a little too intimate. An felt a shiver go down her spine, sensation of his slightly rough fingers against her skin, and suddenly, she felt very aware of how close they were, thighs brushing together through their sopping-wet trousers. Hoping that she wasn’t blushing, An pulled her hand back, to grip to the rock.
“Your flag, go on.” An said, with an awkward smile, far too aware of how closely they were tucked together here. Beyond the smell of petrichor in air, she could vaguely smell the artificial apple of his shampoo, and the deep spices of cinnamon from his cologne, and she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed by how nice it was, and how much it suited him.
Kirihara shook his head, and a couple of flecks of water dripped from his damp hair, rolling across his golden cheek with slow intensity. An had to physically fight to urge to reach up and touch his cheek as well, reminding herself that this was stupid and there were cameras hoisted to both of them, from a rather intimate angle. “Nah, it’s your flag, you got here first.” he said, and his voice was low and slightly out of breath also.
An shook her head again, passing off her second shiver, as one from cold. “Let’s not play the ‘I’m more humble than you game’ right now, we both know that you’ll lose. Take off the goddamn flag, so we can beat the pink team. My fingers are freezing anyway, they’ll be useless.”
Kirihara made a low growl of exasperation, which ran through his entire body, and An had to pull away and start to drop down, before she lost the tight control over her body’s desires. God, she’d never had such trouble with physically attractive people before, especially when they were cocky, arrogant idiots. Still, for a cocky, arrogant idiot, he was pretty cute. And easy to talk to, in any case, now that there was no formality between them anymore. It was a pleasant surprise, to add one more easy conversationalist to her list, which currently consisted of Senri, Kippei, Miyuki, Akira, Tetsu, Kyosuke and Sakuno. It was a good list of people to be amongst.
With a light smile, An let her feet touch the ground, and she shakily fell down to the ground, as an expert ran up, to unclip her from the tether.
She grinned with relief, waving her two yellow flags at the camera crew who were already waiting. The assistant-production director gave her a thumbs up, as Kirihara slowly dropped down behind her, the other three flags clutched in his hand, and a slight red flush to his cheeks.
“We won!” An said, with a light grin, waiting until he was stepping out of his tether to give him a quick hug. “It’s so good to be on secure ground again.” An said, with a slightly breathy, happy sigh.
Kirihara grinned at her weakly, and swallowed heavily. “Yeah...it is.” he said, as they both looked over to the pink team. His expression quickly melted into one of pure mischief, and An didn’t really want to think about what that meant. “Yah, Marui-senpai, looks like I’m going to be the one bankrupting you at all-you-can-eat tonight!” he screamed, cupping his hands around his mouth
There was vague grumbly shouting from up above them and An couldn’t help but catch Kirihara’s eyes and burst into pleased laughter, together.
(X)
<< Unknown Number: Hey, this is Kirihara Akaya!
>> I know that, I literally just gave you my number, silly.
>> How do you have time to text anyway, isn’t your stylist also killing you for ruining your hair in that rain?
<< Kiributt: You’re so salty.
<< It’s not attractive in girls, you know.
<< Especially when you’re a hypocrite and totally texting me back.
>> Like I care. Remember, Sakuno’s the cute one. I’m the sassy one.
<< Kiributt: Like the spice girls, right? You would suit Victoria Beckham’s position more, your face is about as sour as hers.
>> If I can have half the money that she has, I would take her prune face, tbh.
<< Kiributt: So you’re a gold-digger?
>> Just realistic about how much money is required to sustain the luxurious lifestyle I wish to live. How else do you afford bright purple Maseratis, a penthouse in New York, Paris and Tokyo, and diamond rings?
<< Kiributt: （°o°；）
<< ....that’s really ambitious, lol
>> Are you saying that I can’t sell enough? Our group’s definitely going to become big enough to do that
>> ...one day.
<< Saltyhara: Well, can’t fault you for ambition, I guess.
>> That’s right. I’m going to take over the world, one album at a time.
<< Saltyhara: Queen Dominatrix Tachibana An? I’m shaking in my shoes.
>> I can’t even tell if you’re being serious or not
>> But I’m totally taking that as a compliment, whether you meant it that way or not.
>> Because that’s an awesome title
>> (•̀o•́)ง
>> ...kinky implications aside.
<< Saltyhara: You’re so annoying, I swear.
<< Want to go for coffee sometime soon?
>> I....yeah, I guess, sure.
>> You’re really confusing, you know that?
<< Kookyhara: Sorry
<< Was it too abrupt?
<< Was sort of meaning to ask you out for a while
<< To make up for the coffee I spilt all over you
<< I just remembered
<< And I’m shit at remembering shit for too long, so I had to say it
>> Yeah, I get it, np
>> I was just confused lol
>> You already paid me back the first time around, but you know, never going to say no to free drinks :D
>> Where do you wanna head?
>>I’m chill as long as they have black.
<< Kookyhara: I heard there’s a nice place near Ikebukuro, called Seishun or something. Let me text you the picture of the address
<< IMAGE SENT
<< And who said it was free?? (-O-)
>> I know it, Sakuno likes it a lot.
>> They have nice bubble tea :D
>> Want to go there next wednesday? I’m free after 3.
>> also i’m super cute and totally deserve free drinks everywhere?
<< Kookyhara: fine, fine I’ll pay for your goddamn drink. see you then.
(X)
With a slow yawn, An checked the time on her phone again, with impatience. Leaning against a streetlight wasn’t exactly the most comfortable when you were there for more than ten minutes, but she didn’t want to walk around too much for fear of accidentally missing her contact, in the crowd around them.
Adjusting the black mask over her face, An scanned the crowd, for a familiar head of curly black hair. They had texted to meet here almost fifteen minutes ago, but Kirihara still hadn’t arrived yet, and An was starting to get a little worried. If she wasn’t lying to herself, she was pretty excited about getting to have coffee with Kirihara. They’d been texting a lot, inbetween busy schedules and drama with people in their lives, and she was surprised by just how it was to easily keep up a conversation with him, even if sometimes Kirihara only texted her lines of frustrated emojis and crying selfies, and she only replied with videos of laughing babies and dogs. It was a little bit of fun, in a life that was increasingly sucking the fun out of the music she’d once loved more than life itself.
Every musician went through that, of course, the cycle of creativity inhibited by other factors such as overworking and exposure and public-friendly-songs. Eventually, they always found their love for music again, but it was still an unpleasant sensation, like pinpricks against her skin. But talking with Kirihara removed that, if only for a few moments, and she was grateful.
There was the sound of panting from behind her, so An turned around to watch Kirihara almost collide with the street-light, clearly having run from the train station, mask dangling off one of his ears, showing off his red cheeks and ears. “Sorry I’m late, Tachibana-san! My manager was being a bitch about things, and I missed my train, so I had to sprint to make the opposite direction one and get here.”
An laughed, with amusement and reached up to hook the other end of the mask over his face, noting how he suddenly shut up, when he noticed her hand moving towards him. Was it--? “It’s fine, it’s fine, don’t worry, you’re not that late. And An-san works just fine, you know. An-chan is my stage persona, but Tachibana is too formal. We’re past formalities, right?” She said, cheerily, smiling softly. “Shall we go in?
Kirihara nodded, abruptly straightening and pushing through the crowd, ahead of An. An bit down on her lip, to stop herself from laughing, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, as she followed him, a little more slowly. By the time she pushed into the cool coffee shop, Kirihara had already got in line, intently staring at the options of coffees he could choose from, eyes wide. It was cute, in that little child sort of way, and An sidled up next to him, with a smile.
“Know what you’re getting yet? I’ve heard that their macchiatos are good, but there’s too much milk for me to be able to get it.” An said, placidly, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket, nudging his side, with her elbow.
“Still on a diet?” asked Kirihara, pulling a face, “And I’m thinking I’ll try their bubble tea or something, strawberry looks good.”
Rolling her eyes, An kicked back on her heels. “When am I not on a diet, Kirihara?”
“Akaya.” Kirihara corrected, very studiously not looking at her, judging by the way his shoulders sort-of tensed up and his chin went upwards. “If you’re An, I’m Akaya. It’s not like anyone else calls me Kirihara after several meetings. Pretty much everyone just calls me Akaya, no matter what I do. I don’t know whether to be flattered or annoyed.”
“Or Akabrat.” said An, with a teasing grin, “I saw Niou-senpai teasing you on your variety show this week, everybody knows you so well.”
Akaya bristled, his hands clenching quickly into fists. “God, Niou’s so annoying, I swear, you never know whether you want to laugh at him or punch him in the face. But you know, socializing with him’s a necessary evil. One of the best bassists in the country, and all. I did a lot of hustling to hit it big. My manager was really key to that, otherwise, I’d still be an awkward loudmouth brat at the backstage of classical concerts, still.”
“You mean that you’re not a loudmouth brat behind the stage of J-Melo, now?” asked An, feigning confusion with a wide-eyed look of shock, and broke into amused laughter as Akaya lightly thwapped her shoulder, eyes crinkling upwards with reluctant laughter. “One black coffee please, extra hot.” She said, to the barista, who was waiting expectantly on them, looking slightly confused by their laughter.
“One strawberry bubble tea please. And maybe one of your specialty pastries too?” Akaya said, and before An could do anything, he’d already forked over his wallet, to pay for both of them. The barista just took the card, and Akaya ignored An’s gaping (though admittedly, that could have been because the face mask covered her nose and mouth), to go and stand to the side, in order to wait for their order.
“Hey, Akaya-kun, I was joking about the drinks by text, I would have paid for mine.” An said, following him, with a slightly annoyed frown, “Let me pay you back, please.”
“It’s like 500 yen, I can afford it.” Akaya said, rolling his eyes, leaning back against the counter, “I’m a big boy earning big bucks. More than you must be making, if your salary is split between three of you. You can pay next time.”
An was still a little annoyed, but she jumped on the conversation continuation anyway, she’d text him her displeasure about it later, instead of make a fuss now. She disliked those sorts of girls anyway, she wasn’t that stubborn. Only a little stubborn. “Next time, huh? We gonna make this a regular thing?”
“Well sure,” Akaya said, not getting flustered like An had been hoping, “Unless your diet can’t take it.” His tongue came out, with a mischievous grin, and it took rather more effort than An had been hoping to drag her eyes away, to look upwards.
An laughed, cheerily, pressing her hands together. “Oh trust me, the amount of coffee I drink per day is accounted for in my diet, because I drink so much, regardless of whether I come to coffee shops or not. My dance studio has a coffee machine in the corner, so I’m always ready to face the day.”
Akaya gave her a look of pure judgement and wrinkled his face, into an absolutely hilarious expression, even with half of his face covered. An had to clutch her knees to make sure she didn’t topple over from laughter, and she knew that she was drawing attention from other people who were waiting, which was probably a bad idea since she was a hot-issue celebrity, but it was hard to not be a raucous teenager when she was talking to Akaya. It was just fun, more fun than she’d ever expected to have with the boy.
It was funny to tease him, watch his face twist into disgust or annoyance, then melt straight back into amicable amusement, it was hilarious to hear his little anecdotes of other people fucking up or himself fucking up, and in an increasingly busy schedule, filled with tiring activities and annoying people, he was quickly becoming a little bit of a haven, like Akira, Shinji and Kippei were, in a way that even her closest friends and confidants Sakuno and Tomo couldn’t be.
It was weird though, An mused as she straightened to grab her coffee and find a table, Kippei, Akira, and the other Fudomine boys were comfortable, because they were not in the industry, which meant she was Tachibana An, and not An-chan. But Akaya was in the industry, which should have logically meant that he was stressful, especially since she knew that he was a low-key fan (no matter how much he denied it). And yet. And yet, it was still easy to be Tachibana An with him. And that was nice and weird all at once.
People like that were rare. She’d have to keep him close.
Grabbing a seat in the back corner, away from the windows and from the line-of-sight of most people, Akaya almost knocked over the hanging flower-pots, as he tried to sit down, and An snickered, pulled from her thoughts, easily. “Clumsy idiot.” She teased, coming in to sit next to him, instead of opposite from him, much to his confusion. “Were you always like this?”
Akaya snorted, as he took a sip of his bubble tea. “My manager, Yanagi-san, calls me a chaos-magnet. I just attract trouble, even when I’m not actively looking for it, like I was as a kid.”
“Oh, were you a bad kid?” asked An, fingers fidgeting absently with the coffee sleeve, eyes trained on Akaya’s face, “I can’t see you as one.”
Pulling a slightly unpleased face, Akaya tilted his head from side to side. “Sort of? I got into a lot of fights because I had a lot of pent-up anger from being extreme music prodigy who went nowhere, and I pissed off people in general, and usually people who were better than me. I wasn’t exactly the smartest kid either, so I just got a lot of negative attention. But I never did committed any crimes or shit.” He assured, as he popped open the box and split open a rather large cream puff.
Pulling off a little bit of the cream puff, despite Akaya’s muffled sounds of protest, and popping it into her mouth, An nodded. “Ha, I know that feel. It was the same for me and my brother, though it was because he was a huge matyr, and I loved him and I was better at finding tactical retreats anyway, so we got into fights against bullies and shit. My mum used to despair so much.”
Akaya’s eyes widened, as he swallowed quickly. “Really?” He asked, voice clearly shocked. “You used to get into street fights?”
An laughed, and took another sip of her coffee. “Tried to not make it a habit, because dancing becomes hell-on-earth once you have a billion bruises everywhere, but when my brother and I chanced upon unfair fights, we always got involved. Nobody expects it, and it’s been years, but yeah. I bet I can throw a better punch than you.”
With a light snort of amusement, Akaya sucked up three pearls, his slightly reddening lips curling perfectly around the straw, and An had to pretend to take a sip of coffee, to hide the slight gulp of nervousness. It was harder to be aloof, when she remembered that he was hot. “No way. I got out of all my troubles with a fist, until my manager pulled my shit together. I’d definitely be better than you.”
“Sure, sure.” An said, and before she could chicken out of it, leant into his side, with a contented sigh, “Let’s test it out some time on variety, I’ll definitely beat you up.” She could feel him tense underneath her, and when her eyes darted up to his face, he was starting to turn a little red, but he pulled off a cocky smirk as he noticed her gaze on him.
“We can do it on my show, and my editors can hold it as a fair contest. Otherwise you’ll totally cheat, I know you.” Akaya said, with a slightly more strangled voice. With what was perhaps the most awkward hand gesture ever, his arm sort of half-edged across her back, as if trying to test out the waters of physical touch, but didn’t want to get beat up if he was wrong.
“Ready to be destroyed on national television?” An asked, with a laugh, leaning in a little closer to him, pressing her thigh to his, trying to not notice the way that he’d changed his shampoo since last week, and how she thought that sandalwood smelled even better than apple. If he couldn’t take the hint here, she might just have to dump him before he started to date her.
His arm carefully edged a little bit more across her back, a little closer to her shoulders, but still not quite there, and this was almost painful. Placing down her coffee cup, An reached back to pull his arm over her properly, raising one eyebrow at him. He looked even redder, and scowled at her when he met her gaze. “You’re so annoying, god.” He said, pretending to mock-choke her.
An made some fake-strangled sounds at his actions, but couldn’t hide the grin that spread over her face. “I have to do everything in this relationship, you know.” She whined, licking her lips a little nervously as the smell of his almost-cinnamon cologne started to hit.
“Excuse you, I’m always texting you first.” Akaya sniffed, looking insulted, “And who was it that facilitated our first meeting?”
“By spilling hot coffee on me.” An said, rolling her eyes. “And you were a total jerk that whole meeting. You’re just lucky that I decided to apologize.”
“I was not--I wasn’t! I promise.” Akaya said, suddenly straightened, hand coming away from An to shake his hands, frantically, “Like, not at the first meeting, anyway, I thought you were pretty chill. I dunno, I just say dumb shit, and I wanted to try and flirt with you, then...well, at least you didn’t punch me like everyone else when they get pissed.”
An blinked, before laughing, shaking her head with dark amusement. Flirting? That was flirting to him? This was flirting, this awkward dance between them, of finding what made each of them comfortable and happy, not offensive pick-up lines. “I wanted to, trust me. I was just thinking of image. Who even told you that pick-up-lines was something that worked?” She demanded, jabbing his chest and he shrugged, looking a little panicked. For a moment, An considered making him sweat it for a bit longer, but settled back against his side, instead, deciding to be a little merciful. “Whatever you weirdo, I forgave you a while back, so don’t move, you’re comfortable.” She ordered, as she drained her coffee, happily.
“Yes, Overlord Tachibana.” muttered Akaya, but his arm slunk around her shoulder again and when An looked up at him, he had a slightly goofy smile on his face.
“That’s right, I think I like the ring of that. You should call me that more often.” She said, but her smile was teasing, and god, she couldn’t stop smiling at him, and this was so dumb. But she had a feeling that this was what it was supposed to be like, anyway.
They sat in silence for a few moment, as Akaya slurped up the last of his tea, and An cuddled into his jacket, trying to subtly inhale more of his cologne smell from his jacket, because it was rather soothing, reminding her a little bit of their kitchen at home, back when she’d been a kid in Kyushu. Finally, Akaya coughed, softly. “So, how does this work?”
“Mmm, well, I’m not an idol, so we can date. My manager would say that we keep it on the down-low and not announce it, just confirm it if internet rumours get too much. People were already theorizing about it after the photoshoot anyway, so whatever.” An said, looking up, “What about you?”
“Probably the same conditions. My terms will probably less restrictive than yours, just because I’m an indie artist.” Akaya said, with a shrug, resting his head against hers, in way that would be awkward, if it wasn’t cute and comfortable.
An hummed, and nodded, minutely, so as to not jolt his head. “Okay. We’re still doing coffee dates, right?”
“Mmmhm.” Akaya hummed, in agreement, and turned to the side a little bit, and their cheeks brushed against each other. There was no way that An was hiding the small gulp in her throat now, being so up close to Akaya, and feeling his slightly pockmarked skin against hers. It was strange, and god, she wasn’t a teenager anymore, but she was still vaguely nervous about all of this. His green eyes looked even prettier from up close and the lines of his face softened away, making him look entirely too kissable.
“Can I kiss you?” He asked, before An could even get there, and his voice was a little crackly, and she could forget the slightly high-pitched edge at the end of his words, because she wasn't sure her own voice would be quite so stable. So in response, quickly making sure that nobody was coming by, she pulled down their masks and turned around to press their lips together, gently.
His lips were chapped against hers and tight-lipped, but after the initial surprise, melted into hers, into a slow and easy slide. They twisted around in their seats, a little awkwardly, but eventually, Akaya’s thumbs ran over the edges of her cheekbones, and her own hands were looped into his curly hair as they breathed in each other.
Oh yeah. This was definitely a good day. An pulled away with a careful breath, to look over Akaya’s reddening cheeks and ears, and his spit-slick lips, before diving back in for another one, with a little more teeth, tugging at the plush bottom lip. Akaya’s fingers jerked against her face, and he pulled away fast, and An, for a moment, worried whether she’d done something wrong, but at his red cheeks and his slightly darker smile, she knew that she’d done a little too well.
“This is so totally not something we should be doing in public.” He said, voice a little deeper, “Overlord or not.”
“We’re taking the makeout session back to your apartment, then?” asked An, pushing away from Akaya and looping the mask back over her face, which hid most of the evidence of them having kissed and tugged through her hair, to make it look a little straighter, like it usually was.
Akaya pulled up his own mask, and tossed away his cup, before winding an arm over her shoulder. “Of course.” he said, cheerily.
Author: arysthaeniru
Recipient: The Community!
Pairing/Characters: Tachibana An/Kirihara Akaya, (minor characters) Osakada Tomoka, Tachibana Kippei, Marui Bunta
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: grumpy characters, mentions of fighting
Disclaimer: Konomi owns all, including the 112,823 chocolates he received for Valentines Day.
Summary: An really doesn’t understand the fuss around Kirihara Akaya, cello prodigy and popular artist. Sure, he’s sort of pretty, but isn’t everybody in this industry? Besides, it can’t be worth an attitude like that, right?
“You know.” An murmured, as she adjusted her fingerless gloves properly, “I think that someone has to be organizing the fact that we always meet each other when we do things that aren’t music related. I didn’t even go to your variety show, but we ended up starring on the same episode of another show.”
Kirihara, who was next to her, adjusting the rock-climbing helmet over his curly hair with difficulty and a slight scowl on his face, shrugged. “Whatever, it’s nice to see a familiar face, so I ain’t complaining, even if you really should give me your number so next time, we can actually coordinate this. But sounds like something my manager would find amusing, he’s the sort of person who likes to see me embarrassed or in pain.”
An turned to Kirihara, raising her eyebrow with slight amusement. Was seeing her embarrassing, since she was no longer causing him pain? Hmm, wasn’t that interesting information? “Isn’t he supposed to help you out?”
Kirihara looked down the cliff, upon which they were currently balanced, the production team a safe distance behind, as the abseiling experts tested the ropes and the tethers. In the distance, the sea roared, and the sky was slightly grey, predicting rain in the near future. Hopefully not when they were filming and trying to abseil down the cliff, but that might be too much to ask for. “I dunno, what part of being enrolled on this particular Golden Week Special makes you think that he wants me particularly alive?” asked Kirihara, looking nervous for the first time since An had first seen him, over three months ago. It was an unfamiliar expression on his sharp, usually smug features and it made him just a little more endearing and cute.
An snorted, hiding her giggles in her sleeve. Admittedly, this wasn’t exactly where she had wanted to spend her Golden Week, but sometimes you had to take risks in order to make people like you. And this was one of the newest and coolest variety shows, which liked to test the nerves of various celebrities, by forcing them to complete activities on a time-limit. It was a variety show popular with the youth, which of course, meant that one of the Kaleidoscope Girls had to be on it. And An had drawn the short straw among the group, much to Tomo’s amusement and Sakuno’s abject relief.
Still, with Kirihara as her partner and the MCs liking her sass, An thought that she was pretty set for having popularity and screen-time on the show already. But of course, they hadn’t exactly started the main challenge yet. The producer gave them a thumbs up and they all quickly gathered in the centre.
“How is everyone feeling?” asked the tallest MC, smiling widely, with cheerful grace as they were all handed jackets, with cameras strapped to the front, to get a nice view of the underside of their faces.
“I’m counting on Kirihara-san to catch me if I like slip and die.” An said, nose wrinkling as she shrugged on the vest. “Someone has to tell my brother that he doesn’t get any of my stuff because he laughed at me when I was auditioning to get a job at my agency!”
There was a light peal of laughter among the MCs and the other contestants and Kirihara grinned, self-deprecating instantly, zipping up the jacket with smooth grace. “Ha, much more likely that she’ll have to catch me, I’m super clumsy when it comes down to it. Chaos-God and all!”
“Oh, it could be worse,” joked the pretty actress beside them, whose name An had already forgotten, without the name-tags from the studio, “You could be scared of heights like Marui-kun.”
Marui, whom An supposed was the pink-haired man who was currently trying to not look backwards towards the rather large fall they had to go, grinned painfully. “I’m going to beat all of you, just watch.” he said, but his voice was shakier than his hands, and An had to reach out to press a hand to his shoulder, reassuringly.
“Relax, I’ll fall first, so I can break your fall.” she said, cheerily and the entire group laughed, except for Kirihara, whose face looked suspiciously blank. With a slightly quizzical look, An fell back, as the MCs explained the rules. There were five coloured flags distributed down their drop for each team, and they had to get their coloured flags and reach the bottom before the other team could. Simple enough, but other than ‘no endangering the safety of the other contestants’, there weren’t any real rules, which meant that sabotage was an open option on the table. An considered suggesting it teasingly to the whole group, but fell silent at Marui’s slightly green-looking face, and quiet whimpers, too faint to be heard by the cameramen. Her hand slid down from his shoulder to the small of his back, where she patted him comfortingly, and Marui gave her a tight-lipped, but grateful smile in response.
Kirihara said nothing, but his lips were pursed together as the MCs allowed them to go and get started, and there was something distinctly bad-tempered to the way that his hair stuck out of the back of his helmet.
Shaking her head with confusion, An headed towards the edge of the equipment, waddling slightly to the edge, with the discomfort of a large tether pulling at the edges around her crotch. The experts tugged at the straps near her waist, before patting her back. “You’ll do fine.” said the man, looking at An’s skeptical expression.
Well, she had to do well in any case, so it didn’t matter. Taking a deep breath inwards, and letting the nervousness stream out of her pores on the exhale, An dropped off the edge of the cliff, hands gripping tightly to the guide-rope, as she scaled downwards. Overestimating how much force her gravity gave her, she slid down quickly, further down than she’d wanted, missing the first flag that she and Kirihara had to collect. Thankfully, Kirihara hadn’t yet dropped down, which meant they had a chance. “Kirihara-san!” An yelled, “Be sure to stop yourself quickly when you fall, the flag’s closer to the edge than we thought. I’m going to try and get the next one.”
There was a vague sound of agreement from above, and An paused for a moment, with a slight frown, before slowly bouncing downwards cautiously, fingers barely leaving the guide-rope as she dropped down. It took a little bit of aiming, to drop himself down to the exact area where the flag would be, and An realized with horror, than no, she couldn’t just pick up the flag and keep jumping. It had been tied down to the small crannies in the rock. Which meant that she had to let go of her grip on the guide-rope to untie the flag and hope that her feet could keep her upright, if she squatted down properly.
“Oh my god.” An said, to the camera, “I knew I should have worked on thigh strength in the dance studio. My dance teacher said that you can never do too many squats, but I didn’t believe her. I’m sorry sensei, next time I’ll listen to whatever you say, perfectly, otherwise I’m going to regret it on variety TV.” she said, hoping that the audience would be able to laugh at her struggles, at least, when the footage was edited.
Trying to get her feet properly balanced on the edge of the cranny, An leant back in her harness, shakily, and her fingers cautiously crept away from the guide-rope. After a couple of seconds where she didn’t instantly topple to her death, An grinned, and started to untangle the knot. It was an awkward angle from which to untangle a rope, but An wasn’t risking anything. She could look like a fool on National TV, if it meant that she won.
From above, she could see Kirihara hanging on his rope, untangling the flag, with much more ease. Unfair! “Yah, Kirihara-san, how are you doing it so well?” demanded An, as she fumbled with the string.
“It’s a skill you have to be born with. Like beauty.” Kirihara yelled back, and she didn’t have to be able to see his face, to be able to see the smug expression etched over his features. “What can I say; it’s just my natural talent.”
“Then hurry up and win the game for us then, fool!” An snapped, finally managing to untangle the flag, just as Kirihara started to drop down, with a finesse that An couldn’t even think about. In what world was it fair that he was able to instantly master how to use an abseil rope?
“Hey, have you done this before? You’re way better at this than me.” asked An tucking the flag into her pouch, as they both zipped down, looking backwards and throwing glances over to the other team, on their left.
“Nah, but Yukimura-san threw me out of a helicopter once, so he could test some shit for his painting. I think he just wanted me to scream and flounder in the middle of the air, but you know. Art. You can’t argue with artists. There’s always an explanation for how it interlinks with the annals of society or something.” Kirihara said, with a shrug and a mischievous grin towards the other side. “Hey, since I’m a master and all, want me to go over there and steal their flag? They’re like nowhere near it.”
An laughed, grinning evilly, glancing back upwards towards where Marui and the actress were still struggling to untie their first flag, bickering something fierce. “Sabotage wasn’t banned in the rules~” she said, steadying herself against the cliff, as they rounded upon the third flag. “Glad we think alike. But wouldn’t it be too much for poor Marui-senpai? He looked like he was going to die. We can just win this normally anyway.”
Kirihara pulled a face, and this time, she definitely wasn’t imagining his bad temper. Did he not like Marui or something? But they’d been joking around when they’d filmed the studio segment, about how they were both linked by their crazy friends? Honestly, An couldn’t understand half of what was going through Kirihara’s mind. Every time she thought that she could empathize with him on a spiritual level about their mutual struggles, some other curveball managed to ruin it. “I guess...” he muttered. “If you want to be a killjoy, I suppose.”
An shrugged. “Eh, we’re both mean, but we’re not assholes. Let’s just get the next flags and get down on steady ground. I think this tether is going to cut through my thighs, and that would suck.” As she finished speaking, a rather large droplet of water hit the front of her nose, and she instantly pulled a face. “Plus it’s raining, so the less time we’re on these stupid ropes, the better.”
“It’s not like you wouldn’t have more flesh to spare, Ms. Thunderthighs.” Kirihara said, raising an eyebrow, as An leant forward to fumble with the ropes for the third yellow flag, ignoring the slick slide of the water across her slender fingers. The flagpole of the first flag was digging into the soft flesh of her thigh, and ached, but An, too afraid to lose her balance and drop the flag, didn’t move it aside.
“I think that even with my ample thighs, I’m going to run out of unmarred skin, by the time this challenge is over. You have to carry me if I lose my legs, okay?” she called down to Kirihara, who’d already scaled across to the side with easy grace, to untie the fourth one, not even seeming phased by the steadily increasing rain against their sides. No way that this was his first time abseiling.
Tucking the third flag into her pouch again, An quickly scaled down, giving a quick thumbs up to the camera, as she grabbed the guide-rope again. Feeling a little more confident, An let herself drop for a bit longer, bouncing a little more against the edge of the cliff, letting the slip of the rain help her descent. Surprisingly, as she zipped past Kirihara, she could sort of start to feel the adrenaline in her bones, which could make something like this seem fun. Still not what An would have chosen to do during her Golden Week, but sacrifices had to be made.
Slowing down as she spotted the shock of yellow near the bottom of the cliff, An cautiously edged along the cliff side, abandoning the guide rope to clamber across the cold, wet rocks. “My fingers are basically holding onto a mini pool for algae. This is really gross.” An narrated, as she got closer to the flag.
Kirihara also started to drop down, quickly, coming down from the other side, so they could both approach the fifth and final flag. “My hair is going to be a mess after this rain.” Kirihara yelled down and An made a vague noise of agreement, focusing on keeping her grip against the rock with her thighs, solid. Her breath was starting to get a little laboured now, and she frowned, feeling rather annoyed by this change in events.
Turning angles carefully, they both awkwardly balanced together, to try and reach for the fifth flag. Kirihara reached forward at the same time as An, and their fingers brushed over each other, soft and just a little too intimate. An felt a shiver go down her spine, sensation of his slightly rough fingers against her skin, and suddenly, she felt very aware of how close they were, thighs brushing together through their sopping-wet trousers. Hoping that she wasn’t blushing, An pulled her hand back, to grip to the rock.
“Your flag, go on.” An said, with an awkward smile, far too aware of how closely they were tucked together here. Beyond the smell of petrichor in air, she could vaguely smell the artificial apple of his shampoo, and the deep spices of cinnamon from his cologne, and she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed by how nice it was, and how much it suited him.
Kirihara shook his head, and a couple of flecks of water dripped from his damp hair, rolling across his golden cheek with slow intensity. An had to physically fight to urge to reach up and touch his cheek as well, reminding herself that this was stupid and there were cameras hoisted to both of them, from a rather intimate angle. “Nah, it’s your flag, you got here first.” he said, and his voice was low and slightly out of breath also.
An shook her head again, passing off her second shiver, as one from cold. “Let’s not play the ‘I’m more humble than you game’ right now, we both know that you’ll lose. Take off the goddamn flag, so we can beat the pink team. My fingers are freezing anyway, they’ll be useless.”
Kirihara made a low growl of exasperation, which ran through his entire body, and An had to pull away and start to drop down, before she lost the tight control over her body’s desires. God, she’d never had such trouble with physically attractive people before, especially when they were cocky, arrogant idiots. Still, for a cocky, arrogant idiot, he was pretty cute. And easy to talk to, in any case, now that there was no formality between them anymore. It was a pleasant surprise, to add one more easy conversationalist to her list, which currently consisted of Senri, Kippei, Miyuki, Akira, Tetsu, Kyosuke and Sakuno. It was a good list of people to be amongst.
With a light smile, An let her feet touch the ground, and she shakily fell down to the ground, as an expert ran up, to unclip her from the tether.
She grinned with relief, waving her two yellow flags at the camera crew who were already waiting. The assistant-production director gave her a thumbs up, as Kirihara slowly dropped down behind her, the other three flags clutched in his hand, and a slight red flush to his cheeks.
“We won!” An said, with a light grin, waiting until he was stepping out of his tether to give him a quick hug. “It’s so good to be on secure ground again.” An said, with a slightly breathy, happy sigh.
Kirihara grinned at her weakly, and swallowed heavily. “Yeah...it is.” he said, as they both looked over to the pink team. His expression quickly melted into one of pure mischief, and An didn’t really want to think about what that meant. “Yah, Marui-senpai, looks like I’m going to be the one bankrupting you at all-you-can-eat tonight!” he screamed, cupping his hands around his mouth
There was vague grumbly shouting from up above them and An couldn’t help but catch Kirihara’s eyes and burst into pleased laughter, together.
(X)
<< Unknown Number: Hey, this is Kirihara Akaya!
>> I know that, I literally just gave you my number, silly.
>> How do you have time to text anyway, isn’t your stylist also killing you for ruining your hair in that rain?
<< Kiributt: You’re so salty.
<< It’s not attractive in girls, you know.
<< Especially when you’re a hypocrite and totally texting me back.
>> Like I care. Remember, Sakuno’s the cute one. I’m the sassy one.
<< Kiributt: Like the spice girls, right? You would suit Victoria Beckham’s position more, your face is about as sour as hers.
>> If I can have half the money that she has, I would take her prune face, tbh.
<< Kiributt: So you’re a gold-digger?
>> Just realistic about how much money is required to sustain the luxurious lifestyle I wish to live. How else do you afford bright purple Maseratis, a penthouse in New York, Paris and Tokyo, and diamond rings?
<< Kiributt: （°o°；）
<< ....that’s really ambitious, lol
>> Are you saying that I can’t sell enough? Our group’s definitely going to become big enough to do that
>> ...one day.
<< Saltyhara: Well, can’t fault you for ambition, I guess.
>> That’s right. I’m going to take over the world, one album at a time.
<< Saltyhara: Queen Dominatrix Tachibana An? I’m shaking in my shoes.
>> I can’t even tell if you’re being serious or not
>> But I’m totally taking that as a compliment, whether you meant it that way or not.
>> Because that’s an awesome title
>> (•̀o•́)ง
>> ...kinky implications aside.
<< Saltyhara: You’re so annoying, I swear.
<< Want to go for coffee sometime soon?
>> I....yeah, I guess, sure.
>> You’re really confusing, you know that?
<< Kookyhara: Sorry
<< Was it too abrupt?
<< Was sort of meaning to ask you out for a while
<< To make up for the coffee I spilt all over you
<< I just remembered
<< And I’m shit at remembering shit for too long, so I had to say it
>> Yeah, I get it, np
>> I was just confused lol
>> You already paid me back the first time around, but you know, never going to say no to free drinks :D
>> Where do you wanna head?
>>I’m chill as long as they have black.
<< Kookyhara: I heard there’s a nice place near Ikebukuro, called Seishun or something. Let me text you the picture of the address
<< IMAGE SENT
<< And who said it was free?? (-O-)
>> I know it, Sakuno likes it a lot.
>> They have nice bubble tea :D
>> Want to go there next wednesday? I’m free after 3.
>> also i’m super cute and totally deserve free drinks everywhere?
<< Kookyhara: fine, fine I’ll pay for your goddamn drink. see you then.
(X)
With a slow yawn, An checked the time on her phone again, with impatience. Leaning against a streetlight wasn’t exactly the most comfortable when you were there for more than ten minutes, but she didn’t want to walk around too much for fear of accidentally missing her contact, in the crowd around them.
Adjusting the black mask over her face, An scanned the crowd, for a familiar head of curly black hair. They had texted to meet here almost fifteen minutes ago, but Kirihara still hadn’t arrived yet, and An was starting to get a little worried. If she wasn’t lying to herself, she was pretty excited about getting to have coffee with Kirihara. They’d been texting a lot, inbetween busy schedules and drama with people in their lives, and she was surprised by just how it was to easily keep up a conversation with him, even if sometimes Kirihara only texted her lines of frustrated emojis and crying selfies, and she only replied with videos of laughing babies and dogs. It was a little bit of fun, in a life that was increasingly sucking the fun out of the music she’d once loved more than life itself.
Every musician went through that, of course, the cycle of creativity inhibited by other factors such as overworking and exposure and public-friendly-songs. Eventually, they always found their love for music again, but it was still an unpleasant sensation, like pinpricks against her skin. But talking with Kirihara removed that, if only for a few moments, and she was grateful.
There was the sound of panting from behind her, so An turned around to watch Kirihara almost collide with the street-light, clearly having run from the train station, mask dangling off one of his ears, showing off his red cheeks and ears. “Sorry I’m late, Tachibana-san! My manager was being a bitch about things, and I missed my train, so I had to sprint to make the opposite direction one and get here.”
An laughed, with amusement and reached up to hook the other end of the mask over his face, noting how he suddenly shut up, when he noticed her hand moving towards him. Was it--? “It’s fine, it’s fine, don’t worry, you’re not that late. And An-san works just fine, you know. An-chan is my stage persona, but Tachibana is too formal. We’re past formalities, right?” She said, cheerily, smiling softly. “Shall we go in?
Kirihara nodded, abruptly straightening and pushing through the crowd, ahead of An. An bit down on her lip, to stop herself from laughing, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, as she followed him, a little more slowly. By the time she pushed into the cool coffee shop, Kirihara had already got in line, intently staring at the options of coffees he could choose from, eyes wide. It was cute, in that little child sort of way, and An sidled up next to him, with a smile.
“Know what you’re getting yet? I’ve heard that their macchiatos are good, but there’s too much milk for me to be able to get it.” An said, placidly, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket, nudging his side, with her elbow.
“Still on a diet?” asked Kirihara, pulling a face, “And I’m thinking I’ll try their bubble tea or something, strawberry looks good.”
Rolling her eyes, An kicked back on her heels. “When am I not on a diet, Kirihara?”
“Akaya.” Kirihara corrected, very studiously not looking at her, judging by the way his shoulders sort-of tensed up and his chin went upwards. “If you’re An, I’m Akaya. It’s not like anyone else calls me Kirihara after several meetings. Pretty much everyone just calls me Akaya, no matter what I do. I don’t know whether to be flattered or annoyed.”
“Or Akabrat.” said An, with a teasing grin, “I saw Niou-senpai teasing you on your variety show this week, everybody knows you so well.”
Akaya bristled, his hands clenching quickly into fists. “God, Niou’s so annoying, I swear, you never know whether you want to laugh at him or punch him in the face. But you know, socializing with him’s a necessary evil. One of the best bassists in the country, and all. I did a lot of hustling to hit it big. My manager was really key to that, otherwise, I’d still be an awkward loudmouth brat at the backstage of classical concerts, still.”
“You mean that you’re not a loudmouth brat behind the stage of J-Melo, now?” asked An, feigning confusion with a wide-eyed look of shock, and broke into amused laughter as Akaya lightly thwapped her shoulder, eyes crinkling upwards with reluctant laughter. “One black coffee please, extra hot.” She said, to the barista, who was waiting expectantly on them, looking slightly confused by their laughter.
“One strawberry bubble tea please. And maybe one of your specialty pastries too?” Akaya said, and before An could do anything, he’d already forked over his wallet, to pay for both of them. The barista just took the card, and Akaya ignored An’s gaping (though admittedly, that could have been because the face mask covered her nose and mouth), to go and stand to the side, in order to wait for their order.
“Hey, Akaya-kun, I was joking about the drinks by text, I would have paid for mine.” An said, following him, with a slightly annoyed frown, “Let me pay you back, please.”
“It’s like 500 yen, I can afford it.” Akaya said, rolling his eyes, leaning back against the counter, “I’m a big boy earning big bucks. More than you must be making, if your salary is split between three of you. You can pay next time.”
An was still a little annoyed, but she jumped on the conversation continuation anyway, she’d text him her displeasure about it later, instead of make a fuss now. She disliked those sorts of girls anyway, she wasn’t that stubborn. Only a little stubborn. “Next time, huh? We gonna make this a regular thing?”
“Well sure,” Akaya said, not getting flustered like An had been hoping, “Unless your diet can’t take it.” His tongue came out, with a mischievous grin, and it took rather more effort than An had been hoping to drag her eyes away, to look upwards.
An laughed, cheerily, pressing her hands together. “Oh trust me, the amount of coffee I drink per day is accounted for in my diet, because I drink so much, regardless of whether I come to coffee shops or not. My dance studio has a coffee machine in the corner, so I’m always ready to face the day.”
Akaya gave her a look of pure judgement and wrinkled his face, into an absolutely hilarious expression, even with half of his face covered. An had to clutch her knees to make sure she didn’t topple over from laughter, and she knew that she was drawing attention from other people who were waiting, which was probably a bad idea since she was a hot-issue celebrity, but it was hard to not be a raucous teenager when she was talking to Akaya. It was just fun, more fun than she’d ever expected to have with the boy.
It was funny to tease him, watch his face twist into disgust or annoyance, then melt straight back into amicable amusement, it was hilarious to hear his little anecdotes of other people fucking up or himself fucking up, and in an increasingly busy schedule, filled with tiring activities and annoying people, he was quickly becoming a little bit of a haven, like Akira, Shinji and Kippei were, in a way that even her closest friends and confidants Sakuno and Tomo couldn’t be.
It was weird though, An mused as she straightened to grab her coffee and find a table, Kippei, Akira, and the other Fudomine boys were comfortable, because they were not in the industry, which meant she was Tachibana An, and not An-chan. But Akaya was in the industry, which should have logically meant that he was stressful, especially since she knew that he was a low-key fan (no matter how much he denied it). And yet. And yet, it was still easy to be Tachibana An with him. And that was nice and weird all at once.
People like that were rare. She’d have to keep him close.
Grabbing a seat in the back corner, away from the windows and from the line-of-sight of most people, Akaya almost knocked over the hanging flower-pots, as he tried to sit down, and An snickered, pulled from her thoughts, easily. “Clumsy idiot.” She teased, coming in to sit next to him, instead of opposite from him, much to his confusion. “Were you always like this?”
Akaya snorted, as he took a sip of his bubble tea. “My manager, Yanagi-san, calls me a chaos-magnet. I just attract trouble, even when I’m not actively looking for it, like I was as a kid.”
“Oh, were you a bad kid?” asked An, fingers fidgeting absently with the coffee sleeve, eyes trained on Akaya’s face, “I can’t see you as one.”
Pulling a slightly unpleased face, Akaya tilted his head from side to side. “Sort of? I got into a lot of fights because I had a lot of pent-up anger from being extreme music prodigy who went nowhere, and I pissed off people in general, and usually people who were better than me. I wasn’t exactly the smartest kid either, so I just got a lot of negative attention. But I never did committed any crimes or shit.” He assured, as he popped open the box and split open a rather large cream puff.
Pulling off a little bit of the cream puff, despite Akaya’s muffled sounds of protest, and popping it into her mouth, An nodded. “Ha, I know that feel. It was the same for me and my brother, though it was because he was a huge matyr, and I loved him and I was better at finding tactical retreats anyway, so we got into fights against bullies and shit. My mum used to despair so much.”
Akaya’s eyes widened, as he swallowed quickly. “Really?” He asked, voice clearly shocked. “You used to get into street fights?”
An laughed, and took another sip of her coffee. “Tried to not make it a habit, because dancing becomes hell-on-earth once you have a billion bruises everywhere, but when my brother and I chanced upon unfair fights, we always got involved. Nobody expects it, and it’s been years, but yeah. I bet I can throw a better punch than you.”
With a light snort of amusement, Akaya sucked up three pearls, his slightly reddening lips curling perfectly around the straw, and An had to pretend to take a sip of coffee, to hide the slight gulp of nervousness. It was harder to be aloof, when she remembered that he was hot. “No way. I got out of all my troubles with a fist, until my manager pulled my shit together. I’d definitely be better than you.”
“Sure, sure.” An said, and before she could chicken out of it, leant into his side, with a contented sigh, “Let’s test it out some time on variety, I’ll definitely beat you up.” She could feel him tense underneath her, and when her eyes darted up to his face, he was starting to turn a little red, but he pulled off a cocky smirk as he noticed her gaze on him.
“We can do it on my show, and my editors can hold it as a fair contest. Otherwise you’ll totally cheat, I know you.” Akaya said, with a slightly more strangled voice. With what was perhaps the most awkward hand gesture ever, his arm sort of half-edged across her back, as if trying to test out the waters of physical touch, but didn’t want to get beat up if he was wrong.
“Ready to be destroyed on national television?” An asked, with a laugh, leaning in a little closer to him, pressing her thigh to his, trying to not notice the way that he’d changed his shampoo since last week, and how she thought that sandalwood smelled even better than apple. If he couldn’t take the hint here, she might just have to dump him before he started to date her.
His arm carefully edged a little bit more across her back, a little closer to her shoulders, but still not quite there, and this was almost painful. Placing down her coffee cup, An reached back to pull his arm over her properly, raising one eyebrow at him. He looked even redder, and scowled at her when he met her gaze. “You’re so annoying, god.” He said, pretending to mock-choke her.
An made some fake-strangled sounds at his actions, but couldn’t hide the grin that spread over her face. “I have to do everything in this relationship, you know.” She whined, licking her lips a little nervously as the smell of his almost-cinnamon cologne started to hit.
“Excuse you, I’m always texting you first.” Akaya sniffed, looking insulted, “And who was it that facilitated our first meeting?”
“By spilling hot coffee on me.” An said, rolling her eyes. “And you were a total jerk that whole meeting. You’re just lucky that I decided to apologize.”
“I was not--I wasn’t! I promise.” Akaya said, suddenly straightened, hand coming away from An to shake his hands, frantically, “Like, not at the first meeting, anyway, I thought you were pretty chill. I dunno, I just say dumb shit, and I wanted to try and flirt with you, then...well, at least you didn’t punch me like everyone else when they get pissed.”
An blinked, before laughing, shaking her head with dark amusement. Flirting? That was flirting to him? This was flirting, this awkward dance between them, of finding what made each of them comfortable and happy, not offensive pick-up lines. “I wanted to, trust me. I was just thinking of image. Who even told you that pick-up-lines was something that worked?” She demanded, jabbing his chest and he shrugged, looking a little panicked. For a moment, An considered making him sweat it for a bit longer, but settled back against his side, instead, deciding to be a little merciful. “Whatever you weirdo, I forgave you a while back, so don’t move, you’re comfortable.” She ordered, as she drained her coffee, happily.
“Yes, Overlord Tachibana.” muttered Akaya, but his arm slunk around her shoulder again and when An looked up at him, he had a slightly goofy smile on his face.
“That’s right, I think I like the ring of that. You should call me that more often.” She said, but her smile was teasing, and god, she couldn’t stop smiling at him, and this was so dumb. But she had a feeling that this was what it was supposed to be like, anyway.
They sat in silence for a few moment, as Akaya slurped up the last of his tea, and An cuddled into his jacket, trying to subtly inhale more of his cologne smell from his jacket, because it was rather soothing, reminding her a little bit of their kitchen at home, back when she’d been a kid in Kyushu. Finally, Akaya coughed, softly. “So, how does this work?”
“Mmm, well, I’m not an idol, so we can date. My manager would say that we keep it on the down-low and not announce it, just confirm it if internet rumours get too much. People were already theorizing about it after the photoshoot anyway, so whatever.” An said, looking up, “What about you?”
“Probably the same conditions. My terms will probably less restrictive than yours, just because I’m an indie artist.” Akaya said, with a shrug, resting his head against hers, in way that would be awkward, if it wasn’t cute and comfortable.
An hummed, and nodded, minutely, so as to not jolt his head. “Okay. We’re still doing coffee dates, right?”
“Mmmhm.” Akaya hummed, in agreement, and turned to the side a little bit, and their cheeks brushed against each other. There was no way that An was hiding the small gulp in her throat now, being so up close to Akaya, and feeling his slightly pockmarked skin against hers. It was strange, and god, she wasn’t a teenager anymore, but she was still vaguely nervous about all of this. His green eyes looked even prettier from up close and the lines of his face softened away, making him look entirely too kissable.
“Can I kiss you?” He asked, before An could even get there, and his voice was a little crackly, and she could forget the slightly high-pitched edge at the end of his words, because she wasn't sure her own voice would be quite so stable. So in response, quickly making sure that nobody was coming by, she pulled down their masks and turned around to press their lips together, gently.
His lips were chapped against hers and tight-lipped, but after the initial surprise, melted into hers, into a slow and easy slide. They twisted around in their seats, a little awkwardly, but eventually, Akaya’s thumbs ran over the edges of her cheekbones, and her own hands were looped into his curly hair as they breathed in each other.
Oh yeah. This was definitely a good day. An pulled away with a careful breath, to look over Akaya’s reddening cheeks and ears, and his spit-slick lips, before diving back in for another one, with a little more teeth, tugging at the plush bottom lip. Akaya’s fingers jerked against her face, and he pulled away fast, and An, for a moment, worried whether she’d done something wrong, but at his red cheeks and his slightly darker smile, she knew that she’d done a little too well.
“This is so totally not something we should be doing in public.” He said, voice a little deeper, “Overlord or not.”
“We’re taking the makeout session back to your apartment, then?” asked An, pushing away from Akaya and looping the mask back over her face, which hid most of the evidence of them having kissed and tugged through her hair, to make it look a little straighter, like it usually was.
Akaya pulled up his own mask, and tossed away his cup, before winding an arm over her shoulder. “Of course.” he said, cheerily.