Title: Stuck
Author: Tezawari
Fandom: Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Friendship, Romance
Pairings: Kusano x Shige
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,053
Disclaimers: These pretty boys are not mine nor are any of the references within the fiction. All characters and references belong to their rightful creators and/or companies that own them.
Summary: Randomness, awkwardness, and just plain stupidness between two friends, but I think it's cute.
“Hey Shige! It’s been a while. How about I come over and check out your apartment?”
Shige was amidst taking out the keys for said apartment when his phone buzzed in his pocket at the newly arrived message. For some unknown reason, he took notice to the strength of the beats that his heart seemed to be making. He considered the thought that maybe; just maybe, this out-of-the-blue message from Kusano Hironori made his heart beat in such a manner.
As if in some sort of rush, Shige hurriedly unlocked his apartment door and toppled his abused bag of groceries over his small kitchen counter. Leaving the bags of food goods behind, Shige chose the couch to accommodate him and allowed him a moment to settle into it comfortably. With his cell phone lazily held in his palm which was resting on his stomach, Shige could only stare at the characters on his phone’s screen to a point when the screen dimmed in inactivity.
Shige’s mind was already working on ignoring the message.
Not that he didn’t want to reply to Kusano, but… he wanted to give himself time to think of just how to answer. He eyed the convenient notepad and pen he purposely leaves on the coffee table in front of him in case of those write-this-down emergencies. In this case, however, he thought of using the notepad as draft paper for his message. Unconsciously, Shige’s brows did a mild dance at the warring thoughts going on in his head. The thought of actually needing to write a rough draft immediately lost the battle due to just plain silliness and unwanted need to waste a perfectly good piece of notepad paper. Thus, one of the reasons why the poor notepad was still in perfectly good condition ever since.
“Sure.”
The send button had already been pressed and the animation of the action playing on the screen. Shige groaned. He obviously had more to say than that. He wasn’t sure what it was but he did. The idea of a rough draft was beginning to seem a little less silly. Just a little.
He was already in the process of quickly typing out additional things to say until a response interrupted him.
“Cool. When are you free?”
“Now.”
#@#
Forty minutes later, Shige opened the door to a grinning Kusano. While Shige admits to his awkwardness of communication via messaging, he felt the air become the best it could be when he could only smile in return. Ignoring how somewhat flustered he had been with a simple text message, he could concentrate on how good it felt to meet his friend again.
“I never thought you as a one-word-answer man,” Kusano teased from the start upon entering the apartment.
“Oh, sorry.” Shige closed the door behind the new occupant who seemed to be giving himself a moment to take in the new surroundings. “I was a little busy with things around the place.”
Kusano made a slight noise of understanding from the back of his throat as he ventured a little further into the apartment. “Busy?” After a quick but observant scan, he turned to Shige with a crooked smirk across his lips. “All I see is a carton of melting ice cream seeping through grocery bags and an imprint of your ass on the couch like you’ve been sitting there waiting.”
It awed Shige how easily relaxed Kusano can be despite the months’ gap of not seeing each other at all. However, it did immensely help Shige in keeping himself from being too stiff. “Uh, I was busy taking a nap on the couch because I was busy with things around the place.”
“Uh huh,” laughed Kusano.
#@#
Some award-winning American movie was quietly playing on the television while the two men conversed, sitting on the floor with their backs to the couch and the table in front of them. Shige was excitedly explaining the topic and issues of his upcoming paper that he is in the process of writing for one of his major classes. Kusano nods along, actually understanding what Shige is going on about.
Kusano was idly making lines and shapes in his small bowl of almost-finished but melting ice cream that the both of them had decided to try eating anyway. Unfortunately, Kusano was beginning to space out. He liked ice cream but he wasn’t a fan of chocolate mint chip which Shige had decided to serve him. The green tint to the cream was too similar to pistachio and the chunks of chocolate chips would always get stuck in the deep crevices between his gums and the walls of his mouth. No matter how far he would stretch his tongue and contort his jaw, he could never get that little piece. It was much like what he was doing now.
“Hey, are you listening to me? Why are you making weird faces at me?” Shige frowned, lightly pushing at Kusano’s shoulder.
The push was soft but enough to knock the younger male to his side and banging his knee on the underside of the coffee table. “I am sorry,” Kusano said with a small chuckle, somewhat embarrassed of being caught in the act of trying to get that piece of chocolate in the mouth in such an ugly manner. He situated himself back to a sitting position. “Okay, okay, go on with what you were saying.”
With a face, Shige stacked the 2 bowls into each other with their spoons and stood up to head to the kitchen in silence. Kusano immediately followed, not wanting to be left with the burden of obviously having had soured the mood a little. Shige was in the process of washing the bowls in the sink, scrubbing with the soap-covered sponge then rinsing with the hot water that fell from the faucet. He set the clean wet dishes to the side only for them to be picked up by the waiting Kusano with a cloth in hand. Kusano quietly dried off all that Shige finished washing and set them in the rack beside the sink but not without nearly dropping one of the spoons to the floor.
“Thanks,” Shige said, shaking off the excess water on his hands into the sink.
Kusano grinned at the other and grabbed for Shige’s hands, wrapping them into the cloth to dry them off. “Not at all~”
Shige laughed heartily and playfully smacked Kusano on the side of his head. “That’s gross.” He didn’t want to admit that the joking action warmed his heart a little.
Kusano returned the laughed and set the moist drying cloth to its proper place to dry off itself. “Oh, hey, where’s your toilet? I gotta go.”
“Second door on the left.”
#@#
Kusano was on his way back from doing his business until he came across what the first door on the left was. The door of Shige’s room wasn’t closed all the way probably due to the fact that Shige was already in it. Since the owner already was inside Kusano deemed it perfectly all right to go in as well.
Shige heard the light movement of Kusano behind him and quickly darted his head around from the laptop screen he was looking at. “Oh, you scared me.”
“What are you looking at?” Kusano welcomed himself to sitting on Shige’s bed, cross-legged and trying to peer over Shige’s shoulder from his place to see for himself.
After a few quick, instinctive clicks of his mouse to close the applications, Shige brought the lid of his laptop down to a close. “I just got some emails.” Shige dragged his school bag along the floor towards him to dig through it for a book. “A professor changed one of our assignments so I have to read an additional chapter then analyze it.” He flipped through the small though thick book he was able to fish out from his bag and joined Kusano on his bed.
“Eh? And you’re choosing now, when I’m here, to catch up on this reading of yours?” Kusano sat on the back of his legs, hands on his knees, and a pout on his lips since he knew his needs for entertainment was obviously being ignored. He watched as Shige repositioned his pillows behind him and fell back into them, shifting here and there to find a relaxed position. Shige held his book open in one hand with skill and let his other arm lazily fall to the side, horizontal to his head. Kusano took the open arm as an invitation and took it upon himself to use Shige’s arm as his own pillow.
Shige was about to complain when he lowered his gaze from his text to the hopeful eyes of Kusano. At least, they looked hopeful to Shige. The hope just seemed to be for Shige to rethink his decision to read instead of caring to his interest. Shige turned his attention back to his book. “Should I read to you?”
“That ain’t no Disney fairytale you have in your hand right now,” argued Kusano.
Shige started to read the words on the page nonetheless. He ignored Kusano’s groan and the growing numbness on his arm due to the weight of Kusano’s head. There were only a few sentences left until he would need to turn the page. Once he reached the end of the page, just as he was about to forcefully pull his arm out from under the younger male’s head, Kusano raised a hand in the air and aided in turning the page for him. From there, Shige just went on reading.
The pattern went on the same way for 4 more page-turns.
Just four paragraphs in of where he was at the moment, Shige already felt Kusano’s head loll to the side. He ignored it and went on reading to the end of the page. With Kusano already asleep and his arm already gone cold with numbness, Shige noted the page he was on and closed the paperback. As he twisted his other arm slightly to place the book on his bedside drawer, his eyes caught the time of the clock that currently read 8:24PM. He didn’t realize that it had already gotten that late. He also didn’t know what to do with Kusano.
There was no choice for Shige in the matter but to carefully reallocate the pressure to his shoulder for him to comfortably position himself on his side. He ignored how considerably closer he got to Kusano’s head and how the other’s hair was getting in his face. All he had to do then was let sleep take him as well.
#@#
Shige woke several hours later to find himself awake and alone. A part of him was confused and even a little hurt. Those feelings were quickly done away with when he yawned and could taste and smell the remnants of his previous meals in the past day escaping from his mouth. The clock told him that it was only 4:41AM. It came to no surprise since he never really was used to sleeping as early as he did and his body didn’t agree with it either.
The entire apartment was still brightly illuminated, just as he had left it which made it easy for him to make it to his bathroom. Shige picked up his toothbrush, drew a moderate amount of toothpaste on the bristles, and polished his teeth and cleansed his mouth. Amidst staring at his messy self in the mirror, his thoughts were reverted back to Kusano.
He figured, maybe Kusano woke up and let himself out. Or perhaps, Kusano never really came to visit. Such and more were being conjured in Shige’s mind as his brushing continued.
Suddenly, a loud buzzing was echoing through his empty, quiet apartment walls from the kitchen counter. Shige continued the cleaning of his mouth as his shuffled his feet to the source of the noise, which happened to be the alert that a new messaged had just been received. The toothbrush dangled at the corner of his sealed lips to allow his hands to open and view the message.
“Hey, are you awake yet? I’m at the convenience store. I got hungry so I’m bringing back something. What do you want?”
Shige about to the reply key until he realized that there was more to the message.
“Oh, sorry but I used your toothbrush. I had a piece of chocolate chip stuck in my mouth. I’m buying you a new one.”
Shige was between the horror of either having had shared a toothbrush with Kusano, or brushing his teeth when he is about to eat when Kusano returns, or the fact that he forgot to put the ice cream in the freezer since it already leaked its contents all over his kitchen counter and floor.
!#@#! Alternative Ending !#@#!
Shige woke several minutes later at the sudden pain he felt under his chin. Likewise, Kusano woke with the same pain but on the top of his head instead.
“Did you hit me?” accused Kusano, sitting upright and rubbing the aching spot on his head.
“I think you hit me…” Shige cupped his chin in hopes for the warmth of his palm to ease the pain.
Kusano searched the room momentarily with sleepy-squinted eyes before laying himself across Shige’s chest to get a closer view of the clock which read 8:53PM. There was a silence until Kusano turned his head to Shige. “Would it be all right if I sleep over?”
A brow rose on Shige’s forehead. “Didn’t you already just sleep?”
“That was only like… an hour or something. It barely counts as sleep!” Kusano whined, rolling his upper body on top of Shige’s in objection.
Shige flicked a finger at Kusano’s cheek as his request to cease adding more pain to what he was already feeling. “I think an hour is decent enough time,” he reasoned.
“You’re weird.” The pressure was taken away from Shige’s chest only to place it elsewhere. Kusano threw a knee over to one side of Shige’s hips and set his other knee on the opposite side. He contently sat his bum down on Shige’s thighs. “Do you remember the last time we had a sleepover?”
Shige gave a weary and questioning gaze up at Kusano. His chest also felt a certain tightness growing and he was sure that it wasn’t from the physical abuse that Kusano gave it. “Are you talking about the last time we had a sleepover or do you mean the last time we slept together?”
“Weren’t those the same times?”
That was a memory that Shige had kept in the back of his head. It was a week before Kusano was scheduled to leave for New York. To say the least of what had happened, they were drinking and emotions got the best of them. They had promised to keep it to themselves and save Koyama from a broken heart.
Kusano disrupted Shige’s mental trip down memory lane to add, “Although this time Koyama isn’t passed out in the corner. So that means you don’t have to keep quiet this time.”
“…What do you mean ‘this time’?”
Shige sat up in order to save himself only to meet lips with Kusano. It was gentle yet dry so Kusano pulled back to moisten his lips which seemed to be in a rather excessive manner since Shige felt his own lips soften from the wetness when another kiss was planted.
The movement between their lips was slow but pleasing, their heads tilting here and there only slightly for a change in angle. It was Kusano who slipped his tongue into the warmth of Shige’s mouth first. Shige was caught off guard with the amount of force Kusano was putting into the game between their tongues, causing him to just loosely tilt his head back and to the side against his shoulder. Kusano picked himself up on his knees to adjust to the new angle that Shige gave him to work with. Pressing a hand against the wall behind Shige to support himself, Kusano deepened their kiss, giving the muscle in his mouth a rest and a moment to breathe.
The chance was seized by Shige who took Kusano by the hips and changed their position so that Kusano was sitting up against the wall and Shige was settled between the other man’s legs. For his balance, Shige pressed his palm to his elbow on the wall above Kusano’s head. Kusano gave no protest to the older man but simply trailed his hand up along the wall to snake its way to intertwine with Shige’s.
One of them moaned the moment Shige took his turn in exploring Kusano’s mouth. Shige took notice to the way that this time Kusano was completely letting him do the work with his mouth. However, that was forgotten when he felt Kusano’s hands contributing in their own way by palming the softness of Shige’s sides through his thick t-shirt.
Kusano let his head rest on the hard plaster behind him as Shige was displaying a clear improvement in what his mouth can do compared to last time. He felt Shige’s tongue flick against his own and sweep over his teeth, even reaching places that Kusano didn’t recall feeling for himself. Kusano’s chest heaved for air to pass through his nose since his busied mouth with other matters. He was pretty sure that it was Shige who moaned this time since Kusano rubbed at his nipple through the cotton.
Unexpectedly, Shige withdrew and gave Kusano a perplexed look.
“What’s wrong?” Kusano breathed out.
“I think I just swallowed a piece of chocolate from your mouth.”
With a roll of his eyes, Kusano hooked a hand around the back of Shige’s neck to return to the task at hand. “Okay, that’s great.”
Shige resisted the tug from Kusano and rubbed a hand at his own belly. “But, it suddenly made me realize how hungry I am. The last thing I ate was just that ice cream from before.”
Kusano gave it some thought, his swollen lips pouting as well. “I guess we can grab something at the convenience store.”
There was a hopeful shine in Shige’s eyes.
“But I’d rather not.” Kusano gained dominance and tackled Shige down.
Author's Notes: I think I wrote this... almost 2 years ago? I found it in my USB from my computer science class. I must have been really bored! Anyway, I added on an alternative ending so I'm sorry if it's really strange and awkward. I haven't beta-ed it properly aside from quick skimming through, but it wouldn't matter since I never beta my fics. X3;
EDIT: Oh yeah, wanna know a secret? The truth is: It was actually supposed to be Tegoshi instead of Kusano. X3;