Alone Upon the Threshold drabble & Precarious Balance
TITLE: Blood on the Snow
CHARACTER: Shige
NOTE: slight continuation of 'Alone Upon the Threshold'
It's been a year.
A year of answering hypothetical legal "what-ifs", having conversations end the second he walks into a room, a year of akwkward interactions between him and the former members of the Kansai family that have now sided with Kantou.
It's been a year of utter paranoia.
After Murakami ran off with his few loyal underlings, there was talk of initiating Katou into the Kantou family, but it was shot down. By Koyama, because he didn't want Katou put in any difficult situations when it came to the law. By Kamenashi, because Katou didn't know anything about actually being a part of the black underground, even if he knew a lot about it. By Yamashita, because Katou's intellegence had better uses else where.
So he's still out of the loop, still only knows half of what's actually going on.
The most disturbing part, is that Katou knows the rest of his "family" doesn't know where Murakami ran off. And that's unsettling, since Murakami considers there to still be revenge to be dealt with. He knows that parties have been sent out to try and sniff out where he's hiding. Tegoshi, Koki and Jin were gone for two months just after the break up of the Kansai family. A few months later, Yasuda, Nishikido and Yamashita left for several weeks.
And then there's Yasuda, Shibutani, Ohkura and Nishikido to be considered.
Maybe it's because his brain can't stop with the lawyerly thinking, or if there's something else, but Katou can't bring himself to completely trust the four of them. After a year of hunting his head, and nearly getting it, they suddenly change their minds and the family breaks apart. It seems too good to be true. So Katou is always on his guarded, always sleeps lightly, always calculates his movements within the compound and his words when talking to others.
To Katou, it's vaguely like when he was hiding in the run-down office building and spending every waking moment writing in the notebooks. Katou finished them quite a while ago, but no one else knows that. They still think he spends all his free-time writing away. He lives with all of them, but he's not one of them. They know it, he knows it, and nothing is ever said about it. And that's fine with Katou. He's just surprised to be alive right now.
TITLE: Precarious Balance
PAIRING: RyoShigeKoyama
Considering all the hate Ryo injects into the relationship, it's amazing that they're all three still alive. It's not easy though, when every day they have to struggle through a love triangle.
Koyama has always loved Shige. First platonically, and then not-so-platonically. He knew that Shige didn't return those feelings, so he just wished Shige the best. But then Shige went and fell for Ryo and Ryo topped off the whole thing by admitting to having the hots for Koyama. It was tense for months - all three of knew about the triangle, but figured there wasn't anything they could do about it.
Yamashita thought differently. It wasn't a perfect plan - the three of them getting together - but he had to do something. All the sexual tension in the dressing room was starting to get on his nerves. He brings it up to Shige first, during one of their nights out drinking.
Shige laughs in his face.
"I'm serious!" Pi replies.
"And so am I." Shige takes a drink.
"You all just have to be patient. It'll work out."
"This isn't a drama, Yamashita. It's not easy. Ryo can't stand me."
"But he loves Koyama. And Koyama loves you. Get Koyama on your side. He'll go for it, to fix the broken Member Ai, if nothing else."
"You want me to mess with Koyama's feelings? That's just low."
"The problem has to be fixed. This is probably the only way it can be."
Shige signals to the waitress for the check and pulls out his wallet. "I'm going home."
"Think about it."
It's a week later, and the idea hasn't left Shige's head yet. He imagines a situation where he and his feelings are tolerated by Ryo, for Koyama's sake, and Shige himself tolerates Koyama's, because he wants to be close to Ryo. The situation is strange and unorthodox and completely implausible, and Shige some how finds himself bringing up one afternoon after Ryo and Yamapi have left for the day, and Tegoshi and Masuda are too involved in themselves to be paying attention to anything else.
"About the thing"- that's what they call it - "there's something I've been thinking about..."
Koyama looks guiltily at the floor, like he always does when it comes up. "What's that?"
"Um." Shige swallows. "It's- we." He covers his face with his hands. "We three go through it together."
Koyama cocks his head, obviously confused.
"The only way any one of us can be happy, if it's the three of us together. As a couple. But with three people."
Koyama laughs awkwardly. "But you don't like me. Like that."
"But Ryo likes you. And I like Ryo. And- And-. It's either like this or not at all, Koyama."
"Do you even think it's possible? That Ryo will go along with it?"
"If you agree to it, Ryo will too. He loves you more than I irritate him."
"Hey, hey! What are you guys talking about?!" Tegoshi calls from the other side of the room.
Shige and Koyama reply together, in tandem: "Nothing."
In the end, Koyama agrees to it, since there's nothing to lose in trying. The hardest part is finding a time to bring up the subject with Ryo. It ends up being at karaoke, after a few beers when and Koyama has become, somehow, more talkative than normal. When he stumbles into the bathroom, Ryo looks up from washing his hands and that look crosses his face - and Koyama sees his chance.
"Ryo-chan~"
"Christ, you're drunk."
Koyama smiles, and keeps walking closer to Ryo. "Hey, hey. Do you want to go back to your apartment?"
Ryo perks up, but looks weary at the same time. "Are you serious? Or is that the beer talking?"
"Cause Shige had an idea-"
"No."
Ryo brushes past Koyama and out of the bathroom. But back in the karaoke booth, Koyama keeps an eye on him, and it's obvious there are little wheels turning in Ryo's head. After they've all paid and Tegoshi waves goodbye from inside of a taxi with Masuda and YamaPi. The next one in the queue pulls up in front of the three of us and there's a tense silence for a moment.
Ryo turns to Koyama. "What was this idea you mentioned?"
Koyama smiles, still drunk, and looks over Ryo at Shige. "The idea is, the three of us." He holds up three fingers. "Fixing our little problem." And then he brings the three fingers together.
Shige blushes a little and Ryo looks horrified. The taxi driver coughs, still waiting for them to get in. Koyama laughs a little and pushes Ryo in. He follows and pulls Shige in too.
"Ryo-chan, give him your address."
The only reason he does is because it was Koyama that told him to.
The ride is silent. Ryo is trying to figure out what exactly he's gotten himself into, Shige's wondering why he ever even brought up the subject with Koyama, and Koyama using Shige's shoulder as a pillow. When they arrive, Ryo ends up paying (for some reason, he blames Koyama), and together, the three of them end up standing in awkward silence in the genken of Ryo's apartment.
"Now what, Brainiac? This was all your idea," Ryo hisses.
Shige looks down at the floor, and says quietly, "It really wasn't my idea."
Ryo glares at him, and walks further into the apartment, throwing his jacket over a chair. Shige takes a deep breath and starts to turn around and leave, but Koyama grabs his hand, and pulls him deeper into the apartment.
"Be nice to Shige."
Ryo looks up from digging around in the fridge. "Why should I?"
"Because if you're nice to Shige, I'll be nice to you."
Shige's still looking at the floor, but he can feel Ryo's gaze on them.
"That's how this will work."
Ryo goes back to the fridge. "You're both fucked in the head."
"You want me, right?"
Ryo freezes, and then slowly looks up again. "Are you serious?"
Koyama nods, and every one is very still for a very long moment. Ryo takes the first movement, and steps closer to the other pair.
"Be nice to me first."
"For now."
Ryo steps even closer, so that he and Koyama are flush. He runs his hands through Koyama's hair and pulls his face close, kissing his cheekbones. Koyama moves his head a little, so that Ryo won't have to crane his neck quite as much. Ryo exhales a little, and then he's kissing Koyama on the lips, and Koyama is moving his free hand to rest on Ryo's hip. Shige tries to tug his hand out of Koyama's, feeling an increasing desire to flee, but Koyama holds on tight, and rubs his thumb over the back of Shige's hand. Koyama starts pulling away, and Ryo growls, but Koyama still moves a step away. He smiles at Ryo, expectantly, and pushes him a little towards Shige. Ryo never stops looking at Koyama, and Shige is suddenly sure that this isn't going to work and that it's a stupid, stupid, stupid idea.
"I was nice to you, Ryo-chan."
Ryo looks irritated, and Shige's pretty sure he's going to refuse, but then Ryo's fisting a hand in his shirt, pulling him closer. Ryo's lips descend on his with a crash, and it startles Shige. Ryo is rough and forceful with his kiss, and Shige makes a point to remember everything about this kiss. When Shige moves his head a tiny bit, trying to get what he thinks is a better angle, Ryo bites his lip a little and pulls away.
"Go buy some chapstick." Ryo steps away. "That was like kissing sandpaper."
Koyama laughs and Shige nods, wishing he had some witty retort, but he's still too caught up in the kiss. Shige feels Koyama move a little bit, and Shige turns, knowing what's coming next. But then, Koyama's other hand is on his shoulder, patting it.
"You don't need to kiss me," he says. "I'm just happy everything's working out."
Shige looks up, shocked, and Koyama's smiling back at him. At the same moment that Koyama turns his head to say something to Ryo, Shige cranes his neck up, and leans forward. When he kisses the corner of Koyama's mouth, Shige can feel him smile, and in the background, he can hear Ryo digging around in the fridge.
It's not exactly the most normal of situations, but Shige can't help but think that it's not a completely stupid idea.
CHARACTER: Shige
NOTE: slight continuation of 'Alone Upon the Threshold'
It's been a year.
A year of answering hypothetical legal "what-ifs", having conversations end the second he walks into a room, a year of akwkward interactions between him and the former members of the Kansai family that have now sided with Kantou.
It's been a year of utter paranoia.
After Murakami ran off with his few loyal underlings, there was talk of initiating Katou into the Kantou family, but it was shot down. By Koyama, because he didn't want Katou put in any difficult situations when it came to the law. By Kamenashi, because Katou didn't know anything about actually being a part of the black underground, even if he knew a lot about it. By Yamashita, because Katou's intellegence had better uses else where.
So he's still out of the loop, still only knows half of what's actually going on.
The most disturbing part, is that Katou knows the rest of his "family" doesn't know where Murakami ran off. And that's unsettling, since Murakami considers there to still be revenge to be dealt with. He knows that parties have been sent out to try and sniff out where he's hiding. Tegoshi, Koki and Jin were gone for two months just after the break up of the Kansai family. A few months later, Yasuda, Nishikido and Yamashita left for several weeks.
And then there's Yasuda, Shibutani, Ohkura and Nishikido to be considered.
Maybe it's because his brain can't stop with the lawyerly thinking, or if there's something else, but Katou can't bring himself to completely trust the four of them. After a year of hunting his head, and nearly getting it, they suddenly change their minds and the family breaks apart. It seems too good to be true. So Katou is always on his guarded, always sleeps lightly, always calculates his movements within the compound and his words when talking to others.
To Katou, it's vaguely like when he was hiding in the run-down office building and spending every waking moment writing in the notebooks. Katou finished them quite a while ago, but no one else knows that. They still think he spends all his free-time writing away. He lives with all of them, but he's not one of them. They know it, he knows it, and nothing is ever said about it. And that's fine with Katou. He's just surprised to be alive right now.
TITLE: Precarious Balance
PAIRING: RyoShigeKoyama
Considering all the hate Ryo injects into the relationship, it's amazing that they're all three still alive. It's not easy though, when every day they have to struggle through a love triangle.
Koyama has always loved Shige. First platonically, and then not-so-platonically. He knew that Shige didn't return those feelings, so he just wished Shige the best. But then Shige went and fell for Ryo and Ryo topped off the whole thing by admitting to having the hots for Koyama. It was tense for months - all three of knew about the triangle, but figured there wasn't anything they could do about it.
Yamashita thought differently. It wasn't a perfect plan - the three of them getting together - but he had to do something. All the sexual tension in the dressing room was starting to get on his nerves. He brings it up to Shige first, during one of their nights out drinking.
Shige laughs in his face.
"I'm serious!" Pi replies.
"And so am I." Shige takes a drink.
"You all just have to be patient. It'll work out."
"This isn't a drama, Yamashita. It's not easy. Ryo can't stand me."
"But he loves Koyama. And Koyama loves you. Get Koyama on your side. He'll go for it, to fix the broken Member Ai, if nothing else."
"You want me to mess with Koyama's feelings? That's just low."
"The problem has to be fixed. This is probably the only way it can be."
Shige signals to the waitress for the check and pulls out his wallet. "I'm going home."
"Think about it."
It's a week later, and the idea hasn't left Shige's head yet. He imagines a situation where he and his feelings are tolerated by Ryo, for Koyama's sake, and Shige himself tolerates Koyama's, because he wants to be close to Ryo. The situation is strange and unorthodox and completely implausible, and Shige some how finds himself bringing up one afternoon after Ryo and Yamapi have left for the day, and Tegoshi and Masuda are too involved in themselves to be paying attention to anything else.
"About the thing"- that's what they call it - "there's something I've been thinking about..."
Koyama looks guiltily at the floor, like he always does when it comes up. "What's that?"
"Um." Shige swallows. "It's- we." He covers his face with his hands. "We three go through it together."
Koyama cocks his head, obviously confused.
"The only way any one of us can be happy, if it's the three of us together. As a couple. But with three people."
Koyama laughs awkwardly. "But you don't like me. Like that."
"But Ryo likes you. And I like Ryo. And- And-. It's either like this or not at all, Koyama."
"Do you even think it's possible? That Ryo will go along with it?"
"If you agree to it, Ryo will too. He loves you more than I irritate him."
"Hey, hey! What are you guys talking about?!" Tegoshi calls from the other side of the room.
Shige and Koyama reply together, in tandem: "Nothing."
In the end, Koyama agrees to it, since there's nothing to lose in trying. The hardest part is finding a time to bring up the subject with Ryo. It ends up being at karaoke, after a few beers when and Koyama has become, somehow, more talkative than normal. When he stumbles into the bathroom, Ryo looks up from washing his hands and that look crosses his face - and Koyama sees his chance.
"Ryo-chan~"
"Christ, you're drunk."
Koyama smiles, and keeps walking closer to Ryo. "Hey, hey. Do you want to go back to your apartment?"
Ryo perks up, but looks weary at the same time. "Are you serious? Or is that the beer talking?"
"Cause Shige had an idea-"
"No."
Ryo brushes past Koyama and out of the bathroom. But back in the karaoke booth, Koyama keeps an eye on him, and it's obvious there are little wheels turning in Ryo's head. After they've all paid and Tegoshi waves goodbye from inside of a taxi with Masuda and YamaPi. The next one in the queue pulls up in front of the three of us and there's a tense silence for a moment.
Ryo turns to Koyama. "What was this idea you mentioned?"
Koyama smiles, still drunk, and looks over Ryo at Shige. "The idea is, the three of us." He holds up three fingers. "Fixing our little problem." And then he brings the three fingers together.
Shige blushes a little and Ryo looks horrified. The taxi driver coughs, still waiting for them to get in. Koyama laughs a little and pushes Ryo in. He follows and pulls Shige in too.
"Ryo-chan, give him your address."
The only reason he does is because it was Koyama that told him to.
The ride is silent. Ryo is trying to figure out what exactly he's gotten himself into, Shige's wondering why he ever even brought up the subject with Koyama, and Koyama using Shige's shoulder as a pillow. When they arrive, Ryo ends up paying (for some reason, he blames Koyama), and together, the three of them end up standing in awkward silence in the genken of Ryo's apartment.
"Now what, Brainiac? This was all your idea," Ryo hisses.
Shige looks down at the floor, and says quietly, "It really wasn't my idea."
Ryo glares at him, and walks further into the apartment, throwing his jacket over a chair. Shige takes a deep breath and starts to turn around and leave, but Koyama grabs his hand, and pulls him deeper into the apartment.
"Be nice to Shige."
Ryo looks up from digging around in the fridge. "Why should I?"
"Because if you're nice to Shige, I'll be nice to you."
Shige's still looking at the floor, but he can feel Ryo's gaze on them.
"That's how this will work."
Ryo goes back to the fridge. "You're both fucked in the head."
"You want me, right?"
Ryo freezes, and then slowly looks up again. "Are you serious?"
Koyama nods, and every one is very still for a very long moment. Ryo takes the first movement, and steps closer to the other pair.
"Be nice to me first."
"For now."
Ryo steps even closer, so that he and Koyama are flush. He runs his hands through Koyama's hair and pulls his face close, kissing his cheekbones. Koyama moves his head a little, so that Ryo won't have to crane his neck quite as much. Ryo exhales a little, and then he's kissing Koyama on the lips, and Koyama is moving his free hand to rest on Ryo's hip. Shige tries to tug his hand out of Koyama's, feeling an increasing desire to flee, but Koyama holds on tight, and rubs his thumb over the back of Shige's hand. Koyama starts pulling away, and Ryo growls, but Koyama still moves a step away. He smiles at Ryo, expectantly, and pushes him a little towards Shige. Ryo never stops looking at Koyama, and Shige is suddenly sure that this isn't going to work and that it's a stupid, stupid, stupid idea.
"I was nice to you, Ryo-chan."
Ryo looks irritated, and Shige's pretty sure he's going to refuse, but then Ryo's fisting a hand in his shirt, pulling him closer. Ryo's lips descend on his with a crash, and it startles Shige. Ryo is rough and forceful with his kiss, and Shige makes a point to remember everything about this kiss. When Shige moves his head a tiny bit, trying to get what he thinks is a better angle, Ryo bites his lip a little and pulls away.
"Go buy some chapstick." Ryo steps away. "That was like kissing sandpaper."
Koyama laughs and Shige nods, wishing he had some witty retort, but he's still too caught up in the kiss. Shige feels Koyama move a little bit, and Shige turns, knowing what's coming next. But then, Koyama's other hand is on his shoulder, patting it.
"You don't need to kiss me," he says. "I'm just happy everything's working out."
Shige looks up, shocked, and Koyama's smiling back at him. At the same moment that Koyama turns his head to say something to Ryo, Shige cranes his neck up, and leans forward. When he kisses the corner of Koyama's mouth, Shige can feel him smile, and in the background, he can hear Ryo digging around in the fridge.
It's not exactly the most normal of situations, but Shige can't help but think that it's not a completely stupid idea.