Family Matters: Chapter 11
Title: Family matters ~ Chapter 11
Pairing: Jun, Masaki, Sho, Satoshi, Kazu (there are going to be additional side-characters though. No OCs.) I'm trying to give each of the five their well-deserves spot-light <3
Rating: PG
Multi-chapter
Beta: lover_youshould
Genre: family!AU in which Arashi are brothers :-) slice of life, a little drama (and I'm trying to add some light-hearted, funny moments to it too)
Summary: Since they were little they were always close to each other. And when unfortunate events force them to live together without their parents, it's only natural that they try to make the best out of it.
Satoshi isn’t particularly surprised when Jun comes downstairs, but the look in his eyes is unsettling. “Did something happen?” he asks carefully.
“Kazu is away,” Jun says quietly. “I have a bad feeling.”
“Kazu?” Sho looks up in surprise. “A bad feeling?”
He, Sho and Masaki have been gathered in the kitchen, helping Masaki with sorting 10 huge bags of jelly-beans in colours. Annoying work, and he already regrets even agreeing to help. Judging by the look in Sho’s eyes, he is pretty pissed at that stupid work too.
“He is not here,” Jun explains. “I don’t know where he is.”
“Maybe it’s a misunderstanding?” Masaki suggests, obviously still traumatized from his very embarrassing stunt from last time when he was at Shun’s place and thought Jun had been running away from them.
Jun licks his lips nervously.
“What is going on?” Satoshi asks. His alarm bells start ringing immediately. There is just something in Jun’s eyes, something that immediately catches his attention. He looks too worried.
“You have to tell us, Jun,” Sho says. “Even if it’s bad and even if you want to protect Kazu. But if it’s truly dangerous, we need to react fast.”
“He has weird friends. I think they are bikers, and I am afraid that it’s an actual gang,” Jun stutters. “I’m not sure though. It’s just a guess, but his friends are creepy… and he never was away for so long without telling me. Also I have heard him and a school friend talking once where Kazu told him he shouldn’t worry, he would quit. But I don’t get it… quit from what? I’m not sure what that really means.”
Jun looks a bit tired, like he is afraid to be waking up sleeping dogs, to give Kazu problems for a tiny thing. He probably doesn’t have the life experience to really see what’s going on, but Satoshi has, and his alarm bells start ringing again. Loud and annoying and without a break.
“Eh?” Masaki blinks. “Who? What? Where?”
“Are you saying that Kazu might be part of a motorbike-gang?” Sho asks in disbelief. “Isn’t that too extreme, even for Kazu?”
“He doesn’t even have a driving licence.” Satoshi intervenes, eyeing Jun sceptically. “What does he do in a motorbike gang?” Motorbike… means… Drive? Satoshi winces. “Fuck!” he breathes out.
~~~
It feels like hours while in fact it had only been twenty minutes in which Jun has told them the whole story. Or rather the parts he knows about, which isn’t all that much actually and basically fits with what they heard in school. When he has finished, Masaki’s eyes are wide in horror, Sho is looking unusually confused and Satoshi can’t remember the last time he has actually been that angry with his brothers and himself.
Damn it. Jun should have told them earlier. Kazu shouldn’t have been so stupid to begin with. He shouldn’t have dragged his younger brother into his mess. How could Kazu have been so stupid? Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. And he himself felt suspicious all this time and kept watching the situation instead of doing something.
He brushes through his hair. “Why didn’t you tell us anything earlier!?” he finally asks, his voice vibrating slightly. He feels like he just needs to lash out now, to anyone who is around him.
“I’m sorry,” Jun stutters, but there is also a tinge of anger and fear in his voice. “I didn’t really know how bad it is. I still don’t. I just knew that he was skipping school, staying out longer, and that he seems to have creepy friends. Well…” he mumbles, like he realizes that saying it like that makes it sound even worse.
Satoshi stands up now, frowning deeply. “I seriously thought you had a better ability to judge!” he huffs.
“What do you know!?” Jun bursts in sudden anger, almost like a year, or two, ago when he still had those temper tantrums, a side-effect coming from the accident. Satoshi’s words obviously hurt him. “I was all alone in this. With Kazu, this idiot, always promising me he would stop. If I may remind you, you guys thought I was the rebellious kid until you went to school last week. So shut the fuck up and look at yourselves first.”
It’s probably at the last words that Satoshi loses it, or maybe he already lost it a few minutes ago. It’s rare for him to lose his temper and to give in to it. But he just feels so angry now. When Satoshi wants to grab Jun’s collar, Jun looks like he is afraid of getting hit. Satoshi doesn’t get to do anything though, because suddenly, Sho steps in between and grabs his arm to pull him away, much to Satoshi’s surprise, but obviously even more to Jun’s surprise. Judging by the look in his eyes, he is more than shocked that out of all, it’s Sho who reacted first and saves him from Satoshi’s anger. Masaki has stood up too, right behind Sho.
“Stop it, Sa-chan,” Sho says calmly. “As worried as you are, what do you get from snapping? I hate to admit it, and it kind of hurts, but Jun is right: What do we know? Kazu’s decisions are not our fault. Jun could have told us earlier, yes.” He throws a reproachful glance towards Jun, making him blush a bit. “But we could have watched properly ourselves. Besides, Kazu is old enough to know that what he did was wrong.”
Masaki nods. “We don’t know what happened between Kazunari and his friends or Jun. And what they thought and talked about and how they felt. Blaming someone else for what’s happening is just the easy way out,” he agrees. “Besides, I seriously think we have had enough fights by now for the upcoming year.”
“You are just frustrated with yourself for not reacting early enough. Frustrated that you, Masaki and I were misled by our own assumptions. And frustrated with Kazu and his stupid decisions, especially after he gave us an earful about cries for help just two weeks ago. If you want to yell at someone-“ Sho continues calmly. “Yell at Kazu later. Or at me.”
Satoshi feels miserable all of a sudden. Sho’s right. How could he react like that? He was just about to let it all out on Jun completely - even the parts he wasn’t responsible for - and he wonders what he would have done if Sho hadn’t stepped in. “Sorry, little brother,” he says, and Jun smiles so relieved that he just has to hug him all of a sudden. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you. It’s not your fault. Sho’s right.”
“I’m sorry too, I guess I should have reacted earlier,” Jun admits, looking guilty. “I thought I had it under control, but I didn’t. I’m sorry.”
Masaki looks relieved while Sho nods a bit towards him.
~~~
For the first time ever, Satoshi is glad that Sho gave up on his original dream to study astronomy and became a lawyer instead. Dude definitely has a lot of good connections. It took them only a few minutes to decide that they needed help.
“We need to call the police,” Masaki had said a few minutes ago. And they immediately agreed to it. Jun couldn’t tell them where Kazu met regularly after all. He knew a lot less than Satoshi has actually expected. He is almost relieved at that because it means that Jun was really mostly an outsider of this story as well.
Sho’s on the phone now, asking one of his friends for help, someone who probably owes him a favour, because the last thing Kazu needs is a police record. The last couple of years Sho has worked really hard to build up a reputation as a lawyer. He is probably a natural talent, Satoshi thinks not without respect.
He knows that Masaki has similar thoughts because he shared them quite recently with Satoshi. It was one of these moments where Masaki resembles this wise old man - his Buddha alter ego as Jun started to call it a few years ago. Sho might not even know it himself, but the high position he is working in, is solely thanks to his talent and his sixth sense, not because he followed the footsteps of our famous father Masaki said back then.
He is right. Satoshi is sure about that.
“Got it.” Sho returns to the kitchen, already a jacket in his hands. “The head of the regional police is one of my drinking and Go buddies. He is going to help and also promised me to keep the fuss as low as possible. We need to pay a penalty fee though. Not too high apparently. And don’t worry, it’s all legal,” he explains, fumbling with his jacket nervously. “I’m going to handle that next week at work.”
Masaki nods, but he is looking unusually pale. Even he has lost his smile in this tensed situation. “Just get him back safely,” he says quietly. “Please.”
“What’s happening now?” Satoshi wants to know, knowing that he can’t give a promise like that to Masaki.
“They are checking the surveillance cameras now,” Sho explains. “And they know the usual gatherings of the gangs around here. They will call me once they know more. If Kazu is truly a gangmember, they’ll find him.”
“Is there anything else we could do meanwhile?” Masaki asks nervously. “I mean, sitting here and waiting, it’s…”
“I know,” Satoshi interrupts him. A while ago Masaki had cooked some tea and coffee for them, but none of them even touched anything. Jun is clinging to his phone most of the time, trying to reach Kazu, Satoshi himself called Yamaguchi-sensei, who promised to look around as well. “Maybe there is someone else who knows more about him?” he asks.
Jun looks at him thoughtfully for a while, then his eyes widen. “Maybe,” he breaths out.
Sho’s head basically snaps up. “Who?”
“He has a friend at school,” Jun explains. “The one that dropped by two weeks ago to study with him for his math exam.”
“Ah.” Something in Masaki’s eyes lights up too. “I remember.” He frowns. “Is he in the scene too? Did he pull Kazu into it?”
“No, I don’t think so. He comes from a difficult childhood background, but he lives with his sister now, and there are never really problems surrounding him. Ryo-kun always came to school regularly.” Jun looks away, and Satoshi can highly sympathize with that. It’s difficult when there is no one to blame but only a person you love so much. No one pulled Kazu into this scene, he probably did it himself.
“Do you think we could visit him?” Sho asks. “I mean, maybe he really knows something?”
“Yes, why not?” There is some hope sparkling in Jun’s eyes, like he has found a straw he can cling to. “His sister owns the Sunshine bar.”
“Sunshine?” Sho blinks. “Didn’t our mother frequent that bar when we still lived here? The niece of the owner of the bar was one of the young girls with difficult backgrounds she used to help.”
Jun shrugs helplessly.
“We’ll pay the bar a visit,” Sho decides. “Both Satoshi and I have our phones with us, so the moment something happens, or Kazu comes back, or anything, just call us, okay?”
“Yes, of course.” Masaki nods immediately.
“Can’t I accompany you?” Jun wants to know. He is looking tired and completely worn out. This whole issue is probably awakening some memories in him that he has already left a while ago. And most likely it will also awake something in Kazu. Satoshi and Sho exchange a glance.
“No,” Satoshi says carefully and shakes his head. “I think Sho and I should go alone. It’s better that way, okay? I want to know that you and Masaki-“ he looks at so-said guy, relieved when Masaki understands and nods at him reassuringly. “-are safe and sound at home.”
“Yes.” Sho nods when his phone rings. He waves at Satoshi and signals him to grab a jacket and leave too. “You two better stay at home. Let the stupid twins handle this.”
“Just get him back,” Jun begs. “Get him back alive!”
Satoshi wants to promise, wants to tell Jun and Masaki that it’s going to be alright, but he can’t. It would be something that could easily turn into a lie. It’s a promise he can’t give. Sho seems to think similar, because he grabs Satoshi’s arm and pulls him along. “We’ll call you the moment we know something,” he tells them, before he drags Satoshi out of the house and to his car.
A/N: Sho has definitely grown, hasn't he? :D I'm feeling a bit bad that Jun got yelled at again - he seems to be in that position a lot recently ^^ - but Sho and Masaki were there to save him. And Satoshi is just really worried.
What will happen to Kazu? This time it doesn't look like a false alarm, right?
Pairing: Jun, Masaki, Sho, Satoshi, Kazu (there are going to be additional side-characters though. No OCs.) I'm trying to give each of the five their well-deserves spot-light <3
Rating: PG
Multi-chapter
Beta: lover_youshould
Genre: family!AU in which Arashi are brothers :-) slice of life, a little drama (and I'm trying to add some light-hearted, funny moments to it too)
Summary: Since they were little they were always close to each other. And when unfortunate events force them to live together without their parents, it's only natural that they try to make the best out of it.
Satoshi isn’t particularly surprised when Jun comes downstairs, but the look in his eyes is unsettling. “Did something happen?” he asks carefully.
“Kazu is away,” Jun says quietly. “I have a bad feeling.”
“Kazu?” Sho looks up in surprise. “A bad feeling?”
He, Sho and Masaki have been gathered in the kitchen, helping Masaki with sorting 10 huge bags of jelly-beans in colours. Annoying work, and he already regrets even agreeing to help. Judging by the look in Sho’s eyes, he is pretty pissed at that stupid work too.
“He is not here,” Jun explains. “I don’t know where he is.”
“Maybe it’s a misunderstanding?” Masaki suggests, obviously still traumatized from his very embarrassing stunt from last time when he was at Shun’s place and thought Jun had been running away from them.
Jun licks his lips nervously.
“What is going on?” Satoshi asks. His alarm bells start ringing immediately. There is just something in Jun’s eyes, something that immediately catches his attention. He looks too worried.
“You have to tell us, Jun,” Sho says. “Even if it’s bad and even if you want to protect Kazu. But if it’s truly dangerous, we need to react fast.”
“He has weird friends. I think they are bikers, and I am afraid that it’s an actual gang,” Jun stutters. “I’m not sure though. It’s just a guess, but his friends are creepy… and he never was away for so long without telling me. Also I have heard him and a school friend talking once where Kazu told him he shouldn’t worry, he would quit. But I don’t get it… quit from what? I’m not sure what that really means.”
Jun looks a bit tired, like he is afraid to be waking up sleeping dogs, to give Kazu problems for a tiny thing. He probably doesn’t have the life experience to really see what’s going on, but Satoshi has, and his alarm bells start ringing again. Loud and annoying and without a break.
“Eh?” Masaki blinks. “Who? What? Where?”
“Are you saying that Kazu might be part of a motorbike-gang?” Sho asks in disbelief. “Isn’t that too extreme, even for Kazu?”
“He doesn’t even have a driving licence.” Satoshi intervenes, eyeing Jun sceptically. “What does he do in a motorbike gang?” Motorbike… means… Drive? Satoshi winces. “Fuck!” he breathes out.
~~~
It feels like hours while in fact it had only been twenty minutes in which Jun has told them the whole story. Or rather the parts he knows about, which isn’t all that much actually and basically fits with what they heard in school. When he has finished, Masaki’s eyes are wide in horror, Sho is looking unusually confused and Satoshi can’t remember the last time he has actually been that angry with his brothers and himself.
Damn it. Jun should have told them earlier. Kazu shouldn’t have been so stupid to begin with. He shouldn’t have dragged his younger brother into his mess. How could Kazu have been so stupid? Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. And he himself felt suspicious all this time and kept watching the situation instead of doing something.
He brushes through his hair. “Why didn’t you tell us anything earlier!?” he finally asks, his voice vibrating slightly. He feels like he just needs to lash out now, to anyone who is around him.
“I’m sorry,” Jun stutters, but there is also a tinge of anger and fear in his voice. “I didn’t really know how bad it is. I still don’t. I just knew that he was skipping school, staying out longer, and that he seems to have creepy friends. Well…” he mumbles, like he realizes that saying it like that makes it sound even worse.
Satoshi stands up now, frowning deeply. “I seriously thought you had a better ability to judge!” he huffs.
“What do you know!?” Jun bursts in sudden anger, almost like a year, or two, ago when he still had those temper tantrums, a side-effect coming from the accident. Satoshi’s words obviously hurt him. “I was all alone in this. With Kazu, this idiot, always promising me he would stop. If I may remind you, you guys thought I was the rebellious kid until you went to school last week. So shut the fuck up and look at yourselves first.”
It’s probably at the last words that Satoshi loses it, or maybe he already lost it a few minutes ago. It’s rare for him to lose his temper and to give in to it. But he just feels so angry now. When Satoshi wants to grab Jun’s collar, Jun looks like he is afraid of getting hit. Satoshi doesn’t get to do anything though, because suddenly, Sho steps in between and grabs his arm to pull him away, much to Satoshi’s surprise, but obviously even more to Jun’s surprise. Judging by the look in his eyes, he is more than shocked that out of all, it’s Sho who reacted first and saves him from Satoshi’s anger. Masaki has stood up too, right behind Sho.
“Stop it, Sa-chan,” Sho says calmly. “As worried as you are, what do you get from snapping? I hate to admit it, and it kind of hurts, but Jun is right: What do we know? Kazu’s decisions are not our fault. Jun could have told us earlier, yes.” He throws a reproachful glance towards Jun, making him blush a bit. “But we could have watched properly ourselves. Besides, Kazu is old enough to know that what he did was wrong.”
Masaki nods. “We don’t know what happened between Kazunari and his friends or Jun. And what they thought and talked about and how they felt. Blaming someone else for what’s happening is just the easy way out,” he agrees. “Besides, I seriously think we have had enough fights by now for the upcoming year.”
“You are just frustrated with yourself for not reacting early enough. Frustrated that you, Masaki and I were misled by our own assumptions. And frustrated with Kazu and his stupid decisions, especially after he gave us an earful about cries for help just two weeks ago. If you want to yell at someone-“ Sho continues calmly. “Yell at Kazu later. Or at me.”
Satoshi feels miserable all of a sudden. Sho’s right. How could he react like that? He was just about to let it all out on Jun completely - even the parts he wasn’t responsible for - and he wonders what he would have done if Sho hadn’t stepped in. “Sorry, little brother,” he says, and Jun smiles so relieved that he just has to hug him all of a sudden. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you. It’s not your fault. Sho’s right.”
“I’m sorry too, I guess I should have reacted earlier,” Jun admits, looking guilty. “I thought I had it under control, but I didn’t. I’m sorry.”
Masaki looks relieved while Sho nods a bit towards him.
~~~
For the first time ever, Satoshi is glad that Sho gave up on his original dream to study astronomy and became a lawyer instead. Dude definitely has a lot of good connections. It took them only a few minutes to decide that they needed help.
“We need to call the police,” Masaki had said a few minutes ago. And they immediately agreed to it. Jun couldn’t tell them where Kazu met regularly after all. He knew a lot less than Satoshi has actually expected. He is almost relieved at that because it means that Jun was really mostly an outsider of this story as well.
Sho’s on the phone now, asking one of his friends for help, someone who probably owes him a favour, because the last thing Kazu needs is a police record. The last couple of years Sho has worked really hard to build up a reputation as a lawyer. He is probably a natural talent, Satoshi thinks not without respect.
He knows that Masaki has similar thoughts because he shared them quite recently with Satoshi. It was one of these moments where Masaki resembles this wise old man - his Buddha alter ego as Jun started to call it a few years ago. Sho might not even know it himself, but the high position he is working in, is solely thanks to his talent and his sixth sense, not because he followed the footsteps of our famous father Masaki said back then.
He is right. Satoshi is sure about that.
“Got it.” Sho returns to the kitchen, already a jacket in his hands. “The head of the regional police is one of my drinking and Go buddies. He is going to help and also promised me to keep the fuss as low as possible. We need to pay a penalty fee though. Not too high apparently. And don’t worry, it’s all legal,” he explains, fumbling with his jacket nervously. “I’m going to handle that next week at work.”
Masaki nods, but he is looking unusually pale. Even he has lost his smile in this tensed situation. “Just get him back safely,” he says quietly. “Please.”
“What’s happening now?” Satoshi wants to know, knowing that he can’t give a promise like that to Masaki.
“They are checking the surveillance cameras now,” Sho explains. “And they know the usual gatherings of the gangs around here. They will call me once they know more. If Kazu is truly a gangmember, they’ll find him.”
“Is there anything else we could do meanwhile?” Masaki asks nervously. “I mean, sitting here and waiting, it’s…”
“I know,” Satoshi interrupts him. A while ago Masaki had cooked some tea and coffee for them, but none of them even touched anything. Jun is clinging to his phone most of the time, trying to reach Kazu, Satoshi himself called Yamaguchi-sensei, who promised to look around as well. “Maybe there is someone else who knows more about him?” he asks.
Jun looks at him thoughtfully for a while, then his eyes widen. “Maybe,” he breaths out.
Sho’s head basically snaps up. “Who?”
“He has a friend at school,” Jun explains. “The one that dropped by two weeks ago to study with him for his math exam.”
“Ah.” Something in Masaki’s eyes lights up too. “I remember.” He frowns. “Is he in the scene too? Did he pull Kazu into it?”
“No, I don’t think so. He comes from a difficult childhood background, but he lives with his sister now, and there are never really problems surrounding him. Ryo-kun always came to school regularly.” Jun looks away, and Satoshi can highly sympathize with that. It’s difficult when there is no one to blame but only a person you love so much. No one pulled Kazu into this scene, he probably did it himself.
“Do you think we could visit him?” Sho asks. “I mean, maybe he really knows something?”
“Yes, why not?” There is some hope sparkling in Jun’s eyes, like he has found a straw he can cling to. “His sister owns the Sunshine bar.”
“Sunshine?” Sho blinks. “Didn’t our mother frequent that bar when we still lived here? The niece of the owner of the bar was one of the young girls with difficult backgrounds she used to help.”
Jun shrugs helplessly.
“We’ll pay the bar a visit,” Sho decides. “Both Satoshi and I have our phones with us, so the moment something happens, or Kazu comes back, or anything, just call us, okay?”
“Yes, of course.” Masaki nods immediately.
“Can’t I accompany you?” Jun wants to know. He is looking tired and completely worn out. This whole issue is probably awakening some memories in him that he has already left a while ago. And most likely it will also awake something in Kazu. Satoshi and Sho exchange a glance.
“No,” Satoshi says carefully and shakes his head. “I think Sho and I should go alone. It’s better that way, okay? I want to know that you and Masaki-“ he looks at so-said guy, relieved when Masaki understands and nods at him reassuringly. “-are safe and sound at home.”
“Yes.” Sho nods when his phone rings. He waves at Satoshi and signals him to grab a jacket and leave too. “You two better stay at home. Let the stupid twins handle this.”
“Just get him back,” Jun begs. “Get him back alive!”
Satoshi wants to promise, wants to tell Jun and Masaki that it’s going to be alright, but he can’t. It would be something that could easily turn into a lie. It’s a promise he can’t give. Sho seems to think similar, because he grabs Satoshi’s arm and pulls him along. “We’ll call you the moment we know something,” he tells them, before he drags Satoshi out of the house and to his car.
A/N: Sho has definitely grown, hasn't he? :D I'm feeling a bit bad that Jun got yelled at again - he seems to be in that position a lot recently ^^ - but Sho and Masaki were there to save him. And Satoshi is just really worried.
What will happen to Kazu? This time it doesn't look like a false alarm, right?