Maru Swap
Title: Maru Swap
Fandom: KAT-TUN & Kanjani8
Pairing: None, gen
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: The plan seemed simple enough. Take two groups, with two Marus, swap those Marus over, spread the inter-group love, and hopefully learn something in the process.
Author's Note: Written for jerainbowbridge for moogle_tey.
The plan seemed simple enough. Take two groups, with two Marus, swap those Marus over, spread the inter-group love, and hopefully learn something in the process.
Maru’s palms were sweating.
Being called into a ‘meeting’ without your fellow band members was generally something to be concerned about. Most often, it meant that either there was a vast amount of work coming your way - a drama role perhaps, or at the most extreme, a solo concert - or it meant that somewhere, there were pictures floating around of your drunken self doing something you didn’t know about..
He pushed open the door, and stepped inside, and the first thing he noticed was that there were two chairs sitting on the near side of the desk in the room, and that one of them was occupied. The figure turned his head to look at Maru, and his eyes widened a little as he recognised KAT-TUN’s ‘N’, Nakamaru Yuichi.
“Oh my god,” Maru uttered. “What have I done?”
In one corner of the meeting room, a video camera blinked its little red light. Somewhere, the two shocked men were being watched.
****
Day One: Observe.
Maru knocked twice on a door with a slip of paper reading KAT-TUN stuck in the middle. His palms were sweating again, and he wasn’t sure why. He had met them all before, many times. They shared a stage together once a year and they bumped into each other during magazine shoots. But this was different; pleasantries weren’t going to be enough. This time, he was going to be integrated, be a part of them. His stomach churned. It felt like leaving home for the first time. KAT-TUM. He spoke the words in his mind, and grimaced at how it sounded.
“KAT-TUM,” he spoke loud this time, and the door ahead him suddenly opened. “Oi, don’t get ahead of yourself,” a voice spoke within. “Dude, are you going to stand out there all day?” Koki asked after a few moments of silence, where the intruder looked more like he was ready to run in the opposite direction. Maru bowed his head and entered the room, muttering something awkward and inaudible under his breath. He walked right into a war zone.
“You idiot!” a voice came from within. “It’s ruined! Why can’t you be more careful?”
“It’s called an accident. It’s not like I poured it on you on purpose. Just calm down...”
“You calm down! In fact, why don’t you get the hell out of here and clean my shirt.”
There was the fluttering sound of something fabric being tossed across the room, and then, a bare-chested Ueda Tatsuya stormed towards the door of the room. A moment later, the abandoned shirt sailed after him.
“If you’re that bothered, then wash it yourself!” Kame shouted after him. The door slammed behind Ueda as he left.
“Um...” Maru spoke, his ears still ringing from the sound of the arguing and the slammed door. He peeled off the damp shirt from where it had landed on his head and glanced further into the room, avoiding Kame’s glare that wasn’t meant for him. The other members of the group were continuing their own activities as if nothing had happened. “Hi?”
****
The worst thing you could possibly do on an important day like this, was be late. But somehow, despite setting three different alarms, Nakamaru had managed to do it. And having jogged all the way to the studio for the TV show Kanjani8 were due to appear on, knocking on the dressing room door before entering was the last thing on his mind. He wanted to get it over with and sit down.
The moment he burst through the door marked with the band’s name, he hugely regretted that decision. The band were in various stages of being ready. Yoko, who it was assumed had managed to get in the shower first, was almost completely dressed and ready.
However, on the other end of the scale, was Hina. Nakamaru entering the room and Hina leaving the shower and walking out of the bathroom, had aligned perfectly, so that the first thing the KAT-TUN member saw was the other’s completely naked body.
“Oh!” Nakamaru exclaimed, not quite sure where to look. “I’m so sorry, I should have knocked.”
“Hm? Oh, it’s okay,” Hina shrugged, wandering across the room to pick up his underwear from where he’d dropped it earlier.
Nakamaru glanced at the rest of the band, to see if they were as shocked as him, but the only one whose expression had changed even a little was Ryo’s, and he looked more irritated than anything else.
****
Nakamaru retreated to the shower early, as the members of Kanjani8 sat around on the dressing room’s sofas making inside jokes that he didn’t understand. He almost got the feeling they were doing it on purpose, although he supposed they had been very welcoming towards him so far. As he stood under the flow of water, he momentarily wondered how Maru was getting on with the rest of his band, and then forgot all about him as he engrossed himself in singing.
His voice sailed out of the shower room and reached the ears of the band members, who mostly ignored him, busy with starting their own preparations for the upcoming show, but as he reached his favourite part of the song - his own solo - he was interrupted mid-sentence by a loud tapping sound on the glass beside him.
His voice silenced immediately, and he listened harder, hearing a voice speaking. “Can I come in with you?”
“Hmm?”
Nakamaru assumed he’d misheard. He stuck his fingers in his ears, shook out water, and then listened again.
“I said... can I come in with you, Nakamaru-san?”
He was about to shake his head again, certain there must be something in his ears that was terribly impairing his hearing and then he realised he was hearing perfectly clearly.“Wait, what?”
He opened his eyes, and wiped away a circle in the steam on the glass. As he peered through the window he’d created, and discovered something that made his blood run cold; there was a short, naked man standing outside the shower. A short, naked man named Yasuda Shota, who didn’t want to be outside.
“Um.” Nakamaru was wondering what the correct response to this could possibly be. “I guess?”
I guess? He mentally slapped himself for not flat out refusing, making it sound like he wanted the other to be in there with him, and then he shuddered as he saw the door of the shower sliding open.
“Thank you~” an enthusiastic voice spoke, and Nakamaru forced himself to look at the other’s face. He was grinning. He was standing naked in a shower with another man who was grinning.
“No problem, I’ve finished now, anyway,” Nakamaru responded as politely as he could manage, and exited the shower with so much force that a breeze shot across the bathroom.
****
It was eight in the evening, and KAT-TUM had finally come to the end of their working day. Maru was the only one left in the dressing room, and he sat by the window, glancing out at his new band mates, who were all in the process of getting into their separate cars or taxis, to go and enjoy their evenings. Separately. His suggestion of ordering pizza and going for drinks had met with very little enthusiasm, and the abandonment had hit him harder than he would have expected.
As the last member of the band drove off into the distance, Maru watched as a pizza delivery man wandered towards the building. Two minutes too late, Maru thought. He didn’t feel hungry any more.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, bright orange, the charm from one of their last concerts. Scrolling through the names in his contacts, he finally hit the call button and waited for someone to answer. It rang once. Twice. Three. Four times. And then a voice spoke and Maru’s heart skipped a beat. He knew his own band mates wouldn’t abandon him too. “This is Murakami Shingo. Please leave a message after the tone.”
“Hina -” he started, and then sighed and ended the call before he spoke again. “I want to go home.”
****
Day Two: Change.
“So what was it like, spending the day with Kanjani8?” the interviewer asked.
Nakamaru thought this question over, his cheeks flushed as he remembered the events of the previous day. “Possibly the most awkward experience I’ve ever had in my life.”
Across the other side of the city, another interviewer was asking Maru about his experiences so far with KAT-TUN. “It’s made me realise how much I like being with Kanjani8.”
That question answered, the interviewer went on to ask both of them what they were planning on changing during their second day with their new groups.
“Everything,” was the answer they came up with, without even a moment’s hesitation.
***
“Tell Kame I’ve finished in the shower,” Ueda spoke stubbornly to Jin, who tossed his magazine on the table in frustration and repeated the words to Kame in an exaggerated Ueda voice. He was used to this, but it didn’t make things any less irritating.
“You mean you haven’t made up yet?” Maru frowned. “Both of you, come with me~!”
“But I’m only half dressed!”
“It doesn’t matter, come with me anyway. This is my day, remember.” It was nice not to be the one being ordered around for once, and he was planning on taking full advantage of it.
The pair glanced at him, and then at each other, and then simultaneously decided that they would never hear the end of it otherwise, and followed Maru out of the door.
Maru led the pair down the corridor outside, and peeked through the door of an empty meeting room. Finding it empty, he stepped aside and beckoned for the other two to go inside. As they naively wandered inside, Maru stepped back and shut the door behind them, turning the key in the lock. As the pair finally realised that they had been tricked, they both turned back. Ueda shook the door handle with his hand. The looks on their faces made Maru glad there was now a locked door between them.
“You can come out once you’ve made up. And you’d better do it quick because we have a shoot in an hour. Good luck!” Giving them a dazzling and somewhat cheeky grin, he waved, and then turned and headed back towards their dressing room. There was a slight skip in his step.
****
“First of all, I thing we need to temporarily change the band name.”
“What’s wrong with the band name?”
“It just needs a little… tweaking, that’s all,” he told them, and turned the page on the huge flip-board set up at the front of the room. In huge letters right across the page was written the words, ‘Nakamaru Yuichi w/Kanjani8.’
The whole room erupted into objections.
“But we were here first!” Ohkura exclaimed, while Ryo muttered obscenities under his breath and Hina’s fingers began to curl into a fist.
“I just wanted my name to come first, for once. None of you know how it feels to always be last,” Nakamaru explained, giving the others his best pathetic look.
Yasu started to stick his hand up in the air, but was responded to with a hard slap to the back of his head. “That’s only when we do it in height order,” Hina hissed at him, and Yasu lowered his hand and crossed his arms, a pout forming on his face.
“So uh, we’re all agreed right?” Nakamaru asked, and was met with a unanimous “NO.”
****
“And where are Ueda and Kamenashi?” the interviewer asked. There were two empty seats beside the other members of the band.
“They had an argument yesterday,” Jin explained.
“Maru locked them in one of the rooms back stage,” Koki smirked.
“And have they made up yet?” the interviewer asked.
“The last time I checked, they were sitting in silence at opposite ends of the room.”
“Does this happen often?” another question fired at the band.
Junno shrugged, and smiled a little. “About four times a week.”
****
Nakamaru had been out for almost an hour and the rest of the band were just beginning to wonder if they had driven him away when the door opened and he walked into the room, a satisfied look on his face and a shopping bag in one hand.
“Where have you been?” Yasu asked curiously, eyes on the man’s mysterious purchase.
“I got a present for Hina,” he told them, and pulled something soft and purple from the bag he was holding.
“What is that?”
“A bath robe. It seems like you need one.” Nakamaru responded simply, and handed the robe over.
Hina spread the robe out and gave it a slightly skeptical look, before glancing at the other.
"What do I need this for, anyway?"
Ryo smirked. "I'll hazard a guess that Nakamaru doesn't appreciate your naked body."
"Is there something wrong with it?"
"It's yours, that's what's wrong with it," Ryo replied before Nakamaru had even decided how the most tactful way of approaching the answer might be. "If you were a beautiful woman, it'd be a different -"
He didn't get to finish, finding himself slapped around the head. Nakamaru slunk off into a corner, glad that he had gotten out of answering the question and glad to know that he at least wasn't alone in his opinion.
****
“I’ve booked us all a table at a restaurant tonight,” Maru announced proudly.
“You’ve what?”
“A uh, a table, at a restaurant. For us. You know, to have dinner?”
There was a momentary silence, and a couple of them stood up to leave. “I have plans,” Jin spoke, and the others nodded firmly, and started to head to the door to go their separate ways.
“WAIT.” The open door slammed shut before anyone could walk out. The group looked up, a little shell-shocked, as Maru stood there, a look of anger on his face none of them had ever seen before. He looked like he was going to punch the next person who disobeyed him, and it stopped them in their tracks. “We’re going to have dinner. Together,” he stated, and then the corners of his lips curved into a grin. “Okay?”
****
Day three. Reunion.
The six remaining members of Kanjani8 were waiting for Maru as he stepped out of the car that had brought him back to his own band. He was so eager to get out and “home” that he tripped over his own foot and landed straight in Hina’s arms. Just as he was about to say thank you, Maru was greeted with a hard slap to the head. He whimpered a little, and stood back, rubbing the spot on his head where the other had hit him, and then his lips widened into a huge grin. If anyone had looked close enough, they would have found a few tears forming in the corner of his eyes. “I missed you guys!” he exclaimed. “Don’t ever let me do anything like that ever again!”
****
Nakamaru got out of the car to find the place deserted, but that didn't surprise him. He hadn't expected them to be there with a welcoming party for him, because that just wasn't the way they were. He smiled, and headed to the dressing room the others were waiting in. As he pushed open the door, he could hear arguments inside.
"Why do we need that many balloons anyway?! What are you planning on doing, flying out of the building?"
"Just blow up the balloons."
Nakamaru decided to leave them to it. He didn't want to ruin his welcoming party after all, and it was never a good idea to get in between an argument between band members anyway, not when he just wanted his peace and quiet. As he headed back down the corridor to go and get himself a drink, he heard the distinctive sound of popping balloons. Somehow, after spending two days with Eito, he was looking forward to being back with his own band.
****
“There was one thing I found really disturbing about hanging around with you guys...” Nakamaru began. The group were sitting round two large tables, mid-discussion about their experiences of the last two days.
The group looked at him expectantly, and Nakamaru’s cheeks became slightly flushed.
“All the nakedness.”
“I told you,” Ryo smirked.
“And Yasu tried to get in the shower with me.”
“Yeah... he does that.”
“And I’ve told him not to.”
Yasu immediately protested. “What’s wrong with sharing?!”
“Nothing... in most circumstances, but not in the shower! I don’t want to see that!” Nakamaru argued.
“EH? Is there something wrong with it?” Yasu suddenly looked quite offended.
“I d-didn’t mean that that!”
“There’s nothing wrong with it anyway,” Subaru piped up from the corner, almost the first time he had spoken since they came into the room, and everyone glanced in his direction. “What?”
“Oh, and you,” Nakamaru continued, pointing rather accusingly at Hina. “Did you know when we have dressing rooms they provide us with robes? They do that for a reason, you know...”
Hina’s eyes narrowed.
“I couldn’t miss that. And it wasn’t pretty.”
Narrowed eyes were followed by clenched fists, and Hina launched himself out of his seat so violently that the chair toppled to the ground behind him.
“Hey!” Koki growled, and put himself in between the furious Hina and the now rather terrified looking Nakamaru, who had a fist dangerously close to his face. “Don’t you dare touch him. Or else.” Four other heads nodded in agreement.
“Oh my god!!!” Maru exclaimed, his eyes wide with glee. “You don’t completely hate each other.”
Hina now sulking in a corner, Maru put one elbow on the table and rested his cheek in his palm, letting out a sigh. “I walked into your dressing room two days ago and the first thing I saw were two people arguing and a shirt being thrown at my head. And I felt really bad when you all went and left me all alone,” he started. “I watched out of the window and saw you all getting in your separate cars and leaving, and I didn’t know what to do. What did you guys do the first evening?” he asked.
“We took him out and got him drunk and pushed him out in the street in his underwear.”
“Exac- You did what?”
“In an affectionate way, of course,” Subaru commented.
“This is the kind of stuff you get up to when I’m not there to keep an eye on you?” Maru frowned.
“Well it was a bit embarrassing. But the rest of the evening was kind of fun,” Nakamaru admitted. "Sometimes it's nice to go out, we spend so much time together working but we don't really relax together very often."
“And what did you guys do?” Maru asked the members of KAT-TUN.
“I went out with Pi.”
“Hung out with some friends.”
“Went to the arcade.”
“Washed my hair.”
“Wrote some rap lyrics.”
“Exactly! You left me all alone in that room and I’d ordered pizza and everything and I had to eat it all on my own, and then I got upset and I called Hina’s phone and he didn’t answer because they were all out having fun. Together. I was your guest, guys. What would you have done if I was one of your band mates?”
“We don’t... really go out together that often,” Nakamaru repeated. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t get along.”
“Yeah,” Ueda agreed with a firm nod, and then he stood up and unbuttoned his jacket, revealing underneath the shirt Maru had witnessed the argument over. “All clean, see? Kame cleaned it for me. I guess I sometimes have a bit of a temper...” he chuckled.
“You guess?” Maru asked, blinking a little. “You broke that meeting room door trying to get away from him.”
“I hope Kame will forgive me for saying this, but... he was singing, it was giving me a headache,” Ueda grinned.
Kame glared momentarily, and then laughed. “Forgiven.”
****
Three days earlier...
The man standing in front of the flipchart cleared his throat dramatically, “Ladies,” Yoko glanced at Jin as he spoke, causing the man to smirk, “gentlemen. I know you’re all wondering why you’re all here. Mostly because you haven’t stopped asking me since we came in here.”
“Then just tell -” Ohkura started, but was quickly interrupted.
“So you can go back to bed? If you shut up for five minutes, I’ll tell you.”
Ohkura let out a loud and dramatic yawn. Then there was silence.
“Right, where was I? I’ve been tasked with a very important mission, and it’s about to begin. Watch the screen.”
All eyes turned to the monitor in front of them, and they watched as Nakamaru Yuichi walked into an empty meeting room and took a seat on one of two empty chairs. As he was clearly pondering on who the other might be meant for, the door opened again, and Maruyama Ryuhei peeked through the crack, his eyes wide and slightly alarmed. “Oh my god,” the group watching on the monitor heard him say. “What have I done?”
Yoko took one look at the pairs surprised faces on the screen, and the sea of blank faces in front of him, and a slightly evil grin curved his lips. “I bring you...” he started, and flipped over the cover of a large board on a stand beside him. In large letters, across the front of the first page, were two words.
MARU SWAP.
Fandom: KAT-TUN & Kanjani8
Pairing: None, gen
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Summary: The plan seemed simple enough. Take two groups, with two Marus, swap those Marus over, spread the inter-group love, and hopefully learn something in the process.
Author's Note: Written for jerainbowbridge for moogle_tey.
The plan seemed simple enough. Take two groups, with two Marus, swap those Marus over, spread the inter-group love, and hopefully learn something in the process.
Maru’s palms were sweating.
Being called into a ‘meeting’ without your fellow band members was generally something to be concerned about. Most often, it meant that either there was a vast amount of work coming your way - a drama role perhaps, or at the most extreme, a solo concert - or it meant that somewhere, there were pictures floating around of your drunken self doing something you didn’t know about..
He pushed open the door, and stepped inside, and the first thing he noticed was that there were two chairs sitting on the near side of the desk in the room, and that one of them was occupied. The figure turned his head to look at Maru, and his eyes widened a little as he recognised KAT-TUN’s ‘N’, Nakamaru Yuichi.
“Oh my god,” Maru uttered. “What have I done?”
In one corner of the meeting room, a video camera blinked its little red light. Somewhere, the two shocked men were being watched.
****
Day One: Observe.
Maru knocked twice on a door with a slip of paper reading KAT-TUN stuck in the middle. His palms were sweating again, and he wasn’t sure why. He had met them all before, many times. They shared a stage together once a year and they bumped into each other during magazine shoots. But this was different; pleasantries weren’t going to be enough. This time, he was going to be integrated, be a part of them. His stomach churned. It felt like leaving home for the first time. KAT-TUM. He spoke the words in his mind, and grimaced at how it sounded.
“KAT-TUM,” he spoke loud this time, and the door ahead him suddenly opened. “Oi, don’t get ahead of yourself,” a voice spoke within. “Dude, are you going to stand out there all day?” Koki asked after a few moments of silence, where the intruder looked more like he was ready to run in the opposite direction. Maru bowed his head and entered the room, muttering something awkward and inaudible under his breath. He walked right into a war zone.
“You idiot!” a voice came from within. “It’s ruined! Why can’t you be more careful?”
“It’s called an accident. It’s not like I poured it on you on purpose. Just calm down...”
“You calm down! In fact, why don’t you get the hell out of here and clean my shirt.”
There was the fluttering sound of something fabric being tossed across the room, and then, a bare-chested Ueda Tatsuya stormed towards the door of the room. A moment later, the abandoned shirt sailed after him.
“If you’re that bothered, then wash it yourself!” Kame shouted after him. The door slammed behind Ueda as he left.
“Um...” Maru spoke, his ears still ringing from the sound of the arguing and the slammed door. He peeled off the damp shirt from where it had landed on his head and glanced further into the room, avoiding Kame’s glare that wasn’t meant for him. The other members of the group were continuing their own activities as if nothing had happened. “Hi?”
****
The worst thing you could possibly do on an important day like this, was be late. But somehow, despite setting three different alarms, Nakamaru had managed to do it. And having jogged all the way to the studio for the TV show Kanjani8 were due to appear on, knocking on the dressing room door before entering was the last thing on his mind. He wanted to get it over with and sit down.
The moment he burst through the door marked with the band’s name, he hugely regretted that decision. The band were in various stages of being ready. Yoko, who it was assumed had managed to get in the shower first, was almost completely dressed and ready.
However, on the other end of the scale, was Hina. Nakamaru entering the room and Hina leaving the shower and walking out of the bathroom, had aligned perfectly, so that the first thing the KAT-TUN member saw was the other’s completely naked body.
“Oh!” Nakamaru exclaimed, not quite sure where to look. “I’m so sorry, I should have knocked.”
“Hm? Oh, it’s okay,” Hina shrugged, wandering across the room to pick up his underwear from where he’d dropped it earlier.
Nakamaru glanced at the rest of the band, to see if they were as shocked as him, but the only one whose expression had changed even a little was Ryo’s, and he looked more irritated than anything else.
****
Nakamaru retreated to the shower early, as the members of Kanjani8 sat around on the dressing room’s sofas making inside jokes that he didn’t understand. He almost got the feeling they were doing it on purpose, although he supposed they had been very welcoming towards him so far. As he stood under the flow of water, he momentarily wondered how Maru was getting on with the rest of his band, and then forgot all about him as he engrossed himself in singing.
His voice sailed out of the shower room and reached the ears of the band members, who mostly ignored him, busy with starting their own preparations for the upcoming show, but as he reached his favourite part of the song - his own solo - he was interrupted mid-sentence by a loud tapping sound on the glass beside him.
His voice silenced immediately, and he listened harder, hearing a voice speaking. “Can I come in with you?”
“Hmm?”
Nakamaru assumed he’d misheard. He stuck his fingers in his ears, shook out water, and then listened again.
“I said... can I come in with you, Nakamaru-san?”
He was about to shake his head again, certain there must be something in his ears that was terribly impairing his hearing and then he realised he was hearing perfectly clearly.“Wait, what?”
He opened his eyes, and wiped away a circle in the steam on the glass. As he peered through the window he’d created, and discovered something that made his blood run cold; there was a short, naked man standing outside the shower. A short, naked man named Yasuda Shota, who didn’t want to be outside.
“Um.” Nakamaru was wondering what the correct response to this could possibly be. “I guess?”
I guess? He mentally slapped himself for not flat out refusing, making it sound like he wanted the other to be in there with him, and then he shuddered as he saw the door of the shower sliding open.
“Thank you~” an enthusiastic voice spoke, and Nakamaru forced himself to look at the other’s face. He was grinning. He was standing naked in a shower with another man who was grinning.
“No problem, I’ve finished now, anyway,” Nakamaru responded as politely as he could manage, and exited the shower with so much force that a breeze shot across the bathroom.
****
It was eight in the evening, and KAT-TUM had finally come to the end of their working day. Maru was the only one left in the dressing room, and he sat by the window, glancing out at his new band mates, who were all in the process of getting into their separate cars or taxis, to go and enjoy their evenings. Separately. His suggestion of ordering pizza and going for drinks had met with very little enthusiasm, and the abandonment had hit him harder than he would have expected.
As the last member of the band drove off into the distance, Maru watched as a pizza delivery man wandered towards the building. Two minutes too late, Maru thought. He didn’t feel hungry any more.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, bright orange, the charm from one of their last concerts. Scrolling through the names in his contacts, he finally hit the call button and waited for someone to answer. It rang once. Twice. Three. Four times. And then a voice spoke and Maru’s heart skipped a beat. He knew his own band mates wouldn’t abandon him too. “This is Murakami Shingo. Please leave a message after the tone.”
“Hina -” he started, and then sighed and ended the call before he spoke again. “I want to go home.”
****
Day Two: Change.
“So what was it like, spending the day with Kanjani8?” the interviewer asked.
Nakamaru thought this question over, his cheeks flushed as he remembered the events of the previous day. “Possibly the most awkward experience I’ve ever had in my life.”
Across the other side of the city, another interviewer was asking Maru about his experiences so far with KAT-TUN. “It’s made me realise how much I like being with Kanjani8.”
That question answered, the interviewer went on to ask both of them what they were planning on changing during their second day with their new groups.
“Everything,” was the answer they came up with, without even a moment’s hesitation.
***
“Tell Kame I’ve finished in the shower,” Ueda spoke stubbornly to Jin, who tossed his magazine on the table in frustration and repeated the words to Kame in an exaggerated Ueda voice. He was used to this, but it didn’t make things any less irritating.
“You mean you haven’t made up yet?” Maru frowned. “Both of you, come with me~!”
“But I’m only half dressed!”
“It doesn’t matter, come with me anyway. This is my day, remember.” It was nice not to be the one being ordered around for once, and he was planning on taking full advantage of it.
The pair glanced at him, and then at each other, and then simultaneously decided that they would never hear the end of it otherwise, and followed Maru out of the door.
Maru led the pair down the corridor outside, and peeked through the door of an empty meeting room. Finding it empty, he stepped aside and beckoned for the other two to go inside. As they naively wandered inside, Maru stepped back and shut the door behind them, turning the key in the lock. As the pair finally realised that they had been tricked, they both turned back. Ueda shook the door handle with his hand. The looks on their faces made Maru glad there was now a locked door between them.
“You can come out once you’ve made up. And you’d better do it quick because we have a shoot in an hour. Good luck!” Giving them a dazzling and somewhat cheeky grin, he waved, and then turned and headed back towards their dressing room. There was a slight skip in his step.
****
“First of all, I thing we need to temporarily change the band name.”
“What’s wrong with the band name?”
“It just needs a little… tweaking, that’s all,” he told them, and turned the page on the huge flip-board set up at the front of the room. In huge letters right across the page was written the words, ‘Nakamaru Yuichi w/Kanjani8.’
The whole room erupted into objections.
“But we were here first!” Ohkura exclaimed, while Ryo muttered obscenities under his breath and Hina’s fingers began to curl into a fist.
“I just wanted my name to come first, for once. None of you know how it feels to always be last,” Nakamaru explained, giving the others his best pathetic look.
Yasu started to stick his hand up in the air, but was responded to with a hard slap to the back of his head. “That’s only when we do it in height order,” Hina hissed at him, and Yasu lowered his hand and crossed his arms, a pout forming on his face.
“So uh, we’re all agreed right?” Nakamaru asked, and was met with a unanimous “NO.”
****
“And where are Ueda and Kamenashi?” the interviewer asked. There were two empty seats beside the other members of the band.
“They had an argument yesterday,” Jin explained.
“Maru locked them in one of the rooms back stage,” Koki smirked.
“And have they made up yet?” the interviewer asked.
“The last time I checked, they were sitting in silence at opposite ends of the room.”
“Does this happen often?” another question fired at the band.
Junno shrugged, and smiled a little. “About four times a week.”
****
Nakamaru had been out for almost an hour and the rest of the band were just beginning to wonder if they had driven him away when the door opened and he walked into the room, a satisfied look on his face and a shopping bag in one hand.
“Where have you been?” Yasu asked curiously, eyes on the man’s mysterious purchase.
“I got a present for Hina,” he told them, and pulled something soft and purple from the bag he was holding.
“What is that?”
“A bath robe. It seems like you need one.” Nakamaru responded simply, and handed the robe over.
Hina spread the robe out and gave it a slightly skeptical look, before glancing at the other.
"What do I need this for, anyway?"
Ryo smirked. "I'll hazard a guess that Nakamaru doesn't appreciate your naked body."
"Is there something wrong with it?"
"It's yours, that's what's wrong with it," Ryo replied before Nakamaru had even decided how the most tactful way of approaching the answer might be. "If you were a beautiful woman, it'd be a different -"
He didn't get to finish, finding himself slapped around the head. Nakamaru slunk off into a corner, glad that he had gotten out of answering the question and glad to know that he at least wasn't alone in his opinion.
****
“I’ve booked us all a table at a restaurant tonight,” Maru announced proudly.
“You’ve what?”
“A uh, a table, at a restaurant. For us. You know, to have dinner?”
There was a momentary silence, and a couple of them stood up to leave. “I have plans,” Jin spoke, and the others nodded firmly, and started to head to the door to go their separate ways.
“WAIT.” The open door slammed shut before anyone could walk out. The group looked up, a little shell-shocked, as Maru stood there, a look of anger on his face none of them had ever seen before. He looked like he was going to punch the next person who disobeyed him, and it stopped them in their tracks. “We’re going to have dinner. Together,” he stated, and then the corners of his lips curved into a grin. “Okay?”
****
Day three. Reunion.
The six remaining members of Kanjani8 were waiting for Maru as he stepped out of the car that had brought him back to his own band. He was so eager to get out and “home” that he tripped over his own foot and landed straight in Hina’s arms. Just as he was about to say thank you, Maru was greeted with a hard slap to the head. He whimpered a little, and stood back, rubbing the spot on his head where the other had hit him, and then his lips widened into a huge grin. If anyone had looked close enough, they would have found a few tears forming in the corner of his eyes. “I missed you guys!” he exclaimed. “Don’t ever let me do anything like that ever again!”
****
Nakamaru got out of the car to find the place deserted, but that didn't surprise him. He hadn't expected them to be there with a welcoming party for him, because that just wasn't the way they were. He smiled, and headed to the dressing room the others were waiting in. As he pushed open the door, he could hear arguments inside.
"Why do we need that many balloons anyway?! What are you planning on doing, flying out of the building?"
"Just blow up the balloons."
Nakamaru decided to leave them to it. He didn't want to ruin his welcoming party after all, and it was never a good idea to get in between an argument between band members anyway, not when he just wanted his peace and quiet. As he headed back down the corridor to go and get himself a drink, he heard the distinctive sound of popping balloons. Somehow, after spending two days with Eito, he was looking forward to being back with his own band.
****
“There was one thing I found really disturbing about hanging around with you guys...” Nakamaru began. The group were sitting round two large tables, mid-discussion about their experiences of the last two days.
The group looked at him expectantly, and Nakamaru’s cheeks became slightly flushed.
“All the nakedness.”
“I told you,” Ryo smirked.
“And Yasu tried to get in the shower with me.”
“Yeah... he does that.”
“And I’ve told him not to.”
Yasu immediately protested. “What’s wrong with sharing?!”
“Nothing... in most circumstances, but not in the shower! I don’t want to see that!” Nakamaru argued.
“EH? Is there something wrong with it?” Yasu suddenly looked quite offended.
“I d-didn’t mean that that!”
“There’s nothing wrong with it anyway,” Subaru piped up from the corner, almost the first time he had spoken since they came into the room, and everyone glanced in his direction. “What?”
“Oh, and you,” Nakamaru continued, pointing rather accusingly at Hina. “Did you know when we have dressing rooms they provide us with robes? They do that for a reason, you know...”
Hina’s eyes narrowed.
“I couldn’t miss that. And it wasn’t pretty.”
Narrowed eyes were followed by clenched fists, and Hina launched himself out of his seat so violently that the chair toppled to the ground behind him.
“Hey!” Koki growled, and put himself in between the furious Hina and the now rather terrified looking Nakamaru, who had a fist dangerously close to his face. “Don’t you dare touch him. Or else.” Four other heads nodded in agreement.
“Oh my god!!!” Maru exclaimed, his eyes wide with glee. “You don’t completely hate each other.”
Hina now sulking in a corner, Maru put one elbow on the table and rested his cheek in his palm, letting out a sigh. “I walked into your dressing room two days ago and the first thing I saw were two people arguing and a shirt being thrown at my head. And I felt really bad when you all went and left me all alone,” he started. “I watched out of the window and saw you all getting in your separate cars and leaving, and I didn’t know what to do. What did you guys do the first evening?” he asked.
“We took him out and got him drunk and pushed him out in the street in his underwear.”
“Exac- You did what?”
“In an affectionate way, of course,” Subaru commented.
“This is the kind of stuff you get up to when I’m not there to keep an eye on you?” Maru frowned.
“Well it was a bit embarrassing. But the rest of the evening was kind of fun,” Nakamaru admitted. "Sometimes it's nice to go out, we spend so much time together working but we don't really relax together very often."
“And what did you guys do?” Maru asked the members of KAT-TUN.
“I went out with Pi.”
“Hung out with some friends.”
“Went to the arcade.”
“Washed my hair.”
“Wrote some rap lyrics.”
“Exactly! You left me all alone in that room and I’d ordered pizza and everything and I had to eat it all on my own, and then I got upset and I called Hina’s phone and he didn’t answer because they were all out having fun. Together. I was your guest, guys. What would you have done if I was one of your band mates?”
“We don’t... really go out together that often,” Nakamaru repeated. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t get along.”
“Yeah,” Ueda agreed with a firm nod, and then he stood up and unbuttoned his jacket, revealing underneath the shirt Maru had witnessed the argument over. “All clean, see? Kame cleaned it for me. I guess I sometimes have a bit of a temper...” he chuckled.
“You guess?” Maru asked, blinking a little. “You broke that meeting room door trying to get away from him.”
“I hope Kame will forgive me for saying this, but... he was singing, it was giving me a headache,” Ueda grinned.
Kame glared momentarily, and then laughed. “Forgiven.”
****
Three days earlier...
The man standing in front of the flipchart cleared his throat dramatically, “Ladies,” Yoko glanced at Jin as he spoke, causing the man to smirk, “gentlemen. I know you’re all wondering why you’re all here. Mostly because you haven’t stopped asking me since we came in here.”
“Then just tell -” Ohkura started, but was quickly interrupted.
“So you can go back to bed? If you shut up for five minutes, I’ll tell you.”
Ohkura let out a loud and dramatic yawn. Then there was silence.
“Right, where was I? I’ve been tasked with a very important mission, and it’s about to begin. Watch the screen.”
All eyes turned to the monitor in front of them, and they watched as Nakamaru Yuichi walked into an empty meeting room and took a seat on one of two empty chairs. As he was clearly pondering on who the other might be meant for, the door opened again, and Maruyama Ryuhei peeked through the crack, his eyes wide and slightly alarmed. “Oh my god,” the group watching on the monitor heard him say. “What have I done?”
Yoko took one look at the pairs surprised faces on the screen, and the sea of blank faces in front of him, and a slightly evil grin curved his lips. “I bring you...” he started, and flipped over the cover of a large board on a stand beside him. In large letters, across the front of the first page, were two words.
MARU SWAP.