Dress Blues (Chapter 5/?)
Title: Dress Blues (Chapter 5/?)
Author: keeconk
Pairing: HikaInoo, TaDaiki
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,885
Disclaimer: Arisa is mine~.
Summary: A life of a model is often seen as extravagant and glamour. But not many people know that a life of a model can be this epic and bizarre. What would happen if Arisa, an eighteen-years old fashion and make-up model, meet Takaki Yuya, the popular singer? The thing is, Arisa is just a stage name of a normal boy, named Arioka Daiki, who dresses up as a girl during photo shoots.
A.N.: AU setting. Cross dressing. Unbeta'ed.
( Chapter 1: An Epic start )
( Chapter 2: The Holiday )
( Chapter 3: Oops! )
( Chapter 4: Unguarded )
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Inoo yelped, turning his head in an instant when he felt an annoying stinging sensation at the touch. Damn, it hurt like shit. Being a crybaby he was, Inoo knew that he might actually cry because it just hurt so badly. It wasn’t exactly the type of hurt that made him cry because his heart couldn’t take it, it was more because it was literally painful.
“Inoo-chan! Stop moving, will you?! The bruises have to be treated like right now,” Daiki protested at the end.
“But it hurts!” the taller guy retorted.
“And who’s fault is that?” another voice snapped not long after.
The nineteen-year-old model turned his head to the snappy voice, eyes piercing angrily while casting at the latter. There, at the end of his vision, Takaki was sitting just right at the other end of the poshy couch, with Hikaru kneeling before him and trying to plaster a bandage on the singer’s face.
“Well, who told you to sleep with Dai-chan?” Inoo shot a glare at Takaki.
“He’s my boyfriend! There’s nothing wrong with me sleeping with him!!”
“Of course there’s something wrong with it! Especially since you actually dare to punch my pretty face!” Inoo grabbed the nearest cushion and threw it to Takaki.
It took Takaki less than a second to jump from where he sat, hands reaching out for Inoo’s neck - ready to strangle the model at any cost. “You fucking punched me first!!! You barked into my apartment, walked in without even taking your freaking shoes and punched me when you found my boyfriend on my bed! That’s ‘something wrong’!”
Pursing his lips, Inoo went silent. He didn’t mean to punch Takaki, he swore that he didn’t mean to. It was just like any normal free day for him. He woke up, called Hikaru, talked for an hour, and met up with him; just like any other free day they had. If only he didn’t have the sudden urge to drag Daiki for a morning run with them, he wouldn’t have to know what had happened between the latter and Takaki the night before.
He just couldn’t help it. Anger was the first thing that he felt the moment he saw Daiki sleeping on Takaki’s bed like it was his own - naked. He couldn’t even remember how but the next thing he knew Takaki was already on the floor, holding his chin with eyes glaring at him before then getting up to punch him back.
He remembered that his knuckle hurt, and that Hikaru was trying his best to separate the two of them. Things went pretty much hazy when there was this one hard punch that Inoo felt on his face before he actually collapsed to the floor. That one hurt like shit, really, really hurt.
“Are you done, Dai-chan?” he asked, somehow couldn’t stand being there for any longer. Fuck it, he thought. If Daiki was going to spend his weekend with Takaki, really, he pretty much had no right to say that they couldn’t. A punch on his face was more than enough to knock some sense back to him.
Standing up, Inoo quickly dragged Hikaru from Takaki’s living room. “I think we should leave. Thanks, Dai-chan. Sorry to disturb the two of you. Come on Hikaru.”
Hikaru looked reluctant. He pretty much hadn’t finished with Takaki’s face, but Daiki could do that, Inoo thought. Daiki was Takaki’s boyfriend, and if he could freaking sleep with Takaki, then he definitely could treat the wounds. Why should Hikaru take care of Takaki if he got Daiki?! Weren’t they supposed to be boyfriends? Blah. More reason for Inoo to drag Hikaru out because Inoo didn’t want to disturb the couple.
“Aren’t you a little bit over-reacting?” asked Hikaru once they were out from Takaki’s place.
What? Over-reacting?! Inoo was?! Hikaru gotta be kidding him, he thought. Why would he over-react over the fact that Daiki just slept with Takaki the night before? Hikaru was being ridiculous, he thought. He wasn’t that stupid to over-react on something like that. Besides, those two were boyfriends. “Don’t be ridiculous, Hikaru. I’m not over-reacting.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I’m so not,” Inoo insisted.
“You wouldn’t punch him if you aren’t. Or weren’t… whichever is more suitable,” Hikaru yawned as he wrapped his hand on Inoo’s shoulder.
“That was because I was too shocked that they just had sex--… I mean, made love the night before!”
“What’s so wrong about that? They’re boyfriends,” Hikaru frowned, slightly puzzled.
“Isn’t it too fast?! I mean, even we haven’t made love!!” Inoo exclaimed.
Inoo swore he heard Hikaru clicking his tongue at his comment. And he knew that he just said something wrong the moment the younger guy unwrapped his hand and even walked ahead, leaving him behind. Inoo groaned inwardly to himself, realising how much he was being stupid because whatever he just said might actually hurt Hikaru in a certain way.
“That’s because you don’t love me enough to make love to me…” Hikaru mumbled, scratching his hair as he turned his head to Inoo.
Inoo just went quiet.
------
This thing between him and Hikaru started not long after Daiki joined the company. Hikaru asked him out for movies, dinner, or just some normal hang out in the nearest café. Not even once, Inoo had to admit, that it got into his mind that Hikaru was actually asking him out on dates, simply for the fact that the got this huge crush on Daiki.
Everyone knew that Hikaru wasn’t an idiot, so somewhere along the line, Hikaru told Inoo that if he really liked Daiki he should go for the other guy without even telling Inoo his real feeling towards the latter. And really, Inoo would have asked Daiki out for real if Daiki didn’t say that he wasn’t interested in relationship at all as for then. He thought he would wait until the younger guy settled down with his career, and he never thought of the possibility of him, noticing Hikaru’s feeling at all.
Hikaru always had this laugh and smile that everyone would totally notice right away. All of those were always genuine. But Inoo wasn’t an idiot. After a while, he got to notice how ‘dry’ Hikaru’s smile or chuckle each time Inoo started to talk about Daiki, flailing over the younger boy. From there, things got really complicated. On one side, he really loved all the attention that Hikaru was giving him, and he was never jealous when the younger guy acted all touchy and clingy to Daiki.
So Inoo asked Hikaru out instead and shocked would be the only word that could describe Hikaru’s reaction. It wasn’t love that Inoo felt for Hikaru, but he knew that he liked him a lot. He really, really did like him. Things went pretty well, they kept their relationship hidden, and Inoo eventually stopped having a crush on Daiki. Well, only until Takaki and Arisa got “together”.
It wasn’t jealousy, he reckoned; but he knew he didn’t like it. He just didn’t like it. It felt almost like a father finding out about his daughter’s first boyfriend ever - getting all freaked out and throwing rages around. Hikaru called it a ‘complex’.
“Stop checking on them already, Inoo-chan,” Hikaru sighed the moment Inoo took his phone to text Daiki for the nth time that day.
“But it’s his second night staying at Takaki’s place! Aren’t you worried?!” he turned his head in a dramatic manner to Hikaru.
“They had sex. What else could go worse than that?”
“I don’t know! Rape?!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hikaru stood up from Inoo’s desk and crawled to the latter’s bed where Inoo had been lazying around the whole afternoon, snuggling to him. “Just because they are one step ahead than we are, doesn’t mean you have to get all paranoid every single second.”
“I’m not being paranoid.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m not!!”
“You are.”
“I’m no--,” Inoo couldn’t finish his sentence because a pair of soft lips were being pressed against his own lips.
“Yes, you are~,” Hikaru grinned.
But yeah, he wouldn’t say that he loved Hikaru; not yet, but he knew he would, and he was so sure that he was so sure that it wasn’t jealousy that he felt towards Takaki. He didn’t know what it was, but it was pretty obvious that it would be hard for him to accept their relationship. Simply because Takaki needed to get his approval.
He definitely sounded like a father trying to chase off his daughter’s boyfriend.
------
Hikaru wasn’t the type that would force what he wanted to anyone around him. If whatever he had in mind had come to the point where an agreement was almost impossible, he would try to compromise because he believed if no one were willing to do that, it would just create unnecessary argument.
Despite of that mischievous look of his, Hikaru knew when to be serious. He was just as professional as Inoo, a lot more professional in fact. Maybe he appeared to be such a clown and all that people knew about him was how hilarious he was; but really, he had a lot more to offer. His expression could change just in seconds. He could just be the normal dork he was in one second, messing around with Daiki or doing some random jokes to the staff; but all those would disappear the moment the camera’s flash went off.
If there were something that Hikaru really wanted to do right now, it would be breaking up with Inoo. He didn’t want to be in a relationship where the other party didn’t love him as much as he did. But as much as he wanted to break up with him, he couldn’t leave Inoo the way he was at the moment.
Things got pretty hard to handle since Takaki and Arisa went out together. Hikaru was stuck being the middle person with Inoo refusing to talk to Daiki, and the youngest guy whining to him about this whole situation. He didn’t mind, really. He would just compromise, like he always did. Yet at times, it wasn’t as easy as people would think it would.
It got him frustrated sometimes, to see how much Inoo still cared about Daiki, but he knew at the back of his head that it wasn’t the same kind of “care” that Inoo used to show when the older boy was still having a crush on Daiki. That little difference kept on giving him hope that he knew might not even come. Hope that at least, somehow, Inoo would return his feeling back, the way he wanted it to be. Maybe he was asking for too much, he was supposed to feel happy that Inoo was the one that actually asked him out, the one that realised that maybe they could make things work. But yeah, he was just a boy that could get a little bit selfish at times.
Yet, all these didn’t really matter. He knew with all his heart that it would be impossible just to break up with Inoo with what they had been through together, emotionally. It wasn’t easy, he noticed, for the older guy to actually moved on; and he wasn’t blind not to see how much Inoo was trying to like him back, to love him back.
It got even more impossible because lately Inoo had been staying over at his place (or the other way round) so many times. And it was kind of heart breaking to see how the older guy snuggled to him at night, sleep talking the same thing every single night. That one single line that Inoo kept on repeat each time was literally burned on his head, leaving marks that he knew would be too painful if he tried to say no to it. It was just a simple, “Hikaru, don’t leave me.”
And there was Daiki. His favourite bullying target ever. He could actually understand Inoo’s concern. Inoo was practically right that it was kind of reckless for Daiki (or Arisa to be exact) to date Takaki. From a professional-sense, it might expose a little bit too much and it would put Daiki’s career to an end. That, was what he thought until they caught Daiki making out with Takaki.
“You’ve been spacing out a lot lately,” Daiki commented as he crossed his legs on the coffee table before the sofa that he was sitting on.
“Really? Might be just your imagination~,” he replied back, putting on his widest grin ever.
“Yeah. It’s kind of noticeable,” Daiki added.
“Hahahaha. You’re very funny, Dai-chan. Me? Spacing out? That’s the greatest joke ever,” Hikaru patted the younger boy’s head. “So how’s Takaki? Did he get into trouble for the bruises? Because Inoo did.”
Shifting his bum slightly, Daiki leaned back to the fluffy and soft surface of the sofa as he nodded to Hikaru as an answer. It was kind of funny, really, to see Daiki in a relationship. He got all giggly over text messages, slightly blushed over some phone calls, and even got a lot bouncier when he saw a certain car picking him up. But yeah, when Takaki was actually there beside him, he got back to the usual short-tempered brat he was.
“Yabu-kun was scolding him the whole evening yesterday. I wouldn’t believe me if I said that Yabu-kun was actually really, really scary when he was mad,” Daiki replied at the end.
“I see.”
“Ehm.. Hikaru. Mind me asking?”
“About what?”
“Are you in a relationship with Inoo-chan?”
Hikaru spontaneously stood up from the armchair he was sitting on, pretending that he just got a new message on his phone that was never there to begin with, before then making his way to their agency front door. “I gotta go~,” he waved to Daiki with the biggest fake smile he could pull off.
Sighing as he turned his head, Hikaru could hear Daiki screaming, “I’m so gotta get the truth out of your freaking mouth Hikaru, you son of a bitch!!!!”
------
“So… how long has it been since the two of you got together?” Daiki pierced his eyes at both Hikaru and Inoo, pretty much determined to end all this confusion in his head at that very instant.
“Hikaru, answer him,” Inoo whispered as he kicked Hikaru’s leg under the table.
“No. You answer him. You were the one that asked me out,” Hikaru growled.
Silence filled the café -- not literally, but at least it did fill the table where the four of them were sitting. It was too confusing for Daiki to be honest. He had no clue that the two of them were going out. Not at all! If he didn’t accidentally (so not accidentally actually) see the two of them kissing that day, he wouldn’t even have thought of it.
“T-that… I mean… We… Wait, what is he doing here!!” the pretty boy quickly changed the topic as he pointed out a finger at Takaki, and it got Takaki blinking, pretty much not understand why Inoo suddenly brought the fact that he was there.
“Well, isn’t this supposed to be the usual ‘drag Takaki to come for dinner with us or he would be mourning over his sorry ass’ gathering?” Takaki tilted his head.
“Y-yeah, but still! Why are you here?!” Inoo insisted.
“That’s not the point, Inoo-chan!!! Are you or are you not in a relationship with Hikaru?!” hitting the wooden table with his palm, Daiki once again threw a pair of pierced eyes to Inoo, demanding for an explanation.
Daiki didn’t understand, really. Why should they keep it as a secret from him? It wasn’t that he would literally kill the two of them. In fact, he would be really, really happy about it. Who wouldn’t be happy when two of his bestfriends were actually hooking up with each other? If such person existed, he or she might slightly be out of her mind.
“You should just be honest. Like us~,” Takaki grinned, wrapping his hand on Daiki’s shoulder as he leaned his head against the shorter one among the two; of course, only to be pushed away by Daiki because he wasn’t really into public display of affection when he was dressed as himself. And he didn’t want to hear Takaki whining over his usual ‘What if they found out that I’m gay?!’ paranoia.
“Dude, look who’s talking. Someone who was secretly dating our Arioka Daiki, pretending that he was dating Arisa instead,” Hikaru frowned.
Daiki couldn’t help it but snorted. At times like this, Hikaru still knew how to become sarcastic with his somewhat lame, yet loveable, joke. He had a point of course. At times Daiki felt a little sad that it had always been about Takaki and Arisa when they were in public, and as they got to somewhere private, only then it became Takaki and Daiki. To be honest, it wasn’t exactly what Daiki would say as an ideal relationship.
The reason why the four of them were there at that restaurant was because, once again, the youngest among the four accidentally (not really) saw Inoo and Hikaru kissing each other again. This time, it wasn’t in a toilet or somewhere hidden at all. It was when Daiki came over to Hikaru’s house to give his video game tutorial book back. He should have knocked really, but he was glad he didn’t simply for the fact that if he did, he wouldn’t see the two of them kissing each other. Or making out to be precise.
“For awhile,” Hikaru answered at the end. “Long before you even met this guy,” he added as he took a quick glance at Takaki, smiling gently in the process.
Okay, now that Hikaru actually admitted the relationship, Daiki could do nothing but sitting there, blinking as his body froze at the brand new piece of information. How could they not tell him?! How could they not tell him?! It seemed a little bit unfair for him because it wasn’t that their relationship would create chaos as much as his relationship with Takaki would!! Well, probably it would still do create chaos because the two of them were models, but still!!
“I feel betrayed!!!” Daiki slapped his own face with his two palms, pretty much giving the couple a really, really ugly disappointed face.
“What?! How do you think I feel when I caught you making out with this freak?!” Inoo gave Daiki a soft whack as he arched his eyebrow, questioning.
“I still feel betrayed!!”
“Stop being such a drama queen, Dai-chan,” once again, another whack landed nicely on Daiki’s head.
“But…”
People said, when you were in love, whatever your lover told you to do, you would do it instantly without any hesitation. At first Daiki thought it was all bullshit and he would never ever fall into this category. However reality proved him wrong. The moment Takaki patted his head to calm him down, his mouth was sealed and instead of making such a big fuss over this new discovery, Daiki decided to concentrate on his omelette rice. He had never known that a single motion from his boyfriend would actually… make him a lot at ease.
“Awwww~… Aren’t they just cute,” Hikaru leaned forward as he pinched Daiki’s chubby and fluffy cheeks,
“We’re not cute!” Daiki protested.
Well, at least the atmosphere between them had become a lot calmer and cozy. Inoo had gotten angry less often then before when Daiki mentioned Takaki’s name, and Hikaru had stopped denying the fact that there was something between him and Inoo. For a while there, Daiki thought everything would be alright, that they now would be able to continue their normal life.
------
Everyone had his or her limit, including Hikaru. No matter how much patience he had, even someone like him could break and lost in brawl of avidity and his selfish wishes. Documents were scattered on the floor while there were pieces of glasses on the table, with water soaking whichever paper was left on the table. He had enough he thought. He had enough.
“Hikaru…” his companion for the night stared him from where he was seated, fear was clearly on his eyes as his body trembled at that most unexpected moment.
“Stop…” he started. His fingers were fisted so tight and he was biting his lower lip so hard that it wouldn’t be a surprise if it left marks on that plump of his. The chair where he previously sat on was on the floor with its backrest against the hard surface from the sudden movement of Hikaru standing up. “… stop talking about him already,” he continued. His voice was throaty and slightly husky, either from the pain that had been building up from all this time or from him trying to control his anger. It didn’t really matter whichever case it was. It was all about one thing. Him losing his temper.
His eyes were piercing deeply at the pretty guy’s eyes before him, half angry and half begging to stop making him feel the way he felt. He swore to God that he loved him with all his life but he wasn’t no saint that could just sit there, listening on the very same guy he loved talking about someone else all the time without reaching his limit. It wasn’t a secret, nor it was something unnoticeable that Inoo had tried his best to like him back, to love him back; but nothing was worse than waiting and seeing hope coming to him only to be crushed right in front of his very own eyes the moment Daiki got a boyfriend… the moment Inoo started to act a little jealous over such fact.
“I’m sorry,” Inoo gulped, trying to clean all the mess that Hikaru just did, the ruined new photo shoot schedules as well as the broken glasses from the younger guy's sudden rage. Hikaru noticed those trembled fingers picking up the pieces of the transparent glass, those very same fingers that would caressing his locks at night when he wanted to be spoiled by the other guy, when he wanted to feel loved even though he knew it might be merely a try from Inoo that had no real feeling to it.
Every single time Inoo started to talk about Daiki, about how much he was still not approving the boy’s relationship with that rock star that they met during a photo shoot some time ago in the past, Hikaru could feel a small part of him died a little inside. He thought it wasn’t fair that he was trying so hard to keep Inoo with him, he was trying so hard to accept Inoo with the lack of feeling that the older guy would give back to him; but yet at the end of the day, Inoo’s attention would still be on Daiki. It would still be on that guy, and not him.
“Are you in love with him?” Hikaru spoke up at the end, wanting to know the truth once and for all. He didn’t want to keep on hoping and waiting for something that might not even exist. He didn’t want to waste his time hurting himself more but trying his best to understand that it might be hard on Inoo, that Inoo might need such a long time to forget about Daiki.
“What are you talking about Hikaru?” the latter answered him with a really terrified tone. Hikaru knew deep inside him that probably, it was Inoo’s first time seeing him in such state.
“I said, are you in love with him? With Daiki…” he repeated. “If you are… really, Inoo. I don’t want to continue this… I don’t want to keep hoping and holding you down with me when your heart is not even here…” he muttered.
Hikaru hated himself for not noticing it, for not realising that the reason his relationship with Inoo seemed to be really smooth was because Inoo knew that he couldn’t have Daiki, and no one else could have Daiki because the latter himself wasn’t interested in having any sort of relation at the moment. It might be a shock for Inoo to find out about this whole couple stunt that Takaki and Arisa pulled off in front of the press.
“I’m not in love with him, Hikaru. I’m not,” Inoo answered him, with one hand brushing off his hair to the back of his head, trying to remain calm when he clearly wasn’t.
“Then why can’t you stop talking about him? It had never been about us. It had always been about you, me, or him!” the younger one among the two raised his voice slightly, feeling frustration building up to his head as his blood rushed through his vein with anger.
He could just leave and pretend that nothing had ever happened between him and Inoo. He could just pretend that there was no relationship between them to begin with because it frustrated him so much to know that everything might be just a big fat lie. He could just do that really… but not when the next thing he knew, the guy that he was so in love with, the very same one that made him frustrated, was reaching out for him with his trembled hands, hugging him with a familiar warm that had become his friend at night when they slept next to each other.
“I had a crush on him, yes I did. But I’m not in love with him. I wasn’t, am not, and will not…” Inoo mumbled, trying his best to push away all doubts that were nesting in Hikaru’s sore heart.
“But you’re…”
“I’m just worried, Hikaru. Like literally worried,” Inoo continued, cutting Hikaru’s sentence before the younger one could say more.
Hikaru could feel that Inoo was hugging him sincerely, that he was hugging him with all that he had, making it a lot harder to say push him away and say no, they really couldn’t keep this relationship if this continued. But the warm that lingered between them, the soft breathing from Inoo that was against his chest, every single thing about it didn’t allow Hikaru to continue being mad, to continue being frustrated.
“Takaki and I went to the same junior high school. I doubt he even knew about it because we were never in the same class and it was such a long time ago,” Inoo explained at last.
“Eh?”
“He’s so different now. The way he speaks, acts, and everything about him are just different from the Takaki that I knew from junior high school, and that what worries me so much. I’m worried about Daiki as a friend, Hikaru.”
Pushing Inoo away, Hikaru stared at the older guy with a questioning look, as he wasn’t ready for such sudden information. What was he talking about, he thought. What was this? “I don’t understand what you are trying to say, Inoo. I really don’t. How does this have something to do with us?”
“I don’t know. I just want you to know that I’m not in love with Daiki, that I’m just worried about him. You’re really important to me, Hikaru, so I don’t want all this to pull you away from me because I know how much I need you,” he explained further.
“I…” he didn’t know how to react to that. It was just too sudden. Everything about it was just too sudden. So Inoo and Takaki went to the same junior high school, then Takaki was totally different from the Takaki back from those time Inoo was his schoolmate, and why would it be so worrying? Because really, as much as Hikaru was concerned, there was nothing wrong with Takaki. “… don’t understand what you’re trying to say at all about Takaki.”
There was a deep breath being taken in by the gorgeous guy before him. Hikaru didn’t fail to notice that Inoo seemed to space out to some random spot as he tried to put his words together in his head, probably trying to think of a sentence that would make sense to him.
“He wasn’t as bubbly and ‘idiotic’-like as he is right now. He was ambitious and wouldn’t care what people would think about him. He was quite a catch back then. But things… happened to him. Things that a boy would never even think he would experience. It was quite a chaotic situation, but for all that matters, he was really unstable… emotionally; and the whole school pretty much knew about it. I’m just afraid that the Takaki that we know at the moment, is just a shield to protect the real Takaki,” Inoo explained.
Hikaru was dumbfounded, pretty much because the more Inoo explained to him about what happened back then, the more he understood the older guy’s concern. And the moment Inoo mumbled what exactly happened to Takaki, Hikaru would say that now… he was just as worried as Inoo.
“You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not,” Inoo answered. “Now you understand why I got all worried over Daiki? It’s not because I’m jealous or anything.”
Covering his mouth from disbelief, Hikaru could only curse to himself. “Shit.”
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I KNOWWWWWWWW!!! I'm sorrryyyyyyyyyy!!! This is so late and I bet some of you might even already forgotten about this fic. I even decided not to give the fic to my beta reader because I do not want you to wait even longer so please ignore mistakes. RL was just so hectic and busy and frustrating and shit and crap and.... and stuff. LOL. But here's chapter 5 for you!!! And yes, I know!! Now you hate me even more because I still leave the chapter hanging with another cliffy.
Love you all~ &hearts
P.S. there seems to be lots of TaDaiki fics around that I am yet to read. I'll try my best to try to read those!!
Author: keeconk
Pairing: HikaInoo, TaDaiki
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,885
Disclaimer: Arisa is mine~.
Summary: A life of a model is often seen as extravagant and glamour. But not many people know that a life of a model can be this epic and bizarre. What would happen if Arisa, an eighteen-years old fashion and make-up model, meet Takaki Yuya, the popular singer? The thing is, Arisa is just a stage name of a normal boy, named Arioka Daiki, who dresses up as a girl during photo shoots.
A.N.: AU setting. Cross dressing. Unbeta'ed.
( Chapter 1: An Epic start )
( Chapter 2: The Holiday )
( Chapter 3: Oops! )
( Chapter 4: Unguarded )
-----------------------
Inoo yelped, turning his head in an instant when he felt an annoying stinging sensation at the touch. Damn, it hurt like shit. Being a crybaby he was, Inoo knew that he might actually cry because it just hurt so badly. It wasn’t exactly the type of hurt that made him cry because his heart couldn’t take it, it was more because it was literally painful.
“Inoo-chan! Stop moving, will you?! The bruises have to be treated like right now,” Daiki protested at the end.
“But it hurts!” the taller guy retorted.
“And who’s fault is that?” another voice snapped not long after.
The nineteen-year-old model turned his head to the snappy voice, eyes piercing angrily while casting at the latter. There, at the end of his vision, Takaki was sitting just right at the other end of the poshy couch, with Hikaru kneeling before him and trying to plaster a bandage on the singer’s face.
“Well, who told you to sleep with Dai-chan?” Inoo shot a glare at Takaki.
“He’s my boyfriend! There’s nothing wrong with me sleeping with him!!”
“Of course there’s something wrong with it! Especially since you actually dare to punch my pretty face!” Inoo grabbed the nearest cushion and threw it to Takaki.
It took Takaki less than a second to jump from where he sat, hands reaching out for Inoo’s neck - ready to strangle the model at any cost. “You fucking punched me first!!! You barked into my apartment, walked in without even taking your freaking shoes and punched me when you found my boyfriend on my bed! That’s ‘something wrong’!”
Pursing his lips, Inoo went silent. He didn’t mean to punch Takaki, he swore that he didn’t mean to. It was just like any normal free day for him. He woke up, called Hikaru, talked for an hour, and met up with him; just like any other free day they had. If only he didn’t have the sudden urge to drag Daiki for a morning run with them, he wouldn’t have to know what had happened between the latter and Takaki the night before.
He just couldn’t help it. Anger was the first thing that he felt the moment he saw Daiki sleeping on Takaki’s bed like it was his own - naked. He couldn’t even remember how but the next thing he knew Takaki was already on the floor, holding his chin with eyes glaring at him before then getting up to punch him back.
He remembered that his knuckle hurt, and that Hikaru was trying his best to separate the two of them. Things went pretty much hazy when there was this one hard punch that Inoo felt on his face before he actually collapsed to the floor. That one hurt like shit, really, really hurt.
“Are you done, Dai-chan?” he asked, somehow couldn’t stand being there for any longer. Fuck it, he thought. If Daiki was going to spend his weekend with Takaki, really, he pretty much had no right to say that they couldn’t. A punch on his face was more than enough to knock some sense back to him.
Standing up, Inoo quickly dragged Hikaru from Takaki’s living room. “I think we should leave. Thanks, Dai-chan. Sorry to disturb the two of you. Come on Hikaru.”
Hikaru looked reluctant. He pretty much hadn’t finished with Takaki’s face, but Daiki could do that, Inoo thought. Daiki was Takaki’s boyfriend, and if he could freaking sleep with Takaki, then he definitely could treat the wounds. Why should Hikaru take care of Takaki if he got Daiki?! Weren’t they supposed to be boyfriends? Blah. More reason for Inoo to drag Hikaru out because Inoo didn’t want to disturb the couple.
“Aren’t you a little bit over-reacting?” asked Hikaru once they were out from Takaki’s place.
What? Over-reacting?! Inoo was?! Hikaru gotta be kidding him, he thought. Why would he over-react over the fact that Daiki just slept with Takaki the night before? Hikaru was being ridiculous, he thought. He wasn’t that stupid to over-react on something like that. Besides, those two were boyfriends. “Don’t be ridiculous, Hikaru. I’m not over-reacting.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I’m so not,” Inoo insisted.
“You wouldn’t punch him if you aren’t. Or weren’t… whichever is more suitable,” Hikaru yawned as he wrapped his hand on Inoo’s shoulder.
“That was because I was too shocked that they just had sex--… I mean, made love the night before!”
“What’s so wrong about that? They’re boyfriends,” Hikaru frowned, slightly puzzled.
“Isn’t it too fast?! I mean, even we haven’t made love!!” Inoo exclaimed.
Inoo swore he heard Hikaru clicking his tongue at his comment. And he knew that he just said something wrong the moment the younger guy unwrapped his hand and even walked ahead, leaving him behind. Inoo groaned inwardly to himself, realising how much he was being stupid because whatever he just said might actually hurt Hikaru in a certain way.
“That’s because you don’t love me enough to make love to me…” Hikaru mumbled, scratching his hair as he turned his head to Inoo.
Inoo just went quiet.
------
This thing between him and Hikaru started not long after Daiki joined the company. Hikaru asked him out for movies, dinner, or just some normal hang out in the nearest café. Not even once, Inoo had to admit, that it got into his mind that Hikaru was actually asking him out on dates, simply for the fact that the got this huge crush on Daiki.
Everyone knew that Hikaru wasn’t an idiot, so somewhere along the line, Hikaru told Inoo that if he really liked Daiki he should go for the other guy without even telling Inoo his real feeling towards the latter. And really, Inoo would have asked Daiki out for real if Daiki didn’t say that he wasn’t interested in relationship at all as for then. He thought he would wait until the younger guy settled down with his career, and he never thought of the possibility of him, noticing Hikaru’s feeling at all.
Hikaru always had this laugh and smile that everyone would totally notice right away. All of those were always genuine. But Inoo wasn’t an idiot. After a while, he got to notice how ‘dry’ Hikaru’s smile or chuckle each time Inoo started to talk about Daiki, flailing over the younger boy. From there, things got really complicated. On one side, he really loved all the attention that Hikaru was giving him, and he was never jealous when the younger guy acted all touchy and clingy to Daiki.
So Inoo asked Hikaru out instead and shocked would be the only word that could describe Hikaru’s reaction. It wasn’t love that Inoo felt for Hikaru, but he knew that he liked him a lot. He really, really did like him. Things went pretty well, they kept their relationship hidden, and Inoo eventually stopped having a crush on Daiki. Well, only until Takaki and Arisa got “together”.
It wasn’t jealousy, he reckoned; but he knew he didn’t like it. He just didn’t like it. It felt almost like a father finding out about his daughter’s first boyfriend ever - getting all freaked out and throwing rages around. Hikaru called it a ‘complex’.
“Stop checking on them already, Inoo-chan,” Hikaru sighed the moment Inoo took his phone to text Daiki for the nth time that day.
“But it’s his second night staying at Takaki’s place! Aren’t you worried?!” he turned his head in a dramatic manner to Hikaru.
“They had sex. What else could go worse than that?”
“I don’t know! Rape?!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hikaru stood up from Inoo’s desk and crawled to the latter’s bed where Inoo had been lazying around the whole afternoon, snuggling to him. “Just because they are one step ahead than we are, doesn’t mean you have to get all paranoid every single second.”
“I’m not being paranoid.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m not!!”
“You are.”
“I’m no--,” Inoo couldn’t finish his sentence because a pair of soft lips were being pressed against his own lips.
“Yes, you are~,” Hikaru grinned.
But yeah, he wouldn’t say that he loved Hikaru; not yet, but he knew he would, and he was so sure that he was so sure that it wasn’t jealousy that he felt towards Takaki. He didn’t know what it was, but it was pretty obvious that it would be hard for him to accept their relationship. Simply because Takaki needed to get his approval.
He definitely sounded like a father trying to chase off his daughter’s boyfriend.
------
Hikaru wasn’t the type that would force what he wanted to anyone around him. If whatever he had in mind had come to the point where an agreement was almost impossible, he would try to compromise because he believed if no one were willing to do that, it would just create unnecessary argument.
Despite of that mischievous look of his, Hikaru knew when to be serious. He was just as professional as Inoo, a lot more professional in fact. Maybe he appeared to be such a clown and all that people knew about him was how hilarious he was; but really, he had a lot more to offer. His expression could change just in seconds. He could just be the normal dork he was in one second, messing around with Daiki or doing some random jokes to the staff; but all those would disappear the moment the camera’s flash went off.
If there were something that Hikaru really wanted to do right now, it would be breaking up with Inoo. He didn’t want to be in a relationship where the other party didn’t love him as much as he did. But as much as he wanted to break up with him, he couldn’t leave Inoo the way he was at the moment.
Things got pretty hard to handle since Takaki and Arisa went out together. Hikaru was stuck being the middle person with Inoo refusing to talk to Daiki, and the youngest guy whining to him about this whole situation. He didn’t mind, really. He would just compromise, like he always did. Yet at times, it wasn’t as easy as people would think it would.
It got him frustrated sometimes, to see how much Inoo still cared about Daiki, but he knew at the back of his head that it wasn’t the same kind of “care” that Inoo used to show when the older boy was still having a crush on Daiki. That little difference kept on giving him hope that he knew might not even come. Hope that at least, somehow, Inoo would return his feeling back, the way he wanted it to be. Maybe he was asking for too much, he was supposed to feel happy that Inoo was the one that actually asked him out, the one that realised that maybe they could make things work. But yeah, he was just a boy that could get a little bit selfish at times.
Yet, all these didn’t really matter. He knew with all his heart that it would be impossible just to break up with Inoo with what they had been through together, emotionally. It wasn’t easy, he noticed, for the older guy to actually moved on; and he wasn’t blind not to see how much Inoo was trying to like him back, to love him back.
It got even more impossible because lately Inoo had been staying over at his place (or the other way round) so many times. And it was kind of heart breaking to see how the older guy snuggled to him at night, sleep talking the same thing every single night. That one single line that Inoo kept on repeat each time was literally burned on his head, leaving marks that he knew would be too painful if he tried to say no to it. It was just a simple, “Hikaru, don’t leave me.”
And there was Daiki. His favourite bullying target ever. He could actually understand Inoo’s concern. Inoo was practically right that it was kind of reckless for Daiki (or Arisa to be exact) to date Takaki. From a professional-sense, it might expose a little bit too much and it would put Daiki’s career to an end. That, was what he thought until they caught Daiki making out with Takaki.
“You’ve been spacing out a lot lately,” Daiki commented as he crossed his legs on the coffee table before the sofa that he was sitting on.
“Really? Might be just your imagination~,” he replied back, putting on his widest grin ever.
“Yeah. It’s kind of noticeable,” Daiki added.
“Hahahaha. You’re very funny, Dai-chan. Me? Spacing out? That’s the greatest joke ever,” Hikaru patted the younger boy’s head. “So how’s Takaki? Did he get into trouble for the bruises? Because Inoo did.”
Shifting his bum slightly, Daiki leaned back to the fluffy and soft surface of the sofa as he nodded to Hikaru as an answer. It was kind of funny, really, to see Daiki in a relationship. He got all giggly over text messages, slightly blushed over some phone calls, and even got a lot bouncier when he saw a certain car picking him up. But yeah, when Takaki was actually there beside him, he got back to the usual short-tempered brat he was.
“Yabu-kun was scolding him the whole evening yesterday. I wouldn’t believe me if I said that Yabu-kun was actually really, really scary when he was mad,” Daiki replied at the end.
“I see.”
“Ehm.. Hikaru. Mind me asking?”
“About what?”
“Are you in a relationship with Inoo-chan?”
Hikaru spontaneously stood up from the armchair he was sitting on, pretending that he just got a new message on his phone that was never there to begin with, before then making his way to their agency front door. “I gotta go~,” he waved to Daiki with the biggest fake smile he could pull off.
Sighing as he turned his head, Hikaru could hear Daiki screaming, “I’m so gotta get the truth out of your freaking mouth Hikaru, you son of a bitch!!!!”
------
“So… how long has it been since the two of you got together?” Daiki pierced his eyes at both Hikaru and Inoo, pretty much determined to end all this confusion in his head at that very instant.
“Hikaru, answer him,” Inoo whispered as he kicked Hikaru’s leg under the table.
“No. You answer him. You were the one that asked me out,” Hikaru growled.
Silence filled the café -- not literally, but at least it did fill the table where the four of them were sitting. It was too confusing for Daiki to be honest. He had no clue that the two of them were going out. Not at all! If he didn’t accidentally (so not accidentally actually) see the two of them kissing that day, he wouldn’t even have thought of it.
“T-that… I mean… We… Wait, what is he doing here!!” the pretty boy quickly changed the topic as he pointed out a finger at Takaki, and it got Takaki blinking, pretty much not understand why Inoo suddenly brought the fact that he was there.
“Well, isn’t this supposed to be the usual ‘drag Takaki to come for dinner with us or he would be mourning over his sorry ass’ gathering?” Takaki tilted his head.
“Y-yeah, but still! Why are you here?!” Inoo insisted.
“That’s not the point, Inoo-chan!!! Are you or are you not in a relationship with Hikaru?!” hitting the wooden table with his palm, Daiki once again threw a pair of pierced eyes to Inoo, demanding for an explanation.
Daiki didn’t understand, really. Why should they keep it as a secret from him? It wasn’t that he would literally kill the two of them. In fact, he would be really, really happy about it. Who wouldn’t be happy when two of his bestfriends were actually hooking up with each other? If such person existed, he or she might slightly be out of her mind.
“You should just be honest. Like us~,” Takaki grinned, wrapping his hand on Daiki’s shoulder as he leaned his head against the shorter one among the two; of course, only to be pushed away by Daiki because he wasn’t really into public display of affection when he was dressed as himself. And he didn’t want to hear Takaki whining over his usual ‘What if they found out that I’m gay?!’ paranoia.
“Dude, look who’s talking. Someone who was secretly dating our Arioka Daiki, pretending that he was dating Arisa instead,” Hikaru frowned.
Daiki couldn’t help it but snorted. At times like this, Hikaru still knew how to become sarcastic with his somewhat lame, yet loveable, joke. He had a point of course. At times Daiki felt a little sad that it had always been about Takaki and Arisa when they were in public, and as they got to somewhere private, only then it became Takaki and Daiki. To be honest, it wasn’t exactly what Daiki would say as an ideal relationship.
The reason why the four of them were there at that restaurant was because, once again, the youngest among the four accidentally (not really) saw Inoo and Hikaru kissing each other again. This time, it wasn’t in a toilet or somewhere hidden at all. It was when Daiki came over to Hikaru’s house to give his video game tutorial book back. He should have knocked really, but he was glad he didn’t simply for the fact that if he did, he wouldn’t see the two of them kissing each other. Or making out to be precise.
“For awhile,” Hikaru answered at the end. “Long before you even met this guy,” he added as he took a quick glance at Takaki, smiling gently in the process.
Okay, now that Hikaru actually admitted the relationship, Daiki could do nothing but sitting there, blinking as his body froze at the brand new piece of information. How could they not tell him?! How could they not tell him?! It seemed a little bit unfair for him because it wasn’t that their relationship would create chaos as much as his relationship with Takaki would!! Well, probably it would still do create chaos because the two of them were models, but still!!
“I feel betrayed!!!” Daiki slapped his own face with his two palms, pretty much giving the couple a really, really ugly disappointed face.
“What?! How do you think I feel when I caught you making out with this freak?!” Inoo gave Daiki a soft whack as he arched his eyebrow, questioning.
“I still feel betrayed!!”
“Stop being such a drama queen, Dai-chan,” once again, another whack landed nicely on Daiki’s head.
“But…”
People said, when you were in love, whatever your lover told you to do, you would do it instantly without any hesitation. At first Daiki thought it was all bullshit and he would never ever fall into this category. However reality proved him wrong. The moment Takaki patted his head to calm him down, his mouth was sealed and instead of making such a big fuss over this new discovery, Daiki decided to concentrate on his omelette rice. He had never known that a single motion from his boyfriend would actually… make him a lot at ease.
“Awwww~… Aren’t they just cute,” Hikaru leaned forward as he pinched Daiki’s chubby and fluffy cheeks,
“We’re not cute!” Daiki protested.
Well, at least the atmosphere between them had become a lot calmer and cozy. Inoo had gotten angry less often then before when Daiki mentioned Takaki’s name, and Hikaru had stopped denying the fact that there was something between him and Inoo. For a while there, Daiki thought everything would be alright, that they now would be able to continue their normal life.
------
Everyone had his or her limit, including Hikaru. No matter how much patience he had, even someone like him could break and lost in brawl of avidity and his selfish wishes. Documents were scattered on the floor while there were pieces of glasses on the table, with water soaking whichever paper was left on the table. He had enough he thought. He had enough.
“Hikaru…” his companion for the night stared him from where he was seated, fear was clearly on his eyes as his body trembled at that most unexpected moment.
“Stop…” he started. His fingers were fisted so tight and he was biting his lower lip so hard that it wouldn’t be a surprise if it left marks on that plump of his. The chair where he previously sat on was on the floor with its backrest against the hard surface from the sudden movement of Hikaru standing up. “… stop talking about him already,” he continued. His voice was throaty and slightly husky, either from the pain that had been building up from all this time or from him trying to control his anger. It didn’t really matter whichever case it was. It was all about one thing. Him losing his temper.
His eyes were piercing deeply at the pretty guy’s eyes before him, half angry and half begging to stop making him feel the way he felt. He swore to God that he loved him with all his life but he wasn’t no saint that could just sit there, listening on the very same guy he loved talking about someone else all the time without reaching his limit. It wasn’t a secret, nor it was something unnoticeable that Inoo had tried his best to like him back, to love him back; but nothing was worse than waiting and seeing hope coming to him only to be crushed right in front of his very own eyes the moment Daiki got a boyfriend… the moment Inoo started to act a little jealous over such fact.
“I’m sorry,” Inoo gulped, trying to clean all the mess that Hikaru just did, the ruined new photo shoot schedules as well as the broken glasses from the younger guy's sudden rage. Hikaru noticed those trembled fingers picking up the pieces of the transparent glass, those very same fingers that would caressing his locks at night when he wanted to be spoiled by the other guy, when he wanted to feel loved even though he knew it might be merely a try from Inoo that had no real feeling to it.
Every single time Inoo started to talk about Daiki, about how much he was still not approving the boy’s relationship with that rock star that they met during a photo shoot some time ago in the past, Hikaru could feel a small part of him died a little inside. He thought it wasn’t fair that he was trying so hard to keep Inoo with him, he was trying so hard to accept Inoo with the lack of feeling that the older guy would give back to him; but yet at the end of the day, Inoo’s attention would still be on Daiki. It would still be on that guy, and not him.
“Are you in love with him?” Hikaru spoke up at the end, wanting to know the truth once and for all. He didn’t want to keep on hoping and waiting for something that might not even exist. He didn’t want to waste his time hurting himself more but trying his best to understand that it might be hard on Inoo, that Inoo might need such a long time to forget about Daiki.
“What are you talking about Hikaru?” the latter answered him with a really terrified tone. Hikaru knew deep inside him that probably, it was Inoo’s first time seeing him in such state.
“I said, are you in love with him? With Daiki…” he repeated. “If you are… really, Inoo. I don’t want to continue this… I don’t want to keep hoping and holding you down with me when your heart is not even here…” he muttered.
Hikaru hated himself for not noticing it, for not realising that the reason his relationship with Inoo seemed to be really smooth was because Inoo knew that he couldn’t have Daiki, and no one else could have Daiki because the latter himself wasn’t interested in having any sort of relation at the moment. It might be a shock for Inoo to find out about this whole couple stunt that Takaki and Arisa pulled off in front of the press.
“I’m not in love with him, Hikaru. I’m not,” Inoo answered him, with one hand brushing off his hair to the back of his head, trying to remain calm when he clearly wasn’t.
“Then why can’t you stop talking about him? It had never been about us. It had always been about you, me, or him!” the younger one among the two raised his voice slightly, feeling frustration building up to his head as his blood rushed through his vein with anger.
He could just leave and pretend that nothing had ever happened between him and Inoo. He could just pretend that there was no relationship between them to begin with because it frustrated him so much to know that everything might be just a big fat lie. He could just do that really… but not when the next thing he knew, the guy that he was so in love with, the very same one that made him frustrated, was reaching out for him with his trembled hands, hugging him with a familiar warm that had become his friend at night when they slept next to each other.
“I had a crush on him, yes I did. But I’m not in love with him. I wasn’t, am not, and will not…” Inoo mumbled, trying his best to push away all doubts that were nesting in Hikaru’s sore heart.
“But you’re…”
“I’m just worried, Hikaru. Like literally worried,” Inoo continued, cutting Hikaru’s sentence before the younger one could say more.
Hikaru could feel that Inoo was hugging him sincerely, that he was hugging him with all that he had, making it a lot harder to say push him away and say no, they really couldn’t keep this relationship if this continued. But the warm that lingered between them, the soft breathing from Inoo that was against his chest, every single thing about it didn’t allow Hikaru to continue being mad, to continue being frustrated.
“Takaki and I went to the same junior high school. I doubt he even knew about it because we were never in the same class and it was such a long time ago,” Inoo explained at last.
“Eh?”
“He’s so different now. The way he speaks, acts, and everything about him are just different from the Takaki that I knew from junior high school, and that what worries me so much. I’m worried about Daiki as a friend, Hikaru.”
Pushing Inoo away, Hikaru stared at the older guy with a questioning look, as he wasn’t ready for such sudden information. What was he talking about, he thought. What was this? “I don’t understand what you are trying to say, Inoo. I really don’t. How does this have something to do with us?”
“I don’t know. I just want you to know that I’m not in love with Daiki, that I’m just worried about him. You’re really important to me, Hikaru, so I don’t want all this to pull you away from me because I know how much I need you,” he explained further.
“I…” he didn’t know how to react to that. It was just too sudden. Everything about it was just too sudden. So Inoo and Takaki went to the same junior high school, then Takaki was totally different from the Takaki back from those time Inoo was his schoolmate, and why would it be so worrying? Because really, as much as Hikaru was concerned, there was nothing wrong with Takaki. “… don’t understand what you’re trying to say at all about Takaki.”
There was a deep breath being taken in by the gorgeous guy before him. Hikaru didn’t fail to notice that Inoo seemed to space out to some random spot as he tried to put his words together in his head, probably trying to think of a sentence that would make sense to him.
“He wasn’t as bubbly and ‘idiotic’-like as he is right now. He was ambitious and wouldn’t care what people would think about him. He was quite a catch back then. But things… happened to him. Things that a boy would never even think he would experience. It was quite a chaotic situation, but for all that matters, he was really unstable… emotionally; and the whole school pretty much knew about it. I’m just afraid that the Takaki that we know at the moment, is just a shield to protect the real Takaki,” Inoo explained.
Hikaru was dumbfounded, pretty much because the more Inoo explained to him about what happened back then, the more he understood the older guy’s concern. And the moment Inoo mumbled what exactly happened to Takaki, Hikaru would say that now… he was just as worried as Inoo.
“You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not,” Inoo answered. “Now you understand why I got all worried over Daiki? It’s not because I’m jealous or anything.”
Covering his mouth from disbelief, Hikaru could only curse to himself. “Shit.”
----------
I KNOWWWWWWWW!!! I'm sorrryyyyyyyyyy!!! This is so late and I bet some of you might even already forgotten about this fic. I even decided not to give the fic to my beta reader because I do not want you to wait even longer so please ignore mistakes. RL was just so hectic and busy and frustrating and shit and crap and.... and stuff. LOL. But here's chapter 5 for you!!! And yes, I know!! Now you hate me even more because I still leave the chapter hanging with another cliffy.
Love you all~ &hearts
P.S. there seems to be lots of TaDaiki fics around that I am yet to read. I'll try my best to try to read those!!