FIC FOR SIMOURVA
For: SIMOURVA
From: nyctea62442
Title: YOU just got Inceptioned!
Pairings/Characters: KAT-TUN gen with slight Kame/Jin implications
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Inception!AU
Notes: This is set in the same universe as Inception, with slight modifications and additions, such as brain connections and shared dream dynamics. I hope it's not too confusing :(
A huge thank you goes to my beta and to my brainstorming pals. simourva I really hope you'll enjoy this :)
Summary: Johnny's agents are trained since childhood to be the best dream crime fighters; they are put into teams, where they have to dream together, fight together, grow up together. Bonds that great and deep should never be underestimated. Especially if the team is exceptionally childish.
Kame is dancing with a girl. The music is pounding, pumping in his veins. He doesn't feel any alcohol in his body but he feels really dizzy and he slows down, steadying his feet. The girl throws him a glance and he smiles apologetically; she leaves with a shrug. What a pity, he thinks, she was quite pretty.
He walks to the bar and looks around searching for his friends: there is that guy flirting in the corner that looks like Masa but he can't be sure, the intermitting lights blurring his vision. Near him, the bartender smashes a whiskey glass on the counter, startling him and the guy who ordered.
Kame closes his eyes, feeling the music still slurring through him.
There's another smash, and he opens his eyes. Same movement, same glass. Same guy.
Kame frowns. Now that he thinks about it, this is not his usual type of music. He searches again for Masa, but he's not there any more, or was he there in the first place?
Kame tries to think about how he got here, but he doesn't remember anything except drinking his usual glass of milk to take his pill, the projected stars on his ceiling and his bed.
“Damn.”
He fumbles in his pockets and rushes to the restrooms, the only place where it's possible to find some breathing space. He closes the door behind him and locks it with nervous movements, finally pulling out his totem, a little bouncing baseball. He takes a deep breath and lets the ball fall.
It doesn't bounce back to him.
He really is in a dream. Except this is definitely not his dream.
So the options here are basically two.
One: he was attacked in his home and this is either an extraction or, worse, an inception. Kame definitely remembers checking the security of his apartment though, and he's sure his baseball was bouncing on his floor before he went to sleep.
So this leaves only one option: one of the others hasn't taken the disconnection pill.
Kame curses. It's not like this hasn't happened before, but only when they were on days-off and careless, not when they were in the middle of preparing one of their most complicated extractions and needed the most sleep they could get.
He makes his way outside the club; if one of them has forgotten the pill, it meant all of KAT-TUN were dragged inside this dream and he needs to find them and kill them one by one, possibly leaving the responsible in a slow agony.
Last time this happened, they were in Nakamaru's dream. He had fallen asleep on his books and they found themselves in a rain forest; it had been hell founding each other in the wild. This though, doesn't seem like a student's dreamland, unless Nakamaru enrolled in a particular human relations class he didn't want to talk about.
Admittedly, Kame can relate this kind of place only to one person, but his involvement isn't possible. To maintain the connection between their brains, which makes them constantly fall in a shared dream, is Koki's duty, and Kame is sure he reported to the upper levels about breaking the ties with Jin, immediately after he officially left team KAT-TUN.
He finally reaches the exit and the bouncer waves at him like he knows who Kame is, and Kame stops for a second. Exactly at that moment he hears a familiar voice calling his name and when he turns and searches the crowd, he spots Taguchi a few meters away waving at him, trying to get his attention.
“KAME!!” Kame walks back, reaches out for him and pulls him out from amongst the dancing bodies. “Thank goodness I found you!”
“Same here, Taguchi.” Then he eyes his teammate suspiciously. “You did take your pill, didn't you?”
Junno huffs. “I did! I swear I did, Kame!”
Kame actually hasn't even thought for one second this could be Taguchi's dream. They have used him as a subject more times than he can count and Kame knows his subconscious is far from being this messy. “So did I. Have you spotted any of the others?”
Taguchi shakes his head. “But this place awfully reminds me of Akanishi-kun...”
“It can't be possible though, right? Jin is not connected any more.”
Junno shrugs. “Right, unless Koki has forgotten to mention something to us.”
“Let's just...get out of here, please. My ears are starting to hurt.”
They push the door open and they end up in what feels like a completely different world. It's deserted, buildings look mostly destroyed and abandoned, the street looks just plain dangerous. It's pitch dark, the city doesn't emit any light whatsoever, not a single neon sign along the road, and the stars are shining brightly. Kame feels a shiver up his spine, this place looks like all hope has left it and he suddenly wishes to go back inside the club.
Junno draws his shoulders and his breath turns into steam, he's looking up at the night sky. “...this dream is huge.”
Kame agrees but they have no time to be all proud about how amazing their team is, he just really wants to sleep in his own dream for a change, right now.
“It doesn't look like there are many places to search, they must be near. The dreamer is probably inside, no point in creating this safehouse if you're not going to use it.”
“Should we go back then? It's not exactly warm out here...” Junno shivers slightly, to mark his words.
“Yeah.” Kame's eyes linger a little bit more on the stars; they feel strangely familiar. “Yeah, let's go back.” Neither of them says anything, but they both know it needs a great Architect to build something this grand.
Before they can actually move, the door slams open and the bouncer from before rushes out, he's clutching his earpiece but they can make out the words “fight” and “backdoor” coming from it. They make him way and they glance at each other. Kame has a feeling they need to see this one, it's as good a place to start as anything. They follow the bouncer around the corner and there's a little crowd waiting near the backdoor of the club, clearly trying to block the two fighters from indiscreet eyes; the guy pushes his way into the circle and they manage to take a peek at the centre of the attention.
Kame sighs. “I should've known...”
Taguchi laughs and walks past Kame, calling for Ueda.
In the chaos the bouncer's arrival has caused, it takes a few calls before Ueda looks up and sees them. His eyes widen in surprise and his hand automatically reaches for the butterfly pendant around his neck; Kame sees the realization slowly making its way on his face and he smiles at Ueda almost apologetically. He disappears for a few seconds, swallowed by the crowd, and when Kame catches his eyes again, he's just thrown a well-aimed punch in the face of a black guy who's at least twice Ueda's height. Kame mentally prays they're not in Ueda's dream, because he doesn't really want to think about having to kill him right now.
The fight is dying out and Ueda walks to them.
“It's not mine, I took my pill. I guess it's neither of you?” Taguchi shakes his head and Ueda bites his lower lip while watching his surroundings, observing every little detail and analyzing things from an Architect point of view. Kame has been instructed on creating dreams since he was young, but he's never made quite as good an Architect as Jin or Ueda. “This doesn't look like Nakamaru. But I don't think Koki's architecture abilities can take him this far, either.” He looks suspiciously at Kame. “Koki has broken the connection with Akanishi, right?”
Kame sighs deeply. “I think it's better for Koki if this is really his dream, because if it's not I will have to strangle him for real.”
“Here they are!” The voice comes from the corner of the street, just when a big nose appears to give it a name. Nakamaru is running towards them, followed by none other than Koki. The first one looks relieved, while the second looks positively self-conscious. Kame just looks like he's been suddenly drained of all energy and only wants to drop dead on his bed.
Taguchi and Ueda both stare at Koki but no one says anything, until Kame breaks the silence with a clear, “May I ask why-”
“I have a very good explanation for that!” Koki interrupts him before he can finish. “...It sounds pretty good in my head, anyway.” When none of them looks particularly impressed, he adds “It was good enough for Nakamaru?”
Maru's frown says he would have been affronted if he wasn't used to get that all the time. Ueda playfully pats his shoulder. “Go on then, we're listening.”
“Jin asked me not to break the connection. He said...that there was still something he had to do, and that he might need it, that he might need us.” Koki shrugs, like that was the most obvious explanation ever. Kame thinks it might just be. “So I sent him off with a package of pills worth a year and a note that said I'd kill him with my bare hands if he forgot to take them. Apparently, he hasn't taken the hint.”
“I'm more surprised that you thought he would.” Ueda laughs with mirth and Nakamaru joins him. “For Jin to remember that kind of stuff is a little bit too much to ask, don't you think?”
“Oh, come on.” Koki grumbles. “He hasn't forgotten that many times!”
Kame tightens his lips before he bursts out laughing; if only they knew how many mails he's wasted on Jin to remind him to take his pill.
He clears his throat, because this is not the time to be asking for refunds of old expenses made for the sake of the team. “Okay, I get it Koki; it's not like I ever thought you would purposely disobey an order if it wasn't for a very good reason. What I was asking is, why haven't you told us?”
Koki gives him an awkward smile. “I don't know, Kame. It seems so stupid now.”
Kame doesn't even have the force to get angry at him, because if he really thinks about it, he would have probably done the same. “Let's just find Jin and wake him. We all have to go through important plans tomorrow, we need to rest our minds properly.”
He's already moving towards the backdoor to get back in the club, when Taguchi's voice stops him.
“Wait a moment.” They all look at him in mild surprise. “So we are in Akanishi-kun's mind right? And he hasn't noticed yet, or his defense system would have been here already-”
“I doubt that.” Nakamaru says, biting back a smile; when everyone looks at him, he also provides an explanation. “I've done experiments with Akanishi working on his dream levels. I can assure you his security is as laid-back as he is.”
“Really?” Koki seems surprised. Kame nods, “Yeah, he has named them all, he usually parties with them too.”
“For real?” Taguchi looks bewildered, but there's a spark in his eyes that tells he's probably thinking about names for his own security. Ueda doesn't say anything and Kame wouldn't be too surprised if his security were his sparring mates too.
Nakamaru's face turns suddenly very serious. “Maybe I get where Taguchi's going with this...Guys, has Akanishi told any of you the real reason why he had to leave the team when he was sent to the US branch?”
When Jin had told them he was going back to America, none of them had been surprised: doing solo missions wasn't unusual for any of them and Jin had worked in LA before; what had surprised them was his leaving the team altogether. Not that they didn't understand; Kame has always been sure Jin's talent could take him wherever he wanted.
Akanishi was very clear that day, “Now that I'm officially transferring there, if I stayed in the team I would only slow you guys down, because I can't always be here. I don't want that. KAT-TUN is a great team, you can't stop and wait for me forever.” And Kame understood, it made perfect sense. But there was something in Jin's voice that told him that wasn't all there was to it, there was something in the way Jin had said “Johnny's sending me to the US” and not “I'm going”, something desperate and apologetic in his “Believe me, I tried.” that sounded almost embarrassed.
Kame had asked Jin about it, but he'd been very elusive, which has never been one of Jin's best prerogatives.
The fact that everyone's shaking their head tells Kame he isn't the only one being curious.
Taguchi grins, reprising his explanation. “If we're here and he hasn't noticed, we could make the most of it, don't you think? We could find out by ourselves!”
Extraction is illegal, and technically dream agents like KAT-TUN exist exactly to prevent dream crimes like that. But everyone knows team KAT-TUN is not renowned for following rules. No, their team is renowned for ignoring all the possible protocols and fall three levels down, risking a massive limbo restriction, in order to capture codename White Lady. And it's not like Jin will ever sue them. If he ever finds out, that is.
“Sometimes, I really like how your brain works, Taguchi.” says Ueda, and he seems genuinely impressed.
Kame frowns, “Yeah, but who knows how deep he hid the information! We could end up in a risky situation...I don't really want to be trapped in a Jin-limbo for the rest of my life, thank you very much.”
Koki laughs, “Oh trust me, Akanishi might be the best Architect of us all but hiding his ideas in labyrinths does not seem to be his first concern!” Kame's frown deepens; how come everyone has been deep down Jin's subconscious before, when Jin himself has never allowed Kame in his dreams? Koki seems to catch on and he quickly adds, “I've just been down one level and seriously, you don't want to know what he's been not hiding there...”
Nakamaru looks rather embarrassed himself, but Kame can't say if it's just second-hand embarrassment or what, Nakamaru's strange like that.
“I'm starting to be really curious about all this,” Ueda says in amusement “But I'm not going to ask you, given that I'll be seeing it for myself very soon.”
“It's settled, then?” asks Taguchi, even though he already knows the answer.
“What's the plan?” grins Koki, looking directly at Kame, who smirks back.
“We can't really do anything here, we have power to change things but it'll immediately trigger Jin's defense and he'll probably just wake himself up. Anyway, we need to at least go down one level because this information is obviously something he doesn't want us to know, and as much as I think his subconscious speaks loud and clear,”
and here Nakamaru adds a “a little bit too loud for my liking” and a meaningful nod towards the club,
“I don't think he's that stupid, especially if he's aware the connection isn't broken yet.” Kame knows he would have been much more careful if he knew there still was the possibility of Jin popping up in his dreams; the real Jin of course, because his projection has been popping up in Kame's dreams since forever.
“I agree.” Ueda nods, deep in thought. “And I need to design a second level that would give us the opportunity to extract the idea as soon as possible. I still want my sleep, after all.”
“It will have to be something familiar, where our presence wouldn't seem too odd for him, so that he'll just think we're projections. And maybe putting him in a group situation will allow us to make him say why he left.”
After a few seconds Kame looks up to see a similar expression to his on Ueda's face. “The Queen KAT-TUN!”
The other three light up immediately. “Of course!” smiles Nakamaru. “With that scenario we'll be able to keep his security away too!”
The Queen KAT-TUN is a pirate ship scenario Jin and Ueda had designed as their training dream when they were all still juniors. Far from being the expert agents they are now, they had learned all there was to know about dream dynamics on that ship. All of them could rebuild that dream in the tiniest detail.
“That should be pretty easy. I just need to build a new ship and place Akanishi's security on it.” Kame can practically see the gears in Ueda's brain working. “So that when they attack us, we'll just pretend it's training.”
“There's one problem, though.” Taguchi points out, biting his lower lip. “How do we get him one level down without him noticing?”
“Before thinking about that, we need to find him. If he's really with his security, we also need to find a way not to get caught.” Nakamaru reasons. “Besides...I'm really kinda cold. Can't we get back inside?”
Ueda gives him a long amused glance. “I thought you said the music was too loud?”
“...I'm too cold to care.”
“Let's go.” Kame smiles comprehensively and heads to the backdoor again.
“Wait.” This time it's Koki who stops him, and Kame doesn't look too pleased. “You might want to enter by the main door. Akanishi's likely to be in the VIP area right? You should have great chances of getting a table.”
Kame gives him a sidelong glance. “I did notice the bouncer waving at me earlier. Care to share?”
“I...” Koki hesitates for a second, but he seems to decide there's nothing wrong in telling. “I've seen your projection in this club before, in the VIP area.” He doesn't say more, not even under Kame's inquisitive stare.
Kame sighs, for the umpteenth time since he's been asleep. “Well then, we can't pass up chances when they're served to us this easily, right.” He ignores Ueda's snicker and just proceeds back to the entrance of the club, followed by his team.
When they're there, the bouncer recognizes Kame and nods, but his expression turns immediately to a wary one when he notices Ueda just behind.
Kame decides to risk it and act all confident. “Don't worry.” he says shaking lightly his head, and he's hoping Koki was right. “He's with me. They all are.”
The tone seems to work and the guy visibly relaxes, “Sorry, Kamenashi-san. It's been a tough night and-”
Kame smiles and continues with his act, shrugging off his apologies. “Is Jin still in there?”
The bouncer smiles back and he steps aside to open the door for them. “Just like always, Kamenashi-san.”
Once they're all inside, Ueda doesn't try to hide it anymore and he bursts out laughing; Taguchi watches Kame huffing and he cannot miss the chance to tease “Well, that was interesting...Kamenashi-san.”
Before Kame can retort anything, they all feel like the floor is collapsing under their feet; right after though, they all notice they were the ones leaping. They blink and look at each other, worried.
“What was that?” Nakamaru sounds edgy, and everyone can see why, since now all the glasses and bottles behind the counter are shaking. It doesn't feel like an earthquake, it's more like a truck is passing really near the club, making the walls tremble.
“Where is he?” Koki looks frantically around, trying to find other possible hints of Jin's real self's whereabouts.
“Someone's heard from him recently?” asks Taguchi.
“No...” Ueda considers. “Now that I think about it, isn't LA supposed to have lots of hours difference from Japan? What's he doing asleep in the afternoon of a working day?”
“You think he's working?” Kame looks at Ueda, but near him Koki shakes his head.
“No, it's not possible. This is definitely Akanishi's dream. And I seriously doubt anyone in their sane mind would ever use him as both Dreamer and Architect at the same time.”
Nakamaru agrees, “Not to mention, his security would be much higher if he was working.”
The tremors are dying down.
Kame tries to recall his last conversation with Jin. It was three days ago, over the phone; they hadn't talked about anything important, small talk: how they were doing, how Jin's new team was coming through, how the others were...
But Kame can suddenly pinpoint something in that conversation that bugged him. Jin ended the call with a “See you soon.” He's never done that before.
Could he have planned this all along, dragging them here? Or-
“A plane!”
The others look at him funnily. “He must be on a plane! It makes sense, don't you see? This must be a turbulence and it does explain why he'd be asleep at an hour similar to ours...he's coming back to Japan.”
“I'm afraid this is only good news up above.” Ueda points out with a frown. “If he's on a plane, it means he probably just fell asleep listening to music and he could be woken up by anything, any minute now. We don't have much time.”
“I'd say he took something to rest during the flight though.” Nakamaru observes, more calmly. “This dream is too stable to be just a nap. There shouldn't be any problem in going down, I believe.”
They all nod in acknowledgement. “We're still doing this, but we must do it fast.”
They move in the crowd towards the VIP section; all the people, the dancers, don't seem too hostile, or at least they don't seem to bump voluntarily into them. This is a good sign, but Kame can't really say if it's because Jin hasn't noticed the intrusion yet or because he subconsciously trusts all of them not to be of any harm.
Nakamaru suddenly takes Kame's arm and stops him abruptly; Kame looks at him and he notices he's focused on the crowd, probably on one particular person.
“You found him?” Kame asks, trying to follow his gaze.
Nakamaru pushes him towards the nearest wall and that's when the others notice they've stopped. Maru looks pretty nervous. “See that girl coming our way? The red-head?”
Kame searches in the middle of the people and he sees a cute red-haired girl that must be a few inches shorter than him. “She's in Jin's crew?” Nakamaru nods.
Kame tries to look past her, in the direction she seems to be coming from; they're all searching through the people in the private tables. And that's when Kame sees him.
Jin's standing beside a table, talking to a foreign guy Kame recognizes to be in his security. He seems relaxed, not edgy and definitely not onto them.
They've all spotted him. “We need a plan.”
“Nakamaru, do you recognize anyone else from Jin's security?” Kame sees him scanning the people chilling in the VIP section more attentively.
“No, beside Josh at his table no one else seems to be around.”
“Good. We need to distract his defense and take Jin elsewhere. We certainly can't make him go under in the middle of the club, if we don't want this crowd to attack us all at once.”
Ueda places his hand on Kame's shoulder. “We'll take care of his security and you'll fool him into leaving the club.” Kame blinks at him in a distinctive 'why me' way. “If his subconscious hasn't recognized you as more than a projection, he won't either.” he explains with a smirk.
“I can easily take care of the guy.” Taguchi says happily.
In the blink of an eye, there's a blonde girl right where Junno was standing. She's wearing a pink short dress, her platinum hair is tied up in a flawless bun and her blue eyes are framed by light mascara. Her lipglossed lips form a wide grin.
“You think this is enough?”
Koki's staring at the new Taguchi up and down, checking her out. “Awesome.”
Junno throws him a pleased smile.
Kame tears his eyes off her and stares pointedly at Nakamaru instead. “Go get the girl.”
“WHAT?!”
Nakamaru's eyes are wide in surprise, like he can't believe what he's just heard; Kame on the contrary stares at him like he can't believe Nakamaru's just asked that.
“But why me? I mean, I don't think I-”
Kame huffs mockingly. “Who thinks Nakamaru should go?”
Three hands other than Kame's own immediately go up.
“What-” Nakamaru sighs, resigned.
“I hate you guys so much.” he grumbles.
“Kame,” Ueda starts, seemingly very concentrated on something. “I'm building a staircase past that door.” he says while pointing at a red door not very far from Jin's table. “Once Akanishi's alone approach him and take him there, me and Koki will be waiting at the top of the building.”
“Quickly now,” he pushes Nakamaru hurriedly. “The girl's noticing me!”
Both Nakamaru and Taguchi rush towards their target, while the three of them left walk a little bit more slowly towards Akanishi's table.
There's a champagne glass in Taguchi's hands now and she's walking straight at Josh. Ueda and Koki are right behind him, trying to keep themselves from Jin's eyes. Kame's waiting his moment just a few feet away. He looks briefly back at Nakamaru, who's already talking to the girl; he looks damn nervous and Kame rolls his eyes. Luckily, the girl seems to find this really cute.
“Hey! What the hell??”
“Oh my! I'm so sorry!!”
Taguchi's bumped into Josh, spilling all her champagne on his t-shirt. Kame thinks his bandmates' pick-up styles need a bit of an update.
Both Josh and Jin are now distracted by Junno's very short dress and Ueda and Koki manage to slip past the door.
Kame can't see Nakamaru anymore and he hopes he's going to dispose of the girl soon.
“I apologize, it's all my fault!” Junno's pursing her lips in a pout.
“It's okay, really.”
“No please, I want to make it up to you!”
Josh seems very convinced by Taguchi's act, Kame thinks it might have something to do with her dress that is now showing more cleavage than last time Kame'd checked.
“Let me buy you a drink?” She smiles seductively.
Jin watches the scene with an amused smirk and he doesn't even blink when Josh leaves him alone to follow the hot blonde.
Taguchi winks at Kame when she brushes past him.
Kame takes a step forward and Jin notices him. He visibly brightens up, throwing him a sincere bright smile.
“Kame! You're back!”
Kame can't help but smile back. He feels vaguely guilty, because Jin seems incredibly defenceless right now and he's about to just take advantage of that. He reminds himself he's doing this because Jin's the one who kept secrets from them in the first place, and that leads him on with his act.
“Thought you might be missing me...”
Jin expression turns very serious and Kame fears he's exposed.
“You know I do.” he whispers and Kame has to read his lips over the music. He's not talking about this dream anymore and Kame knows it. He reaches over to touch Jin's shoulder lightly.
“I've missed you too.”
Kame suddenly realizes this is the first time he's voiced this out since Jin left.
He wonders if he's said too much, but Jin's smiling affectionately at him. Kame doesn't know if he hasn't sensed the emotion in his words, or if Kame's projection usually talks like that too. That would imply Jin wanting to hear those words from him, and maybe he's not that ready to think in that way.
Kame squeezes his shoulder a little and grins. “I was watching the stars. They're beautiful tonight, they look like the ones we used to watch when we were younger, remember?”
The music around them is slowing down into a softer tune. Kame looks around, but there aren't any other changes. Right then, he catches sight of Nakamaru sneaking out the door.
He looks back at Jin. “Why don't we go upstairs and watch them together?”
Jin grins, “Let's go!”
Kame feels even more guilty now.
They walk to the door and Kame has to dodge a few people that seem to be eager to bump into him. Fortunately, Jin doesn't notice.
When they get through the door, they find themselves in a grey dull stairwell; Kame starts to climb the steps but when he's just three up, Jin catches his hand gently, to make him stop but not stumble. When he looks back down, Jin's wearing that serious expression again and Kame frets, wondering if he's able to tell this is Ueda's project and not his own, but Jin startles him with a question.
“Are you angry at me?”
Kame didn't see that coming. He is indeed a little upset; he doesn't understand why Jin has asked Koki not to break the connection without telling him anything. But he doesn't believe Jin would see through that. Besides, Jin's eyes are not searching, they're not looking for a reason.
He just looks sad.
“Why would I be angry at you?”
Jin doesn't break eye contact but he smiles again. “Nothing.” He shakes lightly his head.
“Come on.”
Jin lets go of his hand and they go up the stairs. Ueda apparently built more floors than he had expected because it takes them some minutes to reach the top and when they do, Kame's the first one to reach for the doorknob.
“Finally!” He purposely raises his voice to let the others know he's going through first.
Jin follows him right after.
“Ow!” Jin's voice fades immediately.
When Kame looks back, Jin's unconscious on the floor and Junno is hovering over him with her purse still raised.
“I'm sorry, Akanishi-kun.” She really does look apologetic and after Kame blinks he's back in his male form again and he tosses the purse on the floor. It emits an overly heavy sound when it touches the ground.
“A purse? Really?” Kame raises his eyebrows at him.
Koki laughs “Like a true lady.” while he's trying to lift Jin's body up by his arms. The others gather around and help him moving Jin towards the sleep-inducing machine they have prepared while Kame was still downstairs.
“How much time will we have down there?” Kame asks absent-mindedly while he takes his end of the drug injecting cable.
“Plenty, if he doesn't wake up suddenly,” Nakamaru explains. “It's going to be pretty unstable from now on, the dream could collapse at any moment.”
He's adjusting the cable on Jin's wrist with expert movements.
“I couldn't use heavy sedative, since none of us is going to stay here for guard. If we get killed, we'll most likely just wake up straight in our beds.”
Kame nods and he looks around to see everyone acknowledging the information and lying down. Nakamaru joins them and Kame stays put with his finger on the injection button.
“Ready? See you on the deck, crew.”
He pushes the button and falls asleep.
-
Kame's startled by the sound of a cannon firing.
He's lying on his bed in the cabin that he and Jin used to share on the Queen KAT-TUN. He feels the smile naturally growing, he hasn't been here in a while.
There's movement in his peripheral vision and he raises to see Jin fumbling with clothes in his wardrobe.
“Kame, wake up already!” Jin stops for a second to look over at Kame's bed. “Come on, we're under attack!”
Kame blinks and frowns: Jin's nervousness a little bit over the edge. He doesn't remember ever seeing him this distressed, even under attack.
“Jin, are you okay?”
“I am perfectly okay, Kame.” He looks at him disbelievingly. “You are the one lying unusually calm on your bed while there are cannons aimed at us!”
Kame can't even reply and Jin's already out the door, probably already going up the stairs to join the others on the deck. Except Jin is already back, walking to Kame's bed while huffing exasperated.
“Well? Aren't you coming?” He doesn't wait for a reply, catching Kame's arm and dragging him out of bed.
Kame's displeased. But he's supposed to act as a projection, and projections do what their dreamer expects them to, so he bites his tongue before saying something really un-projection-like.
“Jin...Jin! I'm coming, okay. Will you please calm down now?”
Jin lets him go, he slows down but he doesn't relent. They meet Koki on the stairs and Jin almost bumps into him.
He steps back just in time. “Whoa, Akanishi!”
Koki looks at Kame startled and questioning. “What's gotten into him?”
Kame looks just as clueless. “You know, I have no idea.”
When they reach the dock Jin's smacking Taguchi in the head for some reason, hopefully in retaliation for a pun and not just for the sake of it; you never know, when it comes to Jin and Taguchi.
Nakamaru corners Kame immediately.
“Have you said something to him? He's... unbelievably jumpy!”
“I didn't say anything! I woke up and he was already like that!”
“Bull's-eye!”
Kame looks up at the helm balcony and he sees Ueda grinning, fake shooting Jin with his right hand. “We must have triggered something in him.”
Kame ignores Nakamaru fretting (“Oh god, we've broken Akanishi!”) and climbs the stairs to stand near Ueda.
“The fire is coming from his security?”
He nods at the ship looming to starboard. “They're far enough, the shots aren't going to reach us anytime soon. We've plenty of time to figure him out and he doesn't seem to be making our job difficult.”
“And what does he believe is attacking us exactly?”
“Oh, I think he thinks that's someone else's security. Like, a guy that we're holding captive or something.”
“...Do we actually have someone captive?”
“No, but that's not the point. That's how things have always been on this ship, right?” Ueda sounds cheerful and a little bit nostalgic at the same time.
“Akanishi!” Koki's tone is unwavering. “Will you just shut the fuck up and tell us why are you freaking out?”
“I am not freaking out! Koki, why aren't you helping me here? We're supposed to work together! We're a team!”
Kame and Ueda join the others on the front deck, where Taguchi and Koki are resigned to listen to Jin's tantrum before he noticed there was something really wrong about how his projections were acting.
Nakamaru approaches too and he whispers uncertainly, “He looks traumatized...” and then a little bit more sure, but not less softly, “I think he's turned this place into a nightmare, he's living a nightmare right now.”
Kame walks over. He places a hand on Jin's shoulder, in the exact same place as before.
It works like a charm, and Jin actually stops in his tracks to look at Kame in the eyes.
“It's okay.”
“No.” Kame's words seem to have drained the energy from the other. “No, it's not.”
“Jin, what's wrong?” Kame tries to be as soothing as he can.
“You don't understand. I need to do this, I won't let this happen again.”
“Akanishi-kun, nothing's gonna happen to us.”
“It will!”
Jin shrugs Kame's hand off him and rushes towards the balcony. Ueda tries to block him.
“Even if it is, Akanishi listen to me!...Even if it is, we'll survive. We always do.”
“Stop it!” Jin's voice is desperate now. “Why are you trying to stop me? We're supposed to work together!” He looks at everyone in the eyes, one by one. “We're supposed to win this battle and then we will wake up and we'll be the best team around.”
“We already are the best team around.”
Koki talks with all the determination only pride can give you.
“We'll win this one, like all the others.”
Jin is shaking furiously his head. “No, we won't.”
“We're going to fight. We'll lose. I won't be able to save anyone and you're all going to die. And it's my fault every single time. Because I make stupid, stupid mistakes.”
Kame wonders just how many times Jin's had this nightmare.
He decides that the best thing to do is just tell him nothing's going to happen because they're not in Jin's dream right now. He searches the others' gazes and he knows everyone's thinking along those lines. “Jin...”
But Jin has already dashed forward and he's climbing the stairs now. Kame notices a telescope in his hands. “Jin, listen-”
He's adjusting the focus onto the enemy ship, and they all know he's going to find out.
“What-” He lowers the lens for a moment, frowns and then he looks up again.
“But that's...Dominic? What is he-” Then realization dawns on him.
“This is not my dream.”
On the deck, KAT-TUN are looking at him apologetically and self-consciously. There's nothing much they can say in a situation like this.
“This is not my dream, what the hell!”
Jin's reasoning process is not that fast to begin with and it especially slows down while asleep. And he was living a trauma just now, Kame must give him that.
“You guys, you're not projections! But I...I took the pill, didn't I? Oh no.”
They've all known him for far too long, they know better than to stop his gears from turning before they've done at least one round.
“But then, how...? I was in my club just-oh. Oh.” His eyes widen in shock and he stares at each one of them. “Wait.”
“Who was the hot blonde?”
-
They're all in Jin's and Kame's cabin.
Kame is sitting on his own bed, squished between Koki and Taguchi; Nakamaru and Ueda have taken the chairs, Ueda has his backwards and he's propping his arms on top of the back rest; Jin is alone on his bed, sitting cross-legged with his back on the wall. He looks like a prey cornered by the big scary predators, but that doesn't stop him from staring at them with menacing eyes.
“I could sue all of you for attempted extraction, you know.”
“You wouldn't.” Koki says confidently and Jin looks offended. “I totally would.”
“No, Akanishi,” continues Ueda. “Because that would consequently expose your little side operation, which involves corruption of an ex-teammate into disobeying direct orders.”
Jin shuts up then, settling for a simple pout.
“Jin, please.” Kame sounds irritated enough for Jin to decide against trying to hit around the bush.
“Okay, I get it.”
“I don't really know where to start actually, it's...complicated.”
“We have all the time you need.” Nakamaru encourages.
“Unless you decide to wake up, in that case we will just hunt you down.” Ueda feels the need to precise. Jin takes a deep breath before starting.
“You know the American guy that came last year and requested specifically for me?”
“Yeah, he worked for the US government, didn't he?”
“He came to ask for additional force for a special team that was working under cover in Los Angeles. I know one of the guys in the team and apparently he mentioned my name when they were searching for good Architects.”
“I knew that trip in June wasn't only a vacation.” Kame mutters under his breath, but Jin can hear him.
“Well yeah, but it was under-cover...I had orders!”
“So what about that mission, something happened?” Taguchi looks like a child who's being told a bedtime story.
Jin shrugs. “We succeeded. All went pretty smoothly and we incepted the idea alright.”
“It was an inception?” Nakamaru's surprised.
Inception is just as illegal as extraction, but the crime's counted at least twice as heavy. Agents can perform extractions on a daily basis in order to catch dream criminals, but they're very rarely asked to incept; it needs a special authorization from the Government. KAT-TUN only performed it once.
“It was supposed to work out with a 'mission accomplished, good-bye', but the team chief came back to Japan with me. He requested to see Johnny and when I was allowed in the meeting, he offered me a stable place in his team in America. I-” Jin hesitates for a second, he takes another deep breath that sounds more like a sigh. “I accepted instantly, thinking it wouldn't affect KAT-TUN that much. I thought he only meant a stable place as the Architect of missions like that one. But then Johnny said, 'YOU will have to leave KAT-TUN.' and that's when I realized this was the real deal, you know. They were asking me to change completely my whole life.”
Kame bites his lower lip. He's always known how much Jin loved America, it's always been very clear by the way his eyes sparkled whenever he talked about the time spent in LA.
“So you accepted?”
Jin stares at him and frowns. “No!”
He sounds a little hurt, even. “I asked for time to think about it.”
“And that's when I heard. I excused myself from the room since I wanted to call you guys, but I couldn't help overhearing the other two still talking. And James -that's the guy's name- he actually said 'I wouldn't mind having his whole team, you know, I heard great things about them, we could make a big deal here'! Do you understand?” Jin sounds excited all over again. “He wanted us all to work for an elite branch!”
Kame's never thought they'd be acknowledged like that, but he knew they all had the potential to do great things; he understands Jin's excitement very well and so do the others.
“So what happened?” Taguchi's eager to know.
Jin grimaces. “Johnny refused. He said he couldn't do without a team like KAT-TUN.”
Kame can practically see Nakamaru's face falling, and he hears Koki clicking his tongue.
“So ultimately, you had no choice but leaving the team.”
Jin looks at Kame annoyed. “Will you just let me finish?” Kame raises his hands in an apology and offer to keep going.
“So ultimately, I just had to convince Johnny, didn't I?”
Kame has to bite his tongue before he blurts out a 'But you couldn't.'
Ueda looks rather impressed. “You tried to talk him into it?”
Jin shakes his head. “I don't have the best negotiation skills, I must remind you.”
“No, I...I tried to do an inception.”
Five pairs of eyes go wide and unbelieving.
“You WHAT?!”
“I had it all planned! It was perfect! And it worked!”
Kame can't really believe his ears: Jin performed inception? All alone? He doesn't know if he should be impressed by his skills or his stupidity.
“You inceptioned Johnny.” Nakamaru has to repeat it, but it doesn't make it any more plausible than before. “You inceptioned our boss. You. WHAT.”
“But it didn't work.” Taguchi seems the first one to recover. “I mean, you left.”
Jin sighs deeply and he suddenly looks extremely self-conscious.
“No, it did work, the idea took over. Only it wasn't the idea I expected.”
“Oh. my. God. Don't tell me.” Koki's lips are crooked in a mix of horror and amusement.
“The idea that I had to transfer permanently, leave KAT-TUN forever and not have any choice about it, well...it ultimately came from me.”
Ueda's the first to burst out laughing, followed by the others.
“Oh my god,” Koki breaths. “You failed spectacularly!”
“This is so not funny!” Jin looks at them in disgust. “Jesus, this is why I didn't want to tell you anything!” He folds his arms and grumbles.
Kame catches his breath. “Jin...hey.” He turns his head towards Kame only slightly. “We're not...angry or anything, okay. We're not blaming you, no one ever did.” Kame says with a smile.
“You could have told us sooner, though.” Ueda's still trying to talk normally. “It would have saved us a lot of trouble, you know.”
Jin looks at them, really looks at them, with that serious expression Kame recognizes from before.
“I'm sorry.”
Jin never says what would he have chosen if things went differently, but Kame doesn't care.
What matters is that right now KAT-TUN is much closer and complete than it's been in a while.
-
The next day they meet in their headquarters to go through their mission.
They all seem more relaxed, like they had the best sleep ever, last night.
When Kame's left alone with Ueda, he decides to voice out what's been nagging him.
“You know, Koki never exactly said what was Jin 'not hiding' in his dreams...”
Ueda blinks. “You really haven't figured it out?”
And Kame's at a loss, because he really doesn't have any clue.
Ueda laughs softly at him. “You are so blind sometimes, Kame.”
Kame's about to reply a desperate “Blind over what?” but his cellphone is suddenly ringing; in the span of time he takes to fumble in his jeans for it, Ueda's already gone.
It's from Jin.
Kame's smiling broadly when he answers.
From: nyctea62442
Title: YOU just got Inceptioned!
Pairings/Characters: KAT-TUN gen with slight Kame/Jin implications
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Inception!AU
Notes: This is set in the same universe as Inception, with slight modifications and additions, such as brain connections and shared dream dynamics. I hope it's not too confusing :(
A huge thank you goes to my beta and to my brainstorming pals. simourva I really hope you'll enjoy this :)
Summary: Johnny's agents are trained since childhood to be the best dream crime fighters; they are put into teams, where they have to dream together, fight together, grow up together. Bonds that great and deep should never be underestimated. Especially if the team is exceptionally childish.
Kame is dancing with a girl. The music is pounding, pumping in his veins. He doesn't feel any alcohol in his body but he feels really dizzy and he slows down, steadying his feet. The girl throws him a glance and he smiles apologetically; she leaves with a shrug. What a pity, he thinks, she was quite pretty.
He walks to the bar and looks around searching for his friends: there is that guy flirting in the corner that looks like Masa but he can't be sure, the intermitting lights blurring his vision. Near him, the bartender smashes a whiskey glass on the counter, startling him and the guy who ordered.
Kame closes his eyes, feeling the music still slurring through him.
There's another smash, and he opens his eyes. Same movement, same glass. Same guy.
Kame frowns. Now that he thinks about it, this is not his usual type of music. He searches again for Masa, but he's not there any more, or was he there in the first place?
Kame tries to think about how he got here, but he doesn't remember anything except drinking his usual glass of milk to take his pill, the projected stars on his ceiling and his bed.
“Damn.”
He fumbles in his pockets and rushes to the restrooms, the only place where it's possible to find some breathing space. He closes the door behind him and locks it with nervous movements, finally pulling out his totem, a little bouncing baseball. He takes a deep breath and lets the ball fall.
It doesn't bounce back to him.
He really is in a dream. Except this is definitely not his dream.
So the options here are basically two.
One: he was attacked in his home and this is either an extraction or, worse, an inception. Kame definitely remembers checking the security of his apartment though, and he's sure his baseball was bouncing on his floor before he went to sleep.
So this leaves only one option: one of the others hasn't taken the disconnection pill.
Kame curses. It's not like this hasn't happened before, but only when they were on days-off and careless, not when they were in the middle of preparing one of their most complicated extractions and needed the most sleep they could get.
He makes his way outside the club; if one of them has forgotten the pill, it meant all of KAT-TUN were dragged inside this dream and he needs to find them and kill them one by one, possibly leaving the responsible in a slow agony.
Last time this happened, they were in Nakamaru's dream. He had fallen asleep on his books and they found themselves in a rain forest; it had been hell founding each other in the wild. This though, doesn't seem like a student's dreamland, unless Nakamaru enrolled in a particular human relations class he didn't want to talk about.
Admittedly, Kame can relate this kind of place only to one person, but his involvement isn't possible. To maintain the connection between their brains, which makes them constantly fall in a shared dream, is Koki's duty, and Kame is sure he reported to the upper levels about breaking the ties with Jin, immediately after he officially left team KAT-TUN.
He finally reaches the exit and the bouncer waves at him like he knows who Kame is, and Kame stops for a second. Exactly at that moment he hears a familiar voice calling his name and when he turns and searches the crowd, he spots Taguchi a few meters away waving at him, trying to get his attention.
“KAME!!” Kame walks back, reaches out for him and pulls him out from amongst the dancing bodies. “Thank goodness I found you!”
“Same here, Taguchi.” Then he eyes his teammate suspiciously. “You did take your pill, didn't you?”
Junno huffs. “I did! I swear I did, Kame!”
Kame actually hasn't even thought for one second this could be Taguchi's dream. They have used him as a subject more times than he can count and Kame knows his subconscious is far from being this messy. “So did I. Have you spotted any of the others?”
Taguchi shakes his head. “But this place awfully reminds me of Akanishi-kun...”
“It can't be possible though, right? Jin is not connected any more.”
Junno shrugs. “Right, unless Koki has forgotten to mention something to us.”
“Let's just...get out of here, please. My ears are starting to hurt.”
They push the door open and they end up in what feels like a completely different world. It's deserted, buildings look mostly destroyed and abandoned, the street looks just plain dangerous. It's pitch dark, the city doesn't emit any light whatsoever, not a single neon sign along the road, and the stars are shining brightly. Kame feels a shiver up his spine, this place looks like all hope has left it and he suddenly wishes to go back inside the club.
Junno draws his shoulders and his breath turns into steam, he's looking up at the night sky. “...this dream is huge.”
Kame agrees but they have no time to be all proud about how amazing their team is, he just really wants to sleep in his own dream for a change, right now.
“It doesn't look like there are many places to search, they must be near. The dreamer is probably inside, no point in creating this safehouse if you're not going to use it.”
“Should we go back then? It's not exactly warm out here...” Junno shivers slightly, to mark his words.
“Yeah.” Kame's eyes linger a little bit more on the stars; they feel strangely familiar. “Yeah, let's go back.” Neither of them says anything, but they both know it needs a great Architect to build something this grand.
Before they can actually move, the door slams open and the bouncer from before rushes out, he's clutching his earpiece but they can make out the words “fight” and “backdoor” coming from it. They make him way and they glance at each other. Kame has a feeling they need to see this one, it's as good a place to start as anything. They follow the bouncer around the corner and there's a little crowd waiting near the backdoor of the club, clearly trying to block the two fighters from indiscreet eyes; the guy pushes his way into the circle and they manage to take a peek at the centre of the attention.
Kame sighs. “I should've known...”
Taguchi laughs and walks past Kame, calling for Ueda.
In the chaos the bouncer's arrival has caused, it takes a few calls before Ueda looks up and sees them. His eyes widen in surprise and his hand automatically reaches for the butterfly pendant around his neck; Kame sees the realization slowly making its way on his face and he smiles at Ueda almost apologetically. He disappears for a few seconds, swallowed by the crowd, and when Kame catches his eyes again, he's just thrown a well-aimed punch in the face of a black guy who's at least twice Ueda's height. Kame mentally prays they're not in Ueda's dream, because he doesn't really want to think about having to kill him right now.
The fight is dying out and Ueda walks to them.
“It's not mine, I took my pill. I guess it's neither of you?” Taguchi shakes his head and Ueda bites his lower lip while watching his surroundings, observing every little detail and analyzing things from an Architect point of view. Kame has been instructed on creating dreams since he was young, but he's never made quite as good an Architect as Jin or Ueda. “This doesn't look like Nakamaru. But I don't think Koki's architecture abilities can take him this far, either.” He looks suspiciously at Kame. “Koki has broken the connection with Akanishi, right?”
Kame sighs deeply. “I think it's better for Koki if this is really his dream, because if it's not I will have to strangle him for real.”
“Here they are!” The voice comes from the corner of the street, just when a big nose appears to give it a name. Nakamaru is running towards them, followed by none other than Koki. The first one looks relieved, while the second looks positively self-conscious. Kame just looks like he's been suddenly drained of all energy and only wants to drop dead on his bed.
Taguchi and Ueda both stare at Koki but no one says anything, until Kame breaks the silence with a clear, “May I ask why-”
“I have a very good explanation for that!” Koki interrupts him before he can finish. “...It sounds pretty good in my head, anyway.” When none of them looks particularly impressed, he adds “It was good enough for Nakamaru?”
Maru's frown says he would have been affronted if he wasn't used to get that all the time. Ueda playfully pats his shoulder. “Go on then, we're listening.”
“Jin asked me not to break the connection. He said...that there was still something he had to do, and that he might need it, that he might need us.” Koki shrugs, like that was the most obvious explanation ever. Kame thinks it might just be. “So I sent him off with a package of pills worth a year and a note that said I'd kill him with my bare hands if he forgot to take them. Apparently, he hasn't taken the hint.”
“I'm more surprised that you thought he would.” Ueda laughs with mirth and Nakamaru joins him. “For Jin to remember that kind of stuff is a little bit too much to ask, don't you think?”
“Oh, come on.” Koki grumbles. “He hasn't forgotten that many times!”
Kame tightens his lips before he bursts out laughing; if only they knew how many mails he's wasted on Jin to remind him to take his pill.
He clears his throat, because this is not the time to be asking for refunds of old expenses made for the sake of the team. “Okay, I get it Koki; it's not like I ever thought you would purposely disobey an order if it wasn't for a very good reason. What I was asking is, why haven't you told us?”
Koki gives him an awkward smile. “I don't know, Kame. It seems so stupid now.”
Kame doesn't even have the force to get angry at him, because if he really thinks about it, he would have probably done the same. “Let's just find Jin and wake him. We all have to go through important plans tomorrow, we need to rest our minds properly.”
He's already moving towards the backdoor to get back in the club, when Taguchi's voice stops him.
“Wait a moment.” They all look at him in mild surprise. “So we are in Akanishi-kun's mind right? And he hasn't noticed yet, or his defense system would have been here already-”
“I doubt that.” Nakamaru says, biting back a smile; when everyone looks at him, he also provides an explanation. “I've done experiments with Akanishi working on his dream levels. I can assure you his security is as laid-back as he is.”
“Really?” Koki seems surprised. Kame nods, “Yeah, he has named them all, he usually parties with them too.”
“For real?” Taguchi looks bewildered, but there's a spark in his eyes that tells he's probably thinking about names for his own security. Ueda doesn't say anything and Kame wouldn't be too surprised if his security were his sparring mates too.
Nakamaru's face turns suddenly very serious. “Maybe I get where Taguchi's going with this...Guys, has Akanishi told any of you the real reason why he had to leave the team when he was sent to the US branch?”
When Jin had told them he was going back to America, none of them had been surprised: doing solo missions wasn't unusual for any of them and Jin had worked in LA before; what had surprised them was his leaving the team altogether. Not that they didn't understand; Kame has always been sure Jin's talent could take him wherever he wanted.
Akanishi was very clear that day, “Now that I'm officially transferring there, if I stayed in the team I would only slow you guys down, because I can't always be here. I don't want that. KAT-TUN is a great team, you can't stop and wait for me forever.” And Kame understood, it made perfect sense. But there was something in Jin's voice that told him that wasn't all there was to it, there was something in the way Jin had said “Johnny's sending me to the US” and not “I'm going”, something desperate and apologetic in his “Believe me, I tried.” that sounded almost embarrassed.
Kame had asked Jin about it, but he'd been very elusive, which has never been one of Jin's best prerogatives.
The fact that everyone's shaking their head tells Kame he isn't the only one being curious.
Taguchi grins, reprising his explanation. “If we're here and he hasn't noticed, we could make the most of it, don't you think? We could find out by ourselves!”
Extraction is illegal, and technically dream agents like KAT-TUN exist exactly to prevent dream crimes like that. But everyone knows team KAT-TUN is not renowned for following rules. No, their team is renowned for ignoring all the possible protocols and fall three levels down, risking a massive limbo restriction, in order to capture codename White Lady. And it's not like Jin will ever sue them. If he ever finds out, that is.
“Sometimes, I really like how your brain works, Taguchi.” says Ueda, and he seems genuinely impressed.
Kame frowns, “Yeah, but who knows how deep he hid the information! We could end up in a risky situation...I don't really want to be trapped in a Jin-limbo for the rest of my life, thank you very much.”
Koki laughs, “Oh trust me, Akanishi might be the best Architect of us all but hiding his ideas in labyrinths does not seem to be his first concern!” Kame's frown deepens; how come everyone has been deep down Jin's subconscious before, when Jin himself has never allowed Kame in his dreams? Koki seems to catch on and he quickly adds, “I've just been down one level and seriously, you don't want to know what he's been not hiding there...”
Nakamaru looks rather embarrassed himself, but Kame can't say if it's just second-hand embarrassment or what, Nakamaru's strange like that.
“I'm starting to be really curious about all this,” Ueda says in amusement “But I'm not going to ask you, given that I'll be seeing it for myself very soon.”
“It's settled, then?” asks Taguchi, even though he already knows the answer.
“What's the plan?” grins Koki, looking directly at Kame, who smirks back.
“We can't really do anything here, we have power to change things but it'll immediately trigger Jin's defense and he'll probably just wake himself up. Anyway, we need to at least go down one level because this information is obviously something he doesn't want us to know, and as much as I think his subconscious speaks loud and clear,”
and here Nakamaru adds a “a little bit too loud for my liking” and a meaningful nod towards the club,
“I don't think he's that stupid, especially if he's aware the connection isn't broken yet.” Kame knows he would have been much more careful if he knew there still was the possibility of Jin popping up in his dreams; the real Jin of course, because his projection has been popping up in Kame's dreams since forever.
“I agree.” Ueda nods, deep in thought. “And I need to design a second level that would give us the opportunity to extract the idea as soon as possible. I still want my sleep, after all.”
“It will have to be something familiar, where our presence wouldn't seem too odd for him, so that he'll just think we're projections. And maybe putting him in a group situation will allow us to make him say why he left.”
After a few seconds Kame looks up to see a similar expression to his on Ueda's face. “The Queen KAT-TUN!”
The other three light up immediately. “Of course!” smiles Nakamaru. “With that scenario we'll be able to keep his security away too!”
The Queen KAT-TUN is a pirate ship scenario Jin and Ueda had designed as their training dream when they were all still juniors. Far from being the expert agents they are now, they had learned all there was to know about dream dynamics on that ship. All of them could rebuild that dream in the tiniest detail.
“That should be pretty easy. I just need to build a new ship and place Akanishi's security on it.” Kame can practically see the gears in Ueda's brain working. “So that when they attack us, we'll just pretend it's training.”
“There's one problem, though.” Taguchi points out, biting his lower lip. “How do we get him one level down without him noticing?”
“Before thinking about that, we need to find him. If he's really with his security, we also need to find a way not to get caught.” Nakamaru reasons. “Besides...I'm really kinda cold. Can't we get back inside?”
Ueda gives him a long amused glance. “I thought you said the music was too loud?”
“...I'm too cold to care.”
“Let's go.” Kame smiles comprehensively and heads to the backdoor again.
“Wait.” This time it's Koki who stops him, and Kame doesn't look too pleased. “You might want to enter by the main door. Akanishi's likely to be in the VIP area right? You should have great chances of getting a table.”
Kame gives him a sidelong glance. “I did notice the bouncer waving at me earlier. Care to share?”
“I...” Koki hesitates for a second, but he seems to decide there's nothing wrong in telling. “I've seen your projection in this club before, in the VIP area.” He doesn't say more, not even under Kame's inquisitive stare.
Kame sighs, for the umpteenth time since he's been asleep. “Well then, we can't pass up chances when they're served to us this easily, right.” He ignores Ueda's snicker and just proceeds back to the entrance of the club, followed by his team.
When they're there, the bouncer recognizes Kame and nods, but his expression turns immediately to a wary one when he notices Ueda just behind.
Kame decides to risk it and act all confident. “Don't worry.” he says shaking lightly his head, and he's hoping Koki was right. “He's with me. They all are.”
The tone seems to work and the guy visibly relaxes, “Sorry, Kamenashi-san. It's been a tough night and-”
Kame smiles and continues with his act, shrugging off his apologies. “Is Jin still in there?”
The bouncer smiles back and he steps aside to open the door for them. “Just like always, Kamenashi-san.”
Once they're all inside, Ueda doesn't try to hide it anymore and he bursts out laughing; Taguchi watches Kame huffing and he cannot miss the chance to tease “Well, that was interesting...Kamenashi-san.”
Before Kame can retort anything, they all feel like the floor is collapsing under their feet; right after though, they all notice they were the ones leaping. They blink and look at each other, worried.
“What was that?” Nakamaru sounds edgy, and everyone can see why, since now all the glasses and bottles behind the counter are shaking. It doesn't feel like an earthquake, it's more like a truck is passing really near the club, making the walls tremble.
“Where is he?” Koki looks frantically around, trying to find other possible hints of Jin's real self's whereabouts.
“Someone's heard from him recently?” asks Taguchi.
“No...” Ueda considers. “Now that I think about it, isn't LA supposed to have lots of hours difference from Japan? What's he doing asleep in the afternoon of a working day?”
“You think he's working?” Kame looks at Ueda, but near him Koki shakes his head.
“No, it's not possible. This is definitely Akanishi's dream. And I seriously doubt anyone in their sane mind would ever use him as both Dreamer and Architect at the same time.”
Nakamaru agrees, “Not to mention, his security would be much higher if he was working.”
The tremors are dying down.
Kame tries to recall his last conversation with Jin. It was three days ago, over the phone; they hadn't talked about anything important, small talk: how they were doing, how Jin's new team was coming through, how the others were...
But Kame can suddenly pinpoint something in that conversation that bugged him. Jin ended the call with a “See you soon.” He's never done that before.
Could he have planned this all along, dragging them here? Or-
“A plane!”
The others look at him funnily. “He must be on a plane! It makes sense, don't you see? This must be a turbulence and it does explain why he'd be asleep at an hour similar to ours...he's coming back to Japan.”
“I'm afraid this is only good news up above.” Ueda points out with a frown. “If he's on a plane, it means he probably just fell asleep listening to music and he could be woken up by anything, any minute now. We don't have much time.”
“I'd say he took something to rest during the flight though.” Nakamaru observes, more calmly. “This dream is too stable to be just a nap. There shouldn't be any problem in going down, I believe.”
They all nod in acknowledgement. “We're still doing this, but we must do it fast.”
They move in the crowd towards the VIP section; all the people, the dancers, don't seem too hostile, or at least they don't seem to bump voluntarily into them. This is a good sign, but Kame can't really say if it's because Jin hasn't noticed the intrusion yet or because he subconsciously trusts all of them not to be of any harm.
Nakamaru suddenly takes Kame's arm and stops him abruptly; Kame looks at him and he notices he's focused on the crowd, probably on one particular person.
“You found him?” Kame asks, trying to follow his gaze.
Nakamaru pushes him towards the nearest wall and that's when the others notice they've stopped. Maru looks pretty nervous. “See that girl coming our way? The red-head?”
Kame searches in the middle of the people and he sees a cute red-haired girl that must be a few inches shorter than him. “She's in Jin's crew?” Nakamaru nods.
Kame tries to look past her, in the direction she seems to be coming from; they're all searching through the people in the private tables. And that's when Kame sees him.
Jin's standing beside a table, talking to a foreign guy Kame recognizes to be in his security. He seems relaxed, not edgy and definitely not onto them.
They've all spotted him. “We need a plan.”
“Nakamaru, do you recognize anyone else from Jin's security?” Kame sees him scanning the people chilling in the VIP section more attentively.
“No, beside Josh at his table no one else seems to be around.”
“Good. We need to distract his defense and take Jin elsewhere. We certainly can't make him go under in the middle of the club, if we don't want this crowd to attack us all at once.”
Ueda places his hand on Kame's shoulder. “We'll take care of his security and you'll fool him into leaving the club.” Kame blinks at him in a distinctive 'why me' way. “If his subconscious hasn't recognized you as more than a projection, he won't either.” he explains with a smirk.
“I can easily take care of the guy.” Taguchi says happily.
In the blink of an eye, there's a blonde girl right where Junno was standing. She's wearing a pink short dress, her platinum hair is tied up in a flawless bun and her blue eyes are framed by light mascara. Her lipglossed lips form a wide grin.
“You think this is enough?”
Koki's staring at the new Taguchi up and down, checking her out. “Awesome.”
Junno throws him a pleased smile.
Kame tears his eyes off her and stares pointedly at Nakamaru instead. “Go get the girl.”
“WHAT?!”
Nakamaru's eyes are wide in surprise, like he can't believe what he's just heard; Kame on the contrary stares at him like he can't believe Nakamaru's just asked that.
“But why me? I mean, I don't think I-”
Kame huffs mockingly. “Who thinks Nakamaru should go?”
Three hands other than Kame's own immediately go up.
“What-” Nakamaru sighs, resigned.
“I hate you guys so much.” he grumbles.
“Kame,” Ueda starts, seemingly very concentrated on something. “I'm building a staircase past that door.” he says while pointing at a red door not very far from Jin's table. “Once Akanishi's alone approach him and take him there, me and Koki will be waiting at the top of the building.”
“Quickly now,” he pushes Nakamaru hurriedly. “The girl's noticing me!”
Both Nakamaru and Taguchi rush towards their target, while the three of them left walk a little bit more slowly towards Akanishi's table.
There's a champagne glass in Taguchi's hands now and she's walking straight at Josh. Ueda and Koki are right behind him, trying to keep themselves from Jin's eyes. Kame's waiting his moment just a few feet away. He looks briefly back at Nakamaru, who's already talking to the girl; he looks damn nervous and Kame rolls his eyes. Luckily, the girl seems to find this really cute.
“Hey! What the hell??”
“Oh my! I'm so sorry!!”
Taguchi's bumped into Josh, spilling all her champagne on his t-shirt. Kame thinks his bandmates' pick-up styles need a bit of an update.
Both Josh and Jin are now distracted by Junno's very short dress and Ueda and Koki manage to slip past the door.
Kame can't see Nakamaru anymore and he hopes he's going to dispose of the girl soon.
“I apologize, it's all my fault!” Junno's pursing her lips in a pout.
“It's okay, really.”
“No please, I want to make it up to you!”
Josh seems very convinced by Taguchi's act, Kame thinks it might have something to do with her dress that is now showing more cleavage than last time Kame'd checked.
“Let me buy you a drink?” She smiles seductively.
Jin watches the scene with an amused smirk and he doesn't even blink when Josh leaves him alone to follow the hot blonde.
Taguchi winks at Kame when she brushes past him.
Kame takes a step forward and Jin notices him. He visibly brightens up, throwing him a sincere bright smile.
“Kame! You're back!”
Kame can't help but smile back. He feels vaguely guilty, because Jin seems incredibly defenceless right now and he's about to just take advantage of that. He reminds himself he's doing this because Jin's the one who kept secrets from them in the first place, and that leads him on with his act.
“Thought you might be missing me...”
Jin expression turns very serious and Kame fears he's exposed.
“You know I do.” he whispers and Kame has to read his lips over the music. He's not talking about this dream anymore and Kame knows it. He reaches over to touch Jin's shoulder lightly.
“I've missed you too.”
Kame suddenly realizes this is the first time he's voiced this out since Jin left.
He wonders if he's said too much, but Jin's smiling affectionately at him. Kame doesn't know if he hasn't sensed the emotion in his words, or if Kame's projection usually talks like that too. That would imply Jin wanting to hear those words from him, and maybe he's not that ready to think in that way.
Kame squeezes his shoulder a little and grins. “I was watching the stars. They're beautiful tonight, they look like the ones we used to watch when we were younger, remember?”
The music around them is slowing down into a softer tune. Kame looks around, but there aren't any other changes. Right then, he catches sight of Nakamaru sneaking out the door.
He looks back at Jin. “Why don't we go upstairs and watch them together?”
Jin grins, “Let's go!”
Kame feels even more guilty now.
They walk to the door and Kame has to dodge a few people that seem to be eager to bump into him. Fortunately, Jin doesn't notice.
When they get through the door, they find themselves in a grey dull stairwell; Kame starts to climb the steps but when he's just three up, Jin catches his hand gently, to make him stop but not stumble. When he looks back down, Jin's wearing that serious expression again and Kame frets, wondering if he's able to tell this is Ueda's project and not his own, but Jin startles him with a question.
“Are you angry at me?”
Kame didn't see that coming. He is indeed a little upset; he doesn't understand why Jin has asked Koki not to break the connection without telling him anything. But he doesn't believe Jin would see through that. Besides, Jin's eyes are not searching, they're not looking for a reason.
He just looks sad.
“Why would I be angry at you?”
Jin doesn't break eye contact but he smiles again. “Nothing.” He shakes lightly his head.
“Come on.”
Jin lets go of his hand and they go up the stairs. Ueda apparently built more floors than he had expected because it takes them some minutes to reach the top and when they do, Kame's the first one to reach for the doorknob.
“Finally!” He purposely raises his voice to let the others know he's going through first.
Jin follows him right after.
“Ow!” Jin's voice fades immediately.
When Kame looks back, Jin's unconscious on the floor and Junno is hovering over him with her purse still raised.
“I'm sorry, Akanishi-kun.” She really does look apologetic and after Kame blinks he's back in his male form again and he tosses the purse on the floor. It emits an overly heavy sound when it touches the ground.
“A purse? Really?” Kame raises his eyebrows at him.
Koki laughs “Like a true lady.” while he's trying to lift Jin's body up by his arms. The others gather around and help him moving Jin towards the sleep-inducing machine they have prepared while Kame was still downstairs.
“How much time will we have down there?” Kame asks absent-mindedly while he takes his end of the drug injecting cable.
“Plenty, if he doesn't wake up suddenly,” Nakamaru explains. “It's going to be pretty unstable from now on, the dream could collapse at any moment.”
He's adjusting the cable on Jin's wrist with expert movements.
“I couldn't use heavy sedative, since none of us is going to stay here for guard. If we get killed, we'll most likely just wake up straight in our beds.”
Kame nods and he looks around to see everyone acknowledging the information and lying down. Nakamaru joins them and Kame stays put with his finger on the injection button.
“Ready? See you on the deck, crew.”
He pushes the button and falls asleep.
-
Kame's startled by the sound of a cannon firing.
He's lying on his bed in the cabin that he and Jin used to share on the Queen KAT-TUN. He feels the smile naturally growing, he hasn't been here in a while.
There's movement in his peripheral vision and he raises to see Jin fumbling with clothes in his wardrobe.
“Kame, wake up already!” Jin stops for a second to look over at Kame's bed. “Come on, we're under attack!”
Kame blinks and frowns: Jin's nervousness a little bit over the edge. He doesn't remember ever seeing him this distressed, even under attack.
“Jin, are you okay?”
“I am perfectly okay, Kame.” He looks at him disbelievingly. “You are the one lying unusually calm on your bed while there are cannons aimed at us!”
Kame can't even reply and Jin's already out the door, probably already going up the stairs to join the others on the deck. Except Jin is already back, walking to Kame's bed while huffing exasperated.
“Well? Aren't you coming?” He doesn't wait for a reply, catching Kame's arm and dragging him out of bed.
Kame's displeased. But he's supposed to act as a projection, and projections do what their dreamer expects them to, so he bites his tongue before saying something really un-projection-like.
“Jin...Jin! I'm coming, okay. Will you please calm down now?”
Jin lets him go, he slows down but he doesn't relent. They meet Koki on the stairs and Jin almost bumps into him.
He steps back just in time. “Whoa, Akanishi!”
Koki looks at Kame startled and questioning. “What's gotten into him?”
Kame looks just as clueless. “You know, I have no idea.”
When they reach the dock Jin's smacking Taguchi in the head for some reason, hopefully in retaliation for a pun and not just for the sake of it; you never know, when it comes to Jin and Taguchi.
Nakamaru corners Kame immediately.
“Have you said something to him? He's... unbelievably jumpy!”
“I didn't say anything! I woke up and he was already like that!”
“Bull's-eye!”
Kame looks up at the helm balcony and he sees Ueda grinning, fake shooting Jin with his right hand. “We must have triggered something in him.”
Kame ignores Nakamaru fretting (“Oh god, we've broken Akanishi!”) and climbs the stairs to stand near Ueda.
“The fire is coming from his security?”
He nods at the ship looming to starboard. “They're far enough, the shots aren't going to reach us anytime soon. We've plenty of time to figure him out and he doesn't seem to be making our job difficult.”
“And what does he believe is attacking us exactly?”
“Oh, I think he thinks that's someone else's security. Like, a guy that we're holding captive or something.”
“...Do we actually have someone captive?”
“No, but that's not the point. That's how things have always been on this ship, right?” Ueda sounds cheerful and a little bit nostalgic at the same time.
“Akanishi!” Koki's tone is unwavering. “Will you just shut the fuck up and tell us why are you freaking out?”
“I am not freaking out! Koki, why aren't you helping me here? We're supposed to work together! We're a team!”
Kame and Ueda join the others on the front deck, where Taguchi and Koki are resigned to listen to Jin's tantrum before he noticed there was something really wrong about how his projections were acting.
Nakamaru approaches too and he whispers uncertainly, “He looks traumatized...” and then a little bit more sure, but not less softly, “I think he's turned this place into a nightmare, he's living a nightmare right now.”
Kame walks over. He places a hand on Jin's shoulder, in the exact same place as before.
It works like a charm, and Jin actually stops in his tracks to look at Kame in the eyes.
“It's okay.”
“No.” Kame's words seem to have drained the energy from the other. “No, it's not.”
“Jin, what's wrong?” Kame tries to be as soothing as he can.
“You don't understand. I need to do this, I won't let this happen again.”
“Akanishi-kun, nothing's gonna happen to us.”
“It will!”
Jin shrugs Kame's hand off him and rushes towards the balcony. Ueda tries to block him.
“Even if it is, Akanishi listen to me!...Even if it is, we'll survive. We always do.”
“Stop it!” Jin's voice is desperate now. “Why are you trying to stop me? We're supposed to work together!” He looks at everyone in the eyes, one by one. “We're supposed to win this battle and then we will wake up and we'll be the best team around.”
“We already are the best team around.”
Koki talks with all the determination only pride can give you.
“We'll win this one, like all the others.”
Jin is shaking furiously his head. “No, we won't.”
“We're going to fight. We'll lose. I won't be able to save anyone and you're all going to die. And it's my fault every single time. Because I make stupid, stupid mistakes.”
Kame wonders just how many times Jin's had this nightmare.
He decides that the best thing to do is just tell him nothing's going to happen because they're not in Jin's dream right now. He searches the others' gazes and he knows everyone's thinking along those lines. “Jin...”
But Jin has already dashed forward and he's climbing the stairs now. Kame notices a telescope in his hands. “Jin, listen-”
He's adjusting the focus onto the enemy ship, and they all know he's going to find out.
“What-” He lowers the lens for a moment, frowns and then he looks up again.
“But that's...Dominic? What is he-” Then realization dawns on him.
“This is not my dream.”
On the deck, KAT-TUN are looking at him apologetically and self-consciously. There's nothing much they can say in a situation like this.
“This is not my dream, what the hell!”
Jin's reasoning process is not that fast to begin with and it especially slows down while asleep. And he was living a trauma just now, Kame must give him that.
“You guys, you're not projections! But I...I took the pill, didn't I? Oh no.”
They've all known him for far too long, they know better than to stop his gears from turning before they've done at least one round.
“But then, how...? I was in my club just-oh. Oh.” His eyes widen in shock and he stares at each one of them. “Wait.”
“Who was the hot blonde?”
-
They're all in Jin's and Kame's cabin.
Kame is sitting on his own bed, squished between Koki and Taguchi; Nakamaru and Ueda have taken the chairs, Ueda has his backwards and he's propping his arms on top of the back rest; Jin is alone on his bed, sitting cross-legged with his back on the wall. He looks like a prey cornered by the big scary predators, but that doesn't stop him from staring at them with menacing eyes.
“I could sue all of you for attempted extraction, you know.”
“You wouldn't.” Koki says confidently and Jin looks offended. “I totally would.”
“No, Akanishi,” continues Ueda. “Because that would consequently expose your little side operation, which involves corruption of an ex-teammate into disobeying direct orders.”
Jin shuts up then, settling for a simple pout.
“Jin, please.” Kame sounds irritated enough for Jin to decide against trying to hit around the bush.
“Okay, I get it.”
“I don't really know where to start actually, it's...complicated.”
“We have all the time you need.” Nakamaru encourages.
“Unless you decide to wake up, in that case we will just hunt you down.” Ueda feels the need to precise. Jin takes a deep breath before starting.
“You know the American guy that came last year and requested specifically for me?”
“Yeah, he worked for the US government, didn't he?”
“He came to ask for additional force for a special team that was working under cover in Los Angeles. I know one of the guys in the team and apparently he mentioned my name when they were searching for good Architects.”
“I knew that trip in June wasn't only a vacation.” Kame mutters under his breath, but Jin can hear him.
“Well yeah, but it was under-cover...I had orders!”
“So what about that mission, something happened?” Taguchi looks like a child who's being told a bedtime story.
Jin shrugs. “We succeeded. All went pretty smoothly and we incepted the idea alright.”
“It was an inception?” Nakamaru's surprised.
Inception is just as illegal as extraction, but the crime's counted at least twice as heavy. Agents can perform extractions on a daily basis in order to catch dream criminals, but they're very rarely asked to incept; it needs a special authorization from the Government. KAT-TUN only performed it once.
“It was supposed to work out with a 'mission accomplished, good-bye', but the team chief came back to Japan with me. He requested to see Johnny and when I was allowed in the meeting, he offered me a stable place in his team in America. I-” Jin hesitates for a second, he takes another deep breath that sounds more like a sigh. “I accepted instantly, thinking it wouldn't affect KAT-TUN that much. I thought he only meant a stable place as the Architect of missions like that one. But then Johnny said, 'YOU will have to leave KAT-TUN.' and that's when I realized this was the real deal, you know. They were asking me to change completely my whole life.”
Kame bites his lower lip. He's always known how much Jin loved America, it's always been very clear by the way his eyes sparkled whenever he talked about the time spent in LA.
“So you accepted?”
Jin stares at him and frowns. “No!”
He sounds a little hurt, even. “I asked for time to think about it.”
“And that's when I heard. I excused myself from the room since I wanted to call you guys, but I couldn't help overhearing the other two still talking. And James -that's the guy's name- he actually said 'I wouldn't mind having his whole team, you know, I heard great things about them, we could make a big deal here'! Do you understand?” Jin sounds excited all over again. “He wanted us all to work for an elite branch!”
Kame's never thought they'd be acknowledged like that, but he knew they all had the potential to do great things; he understands Jin's excitement very well and so do the others.
“So what happened?” Taguchi's eager to know.
Jin grimaces. “Johnny refused. He said he couldn't do without a team like KAT-TUN.”
Kame can practically see Nakamaru's face falling, and he hears Koki clicking his tongue.
“So ultimately, you had no choice but leaving the team.”
Jin looks at Kame annoyed. “Will you just let me finish?” Kame raises his hands in an apology and offer to keep going.
“So ultimately, I just had to convince Johnny, didn't I?”
Kame has to bite his tongue before he blurts out a 'But you couldn't.'
Ueda looks rather impressed. “You tried to talk him into it?”
Jin shakes his head. “I don't have the best negotiation skills, I must remind you.”
“No, I...I tried to do an inception.”
Five pairs of eyes go wide and unbelieving.
“You WHAT?!”
“I had it all planned! It was perfect! And it worked!”
Kame can't really believe his ears: Jin performed inception? All alone? He doesn't know if he should be impressed by his skills or his stupidity.
“You inceptioned Johnny.” Nakamaru has to repeat it, but it doesn't make it any more plausible than before. “You inceptioned our boss. You. WHAT.”
“But it didn't work.” Taguchi seems the first one to recover. “I mean, you left.”
Jin sighs deeply and he suddenly looks extremely self-conscious.
“No, it did work, the idea took over. Only it wasn't the idea I expected.”
“Oh. my. God. Don't tell me.” Koki's lips are crooked in a mix of horror and amusement.
“The idea that I had to transfer permanently, leave KAT-TUN forever and not have any choice about it, well...it ultimately came from me.”
Ueda's the first to burst out laughing, followed by the others.
“Oh my god,” Koki breaths. “You failed spectacularly!”
“This is so not funny!” Jin looks at them in disgust. “Jesus, this is why I didn't want to tell you anything!” He folds his arms and grumbles.
Kame catches his breath. “Jin...hey.” He turns his head towards Kame only slightly. “We're not...angry or anything, okay. We're not blaming you, no one ever did.” Kame says with a smile.
“You could have told us sooner, though.” Ueda's still trying to talk normally. “It would have saved us a lot of trouble, you know.”
Jin looks at them, really looks at them, with that serious expression Kame recognizes from before.
“I'm sorry.”
Jin never says what would he have chosen if things went differently, but Kame doesn't care.
What matters is that right now KAT-TUN is much closer and complete than it's been in a while.
-
The next day they meet in their headquarters to go through their mission.
They all seem more relaxed, like they had the best sleep ever, last night.
When Kame's left alone with Ueda, he decides to voice out what's been nagging him.
“You know, Koki never exactly said what was Jin 'not hiding' in his dreams...”
Ueda blinks. “You really haven't figured it out?”
And Kame's at a loss, because he really doesn't have any clue.
Ueda laughs softly at him. “You are so blind sometimes, Kame.”
Kame's about to reply a desperate “Blind over what?” but his cellphone is suddenly ringing; in the span of time he takes to fumble in his jeans for it, Ueda's already gone.
It's from Jin.
Kame's smiling broadly when he answers.