FIC FOR ENCODED_PANTIES
For: encoded_panties
From: zenfu
Title: We're all alright
Pairings/Characters: Maru-centric; Jin/Maru
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Large amounts of ridiculousness.
Notes: Written for encoded_panties. ♥ 4,775 words. Thanks to L for the beta.
Summary: Maru gets laid. Jin gets jealous. Stuff happens.
It's been over a week since the last time they called Jin, and unlike normally, Maru is not looking forward to catching up this time - he knows his friends, and he knows that this will not be pleasant. At all.
The phone rings almost ten times - it's early in the US, and Jun still has issues with getting up at a normal time of day. Eventually he picks up, however, yawning loudly instead of saying anything. Nobody has the chance to say hello before Koki bursts out with "Maru got laid!", and Maru cringes because in no language on the planet is that an acceptable hello.
There's a pause, then Jin laughs. "How much did he pay her?"
"Hey!" Maru scowls at the phone and is suddenly glad that Jin's thousands of miles away.
"What? No woman in her right mind would let you touch her."
Scratch that. Maru wishes Jin was here so he could strangle him with his own two hands instead of having to settle for glowering at the phone. "I did not pay her, asshole."
"No, I paid her," Junno chimes in.
"Junno, what have I told you about getting your friends hookers as a present? It just comes off tacky." Jin sounds like he's trying very hard not to laugh - on Maru's right, Kame has lost that battle and is practically wheezing from laughing too much.
"No, she didn't come from Tackey," Junno replies, and Koki kicks his leg.
"She was not a hooker, and Junno didn't pay her for anything - he just bought her a drink," Maru says tensely. He would give anything to be talking about something else, anything else.
"Oh, so he got her drunk and then shoved her onto you. I see," Jin says.
Junno nods enthusiastically. "I thought it was about time. There's a limit to how much porn a person can watch, after all."
"This is news to me," Koki says, "I never get sick of porn."
"That's because you get laid as well," Ueda points out. "If you had to rely on nothing but porn, you'd get sick of it too."
Maru is pretty sure that this conversation has gone far away from the original subject. But then again, half their conversations seem to end up revolving around porn, regardless of what they start out talking about. Either way, he would rather they not spend their time discussing his porn habits. Or his getting laid habits. "I do not rely on nothing but porn!"
"No, you get hookers as well," Jin says. There's something almost annoyed in his voice, and Maru shakes his head, taking a few steps away because he doesn't really want to be involved with this conversation anymore.
Funny how that seems to happen a lot when they're all together.
-
The next day, Jin calls Maru. He seems to have forgotten about the time zone difference, and it takes Maru at least five minutes to wake up enough to even decipher what Jin's saying. "Why are you calling me, anyway? Pi has a lot more of a tolerance for listening to you ramble than I do," Maru says, stifling a yawn.
"I'm calling you 'cause I'm offended that you'd go out with some random skank, but not with me," Jin says petulantly. Nobody can sound petulant like Jin can, and being limited to phone conversations only seem to increase this ability even more.
Maru rolls his eyes, trying not to remember about the numerous times Jin told him that they should go on a date, 'cause girls are psycho and guys are dumb, so of course they should stick together instead. "As if you were serious about asking me out."
"I'm always serious!"
"Don't forget that you've also asked Pi, Kame, and Junno out," Maru says, struggling to figure out whether he should be annoyed or amused right now. Probably a bit of both. Somehow, that seems to happen a lot when he's with Jin.
Jin makes a sound of protest. "Hey, I only ask Kame out when I'm drunk."
"Then what about Pi and Junno?"
"That's different." Jin's petulance is quickly escalating into full-blown whining, and Maru is pretty sure that he should stop before there's material damage.
Not that he's going to.
"Different how?"
Jin pauses and just sighs. "It just is, can't you accept that and stop being such a moron?"
"You're the moron. And if you say 'no you' then I'm going to reach through the phone line and punch you. Actually, I might do that anyway just 'cause you woke me up. Learn to tell time."
"Not until you learn not to sleep with hookers."
Maru feels like punching the wall. He'd rather punch Jin, but regrettably, Jin isn't close enough for that. The wall will have to do. "She wasn't a hooker!"
"You keep on telling yourself that," Jin says sourly, and hangs up before Maru has the chance to swear at him. Instead, he's left sitting in his bed staring at his phone, wondering what the fuck just happened.
-
Jin calls five more times over the next three days, but Maru doesn't pick up.
He's pretty sure that taking a break is a good idea, even though he's not sure what it is they're taking a break from.
-
Thankfully, Maru is hardly reliant on Jin to stay occupied. He's going on too little sleep and too much work, but he doesn't even have it half as bad as Kame. He has a problem with saying no to new projects, even more so when he gets offered things that he actually wants to do - like being in a drama with Ryo, or doing baseball charity events with his brothers, or doing radio shows and TV shows with pretty hosts that he can flirt (badly) with. He seems to be surviving on a diet of energy drinks and fruit, and Maru is pretty sure that he has barely slept in at least a month.
Which is why he shuts Kame in a room between dance practice sessions and tells him to get some rest.
Except that when he returns, about half an hour later, he finds Kame running around the room with a disposable camera, taking pictures of anything in sight. He seems to find the ceiling fan particularly fascinating.
Maru sighs and glances back to the others. "Who was it who had the bright idea to give him a camera?"
Junno raises his hand, looking all too proud of himself. "I thought he could use it. To, you know, develop some character."
It's almost impossible to not want to kill Junno dead in moments like these. "Was it you who gave him sugar as well?"
Junno beams. "And caffeine." The others stare at him, but Junno just looks completely clueless. "What? He looked like he was gonna fall asleep!"
"He was supposed to sleep, moron," Koki says, stifling a sigh.
"But he's more fun when he's awake. And on sugar. And with a camera." Junno grins sheepishly, and has the survival instinct to dive out of the way when Ueda lunges at him.
It's Maru who grabs Kame and drives him home, putting him to bed and sticking around until he's sure that Kame's actually asleep. Koki stops by with groceries after a couple of hours; Ueda calls and says that Kame doesn't have to come in until noon in the morning. Maru sets Kame's alarm and leaves a bottle of water and some painkillers at his bedside table, along with a note telling him that he's an idiot, but since he doesn't know how to take care of himself, the rest of them will be there to do it for him.
-
Jin keeps on calling through the next few days, and Maru takes Ueda up on the offer of going boxing with him, just to escape the sound of the phone ringing - and to have a decent excuse for not answering the phone.
Though after an hour of training, Maru finds himself longing for an awkward phone conversation. At least then he wouldn't be aching and hurting all over, and at least then Ueda wouldn't keep on giving him condescending looks and patronizing smiles. Because of course, Ueda isn't even winded, and looks like he knows exactly what he's doing, while Maru feels like Bambi on ice, or Juniors on stage.
Bastard.
"That's the warm-up taken care of," Ueda says and climbs up into the boxing ring. "Time for a match."
Maru's jaw drops. Getting his ass thoroughly kicked wasn't exactly what he had planned for the day. "I am not going up there!"
"Sissy," Ueda says with a grin. Maru knows that Ueda's just saying it to wind him up, and Ueda knows he knows, but the end result is still the same.
Maru limps into the recording studio the next morning, and grits his teeth every time someone pokes one of his bruises. Which is often, because apparently, none of them have heard about the concept of being careful. Or kind.
-
Days off are hard to come by - have been for years. Without Jin they all work that much harder to make up for his absence, and while they don't mind doing it, they sometimes find themselves longing for the days when they could actually take it easy. Or at least Maru feels like that - this isn't exactly something that he chooses to talk about often. It's like they have all agreed that they should keep their mouths shut about this, the change in their lives, because they all figure that the best option is to ignore, ignore, ignore.
Still, the point is that they're too busy for their own good, and when they finally get a day off, Maru is sorely tempted to spend it in bed, sleeping and eating junk food and watching crappy movies.
Instead, Koki shows up at Maru's apartment at ass o'clock in the morning, demanding to spend the day with him. Maru has no idea why he's the one who has to come along on whatever adventure Koki has planned, and he grumbles as he digs through his closet for something relatively clean to wear.
"Wear something other than argyle, would you," Koki comments. Considering that he's wearing an outfit that would make anyone's eyeballs bleed, Maru doesn't think he's in a position to give fashion advice, and he rolls his eyes and picks out the most argyle-covered outfit he possibly can.
Koki drives them around for a while seemingly without a set destination in mind, and when he stops, Maru hardly even knows where he is, but he doesn't really care all that much either, as long as he can get out of the car to escape Koki's choice of driving music. They've gotten about five feet away from the car when Koki shrieks "puppies!" in a decibel level that leaves Maru pretty sure that his ear drums are obliterated.
Of course. He just has to park right next to a pet store. Naturally.
Maru sighs and follows Koki to the store and the puppies waiting inside, almost reluctantly. He knows how this usually goes. "You're not taking them home," Maru says in a tone of voice that he sure as hell hopes is commanding.
Not that it's easy to attempt to be stern when he's got Koki and a pile of puppies staring at him.
"Just one?" Koki smiles. It's oh, so innocent and oh, so calculating - it might have worked if it wasn't for the fact that Maru has seen it about a thousand times before.
"You don't have room for another puppy."
"But you do," Koki says brightly and shoves two puppies into Maru's arms.
It's how Maru's apartment ends up being overrun by the same two puppies. Maru names them Tequila and Sunrise, because they are as much Koki's dogs as they are his.
-
Maru's phone starts being overrun with messages. Not just from Jin, but from the girl that Maru hooked up with as well. Jin bitches about Maru not calling him back, the girl bitches about Maru not wanting to see her again, and Maru thinks that it's all a bit too much for him. He's used to being the one without any drama, after all, he's not sure how to deal with annoyed texts and a phone that keeps ringing and friends that just won't stop smirking at him because he's getting increasingly exasperated.
"You just need to learn how to date girls," Junno states, as if that would solve all of Maru's problems. Actually, the way Junno says it, it sounds like he things every problem in the entire world would be solved by Maru learning how to date girls.
Maru doesn't even look at him. "And who's gonna teach me that? You?"
"Yes," Junno says, grabbing Maru's hand and dragging him out of the building. Granted, it's their lunch break, so they don't need to be there and nobody's going to miss them for a few hours, but Maru still doesn't like to leave in the middle of the day. Especially when he's being pretty much abducted by Junno - nothing good can ever come from that.
Especially when Junno leads the way to a seedy bar in a narrow alley, far away from anywhere Maru would have chosen to go willingly. "Uhm," he says, trying to find a way to back out of this without getting hurt. "I don't think we should go in there, it might be... not safe."
"Don't worry, I come here every week." Junno beams and pulls Maru inside, leaving him a second afterwards in favor of running over to the bar and greeting first the bartender, then a couple of girls that really do look like hookers, then a group of rather shady-looking guys playing pool.
Maru thinks that he should probably be a whole lot more surprised about this than he is.
However, it doesn't exactly help him figure out how to date girls. Despite Junno's attempts to make him flirt with the two girls, who play along (doing it so well that Maru's head spins, something which doesn't make it any easier), Maru just feels ill at ease. Uncomfortable. Wanting to get the fuck out of there.
Junno shakes his head and sends the girls on their way before buying Maru a beer, settling down next to him. "You know there's an easy solution to your problem, right?"
"Celibacy?"
"Well, that too. But I was talking about Jin."
Maru chokes on his beer and spends the next couple of minutes coughing violently. Junno pats him on the back with such a smug expression on his face that Maru empties the rest of his glass over Junno's head.
-
Maru's phone rings at three in the morning, when he has just managed to fallen asleep because his head is still buzzing after spending most of the night - actually, most of the weekend - club hopping with Koki and Junno.
And he might have gotten laid again, too, if it hadn't been for the fact that he had freaked out half-way through and the girl ended up slapping him and practically running away from him.
Girls are too damn difficult. It almost makes him think that Junno's right. Almost.
"About fucking time," Jin says, "I've been trying to reach you for weeks. I thought you were dead!"
"You did not, stop being a drama queen."
Jin snorts. "Oh yeah, I'm being dramatic? What about you and your eighty-five missed calls?"
"...you kept count?"
"Never mind that," Jin says, and Maru can just imagine him; almost bouncing in his seat, waving his hand, looking impatient. "I have something to tell you, and I wanted to tell you first."
"Tell me what?" Maru's a bit too tired to be on guard. A bit too tired to remember the times in the past when Jin had something to tell him - usually it involved parties and girls and boys and copious amounts of alcohol and Things That Shall Never Be Talked About Again Ever.
"I'm coming back to Japan."
"Wait, what?" Of all the things Maru expected to hear, it certainly wasn't this. He would be less surprised if Jin had told him that he had married his cute back-up dancer in Las Vegas and that they were currently expecting triplets.
Jin snorts. "Since you won't answer my calls, I'm going to have to come over there to talk to you."
"But-"
"So I'll see you in three days, bye!" Jin exclaims, having up the phone before Maru can voice any further protests.
-
The morning after, Maru's convinced that it was all a dream. Or at least he is until he comes to work only to be greeted by Koki and Kame's excited chatter about how Jin's coming back to visit.
Crap, Maru thinks, but wisely decides to keep his mouth shut. No matter how much the others side-eye him.
-
They all meet Jin at the airport, because doing things with subtlety has never been any of their strengths.
"Jin!" Koki is the first to spot him through the crowd, and runs at him at such a speed that they crash into each other and lose their balance.
"Try to give it at least a minute before you kill him, okay?" Ueda says, dragging Koki back up while Kame helps Jin back up again. He hasn't said anything, but he's grinning at them and then hugs them all in turn.
"Hi," Maru says when Jin turns to him. It's a bit of a shock to the system to see him again, something which Maru thinks is weird, 'cause he sees Jin every day in the numerous photographs in his apartment, or on the news, or whenever he catches a glimpse of their old PVs on the TV.
"I'm not sure I should hug you," Jin replies, "you might have picked up some kind of disease from that skank you were with."
"Isn't that usually what people say to you?" Ueda says innocently. Unlike most others, he doesn't try to get out of punching distance, but that might just be because he knows that Jin won't take the chance of picking a fight with him.
He's right, too. Jin glares, but doesn't do anything else.
Well, not to Ueda, anyway. He does, however, grab Maru and hugs him so hard that it's difficult to breathe, before pulling back and punching his shoulder. Maru thinks it means "you're a total idiot and I hate you, but I missed you too and it's good to see you", but he has never been that good at deciphering Jin's actions.
Of course, a smarter person might see Jin's actions as obvious, but Maru is not that person.
-
All six of them go to a baseball charity match - Kame has been participating in a lot of them lately, and he's been pestering the rest of them to help out as well. Half because it's for a good cause, half because he undoubtedly enjoys watching them all getting hit in the head by baseballs.
So far, Junno leads the game; the rest of them are at least starting to learn how to duck out of the way. Junno jogs back to the sideline to join the rest of them, rubbing his shoulder. "I was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger," Junno says, "and then it hit me."
Koki rolls his eyes. "If you don't shut up, I'm gonna hit you."
"Oh, come on, what's the batter?"
Unsurprisingly, Koki follows up on his threat. Maru's just happy that he doesn't use a bat.
-
Maru's not quite sure when he became this adapt at avoiding people, but he manages to evade Jin for almost a week. After a few days it becomes almost like a game, and if it wasn't for the fact that Jin's looking increasingly annoyed, Maru would have said that this is fun.
It's a Thursday afternoon when Jin finally manages to corner him - Maru figured that the small office library would be safe, but sometimes Jin is smarter than he looks.
"Oh," Maru says when he notices Jin, and looks around for ways to escape.
Jin pouts at him. "Would you stop avoiding me? You're not a chick, last time I checked."
"Last time you checked? When have you ever checked if I was a girl?" Maru asks, forcing a laugh, even if it comes out sounding oddly nervous.
"What, would you like me to check for you?" Jin smirks this time, practically leers, and Maru's laughter comes easier. Jin's right, after all. They're friends; they have no reason to avoid each other.
Maru falls silent and leans against the wall, just looking at Jin properly, for the first time since he came back. There's no denying that he looks good. Solo artist life agrees with him. America agrees with him. If it hadn't been for the current awkwardness, Maru would've been very happy for him. "So," he says, "how have you been?"
"Lonely," Jin replies without missing a beat, and he crosses the distance between them, pushes Maru harder against the wall and kisses him. Kisses him.
Maru's world seems to stop for a second. All he can register is Jin's hands clutching his shoulders, Jin pressing against him, Jin's lips against his. He doesn't hold back in the least bit, kisses exactly the way Maru would have imagined him to kiss someone, and wait, since when did Maru spend time imagining what Jin would kiss like, anyway?
"Oh," he says once Jin pulls back.
"Yeah," Jin breathes, "oh."
-
It takes Maru an additional week or so to come to terms with the idea that he maybe, possibly, kinda likes Jin. In an oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-this-is-happening kind of way.
"Fuck," he says to himself when it becomes impossible to ignore, because this is not what he had planned for his life.
Though if nothing else, he won't have to worry about dealing with girls. Silver lining and all that.
-
"I just don't know what to do," Maru says. Four different times, at four different times, with four slightly different wordings.
"Stop over-thinking things, it's not all that complicated," Ueda says, looking like he's trying very hard not to smack Maru for talking about something like this.
"As long as you get laid, I don't think it matters how or with whom," Koki says with an expression on his face that makes him look more constipated than wise.
"Follow your heart," Kame says, and it sounds sincere - up until the point where he bursts out laughing and spends the next ten minutes practically giggling at the idea of Maru and Jin together.
"Your problem is that you have a fear of hurdles; just get over it," Junno says, taking the time to pat Maru's shoulder before returning his attention to the two girls he's flirting with.
Maru comes to the conclusion that asking his friends for advice is the most useless idea in the history of time.
-
What it comes down to is that it's not a rational choice he can make. Sure, Maru can sit in his kitchen and list all the positive and negative things about this, but in the end, it doesn't really matter. What really matters is the fact that Jin came back to Japan just because Maru slept with a girl. What really matters is that Maru would much rather sleep with Jin than a hundred girls.
This time, Maru is the one cornering Jin, trapping him in their dance studio after everyone else has left. They're both sweaty and out of breath, so Maru decides to cut straight to the point. Instead of actually saying anything, he steps close and presses a kiss to the corner of Jin's lips. He was aiming for his mouth, but of course Jin has to make things difficult.
"I thought you liked that skank," Jin says. He looks rather dumbfounded, and Maru grins in satisfaction.
"Yeah, well, you're an idiot. There's only one skank that I like."
"...hey!" Jin looks offended, but he grins moments later. Even if he still looks kind of concerned. "You know I'm in the US a lot of the time, right?"
Maru just laughs - now that he has taken the first step, it feels like an immense weight has been lifted off his shoulders. "Oh, so that's where you are when you're not around. I thought you went back to your home planet or something."
"Shut up," Jin says, and now he's definitely sulking. Somehow, that makes everything seem normal, and Maru winds an arm around him to give him a hug.
"I know that you're not here all the time. But I also know, or, I mean, I think that you kinda like me? 'Cause if you don't, then you have some weird ways of showing friendly affection."
Jin's sulky expression disappears as quickly as it came. "I do. Kinda. I just... I don't know, don't ask me to explain it. Or talk about it. I'm not good at that shit."
"Oh yeah, 'cause I'm such an expert," Maru says, and he thinks that maybe this is why it's easier being with a guy. They don't need to talk about their emotions and crap like that; they can just punch each other's shoulders and leave it at that. Would make things in general far less complicated.
Jin bends his head and bites Maru's shoulder with a little growl. "Stop side-tracking me! What I'm saying is that I'd like to try. You know, being together. I mean, I'm not perfect-"
"Oh, I know that," Maru remarks.
"Keep it up and I'll punch you."
Maru bites his lip to keep from laughing. But at least it's not awkward, nervous, oh-dear-god-get-me-out-of-here laughter. "How about you kiss me instead and we figure everything else out later."
"Sounds good to me," Jin says. The way he smiles makes Maru's heart skip a beat - or maybe that's because of the way Jin pulls him closer and kisses him fiercely.
-
Maru is not sure what to think when he opens the door to his apartment and is greeted by an eye-blinding amount of glitter. He had thought he was immune to everything sparkly after so many years in Johnny's, but apparently not.
"Sparkles!" Jin exclaims, bending down to scoop up a handful of glitter and throwing it at Maru's head.
"You're five," Maru says, trying to shake the glitter out of his hair again.
"And you like it." Jin beams, and despite the glittery surroundings, Maru can't help but smile back at him, just because he likes seeing Jin like this. Happy. Like life is nothing but fun again.
They walk into the living room, and they're greeted by their friends jumping out and yelling "surprise!" so loudly that Maru swears he can see the windows tremble from the sheer noise. The four of them look immensely proud and satisfied with themselves, as if they genuinely think that they've given Maru and Jin the biggest surprise of their lives.
"Guys," Maru begins, just staring at them, and then at the state of his living room. Judging by the piles of glitter everywhere, Maru suspects that they have cleaned out every craft store in Tokyo of their stock of all things glittery and sparkly. Not to mention the cake. And the cupcakes. If nothing else, Maru's relieved that they're not covered in glitter.
"It was all their idea," Ueda says in a disapproving tone of voice, pointing at the Magical Fairy of Glitter (also known as Kame) and his accomplices Dumb and Dumber (also known as Junno and Koki).
Kame just raises an eyebrow and glares at him in return. "And who was it who insisted on the pink, heart-shaped cake, huh?"
Ueda sputters and chokes, going pinker than said cake.
"You're all insane," Maru says, because really, how is he supposed to react when he comes home to find his apartment covered in glitter and pink hearts, making it look like it belongs to the 12-year-old daughter he doesn't have?
"You're the one dating Jin," Kame points out, and ducks expertly when Jin throws a cupcake at him - it hits Koki instead, who retaliates by tackling Jin and covering him with glitter until he sputters and begs for mercy. It all seems to go a bit crazy after that.
Maru shakes his head, and spends the rest of the evening wondering whether to laugh or cry.
~
From: zenfu
Title: We're all alright
Pairings/Characters: Maru-centric; Jin/Maru
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Large amounts of ridiculousness.
Notes: Written for encoded_panties. ♥ 4,775 words. Thanks to L for the beta.
Summary: Maru gets laid. Jin gets jealous. Stuff happens.
It's been over a week since the last time they called Jin, and unlike normally, Maru is not looking forward to catching up this time - he knows his friends, and he knows that this will not be pleasant. At all.
The phone rings almost ten times - it's early in the US, and Jun still has issues with getting up at a normal time of day. Eventually he picks up, however, yawning loudly instead of saying anything. Nobody has the chance to say hello before Koki bursts out with "Maru got laid!", and Maru cringes because in no language on the planet is that an acceptable hello.
There's a pause, then Jin laughs. "How much did he pay her?"
"Hey!" Maru scowls at the phone and is suddenly glad that Jin's thousands of miles away.
"What? No woman in her right mind would let you touch her."
Scratch that. Maru wishes Jin was here so he could strangle him with his own two hands instead of having to settle for glowering at the phone. "I did not pay her, asshole."
"No, I paid her," Junno chimes in.
"Junno, what have I told you about getting your friends hookers as a present? It just comes off tacky." Jin sounds like he's trying very hard not to laugh - on Maru's right, Kame has lost that battle and is practically wheezing from laughing too much.
"No, she didn't come from Tackey," Junno replies, and Koki kicks his leg.
"She was not a hooker, and Junno didn't pay her for anything - he just bought her a drink," Maru says tensely. He would give anything to be talking about something else, anything else.
"Oh, so he got her drunk and then shoved her onto you. I see," Jin says.
Junno nods enthusiastically. "I thought it was about time. There's a limit to how much porn a person can watch, after all."
"This is news to me," Koki says, "I never get sick of porn."
"That's because you get laid as well," Ueda points out. "If you had to rely on nothing but porn, you'd get sick of it too."
Maru is pretty sure that this conversation has gone far away from the original subject. But then again, half their conversations seem to end up revolving around porn, regardless of what they start out talking about. Either way, he would rather they not spend their time discussing his porn habits. Or his getting laid habits. "I do not rely on nothing but porn!"
"No, you get hookers as well," Jin says. There's something almost annoyed in his voice, and Maru shakes his head, taking a few steps away because he doesn't really want to be involved with this conversation anymore.
Funny how that seems to happen a lot when they're all together.
-
The next day, Jin calls Maru. He seems to have forgotten about the time zone difference, and it takes Maru at least five minutes to wake up enough to even decipher what Jin's saying. "Why are you calling me, anyway? Pi has a lot more of a tolerance for listening to you ramble than I do," Maru says, stifling a yawn.
"I'm calling you 'cause I'm offended that you'd go out with some random skank, but not with me," Jin says petulantly. Nobody can sound petulant like Jin can, and being limited to phone conversations only seem to increase this ability even more.
Maru rolls his eyes, trying not to remember about the numerous times Jin told him that they should go on a date, 'cause girls are psycho and guys are dumb, so of course they should stick together instead. "As if you were serious about asking me out."
"I'm always serious!"
"Don't forget that you've also asked Pi, Kame, and Junno out," Maru says, struggling to figure out whether he should be annoyed or amused right now. Probably a bit of both. Somehow, that seems to happen a lot when he's with Jin.
Jin makes a sound of protest. "Hey, I only ask Kame out when I'm drunk."
"Then what about Pi and Junno?"
"That's different." Jin's petulance is quickly escalating into full-blown whining, and Maru is pretty sure that he should stop before there's material damage.
Not that he's going to.
"Different how?"
Jin pauses and just sighs. "It just is, can't you accept that and stop being such a moron?"
"You're the moron. And if you say 'no you' then I'm going to reach through the phone line and punch you. Actually, I might do that anyway just 'cause you woke me up. Learn to tell time."
"Not until you learn not to sleep with hookers."
Maru feels like punching the wall. He'd rather punch Jin, but regrettably, Jin isn't close enough for that. The wall will have to do. "She wasn't a hooker!"
"You keep on telling yourself that," Jin says sourly, and hangs up before Maru has the chance to swear at him. Instead, he's left sitting in his bed staring at his phone, wondering what the fuck just happened.
-
Jin calls five more times over the next three days, but Maru doesn't pick up.
He's pretty sure that taking a break is a good idea, even though he's not sure what it is they're taking a break from.
-
Thankfully, Maru is hardly reliant on Jin to stay occupied. He's going on too little sleep and too much work, but he doesn't even have it half as bad as Kame. He has a problem with saying no to new projects, even more so when he gets offered things that he actually wants to do - like being in a drama with Ryo, or doing baseball charity events with his brothers, or doing radio shows and TV shows with pretty hosts that he can flirt (badly) with. He seems to be surviving on a diet of energy drinks and fruit, and Maru is pretty sure that he has barely slept in at least a month.
Which is why he shuts Kame in a room between dance practice sessions and tells him to get some rest.
Except that when he returns, about half an hour later, he finds Kame running around the room with a disposable camera, taking pictures of anything in sight. He seems to find the ceiling fan particularly fascinating.
Maru sighs and glances back to the others. "Who was it who had the bright idea to give him a camera?"
Junno raises his hand, looking all too proud of himself. "I thought he could use it. To, you know, develop some character."
It's almost impossible to not want to kill Junno dead in moments like these. "Was it you who gave him sugar as well?"
Junno beams. "And caffeine." The others stare at him, but Junno just looks completely clueless. "What? He looked like he was gonna fall asleep!"
"He was supposed to sleep, moron," Koki says, stifling a sigh.
"But he's more fun when he's awake. And on sugar. And with a camera." Junno grins sheepishly, and has the survival instinct to dive out of the way when Ueda lunges at him.
It's Maru who grabs Kame and drives him home, putting him to bed and sticking around until he's sure that Kame's actually asleep. Koki stops by with groceries after a couple of hours; Ueda calls and says that Kame doesn't have to come in until noon in the morning. Maru sets Kame's alarm and leaves a bottle of water and some painkillers at his bedside table, along with a note telling him that he's an idiot, but since he doesn't know how to take care of himself, the rest of them will be there to do it for him.
-
Jin keeps on calling through the next few days, and Maru takes Ueda up on the offer of going boxing with him, just to escape the sound of the phone ringing - and to have a decent excuse for not answering the phone.
Though after an hour of training, Maru finds himself longing for an awkward phone conversation. At least then he wouldn't be aching and hurting all over, and at least then Ueda wouldn't keep on giving him condescending looks and patronizing smiles. Because of course, Ueda isn't even winded, and looks like he knows exactly what he's doing, while Maru feels like Bambi on ice, or Juniors on stage.
Bastard.
"That's the warm-up taken care of," Ueda says and climbs up into the boxing ring. "Time for a match."
Maru's jaw drops. Getting his ass thoroughly kicked wasn't exactly what he had planned for the day. "I am not going up there!"
"Sissy," Ueda says with a grin. Maru knows that Ueda's just saying it to wind him up, and Ueda knows he knows, but the end result is still the same.
Maru limps into the recording studio the next morning, and grits his teeth every time someone pokes one of his bruises. Which is often, because apparently, none of them have heard about the concept of being careful. Or kind.
-
Days off are hard to come by - have been for years. Without Jin they all work that much harder to make up for his absence, and while they don't mind doing it, they sometimes find themselves longing for the days when they could actually take it easy. Or at least Maru feels like that - this isn't exactly something that he chooses to talk about often. It's like they have all agreed that they should keep their mouths shut about this, the change in their lives, because they all figure that the best option is to ignore, ignore, ignore.
Still, the point is that they're too busy for their own good, and when they finally get a day off, Maru is sorely tempted to spend it in bed, sleeping and eating junk food and watching crappy movies.
Instead, Koki shows up at Maru's apartment at ass o'clock in the morning, demanding to spend the day with him. Maru has no idea why he's the one who has to come along on whatever adventure Koki has planned, and he grumbles as he digs through his closet for something relatively clean to wear.
"Wear something other than argyle, would you," Koki comments. Considering that he's wearing an outfit that would make anyone's eyeballs bleed, Maru doesn't think he's in a position to give fashion advice, and he rolls his eyes and picks out the most argyle-covered outfit he possibly can.
Koki drives them around for a while seemingly without a set destination in mind, and when he stops, Maru hardly even knows where he is, but he doesn't really care all that much either, as long as he can get out of the car to escape Koki's choice of driving music. They've gotten about five feet away from the car when Koki shrieks "puppies!" in a decibel level that leaves Maru pretty sure that his ear drums are obliterated.
Of course. He just has to park right next to a pet store. Naturally.
Maru sighs and follows Koki to the store and the puppies waiting inside, almost reluctantly. He knows how this usually goes. "You're not taking them home," Maru says in a tone of voice that he sure as hell hopes is commanding.
Not that it's easy to attempt to be stern when he's got Koki and a pile of puppies staring at him.
"Just one?" Koki smiles. It's oh, so innocent and oh, so calculating - it might have worked if it wasn't for the fact that Maru has seen it about a thousand times before.
"You don't have room for another puppy."
"But you do," Koki says brightly and shoves two puppies into Maru's arms.
It's how Maru's apartment ends up being overrun by the same two puppies. Maru names them Tequila and Sunrise, because they are as much Koki's dogs as they are his.
-
Maru's phone starts being overrun with messages. Not just from Jin, but from the girl that Maru hooked up with as well. Jin bitches about Maru not calling him back, the girl bitches about Maru not wanting to see her again, and Maru thinks that it's all a bit too much for him. He's used to being the one without any drama, after all, he's not sure how to deal with annoyed texts and a phone that keeps ringing and friends that just won't stop smirking at him because he's getting increasingly exasperated.
"You just need to learn how to date girls," Junno states, as if that would solve all of Maru's problems. Actually, the way Junno says it, it sounds like he things every problem in the entire world would be solved by Maru learning how to date girls.
Maru doesn't even look at him. "And who's gonna teach me that? You?"
"Yes," Junno says, grabbing Maru's hand and dragging him out of the building. Granted, it's their lunch break, so they don't need to be there and nobody's going to miss them for a few hours, but Maru still doesn't like to leave in the middle of the day. Especially when he's being pretty much abducted by Junno - nothing good can ever come from that.
Especially when Junno leads the way to a seedy bar in a narrow alley, far away from anywhere Maru would have chosen to go willingly. "Uhm," he says, trying to find a way to back out of this without getting hurt. "I don't think we should go in there, it might be... not safe."
"Don't worry, I come here every week." Junno beams and pulls Maru inside, leaving him a second afterwards in favor of running over to the bar and greeting first the bartender, then a couple of girls that really do look like hookers, then a group of rather shady-looking guys playing pool.
Maru thinks that he should probably be a whole lot more surprised about this than he is.
However, it doesn't exactly help him figure out how to date girls. Despite Junno's attempts to make him flirt with the two girls, who play along (doing it so well that Maru's head spins, something which doesn't make it any easier), Maru just feels ill at ease. Uncomfortable. Wanting to get the fuck out of there.
Junno shakes his head and sends the girls on their way before buying Maru a beer, settling down next to him. "You know there's an easy solution to your problem, right?"
"Celibacy?"
"Well, that too. But I was talking about Jin."
Maru chokes on his beer and spends the next couple of minutes coughing violently. Junno pats him on the back with such a smug expression on his face that Maru empties the rest of his glass over Junno's head.
-
Maru's phone rings at three in the morning, when he has just managed to fallen asleep because his head is still buzzing after spending most of the night - actually, most of the weekend - club hopping with Koki and Junno.
And he might have gotten laid again, too, if it hadn't been for the fact that he had freaked out half-way through and the girl ended up slapping him and practically running away from him.
Girls are too damn difficult. It almost makes him think that Junno's right. Almost.
"About fucking time," Jin says, "I've been trying to reach you for weeks. I thought you were dead!"
"You did not, stop being a drama queen."
Jin snorts. "Oh yeah, I'm being dramatic? What about you and your eighty-five missed calls?"
"...you kept count?"
"Never mind that," Jin says, and Maru can just imagine him; almost bouncing in his seat, waving his hand, looking impatient. "I have something to tell you, and I wanted to tell you first."
"Tell me what?" Maru's a bit too tired to be on guard. A bit too tired to remember the times in the past when Jin had something to tell him - usually it involved parties and girls and boys and copious amounts of alcohol and Things That Shall Never Be Talked About Again Ever.
"I'm coming back to Japan."
"Wait, what?" Of all the things Maru expected to hear, it certainly wasn't this. He would be less surprised if Jin had told him that he had married his cute back-up dancer in Las Vegas and that they were currently expecting triplets.
Jin snorts. "Since you won't answer my calls, I'm going to have to come over there to talk to you."
"But-"
"So I'll see you in three days, bye!" Jin exclaims, having up the phone before Maru can voice any further protests.
-
The morning after, Maru's convinced that it was all a dream. Or at least he is until he comes to work only to be greeted by Koki and Kame's excited chatter about how Jin's coming back to visit.
Crap, Maru thinks, but wisely decides to keep his mouth shut. No matter how much the others side-eye him.
-
They all meet Jin at the airport, because doing things with subtlety has never been any of their strengths.
"Jin!" Koki is the first to spot him through the crowd, and runs at him at such a speed that they crash into each other and lose their balance.
"Try to give it at least a minute before you kill him, okay?" Ueda says, dragging Koki back up while Kame helps Jin back up again. He hasn't said anything, but he's grinning at them and then hugs them all in turn.
"Hi," Maru says when Jin turns to him. It's a bit of a shock to the system to see him again, something which Maru thinks is weird, 'cause he sees Jin every day in the numerous photographs in his apartment, or on the news, or whenever he catches a glimpse of their old PVs on the TV.
"I'm not sure I should hug you," Jin replies, "you might have picked up some kind of disease from that skank you were with."
"Isn't that usually what people say to you?" Ueda says innocently. Unlike most others, he doesn't try to get out of punching distance, but that might just be because he knows that Jin won't take the chance of picking a fight with him.
He's right, too. Jin glares, but doesn't do anything else.
Well, not to Ueda, anyway. He does, however, grab Maru and hugs him so hard that it's difficult to breathe, before pulling back and punching his shoulder. Maru thinks it means "you're a total idiot and I hate you, but I missed you too and it's good to see you", but he has never been that good at deciphering Jin's actions.
Of course, a smarter person might see Jin's actions as obvious, but Maru is not that person.
-
All six of them go to a baseball charity match - Kame has been participating in a lot of them lately, and he's been pestering the rest of them to help out as well. Half because it's for a good cause, half because he undoubtedly enjoys watching them all getting hit in the head by baseballs.
So far, Junno leads the game; the rest of them are at least starting to learn how to duck out of the way. Junno jogs back to the sideline to join the rest of them, rubbing his shoulder. "I was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger," Junno says, "and then it hit me."
Koki rolls his eyes. "If you don't shut up, I'm gonna hit you."
"Oh, come on, what's the batter?"
Unsurprisingly, Koki follows up on his threat. Maru's just happy that he doesn't use a bat.
-
Maru's not quite sure when he became this adapt at avoiding people, but he manages to evade Jin for almost a week. After a few days it becomes almost like a game, and if it wasn't for the fact that Jin's looking increasingly annoyed, Maru would have said that this is fun.
It's a Thursday afternoon when Jin finally manages to corner him - Maru figured that the small office library would be safe, but sometimes Jin is smarter than he looks.
"Oh," Maru says when he notices Jin, and looks around for ways to escape.
Jin pouts at him. "Would you stop avoiding me? You're not a chick, last time I checked."
"Last time you checked? When have you ever checked if I was a girl?" Maru asks, forcing a laugh, even if it comes out sounding oddly nervous.
"What, would you like me to check for you?" Jin smirks this time, practically leers, and Maru's laughter comes easier. Jin's right, after all. They're friends; they have no reason to avoid each other.
Maru falls silent and leans against the wall, just looking at Jin properly, for the first time since he came back. There's no denying that he looks good. Solo artist life agrees with him. America agrees with him. If it hadn't been for the current awkwardness, Maru would've been very happy for him. "So," he says, "how have you been?"
"Lonely," Jin replies without missing a beat, and he crosses the distance between them, pushes Maru harder against the wall and kisses him. Kisses him.
Maru's world seems to stop for a second. All he can register is Jin's hands clutching his shoulders, Jin pressing against him, Jin's lips against his. He doesn't hold back in the least bit, kisses exactly the way Maru would have imagined him to kiss someone, and wait, since when did Maru spend time imagining what Jin would kiss like, anyway?
"Oh," he says once Jin pulls back.
"Yeah," Jin breathes, "oh."
-
It takes Maru an additional week or so to come to terms with the idea that he maybe, possibly, kinda likes Jin. In an oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-this-is-happening kind of way.
"Fuck," he says to himself when it becomes impossible to ignore, because this is not what he had planned for his life.
Though if nothing else, he won't have to worry about dealing with girls. Silver lining and all that.
-
"I just don't know what to do," Maru says. Four different times, at four different times, with four slightly different wordings.
"Stop over-thinking things, it's not all that complicated," Ueda says, looking like he's trying very hard not to smack Maru for talking about something like this.
"As long as you get laid, I don't think it matters how or with whom," Koki says with an expression on his face that makes him look more constipated than wise.
"Follow your heart," Kame says, and it sounds sincere - up until the point where he bursts out laughing and spends the next ten minutes practically giggling at the idea of Maru and Jin together.
"Your problem is that you have a fear of hurdles; just get over it," Junno says, taking the time to pat Maru's shoulder before returning his attention to the two girls he's flirting with.
Maru comes to the conclusion that asking his friends for advice is the most useless idea in the history of time.
-
What it comes down to is that it's not a rational choice he can make. Sure, Maru can sit in his kitchen and list all the positive and negative things about this, but in the end, it doesn't really matter. What really matters is the fact that Jin came back to Japan just because Maru slept with a girl. What really matters is that Maru would much rather sleep with Jin than a hundred girls.
This time, Maru is the one cornering Jin, trapping him in their dance studio after everyone else has left. They're both sweaty and out of breath, so Maru decides to cut straight to the point. Instead of actually saying anything, he steps close and presses a kiss to the corner of Jin's lips. He was aiming for his mouth, but of course Jin has to make things difficult.
"I thought you liked that skank," Jin says. He looks rather dumbfounded, and Maru grins in satisfaction.
"Yeah, well, you're an idiot. There's only one skank that I like."
"...hey!" Jin looks offended, but he grins moments later. Even if he still looks kind of concerned. "You know I'm in the US a lot of the time, right?"
Maru just laughs - now that he has taken the first step, it feels like an immense weight has been lifted off his shoulders. "Oh, so that's where you are when you're not around. I thought you went back to your home planet or something."
"Shut up," Jin says, and now he's definitely sulking. Somehow, that makes everything seem normal, and Maru winds an arm around him to give him a hug.
"I know that you're not here all the time. But I also know, or, I mean, I think that you kinda like me? 'Cause if you don't, then you have some weird ways of showing friendly affection."
Jin's sulky expression disappears as quickly as it came. "I do. Kinda. I just... I don't know, don't ask me to explain it. Or talk about it. I'm not good at that shit."
"Oh yeah, 'cause I'm such an expert," Maru says, and he thinks that maybe this is why it's easier being with a guy. They don't need to talk about their emotions and crap like that; they can just punch each other's shoulders and leave it at that. Would make things in general far less complicated.
Jin bends his head and bites Maru's shoulder with a little growl. "Stop side-tracking me! What I'm saying is that I'd like to try. You know, being together. I mean, I'm not perfect-"
"Oh, I know that," Maru remarks.
"Keep it up and I'll punch you."
Maru bites his lip to keep from laughing. But at least it's not awkward, nervous, oh-dear-god-get-me-out-of-here laughter. "How about you kiss me instead and we figure everything else out later."
"Sounds good to me," Jin says. The way he smiles makes Maru's heart skip a beat - or maybe that's because of the way Jin pulls him closer and kisses him fiercely.
-
Maru is not sure what to think when he opens the door to his apartment and is greeted by an eye-blinding amount of glitter. He had thought he was immune to everything sparkly after so many years in Johnny's, but apparently not.
"Sparkles!" Jin exclaims, bending down to scoop up a handful of glitter and throwing it at Maru's head.
"You're five," Maru says, trying to shake the glitter out of his hair again.
"And you like it." Jin beams, and despite the glittery surroundings, Maru can't help but smile back at him, just because he likes seeing Jin like this. Happy. Like life is nothing but fun again.
They walk into the living room, and they're greeted by their friends jumping out and yelling "surprise!" so loudly that Maru swears he can see the windows tremble from the sheer noise. The four of them look immensely proud and satisfied with themselves, as if they genuinely think that they've given Maru and Jin the biggest surprise of their lives.
"Guys," Maru begins, just staring at them, and then at the state of his living room. Judging by the piles of glitter everywhere, Maru suspects that they have cleaned out every craft store in Tokyo of their stock of all things glittery and sparkly. Not to mention the cake. And the cupcakes. If nothing else, Maru's relieved that they're not covered in glitter.
"It was all their idea," Ueda says in a disapproving tone of voice, pointing at the Magical Fairy of Glitter (also known as Kame) and his accomplices Dumb and Dumber (also known as Junno and Koki).
Kame just raises an eyebrow and glares at him in return. "And who was it who insisted on the pink, heart-shaped cake, huh?"
Ueda sputters and chokes, going pinker than said cake.
"You're all insane," Maru says, because really, how is he supposed to react when he comes home to find his apartment covered in glitter and pink hearts, making it look like it belongs to the 12-year-old daughter he doesn't have?
"You're the one dating Jin," Kame points out, and ducks expertly when Jin throws a cupcake at him - it hits Koki instead, who retaliates by tackling Jin and covering him with glitter until he sputters and begs for mercy. It all seems to go a bit crazy after that.
Maru shakes his head, and spends the rest of the evening wondering whether to laugh or cry.
~