[Pippa] A Matter of Taste
A Matter of Taste
G
ryoda (and background akame)
For swedish-weirdo. *hugs* I hope this cheers you up a little, honey. Thanks to Britsticks for the once-over and Riha for checking that people are mostly in-character. It's 2am and I am shattered but I wanted to get this posted before swedish-weirdo wakes up. Any glaring mistakes I will fix after I have slept. x_x
Ueda was friends with Jin, and Ryo was friends with Jin, but having a mutual friend in common did not automatically mean that these friends were also on good terms; after all, Ryo was friends with both Tegoshi and MatsuJun, and Jin was hardly close to either of them (especially after the time Jin ‘borrowed’ some of Jun’s super-expensive specialist moisturiser without asking).
With that said, however, they still had plenty of opportunities to interact; after the monthly KAT-TUN family dinner chez Mama Ueda, Jin frequently used to check his phone and announce that he was going out with his friends - Yamapi, Ryo, Shirota Yuu, Kusano and so on - and did anybody want to come with him? Sometimes Koki said yes, but usually everyone else declined. Kame spent enough time with Jin anyway and didn’t want to be too stifling; Junno had his own crew of friends; Maru, too, tended to socialise more around the ‘eating’ part than the ‘drinking’, and Ueda just… didn’t.
It wasn’t that Ueda didn’t want to mix with the others in Jin’s social network, but rather that he suspected he wouldn’t fit in. When Jin had his ‘bored’ face on, Ueda never knew what to say to spark his interest. When Jin was in the mood to drink and party, Ueda found that he really wasn’t particularly the drinking or partying type, and tended to regret it rather heavily the next day, head heavy with a hangover and throat sore from inhaling the second-hand smoke that clogged the air in the clubs.
As such, even though Ueda was good friends with Jin and they frequently wrote songs together, they didn’t spend as much time together outside work, not like they did before Jin hit 20. When Ueda received a personalised invitation to a ‘small social gathering’ Jin and Kame were hosting at Jin’s house, he was somewhat surprised, but accepted nonetheless, and wrote the date in his calendar.
~
When Ueda arrives at Jin’s place and lets himself in with the spare key Kame gave him earlier, he feels as though he has been set up. Knowing Jin, he probably has. Ryo and Kame are in the kitchen preparing the food, and Jin is doing his best to distract them by flicking grains of uncooked rice at them from the table. He calls out to announce his presence and Kame turns around, his hair tied up and an apron on.
“Hey, Tat-chan’s here!” Kame says, waving a spatula at him. “Jin, offer him a drink, will you? Dinner won’t be long.”
“Is it just us?” Ueda asks, accepting the glass of cold water from Jin and sitting at the table.
“Yep,” Jin says with a grin, flicking rice at Ueda now instead. Ueda eyes the grains for a moment before returning fire, and before too long the KAT-TUN vowels are involved in an all-out rice war whilst Ryo and Kame chat away over the stove.
“Are they always like this?” Ryo asks Kame, and Ueda glances up to see the two chefs leaning against the work surface and eyeing him and Akanishi with wryly amused expressions.
“Pretty much,” Kame nods. “When Jin’s not sleep-deprived and Ueda’s not trying to think too much, they’re both total dorks.”
“Hey,” Jin pouts, protesting this accusation. “I’m not a dork! I’m way too cool to be a dork.”
“Shut up, Jin. You’re a loser, and you know it.” Ueda sticks his tongue out at Jin and the War of the Rice is about to start again except that Kame hastily sweeps the grains off the table and Ryo starts putting bowls of food in front of them.
Ryo catches Ueda’s eye and grins as the four idols sit down and itadakimasu before beginning to eat. “I’m glad it’s not just me that gives him a hard time.”
Ueda takes his first mouthful and immediately makes a noise of appreciation, eyes widening. “This is really good!” he says, before adding more to his bowl. “I could eat this forever.”
“Ryo made that one,” Kame says, tilting his head towards the man sitting opposite him at the table. “He’s really good at cooking. That’s why I got him to help, instead of that one.” He nods at Jin, who sticks his tongue out at Kame before shovelling rice into his mouth.
“Oh,” Ueda says, glancing over at Ryo who is watching him intently across the table. “I like it,” Ueda says, except instead of saying oishikatta he simply says suki1, and Jin drops his chopsticks.
All eyes turn to look at Jin, who is staring at the man opposite him with wide eyes. Ueda blinks owlishly at Jin, and says, “What?”
“You like Ryo?” Jin sounds absurdly hopeful and Ueda feels horribly, horribly awkward.
“I was talking about the food, dumbass,” Ueda replies, as Kame sighs a long-suffering sigh and stands up to go and get another set of chopsticks since Jin’s landed on the floor.
“Oh.” Jin pouts at his rice bowl, and Ueda rolls his eyes and tries not to grin.
He completely misses Ryo looking at him for a fraction longer than would perhaps be considered normal… and then Kame returns with a new set of chopsticks and life resumes once more.
After the meal, Ueda offers to help clear up but Kame shakes his head and says that Jin has a dishwasher, and it won’t take long to load if Jin helps him since he knows what goes where.
“Why don’t you and Ryo-chan go sit in the lounge and pick a movie to watch, or something?” Jin suggests with completely implausible innocence, and Ueda eyes Ryo, who shrugs and heads towards the lounge.
Jin’s movies are mostly imports from America and half of them don’t even have subtitles, so in the end they give up and put on Spirited Away because it’s impossible to go wrong with Ghibli even when you’re a 25-year-old man. Ueda sits down on the sofa, and instead of picking any one of the other chairs in the room, Ryo sits right next to him.
“Better view of the screen from here,” Ryo says by way of excuse, but he doesn’t meet Ueda’s eyes and it’s not like they haven’t both seen this movie at least ten million times already.
“Did you know it was just going to be the four of us tonight?” Ueda asks after a moment, his voice quiet but light, conversational.
Ryo doesn’t respond for a moment, and Ueda begins to wonder if the other man is ignoring him in favour of watching the film but then he catches Ryo’s words: “Yeah, I did.”
“Oh, okay.” Ueda nods, and turns back to watching the television screen, huge and high-definition. “I’m surprised you agreed to come, then.”
“Why?” Ryo isn’t watching the movie but then Ueda isn’t either, the animated characters moving unheeded across the screen several feet away.
Ueda glances at Ryo, and finds the other man watching him intently. “I thought you didn’t like me.”
“I’ve always liked you,” Ryo says quietly, but before he can say anything else Jin and Kame arrive from the kitchen and as Kame sits down on the other sofa, Jin flops across the other cushions and utilises Kame’s lap as a pillow.
“Ooh, I haven’t seen this one in ages!” Jin exclaims, and Ryo and Ueda return their attention to the screen - that is, until Ueda’s cell phone vibrates in his pocket and he flicks it open and sees a message from Ryo.
From: Nishikido Ryo
To: Ueda Tatsuya
Subject: Akanishi’s timing is impeccable, as always
Message: I’ve always liked Ueda Tatsuya. It’s just that, for a long time, YOU didn’t even know who ‘Ueda Tatsuya’ was. I don’t even mean the bad hair or reciting poetry at a piano. It’s much better now that ‘Ueda Tatsuya’ has found where he belongs.
Ueda glances sideways at Ryo, whose expression is carefully neutral as he keeps his gaze on the screen, but his cell phone is open in his hands and the screen is still glowing. Ueda quickly hits ‘reply’ and his thumbs blur over the keys.
From: Ueda Tatsuya
To: Nishikido Ryo
Subject: Sometimes I wonder if his ‘stupidity’ isn’t just a clever illusion to fool us all
Message: You’ve had worse hairstyles than me, Nishikido. But, thank you. Ueda Tatsuya is much happier now, too. Maybe your harsh words back then really made me stronger after all??
Ryo’s phone makes a tiny bip as the message arrives, and Ueda sees his eyes flick down to read his words. A moment later, Ueda’s own phone vibrates and he silently wonders when he reached the point of sending messages back and forth to someone who was sitting so close that he could quite easily reach out and touch him.
From: Nishikido Ryo
To: Ueda Tatsuya
Subject: No, I think he’s just dumb. I am not sure what that says about us, having him as a friend.
Message: Screw you, my hair is always awesome. And yes - the people I like always end up mentally stronger because of me. It’s part of why I am so amazing.
From: Ueda Tatsuya
To: Nishikido Ryo
Subject: We should disown him.
Message: The people you like??
From: Nishikido Ryo
To: Ueda Tatsuya
Subject: Re: We should disown him.
Message: I already told you once. Twice, even. I have always liked Ueda Tatsuya. Don’t make me say it four times in one evening.
“Guys, if you’re going to sit there emailing each other all night, should we just go up to bed now and let you have your conversation in peace?” Kame asks, amusement clearly etched across both his and Jin’s faces. Ueda starts and closes his phone, and Ryo looks vaguely guilty.
“Nyuhhh,” Jin says, making a stretchy, sleep-filled noise. “Kaaaameeeee~”
Kame laughs a little, prodding Jin’s nose. “Come on, you. You’ll be unbearable at work tomorrow if you don’t get your eight hours.”
“Is this you kicking us out now?” Ryo asks, as Kame helps a sleepy Jin to his feet. “Nice, Akanishi, falling asleep on your guests.”
“You can stay if you want,” Kame says, unfazed by Ryo’s words. “The spare bed’s always made up just in case.”
“No,” Ryo shakes his head. “It’s a bitch getting to work from here in the mornings on public transport.”
“You’re still not driving? I thought you’d be back on the road by now,” Ueda says, and Ryo shrugs.
“Yeah, I’m driving again, I just didn’t bring a car tonight. Oh, night guys,” he raises his hand as Jin and Kame head toward Jin’s bedroom, and Ueda nods.
“I can drive you back,” he offers, “and save you having to get the bus again.”
Ryo ducks his head in thanks. “I’d like that.”
They lock the front door with the same key that Ueda used to open it with, and then they shove it through the letterbox for Kame to find in the morning. Ueda’s car isn’t parked too far away, and although it is already dark out the sky is clear and the weather is mild.
“It seems too nice out to be going home already,” Ueda comments, not meaning anything by it, but Ryo looks thoughtful all the same.
“There’s a park near my apartment,” he says after a moment. “There aren’t too many lights so you can see some of the stars. We could go there, if you like.”
Ueda nods, and unlocks the car. “Just give me the directions.”
~
The park is still and quiet, with a light breeze floating through the leaves on the trees overhead as they make their way down the path. There are a few people around; either on their way to or from friends’ houses or parties. Neither Ueda nor Ryo are particularly bothered, and they make their way across the green to a picnic bench that sits atop a small rise.
“When you said ‘suki’ earlier, over dinner,” Ryo says, leaning back and looking up at the faint specks of light in the sky, “did you mean it?”
Ueda looks at Ryo watching the stars. The faint light makes Ryo’s dark hair contrast strongly with his skin, and he looks almost ethereal, much softer than the abrasive young man he used to bicker with in the past.
“Tatsuya?” Ueda realises two things at once: first, he hadn’t answered Ryo’s question quickly enough and Ryo is now staring at him; second: that was the first time Nishikido Ryo had ever used his first name. He realises that likes the way it sounds, likes the way Ryo’s lips form the syllables.
The distance between them is hardly worth mentioning, and it takes Ueda no time at all to lean over and press his lips to Ryo’s, and even less time for Ryo to freeze in shock, and then kiss back. It’s a sweet kiss, full of unspoken affection that leaves Ueda stunned, and when they finally pull away Ryo, too, looks as though he needs to catch his breath.
Ueda grins. “Oishikatta,” he says.1
~fin~
1: While ‘suki’ can mean both ‘I like it’ and ‘I like you’, ‘oishikatta’ means ‘it was delicious’ and is more commonly used in regards to food. [/half-assed Japanese lesson]
G
ryoda (and background akame)
For swedish-weirdo. *hugs* I hope this cheers you up a little, honey. Thanks to Britsticks for the once-over and Riha for checking that people are mostly in-character. It's 2am and I am shattered but I wanted to get this posted before swedish-weirdo wakes up. Any glaring mistakes I will fix after I have slept. x_x
Ueda was friends with Jin, and Ryo was friends with Jin, but having a mutual friend in common did not automatically mean that these friends were also on good terms; after all, Ryo was friends with both Tegoshi and MatsuJun, and Jin was hardly close to either of them (especially after the time Jin ‘borrowed’ some of Jun’s super-expensive specialist moisturiser without asking).
With that said, however, they still had plenty of opportunities to interact; after the monthly KAT-TUN family dinner chez Mama Ueda, Jin frequently used to check his phone and announce that he was going out with his friends - Yamapi, Ryo, Shirota Yuu, Kusano and so on - and did anybody want to come with him? Sometimes Koki said yes, but usually everyone else declined. Kame spent enough time with Jin anyway and didn’t want to be too stifling; Junno had his own crew of friends; Maru, too, tended to socialise more around the ‘eating’ part than the ‘drinking’, and Ueda just… didn’t.
It wasn’t that Ueda didn’t want to mix with the others in Jin’s social network, but rather that he suspected he wouldn’t fit in. When Jin had his ‘bored’ face on, Ueda never knew what to say to spark his interest. When Jin was in the mood to drink and party, Ueda found that he really wasn’t particularly the drinking or partying type, and tended to regret it rather heavily the next day, head heavy with a hangover and throat sore from inhaling the second-hand smoke that clogged the air in the clubs.
As such, even though Ueda was good friends with Jin and they frequently wrote songs together, they didn’t spend as much time together outside work, not like they did before Jin hit 20. When Ueda received a personalised invitation to a ‘small social gathering’ Jin and Kame were hosting at Jin’s house, he was somewhat surprised, but accepted nonetheless, and wrote the date in his calendar.
~
When Ueda arrives at Jin’s place and lets himself in with the spare key Kame gave him earlier, he feels as though he has been set up. Knowing Jin, he probably has. Ryo and Kame are in the kitchen preparing the food, and Jin is doing his best to distract them by flicking grains of uncooked rice at them from the table. He calls out to announce his presence and Kame turns around, his hair tied up and an apron on.
“Hey, Tat-chan’s here!” Kame says, waving a spatula at him. “Jin, offer him a drink, will you? Dinner won’t be long.”
“Is it just us?” Ueda asks, accepting the glass of cold water from Jin and sitting at the table.
“Yep,” Jin says with a grin, flicking rice at Ueda now instead. Ueda eyes the grains for a moment before returning fire, and before too long the KAT-TUN vowels are involved in an all-out rice war whilst Ryo and Kame chat away over the stove.
“Are they always like this?” Ryo asks Kame, and Ueda glances up to see the two chefs leaning against the work surface and eyeing him and Akanishi with wryly amused expressions.
“Pretty much,” Kame nods. “When Jin’s not sleep-deprived and Ueda’s not trying to think too much, they’re both total dorks.”
“Hey,” Jin pouts, protesting this accusation. “I’m not a dork! I’m way too cool to be a dork.”
“Shut up, Jin. You’re a loser, and you know it.” Ueda sticks his tongue out at Jin and the War of the Rice is about to start again except that Kame hastily sweeps the grains off the table and Ryo starts putting bowls of food in front of them.
Ryo catches Ueda’s eye and grins as the four idols sit down and itadakimasu before beginning to eat. “I’m glad it’s not just me that gives him a hard time.”
Ueda takes his first mouthful and immediately makes a noise of appreciation, eyes widening. “This is really good!” he says, before adding more to his bowl. “I could eat this forever.”
“Ryo made that one,” Kame says, tilting his head towards the man sitting opposite him at the table. “He’s really good at cooking. That’s why I got him to help, instead of that one.” He nods at Jin, who sticks his tongue out at Kame before shovelling rice into his mouth.
“Oh,” Ueda says, glancing over at Ryo who is watching him intently across the table. “I like it,” Ueda says, except instead of saying oishikatta he simply says suki1, and Jin drops his chopsticks.
All eyes turn to look at Jin, who is staring at the man opposite him with wide eyes. Ueda blinks owlishly at Jin, and says, “What?”
“You like Ryo?” Jin sounds absurdly hopeful and Ueda feels horribly, horribly awkward.
“I was talking about the food, dumbass,” Ueda replies, as Kame sighs a long-suffering sigh and stands up to go and get another set of chopsticks since Jin’s landed on the floor.
“Oh.” Jin pouts at his rice bowl, and Ueda rolls his eyes and tries not to grin.
He completely misses Ryo looking at him for a fraction longer than would perhaps be considered normal… and then Kame returns with a new set of chopsticks and life resumes once more.
After the meal, Ueda offers to help clear up but Kame shakes his head and says that Jin has a dishwasher, and it won’t take long to load if Jin helps him since he knows what goes where.
“Why don’t you and Ryo-chan go sit in the lounge and pick a movie to watch, or something?” Jin suggests with completely implausible innocence, and Ueda eyes Ryo, who shrugs and heads towards the lounge.
Jin’s movies are mostly imports from America and half of them don’t even have subtitles, so in the end they give up and put on Spirited Away because it’s impossible to go wrong with Ghibli even when you’re a 25-year-old man. Ueda sits down on the sofa, and instead of picking any one of the other chairs in the room, Ryo sits right next to him.
“Better view of the screen from here,” Ryo says by way of excuse, but he doesn’t meet Ueda’s eyes and it’s not like they haven’t both seen this movie at least ten million times already.
“Did you know it was just going to be the four of us tonight?” Ueda asks after a moment, his voice quiet but light, conversational.
Ryo doesn’t respond for a moment, and Ueda begins to wonder if the other man is ignoring him in favour of watching the film but then he catches Ryo’s words: “Yeah, I did.”
“Oh, okay.” Ueda nods, and turns back to watching the television screen, huge and high-definition. “I’m surprised you agreed to come, then.”
“Why?” Ryo isn’t watching the movie but then Ueda isn’t either, the animated characters moving unheeded across the screen several feet away.
Ueda glances at Ryo, and finds the other man watching him intently. “I thought you didn’t like me.”
“I’ve always liked you,” Ryo says quietly, but before he can say anything else Jin and Kame arrive from the kitchen and as Kame sits down on the other sofa, Jin flops across the other cushions and utilises Kame’s lap as a pillow.
“Ooh, I haven’t seen this one in ages!” Jin exclaims, and Ryo and Ueda return their attention to the screen - that is, until Ueda’s cell phone vibrates in his pocket and he flicks it open and sees a message from Ryo.
From: Nishikido Ryo
To: Ueda Tatsuya
Subject: Akanishi’s timing is impeccable, as always
Message: I’ve always liked Ueda Tatsuya. It’s just that, for a long time, YOU didn’t even know who ‘Ueda Tatsuya’ was. I don’t even mean the bad hair or reciting poetry at a piano. It’s much better now that ‘Ueda Tatsuya’ has found where he belongs.
Ueda glances sideways at Ryo, whose expression is carefully neutral as he keeps his gaze on the screen, but his cell phone is open in his hands and the screen is still glowing. Ueda quickly hits ‘reply’ and his thumbs blur over the keys.
From: Ueda Tatsuya
To: Nishikido Ryo
Subject: Sometimes I wonder if his ‘stupidity’ isn’t just a clever illusion to fool us all
Message: You’ve had worse hairstyles than me, Nishikido. But, thank you. Ueda Tatsuya is much happier now, too. Maybe your harsh words back then really made me stronger after all??
Ryo’s phone makes a tiny bip as the message arrives, and Ueda sees his eyes flick down to read his words. A moment later, Ueda’s own phone vibrates and he silently wonders when he reached the point of sending messages back and forth to someone who was sitting so close that he could quite easily reach out and touch him.
From: Nishikido Ryo
To: Ueda Tatsuya
Subject: No, I think he’s just dumb. I am not sure what that says about us, having him as a friend.
Message: Screw you, my hair is always awesome. And yes - the people I like always end up mentally stronger because of me. It’s part of why I am so amazing.
From: Ueda Tatsuya
To: Nishikido Ryo
Subject: We should disown him.
Message: The people you like??
From: Nishikido Ryo
To: Ueda Tatsuya
Subject: Re: We should disown him.
Message: I already told you once. Twice, even. I have always liked Ueda Tatsuya. Don’t make me say it four times in one evening.
“Guys, if you’re going to sit there emailing each other all night, should we just go up to bed now and let you have your conversation in peace?” Kame asks, amusement clearly etched across both his and Jin’s faces. Ueda starts and closes his phone, and Ryo looks vaguely guilty.
“Nyuhhh,” Jin says, making a stretchy, sleep-filled noise. “Kaaaameeeee~”
Kame laughs a little, prodding Jin’s nose. “Come on, you. You’ll be unbearable at work tomorrow if you don’t get your eight hours.”
“Is this you kicking us out now?” Ryo asks, as Kame helps a sleepy Jin to his feet. “Nice, Akanishi, falling asleep on your guests.”
“You can stay if you want,” Kame says, unfazed by Ryo’s words. “The spare bed’s always made up just in case.”
“No,” Ryo shakes his head. “It’s a bitch getting to work from here in the mornings on public transport.”
“You’re still not driving? I thought you’d be back on the road by now,” Ueda says, and Ryo shrugs.
“Yeah, I’m driving again, I just didn’t bring a car tonight. Oh, night guys,” he raises his hand as Jin and Kame head toward Jin’s bedroom, and Ueda nods.
“I can drive you back,” he offers, “and save you having to get the bus again.”
Ryo ducks his head in thanks. “I’d like that.”
They lock the front door with the same key that Ueda used to open it with, and then they shove it through the letterbox for Kame to find in the morning. Ueda’s car isn’t parked too far away, and although it is already dark out the sky is clear and the weather is mild.
“It seems too nice out to be going home already,” Ueda comments, not meaning anything by it, but Ryo looks thoughtful all the same.
“There’s a park near my apartment,” he says after a moment. “There aren’t too many lights so you can see some of the stars. We could go there, if you like.”
Ueda nods, and unlocks the car. “Just give me the directions.”
~
The park is still and quiet, with a light breeze floating through the leaves on the trees overhead as they make their way down the path. There are a few people around; either on their way to or from friends’ houses or parties. Neither Ueda nor Ryo are particularly bothered, and they make their way across the green to a picnic bench that sits atop a small rise.
“When you said ‘suki’ earlier, over dinner,” Ryo says, leaning back and looking up at the faint specks of light in the sky, “did you mean it?”
Ueda looks at Ryo watching the stars. The faint light makes Ryo’s dark hair contrast strongly with his skin, and he looks almost ethereal, much softer than the abrasive young man he used to bicker with in the past.
“Tatsuya?” Ueda realises two things at once: first, he hadn’t answered Ryo’s question quickly enough and Ryo is now staring at him; second: that was the first time Nishikido Ryo had ever used his first name. He realises that likes the way it sounds, likes the way Ryo’s lips form the syllables.
The distance between them is hardly worth mentioning, and it takes Ueda no time at all to lean over and press his lips to Ryo’s, and even less time for Ryo to freeze in shock, and then kiss back. It’s a sweet kiss, full of unspoken affection that leaves Ueda stunned, and when they finally pull away Ryo, too, looks as though he needs to catch his breath.
Ueda grins. “Oishikatta,” he says.1
~fin~
1: While ‘suki’ can mean both ‘I like it’ and ‘I like you’, ‘oishikatta’ means ‘it was delicious’ and is more commonly used in regards to food. [/half-assed Japanese lesson]