Gift Fic for anamuan
Gift Fic for anamuan
by crystallekil
Title: Tri-Angle
Pairing/Groups: AkamePi friendship, RyoPin friendship, KaMeisa, ToMaki, YaMaki
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Ryo, het
Summary: More than anything, Maki wants to keep the tripod from crashing.
Notes: written for anamuan for jerainbowbridge 2009. I hope you like it. ♥ The lyrics to NewS' Cherish are referenced in the first part, the translation of which can be found here.
When Maki meets her first Johnny, it's 2005 and she's sixteen years old. It's also a two-for-one deal, the two most popular of the junior crowd and she's instantly the envy of her Sweet Power sisters.
"Too bad you don't get to kiss one," Meisa says with an evil smirk. "Or both."
Despite only being a few months older, it feels like Meisa is years ahead of Maki when it comes to boys and experience. Even if she knows damn well that Meisa is a virgin too.
Kame and Yamapi are nothing but nice to her, as well as each other, and by the third day of filming Maki is wondering whether it's all for show. They're not friends but they're not enemies, somewhere in between that has Maki's curiosity piqued because she's sixteen and a little nosy when it comes to other people's business.
It doesn't take long for her to find out about Jin, the mysterious third member of the trio that seemed to be inseparable when they were young. The oldest of the three only shows up on set when he's picking up Kame for their group activities; despite Yamapi's group being the one that has already debuted, their filming schedule was pretty much worked around KAT-TUN's.
To be honest, Maki didn't even know that Yamapi was in a boyband until she saw him on the cover of a CD at the store. The next day she asked him about it and he grunted in affirmation, then nothing else was said until later in the week when he handed her a copy of the single signed by all the members.
It was the first time she had listened to the song, and the emotions that she hears in the words are the same emotions she feels when she sees Yamapi watching Kame leave with Jin.
At sixteen she's not too sure what it means, but it's enough to weigh on her mind until she decides to get involved. Because the one thing she does understand is that at this moment in time, Yamapi can't stand to lose either of them.
~*~*~*~
It comes as no surprise that she's paired with Yamapi again the next year, even if Meisa is once again disappointed that there is no romance between them. Yamapi is easy to work with, a professional who is also very down-to-earth and caring about the people around him.
She asks him about Jin and Kame and gets a big smile; KAT-TUN had finally debuted and Yamapi couldn't be happier. Jin had been a little bitter about the whole Shuuji to Akira thing, which Yamapi felt partially responsible for as he was half of the temporary unit, but only because KAT-TUN had been waiting so long to debut and now that they have, it's like nothing ever happened between them.
She assumes it's because they've worked together before that Yamapi is comfortable opening up to her like this. He tells her about his mother and his younger sister Rina, who is Maki's age, his dogs and his classes at Meiji. He's the exact opposite of his character, who brushes off Maki's annoying questions and keeps trying to push her out of his life.
Off-set, Maki feels like she's being pulled in. She relays the news to Meisa, who nearly chokes on her lunch as she looks at Maki like she's grown an additional head.
"You really don't know?" Meisa says incredulously, and Maki knows her well enough to know that she's not just being facetious this time. "His group was sent on hiatus last month. Like the day before you two started filming."
Maki doesn't know what to say to that, so she doesn't say anything. Even to Yamapi when she returns to work. She had been so focused on her growing friendship with Yamapi that she hadn't considered the thought that it was because he had no one else to talk to. With KAT-TUN busy with debut activities and NewS on hiatus, that leaves Yamapi with his family, his classmates, and... her.
She wants to help him, but she doesn't think filling such a huge void in his life is the right way to go about it, despite Meisa's conniving techniques. True, Meisa has had more boyfriends than her (enough for their whole company, Maki would imagine), but that's not what she wants from Yamapi, not what she could accept from him while he's so lost.
For the first time in a year, Maki utilizes a phone number that had been given to her 'if she ever needed anything'. As one of the youngest of his generation of Johnnys, Kame had relished the opportunity to play big brother to someone and thus became very protective of Maki near the end of filming. At the time Maki thought it was cute and indulged him, partially because of the way it made Yamapi smile to see Kame so dedicated.
It occurs to her as the other end of the line rings that Yamapi's smile has become a giant motivator in her life. But that's as far as she gets in her self-revelation before her call is answered.
"I need your help," Maki says, and her emotions must show in her voice because she immediately hears Kame beg the choreographer for a break.
That day both Jin and Kame show up to surprise Yamapi, whose face lights up like the dawn, and he does the rest of his scenes perfectly so that they can leave sooner. It's fascinating to Maki how he can act so dark and irritable when he's practically exploding with rainbows of happiness inside; in one of the scenes that she's not in, she notices Jin furrowing his brow in worry while Kame just watches intently.
While Yamapi is changing, Maki approaches the other two and bows her head a little. "Thank you so much for coming. I know you're busy."
"I didn't realize it had been so long," Kame admits, looking embarrassed as he scratches his head. "I haven't seen him since before the debut, actually."
"I've seen him since then," Jin says darkly, and Maki knows that it had to do with NewS' hiatus. "But I couldn't stay very long. He understands that priorities are skewed in this business, Horikita-san."
"Even so," Maki pushes, with a passing thought as to whether she's still in her character's mindset or not. "It doesn't take that long to send off a mail, even something simple and unimportant just to tell him that he still exists in your lives."
Jin and Kame both blink, then burst out into laughter. Kame immediately puts an arm around her shoulders and squeezes. "You haven't changed a bit, Maki-chan. Please take care of Yamapi for us, okay?"
She nods firmly and looks up to see Jin staring at her. He's the only one she hasn't really interacted with, just heard a lot about from the other two, and she's never actually gotten a strange vibe about him until now.
"You come on a little strongly," he tells her, "but you're good for him. Don't let him go."
She tilts her head in confusion, but now Kame is shoving at Jin, playfully while Jin's face remains stone serious. "They're not like that, Jin. She's seventeen."
It's at that moment that Yamapi returns in his street clothes, pats Maki on the back, and thanks her for her good work today. "You want to come with us?" he asks, so casually that it doesn't actually occur to her that she's been invited until she sees Jin's face fall.
"Oh I can't, I have plans with Meisa," she half-lies. She really could have plans with Meisa. Meisa is quite spontaneous. "But thank you anyway!"
"Next time, then," Yamapi says, flashing a promising smile before leading the other two away.
Maki stands still for a little while longer, wearing her character's clothes and unsure as to whether she was just asked out or not.
~*~*~*~
"I missed your birthday, didn't I?" Yamapi's voice travels through the phone, sounding much deeper than in person. "Congratulations, even if it's late."
"It's okay," Maki replies, balancing her cell on her shoulder as she struggles to push the cart behind Meisa's whirlwind pace. "It's not really a big deal to be eighteen."
"You're an adult in America," Yamapi tells her, offering a kind of hysterical chuckle that's mixed with a sob.
Maki stops the cart with a screech. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
In the next aisle, Meisa pauses and turns to give her a worried look.
"Jin left today," Yamapi says, a deadpan tone that commands all of Maki's attention. "He moved to America to study."
"He moved moved?" Maki almost screams, and Meisa abandons the toilet seat cover in her hand to race to her friend and offer a comforting pat to the shoulder. "Is he coming back?"
Yamapi doesn't answer right away, and when he does it's all air. "They don't know."
"Where are you?" Maki demands. She raises apologetic eyes to Meisa's and receives a nod in return.
"Home," he says. "Alone. My mother is at work and my sister is out with her friends. Ryo's touring. Toma's filming."
"What about Kame?" Maki asks carefully.
Yamapi sighs "He's stuck in meetings to restructure their group." He pauses. "Are you busy? I'm so sorry to bother you."
"No, it's okay," Maki says dismissively. "Meisa and I are just out shopping for things for our new apartment. We became roommates last weekend."
"Ah, congratulations!" Yamapi tells her, sounding like he's desperate for the good news. "Nobuko has grown up right before my eyes!"
"Thanks to Akira-kun," Maki replies, putting the extra emphasis on his name and smiling wide even though he can't see it.
Meisa rolls her eyes, but she's grinning. "Ask him to join us!" she yells loud enough for Yamapi to hear through the phone, then adds more quietly, "I'd love to meet this guy who has turned my best friend into such a girl."
Maki slaps at her, but it's half-hearted. "Do you-?" she starts.
"Tell me what store you're at and I'll meet you there," Yamapi interrupts quickly. "I have a car, so buy as much as you want."
Despite Meisa's teasing and the way Maki's heart flops at the sudden quasi-date, Maki tries to keep her head straight and focus on building a friendship with Yamapi, nothing more.
She refuses to be a replacement for Jin.
~*~*~*~
The past two years of Meisa's taunting and friendly ridicule are made up for in the second it takes Kame to walk through their threshold and look at her.
She does a good job at covering up the way her breath hitches in her throat, but Maki knows her well enough to recognize the hesitation.
Over Kame's head, Yamapi's face is mirroring Maki's feeling of triumph, and she wonders if they've managed to team up without knowing it.
Jin's been gone for two months, one week, and a day, but clearly Meisa doesn't have any qualms about being a stand-in.
"We're just friends," she insists over breakfast, keeping a straight face even when Kame strides out of the shower in a towel.
Maki just sighs and eats her cereal. At least Meisa's weekly 'friendship' keeps her out of Maki's business for a little while.
~*~*~*~
NewS is reinstated on New Year's Eve and for the first time since they were old enough to go out, Maki and Meisa stay at home in their pajamas with a bowl of popcorn. Meisa counts how many times she can hit Kame in the nose with the fluffy kernels while Maki waits patiently for the cryptic 'big news' that Yamapi had mailed her about earlier in the week.
When it happens, she almost cries. The reformed six-member NewS, led by Yamapi, take the stage for the first time in months, singing about aiming for the top and looking a lot more grown up than they had before.
It almost overshadows the fact that KAT-TUN is missing their A.
"Way to go, Leader!" Maki mails him, smiling in hopes that somehow Jin will be able to watch this, to see the happiness shining through the television screen from Yamapi's face.
Regardless of whether Jin had anything to do with the gloom it displayed before.
~*~*~*~
It's not Maki's proudest moment, but Meisa is all-too-willing to comply and manages to get Jin's email address from Kame by means that Maki never wants to know about, ever.
"Thought you might want to see this," Maki types, adding a winking emoticon before linking to a download of Countdown.
She gets a response almost right away: "I knew before you did, brat." A matching wink shows that he's joking. "But it's nice to see that my group can't live without me."
Maki frowns at her computer screen and considers flying out to L.A. to strangle him on Kame's behalf. "Maybe you should come back, then. If not for your group, then for Yamapi."
A few days pass and Maki figures that he's not going to reply. She doesn't blame him, because that was kind of a low blow on her part, but even though Yamapi's been busy with NewS it still seems like something is missing from his life. Something big and Jin-shaped.
After the past couple years of observing Yamapi, the main thing she's learned is that he has a big heart with a lot of people in it. It's big enough that no matter how much it's split, he's still affected when a piece of any size is gone.
And when Jin returns in all of his glory and Yamapi's heart is whole again, Maki finally allows herself to yearn for a piece of it herself.
~*~*~*~
Ikuta Toma feels like he should have come with a warning. For someone who is still technically a junior, he has a very positive and outgoing personality and seems to lift the spirits of everyone around him.
Maki doesn't even realize that she's said yes to a date until Toma's grinning and patting her on the head. "Let's work well together, Maki-chan!"
Later, Yamapi laughs hysterically into the phone and Maki has to threaten to hang up before he can compose himself long enough to speak. "Toma is a little overbearing at first," he finally says. "A lot like a puppy seeking approval. Once you like him, he'll calm down."
"I can't imagine how anyone can be sad around him," Maki assesses out loud, still a little dazed from the first day on her new (crazy) drama set. "It's like he shoots rainbows from his eyes."
"Something like that," Yamapi replies. "He's definitely kept me leveled through a lot of rough times."
Maki smiles at the thought, then almost drops the phone when it occurs to her what exactly she's doing. "I'm going on a date with him," she says, more to herself than to Yamapi.
"I'm so happy for you!" Yamapi says, and Maki can tell it's genuine. "He's a great catch. I can't think of anyone else whom I would approve of for you."
His words make her happy and sad at the same time. Yamapi hasn't really displayed the same kind of big-brother protectiveness that Kame has until now, but then again she hasn't really thought about dating anyone (other than him).
"Have you seen Kame and Akanishi-kun lately?" she asks suddenly.
"Hmm?" It takes Yamapi a second to catch up. "Oh, Jin and I hung out last weekend after my drama ended. Ryo-chan was there too. Do you know him?"
"Not personally," Maki replies, trying to picture him and only remembering the lack of height. "But I hear he's really fun to work with."
"He is," Yamapi agrees. "So is Yuu-kun, as you will soon find out."
"Yuu-kun?" Maki inquires.
Yamapi chuckles. "Shirota Yuu. My best friend. He plays the rival, I think."
Maki feels like hitting herself in the head. More and more people who are special to Yamapi. It makes her feel like there's no point in trying to compete.
"I look forward to it," Maki says lightly. "Who knows, maybe he'll ask me out too."
Yamapi's laughter stops abruptly. "You do not want to go out with him. He's a total playboy."
Giggles take over Maki, and Yamapi seems to relax once he hears that she's joking. She supposes that she's okay with being the little sister in their relationship after all, especially since he seems to be happy with all of his friends.
As she gears up for her date with Toma, she tries her best to push Yamapi out of the forefront of her mind.
~*~*~*~
It's obvious before they even kiss - on or off-screen - that Toma and Maki are better off just being friends. They spend a good deal of their dates talking about Yamapi, and Maki learns that Toma cares about him just as much as she does, if not more.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bitter," he says with a shrug and a smile, looking like the least bitter person on earth, "but at the end of the day it's just work, you know? It doesn't matter who is in what group with whom as long as everyone gets along and enjoys what they're doing."
Maki nods to that, seeing his point. "But wouldn't it be even better to work with your close friends?"
Toma actually laughs. "You'd think so, but in practice it's not such a great idea. Yamapi and I kind of butted heads when we were in the same group, and it wasn't until he debuted with NewS that we actually became friends. Not to mention Jin and Kame."
"What about them?" Maki asks quickly, her full attention on Toma's face.
The flinch in his eyes doesn't go unnoticed. "I'm not the best person to ask about this, Maki-chan. All I know is that they had a falling out and don't get together after work anymore. And I only know that because Yamapi told me."
"Yamapi told you?" Maki echoes, her heart dropping in her chest.
Toma shrugs. "It's not my business, and it's not yours either."
"Of course not," Maki says, then words her question carefully. "They were okay up until Akanishi-kun went to America, weren't they?"
It's obvious that Toma sees right through her. "Maki-chan, I'm pretty sure that's why Jin went to America."
Maki pauses for a second, then smiles because despite her apprehension, it's nice to feel needed again.
~*~*~*~
Dramas come and go and Maki is grateful for some off time, if only so that she can concentrate on poking her nose where it doesn't belong. Jin and Kame's relationship has nothing to do with Yamapi, she keeps telling herself, but then she argues that all sides of the triangle have to be intact in order for it to balance properly.
"Are you still dating Kame?" she asks Meisa one morning.
Meisa snorts. "We weren't dating."
"Sleeping with, whatever," Maki tries again.
"It's funny you ask now," Meisa says with a chuckle, "because I just accepted a role opposite him."
Maki laughs. "That is funny. So the answer is yes then?"
"I suppose we will be friends again," Meisa says coolly. "I assume you need something from him?"
"Just, um..." Maki searches for the right words. "Is he well?"
"Well?" Meisa scoffs. "He stopped calling me when Akanishi came back. I would not know how he is." She peers at Maki over her cup. "Don't you have his number?"
Maki looks down and toes the carpet. "Yeah, but..."
A sigh brings her attention back up, just in time to see Meisa roll her eyes. "Fine, I'll see what I can do."
Grinning, Maki hugs her around the neck. "You're the bestest friend ever." Then she thinks of what Toma said, and adds, "Hey, do you think we would still get along if we ever had to work together?"
"I think a drama would be okay," Meisa replies seriously, "but anymore than that and we'd probably get sick of each other. Since we live together and all."
It makes sense, and Maki goes to bed wondering if KAT-TUN had even been formed for a year before Jin and Kame's friendship started to fall apart from it.
~*~*~*~
"This is the best role I've ever had," Kame greets her at the restaurant, all smiles and surrounded by plates of food. "I've never had to gain weight before."
"You look good," Maki replies, trying not to cringe when she recalls how thin he was when she met him. "Meisa is looking forward to working with you."
"And I, her," Kame says with a bit of a smirk. "It will be fun to drive her crazy and get paid for it."
Maki rushes to change the topic. "So it's been great having Akanishi-kun back, hasn't it?"
Kame is an exceptional actor for his age, experienced in any and all situations and even in his personal life. So when his smile seems to twitch at the mention of Jin's name, Maki knows that whatever this is, it's a big deal.
"You're not friends anymore, are you?" she asks bluntly, folding her arms in disapproval.
"People grow up," is Kame's answer. If it wasn't for the regret in his eyes, Maki would think it was rehearsed. "Neither Jin nor I are the same people we were two years ago. Our goals are different now. We don't really have anything in common anymore other than the group, and even that's debatable."
"What do you mean?" Maki presses.
Kame sighs. "Look, I know what you are trying to do, but you picked the wrong person to start with. I wasn't the one who just up and left."
"But he came back," Maki says, recalling their email exchange. "Doesn't that mean anything?"
Kame's lips form a straight line. "He didn't come back for me."
Maki catches his wrist just before he moves to stand up. "And Yamapi?"
Inhaling sharply, Kame appears like he's contemplating jerking out of her grasp and storming out of the restaurant. "He doesn't seem to notice that I'm not around."
Then he really does snatch his arm away and leave, but not after throwing down enough money to cover them both and offering Maki an apologetic look. It's not about her, she knows - the triangle seems to have broken apart without her or Yamapi's knowledge.
~*~*~*~
"I feel like we're playing matchmaker," Meisa hisses from behind her glass - fruit juice, because despite her grown-up attire she's still underage. "I'm starting to think you have a fetish for boy-love."
Maki nearly chokes on her own juice. "What? Meisa!"
Her roommate's laughter just makes her face redder. "Are we not here to set them up against their will?"
"Not 'set them up'," Maki argues, hands on her hips. "Just get them to be friends again."
"Yamapi and Kame," Meisa clarifies.
"Not just those two," Maki corrects. "All three of them."
"Hot," Meisa comments with a wink, and Maki resists the urge to toss her drink in her face. "Stop looking like you want to strangle me - here they come."
It's a credit to how long Jin and Kame have worked together that they show up at the same time, exactly ten minutes late and similarly dressed. Yamapi trails in behind Jin, sees Kame as well as the girls, and looks like he just walked into another dimension.
Surprisingly, Jin is the only one whose face remains emotionless. Ignoring Kame's glare, he takes a seat in the middle across from Maki and Meisa and looks at each of them in turn. "Where's the girl for me?"
"This isn't a group date, idiot," Kame says as he sits down. Two years ago it would have been affectionate; now the name stings. "Hi, Meisa-chan."
"Hi," Meisa replies flirtatiously, and Maki cringes at the thought of what she's doing under the table.
Jin shrugs and picks up the menu. "I'm only staying because I'm hungry and Pi is paying."
"Fair enough," Kame says. He doesn't have to state why he's staying with the way he looks at Meisa.
Maki makes the mistake of glancing at Yamapi, whose disapproving frown darkens her life. "Since when are you two so short with each other?" he asks in honest surprise.
"Since you're so oblivious," Kame mutters. "I haven't even spoken to you since Countdown."
"I've been busy," Yamapi replies, the sadness evident in his voice. "You've been busy too! Kame-chan-"
"Don't call me that," Kame says darkly.
Jin's menu smacks the table. "Don't talk to him like that."
Yamapi looks like he's torn between crying and hitting something. "Jin..."
"Waiter!" Meisa suddenly yells, earning four sets of eyes on her. There's silence at the table as Meisa orders a round of shots for the guys.
"What are you doing?" Maki whispers frantically while Kame and Yamapi show their IDs.
"Your method didn't work," Meisa says briskly. "Now we're going to try mine."
"Getting them drunk is a method?" Maki exclaims in a hushed voice.
Meisa leans forward, showing a lot of cleavage, and folds her hands on the table. "Do any of you object to me buying you a few rounds?"
"Not at all," Kame says with a promising smirk.
"Absolutely not," replies Jin. "Free liquor is free."
Yamapi looks helplessly at Maki, who shrugs. "Thank you, Meisa-chan."
"It's nothing," Meisa says cutely, then pretends to fix her hair while hissing to Maki, "See? Now they're getting drunk on their own."
Maki feels a little like banging her head on the table. But she can't deny that with each drink the tension at the table lightens, and by the time their food arrives Kame is smiling and nudging Jin as the three of them talk about their junior days and how Yamapi was smaller than everyone.
"Now he's bigger than us all," Jin says with a tipsy grin. "Especially in the chest area."
Yamapi punches him playfully, sending him right into Kame who pushes him back into Yamapi. They continue swinging Jin like a pendulum until he finally grabs onto the table to steady himself, red-faced and laughing.
Maki's so invested in watching them that she jumps when she feels Meisa's head plop onto her shoulder. "I see what you mean," her roommate says, not even bothering to lower her voice with the loud, boisterous volume of their companions. "They're happier together."
"This is how it should be," Maki says firmly, smiling hard as Jin tries to shield his collarbone from two sets of poking fingers. "The three of them, carrying their burdens together."
Meisa is quiet for a second, then says, "You know this will only last until morning, right?"
"Baby steps," Maki replies as she finally takes a bite of her dinner that has gotten cold while she was observing. "We have a lot of work to do."
"We?" Meisa protests.
Maki shrugs her shoulder to push Meisa's head back up. "Don't you want Kame to be happy?"
Meisa appears to be considering this, at the same time that the good-natured teasing turns to Kame. Jin and Yamapi argue over who was more protective of Kame when they were younger, and Kame looks amused as they compare stories that may or may not actually be true about saving little, helpless Kame from the evil senpai.
She doesn't have to answer anymore when Maki turns to look at her and she only has eyes for her ex-costar.
That will probably only last until morning too.
~*~*~*~
Summer comes and goes, and it isn't until the DVD is delivered to her door that Maki learns that she's not the only one trying to save the golden trio.
"I thought you would be happy to see this," the accompanying note says in Yamapi's distinctive scrawl. "Hope it makes up for missing your birthday again. Don't be such a stranger. - Tomohisa."
Maki watches the entire concert, a little confused as to why Yamapi would be sending her a KAT-TUN DVD until she gets to the MC part. Her squeal is loud enough to rouse Meisa from a nap, but the latter can't be angry when Maki backs up the disc and together they watch Kame and Yamapi interact on stage, teasing each other about dialect while Jin stands off to the side, clearly shocked by their surprise guest.
"Looks like they managed to set up the tripod without you," Meisa comments, and Maki can't bring herself to retort properly.
She's too busy trying not to cry.
~*~*~*~
It's an unimportant day, too cool to be summer but too warm to be spring, and Maki checks her email while she waits for Meisa to get ready for their shopping trip.
Aside from the usual mailing list spam and forwards, there's a message from an address she hasn't seen in a couple years. Instantly she opens it, eyes trained to the screen and taking in every word.
"Maki-chan, I'm not sure if you even care anymore, but I want to thank you for your efforts back then. Up until recently I just thought you were bothersome, then this morning Yamapi sat in on our Cartoon KAT-TUN filming and some passerby made a nasty comment about Kame bringing down Kimura-kun's ratings. I didn't do anything rash, mostly because Ueda had a good hold of the back of my shirt, but I did have a few things to say once he was out of earshot - even if that guy was joking, it's only okay when we say things like that, you know?
"Anyway, I've never seen Yamapi happier, nor Kame so grateful, and that's when I remembered your interference. Yamapi is my best friend and at one time Kame was too. It's been a long time and a lot has happened, but you're right - we're the strongest together, the three of us, and I wanted you to know that your devious plotting has worked. Congratulations.
"Now call Yamapi so he will stop whining about you ignoring him, or Kame and I will have to run an interference of our own and you will regret ever reuniting us. - Jin."
Maki struggles to focus through her misty eyes on her cell phone, and for once she makes Meisa wait for her.
~*~*~*~
"Isn't this a little extreme?" Kame asks, raising a perfectly shaped eyebrow at Maki as she walks through his door.
"I'm not taking any chances," Maki replies, her voice muffled by the surgeon's mask. She's also wearing latex gloves with all of her hair under a shower cap. And an apron.
"I'm not sick!" Kame insists. "And even if I was, an apron isn't going to keep my germs away."
"The apron is for cooking," Maki explains, placing the grocery bags on Kame's counter. "Being from a family of all men, I doubt you know how to make antibiotic stew."
"Antibiotic stew?" Kame repeats skeptically.
She shoves him out of the way and gets to work. "You can make the rice. How many are there?"
"Three now," Kame replies, and Maki knows that she's only getting away with this because Kame is so worried about his friends. "Yamapi got it last night."
"Oh no," Maki says, concentrating even harder to get everything just right. "I wonder why you were spared."
Kame laughs. "Someone has to take care of them."
"I thought that was my job?" Maki jokes.
"You couldn't handle all of us," Kame replies. "And Ryo would eat you alive."
"Not if I feed him," Maki points out. "I hear Osakans are easy to win over that way."
Kame's smirking when she turns to check on the rice. "You're sneaky, Maki-chan."
They finish cooking in silence, and together they haul a large pot to Jin's apartment, which has been dubbed Quarantine Headquarters. Despite his initial mocking, Kame is more covered up than a Hazmat worker as they let themselves in to find three miserable idols congregating on Jin's couch, sharing a pile of blankets and an economy-sized box of tissues.
Yamapi's red eyes go wide when he sees her, but he only has enough energy to hide part of his face in Jin's shoulder while Jin barely raises his head in greeting. Ryo glares, but Maki doesn't take it personally because Ryo glares at everyone.
"I hate you for having an infallible immune system," Ryo says to Kame.
Maki feels a little proud when Kame responds by shoving a bowl of steaming stew in Ryo's face. Ryo looks a bit cynical but accepts it, cautiously taking a bite and looking incredulously at Kame. "You made this?"
"Maki-chan made it," Kame announces grandly, like mixing broth, vegetables, and rice in a pot was something to be revered for.
"It's good," Yamapi says, smiling weakly. "Thank you for thinking of us."
Jin just shovels spoonful after spoonful in his mouth, so Maki takes that as a good sign.
When she looks back at Ryo, he's staring at her like he's studying her carefully. "All right, Pi. I approve."
Then Yamapi's choking on his stew and Maki rushes to the couch, standing behind him and trying to push his shoulders forward in order to give him a good hit on the back.
"I'm okay, I'm okay!" Yamapi says through his coughs, his face growing as red as his nose as he struggles to hold onto his bowl.
"Forceful too," Ryo comments. "I really approve."
Jin wrinkles his nose. "Only you can still be perverted with the flu."
Underneath all of his protective gear, Kame looks highly amused. His sigh is almost disappointed as he gently pulls Maki away and surveys his three sick friends. "We'll leave this here for you. Do you need anything before we leave?"
Yamapi is the first to shake his head. "Thank you both." His grateful, puffy eyes look at both Maki and Kame, and Maki's pretty sure she sees a blush on Kame's face.
"I need a lot of things," Ryo grumbles, and Jin kicks him under the blanket.
"We don't need anything," Jin says pointedly.
"Be sure to drink a lot of water," Maki says, then runs into Jin's kitchen to fill up a pitcher and hunt for three clean glasses.
When she returns, Kame is staring down Jin. "I want my pot back, Akanishi."
"Yeah, yeah," Jin replies. "It'll go with the rest of your shit that you leave over here and never take home."
"Why don't you take them now?" Maki wonders out loud.
Kame smirks and reaches behind her to ruffle Jin's hair. "I need a reason to come over and bug him."
"Stupid," Jin snorts, batting Kame away. "You don't need a reason."
Ryo makes mock-gagging noises and Jin kicks him again.
"Take care," Maki tells them all, but her eyes are on Yamapi.
On the way back to Kame's place, the only sounds are the soft lull of the radio and their comfortable silence until Kame says, without preamble, "thank you."
He doesn't have to elaborate.
~*~*~*~
Maki wakes up on October sixth to the smell of delicious breakfast, a smile growing on her face at the thought of Meisa cooking her a birthday meal. Without opening her eyes, she rolls out of bed and into her robe, shuffling down the hallway and bumping into the walls as the sound of something frying grows louder.
"Smells good," she mumbles as she leans purposefully against the refrigerator. "Thanks, Mei."
"You're welcome," she replies, but her voice is coming from the living room.
Slowly Maki forces her eyelids open to see Yamapi standing at her stove, the corners of his eyes crinkling with the force of trying to remain quiet.
Now wide awake, Maki covers her face and tries to pat down her hair at the same time. "Kuroki Meisa, you are an evil heathen."
"It was his idea," Meisa replies smoothly, sounding not at all disturbed by the name-calling. "Something about getting even."
When she turns back to Yamapi, he's pointing at her with a spatula. "You've seen me at my worst. I'm just returning the favor." He pauses. "Although you don't look bad at all."
She starts to hide her face again, this time for a different reason, but then she sees a tinge of red cross Yamapi's cheeks. Biting back the urge to comment on his embarrassment, she busies herself with pouring juice and thankfully Yamapi is finished cooking by that time.
After they're done eating she's practically shoved into her closet by Meisa, dressed and made up within record time, and they're in Yamapi's car heading into the city before Maki's mind stops spinning.
"Where are we going?" she asks, staring out the passenger window at the morning sun, the promise of a beautiful autumn day.
"Surprise," Yamapi says, and for once Meisa keeps her mouth shut.
Maki should have really expected it, especially with Meisa's secretiveness, but it still comes as a shock when they pull up to the amusement park to find Kame and Jin waiting for them.
"Isn't this a bit unfair to Akanishi-kun?" Maki whispers to Yamapi as they walk towards the front gates and Meisa shares a sly hello with Kame.
"He prefers to be the fifth wheel," Yamapi replies. "He claims it gives him the opportunity to sit next to hot, single girls on the rides."
Maki keeps her comments to herself, but she must have an interesting look on her face because Yamapi laughs out loud when he looks at her. It makes her heart soar, along with the way Jin slings his arms over both Kame and Yamapi's shoulders to walk in the middle, refusing to be ignored in favor of a couple of girls.
By the time lunch rolls around, she catches Kame and Meisa holding hands and raises an eyebrow at her roommate, who shrugs and offers Kame a bite of her dessert. Even four years later, Maki still feels worlds behind her in terms of boys and experience, but with Yamapi at her side she feels like she stands a chance at catching up.
The last ride of the day is not the clichéd ferris wheel but a very tame roller coaster, and all through the line Jin is confident that he'll share a seat with the long-haired professional-looking woman standing behind them. Maki is pretty sure that the woman can hear this but doesn't feel the need to voice it, and she's buckling her belt and Yamapi's when she notices him with such a joyful look in his eyes that she has to spin around immediately.
Jin's sitting next to not the professional-looking woman but her daughter, a little girl who is barely tall enough to be on this ride who looks up at Jin with starry eyes and a big, toothless grin. At first Maki thinks that Yamapi is looking at the child until she sees Jin, who is almost glowing as he looks down at his seatmate with pure adoration.
"He seems to have skipped an important step, hasn't he?" Kame whispers, and Maki turns her head back around to see the youngest of the three men just smiling and shaking his head at his bandmate.
"I don't know about that," Meisa chimes in, pointing discreetly until Maki sees the way the girl's mother seems to be sizing Jin up from the seat behind them.
Her attention is called back to Yamapi in the form of him grabbing her hand as the coaster starts to jerk to a start. She looks at him in confusion, seeing a hint of hurt on his face.
"Can you focus on me now?" he asks quietly, followed by a hopeful smile.
She bites her lip to keep from grinning too hard and nods firmly. With Kame in front and Jin right behind, Yamapi's heart is whole again and she can finally claim a piece of it for herself.
It's the perfect reward for all of her hard work.
The End.
by crystallekil
Title: Tri-Angle
Pairing/Groups: AkamePi friendship, RyoPin friendship, KaMeisa, ToMaki, YaMaki
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Ryo, het
Summary: More than anything, Maki wants to keep the tripod from crashing.
Notes: written for anamuan for jerainbowbridge 2009. I hope you like it. ♥ The lyrics to NewS' Cherish are referenced in the first part, the translation of which can be found here.
When Maki meets her first Johnny, it's 2005 and she's sixteen years old. It's also a two-for-one deal, the two most popular of the junior crowd and she's instantly the envy of her Sweet Power sisters.
"Too bad you don't get to kiss one," Meisa says with an evil smirk. "Or both."
Despite only being a few months older, it feels like Meisa is years ahead of Maki when it comes to boys and experience. Even if she knows damn well that Meisa is a virgin too.
Kame and Yamapi are nothing but nice to her, as well as each other, and by the third day of filming Maki is wondering whether it's all for show. They're not friends but they're not enemies, somewhere in between that has Maki's curiosity piqued because she's sixteen and a little nosy when it comes to other people's business.
It doesn't take long for her to find out about Jin, the mysterious third member of the trio that seemed to be inseparable when they were young. The oldest of the three only shows up on set when he's picking up Kame for their group activities; despite Yamapi's group being the one that has already debuted, their filming schedule was pretty much worked around KAT-TUN's.
To be honest, Maki didn't even know that Yamapi was in a boyband until she saw him on the cover of a CD at the store. The next day she asked him about it and he grunted in affirmation, then nothing else was said until later in the week when he handed her a copy of the single signed by all the members.
It was the first time she had listened to the song, and the emotions that she hears in the words are the same emotions she feels when she sees Yamapi watching Kame leave with Jin.
At sixteen she's not too sure what it means, but it's enough to weigh on her mind until she decides to get involved. Because the one thing she does understand is that at this moment in time, Yamapi can't stand to lose either of them.
~*~*~*~
It comes as no surprise that she's paired with Yamapi again the next year, even if Meisa is once again disappointed that there is no romance between them. Yamapi is easy to work with, a professional who is also very down-to-earth and caring about the people around him.
She asks him about Jin and Kame and gets a big smile; KAT-TUN had finally debuted and Yamapi couldn't be happier. Jin had been a little bitter about the whole Shuuji to Akira thing, which Yamapi felt partially responsible for as he was half of the temporary unit, but only because KAT-TUN had been waiting so long to debut and now that they have, it's like nothing ever happened between them.
She assumes it's because they've worked together before that Yamapi is comfortable opening up to her like this. He tells her about his mother and his younger sister Rina, who is Maki's age, his dogs and his classes at Meiji. He's the exact opposite of his character, who brushes off Maki's annoying questions and keeps trying to push her out of his life.
Off-set, Maki feels like she's being pulled in. She relays the news to Meisa, who nearly chokes on her lunch as she looks at Maki like she's grown an additional head.
"You really don't know?" Meisa says incredulously, and Maki knows her well enough to know that she's not just being facetious this time. "His group was sent on hiatus last month. Like the day before you two started filming."
Maki doesn't know what to say to that, so she doesn't say anything. Even to Yamapi when she returns to work. She had been so focused on her growing friendship with Yamapi that she hadn't considered the thought that it was because he had no one else to talk to. With KAT-TUN busy with debut activities and NewS on hiatus, that leaves Yamapi with his family, his classmates, and... her.
She wants to help him, but she doesn't think filling such a huge void in his life is the right way to go about it, despite Meisa's conniving techniques. True, Meisa has had more boyfriends than her (enough for their whole company, Maki would imagine), but that's not what she wants from Yamapi, not what she could accept from him while he's so lost.
For the first time in a year, Maki utilizes a phone number that had been given to her 'if she ever needed anything'. As one of the youngest of his generation of Johnnys, Kame had relished the opportunity to play big brother to someone and thus became very protective of Maki near the end of filming. At the time Maki thought it was cute and indulged him, partially because of the way it made Yamapi smile to see Kame so dedicated.
It occurs to her as the other end of the line rings that Yamapi's smile has become a giant motivator in her life. But that's as far as she gets in her self-revelation before her call is answered.
"I need your help," Maki says, and her emotions must show in her voice because she immediately hears Kame beg the choreographer for a break.
That day both Jin and Kame show up to surprise Yamapi, whose face lights up like the dawn, and he does the rest of his scenes perfectly so that they can leave sooner. It's fascinating to Maki how he can act so dark and irritable when he's practically exploding with rainbows of happiness inside; in one of the scenes that she's not in, she notices Jin furrowing his brow in worry while Kame just watches intently.
While Yamapi is changing, Maki approaches the other two and bows her head a little. "Thank you so much for coming. I know you're busy."
"I didn't realize it had been so long," Kame admits, looking embarrassed as he scratches his head. "I haven't seen him since before the debut, actually."
"I've seen him since then," Jin says darkly, and Maki knows that it had to do with NewS' hiatus. "But I couldn't stay very long. He understands that priorities are skewed in this business, Horikita-san."
"Even so," Maki pushes, with a passing thought as to whether she's still in her character's mindset or not. "It doesn't take that long to send off a mail, even something simple and unimportant just to tell him that he still exists in your lives."
Jin and Kame both blink, then burst out into laughter. Kame immediately puts an arm around her shoulders and squeezes. "You haven't changed a bit, Maki-chan. Please take care of Yamapi for us, okay?"
She nods firmly and looks up to see Jin staring at her. He's the only one she hasn't really interacted with, just heard a lot about from the other two, and she's never actually gotten a strange vibe about him until now.
"You come on a little strongly," he tells her, "but you're good for him. Don't let him go."
She tilts her head in confusion, but now Kame is shoving at Jin, playfully while Jin's face remains stone serious. "They're not like that, Jin. She's seventeen."
It's at that moment that Yamapi returns in his street clothes, pats Maki on the back, and thanks her for her good work today. "You want to come with us?" he asks, so casually that it doesn't actually occur to her that she's been invited until she sees Jin's face fall.
"Oh I can't, I have plans with Meisa," she half-lies. She really could have plans with Meisa. Meisa is quite spontaneous. "But thank you anyway!"
"Next time, then," Yamapi says, flashing a promising smile before leading the other two away.
Maki stands still for a little while longer, wearing her character's clothes and unsure as to whether she was just asked out or not.
~*~*~*~
"I missed your birthday, didn't I?" Yamapi's voice travels through the phone, sounding much deeper than in person. "Congratulations, even if it's late."
"It's okay," Maki replies, balancing her cell on her shoulder as she struggles to push the cart behind Meisa's whirlwind pace. "It's not really a big deal to be eighteen."
"You're an adult in America," Yamapi tells her, offering a kind of hysterical chuckle that's mixed with a sob.
Maki stops the cart with a screech. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
In the next aisle, Meisa pauses and turns to give her a worried look.
"Jin left today," Yamapi says, a deadpan tone that commands all of Maki's attention. "He moved to America to study."
"He moved moved?" Maki almost screams, and Meisa abandons the toilet seat cover in her hand to race to her friend and offer a comforting pat to the shoulder. "Is he coming back?"
Yamapi doesn't answer right away, and when he does it's all air. "They don't know."
"Where are you?" Maki demands. She raises apologetic eyes to Meisa's and receives a nod in return.
"Home," he says. "Alone. My mother is at work and my sister is out with her friends. Ryo's touring. Toma's filming."
"What about Kame?" Maki asks carefully.
Yamapi sighs "He's stuck in meetings to restructure their group." He pauses. "Are you busy? I'm so sorry to bother you."
"No, it's okay," Maki says dismissively. "Meisa and I are just out shopping for things for our new apartment. We became roommates last weekend."
"Ah, congratulations!" Yamapi tells her, sounding like he's desperate for the good news. "Nobuko has grown up right before my eyes!"
"Thanks to Akira-kun," Maki replies, putting the extra emphasis on his name and smiling wide even though he can't see it.
Meisa rolls her eyes, but she's grinning. "Ask him to join us!" she yells loud enough for Yamapi to hear through the phone, then adds more quietly, "I'd love to meet this guy who has turned my best friend into such a girl."
Maki slaps at her, but it's half-hearted. "Do you-?" she starts.
"Tell me what store you're at and I'll meet you there," Yamapi interrupts quickly. "I have a car, so buy as much as you want."
Despite Meisa's teasing and the way Maki's heart flops at the sudden quasi-date, Maki tries to keep her head straight and focus on building a friendship with Yamapi, nothing more.
She refuses to be a replacement for Jin.
~*~*~*~
The past two years of Meisa's taunting and friendly ridicule are made up for in the second it takes Kame to walk through their threshold and look at her.
She does a good job at covering up the way her breath hitches in her throat, but Maki knows her well enough to recognize the hesitation.
Over Kame's head, Yamapi's face is mirroring Maki's feeling of triumph, and she wonders if they've managed to team up without knowing it.
Jin's been gone for two months, one week, and a day, but clearly Meisa doesn't have any qualms about being a stand-in.
"We're just friends," she insists over breakfast, keeping a straight face even when Kame strides out of the shower in a towel.
Maki just sighs and eats her cereal. At least Meisa's weekly 'friendship' keeps her out of Maki's business for a little while.
~*~*~*~
NewS is reinstated on New Year's Eve and for the first time since they were old enough to go out, Maki and Meisa stay at home in their pajamas with a bowl of popcorn. Meisa counts how many times she can hit Kame in the nose with the fluffy kernels while Maki waits patiently for the cryptic 'big news' that Yamapi had mailed her about earlier in the week.
When it happens, she almost cries. The reformed six-member NewS, led by Yamapi, take the stage for the first time in months, singing about aiming for the top and looking a lot more grown up than they had before.
It almost overshadows the fact that KAT-TUN is missing their A.
"Way to go, Leader!" Maki mails him, smiling in hopes that somehow Jin will be able to watch this, to see the happiness shining through the television screen from Yamapi's face.
Regardless of whether Jin had anything to do with the gloom it displayed before.
~*~*~*~
It's not Maki's proudest moment, but Meisa is all-too-willing to comply and manages to get Jin's email address from Kame by means that Maki never wants to know about, ever.
"Thought you might want to see this," Maki types, adding a winking emoticon before linking to a download of Countdown.
She gets a response almost right away: "I knew before you did, brat." A matching wink shows that he's joking. "But it's nice to see that my group can't live without me."
Maki frowns at her computer screen and considers flying out to L.A. to strangle him on Kame's behalf. "Maybe you should come back, then. If not for your group, then for Yamapi."
A few days pass and Maki figures that he's not going to reply. She doesn't blame him, because that was kind of a low blow on her part, but even though Yamapi's been busy with NewS it still seems like something is missing from his life. Something big and Jin-shaped.
After the past couple years of observing Yamapi, the main thing she's learned is that he has a big heart with a lot of people in it. It's big enough that no matter how much it's split, he's still affected when a piece of any size is gone.
And when Jin returns in all of his glory and Yamapi's heart is whole again, Maki finally allows herself to yearn for a piece of it herself.
~*~*~*~
Ikuta Toma feels like he should have come with a warning. For someone who is still technically a junior, he has a very positive and outgoing personality and seems to lift the spirits of everyone around him.
Maki doesn't even realize that she's said yes to a date until Toma's grinning and patting her on the head. "Let's work well together, Maki-chan!"
Later, Yamapi laughs hysterically into the phone and Maki has to threaten to hang up before he can compose himself long enough to speak. "Toma is a little overbearing at first," he finally says. "A lot like a puppy seeking approval. Once you like him, he'll calm down."
"I can't imagine how anyone can be sad around him," Maki assesses out loud, still a little dazed from the first day on her new (crazy) drama set. "It's like he shoots rainbows from his eyes."
"Something like that," Yamapi replies. "He's definitely kept me leveled through a lot of rough times."
Maki smiles at the thought, then almost drops the phone when it occurs to her what exactly she's doing. "I'm going on a date with him," she says, more to herself than to Yamapi.
"I'm so happy for you!" Yamapi says, and Maki can tell it's genuine. "He's a great catch. I can't think of anyone else whom I would approve of for you."
His words make her happy and sad at the same time. Yamapi hasn't really displayed the same kind of big-brother protectiveness that Kame has until now, but then again she hasn't really thought about dating anyone (other than him).
"Have you seen Kame and Akanishi-kun lately?" she asks suddenly.
"Hmm?" It takes Yamapi a second to catch up. "Oh, Jin and I hung out last weekend after my drama ended. Ryo-chan was there too. Do you know him?"
"Not personally," Maki replies, trying to picture him and only remembering the lack of height. "But I hear he's really fun to work with."
"He is," Yamapi agrees. "So is Yuu-kun, as you will soon find out."
"Yuu-kun?" Maki inquires.
Yamapi chuckles. "Shirota Yuu. My best friend. He plays the rival, I think."
Maki feels like hitting herself in the head. More and more people who are special to Yamapi. It makes her feel like there's no point in trying to compete.
"I look forward to it," Maki says lightly. "Who knows, maybe he'll ask me out too."
Yamapi's laughter stops abruptly. "You do not want to go out with him. He's a total playboy."
Giggles take over Maki, and Yamapi seems to relax once he hears that she's joking. She supposes that she's okay with being the little sister in their relationship after all, especially since he seems to be happy with all of his friends.
As she gears up for her date with Toma, she tries her best to push Yamapi out of the forefront of her mind.
~*~*~*~
It's obvious before they even kiss - on or off-screen - that Toma and Maki are better off just being friends. They spend a good deal of their dates talking about Yamapi, and Maki learns that Toma cares about him just as much as she does, if not more.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bitter," he says with a shrug and a smile, looking like the least bitter person on earth, "but at the end of the day it's just work, you know? It doesn't matter who is in what group with whom as long as everyone gets along and enjoys what they're doing."
Maki nods to that, seeing his point. "But wouldn't it be even better to work with your close friends?"
Toma actually laughs. "You'd think so, but in practice it's not such a great idea. Yamapi and I kind of butted heads when we were in the same group, and it wasn't until he debuted with NewS that we actually became friends. Not to mention Jin and Kame."
"What about them?" Maki asks quickly, her full attention on Toma's face.
The flinch in his eyes doesn't go unnoticed. "I'm not the best person to ask about this, Maki-chan. All I know is that they had a falling out and don't get together after work anymore. And I only know that because Yamapi told me."
"Yamapi told you?" Maki echoes, her heart dropping in her chest.
Toma shrugs. "It's not my business, and it's not yours either."
"Of course not," Maki says, then words her question carefully. "They were okay up until Akanishi-kun went to America, weren't they?"
It's obvious that Toma sees right through her. "Maki-chan, I'm pretty sure that's why Jin went to America."
Maki pauses for a second, then smiles because despite her apprehension, it's nice to feel needed again.
~*~*~*~
Dramas come and go and Maki is grateful for some off time, if only so that she can concentrate on poking her nose where it doesn't belong. Jin and Kame's relationship has nothing to do with Yamapi, she keeps telling herself, but then she argues that all sides of the triangle have to be intact in order for it to balance properly.
"Are you still dating Kame?" she asks Meisa one morning.
Meisa snorts. "We weren't dating."
"Sleeping with, whatever," Maki tries again.
"It's funny you ask now," Meisa says with a chuckle, "because I just accepted a role opposite him."
Maki laughs. "That is funny. So the answer is yes then?"
"I suppose we will be friends again," Meisa says coolly. "I assume you need something from him?"
"Just, um..." Maki searches for the right words. "Is he well?"
"Well?" Meisa scoffs. "He stopped calling me when Akanishi came back. I would not know how he is." She peers at Maki over her cup. "Don't you have his number?"
Maki looks down and toes the carpet. "Yeah, but..."
A sigh brings her attention back up, just in time to see Meisa roll her eyes. "Fine, I'll see what I can do."
Grinning, Maki hugs her around the neck. "You're the bestest friend ever." Then she thinks of what Toma said, and adds, "Hey, do you think we would still get along if we ever had to work together?"
"I think a drama would be okay," Meisa replies seriously, "but anymore than that and we'd probably get sick of each other. Since we live together and all."
It makes sense, and Maki goes to bed wondering if KAT-TUN had even been formed for a year before Jin and Kame's friendship started to fall apart from it.
~*~*~*~
"This is the best role I've ever had," Kame greets her at the restaurant, all smiles and surrounded by plates of food. "I've never had to gain weight before."
"You look good," Maki replies, trying not to cringe when she recalls how thin he was when she met him. "Meisa is looking forward to working with you."
"And I, her," Kame says with a bit of a smirk. "It will be fun to drive her crazy and get paid for it."
Maki rushes to change the topic. "So it's been great having Akanishi-kun back, hasn't it?"
Kame is an exceptional actor for his age, experienced in any and all situations and even in his personal life. So when his smile seems to twitch at the mention of Jin's name, Maki knows that whatever this is, it's a big deal.
"You're not friends anymore, are you?" she asks bluntly, folding her arms in disapproval.
"People grow up," is Kame's answer. If it wasn't for the regret in his eyes, Maki would think it was rehearsed. "Neither Jin nor I are the same people we were two years ago. Our goals are different now. We don't really have anything in common anymore other than the group, and even that's debatable."
"What do you mean?" Maki presses.
Kame sighs. "Look, I know what you are trying to do, but you picked the wrong person to start with. I wasn't the one who just up and left."
"But he came back," Maki says, recalling their email exchange. "Doesn't that mean anything?"
Kame's lips form a straight line. "He didn't come back for me."
Maki catches his wrist just before he moves to stand up. "And Yamapi?"
Inhaling sharply, Kame appears like he's contemplating jerking out of her grasp and storming out of the restaurant. "He doesn't seem to notice that I'm not around."
Then he really does snatch his arm away and leave, but not after throwing down enough money to cover them both and offering Maki an apologetic look. It's not about her, she knows - the triangle seems to have broken apart without her or Yamapi's knowledge.
~*~*~*~
"I feel like we're playing matchmaker," Meisa hisses from behind her glass - fruit juice, because despite her grown-up attire she's still underage. "I'm starting to think you have a fetish for boy-love."
Maki nearly chokes on her own juice. "What? Meisa!"
Her roommate's laughter just makes her face redder. "Are we not here to set them up against their will?"
"Not 'set them up'," Maki argues, hands on her hips. "Just get them to be friends again."
"Yamapi and Kame," Meisa clarifies.
"Not just those two," Maki corrects. "All three of them."
"Hot," Meisa comments with a wink, and Maki resists the urge to toss her drink in her face. "Stop looking like you want to strangle me - here they come."
It's a credit to how long Jin and Kame have worked together that they show up at the same time, exactly ten minutes late and similarly dressed. Yamapi trails in behind Jin, sees Kame as well as the girls, and looks like he just walked into another dimension.
Surprisingly, Jin is the only one whose face remains emotionless. Ignoring Kame's glare, he takes a seat in the middle across from Maki and Meisa and looks at each of them in turn. "Where's the girl for me?"
"This isn't a group date, idiot," Kame says as he sits down. Two years ago it would have been affectionate; now the name stings. "Hi, Meisa-chan."
"Hi," Meisa replies flirtatiously, and Maki cringes at the thought of what she's doing under the table.
Jin shrugs and picks up the menu. "I'm only staying because I'm hungry and Pi is paying."
"Fair enough," Kame says. He doesn't have to state why he's staying with the way he looks at Meisa.
Maki makes the mistake of glancing at Yamapi, whose disapproving frown darkens her life. "Since when are you two so short with each other?" he asks in honest surprise.
"Since you're so oblivious," Kame mutters. "I haven't even spoken to you since Countdown."
"I've been busy," Yamapi replies, the sadness evident in his voice. "You've been busy too! Kame-chan-"
"Don't call me that," Kame says darkly.
Jin's menu smacks the table. "Don't talk to him like that."
Yamapi looks like he's torn between crying and hitting something. "Jin..."
"Waiter!" Meisa suddenly yells, earning four sets of eyes on her. There's silence at the table as Meisa orders a round of shots for the guys.
"What are you doing?" Maki whispers frantically while Kame and Yamapi show their IDs.
"Your method didn't work," Meisa says briskly. "Now we're going to try mine."
"Getting them drunk is a method?" Maki exclaims in a hushed voice.
Meisa leans forward, showing a lot of cleavage, and folds her hands on the table. "Do any of you object to me buying you a few rounds?"
"Not at all," Kame says with a promising smirk.
"Absolutely not," replies Jin. "Free liquor is free."
Yamapi looks helplessly at Maki, who shrugs. "Thank you, Meisa-chan."
"It's nothing," Meisa says cutely, then pretends to fix her hair while hissing to Maki, "See? Now they're getting drunk on their own."
Maki feels a little like banging her head on the table. But she can't deny that with each drink the tension at the table lightens, and by the time their food arrives Kame is smiling and nudging Jin as the three of them talk about their junior days and how Yamapi was smaller than everyone.
"Now he's bigger than us all," Jin says with a tipsy grin. "Especially in the chest area."
Yamapi punches him playfully, sending him right into Kame who pushes him back into Yamapi. They continue swinging Jin like a pendulum until he finally grabs onto the table to steady himself, red-faced and laughing.
Maki's so invested in watching them that she jumps when she feels Meisa's head plop onto her shoulder. "I see what you mean," her roommate says, not even bothering to lower her voice with the loud, boisterous volume of their companions. "They're happier together."
"This is how it should be," Maki says firmly, smiling hard as Jin tries to shield his collarbone from two sets of poking fingers. "The three of them, carrying their burdens together."
Meisa is quiet for a second, then says, "You know this will only last until morning, right?"
"Baby steps," Maki replies as she finally takes a bite of her dinner that has gotten cold while she was observing. "We have a lot of work to do."
"We?" Meisa protests.
Maki shrugs her shoulder to push Meisa's head back up. "Don't you want Kame to be happy?"
Meisa appears to be considering this, at the same time that the good-natured teasing turns to Kame. Jin and Yamapi argue over who was more protective of Kame when they were younger, and Kame looks amused as they compare stories that may or may not actually be true about saving little, helpless Kame from the evil senpai.
She doesn't have to answer anymore when Maki turns to look at her and she only has eyes for her ex-costar.
That will probably only last until morning too.
~*~*~*~
Summer comes and goes, and it isn't until the DVD is delivered to her door that Maki learns that she's not the only one trying to save the golden trio.
"I thought you would be happy to see this," the accompanying note says in Yamapi's distinctive scrawl. "Hope it makes up for missing your birthday again. Don't be such a stranger. - Tomohisa."
Maki watches the entire concert, a little confused as to why Yamapi would be sending her a KAT-TUN DVD until she gets to the MC part. Her squeal is loud enough to rouse Meisa from a nap, but the latter can't be angry when Maki backs up the disc and together they watch Kame and Yamapi interact on stage, teasing each other about dialect while Jin stands off to the side, clearly shocked by their surprise guest.
"Looks like they managed to set up the tripod without you," Meisa comments, and Maki can't bring herself to retort properly.
She's too busy trying not to cry.
~*~*~*~
It's an unimportant day, too cool to be summer but too warm to be spring, and Maki checks her email while she waits for Meisa to get ready for their shopping trip.
Aside from the usual mailing list spam and forwards, there's a message from an address she hasn't seen in a couple years. Instantly she opens it, eyes trained to the screen and taking in every word.
"Maki-chan, I'm not sure if you even care anymore, but I want to thank you for your efforts back then. Up until recently I just thought you were bothersome, then this morning Yamapi sat in on our Cartoon KAT-TUN filming and some passerby made a nasty comment about Kame bringing down Kimura-kun's ratings. I didn't do anything rash, mostly because Ueda had a good hold of the back of my shirt, but I did have a few things to say once he was out of earshot - even if that guy was joking, it's only okay when we say things like that, you know?
"Anyway, I've never seen Yamapi happier, nor Kame so grateful, and that's when I remembered your interference. Yamapi is my best friend and at one time Kame was too. It's been a long time and a lot has happened, but you're right - we're the strongest together, the three of us, and I wanted you to know that your devious plotting has worked. Congratulations.
"Now call Yamapi so he will stop whining about you ignoring him, or Kame and I will have to run an interference of our own and you will regret ever reuniting us. - Jin."
Maki struggles to focus through her misty eyes on her cell phone, and for once she makes Meisa wait for her.
~*~*~*~
"Isn't this a little extreme?" Kame asks, raising a perfectly shaped eyebrow at Maki as she walks through his door.
"I'm not taking any chances," Maki replies, her voice muffled by the surgeon's mask. She's also wearing latex gloves with all of her hair under a shower cap. And an apron.
"I'm not sick!" Kame insists. "And even if I was, an apron isn't going to keep my germs away."
"The apron is for cooking," Maki explains, placing the grocery bags on Kame's counter. "Being from a family of all men, I doubt you know how to make antibiotic stew."
"Antibiotic stew?" Kame repeats skeptically.
She shoves him out of the way and gets to work. "You can make the rice. How many are there?"
"Three now," Kame replies, and Maki knows that she's only getting away with this because Kame is so worried about his friends. "Yamapi got it last night."
"Oh no," Maki says, concentrating even harder to get everything just right. "I wonder why you were spared."
Kame laughs. "Someone has to take care of them."
"I thought that was my job?" Maki jokes.
"You couldn't handle all of us," Kame replies. "And Ryo would eat you alive."
"Not if I feed him," Maki points out. "I hear Osakans are easy to win over that way."
Kame's smirking when she turns to check on the rice. "You're sneaky, Maki-chan."
They finish cooking in silence, and together they haul a large pot to Jin's apartment, which has been dubbed Quarantine Headquarters. Despite his initial mocking, Kame is more covered up than a Hazmat worker as they let themselves in to find three miserable idols congregating on Jin's couch, sharing a pile of blankets and an economy-sized box of tissues.
Yamapi's red eyes go wide when he sees her, but he only has enough energy to hide part of his face in Jin's shoulder while Jin barely raises his head in greeting. Ryo glares, but Maki doesn't take it personally because Ryo glares at everyone.
"I hate you for having an infallible immune system," Ryo says to Kame.
Maki feels a little proud when Kame responds by shoving a bowl of steaming stew in Ryo's face. Ryo looks a bit cynical but accepts it, cautiously taking a bite and looking incredulously at Kame. "You made this?"
"Maki-chan made it," Kame announces grandly, like mixing broth, vegetables, and rice in a pot was something to be revered for.
"It's good," Yamapi says, smiling weakly. "Thank you for thinking of us."
Jin just shovels spoonful after spoonful in his mouth, so Maki takes that as a good sign.
When she looks back at Ryo, he's staring at her like he's studying her carefully. "All right, Pi. I approve."
Then Yamapi's choking on his stew and Maki rushes to the couch, standing behind him and trying to push his shoulders forward in order to give him a good hit on the back.
"I'm okay, I'm okay!" Yamapi says through his coughs, his face growing as red as his nose as he struggles to hold onto his bowl.
"Forceful too," Ryo comments. "I really approve."
Jin wrinkles his nose. "Only you can still be perverted with the flu."
Underneath all of his protective gear, Kame looks highly amused. His sigh is almost disappointed as he gently pulls Maki away and surveys his three sick friends. "We'll leave this here for you. Do you need anything before we leave?"
Yamapi is the first to shake his head. "Thank you both." His grateful, puffy eyes look at both Maki and Kame, and Maki's pretty sure she sees a blush on Kame's face.
"I need a lot of things," Ryo grumbles, and Jin kicks him under the blanket.
"We don't need anything," Jin says pointedly.
"Be sure to drink a lot of water," Maki says, then runs into Jin's kitchen to fill up a pitcher and hunt for three clean glasses.
When she returns, Kame is staring down Jin. "I want my pot back, Akanishi."
"Yeah, yeah," Jin replies. "It'll go with the rest of your shit that you leave over here and never take home."
"Why don't you take them now?" Maki wonders out loud.
Kame smirks and reaches behind her to ruffle Jin's hair. "I need a reason to come over and bug him."
"Stupid," Jin snorts, batting Kame away. "You don't need a reason."
Ryo makes mock-gagging noises and Jin kicks him again.
"Take care," Maki tells them all, but her eyes are on Yamapi.
On the way back to Kame's place, the only sounds are the soft lull of the radio and their comfortable silence until Kame says, without preamble, "thank you."
He doesn't have to elaborate.
~*~*~*~
Maki wakes up on October sixth to the smell of delicious breakfast, a smile growing on her face at the thought of Meisa cooking her a birthday meal. Without opening her eyes, she rolls out of bed and into her robe, shuffling down the hallway and bumping into the walls as the sound of something frying grows louder.
"Smells good," she mumbles as she leans purposefully against the refrigerator. "Thanks, Mei."
"You're welcome," she replies, but her voice is coming from the living room.
Slowly Maki forces her eyelids open to see Yamapi standing at her stove, the corners of his eyes crinkling with the force of trying to remain quiet.
Now wide awake, Maki covers her face and tries to pat down her hair at the same time. "Kuroki Meisa, you are an evil heathen."
"It was his idea," Meisa replies smoothly, sounding not at all disturbed by the name-calling. "Something about getting even."
When she turns back to Yamapi, he's pointing at her with a spatula. "You've seen me at my worst. I'm just returning the favor." He pauses. "Although you don't look bad at all."
She starts to hide her face again, this time for a different reason, but then she sees a tinge of red cross Yamapi's cheeks. Biting back the urge to comment on his embarrassment, she busies herself with pouring juice and thankfully Yamapi is finished cooking by that time.
After they're done eating she's practically shoved into her closet by Meisa, dressed and made up within record time, and they're in Yamapi's car heading into the city before Maki's mind stops spinning.
"Where are we going?" she asks, staring out the passenger window at the morning sun, the promise of a beautiful autumn day.
"Surprise," Yamapi says, and for once Meisa keeps her mouth shut.
Maki should have really expected it, especially with Meisa's secretiveness, but it still comes as a shock when they pull up to the amusement park to find Kame and Jin waiting for them.
"Isn't this a bit unfair to Akanishi-kun?" Maki whispers to Yamapi as they walk towards the front gates and Meisa shares a sly hello with Kame.
"He prefers to be the fifth wheel," Yamapi replies. "He claims it gives him the opportunity to sit next to hot, single girls on the rides."
Maki keeps her comments to herself, but she must have an interesting look on her face because Yamapi laughs out loud when he looks at her. It makes her heart soar, along with the way Jin slings his arms over both Kame and Yamapi's shoulders to walk in the middle, refusing to be ignored in favor of a couple of girls.
By the time lunch rolls around, she catches Kame and Meisa holding hands and raises an eyebrow at her roommate, who shrugs and offers Kame a bite of her dessert. Even four years later, Maki still feels worlds behind her in terms of boys and experience, but with Yamapi at her side she feels like she stands a chance at catching up.
The last ride of the day is not the clichéd ferris wheel but a very tame roller coaster, and all through the line Jin is confident that he'll share a seat with the long-haired professional-looking woman standing behind them. Maki is pretty sure that the woman can hear this but doesn't feel the need to voice it, and she's buckling her belt and Yamapi's when she notices him with such a joyful look in his eyes that she has to spin around immediately.
Jin's sitting next to not the professional-looking woman but her daughter, a little girl who is barely tall enough to be on this ride who looks up at Jin with starry eyes and a big, toothless grin. At first Maki thinks that Yamapi is looking at the child until she sees Jin, who is almost glowing as he looks down at his seatmate with pure adoration.
"He seems to have skipped an important step, hasn't he?" Kame whispers, and Maki turns her head back around to see the youngest of the three men just smiling and shaking his head at his bandmate.
"I don't know about that," Meisa chimes in, pointing discreetly until Maki sees the way the girl's mother seems to be sizing Jin up from the seat behind them.
Her attention is called back to Yamapi in the form of him grabbing her hand as the coaster starts to jerk to a start. She looks at him in confusion, seeing a hint of hurt on his face.
"Can you focus on me now?" he asks quietly, followed by a hopeful smile.
She bites her lip to keep from grinning too hard and nods firmly. With Kame in front and Jin right behind, Yamapi's heart is whole again and she can finally claim a piece of it for herself.
It's the perfect reward for all of her hard work.
The End.