Fic for changetje
Title: Uncorrected Proofs
By: happiestwhen
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG
Genre/Warnings: fluff/romance
Notes: changetje, I hope you enjoy this!! :)
Summary: Jin wants to be Kame's best friend.
When Jin gets out of the shower and flips on his TV, he sees Kame.
It's a special interview segment and Kame is laughing and smiling, being the perfect showman. He's wearing a dopey hat. One of his shoelaces is loose. He looks happy.
"Now we were talking earlier about your friends," the interviewer is saying. "We have a question from one of our viewers. This is from Youko-san. Youko-san writes,"
Jin is about to change the channel when he hears the question:
'Do you believe in falling in love with your best friend?'
The interviewer laughs. "Ah, that's a big question isn't it?"
"Yes, yes, it is." Kame's brow furrows a little, caught off-guard, but then he smiles and answers coolly: "I think it's possible. Yes, very possible. But you have to be careful or else things can get messy."
Jin throws up his hands. "What kind of answer is that?! Loser." Kame was never good at being direct and getting to the point. He could never tell is like it was and that infuriated Jin, who liked for things to be simple and plain and taken at face value. Jin remembers, when they were young, asking Kame what his favorite fruit was and having Kame answer, with practiced composure, "They're all wonderful, aren't they?" and Jin shook him by the shoulders, yelling, "There isn't a camera here, Kazuya!! Tell me the truth!", as though fruit preference were suddenly a gravely important matter.
Now he doesn't have Kame there to shake but he grinds his teeth just the same, and settles for sitting cross-legged in front of the television, robe wrapped around him, hanging on every word.
"You think it's possible?" the interviewer continues. "With girls, right?"
The corner of Kame's mouth quirks. "Yes, of course. With girls. With a girl best friend."
"You don't have any girl best friends," Jin mutters. And then suddenly it hits him, maybe he does. He doesn't even know who Kame's best friend is these days. It's something he hadn't cared about at all moments ago, but suddenly the thought is killing him. He glowers at the screen, willing the interviewer to make Kame elaborate, but they've already moved on.
Now Kame is talking about nice things friends have done for him in the past. The host of a music show giving him flowers after his debut solo performance, Tegoshi making him a cake at the wrap party for YamaNade, V6's Sakamoto-senpai taking him out to dinner just because, Junno leaving Kame a nice birthday message on his phone…
Jin waits for his name to be mentioned but it doesn't happen. Great, he thinks, so he's losing to fucking Junno.
He isn't sure when this even became a competition.
He calls up Koki, who answers with a groggy voice.
"Are you watching tv now?" Jin demands.
"No," Koki replies noncommittally.
"Turn it on. NHK. Kame's on."
Koki's voice perks up a little. "Is he leaving the group? Is he gay? Is this something important?"
"No! What?! He's doing an interview. Do you know who his best friend is?"
"His hair looks stupid," Koki comments.
"NO IT DOESN'T. That's not the point! You didn't answer my question!"
"Why does it matter who his best friend is? Maybe he doesn't even have one. Lots of people don't."
"But-" Jin starts, but Koki's already hung up.
Before Jin realizes what he's doing, he's standing on Kame's doorstep.
It isn't that he's jealous, or angry, or suspicious. Well, actually it is, because Jin is all those things, even around Kame. Especially around Kame. It isn't that Jin wants to be name-dropped on national television along with Junno and the rest. It's just that Jin doesn't want to be part of "the rest". He wants to be special for Kame. He wants, he realizes suddenly, to be Kame's best friend.
He remembers Ryo calling him out on it once. "Why the fuck do you keep trying to have sex with Kame?" he'd blurted, one year on Valentine's day after they'd had several drinks and Jin had started to wax poetic about what new hairstyle Kame should try out next.
"WHAT?!" Jin had spit out the pretzel he'd been snacking on, and looked immediately affronted, eyes wide. "I'm not trying to-" he began, voice growing low and conspiratorial, "-have sex with Kame. I just want to be his friend…"
"Well, maybe he just doesn't want you to be his," Ryo had reasoned. You're trying too hard. These things are just supposed to happen. You never tried to "woo" Pi or me, did you?" Ryo's face suddenly crinkles in disgust. "Wait, if you did, don't fucking tell me."
Then Jin had remembered all the times he cut Kame's pizza into star-shaped pieces and arranged them on a plate for him after rehearsal. Or the time he wrote Kame a "fanletter" that said he should be spending more time with Akanishi-san because Akanishi-san was cool and maybe Kame could be that cool, too, and left it in the dressing room under Kame's bag. Or the time he kissed Kame to cure his hiccups, not in a gay way, but because they were just about to go on stage and hiccupping would have totally ruined their image. Or the time he and Kame bought those rings…
Was that wooing? Was he really trying for something more than friendship with Kame? Was that what all this was about?
None of it really solidifies for Jin in his mind until he thinks back to the words in the interview.
'Do you believe in falling in love with your best friend?'
Why was that question so important for him?
He doesn't have time to think about the answer because a second later, Kame opens the door. Jin doesn't even remember pressing the bell.
Kame looks stressed-out and disheveled, his face tired without make-up. Cuter than ever, Jin thinks without meaning to. He wants to give Kame a hug, but settles for a greeting.
"Hey," Jin says.
"Hey," Kame replies, looking uncertain.
Jin knows he's itching to ask him what he's doing here, but he doesn't, so Jin answers anyway, "I was just in the neighborhood."
"Really," Kame says, disbelieving. Jin doesn't have friends around here. Friends besides Kame, which reminds Jin exactly why he's here.
"I wanted to make you food." The words blurt out of his mouth before Jin even realizes what he's saying. What a stupid offer. He doesn't even know how to cook anything beyond ramen and curry rice.
Kame narrows his eyes. "You wanted to make me food," he repeats.
Jin smiles broadly, deciding to just roll with it. "Yeah. As a friend! That's what friends do, right? They give things to you!"
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah! I'm feeling totally great! C'mon, I will make you spaghetti!"
Kame shrugs, but opens the door anyway, and Jin bounds inside.
Kame's apartment looks just like Jin imagines it would, unchanged from the last time he was there, but he takes it all in with curiosity and wonder just the same. He hasn't visited Kame at home in a long, long time, and while Jin can easily go from place to place, uprooting himself when it suits his mood, Kame stays the same. Jin remembers the last time he was at Kame's apartment, lingering awkwardly in the doorway with a cd he'd gone out of his way to return. Sure, Kame could pick it up at work the next day, but Jin had wanted to make sure to get it to him that night. In retrospect, he doesn't even remember what the cd was.
Kame toes off his slippers and hops up onto the couch, curling his feet under himself and looking at Jin expectantly. "The kitchen's over there," he motions, but Jin is too busy staring at Kame to hear him.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Kame says, cocking his head to the side, and Jin snaps out of it.
"Yeah, totally," Jin replies, grinning. "You just sit there and I will cook. I hope you're hungry! It will be delicious!" He moves to the kitchen and starts to pull out an assortment of pots and pans, setting one to boil water on the stovetop.
"Jin," Kame says, and it's been a while since Jin's heard his name in Kame's voice, so he freezes. "My birthday is in February."
"I KNOW WHEN YOUR BIRTHDAY IS," Jin squawks indignantly. "This isn't a birthday present! This is just a…" He doesn't really know what to call it. "I just wanted to do something nice for you."
"Oh," Kame says quietly. Something sparkles in his eyes and Jin feels his heart swell up so he tears open a packet of noodles and drops them into the pot of boiling water to distract himself.
Jin doesn't realize Kame has moved from the couch until he feels a hand on his arm. "Jin," Kame says, and Jin feels so happy to hear his name said like that. "you don't have to do this."
"But you're my friend," Jin says simply.
Kame smiles, big and genuine. "You're not making the pasta sauce right," he says, pointing to the bowl of tomato paste. "You need to add more spices."
"I know what I'm doing!" Jin argues, but Kame is probably right, because Kame is usually right, so Jin lets Kame take over.
The whole kitchen starts to smell delicious and Jin feels hungry when Kame sticks a tomato-sauce finger in his face. "Try this," he says.
Jin feels a shiver down his spine, but obliges, and feels weird about how not-weird it is to have Kame's finger in his mouth. He remembers when they were younger and would stick onion rings on their thumbs and eat them off of each others hands.
Kame's eyes are wide when Jin looks into them, but Kame just washes his hands and says, casually, "I learned this recipe from Koki."
Jin's skin crawls a little at that. "What??"
"He's actually really good at Italian food."
Jin's nostrils flare. "Did you stick your finger in his mouth too?"
Kame laughs. "No! I-"
"Is Koki your best friend?" Jin challenges.
"What? No, no he isn't. Where did that come from?"
"Who is your best friend?" Jin presses.
Kame looks nervously to the left, then back at Jin. "It doesn't matter."
Jin thinks, yes, yes it does matter. It matters to me, and as if to prove his point, he kisses Kame.
"Jin!" Kame's voice is muffled against Jin's mouth, but the name doesn't sound like a protest, just a surprise.
Kissing Kame this time is different from kissing Kame to cure the hiccups. This time feels deliberate, purposeful. Kame isn't laughing and yanking away. Instead, this time he is kissing back. Jin isn't sure how he's doing at being a good friend right now, but he doesn't really care. If he has to choose between friendship and kissing, then he's definitely going to pick this.
"Mmmph," he mumbles, humming against Kame's lips and sliding his tongue between Kame's teeth.
"Jin," Kame murmurs, the name semi-incomprehensible, and semi-urgent.
Jin wonders if maybe he's been trying to have sex with Kame all along. Although that would mean Ryo was right all along, and Jin would never admit that.
"Jin!" Kame's voice is louder this time, more urgent.
Jin smirks against Kame's mouth, happy at the acknowledgment of his skill, but then is startled when Kame pulls back, causing them both to fall forward against the counter top.
"What!" Jin exclaims, slightly annoyed that his first almost make-out with Kame had been cut short.
Kame flails wildly in the direction of the stove. "The sauce! It's boiling over!"
Jin turns and sees that Kame is right. Tomato sauce is bubbling out over the top of the pan and all over the stovetop.
Jin's first thought is that Kame is angry. Jin's cooking is ruining his once-pristine kitchen. But then he sees Kame's mouth curl up into a grin. "I would have told you sooner," Kame says shyly.
Jin laughs. "It looks like lava," he says gleefully, and reaches out to run two fingers through it. "Ouch! Fuck, that's hot!!"
"Idiot, it's on the stove still. Of course it will be hot," Kame teases. "Let me get that." He turns down the stove and grabs a towel to bandage Jin's fingers with small, graceful movements.
"You should be a nurse," Jin comments.
Kame just smiles at him.
In the end, the sauce is almost too burnt to salvage, but Jin serves it up anyway, arranging it proudly on the plate with a sprig of parsley on top. It tastes a little weird, but Kame looks happy anyway, and keeps saying how delicious it is. Jin doesn't even notice the pain in his fingers when he's looking at Kame.
After dinner, Jin pats his full belly and collapses onto Kame's couch. Kame rests his head on Jin's stomach, curls his legs up to his chest. They sit like that, as though they are creatures of habit, as though this is a normal thing. Jin suddenly and fiercely wishes that it could be. He remembers the nights they spent like this together in Jin's bed when they were young, when Kame would tell stories in his "scary" voice and Jin would jolt and lurch in terror and cling to the covers and Kame's hand.
Kame takes Jin's hand now and threads their fingers together. Jin presses their thumbs together; Kame's small and smooth and perfect and Jin's an awkward bulgy mass of white bandage.
Later, when Jin is standing in the doorway, urging himself to say goodbye and leave, he remembers why he came in the first place, before he got distracted by pasta sauce and kisses and holding hands on the couch.
Those were all clues, sure, but the words don't become true for Jin until he's actually saying them: "I want to be the one you could love."
"What?" Kame asks, confused. He is lingering in the shadow of the doorway, one foot still inside.
"I want to be the best friend you could fall in love with," Jin says, voice growing quiet and uncertain. "Like you said."
Kame cocks his head to the side and then smiles warmly. "Is that what this was all about?"
Jin nods guiltily.
"Stupid Jin," Kame says, stepping all the way outside and taking both Jin's hands in his own, "you already were that person. You were the one I was talking about then."
Jin grins at that, smiles wide and big and feels like he can do anything.
And so he does. He kisses Kame right there, outside of the apartment in plain sight, feeling Kame's terrified flutter of a heartbeat, but not caring who sees.
He's Kame's best friend. Nothing else could matter.
By: happiestwhen
Pairing: Akame
Rating: PG
Genre/Warnings: fluff/romance
Notes: changetje, I hope you enjoy this!! :)
Summary: Jin wants to be Kame's best friend.
When Jin gets out of the shower and flips on his TV, he sees Kame.
It's a special interview segment and Kame is laughing and smiling, being the perfect showman. He's wearing a dopey hat. One of his shoelaces is loose. He looks happy.
"Now we were talking earlier about your friends," the interviewer is saying. "We have a question from one of our viewers. This is from Youko-san. Youko-san writes,"
Jin is about to change the channel when he hears the question:
'Do you believe in falling in love with your best friend?'
The interviewer laughs. "Ah, that's a big question isn't it?"
"Yes, yes, it is." Kame's brow furrows a little, caught off-guard, but then he smiles and answers coolly: "I think it's possible. Yes, very possible. But you have to be careful or else things can get messy."
Jin throws up his hands. "What kind of answer is that?! Loser." Kame was never good at being direct and getting to the point. He could never tell is like it was and that infuriated Jin, who liked for things to be simple and plain and taken at face value. Jin remembers, when they were young, asking Kame what his favorite fruit was and having Kame answer, with practiced composure, "They're all wonderful, aren't they?" and Jin shook him by the shoulders, yelling, "There isn't a camera here, Kazuya!! Tell me the truth!", as though fruit preference were suddenly a gravely important matter.
Now he doesn't have Kame there to shake but he grinds his teeth just the same, and settles for sitting cross-legged in front of the television, robe wrapped around him, hanging on every word.
"You think it's possible?" the interviewer continues. "With girls, right?"
The corner of Kame's mouth quirks. "Yes, of course. With girls. With a girl best friend."
"You don't have any girl best friends," Jin mutters. And then suddenly it hits him, maybe he does. He doesn't even know who Kame's best friend is these days. It's something he hadn't cared about at all moments ago, but suddenly the thought is killing him. He glowers at the screen, willing the interviewer to make Kame elaborate, but they've already moved on.
Now Kame is talking about nice things friends have done for him in the past. The host of a music show giving him flowers after his debut solo performance, Tegoshi making him a cake at the wrap party for YamaNade, V6's Sakamoto-senpai taking him out to dinner just because, Junno leaving Kame a nice birthday message on his phone…
Jin waits for his name to be mentioned but it doesn't happen. Great, he thinks, so he's losing to fucking Junno.
He isn't sure when this even became a competition.
He calls up Koki, who answers with a groggy voice.
"Are you watching tv now?" Jin demands.
"No," Koki replies noncommittally.
"Turn it on. NHK. Kame's on."
Koki's voice perks up a little. "Is he leaving the group? Is he gay? Is this something important?"
"No! What?! He's doing an interview. Do you know who his best friend is?"
"His hair looks stupid," Koki comments.
"NO IT DOESN'T. That's not the point! You didn't answer my question!"
"Why does it matter who his best friend is? Maybe he doesn't even have one. Lots of people don't."
"But-" Jin starts, but Koki's already hung up.
Before Jin realizes what he's doing, he's standing on Kame's doorstep.
It isn't that he's jealous, or angry, or suspicious. Well, actually it is, because Jin is all those things, even around Kame. Especially around Kame. It isn't that Jin wants to be name-dropped on national television along with Junno and the rest. It's just that Jin doesn't want to be part of "the rest". He wants to be special for Kame. He wants, he realizes suddenly, to be Kame's best friend.
He remembers Ryo calling him out on it once. "Why the fuck do you keep trying to have sex with Kame?" he'd blurted, one year on Valentine's day after they'd had several drinks and Jin had started to wax poetic about what new hairstyle Kame should try out next.
"WHAT?!" Jin had spit out the pretzel he'd been snacking on, and looked immediately affronted, eyes wide. "I'm not trying to-" he began, voice growing low and conspiratorial, "-have sex with Kame. I just want to be his friend…"
"Well, maybe he just doesn't want you to be his," Ryo had reasoned. You're trying too hard. These things are just supposed to happen. You never tried to "woo" Pi or me, did you?" Ryo's face suddenly crinkles in disgust. "Wait, if you did, don't fucking tell me."
Then Jin had remembered all the times he cut Kame's pizza into star-shaped pieces and arranged them on a plate for him after rehearsal. Or the time he wrote Kame a "fanletter" that said he should be spending more time with Akanishi-san because Akanishi-san was cool and maybe Kame could be that cool, too, and left it in the dressing room under Kame's bag. Or the time he kissed Kame to cure his hiccups, not in a gay way, but because they were just about to go on stage and hiccupping would have totally ruined their image. Or the time he and Kame bought those rings…
Was that wooing? Was he really trying for something more than friendship with Kame? Was that what all this was about?
None of it really solidifies for Jin in his mind until he thinks back to the words in the interview.
'Do you believe in falling in love with your best friend?'
Why was that question so important for him?
He doesn't have time to think about the answer because a second later, Kame opens the door. Jin doesn't even remember pressing the bell.
Kame looks stressed-out and disheveled, his face tired without make-up. Cuter than ever, Jin thinks without meaning to. He wants to give Kame a hug, but settles for a greeting.
"Hey," Jin says.
"Hey," Kame replies, looking uncertain.
Jin knows he's itching to ask him what he's doing here, but he doesn't, so Jin answers anyway, "I was just in the neighborhood."
"Really," Kame says, disbelieving. Jin doesn't have friends around here. Friends besides Kame, which reminds Jin exactly why he's here.
"I wanted to make you food." The words blurt out of his mouth before Jin even realizes what he's saying. What a stupid offer. He doesn't even know how to cook anything beyond ramen and curry rice.
Kame narrows his eyes. "You wanted to make me food," he repeats.
Jin smiles broadly, deciding to just roll with it. "Yeah. As a friend! That's what friends do, right? They give things to you!"
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah! I'm feeling totally great! C'mon, I will make you spaghetti!"
Kame shrugs, but opens the door anyway, and Jin bounds inside.
Kame's apartment looks just like Jin imagines it would, unchanged from the last time he was there, but he takes it all in with curiosity and wonder just the same. He hasn't visited Kame at home in a long, long time, and while Jin can easily go from place to place, uprooting himself when it suits his mood, Kame stays the same. Jin remembers the last time he was at Kame's apartment, lingering awkwardly in the doorway with a cd he'd gone out of his way to return. Sure, Kame could pick it up at work the next day, but Jin had wanted to make sure to get it to him that night. In retrospect, he doesn't even remember what the cd was.
Kame toes off his slippers and hops up onto the couch, curling his feet under himself and looking at Jin expectantly. "The kitchen's over there," he motions, but Jin is too busy staring at Kame to hear him.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Kame says, cocking his head to the side, and Jin snaps out of it.
"Yeah, totally," Jin replies, grinning. "You just sit there and I will cook. I hope you're hungry! It will be delicious!" He moves to the kitchen and starts to pull out an assortment of pots and pans, setting one to boil water on the stovetop.
"Jin," Kame says, and it's been a while since Jin's heard his name in Kame's voice, so he freezes. "My birthday is in February."
"I KNOW WHEN YOUR BIRTHDAY IS," Jin squawks indignantly. "This isn't a birthday present! This is just a…" He doesn't really know what to call it. "I just wanted to do something nice for you."
"Oh," Kame says quietly. Something sparkles in his eyes and Jin feels his heart swell up so he tears open a packet of noodles and drops them into the pot of boiling water to distract himself.
Jin doesn't realize Kame has moved from the couch until he feels a hand on his arm. "Jin," Kame says, and Jin feels so happy to hear his name said like that. "you don't have to do this."
"But you're my friend," Jin says simply.
Kame smiles, big and genuine. "You're not making the pasta sauce right," he says, pointing to the bowl of tomato paste. "You need to add more spices."
"I know what I'm doing!" Jin argues, but Kame is probably right, because Kame is usually right, so Jin lets Kame take over.
The whole kitchen starts to smell delicious and Jin feels hungry when Kame sticks a tomato-sauce finger in his face. "Try this," he says.
Jin feels a shiver down his spine, but obliges, and feels weird about how not-weird it is to have Kame's finger in his mouth. He remembers when they were younger and would stick onion rings on their thumbs and eat them off of each others hands.
Kame's eyes are wide when Jin looks into them, but Kame just washes his hands and says, casually, "I learned this recipe from Koki."
Jin's skin crawls a little at that. "What??"
"He's actually really good at Italian food."
Jin's nostrils flare. "Did you stick your finger in his mouth too?"
Kame laughs. "No! I-"
"Is Koki your best friend?" Jin challenges.
"What? No, no he isn't. Where did that come from?"
"Who is your best friend?" Jin presses.
Kame looks nervously to the left, then back at Jin. "It doesn't matter."
Jin thinks, yes, yes it does matter. It matters to me, and as if to prove his point, he kisses Kame.
"Jin!" Kame's voice is muffled against Jin's mouth, but the name doesn't sound like a protest, just a surprise.
Kissing Kame this time is different from kissing Kame to cure the hiccups. This time feels deliberate, purposeful. Kame isn't laughing and yanking away. Instead, this time he is kissing back. Jin isn't sure how he's doing at being a good friend right now, but he doesn't really care. If he has to choose between friendship and kissing, then he's definitely going to pick this.
"Mmmph," he mumbles, humming against Kame's lips and sliding his tongue between Kame's teeth.
"Jin," Kame murmurs, the name semi-incomprehensible, and semi-urgent.
Jin wonders if maybe he's been trying to have sex with Kame all along. Although that would mean Ryo was right all along, and Jin would never admit that.
"Jin!" Kame's voice is louder this time, more urgent.
Jin smirks against Kame's mouth, happy at the acknowledgment of his skill, but then is startled when Kame pulls back, causing them both to fall forward against the counter top.
"What!" Jin exclaims, slightly annoyed that his first almost make-out with Kame had been cut short.
Kame flails wildly in the direction of the stove. "The sauce! It's boiling over!"
Jin turns and sees that Kame is right. Tomato sauce is bubbling out over the top of the pan and all over the stovetop.
Jin's first thought is that Kame is angry. Jin's cooking is ruining his once-pristine kitchen. But then he sees Kame's mouth curl up into a grin. "I would have told you sooner," Kame says shyly.
Jin laughs. "It looks like lava," he says gleefully, and reaches out to run two fingers through it. "Ouch! Fuck, that's hot!!"
"Idiot, it's on the stove still. Of course it will be hot," Kame teases. "Let me get that." He turns down the stove and grabs a towel to bandage Jin's fingers with small, graceful movements.
"You should be a nurse," Jin comments.
Kame just smiles at him.
In the end, the sauce is almost too burnt to salvage, but Jin serves it up anyway, arranging it proudly on the plate with a sprig of parsley on top. It tastes a little weird, but Kame looks happy anyway, and keeps saying how delicious it is. Jin doesn't even notice the pain in his fingers when he's looking at Kame.
After dinner, Jin pats his full belly and collapses onto Kame's couch. Kame rests his head on Jin's stomach, curls his legs up to his chest. They sit like that, as though they are creatures of habit, as though this is a normal thing. Jin suddenly and fiercely wishes that it could be. He remembers the nights they spent like this together in Jin's bed when they were young, when Kame would tell stories in his "scary" voice and Jin would jolt and lurch in terror and cling to the covers and Kame's hand.
Kame takes Jin's hand now and threads their fingers together. Jin presses their thumbs together; Kame's small and smooth and perfect and Jin's an awkward bulgy mass of white bandage.
Later, when Jin is standing in the doorway, urging himself to say goodbye and leave, he remembers why he came in the first place, before he got distracted by pasta sauce and kisses and holding hands on the couch.
Those were all clues, sure, but the words don't become true for Jin until he's actually saying them: "I want to be the one you could love."
"What?" Kame asks, confused. He is lingering in the shadow of the doorway, one foot still inside.
"I want to be the best friend you could fall in love with," Jin says, voice growing quiet and uncertain. "Like you said."
Kame cocks his head to the side and then smiles warmly. "Is that what this was all about?"
Jin nods guiltily.
"Stupid Jin," Kame says, stepping all the way outside and taking both Jin's hands in his own, "you already were that person. You were the one I was talking about then."
Jin grins at that, smiles wide and big and feels like he can do anything.
And so he does. He kisses Kame right there, outside of the apartment in plain sight, feeling Kame's terrified flutter of a heartbeat, but not caring who sees.
He's Kame's best friend. Nothing else could matter.